cRPGs: Anybody a powergamer in these things?

[krunchyfrogg]

Just wondering. In regular P&P D&D, I'm a big time roleplayer (as I think most of the community here is). But when it comes down to playing a cRPG, I just wanna let that little powergamer out. I spend a lot of time with games like the Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale series' working out my own "perfect" little parties.

Anybody else of this mindset? If you are, lemme hear your parties (I plan on updating this thread with my own soon)! TIA

 

[Mercule]

Pretty much exactly my mindset. That's why I like Diablo 2 and its ilk.

 

[Deuce Traveler]

In Baldur's Gate II I created a party after beating the game with the normal NPCs. My main character was a fighter/mage/thief that was a decent level because of his being reloaded from the end of the first time through. I reduced his charisma to 3, maxed out what I could, then got him a helmet that boosted his charisma to 18.

Other PCs were a sorceress, ranger archer with a bow that gave one additional free attack each round, monk, human kensai that took mage as a second class after level 12, and a undead hunter paladin to handle the vampires. A great, well-rounded party that I kicked butt with.

 

[Joshua Randall]

I used to think I was good at min/max'ing games like Neverwinter Nights or Knights of the Old Republic.

Then I started reading the character guides on www.gamefaqs.com and realized I am a mere amateur.

Anyway, I usually do something similar to what Deuce Traveler did -- I play the game once as normal, then I go back and powergame it.

I think computer games lend themselves well to powergaming because of the more sterile, less personal feel to them. Also, in a tabletop game, people would be annoyed if you spent three months tweaking the perfect character; but in a computer game, there's no one else to be annoyed.

 

[MoogleEmpMog]

I have to say, I probably powergame more in a tabletop RPG than an electronic RPG; the latter usually have fewer options (or more blatantly obvious paths to power) and are, IMX, much easier to complete. Plus, the ability to reload and try again completely frees me from the need to have an effective character.

On the other hand, I don't care for the Black Isle/Bioware style games, so I'm referring to a different type.

 

[trancejeremy]

Heh, Nippon Ichi's games are basically built for the hard core powergamer in mind. (They're for the PS2). You can win the game without powerleveling, but usually they include a ton of extras that people can literally spends 100s of hours on.

 

[Griffith Dragonlake]

Pretty much exactly my mindset. That's why I like Diablo 2 and its ilk.

Pretty much the same for me. However when I first started playing Diablo and Diablo 2 I focused on roleplaying. In fact my best D2 experience was when two of my D&D players and I created D2 characters based on our D&D characters and completed Normal difficulty.

After 6 years (7 this June) it's just pure powergaming.