NWN2 Planetouched - opinions

[Erohares]

I don't usually post on these (or other) forums because I honestly hate such arguments. It is simply a matter of nobody ever changing his mind anyway, so that makes them last forever with no decision taken, and the heat rising for nothing in the end and another topic getting locked by the staff.

From what I gathered in the discussion so far :
- Some players are concerned about the ECL races overpowering the others. If some ECL (other than planetouched) are already allowed, then I personally don't see why we are even debating the validity of this. And more importantly, debating the technical aspect of ECL races didn't seem to be the point of this topic.
- It seems we all agree that the ALFA player base is considered responsible for roleplaying correctly, and is or should be trusted to do so.

The original points open for debate were :
1. They are supposed to be rare and should not dominate the population
2. They are too powerful/unbalanced
3. The NWN2 models for the Tiefling and Genasi are inappropriate and inadequate for roleplay-heavy ALFA.

It feels to me like discussing the point 2 once again will lead us nowhere. Obviously some people will agree and refuse to have them for this reason. Others will point out that this is not necessary true. Others will either agree or disagree but won't care because this is supposed to be a RP server, not a powergamer battlefield. We won't ever reach an agreement on this and we know it, so since this is the point that leads to the most heated discussions (with no result so far), maybe we should focus more on the other points and see what comes out of it.

Here is my view on these :
1: Considering it is now impossible to play a planetouched, having them allowed on an approval basis is adding a possibility to the players. To those who feel they should be allowed without approval, your reasons may be valid or not, but regardless of them, requesting an approval to play them is adding a freedom of choice (you are given the possibility to ask), not adding a restriction (you currently can't play one at all). Needing such an approval would allow the staff to control the situation and prevent what we don't want to happen.

3: Maybe players could post here how they would OOCly feel about seeing a planetouched on the server, and what the IC reaction of their character would be. We are speaking here of the visual part of it only - we all know what they look like in NWN2, but would it feel out of place to see one on the server ? Picture this to yourself and see how you'd personally feel about it, without taking into account any power scale or RP implication. Then, imagine what your character would do and tell us about it. This may actually help the admins take a decision.

Finally, maybe the admins have already taken a decision, in which case I believe we should all simply respect it. That's what they are here for, and I like to believe none of us will suddenly leave the server because the only thing that kept them here was either the hope to someday play a planetouched, or the thought that at least they won't ever see one around. This decision won't change what ALFA is about.

[danielmn]

Werd. What he said +1.

[Mayhem]

Do planetouched start at level one? Yes.

Ah, the "pretend the problem doesn't exist" argument.

Very sound.

A level 1 planetouched character, by the RAW, is a level 2 character. You know this as well as I do, I am sure.

ECL is not the same thing as levels. You are smugly arguing on a minor technicality and cannot seriously mean to say that a few advantages such as more stats, Darkvision, or the ability to cast Light five times a day paired with disadvantages such as less stats and more experience required to reach every level thereafter would make someone the equal of a level two character. That is absurd.

Whether or not the ECLs that WOTC designed and playetested are in fact balanced or not is another matter, Kest.

YOU are the one who decided to try to use the PNP RAW as justification for allowing planetouched.

All I am doing is pointing out the your argument is invalid, as the PNP RAW 100% says that if the campaign requires all characters to start at Level 1, ECL races are not available to players.

There are plenty of good reasons to allow ECL races, but "they are in the PNP RAW" is NOT one of them.

Its nice that you are so passionate about the ECL races, so why not put all that passion into a postition that is actually defensible instead of one that is totally irrational?

[ALFAModerator2]

Planetouched are now playable races.

Just in time, as this thread has outlived its usefulness.

Locked.

[Demson]

Thank you for the thoughtful and thorough response, everyone. It was certainly worth it for me, though I do understand this topic had been discussed to death already.

Paazin and AL were looking into the current implementation and needed my judgement as PA, which I prefer to only give after properly informing myself. Hence the topic, I wanted to give you all an oppertunity to speak to me directly as PA (instead of basing myself soly on old topic)

Though Paazin and AL effort made this solution possible, I'll have the main responsiblity for it in case of problems. I think the current policy is the most obvious and workable one, and offers a solution to everyone's concerns.

If you disagree with this, feel free to take this up with me personally over PM.