Yep, can get in now, thanks again Grey.

Thanks Grey - I keep getting the UDP hole punch error just on GvM. All other servers seem fine. Anyone else able to connect?

Server dead again? Havent seen it on nwnee browser in a while

She's dead, Jim!

edit: looks like it's back now

I'm hoping to look at the Shifter / metamagic thing this coming weekend to see what's what. Nothing has changed on the side of the mod from the side so am wondering if something in the game has changed.

I've found a couple of other references to this problem elsewhere in the nwn community - I think it's an issue with EE.

Probably a fair balance change for specter, if I'm being entirely honest. Outsider shape is pretty useless now though, unless making a melee death slaad.

On a similar vein, I noticed specter couldn't use metamagic on NEB anymore. Not sure if that was an intentional change on the mod or by beamdog in EE, or if it's something unintentional... figured I'd bring it up though. Might affect rak/azer as well... too lazy to test.

I lent you those Kerlin's robes, park 

how about the dimholt and the paths of the dead? are they already in?

Yes. It's perfectly well hidden on the map, so a lot of folks miss it. It's there, though.

The problem here is there is the occasional minotaur spawn by the entrance there. Since he patrols, you'll never really know where he'll be. Since the entrance areas were typically used by levels 16-20, he was a challenge before. It's not an issue of complacency... it's just making the tough part of the map tougher, since you can't tell if he's facing you, about to turn around, etc.

If the minotaur was not in that entrance area and people went only for the earth elementals, it'd be reasonably challenging against typical builds at that level (ceiling or not).

Don't make it out like people just want to cruise on by not worrying about healing or being caught flatfooted or anything... and pointing out the bugs in the maze? Yeah, definitely doesn't empower your defense. Poorly implemented, poorly thought out... sticking by that.

The DMs were trying to make it more interesting, and I commend the effort, I just don't think it worked. It just removed an area, in my mind.

When the server numbers are low, parties get together not for the quest XP, but in case they need help. 

The problem is they remain when the server becomes busy. Usually they break into split parties after a reset, but that's every 8 hours or so.

I think it'll just take a few more inattentive people losing XP and whining before the point gets made... mixed parties go against the server as it's intended. You'll stand a chance at losing xp, and moreso, your enemies (if intelligent) will pick up on where you tend to play 

I agree.  I no longer go there and not many others do either.

I wouldn't have a problem, but it was sort of one of the main areas for level 16-20 mords trying to level. 1-10 or so is shagluks, 10-15 or so is the Mordor crypts or emyn. Then, if you can't get both mind immune and death immune at 16 (which is pretty common), you can't go to wargs... and now you can't really go to minotaurs (unless, as shins mentioned, you like being annoyed).

This is exacerbated, since a good Gondor build can solo the shelobs spawns at that level and get ridiculous xp. Try that in spirits, and you'll just get massacred.

heheheh, tempted to make something silly...

I'd like to use this opportunity to announce the start of the mordor harper scout guild. You must be a Mordor and have some combination of monk, pdk, and hs to join. Any pure 40 monk automatically gets to be president.

[bad]

Perhaps only as DM rewards.

...and how did we get to this point again? DM reward only items are a bad idea. DMs play favorites sometimes - I'm sure they don't intend to, but let's face it... some people are jerks, and nobody wants to deal with people like that. Some people are cool, and want to help. It's natural.

Edit: Thanks rade... I didn't think it too off topic to retort someone else's idea with substantiation. If you -really- feel that's too off topic, then delete the post.

Fighter is a class that isn't all out terrible, it just has no use after 6 or so levels (because you don't need that many feats). Start giving it minor bonuses at maybe level 10 or 12.

I'd love to see a fighter with enough levels get permahaste. Let's face it, if you're taking a bunch of levels of fighter, you won't have enough levels in a caster class for haste. Those silly boots only give you a minute - that'd hardly long enough to last half way through a fight in upper levels. Besides... how often do you get dispelled right before (or during) a fight...

Windsprint sure, but only in the wilderness tilesets.

