Ironworks Gaming Forum - View Single Post - Continuing the thread on IWD II highlights

Larry_OHF · 04-16-2002, 08:33 PM

Monday, April 15, 2002

Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance Review
Monday, April 15, 2002, 21:12 | MageDragon

Spell resistance: Yes it is in.

Wild Elf: The very rare wild elves are rarely seen by others, because they live in the heart of thick forests and they have incredible skill at keeping hidden. Also called green elves, their skin tends to be a dark brown, and their hair ranges from black to light brown, lightening to silvery white with age.

Advantages: +2 to Dexterity, +2 to Search, Immunity to Sleep and Charm spells, starts with the Feats Martial Weapons: Large Sword and Martial Weapons: Bows.

Disadvantages: -2 to Intelligence.

Favored Class: Sorcerer

Just looked in the PHB and they get both. The only real difference is the Favored Class - I think. JE is much better than me with all of the rule stuff.

More than 6 characters: It will only ever be six players in a party. Modifying the interface to support more as well as the code would be tantamount to asking the programmers if they would like a relaxing trip to the Middle East right now.

Level cap: I'll answer the question as directly as possible. The level cap is going to be 30, this will be the sum of all class levels that a character has. In other words, you can be a 30th level monk or a 20th level fighter / 10th level rogue.

The only exception to this will be for Forgotten Realms races that have an ECL (Effect Character Level) that is greater than their normal character level, they will still will be able to advance to 30th level even though their ECL might be 31, 32 or 33. In other words our XP table goes through 33rd level, but this is only for purposes of the races that have an ECL that is not the same as their normal character level.

For all of the classes, we have just followed a logical progression to increase the levels from 20th to 30th level. In other words, we are not using the yet to be released Epic Levels Handbook.

To be honest, we have just continued the progression of things that can progress. Things like Barbarian's Rage and Rogue's Sneak Attack - they keep on increasing through 30th level. For Monk's fists, JE and I talked about just adding the top of the list to the bottom - in other words a Monk gets 1d20+1d6 for Unarmed Damage at 21st Level and 1d20+1d10 at 30th.

That's not a complete list - just a few to exemplify what we are doing.

Doug Avery (Associate Producer)

Armor: Hide and Scale are in now.

Kevin Osburn (Line Producer)

Dual-Wielding: Yes Dual-Wielding is in, and it will stay in.

J.E. Sawyer (Lead Designer)

Set traps: The ghostwise halfling's ability is a unique power that they alone use. They have the power because they lack the PnP ghostwise halfling's ability to communicate with other halflings using crazy telepathic junk. Basically, you pick where you want the halfling to place his or her trap and he or she throws a little skull (like skull trap) at the spot. When a creature walks over the skull, it explodes into a mini-Entangle. It's pretty useful, but not mind-boggling in its power. Oh, and remember -- the ghostwise halfling's favored class is barbarian, not rogue.

Races: These are the races in IWD2 (slightly revised)

Aasimar (-1 level), FC: Paladin
Dwarf, Gold, FC: Fighter
Dwarf, Gray (-2 levels), FC: Fighter
Dwarf, Shield, FC: Fighter
Elf, Dark (-2 levels), FC: Wizard
Elf, Moon, FC: Wizard
Elf, Wild, FC: Sorcerer
Gnome, Deep (-3 levels), FC: Illusionist
Gnome, Rock, FC: Illusionist
Half-Elf, FC: Highest
Half-Orc, FC: Barbarian
Halfling, Ghostwise, FC: Barbarian
Halfling, Lightfoot, FC: Rogue
Halfling, Strongheart, FC: Rogue
Human, FC: Highest
Tiefling (-1 level), FC: Rogue

Attributes affecting dialogue: That aside, there are opportunities in IWD2 where you can step up and intimidate enemies by essentially saying, "HELLO, MAYBE YOU SHOULD THINK BEFORE ATTACKING US, SINCE WE KILLED ALL OF YOUR FRIENDS WHO WERE REALLY NOT THAT WIMPY COMPARED TO YOU."

Ranger hated enemy:
Bugbears
Driders
Giants
Goblins
Harpies
Hook Horrors
Lizard Men
Ogres
Orcs
Salamanders
Shapeshifters
Trolls
Umber Hulks
Undead
Wyverns

Feyrs aren't included on the hated enemy list because there aren't that many of them in the game.

