LadyCrimson

That's when you start a new game.

Fired up Alpha11 of 7 Days to Die and played a little while. It's prettier, somewhat, especially the trees. While I never had terrible performance before, it is a bit improved on the new Unity5 build for me, since I can have shadows and AA on now, and still get 50-60fps most of the time. Less dragging sensation while running around. Your chr. levels up now, although I'm not sure what this does ... maybe increases chances of crafting better weapons? Dunno. The new item level system is sorta interesting, although the random factor of the actual crafting is bit annoying. "Craft Stone Axe" means sometimes you get one with "frail" one with 60 durability, sometimes a "frail" one with 100+ durability. I don't really get it. Not that it matters, since durability wears down so fast you can barely chop a tree down. But I ran around some houses and got a lot of blue and purple quality gun parts and a fireaxe. The fireaxe beats down doors like butter, much faster than before. And it's a little more fun to go "cool, a purple/flawless sniper part! Now I just need the other 3 parts in flawless, too!" Oh and I found one hole in the ground (a cave) but I haven't explored it yet. I hear there can be monsters down there. That all said ... outside of graphic changes, the item quality tiers, and changes to the "horde" and mining systems, overall it feels pretty much the same. Instead of feeling like you're fortress-invincible in 1-3 days, it'll take you 6 or 7.

They have to be not in your party. eg, any companions you aren't using "sit around" in your Stronghold doing nothing, and you can use the Stronghold menus to assign them to tasks. The other tankier companion is And off-tank...well I don't know what "everyone else" defines one as, but I tend to see them as a character who is not the main-tank...eg, they can soak up dmg and be a decent tank, but may have other purposes than to just stand and engage (some kind of extra-support role or being the one you send to flank enemies your main tank has already engaged) and is not the one you tend to first send into the fray to start the fight. If that makes sense. It's not always a class-dependent thing, imo...just a party-role aspect.

Really! That's quite interesting! I assumed that if you did his quest, it would turn out the same way. Props to Obsidian! If you keep him in your party all the way through there's non-quest convos that pop up with him (and other companions) at certain late points, that I assume influence the ending slide you will see/can create more ending slide potentials. If you do their quest then dump them in the Stronghold forever after, there's probably a few end-slide options based on personal quest outcome alone, but no other chance to influence. Just my guess tho, based on the way Obsidian often likes to do companions.

The three beetle summon artifact works really well ... although, I wasn't in PotD, so maybe it's not as awesome then. I was lvl 11 w/enchanted gear when I did this with 3 melee types and it was pretty easy. The funny thing about all these major fight quests is when you change difficulties to see what difference that makes (anyone else do that, reload to check out differences?). If you do this quest on Easy, there are no extra adds at all...just Raedric all by his lonesome. Which was hilarious. "I am mighty and I'm going to defeat you" and then splat, he's gone.

If you hire at level 1, they are level 1 and thus there is nothing to level up. If you are level 11 and you hire an inn adventurer who is, say, lvl 10, you create them (choose class, starting stats etc) and then when you leave the creation screen and they're actually part of your party, they are "lvl 1" but given enough experience to level up to 10, so thus you get to level them up (pick all their skills/talents) to lvl 10 right away. Otherwise they would have to AI auto-assign all skills and that's not what most would want. Inn adventurers are always at least 1 level behind yours (can't hire one that's exactly your level). As to what to make ... I tend to make either an extra Fighter/tank if I'm not one myself, or a Priest, because I don't like the companion priest. There are however two companions that can act as tanks or at least tank and off-tank. One you get early, the other later.

Because with the engagement system, movement (as in running) penalties for heavy armor seem kind of pointless, thus it's attack speed delay? ...which isn't that uncommon, really, except PoE uses it on armor as well as weapon types and there isn't any "super-fast whirlwind juggernauts" potential ala Diablo's. But you can increase attack speed in various ways, and I find that upgraded scale mail still works pretty well defensively without being too horrid on the attack speed. I didn't even put Eder in plate mail, and he was still very tanky. I don't get the big deal, really. If you want to be mega dps + fast, there's a penalty for it. You can be highish damage per attack if you want, just a bit slower, so it's lower dps overall, but you still kill things just the same in the end.

that is too funny. Some nice art, too.

