Neverwinter Nights 2 - Using the Console (Cheats)

Neverwinter Nights 2 - Using the Console (Cheats)

This is one of a series of walkthroughs/hints for Neverwinter Nights 2 (Original Campaign). Click here for a listing of all our guides for Neverwinter Nights 2.

To access the console and start using cheats, press the "~" key. This drops down a console. It does not pause the game and it can interfere with you actually clicking on things in the game.

To unlock the console commands, type "DebugMode 1". Until you do this, you cannot use any commands other than "Command", which gives you a list of available commands.
Unlocking the console also show in yellow all script triggers in the game. Script triggers trigger events, and can override the effects of your skills. For example, even if you are successfully sneaking up on someone, if you step on a script trigger that forces dialogue, your protagonist will be swapped with whoever you were sneaking with, and dialogue starts.

In general, you will need to have a character selected, either because you are editing their stats or you need to put something in inventory. To do this, right click on their portrait. This should select them as the active target.

Some of the things you may want to do are:

Show all die rolls
enablecombatdebugging 1 will send all combat roll data to the log. Normally you see only condensed hit roll and damage roll data. With this command, you get to see almost all modifiers for Armor Class and Attack Bonuses itemized.

Set your attributes
setSTR, setDEX, setCON, setINT, setWIS, setCHA set the base attribute, before any modification from Race.
Some of the reasons you may want to do this are:

• Temporarily give you a skill boost to succeed at a skill. This does not work for skills that require training unless you have at least 1 skill rank (e.g., Perform). You can, for instance, increase your DEX to help you Pickpocket faster--your modified roll is the amount of gold you get, and in general no neutral character reacts to a failed pickpocketing attempt anyway.
• Adjust your attributes retroactively so that you now have enough to get a particular feat. Feats do not display if you do not qualify for them. You therefore do not have a handy way of knowing at character creation whether you will have enough for a later-game feat. For example: Whirlwind Attack has a chain of required feats that have increasing Dexterity requirements.
• Adjust your attributes to what you really want them to be after level 1. For example, you can artificially create a character with 20 Intelligence to maximize your skill ranks at level 1, then take rank in various Training-Required skills so that you can use the skill boost trick mentioned earlier. After your character is created, adjust the attributes to the correct legal starting values.
• Give enhanced starting attributes. This can be important for high ECL characters to help low-level survivability, or make very specialized character builds more viable and fun to play.
• Give yourself more skill points when levelling, by adjusting INT before, then resetting it back to normal after.

Give a feat or remove a feat
To use the givefeat or removefeat; commands, you need the numeric code representing the feat in Neverwinter Nights 2. Some of the reasons you may want to do this are:

• Try out a feat, especially one involving several prerequisites. Remember to have a save game to rollback your character to what it was. You can use the removefeat command, but it is probably cleaner to just load a save game.
• Forcibly give a feat irrespective of actual prerequisites, such as racial feats or the Rogue's Trapfinding Feat (feat 1857; lets characters find and disarm traps of DC over 20).
• Take more feats than you are allowed to get a particular build you want.
• To avoid having to roll back your character and reorganize the order in which you chose feats, or to change a feat you took several levels back.
• To harmlessly add feats of very limited utility (such as multiple Weapon Focus feats).
• Access Original Campaign Pre-Order and Limited Edition feats -- 1764 (Merchant's Friend), 1765 (Blessed of Waukeen).

Redo levelling
Use the dm_givexp command to take away (by entering a negative number) and give XP. Note that XP given to the player is also added to companions, so you may have to adjust them back down -- remember to record their XP values first.
Note that you cannot redo level 1. Also, keep an eye on what the actual addition/deduction is, as it won't always be exactly what you entered. Also, any feats you gained during a level are lost when you rollback that level. This includes the Kalach-Cha feat you will get when you recover the first silver shard as directed by Daeghun.

• This command works on companions as well, so if you get an NPC later at a high level and they have a dumb feat, skill, or spell progression, you can "fix" them this way.
• Another reason to do this is to increase the XP of a protagonist that has a big ECL. At low levels, it is very hard to survive an ECL +2 or +3, especially if you are also playing a spellcaster.
• If there is a quest or other game event that is class-specific, you can roll back one level and get that character class just to see it -- instead of replaying the whole campaign up to that point.

The dm_givexp command works on one character at a time and does not affect other characters. The givexp command has less reliable results (it will not always adjust XP by exactly the amount you input); and if used on the main character, it will also affect the other party members, just as if you had earned XP in-game.

