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In the recent PC gamer article discussing Avowed they mention a few points... You have an established role as the imperial envoy, but your "personality, appearance, and philosophy and vibe you bring to that role is up to you as a player to decide" You can play as a human or an elf, but not other races It's purely singleplayer—no co-op The world is lightly systemic: think water and lightning interactions, but not the ol' bucket-on-the-head trick You'll have two companions with you at a time, with their own combat specialties and, of course, personalities There are several ability trees to progress through, and you won't be locked to a particular class or playstyle You will level up, but the focus is on unlocking abilities rather than putting points into stats to grow stronger Two of these points stand out to an extreme to me... 1: You can play as a human or an elf, but not other races. I can understand this to a certain degree. The size difference between an Orlan and an Aumauan would make things difficult... But at the same time, no Dwarfs? No Godlikes? You better allow us to specifify Pale elf or I will go through the roof! This seveerely limits roleplay potential and significantly reduces my desire to play the game, I have to be honest, especially godlike as it was one of the most interesting aspects of Eora and not being able to play this is sad. 2: There are several ability trees to progress through, and you won't be locked to a particular class or playstyle I was GENUINELY afraid this would be the case. Lorewise it makes no sense for there not to be a class system, as multiple of the classes in Eora work through the act of lifelong practice. You can't just pick up a grimoire and cast fireball, that isn't how magic works!. HEck you need to be born as a cipher, you can't just learn those skills willynilly! Combined that with the fact that I am so ABSURDLY tired of ability trees. I am sick of them. They limit creativity, they are usually filled with boring filler and deliver no challenge! It is the issue with skyrim that almost everytime I play it I default to sneak + bow, because it is the most OP stuff in the game, why would I not do it here then? Classes also motivates multiple playthroughs and allows more unique interactions in game. IT gives the character... character. ANd it is so dissapointing to see it just being another BORING system of trees. I am GENUINELY dissapointed in these reveals As someone that genuinely adores Pillars of Eternity 1 and 2, does this feel like a massive fallout 3 moment (And no, this is not a good thing).

There's another thread over this but it doesn't have a poll and I'm going to lose my eyesight trying to read all the pages. Ok, so we've got human, elves and dwarves, and I'm also excluding all their subspecies (drow, tiefling and whatnot). So what "other" playable species would you like to see in the game? I was going to add some more choices in the 2nd question but it has a limit of 10.

What prevents Aumaua from military dominating the globe? Each time I see them, and now being triggered by the size of their kids (see Josh's tweeter) I always wonder - what is their flaw that prevents them from evolutionary dominating all other races and finally absorbing them? If seen through the modern-day common evolution theory it can be: - slow breeding cycle, difficulties with child birth rates - vulnerability to some disease, framing the total population (child diseases included) - genetic flaws (syndromes) like rapid aging, long brain development or short reproductive age (child genetic flaws incl.) - social ideology that prevents expansion, pacifistic religion etc. - low level of tech until the very last era (see Asian tigers or Latin countries rapid advancements) - low level of biological organisation, biological individualism (imagine sentient, but territorial tigers or bears), inability to conduct collective tasks like wars - high social fragmentation, clan/cast/tribal systems where all conflicts go between Aumaua and there are no resources for foreign activity I guess for Huana it is the last one. Huana are too social fragmented to avoid the colonisation. But what about Rauatai monarchy? They could easily wipe the world but they don't. And please don't start with "gunpowder equals all". a) gunpowder battles were often solved in melee until WW2 (or later) b) even with heavy armor obsolete, body mass still matters a lot с) there are non-combat military tasks where str/con influences the result greatly (rapid marches, carrying heavy equipment, transporting goods and ammunition, rowing the ships) And anyway - what prevented them from total domination in pre-powder times?

