Gromnir

... we would argue with some on your list, but am not having the energy. even so, am glad we weren't drinking when we read the above... woulda' sent kool-aid shooting across our monitor screen. HA! Good Fun!

no i don't. taks sure you do, but we will have to agree to disagree... and while we agree with the " i think it could easily be better than what we have now (certainly communism isn't better)." you still ain't provided even the smallest fraction o' a solution. get govt. out causes at least as many problems as it solves and is really no different than lof advocating a solution by calling to get rid of the capitalists. let market conditions determine minimum safety and health guidelines? really? again, back when triangle shirtcoat factory fired happened there were far less government entanglement in business... and virtual 0 fed entanglement. *shrug* distinguish 'cause of depression or immigration and suggest that such times is aberrational? okie dokie, but is looking like most of USA history is looking aberrational, which would be silly, no? gentleman farmers is a nice prosaic picture (if inaccurate) but even if we ignore slave labor (which is offensive but fair) that were pre-capatalism. weren't no capital, just land. you got 100 years between mid 1800s and the mid 1900s during which workers fared... well, how does you think they fared before the socialists started mucking things up? we already has your admission regarding how bad things were during the depression, and upton sinclair writes The Jungle in 1906-- is a good read and is supported by considerable documentation to be showing how the Chicago meatpacking plants operated. Triangle shirt were 1911 and subsequent investigations revealed that Triangle were norm more than the exception. The Pullman strike were 1890-ish and the Haymaker strike/massacre were in the 1880s (?). am not gonna guess how many railroad workers died during late 1800s and early 1900s. the famous lochner case informed us that a max 60 hour work week were unconstitutional (which were good law but hardly a boon for all those teen and pre-teens working in textile factories at the time.) sorry tak, but largely unrestrained capitalists were given near 100 years to show how protective and wise they could be regarding their most valuable resource: workers. unrestrained capitalism is what made the communist bogey-man something other than a bad joke. working conditions got bad enough and the democratic process were impotent in bringing 'bout change til it appeared that an eventual worker's revolution were not only possible, but inevitable. Gromnir is a big fan o' capitalism, but am not gonna delude self into believing that the the capitalist gear-works ain't using the blood of workers to keep moving. without government intervention, the average worker is at the mercy o' capitalists and market forces. but heck, am personally ok with a system that is unsympathetic towards the unlucky or the unmotivated. our humble beginnings, and our refusal to accept govt. aid at any level, is personal proof that peoples can succeed. am a dyed-in-wool and unapologetic will to power proponent... but am not dishonest 'bout it. HA! Good Fun!

not idealized? hmmm. sadly, you have backwards regarding law. as already noted, law is, by its very nature, govt. intervention. how you fix law by getting govt. out of the picture? insurance might indeed be "fixed" by a withdrawal o' govt. intervention. of course at that point it would go back to being a luxury that only the extreme wealthy could afford. small business ventures, which is already risky, would become even far more likely to fail. "in a system that was not as intermingled as ours is the shirt factory guy would have been charged with negligent homicide for creating the conditions that resulted in the fire (uh, i'm assuming people died - i don't otherwise know the details). either way, this is not a result of capitalism. it is, if anything, a result of the corruption of capitalism by allowing government into business affairs. " lots of assumptions, and more than a few flaws. there were no negligent manslaughter in 1911. you assume that we would have negligent manslaughter w/o govt. intervention? why? you ain't seen how laws develop organically, has you? also, regardless o' the criminal charges, in 1911, when there were far less govt. intervention than there is now in the areas o' corporate insurance and worker safety claims... the families o' the individuals who died (+140 or so) won their civil case and were awarded approx. $100... and no matter how much you wanna talk 'bout inflation, that is still a pittance. am pretty sure that the insurance company actually paid more than they were obligated to as a result o' public outcry. "i've read, btw, that the reason she and her lawyers went for the throat was they originally stonewalled even requests for insurance payments, but i don't buy that as a legitimate excuse." is not a matter of "going for the throat." punitive is not based on how much the person suffered. punitive damages is, as the name implies, a way o' punishing the defendant. how much o' a fine would it take to get taks to keep his dog from crapping in our yard? a couple hundred bucks... maybe a couple thousand? what is McDonalds is our neighbor instead o' taks? what sorta a fine is necessary to alter McDonald's behavior? (Gromnir has actually used the poop-on-the-lawn shctick in the past... show tak's yearly income on a blackboard/whiteboard... then show McDonald's yearly revenues below. same amount o' zeroes it takes to make tak's income = McDonald's is what we adds to the poop-on-the-lawn hypothetical fine. juries like the simplicity). 'course, without those govt. interference punitive, then the little old lady, is pretty much limited to actual damages. how much you think the little old lady can show in actual damages related to a burned lap from coffee? what lawyer is gonna take such a case? you think is different for employee and employer? what lawyer is gonna take the average employee case if is over a matter of a few hundred or thousand bucks? get rid of those govt. intervention class action suits... since we is all in the show-me stage, how do you intend to fix the legal system so it protects workers and is less dependent on govt. intervention and then mayhap we will not call your notions idealized... 'cause while am certain that you beleive that what you is asking for is simple or reasonable, from our perspective it does sound utopian. HA! Good Fun!

