Aron Times

Ah, I know what you mean now. There is a large spider (I think it's the large ivory spider) that doesn't attack unless you're in melee range, and simply spams web if you're at long range. That was annoying for one of my TCS attempts, though I was able to break free eventually (fighter with high defenses).

You should return the map with a note saying that it's fake because it looks Photoshopped.

Well, damage reduction never completely reduces damage, so you probably had some regeneration. Were you a fighter or a chanter? Those are the only two classes that I can recall that have innate regeneration, which means that they can regen the chip damage very easily.

Ah, I can see it now. Didn't realize that it wasn't a screenshot, but a YouTube video. I had ScriptBlock blocking just about everything on my other computer, which resulting in the video not showing up.

Are you fighting a xaurip skirmisher? Low damage, high accuracy, 100% chance to paralyze? Ouch.

The canon resolution of Heritage Hill should be an entire party packing shotguns, er... blunderbusses blowing the heads off of AMC's The Walking Dead. Oh right, guns... I believe the first reply covered it succinctly. Blunderbuss vs. low-armored targets. It's a freakin' shotgun. Pistol and Arquebus vs. high-armored targets.

Just noticed your username. Are you the actual Gromnir that the Bhaalspawn Gromnir il-Khan is based on, or is your username based on the NPC? I remember a piece of trivia saying that Gromnir il-Khan was based on a moderator on an old forum named Gromnir (the username of the moderator, not the name of the forum).

Dual citizenships exist, but your second citizenship isn't legally recognized on American soil. Many of my fellow Filipinos, myself included, have dual citizenship. It's just that I'm only an American on American soil, while I'm both American and Filipino on Filipino soil. Also, please cite a source that contradicts my statement (and personal experience) instead of simply stating that I'm wrong. Here's a link to the official Department of State website regarding the matter: http://travel.state.gov/content/travel/english/legal-considerations/us-citizenship-laws-policies/citizenship-and-dual-nationality/dual-nationality.html

1. Lord of Atlantis - Island Aumaua/Fighter/Rauatai/Aristocrat Stunlocked and killed by a shadow in the Temple of Eothas. 2. Lord of Atlantis - Island Aumaua/Fighter/Rauatai/Merchant Killed by wolves after talking to a traveler who was afraid of getting killed by wolves. 3. Aumauan Idol - Coastal Aumaua/Chanter/Rauatai/Merchant Stunlocked and killed by Duriel the xaurip skirmisher at the Madhmar Bridge spawn point. 4. Lord of Atlantis - Island Aumaua/Fighter/Rauatai/Merchant Flanked, stunlocked, and killed by shadow and spectre at Caed Nua. My next TCS attempt will probably be an orlan paladin named Orlando. While typing the PoE to D&D dictionary, I explained that orlans are like a combination of halflings, gnomes, and catfolk. SwiftKey kept trying to autocorrect orlan (lowercase) to Orlan, and catfolk (lowercase) to Catholic. Thus, Orlando the orlan paladin.

I'd like to clarify my stance. I'm okay with greater reaction to race, nationality, background etc., because as my own thread shows, they don't come up often enough. How often does your backstory come into play? Of course, this could be another subconscious Americanism that creeped into the game. It's considered very mildly offensive here to ask where someone is from, especially if said person actually lives there, though in the more homogenous parts of the USA (e.g. ethnic neighborhoods, predominantly white/black/hispanic areas), people tend to violate this unwritten rule more often. Responding that you actually live there may make people apologize for assuming that you're foreign instead of local. A clear example of this is a sailor in Ondra's Gift who remarks that my aumaua fighter wasn't from around here (Defiance Bay). I replied with "What made you think that I'm not from around here?" The reply was something like [Aumaua] "Well, I, er... Big guy like you, I just assumed..." This is a very American reaction, and I'd imagine that if PoE was made in another country, the sailor would reply, [Aumaua] "Well, aumaua aren't that common around here." without being as apologetic.

My name is Aron Times, and I approve of this message.

