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Human man Human man Does whatever a human can Stays up late Looks at memes Gives up on his hopes and dreams

I've been taking a break from Deadfire (1700 hours, man) to give Wrath of the Righteous a shot, and here are some thoughts. I know some people here are genre RTwP fans, and options these days are pretty limited, so I thought I'd share some opinions because a desire for another RTwP is what really drove me to give WoTR a try. Background: I pretty much disliked Pathfinder: Kingmaker quite a bit. Terrible encounter design, I could not get over how terrible the writing was. It did get me into Pathfinder Second Edition though, so there's that. (Though learning up on the 2nd ed ruleset made me dislike Kingmaker's 1st ruleset even more. [WotR is still 1st ed pathfinder rules]) On the game itself: I actually enjoy WoTR, definitely much more than PK. Part of it is better story focus - the stakes are much clearer from the beginning. Encounter design is better; there are still those stupid "come back later" encounters, but it's not as bad as in PK, they're broadcast a bit more (less likely to just stumble into them without warning) and so far there's no loot behind it (so really they're just for the challenge); they really just seem like minor megabosses scattered throughout. Difficulty balancing is better - I play on "Core" which is comparable to somewhere between Veteran and PotD (generally acceptable difficulty and occasional hard fights), and it's better than P:K where Core was too damn easy but the next step up gave enemies so many bonuses (sometimes double-counted) that it basically eliminated most build viability and made many fights an all-or-nothing "everyone got initiative and sneak attacked the enemy" or "a wolf tripped your flat-footed tank and everything snow-balled out of control" binary. There's still those harder difficulties, but I feel like they got a better middle ground this time. YMMV on this one, obviously. Anyway, things that Deadfire/Obsidian did well and has aged well: art/area design. it's funny that we got a complaint about reused assets in another thread, because WotR is a whole heck of a lot of tile re-use. Areas look really same-y and it can be hard to geographically center yourself without constant reference to a map. the nuts and bolts of RTwP interfaces. Translucent spell effects when paused, constantly visible targeting circles and selection circles and health/engagement indicators, compacted combat log entries (where related entries or AoE spells get grouped into one expandable entry), adjustable speed, holy crap all amazing quality of life things that are missing form WotR which is several years newer. Even though I hate on the Deadfire combat tooltip becoming vertical walls in later fights, it's aces better than what WotR does (at least it's no longer hidden behind a Knowledge check like in P:K). AI scripting and smarter default AI behavior and scripts. WotR pretty much just only lets you automate one single ability at a time and your character will do it nonstop without pause. Pretty much only good for cantrips or other infinite-use abilities. Writing. I'm playing WoTR in german so it's a bit hard to assess (I'm at best B1-grade proficiency, plus it's a translation) but it feels a bit better than P:K but damn some of the character development is still just dumb and two-dimensional. having a fixed D&D-style alignment doesn't really help, but it's also not handled well where you get comically binary dialogue choices just so you can fulfill a "good" option or an "evil" option. better leveling/multiclassing system. i mean, 3/3.5e-style multiclassing is a travesty, so not going to spend much time here. rule clarity. yeah Deadfire is dense, but auto-generated tooltips and hover menus are plentiful and viability is still generally ubiquitous. Even with better tutorials of basic concepts in WotR, you're just tossed head first into the pathfinder system, which is full of jargon and build traps (e.g. heavy armor is not a good long-term strategy for defense). Plus, while there are hover menus, it's not expansive - I have to constantly reference other sites or the pathfinder rules to remember what particular afflictions do. the only saving grace is that there's a larger pathfinder community so there's tons of threads explaining rules or why certain builds are terrible ideas Things that Obsidian should learn from WotR in any future RTwP endeavour: Getting the story stakes right. I'm not one of the people who have complained a lot about Deadfire's story, but WotR really communicates the big stakes to you very clearly from the start and constantly updates you with it, and it does really draw you in much better than the kind of distant concerns over Eothas and the various Deadfire factions. It does this (at least so far) without even the heavy-handed timer countdowns of P:K! This is a vast improvement over P:K. I had a similar criticism of BG vs BG2; BG2 tossed you in the middle of a suspenseful dungeon break after being captured by a mysterious (and charismatically voice-acted) Irenicus, whereas BG you were wandering around some open meadows and just given slight suggestions of "hey maybe you should go south to Nashkel at some point." Turn-based really seems like table-stakes for a RTwP game now, and it shouldn't be a separate option you only have one chance to choose. You can swap in/out of turn-based mode with the press of a button in WotR. Especially since WotR implements 5-foot-steps in turn-based mode, and because of some of the sprawling fights, it's nice to have that option at hand, even if I generally don't use them. "Going first matters" - I get that turn-based in Deadfire was kind of added on, but Owlcat has done the "initiative" concept the best in any RTwP I've played; I'm glad they designed RTwP with this primarily-turn-based concept in mind, even ignoring how broken sneak attack can be in P:K (less so in WotR i think). Ridable animal companions!!!! Seriously, I never realized how much I needed this feature in a game until playing WotR. Great implementation of rest mechanics. WotR is a rest-based game (not encounter-based), but even ignoring that, resting is the downtime for your characters to craft scrolls/potions, cure ability damage (much more common vs P:K), but at the same time areas become gradually cursed the longer you rest in them from the demon invasion, which adds buffs to your enemies as you cross thresholds; a high religion ability from someone assigned this job at rest can slow the curse down, but not stop it from advancing. If Deadfire had things gentler than Wounds as well that don't require knock out (like ability damage or long-term diseases), there'd be more of an incentive to rest. At the same time, rest-spamming to refresh empower points or per-rest item abilities would be more constrained if the concern wasn't simply "you'll run out of shark fish soup." I'm actually one of those weirdos who enjoyed the optional constraint in PoE1 where you can only access your stash upon rest. Feeling "epic." Yeah, I tend be a very strong Balance Guy, and WotR is a little bit on the overkill side with the mythic paths, but it definitely helps with the story stakes and sense of progression. If the watcher abilities had been a lot more notable, that could really have helped. I'm not going to gloss over the fact that a lot of players liked BG2's Throne of Bhaal for similar reasons, even though I personally hated its mechanics. A better rest mechanic and resource constraints would make it easier to make e.g. more powerful/epic-feeling watcher abilities without messing up the balance. really sprawling battles. sometimes set-pieces, sometimes an encounter that merges with another, I just feel like these are set up better, whereas Deadfire everything tends to be isolated, and even the ship-to-ship fights happen within a small like 10m space. That being said, if anyone's itching for a newer experience, or just wants another angle to appreciate Deadfire by, I do recommend giving WotR a try. It's no Disco Elysium, but it ain't shabby.

