Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realms

Now this is a true idle game!

In this simple but addictive clicker game, you are tasked with assembling a team of heroes to take on some well known D&D campaigns, crossing paths with the likes of Strahd, Halaster, Acererak, Valindra and Zariel. To win the missions through each campaign you'll need to mix, match and position your heroes to the best benefit of the party.

While "the tank is up front" might be obvious, there are many less so with some people preferring to be away from others, healers only healing the forward row or DPS buffing the back rows etc. While collecting gear is a thing, collecting and expanding your hero roster is also interesting as there are LOTS to collect. While some are locked behind some tough missions, most are readily available via monthly events, giveaways and time gates (which let you replay the monthly events you may have missed).

Once your party sets off, you can assist with clicking near the start but later on there is little to no input required from you making it a perfect game to run in the background. Indeed, the adventure continues even when you shut down the game albeit a little slower. This is fine as heroes can't die and you can't "lose" a mission unless you specifically back out of it. And you might just do that a few times to increase your "gold find" ratio.

Familiar faces all around.

Gold find is the main advancement metric through out each campaign. The more gold you have when you "end" a run (win or lose), the more gold find percentage you gain which will help you on future runs. How? Simple, your characters can level up sooner and higher. There is a pay to win component here but it is very slight as players are regularly bombarded by free chests and rewards anyway, a feature that really got me sucked into this idler. I give it three mind witnesses out of five and recommend it to people that enjoy this sort of thing.

Insight: If you reach a level that your team can't pass, simply rearrange them for starters as they might not be in the best positions anymore, especially after leveling up. To help on your journey, also regularly check this combinations page for free loot!

NWO: An Ode to the Forgotten Adventurer

There once was a man who helped those new to the shores of Neverwinter reach the city, but since the retooling of the intro quests he has been removed with Makos taking the spotlight, possibly having gone back through history to change the timeline.

While Cryptic would prefer this person to be forgotten, we will never forget Private Wilbur Winfred Wally uh... Dave. For those who don't know, Private Dave "the Dude" was an amazing ally. He heroically fell to Valindra about 5 minutes into the intro quest and would much later return as one of her officers since he managed to woo the lich despite being dead.

"It is I... Dave the Dude!"

Everyone even remembers his favourite battle cry, "For the Nashers!" which he learned as a member of the Cult of the Dragon. It is a little known fact that he was a member of all the cults, and was a master of disguise, his favourite being a kenku as he mastered their "Cacaaaww!" cry, - even before being transformed into a tiefling when he equipped an unidentified item. As a result, all of Faerun (monsters and gods included) agreed to never have unidentified items ever again.

Wanting to lift his curse our favourite guy began studying magic under an alias starting with M. Marcos or Madros or something, and became a master of all the schools of magic. At one point he even became the Queen of the undead in Ebon Downs. Many look back fondly at fighting him in the Throne of Dave dungeon, which Cryptic has also removed, yet to no avail as it keeps coming back like some olden tales. Dave "the Dude" is now everywhere and everything. He is sometimes a five headed dragon, other times a charlatan named Elminster.

Dave's worst adversaries came in the form of Great Weapon Fighters though, and on more than one occasion he called them barbarians. Now everyone else calls them barbarians too! To train up against this threat, he's practiced their two handed ways and joined the recent Hell Pit event under his super secret alias "Wilfred". See Cryptic, you can never be rid of "the dude", because we know you work for him. The proof is with the Githyanki who still yell "For the Nashers!". I'm sure they learned it from Dave.

Neverwinter Online: One Year Jubilee!

Well designed game wise. Poor design story wise. :P

Elminster is in town this week to send players around as carrier pigeons and to convince them to protect the city while Lord Neverember makes his speech in a repeatable skirmish instance to earn currency items that can be used to buy the rather affordable rewards on offer. This is all great because it means you don't need to rely on RNG to get your loot. Furthermore, the skirmish is designed in three waves of randomized enemies, each with a short timer that grants a reward if you complete said wave before it runs out.

A number of groups think that the best way to do this is to Zerg. I disagree, and am usually the one off on his own skirting past all the enemies to handle the actual objectives in time. If you need to go destroy catapults then don't stand around fighting what's pushing them guys!