"if someone gets hurt, and you get sued, yes. of course, the system in many countries is broken to the point there is no recourse, as lare has conveniently pointed out (which proves MY point, einstein) for us. even in the US the red tape involved (a result of government interference) severely limits workers' ability to effectively respond to such situations." ... if capitalism is necessarily tied to an idealized legal system to function, then that is another flaw. legal systems is, by their very nature, govt. intervention. as opposed to letting two parties negotiate their own resolutions on an ad hoc basis (with the predictable and unacceptable likelihood of resulting violence), we gots State imposed rules, regulations, and penalties. also, Gromnir has never seen/witnessed an ideal civil legal system, so am not sure what one might look like. in theory, law protects the powerless from the powerful, and without any legal system the folks who would suffer most are indeed the powerless. however, am not sure what kinda resources you is willing to provide to fix the legal system... and how you intend to fix. regardless, is a State intervention fix. GE and Microsoft can hire teams o' lawyers. am guessing you could "kill all the lawyers" but that would even further skew the odds in favor o' the corporate haves. with no lawyers, the lone worker/employee probable has less resources with which to mount an effective case 'gainst an employer. is insurance the problem? many corporations are able to effectively indemnify themselves from serious financial loss resulting from non-punitive legal losses. 'course, that is another aspect that should be self-correcting in a capitalist system. obviously the insurance rates should rise enough to discourage corporations from doing wrong by employees. we would be interested to see this work right in practice. no punitive damages? punitive damages is the reason why we gots a multi-million dollar reward 'cause some old lady burns herself with coffee at a McDonald's drive-thru. is punitives necessary for a good legal system? no... hell no. 'course without punitives we gots company bean counters who is able to put a relative low price on the price o' a single lost eye or limb... or life. democracy fixes everything perhaps? after all, there is more workers than ceos, so it should mean that the workers can get laws enacted to protect themselves from business exploitation, no? let us know when that happens. the triangle shirtwaist factory fire occurred in 1911... before the depression. two years after the fire, the initial civil trial, and considerable public outcry, Max Blanck (owner of Triangle) was arrested for some o' the same safety violations that led to the initial fire. am recalling that he were fined approx. $50. it were only when conditions got horrendous bad during the depression that laws were enacted and changed. honest. if you is depending on legal system to adequately correct the predictable power gulf between the corporation and the worker, then you is being more than a little optimistic. the Harrison Bergeron approach o' communism is naive in the extreme, but am honestly not seeing any absolute faith in undiluted capitalism either. people is greedy and short-sited whether they is corporate or worker. expecting corporate entities to conform to some minimum level o' decency because it is ultimately in their own self-interest ignores the history of corporate stoopidity AND success. regardless, is not practical to depend on the courts to fix. even the best legal system... sucks. HA! Good Fun! lof, one o' the reasons you ain't taken serious is statements such as the following: "Oh, so it's not a linear function, thus rendering your point about it being in their best interest to pay more so they don't have to higher more irrelevant nonsense? I would never have guessed. rolleyes.gif" am not sure what posts you is reading, but your logic is horrible. as much as we disagree with taks on some stuff, you is engaging in straw man and circular arguments ad a host o' other wacky fallacies and foibles without restraint. pay people more to work harder? sure. what does that have to do with effort = productivity. ... a few years ago, Gromnir were asked to help "fix" a Japanese law firm. if effort had equaled productivity, they woulda' been world beaters. with the exception o' a few individuals, these folks had gambatte tattooed on their soul, but they were crippled by social, personal and corporate politics and their "organization" were self-defeating. we found out during our brief stay in Japan that most Japanese offices is similarly Charlie Fox'd. has minions doing a single prescribed task flawlessly ad nausem? yeah, the Japanese are great at such stuff, but it is scary how crippled they is by the possibility o' failure. bah. whatever fear we mighta' had o' the Japanese corporate juggernaut were dispelled by a brief dose o' reality. cars and steel? sure. information age innovation and adaptability? *chuckle* you wanna know what was the kicker? we were informed both before and after our little consulting adventure that nothing at the Japanese firm would change... everybody would work super hard to implement suggested changes, and as soon as the consultants were gone, things would go back to the way they was before we arrived. Gromnir asked, "so why did you bring me in as a a consultant if you knew from the start that nothing at the firm would change?" our friend smiled enigmatically and replied, "You do not understand the Japanese." Gromnir were tempted to punch her... really. if Gromnir were a boss we would rather have +50 employees who would gargle with broken glass if we asked 'em to do so... as 'posed to +50 typical American office workers who thinks fridays is always a half day. nevertheless, anybody that thinks effort = productivity is nuts. also, Gromnir ultimately don't give a damn 'bout effort, less it impacts morale or end product. if bob can be a slacker and get more accomplished in 1 day than bill does in 3, then if Gromnir can squeeze two days worth o' effort from bob during a 5 day work week, what is our motivation to keeps bill around? effort? who cares 'bout effort? we want results.

