Crucis

I strongly suggest NOT doing Caed Nua until after you've done all of the main and side quests in and around Gilded Vale. I will say that it is worth heading to Caed Nua as soon as you can to grab Kana, but then turn back around and do NOT go into Caed Nua itself. Caed Nua isn't really meant for low level parties that are just starting out.

should have. I think that any of the weapons with insta-kill abilities simply make the game too easy, possibly more so than being overlevelled.

So I just need to refrain from enjoying the game to its fullest? That makes no sense. The way I see things, there is a mismatch between what you can and how many levels you can get. I appreciate the problem where you become superman, but that is already a bit of an issue. High level content in WM I & II is on such a different level from what happens in the main game that you actually need to plan very carefully what to do in order not to spoil the game for yourself. I appreciate this entails more work for the devs, but I do believe it is something that deserves a bit of attention. Maybe some people don't agree with your belief that XP needs to be cut back. Ever consider that? Some people (supposedly) don't play every single possible quest and task. If XP was scaled back to satisfy the completionist, the players who were NOT completionists would get boned.

No, most Bg spells affected party members. Some didn't, as it is the case in PoE. Do you play PoE with Expert mode ? If not, there should be an area indicator showing the affected zone. Red zone = friendly fire. Yellow zone (due to intelligence AoE buff) = no friendly fire. You'll get used to it. My own spells rarely harm my party. Once your frontline is locked by your tanks, and characters stop moving, you should have no pb to aim anymore. Also, it really helps to learn which spells affect everyone, which ones affect enemies only, and while ones affect allies only. Frankly, this is a core requirement (IMO) of playing any spellcasting class, knowing which spells affect who.

This is by far the most ridiculous thing on this forum. I don't know about ridiculous, but it is amusing as all hell. I remember when IWD2 was fairly new. What was the biggest complaint against it? It was "too linear". And maybe it was. IWD2 was just about a dead straight line in terms of the story from start to finish. I can see how the lack of linearity may cause some problems in terms of scaling difficulty. OTOH, excessive linearity also reduces replayability, because you're forced to play everything in just about the exact same order, time after time after time. And sure, if a game is extremely linear, like IWD2, the designers can have a much firmer grasp on constantly maintaining a good level of difficulty as one progresses through the (linear) story, but at the expense of creating a game that could become increasingly boring for players who like replayability. Now, there might be some things designers could do to mitigate this. In PoE, while the entire world is not open at the start, eventually you open up new regions, like Eir Glanfath or the White March, and so on. But at some point, you have the entire map open to you, which means that there's no semblance of linearity at all. But I think that perhaps there are some ways in which designers could introduce a modicum of linearity without going whole hog like in IWD2. Design a story that goes from region to region to region as story progresses, but don't allow the player to go backwards to past regions. Note: By region, a large location that consists of multiple areas. The White March could be considered a "region". Set the story uo so that you go from region to region to region and ever look back. And each region, the specific locations and various enemies encountered, would be scaled for a certain general level of difficulty. And once you complete whatever part of the main story line needed to be completed in that region, the main story requires you to travel to a new region. And so on and so on. But unlike IWD2 it wouldn't have to be a ruler-straight line of maps. You could have to travel to Ruratai, and do a number of things in a number of different locations, possibly with some side quests in Ruratai. But eventually, you'd complete what you went to Ruratai to do, and have to move on to the next area, like say, The White That Wends. The idea would be to have a somewhat managed progression of the enemies the party has to face without going to a 100% linear model. That said, in this model, you wouldn't be able to have a real stronghold in the sense you do in PoE. I could see two ways in which you could have sort of a stronghold in this model. Version #1, if you were traveling from region to region on a ship, perhaps your ship is your "stronghold", your base of operations. Or, version #2, perhaps you find or purchase a temporary base of operations in each region you visit. A cave. An abandoned house. A townhouse in a city that you purchase. Maybe you rent a room at an inn long term. Heck it could be all of the above, if there were multiple regions in the storyline. A different one for each region, and possibly even different benefits for each temporary "stronghold". Anyways, that's enough for now.

I just did this battle. The ring in question is in the southernmost bone pile of the temple. I don't recall that it required mechanics skill or not, though I did have a rogue along at the time.

