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So does anyone have constructive ideas what else could rangers have ? And don't even mention bonuses to dual wield. Stealth and Survival are skills available to everyone. Setting traps is Mechanics. How does removing the animal companion help ? I hope you played with a ranger other than Sagani. Hunting Bows are the least damaging ranged weapon.

http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/78557-104very-short-video-proof-that-damage-enchant-on-weapon-and-hit-quality-damage-mod-are-additive-for-meleeranged-weapons/ There's evidence that vast majority of attack damage components are additive, not multiplicative. In this light using the word "multiplier" in skill, spell and item description is highly misleading. It essentially works like this: base_weapon_damage * (1 + 0.5(critical hit) + 0.25 (lash from weapon) + 0.15(weapon quality) + 0.5(Flames of Devotion) + ...) Old wording: New wording: This would once and for all prevent all questions like "In what order is damage multiplied ? Does critical come after or before my damage buff ?"

Another way of looking at this is that Paladin lets you do away with a priest ). It's not a very good substitute, but that micro-intensive squishy can become really annoying after a while.

I think those components of damage which are present in every damage roll - graze/hit/crit, might should be multiplicative. I understand the main concern when designing this was that it would get out of hand when player stacks too many buffs. But graze/hit/crit and might are always there. Essentially it looks like Dexterity (action speed) is the only multiplicative part of the damage calculation. It's not just expansions, base game has plenty of enchantments, chants etc which add damage. Dexterity acts like time distortion, it lets you get more out of potions, enchantments and stuff. Calling any damage bonus in the game "multiplier" is highly misleading.

Positioning like this works well in a turn based game. Implementing a 5-foot step like many have suggested or creating a slew of feats to circumvent engagement are neither practical from a development nor real-time game play stand point. If you have to restructure your game to accommodate a very questionable feature that has many serious and negative aspects on game play, then it should probably not be in the game. I enjoy engagement in this real-time game. One of reasons is I haven't played a real-time game with engagement before. I guess there was Neverwinter Nights, but it was marginal in there. Here, it matters. And really, there are many effects in the game that deal with engagement. Every class have some. Knockback is one of them. Because some people would genuinely prefer to play Pillars of Eternity on Infinity Engine with D&D ruleset. You can't teach an old dog new tricks. Inability to adapt. Leonidas, a king of Spartans, died with a javelin in his back. --------------- I've been thinking about scrotiemcb's idea that Constitution should affect effect duration, not Intelligence. It makes sense in a way, or - at least - not less sense than Might affecting power of spells. Intelligence really is a bit overloaded as a stat, and Constitution not desirable enough. This change would allow Paladins to focus on Might and Con and have good Lay on Hands. Intelligence for bigger aura. Wizards focusing on debuffs would get Might and Con, and could dump Int. Blasters would want Might and Int, but Con not so much. My worry is, many classes could afford to dump Int: rangers have no areas, just like rogues. Paladin really could get away with normal int. Monk - what do they need area for, again ? Rooting Pain ? Not sure if a single skill is worth it. But it would probably still be better than now.

"5 ft rule" - walking within certain radius of an enemy without suffering attack of opportunity - could be a class power. For example automatically learned by rogues at level1. Or it could be a property showing up on armors, shields, rapiers...

I still don't understand why we want to discourage movement at all. I've been slowly replaying BGTutu over the past couple of weeks, and movement ends up being one of the more dynamic and interesting parts of combat (and the loss of movement or control of movement is a huge risk). Engagement strikes me as ever more pointless. First, it's not about discouraging movement, it's about discouraging certain kinds of movement. It's highly unrealistic* that you can just barge through enemy formation and maaybe take a single hit if you happen to run past a character having 0 recovery at the moment. It leads very simple combat like in Heroes of Might and Magic III and Baldur's Gate. If someone wants to attack your mage, your ranger or whatever, there's next to nothing you can do about it. Zones of control lead to combat like in Age of Wonders III. Positioning and formations actually matter. Flanking is a powerful thing, it's like +2 damage to all lashes in that game. ------------------------ Also, regarding Josh Sawyer and any other designers - when out of arguments, resort to personal attacks. That will earn you reputation with the Dozens. I respect him more for trying something new. Design by committee absolutely sucks, and almost never producing great works. I'd rather play something that is not perfect but consistent in design than some generic and bland mass. http://blog.asmartbear.com/ignoring-the-wisdom-of-crowds.html When you start voting on design, you don't get something that people love. You get something everyone hates the least. Catering companies know this and serve stuff like plain chicken and rice. If nothing else, give the guy credit for taking responsibility for the system, which mostly works fine. * realism and suspension of disbelief exists in fantasy. It's one of reasons Song of Ice and Fire is a very popular serries of books. It adds up and characters behave according to believable motivations.

