Also in the Character building part, I must mention Diplomacy. In fact, most decent Roleplaying gamers are now very weary of Hack-and-Slash type and Both Lionheart and Divine Divinity try hard to make the world as ideal as it should be: War and Peace (intertwined). Yet while Divine Divinity let the hero choose his own foreign affairs, Lionheart has its own skill- Diplomacy, comprising Speech (convince) and Barter (bargain) and the hero must invest points in it to have more options in dialogues with others. We see the paradox here, the Liberalism of DD has its extreme, the implacable enemies must be dispatched whereas the Asceticism of Lionheart offers peace and mutual existence to the very end (that means in certain possibility=very high Speech skill, you dont have to kill any boss at all, and winning the game in the Nobless way: Persuasion).
However, the liberalism (in the loosest sense of the word) of Divine Divinity may prove, in some certain cases, to be one of it strongest point and makes Freebooters really free to loot. If an area is difficult, try another. That is an simple yet excellent idea if compared with Lionheart. The most annoying thing in Lionheart is that it forces the hero to finish all main quests in Barcelona area (very big though) before going to Montaillou and its adjacent sites (all huge areas to explore). The curses of many gamers who are stuck in Barcelona to the game is unfair yet understandable.
