Purudaya

He hasn't said that during either of my playthroughs, at least not that I've noticed. I wonder if that bark is tied to his quest resolution in PoE...are you playing with Eothas-worshipping Eder or spiritually disillusioned Eder?

The closest thing would be swift flurry from the monk tree (PL 3). Procs an extra attack on crit 33% of the time, so dual wielding with high accuracy or hit-to-crit conversion will net you fairly reliable bonus attacks. The mechanic, however, doesn't work anything like Kotor - there's no button you can press that activates a multi-strike animation and you'll never see the extra attacks take place outside of the combat log. Still a pretty powerful and satisfying ability, though.

Whispers of the Wind absolutely works with ranged, which is why you dual-wield mortars. That's one full aoe attack from each mortar against each of 5 enemies (a total of 10 shots, 15 if you have the chain shot upgrade for Fire in the Hole). Higher INT increases the AoE of your mortars, so against a reasonably tight cluster of 5 enemies it's like each of them suffers 10-15 blunderbuss attacks instantly. That's usually enough to melt most of them into a pool of gore, but you can couple that with Ajumat's Stalking Cloak (which adds stun to all attacks made from invisibility - and WotW makes you invisible) and resonant touch to lock down and detonate the rest.

Yeah, same. There were even one or two bounties on my current playthrough where I ran up against a group of 8-10 3x red skull enemies despite the quest not having any skulls in the journal.

Really enjoyed the new DLC...but then I also really enjoyed the base game. If you haven't been enjoying Deadfire and didn't like Beast of Winter (and you're thinking in terms of being 'done' with the game or getting it over with), then you might want to save yourself the 10 bucks. Sorry it wasn't your cup of tea, though.

It's weird, he usually gets to high disposition/gives me the hat fairly early on. Just follow the disposition cues: skulduggery, clever/smartass responses, anti-slavery, bluff, etc. If you've finished most of the quests and don't have a lot of disposition opportunities left, you can always use the unity console mod to increase disposition and see what triggers.

I'd like to see this as well - I like to test out various DPS builds (or multiple takes on the same build) and would like to more easily be able to compare stats after a fight. You can always hire and test fresh adventurers to get an idea of how your choices/specs affect damage output, but this would be a lot more convenient.

Recent Final Fantasy titles are all aRPGs, or a mix. Ah. That actually might be a better fit for the franchise. I just have distinct memories seeing my friend play FF7 on his playstation and watching his character run 20 yards up to an enemy, hit him with a sword the size of a dinner table, and run back - only to have the enemy do the exact same thing. I remember thinking that it was one of the dumbest things I'd ever seen, because even at 12 I somehow innately understood the immersion-crushing wrongness of presenting a combat encounter that way. how dare you sir LOL FF: Card Game D:OS: Board Game PoE: Computer Game. For Adults.

Recent Final Fantasy titles are all aRPGs, or a mix. Ah. That actually might be a better fit for the franchise. I just have distinct memories seeing my friend play FF7 on his playstation and watching his character run 20 yards up to an enemy, hit him with a sword the size of a dinner table, and run back - only to have the enemy do the exact same thing. I remember thinking that it was one of the dumbest things I'd ever seen, because even at 12 I somehow innately understood the immersion-crushing wrongness of presenting a combat encounter that way.

Is it confirmed that the naval combat remains the same? Otherwise it's more of a UI overhaul than a system revamp. Fingers crossed that they'll actually improve aspects of the ship combat rather than just making it easier for players to skip it.

I loathe turn-based crpgs not because the mechanics are necessarily bad, but because it just kills immersion for me. People do not take turns in combat, they act simultaneously - and while you can kind of imagine that all of the turns are playing out at the same time, the presentation in, say, D:OS looks more like a miniatures board game than a battlefield. it's the same reason I could never get into a single final fantasy title. I think it's cool that Obsidian is creating the option for those who prefer turn-based, though. Would be nice if turn-based game developers would make a similar accommodation.

This was a challenging one, for sure - took me a few tries. Party composition (PoTD): fighter/rogue tank helwalker/streetfighter dps sharpshooter/mage pure mage cipher/streetfighter (dual blunderbuss) Rest with "incredible" food buffs, mainly focusing on increasing spell and melee accuracy, PEN and graze/hit/crit conversion. Have the tank engage the cluster to the right while the helwalker/streetfighter focuses exclusively on taking out the luminaries as quickly as possible (stunning surge and other stun abilities are a big help). Meanwhile, focus the cipher/streetfighter on using mortars on the enemies around the tank to build focus quickly and give Pain Block and Ancestor's Memory to any allies not affected by Sissak's mind plague. Have the geomancer (equipped with the Red Hand) use Essential Phantom to summon a second shooter, which totals four shots per reload and pushes back enemies that get too close. The other mage can alternate between maintaining a wall of writhing tentacles, launching vs. fortitude CC spells, and using scrolls of Moonwell to keep constant regen on the tank and helwalker/streetfighter. It helps to give the geomancer a small stack of raise dead scrolls just in case - I think I also made sure the tank had a few iron skin potions as well. Once all of the enemies are down, send the two melee characters against Sissak and keep the others at that same far wall a few feet away (the spiders will only spawn when Sissak's health reaches two bars and can swarm your casters if they're not well placed). Depending on where you are health/resource-wise, you can use some figurine summons or other CC spells to keep the spiders busy while you finish off Sissak. I didn't waste any abilities on him: he only really casts mind plague and Tayn's Chaotic Orb, so its just a matter of keeping regen up and whittling him down. It definitely requires full use of all resources available to you, so make sure to look through your food/drugs/potions/gear for ways to augment your party's strengths for this specific fight. Scrolls of raise dead and moonwell were the key for my playthrough; you might also find it useful to have a dedicated summoner of some kind.

