Aron Times

Your character is a perfectly ordinary person with no special powers and no relevance to the plot. However, your possible companions are all special in some way, and it's up to you to resolve their internal and external issues before going back to your village/shop/mansion/old life. Example companions... Companion 1: A godlike with reality warping powers that she isn't aware of. Companion 2: A cipher who's part of a benevolent conspiracy. Companion 3: A time traveling rogue whose boss is secretly her future self. Companion 4: An animat wizard who looks completely human. Cookies for those who got the reference. Okay, so the companions ate a joke. But the main idea still stands. It'd be a massive RPG subversion for your toon to be completely ordinary,

"I killed the dragon with the power of Rock and Roll!"

In Skyrim of Eternity... 1. Quest critical NPCs would Leeroy Jenkins into the bad guys and get killed. In fact, there is a very popular mod that makes NPCs hide indoors in case of vampire/dragon attacks. In the unmodded game, unarmed NPCs, including merchants, would charge into dragons and die in droves. My Imperial Dovahkiin was dismayed to see several Nordic NPCs fight a dragon barehanded. The stupid blacksmith got killed so I couldn't sell off my loot, though I did get a letter a while later saying that I was named one of his heirs (because he liked me) and that he left some stuff for me. 2. Watcher: *Puts on amulet of marriage* Random NPC: Are you single? Watcher: Yes. Random NPC: Do you like me? Watcher: Yes. *Wedding*

A heavily armed party was seen talking to Lord Harold and he ended up dead. I guess he had a fatal estoc allergy.

Indeed. You get a tiny amount of XP for the first few monsters of a given type you kill, but you stop gaining XP from them after their bestiary entry is at 100%. This is awesome because it makes persuasion and stealth viable options throughout the game, especially if you're trying to get Triple Crown Solo like me.

I'm currently vying for the Triple Crown Solo with this character: Name: Lord of Atlantis Race: Island Aumaua (three weapon quickslots) Class: Fighter (seems everyone is doing Rogue or Cipher, so I went Fighter to be different) Culture: Rauatai (+1 Constitution) Background: Aristocrat (he's rich) Might 12 Dexterity 10 Constitution 16 Perception 15 Intellect 10 Resolve 15 I almost died twice already, once to an early game trap due to a misclick and accidental unpause, and another to a fight I blundered into. I don't have enough cash to craft my "gadgets" yet, but I've made a point of collecting all herbs and getting as much money from quests as possible. For skills, I've spread them out so I get more mileage out of skill points. Currently, my highest skills are Lore and Mechanics at 3 each. I plan on making full use of scrolls, traps, and potions for this toon. He's going to be Iron Fish/Batfish.

You killed Raedric and everything was good for a time. Then Raedric came back and killed everyone in the castle. It's because of you that a freaking Death Knight, er... Death Guard is terrorizing Gilded Vale. A mortal tyrant is one thing, but an undead abomination? Maybe the Watcher should've left Gilded Vale alone in the first place... It's not [Rational] but it's how the people might think. A real life example would be helping a battered wife escape her abusive husband, only for him to retaliate by killing their kids. Chances are that she'll blame you and herself for getting her kids killed, never mind that it's entirely the fault of the husband.

Congratulations, sir or ma'am. Please share the details. Hopefully you've taken lots of screenshots or other ways of documenting your journey.

If there's going to be multiclassing, there needs to be real drawbacks to it. BG2 dual-classing was completely broken in terms of playability and power level. In terms of playability, it was utterly stupid why you lost access to your old class until you overtook its level with your second class, and in terms of power level, most dual class combos were at most one level below their single class counterparts but much more versatile. On the other hand, there needs to be real benefits to it, or you might as well not do it. Temple of Elemental Evil gave you almost no benefit to multiclassing, as the large party size made it more efficient to have specialists instead of generalists in your party. IIRC you could have a party of nine: 6 PCs and 3 NPCs. Multiclassing is really only useful in solo games or games with small parties, as the added versatility offsets the decreased focus.