Edit: If you want to share/repost these: PLEASE, share them like they are (uncropped) and link back to me! (http://wespenfresser.deviantart.com for example) DO NOT POST THEM ONLINE WITHOUT MY NAME ON THEM! You may also link to or reblog them from tumblr or facebook. Thanks. Hey guys! No idea where to post this, because it doesn't really fit anywhere.. Anyways, I wanted to paint some portraits for some time now, and I finally “found” some time. I have also seen some people making* some things that might have been custom portraits too, so...if any of you have some stuff to show, bring it on! (* making as in painting, possibly manips , not “google&crop”..I'm not fond of that, since people rarely give credit and often crop signatures.) So, here we go! Little disclaimer: They are not the same style as the default ones, and might be a little dark/contrast-y. Also not cropped to proper size yet. I sometimes didn't know which cues in the default portraits where intentional, and I might have ignored some on purpose. ( I'm dependent on what people are posting, I don't have the BB.) Just fluffy messing around and twisting some things to my taste. Might still fix some wonkieness. Aumaua Intended as first character. Probably cipher, aiming to get a big gun. Might still mess around with the skin pattern, but I like her. Death Godlike (Aumaua Bodytype) Currently fighting with the blue one over my attention. Intended as a Bleak Walker. I have some spare heads for him, some like the ones I saw, and then ones that make him look more like one of my OCs. This is one of the latter. That's also why I rarely paint them though, black-on-black-on-black is just really hard for me to make readable. Wild Orlan The most fun one, just because. I like fluffy things. Made it a little more...you know, less hairy-person like, more.. cute? I still have a few unfinished ones, and I meant to try and make a little better poses for the one I play first. (I didn't mean to make any interesting poses anyways, but a little different wouldn't hurt.) Not sure If I'll find time, though. (I might have more time if I wasn*t taking hours to type this...DX DAAAR!)

just got the game and need hep picking good characters. Not in terms of actual in combat effectiveness, as I know that I would do strikers with might and dexterity as high as possible, tanks with whatever is best for them, etc. what I want to know is which classes fight best for each of the races: Humans are tanks? Dwarfs seem like fighters and barbarians maybe? Aumaua seem to best fight the barbarian Elves uh magic? rogues and rangers? Orlan seem like less melee types Godlike are unknown right now.

I excluded Priest from the poll due to the 10 choice limit per question. I figure that as the only true healing class most party's will include one regardless of usefulness. That said, please feel free to tell everyone if the Priest is awesome or terrible in the comments!

I'm thinking: 1: Priest (party healer) - Fire Godlike (for the DT bonus to keep the squishy priest around) 2: Fighter (obvious tank is obvious) - Coastal Aumaua (Resistance to stun) 3: Rouge (DPH and all dat stealth skillz) - Hearth Orlan (dat crit bonus + sneak attack) 4: Wizard (Crowd control and AoE) - Pale Elf (nothing really "screamed" wizard soooo... burn and freeze resist i guess) 5: Paladin (second-liner and party buffing) - Moon Godlike (heals everyone when pally takes enough damage= aaawwww yis) _____________________________________________________________ Would love to hear some feed back on what would make the best party! What about you guys, what's your "power-five"?

I am little curious about does size of your race matter in the game. Can Orlan use the same warbow or two-handed mace that is used by Aumauan? I don't know the race height different but it seems to be quite huge. Should the small race have these limitations to the weapons that character can use or it's just good that you can pass the same weapon from Aumauan to the Orlan?