Correct IIRC, there are only 3 fixed levels of protection against afflictions: immune, resistant, and neither. Wearing 5 items that grant resistance to dexterity afflictions will have the same effect as wearing one item with that same protection, as stacking generally only applies when it comes to numerical stats. Otherwise players would be able to build multiple de facto immunities by easily combining various redundant items, racial bonuses, spells/buffs, consumables, etc.

I remember you from when the Black Isle forums switched to the Bioware boards in late 2001/early 2002, when we were both excited for Neverwinter Nights to come out. Even earlier than that, you'd become a presence in BG2's expansion, Throne of Bhaal. Why are you doing this with your life? What's the endgame? I remember deducing you were late twenties/early thirties then, so you have to be in your fifties now. What do these boards even still offer you? Haven't you seen enough of life by now to not bother posting here? Why do this ****? Let me give you an example from my own life. I've grown up with you. You and Karzak, Chosen of Shargaash were my first experiences with internet trolls back in 2002. Going back to newsgroups I now realize you must have had at least a 10 year advantage on me. Even so. You're still doing this. Since first encountering you I've obtained a bachelor's degree, a doctorate, and I've learned two new languages. But you're still posting in a fake orc dialect on isometric rpg forums. Who are you? What do you do? This keeps me up at night. What a weird and unnecessary callout. It was a constructive post. Also: you can offer online build advice in an orc dialect over the course of a decade and still have plenty of time to live an accomplished life afk

Wouldn't a tactician/rogue be ideal for this (flanking multiple enemies with persistent distraction + all rogue abilities are interrupts)? I've seen a few tactician/mage builds but haven't seen many people commenting on synergies with rogue multis.

This is a long-sleeved shirtwaist dress. There's nothing wrong with that, but that's what it is

and DEX. every single class in BG was obliged to max DEX - esp frontliners - theres a reason bioware just thought 'fk it' and gave, like, half of their NPCs 17+ DEX in BG2. CON just had to be good enough. ur hp pools not hugely relevant with low enough AC and the right defensive spells + gear. edit: true you could just dump INT and WIS with no consequences, so ur point holds. I used to max CHA as lot just so i could buy **** without mucking about with the ring of human influence. incidentally, 3.5e/pathfinder suffers a bit from this, but with opposite classes. wizards can ignore everything except INT and do their job just fine. martial classes potentially need 13 INT for combat expertise, 13 DEX for dodge, CHA for divine grace etc. That's right, good catch - I forgot about the AC adjustment (and THAC0 bonus if you're going ranged). You could still ignore half of the stat pool, though - I never bothered with maxing CHA or using the RoHI because it doesn't take too long before you have more money than you need. Wizards were just as simple... max INT (and WIS if you intend to use wish/limited wish) and DEX, moderate CON. Come to think of it, I'm not sure of any single class that doesn't have at least 2 dump stats.

Might is still an important stat for healers and damage-focused wizards. It's not as crucial for single-target melee DPS, but that doesn't mean it's implemented badly - pillars is actually better about making all stats at least somewhat relevant to each class than most other RPGs (melee fighters in the BG series could ignore pretty much every stat aside from STR and CON). I think the problem is that people still associate might with physical prowess, which isn't really how it works in the PoE system. That said, it would be nice if it gave something like +0.1 PEN per tick or something; it would give some badly needed help to two-handed tank builds (at least on PotD).

MS did just announce that keyboard and mouse support will be coming to the box natively and that any developer will be able to implement it, so they could be looking more toward bridging the gap between their console and PC platforms rather than ignoring the latter. Also, the fact that they acquired inXile at the same time as Obsidian suggests that the commonality between them - old school RPGs with a focus on rich storytelling - might have had something to do with the decision. Just like Coke didn't buy Zico Coconut Water/Gold Peak Tea to add caramel coloring and force them to become soft drinks, MS might be looking to add some niche markets to diversify its portfolio rather than forcing Obsidian/inXile to produce something far outside of their respective wheelhouses. If they wanted to make shallow shoulder-cam action co-op RPGs, it seems like there would be better ways of going about it than acquiring the folks who made Tides of Numenara. Maybe I'm being too optimistic, but it makes more sense that Microsoft bought these studios because it saw promise in what they were doing rather than in how it could hollow them out.