Goblins: You've already seen the goblins on worgs, haven't you? They're no pushovers.

Maybe this guy can tell you about it.

They are, from left to right: goblin axeman, goblin archer, elite goblin axeman, elite goblin archer, goblin caster, goblin captain, and goblin w/worg.

Goblins are usually very cowardly and selfish. They are as intelligent as humans, but not as strong. They are often bullied around by orcs and bugbears, but it takes strong leadership to keep them together when trouble arises. While most human cultures would rather stand and fight than run, goblins are typically quite content to creep off of the battlefield at the first sight of resistance.

Dave Maldonado (Designer)

Gold box area effect days: I was joking around the other day, with good Senior Sawyer I think, about the old Gold Box days and how area-effect spells were handled in that engine. Everything was on a clean isometric grid, and the spells locked onto it like nice little cut-out templates.

I wonder how many battles my party held in that odd circular formation that allowed just enough room for a fireball (or stinking cloud, or whatever) to go off and catch all the monsters - but stop just short of the adventurers. I envisioned roiling balls of magical plasma expanding to their boot tips, briefly enveloping whatever they were in melee with in sorcerous hell-fire before receding.

Damien Foletto (Junior Designer)

Evil hide armor: You'll have to wait and see, but there are varied hide armors in the game.

Fighters and Charisma: Well, you can set your CHA to 14, which gives you a +2 to the modifier, then choose the skills Diplomacy, Bluff, and Intimidate when you level up. This should give you the better reactions in the game, even for a fighter. It's not really necessary to min/max your fighter to make him effective. I've got an aasimar fighter (named Bort) in my #1 slot with a 16 STR, 12 DEX, 16 CON, 10 INT, 12 WIS, and 14 CHA (aasimar's get the WIS and CHA bonuses). He does really well in dialogs, and, to further enhance him, I will take a level or two of Rogue, when he levels, so I can jack up his Diplomacy and Bluff skills even more. Very effective.

CHA will play a roll, but only as the relevant modifier applies. A dialog check for the above example would be a skill check based off, let's say, Diplomacy. So, if your character needs at least 6 Diplomacy points to get the optimal dialog choice, then the program looks at the protagonist’s Diplomacy skill and adds in his CHA modifier. Example - if the protagonist has 4 points in Diplomacy and a 16 CHA (+3 modifier), then his total is 7 - thus letting him/her get the optimal dialog choice.

Religion: Yes, religion will play a role, if the protagonist is able to choose a religion upon character creation - like clerics. And yes, there are dialog responses catered to paladins as well. As for paladins choosing a deity, I'm actually unsure. I'll look into it and get back to you.

When I say "protagonist," I do mean the character that is doing the conversing. Generally, that's the person in the #1 slot. However, we are looking into implementing a feature that lets the player choose their own protagonist and that person will always do the talking for the party, no matter what position in the line-up. It's not yet in the game, but it is something that is being looked into by the programmers.

Playing the game, XP in HoF mode and number of characters: Oh, I'm not playing the game in my off time - it's a regular work day for me. At this stage, designers go through the game much like the testers do, with a focus on the areas we designed. Since we know what our areas are supposed to do, we can nit-pick until it's working the way we envisioned. It's also a great opportunity to check out the rest of the game and give feedback (and find bugs).

As for the HOF stuff, from what I understand, yes, the XP will be increased as compared to the "regular" mode. XP tables are constantly being tweaked for balance, and this should remain true through the next four weeks or so. It's all part of the testing process.

Lastly, if you're planning on going through the game with 4 or 5 characters, they should reach a very acceptable level by end game, even by your standards, I'm sure. I'm playing with a full 6 character party, using all the sub-races that have level penalties, and they reach kick-ass levels by mid to late game (comparatively speaking to the areas that they are in). Having a party consisting of 4 to 5 should really bump your XP. I know there are a few in QA who use parties of 4 to 5, so it is very doable - although very challenging.

If you don't want to use the feature, then don't. You don't have to select the protagonist, it's just an option. If you want to play the line-up like in IWD1, you can. It's all about options.

Chad Nicholas (Sciptor)

Charisma: Party Average Charisma (PAC) is not used in dialog checks. I'm not certain if it's going to be used to determine store prices since I have nothing to do with that.

