I really want to enjoy this game. The reviews are great, the ratings are great, and I think the people who love it are people like me, who enjoyed the BG series, The Witcher, Morrowind, maybe a few TOEE players too.

But try as I might, I can't seem to get into NWN. A few gameplay issues are really spoiling my experience at the moment, I've searched for help and not really found anything of use.

Issue 1 - My sorcerer tries to open a door or chest. It is locked, so my thief hireling goes to unlock it, which is good. However my familiar and my summoned beast start attacking the chest or door, which they often can't even damage, and will continue to attack even when it has been unlocked. Once my thief unlocked a door, he and my sorcerer main character entered the room into a combat, but my familiar and summon stayed outside and kept attacking the open door...

Setting the pets to 'Stand your Ground' stops them attacking doors/chests, but also stops them following me, which defeats the purpose as they are my sorcerer's bodyguard as such. I have tried hotkeying party commands, but telling them all to Stand your Ground stops the thief from attempting to open the chest also. Is there an efficient way to just get the thief to open the chest without my pets attacking it, and without a major amount of tactic micromanaging? Half a dozen clicks to open just one of the hundreds of chests?!
(I am told that I can speak to my familiar and instruct it not to help. My Pseudodragon definitely does not have that option).

Issue 2 - I am aware you don't issue direct commands, only general orders, and that's fine as the hirelings and summons have their own mind. However I feel their tactics and AI do not make up for that lack of direct control. Case in point, we were fighting a group of convicts, and a mage. I wanted that mage killed first as a priority target, and I got the team to target him initially by firing at him with my crossbow. However after a single round, they disengaged and started fighting against the approaching 'grunt' level enemies, and I couldn't find a way to redirect them against the more lethal, fireball-casting threat instead.
(I am aware these mages can become Invisible, but just to make it clear, they did not use it in this case and so it was not the reason for disengaging. My Pseudodragon has True Sight anyway and can attack invisible targets).

Is there a way to keep my team focused on a specific target, and not to suddenly wander off and attack something else?

Issue 3 - General party micromanagement. Party set to 'Attack Nearest', they promptly raced over a trap that we'd already spotted, and the results were not pretty. I understand I could have stopped them, using Stand your Ground. But I had hoped they'd go around the trap, as there was plenty of room. This is where the lack of direct control hurt the most - with no way to direct targets or assign a movement waypoint, if my enemies had been archers or mages, I would have had to stand around until my thief decided to handle the trap, and then rush the enemy. A wall to wall trap covered by ranged opponents would be an interesting strategic set piece. My party making a beeline over a single trapped tile, not so much.
(You could argue the summoned beast would not necessarily know to avoid the trap, but the thief surely wouldn't stumble over it, and he out of all of them would have known it was there, if my sorcerer was able to spot it)

Tell me, is there a way I can exert a bit more control over them?

Do I need to me more active in my tactics management, with them all hotkeyed? I was hoping it could be a bit more passive, ie, configure them once and that'd work throughout most of the game.

Thanks for anyone who can help, and apologies if I missed something really, really obvious!

The AI is quite lacking in vanilla NWN, which is one of many reasons people have tended to move to online play where relatively intelligent party members are a bit easier to come across.

For those dead set on single play, I would recommend checking out <span class="podkreslenie">Tony K's AI Mod</span>. It certainly won't solve all your problems, but it does help to correct some of the more grievous idiocies of your associates.

1. Most companions in most modules have dialogue to leave the traps alone. Guess that doesn't apply to summoned creatures. I usually play character with enough thieving skills mainly because everything's smoother that way.

I'd suggest letting them attack the chests while the thief is picking the lock. Then after the lock is picked hit hotkeyed "follow me" and then "guard me", or maybe "guard me" in itself is enough.

2. Maybe that AI mod helps and maybe not. I've yet to install it and I don't think I'm going to. Many mod builders have integrated it or something similar already. Guess you'll have to agree the beasts are stupid and kill the spellcasters yourself.

3. There's something wicked hard about avoiding traps. KotOR inherited NWN code and even there you'll gringe when your companions start racing down a mine filled corridor! NWN2 is the same way as well. At least if you're going to keep the thief, he'll have pretty great trap-avoiding/surviving skills at higher levels...

"Follow me" works here as well, they'll follow you but not attack. Maybe. At least not unless attacked.

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I always, by far, have the most enjoyable playing experience with a character having both thieving and combat skills fighter/rogue, rogue/ranger, barbarian/rogue, whatever. No buffs, no spells memorization. Something to give disease immunity, something giving regeneration at later levels. No relying on anybody else, unless to boost up combat capability now and then.

On the other hand, I've never had fun with a wizard or sorcerer. Too much hassle memorizing stuff, avoiding close combat, relying on henchmen.

Opinions vary.

Issue the command to pick a lock directly to your thief. You can right click his portrait, go to the upper left icon (or number "7" on keyboard keypad), then go to the upper right (number "9" on keypad).

You can right click any chest to see if it's locked. If you see a locked one, issue the order to your henchy (I think you can quick-bar that one too). Don't try to open it yourself unless you've told your pets to stand guard.


As for your other issues:


The AI mod can help some with micromanagement. It doesn't keep them going around traps. There's really nothing good in the scripting of the game that would even allow it to (I know I couldn't program it in, anyway -- and I've done many a year worth of scripting in NWN. It might be possible, though. It should be possible to just remove all traps from the game, too -- but I couldn't find any override that did that).

Sadly, some of the issues are just going to be there, I think.

Any PC associate will follow the last command given until either the PC moves out of perception range or issues a new command. Some commands, such as attacking a locked chest or door, are coded to be auto responses - if you click on a locked chest or door your associates attack it.

The associate AI improves greatly with SoU and HotU, allowing you to access henchman inventory and the associate perform better overall. However, some things are just not going to change much without a complete overhaul (like Tony K's).

Case in point - attacking. The associate AI is coded so that the associate will attack the last target attacked unless circumstances force the AI to seek a new target - i.e. taking damage from another attacker, the target dies, the master changes orders, etc.

MP is where it's at.