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rjshae

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  1. rjshae
    Name: Malesh, "God of a Thousand Faces" Portfolio: illusion, lies, cunning (Change, confusion, cowardice, chaos, madness, nihilism, survival, looting, swindling) Symbols: A different symbol with each manifestation Manifestation: This deity never appears in the same form twice, but typically manifests as an unkempt humanoid of either gender. Malesh is one of the old gods, having survived in the face of divine purges and conflict by frequent changes of form and by re-inventing himself thousands of times. He will typically represent himself as a newly-raised god, then gather together worshipers under a charismatic leader to form a cult. Inevitably, such groups become a nuisance upon the population by seeking to subvert and disrupt the established order. Malesh rarely has more than a few thousand followers at a time, but his origin with the old gods means he has little need of support from his followers in order to manifest significant power.
  2. rjshae
    The Orlan painting is signed with a K. I don't see that on the Sagani painting, but the styles are somewhat similar (hair brush strokes, shadows, &c.). What I wonder is: does the Orlan really only have three fingers on his left hand?
  3. rjshae
    Err... now wait a minute... in a fantasy game filled with wizards, dragons, demons, wands, elves, teleporters, psionics, and unicorns, you draw the line at monks having extraordinary abilities?
  4. rjshae
    My understanding is that this will not be a sandbox game; you'll be limited to traveling to fixed area maps per the IE games. However, I don't think we've been informed yet about how this travel will be performed. It may be strictly point-to-point, or it may involve free or somehow constrained movement across a strategic map.
  5. rjshae
    A slight variant on Osvir's proposal: Give every spell a brief description and a long description, similar to how it is done in D&D 3.5e. The (line-wrapped) brief description shows up on a mouse-over pause for the spell. Something similar could be done for equipment as well.
  6. rjshae
    Reloading from an earlier save where they had access to the deeper stash is only slightly better than travelling back to the camp, because then the player will still need to travel back from the camp plus perform any intervening actions. This is "metagaming" the hard way. Having a deep stash is little different than using a storage container somewhere; the only thing it saves you is a lot of useless running back and forth. More so if you put some thought into it ahead of time; less so if you play stupid.
  7. rjshae
    Mmm... there might be borderland cases where you are less than sure. But I guess the game can be conservative and only let you perform jump if you can definitely make it. Okay.
  8. rjshae
    The one element of lists I don't much care for is inventory exchange. Drag-and-drop is generally quicker and easier than scrolling down the list, selecting on an item, then clicking on the transfer button. There's probably no perfect approach, alas.
  9. rjshae
    What do you mean by 'slot based'? And yes, if you limited the number of items a player can have there is no need to have categories. I believe he means that every object takes up exactly one square slot. That means a pebble takes up as much room in the inventory as a full suite of plate mail. It's not a very realistic system; in the IE games where there were a limited number of slots, it basically forced you to toss away everything but the most essential objects. A big, big problem with this is that you're not always sure what is important and what isn't: is that letter from the count worth handing on to? Or the mysterious key? You end up dragging around a ludicrous pile of junk. I'm all for seeing the end of that approach. Having key rings, potion bags, and scroll pouches is just a poor substitute for having category tabs.
  10. rjshae
    There's no point in having a jump or climb skill unless there's a cost for failure. If it's a certain succeed then the designers might as well just make the barrier walkable and add a suitable animation. For a chance of failure, players can just reload whenever the attempt fails. A middle ground would be to make a certain obstacle circumventable only if a character meets a specific skill requirement. Thus you can have a wall that can only be successfully climbed if the skill level is X or higher. This type of barrier may be useful for creating obstacles that require a certain experience level, or for creating the potential for a party split (which may be tactically interesting). A rope can be simulated by making it an item that temporarily applies the climb/jump skill level of the wielder to the other party members. I'm not sure about a rope and grappling hook combination; perhaps the game designers will need to decide where it can apply (i.e. gain a hold).
  11. rjshae
    A hand-raised orlan is much more gregarious among humans... Sorry, I saw the pic and couldn't resist.
  12. rjshae
    I'd like to see some D&D 3.5e-style swarms. From rats to spiders to hellwasp swarms; just moving and pouring over each like a swirling, rushing mass.
