History VideoGame / NeverwinterNights

* AmbiguousSituation: The whole dealing with Shaldrissa and Yesgar in Port Llast. The former is the mayor's daughter who like to con adventurers for their money. She is later kidnapped by Yesgar, a dangerous escaped convict. The mayor had already paid the ransom, but her daugher wasn't returned, so you're task to track down Yesgar and rescue Shaldrissa. When you finally find Yesgar, he insisted that Shaldrissa manipulated him into a phony kidnapping scheme to rob Port Llast of its money. If you intimidate him, he'll admit that he spiked Shaldrissa's drink before asking her to run away with him. When you rescue Shaldrissa, she fumbled by saying she made a terrible mistake and it's implied [[RapeAsDrama she was raped by Yesgar]]. If you kill Yesgar, your alignment will shift toward evil, much to many players' surprise. Should you kill Shaldrissa, you don't get any alignment shift, but the "Real journal of Shaldrissa" she drops mention that she's the one who came up with the phony kidnapping. So who's the masterminds behind all this? There's evidences that support both sides.

* AmbiguousSituation: The whole dealing with Shaldrissa and Yesgar in Port Llast. The former is the mayor's daughter who like to con adventurers for their money. She is later kidnapped by Yesgar, a dangerous escaped convict. The mayor had already paid the ransom, but her daugher wasn't returned, so you're task to track down Yesgar and rescue Shaldrissa. When you finally find Yesgar, he insisted that Shaldrissa manipulated him into a phony kidnapping scheme to rob Port Llast of its money. If you intimidate him, he'll admit that he spiked Shaldrissa's drink before asking her to run away with him. When you rescue Shaldrissa, she fumbled by saying she made a terrible mistake and it's implied [[RapeAsDrama she was raped by Yesgar]]. If you kill Yesgar, your alignment will shift toward evil, much to many players' surprise. Should you kill Shaldrissa, you don't get any alignment shift, but her "Real journal of Shaldrissa" she drops mention that she's the one who came up with the phony kidnapping and [[FakingTheDead left a fake journal to fool her father into thinking she's dead]]. So who's the masterminds behind all this? There's evidences that support both sides.

* ClingyMcGuffin: The Relic of the Reaper from Hordes. The item description specifically mentions that when you tried to get rid of it in the past it somehow always turned up among your things again.

''Neverwinter Nights'' was the first RPG by Creator/BioWare to be made completely in 3D, and their first game based on the third edition of ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons''. There are several things that ''NWN'' is known for. One of them is the official campaign, which takes place in the ''TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms'' universe or more precisely the Sword Coast, in and around the titular city of Neverwinter.

** Chapter 2 of ''Hordes of the Underdark'' ends after you complete four out of five main quests presented at the start, though it is possible to complete all of them, since the final stage triggers when you speak to the seer and you don't have to return to him before you have beaten everything. Which quests you completed affects what characters appear during the ending battle.

* HalfHumanHybrid: Every Half-Elf and Half-Orc, of course; beyond the obvious though, Shadows of the Undrentide's J'Nah is a Half-Sun Elf, Half-Demon, and Hordes of the Underdark's Valen is a Tiefling, a human with Devil heritage.

* HeroicAlbino: Celestial-blooded characters in the disputably-canon ''Neverwinter Nights'' games and the definitely non-canon fan modules almost always show up with white or silver hair, very pale skin, and golden eyes.

* ThatPoorCat: When passing near a building in Port Llast, you'll hear a unseen cat screeching. [[MostAnnoyingSound Repeatedly]].

* FairySexy: InUniverse, Dryads, nymphs, sprites, and general fey beings you encounter are always described as hypnotiziling beautifull.

* BadGuyBar: The Seedy Tavern, located in the thief and pirate-infested Docks District. There are only three ways to get in: wear a Bloodsailor Uniform, present 5 Smuggler's Coins, or steal a key from a locked house and break in through the back. [[CaptainObvious None of these are legally acquired.]]

The full game, including the premium modules, is available at Website/GOGDotCom. For the original AOL MMORPG from 1991 that shared the same name, [[VideoGame/NeverwinterNightsAOL it now has its own page]].

In 2017, developer Beamdog announced ''Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition'', which was subsequently released on March 27, 2018.

* AbandonedMine: One is used by a kidnapped as a hideout in Chapter 2.

* {{Expy}}: Aribeth share a lot of traits with the previous year's ''VideoGame/BaldursGateDarkAlliance's'' Eldrith. Both are female captain of the guard of their respective cities. Both were Paladins. [[spoiler: Both felt betrayed by the city the protected and turned evil, and became blackguards, leading an assault against their respective city, dying in the process.]]

