Human or half elf paladin

[Ennewi]

Originally Posted by DeathsSilkyMist [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Faction arguably had a greater effect when the game first came out, when nobody knew what to do. It isn't like today where people know exactly how to farm faction in the most efficient manner. Having easier access to merchants and other players would have been a meaningful improvement on experience for people who knew nothing about the game.

I am not saying it was the right design choice now that we can look at the game 20 years later. But they obviously didn't have this perspective in 1999. That is why Ogres/Trolls ended up just being better. Once faction was figured out and normalized in later expansions, the racial bonus of faction went away, but the raw statistical advantages of Ogres/Trolls remained.

For sure. These all had workarounds though. Faction song, OVP, sneak, invis pots, CoS. Kill this. Quest that. No amount of killing or questing can earn the human race innate regen, ultravision, or slam; while these can be obtained with items, upon death the character is still subject to the same problems as a newbie of the same race. Worn upgrades are cool and all, but not as cool as abilities the character might instead gain from a quest or guild master after reaching a specific level. Skills/abilities granted and rescinded by one's god, based on faction standing, could have worked too. Agnostics could have had fewer to choose from, perhaps even weaker versions, but without the hassle of maintaining that faction.