Not to be picky, but what the heck. I don't think that Durance's "quest" is exactly a time in party thing. The concluding conversation(s?) of his quest seem to me to be more linked to a very specific event than simply being around for a long time. But I agree completely that both Durance's and GM's are the least likeable. And GM's probably more so than Durance's. At least with Durance's "quest" its conclusion makes sense within the context of the main story line. And while I suppose one could argue that GM's problem is related to the events of the main story, (i.e. the Hollowborn issue), it seems more tangential than Durance's problem. (But that may be a matter of perspective. And a woman might have a different PoV on this than a man.) While I love Pallegina as a character (and adore her accent), it seems to me that her quest was far too short. I wish that it were more involved. Heck, there are already some elements in the game that if their writing had been adjusted a little bit here and there, might have been able to be fashioned into bulking up Pallegina's personal quest, even if her personal quest amounted to doing some errands for the Vaillian ambassador, and later on saving his life.

I don't know how complete or accurate this list is. But according to the official gamepedia wiki, there are only 4 sets of superb armor, plus 1 soulbound armor that can be upgraded to Superb. I assume that they chose to not add any more due to the presence of various dragon scales that can be used to upgrade existing non-superb (or greater) armors to those high levels.

BTW, a robe that looks outstanding though you'd never know it from its little item icon is the generic "Exceptional Robe". Its item icon makes it look as bland as white bread, when it's actually very, very nice looking.

Ineth, your picture above wonderfully illustrates one of the minor problems I have with hats in this game. Whenever any character puts on a hat, like the one above, all of their hair magically disappears. I'd like to think that putting on a stylish hat enhances the character's appearance. But if your character loses all their hair in the process, IMO it almost has a negative impact on appearance, not a positive one. Obviously, this issue is moot if the character has no hair to begin with, or what little they do have would be covered by the hat.

I looked up the definition of "purple prose". And upon reading it, I'd have to say that whether prose qualifies as "purple" or not is entirely a matter of opinion and taste.

Oh, here we go again. Enough with calling battles and lesser combatants "trash"!!! I'd prefer MORE battles not less. I'd prefer that there were random encounters when you traveled from area to area. I'd prefer that there was a chance for your party's rest to be interrupted with random battles when you aren't resting at an inn. If I wanted to read a story, I'd buy a book (and often do). I'm not here to read a story. I'm here for the BATTLES!!!! And more is better!!! The story is just the means of tying those battles together, not the reason for playing the game itself. I actually agree here. I'd like more MEMORABLE battles. What battles do you guys remember from IWD and BG(2) and NWN(2)? I remember the massive battles. The ones against dragons and REALLY hard enemies like lich kings. The ones where I casted every buff I had on my party before it started and the character portraits were COVERED in status effect symbols. The ones where I accidentally pissed off an entire city and I was running for my life while fighting off hoards of enemies. Those are the battles I remember from the old games. Those are the battles I like. Unfortunately, those battles require forethought. It's hard to create unique enemies. That's why I like the bounty system in PoE. Honestly, corrado, all that massive buffing was something I loathed about those otherwise wonderful games. To me, it was no fun at all having to spend minutes before some major battles casting seemingly every buffing spell in the game (perhaps a little hyperbole here). I very much like how they've largely done away with this in PoE. Hell, I wouldn't mind in the least if the devs did away with those food items that do exist as pre-battle buffing. It's ridiculous that a character is allowed to eat many different meals prior to a battle, though apparently some so. It would never occur to me to do so. In reality, if you ate that much, you'd be so bloated that you'd want to sit down and take a nap or something. The last thing you'd want to do is engage in the physical exertion of battle. But I digress. I agree conceptually about memorable battles. But my definition of what makes a battle memorable differs from yours. I don't need some big boss monster to be present to make the battle memorable. I care much more about interesting and engaging battle scenarios. IWD2 had a number of memorable battles where there really wasn't any major big nasty monster. What made them memorable was how the battle was constructed. Think of the final battle for Targos early in IWD2. Or the Battle for Shaengarne Bridge. Or the battle for the Goblin fort. Or the area where there were hook horrors dropping all around you, forcing you to fight enemies both in front and BEHIND you. Frankly, the battles in PoE all seem too generic. Everything, no matter where you are, seems to be the same combat scenario over and over again, with the only real difference being in the roster of enemies you encounter. I also like the bounties, but at the same time, I think that they have the same problem as all other battles in the game. The only thing that makes the bounty battles a little different is that the group of bad guys are deliberately designed to tougher than average. And that's fine. A change that I'd like to see for bounties is something to make them more interesting. Don't have the bounty group reside in a known location. Make the bounties require some investigation, like a quest, an investigation where the player has to actually find the bounty target for themselves rather than be given a location where all you have to do is walk on over to point A and they're just over there waiting for you. It might even be nice if the bounties' NPC leader (the kith ones, in particular) talked to you before any fight started. I could see some of them trying to bribe you, or intimidate you, or any other number of interesting things that could add some spice. Heck, it might even be really interesting if one of the groups was a normal kith group that was hiding out in Defiance Bay and you couldn't find them, but they were aware that you are hunting for them. And maybe they ambush you at some point, sort of like a between areas encounter like existed in BG2. You might not know where or when this ambush would occur. Right now, other than the actual battles themselves, bounties are sorta-kinda boring because they're so completely predictable and similar. Bad guy group X is hanging out at location Y. Go there, fight them, take their leader's head, and collect the bounty. It'd be nice to throw a little spice and variety in this this mix.

