Xavori

Ciphers might very well be the single most OP class in the game. They effectively have unlimted spellcasting and insanely powerful control abilities. More than one fight I had consisted of me beating the hell out of critters that never fought back after GM got her first spell off. Chanters are pretty up there in power as well given that they're in a party and not solo. Nothing like buffing the attack rate of all your ranged toons, or providing an endless stream of summoned critters, or having an AoE rez, or constant AoE damage, etc.

By level 12, and with rings, Aloth had 48 level 1 spells available per fight. I'm not sure what I'd have had to fight, or at what difficulty, to actually use that many spells in a single encounter That's an equipment bug. I suspect as much, but didn't worry about since my party was: Xavori- start rear move to backstab Rogue Eder-front line Fighter Pallegina-front line Paladin Kana-rear Chanter Durance - middle healer/defense Priest Whiny Mom - sometimes rear guard/sometimes front line controller Cipher So no room for god in my party. Instead, he did the vast majority of my stronghold adventures.

By level 12, and with rings, Aloth had 48 level 1 spells available per fight. I'm not sure what I'd have had to fight, or at what difficulty, to actually use that many spells in a single encounter

Ya, I was really careful on not spoiling. Nothing in my review is stuff that a player doesn't already know. The dragons bit is an achievement as is the gods bit so you're looking at that pretty much every time you log in. Now, if I'd explained why meeting Hiravias was my fav moment in the game, and went into detail, that'd be a spoiler. But I won't so it's not nor is anything else in my review.

My thotz on some of the complaints... A true aggro system would have made combat management even easier, and really taken away some of the non-from-stat difficulty of things like beetles and shadows. I liked have the occasional bit of chaos in fights because you couldn't control them. This even made you consider a bit more carefully what kind of gear you'd put on your rear line characters. I'm in total agreement on the rest system. I understand why they did it versus unlimited rest everywhere, espec with a number of skills being per-rest. However, the implementation ultimately accomplished nothing of value. If you were so inclined, you could just turn around after ever few fights, bounce around to the various merchants to replenish your supplies, sleep at an inn, and then head back in. This means that all the devs really added with this system was tedium. I also agree on the puzzles being pretty mindless. Then again, I'm not sure how you'd add something more complicated to the game since ultimately, all the devs have to work with are dialogue choices and quest items. I suspect improving this part of the game would require some serious additions to the engine itself. I also agree that the memorials and backer NPC's were seriously immersion breaking. I get that this game needed the backers, and I'm as appreciative of them as the devs are since ultimately they made a game I enjoyed possible, but in the future, I think some other kind of freebies need to included, or if you're going to put your backers in the game, make sure that they 'fit' withing the world you created.

The story is good, and I enjoyed the way it worked throughout the game. Given that this is the most important aspect of an RPG like this, it made the game overall enjoyable. Combat is also pretty decent except that I was max level near the start of Act III. That turned most of the fights into mindless spanks. There were a few exceptions. The finale of the Endless Paths was hard. And having now finished the game, I was right on when I said I suspected it was the hardest fight in the game. That fight is the only one with a mob who can one-hit-knock-out (OHKO) the entire party, and can do it every couple minutes or so if the fight lasts long enough. I really wish such things weren't in games as there is zero fun to be had when the first time you face a mob, you're entire party gets wiped out in just a few seconds. Given the sheer amount of cheese (but no bugs) that I used to win this fight, I'm not sure anyone at Obsidian really thought to try and balance this fight out. Of course, it was totally optional, but still... I killed all the dragons, and I did all the god quest and unlocked those achievements. Somehow I didn't unlock the visit every map achievement. I have no idea what I missed or if its just a bug. I do know I didn't complete all the quests simply because you can't. You have to pick a faction at Defiance Bay, and the one you pick actually matters to the ending. Speaking of which, like too many games, Pillars of Eternity has the whole pick-an-ending dialogue at the end. There is a huge, massive, so-much-better aspect to how PoE handles this tho. Unlike say Mass Effect 3 where your final choice is the only thing that actually mattered, your choices and actions leading up to this final choice all get added in to the ending. I'd saved my game before thinking I'd just watch a bunch of final cutscenes. After watching the first, I realized that wouldn't work as all kinds of things are tied into things you did as you traveled the world. If you're going to make a game with a pick-an-ending, this is the way to do it. Better yet, come up with an ending that's based entirely on things the player did before s/he gets there so you don't have that moment of deus ex. The game is not without its flaws. I hate that its level based without any way of knowing before you go into the fight whether its something you can handle or not. Sure, I can access my bestiary that is now pretty much filled out, but that's meaningless during the game. All they've done by hiding this information is made save scumming or wiki research mandatory. I also really dislike the rest system. It makes zero sense to have skills that are limited per rest and then have how many times you can rest on an adventure limited by a very artificial feeling consumable and quantity-limited system. Like the hidden mob levels, all this does is promote boring gameplay. In this case, you had to trek back to town to either rest at an inn or buy more camping gear. Then you'd trek back. Nothing fun was added. My last major complaint is that controller-type effects are seriously overpowered. Paralyze scrolls, spells, and like 2/3 of the cipher abilities leave your opponents utterly helpless. And of course, the handful of mobs who can charm your party members or stun them are easily the worst fights in the game. Anyway, I'd give the game a "B" overall. It hits on its most important elements, and the problems in the game can be overcome, albeit with a bit of tedium.