And change the damage from Blade Thirst to something else, I just don't see a ranger as being remotely  magical. Make it a physical type, like bludgeoning, since no ranger uses bludge weapons and the damage will stack.

I could see it being divine damage, as they are wisdom based spellcasters.

As for the speed deal, make it permanent on wilderness terrain, none anywhere else. As for the argument about Aragorn being as fast as Legolas... I didn't know archer elves got haste for free? 

I think the biggest problem with the current method is that it has several tools to punish players by deleting their chest inventories and sometimes (especially during lag) those are accidentally activated.

That's rather absurd to hear... I thought it was just a randomly occurring thing. Since everyone basically accepts that their inventory could be lost because of said function, how is that even a punishment anymore? It's really no worse than bad luck. Perhaps it'd be easier to take that functionality out to have a solid banking system, and punish offenders in some other way?

As Shins and Olle pointed out, blackguard isn't so sucky in relation to other classes. Paladin isn't that great. Admittedly, a Paladin is much more at home on a horse than a BG, so maybe the BG should trade in the horse for something different.

Blackguard monk is a mean combination. Blackguard gets full ab, sneak attack, and can go divine might... and basically all of the BG prereqs are taken care of with 8 monk levels. Given, monks are horrible on GvM in just about every way. But if anyone were to ever try a good non-dragon monk, BG would be among the best routes.

"Morden dis."  As it's Mordenkainen's Disjunction, not Mordor Dispell.   

Mordenkainen was a dude.  Up there with Khelben Blackstaff for dudeness.   

Yeah, that's what I meant. Sometimes my fingers just keep typing.

AC is a good thing.

In the final build, get as many fighter levels as possible. Most fighter gauntlet builds I've seen have at least 32 fighter levels.

Maybe is GS followed the same exit actions as hiding or concentration check for BBD it'd help make it less cheesy. That way nobody would cast or use items from GS... no running and buffing/healing.

Updated a little. I'm looking for a large/small shield for a sneak (ac, resists, immunities, whatever), and DR tower shields. Still open to anything, send a pm.

I don't mind a challenge here or there.  But I do not like my games to be difficult.  Not *bleep* easy maybe, but certainly not difficult.

I don't know about other people, but I play games to have fun and relax.  Real life has enough difficulties.  I don't need them in the games that I play.

I agree. The only reason it got as impossible as it is, is because some people are willing to build around areas and really adapt to get through much harder areas than they should. Devs then make the area harder, players adapt, etc.

Problem is, not everyone wants to be all extreme about playing. I'm with Shins on this... I like to just chill out, play an area I can get by without much critical thinking, and call it a night. Besides, tracking damage types is too difficult with the way Bioware made the combat log.

And for crying out loud somebody track the PVP kills again.

I think that's how pvp got so competitive to begin with. Everyone wanted an edge to do a little better, started farming, etc etc. Everyone wants to be the hunter... if there were no uber leet ridiculous items (mimics trident), then nobody would need to become obsessed with farming, and the pvp playing field would be pretty even.

Maybe make harder areas drop 1000xp tokens you can turn in on any toon, instead...

Just leave crap as it is and build some GOOD areas that don't include instant death levers/chest/npcs/crappy puzzles.

I agree with this so much, I had to repost it here. Mazes aren't fun on a persistent world. You spend maybe 5 minutes figuring it out on the first voyage, and every subsequent run through you're just wasting time. On a server with no perm haste and monks that can't hit anything, nobody's going to see a maze and think it to be fun. It's just a lot of wasted time running. Same concept with the puzzles. None of them are mentally challenging, just busywork to get somewhere else.

I realize sometimes you want to slow people down in getting to an area. Add more gates, put more spawns in. At least let people enjoy themselves and get some XP on the way, not just run.

Beating a dead horse: cleric 21/druid 18/monk 1 is the best... cleric buffs are awesome, but you'll still get dispelled. It's inevitable... in fact, it will happen so much, you'll forget why you had cleric to begin with. Just stick to farming areas where npcs don't have Mordor dis. And you can fit through the doors. Which is really like 1 or 2 places.