A combined army of devils and demons has assaulted the heavens and the celestial host has been driven back to its stronghold. Empowered by some of the mightiest archangels and the blessed Cathedral of Light, the defenders have been able to hold their ground - but it is only a matter of time before the forces of good are overwhelmed through sheer numbers.
In desperation, the celestials have called upon legendary mortal heroes such as yourself to help turn the tide. The fate of existence itself rests on your shoulders - fail and everything will be reduced to shadow and ash.
Can you accomplish what the angels themselves could not? Can you prevail against the forces of darkness? Can you lift the siege of the heavens?
----------------------------------------
Features the UpdateHP system designed for the module that displays health percentages and allows greatly expanded health pools for monsters. The system can be installed in any module within a few minutes if desired, see its Vault page for details: Link
----------------------------------------
Player Review:
"This was my favorite of the submissions, despite the fact that it does some things that in theory I strongly disapprove of. Magical Master has altered some of the normal rules, provided special equipment carefully designed with a thought to play balance, and in general crafted a version of NWN much more console-gamish (or perhaps I should say MMOish, since he mentions being a WoW player) than the standard sort of NWN game. My own approach tends to be more old-school D&Dish, where combat challenge can often be as much a matter of strategically managing resources over a series of encounters as it is about the difficulty of any single enemy, and so I would normally regard some of the things he does, like providing basically unlimited healing and rest, as anathema.
However, I have to admit that these things actually work within the context of the very different style of gameplay he has fashioned, and he has managed to present me with something I encounter all too rarely in NWN modules: combat that has some real tactical depth and is a serious challenge. For that I am prepared to forgive him a multitude of offenses.
This module centers around 5 difficult boss-fights. Each boss has special scripted powers that the player will not survive unless he can figure out the trick to doing so. In many cases, this same power also has some associated downside for the boss that is actually the key to winning the fight if the player can figure it out. The battles thus require thought, and usually require precise play to survive even after one has figured out the trick to doing so. It was an entertaining experience for someone who likes tactical combat, and the moments when I realized how I could turn the tables in what initially appeared to be completely hopeless situations were very gratifying."
- rogueknight333
----------------------------------------
Siege of the Heavens is a Neverwinter Nights module designed for a level 40 character. You do not need a level 40 character in your vault, however - you will be leveled up as needed if you join as a lower level character (and there's also a level 40 character included if you aren't comfortable building one, a dwarf fighter). Good or neutral alignments probably make more sense, but as long as your character doesn't desire the end of everything, any alignment should work. The module was designed for and tested with the "D&D Hardcore Rules" difficulty setting.
Unfortunately, there is an item strip - I simply cannot balance when I do not know whether players will have +1 clubs or +20 vorpal longswords. Replacement gear is provided, however. Your character will not be naked or wearing +1 items. See the mechanical changes section in the ReadMe for more information on, well, mechanical changes (module should be playable without reading that section, it is just there if you want to perfectly fine-tune your character).
The adventure itself is primarily action - the story is linear and there are few "roleplay" opportunities. The focus is on engaging bosses with unique scripted mechanics - you will need to figure out how to defeat each boss. This is NOT traditional "hack'n'slash" gameplay where you wade through hours of boring and identical foes with slightly more hit points and damage each time.
You may die a few (or many) times while attempting a boss, but do not worry - the boss will simply reset and you can respawn. The only penalty is a small amount of time to run back. Boss abilities have a shout, emote, and/or visual to indicate what is occurring, so pay attention to these to figure out why you died.
If you want more detailed information, a list of the bosses and their abilities is provided in the ReadMe(spoilers, obviously).
----------------------------------------
Unfortunately, due to the time constraints of the Adventure Building Challenge, you only have half of the final module at the moment (roughly three hours of play). Once you finish the available content, you will receive an item called Lilanthria's Hope. Hang onto this, because once the second half of the module is finished you'll be able to use Lilanthria's Hope to skip the first half of the module if you play as a character who possesses it.
- Mestil's Acid Sheath now reflects damage again (and slightly more than Elemental Shield used to)
- Elemental Shield now only grants protection from boss abilities
- Some minor bug fixes and other behind the scenes work
- Simplified bardic damage reduction (see ReadMe)
Word of warning: the current "final" boss (encounter with three enemies) is more difficult than intended for wizards/sorcerers and has a bug that can happen very rarely (bug isn't crippling, just annoying). Working on fixing some stuff for sorcerer/wizard specifically to improve that and other things along with fixing the annoying bug.
