Andy_Panthro: The point I suppose is to demonstrate that while they may have ditched the D&D license, this will only mean that the character creation is more intuitive.
The constant changes in the D&D char setup meant that I often had no idea what was the best character build for me, or even if that char build was even worth it. A mixture of reading up on it and trial and error helped, but people don't want to do that (and perhaps shouldn't have to?).
I'm not suggesting it should be overly simplistic, but NWN2 often felt overly complicated when trying to get those special classes (which weren't even necessarily worth the effort...).
Gundato: Please don't confuse making an "optimal" character with making a character. No D&D based CRPG has ever (to my knowledge) required an "optimal" character. They are all generally balanced for any character who doesn't actively shoot his or herself in the foot.
That is just a pet peeve of mine. The D&D system has always been pretty simple to make functional characters. If you want a fighter who uses a sword, you either put proficiency points into the appropriate slots, or you pick feats that benefit sword wielders. It is only when you start min/max'ing that you really get into trouble.
Although, I will admit that some Prestige Classes got a bit confusing, but I think that was more a problem of not having a encyclopedia-esque help system in the game If NWN had a way to click any of the Weapon Master pre-reqs to get a pop-up describing the feat (and the pre-reqs of the feat), it would have been a lot simpler.
And I see basically the same thing happening here. We don't yet know what is required for the prestige class equivalents (Blood Mage and what not), right?
Best case scenario: We get a Mass Effect style approach where you don't have too much input on your character, but you need to consider end-game abilities right from the start.
From everything I have read, it really doesn't look like it is a particularly simpler approach. if anything, I see people complaining about this being "dumbed down". Case in point, people are already complaining that they can't have Half-Elves...
The only problem I've found with D&D computer games and character generation is that the games tend to have static set items. So while I could go and make a fighter that specialized in pole-arms I run into the problem that the best pole-arm in the game is only a +1 where there's a ton of vorpal long swords or the like that I can't use. Hence it's usually more of a question of "what usable items are in the game so I don't end up gimping myself later on?"
