Pelmaleon

Just give it up, man - his numbers were accurate, he gave numerous examples to prove them. Even if your point were true about 'def>=acc', what self-respecting tank would call himself a tank if he's being outclassed regularly by normal mobs? There's like 2 or 3 mobs in THE ENTIRE GAME with accuracy better than my best tank(and only marginally so) - the only one I can even think of is the Adra Dragon. If you were making the point that Critical Defense is better taken as an offense-focused Fighter, then the greater point can be made that an offense-focused Monk outperforms Fighter on BOTH FRONTS. Even if there were a situation where Critical Defense vastly outperformed 3-4 points of Deflection, that situation would be the result of player ignorance(enemies piling on buffs/debuffs and player just standing there on auto-attack) rather than being a consequence of game balance. To the person saying Fighter CC is good, good luck landing Knock Down on PoTD - it's vs Fortitude. My Eder has 73 accuracy wielding Tidefall and routinely misses with it. My Wizard with his 1st-level 4-per-encounter Slicken hits more enemies, with a higher accuracy(85), an easier contest(Reflex), and a better duration(Slicken scales off Int, Knock Down does not). Another non-PotD theorycrafter endeavoring to retort my PotD theorycrafting. You kids really need to work on your reading comprehension.

Dude, start debuffing your opponents sometimes.And you still didn't post a single number. That's not theorycrafting, that's theorybabbling. Again, you are considering fights where debuffs will frequently work while I am theorycrafting for the toughest fights on PotD, aka the only fights that you need to or it is fun (imo) to minmax. It appears that you have serious reading comprehension issues. Here's a pro tip: Next time you retort someone's PotD anecdote, followed by their PotD theorycrafting, you should first ask yourself if you are also playing PotD or if your mind is predisposed towards theorycrafting for easier difficulties. If the latter is more apropos, then there's no need to respond in the first place. You could have saved us both a lot of time if you had just thought before your initial, emotional response, in which you were theorycrafting for lower difficulties while I was overtly theorycrafting for the highest. More babbling. PotD is like 10 to 25 points higher accuracy, IIRC. That's still a fair bit too low to crit a dedicated tank. But please, do go on posting your non-anecdotes and carefully avoiding math. Numbers please. How much is Critical defense worth in one of your maths-defying playthroughts? Numbers or shut up, please. Lol you sound so mad. Though it's not particularly surprising, seeing as you minmax for lower difficulties to feed your ego while steamrolling weak enemies. You also basically just admitted that you lied about playing and beating PotD, seeing as you don't even know how much more accuracy enemies acquire. Go read a book and stop embarrassing yourself by posting inane drivel online.

Dude, start debuffing your opponents sometimes. And you still didn't post a single number. That's not theorycrafting, that's theorybabbling. Again, you are considering fights where debuffs will frequently work while I am theorycrafting for the toughest fights on PotD, aka the only fights that you need to or it is fun (imo) to minmax. It appears that you have serious reading comprehension issues. Here's a pro tip: Next time you retort someone's PotD anecdote, followed by their PotD theorycrafting, you should first ask yourself if you are also playing PotD or if your mind is predisposed towards theorycrafting for easier difficulties. If the latter is more apropos, then there's no need to respond in the first place. You could have saved us both a lot of time if you had just thought before your initial, emotional response, in which you were theorycrafting for lower difficulties while I was overtly theorycrafting for the highest.

I edited in an answer to your edit. TLDR for my edit: You are theorycrafting for relatively easy encounters and discussing the merit of an ability called CRITICAL Defense in a situation where you never get crit, thus strawmanning my PotD theorycrafting.

