While we are on the subject of Dwarves, the fact that Dwarves are Scottish in D&D, what the hell is up with that? D&D Dwarves are based on Tolkien Dwarves, which in turn are based on the Dwarves from Norse mythology, so Dwarves should technically be Scandinavian if anything.
Pratchett used to play quite heavily into this, giving most of his Dwarves Scandinavian names, like Bjorn, Sven and so on.
About bearded dwarf women. [Spoiler]I do love my bearded dwarf women, but I simply use "male" dwarf images for these chracters. The idea is, that you can't tell wether a dwarf is male or female when they are fully dressed. The concept of gender doesn't exist to them, in my headcanon. Basically the same way dwarves work in the Discworld Novels. If you see an actually feminine looking dwarf (by our standarts), she is shaved because she preferes the beauty standarts of the other kith.
Though I think what @marcelluss is looking for, are bearded dwarf women that still look feminine, and yes, those portraits *are* hard to come by. I was only able to discover these two so far:
I think dwarves in games and movies tend to have Scottish accents because the intonation and rhythm of scandanavian languages sound similar to Scottish-inflected English to an English-speaking ear. It's sort of like the Swedish Chef from the Muppets, if he were speaking intelligibly in English but without changing his accent.
That moment, when after around 8-9 years of playing IE games, you realise there is a "shift + l-click" movement option!
(staying at the topic : is there a thread with all these little facilities like 'shift + l-click', 'Enhanced Pathfinding option in BG ini.' etc. listed?)
They seem to have altered the scripting for that guy in the Docks who throws a scimitar at you. It used to be he just did that, usually missed, and then ran away, which was kind of funny. Now in EE, though, he's a lot more accurate, which makes the throwing more of an annoyance, and he also *keeps* throwing additional scimitars, to the point where it's basically a real fight. They took one-off joke and altered it to make it really kind of tedious to sit through. Bad move, guys.
In Icewind Dale 1, the most powerful undead creatures you can summon are the Boneguard Skeletons. However, they are summoned with a conjuration spell, not a necromancy spell. If you wanted to go through the game as a necromancer with only necromancy spells, you wouldn't be able to summon these skeletons. Even if you changed your rules to make it so that the necromancer COULD cast this one non-necromancy spell, the problem is that the spell can also summon umber hulks, which aren't undead.
When I'm playing a Kensai and my Paper Doll looks like I'm wearing a sexy vest and mini-skirt while my avatar looks like I put on a matching cocktail dress. I wanted to play an impressive looking sword saint and instead I look like some sort of crazy, Japanese cross-dressing manga character (Which is fine, if that's your thing, but is definitely not what I was looking to portray.)
*Akira lost a bet and now has to adventure wearing some of Imoen's hand-me-downs
I really don't like when characters are given ridiculous bonuses and powers to discourage you from killing them. It just makes no sense story-wise.
If Gorion is a juggernaut with a loads of health and instant death lightning spells, how did he lose to Sarevok?
If it's possible for a mere human like Scar or the Keeper of the Portal to be almost completely invincible, how come Melissan, who possesses godly powers, cannot make herself invincible as well?
If Irenicus can simply kill your whole party instantly (as he does if you come at him without releasing all of his test subjects), how come he doesn't do so when you fight him later on?
Since when does Malchor Harpell have the power to imprison a whole team at once? I'm aware he's a powerful mage, but do the Drizzt books really depict him as being able to do anything that crazy? Even a level 30 mage can't do that.
That Monk fists aren't consistently two handed weapons. At certain levels, Rasaad can offhand the Scarlet Ninjato, at later levels, his fist becomes two handed and he gets a downgrade.
That I can't be an Elven Fighter/Cleric/Thief.
I know wings exist in the game resources, let me be an Avariel Cleric/Mage too please.
That I can't pick my cleric's spells or chosen weapons.