Well perhaps I can get a little bit of redemption from you snobs with the knowledge that I showed my kids The Matrix a few months ago and told them that is where the story ends.

You've probably seen in older topics that Whirling Strike is fairly amazing while equiping a ranged weapon in main-hand (like a mortar) and a melee one in off-hand. Most of the other Full-Attack do normally a simple attack according to the target range, using either ranged or melee weapon. Actually, Mob Stance' Full attack is regardless of the weapon range while equiping ranged weapon in first slot and melee one in second, like Whirling Strike. But the star of this kind of Full-Attack is SC barbarian : Heart of Fury is basically a barbarian version of Whirling Stike, and the Barbaric Reliatation and Vangeful defeat trigger both some full-attack using melee and ranged weapons (but only if the ranged one is in main). The monk Whisper of the Wind use also both ranged and melee weapons : Full attack Abilities with the mention Range : melee or 1,5m around the caster work like this. I personally prefer than the mortar the Weyc' Wand, the seal have "just" 50% chance to proc on crit, but with good perception.. There is no weapon that synergise better with Combusting Wounds and Avenging Storm IMO. I tried first with a SC Furyshaper dwarf with high con-, high per-, low dex-, 46 deflections and high AR. I nammed him The Susceptible Peaceful Dwarf because he killed everyone with the Weyc Wand and the Aldris Blade without did an attack to anyone. And I finally looked for the SC monk : Whispers of the wind leave a trail of seals, in one use all the ennemies get 10-20 stacks of Resonant touch, increasing each second. The weyc wand was dualwielded with Sun and Moon (2 chances to produce another Wand attack (because Main hand) with swift flurry and heartbeat drumming, so another potential seal). Because ennemies health, I couldnt use Resonant touch while Avenging storm turned on.. I havent enough imagination to choose a name for this one. Maybe just Wind. Edit : I just retry with just Swift Flurry (and Heartbeat Drumming) attacks in melee with sun and moon on Offhand, and when that proc another attack, this is from the Weyc Wand in main hand. That mean even on multiclassed monk, that is working. Little note : about Gambit, there is no limit range so the weapon used is depending of the ennemy distance, but the seal or other Grave Calling-like weapon procs will refound guiles when crit.

