Aloha everyone, long time watcher first time runner here. Noticed a lack of Neverwinter Nights 2 speedruns out there and decided to fill the void. Took a long time but I finally got a run recorded and thought I would share my findings here.

Run:

Comments on the run;

Neverwinter Nights 2 Any% Route/Character

My player character is a Grey Orc Cleric at creation. Grey Orc is used for the passive base movement speed, they're faster than all the other playable races. Cleric is chosen for the travel and cold domains, travel for the passive move speed bonus and cold to make surviving west harbor slightly less random. My stats are as follows;

STR - 18 Despite being a spellcaster I do a decent amount of melee
DEX - 8 Only used for AC and reflex save, both of which are irrelevant with the infinite HP glitch
CON - 9 Set at an odd number to enable infinite HP later
INT - 10 To make sure I have enough skill points
WIS - 11 So I can cast Cure Light Wounds at one point
CHA - 16 Will ultimately be a CHA based arcane caster so this is maxed (for a Grey Orc)

Starting skill points are spent in spellcraft and concentration. First level feat is used on "Spellcasting Prodigy"

My character progression path is somewhat unorthodox, despite choosing cleric as my base class I will ultimately build in to an Arcane Scholar of Candlekeep with Sorcerer as my base arcane spellcasting class. I will also take 3 levels of Monk for the last 3 characters levels I have available to me for the first level of monk movement speed bonus. My character levels will look as follows at 20;

Cle - 1
Sor - 8
AsoC - 8
MnK- 3

My general strategy is based around using as many maximized greater firebursts as possible. Maximize spell is a meta magic feat available to spellcasters in this game that maximizes all random elements of  any spell that is "maximized." For all my thoughts and testing I believe maximized greater fireburst to the be the highest real time DPS ability in the game. It deals 120 (15D8 maximized) to all enemies in a 30 yard radius emanating from the spellcaster. This simply murders the vast majority of enemies in little effort. Arcane Scholar of Candlekeep is a prestige class that has access to the "Improved Maximize Spell" class feature which reduces the additional spell level added to maximized spell by 1. This means I have more maximized greater firebursts per rest. I also make use of many of other spells, some of which are maximized. Mostly they are Isaac's Greater Missile Storm, Horrid Wilting, Banishment, Mordenkainen's Sword, Cone of Cold, and Disintegrate.

My route utilizes a number of glitches, some of which I believe I discovered myself. They are as follows;

Infinite HP Glitch - This is the most widely known glitch that I use. The game does not correctly handle calculating your current HP when you equip multiple items that provide a constitution bonus. When your character has an odd constitution and you have 2 separate sources of bonus constitution where in one item provides an odd number bonus and the other an even number bonus, equipping both with cause the game to incorrectly calculate your current HP to exceed your maximum HP. Rapidly un-equipping and re-equipping the item with the odd bonus you can infinitely and very quickly gain HP. The amount you per equip is based on your current hit dice (total character level) and the amount of bonus CON you receive. For the purpose of this run I will be using "Boots of Striding +1" which when equipped will give me hp equal to my hit dice. I utilize this to trivialize the vast majority of damage in the game. One thing to note about this is that despite having literally thousands of hit points at certain times my character is still vulnerable to instant death attacks. Also of note is that if your base CON is an even number, this glitch will cause you to lose HP instead of gain it when you equip the odd number bonus CON item. This can happen if you get poisoned or diseased that reduces your base CON, it sometimes happens in the eyegouger approach from the blade spiders.

Infinite Scroll Glitch - I believe I found this glitch. Essentially the way this works is that when you use a scroll there is a decent chunk of time between when the effect occurs (damage dealt, etc...) and when the scroll is "consumed" from your inventory. If during this time you move the scroll into another character's inventory whom also has a copy of that exact same scroll, the scroll will ultimately not be consumed. Instead will be added to the stack of scrolls in the second character's inventory. This allows you to then split the stack and repeat the process. This isn't limited to scrolls, most consumable items in the game can be glitched like this. All that's required is you have 2 copies of any given consumable and they are in different character's inventories. This glitch is also used to create a scroll from a scroll. Upon reaching the docks district I use this glitch to create a second scroll of Greater Fireburst from a single scroll. This is done by simply pausing the game as soon as the scroll is created, at this point I will have 2 copies of the scroll in Aimee's inventory. By moving them in a specific order to my player character's inventory, the newly created scroll first followed by the original, then neither scroll will be consumed by the item creation and allow me to use the infinite scroll glitch to destroy the entire first chapter. My personal belief regarding this glitch is that items are queued up to be deleted based on some sort of internal item/inventory id, however because of the fact that stackable items auto stack upon entering a characters inventory I believe you essentially confuse the game because the item/inventory id it was looking for to delete no longer exists. Instead the other id now simply has a quantity of "2"

