Crucis

I'm not sure that I like grimoires in either game. That said, the version in PoE1 made more intuitive sense to me. I haven't understood how grimoires are meant to be used in this game, at least until this thread. Honestly, if/when there is a PoE3, I wish that they'd just dump grimoires entirely and just treat Wizards kinda like they did in BG2, i.e. you knew only those spells you had memorized that that was it. (Plus whatever spell scrolls you happened to have.) It just seems like a much more intuitive model. But unfortunately, it seems like someone has a real yen for having grimoires in the game.

Actually, Arkemyr's is not home initally. The best approach to rob him is non-violent one. And it starts with you going in through the window of the second floor of his shop (The Dark Cupboard) and stealing his robes from his room up top. After robbing his vault and giving the tablet to one of those women an imp sends a message that Arkemyr has returned and sends you an invite - that progresses into a quest about the observatory. Thanks for the tip. I was wondering if there might be some sort of way to get from the store to his house, but I forgot to go upstairs to take a look-see. While I'm on the topic (sorta), I've been very hesitant to recruit Fassina for my party (or its reserves) because she runs a useful store and I haven't yet bought everything worth buying yet. Kind of a shame, because I think that she'd be nice to have around.

Yes, these 2 women are the trigger. Well, I guess I've put my foot in it. I already cleared out the observatory and nuked Concelhaut. And I haven't even started the entire Arkemyr quest chain. Well, sorta-kinda. I cleared the first floor than started clearing the basement, but then walked into the room where Arkemyr was and decided to bail out (and reload), rather than look for a fight with him. I'm not quite sure how I'm going to get started on the quest (beyond talking to those two women). From what I saw on the first floor, sneaking around looked all but impossible. I know that there's a hidden entrance in the basement, but even there, there are a lot of imps, etc. and avoiding them seems rather ... challenging. Is there something I'm missing here? Does one go for the tablet first or try to speak to Arkemyr first?

For what it's worth, what is this "Circle"? Sounds like some sort of council of wizards. Though I found it amusing that Concelhaut assumed that the Watcher reports to the Circle when I didn't have a clue what it was (other than what I could infer). I was hoping that there'd be a reply option to tell Concelhaut that I had no idea what the Circle was and that I had no affiliation with a group I'd never heard of before. But alas, no such option.

While I can see some worth in this idea, OTOH one of the ways that you even learn about each of the groups is by talking to them and working with them for a while. So how are you going to learn enough about any of the groups if you don't talk to them to some degree. Seems kind of harsh to have other factions want to take you out for simply talking to one of the factions. One thing they could do to make some choices have consequences though would be to make it so that if you have one of the faction related Companions in your extended party (such as Maia or Pallegina) ("extended" as in being in the active party OR in your reserve) when you make a decision that would cause them to leave the party, they'll leave whether in the active party or not. And if in the reserves, perhaps that leaving reserve Companion shows up to tell you they're leaving, perhaps the next time you head back to the ship, or perhaps the next time you're in a port that particular companion considers friendly*, etc. This would be one way to prevent players from "gaming the system" to keep a Companion they put in reserve to avoid the consequences of a decision. * I don't think that a Valian would leave the party at a Rauatian port, or a Rauatian or Valian would leave at a Principi port, etc.

What are you complaining about? He washed it off!

What's the trigger for getting the Arkemyr castle heist? Is it talking to those 2 women (one Rauatian, the other Huana) out in front of his place? Just want to be sure.

I think that the part of the problem is that you have all these abilities that are linked to various levels. You just can't give the player, say, 18 levels of skill points, ability points, and weapon proficiency points and let them loose to choose what they want willy nilly. They still have to obey the ability level limitations when they're selecting abilities. Beyond that, I think that there's a super obvious reason why respeccing is done the way it is. They already have a system for leveling up. Why should they create a second one for respeccing when all they have to do is just reuse the already existing system? I sure wouldn't. It seems like a waste of time and effort to reinvent the wheel. OTOH, what I don't like with the leveling up process that does exist is the ability tree's graphical presentation. I hate it with a passion. I prefer the old POE1 text based version. I hate wasting time having to hover my cursor over every freakin' ability icon to get the name associated with that ability circle. Drives me nuts every time I have to use it. The written word is SOOOOOO damned much easier to use than a bunch of useless picture icons.

