Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer

Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer (NWN2:MotB) is a computer role-playing game developed by Obsidian Entertainment and published by Atari. It is an expansion pack for Neverwinter Nights 2. The game has been designated the codename NX1 by its developers.

Characters
The player will start the campaign at level 18. Alternatively the player may import their character from NWN2. If the imported character is less than level 18, the player will be presented with the option of automatically leveling to 18.

The new classes and races may be taken through the original NWN2 campaign starting at level 1.

The level cap has been raised from 20 to 30, allowing for epic level characters.

Camera
Two camera angles are now allowed. The first is described as a "3rd Person" over the shoulder type camera where the mouse and keyboard control movement.

The second is described as an RTS style camera view, which allows the player to zoom out and control the characters as though they were units (using shift-click, dragging boxes, etc).

Plot summary
The story for Mask of the Betrayer is set immediately following the events in Neverwinter Nights 2. The main campaign is set in Rashemen near the kingdom of Thay. The Red Wizards of Thay are a driving force behind the campaign story.

Act I
Shortly after defeating the King of Shadows, the player found himself painfully lying inside a warded stone circle in an unknown cavern far from Neverwinter, not sure of how he arrived there. The shard in player's chest has been torn out. Immediately after the player's awakening, Safiya, a Red Wizard of Thay, appears and asks to escort the player to Lienna in the nearby town of Mulsantir. While heading out of the cave, they were confronted by various spirits who were disturbed by the player's presence. While player was initially weakened, he is able recover his strength during a strange discourse with a wolf spirit. During this discourse, an monstrous entity bursts out of the player's body, devours the wolf spirit, and replenishes the weakened player. Immediately before leaving the cave, player defeated Okku, a bear spirit god who resided inside the cave.

After arriving at Mulsantir, Safiya and the player seeks out Lienna in the Veil, the local theatre. Much to Safiya's surprise, the Veil is attacked by her colleagues. Defeating numerous Red Wizards and venturing into the back room of the Veil, the party found a portal leading to the Plane of Shadow. This plane of existence contained a shadow reflection of the Prime Material Plane. In the shadow Veil, player defeats the leader of attacking Red Wizards. During the conversation before the battle, player and Safiya learned that Lienna and Nefris, Safiya's mother, had both perished at the hands of Araman, a fellow master at the school.

Upon returning to the Prime Material Plane and exiting the Veil, player's party is greeted by the witches of Mulsantir. Witches are the authorities of Rashemen. They informed player that Okku the spirit god has brought an army of spirit to fight the player outside the city gate. After mustering enough companions, player's party confronts Okku and defeats Okku's army. After his second defeat, Okku reveals that the player is a spirit eater, a cursed being that hungers for and devours feys and elements. If the player ignores this hunger, he will ultimately be consume by it himself.

Act II
After defeating Okku, the witches of Mulsantir release the Veil workers who were under their protection and custody. Madga the manager of the Veil gives player a key to a room in the shadow Veil. In that room, player finds four portals. While examining the portals, player meets a group of gargoyle like creatures. They revealed that they were minions who brought player from the Sword Coast to Rashemen. They also revealed that Lienna got this idea from the Sleepers. Sleepers are hag oracles of the Slumbering Coven located on Lake Mulsantir east of Mulsantir.

Arriving at Lake Mulsantir, the location of the Coven, player realized that it is nothing but a sunken ruin. Waited for nightfall, player's party found a portal leading to the Plane of Shadow just like in Mulsantir. In the shadow Coven, player found many beings from various realms queuing to consult the Sleepers. Player manages to become first in line to meet the Sleepers after dispatching all other visitors either peacefully or violently. However much to player's dismay, the hags inform the player that as a spirit eater, the player is a danger to the Sleepers and is not allowed to meet them. As such, they then traps player's party in the Skein, a place where the hags banish those they despise. Player's party managed to escape Skein and consult the Sleepers against the will of other hags. Sleepers revealed that Lienna and Nefris are both involved in his current dilemma. At the end, the Sleepers told player to search the Safiya's Academy for traces of the Nefris' motive.

Arriving at Safiya's Academy using a portal in the shadow Veil, player found that the Academy is mostly under Araman's control. While guards and some of the students would attack player's party on sight, some of the faculties and golems would still assist the player's party. Soon after arriving, player learned that Araman is trying to scour every inch of the Academy ground for the Founder of the Academy. A door in Nefris' room still remain sealed to Araman. However, player's party is able to open this door with hints left behind by Nefris. Araman and his cohorts confront player as he opened Nefris' sealed door. Araman leaves the player be, while his cohorts engaged player's party.

