What do you prefer?Roleplaying or powergaming?

[Annatar]

I find it, that powergaming make's the game rather dull and un-challenging. To stick with role-playing is rather difficult sometime's and will cost you much more efford than simple taking and killing everything that crosses your path.

A Paladin will follow justice and his deity, a evil sorcerer will burn down a city if he feels like it. A neutral bard would rather talk then fight... making fighting a second and probaly a last choose for him, though a barbarian will initiate melee at the very first sign of aggresion towards him and his compagnions... true role-playing is what Bioware intendid with BG I & II, if you feel like you need to hack & slash stick to Diablo and other hack & slash game's.

Sure I to play as a powergamer (look at my custom katana that I'm designing [img]graemlins/hehe.gif[/img] ), but if I feel like it... I'll play in a role-playing perspective... not knowing what to come, buffing only if the place/game give's specific hints of danger and death that can follow (lich tombs ect., Underdark)

It's all up to you, what you like.

I have an combination of both... strange... but effective.

[D*Ranged]

Powergamer who's trying to roleplay. I love playing my badass F/T (CN) who does what he wants to do...lost a few reps on the way, lol.

[Dundee Slaytern]

Both. I am a roleplaying powergamer.

[Radek]

First of all, let use define the terms.
As I have heard, the "role player" is a player who does not use any "anticipations". If his character does not know that a danger is before him, the role-player's character will enter the danger blindly and solve the problems when he finds them out.
This has to be distinguished from "power gamers". These bad guys will misuse their additional knowledge, cast protective spells, mobilize their forces and optimize their equipment before meeting the danger.

Let us accept these definitions for further discussion. Then we must conclude that both the "role playing" style and the "power gaming" is gigantic nonsense. Namely in the AD&D games. A few examples:

1. How do the "role players" select spells for memorizing before rests? Naturally, their mages and priests know nothing about needed spells after the rest.

2. How do the "role players" survive Kangaxx? Let us see the "role playing" course of events. Knowing nothing about the danger, the party of a "role player" enters carelesly Kangaxx tomb. It kills Kangaxx the Lich and then gets imprisoned by Kangaxx the Demilich. Okay, restart. Now, the "role playing" party has to enter the Kangaxx tomb carelesly again because the party knows nothing about the danger now! The party gets imprisoned again. And so on. Because there is no reason to give up - why, the party knows nothing about the danger! - the "role player" will play the fight until the hell freezes.

We could continue but I think it's enough. Therefore, let us stop dividing people to "role players" and "power gamers" and let us note that the only role player in the whole game are you yourself. Your party will do what you command it. If we want to speak about role playing then we should mean to play a thief as a thief instead of emulating a warrior by a thief. And so on. In the other words, role playing means understanding the contents of different classes and behave according to the contents. Using experience in your decisions is nothing wrong and it is not a sign of some "power gaming".

[Seraph]

1. How do the "role players" select spells for memorizing before rests? Naturally, their mages and priests know nothing about needed spells after the rest.

Well, how did you select spells the first time you played through BGII? You didn't know what you would be faceing next, but you (should have been) selected spells based on what was generally useful.

Most of the time its fairly obvious what a party is going to face. EG, dungeon with orcs outside will probably have orcs in it. The graveyard will probably have undead. The defiled temple with shades outside will probably have lots of shades inside. Its not exactly rocket science to figure out whats comming up in most situations.

2. How do the "role players" survive Kangaxx? Let us see the "role playing" course of events. Knowing nothing about the danger, the party of a "role player" enters carelesly Kangaxx tomb. It kills Kangaxx the Lich and then gets imprisoned by Kangaxx the Demilich. Okay, restart. Now, the "role playing" party has to enter the Kangaxx tomb carelesly again because the party knows nothing about the danger now! The party gets imprisoned again. And so on. Because there is no reason to give up - why, the party knows nothing about the danger! - the "role player" will play the fight until the hell freezes.

This goes back to my first point. A role player wouldn't 'carelessly' enter a tomb, they would enter with caution, most likely prepared to face something undead (what else would be in an old tomb?), if they have his bones a 'role player' goes "Hmm, this is some sort of undead monster that wasn't destroyed when atleast two liches teamed up to give it a try, maybe I should be prepared for something".

"roleplaying" does not mean you have to act like a moron, which is what you seem to be makeing it out as.

