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Greetings, Watchers! We’ve been hard at work delving deep into the code grimoire and tuning the balance of blade and spell—and today, we’re excited to share the results of that effort with a brand new patch. This update addresses a wide range of fixes and improvements across visuals, combat, quests, and more. Whether you're journeying through the Eastern Reach for the first time or returning to tie up loose threads, your path should now be a little smoother. But that’s not all—we have something special on the horizon. Coming later this year, Watchers will be able to help us test a brand-new feature: Turn-Based Combat. We’re excited to explore this new way to experience encounters in Pillars of Eternity, and your feedback will help shape its future. More details on how to participate will be shared in the near future, so keep an eye on our socials and in our discord. For now, read on for the full list of changes in this update—and as always, thank you for walking the path with us. —The Pillars of Eternity Team General Fixes & Platform Support Mac users may now access the latest updates and bug fixes without issue. Resolved a longstanding issue where the game would boot to a black screen on systems using Turkish and certain other non-Latin-based language settings. GOG Achievements should now unlock correctly. Kickstarter and Backer rewards on Steam and GOG are once again granted properly to new players. Steam Linux users: support is now live and will be maintained in future patches. Epic Games Store users will now properly receive their Royal Edition digital rewards. Saved games now sort by most recent activity, regardless of save type (Manual, Auto, or Quick). Visual & Audio Enhancements Characters should now reliably speak when selected—Eder has once again found his voice. Grimoires will now properly vanish from view when reading scrolls. Cutscenes and maps now perform better when viewed in 4K resolution. Fixed rare T-pose occurrences in select cutscenes. Removed unintended "knock" sounds in some dialogue nodes. Act introductions and developer commentary no longer echo unintentionally. Ferry boat in Oldsong no longer appears to be sinking. Corrected VFX alignment for multiple Woodskin spell variants, including Spell Holding and Spell Bind versions. Visual and audio effects restored for Delemgans, Adragan, Pwgra, and Menpwgra spells. Party members immune to poison will no longer complain about being poisoned. All animal companions now make proper footstep sounds. Hiravias' Spiritshift FX now play correctly upon reverting to his natural form. Taena’s VO will now trigger correctly in both instances where it can be heard. Quests & Dialogue Fixes Resolved softlocks involving Aldwyn's services, both in Brighthollow and the Salty Mast after hiring Lyrinia. Simoc in Sacrificial Bloodlines will no longer drop a duplicate quest reward if slain. Slaying the High Monk after receiving Alia Braccia will no longer grant a second copy. A Mother’s Plea now correctly fails if Ranga is killed before acquiring the potion. Abrecan will still accept the letter he requests, even if you already possess it. Krivi’s Od Nua rewards can now only be claimed once. Anamfath Leader in Twin Elms will now continue The Child of Five Suns quest even if Vincent Agosti is dead. Failing Athletics or Dexterity checks in Durgan’s Battery now properly applies the Concussion affliction. Tealdor’s Bounty can now be continued later even if you initially leave the conversation. Turning in the final pieces of the Blade of the Endless Paths while Dunstan is defending the keep now grants proper rewards. Grynde's "ripple sponge addict" accusation exploit has been fixed. Crothar’s fate no longer influences the state of Korgrak’s quest. Combat & Mechanics Fixed a crash involving the Shadow Step ability. Shadow Step is now ground-targeted and no longer treated as a modal. Spellsword Wizards will now prioritize Second Wind over Deleterious Alacrity of Motion when wounded. Party AI will no longer waste Second Wind when Endurance is low but Health is too low to benefit. Party AI will no longer target charmed/confused allies with harmful abilities. Movement commands now hold position briefly, as seen in Deadfire. (Watchers may still attack if able.) Trap Accuracy no longer double-applies the attack’s Accuracy modifier. Constant Recovery now scales properly and outperforms Veteran's Recovery, as intended. Ryona’s Buckle Tenacity Accuracy bonus now updates dynamically with Endurance changes. Iron Circle damage reduction now deactivates correctly when above 26% Endurance. Killing Bolt traps now correctly target Fortitude and no longer display slash damage. Chain Lightning traps now properly deal damage. Abydon’s Hammer will no longer cause permanent Might increases when reforged. The Lady’s Hand now uses a visible trigger for easier tracking on the character sheet. Black Sanctuary shield correctly applies endurance regen during Withdraw. Royal Deadfire Cannoneer belt no longer causes trap recursion. Eyestrike and similar effects no longer trigger on beneficial “attacks.” Powder Burns and similar modals no longer damage allies unintentionally. Fulvano’s Blunderbuss now correctly charms targets on spellchance. Knock Down now respects suppression mechanics and prevents stacking. Characters under Crushing Doom are no longer able to move while proned. Izali's Boon Stealth bonus now properly clears after resting. Scrolls of Minoletta's Bounding Missiles and Boiling Spray now match their respective spells in description and range. Scrolls of Restore Endurance now have updated ranges consistent with the spell version. Salty Mast hirelings now maintain their boons when aiding at your stronghold. Skyward Kick no longer causes bugs like vertical launch or permanent prone states when missing. Multiple Unconscious effects no longer allow movement during incapacitation. UI & Interaction Improvements Culture selection on character creation is now preserved in rare level-up cases. Double-clicking a weapon now equips it to your first weapon slot. Right-clicking creatures now opens their bestiary entries (if discovered). Retraining UI no longer shows white portrait bugs. "Best of" damage types now show correctly in the character sheet. Burial Isle vision sequences can now be properly canceled. Traps that trigger aggression now show appropriate cursor warnings when opened. Trapped chest in the Abbot's Quarter during The Rising Tide can now be looted after disarming. Queued looting actions can no longer be exploited to loot multiple times. Ancestor Pendant’s Guardian Spirit no longer displays erroneous ability info. Invalid names at the end of character creation will now prevent finalization. Attribute bonuses from culture are only displayed after culture is selected. Localization Several Talents that were previously missing translations are now fully localized across supported languages. Known Issues In rare cases, the spell cursor may show an incorrect icon. This should now happen far less frequently, but further improvements are being investigated for a future patch.

Hey folks! @Boeroer and I recorded this discussion on 5 builds he made for Deadfire. I thought y'all might be interested! https://youtu.be/nEdI3x8qxGM

My passion project sees the light of day! What can you do with it? Create builds! Export/import them! Make a build, press Summarize, then use one of the copy buttons below. Look at what abilities do! Mouse over icons on desktop; press icons on mobile/tablet. I don't have any inside info - the data is from fansites and videos - so there are some assumptions behind it that may not be correct: You get one point per level, starting at 2. There are no bonus skill points. The level cap is 25. This I'm pretty sure of, because there is no level 25 tier (which there should be if the cap were 30 or higher), but Iron Fists rank 4 requires level 25. You don't have to spend ability points as soon as you get them. You can hoard them. You can wait until you're level 20 and then learn all level 20 abilities at once. Therefore, the calculator lets you skip levels/hoard points if you turn off strict mode. As a result of these assumptions, there is a maximum of 24 points you can spend in my calculator. This may very well be wrong, so don't take it as gospel. I would love to know if you know/think differently! I have faithfully copied the data as written, other than fixing a few typos here and there, but the following are probably not correct: Rank 2 Corrosive Siphon can permastun an enemy. Freezing Pillar, Blackbow and Pull of Eora can be learned without finding them in a grimoire. These are the only spells that require Grimoire Mastery without having to be learned from a grimoire. I expect they do in fact need to be learned from a grimoire. Sniper is 25% for all ranks. Looking at other passives that are 25% at rank 1, it's probably supposed to be 25%/40%/50% or 25%/35%/40%. And now for some questions you may have about the tool... I want to make a max level build and/or not worry about build order. Turn off strict mode. I exported, but didn't get the build order I had in mind. When you play around and reduce skill levels while in strict mode, the calculator will try to keep your build intact and valid rather than force you to start over, but it cannot always figure out the order when you do this. If you want to be sure it gets the order right, start over and only increase skills to get your build. If you didn't lower any skills while building and the order still ended up wrong, do let me know. I can't increase this skill, why? You've spent all 24 points, the skill has no more ranks, you're missing a pre-requisite (Grimoire Mastery or Unbreakable), or you're in strict mode and taking the skill would cause you to skip levels. I can't lower this skill, why? It's a pre-requisite (Grimoire Mastery or Unbreakable) for a skill you still have. Get rid of that skill first. I have an issue with the calculator. What should I do? Post it here! I have a suggestion for the calculator. What should I do? Post it here! I have made a build that I want to talk about. What should I do? Post it! But not here. Give your build the space it deserves with its own thread!