Hello, I wanted to start a thread to answer the questions from Josh's email. Sorry if this was covered in anther thread and I missed it. If not let's hive him a hand and offer him our opinions on these. ) I also tried to offer a few numbers to easily quantify the results. Do the races and their subtypes feel distinct? In a scale of 1 to 10 I would give the variety an 9. Proportions: make it very easy to read at first glance the race of each character. Faces: distinct enough to grant each race and subrace it's own personality. Clothes: while it would have been great to have different clothes for each race, the different colors make a good difference between races and subraces. Overall, in my opinion, in the character creation screen, the variety was properly achieved. While, as I said, different clothing might have improved it farther, I feel the budget for this might have been better spent on something else. Do their models and textures appeal to you? I would give the character models a 7 out of 10. Clothes: shaders and texture both look very good to me. Faces: here's the only aspect I felt could use a bit of improvement. The default face models look a bit generic IMHO, especially if you compare them with the great artworks you previously shown. For example, the sketch of the Orlan concentrating to read an object, inspired to me a very distinct fantasy world. The game model lost a bit in translation this impression. Of course, I might be subjective here. Small note: the two toned skin from the Orlan description is not exactly visible in the model, but there might be just my small laptop screen here. Overall: If possible to add more personality to the character faces without big changes to the editor it would be great. If not, I would leave them as they are: Elder Scrolls is notorious to have some really ugly character models since the down of time and nobody seemed to care. Do their bonuses and special abilities seem worthwhile? I would give the bonuses and special abilities a 9 out of 10. Bonuses: IMHO they do a good job in showing what each race is all about. Special abilities: they seem big enough to add a special flavor for each subrace. Humans might befit from a bit of variety here, but you probably you are already working on it. Overall, the races give to me the impression is of a deep and rich world and I believe this is the the most important thing they need to offer. There it is, I hope it helps.

Just your standard "what x will you play as?" topic where no one reads the posts as you're only here for the poll. Doesn't make for interesting conversation but someone had to do it. I'll probably be rolling aumaua as I usually prefer to play as one of the 'unique'/non-standard races and I thought the aumaua portrait in this week's update looked pretty cool.

Hello, I am a new user I do not know how to create the poll of this topic if someone would help me I would be grateful. ps. I'm sorry for my English but I use google translator. What do you think about adding or adopting a new race. I mean, of course, Orc race. Do you like the idea or not, if so, please share your thoughts about that race, orgins, culture or physical, if you think that orc addition to the game is a bad idea to also encourage you to discuss. Personally, I do not like how it has so far presented orcs especially in the D & D. Were presented as cannon fodder, in most cases, extremely stupid and weak, even in combat also does not play hardly any role. Already much more I liked how they presented in Warcraft 3 There were Respected military strength equal to that of men, or sometimes even surpasses them. Presented as cursed by demons, changed and enslaved by them, however, after years of a large group of them broke the shackles. Honor the warriors, who want to live in peace but not afraid to grab an ax and show their strength. I think orcs are as much a part of the fantasy world as elves or dwarves. Not a bad idea in my opinion would be if the design world eternity present them as two races or even factions. Enslaved a race of slaves and the other dark forces as a rebellious tribe hating their former oppressors but not being too warm relations with the "civilized" humans, elves, etc. I personally would prefer a much more even playing an orc than divine or superhuman race. In Neverwinter Night Although there was a half-orc race, but I think it was terribly compromised. I do not know why it always shows them as idiots, right are quite aggressive, wild, rude, unfriendly and not liking strangers. But, for example, Thrall from Warcraft 3 was intelgętny and even breaking stereotypes and did not lose anything from being an orc. Im waiting for your opinion. See you

In the RPGCodex Q&A, I asked a question about the Voice over distribution in Project Eternity. Josh Sawyer responded with: Icewind Dale 1 had 24 Voice sets (12 Male, 12 Female) in the default game, and 6 more in the expansion. The male voice set is mostly the same guy doing different voices and there's a couple different ones. The female voice set is kind of similar although I think more actresses are used. Anyway Eternity is more nuanced than Icewind Dale is as far as races, culture and ethncity goes. I think it will be very interesting to see what we end up getting for player voices, because I wouldn't be surprised if Josh Sawyer has pronounciation guides for accents from different regions or something - that would be cool. I'm really interested in the Vailian accents in particular, a combination of chocolaty dark actors/actresses with the pseudo-italian/occitan pronounciation will be very interesting (if they end up being accented, it might be more expensive to do because it will take longer to get right). Having some Cultural or Ethnicity based voice sets would also be cool because you could throw in some conlang words or phrases for battle cries, curses etc. It would be funny if a particular culture had a tendancy to mix common tongue words with their own when they get angry. Here's also hoping that we get a similar amount, or perhaps slightly more voice sets. Another thing that got kind of monotonous in the Infinity Engine games was that the game always played the voice set of the highest party member in the formation order every time you had a group selected. It would be cool if it played a random character's voice instead or the option of randomness was available in the sounds menu - something to make voices less monotonous anyway.

