Good PC games based on DnD ruleset.

[ArcaneSaint]

Title says it all, I'm looking for good (good as in decent, not alignment-Good) PC (as in personal computer, not PC-character) games that are based on the DnD rules (or similar).
By this I mean RPG's like Neverwinter Nights 2 or Baldur's Gate 2, not the DA or ME or MMO kind of RPG's.

I've played Neverwinter Nights 2 and loved it (But I've never managed to finish it due to my computer going *fizzle* near the end, wiping all progress:smalleek:, and there's no more surprise in the story anymore)
I'm also about to play Baldur's Gate 2 (if I can get it working). But anyway, I'm asking if you guys know any games that are similar to these, preferably more recent ones. I don't mind it if the graphics aren't that good, as long as the story and gameplay are good. (Though if you know any hi-graphics version or a mod that upgrades quality, don't hesitate to say so)

[Sipex]

I'm sorry to say but you just listed off the two most recent games which fit your criteria.

If you want to stretch out a bit you could try Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance (1 or 2) which plays kind of like a D&D meets Diablo.

[Strawberries]

I know I always end up mentioning this game in some fashion, but:

Planescape: Torment. It's on GOG. It's fairly old, but very, very worth it.

[Domochevsky]

There's also Ruins of Myth Dranor if you want to get really oldschool. Like DOSBox oldschool. Same as ...what's it called... Menzoberranzan? (Probably spelled that wrong near the end.)

[ArcaneSaint]

@ Strawberries: Yeah, I've heard about this Planescape: Torment, I'll probably play that one next.

@Sipex: So I suspected.

I've taken a quick look through gog.com and saw something called Arcanum. I've read a RockPaperShotgun article about the latest Arcanum recently and it was.. well.. not so positive. Apparantly the complaint is it strayed too far from its roots. But was the original Arcanum any good?

[factotum]

Latest Arcanum? There was only ever one Arcanum, as far as I know, and while it's an awesome game in nearly every way, it bears about as much relation to D&D as fish sticks do.

[Mx.Silver]

Aside from the Inifinty Engine games (Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, Planescape: Torment) and the Neverwinter Nights games there's not much. Certainly not since those were made anyway. Well, there is the 2001 Pool of Radiance but since you specified good games I'd advise giving that one a wide birth (unless you particularly want a mediocre dungeon crawl that might uninstall your system files if you try to uninstall it).


@ Strawberries: Yeah, I've heard about this Planescape: Torment, I'll probably play that one next.

@Sipex: So I suspected.

I've taken a quick look through gog.com and saw something called Arcanum. I've read a RockPaperShotgun article about the latest Arcanum recently and it was.. well.. not so positive. Apparantly the complaint is it strayed too far from its roots. But was the original Arcanum any good?
I didn't realise there was any Arcanum after the original, on account of the developer folding.
It's not bad, once you patch the bugs away (although the engine leaves a bit to be desired, as it's bascially the same one as Fallout 1&2). It uses its own set of rules rather than DnD.

[ArcaneSaint]

Sorry, I must've mixed it up with another game.


it bears about as much relation to D&D as fish sticks do.
I'd probably make a D&D-joke about fish sticks if I wasn't so tired right now.

[Lord Seth]

Does NetHack qualify?

[Cogwheel]

Planescape: Torment. Play it.


In fact, play it about five times. It's that good.

[Strawberries]

Planescape: Torment. Play it.


In fact, play it about five times. It's that good.


I know I always end up mentioning this game in some fashion, but:

Planescape: Torment. It's on GOG. It's fairly old, but very, very worth it.

Way ahead of you, my friend. :smalltongue::smallbiggrin:

[Maulrus]

Does NetHack qualify?

As fun as NetHack is, its ruleset doesn't really resemble DnD's, does it? The setting is similar, though.

[factotum]

I suppose the question here would be: why does it have to be based on the D&D ruleset? And which D&D ruleset are we talking, anyway--original, or d20? Both of the KotOR games use d20 variant rules, for example, so you could argue they're based on D&D as much as Neverwinter Nights is!

[Fri]

Temple of elemental evil doesn't have any 'storyline' but it's considered the best conversion of dnd rules to crpg ever. If you're interested, don't forget to download the circle of eight unofficial patch, because it's really buggy. But remember, no 'storyline.' Solid team based dnd gameplay though. You can even create scrolls, potions, wands, or magical equipments, with the correct feats. Those are kinda rare in any so called 'dnd based games'

[Iskandar]

If you don't mind somewhat old school graphics, I might recommend Knights of the Chalice (http://www.heroicfantasygames.com/). It is based on the OGL content of D&D 3.5 and is a very good game.

[Cogwheel]

Way ahead of you, my friend. :smalltongue::smallbiggrin:

Pah. Ninja posts? How could you? YOU ARE NO FRIEND OF MINE.



No, but really, I was mostly just trying to add another vote for that. I know you posted it first :smalltongue:

No, I don't know it, wrong person.

[Lord Loss]

I second Nethack, and Planescape: Torment. I've heard good things about Arcanum and Gothic, but I haven't really played them.

[Flickerdart]

There's the Temple of Elemental Evil by Troika, which is probably the most faithful adaptation of 3.5 to the PC, but it only goes up to 10th level and is generally not very good.

[MrPig]

There are also the Drakensang games. They're not based on D&D though.

[warty goblin]

There are also the Drakensang games. They're not based on D&D though.

I'd second that. Drakensang: The Dark Eye is like Neverwinter Nights 2 with all the suck surgically removed. Drakensang: the River of Time is simply delightful - and it looks like they're localizing the add-on into English as well, so I'm stoked.

