FlintlockJazz

Orlans sound like a cross between halflings and goblins to me.

Yes I hear that. I totally agree with this entire post. However, I can also "envision" how it could be done more personal, where there are more effects to your decisions (e.g., Visit the battlegrounds after the battles, take part of the battles on the front lines, Braveheart style, villages burned after your cruel tyranny, villages saved because of your intervention, military power and you causing a police state if you tend to play more evil. Or perhaps you create an army of love and all your guards are dressed in flowers, or an army of nature. Perhaps an army of order and justice, and friendship, unity and harmony). However, too make a good personal army stuff management for a game like Baldur's Gate (or P:E for that matter) I think that you'd need a lot of time and resources and a strict direction. You'd have to make two individual games/genres and puzzle them into each other. So it'd be like making 3 games (to make it the best as possible). Aye, exactly. It's why I don't ever expect to see a Pirate RPG done the way I would want it: to do it 'right' you'd pretty much need to combine an RPG with a game like Sid Meier's pirates, and to do that right you'd need to make each part as detailed and good as a game that only took the one part, and work out the best way to combine them (to avoid having a game that played like two separate games with very little links), ending up with three times the work.

Well, now it looks like we can have a stronghold at the 3Mill mark. While I enjoyed Crossroads Keep I do hope it's not going to be about raising armies and such for this stronghold. Thinking about this made me realise one of the problems I've had with recent games: they always seem to end up due to their 'epicness' having huge armies marching against each other and also have you become a 'commander' and a 'great leader of men', meeting the king and leading his troops. Not only does it presume your character is a great leader of men, but the gameplay never actually incorporates it: it's all built around the small party, and 'leading the men' usually boils down to a few dialogue choices. I hope in this one we don't get that, that it is indeed more personal, and I hope the stronghold reflects this, becoming something other than just a keep, and more like the class strongholds in BG2 or like some of the ones proposed here by people like rjshae's last post.

One Paladin, a haha! Two Paladins, a haha! Three Pala-stop smiting me!!! Sesame Street gone wrong.

Where's the option for "Yes I want them in the game but I don't know whether I want them to be a big part of the plot because I don't know what the plot is going to be about" please? Also, I think we can tell by your avatar which side of the fence you fall on ArchBeast.

This. I find it a bit silly when there are dozens of races. There are better ways of creating variety such as having different forms of demons and enemies from different cultures so they wear different armour from the others.

I'd rather not. This would be a mere novelty at most and require development of online features that would take resources away from other features. Other problems as well but I'm on my phone so won't go into it.

Oh hell yes! Not only does the idea of picking your culture sound great but I've always hated the monolithic cultures used for non humans (as in all dwarves share the same culture everywhere and all speak in a Scottish accent), so I love this!

I'm not particularly keen on playable orcs as they are usually played as the oppressed race then which is getting old. If they do have them in then I also hope they aren't green, that was a Warhammer thing due to them being a fungus, would much prefer the original grey or brown skintones, fits better. And I would prefer they put playable kobolds and goblins in first!

More companions, at least three as then you'll have one companion per class which I believe was the original idea. Even more companions would be even better as then you could have a choice of companion for a class in case you find yourself disliking one of them but want their class in the party (and don't want a custom). Of course adding more and more companions might be exponentially more difficult as it increases interactions for each one more (since they need to react to each other). After that, perhaps an upgrade to the player housing or maybe even class-spevific strongholds (I'd love a wizard's tower!)?

what about mod support. will you have disadvantages using GOG because you haven't a platform like steam for distribution? As others have said there are other places for mods, it'll be up to modders where they will upload their mods. Plus, you can add most games to your Steam client anyway even if you didn't buy through them.

Steam has things like achievements and a single unified client through which through which they can manage their downloads, friends' list and stuff. People seem to value it for that though I personally will be going for the GOG version.

Anyone know if there is going to be a Chanter companion and not a custom one from the Adventurer's Hall? Apologies if its already been asked.

NerdBoner, first off removing the leg armour was actually commonly done and was the first piece of armour removed in the move to less armour. Second, plate armour was easier to wear due to weight distribution than chain mail and had a high degree of mobility that did not leave the user out of breath, heat was the real problem and that occured with full suits (hence why they took off the leg armour). Personally I wouldn't wear leather jerkin in the situation you describe, it was pretty rubbish armour and a padded jack was cheaper and more effective. I would wear either a plate breastplate or brigandine and a bascinet or kettle hat, they would give both better protection and mobility and they would also make less noise than a leather armour would give (leather squeeks!).

Now we need to reach 2.7 million, here's hoping!

Knights Templar and Knights Hospitaller were monks, and they were serious badasses. Taking inspiration from non-asian monks would probably do a better job of challenging stereotypes and misconceptions I think...

I actually agree with you. I don't think they fit either, and the monk in the big pic just looks out of place to me. I'm not talking about fixing them by changing the martial arts used, the point I was making is that there are other types of martial artists other than the Asian monks we see all the time and that if they really feel the need to include such a martial artist they should consider drawing from them instead. I wasn't saying that they should use capoiera but that the guys who practised it weren't an order of bald monks preaching some philosophy. Hell I reckon they should drop the name monk and be some sort of order of martial mages or swordmasters instead, but that's just my own desires.