Greetings Envoys, We want to take a moment to thank you for your continued reports, feedback, and suggestions. Your insights are valuable to us, and we appreciate the time and effort you put into sharing your experiences with us. Our team is committed to ongoing support, and we’re always looking for ways to improve. Your input is key to help us refine and expand Avowed, and we are excited to keep rolling out updates. Within the next few weeks, we are going to be releasing a roadmap that will go over some of the plans we have that will be coming to the game over the upcoming year, so keep your eyes peeled! Thank you for being part of our community—we appreciate your support and look forward to sharing more with you in the future! — The Avowed Team Community Requested Features The player will now receive an additional talent point at levels 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30. Players with save files past those levels will receive the additional points. High Contrast Documents: New option increases font size and applies bold styling to all documents, tutorials, in-game pop-ups, and the ledger's quest tab. Walk Toggle: Players using mouse and keyboard can now toggle between walking and running. HUD Customization: HUD Toggle Keybind: A new keybind (default: Backslash) hides all HUD elements for cleaner screenshots. HUD Opacity Slider: Adjust the transparency of the HUD to your preference. Camera & Compass Options: Third-Person FOV Slider: Added to Graphics Settings. Static Compass Option: Players can now lock the compass to always point North instead of rotating. Controller & Input Improvements: Full support for customizing controller keybinds. Crashes & Major Issues Game Stability Fixes: Fixed a rare crash when switching music during level transitions. Xbox App (PC) Launch Crash Fixed: No longer crashes with error 0xc0000005. Fixed a save data issue causing crashes related to encounter spawning enemies with save/loading. Resolved a Fast Travel crash that could sometimes occur. Addressed a rare crash affecting ROG Ally and Intel-integrated laptops. Main menu frame rate is now capped to prevent crashes and hardware issues. Quests & Dialogues Quest Progression Fixes: The "Quest Available" icon for Ranger Verano no longer appears after the quest becomes inaccessible. "The Finer Things in Battle" quest now triggers reliably and will retroactively complete for players who already met its requirements. Attacking the xaurips in Dehengen’s cabin before the "Find Her Cabin" objective now properly progresses the quest. "Our Dreams Divide Us Still" – Combat at Mount Forja now consistently ends to advance the quest. "Dawntreader" quest fix: Now properly turn-inable to Ofryc even if Kai and Marius are not in the party. "Elder Offerings" quest fix: Now properly resolves if the player both paid for the stolen food and returned it. "Boundaries of Antiquity" quest fix: Prevented an issue where players could skip a required conversation. "An Untimely End." - Ygwulf and the rebels no longer become hostile after sparing him. NPC & Conversation Adjustments: Fixed Adelarro and opponents failing to appear if Dreamthralls were killed before starting a side quest. Amalia will now always give you the key to her camp’s chest when speaking with her. Constable Hajime now correctly rewards players for bounties even if "Heart of Valor" isn’t completed. Marius’s Training Offer: His training offer is now more accessible in conversations. Conversations will no longer drop unexpectedly if enemies detect the player while in dialogue. Restartable Dialogues: Players can now restart conversations with: The illusion in the "Face Your Fears" quest (Shatterscarp). Runyd the watcher if dialogue ended prematurely. Ranger Casagrada in "Steel Resolve" after progressing past "Ancient Soil." Systems & Gameplay Improvements Combat & Enemy Behavior: Arrow Decals Improved: More visible in XSX Performance mode for "The Wasteland Courier" quest. Pistols now hit targets more reliably. Companions with the Shocked status effect no longer electrocute the player when nearby. Enemies react more reliably to arrows impacts. Ranged enemies are less confused when the player moves in and out of cover. Spells & Abilities: Essence cost reductions now properly apply and no longer prevent spellcasting. Fixed cases where totem effects would stop working after conversations or cutscenes. "Into the Fray" ability can now be canceled into other actions sooner, improving combo potential. Quest & Loot Fixes: Fast Travel is now disabled during certain animations to prevent getting stuck when quest items are consumed before progression. If Old Nuna was defeated but the bounty quest didn’t progress, returning to the location now correctly updates the quest. If Belderreno was defeated but no bounty trophy was received, players can now revisit the bounty location to find the trophy. Loot in the Yellowband area no longer falls into the environment, preventing collection issues. Controls & Performance: Mouse 4/5 buttons can now be bound to actions. Optimized elemental accumulation effects for better performance. Optimized the Tebaru Sanakis spirit visuals to improve performance. Reducing VO volume now also reduces reverb/echo for characters. Upscaling no longer defaults to DLSS every time the game is launched. Collision & Environmental Fixes: Adjusted Eothasian temple collision to prevent going out of bounds. Doors at Naku Tedek now correctly unseal when reloading a save if combat was already completed. Fixed rock collision near the Strangled Adra in Dawnshore. Wall textures in Emerald Stair Pargrunen Cache now render properly. Bug Fixes & Miscellaneous General Stability & Fixes: Resolved issues with respawning enemies, such as the Sporeking reappearing after being killed. Fixed unkillable Dreamthralls outside of Thirdborn. Fixed an issue where Ryngrim's rotating wheel would shift when the game was out of focus. UI & Localization Fixes: Gjeda’s Journal no longer contains duplicate entries when playing in French. The description for the food item Saucco now displays correctly in all languages. Medical Supplies quest item now has the correct icon. Navigation & World Interactions: The player can no longer become stuck in the Cistern after dying in combat with Ygwulf. Sliding under obstacles now works properly. The player can now properly talk to Ambassador Hylgard, and others if combat previously interrupted a quest-related conversation. Sargamis no longer gets stuck when walking toward the lever in Eothasian Temple. Even more fixes and Improvements! We had so many fixes in this patch, that we ran over the character limit for some of our platform's patch note features. So, here are even more fixes that went into 1.3. Content Fixes NOTE: This content section is full of story spoilers! Readers beware! Global Changes Adjusted collision on all winch assets to improve performance. Centered the UI indicator on each illusory object. Character creation options now have consistent translations in Polish. Marius's offer to train the player is now more easily accessible through conversation. The Ledger's Documents tab no longer displays debug text on the header for Lore while playing in French. Tuned variables for tracking the player's influence on The Voice to improve reactivity. Fort Northreach: Cleaned up rocks and sand assets to blend together better. Fixed multiple issues in Polish translation of documents at Fort Northreach. Improved camera framing in the conversation with Steadman Ralke at Fort Northreach. Removed parkour from certain rock formations around Fort Northreach to prevent players from accidentally getting out of bounds and falling through the world. Updated settings on rocks in the ocean to prevent players from getting stuck out of bounds. Dawnshore Added ambience SFX to a room that was missing it in Dawnshore. Addressed rendering issues on various props used in Dawnshore, including wicker baskets, window frames and glass, cobwebs, hanging water plants, book piles, swinging trap logs, beige curtains, red curtains, iron curtain rods, and bougainvillea plants. Adjusted camera framing in conversation with Dagherda in Dawnshore. Bright flash of light no longer appears in cutscene during the quest "Dawntreader". Changed collision settings in Eothasian temple to prevent players from going out of bounds. Dream conversations in Dawnshore now use the correct gendered variants when referring to the Envoy while playing in Polish. Glaedwine and Leoflaed no longer repeat their quest turn in dialog for "Escape Plan". Grysca will now enter his standing animation more reliably. If the player turns in the Luminous Adra to Sapiento de Falva as part of the quest "Precious Light", the player can no longer turn in the adra to Captain Evina Bardatto as well. Improved performance for lighting and raytracing in the Ruinous Cavern in Dawnshore. Reduced light and fog leaking in Runyd's house in Dawnshore. Reduced shadow noise in the first room of the Cistern when playing on XSX Performance mode. Removed gaps in Dawnshore's Shantytown that let players go into unintended areas. The action "Store Items" in Party Stash now uses the correct translation in Polish. The conversation with Tycg in the Aedyran Embassy in Dawnshore will no longer end unexpectedly. The hanging cloth drapes in Dawnshore's Shantytown bar now render in their intended color. The player can no longer fall and get stuck between buildings in the Militia Barracks in Paradis. The player can no longer reach an unintended area behind sewer grates in Dawnshore's Cistern. The player can no longer reach an unintended area near the God Shrine in Dawnshore. The player can no longer reach unintended areas inside buildings in Northern Paradis. The quest "Precious Light" will now use correct quest markers if the player kills without meeting Sapiento de Falva first. The Voice now correctly