Neverwinter Nights Alignment Manager
Version 1.2
While playing a module, were you ever annoyed that your character's alignment changed because of
something you did or said (on purpose or by accident) and you didn't feel this change being justified, and in
the worst case it even prevented you from advancing in one of your character's classes? Or did you ever
want your character to have two classes with conflicting alignments like monk (must be lawful) and bard
(can't be lawful)?
If you can answer one or both questions with a loud "yes", then the Neverwinter Nights Alignment Manager
(or simply NAM) is just the tool you need. The NAM allows you to change your character's alignment in each
and every module you're playing.
Installing the NAM
Installing the NAM is very easy. All you have to do is to copy all of its files into the override folder of your
NWN installation. If there is no folder named "override" then simply create one. However, before installing
the NAM you should patch your game to the latest version; as of today (May 4th, 2007) this is version 1.68.
Here's the list of files in alphabetical order:
gn_align_c_1.ncs
gn_align_c_5.ncs
gn_align_c_10.ncs
gn_align_diag.dlg
gn_align_e_1.ncs
gn_align_e_5.ncs
gn_align_e_10.ncs
gn_align_g_1.ncs
gn_align_g_5.ncs
gn_align_g_10.ncs
gn_align_l_1.ncs
gn_align_l_5.ncs
gn_align_l_10.ncs
gnam_1.ncs
gnam_1.UTI
gnam_1_manually.ncs
Since the NAM doesn't change anything but only adds a conversation file, an item blueprint, and a handful of
script files, it works perfectly fine with other files you might have in your override folder. It can also be used
without any problems in modules using HAK packs.
Using the NAM
The NAM uses a small dialog that provides the options to change your alignment (see below). However,
there are two different ways of actually activating it. The far more convenient way is to spawn and use a
small item, fittingly named "Alignment Manager". To spawn this item you have to do the following.
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Hit the Enter key or click in the chat bar (right above the
quickslot icons).
Type "##DebugMode=1" without the quotation marks but
with the two number signs (like in the image) and hit
Enter.
Now move the mouse cursor to a location on the ground near your character, type
"##dm_spawnitem gnam_1" and hit Enter. An item appears where the mouse cursor is.
Type "##DebugMode=0" and hit Enter again. Pick up the item. Done.
Now the moment of truth has come. A
conversation should start right after you have
used the item's Unique Power property. This
definitely works in the Shadows of Undrentide
and Hordes of the Underdark campaigns, yet not
in the original Neverwinter Nights campaign. It
should also work in most user-created modules
made after Shadows of Undrentide was released.
If no conversation starts, please see "No
Conversation? Why?" afterwards.
The options given in the conversation are pretty
much self-explanatory. You can shift your
character's alignment towards Good, Evil, Lawful,
and Chaos by 1, 5, and 10 points, respectively.
In addition to your character's current alignment
you'll also see your position along the Law/Chaos
and Good/Evil axes. In case you're not familiar
with the way alignment is determined in
Neverwinter Nights, please see "Alignment – How
It Works."
No Conversation? Why?
When playing the original Neverwinter Nights campaign as well as many (mostly older) user-created
modules, nothing happens when you use the Alignment Manager item. This is because the NAM relies on a
technique called "tag-based item event scipting". In a nutshell, tag-based item event scripting means that
whenever any event related to an item occurs (i.e. an item was picked up or dropped by a player, a player
equipped or unequipped an item, or a player used an item's Unique Power property) then a specific script is
being run; and the name of that script is identical with the item's tag, hence tag-based.
Now, although tag-based scripting is the predominant way of handling item-related events nowadays, this
technique wasn't used prior to the Shadows of Undrentide expansion. Instead of having one script per item
dealing with all of that item's events, you had one script for each event, and each of those scripts dealed
with all items. Unfortunately this means that modules employing this old technique don't support the
Alignment Manager item. But frown not, for there's another way to activate the NAM.
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Hit the Enter key or click in the chat bar (right above the quickslot icons).
Type "##DebugMode=1" without the quotation marks but with the two number signs and hit Enter.
Now type "##dm_runscript gnam_1_manually" and hit Enter. The conversation starts immediately.
Before you use the conversation to change your character's alignment, you should turn the debug
mode off again by typing "##DebugMode=0" and confirming it by hitting Enter. Not turning off the
debug mode can cause serious bugs!
If you already know beforehand that you're playing a module which doesn't support tag-based item event
scripting (e.g. the original Neverwinter Nights campaign) then you don't have to spawn the Alignment
Manager item as described in "Using the NAM".