No one, or at least I'm not, is saying that Fighters are broken, just that they don't have much of a niche. Also balance is just as important in a single player game as in multiplayer.Eder is going to be used, firstly because he is a great character and secondly because there are only two possible frontline melee story companions to take with you and Pellegrinas stats are a bit wonky while Eder's high might and con are pretty much were you'd choose them to be if you had the choice.In your party you have the main Monk and Eder on the front lines, maybe Kana in plate as another melee, Durance to keep everyone alive and Hirvias and Aloth to blast away from the back. Your Eder's job is to not die, hold the attention of the enemies and any damage done is just gravy, basically a better pet or summon.If there were no story companions would you choose a fighter, a paladin or another monk to be your second frontline melee?And what are in your opinion the amazing Fighter abilities that no one brings up? What is the sine qua non of the Fighter?Kana is currently hanging out in the back so I can make sure he stays alive to get the most invocations for extended fights. To answer your questions, I would probably do a classic party like I had in the Icewind Dale games, Fighter, Paladin (it was another Fighter in Icewind Dale because the Paladins were weak iirc, but the extra heal and auras in this game seem like they would be great to buff up my front-line) Cleric, Rogue, Mage, Cipher/Druid (it was a Ranger in Icewind Dale for more ranged DPS, but the extra crowd control would come in handy for Pillars)."And what are in your opinion the amazing Fighter abilities that no one brings up?" I believe Critical Defense, Unbending, Unbroken, and Vigorous Defense all make the fighter extremely difficult to bring down. The biggest problem is that they are very boring to use. I'd rather have a more glass-cannony party with a higher DPS fighter than have an unkillable tank, which my minmax brain tells me to build-up.What is the sine qua non of the Fighter? To fight in the front-lines without being ran over quickly I suppose. It really depends what your party needs though. Unbending at best heals you 50% of your total health over a 15 second period. At level 11 with a 12 con you have 201 endurance. Without Unbending you take 201 points of damage and get KO'd. With it you take 100 points of damage, sounds great but it is only a 100 point heal that is limited to 3 per rest. A Paladin's Lay on Hands heals more, over a shorter period of time, can be used twice per encounter and can be used on anyone. The Barbarians Savage Defiance at level 11 heals base 120 damage over 15 seconds and it scales with Might. Lay on Hands is worlds better and Savage Defiance is at least as good plus is available at level 5. Plus you need a decent intellect for the duration to not be laughable.Unbroken is better than Second Chance in that it gets you defensive buffs after activation but it cost you a level 11 ability instead of an equipment slot. Maybe it useful for Eder in case you want the ring and the two armor sets with second chance to go for other characters but your main character will have first dibs on equipment.Vigorous Defense at +20 to all once per encounter is good but only lasts 15 seconds if your intellect is 10. A Paladin's Reinforcing Exhortation buffs +25, can be used twice, and lasts longer and can't be used on yourself but two Paladins get buff each other and have two left over for others or in case the first wears off.Critical Defense - I always take it but lets run the mathCase #1 accuracy = deflection0-15 miss16-50 graze51-100 hitWith nothing you take 0.15*0+0.35*0.5+0.50*1 = 0.675 unit damageWith Critical Defense you get 20% crit>hit and 10% hit>graze0-15 miss16-55 graze56-100 hitDamage taken is 0.15*0+0.40*.5+0.45*1 = 0.65 damage or 3.8% less damage ..... not real good but maybe it is better with a tougher enemycase #2 Accuracy is 50 points higher than your deflection0-50 hit51-100 critWith nothing you take 0.50*1+0.50*1.5 = 1.25 unit damage0-5 graze6-61 hit61-100 critdamage taken is 0.05*0.5+0.55*1+0.40*1.5 = 0.025+0.55+0.6 = 1.175 unit damage or 6.38% less damage ... still not looking very good.After actually running the math I'd have to say that Critical Defense looks to be pretty damn poor, and here I was always taking it because I thought it made a difference. Superior Deflection at a mere +5 deflection is better :)Actually my thought now is that Vigorous Defense is the better of the defensive buffs but the duration is short enough that dumping intellect to place in resolve is a good course of action. You'd have +7 deflection all the time and would be -13 deflection for 5.2 seconds each fight which seems like a suitable trade off.Regarding Critical Defense: I ran the numbers a bit further and it appears that for a 300 endurance fighter (not difficult to achieve at level 12 on Eder), your effective endurance would be 319. So you are deepening your endurance pool by 19, which does sound a subpar compared to other level 9 abilities, but can still potentially save you in tough battles.By that token ("it can still save you") even a talent that adds a single point of endurance would be a good pick.19 endurance with a massive con investment and a class ability at level 12 doesn't sound paltry, IS paltry.PoE, like every game that features hitpoints, is a game of attrition; you're out of endurance, you lose. 19 endurance at level 12 isn't worth a class ability, just take an offensive ability instead and you'll see much better returns in a tough fight. Do you play on PotD? Because you can't make your party fully offensive (at least for your main frontliner) on that difficulty. Oftentimes you have to take the slightly worse by the numbers, synergistic-with-your-party, defensive ability to not get trounced by extremely potent enemies."Making your party fully offensive"differs quite a bit from "taking every defensive ability the game throws at you no matter how bad". I didn't tell you to send Eder on the front line wearing only his smallclothes, I told you that critical defense is entirely skippable. Again, you are making a blatant reductio ad absurdum after misconstruing my contention (I said "Oftentimes", not "no matter how bad"). My second sentence was obviously a hyperbole, so I apologize if you did not correctly infer that notion. And every ability is technically entirely skippable. You will just be gimping your party and characters if you skip more synergistically stronger ones in favor of others.Yeah, so if I say that critical defense isn't synergistically stronger at all, because, in fact, it grants you lower and lower returns the higher your deflection, and thus sucks, does it sound better and make more sense to you? Anytime you manage to push critical hits away from the combat table, critical defense is worth about 2.5% points of damage reduction. That's pretty much as good as +3 deflection. I would answer your question with another, unanswered question. Do you play on and have you beat PotD? If I weren't playing on PotD while focusing my party on defeating the toughest enemies (who crit often), then I would definitely agree with you. Not only will an offensive ability instead of Critical Defense be more fun, it would make fights faster and easier, as you will destroy the enemies before they hit you with a comparatively higher number of non-crit attacks. In conclusion, I also think that Critical Defense could use a minor buff, yet I would still rather take it over an offensive ability in its current state because it synergizes better with my party composition and strategy.Played it, finished it, didn't like it one bit (I like playing less optimal characters than PotD forces you to play).Which still doesn't change the point I'm making. Now, right back at you, do you realize that one one side, you're arguing that fighters are tough enough as they are, while also saying that the equivalent of 3 points of deflection makes a noticeable difference in terms of survival? How about trying a paladin, that gets like four times that amount, like +26 to all the other defenses and 3 more dr on top of it? Care to post some screenshots? Because I don't believe someone who thinks that the ability gives the equivalent of a static 3 deflection could beat it without using cheese or broken abilities like Barbarian's old One Stands Alone. Furthermore, while comparing the paladin and fighter, you intentionally fail to mention the majority of the fighter's other abilities and talents which synergize with his tank build. Anyway, I'm done debating someone who litters every retort with logical fallacy after logical fallacy (cherry picking and straw men and reductio ad absurdum, oh my!). Have a good day, and I suggest you spend more time reading books rather than pontificating erroneous conjectures online. Not a chance I'm bothering? Care to address my points with logic and maths instead of trying to wave away pretty much every point people have made without even bothering to post a shred of math? Oh the irony. Edit: To respond to your edit: So you took into consideration only the situation where "if def>= acc" which just further proves my point that you didn't beat PotD, thus your minmax theorycrafting for lower difficulties (or weak, trivial mobs on PotD) is fairly ludicrous. And if you are attempting to debate my PotD theorycrafting against your non-PotD theorycrafting, then you really need to work on your reading comprehension. Imo it's a waste of time and life for you to minmax for lower difficulties because your theories and tactics won't be challenged enough. But hey, if you have fun steamrolling weak enemies with your virtually invincible party, then go you. That's not my style; I like a veritable challenge.

