Voss

Yeah. The kobold. I'm not sure, I think that the 'good' outcome is killing him as it's a mercy killing. Pillars twists the whole idea of RPG goodness from time to time which messes with my pavlovian training from the original IE games. Eh. In any setting leaving something to simply suffer is the jerk move. Besides, everything in PoE reincarnates, so... whatever. Killing is clearly better.

He may, but it is clearly bollocks if you spend more than five minutes with the game. Ranged weapons (regardless of which weapon) and spellcasters trample over most things, and untrained peasants aren't even on the list. Meet Aloth, see peasants explode into bloody chunks.

If you're trying to tank, you'll get hit more than you should, if you're trying for damage, you'll be fairly indifferent at it. Pick one and stick to it. Also, Con is useless.

Yeah... in some other video game where classes are balanced. Are you kidding? This game's balance might not be perfect, but it's pretty damn hard to have a 'bad' character unless you're throwing a ranger to the front of the battle with a sword and shield and maxed intelligence while taking all talents and abilities that buff your pet and simultaneously never using said pet in battle. Seriously, this game a) isn't hard and b) doesn't require min/maxing to succeed with any of the classes. No, but it does make a serious difference. Doing a custom party and a cipher main is a very different experience than putting up with the crap builds and abundance of terrible classes provided by the companions. I've got a wizard, priest, druid in the party, but they almost never cast spells because the tank can't be hit, and the cipher paralyzes/sticks everything else that could have engaged, then gets back enough focus to paralyze over and over again for the entire fight. The other party members are just the firing squad, which they're stupidly good at, because they have good might and dex (and int for when I get bored and want to indulge raining down fire). I butchered Raedric's hold with barely a scratch Now part of this, of course, is the cipher, which is the only casting class actually built to take advantage of how the game's combat system works, but fighters and monks exploit it well too (being encounter based). To a degree that makes the other classes entirely superfluous. The game is easy once you figure out the mechanics, but the right classes and builds allow you to sleepwalk through the combat with only a couple of mouse clicks and a heavy reliance on auto-attacks. The mechanical design and balance for this game is utter trash.

I prefer not doing it at all. 1h shield tank, everybody else goes ranged. But if you want to indulge a trap option, fighter for two handed. Useful class abilities and constant damage bonus (specialization, passive category upgrades [graze->hit, hit->crit]) beat out a slight might bonus on a timer.

Or you could, I dunno, enjoy it. Endless reincarnation seems mighty fine from where I sit, with infinity a great comfort. These people frankly have it easy, with a given fact that a do-over awaits regardless of how badly they screw up*. It only becomes torture when an idiot like thaos happens and chains himself endlessly to the same stupid and unaccomplish-able task lifetime after lifetime. *which is part of the problem with the plot. A discussion of souls and gods has meaning when they're uncertain if they even exist. When they're scientific principles, concrete things to be moved around and build things with, they become fairly useless for telling meaningful stories. You might as well try to tell meaningful stories about bricks or tables. The horror of the setting (and this is a horror setting) only sets in if you ignore the reincarnation angle. Mass sacrifice and genocide becomes trivial if everyone gets up afterwards with a fresh new skin. The druids in the Blood Sands are just tossing a few more chunks of coal into the furnace, not doing anything reprehensible at all. In fact, given what we know about coal and pollution, they're on the moral high ground. @primsilas- but it obviously doesn't satisfy his personal issues, the nature of kith is exactly the same, and he's out driving more and more atrocities (not the hollow born, which is just a drop in ocean compared to the others he casually references) to keep his absurd system functioning. Or rather, not breaking entirely.

I mean, maybe it's just a cultural thing? Me being a die hard atheist, it just doesn't ring the same compared to other players?. Nah, it isn't that. All the more reason to share it and celebrate to me. We can finally bring those phonies down! For me the big deal is it makes thaos' actions and motivations incoherent. To prevent theoretical suffering and upheaval in the name of false gods, he's going to cause real suffering and upheaval in.. the name of false gods. Uh... Well done, O high priest of stupid. Granted, it would still be horrible if they were real gods, but that he knowingly perpetrated his own lie, which had a net result of only suffering, this seems fairly absurd. Extra pain icing on the suffering cake, as it were.

Useless degenerates?

There are a couple of these. I had a conversation with Durance about my vision of him with only half of his soul. We'd just met, I hadn't had any of visions of him, half-soulless or not. He was just a crazy guy at the side of the road, who somehow knew about me.

It wouldn't be quite so bad if the first level spells weren't better than the second and third level spells.