I am just curious. Are you really sure you are not trolling? I'm not. I made a serious suggestion with concrete reasoning behind it. I've also not yet heard one person who has come up with a cogent argument against adding an option for what I've asked for. I have gotten a fair share of ad hominem posts, and untold numbers of logical fallacies, but no one yet has explained why giving an option to have better information that is readily accessible elsewhere and should be accessible in game is a bad idea. This in turn makes me suspect that others may be trolling this thread, but in the interests of good debate, I'm assuming good intent on the part of respondents since to do otherwise totally invalidates the debate by making it pointless. What's more, at this point, I don't actually need mob conning to play. I'm so far beyond the levels and gear of content I'm coming across because of my need to dig through every nook and cranny of every map that most fights aren't even tactical anymore, and the few that are are pretty rote tactics. Move tanks in position at front, priest just behind them, ranged guys in back, and then have rogue sneak attack to start things off. But that's rare and it's usually just select all, target one going from mob to mob.

That line. That one right there. It invalidates every single argument anyone makes about me wanting the game to be easier versus the way it is now. Easier and dumbed down is exactly what that line represents. There is absolutely no risk if you play that way. No matter how bad of a decision you make; you won't suffer the consequences of it. Just reload. And it applies to every single aspect of the game, not just combat. I hate playing that way. As I've said many times in this thread. I want to make intelligent decisions, not no-risk decisions.

They were prolly Hollowborn.

This is actually a good time to explain why hit points were created in the first place :D Once upon a time, when dinosaurs ruled the earth, RPG's were played with pen and paper and sometimes calculators. Now a real fight consists of many swings, blocks, parries, feints, etc. Trying to do all the math and dice rolls manually would be a serious bookkeeping PITA. So a couple of those dinosaurs, a wizard named Gary of Gygax and a warrior Dave Son of Arne, came up with hit points. Instead of having to track each individual swing and whether it was a mortal blow, grazing blow, whatever, each roll of the dice now simulated a period of time in the fight during which many swings, feints, parries, etc. were made. Hit points gave the rolls meaning. They showed the character slowly wearing down before a mortal blow was finally landed. They were never meant to represent a single real health statistic. And while I personally think hit points should go the way of the dinosaur since computers have no problem at all with detailed PITA bookeeping, and animation is more than capable of showing all the individual swings, parries, and whatnot, I'm definitely a minority opinion on the subject. (side note for the OP: if you want your OHKO - one hit knock out - create a rogue focused on pure damage traits and give him a big, nasty heavily enchanted two-handed melee weapon and let him attack from behind)

Ya, this is definitely one of the more "uh...what?" attempts at creating a money sink I've ever seen in a game. Crowbars are one use? I know the devs are mostly computer geeks, but they've maybe seen a crowbar before or at least a picture of one, right? It's basically just a solid piece of metal. They don't really break all that easily. Anyway, I just buy them all when I'm at an inn or general goods merchant. They're cheap, and pands are plentiful.

