In which game did you have the most fun just thinking about character builds

[Cynic]

Cynic
Now playing: Diablo 3
On hold: NWN2

What are you Cynical about exactly, I wish to know, share me your secrets

Anyway, your sig reminded me how much time I spent fucking around thinking of builds in NWN2. It was all for naught because the game is bad, but yeah, that character system was pretty extensive. Do I derp a derp a Berserker or Dragon Derper? All very important questions, worth spending an afternoon or 7 over

Bahaha well I've quit D3 now, might try a bit more after the new patch, but I've kind of moved on mentally. I enjoyed the combat in the game, but there's lots to be cynical about there, that's for sure. NWN2, I really want to get back to this, but I lost my drive for it. I'm pretty much at the very end of the OC, and I really want to finish that (yes I know Codex says it is trash) before getting into the expansions. The builds in this game don't fucking matter, it's so easy, you can just rest as much as you like and faceroll everything with mages. ToEE got around this by actually making resting very risky, something which ALL DnD games need to do.

 

[Misconnected]

Does 1st edition Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay count?

Otherwise my answer is NWN1 by a wide margin. I played a ton on both the more hardcore H&S and RP PWs way back when, so lots & lots & looots of time spent building characters.

Other notables are ToEE, FFT, Wiz8 and the IWDs.

 

[Sranchammer]

Arcanum no doubt

 

[catfood]

I liked the party creation in SOZ a lot. Not only does it allow you to make a whooping 4 characters (you know RPGs have declined when 4 member partys are considered big), but you also have a fuckaton of races, classes, prestige classes, feats, spells OH GAWD ITZ HEAVAN. But then you start playing and the game is shit.

 

[mondblut]

SSI AD&D games. 18x6, you can't get more "optimal" than that.

 

[waywardOne]

I've got to go outside the genre well represented here and say Master of Orion 2. Though not a character, making custom races altered strategies way more than something similar in a cRPG.

 

[Wolfus]

RoA and Darklands.

 

[hoverdog]

party-builders:
Realms of Arkania - a few classes, lots of (useless) skills and a bad interface meant I spent hours on creating parties
Icewind Dale - especially the first one, lots of fun planning
Wizardries - absolutely the best in this regard, I couldn't get into VII, but the last one is a builder's paradise
Storm of Zehir - the only DnD3 game with party building
Wizards & Warriors - not as fun as wizardry, for example, but needed careful choices
Darklands - my favourite char creator, shame the game doesn't stand up to it


single chars:
BG2
Mask of the Betrayer
Arcanum

 

[Morkar Left]

Starflight 1 + 2; just kidding... it's the worst of all unfortunately...

RoA; lot of skills and you could fail to raise them (not randomly but dependend on the necessary attributes for the skill)

M&M7; still one of the best char systems for me, very rewarding with the expert/master/grandmaster training, good selection of loot and spells, better than Wiz8 imho

SoZ; 4 chars to create with lots of classes and options. skill system is a bit linear though.

Jagged Alliance; fun char gen, lots of special training and disadvantages, you really feel how mercs make progress

Frayed Knights; the closest to M&M7 charsystem I have seen in years but not as big/finished

Fallout 1+2; pretty solid in everything, gets overpowered at the end.

Fallout New Vegas with mods / Fallout 3 with mods for the same reasons as F1/2. Without mods chargen is pretty much irrelevant.

BG1+2; not optimal and very linear but still allowed a lot of customization when you start to minmax (at least at start when planning your char and later on with feats), probably the most interesting loot I found in a rpg.

The Magic Candle; sounds strange bacause you have no char gen whatsoever but the party selection was very fun for me because every skill and party member was balanced plus deciding when who trains what. Gets boring later on though because of lackluster looting.

 

[zeitgeist]

Darklands, Wizardry 8, NWN2 (with prestige class mods etc), Dungeons&Dragons Online, Star Wars Galaxies. I'm sure there are others with great character creation/customization systems I've spent a lot of time in, but those came to mind first.

 

[Infinitron]

All Third Edition D&D games were great for this.

 

[SuicideBunny]

i had more fun planning builds in planetside than any crpg i ever played...

 

[waywardOne]

All Third Edition D&D games were great for this.

