Crucis

The problem with having a character with a super high single skill is that you end up leaving others weak. This isn't like before the Devs changed how skills work when pretty much all you needed was 3-4 points in Athletics and you could dump everything else into the skill of your choice. Oh, you "can" still do it, but it can hurt your characters to not have a pretty decent Athletics skill, since that's the skill that determines how many HP your "Second Wind" ability heals. Or the Survival skill, which can be rather nice if you get 4 points in it. And while others may play differently, I always like to have at least 3-4 points in Stealth for all my characters because I always have my parties move around in stealth through unsafe areas. About 4 points of Stealth is enough to get you close enough to most enemies to be able to see them and just barely get them into range of xbows and bows. If you want to sneak into melee range, you'll need a LOT more points in stealth than that, but it is doable. Mind you, if you have a rogue who has that much skill in Stealth, he'll probably stink at Mechanics, so you'd probably have to have someone else covering that skill. (I personally favor high mechanics over high stealth in my rogues, but that's a personal play style thing.)

I can see that, though one wonders if this would be pretty much just as true for any other weapon with the same sort of leeching (or whatever it's called) ability that gives the wielder some HPs every time he hits the target. I'm thinking of that flail you can get early in the game, but I know that there are other weapons with the same ability (I think that the Borsainne warbow has it too, though this is hardly a barbarian weapon of course). As for a barbarian wearing plate, it just seems wrong. Oh, I realize that within the PoE rules as they're currently structured, it can make sense to do so. But from a RP PoV, it seems wrong. IMO, the problem is that there's no linkage between how "heavy" one's armor is and how much that weight of armor impacts your mobility, your "agility" (not the DEX score, per se), and your "deflection" rating. In other words, it seems to me that if you had two characters who were equally agile (i.e. equal DEX scores for the sake of argument), the one wearing plate should have a lower DEFL score than the one wearing leather armor or no armor at all. Of course, OTOH, the trade off would be that the one in plate would be a lot more resistant to damage once he's hit. Other than a better recovery speed, it doesn't seem to me like there's nearly enough of a reason to wear lighter armor instead of heavier armor in PoE. Better recovery speed just doesn't seem to have enough value to justify wearing the lighter armor unless you're a back liner and recovery speed may be more important to your character than raw damage resistance. And heaven forbid you're thinking about wearing medium armor, which often seems to me to be the worse of both worlds rather than a useful and usable compromise. i doubt that the Devs would do anything about this at this late date in PoE. But I really wish that armor had a component where there was an important trade-off between agility (i.e. DEFL) and damage resistance when it came to an armor's "weight". It seems to me that if this was done and balanced properly, all armors could begin to have a lot more value to various character builds, beyond whatever special effects have been tacked onto said armor.

Sorry for the mild thread necro, but I have some thoughts here, based on what I've read above. From what I've seen, thus far having reached the White Forge, when used as an opening move by Wraiths, they just target which ever front liner they see first or something close to that. After having had this happen a couple of times to me (and obviously caught by total surprise the first time it happened), the counter to this I've used is to open the battle (from stealth as I always do) with only a single archer shooting the closest enemy (preferably one with a hunting for for the shortest reload). This triggers the battle. I hold back the other 5 characters with their ranged weapons until I see the first Wraith come into range and then let him have it with everything I've got, hoping to nuke him or at least interrupt him. In these Durgan's Battery battles where Wraiths are present, I consider them the most annoying enemies. They may not technically be the most dangerous. But at the same time, because they abduct one of my characters (usually a tough frontliner), leave him/her dazed, and have a good period of time to whack away at him/her to whittle down his/her health, possibly keeping him dazed-locked in the process. Getting abducted can be tantamount to a death sentence, if you can't get un-dazed. So anyways, the solution to the Wraith Abduction problem is to make killing any Wraith you see ASAP a very high priority. A dead wraith abducts no one.