Forum search didn't turn up much specifically for this, so I thought I'd start my very first topic. (I got the idea from the Barbarian thread, 8P) What kind of problems and qualities are there in various racial bonuses and traits (sometimes penalties, for balance) from previous games, and, naturally, how could this help determine how to handle them in P:E? Personally, I'm not a fan of the "this race is basically meant to be these 2 classes, and that's it" "bonuses" that are sometimes seen in RPGs. "Sand Elves -- Suffer an inherent -3 to STR, but get 150 bonus mana!" That's basically saying "You want to make a Sand Elf Warrior? *snicker*... okay, you totally can... *snicker snicker*" Really, I don't think the penalties are even necessary at all. I mean, if a Half-Giant gets +3 to STR, then everyone else automatically gives up a +3 STR bonus by picking something other than a half-giant. A Sand Elf with no STR penalty will still always be 3 STR weaker than a Half-Giant. And bonuses shouldn't be quite so narrow, I don't think. Especially in a game based so heavily on souls being a common source of ability power, regardless of class, it's probably much less restrictive (yet still varietous) to grant our fictional, example Sand Elves +10% soul energy or something, which would apply to all classes (still hypothetically, as I have no idea how soul power will mechanically function.) I just mean that the lore would support something like that. Racial bonuses should allow for some kind of benefit to almost any class, even if it's not the same for each one (Just like a common bonus to Soul Energy might allow a Rogue to maintain Stealth for longer, whereas it might allow a Wizard to cast more spells at once, or even target more enemies with the same spell at the cost of additional energy... the mechanics of soul energy could be different for each class.) Similarly, weapon proficiency bonuses should be decently varied, if they exist, so as to account for a variety of class choices. If you grant Sand Elves a bonus to effectiveness with wands, staves, and tomes, you're basically making any non-caster class choices pointless. I mean, even if it's possible, no one's gonna make a Barbarian who runs around dual-wielding wands... So, just thought I'd strike up a communal brainstorm on the matter.

Recently it came to my attention that some people find that anthropomorphic animal races scream lazy developers / are aestheticly unappealing. What do you think? Are you fine with having humanoids with animal traits as playable characters or NPC-s in games in general / Project Eternity? Also, I would like to know whether you find it boring that you have humans as playable race in nearly all/every RPG?

