Magical Effects (especially transmutation!)

[eldilibra]

As a fan of the genre for years, I've always been hoping to play a game that had surprising, powerful magic spells. Specifically, I've always hoped to play a mage-type character that could shapeshift into other forms, like the wizards of old tales (e.g. Merlin, and countless others in literature). I mean, imagine being in a situation that requires stealth, then turning into a rat to sneak through, or facing multiple, powerful enemies, and turning into a griffin in order fly out of range and attack at your leisure. This makes for such great storytelling. Obviously, a beginning character shouldn't be able to just turn into a dragon, but down the road, something like that would be awesome and fulfilling. I started this thread to talk about any and all cool magical effects people would like to see in the game, and how these effects might affect gameplay.

[Wintersong]

I'd love a shapeshifter druid. Something balanced and not out of proportion, of course.

[eldilibra]

Exactly! Characters like that would be so fun to dive into. Here's hoping...

[Tauron]

I really enjoyed spell effects in BG series,(better than IWD) one of reasons I played as a mage, it also felt more dynamic and spells were awsome, even low lvl...like a promise of power, taste of what is to come. Oh good times. Good times indeed.

 

I hope they add nice effects. If they add school of transmutation, I hope they will make morph effects than just a flash and you are a big bad monster, or a combination of two.

[Stiler]

I have never really played an rpg that felt like they did shapeshifting that well. I mean to me it's one of the most awesome sounding types of classes, being able to shapeshift.

 

However usually you are stuck with cliche animals and don't get to actually shapeshift for any story elements or gameplay changes. IN your example, being able to turn into a rat and sneak around. I'd love if they did indeed have a shapeshifting class, if they offered you a lot of non-combat things to do with it, from different ways to complete a quest to getting into area's other classes couldn't (Ie shapeshifting into a flying animal to get to a high up place).

 

What I think wold be nice is if they had various animals to shapeshift into which you could level up in specifically and each of them had their own skill tree's, so you could make them how you want that specific shapeshift to be.

[eldilibra]

@Stiler: Great thoughts. That's exactly the kind of cool, functional experience I'd be hoping for out of transmutation and other disciplines that modify the physical world. I hope you guys at Obsidian see this! :~)

[Aedelric]

I have never been keen on shape-shifting in most games, mainly due to the fact the creatures vary so extremely in size.

 

Transforming would be great, but only humanoid like monsters of the same proportion. Becoming a cat, rat or gnat, should be left up to conventional illusion magic instead of physical transformation.

Edited October 3, 2012 by Aedelric