Hail all! Welcome to my guide to the best sites for the BioWare version of Neverwinter Nights. This site consists of the Main Resource Chart, a chart of Other Useful Sites, a Class Guides, Sites and Boards chart, and finally a chart For Builders and Dungeon Masters. If a slot is blank in the first chart below, either the site at the top of the column does not offer that information or it is not so good, in my humble opinion. If you have suggestions--or if you find broken links--shoot me an e-mail! (And let me know if the durn margins are not right!)
For those of you looking for it, the Neverwinter Consortium's persistent world--based on the original NWN--is now open; click here for information. (I can be found there as Father Matt, my cleric, as SOM Mattorce, my sorcerer, or as SOM Mattru, my druid.)
This site is best viewed with Internet Explorer and a screen setting of 800 x
600 pixels or higher.
(If you still can't get the first chart on one
screen, try setting View/Text Size in Internet Explorer to "Smallest".)
One way to search this
site is to hold down the CTRL key and
press the "f" key.
The
teal-colored links
jump to other locations in this site; the blue
ones go to other sites.
The Main Resource Chart
If a category has * after it, there are
additional sites listed for that category in the second chart.
Other Useful Sites
If a category has * after it, there are
additional sites listed for that category in the prior chart.
| Advancement | See Progression Tables below. |
| Alignment | Neverwinter Vault offers an explanation of Alignment. |
| Animal Companions | Planet Neverwinter has a page on Ranger and Druid Animal Companions. See also Familiars (for Wizards and Sorcerers) below. |
| Armor* | Game Banshee has an armor
page with complete description and screenshots. Neverwinter Nights Collector provides nice weapons and armor charts. |
| Attack Bonuses | See UnforgottenRealms' base attack bonuses. |
| BioWare | The software manufacturer for Neverwinter Nights. Among other things, this revised site offers forums (and a search forums feature), downloads, FAQ and links, and special sections for players, dungeon masters and world builders. For support, see BioWare's support page and self-help forum. |
| Boards/Forums* | See the Neverwinter Tavern's Messageboards, and the Neverwinter Connections Forum Home. |
| Browser Starts | Neverwinter Connections offers a way to Start NWN From Your Browser! |
| Camera Angle | Zounds! Brandon W. & Athiril have created the camera angle hack, a must-have item IMHO! "This unofficial patch unlocks the camera. TopDown & Chase Camera modes now allow you to drop the camera all the way to the ground! You can zoom further out and much closer in. This version now comes with a professional installation program and lets you configure the angles and zoom levels to fit your taste. It has new improved FirstPerson mode that is available in all 3 camera modes. Run it as many times as you want and change your setting each time. It can even restore the original BioWare values so you can use the BioWare Updater to update to new versions of NWN." Nice work! NOTE: You may need to use the camera hack to return the settings to the BioWare defaults (there is a button for this) in order to upgrade completely when new patches come out. |
| CD Drive care | Jasper has posted a brief piece on caring for your CD drive. Two main points: don't boot up or shut down your computer with a CD in the drive, and don't leave a CD in the drive if you aren't using it. |
| Character Creation |
|
| Classes* | Neverwinter Vault's Class Board has a separate topic for each class. Be sure to see Character Creation above. |
| Cleric Domains | Start with FatherMatt's Cleric Domains. Planet Neverwinter has an explanation of the domains clerics can choose. Also see the ShadeRaven page on clerics. |
| Connections & Scheduling | Neverwinter
Connections allows people to do the following:
"Schedule Games, Review Games, Sign-up for games, Form
Adventuring Parties, Review other players, Review Dungeon Masters, and
Search for Games, Dungeon Masters, Servers and Realms View Statistics on
Players, Servers, Realms, and Characters". NW Daily allows you to store you schedules online and search for sessions of others. The BioWare Neverwinter Nights Guild and Registry System allows game owners to search for players, DM's, content builders and scripters, to join/create guilds, find NWN servers and more. |
