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The idea of this thread is to start a discussion about the direction of spell mechanics people would like the game to go in. As the host i'll start by sharing up some of my thougts around the topic. I will not discuss the obvious major mechanical change with the removal of vancian(spelling?) casting in the opening post since it seems to have been discussed quite rigorously already. The introduction of the new token mechanic to change target during casting coupled with the introduction of spell interuption greatly expands the possible range of spells and their impact since it allows for spells with far longer casting times that requires more planning. With the current token and interuption mechanics in the game it might be possible to justify a combine spell feature if the resulting casting time is long enough in relation to its power. Why do i want this? For one it would grant players a far greater flexibility and experimentation for players like me who love that sort of thing. More importantly perhaps is that it is the closest we're ever going to be able to create a spell of our own. I mean by the end of PoE my character was one of the most powerful wizards in the world who literally had the archmage Concelhaut as his pet, yet he had never done any spell experimentation or been able to create any spell of his own. What's up with that? I mean other than resource issues for obsidian . It would be even cooler (although admittingly possibly a nightmare to balance) if it was possible to combine different class spells with one another such as wizard/cleric or druid/cleric spells. What are your thoughts about the new mechanics that has been introduced? Any ideas of your own?

Hi, Please post whatever is on your mind that may further balance the mechanics and gameplay. You don't have to agree with mine, and a objective discussion is always welcomed. Here are 4 I can think of: 1. Remove pet collision (Quality of Life improvement) - Pets can still block the way from time to time; when the party is out-of-combat it is possible for the characters to trigger traps due to pets. Taking off pets and then putting it back on kind of defeats the purpose of having something that "passively" observes your progress. 2. Buff Constitution (Mechanics Balancing) - Right now, I believe the consensus is that constitution is the most effective "dump" stat out of all the other stats due to its low negative/positive effect on character health. This drastically makes the joinable companions weaker than hired adventurers even though they have the early advantage of higher exp (2k exp or higher, depends on how fast the player hires the adventurers) Punish the player even further for having low constitution characters, and award those that commit points into it. 3. Allow minimal customization on post-hired Adventurers (Character Portraits, voice sets, perhaps even biography) - I loved the Icewind Dale series, and I dare say the series are held in higher regard to other IE games (for me) due to the fact that I get to fully customize all 6 characters to my heart's fullest extent. Though if I made a mistake on or disliked the character portrait or voice set, I can always change it via character sheet in IWD. Of course, the choices I made on the classes and leveling will still be stuck. 4. "Annoyed" Voice-overs (Quality of Life improvement, not urgent) - Icewind Dale had the best player character voice-overs out of all the IE games, I dare say. And as of now only 5 selection of voices for each gender is simply not enough! I really missed how if you click the characters enough times, it will voice its annoyance over the player's selection. "I know a druid who can hook you up with some good stuff" - Unknown male rogue

This Might come off a bit later but, it seem like a good (less to me) I have been read up on wikia and something just hit me A new class: The Mechanic I know it seem a op at first, because when mechanic comes to mind people jump the steam-punk. What I thinking is more Adra-punk (The game hasn't come out yet, so I'm only using the information that is currently available). the mechanic I'm think of inspired da Vinic and some of guild wars (Kill me XP) I don't know too much about "Adra", but I know its is a living mineral, and that it is ORGANIC (much like animals and plants). In the world of Eora, would be ethical or (even possible) to use Adra as a power source for machines and trinkets without the shunning for the uneducated . some nations are going through a renaissance period with "animancers" and i'm probably guessing adra is use as recipe for foul... I mean progression magics Mechanic would fit the role well as the amour use mob ruler, and mechanic's abilities can focus around gun, adra-powered traps, mobile and immobile turrets (or some mechanical construct some kind) . Mechanic can be skill oh yeah Mechanic and Survival or lore. adra acts as pool of soul magic to power the trinkets of the mechanic. comment

So I've been playing and replaying some of the older IE games and some other cRPGs these past few months and I've noticed that a lot of the riddles in the games are riddles that I couldn't remember the answers to many years later. I thought it was good fun having to figure out the answers again. However, as soon as I looked at the answer choices, the solutions were simple enough. All I had to do was pick the right choice (or reload and pick the right choice (or reload...)). Anyway, it would be nice if either on hard difficulty or as a game option, we would be able to type in the riddle answers instead of picking from a dialogue option. Might and Magic III:Isles of Terra is the only game I've played where I could/had to type in riddle answers through keyboard and I really enjoyed having to figure out the solutions. Anyway, it's worth bringing up. Computer AI is nowhere near being able to accept dialogue that is typed, but at least we can do a simple IF (typed answer) = "actual answer" THEN correct() ELSE incorrect() for riddles. It would be enjoyable and definitely harkens back to the good old days when video games were actually tough because of the riddles. For those of us who want to just go through the story or who don't have a strong background in English, we can remove this option to get through the riddles. I can see this being a problem for localization and translations, but hopefully there is a workaround. Oh, and don't make it case-sensitive.