Ok that's a bit unfair since my two characters (rogue and ranger) are specifically built for infiltration and aggro dropping which makes all the trash redundant, especially in timed challenges. Regardless of the method you take it's still a pretty cool experience to be fighting again in Protectors Enclave, something which was last done during Valindra's Invasion many months ago.

Story/Lore wise though, this event showcases how worthless the city guards are as EVERY ENEMY FACTION (in random groups of three) can get in with ludicrous equipment. At least the rebels and wererats are somewhat believable since they're just looting the place but when giant witches and cyclopses manage to drag huge cauldrons in, or Shadar-kai manage to put large shards of the Deathknell about, or the orcs manage to roll in some CATAPULTS into the town proper... um... Side note, if Elminster is actually in town then none of those things should actually be a problem.

*ahem* I would likely flatten the city if -I- did it, adventurer.

 

Anywho, that aside it's still a fun experience and one with decent rewards. I only hope that this trend continues. Long live Neverwinter! :)

NWO: The Architects of Thay

In the latest campaign released on Neverwinter Online, veteran players find themselves sent forth to finally face the game's big bad, the eponymous lich Valindra "Shadowmantle" at her stronghold within the Neverwinter Wood, a blasted area called the Dread Ring which is crawling with not only her undead lackeys but also her allies, the demon conjuring Red Wizards, who have established portals to their distant homeland of Thay. In my opinion, this is the best zone in the entire game so far (I haven't done any of the epic or Gauntlgrym dungeons though) with recognizable hero and ally NPCs from the rest of the game being present in the zone, handing out random daily missions.

 

She can look pretty cute when she wants to.

It's also not segmented like in the previous Sharandar campaign (still need to slay that Malabog guy too), where you have to "unlock" each path in order. You just have the entire, awesomely designed zone to work with giving that feeling of space. One of the three individual dungeons here also gets my vote as current best dungeon setting currently (keeping in mind I haven't seen everything). I'm talking about the Phantasmal Fortress which is found after you jump into one of the rather poorly guarded portals to Thay (which gives off a strong Persia/Egypt vibe helped by all the snake motifs).

While I think it is actually the easiest dungeon in the zone, the multiple physics and mind breaking layouts of oddly angled stairs, upside down hallways (with people walking in them) and many other strange mind tricks really make this place tick for me. It's been awhile since I've actually stopped in a dungeon just to watch the scenery, in this case I intentionally go back for it! Those Thayans may be demon worshipping scum but they sure know how to make impressive structures. I highly recommend giving it a visit today! :)

Arrival in Blacklake

Part of the Tales of Skrmischa in Neverwinter Online!

That's the last time I come to Neverwinter by boat. Haven't heard of one actually making it to the city - instead everyone seems happy enough to be washed up on shore and fight through a piece of Valindra's undead army just to reach the city gates. To top it off my new, somewhat handsome, employer is a creep, skulking about in shadows and seemingly always staring at people. His gold is good though and given my low level of experience I was thankful to find work so quickly. It wasn't long before I was sent out on some missions...

Hall of Doom @ vertygerk (NW-DEN46WWLZ)
First one was a nice warm up, just clearing a few goblins from a random hall. Didn't have a nice treasure chest to loot though.

Dusk Deeps @ duskroma (NW-DBLVC4HGC)
I was then sent into some abberant filled caves to aid a mysterious spirit named "Ghost Fighter Human 1". Despite clearing out all the enemies I couldn't open the last(?) door and was forced to abandon the awkwardly named ghost to his misery.

Daydream Believer @ laura16 (NW-DJNW9WQNA)
Took a short nap next to a fountain afterwards, and suddenly found myself in the dreamscape of Elysium. The queen there wanted my help eradicating the random threats in her windy realm. An easy task for which I was rewarded a belt. Oddly when I awoke it was still in my inventory.

ZWorld Issue 1 @ Skumb7 (NW-D02C89G4G)
Lastly I went to investigate a strange house in a twisted forest, meeting the undead man Skumby who lived there. Turns out the place was an arena, and before I knew it I was fighting many waves of zombies mixed with various other undead. I defeated the gauntlet though, and Skumby begrudgingly gave me a prize for my efforts - a shield.

Once that was done I was finally eligible to participate in the Blacklake Terror skirmish, where an evil sorceror was summoning hordes of undead to attack the lake side from the safety of his boat. Truth be told it was child's play compared to Skumby's arena, especially with four other people helping. First skirmish done. Eleven to go.

Not bad for a first day's work!