…on GOG.com. I take it that this is, like, a big deal or something? I vaguely remember that people were talking about Neverwinter Nights, back in the day – so I grabbed it. That was the right call, yes?
10 thoughts on “So, Neverwinter Nights Diamond edition is temporarily available for free…”
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Yes!!!
Definitely. I played that game a *lot* back in the day, and I modded it a lot, too. The only downside is that it’s based on AD&D 3 or 3.5 or some-such. Being an AD&D 1st ed player, I found that mildly heretical. My son discovered it earlier this year, and he played around with it for a while.
I played it, but it didn’t make much of an impression on me. I only have the vaguest of recollections.
NWN probably has the best fan-made mods of any CRPG ever. More than Morrowind, even.
The mod community MADE NWN a thing. And while most Morrowind mods are essentially add-ons and tweaks of the game, NWN mods were full self-contained adventures. Usually not related to the released campaigns.
That is, a few thousand hours of free content. Some of it easily studio quality.
My List of Must Have Mods (excluding some of the more controversial adult-oriented ones, you can decide yourself if you want to look at those):
The Aielund Saga (Parts 1-4, with IV divided into 3 parts). This will take a character from lvl 1 to 37 (on a 40 lvl cap game) in an entirely self-contained adventure that is better than the NWN OC. Features combat of a quality that the Epic Build Guild for NWN has an entire folder devoted strictly to Aielund campaigns.
The Sands of Fate: You finish Hordes of the Underdark and don’t know what to do with your level 27 character? Take it into a quasi-Eqyptian desert campaign where little kids throw fireballs at each other for practice. Will take your PC to level 40, and has a host of custom content and scripts. Beware…REAL rust monsters and slimes abound.
Sanctum of the Archmage: Not just a mod. An interactive novel. Custom monsters and visuals galore. Again, easily studio quality.
Prophet: That Which Cannot Be Denied–The prophet series is a mind-bending crusade to answer your opinion of free-will vs determinism set to a video game. Oh wait, it’s actually dang fun too. Time travel, alternate planes of existence, the works. Baldecaran also did “Honor Among Thieves,” the best PG-rated thief-oriented mod you’ll find too.
Tales of Arterra: This is a bit older. The graphics don’t have all the CEP updates the games above do. But the story is epic in scope and length, and a blatant homage to Baldur’s Gate, right down to the music in part 2.
Lords of Darkness: Also older. Written by an English as 2nd language speaker, so you get some weird turns of phrase. But if you want a flat-out hack and slash spectacular for a powerbuild, here you go.
Decide you like Aribeth at the end of the NWNOC and want more? Aribeth’s Redemption is a campaign for resolving that. The archaic language is jarring in places. But epic level combat through 3 mods for The Hero of Neverwinter, and a more satisfying resolution of both Aribeth’s arch and the Hero of Neverwinter’s story than Hordes of the Underdark. (This is because HotU assumes you play the main character of Shadows of Undrentide, not the Hero of NW. So basically, he gets Put on the Bus.)
Ravenloft: Beyond the Gate. Because no D&D campaign without Strahd is complete. Faithful recreation of the classic, with the chance to become a Lord of Ravenloft, should you choose. Is that choosing wisely or poorly?
If you want to venture into MP, I’d recommend hunting down World Of Greyhawk and the Ravenloft: Prisoners of the Mist servers. It’s a lot harder to play MP 15 years on with the Gamespy server dead. But there are still options.
Ugh. Forgot the para-dots. Sorry for wall of text.
Wow. So much good stuff I didn’t know about. Thanks, RangerSG!
I think I must pick my jaw up off the floor.
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Thanks for posting that!
(Now I’ve gotta see. Even if 3.* was the devil.)
Yeah, I’m going to be mining that list myself if I end up liking NWN.
My pleasure, the New Vault for NWN & NWN2 can be found https://neverwintervault.org/
*
Note that some (pretty much 99% of fan-made mods) in NWN use some custom configuration. These are generally found as “hak packs.” The vault includes all necessary d/ls on the home of any mod. Possibly excepting if they require the CEP (Community Expansion Pack) I mentioned above. There are 2 complete CEP versions. And they are distinct from one another. Though most mods have updated to CEP 2.x now.