Neverwinter Nights 2 - Storm of Zehir - Walkthrough Part 1

Neverwinter Nights 2 - Storm of Zehir - Walkthrough Part 1 - Samarach

This is one of a series of walkthroughs/hints for Neverwinter Nights 2 (Storm of Zehir). Click here for a listing of all our guides for Neverwinter Nights 2 and Expansions.

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General
Much of Storm of Zehir is very straightforward, so there is little that needs to be noted for a walkthrough.

• Any time you discover a location on the map, you get 100 xp. You may not get this award if someone tells you where it is and marks it on the map -- including quest-givers, although often (but not always) the quest-giver has to give you the location and you cannot find it on your own.
• You can move party members around while you are in dialogue.
• In this way, if you are anticipating a fight, you can pre-maneuver your party into tactically sound positions.
• If you move them too far or if you use a power, you will abort dialogue.
• To select the character to move, select their portrait in the dialogue window.

Omgar's Teeth - Shipwreck

• If you finish this area without any of the ship's NPC crew dying, you get the history feat "Protector".
• If you go out of earshot of Volo's negotiations, you might break the script and the batiri won't transition to hostile. In that case, just advance past Volo and wait to provoke the batiri into attacking. Your Journal entry may not update properly and move to Finished Quests, however.
• The debris piles give different items depending on what skills you use and when you use them:
• Healer's Kit +1, [Heal] Healer's Kit +3, [Craft Weapon] Sling and 32 Bullets
• Two of: Bottle (up to 2), [Lore] Potion of Cure Light Wounds x3, [Spot 1st attempt] Scroll of Fireball, [Spot 2nd attempt] Short Sword
• Two of: Healer's Kit +1, AND Healer's Kit +1 or [Craft Weapon] Sling and 32 Bullets
• Three items: Ship's Plank (up to 3), [Survival] Spear, [Search] Wand of Missiles (if you Searched as your very first action) or Large Shield (if you searched as your second action)
• Three of: Healer's Kit +1 x2, AND Healer's Kit +1 or [Craft Weapon] Sling and 32 Bullets
• Three of: Bottle (up to 3), [Spot 1st and 2nd attempts] Scroll of Fireball, [Spot 3rd attempt] Short Sword.
• Shrubs: [Craft Alchemy] Potion of Cure Light Wounds, [Heal] Healer's Kit +1
• Notice Luarie doesn't move to attack the Batiri when they become hostile.

Overland Encounters

• In general, the EL (Encounter Level) listed is only a very vague guideline. Some encounters (like Ghouls, which can paralyze) are much harder than the challenge level indicates. Other encounters (like ECL 17 Megaraptors) can be fairly easy because there are only two creatures, and they start too far to detect the party (allowing you to safely buff), and they can be drawn out to fight one at a time.
• EL5 Samarachan Patrol
• If you don't want to fight one, you can try joining in when they are already in battle. Sometimes they will drop light armor that has no Arcane Spell Failure.
• Wild Elf Hunters
• If you ask them about locations, they will reveal one -- But you will then not get the 100xp for discovering a location yourself.
• One of Many
• The Negative Auras you can get for evil characters are not the same as the ones from Mask of the Betrayer -- These do not have any drawbacks.
• There are only 11 cohorts in the game, so to get the highest bonus, you need to sacrifice them all. When you do, you get 250xp per level of the cohort.
• If you can kill it (extremely hard at a low level -- fear aura and big Sneak Attacks on fleeing characters), you can get The Imarskarcana.
• Bounties: Kwesi in Samargol and Nils in the Lantanese Lumber Camp buy bounty items (and give much better prices than at a store). Their one-time special bounties pay even higher prices for specific quantities of items:
• Kwesi
• 8 Giant Spider Venom Sacs
• 10 Boar Teeth
• 7 Dinosaur Claws
• Nils
• 13 Giant Spider Venom Sacs
• 8 Stag Beetle Shells
• 10 Dinosaur Claws
• 5 Will-O'-Wisp Glamers
• 2 Wyvern Stingers

Nimbre

• Get the unofficial patch to fix two bugs:
• The Loremaster cannot be outed as a yuan-ti spy.
• If you have already spoken to the Loremaster, you can talk to him again, but you will need to use the console to give yourself the required item to update the Journal: g_yuanti_scroll
• The dirt mound in the boar pen cannot be found.

Samargol

• Crafting Stations - You can safely rest inside this building.
• Osi Tchaluka
• If you trade in a total of 101+ Trade Bars for gold, he he gives you a Ring of Minor Fire Resistance and you get XP.
• Since all the trading towns in Samarach have the same prices, you can't make any Trade Bars off them except by finding trade goods on the Overland Map for sale.
• Inshula
• Human Rangers and characters with Use Magic Device can benefit in the early game from her Inshula's Preyhunter, which has a nice +1d8 Piercing Damage bonus.

Ruined Temple

• In the final area, there are lots of yuan-ti, but they need to come down the main passage. The AI cannot always path-find then another creature is already moving through a door, so it can be quite easy to lure the yuan-ti down one at a time. Also creatures usually don't know how to open or bash doors, so you can shut doors to give yourself time and cut off reinforcements.
• The door to the treasure room has a hard lock and dangerous trap. You can try safely "bashing" it from a distance with spells or ranged weapons.
  

Shattered Spear Tribe

• Vadin'ya will send you here for the Flawless Gem. If you do their quest for it and recover the Shattered Spear, you get 1600xp and the tribe can no longer be made hostile. If you instead attack them, you get the Bane of the Batiri history feat. The benefit is weak by the time you get it (Batiri overland encounters are always Intimidated) but it is unique whereas 1600xp can be made up with a few overland encounters.
• You can pickpocket one Flawless Gem without closing off any dialog options. You will still get a Flawless Gem when you kill the boss here, but Vadin'ya will accept only one gem and give you the reward once only.

Stone Knives Tribe

• You get XP if you let them go. The Chieftain, however, has the Shard of the Samarlogh, which inflicts rare Positive Energy Damage (only 1d4, however).

Underdark Black Market

• Make sure you are finished with the quests here (one of Vadin'ya, another for one of the illithids) before freeing Chir Darkflame.
• You can unlock the chest (and get XP for doing it) without provoking the Illithids. Opening it will provoke them.

Viper Temple

• You cannot enter or pass this area initially. However, encounters still spawn behind the temple, including EL 17 Fell Trolls and Megaraptors. You can fight these by clicking on them. Even though they are behind the Temple, the encounter can still trigger.