Planescape:T : Insights and Suggestions

[Fryjar]

Well since no good Rpgs are released nowadays and because I was bored I started Planescape once again. And even though Ive already finished the Game once this time I found so many new twists and aspects that I was just as amazed as in the first time.
If theres really one game in which it is worth to do every single side quest then its this one.

But when reading over some reports from other players I found one similiarity that disturbed me: Apparently MANY have played through Planescape as fighter and although they were satisfied I dont want to imagine just how much more thrilling their experiences with the game would have been if they would have chosen to become a mage.
Well mind you diversity and having multiple options to solve a task or play a game are one of the most important parts of rpgs for me (and thats why I love P:T that much too). But honestly in this singe case its different when it comes to your charakter build.
Planescape is all about the dialogues and the story and primarily not about combat (altough in my opinion even this part is sooo much better than the one of most other rpgs) and therefore your game experience is more or less defined by the way you react in these conversations and especially what you can actually read(!) and understand (or the nameless one in the latter case).
But as a fighter you simply wont have the diversity dialouge wise and moreover wont be able to understand the more demanding twists (and nearly every side quest has one) so that you will never UNLOCK the most interesting incidents/ conversations.

For instance:

Spoiler alert Spoiler alert

-The twist with the silent king (I always make myself king once...I can never resist )

- The 7th and 8th ring of Zerth and its effects on you and Daakon - just fantastic.

- The informations about your former companions.

Well in this case I really only stumbled about this HUGE revelation by coincidence---I accidentally asked Daakon to translate Fells speech about the tatoos of your arm that you can find in one of the crypts instead of translating everything myself.
Please try that if you havent done that before : This part in which you will learn SO MUCH about Daakon and your former companions is worth another play through itself.

Btw you can find Xachariahs (one of these companions) at the bottom of the mortuary as a Zombie. But you can talk with him when you use the "talk with the dead" ability which you learned from Mary and gain many insights in your former life and about your friends...


Spoiler alert over



So please do me a favor: Only raise your intelligence, wisdom and charisma and neglect the other 3 abilities. Playing through Planescape without these 3 stats maxed is like negotiating with the hell spawns from doom instead of shooting them.
If you havent done that in the past I can only tell you one thing: Its more than worth another play through

 

[Turdis]

You know, even though I play Planescape primarily as a warrior, I can never resist pumping up my wisdom to 18 or so ever since I realized it affects regained memories. The writing in the game is really what I play it for, as the combat system sucks donkey balls to be honest. Makes the game a bit rough in the beginning, but honestly, all that extra xp balances it out by midgame.

P.S. Usually grab a few levels of wizard for Dakkon's stuff too though, I really cant resist all the different dialogue options.

 

[Jason]

That game was probably the best non-drug related $10 I ever spent.

 

[bryce777]

I played through as a fighter the first time, too. i thoguth the game was ok but the combat annoying. After playing through as a more intelligent character, I was simply amazed.

 

[chaedwards]

Same here. Not sure I've found everything even after a third play-through. When I'm back near my beloved cds, I should play it again.

 

[Elwro]

You know, even though I play Planescape primarily as a warrior, I can never resist pumping up my wisdom to 18 or so ever since I realized it affects regained memories.

Same here. I think my fighter's Wisdom got to 20 the last time I played. But the next time I'll surely be playing a mage. :D

 

[Trash]

Planescape's combat sucked, everything else was great.

 

[Balor]

Well, in fact, I've been playing it as a mage from the start... well, of course I had to deal with fighting at first, but I maxed my int and wis and then charisma (later).
That's because I love diplomatic, smartass characters. Oh, and magic in P:T was great - best aspect of combat, in fact. I love how highlevel spells got their own cutscenes.

All in all, Planescape is epitome of only RPG type that matters - Social RPG, where you roleplay a PERSON, not just a class. You can roleplay being a janitor all you want in RL - would it be intellectual?
Same goes for roleplaying fighters, thieves, etc in CRPGs.
It may be fun (see Diablo). But it not nearly intellectually satisfying.

 

[franc kaos]

Due to all the good press in these forums about this game, I finally bought a copy and am looking forward to playing (as soon as I finished Vampire: Bloodlines - which I'm loving by the way, altho' using the powers can sometimes be a pain in the arse).

Anyway, how permeable are the class allowances? (my favourite character type is either Rogue Mage or a Neutral Ranger type).

Since the combat's not so great (Baldurs Gate like? or worse? I didn't mind that, just the amount of fighting you had to get thru' could sometimes be painfull).

Really stoked to finally get a copy of this game tho', a fiver from a bootsale...

 

[Balor]

Well, there are three avalable classes in game:
Warrior, Thief and Mage, and you can switch them at will - provided you have right trainers.
You start out as True Neutral, but you can affect your Chaos/Neutrality, Good/Evil meters by your actions.