This. With a big emphasis on "pseudo". I really like the philosophic aspects, but if its really logic philosophy and not the kind of philosophy that are more emotional or some times even poetry with no logic meaning. I really disliked this also on Torment, i was doubting about whether i wanted to play it or do other things and the initial question "What does one life matter?" and especially the answers take away my desires of playing it. I don't want to veer too off-topic, but logic philosophy =/= most or "real" philosophy. Axiology, Epistemology, and Metaphysics all at various points explore the value, nature, and/or experience of human existence and are by no means pseudo fields. Questions about ethics and value can't be fully solved by logic alone as they deal with subjective premises, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't ask them or that the answers they yield don't have value. As for the sales, I know that tyranny picked up quite a bit through word of mouth after the initial disappointment for Paradox, eventually reaching ~500k. I have a hard time seeing Deadfire underperforming Tyranny by half, so hopefully the numbers will crunch right in the end (maybe after console sales/all DLCs are released). That said: even if it does turn out to fall short of financial targets, it doesn't necessarily spell the end for the IP - it may just mean that future games will see a change in approach (whether re: features, marketing, funding, or some combination of the three).

In the BG games, there came a point where you would start leaving mundane armors/weapons on the ground – they didn't have a lot of value and it wasn't worth it to carry them back and sell them unless you were low level and/or cash starved. Even if I *had* a stash to carry them all in, the small amount of clicking required to pick up and sell 20 mundane longswords alone wouldn't have been worth it. By contrast, these items are your bread and butter in PoE2 - the majority of your income comes from the worthless mundane crap that drops, so it makes sense for players to want to take it all back. So either (1) make mundanes worth less, (2) have them drop less frequently, or (3) do both 1 and 2. As for seeing items on enemies and then not seeing all of them on the ground, I'd imagine that's just the game showing you only the items that are both valuable and salvageable. This is a game with bombs, meteor showers, disintegration spells, and shotguns— it's almost weirder that so many armors do drop in salvageable condition than the other way around.

Bold/underline is my doing. See, the thing is for me limiting stash access to the ship is "adding tedium." The only thing the stash does is stop me from filling up on loot, running off to sell it, and then coming back for more loot. Repeat process until every single thing that isn't nailed down has been looted. Add in the time that travel and loading screens add in and it becomes a giant, tedious task. And don't tell me that I should be more selective in what I loot. It's loot, what self respecting murder hobo (aka a Munchkin in a Monty Haul game) leaves any loot behind? Fair enough, the definition of tedium definitely depends on perspective. My thinking was that no one in their right mind would run back and forth that many times, but it looks like I underestimated the tenacity of at least one player I'm pretty sure PoE is the only CRPG that has a stash mechanic like this (I'm probably wrong, but it's definitely not the norm) and while it is convenient, it also makes the game easier and less realistic. How about making the stash ship-only AND drastically reducing the amount of mundane loot? That would prevent players from having ridiculously bloated coffers and eventual access to the perfect combination of weapons, armor, consumables, and other powerful items for every situation at all times (challenge) without requiring players to make multiple trips (tedium). Having to balance what characters need on them with how much they can carry back is kind of a CRPG staple imo, but maybe I'm just old-fashioned. Either way, I'd still like to see the option in some shape or form.

I'd love a challenge that only allows access to the stash while on the ship, maybe with a few extra inventory slots to balance it out. It made sense in PoE1 so players didn't have to keep going back to the stronghold to store their loot, but now that our mode of transportation is the stronghold it would do a lot for immersion and tactics (as well as the game economy) to require players to make choices as to what they can carry with them and back. I suppose that's less of a 'challenge' than a mechanical change, but not every one of these should have to resolve around some intense specific handicap. I bet more players would try challenges if they did things like adding fatigue/increasing the need for rest as opposed to taking away pause or making weapons fall apart. To each their own, but I'd like to see more challenges that make the game more interesting without adding more tedium.

A Cipher/Streetfighter dual wielding hand mortars can often get to max focus with one use of arterial strike against a crowd of 4-6 enemies, not to mention the affliction splash. It's an even deadlier combo on a streetfighter/helwalker (better speed, turning wheel, and +10 intelligence for increased AoE), and deadlier still on a high level single class helwalker, which essentially breaks the game once it gets whispers of the wind (even more overkill with Avenging Storm, see Boerer's gif). I love how deceptive blunderbusses are stat-wise. At first glance they seem completely underwhelming, but with the right synergies they can melt the screen.

It's an even bigger problem now that there are mythic enchantments. The difference between Superb and Mythic is significant enough to outweigh the benefits of a lot of soulbound weapons.