The Dark One Avoozl

You know an idea just popped into my head looking at that guy's axe and then thinking of the people that complain about oversized weapons. Look at that axe and tell me that that thing would do anything to this: Kinda doubt that a weapon made to fight against regular humans (though armored) will be any help against giant fantasy monsters. So yeah there is even a believable reason for giant weapons to exist in the fantasy genre.

Can't we all just look like the God-Emperor of Mankind and be happy?

Only that the Daedric armor is magical in nature. And could give it's protective value due to that nature and not through the design. Like... lets take the Legacy of Kain series for an example. The most iconic weapon in the game was overstylized flamberge that was in no way practical usually. On the other hand. Due to it's magic properties it was indestructable and stole the souls of anything it hit exploding said target into a shower of gore. Doesn't need to be an effective looking sword if the enchantment on it blows you up. Or armors that had magic effects like this: "Chaos Armor My enemies are quite vicious and the Chaos armor extracts from them a heavy price for their bloodlust. The blows are meant for me, but it is their bodies that carry the wounds." "Wraith Armor This armor was spawned in the most impure of spirit forges; tempered from the seething agony of tortured souls. The metal exists only partially in the human realm, causing it to fade between tangible and ethereal states."

Honestly? Why can't there be everything? Plain armor and weapons and over the top armor and weapons? We are already supposed to get majorly outlandish races are we really supposed to believe that they all wear armor primarily designed for humans? Also most of the times weapons are oversized so that you can actually see the detail and effort put into the weapon design by the developer which would be lost if the weapon was too small. Btw. I like the Daedric armor. And plot wise it even makes sense to look "outlandish" Daedra are creatures that exist outside of the regular plane of existence and are crazy over the top entities. Like. If I loot armor or weapons from a demon stronghold I expect the equipment to look demonic and not like regular chain or plate armor. I'm not saying to make all the armor fanservice bikinis but at least some over the top stuff would be nice. Especially on stuff crafted by magic.

Man you are awesome. Just earlier made a thread about non-combat skills and class use outside of combat. Saw you lurking there. And now this. Best Dev evar.

And really. We don't have to limit these ideas to wizards. Lets say I have chosen a priest. I'm in this village that is threatened by a necromancer. Necromancer is all like: "Muahahahahahaha! I control this village. What are you going to do against my army of the undead! You and your measly group stand no chance! Muahahahahahahahaha!" Priest steps forward "Yeah well... *cough* Prayer: Turn Undead." *Zombie army walks away. Necromancer is left standing alone* Necromancer: O_o "FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF" Little stuff like this. Or a village is disease ridden. Don't know the source. And even if it's story wise not even possible to heal it without some special cure (for a quest or something), at least an option to try it with your divine magic would be a nice touch to acknowledge your class. "Your healing spell failed to cure the poor child you will have to look for antidote atop Mount Doom but at least now the kid is sleeping peacefully and has a far less pained expression on his face." Acknowledgement that your class has special powers and not leaving you with the thought you sometimes get "Hey wait a second. I have tons of healing magic why am I not allowed to use it? I could have saved this guy!!"

Yeah but if you watch the currently available videos with info about the game they do want to make the game so you can get through it without using any companions at all. So a little swiss-army-knifing of the classes is to be expected if you can solo the game with each class on their own. Heck I personally want it like in Planescape: Torment where you could if you wanted to play through it without fighting at all and just talking your way out of everything.

A good example of a recent RPG that included your skill options into story parts was Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. There was a Dispelling skill usually used gameplay wise to disenchant magic traps from chests. BUT if you put enough points into it and in the story met an NPC that was enchanted or mind controlled, you all of a sudden had the option to try and dispel the enchantment that has been put on the NPC avoiding a possible fight with him. We don't have to be so 'locked' onto the Open spell example. That was an example. My point was the entire time that a characters skill or class choices actually mattered even to a small degree in the story of the game as that would raise the immersion rate far more. That's what makes PnP RPGs so fun, the way you use your skills is entirely up to you and I like that kind of freedom as it makes sense. It is logical that when I can throw a fireball in battle that I should be able to threaten someone with it storywise. As an example.