Infinite XP/influence Glitch (Quest loops) - There are certain quests where after you finish the dialog the game has characters run out of the room you're in. However the developers certainly didn't expect you to actually close the door behind you in most cases. At two different points in the run I abuse the closed doors to allow me to complete certain dialogs as many times as I want. The first time is in the eyegouger orc lair to gain enough influence with Elanee to ensure she wont turn on after the circle of mere druids fight. The second time is in a side quest area during chapter 2, the Bryce Family Crypt, by convincing Savanna to turn from the king of shadows you gain 400 xp (you need a +9 diplomacy check to do this). You can wedge her up next to the closed door in the room and complete the quest as many times as you want to for 400 XP every time. I use this glitch to get to level 20 immediately after reaching chapter 2

Save/Load Warping - Your NPC party members always load into fixed positions relative to your main character whenever you load a saved game. It is possible to abuse this to skip certain cut scenes and locked doors. Most prominent uses in this run are skiping Aimee's death in West Harbor, skipping the wolf cut scene before back alley, skipping the entirety of the archives mini game trivia thing, skipping all of river keep and the temple of seasons in Arvhan, and skipping the majority of meredelain at the end of the game.

Spell loops - Another glitch I believe I found. Not sure how to explain this one, essentially the way it works is you issue 2 commands simultaneously to your character while they're in the middle of a casting animation. I do this primarily by issuing a move command and attempting to equip my boots of striding at the same time. The result of all this is that the spell I'm currently casting will repeat it's self WITHOUT consuming a daily spell charge for that spell level. I can't move my character or take any other actions will spell looping, however so long as I don't flub my inputs it seems I can loop spells as long as I want. This is abused immensely after I hit level 20.

Route by splits;

West Harbor - After skipping the tutorial I do my best to menu through leveling up my PC and Aimee as quickly as possible. I pick up 1 level of sorcerer on my PC while making sure to choose expeditious retreat and sleep as my level 1 spells and a pig as my familiar. For Aimee all she needs is exp. retreat at level 2, and at level 3 she gets Skill Focus(Concentration) for a feat and Fireburst and Invisibility for level 2 spells. I loot the mace from the chest, set my spells for Aimee and rest to refresh them. I unequip my chain mail for arcane spell failure and equip mace so I don't trigger attacks of opportunity when I melee. Also set sleep on my hotbar and turn off party AI. Run past the dwarves on the first level and outside, dialogue with brother merry is just mash 3. Use Aimee to fireburst the grey dwarves by Georg and mash talking to him as soon as possible. George tells us to find 5 militia members and rally them to the fields. Certain militia members are injured, if you're a divine spell caster you can heal them without returning the brother merry for the healing berries, this is partially why I take Cleric at level 1. When crossing the bridge there is normally a tigger at the end of the bridge to cause 3 grey dwarves off the left to turn agro and run in to combat. If your character is not your currently selected character when they run over this trigger it wont actually function for some reason. After recruiting 2 militia men I use the save/load warp to skip the cut scene where Aimee is supposed to die, this is key for the run. After save warping I abuse the fact that any conversation will warp your PC directly to it a few times to get around faster. The 4 waves of enemies at the end are pretty heavy RNG, how many of them get put to sleep is pure luck. Putting low level enemies to sleep is essentially instant death as anything with less than 4 hit dice can then be hit with a coup de grace which instantly kills it. The second and fourth waves get a fireburst to speed things up, mostly due to the positioning of the enemies. A good west harbor is sub 5:30 but I usually take anything sub 6 minutes

Swamp Ruins - Have to save and load to get Aimee back in to my party first thing here. Next I set up her spells; level 1 - exp. rereat x2 and magic missile x1, level 2 - invis x1 and fireburst x1. Aimee goes invisible and uses exp. retreat to get the ruins as fast as possible. You can't enter the swamp ruins until the 4 lizardlings outside the door are dead. A good roll on fireburst will kill all 4, magic missile is incase there's any stragglers. Inside the ruins a quick rest to get invis back and then it's just a straight run the end. My charisma is high enough to use the dialogue options 2 and 2 to convince the lizard people to leave. Choosing 1 after looting the shard is essential, if you don't you have to walk all the way back to the world map loading zone.

