Neverwinter Nights 2: Difference between revisions

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'''Shandra''': Well, if it had been [[Player Character|the Captain]] doing it, the cat would be lost, the tree burned down, and the old lady would be traveling with us now. }}

 

 

As was the case with Obsidian's previous project, ''[[Star Wars]]: [[Knights of the Old Republic]] II: The Sith Lords'', this sequel, despite being set after the events of the original game, barely references them; unlike ''KOTOR II'', it does not allow the player to choose the ending of the previous game (partially because it was wrapped up in an expansion pack).

In the end of the convoluted (albeit linear) plot, the player faces the final enemy, the King of Shadows, and can either defeat or join him. The player is then presented with the fates of the locations they visited (''[[Fallout]]''-style), which are dependent on the player's choices throughout the game.

 

 

The original game was plagued by the same problems as KOTOR 2: [[Your Mileage May Vary|storyline of debatable quality]], rushed development, very buggy programming, and poor enemy placement. Added to these problems is an engine with serious graphical issues and massive slowdown even on relatively modern computers. Later patches and expansion packs have removed many of the bugs and improved the engine, but it's still rather a hardware hog. However, the original campaign in NWN2 also has a surprising amount of tongue-in-cheek humor from most characters, while not quite [[Genre Savvy]], results in a campaign with an unusual amount of deadpan humor from party members and NPCs alike, including poking fun at the game's own cliches and plot, as exemplified by the example at the top of the page.

 

 

 

An [[Downloadable Content|Adventurer Pack]] called ''Mysteries of Westgate'' was released in 2009. It was developed by Ossian Studios with the plot having no ties with the previous storylines.

 

 

** And is implied to be {{spoiler|Neeshka's grandfather}}.

* [[All Girls Want Bad Boys]]: Bishop's popularity with the fans.

* [[Already Done for You]]: {{spoiler|The fifth statue of Illefarn, blessing claimed by Ammon Jerro}}.

* [[Always Close]]

* [[Arbitrary Headcount Limit]]

** This gets even more egregious in ''Mask of the Betrayer''. You get a maximum of four companions and a party limit of three, which means you always have to leave one behind. This is unusual since the party limit for the last half of NWN2 is four.

** One of the poorer examples of the trope. The feat only allows you to purchase additional magic items from a few merchants. By the time you get access to these merchants, you should easily be able to craft much better items for virtually nothing.

* [[Broken Bridge]]: Closed access to Blacklake District.

** Hey, {{spoiler|Amie}}, don't you think it might be a bad idea {{spoiler|to piss off a wizard that's giving ''your master'' a hard time}}?

* [[Cannot Spit It Out]]: The premise behind influence checks.

* [[Chekhov's Armory]]: The [[Chekhov's Gun|guns]] hang in ''bunches''. There's {{spoiler|the ''other'' old ruins outside of town}}, {{spoiler|the fact that the Gith seem to think a shard's in town when you're around}}, {{spoiler|the talk of Cormick and Lorne}}...

* [[Cloudcuckoolander]]: Aldanon.

** Grobnar, too.

* [[Continuity Nod]]: The game frequently references that Neverwinter is still recovering from the plague and the war with Luskan that the city suffered from in [[Neverwinter Nights|the previous game]]. Also, Deekin, the most [[Love It or Hate It|memorable]] companion from the two expansion packs ''Shadows of Undrentide'' and ''Hordes of the Underdark'', appears as a shopkeeper and references events from both expansions -- albeit in a way that only those familiar with them will have any idea what he's talking about.

* [[Creepy Child]]: Marcus.

* [[Cute Monster Girl]]: Neeshka.

* [[Determined Homesteader]]: A famed trait among the citizens of West Harbor. No matter how many times their village gets utterly destroyed, they will return and rebuild.

* [[Did You See That Too]]

* [[Doomed Hometown]]: West Harbor, although this is played with. An attack on the town starts the story as per tradition, but the town and most of its inhabitants actually survives (your initial goal is actually to bait the attackers away) and can be visited later. Then it really is destroyed by a completely different enemy at the end of Act 2.

** You can visit the village again during the 2nd expansion, ''Storm of Zehir''. Guess what? It is now under siege by ''dragons''. West Harbor is the [[Butt Monkey]] of the Sword Coast, seriously.

