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-= NEVERWINTER NIGHTS =-

WIZARD GUIDE (V 1.00)

BY: LORD YORIEN DRAGONARD
YORIEN@MAILCITY.COM

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This FAQ has been made by Yorien dragonard (Yorien@mailcity.com)


You can FREELY distribute this FAQ to your friends with the following conditions:

1-. Distribute it FREELY. I'm not earning any money for making it, and don't want
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2-. Don't change ANYTHING, even if it's an error. Just mail me and I'll fix it.

3-. If you want to post it in a Web Page you have to ask me first. I'll ALWAYS give my
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A) Everybody must have access to this FAQ freely. No MEMBERSHIP, no private areas...

B) You have to tell me the URL of your HomePage. I'll just add it to the homepages INDEX
(see below)

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Last version of this FAQ can always be found at:

* HTTP://WWW.GAMEFAQS.COM

Other websites hosting my FAQ:

* HTTP://NWNCG.NETFIRMS.COM
* HTTP://WWW.NEOSEEKER.COM
* HTTP://WWW.RPGPLASMA.COM
* HTTP://WWW.ACTIONTRIP.COM/CHEATS/NEVERWINTERNIGHTS.PHTML
* HTTP://WWW.DLH.NET


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=====
INDEX
=====

I-. HISTORY
II-. WIZARD CREATION
A) RACE
B) STATS
C) SKILLS
E) FEATS
F) FAMILIAR
III-. HIRELING
IV-. SPELLS
V-. EQUIPMENT
VI-. MULTICLASSING
VII-. PVP (PLAYER VS PLAYER) WIZARD
A) MAIN IDEAS
B) DUEL LEVELS
C) VS. CLASS TIPS
VIII-. PLAYING TIPS

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===========
I-. HISTORY
===========

* ALPHA: First version. Very little covered. (Up to Wizard creation process)

* BETA 1: Covered full Wizard creation process

* BETA 2: Added some changes to Familiar part of the wizard creation. Added HIRELING
section

* v 0.7: Added SPELLS section

* v 0.8 Finished up to PLAYING TIPS section

* v 0.9 Added EQUIPMENT section, added more playing tips, changed some other things here
and there...

* v 0.95 Added VS. WIZARD, with tips when fighting one vs. one battles.

* v 0.97 Some minor changes made.

* v 0.99 Added MULTICLASSING section.

* v 1.0 Added some tips from LARRY BUEL (bravehome@cox.net) about making a Dwarven Wizard.

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====================
II-. WIZARD CREATION
====================

Ok now, so you wanna create a very powerful Magic User to unleash hell to all living and
death cratures on the NWN modules, aren't U? Well... then stop reading my Wizard guide and
look 4 a Sorc one...

Many people think Wiz's and Sorc's are practically the same thing, but they're
veeery
wrong; Sorc players mostly play and kill from their direct-damage spells (well, if they
only can know 4 or 5 spells per spell-level, there's not much to chose, only defense and
direct damage). Wiz's can memorize less spells than Sorc, but have a wider variety to chose
from; just find a way to block magic damage and specially elemental damage from an enemy
sorc and it's all done (premonition, mantles... thingies like these come to mind). Till
sorc's are active direct-damage casters, wizards are somewhat combat passive. Just
specialised in spell-countering and enhancing-fuck*** spells.


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A) RACE
-------

* HUMAN: For me, this is maybe the best Wizard race available. No stat con's and two cool
race bonuses: 1 extra skill point per level and 1 extra feat at 1st level

* ELF: Pretty interesting, since the removal of the level-limit cap for non-human races
with the outcoming of 3rd edition rules elves are more wiz balanced than before. You get
some nice bonuses (sleep immunity, a +2 DEX bonus, hardiness vs enchantment spells...) and
don't forget that Wiz's is Elves favored class (in case u want multiclassing). Ok you
have
a -2 penalty to CON stat (so you'll probably end with a CON 8 (-1) or CON 10 (+0) starting
char but... hope you're not thinking you're gonna put yourself in melee combat a lot,
isn't it?

* GNOME: Nice race, with lots of spellcasting potential and nice bonuses too (+2 CON can
give little extra HP and - most important - upgrade Fortitude Saving throws, a thing
wiz's and sorc's usually lack of...; small stature will make gnomes harder to hit, and
finally some bonuses against illusion spells - gnomes start automatically with Illusion
Spell focus anc concentration skill bonus). A -2 STR penalty is not a problem for a Wizard
(again... you're not going to engage melee combat). Wizard is gnome's favored class.

* Half-Elf: Well, they're not humans and they're not elves. Have not stat
CON's/PEN's but
the abilities they gain are more rogue-oriented than Magic User oriented. Have some
spellcasting potential, though.

* HALFLING: Ehmmmmm, think those childies usually prefer toying with spell components
than using them for spellcasting purposes... :)

* DWARF: Dwarven Wizard? no way. Give a lv20 dwarven wizard an axe and surely he will
wield it better than he cast spells...