I know that I am odd in this regard, which is why I make no claims that my view is in any way representative of the population present on these forums or elsewhere. This is a personal rant, and I say rant because it comes entirely from an emotional need I posses for which I have no logical explanation. I'm posting it here because if I don't, and this game fails to reach the admittedly high bar I set on this topic, I'll have only myself to blame for never having tried to make a difference. This way when it doesn't meet my requirements I can simply resume grumbling to myself, and I'm only out my donation money instead of potential years of self-loathing and regret. Here's what I'm looking for in a RPG (or any game, really): A very large part of why I play RPG's is for their character customization - it's not the only consideration, but it is almost always the deciding factor in buying a new game (of late, the only "new" game I've purchased is Skyrim - with which I was disappointed in the character customization options, but it was better than average). Story matters, but I find the stories in most games weak in comparison to most books, so that's a secondary concern. What I have apparently become addicted to is creating unique and interesting characters. This falls into two roughly equal segments: visual and mechanical. Visual encompasses both the physical appearance of the character, as well as specifics to what sorts of items and spells that character is "allowed" to use (ex: if I make a character who's theme is "fire mage", I voluntarily do not use any spells that do not fit that theme - ice or water being the classic examples, but it can be more, less, or differently limited depending on the complete character concept). Visual also encompases most of personality with regards to character creation (things like voice selection can be involved as well, as can weapon preferences, skill selection, and even feats/abilities on occasion) - this means that my characters face (or portrait, or general physical appearance) must fit the concept I have of them in my head. I cannot explain why personality is so important to me, but it is absolutely crucial - If I cannot fit a character's appearance to their personality that character doesn't get made and I go back to the drawing board (for this reason, it drives me crazy that it's basically impossible to find or make a smiling face/portrait/etc in any game... Would it kill developers to have a "Default Facial Expression" option/slider? Why must my character frown/stare blankly at everything? I know the models are capable of smiling). It may sound like I'm requiring a high degree of graphical fidelity here - nothing could be further from the truth. I require only as much graphics/artwork as is necessary for me to "see" (as in visualize/imagine/personify/etc) my character in whatever format the game presents him/her - often, high fidelity graphics get in the way of this, as they add details that are not present in my mental image, whereas lower quality graphics leave those details open to the imagination. The other side of the coin, mechanical design & customization, encompases everything you probably think it does: Classes, Racial Bonuses (though not looks), Attacks/Abilities/Spells, Stats, Skills, etc. My design goal with any given character usually follows this pattern: Think of an interesting combination of mechanics, then design a character (visually) to match those mechanics. This leads to characters that have looks, personality, and abilities all revolving around a core theme - they (usually) have one or two "signature" abilities upon which their entire character concept was created. I'll create them with this in mind, then play it out to the final extreme or until the concept proves flawed in some way I didn't originally notice (if it's viable but I've misplaced a point somewhere I'll either re-create them or use console commands to correct the error, depending on what's available). In some cases it works the other way around, wherein I'll create a personality or visual style that inspires a slightly different mechanical perspective that I deem worth exploring. Characters created based on mechanical innovations become more and more interesting as the game progresses and they gain access to the full scope of their potential ("growing into their destined role," if you want to dramatize it... which of course we do, this being an RPG forum), but characters based on a visual style or personality are the most fun to work with in character creation and during plot defining moments (these tend to be the ones I don't actually play, just design). With regards to the actual mechanics of the game, and how classes/abilities/skills/etc interact with each other, it should be obvious that I prefer a highly flexible system. My ideal would actually be a classless system, but a decently done classed based system can be almost as good (restrictions are necessary to make character customization interesting - it's the working around and manipulation of those restrictions that makes mechanical customization fun). That said, multiclassing is basically required. It can be left out if the primary emphasis is on abilities/spells/feats and not class mechanics (to employ a simile: The classes are like differently shaped container for legos, where a roughly equal number of uniform legos, or feats/skills/abilities, can fit into any given container). If the emphasis is on the parts that make up the character (the feats/skills/abilities), rather than it's shell (the class), and these parts can be interchanged fairly freely between classes (with some exceptions) then multiclassing isn't required, but is still beneficial. It's my opinion that this "focus on the parts" view is simply good game design - it detracts nothing from those who don't care about character customization, but will keep people like me (assuming there are others like me...) buying as many expansion packs as you care to produce. When you do make expansions, adding classes is a pretty common theme - however, if these classes are insular (not subscribing to the "focus on parts" view), then you're only really adding one or two play styles... if you've done it the way I'm suggesting you've potentially exponentially increased the number of available character customization options (and therefore play styles) while achieving all the same benefits that adding a class normally accomplishes. Now, by the fact that I've taken the time to both think and type all this out in great detail, you can probably infer how big a deal it is to me, but just in case let me underline the point: I still play NWN2. Not only do I still play it, It's practically the only game I play. My computer uses video card drivers specifically selected for their compatibility with it. I have over a hundred characters created (since the last time I had to do a reinstall... a bit over a year). I've essentially memorized the dialog for the entire game (not so much on the expansions, as I prefer to start at level 1-3 and don't really care for SoZ [side note: MotB is a work of art, give Mr. Zeits my warmest and sincerest regards for that please.]). I've also modded the game with Kerendin's PrC Pack, which adds 49 classes (and is still in active development), and Races of Faerun which adds something like a dozen races, as well as complete overhauls like the "OC Makeover SoZ Edition" and Wulverheim (these last to add some variety to the game while I play through yet another character concept). Neverwinter Nights 2 (with mods) is the closest thing I've ever found to satisfying my craving for deep character customization, and even it is horribly flawed (by my standards). I'm not asking you to fulfill my every wish with Project Eternity, what I'm really asking for (more like begging for) is a replacement for NWN2. I am so damn tired of that game in every regard except character customization (and I think mathematically I may be approaching the point where I've done all feasible combinations of mechanics). I'm desperate for something with enough character customization to allow me to put away NWN2 for good, something with a fresh plot and new as-of-yet unmemorized dialog, new character interactions that give me more fine tuned options for defining and expressing my character's personality (the city watch / thieves guild segment of NWN2 kills off 90% of my character concepts unless I just grit my teeth and act completely out of character - it's destroys immersion and could be the subject of a completely separate rant all by itself). If I were a rich man I'd throw buckets of money at you just for that little consolation, but I'm not and so all I can do is give what I can afford in a desperate gamble, hoping that the people who gave me NWN2 can give me something to replace it. It feels good to get all that off my chest, as it's been stewing in and ever-expanding pool of frustration for some time now. If I had the time and skill I'd make my own game, if I had the money I'd pay someone to do it for me, alas I have neither. The only good that's come out of this is that I've discovered my skill addiction obsession can be put to productive use by churning out NPCs for my DM to put into our far-too-infrequent D&D games. That's not quite as satisfying, but it's kept me away from NWN2 for about a month running... Though after writing this I can already tell that streak isn't going to last the week (if it weren't 4am it wouldn't last the night). As I said when I started - I needed to say this for my own reasons, and even if it doesn't have an effect on this game it's still acted as a pressure release for me (and maybe it will influence something else down the line - who knows). That said, thank you for taking the time to read it and I do hope it leaves an impression (other than one of mild insanity - I know I got that one across but I hope some of the subtler points made it as well).

