CHARACTER CREATION

Character Basics

Q. What level do your characters start at?
A. (T.C. 3/28) You start at level 1. I think level 1 characters in 3rd edition are more powerful than level 1 characters from 1st edition. The feats, skills, and level 0 spells really help.

Q. Can we make a party that's totally inept/unskilled and still beat the game?
A1. (S.C. 3/4) No. You will die and somewhere angels will laugh at you. You can however finish the game with a total moron who kicks ass at fighting.

A2. (S.M. 3/4) You have to try to beat the game. It should be doable with all parties but you will most likely die if you have a totally inept and unskilled. Nearly everything has multiple solutions so you shouldn't have a problem if you don't have the uber party but you can't not have any ability.

A3. (M.M. 3/4) No. If your party is useless, you will not finish the game.... You need to level up, gear up, and whoop butt if you are going to take on the temple.

A4. (T.C. 3/4) A level 1 party could not make it in the final maps. No one ability is required. So an all-fighter party could win

Q. Will die rolls be used to determine your starting ability scores, or will a point buy system be used?
A1. (I.B. 2/10) A point-buy system seems likely, but there may be a die roll for Ironman mode.

A2. (H.N. 2/7) the point buy method is (will probably be) the standard one from the [Dungeon Master's Guide]; that is, 25 points to distribute among abilities, which all start at 8. points up to and including 14 cost 1 point, 15 and 16 are 2 points, 17 and 18 are 3 points, etc ..

A3. (S.M. 3/4) You get to pick [the rolling method]. The die roll is 4d6 drop the lowest, and point buy is ??? I forgot how many points. I think its 25 (thats what Huy says). We let you reroll as many times as you want on the 4d6 but it does keep track of the rolls. You can also play in IronMan mode which if your roll 4d6 you don't get to reroll. And rumor is that if you reroll your stats a whole lot you get all 18s... but thats just a rumor. (wink, wink).

Scores:
1-13 = 1 point
14-16 = 2 points
17 and above = 3 points

Q. How many characters can you create?
A. (T.C. - Gamespot - 12/20/02) We are supporting a group of player characters, which will let players make up to five characters at the start of the game and pick up additional NPCs during the game. Players can also dismiss a player character and make a new one during gameplay, if they change their mind about the kind of party they want.

Q. What skills are in the game?
A1. (S.M. 1/6) This list isn't "official" nor is it complete, nor is it final. But currently (in January) this is (as far as I know) the list of skills that are implemented and working in the game.

A2. (H.N. 1/8) Steve listed the skills that ARE implemented and in the game at the moment, not what is planned. "Use magic device" is on THAT list, however, so don't worry.

A3. (H.N. 1/9) It's definitely a great skill, and among other things, you can also attempt to fool race specific items! DC 25 I believe. [ED: Unknown if this comment was about the MIU skill in the game]

Q. How will skill synergies be handled?
A. (H.N. 2/18) it's how it's supposed to be, e.g. +2 to intimidate if you have 5 or more ranks in bluff.

Q. How many feats are in the game?
A. (T.C. 3/27) We have implemented a subset of the core books' feats, but it's a big subset. The only feats we dropped were ones the engine could not handle, like the mounted combat feats, or that were beyond the scope of the game, like Forge Ring which requires you to be 12th level.

Character Races

Q. What sort of playable races will be available in the game?
A. (T.C. - HomeLAN - 1/16) We are including every player race in the Player's handbook: human, dwarf, elf, gnome, halfling, half-elf and half-orc. On our "cool stuff to add if we have time" list are the subraces in the Dungeon Master's Guide, like the duergar, the grugach, and tallfellows.

Q. Will all sexes be playable for all the races?
A. (S.M. 2/6) Yup, but some races are clearly more attractive than others.

Q. Will there be any ECL races?
A. (S.C. 1/8) ECL races are currently on the Cool Stuff list. If we do implement them, they will probably work much the same as they did in Neverwinter. If your ECL is + 1, you will start at first level and will reach second level at the same point as a human would reach third level.

Q. Would it be possible for Troika to include ECL race portraits?
A1. (T.C. 2/17) I'll ask our portrait artist if he has time to make some of the race portraits look like a subrace. We like variety too.

A2. (C.G. 2/17) Yes, I do have plans to make some subrace portraits. Time is the only factor on how many I can get done.

Q. Will there be any subraces?
A1. (S.M. 2/3) On our cool stuff list. The system supports them, its all about the interface being redone to allow their selection and playtesting to make sure they don't imbalance the game or screw up quests.