Those all look like very good suggestions! I guess that my problem is that I've never been big on barbarians in PoE or the earlier IE games. So I don't really have a good feel for how to use a somewhat squishy barbarian front liner. And I guess that the PoE barbarian model of barb as AoE damage dealer doesn't mesh with my play style. I'm used to more traditional, single target front liners who hold the line and deal damage one on one, and try to block as many enemies from getting into my rear to engage my squishier party members, whether they're physical ranged combatants or spellcasting types.

A. Other than the phrase "trade dispute", I see no real parallel between PoE and SW ep1 here. B. As for the rest, I fully agree that Pallegina's "companion quest" is beyond underwhelming. I mean really ... go talk to a single person, have a conversation about trade, decide what offer to make, end of "quest". Really? That's it??? It's a damned shame because I find her to be one of the most enjoyable Companions in the game. Love the voice, love her being a paladin, her unique race is kinda cool and interesting, and she's a pleasant enough character. I just wish that Pallegina had a better, more involved (even if just a little) companion quest. OTOH Durance who is well voice acted, interesting, useful, but is a thoroughly annoying character. (I've been tempted to dump Durance and either try to use Hiravias in his place, or hire a mercenary priest instead. (I've already played the game through 3 times with Durance, so I wouldn't really be missing anything here.) Also, Durance's "quest" is IMO rather boring, though I can see how it is a big part of his character development. Nothing but a serious of long boring talks. (Same for GM, BTW. She may be less offensive and vile, but she's no less annoying and boring.) Side Note: Actually, there are a couple additional encounters that may or may not be considered as part of Pallegina's companion quest. The one where you get intercepted on the way to Twin Elms by Leaden Key agents. And the one where the Vailian embassy is attacked by Leaden Key agents. They don't feel like they're part of the companion quest, and yet they're obviously related to its events.

Or she's good enough with languages that she speaks with no foreign accent when talking in Aedyran? I know quite a few people like that personally, you wouldn't guess that they are not speaking their native language. I'm sorry, but you're just reaching to justify bad voice acting or rather a bad decision on the devs part to think that this Sagani voice really was a good fit ... because it just isn't, no matter how you try to twist things.

This is a fair way to put it, for lack of any other way. Even if one doesn't go over the top, you still need to have enough "bite" in the accent to make it at least somewhat obvious that the character is from another part of the world (where American English aka Dyrwoodan), not from another part of town.

Sagani's utterly bland, vanilla accent has absolutely nothing to being "over the top". It's just so bad that it doesn't just break immersion. It NUKES IT with its wretched awfulness. If she was a native of the Dyrwood, this wouldn't be an issue. BUT SHE ISN'T! She's a foreigner on a world with multiple languages, and she should have an accent that accentuates her foreignness! It doesn't have to be cartoonish or over the top. But it does need to sound like she's from the other side of the world, not the other side of the street!!!

Way to cherry pick from the 11 Companions one of those whose voice acting is excellent. Let's ignore that Sagani is bland as vanilla. Or Maneha sounds like a petite girl, not a big burly Aumaua barbarian. Or Aloth, who while not horrible, could use some more edginess both to his character and voice. Zahau, Durance, Pallegina, Kana, and Eder are fine as is. Devil of Caroc, while the Devs did a good thing (I suppose) by making her voice sound like it's in a tin can or something, her underlying voice (echo-iness aside) also seems rather bland, though I suppose that since she's from the Dyrwood, a neutral-ish American accent isn't all that far wrong. Maybe a little more rustic flavor to her voice would have been nice, since she does supposedly come from an out of the way place. I suppose that GM's voice is ok, but given that I don't particularly like her character, her voice does little for me. And I'll give Hiravias a pass, given that I almost never have him in my party, because I just don't know how to play druids well, and find that they take the slot of a character type I'm more comfortable playing (i.e. a priest or wizard, or even a cipher).

