Faction system for NWN.

[Hellblazer]

Now I know this would be a major thing, but heck if we don't throw ideas up, none will ever land anywhere.

What I'm seeing here is a type of faction system that would apply to clerics, paladins, druids and rangers. Ie those that are most likely to be more pious in a sense or an other if they have their deity field filled.

What I see is a deity faction that would actually give some rp benefits/consequences.

Here I go and I will give examples.

Those classes could have an item that would make what ever that item is bonded to go neutral to the character and wouldn't make that "thing" attack him unless the player decided to have his character attack it. Upon let's say 10 times the player break the alliance with the said type of "things" the character would lose the item and could only gain it back by going through a cdq tailored to get the character back in sync with the "things". If the character lost the item again, then the character would lose for ever that connection and even loose his connection to the deity he was following. The item it self would be an ooc item that would have the script on it that would allow the "thigns" to know not to attack unless attacked, basically changing the faction of either the player or the "things" to be neutral to one an other until a server reset.

Now here are the examples of the things.

Az'atta = anything / everything except dark elf what ever they try the dark elf would never see them as neutral or even friendly unless they were. az'attan in the first place.
Aeridin = that's an other one I have no clue.. anything elf maybe. Except once again dark elves.
Aragen = an other unknown, something the team would agree could. represent aragen in the NPC spawns type of things.
Bareon Ca'duz = spiders.
Beryl = anytype of gem golems.
Branderback = Anything shadow like (like the shadows in storans crypt).
Corath = anything / everything undead.
Deliar = halflings.
Doran / Vorax = dwarves except for the deep dwaves.
Folian = Wolves (all kind from the cub to the legendary dire uber alpha wolf).
Goran = could be all things gnomes.
Grand = orcs.
Grannoch = giants.
Ilsare = npc bards.
Katia = npc druids.
Kitharein = falcons (Can't think of anything else for that one lol)
Lucinda = Magical beasts of all sorts.
Mist = Water elementals.
Prunilla = Scarcrows, shambling mounds stuff like that.
Pyrtechon = I'm tempted to say anything kobald since I remember the kobalds in the firesteep seems to have his emblem on their shields.
Rofirein = drakes and anything dragon like.
Shadon = Npc rogues.
Shindaleria = I don't remember the name of the fishmen down in the deep when you head through the under the ocean maps, but those types.
Sulterio = Deep dwarves.
Toran = Anything celestial.
Vierdri'ira = Dark elves.
Xeen = No clue.. anything human?

Now yes I know this would mean a great deal of coding.

And yes I know when you are in party that it's hard in the mist of battle to not attack things, but I'm sure that while playing you are able to differentiate things and stop yourself from killing that thing, change target or simply run out of a cave of only that type of things. But if you are a cleric/paladin/druid/Ranger with a filled diety field, then you should already expect having sacrifices to be done. It's a RP server after all.

This would give a deeper depth to having a deity filled beside the small perks of seldom rps that comes with it. An automated and tangible thing that could have repercussion to the character. Which would lead to having to reconnect through a gm event.

And overall I can only see more rp being brought in to this server with this. Before going to the trip, if you know what you will face, during the trip the why's and how are you not killing things or why you're frowning upon such things being killed. And after, if you went against the favored thing of your character God, losing the neutrality to those things and worst if you lose it a second time, the character connection to his god permanently.

And yes I know it wouldn't be for this update.. or the next.. but still something that I think would be nice to see.

[darkstorme]

I will have more to say on this later, but I'll start by saying that this wouldn't be simply a great deal of coding - it would involve the complete reworking of virtually every creature blueprint on the server.  There are thousands of those.  This would be an undertaking comparable to completely redesigning the crafting system.

As I said, I'll have more to say on this later - I get where you're coming from, but I cannot possibly see any way to justify the work that would be required.

[Fidzy]

Personaly, if this applies to every one/character I would find it to "heavy" to play.  You would lost me as a player.