I think I need to quash this whole attack on my skills as a gamer right now. I'm cakewalking through the game at this point. I'm not kidding about being a game writer. I wrote strategy guides. Everyone who knows anything about me knows that I'm the go-to guy for figuring out how to cheese a game. I've not once asked for the game to be made easier. In fact, I've had to restrain myself from cheeseballing this game because it's just that badly balanced. I'm also really enjoying playing the game. It's been a long time since a good story-driven CRPG has come out, and I really like what Obsidian did in making their own very interesting world. My suggestion was never about making the game easier because I thought it was too hard. It was about making it more strategic rather than just guessing. I hate guessing. With a passion. If you were to look at my Steam library, you'd find mostly strategy games (including every single frakkin' grand strategy game by Paradox cuz they are my current fav publisher). So again, I'm not asking for the game to be made easier. I'm not struggling with the game in any way shape or form. I just got tired of getting roflstomped because my explorer nature was getting me into fights I had no business being in without any way of my knowing or expecting that the fight was too hard until after I was trapped.

I've actually come up with worse cheeseball parties since then. Since you can use ranged weapons even when getting meleed, and fighters get that speed reduction in armor thing, and anyone can get faster firing, fighters using bows with a chanter giving them speed is pretty OP, and zomg do rogues with bows get evil. Just make sure all your bows have a secondary damage type for those special occasions when you're fighting a pierce-proof enemy. Oh, and then give all your guys pierce-proof which makes all the non-magic ranged enemies loltastic when trying to fight you.

While I don't disagree with you, this is definitely a horse that's left the stable. Too much of the game is now built around resting, including many of the attempts at balance, and changing it now would require massive systems overhaul to try and rebalance. (not that I think they've gotten anywhere near balance yet as I've managed to find so very much cheese, but bless 'em for tryin') One thing I will point out is that no resting in dangerous places never really accomplished its goal either. Nothing ever stopped me from walking out of the dangerous place, resting, and then walking back in. Which you will have to do anyway since you are limited in camping gear and apparently things like tents and bedrolls magically disappear after a single use, and there is no wood to be found anywhere that could be used for a campfire unless you buy it from a merchant

*rolls eyes* Thy gold or thy life, knave. The challenging targets in UO were the other players, and I was oh so very good at killing them. I really wish the people in this thread would quit equating having information with dumbing down. It's exactly the opposite. Asking for information that you have no 'real' way to glean anyway because it's a totally arbitrary abstraction is not dumbing down. It's asking to actually be allowed to use my brain rather than save-reload. And AD&D didn't need a con system because good DM's and later on the gold box games never randomly threw mobs at players they couldn't handle. In fact, the first time I think I ran into mobs way stronger than me was in Ultima IV because the game didn't stop you from going anywhere, and you could go into dungeons you had no business being in. And the solution there was save-reload which wasn't particularly popular back then either. You'd think current game designers could learn lessons from the predecessors, but sometimes they don't. Giving players information that they should have if they actually lived in the world you're putting them in isn't dumbing down the game. It's giving players the same tools they'd have to make intelligent decisions if they actually where characters in that world. I disagree with everything you said, you are just playing PoE at a level that is beyond your capability. I can tell you have never designed a game, because adding a con system is nothing but trying to make a good game easy. Also, not once has PoE put me in a zone that I could not handle, and I am not playing in easy mode. Actually, I have designed a game. I was also a game magazine writer (which is how I got the job working for a game company...bad career decision on my part...writing paid better) You didn't go fight the bear when you got to the cave? You didn't go down in the temple beat up some spiders and then get flattened by shadows? You didn't try bounties when you first got access to them possibly at level 3? All of those things put you in situations that are way, way beyond the level you likely can reach them at. Heck, I'm willing to bet people died in the bandit camp because they rolled a non-fighter who can't take a hit, and hence, can't take on a bunch of hostile NPC's by themselves. So I'm guessing you either read about this problems or you're not being totally honest with us and you actually have had to reload a saved game after getting run over. But I have a question now. I figure if there are a dozen or so people claiming that information = easy, there must be something to it. So could someone please explain it rather than just say I want the game easy or dumbed down? How is knowing a mob is going to wipe the floor with me making it so the game is dumbed down? Could you please explain how having some idea of the difficulty fight is going to help me win that fight? Because as from where I'm at, I'm not asking the game to give me a button that kills the mobs or does the fight for me. I'm asking for information I should have in order to make an intelligent decision. (and again, if I wanted easy mode, I have it. I've also got piles o cheese I could throw at things if I so wanted to the point where if I ever get motivated enough to try the 10 rest only run through, I have no doubt I can do it.)