Vampire. Others: xauvrip is pronounced 'kobold' laugufether: 'sahuagin' Don't try to tell me your knock off of a knock off is something special and unique. I expect that they can't use those names because they were created by D&D. I'm not really sure why they couldn't use the word "vampire", since it's hardly a D&D name. And possibly some of the undead and spirit names as well. But some of them may have been created by D&D. And perhaps the devs just wanted to avoid the entire name issue entirely and just came up with new names. I think that you're wrong to give them a hard time on this. It's not their fault that they have to worry about little things like copyrights, etc., unless you want to blame them for not licensing D&D in the first place to make PoE.

I tried this area last night and only made it to the 2nd to last area before my party got wiped. My problem was that the damned Famp's kept charming Eder (mostly), and he was peppering the rest of my party with arrows. Now, it might also be that part of my problem is that my party does tend to be very physical combat heavy, with Xoti being my only spellcaster. No Aloth, Tekehu, or one of the ciphers. My party was level 16 (with Pallegina "only" level 15). I may need to consider adding another spellcaster to get some more arcane firepower. But for now, I'm going to avoid that place for a little while until I can gain another level or 2.

I don't know if Drizzt had an animal companion. (I wasn't into reading D&D fiction.) But for some reason, I just have the feeling that he'd be more of a Stalker than any other ranger subclass. But looking at the Stalker subclass, it looks rather weak to me. It's basic benefits don't seem like they have any scalability. Classes where you get a +XX% to damage scale in a way because as you go up through the levels, you have access to better weapons that do more base damage, which means that your +XX% subclass damage mod will become more effective. But a +5 DEFL bonus actually becomes progressively weaker over time as a percentage of your overall DEFL value. That is, a +5 DEFL bonus looks good when your DEFL is only around 30. But when it's getting up towards 70, 80, 90 or higher, it starts looking progressively less impressive. It's too bad that the Stalker doesn't get get a bump to the DEFL bonus every 4-5 levels or so.

I haven't played an assassin, but from what I've seen in youtube videos and in discussions here, assassins are more about the single massive strike than they are about DPS as a constant stream of good damage. So, it doesn't seem like the Assassin subclass would be a good fit for a ranger multiclass. Ditto for Streetfighter. Don't really know about a Trickster. I tend to think that if you want to play a Scout, a no-subclass rogue would likely be best with your ranger (be it also no-subclass or a sharpshooter).

I wouldn't want this at all. I like having some of the crew who are more well rounded, so that if one of the more specialized ones gets injured, I can backfill them with one of the jacks of all trades crew members.

Like Casper said, you don't have to pick a side. However ... some thoughts. 1. The Principi: Yep, they're pirates. They're not nice people, and yet some of them are willing to help the downtrodden. However, others are slavers. They're basically a loose crime syndicate. They will thrive as long as there's chaos in the Deadfire. 2. The Rauatians (Royal Deadfire Company): They're expansionists, colonizers, and perhaps conquerors. But they don't really seem to be fascists looking to kill all the locals. They seem to believe that they can bring order to the Deadfire and make things better for people (at least "better" as they see it). Of course, to do that means that they have to conquer it from its current rulers. So it's far from bloodless. 3. The Valians: They seem like exploiters. They don't seem particularly interested in conquering the Deadfire so much as stripping it of whatever they can find that's valuable, and then moving on. There certainly seem to be honorable Valians (Pallegina being an example), but they're tied to a nation with less than honorable goals, or at least less than honorable means of achieving those goals. 4. The Huana: They're the locals who are traditionalists. Actually, that's about the extent of what I know about them. Oh, they don't want to be taken over or exploited or raided. But beyond that, I'm not really sure what they want yet. I probably haven't talked to enough Huana to get a firm grasp on what they want. I think that the message in the game is that none of the goals of these factions can be achieved without getting your hands dirty. Heck, it seems that even if you don't side with any faction, you're still getting your hands fairly dirty, given that one of the Watcher's main jobs is being a bounty hunter and that's far from a bloodless task. Of course, one assumes that all of these bounties are for people who probably do belong on a "needs killing" list. OTOH, I'd imagine that the Rauatians don't exactly see one of their captains as deserving of being on someone ELSE's list (for example), though I must admit that I often try to avoid having Maia in the active party when I accept and carry out a bounty on a Rauatian, or Pallegina and a bounty on a Valian. I guess that there is no path for a white knight. You are forced to decide which faction you (or your role-played Watcher) find least objectionable, and how much blood you want on your hands. I will say that perhaps it is a shame that there's no white knight path through the game, since how do you role play a Watcher who truly is meant to be a white knight in an environment where every faction has blood on their hands? I guess that picking no faction is the best option left for the white knights.