of course. we're talking about an extreme circumstance in which the demand for goods dropped to almost nothing, and the supply of workers shot through the roof. when 20%+ of your workforce is suddenly on the streets, there will be problems with any system. exactly. this, of course, has nothing to do with capitalism. taks it is precisely those horrible and catastrophic scenarios that inspire folks to embrace an alternative system. heck, lof will argue that it were unrestrained capitalism that led to the great depression in the first place... and more than a couple experts would agree with him. is now 80 years after the start o' the Great Depression and we still sees new theories emerging 'bout causes. even so, ignoring the Great Depression, history shows us that the normal economic cycles does have some pretty extreme peaks and valleys, and a system that not account for such is flawed. today, given the current economic climate, the average office stiff is gonna need to be foolish or brave to says "no" to working on weekends, and Gromnir has seen many new faces at the local soup kitchen where we volunteers. heck, am betting that many of us experienced a much more reserved company/business/firm christmas party this year than in years past. every business is looking for ways to cut fat, and the single largest Cost o' virtual any business is employees. cut employees. cut benefits. cut safety? why not cut safety or workman's comp? is not sound business to indulge in such stuff if it will put you out of business, right? am not seeing a reemergence of Triangle Shirt Company mentality, but without government interventions the motivation for companies to treat employees decent understandably takes a back seat to survival instinct. terrible economic conditions is inevitable. a system that not work in bad conditions is flawed... 'course communism is just as bad/worse, 'cause the only times sane and rational folks would seriously consider communism is when economic conditions is catastrophic. HA! Good Fun!

