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Hey all, I was thinking about how the various 'powers' of classes (like powers from Fighter, Barbarian, Paladin, Wizard, etc.) might be able to be used out of combat in something like an Infinity Engine game. That is, for the non skill, non healing or restorative,usually 'clickable' abilities of characters to have some use outside of combat. Video games have a large set of abilities where people use various superpowers from one source or another in ways that are useful outside of combat, but those generally aren't Infinity Engine-like games (they are often sandboxes and such). Still, I have a few ideas, so far: -Various sources of trapfinding, eg, certain types of magic-oriented characters should be able to see magic traps / magic auras. -Various character types can bash through or blow apart certain types of walls, bypassing areas in some dungeons -If a character has a charm, beguiling, telepathic, or an emotion sensing, or a lying sensing ability, they might be able to determine when someone is telling a partial lie, if they are doing the speech, or they would have the option of using magic to charm someone in combat -Various methods of disguise and social coersion, both magical and mundane, should allow someone to try a 'social' way of getting through a dungeon What I am thinking of is things like the Deus Ex games, where there are SEVERAL ways of using your superpowers or even traditional skullduggery to solve a given problem, and many of them aren't violent. If these characters have lots of superpowers, or even are really competent at having normal abilities, this sort of thing should be a viable and interesting option, you know? And there should be a reason to do a nonviolent way to get through a level; even if you don't get to loot everything from the cooling corpses of the dungeon, perhaps the person who gave you the job will give you extra rewards for not being so 'kill them all!' in your methods. Does anyone have any thoughts about ways that this sort of thing might be posssible in an Infinity Engine like game? Also, does anyone have any idea about ways that the world itself might be made a bit more 'living' or interactive or 'real', like the old Ultima games? Where you can click and interact with many more parts of the world, and people have their own schedules and do their own thing? Heck, the dungeons having actual *sleeping quarters*, kitchens, etc. for the people living in them, which get used would be fantastic, or if you make a large commotion, the entire dungeon going onto lockdown or the alarm going up and everyone going to defend it would be great...