It wasn't sarcasm, but admittedly, wasn't trying to be helpful either. I wasn't mocking the suggestion. I get the irrationality of phobias and suspect some modder out there actually will take your suggestion and make it happen. I was just going for teh lulz. I do that a lot. It's a character flaw of mine. One that I bear with such great shame that even seppuku could not restore my family's honor nor the respect due my ancestors.

Spiders should be replaced with clowns. Clowns with half their face missing that carry machetes.

Once upon a time when I wrote for a gaming mag... I always had a copy of the game I was writing about at least a month in advance. A few games I was playing for a full year before the game was released. I'd pretty sure the same thing happened here with most medium to large game media having pre-release copies. So the time a review was released is meaningless. My personal review would prolly put the game at a B. or 7 out of 10. Somewhere in that area. I'd also break it down into good, bad, and ugly: Good: -I'm enjoying learning about a new world with new problems. -Lots of possible combinations of characters -Well written story Bad: -Players have no way of identifying the difficulty of encounters, and most often cannot escape encounters that are impossible. -No individual stealth (I'm a long-time rogue/stealth gamer) -So much cheese possible because of weird balance decisions Ugly: -Isometric only view makes some fights very hard to control because characters get blocked by large enemies or scenery -The kickstarter NPC's very wildly in quality of writing and are very obviously not really part of the world. -So very many times the player is given quests or information that no reasonable person would actually trust someone they just met with.

Chanters are the best tanks in the game. Moon godlike chanters to be specific. Constantly AoE healing. Constant debuff/endurance drain on the enemy. Constant buff on teammates. And they can wear plate and do the sword and board thing. I'd throw a pally in with them to get them the zealous AoE, but still chanters are way better than fighters when it comes to tanking.

The temple in the first town isn't much better. It's seriously overleveled for the player (and party) at the point you get to it, and there is no indication at all that this is the case. There's also nothing that tells the characters to go down there, other than that it's a door that the player can have him/her enter. "Hey, the authorities in this town are looking to lynch folks at the drop of a hat-- let's go poke around in the basement of the ruined temple to the god whose followers were at the top of the hangin' list!" But in terms of level-based CRPG design, it's a bad design to put in an area that is immediately accessible WITHOUT TELLING THE PLAYERS AT ALL THAT IT IS TOO HARD FOR THEM. Yes. Everyone in this thread likely knows the temple is stronger than the player when they first reach it. You likely know this because either you a) got roflstomped yourself, or b) have read other people who got roflstomped. There is nothing exciting or fun about getting roflstomped with no warning. In my case, it makes me roll my eyes at bad design decisions. For others, it's a frustration that leads to anger that leads to quitting the game and writing really nasty reviews. And since the whole thing could be avoided simply by having the mobs you run into con higher levels, it's silly. I honestly do not understand how so many people enjoy the pure trial and error system we're forced into. I've not once asked for an easy button (I already came up with my own if I so desired...so much possible cheese in this game). I've not once asked for magically knowing whether I'll win or lose a fight. All I want is the same kind of idea about an enemy that I'd have if I actually was a character living in this world. I would never be blindly stumbling into fights with things because I'd already have read or heard a story about the things in the area. I'd have learned the way people in the real world learn. Except here we're talking about a level based game which means I'd know levels of most creatures. *rolls eyes* Thy gold or thy life, knave. The challenging targets in UO were the other players, and I was oh so very good at killing them. I really wish the people in this thread would quit equating having information with dumbing down. It's exactly the opposite. Asking for information that you have no 'real' way to glean anyway because it's a totally arbitrary abstraction is not dumbing down. It's asking to actually be allowed to use my brain rather than save-reload. And AD&D didn't need a con system because good DM's and later on the gold box games never randomly threw mobs at players they couldn't handle. In fact, the first time I think I ran into mobs way stronger than me was in Ultima IV because the game didn't stop you from going anywhere, and you could go into dungeons you had no business being in. And the solution there was save-reload which wasn't particularly popular back then either. You'd think current game designers could learn lessons from the predecessors, but sometimes they don't. Giving players information that they should have if they actually lived in the world you're putting them in isn't dumbing down the game. It's giving players the same tools they'd have to make intelligent decisions if they actually where characters in that world.