Due to interesting discussions on this forum, I would like to share and hear opinion about my concepts about cRPG mechanic. I try to keep it as briefly as possible, so there is no introduction or number value for each aspect I write about. All I write below is like wishlist for system mechanic in cRPG (like P:E) I would like to play. 1. Atributes. Every attributes have also minor drawback. Phisical - Strenght. How big, how much can endure, how much can lift a character. Combine Strenght and Constitution. With every point character is heavier, so he lose moving speed. Agility. Speed (move and attack), precision (hit chance), how good is with manual activity (skills). Because of character more rapid movement (faster attacks, dodges) it getting tired faster - less Stamina for every point. Perceptivity. Spoting hidden places, secret doors, traps, sneaking enemy. Affect thievish action (sneak, pickpocket, lockpicking). Hearing every rustle must be frightening, every point decrease Morale. Reason - Inteligence. Spellcasting. Chance to identified items. Knowledge about enemy (statistic, health), number of experienced gained, chance to succesfully use magic device. Other just don't understand the true meaning of your strange behavior, easier become Insane and gain Mental Disease. Will. Piety. Charisma. Mental resistance to fear, pain, fatigue, mind effects. Trading ability. Chance to persuade the NPC. Every point increase chance for berserker stance from wound recieved (Player lose control at character, which mostly go melee into combat). 2. Class/skills Character classes/profesion are list of skills, feats and abilities the character can gain. There is no limit for gear character can wear or use (armor, weapon, magic device) because of class he choose. However some abilities or skills (available for specyfic class) can favor or be necessary for some items. Persuade skill: Every not-so-important NPC have some random type of class, race or gender that they don't want to speak with. Important for plot NPC may speak only with specyfic character. Priest refuse to speak with mages, bard refuse to speak with male, authorities refuse to speak with rogues, knight will only speak with nobles, merchants will not speak with thieves. Thanks to that, its no longer enough to have high speaking/trading skill for one person in team. 3. Experience is gained by: (mostly) completing task/quest (once) meeting and (once) killing firsttime encounter monsters/enemy, (once) opening new type of locks, (once) disarming new traps, (once) reading new books. For each point of wounds inflicted by the enemy (firendly fire or environment (lava burns, drowning) doesn't count) will grant exp (little compare too other factors). No-levels. Every amount of exp can be spend to develop character. Rising atributes or skills will cost more for every point. 4. Bars: Health - depends strictly from Phisical attribute. Every attack that couse at least 1 point of wound will also inflict random injury effect (broked boned, pain, bleeding - depending on the weapon). When HP reach 0 - character die. HP doesnt rise with exp, but some skills can boost a few point. HP regenerating very slowly, but only when medical aid was provided to wounded character (bandage, healing ointment, disinfected wound (fire, alcohol), surgery). Stamina - come from Phisical and Will. Decreases from damaged character recieve, skills he use, spells cast and other exhausting activity. Stamina renewed from the food eaten and sleeping. When Stamina reach 0, character is unconsious. If unconsious character is still affected by tiring factors (drowning, suffocation, hits) then they Health is decreasing. Morale - depends from Will attribute. Decreased from every wound that any party members recived, another fleeing ally, dead ally, encounter of terryfing monsters (huge, undead), powerful spell casted or magic items in character possesion. Morale points renewed when character is no longer in combat or frightful situation. When reach 0 then character is fleeing from battle (Player lose control over character). When character is still affected by scary conditions and Morale drop below 0 to