After killing Araman's cohorts, the player's party venture through the door and find themselves in a celestial plane. In that plane, the player's party meets Myrkul. Myrkul is the former god of death who is supposed to have died after losing his power. Myrkul revealed that the spirit eater condition is his creation and that he uses it help him remain powerful even after losing his place. Myrkul also informs player's party that the celestial plane connected two locations of the Academy, and during the conversation, Araman has lead a group of his follows through to hunt for the Founder.

After tailing Araman and defeating him, player's party meets the Founder. Founder revealed that Lienna, Nefris, Safiya and her are in fact splinters of the same soul, the soul of Akachi's lover. Akachi was the leader of the First Crusade. While Lienna, Nefris and her all knew their identity, this was hidden to Safiya for her own safety. The player is also revealed that he bears the spirit of Akachi, and that his own spirit is on the Wall of the Faithless. The Founder returns the Sword of Gith to the player which is the key that can open the Betrayer's Gate, the gate that leads to Wall of the Faithless.

Companions in Mask of the Betrayer
Five companions are featured in Mask of the Betrayer, although only four may be acquired in any given play-through. Also, three companions at any one time can be brought along with the player character.

Also, should influence be raised to a suitably high level, each follower can grant a unique blessing to the player character through conversation.


 * Safiya - Safiya is a Red Wizard of Thay who is encountered at the very beginning of Act I. Safiya is the potential love interest for a male character.
 * Gann - Gann is a hagspawn Spirit Shaman. Gann has a quite capricious personality and is the love interest for a female character.
 * Kaelyn the Dove - Kaelyn is the Half-Celestial Cleric of Ilmater who is encountered in the death god's vault. Furthermore she exhibits none of the self-righteous attitude that is often associated with Aasimar or Half-Celestials, preferring to follow the humbler path of Ilmater.
 * Okku - Okku is the bear god spirit who is be defeated at the end of Act I. If the player character chooses to control his/her hunger, Okku will offer to join.  Okku's class is a pure Fighter, and if he joins, One of Many will not be able to.
 * One of Many - If the player character had chosen to devour Okku's soul, when gaining access to the lower level of the death god's vault, the option will be presented for One of Many to join, inhabiting Okku's skin (if you have it in your inventory). One of Many starts as a rogue, but with influence gain the option to change its class becomes available.

Races
Mask of the Betrayer features all of the races from Neverwinter Nights 2, as well as introducing the wild elf, half-drow, and genasi.

Planetouched: Genasi
There are four Genasi races representing the four elements, air, earth, fire, and water. "...basically humans with a touch of the elements." All the genasi have the following racial traits:
 * Darkvision up to 60 feet.
 * Resistance 5 to their particular element (electricity for air, ice for water, fire for fire, acid for earth)
 * Favored class: Fighter

In addition the particular elements have special abilities as follows:
 * Air: +2 Dex, +2 Int, -2 Wis, -2 Cha, Level Adjustment +1 (summons gale)
 * Earth: +2 Str, +2 Con, -2 Wis, -2 Cha, Level Adjustment +1(damage reduction ability)
 * Fire: +2 Int, -2 Cha, Level Adjustment +1 (area of effect fire damage ability)
 * Water: +2 Con, -2 Cha, Level Adjustment +1 (can summon a mist)

Earth Genasi make a particularly powerful weaponmaster, due to their unique status of having a +2 to strength without an associated -2 to intelligence (intelligence being needed for the Combat Expertise feat).

Half-Elf: Half-Drow
In Mask of the Betrayer, the half-drow has been added as a playable race. There is no game information yet, but the official Wizards of the Coast half-drow acts as a normal half-elf with darkvision instead of low-light vision.

Elf: Wild Elf
The wild elf has all of the standard elf features, except as noted:


 * +2 Dex, -2 Int; these adjustments replace the moon elf’s ability score adjustments.
 * Favored Class: Sorcerer; this trait replaces the moon elf’s favored class.

