The only reason I'm so far ahead of you is because I'm off this week (gotta burn some furlough days) and can spend several hours during the night playing. I'll slow down once I'm back at work next week.

I was waiting for someone to make the connection with the name. Once you say it out loud, it makes perfect sense. And Spike, I've paid in countless ways. [Image Can Not Be Found]

As a Ranger, I have access to some spells, but it's so tedious to use them, not to mention just getting to them, that I've opted to melee my way through and try to always have a caster with me and let them do their own thing. Elaneeeeee, the Druid, casts a mean Entanglement. She also casts some other stuff that I've yet to figure out. Unfortunately, she's almost useless when she shape-shifts into some other form but I don't want to mess with her behaviour too much so I just let her do whatever the hell she wants. Needless, the tiefling, is pretty good at disarming traps and we've only come up against one chest that she couldn't open. I've yet to figure out how to bash them open. The manual says there's a way, but I must have misunderstood because I can't even get the menu for it. [Image Can Not Be Found] Ironfist the Monk wanna-be will sometimes just stand there while the battle rages. I'm not sure what all he wants/needs to be inspired to join the fray.

But we're in the City now, so we'll sally forth!

I'm sure I've right-clicked and not gotten the option to bash; however, I shall try again… tomorrow.

Be sure that whatever you're wielding you have points in that particular skill otherwise, you will do no damage. I originally carried two long swords and found I did much better with one long sword and a kukuri (I think) in my off hand. That's when I actually started to do some decent damage.

Conversations: you should get the talk bubble when your mouse hovers over them, left click once should bring up the dialogue box… unless they're unimportant at which point they're utter something inconsequential and continue on their way.

Yes, battle buddies have independent AI (some of it may be stupid, but they have it). Open the character sheet (C) and click the Behaviour tab. There's a whole boat load of stuff that you can turn off and on. I've left most of it as is. Also, when you have companions make sure they're actually equipped with a weapon. I did most of the tutorial with one of them beating people up with their bare hands because I assumed they were already equipped. [Image Can Not Be Found]

I found Uncle Duncan. He's Irish. [Image Can Not Be Found]

Deekin! Remember Deekin the little bard kobold? He's a merchant in Neverwinter and the conversation with him is hilarious. I'm glad it's funny 'cause I'll have to repeat it next time as the game locked up while leaving the Temple of Tyr. Freakin' bug-riddled piece of crap. It's a good thing it's decent to play. Of course, I hadn't saved since entering the Merchant Quarter so I'll have to repeat all that I've done.

Save early, save often.

Ironfist is a little on the slow side. Understanding the trials for him to become a monk just went right over his statue-challenged head. It was highly amusing.

I've been 50/50 with recommended skills/feats: I manually assign points for Karma; everyone else gets the recommended 'cause there's just too many to choose.

The Harvest Cup is for healing? Who knew?! I guess I should actually look at what I'm carrying around.

I miss the radial menus.

If only it were a drop-down menu! It's simply a lot of clicking to bring up dialogue boxes with either check boxes or radio buttons. It's kludgey at best. At worst, it's downright stupid. What the hell was Obsidian thinking? Oh wait, they're the devs that routinely take a franchise and f*ck it up. I forgot. [Image Can Not Be Found]

I can talk to my companions! As long as we're in Duncan's tavern, the Splendiferous Flagon. Once there, you can ask all manner of questions.

Apparently, Needless the tiefling isn't loved by her former partner thief, so we've have a number of encounters in Neverwinter. I find it hilarious that as we're all standing around after killing bandits and people just wander by completely ignoring us.

We're currently locked in the Tomb of the Betrayers looking for a lost priest. Have found an interesting puzzle: locked chest on the other side of the room. In order to get to the other side, have to run a gauntlet of two fireball hurling statues. There's a lever that moves a stone plinth to block the fireballs. Now I just have to figure out how to peel off the thief to walk with the moving plinth while the others stay with me and work the lever.

Note to self: shadows are damned tough to kill

I didn't equip Shorty D's axe until just before we got to Highcliff, that's when I discovered none of your companions will self-equip when they join… which is beyond stupid.

I loved Tomi! Except for the fact that he'd run off and engage critters far above his station in life and end up as smear on the floor. I like Needless, especially her interatctions with Shorty D and the you've-not-yet-met tree-hugging Druid, Elaneeeeeeeee.

Figured out how to peel off one party member: Right-click and hold brings up yet another sub-menu (it's like a f*cking cliched Chinese restaurant menu there's so many sub-menus) where you can broadcast commands, including things like "stand your ground."

I've switched some of the spells that the Druid has access to and with her default behaviours she'll cast them as needed, including heal. Now I just gotta tweak her behaviour to keep her from transmogrifying into animals as once she does that she's pretty much useless as a combatant.

Found the wandering priest holed up in the back of the tombs. Guess who's controlling all the undead? Our former friend and famed traitor of Neverwinter: Fenthick (I'm sure we had a better name for him, but I can't remember what it was. Alas, that entire thread is lost to the ether) I kept getting my ass handed to me by those accursed shadows. I've not yet gone up against Fenthick as I need to clean out the rest of the tomb area. I hates ghouls and shadows.

Despite fighting the non-intuitive interface (and the fact that I hate having to read this ginormous manual in detail to figure some things out) this is a fun game!