* [[Dronejam]]: Worse: the 3.5 rules let you pass through an ally, but the game makes party members jam doorways anyways.

** Of course, that could be the difference between doing it on paper, where you could handwave it as one player sidling past the other, and doing it on a computer, which isn't quite as flexible.

** {{spoiler|''Mask of the Betrayer'' thankfully rectifies this by revealing that over half the party managed to survive.}}

* [[Dummied Out]]: Time constraints resulted in ''a lot'' of stuff getting cut, like Neeshka and Bishop's romance plots, an encounter with the [[Humanoid Abomination|animus elemental]] Sydney summoned to murder Qara, [[Noodle Incident|why Casavir left Neverwinter]], an exchange between Sand and Qara indicating she's actually ''holding back'' a considerable amount of power...

* [[Dysfunction Junction]]: All of the party members have some sort of severe mental baggage or messed-up past (if not both), all of the party members regularly bicker and annoy one another, and all of the romances are dark, strained, and doomed. This can mostly be laid at the feet of Chris Avellone, who has a severe aversion to straight-played romances.

* [[Genre Savvy]]: Used and [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] in the same sequence if the player was [[Genre Savvy]] -- just before the end, {{spoiler|Garius will notice if the protagonist previously removed all gear from the characters who joined him, noting "Nice try, but ultimately futile" before giving them equipment.}}

** Though this also happens if they're still carrying all of their original equipment by the game's end.

* [[Gondor Calls for Aid]]: Pretty much the entirety of Act Three.

* [[Gotta Catch Them All]]: The silver shards.

* [[Guest Star Party Member]]: ({{spoiler|Amie and Bevil}}, but most prominently various NPCs involved in escort quests)

* [[Heel Face Turn]]: {{spoiler|Ammon Jerro and, optionally, Torio.}}

* [[Heroes Want Redheads]]: The only romanceable female companion, the druidess Elanee, with auburn hair. In addition, two other early companions who aren't romanceable: the half-demon rogue, Neeshka, and the ginger sorceress, Qara. If the player starts the game with a redheaded close-combat character, it's possible to create a well balanced party of four redheads.

* [[Heroic Sacrifice]]: {{spoiler|Callum}}

* [[Hero of Another Story]]: More than a dozen, including {{spoiler|every single one of the major villains.}} Not surprising, since deconstructing the idea of heroes is arguably the main theme of the story.

'''Grobnar:''' Er, right, several ''Neeshkas'' high. }}

* [[Hostage for McGuffin]]: The [[Player Character]] him/herself.

* [[Improbable Power Discrepancy]]

* [[Inexplicable Treasure Chests]]

*** It doesn't help that the weapon doesn't have a type, so even if you are playing a fighter type, none of those useful feats that you've picked up along the way will apply to it. Though I have found it useful when playing a mage.

** Even worse is the {{spoiler|Hammer of Ironfist, which you pick up at about the same time as you complete Khelgar's quest to become a monk.}} It's still usable, though, if you have either [[Crippling Overspecialization|a dwarf Knight-Captain or a high Use Magic Device skill]].

* [[Inn Security]]: Played straight ... most of the time.

* [[Interspecies Adoption]]: It doesn't matter what race your character is, your father is always the same.

* [[Interspecies Romance]]: With the number of species available to the player, it's almost a given if you choose to pursue a romance at all.

*** ''Mask of the Betrayer'' and certain fan modules prove that it ''is'' in fact possible to script a character name change (the ''MotB'' instance being Kaelyn the Dove adding a similar [[Animal Motifs|Animal Moniker]] to your name), so we can probably put this one down to Obsidian not caring enough.

** Similarly, you are told to rescue an envoy but that his name is unknown... however his name shows up in your Journal straight away.

* [[Irrelevant Importance]]

* [[Item Crafting]]

** This is actually explicitly true.

*** Justified in that {{spoiler|much of the Watch is corrupted and the player is assigned to find them and report them.}}

* [[Let's Play]]: There is an awesome one by Lt. Danger that can be found [http://lparchive.org/LetsPlay/NWN2/ here.]

* [[Like a Badass Out of Hell]]: {{spoiler|Ammon Jerro}}.

