Loading screen tips

These are the tips from the loading screens. Most are official campaign specific.

Note for modders: The loadhints.2da file doesn't affect which strings are chosen. nwn2_tips.2da does however - it needs to be overridden entirely to remove campaign-specific ones however, since there is no column for making a module related only to an official campaign.

Tips

• TIP: Spells, skills, and even item abilities can be dragged to the quickbar for easy access. Each character has 120 quickbar slots, so don't be stingy!
• TIP: Trolls cannot be fully defeated without the use of acid or fire. When they go down, finish them off quickly. Any source of acid or fire damage should do the trick.
• TIP: Once a target has been selected, any valid action will automatically use that target. Select a new target or right click on open ground to clear the current target.
• TIP: Some enemies will resist forms of elemental damage or may require special weapon materials to defeat. If your attacks don't seem to be having an effect, try something different.
• TIP: With the right ingredients, craft skills allow characters to create goodies ranging from deadly poisons and alchemist's fire to adamantine weapons and enchanted armor. Characters can craft items at workbenches.
• TIP: Undead, constructs, and oozes are all immune to critical hits and sneak attacks. Thankfully, Obsidian's OozeTree technology is still a few years off, so you only have to worry about the other two.
• TIP: Checking the box for Spontaneous Conversion in the Quick Cast menu will allow good and neutral clerics to convert their spells to cure wounds spells, evil clerics to convert their spells to inflict wounds, and druids to convert their spells to summon creature spells.
• TIP: In Dungeons & Dragons v3.5, bards and warlocks can wear light armor without fear of suffering arcane spell failure penalty. It's a chain shirt free-for-all!
• TIP: When selecting weapons, pay attention to critical hit properties. Many weapons that do inferior base damage do more damage on critical hits or will score critical hits more often.
• TIP: If you don't want to directly control your companions, you can still issue general orders to them through the Broadcast Commands option in the Dropdown menu.
• TIP: Many combat abilities like power attack, rapid shot, and defensive casting are activated by the mode buttons in the lower-right corner of your screen.
• TIP: Cast spells on blank scrolls, bone wands, and potion bottles to create magical scrolls, wands and potions. All a character needs are some gold and the appropriate feat (scribe scroll, craft wand, or brew potion).
• TIP: Bards can have one inspiration active at any time. Check your Mode Bar to pick one that's right for the situation.
• TIP: Level up your characters through the character screen (C) when they have enough experience.
• TIP: Having a rogue in the party can be helpful for dealing with locks and traps.
• TIP: Use the space bar to pause the game and set up an attack plan. Pause the game and give orders often in battle to get the most out of your companions.
• TIP: A high Lore skill will automatically identify items when they enter your inventory.
• TIP: The "F" key will display the quick spell menu.
• TIP: Hit the "G" key to toggle the Mode Bar on or off.
• TIP: Planning out what abilities you are going to take at each level will help ensure you will be able to become the prestige class you want.
• TIP: Try using the toolset to create adventures of your own to share with your friends!
• TIP: Completing side quests may allow your companions to level up in different ways.
• TIP: Be mindful of the choices you make when interacting with other characters; straying too far from certain alignments may prevent you from gaining levels in certain classes.
• TIP: Some subraces level more slowly, but have powerful special abilities, such as spell resistance, that make up for it.
• TIP: It's usually a good idea to purchase some ranks of the "conversation" skills (Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidate). Certain situations can be made easier or avoided entirely by talking your way through or out of them.
• TIP: Some character classes are better than others for multi-classing. Many of the abilities that monks receive, for instance, are only fully realized if the player concentrates on being a monk exclusively.
• TIP: Companions have opinions and feelings, too. Their loyalty and your influence with them depend on how you treat them, how you solve quests, and even how you treat other people you meet in the game.
• TIP: Check out the requirements for prestige classes when creating your character to get a feel for your character's overall class direction.
• TIP: Make sure to keep your spell book full at all times!
• TIP: Puppet Mode is a companion behavior mode available for advanced players who do not want their companions to engage in combat or use items or spells on their own. Companions set to Puppet Mode will only follow the player when out of combat. Puppet Mode is accessible in the Behavior Tab on the Character Sheet.
• TIP: Save early, save often.
• TIP: Metamagic feats can make lower level spells even more powerful than higher level spells.
• TIP: You can alter the camera mode by hitting the asterisk (*) key on the number pad.
• TIP: When in doubt, check your journal.
• TIP: Save your game frequently, and in different slots.
• TIP: Never underestimate the power of a well placed low level spell.
• TIP: In conjunction with Defensive Casting mode, the Concentration skill helps a magic user avoid Attacks of Opportunity when casting in combat.
• TIP: You can loot anything that is right next to your currently controlled character while the game is paused.
• TIP: Hitting the "F12" key on your keyboard will create a "Quicksave". If you hit "F12" again, it will overwrite any Quicksave you already had.
• TIP: Talk to everyone after you finish a quest; they might have something new to say!
• TIP: Left on their own, companions will do their best to meet the needs of any situation. To fine tune a companion's behavior, bring up his or her character sheet and access the behavior tab.
• TIP: When a barbarian's rage ends, he or she will be temporarily fatigued. During this time, the barbarian will suffer penalties to his or her physical abilities and movement.
• TIP: Though any character can use Tracking mode to locate hostile humans, animals, and vermin on the area's mini-map, characters with the Track feat can detect all sorts of hostile creatures.
• TIP: Ranger and druid animal companions cannot be directly controlled, but can be commanded. Wizard and sorcerer familiars can be directly controlled, but are very vulnerable in combat.
• TIP: Characters reduced to 0 hit points are knocked unconscious and will wake up at the end of the battle, badly wounded but alive. However, if all members of the party become incapacitated, the game is over and you will need to reload from an earlier save.