The only one on your list that really bugged me as well is lack of conversation options. Too many times I was choosing by elimination, not among stuff that I would really like to say.

The house left from Warrior's Hall (Elm's Reach I believe) has a hunting trophy on a wall. If you hover mouse over it, you get the magnifying glass icon, which indicates a description. But characters can't move close enough to read it. There's a table adjacent to the wall with the trophy.

You are just bad at micromanagement. If animal companion is fighting next to Eder and there's no one else on the frontline, no wonder it gets knocked out. In my Hard game, it doesn't. Don't use animal to guard a flank, there's a reason why flanks were considered the most honorable positions in a greek phalanx. Go after a single enemy. It's totally possible to build a bow-focused ranger, there's a skill or two on each level.

I don't feel like taking the bait, your strawman. You are misrepresenting what I said. You don't like the Paladin class, we get it. It seems to bother you other people enjoy the class. This I don't get. Paladin is meant to be a low-maintenance front/support class, and it is. It doesn't have the strengths of the listed classes, but it doesn't have their weaknesses either. It's okay for a class to have general utility.

I want a llama animal companion. Llama spit 1/encounter Range: 5m Blind vs Reflex

There are items, chants and auras that help with disengagement. If disengagement is so important, why do you keep taking Reckless Assault in favor of Escape ? Why do you prefer Stunning Shots to Master's Call ? Finally, many times taking a disengagement hit is better than remaining there and being hit. You need to recognize such moments and pay the cost. I've been making this mistake in the past - not disengaging enough. Wolf companion and wolf spiritshift form get a bonus to disengagement too. Have you considered taking the disengagement talent ? Or "all generic talents are crap" ?

So Might is overrated ? It's mostly for spells and abilities like healing ?

Being below 50%? My Moon Monk is sometimes on 50%....and then he is healthy again... Magic! :0 I think the thread should be called: "Moon godlike monk kills slowly."

Wizard/Druid/Priest spells of level 1 become per-encounter at level 9 instead of per-rest. Working as intended. BUT if I have "Bonus level 1/2 spell" talent, I can no longer cast 5 level 1 spells in a single battle. My spells are listed as "4". I would expect it to allow me to cast 5 spells of that level per encounter. If it's (NOT) working this way for balance reasons, I can imagine a better way to do that: 4 spells per encounter + 1 bonus cast per rest. Send me a private message if you want a savegame.

It's not emotional, it's argument for distinctive design and unique classes. You can improve Paladin's strengths, what I am advocating. You can also cover their weaknesses, which you seem to prefer. In this case covering weaknesses makes Paladin more like the other classes, which is not interesting. You already have Chanter with big areas, not to mention the 2 pure caster classes (I don't think wizard has any area buffs). As long as Paladin is a separate class, and not a Priest or Fighter kit, I want it to play differently. Paladin is not too far from that, it just needs a few boosts. Initial levels 1-3 are good, I feel like I have interesting stuff to pick up. The late levels, 7-11, are also good. It's the middle that's meh. And a boost to Paladin auras is a boost to just Focus aura, really. With a bigger Focus aura it would be able to cover ranged attackers. Endurance aura is big enough already - ranged attackers don't benefit from it. You need to work on your positioning. Not all Paladin skills are viable. Choices are too obvious on some levels. Deprive The Unworthy or Reviving Exhortation ? Reviving Exhortation has 20 second duration (no damage) with 16 Intelligence. Liberating Exhortation is too niche compared to Sworn Enemy and even Inspiring Triumph. Zealous Charge looks rather pale next to Zealous Focus and Zealous Endurance. Also, I possess the special cunning which enables me to switch between shield and 2-hander sets. Outworn Buckler is good, but not worth having equipped all the time. Sometimes you need to kick butts, for example when one of enemies got through to your squishies.

