RPGs with simple old-school Char Creation

[RolePlayerEverHappy]

My friend a simple person who just started with games, tried Pathfinder 2 WoTR and he found everything too complicated especially character builds and skill stuff. She enjoyed Baldur's Gate EE though. She does not mind if teh game is turn based or non-Triple AAA Art/Production Approach as long as it can be learnt and handled easily and fun for her.

I haven't played all candidates she has so I'm interested in your thoughts on these titles I gathered for her in terms of how complicated is to create and oversee character builds and level up skill gain.

Pillars of Eternity I & II
Icewind Dale Enhanced Edition series
Black Geyser: Couriers of Darkness
Planescape: Tides of Numenera
Balrum
Pathfinder Kingmaker (guess it's same as WoTR so a no-go?)

[Yoinkyz]

the more details the better
https://store.steampowered.com/app/39540/SpellForce__Platinum_Edition/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/300550/Shadowrun_Dragonfall__Directors_Cut/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/617480/Tower_of_Time/
personal recommendation ^^^ not as difficult as its description implies.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/367500/Dragons_Dogma_Dark_Arisen/
this is a oddone but it has a very indepth char creator. and classes are fairly straight forward but also its deep in a good way.

[Fendelphi]

Dragon Age: Origins is pretty easy to figure out, as it does not have too many classes or parameters to choose from. Enough for some decent variety though.
Basically, you pick an Origin and sometimes a class(some Origins have only 1 class) and go from there. Each class have several specialties/subclasses, like a Sword+Shield Warrior or the Two-handed Weapon Warrior.

You can do cool stuff like make combos with various abilities(like freezing enemies and then use an ability that can shatter them for high bonus damage) and unlock "hidden" classes as you progress through the game.

[Soteria]

Dragon Age: Origins definitely has that classic RPG feel for me.

Neverwinter Nights is decent, though it might be too much detail if Pathfinder was.

[RoboSauce]

A big design point of the PoE series was that any build can work, so going in with that mindset can help. Also just playing on Normal mode in most of these games is very build friendly. Personally I stay away from multiclass and just go with straight classes most of the time for simplicity, which again in Normal mode is generally fine.

[✙205🍉🐆→]

M&M X
Tyranny
Wasteland 2-3
Expeditions: Viking
Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines

[Woofy]

Love Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines - Highly recommended
Witcher 1 has easy leveling.
Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 1...(2 is also good, but a lot more crafting).

TellTale Games are Awesome! - Lots of story, fun choices/dialog, Very Simple
- The Wolf Among Us or The Walking Dead is best
- Batman is also very good...

- Cheers!

[Woofy]

And KIngdoms of Amular Re-Reckoning. It's very fun
Wizardry 8 - Old School at it's best!

By the way, Lots of Games let you try sample parties which could help.

[RolePlayerEverHappy]

Thank you! I have to try some of these myself as well. Witcher isn't my cup of tea though.

[Yoinkyz]

dont hate on it befor trying it

[Kyutaru]

Originally posted by RolePlayerEverHappy:

Pillars of Eternity I & II

Depends on difficulty. On the hardest modes, you need extremely specific builds to work. Luckily, the build system in the game has no feats or external complications. Everything is right there on the talent tree. You get only a few choices each level so you just choose what you want. On the normal difficulties, even bad character builds can succeed -- though not as easily as optimized ones. The game is built to be soloable so having extra party members really makes builds simple since you can focus each one on a single task.

Originally posted by RolePlayerEverHappy:

Icewind Dale Enhanced Edition series

Baldur's Gate 1 is simple because it's low level. Baldur's Gate 2 and the Icewind Dale series are quite a bit more difficult and complicated as they revolve around the high levels of D&D play, which is primarily based around stacking and dispelling buffs and debuffs. Knowing how all of them work and how they stack is essential to progressing in the game, especially when instant kill effects begin to show up. It can be frustrating experience if you don't work on your builds even on normal difficulty.

Originally posted by RolePlayerEverHappy:

Black Geyser: Couriers of Darkness

No experience. But seems simple enough, like the old Baldur's Gate was.

Originally posted by RolePlayerEverHappy:

Planescape: Tides of Numenera

Very simple. One of the best in terms of character building. Uses the old school Baldur's Gate rules but with very unique and streamlined characters who can only be specced one of two ways usually. Very fun, best storyline ever, top pick.

Originally posted by RolePlayerEverHappy:

Balrum

Who?

Originally posted by RolePlayerEverHappy:

Pathfinder Kingmaker (guess it's same as WoTR so a no-go?)

Okay so... Pathfinder only exists because D&D players thought D&D wasn't complicated enough. Ya... stay away from this one.

[Woofy]

Originally posted by RolePlayerEverHappy:

Thank you! I have to try some of these myself as well. Witcher isn't my cup of tea though.

Let us know which ones you try and what you think of them!
Cheers!

[SpiralRazor]

Spellforce is okayish, its kinda like warcraft with rpg elements.

I can recommend all of the Shadowrun games, if only for the stories. Hong Kong and Dragonfall were my favorites though. Just remember to have a decker and some kind of magic user and your good with any other classes.

[Yoinkyz]

people not playing tower of time is a sin. its description doesnt do it justice much like icewind dale is said to be a dungeon crawler with a weak story. when in fact it has the best story