Yeah, that still isn't true, no matter if you posted it elsewhere or not. Eder has a question and gets an answer, even if it is incomplete and not entirely to his liking. His brother chose god over nation, Eder chose the reverse. Sagani fully resolves her quest (which doesn't involves questions or answers) and goes home satisfied. The Watcher also gets an answer to the question. Are the gods real? No. (or yes, if you think the fact that they're manufactured doesn't matter). The Watcher also gets a definitive answer to the question of why Thaos matters to him/her. Your past self betrayed their friend/lover to him to get a definitive answer to that question. And of course, the only way you can stop Thaos is using Watcher Super-Powers to rip up his soul and stop his serial incarnations to further the insane struggles his creation of gods was supposed to stop in the first place. So you may not be a chosen one, but you are literally the only character presented in the game (other than Maerwald, who you are forced to murder because railroad plot) who can stop him. And coincidently you have that fully formed relationship with the ghost of the Rebel Against the Gods (or at least Thaos)... so the watcher really is fairly Chosen One, even if by complete accident. Which really just smacks of lazy writing. It would have been far more interesting without any special powers at all- just falling into a complex plot by being in the wrong place and relying on fantasy game powers (ie, just being a wizard, ranger or whatever) rather than B Movie Shenanigans to force the writer's Really Deep Meaning* exposition on the player. *by which I mean, someone took Philosophy 101 back in college and felt competent to simply recycle all the tropes about souls from BG and Torment yet again. But strip them of personal relevance, meaning and consequence this time. I agree with Christliar- you're seeing a pattern when there isn't one. In fact I can't even work out how you see this pattern, since the evidence is completely against it. Very few of the companions (if any) present answers without questions. And the purpose of struggle? You stop the Legacy because soulless (and, often dead) children are bad. It really doesn't go very deep. The bollocks about gods and gibberish is all tacked on at the very end, and ultimately doesn't matter. Literally doesn't matter, from the cutscenes, because nobody cares and it affects no one in Dyrwood in any fashion they are aware of. Maybe animals eat a few settlements if you don't go along with Magran and company, but the Legacy ends and <random faction> gets more pull in Defiance Bay. Huzzah. Celebrations abound, despite dead villages.

Tigranes, sorry, but I never got a sense of a 'personal story' out of this. The story isn't about the watcher until the last 5 minutes with the tortured elf dissident, when suddenly it kind of is (and a romance as well, at least from the dialogue I had ), but not enough to make people care. Yep, hello, dead lover that my past self betrayed for no reason, even though I was already convinced that the idiot I blindly followed was lying. I also didn't get the 'why would you want a world without gods?' question. If it even popped up in the text, it was overshadowed by a man who already had his answer and couldn't conceive of any others, and outright denied the existence of any questions. He couldn't even comprehend their might be other questions, or other answers. For the companions, I don't see the pattern you see at all. Eder has a question (a pointless one, imo, since someone choosing faith over nation isn't exactly unusual), but no answer (why did his brother support eothas, when Eder supported dyrwood) Sagani has perfect resolution- she completed her task and went home. Kana failed, but inspired him and others to greater things. Aloth finally grows a spine and chooses a purpose for himself, even if it is a bad one. But mostly, you flip a switch and the hollowborn problem is solved. Regardless of which color light you choose what you do with the souls. But it doesn't solve any problems with Dyrwood itself. It isn't really about saving the world, but doing something meaningful, which the game really doesn't allow you to do- since after feeding the current crop of souls to Woedica, Thaos would have also stopped the Hollowborn births. The 'crisis' was literally already solved by the time you get to the point you can affect it.

Because he started that way, it didn't happen over time, he was ready and prepared to commit genocidal scale atrocities on Day 0, including setting the souls of thousands of his own people on fire in the blind hope of successfully creating gods that might solve his personal issues with the nature of the world. And they don't. He has to spend those centuries committing yet more atrocities so that people don't notice the flaws in his plan, and the nature of kith never actually changes. His created gods don't change society, and the conflict of his 'real' gods aren't any different than the conflicts of 'false' gods. So, yeah, he's crazy stupid nuts on day 0, fails on day 1, and keeps going with a failed plan for centuries. That is just... dumb. He apparently gets plot armor reincarnation railroad powers from being bloody stupid.

Because the game forces you to. Everything with Thaos is pure railroad where you have no choice. The writers had something to say, and you had to put up with it to get to the rest of the game. The fact that it isn't very interesting doesn't matter at all. Part of the reason it seems unfulfilling is yeah, you stop a nutjob from killing children, which is a fine thing, and that confronting him heals your poorly established affliction (which is part of the problem to, since the game never really portrays your problem as anything but a touch of insomnia); but the Dyrwood is still a hole filled with awful people. You flip a switch and the problem ends.... but if you left the machine intact in heritage hill, you find the Leaden Key has standing orders, and just reactivate it... can't they do the same thing with the other sites that cause Hollowborn births? Realistically, just murdering the Grand Galatic Inquisi-idiot doesn't solve anything. Hunting down the Key and dismantling the organization should be the important part of the story. Give the player something real to chew on after all the pointless navel-gazing.