Fort Locke - Starts off with the Kelgar fight, ideally all 3 go to sleep and get coup'd quickly. Back up is fireburst if that doesn't happen. Inside the inn we get the first example of fights that feel like they should be mandatory but aren't. You can simply leave after the bladelings attack the inn. At Fort Locked proper my PC goes invis and runs the Neeshka cut scene ASAP. The fight after the cut scene will resolve it's self if you just run in to the fort which is really convenient. I need the kukri +1 and dagger +1 from the chest/bodies here for the money route. I give the golden chalice of lathandar to Aimee so her lore skill can auto identify it for me, saves a small amount of menuing in sand's shop latter.

Highcliff - The ambush between Fort Locke and highcliff is another example of a fight you simply don't have to do. The game certainly intends for you to finish the encounter so you can be introduced to Elanee but you can just exit the area. It is fairly dangerous to simply run for the exit, I've died plenty of times here. By skipping the Elanee introduction dialogue you also skip having to go the side area she tells you to use over the main roads, I think it's called the maiden's glade or something. It's been a really long time since I've been there. Another byproduct is that the cut scene that normally plays when you enter Highcliff for the first time, the one where the ship sets sail and is sunk by lizardmen, doesn't play.After zoning in to Highcliff my main goal is to talk to the elder ASAP. While running there I change up my spellbooks, I take cure light wounds x3 on my PC, invis x2 and exp. retreat x3 on Aimee and cat's grace x1 on Elanee. This is done now because I will need these new spell set ups shortly and when I leave Highcliff and head to Shandra's Farm, all my spells will be refreshed for free. After talking to the elder I head to Shandra's Farm, mash through dialogue (5,3,1,1...) and then head to the castle ruins. While I'm running to the ruins I cast cat's grace on Neeshka so she can unlock a door for me in the ruins. At the ruins I meet Slaan and agree to help him. Inside the ruins I run in to cut scene with Garius and the shadow priest then cast invis on Neeshka and run her to the locked door with Slaan's allies. I can't cast invis on Neeshka prior to the cut scene because the game will remove it from her when I enter the cut scene. After the door is open it's just a matter of mashing 1 through all the dialogue and then leaving for Neverwinter.

Docks District - Docks starts off with heading to the Sunken Flagon and setting up the quests for the docks. I choose to go with the city watch, it's much faster than the shadow thieves to my knowledge. When I leave the flagon I only keep Kelgar in my party, this is primarily for the back alley. First stop is the city watch where I sign up and get my first task, help a shop keeper named Hagen. I stop at Sand's shop on the way to Hagen's and sell everything I have and pick up a blank scroll, a scroll of greater fireburst and a wand of missiles. I use the blank scroll and the greater fireburst scroll with the infinite scroll glitch to make a second g.fireburst scroll and head to Hagen's. Inside Hagen's shop we see more examples of fights you can just skip. Back to city watch, then over to Caleb for more of the same. Afterwards we have to check in with 4 watch posts in the docks, I use both Aimee and Kelgar to warp my PC around during this part by abusing the fact that starting any dialogue with an NPC will warp your PC to that point to partake in the dialogue. I skip the Qara cut scene for now, it'll be more advantageous to trigger it latter. The 4th post has combat with some thugs and we see the infinite scroll glitch in action for the first time. Kelgar is used after the 4 posts to warp back to the city watch headquaters. Last thing to do in the docks is stop by Rayleen's shop and pick up the Boots of Striding +1 and Amulet of Vitality +2 so I can access the infinite HP glitch.

Back Alley - After talking with Brelaina and mashing through cut scenes I head back to the docks and save/load warp to skip to the back alley without having the see the cut scene that introduces you to the street urchin Wolf. Inside the back alley I abuse infinite HP to simply run past everything then use infinite scroll glitch to kill the enemies at the end. Having Kelgar in your party is essential here, if he is you get the dialogue that pops up once all the enemies near the wagon are dead that allows you to instantly teleport back to Brelainia. If he's not in the party you have to manually leave the back alley and the docks district to get back to Brelaina.

Warehouse - Warehouse is pretty straight forward, I do my best to do my level ups while running so I don't lose time. Warehouse is just invis + exp. retreat and run first to the short sword +2 for money and then the documents. Just run out after that.

Moire - Run back to Brelaina, then up to Pap's shop. Aimee does exp. retreat and runs to Fhiless' house while I buy a second wand of missiles. Inside the house Aimee goes invis and the PC runs to the second floor, Aimee uses exp. retreat right before PC uses the door to the second floor. On the second floor, Aimee runs to Moire and my PC gets teleported to the fight. Fight is a little unorthodox, Moire has a massive reflex save and improved evasion. It is impossible to even damage her with the scroll of greater fireburst. As slow as it may seem, the most consistent way of dealing with Moire at my level I've found is to simply tank her with Aimee with both the PC and Aimee wand her down. After she eventually goes down, I need to loot the Rapier +3 and the Moonstone Mask she drops for money.