acknowledges the Player's pronouns during their conversation in The Beyond while playing in Polish. Updated one of Captain Soldis's lines to use the correct formatting and syntax. Ygwulf and the rebels no longer become hostile after in "An Untimely End". Emerald Stair "Quest available" icon for Ranger Verano no longer displays after the quest becomes inaccessible. Adelarro is now using the proper voiceover file during some of his lines. Bounty quests with a singular target will now update upon killing the target instead of having to defeat all the enemies in the encounter. Corrected the description for Death Knight Armor's "Bastion" enchantment in Polish. Corrected the loot list for a chest outside of Naku Tedek that would sometimes have no loot in it. Enemies outside of the Delemgan Queen's chamber will now remain hostile if the player enters combat with her. If the player defeated Old Nuna and collected the bounty trophy but the quest did not progress, they can now return to the bounty location and the quest will update. Improved lighting performance for mushrooms outside of Naku Tedek. SFX of electrified water in Naku Tedek will no longer play after the trap causing it has been disabled. The conversation with Lieutenant Fidelio will no longer end unexpectedly if the player receives the quest "Missing Rangers" from Belenna and speaks with him before finding Adelarro. The name for Fast Travel Beacons now accurately convey their purpose and meaning in Polish. The player can no longer turn in the quest "Nature vs. Nurture" infinitely to Amadio. The player is now able to talk to Ranger Casagrada as part of the quest "Steel Resolve" if the player has progressed past a certain point of the quest "Ancient Soil". Updated syntax for Death Knight Armor's description to display the correct health values. Shatterscarp Added the correct SFX to a lever in the Sand Sea Ruins in Shatterscarp. Camera now correctly centers on the Envoy when certain characters state their opinion about trying drugs. Choosing specific dialogue options when talking to the survivalists near the Ancient Lakebed in Shatterscarp no longer causes the conversation to infinitely loop. Cutscenes that occur during the quest "Shadows of the Past" now have controller vibration haptics. Giatta now uses the correct voiceover file for one of her in-combat remarks. If the player made choices that lead to Chiko's death, they will no longer appear and be alive during the quest Optimized raytracing near the Naku Kubel Approach in Shatterscarp. Overworld changes that occur after certain choices are made during the quest "Shadows of the Past" will no longer appear earlier than intended. Players can no longer get stuck in an unintended area in Shatterscarp's Shrine to Wael. Rotating wheels in Ryngrim's Domain now have the correct SFX. The audio for the sea shanty singers in Thirdborn is now removed if the singers are not present. The conversation with Nameho and Tamamu no longer ends prematurely if the player already completed specific objectives in the quest "Home Sweet Home" before speaking to them for the first time. The NPC Koda in Shatterscarp now has the proper voiceover files for some of his lines. The player can no longer get stuck inside the cliffside rocks near the Sand Sea Ruins in Shatterscarp. The player can no longer reach an unintended area near Aiko's Campsite in Shatterscarp. The player can no longer reach an unintended area near the Pargrun Cache in Shatterscarp. The player can now properly receive their reward if they patiently wait for the guard who has to pee in Thirdborn. Updated Ruanga's character model to resolve continuity errors during the quest "One Last Drink." Galawain’s Tusks Added a conditional to prevent players from talking with a specific NPC about the outcome of the quest Keep History Alive if they have not completed it yet. Added ambient crowd noises to NPC crowds in Solace Keep. Amalia will no longer fail to give you a key to her camp's chest after speaking with her in her camp. Players that have previously run into this problem will receive the key when entering Galawain's Tusks or after loading a save game in Galawain's Tusks. An NPC will no longer walk into the conversation space when talking to Warden Radut in Galawain's Tusks. Fog no longer leaks through the walls of Solace Lava Tubes when playing with Shadow Quality set to Medium. Improved lighting performance in the Southern Warden Tower in Galawain's Tusks. Prevented Councilor Kostya from saying a line of dialogue that should only play for a specific outcome in "Ancient Soil". The conversation with Renato in Galawain's Tusks will no longer trigger earlier than intended. The quest "Boundaries of Antiquity" will now properly complete if the player purified the water after Weeping Willow will now fight back when the player chooses at the end of "Boundaries of Antiquity". Endgame Regions Adjusted camera framing in conversations during the quest Adjusted text positions on the map during the quest Companions will no longer become stuck behind locked doors in The Garden. Corrected formatting of Polish translations during the final region of the game. Improved transition into the ending cutscenes and end slides of the game. The examinable can now be found in The Garden. The player can no longer access a conversation in Galawain's Tusks with Iancu meant for another area of the game. The player will no longer get stuck in an unintended area when jumping off a cliff in The Garden. The player will no longer get stuck in the environment in certain areas during the quest Updated fog in The Garden so that cloud VFX from abilities such as Blizzard and Returning Storm will properly render. UI fixes and Improvements A "new item" indicator will now appear subcategories in the ledger to help guide players to the entries they have not read yet. Added a "Next Tip" prompt for loading screens. Added a visual indicator for progress when uploading saves to Xbox Cloud. Adra Shard now uses the intended item icon. An inventory count for adra will now be displayed when viewing it in a store. Buff icons from Food no longer appear cut off if the player has several buffs active at once. Changing subtitle size will now update immediately if the player is in a conversation. Changing the game's Language in Settings no longer requires the "Apply" prompt to be selected twice. Companion abilities will no longer auto-bind to slots which have already been bound by the player. Disabled the ability to open the ledger when the player is dead or incapacitated briefly during Second Wind. Full-screen tutorials now display properly during a new game, even if they had been seen in a previous save. In the rare event of loading an incompatible save, the Main Menu's Continue button will now display a warning. Marius' abilities now have the correct respec cost. Mouse 4/5 buttons can now be bound to actions. Remove allowance of Emojis during name creation for Xbox. Removed the "removed from inventory" prompt every time the player uses a throwable. Shopkeepers will no longer get rid of items you have sold to them. The description for the food item Saucco now has the correct string in all languages. The HUD will no longer persist when leaving or entering a Party Camp. The input for canceling the throw of a grenade will now properly update to the correct input if the player changed rebound "Interact". The player can no longer continuously spend money on respecing companion points without actually allocating any. The player now retains temporary status effects/buffs from consumables when entering another map. The player will no longer become stuck in a blocking state after opening the Action Radial while blocking. The quest item Medical Supplies now uses the correct item icon. The setting "Use Xbox Saves" is now hidden when playing on an Xbox or via the Xbox app on PC, as using Xbox Saves is always required on these platforms. The text for equipping a weapon from the inventory is no longer cut off when playing with different Text Size settings. Updated Radial Menu for keyboard to use non-customizable keys 1 - 6 keys for binding abilities to the quick action bar. This is to prevent conflicting inputs from happening. Updated text formatting for the descriptions of game difficulty options. Upscaling no longer defaults to DLSS every time the game is launched. Using ESC will now return the player to the previous page in in the Action Radial instead of always closing it. Gameplay Fixes, Improvements, and Balancing A skeleton warrior in Ryngrim's Domain now notices the player if they get shot by the player while reanimating. Added an error message when attempting to save the game during a cutscene. Adra and Awakened Adra's item descriptions no longer claim that players can break these items down into even more Adra. After killing fire blights, their bodies fall inertly to the ground instead of remaining in the air. An item pickup sound now plays when the player acquires an item during a conversation. Attacks from pistols now hit the target more reliably. Captain Evina Bardatto now drops some equipment in addition to money. Clarified that Kithwarder's enchant bonus/penalty applies to Damage Reduction. Boosted Kithwarder's bonus against kith back to 10% (up from 3%). Combat music in the Lava Tubes at Solace Keep now updates correctly when the player stealth attacks an enemy without killing them. Companion's abilities now correctly scale with the tier system Companions no longer play stealth barks when the player is sliding. Companions no longer receive elemental accumulation while incapacitated. Companions with the Shocked status effect no longer electrocute the player when standing near them. Conner Tranton will now always drop his unique boots. Corrected animations seen in third person while the player is idle, running, or sprinting while holding different weapons. Crowd