** [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] in ''Mask of the Betrayer'':

{{spoiler|'''Ammon Jerro''': Yes. That powerful and evil beings insist on causing destruction even as they die is an unfortunate habit.}} }}

** Exceptionally ironic since {{spoiler|Ammon Jerro}} uses this to justify the PC not killing him in his own base.

** An easily missed line in ''Storm of Zehir'' {{spoiler|[[Retcon|Ret Cons]] that he actually survived, was left a paraplegic, and was captured by Luskan. Kinda ruins the effect.}}

* [[Loading Screen]]: Of the "includes extra information" variety.

* [[Loads and Loads of Loading]]: Depending on the player's system.

* [[Lost Forever]]

* [[Love Martyr]]: A female PC, if she turns down Casavir for Bishop.

** He also shares a name with Amon Göth, a [[Real Life]] [[Complete Monster]]. This may not be coincidence, as {{spoiler|the player is meant to believe that Jerro is a [[Complete Monster]] due to his own horrifically high body count.}}

* [[Mistaken for Murderer]]

** In ''Storm of Zehir'', you can make a Bluff or Intimidate check on the ''author'' to change elements of the ending and get any variation you want.

* [[Mythology Gag]]: Kobolds hate gnomes. This leads to a [[Crowning Moment of Funny]] when Deekin Scalesinger sings a song about butchering gnomes and Grobnar [[Comically Missing the Point|misses the point completely]].

** ''Volo's Guides'' are notorious in [[Canon]] for being [[Tropes for Dummies|an awful mix of brilliant investigations and silly hearsay]]. Elminster notably hunted down and destroyed every copy of ''Volo's Guide to All Things Magical'', partly because it exposed a number of wizardly trade secrets, and partly because the first edition contained a lot of recipes on how to kill oneself in new and exciting ways. In the [[Opening Narration]] to ''Storm of Zehir'', Volo mentions that Elminster judged his most recent book, ''Volo's Complete Guide to the Behavior of Nymphs'', to be "too naughty for print."

* [[Named Weapons]]: And armors, and rings, and magic staves, and so forth.

* [[Nature Hero]]: Elanee.

* [[Nerf]]: Unlike the previous game, knockdowns no longer cause damage and now have a cooldown between uses.

* [[Never Found the Body]]: {{spoiler|Zhjaeve is the only party member that isn't confirmed to have lived or died during the collapse of the Vale.}}

* [[Obvious Beta]]: Obsidian has a well-deserved reputation for this. Despite not looking much better visually than ''KOTOR'', ''NWN2'' is somewhat of a hardware hog, and it suffered from memory leak issues and a lack of polish. Then both expansions managed to [[Game Breaking Bug|break the previous campaign]] on release.

* [[Only Idiots May Pass]]

* [[Optional Party Member]]: The Construct.

* [[Reverse Mole]]: {{spoiler|Torio}}.

** Also potentially {{spoiler|the Knight Captain. This troper had him as a bard/Harper/Shadow Thief/Neverwinter Nine at the end, with choices publicly opposing Neverwinter, while privately undermining all its enemies. Due to a badly-written [[Multiple Endings|ending]], however, this actually backfires. Despite the Shadow Thieves being cell-structured and having only two people in town who know enough members to lead them, at least one of whom dies canonically if the player joins the Thieves, killing both somehow causes the Shadow Thieves to be stronger and better organized.}}

** Notably left ambiguous. There had to be an expansion pack, after all.

** While you can alter the dialogue in the expansion a bit, only {{spoiler|Bishop, Qara, Elanee, and Casavir}} actually die. {{spoiler|Bishop and Qara}} usually die before the ending occurs, though it is possible for them to survive until the ending. {{spoiler|Elanee and Casavir}} were not well liked and killing them off was probably done just to justify them no longer appearing.

* [[Rolling Pin of Doom]]: A couple of different clubs are rolling pins.

* [[Romance Sidequest]]

* [[Sequel Difficulty Drop]]: Unintentional example. The encounters are overall more difficult than ''[[Neverwinter Nights]]'', but there are several factors that negate this.

** AI is much, much smarter. It's still overall bad, but you have limited control over some of its decision making process, it doesn't randomly stop moving or randomly run off to the other side of the map, and, if all else fails, you can manually take control of everyone in your party.