Campaign Specific

• LORE: Neverwinter is a prominent Sword Coast city, but it is dwarfed by the City of Splendors, Waterdeep. The great metropolis links the cultures of the Inner Sea, the Spine of the World, the Trackless Sea, and the Empires of the Sand in an unparalleled trade network. Outside forces continually attempt to gain a portion of Waterdeep's power, but the Masked Lords of the city rebuke all such conspirators.
• LORE: Neverwinter occupies a prominent position on the northwestern Sword Coast of Faerûn. To the north lie Luskan, the Silver Marches, the Spine of the World, and Icewind Dale. To the south are Waterdeep and Baldur's Gate. Much farther south are the nations of Calimshan and Amn.
• LORE: The githyanki and githzerai races have been opposed for centuries. The conflict was originally sparked over an argument between Gith and Zerthimon about how to deal with their common enemies, the illithid. The races' endless planar battles often carry over into unsuspecting worlds like Abeir-Toril.
• LORE: Though Faerûnian elves and dwarves had been in a slow decline for decades, recent events have reversed this trend. The elven Retreat has ended, resulting in the return of many to the Faerûnian continent and the cessation of migration to Evermeet. The Year of Thunder produced an astounding number of dwarf children and a subsequent invigoration of dwarven society.
• LORE: The city of Luskan was formerly ruled by five High Captains, all former pirates. A recent civil war killed or displaced all five. However, the Arcane Brotherhood still effectively rules the city.
• LORE: The moon of Abeir-Toril is named after the goddess Selûne. The glittering asteroids that trail behind the moon are known as the Tears of Selûne. Selûne is one of the most ancient goddesses of Abeir-Toril and is continually at war with her dark sister, Shar.
• LORE: Despite the great wealth of their home nation in the southwest corner of Faerûn, the Shadow Thieves of Amn have an enormous network of operatives all along the Sword Coast. They meddle in politics everywhere and are a constant thorn in the side of almost every large city.
• LORE: The most fearful power of the legendary silver swords of the githyanki is their ability to sever the silver cords of astral travelers, killing them instantly.
• LORE: Though the Illefarn Empire fell long ago, remnants of their ruins can be seen in many places along the northern Sword Coast. Many people have built upon Illefarn sites without realizing it. Adventurers occasionally find and activate ancient song portals of the empire, opening gateways to forgotten places.
• LORE: Lizardfolk are an ancient race in Faerûn, though their primitive nature has forced their race to continually retreat and lose territory from more powerful humanoids. Most lizardfolk tribes are content to thrive in the dank swamps where other races refuse to settle.
• LORE: Lord Nasher is protected by an elite cadre of bodyguards known as the Neverwinter Nine. These powerful warriors are dedicated to the defense of Nasher and the city of Neverwinter. They can be recognized by their distinctive blue outfits emblazoned with a fearsome eye.
• LORE: The dark elves of Abeir-Toril were originally the dark-skinned Ilythiir tribe. Their savage, brutal tactics during the three millenia-long Crown Wars caused the other elven kingdoms to expel them from the light of day, driving them underground.
