New Player Guide

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This server has a GIGANTIC amount of changes from unmodified NWN: EE, including tons of Spell changes, Class changes, & Feat changes.
But fortunately, this server's development team made sure to actually change the in-game descriptions of Spells, Feats, and Classes to reflect these changes.
Anyway, you don't need to read this whole wiki page; in fact, you don't need to read any of it. Just read the sections that interest you.

World of Aetheria

Aetheria is a world at war. The world is separated into Six Factions, which vie for control of their territories.

Each faction has its own flavor, faction-specific prestige classes, and restrictions on what characters you can make there. It is important to understand these restrictions if you wish to play a certain faction, and to understand that all players must join a faction before they are allowed to venture out into the world or gain experience points. Make sure to review the Factions page while planning you characters.

Factions

Faction Table for a quick chart.

One other city of note in Aetheria is the City of Trade, Avendell. It is neutral to all Factions and is a sanctuary to the war outside its gates. (no fighting allowed in Avendell or the immediate area around it). Avendell is closest to Neversummer City, the capitol of the Last Alliance, being not too far north of it. Inside of Avendell shops of all kinds can be found, along with The Hilltop Inn, and its own graveyard.

Alliances have been formed between many of these factions. The alliances include that of the Shadow Legion and the Mystral Ascendancy, that of the Northern Coalition and The Circle, and that of Ragnar's Kin and the Ancient Ones.

Commandments

Neversummer 4 has a set of commandments which all players are required to abide by, lest you ruin someone else's fun or be punished by a Dungeon Master. Please see Commandments or your in-game journal for more information.

What's the first thing I should do?

When you first enter the server, you will be in an area where you are asked to join a faction (see above). Each faction has advantages and limitations (i.e. not all classes, particularly prestige classes, races, alignments, or clerical domains are allowed in all factions). If you have a specific character build in mind, then check the wiki to make sure that it's legal in the faction that you want to join.

Talk to some of the NPCs in your faction's starting zone to get information about where to go, such as where to find instructions for a faction job to introduce you to the area.

The starter jobs are challenging, but very achievable at low levels; the ones easiest for a level 1 player involve killing things.

  • Think about the strengths and weaknesses of your build thus far – if you have low STR but high DEX and don't have weapon finesse, then try using a ranged weapon to start until your melee abilities catch up... or if your hp is particularly low, then stand back and use a ranged weapon anyway... just don't kill them from really, really, really far away, lest you not be given any experience points for the kill
  • Choose your battles so as not to be... overwhelmed
  • For casters, summons spells are very powerful, especially at low levels (and more so with the appropriate feats, and in some cases, races or domains), and these spells are very helpful for levelling (familiars and animal companions are disabled, but those classes have the summoning spells; animal empathy can work well too, but isn't always reliable). Enchanted armor & shields sold at shops for level 1 characters have 5% immunity to either slashing, bludgeoning, or piercing damage. Most creatures in that level range do 1 damage per hit, and the 5% resistance will absorb a minimum of 1 damage, making it great for staying alive. (slashing is the most common type, in case you're unsure which to get)


Starter gear is available via:

  • a faction quartermaster, who will be in the same building that you enter your faction – they sell mundane weapons, armor, and ammo, which are the cheapest equipable items in the game by leaps and bounds
  • an NPC named Elvin in the market area of your faction city – he sells healing kits, cure wounds potions, thieves tools, and a few other sundries
  • shops in the faction city centers – sell better gear for L1, L5, and L9, including, weapons, armor, and other. The gear is not labelled with the required level (there is a naming system), but you can try it on before you buy it, and if you are too low level you will not be able to equip and there will be a message saying you are too low level. These merchants will also identify items of for you, for a price


Note that the only potions sold by any vendor on the server are healing potions – all other potions must be found or crafted.

  • Spellcasters, including even Paladins and Rangers, can make potions and/or scrolls for most spells they area able to cast (including healing potions), for an cost of experience points and gold; look for scroll scribing or potion crafting stations in a magic shop or temple.


Where do I go?

