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Monstrous damage, short duration, low accuracy (base druid). It disables most of your equipment. I'd say the main problem is accuracy. It completely wrecks stuff if it can hit. Yes, it doesn't scale very well, but it's instant. So if it happens that an enemy next to druid is stunned or goes prone, go for it !

I wouldn't name Eder as one of the best voices in the game. He has good lines, but voice ? I liked Osric in Expedition Hall, Iovara, Hiravias (ask him to relate his Staelgar adventure. He sounds like he was there.) Maerwald was pathetic in a bad way. Who voiced him ? The Od Nua guy ? I wasn't impressed either. The twin dryads sound like bimbos.

From the character creation screen (Priest):

After explaining your background to Callisca, you talk about Lord Raedric's offer for new settlers: Callisca mostly has a few stock responses. She should be a diplomat, she excels at responses that make you feel warm and fuzzy inside. Mostly.

Before it's too late... please ignore advice to play Baldur's Gate 1, Baldur's Gate 2, Icewind Dale, and Planescape Torment. Baldur's Gate 1 - unless you're a Dungeons&Dragons veteran, you will find combat rules opaque and enemy defenses a mystery. ALL spells are per rest. Very few per encounter abilities on classes, for example Fighter just stands there and swings his sword. No weapon switching in combat. It's pretty much impossible to heal without a Priest in party, resting only heals something like 8 HP. Random trash encounters, when you rest, when you travel etc. Save before every fight, the game won't autosave for you. To play properly, you need to know what weapon types have good weapons to find, for example Spears are trash, you can find a +1 one and that's it. No container highlighting, enjoy pixel hunting. No companion quests, little companion conversation. Very limited weapon and armor choices. So you're a druid, wizard, or priest ? Slings and staves for you ! On the other hand, ranged weapons are IMBA. Many dumpstats, for example fighters have no benefit from Charisma, Intelligence, Wisdom. Even Dexterity is questionable, it doesn't affect attack rate and accuracy depends on Strength. It's pretty easy to create a bad character. Make a wizard with low Intelligence, and you get fewer spells per level. Baldur's Gate 2 - like above, plus very little wilderness, 40 quests per location. Tries very hard to make you care about certain party members, forces changes in party composition. Wiki-based combat, because often a monster will have some obscure weakness and I'm not talking about Trolls. It's pretty much Baldur's Gate x5, more content, few important changes. If you won't like Baldur's Gate 1, you won't like BG2. Didn't impress me for much the same reasons Fallout 2 didn't impress me. Icewind Dale - less story than in Baldur's Gate, more wiki-based combat. Planescape: Torment Did someone say PoE has too much reading ? P:T has something like 15x more. Even fans admit it has the worst combat among Infinity Engine games. I'd rate them Planescape:Torment > Baldur's Gate 1 > Baldur's Gate 2 > Icewind Dale

You set your character background at character creation, but there's also the first conversation with Callisca. What you say ends up in your biography. Some people in the game will react to this - I'm not going to list those in this thread. Some backgrounds hide professions you wouldn't expect there. Now you can choose something you like the most without restarting. Maybe I should update the wiki. Aristocrat (all except The Living Lands) Artist (Old Valia) Clergyman (Aedyr) Colonist (Aedyr, Old Valia, The Living Lands) Dissident (Aedyr, Ixamitl Plains, Old Valia, Rauatai) Drifter (All) Explorer (Deadfire Archipelago, The Living Lands, The White That Wends) Hunter (All) Laborer (All) Mercenary (all but The White That Wends) Merchant (All) Mystic (The White That Wends) Philosopher (Ixamitl Plains) Raider (Deadfire Archipelago) Scholar (Ixamitl Plains, Rauatai) Scientist (The Living Lands) Slave (Aedyr, Deadfire Archipelago, Old Valia, Rauatai)

They also could've made animal stats depend on ranger stats, too. Very high Might: very mighty boar.

Ranger companion base damage is 11-17. 13-19 for wolf. Boar deals x1 damage (whatever that means) when below 50% endurance. Predator's Sense (skill) gives +50% damage against targets suffering from damage over time. Merciless Companion (talent) is supposed to give +30% damage against Blinded, Flanked, Hobbled, Paralyzed, Petrified, Prone, Stuck, Stunned or Weakened targets. Marked Prey can add another +40%. So on average, an animal companion deals 14 damage, while wolf deals 16. It's easy to get about 14 + 7(Predator's Sense) + 4.2(Merciless) + 5.6(Marked Prey) = 30.8 damage per attack from animal companion, with the catch that Marked Prey is a lash effect. It goes against 25% of enemy DR. It's likely the other components are also separately applied against DR. This way, a wolf can deal 16 + 8 + 4.8 + 6.4 = 35.2 damage against an enemy with 0 DR. There's also a talent giving +15% damage. I don't take it, that's too low for me. A bigger problem is Animal Companion accuracy. It's 60 at level 12. There are probably some errors in the calculations above, but they could serve to troll peddroelm into posting detailed stats.

