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Just give Constitution an offensive use, make interrupts more meaningful (Perception) and let the players go to town. With so many ways to clear the game, I don't think preventing players from doing things like pure-defense-min-might fighter or glass-cannon-max-might-dex caster is the way to go, just make every choice attractive and force the player to cover for the minimized stats.

So you could for example, cast Fireball every turn if your Int was high enough? That does sound OP. Maybe I should give D:OS another try. Yep. It gets even more ridiculous when you can cast piercing ice shards with high freeze chance, touch spells with 100+% chance of adding the debuff (chance increased with higher int), AOE spells and elemental shields that give you +100% current HP and have a chance of applying a debuff..each turn. Of course, only mage spells get reduced cool-downs with an increased stat, none of the Rogue/Ranger/Fighter skills benefit from this. Larian is supposed to be working on a new mode that aims to bring encounters in-line with the OP options the player has, but I get the feeling they dropped it and have moved on to the next title.

Beta testers were a small sample size that were never going to be the end-all for opinions on game balance.

Yeah, it may just be the way intelligence affects cool-downs. Once you get it to decent levels spells recharge in one turn.

Eh, this exists in D:OS and leads to the unbalanced power of spells in mid to late game, imo. Pretty sure it would just result in Wizard magic completely overshadowing all other methods of attack/defense/cc/etc since you could just cycle through useful spells not on cooldown until the others are ready. Although, allowing a moddable player stat to reduce spell cooldowns doesn't help either. Bad decisions by Larian.

That's a pretty huge difference just for BG1. And that's without the need to create a new setting from scratch.

Rangers fulfill the role of adept wilderness fighter with animal companion just fine. They have high accuracy on the level of a Rogue with much better survivability and bonuses in the form of a link with another unit. If you want a range-focused, melee-focused or hybrid then you can make any with the use of talents. If you want less of a hybrid class and more of a straight damage dealer then pick a Rogue, since fantasy rangers (even Drizzt) have always been hybrids. They may not be the best melee or ranged class, but they are unique and viable. I'm pretty sure that was the idea during class creation.

So, what's the command?

So, any news on whether the current beta 1.05 has a hot key for switching?

Playing through the beta to see if this is accurate. I'll probably increase the level requirements by 25% with the IE mod when possible, though; it just feels "right".

I don't want to be that guy who compares POE mechanics to D&D/IE games...but things like this are why critical rolls always hit in D&D. There may need to be an adjustment where rolling within a certain range is a guaranteed hit no matter how much deflection you have. Also, better AI that knows when to disengage and go after a weaker target. I'm hoping the expansion has a wider range of enemies that do damage by targeting more than just deflection.

Devs removed something essential to the game, or this is just about that limerick? Wondering if I missed something important.

These kind of posts always dazzle me. I've got my butt handed to me on PotD on several different occasions. Be it in a ambush fight at Caed Nua where a group of virthaks (verthaks? the scarecrow-like dudes from the Endless Dungeon) start the fight by paralyzing my whole group before dominating two to three of my characters, or against some of the bounty groups which have so many dudes that they swarm my two tanks and then go straight for my back line throwing around disables and nukes as if they were confetti. Or the fight at the top level of the lighthouse where you just cannot tank the mobs properly and have to rely on buffs/heals/disables to let your squishies survive the onslaught. Maybe it's just me, but on PotD (and even on Hard) the game offers plenty of challenging encounters where I had to think about my formation, setup and some buffs/debuffs/disables to keep the enemies from tearing through my softer party members. Or maybe I just don't remember every fight that I eventually managed to win after five reloads as 'too easy' I agree completely. I've rerolled countless times in PotD mode and it's always an engaging combat experience, requiring forethought and finesse. Enemy AI may not be realistic (especially for sentient opponents), but the battles are always a reasonable challenge. The people who show up to complain about difficulty are just egomaniacs advertising their epeens. They really don't deserve your attention. Or they are people with valid complaints, since most encounters are trivialized with one tactic due to AI that is unable to handle basic tactical decisions on the player side. Besides Phantoms and bum-rushing into battles POTD isn't much harder than Hard. This has been a constant complaint from beta days apparently, epeen has nothing to do with poor encounter variety/enemy defenses/poor AI. If anything, POTD is closer to Core difficulty in older games imo. I guess Hard is closer to Normal.

These kind of posts always dazzle me. I've got my butt handed to me on PotD on several different occasions. Be it in a ambush fight at Caed Nua where a group of virthaks (verthaks? the scarecrow-like dudes from the Endless Dungeon) start the fight by paralyzing my whole group before dominating two to three of my characters, or against some of the bounty groups which have so many dudes that they swarm my two tanks and then go straight for my back line throwing around disables and nukes as if they were confetti. Or the fight at the top level of the lighthouse where you just cannot tank the mobs properly and have to rely on buffs/heals/disables to let your squishies survive the onslaught. Maybe it's just me, but on PotD (and even on Hard) the game offers plenty of challenging encounters where I had to think about my formation, setup and some buffs/debuffs/disables to keep the enemies from tearing through my softer party members. Or maybe I just don't remember every fight that I eventually managed to win after five reloads as 'too easy' Many players don't need to reload in order to beat "difficult" fights. The current game is very easy on Hard, almost challenging on POTD.

The description is wrong; longer duration means you're getting full DOT damage for the base 5 seconds, then additional damage on the extra 2 seconds. They really need to work on the wording of some of these spell effects.

