Crucis

Agree. The Cloudpiercer warbow is a devastating weapon due to its Jolting Touch spell striking. I don't think that the Rain of whatever warbow comes close, particularly since last I knew (though I'd be glad to hear otherwise), the Speed mod on weapons doesn't work.

I don't think that Stealth is a waste of time at all. But the real question should probably be how much is enough. Enoch suggested only 2 ranks of Stealth being enough. I tend to prefer more like 3 or 4 for most of the party. I do think that it's good to have one character with more than that for true scouting purposes. Also, it's worthwhile for your traps and locks guy to have pretty good stealth, since that character works better if he's either in the front line of your formation while moving in scout mode, or walking ahead of the party. That is, if you have your trap detector walking in the back row of your party, that character may not detect the trap before someone in the front of the formation walks over said trap. This should be obvious. You want your trap detector out in front so that he can detect traps before anyone else walks over them. Other than this, as has been suggested above, having a decent level of stealth on the entire party is useful for allowing you to get most, if not all, of your party into ranged weapons range of the enemy without being detected. It's particularly good if you can get close enough that your longest ranged weapons (i.e. bows and xbows) are in range of enemy spellcasters, cuz it's great to focus a number of those weapons on those spellcasters to punch them out right at the start. In addition to that, if you're that close, you can often have a priest cast a seal spell, and/or have your traps character lay a trap, before you decide to force the battle to start. Using stealth is about approaching combat from a sneaky perspective. OTOH, if your approach is more of a smash mouth, wade into the enemy with no subtly or sneakiness, then I guess that steal won't matter to you.

Its one xpack in two parts. I'm expecting 6 to 10 hours per part. Source? Because if that would be true, that'd be really goddamn sad. I would absolutely expect 20-40 hours per expansion pack. 40 sounds a bit much, yes, but I'm referencing it as thresholds. Minimum 20, maximum 40. Anything less than 20 would be unacceptable for a real expansion pack, and anything above 40 would just be ridiculously unreasonable to expect. Those are just freaking ridiculous expectations. It took them 2.5 years to make 40-60 hour game and now you expect them to make 20-40 hours expansions in few months. Prepare to be disappointed I guess. There is nothing ridiculous about those expectations. Obsidian had to make more than just make some new areas and quests. They had to make the classes, develop the rule system, and establish the method in which they create content. Adding new monsters, quests, and items shouldn't take long at all. The only aspect that would be challenging is making the new areas quickly, but as long as Obsidian really stretches the use of the new areas a 20-40 hr long expansion is completely possible. Yeah, the thing to remember is that the devs not only had to create a new setting and rules, they had to create a new game engine. So, if one is thinking about a time frame for an expansion, it probably shouldn't take nearly as long, one assumes, to just come up with some new areas, perhaps some higher level spells and abilities, plus whatever storyline is required for the expansion. The setting, rules, and game engine are now in place, and probably would require little, if any, adjusting.

I did not realize that he actually meant "how can I build a sub-optimal fighter with some measure of RP." Again, my mistake! He didn't say that he wanted a max efficiency whatever. Do you ever play a character that's anything but 100% min-maxed, max efficiency character, FFS?

Why create one? Why not? Not every decision is strictly based on maximum combat efficiency. lol, you're just begging for an argument, aren't you? It's the character builds forum and the guy specifically asked about the viability of a fighter dps build, so I gave him the answer. Don't need to visit the character builds sub-forum for sub-par roleplay characters, that belongs over in the story section. I'd say that you're the one looking for an argument. This isn't the max efficiency, POTD character build forum. Characters that are built with some measure of RP in mind are still character builds. Get off your high horse.

Why create one? Why not? Not every decision is strictly based on maximum combat efficiency. A more "offensive" Fighter may have more staying power than a barbarian. I think that one of the things that limits the offensive capability of Fighters is when you deck them out in the heaviest armor and only give them only average DEX. A more offensive fighter wearing Chain or Scale, combined with Armored Grace, moderately high or more DEX, as well as Defender/Wary Defender plus Constant Recovery, you can produce a solid offensive warrior. My current party's PC is built along these lines. She's an Island Aumaua from Deadfire with a Raider background, who I play as sort of a swashbuckler. High Might, Moderately high DEX, decent PER and RES. WF (and Weap Spec) Ruffian. Armored Grace, Defender/Wary Defender, Constant Recovery, plus others. She's been excellent thus far. I've been limiting her to only Chain Mail because I want her being able to maximize her attack speed, which has been working out rather well, thus far.

The riots happening never really made any sense to me either. It is implied that it's The Dozen that goes bananas, but it still feels.. sudden and forced, with very little build-up. Suddenly there's Dozens left, right and centre, fighting in the streets. I don't see why the riots didn't make sense. Even at the very start of Act 2, it's said that Defiance Bay is on the edge of exploding. Maybe this wasn't explained well enough or shown in the course of our time in the city. But it's far from a shock to me that there were riots, given that the game outright told us this. Maybe there should have been more rabble-rousers like that Dozens guy near the entrance to the Copperlane district. Or maybe a much more serious mob of protesters outside of the Ducal palace, rather than the 4-6 rather mild protesters that are there, IIRC. Also, perhaps a mini-riot could have taken place somewhere in the city.

