Useable Items - Your List of Must Haves!

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Hi All,

Just a quick post to try to help spur on some ideas … What do you like to buy at a store that you believe are “must haves”, especially with respect to “adventuring consumables”? (But no “magic items” beyond basic potions and scrolls. i.e. No magic you can equip.)

E.g. Healing potions, bullets, bolts and arrows … more specific …

I’m not expecting a huge response here (perhaps none), but just made this post to help spur me along … especially if you happen to mention something I had not considered. :slight_smile:

Thanks in advance, Lance.

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Really this is quite subjective and will vary based on the type and theme of the server.

High Level/High Magic/Fast Levelling PvP Module … Folks appreciate one or two large stores catering to all their needs. After all, players just want to level up fast and whack on each other.

For other modules, you almost need to define what is essential and why?

If your module is slower leveling and scaled properly with reasonable resting restrictions if any … then potions to “buff” may not be seen as a requirement. Even “healing” supplies might become more of an “option” than a “need”.

At it’s basest level, what is “essential” means what a new character will need to play with decent odds of survival.

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healing kits

arrows (pref. magical)

crafting components

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  • Some type of fire grenade or flame weapon, because there’s always a troll around just when you least expect it.

  • Choking Powder or Thunder Stones, shut up those pesky spell casters until you get a chance to poke holes in them.

  • Anything with regeneration on it. (No resting in allowed my ***!)

  • A magic bag of some sort, a) it’s practical b) I’m OCD and like to keep my inventory ‘tidy’.

  • Ammo (too much ammo is a self-correcting problem).

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Thanks for the suggestions everyone … I am taking notes.

Vague Mode Enabled

Without wanting to give too much away, this is aiming to fulfil a specific situation … and so (in theory) , some of these potential items one normally may assume to be quite useful, may not (at this time) be as much required as others. Yet others may possibly be expanded upon, subject to the specifics of the current environment …

Reminded myself of this:

Vague Mode Off

Thanks all!, Lance.

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Hey look, somebody made a project just for you :upside_down_face:

From shops I need medkits, items +Lore and torches so I can see where I go.

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Does it work with NWN2?

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Apologies, I didn’t notice you’re a NWN2 player.

Unfortunately I cannot answer that as I only have NWN1. But in theory sorting should work as it simply takes items away and returns them back in order specified in isort_order.2da (of course, that’s the basic idea, actual execution is a bit more complex).

If you wish to try if it works in NWN2, then you’ll only need the above table, isort_include.nss and the three isort_sort*.nss scripts (run isort_sort.nss). Let me know how it went!

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If you only own NWN, you can’t know, but NWN2 has in-built inventory sorting already.

Personally, I’d choose NWN’s inventory over NWN2’s anytime though, since in NWN2 all items are just tiny square pictures looking like scrolls, regardless of whether they’re actual scrolls or a huge greataxes or whatever. I like NWN’s inventory tetris better; it’s clunky but at least you can clearly see what you’re carrying around.

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Turns out there is a sorting mod for NWN2 - https://neverwintervault.org/project/nwn2/other/gui/nwn2-inventory-sorter

I haven’t tried it yet but it might have some code of interest to you.

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Hi GCoyote,

Me too! :slight_smile:

Hopefully, you may already be familiar with my inventory system within “The Scroll”, as (if used correctly) addresses almost all the most specific inventory sorts with the usage of its dedicated bag system.

i.e. There are a number of “bags” a PC can buy (for very little, apart from one, which costs a bit more), that sort nearly every aspect of the inventory. You buy the bags you need, and after that any item found (by any party member) will be sorted to that bag. E.g. Gems and jewellery are automatically placed in the “Treasure Bag”. Keys are automatically placed in the “Key Ring”. Various craft items and essences, etal are sorted, as are crafting scrolls, etc, etc.

There are even bags you can buy that you can rename yourself for your own “collection”.

Furthermore, in a MP game, each player controls their own collection of such inventory controlled bags.

Cheers, Lance.

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In order of decreasing urgency:

Healing kits. I’m probably abusing the system but I count them in stacks of 10s and carry like 70+ healing kits, once I get my feet set in a module.

Bags. Even if I have high strength, I buy extra bags so that I can sort my items. Keys/notes/books get their own bag. Potions/scrolls, 1. Crafting items, 1. Heavy stuff (equipment), 1.

Restoration potions, cure disease/blindness/remove curse. If I have the money I’ll buy tons of them because I hate status effects that don’t go away after battle. I don’t bother to memorize spells for them cause I tend to use my spell slots for buffs & damage.

Raise dead / ressurection items. I buy ton of them too if I have money. Rods of ressurection can be used in battle for healing / instant restore on death.

Lockpicks. A few in case my rogue is not up to par.

