Sword Coast Strategist

Anyone else planning on starting a new campaign when White March Pt. 1 drops? If so, do you plan on doing the expansion content first, or scaling it up to end-game level and saving it for last? (In an E3 interview, Sawyer mentioned that it would be an either-or, determined by an in-game prompt that kicks in if you enter the new zone at a high enough level. Literally something like "you are probably going to breeze through this content, level-12 Watcher, want to scale it up?") I know with the 2.0 changes I'll want to start a new run, and I'm tempted to save the expansion content for last, because I've already had enough issues leveling too fast during the main campaign. (Thanks for resolving those, IE mod!) Still, I'm hoping it's possible to enter PoE snow zone right after Act 1, grab the two new characters, take them along for all that Watcher vs. masked dude business, and then return to finish off the expansion content and have it still scale up to 12-14. So I guess what I'm saying is in an ideal world, you could start off with unscaled White March content, and still choose to scale it up if you come back later at high level.

Because people are still adding their 2¢ to the too easy / too hard debate, I thought it was worth pointing out that, as with the Infinity Engine games, the level of challenge in Pillars of Eternity is largely dependent on how much resting you allow yourself to do. So if you find yourself wishing hard mode was harder, try going through entire dungeons (or in the case of Od Nua, dungeon floors) without resting. You might be surprised at how tense run-of-the-mill battles can be. Also, how much more rewarding victory can be. Think of it from a roleplaying standpoint. Is that mob of xaurips in the other room really not going to notice the sound of you slaughtering their companions down the hall, and just stand there doing nothing for eight hours? Would charname and co. really just roll out the sleeping bags right then and there? I respect your right to rest-spam. Really, I do! Nothing wrong with deciding that resting in dungeons doesn't bother you, and allotting a little bit more of your adventuring budget to camping supplies. But pllllleeeeaaase don't call this game a cakewalk if you're camping every 3-5 encounters.