So I just realized that crafting isn't restricted by race or class, and you can craft anything regardless of party composition or main character class/race combination. Furthermore, scrolls are restricted only by Lore, while traps are restricted only by Mechanics, which means that I can have a spellcasting character without being a spellcasting class; he just has to craft his spells ahead of time. Scrolls are activated spells while traps are triggered spells, when you think about it. This means that I can be Ironman or Batman in PoE. The main thing about these two superheroes is that they're both normal human beings who fight using their vast arsenal of gadgets and inventions (and virtually limitless reserves of cash). They're pretty much just Muggles who fight on par with superheroes with actual superpowers (like the rest of the Avengers/Justice League). What do you think?

I was trying to get the pacifist achievement with my third character and thought that I was doing well because I generally sneaked or fast talked or bribed my way past encounters, until I brought up the bestiary and counted the number of monsters that I had killed. I had killed around 90 or so monsters, not including kith, and I pretty much gave up on the achievement (kill less than 175 creatures or NPCs throughout the game). I didn't think i could make it through the rest of the game with less than 80 kills (as I had killed several kith during the tutorial). When I did my count, I hadn't even reached Act 2 yet... What would really help is an optional achievement counter system like the one in Team Fortress 2 or other similar games. The way it works is that there is a counter on the screen that ticks down when you kill someone for the pacifist achievement. Also, you could have a counter for the murderer achievement (kill 1200 or 1500 creatures, can't remember how many exactly). Thank you.

So let me get this straight... Sleeping with hookers makes my Fireball deal more damage? This needs more research. To the Sanitarium!

One thing I noticed about this game is that my toon isn't THE Watcher but rather A Watcher. Case in point, the main quest involves talking to another Watcher, Maerwald, to learn more about his condition. Also, Sagani mentions a Watcher who sent her to the middle of nowhere and placed her right in my character's path and would eventually lead her to find Persoq (whether or not her personal quest is completed). So that's three that's directly mentioned in the actual game. Also, the lore books that came with the Royal Edition mention other Watchers, including some that actually worked for the Sanitarium, and may or may not have been animancers themselves. How common are Watchers in Eora? I assume they'd be rare enough that most people have never met one or are skeptical of their abilities when they do get to meet one, but are common enough that their existence is common knowledge.

Your character isn't a Mary Sue. Things happen because or despite his or her actions. Your toon is a Watcher, but the world still doesn't revolve around him or her. Heck, he isn't even THE Watcher, but A Watcher, as many other Watchers exist as well. Maerwald comes to mind, as well as the unnamed Watcher who sent Sagani to the middle of nowhere to meet you and eventually find Persoq. Stuff happens whether you want it or not, which is far more realistic than in most games where nothing happens unless the player does something. I believe you started another thread about choice and consequences? This game has choice and consequences galore, far more than most RPGs, but as with real life, you have no direct control over the outcome, and doing the right thing doesn't always work.

Here's my ending. Link to ending slideshow. Sided with Wael and scattered the trapped souls to an unknown location. Hylea went postal because I betrayed her. Gilded Vale is a wild but independent and prosperous community after I killed Lord Raedric twice. Defiance Bay becomes destabilized after Duc Aevar and Lady Webb are assassinated. The Knights of the Crucible bring order to chaos. They abandon the RoboCop project and return to their roots as blacksmiths. Heritage Hill was rebuilt, but because I didn't blow up the machine, the Leaden Key turn it back on and cause a second zombie apocalypse. Leaden Key was blamed for the rioting in Defiance Bay. The Sanitarium is rebuilt and Animancy prospers. People believe that the riots purged the Leaden Key from Defiance Bay. Dyrford prospers after the Skaenites were wtfpwned. Caed Nua is an awesome place. Pallegina is banished and ends up joining the Kind Wayfarers. Eder went back home to his family. Aloth begins dismantling the Leaden Key. Kana gave up on the holy book he sought and returned to Rauatai and became a lore keeper. The Grieving Mother went back to Dyrford and helped deliver the first non-Hollowborn child. Durance wandered, poor and destitute, looking for a way to take revenge on Magran. Sagani found Persoq twenty years later, then went back home and found that her husband and one of her kids were dead. However, her two remaining kids were successful, and she felt at home with them. I finally got some sleep. Both in game and in real life, as I went without sleep to play this game. :D After waking up, I had a long journey to go back home (which I presume is Caed Nua).