That I can't freely pick kits as a multiclass character, or have those kits picked up and be important in conversation if I do (here's looking at you, Wild Mage kit).
That multiclass fighters can't Grand Mastery their weapons. Multiclass mages can get level 9 spells, Multiclass clerics can call down an immortal pantheon, but fighters can't swing a sword slightly better? Meanwhile a level 7 human fighter can get grandmastery and dual class, because somehow they've put more into learning that weapon than the level 12/13 Fighter/Cleric Dwarf with literally 40 times as much experience?
That Druids can use scimitars, but can't use a Katana, Wakisashi or Ninjato. That they can use spears, but can't even carry arrows or bolts in a quicker. That they can't use bows but can use staves and spears. That they can use clubs, but they can't use maces.
That I can't run an Arcane Fist spell slinging monk/mage - Monk/Sorcerers are actually supposed to be commonplace among Dark Moon monks.
That I can't be a Druid/Mage or a Bard/Cleric.
That I can't be a Fighter/Sorcerer, Sorcerer/Thief, Fighter/Sorcerer/Thief . Sorcerers have to study less, they should be easier to multiclass!
That I can't memorise lower level spells in higher level slots.
That I can't retort to Nalia and her aunt that I am a literal demigod, a high born noble in my own racial hierarchy, and their social better in every respect, not to mention potentially significantly wealthier, given the size and state of D'Arnisse Keep and the fact I'm easily and readily dropping hundreds of thousands of gold per month on my magic item addiction.
That I can't kill Hexxat on sight to pick up the bag of holding from her corpse. That would be a perfectly good alternative - especially when she appears out of your packs while you're sleeping and attacks.
That I can't "store" stakes in Hexxat's coffin.
That I can't move my familiar to a bag of holding or just have their existence as an Innate to strike up a conversation and let them loose if need be.
That I can't be a Fighter/Mage/Cleric/Thief quadruple class. Level 16/15/16/20 by cap? Awesome.
That Weapon Specialisation doesn't grant non-fighters APR bonuses.
That the Manual of Golem Creation doesn't let you pick and choose which golem to summon with additional pages.
That Imoen keeps her "just been imprisoned" voice set into Throne of Bhaal. Stop whining about being weak, you're an epic level archmage!
That I can't switch between dual wielding, a greatsword, and a ranged weapon without going into my inventory and manually changing it.
That instant death effects instantly show the game over screen when they hit CHARNAME, leaving me ignorant as to which effect I should be careful of next time.
That Neera's BG2 quest is based on quest completion, not time spent. You can travel straight around and finish every quest for her chain in less than three days, only to have it automatically jump to the next stage. Meanwhile if you ignore the right quest, you can travel there and back again for every other quest but the trigger, gad around for a month, and get every quest completed, more rewards and a better ending... By ignoring their pleas for urgency.
That I can't have a familiar trained in, and actually good at, lock picking and trap detection.
That I don't get experience for casting Knock things. Locks are barriers, bypassing them grants XP.
That Imoen wasn't just a bard in the first place.
That I can't pick what my paper doll's basic outfit is. I mod it to Elven Rogue every time just so I consistently have trousers and avoid the ridiculous helmets.
Railroading. Whenever and wherever it happens.
That detecting traps in corridors doesn't simply allow your party to walk past them. While I get it for containers, It's a lot more realistic to simply "avoid stepping on the trapped flagstone" than it is to have a thief turn on Trapdar, then spend the time disarming it afterwards. Enemies can bypass traps without disarming them, why can't the player? That might actually give things like monks and clerics some value as scouts, while making thieves better when it comes to actually taking other peoples' stuff.
That summons don't trigger traps anymore.
That you can't buy a horse and cart to halve your travel time.
That you can only have one ioun stone, and that they cancel crits for no apparent reason.
That Dimension Door was removed from the available spells, yet everyone else can't help but spam the thing non-stop.
That you can't find out where Imoen is, buy a boat (probably for significantly less than 20,000 GP), and sail there yourself, taking out pirates and sea monsters along the way.
