rjshae

I wonder: can druids gain combat talents for fighting in demi-human form? I.e. can they specialize in shapeshifted combat rather than focusing on particular weapons and martial styles?

AFAIK, they still get familiars as one of their starting abilities.

Heh. Well the "YOU'RE" is wrong, anyway.

Presumably non-Celtic priests, although the D&D ones always seemed somewhat Christianity-oriented to me.

You're suggesting that druids, modeled after the celtic priest class, shouldn't get any priestly spells? That doesn't make sense. Some overlap in function is fine for game-play purposes, particularly since you are limited to six characters. The classes only need to be sufficiently distinct to feel unique; they don't need to be completely different in every aspect. The latter approach is too clinical.

Some posters should be flayed into a throbbing mass of pain with a burning strip of barbed wire, then boiled in molten sulfur for their hyperbole.

Hopefully, they are at least contemplating what to do with the expansion... and where to take the story.

I'll be happy just to get a non-defective disk and a well-bound instruction book. If the box is large I'll end up dumping it to save shelf space. The DVD will go in my media book and the rules book in the game drawer.

Well....if class only determines how you fight, not who you are, then every non-combat aspect of character customization should be completely independent from class. Is it? I see how this approach gives you more freedom to roleplay different kinds of cahracters, so I agree it might be a good way to do things, but it will make some instances of class-specific restrictions even less tolerable than before. For instance, mage robes... the damned things have been in almost every game, and nowhere do they make the least bit of sense for an adventuring mage. If PoE will let my mage wear a sensible outfit, then I'll know they thought this "class is only about how you fight" through to the end... Every class will be able to put points in any class, but each class has a set of skills that receive a starting bonus. Thus your rogue would get a head start in, say, a Stealth skill. As long as he keeps putting points in that skill at every opportunity, he will always be better at it than a class that doesn't get a starting bonus in that skill. My understanding is that any class can use any type of weapon or armor in this game--they just might not be particularly good at using it. If there is a mechanic for item enchanting in this game, I suspect that this may have some class limitations. Or at least prerequisites that can only be satisfied by specific classes.

Orlan, I dub thee Half-Pint.

booooooo hsssssss

Mmm, I'll bet Jump to Conclusions is a first level spell that you can enchant into your keyboard. Material components: a thread and a post.

Saw the first episode of The 100 last night. An interesting premise, and different from what I was expecting. The flavor is a little bit of 'convicts deported to Australia' meets Lord of the Flies. It may be good, or it could be terrible.

I'm predicting it's going to tank.

The low maintenance versions will sometimes even give you a present. In your bed. While you're asleep. Like a mouse. A live one.

Will the boxed versions become collectors items? Maybe some will leave their mint copy unopened and just use the digital download?

Hopefully there won't be many spells that can directly replicate skills, such as spider climb in D&D. Those tend to devalue the other classes.

We have discussed before what it is about classes in particular that makes for interesting non-combat elements, and I think the general consensus was: not much. There are a few things like conversation, stealth and survival where some classes may excel in a D&D-based game, but those are factors are now generally skill based.

I wasn't too concerned about pre-buffing when playing a fighter-mage; for me it was more about combat flexibility--switching from fighter versus grunts to battle mage against a magic-heavy enemy party. They're like a special forces character, if you will, rather than being the heavy infantry. I usually put it on the flanks or, in narrow quarters, had it in reserve using missile weapons.

Looking at it, I got the sense that this is not an ordinary fireplace. That's not how wood normally burns.

We don't know that they can't be charged, spell-producing items, in addition to being magic foci.

A nice update all the way around. I quite enjoyed the artwork and the class details. Thank you. Hopefully those portraits will be available for use with Adventurer Hall characters. What I wonder about is the role spell scrolls will play in this, if any. Will those be available as loot items for spell-casting classes and will they still function as one-shot spells that can supplement your grimoire or spell repertoire?

Yes, I know. Notice I said pointy hats with floppy rims? I guess not. Whatever.

No, pointy hats are not indicative of a specific culture. Here, allow me to go into the history of the pointy hat.First, we have the association with wizards. The pointy hat's association with wizards originated in Norse Mythology, via Odin's guise as the wanderer, in which he wore a wide brimmed hat that hid his missing eye. He also wore a blue robe, and leaned on a staff. Odin was the norse god of magic (among other things), so the connection to wizards should be fairly obvious. Later on, European woodcuts would portray wizards, dwarfs, and witches as having pointy hats, thus leading to the modern association. Thus, while it does fall into modern culture's portrayal of wizards, it also falls into that of the norsemen, as well as 17th century fairy tales. As far as the hat itself, conical hats appear in a number of cultures due to the ease of manufacture. It's like saying pants are associated with a particular culture. You just made my point--according to you, 'pointy' hats with floppy rims are associated with a specific European culture, which was then borrowed by some other northern European cultures. They were not universal, at least not in that form. If you look at those woodcuts, you'll also find other forms of pointy hats for wizards, including so-called 'dunce' caps. They had very distinctive cultural influences. Hat styles are often culturally iconic.

Reads the OP. *Must be a Fux News wet dream.* Snickers. Leaves.