NPCs in Solace Keep will no longer teleport to the center of the world in front of the player. Dawnshore Merchants now stock anywhere between 3-5 lockpicks at a time in their shops, increased from the previous amount of 1-3. Emerald Stair's exploration music now continues to play when loading saves in Naku Tedek and exiting to the overlands. Enemies no longer teleport to Yatzli while she's actively teleporting to a new location in combat. Enemies will no longer get stuck doing nothing after being hit with a knockback attack. Enemy health bars will no longer disappear after the player becomes incapacitated in combat. Essence cost reductions now apply consistently, instead of blocking the player from casting spells despite having sufficient Essence. Fire Blights can now attack players that are currently blocking with a shield while targeting the creature. Ghost summons Huginn and Muninn sound more like ghastly spirits and less like living people. Ghosts' Stamina Drain aura no longer remains after they die. God Shrine Totems at Party Camp now have a green smoky effect if their buff is currently active. Godless chests can now spawn firearms again. This also allows the player to find unique firearms such as Magic Mistol in their intended location. Ice platforms and shock hazards should no longer spawn in midair when using elemental melee weapons over shallow water. If the player falls off a cliff during the second trial in Naku Kubel, they will proceed to die instead of activating Second Wind. If the player performs a Wand Special Attack on an enemy after knocking back and stunning them with Grimoire Snap, Wand Special Attack VFX now properly displays under the enemy. Improved performance for summoned creatures that receive damage over time or disappear on death. Increased Young Bears' resistance to the impact of Power Attacks from Bows, making them less likely to become stunned too often. Into the Fray can now be cancelled into other actions earlier, to create more follow-up/combo possibilities. Lowered the stun threshold on Delemgan Summoners. can no longer get stunned when transitioning between combat phases, and her stun meter now resets upon being healed after transitioning. Lödwyn's sword now uses the correct appearance during her entrance cutscene in Dawnshore. Maegfolc no longer get launched unintentionally high in the air when ragdolled by Pull of Eora Marius's Hunter's Sense ability will now highlight loot from defeated enemies. Offhand one-handed Axes now play the correct Power Attack animations while in playing in third-person. Optimized Amadio's ally buffing abilities to increase performance. Players can now use any ranged weapon to target Magran's Fury Stalks, Eye of Rymrgand Nests, Electric Carnivorous Lilies, Ivy of Forgotten Souls, and Essence Generators. This will allow Wand projectiles to target and home in on them. Players on Story Time difficulty are now twice as resistant to the impact of incoming attacks, making it harder to interrupt the player when they perform actions in combat. Players on Story Time difficulty will now slowly regenerate up to 50% of their maximum Health and Essence while out of combat. Power Slide now affects all enemies except for Maegfolc. Increased the impact of Power Slide Rank 2. Prevented an error that would cause enemies to respawn after they have died. Many enemies that respawned incorrectly due to this issue should be dead when loading an affected save. Prevented auto-saving from occurring when the player is not in a safe position Quality of life improvements to the firearm reloading system. Quest titles no longer linger on the HUD even after being completed. Rank 2 of Returning Storm now correctly displays the duration of the ability in its description. Reduced all Adra costs for upgrading equipment by 1. Reducing VO volume now also reduces the reverb/echo from characters, making them inaudible when setting VO volume to 0. Removed exploit that allowed players to skip summoned character cooldowns by unequipping the item that grants the summon ability Removed the cube that appeared after interacting with certain merchants Resolved inconsistencies in targeting powder kegs and other objects. Second Wind now has no cooldown on Story Time difficulty. Small Spiders, Small Beetles, and Extra Small Beetles no longer have collision during their death animations. The "Press Any Button" prompt now plays a UI sound effect when the player interacts with it. The Disappointer's enchantment "Shared Misery" now correctly applies the debuff to surrounding enemies and no longer stacks multiple times on the same enemy. The Grimoire dry firing animation no longer plays if the player tries to cast a grimoire spell immediately after switching to that grimoire. It now only plays when trying to cast a grimoire spell on cooldown or if the player has insufficient essence. The player can no longer damage a Damaged Maegfolc by hitting where its missing arm would be. The player will now receive an additional talent point at levels 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30. Players with save files past those levels will receive the additional points. The reticle now accurately indicates whether or not Izmalt's Meteoric Apparatus will hit an enemy when the player aims it at them. The Sporeking will no longer respawn if the player already killed it. The underwater audio filter now properly updates when moving the camera above or underwater in Third-Person. The Yellowbands no longer respawn after the player completes their bounty quest. Updated Destul's health bar to correctly display the creature's name. Upgrading Grimoire Mastery no longer reduces the essence cost of spells cast with Grimoires. Upgrading weapons on Hard and Path of the Damned will now require more upgrade materials: Hard: +1 Plant Materials per upgrade, +1 Adra Materials per tier upgrade, Path of the Damned: +2 Plant Materials per upgrade, +2 Plant Materials per tier upgrade Using an ability right after the ability cooldown wears off will always be successful. Wand attacks now properly home towards targets standing in water. Water Beetles' projectiles now properly home towards targets if the beetles attack them while standing in water. When changing Difficulty settings, the player's health and essence now correctly update relative to the newly chosen difficulty. When loading any save data, gamepad vibration now remains turned on if the player already had it enabled. When playing on the difficulty Path of the Damned, enemies now have +20% bonus attack speed. Wildwalker Gloves now have a cooldown, preventing NPCs from getting indefinitely rooted in place by its effects. Xaurips in Fort Northreach will now react to the player shooting down Magran's Fury and killing a xaurip. Yatzli no longer stops following the player while exploring the Abandoned Mine in Shatterscarp. Ygwulf no longer gets stuck in a loop if his target disappears when he teleports at the start of combat. Animation Improvements Adjusted animations of Hasui during the quest "First Contact with the Enemy". Adjusted animations of Iwao during conversation. Adjusted animations of NPCs mouths, emotions, and gestures when talking outside of conversations. Adjusted facial animations in conversation on Lynna in Dawnshore. Eilara's Grimoire no longer has blank pages. Enemies will no longer have their weapon grow in size if they were attacked while a certain animation was being used. Giatta will no longer have an abnormal snapping animation in conversations during the quest Improved animations of the last character encountered during the quest Improved lipsync for Yatzli's recruitment conversation in Thirdborn. Improved lipsync of Hylgard when talking to him during the quest Improved lipsync of Kai when talking to him in Emerald Stair about Improved lipsync of Ranhyr during the quest Lödwyn will no longer disappear after certain cutscenes during the quest "Shadows of the Past". Miscellaneous A facial hair option the player can choose for their Envoy no longer stretches abnormally during cutscenes. Adjusted Fog and lighting in shanty town. Adjusted some godlike features to not clip with the player's head. Adjusted some hairstyles to not clip with the player's head. Blocking with a weapon now uses the correct SFX when playing in first-person. Corrected clothing materials on Merchant Alonya's outfit. Dreamthrall Bears no longer pop in textures when viewed from afar. Enabled Ray Tracing for character hair to improve the appearance of character shadows. Fix visuals in terrain around Lake Lacuna. For windows platform, it now sets the default graphics upscaling value to an upscaling that is supported by the computer it is running on. Improved the heat warping effect of air above lava. In Ryngrim's Domain, the rotating wheel behind Ryngrim no longer changes position when game is out of focus. Modified rendering of background assets in the Garden to improve performance. NPCs in Naku Tedek now have the proper arm appearances. Optimized certain lights in the Garden to improve performance. Optimized Ice Wand AOE visual effects to improve performance. Optimized the visual effects on Clear Out to improve performance. Optimized the visual effects on Fan of Flames to improve performance. Optimized the visual effects on Jolting Touch to improve performance on higher FPS modes. Optimized the visual effects on Spirit Lance to improve performance. Optimized the visual effects on the weapon 'Emerald Splitter' to improve performance. Returning Storm rank 3, now consistently displays it's visual effects. Summoned Earth Blights now more consistently display their visual effects. The Aurochs-Skin Grimoire now includes the proper sigils on its pages. The screen no longer flickers and stretches when charging an attack with ranged weapons. Yatzli's voiceover no longer abruptly cuts off during a conversation with her in The Garden.

