xzar_monty

What is this crown? I know the burned book, though.

Yeah, I wouldn't do that, either. But I've learned in recent years that there are many ways to play these games, many ways I wouldn't even have thought of.

So, keeping in mind that the first island is difficult, a very easy abuse would be to go solo immediately after finding Oderisi's notes. Simply going to Neketaka and walking around would then net you a fair amount of "free" levels, I think. This is predicated on the idea that you can't handle the game solo but wish to abuse the system where you can.

Apart from the xp earned, no difference that I know of. The only point is that some people prefer to use smaller parties or no party at all (i.e. to play solo all the way). The game allows for all possibilities. Some are harder than others, but some players prefer the hard way.

Fair enough. But why do you dislike the naval stuff? I'm genuinely curious, it would be nice to hear more about this.

This thread has a perfectly good discussion going, nobody was complaining about anything. You really have no reason to be so unpleasant to the OP. His post was perfectly fine. If it rubs you the wrong way, don't respond. Everybody will benefit.

In my view, a number of quests end quite unsatisfactorily. Also, I think it's a bit of a blemish on the game that you can't show Oderisi's notes or Beza's pages to the relevant people without relinquishing them at the same time. Once you show them, you've lost them forever. Oh well, I suppose we can't have everything. But these little Degnos-type details, on the other hand, are quite charming, and they really add to the enjoyment. I had another one: in my most recent PoE run, I took Maneha along but didn't complete her quest at the Abbey of the Fallen Moon. And now, in Deadfire, while I was talking with the gods (or rather, they were talking to me), Ondra pointed out that I once had "one of her own" (or something like that) with me, but I did not help her. I thought that was a lovely touch. It doesn't always take much to create this sense of continuity, and it's really good when it works.

So, there's this one quest that starts at Periki's Overlook. Degnos suggests that you find his satchel, and so on, I'm sure most of you know how it goes. The thing is, if you solve that quest so that Degnos ends up running away, and then, later on, you enter the Undercity to solve the Cornett quests, you will find Degnos' body there. This just happened to me. So Degnos has a very unhappy end, but I thought this was a nice touch. (I wonder how he got there, down below.)

I am currently playing a character with high Res and high Int, especially for dialogue / problem-solving purposes, and I do get a nice amount of new dialogue options that way, too. I know there is an option that allows you to see even the dialogue options that aren't available to you (because of stat or skill limitations), but I don't want to see that stuff, spoils too much. The scripted interactions are sometimes annoying in the sense that you get to choose a character for your interactions, but you can't really be certain what the criteria are going to be. There can be some confusion especially about whether what's being measured is Perception (ability) or Survival (skill).

Ok, thanks. It would be interesting to be very aware of the way the different skills are implemented in the game, i.e. which of them are more useful in terms of actual checks. I have completely ignored Explosives, Bluff and Intimidate, and I don't really care about Sleight of Hand and Streetwise, either. But then, I don't really know whether my Metaphysics skill has ever paid off.

Ahh, so it can be stolen from one of the containers in the store? That's clearly what you're saying. Interesting. This is one of the things I've often wondered. I've never really developed sleight of hand, intimidate or bluff, so I actually don't know what you could accomplish with them... (Does intimidate have any serious benefits?)

I haven't really used the Red Hand, but Devil of Caroc's Breastplate is one I always buy. And when I play with Berath's blessings so that I have the mythical adra stone, this armor has always (that is, twice...) been the thing I use it upon. Rationale: excellent armor, you get it early, so the mythic status gives a long-lasting benefit (which, granted, is more useful early, rather than late in the game). Anyway, thanks for the comment!

Given this (and given that I also think this is true), do you feel there is any definite "excellent loot" in the game? Items that are almost certainly worth getting despite the characters you play. I would argue that Tidefall is superb in PoE, it will do you good and it's always worth getting. The bow, Persistence, is also very very good, at least as far as I understand the system (do correct me if I'm wrong). BG2 contains loot that is most definitely better than most. But what about Deadfire?

Both true. I recently did a playthrough of PoE1, and it was good to see that the number of fights had gone down. However, as you say, some areas in the White March are just awful. It just makes no sense. You get nothing from those fights, it's only wasting your time.

Also, in PoE1, they essentially removed XP gain from battles. Fair enough. But they didn't remove the battles; they're all over the place, all the time. You don't get XP, you hardly ever get loot worth mentioning: it's just a godawful waste of time. What a mistake that was. I totally agree with you when it comes to BG2 and BG1. BG2 is superb, and I also started with that by the way, whereas BG1 is just bad. I did finish it once, but it was not worth it. There's so much aimless walking around on mostly empty maps. Deadfire is up there with BG2, I'd say. In my view, BG2 beats PoE1, because of the battle thing above.

Agreed. But I very much prefer that to naval combat. Naval combat is cumbersome, lasts too long and you can't quit the game from the naval combat screen. D'oh, that's too many downsides for me.

Ok, thanks. I will have to spend some time leveling up, then. On lower difficulty, you can simply ignore things like this.

Yeah, I suppose that's a viable strategy. I didn't want to do that, so I just chose stealth in the end. The digsite is a total badass encounter. Clearly the hardest thing on this difficulty so far.

What if you don't manually level them up? Will they actually be at level 1? This has become relevant to me now that I play on higher difficulty... I have never bothered to do any leveling up on Mirke, for instance.

Yeah. Btw, now that I know that both feuding families have a good armor, I feel tempted to try the non-diplomatic approach... Obviously it must be impossible to pickpocket the armors, although there's a CPRG where you can pickpocket a dragon's head if you're good enough. Technically you're supposed to kill the dragon, and its head is just its inventory which it then drops, but pickpocketing is the way cool way to go, in my view.

Ok, thanks a lot for these comments. It appears that soloing on PotD is very much a question of strategy, and not only combat strategy but also metagame strategy, i.e. you have to know where the fights are and what they are like.

Small update: I have now come across a pretty tough fight. It's the one in Dunnage, after you've done some business with the innkeeper and travel from one area to another, in town. A group of pirates approaches you, and a fight ensues. You start surrounded -- which makes the fight tough, because you're also outnumbered. It was quite tough, but I survived (with Serafen and Xoti down). But the question is this: I know some people solo the game, even on PotD. How are you supposed to survive that fight if you solo on PotD? I mean, seriously, what level do you have to be at and what kind of choices are you going to make? I don't get it. You're surrounded at the start, you can't use the terrain to your advantage in any way whatsoever.

Pleonasm is general overuse of words, and tautology is saying the same thing twice. They do overlap to an extent. "Dark-haired brunette" is pleonasm and tautology, whereas "very unique" is mere pleonasm because "very" is only an unnecessary qualifier, not a repetition of what "unique" means.

No, I did not. There was just my main character (monk), Eder and Xoti. I did consider hiring, but then I thought what the heck, I've never been one for using hirelings and I'm prepared to take the stealthy route. Btw, as I tend to like diplomacy, I've solved Family Pride that way, so I haven't had to fight. The head of one of the families appears to have a nice shining armor, though -- I wonder if it's good. As for Oathbinder's Sanctum, I haven't been able to do that without a fight. I suppose it's not possible unless you choose an evil route of some sort.

That was so good, loved that. Btw, it's amazing how often you spot pleonasms and other foolish faults if you pay attention. My pet annoyances are "very unique" (not a pleonasm, just silly) and that everyone's favorite, "at this moment in time". Please note, nobody ever has to say that, you can just say "now".