Glad you enjoyed the adventure - even if you felt like challenging the computer to kickboxing :)
Nice to hear you appreciated the weapon/shield adjustments - in my experience, most modules/worlds have things drastically skewed to favor 1H and shield, particularly the higher magic ones, for a number of reasons. Hopefully this made all three playstyles seem viable.
Regarding the other immunities - that is an unfortunate side effect of the default rules. I set up saves so that if you had maximized your casting stat and had Epic Spell Focus, the mobs would only save on a natural 20, which encourages damage casters. Unfortunately, this also leaves the mobs incredibly vulnerable to control spells - stunned/slowed/rooted/etc for the entire fight. The standard "trash" mobs were vulnerable to this, but the "elite" mobs and the bosses were immune - being able to cast Bigby's Clenched Fist once and have the mob stunned for four minutes seemed...problematic (and Bigby's Crushing Hand is even worse!).
In essence, I had to screw over casters using damaging spells (ranging from Fireball to Hammer of the Gods to Horrid Wilting), make mobs immune to the insanely powerful control effects, or rewrite much of the spell system. I didn't have time due to the one month constraint to rewrite the whole system, so I decided that bosses probably didn't need to be rendered completely helpless.
Thanks for the vote and comments!
Posted by Terrorble at 2013-03-13 12:41:46 Voted 9.50 on 03/13/13
This module is worth playing for the creativity and quality of the scripted powers alone... and if you like a challenge that makes you maybe yell at your computer a few times, it's good for that too ;)
From initial download to completion, I spent about 4-5 hours.
Be ready to fight and do not get comfortable, I had nearly beaten several bosses and ended up losing several times.
I was pleasantly surprised to see your approach to a few balancing issues:
Adjusting weapon/shield bonuses to improve the viability of double weapons and 2-handers, and allowing all NPCs to be crit-able and vulnerable to sneak attacks.
I've played several mods where the high end bosses are all immune to sneaks, crits, with AC through the roof, perma-ts, ridiculous DR, etc. It ruins the point of being a sneak, or a WM, or using anything but a few certain spells, and annoys me.
While you still used this approach for many other immunities, I was far too enthralled with what the monsters were doing and desperately trying to stay alive to be bothered. i.e. it's fun
- Selenoth the Hungerer is a potentially less depressing encounter
- Adjusted tuning slightly on Selenoth the Hungerer
Posted by rogueknight333 at 2013-03-07 22:57:38 Voted 9.50 on 03/07/13
A fellow participant in the ABC challenge, Magical Master has made something all too rare among NWN modules: an adventure for very high-level characters that actually challenges them. In the interest of play-balance, he has altered some of the normal rules and provided a carefully designed set of equipment, so players should be sure to read the documentation and be prepared to spend a little time getting used to some of the new procedures. In the process of these alterations he has made a module whose gameplay is a bit more console-gamish or MMOish than I would normally like, but it is well-designed if one accepts as a given that one will be dealing with a different style of play from what one may be used to. It does not offer much in the way of story or role-playing or even opportunities for using skills, but that is "as advertised."
This module centers around a series of difficult boss-fights. The battles require figuring out techniques for surviving the special scripted powers the various bosses throw at one, and will require precise play even after this is done. Often, however, these same powers will also have some associated downside for the boss that is actually the key to winning the fight if the player can figure out a means to exploit it. It was an entertaining experience for someone who likes tactical combat, and the moments when I realized how I could turn the tables in what initially appeared to be completely hopeless situations were very gratifying.
- Some screenshots on this page
- Retuned Selenoth the Hungerer (third boss). She should be about the same difficulty for high damage characters and significantly easier for lower damage characters.
- Added boss strategies in ReadMe
- Added some missing item descriptions
- Scripted some monk bonuses (described in ReadMe)
I don't usually seek out hack n' slash mods since it's not my genre though I like the sound of not having to "wade through boring repetitive battles" and scripted boss battles sounds awesome.
A tip from one author to another is that you should feature a ton of screenshots. It'll draw in a lot more players that way (me included)! ;D _________________________ /// Berra (Hall of Fame, Reviewer's Award and Golden Dragon Winner):
Site
at 2013-03-18 15:57:44
at 2013-03-13 12:41:46
at 2013-03-07 22:57:38