* [[Sliding Scale of Law Enforcement]]: Neverwinter's Watch runs the gamut from honest and just fighters of corruption (mainly the upper echelon, including Captain Cormick) to guards who ''want'' to fight corruption and the Shadow Thieves but are too scared, to guards who are outright on the Shadow Thieves' payroll.

* [[Smith Will Suffice]]

* [[The Starscream]]: {{spoiler|Garius tries to be this towards the King of Shadows halfway through the game. It doesn't exactly work out.}}

* [[Stock Scream]]: The sound file is even named Wilhelm.

* [[Sword of Plot Advancement]]: The Silver Sword of Gith, full stop.

* [[Take Your Time]]

* [[Token Evil Teammate]]: Bishop, and {{spoiler|Ammon Jerro}}. Qara could also qualify for her [[Chaotic Stupid]] nature.

* [[Tragic Hero]]: {{spoiler|Ammon Jerro}}.

* [[Unexpected Gameplay Change]]: Crossroad Keep. The game, however, mostly counts on you to continue adventuring, only returning to manage the keep from time to time.

* [[Unusually Uninteresting Sight]]: You can walk the streets with a half-demon, a robot, and a ''velociraptor'' in tow, and virtually nobody bats an eye.

** [[Refuge in Audacity|Then again, this is D&D.]]

** Averted once:

'''Knight-Captain:''' ... says the half-orc pirate. }}

* [[The Very Definitely Final Dungeon]]: In the Original Campaign, {{spoiler|the Vale of Merdelain.}}

** In ''Mask of the Betrayer'', {{spoiler|literally battling for your soul inside your head on the Fugue Plane.}}

** In ''Storm of Zehir'', the comparatively much shorter {{spoiler|Temple of the World Serpent.}}

* [[Visible Silence]]: Extremely rare, though, and mostly for comedic effect.

* [[Warp Whistle]]

* [[Wild Card]]: Bishop. In his first interactions with the player, he makes it perfectly clear that no matter what, he is ''always'' on the winning side, loyalties and morals be damned. {{spoiler|This comes back to bite you when the King of Shadows gains the upper hand near the end.}}

** {{spoiler|You can optionally [[Relationship Values|make him desert the King of Shadows]], but you can't make him fight alongside you again.}}

* [[You Are the Translated Foreign Word]]: You are the ''{{spoiler|Kalach-cha}}''!

** This is subverted in that the Translated Foreign Word isn't translated right away by the people who call you by it. The first attempt to translate it doesn't go so well, though it does count as a [[Crowning Moment of Funny]] for Grobnar Gnomehands:

** When you finally meet somebody who speaks Gith, it turns out that {{spoiler|''kalach-cha'' directly translates as "shard-bearer".}} With full nuance applied, it means {{spoiler|"one who stole a silver sword and destroyed it to hide their crime".}} Which ironically makes the term more applicable to {{spoiler|''Ammon Jerro''}} rather than the [[Player Character]].

** The best part? {{spoiler|Such an event has never happened before and they created the Translated Foreign Word specifically to describe ''you''.}}

** So obviously telegraphed that {{spoiler|Garius was amazed Lorne came back at all.}}

* [[You No Take Candle]]

 

* [[Bag of Spilling]]: At least you keep character levels and equipped armor.

* [[Bald of Awesome]]: Safiya is a rare female example. {{spoiler|Depending on your actions, she could also become a [[Bald of Evil]]}}.

* [[Bittersweet Ending]]: One of the [[Multiple Endings]].

** Arguably, your situation is not great. Yes, you just beat an incredibly powerful avatar of the dark side of magic, but {{spoiler|1=your close friends and followers may well be dead. The shard that has been inside your body for all your life has been removed (but not very well), you didn't get crushed to death at the end of NWN 2, but you are thousands of miles from home, trapped in a country full of beings who would gladly kill you. Oh yeah, and you are afflicted with a curse that has ALWAYS killed all previous victims, will turn you into a ravening husk along the way, and will mean that your soul will automatically be taken to the Wall of the Faithless.}}

* [[Body Surf]]: {{spoiler|The spirit-eater.}}

* [[Bonus Boss]]: {{spoiler|The badger spirit}} and {{spoiler|Myrkul after possessing One of Many}}.

