Agreed that the quantity of talents was a little underwhelming in DOS1. I seem to remember that was in discussion during the beta and for the most part we assumed what we were given was only a sampleof things to come. It was a bit disheartening discovering it was the real deal when the game launched.
Don't get me wrong though, I understand it's hard to balance talents. But since so many of them had no chance to ever find a place in any builds like Five Stars Dinner or Demon, the choice ultimately boiled down to a select few. Rogues had to take a few talents to reach a status where they could be actual "rogues", understand fast-running, stealthy backstabbers, leaving not that much place for experimentation. On the other hand, a warrior quickly ran out of mandatory things to take and ended up taking the less less-useful.
One thing I found a missed opportunity was fun talents, or out-of-combat game tweaker talents, like Pet Pal. Something that you would feel compelled to take just because it seems to open a brand new way of seeing the game and interacting with it.
Some time ago, I suggested a skilltree based on the "Wild Mage" from BG2, and while suggesting skilltrees is probably a bad idea at this point ( and already was when I made the suggestion actually ), I feel it may just be entirely translated to a single talent :
- Clumsy ( or something less pejorative like Experimenter or whatever ) : Each time you cast a spell or use an ability, there is X% chance of getting an unexpected result...For the better or the worse.
In BG2 the outcome was picked at random in a table. Maybe two tables could be done for magic and physical so that the talent would benefit any playstyle - fumbled spell / entirely different spell is cast / spell is far more powerful than intended vs tripped on a root / very precise aim / Strong blow that knockdown the target, etc
Something that would add a bit of work to the writing team, albeit a very linear work, is a talent akin to the Malkav clan in Vampires : it's a kind of mind read / eight sense, that gives you veery enigmatic clues about the true agenda of people you encounter. In Vampires Bloodlines, it was a voice whispering in your head, barely audible. Downside of the clan is they also speak in a very specific manner, apparently not making any sense. The greatest thing about Bloodlines is that everything you said previously ( and was very weird ) made sense with a Malkavian, once you get to the heart of things.
Obviously, the whispering clues part is something that can probably be done at the expense of way less work that trying to re-write every dialogues in the game. And with little to no voice over in the game, maybe it could be visual : texts quickly fading around the character you engage dialogue with.
- Source Crazed : Your exposure to the source makes you see and hear things normal people don't. Are these things real? Are they a figment of the truth behind all, or just the hallucinations of a disturbed mind gone crazy : yours ?
These are inspired by other games, true, but they reflect ideas that could be made as talents that'd bring either enhanced replayability to the game, or just a fun first run.
I may think of a few, more original ones [if I ever stop being interrupted every 5 minutes or so !!].
Last edited by Dr Koin; 18/09/15 10:35 AM.
