History YMMV / NeverwinterNights2

* CrowningMusicOfAwesome: An in-story example: arguing your defense at trial. In song. Flusters the prosecutor and wins you the crowd.

** Neeshka was an option but cut due to time, oddly the leftovers have several flirtatious lines that flow better than the sudden confessions of [[spoiler:stalking and JailbaitWait]] from the actual love interest. This hit such a level that one of the developers tried to defend the game's OfficialCouple, claiming that Neeshka was never intended to be anyone's love interest, and that the devs didn't understand nor appreciate the fans' fervor along such lines. Nevermind that, as this troper put it, Neeshka's a TheyMightBeGiants tour shirt away from being a geek girl herself.

* SurprisinglyImprovedSequel: The original campaign is a fun, {{Slayers}}-esque romp through the Sword Coast, but its heavy reliance on cliche (intentional or not) rubbed a lot of people the wrong way and led to divided opinions (to say nothing of the bugs. [=MotB=], on the other hand, is regarded by many players as the best D&D-styled CRPG since ''PlanescapeTorment''.

** CrowningMusicOfAwesome: Holy. Freaking. Cow. Man! The Music!! THE MUSIC!!!

** Bishop/Female KC is only half-done, but ends up feeling super-tense and plot-relevant[[hottip:*:such as him admitting he [[spoiler:had feelings for you in the end-game, causing many to believe he betrayed you because he feared he was getting too attached]], while Casavir comes across as an over-protective and bland boyfriend who expects you to be the epitome of purity but will still "fall for you" if you aren't.

* CrowningMusicOfAwesome: An in-story example: arguing your defense at trial. In Song. Flusters the prosecutor and wins you the crowd.

** Bishop/Female KC is only half-done, but ends up feeling super-tense and plot-relevant[[hottip:*such as him admitting he [[spoiler:had feelings for you]] in the end-game, causing many to believe [[spoiler:he betrayed you because he feared he was getting too attached]], while Casavir comes across as an over-protective and bland boyfriend who expects you to be the epitome of purity but will still "fall for you" if you aren't.

* RelationshipWritingFumble: Of the two romance options reduced to one due to time concerns for males, the one that is kept comes off as creepy JailbaitWait stalker behavior (It predates ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'', honest), while even though Neeshka/MC is mostly cut, it is ''still'' more natural feeling [[hottip:*:Neeshka being jealous if you overpay for a painting of another female party member, the above mentioned creepy stalker complaining that she thinks you are looking at Neeshka and even Neeshka resisting MindControl and stating [[spoiler:that you are the only person that has ever been nice to her]] then the the one that stayed. In fact, it has more chemistry than ''most'' video game "romance" subplots.

** Myrkul. [[BodyHorror Just]]...[[DisproportionateRetribution just]] [[FateWorseThanDeath Myrkul]].

* GrowingTheBeard: And how! It is even said that ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights2'' is only the prologue to this story.

* CompleteMonster: Orbakh, just Orbakh... he may seem like an AffablyEvil MagnificentBastard at first but when you think about it there's no way he isn't this.

* DidNotDoTheResearch: Myrkul's ulterior motive for creating the Spirit-eater curse. Besides punishing Akachi, [[spoiler:the intent was to ensure his {{immortality}} by abusing the Realms' GodsNeedPrayerBadly rule: As long as the Spirit-eater existed, there would always be at least one person who feared and/or worshiped him, so he could never truly die. Only problem is, the GNPB rule was only established by Ao after the Time of Troubles sixteen years ago, and Myrkul was killed before it came into being. Yet the Spirit-eater's been around for centuries, so either Myrkul was CrazyPrepared, or Obsidian screwed up.]]
** See GodsNeedPrayerBadly Dungeons And Dragons example.

** On the other hand, the [[RuleOfCool huge coolness]] of [[BattleRoyaleWithCheese controlling all of your companions in the final battle]], minus a few dirty traitors who you get to beat the hell out of, and the extremely cool ending for the evil side do their best to [[RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap make up for it]].