Bonegnashers - On the way out of the merchant quarter I head over to Deekin and sell everything but my scrolls and pick up a Belt of Agility +1 for the persistent freedom of movement effect. The area where you meet Grbonar destroys frame rate for me for some odd reason... Old owl well is just talk to Callum, kill orcs, leave. Bonegnasher approach is pretty straight forward as well, just run to blockade then troll cave to get blast globes. There's a trigger on the troll cave side of the blocked passage that will clear the path, makes getting back to the blockade much quicker. Inside the orc cave it's just invis + exp. retreat to Yaisog. Yaisog fight is a blast globe then run in to the doorway to prevent being surrounded (means I get knocked down less often) and spam infinite scroll. After Yaisog dies I use exp. retreat and run to the exit

Eyegougers - The screen where you meet Casavir is nothing of note, kill orcs with scrolls, make sure to put Elanee in the party. Eyegouger approach is a little annoying, the spiders can poison you and the orc shamans can daze you, both of those things suck. Blowing up the barricades sucks as well. Once inside I go invis and head to the wolves, making sure to close the door. You can talk to the wolves multiple times to farm influence with Elanee. This is definitely not required but I find having Elanee in my party for persistent foundation of stone later in the game worth the time loss. After the wolves I run to the second floor, the belt of agility earns it's keep here by making me immune to the slow trap on the way. On the second floor I run to the locked door and blow it up, then after the dialogue with the shadow priest and henchmen I abuse the gab between the barricade and the wall to skip the barricade. Right before entering the dialoge with Logram I cast exp. retreat so I can reach the 3rd floor door ASAP. On the 3rd floor it's just invis + exp. retreat to the shadow priest. Once the dialogue is over, Casavir and Elanee and sent off way to the back to avoid all damage. My PC blows open the door to Issani and Aimee runs to the exit.

Sea Ghost - You get ambushed upon leaving the eyegouger area by the fake emissary, just run away from him. At old owl well you just mash through some dialogue then head back to the merchant quarter to speak with Brelaina. From there it's off the docks district to deal with Ahja the Azure. Once I load in the docks I haste both Aimee and the PC and they run off towards the Flagon. Aimee stops just outside the Qara cut scene (which I never trigged back when) and my PC heads to the sea ghost to fight the luskans. Ahja comes out once you kill the first wave of soliders. Fight is a blastglobe then infinite scrolls. Don't need to kill Ahja, just trigger his dialogue that talks about Garius. After that I use Aimee to trigger the Qara cut scene, it may not seem necessary but I found that chapter 2 soft locks if you don't watch this cut scene prior to getting there.

Githyanki Base - Back to Brelaina then run off the base near the warehouse. Invis and run to the blade golem, blast globe + scrolls (noticing a theme?). Don't need to kill the golem, it will run away once it gets to "Near Death" HP when you mouse over it. Back to Brelaina then finally off the Black Lake

Archives - Mash through the dialogue with Aldanon, dialogue options are 3,3,1,3,1,1... Once in the archives, mash through the dialogue with the librarian guy then save/load warp through the south door to the central room, completely skipping the entire archives mini quest trivia portion of the game.

Shandra's Farm - Aimee and the PC run to the farm, kill the 4 githyanki outside with PC and enter house with Aimee. Inside Aimee and PC take turns using scrolls to maximize DPS. Kill all the things inside, talk to Shandra, run out when house is on fire. Kill all the things outside, talk to Shandra, kill more things and head back to Flagon.

Ember Ambush - You only have to kill the mobs in the main room to trigger the next scene but those enemies don't become vulnerable to damage until the PC gets to that room. PC runs to main room ASAP, blow everything up. Bishop gets forced in to the party at this point, head off the Ember. Once at Ember I cast invis on Bishop and turn his AI off so he wont get involved in the fight. Once I trigger the first round of githyanki, I run my PC and Aimee to specific spots to maximize the number of githyanki I'm hitting with each cast. After the first round, the PC and Aimee run north to deal with the second wave. Dialogue following the fights just gets mashed, and tell the kid marcus to piss off on my way out of the village (this saves a dialogue box later in chapter 2). Make sure to level up my PC and Aimee here so I get more time on my haste in the coming screens