NAM and Multiplayer
The NAM was designed for single-player games, but it can also be used in multiplayer. However, there are a
few restrictions, and the way to activate the NAM is slightly different than in single-player. Here are the
step-by-step instructions for using the NAM in multiplayer games, along with a few important remarks.
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Only the host of a multiplayer game can use console commands. The player who used "New
Internet/LAN Game" or "Load Internet/LAN Game" to create/load a multiplayer session is the host;
all other players are called clients. This also means that the NAM doesn't work at all when using a
dedicated server (i.e. using NWServer to run the module) which includes persistant world servers.
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All players (host and clients) must have the NAM files in their override folders.
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The host has to spawn the NAM item just like in a single-player game. This has to be done
regardless of whether or not the module you're playing supports tag-based item event scripting.
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Only one single NAM item should be spawned. If more than one player character has a NAM item in
his inventory, the NAM might not work proberly.
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If tag-based item event scripting is enabled, the player who wants to change his character's
alignment simply has to pick up and use the NAM item.
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If tag-based item event scripting is not supported, the host has to use the ##dm_runscript console
command as described in "No Conversation? Why?" However, the character whose alignment shall
be changed still must have the NAM item in his inventory.
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Be aware that if the alignment of a player character shifts by a certain amount of points, the
alignments of all other player characters in his party shift by 20% of that amount (rounded up) into
the same direction. For instance, if the characters Bob and Timmy are in the same party and Bob's
alignment shifts 10 points towards evil, Timmy's alignment shifts two points towards evil. This is a
peculiarity of Neverwinter Nights itself and thus beyond my control. To avoid affecting the alignment
of party members, a character should temporarily leave the party until he is done changing his
alignment.
Alignment – How It Works
As promised above, here's an explanation of how alignment is determined in Neverwinter Nights.
A character's alignment consists of two
parts: his law/chaos value and his
good/evil value. These values are
actually the respective positions along
the X and Y axes of a simple coordinate
system, aptly named Law/Chaos (X) axis
and Good/Evil (Y) axis. Both axes range
from 0 (zero) to 100 and are devided into
three bands running from 0 to 30, 31 to
69, and 70 to 100.
Now, an alignment shift by a few points
doesn't necessarily result in an actual
alignment change. Only when a shift
takes you beyond the boundaries of a
band does your alignment change accordingly. For instance, a Neutral Good character with a Law/Chaos
value of 32 takes an alignment shift of 5 points towards Chaos; his Law/Chaos value drops below 30 into the
Chaotic range, thus he becomes Chaotic Good.
Surprisingly, that character's new Law/Chaos value isn't 27 (i.e. 32 – 5) as one might expect – it is 15
instead. That's because when your alignment changes, Neverwinter Nights will automatically set the new
value to the center of the newly entered band. And for the Chaotic band ranging from 0 to 30, the center is
15. However, only the axis along which your alignment shifted will be changed; for the example here this
means that the character's Good/Evil value remains as it was.
A Few Last Words
The NAM is a powerful tool, simply because it allows you to change your character's alignment with ease
and whenever you want to. Of course this means that you can (ab)use the NAM to cheat by changing your
character's alignment to whatever alignment is required to multiclass into or further advance an alignmentrestricted class. Multiclass combinations like bard/paladin/blackguard that are normally nigh impossible to
create can be done easily by using the NAM.
It's absolutely fine if you use the NAM for such a purpose, but always keep in mind that one of the reasons
why certain classes feature alignment restrictions is to prevent such unbalancing class combinations. For
instance, the aforementioned bard/paladin/blackguard only needs two levels as paladin and blackguard each
to turn the bard into an extremely powerful character. He's immune to fear and disease (paladin's Aura of
Courage and Divine Health, respectively), gains twice his Charisma modifier as bonus on all saving throws
(paladin's Divine Grace and blackguard's Dark Blessing), can smite both good and evil, and can raise his
Strength by a total of 2d4+2 (i.e. 4 – 10) points because the bard spell Bull's Strength and the blackguard's
Bull's Strength spell-like ability stack.
My original intention was not to create a cheat tool, but a small tool to fix the many and severe unjustified
alignment shifts I've encountered in many single-player modules. I don't mean to blame the creators of
these modules, for I know that opinions and perception differ; what one person deems as a justified
alignment shift appears totally unfair and unjustified to another. And, to be frank, some modules I've played
shift your alignment back and forth like no tomorrow.
Anyhow, enough babbling. I hope that the NAM is of use to you, whatever the use may be. Enjoy!
Gangster Number One