sucinum

I am not the greatest fan of permanent combat as well, but found out you can play really large parts of the game peacefully and you have a lot of options in picking your fights. There are even signs in the quest log for difficult quests, just do the easy ones first and you will be overlevelled during most of the game - only a few fights in the north western part were a bit hard for me. I worked a lot with the AI scrips (basically set the most important buffs and debuffs on "always") and also put heavy armor on my soft targets and robes on my melees - might sound counterintuitive, but helps making sure the enemies don't rush for your casters. My main char was a crowd controlling talky guy and very robust (Skald/Trickster with Sabre/Small Shield), so few things could surprise me. Tekehu is a great caster for this playstyle, since his AoE attacks don't hurt the party and you can spam blindly - the AI can't get this wrong.

I had a Skald/Trickster front row guy, maxed his crit chance and used a lot of crowd control songs.

Isn't that exactly what Act 3 of the game does? At the volcano, Eothas basically (not clearly, though) tells you that he will wait for you at the wheel and the quest log explains that preparations are required to cross the endless storm. Up to that point, it felt like a chase - and led me to enter the volcano totally underlevelled (good thing you can avoid most of the fights). Also the preparations you actually need to take to sail alone - buy a sail and hull at one of the first guys you meet in the game - are a bit off compared to pleasing the factions. I miss something like "collecting the pieces of the mythical adra compass". That would have actively motivated you to explore all of Deadfire, much more than the sidequest from the cartographer. The locations even could be randomized to increase replayability. Wow, what fun that could have been! I rather wonder why the sense of urgency was introduced at all, with your soul being at stake, footsteps on the digging site, Eothas raging through Deadfire, etc. The game feels a bit overloaded at the start, you have to grasp new concepts like seafaring and also time is of the essence. For me, it would have been a better game if you decide to go seafaring on your own and Caed Nua gets destroyed later - probably during the same storm that traps you on Beginner Island. This leads you personally to meet Eothas at the volcano and have the "meet at the wheel"-talk. You wouldn't feel rushed all the time then.

You Maia is crazy I was watching Cohh's playthrough and was like NOPE. Least Xoti is open about being loony. Also the variations you get in the conversations depending on personality makes me think when most of the bugs are gone this'll be in my top ten of games. Cause I really enjoy it even though some of the bugs makes me wanna throw my keyboard out a window so when that's fixed and if we get really good dlc :D yeeess. I never had her in my party because of that, but I wanted to try out another ending of the game. That probably explains the weird timing of her request, I suppose I gained a lot of favor with her during the raid. On the other had, that is a good fit since it explains her character very well.

Maia trying to romance me directly after the assassination of the queen, between all those corpses, was the weirdest thing ever.

Sorry for cutting your post into two sentences. I think that is the same problem. The background story is great, but it doesn't really unfold and also doesn't really connect to the personal story. How about this setup for PoE2: You have Caed Nua and stuff, everything fine, and then decide to go seafaring to solve whatever threads PoE has left open. A little quest or two, maybe an introduction to seafaring and then, boom, storm, stranded on beginner island. You do sidequests, repair your ship, get staff etc and set sail home to Caed Nua, only to find it devastated. You get some leads, Berath tells you stuff (basically the intro) and find out that the storm almost sinking your ship is connected to the devastation of Caed Nua. End of Act 1 (or probably 0), THEN you go charging for Eothas. You could even introduce a NPC (Serafen probably) who gets lost somewhere in between that and you recover him again. It's almost the same start, but now your motivation is actually in the game and not some flashback. The sense of urgency is introduced later, after giving the player a proper tutorial and introduction. As it is now, there is too much tiny stuff to do, contradicting the epic story. Maybe the game is better the 2nd time you play it, when you don't have to find your way around.