 

[Micmu]

If you choose a lot of sarcastic replies in dialogues, you end up being Chaotic anyway.
But it's so fun, you just can't help yourself.

 

[Jora]

One important thing to remember is to get the Bronze Sphere back from Pharod when it's possible and always keep it in TNO's inventory. It's the most important item in the game not because of its necessity to the plot but because of how incredibly cool it's to find out what's stored inside it.

Visiting the sensoriums and using Deionarra's sensory stone is another powerful emotional experience.

 

[corvax]

So please do me a favor: Only raise your intelligence, wisdom and charisma and neglect the other 3 abilities. Playing through Planescape without these 3 stats maxed is like negotiating with the hell spawns from doom instead of shooting them.
If you havent done that in the past I can only tell you one thing: Its more than worth another play through

Well you can still play as a fighter while maxing out those stats. Torment is probably the only d&d game that doesn't punish you heavily for not sticking to a stereotype. Dexterity and Endurance aren't that important since TNO regenerates and uses no missle weapons. You just have to be careful in combat but then again with the right companions you can just sit back and let them to the damage. Moreover use tattoos when necessary...I remember my fighter at the end had 21 wisdom, 18 charisma, and 18 intelligence (though I think wisdom matters more in dialogue than intelligence) and I was still kicking ass in combat. So yeah, Torment is teh shit.

 

[Section8]

Warrior, Thief and Mage, and you can switch them at will - provided you have right trainers.

Aw man, so I'm hanging out to find a priest trainer that doesn't exist?

 

[corvax]

I think Fall From Grace is a priest trainer...I think, it's been a long time since I played.

 

[protobob]

She is a priestly type but not a priest/cleric trainer.

And I do believe I've forgotten enough about this game to replay it semi-freshly, woot.

 

[Vault Dweller]

No, she's a priest, but not a trainer.

 

[Balor]

Yea, you cannot become a priest.
I guess that has to do with NO being immortal and all. And not as "I" would become a priest, anyway .

 

[roshan]

I remember some retarded bg2 fanboys at the old bis forums used to complain that in torment gamers were forced to "powergame" int, wis and cha.

 

[Drakron]

Except they are right, PS:T is biased towards a certain build ... if we dont have insane levels of Wis and Int we lose a lot of the story.

In overall balance PS:T is one of the worst RPGs.

Also I find funny that someone says in here that "is epitome of only RPG type that matters - Social RPG" since its pretty much a JRPG were you play a pre-generated character ... sure there is room to twist around a bit but then again there is also that room in KotOR.

Writting is top notch with makes me wonder how we moved from that to the pseudo intelectualism in KotOR2.

 

[Jora]

... sure there is room to twist around a bit but then again there is also that room in KotOR.

Not nearly as much.

 

[Balor]

Well, I don't care about 'pregenerated character'.
The plot, and ability to play a role in P:T was superb. And not just a role of a warrior, mage or thief - but a role of good guy, cynical guy, paranoid guy - with a lot of variations.
And great story, of course.

 

[Drakron]

KotOR is set on Star Wars, its a moral absolute universe of good and evil.

You could play Revan the same way you could with The Nameless One, except there was 2 extra axis (chaos and law) and there was neutrality.

You know when I reached Korriban it was after the Leviantan and I was very inclined to take the dark side options and its not something that PS:T ever done to me, a issue with PS:T is that good/evil and law/chaos was always something up to the player own tastes and not something that pushed the player into a choice (I know how bad its BioWare "thug evil" but Korriban had a reasoning to why being a bastard towards the Sith and fall into the darkside, expecialy if you know about Revan and how the Jedi simply brain wiped his personality).

That is a reason to why TSL failed, they tried to bring shades of grey into Star Wars and that simply does not work ... also it lacked the conflict of light vs dark and once again we take the options based on what we prefere.

Its a shame because instead of that Force bullshit Kreia was spitting about they could have pushed a Jedi/Sith/Dark conflict were someone says "no, the Jedi are wrong but also the Sith" and the player explores that, if you want to see PS:T failing you need to look no closer that TSL since all the basic elements are there.

 

[Screaming_life]

Except they are right, PS:T is biased towards a certain build ... if we dont have insane levels of Wis and Int we lose a lot of the story.

In overall balance PS:T is one of the worst RPGs.

It's perfectly balanced. Big dumb fighters are too stupid to understand the story and don't care about it anyway, they just want to kill stuff which they do better than the other classes!

It's just the nature of the world created, who cares if it's not perfectly balanced? it's just the nature of the beast!

 

[roshan]

pretty much a JRPG were you play a pre-generated character ...

Thats crazy.