It happened to me only once and at a much later stage of the game. When dealing with the master below and not fighting her, I had a reason to go there again and ran into them. Well, bad for them, since my party pretty much scratched the level cap at that point in time and they were virtually blown to pieces in one second. I just now ran into them. Just finished Kana's quest and now knowing that the assassins would be waiting for us on the 1st level of the EP, I intentionally went looking for them. And while my party is only at level 7, it still didn't end well for them. My party just took a little longer than your party.

Wait a sec! When does this happen? I don't recall this happening and I've done 2 complete play throughs, and am working on my 3rd right now.

They're a random loot item, sadly.

Monks While I'm not big on doing a lot of MM, I finding monks fun to play, mostly because they're just so different, at least if you're using them for their unarmed combat abilities. It's fun watching a monk lay the smackdown on a bad guy 1v1, particularly when you use those lightning fists or that low level kick move. (I kinda prefer the lightning fists because it's not just a single action attack. The ability lasts for a few seconds and isn't all or nothing.) Also, monks are great for rushing behind enemy lines and going after their spellcasters and archers. I don't see monks as being all that great for holding the line, mostly because they don't have the ability to engage multiple targets at once and resist a lot of damage, at least if you're trying to let the monk take some damage to generate wounds for their abilities. What I've been doing is arming my monks with a bow along with their fists. I see this as a RP decision, since a bow seems more in keeping with how I see the class. (Also, since I tend to have my monk wearing the lightest armor I can get away with, the faster recovery speed, combined with the monk's high DEX action speed, and the speed of a bow, turns her into a rapid fire machine gun of arrows.) Regardless, having a ranged option lets the monk hang back at the start of a battle to let things develop, before I decide where best to use his melee abilities. I'd rather that the enemy melee-ers gang up on Eder than my monk. Paladins Much as I enjoy having Pallegina in my parties, I have to admit that it's not because she's a powerhouse in any way. She's decent enough as a secondary tank, but nothing special. Maybe a PC paladin would be better due to the better Faith and Conviction bonuses. But still, the class doesn't impress me much, which is a shame, because I've always loved playing paladins. I really wish that the devs would pump up this class so that it was more enjoyable to play. Rangers Rangers are another class that I've traditionally enjoyed playing. I personally don't mind that their focus is on ranged combat. OTOH, it wouldn't bother me if the devs rethought this and tried to include some melee combat class abilities and talents for rangers. It seems odd that Rangers have the same Accuracy in melee and at range, and yet have no special class abilities or talents for melee combat.

OP, I think that you're too focused on the geeky gamer terms. You're looking at those terms and appear to think that they're the end all and be all of why various classes should exist or what roles they play. Not everyone plays the game from that perspective. Try looking at your questions from a more role-playing PoV, and maybe your questions will answer themselves.

Same here, Nakia. I always turned off party AI. One thing that I do miss is the "Hold Position and Defend" button from the IE games. This was invaluable when it came to holding chokepoints, since you could then count on your front liners to hold their positions rather than run off after the next enemy to attack. It's really annoying when you have party members who just won't hold a position unless you tell them to not auto-attack, but then won't even bother defending themselves.

Yeah, you're probably right about this. Entering the castle's courtyard from the keep's front door puts you in a terrible defensive position, as you can see in the OP's posted pic. You're surrounded on 3 sides with no choke point to use defensively.

I usually enter the castle by climbing the vines in the NW corner. But either way works for a stealthy strategy.

It's also pretty safe to attack from the ramparts. I would argue, it's safer taking that door and luring the crowd to you than coming from the moat, which attracts much more at once aggro. And it's absolutely manageable at level 4. At least on normal difficulty. I gotta disagree. Coming out the keep door will cause you to be surrounded on 3 sides with no ability to limit your frontage. If you come through the castle's front gate, you can somewhat limit your frontage. Sure, it's a wide gate, but they'll still be coming at you from ahead, and not starting on your front, left and right.

The OP is in the courtyard of Raedric's castle. The reality is that there's no need to go there on this quest unless your purpose is to kill every last guardsman that Raeric has (for the loot perhaps). And I wouldn't go out there unless your party is quite healthy and has a mostly full "gas tank" of spells on your spellcasters. There are a pretty heft number of guardsmen in that courtyard, and a good deal of crowd control that will need doing. Also, if one really wants to do the courtyard area, it's a lot better, I suspect, to do it by crossing the moat's bridge than by coming out the door to the keep, since doing that puts you in the midst of a bunch of guardsmen with no choke points to use for crowd control.