The writing in P:K was so bad that I stopped pretty quickly. I can't get over such things. The bonbon-ish graphics didn't help either. So I don't think I will give WotR a try. Not that the PoE games are perfect. I don't care about RTwP or Turn Based even. But pretty much every CRPG I tried after the PoE games left me disappointed. I guess I'm spoiled somehow... cute Only Orlans please! Yeah that would have been great. I also would have liked to see Xaurip Beastmasters riding Grubs (hello Dune) and Drakes and such. I mean look at Llengrath! Druids have Charm Beasts. Ciphers charm/dominate everything... So there's explanation why it could be more common. --- Has not much to do with the main point of your post, but about the Watcher abilities: I think I would have preferred a separate (small?) Watcher "class tree" - similar to the other class trees where you could have spend points you gained during those main quest lines. And not make then all per-rest but also include some passives and per-encounter stuff. For example that conjuring of spirits in the docks when you reach Neketaka: why isn't that an ability you can use more often/at will? Bunch of spirits that follow you become visible and distract the enemies or whatever. Everything's there: the models, animations, sound effects and so on. That would have been plausible and cool I think. As is: I never even use the Watcher abilities unless I'm in a situation most dire and I have nothing else left. And that's almost never the case.

So will the rest of us tbh.

This forum is by pricks, for pricks.

a couple things: when i bring up the executables or tools wheel, i can see my health, thirst & hunger. can we add the clock to that as well? it's a lil frustrating trying to check the in game time & having to go into the inventory. the scab beacon isnt all that helpful. is there any chance it could be radial in design so that the beacon becomes directional to how the character is facing? now the chopping list. it's nice! but it could be more helpful: could there be a way to add our own 'quests/tasks' so that when we could create our own lists that we can complete? this would help keep folks organised when embarking out from a home base in pursuit of doing particular things. could be that in the actual build wheel i press LB & then im allowed to increase or decrease values for pebblets, acorns, etc. also, being able to add unbuilt items to the chopping list so i can track how much of something i should carry in my backpack (hauling for stems might not be as easy to implement but at least being shown how many stems remain for a construction project would be great)

I'm in favor of everyone always being able to enjoy their favorite things, including the worst no good terrible very bad parts of it...so long as they aren't trying to convince the rest of us that it's any good, . I watched the first one for the first time a few years back and really liked it, hence why Aliens has been on my "yeah I should do that..................eventually" list. Being a bigger, dumber action movie does sound less interesting, but I suppose I really ought to get to get it done and over with someday soon. It's the only other one that's supposed to be any good, as far as I know. I have to be honest with you - although I've actually for real seen both Matrix 2: Redevilutionizer and Matrix 3: Resonancecascadization, I am having the darnest time trying to remember what happens in one versus the other. All I'm remembering are small details like...Neo being stuck in some kind of train station loop, some really awful meme-y looking martial artists, a white room with a billion cameras...I think that's the second one. The third one is just a billion Agent Smiths and the giant mech defense of whatever the hell the human sanctuary was called? Icon? Cyclon? ...Ah, screw it, it's not worth remembering anyways.

Clearly. The funny thing is, all the missions you do for the baseball guy, the regimental team you were supposed to sabotage actually ends up playing better out of determination and has increased fan support.

Driving a rusty nail through your nether regions is probably more enjoyable than watching Star Trek Discovery. I'm also pretty sure that won't help, and I have no desire to try. There's no way I'd ever engange in self-inflicted harm that in any form causes actual damage to my skin. Warm water starts to hurt at a temperature that everyone else I know considers too cold to shower with, any form of cutting or tearing is just out of the question. But yeah, get help instead of inflicting self harm, that's a much better approach. More difficult too, I imagine, but much better.

I was already theorizing that Clow kept a "forward time travel" card to himself, the opposite of Return, so probably not. I'm sure I'll love the movie, it seems impossible that I wouldn't. The BD version I have of the Sealed Card actually has the Kero-chan "movie" at the end. I only already know this because I had to make sense of the different run-times and had to figure out why they were so wildly different between different blu-rays. IIRC, the Japanese BD sort of just has it tacked on at the end, while it's...either separate or simply not there in the US BD. Or the other way around, either way, I don't remember the exact details.

Wouldn't that be something. On the one hand, I'd like to say with confidence that won't happen, on the other hand... you enjoyed the first film a lot more than I did (compared to the series' state at the time it is supposed to be watched I'd rate that one at a measly 7, at best, while the series burns bright with some of the best episodes and the best writing and highest average quality) so there might be less of a difference in enjoyment between the two, if there is any at all. Since the title is "The Sealed Card" I guess it's not too much of a spoiler to say that the asspull in the film is: If that doesn't bother you, the biggest criticism I had falls by the wayside. The film won me over within the first two minutes, the opening is so great and funny on both an in-universe and meta level that I had to turn it off and laugh for a while (and come post about it before continuing), so I might be a bit blind to its other faults, i.e. while it's a perfectly made capstone to the series it also helped itself to certain parts that already came up. 's about all I can say without venturing into spoilers. There's a Kero-Chan movie special too, you should definitely watch that one. It's totally awesome. Oh, there is a tone shift towards ending the story arc, that is pretty undeniable, but a lot of the better episodes in the arc happen in the second season too. There's a definite break in between the ending of the first and the beginning of the second season. It seems so strange, the first arc feels completely plotted out and well crafted as a whole, but the seasons are really lopsided in episode count. I agree somewhat, but still consider Stranger Things one of the mini-series that got good sequels. Unlike, say, season two of Westworld... ugh.