04-16-2002, 08:33 PM	#5
Larry_OHF Ironworks Moderator Join Date: March 1, 2001 Location: Midlands, South Carolina Age: 49 Posts: 14,759	Monday, April 15, 2002 Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance Review Monday, April 15, 2002, 21:12 \| MageDragon Spell resistance: Yes it is in. Wild Elf: The very rare wild elves are rarely seen by others, because they live in the heart of thick forests and they have incredible skill at keeping hidden. Also called green elves, their skin tends to be a dark brown, and their hair ranges from black to light brown, lightening to silvery white with age. Advantages: +2 to Dexterity, +2 to Search, Immunity to Sleep and Charm spells, starts with the Feats Martial Weapons: Large Sword and Martial Weapons: Bows. Disadvantages: -2 to Intelligence. Favored Class: Sorcerer Just looked in the PHB and they get both. The only real difference is the Favored Class - I think. JE is much better than me with all of the rule stuff. More than 6 characters: It will only ever be six players in a party. Modifying the interface to support more as well as the code would be tantamount to asking the programmers if they would like a relaxing trip to the Middle East right now. Level cap: I'll answer the question as directly as possible. The level cap is going to be 30, this will be the sum of all class levels that a character has. In other words, you can be a 30th level monk or a 20th level fighter / 10th level rogue. The only exception to this will be for Forgotten Realms races that have an ECL (Effect Character Level) that is greater than their normal character level, they will still will be able to advance to 30th level even though their ECL might be 31, 32 or 33. In other words our XP table goes through 33rd level, but this is only for purposes of the races that have an ECL that is not the same as their normal character level. For all of the classes, we have just followed a logical progression to increase the levels from 20th to 30th level. In other words, we are not using the yet to be released Epic Levels Handbook. To be honest, we have just continued the progression of things that can progress. Things like Barbarian's Rage and Rogue's Sneak Attack - they keep on increasing through 30th level. For Monk's fists, JE and I talked about just adding the top of the list to the bottom - in other words a Monk gets 1d20+1d6 for Unarmed Damage at 21st Level and 1d20+1d10 at 30th. That's not a complete list - just a few to exemplify what we are doing. Doug Avery (Associate Producer) Armor: Hide and Scale are in now. Kevin Osburn (Line Producer) Dual-Wielding: Yes Dual-Wielding is in, and it will stay in. J.E. Sawyer (Lead Designer) Set traps: The ghostwise halfling's ability is a unique power that they alone use. They have the power because they lack the PnP ghostwise halfling's ability to communicate with other halflings using crazy telepathic junk. Basically, you pick where you want the halfling to place his or her trap and he or she throws a little skull (like skull trap) at the spot. When a creature walks over the skull, it explodes into a mini-Entangle. It's pretty useful, but not mind-boggling in its power. Oh, and remember -- the ghostwise halfling's favored class is barbarian, not rogue. Races: These are the races in IWD2 (slightly revised) Aasimar (-1 level), FC: Paladin Dwarf, Gold, FC: Fighter Dwarf, Gray (-2 levels), FC: Fighter Dwarf, Shield, FC: Fighter Elf, Dark (-2 levels), FC: Wizard Elf, Moon, FC: Wizard Elf, Wild, FC: Sorcerer Gnome, Deep (-3 levels), FC: Illusionist Gnome, Rock, FC: Illusionist Half-Elf, FC: Highest Half-Orc, FC: Barbarian Halfling, Ghostwise, FC: Barbarian Halfling, Lightfoot, FC: Rogue Halfling, Strongheart, FC: Rogue Human, FC: Highest Tiefling (-1 level), FC: Rogue Attributes affecting dialogue: That aside, there are opportunities in IWD2 where you can step up and intimidate enemies by essentially saying, "HELLO, MAYBE YOU SHOULD THINK BEFORE ATTACKING US, SINCE WE KILLED ALL OF YOUR FRIENDS WHO WERE REALLY NOT THAT WIMPY COMPARED TO YOU." Ranger hated enemy: Bugbears Driders Giants Goblins Harpies Hook Horrors Lizard Men Ogres Orcs Salamanders Shapeshifters Trolls Umber Hulks Undead Wyverns Feyrs aren't included on the hated enemy list because there aren't that many of them in the game. Goblins: You've already seen the goblins on worgs, haven't you? They're no pushovers. Maybe this guy can tell you about it. They are, from left to right: goblin axeman, goblin archer, elite goblin axeman, elite goblin archer, goblin caster, goblin captain, and goblin w/worg. Goblins are usually very cowardly and selfish. They are as intelligent