Monte Carlo

I don't know if it counts as classic Sci-Fi or not, but I'm a sucker for the original Philip Jose Farmer Riverworld books. http://www.pjfarmer.com/riverwld.htm To Your Scattered Bodies Go is groovier than a groovy thing riding a PVC unicorn. Highly recommended. Oh, and if you dig the idea of Sam Clemens and Hermann Goering building rival riverboats and conducting naval warfare on a terra-formed planet where all humans have been mysteriously resurrected... then this is the series for you.

Your ECL2, for example, means that you need +2 more levels of experience points to level up. So a human ECL 0 character who ends the game at level 16 would be two levels ahead of, say, a Drow. You could catch up by farming / extra encounters / resting in dungeons or (my preferred option) making a smaller party. Edit - I had a drow fighter in my original party of four characters. He ended up level 15 I think. The rest of the party were higher.

Hi. You are more or less correct on the ECL question. It's just slower levelling. As regard paladins, IIRC you need a base Wis of 10 + 1 per cleric level spell you wish to cast. So for a 4th level Cleric spell, a paladin needs 14 Wisdom at least. So, yeah, buff it a bit. Your Charisma will impact saving throws more, obviously.

I reckon military tactics in a PoE style universe would turn heavily on mage-slaying. After all, you've got one person who is basically an artillery battery on legs. Whole units might evolve dedicated solely to killing the pointy-hatted bastards. Then of course, you need a counter. So a mage deploys with their bodyguard unit. And so on and so forth. We know firearms can pierce the arcane vale, so marksmen would become extremely important. The development of long rifles would be supremely important and even (this is fantasy, right?) crude optics might develop. Your mages might craft these optics for you. Pre-emptive strikes on mages prior to mobilization would be the norm and a combat indicator of enemy preparedness. In fact you'd lock up / protect your mages in the run-up to hostilities, in and of itself strategically significant. * sigh * I love stuff like this. Of course, after mages you want to kill clerics and druids. To that end...

^ Amen, brother.

Only Oby

I am trying to resist paying full price for it... But I want it so bad.

The adventure mode is something else, ain't it?

^ Yeah but what about the other three hundred? :D

Me and Calax take on the might Tiger I... the computer called-in two of the suckers. The first wiped out my T34 spam-squadron before Calax sacrificed his heroic Conscripts for the Motherland.

The Goodwin's law of Piracy is now in operation. This thread is doomed.

Bruce I've been watching some streams of it on Twitch, which have been quite interesting.

If RPS doesn't like it then I probably will.

Well if it ships with meatballs or that crazy Dime Bar cake then I'll be fairly happy.

QFT

Yeah, that'll be one of the best-selling and much-loved RPGs of all time. I couldn't care less if it wasn't a 'design classic' it was more fun than a sack of kittens. And my concern is that while worshipping at the elusive altar of 'balance' you might miss the fun sort of trickling away. As for 'greater difficulty?' Nah. People don't want to read rules or understand stuff. They want to jump right in. And press the awesome button. My hope is that the different game modes mitigate a lot of the design decisions that smack of popamole / jump right in.

^ Yep, I beat BG2 with three fighters, one of each kit.

But who was asking for that, Kark? Not me and I'm king of the Grogs. For some reason that interview annoyed me.

Sawyer is every bit as dogmatic and strident about his vision as the gnarliest grog. Ironic, really. On the one hand he talks about dumbing down dialogue in modern RPGs, then in the next he talks about how great modern RPG builds are (i.e. dumbed-down). Then he deploys his +5 strawman about what 'traditionalists' want. Seriously, Josh, why don't you make a special weekly slot where you make scathing comments about people who've given you money?

Has Sawyer considered that he, in a funny sort of way, is one of the Neu Grognards?

Bioware's hyperbole machine is flashing and jerking around, steam escaping from the exaggeration nodules.

I've got to level 30 with a crusader... although he shares some Monk-like traits I find him better at crowd control. The monk, otoh, is far more mobile. I like both classes, monk is possibly less of a challenge though with the sick builds you can make. I just like riding my stupid horse of doom out of trouble then casting that multiple shock-hammer ability.

If you are up for some Heinlein-inspired Mil Sci-Fi then I really enjoyed Marko Kloos's first two novels... http://www.amazon.com/Marko-Kloos/e/B00BUVDP8M

^ It's not April 1st is it?

I've got both Enhanced Editions. TBH I still find my modded original version superior.