Two-Bull

Confirmed test. It's the priest robes that crashes you. Don't wear the priest robes and you won't crash.

I cleared the whole keep last night without crashing. Today I put on the priest robes on two of my characters and crashed at the seige platform. I'm testing right now without wearing the robes to make sure that's it. I'll update when I'm done.

That's why I think the Ranger needs different paths: one for beast master and one for a solo Ranged combat archer.

1. I've give the player the ability to turn off the pet. I would rather have my own pool of health that I don't have to micromanage. 2. I would create two seperate paths of ranged focus: beast-master and something similar to the Archer kit without the pet. 3. The beast master ranger would get an ability to draw in animals from the environment to add to the fight. As their level gains, they can pull in progressively more animals from the environment. Their pets would get a passive ability bonus to sneak/spot/scout. 4. The solo ranger would get combat archer abilities: a pinning shot, and a ranged heat-shot stun. (Neither of those require much animation). I would give the solo ranger a camoflauge skill that grants ranged deflection bonuses in combat and the ability to blend in with the environment and sneak off. The solo ranger would gain a passive ability bonus to sneak/spot/scout. 5. I would give all rangers a higher level ability to camoflauge your whole party to set up ambushes. That would be my changes: create a beast-master path and a combat archer path.

That's what you would think. I can tell you from the perspective of someone thats never liked rogues or rogue gameplay: about all they do for me is disarm traps. I don't sneak unless absolutely necessary. I just go head on. So really, my wizard can disarm traps. The rest of it: we'll make due without backstab or the ability to sneak. I doubt if I'll give any of my party stealth skill. They'll be loaded up on athletics, lore, and mechanics for the wizard.

And the fix to this would be... Every class gets every vital skill? What's the point of having classes in the first place if you're going to do that? In any case, there are quite a few things that PoE improves upon from Bg1. I don't necessarily think the classes are one of them, though. But since that's a judgment call that will require that we play the entire game before confidently making, I'll withhold my final judgement. I will say this though, after playing the beta, I'm feeling that some classes are simply pointless because of this everyone-can-do-everything design. (why be a rogue, when barbarians are better in every way. Why be a mage when magic is so....dull and isn't nearly as useful as a chanter's chants? etc) That is what the devs themselves would call bad design. (they certainly didn't intend this) I think the goal is to make every class playable, but not essential to the party. That way you have more options and more diverse builds. Giving an essential skill to every class would limit your options. Imagine if fighters we're the only tank, priest were the only healer, wizards were the only aoe damager, rogues were the only disarm class.....It would force more people to play the same way. People will still play rogues. They're the highest damage melee class in the game. Obsidian changed it so I don't have to take one if I don't want, but they didn't make it so no one is going to play them. Giving the ability to disarm to anyone is an improvement.

Minor note: A dungeon that's "nearly impossible" to do without a specific party composition is NOT a good argument against the traditional AD&D class roles. It's a commentary about bad dungeon design. In my Pen and paper days, my DM used to design the greatest dungeons ever. And one of the reasons why his dungeons were so good was that he didn't assume any specifics about party makeup. Instead, he designed the dungeon to be fully self contained. if there was a challenge that needed to be overcome, then the tools needed to overcome it were made available to the party within that dungeon (locked doors had keys or they were bashable), and traps had clues to tell you that they existed, and then they either had switches to turn them off, or alternate paths to avoid them outright. Stuff like that. I don't think it's bad dungeon design. That dungeon was great fun and tons of loot. I loved that dungeon. I'm a loot whore and there was no way I was going to skip that dungeon. It's not like it was just that dungeon, in the early i.e. games, disarm trap was a must have. The bad design was a game mechanic that made trap disarm specific to one class. That's the bad design mechanic. Either way, Pillars is an improvement. It gives players the freedom to play the party they want and not have to either take a rogue or take the alternative to a rogue: the necessary classes to access Knock, Detect Traps, and the heals necessary to compensate for the damage you'll absorb detonating said traps. Pillars improved on that. Obisidian 2015 deserves the credit.

Why are Monks so good, I hate monks.. I like the diversity they offer in this game. They have good crowd control options and a lot of damage.

It might have been possible in earlier i.e. games to play without a rogue. It still wasn't practical. You still didn't have a way to disarm traps. The only alternative to a rogue in those games was more pigeon-holing than actually having a rogue in your party. You had to bring someone with knock, someone with detect traps, someone with invisibility, and then you needed to spam rests or bring lots of heals to make up for the damage you would absorb while detonating traps. There were certain levels, like the tower in BG, that we're almost impossible without a rogue. I hold nothing against anyone that enjoys playing rogues. I just don't. I don't like having them in my party. I prefer the opposite type of player: someone with high armor, high health pool, doesn't have to damage anyone to be effective, and doesn't have to "sneak" around. I prefer to NOT have to micro-manage to keep them up. For me, I truly appreciate the Pillars game mechanic that seperates disarm traps from a class type. It allows me the freedom to play how I want to play. That's a positive. So those of you enjoy that enjoy the sneaky backstabber, enjoy them until your hearts content. This change in game mechanics has been long over due for those of us that have no interest in playing that archetype. Now both types of gamers can play the type of party they want to play. So, again, Bravo to Pillars for the change. It's music to my ears.