That despite picking the pocket of the Selfishness Trials demon for the tear of Bhaal, you still need to complete the trial for no discernible reason.
Unavoidable stat losses in general. They drive me nuts. If only there were spells to heal injuries and magical loss of physical and mental acuity... That the game actually allowed you to use in their intended manner. Here's a nice excerpt from the PnP spell:
Greater restoration also dispels all magical effects penalizing the character's abilities, cures all temporary ability damage, and restores all points permanently drained from all ability scores.
That the Wild Mage Encampment is so, so far away from everywhere else.
That being a Grandmaster with Long Swords and Two Handed Swords doesn't mean you're even proficient with Bastard Swords.
That I can't pick which pantheon to join at the end.
That I can't use the D'Arnisse forge to make the FoA +4.
That there's no halfling, dwarf, or gnome romance. My shorties aren't into pointy eared whiny waifs who can't even decapitate a dragon with a sling.
That NPCs appear to level up the further south you go for no apparent reason. Baldur's Gate? Most people are between level 1 and level 10 or so. Amn? Feels like everyone's between level 8 and level 30. Tethyr? The lower level mooks are generally a higher level than the most elite of BG1. Where's my sense of progress? Of slaughtering literal armies of lesser beings? Drizzt can handle a thousand orcs solo, and he's a pantywaist compared to CHARNAME.
That the Shadow Thief Dagger and Cloak you can steal off Bodhi in the graveyard suck so bad, despite looking super awesome.
The F/M/T HLA pool.
The fact I can't commission a few epic level magic items to be created for me at any point. Random Barbarian lasses can get a long and storied tale about their magical morningstar of demonslaying, random samurai can get their souls slapped into ioun stones, but I, demigod, scion of murder, hanger-out-with with potentially five different mages and potentially an archmage in my own right... Can't even get more than a +1 dagger with my name on it which someone else made for me? I want Yoshimo's soul bound to my sword of Drow-Slaying, Quayle skinned and his skin fashioned into Boots of Improved Speed, giving permanent haste and iHaste once per day, along with an aura of moderate annoyance.
It's annoying how in order to enter the Planar Sphere you need to either have Valygar in your party or kill him. Sometimes I don't have Valygar in my party but I'd still like to go through the Planar Sphere quest, and I don't want to kill him. What's worse is that one component of Crom Faeyr can only be obtained in the sphere, so I barely ever end up making that hammer.
In Uth Natha after your little dance with Phaere in her bed chamber the journal entry clearly states that you are now favored by her house. For some reason at this point I still can't buy slaves to set them free the slaver drow still doesn't recognize my favored status....
I've been playing an evil run, and it somehow has annoyed me that when you're back in Candlekeep and you're accused of murdering, you have no option than:
1) give up to the Gatewarden and go to the jail;
2) don't give up... and be insta-killed.
They could change the second option, really, so that if you don't give up you fight somebody (or lots of enemies) that is too-high level for you to deal with it, and in the end you have to give up. Although it would require a change of dialogue with Tethtoril - how he would dare to release a beast who killed a lot of guards in Candlekeep before the capture.
I mean, the game about the child of Bhaal should give you options to act not only as a goody-two-shoes and not punish you killing the main character out of nowhere because he doesn't want to surrender to authorities.
That every time I sell gems from the bag I have to double click, hit the + button and wait for every gem.
That in the Watcher's Keep Blood War level Ka'rashur betrays you, while Tahazzar keeps his word. Ka'rashur is a Devil, Devils are just as fundamentally Lawful just as they Evil. If Ka'rashur had given you a reward, then immediately tried to murder you, or the reward was designed to screw you over somehow, that would be a different story, but as it is, the whole thing is completely out of character for both entities.
That shop keeper inventory ceases to exist when the shopkeeper dies.
That being stunned for even one round permanently removes a character from your party selection so you leave them behind.