I've been talking/begging about this since 2016, even added it as a begging section to my gamefaqs guide. I will literally re-install PoE1 just to take a look at this. With the last patch in 2024 I promised a hand-written letter of effusive praise if the devs got around to fixing this as well, and now I have it on this week's todo list to go out and buy some stationary. thankyousomuchomg

Beautiful weather in LaCrosse the past few weeks. But you can feel the air getting drier. Winter will be here soon. We're planning a trip to Big Bend National Park in November. Already have a campsite reserved in Cottonwood. We will spend the winter in West Texas. Looking forward to it. Hope you guys are doing well. @Azdeus hope your foot is doing better.

LOL

https://www.nexusmods.com/pillarsofeternity2/mods/804 This should fix the bug described here: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/pc/227477-pillars-of-eternity-ii-deadfire/faqs/76599/bugs-and-oddities As I've understood it, this has been a pain point ever since patch 5.0 for many Credit to @ShadyDax for nudging me to check this bug out Note that this does not fix potions added by mods (I'm gonna have to patch Potion of Enlightenment later ) Going to sleep now

I started playing Disco Elysium. I put on most of my clothes. Reached for my tie which was on a ceiling fan, then had a heart attack and died and went to the game over screen. That counts as completing a playthrough right?

This build was created for a collaboration with @Aestus who runs the Youtube channel Aestus_RPG. Here's the video where we talk about this and other builds. This is build 2 of 5 from that collaboration. ----------------------------------------- This build is mainly meant for inspiration. You don't need to follow it in detail to have fun. If you understand the key features - the basic idea what makes this build special - you can usually deviate from my non-core attribute-, skill-, gear- and ability selection and form the build to your own likings and ideas. I do not try to produce the most powerful uberbuilds (often those are the most boring to play in he long run) but to focus on having fun while playing. Usually that means the build is powerful - but it's not the main focus. If you like to read about my personal requirements for "fun to play" builds, you can jump to a list below this post ----------------------------------------- orn a slave, Miccaela Shorsh grew up in the shadowed quarters of Ancenze in the Vaillian Republics, where art, politics, and wealth flourish - at least for the free. Her mother Borschtscha was cleaning the dog kennels for one of the wealthy families, and Miccaela seemed destined for the same life of subjugation and shἱt shoveling. However, even as a child and despite her little frame, her voice was unlike any other, an voluminous sound that could either stir hearts and calm tempers or incide discord and altercations. Unbeknownst to her, her gift was more than mere sound: Miccaela possessed a rare psionic talent, woven into her voice. Her abilities first manifested during a punishment because she refused to wash the stinky fur of the owners' favorite hound Beangobbler the Volatile. Terrified and in pain, Miccaela sang a phrase so powerful that it brought the overseer to his knees, clutching his pearls. Word of this strange power spread quickly through the household, and Miccaela was soon seen as dangerous, but also a potential tool. Her owners realized her voice could be used for their advantage in politics and business, so they forced the little Wild Orlan to perform at grand galas, her melodies subtly manipulating the minds of listeners. But the Wild Orlan's rebellious nature kicked in: at a big dinner event she planted a simple longing into all of the female guests: to stab their partners or patrons with a greasy shashlik skewer as soon as they started to talk obnoxiuos stuff. As a tumult erupted and people who looked like shashlik porcupine fell over each other, Miccaela managed to flee the scene - and the Vaillian Republics althoghether on a trading vessel which was headed for the Deadfire Archipelago. As Miccaela grew older (which happens pretty quickly with Orlans, min you), she learned to conceal her abilities behind the guise of mere performance. Although cleaning the kennels, Beangobbler the Volatile and the whole slavery shebang was behind her, she longed to fight for freedom for all sentient beings: every note she sang became a coded message of rebellion, a call to anyone who would be susceptible to the power of her voice. Now, Miccaela is no longer just a performer, but a covert agent of resistance, using her voice to bend minds, influence rulers and subtly shift the balance of power. In secret and with a philosophy similar to that of a Bleak Walker, she will use all means to free the oppressed and gather those who would help her tear down the chains of slavery, always with a song on her lips and her psionic power in her little yellow furry head. "I won't let you down I will not give you up Gotta have some faith in the sound It's the one good thing that I've got I won't let you down So please don't give me up Because I really, really don't want to wash that hound..." - Miccaela while freezing some killers stiff - =================================== The Ceaseless Siren =================================== Difficulty: PotD -------------------------------------------------------------- Solo: untested -------------------------------------------------------------- Class: Spiritualist - Psion/Troubadour -------------------------------------------------------------- Race: Wild Orlan (or any) -------------------------------------------------------------- Background: Old Vaillia (or any) - Slave (or any) -------------------------------------------------------------- Stats (w/o Berath's Blessings, ★=recommmendation) MIG: 10 (11, -1 Orlan) CON: 10 (do not dump) DEX: 12 PER: 15 (13, +2 Orlan) ★ INT: 19 (18, +1 Old Vailia) ★★ RES: 12 (11, +1 Orlan, do not dump) ★ -------------------------------------------------------------- the unique icons for all passive abilities are part of the Community Patch mod Abilities | Skills | Proficiencies - (!=important, r=recommended, a=automatic) 00. Brisk Recitation (! a) + Telekinetic Burst (a) 01. Whisper of Treason + If Their Bones Still Slept + Blessed was Wengridh | Dagger + Large Shield 02. Lingering Echoes | +1 Stealth (->1), +1 Intimidate (->1) 03. Soul Shock | +1 Stealth (->2), +1 Intimidate (->2) 04. At the Soud of his Voice + Mental Binding | +1 Stealth (->3), +1 Insight (->2) | Small Shield 05. Weapon and Shield Style (r) | +1 Stealth (->4), +1 Intimidate (->3) 06. Phantom Foes | +1 Stealth (->5), +1 Insight (->3) 07. Ancient Brittle Bones + Puppet Master | +1 Stealth (->6), +1 Bluff (->3) 08. Secret Horrors | +1 Stealh (->7), +1 Intimidate (->4) | Sabre 09. And Hel-Hyraf Crashed | +1 Slight of Hand (->3 ), +1 Insight (->4) 10. The Shield Cracks + Pain Block | +1 Stealth (->8), +1 Bluff (->4) 11. Spell Shaping | +1 Sleight of Hand (->4), +1 Intimidate (->4) 12. Penetrating Visions | +1 Sleight of Hand (->5), +1 Insight (->5) | Club 13. Rapid Casting + Borrowed Instinct | +1 Mecanics (->2), +1 Bluff (->5) 14. Keen Mind | +1 Mechanics (->3), +1 Intimidate (->6) 15. Farcasting (r) | +1 Mechanics (->4), +1 Insight (->6) 16. Quick Summoning + The Empty Soul | +1 Mechanics (->5), +1 Bluff (->6) | Scepter 17. Disintegration | +1 Mechanics (->6), +1 Intimidate (->7) 18. Greater Focus | +1 Arcana (->2), +1 Insight (->7) 19. Many Lives Pass By (r) + Ancestor's Memory | +1 Arcana (->3), +1 Bluff (->7) 20. Called to His Bidding | +1 Arcana (->4), +1 Intimidate (->8) | Pistol --------------------------------------------------------------- Items (!=important, r=recommended) Weapon Set 1: Sasha's Singing Scimitar (r, +Refreshing Finale, +Shocking Prelude), Shimmer Scale (+Warped Scales, +Thermal Ablation, +Legendary) Weapon Set 2: Lover's Embrace (use modal at all times), Shining Bulwark (+Rear Guard, +Legendary, use modal when shot at) Head: Pearlescent Rhomboid Helstone (or any other) Back: Cloak of Greater Deflection (r - helps to demotivate enemies from attacking you) Neck: Charm of Bones (r - for the added INT -> bigger AoE and durations) Armor: Casita Samelia's Legacy (+Legendary, +Ardent) or Nomad's Brigandine (+Tail of the Column, +Tactical Withdraw, +Legendary) or Gipon Prudensco (+Legendary, +Fight Another Day, +No Fool I) Waist: Girdle of Eoten Constitution Hands: Bracers of Greater Deflection (r - helps to demotivate enemies from attacking you) Rings: Chamaeleon's Touch (+1 INT & +1 PER) or Ring of Protection or Deflection, Kuaru's Prize Boots: Boots of Stability or Boots of Speed Pet: Loki (+15% AoE size) or Animancy Cat (when using summons a lot) or whatever suits your spell selection --------------------------------------------------------------- What is this build about: endless generation of resouces: you gain focus and phrases for your spells without having to do anything. That also means your resources fill up while you cast, run around etc. Using the Psion (focus gain per second, scales with Power Level) and the Troubadour (phrases elapse twice a fast with Brisk Recitation -> double the phrase point generation) gives you a caster who never runs out of spell resources and has almost no downtime: excellent action economy no need to actively use your weapon (which you are not good with anyways) immense versatility with all sorts of great spells: healing, reviving, disables, damage, buffing, mind control, summons - you can do it all. Pick what your party needs and you’ll be good at it. You can then also alter the gear to your needs. For example: if you wanted to play a Ceaseless Siren as a damage dealer who is spamming shock spells (Her Revenge + Soul Shock) nonstop you could pick up Deltro's Cage instead of the armor I listed above. If you want to take a support role (casting Pain Block and singing Ancient Memory or Mercy and Kindness etc.) you could use the Physikers Belt and a pet that does +15% healing and so on. The most potent combination might be to focus on mind control on the Psion side (Whisper of Treason, Puppet Master, Ringleader) and on summons on the Troubadour side (Animated Weapon + Many Lives Pass By), but constant CC spells are also very impactful: spamming Killers Froze Stiff + Mental Binding lets you completely disable and control whole groups of enemies pretty early in the game. independent from special unique items, this build can free up gear for other party members who might need it more. Sasha's Singing Scimitar is great, but even without it this caster is very effective. So if you want to include another chanter in the party who might make even better use of the weapon (for example a Bellower) it's not a problem. attributes can be allocated freely fitting your role. For example a damage dealer wants more MIG, a summoner or supporter/healer wouldn't need a lot of PER. one of the very few class combinations that beat the Ultimate challenge without the "endless duration of buffs" exploit - which shows how powerful it can be. I chose a mix of CC, damage, healing and summons so that there's always an answer to most situations. While playing you will quickly find out which spells you like to use the most - just can alter your choices of abilities and gear accordingly. Issues: when you get damaged (or critically hit when using the Community Patch mod which I recommend) your focus generation will stop for a short time. Unconditional focus generation is the Psion’s forte. While phrase generation stops briefly after an invocation the Psion’s focus never stops growing until damaged (or critically hit with the CP mod). Without this costant focus generation the Psion is bad. So you want to avoid getting attacked! You automatic ability Telikinetic Burst can help of course. But there's other ways to reduce the risks: stay stealthed at the beginning of combat. You want to load up on focus anyway - and when enemies have settled on your party members (like your tank) you are lot less likely to get attacked. having good deflection and/or immunity against disengagment attacks lets you get away without damage. you shouldn't build a glasscannon but have to invest into defenses. You can also use summons and mind control/disables to avoid damage to great effect - but more importantly (because it works without much effort and micromanagement) raise your deflection and armor and don’t dump your CON (health). There are lots of enemies out there that specifically look for weak party members in terms of low deflection, low armor and low health (like rangers, rogues and barbs do). Using a shield and putting on decent armor deters most of those enemies from picking you as their favorite target in the first place, giving you an easier time. sacrifice some offensive prowess for defense. It will help to let this character play a lot more smoothly than maxing your offensive potential. Unusual for a caster but it works. The best offensive stats mean nothing if you cannot cast because you lack focus. Another great way to prevent getting attacked (without having to actively do anything) in the later game is to sing Many Lives Pass By at all times - a weak skeleton that pops up every 3 seconds and forms a group of skeletons with its buddies quickly draws attention away from you and shields you from almost all attackers. Why is it fun: because of the endless and fast resource generation there’s always something to do, very little downtime. Opposite of low level Wizards, Priests or Druids who have very few spells in he early game. the spell selection is great always good impact, powerful right away bc. of summons, great CC and so on extremely versatile. There are Very little situations where you cannot contribute. The swiss army knife of casters because of the rel. good sturdyness (to avoid focus stop) little frustration from getting knocked out etc. which is great for inexperienced players. does not depend on items - this can help to attain a special look or theme/background a lot more easily without the feeling you have to sacrifice performance. Hope you enjoy! Cheers!

