Purudaya

The DLCs seem to be properly tuned/scaled for levels 15-20 thus far, so hopefully the devs will continue that trend when they finish balancing PotD difficulty for the rest of the late game. Even if the main quest starts to get too easy at high levels, there's now plenty of other content that offers a sufficient challenge.

You should check the key mappings in options - I believe CAPS is the default for "walk," but don't quote me on that. The walk toggle actually makes a big difference from an RP perspective, one that I didn't think would matter much until I actually tried it. Previous dev streams have indicated that they're working on refinements to naval combat. I don't necessarily think that they have to depart from the text-based format, but the current system definitely needs additional options, better AI, and a less clunky turn-based system. There's just not enough incentive not to close to board as fast as possible.

As far as i know, Tyranny was published by Paradox (while they only distributed Pillars). And from the looks of it, it was not really successful. Paradox seems pretty disappointed by the sales. If i were you, i would not hope too much. There are some popular misconceptions around this - Tyranny actually did make money. Not as much as Paradox hoped it would, but it wasn't the unmitigated failure that people have come to believe (despite non-existent marketing, the game was produced at a profit and the ~600k sales were enough to warrant an expansion). The problem is that Paradox never did the work to nurture and expand the IP the way Obsidian has, so any kind of direct sequel would have to rely on sales almost exclusively from customers who played the first and liked it enough to shell out for a second round. It's too bad; I actually really liked Tyranny and would have loved to see a sequel, but Paradox has never seemed to want to build the IP into anything more than a one-shot.

I'm actually really glad Josh Sawyer is taking a step back. It was great that he helped bring back isometric CRPGs, but he also seems to have a - disdain is probably too strong a word - disinterest in genre mainstays and an overwillingness to subvert narrative expectations in ways that don't actually translate to better storytelling. I'm not one of the types who insist that PoE has to mirror BG2 in every way, but I don't want to play Fallout: NV in an isometric fantasy setting either. BoW was much closer to what I personally like to see from this genre, so I'll be really glad if that's the narrative direction the IP is headed.

Scaling and difficulty should work separately - scaling will only apply to maps you haven't yet visited (although I believe the devs said in a stream a few months back that they were working on that), but difficulty changes will definitely apply whether you have previously visited a map or not.

One thing to keep in mind during those choose your own adventure sections: if you pass a skill check and it results in the entire party taking an action (sneaking through a forest, climbing down a rope, etc.), any party member with a 0 in that skill will typically incur a partial failure/injury. A character with 0 in athletics will get hurt often even if you select a character with high athletics to pass the check (when it results in a group action), for example, so it helps to make sure that every party member has at least 1 point in whatever skills you expect to use regularly in non-conversation checks. I don't know exactly how the thresholds work, but having Aloth with 1-2 in athletics vs. 0 made a significant difference in my playthough. Also, you'll be running into skill checks with requirements of 14-17 by the endgame, so try to avoid spreading yourself too thin unless you're willing to have your party members mirror your skills for party assist. For my first playthrough I invested in bluff, insight, diplomacy, and streetwise and frequently fell short on skill checks because I didn't know how much I would eventually need and didn't spec my party accordingly. When it comes to skills, jack of all trades/master of none doesn't really have a place in this game.

Maybe i get it wrong , but the way is described : Loaded Pockets - NPC pockets are filled with more and rarer items ... Fair enough, you could be right. They do make it a point to use the word "pockets" as opposed to "inventories" Maybe ask a dev in one of the feedback/support forums? I also play a lot of thieves and would like some more incentive to invest in sleight of hand.

I'd expect that the loaded pockets blessing deals more with combat loot lists than targets for pick-pocketing. Pick-pocket isn't worth much in Deadfire imo, and I don't think this feature is designed as a remedy for that.

One thing to know about Shattered Pillar - in addition to the halved wound limit, it will now only generate wounds using auto-attacks - not abilities (a deal breaker imo). I'd agree with your instinct not to use INT as a dump stat (if anything, you can lower resolve). 10 is about right since you'll be able to benefit from +10 INT with duality of mortal presence to get longer buff/affliction durations (if you're playing melee, you'll want swift strikes/flurry and stunning surge to last as long as possible). It's a strong class on its own, but it really synergizes well with other martial classes if you're willing to try a multi. Otherwise, Helwalkers are worth a look for their hard-to-beat might bonus

Not really, no. There are a few minor bugs here and there, but the worst of it has been polished out. The game's in good shape right now (but it's still getting balance tweaks virtually every patch; you may or may not find those worth waiting out).