The part about the Heritage Hill ending, well, I actually like how it came out. It's realistic. Doing the right thing (safely turning off the machine) ends up in an unintentionally bad ending, while doing the reckless thing (blowing it up) gives you a good ending. It's kind of like the dwarf political intrigue in Dragon Age: Origins. If you support the reasonable and honest Lord Harrowmont, the dwarf nation ends up stagnating and the rigid caste system stays in place. If you support the murderous Prince Bhelen, the dwarf nation prospers and becomes a more egalitarian society and a much nicer place to live. Also, what you do to the golem factory (can't remember the exact name in the game) affects the dwarf ending. It's a horrible thing that turns dwarves into golems with little to no free will, and keeping it running will result in many dwarves being condemned to golemhood (though, on the bright side, there are some genuine volunteers). However, having golems will let the dwarves make the Underdark (can't remember the Dragon Age name) a much safer place, and for the first time in forever, people can travel the Underdark safely, without fear of darkspawn and other subterranean monsters. How many times have people done the right thing in real life only to make things worse? How many times have people done stupid or even outright evil things and made the world a better place? You can't really predict these things, so all you can do is to hope that you did the right (morally superior) thing and got the correct (desired) resolution.

I'm talking about race, class, culture, and background. In my first and second runs, I played an island armada fighter from the Deadfire Archipelago who used to be a merchant. Not including the prologue, here's how often my backstory elements came into play. 1. Island Aumaua - Lots of references to me being a big, tough guy who wasn't from around these parts. No mention of my subrace, though. 2. Fighter - I remember it coming up exactly once, in the quest where you have to get a bear and a lion to fight each other. 3. Deadfire Archipelago - Never came up, not even with Kana and other aumaua. There were several dialogue options for Ruatai, though, which I didn't have access to. 4. Merchant - Never came up directly as a dialogue option, but was commented on by the shady Vaillian merchant who crossed the Doemenels, as well as the goddess Ondra herself. The personal and faction reputations came into play a lot more often that I lost count.

So here's my first ending... This is the ending of my first run. I played an aumaua fighter named Nurzhan of the Oasis, who was based on a long-running D&D character of mine. He was a merchant from the Deadfire Archipelago who moved to Dyrwood after his business rivals destroyed his shop. He ended up becoming a Watcher and Lord of Caed Nua. He defeated Thaos at level 11, with less than 1000 XP to go before level 12. I roleplayed Nurzhan in-character for most of the game. I tried to follow my minimal reload policy, but as this was my first time playing the game, I relaxed this rule a bit and allowed myself to reload more often than usual, and almost always if I screwed up a fight or if a companion died. I've found that in my later runs, I've had to reload far less often because I had learned how to play the game properly. And finally, I made a beeline for Thaos instead of wasting time doing 1938494839834 different side quests. My reputations were: Benevolent 4 - Didn't set out to be a goody two-shoes adventurer, but merely picked what I thought my character would've done. Clever 2 - Picked up a few sarcastic and witty comments early on, but soon changed to a more politically correct tone. Diplomatic 3 - Politeness is useful in real life, as in Eora. Honest 3 - Honesty is easy because you don't have to remember the details of your lies. It also makes several quests a lot easier if you're known to be honest. Rational 4 - True Neutral. Whatever works.