Adventuring around your faction's capital will get you to L5-9, possibly a little higher. After that, most players start to try to make their way to the neutral city of Avendell, then points beyond …

There are Maps and some descriptions of Areas, including by level.

It’s okay to use the shout channel to find a party and ask questions, so long as you don't overdo it.

What should I build first?

Most players on NS4 end up making many characters, especially considering that an experienced player can casually reach level 40 in a few weeks, so don't get stressed out about your first character - just have fun!

If you don't know what to build as your first character, then heres some recommendations for first character builds, which are designed not for PvP or endgame PvE(though some are capable of one or both); they are designed for getting to know the server... if a race is not specified, then pick whichever race you'd like:

-a half-ogre 40 barbarian with devastating critical(1h melee weapon), a shield(not for the AC), mighty rage, thundering rage, epic damage reduction III, and some discipline... cannot be a member of the Northern Coalition or the Mystral Ascendancy
-a 40 druid, 35 druid/5 monk, 35 druid/5 bard, 35 druid/5 harper scout, or if your faction allows evil characters, 35 druid/5 blackguard; just make sure you've get discipline and animal empathy, as well as automatic quicken spell III, and epic spell focus: conjuration or necromancy+epic spell: dragon knight or mummy dust, and epic spell: hellball... all of these cannot be a member of the Northern Coalition, Shadow Legion, or Mystral Ascendancy, and do note that, if this guy isn't a blackguard, he can be a max-level leatherworker to boot
-a character with 35 or more wizard levels who has some sort of discipline, a bit of investment into constitution, automatic quicken spell III, toughness, epic spell focus: conjuration or necromancy+epic spell: dragon knight or mummy dust, epic spell: epic warding and hellball, and possibly epic mage armor... cannot be a member of The Circle or the Northern Coalition
-a 40 paladin who has 30 or more charisma if given a magical +12 charisma bonus, as well as divine might, divine shield, devastating critical(1h melee weapon), a shield, armor skin, and discipline... must be a member of the Northern Coalition or Ragnar's Kin
-a 40 fighter with devastating critical(1h melee weapon & 2h weapon), a shield(when using the 1h weapon)(not for the AC), and a LOT of discipline... go for the 1h weapon first, and do note that this guy can also be a max-level armor or weapon crafter to boot
-something with 32 or more cleric levels; just make sure you get some discipline, automatic quicken spell III, and the travel domain, and although some clerics do like epic spell focus: conjuration or necromancy+epic spell: dragon knight or mummy dust, some other clerics don't like those
-something with 5 or 10 shadowdancer levels and a very high amount of hide and move silently; if you don't include either devastating critical:(any weapon) or huge sneak attacks, this guy will take a very, very, very long time to level up... cannot be a member of the Ancient Ones
-a 12 druid/28 shifter or 10 druid/30 shifter with outsider shape, construct shape, dragon shape, some discipline and animal empathy, and, if you can make room, blinding speed... must be a member of The Circle
-a character with 30 red dragon disciple levels, as well as blinding speed, devastating critical: unarmed strike, and some discipline; your good spare class choices include monk, barbarian, cleric(which needs divine shield and some cha to be worth it) , and fighter... monk is the most common one because, although they don't get their wisdom-based AC while in Red Dragon Shape, they do get their unarmed attack progression while in Red Dragon Shape... must be a member of The Ancient Ones
-a character with 30 dwarven defender levels, as well as devastating critical: (1h melee weapon(with a shield) or two-sided weapon) and epic damage reduction III, and some discipline; don't worry about your AC at epic levels... must be a member of Ragnar's Kin
-an 8 wizard/2 rogue/30 pale master with epic spell focus: necromancy, epic spell: epic warding, and some discipline and AC... must be a member of the Mystral Ascendancy; do note that your super-summon will be doing most of the work as this build

That said, some basic starter builds can be found here: https://ns4ee.com/forum_archive/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=1004282&sid=fe6cc9b391f758dd70ce388f60f8c1f6

Jobs

Each faction has 2 or 3 Jobs, small quests that are obtained from NPCs in the faction capital city and allow new players to learn a little about the areas (some keep you close to home, some send you much further). Completion of each provides a small permanent magical boost to skills and/or ability scores, an activatable token with useful properties(1-3 times per day), or both. Talk to the NPCs around the area where you first came into your faction's city to get started.