some bufor then character gaining Mental Disesase (fobia, addiction, self-mutilation, Nightmares, hallucinations). If Morale drop below bufor (minus Morale value) - character is implayable - become non-acting NPC, extremly easy to pickpocket (and kill). Morale : 1______________ character in control 0 : (- Morale/2)________ _ character run from combat (lose control) (- Morale/2) : (- Morale)+1_ character get mental disease (- Morale) or lower_______ character is insane 5. HIT Against every attack character have two saves, Deflection and Dodge: Deflection - consist of protection from shield, plate pieces of armor (cuirass, bracers, helmet), weapon parry (mainly character combat skill). Deflection can be different for each attack type. F.ex. Ghost can have unattainable Deflection against normal attacks. Shields can grant more Deflection against range and breath (area) attacks. Attacker test his Hitting ability (To hit: Physical attribute, weapon penetration and combat skill) against Deflection. Dodge - depend on Agility and skill, highly penalize from burden. Attacker have no influance on victim dodge chance. Every succesful attempt, move the avoiding character radomly to one (left/right) side (better visualisation when character avoid breath attack, missle or Gigants club) and consume some Stamina. Dodging should work like defence chance for weaker character (mage, rogue, or against monstrous enemy). For every attack to opponent, first is checked Deflection, when not succesful, then Dodge. Any succes, negating attack. Both failure result in hit. 6. DAMAGE Every weapon deal some amount of damage, which is not affected by character Phisical attribut (!). This way its easier to balance high damage inflict from enormous characters (dragons, gigants) and strong character will not kill armed enemies with bare hand. Each hit inflicts wounds and fatigue to target. Weapon damage - Armor Reduction = number of wounds points deal to victim (subtracted from Health bar). Every attack that deal at least one point of damage, will cause some random aditional wound effect (broked boned, pain, bleeding, disarm, fall down). AND Weapon damage = Stamina decrease. Depends of damage type diferent Reduction is in use. When victim is hit by dragon fire breath, instead of Armor Reduction there would be Fire Resistance. But still when is succesfuly hit, the Stamina is deacresing, no matter how resistant is victim. There is no hit locations, however wound effects suggest that attack hit leg, arm, head etc. (f.ex. "finger lost", "crushed foot"). Attacker can not choose the location he would like to aim. 7. WEAPON and ARMOR Weapon statistic: Range (spear > sword > knives & fist) its determine the iniciative of first strike, with longer range you hit sooner. Also when character hide behind obstacles it may provide additional advantage. Attack speed (time between attacks) is decreased by high agility. Burden (required Physical) every point lacking to meet threshold, increasing attack time. Prevent mages from using two handed axe. Weapon damage (interval X to Y) Weapon penetration - just "to hit" bonus against victim Deflection Damage type (normal, fire, electricity, cold, gas, acid, poison). Armor statistic Armor provide deflection and damage reduction. Pieces of armor like helmet, gauntlets, boots, shield provide only deflection. While main armor (jacket, chainmail, cuirass) provide additionaly reduction. No armor layers like leather plus chain plus plate. Every thing character wear have burden value, which summed give penalty to moving speed, skill check and dodge save. Additionally after some threshold the stamina will decrease with every move. Burden not exactly represent the weight of items, its rather general encumberenced from size, shape, weight and handling. So 2 kg sword can give more burdens that 5 kg leather armor. 8. Magic balance Magic can boost weapons and armor, but they bizzare effects deacresing user Morale, leading to insanity. More powerful magic device (wand, staff, orb), need a lot of knowledge to activate. Spells are difficult to conceive (required Reason (mage) or Will(priest)) and exhausting (consume Stamina).