What video game resembles tabletop D&D the most?

I've been looking for a game that most resembles tabletop D&D. I know Kights of Pen and Paper does a bit and so does Card Hunter. The Baldurs Gate and Pillars of Eternity do but a lot of the 'dice rolling' goes on behind the scenes. They don't feel like you are really role playing. Maybe something that has a Dungeon Master that pushes the party forward. Crazy classes and crazy spells. Permadeath would be an option as that happens in the tabletop games. So, are there any videogames out there that I am missing that brings the turned based fighting, choices of action, the adventure and character building of D&D?

I don't know if there is a game that really does what are you saying, showing the dice rolls. The new game Divinity OS II has a Dungeon Master mode and everything, and looks great, so you should check it out.

@artisanbreads: I just looked that up. It seems pretty spot on but....you need 5 players I think. I was hoping more of a single-player focused game where you can have a group of heroes. Plus my PC is beyond not able to run that game. Hoping for a console port. One thing about Card Hunter was that they created 'modules' for the game that looked just like the D&D game modules. But that obviously doesn't play like an RPG entirely..it had cards (duh). I just am suprised that WOTC never made an accurate videogame version that replicates the tabletop game. I think at one point a few years back they were working on it but that was a long time ago.

The Temple of Elemental Evil is probably the closest you'll get to a simulacrum of tabletop Dungeons and Dragons. At least, the it recreates the rules and tactical combat of D&D 3.5 with a lot more faithfulness than something like Neverwinter Nights.

That's probably not what you're looking for though. I don't think there's anything out there that can really capture the breadth and flexibility of tabletop RPGs. As mentioned, the newly released Divinity OS 2 has a DM mode, 4-player co-op, and turn-based combat, though I can't exactly vouch for it myself.

@evilcalvin: yeah, card hunter and knights of pen and paper are kind of the two games I can really think of that actually lean into the pen and paper thing hard.

I'm sure there will be a console version of D:OS II at some point.

I do think there's plenty of room for what you're saying. There are some bits of that kind of thing happening but it'll only continue to grow I think. There's certainly creative aspects missing from RPGs that would benefit from finding a way to bring in the pen and paper magic.

@artisanbreads: I really felt the Wizardry games leaned in that direction but the last real one was about 15 years ago.

I have never played d&d. My partner and i have been playing described as a table top d&d like. Its in early access on steam called For the King. It doesnt have as much customisable options as d&d but as you pick things up you character becomes pretty unique. Its also perma death. The way it does dice rolls and hiy rates is quite clear and good!

@evilcalvin: Look into the Neverwinter Nights games if you haven't already. They're a bit old (NWN2 is from '06), but they're the closest approximations of the D&D rulesets that I can think of since the Infinity Engine games.

I can't think of anything that really models the out-of-game aspects of D&D, though. Not like Card Hunter tries to.

Agreed on Neverwinter Nights. The first game was built as a multiplayer experience with a campaign that was... tacked on to show what you could do with the mod tools. It's highly scriptable - if you're familiar with C, you should be able to jump right in. if you can't, there are tons of scripts out there, modify what you need and go.

Or, if you just want to drag and drop, you can paint maps in the level editor. Players can log in to your server and you can enter as an invisible DM. Take control of NPCs, spawn mobs, move players from map to map. You can do dice rolls and skill checks that aren't behind the scenes.

I had it working on a netbook at one point, so I imagine it'll work on anything nowadays.

Technically, NWN2 is supposed to be the better looking game. I've never like its art style, the modding tools are much harder to use, and the content creation community never really drifted over to NWN2. The camera is also butt.

Divinity Original Sin 2 is supposed to have a DM mode, though I haven't seen or read much about it.

Then there's Roll20 and TableTop simulator...

Otherwise...

Fallout New Vegas. That's never the wrong answer...

The 3ds RPG Crimson Shroud you actually see the dice rolling on screen, and the characters and monsters all look like D&D figurines. It doesn't otherwise resemble D&D any more than other RPGs, but I thought it was a neat aesthetic choice.

The old Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, and Neverwinter Nights games are all pretty close, with some definitely being more mechanics-heavy than others. I'm know that at least some of them have a battle or activity log that tells you what's being rolled.

@jaycrockett: Yeah, the dice/combat system in Crimson Shroud is bizarre (and not very good imo), and the overall game and story are painfully linear because it's a pretty small scoped project, but it's pretty fun to roll those virtual plastic dice, and the miniatures are a nice touch.

During the adaptation a lot of games obfuscate the dice and some of the mechanics, such as turn based combat.

Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, and Planescape Torment arguably make the best translations from the table to the screen. Neverwinter Nights does the best job of making DM and campaign creation a part of the experience, though the single player campaigns are not entirely the best. (Plenty of good player made ones though.) I don't know of any game that that supports the meta experience, physically rolling dice, character sheets, etc. An interesting idea though.

If you're looking for the tabletop experience, I would argue that no game does it purely. The freedom that a DM can give to his players is greater on paper than in what a game can be. A game has pre-defined limitations that a dungeonmaster doesn't have to follow.

If you're just looking for the "feel", Neverwinter Nights got it the closest in my opinion. You can build modules for people to play, or play other people's modules. They also allow you to have a window open which will show you all of the dice rolls and things that other games tend to calculate and perform behind the scenes. I loved playing the game as a kid and watching the dice results as my character attacked.

If you drop wanting to see the behind the scenes then Pillars of Eternity, Divinity Original Sin 2, or Baldurs Gate 2 are great options.

Disco Elysium has diceroll functions for almost any action you do in the game. KOTOR also has invisible diceroll for its combat that decided whether or not your attacks will hit.

If you really want to go back thirty years or so, Eye of the Beholder is the best simulation of D&D that there was out there. But you probably want something more up to date, and I remember Amiga Power crapping all over the other SSI D&D games.

Doesn't the new Baldur's Gate show you actual dicerolls? It's a real hog in terms of what specs it requires, but I think it does have actual dice rolls in it.

But yeah, the original Baldur's Gate and its spinoffs and sister games are the closest you'll really get. I tried to play them online in the very early days of internet play, but was hopeless at remembering I didn't have to control the other party members and gave people a lot of grief when pausing the game. I remember NWN coming out when I was in my 20s but somehow I always managed to get computers that were ok for internet and writing stuff on them but only ran the most basic of games. So I gravitated away into things like Civilization which my computers could cope with better.

The other thing is aesthetic of a real TTRPG and interaction/camaraderie between players, and to be honest WoW with a guild party who knows what they're doing is the best fun I've had outside actual tabletop games. But it's harder to get that experience unless you have a solid social guild or want the really hardcore experience of end-game raiding. And they've streamlined the single-player experience to the point where replayability has really suffered. I love the game, don't get me wrong, but the amount of effort you have to put in to get a real roleplaying experience is too much.