That as soon as they unstun they go back to doing whatever you last ordered them to do before they got stunned, even if that's casting a fireball on a now corpse onto which your party has moved for looting purposes.
That wish basically alternates between worthless, mediocre, and gamebreaking rather than using a more consistent list like limited wish. There's not even a choice between "gamble on ultimate cosmic power" vs "weaker but more easily bargained for effect", so Limited Wish can pull off a full party heal and a party wide Wondrous Recall jr, while even at 20 wisdom Wish usually ends up with something irrelevant as your only beneficial choice.
There are a lot of things whithout any sense. How can a newbie mage become an archmage in few dozen days or a kensai, that is supposed to devote his whole life to unprotected combat master his art in the same little time? But there are reasons why we have to use so much suspenction of disbelief. There are other where is could be avoided. Like whith backstabbing. There is people that find unreal that is possible to backstab whith staves, I think that doing it whith long swords or katanas is neaely the same. And a stave from the back of an unaware target can break the spine and kill, strong neck musculature protect you only if you are aware and use it, is not a passive protection. But my point is another, in real life if someone manage to sneack at your back and cut your throat or push his dagger through your cervical vertebrae you die. A backstab implemented as a 1hit kill, whith some chance of avoiding the hit based on thief hide skill and thaco and target dexterity and the type of armour he uses, but not his AC, seems to me a lot more realistic.
Comments
Pratchett used to play quite heavily into this, giving most of his Dwarves Scandinavian names, like Bjorn, Sven and so on.
[Spoiler]I do love my bearded dwarf women, but I simply use "male" dwarf images for these chracters. The idea is, that you can't tell wether a dwarf is male or female when they are fully dressed. The concept of gender doesn't exist to them, in my headcanon. Basically the same way dwarves work in the Discworld Novels. If you see an actually feminine looking dwarf (by our standarts), she is shaved because she preferes the beauty standarts of the other kith.
Though I think what @marcelluss is looking for, are bearded dwarf women that still look feminine, and yes, those portraits *are* hard to come by. I was only able to discover these two so far:
Artwork by RachelleFryatt .................... Artwork by VNC-Children
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame
I was so free to make a seperate thread for this topic, lest we cluster this one too much
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/45084/lets-talk-dwarves
(staying at the topic : is there a thread with all these little facilities like 'shift + l-click', 'Enhanced Pathfinding option in BG ini.' etc. listed?)
oh man the rage. Grr
*Akira lost a bet and now has to adventure wearing some of Imoen's hand-me-downs
Comic by Epantiras
If Gorion is a juggernaut with a loads of health and instant death lightning spells, how did he lose to Sarevok?
If it's possible for a mere human like Scar or the Keeper of the Portal to be almost completely invincible, how come Melissan, who possesses godly powers, cannot make herself invincible as well?
If Irenicus can simply kill your whole party instantly (as he does if you come at him without releasing all of his test subjects), how come he doesn't do so when you fight him later on?
Since when does Malchor Harpell have the power to imprison a whole team at once? I'm aware he's a powerful mage, but do the Drizzt books really depict him as being able to do anything that crazy? Even a level 30 mage can't do that.
That I can't be an Elven Fighter/Cleric/Thief.
I know wings exist in the game resources, let me be an Avariel Cleric/Mage too please.
That I can't pick my cleric's spells or chosen weapons.
That I can't freely pick kits as a multiclass character, or have those kits picked up and be important in conversation if I do (here's looking at you, Wild Mage kit).
That multiclass fighters can't Grand Mastery their weapons. Multiclass mages can get level 9 spells, Multiclass clerics can call down an immortal pantheon, but fighters can't swing a sword slightly better?
Meanwhile a level 7 human fighter can get grandmastery and dual class, because somehow they've put more into learning that weapon than the level 12/13 Fighter/Cleric Dwarf with literally 40 times as much experience?