No one, or at least I'm not, is saying that Fighters are broken, just that they don't have much of a niche. Also balance is just as important in a single player game as in multiplayer. Eder is going to be used, firstly because he is a great character and secondly because there are only two possible frontline melee story companions to take with you and Pellegrinas stats are a bit wonky while Eder's high might and con are pretty much were you'd choose them to be if you had the choice. In your party you have the main Monk and Eder on the front lines, maybe Kana in plate as another melee, Durance to keep everyone alive and Hirvias and Aloth to blast away from the back. Your Eder's job is to not die, hold the attention of the enemies and any damage done is just gravy, basically a better pet or summon. If there were no story companions would you choose a fighter, a paladin or another monk to be your second frontline melee? And what are in your opinion the amazing Fighter abilities that no one brings up? What is the sine qua non of the Fighter? Kana is currently hanging out in the back so I can make sure he stays alive to get the most invocations for extended fights. To answer your questions, I would probably do a classic party like I had in the Icewind Dale games, Fighter, Paladin (it was another Fighter in Icewind Dale because the Paladins were weak iirc, but the extra heal and auras in this game seem like they would be great to buff up my front-line) Cleric, Rogue, Mage, Cipher/Druid (it was a Ranger in Icewind Dale for more ranged DPS, but the extra crowd control would come in handy for Pillars)."And what are in your opinion the amazing Fighter abilities that no one brings up?" I believe Critical Defense, Unbending, Unbroken, and Vigorous Defense all make the fighter extremely difficult to bring down. The biggest problem is that they are very boring to use. I'd rather have a more glass-cannony party with a higher DPS fighter than have an unkillable tank, which my minmax brain tells me to build-up. What is the sine qua non of the Fighter? To fight in the front-lines without being ran over quickly I suppose. It really depends what your party needs though. Unbending at best heals you 50% of your total health over a 15 second period. At level 11 with a 12 con you have 201 endurance. Without Unbending you take 201 points of damage and get KO'd. With it you take 100 points of damage, sounds great but it is only a 100 point heal that is limited to 3 per rest. A Paladin's Lay on Hands heals more, over a shorter period of time, can be used twice per encounter and can be used on anyone. The Barbarians Savage Defiance at level 11 heals base 120 damage over 15 seconds and it scales with Might. Lay on Hands is worlds better and Savage Defiance is at least as good plus is available at level 5. Plus you need a decent intellect for the duration to not be laughable. Unbroken is better than Second Chance in that it gets you defensive buffs after activation but it cost you a level 11 ability instead of an equipment slot. Maybe it useful for Eder in case you want the ring and the two armor sets with second chance to go for other characters but your main character will have first dibs on equipment. Vigorous Defense at +20 to all once per encounter is good but only lasts 15 seconds if your intellect is 10. A Paladin's Reinforcing Exhortation buffs +25, can be used twice, and lasts longer and can't be used on yourself but two Paladins get buff each other and have two left over for others or in case the first wears off. Critical Defense - I always take it but lets run the math Case #1 accuracy = deflection 0-15 miss 16-50 graze 51-100 hit With nothing you take 0.15*0+0.35*0.5+0.50*1 = 0.675 unit damage With Critical Defense you get 20% crit>hit and 10% hit>graze 0-15 miss 16-55 graze 56-100 hit Damage taken is 0.15*0+0.40*.5+0.45*1 = 0.65 damage or 3.8% less damage ..... not real good but maybe it is better with a tougher enemy case #2 Accuracy is 50 points higher than your deflection 0-50 hit 51-100 crit With nothing you take 0.50*1+0.50*1.5 = 1.25 unit damage 0-5 graze 6-61 hit 61-100 crit damage taken is 0.05*0.5+0.55*1+0.40*1.5 = 0.025+0.55+0.6 = 1.175 unit damage or 6.38% less damage ... still not looking very good. After actually running the math I'd have to say that Critical Defense looks to be pretty damn poor, and here I was always taking it because I thought it made a difference. Superior Deflection at a mere +5 deflection is better Actually my thought now is that Vigorous Defense is the better of the defensive buffs but the duration is short enough that dumping intellect to place in resolve is a good course of action. You'd have +7 deflection all the time and would be -13 deflection for 5.2 seconds each fight which seems like a suitable trade off. Regarding Critical Defense: I ran the numbers a bit further and it appears that for a 300 endurance fighter (not difficult to achieve at level 12 on Eder), your effective endurance would be 319. So you are deepening your endurance pool by 19, which does sound a subpar compared to other level 9 abilities, but can still potentially save you in tough battles. By that token ("it can still save you") even a talent that adds a single point of endurance would be a good pick. 19 endurance with a massive con investment and a class ability at level 12 doesn't sound paltry, IS paltry. PoE, like every game that features hitpoints, is a game of attrition; you're out of endurance, you lose. 19 endurance at level 12 isn't worth a class ability, just take an offensive ability instead and you'll see much better returns in a tough fight. Do you play on PotD? Because you can't make your party fully offensive (at least for your main frontliner) on that difficulty. Oftentimes you have to take the slightly worse by the numbers, synergistic-with-your-party, defensive ability to not get trounced by extremely potent enemies. "Making your party fully offensive"differs quite a bit from "taking every defensive ability the game throws at you no matter how bad". I didn't tell you to send Eder on the front line wearing only his smallclothes, I told you that critical defense is entirely skippable. Again, you are making a blatant reductio ad absurdum after misconstruing my contention (I said "Oftentimes", not "no matter how bad"). My second sentence was obviously a hyperbole, so I apologize if you did not correctly infer that notion. And every ability is technically entirely skippable. You will just be gimping your party and characters if you skip more synergistically stronger ones in favor of others. Yeah, so if I say that critical defense isn't synergistically stronger at all, because, in fact, it grants you lower and lower returns the higher your deflection, and thus sucks, does it sound better and make more sense to you? Anytime you manage to push critical hits away from the combat table, critical defense is worth about 2.5% points of damage reduction. That's pretty much as good as +3 deflection. I would answer your question with another, unanswered question. Do you play on and have you beat PotD? If I weren't playing on PotD while focusing my party on defeating the toughest enemies (who crit often), then I would definitely agree with you. Not only will an offensive ability instead of Critical Defense be more fun, it would make fights faster and easier, as you will destroy the enemies before they hit you with a comparatively higher number of non-crit attacks. In conclusion, I also think that Critical Defense could use a minor buff, yet I would still rather take it over an offensive ability in its current state because it synergizes better with my party composition and strategy. Played it, finished it, didn't like it one bit (I like playing less optimal characters than PotD forces you to play). Which still doesn't change the point I'm making. Now, right back at you, do you realize that one one side, you're arguing that fighters are tough enough as they are, while also saying that the equivalent of 3 points of deflection makes a noticeable difference in terms of survival? How about trying a paladin, that gets like four times that amount, like +26 to all the other defenses and 3 more dr on top of it? Care to post some screenshots? Because I don't believe someone who thinks that the ability gives the equivalent of a static 3 deflection could beat it without using cheese or broken abilities like Barbarian's old One Stands Alone. Furthermore, while comparing the paladin and fighter, you intentionally fail to mention the majority of the fighter's other abilities and talents which synergize with his tank build. Anyway, I'm done debating someone who litters every retort with logical fallacy after logical fallacy (cherry picking and straw men and reductio ad absurdum, oh my!). Have a good day, and I suggest you spend more time reading books rather than pontificating erroneous conjectures online.