| Console Commands | See FatherMatt's Hints and Tips. BioWare has lists of console commands for both players and for dungeon masters. NWN Console Commands by Oddbod also lists the console commands for both players and dungeon masters, but you have to download it. |
| Deities | Each world may have its own deities, but for the Forgotten Realms gods and goddesses see: an excellent chart in The Daggerford's Campaign's Gods, The Sorcerer's Place Forgotten Realms, Deities of the Realms by Don Riggs, and Deities by the Kitaran Sea Campaign. |
| Elvish Dictionary | Many thanks to the Grey Company for making available this Elvish Dictionary! |
| Elvish Name Generator | Chris Wetherell provides an Elvish name generator; just enter your first and last name and the generator does the rest. It also generates hobbit names. |
| Equipment* | Game Banshee has a miscellaneous items page with complete description and screenshots. |
| Events | For NWN events, see the Events page by Neverwinter Nexus. |
| Familiars | Planet Neverwinter presents a page on Wizard and Sorcerer Familiars. See also Animal Companions (for Rangers and Druids) above. |
| FatherMatt's feline | For those of you wishing to see FatherMatt's infamous feline, Pantera, click here. |
| Feats* | See ShadeRaven's page on Feats and FatherMatt's Recommendations for Feats for Casters. |
| Graphics | To get the full impact of BioWare's graphics, try playing it in the 1024 x 768 pixel mode (rather than 800 x 600 pixels). To change your settings (if you're using Windows), click on Start/Settings/Control Panel/Display/Settings and then move the screen-area slider to the right. |
| Guides to the Official Campaign |
|
| Guilds | Neverwinter Connections provides an alphabetic list of NWN guilds with descriptions. See PlayerVault.com to search for guilds, NWN and otherwise. |
| Guild Software |
Guild-Builder and Guild Boss offer software to manage a guild; there is a fee for use. Player Vault is free, though it is much more basic. |
| Hints and Tips | See FatherMatt's Hints and Tips. Also see the Neverwinter Vault's Tips and Hints, which is small but growing. Sorcerer's Place provides Tips, Tricks and Hints. In addition, see Unforgotten Realm's Players Tips and Hints. Finally, see Guides above for help on the Official Campaign. |
| Hordes of the Underdark | Head to Unforgotten Realms, scroll down and on the right-hand side there is information about the classes, spells and creatures. |
| Images | Want to see what the game looks like? See: |
| IRC (voice) | To add voice communications with other players to the game, see Neverwinter Stratics' IRC info. Also check OGIrc, a IRC program that allows players to communicate via IRC whilst playing online games, including NWN. |
| Keyboard Commands | Neverwinter Stratics lists the keyboard commands. |
| Movie Disable | Oddbods has found a way to Disable the Intro Movies. Alternatively, you can click the screen. |
| Level Changes | Changing levels is useful if you want to play in a group and have similar levels, or if you are a builder and want to test modules. If you want to raise or lower levels for a character, go into the multiplayer mode and select the server that says "Advanced Training". Talk to the dragon and you can raise or lower your level to whatever you want. Be sure to save your character! Warning: this is a very popular place, and the lag is bad. Alternatively, download the Halls of Advanced Training module. As always, you can only use such a character on the Local multiplayer servers or solo play. |
| Leveling | See Progression Tables below. |
| Links* |
|
| Manual | Looking for an electronic copy of the manual that you can search? Check c:\NeverwinterNights\NWN\docs\NWN_OnlineManual.pdf (or where your \NWN files are on your computer if in a different place). There is also a copy online at http://www.militarygamers.com/Downloads/NWN_OnlineManual.pdf. |
| Maps | For maps of the Neverwinter coast (though not maps for the individual areas in the Official Campaign), see Neverwinter Vault's clickable Map, and Planet Neverwinter's clickable Map. |
| Modules: reviews and libraries* |
|
| Neverwinter Consortium |
The
Neverwinter
Consortium provides a persistent (24/7) game
world with strong roots in the original Neverwinter Nights (oNWN). The name of the
Consortium's game is Neverwinter Nights: Resurrection. "The first goal of the Neverwinter Consortium is to create the closest possible facsimile of the
original America Online-hosted Neverwinter Nights game, which was closed
