A couple of weeks ago there was a fairly heated discussion on the death and respawn system in Neverwinter Nights 2 for Companions. In this thread a lot of concern was expressed over how easy NWN2 would be if after dropping dead your companions just come back to life. The reason for the inclusion of this feature in the NWN2 OC is that certain companions have a role to play in the plot - or at least cut scenes in the game. A role that they can't fulfil if dead.
This is not a new problem. The Bioware designers made the character Imoen essentially immortal for a certain section of BG2 (spellhold I think) for plot reasons along the lines of she has to be alive to contribute to the story. The issue with this is that A) you need characters to be alive for certain parts of the plot but B) making them invincible breaks the immersion of the game.
As it stands Eyes of Eilistraee is about to encounter this same problem with one henchman in particular. Because they have a large role in the plot - their death in combat and non resurrection would essentially break the storyline.
Good job I spotted this now, at least I can rethink the final act of the module before it's too late... I hope!
eR
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I've been one of those who complained about the death system in NWN2 (although I do not think it is such a big deal).
What troubled me about the new system is that the companions just won't die. They simply get up after being hacked to death, after being petrified, after being disintegrated... I don't think that many worried so much about being forced to travel with a certain companion. That is pretty common, after all. And admitedly, in many great modules the companions quite simply come back after having been killed (with minor xp and gold costs, perhaps, to the player). But I think that in some modules it is quite simply made very clear that the companions *must be kept alive*. If resurrecting them is easy enough, that shouldn't be a big problem.
I wonder if it would be possible to design a module in such a way that the places where the companion needs to be alive would be such that there wouldn't be a chance of getting the companion killed in the same area. Then, the player should have resurrected the companion in the previous area(s), already. (And could there even be a check on entering the relevant area regarding the presence of the companion, and perhaps a "warning", if needed, saying that the player character doesn't want to go further without her/his companion.
Just some random thoughts. And perhaps some unrealistic ones. I know nothing about building, after all. But it is an interesting problem, I think. :)
Cheers,
Lariam
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