@vic: I agree with you.
The problem is that computer games are about combat.
If your char is too weak to beat the boss you cannot continue.
If your char is a dumb and anti-social freak it is rarely something that prevents you from continuing the game.
Yeah, sure, I gotcha. My previous comments were about how it´s in PNP in my experience, unrelated to the discussion about videogames. We both agree that videogames are more combat-focused so it could never be perfectly extrapolated because of múltiple reasons: you can forfeit 60% of the roleplaying parts of the PNP, for example. Flawed characters are not only usually playable in the TT game, they are actually more fun ( Playing a 6CON wiz that could fall if someone sneezes too hard around him, a 4Cha Half-orc that everybody hates when they meet him or a blind 7WIS warlock is really enjoyable, but in a videogame, those things do not have an impact in the world around you, with several honourable exceptions, like the Arcanum or First Fallout games; so you do not really have a reason not to go for high stats. You have all the penalties in saves and skills, none of the "advantages").
And of course, you usually cannot trick the big-bad-unbeatable-boss to marry you, make him fall into a river, banish him into another plane or your magic bag, etc....unless it´s scripted beforehand.
But some things you can include, even if it´s only to follow the tradition of the PNP game they are based on. To create common ground with old players of the franchise.
I mean, even in the new instalments of Fallout, like f3, f4 or F76 they included the classic S.P.E.C.I.A.L character stats even tho it´s fairly obvious that most of them are superfluous in an FPS game. The same could be said about some skills, race or class features, spells, etc that are all-time-classics of D&D.
I mean, do you imagine a druid wearing metal armour, a bard without singing or a wizard spellbook without magic missile and fireball? That´s not D&D
Ed: I was going to include "a warlock without a patron" but you know... nwn2