From the trade show last month. Bad lighting in the hall. As an architect I feel offended by how bad the lighting was. Even worse attendance. Complete waste of money.

Hey everyone. Hope y'all are doing well! We're in Jamestown New York for a family function. We're picking up Bri from the airport in a few hours. I dislike New York mostly but it's nice around here. We drove up from Texas which was pretty miserable this time of year. After this it's back to cheese land for a while.

That's a big negative for me. None of Bethesda's games needed bigger maps, they needed more variety in what's already there.

What I did today: Tried to figure out why I didn't have no internets. What my cat did today: Disconnect the network cable.

This build was created for a collaboration with @Aestus who runs the Youtube channel Aestus_RPG. Here's the video where we discuss 5 builds for Deadfire. This is build 3 of 5 from that collaboration. ----------------------------------------- This build is mainly meant for inspiration. You don't need to follow it in detail to have fun. If you understand the key features - the basic idea what makes this build special - you can usually deviate from my non-core attribute-, skill-, gear- and ability selection and form the build to your own likings and ideas. I do not try to produce the most powerful uberbuilds (often those are the most boring to play in he long run) but to focus on having fun while playing. Usually that means the build is powerful - but it's not the main focus. If you like to read about my personal requirements for "fun to play" builds, you can jump to a list below this post ----------------------------------------- orn aboard the creaking decks of a ship, Roberto Dilani was raised in the cutthroat world of the Deadfire Archipelago’s biggest pirate faction, the Principi sen Patrina. His mother, a ruthless weather mage with aspirations of command, and his father, a famed marksman who wielded an arbalest with deadly precision, instilled in him the cunning of a pirate, curiosity for the arcane and the artistry of ranged combat. Roberto grew up with a mind as sharp as his aim, constantly honing his ability to strike from afar with unerring accuracy. Early in his youth, Roberto saved a little piglet from the ship's cook and named him "Tartufo" and the two became close friends despite Tartufo's pretty overwhelming odor. Roberto also discovered his talents as an Arcane Archer, able to weave magic into the very bolts he fired from his heirloom arbalest passed down from his father. The weapon was renowned for its ability to break enemy lines with crushing force, and in Roberto's hands, it became even more dangerous, as his magical prowess allowed him to overwhelm foes with staggering shots of power and precision. Loving the songs and shanties that were sung on deck he also grew into a skilled Troubadour, learning to use his voice and lyrics not only to inspire his crew but also to further enchant his shots. His ability to suppress and take out helmsmen or even captains on enemy ships earned him the nickname "Pindown Poet". Roberto acted with cunning and strategy, using his arbalest to pin down dangerous foes while his crew took control of the seas. Though loyal to the Principi, Roberto's ambitions reached beyond petty plunder. He dreamed of exploring the world beyond the archipelago, using his deadly mix of arcane powers, song, and steel to carve a legacy that will be spoken of in taverns for generations. He believes that with an arbalest in hand and the legends of old as his guide, he can shape not only his own future but the fate of the Principi itself. "Hey, Mr. Arbalest Man, sing a song for us We're not sleepy and there is no place we're going to Hey, Mr. mouthy Helmsman, I'll sing a song for you and the spear I cast will put you on your arse." - Roberto while spanning his arbalest during a boarding fight - =================================== The Pindown Poet =================================== Difficulty: PotD -------------------------------------------------------------- Solo: untested -------------------------------------------------------------- Class: Wildrhymer - Arcane Archer/Troubadour -------------------------------------------------------------- Race: Wood Elf (or any non-godlike, e.g. Boreal Dwarf) -------------------------------------------------------------- Background: Old Vailia (or any, e.g. White that Wends) - Mercenary (or any, e.g. Mystic bc. +Arcana) -------------------------------------------------------------- Stats (w/o Berath's Blessings. ★=recommendation) MIG: 11 CON: 08 DEX: 18 (17 + 1 Elf) ★★ PER: 18 (17 +1 Elf) ★ INT: 19 (18 + 1 Old Vailia) ★★ RES: 04 -------------------------------------------------------------- the unique icons for all passive abilities are part of the Community Patch mod Abilities | Skills | Proficiencies - (!=important, r=recommended) 00. Brisk Recitation (a) 01. Not Felled By the Axe + Dull the Edge + Imbue: Missiles (a) + Marked Prey (r) | Arbalest (!) + Rod (r) 02. Fast Runner | +1 Arcana(!) (->2), +1 Survival (->2) 03. Arms Bearer (r) (Shattered Vengeance for Coordinated Escape) | +1 Arcana(!) (->3), +1 Survival (->3) 04. Two-Handed Style +Gunner (!) | +1 Arcana(!) (->4), +1 Survival (->4) | Large Shield 05. Marksman (r) | +1 Arcana(!) (->5), +1 Survival (->5) 06. Protective Companion (r) | +1 Arcana(!) (->6), +1 Survival (->6) 07. Sure-Handed Ila (!) + Imbue: Web (a) + Evasive Roll (r) | +1 Arcana(!) (->7), +1 Survival (->7) 08. Marked for the Hunt | +1 Arcana(!) (->8), +1 Survival (->8) | Arquebus 09. Resilient Companion | +1 Arcana(!) (->9), +1 Survival (->9) 10. Aefyllath Ues Myth Fir (r) + Stalker's Link (r) | +1 Arcana(!) (->10), +1 Survival (->10) 11. Rise Again, Rise Again (r) | +1 Arcana(!) (->11), +1 Survival (->11) 12. Nor Flame, Nor Thrusted Blade | +1 Arcana(!) (->12), +1 Survival (->12) | Club 13. The Lover Cried Out (r) + Imbue: Fireball (a) + Driving Flight (!) | +1 Arcana(!) (->13), +1 Survival (->13) 14. Master's Call | +1 Arcana(!) (->14), +1 Survival (->14) 15. Spell Shaping | +1 Arcana(!) (->15), +1 Survival (->15) 16. And Face your Foes + Survival of the Fittest (r) | +1 Arcana(!) (->16), +1 Survival (->16) | Dagger 17. The Bride Caught | +1 Arcana(!) (->17), +1 Survival (->17) 18. Tough | +1 Arcana(!) (->18), +1 Survival (->18) 19. Called to His Bidding (r) + Imbue: Eora (a) + Furious Call | +1 Arcana(!) (->19), +1 Survival (->19) 20. Set to their Purpose | +1 Arcana(!) (->20), +1 Survival (->20) | Pistol --------------------------------------------------------------- Items (!=important, r=recommended) Weapon Set 1: Spearcaster (! - +Legendary, Elemental Bolts, +Pinning) Weapon Set 2: Watershaper's Focus (r - best weapon for imbued shots, +Ondrath's Wrath, +Legendary) Weapon Set 3: Shattered Vengeance (r - +Coordinated Escape), Large Shield (any, +Superb) Head: Acina's Tricorn (r - +Acc and +reloading speed) Back: Ruata's Walking Cloak (skill Survival for ++stride) Neck: Necklace of the Harvest Moon (+reloading speed on crit) Armor: Sharpshooter's Garb (r, reloadin speed, +Legendary, +Low Profile, +Steel Threaded) Waist: Huana Charm Belt (+stride) or Spellkeeper (get a free scroll per rest: profit from high Arcana) Hands: Aegor's Swift Touch (+reloading speed) or Firethrower's Gloves (+reloading speed and +Arcana) Rings: Ring of the Marksman (r), Camaeleon's Touch (+1 PER, +1 INT to reach INT 20 for overlapping phrases) Boots: Boots of Speed (+stride, stacks with belt and cloak) Pet: Epsilon (-armor recovery, +stride) --------------------------------------------------------------- What is this build about: reaching very high accuracy and reducing your reloading time with arbalests so much that you can use the arbalest's modal "Overbearing Shots" to prone and interrupt single enemies (or two enemies with Driving Flight) every few seconds, essentially taking them out of the fight - depite the modal's -25% action speed. combine that with powerful AoE CC capabilities that have very high accuracy (mostly Imbue:Web + Imbue: Eora) High accuracy is achieved with Spearcaster + maxed Arcana skill + Ranger’s accuracy abilities and the Arcane Archer’s Imbue shots - which profit from Arcana, too very high reloading speed with no fuzz is achieved with Gunner (Ranger) and Sure-Handed Ila (Chanter) as well as high DEX and items (such as Maia’s Armor, Acina’s Tricorn, pet etc.) and cosumables (mostly food from resting). Sure-Handed Ila applies its -20% recovery time buff twice(!) to reloading weapons such as the arquebus. As long as you sing phrases you’ll always have three times -20% reloading time just from those two abilities (Gunner and Sure-Handed Ila). add Aefyllath Ues Myth Fir to give the party and yourself a burning lash for all weapon attacks. 19 INT +1 INT from items (like Chamaeleons Touch) makes sure your Troubadour phrases will have no gaps. You will not use Brisk Recitation most of times Spearcaster can cause “immobilized” on hit (in addition to prone enemies with the modal) - so you are combining the prone effect with being stuck. And all you have to do is just by using rapid auto-attack against mobs use Imbue:Web and later Imbue:Eora which together create a zone of incredibly powerful pulsing CC which immobilizes and then pulls enemy into the center. Most enemies cannot escape from this. Imbue effects get triggered with every projectile jump(!). This means Driving Flight adds another proc of Binding Web and Pull of Eora. If you can add another jump you'll get another proc. This is the reason why I'm using Watershaper's Focus ()it has an innate projectile jump that stacks with Driving Flight. If I use the rod's modal "Blast" I can add 3*AoE damage to the imbue shot and also I raise the chance to proc "Ondrath's Wrath" which is a high damage AoE water splash. Blast causes very long recovery. But if I fire the first imbue shot from stealth I'll have 80% recovery bonus which means the second imbue shot can follow quickly. After that I switch to Spearcaster and take out single dangerous enemies. it’s the perfect setup for allied casters and other AoE damage dealers who can now hit a lot of enemies at the same time give your main tank an item that grants immunity to push and pull effects (Upright Captain's Belt or Horns of the Aurochs) to negate the effect of Pull of Eora and give the tank immunity or resistance vs. DEX afflictions (Spider Silk robes, Shark Soup, Gwyn's Bridal Garter, Engwithan Bracers, Cipher's Shackle, Boots of the White...) or Reflex attacks (Edér's Saint's War Armor: Veteran's Maneuver) singular enemies like bosses can be taken out of the fight with prone&pin auto-attacks. Because of the fast reload and the burning lash (and the small lashes of the arbalest itself) you deal good damage - although your main focus is constant disabling/CC due to the fact that Animal Companions do not suffer injuries when they get knocked out - and the fact that Chanters can revive allies unlimited times (if no injury occurs) you don’t have to worry about a dead Animal Companion. Just revive! Since I am not using invocations all the time but only in special situations and because I can always cancel reloading the reactivity is superb. if Animal Companion is revived it even gets a defense boost. In addition I get the usefulness of Chanter invocations in general. You could add more summons like wurms to your offensive arsenal in the early game or use the White Worms invocation fropm afar - you could use the resitance chants instead of Myth Fir and so on. Almost always able to retreat from melee attackers safely (see below). A non-Arcane Archer variant that might want to focus on single targets more could also look at crossbows instead of arbalests. They interrupt but don't get the prone effect, but the 10% crit conversion on crossbows is actually universal, meaning it applies to all your attack rolls (including spells). They are also a bit faster of course. Fleetbreaker is an excellent crossbow (if you want to support Cpt. Furrante that is, otherwise it's not accessible) an the late game crossbow Scourge of Bezello is like it's made for a Ranger/Chanter character with its overall theme and especially with its 3 projectiles: each of them can interrupt with the crossbow modal, making it supereasy to strip a target of all concentration and interrupting it very reliably. Thanks to @Elric Galad for pointing this out. Issues: like your party members your Animal Companion should not enter the zone of absolute CC - so you can often only use it as your bodyguard. Because of Stalker's Link and Marked Prey it’s still very useful against bosses etc. when you usually don't use imbued CC shots a lot. If you use a tank (which I recommend) you should add immunity to push&pull effects on that tank as well as resistance or even immunity to dexterity afflictions as I said above. Else your tank will be stuck and tossed around as well. the Trouabdour side is mostly there for the chants, not the invocations (no Brisk Recitation). If you use an invocation your chanting will stop briefly, robbing your of the reloading bonus of Sure-Handed Ila. although it’s quite versatile for a ranged weapon build: it completely lacks melee capabilities (except with the Animal Companion). Usually you have to bolt if you get attacked. Your defenses will not be great and your health rel. low, too. To be able to retreat safely you cannot get hit by disengagement attacks. I do three different things when I get attacked by melee enemies: if it's only one I will just shoot him down (prone/stuck) until dead if it's more than one attacker I will try to charm at least one of them with an emergeny invocation. If I hit all of them I can run away safely with high stride (from boots, cloak, Fast Runner and so on). if one or more enemies cannot be charmed (but at least one is) I switch to my third weapon set (Shattered Vegeance + large shield). With my Animal Companion at my side and a at least one enemy charmed I get "Coordinated Escape" which makes me immune to engagement (if I'n near 2 or more allies, animal companions and charmed enemies count), letting me run away safely. if I cannot charm enough enemies and/or my animal companion is not near I use Evasive Roll if I get shot or cast at and cannot disable the attacker myself I will switch to large shield + modal (greatly reduces AoE and ranged dmg) and use Evasive Roll to get out of the situation. it is true that you can achieve the same with any Trouabdour in the party and another Arcane-Archer-multiclass (for example Cipher/Arcane Archer, Rogue/Arcane Archer, Monk/Arcane Archer or Paladin/Arcane Archer). This build however is the best "self-contained" version that doesn't require taking in a separate Trouabdour. Why is it fun? it’s easy to play because it doesn’t require a lot of setup: you just start combat and everything you need is right there. Shoot and immediate result - the enemy’s down. Blast and the mob is conentrated and controlled the swirling field of utter CC is so impactful and makes you feel quite powerful. It happens in an instant - unlike usual spellcasting which take a rather long time to complete it’s great against mobs AND single foes at the same time. It never feels useless seeing enemies getting pushed over all the time - right when they get up again - is fun it doesn’t need a lot of levels to become impactful: you can prone almost every enemy right away (albeit much slower at the beginning due to the lack of reload bonuses) and you can get Spearcaster and most of the other gear pretty early in the game you can maneuver yourself out of a pinch easily. Usually you will sit on phrases because the focus is on the chants - but if you need an invocation asap you have the full amount of phrases and can react immediately. It helps that with reloading weapons you can just cancel the reloading (unlike recovery) so you can react very quickly. Having great reactiveness is fun Hope you enjoy! Cheers!

