Alright...this is a huge TOME of knowledge by me at 1:15 AM.... In two parts....
First and foremost, hurting the summons its chill...they were over powered...lets just admit that off the bat. Next..lets also admit...lvl 8 summons should be able to rock the hill giants...yet they can't... Let us also admit, that there should be AT LEAST an ability to rely on a summon to be supportive in combat...thats why casters summon, for combat purposes. Let us also admit that summons, nearly all of them, stink not only now because of their lack of HP and AC, but also because they make bad combat choices due to their coding. Lvl 8 summon spells shouldn't try and cast magic missle...in any situation... they should pummel, drain, and beat the life out of whatever they hit. Summons should be able to do reasonable damage and recieve reasonable damage as well. As it was before the change, summons could take damage, yet would often meander around and cast worthless instead of immediately helping the caster, resulting in a lot of upsetness. After the change, the summons still make terrible combat choices and are harder to be effective as meat shields....
So, here is what should happen, the summons should have their AC and their HP increased by a little, and their combat code changed to be more combat effective. I'm not asking for summons to be completely awesome or anything else. They simply should be as if another PC of maybe 2-3 lvls higher had just joined the party. I'm down with the summons being toned down...but making them retarded isn't helpful to the characters either. On the other side....
Hulgaru, you're wrong about casters...yes they are supposed to be able to take on the big kahuna when they start hitting higher lvls. Remember...lvl 20 is supposed to symbolize awesomeness, lvls after that are divine in their own right. These types of chars should be able to BRING THE HOUSE DOWN with their lvl 9 spells and their fearsome knack for making craters out of other characters.
What makes it sad is that non-casters at lvl 20 are still stuck with the +3 sword, that is keen and does 2d6 extra damage....now, thats cool...but seriously....non-casters deserve the ability to also bring the house down at lvl 20. simple as that.
I also agree with you that casters should never depend on one spell or a single group of spells. I think however, that this logic is flawed with some respect because already there are 5 spells every character wishes they had.....Haste (1), Divine POwer (2) Divine Favor (3) Weird/that other instant spell i can' tremember because i am too tired to of it spell (4) Ressurect (5).
Clerics have to depend on nearly 10 spells to be effective in combat...and those spells get nerfed monthly which makes it harder for clerics, and actually made clerics focus on less spells. (as a side note..i wish darkfire and bless weapon worked together still on weapons, it makes it better for clerics and their parties to fight as a party. Reducing these spells made it harder for clerics to support other members in their parties [i might be outdated on this little side note]).
But...Remember casters, use all your spells, some of them are truly hidden treasures on this server...like stonehold.
PART 2!! whoo hoo!!!!
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Hulgaru is right....time for more tactics. I truly believe that planning ahead of time can make some seriously uber character. I also believe tha tplanning is the key to lvling fast, and that kind of planning should never be punished. Here are my tactics and thoughts because this is important and I like to help
...so I put them in this post just be friendly
Two weeks for a lvl 8...thats BS. If it takes that long, you're spending too much time looking at stuff instead of killing it.
It took my very first non-caster about 7 days to hit lvl 12, and after that, I realized I built him wrong. I don't see the world coming to a collosal failure because people are leveling fast. And like I said, most casters don't require summons if you plan your spells right....please step this way into ATI"s guide for casters who don't want summons....
Clerics post summon change:
Take Travel and Trickery (the double T combo)
When you're leveling you best bet is to hit early with aid, magic weaopn, magic vestment, and bless. Stay in the undead areas and use your heal magic to get your lvls up quickly.
My recommended starter cleric stats?
Human
14 STR
8 Dex
14 Con
8 Int
18 Wis
8 Cha
This char is dumb, a meat shield, and has lots of spells early on (important when your summons won't do the job for you). If you don't like your lack of skills, increase the INT for a trade off with the WIS points.
For feats, you need extend, extend makes this entire build work after lvl 9.
You'll level up a little slowly, I would suggest using a bludgeoning weapon in order to maximize your damage to undead near your area (assuming you start in NC, if you are in Melencia or NS, I don't know pick your poison)
Get weapon focus, get toughness as a starting feat, and maybe get some weapon proficiencies in whatever weapon makes you happy.
Tactics, this build is made for you to have high HP (means you should reroll for max HP's, if you don't do that....well....okay). It will be tedious not using your summons, you'll lvl really slowly till you get Divine Power, and then at lvl 11 get extended haste.
In battles your use bless, aid, divine power extended, divine favor and extended haste...this means your AB will jump by 9-11 by lvl 11. Which is the Shiznite! Haste will give you an extra attack, and you'll notice you will dish damage out rather well. Enchant weapon or darkfire are both good support weapons. Use Magic Vestment for your Armor and your Shield to get good AC bonuses. With the high HP and the good AC you should be able to hit really well and survive. If you have a party, even better.
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Druids from Melencia Foo!
Depends on what your looking for, I suggest scimitars because of good crit, and also good damage. And when you hit lvl 16 you can get a scimitar, and if you play it right you can crit on 12-20 without being a WM.
