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Originally written by Aussieavernum:

Since my last post seems to have been ignored by those who know the answer, I shall ask it again. How do I get a custom title? :confused:

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Originally written by The Ingebritsens' Car:

You're right that it's a matter of taste, but I didn't know that anyone actually enjoyed having to deal with that. In many of these situations, using the sub-optimal skill just seems absurd. If my archery skill is so low I can't hit things, wouldn't I be better served by shooting at trees for a while, rather than haphazardly firing at enemies in the middle of a heated battle -- something that is almost impossible to reconcile with any attempt at actual role-playing, and something that is likewise hard to justify if you just want to have fun roll-playing. What exactly is the allure?

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An interesting parallel situation crops up in the Exile trilogy and in other games where experience is divided based on who deals the death blow. Blessed melee fighters kill things faster than archers and in much greater quantity than spellcasters. So if you want all your characters to remain useful, and you also want a variety of characters, you have to go to ridiculous lengths to insure that the weaker fighters level up half as much as the stronger ones. This means dragging the battle out and generally exposing yourself to more attacks by the enemies.

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Thuryl, Aran and Alorael are three aspects of the postifying god.

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That sounds intriguing. I wonder which aspect each of us represents?

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Originally written by Mung until not Mungible:

Grinding is just poor design (or good design that irritates anti-grinders). I just don't see how use-based skills are more appealing to the optimizers or non-optimizers than Avernum's skills by allocation.

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—Alorael, who is also convinced that higher difficulty is usually better delivered by crippling characters and not improving monsters. It's usually a matter of developing such powerful party members that they shred everything but the most ludicrously overpowered enemies. Take away a few key pieces of equipment and some skill points, though, and you can make players keep sweating to keep up.

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Originally written by Mung until not Mungible:

—Alorael, who has noticed that he in fact vastly prefers games with no change in stats at all to games with a great deal of difficult, micromanagement-requiring change. To some extent it is the designer's responsibility to make the challenge balanced: not too hard and not too easy. As long as it's balanced (and sufficiently varied) and you can pick your play style at some point, is there a need for advancement?

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Originally written by The_Other_Guy:

The real problem though is all the crap that the government is investing in, such as research to give mice partially human brains.

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Originally written by Meeshka:

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Seeing that there is no 'slith undead' slot

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BTW, why? Anybody ever seen and undead except a human one? I don't consider Vahnatai spirits and all sort of demons to be the 'undead' by definition. Does methabolism have to do something to make it impossible to raise a nephilim (read non-human) from the dead?

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Originally written by Karamea:

How would you make an NPC appear via specials? I can see you can "place monster" but that doesn't associate dialogue with it.

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