Mages or Fighters

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Or you can take a Bard, with decent fighting skills (especially when you kit to Blade) and the ability to cast mage spells if you wish.

*applauds all the true RP gamers who posted in this thread*

I don't think I've ever played a game of BGII (other board, I know) with Carsomyr, Holy Avenger, Crom Faeyr, etc., I just never found them and frankly didn't care. I much prefer characters who have weaknesses, be it in stats or equipment.

 

This is a discussion I've always found interesting, but probably not for the reasons that you might think. When I first came to this site a year or so ago, I truly thought I believe in the idea of roleplaying in a CRPG. But since that time, friends of mine here have gotten me started playing PnP Dungeons and Dragons (3rd edition of course). Having had a chance to do both, I just don't see the connection between roleplaying and playing a computer game, especially one that 90% of us only play by ourselves. As I remember at least one person saying, who exactly are we playing a role to? If a character only has 3 inteligence, who exactly will know? Will Minsc be mawking you and snickering with Dynheir behing your back. Nope. Will the town leader balk at the idea of letting such an idiot solve the towns problems. Not likely. The character is, for the most part, played as smartly as any other, simply because there is noone else around for such a character to roleplay his stupidity to. Everyone seems to bash the idea of powergamers like it's something evil. And indeed, it isn't fun when you're sitting around with friends or online with friends playing a DnD campaign and people are so hyped about having a strong barbarian or about how much experience their getting. It ruins the game for people who are trying to get into the experience. But really, roleplying in a computer game environment is limited at best. Why? Because CRPG's are about instant gratification. It feels good to advance quickly, slaying monsters in your wake and leveling up so you can slay even bigger monsters and get nicer items. There are really no other party members to truly banter back and forth with; no other people to share your character's personality with, his feelings, his life. It's nice to have that in your head, and believe me, I do. But the idea of roleplaying him seems so far removed from PnP. A CRPG is CRPG in a most basic sense. Diablo isn't that far removed from BG. The idea being to make to the end, gaining all the cool items and spells as you go. It's just one obviously has a much better story and imersive enviroment, and one is more straight hack and slash, which in the end, all CRPG's are at the core anyway.

Now on a side note, I can see why people who play a game over and over (I don't have the taste for it myself-one run is about the most I can get out of a game) would want to have characters with lower stats. It would make it more interesting than playing with an uber-powerfull character all the time.

 

Very well put crawl! Just have fun seems to be Your message too.

 

The problem is that a Computer RPG is that there is no DM who makes that the game is balanced. In D&D (THE Role-Playing Game), the DM makes that the game is balanced. When you get a very great weapon or armor, the DM can restore the balance by changing the campaign a bit, so the party encounters some more or more powerful creatures, with this the DM prevents that the campaign becomes to easy for the Party.

In a Computer-RPG there is no DM (not yet in BG 1 and 2 at least), so there's also nobody that takes care of the balance. The developpers try to do that while writing the game. For the rest, the only one who can make the game a bit balanced is YOU. The devellopers have made the game so, that it is balanced, when you play with normal characterd. So when you play with all super char's with 19's for every stat, they become really powerful and the game becomes to easy. Some people (the powergames) do this, for they have the misundertanding that the more powerful you are, the more it is to play. But there is no good balance and they haven't find out yet that it is much more fun to play the game like it should be... balanced.

 

I personaly Like Mages.

But i never play without a Fighter.

 

Indeed, and taht's why you should always have at least one pure fighter and one pure mage in the party.

 

Crawl, I think you make some excellent points about RPing on the computer. PnP or (live action) is the only real why to do Role Playing. Table top using a DM and other players allows the chance to interact and have a true RP experience. CRPGs are only a substitute. Computer RPGs can only provide a limited re-creation of the table top experience. CRPGs are 'fun' but not truly give you that 'player' experience. The lack of a human DM restricts CRPGs and blocks them for ever reaching a true RPing environment.

Are they fun? Hell yeah! But table top will always be better until a true interactive environment can be created on a computer system. Until that day where is my dice bag?

 

Is it just me or do we think spark may have forgotten how to reply in thanks?

 

I think Neverwinter Nights just may bring true roleplaying to the computer. The difference is in the human DM controlling the events. With everything set in stone by developers it's really very linear. But when you have live DMs, the story doesn't have to progress exactly as it is written, and rules to not apply to rigidly.

 

Here's just a quick take on the actual topic before I stray too far off again. I prefer playing a fighter/mage class myself, always dual classed. In BG, might as well dual at level 6 I suppose. It will get you the best of both classes. If you want your dual class to speed up a bit to it's completed stage, go to one of the experience treasure troves (wryn cave or golem cave), dump some the party members for the time being, and kill till you've got enough experience to use both classes.

I think I wrote something about NWN last night in a stupor, but then it's hard to say. Regardless, I've been thinking about the concept of NWN being the ultimate roleplaying vehicle for the computer. It will undoubtedly be the best so far as long as you play in a persistant world, but otherwise I still wonder about that claim. For one thing, teh beauty of RPG's is the mind's eye. Everything for the most part plays out in your head, and most anything is possible. In a CRPG, even one as DM friendly as NWN, there still will be plenty of game restrictions. But more importantly, everything will look and happen on screen. Now maybe this isn't a big thing, but then I feel once something becomes a fixed image, a lot of the imagination is gone. I just don't know if I will be able to get into a roleplaying mode within a CRPG world. And speaking of worlds, there will be those as well, with online DM's no less. Course, how often will they be online? At first, I'm sure they will be around a lot, but after it wears on, how often will these boons to CRPG's be around to monitor groups (and can a DM really take the time to monitor large numbers of players on their server at the same time?). Sorry about my rant, and don't get me wrong. I'm not putting the game down. I just wonder how many people will be disapointed with the roleplaying experience once they realize they are still playing a CPRG.

 

*/me hangs his head in shame.*

Even though I am an obvious offender here, Tal is right. I've seen a few posts about NWN inserted here and in the ToB forum when the NWN forum is becoming less and less active. I would personally like to apolagize and next time I'll stick to the right forum (no matter how much I'd like to throw my 2 cents into a topic that has strayed into NWN territory).

 

Fighter-goes on and on in a fight, never runs out of stuff.

Mage-Only has a few spells before zapped out, then melee death always.