PvP

The conflict between the factions is a primary feature of NS4, so go get 'em! PvP (Player Vs. Player combat) is allowed and encouraged on the server, within the guidelines of the Commandments. Outside of a few designated no-PvP zones (Avendell and Frostdale), all areas of Aetheria are open for PvP, and any level can participate. Periodic events, claiming of maps, ambushes, can and will happen, so be prepared! That said, griefing, venge logging, and other jerk behaviors are not tolerated and will be stopped forthwith.
The Relic System is a feature wherein each faction possesses a relic which they must defend, while capturing their enemies relics in order to earn the favor of the gods. Factions that possess their relic along with some of their enemies' receive a significant XP bonus, so competition is fierce - raiding and defending become regular occurrences. Planned events with large scale fighting are periodically staged around this system, with rewards and unlimited glory for the victors!
No experience loss occurs upon death to another PC, and no XP is earned for a player kill. The exception is in raiding and defending - defenders receive an XP reward upon successfully killing an enemy opponent in their faction city, and raiders who die lose a smallish amount of gold which is rewarded to their killer.

Solo Server? Party Server?

Concerning non-PvP content, Neversummer 4 is not a solo server, but rather, a party server; that said, however, there are still many, many ways to level up by yourself, including at low levels, but some character builds can't reach level 40 by themselves without fighting enemies of a level far below them. Even for the more capable builds, you'll have a lot more options for where to level if you're in a group. Many bosses, including all endgame bosses, are not designed to be able to be defeated by a single player of an appropriate level.

Low Magic? High Magic?

For endgame gear, the stat bonuses are typically +8 and none exceed +10 on any single item. Weapon enchantment bonuses max out at +8, and AC bonuses from items max out at +6 armor, +6 shield, +5 deflection, +5 natural, and +5 dodge (+7 if the boots have no dex). Some AC values may exceed those vs specific races, alignments, or other criteria.
Haste has been modified to, in total, have ONLY the following effects: +1 AB, +1 dodge AC, +1 reflex save, +1 attack per round, +50% movespeed (less if you're a monk, although monks are still speedy). Blinding Speed grants an additional +1 dodge AC. No equipment in the entire game has perma-haste as an item property, and if people want to cast spells quickly, they're going to need Automatic Quicken Spell (I, II, III).
Furthermore, no item offers Immunity: Poison, Disease, Level/Ability Drain, Fear, Mind-Affecting Spells, Death Magic, Knockdown, Slow, or Freedom of Movement either. Certain classes may provide immunities and or spell-like abilities that can be used.
No spell in the game offers immunity to fear or death magic, and the only thing that offers immunity to mind-affecting spells is Perfect Self. All endgame melee weapons other than Katana of the Sun are keen.
As such, spells such as Wail of the Banshee, Dominate Monster, Slow, Infestation of Maggots, Fear, and Energy Drain are all useful in both PvE and PvP on this server, even at level 40... although endgame NPCs (35+) mostly have very high saves, and will just save against all of that stuff.
Also, saves were modified on NS4 so that rolling a 1 doesn't result in an automatic failure, so no spamming petrification gaze or implosion on endgame bosses until they roll a 1 and die; AC was not similarly changed.

Class And Feat Changes

Neversummer 4 has had tons and tons of class and feat changes, some of the more interesting ones of which which will be highlighted here:

Among the class changes include epic pale masters getting an extremely powerful summon, epic red dragon disciples getting dragon shape (red only), assassins getting a self-only godly poison, dwarven defenders getting 10% physical damage immunity every 10 levels (which goes well with some equipment that this server has), Divine Wrath having a much longer duration, epic rangers getting wilderness-only Hide in Plain Sight, a few base classes getting huge bonuses at epic levels if they don't multiclass, harper scouts and purple dragon knights actually being good, blackguards getting a better epic fiendish servant, monk ac from wisdom not applying while shifted, and not being allowed to have monk levels with epic shifter feats in the same build, although shifters were extremely modified and are still good... although, unfortunately, animal companions and familiars are disabled due to bugs and balance issues.