I am a few hours into Deadfire and can confirm that, the pacing just feels wrong at the start. One day, you watch the gods discussing and get the feeling that this is an important matter. The next day (actually a week later, since you travel by ship) you start running errands in a really huge city. Eder even makes a comment about losing track. Also you have a lot of stuff to micromanage, especially your ship, but also companions, factions and your personal fame. You have to make a lot of choices, like distributing skills on a borderline overwhelming skill tree, but can't really judge their outcome, since combat is very rare. And select a ship crew out of lots of NPCs, which all have different skills and character traits. And spend money you don't have on ship stuff you can't judge what it does. And hey, your cook broke her hand and morale goes down, since you don't have beer on board, manage that! Also there are several factions you can side with or not, but don't really get an idea how and why that matters and what consequences this will have in the future. There is one larger dungeon (a mansion of some kind), but the reason to enter it seems miniscule and also requires to take a side between two factions, where you can only talk to one of them. All other fights are simple brawls, a lot of buildings and persons have no meaning (yet). I feel very lost and without a red thread. I know sooner or later everything will be pieced together, but the start is really rough. First you are drawn in, then you are let go. Everything you do feels pointless compared to your really important main quest. It's still a good game, don't get me wrong

Yes, it does break the game. I restarted for the expansion and completed Defiance Bay, White March, Caed Nua until level 13 and the quests from Dyrford Village. My next target is Cliaban Rilag and then the hearing and Act 3. But my characters are already level 12! The next few hours will be mindless slaughtering. I have written a few ideas about that already, maybe in the wrong forum or not: http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/81620-white-march-balancingdesign-ideas-so-so/

I have to emphasize that I really like the story and the maps of the expansion, altogether it's well done.I have started fresh once again and regret nothing! But there are some things that bother me: Soulbound weapons are class restricted, even when it makes no sense. I'd really have liked the Great Sword for my rogue. My Paladin uses a shield and the Barbarian two weapons, so they don't really have any use for a twohander. Also my druid might have liked either the Hunting Bow or the Quarter Staff. Bad luck. It's not that I couldn't make it work, or respec or whatever, but since that's my 4th playthough, I kinda had an idea for my group constellation. About NPCs I am really happy that there is finally a rogue NPC, especially since getting the mechanic gloves is still random and none of the other NPCs makes a good mechanics guy. I have finished the game as a rogue before for that reason (I didn't like creating "soulless" custom hirelings), but now I have to say the game actually gets better if you have Lore and Survival instead. Your character can do more cool stuff (disabling feels obligatory rather than cool) and has better dialogue options. And while I know it's storywise totally ok, I still didn't like that you find it at the end of a heavily trapped dungeon. I basically had to train a replacement trap guy until the point where I found the Devil of Caroc, then I had to retrain. I had chosen Grieving Mother, so that was a lot of work (clicks). I really enjoyed how you got the monk NPC in your group and it was quite useful that there was a merchant selling monk stuff close to him. But this guy is every kind of useless for me. Maybe it's me not being good at monks (I solod the game with one, but it was a pazifist run), but I can't get a monk to work without interrupt. Well, getting -15 to interrupt from attributes basically locks me out of that guy. I planned him to be my "mageslayer", but he goes down very often and makes me rest a lot because of that. I was really planning to play with the 2 new guys, but I think I will kick him out. Or maybe I give him a shield and make him tanky, not sure yet. Experience/difficulty I did everything of Defiance Bay and a bit of Caed Nua before entering the White March and got to level 9 that way. The White march feels a bit on the easy side now, but is still challenging enough. But I fear that Dyrwood will be very boring with level 11/12-heroes and maybe even the whole rest of the game will be too easy. I like that have a lot of options for the midgame around level 8, but that also means that every option but the first you choose will be too easy. And in a vanilla playthrough,you have lot of incentive to do the White March first to hire the NPCs there. That is of course a general problem with choice and I could counter it by increasing the difficulty. Also the monsters could level with the group, but that is very cheesy and destroys every sense of progress. It's somehow ok for named monsters/adventurer groups, but it's very stupid if trash monsters also level and some young wolf you overlooked in the starting area can later challenge you highlevel group. I still think the areas should somehow interact, maybe by introducing recurring villians. For example, there could be 3-4 assassin ambushes at fixed points in the game - but you will always fight them in the same order (easy to hard), no matter where you fight them first. Or you have some kind of nemesis who you hunt over the whole world. He will always escape you and will grow stronger with every encounter. The monsters could reinforce because they have heard of you (like villagers also do). So they hire a few extra mercenaries - and even tell you so ("Hello adventurer, I have heard of you, that's why I hired those 2 priests when you approached my lair")! That's far more elegant than auto-levelling monsters, because your progress is still honored. I hope you can improve on that. Otherwise, the next expansion might break the whole balancing, because you are almost constantly overlevelled. I tried not to go overboard with spoilers, but still feel it isn't spoiler free.

