Kid Presentable

I haven't played the game since release and have a hard time parsing the patch logs for direct and indirect changes to priests, but I've read that they're really good at dealing damage now (or, maybe they always were, and people hadn't noticed?). Which spells in particular are useful? Should I stay pure priest? I've read that Magran and Berath in particular are good, why?

Hear, hear!

I know about the camping supplies limit in your inventory, and how it varies depending on your difficulty settings. But I haven't been able to find out if there's actually a finite amount of camping supplies in the game. Do the merchants ever restock or is there an option in the stronghold that provides you with supplies? I play on normal, so I'm nowhere near running out, which makes my question super hypothetical. But still; could you theoretically buy and use up all the camping supplies in the game?

The fact that the higher level phrases have a longer duration is kind of a bummer. I'm rolling a tankchanter now and 12 seconds to build 3 tokens feels fine for me, but with the third level phrases it takes twice the time (24 seconds) to build 3 tokens? I have Kana Rua in my party and he had a 6 second chant, while my character used 4 second chants. The difference between waiting 12 or 18 seconds to summon a phantom is really noticable, even for me.

An equivalent of Shadowkeeper for PoE would be awesome.

Could you post/pm me some hints on where to find them? Like just which general area/act? I've got Eder, Aloth, Durance, Sagani, Kana. Companion locations is the first spoiler I go for, bugs the hell out of me otherwise. Edit: Sorry for the OT!

Do they use the word "subrace" or "ethnic group" when refering to diffrent groups Humans in PoE? What does it say in the Character Creator? The term "subrace" feels kind of... I don't know... Someone could say "the Humans in PoE are not like homo sapiens living on earth, they are just as made up as Orlans, yada yada yada..", but Humans in PoE are definitely analogous with real humans. That's why they call them "Humans". The same can be said for the "menfolk" of Elder Scrolls, that's why it gets (I know people hate this word, sorry) problematic when you start handing out bonuses in "athletics" to the race with dark complexion, voiced by african american voice actors. The more out of their way Bethesta went (they've definitely eased up on it in later games) to make Redguards "analogous" with african americans (the choice of voice actors, the accents), the more they invited this kind of criticism. The Redguards got a bit of makeover in Skyrim (new accents etc). For the better? I don't know honestly. Maybe? Elves and dwarves are usually implied to be of a different species, which is why, at least for me, that feels like it's on less shaky ground. Creating different subgroups of "elves" with specific inherent attributes feels pretty safe, while creating subgroups of "humans" can invoke some unsettling associations. It hits too close to home, basically. It's just easier to avoid it, just like most rpgs avoid having gender affecting your character's attributes. Hrmm.. I just derailed my own thread. Well done, off to bed!

I was actually wondering about abilities AND attribute mods, clumsy phrasing on my part, so your post was actually on topic. While it's teeeeny bit of a bummer to see the mention of some races (Hearth Orlans) above others in the thread, I'm relieved that at least it isn't the Generic Humans this time around. The "adaptable" thing that humans often get tagged as in fantasy settings, which always seems to translate into something wildly preferable in the game mechanics (D&D, Shadowrun Returns, DAI...)

Heya, nonbacker here. Was wondering, just as the title says, how much weight does the racial bonuses carry from a "powergaming" perspective? And how much of factor is choice of race overall? That has always been somewhat of a nitpick for me in both the IE and NWN games, that race factored in way too much in the game mechanics. In Baldurs Gate race restricts class choices and a -1 in strength can be limiting for a fighter. NWN did away with the class restrictions but ended up giving humans more skillpoints and feats, introduced "small stature" for halflings and gnomes, etc. Yes, I don't HAVE to optimize my build and just choose to go with I find exciting from a thematic perspective. But I dislike making that choice, nevertheless. What is your experience, from playing the beta?