Baldur's Gate : The Sword Coast Chronicles : NWN2 Persistent World

Could anyone provide some insight on places to hunt by level and possibly how to get there from the major landmarks or towns.

I'm primarily looking for areaa for a level 12.

This would be such a great help. As long as Ive been here Im stumped for CR 18 areas.

There were a list somewhere on forum..
surface or ud?

This is always a difficult question to answer because it so often is dependent on your build, what equipment you have, if you are going solo or with a group, etc.

There are builds that can solo the hill giants by ~12/13, while dispels might cause those same builds to have difficulty with the Xvarts, due to the witch doctors.

Level 12 has a few areas I can think of that should provide decent experience with minimal risk. The Dire Bears outside of Thalantyrs spring to mind (two area's south of Candlekeep/area west of Beregost). In addition, I believe that is around the CR that most builds should be able to solo the Gnoll Cave, Seaside trolls, Cloakwood Mines, Orcs in Sharpteeth and Goblins in the mines north of Beregost. Levels ~11-20 are actually my favorites because I feel like there are so many diverse places to go that are a challenge for a decent (not PB) character and great opportunities for both group and individual play. If I had to rate them from an 'easiness' standpoint it would go like this:

Easiest - Hardest:
1. Seaside Trolls (Lions Way map, south of Cloakwood/FAI... no dispels or magic of any kind, just need some fire/acid).
2. Cloakwood Mines (Cloakwood, west of FAI... dispels on levels 2/3, and some chests no longer work after level 10, but this is actually a dungeon meant for levels ~5-10 in a group so solo it's still valid at 12)
3. Mines North of Beregost (Map North of Beregost, south of Lions Way... only the boss has magic, but he can be a tough customer if you don't protect yourself/kill him quick)
4. Gnolls (Lions Way, south of FAI....Some dispels and quite a few casters, but I've always found them mostly easy to defend against.)
5. Orcs/Sharpteeth (East of FAI... lots of dispels/breachs, a sub boss and boss. The sub-boss can be rather difficult for melee oriented characters, especially sneaks)
6. Xvarts (Southwest of Beregost, south of Highhedge... spell casters / dispels in some cases make this location get skipped in favor of going right to...)
7. Hill Giants (Cloudpeaks south of Nashkel, tough melee/ranged, but NO DISPELS making this a favorite for the Gish/Spellcaster/Powerbuilds from ~13-20)
8. Minotaur Maze (Central Cloakwood... The Minotaurs are not as tough as Hill giants, but the spellcaster boss can be pretty tough, especially for non-casters. However, this boss can be taken out by a stealth character quickly if you do enough damage and have Hips as a defense)
9. Wytch Caves (Central Cloakwood. Can be tough if you get unlucky with 1/2 dozen hagspawn ganging up on you. Displacement/shield/mirror images helps.)


Many of these can have the level of difficulty shuffled depending on your build. Sneaks will have an easier time in some areas while completely outmatched in others. Part of the fun is figuring out which areas you can excel in (and which ones you should avoid like the plague).


regards to the CR18 question, In my experience the best 'bang for your buck' is Hill giants all the way to ~ level 20/21. Even though the Epic Lizard men give more XP, they don't spawn as often so Hill Giants give more XP / minute of grinding IMO. Plus, again, depending on build, some can do the Lizardmen by level 18 or so, others will die fairly quickly.

Have fun and good luck.

For CR 18 I think Ogre castle / troll cave / High Moor south/ Misty forest / High Moor north ? The last two probably being tough for that level. There is also the crypt under Gullykin which should be fine as long as you avoid the boss who is a true CR 30

There is also the pirate area under Ulgoth's Beard that is pretty fantastic.

CR 12 .. cloakwood central and further ? West of the Friendly arm, bears in high hedge west of Beregost, Fields of the dead north of Baldur's Gate, along the Chionthar west of Baldur's Gate (between Baldur's Gate and Ulgoth's Beard).

Shad wrote:There were a list somewhere on forum..
surface or ud?