I didn't even hear half of the voice acting since I read faster than they talk. Unless there is a scripted scene with actual acting, I don't need voice acting at all or only the most important dialogues.

Yes, I did that. The Doemels are quite strong and can easily kill everybody in the warehouse. I still got added a single kill for whatever reason, either because Verzano is plot relevant or one of the Doemel guys counted as ally to me and did a killing blow. Altogether, siding with the Doemels increased my killcount by 2 and I did every quest they had. Very pazifist guys.

If you do the warehouse quest in Ondra's Gift first, you can side with the Doemels. In that case, you get offocially sent to the house in Copperlane. That might be the requirement to get this dialogue option or another way to not kill them - not sure.

I found that 175 kills is plenty if you refrain from clearing maps and dungeons. You can do almost any combination of quests if you sneak around and only kill monsters which are quest relevant or blocking your way. When finishing the game, I had around 120 kills. I could have had far less. Blaidth Golan (found in Sanatorium) is a really helpful armor for the end fight. Also a high running speed (I think you will get Boots of Speed every time in Sun in Shadows) helps dodging spells and separating enemies. I had no problem fighting the mobs one by one, even without a complicated setup of traps and monsters. I only had to spawn mobs a single time to lure Thaos away while I killed the first golem. Then I went for Thaos, after reducing his HP he is unconscious until the 2nd golem is done. The 2nd golem was in the south and hadn't seen me so far and was an easy kill then. Since you already had party members in your group, denying you the solo achievement, you can sacrifice the NPCs in the blood pool and create adventurers.

The Doemels are my favorite. They have no prejudice and, in an adamsmithian way, increase the wealth of everybody. The Knights and the Dozen are stuck in prejudices and principles that don't allow them to have a clear view on the world and thus they act evil even when they try to do good.

It's not only your level of stealth, also running speed helps a lot getting out of line of sight in time. I did my pazifism run with far lower stealth, but I didn't enter Caed Nua at all because there's not really a point in that. I was able to sneak the Skaen temple and Ogre Cave, but had to fight in Heritage Hills and the Cialag Ruins. You can do the 3rd act peacefully with your stealth, if you don't do all four god quests: Hylea and Rymrgand are surely doable, Galawain maybe. Not sure if you can avoid the fight directly before the hole, everything else on the Burial Isle is already free to go for you. In Sun in Shadow, I had to fight 2 times on the first level, the second level is easy to sneak (but the first of the Dragons is mandatory to fight i think). Not sure if you can sneak the first level at all, there are very narrow floors.

There is a directory called fogofwar somewhere in your Pillars folder - that looks like a complete list. It's 152 files and the achievement asks for 152 visited places (see patch log). I'm just curious if you have to visit them in a single game... That, and what I missed. :D

I had a few problems with sneaking on the Dyrland Crossing map, had to outrun beetles several times. Guess my Stealth is a bit on the low side. I tried selling a wrong dragon egg to the lady, that didn't work. When sneaking through the Ogre cave, I figured I could let him kill spiders for me. But those kills counted for me, too bad. With still below 100 kills, I am almost level 12 and will now head for the endgame. I could do most bounties with killing 1 or 2 enemies, but I started slacking a bit. Either way, you get really a lot of experience from the bounties which allows some slacking and you can also ignore many fedex quests.

I have a lot of fun in my solo pazifism run, even with all the reloading I have to do. This asks for a lot of new solutions, stealth attempts, diplomacy and even more treachery, backstabbing and assassination. It's a whle new game and not only a new way to steamroll enemies.

I found the Ogre extraordinarily hard compared to the other 7 bounties I have done so far. He and his gang have a lot of HP and also the room is very tight and you can't flee. There is no real reason to do them early, their (experience) rewards are quite high and a balancing issue, while the game is perfectly solvable without bounty hunting.

