rjshae

Interesting point, and it actually implies magic when weapons do get better that way. Once again, man yf those magical weapons of yore in medieval legends got to be magical because of its former wielder. If a highly esteemed chieftain or a king successful on the battlefield had used the weapon, it had somehow gotten charged with power and magic. Thus, this would be great for our heroes as well. A mundane weapon that they use for their great or dirty deeds turn magical over time and you get to level it up, etc. But mind you, this require magic to begin with, so wherever we turn, a weapon familiarity system of this sort will mean mundane weapons turning magical in a slow process that we as players get to steer a bit. The other stuff, where you get better using a particular weapon, it is a matter of weapon proficiencies and the like. Would you be willing to spend the equivalent of feats to bestow your favorite weapon with magic-like properties? Or should it just automatically happen?

My understanding is that evil is not going to be a faction. Nor is good. It's up to the player whether they view a particular factions goals as good or evil; hence you decide for yourself which faction represents the "dark path".

Why would a mastercrafted sword be a PoS weapon? Why would you even consider it such? Because it's not magical? My point being that gaining mastery in any weapon does not make it a better weapon. You can only carry compensating for a weapon's particular limitations so far.

How is your preference for old-school class builds incompatible with a flexible character build model? If you want to just follow the old school model then do so. But that's no reason to foist your wish for tight restrictions on the rest of us. Have the self-discipline to stick with vanilla class builds.

Wizard with a sword is replaceability, not flexibility. And if one will place fighters position in jeopardy (like how famous kensai/mages did in BG2), the whole class system goes down the toilet. Every class replacing other class because of tailored "build" is an MMO route. Bah. I'd rather just start with a career start package then build whatever kind of character I want. It's approach used in multiple role-playing game systems not called D&D, and it works very well. Classes are merely representations of character specializations, which make just as much sense to build in point-based systems. Giving a point-build character diverse abilities just means they won't be very good at any of them. (*COUGH*bard*COUGH*)

I do have much respect for the resilience of the North Korean army. But the world isn't the same as it was in the 1950s and military technology has advanced considerably, as has South Korea. I agree that an attack by North Korea would be suicidal in the present era.

Yes, this has been discussed before. You get used to the quirks of a weapon, and so it becomes slightly more effective. Another way to factor this is that mundane weapons come with a penalty at first, which fades away after you wield it for a while. I have some difficulty accepting this. A PoS weapon is still a PoS weapon, even if you've wielded it for a decade. Some weapons are simply going to be better than others. A masterwork weapon may remain perfectly viable against lesser foes for the entire game, but you should run into significant difficulties against the more potent enemies. Maybe you need to be a level or two higher to face the same foe with your trusty, but ordinary broadsword.

The main concern I have is that NK is so heavily invested in their nuclear program that they will expect some sort of economic compensation. They are, after all, a complete basket case otherwise. Financially that may inevitably translate into selling nukes on the world's black market. Once that starts to happen, all bets are off. I can think of several nation states that could decide NK can't be allowed to present such a threat to their major cities, so they will initiate a first strike. Goodbye North Korea.

Truculent Onion Raiders This is an aggrieved faction of Orlan farmers who had their land holdings unfairly pilfered, ruined, and outright stolen by other races. They now engage in a form of guerrilla warfare by raiding the stocks of lands they still consider their own: destroying crops, stealing poultry, breaking eggs, burning barns, filling in wells, and crippling livestock. They make very effective use of converted farm implements as weapons, including flails, forks, and scythes. To conceal their intentions, the TOR employ a specialized farmer's cant/slang that involves frequent references to various vegetables and farming terms.

I'd be satisfied if a competent Wizard swordsman can be made good enough to engage the less skilled fighters in the enemy ranks. That would leave the Fighter NPC free to take on the enemy's master swordsman.

A poll may be useful because not everybody is going to be equally enamored with all of these ideas.

Bravado points: these are points you gain for every significant act you perform--every creature you kill, door you unlock, creature you sneak past, trap you avoid, and so forth. Each time you return to camp for healing, your current bravado points are cut in half. When you are awarded a chunk of XP, you gain a percentage XP bonus (+0/5/10/20%) based upon your bravado points. Your bravado points are then reduced by the net XP award, to a minimum of zero. When you level up, your bravado points are reset to zero.

