NWN2: Mask of the Betrayer Community Update #8

Neverwinter Nights 2 community coordinator Rob McGinnis stopped by the official forums to post an eighth community update for the game’s upcoming Mask of the Betrayer expansion pack.

Hey all, I’m sorta filling in for Shane with this one. Things are getting busy as we wrap up development on MoTB so this got missed.

Here you go: Classes & Races – Answers provided by Kevin Saunders, Producer.

1. Will we see PrC’s for classes like Warlock and Druid that really have no options now?
The Stormlord PrC has full divine spell progression and works very well for druids. (Note that the War Priest is also a decent option for druids, though it doesn’t fit as well thematically). We aren’t adding a PrC for Warlocks.

2. Are there going to be any new base classes introduced in this expansion? If so, could you tell us what class(es) might be added, or at least hint at it/them (if unable to reveal such details as of this time)?
We have implemented the favored soul and spirit shaman.

3. With the new setting placed in Rasemen, will the Monk finally get a prestige class that caters to it?
The sacred fist PrC is great for monks with any divine caster levels.

4. Will we finally see real Half-Drow with real Darkvision, not the Low-Light Vision counterfeits I’ve been forced to play up to now?
We improved how low light and dark vision are implemented – now dark vision (and low light vision) can be toggled on and off.

5. will wild elves be in??
Yes!

6. Re. the Warlock – the base class still needs some attention (there are some fixes for things on the vault), and I’d suggest implementing the epic-level warlock Click Here with feats such as Eldritch Sculptor & Shadowmaster effectively giving PrC-like options for high level warlocks.
We have indeed added some epic level feats specifically for warlocks. And, their Imbue Item ability functions with all of the NX1 item enchanting recipes. We’ve also added some feats like Weapon Focus (Ranged Touch) that are great for warlocks.

7. Is Stormlord truly a new PrC? And if so, can we hurl spears with them? Also, does Stormlord’s prerequisites entail selecting Talos as a patron deity and(or) one or more of his domains?
Yes, though we generalized the class to have their abilities apply to any thrown weapons. (Though we didn’t add in thrown spears yet.) Based on the community’s feedback for how some of the classes were implemented with race and diety requirements, the stormlord PrC won’t have any deity restrictions.

8. Will Expansion Set Players with the new races/classes be allowed to play with Non-Expansion set players like in NWN1?
Yes. Before Mask of the Betrayer launches, we will update NWN2 so that the two versions are compatible. You will need to have Mask of the Betrayer installed to play with the new content (creatures, terrains, etc.).

9. I want to ask if special abilities gived by Statues of Purification will be keeped playing Mask of Betrayer… and new PCs maded to play MoB (with new races and classes) will gain them on campaign starts?
No… by the end of NWN2, the PC no longer has these abilities. Since Mask of the Betrayer continues the story of the shard-bearer following the battle against the King of Shadows, the shard-bearer begins Mask without them.

10. Will the Ghostwise halfling be in MotB?
Nope, sorry.

11. Will the Archmage PrC be in?
Nope, sorry. This prestige class would be extremely time consuming to implement in a completely satisfying way and it’s hard to justify such a huge time investment for a single prestige class. It is unlikely that we will ever implement the archmage, unless we made major revisions to its abilities.

12. Will Rangers and Druids be getting more Animal Companions, and more ways to customize them and upgrade them? I’d really, really, really, like to have my panther back.
We added the panther as a new animal companion option. =) Through some epic feats, it is possible for the epic level druid to acquire a small dragon as his animal companion!

13. Will Rangers be getting some of those nifty spells they have in PnP that a lot of people like to talk about on these forums?
Most of the spells we added were for the primary caster classes – rangers and paladins are getting a few, but we concentrated on fleshing out some of the other spell lists.

14. Since this takes place in Rashemen will Rangers be able to get a witch to travel with them? ( Or perhaps there will be a witch companion that will have special dialog with a Ranger PC?)
There are some events that will turn out differently based on your class. We didn’t concentrate on class-specific content in Mask of the Betrayer. Because there are now 14 base classes and many prestige classes, we felt we could provide a better overall game play experience if we didn’t invest as much is trying to give each class its own carrots.

15. Will there be any PRC that are specifically made with Ranger in mind? I realize of course that quite a few of the PRC work wonderfully with Ranger builds, but none of them are Ranger specific.
None of the new prestige classes are really ranger-specific. With a few exceptions, we tend to concentrate on prestige classes that we think will work well with multiple types of characters so that more players can enjoy them. Because rangers already have many good options to choose from, we didn’t add a ranger specific one.

16. Will the Improved Favored enemy feats work for all favored enemies, or will we still need to take the feat for each favored enemy?
We didn’t change the implementation of Improved Favored Enemy. We did add the epic level Bane of Enemies feat, which does apply to all of your favored enemies.