It took me another 10 kills to "clear" the Ruins of Cliaban Rilag and I didn't do any quest in Dyrford Village. Why should I anyways? So I entered Act 3 with 60 kills on my counter. The critical path in Act 3 is quite short - I have to gain the favor of a single god and fight my way to the hole on the Burial Isle. I could clear Noonfrost peacefully and convince the guys to leave the village. That also netted me the Blooded Hunter feat. When I was on it, I sneaked to the Lion Queen, killing 3 guys on my way. After agreeing to talk to the bear, all the lion guys were friendly and I could attack the bear and lead them to the Lion. He never even arrived there. I also poisoned the barbarian leader and showed the beatle to the viagra customer. So I am basically ready for the end game with 63 kills under my belt, next to the fact that I am only level 9 and still miss those %&§/() Mechanics gloves, I don't even have a single Scroll. To level up a bit more, I will mainly do bounty runs until I have about 120 kills (better save than sorry). Might be possible to only kill the boss on some occasions. Before that, I will try to get to the Sky dragon, I think I can talk it into leaving. This will also allow me to collect the 3 birds for the strange bard and maybe also solve "At the Mercy of the Tribes" and "Hunter, Brother". I think I can also talk the elven lady into suicide, but won't attack the druid priest in the temple. If I feel like it, I will kill Kolsc (+4) and lure the Ogre into Caed Nua (if he kills the spiders, maybe I don't even need to fight). I can't really rescue the girl, but might enter through the back door and side with the Skaen. I bought a dragon egg in Twin Falls and will try to sell it to the lady in Dyrwood. I don't think I played optimal, but on the other hand, I was on easy for the most part. Either way, I am now confident to get the achievement.

Regarding Purnisc: I was able to talk the imposter into siding with me, but he asks me to kill the original. I tried that, but 3 guards upstairs are aggressive and I can't sneak them. So I just ignored that. Heritage Hills: I somewhere read that's purely optional? Well, I did it now with 10 kills (remember I play easy), mostly the undead standing directly before the tower entrance and 3 revenants on level 1. For my hassle, I was able to get the Gift of the Machine. Guess that's worth 10 kills. I will have a shot on the Wael scroll and on the hatchet on the same area. Worth a try. /e: Getting the Wael Scroll was possible. Nedyr was there I lured her to the bandits. For the fun of it, I also pulled the mobs from the right to the combat. Almost everybody died and I could loot them. With stealth 4 I could barely get the hatchet. Outrunning those lions was easy then since they patrol the upper area there (lots of mobs have a static area they don't leave). Still at 50 kills, level 7,3 and now at Dyrford Village. Odd about the pazifism approach is that I get a reputation for being cruel and deceptive and generally do a lot of evil deeds to avoid fights and still get experience and loot.

Now i really have to enter Heritage Hills - but i managed to level up to 7. I did A Voice from the Past with 2 additional kills (1 skeleton wizard and Helig), Rogue Knight (no kill), Far from Home (no kill), The Final Act (no kill) and everything House Doemel asked me for (2 kills: Verzano, Wenfeld). I won't do Built to Last and His Old Self or anything else I am asked for in Defiance Bay, because it requires killing here and there. That makes 40 kills and level 7. I have now 20000 copper and already bought a +3 Dex cape and Rings of Deflection and Protection, spending 4500 each. No spear or hatchet available at any shop. Equipment I found: Dyrwooden Charm Belt (Run Speed) which I alternate with the Blunting Belt, Rabbit Fur Gloves (10% Crit Multiplier), Boots of Stealth, Blaidth Golan (the Scale Mail against Prone/Knock Down). I also have 3 Figurines to spawn trash mobs, a fine Plate Mail from Wenfeld and a Helmet with +1 Might. I did not craft yet.

I had to fight 2 shadows, but not both at the same time. That was doable. But altogether, I have to reload really a lot in this run. And it's on easy! I'm surely not very good at that.

I play a Pale Elf Monk with 18 Mig, 14 Con, 13 Dex, 13 Per, 3 Int, 17 Res. Not sure if that is optimal, but feels good enough. I aim for 8 Mechanics (not sure if I'll get the gloves, no luck so far), 6 Lore and 4 Athletics. Talents: Long Stride, Torment's Reach, Cautious Attack, WF Peasant, Turning Wheel, Lesser Wounds. (might not be in order). A monk starts with good deflection, endurance and accuracy, that helps especially in act 1. I mainly attack with bare fists (or an offhand weapon) and also carry a large shield together with a hatchet (but to be honest, I never managed to outtank an enemy even with Cautious Attack - offense works better). The sword in the urn helps a lot against the shadows. It's possible to sneak inside Caed Nua without fighting (Stealth 2 is enough), but I didn't manage to sneak downstairs in the Main Hall. But I had the sword then.

