Creatures & Difficulty Rating

Overview Creatures should be created like normal in the NWN toolset. However, there are a couple of additional steps to ensure they work with the skill system and grant the appropriate amount of experience.

Adding New Creatures

Adding creatures involves adding rows to the Creatures table in the database. There are two columns in this table:

• DifficultyRating, which represents the amount of challenge posed to the player.
• XPModifier, which represents the XP bonus or penalty for defeating the creature.

Both of these affect skill XP calculations.

DifficultyRating is multiplied against a base 250 XP. Early level creatures should have a rating of 0.5 and this value should increase slowly over time. Refer to the XP Chart for more information on how to scale this.

XPModifier is a percent change on total XP. For example, if DifficultyRating is 1.0 and XPModifier is 0.5 the player will receive a base amount of 125 XP. (250 * 1 * 0.5 = 125). As another example, if DifficultyRating is 2.0 and XPModifier is 1.5 the player will receive a base amount of 750 XP. (250 * 2 * 1.5 = 750). You may also apply penalties to XP by using a negative XPModifier value. The XPModifier is ignored if the value is 0.0.

In general, the XPModifier will be set to 0.0 for most creatures. The exceptions being boss enemies or unique creatures.