• LORE: In Faerûn, all druids and rangers must follow a patron deity to receive spells. Not all deities allow druid and ranger followers, but there are some among every race.
• LORE: Though trade is brisk along the Sword Coast, the Sea of Fallen Stars fosters a huge trade economy far to the east and south. In addition to supporting nations as diverse as Cormyr and Thay, the sea links to the northern Moonsea through the Dragon Reach.
• LORE: Free mercantile city-states are the norm in the upper reaches of the Sword Coast. In the Old Empires at the eastern edge of Faerûn, things work much differently. Some of the oldest and largest nations, like Thay and Mulhorand, rely heavily on slave labor, though others strongly oppose it.
• LORE: Hundreds of miles to the east of Neverwinter, the great desert of Anauroch sits as an eternal reminder of the fall of the ancient Netherese Empire. Netheril fell as a result of a magical experiment gone terribly wrong, but the desert itself was created through the lifedrain dweomers of the phaerimm.
• LORE: To the south of Neverwinter, in the Trackless Sea, sits the archipelago known as the Moonshae Isles. Previously divided by petty wars and squabbles, the Northlander settlers and Ffolk natives were united under the High King Tristan Kendrick. His daughter, the High Queen Alicia, now rules the kingdom.
• LORE: In the eldest, untouched places of the world, the land itself is alive with spirits, who are sometimes revered as minor gods. One such place is distant Rashemen, where spirits take the form of long-dead beasts and guardians, such as the fearsome bear king, Okku, and the legendary Wood Man.
• LORE: Though rarely seen along the Sword Coast, hags are quite common in the distant wilds of Rashemen, where they frequently seduce (and later devour) unlucky men. Male children of these unions are the twisted hagspawn, renowned for their physical strength and their uncanny resistance to magic.
• LORE: When a god dies, its corpse drifts eternally in the empty void of the Astral Plane. Often, these corpses become the home of living creatures, such as the githyanki. Some dead gods are truly ancient, born in the primal beginnings of the universe and long forgotten by mortals and deities, alike.
• LORE: In the days when Netheril and Illefarn dominated northwestern Faerûn, the ancient empire of Imaskar flourished in the east. Its people were renowned as builders and artificers, constructing portal networks to other planes and alien worlds. Some of these portals are still thought to exist, kept secret by a reclusive fellowship of Red Wizards.
• LORE: Mortals who refuse to worship any god, or who only give lip service to the gods, are known as the Faithless. When Faithless die, their souls are imprisoned in the living wall that surrounds the City of Judgment, on the Fugue Plane. These souls are doomed - in time, they will be dissolved into the very substance of the Wall.
• LORE: Two children were once buried under the city watch in the Merchant Quarter of Neverwinter, their invisible ghosts eternally locked in an endless game of tag. Superstitious folk said that those who encountered the ghosts were quickly paralyzed by fright. In 1362, an adventuring company led by Francis the All-Seeing banished the ghosts and exhumed the bodies for sanctified burial. To this day, no one knows from where the children came nor how they came to rest under the city watch.