Keeping it simple

Jidokwon

I thought for awhile that I didn't like every character of a given class being near identical, yet there's only two games that have kept me coming back to them over sixteen years: The Baldur's Gate series and Everquest. In both cases, the main differences that seperate different characters of the same class are made during character creation. Otherwise, they're pretty much the same and it's up to player to decide how they want to play them.

I've tried to like a number of games and have quite a few in my library, but having complex character builds, where a character will barely scratch the surface of what they are capable of makes me come back to these simpler times every time. I get that this might create reason for replaying, but Baldur's Gate or Everquest have had me replaying them with simple character designs for almost two decades. I prefer trying different parties and making different storyline choices to playing the same class ten or more times to see what they're capable of.

So I'm asking for help in finding older or newer games with fairly simple character design and game play. Any help is appreciated.

deltago

Diablo 3 yanks away pretty much all of the character building there is. You really have limited choices per level and only choose which abilities you hot key. They are all available to you while you play.

I am slowly playing it on the 360 where the DRM is less prevalent. That is really the only game I can think of.

RPGs are about choice though. Do not look at the character being able to do everything, but choosing to be able to do certain feats and tasks.

Elder scroll games allow you to do this subconsciously. If you make a character that sneaks around, your stealth ability will go up. If you have them run from place to place, their stamina increases. The character adapts and grows stronger the way you play them and not the other way around.

BelgarathMTH

If you're willing to go *really* old, you'd probably enjoy Might and Magic 6-8. They were the first 3D rpg's ever made, they are turn-based or real time (player's choice, but you'll want turn-based until your characters are very high level), and the character class and leveling system is almost identical to D&D. The story, art, music, and environments are also interesting and compelling, and the games are non-linear. You can easily wander into places infested with monsters that you have no chance of handling. Every playthrough is different, because you can do quests and follow the main story, or not, in any order.

https://www.gog.com/game/might_and_magic_6_limited_edition
https://www.gog.com/game/might_and_magic_7_for_blood_and_honor
https://www.gog.com/game/might_and_magic_8_day_of_the_destroyer

Almateria

Also check out Might&Magic 2, though you'd need a Macintosh II emulator for that.
Don't bother with win/dos versions of early MM games, they were really, relly bad

Archaos

Jidokwon said:

In both cases, the main differences that seperate different characters of the same class are made during character creation. Otherwise, they're pretty much the same and it's up to player to decide how they want to play them.

I've tried to like a number of games and have quite a few in my library, but having complex character builds, where a character will barely scratch the surface of what they are capable of makes me come back to these simpler times every time.

You like complex character builds? Get NwN1 and NwN2 from GoG.com at a discount for both.

And don't get them for the Campaigns and story, get them for the crap-ton of player-made modules.

In NwN2 especially, you can create a party of 4 (6 if you edit the campaign in the toolset) with a ton of races, subraces, classes, prestige classes, feats and any combination you want from them.

Then, you can go and play on online roleplaying servers with other people and experiment with even more builds since many servers have their own races, classes etc.

For example, the Sigil server on NwN2 has Vampire, demon, angel, planar etc races a ton of new deities to choose from and new (Prestige) Classes.