Among the feat changes include overwhelming crit adding 2 threat range and devcrit adding 1 critmult instead of fort save or die, both of which stack with everything and makes str characters be able to compete with dexers, blinding speed lasting for lvl*2 rounds, spell focus feats making some spells better beyond increasing their DC, dragon knight and mummy dust actually being useful (with focus feats), and hellball being self-friendly at caster lvl 35 and party-friendly at caster lvl 40.

Skills

The following skills are of absolutely no use in Neversummer 4 beyond, where applicable, being a prerequisite for a prestige class:
Appraise
Bluff
Craft Armor
Craft Weapon
Intimidate, unless you have Terrifying Rage
Persuade
Pick Pocket
Ride

All other skills are useful on this server in some way or the other.

However, there is a custom crafting system for weapons, armor, wearables, and consumable items that do not utilize the Craft Armor or Craft Weapon skills. See the Crafting section above for more information.

Subraces

Take care when selecting Subraces in NS4. Many subraces have powerful features that set them above the stock races, but may carry unwanted side-effects. One such side-effect is effective character level, or ECL. In a nutshell, the more ECL you have, the slower you level up. You don't need to pick a max ECL subrace to be a strong character, as the strongest possible characters in Neversummer 4 have an ECL penalty varying between none and the maximum.

The bonuses given to subraces are hard-coded bonuses that are applied after your character has been created, meaning that they are natural and can qualify you for thing such as Feat selection or Spell Level, and are completely unrelated to the magical ability bonus cap of +12, but subracial ability bonuses will have no effect upon how you take your first level(1, not 2). Also, if a Subrace has a bonus or penalty to Intelligence, it will affect the number of Skill Points a character receives at levels 2-40. Furthermore, if you take a feat at level 1 that has a stat prerequisite(such as Power Attack), and then, after your subrace is applied to your character, you no longer meet that prerequisite, you'll keep that feat, which will function normally.

Race Table for a quick chart of ability bonuses.

Race overview for a single page view of all the races.

Spells

Many spells have been changed to act differently in Neversummer 4 than they did in the Bioware campaigns. Among these changes are Time Stop and Black Blade of Disaster not being ridiculously overpowered, Flame Lash and Call Lightning getting buffed, persistent AoE and non-AoE effects of the same type not stacking (so you can't stack multiple Infernos on the same guy or Creeping Dooms in the same place, for example), Holy Sword's dispel level being massively nerfed, and True Seeing only increasing your spot and search skills by 20-30(depending on focus feats) and acting as see invisibility instead of causing you to automatically see through stealth and whatnot. Please see Spell Changes for more information.
Casting a spell or using a spell-like ability will cancel Expertise and Improved Expertise.

Crafting

Neversummer 4 utilizes its own unique crafting system, which makes no use of Brew Potion, Craft Wand, or Scribe Scroll. Crafting professions include Armor Smithing, Martial Weapon Smithing (which includes Simple weapons), Exotic Weapon Smithing, Fletching, Leatherworking, Tailoring, and Arcane Crafting. Your maximum crafting level for these professions is unrelated to your feats and your Craft Armor and Craft Weapon skills, and has solely to do with your class levels, and you may only have one of these professions at a time. Items ranging from levels 1-30 may be crafted. Furthermore, any spellcaster can craft potions and scrolls of any spell that they can cast without class restrictions or the utilization of the Arcane Crafting profession, although the crafting of scrolls and especially potions have their own restrictions. Being a Potion Brewer or Scroll Scriber do not prevent you from being either or from having a different profession. See General Crafting for more information.

Merchants

Each faction city has a vendor that sells items without special properties for starting characters, which are the cheapest items on the server, and by a lot. In most cities, these merchants are on the map that the character first sees when joining that faction after the cutscenes are over. These merchants offer items from a menu of selections, but items cannot be sold to them.