"The workforce will do what is in its best interest and so will the corporation, as it should. " not true. workforce and corporations is myths. ultimately, people make decisions, not workforce or corporations. golden parachutes and quarterly report myopia is not in the best interest of a corporation, but it may be best for the members o' the board. 'course, individual workers is no less greedy and self serving than capitalists. middle-class socialist punks who has never worked a +10 hour day doing back-breaking manual labor has some pretty peculiar notions 'bout workers. is the problem with both communism and capitalism: they fail to adequately consider human nature. as between the two, communism would seem to be more grounded in naivety than capitalism, but capitalism also ignores some obvious truths about human nature and human intelligence. even so, there IS a functional insurmountable gulf between capital producing and resource producing Nations, but your average modern socialist is 'bout 100 years out of touch. HA! Good Fun!

bulimics and anorexics is in constant danger o' heart problems, particularly if they abuse laxatives and diuretics. no doubt you have seen in the news: a healthy high school football player dies during practice... find out latter that due to insufficient potassium and electrolytes an otherwise healthy kid is dead. your average abuser o' laxatives and diuretics is creating the same potassium deficiencies, but the difference is that the bulimic and anorexic is complete aware of what they is doing to themselves. Gromnir has never met a person with bulimia or anorexia that had a healthy blood pressure/heart rate. anorexia and bulimia is emotional disorders, but tests doctors typical employ is electrocardiogram (to check for abnormal heart rhythms) and blood tests (to check electrolyte levels). shouldn't be much o' a surprise that folks with eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia might keel over and die from heart attacks. is actual more surprising that the number o' bulimic and anorexic deaths due to heart problems is as low as it is. have met more than one person with an eating disorder that expressed surprise and disappointment that they had not yet died of a heart attack... it doesn't make sense, but somehow the person with the eating disorder feels less guilty 'bout killing self by inches than they does 'bout an overdose o' sleeping pills or slit wrists. would not surprise us in the 'least if ms. murphy suffered from an eating disorder. would not surprise us if it were discovered that she had suffered from heart problems related to an eating disorder.

Yeah, same store that sells the super regulated, hard to get, lyrium to anyone who waltzes in from the street The setting doesn't really appeal to me. It just never 'clicked' in my mind. Most of my companions area a bit on the two dimensional side too, making Dog, Sten and Zevran my favourites. Some of the things in the game that do shine are those little details that you notice and often forget afterwards, like the extras in a movie. Some of the non-joinable npcs are just priceless, like Dagna who wants to study the theory of magic or the wonderful duo (Herren and Wade) in Wades Emporium. I guess "discovery" is the main appeal for me in the game ... am betting that you is a big fan of monty python. as for Di, the best way to remove unwanted mods is the extreme approach: backup your saved games and uninstall da. the extra 20 minutes it will take to complete reinstall da is your best bet for insuring that your helmet-mod is real and truly gone... and is the same advice we has heard dozens o' times from developers of other games that has been modded by well-intentioned fans. HA! Good Fun!

and workers can't sue? in a communist society they cannot. the whole point is that companies do NOT intentionally "mistreat" their workers since that would ultimately lead to a lack of workers. you think they do, but cannot offer up any proof of widespread mistreatment. it fits your ideology, therefore it must be true? taks to be fair, there were widespread mistreatment o' U.S. workers during the depression era. supply and demand, which lof wishes to pretend doesn't exist, did result in some horrendous working conditions for laborers during the depression era. is not that big business were consciously trying to mistreat employees, but if there is a surplus o' labor the motivation for employers to treat their employees well decreases. folks working on Hoover damn wanna complain 'bout the hazardous working conditions? solution: fire anybody that complains. deaths, crippling injuries and disease? so what. nobody is forcing you to work, is they? before work even began on the Hoover an enormous and unsanitary tent city sprang up in the nevada desert as the mere rumor o' jobs led folks to travel hundreds and thousands of miles in hopes of possibly finding employment. it don't make good business sense to invest in the well-being of employees if you can replace current employees at a moment's notice. complete free market, w/o any government intervention, eventual results in conditions that give rise to the marx spectre o' revolution. power corrupts. powerlessness corrupts absolutely. folks who got nothing to lose can, and will, do anything. 'course, the communist jargon 'bout workers getting what they deserve is also rubbish for the reasons discussed by many other folks earlier in this thread. the communist paradise is a fantasy that appeals to intellectuals and morons alike, but given the history o' most o' the 20th century, am not sure if any rational person would still embrace such nonsense. HA! Good Fun!