No one, or at least I'm not, is saying that Fighters are broken, just that they don't have much of a niche. Also balance is just as important in a single player game as in multiplayer.Eder is going to be used, firstly because he is a great character and secondly because there are only two possible frontline melee story companions to take with you and Pellegrinas stats are a bit wonky while Eder's high might and con are pretty much were you'd choose them to be if you had the choice. In your party you have the main Monk and Eder on the front lines, maybe Kana in plate as another melee, Durance to keep everyone alive and Hirvias and Aloth to blast away from the back. Your Eder's job is to not die, hold the attention of the enemies and any damage done is just gravy, basically a better pet or summon. If there were no story companions would you choose a fighter, a paladin or another monk to be your second frontline melee? And what are in your opinion the amazing Fighter abilities that no one brings up? What is the sine qua non of the Fighter? Kana is currently hanging out in the back so I can make sure he stays alive to get the most invocations for extended fights. To answer your questions, I would probably do a classic party like I had in the Icewind Dale games, Fighter, Paladin (it was another Fighter in Icewind Dale because the Paladins were weak iirc, but the extra heal and auras in this game seem like they would be great to buff up my front-line) Cleric, Rogue, Mage, Cipher/Druid (it was a Ranger in Icewind Dale for more ranged DPS, but the extra crowd control would come in handy for Pillars)."And what are in your opinion the amazing Fighter abilities that no one brings up?" I believe Critical Defense, Unbending, Unbroken, and Vigorous Defense all make the fighter extremely difficult to bring down. The biggest problem is that they are very boring to use. I'd rather have a more glass-cannony party with a higher DPS fighter than have an unkillable tank, which my minmax brain tells me to build-up.What is the sine qua non of the Fighter? To fight in the front-lines without being ran over quickly I suppose. It really depends what your party needs though. Unbending at best heals you 50% of your total health over a 15 second period. At level 11 with a 12 con you have 201 endurance. Without Unbending you take 201 points of damage and get KO'd. With it you take 100 points of damage, sounds great but it is only a 100 point heal that is limited to 3 per rest. A Paladin's Lay on Hands heals more, over a shorter period of time, can be used twice per encounter and can be used on anyone. The Barbarians Savage Defiance at level 11 heals base 120 damage over 15 seconds and it scales with Might. Lay on Hands is worlds better and Savage Defiance is at least as good plus is available at level 5. Plus you need a decent intellect for the duration to not be laughable.Unbroken is better than Second Chance in that it gets you defensive buffs after activation but it cost you a level 11 ability instead of an equipment slot. Maybe it useful for Eder in case you want the ring and the two armor sets with second chance to go for other characters but your main character will have first dibs on equipment. Vigorous Defense at +20 to all once per encounter is good but only lasts 15 seconds if your intellect is 10. A Paladin's Reinforcing Exhortation buffs +25, can be used twice, and lasts longer and can't be used on yourself but two Paladins get buff each other and have two left over for others or in case the first wears off. Critical Defense - I always take it but lets run the math Case #1 accuracy = deflection 0-15 miss 16-50 graze 51-100 hit With nothing you take 0.15*0+0.35*0.5+0.50*1 = 0.675 unit damage With Critical Defense you get 20% crit>hit and 10% hit>graze 0-15 miss 16-55 graze 56-100 hit Damage taken is 0.15*0+0.40*.5+0.45*1 = 0.65 damage or 3.8% less damage ..... not real good but maybe it is better with a tougher enemy case #2 Accuracy is 50 points higher than your deflection 0-50 hit 51-100 crit With nothing you take 0.50*1+0.50*1.5 = 1.25 unit damage 0-5 graze 6-61 hit 61-100 crit damage taken is 0.05*0.5+0.55*1+0.40*1.5 = 0.025+0.55+0.6 = 1.175 unit damage or 6.38% less damage ... still not looking very good. After actually running the math I'd have to say that Critical Defense looks to be pretty damn poor, and here I was always taking it because I thought it made a difference. Superior Deflection at a mere +5 deflection is better Actually my thought now is that Vigorous Defense is the better of the defensive buffs but the duration is short enough that dumping intellect to place in resolve is a good course of action. You'd have +7 deflection all the time and would be -13 deflection for 5.2 seconds each fight which seems like a suitable trade off. Regarding Critical Defense: I ran the numbers a bit further and it appears that for a 300 endurance fighter (not difficult to achieve at level 12 on Eder), your effective endurance would be 319. So you are deepening your endurance pool by 19, which does sound a subpar compared to other level 9 abilities, but can still potentially save you in tough battles.By that token ("it can still save you") even a talent that adds a single point of endurance would be a good pick.19 endurance with a massive con investment and a class ability at level 12 doesn't sound paltry, IS paltry. PoE, like every game that features hitpoints, is a game of attrition; you're out of endurance, you lose. 19 endurance at level 12 isn't worth a class ability, just take an offensive ability instead and you'll see much better returns in a tough fight. Do you play on PotD? Because you can't make your party fully offensive (at least for your main frontliner) on that difficulty. Oftentimes you have to take the slightly worse by the numbers, synergistic-with-your-party, defensive ability to not get trounced by extremely potent enemies. "Making your party fully offensive"differs quite a bit from "taking every defensive ability the game throws at you no matter how bad". I didn't tell you to send Eder on the front line wearing only his smallclothes, I told you that critical defense is entirely skippable. Again, you are making a blatant reductio ad absurdum after misconstruing my contention (I said "Oftentimes", not "no matter how bad"). My second sentence was obviously a hyperbole, so I apologize if you did not correctly infer that notion. And every ability is technically entirely skippable. You will just be gimping your party and characters if you skip more synergistically stronger ones in favor of others. Yeah, so if I say that critical defense isn't synergistically stronger at all, because, in fact, it grants you lower and lower returns the higher your deflection, and thus sucks, does it sound better and make more sense to you? Anytime you manage to push critical hits away from the combat table, critical defense is worth about 2.5% points of damage reduction. That's pretty much as good as +3 deflection. I would answer your question with another, unanswered question. Do you play on and have you beat PotD? If I weren't playing on PotD while focusing my party on defeating the toughest enemies (who crit often), then I would definitely agree with you. Not only will an offensive ability instead of Critical Defense be more fun, it would make fights faster and easier, as you will destroy the enemies before they hit you with a comparatively higher number of non-crit attacks. In conclusion, I also think that Critical Defense could use a minor buff, yet I would still rather take it over an offensive ability in its current state because it synergizes better with my party composition and strategy.