Starting out....you have a bear or a cougar as a friend to begin with. Use vines, grease, and barkskin to help you against mobs of goblins in Melencia. What you are waiting for? Lvl 5...why? Call lightning. This spell is the single handedly best spell a druid can have...it'll power lvl you to 20 in 4 hours, trust me, I timed it works like the BOMB, no summon needed.
-------Side note time
I suggest going for knockdown as a cleric or any other non-caster...why? MAN! that feat can hurt ogre lvl monsters and below. Anytime the monster doesn't have an ability to hit you is always a win situation for the PC, simple as that. GET KNOCKDOWN...encorporate into your builds because knockdown works in PVP also. Very good. Also....as a caster..maybe get taunt skill ranks for non casters..why? Taunt is a concentration check and most non-casters.don't put points into concentration. I'll give you five bucks to name me a pure fighter character with 5 points in concentration for taunt only...it doesn't happen...it'll happen...its a waste of skill points as a non-caster. hehehe
----------------------side note done
When you get call lightning just kick the hell out most enemies, use entangle and hold spells to make hard creatures stay in place for your call lightnings. WHne you hid the mid teens, you want to use stonehold and Vine Mine(if it still works like normal) on ogres, giants, dragons, whatever. When the enemies (ideally you are in ogres, because it is really a tight action area) there are lots of ogres in giant mountain that group together in clusters....stonehold rocks that place. Then you fire off 3 call lightnings, and you just went up 1000 xp at lvl 15 in 7 seconds....that my friend is smart playing. No summon required. Seriously, call lightning, the bomb. Others will say it peeks, and in PvP it isn't so good, but hell.....we don't anymore more PvP anyways, and you'll reallly lvl fast with this spell. Very smart.
Mages: Well...i haven't tested these chars so....no luck here.
The clerics and druids don't need summons to lvl up fast, they are built naturally to take down enemies with support (cleric) spells and offensive (druid) spells. Unless the devs want to nerf stonehold, aid, bless, divine power, divine favor, call lightning, and grease, I don't see how my strategy could be destroyed.
The problem is, NO non caster can do these combos, which means that something must be done to help them out.
AS long as casters have spells, they will have a unique advantage over non-casters...that simple. Any small spell makes the caster lvl up that much faster. Something minor like a healing spell, means a cleric can stay out in the battle field longer than a non-caster. Really its about smart character making and tactics.
So, since non-casters have nothing to make them lvl faster, please....give them more items that make them formidable when lvling. It takes long to lvl a non-caster.
However, if your taking two weeks of playing hard, to lvl a char to lvl 8 .... hell, that is bad character design, or true dedication to RPing...which if that is your flavor ice cream okay. But seriously, put THOUGHT into the characters you build, it shouldn't take two weeks to lvl ANYONE to lvl 8. There are only two reason I can think of for why a character is stuck at lvl 8 for two weeks
Reason 1 (and probably most likely): Lack of hunting grounds, since only a small portion of NS4 is actually made by the gods that be, there is a lot fo crowding on a server that holds 40 plus people a night, and only has 60 screens to hold 40 people. That means there is not a lot of potential for people to lvl up like there was back when NS4 first opened for service. This makes sense to me, which means be patient for the devs to double time some epic areas, so that us high lvls can get out of the non-epic lvling areas.
Reason 2 for low lvls after a long time playing: Bad character design. Listen, if you're having fun with a character that is poorly built, like say, a halfing barbarian with 18 INT.....okay...thats funny and stuff...but that doesn't count towards bad lvling grumbles. I know that there is only ONE person with a character that bad, my friend who lives in SLC. Still though, there are a lot of design flaws in characters because not many people plan their characters ahead of time. Here is my solution that worked for me...because I'm a college nerd. Draw up a plan of what you want your character to be...for example...I want my druid to be able to use a scimitar with an awesome crit range, and good offensive ability regarding spells....then try and design a character that fits that description.
First step...get a lvling mod for NWN, that way you can see, quickly, what does and does not work regarding stats, lvl up decisions, spell decisions, feat decisions, and generally most things you would want. In other words..you are divesting maybe 30 minutes spending time building your ideal char, and saving yourself lots of time in game from making bad decisions, restarting chars and so forth.
Next....GO ALL OUT. For god's sake if you are going to make a character design, devote you character entirely to that ideal...don't try and make combination characters that are the middle ground of two different character wishes....if you want a caster and a char that can kill Shadow Dancers....in most cases you shouldn't combine those two character designs unless there is no drawback to the combination. Instead...make TWO characters...one that is a caster, on that is a HiPS killer.... simple as that.
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That done with...no wonder im not higher up on the threads post...but oh well. Hope this helps someone. I know there are grammatical errors and stuff...but oh well. use this advice well my friends. It will help you.
Go to NWNvault and get a lvler mod...it will be the best 10 minutes you ever spent planning chars.
Have fun ya'll.
I've tried fire, i've tried faith, and i've tried force, all I have left is hope.
Does anyone else see something wrong with this?
While interesting and cute, I would like the summons to at least be a tad imposing looking. Instead of having to rely on my opponents laughing themselves to death because I summoned a cow.... 
Have another way to try. By the way the 1 monk level is only for improved unarmed strike, but adds evasion, sigh (leveling up in game is a tricky business).