* [[Boxed Crook]]: Gann's initial reason for joining you.

* [[Cute Monster Girl|Cute Monster Guy]]: Gannayev the Hagspawn. [[Lampshaded]] when he jokingly denies that he's a Hagspawn simply on the basis that he's way too pretty to be one. {{spoiler|Gann looks so beautiful because his mother actually loved his father, whereas other hags/nighthags are incapable of love and thus give birth to hideously ugly hagspawns.}}

** Actually, some of the hagspawns born from night hags have an appearance more like that of their father.

* [[Deliberately Monochrome]]: The Plane of Shadows.

* [[The Dev Team Thinks of Everything]]: There are several changes to dialog over the course of the game if your character is a priest of Kelemvor.

* [[Dissonant Serenity]]: Kaelyn always talks in a soft, motherly tone, which can be a bit disturbing when she's supposed to be angry, such as whenever she talks about the Wall or {{spoiler|if you side with Araman in the endgame.}}

* [[Dysfunction Junction]]: Surprisingly averted... {{spoiler|well, unless you have One of Many and regularly go out of your way to gain Influence with it}}, given the darker tone of this installment. There's a bit of banter back and forth, and Gann certainly likes teasing Kaelyn from time to time, but the party feels much more cohesive and calm compared to the OC gang.

* [[Early Bird Boss]]: Okku, because you lack a real tank in your party.

* [[Everything Is Worse With Bears]]: Especially when said bear happens to be a bear ''god''. With an army. Which includes ghost bears.

* [[Evil Tastes Good]]

* [[Fantasy Counterpart Culture]]: Rashemen is based partly on Slavic myths, particularly ancient Russia.

* [[Fatal Flaw]]: Kaelyn's obession with destroying the Wall of the Faithless.

** [[The Hero]]: The Player

** [[The Lancer]]: Gannayev-of-Dreams

* [[Genius Loci]]: In the Ashenwood. It's even ''called'' one.

* [[Hannibal Lecture]]: {{spoiler|Myrkul will lecture Kaelyn and Gann.}}

* [[Hero Antagonist]]: Araman and Okku.

* [[Heroic Sacrifice]]: {{spoiler|If you're male and had romanced Elanee, Ammon Jerro reveals that she took a piece of the King of Shadows' [[Collapsing Lair]] that would have struck you.}}

** {{spoiler|This is also how Casavir died.}}

* [[Heterosexual Life Partners]] / [[Ho Yay]]: A male [[Player Character]] with a very high influence with Gann can {{spoiler|begin sharing his thoughts and memories with him. They become extremely close and in some endings they go [[Walking the Earth]] as true companions.}}

* [[Intellectual Animal]]: Okku.

* [[Interspecies Romance]]: Guaranteed if you romance Gann. Near-guaranteed if you romance Safiya (if one assumes that [[Player Characters]] are divided equally among the playable races).

* [[Killer Rabbit]]: ({{spoiler|The badger spirit, again}})

* [[Last Villain Stand]]: Provided you {{spoiler|proceed with the invasion of the Fugue Plane}} instead of {{spoiler|defending against said invasion}}, Araman pulls this after the battle when {{spoiler|Kelemvor has already agreed to let you try to get your soul back}}. [[Too Dumb to Live|Factor in that your party probably consists of four 30th-level characters by now.]]

* [[Light and Mirrors Puzzle]]

* [[Love Conquers All]]: One of the possible endings, and appropriately enough the hardest to achieve.

* [[Multiple Endings]]

* [[The Multiverse]]: You visit several other planes, more are mentioned.

* [[Optional Party Member]]: One of Many is an odd example, as you can get either him or Okku, depending on if {{spoiler|you consume Okku}}. Similarly, {{spoiler|Araman}} can be obtained if {{spoiler|if you side against the Third Crusade}} in place of Kaelyn (who will attack you if you meet the conditions for him).

* [[Pardon My Klingon]]: Subverted by Kaelyn the Dove:

* [[Parental Abandonment]]: The player carried over from NWN 2, and Gann.

** [[Disappeared Dad]]: Safiya's father is never brought up {{spoiler|because she [[Truly Single Parent|literally]] never had one.}}

* [[Pride]]:

* [[Point of No Return]]: The Betrayer's Gate.