by AOL at the height of its popularity in 1997." The site offers FAQ, maps, forums, store and more. For the latest info, head for the forums. For additional maps, see FatherMatt's Neverwinter Resurrection Maps. For information on PvP, see PvP in Neverwinter Nights: Resurrection. Registration. There is no charge to play NWN Resurrection, but you do have to register. (If you obtain the login information and play without registering, you will be banned from the game.) Registration is required so that the Consortium can oust players who behave inappropriately (hacking, truly harassing others, etc.--although PvP is allowed). To apply, you need to sign up for the forums first. Once you've registered with the forums, go to the General Messages forum (in the General Forums section), and look for the topic near the top that says Sticky- Login information request; currently it says: Send an email to somsnake@sprynet.com and include the following information: 1. Your username on this forum. 2. Your bioware username (the name you use to log on to multiplayer games in NWN with ...and just send the username, not the password). 3. A statement accepting the Terms of Use. (The Terms of Use are also in the General Messages forum as Sticky: NWC Terms of Use.) Required Hakpack. Note that you will need to download and install the Resurrection hakpacks (which contain beholders, dracoliches etc.) before you can play. To do this, go to the Neverwinter Consortium main page and click the Hakpack button at the top. Download the hakpacks (you may want to save them to your desktop), and install them in your NWN hakpack folder. (If you used the defaults when installing the game, this folder will be c:\NeverwinterNights\NWN\hak). NOTE: the hakpacks change periodically as new monsters etc. are added, so you may want to check out the Hakpack autoloader instructions. Accessing the Game. To then play the game, do the following: 1. As always, doubleclick your NWN icon on the desktop and click "Play". 2. After you click through the credit screens, click Multiplayer (instead of "Load"). 3. Assuming you have your player name and player password set up (or after you set them up), click "OK". 4. Click "Join Internet Game". 5. Make sure you have "Hide Local Vault" unchecked and "Hide Password Protect" unchecked on the left-hand side of the screen. 6. Click on Direct Connect. 7. Enter the server IP address and password (I can't give these out here, but enter them and then click "OK".) Hints and Tips. For advice on where to start when you first arrive, see FatherMatt's NWN Resurrection Tips and Hints. For instructions on how to check the status of the NWN Resurrection server, click here. |
| News* | Neverwinter Tavern provides news. |
| Order the Software | You can pre-order BioWare's Neverwinter Nights software through the Neverwinter Nights Consortium store. By doing so, a small amount of the purchase money will go to the Consortium, a non-profit |
| Original Neverwinter Nights | If you want to see archives and information on the original
(AOL, circa 1994-97) Neverwinter Nights (oNWN), check this site! "This is the unofficial Classic Neverwinter Nights Archive. There is nothing of the kind on the web, and I felt it was important to display what Neverwinter was before the making of the Interplay version of the game." For old NWN guilds, see Nightmasks' oNWN Websites. |
| Patches & Patching | See BioWare's official patch page. Having trouble patching? Check out BioWare's "To Install NWN Patches Manually". Finally, if you need to undo a patch to get back to a prior version, see BioWare's Revert Patches. |
| Portraits | |
| Progression Tables | Planet Neverwinter provides some interesting Progression Tables
that summarize: the effect of increasing levels on base saves
and attacks; the effect of ability levels on bonus spells; the effect of
increasing levels on skill maximums, feats and abilities; and the effect
of increasing levels on the number of spells casters have
available. To see the increases in saves, attacks, skills, feats and abilities, visit ShadeRaven's chart of level bonuses. Also see Unforgotten Realms' level advancement tables and experience points to level and benefits. |
| Reviews | For links to reviews of NWN, see Reviews by Base Space and Neverwinter Vault's Game Reviews. |
| Roleplaying | The basic aspect of roleplaying is to determine
what sort of personality your character has and then make your
conversation match. Using Middle English is NOT