[Hellblazer]

Only to those classes listed, who would have a deity in the deity box at creation, which you don't have bro

[Acacea]

Since other people are already commenting on the astronomical amount of editing that would take, I will just comment on the only other part that matters to me, which is that I don't think it makes any sense, anyway.

That is to say... creatures in general don't care what deity you are worshiping, and belonging to a faith gives you no command over them. Just because someone is Az'attan doesn't mean they won't be exploited and taken advantage of, nor killed by bandits twice as fast as someone armed and dangerous. Sure, if a peaceful cleric makes it to some ridiculous level of holiness I am all for making everything affected and humbled by their aura of mercy and leaving them alone... but I don't think factions is the right way to do this.

Likewise, Fisterion has legions of kobold servants, but even if you consider them only as dragon servants they may be devoted to other living dragons or even dead ones. Rofirein is not about dragon or drake neutrality, nor do any of your standard drakes have any particular care for his divine laws. There are thousands of bards that would not so much as take a leak on Ilsare if she were on fire, and being Lucindite often means putting yourself in danger from the same magical creatures you are attempting to study.

In other words, I don't think there is any reasons for masses of NPCs to care about how your deity selection is filled, nor for you to consider yourself allied to them, unless THEY serve a deity you share. These examples don't, are along racial and thematic lines instead, and I could use any one of them for another example.

So I can't help myself... Deliar is not attacked by halflings? Branderback is a halfling.

Sorry dude, it doesn't make any sense to me at all.

[Hellblazer]

I do realize what you're saying here and understand the basic behind what you are saying. But on the other hand most of it is still logical. Example, Someone who knows that someone is an Az'attan (let's forgo the DE Az'attan here and put a human instead) is less likely to just attack him because he knows, the Az'attan is no threat to him, and most likely poor as these are priests, druids and rangers.. not renowned to be the wealthy kind. Hence the if the player decide to break this alliance after a certain amount of tries (which 10 is just a number given) he would lose the items and lose what gave this "aura" to those it's concerns. And on a second offense.. well his connection to the deity, IE deity field getting blank with all the consequences that comes with for the clerics/paladins. Rangers/druids.. Dunno it's less sever since yes they could be pious but they don't get their powers directly from the gods. Remember here that those pious would absolutely show who they are following, shield emblems, scarfs, colors, clerics and paladins actually have to wear the holy symbols. So it's not like the NPC wouldn't see it. And when it's based on something that represent that race, most likely there is a penchant for that race not to attack said person who is pious enough to carry the standart of his god where ever he goes.
 
The same way that a Giant recognize the emblem of Grannoch That giants is very less likely to attack that said person even though he might not be a follower himself, but out of pure fear of having his peers who might be followers turn on him.

And for Rofirein, well he's a Dragon god. Beside Fisterion and Pyrtechron, I truly doubt he would actually like his followers to exterminate his brethren. Heck it could even be anything lawful as far as Rofirein is concerned.

These were only examples and I would fully expect them to be shifted to something that would really better fit the lore of each deity. The example is not the idea but just examples of what those could be.

lastly these are pious people, who receives gifts from who they deeply believe in. Alright he rangers and druids gets them more from nature than anything, but as druid goes, even them believes the god to be part of nature itself yada yadi yada.

An other option beside having the npc shift their faction to be neutral would simply have the item take on the number of time the PC broke the "preference" of the god that the ooc item is bonded to and then poof, so with the connection to the god. But then that would be less of an IG visible thing and most player would say bah what the heck, unless there was more of an incentive for them to act accordingly to what the idea is. OF course for a pally or a cleric the loss of his connection to the deity would be a sever repercussion, the loss of the powers to a druid also, the ranger less.

Anyways just an idea, and there is work around to it to make it fit also.

[Acacea]

That's just it, though. These are not the preferences of the deity, and are way, way too general to be considered divine mandates.

I love complex faction systems because of their ability to support more depth of interaction than the default. This is not that depth of interaction, though.