I'm kind of torn on this. I really like both Pallegina (in large part due to liking her in the first game) and Maia, if for no other reason than I find her immensely useful for her long range fire support with an arquebus. But I'm really loathing the thought that I'll probably end up losing one of them (probably Pallegina) at some point. The odd thing for me is that I find Maia more expendable, because replacing her combat skills isn't that difficult. OTOH, replacing Pallegina would be more painful from a combat perspective because I find having a paladin along is great when you run into anything that is going to charm, etc. party members, because of the pally's Aegis of Loyalty ability. (I suppose if I played a pally Watcher, I could avoid this, of course.) However, I think that I like Maia's personality a little better than Pallegina's. And I find the Rauatians somewhat less objectionable than the Valians. For what it's worth, I don't know if Tekehu is considered a faction-linked Companion or not, or if you risk losing him due to a faction choice at some point in the game. It's not a huge deal for me at the moment because I'm not a big fan of druids or chanters, and his 3 class options are druid, chanter, or druid/chanter. Plus, I don't really like his personality very much. Honestly, the fact that I might lose a companion, is one reason why I often will switch one of them out for a little while and give one of my "bench players" a chance to be with the first team, to try to keep up with XP, as well as me getting used to working them into the party. The only party members I haven't switched out are Eder and Xoti. Eder because he's my party mechanic and Xoti because she's my party priest. And I kinda like her friendly, bubbly personality.

There are a fair number of unique bows in the game, though from what I've seen thus far, there are more unique warbows than unique hunting bows. But there may be more hunting bows to come for all I know. I'm only about 2/3 to 3/4 through the game, judging by my party's overall level and how much of the map I've uncovered/explored.

Actually found myself dissapointed with Frostseeker as an assassin/cipher. Not particularly impressive on an assassinate. I've had better luck using Serafen's mortar. Frostseeker probably isn't the best weapon for someone looking to maximize the damage done in a single attack (like for an Assassin), but it is good for good overall damage production. An assassin would probably prefer Arquebusses or Pistols or an Arbalest. That said, aren't assassins better suited to making their assassination attacks using melee weapons?

That's actually not a bad way to start a story in the Deadfire, if a new main character was involved. Heck, it could probably be made to work even with the Watcher. Maybe you got Caed Nua stomped, perhaps while you were "out of town". And decided to give chase, so you bought a ship, but while at sea, either Eothas stomped your ship or you ran into a storm and you were the only survivor, left adrift on your ship's wreckage. Until you get picked up by someone, perhaps a kindly merchant ship. (If you got picked up by one of the factions, you might end up a slave or in debt or something else bad.) Anyways, I think that they probably committed pretty early to making this a sequel for The Watcher. They could have used 100% new Companions had they chose to, but I suspect that a fair number of people wanted to see at least some familiar faces as Companions, so we have what we have.

It's a friggin' muzzle loader, not a revolver with a speed loader!!! You're lucky it doesn't take longer.

Well, if you like playing all custom party with mindless drones I can see why you'd want that. But many people value rpgs not simply for gameplay mechanics but for lively interactions with companions as well. Yawn. Give the sidekicks banter, and it's all good. I don't want nor need in depth conversations or navel gazing with companions. Nor do I want romances. I've turned down every advance on my Watcher, because I simply don't want them getting in the way of the game.