[Eldan]

Pah. Ninja posts? How could you? YOU ARE NO FRIEND OF MINE.



No, but really, I was mostly just trying to add another vote for that. I know you posted it first :smalltongue:

No, I don't know it, wrong person.

Have you heard that someone named Adahn was the first to post about Torment? :smalltongue:

But yeah, Planescape: Torment is amazing. Warning, though: it has a storyline that is very much non-standard for a D&D fantasy world. In fact, a lot of it was deliberately written to be different from standard D&D fantasy. As such, for greater effect, I'd suggest playing Baldur's Gate or Icewind Dale first to get into a generic mood.
Also, it's a game where talking usually wins over fighting, and where Wisdom is by far the most important stat.

[Spartacus]

Ruins of Myth Drannor has a bug that, while not game-destroying, is system destroying. Uninstall it, and you uninstall your system files.

[Comet]

Also, it's a game where talking usually wins over fighting, and where Wisdom is by far the most important stat.

For my first character, I decided to be clever and put all my points into INT, WIS and CHA. I thought I was setting myself up for a challenge for the sake of roleplaying or whatever, but it turned out that what I was actually doing was optimizing. I was really pleased with myself for the entire game.
Torment is one of those games that I wish I could forget about so that I could replay it without any previous knowledge.

[Fri]

There's the Temple of Elemental Evil by Troika, which is probably the most faithful adaptation of 3.5 to the PC, but it only goes up to 10th level and is generally not very good.

Yeah, if you're aiming for a game with good storyline or characters or such, you won't like it. But if you just want to play a dnd 3.5 hack and slash campaign, you might want to try it.

[BlackSheep]

Have you played the Neverwinter Nights 2 expansions? Mask of the Betrayer is widely praised as far superior to the original game. I haven't played Storm of Zehir, but I don't remember it being panned or anything.

[Eldan]

For my first character, I decided to be clever and put all my points into INT, WIS and CHA. I thought I was setting myself up for a challenge for the sake of roleplaying or whatever, but it turned out that what I was actually doing was optimizing. I was really pleased with myself for the entire game.
Torment is one of those games that I wish I could forget about so that I could replay it without any previous knowledge.

The game also becomes just better when played that way. Sure, you can fight your way through it, but it was quite clearly written with talking in mind. The dialogue is just gorgeous.

[Triaxx]

ToEE is a great game, even if it could occasionally use something more than killing to do.

Co8 is definitely worth the download. Drowfighting is Win.

[u-gotNOgame]

All the games previously recommended are great, but if your looking for something a bit different try Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. It's pseudo DnD and is really BioWare story telling at it's finest. It also has pretty decent replayability thanks to the different endings and paths.

[Miscast_Mage]

One thing I should mention about games built with Infinity Engine and Aurora: They both have some very impressive mods(Baldurs gate and NW/NW2 especially), some of which could rival their original campaigns in length/epicness, or at least be a fun little story/playthrough. That's not even getting into the ones that just add to the original campaign, as opposed to creating an entirely new one. So if you like the same engine but want a different story, get scrounging through mod sites. Sadly, I can't remember any in particular, so you're on your own.

[Shas aia Toriia]

All the games previously recommended are great, but if your looking for something a bit different try Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. It's pseudo DnD and is really BioWare story telling at it's finest. It also has pretty decent replayability thanks to the different endings and paths.

This.
Its not really pseudo-D&D though, its full on 3.0 D&D, complete with identically named feats, skills, etc. . .
Just in a Star Wars universe, so Jedi instead of wizards, blasters instead of bows, and so on.

[Starwulf]

One thing I should mention about games built with Infinity Engine and Aurora: They both have some very impressive mods(Baldurs gate and NW/NW2 especially), some of which could rival their original campaigns in length/epicness, or at least be a fun little story/playthrough. That's not even getting into the ones that just add to the original campaign, as opposed to creating an entirely new one. So if you like the same engine but want a different story, get scrounging through mod sites. Sadly, I can't remember any in particular, so you're on your own.

This, so much this, it's not even funny. Not only are there thousands upon THOUSANDS of mods for NWN and NWN2(and I guess BG2), there are also entirely persistent worlds with people playing as DMs, and regular people running around role playing and stuff. It's like...awesomesauce mixed with coolapples, to make appleawesomecoolsauce! The only issue is to join those worlds, you'll have to do a bit of research to find one that's right for you, and then download any particular mods they use for their world specifically(a lot of them use CEP which is like a Gig download in itself, plus other specific tilesets/character mods.

[Mx.Silver]

One thing I should mention about games built with Infinity Engine and Aurora: They both have some very impressive mods(Baldurs gate and NW/NW2 especially), some of which could rival their original campaigns in length/epicness, or at least be a fun little story/playthrough. That's not even getting into the ones that just add to the original campaign, as opposed to creating an entirely new one. So if you like the same engine but want a different story, get scrounging through mod sites. Sadly, I can't remember any in particular, so you're on your own.

In fairness, it's hard to outdo the NWN OC's in terms of story :smalltongue:
The BG mods mainly serve to alter rules and engine upgrades rather than story, although there are exceptions. Not that that implies they're bad mind, in fact I don't really play without several of them these days. If you haven't ever played the BG games though you should probably go through without mods for the first playthrough though, as the installation processes kind of require some familiarity with the games.

[mangosta71]

There are some bugfixes on those mod sites for BG that will make your first playthrough less frustrating, though.

I seem to recall sorcerers.net (Sorcerer's Place) being the site I used more than any other to mod out BG and BG2. I think there was another called Baldurdash with a bunch of neat/useful things.