I just got done changing the front brakes for my neighbor a few door down. Man I love it when theres no stuck or rusted bolts and everything goes smoothly. My charge for services rendered is a large garbage pizza that she has to eat with me while we garage drink.

Update on the situation with the little bugger that is our dog. Indeed, is. Because, get this, while he was in a torpor on Sunday when I posted, refusing to eat and being lethargic and all, on Monday he was unable to even get up and move, so we put a water bowl right next to him. He'd wake up every now and then, drink a little, and would fall back asleep. We already called the vet, because it was clear that he was suffering, and we all expected him to die, so why not put him out of his misery? Yesterday morning he just got up from the mattress we put him on and walked to his water bowl, drank, then walked around, growled at us as usual because he wanted to be put back on the mattress. He ate a bunch of treats like nothing happened, although he still doesn't wolf down his regular food like he used to. When my wife's sister came to visit he went and greeted her. Not as energetically as he used to, but still, he basically moved more than in the past few days combined. He's also sleeping soundly, with his usual relaxed expression, instead of sleeping fitfully. We put a wet towel on him to help him cool down as it's been ghastly hot these past few weeks, almost never cooling down for more than a couple of hours, with annoyingly hot nights. So, yeah, no idea what is going on, but it doesn't look like the acute organ failure through metastasis that we expected it to be, because if so he would not have improved and probably died by now. We honestly thought the tumors had progressed to the point of organ failure. We're still going to lose him soon - I mean the tumor is not going anywhere, obviously, but perhaps not right now. Or even if he ends up dying really soon, at least he seems to be content instead of suffering. Which is more than we thought he would get.

Survived another year. At least the cake turned out better this year.

We had a supposedly critical server go down. Then we checked and found the process the server is hosting hasn't been working for 2 weeks and our clients have not raised anything. Amazing we get paid for this.

Should just link to Tim directly.

Donald Trump now has the opportunity to do the funniest thing: deport Musk back to South Africa.

I don't want to set the world on fire I just want to let you know Fallout London is on GOG change musical era and genre Mamma mia, mamma mia Mamma mia, download this on GOG for free, for free, for freeeeee

Solasta - I owned this on Steam and never got very far. I'd make a party, and then re-think my choices, and start again. I did this a half dozen times. So basically I had 20 hours of making characters. I decided to try again, but I wanted the DLC classes, so I bought the Lightbrimger Edition on GoG, as it was on sale for a good price. I managed to push past the first mission and now I'm starting to get into the rhythm. Hopefully it lasts.

Went to the theater for A MINECRAFT MOVIE, because my nephew really wanted to go. So far I thought watching him play Minecraft was the worst thing. Then he started to watch Minecraft YouTubers, and I thought, wow, it can't get any worse. Oh how wrong I was. The best moment of the film came from an older woman a few seats away, having been dragged to the theater by what was probably her grandchild. When the credits rolled, she very loudly exclaimed: THANK GOD IT IS OVER.

