I have a young BRAG char, but I haven't taken him out in months. He was able to find armor, but couldn't find a belt until Andariel's room, IIRC.
You haven't talked about skill choices much, but to me it seems like the BRAG can follow 2 very different paths. You can either place points with the goal of being well-rounded regardless of what equipment comes along, or you can try to bring a few specific skills up to higher levels.
I'm kind of thinking that the latter is interesting, and might end up making the character more playable in the long run, much like the D1 AMZ becomes more "normal" over time.
With a BAR, for example, you can choose to pump one mastery, or put a few points in all materies in hopes of being somewhat skilled with anything that drops. My first instinct was to put points into all the masteries, but now I think it would be a good idea to choose one, and stick with it. That way, when you're not wielding your chosen weapon, you're more likely to die, and therefore more likely to find a weapon in your mastery class. Also, when you ARE wileding your preferred weapon, you're hopefully less likely to die. So, you're more likely to hold on to the good weapon.
With a little luck (OK, a LOT of luck), you could even eventually end up with an outfit that works, and with a strong skill distribution, it might end up being a little bit like HC play, with the death penatly being the loss of an item. Of course, Murphy would have to be looking the other way, but we can dream, can't we?
I think Galt brought up a similar point about skills, but I don't even remember if it was on forums or on bnet. I don't know how much is my original thought, and how much was shamefully ripped off from Galt...
The other thing that I swear I read about somewhere, but can't find now, concerns coop and distribution of drops. The problem, as I see it, is that most BRAGs, unless they're much older than the monsters they're fighting, will probably die to act-end bosses (don't tell them that). While this provides the BRAG with a decent chance of finding some worthwhile items, it can also be unpleasant for coopers.
I hope that everyone in RBD games can handle excessive boasting, and even a little bit of excessive monster activation, in the name of role-playing. But, I don't think that any variant's rules should give one player carte blanche to take any and all of the game drops. It's probably safe to assume that everyone in the game has an interest in boss drops, no matter what character they're playing. The presence of a BRAG in the game should not mean that the other characters won't have the opportunity to keep a fitting item if one should fall. I think that we can all use common sense in this regard, but it probably wouldn't hurt to put something about it in the rules, IMO (Galt? Galt?).
-Griselda
