Felius

Some preliminary random thoughts on balancing skills: Remove the scaling costs, or at least highly reduce them. The benefit of more points gets lower and lower, there doesn't need really need to be scaling costs to the level there are at the moment. Making some of the benefits party wide instead of just for the character could be interesting. Sure, it'd highly incentive specialization, but at least there's a point now after the mechanics monkey and a few points around. Allow companion's skills be used in dialogue in place of yours. That really should already been in the game really. Hell, it's not even that innovative of an idea, Storm of Zehir, the last expansion for NWN2 did it pretty well already, even if it was a overall mediocre but tolerable expansion for a tolerable but a rather mediocre game. More uses for skills outside conversation and scripted events. Not really something that would be mandatory for a party to have, but say:Survival interacting with camping, possibly allowing more camping, a chance of your camping supplies not getting used when camping or you getting free extra supplies when traveling the world map. Also, maybe decreasing traveling time and/or traveling fatigue. Athletics: Maybe a very slight bonus to move speed? Stealth: Would be fine if stealth mechanics got properly balanced and handled. Lore: Maybe having "significant archeological items" that would give a little bit of bonus XP if a character with Lore interacted with them? We are in a country full of ruins, old and more recent, it could be interesting to be able to get a bit of fluff coupled with XP if you have someone who'd know about its history? Mechanics: I would really like if it there were some kind of tool to help with disarming traps like there's lock picks for locks. Not strictly necessary but might help alleviate the feeling of needing a character with this as high as they possibly can get away with. Clearer indication of how certain skills interact and how much they benefit the character, specially stealth and mechanics. Or rather, giving some implied in game hints for what would be a somewhat "sweet spot" for the character, even if only saying that "a normal city's locksmith non-special order best locks will generally have a difficulty 8 to unlock". Something to let us know what skill would be considered in universe "he's really good at it" instead of just "he's competent but hardly a master" or "he dabbles a bit I guess". Why so much athletics? After 3 ranks, combat fatigue reduction stops increasing and the benefit of spending more there is highly marginal, specially for the increasing costs they incur.

The reputations outside your order's favored/unfavored reputations don't have any effect on the class mechanics as far as I'm aware, except maybe if you consider the opportunity cost of getting them.

Kinda, but in my experience not really. Or rather, with by the time the third enemy engages the fighter and the rest have to go around, they end naturally passing far enough away that they don't trigger engagement even if the fighter is not at the engagement limit. I'd go for at least one extra tank to create something of a "wall", and maybe an dps/tank hybrid to deal with outflankers when the enemy group is still big enough and you lack tight corridors to avoid such (which is also kinda the only somewhat useful uses for a ranger's pet that I found other than occasionally flanking very high deflection enemies )

On resting in Dungeons: In what adventurers generally call Dungeons, it's not so bad. That is, if there's no group or force that would mount an organized response to them, yeah, I can see that happening. Setting watches, barring doors, and so forth are a given, mind you, but random unintelligent and/or wandering monsters in a dungeon (or other groups of glorified grave robbers and looters adventurers) are unlikely to make a concentrated effort to kill them while they rest or overly prepare to kill you once you break up camp. Making a metaphor, it's like setting camp somewhere with dangerous animals: If they stumble upon you or vice versa, they'd probably try to eat your face off, but otherwise they aren't likely to change their behavior and routine because of you and your camp either. Sure, it's a bit of a stretch that there's no chance for random encounters or for the monsters next room not to walk out to you, but tolerable enough, let's call that an abstraction of finding a room that they could barricade themselves in or something. Now, on the other hand, camping somewhere where there's intelligent beings living there as a group but hostile to you, like an "active" castle that you are infiltrating or attacking? That's bull****. If you didn't killed any of the guards or actual pets, maybe, or if you killed someone who barely interacted with the rest of the castle (Say, the monsters, the undead and that Animancer beneath Raedric's Keep), I could see it happening for maybe a while before people start finding it weird and sending someone to see why no heard from her in so long. But if you killed a bunch of guards in the middle of the ramparts and/or just in front the throne room, and then went to rest for 8 hours and there is no reaction to it? That's entirely bull****. You might get away with "vanishing" a small handful of guards if you are careful in getting rid of all evidence, with people assuming they went AWOL or suffered some accident, specially if it's a dangerous location ("He probably went take a piss and got eaten by a Forest Troll"). But with enough guards vanishing and leaving no trace? Yeah, no. Even if you are the master of Stealth, at least it'd be needed to see more guards being hired and patrols increased and relocated, while paranoia goes the hell up about it. Of course, that dynamic would be rather hard to program, but even a bit of a restriction of resting in "civilized but hostile places" along with a respawn of enemies if you go rest somewhere else would be rather nice.

People have already said it, but it bears repeating, most people complaining about the pre-made companions are not doing so because they are not min-maxed. They're complained because they might as well have been "max-mined", if you allow me the expression, for how they have been built. Seriously, even with lower levels, any character you make yourself is going to be significantly better than the premade companions as long as you have any vague idea of what you're doing.

My impressions so far: Athletics: Get 3 points in this for all characters. Maybe 2 if you don't mind resting relatively frequently or is getting enough damage and spending enough "per rest" resources that you need to rest more frequently anyway. No real point in putting more than 3 though, except possibly for scripted events and conversations, but those tend to marginal at best. Stealth: If you don't plan on fighting absolutely everything you meet and like to at least get a bit closer before starting combat, put maybe 1-3 points in this for every character, plus 1-2 extra for your tanks that need to get even closer. You might also want a single character with a lot of it if you enjoy just scouting around or stealing things right in front of its owner's nose, but it's hardly necessary to go that high, even for most stealing. Lore: Do you want to use Scrolls with that character? If not, don't bother with it unless it's your MC and you really want the conversation options it might occasionally unlock. Survival: Ehh, if you have a bunch of spare points and like using consumables, it might not be too bad, specially for the first few (cheap) points. Otherwise, not much point outside conversations and scripted events, again. Mechanics: You really want a character with this as high as you can possibly get, maybe up to a certain point, but I don't know what would be the "sweet spot" that gets you (nearly) everything from it. Only need one in the party at any given moment though, so after the first (and maybe a second one if you want to swap the character around at times), you don't need it in any other character. In all, I really have to say that the whole skill mechanics in Pillars of Eternity feels very badly implemented and probably quite underused outside conversations (in which the skills of companions really should be allowed to make a difference too).