A2. (T.C. - Game Banshee - 2/3) We are also adding some prestige classes, and time-permitting, some of the subraces as well, such as wood elves and tallfeet halflings.

A3. (S.M. 2/11) Technically subraces aren't even supposed to go in (they are cool stuff) but enough support is in that I think they will probably make it.

Q. Why were Drow left out of the available race list?
A1. (H.N. 3/30)i believe the concern is not whether they are too powerful or unbalancing, but the design team does not want to introduce a PC selectable Race that *should* evoke certain types of responses (dialog or otherwise) but won't, given our timeframe. more succinctly, if we don't time left to properly script/dialog how NPC's should react to a party of Drow waltzing into Hommlet, then that is a strong argument for not including Drow. this is more important to the design team then just throwing in the Drow for their (IMO) awesome bonuses.

A2. (H.N. 3/30) I hope that makes sense. in short, no guarantees on subraces (either way) :P ...the subraces that are just a set of modifiers and require little or no extra scripting are more likely to make it in, if any of them do. (i.e. this same argument can be made for the half-dragons, celestials, half-ogres, etc - but something like a Wood Elf would be nice and easy)

Q. Will there be plane touched races (Aasimar and Tieflings)?
A. (S.M. 2/3) Don't think so, neither are some of the subraces that require ECL (effective creature level) adjustments.

Character Classes

Q. What classes will be in the game?
A. (T.C. - Game Banshee - 2/3) We are supporting all of the 3E classes and races, with all of their class abilities and racial bonuses. If you play a bard, expect to perform your bardic music abilities and to see your bardic knowledge open up dialog possibilities. Expect your barbarian to rage, your cleric to gain domain powers and spells, and your elf to avoid paralyzation by ghouls.

Q. What is a prestige class?
A. (I.B. 2/12) A prestige class is a special class available to characters who meet certain criteria. ( Levels in a class or classes, skill levels, ability scores, race, and alignment are only a few limiters on what prestige classes are available to you.

Q. Will there be prestige classes?
A. (T.C. - Greyhawk Chronicles - 1/9) They are on our cool stuff list, meaning we will try to put them in if there is time. The character editor can already support them, so it's really a matter of getting the new class abilities in the game.

Q. What sources were considered when deciding which prestige classes were in the game?
A1. (S.M. 2/11) Tomb & Blood, Sword & Fist, Masters of the Wild... we wanted lots of coverage and we think we came up with some good picks.

A2. (H.N. 2/11) I think we paged thru the vile darkness book also, hehe

Q. Since some prestige classes have high requirements, what will be done to make them available?
A. (S.M. 2/11) Some [prestige classes] are a little hand tweaked and one was made up (I think). Most of the prestige classes we picked you could enter at around level 6 or 7 and get 3 or 4 levels of them.

Q. Will bards be able to play instruments or perform?
A1. (T.C. 3/4) We have their music effects in, based on their Perform skill.

A2. (S.M. 3/4) The engine has support for about 8 different musical instruments to play.

A3. (M.M. 3/4) Bards will have 5 or 6 different instruments...Wind and strings and drums and such. Just singing is no fun.

Q. Will wizard school specialization make it in?
A. (S.C. 2/26) We will be implementing school specialization correctly. Word of warning though - the Divination school is probably the school of magic that suffered the most in the translation, [due to the difficulty of executing them on a PC without a DM]. Still, there are some good spells in there, and it sounds like you're a True Role Player instead of Min Maxer.

Q. Which deities can clerics (or anyone else) worship in the game?
A1. (S.M. 3/13) Hehe, I just added deity selection to character creation the other day, so I know all about this (even though Tim designed it). Currently we're supporting the 3rd ed. PHB gods:

None
Boccob
Corellon Larethian
Ehlonna
Erythnul
Fharlanghn
Garl Glittergold
Gruumsh
Heironeous
Hextor
Kord
Moradin
Nerull
Obad-Hai
Olidammara
Pelor
St. Cuthbert
Vecna
Wee Jas
Yondalla

Here are the rules we use to allow you to pick:

Lastly your alignment cannot be more than 1 different from the gods alignment. Exceptions to this are true neutral gods (Fharlanghn, Obad-Hai, etc), and St. Cuthbert who will not tolerate evil.

We found this to give a restricted but still diverse choice of deity. There are also a few other gods that are not player chooseable that people worship... maybe you'll run into those people (or gods).