All other merchants in NS4 are custom-designed to be more like an actual store. All shops are open at all hours, with the exception of the archery shop in Melencia, whose hours are listed on the sign in front of it. All equipment on the server, bought or not, has level restrictions of 1, 5, 9, 13, 16, 20, 25, 30, 35, or 40, but you can't buy items of a level higher than 16, barring ammunition and throwing weapons, for which you can buy up to level 30 items. Merchants in Faction Cities carry level 1-9 gear, buy level 1-13 items, and identifies level 1-16 items while Avendell has level 1-13, buys level 1-16 items, and identifies level 1-20 items. The merchant in Frostdale sells level 13-16 throwing weapons and ammunition, buys level 1-25 items, and identifies level 1-30 items, and a merchant in the Planes has level 13-16 gear, including thrown weapons and ammunition of up to level 30, and buys and identifies level 1-30 items. The rest of the gear must be found from hostile NPCs and bosses located around Aetheria by killing them, and in the Planes beyond in the same manner, or by crafting them; see the Crafting section above for more details.

To use the merchant shops, you must select the equipment you want from the chests in the store, then take it to the merchant for purchasing. It is highly recommended that you try items before you buy if you are unsure if you can use them. If you are not high enough level for that item you will be told so in the combat dialog box. Along with buying items, merchants will also allow you to sell and Identify your goods for you. Please note that some stores are unable to buy some items. This includes quest items and items of a level that is too high for some stores. For example, you may not sell diamonds or rubies to merchants in Faction Cities, and no NPC will buy level 35 or 40 items because they're too high-level.
Also, shoplifting is impossible; leaving a store with unpurchased items causes them to disappear into thin air, even if the server resets before you leave the store.

Summons

The summons in NS4 have been completely revamped. Some Spell Focus Feats and Cleric Domains affect the strength of your summons. Summon creature spells are affected by good/neutral/evil alignment in that they will summon different creatures. Prestige classes like the Pale Master and Blackguard, more so the Pale Master, have quite powerful custom summons, but require dedication to be strong. For more information, see the Summon Guide

It also should be noted that Animal Companions and Familiars are disabled.

Shifting

Neversummer 4 uses a custom shifting system that merges items into shifted forms in a more natural way. Unlike the bioware system, all bonuses from items and spells stack just the same as they would unshifted. For more information, see the NS4 Shifting Guide.

Alignment Changes

There is only one way to change your alignment in Aetheria, and that is by becoming a Pale Master, which will irreversibly turn you evil. There is no other way to change your alignment in Aetheria, so consider this when deciding what kind of character to make.

Experience Loss

In Aetheria, dying and clicking the respawn button will, in most non-PvP cases, result in a loss of experience points equal to lvl*50(and costing 10% of your gp and teleporting you to your bind point), which can cause you to lose a level, and can potentially reduce your level all the way down to 1. If a player makes the killing blow against you, respawning will incur no experience penalty. Furthermore, crafting items also consumes experience points depending upon what you're making, but it cannot cause you to lose a level, in which case the item(s) will simply not be crafted because you don't have enough experience points to craft the item without losing a level.
Do note, however, that you can continue to gain experience points after you've taken your 40th level, which will only serve to let you craft items and click the respawn button however many times without losing a level.

Automated Server Resets

Every 4 hours, the server will undergo an automated reset.
Your progress, aside from which part of the zone you're in you're in, will be saved just before this happens, and the server will typically be back online in no more than 30 seconds.
The server shouts when there are 10 minutes before an automated reset, and again when there are 5 minutes before an automated reset.
Whenever you log on, at the top of the combat log, the server will display how much time there is until the next automated reset. The chat command /resettimer will also help with this.

Server Size

Neversummer 4's module is so large that the module is nearly at its file size limit, with over 600 areas. Spells, feats, and other content are extensively customized for balance and fun.

Lag

As with almost any online game, lag is an inevitable issue, especially when a lot of players are online on Wednesday nights and most of them are nearby. Turning off the combat log may reduce lag if many players are nearby. During times of lag, NPC conversation may be slow, or be halted altogether, though these days they usually aren't. If you get no response at all, ask nicely for a reset on the DM channel or shout (a DM may be on as a player). When the server does go down for a non-automatic reset, the DM will usually give enough warning for you to get to a safe spot, rest, and use your diary to save your character's progress.

