New player guide

Under reconstruction

Note: This page is copy of Arelith Player Reference Guide and needs rewriting. Less information and more links to relevant information on other pages.

The place to currently look for more compact information is players' handbook on Arelith webpage

New player guide

Arelith guide for new players is intended to provide basic introduction, answers to most common questions and links to other articles that may interest you.

Please, refer to this article first for any questions. If you can not find your answer here, then try the search function. You can also ask on Arelith forums or Arelith chat.

New to NWN

For players completely unfamiliar with the game, it can be beneficial to play first the Prelude of NWN Single Player campaign. It will give the basic ideas about controls and game mechanics without need to read the manual. Just remember that the Prelude is not really "in character". (They talk about what keys to push on keyboard and such.)

Playing the whole main campaign itself may hurts more than help before playing Arelith. The campaign was made so more or less anyone could beat it (knowledgeable of builds or otherwise), so they tossed a lot of high-magic items at players to more or less make it so characters couldn't die.

Someone coming from the main campaign into Arelith has pretty much the opposite. The tools they've got at their disposal are teamwork (instead of just overpowered team mates) and skill (instead of overpowered items).

It is better to get after prelude online and learn more gradually by discovering things in character. It is not advised to fight until characters know what they are up against. In real life is also better to proceed with caution and not risk own health and life trying to beat everything around.

New to online gaming

The game is no longer focus around single player who can do whatever they want. There are rules in online communities that needs to be uphold to make the experience enjoyable to all involved. Use Arelith forums, Arelith chat or contact DMs if you run in any serious problems or obscurities.

New to Arelith

It is highly recommended to start the first character on surface. There are more hints and guidelines for new players, more characters that are friendly and willing to assist new arriving characters in character (IC). This allows new players to get familiar with the Arelith mechanics and possibilities in friendly IC environment while roleplaying.

The Underdark is harsher environment, where are many friendly players out of character (OOC), but life there in character is much harder.

Tips by Fire Boar:

• RP with folks! Then you get an RP bonus and start levelling up all by yourself, without killing anything.
• Don't kill non-hostile creatures in front of others (PCs and NPCs), don't attack NPCs and only attack non-hostile creatures if it's in character to do so.
• Complete the Speedy Messenger Delivery quest to get to level 3 if you play surface race. If you started on Underdark then look around for important NPC of your race, speak to it and read carefully all that they have to tell you.
• Be tactical. Cautiously pick off the mobs slowly, and at low levels ranged weapons are a must.
• Party up with people. You actually earn sub-par XP alone. Take a party of 4 people of a similar level along and you'll all get better XP, have more fun roleplaying and find it easier. Anything more than 4 people and the XP starts to suffer again.
• NWN is not anything like WoW. Especially so on Arelith. The "Good XP" stuff is challenging. In early levels, that means everything. In later levels, there will be easy stuff, but they will offer a mere 1 XP per kill.
• The mobs on the server are geared toward groups. The things that eat you alive when you're alone are a breeze if you travel with 3-4 other people. It's all about encouraging and perpetuating roleplay.
• Take bandage rolls or healer's kits along. They're very inexpensive, and if you search the player-owned shops you can sometimes find packs of 10 at bargain prices. At low levels, a +1 healing kit is enough to heal you all the way, especially if you've invested points into the Heal skill. Even if you don't though, healing kits tend to be better than healing potions because potions give your opponents an Attack of Opportunity.

Character Creation

There are articles for New Character, Making your first Drow, plus explanations on making a proper subrace on pages for each subrace.

Races, Subraces and Character Creation

Arelith features a number of races and subraces, a guide to which can be found Here. There are a few things to note when creating a character for Arelith:

• Don't use the subrace option. If you wish to have a subrace, simply select the appropriate base race and upon entering the server you'll have the option to then select a subrace that corresponds with your race and RPRating.
• Don't create a character that you can't find on that subrace list, or don't have the appropriate RPRating to create. Your invisible-winged half-balor will meet a quick end if a DM spots you. Rather than focus on making your character unique through what he is, focus on what he does. Memorable characters are memorable for what they do, not what their subrace box happens to say.
• Unique features such as wings or tails are illegal, barring a 5% Roll, and horns off-limits without a 5% roll or possessing a 30 RPRating in the creation of a Tiefling.