will there be awkward sex scenes... in tunnels? if you is going for dark and gritty, then you need awkward sex. dark & gritty = (excessive gore + awkward sex) will there be magic use in tunnels? if there is magery, then please make 1/2 of your mage abilities/spells relative useless. will there be archery in tunnels? if archery is included, please do not make it useful until the second half of the game. may there be gifts in tunnels? maybe tunnel gits can go one step further than da gifts... present the colossal one-eyed undead Mole of Doom with a pretty flower to avoid combat AND to increase your influence with jnpcs affiliated with green peace or PETA. cheap gifts is no longer simply a means for alcoholic spouses to says sorry after they has done something stoopid... again. collect enough gifts and you need never actually engage foes in combat or apologize. will there be joinable npcs that sudden act against their developed character... whilst in tunnels? please make sure that at least 1 joinable npc acts complete contrary to developed character, 'cause that sorta inexplicable irrationality is Real and Genuine... at least it is when in tunnels. will there be an anti-climax in tunnels? is a good idea to leave us moderate unfulfilled 'cause then we will be more likely to buy dlc... if we is retarded. will there be combat mechanics in tunnels? if you gots fighting in tunnels, then we assume you need some method for resolving combats. please hide the mechanics from view of the player, 'cause it is innovative game design to be making players figure out why they is dying or succeeding in combats by means o' dumb luck and trial and error. HA! Good fun! ps your title sucks. you need to include one or more of the following words in your title: revenge, rise, shadow, bane, fall, dragon, sword, curse or fallout... add fallout means that at 'least you will have a rabid following during development.

HA! Good Fun!

some people will say the demo is great. some people will say that the demo is crap. some people will actually form an opinion based on their experience with the demo, but we suspect that those people is a minority. as we said before, low expectations does not improve the quality o' the game/gameplay... though we expect to see some qualifiers whenever folks discuss merits and flaws o' aod. HA! Good Fun!

not that vol can read anyways... http://forums.obsidian.net/index.php?showt...mp;#entry990840 http://forums.obsidian.net/index.php?showt...mp;#entry990931 is our first two da posts regarding rogues... clarified right from start that rogues ain't useless or trash or whatever. bio gimped a da warrior (removed possibility o' sword & board and 2-H), then added some thiefy stuff. is complete unnecessary. and vol misunderstands our point 'bout romances too. Gromnir is perfect ok with bio romances being tangential. as Gromnir hates the way bio writes romance, we prefer that it is tangential and easily ignored. HOWEVER, we also observe that no writer is gonna be able to genuine create a compelling romance that is tangential and optional. if the romance is complete separate and optional, then it cannot have significant impact on the critical path plot. the current half-baked romances is good enough for fans such as vol. additionally, the current bio approach lets folks like Gromnir complete ignore the hackneyed and juvenile romances. the problem is that some people want the bio romances to be better than they is now, and that just ain't gonna happen. the entire romance arc must be kept insular and discreet from the critical path story, so the biowarians gots a double handful o' tangential dialogue encounters 'tween the protagonist and the romance-able npc to go through the entire dramatic progression without the resolution or actions o' the romance having significant impact beyond the romance. yeah, right. by their very nature, bio romances will always feels rushed and underwhelming. perhaps the romances is "good enough" for those folks who likes the romances, but it is not possible to major improve the romances if they is kept tangential and optional. name any movie, book, tv show or play that had a memorable and compelling romance. now explains how the romance from your example coulda' been complete removed from the main storyline without altering the romance story or the main plot. protagonist romance, whether you like or not, is never fodder for tangential. HA! Good Fun!

every read lit for kids and young adults? is some really good stuff... if you is willing to look hard for it. am recalling that josh is a big fan o' phantom tollbooth, and Gromnir likes gaiman, pullman and l'engle not much behind joyce and faulkner. anybody who suggests that audiences is too dumb to "get it" unless they is slapped upside the noggin' would do well to read kids books such as the phantom tollbooth, or l'engle's works. yeah, kids is not sophisticated 'nuff to get pretentious exposition and introspection... even bad kids books avoid such nonsense. even so, a handful o' kiddy authors has managed to be subtle and profound while successfully engaging a rather crude audience... half of whom still think that girls is icky. audiences is too dumb... too crude... too impatient, intolerant, and uneducated... bah. we don't believe it. if pre-teens can "get" and enjoy subtle and profound, then even vol can grasp such stuff. the notion that writers gotta treat audiences as if they were little kids ignores the fact that there is a considerable amount o' quality literature that has been written for kids... some of which doesn't involve killing a beloved pet/animal friend. HA! Good Fun!