See you say that, but there doesn't seem to be much mystery to me. Everything important is answered, and the answers (to the big questions) are by and large stupid, painfully obvious or horribly nonsensical. Or simply recycled from other titles by the same people, and dealt with in an inferior fashion. @Merany- telling people that their religion and entire social order is a lie designed to manipulate them because they are stupid and dangerous sheep is unlikely to go over well. Add in admitting to the atrocities required to both start and maintain it, and you'll have widespread thaos chaos (it's clever, what?). The other side is of course that while some people (thaos and his followers) view slavery as the natural state of humanity, most thinking people would rather decide for themselves rather than submit to blind obedience over what people might do. Though overall, the people of the Dyrwood are certainly profound evidence that the former (stupid and blindly aggressive sheep that need to be controlled) is more true than the latter. But the rest of the world comes off (in what snippets we see) as far more sane and reasonable than Dyrwood.

It does, actually since it proves that pre-buffing is quite possible within the system, and not some sort of magically unsolvable programming problem.

I think that says more about the state of the industry than anything else. It was... decent. It has a lot of system and mechanical areas that need a lot of work, the central story is... poor to the point of nonsensical, and the companions are extremely underwhelming. But yeah, it is better than the absolute trash that has released in the last year. But I certainly don't find it on the same level as BG 1 or 2 or Torment. A pale echo, at best, especially given that most of the story elements simply recycle the less interesting navel-gazing plot elements of those games. It has a lot of potential that could be developed, but a lot of irrational development decisions got in the way.

Yeah I have no idea what people think they can accomplish by throwing personal insults at Josh instead of providing constructive criticism And seems to me that people think that Josh designed every single part of this game. Like everything. That's a good soundtrack Josh, didn't know you were so musically inclined You're being silly. Obviously he only designed all the bad parts! He certainly takes credit for most of them. So, yeah, it does actually look that way.

Both are viable on Hard if you want either for some thematic reason. Dual-wield/2h or Arbalest/Gunpowder weapons are better in terms of damage though. I was thinking about a swashbuckling type of character or an archer, so the choice is for flavour , but even if dps is inferior is a lot worse or can put out some nice damage? Archer is much, much better. The poor fool with the rapier will likely get eaten a lot.

Eothas imprinted part of his soul in you when you "survived" the biawac Going into it, I was actually worried this was going to be the story and we'd be repeating the Child of Bhaal Eothas plot all over again. Happily, this doesn't happen. @Ekaros, timelime with Maerwald- Maerwald was born many, many years after. But based on the dialogue with the spirits, his two incarnations go like this. settlers do stuff, warrior gets angry, goes on a raid, rapes woman, child conceived warrior gets into some fit about betrayal shortly thereafter within his group, dies. child born with father's soul, grows up to kill his father's people years later, Maerwald can't cope with human nature.

You aren't stuck with them. You can't do the later quests for the other factions, but that doesn't seem to matter. (at least it didn't for me). I accepted and finished that Dozens quest, the other factions told me to piss off, then when I wrapped up the main quest and came back to Webb, I went straight to the Doemenel's and asked to go with them. They were fine with it. The 'faction choice' is essentially meaningless. Oh, so as long as I have a good reputation with other faction I can ask another one than de dozen to go see the Duc ? I'm a "Hero" for the Cruscible knights, so even If I can't do their latest quest I will be able to go with them ? I really dislike the Dozen's view about animancy, and the Doemenel hates me anyway Seems so. I was a hero to all 3, which struck me as amusing.

Jasta11- I think you've hit the major problem with the plot on the head. Thaos' motivations are actively nuts and indefensible, as are all the people who followed him (especially the Engwithans in the beginning of it all). He has caused more pain/suffering/insanity than any speculation about a godless society could contemplate even in theory. How anyone could find him convincing is a complete mystery and falls flat. The game resorts to simply just telling us (primarily through lady Webb) that they do. Because reasons. But aside from being presented this as Ultimate Truth because Writers Said So, the story doesn't do anything with it. His followers are demonstrably idiots, and most of his successes seem to hinge on him personally taking over the minds of weak-willed fools, and never convincing anyone of anything. Luckily for him, the people of the Dyrwood are also idiots*, so are easily stampeded by poorly hidden tricks. *and this, sadly, is demonstrated over and over again. As for creating Skaen...I'm willing to consider it an aftereffect or byproduct of all their research. Their society was hyper focused on stealing, sacrificing and manipulating and even destroying souls, in the name of their great cause, and it seems, just day to day life under their leaders (to make weapons, as in that other ruin). An undercurrent of spite and hatred would probably be present in every Engwithan soul, just for how their leaders treat them. And in their leaders themselves, for their attitudes toward lesser races and their omnipresent insanity that results in all this in the first place. @abhelhabel- well, don't know what to tell you, but you ignored the major plot points outright. 'that woman' is the fulcrum of your past self's relationship with Thaos, and that 'thing' isn't really under dispute.

What did you do with Maerwald's spirit? It has more to do with that.

You aren't stuck with them. You can't do the later quests for the other factions, but that doesn't seem to matter. (at least it didn't for me). I accepted and finished that Dozens quest, the other factions told me to piss off, then when I wrapped up the main quest and came back to Webb, I went straight to the Doemenel's and asked to go with them. They were fine with it. The 'faction choice' is essentially meaningless.

welcome to the joys of an outdated wiki. Probably just an idea one of the devs bounced at some point.