Shadenuat

Find AD&D monster manuals and compendums for more lulz, they'r all there - swan maidens, hags, vodyanoi and even gorynych. There are even a few vodyanoi in Icewind Dale 1, at Icasaracht's temple I think.

If you stat it they'll kill it. So don't stat it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpEimi2JLws There is quite a gap between Lothar and TNO too, actually, originally Lothar is 25 level necromancy-oriented priest who is "too wise to die and fortold his own death", it just was't very well presented in the game. I don't like it when player becomes a demigod in Fantasy, it's okay for realism-oriented games where you can shoot anyone with a gun, but Fantasy is a mythological-oriented type of setting, and when you are able to kill the myth, you lose respect for it, and so, for the setting.

What you're looking for is a sort of leather which was used to made midsoles. It's probably hard to find today because they don't make midsoles from natural leather anymore, but maybe still used somewhere for saddles or maybe some of parts of them. It's hard as hell and very light, and I can easely believe that it was used to make lamellar armour, at least. Of course, I'd prefer steel myself, but if I would be a warrior from a culture where you could get your hands on a lot of good thick leather, but low on metal, I'd probably at least try make the best out of leather first.

I was talking about enemies. I'm not really that afraid of somebody able to one-shot my party, what I don't like is when party can one-shot bosses.

I don't like instant death spells because they make fighting enemies who are supposed to be special and tough luck based. OTOH, I don't like high level magic in general. It was fun in BG to Finger-of-Death and Disintegrate, but I'd rather there would be more tactics, preparation and positioning envolved instead. First time I killed Firkraag I did it with party without such spells. I got every fire protection item from dungeon and used my fighter to tank, I used protection spells, healing spells, summoning spells, and lost half of my party at the end. And I think that's how these fights are supposed to go. I would probably prefer more gameplay with save-or-you-are-out-of-combat spells, like Sleep, Hold Person, Flesh to Stone and Maze. In Baldur's Gate 1, they were often almost as save-or-die spells, because sleeping/holded characters were hit automatically, which was true both for you and your enemies; however, it was't instant win-button, you had to change priorities in attacking, change tactics for your clerics - you wanted to either heal or to shield/dispells holded characters; and more "epic" enemies required special approach to kill them, like, even with hold monster Loup Garou screwed you up cause they were immune to anything but +4 weapons. In BG2, you could lower Adamantine Golem's resistance and save-or-die him. Wtf? The worst for me was Mask of Betrayer though. Wail of Banshee with DC 30+ lol derp.

Mmmmm bacon

Obsidian writing is often very personal, more often than not NPCs are speaking directly to protagonist. "YOU are Akachi, thus YOU are special and do THAT", "YOU are the Courier", "YOU my love must die", "YOU are the Exile and everyone is talking to you and you are important". It's far from BG1 with "We were hired to kill CHARNAME", it's often personal and dramatic. Concidering we are getting the "PC is special and tied to the narrative again", making everyone a spokeperson won't make much sense.

You can place route of points on map and your character would run automatically in game using them.

Oh god, that does that for me. I need some air.

Everyone just already posted everything they could in Update 29 thread about the issue, it was like a rush into holy Mecca of armor-fans.

WE ELITISTS DO NOT NEGOTIATE WITH TERRORISTS! There can be no compromise!!11 There can be only war! WAR!

Depends on diameter and thickness of rings imo.

Define fun.

..must... resist... making... Bioware... jokes.... must.. not... submit...

Fixed stats seem to help avoid stuff like HP bloat, although it's just one of the ways to solve problem.

Trial and error is a natural way of learning things. How can a system be complex and flexible if it does't allow any mistakes? Risks are what make games more exciting. It's risks, risks and even more risks which made games with highest replayability out there - taking risks and playing unarmed character in Fallout, taking risks and playing ugly half-orc in Arcanum, taking risks and picking charming Malcavian (or gimped Nosferatu) in Bloodlines.

Must be very ****ty joke. If you want to argue with "elitists", you may want to at least read the OP post, because you're barking at a wall.

1. Substantial If something makes my head hurt but it makes game mechanics more fluid and complex, I'll eat my pills. 2. There is't a suitable option for me. Sometimes game mechanic should be pretty clear, like when I want to know how exactly my character's performance would be changed by strategic choices I make when changing stats, picking skills or weapons; but some things are best to let be in the realm of roleplaying - I'd prefer Diplomacy skill of 4 out of 5 say "You are able to persuade almost anyone into your way of thinking but the most strong willed", instead of "Any character if Will-save lower than X can be persuaded with a % chance of Y". 3. A lot. I know it contradicts with my pick at 1), but it's a gaming system and exists to be played with.

There is that line in design, which, when crossed, instead of making game foolproof makes developers end up with game for fools. And when that happens I can't add anything valuable to discussion because I just want to swear all the time. So I'll just say I'm against quest markers mechanics.

Liked samples so far. I think it's that kind of ambient which could enhance "adventure" feel like Baldur's Gate music did. In IE games it often came from the scale of seeing your little group of adventurers on a huge fantasy landscape, marching into unknown, and music tried to capture those specific moments. You had "introduction into adventure" music, calm, but promising, like one in first village of Icewind Dale: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-0QpAnWZTc&feature=relmfu or "marching" music, which almost felt like you had a war musician with you, who'd play something so his party members won't get bored on march http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoBXppWfAwA&feature=relmfu I think IE games did a good job not only at just capturing the feel of their locations, but at guessing what player would actually do in them and supporting that with mood.

