Hello James DeBruce,

first of all:
Welcome to DalelandsBeyond as well as these forums.

Regarding your question:
I know there was some kind of a little "Starter's Guide" but it seems to have vanished. Either that or I am blind.
Well, then here's some advice that may help you hopefully:


I Tips about Character Creation


(1)Character concept:

Nothing definitve to advice here, just make sure your concept can live with/in the setting (see "Classes" too) and rather create a character concept first than start NWN2, roll a character and then try to fit in a story.

Possible questions that will help you to get a working character could be:

"What will my character be/look like?"
"What does he want to reach/achieve?"
"What does he like/dislike?"
"Why is he as he is now?"
"Why is he travelling at all?" (Is he even? you could also play a local farmer if you like that.)
"Is there something he would never do (like murder or theft)?"
"What diety does he follow and why?"
"Is he rather egoistic or does he tend to help strangers even without a reward?"

These are just a few of possibly hundreds of questions, I'm sure you have good ideas about that yourself as soon as you start to think about your character.

Important note:
On Dalelands you don't need to come up with the strongest, fastest and most-damage-dealing character possible to have a good time.
So while you may perhaps find nwn2db.com useful to get an idea about what your character plan should be I strongly advice not to overrate the comments there about the builds. The people at that site tend to favour powerbuilds. Poor ignorants.
A character with strenghts and weaknesses not only is easier to play it is more interesting too. But please don't come up with a character that has Charisma 6 and Intelligence 8 just because you direly wanted Dexterity, Strength and Constitution at 18. Why? You will have to roleplay the weaknesses as well as the strengths of your character. The DMs here are encouraging balanced, reasonable builds over the "super-duper-jack-of-all-trades"-characters.



(2) Race:

It is perhaps a good idea to start with one of the more common races (no drow, half-orcs, deep-gnomes, duergar and the like). Humans, halfelves, (tolerant) elves, dwarves, gnomes and halflings are perhaps the best to choose from since they are rather "easy" to play.

(3) Class(es):

Similar to races, pick a class/class combination that is rather straight than totally twisted in itself. What you eventually choose is of course your decision but I wouldn't advice to start with a paladin or a lawful good cleric for example. Shadowdale is controlled by the Zhentarim which are (to say it frankly) evil. A paladin or a cleric that follows a lawful good deity will have a much harder time than a hunter (aka fighter or ranger) or a rogue for example.

(4) Skills and feats:
That depends so much on your race/class that I can't give any advice here. Feel free to pm me if you have questions about that once you have decided on race/classes. I'm absolutely no expert but all my characters here still live at least.



II The game itself - technical things

I remember how lost I felt when I first started online NWN2 (was my first online game at all to make things even worse).
So I give you a few basic tips that helped me a lot back then.

(1) How to speak ingame?

Easily: hit the "Enter" button, type your message and hit "Enter" again. Done. All what you typed in will be shown over your head and everyone around you can read it.
Important: Everything you say that way will be treated as if your character actually said that in direct speach ingame so make sure it is ingame (in character - "IC") indeed. If there is the need for any messages that are out of character ("ooc") you should make that clear by typing // or (( at first.
If you want to express feelings ("looks totally surprised") or actions ("stands up and walks away") players usually use * at the start and the end of the message, like:
*stands up and walk away*

(2) There are other situations though where you don't want to hear anyone around to hear what you say. So how to whisper or to ask a DM about something?

When you log in after the character creation you will notice your two text boxes on the left side. As usual the upper is the combat log the lower the chat log. Left side of the chat log you find 5 button, which - when checked - have the following influence on how you say something (from top to bottom):

[L] you just talk normally and all around you (in a certain raduis) can read/"hear" it. The text appears white above your head and in the chatlog.
[W] you whisper. Only those close to you will hear that and it will not show up above your head but in the chatlog.
[P] you speak to all those who are in your group. The text will appear in white above your head (but is visible only to group members) and in the chatlog. Your group members will even be able to read that when you are on another map.
[D] You write to the DM's that are on. You get no message in chatlog or above your head once you fired the message and onlyDM'swill be able to read that.
[S] You shout and everyone on the whole server - regardless where they may be - can read that. The text appears in yellow in your chatlog as well as the chatlog of anyother person that is logged in. Please do not use this as this is reserved for DM announcements.

(3) And what if you want to say something to one certain person in particular? (This is the best possibility for ooc talk since you won't disturb anyone else on the server.)

Open your Options menu and click on "Party chat" (near bottom). A window will appear that shows you every character (character, not player) that is logged in at the moment. Leftclick on the char whose player you want to write, you will be able to type in your "tell" now in the chat window. Hit enter, ready.
The other possibility is to open the Options menu again, click on Player list and have a look at a list of all players and their characters that are online at the moment. That is useful when you know the player but not the character. Use the method above as soon as you know the actual character name.

If you received a tell by someone and just wanted to answer, you can even rightclick on the name in the chatwindow and choose "write private tell" (or similar, this text doesn't appear in english in my game) to write a private message: Be careful there though, sometimes the game sets a space between the last letter of the name and the "" that are always around it. In this case you have to remove that space since the game won't find the player otherwise.

Example.
The char you want to write is named Rufus. If you see "Rufus" all is fine, do you see "Rufus ", you have to remove the space after the s.

This tell function works with DM's too.


There are for sure much much more things you possibly want/need to know but with the ability to actually write ingame you should be able to deal with that ingame too.

III The game itself - how to get started character-wise?

If you have finished the character creation and start the game you will first come to the starting/OOC room.
All you say here will be treated as ooc so no need for // or ((.

Look around a bit, read the signs, a lot of useful information can be found here.
The key that highlights objects in your original NWN2 works online too. It can be very helpful.
You'll find a (very basic) merchant here, don't worry if there are not the weapons you want to have or if that armour you wanted to buy is missing. In Shadowdale you'll find a much better stocked merchant.

You also find a description changer (in case you want to change your "biography" from the char creation), a character deleter and a deity changer here (although the latter may not be implemented yet, it is planned at least).

If you think you have done everything needed before entering the actual game and therefore the city of Shadowdale, walk over to the huge yellow/orange .... errr .... lady.
Leftclick her.
Choose "recommended starting place" and ....


welcome to the "Old Skull Inn"!

What now? Well, you could ask the female barkeeper about news and rumours and such. Barkeepers tend to be informed rather good, sometimes they even have little jobs to do they themselves lack the time (or the motivation ) to do. Perhaps you want to visit the cook of the tavern too? When you leave the tavern and head to the left you'll see a merchant soon, to the right soon an auction house will show up and to the left there is (behind the Inn) a fireplace with a couple of crates and benches around. Most of the time you'll find some lazy criminals adventurers there which will for sure help you out with informations. The fireplace is the (inofficial) center of the town, the place where the most adventurers sooner or later have a good time at.
Except they are living in the Underdark, are sought after by the Zhents or dislike said adventurers at the fire....


The most important rule of all: If you have any questions, shoot some friendly player or DM) a tell. In almost all cases I promise you to get a friendly (and sometimes even helpful) answer.