* CompleteMonster: Orbakh, just Orbakh... he may seem like an AffablyEvil MagnificentBastard at first but when you think about it there's no way he isn't this.
* HighOctaneNightmareFuel: The "human cattle" factory near the ending.

* RelationshipWritingFumble: Of the two romance options reduced to one due to time concerns for males, the one that is kept comes off as creepy JailbaitWait stalker behavior (It predates ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'', honest), while even though Neeshka/MC is mostly cut, it is ''still'' more natural feeling [[hottip:*:Neeshka being jealous if you overpay for a painting of another female party member, the above mentioned creepy stalker complaining that she thinks you are looking at Neeshka and even Neeshka resisting MindControl and stating [[spoiler:that you are the only person that has ever been nice to her]] then the the one that stayed. In fact, it has more chemistry than ''most'' video game "romance" subplots.

** [[spoiler:Shandra]] stands out among a otherwise party otherwise exclusively made up of very unoriginal characters as a DeadpanSnarker (not unlike [[KnightsOfTheOldRepublic Jolee Bindo]] for that matter) and master of WhoWritesThisCrap and dies. The setting allows resurrection easily and unlike the other time an ally dies, you are ''easily'' of sufficient level and wealth to bring her back.

** [[spoiler:Ammon Jerro tells you Grobar attempted to save a 12 foot [[MadeOfIron Blade Golem]] by blocking a pillar with his frail gnome body at the end of the OC]]

* GrowingTheBeard: And how! It is even said than NeverwinterNights2 is only the prologue to this story.

** [[spoiler:Shandra]] stands out among a otherwise party otherwise exclusivly made up of very unoriginal characters as a DeadpanSnarker (not unlike [[KnightsOfTheOldRepublic Jolee Bindo]] for that matter) and master of WhoWritesThisCrap and dies. The setting allows resurrection easily and unlike the other time an ally dies, you are ''easily'' of sufficient level and wealth to bring her back.

* RelationshipWritingFumble: Of the two romance options reduced to one due to time concerns for males, the one that is kept comes off as creepy JailbaitWait stalker behavior (It predates ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'', honest), while even though Neeshka/MC is mostly cut, it is ''still'' more natural feeling [[hottip:*:Neeshka being jealous if you overpay for a painting of another female party member, the above mentioned creepy stalker complaining that she thinks you are looking at Neeshka and even Neeshka resisting MindControl and stating [[spoiler:that you are the only person that has ever been nice to her]]]] then the the one that stayed. In fact, it has more chemistry than ''most'' video game "romance" subplots.

* FanPreferredCouple: Male Knight Captain/Neeshka and Female Knight Captain/Bishop or Sand
** Neeshka was an option but cut due to time, oddly the leftovers have several flirtatious lines that flow better than the sudden confessions of [[spoiler:stalking and JailbaitWait]] from the actual love interest.
*** This hit such a level that one of the developers tried to defend the game's OfficialCouple, claiming that Neeshka was never intended to be anyone's love interest, and that the devs didn't understand nor appreciate the fans' fervor along such lines. Nevermind that, as this troper put it, Neeshka's a TheyMightBeGiants tour shirt away from being a geek girl herself.

