Valeris

Do people actually read manuals before playing?

I am the OP, and I have no problem with your hint of an adra dragon sitting on the bottom of Endless Paths. I mean, I come to these forums every evening. I expect to read spoilers. If I was afraid of spoilers, I wouldn´t have asked in the first place, or kept away from the forums.

Strange. Gandalf used both sword and staff while casting spells in the same battle or shortly before.

Stop insulting people please. Native english speakers use the word "insult" in a pretty inflationary way. He wasn´t insulting the OP. But I don´t know why I even bother. Last time I was in the USA, the waiter came to our table every f.... two minutes ans asked if everything was FINE while smiling in this phoney fashion of hers. I guess just saying your opinion without a phoney "I think you have a very good point, but dare i present my point of view"-introduction is already seen as an insult, lol.

Obisidian, please consider changing shadowing beyond from a per rest to a per encounter ability (perhaps restricted to one use per encounter) while at the same time reducing backstab-damage multiplicator from 2x to 1,5x. This would make the rogue much more versatile, shadowing beyond much more useful and and opening more ways of gameplay between range DPS and dual wielding melee.

There are severel items in Defiance Bay that grant bonuses to hit. One in easy to acquire, the quest starts in Goose & Fox- Inn and grants you +2 INT/+1 Resolve upon completion.

Melee Mage is perfectly viable if pumped to full INT and DEX. Start every encounter with Arcane Assault once your tank has engaged the enemies, then run into melee with the lvl1 summon staff spell. It kicks ass on lowlevel. Later on you´ll need "real" weapons, ofc, but by then you´ll have enough spells to supplement your melee combat.

To be fair, this is true for all classes not flagged primarily as "casters". Tanking fighters can pracicatlly function with one active ability alone (Knockdown), rest is passives, stances and the like. You can, however, make a rogue smashing buttons if you take both blinding and crippling strike (though the latter is less usefull on a melee rogue) and take talents like the poison strike (3x per rest) and all of the other per rest/per encounter attacks rogue get later on. Between potions and weapon switching (what good rogues will do from time to time) there is actually enough action going on for a pure melee class.

The further I come into the game, the better rogue becomes. Especially regarding his fragility things keep getting better. Elder with his Defender Stance + Hold the Line engages the enemies and can lock them up most of the time easily, so my dual wielding rogue isn´t eaten alive. I got my hands on on deflection item, have high resolve (originally taken for dialogue options) stats and the escape-ability. My rogue stopped dying on level 4 and is now perfectly viable in melee.

No, what is one of the reasons why range combat is so ****ing preferable.

You have to work hard to make melee rogue viale. As stated, the difference in survivability between rogue and fighter is jaw-dropping. I made a high perc/resolve rogue (what is fine with me cause of the dialogue-checks given by resolve) and took Guardian Stance for the Fighter. I will try to get my hands on at least one good + Deflection-item. Perhaps I will take even one +defense talent. Right now there is little reason to go melee with rogue. You can go full range build and enjoy the game without any disturbance.

Guardian Aura + One Deflection Item or Deflection related talent alone solves most of the problems of squishies in melee range. Add a priest buff and/or wizard de-buffs to that (e.g. Arcane Assault...) and they are pretty save.

So three in total, or is there any faction missing?

House Doemenal is some sort of merchant-enterprise, isn´t it?

I know of the Dozens and the Crucible Knights. Is that all or are there more factions you can side with in Defiance Bay?

Well, that´s a start at least.

He was primarily concerned about backstab, and yes, backstab is **** in this game. Either you expose your rogue every time to the enemys´follow-up, or you must use shadowy beyond/coordinated poisitioning with your tank every ****ing time; for the latter you must have very high combat speed, otherwhise the rogue won´t make it out alive.

Anyone?

Hey guys, does anybody know how one can obtain the unique padded armor called "Vengiatta Rugia"? Looking at the name, I would assume somewhere in Defiance Bay while doing quests for the Vallian Repuclics or House Doemenel. Any clues?

This was really uncalled for!

Within a last weeks, I´ve come to the conclusion that few, but very active members of this community are desperately begging for attention. They spam the beta backer forums with threads suggesting this and that, only backed by there own ideals how the game should be run to make THEM happy. I would seriously suggest that said people take a back seat and stop begging for attention. Let the developers do their work. You have LONG crossed the line between useful feedback and self-presentation for the sake of Ego-inflation. The developers are ALL much more competent in what they do than 99% of the attension beggars in this forum.

Point is, not taking a cleric is so extremely discouraging that most players will feel they are forced to have one with them all the time. Ofcourse you can make it work, sure. But it is hardly fun anymore. I mean, in good old BG2 it was perfectly viable to play a druid yourself on "core rules" and have all the healing needs (mass cure, Heal, Regeneration, lower and medium cure wounds) covered. I don´t see that happening in Pillars of Eternity, and that´s a shame.

This is bitter. Hardly enough to substitute a cleric in your party, as I´ve assumed all along. Obviously a design flaw.

Ok, Beta-players: What about druids and healing spells? Any inside from the spellbook?

I agree. Let's also hope that PoE will attract attention from the modding community. It's essential for a game like this to allow the user base to generate mods and fixes. I don't think I would have enjoyed replaying BG2 as much without the BG2 Fixpack. The BG2 Mods are awesome, and were needed so badly regarding combat. But people not only have to take off their nostalgia goggles like Sensuki or how this guy is called wears them; they also have to accept: You don´t sell games because they have an awesome AI. You sell them despite of having a terrible AI. I mean, since 1996 AI in games made literally zero progress. NPC-enemies are still as stupid as they were in the early ninetees. Sometimes it seems different cause they are more heavily scripted. But that´s it. Sad reality is, a clever AI is nothing that promotes a game in the current market situation.