bmardiney

Okay cool thanks all. I can breath easier knowing it's pointless to worry about it.

I have to say, the stronghold meta game is by far my least favorite thing about PoE. Similar to how in XCOM it's freakishly hard to hold onto all of the continents, I feel like I'm being punished for going through the game at the pace I want to. Basically, I'm just wondering what you all think about the importance of preserving as many turns as possible - basically, trying to blitz through the first part of the game, then trying to scrape together money to build all the buildings, all while not completing any quests. The gamer in me wants to really crush this mechanic while the sane person in me just says "ignore it/treat it casually". What do you all think?

Great, thanks.

Awesome, so quick question - how does one make a crit-inclined build? I know how to do it in D&D 3.5 edition, but no clue here

Wow, 10 might. That seems weak to me. Seems like 10 res and 15 might makes more sense. Maybe split the difference and go 13/12?

Interesting. I was reading stilettos because of the armor bypass (which is the main way to make fast weapons effective). The idea being that you want to gather focus from lots of small hits. You're saying that it's better to have slower attack but hit for more. Hmm, okay. So then what would your attribute layout be?

Here's what I want: Cipher, dual-wielding (I don't care what, but I gather that stilletos are the way to go), able to survive melee combat (not tank, but still not go down in a few hits). I'm thinking: Str 14 Con 10 Dex 16 Per 10 Int 18 Res 10 I'm guessing medium armor? I basically want half melee-fighter, half support-spellcaster. I kind of wish I had some resolve or perception for the story dialogues. Can someone convince me to take either of those over what I already have? Thoughts?

Thanks for the response! Well that's good, so as long as we keep our security high now (above our prestige? is it relative or fixed?), we can keep our prisoners. And damn, if no one knows about your spoiler, does that mean it's never happened before for anyone? Whaaaaaaat?

You get a message but you have to be paying close attention. I don't understand why this is even in the game. It doesn't seem to add anything fun and is really just a way of losing something you've earned, completely randomly. I think it should be taken out, or made into a full quest (go and recapture prisoner, once per game only).

Yeah, at the time (last year sometime), people said security level didn't matter, that people were still escaping with 25+ security. So the question becomes - does security level affect it? And if so, grind away on building the highest security before doing any quests that lead to prisoner opportunities?

Without getting into any spoilers, I remember when I first played the game, I always tried to take as many people prisoner as I could. But then randomly, they would escape, thus losing all of the value of doing that. Is that still going on?

Not sure if this is the best place for bug reports, but Nedmar (the priest in Raedric's keep who tries to help the PC) is supposed to let you rest in his chambers. That used to work before (played last year, not sure of the version number), but it currently doesn't work. Time to trek back to Gilded Vale

Alright, so I'm settling on 15 10 15 10 18 10. Good to go!

Haha, don't I know it! Is there any real benefit to having 12 resolve instead of 10? The only reason I want some is for the occasional dialogue option, but I'm thinking 12 isn't enough for most of those anyway.

Yeah I was thinking that too. Hmm...well time to start over

Well, I ended up going Cipher and it seems pretty fun so far. I rolled str 18, int 18, res 12 and everything else 10. Hope that was smart Also plan on being a melee damage dealer (kind of like a rogue). I know most people seem to say ranged is better for positioning, but archers bore me. I'm definitely going to do paladin my next time through though.

Wow thanks for the detailed breakdown! Especially regarding the dialogue options (which is always a big thing to consider for me). I was leaning more towards the Dricozzi (sp) paladins if I went with that class. Mostly because I hate playing the altruistic "good guys" in an RPG. Too simplistic and 1-dimensional. Cipher seems like a perfect fit, story-wise, for the PC, since he's all about soul manipulation. Ugh so many choices! In a good way Yeah tough choice there. I'm still thinking either rogue, cipher or paladin, but I'd love to hear other suggestions.

I played the vanilla game up until Defiance Bay (and did a few missions there as well), then stopped. Now that I have White March Pt 1 and 2, I want to do a complete playthrough. The first time I made a rogue (more of a pirate - dual sabers and a pistol). My inclination is to do that again (I play rogue in every game that lets me), but I'm thinking of changing it up. Cipher and Paladin seem like good possible alternatives. I do like me some melee-magic combo classes (with my favorite, of course, being rogue/magic). I know the 3.0 patch changed a ton of stuff around, but what do you all think?

Okay, yeah, I guess I'll just wait for the most recent/compatible version of the IE mod to release. Thanks for the input everyone!

Hah, at a certain point, I should probably just use the mod. Or, you know, I should just get over my anal-ness and just deal with inefficient character builds But thanks for the idea.

Very strange indeed.

Hmm...I might just do this. Though honestly, I was planning on giving my rogue the ruffian talent, and really, Eder should probably be more of a soldier or peasant than a ruffian. But yeah, minor nitpicks there.

So my method is: First area - Do pretty much all of it because I don't think you can really skip any battles Caves - I'm guessing ignore everything and head straight up the middle (using the torch to clear the traps)? Gotta kill some spiders but that's about it. Valewood - Sneak through the whole thing Gilded Vale - Get through intro speeches, get Aloth (I'd like to not skip the fight, if possible), go inside inn, sleep, come back out, talk to dead Dwarf woman, grab Eder Magran's Fork - Sneak through, grabbing Durance Black Meadow - Sneak through Caed Nua - Grab Kana The problem I seem to run into is that by Black Meadown, I'm like 50 xp from level 3. When I hit Caed Nua, I get like 450 xp for continuing the main quest. Is it possible to go to Caed Nua before talking to the dead Dwarf woman? When I arrive at Caed Nua, I'm 98 xp over the mark. Also, if I skip everything in the first cave, will it all be there when I come back? (including monsters like the little spear dude?)

Well I tried getting to Kana inside of level 2, but I don't think it's actually possible. Which is a shame, because I really dislike the chants they choose for him. I really wish they would give you the option for a one-time respec of companions. Sigh.

Their are always going to be a way to argue each point on this issue, but it does not change the fact that some people just don't want to see it or hear it, but at the same time still want to play masterpiece games like POE, it comes down to the decisions the dev's make into the level of content, thus the ESRB system to mark those decisions. I'm speculating those decisions are based upon what would make the game the most successful. I would love to play Dragon Age, but just can't stomach all the excessive blood splatter and gore, but I'm sure EA saw it as a great selling point, the sales of that franchise may have proven them right. Thank you, you just proved my point: you have no idea what "immersion" or "immersion-breaking" means. You think it means "something I don't like", when it actually has nothing to do with that. But yeah, moving on...