All the Matrix movies are great (except the very dated CGI)! @KP Cross Split Attack The Animatrix explains how the war with the machines came to be.

Yeah, fair enough. I'm mostly interested in story, so Disco Elysium was excellent for me. I'm not very much into combat mechanics, as engineering, for the lack of a better term, is not really something that interests me very much.

It's an anthology film, ergo it is another Matrix movie. Don't make me get out Mari or the JoJo tongue gifs.

The Animatrix would like a word.

In other purpose, equiping Scordeo's Trophy in first hand give an "immediat" great bonus to recovery time with Whispers of the wind Edit : I see you already posted something about that

That's the same as suggesting more than one Matrix film was made. It's something that contemptuous fools occasionally do...but that's all, .

Weren't there 6 movies? They've held up very well. I watched them last summer with my son and he enjoyed them quite a bit, and it got him to read The Hobbit. But 20 years is a long while, and I would imagine generating interest with a new generation is part of the reasoning. Still a long ways to go before we are drowning in Tolkien content like we are with Marvel and Star Wars.

I think Hand Mortar is still the better pick for Whispers of the Wind/Resonant Touch because Blinding Smoke (every crit of the shot, including AoE hits, proc a cone attack that disorients) also triggers Resonant Touch as well as Avenging Storm despite not dealing any damage itself (this was nerfed in Community Patch). If you attack like 5 enemies with Whispers of the Wind with high ACC you usually generate so many Resonant Touches that most enemies die after the first WotW+Resonant Touch. This also works with Whirling Strikes and Heart of Fury, but obviuosly they come without Resonant Touch. Also refund for Gambit etc. But yes, the Weyc's Wand is very good because of the awesome Seal. If it wouldn't come so late it would be one of my preferred weapons, too. Barb's Heart of Fury works with two ranged weapons, Barbaric Retaliation, too. In that it's a bit different from Whirling Strikes.

The new Dune is a better movie but I do think the old one was more fun. I haven't bothered with WoT but Hawkeye has been much better than I expected.

Star Dreck, Venal Disease, season 4, episode 3: Current Burnham crying counter 1:3. Current Burnham crying counter still at 1:3. Please excuse me while I go slit my wrists. I hear bloodletting causes a sensation of euphoria, which is why it was used as treatment during the Dark Age. It didn't help any with the actual disease you had, but you didn't care for a while.

'WRONGFUL CONCEPTION' Showjumping star, 20, wins right to millions after suing her mum’s doctor claiming she should never have been born.

It's two seasons, but one story arc. I can only imagine it was two seasons only from a production viewpoint (with the break in between for the first movie), because that never made any sense. Netflix splitting them up into a Clow Card arc and a Sakura Card arc makes a good deal more sense, and it's odd to have one 35 and one 11 episode season. Great finals are really rare indeed. This topic came up before and some posters often cite shows I haven't watched as shows with great endings. Nothing readily comes to mind for me though. TNG had a great episode as a final, but it was just a two parter. If we count the second Sakura movie as series ending then that's great, but was written and animated as a capstone movie. Mini-series are easier because they're usually "just" longer movies and properly plotted out all the way through, but when they are successful they get a second season and it's just going down the drain, usually. That never felt like an issue with Cardcaptor Sakura, but it's really just that the story idea of the second arc wasn't as strong as the first one, by any objective and subjective measure. I still have a hard time ignoring the ups and declare the Clow Card arc the better arc, and some of the episodes simply could not have happened without the prior buildup. Clow Card had a higher average quality, I think. Sakura Card had single episodes that were stand out moments for me. Not easy to decide. The new Westworld for instance would have had a great ending if it just ended when it was supposed to. But nah... studios keep ordering more oodles of cash. Makes sense from a business point of view, of course. Nope, that's not acceptable. When next you feel like watching Samurai Hairdo, just click on Cardcaptor Sakura: The Sealed Card instead.

https://www.thebeaverton.com/2021/12/unvaccinated-toronto-police-officers-on-unpaid-leave-told-that-if-they-wanted-paid-leave-they-should-have-shot-somebody/ "Over one hundred uniformed members of the Toronto Police Services who have not been vaccinated have been placed on unpaid leave after being informed they did not meet the brutality requirement to access paid leave. “I want to emphasize that the vast majority of TPS members did fulfill their duty by getting vaccinated or committing acts of violence against unarmed members of the public,” stated Police Chief James Ramer in a press conference. “The reputation of the Toronto Police remains intact.” While some unvaccinated members of the TPS who were placed on unpaid leave did try and upgrade to paid leave by beating, maiming or murdering civilians, Chief Ramer pointed out that paid leave is only provided to officers who get caught."