At the moment, I am trying to finish the game as pazifist. I figured I play this solo, since fighting isn't that important. You are allowed to kill 175 enemies and while I think that's doable, I also think you need to pick some selected fights to get experience on your way. The critical path depends a bit on your stealth, the higher it is, the less enemies you have to fight. But I think it's worth the tradeoff to dump a bit stealth and raise other skills instead. I every area, there are a lot of treasures and traps you can sneak up. This helps with loot as well with experience. Cilant Lis: I think you have to kill the ambushing guys and also 1 or 2 enemies in the dungeon. Might be my low stealth. Act 1: You can recover the smith's shipment by killing a single enemy or maybe even none. You can lure trolls to the bandits who guard the shipment. The bandits will return to their camp site after fighting. That is quite helpful since the smith will reduce the price of the summoning statue. To get the potion for Aufra by killing a few Xantrips (max 4). It's possible to lure them to the NPCs in Anslogs Compass. You need to kill a single sporeling as well. This opens up Raderic's Hold. Raedric's Hold is doable without a single kill. Enter left, steal a priest robe and then sneak directly to Raedric and promise him to kill Kolsc. Now you can loot most of the castle, only the undead in the cellar will still attack you. You will have plenty of money now, enough for the Figurine from the smith (allows you to summon an Animat) Since my stealth was too low, I had to kill 2 shadows in Caed Nua. But that was just enough to level up to 4. That's not required to defeat Maerwald, but helpful. If your character is weak, it might help to kill the backer with the plate mail in Gilded Vale. He is next to the entrance of the Temple of Eothas. I had 30 kills after Act 1. It surely is possible to have less. I also helped Peregund by killing two of the looters, I got a helmet with +1 might out of that. Figured that was worth it. Kolsc was too strong in the small house, but I might kill him later. Act 2: There are a few running quests you can do, but not that much. You can get the dagger for the boy and reduce the prices in the Salty Mast and also get the dagger from the other boy (Odda's son). I also promised Nedyn to get her book, but told the Wael guys about that. I sided with the Doemels by killing the guy in the Vallian Trading Company. I was added a single kill, even though I let the Doemels do everything. They didn't mind and so I was in. Afterwards you can get the letter in Coppervale peacefully and steal the jewel. Now you get a quest to kill another single guy. Siding with the Doemels allows you to finish the quest of Maea mostly peacefully. I had to kill a single Harrasing Thug, the one with the key. Now I can reduce the prices of Maea with a bit of running, I figure I get the most experience that way. That helps me to get to Serel. I might buy the amulet from her, copper isn't that much of an issue by now. In the catacombs, I had to kill a few slimes, but was able to recover Eorn (I killed him), get the Woedica mask and do the second floor without fight. I was not able to sneak to the necromancer, but might try again and kill 2 or 3 skeletons on the way. The traps and the quest will surely provide some experience. The sanatorium was doable without fighting, I simply ran away after talking to the prisoner. I looted a very helpful scale mail there which reduces prone duration and also adds deflection when prone. I think it's fixed loot since it fits perfectly against the flesh golems there. Heritage Hill sounds hard, I didn't try that so far. Quests I didn't mind doing: Clearing the lighthouse, recovering the scepter, recovering the chest (all Ondra's Gift), quests from the other two fractions, rescueing Purnisc (you have to fight guards upstairs either way), A voice from the Past (see above), Recovering the Wael scroll (by fighting the thieves) Well, that's how far as I got. I am level 6 now and have 37 kills. I might try leveling up to 7 before entering Heritage Hill, but that will require killing a few enemies. I am totally not sure how peacefully I can solve Heritage Hill and if levelling up to 7 helps me there. In the long run, I guess it's best to really kill as few as possible and do some bounties before the endgame. That might be enough to get to level 12.