* FridgeBrilliance: Pretty much what Mephasm is made of. He never lies, he never fails to be anything less than absolutely polite, and he tries to give the party every advantage and help that he can, regardless of his circumstances. It's generally accepted that he's a ManipulativeBastard, and the most evil figure in the game, despite him never doing a single thing to justify it -- in fact, it just makes him all the more magnificent. Cue fan complaints when he never shows up in the sequels.
** It's "generally accepted that he's a ManipulativeBastard" because he's a devil ("baatezu" if you want to use the technical term). ManipulativeBastard is kind of their [[PlanetOfHats Hat]]. That and RulesLawyer.
* FridgeLogic: Add up everyone you kill in Neverwinter and subtract it from the population set in the ForgottenRealms books. You just killed a sizable chunk of it.
** The encounters being designed with many weak foes over few stronger ones doesn't really help.
** It still makes one wonder how the bad guys haven't completely taken over the city if they have an army of that many expendable thugs running around.
*** And why, in the situation mentioned in the above ForegoneVictory, [[spoiler:Torio didn't just bring up the player character's impressive kill count to get them out of the way, instead of trying to frame them for destroying a village for no apparent reason -- ''especially'' if the PC joined with the Shadow Thieves and has been slaughtering dozens of Watch members since arriving in town.]]
*** [[spoiler:Torio's well-informed, sure, but not omniscient, and the Shadow Thieves are decidedly not on her side. While she may have suspected the PC's alliance with the Shadow Thieves, she's still blindsided by their manufactured witness. If she doesn't have proof of the player character's pogrom on the Watch, one that doesn't even necessarily happen depending on whether the player obeys orders from higher up, she's better off with the frame job. That's especially true when you remember that such an accusation would be less about the player at that point, and more about fingering the Shadow Thieves themselves, which would get unhealthy for her.]]
** The population demographics in the source books make absolutely no sense whatsoever, especially in terms of military forces. For comparison, Neverwinter (23000+ population) has a militia of about 400, about a third of which are off duty. Port Llast (700 population) has a militia of 130 people. Luskan (16000+ population) has a militia of about 300......and 1330 archers that don't get included in that total because no one seemed to bother doing the math of just how many naval troops are present, and this isn't even counting the actual naval crews. The population numbers jump all over the place, as well. Waterdeep's population increases by five times over during the trade season. This would mean that literally almost the entire population of the surrounding area goes to Waterdeep simultaneously.

* MoralEventHorizon: Evil [=PCs=] are offered a chance to cross it at the end, [[spoiler:slaughtering all your former party members before taking Garius' place at the head of the King of Shadows' army.]]

* MostAnnoyingSound: The various "I can't carry any more" soundbites.

* ScrappyLevel: The final area, which apart from its general bugginess is also decidedly less fair than any previous dungeon

*** On the other other hand, said battle is very clunky [[spoiler:even by this game's standards]].
**** Eh, YourMileageMayVary here. [[{{Nivenus}} This Troper]] didn't find it particularly clunky at all.

*** There is a reason given. He refuses to tell you, just like he refuses to tell you almost anything else about himself without an influence success.
* TooCoolToLive: [[spoiler:Shandra]] stands out among a otherwise party otherwise exclusivly made up of very unoriginal characters as a DeadpanSnarker (not unlike [[KnightsOfTheOldRepublic Jolee Bindo]] for that matter) and master of WhoWritesThisCrap and dies. The setting allows resurrection easily and unlike the other time an ally dies, you are ''easily'' of sufficient level and wealth to bring her back.

* AlasPoorScrappy: [[spoiler:Ammon Jerro tells you Grobar attempted to save a 12 foot [[MadeOfIron Blade Golem]] by blocking a pillar with his frail gnome body at the end of the OC]]

* CompleteMonster: Myrkul. [[BodyHorror Just]]...[[DisproportionateRetribution just]] [[FateWorseThanDeath Myrkul]].

* LawfulStupid: Kelemvor. Don't worship a god? It's the Wall of the Faithless for you.
** Considering the gods are tangible entities that directly impact the world, grant their priests divine powers, and explicitly tell people about the wall, I don't exactly think you can blame Kelemvor. Anyone that ends up on the wall is roughly equivalent to a person in our world dying of dehydration because they don't believe water exists.
** Not to mention the fact that Kelemvor doesn't exactly do it because he wants to. Since the Time of Troubles, GodsNeedPrayerBadly in the ForgottenRealms: the Overgod Ao tied some or all of their power to their worshipers ([[YourMileageMayVary exactly how much is debated]]). It makes even more sense when you look at his back story (the 3E supplement ''Faiths and Pantheons'' is a good place to start). Kelemvor is an ascended mortal, an adventurer named Kelemvor Lyonsbane. For a time he ''did'' ignore the Wall (while he was determining the kind of god he wanted to be), until at least some of the other gods basically said "use it or you're fired" because they didn't have a looming threat to get people to worship.

** It's generally accepted that he's a ManipulativeBastard because he's a devil ("baatezu" if you want to use the technical term). ManipulativeBastard is kind of their [[PlanetOfHats Hat]].