required. Neverwinter Vault provides a guide on Role-Playing,
though much of it is directed at Dungeon Masters. Still, if ye wish to learnst how to speak in the older tongue--and for more detail on roleplaying--head to "What is Roleplaying?" by the Chesapeake Daily News and scrolleth down to the section titled "A Guide to Conversational Britannian". (Yes, I know this was done for UO but it works well for other games too.) |
| Searches | NWN Stratics has a search engine for its site in the right-hand corner; see the Neverwinter Nexus Knowledge Base and the Neverwinter Vault Knowledge database as well. To search for NWN-related sites, feed in a key word at the Hibix NWN Search Engine. |
| Servants of Mystery | One of the original (AOL) Neverwinter guilds still in existence today...and my guild. The famed "fireballing midget" graphic gives some idea of the primitive graphics available at that time for online games. The guild will be located on the Neverwinter Nights Consortium servers. For other Servants of Mystery sites, see the Servants of Mystery Links Page. For other guilds, see Guilds in the first chart. |
| Shadows of Undrentide | Head to Unforgotten Realms, scroll down and on the right-hand side there is information about the new weapons, spells, classes, creatures, feats and skills. |
| Skills* | See ShadeRaven's page on Skills, and FatherMatt's tips on skills for spellcasters. |
| Sorcerer Guides | See FatherMatt's own Sorcerer Spell Guide. (Sorcerers' selection of their limited spells is crucial.) For other recommendations on the spells to select, see ShadeRaven's page on Sorcerers and scroll down there to "Spells" (below the two spell charts). |
| Spells* | GameBanshee provides lists of spells by class; scroll down and check the left-hand column. Also see the alphabetical list of all spells (with classes and levels indicated for each) provided by PlanetNeverwinter, in addition to its lists of spells by class. For a great explanation of how spells work (including spell resistance and saving throws) see ShadeRaven's Spells page. |
| Support | See BioWare's support page and self- help forum including its Ultimate Help Guide, Neverwinter Vault's Problems page, the Infogrames support page and Ceggy's tech support guide. |
| System Req's | See Planet Neverwinter's Requirements and Unforgotten Realms' System Requirements. |
| Tips | See Hints & Tips. |
| Toolset | You do NOT need to learn scripting to use the Toolset to create good modules. See Toolset in the third chart below. |
| Updates | See Patches & Patching. |
| Wallpaper | For NWN wallpapers, check the Wallpaper Space by Base Space. |
| Weapons* | Game Banshee has a weapons
page with complete description and screenshots. Neverwinter RPG Guide has weapons information by type. Neverwinter Nights Collector provides nice weapons and armor charts. Thott Guildleader has created a Melee Damage Analysis Tool: "Useful features include graphing normal attack vs. power attack vs. improved power attack, and graphing one character configuration vs. another. Graphs show damage per round for AC values ranging from 10 to 40." |
| Web rings | Worlds of Neverwinter Nights; Neverwinter Web ring; Neverwinter Guilds Web ring. |
| Windowed Mode | To run NWN in windowed mode, see Neverwinter Vault's How do I run NWN in a window? |
| Witch's Wake | If you don't have it already, "The Witch's Wake," an official Neverwinter Nights module series, is now available as a free download. BioWare has a Witch's Wake News page. There is also a Witch's Wake guild, the Witchwork Guild, which has forums to discuss the series and "form adventuring parties with fellow players and Dungeon Masters interested in the series." BioWare provides a Witch’s Wake General Discussion forum and a Player’s Manual for Witch's Wake. Also see Unforgotten Realms' Witch's Wake page. |
| Wizard Specialization | Planet Neverwinter has a brief explanation of specializations that wizards can choose. |
| Worlds* | Persistent worlds (also called campaign worlds) are
multiplayer servers that host a Neverwinter module 24 hours a day, 7 days
a week. If you aren't playing in a persistent world, you are missing
the best that NWN has to offer! For information on persistent worlds
generally, see Player’s
Guide to Persistent Worlds by Major Bill Marcellino. For links to the worlds themselves, see: |
Class
Guides, Sites and Boards
If you know of any class guides, tutorials, sites or boards, please e-mail
me the URL!