NOTE: LARRY BUEL (bravehome@cox.net) thinks differently about this... :). With the
Dwarven
CON bonus and natural spell resistance dwarves can stand some hits in close battle while
they
cast their spells and break havoc... maybe INSIDE enemy lines? XD. Their -2 CHArisma CON
can
give them problems while persuading NPC's for extra rewards, but that's not a very big
problem in my real opinion.

He says about wearing some +CHA equipment so CHA bonus helps a little... but I'd prefer
enhancing INT instead (maybe you can get an extra lv2 spell and use it for a permanent +CHA
buffer). Also, he usually likes to case Eagle's Splendor (+DEX bonus)... should be
interesting
at lower ACTS for upgrading missile to-hit throws; at higher acts an extra +1 to-hit may
not
make a very big difference when one wears a +3 (or higher) X-Bow... also, at those higher
acts
enemies just have soo much life for a X-Bow to ve really effective.

As for beginning stats, he chooses S 10 D 14 C 16 I 18 W 8 Ch 6. This gives good STR
(you
may downgrade STR to 8 and add the 2 points to WIS, for evading the -1 CON to Will Save
Throws... may have some encumbrance problems till you find some Bags of Holding, but...),
decent DEX (+2 to missile to-hit rolls, and extra AC) and nice CON (+3 to Fortitude saves
and 3
extra hit points per level). He chooses to Max INT (That's A LOT of points spent on INT,
but
hey, it's an extra +1 to the difficulty of the Save Throws); lowers a little WIS (as said
before, may change those two stats) and nearly forgets CHA.

He also tells about choosing a familiar... he usually picks the Pixie. I haven't had
much
testing with a pixie to try it for yourselves.

So in the end we have a Strong builded wizard with some problems while playing
Cooperative
games but... maybe we can find here a GREAT POTENTIAL at building DUELLERS? :) (just change
that Pixie with a Panther-Hellhound... XDDD)

* HALF-ORC: Well... in case a Half Orc'd be able to play as a Magic User, -2 to INT and
CHA are penalties i don't wanna see in a Wiz... sorry.


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B) STATS
--------

Well, INT is the most important stat for a wizard, but in most cases you'll not want
to have stat penalties if you can avoid them. I'll not give you exact stat points, but
I'll make some recomendations here:

- STR: Not very important for a Wizard. the only thing you'll use STR is for your maximum
encumbrance, so no matter if you keep STR at 10 (so you'll have no melee penalties in the
veeeery few cases you'll have to get dagger-crazy) or you can even drop the stat to 9
or even 8, so you'll have a -1 penalty. Encumbrance is not a big problem... there are
Bags of Holding, you know.

- DEX: Important. Comes in very handy cuz will allow you to raise your AC a little against
any lost x-bow bolt or ranged touch attacks. It also helps your main physical attack to
connect (Wizards go crazy on ranged attacks) and also will aid on some interesting
non-class skills you can take. 14-15 DEX for level 1 chara (that's +2) will do pretty well.

- CON: Hmmm, 1d4 hit points per level is just too low for a Mage surviving solo. There
are usually too many lost bolts, arrows and throwing materials that are somewhat destinated
to your Mage, and you'll not want to let a lucky hit from one of these to kill you, isn't
it?. A mage should be able to take at least two hits before dying, so drop some points
into CON (14-15, with +2 bonus should do well). But CON not only raises your hit points,
CON also allows you to have some bonuses on Fortitude Saves (a type of saving throw Wiz's
are not very well prepared against). Finally, can help a little in Concentration skill
(the most important for a wizard)

- INT: The MOST important stat a Wizard needs. Throw in plenty of points here. 16-17 is
pretty decent (this'll give a +3 to INT at level 1; that's a +1 lv 1-2-3 spell); the +3
to INT will allow to have even more skill points to invest, so you may even chose some non
class skills. This should be your main focus for placing extra points at levels
4-8-12-16-20...

- WIS: Well... this should be used mainly for increasing Will saves, but Wiz's have pretty
decent will saves even without bonuses. Just try not having penalties here.

- CHA: Hum... this stat usually did practically nothing on previous D&D games so usually
was the LOWEST of all stats... but as for NWN there are some interesting uses (you might
have to make some CHA checks, persuade, etc... so try not to lower this a lot will ya? I
think you'd first lower STR than this one


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C) SKILLS
---------

Wizards, with his +INT skill bonus are the most favored class in those terms. They have
not many class specific skills, but the ones they have serve them pretty well. Excess
points can also be used on any non class specific skills a mage wants to choose.

The most important skills are:

- CONCENTRATION [CON]: Just Max it. This skill allows you to continue casting a spell even
if you get hit during the casting process. A high concentration skill level will make
archers less annoying (archer were Wiz's bane on D&D 2nd edition, just play an archer on
Baldur's Gate II an set his/her AI to lock on enemy spellcasters).

- HEAL [WIS]: Doesn't have to be maxed, but throw in some points here. This will allow
to heal large ammounts of damage with a single medical kit (even 30+ points per use!)