I think I see the problem. I go at it from a story point of view while you go at it from a gameplay point of view. We have a world with magic. Tons of spells hopefully. And I'm just thinking. Here we have a wizard in his lab working on stuff. And he doesn't come up with spells that might help him at his work? Like making things easier for himself. Use an Open spell to open the chest at the far end of the room and a (example) telekinesis spell to fetch something out of it. You just have to come up with stuff that a thief can do that a wizard or warrior can't. Like join a town's thieves' guild. Not possible when you play a wizard or warrior. That could give access to merchant that will buy stolen goods. It just takes some imagination. Never did I say that the Open spell should be silent or invisible. It's just there to open something. Never did I say it has to be stealthy. *EDIT Sorry for the double post :-/

Kinda unrealistic that you can have a mage that teleports around but a spell to open a lock is too complicated. Well anyway instead of limiting options you could extend options. Like for example thieves could be very good at locations that require climbing or other athletic stuff that a "frail" wizard or a warrior in full armor can't logically do. Or the charm spell could fail on persons that have exceptionally high willpower but are otherwise open to actual dialogue with a charismatic rogue A good example.

Here's the thing I don't like about this. The Wizard actually has two ways past that door. They're the same two ways the other guys have, but he gets them both. He doesn't just have an open spell. He can also blast the door with a spell like fireball. So he has the ability to open the lock like a thief and the ability to just bash it in like a warrior. And this strikes me as too much versatility. Now, if we wanted to truly make the Wizard's approach unique, give him something like a teleport spell. The wizard can make it past the door better than the other two, but only for himself. It's a new way, with its own advantages and drawbacks. That's what I'd like to see out of utility. Well to be fair you don't have to make the doors destroyable objects. More like make opening a locked door like a dialogue option. "This door is locked what would you like to do? 1. Force door open. 2. Use lockpick. 3. Use Open spell. " Basic example. The in world door is indestructable so you don't have wizards blasting through walls or doors and such.

I'm not expecting tons of puzzles revolving around classes (though some would be nice to feel that the class you chose matters at least a little). But when I play as a wizard I want to at least feel like a wizard storywise. Not not just some walking flamethrower.

Remember how in Fallout 2 if you were good enough with science and computers you could talk to the scientist NPCs like you were their equal or even teach them stuff? Which made it easier to get past certain situations. Imagine the same thing in Eternity with wizard NPCs. Would be glorious. Like a wizard NPC has problems with a ritual. Thankfully your magic proficiency is so high (or you found an old book somewhere that taught you the right way) that you can help the guy out and make his ritual succeed. Which could lead to great loot or a key to advance the story in some way later on. etc. I'd love an RPG for once where your class knowledge actually matters. The only class that still gets that most of the time are thieves.

Well hello there. I can already hear the people groan in front of their PCs as they read the topic title thinking it's another thread about what magic system to use in combat. To relieve you. It's not. It's about something else I'm concerned with and I'm making this thread to maybe bring this to Obsidian's attention as Eternity is still in the development stages. My concern is the use of magic OUTSIDE of combat. I've seen the very disappointing trend in recent years and in most RPGs, at least video game ones, that magic and having a spell caster class has been shoved entirely into a combat function. And I absolutely hate that. Where is the utility magic that has uses outside of just combat? That might actually make an impact on the story of the game. Like for example: Storywise the party has to get past a door that is locked. Thief class: Use a lockpick. Warrior: Use your strength to force the door open. Wizard: Cast an Open spell. A very simple example. To that practically each class has a different way to get past the same situations. Or... "We have to get past the guards at the gate what are we supposed to do?" You could again have several options depending on your class. A wizard for example could suggest using an Invisibility spell. If your proficiency in the spell is high enough, you get past the guards. If it's too low. They detect you and throw your out or something. Or a Detect Magic spell. Like you have to find a certain artifact that is hidden among many fake ones and you try to detect an enchantment on it. Or (minor tangent) have training a spell actually have an effect. For example... Open spell Lvl1 = Open minor locks but door itself stays closed Open spell Lvl 2 = The door unlocks and swings open too Open spell Lvl 3 = You can open a heavy gate or something --------- Detect Magic Lvl1 = You know there is something magical in the room Detect Magic Lvl2 = You can pinpoint the source of magic directly Detect Magic Lvl3 = You know what kind of enchantment it is Spells could also have synergetic effects. Let's say you are stuck in a cage and your warrior companion lacks the strength to break it or something. You could for example use fire and ice spells on the cage in rapid succession to weaken it structurally. Hot -> Cold -> Hot -> Cold etc and then have your warrior try breaking it again. This is something I'm missing entirely from most of current day RPGs. And I have high hopes from Obsidian that they might actually factor magic into the actual storyline as I remember Fallout doing that very well with it's science skills and the computer skills you could aquire during the story. And magic proficiency might just be the fantasy equivalent to that.