** Another fan coupling was the male PC and Shandra Jerro, which may have been shaped to look like an OfficialCouple [[spoiler: before Shandra's horrible death]].

* RelationshipWritingFumble: Of the two romance options reduced to one due to time concerns for males, the one that is kept comes off as creepy JailbaitWait stalker behavior (It predates ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'', honest), while even though Neeshka/MC is mostly cut, it is ''still'' more natural feeling [[hottip:* :Neeshka being jealous if you overpay for a painting of another female party member, the above mentioned creepy stalker complaining that she thinks you are looking at Neeshka and even Neeshka resisting MindControl and stating [[spoiler:that you are the only person that has ever been nice to her]]]] then the the one that stayed. In fact, it has more chemistry than ''most'' video game "romance" subplots.

*** On the other other hand, said battle is very clunky [[supersecretspoiler:even by this game's standards]]

''Storm of Zehir'':

* LoveItOrHateIt: To be expected, given that ''Storm of Zehir'' goes in the opposite direction of ''Mask of the Betrayer'', not only being LighterAndSofter but also having a bare bones storyline and purely aesthetic characters with an emphasis on exploration and dungeon crawling. Generally speaking, both reviewers and fans couldn't agree on whether it was the most awesome iteration of the game yet or a disappointing and minimalist follow up that had none of Obsidian's traditional strengths.

* FanPreferredCouple (Male Knight Captain/Neeshka and Female Knight Captain/Bishop or Sand)

* MagnificentBastard Mephasm, who never overtly does anything evil by his own will in the story, yet nobody has the slightest doubt that he's as bad as they come.
* MoralEventHorizon (Evil [=PCs=] are offered a chance to cross it at the end, [[spoiler:slaughtering all your former party members before taking Garius' place at the head of the King of Shadows' army.]])

* MostAnnoyingSound (The various "I can't carry any more" soundbites)

* PlayerPunch ([[spoiler:Shandra's death]])
* RelationshipWritingFumble (Of the two romance options reduced to one due to time concerns for males, the one that is kept comes off as creepy JailbaitWait stalker behavior (It predates ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'', honest), while even though Neeshka/MC is mostly cut, it is ''still'' more natural feeling [[hottip:* :Neeshka being jealous if you overpay for a painting of another female party member, the above mentioned creepy stalker complaining that she thinks you are looking at Neeshka and even Neeshka resisting MindControl and stating [[spoiler:that you are the only person that has ever been nice to her]]]] then the the one that stayed. In fact, it has more chemistry than ''most'' video game "romance" subplots.
* ScrappyLevel (The final area, which apart from its general bugginess is also decidedly less fair than any previous dungeon)

* AlasPoorScrappy ([[spoiler:Ammon Jerro tells you Grobar attempted to save a 12 foot [[MadeOfIron Blade Golem]] by blocking a pillar with his frail gnome body at the end of the OC]])
** (Also, [[spoiler:if Qara was on your side in the final battle, she gets her head crushed in by a rock whereas Sand transforms himself into an Iron Golem.]])
* CompleteMonster (Myrkul. [[BodyHorror Just]]...[[DisproportionateRetribution just]] [[FateWorseThanDeath Myrkul]].)

* MoralEventHorizon (Leading several innocent people, [[spoiler:including Anya]], to a gruesome death at the hands of spirit eater-worshipping uthraki.)
* SurprisinglyImprovedSequel (The original campaign is a fun, {{Slayers}}-esque romp through the Sword Coast, but its heavy reliance on cliche (intentional or not) rubbed a lot of people the wrong way and led to divided opinions (to say nothing of the bugs). [=MotB=], on the other hand, is regarded by many players as the best D&D-styled CRPG since ''PlanescapeTorment''.