That Druids can use scimitars, but can't use a Katana, Wakisashi or Ninjato. That they can use spears, but can't even carry arrows or bolts in a quicker. That they can't use bows but can use staves and spears. That they can use clubs, but they can't use maces.
That I can't run an Arcane Fist spell slinging monk/mage - Monk/Sorcerers are actually supposed to be commonplace among Dark Moon monks.
That I can't be a Druid/Mage or a Bard/Cleric.
That I can't be a Fighter/Sorcerer, Sorcerer/Thief, Fighter/Sorcerer/Thief . Sorcerers have to study less, they should be easier to multiclass!
That I can't memorise lower level spells in higher level slots.
That I can't retort to Nalia and her aunt that I am a literal demigod, a high born noble in my own racial hierarchy, and their social better in every respect, not to mention potentially significantly wealthier, given the size and state of D'Arnisse Keep and the fact I'm easily and readily dropping hundreds of thousands of gold per month on my magic item addiction.
That I can't kill Hexxat on sight to pick up the bag of holding from her corpse. That would be a perfectly good alternative - especially when she appears out of your packs while you're sleeping and attacks.
That I can't "store" stakes in Hexxat's coffin.
That I can't move my familiar to a bag of holding or just have their existence as an Innate to strike up a conversation and let them loose if need be.
That I can't be a Fighter/Mage/Cleric/Thief quadruple class. Level 16/15/16/20 by cap? Awesome.
That Weapon Specialisation doesn't grant non-fighters APR bonuses.
That the Manual of Golem Creation doesn't let you pick and choose which golem to summon with additional pages.
That Imoen keeps her "just been imprisoned" voice set into Throne of Bhaal. Stop whining about being weak, you're an epic level archmage!
That I can't switch between dual wielding, a greatsword, and a ranged weapon without going into my inventory and manually changing it.
That instant death effects instantly show the game over screen when they hit CHARNAME, leaving me ignorant as to which effect I should be careful of next time.
That Neera's BG2 quest is based on quest completion, not time spent. You can travel straight around and finish every quest for her chain in less than three days, only to have it automatically jump to the next stage. Meanwhile if you ignore the right quest, you can travel there and back again for every other quest but the trigger, gad around for a month, and get every quest completed, more rewards and a better ending... By ignoring their pleas for urgency.
That I can't have a familiar trained in, and actually good at, lock picking and trap detection.
That I don't get experience for casting Knock things. Locks are barriers, bypassing them grants XP.
That Imoen wasn't just a bard in the first place.
That I can't pick what my paper doll's basic outfit is. I mod it to Elven Rogue every time just so I consistently have trousers and avoid the ridiculous helmets.
Railroading. Whenever and wherever it happens.
That detecting traps in corridors doesn't simply allow your party to walk past them. While I get it for containers, It's a lot more realistic to simply "avoid stepping on the trapped flagstone" than it is to have a thief turn on Trapdar, then spend the time disarming it afterwards. Enemies can bypass traps without disarming them, why can't the player? That might actually give things like monks and clerics some value as scouts, while making thieves better when it comes to actually taking other peoples' stuff.
That summons don't trigger traps anymore.
That you can't buy a horse and cart to halve your travel time.
That you can only have one ioun stone, and that they cancel crits for no apparent reason.
That Dimension Door was removed from the available spells, yet everyone else can't help but spam the thing non-stop.
That you can't find out where Imoen is, buy a boat (probably for significantly less than 20,000 GP), and sail there yourself, taking out pirates and sea monsters along the way.
That despite picking the pocket of the Selfishness Trials demon for the tear of Bhaal, you still need to complete the trial for no discernible reason.
Unavoidable stat losses in general. They drive me nuts. If only there were spells to heal injuries and magical loss of physical and mental acuity... That the game actually allowed you to use in their intended manner. Here's a nice excerpt from the PnP spell: That the Wild Mage Encampment is so, so far away from everywhere else.