1. Nurzhan of the Oasis - Island Aumaua Fighter (Deadfire Archipelago Merchant) Played him as an archer (Adventurer weapons), which squandered his innate regeneration. Also, he had low Might because I didn't know that Might applied to ranged damage (all damage, in fact). He was pretty mediocre as a result. I finished the game with him, skipping the vast majority of side quests and leaving most companions' side quests unresolved save for the wizard companion. Most of them ended up having bittersweet endings. 2. Nurzhan of the Oasis - Island Aumaua Fighter (Deadfire Archipelago Merchant) Same build with more fighter friendly stats. Same weapons as #1, but he uses his war bow as an opener instead of his main weapon. He main weapons are his estoc and his dual flails. Much more effective than #1, able to lock down four enemies at a time. Still playing this one. 3. Lelouch vi Britannia - Meadow Folk Cipher (Aedyran Aristocrat) Based on the main character of Code Geass, an exiled noble with mind control powers. Terrible physical stats but awesome mental stats. Expert of LYAHF (Let's you and him fight!). Just arrived in the first town.

I love how you can bypass several parts of the game if you have enough cash on hand. In other RPGs, cash is almost always used for buying ludicrously expensive magic items and not for realistic uses. Also, NPCs in other RPGs tended to have unrealistically strong integrity and seem to be immune to financial problems. And this is venturing into spoiler territory, but there are times when using money to solve your problems actually helps people. Like real life, some people are only in your way because of financial reasons, which you can solve for them. I suspect that bribery options will help me get the pacifist achievement (kill less than 175 creatures throughout the game). I'm actually trying to get this achievement with my third character, a cipher named Lelouch vi Britannia (Aedyran Aristocrat).

Someone pointed out this bug last week. The DoTs and HoTs should be changed so that their damage and heal per second is the same regardless of their durations. For example, if I have a DoT that deals 10 damage over 10 seconds (1 dps), and my Int boosts the duration to 12 seconds, it should deal 12 damage over 12 seconds (1 dps) instead of 10 damage over 12 seconds (0.83 dps).

My first character was based on an old D&D character, a half-orc archer fighter. The closest equivalent in PoE is an aumaua because of their bonus to Might. However, I made the mistake of assuming that rogues weren't that good at combat, as in the past three editions, fighters have been better combatants than rogues (rogues had the advantage of having more skills than anyone else in 3e, 4e, and 5e). I also made the mistake of assuming that Dexterity was used for ranged combat, and completely neglected Might (which actually affects all damage, spell, arrow, bullet, sword, etc. unlike Strength in D&D). After finishing the game for the first time, I decided to recreate my aumaua fighter and make him more like a traditional fighter, a melee combatant. It made a huge difference, as with the fighter companion, I am able to lock down up to six targets in melee and pretty much keep my archers and spellcasters protected. Also, the fighter's constant regeneration was wasted on my first character, as he didn't take a lot of damage as an archer (and with a warbow, he had the longest range of anyone in my party). My tanks were the paladin and the chanter companions, and they didn't last as long as the current iteration of my character (that constant regen is awesome). Anyway, my current party lineup is as follows: Fighter Watcher - Island Aumaua with three weapon quickslots. Currently, I have sword and shield (actually flail and door, as in his shield uses to be a door), single-weapon, and two-handed weapon for my three weapon quickslots for tanking, accuracy, and damage penetration respectively. I might convert one of those quickslots to a ranged weapon so he has something to do when the enemy can't be reached. Fighter Companion - Sword (sabre) and shield with a pistol as a backup weapon. Fits his Weapon Focus talent. Cleric Companion - Uses his starting staff to fight behind the two fighters. His Turn Undead (sorry, can't remember what it's called in PoE) has been upgraded to improve the accuracy of allies. Very useful for allowing everyone to land hits, and also saves them talent slots that they would've spent on Weapon Focus. Chanter Adventurer - Fights with an crossbow (can't remember if it was a crossbow or an arbalest, but it was Fine quality). Cipher Adventurer - A blaster caster who uses a warbow to recharge her mana, er, I mean, focus. I particularly like her lack of friendly fire damage. Wizard Companion - Focused on crowd control spells as his Might sucks for blasting. Uses a wand when he's out of spells/blasts. I'm about to start Caed Nua, and will probably drop the chanter adventurer for the chanter companion, as I like the extra back story and roleplaying opportunities provided by companions vs. adventurers. So anyway, to sum it up, fighters are good at both melee and ranged combat, but using them as dedicated ranged characters wastes their innate tankiness.