Original campaign:
* ChaoticEvil: ''Qara''. "ChaoticNeutral", my ''shiny metal ass'' - she ''thinks'' people talk behind her back[[hottip:* :(and they do a little, but it's mostly schoolyard jealousy)]] and what's her response? ''Burn down buildings and seriously consider murder in the streets.'' And this is in the ''first chapter'' of the game; things just get ''worse'' the further in you go, and the responses in her conversations that make her happiest are completely, blatantly evil (a fair few even ''[[CharacterAlignment shift you toward evil alignments]]'').
** There's a piece of DummiedOut content [[http://lparchive.org/LetsPlay/NWN2/Update%2072/index.html still in the game files]] which details a confrontation between Sand and Qara that was supposed to happen at Crossroad Keep; the gist of it is that Qara is actually holding back more of her power than anyone realized and that she feels an almost all-consuming need to use it to ''destroy''. If anything it was cut because if it had been left in it'd be impossible to classify her as anything ''but'' ChaoticEvil; she ends up coming off as more unstable than [[BaldursGate Jon Fucking Irenicus]], for crying out loud.
** And unless you spend a lot of time sucking up to her inflated ego and pyromania, she will try to kill you just before the final boss battle.
** YMMV. This troper sees her as a dangerous ChaoticNeutral as defined by that trope page: utterly amoral, and not having a real understanding of consequences. Her power is inborn when her rivals had to train, her upbringing pampered beyond reason, and as a result she's a self-absorbed git whose understanding of the world begins and ends with how a person treats her, and whether that person's flammable. She makes excuses, she lacks control, she says the other kids started it. It can be said that she's not mature enough to be evil, and with high influence, she even risks her life for a friend -- something all but unheard of for ChaoticEvil. Encouraging her destructive tendencies is evil, sure, but that's because the PC knows better than she does: she has a FreudianExcuse. Left to her own devices, she's going to overreact to things that don't go her way, but she's not going to seek out people just to abuse. Likewise, while she's not going to brook insult well, her first reaction to someone having something she wants isn't to burn the poor guy to death. She needs to be provoked before she'll kill someone.
*** As far as the game's universe goes, alignments are not something you can justify or rationalize. If she is on the verge of burning people down because they talk on her back, and she is more smart than an animal, then she is on the verge of doing something evil.
** Bishop. Bishop's one of the rare ChaoticEvil characters who comes off as sane and functional, even philosophical and, with high reputation, even friendly. His alignment is an extension of both his class and his personal experience, a Social Darwinist (yet not a CompleteMonster) who finds societal conventions to be outright lies, with "civilized" people every bit the same as the animals they set themselves above. His beliefs are so ingrained that he doesn't consider himself above them, and while he does have a FreudianExcuse, even he doesn't buy it. He's an animal, albeit a cunning one, and acts as such.
*** Bishop is also a DesignatedVillain - by himself. He's almost a Woobie, but his self-hatred is so much he's basically decided he's just bad all the way through. In fact, he acts more Neutral than anything else, being very much willing to help other people and utterly hating evil tyrants, [[KnightInSourArmor as long as he can bitch about it before and after.]] His FaceHeelTurn is also unusual in that he seems to think he just has to by his nature, even though he'll go out of his way to save your life beforehand. And this doesn't remotely get into the twisted psychological knot if you're female and he likes you. Honestly, the man needs a good psychologist and/or maybe Confession.

* RelationshipWritingFumble (Of the two romance options reduced to one due to time concerns for males, the one that is kept comes off as creepy JailbaitWait stalker behavior (It predates ''{{Twilight}}'', honest), while even though Neeshka/MC is mostly cut, it is ''still'' more natural feeling [[hottip:* :Neeshka being jealous if you overpay for a painting of another female party member, the above mentioned creepy stalker complaining that she thinks you are looking at Neeshka and even Neeshka resisting MindControl and stating [[spoiler:that you are the only person that has ever been nice to her]]]] then the the one that stayed. In fact, it has more chemistry than ''most'' video game "romance" subplots.

* TooCoolToLive: [[spoiler:Shandra]] stands out among a otherwise party otherwise exclusivly made up of very unoriginal characters as a DeadpanSnarker (not unlike [[KnightsOfTheOldRepublic Jolee Bindo]] for that matter) and master of WhoWritesThisCrap and dies. Qualfies as a {{Wallbanger}} as the setting allows resurrection easily and unlike the other time an ally dies, you are ''easily'' of sufficient level and wealth to bring her back.