| Class | Sites | Boards/Forums |
| Barbarian | ShadeRaven's Barbarian | Neverwinter Vault's Barbarian Class |
| Bard | ShadeRaven's Bard | Neverwinter Vault's Bard Class |
| Cleric | ShadeRaven's Cleric; GameFAQ's Cleric Guide; ActionTrip's Cleric Guide; FatherMatt's Cleric Domains | Neverwinter Vault's Cleric Class |
| Druid | ShadeRaven's Druid | Neverwinter Vault's Druid Class |
| Fighter | ShadeRaven's Fighter | Neverwinter Vault's Fighter Class |
| Monk | ShadeRaven's Monk; ActionTrip's Monk Character Guide | Neverwinter Vault's Monk Class |
| Paladin | ShadeRaven's Paladin | Neverwinter Vault's Paladin Class |
| Ranger | ShadeRaven's Ranger; ActionTrip's Ranger Creation Guide | Neverwinter Vault's Ranger Class |
| Rogue | ShadeRaven's Rogue; GameFAQ's Rogue Guide | Neverwinter Vault's Rogue Class |
| Sorcerer | ShadeRaven's Sorcerer; GameFAQ's Sorcerer FAQ; also see FatherMatt's own Sorcerer Spell Guide. | Neverwinter Vault's Sorcerer Class |
| Wizard | ShadeRaven's Wizard; ActionTrip's Wizard Character Guide. | Neverwinter Vault's Wizard Class |
For Builders and Dungeon Masters
| Custom Doors | Want to build custom doors? See Mr. X's Comprehensive Custom Door Tutorial Using New BioWare MAX Scripts. |
| Dungeon Master Client |
|
| Dungeon Master Console Commands |
|
| Dungeon Master Guidance | See FatherMatt's own Tips for Dungeon Masters. BioWare has Tips for the Beginner Dungeon Master, and its Dungeon Master's Realm forum. PC Gamer provides How to Be a DM, with quotes from various BioWare luminaries. Clang has created an article on Mastering Dungeon Mastering. |
| Dungeon Master Utilities | The DM's Helper "is a fan created tool designed to assist Neverwinter Nights Dungeon Masters, it is capable of many functions that are not provided by default in the DM Client and should be an invaluable tool for any DM. It selects its functions based on the target chosen (Player, Creature, Door, Object, None) and presents conversation options to the DM for its interface." |
| Forums for Builders | For forums covering multiple builder topics, see BioWare's Dungeon Master's Realm, NWN Stratic's Master's Hall, NWN Vault's Dungeon Master Board, Planet Neverwinter's Dungeon Masters Den and Neverwinter Tavern's Dungeon Masters forum. Also see the forums listed in Scripting and Toolset below. |
| Hak Paks |
!SmokeSerpent has devised Hakedit which allows one to: unpack HAK, pack HAK, add file to HAK (overwrite existing optional), remove file from HAK Actions, combine HAKs, update files in a HAK. !Rothos has authored a HAK Combine Utility that takes two HAK files and lets you select files from each to combine into a single HAK. !Revinor has released the Hak Pak Updater: "Basic idea behind this tool is to make sure that player wanting to play on given server always has the latest version of hakpak needed. If his version is outdated, HakUpdater will download differences between old and new hakpak and update it for user." !Polyhedral also provides a Hak Updater. NOTE: Also see Tilesets below. |
| Hosting | Want to run your modules online but don't want to operate a server and don't have access to someone else's? For a $14.95/month introductory rate, GameHosts will host your content. Lyoness is offering hosting at $35/month. ExodusMachine is providing free hosting, and Neverwinter Gaming is offering free hosting as well. |
| Links | See Resources & Links for Builders. |
| Loadscreens | If you want to create your own loadscreens (the graphics that appear when an area is loading), see NWN Area Loadscreen Kit v1.00 by Pasus Nauran. |
| Models & Creatures |
|
| Music | See Sound below. |
| Placeables | Scooterpb has a tutorial on creating placeable objects. The example is a pine tree, but it applies to much more. |
| Planning Worlds and Adventures; Plot Wizard |
|
| Resources & Links for Builders | For resources and links covering multiple builder topics,
check out Neverwinter Vault's DM Resources
(for builders), Resource
Links Search, and Tutorials
and Reference page. Also see NW
Guide's custom content library. Neverwinternights.org
