I would like to begin this by asking how many of you actually still remember the first level of the cloakwood mines and the bugbears that resided within? How many of you still remember running infinite loops around this small map that was shaped like the number eight? Do you remember how just about any character was eventually able to do it by just getting their AC up suffieciently high? Do you remember when you could make any role-play build imaginable and still survive on this server? Well, at least I kind of do. And recently I tried to recreate of my more ancient characters, and I noticed that I could not, and simply because I did not have enough feats left to spare. There used to be a time on this server when you did not have to take Toughness, Steadfast Determination, and Blindfight in order to make do with a non-magical melee warrior. The general challenge of this server used to about getting sufficiently high AC and that was pretty much it. You could spend those three feats to get something else, maybe Iron Will, or whatever else general run of the mill role-play would have inspired you to pick. You could afford to make mistakes with your build, and those were at times synonymous with badges of honour. But these days, it just feels like you cannot afford to waste a single feat, or not to min-max your relevant ability scores.
I mean, the only way I would make a character like this on the server would be if it was a 100% RCR time period, I had a level 30 character to spare, and I would have all the necessary epic items bought and prepared to be muled over. For those who did not look at the build in question, it a single class Fighter build that ends up with 16 in every single ability score, and the whole role-play idea behind is to be wanderer of the lands that seeks to master different combat styles and tricks, in other words; different combat modes and combat maneuvers. A bit of a Jack-of-All Trades, Master-of-None. And were I to request comments to improve it, well, I know exactly what I would say: 'It lacks Steadfast Determination -- you are not going to slay just one basilisk and level up, you are going to slay hundreds and thousands, which means that you will eventually roll one and be turned to stone. It lacks Blindfight -- the caster mobs of this server have spells that provide concealment, in addition to AC, so unless you want to wait for their spells to run out, you better get that Blindfight to have at least small chance to land a hit. Also, your AB is just way too low -- you need to discard half of your feats and bee line to Weapon Focus just have some hope of hitting enemies that are not already considerably beneath your HD, and even though might make do by drinking those 1k a pop potions of Greater Heroism, the mobs on this server come armed with fixed dispels. You need to make these changes, unless your entire goal on this server is to just sit at a campfire talking about the soggy leaves in your cup, poured by your local elf or warlock, or just relying on the weekly quests to slowly level up.
These days, all classes have their must have feats. Before, a Wizard or Sorcerer could make do with just Defensive Casting mode to get rid of the Attacks of Opportunity, and these days I would just ask where is their Improved Combat Expertise for that +6 AC, since there are things that will see through invisibility and just flat out ignore your summons because your character is way easier to land hits against. And so on, and so on.
Thus, I have to conclude that role-play builds are no longer a feasible choice on this server. They have not been in a very long time, and no promotion of role-playing ideals will ever overcome the simple fact that you have to slay three or so thousand Basilisks with that instant Save or Die effect.
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So how to change this situation? Well, as I said in the other topic, this server would need the addition of easier areas. Areas with mobs that would have middling AB, AC, HP, Detection Skills, Damage, and armed with either melee or ranged weapons without auras or special abilities. This way, even the worst of the worst role-play builds could overcome the challenge at hand and level up. You could quite literally have large exterior maps running along the river Chiontar for level ranges of 1-5, 6-10, 11-15, 16-20, and 21-25 and these areas could have rotation of of bandits, beasts, lizard men, bug bears, orcs, goblins, kobolds. drow, gibberlings, etc. Not to mention that even if the mobs on these areas would only give something like half of the experience their counterparts would give in the other areas of the server, those role-play characters could still make do, while the usual power builds would just pummel through it all in the exact same manner as they already in the other areas. Now, because easier experience is better experience, I would imagine that most people would in fact choose to grind in these generic areas -- which in and of itself gives the other areas of the server the following perk: you not clearing the Hilltop Ruins for the 132th time in a row, you might not have been there in weeks or months, which makes the whole dungeon suddenly a lot more exciting place to visit. It would make all the other areas far more exciting by the sheer virtue of not having seen those areas in a while. Not to mention that if you play during the low hours of the server, or when a DM event draws every player with an epic character into one specific location, there are areas your role-play character can challenge alone.
And if something similar is done for the Underdark, well, you no longer need to pick Blindfight at level three to overcome the Displacer Beasts, Steadfast Determination at level 6 or 9 to overcome the petrification from Basilisks, and the general harmful effects from mere proximity to mushrooms.
Oh, and these maps could be good places to meet characters of your own level range, which allows you to team up and challenge the areas you would find elsewhere. Because let us face it, if there is someone going through the Hilltop Ruins, by the time your character reaches the place, the other guy might have already entered the second or third level. Or by the time you reach the second level and the dragon, the other guy might have already turned around and gone back to the first level, if not excited the dungeon entirely.
And yeah, these maps may sound grindy and boring, but in my eyes those are insignificant detriments to the general good such areas would bring to this server. Year after year there is talk about promoting role-play builds, party-play -- and these were not an issue during the first years of the server when you just needed enough AC to survive -- the primary issue back then used to be how escape Baldur's Gate before the server crashed or something.
So, if you want to promote role-play characters, this server quite literally needs more of those easy mode areas where you can survive with AC alone. Otherwise, people will try, get fed up with the difficulty, and either RCR into a powerbuild or just leave the entire server behind.
Sunmaster Barristan Schulltze 