Good work, Dorftek. Sometimes, you have just the right party mix for the situation you run into, and then things go so much easier. While I have little doubt that almost any party mix can be made to work most of the time, sometimes certain party mixes are better than others in specific situations. It may be that you unknowingly hit one of those "right party mix" for the right enemy situations.

Do you have TwoWeaponStyle talent? And what kind of armor do you wear? I was wearing -45 armour, replaced it with a -25 armour. Durganized the Rimecutters and used the gauntlets. My attack speed was awesome then, however, I'm starting to think that a dual wield Rogue is just bad because no matter what I do enemies just swarm him as soon as he gets out of stealth no matter how long I wait before sending him in. I ran several tests against a bunch of ice trolls using first a fighter tank and then a Barbarian tank. The fact that the barbarian was constantly damaging them didn't bother them at all, they just went straight for my Rogue once the Rogue started hacking. Bad aggro mechanics makes the dual wield Rogue way to risky to use in the late game I'll try and replace him with a "glass Cannon" inspired fighter instead. I played a Rogue PC in my last party, and in WM (particularly WM2) a lot of the enemies had a serious urge to go straight for my Rogue, or sometimes Aloth, if he was in the party. They seem to go after the character with either the lowest DEFL or maybe it's the lowest # of HP. When I replaced Aloth with GM, who was considerably tougher, those same enemies seemed to ignore her and prefer chasing after my Rogue. If you get in this situation, it's probably best for the rogue to be close to the tougher members of your party so that they can assist him. If you weak character gets separated from the group, he may die rather quickly. Or require a priest to cast a Withdraw spell on him.

Not sure why you think that ranged or reach weapons seem sub-optimal for Devil. Is it because her "body" is effectively the same as an enchantable breastplate with the 40% recovery? Or is it due to her low base DEX of 10? It seems to me that her "armor" just isn't going to be all that great, though if you have her wear a Blunting Belt, it certainly helps. She seems like a great candidate for a reach weapon user that you can have fight from behind the front line, poking merrily away with Tall Grass, etc. OTOH, as you pointed out above, her body is immune to a number of effects, and you could use her as bait and have a spellcaster drop spells on top of her (after drawing in the enemy, of course) and watch them melt away. I will say though, that this tactic would require the player to have a good, solid knowledge of what Devil's unique immunities are. And your point about Bittercut is a great one. I'm beginning to think that some players look at Devil's attributes and think that she's got bad stats for a rogue (which arguably she does), but ignore the abilities and immunities that come from her unique construction.

Hmmm. I don't know this from experience, but given that you can enchant Devil's body like it was any other non-soulbound armor, I see no reason (yet) why you couldn't Durganize it.