I agree that if you wait until your party is level 7, this quest will go a LOT easier. That said, it can be done by a level 4-5 party without too much difficulty, particularly if ... Raedric's guardsmen and other minions aren't all that difficult to deal with, if you know what you're doing. That said, the OP clearly doesn't know what he's doing at this point. However, given how little he understands about combat mechanics, I might suggest that he keep playing, learning, and reading posts here on the forum until he gets a better handle on the combat system, and then perhaps restart. Just a suggestion. On another point. Assuming a 6 person party, and fancier formations aside, I tend to go with this general sort of formation. Think of 3 rows of 2. X...X X...X X...X The first row is for my best armored warriors. The guys I want holding the line against the first enemy rush. The second row is for characters who can go both ways, ranged or melee. And depending on the circumstances, they may hang back and use ranged weapons. Or if there's a LOT of enemy melee-ers seeking to flank the front line, these guys may move to the front to widen that front line to try to engage more enemies and block them from getting to my back row guys, my squishiest spellcasters. And the 3rd row is for my squishest spellcasters that I don't want in melee, given any choice. If is the job of the front two rows to protect the spellcasters, because those spellcasters are the team's heavy artillery, so to speak. The spellcasters may not do as much overall damage as others on the team. But they have the ability to do "crowd control" with their various area effect spells.

Learn the difference between "useless" and "necessary". Survival may not be at all necessary, but it's far from useless. You can get through the game without needing the benefits of Survival, but that's NOT the same thing as saying that Survival is "useless".

High level sneaking is only useful if everyone has it. What's your rogue going to do after he's sneaked into the enemy pack and backstabbed once? Die. There's barely any good scrolls for high level lore to be useful. Mechanics is universally recognized as the only valuable skill to max out, but for one character only. Everyone else gets no benefit out of it. The skills right now are pretty much flavor/roleplaying content. I thoroughly disagree about high level stealth. Yes, it may be suicidal for a rogue to sneak up and backstab an enemy (though IIRC, can't you Shadow Beyond to escape unseen?). But having one very highly skilled in stealth Scout is very useful, even if the rest of the party has only a mild amount of Stealth (say 3 points). The high Stealth scout can get a lot closer to the enemy, not to initiate attacks, but to see more than just a little of their force. The lowish stealth scout can probably only see the first couple of enemies before he has to pull back to avoid being spotted. The high stealth scout can move a lot closer and have more time to do it so that he can see more of the enemy force. Frankly, sir, you should have been able to figure this one out for yourself. As for Lore, there may not be all that many high level scrolls to be used, but if you want to use them, you'll need at least one character with enough Lore to do so. Duh. Of course, you only really need one character with really high mechanics skill for traps and locks duty. That said, you're wrong to say that everyone else gets no benefit out of Mechanics. If you have a dedicated traps and locks specialist who isn't your priest, it doesn't hurt for the priest to put some points in Mechanics because it helps with the accuracy of his Seal spells. Of course, if your priest is also your traps and locks specialist, then your statement is correct.

^This. The OP seriously needs to rethink is no quicksaves policy. There's nothing "cheating" about quicksaves. Quick saves are just a way to save yourself the hassle of doing a hard save. And the point of using a lot of save files or quicksaves is to give yourself an out in a situation just like this. So if he's unwilling to bend on this no quicksaves policy, then why isn't he playing in Trial of Iron mode, for crying out loud???

I have a hard time believing Obsidian would require people to pay for each part separately, when they explicitly said they were making a "real" expansion pack. I have a feeling that it would leave people with a sour taste in peoples mouths if a old-school throwback like PoE tried something that just seemed similar to current DLC practices. If each part of the expansion can stand on its own (a big "if"), why shouldn't they be sold separately? As long as it's for a reasonable price....

Just an opinion, I suspect that you don't absolutely need to disarm absolutely every trap to finis the game. For many floor traps, if you spot them, you can just walk around them, whether your character can disarm them or not. And IIRC you don't need to disarm traps on containers, since you don't "need" to open those containers. That said, I can fully understand the desire to do so for both floor and container traps.

If you don't really know how to fight in this game, going to Raedric's castle with less than at least 5 characters in your party isn't a good idea. 6 is even better. Also, as Tigranes said above, you desperately NEED to use the terrain to your advantage, whether you're out in the wilderness or in a castle. Do NOT stand out in the open and let the enemy surround you. Oh, sometimes even when you try your best to prevent it, the enemy will get into your rear. But don't LET them do it by standing out in the open. Use chokepoints, such as doorways to limit the ability of the enemy to get around your flanks. Also have your best armored warriors up front in your formation and your softest, least armored (probably spellcasters) hiding behind them. Use your best armored warriors to form a wall to prevent the enemy from flanking you. Sometimes, if you're lucky, you can do this with only one character. But sometimes you may need as many as 2, 3, or even 4 to create a wall to block the enemy from getting to your spellcasters.

Interesting. I didn't know that. But if you don't make any promises to any of the gods, how does that affect the endings?