The ideal system where every build would be valuable not only is impossible, but it also would be boring and harmful to the gameplay. The most interesing systems icluding those implemented in games are those which give player great freedom over his character's strenghts and weaknesses. And picking weaknesess creates a possibility of making a mistake in build. Did Fallout opposed player if he wanted to create a character with dexterity of a table but high charisma? No, and that what was very good about Fallout. People've beaten the game by all sorts of characters, from munchkins to junkies and pacifists. They did it because of their knowledge of the game and with trial and error way. That's replayability for you, it's a good feature when it comes to games; the more time you can spend with the game the better, because that's their purpose - to have lots of fun time. Will it be possible if game handholded player all the time? I don't think so, as I said, the more freedom and flexibility there is, the more the chance you could possibly create a horrible freak who could't beat his first met rats. Also, there is combat, combat in RPGs is influenced by strategical choices you've made at you character screen; and strategy means there are right choices and wrong choices; creating balanced party, picking it equipment, it's all aboud avoiding potential failure. If you're afraid of failure, then it's a downhill to "skip combat" button from there.

They do, however, support classes in archetypical roleplaying way. This is Wynne from Dragon Age, an old, wise motherly-like mage who is also a healer: http://blog.bioware.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/wynne2.jpg And this is Wynne played by someone who choose Arcane Warrior as a second prestige class for her, which gives an option of using Magica stat as substitute for Strength to wear armor and cancels some penalties for that: http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/8658/daorigins20091117015314.jpg What an outfit. Fits that character like a glove, does't it?

Actually, most often it happens when dodge-type faces such a numerous amount of attacks with low damage that it's better to equip something which blocks them than to rely on dodge.

No sleep for me today. This is good stuff. I always search for circusmtantial bonuses or penalties for characters wearing specific equipment in my games. I know we won't have Josh DMing us online when we'll send our fighters clad in full plate to fight few ice trolls on a ice lake, but maybe some maps or dungeons would reward player for choosing more appropriate armor, even if it does't suit his/her aesthetic or roleplaying taste. I like wizards in robes, because I like the concept of having badly defended artillery unit in tactical games. A unit which is inexchangeable in terms of firepower and/or utility but has to be defended brings tactical depth. I also like when you have to scrap every gold piece to finally afford Full Plate and feel good about it. But, anyway, I'm sure there should be ways to create different fighters, but what I really do not want to see is balancing this stuff out using just AC/Armour and DPS values. I don't think about XTREME, but I'm pretty sure that lightly armored fighter should take other role than heavely armoured, maybe he would have higher speed and could use skirmising tactics, maybe he'll be better at avoiding area spells. Character concept should be challenged. What was effective at one encounter, should't be effective all game. Maybe our guy with rapier wearing gambeson would switch to bow later in game when he'd find enemies who make too many strong attacks. Or maybe he'd have to dabble a bit into sneak attacking. But he'd still be cool when you need to instantly stab someone lightly armored and fast. Now, to step away from update a little I agree. Also, it could be about traveling speed, encumbrance and stamina. In Fallout New Vegas, I liked that add-on where I had to exchange my power armour for light leather armour to travel into addon. And, I often liked to travel just in leather armor to run faster and to spend less money. The same reason I often used simple hunting rifle as a backup weapon instead of Anti Material rifle. But, how do you implement that survival spirit into party rpg? kay let's get back to update That's how it is. You slap more leather or lighter materials, and it becomes better. You could still probably increase weight, add repair cost and make character move slower in it, even if it's padded tunic vs. gambeson stuffed with oakum which is heavy like ****. Yes, but it does't have to completely. Even full plate could be made looking barbaric. Every culture had it's own way of making things look distinct. A barbarian still could wear a wolf pelt atop his mail, a scary steel mask instead of regular helmet, he could add amulets and trinckets, ect. I'm not talking about Diablo 2 here, where everything miracuosly suits any character, be it large barbarian or gentle sorceress, but armor looks and customisation should not affect design decisions in that way, imo. Everything could work. Cultural-like could be used to great effect to enhance lore of the game. I once had a "Imperial Leather" in game which was based on those fancy larpy roman leather armors with muscular features and golden trinckets and such, and that armor was mostly worn by elite battle group from that empire. So when players saw somebody in it or got their hands on it their were like "Oohh it's imperial ****, and we know everything made in there is good, ooh that guy must be tough son of a bitch". Now, +1 or +2, I always prefer to avoid it in item descriptions if stuff is magical. Why? Because it's magical stuff. Magical stuff should live a bit more mysterius life than career ladder from +1 to +5. It's okay to hint a rule about it in technical discription ("This sword concidered +3 on wounding immune to non magical weapons creatures"), but just "This is Magical sword +1... noone knows where it was made, just +1", it just does't work. It should be avoided, but you can't avoid it completely, because magical leather armor would still probably be better than non-magical mail. The way to avoid it as I see it would probably to introduce different types of damage. Say, doublet would give 2 AC against slashing, Gambeson 3, Armored Doublet 4, but Scale Vest would still be better at protecting against piercing... or whatever.

This is ridiculous. Respec should't exist in a game with save/load option and where skills would possibly affect dialogue outcome. Not to mention all the strategic value and taking consequences of your actions which long term planning adds to roleplaying system.