...good one, Grom, good one. I don't feel quite as strongly about it as you/some may, but I'm not all that into supermodel looking chrs either. Not that I mind an attractive guy/gal portrait and sometimes that's what I want. But most of the time I like ones that look less like they came out of a photoshopped Cosmo or GQ spread with their mega-cheekbones and perfect symmetry and more like "real people." Less perfect. Same, although for me it's all non-humans, really. I'm not that into the "looks like a human except they have green skin or pig/shark heads or scales on their face" stuff, like so much of fantasy/sci-fi does. Don't get me wrong, I understand the reasons (a lot less work) but not really my thing. So I tend to just stick with human is human. Or elves, who just like Spock, are mostly about the pointy ears. I'd love it if some companions in games more often were things like a giant silicate centipede, a floating pyramid-shaped creature that spins and sends spells/energy out of its top when attacking (both of those come from books I read) - totally non-humanistic creatures.

Sounds like me, most of the time. "I want (insert some snack/meal), but I'd have to leave the house ... nah." I haven't made deserts much in a while, and the general stores rarely have anything I want either, so ... this time I made my own. Rolled dough into individual portions that I freeze so I can cook 4 cookies at a time over some days vs. a giant whole batch at once that sits on a plate and tempts me to eat them all in one day.

Loaded a save, turns out I remembered wrong - I was lvl 10 when I did this one. Their overall accuracy ratings (vs. dragon's defenses) I'd guess? My lvl10 Aloth had something like 40's accuracy, haha. Rest 55-65ish (monk, 2nd fighter) and mid-70ish (Eder). I wasn't geared for high attack/dps at all (I wasn't even using Aloth as a dps AoE caster). I don't recall the order you get spells/spell levels etc (since you're lvl 9 vs. I was 10) but the ones that seemed to help for me - using them all made the Extraordinary defense msg disappear anyway - were: Priest: Devotions of the Faithful and Shining Beacon Wizard: Expose Vulnerabilities, Rygram's Enervating Terror ...and of course if you have a scroll of valor, that doesn't hurt at all, either.

Yeah, I get the feeling the later convos with them are largely about determining what "ending" they end up with. Still...I liked having them. Even without their quests, their banter and lines during big moments are round out the game, for me, (like all the endgame boss fight talking and god-favor convos), vs. the big empty space of nothing you get with all hired adventurers. And yes, Eder makes a very nice tank.

They're in your Stronghold hireling hire/fire menu list. Basically they're new hireling types. If you already have 8 original ones hired, you have to dismiss one to hire the new one.

With all the fancy hats and capes, I keep wanting to make The Three Musketeers.

Fighting the dragon: I was level 11 I think, and it didn't do much damage to my party most of the time (eg stalemate of just surviving wasn't hard at all), but I kept getting those "Extraordinary Defense" messages constantly (first time I'd seen that) so it took a while before I figured out how to deal with that, with my non-optimized party. It's the one time I actually had to use some Priest/Wiz specific spells/talents that increased accuracy of party and decreased the defenses of mommy dragon.

I promised Berath I'd return them to the cycle, which makes the most sense to me (I don't like the idea of returning damaged/traumatized souls to people...), so I did. A promise is a promise and I didn't like most of the other choices all that much. I almost went the route of returning them because Eder obviously wanted that, but oh well, sorry Eder.

I dunno. The quests themselves can be short but if you keep Eder/Aloth in your party to the very end, they seem more and more like "people." A lot of lines tossed in during big moments, a few more "I want to talk to you" interactions, and so on. Can't speak to the other 4, but Eder/Aloth/Durance/Kana all felt like my buddies by the end. So to speak. I still can't stand Durance personality wise, haha. But that's why I can't make myself switch companions in and out in games, just to get them all in one playthru - I become too attached/have to see them through. They're not as fleshed out in PoE as other games I've played, but I still liked the end results. And yes, OP, you're supposed to get XP if their quests are actually completed. Sometimes you may have a final short task before it's actually completed, like someone above mentioned.

I made some white choc. macadamia nut cookies. Am now eating said cookies.