Simple, I agree about Eder. I tend to think that he may be perhaps the best of the NPC's. He's entirely capable of being a team's front liner muscle (or one of them). And his accent is fine, given that he's a native Dyrwoodan farmer. And he's not offensive or abrasive. In short, it's hard not to like Eder, which to me seems like a good thing.

? As an Old Worlder I'd say she has a very definite accent (very different from Eder) that I'd associate with a big city somewhere in the US North East. I'd prefer her to sound a little less refined and she should definitely speak more slowly. Hawk, as a resident of the US Northeast, I can safely tell you from experience that she doesn't sound anything like a native New Yorker nor a native Bostonian. She sounds more like a journalist whose native accent has been washed out in favor of the utterly neutral American Journalist (lack of) accent.

It indeed does. And I must say, I love the character. Someone at Obsidian clearly nailed the whole "characters are not defined by their class" thing. Devil of Caroc and the barbarian-woman-whos-name-escapes-me-right-now are perfect examples of that. I had Manega (that barbarian woman) in my party for a while yesterday. Her character seemed fine, though I just don't know how to get the most out of barbarians. The one thing that bothered me about her was her voice. It just seemed ... wrong .... to me. Given the size of Aumaua, it feels wrong that she doesn't have a deeper voice. (Deeper for a woman, that is, of course.) She sounded too sweet and kinda, sorta petite. It was a little off-putting to me, same as I find Sagani's (complete lack of an) accent off-putting because as I've said in the past, it seems far too "American" and not nearly foreign enough. OTOH, Pallegina's accent is absolutely wonderful in its foreignness. Understandable, yet foreign and exotic. Regardless, it's nice to have Companions to cover every class finally. I just wish that they'd (all) been findable closer to the start of the storyline. Maybe the rogue most of all. Lol. I'm totally with you . Most voices are way to "normal" for characters that are more "otherworldly". It's like a random guy voiced a "very specific and non "eathly" one with a random voice. And in the end, i strongly felt this "too American" thing all the game long. "Wanna see, gonna go", and so on. Even Eder seems to have a close relationship with some films with Clint Eastwood... Pallegina is indeed one of the very few character whose voice is "believable" to me. And all this is probably why i don't like voice acting in games. Ones like New Vegas may be ok (because of the setting), but all this u.s. thing feel nothing like fantasy to me. IIRC, the devs have said that the Dyrwood is supposed to be a conceptual parallel to the US in some ways, which I sorta take to extend to "American" accents. And that's OK. I like that Pallegina's accent sounds very foreign, as in Dyrwoodan (aka American English with a neutral American accent) is not her native language (Vallian is). And yet when one listens to Sagani, who clearly comes from an even more distant land, sounds like a native Dyrwoodan. It doesn't pass the laugh test for me. Seriously, would it have been all that hard to find a voice actress who spoke with (whether natively or could put one on) some accent that didn't sound so neutral American? Something a little rustic perhaps? Heck, even Callisca in the intro had more accent than Sagani. And BTW, I don't mind Eder's accent. He is, after all, a native Dyrwoodan. And Aloth sorta has a little bit of an accent. Zahua has some sort of accent, although his wonder deep voice could cover a multitude of sins here. OTOH, Mahena's voice is too syrupy sweet for how I'd envision a big strong Aumaua woman (and barbarian). Now that I think on it, for all the complaints of those who wish for more full voice acting, there are times when I wonder if things would be better without any voice acting. Why? Because we could use our own imaginations to "hear" the words spoken in text as each of us envisions each character's voice sounding. But with voice acting, sometimes you end up with a voice that sounds so "wrong" for how one envisions the character that it breaks the immersion.

