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Anyone have any idea how NWN will implement the following features, none of which computers do very good at simulating:

1) Illusions. Will you be able to cast a 3rd level illusion spell and have a drop-down list of possible effects? Or will they just nix all (generic) illusion spells altogether? Will the illusion drop-down list chage depending where you are (city, dungeon, castle, etc)? I'm not talking about mirror image-type things (specific effect illusions), I mean the illusion spells you cast that require you to describe the effect you want. These were the fun ones in PnP, you could be creative and strategic, etc.

2) Skills. Y'know, those things. Diplomacy, leadership, etc. The things rogues are good at; will they actually have any use? Or will you beef up your diplomacy rating only to find it allows 10% reduction on goods -- and that's it...? I'm talking about non-combat things; it is clear how move silently/hide can be implemented. But Perform? I wonder.

Diplomacy and leadership?

I doubt they would be implemented, as they would have no effect on gameplay.

Leadership, it sure as hell would. You get followers and cohorts (in large drvoes up to about 250 total.) As to illusions, the DM would create a spell called "Minor Illusions that has no effects. He would then create the illusion as an object with one minor change: It deals no damage and can be passed.

I don´t think the illusion stuff is going to be practicle, unfortunately.

Skills, however, are another matter! Most (well, many) of the skills could (and hopefully WILL) be possible in NWN. It´s then up to the DM to set up situations in which they will be useful. If they´re in I am certainly going to use them plenty!!

From what I read, no real skills have been implemented yet.

Chances are that skills will just be numbers sitting on your character sheet, waiting for DMs to look at them and base decisions on them. It would be all too likely that in most games, they'd be horribly ignored... Most scripted stuff will probably not take all your skills into account, only a few at best.

And that is if they implement it...

BTW, Perform is needed for Bards to inspire their party members, so that will probably make it, as will Pick Locks and Stealth. I can hardly imagine they'd leave out core AD&D stuff.

In the NW vault there´s a list of skills that they claim have been shown in movieclips of the game or confirmed by Bioware employees as being in the game. It´s up to you to determine how trustworthy this list really is.

Well seeing as how much they still claim to be missing in gameproduction, I'd be wary of concluding based on movie-demos and screenshots.