  13. rjshae
    Yeah, how could such a stunty creature with big furry ears ever possibly have such a nasty reputation?
  14. rjshae
    I'm guessing that the "Greed" thing was a simplification. Many of the dieties in polytheistic cultures had what we would consider character flaws, in addition to their divine aspects. Zeus was kind of a jackass. Dionysius was a drunk. Hera was often jealous to the point of murder. If, say, P:E includes a god of trade and commerce, it wouldn't be much of a stretch for the P:E equivalent of dirty, stinkin' hippies (read: druids) to deride that diety as a "god of greed." Perhaps the rough equivalent of Hermes then?
  15. rjshae
    They wouldn't necessarily need to implement multiclassing if they introduced something like a "sabbatical" level. Basically you're taking a break from your normal class progression in order to attain basic proficiency in something else (like spellcasting, combat specialization, thievery, and so forth). Thenceforth, you improve in that proficiency at a reduced rate while progressing in your normal class.
  16. rjshae
    I like the general concept, but think that the sight should be picked up from vision traces drawn from other living creatures. If everybody else is blind, then the cipher should probably be blind as well. (That might be a difficult mechanic to code though.)
  17. rjshae
    There are two essential basic strategies for succeeding at life: Never reveal all you know.
  18. rjshae
    In some countries of the world, unfortunately not so historically. We probably don't want to go there: discussions of modern religions get heated very quickly.
  19. rjshae
    For me, one of the big sources of inventory clutter are the crafting components. I sure hope those go in a separate category.
  20. rjshae
    The rule I learned is: let people play what they want. Don't force a particular alignment on them, or class, race, ... whatever. They're more likely to stick around that way, and to enjoy the experience.
  21. rjshae
    The Jaquarg is a flying creature with insect-like characteristics and behaviors. It begins its life cycle in a larval stage before metamorphosing into a flying scout. The Jaquarq is equipped with a ranged chemical attack that causes intense lethargy. During its larval stage, the Jaquarg is protected and raised by the hive creatures known as the Quarin. The latter are nearly blind, but have a heightened sense of smell that allows them to rapidly home in on the chemical tracers sprayed by the Jaquarg. Thus the two creatures form a symbiotic pair that cooperate on the hunt, with the Jaquarg attacking from range to slow down the prey, while the Quarin rapidly close in and swarm the victims. Once a prey is down, both share in the feast.
  22. rjshae
    Large, spider-like creatures called 'Viders' that use an endoskeleton structure in combination with a chitinous external carapice for protection. Basically a restructuring of the armadillo/tortoise with a segmented outer shell and a leathery hide to protect the exposed fleshy portions. Viders create web-like traps that are reinforced with a framework of twigs, branches, or overhanging arches. Like an armadillo, Viders can curl up into an armored ball for protection against larger creatures. They also possess a toxic bite that can paralyze a captured victim and begin to break down the flesh for consumption. Parallel evolution in action.
  23. rjshae
    Personally, I like the approach that religions reflect the worldviews and the lives of societies/individuals just like in our world. However, what's with the god of greed in this update and the early mention of gods scheming? For example, people who worship a god of wealth can earn a reputation of being greedy from other people. However, if a certain people worship "god of greed", then, how can they earn social trust in the first place? Simply, I cannot come up with even a possible example. Something that strikes me as slightly irregular about RPG implementations of pantheons is the concept of people only praying to a specific god. CRPGs like NWN2 have you pick a particular god to worship, as if that is your only choice. Yet in ancient societies with multiple gods, the people would often pray to many deities. A city like Athens would have a tutelary deity, but there would be other temples to other gods worshiped on particular days of the year. Wouldn't it make more sense to be able to choose multiple deities that you favor? Say your top 3?
  24. rjshae
    Here's an interesting news tidbit about the latest director of the proposed Warcraft movie: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/warcraft-movie-lands-source-code-416956
  25. rjshae
    Perhaps, but you shouldn't have it all your own way. It would be more realistic if your efforts to corrupt one party member had significant ramifications for the remainder. Turning a paladin to a life of debauchery should cause another upright NPC to view your behavior as utterly vile and thenceforth oppose your intentions. He or she may well leave your party and ally with those seeking your defeat.
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