No one, or at least I'm not, is saying that Fighters are broken, just that they don't have much of a niche. Also balance is just as important in a single player game as in multiplayer.Eder is going to be used, firstly because he is a great character and secondly because there are only two possible frontline melee story companions to take with you and Pellegrinas stats are a bit wonky while Eder's high might and con are pretty much were you'd choose them to be if you had the choice. In your party you have the main Monk and Eder on the front lines, maybe Kana in plate as another melee, Durance to keep everyone alive and Hirvias and Aloth to blast away from the back. Your Eder's job is to not die, hold the attention of the enemies and any damage done is just gravy, basically a better pet or summon. If there were no story companions would you choose a fighter, a paladin or another monk to be your second frontline melee? And what are in your opinion the amazing Fighter abilities that no one brings up? What is the sine qua non of the Fighter? Kana is currently hanging out in the back so I can make sure he stays alive to get the most invocations for extended fights. To answer your questions, I would probably do a classic party like I had in the Icewind Dale games, Fighter, Paladin (it was another Fighter in Icewind Dale because the Paladins were weak iirc, but the extra heal and auras in this game seem like they would be great to buff up my front-line) Cleric, Rogue, Mage, Cipher/Druid (it was a Ranger in Icewind Dale for more ranged DPS, but the extra crowd control would come in handy for Pillars)."And what are in your opinion the amazing Fighter abilities that no one brings up?" I believe Critical Defense, Unbending, Unbroken, and Vigorous Defense all make the fighter extremely difficult to bring down. The biggest problem is that they are very boring to use. I'd rather have a more glass-cannony party with a higher DPS fighter than have an unkillable tank, which my minmax brain tells me to build-up.What is the sine qua non of the Fighter? To fight in the front-lines without being ran over quickly I suppose. It really depends what your party needs though. Unbending at best heals you 50% of your total health over a 15 second period. At level 11 with a 12 con you have 201 endurance. Without Unbending you take 201 points of damage and get KO'd. With it you take 100 points of damage, sounds great but it is only a 100 point heal that is limited to 3 per rest. A Paladin's Lay on Hands heals more, over a shorter period of time, can be used twice per encounter and can be used on anyone. The Barbarians Savage Defiance at level 11 heals base 120 damage over 15 seconds and it scales with Might. Lay on Hands is worlds better and Savage Defiance is at least as good plus is available at level 5. Plus you need a decent intellect for the duration to not be laughable.Unbroken is better than Second Chance in that it gets you defensive buffs after activation but it cost you a level 11 ability instead of an equipment slot. Maybe it useful for Eder in case you want the ring and the two armor sets with second chance to go for other characters but your main character will have first dibs on equipment. Vigorous Defense at +20 to all once per encounter is good but only lasts 15 seconds if your intellect is 10. A Paladin's Reinforcing Exhortation buffs +25, can be used twice, and lasts longer and can't be used on yourself but two Paladins get buff each other and have two left over for others or in case the first wears off. Critical Defense - I always take it but lets run the math Case #1 accuracy = deflection 0-15 miss 16-50 graze 51-100 hit With nothing you take 0.15*0+0.35*0.5+0.50*1 = 0.675 unit damage With Critical Defense you get 20% crit>hit and 10% hit>graze 0-15 miss 16-55 graze 56-100 hit Damage taken is 0.15*0+0.40*.5+0.45*1 = 0.65 damage or 3.8% less damage ..... not real good but maybe it is better with a tougher enemy case #2 Accuracy is 50 points higher than your deflection 0-50 hit 51-100 crit With nothing you take 0.50*1+0.50*1.5 = 1.25 unit damage 0-5 graze 6-61 hit 61-100 crit damage taken is 0.05*0.5+0.55*1+0.40*1.5 = 0.025+0.55+0.6 = 1.175 unit damage or 6.38% less damage ... still not looking very good. After actually running the math I'd have to say that Critical Defense looks to be pretty damn poor, and here I was always taking it because I thought it made a difference. Superior Deflection at a mere +5 deflection is better Actually my thought now is that Vigorous Defense is the better of the defensive buffs but the duration is short enough that dumping intellect to place in resolve is a good course of action. You'd have +7 deflection all the time and would be -13 deflection for 5.2 seconds each fight which seems like a suitable trade off. Regarding Critical Defense: I ran the numbers a bit further and it appears that for a 300 endurance fighter (not difficult to achieve at level 12 on Eder), your effective endurance would be 319. So you are deepening your endurance pool by 19, which does sound a subpar compared to other level 9 abilities, but can still potentially save you in tough battles.By that token ("it can still save you") even a talent that adds a single point of endurance would be a good pick.19 endurance with a massive con investment and a class ability at level 12 doesn't sound paltry, IS paltry. PoE, like every game that features hitpoints, is a game of attrition; you're out of endurance, you lose. 19 endurance at level 12 isn't worth a class ability, just take an offensive ability instead and you'll see much better returns in a tough fight. Do you play on PotD? Because you can't make your party fully offensive (at least for your main frontliner) on that difficulty. Oftentimes you have to take the slightly worse by the numbers, synergistic-with-your-party, defensive ability to not get trounced by extremely potent enemies. "Making your party fully offensive"differs quite a bit from "taking every defensive ability the game throws at you no matter how bad". I didn't tell you to send Eder on the front line wearing only his smallclothes, I told you that critical defense is entirely skippable. Again, you are making a blatant reductio ad absurdum after misconstruing my contention (I said "Oftentimes", not "no matter how bad"). My second sentence was obviously a hyperbole, so I apologize if you did not correctly infer that notion. And every ability is technically entirely skippable. You will just be gimping your party and characters if you skip more synergistically stronger ones in favor of others.

http://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Belt Girdle of Eotun Constitution: Random loot spawning in various locations. Depending on the percent chance to get lucky and obtain this belt, it is hard to get. (I haven't gotten it in 1.5 playthroughs yet.)

