Neverwinter Nights 2 Walkthrough - Original Campaign - Part 2

Neverwinter Nights 2 - Original Campaign - Walkthrough Part 2 - Weeping Willow Inn, Swamp Cave, Fort Locke, Graveyard, Bandit Camp, Maiden's Glade

This is one of a series of walkthroughs/hints for Neverwinter Nights 2 (Original Campaign). Click here for a listing of all our guides for Neverwinter Nights 2.

Weeping Willow Inn

• You will probably be able to reach ECL 5 if you clear out the Inn and finish the small quests there.
• After the Weeping Willow Inn, you have the option of going to the Swamp Cave, but I would skip that and instead rush to grab Neeshka at Fort Locke, and then Elanee on the road between Fort Locke and Highcliff. There are two main reasons you may want to do this:
  
  • The size of your party does NOT affect the XP you get per kill unless you go solo.
  • You can control Companion levelling. This is not as critical if you are willing to use the NWN2 console and re-level them.

Swamp Cave

• If you already rescued Galen from his bodyguards outside Fort Locke, you will not encounter him here and you will miss one of the opportunities to gain +1 Influence with Khelgar. Aside from this, there is no dialogue here for any of the companions.
• Lots of traps here. Best to come back with Neeshka and either Disarm or try to Recover the traps if you are not a Rogue.
• The Bone Phoenix inflicts good fire damage, so try to get it before going to the Graveyard where the undead there have good Damage Reduction against non-magical physical attacks.

Fort Locke

• If you rescue Galen here before going to the Swamp Cave, you will not encounter him there, and you will not have to compete with his guards for XP from the lizardmen. If you see him here but do not trigger his encounter, you can still encounter him outside the Swamp Cave.
• You can also kill Galen, but you will not have access to his store, and the unique rapier he drops (Namarra (Neversleep) +1; item code "nw_wswmrp008") has only a DC 14 effect (which means you will likely see a creature fail probably less than 50% of the time -- on top of the effect triggering only 75% of the time). On the other hand, because a roll of "1" on a saving throw is automatic failure, in the long run this weapon will more or less have a flat 5% chance of affecting any creature, no matter what their level. If you are going to play around with crafting, I recommend you opt for having access to his store instead. You can also get this rapier in Neverwinter later.
• You can make some cash by buying crafting components, crafting an item, and then selling it back to a merchant. But once you use a mold, it is destroyed.
• If you ask Vallis for a reward to investigate Tann's disappearance, you receive a +1 Evil alignment shift -- but only if you asked for the reward right away. You can wait until he mentions the dangers involved, and ask for compensation without any alignment shift.

The Graveyard

• It will help a lot if you have done the Swamp Cave first and given Khelgar the Bone Phoenix morningstar.
• If you are having a hard time with the Shadow Priest, retreat out of the room and force him and his minions to come at you one or two at a time through the door. At the doorway, have Elanee put down a Spike Growth, which lasts a very long time. One strategy for a direct assault involves having Khelgar run around the zombies to strike at him, and shooting him in the meanwhile with Neeshka. Elanee doesn't have a lot of ranged spells, so she can instead either shoot or cast Body of the Sun and wade in to defensively engage the zombies and keep them off Khelgar. Also, if Khelgar is close to a weakened zombie, have him hit the zombie instead and trigger a free-attack from Cleave to hit the Shadow Priest.
• Commander Tann joins you as a temporary companion if you agree to look for his men with him. He is added to your party, but not being a true party member, he is vulnerable to spells that normally avoid allies. For example, the Druid spell Body of the Sun does not normally hit party members, but it will hit temporary ones like Tann or Slann (at the HighCliff Castle Ruins later). Also, his AI is very simple in that it just runs to whatever enemy he detects. What you can do to keep him out of harm's way and to avoid foiling your tactics is to right-click on him and issue an order to Stand Your Ground (you can do this even though you cannot left click to select him and command him directly).

Bandit Camp

• There are a lot of archers and a couple of spellcasters here that are dangerous because you are still at a fairly low level and failing a couple of saving throws can get you killed. Run around behind walls or close doors to force them to come to you.
• If you haven't rescued Tann, you cannot dialogue with the Bandit Chief. Successfully negotiating the Bandit Chief's surrender is worth 700 xp. At ECL 6, the Bandit Chief and his party are worth 333 xp (plus treasure) if killed.
• Typically the Bandit Chief and his immediate bodyguards start neutral if dialogue is allowed. If you come here before rescuing Tann, and open the door to the room without entering, then get into a fight nearby, his bodyguards can be lured out (responding to nearby allies in combat), but the Bandit Chief will *sometimes* remain inside.
• During the prisoner rescue (which you can avoid if you can talk to the Bandit Chief), the refugees will follow the main character. You can move the main character into a corner in the prisoner compound, thus moving the prisoners back in and out of sight of the bandits, who can then focus on your Companions. Here, it is helpful to have Elanee as well, as Khelgar and Neeshka alone can have a hard time with all the Sneak Attacks.
• The only dialogue here (involving Khelgar and Neeshka) occurs after you lead the refugees out.

Maiden's Glade

• Typically the last area before you reach HighCliff, but I recommend doing this easy area early to get Elanee early. Also, controlling Elanee's levelling early will make her much more useful later on.
• Even if you told Elanee you prefer to investigate the Glade, you are allowed to leave. It is a very small area with little to do, however, so you might as well finish it while you are there.