provides scripting, tileset, graphics and other links. NOTE: There are many other references located under specific topics in this chart. |
| Scripting (tutorials, FAQ, utilities, reference and forums) |
'BrainFrameNWN "allows you to construct scripts graphically using a flowchart-like display. Actions and decision points are represented as flowchart nodes connected by arrows, and the flowcharts can be nested, making complex behaviors easier to script." 'Neverwinter Rush has a beta version of its Easy Script utility up, with the final version due to be released August 5, 2002. "Who has time to read tutorials, edit other user made scripts, read how strings work, and what to do with variables? With Easy Script you just select what you what your object to do, and type in the object's name! No scripting knowledge is needed!" 'Derek French of BioWare has built a Syntax Definition File that adds NWScript syntax highlighting for TextPad. There are instructions for installation and a download link. You can download TextPad itself here. In turn, Marc DeLegg has prepared NWScript Clip Libraries for TextPad that provides quick access to Function/Constant definitions and their usage information. !Gimpy's Guide to Making Quests by Sir Gimpy is "a step-by-step guide for those of us who have no idea what we are looking at when we see the NWScripts." !GameBanshee offers a tip or two on learning scripting by Pat Chan of BioWare. !BioWare has more than 20 scripting tutorials on specific topics. !BioWare has a forum listing Scripting FAQ & Tutorials that offers more than 30 topics on specific topics. !Neverwinter Source-rer offers a Basic Scripting tutorial and an Advanced Scripting tutorial. !Neverwinter Vault has a multipart scripting tutorial in cartoon format for non-tech types; it also offers a scripting course and links to scripting tutorials. !Dancer has created Beginner's Toolset and/or Scripting Guides. |
| Scripts for Modules and Areas |
Arideth's Persistent
World Economy Management System is "Designed to stop exploits and
help you gain control over exactly what kind of treasure is being
generated...." Palor's NWN Spawn System lets builders easily spawn encounters and items with many options available. GATS (Generic Area Template System) v1.4 by C. Durbin allows you to easily create "generic" areas and populate them with creatures or other placeables; it's useful for areas too small to use the NWN Spawn System. Another very useful script is jwvanderbeck's Item Manager for creature corpses, respawning chests, trash clean-up, self-closing doors etc. Area Reset, submitted by Maxxim, respawns items, placeables and creatures. Plot Item Remove (author unknown), which strips a player of all plot items (useful at the end of a quest). Also see see Script Libraries below. |
| Script Libraries (downloads) |
'Scripts
by List: 'Scripts by Category: 'Script Libraries with Search Engines: 'Misc. Sites: |
| Server Administration |
|
| Server Command Line Switches | Neverwinter Vault has instructions on Using the Command Line as well as a list of the Command Lines Switches. |
| Sound & Music | Neverwinter Vault offers a Sounds Library that provides music as well. Lucky Day, Solias, and Sam Hulick provide the code for two ways for Adding Custom Music to your module. Ddraigcymraeg has created a Tutorial on how to create custom Soundsets for your PC, Henchman, NPC's and Monsters. BioWare provides tutorials on Adding Custom Sounds: Wave Files and on Adding Custom Music: BMU Files. Sam Hulick also provides custom music. |
| Textures |
BioWare offers a Textures
page and a texture tutorial,
along with Texture Tutorial- Re-Skinning Creatures
and Customizing
the NWUpdater Skin. Neverwinter Vault provides a Texture Studio.
See also the Lyoness tilesets
and textures page. If you are going to be creating textures, you'll need to use the DDS Compression Tool by BioWare, which converts the images to the compressed format that is recognized by the game. NOTE: Also see Models above. |
| Tilesets |
NOTE: Also see Hak Paks above. |
| Toolset |
See Fathermatt’s own Toolset Hints and Tips. Neverwinter Vault has a |