Hello Forumites and Members of the Obsidian Order. Given what has been revealed about the world thus far and the overall theme of the playable races revealed, it is to my understanding that we will be given a pallete of tolkien-esque playable races that may or may not be flavored in ways to make them interesting and not generic. Obviously if all the playable races were something odd like bug men, alien like slugs with psedopods for vocal speech with multiple eyes, ghosts and ghouls, or anthropomorphic/magical Animals like Gnolls, Dires Tigers, and Werebears [oh my!], then the more hard core RPG players from the 70s to early 90s will most likely drop the project altogether. Not to mention it would make it exceedingly difficult to make a compelling story centered around your actions as said creature in a different type of game world. So with these little tidbits of exposition in mind after that huge run on sentence that would make most editors consider the euthanization of such a person as I, consider the companions. Several Companions have been revealed to us already, all of them human or human looking, though the guy that looks like a mage may not be human [he kinda reminds me of the scholarly Illum from D&D]. Other than the basic and predictable backstories following human mercenaries looking for work with a troubled love life, or perhaps the scholar with his own agenda after professing interest of some sort of otherworldly quality of yourself, what sort of stories and interesting perspectives may be expressed by these companions? The Baldur's Gate Series, the Neverwinter Nights Series, Even Dragon Age have all, very successfully I might add, made me care deeply for the campions I chose to travel around with. But even then, I began to grow bored of the fact that they come from the expected and tried and true backgrounds [other than Minsc]. This Brings me to my actual point of this poorly worded Dissertation, Companions. Dragon Age Origins: Pebble[That Pessimistic Golem Statue thing with the lisp and odd sense of Humor] NeverWinter Nights 2: Neeshka[Had to Mod her to give her the Tiefling Tail] Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer: That Ghost Wraith Thing of Evil Doomy Doomyness Neverwinter Nights 2: Storms of Zehir: The Lizard Man that Guides you to his Chief Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark: Mother Fracking[the kind where you use high presure of water to break of rock for oil] DEEKIN [The Kobold Bard of awesomesauce that may or may not multiclass into Dragon Disciple and become a winged Kobold of fire breathing goodness] Neverwinter Nights: Kingmaker: The Solar outsider, The WereRat What do all of these companions have in common? They are all Non Human and Come from very different baackgrounds. Why do they matter? They bring very interesting, if sometimes humorous, perspective on things in general. They allow you to view their race or their circumstance with a perspective that is otherwise unavailable when fighting their patron races be they lizard men, golems, undead, kobolds, were creatures, and planar outsiders. I feel Project Eternity can greatly benefit, story telling wise, with a companion that is not any of the playable races and is out of the Tolkien "norm." I am currently not quite sure how it would fit with Project Eternity Lore, or how awesome the team behind making the companions actually are in creating interesting and memorable characters. Creating Companions based off of class or racial stereotypes can indeed railroad the character of that Companion into a specific path, but I for one believe that creating exotic and very different companions can add more to the game than it would detract. I am not sure how my thoughts will be viewed/praised/flamed, but please talk away, I am happy to discuss things as long as things stay civil. P.S. I am not crazy nor on the verge of a nervous breakdown, Just trying to express myself after being subjected to days of boredom and instant insanity puzzles [Look up Instant insanity puzzles and realize my dilemma] P.P.S. Thank you for reading, I hope you had fun.

