[Pirengle]

Oh my, what a can of worms I cracked open...

Would it matter?

I just found it interesting, that's all. I agree with Arledrian here: it's better than the 7000th post on how to find the Ring of Wizardry (or in original Diablo speak, how to kill the Butcher/King Leoric).

Montaron's portrait shows him as being a short, stocky, stumpy little fellow. This doesn't quite tie in with Coran's outstanding dexterity, if you ask me. I always picture Coran as being tall, lean, and agile. Montaron's portrait is just a sore refutal of this. I agree that Coran's portrait makes him look like some escaped clown, but I still think that of the two, his original picture suits him best.

I dunno, I think both of their portraits make them look hacked off at the knees. Then again, I kinda resemble a halfling myself.

Coran's picture doesn't fit him, that much is true. Monty's picture does a better job, but switching Kivan's pic for Coran's is another idea. It's just that all the other NPC pictures (IMO) fit the character's attitude. Maybe not their stats (as Six and Lemmy pointed out with Viconia, for example), but their lines/voices/party reactions.

By the way, Pirengle, I was wondering... how does one become a beyond naked mage, exactly? I now realize it doesn't involve sitting bare-arsed in front of your computer, but other than that, I am still pretty much clueless.

It's my sig, so maybe I should give you my spin on it...

A beyond naked mage is a variant character in the original Diablo series. Variants are Diablo characters that have roleplaying restrictions on how they're played. It's similar to fiddling with a character via Gatekeeper if you wanted to roleplay, say, Gandalf.

The beyond naked mage is a sorcerer character who only equips cursed items. Cursed items are ones that decrease statistics or cause undesireable side effects (like a monster-attracting high light radius). I like playing beyond naked mages in D1 because it presents a challenge that isn't present when playing a sorcerer character that equips "normal" gear.

The quote itself comes from the founder of the beyond naked movement, Woody, and is taken from the official guide to the BNM, which can be found here: http://www.realmsbeyond.net/diablo/vbn.html The rules for it's close cousin, the naked mage, can be found here: http://geocities.com/lemmingofglory/nm.html

(Notice the author of the last website. Ladies and gentlemen, in this corner, we have SixofSpades, legendary BG guru, and in this corner, we have LemmingofGlory, legendary D1 variant guru. What am I, the ring girl? Let's get ready to rumble!)

(BTW Six, nice D1 summary.)

Halflings DO indeed have pointy ears, take a look at Alora sometime.

Indeed I did. Those pointy ears are MASSIVE. When did halflings get pointy ears? Or am I thinking of the original halfling source material, hobbits?

But that is actually almost irrelevant because [play some spooky conspiritorial music here] my theory is that Coran and Kivan used to be the same person. BioWare wanted to make a Male Elven Ranger, a little low in the CON department but an excellent shot with a Bow. (Implementing the Archer kit in BG1 would have been too difficult, so they simply gave him 3 stars in Bow.) Somewhere down the line, Coran and Kivan became two separate entities, but there was only one picture--so, Kivan, who has only *8* Charisma, got one of the best-looking portraits in the game (which is also the ideal portrait for an Archer), while his alter-ego Coran (who happens to have *16* Charisma, thank you very much) got stuck with a portrait that makes him look like a psychopathic leper.

To pursue that line of thought, think about where you find them. I'm thinking Kivan was originally in Act 4, but Bioware wanted an archer NPC that was recruitable for the Nashkel mines. But what to do about the hole? Throw in Coran. Also, Kivan has one of the better-developed biographies in the game. Makes me wonder if an Act 4 monster type wasn't originally the baddies mentioned in Kivan's bio...

And if this game is true to AD&D 2nd ed, Charisma has nothing to do with physical. It's not uncommon for DMs to add a 7th stat, often called Attractiveness or Physical. The comparison I got was, Winston Churchill was highly charismatic, while not being highly attractive.

This confusion is probably one of the reasons why neither of them made it into BG2.

Not true...he's there...but trying to keep this spoiler-free as possible.

And Kivan's probably hiding a goiter under that hood of his, hence the 8 CHA.

I think it's male pattern baldness.

But Charisma isn't all about looks. Coran seems to have quite a bit of personal magnetism - reflected by his background and the people he interacts with. This could (at least partially) explain his 16 CHA. Then we take Kivan's 8 CHA. He strikes me very much as a loner. So it makes sense that, being a loner, he lacks the leadership skills to have high CHA.

Right on the button, Lemmy.

I still can't explain Faldorn though, aside from the Druid's prerequisite CHA.

Go to http://www.planetbaldursgate.com and read her bio. Maybe you'll understand why after that.

That is the biggest problem for any Diablo player, I'm sure (it was for me). Then I realized the game is good even without it (and if it wasn't, you wouldn't play it ). If there were such a thing in BG, it would take a few more disks to hold all the data . And random item generator would almost surely make overpowered items - death for the game.

Getting off topic once again, the way items are generated in D1 means that an easy-to-kill character wouldn't be dropping powerful items. It wouldn't be that hard to assign each item in BG a number, and saying that certain monsters can only drop items that are in this number range, and so on.

Six's Larael's Tear Necklace Law is appropriate. By the time you get your first, you don't need it. Maybe having the bosses drop the High Hedge/Thunderhammer eye candy, or making their wares open after a BG city quest or something...

The plot quests must be taken in the fixed order, but I'd call that linear.

Why'd you just refute the argument you tried to disprove? A bit more back-and-forth action in the game would've been helpful, such as solving BG quests outside the city and vice versa. Something to give the game more of a Zelda feel.

About portraits. At least half of portraits in BG1 is u-g-l-y (IMHO). Faldorn, Coran, Dynaheir, Garrick (sissy), Quayle, Shar-Teel (this could pass), Tiax, Xzar, Yeslick. Elf female and both humans. We are doomed without custom portraits...Why is Viconia's crime? I like it more than BG2 one.

They might be unattractive, but they fit the characters. Garrick IS a sissy. He and Khalid crap their pants, turn yellow, and run screaming from my party more often than any other NPC I've ever had in a party.

I do admit, the elven female non-NPC portrait is off. She looks like she's under the influence of nitrous oxide, if not something more powerful.

My favorite NPC portrait has to be Xzar. It fits him so perfectly!

Also switched Kagain and Yeslick's portraits for the same reason I switched Monty and Coran's.

I don't like Viconia's portrait either--it makes her look like some bloodthirty demon. And it's the wrong image: Take Viconia within melee range of any respectable enemy (especially when she's without a shield), and you'll be rewarded with 110 pounds of Viconia meat.

But that's the Stereotypical Drow Image. Can't you just picture her with a sly, evil grin on her face as she tosses another stone in the sling +1 and chucks a stone into the fray?

While we're on the subject of Faldorn's fingernails, what's up with Edwin's? Are they supposed to be his last-ditch defense against Gibberlings or something?

I hope not...if he's not level 5, he'll get chunked by them...

I want to know what's up with the heavy face metal he's packing in BG2. ("Hmm...I've moved to Amn...time to get some holes punched in my nose! And while we're at it, let's connect the hole in my nose to the hole in my ear with a sparkly gold chain!" Yeah, them Red Wizards of Thay have real happ'nin' fashion sense, that they do...) I guess if his spells fail, he can throw back the hood of his cloak and cause his enemies to piss themselves to death laughing.