Err... phishing expedition? Why wouldn't you just post the poll here?

Dogs that come out and bark at you when you enter a town or village; birds that flock together; candle lights in windows that go out when the residents are asleep; ducks and ducklings swimming in a pool; waterwheel and a mill pond; moonlight reflecting off a still lake; a petty criminal locked up in the stocks; women in a house spinning wool; medieval titles like reeve, catchpole, and pursuivant; camp followers; medieval occupations like collier; fresco paintings; a herd of goats, &c.

Mmm, I watched a few minutes then lost interest. Vicarious gaming just isn't my thing. I do have to say that Chris' voice isn't anything like as bad as he claims. But opinions vary.

Wouldn't a feat/talent be sufficient to reflect that degree of training? Once you're proficient at moving in armor, is there any further benefit to be gained? You can only approach your ability to maneuver without armor; not exceed it.

Something like a herbal palliative should be easier to concoct and obtain than a true cure. A druid can construct a balm that alleviates the symptoms sufficiently for a character to continue to struggle through until the party decides to return to camp. For magical cures, my feeling is that such a cure should be met by disease magic resistance. A cure disease spell may or may not be completely successful. It might only reduce the effects of the disease to the point where the character can recover on their own. So that would be my put: they can give the players various tools for alleviate the symptoms of poison or disease, but make a complete, rapid cure more difficult to obtain. In extreme cases, characters may have to pay for rest in a hospital for some period of time before they can fully recover.

I think this is wrong. If you are to chose 5 companions out of 8 companions, without assigning importance to the order in which they are chosen, then I believe you should use a combination C58 = 8!/[(8-5)! * 5!] = 8!!/(3! * 5!) = 1*2*3*4*5*6*7*8/(1*2*3*1*2*3*4*5) = 4*5*6*7*8/(1*2*3*4*5) = 6*7*8/(1*2*3) = 56 This is quite different, but still, playing the game 56 times is quite a feat! Correct me if I'm wrong, but I do believe this is how you're supposed to see the stats. So there would be 56 possible parties of 6 people including the player character. If you want to add possibilities of soloing or using less party members, then I'll redo the stats a little later. You may be correct. My probability skills are thirty years old and pretty rusty.

8-choose-5 = (8!3!)/5! = 8*7*6*3*2 = 2,016 possible party combinations. That should may for a little bit of replay value.

^^^ Fortunately it's normal diet consists of Russian Mig fighters.

^^^ Possibly maximum Stamina could be set equal to: something based on your current (Con-based?) Health + something based on your (non-Con) physical stats + something based on your level. In that case, a low Health would translate into a lower maximum Stamina. However, the net result of such a system may cause players to return to camp more often, so it would need some tuning.

More voice acting, especially voicing everything, would simply mean less money for everything else. I like voice acting in my games, but it depends on wich game. As I understand it important characters and moments in the game will be voiced, and that is all I need. There was a past discussion about the possibility of creating a mod to include amateur voice acting, but that would likely depend on the developers including that capability in the game.

It is interesting psychologically how some gamers can have such strong preferences with regards to dwarves, yet others find elves to be unbearably passé. Perhaps it is the beard: a masculine threat feature enhanced by length, whereas the elf is beardless. Or maybe it's the behavior: the dwarf is gruff, stubborn and aggressive, whereas the elf has perhaps more stereotypically effeminate attributes? Hmm... I'll probably get myself in trouble with this line of reasoning.

Canis Unicornis Mogrelus

Those are some interesting implications. But I do have a few questions. Should strength, dexterity, or any other stat interact with such a skill? Should heavier armors like plate have a higher maneuver check and if so should armor dependant classes like the fighter start with points in maneuver. For the first, I'd say whatever stat would interact with the proposed Armor skill. For the second, I'd say that it would be a favored skill of a fighter just like sneak would be for a rogue. Remember, the designers are not limiting skills based on class. A wizard spending points on maneuver would be no different than a fighter spending points in lockpicking. An armor skill by itself would just be a means to hinder armor use by non-fighter classes. Plus it's not clear that an armor skill is all that valuable. It needs to be balanced out with the other skills.