Many of these places are highly unusual ones. The Planescape setting gave us infinity to play around with - it seemed a waste not to play around with the locations and the architecture as much as possible. As for the story itself, balancing a compelling narrative with sufficient non-linearity to give players the feeling of free choice is one of the holy grails of CRPG design. While this is clearly an objective that is impossible to achieve to every player s satisfaction, Chris Avellone does express overall satisfaction at the balance the game achieves. I think we did all right, he reflects.
Torment is a mix of non-linear and linear elements.
We had to have some linear elements to keep some plot elements and the design from getting too out of control. One element that significantly affects how you reach these chokepoints is character class. As noted previously, the Nameless One begins as a Fighter. Within perhaps the first third of the game, he can train to become a Thief and a Mage. Conveniently, these include Annah for the Thief class and Dak kon for both Fighter and Mage, so if these two are members of your party, you can essentially change classes at will.