Thoughts about Races/Classes/Archtypes

Once again I'm trying to create another Party in Neverwinter Nights 2 Storm of Zehir, and once again I can't create the Party that I imagine - but today I'm drunk enough to write about races, classes and archtypes at the internet

My favourite Type of Character is the "Spellblade"; a character that maybe uses some buffs, throws a fireball at the begin of the battle and then goes into melee with a sword. A lot of games support this character at least a bit, the last perfect Spellblade I played was a costum Class in Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall, the last good Spellblade I played was a combat-orientated Battle-Mage in Drakensang, River of Time. If you want to play such a character in D&D you better
play a Cleric.

One Class that I always liked was the "Healer", well I liked to have them in the Party, but I couldn't stand to play one The last good Incarnation of the Healer-Class I met was in World of Warcraft Classic, the Priest of Light. It was a Class that needed Protection and was a incredible contribution to a Party … but it was just no fun to play one… Blizzards Solution was the ability to "Dual-Specc"; so that your character was able to turn around 180 Degree from a Priest of Light to a Shadow-Priest (with some good offensive Spells and a total contrary Philosophy) with a Mouseclick and a Rest - good for the Player of the Priest (and for Groups in Need of a Healer), bad for the "Feeling" of the Class. The Solution in D&D (3E) was the Cleric, a "Knight-Templar" with divine Powers; a perfect Healer, a good Combatant and a decent offensive Caster - also a boring character. In TDE Healing is mostly handled by "arcane" Casters. If I would write a Game this Guys would be joinable NPCs, but no Player-Characters

One Thing you need in a Dungeon-Crawl is a "Traps-Guy", usually a Thief or Rogue, who spots and disables this nasty traps and opens locked Doors and Chests. It always irked me that in example a Paladin had to work with such shady Characters. If you want to have a effective Party you have to compromise right from the beginning. In Wizardry 8 there was one interesting alternative - the Gadgeteer. This Guys would take Care of Traps and Locks without the shady Stigma of Lawlessness and had some other uses too. In D&D they invented the Scout (he could take care of the Traps, but not really of the Locks) and the Factotum (a Jack of all Trades with a Dungeon-Fetish, I have to play one in P&P one time) Might&Magic had some NPC-Locksmiths you could hire.

Another Thing that I didn't like are the D&D "Demi-Humans"; the Half-Orcs are humans but stronger and more violent, the Halflings are humans but smaller and nimbler, the Elves are humans but better. IMO the only exception are the TDE-Elves; while basically they are better then humans they are also "different". They are a bit like ancient (but good looking) Hippies who have learned that sometimes violence is the only solution. There was one TDE-Novel where every Chapter was written from the perspective of a party-member - I could barely understand what was going on in the Chapter of the Elf.

While I am at TDE, there was one Character in the 1st. Edition that has a special Place in my Heart - the Adventurer. Basically a Guy without any special skills, who dons his sturdiest clothing, takes his best Axe/Knife/Stick and fights against the encroaching Darkness. He could change to Fighter or Rogue if he aquiered the Stats for the Class-Change, but then he wasn't a Adventurer any more

There is another Class with wich I have Issues: the Wizard. Why has someone with supernaturnal Powers usually have to be either superintelligent (D&D Wizard, WoW-Mage or Warlock) or supercharismatic (D&D Sorcerer or Warlock). This is IMO the only thing that modern Games do right… they usually have a "Power" or "Magic" Attribute and leave Intelligence and Charisma to the Player - though usually they neither need charisma or intelligence.

At last I would like to talk about two characters, that usually aren't needed in Computergames at all, but are often needed in P&P: the Face and the Wilderness-Guy. The first is needed for his social-skills, when he tries to get information from a barmaid or favors from a lord, the second is needed i.e. when tracking some Outlaws in the Wilderness or getting Food after a long jouney to Mount Doom. The last time this guys shined in a CRPG was the Realms of Arkania-Series, the last time I needed them at all was Storm of Zehir.

I wanted to say something with this post, but I don't know it anymore - to much beer

I think designing a party is one of the most fun aspects of Storm of Zehir. You just need to drink more.

Storm of Zehir links:

GameBanshee SoZ Walkthrough
Gamepressure SoZ Guide
Sorcerer's Place - SoZ Walkthrough
SOZ party construction
Thieves-Guild SoZ Cohort Guide
Thieves-Guild SoZ Crafting Guide
Thieves-Guild SoZ Crafting Skill Ranks
Thieves-Guild SoZ Trading Guide
Thieves-Guild SoZ Walkthrough

EDITed: Too bad bioware has made all the posts in the old SoZ forum unavailable. I wouldn't be surprised if they deleted them. Jerks. Another reason I'm no longer supporting them.

Just a quick note : The TDE Adventurerer has more or less died out, but it might have been resurrected in the character creation book "Wege der Helden" ("Ways of the Heroes").

The TDE Elves are indeed a bit different from anything Elf-ish I know from other fanrasy worlds. None has the element of "badoc", for example. Plus, the TDE Elves are a bit like the modern Maya from middle America : Having had once a really great civilization, which has crumbled into dust. There are nothing more than (partly re-discovered) Mayan ruins now in middle America. Same for the Aztecs. For the north American natives not so much, because they didn't built great towns like the Maya did.

The TDE Elves are also "better" than humans, because they have literally dreamt themselves into reality, and literally come from a world of light. And because of that, they are much more closer to the Gods in TDE than anyone else - but no-one knows that (in Aventuria, I mean).

That means that the Elves from TDE are unique, imho.

Originally Posted by Fenris
There was one TDE-Novel where every Chapter was written from the perspective of a party-member - I could barely understand what was going on in the Chapter of the Elf.

I think I have been reading it as well. In his case he was an Half-Elf, with the mother being an Elf and the father a Druid, which makes things even more complex. But what both have in common is their deep knowledge of nature and the woods, the knowledge of "Sumu" ("Mother Earth", in principle even literally !), and the nature as of its principles (of which a glimpse can be seen by talking to the Elves of Drakensang 2).

For the Elves in TDE, Magic is something innate - like listening to sounds for us is, for example. Hearing, I mean. Not only hearing sounds, but also being able to distinguish between them, and also realizing music amoung the many sounds that we hear from day to day.
And animals have in real life even much keener senses than we have. Dogs, for example, they are able to smell things in a sharpness we just cannot imagine yet understand. Same with the TDE Elves. They sense everything much different than everyone else does. The Elves are the HSPs of Aventuria (and in most Fantasy Settings, too).

Interesting Links Thrasher - thanks

The Crafting-Guide reminded me at this one Playthrough, were my Str. 8 Necromancer/Red Wizardess forged a adamantine Waraxe for my Dwarven Defender