Neverwinter Online by Cryptic Studios has literally dozens of currencies. There's gold, which is used for buying healing items, skill kits, and unslotting enchantments, there's astral diamonds, which are used in the auction house and can also be converted into Zen and vice-versa (1 USD = 100 Zen), there are the various seals, which randomly drop from five-man dungeons and can be used to purchase level-appropriate gear, there are the various seasonal and event currencies, which you use to buy items only available during that season or event, there is black ice, which is a crafting material and power source (you use it to craft items and it is the fuel that powers those items), there are the bounty items that drop from the various adventure zones which you can trade in for seals (see above) or random magic items, and many, many more. On one hand, it is incredibly annoying to have to farm this month's brand new currency, but on the other hand, it keeps older players from immediately grabbing up the latest gear and pets with their deep pockets. It kind of teeters between the edge of annoying and interesting.

Oooh, my post got a lot of replies! A lot of interesting information in this thread, including how firearms are rightfully powerful. Too many RPGs make the mistake of adding firearms but making them way too impractical to use. Of the RPG systems I've played, the New World of Darkness (both pre- and post-God Machine update) is one of a handful where firearms are very powerful. in the nWoD, the main weaknesses of firearms are availability (in games set in countries with tight gun control) and stealth (in that they are really LOUD and ruin your stealth). Still, if you're fighting the creepy monsters of the nWoD, and stealth isn't an issue, you can't go wrong with firearms. Among CRPGs, Arcanum had powerful firearms, though they didn't work well with magic. I remember trying to balance magic, er... magick and science, wielding spell and firearm, and my firearms couldn't penetrate magical creatures' innate technological resistance (and technological creatures' innate magical resistance with my spells). That reminds me... Is there going to be something like the insane sewer level in Vampire: Bloodlines or the Black Mountain Clan caves in Arcanum? Those two levels pretty much made it impossible to complete the game if your character didn't focus on combat skills. Up to that point, you could progress through the game with minimal combat skills, but suddenly, BANG! You're in a mandatory Dungeon Deathtrap of Doom™! Those were the low points in both games, and are referred to as Scrappy Levels in TV Tropes.

So I just learned that there will be early firearms in PoE, and that they have the ability to penetrate a wizard's Mage Armor (can't remember the exact ability, so I'm going to use the D&D name). I'm one of those people who likes the concept of firearms in fantasy, as their literal firepower can keep the supremacy of magic in check. It also pleases my inner Technocrat (Mage: The Ascension) to have something mundane be so powerful. Anyway, I was wondering about the basic attacks available in PoE. In the vast majority of RPGs, basic attacks are physical attacks, melee or ranged, that one uses in the absence of magical attack options. Throughout the history of D&D, for example, spellcasters use basic attacks (3.5 and earlier: ranged weapons, 4e and 5e: at-will spells) to conserve their big guns. In many CRPGs, basic attacks are what you use while your power meter is filling up or your other attacks are on cooldown. So, what basic attack options do PoE toons have? Also, about firearms, can all classes use them? I saw concept art depicting a cleric with a longarm (musket or rifle, probably a musket). Will I have the option of having a six-man party packing heat as they go about their obligatory mass murder? I mean, if I'm going to be killin' a lot people, I might as well do it right; with a gun from long range so I'm less likely to get hurt. Oooh, can I play a party of gunslingers? Do want.