If you're finding the game to easy, I'd recommend PoTD with upward scaling enabled. There's still some late game content that needs difficulty tuning, but the difference between Classic and PotD is significant. Also, the DLCs have some genuinely hard encounters on PotD - enough to (possibly) warrant use of that empower button Edit: Ninja'd...yesterday.

Level scaling will increase/decrease an enemy's base level by a maximum of 4. If you have upward and downward scaling enabled, a level 12 enemy will scale down to a minimum of 8 for a level 1 party and up to a maximum of 16 for a level 20 party. So it depends on (1) your level, (2) the base level of the encounter, and (3) what kind of scaling you have enabled. Afaik, the ambush battles are leveled, so the fact that you got an unavoidable and unwinnable encounter doesn't seem normal (at least not from my experience). Was this a travel event in Neketaka? What level were you?

For melee, mirrored + repulsive visage is the better investment imo. There's less need to worry about defenses when all of your nearby enemies are terror-locked

Didn't see that, thank you for including the option

Just out of curiosity, does Mirke have anything to contribute narratively? I know it's off-topic, but I've been avoiding sidekicks for this reason and would be interested to know if they're worth having along from a storytelling perspective. Konstanten was great in S/S/S and I hear Ydwin has some good BoW content; not so sure about Mirke and the others

I think for some folks it's less about difficulty and more about customizing the experience. I could see wanting to take on Eothas' challenge for narrative reasons while still wanting to benefit from higher starting money/level, for example.

Would also prefer a slider rather than a challenge so that mods/blessings can be optioned in. I actually like playing through a portion of the game at max level and the xp gain felt about right for the base content, but at this point a completionist playthrough will have you spending the last tenth of the optional content, Ukaizo, and all three DLCs at level 20. By the end of S/S/S it already starts to feel kind of old.

I'll have to change all of my companions for this battle. We were wiped out easily. Edit: Ok, I did it. 1. Construct - Eder 2. Blowdart - Maia 3. Imp - Watcher (streetfighter/helwalker) 4. Ooze - Xoti 5. Ranged Magic - Konstanten My rogue had a hard time as the construct is the only creature that can actually proc engagement, so persistent distraction sneak attacks are kind of out. Maia is really helpful in the blowdart slot - driving flight keeps the fighter and cipher paralyzed so you can take out the monk as quickly as possible (that's the strategy that worked for me at least). Took me a good 3-4 attempts. Not the funnest encounter in the DLC, but definitely an interesting way of looking at synergies

Because it was encounter-breaking, especially when multiclassed with a monk or rogue. I wouldn't mind if it did a full attack against the target enemy the way flagellant's path does, though...

That's strange - I'm testing a cipher/streetfighter right now and it works fine. Is it possible that you had some kind of immunity/resistance to perception afflictions active when you tested dual wield?

It's the new "kill cam" feature. You can tweak/disable it in options.

This is great, thank you! I'd suggest adding a little bit to the changeling's dance description, though - it may have been easy for the party configuration you tested, but it can be a real challenge at first depending on a couple of factors (at least on PotD). The challenge transforms your party based on the order of your companions: 1. Construct 2. Blowdart 3. Imp 4. Ooze 5. Ranged magic attack user (iirc). Your active abilities are disabled/replaced but your stats and passives are left intact, so if your party leader is a caster or some other squishie instead of a fighter with constant recovery, then you're going to have a bad time. You'll want to order your party members so their passives compliment the attacks of the creatures they're transformed into - a tank/high HP character for the leader, a ranger with driving flight for the blowdart, a caster with Secrets of Rime for the ooze, etc. It's really easy if your party is well ordered/configured for it, can be a pain if its not

The most OP classes have been tuned down and some of the more underpowered classes have been tuned up. Ciphers got a boost, Trickster was dramatically improved, sacred immolation received a recent fix...there have been a lot of changes depending on when you last played. If you want to get an idea of what's changed since release, I'd recommend reading through the patch notes in the news and announcements forum here: https://forums.obsidian.net/forum/123-pillars-of-eternity-ii-deadfire-announcements-and-news/ starting with patch 1.1.

Beat me to it. Characters with multiple insta-buffs require double the amount of inputs now, the new recent abilities interface pops up when you mouse over any empty spell/invocation tier, and it contributes to blocked status effects in the standard ui layout. Would really like to see this as an optional menu toggle.

1. Nothing. 2. No. 3. Berath's Blessings are for those who would like to make aspects of the game easier/more convenient. God Challenges are for those who would like to make aspects of the game more difficult/less convenient.