Absolutely. I can't think of any good reason for waiting to go down into the Endless Paths that late. Seriously, the upper levels are NOT that difficult. Oh, the Ogre level can be a little challenging. But the level below the Ogre level is not hard at all. And that's where Resolution and Persistence are to be found. One might wait a little bit to go much deeper, but the Resolution saber and the Persistence hunting bow are well worth the effort to get them ASAP. Wow Crucis, thank god you're here to explain all this. 950 hours logged and I'm only just now hearing this. I can't thank you enough. Let me guess, I should probably skip Defiance Bay and head straight for Dyrwood so that I can get the orlan and that cipher chick right away too? Ooo, and what's the best way to juice my mechanics so that I can pick up Tidefall at level 2? Teach me all you know. Actually, if you really like having GM in your party, yes, I'd go pick her up ASAP. Ditto for Hiravias. For that matter, due to the various missions you start getting once you own Caed Nua, it doesn't hurt to go pick them up quickly, even if you just want to park them at Caed Nua instead of using them in your party. Gives you plenty of characters in your reserve for doing those nice side missions, or those pesky escort missions. Frankly, I put more importance on building my party after leaving Caed Nua for the first time than I do diving straight into Defiance Bay and doing quests there. Oh, that doesn't mean that I don't go there. But if I want Pallegina, I make a bee line for Ondra's Gift to go get the process of adding her to my party started, rather than doing other things. Those other things can wait. As for the rest, I call'em like I see them. And waiting to pick up Persistence until you're over level 11 is just plain DUMB in my book. If it's such a great bow for rangers or rogues, I'd make a bee line for it as soon as I could get past the Ogres on EP level 3. Just because you have a lot of time in the game doesn't mean squat. I've seen plenty of players who have lots of time in other games (World of Tanks, for example), who have lots of top tier tanks and are still little better than noobs. So, feel free to check your snark at the door. I'm not impressed.

^Or just not be a completionist, attempting to do EVERY single task and quest. And you'll have no problems.

Absolutely. I can't think of any good reason for waiting to go down into the Endless Paths that late. Seriously, the upper levels are NOT that difficult. Oh, the Ogre level can be a little challenging. But the level below the Ogre level is not hard at all. And that's where Resolution and Persistence are to be found. One might wait a little bit to go much deeper, but the Resolution saber and the Persistence hunting bow are well worth the effort to get them ASAP.

Yes, but then the chanter is a dependency for the ranger. And you have to build the chanter to do DoT so that the ranger can do their thing. That may work well for you, but other players may prefer not be hamstrung in such a way. It's my preference that each party be as "self-contained" as possible. It's not "hamstringing". It's called teamwork. What's the point of having a party if they're not going to work AS a team? Any rogue is more effective if he has team mates who are generating afflictions to support his sneak attacks. Rogues have much harder time generating sneak attacks if they can only depend on themselves. And there are plenty of weapons with wounding effects, Tidefall being one of the best known ones. Also, if you have a rogue in the party, Deep Wounds would also provide a DoT effect.

A. Honestly, the talent that goes you the +10 swords and arquebus and the Summer Flame thing are a must have for me. And I find Summer Flame entirely worthwhile. It's like a smaller and easier to target fireball. Plus, it's an extra to have in addition to his abilities. Also, as far as casters go, I never truly let lose with my per-rest casters unless it's a significant boss battle. I want to take my parties as far as I can go on each rest. And that means not spamming spells like crazy. And I'd rather use Second Wind than any healing spell. Frankly, other priestly "Restore XXXXX Endurance spells" are crap. Second Wind is much better because it's a single character ability, plus I don't have to waste a casting that could go towards a more useful spell. I guess what it comes down to for me is that I feel that priests wearing robes belong in temples. If they want to be adventurers, they belong in armor, carrying weapons fit for a battle-cleric. That doesn't mean that they necessarily dive into melee like the front liners. But they should be READY to do so if need be. And that's how I play Durance, as a battle-cleric. Essentially an off-tank, who prefers hanging back, using his arquebus and casting the occasional spell, but ready to plug a hole in melee if the need arises. I don't play him as some namby-pamby robe-wearing wizard. B. I can't imagine why anyone would wait so long to get Persistence. It's not THAT hard to get past the 3rd level of the EP's ogres and down onto the 4th level where Persistence (and the Resolution saber) is to be found. As for INT, I was only suggesting the use of INT enhancing items, not changing her stats (not that one can all that easily). I agree that with Sagani, melee weapons are absolutely for emergencies. But that doesn't mean that one can put some thought into them as well. Honestly, I think that you're giving Sagani too much stealth. Only a character who is looking to get into melee range unspotted needs that much stealth. 4-5 points of Stealth is more than enough to get a bow user into bow range of any target. OTOH, I suppose giving her that much stealth may also mean that Ittumak also has that much stealth, and HE can sneak into melee range. As for Stormcaller, what makes it great, regardless of which class is soulbound to it is the fact that it's a piercing OR lightning weapon. And very few enemies have high DR's or outright immunities to both piercing damage and lightning damage. Even animats who have very high piercing DR's are vulnerable to Stormcaller's electrical damage.