Two {{expansion pack}}s ''NeverwinterNights/ShadowsOfUndrentide'' and ''NeverwinterNights/HordesOfTheUnderdark'' stepped away from the original campaign and focused on character development, roleplaying, and the intricate storylines for which [=BioWare=] is renowned (although only ''Hordes'' was actually made by [=BioWare=]; ''Undrentide'' was instead developed by the Creator/{{Loocking Glass|Studios}} expats from Floodgate Entertainment, led by the LGS founder [[VideoGame/UltimaUnderworld Paul]] [[VideoGame/SystemShock Neurath]]). These proved to be more popular with fans.

Two {{expansion pack}}s ''NeverwinterNights/ShadowsOfUndrentide'' and ''NeverwinterNights/HordesOfTheUnderdark'' stepped away from the original campaign and focused on character development, roleplaying, and the intricate storylines for which [=BioWare=] is renowned. These proved to be more popular with fans.

* TemporalParadox: Discussed and averted in Chapter 3, where you can use a time sink to temporarily travel back in time. The person who gives you the means to do this warns against taking items from the past back to the present, which is seemingly impossible anyway, and also warns you to try not to leave anything in the past.

%%* AbandonedMine

* ArtificialStupidity: The game was notorious for the Henchmen's bad AI. Tanks not attacking, spellcasters using the wrong spells, [[LeeroyJenkins rogues not flanking]] and the list goes on.
** It reaches EpicFail proportions when vampire priests attempt to [[ReviveKillsZombie cast healing magic on themselves when injured.]]

* InNameOnly: The game's version of Obould differs rather from TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms canon. The change is not to his benefit.

%%* DiscOneFinalDungeon
** DiscOneNuke:

* NoodleImpliments: The reagents to create a cure for the Wailing Death are the heart of a yuan-ti, the hair of a dryad, the feathers of a cockatrice, and the brain of an intellect devourer. ''Why'' these four things create the cure is never explained; when the cure is crafted, assorted [=NPCs=] just seem to pray, and the reagents combine to create the cure through divine intervention.

** The Yuan-ti you hunt in Chapter 1 basically directly tells you [[spoiler:that the ancient Lizard Folk are rising and are to blame for the plague]], but her speech patterns make it easy to dismiss her words as power-mad ramblings.

** At the very late levels though, it not only evens out, but it starts to get inverted. There's limit to how many spells of each level the Wizard can store, and most spells have a hard cap on how strong they can become (the signature Fireball for instance maxes out at 10d6). However, while spell damage has a cap, enemy power levels do not, so at high levels even trash mobs can tank several damaging spells before dying, so Wizards will need to stop and rest more and more often to keep their spells recharged.[[note]]and will probably have to devote more spell slots to offensive magic, limiting the status spells they may want to use as well[[/note]]. Additionally, bosses start to gain very high spell resistances, and if the Wizard has no way to nullify that, they can end up throwing everything they have at the boss and barely scratch them. On the other hand, melee classes can keep raising their Strength higher and higher, and they get Feats like Great Cleave, Improved Power Attack, Devestating Critical, and more, to say nothing of increasingly powerful weapons with +6 bonuses or higher. This means that a melee class can tear through lower-level enemies for days, and while boss-type enemies will probably have damage resistance, a properly built Fighter can easily out-damage that. Their inability to cast spells isn't a major problem either, because the campaign (and especially the expansions) provide increasingly steady access to magical items that let you cast spells for free (or you can just take a mage-type companion to buff you).

* BoringYetPractical: Items with Regeneration. Regeneration restores HP every round, equal to the power of the Regeneration enchantment - most items have Regeneration +1 and only restore 1 HP a round. The reason it's so good is that once you clear a room of enemies you're naturally going to loot the room and continue in the dungeon, and over that time you will slowly recover HP. It probably won't heal enough to make the difference in fights, but it'll save you a fortune in healing items by healing you over time between fights.

* ShoutOut: A gnome quest-giver in the original campaign is a member of the [[VideoGame/BaldursGate turnip-loving Jansen clan]].
%%* StatisticallySpeaking

* GreyAndGrayMorality: The Charwood subquest, full stop. Do you blame the younger brother for slaughtering children, the older brother who told him to do it to become an immortal so he could protect the village, or the demon who told them they had to do it when they didn't just because [[ForTheEvulz he thought it would be funny]]? After that, do you bind all three of them and the ghosts of the villagers to be trapped in limbo, or do you release them and let them rest peacefully but in doing so let the demon that was also trapped return to Hell?

* FractionalWinningCondition: Chapter 2 of ''Hordes of the Underdark'' ends after you complete four out of five main quests presented at the start, though it is possible to complete all of them, since the final stage triggers when you speak to the seer and you don't have to return to him before you have beaten everything. Which quests you completed affects what characters appear during the ending battle.