Well I finally finished Pillars. I still had the last few bounties and the 2nd half of the Endless Paths dungeon to do, but by then I was so Op'd for Normal difficulty that I just went "screw it" and ran to the finish line. I can always reload an older save to check out the rest, if I don't get that far again with other chrs. Anyway, I liked the very end section...was fun and the companion comments/dialogues were nice to go through. Total time listed on the save file: about 71 hours. Ended game with about 80k in funds left. But I'd like to say, that putting a certain fun item in the game at the very end so you only get to use it briefly, is kind of ... not fun. Come on, could've put it in a little sooner. Not sure if I want to play more Pillars (mostly to goof off, not serious playthrus) or move on to something else for a while.

I think when this happens it's because the party members can't all be the same distance away from the same enemy (eg, they can't all stand on the same exact spot), and it seems to me that the closer you are, the faster that circle timer runs. Although I could be wrong. It's just what I make of my observations. I went and tested this via friendly NPC's and having chrs. approach one at a time, and I think you're correct/I was wrong. Eder with 9 Stealth, his yellow circle took about 3.5 to 4 seconds to fill up (something like that, I didn't timer it). Aloth with 4 stealth was way faster to fill. So I guess I thought what I thought because Aloth is always in the back, so he isn't in detection range as soon and I'd be focusing on Eder (in front) and only notice Aloth as he dragged along in back. From that brief test tho, I'd say Stealth needs to be pretty high to be useful in tight quarters. 4 stealth really isn't much time at all. Aloth was the only one left who didn't have at least 7.

I think when this happens it's because the party members can't all be the same distance away from the same enemy (eg, they can't all stand on the same exact spot), and it seems to me that the closer you are, the faster that circle timer runs. Although I could be wrong. It's just what I make of my observations. The thing about those health skills is that for the precious point used, once your chrs. have way way way more than 200 health, it'll feel like a wasted point. And yes, for my other chrs you could always choose a skill later, if you still want it more than the next tier up ones, at the moment, instead.

True about the minor health talents. That almost no one wastes their points on once they've tried them once. Kana in my game has 13 Lore (no bonuses). I think the only cap is the number of points available through clvl 12. (I don't think there are high level scrolls to go with it, however...again, I dumped points in it because they had nowhere else to go, lol)

Moving...

1 - highest chr. applies, not lowest. Stealth can be used to avoid trash-mob combats (can't avoid scripted dialogue triggers) but overall it's application in the game doesn't seem particularly awesome. I don't think most are pumping it to high levels. I did eventually, only because I had nothing else to put the points in. 2 - not sure - at least 4 I'd think. I know at 8 I was able to scoot past people in smaller rooms/hallways (vs. the wide outdoors) because the time of the rotating yellow circle increased, allowing you to get past before being seen. Still didn't feel terribly "sneaky", however. 3 - pretty sure you can devote all your points for those if you wish. If you don't spend all 6 pts each level, they carry over to the next time you levelup/use the screen. 4 - There's a few ways you can get permanent bonuses to various things, but that's spoilery. Might want to do a Search in one of the spoiler forums, or look in a wiki. I know nothing about Barbarians, so... 7 - chanter phrases are level ups, no skillbooks or anything like that in PoE 8 - wizard - low level, fan of flames and the CC ones are popular. High level, all the CC ones. Wizards have a long growing pain period, especially if you don't like friendly fire management. Priest's are mostly handy for healing Endurance and combat buffs and also have growing pains but get some decent spells later (eg, around level 8 or 9 Priests/Wizards can suddenly go from "useless/ok" to "sorta awesome"). That said, Priest debuffs are largely useless/not required at all, ever, imo. 9 - if you hire a higher level rogue/adventurer at the inn, you create/they join party at lvl1, then you keep hitting the level up button to make them their max available level. 10 - the only way to replenish HEALTH is to sleep/camp. (edit) Health and Endurance are two separate things. Endurance is combat health. 11 - there are console command cheats for attributes, but that (and the others) will disable achievements. Fine tuning small mistakes would require a mod.

Dragon had to die. I wanted the dragon meat. ...well ok not really, but I didn't have much sympathy, since she invaded/killed to begin with, vs. trying to talk to them (since, hey, y'know, she can talk) and going "hey I need a cool place to raise my kid, can I stay here, I promise not to eat any villagers, just boars and deer." She gave a nice sob story, but ... nope, not buying it.