Might is deliberately not strength though, which is why it can apply to spells. If you want to have a faster swinging 2h character then increase your dex. The stated idea behind the stat system is to make stats a choice of how players want their character to handle rather than something that just has to match up to their class/weapon. The thing is to me, I don't care how dexterous you are, all the DEX in the work is going to make a weakling able to handle a heavy weapon more quickly. That's what strength is for. I don't care how dexterous you are, if you're a weakling, it's going to be more difficult to pull a bowstring or reset a crossbow's string than if you're strong. Agility will only take you so far. And sometimes what you need to do things more quickly is NOT dexterity, but actual strength. You're thinking in terms of dnd stats, not poe stats. Might is not the same thing as strength. Muscles don't make a lightning bolt spell hit harder. Whatever. I don't like how PoE handles Might regardless. IMO, the Might shouldn't be the stat that governs the power behind spells anyways. It ought to be one of the "mind" related stats, either Intelligence or Resolve. Merging physical strength with arcane power to me is a total cluster(bleep).

TBH I'd rather they have cut either Aloth, Xoti or Eder and made Ydwin a full companion. We need Tekehu, Pallegena, Maia and Serafen to represent one of the four factions in the world. Eder and Xoti are kind of redundant with each other; both were included in part because of the influence of Eothas in the plot, but beyond being Eothasian they're kind of redundant with each other. Aloth also doensn't really have much to do with the game; his touchstones are Aedyr, the Leaden Key and Awakening, none of which factor much into the plot and the Leaden Key's involvement in this game are a footnote. In a perfect world, I'd have cut Aloth and had him make a cameo, since they already had Matt Mercer in the studio for Eder and could just have him record a few extra lines. There's nothing wrong with Xoti or Eder. Aloth seems a bit boring though, and your points about Aloth's involvement in the game are probably on the money. I haven't had him in my party much, and haven't gotten to any of the local Leaden Key stuff yet. And frankly, I could do without any Leaden Key stuff after spending all of PoE1 chasing them. I will say that I wouldn't have minded seeing Ydwin as a full companion though (with no faction ties). She seems like an interesting character. OTOH, while I like that Mirke was added as a sidekick, she's a sidekick I'd rather stayed that way. She seems inherently very shallow, which should make her a perfect sidekick. Gotta disagree. I'd rather have as many sidekicks as possible. To me, sidekicks are essentially pre-rolled adventurers who have more flavor than the ones you make. And I don't feel any crushing need to grow bonds with companions. Give me more sidekicks (though with some banter)!!! As for Tekehu, personally, I can't stand him, at least for the short time I've had him in my party. And on top of his very unlikable personality (at least for me), I have no room in my party for a Chanter or a Druid when party size is limited to 5.

Flavor. The game needs MORE flavor, not less. There's too much in the game that's too bland already! The game needs a lot more flavor!

My god. If you tried just a little hard, could you whine some more? I love those little events where you get stopped while traveling between areas in Nekataka. I wish that there were more of them. Not a lot more, but a few more. So freaking what if they're just random bandits! It seems to me that they'd be particularly appropriate if you were heading through The Gullet. You really need to learn patience for crying out loud. It's an RPG. Every single thing that happens doesn't nor shouldn't be massively important nor have the time they take measured so that it doesn't tick off some self-entitled person who acts like every single freaking microsecond is precious. Jeeez!!!

Might is deliberately not strength though, which is why it can apply to spells. If you want to have a faster swinging 2h character then increase your dex. The stated idea behind the stat system is to make stats a choice of how players want their character to handle rather than something that just has to match up to their class/weapon. The thing is to me, I don't care how dexterous you are, all the DEX in the work is going to make a weakling able to handle a heavy weapon more quickly. That's what strength is for. I don't care how dexterous you are, if you're a weakling, it's going to be more difficult to pull a bowstring or reset a crossbow's string than if you're strong. Agility will only take you so far. And sometimes what you need to do things more quickly is NOT dexterity, but actual strength.