That being a Grandmaster with Long Swords and Two Handed Swords doesn't mean you're even proficient with Bastard Swords.
That I can't pick which pantheon to join at the end.
That I can't use the D'Arnisse forge to make the FoA +4.
That there's no halfling, dwarf, or gnome romance. My shorties aren't into pointy eared whiny waifs who can't even decapitate a dragon with a sling.
That NPCs appear to level up the further south you go for no apparent reason. Baldur's Gate? Most people are between level 1 and level 10 or so. Amn? Feels like everyone's between level 8 and level 30. Tethyr? The lower level mooks are generally a higher level than the most elite of BG1. Where's my sense of progress? Of slaughtering literal armies of lesser beings? Drizzt can handle a thousand orcs solo, and he's a pantywaist compared to CHARNAME.
That the Shadow Thief Dagger and Cloak you can steal off Bodhi in the graveyard suck so bad, despite looking super awesome.
The F/M/T HLA pool.
The fact I can't commission a few epic level magic items to be created for me at any point. Random Barbarian lasses can get a long and storied tale about their magical morningstar of demonslaying, random samurai can get their souls slapped into ioun stones, but I, demigod, scion of murder, hanger-out-with with potentially five different mages and potentially an archmage in my own right... Can't even get more than a +1 dagger with my name on it which someone else made for me? I want Yoshimo's soul bound to my sword of Drow-Slaying, Quayle skinned and his skin fashioned into Boots of Improved Speed, giving permanent haste and iHaste once per day, along with an aura of moderate annoyance.
I'm easily annoyed, aren't I?
1) give up to the Gatewarden and go to the jail;
2) don't give up... and be insta-killed.
They could change the second option, really, so that if you don't give up you fight somebody (or lots of enemies) that is too-high level for you to deal with it, and in the end you have to give up. Although it would require a change of dialogue with Tethtoril - how he would dare to release a beast who killed a lot of guards in Candlekeep before the capture.
I don't like how they just gave up on his hillbilly accent in chapter 6. If you talk to him in chapter 1 he's like a different person.
That in the Watcher's Keep Blood War level Ka'rashur betrays you, while Tahazzar keeps his word. Ka'rashur is a Devil, Devils are just as fundamentally Lawful just as they Evil. If Ka'rashur had given you a reward, then immediately tried to murder you, or the reward was designed to screw you over somehow, that would be a different story, but as it is, the whole thing is completely out of character for both entities.
That shop keeper inventory ceases to exist when the shopkeeper dies.
That being stunned for even one round permanently removes a character from your party selection so you leave them behind.
That as soon as they unstun they go back to doing whatever you last ordered them to do before they got stunned, even if that's casting a fireball on a now corpse onto which your party has moved for looting purposes.
That wish basically alternates between worthless, mediocre, and gamebreaking rather than using a more consistent list like limited wish. There's not even a choice between "gamble on ultimate cosmic power" vs "weaker but more easily bargained for effect", so Limited Wish can pull off a full party heal and a party wide Wondrous Recall jr, while even at 20 wisdom Wish usually ends up with something irrelevant as your only beneficial choice.
How can a newbie mage become an archmage in few dozen days or a kensai, that is supposed to devote his whole life to unprotected combat master his art in the same little time?
But there are reasons why we have to use so much suspenction of disbelief.
There are other where is could be avoided.
Like whith backstabbing.
There is people that find unreal that is possible to backstab whith staves, I think that doing it whith long swords or katanas is neaely the same. And a stave from the back of an unaware target can break the spine and kill, strong neck musculature protect you only if you are aware and use it, is not a passive protection.
But my point is another, in real life if someone manage to sneack at your back and cut your throat or push his dagger through your cervical vertebrae you die. A backstab implemented as a 1hit kill, whith some chance of avoiding the hit based on thief hide skill and thaco and target dexterity and the type of armour he uses, but not his AC, seems to me a lot more realistic.