[McHaggis]

I'm both, although a little bit more powergamish. If I know there is a battle ahead, first I'll try it in a roleplayer-way. If I don't make it after couple of reloads (someone usually dies simply due my own stupidity [img]smile.gif[/img] ), then I'll take the powergaming-path and prebuff.

And usually I try to stick to the character/class/alignment I have chosen, although I find it somewhat hard doing things in an evil way. I guess I'm just 'too good' person to even roleplay evil. Or then it might be 'cause I just want high rep and so cheapier prices.

[Radek]

Seraph, do you want to tell me that you are selecting the spells as a complete newbie in BG2? That your only decision base is some kind of usefulness?
If I uderstand you well then being a "role player" means to pretend to be a newbie all the time. And, as far as that Kangaxx is considered, well, you can think that something special is prepared for you but how do you detect that you cannot pass without a +4 weapon? Let's be frank, Seraph: Kangaxx needs preparation. Twisted Rune needs preparation. Many other places in the game need preparation.
It's not me who is trying to make morons out of somebody. I want to emphasize that using your own experience is nothing wrong. Even if you know the game so well that you can find the optimal ordering of events and take advantage from every resource in the game, even then you aren't some "power gamer". You are a real expert in BG2, that's all. You should install some mod that makes the game more difficult so that the game becomes a challenge for you again, or you should restrict yourself so that the victory loses its easiness, that's all.

[Gabrielles blades]

im a mut as well
As a force for rightiousness i will roleplay my conversations and actions in that manner and vice versa for a force of evil or neutrality.

I generaly will not prebuff anything or do any extra actions like runing in stealth mode all the time etc etc, but that being said, i do often have trouble with some fights and will have to reload a lot, when this is the case i will be forced to use a powergamers stance to survive.

I think even though ive played through bg2+tob around 30 times now, i still die just as often as i did my first times through because of the variability in luck and relative power (or impotence) of the class im playing.

I do not like being forced to powergame to the extreme to win a fight (being forced to tweak a battle a dozen times so that it runs just right sucks)

case in point: my invulnerability topic in the tob forum, i really wish i didnt absolutely need to use such a powergaming stance just to survive.

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Another case in point...If i were to roleplay an absolutely evil character in the mind flayers lair in the underdark i would fight the gith instead of trusting them with their plan. This however makes the game unspeakably difficult since four mindflayers teleport to your character every minute or two so you have kill the brain much much faster since you cant survive this kind of a beating for long.

[Seraph]

Seraph, do you want to tell me that you are selecting the spells as a complete newbie in BG2? That your only decision base is some kind of usefulness?

Yes I do. Some spells are almost always useful. My characters tend to have a pretty good number of buffing, anti-buffing, and summon spells in their memory. Why? Because they are useful for 95% of the things your character will encounter.

I also find that using mages as small walking gods kind of sucks all the fun out of the game, which is why I'll never have a PC sorcerer.

If I uderstand you well then being a "role player" means to pretend to be a newbie all the time. And, as far as that Kangaxx is considered, well, you can think that something special is prepared for you but how do you detect that you cannot pass without a +4 weapon? Let's be frank, Seraph: Kangaxx needs preparation. Twisted Rune needs preparation. Many other places in the game need preparation.

Someone who kills the two Liches and doesn't get a clue that Kangaxx is dangerous deserves to get killed. The game practily writes "demi-lich" in big red letters all over the screen. I mean "Hmm, I have this guys torso and legs, and hes still alive, I wonder what he could be? (A head perhaps) He obviously was powerful if people needed to turn into Liches in order to prevent him from being put back together, hes obviously powerful, and old, what is he? (Some kind of lich?)." Baldurs gate throws hints about tough fights at you by the dozen.

I would never find the Twisted Rune w/out knowing about it beforehand, First I would get nuked by the trap and decide perhaps I shouldn't mess with the door with a low level party (Again, this is one of those hits the game likes to give. Deadly trap in the middle of the city == something bad ahead), and second I generally don't go trying every door in the world while carrying a Rogue Stone. After all, there are things I would much rather have, potions, spell scrolls, the Robe of Vecona, $20000 to free Imoen, etc. That being said, its probably one of an increadibly small number of fights that requires knowlage if you walk around unprepared for a major fight all the time.

[Bahamut]

Originally posted by Dundee Slaytern: Both. I am a roleplaying powergamer.

perfectly said i don't have to say anything. this is what i am.