A2. (H.N. 3/13) [In regards to godless clerics...] This is something we are specifically not allowing, however, for the purposes of the module/Greyhawk setting. if you are a cleric in ToEE you better have a deity! In addition, I believe it was also partly a pre-balancing decision; the ability to choose which 2 domain powers without restriction is bit powerful...

A3. (H.N. 3/13) you can choose NONE as your deity for any particular character. you cannot, worship NONE and ask for divine spells and guidance from NONE if you are a cleric PC, however (at least not in ToEE)

also, while there are gods that have very favorable combinations of domain powers, you must first choose your party alignment, then your individual character alignment. that limits your selection of possible deities for your cleric, so it balances slightly:

here's a situation, say you want to assemble a group of evil fighters and rogues for your party. but you also want a cleric with the domains Good and Law (for whatever reason). the only gods that have those 2 (I think) are Heironeous and Yondalla. if you were able to make a cleric of NONE, you would be able to create this (somewhat illogical) party combination (no deity or alignment restrictions).

or you could take the opposite: a party of paladins with one cleric that has domains Chaos and Evil.

and yeah, deities do tie into the module nicely ...so all in all, forcing you to select a deity for your cleric PC's in ToEE seems reasonable to me, at least

and well, if someone is not at least open to the idea of religion for a priestly PC class (ToEE won't be trying to force you to blasphemy or be tempted by fictional pantheons), then this probably isn't the game/RPG system for that person

Q. If a character worshipping "NONE" multi-classes to a cleric, does he/she get to choose a deity?
A1. (H.N. 3/13) yep. well, I'd assume so - no one has implemented that specific UI case (yet). well, I haven't at least, heh. it will probably be the same one we already use for character creation, with a little different art of course. that being the case, it should be relatively painless to put in

A2. (S.M. 3/13)My vote would be that if you roleplay a character to have a choice of no deity then you cannot multiclass into a Cleric. Just as you couldn't multi-class into a Barbarian or Bard if you are lawful. 

Q. Have clerical domains been implemented yet?
A1. (S.C. 1/8) Cleric domains are all implemented, with special abilities and domain spells. In some cases we had to change the domain spells around a little to match the spells we were implementing for the game. Some of the special abilities were modified to make more sense for a computer game (I'm thinking of Luck here).

A2. (T.C. 1/16) We are supporting the Greyhawk deities, and you can pick your two domains from among the ones allowed for your deity. Each domain grants a domain power and domain spells, like in the Player's Handbook. We have tried to change the rules as little as possible, but I do remember the Luck domain requires the player to specify what future roll he wants to re-roll (skill, save, to-hit, etc).

A3. (H.N. 1/16) this includes domain spells - the choices for domain spells at each level we've tried to leave as intact as possible, but spells that we aren't supporting (unfortunately) overlap in some cases. in which case different (but hopefully similar) spells are substituted in.

A4. (H.N. 2/7) choosing a deity will give you 2 choices between the domains that deity allows. you get the power(s) conferred by those domains (e.g. death touch, rerolls, +1 caster levels, etc), and domain spells choices at each spell level 1-5. the gods PC's can choose from are the ones from the [Players Handbook] (which are all, if not just some, from Greyhawk). I'm not sure if we will have the option of "no particular god" (and therefore you can pick ANY 2 domains) - that might be a little overpowering...

A5. (S.M. 3/17) Here is the list (currently): air, animal, chaos, death, destruction, earth, evil, fire, good, healing, knowledge, law, luck, magic, plant, protection, strength, sun, travel, trickery, war, water. As far as I know all of their domain abilities are in, and we currently have domain spells for every clerical domain and level except Earth level 2 (and we will come up with one, or die trying).

Q. Will any of the prestige clerical domains make it in?
A. (S.M. 3/17) Nope on the prestige domains, I think we are just doing the standard domains.

Q. Will clerics of opposing deities be allowed in the same party?
A. (T.C. 2/11) You can only have clerics of opposing deities in the same party if you are playing TN party alignment. We allow it, but the extreme aligned characters WILL get different dialog options. I imagine there will be tension.

Q. Since few fighter class skills will make it into the game, will they get some cross-class skills assigned to them (intimidate)?
A. (S.M. 2/11) Not really. Fighters in general are butt slammed with regards to feats. In general they are spending 2 points to go crossclass for most of their skills. But a lot of that is by design, they get lots of bonus feats.