Getting started

This page is advice, not rules. Everywhere else on this wiki states what the game does; here players who have been through it tell you what worked for them. Nothing below is checked against the server's code the way the rest is, and a rebalance can leave a suggestion behind. Where a number matters, the page it links to has the real one.

It assumes you have played Neverwinter Nights before and know your way around the interface.

Your first character

Pick a surface race. The race you choose decides your faction and where you start; a default race puts you in Benzor, which is where the early quests are.

A caster has the easiest start - Cleric, Druid or Warlock. They lean on gear less than a fighter does, and a summon between you and whatever is biting is worth more at low level than any weapon. Leave room for the crafting skills, and Spell Focus (Conjuration) if you intend to rely on summons.

Ride is worth points if you want a mount that moves at any speed. The Stable Master in Benzor sells them.

Try before you commit. A character named TEST starts in the test area, where every race, every skin, end-game gear and a target dummy are free. Build there, hit something, then make the real one.

The first hour

• Take the free gear from the Newbies store in the Gateway. The Player Menu will reopen it if you walked past.
• Buy food for resting and a couple of invisibility potions for getting out of trouble.
• Look in the donation and unwanted-gear chests at the temple. The temple also holds the recall portal used for joining parties.
• Open your vault and put your spare things in it - it follows your account, not your character, so anything you leave there is waiting for your next one too.
• At any crafting station, turn on drawing materials from the vault - the buttons are above the ingredient list - and set up your fast cast slots so your buffs are one button rather than ten.
• Get Brock. Captain Henroid Tucker walks around town and will hand you a fighter henchman. Gear him, give him healing, and put Associates Control on your quickbar.

Where to go, roughly by level

The quests point you most of the way. This is the order people usually take.

Your first dungeons

Four of the tier 1 dungeons are the ones people cut their teeth on, and they are the easiest to find.

Glondar's Rest is one room, and about as gentle as a dungeon here gets. The crypt is deep in the Black Hills mines.

Graktan's Lair. Graktan leads the West Benzor goblins; his throne room is at the bottom of their caves, and the goblins on the way are not a formality.

Dread Castle, in the Legendary Forest. Go east from Brosna, past the beach and into the caverns; the entrance is visible once you are in the forest. Gundar is at the end of it.

Gorgoroth's Cave. Gorgoroth leads the Pitunk clan, and the whole clan stands between you and him. Head for the Black Hills and look for a cave with orcs on the door.

Things worth knowing early

• Loot everything and keep the tokens. They are what buys endgame gear, houses, mounts and skins, and there is no way to rush them later.
• Crafted gear beats found gear for a long time, and a set bonus is the cheapest power a new character can get: wearing three items of the same quality is the whole requirement. Masterful crafting raises a piece by a tier, exactly as vengeful does.
• Persistent haste exists on drops and can be crafted. Get some.
• Don't be afraid to run. An invisibility potion costs less than a corpse run.
• Watch what spawned before you arrived. A higher-level player's leftovers will kill you; look at a creature from a distance before walking into it.
• Undead either frighten you or kill you outright past the first few kinds. Carry something for fear and something for death magic.
• Lore pays for itself early, when you have no gold to identify things. Ten to fifteen ranks is plenty; after that the identify cost stops mattering.
• You can teleport home once an hour from the Player Menu, and change where home is at a bindstone.

Skills that earn their points here

Discipline, Concentration, Tumble, Use Magic Device, Spellcraft and Pick Pocket all do more here than in the campaign. Ride decides how fast a mount carries you. Appraise is worth having while you are poor. The crafting skills feed the whole trade system.

The conversation skills - Persuade, Bluff, Intimidate - do the least.

Free gear and free gold

Two things exist purely to get a new character on its feet, and neither costs anyone anything.

Unwanted Gear Chests. Every faction temple has one. Players drop gear they have no use for, and anyone may take what they find. The contents survive a reboot, so it is worth looking again.

The Poors Donation pillar, in the temples of the big surface cities. Rich players put gold in; a new character who has not used the pillar that day can take a share out. What is in the pool survives resets too, and how much you can withdraw depends on how much has been given - so check back now and then.

Manners

• Say you are new. People here are helpful about it.
• Clean up what you spawn.
• Keep the shouting and the voicesets down.
• Not everyone reading you speaks English first.
• Party through the Player Menu, and don't loot while the fight is still on.

See also

• Game rules and Conduct - read these first
• Builds - plans written by other players
• Character development
• Resources - Discord, the map, the Build Creator