Ardan Reddy

Yes. In my default companion play through, I made Aloth a Cipher, Kana a Barbarian, and Hiravias a ranged Rogue. I liked the party make-up much better that way.

Combat mechanics aside, I think it's the lack of variation in tactics needed that makes it too much rinse/repeat. Almost every encounter can be dealt with the exact same way. So for that reason alone, there is nothing special about the combat. It *could* be really good though if they wanted it to be - just by making different types of mobs need different strategies to get through, even mobs within the same group could need a different approach, i.e. enemy Priests immune to dominate, Barbs immune to paralyze, fighters immune to knockdown, etc.

Even though I told Calisca I was a missionary only passing through Gilded Vale, there was still a mandatory dialogue choice that needed to be clicked to end the arrival conversation, asking if the current situation affected the offer of settling there. That would be the offer that doesn't effect me and that I don't actually care about because I'm only passing through. Then when I looked in my biography it said my prospects of settling in Gilded Vale looked bleak and may be completely dashed. Which also doesn't make sense because I don't want to settle in Gilded Vale, I merely wish to pass through. So, I think it's basically an error, but it should be very easy for the Devs to just remove that line from the bio if a player clicks on the 'just passing though' dialogue choice when questioned by Calisca. Maybe they should allow another way to end the conversation with Urgeat when you arrive as well, so it makes sense if you're not settling there.

Making dwarves is quite easy. Find any portrait you like and squash it down vertically and it makes it into a dwarf - broader body, rounder face, etc. Bearded human males and most human females are particularly suitable.

I disagree to being able to enchant headgear for the simple reason it wouldn't be fair to the Godlike, who would suddenly become a less desirable Race. They already have a slight disadvantage in that area, but it's offset by their racial ability so worth giving up. Start making headgear more powerful and it could ruin the balance for that race.

There is a console workaround at least (and doesn't disable achievements for those without IE mod). Select which party member(s) you want to hide the helmet, open console and type HelmetVisibility False. To toggle back on it's HelmetVisibility True.

I'd rather just be able to cast any 2 spells per encounter throughout the game than the 4 per rest limit in early game.

Anyone found any recipes or food that give mechanics boost also?

IE mod.

I played thorough the game on PoD and apart from few moments like shades in Eotha's temple or paralysing, loud, ghostly ladies towards the end of the game I didn't encounter any other moments. I like what your point about mages and liches from BG2. I just think that pillars suffers from lack of really different opponents and more interesting encounters. In some other topic someone pointed out how many different encounters you could get in ice wind dale and BG2. Just a few examples: - mages and liches required completely different approach than standard creatures. - some enemies being very strong in a particular attack type, like poison that will kill you in a few seconds if you don't have antidote - enemies not reachable by melee characters like archers on some podiums or behind obstacles. - mini bosses having unique abilities - terrain that makes a difference during the fight like slow walking on ice or reoccurring fire bursts. There are many more and despite PoE being not such a bad game I wonder why this aspect was simplified. This has a lot to do with difficulty experienced because it requires you to change the tactics once in a while. It requires preparing different spells and changing weapons on companions. So every time when scenery changes you have to think all over again and load a few times before you win. In PoE almost 99% of encounter is the same. So once you figure the game out more or less nothing really ever changes. That's why it seems so easy. I agree, there are way too many easy encounters, even on hard or PotD. Also, definitely not enough strategy needed in most fights. Rinse, repeat. Can damage flame blights with fire! Stupid. Should be 100% immune - if anything, chucking a fireball at a fire elemental should make it stronger or heal it. All mobs need their own very high resistances and total immunities. Even Aumaua shouldn't be able to knock an ogre down. As the game stands, an Orlan can. Perhaps Ogres have weak knees. But they should be immune to even spell knock downs. Too heavy. Lowly creatures, like Xaurips, should have something that makes the player need to change strategy. Immune to stun because they're so stupid in the first place. Immune to freeze because they're cold-blooded. High DR against burn because they actually like heat. Very high DR against slash and pierce due to their scales, etc. Forcing a change in tactics to using crush weapons and only certain spells against them. Next fight with Guls, completely different again. Or are players so spoon fed and lazy these days they don't want that?

