Lol, I don't know a single person why played BG 1 and wasn't obliterared by the assassins at Friendly Arm Inn on their first attempt(s), probably one of the most challenging encounters in the whole game imo.

Haha, I remember back in the days of Dragon Age: Origins, first thing I did when I've finsihed it, I fired up BG2 with some old save from fairly early on it the game - and I got butchered in seconds...I thought to myself - holly shit, is this how hard that game was, I do remember it being hard, but I was managing it quite well the first time, what happened in the meantime?

So glad PoE is what they promised it would be, a worthy spiritual successor to BG, PT and ID, though I'd still prefer if it was a true D&D setting and rules.

Origin was great imo but not the same as BG, Icewind Dale and the other classics. Heck; even Neverwinter Nights I would rate above Origins.

Yeah, they lost the rights to use D&D rules, I believe Wizards of the Coast have the official license to that. We could always hope for a coop between the two in the future; at least these guys proved that they can still make mindblowing games. And if early rumors are anything to go by; we finally have proof that games besides mindless blockbuster drivel can sell really well, I understand the reception has been crazy!

Icewind Dale was like a whole other level of difficulty. I have to admit, I completely chickened out of playing through it for any significant amount of time.

Oh, definitely, while Origin is decent game, it's nowhere near Infinity Engine Era games...or NwN, especially NwN2: MotB.

And I'm really hoping that in the future they'll be able to strike a deal for D&D - while I'm enjoying PoE immensely, at times I somehow feel bit odd playing it - visuals, story and gameplay are as good as classics, but system is different and unfamilliar...maybe I just need more time to get used to it, or maybe I just have D&D too much intertwined in my head with Bioware/Black Isle classics.

I hated the fire kobolds in Firewine Bridge.Nasty, and they gave you very little exp.

Great news indeed. In the past, Temple of Elemental Evil was not a particularly outstanding AD&D game, but it had some insanely tough battles, and being severely outnumbered, if not the norm, was quite frequent anyway. Outside of AD&D games, in Gothic II, even when you already were high level, skeletons were so badass with swords (and fast even with two-handed ones) that even using rusty ones they could shred you to pieces in a few seconds in melee if more than two of them attacked you simultaneously. In the past this was quite normal, now let's just hope that at least with crowdfunding, that has the ability to greenlight devs to make challenging games without worrying, as they can count since the beginning on the minimum sales required to stay afloat, we'll get again more of them.

The tactical aspect of Temple was fantastic though; the D20, or 3rd edition D&D rules, are a lot deeper in many ways and it places more focus on positioning, flanking and carefully aiming area-of effect attacks, it also makes boosts and buffs a lot more useful and lifted classes such as Cleric and Rogue into a position where they were actually useful in combat, as opposed to the old D&D rule sets.

I've played 1st, 2nd and 3rd edition D&D roleplaying games when I grew up, did it for years and loved every second of it, I've also tried Rolemaster, Vampire the Masquerade, Battletech and countless custom RPG's we made ourselves.

I'm hoping that games such as Pillars shows that there are plenty of customers like us; people who crave a challenge and want good writing and depth in our gameplay, and we have a lot more cash to spend on games and gaming as well and don't need to convince our mum to buy anything for us...

I love the Gothic series as well, it has unforgiving combat indeed and is an open world game without the hand-holding and level scaling of titles like Oblivion (and to an extent; Skyrim) and the world is a lot richer and more varied than games like Fallout 3 and even New Vegas. The first time I played Gothic II many years ago, I ran into three black Wargs when I was still level 3; I have never died so quickly in another RPG and it was amazing, it was a world filled with actual danger and I couldn't glitch my way to victory or smack them dead from early on. The only way was to find great gear and level up, do quests and return later to give them their end, and that is what RPG's should be about.
Most modern RPG's have taken to becoming very action oriented and where older RPG's took elements from other genres and combined them; newer RPG's often have their entire core and base concepts soaked in other genres and then take some elements from RPG's.
There's a reason why "what is an RPG?" has become such a hot topic, in here and elsewhere and there is a great divide between the old guard, such as you or I and the other posters in this thread, and the youth and kids who grew up with Mass Effect and Dragon Age 2 as their pinnacle of RPG's.

In case it wasn't clear already; it warms my gamer heart to hear other people sharing the same conviction and love for old school, challenging gameplay, good writing and proper character development!