SkySlam

If disapproval is reserved for *extreme* matters, I'm fine with it, and it adds personality to the companions. For example, it's only normal that Edér would hate me for beating his beloved animals, because that totally makes sense. On the other hand, I would hate to micro-manage all the responses/quest order/whatever in order to gain the favor of my preferred companion(s). Also, the companions are already too few, I hope they won't fight each others, otherwise having a party will be a pain! In-fights and party desertions were unbearable for me in BG2, I had to download the happy mod in order to play with Viconia and Keldorn. And we are talking about a game with 16+ companions. Can PoE2 really afford these mechanics, given only 7 companions?? I wish Obsidian wouldn't dive headlong into this system. I strongly hope for a soft approach to party love/hate mechanics.

Have you seen the animation of Aloth in the last update? :w00t: I mean, the art is incredible in Pillars, nothing left to say.

I agree, I hope there will be more to it than the simple "drugs will last longer and/or give extra stats to this subclass". Special powers, visions, hallucination attacks... any strange idea would be interesting to see and totally fitting the Nazpalca theme! I hope the devs won't waste this chance by doing something banal or purely stats-related. By the way, if you want to play the traditional martial artist, remember that you are free to pick the generic class Monk, without any specialization. Of course it would be a pity, I agree.

The first part probably refers to skipping tutorial and/or repetitive missions. For example, in PoE1 I would love to start my new playthroughs directly in Gilded Vale instead of going through the prologue for the 100th time. While it's nice to play it for the first time(s), it's only a chore later on because I already know the basics and there are no meaningful choices there. Baldur's Gate 2 had a popular mod (called Dungeon-be-gone) which allowed the player to skip the first long tutorial dungeon and gave you all the experience and gold that you would've got inside. I believe Berath's Blessing will have this kind of feature. There is no content locked behind achievements, only features useful for those who play RPGs multiple times and/or those who like to restart often before finding the perfect party/combination/protagonist etc. Also, I believe that the game should be tuned on fans, not on casuals. And the majority of fans, the people who love RPGs like Baldur's Gate and Pillars, tend to play them multiple times, that's a fact. If you truly love the game, but you can play it only once there can be two reasons: you don't have enough time in real life or the game is too difficult to complete. For the first problem, Obsidian can offer no solution, for the second one there is Story Mode already. I honeslty don't see how the Berath's Blessing could harm your experience in any way. I mean, you are not worried about the ~20% of game content that you will lose playing only once, but you are worried about some optional features that you might not choose anyway? I don't get it.

@LordCrash did you even READ the update before complaining about it? I'm quoting the Obsidian description of Berath's Blessing:

No, it wouldn't be reasonable at all, because: - How can you choose to start with your favorite weapon if you've never played the game at least once (or a good part of it?). - You want to meet your companions in their supposed place the first time around. Recruiting them from the start is only a luxury option for the following playthroughs in order to avoid hours and hours of gametime before meeting them (examples from PoE1: Pallegina, GM, the WM companions). - Skipping parts of the game (Dungeon-be-gone in BG2) makes no sense if you don't even know what to skip. - The only reasonable bonus to give from the get-go would be extra stats or extra coins, but I believe the Story Mode difficulty should cover that. I don't understand why you are crusading against an optional feature that will help a lot of players. I see that you will play ONE TIME ONLY(!) through the game, but you should realize that this is a strange behaviour for this genre, because RPGs in general tend to be played more than once, in order to experience different class combinations, companions, quests and choices during the adventure. Especially in PoE2, where we'll get to "meaningfully" side with different factions, playing only one time means losing a lot of the experience.

I suppose you might already know this, but you are not the standard, average player of PoE! What you find annoying/useless will probably be an heavenly manna for the vast majority of players. The devs already specified that the Berath Blessing can be applied even before finishing the game for the first time, because many people don't even reach the end once! Just like you, I believe that starting with a stats boost or with a soulbound weapon is cheesy, and for sure I will not do this. Does this make it a BAD option to have? No. This is the best part: it's all optional, therefore we are free not to use it. Having many optional features (even unbalanced ones) is great for single-player games, I don't see how they could be detrimental to your own experience. For example: I will take my favorite companions fast, and you will ignore all the bonuses and take only the Berath's Curse instead! We are all happy, you see?

