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That's a good question :| In FR, I believe Cyric had an ability that could mask his followers' connection to him, but other than that, I don't think you can trace it through magic. All deities had to give spell power to their followers through Mystra's weave, so I don't know if you could trace a spell back to them or back to Mystra. On the other hand, I thought that all clerics couldn't cast spells without a holy symbol of their deity.

Sarevok was your typical power hungry villain. Rather one dimensional. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> What, opposed to those villains that aren't power hungry? The ones that sit in a cottage and brew tea and you have to stop from doing absolutely-****ing-nothing? New guidelines, plz. I liked Irenicus. He's a classic example of hubris. Got too ambitious, paid for it, couldn't accept it, lost his humanity (or elfity) and became something entirely different and more base than what he was originally. Sarevok, so far as I could tell, was always a Bond villain. I didn't think the story of his upbringing served any purpose but to create an excuse for him to have lots of power early on. I found the ToB "I could have had your life and not been a monster" storyline to be a tad underwhelming. Sarevok sat all too well in his villainy to create much sympathy with me. They're all well-done and fleshed out in comparison to, say, Mehrunes Dagon, but I found the general quality of the villains in 2 to be better than those of 1. Maybe I'm like Darque (?), and biased because of the order in which I played the games, but it makes sense to me, at least.

Cool. The grey parts of his beard look a bit airbrushed, but overall a quality piece. Well done.

Sweet black jesus, this is amazing...

Meh, I can handle an iredeemably evil character, so long as they're interesting. Say, Hannibal Lecter before he got Freudianized, or, uh, I don't know, Darth Vader. Whatever.

Well, they're not talking about this "Lich Queen". Perhaps that's the . And I agree that Lorne does not sound like a good character.

Sweet, I've always wanted to play a monk from first level up :D I don't know why I didn't know about this before.

I don't know what you all are talking about. I thought Aribeth was probably the only good thing about the NWN OC. The only good thing. I rather liked the way HotU wrapped things up, really. I'm willing to play through the actual game and milk the CNPCs before I make any judgements on them. Saying any of them are actually stupid, as opposed to simply appearing so, would be irrational and premature. So I'm remaining optimistic.

Stay on topic WTFOMG The Outsiders feels like a Lifetime movie to me now (that's a bad thing). No street toughs, no matter how soulful, find an interest in how poetry applies to their lives. No. It doesn't happen. Most people say Battlestar Galactica is soooo good. The Wire too. Haven't seen either, personally. I watch the Shield, which starts off kinda lame and then gets better over time. Last 2 seasons pwn. For my lulz I watch the Daily Show, the Colbert Report and the Venture Brothers. I have all my new music imported from a guy I know in Canada, now and then I'll find something on my own. Recently I'm listening to a lot of Mew and Vitalic. Gamewise, cRPGs. Deus Ex, BG2, Fallouts, Vampire and KOTOR. Use Oblivion like garlic, with discretion. As for books, read State of Denial. <3 Bob Woodward. I'm also a sucker for Stephen King's short novels.

Hmmm ... *contemplates playing BG2 with a Paladin ... * <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I really can't stress how great that Dungeon-Be-Gone mod is. As soon as you get out of your cell a little dude pops up who will whisk you to the exit of the dungeon, picking up all the XP and gear you would have got from trudging through it yourself. So if you ever think "I'd rather just start out in Athkatla," you should probably pick it up. Pocket Plane hosts it. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Spot on. I've run through that dungeon way too many times. It looks pretty cool on its face, but does anybody have confirmation the BG1tutu is cool? Having played the second game before the first one (yes, yes, blasphemy, I know) I found having only the core classes to be... lacking in flair On that note, one has to start a new game in order to utilize newly installed mods, correct?

Yeah, as much as I detest the idea of prophecy as cliche, the whole "your town is attacked and now you must leave" is also a pretty significant fantasy cliche.

One thing I really hope doesn't happen, is that the PC turns out to be a "Chosen One" outlined in some prophecy, or singled out for significance before the adventure even begins. It's waaaaay too much of a cliche, even when it happens to work well, as in BG.