I've found an old infographic by Josh Sawyer: https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/68171-josh-sawyer-visually-explains-attack-recovery/ It would appear that sword&board has more recovery time than a 2-handed weapon. Is a single 1-handed weapon WITHOUT shield as fast as sword&board ? Meaning a single 1-handed weapon is slower than a 2-handed weapon ? Also, looking at the spreadsheet screenshot a few pages ago it seems that Hunting Bow, whose speed is listed as "fast", is exactly as fast as an... average speed weapon. I guess the infographic is out of date, the new spreedsheet suggests 1-handed average weapon and a 2-handed weapon are just as fast.

1. Because the fighter took extra skills to compensate ? The fighter has more damage increasing skills overall, so eventually he can pull ahead. At the cost of skill points and talents. Anyway, it's just PotD and solo, it's marginal and not what the game was designed around. 2. Please quote. I talk about Darcozzi because that's the last mentioned paladin order, not necessarily my favorite. If *I* was playing Darcozzi, I would choose Endurance aura for better synergy. And what is Average accuracy if not average ? Paladin is a proficient weapon user. He has the same Accuracy as a Barbarian, for example. By default, Barbarian only deals more damage with carnage. Anyway, there's too much comparing in vacuum done on this subforum. Paladin's skills help other party members, without making Paladin deal less. Fighter's skill don't, except Guardian which comes with an attack speed penalty.

My point still stands that three of Fighter's commonly used abilities reduce damage he deals. You need to invest in extra offensive skills to reach damage dealt by Paladin in tank mode. Cautious Attack is completely optional, you can't force me to take it.

Fun fact: Itumaak can walk around "green" enemies without triggering their dialog. You can use him to scout. He also doesn't trigger traps, at least in stealth mode.

That's a Steam achievement, not PoE achievement. I prefer to buy from GOG.

For people who don't like resting limitations, or resource management, there's always Easy mode. I don't know what's the limit there, but it's 4 on Normal. You experience the same story, same music, companions, quests and areas. You either enjoy combat and play on higher settings, or turn it down. Lower resting limits is part of the difficulty. I wish the game tracked how many times players rested over the course of a campaign. Ideally a list.

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Consider a fighter specced for tanking: Knock Down - Shoves an enemy with enormous force, knocking them Prone but causing little damage. Defender - The fighter adopts a more conservative combat strategy, concentrating on defending incoming attacks. The fighter receives a bonus to Deflection and increases his or her number of Engagement targets to three, but at the expense of Attack Rate. Guardian - Lowers the fighter's Accuracy but increases Deflection for allies within a short range. It certainly looks like Fighter sacrifices more than opportunity cost of choosing another ability. He becomes a harmless decoy. A defensive totem. By contrast, even the tankiest paladin doesn't suffer any offensive penalties. Unless you take the offensive talent Cautious Attack, but it's hard to blame Paladins for a general talent being available to all. Two of these are modal abilities, and yes you can turn them off, but Paladin doesn't need to turn them off. ...ironically, the way auras work encourages multiple paladins, not aura switching!

Speaking of Lore, classes which should get it thematically tend to have low use for it. Priests, Druids, Wizards already have lots of activated abilities. Chanters are actually a good fit ! They get something to do while charging their Invocations. It's a bit odd you want to put Lore on Sagani, who only cares about finding the next meal and Persoq, or perhaps Pallegrina, who expresses very little curiosity.

Druids have their own buffs. lvl2 Woodskin is not just +6 DR vs pierce, it's also vs fire and lightning. So you can clear Searing Falls, for example. Not saying Priest buffs are worse, but Druid's are good enough.

Comparing to the lions in Stormwall Gorge, beetles in Dyrford Crossing, undead in Heritage Hill, monsters in the ruins north of Dyrford those drakes are a hell of a fight. The reward is appropriate.

I think +10 deflection on heal is good. It helps to make sure the ally is not knocked out before healing takes effect.

I didn't say it was a smart idea, just that that's what devs suggested. Those stars next to attributes at character creation. Personally I'd rather dump Perception, Constitution even if it means having my paladin with a reaching weapon. A Darcozzi might call for more tankiness, while a Kind Wayfarer more melee power, Might at the cost of Dexterity and so on. If you really like LoH so much, maybe Shielders are for you. Anyway, this system was supposed to have no dumpstats. In this aspect, paladins appear to be one of better designed classes, not worse. Being starved for attributes means all stats are important.

I like the consumable bonus from Survival. Squeezing every last bit from that scroll of potion makes sense for survival. I don't like the power creep called attributes at levelup. Unless, perhaps, you remove the +3 Accuracy and +3 Deflection all characters get. Attributes are who you are, skills is what you learn. You may improve your Might, Constitution or Intelligence, but there's no way to train eyesight (Perception) or Dexterity.

Priests may have good buffs, but I think they're actually inferior at healing. Druids are better. Not that you need healing to complete the game anyway.

Why do you trash the linguistics and call it a setting review ?

I'm completing the game on Hard without a priest. I still find more camping supplies than I use. Monk, Eder, Kana, Aloth, Grieving Mother, Sagani.