Neverwinter Nights 1 expansions - worth buying?

[Feil]

Good Old Games is selling the whole NWN package with the base game and all the expansions for ten dollars. I played the base game years ago when my friend lent it to me, but I gave up in extreme boredom partway through. On the other hand, I own and enjoyed NWN2 and Mask of the Betrayer. So I think I might enjoy the NWN expansions, if they're more interesting than the original.

How do the expansions compare to the base game in terms of fun, storyline, NPCs, pacing, repetitiveness, etc?

Does a community still play the game online in significant numbers?

[Thanas]

The neverwinter nights expansions actually screw you over in terms of character building and story progression because you cannot import your character - well, you can, but he is still treated as a new PC. Which makes the second addon even stupider because it allegedly continues the story of the main game, but with a whole new character as well. Storywise, not really worth it.

[Mr Bean]

NWN Expansions are superior to the base game.
Shadows of Undrentide and Hordes of the Underdark lead directly into each other, in fact Shadows of Undrentide is meant to kick off as a level 1 charater, while Hordes starts in your mid teens (12-15, think default is 12) and you'll end up in your mid thirties by the time everything is said and done. The original campaign was very much a slapdash affair compared to what came after.

The neverwinter nights expansions actually screw you over in terms of character building and story progression because you cannot import your character - well, you can, but he is still treated as a new PC. Which makes the second addon even stupider because it allegedly continues the story of the main game, but with a whole new character as well. Storywise, not really worth it.

Actually no as I said Shadows of Undrentide leads into Hordes of the Underdark but the main campaign does not lead into Shadows of Undrentide. Says as much right on the box when I bought the original expansion for 19.99$ a almost a decade ago.

[Jaevric]

I found the expansions vastly superior to the original game; also, I can confirm that your character from the first expansion imports into the second. I don't know how active any of the old player-run modules are these days, though.

The original game felt like a display of "here is what you can do with the world builder." The expansions felt like actual games, in my opinion.

[Thanas]

I found the expansions vastly superior to the original game; also, I can confirm that your character from the first expansion imports into the second.

Yes, but your character from the main game does not.

[Feil]

Not being able to import from the main game doesn't bother me: I don't plan on playing the main game. As I meantioned in the OP, I tried once and didn't like it.

Good to hear that the expansions are well done. I was hoping that would be the case.

I'd like to hear more about the present online community if anybody knows.

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

It's been ten years, and the online community is starting to quiet down. It's still there and it certainly isn't gone by any means -- plenty of big server vaults still around, and check out nwvault.ign.com for the huge pile of stuff for both NWNs.

[U-95]

I bought the game with the expansions some years ago and of the three, I loved the last one -Hordes of the Underdark-. For that low price, is really worth to get it.

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

Yeah, HotU is awesome. Especially if you're a Planescape junkie.

[Feil]

Looks like a good deal, then. Thanks for the advice

[Archaic`]

It's just a pity that not all the DLC would be included in that Diamond pack. Several additional mini-expansions were never released at retail, and it doesn't look like they're ever going to be re-released.