Selecting a Class

Main article: Classes

You are welcome to play any class and alignment available to you upon character creation, but you are also expected to roleplay that class and alignment as well. Every character class has a place on Arelith, but don't expect your RPRating to rise if you take a class for purely mechanical reasons. Once your character gains some levels, prestige classes will be available to you, but only if you have the corresponding RPRating needed to access them. All prestige classes require DM permission before they are acquired, so if you have any questions, a DM could answer them for you.

For details about changes to classes and prestige classes follow this link.

Choosing a Subrace

Main article: Subrace

When your character arrives in the entry way to the Arelith world, you'll see a few signs, a pair of mirrors, a doorway, and a lever. Wait for a few minutes and don't do anything. A dialogue box should pop up asking you about your character's subrace and background. If this dialogue box doesn't show up, pull the lever once and only once. Do not pull the lever for any other reason, and do not pull it more than once. There are mechanical requirements, such as alignment, race and RPRating, for most subraces, so check the subrace page if you want to know more detail about what options are available to you as a new player.

The Mark of Destiny

After selecting a subrace, you will be asked if you want the Mark of Destiny. This is entirely optional, as it raises your RPRating automatically, but also gives your character a limited number of lives at his or her disposal. See the Mark of Destiny page for more detail.

Selecting a Background

After selecting a subrace, you will be given the option to select a background for your character. Backgrounds give small mechanical bonuses based on your character's history and personality. This is entirely optional, as you will also have the choice to ignore this and select no background for your character.

Outfit Customization

Main article: Customization

Upon character creation, you should see a pair of Mirrors in the entry area. Using these you can change the style and color of your character's outfit. You may also use the Radial Menu Crafting System to perform the same functions as a distorted mirror. More of these mirrors can be found in various places throughout the island, be it in public places like the Rosewind or private places like certain Quarters. Every outfit can be customized, including armor, cloaks and helms created by other players.

Walking

As Arelith is a roleplaying world, you will be expected to roleplay as much of your character's actions as possible. This includes walking, rather than running. Try to imagine your character as a real being. Is a dwarf in full plate really going to last very long running around at full speed in the full heat of the day? You have several ways to set your character to walk:

• Hold down the shift key while you walk
• Go into detect mode (doesn't work for elves)
• Setup a "walk" key in your keyboard options. (It's suggested to do this anyway, specifically to get rid of the "rest" [r] hotkey. It will save some embarrassing situations)

Other Scripted Quests

There are very few scripted quests on the server, beyond the starter quest given to all new characters. Besides that, they are few and far between, an example would be turning in "Head of a Leader" items to the respective authorities for the bounty. Rather than scripted quests, the server focuses on a dynamic, player-run world. If you wish to take part in a quest, you have the freedom to do whatever you want to make it happen, as long as your actions fall within the server's Rules and aren't a detriment to the server as a whole. In other words, don't wait for mechanics or DM interaction if you get bored; instead, create something for yourself and others to do.

Gathering a Party

Arelith is blessed with a wonderful system which allows you to win a greater amount of experience by killing enemies in group, rather than spliting the points between the party.

Gathering parties isn't only fun for mechanical reasons, a party with good role-players will provide a remarkable adventure. Low level characters are strongly recomended to party, since dungeons are often very difficult. Do not expect to have your third level rogue clear the entire first dungeon alone, as would be expected in most other RPGs. RP is not built alone. The interaction between players is what make Arelith unique. Think twice before attempting to clear a dungeon by yourself and claim all the riches for your personal hoard. The key to Arelith is to enrich roleplay for all characters. Ask yourself, "Would this adventure be more fun alone or should I share it with other people?"

In the end, what's the point of having an uber half-balor with a powerlevel over if you keep your mightiness only to yourself?

Party up with the same old fellas, always new parties, a faction, a guild, or just to protect your homeland, but never go it alone!

• The experience bonus is set by the highest level character + the party bonus. A group of three in the sewers led by a level 15 character will be lucky to earn more than 2xp per monster.

The World

Roleplay

Role-playing is just that, playing the role of a character. Any character you create should have a personality, just like people in real life. The goal of most Rper's is to have the most realistic character they can play while making the server more fun for everyone. An important thing to realize about RP is that it is character action and reaction. It shouldn't ever have anything to do with the player playing the character.

Languages

Main articles: Languages, Drow use of languages

Arelith has an integrated language system. To access what your character can speak/understand, type "-" into the chat bar. On the right hand screen a list should come up telling you what is available. Available languages are linked.

