SuperNose

Off topic here...but HOW?! I just remade my character yesterday, and to be fair I'm playing on easy. But it took me 13 hours in my first play through to reach Defiance Bay, and this time 5 and a half(again, to be fair I skipped a lot of text this time as I already knew what it said and how I wanted to respond). I'm doing everything I can find(outside of doing Endless Paths). What all am I missing that's taking everyone SO much longer to do? I haven't run into any serious issues with Mobs either, except the Feral Druids in Stormwall Gorge.

This will help a bunch, I haven't been using it cause...well, they're ghosts. And levitating ghosts at that! It didn't make sense to me, but hey, I'll take it! THanks :-D

These Shadows are destroying Aloth for me. I'll get my tanks into melee range, start wacking on them, and then boom, teleport to Aloth and he's dead not long after. It's kind of annoying.

I've spent 13 or so hours on a poorly created Paladin, and I've debated recreating it. But then I also wanna try the other classes as well....ARGH!

This has been said to death already, but don't worry. Look at it as an opportunity to enjoy the content more. It's not all about character strength development, a huge part of it is the story and realm you're in. PoE is supposedly the spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate(BG). BG had a level cap of ~7. The real cap was exp based and different classes needed different amounts of exp, but level 7 is considered the cap. So in comparison they've started out with more levels to obtain. I don't know how true they intend to stay to DnD, but if PoE resembles it at all you will get epic abilities at level 20. My guess is that we can look forward to something like that in the future. Constructing a meaningful and vast story at the same time isn't easy, give them a few years to get a sequel together. So far I am pleased with PoE and that's saying something considering I've shied away from the genre with the exception of Neverwinter Nights and Dragon Age Origins. Most games simply don't have a prayer when you've played the BG series. If you play this to the end and still want more I can recommend Baldur's Gate. I think they've fixed most of the bugs in the Enhanced Edition now, but otherwise the original is perfectly fine. I own both BG and BG2, both Enhanced Editions. I've attempted each one a few times, and only made it 30 minutes to an hour. I'm a shallow person and could not get past the dated graphics in either. But now that I'm having a ton of fun, I might be able to go back and force myself to look past them, or maybe it won't look so bad to me. I don't know.

I just went back to that, it's one of those things I figured I was too low level for and I'm mopping the floor so far. Might restart(I think I built my Paladin wrong-ish), and I'll end up doing that before I leave that area :-P

I've just now finished the last upgrade to the Keep and tho my purse is a little light just now (about 2k), I think it's not a great deal overall. I've done everything up to Gilded Vale and am doing Dyrford atm. I've done three bounties and up to lvl 6 of Endless Paths. So I still have Dyrford, both major cities (I haven't even been to yet), lvls 7-15 of Endless Paths and all but the first 3 bounty quests and I'm done with the Stronghold upgrades. ) I've also bought a couple of items from the merchants (exceptional armour, camping stuff, etc). I can't buy a 10k weapon anytime soon but I'm well geared and lots yet to find. I don't think upgrading it will cost you in the long run. True, there are items you can buy with that money, but then there's probably better items for the finding from various quests and merchants later. I've fully upgraded it before finishing Act I so I'm sure there's more than enough copper out there for your shopping fix ) I'm about to go back...you say you've finished everything in Gilded Vale, doing Dyrford, done bounties and have been down Endless Paths. All BEFORE finishing Act 1. I finished Act 1 unknowingly.....and I've only been able to purchase 2 upgrades for my Stronghold. I've clearly missed a LOT of things!

Playing on Easy, because this is the first time I've seriously played a CRPG(I've got a couple hours into BG, maybe....). It's more or less still pretty easy for me, but when I screw up, man on man do I screw up. I engaged a Forest Lurker, ended up being a Lurker with two more mobs(can't remember the name, started with an X), was having a hard enough time with those. Then out of nowhere another group of something pulled from somewhere. I say something cause I didn't look, I saw them run in from off screen and I just threw up my hands and covered my face. I knew defeat was about to happen. And then I realized I was almost done clearing the zone, and hadn't saved. Poor, poor me. I quick save after EVERYTHING now.

Is getting all the stronghold upgrades possible without sacrificing a ton in the game? Without enemies respawning, and having not found a renewable way to get money(repeatable quests, bounties or things of that nature), I see there being a finite amount of money in the game and part of the challenge being you figuring out where you wish to spend it. The hard part of that being that there's not enough money in the game to cover EVERYTHING you want to do. Is this not the case?

Loving these responses. I knew you only gained a small amount of XP from killing things, and only until their codex fully unlocked. I just hit Defiance Bay last night, and only because I have no way of knowing where I can/can't go and what I can/can't do yet due to my level. I haven't gone to Raedric's Hold yet, cause I figured I wouldn't be able to for some odd reason. Seems like that would be an act boss or something. Maybe I'll give it a go. I'm beginning to think I need to take a second look at Eder. Every thread I've seen that talks about him, makes him out to be this amazing tank. And here I am using him as DW DPS, with my Paladin PC as a tank, who isn't doing so well.

Haha, I wasn't worried about taking too long. Currently in my play through of Dragon Age: Inquisition, I'm sitting around 96 hours. I'm not out to get the story ASAP, I'm here to have a good time. I wasn't aware the max level was 12 though, that's kind of shocking. I guess I wasn't expecting anything higher than 20, but 12? Alrighty then. I'm enjoying the crap out of myself currently though. Lots of story to read. Combat has been ok, the engagement system is kind of a pain. I made a Paladin as my created, and I'm using Eder has a dual wielding fighter, but he ends up engaging first a lot of times, which gets him hurt quite a bit. Also....my priest seems to be a target often enough to be annoying. I've only completely wiped once though, so I'm counting that as an accomplishment, even on Easy :-P

Am I moving exceedingly slow, or is this a semi-normal pace for the game? This being my first CRPG, I have no idea what the norm is. I have a feeling it's kinda slow, cause I'm taking my time, reading everything I come across, and just enjoying myself. Loving the game so far, and I know it doesn't matter how long I take to play/beat the game, but I'm just intrigued.

This being the first CRPG game I've ever taken a serious attempt at, I'm going to say I disagree with being able to camp at will. Being new to this sort of RPG(not RPGs in general, mind you), I'm finding that even on Easy I have to rest every couple fights. I haven't gotten this engagement system down yet, and my tank isn't exactly an amazing tank yet. But for me even being able to rest every fight would take the fun of learning and the challenge out of the game. That being said, I'm having a ton of fun with this game so far!