I prefer using the Companions over mercs because I enjoy the banter. Oh, it may hardly be great banter in some peoples' opinions, but to me, it's better than none at all. Also, the Companions give you some additional companion related quests to do, which is nice. I will admit that some of the Companions don't do much for me as characters. For example, Aloth seems very, very bland. It's only his "split personality" which makes him less than totally boring. I kinda wish that the Companion wizard had more abrasive personality or more exotic or something. And I don't really like Grieving Mother. I find her completely boring and her story utterly tedious. I often have her in my parties, because I like having a Companion NPC to support the party. But I do it while gritting my teeth, so to speak, because I really do dislike the character. OTOH, I like Eder, Pallegina, and Kana as is. Sagani is OK, though as I've said repeatedly in the past, I find her total lack of accent to make her vastly more boring than she could be, compared to Pallegina and her joyously wonderful exotic accent. I played a little bit of WM1 a couple days back (before I decided I wasn't high enough level for the battles and punted back to an earlier save of my PC). And I found Maneha and Zahua to be fairly interesting at least while I had them. Love Zahua's deep voice, but dislike Maneha's too sweet voice. I think that she should have a deeper, alto voice to match her great size. Her voice seems about as far from what I'd want to think a large barbarian woman's voice should sound like that it's rather grating to my ears. I'm not sure if I'm use them again when I get back to the WM1 areas, not because of their characters, but because when I did have them in my party a couple days back, they died much too quickly. (Maybe I just don't have the right tactics to make a barbarian or monk for in my parties.) I have no comment on Hiravias, since I've rarely used him (cuz I just didn't know how to make use of a druid ... had the same problem back in the old IE games). As for the Devil of Caroc, I haven't gotten to her yet, so I have no opinion of her, though I will be hard pressed to use her since my current party's PC is a rogue.

It indeed does. And I must say, I love the character. Someone at Obsidian clearly nailed the whole "characters are not defined by their class" thing. Devil of Caroc and the barbarian-woman-whos-name-escapes-me-right-now are perfect examples of that. I had Manega (that barbarian woman) in my party for a while yesterday. Her character seemed fine, though I just don't know how to get the most out of barbarians. The one thing that bothered me about her was her voice. It just seemed ... wrong .... to me. Given the size of Aumaua, it feels wrong that she doesn't have a deeper voice. (Deeper for a woman, that is, of course.) She sounded too sweet and kinda, sorta petite. It was a little off-putting to me, same as I find Sagani's (complete lack of an) accent off-putting because as I've said in the past, it seems far too "American" and not nearly foreign enough. OTOH, Pallegina's accent is absolutely wonderful in its foreignness. Understandable, yet foreign and exotic. Regardless, it's nice to have Companions to cover every class finally. I just wish that they'd (all) been findable closer to the start of the storyline. Maybe the rogue most of all.

Ugh. That IWD2 pic always bothered me. Look REALLY close at the hand on the staff. It's wrong. How? It's a right hand, not a left hand. But her right arm is in her LAP, so how can the right hand be at shoulder height?

I suppose there is no ideal party composition. Because different encounters require different approach.For example: Max, your post, along with mazeltov's, are something worth thinking about. That is, putting a premium on per-encounter abilities over per-rest ones. I will say that I still like having a priest along. But one can definitely get by just fine without a wizard if you have a cipher around. Also, ciphers and chanters are acceptable replacements for rogues where mechanics skill is concerned. Just have the right background and take a bunch of Mechanics skill, and maybe if you're lucky, find the Gloves of Manipulation, and you've got it covered well enough.

What is it with all these items having a min Might of 30? It seems like these items are aimed at players who A) use every little chance to boost MGT in game, like sacrifices, etc., and who B) are apparently constantly using MGT related buffs. Neither of these cover how I play the game. (Or does it just require you to have a MGT of 30 just to equip the weapon, but afterwards you're OK if your MGT falls below 30?) Regardless, I'm a little put off by the idea that some of the weapons in the game might be inaccessible to me due to the fact that I'm not a hardcore power gamer.