Classes
Mask of the Betrayer will contain 2 new base classes and 5 new prestige classes. The game will retain Neverwinter Nights 2's limit of 4 classes max per character

New base classes

 * Favored Soul: The Favored Soul has been described as a "sorcerer version" of the cleric. In addition, "...as they level, The Favored Soul gets better with the weapon their deity favors."
 * Hit Points per Level: 8


 * Base Attack Bonus: Medium


 * High Saves: All


 * Base Skill Points: 2


 * Class Skills: Concentration, Craft Alchemy, Craft Armor, Craft Weapon, Diplomacy, Heal, Lore, Parry, and Spellcraft


 * Spells: A favored soul may cast any spell known without preparation. Spells are drawn from the Cleric's spell list, but require charisma to cast (charisma 11 for a Level 1 spell, charisma 15 for a level 5 spell, etc). The difficulty class to resist remains 10 + Spell's Level + Wisdom Modifier.


 * Abilities:


 * Level 1: Weapon Proficiency (Deity's Favored Weapon)


 * Level 3: Weapon Focus (Deity's Favored Weapon)


 * Level 5: Energy Resistance (Gain 10 Energy Resistance to a chosen type, choose a second type at level 10 and third at level 15)


 * Level 12: Weapon Specialization (Deity's Favored Weapon)


 * Level 17: Haste (May cast Haste 3 times/day)


 * Level 20: Damage Reduction (Gains Damage Reduction 10/silver or 10/cold iron)


 * Spirit Shaman: The Spirit Shaman has been described as "sorcerer version" of the druid. In addition, "The Spirit Shaman can turn undead and even transform themselves into an undead."

New prestige classes

 * Arcane Scholar of Candlekeep: The Arcane Scholar is a prestige class designed in-house by Obsidian specifically for Mask of the Betrayer. The class focuses on streamlined use of metamagic feats.


 * Invisible Blade: The Invisible Blade has been described as a rogue-like class that allows the trading of sneak attack damage for other effects such as bleeding wounds.
 * Red Wizard of Thay: The Red Wizards of Thay are extremely specialized wizards. They gain attack and save bonuses to their chosen specialisation school amongst other benefits.
 * Sacred Fist: Combining devotion to the divine and a dedication towards physical perfection, the Sacred Fist grows in divine favor and martial prowess, advancing as both a monk and a divine spellcaster.
 * Stormlord: A master of the elements, the Stormlord commands the forces of nature to act as he desires. Stormlords are traditionally nomadic, preferring to roam the world as the wind would. They often have short tempers and a stormlord's mood can be seen in the weather that surrounds him.
 * Requirements:
 * Base Save Bonus: Fortitude +4
 * Feats: Toughness, Great Fortitude, Weapon Focus (Spear, Throwing Axe, Dart, or Shuriken)
 * Spellcasting: Ability to cast 3rd-level divine spells
 * Class Features:
 * Hit Points per Level: 8
 * Base Attack Bonus: Medium
 * High Saves: Fortitude and Will
 * Base Skill Points: 2
 * Class Skills: Bluff, Concentration, Craft Alchemy, Intimidation, Lore, and Spellcraft
 * Spells per Day/Spells Known: When a new stormlord level is gained, the character gains new spells per day (and spells known, if applicable) as though he had gained a level in whatever divine spellcasting class gave him access to 3rd-level divine spells. This is full spellcasting progression.
 * Special Abilities:
 * Level 1: Electricity Resistance 5 (Increases to 10 at level 4, and 15 at level 7)
 * Level 2: Shock Weapon (May enchant thrown weapon or spear to do +1d8 electrical damage for 20 rounds)
 * Level 5: Shocking Burst Weapon (May enchant thrown weapon or spear to do +1d8 electrical damage and +2d8 weapon damage on a critical hit, +4d8 for a x3 critical multiplier, +6d8 for a x4 multiplier. This lasts 20 rounds)
 * Level 8: Shocking Burst and Sonic Weapon (May enchant thrown weapon or spear to do +1d8 electrical damage, +1d8 sonic damage, and +2d8 weapon damage on a critical hit, +4d8 for a x3 critical multiplier, +6d8 for a x4 multiplier. This lasts 20 rounds)
 * Level 9: Immunity to Electrical Damage
 * Level 10: Extended Storm Avatar (May cast Storm Avatar once per day as if he were a druid with a caster level equal to his character level. The duration is doubled)

Monsters
The following new monsters have been confirmed:


 * Blue dragon
 * Bronze dragon
 * Fell troll
 * Hagspawn
 * Night hag
 * Shambling Mound
 * Solar
 * Treant
 * Wyvern