Racism Actually Sucks To those of you advocating for more racial reactions/tension in the game, have you actually experienced real racism against your perceived race in real life? I find that even non-racist whites tend to be really naive when it comes to real racism because they are the wide majority where I live, and the actual racists don't bother them as much. I have it a lot easier than others, as I'm brown instead of black, plus I speak unaccented English. People regularly ask me where I'm from, but the tone of their voice implies that they're asking where my ancestors are from. Most of them assume that I was born here, and are genuinely surprised to discover an immigrant who speaks like a native. The point is, racism really sucks because it's prejudice against something you have no control over. The same goes for sexism, which is why there isn't much difference between male and female characters in the grand scheme of things. While it is a known fact that in real life, men are generally stronger than women, there are many, many exceptions to the rule. People like the PC and his or her companions are by no means regular people; for them to have survived their ordeals, past, present, and future, they'd have to be exceptional individuals who don't fall into the realm of ordinary. Race != Nationality Another thing that I'd like to point out is that Obsidian is an American company. Whether they like it or not, American values will seep into their games, chief among them the idea that race doesn't equal culture, or rather, nationality. Here in the USA, race has nothing to do with nationality. Whether your ancestors are Chinese, Navajo, Korean, Russian, South African, Arab, etc., it has no bearing on your legal citizenship status here in the USA. If you are an American citizen, you are ONLY an American citizen; dual citizenships aren't recognized legally on American soil. One thing that confuses foreigners watching American news is that when an American citizen makes the news abroad, he is referred to primarily as an American, regardless of race or previous nationality (in the case of naturalized citizens). For example, recently, an American citizen died trying to get his family out of war-torn Yemen. Countries where race = nationality would find this reporting odd, because the man was "clearly" Arab and Yemeni, whereas from an American perspective, he was clearly American (because his loyalty was to the Star-Spangled Banner). The reverse is also true. Citizens who renounce their citizenships stop being Americans, even if they've lived their entire lives in the USA before giving up their citizenship. Many citizens announced that they would renounce their citizenships when George W. Bush was elected in 2000, and when Barack Obama was elected in 2008. A few people were actually stupid enough to go through with this, and the result is that they are now legally foreigners, and can and will be deported if they stay too long in the USA, if they can even legally enter in the first place. Never mind that some of them were born and raised here. This concept isn't new. The ancient Romans were known for their view that culture mattered more than race. There are many accounts of African Roman governors, but their blackness isn't remarked on as something significant, more like a description of how they looked like. They even had a long standing practice of holding the children of their vassals prisoner and raising them in their own homes and sending them to Roman schools so they would become real Romans, so the vassal states would be run by real Romans when those kids grew up.

I can't see the screenshot for some reason.

Man, I remember sacrificing all of the NPC companions in Storm of Zehir to One of Many. The best way to do it was to sacrifice one NPC companion at a time, because if you had two in the party, what would happen was that the other NPC would get some of the sacrificial XP (I played with a full four-PC party + 2 NPCs). It was quite a slog traveling back and forth to the nearest inn and then back to One of Many, but it gave your PC party a massive XP boost. Of course, once you sacrifice the last NPC companion to him/her/it, One of Many attacks you. Considering your numerical advantage (four PCs) plus your massive bonus XP, he should be a piece of cake. If you played on Hard (friendly fire on, enemies deal full damage, PCs can die, etc.), you'd get a really nice crown as loot when you kill him. Her. It. Whatever One of Many is. But what really made it hilarious was when Volo starts talking about the happy endings of your NPC companions, and you can actually Intimidate him into changing the ending. Volo then asks you what really happened, and the ending montage actually restarts and changes based on your responses. One such option is, "I fed them all of One of Many."

A moment of silence round of applause for the addicts lucky few who will be chosen for the PoE Steam beta. No sleep for the beta Watchers.

I think it's better to describe it as a "real variety of weapons" rather than a "small variety." It doesn't matter if you have 1948483948 different weapons if only 12 of them are actually viable. In Pillars of Eternity, I have a very hard time deciding on which weapon focus to choose for characters who don't already have it, and even early on, when I don't have access to Fine weapons yet, I have to take some time to decide which weapon and fighting style to use for my character. Two-handers means fewer attacks (and therefore fewer attack maneuvers) but an easier time getting past damage reduction. One-handers means more attacks and much higher accuracy but much less damage and therefore a harder time getting past armor. Two-weapon fighting means a lot more attacks, lower accuracy, about the same amount of damage as one-handed style. For high armor, two-handed weapons are the way to go. For low armor, two-weapon fighting is best. For high deflection targets, one-handed fighting is best. However, it's complicated by the various innate and magical traits of each weapon. For example, maces seem mediocre until you realize that you can use a single mace for high accuracy and decent damage penetration (maces ignore 3 armor by default). For hard to hit targets, you couuld go with accurate weapons like spears and daggers, though they'll have a hard time penetrating armor. Early in the game, in my Triple Crown Solo attempts, I typically go with a single mace. It gives me the best all-around performance, with good accuracy and good damage penetration, not to mention that it's very good against some early game monsters like spiders (who are weak to crushing damage). Later on, it really depends on what unique weapons I manage to find.

[Cruel] Hollowborn Crush Saga [Ethik Nol Reputation: Extraordinarily Positive]

There are several inns which provide bonuses to skills, including Mechanics. Furthermore, your starting class and background determine your starting skill levels. For example, Fighter gives +1 Lore and +1 Athletics and I think +1 to something else, while Merchant gives +1 to Lore and Mechanics (those were what I chose for my first completed character).