Chapter 1 - This first screen, the approach to the githyanki base is so large that if I leave my allies at the start they will actually be too far away for me to zone in to the cave at the top of the hill. Because of of this I cast invis on bishop then turn on follow mode for Aimee and him so they follow my PC. They don't keep up but they are close enough to allow me to zone in when I get to the top at least. Once inside I recast invis on Bishop but this time tell him to hold position and use Aimee and my PC to lead the enemies away from him, he will lose invis once I hit another cut scene but this way he wont get agro at that point, I need to keep Bishop alive so I can zone to the second floor. On the second floor, I trigger the fight with the succubi and kill them, talk to Mephasm and run to Zaxis. Zaxis gets a blastglobe and scrolls, then it's Zeeaire's tun. You have to destroy all the spikes around her to close the portal before you can kill her proper. I through blastglobes down while I run my PC in to position to kill the spikes on the far side while Aimee kills the 2 sets closer to the entrance. Once the portal is down I make quick work of Zeeaire. Make sure to loot Zeeaire and talk to Shandra.

Level 20 - After all the Chapter 2 introduction cut scenes I head immediately to Black Lake and to the side area the Bryce family crypt. There's a side quest here where you go in to the crypt and disrupt some shadow priests that are converting the noble children of neverwinter. This area is completely optional but I've found a dialogue down here that can be abused for infinite XP. Once inside the crypt I mash through the first few dialogues then use Aimee to kill the ghouls/ghasts in the second room. I purposely wait during the following dialogue for the 6 kids to get in position so it's easier to hit all of them with greater fireburst once combat starts. I also have my PC melee the "Adriel" mob because she has high reflex and evasion, making greater fireburst unreliable to quickly kill her. Once all the kids are dead, I loot the key off Lorelei's body and go invis with both Aimee and my PC, haste them and run to the next set of kids. In a room much deeper in the crypt we come across a second group of youngsters. This time one of them, Savanna, has second thoughts about the whole situation and we convince her to turn away from the king of shadows.Doing so requires you to have a +9 diplomacy check, which is why I pick a pig familiar at the start of the game. Whenever my little piggy is summoned, I get a +3 to my diplomacy. Once combat starts, most of the enemies will immediately attack Savanna and it's somewhat likely she'll die right away. I've found the best way to keep her alive is to cast stone skin on her right Aimee as soon as combat starts. My PC and Aimee both use their scrolls of greater fireburst after that, since I wont need them after this fight I don't bother with infinite scroll glitch here. Once all the enemies are dead and Savanna if left alive, you can talk to her and tell her she did the right thing and to head home, doing so nets you some good alignment points and more importantly, 400 xp. This dialogue can be repeated, and it's possible to wedge her next to the closed door and do this infinitely. I abuse this to get to level 20 at this point in the game. The amount of xp needed for 20 will vary slightly from run to run based on the number of enemies killed in collateral damage, but it's generally somewhere around 450 turn ins. I will take breaks and level up my PC at some points in this massive mashing grind mainly because my arm gets tired =( My leveling choices are as follows;

1 - Cleric(1) Feat = Spellcasting Prodigy
2 - Sorcerer(1)
3 - Sorcerer(2) Feat = Skill Focus(Spellcraft)
4 - Sorcerer(3) +CHA
5 - Sorcerer(4)
6 - Sorcerer(5) Feat = Skill Focus(Concentration)
7 - Sorcerer(6)
8 - Sorcerer(7) +CHA
9 - Sorcerer(8) Feat = Empower Spell
10 - AsoC(1)
11 - AsoC(2)
12 - AsoC(3) +CHA Feat = Spell Focus(Evocation)
13 - AsoC(4)
14 - AsoC(5)
15 - AsoC(6) Feat = Greater Spell Focus(Evocation)
16 - AsoC(7) +CHA
17 - AsoC(8)
18 - Monk(1) Feat = Practiced Spellcaster(Sorcerer)
19 - Monk(2)
20 - Monk(3) +CHA

Skills and spells don't have be taken at specific levels but I have a few rules I follow to ensure I have everything I need.

Skills - Spellcraft rank 8 for AsoC requirement, 2 diplomacy for Savanna dialogue, 5 taunt for Baalbisan dialogue, max concentration

Spells - I only need certain specific spells, any time I don't care what I'm picking I will just use the "recommend" option. The spells I want are as follows;

1st Level: Sleep, Exp. Retreat
2nd Level: Knock
3rd Level: -
4th Level: -
5th Level: Greater Fireburst, Cone of Cold
6th Level: Isaac's Greater Missile Storm, Disintegrate, Tenser's Transformation
7th Level: Banishment, Mordenkainen's Sword
8th Level: Horrid Wilting

After I level up to 20, I take the time to level up Sand as well. The main things I'm going to grab on Sand are persistent spell for persistent haste, Bigby's Grasping Hand and protection from spells. The split ends when I exit the crypt.