"Final note: Will someone please tell Gaider and the other writers to show, don't tell?!" you cannot imagine the number o' times Gromnir has complained of this very aspect o' bio games... 'course we has complained that this is chris a's most irritating fault as well, which don't go over very well in these parts. young writers is particularly likely to has their characters engage in tedious exposition and laughable navel-gazing. bad writers develop characters by having 'em spout platitudes and fortune cookie wisdom... throw in a bit o' melodrama and suffering. 'course making profound observations 'bout the human condition is ssssssoooooo much easier than creating situations that reveal profound truths 'bout the human condition. chris a and gaider has been doing this stuff far too long to be making same mistakes as those numberless goth dweebs taking english 12: intro to creative writing, at the local community college. "I killed my protagonist on page 1. Now THAT is dark. Yeah." *groan* am agreeing with deganawida 100%... but perhaps we is actually agreeing more than 100%. dunno. those folks who thought motb characters were sooper-groovy-keen probably has a different pov than Gromnir. HA! Good Fun!

revenants got much tougher post patch... at least for Gromnir. cone o' cold and force field's were our betest friends in da revenant battles... and those spells were diminished post patch. the one good thing 'bout the revenant battles is that none o' em were a surprise, and only 1 (the redcliffe one) were non-optional. HA! Good Fun!

please note that the denerim bandits were a topic raised initially in reference to scaling of enemies... resulting in counter intuitive results. meet denerim bandits near end of your game, when you got a firm grasp of tactics, does not go very far in making such battles easy. if you encounter the denerim bandits early in your game, they will be predictably weak... cupcakes. however, try a different approach and do not enter denerim until you is level 20. back alley bandits, armed with red steel weapons and armours, and 4-8 archers, all of whom has access to scattershot and who seem amazingly resilient to physical and mental resistance checks. is a bit of a surprise. sure, we didn't end up with party wipes, but we had to use potions and we lost a party member (and sometimes 2) in a couple o' those battles. again, the issue, which vol never got, were scale. a bunch o' back alley thugs were managing to make Gromnir's level 20 party sweat. gather up denerim's back alley thugs (the ones you meet late in game) and send 'em against the blight at dawn. no more blight by noonish. HA! Good Fun!

having followed nwn and nwn2, am recognizing that any time a new bug pops up sudden like months/years after release, the first advice given to be fixing the problem is to dump all mods and reload game. as such, Gromnir is extreme cautious regarding mods. HA! Good Fun!

the one thing we will concede 'bout the dex rogue is that it is the most straightforward rogue build: HA! Good Fun!

the thing we like most 'bout shale is flexibility. gots ranged attacks and crowd control stuns and we not gotta run back to the developmental disabled dwarf to get enchanting done for shale... simply swap out/in appropriate crystals. am recalling that our strategy for for clearing out most o' the mage tower were shale centric: we would have party hold position while shale would be sent into rooms alone to do its quake routine and then taunt. even on nightmare most enemies would be stunned and severe damaged in the wake o' the quake. the rest o' our party would then move in and heal shale and clean up the pesky mostly-dead abominations, possessed templars or mages. rinse and repeat for 20 rooms. later in game shale could serious add to the overlapping area effect spells we employed to wipe out mobs. morrigan's blizzard were nice but then we would supplement with a rock barrage from shale and wynne's mostly useless earthquake. in such similar situations, al woulda been standing around with a crossbow. never got much use out of the stone aura line (had intended to use in conjunction with forcefield) but that plan never seemed to work when we needed/wanted. shale combines some of the best attributes of a tank and a mage... and it is having amusing banters. aristes, no need to thank us re: dlc. bio/ea really didn't make dlc easy for folks. am glad you finally managed to get it working. HA! Good Fun!

