Pally stat/order question

[Torm51]

 

Darcozzi is the only order whose talent is useful throughout the game so good choice. I think all the Paladin orders have a cool uniqueness. Darcozzi are like the guards of the houses from Game of Thrones in that they are loyal to the Family not the Kingdom.

I always found strange the Darcozzi, from a RP point of view.

Because, well, I understand their roles as House protectors, sworn swords, etc; I can even relate them to some orders in other fantasy worlds.

But... well, you know nothing about the Darcozzi Family (at least in the beggining); two lines in your order description. So it's really hard to picture your motivation, goals, etc; because you're not following some ideal, like the other orders; you're basically a thug for a family you don't know.

 

It would be nice if they told more about them, like... if you create a Darkozzi Paladin, you start the game with a book in your inventory explaining the history of the family.

 

I hear you.  Like you said though they are Guards of that house and the Old Valian Culture (An empire that is no more).  The other orders also are a bit fague other then Kind Wayfarers or Goldpact Knights.  What would a Shieldbearer be doing in the Dyrwood? from their description they sound like a Military/Diplomatic arm of the Aedyr government like the Jedi are for the Republic in Star Wars.  The lore has not been hashed out as much yet (I think its a good thing)  so I usually make up some type of mission I was suppose to be on for my order in the Dyrwood.  I happened to be on that Caravan and now well I have to save my own soul.  I am useless to my order if I am going through some type of soul issue and I go crazy.

 

So for Darcozzi the family that they are sworn to seem a bit like The Doemenals but since their Favored Disposition is Clever and Aggressive and their Disfavored is Cruel and Stoic..I would say that the family they fight for although likely value monitory gain (like the Domenels ) they still value life and culture and would not have you slice the throats of innocents for their gain.  That's just what I think lol A rogueish attitude type Paladin if that makes any sense.

[Ymarsakar]

A rogue like paladin, says the gamer, here's my character sheet, take it or leave it.

 

One of the minuses of the way Obsidian designs narrative heavy games is that they like to assume you don't have companions for quests, so unlike Planescape Torment and Shadowrun trilogy, your companions don't really do much aiding in your quests. So they're combat companions but story line wise, the designer assumes you may have killed them or ignored them in a play through, so they can't add Aloth to some X quest, other than Aloth's own quest.

 

This ties in with the large numbers of initial builds for the main, as they can't plan specifically for that either, since they don't know what you're going to pick. Class, culture, etc. They can't make special content for everything.

 

Shadowrun gets around this a little by setting up a very strong backstory and role playing elements for the main character, using the dialogue tied to your abilities to role certain archetypes. That way no matter what class or race you pick, some things are set in stone, in order to present a role you can play through, rather than using your own imagination to make up the startup.

 

Planescape Torment took a very narrow view of narration and just basically plugged you into an existing class/race/person and you just went on your way exploring different personalities and historical connections with your buddies.

 

Torment is much closer to the Japanese visual novels popular in some select Western circles, in that part of the narrative fun is seeing what the writers come up with. Freedom of choice is generally reserved for simulators, not linear stories written by authors. Western RPG makers come from the table top genre, partially, so to them, making up stories is the job of the character's player, not the DM or writers. You create your own character, his backstory, and whatever RP elements you do is up to you, and the Dm merely changes the plot and fights to adjust to that. That's why many of these DnD type CRPGs allow you to pick so many options at the start. Whereas in more linear stories like visual novels or Planescape Torment, you build the entirety of your role play through in game decisions and atmosphere, a set of choices pre written for you by the DM/Author/God watcher.

 

The crit path in Pillar did have some small innovations in choice, but it's difficult to tie that in with the rest of the game given the level of freedom the designers wanted to get out of it first. For example, you could pick your backstory with X by choosing some options in dialogue, but those aren't explained much nor do they tie in with the character creation/abilities. So mechanically, it feels initially very similar to the disposition and dialogue systems, where the impact isn't readily clear and whatever role play is available is limited. The player doesn't know about it ahead of time so they didn't make the character up with that in mind, and the player doesn't see enough of the consequences of that dialogue choice to feel very stuck to it mechanically in game. It's not like picking one wizard spell over another, which has continuous mechanical effects from there on in.

 

Baldur's Gate, my favorite npc was probably Imoen, because she was in the game at the start so the writers started writing some interesting stuff for her later on. And the player could easily get attached through the trilogy if they were with her for so long it became a kind of meta story.

Edited September 17, 2015 by Ymarsakar

[Torm51]

Well I meant by attitude not by class lol never thought id put those 2 words in the same sentence..

[MasterCipher]

Pallies imo are the best melee class for their combination of buffs, utility, damage, and tanking. I'm a min/maxer which isn't your style, so I'll just offer a few general tips. I used liberating exhortation every fight as a Darcozzi pally. It suspends all negative affects on any character, including fatigue and bonded grief (if a ranger's pet dies) and there's a Darcozzi only talent that adds an accuracy buff that stacks with everything (not common). The other Darcozzi fireshield talent is decent too. Pally can main tank even on the highest difficulty by just investing in heavy armor and a decent amount of CON, especially if your party uses controlling abilities and spells with prone/paralyze/stun/stuck. Fights generally don't last very long and are even faster the higher your party's damage output. The point is, it's very easy to have a paladin in heavy duel wield, use a 2 hander, or blend in a lot of offense - on top of their unique buffs - and still tank if you want.