Get gold
Use the dm_givegold command to add or take away gold (by entering a negative number).
I recommend doing this extensively because things are hideously overpriced in the Original Campaign (until you get a ton of cash through your management of Crossroad Keep).
A magic item of mediocre utility (e.g., a mere +1 enchantment or 1x use of a weak spell) can cost thousands. Not overpowering, but in general, financially out of reach. It's more fun if you can play with them a bit -- especially the various miscellaneous items.
Also, treasure is a semi-random and finite resource in the campaigns so you can't necessarily earn enough of it. It is "semi-random" in that the locations of treasure are fixed, but the loot you get is sometimes randomly generated.
There are two good mods that can tweak this: cdaulepp's Random Loot Generator greatly enhances the instances of loot dropped by creatures. At low levels you get anything from junk to normal items to weird little magic items. Nothing overpowering, although you can sometimes sell items for hundreds of gold. Since a cheesy magic item can be 5000 gp, this isn't overpowering either. To help you haul it around, try our bags of holding in the GQ Conveniences mod. Also, a very nice side effect of this mod is that Sleight of Hand is much more useful and now can yields more interesting (albeit random) results in neutral characters in the game (such as villagers).
Searchable Chests is another mod that can get you a bit more treasure, plus it adds more value to the Search skill.

Get Items
Use the dm_giveitem command to give an item. You need the item code in NWN2.

• Note that the item must be defined in the campaign module you are in. For example, the Reptile Bane Cudgel from the "Uninvited Guests" module is not defined in the Neverwinter Nights Original Campaign, so you cannot use this console command to create a Reptile Bane Cudgel in the Original Campaign (but it works fine if you imported a character who already has the item).
• You may want to do this if there is an item of particular interest to you, but you don't want to go through a particular choice to get it. For example, you must kill Galen for Namarra "Neversleep" +1. It's not hugely overpowering, but it's neat to fool around with in the early game. So instead, you can just console in the item and help Galen, and in turn have him around in Fort Locke as a merchant.
• Get Mask of the Betrayer Pre-Order version bonus items. There was one item (Mystra's Blessing), and two non-released items: nx1_blessing_mystra, nx1_blessing_chauntea, nx1_blessing_mielikki. You need to be in the Mask of the Betrayer campaign for this to work.
• You can also try out items that didn't make it into the game. The Neverwinter Nights 2 Reference Guide has a list of these. To jump to that section, search the document for "nx1_bastardsword01".

Change Alignment
Use the rs ga_alignment(x,y) command to nudge your alignment. It appears you can only change 1 point at a time. (+/-1,0) tweaks the Good/Evil continuum, and (0,+/-1) tweaks the Law/Chaos continuum.

• You may want to do this because the alignment changes in dialogue are often very inconsistent, and there isn't any chance to change back except by reloading a game and being more careful in dialogue.
• Also, if you want to play a certain class combination that has conflicting alignments, this can help you quickly change your alignment so that you can take a certain class. Once you have the feats for a certain class, you do not lose them even if your alignment no longer qualifies you to advance in that character class.

Change Influence
Urs rs kr_influence command to bring up a dialogue box where you can adjust the Influence you have over each Companion. Influence, like alignment, only comes up in dialogue and so there are very few chances to gain or lose influence with party members. Overall, having more Influence means more interesting dialogues and events with your companions. Instead of replaying the game to focus on one companion and raising their Influence, just give yourself 20 points of Influence with each person.

Expand your Roster
The command rs ga_party_limit(11) will increase your allowable party size to 11 members (10 companions + your character = 11). Normally you can have a total of 3 companions in Act I and 4 companions in Acts II and III (plus your main character, this is a party of 4 or 5 respectively).
There is also a party roster dialogue box (rs kr_roster_edit) that can be invoked with the console, but a change to the party limit there is not permanent and resets whenever you load a game. That dialog can open the party selection screen, however, if you don't have access to it through having the expansions installed.
You will end up with a lot more companions than you can have with you at any one time, so if you want to maximize your chances of seeing more party banter and interaction with your main character, this will let you have the whole herd of companions all the time. (Note that some characters have more priority to their banter, and having the entire company of companions still does not guarantee you will see everything).

Combat can be problematic because of the micromanagement and traffic jams, but you can partially solve this by telling various characters to hold their ground and just run around with a smaller team set to Follow or Attack Nearest (both of which cause them to follow whichever character is selected at the time).

Note that whenever you load a saved game, all companions relocate to where your main character was when the game was saved.

Forcibly Add or Remove a Party Member
The command partyremove followed by a character name (e.g., "shandra") will remove a party member not just from your current party, but from your party roster. Essential characters (e.g., Shandra in Act II) are automatically re-added when you reload a game.
Party members removed this way hang around as NPCs and may still be attacked by hostiles. They do not gain XP when your main character gains XP. To add them back, the corresponding command is partyadd.

You may want to use this to go solo in certain areas (either for XP for other reasons) where a character normally cannot. For example in the Temple of Seasons test rooms, the script brings all your characters together for the test and you cannot leave anyone far away to take the tests alone.
Be careful when using this command because some characters are mandatory for certain cutscenes, and you can break quests this way, forcing you to reload a saved game.

Note that if you have the expansions and can access the Party Roster through the menu, you can generally avoid having to use this. Sometimes party members will be marked essential for the area you are going to -- Zhjaeve in Nolaloth's Valley, for example. If you already have them in your party before going to the World Map screen, then the game engine won't prompt you to add them, and will NOT set them essential (you cannot remove them from your party in the same the way you couldn't remove Shandra in Act II). You can then use the Party Roster to remove them once you are in the map.