Surface

Valefort wrote:For CR 18 I think Ogre castle / troll cave / High Moor south/ Misty forest / High Moor north ? The last two probably being tough for that level. There is also the crypt under Gullykin which should be fine as long as you avoid the boss who is a true CR 30

CR 12 .. cloakwood central and further ? West of the Friendly arm, bears in high hedge west of Beregost, Fields of the dead north of Baldur's Gate, along the Chionthar west of Baldur's Gate (between Baldur's Gate and Ulgoth's Beard).

Also a good list. As I said...11-20 is super fun on this server, so many places opened up. It was really nice when Thunder's Ride had the CR lowered as well as the Soubar changes since it makes the 1-10 levels a bit closer to 11-20 in terms of variety...

I've done:

Orcs, the dispels get old very fast as a Cleric

Goblins, easy but slow respawn

Gnolls, they are ok but the archers seem to have some wierd ungodly to hit glitch.

Trolls, no fire or acid weapon


I'll try the Giants and MInotaurs! Thanks for the suggestions.

From Level 12 - Level 17 or so you run FAI.

So basically a typical run for my pc at that level is start at Orc Cave Sharpteeth then go from there to Goblins to Trolls to Gnolls to Minotaurs. Minos are doable around level 12 but beware more than 2 of them and the scales will tip. Also if you are going to fight Bhaazark in the mino caves you will need a protection from evil spell to protect from his confusion spell. Also he uses a greater invisible too so some way to spot him would be nice. Once you reach around level 15 you can add in the wytch cave to that run and possibly if you have a silver weapon and way to fire enchant it the Haunted mansion but beware Chaos she is a epic lich so do not go to the attic. You should be able to kill the helmless horrors and vampires though at level 15. Once you reach Level 17 if you have fire weaponry then Troll claws is a good place. You should be able to run pirate cave to Crypt in Fields of the Dead to Trolls to Ogres cave in troll claws. Also the pirate cave in Ulgoths is a good place to go as well. Just be aware that the cursed pirates in the hidden cave cast drown and a 1 roll really hurts.....

AC for Minotaurs should be 36 at minimum. 40+ for Hill Giants. Just FYI.

Thanks everyone for the fast replies. I'm going to format this into a condensed list for ease of use later today.

Garn Greymoon wrote:

Shad wrote:There were a list somewhere on forum..
surface or ud?

Surface

Well, people answered a lot already.
I only would emphasis too, the 12-20 offer great content for adventuring and exploring. And its the best the first time you experience it.

For leveling though you would not I think, find anything better then gnoll caves, because "they are many".
And I support chad878262 in his list, only would add ogre cave in Troll Claws, as a tough choice but gives one of best XP per circle, and decent loot. Only downside is that spawn time is slow. But the troll cave nearby is better in this respect.

Hill Giants used to be very good, but renewed area as beautiful as it become, now is more suited for adventuring and exploring then leveling.

Then, if you have regeneration(spell) or good vamp regen/damage reduction, or means to avoid being damaged and still do good damage yourself - you are golden.
At 18 trolls are still good and nagas start to give decent xp (earlier xp there is reduced due to CR to high).
Not much choice after that. At 24 may start frost giants - again, reduced XP if you kill them with lower level.

The Orog outside the Iron Mines are pretty good xp until 20 and they spawn quickly. The Berzerkers are the biggest danger there as they have 28 ab, sorcs being second as they spam heavy dmg spells, invise, and various debuffs

At level 20 you can run Speartop and the cavern but no one can run the white dragon. The spawn rate of the monsters on the run up and down Speartop is insane actually. With the right gear you should be able to kill the Epic LIzards too at 20.

Speartop ? I'm not sure you checked the area lately but now I would not advice it for a lvl 20 PC, there are trolls casting several epic spells, trolls with knockdown and 33 AB, big dogs coming out from stealth with 33 AB and nasty spiders that paralyze you and have 25 DR (this is as insane as it sounds ).