Trial - After the lengthy leveling segment, we head back in to the story and have to deal with the trial portion of the game. First order of business is to talk to Sir Grayson at the city watch headquarters in the merchant quarter and become his squire. He takes you to the Solace Glade where you're attacked by some Luskan assassins. Being level 20 I'm now a walking engine of destruction and make quick work of them with maximized greater fireburst, which is going to be my primary method of dealing damage for the rest of the game. After the ambush you get sent off to find evidence of your innocence. In terms of game play, you need to find at least one piece of evidence to start the trial. The more pieces you find the easier it is to prove your innocence in the trail, however we don't care about our innocence. We head straight for Port Llast to open up Ember, grab the quatermaster's log for 1 piece of evidence then directly back to Sir Nevalle to start the trial. I choose the options to refuse to go on trial and immediately invoke trial by combat, which is what happens even if you go through the effort of proving your dialogue... In any case, after that you have to run to the Temple of Tyr in Merchant Quarter and mash through some cut scenes before you get to fight Lorne. Lorne is obnoxious because he will ALWAYS use his undying rage or frenzy or whatever it is that makes it so he can't die until it ends, even if you hit him with an instant death sepll... I summon Mordenkainen's Sword here because it can usually land a hit on him after he's vulnerable than I can manually, ending the fight slightly faster. I choose to kill Lorne rather than watch Garius do it in the cut scene, I think it's slightly faster.

Tavorick - Wolf tells you Aldanon wants to talk, we head there and find the place being ransacked by thieves. We rush in, and bee line for the basement. Kill all the invaders in the basement, talk to the hostages and leave. A quick trip to Nasher to update our quest then it's over to Tavorick's manse. I usually take a rest outside Tavorick's because you can't rest inside his house for some weird reason. Once inside I mash dialogue and trigger the cut scenes and fights. The fight with the demons is a little annoying, you want to tell the guards to stay near the stairs when you get the dialogue option so that the demons will run in to the middle of the room. This makes it much easier to AoE them down with Banishment spell loops. Cone of Cold is also very useful for dealing with random Fire Mephits. Once you get sent upstairs you need to kill of whatever is attack Tavorick and get him to join your party. At this point I change the game's difficulty setting so that friendly fire is enabled and use this to kill off Tavorick. This triggers the dialogue where Tavorick tells you he gave the shard to Melia without having to head the crypt and fight Qaggoth'yeg. Once I get the info I set the difficulty back to Easy and head to leave Tavorick's house. You meet Qaggoth on the way, but you can just run past him.

Crossroad Keep - Leaving Tavoricks, you head straight for the Moonstone Mask in the Merchant Quarter and see that Ammon Jerro has already killed Melia and taken the shard. After that you head back to Nasher, meet Sydney Natale for the first time and get sent off to Crossroad Keep to deal with Black Garius. First trip to Crossroad you just kill a bunch of guards then get told you have to take a secret back door route in a near by cave because magic, doors yadda yadda... Run through the cave, find Aldanon, blow up the guys in the main room. Loot key, run past shadow priests, kill blade golem in basement. Kill enemies around Garius, leave Crossroad Keep.

Riverkeep Statue - Mash through the dialogue introducing you to Zhjaeve and Crossroad keep. I don't do any of the crossroad keep side stuff like building up the keep or upgrading the troops or anything at all in this run. The only thing I do is construct the library because it is necessary to get access to Ammon Jerro's haven shortly. Before heading to Ruins of Arvhan, I change Zhjaeve's spells around to get Ethrealness and Mass Death Ward and I add Elanee to my party and level her up to 20 with a specific task in mind. There are 2 Iron Golems that have to be killed along the route and they are completely immune to all magic, the most efficient way I've found to deal with them actually involves using Storm Avatar with Elanee. I am also going to need her to pick up Persistent Spell for persistent Foundation of Stone, so my PC can be immune to knockdowns. Elanee grabs Martial Weapon Proficiency so she can use the Gemsword we loot in Arvhan, and even Weapon Focus(Greatsword). Once at Arvhan I kill the orcs/goblins near the first statue and watch the cut scene for the first statue. Then I head straight for Riverkeep and once inside I use save/load warping to get past the locked door that is meant to act as a quick exit from the end to head immediately to the bottom of Riverkeep. Once on the bottom level I kill Ghelu and all the goblins, loot the Gemsword and then just mash my face in to the door until it opens. Watch the statue cut scene, head back upstairs. Use Ethrealness and Mass Death Ward with Zhjaeve, then head for the mines.