I've never owned a PS of any kind :ph34r: Besides, my PS2 owning friend had Deus Ex, and I remember the inventory system being terribly clumsy. Anywho, problem rectified. I realized that I had this problem before, with BG2, and that all I had to do was run the install files from my HD and end the .exe processes as they came up, and then the install unfroze and all was well. Works like a charm now

So far as I understand it, the D&D chaos/law alignment system is based on external, societal law. At least according to the conventional definition of the alignment, chaotic good characters can have their own personal ethical codes, they just happen to not jibe with external law, and if they have to choose between the two they'll choose the latter. Lawful characters will choose the former. That's the textbook example, anyway. As a player and a DM, it's always been hard to put those alignment archetypes into practice There's always a situation in which it would be preferrable to be one or the other. It's actually much harder to be neutral, imo. It's really not pragmatic to consciously try and balance between the extremes.

Mr. Sawyer's witticisms and speculation aside, I'm not sure how to take all this. I didn't really dig the "battle command" in HotU, I'm not particularly thrilled at the prospect of being a military commander in this 'un. That's not what I'm looking for in my RPGs. I'm interested to see how this whole "politician / general / criminal" thing pans out, though. I think it would be awesome to have a game in which you could become either a general or a mob boss, and beat the game either way. But somehow I don't think that's what MCA was after with that quote

Ah, capital. *Crosses fingers for Mr. Show Movie / good game*

Be the albino That's actually one of the cooler little things about Deus Ex (at least the first one). Your choice of appearance also affects your brothers'. Also WHAT THE **** MY GAME NO LONGER WORKS. Hmm, I'm installing my game again, but it appears as if the .exe files are opening as soon as the installer puts them on my hard drive, and it's crashing my install before it's completed. There's something screwy going on here. And I want to play Deus Ex, damnit.

I dunno, someone who would see the law as being wrong and would rather break it than change it, or someone who feels that the law doesn't do enough and that criminals and wrongdoers are best dealt with outside the law, I would see as chaotic. They forsake the law to accomplish their goals. I think a lawful neutral character would possibly break the law in order to maintain it (if that makes any sense), but the Punisher doesn't really do that. I find that Lawful characters are hard to play for this reason. They tend to think in terms of categorical imperatives, and that makes for some interesting ethical considerations. Obviously, there are going to be times when law is unable to deal with a threat or wrong, and that presents a pretty big problem for a lawful character. rulz r hard.

He won't use nukes in a warfare scenario and he's got a lot to lose, his state and ppl. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> But he can rattle his saber all he wants, and he intends to do so. Most countries within his range should be willing to deal on that alone. Of course, the last test they had failed. He might just make himself look like a fool again.

Funny, I always considered vigilantism to be chaotic. Then again, he's not really out to do "good" per se. The "do whatever it takes to get it done" alignment is lawful neutral. Hard to tell, really. Things like this are the problem with the D&D system <_< Although admittedly, the Punisher's moral universe is probably too muddled/complex to apply the order/alignment scale to.

You also have to take into consideration that this hypothetical guy is likely mentally ill, which opens up a whole other can of worms. But staying a little more on topic, decreeing that committing a crime removes protection under the law is a little more Hobbesian than I'm willing to deal with. So a childkiller gets branded. What about a pickpocket, or a trespasser? We can't protect one in prison and not the other. You'll spend all day drawing an easily blurred line.

So a guy who kills a bus load of people, one at a time, methodically, and constantly screams that he'd do it again, and again, while in prison....should be kept alive, taking up tax dollars? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Yes. I wouldn't give tax dollars to a state that used them to kill people, even murderers. Hence I don't pay taxes.

My cat's like that too. Once they get old and fat their hind quarters become big mats of hair. I've had to perform surgery a few times. For some reason, I find that easier than denying him large amounts of food. He is my kitty, after all.

The "Merchant's Friend" thing could turn out to be cool, although I would have much preffered some extra content other than new items. I don't know exactly what I'd have in mind, but new spells would be cool, maybe an extra quest or two.