Guys what are you talking about? The Berath's Blessing is a fantastic idea given the number of times we are going to replay the game! - You can give yourself bonus or penalties in order to adjust difficulty levels. - You can recruit your favorite companion(s) in the party immediately, instead of waiting hours! - You can use the blessing as a Dungeon-be-gone mod (Baldur's Gate II), remember? - You get to keep your personal soulbound weapon, if you want. - You can instantly have all the money needed to buy fancy clothes! I mean, what's not to like there? Don't tell me you never wanted any of those in the first game, because I did sooo many times! Save Xoti, this is the best stretch goal for me!

I think it's a very good feature to have. I really like the idea to start with a specific weapon, a boost of stats or even some penalties if I want to test my skills. Also, most of all, I like the idea of recruiting companions faster in my new games+, that is absolutely GREAT! I wish this feature already existed in PoE1, because it's painful to wait 10 hours before meeting the Devil of Caroc again!

I believe that a non-human companion would be quite interesting, especially in the Deadfire setting. It would be strange if they didn't think about it, and I want to believe that the mysterious 6th companion is infact someone belonging to another race. - A vithrack companion obviously comes to mind first, because we already got the chance to meet them and explore a bit of their powers and politics during PoE1. Was it during the WM or Od Nua? Maybe both. For no specific reasons other than my personal preference, I believe that a vithrack cipher would be a fantastic companion. - Ogres could make interesting companions as well, if a bit clichè maybe. Korgrak showed us a different nuance to his race during the first game, we might get to know him better, provided he's not dead clearly. The ogre matron was interesting, and Urdel and Gurdel are still a mystery to me. - An ooze companion would be quite unique and fascinating. Maybe a shapeshifter? I wonder where I got this idea from...

1 - Pillars of Eternity 2 - Baldur's Gate II 3 - Final Fantasy VII

Really cool! Shall we give them a hand and suggest some cool names for the new hybrid classes? I believe they are looking for single-word names, right? Rogue + Ranger = Hunter Rogue + Wizard = Exile Rogue + Monk = Ninja Rogue + Chanter = Jester Fighter + Paladin = Crusader Fighter + Rogue = Duelist Wizard + Cipher = Occultist I believe we should gather all the ideas in the first post, but it might be a lot of work I guess

Totally agree with you here! The extra VO doesn't really interest me, but the extra voicesets for the MC and for the hired adventurers surely do! PoE was terribly lacking in that aspect, and I had to create/swap in a lot of voicesets myself. Also, I hope the voicesets will be *truly* different and various this time, not just a couple of people saying the same things with slightly different impressions.

I also believe that extra voiceover is a costly and uninteresting stretch goal. The original PoE had enough voiceover for my taste, just a bit to give you the idea of the character and the tone, leaving the rest to your imagination. However, it should be noted that "double" voiceover doesn't mean much to us, since we don't know the basic value to redouble!

Hey io più di così non posso proprio fare, speriamo ci sia qualche paperone italiano che gioca a Pillars, perchè se dò altri soldi alla Obsidian finisco a mangiare alla caritas! Thank you Obsidian for the new stretch goal, we're gonna make it happen for sure!

The Obsidian Pearl sounds magnificent indeed. I have already pledged on my own, but of course I would love to be part of the forum's crew making a separate donation. Let's wait for devs words on this.

Thank you for the link! I'm not sure I'm ok with that statement, because one might say that we also met Pallegina before the midgame of PoE1... still she felt so far away! I could say the same about the GM or the WM companions. I think that in the first few hours in Deadfire (without speedrunning or metagaming) we should be able to meet all the possible companions. "Before midgame" is too vague and probably similar to what happened in PoE1

I think a "neutral/open" option should be added to the poll. In my personal case, while I'm strongly against a party size of 4, I'm willing to try their idea of 5 characters.

