[Number of companions vs number of classes]

A lesser party size would be also a fairly good solution. If you're required to have 2 or 3 companions to function as a full party (as opposed to the classic 5), you can experiment a lot more.

[This is silly]

 

Romances. Yeah, that figures. Get a life. (or make it as subtle as humanly possible [PS:T])

 

 

I'd actually like some romance options, as long as they are written by Chris Avellone, who admittedly cannot find a love story interesting unless one of the participants betrays the other, or sets him/her or fire, or both.

[Something to try to avoid.]

Possibly even with the option to mock them for their stupidity, and gloat about it.

 

Especially with the option to mock them and gloat.

 

(But if you do that very often, your enemies might hear about how you tend to do that, and set up a fake ambush to ambush you as you ambush the fake ambushers. (Ambushception!) Then mock you and gloat.)

[Do we want elves and dwarves?]

 

That's a little bit like Dark Elves no? I mean the whole evil elves thing. In forgotten realms they have the matriach and have slaves and do unelfy stuff. It's cool and all but it has been done before. At the end I keep asking myself what makes evil elves different from just very bad humans with pointy ears? Or hippy humans tree huggers with pointy ears?

 

Nope

 

They are the "nature-loving" trope taken to the extremes. Perhaps their superior elfy traits are tied to it, and outside of their forests, their longevity and physical/mental superiority are dwindling. (That would explain both why they are so protective of said forests, and why do they take a small bit of it with themselves wherever they go - thus the treant form).

I imagine them as an embodiment of the savage aspect of nature so often overlooked in fantasy. As apex predators in their natural habitat. It has nothing to do with evil, nor with being a tree-hugging hippie

[Do we want elves and dwarves?]

I like them, but prefer them in a subverted, non-traditional form

 

I would like to see some suggestions, seeing that this seems to be the most popular option atm.

 

 

I actually like the idea of "demon elves". Combined with the traditional tree-hugging aspect, they could look normal at first glance, but if seriously threatened, transform into something between a treant and an alien (you know, branches, skin as bark, perhaps tentacles, and the whole thing oozing black mucus...). They could wield magics related to wild, ever-growing life (along the line of unstoppable growth) and/or death/decomposition. Dual aspect of nature, and all that.

 

Not like it's original, or the devs would be very likely to be able to use it, but a cool idea, which hasn't been represented in a video game yet.

[What schools of magic should do you want to see in the game?]

I'd like to see an Earthdawn-like system, where every class is a spellcaster, only the spheres of influence differ (would explain conveniently the superhuman feats of rogue- and warrior-type characters). So possible schools include War, Shadows, and the like.

Or a magic system largely independent of class, and entirely based on the individual (backstory, personality - you gain spells or schools based on your ingame decisions, your companions have a fixed list, expanding only if you care to move their story forward/alter their outlook, etc.). This way, basically any kind of school could be in the game.

 

Would tie into the "strong souls can use magic" theme nicely, although it would be fairly limiting when creating lore-friendly fights with human opponents... either they can't use magic and tactical complexity takes a blow, or they can, and suddenly, your kind becomes the majority.

[Taunt or no taunt?]

An ability like the different "marks" of the DnD 4 defender-type classes is a good idea, I think. It doesn't force characters to do anything, but incurs damage and/or penalties if they attack another target. Which is, in my opinion, quite realistic (after all, a huge armored guy cleaving at you does count as a distraction).

[Ouch, Bioware... Dragon Age 2, and now this?]

I've never been much of a Bioware fan (played BG1 after the sequel, which kinda ruined it for me; NWN was just meh [for the record, I didn't like NWN 2 either]; and never played KotOR), but compared to the terrifying pile of crap they gave us in DA:O and ME2, DA2 and ME3 seem fairly solid games. These two at least manage to have an atmosphere, DA2 has some pretty strong moral aspects (I think it's actually better in this respect than Witcher), and ME3's gameplay is really enjoyable (plus the memorable [albeit sometimes cheesy] story elements and the fact that we spent quite a long time with the characters who, as a consequence, grew pretty close to us).