More observations about paladins: 1. Their abilities are the worst of melee and caster worlds. They have quite specialized powers (exhortations especially), but they only get a very limited number of uses. 1 Lay on Hands per encounter is low! Some of their more powerful exhortations are per rest, and the number is rather low, typically around 2/rest. Now thematically, it fits that paladins are inflexible. But a pure caster class can cast the same spell 4 times per rest, and they are typically mass spells. Situations where I need two Liberating Exhortations AND two Reinforcing Exhortations are fairly rare. If they don't have a common pool for spells, at least they should get more uses. Base should be closer to 3. 2. You burn a point to get Zealous Charge, then you see it's only slightly better than chanter's "Swift" chant. But chanters get more skill points per level! Once you charge into melee, you don't have Zealous Focus to fall back to. But chanter can switch to something else. 3. They have many class talents, but those talents don't impress. My conclusions: - single target abilities should be noticably stronger/longer lasting than mass versions of other classes - some of their abilities could be bundled, for example Reinforcing Exhortation + Zealous Charge, Focus + Liberating Exhortation, Endurance + Hastening Exhortation - per-rest abilities should have more uses. 2 uses of Hastening Exhortation can't be converted into some other spell, like with other casters.

Baldur's Gate and company simply didn't give you choice about your fighters. I like being able to customize.

What talents and abilities did you take on Eder ?

Because they're girly cowards. It's a field marshal type of class, not an artillery spotter. People won't shut up how 1 tank + 5 ranged DPS classes is the correct way to play. If there's 1 (ONE) class that pretty much boosts only front line melee companions with his auras that's somehow grave offense. I like paladin in part because to benefit from him you need multiple melee characters. He's the better the more melee characters you have. Animal Companions and summons are welcome. Endurance aura and so on.

But see what it does to your engagements ! It kind of forces you to fight honorably and not do too much flanking. Face enemies head on, don't run into their caster line.That's the paladin way. ...unless you use Zealous Charge + Swift chant ).

Do you mean "being bad", or "being stupid" ? You just acted like a stupid, cruel person with no motivation. Bad/evil people are often motivated by something, for example extreme greed. You can be a greedy or sadistic bastard in Pillars of Eternity. I've been able to make Grieving Mother leave my party in disgust. Sociopaths will play along as long as it benefits them. You travel with a caravan for safety, a sociopath wouldn't probably risk running into bandits or glanfathans alone. There ARE some rewards for nasty people in the game. Gift from the Machine, Effigy. Also, some quests have alternate rewards depending on how you complete them. You can create a powerful weapon if you're murderous. Defiance Bay lets you work with criminals, steal, etc.

At least in case of Hiravias it made sense. That's where other druids live. I have a soft spot for short brunettes, but Sagani is just dull as a character. Once you learn she's an Inuit dwarf, that completely sums her up. Her voice is very American, she sounds much more native to Dyrwood than Pallegrina. She has no interesting observations or habits, and that's REALLY strange because Massuk is supposed to be an isolated village! All kinds of weird stuff goes on in isolated villages. They're fascinating if you like channels like Discovery, National Geographic, and so on. But not Sagani. If you try playing with Hiravias, keep in mind he's a bit of a beast, not a pure spellcaster. Druids are okay for melee and Hiravias has stats for that. Early spell Taste of the Hunt gives you endurance drain, and druids have okay HP. Good Might, Dex, not so much Intelligence.

To construct a wall, you need to lay down bricks in a consistent, thought out way. Those posts are not WALLS of text. They're heaps of bricks and rubble.