I too thought it was a good portrait so I tracked it down to here if you're interested: http://skyzocat.deviantart.com/art/Ethea-Commission-517835181 Thanks for the link. And there are a number of other quite good pics there that are close or semi-close to the general PoE style. True. If Eothas had his own Godlike in the game, this would be an excellent portrait: http://skyzocat.deviantart.com/art/Diana-Scorn-of-the-moon-480402816. Actually, she seems more a rather pale Moon GL, right down to the symbol on he forehead.

I too thought it was a good portrait so I tracked it down to here if you're interested: http://skyzocat.deviantart.com/art/Ethea-Commission-517835181 Thanks for the link. And there are a number of other quite good pics there that are close or semi-close to the general PoE style.

The Pale Elf's racial ability isn't spectacular, but OTOH, it is a good solid ability that will always have some value. Agreed that the Pale Elf racial is a good example of one with a nice little benefit that doesn't lean strongly toward one specific play-style or role. I personally don't mind the racials as is (my first main was a Human barbarian, but I can see the perspective of not wanting to pigeon hole races. I expected racials for PoE, given the D&D inspiration and Obsidian's history with IWD1/2 and NWN2. It feels like they went for a middle ground between having some wiggle room for min/max and not feeling restricted to race in any given class. All that said, my favorite race might be the Aumaua (either subrace). Godlikes are a great addition, but for PoE2, give us more customization Minor, minor quibble. Both versions of Aumaua have good solid racial benefits. I particularly like the extra weapon slot for Island Aumaua, because I personally find having only 2 weapons slots to be HIGHLY limiting. I'm not a big fan of godlikes, because a) I hate losing the helmet slot and don't feel that their racial abilities come even close to justifying their loss, and b) I really hate racial abilities that only trigger when the character is seriously injured. I want "always on" abilities, not only on when badly injured abilities. This is why I just won't play a godlike PC. I just can't stand how they're designed. I have no problem with the idea of "god touched" races. I just wish that they were implemented rather differently. For example, when you select the GL's body form (i.e. human, aumaua, etc.) that choice should dictate the various attribute bonuses you get. That is, if you pick an Aumaua-formed GL, you'd get a +2 to Might, whereas if you picked an Elven-formed GL, you'd get a +1 to PER and a +1 to DEX. Beyond that, I'd do away with this no helmet limitation. OR, if it was going to be kept, maybe give GL's some extra attribute points to spend, within the limitations of 18 points in any stat (modified by the racial bonus or penalty, and region bonus). As for the GL special abilities, whatever they are, they should be always on, or on when the player chooses to trigger them. Death GL's special is sorta Ok as is within this idea. Maybe Moon GL's should get a healing touch ability, not unlike paladins lay on hands. As for Fire GL's, it may seem to copy pale elves, but fire and cold resistance would be thematic. In fact, it almost seems to me as if it'd be better suited to Fire GL's than to Pale Elves. As for Nature GL's, I could see some possibilities. Maybe a natural regeneration ability, similar to Fighter's constant recovery. Or maybe a character only (not an area effect) woodskin effect that increases the character's DR. Anyways, these are just some off the wall theory crafting thoughts.....