well, vol don't sympathize that you not have access to shale... 'course according to vol, Gromnir thinks that rogues is "useless," and pre-patch mages is balanced. he has many other wacky notions. as between stone prisoner and soldier's peak, we prefer stone prisoner dlc. shale is one o' our favorite jnpcs. the golem gots some good party banter and it's quest is a bit more developed than many o' the other jnpcs. sten's sword is a glorified fed-ex run. the french chick's quest involves an "ambush" and then a confrontation with another snotty french woman. wynne? meet up with a dirty elf in the woods and have a group-hug? on the other hand, shale's quest, while nothing extravagant, does have its own unique dungeon location... and am recalling that you is planning on playing a cunning or dex rogue your second time through, no? is a nice dagger available when you complete shale's quest... +5 to cunning and interrupts spell casting. http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/58/index/81613 there is some manual install instructions for the various dlc. if it don't work, then you lose nothing... won't hurt your game. am honest not sure what copies of da shale is 'posed to be available with. it were original gonna be shipped with all copies, but then got cut... or something along those lines. is possible that maybe you should have shale and not even know it. HA! Good Fun!

shale is dlc. do not assume everybody has dlc. am recalling that aristes didn't know of oghren and shale jnpcs deep into game. is likely he not have stone prisoner. repeat: "It doesn't matter hwo easy/hard the game, those characters got those set ups for a reason even if YOu dislike them." yeah, and the reason is to makes you feel likes you need morrigan and al... 'cause wynne, your other mage option, is a half-arsed heal-bot and al is the only sword and board 'til you hit landsmeet. heck, if you don't have stone prisoner dlc, al is your only traditional jnpc tank option. end repeat look at vol's example o' not needing al and morrigan. he is playing a mage, and he has dlc shale. without even realizing it he proves our point. typical. HA! Good Fun!

we has not used respec. without respec, playing on hard difficulty with wynne as your sole mage is not impossible. we did it that way... twice. lack o' transparency o' rules made first time much more difficult, but Gromnir prefers the challenge. we not use respec 'cause playing on nightmare with a respec party would no doubt be easier than playing on normal with an unaltered party. while some borderline insane folks has argued that da has no balance problems, clearly the popularity o' respec suggests that there is superior talents and skills and builds. wynne? wynne as your sole mage makes the game much more difficult... 'less you respec. HA! Good Fun!

am recalling that you played as a mage. as Gromnir noted above, if your pc were sword & board or mage, then either morrigan or al would be far less essential, but try to imagine if wynne were your only mage and if you continued with her heal-bot development. if you don't want morrigan, then your other option is wynne. and Gromnir thinks it is creepy-weird that wynne is "old" given the fact that her body is... not. only her voice and attitude is middle-aged, 'cause the face has a few lines and the body is belonging to a comic book super heroine. HA! Good Fun!

no doubt that is the imaginary "Grom" you speak of, 'cause as you know, we has said the opposite many times. when we actually post links to where vol claimed there were no da balance problems he simply ignores. "It doesn't matter hwo easy/hard the game, those characters got those set ups for a reason even if YOu dislike them." yeah, and the reason is to makes you feel likes you need morrigan and al... 'cause wynne, your other mage option, is a half-arsed heal-bot and al is the only sword and board 'til you hit landsmeet. heck, if you don't have stone prisoner dlc, al is your only traditional jnpc tank option. the "reason" for the characters being designed so strange is to make al and morrigan more necessary. sten's character and personality doesn't change 'cause he has a shield during combats and lord knows that wynne didn't get any different dialogues 'cause we bought three arcane talent boosting books just to get her some offensive firepower. explain the important character development value of having 4 tiers of combat tactics skill for wynne. if the rules weren't wacky unbalanced, then respec wouldn't make much difference... but vol has tried to have both ways in past. anybody surprised? *shrug* 'least vol,is making incremental progress... admitting the efficacy o' cold spells and the relative uselessness o' other spells. HA! Good Fun!