Incendax

Turn down pirates. Turn down RDC (Kill everyone). Side with VTC. Convince Tekehu to stay. Keep everybody! Somehow.

Some very specific dialog choices will allow you to convince Xoti to... not forsake Eothas, but side with you over him. But this doesn’t happen until basically the end of the game. But it was hilarious when Xoti kept gushing at Eothas, and her own god had to essentially say “The adults are talking right now, Xoti.”

Captain Picard certainly does have charisma, but we know he extensively practices his speeches in the privacy of his chambers. He knows he has these skills and talents, and intentionally leverages them in negotiations to achieve peaceful compromise. Maybe if he went in blind and relied on his natural charm alone you could claim he is not being manipulative, but his diplomatic efforts are intentional, calculated, and designed to appeal to his audience. Being sincere and manipulative can definitely overlap. It frequently does!

Probably easier to think of manipulation as something neutral, instead of something negative. It’s just a skill set everyone uses, intentionally or otherwise, and many of those uses are sincere and interested in promoting good things like friendship or peaceful compromise. Captain Picard was amazing at manipulation. It all depends on what you use it for.

Micromanaging is a choice. I enjoyed the tactics system (though I have seen much better ones) and I didn’t have to click anything but basic movement during that fight. So the tools definitely exist to elimate almost all micro.

Since many non rangers have soloed POTD, the answer is “No.”

Sadly, it would probably be Larian. They have already cooperated with Wizards/Hasbro to make Lost Mines of the Phaldelver using the Original Sin 2 engine.

164 hours. But I did eeeeverything, including reloading entire conversation trees just to see what they say.

Yeah. Fury Druid + Priest of Berath. Then throw tons of Rot Skulls! Pile on the corrosive damage, corrosive penetration, and area of effect.

I don't want to derail the thread, but speaking as someone who both has moderate autism and spent years working with people that have autism, this is not an accurate representation of what is going on with most autistic people. It's easy to arrive at that conclusion because so many people with autism become frustrated at the world's inability to 'make sense' or never reach that point in their cognitive maturity because of a co-morbid condition, but there is no greater or lesser desire to understand than any other person who is frustrated with a task. Like overcoming any limitation, there are paths around your 'blindness'. For example, like many others I have shared my story with, I had an incredibly frustrating youth filled with all the usual poor communication that comes with being an autistic child in a house that has no idea what autism is. My inability to understand why the people around me were getting angry or sad or even that they were experiencing these emotions without the most outward and obvious of expressions made me want to give up even trying to understand them. For a while, I did. But as I grew older and gained more experience, I was able to overcome this by discussing emotional cause and effect with patient people so I could choose which actions were most likely to generate positive results. It didn't always work out, of course. I would often come across like Atsura. It took YEARS of practice. I still have no idea what the person sitting across from me is thinking or feeling about what I say / do. But actively listening to feedback has allowed me to construct a model of behavior to generate desired outcomes, and I stick to those models most of the time. None of this is to say you are right or wrong about Atsura. I just wanted to tackle the "lack of inclination or ability" issue.

Nalpazca/Illusionist can do some absolutely silly things with deflection. Not quite as much as an Arcane Knight, but you've got longer drugs, easy wounds, brutal accuracy, and monk fists. :D

Nungata vanished on me. She returned after I finished The Final Maneuver (Refusal Version).

That’s just Brand Enemy being cheesy. But you are right. It does work. That’s how I killed them all. I mean, the real solution is Wael’s Wind, but I was saving for Splintered Reef.

Not only is this brilliant, but it synchronizes perfectly with your signature!

What fight? You are supposed to sneak past the thugs. The quest giver even tells you to be subtle. =P

I think he is really off the mark and too cynical in his assessment, but he is entitled to his opinion. Xoti is certainly opinionated and annoying, but her story reveals an entire subplot about what Eothas hopes to accomplish with the reapers. And that ties directly into the main story. You can definitely enjoy the game without that subplot, but it gives you more insight into what is happening.

All the factions? Yes, I agree.

Home to the Huana. Home to the Principi. Home to the VTC natives. I think only the RDC are recent arrivals, and even they have the 'ancient home' angle.

"Sharing Knowledge" seems to be you sharing knowledge about your adventures, in exchange for some of Llengrath's general knowledge about magic, the world, etc. She also takes some of your knowledge about Concelhaut, but I have no idea how much. I know that was the moment that Concelhaut's Skull went missing from my inventory in POE1. And the description said I didn't even remember what I had lost, so I rolled with it. But then everyone is talking about the skull in POE2, so maybe you DO remember the skull or maybe it was just another import bug.

Step 1: Maia tells me she assassinated someone. Step 2: I threaten to tell the entire Deadfire about what she has done. Step 3: Maia says nobody would believe it. Step 4: I pull out Dragon's Dowry and shoot her in the head point blank. ... Step 5: She heals back to full between every shot, and doesn't react at all. Step 6: Weep.

Yeah. There was a point in the story where I really wanted to kill a certain character. So I started unloading on them at point blank range, and they just stood there. Not going aggro, and healing back to full between each headshot from my massive rifle.

Xoti has a storyline that directly relates to and enriches the Eothas situation. Tekehu has a storyline that directly relates to and enriches the Huana situation. So both are relevant and if you have not done the story yet then I would honestly take both. Party balance be damned. Pallegina and Aloth have the least connection to the story, if you are looking to drop someone who has no big relation to the plot.

Yeah, I can see this character doing quests for everybody until he runs off with the Hangman, turns down the Final RDC quest, and joins VTC in the end.

VTC for the pro animancy angle. RDC for aggressively taking said knowledge. The big distinction here is that VTC have a specific hard-on for animancy, while the RDC are more interested in general improvement and infrastructure, which does include technology, but not to the exclusion of guns and butter. Or put another way, mad science vs practical science. Teleporters vs Submarines.

Tekehu can be very annoying, but he is also one of the best written characters and extremely powerful as a Druid or Druid/Chanter. He is only a bad pick if you intend to go RDC. Xoti is good as a Monk or Monk/Priest, but not as strong as Tekehu in general. Xoti is more fussy and will irritate more NPCs than Tekehu. Tekehu just irritates you, the player. =D