Under some circumstances, the server has been known to crash (which is extremely rare), causing a possible loss of xp, items, etc. Using your diary and resting normally do save your character, but if the server crashes it seems to roll back to an earlier point of the database, causing the loss of up to a couple of hours' worth of data. Logging off and then back on will prevent this loss--logging off seems to set your data in the database so that it does not get lost in a crash.

Character Deletion

If you wish to reuse the same character name you MUST wait until after the server resets before recreating the character!

If you have a character that very sure that you don't want to play anymore, you can't delete them via. the delete character button on the character selection screen. Instead, that character must speak to any NPC named Devil Angel, which can be found in each capital city of the playable factions, as well as on the map where new characters select which faction to join.

Character deletion is an irreversible process, these characters cannot be restored.

YOU CAN GO PLAY NOW!! or, if you are still enjoying reading, here are some Very Basic Endgame Character-Building Guidelines

Some basic tips specific to NS4 are below - for some even more details, see Basic Endgame Character Building Guidelines.

Regardless of the existence of that guide, some very basic tips will be provided for character building so that, for example, you don't make a character with 30 Champion of Torm levels without Extend Spell, and THEN finally find out that Divine Wrath will last for twice as long if you have Extend Spell and get upset about not having known that vital information earlier.

-There exist many class restrictions on this server that don't exist in Bioware's official single-player campaigns. See Category:Class for more information.
-If you are a pure-classed Barbarian, Fighter, or Paladin, then, at epic levels, joining the NPC-run Purist Guild in Avendell will permanently grant your character many powerful abilities as you progress through epic levels, but all of these abilities will permanently vanish if you ever, at any point, take a second class, even if you delevel to get rid of the second class afterwards. Not even a Dungeon Master can get them back if you take a second class. The Purist Guild in Avendell is the only NPC-run guild on the server, and you may be in both a player-run guild and the Purist Guild at the same time.
-Overwhelming Critical and Devastating Critical were changed to no longer have the fort save or die thing, but instead make you crit like a Weapon Master; Weapon Masters with Overwhelming Critical and Devastating Critical will crit even harder and even more often, essentially becoming double Weapon Masters, who, surprisingly, aren't overpowered with their crits ranging from 14-20/x4 to 14-20/x6 or 8-20/x4.
-All equipment on the entire server lacks the following item properties: permahaste, permaFoM, permaTS, immunity to critical hits, immunity to death magic, and immunity to any debuff. Maximum weapon enhancement bonuses range from +6 to +8, maximum armor enhancement bonuses range from +5 to +7, and maximum str/dex/con/wis/int/cha bonuses on gear typically max out at +8 to the stat when combined together, causing spells such as Bull's Strength, Finger of Death, Dominate Monster, Entangle, Infestation of Maggots, and Sanctuary to be useful at more than just low and medium levels. You can easily get +8 to str/dex/con/int/wis/cha from endgame gear without gimping yourself, except you'll probably have to make a substantial sacrifice to get your dex from +7 to +8 from gear.
-No spell in the entire game will grant you immunity to mind-affecting spells or death magic, so watch out for mind-affecting spells and death magic, even if you have mind blank or death ward.
-Because Haste doesn't increase spellcasting speed on this server, 100% of characters that are focused on spellcasting will want to have Automatic Quicken Spell III by the time they reach level 40. Bards are still good, even without the ability to autoquicken their spells.
-War Cry adds a substantial amount of damage to your attacks, but it'll add twice as much damage if you have Artist.
-Strength-stacking characters should try to get Devastating Critical by level 40; Arcane Archers will commonly take Devastating Critical too, though arcane archers almost never get more than 25 base strength.
-Dexterity-stacking characters, even if lacking spells, are not made bad by the changes to Devastating Critical; dexers are still good.