Banks

Main article: Bank

Upon entering the server and exploring some of the first areas in your starting city, you'll no doubt notice just how empty your character's pockets are, particularly when faced with the cost of adventuring gear. One can't kill dragons if they can't even afford padded armor, so a solution is in order. That's where the Banks come in.

Open up a dialog with any banker and ask to draw an amount. He'll give you a loan of up to 1000 gp, which is plenty of gold to buy some basic gear and weapons, and perhaps even try your hand at the enchantment basins to give that gear a boost.

It is highly recommended that you use the banks as much as possible, given that if your character is killed, that character's gold is automatically dropped and up for grabs to the first character that happens upon the body.

• You'll notice that there are many bankers around the world. Your account balance will always be the same, no matter where you go.

• Reminder: If you die, you will drop your gold. Putting gold in a bank is the best way to 'keep it safe.'

Portals

Main article: Portals

For those characters that want a quicker, more convenient way to travel, Planar Portals are available to use. Once a portal is visited, a character can then use any two-way portal to travel to that location instantly.

Important Note

Do not carry dead bodies through the portal. Corpses will instantly be dropped to the ground and character will portal through without them.

Logging on server and changing servers

Make sure to know how to do connecting though direct connection to reduce lag.

Arelith servers keep record of characters' location. Player characters (PCs) should be in the same area where they were last time saved.

If server was not restarted from the last time a character was logged on, then several effects will be applied on the character by the "GIGASCHATTEN NWN Engine...maintained and enhanced by MITHREAS". The character will gain:

• The same state of hunger (food), thirst (water), tiredness (rest) and sobriety.
• The same amount of hit points (HP). A message will appear when this is applied: "Someone damaged someone for X Points (X Magical).", where X is number of HP below characters maximum HP when it was logged off.
• Spell that were used will be still used.
• The same spells that were in effect, if their time has not expired yet.

Please, note that all these values are kept separately for each server. When changing servers with a character by any in game transition, the new server will apply only own values from its last restart. For example:

1. Johny leaves surface by portal while being tired (0% rest), having used all his spells and with newly cast Protection from evil on him.
2. Johny portals from surface server to Underdark server.
   1. Johny was not on the Underdark server from its last restart. So Johny receives the standard rest value of 25.0%. He will have all his spells ready to use, but no spells active on him.
   2. Johny on the Underdark server fully rests to 100%, casts Protection from elements and Stoneskin on himself.
   3. Johny sees a Drow and decides to run again back to surface server by portal.
3. Johny portals back from Underdark server to surface server.
   1. If there was no server restart while Johny was in Underdark, then he will still be tired (0% rest) and he will has all his spells used. He will have the spell Protection from evil on him, if he returned within 24 in game hours (which is the duration of that spell).
   2. If there was a server restart while Johny was in Underdark, then he will again has the standard rest value of 25.0%. He will have all his spells ready to use, but no spells active on him.

When changing servers, all items and experiences acquired on the other server will be kept.

Mechanical Information

Changing CD Keys

There are no rules preventing players from getting a new CD key, but it is certainly not recommended. There are several things tied to your CD key, including:

• Quarters, Shops and Guild house
• RPRating
• Portals
• Bank Balance

If you change CD keys, then upon the next server reset all of these things will no longer be recognized as attributes of your characters. Shops will be lost, your bank account will vanish, and your RPRating will be reduced to 0.

The 5% roll

Main article: The 5% roll

The 5% roll becomes available to characters of level 21 or higher. You have the option to retire (meaning, delete from the vault) the character and be given a 1 time chance to get a special skin/template or item. Upon approval from Jjjerm you get a 5% chance of using your character's sacrifice to gain access to these special features. If you fail this attempt, you will still lose the character permanently.

More information about the 5% Roll can be found in article Epic Character Retirement Program.

Death and Dying

Main article: Death

Gods

Main article: Deity

One of the few items given to your character upon creation is the Arelith Book of Deities, an item in your character's inventory allowing you to choose for them a patron deity for whom to serve. The benefits of having a deity are detailed in this article about divine intervention.

All spell casters on Arelith are required to have patron Deity to cast higher level spells, including Arcane casters. All worshippers have to follow the restrictions posed in Forgotten Realms D&D on Clerics' Alignments. See the article Deity to learn more about Gods, Domains, Power and Presence of Gods on Arelith.

Crafting

Main article: Crafting

Arelith uses an integrated tradeskill system which allows a variety of items of different types to be crafted from components and resources found around the island.