rjshae

OTOH I'm all for Private Bicker Forums; let all the trolls vent their spleen therein.

Perhaps every couple of levels the druid character can choose a totemic spirit guide? The druid can then activate a guide and gain special benefits (with accompanying drawbacks) while the ability is active. Thus the Fox spirit guide provides a bonus to stealth and enhanced senses, but at a cost in reduced physical strength.

If you leave the game for too long, a sadistic fraternity brother is summoned from the demonic plane of hazing and begins swatting your character on the backside.

^^^^ They could probably begin with sub-partitioning the priest spell set. I wouldn't mind seeing a modest set of general purpose priest spells and a larger set of deity rituals; every priest gets all of the general spells, but the deity rituals are only granted to followers of specific subsets of the deities. (Thus, say, a power of the beast ritual may only be available to followers of deities of monsters, strength, murder, and destruction.) This approach does have the drawback of limiting a priest's spell selection, but who uses all of the available spells anyway?

While it's not quite the same as seeing facial expressions, the developers could probably do quite a bit using body language, obvious gestures, character facing, and positioning. You can communicate quite a bit with head shakes, folded arms, shrugs, yawns, and just plain facing the person you're talking to (or turning away). I saw little if any of that in the IE games, other than simple twitch gestures. Having the characters move like real participants in the discussion could add a lot to the atmosphere.

Yeah, I'm not really seeing the benefit of a setting up a private backer's forum for a Kick Starter project. If anything, it would dampen the potential publicity that serves to draw in other gamers.

^^^^ Good ideas. I like the concept of a druidic companion that is first encountered during a spirit journey, then takes a physical form indigenous to the region. If the form is slain then the spirit is set adrift until the druid can find it a new host. (The host must be agreeable to being possessed by the spirit, so the druid needs to spend some time befriending it.) The companion then regains the knowledge it had before, but in a new, slightly altered form.

I don't think they have mentioned any specifics.

"Pause".

A more general focus on animism and shamanism, rather than a specifically celtic orientation, would be good. Druidism would then be one specific aspect of that more widespread practice. Basically a view of nature that consists of spirits, whether animals, plants, rivers, mountains, weather, or what have you.

^^^^ That's reasonable. However, the way that evil clerics are often portrayed is having truck with demonic forces: devils, demons, and the like. Likewise, other clerics can provide some protection from diabolism. It might make sense for evil priests to at least be able to co-exist with evil spirits like the undead and demons; not necessarily controlling them, but being able to pass through them unharmed. That might be less so for intelligent evil spirits, but at least these might recognize evil clerics as one of their own.

The association of clerics with laying the dead to rest has been around long before D&D came along. If you "de-couple" that from the priest class, you're basically removing a large part of why you even need a clerical profession.

I never liked that five second rest-pause system in the NWN2 OC. It looked completely ridiculous and implausible. Fortunately they improved upon it in the sequels, doing a fade out/in and a possible combat encounter while you were resting.

Okay, so that's at least two pacifists out of the 73,986 supporters. For me at least, a non-lethal RPG is basically an adventure game. If you're facing evil minions, diplomacy isn't always going to cut it.

I'd like to see a mechanic that differentiates comfortable rest in a warm Inn from just sleeping on the ground. Since rest is already going to cure your health damage, another differentiator is needed. The first that comes to mind is disease. Resting in a safe, warm, comfortable place should improve your odds of recovering from a bout of disease. In fact, resting up should improve your resistance to both disease and possibly poison as well. It should also clear your thoughts and rest your worn body, so it seems reasonable to allow a small bonus to skills for a day or two.

That'll teach me not to post on Christmas morning. This should have been on the Chanter thread. Sorry.

I'm not sure that an endless dungeon would be worth the effort. The game developers have enough on their plate.

I concur, but more importantly the events that follow your witnessing of the supernatural occurrence are what shape the plot. Hence, it's really your character's story that is being told.

Sigh. And another name goes into the Ignore prefs... bye Game_Exile.

I do hope they don't follow the path of those ridiculously overpriced backpacks in DA:O.

I have a notion for a Cipher-specific combat ability: Combat Lore. Each round that the cipher has been fighting a civilized or semi-civilized creature, he automatically makes a lore skill check (opposed by the opponent's intelligence and level). On a success, he recognizes specific aspects of the fighting style and preferences, allowing him to draw upon obscure knowledge and make crafty adjustments to his tactics. This grants him a +1 bonus to attack and defense against that specific opponent.

In that case, we may have a position open for you in upper management...

The scene flashes forward to your funerary rites. Your friends and companions are standing around your grave. Each, in turn, presents a eulogy in their own inimitable way; on the whole it is a sad, moving experience. Finally they wander off. You try to move your character, to cast a spell or sing a song, but nothing happens. Gradually the light fades into the evening twilight. A gloomy storm rolls in and the rain beings to fall. It grows every darker as night falls and the precipitation grows heavy. The seasons pass. Occasionally one of your friends drop by to leave some flowers and say a few words. But this happens less and less frequently. Spring turns to summer, then comes fall. The leaves from the towering oak gently fall onto your grave. Finally, your lingering soul loses its grip upon the mortal realm and returns at last to the great wheel.

But that (50% or less) is pretty much the tabletop gaming experience. I suppose if you were only going to play it through once then you'd want to hit most of it. That spoon-fed approach isn't for everybody though.

Merry Christmas everybody! Santa's on his way...