Neverwinter Nights 2: Did you know?

Get ready, this is some tasty stuff:

Appraise: Those who played NWN1 will know that the Appraise skill can be quite useful for those who deal with merchants. Your Appraise skill will be compared against the merchant's Appraise skill (and a random roll) to determine whether your reaction is favorable or unfavorable. Favorable reaction will get up to a 30% discount (exact amount partially determined by your Appraise skill), unfavorable up to 30% additional cost. Also, we check your Appraise skill in a few conversations to give you some extra dialog options.

Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidate: If you like to talk your way out of things, invest in at least one of these skills. There will be *lots* of opportunities to use these dialog skills. My advice: pick one that fits your RP style, and max it out. You won't regret it.

Spot and Listen: These help you detect hidden (stealthed) creatures. Honestly, the OC doesn't have *that* many hidden creatures, but modders could certainly craft stealth-friendly modules where these skills become more critical.

Lore: Very useful for Identifying items (and you'll find lots to identify); also, you'll sometimes get bonus conversation options if you have a high enough lore skill.

Search: Critical for finding traps, of which you will encounter many.

Sleight of Hand: One of our designers is running through the game and adding pickpocket loot to various NPCs. So if you invest points, this one will pay off.

Survival: Will enable you to view hostile creatures on the minimap. Higher skill means greater range.

-George Ziets

Oh and he wasn't done yet.

Survival: This feat expands the range you can see hostile creatures on the minimap, while in Tracking mode. Any character can activate Tracking mode, but only characters with the Track feat and points in the Survival skill are going to get much value from it.

Disguise: Heh. Not in the game, sadly.

Diplomacy, Bluff, Intimidate: Remember that you don't have to be a rogue to benefit from these skills. The Able Learner feat allows you to buy skill ranks in cross-class skills for one point a piece. Personally, when i'm not playing a rogue, I always take this feat as early in the game as possible.

Open Locks: I'm not allowed to talk details about this one yet. I can say that there will be situations where won't be able to bash a door, and you'll have to use this skill to achieve the best possible solution to a quest.

Discipline: As in NWN1, this skill helps your character to resist combat feats (e.g. Called Shot, Knockdown).

Heal: Use a healing kit to cure wounds, as in NWN1. Higher skill rank means more effective healing.

Parry: Grants you a chance to block incoming attacks.

Spellcraft: Can't talk about this one yet, either...

Wow thats a lot. But wait theres more:

Both druids and rangers will get animal companions, which are pretty sweet.

Druids have some other nice abilities, including Wild Shape (taking the form of an animal 1 or more times per day), Elemental Shape (taking the form of an elemental 1 or more times per day), immunity to all poisons starting at level 9 (one of my personal favorities, as I really, really hate getting poisoned), and some skill and save bonuses.

Rangers haven't changed much since NWN1, but they still get two-weapon fighting feats, and they get to pick favored enemies. They also get some outdoorsy bonuses (e.g. at level 13, they can use Stealth in wilderness areas without suffering reduced movement).

Not too sure about details of the Discipline skill - I'll have to check with the programmers on that one...

Woo I don't know about you guys but thats some good stuff.