Yep I just want to have what I consider awesome looking armour, and while others may not like it I really do think authentic looking Medieval armour is awesome and should be used more. I know others may want 'cool' to win out but it seems like there's enough other games out there using that style and barely any using the style I like, and so the possibility of being given a bone for once has been drooling all over my keyboard.

*Collapses to the floor dribbling and frothing at the sheer awesomeness of the picture before mind is blown*

Personally I kinda hope the stretch goals are things they can already achieve but are not sure whether to cut in favour of something else or not and are using them as "Well if we reach this figure we should be able to fit all this content that we think we may need so we'll bump this feature up to definite, since we should have enough money for everything else we may decide to keep and consider more important plus a few hundred grand extra to cover the unexpected..."

It is true, a power fantasy is where the protagonist is in control and gets to assert his control over everyone else, hence the term power fantasy since it is usually the writer putting themself in a story (Author Avatar) where they have the power to beat up those they don't like in real life and lord it over everyone. The protagonist in BG is constantly having to fight off the influence of the Bhaal essence (which until the very end of the game gives him a slayer form that he can't use constantly and some cure lights that he loses when he gains the aforementioned slayer form), see's family and friends killed before him with no power to stop it (Gorion is slaughtered by Sarevok, Dynaheir and Khalid are killed by Irenicus, plus any characters that get killed in the course of the game that are either gibbed or the PC fails to get ressed for some reason), Irenicus captures and tortures the PC and then takes his soul for his own benefit, and the PC has very little control over his destiny until pretty much the end when he finally either becomes a god (and the game ends) or escapes his destiny (and the game still ends). As for 'kick asses of everyone and have them tremble before you' that is patently not true, you're actually applying a bias there. When you start the game you can be killed by a solitary kobold if you are not careful, Irenicus takes on you and your whole party and requires tactics to win, in fact any fight with a serious enemy is deadly (unless you're playing on easy or something) if you mess up. ****ing elves does not require much. Saving the world is a standard plotline and is not a power fantasy, it only becomes a power fantasy when the character does it with a smug grin on their face and waving their awesome around. Superheroes can be power fantasies true, but it depends on whose writing them and many are not. They don't have to be Watchmen in order for a superhero to not be a power fantasy, that's assuming a false dichotomy.

I'm with the ones saying enough classes already, I think we need more actual companions. However, if they were to add another class, I would like to suggest some form of fighter-mage. I know that's a multiclass, but I think it works better as an actual class of it's own. The reason being, as much as I love playing them before being a multiclass often means you are either over-powered as you are able to do roles as well as others or you are too weak as you are not really good at either one, becoming a jack of trades master of one in a party where having specialists is better. And when it does work the powers still often don't mesh that well together, sure you can sometimes get buffing spells to help with your fighting or the extra hit points help your survivability, but the former is often just compensating for being reduced in martial capability anyway. In short, the reason why I propose it should be a class instead of a multiclass is because the latter usually ends up with a split focus. By making it a single class you can apply one focus to it and build the abilities around it like normal, for instance let me propose the following two classes: Spellsword: This would be a martial class that works like a fighter who uses spells to aid in his fighting. Not only does he cast a limited selection of spells but he can cast them through his weapon, perhaps attuning his sword to different elements at will or stunning those he hits. Consider the Witcher with his signs, spells that aid his swordplay, but also with the ability to cast through his sword and do nifty stuff. This class could also perhaps be called swordmaster and is often some sort of weapon master in other systems who uses chi or something to achieve the same things but it's the lore that's different (personally I think it also works like the monk, who could be said to be a spellsword too who uses his fists instead, in fact I would prefer that they gave the monk the option to use weapons and strip the name monk from him instead, giving us a spellsword who does the same thing but without the associated monk-baggage like they did with the bard by making it the chanter). Battlemage: A more martial version of the mage, this guy still acts like a mage with some combat training and wears armour. Since PE already has mages in armour and the devs have stated that they view their mages as being tougher and combat ready as it is so this class might be redundant anyway as the PC mage class at least seems to be pretty much a battlemage. Just random splurgings of a rabbit, I love talking **** it seems. Proper druids were not tree huggers either. Proper druids were more like Herne the Hunter from Robin of Sherwood TV series. Oh and Wicker Man stuff, pile your 'offering' in and set fire to him...

Torment wasn't. Baldur's Gate was about being a god's child, romancing elves and crushing powerful foes. In ID2 you stopped entire armies. If that's not a power fantasy I don't know what is. Actually if BG2 is a power fantasy because you play a god child then so is PST: it lets you play an immortal being whose stats can transcend human limitations. Its not though because you don't get to force your opinions upon others, your powers are portrayed as a curse often and you find yourself at the mercy of others. Likewise in BG your heritage is also played as a curse in many regards and you have people trying to use you against your will. These are not power fantasies, power fantasies are when everything is done to gratify your desires: you are granted awesome powers and get to do what you like while those you don't like are destroyed and humiliated.

I second what Jarma said, either they are brigandine or fake brigandine made for wearing at court, oby has made the same mistake those who came up with studded leather in the first place did.

Totally agree, calling them something like knights might have been better, though I must admit I do like the name Paladin and knight might already be in use as a social status (but then barbarian is already in use by actual barbarians who might not have the class...).