I've seen other threads on Project Eternity's races, but they seem to all be arguments over whether or not to have Elves and Dwarves. So, since it sounds like Project Eternity will have Elves and Dwarves, what would you like the other race or races to be? So far we have Human, Elf, Dwarf, and possibly the Godlike. That's four out of the five playable races. What else would you like to see? They've mentioned the possibility of an insect race; personally, I'm not that interested in having one. I've seen interesting insect races in some pen and paper games (Ashen Stars and Dark Sun), but I'm not sure an insect race really fits a medieval Europe themed setting (assuming that's what we are going to get with P:E). I would like the races to fit the world (although I suppose there could be parts of P:E's world where giant sapient insects would feel more appropriate). I liked all the bizarre races that we had in Planescape, but they seemed appropriate in the setting. I think the bizarre factor needs to be toned down in a more conventional setting (i.e. European inspired fantasy). Anyway, I think it might be interesting for the fifth race to be people who were born with souls that had somehow carried with them traces of their previous incarnations' deaths (maybe only in instances where the deaths were especially traumatic). As such, the soul would taint the new incarnation with an element of death, meaning that, while technically a member of their parent's race, these beings would be part mortal and part undead. This would leave them pale and sickly looking but would give them extended lifespans and heightened immunity to diseases and death magic. Their connection to death would also give them a greater sensitivity to the souls of others. Perhaps they could tell whether the soul was whole, fragmented, awakened, etc. This sensitivity would also make them more aware of the presence of concealed individuals (bonus to perception checks to spot hiding or invisible people) and possibly of ghosts, if they exist in this setting. Due to their cadaverous appearance, they might have penalties to social interaction, especially in societies in which they were stigmatized. I'm not really sure what to call them, the Deathborn? Deathwalkers? I got the idea from the Shade race in Shadowbane, so maybe they could be called that, although that would probably be a copyright violation. http://shadowbaneemulator.com/page.php?d=4&n=Shades I suppose these wouldn't be a "race", so to speak, since their condition wouldn't be hereditary and their offspring, assuming they aren't all sterile, would probably be normal members of their grandparents' race (unless they had the misfortune to be born with a tainted soul, as well). If Obsidian decides to go with something more traditional, I would be interested in playing a member of a stereotypically brutish race like an Orc, Troll, or Minotaur (the Minotaurs in Shadowbane were pretty cool). Anyway, what ideas do you guys have for the fifth race?

I took the time to sum up all of the classes, companions, etc. that will be included in the game BESIDES the amount of content (quests, areas, NPCs, etc.) that is also included. I thought some people might be interested in seeing what we are getting without the need to search for the info. At $2,5 million we will have (summed up): 6 races (human, elves, dwarves, godlike, ??? and ???) 9 classes (fighters, wizards, priests, rougues, rangers, monks, druids, barbarians, ciphers) 8 companions (edair, cadegund, aloth, monk dude, dwarven ranger chick and 3x ???) Tell me if you find a mistake.