I started as Ranger and have since rerolled as Rogue, Barbarian, Fighter, Chanter, Cipher and now Paladin. Out of all of those I'm liking the Paladin the most. Probably because my replies in dialogue actually matter and a Paladin strikes me as a true crusader on a quest. Having 'visions' and speaking to dead people goes with being a Paladin too I think, who's sort of half Priest, half knight.

Yes, they can. Just need to take the Shadowing Beyond talent.

There'll probably be a multi-class mod before any expansion see the light of day. Personally, I like defined classes and wouldn't multiclass, but to each their own and the more options available to players, the better. Extends the longevity and keeps things interesting.

All classes need to be put through the grinder (by Obsidian) as a solo character to see if they can make it through the game, at least on Easy mode. I can say with certainty right now that Ranger would not make it, being gimped every time his critter (easily) dies.

Play as a weppy and shield Pally or Fighter. Combat will take ages and seem like real combat, rather than a 10 second frag fest.

Best way to balance the difficulty in this game to one's own skill in it is party size and/or composition. Even easy mode can be challenging at times if playing a solo character. Playing on Hard with a Pally, Ranger, and Priest is about the perfect difficulty level for me. Come close to being wiped a few times, which is how it should be.

G2Revelation is correct. Ergo, standard padded armour has a DR of 4 against slash as opposed to "nothing".

The best way IMO is that any fights with more than X amount of HP/DR/Deflection on all the enemies combined (which will be some of them in hard mode or PotD) one of the enemies will drop camping supplies. That's when the per rest abilities are mostly used, in the difficult fights that usually have a lot of mobs or tougher mobs.

Same bug here. And I think it is related to a patch, as when I played on launch day it was fine, but since patching there is missing spoken dialogue. Paraphrasing, "I'm not looking forward to moving that tree tomorrow!" has become "...ing that tree tomorrow!"

I get pieces of spoken dialogue missing altogether. Mostly happening with companions who'll say something but the first half of the sentence is gone. Like "I don't look forward to moving that tree tomorrow," will just be "... that tree tomorrow." Seemed fine in the launch version, but since patches (I'm on .0530 atm) it's started happening.

I have a game on Hard difficulty. It still says it's on Hard difficulty when I check it in game settings. Yet all the mobs are like when it's on Easy, i.e. only two bandits holding the dwarf, just one young wolf near the climbable wall, one weak bear in the cave, etc. I did start out on Easy, to get through the first part up to Gilded Vale quicker, then changed it to Hard once I got some companions, but the difficulty seems to have remained on Easy. GOG 0530.

I'm experiencing similar. Didn't have to save then load though. Started the game on Easy setting just to get through the first part quicker. Arrived at Gilded Vale and got some companions, then set the game to Hard setting. Went to kill the wolves, bandits and bears with my companions and the game is still on Easy setting. Just two bandits holding the dwarf, one young wolf near the climbable wall and one weak bear in the cave.

Did they give her a racial bonus at all? Death Godlike = Death's Usher Fire Godlike = Battle Forged Moon Godlike = Silver Tide Nature Godlike = Wellspring of Life Avian Godlike = ???

I was only explaining how to add a talent to the PC as there seems to be some confusion, because to add an ability it's AddAbility player abilityname, but for talents it's not AddTalent player talentname. And while what you explain is true, there's no need to go through all that rigmarole for the PC when there's a simpler method. If people want to add talents to other characters then ofc the FindCharacter method would be used.

This isn't my comment, but maybe you could try this and hopefully when you load the save file it will be as you wanted: szsleepy The Skill command Skill charname skillname value - example: Skill player stealth 10 (player is what you type in when you mean your own character). Example2: Skill Companion_Aloth(Clone)_1 stealth 10) It seems as though the value is the amount of points that have been spent on the skill, rather than the resulting skill rating. For example, to get rating 6, you need to have spent (1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 = 21) points to get there. Skill player Mechanics 21 will translate to rank 6. This is also assuming you have no bonuses. If you do (for example, have Laborer as your background, gives +1 mechanics) then "Skill player Mechanics 21" will result in skill rank 7. Just thought I would throw this out there, as I had to fumble with this command for a bit to make it work the way I wanted.