Sorry, but I have the strong belief that you can do good role play without combat at all.
I don't know why so many people think that combat is a "must", but anyway, I don't agree to that. Role playing is for me like playing in a thatre, except that you only play for yourself.
Take Hamlet for example, lots of fights, and in the end quite bloody - but the actors still play their role, and that's often without fighting at all !
That's why I'm so against fighting at all : I have often the impression as if monsters are put into a game simply as a means for uplevelling the hero - as cannon-fodder, nothing more.
I want monsters with a culture, with brains, they actually use, with thoughts, but not at all as simple cannon-fodder.
[Begin RPG philosphical discussion]
Actually, my remark was meant in jest. What you say have certain merit, is worth considering, but it just doesn't apply to BD because it wasn't designed with that approach in mind.
Unfortunately, it would be quite hard to code alternatives to combat since BD was concieved with lots of combat in mind. If game developers follow your suggestion, we could see intelligent monsters which could be bribed, persuaded, tricked, subdued without violence. Or perhaps we will have an 'stealth RPG' game.
The thing is, thanks to D&D, combat and RPG are some sort of hard-wired. Why is this so? I think it is because all games need conflict, and violence is the most primal form of conflict which we understood.
However, to code a game where there are other means and approaches to overwhelm an opponent, and such that it is not a 'puzzle' (as in puzzles in adventure games), it takes new breakthrough in AI, and the end result may resemblances something like an adventure game more than a RPG. Perhaps it may come to pass.
At any rate, when I first saw 'no combat', the word 'stealth' was screaming all over my mind, but I don't think BD can handle a Thief-like gameplay, especially when you are controlling 2 persons. Of course, just imagine how you can use stealth to slay a powerful demon. Even MGS 2 just gave up and have them go on a one-on-one fight in the end. However, I suppose if a RPG game is designed with 'avoiding' combat in mind, it is possible.
Food for thought!