Heal potions. Expensive, but only curative potions I find useful. The Cure Wounds series are generally beaten out by healing kits.

In NWN2, Rod of Metapreppa.

Ammo at the beginning, although I usually get enough from monster drops.

Strength belts, +4 or better. Expensive but they’re one of the first items I get. +2 is usually too small a plus to be a priority item.

Full plate / tower shield. I usually have a tank character, and the higher AC the faster the better.

Elemental enchantment on my weapons. Start with main dps, and if I have money on all my archers too.

Depending on price, I’ll buy some tactical items like bless potions and speed potions to save spell slots. I like these because they’re group potions, and reasonable duration. Single person / short duration potions are much less used for me.

Other nice to have items: amulet of natural armor (cause you often don’t have barkskin buff), brooch of shielding (shield spell for 2 handed tanks, can’t get any other way), Sun Soul boots (especially in nwn1, +AC that stacks with a lot of stuff), any item with regen or DR.

In NWN2, merchants that sell unlimited amounts of faerie dust. Cheap and you can grind it up into High Level Essences to craft with. I usually don’t sell the Essences though to make money although you could do that too as an abuse.

I don’t use that many wands or scrolls, because their caster level is too low. Scrolls are mainly used for scribing. Wands mostly for emergency, when I get into an encounter that’s become unexpectedly tough. Although magic missile is nice at the beginning when you don’t have many spell slots. Summoning is often nice too, if the spell level is high enough. Otherwise, wands just sit unused.

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I usually only craft wands with Haste or Stoneskin for defense and Isaac’s Lesser Missile Storm or Ice Storm for offense. Gives you a quick response for most surprise situations.

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Hi Everyone,

OK, I suppose I should also point out that these “stores” of “useable items” never provide any magic items beyond very basic items such as the odd potion. :wink: i.e. You cannot buy equippable magic items in my campaign, like you can in the official one. Magic items you can equip are rare and special, and not found in stores. So, my apologies to those of you who may have thought of some useable items that fall into this category. (I’ll update my original post to reflect this.)

That said, you have all provided some good reminders of some items and aspects that I am considering. The ability to have additional crafting components is one I am having to reconsider. I do agree that crafting components are very important and do normally have some presence in my stores. However, the “store” I have in mind may not have every aspect of such available … and is one of the reasons I made this post, to see how players used stores generally.

So far, posts have been helpful, so thanks for that!

Cheers, Lance.

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Well that’s a whole different kettle of fish. I’ve seen a great many badly done stores over the years. I have a pet peeve about the party walking into a “village” that has both a Walmart for Wizards and Swords-R-Us. How is the average farmer supposed to afford an Axe of the Coming Storm? How is a merchant to make a living selling magic in a fishing village? What you can buy and sell should reflect the story and the character development up to that point.

Named bits of gear should be available only under special circumstances; part of a treasure, a gift or reward from an NPC, or less often, you’ve gotten access to the royal armorer. Another clever way to introduce such items is “private collection” for “special customers” trope. That’s providing the character/party has actually done something “special”

High level gear should be rare enough to force the player to choose carefully which character gets which item.

/rant

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Hi GCoyote,

That’s my sentiments exactly! :slight_smile: That is also why I completely overhauled the economy to fit in with a more realistic view of stores in general. i.e. A potion is likely to cost a week - month wages for the average person.

If you ever play my module, you will see that there are only one or two more unusual items (a bag and something to do with essences iirc) that costs more than 100gp. There are one or two items that are similar to be considered magical, but (for my campaign) are not considered such.

If you ever have the chance to check out my module, and go to one of the village stores, let me know if you think there is anything “missing” … although, the stores I am currently working on are even more restricted. i.e. Normal stores in the village have normal weapons available, but I am not so sure these current stores will do so … cannot say more as it would be a plot spoiler. :wink:

Cheers, Lance.

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It’s on my gaming ‘to do list’ :sweat_smile:
I have seen some very well done stores. Craft alchemy for example often requires only components a layperson can gather in the environment, e.g. garlic plus belladona to make choking powder. This also makes sense economically as the locals still have to deal with rats and goblins when there are no ‘heroes’ in town. The price that the party is offered may OTOH be many times what the local herbalist charges his/her friends and relatives.
The various Dana’an modules for instance have some very interesting economic rules. +1 gear primarily reflects just the higher quality that the imperial forces could afford vs what the locals had available. It wasn’t until the PC got involved in the local black market that new possibilities opened up.

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Hi GCoyote,

Hopefully you will like/appreciate my own store choices (in The Scroll module one) made then. :slight_smile: I made every effort to make them feel normal and what could be expected - and even have potential conversations to help explain some points. :slight_smile:

Thanks, Lance.

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