Mine Statue - Leave Riverkeep, head for mines. Once inside mash dialogue, make sure PC and Elanee are hasted and have death ward, kill first Baelnorn, send first spirit to tree. Head left and then up, then to first door to second Baelnorn, kill it and send spirit out. Turn off the ghost lights on the way to 3rd Baelnorn, kill it and send spirit off twice so it is at same spot as first spirit. Turn the lights back on, turn the ones heading up in the tunnels off. Elanee uses Premonition and Storm Avatar, equips the Gemsword and kills the Iron Golem. Killing Golem spawns another spirit at the top of the tunnel. Keep all 3 spirits together as you move them though the ghost lights, killing undead as needed. 4th spirit is up a small side tunnel opposite of the way back out of the tunnels. Last spirit is off with the 4th Baelnorn, which is off to the side. You want to keep all 4 spirits together and right outside the tunnels while you go get the last spirit and get her to meet up with the others. From there you run them all back to the communion tree and get access to the statue.

Shadow Reaver - Leave mines and head towards the Temple of Seasons, it's possible to get past the orcs without triggering the dialogue but even if I do it's not a big deal since I killed Ghelu and they will not agro on me. Inside the Temple of Seasons I use save/load warping to get past the door that's meant to be a quick exit once you go through the correct way. Watch the cut scene for the statue and this time I have to save/load warp my way out because the door stays locked this time. Once we have all the statues the song portal opens up, we take it to West Harbor and then head to the Swamp Ruins. Get there in time to see the Shadow Reaver destroy the last statue and then we make quick work of him.

Chapter 2 - On the way out of Arvhan I take the time to kill any random lingering enemies, I don't want them around because I have to come back here later and it's easier to take them out now. Once back at Crossroad Keep I talk to Aldanon in the library and get the map to Ammon Jerro's Haven. I head there, making sure to use Persistent Foundation of Stone on my PC and head straight for the golem to get the explanation on the trails. Head for the first brazier and use Horrid Wilting with spell loops to kill off the fire elementals, need to loot the "Firey Heart" from the Huge Fire Elementals to light the braziers. After the fire elementals are dead I usually switch to greater fireburst to finish off everything else. Repeat this for each set of elementals and braziers. Run to the top of the hill, kill off the shaman, tank all the acid damage with infinite HP while filling the vial. Head back to the golem and head inside the Haven. Once inside I mash through dialogue with Mephasm and buff up my party. Elanee needs to come with my PC in here, there's another Iron Golem she needs to kill. In the dialogue with Baalbisan, I'm able to learn the true name of his matron because my PC is female and has enough ranks in taunt. This allows me to get help with the portal from Hezebel right away. I kill the Air Elemental in the next room, anger Zaxis and kill the enemies she spawns. Elanee kills the Iron Golem in the next room and I loot the Anicent Book from the bookcase, say the third phrase out loud to free the imp and then head to Koraboros. Since I saved his Imp minion he helps open the portal and I head to Blooden. I kill her minions then get her quest to fight Koraboros' hellhounds so we go talk to him, then head back to her and trigger the combat. Kill the Hellhounds and get Blooden's help with the portal. Head in the portal and trigger combat with Ammon Jerro. PC does max greater fireburst, Elanee does Glacial Burst, and Sand does Bigby's Grasping Hand, this usually kills him almost instantly. After the fight, mash dialogue then head out the portal and mash more.

Neverwinter Keep - Mash dialogue with Ammon Jerro. Rest before talking to Nevalle and heading to Neverwinter. Mash cut scenes, kill all the undead then follow Nevalle to guard room. Head in to the basement and run past all the mephits, answers the questions for the statues and then kill the floating swords at the end and loot the rod of never. One back upstairs you have to damage the Shadow Reaver so he runs off then talk to Nasher. He knights you and tells you gather allies to fight the shadow king then sends you on your way.

Circle of the Mere - Back at Crossroad Keep we talk with the party and discuss potential allies, the only one that's required to progress the game is the druids of the circle. I run around hit some required dialogues before getting the option to head to the druids which forces Elanee and Bishop in to my party. At the circle we find the druids have succumbed to the darkness and want Elanee to join them. Because I farmed influence with Elanee back at the eyegouger orcs she will not only side with me but will help me fight the druids and remain in my party afterwards. The fight is straight forward, blow them up. We head back to Crossroad afterwards.