IE mod AI isn't even close to SCS. It's a nice try at improving encounter difficulty, though.

Most likely due to forum feedback. IE mod just implemented some of the features before the dev team.

They weren't kidding when it was stated that 1.05 would be huge. Well done, I'll be jumping on that beta today.

Jaceface, you are amazing! That is all.

I've seen the pitch. Once again, taking "the best aspects" of those games wasn't mentioned, and even if it had been, the best aspects are different for different people. The promise was much more specific than you make it out to be. Whether or not it does capture and combine some of the best aspects of them is also debatable. I mostly agree about BG2. BG2 had tons of content - quests, areas, companion interactions, you name it. Just think about everything that happens in and is located in the Athkatla docks district throughout the length of the game, and you'll be blown away by how expansive it was. However, I never expected the amount of quests or content in BG2 because they never promised that. The first comparison to BG2 I ever remember them making was to say that the game would be somewhere in length between BG1 and BG2. Even if you (and Stun) think that it's obvious they were also drawing inspiration from BG2, they certainly never promised to make the game as content-rich or as long as BG2, or anything else specifically about BG2 for that matter because the didn't actually bring it up. As for BG1 characters vs. PoE characters, I guess you have a point. To me, though, it just seems like a different type of approach. That you dislike it doesn't make it worse. They interject less than in BG1? Maybe, I'm not really sure. The PoE party members sure have a hell of a lot more to say (for better or worse), but they don't fight with one another or leave the group, that's true. Some people would see that as an advantage, though. I could do with somewhere in between I guess, I did like that BG1 NPCs had minds of their own and would disagree with the PC, but I'm pretty sure unexpectedly leaving the party pissed off more people than it amused, and it mostly negatively affected Evil parties (which I never played). In PoE, the NPCs are quick to insult the PC where appropriate, so they express their opinions without trying to actually kill each other or leave the group. There are strengths and weaknesses to both of these approaches imo. Fair enough, I can respect this. I honestly never expected the initial attempt to approach BG2 level content either, with the issues of new system, deadlines, etc, and POE being the first iteration of the franchise. Regarding the pitch, I suppose it's a matter of interpretation and almost inevitable that when some of us see "of BG", we immediately link that to the entire BG series and not specific BG1; in fact I never label the first title as "BG". I can live with the POE companions overall, for BG I do enjoy the way your actions in the world will influence how your companions interact with you on a game mechanics level which makes it feel more like a party of individuals with different ideals, preferred behaviors, goals etc.

The way dialogue is presented mirrors PS:T, the description of an NPC's facial expression, non-verbal communication, etc. Debatably, the mature themes vs the standard good & evil of IWD/BG.

Not really, the game was pitched as having the best of BG2, IWD and PS:T. Now, it should have been obvious that the first iteration of POE would never live up to this but, debatably, it's not even close to reaching any of these goals; the combat diversity is poor, the companions and exploration are not even close to BG2 and the plot is standard cookie-cutter stuff. The reason most people are disappointed/dislike/hate the game is due to the missed potential, this is also why these people continue to post instead of just leave and forget about it. Some of this blind fanboy defense is ridiculous tbh, this pretense that POE hit the mark perfectly. The assertion that everyone defending the game is a blind fanboy proves that you're not open-minded enough to look at the situation objectively. PoE promised to combine aspects of BG, IWD, and PS:T into an original RPG. The game accomplishes exactly that. Did I say everyone defending is a blind fanboy? Or did I say some of the fanboyish defense is ridiculous, mainly that POE is perfect and people should not post criticisms about it on the OE boards? I'll concede the point that they never mentioned BG2 and I haven't played IWD2, so those really shouldn't be included. Note that, with the exception of combat that I can run through on Hard even with +50% requirements to level-up and limiting equipment choices, I'm enjoying POE. I just don't think it's at the point where OE can claim that it captures the best aspects of BG/IWD/PS:T on a notable level. You can check their original kickstarter campaign for information on the pitch. And BG2 companion interactions and quests completely destroy POE, imo. Hell, in BG1 you have infighting, companions that leave your party, companions that won't join your party if you are not strong enough (Shar-Teel), etc. It's an area that definitely needs more work, POE characters may have more detailed background info but their overall interaction and engagement is weak.

Not really, the game was pitched as having the best of BG2, IWD and PS:T. Now, it should have been obvious that the first iteration of POE would never live up to this but, debatably, it's not even close to reaching any of these goals; the combat diversity is poor, the companions and exploration are not even close to BG2 and the plot is standard cookie-cutter stuff. The reason most people are disappointed/dislike/hate the game is due to the missed potential, this is also why these people continue to post instead of just leave and forget about it. Some of this blind fanboy defense is ridiculous tbh, this pretense that POE hit the mark perfectly.

Some people will always rest spam no matter what you do, the game should not make rest spamming the go-to mechanic in that case. If somebody can't manage to clear dungeons without running back to town then let him, I'll continue to enjoy the challenge of clearing dungeons in one go.

I suspect that they won't get nearly as much support for another POE-related KS, due to the game not living up to expectations of the die-hard BG/IWD/PS:T fans. Guess playing BG2 over a hundred times (literally) doesn't qualify me as a die-hard fan. It's tough being a gamer these days! Nah, you have to sing about the glory of IE games from the rooftops while never expecting any new games to top them!