This reminded me that I spent more time in chargen in NWN2 than playing the game.

 

[Johannes]

ToEE got around this by actually making resting very risky, something which ALL DnD games need to do.

It did? From what I remember you just had the chance of being interrupted by enemies which were basically just free XP.

 

[Rpgsaurus Rex]

Wiz7 is probably the definition of this. I've spent hours on hours thinking up a "perfect party", launched the game then quit in 10 minutes out of boredom.

ToEE4 as well, chargen was heaps more fun than the game itself.

 

[Freelance Henchman]

Seems like lots of others had the same thing with NWN2 where char-building is far more fun than the actual game. Sad really.

 

[Gakkone]

Realms of Arkania. I think I spent more time creating my party than playing the game. Obviously I didn't play it for that long (for shame, I don't really remember why I stopped) but I did seriously spent a hell of a long while studying the character system.

Darklands also has a great and quite extensive party creation. It's cool how you come up with whole careers for the characters while shaping up their skills to fit a role in the party. Amongst my favourites for sure.

Arcanum for single characters, especially the tech side of things.

And yeah, my favourite part of most NWN games has probably been the character creation.

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

None.

 

[Mother Russia]

First, I have to say the topic title is somewhat wrongly worded: Instead of 'thinking about character builds' it should probably say 'building character builds' since that's what most ppl are responding too. No offence Freelance Bro, just a minor nitpick. :D

Anyhow, I LOVE char gen...favorite part of any rpg without a doubt.

And yes, the RoA series was king in this, you could spend an entire evening just generating your party. I know it is way too hardcore for todays add twitch based AWESOME BUTTON akshun crowd, but I loved that. Yes the RoA series had some skills that were only used once in the entire game, but I didn't mind. This was the early 90's, they were limited by budget, tech and the medium of game delivery (floppies)

Icewindale 1 + 2 + ToEE were awesome as well, since u generated an entire party. BG 1 + 2 were fun too true, but it is much more satisfying generating an entire party.

Wizardry 8 was a ton of fun too, as is Grimrock.

Honorable mentions go to Might & Magic series, Arcanum (leveling up was not as much fun, as you only got one measly point. They should have capped the game at 20 levels, but you level up far less often but when u do you get multiple points to spend), KOTOR I + II, plus a number of other games.

 

[Jasede]

Wiz 6-8, Etrian Odyssey 1&2, RoA... the usual suspects.

Raise your hand if you spent 3+ hours rolling for stats in Baldur's Gate until you had a 18-00/18/18/18/18/10 monster or getting that Fairy Ninja.
Actually, if you didn't do that, get out.

 

[Carrion]

NWN2 was the first thing that came to mind for me too. Kind of funny that I eventually went with a single-classed Swashbuckler and only multiclassed later in MotB.

Arcanum comes a close second.

 

[felipepepe]

Wiz 6-8, Etrian Odyssey 1&2, RoA... the usual suspects.
Raise your hand if you spent 3+ hours rolling for stats in Baldur's Gate until you had a 18-00/18/18/18/18/10 monster or getting that Fairy Ninja.
Actually, if you didn't do that, get out.

My brother is probably still butthurted on how Sarevok stats were higher than you could have, even by rolling as high as possible and grabbing all the stats upgrade in BG 1 & 2.

 

[OSK]

Arcanum. In fact, I barely played much of the actual game, creating characters was more fun than playing.

Pokemon! :D

Suddenly, serious business

Fuck Gamefreak! They made sleep even more powerful! And look at all these new overpowered fucks. They don't care about the competitive scene at all!

 

[Takeda Kenshi]

Wizardry 8 and Daggerfall primarily.

 

[Average Manatee]

Wiz 6-8, Etrian Odyssey 1&2, RoA... the usual suspects.
Raise your hand if you spent 3+ hours rolling for stats in Baldur's Gate until you had a 18-00/18/18/18/18/10 monster or getting that Fairy Ninja.
Actually, if you didn't do that, get out.

My brother is probably still butthurted on how Sarevok stats were higher than you could have, even by rolling as high as possible and grabbing all the stats upgrade in BG 1 & 2.

Maybe he re-imported his character a few times.