True Name Scroll - Back to Crossroad, I talk to Kralver, Sydney Natale's aid, and agree to take Zhjaeve and Qara with me. There she summons the Anima Golem and it dies quickly, then Sydney attacks herself. If you offer the guy with her double her wages he'll fight for you, this is helpful. Sydney is annoying, she teleports around every time you reduce her HP to zero. I don't fully understand the mechanic to be honest, but you kill her enough times and eventually she stays dead. You get the True Name Scrolls for the shadow reavers for your trouble. Head back to Crossroad after.

Nolaloth - Now that we have the true name scroll we can talk to Kana inside the keep and get the location of a shadow reaver. With the true name scroll we can destroy the shadow reaver. It has an obnoxiously long cast time and I find it best to cast it while invisible with ethrealness. Afterwards we loot another silver shard and Zhjaeve tells us it's time to reforge the sword. Back at Crossroad Ammon Jerro reveals the location of Nolaloth, the spirit of an ancient dragon that once helped him fight the king of shadows in the past and may know how to reforge the sword. We head to Nolaloth's resting place and talk with him, he reveals that we need to reforge the sword at the place it was broken and then asks us to destroy his heart and free him from his eternal sleep. We elect not to do this because speedrun and leave. Head over to crossroad to get Ammon Jerro in the party then head to Arvhan to go back to West Harbor to reforge the Sword of Gith. Get attacked by a shadow reaver. Ethrealness with Zhjaeve and recite true name with Ammon Jerro, kill adds while true name casts. Kill shadow reaver after. Leave West Harbor and then Arvhan. Head back to Crossroad.

Defend Crossroad - This split really needs to be broken up. First up we have to go help Callum with a shadow reaver and numerous elemental blade golems. Ammon Jerro and Zhjaeve come for true name scroll use, Elanee for foundation of stone and Sand for haste. Greater fireburst kills all but the fire golem, max greater missile storm kills the fire one and the shadow reaver. Afterwards you tell Nevalle you've found all the allies you can and he and Nasher rush off the fight and promptly get pushed back. Ammon Jerro goes missing and we wait for him, then we head off to destroy the bridges. Doesn't really matter who comes with me, I take Sand for haste though. Enemies at the first bridge must be killed for the area to progress properly. Enemies at the end go down quickly to greater fireburst and disintegrate. After that we return to Crossroad and head off to defend the walls from the approaching undead army. On the walls you have to kill the siege towers and all the enemies that spawn out of them. It's very straight forward and simple, max greater fireburst makes quick work of this part. After the walls Bishop betrays us and we end up on the ground at the main gate and more max greater firebursts kill off the undead waves. Eventually Garius shows up and summons a night walker, he can be tough but goes down without too much trouble most of the time. Once the night walker is dead either Ammon or Zhjaeve will use the true name scroll on Garius and he will retreat after the undead army start being destroyed by sunlight. Once all this is done with we regroup inside the keep and then head off to the meredelain to finish things up.

Shadow Reavers - Once inside the meredelain I buff up, ethrealness, protection from spells, haste, foundation of stone and then head off with my PC. Use knock to open the first locked door, the doors here in meredelain have a stupid high amount of HP and it's much easier to just knock them as opposed to blowing them open. Once in the main room I head for a nearby corner and save/load warp up to what's supposed to be the last black cloud you enter to teleport around the room which takes you to the area right before the triple shadow reaver fight. I kill off all the mummy lords in the area I teleport to so I can rest before the shadow reavers. Shadow reavers are annoying but not too bad, ethrealness makes getting the ture name casts off much easier. Still is very boring waiting for the cast to finally go off. Once all 3 are dead I head downstairs to face off with Garius.

Garius - Garius will convince certain members of your party to betray you based on your influence levels with them. With my route Neeshka, Bishop, and Qara will always betray me and thus be killed off during the next fight with Garius. Garius is pretty straight forward, we blow him up with max greater missile storm.

Finish - The final fight with the shadow king is a long one. It starts out with simply bringing his HP down. Greater missile storm is best for this. Next phase he summons many little versions of himself, greater fireburst is good here. After that you have to destroy all the statues, fireburst is good for this. Last phase you have to kill both the portal, which can only be damaged by the sword of gith, and the shadow king. I like to use the sword ability blade storm here on the portal and greater missile storm on the shadow king if I still have some. Greater fireburst works as well but is slower. After he dies the final cut scene plays and the run is over.

There is still room for improvement on this run. In particular my shadow reavers fight was very slow and I found a way to completely skip that fight so that's like 5+ minutes right there on top of a few routing changes I'm playing around with. There's also the option of choosing the evil ending at the final fight where you kill your party members in stead of the king of shadows, this is most likely faster than the good ending (even with the good ending my king of shadows fight was pretty bad in the run as well...)