No one, or at least I'm not, is saying that Fighters are broken, just that they don't have much of a niche. Also balance is just as important in a single player game as in multiplayer. Eder is going to be used, firstly because he is a great character and secondly because there are only two possible frontline melee story companions to take with you and Pellegrinas stats are a bit wonky while Eder's high might and con are pretty much were you'd choose them to be if you had the choice. In your party you have the main Monk and Eder on the front lines, maybe Kana in plate as another melee, Durance to keep everyone alive and Hirvias and Aloth to blast away from the back. Your Eder's job is to not die, hold the attention of the enemies and any damage done is just gravy, basically a better pet or summon. If there were no story companions would you choose a fighter, a paladin or another monk to be your second frontline melee? And what are in your opinion the amazing Fighter abilities that no one brings up? What is the sine qua non of the Fighter? Kana is currently hanging out in the back so I can make sure he stays alive to get the most invocations for extended fights. To answer your questions, I would probably do a classic party like I had in the Icewind Dale games, Fighter, Paladin (it was another Fighter in Icewind Dale because the Paladins were weak iirc, but the extra heal and auras in this game seem like they would be great to buff up my front-line) Cleric, Rogue, Mage, Cipher/Druid (it was a Ranger in Icewind Dale for more ranged DPS, but the extra crowd control would come in handy for Pillars). "And what are in your opinion the amazing Fighter abilities that no one brings up?" I believe Critical Defense, Unbending, Unbroken, and Vigorous Defense all make the fighter extremely difficult to bring down. The biggest problem is that they are very boring to use. I'd rather have a more glass-cannony party with a higher DPS fighter than have an unkillable tank, which my minmax brain tells me to build-up. What is the sine qua non of the Fighter? To fight in the front-lines without being ran over quickly I suppose. It really depends what your party needs though. Unbending at best heals you 50% of your total health over a 15 second period. At level 11 with a 12 con you have 201 endurance. Without Unbending you take 201 points of damage and get KO'd. With it you take 100 points of damage, sounds great but it is only a 100 point heal that is limited to 3 per rest. A Paladin's Lay on Hands heals more, over a shorter period of time, can be used twice per encounter and can be used on anyone. The Barbarians Savage Defiance at level 11 heals base 120 damage over 15 seconds and it scales with Might. Lay on Hands is worlds better and Savage Defiance is at least as good plus is available at level 5. Plus you need a decent intellect for the duration to not be laughable. Unbroken is better than Second Chance in that it gets you defensive buffs after activation but it cost you a level 11 ability instead of an equipment slot. Maybe it useful for Eder in case you want the ring and the two armor sets with second chance to go for other characters but your main character will have first dibs on equipment. Vigorous Defense at +20 to all once per encounter is good but only lasts 15 seconds if your intellect is 10. A Paladin's Reinforcing Exhortation buffs +25, can be used twice, and lasts longer and can't be used on yourself but two Paladins get buff each other and have two left over for others or in case the first wears off. Critical Defense - I always take it but lets run the math Case #1 accuracy = deflection 0-15 miss 16-50 graze 51-100 hit With nothing you take 0.15*0+0.35*0.5+0.50*1 = 0.675 unit damage With Critical Defense you get 20% crit>hit and 10% hit>graze 0-15 miss 16-55 graze 56-100 hit Damage taken is 0.15*0+0.40*.5+0.45*1 = 0.65 damage or 3.8% less damage ..... not real good but maybe it is better with a tougher enemy case #2 Accuracy is 50 points higher than your deflection 0-50 hit 51-100 crit With nothing you take 0.50*1+0.50*1.5 = 1.25 unit damage 0-5 graze 6-61 hit 61-100 crit damage taken is 0.05*0.5+0.55*1+0.40*1.5 = 0.025+0.55+0.6 = 1.175 unit damage or 6.38% less damage ... still not looking very good. After actually running the math I'd have to say that Critical Defense looks to be pretty damn poor, and here I was always taking it because I thought it made a difference. Superior Deflection at a mere +5 deflection is better Actually my thought now is that Vigorous Defense is the better of the defensive buffs but the duration is short enough that dumping intellect to place in resolve is a good course of action. You'd have +7 deflection all the time and would be -13 deflection for 5.2 seconds each fight which seems like a suitable trade off. Regarding Critical Defense: I ran the numbers a bit further and it appears that for a 300 endurance fighter (not difficult to achieve at level 12 on Eder), your effective endurance would be 319. So you are deepening your endurance pool by 19, which does sound a subpar compared to other level 9 abilities, but can still potentially save you in tough battles. By that token ("it can still save you") even a talent that adds a single point of endurance would be a good pick.19 endurance with a massive con investment and a class ability at level 12 doesn't sound paltry, IS paltry. PoE, like every game that features hitpoints, is a game of attrition; you're out of endurance, you lose. 19 endurance at level 12 isn't worth a class ability, just take an offensive ability instead and you'll see much better returns in a tough fight. Do you play on PotD? Because you can't make your party fully offensive (at least for your main frontliner) on that difficulty. Oftentimes you have to take the slightly worse by the numbers, synergistic-with-your-party, defensive ability to not get trounced by extremely potent enemies. Also, one single point of endurance would not be a "good" pick, because the numbers all have relative strengths in accordance with the amount of damage enemies inflict after damage reduction, the totality of the endurance pool, while also considering the abundance and potency of healing spells/items/passives. Ofc "it can still save you" is an ambiguous statement, but it's quite asinine to make a reductio ad absurdum that that is the same (or even implicitly very similar) as spending an entire ability point on gaining one endurance and saying they have identical consequences.

