"Focus more on fun, than challenge" <-- See this? That's it, right there.
CoA2 was pretty crazy power wise but one thing it did extremely well was the focus on fun. You had an idea? You ran with it, no matter how silly it may have been. DMs did weird and wacky spur of the moment events, like maze runs/scavenger hunts and the community loved it.
You can't match the awesomeness of House DeSchurr.
http://darkmessiah.net/Cards/CoA_Deschurr.html
(Bet no one ever expected me to post again. Hah!)
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-re ... ?t=1875476
Read it.
And (possibly) weep with joy.
This is possibly the greatest video on Youtube.
I finally got a PS3:
parallax_2814
The best idea when you have no ideas is to play, as it was named, a 'fluid character'. You are a boy, that just came to Arabel. Everything else is in the hands of the world around you. You're true neutral as many commoners, and wheter you become a villain, or a paladin, a thief or a law enforcer is in the hands of those that you will meet, those that will turn your blank canvas into a colourful painting.
I did pretty much that with a character of mine (Selsal Thervain) and it worked out pretty well - she'd go with whichever 'side' found her and invited her in first. It won't work every time but if you're stuck, it can help you along a bit.
The main problem I see is the mix of high level characters around at the moment.
For example; you may have a bunch of high level ebul people; they can't do Kanthea's because they would be, rightfully, shot in the face on the way there.
As for high level good people, there's not really that many of them and usually they're too busy dealing with other things - plots, helping out lower level guys, stuck in meetings in HQs, waiting for the ebul people to appear so they can shoot them in the face, etc.
Also not knowing about said quests is a bit of a hindrance. There may be a bunch of quests that a level 10 character can go on. But off the top of my head I can think of three (frost giants, Kantheas, bresk vampire).
Harry sent me lots of tells as well. I think he was dumbfounded that we all weren't dead!
I know I expected us all to die against a Beholder and a room full of cultist scum…
But, yeah! Teapots saved the day!