-Dexterity-stacking characters who aren't high-level Bards, Sorcerers, Wizards, or Clerics with the Travel Domain will want to get Blinding Speed by level 40, which is undispellable, provides +1 AC more than regular haste, and has a duration of HD*2 rounds, which results in 8 minutes at level 40.
-Assassins want to stack either dex or int.
-Barbarians want to stack str, but if they're Githyanki pure barbarians, then they might opt to stack con instead.
-Divine Wrath, on this server, has a duration of CoT lvl+chamod rounds, both elements of which are automatically doubled if you have the Extend Spell feat, so people with a lot of Champion of Torm levels will always want to have at least 1 level in a caster class so that they can get extend spell. People with more than 10 Champion of Torm levels usually rest a lot.
-People who heavily invest into spellcasting as a Cleric, Druid, Sorcerer, or Wizard will typically want to get Epic Spell Focus into one or more schools of magic in order to empower important spells such as Implosion, Storm of Vengeance, Dominate Monster, Dragon Knight, or Mummy Dust.
-Pure Fighters shouldn't be afraid to specialize in more than one type of weapon. Also, pure fighters should get as much discipline as is reasonably possible to make their special AoE knockdown good.
-Harper Scouts have some actual use on this server, but some will want to stack either wis or cha in order to increase the DC of their sleep feat, which works on enemies of all levels. There are a few real reasons to be a harper scout without a high wisdom or charisma, but not as many as if you do.
-People will commonly build characters with Divine Might, Divine Shield, or both. Said characters, by level 40, will typically have a self-buffed chamod of 10 or higher if they have one, or 12 or higher if they have both.
-The Monk's wisdom-based AC bonus does not apply while you are polymorphed, but their level-based AC bonus, speed, and unarmed attack progression do.
-Characters with 20 or more Pale Master levels will want to get Epic Spell Focus: Necromancy in order to empower their Summon Greater Undead feat. The second-best summon requires at least regular spell focus, while the best one requires at least greater spell focus, at which point you might as well get epic spell focus to make it even stronger.
-Purple Dragon Knights usually want to stack charisma; they also don't suck on this server, at least if you stack charisma.
-Rangers will want to take the following Favored Enemy feats if they're concerned about endgame PvE: Outsider (especially Outsider), Undead, Elf, Human, Aberration, and Dragon are the important ones, while less important ones include Dwarf, Gnome, Construct, Reptilian Humanoid, Vermin, and Magical Beast, although you don't really need magical beast since you can get animal empathy... and for endgame PvP, you'll want, in order of importance (not considering Shifters), Human, Elf, Half-orc, Dwarf, Gnome, Halfling, Dragon/Elemental, Undead/Outsider. Nobody makes Half-elves, so don't bother picking them.
-Rangers gain wilderness-only Hide in Plain Sight at level 21, so characters with epic ranger levels will probably want to make some sort of investment into Hide and Move Silently, even if you don't take any feats to improve them.
-Red Dragon Disciples will want to have either 10 or 30 levels by level 40, with a grey area only existing at level 11. Epic Red Dragon Disciples get Red Dragon Shape with no stat requirements, which has a fixed amount of base str/dex/con and grows in power as the red dragon disciple levels up. As such, characters with 30 red dragon disciple levels will usually get Devastating Critical: Unarmed Strike, Blinding Speed, and possibly also Epic Damage Reduction III, all in the same build, and also have barbarian, cleric, fighter, or monk levels, and are pretty scary in PvP.
-If you intend to specialize into a particular Shifter shape, then do not make a Shifter until you've done research about Shifters; Shifters are very, very, very, very different on this server than on other servers. See Shifter and Shifting Guide for more information.
-Undead Shape, Outsider Shape, Construct Shape, and Dragon Shape(not counting RDD dragon shape) will not function if you have even a single level in any class that isn't named Druid or Shifter. As before, you don't need to be a Shifter to use Dragon Shape, though having 10 or more shifter levels while in dragon shape will automatically grant you a colossal fear aura(aura lasts forever, fear is 5 rounds) of DC=30+wismod while in dragon shape.
-Undead Shape Kinda sucks; don't bother taking it unless you can't think of anything else to spend a feat on, or you plan to de-level and re-level later.

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