No one, or at least I'm not, is saying that Fighters are broken, just that they don't have much of a niche. Also balance is just as important in a single player game as in multiplayer. Eder is going to be used, firstly because he is a great character and secondly because there are only two possible frontline melee story companions to take with you and Pellegrinas stats are a bit wonky while Eder's high might and con are pretty much were you'd choose them to be if you had the choice. In your party you have the main Monk and Eder on the front lines, maybe Kana in plate as another melee, Durance to keep everyone alive and Hirvias and Aloth to blast away from the back. Your Eder's job is to not die, hold the attention of the enemies and any damage done is just gravy, basically a better pet or summon. If there were no story companions would you choose a fighter, a paladin or another monk to be your second frontline melee? And what are in your opinion the amazing Fighter abilities that no one brings up? What is the sine qua non of the Fighter? Kana is currently hanging out in the back so I can make sure he stays alive to get the most invocations for extended fights. To answer your questions, I would probably do a classic party like I had in the Icewind Dale games, Fighter, Paladin (it was another Fighter in Icewind Dale because the Paladins were weak iirc, but the extra heal and auras in this game seem like they would be great to buff up my front-line) Cleric, Rogue, Mage, Cipher/Druid (it was a Ranger in Icewind Dale for more ranged DPS, but the extra crowd control would come in handy for Pillars). "And what are in your opinion the amazing Fighter abilities that no one brings up?" I believe Critical Defense, Unbending, Unbroken, and Vigorous Defense all make the fighter extremely difficult to bring down. The biggest problem is that they are very boring to use. I'd rather have a more glass-cannony party with a higher DPS fighter than have an unkillable tank, which my minmax brain tells me to build-up. What is the sine qua non of the Fighter? To fight in the front-lines without being ran over quickly I suppose. It really depends what your party needs though. Unbending at best heals you 50% of your total health over a 15 second period. At level 11 with a 12 con you have 201 endurance. Without Unbending you take 201 points of damage and get KO'd. With it you take 100 points of damage, sounds great but it is only a 100 point heal that is limited to 3 per rest. A Paladin's Lay on Hands heals more, over a shorter period of time, can be used twice per encounter and can be used on anyone. The Barbarians Savage Defiance at level 11 heals base 120 damage over 15 seconds and it scales with Might. Lay on Hands is worlds better and Savage Defiance is at least as good plus is available at level 5. Plus you need a decent intellect for the duration to not be laughable. Unbroken is better than Second Chance in that it gets you defensive buffs after activation but it cost you a level 11 ability instead of an equipment slot. Maybe it useful for Eder in case you want the ring and the two armor sets with second chance to go for other characters but your main character will have first dibs on equipment. Vigorous Defense at +20 to all once per encounter is good but only lasts 15 seconds if your intellect is 10. A Paladin's Reinforcing Exhortation buffs +25, can be used twice, and lasts longer and can't be used on yourself but two Paladins get buff each other and have two left over for others or in case the first wears off. Critical Defense - I always take it but lets run the math Case #1 accuracy = deflection 0-15 miss 16-50 graze 51-100 hit With nothing you take 0.15*0+0.35*0.5+0.50*1 = 0.675 unit damage With Critical Defense you get 20% crit>hit and 10% hit>graze 0-15 miss 16-55 graze 56-100 hit Damage taken is 0.15*0+0.40*.5+0.45*1 = 0.65 damage or 3.8% less damage ..... not real good but maybe it is better with a tougher enemy case #2 Accuracy is 50 points higher than your deflection 0-50 hit 51-100 crit With nothing you take 0.50*1+0.50*1.5 = 1.25 unit damage 0-5 graze 6-61 hit 61-100 crit damage taken is 0.05*0.5+0.55*1+0.40*1.5 = 0.025+0.55+0.6 = 1.175 unit damage or 6.38% less damage ... still not looking very good. After actually running the math I'd have to say that Critical Defense looks to be pretty damn poor, and here I was always taking it because I thought it made a difference. Superior Deflection at a mere +5 deflection is better Actually my thought now is that Vigorous Defense is the better of the defensive buffs but the duration is short enough that dumping intellect to place in resolve is a good course of action. You'd have +7 deflection all the time and would be -13 deflection for 5.2 seconds each fight which seems like a suitable trade off. Regarding Unbending: I don't see why you are running the numbers with 12 con for the test. Even Eder has 16 base con, which is easy to buff higher with equipment or food for the more demanding encounters. I would also like to add that Unbending is an instant cast while Lay on Hands is average cast, leaving more time for Eder to chug potions while he tanks deadly monster attacks. But again, I still think Paladin is the slightly better (and more fun) overall class, just that the fighter is the better tank in dire situations. While on the subject of Lay of Hands, I really don't like the fact that the priest's heals are so weak. I think it would be an awesome change that if the AOE heal only hit one target or if only one target was injured, then the priest focuses his energies on tending to the wounds of that one friendly character, healing for 50% more. Regarding Critical Defense: I ran the numbers a bit further and it appears that for a 300 endurance fighter (not difficult to achieve at level 12 on Eder), your effective endurance would be 319. So you are deepening your endurance pool by 19 (with those specific numbers), which does sound a bit subpar compared to other level 9 abilities, but can still potentially save you in tough battles. Does anyone know how much accuracy the Adra Dragon has on PotD? I'm still adventuring in the expansion atm.

You're not totally right : rangers have been fixed and really seem fine now. I'm playing in PotD and pet and ranger are almost as useful as 1 party member, except they are 2. Pet's infinite health is just so sweet in this difficulty setting and they now do a respectable amount of damages. High level abilities of the ranger herself seem to be very good too with stunning shot, double shot and the longest CC spell of the game (binding roots). For now, she's mostly a caster sniper with an arbalest and wounding shots. I believe that chanters need an important rework about how they scale. My point is, people felt paladins weak so they were buffed. Same for the rangers. Both in a very satisfying way IMHO. Therefore, I'm pretty confident for the fighters. My only current fear for balance is that wizard may get per encounter confusion at level 15. Per encounter spells was a kind of Pandora's box... I haven't experimented much with Rangers post-patch on PotD so you are probably correct. What level is your party? I would be worried that the pet was still a bit too squishy compared to summons or a tank-spec'd front-line character, and much of the crowd control goes against fortitude which the majority of enemies have extremely high numbers of in PotD.

No one, or at least I'm not, is saying that Fighters are broken, just that they don't have much of a niche. Also balance is just as important in a single player game as in multiplayer. Eder is going to be used, firstly because he is a great character and secondly because there are only two possible frontline melee story companions to take with you and Pellegrinas stats are a bit wonky while Eder's high might and con are pretty much were you'd choose them to be if you had the choice. In your party you have the main Monk and Eder on the front lines, maybe Kana in plate as another melee, Durance to keep everyone alive and Hirvias and Aloth to blast away from the back. Your Eder's job is to not die, hold the attention of the enemies and any damage done is just gravy, basically a better pet or summon. If there were no story companions would you choose a fighter, a paladin or another monk to be your second frontline melee? And what are in your opinion the amazing Fighter abilities that no one brings up? What is the sine qua non of the Fighter? Kana is currently hanging out in the back so I can make sure he stays alive to get the most invocations for extended fights. To answer your questions, I would probably do a classic party like I had in the Icewind Dale games, Fighter, Paladin (it was another Fighter in Icewind Dale because the Paladins were weak iirc, but the extra heal and auras in this game seem like they would be great to buff up my front-line) Cleric, Rogue, Mage, Cipher/Druid (it was a Ranger in Icewind Dale for more ranged DPS, but the extra crowd control would come in handy for Pillars). "And what are in your opinion the amazing Fighter abilities that no one brings up?" I believe Critical Defense, Unbending, Unbroken, and Vigorous Defense all make the fighter extremely difficult to bring down. The biggest problem is that they are very boring to use. I'd rather have a more glass-cannony party with a higher DPS fighter than have an unkillable tank, which my minmax brain tells me to build-up. What is the sine qua non of the Fighter? To fight in the front-lines without being ran over quickly I suppose. It really depends what your party needs though.

What if my idea of fun is having the Wizard class insanely more powerful than all other classes at higher levels? (I actually do love when games have this power curve). The point is, you cannot please everyone. I do agree with the implicit notion that having tamer, more even power curves will satisfy the largest majority, and mods can please the rest. I agree with the changes they made to Defender. The Fighter was unhittable by most enemies before the change, especially when you buffed him more and debuffed the enemies via spells. Fighter is still the tankiest class if you look at every ability in relation to other abilities of fellow party members (heals/buffs from Priests and Druids), regardless of the cherry picking done in the Paladin vs Fighter debate. But like I said in my initial post, Fighter does seem like it needs some small buff to make it more fun to play (a buff to their crowd control abilities' accuracies which would scale with their might is what I proposed).