If you give him the affadavit, there's an option that is damn near identical to "After what I just did for you, you're still going to hold this one over Osric?" that will result in him giving you the breastplate. Indeed. The best way to resolve this is to give him the documents, then tell him that he's stuck in the past for hanging on to Osric's armor. He'll give you the armor without a fight.

From a D&D 3.5 perspective: Perception is Spot, Listen, Sense Motive, and Wisdom. Mechanics covers Search, Disable Device, and Open Locks.

Try having two fighters, a PC fighter and Eder, both with that defensive fighting talent and the +1 engagement talent. Between them, they can lock down up to eight enemies, leaving the other four party members untouched. They won't rip and tear like having a PC cipher + Grieving Mother, but you pretty much won't die, either. Those annoying teleporting shadows are still annoying though, but you can counter them by leaving one of your fighters (Eder or your PC) with the squishies so when the shadows teleport, your fighter will lock them down. That's right, with a small change in tactics, even shadows aren't an issue when you have two fighters.

Kana is my favorite, as he's an easy-going Genius Bruise and a freaking bard, to boot, a class that has long been the domain of annnoying and/or melodramatic characters. High Might, high Intellect, plus generable likeable attitude. He's also portrayed realistically when he discovers that his personal quest has been in vain (the holy tablets he wanted to find are unreadable due to the ravages of time). His cheerful attitude cracks for the first time, and you can cheer him up or kick him when he's down, which affects his ending.

Wait, wat? Who's censoring you? He's probably not used to people disagreeing with him in real life, or he's a troll. Crying censorship or bringing up the First Amendment are two telltale signs. I don't think he's a troll, just someone used to getting his way in real life.

OP, you need to split this up into multiple topics. It's way too hard to discuss all of your points in a single thread because while they are all related to game balance issues, some of them are distinct enough from the others to merit their own threads. Also, most people won't bother reading your (well-formatted) wall of text. Longer doesn't always mean better, as I discovered when I started posting Let's Plays on YouTube. Despite the quality of your OP, most people won't bother reading it because of its absurd length, not to mention that it discusses a wide variety of loosely related issues.

In the later years of D&D 3.5, the Player's Handbook 2 introduced retraining and rebuilding. Retraining is the ability to swap out skill points, feats, spells, etc. for others of the same level so you're not stuck with build choices that you no longer want instead of a full character respec. Rebuilding was the more drastic option, and meant rebuilding your character from scratch: race, class, alignment, etc. Retraining was presented as something that could be seamlessly integrated into the campaign, while rebuilding often required you to undertake a dangerous quest to a place where reality was weak and where you could change yourself completely. Retraining was made part of the main game in D&D 4e. Each time you leveled up, you could swap out a feat or power or skill that you have for another that you currently qualify for. For example, you could trade a feat with no prerequisites for a feat that you couldn't have qualified for until now. This meant that you were free to select feats that were good only at low levels, only to trade them off for more powerful feats that you had to wait until higher levels to get. There were also the various wondrous locations which allowed you, once per level, to get a free retraining (a wondrous location is a large, static, magic item, usually a room or even a building). I'm going from memory here, but there was one retraining wondrous location per power source: the dojo (martial), the arcane lab (arcane), the chapel (divine), etc. Those aren't the real names of those wondrous locations, as I've forgotten what they were originally called. Retraining could be integrated into the character leveling system, the stronghold system, or both. For the character leveling system, it could be as simple as being able to subtract points from a skill to add them to another skill. For example, if you haven't been sneaking around a lot, perhaps your Stealth skill has atrophied, represented by you subtracting points from it to add to, for example, Athletics (because you've had to run away from danger a lot because you didn't bother to sneak around). For the stronghold system, these could be new upgrades, or even changes to existing upgrades. Perhaps the training grounds will allow you to change your combat abilities, like Weapon Focus/Specialization/Mastery, because you took the time to train yourself in another fighting style. Or maybe the hedge maze would allow you to move points from another skill and put it into Stealth. The retraining system would solve the problem of terrible companion autoleveling. During my second run, I picked up Kana late enough that he got the first aid talent (can't remember what it's called, but it's the one which lets him heal 47 something health points on an ally 1/rest). I mean, it makes sense for his character to be able to tend to wounds because he's been traveling all alone, but now that he has a party to back him up, he doesn't need it as much. Instead of resorting to IEMod to change companion stats, perhaps we could invest resources into our stronghold and get them retrained. From a roleplayng perspective, it would represent training as a cohesive team to better tackle the challenges ahead. Also, it'd make character leveling less of a trial and error process for those of who are don't want to reload or are unable to reload because we're playing in Trial of Iron mode. Maybe I pick up a new spell, try it out in battle a few times, and discover that it doesn't fit my playstyle. I can then retrain it to something much more suited to my playstyle, for a nominal fee to represent the costs of research and experimentation. What do you think?