TrashMan

I'd suppose it wasn't the ghost who made the sword, but it was the sword he used while he was still alive. Which would mean that sword would also follow the laws of functionality. Unless it was a ceremonial sword. Mind you, a weapon doesn't have to look exactly like a historicly accurate replica...but it should look functional.

I love this videos. Methinks the devs should look at them. It can give them ideas. Better yet, let htem hire those guys to do mo-cap and battle coreography for them.

I saw a documantary on that armor. It was a ...failed experiment IIRC. No records of it's wide-spred use exist. Mind you, people make stupid stuff all the time. That doens't mean it is accepted.

Horrible. The guy has a spike and leater ftish. LEATHER BELTS ARE NOT ARMOR.

So according to you the moment something special with the protagonist happens in regard to the narrative it's *chosen one*. Congratulations you just made everything ever a chosen one story. No. The moment the protagonist becomes special and the ONLY one ot be able to solve the problem. If only someone of your bloodline can solve the curse that will doom the world - you're a chosen one. If youre the only one to awaken a previously unknown power (that just happens to be the right power to fight a super bad guy) you're a chosen one. A boring, stupid Marty Stu.

I'm happy with just humans, elves and dwarves. The more strage races there are, the weirder the setting becomes.

I don't see wh not. However it should be noted that weapons and armor were made tobe QUITE durable. A longsword breaking in combat? A rare event. Basic mantainance should be abstracted so keepign the blade polished and such cna be taken as granted. However rare, battle damage after logner periods of use or way from time IS possible. Frankly having some kind of "lifebar" for weapons doesn't strike me a good idea. Maybe have 3-4 specific states a wepons cna be in (perfect, chipped, worn, broken)and that's it. And even a broken blade can be reforged, so it's no biggie even if the blade is magical. Use a spare till you get back to town. Armor would require more mantainance methinks.

Agreed with OP. By not scaling HP and power like a lunatic, you create more tension. Suddenly you don't require entire armeis to make a battle challenging. Suddenly that dragon will ALWAYS be a big problem.

Pole weapons were great in ToEE. I had a fighter who specilized in cleaving and longspear (which I enchanted to maximize damage, crits and cleaving) - the polearm with the longest reach. Then I'd buff him considerably, hast him and throw an Enlarge Perosn on him. His treat range was HUGE. He could hit anyone in the entire room. As soon as an enemy moved - Attack of Opportunitny, attack of opportunity, cleave, greater cleave... it was fun to watch as he MURDERED half the room himself

I dont' see waht's exactly wrong with the armor there

Who sez you MUST have a Big Boss Fight? What makes you think that is a requirement? In Fallout you could convince the Big Bad he was wrong, and he would kill himself. You could avoid him completely and arm the nuke in his base, killing him without ever talking to him. I didn't felt cheated after that. I felt smart. You could even agree with him and join him. Why not? Give us damn options as to how to handle the villain(s).

Regardless if you're chosen by some god or you are the ONLY one with special abiltiy and the ONLY one who can save the word - it's equally bad. The second you're the only one you are effectively a chosen one. And the Exile...ngh..I hate the entire Exile concept.

What does level have to do with anything? Unless oyu think that being a higher level automaticly means you MUST run into more magical tiems..because..why? The gods themselves put them in your path? What does the wrold care what "level" you are? What NOT run into a legendary magical items early on? Why NOT run into completely mundane weapons late game? Waht you propose is exactlx the opposite of good atmosphere - scaling for scalings own sake. Nothing more than ego and greed appeasing.

... no. Magic and magical items were not rare in BG1, there were loads of crazy wizards (looooads) and other magical items. After you completed about 20-25% of the game you didn't even have anything non magical in your inventory anymore. I know this for sure, I just completed my last playthrough a few months ago. I completed MY playtrough recently too and I recall distinctly that half of my party had completely mundane armor and weapons. I dunno if you played wiht mods, or with a walktrough to get every single last item in-game, but BG1 has the smallest number of magical items of all BG games.

No, my confused friend. What this means is that there is no "right" wway to do this. You're only wasting time if you think you are. There is no objectively "right" way as it depends on your abilities and what you want. Do you want to loot the guards? Do you hate the guards? Did someone pay you to kill the guards when he heard your'e going to that location? Do you have a capable rouge? Can he handle himself if things go wrong? Do you have a capable speaker? Can oyu bluff the guard? What happens if you bluff fails once you're in, and those same guards you passed by now attack you from behind? It's not as simple as you make it sound. No, you don't have to have a quest. Staying alicve is a goal. Surviving an encouter is a goal. It doesn't have ot be in your yournal. You keep calling a good system limiting and at the same time demonstrate perfectly why your idea of a good system is 100 times MORE limiting.