They've made it clear that Souls are going to be a key thematic element of the game. They've mentioned "Strong Souls" "Lineage Souls" "Travelling Soul and" so on. So what element do you think Souls represented by Races or Classes. They've said that magic is powered by souls so I'm inclined to think Classes. So someone born with multiple Souls could be a multiclasser, someone with a "Strong" soul might be a fighter, someone whose soul has been to divine realms might be a cleric, one with purity might be a Paladin, one with lineage might be a wizard, and so on. Alternately it could be race. The Godlike races (peple seem to forget the Godlike are multiple races, not a single race, just like the planetouched have tefling, Genasi, and Aasmir) would have had a soul visit the divine realms, a elf may have lineage, dwarf a strong soul, human fragmented, and so on. So what mechanical representation do you think souls will have?

Hello, really looking forward to this game. However one thing about "fantasy" rpgs that has always boggled my mind a bit. With this being a new IP game and Obsidian being able to basically do whatever they please with the game and not having to stick with any specific thing in regards to a set IP, it would be nice if we could see something a bit more out of hte box/different then your usual fantasy races of "Elves/Dwarves/Humans/Orcs, etc" There are sooooooo many other races that are ripe for filling out a "Fantasy" world, from pulling idea's from Greek/Roman mythology, folklore, etc. Things like Minotaurs, Satyr, Centaurs, Lycans, Vampires (no not the sparkly kind, but VTM:B style), Cyclops, Sirens, on and on. Then they could even make up their own special unique races for the game, anything you can think of. Look at the recent Guild Wars 2, the Sylvari are one of the most fleshed out races in a recent game in terms of look/feel, sure "plant people" aren't a new thing but how well they incorprated the "plant" look is (every part of their antatomy is plant based). You can see a video of the Sylvari race creation here: I just think it'd be nice/a breath of fresh air if this new rpg had a more robust/open choice of races to play as. It's gotten a bit stale always playing the same fantasy races in rpgs over and over. I'd just like something a bit different to play as in the game world, and it would certainly help the game stand out from other fantasy rpgs that stick to the Tolkien style of fantasy. Regardless I do still have high hopes for the game. Loved BG/Planescape and have missed those party based IP's. Dragon Age: Origins was a goo dthrow back game but DAII was an entirely different story, so I hope this game will fill that gap.

I only plan on playing through the game once as one race and class combination, so I want you, Obsidian, to focus all your time and money on making that race/class combination the best gaming experience you possibly can. Please remove all other classes and races, since I don't plan to use them. I don't care which you include. Maybe you should have a poll and only include the most popular race and class. Also, I don't like doing sidequests, so none of those, please, and no extra regions. I find a world-map that's too large to be confusing. Please make the main quest the best you absolutely can. Maybe you can release sidequests for those who want them as DLC later. There should be exactly 5 characters that will (not may) join your party. I want every moment of gameplay specifically crafted for my exact party, with each character chiming in with the perfect dialog at exactly the right time. Obviously, once you start multiplying party makeups, there's no way you can make so many different cohesive narratives on such a small budget. Please, please, please no multiplayer. I'll never use it. I would prefer that you focus on making the game the best that it can be when experienced by exactly one person. You basically have to make the whole game over again for each additional player you allow. I don't know what other features you're planning to add, but I would really prefer that you focus on crafting the best versions of the features I am going to use and leave the others out. Oh, I almost forgot. I am a male that is almost overflowing with testosterone and manliness. If I am not looking at a humanoid female's sexy body I have to immediately leave the computer and go do adult-things with my girlfriend. I will not be able to spend the 15 hours I expect the main quest to take looking at a tiny digital man-butt. For this reason I expect to play as a female. Please remove all other sexes. Her name will be Alwethia. Now you won't have to waste your tiny budget programming a field to enter the PC's name. Thanks. EDIT: I plan to have my character look like the babe in my avatar picture. I don't know what she's from, but if it's not a copyright issue, please use that image for the PC. Otherwise, something as close as possible.