SirMonkeyMonk

If there are strongholds upgrades I hope upgrades tend to between either A or B and not A and B. I love upgrading strongholds, but often it just feels like something you should do, instead of something that reflects your choices and playstyle. If you have a courtyard, you can make it a market place or a training yard, each with its own advantages. I would love to see diversity, a druid choosing to turning the surrounding forest into a layar of defense or a dwarf chosing for bigger and stronger walls. I dislike the idea of the stronghold being mainly about bonusses it can provide to you. I prefer it to be woven into the story, where you can choose to either defend your stronghold from an incoming raid or chase the bad guy. The number of merchants travelling by your stronghold depending on the safety of the surrounding area's and may share more information as their profit becomes better.

I still expect godlike to be a subrace option for any race.

I like the idea, given that it should be very few and the player is warned of course. Players going for the trial of iron mode would be pretty pissed by a certain death encounter. Preferrably with the option to flee during the battle. Compared to most stories in books and movies rivals have often multiple encounter, one flees and returns to get revenge. This does help to grow a disposition for the rivals. In games one side tends to be dead after an encounter. I would love to the event we the PC is stuck on a battlefield which he can only lose, you can flee, try to make a suicide attack on an enemy officer or hold some tower until it's run over. After the battle you might find yourself hiding in a cave, waking up after you've gone unconcious or being resurrected by someone who found your body. Not every loss should mean you're dead. At least becoming a prisoner shouldn't be completely uncommon. It also creates the oppurtunity for enemies to mock you about losing fights/battles against them.

I like the Orlan race description. The brutal guerilla tactics and poison use, sounds less innocent than the typical halfling. I hope they don't look too much like some cavedwelling race like goblins or little trolls with arched backs. Very interested in seeing some concept art of them.

I actually liked how DA2 handled this. Companions had their own armor/clothing (which could be upgraded) and wouldn't wear something else. I like the idea that they keep some of their original identity and attire, but no control seems very limiting. I would say most of all companions have some items they won't part with, but in general you have control over there equipment. Maybe adding that companions complain if you leave someone without any equipment at the adventurers hall (which is a really cheap trick).

It would be different from what I expect from a fantasy game, but have to admit there are some funky outfits in there. If for certain communities this is used as inspiration it would be great.

Humans being the average race (Humans as the base for every race) Humans being the most versatile race Classes which can fullfill all combat roles (at once) Always being forced to take your enemies seriously Companions who accept all your choices Being able to bribe all your companions into liking (loving) you

Oh can we have caffeine and alcohol as well? I think all RPGs have drugs (potions?), just not the negative side effects. Too be honest I don't think drugs have the same appeal or creeping effect they have in real life. In computer games you're too aware that your character is becoming addicted, there's no denial phase. Sure you can RP it, but let's be honest it's not the same. Of course there are ways to make it more interesting, like adding side effects to every potion, without mentioning it... at first. It would interesting if dialog options would become limited after drinking healing potions, because of a side effect that it makes you more aggressive. Usually it doesn't matter, but to those prisoners you released after the battle get a weird impression of you for example.

I can imagine 'proper' civilized orcs living in high magical and advanced cities can ruin your experience, as it doesn't fit the traits which define orcish individuals (ferocious, strong, dumb). The same for highly industrious halfling communities which are strongly xenophobic, as halflings are generally known as open minded, not too future orientated and having a less materialistic lifestyle. Basically the races would only have their appearance left. However, evil halflings aren't new and I don't think evil halfling communities would be shocking. Same for 'barbaric' orc tribes which are good. I don't like the idea PC races are strongly linked to factions, especially as humans are usually seen as the 'balanced' race which can be of multiple factions. This doesn't mean there can't be stereotypes linked to a race of course.

As rogue is not going to become just a skill monkey in this game, I think multiple classes could fit this concept to a degree.

When I first read the description I actually thought it might been subrace packages for different races. First, it does say races here as well and nowhere it says human. We don't even know if humans are the most dominant race in this setting. They describe it as a blessing before birth, not ancestory, I don't see why it has to be a specific race. Right now I'm wondering if their will be "blessings" from different gods, if you can see from which god someone was "blessed" and if that will matter how a group responds to you.

I want casters to have critical misses, at least wizards. Some specific spells, like magic missle could have ciritical hits. BANG! wizard has a fireball explode in his face. Who wouldn't like that?

What I like about the idea of monks is that their power comes from dedication and usually involves sacrifice or abstince of other things. I think that is something western and eastern monks share. There are different stories about why the eastern martial arts in monastery got developed, but one is that it was to keep their bodies as well as their souls trained. While it doesn't have to be true, it suggests that maritial training is not the first thing that makes a monk. Weapon training is very common in eastern monasteries. Not wearing armour would make little sense on a battlefield, when platemails are common, but with the soul power thing this can actually be explained. For me the dedication, tranquility of mind, etc are what define a monk, not the armour of weapons. Why not let the fighter be someone who is good at guard/holding ground and not letting someone pass, while the monk is good at getting past people while they head towards their goal?

It was one of the things I liked about fallout 1&2, there were some unpredictable events that really got you on the edge of your seat wondering if you were going to make it. If there was a super mutant encounter (or enclave) and you were hoping that running would even be an option, then suddenly they blow themselves up because of a jamming gun, you could quickly change tactics and decide to fight instead. Sure you could survive one time with the same tactics as you lost another time, but it also means your strategies and tactics need to be able to cope with to unexpected events. I don't expect similar effects with swords and bows, but I can imagine a character falling over, hitting some other target, become more vunerable to critical hits. I agree it could make some combat encounters too easy and create some balance issues, because you got some strong armour or weapons early, but I still like it.

I actually like to see races were the genders are truly different, someone unknown to the race could even mistake them for 2 different races. Some animals have pretty big differences between genders (a lot of birds, like pea****s), while some have hardly any. I don't think it's a common thing to see in cRPGs. The differences could be just in appearance, or even stat-wise. Or going really bizarre, having races without genders or more than 2 genders?