[banter voice="Kana_Rua"] Hellooo! Hello? [/banter]

I completed Pillars of Eternity a couple of days ago. I had such a good time, I haven't played an old school RPG for a couple of years despite it being my favorite genre and Obsidian made an absolute banger here. It had a really good story, and not having the curtain pulled back until the very end made all the reveals very impactful. I was planning to play something that's totally different between Pillars 1 & 2 so I didn't get bored with the real-time and pause genre but after the last couple of hours of PoE1 I just have to know what happens next now so I've started playing Deadfire immediately. I've basically just started, I'm about to repair the ship and leave the first island. It was a bit jarring for the first hour or so with the new UI and going from a typical medieval setting to a swashbuckling pirate adventure but it's already obvious that the quality of the writing and RPG mechanics are so much improved here. I'm very much looking forward to seeing the rest of the game.

Here's the trailer for Solasta II. I'm stoked for this game

I'm in Germany doing my worst French tourist impression.

It sure looks like it. I don't trust the development yet, but this is him, outside, today. On Monday he tried to get up and fell down a couple of times, and looked so miserable we wanted to have him put down to spare him needless suffering. He's still old, has poor vision and pretty poor hearing (or else pretends not to hear any orders ), but he looks fine and happy. Talked to a couple of other pet owners and they sometimes experiences similar things with old pets, cats and dogs. Refusing to eat for a couple of days, shutting down, being weak and then suddenly get better as if nothing happened. Not as extreme as your story about your cat though, of course, but that was from a serious infection. Almost all of them ended with the pets being active normally and then one day just painlessly dying after going to sleep normally. Seems somewhat unlikely that we will get to experience that, what with his cancer, but fingers crossed. You might, so that's good. The experience certainly sounds a lot worse than what we went through, and it was pretty bad on Sunday and Monday. Must have been terrible. I even took some time off work because I couldn't get anything done properly.

I didn't mention it earlier because nobody wants to hear a "MY PET IS ALSO DYING" story right after someone else told their own story, but since it seems like your dog is no longer exactly quite at death's door, now seems to be the time. My calico cat is about eighteen years old, and in June she stopped regularly eating for about a week and started hiding in weird spots and didn't want to come out. Took her into the vet, bladder infection, needs antibiotics and IV fluids...she went about another two and a half weeks without eating at all, lost half her body weight, looked absolutely deathly, no kind of food (cat or human...tried whole salmon!) seemed to interest her - even some expensive appetite medication didn't help. Any time she'd even try a lick of food, she'd start gagging and run away...one night, her entire body froze up on her as she was walking past me and she literally collapsed directly on my feet and couldn't get back up for a while, one of the saddest and most pitiable things I've ever experienced in my whole life, thought maybe she had a stroke or seizure. Heavily considered putting her down because it seemed pretty certain that she was going to die. All of a sudden, one morning she just started eating again, and now she's more active and adventurous than she had been in like the entire previous year, going on for a few months now. Still skin and bones, it's very difficult for old cats to regain lost body mass because they don't absorb nutrients well, but she seems to have a new handle on life ever since her near-death experience. Anyways, I don't know how much longer she has, pretty sure she won't survive another bladder infection like that at this stage of her life, so... Hug and appreciate your pets (and family members, as applicable) while you have them, you never know when they might suddenly leave you. Glad to hear you still have at least a little more time with yours too, majestic.

Obsidian CEO Would Love to Make a Shadowrun Game

_

Thanks everyone. It's been a hard week and I've been too tired to really focus on anything after having to deal with grief, doing all the work to set up the cremation and viewing, and helping to rearrange the house after all of the hospice care machinery was taken back. My dad already did some of the planning because he was adamant about not having a funeral and wanted to be cremated, but there's always calls to make and hoops to jump through to make it actually happen. At this point I'm not feeling as sad but just very tired. A guy broke a chair at the viewing, it's sturdy enough that you'd really have to work at it to break it, so I have no idea how he would have done that. My dad would have thought it was funny. Excuse you, I have written a several essays on chainmail bikinis. One of them is very 100000 words.

This week our PM lead went on vacation and I was acting lead. We had 4 production incidents this week... They ranged from a random piece of old code that started producing issues without any reason, to our dev ops deleting our cron job server. Suffice to say, my working days this week were averaging to around 12 hours... Well if nothing else it was a learning experience.

Just realized I've been a member here for 20 years now. 10 more and it will be 30 years, jeeeeeez

Nothing. My cat figured out the power button.

I'm playing some more user modules for Solasta, which are a bit hit and miss in terms of quality. Currently I'm running through the "Depths of Darkness" module, which is a re-creation of the old "The Sunless CItadel" PnP module for DnD. It's a pretty decent effort compared to many of these user creations, so I'd recommend it if you like Solasta. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2860765207

our response is gonna be unsatisfactory. There is a Constitutional crisis if scotus says there is a Constitutional crisis. in the garcia case, the issue o' most immediate concern, the Court did their effectuate v. facilitate silliness and so there is just enough ambiguity that the executive may implausible but perhaps legal realistic claim confusion. https://www.stevevladeck.com/p/143-the-state-of-play-in-the-abrego highly recommended read. not too long. if you still have questions after reading, ask us and we will explain sans most o' the legal stuff. by the way, more than a couple dems makes it tough to take 'em serious if trump does explicit ignore the courts and they then complain. rules for thee but not for me. concerning to us personal, and no doubt confusing given our recent posts, is the fact all o' the legal debate ignores the more important questions o' right v. wrong. yeah, we must not ignore due process to get bad guys such as tren de aragua/ms-13 members... or trump, but debates over legal ignores far more important and fundamental questions o' right v. wrong. so much o' what trump is doing (has already done) should be seen as wrong/immoral/unthinkable by all those salt-of-the-earth christian americans who vote for trump regardless o' whether a court decides he can legal do. by constant debating the legalities, people are able to ignore the more important and fundamental questions o' right and wrong. worse, at some point people replace "right" with "legal" and the two is most assured not synonymous. slavery were legal for a long time. until more recent, it were legal impossible to sexual assault your wife. purchasing and displaying foam fingers at sporting events is legal, but we all know it is wrong. call out the wrong is a moral duty even if not a legal one. yeah, too many ignore due process when it suits 'em but even more sit quiet or only complain via text or post when they nevertheless witness wrongs being done. as we noted already, obama used the espionage act and other means to target fox reporters and tea party members. such were wrong then even when it were legal. you think trump is gonna show same "restraint" as the obama administration? a couple years past we noted how even after the Court ruled that use o' testimony induced by torture o' non citizens not on US soil were legal admissible if obtained pre trial, the biden administration vowed it would not do such a thing, declaring such acts repugnant. 'course is nothing stopping trump from ignoring biden's conscience. right. v legal. read the 2025 project and as each week passes, the trump administration checks off a new item from the authoritarian to-do list... and we ain't even three months in as o' today. we did think that the alien enemies act would be invoked and used sooner by trump, but he will get around to targeting individual american citizens before he finishes up with law firms and universities. so, we are most certainly already in a crisis situation, but until the Court says we got a Constitutional crisis, we don't, 'cause they were purposeful obtuse/vague. HA! Good Fun! ps speaking o' what trump may do to US citizens on US soil, before he ships 'em off to cecot, am suspecting the administration is purposeful trying to provoke summer 2020 kinda protests. have already mentioned the espionage act as a way to target reporters and likely lawyers, but the insurrection act is also a possibility. bush used the insurrection act in 1992 to send troops to la to quell riots. project 2025 anticipates the use o' the insurrection act and such should be chilling given the way they have bent and twisted the alien enemies act. also recall that when teslas were set on fire, trump claimed such were terrorist acts. as we has warned numerous times, identify a person or organization as a terrorist is a way to diminish due process rights, which is why we always balk at legal using domestic terrorist language. if somebody burns a tesla or poops in pelosi's desk, get 'em for vandalism or whatever is appropriate, but tack on terrorist label just to reduce due process strikes us as dangerous. tween insurrection act, patriot act and espionage act, trump is gonna have legal tools to disappear people or use the military to suppress 'em.

Beat avowed. I enjoyed it. The worst part about is it that you are aedyran. Limits role playing. The best thing about the game is how they managed to make it feel like Eora. Don't want to go into particulars. Maybe I will write something in the avowed spoilers page. One thing is for sure. After playing kcd2 and avowed back to back, I am done with first person RPGs for a while.

Yo, where is it @Aarik D? Congrats to no.1 on Steam btw.!

Avowed - It's fantastic. It looks great. The intro area is really well done. I just reached the first city.

@ShadySands Happy Birthday my brother! We are older, grayer, and likely heavier than we were. But we carried the legacy in our time! More than that no one could ask!

have to do something personally important and the cost of failure are high there is no one but oneself to blame if this fail again another cold and shaking panic attack hope this end well edit sadly failed again maybe there are another chance in 6 month

I don't always collect. But when I do...