* [[The Power of Friendship]]: The player and his/her respective followers can get some really powerful feats and buffs when they have a high positive influence.

* [[Power Perversion Potential]]: Potential which Gann gleefully abuses.

* [[Proud Warrior Race Guy]]: Okku has many elements, most noticeable when he encounters carrion-eating spirts at the coven.

* [[Rage Against the Heavens]]: You can actually take either side.

* [[Ragtag Bunch of Misfits]]: Consisting of you, a somewhat Machiavellian wizard, a Hagspawn casanova, an exiled half-angel, and either an undead abomination or a giant talking SPIRIT RAINBOW BEAR.

* [[Rainbow Pimp Gear]]: [[Lampshaded]] with the item Rainbow Armor, which according to the item description was made by a color-blind mage.

* [[Road Cone]]: The expansion assumes the player did not {{spoiler|join the King of Shadows}} at the end of the OC.

* [[Sequence Breaking]]: Getting Gann's influence high enough before the end of Act I will tip you off to the {{spoiler|spirit eater curse}} before you're supposed to know about it.

* [[Soul Jar]]

** The amazing part is, ''they actually pull the trope off'' without making it seem utterly ridiculous; {{spoiler|he's a pretty ''hagspawn'', so none of the local humans trust him worth a damn and the only reason they don't kill him is out of fear that he'd overpower them and take their daughters anyway, and he's a ''pretty'' hagspawn, so all of the hags find him legitimately abhorrent and not actually "beautiful" at all. Even his mother takes a while to come around, and even then...}}

* [[Sociopathic Hero]]: One of Many.

* [[Token Evil Teammate]]: One Of Many, an insane [[Hive Mind]] that Kaelyn openly states "should not ''be''".

* [[Truly Single Parent]]: {{spoiler|The Founder}}

* [[Villains Never Lie]]: ({{spoiler|Myrkul. The player character can even lampshade it to Kaelyn. Later subverted when Kelemvor reveals that though he wasn't lying to ''her'', he was lying to ''you'' and to the founder.}})

* [[Wizard Needs Food Badly]]: {{spoiler|With souls!}}

* [[You Are Worth Hell]]: If you choose to {{spoiler|stay on the Fugue Plane in order to bind the spirit eater there, your love interest will go as far as pledging their soul to the God of the Dead so that you won't have to be alone there}}.

 

----

 

* [[The Bad Guy Wins]]: One the [[Multiple Endings]] if you choose to retire before defeating the [[Big Bad]].

* [[Continuity Nod]]: Several companions were mentioned in previous campaigns -- Septimund is the Doomguide Nya from Port Llast fell in love with, while Finch, a bard known for losing his best hats, finally shows up. Ribsmasher also appeared in the Original Campaign.

* [[Easter Egg]]: One possible encounter is a man trapped in a beartrap. You can free him or kill him (standard stuff), but if you have a cleric of an evil deity, you can sacrifice him, ''[[The Dev Team Thinks of Everything|with unique dialogue for each deity]]''. Annie Carlson notes that she found writing this to be fun.

* [[Game Breaking Bug]]: The initial version had an infamous one that made MOTB ''literally unplayable'' if installed after it.

* [[Hellfire]]: ''Storm of Zehir'' adds on the Hellfire Warlock class, which simply lives off this trope.

* [[Hero of Another Story]]: While the Knight-Captain was busy {{spoiler|dealing with Akachi}}, the SoZ protagonist was busy {{spoiler|saving the world from an evil god.}}

* [[Reptiles Are Abhorrent]]: The enemy in this game, both to the xenophobic Samarachans and to the player, are the snakelike yuan-ti. Not played completely straight, seeing as how the player can create a yuan-ti and make them [[My Species Doth Protest Too Much|non-evil.]]

** Oddly, local Yuan-ti hunters won't notice unless you're dumb enough to explain it.

* [[World Map]]: They even added [[Game Mod|modding]] options for it.

 

* [[Our Vampires Are Different]]

* [[Our Werebeasts Are Different]]: Wererats serve the Ebon Claws.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Western RPG]]

[[Category:Action RPG]]

[[Category:Video Game]]