With the news that Obsidian has released a new patch for its D&D-based RPG, I thought it might be an idea to let you guys know which mods I use to enhance the game.
I’m a firm believer in using mods only to make the game better, or fix bugs that the developer is unwilling or unable to do something about. If you’re looking for mods to help you cheat, or deliver unto your character a +10 Sword of Holy Butt Whopping, you won’t find it here.
I only have two recommendations, but they’re excellent ones. Details after the jump.To use these mods, just dump them in your Documents\Neverwinter Nights 2\override folder. A few have special exceptions, so check the readmes for more info.
Note that these are the Mask of the Betrayer versions of these mods. So make sure you have the expansion before you install them.
Charlie’s UI
I never quite understood why Obsidian had to go and mess with the user interface from Neverwinter Nights. The radial menus were intuitive and everything was positioned just about right. I think it may have become obsessed with World of Warcraft and tried to rip it off. Unsuccessfully.
Charlie’s UI makes more use of available screen real estate, enables resizing of many onscreen elements and compacts inventory, character and hot bars.
Combined PrCs, Feats, and Spells
This mod is actually a combination of three fantastic ones: TonyK’s Companion and Monster AI; Kaedrin’s PrC Pack and Reeron and Trekari’s Spell Fixes and Improvements.
The first mod makes your companions and the creatures you fight act more intelligently. They will make smart decisions on what weapons to use, when to cast spells (including offensive and healing magic) and when to pick locks and pickup items and loads more. This intelligence also scales with each character’s Intelligence stat.
Kaedrin’s PrC Pack makes NWN 2‘s prestige classes more compelling. And by “more compelling” I mean “not crap”. From the mod’s readme:
This is my PRC Pack that includes these new PRCs: Avenger, Black Flame Zealot, Divine Seeker, Hospitaler, Nightsong Enforcer, Nightsong Infiltrator, Shining Blade, and Tempest.
It also includes 49 new spells, the Blackguard and Assassin spellbook upgrade, new and revised cleric domains (11 new, 16 revised), my fletching upgrade, and 4 new feats.
New classes, spells and feats – what’s not to like?
The final mod in the pack is Trekari’s Spell Fixes and Improvements. It tweaks many of NWN 2‘s spells to function like their pen and paper counterparts and fixes scripting and animation bugs. Magic circles of protection not working on allies? What was Obsidian thinking?
One of the few spells it misses is Haste, which only provides an extra attack per round rather than an extra action, but I guess you can’t have everything.
Use them, don’t use them – it’s up to you. I like NWN 2 playing more like the pen and paper version rather than a compromised copy.
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