My making each attribute usefull, by making skills non-class dependant and by making high attribute stats expensive, you'd start seing more rounded characters.

The problem comes with early items becoming far too inferior. You will always have a problem if the gap between early items and late-game ones is too big. But I see people focusing too much on special properties and bonuses as the only reason to keep a weapon. fi you're am in-maxer - yes, you'll use a strogner weapon. But is that the ONLY reason why someone would prefer one weapon over another? How about the weaposn "feel"? OR appearance? Have you never refused to use a statisticly superior weapon, simply because it didn't fit your character, or you didn't like ti's history or how it looked? I know I refused using some weapons (like the Vorpal Blade +4) simply because they didbn't fit me. Immagine if you can customize the apperance of your personal weapon? Suddenly it becomes a lot more attractive.

I honestly dont' want ot be special in any way. No myseterious/unique heritage, no powers no one else has...

If you don't want to practice your sneaking skill (and sleeping hobos are not good for that practice really) why dont' you advance the story in anotehr way? Who sez you have to sneak past the guard? Bribe him. Kill him. Trick him. Taunt him. That said, legitimate skill use restruction gets rid of that. Skill doesn't increase unless you're training properly (hiding from enemies in this example)

Replace "realistic" with "believable". People want believable armor - it doesnt' have to be an historicly accurate replica. However, any armor - even in the fantasy setting - has to follow the basic rules of common sense. Armor was made to protect and not hinder. Form follows function. While there have been experiments in armor during human history, unsucesfull designs didn't "propagate". You cannot abandon such basic logic, not even with "it's magic" handwave. It immediately kills the world as it assasinates the very core of rational human behavior. If I want to make a soup, I boil some water over a fire and throw ingredients in. I don't throw ingredients into the fire and then pour water over it. Saying "it's magic" or "it's fantasy" doesn't make it any less redicolous.

I'm pretty sure that's a midget with joysticks driving some sort of robot. In other words, an armor suite mecha. That would be a correct observation if the Big E was a normal human. But he's not. He doesn't have a humans phisyonomy to begin with (the dude weighs half a ton without power armor!)

1) No, it's not risk free. From the Point of View of a companion, do you ever die? No, becaue you reaload. so oyu ALWAYS suceed. So in other words, it's not that it's not risk-free for them, it's just that they canonicly manage to pull it off without dying. If it helps, think of it this way - they reloaded.

Personally I consider Kefka (and practicly everything from FF) horribly written. I also consider the Dark Knight the worst of the 3 Bat-Bale films. While it was an interesting take on Joker, I just didn't care about him at all (partialyl because of all the PLOT HOLES). Irenicus..now that is one villain I do agree is well written (and voiced). Kreia...ugh.. I really hated her. Not because I think she was excellently written, but because she was so annyoing. And obvious. I knew before the first level was done that she will be the bad guy. And I couldn't kick her out of hte airlock. As much as I like KOTOR2, I hate all the things done with the force (hole in the force? force hunger? Wound in the force? Super-jedi-mater-insta-kill Kreia power?) But what makes a compeling villain? That's nearly impossible to pin down.

In BG1 magic was rare. By TOB it wasn't anymore. And I have to say I prefer BG1 feel and atmosphere far more. That "real" world scenario you speak off. Finally getting Spiders Bane was a "wow" moment. By BG2 I had been selling legendary artifacts like it was candy. By TOB I didn't even bother picking them up anymore. Or take for example the Witcher. Loved the rarity of magic there.

Let's not forget that "high/low fanatasy" is a term that is used to describe the woer of magic, rarity of magic and how available it is to common folk. This is practicly one term used for 3 different things. Sayinh "high fantasy" can mean that magic is helluva powerfull. That magic is common. And that magic is accesable to everyone. Now, if you want ot talk realism, having every items be "usiqe" and have a long description is also silly. Especially if magical items are not rare and mages produce simple magic swrods in numbers. Then there is no reason not to have a magic sword +1, since it really is an item like many similar. Freshly made with no history. It hasn't yet earend a name. Historicly, weapons earned names based on the people who wielded them, even if they do not have any special magical powers. HOWEVER, what this does mean is that even a simple item CAN get a name. That Longsword+1 that you used to slay the red dragon? He might now be known as <charnames> dragonslayer. Or "the Reds Bane" That an item might gain some magical properties along the way depending how much you use it and what for - or if you purposfully upgrade it in various ways (not just by paying for it to be enchanted with more stuff). Lets say you dip your sword in the holy waters of one of the great temples? Affix a magical emeral to the pommel? Annoit it with the blood of a demon? Will it have an effect?