Wrong thread. What I meant to post here was: Glad the autumn sales are over. Nearly bought stuff.

u could use the crossbow to launch a zip line anchor so that u don't have to build up to that place first

Yeah, it could somewhat be renamed "Scourge of Hauani O Whe" because it is its one realistic purpose. Maybe poking Belranga too ?

I like Cloak of the Theocrat on almost every build that needs int. It's easy to farm and I usually end up having 2 or 3 and I think it's the only cloak that gives INT.

This is the New Game + version that the game offer

Yes, it's cool. But because it comes so very late it doesn't play a role in any of my build ideas. Maybe if I wanted to do a crossbow char - but then crossbows don't have exciting uniques or they are gated behind certain decisions regarding factions. I had the same problem with Acuan Giamas in PoE. A morning star with wounding and basically Grimoire Imprint on hit - supercool really. But it's in Llengrath's bog which is one of the last maps of the game. Meh... Maybe exporting/importing is a solution (if it doesn't make you feel cheaty).

What do you think about Scourge of Bezzello ? Granted that it comes super late and is a loot from one of the hardest fight, it appears to me that this weapon has an interesting property : it is a crossbow with 3 hits. Why do I think it is so great ? Apart for the usual feat from multi-shot weapons (Avenging Storm, triple roll for applying afflictions), I think it combines perfectly with the Crossbow modal in order to be the perfect interrupting weapon. Because yes, you get triple chances of interrupting from normal Hit. Which is especially neat when one need to dig through layers of Concentration. Now, of course, it isn't meant to be the main weapon of a build, but as a secondary/situational one, I think it is pretty good. Basically BiS for its purpose.

Also they scale with other weapon damage modifiers, such as rogue sneak attacks & deathblows.

For the last version of BPM it is the contrary. WoD in base game is -1s for foes, +1s to self WoD in previous version was -2s for foes, +0.25s to self (which was a bit rough) WoD in latest version is -2s for foes, +0.5s to self (which works perfectly in some battles, but can't be used at full efficiency every time)

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I agree that the nostalgia sales pitch worked for selling the first one, but I'm not even sure if they "nostalgia pitched" the second one.. in retrospective I believe to remember that they were far more confident in highlighting the gameplay and graphics advances they made in Deadfire, than trying to speak to the atmosphere of BG1+2. Maybe they should have pitched it more as a "standalone" game than a direct successor to reach more people that never touched the first one or just didn't enjoy the first one. Anyway, it comes down to a failed marketing campaign.

Yes, I think the answer is as simple as this. People wanted that Baldur's Gate fix, some people got it what they wanted and moved on, others saw that after all they craved other things and well moved on. Relying on nostalgia as sales pitch only works once...

Personally, I found PoE2's system the absolute best I've ever played for a cRPG (better than BG, DOS, PoE1, and even Pathfinder). It feels just right and smooth. The problems, IMO were: 1) PoE1 didn't have such a great system when it was released and it took several years of patching to get to a good place. People might have feared the same would happen from PoE2 [I really didn't like PoE1 the first few times I played, but after patching was done, I managed to finish it) and probably didn't know about PoE2 superior system. 2) The Pirate setting is not something I particularly associate with fantasy nor I like that much. I skipped all of Piranha's Bytes [the makers of Gothic] "pirate themed" games for that reason. It's not because it's "too modern" (I loved Arcanum). 3) The Naval management system was very simplistic. 4) I would have preferred moving around with Teleports, flying (Wings/Transformation spells, Flying spells, magical mounts). Comparing that to a "mundane ship" you can see how unappealing it really is.

https://twitter.com/jesawyer/status/1326718682412720129 An interesting bit of discussion on die rolls, BG3, and PoE. I am 100% in agreement with Sawyer. His point is exactly why I have, in recent years, soured on D&D mechanics and don't care for D&D that much anymore. I am so glad he opted against using the D&D SRD for PoE, especially because the resulting original PoE mechanics are far superior to D&D mechanics imo.