I also don't see anything wrong with the camping supplies mechanic. If you're constantly going back to town to rest, you sound like the kind of player who would rest after nearly every battle just so that you can recharge all of your per-rest abilities. I see the effect of camping supplies as creating an incentive, even if a bit artificial, to conserve resources (such as per-rest abilities, spells, or camping supplies) so that you can cover as much ground as possible between rests. Honestly, I enjoy trying to go as long as possible and reasonable between rests. About the only way I could see to deal with this larger issue of preventing players from overuse of resting, would be to put time limits on some of the quests, etc. But I don't foresee that this would be a popular thing to most players.

Question regarding soulbound weapons. (I haven't played since before WM1 was released...) I read in a thread here a day or so back where it was claimed that soulbound weapons were "universal" and were somehow not linked to weapons groups? Is this true? Does this mean that if I had a character who had the Adventurer weapon group that he'd still get the accuracy bonus even if he used a soulbound weapon of a type not included in that group? I'm sorry if the question seems a bit dumb. It sorta sounds dumb to me, and yet it seems like something I should verify anyways.

I don't mind the idea of a "base of operations" sort of stronghold. But I'd envision it as more like a townhouse in the city of Defiance Bay or a farm house in Dyrwood Village. Just a place to hang one's hat and rest safely (and free). A more "minimalist" sort of stronghold. Within PoE's story, it could have been a room at the HQ of the faction you choose to align yourself with, for example.

Pallegina could have used more depth and content. I loved her accent. It gave a much greater sense of her being foreign to the Dyrwood than Sagani. I'd have loved to see her get more interaction with the group. As for Sagani, I'd say that she was as bland as her accent. Regarding GM, I didn't particularly enjoy her character, perhaps because it was too grim and preachy(?) for my taste. I have no strong opinion on Kana, mostly because I'm not a huge fan of chanters/bards, and don't keep him with the party beyond completing his quest. As for Hiravias, I've also rarely every had druids in my parties, whether in PoE or any of the IE games. I just have a hard time figuring out what to do with them, and so tend to leave them on the side lines. While I've picked up Hiravias, I've always just dumped him in the "reserve", so to speak. I've never even played out his quest. Durance is well written, and succeeds at being unlikable. And I've always kept him in my parties, mostly because I always have a priest (aka cleric) along. But I have to say that part of me wishes that there was a nicer priest Companion to be had because Durance's character isn't particularly enjoyable to have around. I haven't gotten around to playing WM so I have no experience with the 2 new NPC's though I've heard good things about them. And if and when I play my next party, I'll almost certainly want to give them a go.

There are? ... Did I miss something? Oh I guess you're referring to Gilded Vale? No, not GV. Not sure why this isn't really obvious to anyone who has already completed the game.

Actually, I'd say that there are 4 of those "story choke points" (not counting anything related to WM1).

One of the things that I wasn't entirely fond of was the "what happens to all the Companions" stuff at the end. Oh, on one hand, it's kinda cool. But OTOH, it seems like that stuff would be more than a little inhibiting for doing a direct, continue the story sequel, if the devs intended to reuse some or most or the Companions. That said, IIRC, BG2 didn't re-use all that many of the BG1 companion NPCs. Some, but not all. So I suppose that we might see the same thing in a PoE2. Maybe some, but not all of the Companions. (I could do with a new companion Priest. Let Durance's ending remain unchanged.) I have no firm opinion on where PoE2 should take place, except to say that I'd like it to be somewhere other than the Dyrwood. And perhaps somewhere that doesn't feel like Dyrwood-2.

Also,dark fantasy theme as in Souls games and Bloodborne. Not just with that horror elements but with the constant otherwordly athmosphere. Darker woods and soft dark colored/contrasted environments with strange nature within. Also, more unique boss fights with good writing. I don't find this appealing at all. I'm not into dark fantasy or horror themes. (I never go to horror movies. They do absolutely nothing for me.) I much prefer some simple high adventure, maybe a little light-heartedness mixed in at times to lighten the mood.