General Balls

I agree. The best way to make battlefields more interesting, in my opinion, is to add movement options. Ways for players (and enemies) to traverse obstacles and interesting terrain that can't be accomplished by others. Allowing options like this promotes healthy difficulty as well, because you don't have to give ridiculous health values to an enemy to make them harder, and you can make your characters relatively squishy as well, because they have alternate ways to avoid damage (the latter is just my preference ).

I would've assumed your movement speed would be a base number affected by your race, class, and stats. I could see a charge-like ability working for warriors, where they could get a movement speed bonus for running towards enemies, but other than that, I'm not sure how a sprinting option would work in this style of game. You could have different movement speeds for in and out of combat.

I'm totally up for the last part. One of my favourite things about exploring is finding new things. Half Life 2, Ravenholm. The feeling after spending ages in the dark town, fighting off headcrab zombies and finding the awesome Father, you pick your way through the mines behind the town and emerge blinking in the daylight of a new morning. Train tracks stretch away from you in two directions and you're left with the thought: what on earth has happened while I was gone? One of the best feelings I've had in gaming.

I like the idea of Spellswords, but only as some kind of rogue. The issue is that you need to provide a gameplay experience that is noticeably unique and cool to bother having that kind of 'class' in the game. From my experience, so many RPGs tend to make melee mages either flat-out better (Dragon Age had Arcane Warriors able to tank far better than a fighter ever could, as well as cast world-ending storms), flat-out worse (whee, no health, and my chance to hit just barely outclasses my odds of living through this fight!), or just gave you something to do if you didn't want to waste spells (how I liked to Wizard in NWN2). In all of these cases, being a melee mage added nothing particularly interesting to the game, apart from the ability to multi-task. Spellswords I've always wanted to see as some kind of displacement character. A character that uses mundane weaponry (shortswords, daggers, and other single-handed weapons), focusing on deception and sleight of hand in order to confuse and methodically dispatch his enemies. My ideal spellsword is a glass cannon, who cannot take many hits, but has a number of blink, shadow, and confusion abilities which set him up to strike quickly. Whereas a 'normal' Rogue would use grace, speed, and underhanded tricks in order to trip up their opponent and gain the advantage in single combat, the Spellsword uses his magical abilities to perform feats of movement and deception that set up a single, devastating blow from a completely unexpected direction. Each ability of my ideal Spellsword would increase his target's "confusion". Conjured shadows that disappear under the swing of their blade, pinpoints of light that distract and disturb, temporary possession to turn blades on allies, the disappearance of an enemy who has blinked behind you - every opponent who sees/is subject to these effects becomes more and more confused. This confusion is used by the Spellsword to strike the perfect blow, their next melee attack against that opponent increasing vastly in damage, in line with the confusion level of the hapless target. Through misdirection and guile, the spellsword controls what their enemies perceive, and through that creates situations in which they can methodically kill every one of them. In my mind, this keeps the idea of both worlds: the visceral adrenaline of front-line combat; the fragile 'nuking' power of a Mage; and the skill-based element of a unique class that excels in a very specific situation (when attacking a confused character) and spends its time trying to create that niche within combat environments and enemies that can vary greatly.

List of hostile creatures I want in the game: 1. Bog Wights 2. Mudskipper Piranhas 3. Shatterjaws 4. Taipans 5. Journalists 6. Soulbound Funnelwebs 7. Crimson Faeries 8. Will o the Wisps List of friendly creatures I want in the game: 1. Wolves. 2. Even bigger wolves. 3. An entire army of Dire Wolves. 4. Crows. I hope Obsidian will consider these. I really like crows and wolves, I don't want to kill them.

I accept this notion and, by extension, demand that elves have the ability to surgically replace their bottom jaw with a serving platter. I refuse to believe that superior beings with such a love for good food and good life would not invent a more efficient method of consumption. With this new PlatterJaw™, all an elf has to do to satiate their hunger is place the succulent morsels on the platter, and tilt their head back. It's so easy! Buy it now!

Yes.

I don't like to think of them as fat. More ... boisterous! Just take 'em to your nearest inn, they'll be the life of the party. They could even be the party. You could just back out and leave them to it, and they'd still be going in the morning, when you're halfway to Ciderholme accompanied by a bright-eyed lass with large dreams and the innocence to believe they can be accomplished. Ah, it's a wonderful life.

I'm a big supporter of party members being their own men/women, and interceding when they want to. Having a conversation disrupted by a party member with strong views makes it a hell of a lot more interesting than the usual RPG stance, which is to allow you to do what you want, and your companions complain about it later. Parties should reflect the kind of character the player/player character is, and I don't think having them meekly following while you do what you want is either realistic or particularly interesting (unless that's part of a follower's character).