They're useful sources of loot if you find them in a place where there are no witnesses

What we really need to do is push the devs to make this even more Infinity Engine like and add scripting In BG2, I had scripts for my entire party so they did things automatically in most fights. Injured players would "shout" (not really) and the clerics would here the silent shouts and send heals to them. Rogue was all the time looking for traps. Wizards would roll through their spells based on the criteria I came up with. Etc. For this game, I'd want things like having a chanter check to see if he has three phrases and once he does, either summon or nuke the weakest enemy. The priest should be tossing heals at anyone dropping below 50%. Bow-using rogues should automatically target any enemy they can sneak attack based on prone, hobbled, etc, and shoot at the closest to dead enemy otherwise. Alas, I suspect this engine wasn't made that much of a clone of IE

I'd actually argue the opposite. The speed penalty is nothing compared to having a party that simply cannot be killed. If you're into cheese... 3 Moon Godlike Chanters - plate armor, shields, heaviest one handed weapon you can find main slot, hardest hitting ranged weapon in secondary. 1 Moon Godlike mage - stealth + fan of flames is loltastic ambush alpha strike 1 Moon Godlike Rogue - plate armor, faster ranged weapon because rogue's abilities will get past damage reduction. 1 Moon Godlike Priest - again plate armor. Provides circles of protection, sets up rogue by inflicting negatives on enemy, etc. The chanters will easily keep everyone alive. And since you can give each one a different single phrase chant, you can pick up some serious boots to your entire party. Fights go mage sneaks up and flames much of the uther side, then runs behind the tank chanters. The rogue starts ploinking enemies. The tank chanters start gobbling up all the engages (give them the defense traid for extras). The priest then starts using his spells to inflict conditions that allow the rogue to get sneak attacks in. Mage continues nuking. Personally, I made it about 5 fights like that until I went back to a 'real' party since the game got silly pointless when you no longer ever see red on your portraits.

I wouldn't be opposed to tying it to lore so long as it used the highest lore in the party. That'd actually make a bit of sense given that higher lore characters should be more familiar with the world, including reading up on the local beasts and wildlings. And really, you can alt-tab to a wiki now to do this which is pretty much saying that you the player have effectively max lore

The temple in the first town isn't much better. It's seriously overleveled for the player (and party) at the point you get to it, and there is no indication at all that this is the case. Or, you know, you reload (which takes ten seconds or less), you learn that this game isn't going to scale to your level, and you walk away with a newfound appreciation for the dangers of the gameworld. (Or even, try multiple strategies to pull off an improbable victory, which teaches you more about the game mechanics and helps you not jsut do the same thing every battle.) That's the whole thing I want to get rid of. I don't want to get randomly ganked and reload. I want to be able to make intelligent decisions. As for improbable victories, you're talking tactics not strategy. Tactics I have down pat. My party is pretty reliable at taking down groups of mobs that are all a bit higher level than they are at this point. However, unless you're doing the same as me and digging through every nook and cranny for quests and stuff to kill and loot, it's really easy to run into fights you cannot win at any point in the game. And even doing what I do, and using really good tactics, things like the fight with Cail the Silent can be seriously tricky since he's so freakin' well armored and has a whole group of AoE spamming buddies.