as humans, but not as strong. They are often bullied around by orcs and bugbears, but it takes strong leadership to keep them together when trouble arises. While most human cultures would rather stand and fight than run, goblins are typically quite content to creep off of the battlefield at the first sight of resistance. Dave Maldonado (Designer) Gold box area effect days: I was joking around the other day, with good Senior Sawyer I think, about the old Gold Box days and how area-effect spells were handled in that engine. Everything was on a clean isometric grid, and the spells locked onto it like nice little cut-out templates. I wonder how many battles my party held in that odd circular formation that allowed just enough room for a fireball (or stinking cloud, or whatever) to go off and catch all the monsters - but stop just short of the adventurers. I envisioned roiling balls of magical plasma expanding to their boot tips, briefly enveloping whatever they were in melee with in sorcerous hell-fire before receding. Damien Foletto (Junior Designer) Evil hide armor: You'll have to wait and see, but there are varied hide armors in the game. Fighters and Charisma: Well, you can set your CHA to 14, which gives you a +2 to the modifier, then choose the skills Diplomacy, Bluff, and Intimidate when you level up. This should give you the better reactions in the game, even for a fighter. It's not really necessary to min/max your fighter to make him effective. I've got an aasimar fighter (named Bort) in my #1 slot with a 16 STR, 12 DEX, 16 CON, 10 INT, 12 WIS, and 14 CHA (aasimar's get the WIS and CHA bonuses). He does really well in dialogs, and, to further enhance him, I will take a level or two of Rogue, when he levels, so I can jack up his Diplomacy and Bluff skills even more. Very effective. CHA will play a roll, but only as the relevant modifier applies. A dialog check for the above example would be a skill check based off, let's say, Diplomacy. So, if your character needs at least 6 Diplomacy points to get the optimal dialog choice, then the program looks at the protagonist’s Diplomacy skill and adds in his CHA modifier. Example - if the protagonist has 4 points in Diplomacy and a 16 CHA (+3 modifier), then his total is 7 - thus letting him/her get the optimal dialog choice. Religion: Yes, religion will play a role, if the protagonist is able to choose a religion upon character creation - like clerics. And yes, there are dialog responses catered to paladins as well. As for paladins choosing a deity, I'm actually unsure. I'll look into it and get back to you. When I say "protagonist," I do mean the character that is doing the conversing. Generally, that's the person in the #1 slot. However, we are looking into implementing a feature that lets the player choose their own protagonist and that person will always do the talking for the party, no matter what position in the line-up. It's not yet in the game, but it is something that is being looked into by the programmers. Playing the game, XP in HoF mode and number of characters: Oh, I'm not playing the game in my off time - it's a regular work day for me. At this stage, designers go through the game much like the testers do, with a focus on the areas we designed. Since we know what our areas are supposed to do, we can nit-pick until it's working the way we envisioned. It's also a great opportunity to check out the rest of the game and give feedback (and find bugs). As for the HOF stuff, from what I understand, yes, the XP will be increased as compared to the "regular" mode. XP tables are constantly being tweaked for balance, and this should remain true through the next four weeks or so. It's all part of the testing process. Lastly, if you're planning on going through the game with 4 or 5 characters, they should reach a very acceptable level by end game, even by your standards, I'm sure. I'm playing with a full 6 character party, using all the sub-races that have level penalties, and they reach kick-ass levels by mid to late game (comparatively speaking to the areas that they are in). Having a party consisting of 4 to 5 should really bump your XP. I know there are a few in QA who use parties of 4 to 5, so it is very doable - although very challenging. If you don't want to use the feature, then don't. You don't have to select the protagonist, it's just an option. If you want to play the line-up like in IWD1, you can. It's all about options. Chad Nicholas (Sciptor) Charisma: Party Average Charisma (PAC) is not used in dialog checks. I'm not certain if it's going to be used to determine store prices since I have nothing to do with that.