This is a very crucial matter for those - like me - who enjoy story companions with their interactions, banter and personal quests. Also, I find it annoying to start with a team and keep swapping companions in and out: I want a solid group from the early stages of the adventure to the end. In PoE1, we got to know some of our companions too far into the game (Pallegina, GM, WM companions, especially the Devi of Caroc!). Other companions weren't that far but still many hours away if you like to do quests/areas in order (Sagani and Hiravias). I think this was addressed as a problem by a lot of players. One of the most successful guides on Steam teaches how to get all the companions "as soon as possible". Clearly, it involves a lot of meta-gaming and it feels kinda forced and game-y. I believe that we should meet our new companions sooner in Deadfire compared to PoE1. About returning companions, the fact that Edèr, Aloth and Pallegina are going back to level 1 with the Watcher probably means that they were having some kind of reunion in Caed Nua when Eothas stepped on them all, I suppose. I'd be quite happy to venture with Edèr and Aloth from the get-go!

I totally agree about Druids! It probably made sense balance-wise, but it was really annoying to have their signature skill so short, and in effect I've always ended up using my druids as spellcasters only, with shapeshift left as a jolly card to solve a couple of specific situations. I believe that subclasses might be a great answer in this case. They could focus on the two druid archetypes of caster - shapeshifter, giving us a long-lasting transformation in the second subclass.

I think the teases about the open-world game weren't about PoE2, but I totally agree with you on the video updates. I would really love to see an in-depth analysis of multiclassing and/or subclasses made by Josh, with some new pictures, snippets etc. I'm not worried the slightest bit about the campaign slowing down: it's already successful and I'm sure it will hit a lot of stretch goals; hopefully we'll get the 8th companion like in the first game.

When it comes to Italy and Spain, it's much more than nationalism: in these countries there is a true issue with foreign languages. My italian countrymen are - on average - especially bad at english, and I know first-hand since I have a job in turism. We are probably the worst in Europe, with Spain coming close second, I believe. I don't want to talk out of my *** but I'm pretty sure I've read statistics on this matter. This is due to an archaic school system and other historical/political reasons that made italians quite ignorant in the foreign languages field (while for example we are extremely cultured in history, literature and history of art, compared to rest of the world ). That said, I also understand Obsidian's reasons, because the market for RPGs in Italy is quite small, as far as I know, and not big enough to justify a localization. Moreover, this is not a personal concern of mine, since I understand english and I always tend to play games in their original language, when possible. This post is just to point out that when you talk about Italy (and Spain too, I believe), *not having a localization* actually means cutting out an higher % of players compared to other european countries, like for example Germany or France. I repeat: higher percentage of players, not higher number, please pay attention! Adding insult to injury, the original BG and the original PoE, as we already know, both had italian localization. It is definitely *not* just a pride/nationalist crusade, and I side with my tricolored brothers and sisters despite the fact that I'm going to play in english anyway.

Sub-classes look extremely promising, I can't wait for details and/or examples. Anything that focuses on expanding the game's length/complexity/replayability is more than appreciated by me. Even simple extra customizations like skins and voicesets would be a cool - if minimal - addition.

I like partial voiceover - like they did in PoE1 - just to give you the idea of the characters and then leave the rest to your own imagination. They got it right in the first game, there's no reason to change that in my opinion.

I've never played a RPG with a party size of five. I've found that 4 is extremely limiting and above 6 the team starts to lose identity. So 5 might truly work in the end... I'm not sure, but I want to trust them on this. It saddens me a bit, because I already have troubles leaving companions behind in PoE. I believe that - thanks to multiclassing - we won't have the issue of filling all the roles, but at the same time we will have a reduced party size to experience the personal quests/interactions/banter of the companions. That's the only part that annoys me a bit. Still, if the party of five means that the bond between the party members will be much relevant, with more focus on personal relations/quests/feelings, I'm totally fine with it.