I'm playing on PotD and the fighter is fine as is. I spec'd him to be pure tank and he is a wonderful tank. I find it quite silly how people cherry pick SO MANY ABILITIES while discussing the pros/cons of a fighter vs paladin for durability; they just choose not to talk about so many of the amazing fighter ones. Anyway, I accessed the White Marches at level 5 with Monk Main, Eder, Durance, Kana, Hiravias, and Aloth (currently level 7), and while the fights are tough, my fighter still survives very well. The harder the fight, the more spells I have my Priest throw on him. But if we are talking relative strength, I do believe that Fighters, Rangers, and Chanters are currently the weakest classes right now in PotD, so some minor buffs would be nice I suppose. Edit: But seeing as it is not a multiplayer game, it's not the end of the world if they don't get buffs. In all honesty, I'd rather the devs work on creating new, unique, and fun talents/spells/items and add them to the game than balance something that doesn't matter as much regarding the amount of fun had in a single-player game. Edit2: I did want to add that enemies on PotD generally have insanely high fortitude, so it makes the fighter MUCH less fun to use because his crowd control abilities will not work very often. So maybe they should make something that scales the amount of added accuracy of those abilities with the fighter's might. I think that would be a cool feature.

When does it ask you if you'd like to scale your level? I'm level 6 right now in one of the first expansion areas. If I find a fight too difficult, go and play more of the main game, then come back a much higher level, will the enemies automatically scale? I'm guessing that it only asks you if you'd like them to scale if you are overleveled, meaning I won't get the question unless I am a much higher level. Correct me if I'm wrong.

It appears that the AI combination of "Damage" + "Aggressive" allows him to cast it. I think it more has to do with "Damage", because Returning Storm is one of the spells "Damage" AI uses. I suppose I'll use this workaround for now. Thanks for the tip.

Thanks, I'll try it out and report back.

While paused I queue up the action and it has the Returning Storm icon, but as soon as I unpause he stands idle with ellipsis over his head. He also refuses to cast it while unpaused. Please fix.

Were Obsidian scared of challenging their player-base which would possibly confuse them and subsequently anger them out of frustration? The only puzzles I remember were the bell puzzle (first few hours of the game) and the putting the weapon in the statue puzzle (during the Endless paths). Next time you guys make a fantastical adventuring game, can you put in some nice puzzles and riddles? It seems as if combat was the prime focus in Pillars of Eternity, but with all the boring "unique" items, hilariously unbalanced (many overpowered (petrify, etc) and many underpowered (stoneskin, etc)) spells, and inability to change aggro resulting in the desire to minmax one party member (even if you wanted to roleplay the game, you obviously would roleplay that your party does not want to all die so want to make themselves into the strongest fighting force they can possibly be) into being an unkillable tank while all the others do all the damage, making it quite stale and "mmo-like", it fell extremely short of being held in the same light BG2 was. And I know this has been said many, many times before, but whose bright idea was it to input all the immersion-breaking golden npcs and epitaphs with trite backer stories into the game? Finally, there should have been way more "cruel" conversation choices to help flesh out malicious play-throughs. I by no means think that Pillars of Eternity was a "bad" game, I just hate to see all the wasted potential. Thanks for reading.

1. While one of your characters is dominated, if another enemy attempts to dominate that same character and misses, it will override the first domination and give you full control of your character. (I'm not sure if the same problem exists with afflictions like Charm or Confusion, but I'm assuming they do...) 2. Enemy healers can heal your own characters while attempting to heal themselves if you are standing next to them, yet your party members' heals are ally only. 3. The Druid's spells Returning Storm and Relentless Storm are way, way too loud. When they hit multiple enemies at the same time it sounds like a bomb is going off in my headset. Bonus #4. Balance suggestion: Make crits have some Damage Reduction bypass so dual wielding Rogues aren't so (relatively) terrible in Path of the Damned or against tanky foes (there are a lot of them) in other difficulty modes. And yes, I know you can change weapons depending on the type of foe you face, but in PotD dual wielding rogues still seem overly gimped due to how the combat mechanics work (specifically Damage Reduction). Thanks for reading.

Is anyone else upset that the Priest spell Withdraw isn't being nerfed? Why would they allow such an obvious, game-breaking cheese (Withdrawing targets in any choke points, causing enemy AI to act extremely stupid, who just run back and forth taking ranged barrage after barrage) in a game meant to be challenging? Enemies and allies should be able to phase through Withdrawn people/summons. And yes, I know that other cheeses exist, but this one seems overt and particularly silly.

These two can be attributed to - https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/73449-stat-bonus-modifiers-can-erroneously-be-applied-multiple-times-allowing-stats-to-grow-beyond-intended-values/ Thanks for the link.

After a bounty fight against a Xaurip and his Drakes, my summons became bugged. Some summons stayed permanently with my party after the fight (my skeletons from my Chanter and my Animat from my horn). My Animat became more and more bugged, starting to run around at lightning speed and phase through walls, starting fights/encounters with groups of enemies that I did not want to fight yet. Even after trying to manually kill these summons, after every fight my new summons would stay with my party. The intelligence on Kana, my chanter, is bugged. It should be 18 intelligence (17 base + 1 from a magical hat), but instead sits at 25, making the AOE of his chants way too big. The talent Wary Defender seems to stay on permanently even when I'm not using Defender, making my fighter get an extra 15 deflection on top of the deflection he gains from Defender. I'm not sure exactly what's causing the issue, but Eder, my fighter, has way more deflection than he should. The Priest spell Withdraw doesn't allow enemies to phase through the target, making them run around like idiots while your character or summon in the choke point gets healed up and is invincible for around 30 seconds or so, making every single fight extremely trivial if there is any choke point in sight. Enemies should either retreat if they are unable to go through a choke point for more than 2 seconds or so, or the better option would just allow both enemies and allies to phase through (walk through) withdrawn targets. I don't want my path of the damned play through (which I will play after my first play through which is on hard) to be beaten by silly cheese such as this. And for some small bugs that should also be fixed but do not make or break the game: 1. Sell swords that you hire for the stronghold sometimes have "unpaid" next to their names even when you have enough to pay their wages. 2. When I scroll the screen the shadows flicker. I cannot play the game until these are fixed because they are making the game way too easy (I play on Hard and the challenge is one of the biggest reasons I absolutely love the game) and breaking my immersion (the slightly flickering shadows). Thanks for reading.