A lot of the old i.e. games you had to have a rogue. They we're the only ones that could disarm traps and open locks. You could get by with a Knock spell but you would still get blown into little bits in the BG tower full of loot. I find it extremely liberating that I can finally give that duty to someone that is usefull for something other than sneak attack/backstabbing/half assed archer. I've never been a fan of stealth in these games, and I don't really care for the sneaky combat approach. I like my party to be able to and be forced to take a frontal approach minus all the sneaky rogue play. Bravo to Obsidian. I've been waiting for this change in gameplay for a long time.

I'm not taking any of the default party except for when I'm doing their side quests or if I have to. I don't particulary like party banter as a lot of games have the companions use reduntant phrases that break immersion for me. I will swap out for an adventurer as soon as I have a companion join my party. I'm a huge fan of party synergy. My party in order of appearance: 1. Male Heath Wild Orlan Druid as the p.c. 2. Male Mountain Dwarf two handed Fighter 3. Male Mountain Dwarf two handed Paladin 4. Male Mountain Dwarf Sword and Board Priest(one of three brothers) 5. Male Coastal Amuauauaua Monk 6. Male Heath Wild Orlan Wizard My experience playing the Beta on Path of the Damned with several different class combos favored this set-up. I use the Paladin to increase accuracy. I stack more accuracy with the Priest buffs and use the Priest as a fourth tank for my front line if they need an extra melee presence. My Fighter and Paladin are both specced offensively to crank out damage. The Monk will specced for crowd control and offense. In the Beta he frequently led the party in damage/kills. With three/four tanks I can effectively seal off a front line. Once the front line is engaged I use the druid for aoe crowd control and both the Druid/Wizard can rain down AOE damage hell on anyone not fortunate enough to be engaged with my front line. It has healing from two sources: the Priest and the Druid. I've got three full spell books and lots of diversity with Priest, Druid, and Wizard spells. I chewed up everything the Beta threw at me with this set-up on the highest difficulty. The only concern I have is figuring out the custom portraits and finding three good looking male dwarf photos, one male Amuauauaa portrait, and two that can pass for Wild Orlan.

After some testing I've started to favor a priest over the chanter. I don't get what all the hype is about with the chanter. Maybe the Chanter was better before the flaming weapons level nine nerf, but I don't love it now. The Priest provides way more buffs, extreme versatility, aoe healing, and is a better 4th man on the front line than the Chanter is. Also, I wanted the Ranger in the backline as a single target damager. From what I can tell, they are inept at that job due to their dependance on a pet. I should thank R.A. Salvatore for turning the Ranger into a Beastmaster. What I am starting to realize, is that a Rogue is pretty inept as a melee character, but is an extremely effective ranged damage dealer. I think I can speck the Rogue out to be a single target ranged damage dealer(Ranger). Anyway, thanks Sensuki. You saved me several restarts when the game launches to figure out what I'm figuring out right now.

They would be my girlfriend. They have a Paypal account. I don't.

It's still very generous, as I did not have a way to get into this wonderful beta without help. I really do appreciate it. Now I've got to figure out who's the sixth member of the party with a fighter, paladin, monk, druid, and chanter. My original idea of having a Ranger as six was blown out of the water after a couple of hours of real playtime and the realization that I don't like Beast Master micro managers. I haven't tried Wizard, Rougue, Priest, Cipher or Barbarian yet. Advice on what's best between those five classes would be helpful.

First of all, thank you for all of you backers that donated cash to bring this great game to life. I really do appreciate it. Unfortunately, I didn't learn about this game until after kickstarter, so I'm dependant on your good will and experience to theory craft my party. I've got plenty of money and time right now: just no Beta key. Having said that, I have a few questions. 1. Does the Chanter phrase that adds fire effects to weapons affect a monks unarmed strike? 2. I see a lot of forum negativity around the Paladin Combat Only passive fields. From what I've read, you have to activate the field before you charge in, which delays the impact of the field on the initial attack. Is it game breaking or are Paladins still a good tank? How much do you sacrifice to just rush in and then activate the effect when you've established the front line? Do you think that it will change before launch? 3. How big of an impact does interrupt have? It seems like people are exploiting it, some are dumping it, and some are just avoiding it. Is this something I'm going to want to have for a couple of members of my party? 4. Do passive Paladin fields stack? If I have two Paladins as tanks, will their accuracy bonuses add additional accuracy on top of each other? How big of an accuracy bump do you get for Zealous Focus? Also, I think those fields are only three meters. How big can you make them with a high intellect score? Thanks again for your help. I would have loved to get into the Beta, but I missed it and would love to be educated about the game mechanics when the game launches.