Shadenuat

If violetarian is right and to become the richest guy there is I would only need to have free 5 kgs on my 6 party members, I see no reason for money not have weight. It won't be any trouble but would make every gold coin I would find in a dungeon a real treasure, not just another worthless number because full plate costs 10.000 of them. I would probably make Harley Starshine at Hall of Heroes just for her to carry a sack of gold. Or maybe I'll give it to obsidian NPC. And then he'll run away with it because my Influence on him is too low. And I'll throw my PC out of window. Now would't that be fun.

BG 1: Sleep, Entangle, Charm Person, Charm Animal. There are more things to do with those you'd imagine. For example, you could Charm Person a mage and order him to cast his fireball on himself. Also, summon 12 bears. In BG2 it's Scrying. It was possible to remove fog of war and cast some stuff from afar or throw monsters at badguys, and they won't even aggro on you. Lower Magic Resistance + Desintigrate on golems worked charms too. Oh, and turning dragons into squirells. In IWD is't obviously Contact Other Plane. That was just a lovely little spell. In Planescape Stygian Wrath. Also, Chromatic Sphere, it was soooo shiiiinyyyyy.

My PC is usually a magic user, thus

That's cool, and in a lot of ways how Prestiges should've worked in NWN2 - tie them to the narrative.

You can't fire bow when prone, it's retarded. Gun... maybe. Crossbow too, if it's loaded. Is't the whole point of that status is to leave opponent without actions anyway?

They already did something medieval - everyone in PE will percieve world through religious/myth like perspective of Souls.

I have no idea how can anyone think about positioning, flanking, spell-combos and all that stuff they want to get in in a real-time. Even with pause, bad AI and pathfinding really could **** up everything they say.

You might as well just ask me if I would like to have two arms or two legs.

I'm going to guess that song by first... hmm... 6 notes "at-will" Did I win? Okay, what I really think could happen: From 2d: Classes being more unique and distinguished one from another, perhaps with more interesting leveling curves; better armor and weapons are there as a long-term goal, instead of just starting game in full-plate; perhaps more class-based narrative features (Paladin Handbook). From 3d: Probably a large amount of skills and feats. From 4th: Equal contribution of all clases to combat; per-something abilities; 5 minutes rest; getting rid of memorisation (obvious).

I'm guessing D&D would have an impact on design somehow, what I am wondering is, which edition would have the most influence over developers and what would be taken from it. I'm going to assume a few things from 4th edition would be sticking out of PE system.

Jarmo, what are you not following, if you just made an example of a system like that yourself? You think you "order" someone, well, I don't. I think in TB you act as every character depending on his initiative and ability to comprehend combat and make fast decisions, like getting inside his skin. These two archers noticed wizard in your example first and fired and killed him, before other two spotted the guy and understood what act should be taken. It's abstract, yes, but it gives you a ****ton of options to choose from and tactical window inside which you can operate with maximum precision and play characters as you'd think they actually would play, not like crappy AI would play them. It actually makes their actions more intelligent and closer to what a real party would do.

Okay, forget it. Here's a kitten for you

1.21 gigawatt. What's a monk, Umberlin?

Lmao. First you use High Fantasy idea to prove that monks can exist, and now you use it to prove that monks can't exist.

Wizards got stripped of Enchantment school to create additional class, eh.

Looks more like a scrollcase. Both of these approaches just lead Monk class away from his pretended concept. If you need mythical shinanigan to spread your beliefs of living simple life and being self-sufficient, you're doing it wrong. And obviously, MMO-like armor would't help either. This means that to prove his point, monk should be effective just in robe and using his fists (like in Wizardry 8, for example). But managing your equipment has it's own strategic value in RPGs.

Well if they'd separate armor and armor class, like add absorption rating for armor, and AC would work like dodge, Monk could be a dodge-like character - hard to hit, but when he gets hit, it hurts. At least that would secure tanking role for fighters. Still I'm not a fan of creating a class based around hitting stuff with it's fists. I always though martial arts were created for different purposes - ceremonic and sports, to substitute for lack of weapons, or by fighting class to have to do something when your weapon breaks. Before Samurai would go all jujutsu on opponent, he probably had to lose his bow and arrows, break yari, and break both swords. If you can channel your "soul" through a vial of poisonous liquid, what's the problem with sword?

You are arguing my point from motive taken from another poster. I'm saying that it's not fair for monks to do same if not better damage and having same if not better armor like the class which has to rely on expensive weapons and armor, when you... have a class which relies on expensive weapons and armor. That's what they usually do, they are fighters for "poor". Though, just to tickle you, I too hate it when DM tries to create an adventure around some specific culture/myth/historical period and there's that guy, that ****ing random guy who always brings a kung-fu monk into party of knight templar, priest and witch.

Draw ideas from Nox which handled it in interesting way. Also, I want skills and races to affect how far your party can see.

Hey AngryJoe, don't you have some more movie-based X-box games to review?

Notice how these two concepts of magic were handled in their settings and why I have problem with everyone tapping into soul-business. First, a concept of magic was created - Force, Warp. Then, classes were taken from inside of that concept - Jedi, Sith and Psykers. These privileged classes have they own culture and rules. Like, for example, when a Psyker in Warhammer tries to use power of Warp, he has to pass a morale test, and on a roll which is more than his morale attribute he suffers a wound - by Warp overtaking him. So, yeah, while Psykers are kinda "mages", they are children of their setting. But in PE, we have these "Souls", but they seem to slapped on D&D classes for now, not backwards. Wizards are still going to use spellbooks and scrolls. It seems a bit crude and what's the point of changing name from Magic to Souls, I don't get it (for now). Obviously I believe Obsidian can pull it off with their quality of writing alone (yes, I have SO MUCH faith in guys), but still.

You assume every TB system is turn-per-character. It's not. Sometimes it's player-side vs. PC-side based.

I don't like that concept actually, well, where it's seems to be going (the X-men path). Arcanum had cannons, which made mages and old ways obsolete. That's how you merge supposedly unmergable things in a persuasive narrative fashion. You're placing too much emphasis on the idea that I hate monks because I don't believe Asia had as rich militaty tradition as every other part of the world.

They absolutely had to write that, did't they. GREAT SCOT these numbers are everywhere! They're attacking us! Hold the line!

Or, as an alternative for topic title - "Do not stat Lady of Pain". When Souls were introduced first, it was a metaphysical thing which seemed to act as a pillar for world concept and narrative, a plot-hook, if you may. However, with last update, we've seen some new tendencies in design, which I myself find a bit troubling: "ciphers have the unique ability to peer through the spiritual energy of the world to manipulate other souls" "fighters are just as able to tap into the power of their souls to devastating effect: accelerating their attacks to a superhuman speed, striking foes with such power that nearby opponents are knocked off their feet, and maintaining a phenomenal endurance" and even rogues "imbuing their weapons with a soul-eating venom" I think it raises a few questions, like: Just how much of hammering classes and abilities with souls are players ready to accept, before the whole thing loses it's narrative charm? Won't the fact that everyone around uses the same one thing to do something superhuman trivialize the concept? Could I use power of soul to grow bigger potatoes on my potato-farm?