Crucis

Out of the three, I'd prefer White That Wends, but I expect it the least.... It's supposed to be a snowy, barren land with wandering tribes. The tribes moving around would be an annoying mechanic, and all the scenery would be pretty much the same. It wouldn't actually sort out for a good place to base a game on. As for Juanval's comment... A 'new' character could be good... But TBH, WHY are we all so stuck on Eora? Obsidian made Eora, we can have faith they can make a NEW land. With Eora as it stands, at the end of Deadfire, it would be basically impossible to avoid the consequences of the first two games, and avoid the gods, without it feeling horribly contrived. Why not make a NEW land, with a similar system to POE, advertise it as 'being based on the Pillars of Eternity game mechanics' or some such, and go from there? The more you extend an IP, the more the built-up lore and expectations limit what you can or cannot do. At this point, it's pretty heftily restrictive to try to justify a lore-friendly POE 3 with the Watcher, or one without the Watcher that doesn't interact with the gods. So, why do it? Why labor under countless restrictions when you could start anew? Make a new IP, one that doesn't involve direct influence by gods, only Priests. Make the gods background dressing, and you can even keep Godlikes around, giving them something similar to Faith and Conviction, but unique to each God. That way, gods are THERE, they have influence, but they speak to noone and never directly interfere. We've kept some of the good things about Pillars, but freed up the narrative for new plots, plots that won't restrict or affect the following games as much. Tyranny was an interesting universe, even if the game itself still feels unfinished because of how much was left un-done in the game. This new Outer Worlds or whatever should at least be an interesting lore-wise kind of thing, regardless of the game's overall quality. Obisidian has proven they can and will make interesting new worlds if they want to... Why not do THAT and have a POE3 that isn't named POE, and isn't in Eora, but still has that high fantasy style and the game mechanics we love? 1. I'd rather it wasn't set in TWTW. To me that'd make it too much like Icewind Dale and PoE1's White March expansions. Enough with the wintery settings! 2. Why are we stuck on Eora? Because we like to explore a world, a setting. Because it's familiar. I don't want them making new worlds every time they make a game. To me, it's a waste of time, effort, and resources that could be better spent on playable content. It's much better to save the time and effort and stick with a familiar game world and keep expanding on it.

I want to add: -Different and immersive loading screens. In a RPG game with so many loading interruptions if you use an ugly, annoying or immersive-breaking loading screen it feels like you have to digest a tv commercial each time and it becomes a tedious waste of time, but if you put interesting/interactive or immersive loading screens like the "first person view of the map" like Icewind Dale's and Pillars1 use then you avoid this kind of problem. *I cant stress enought that in this kind of game NOT having different immersive Music and Loading screens in different maps is an undeniable f**k up. -Skippable beginning "tutorial/story" content. Deadfire is the kind of game in which players replay the story several times, its a game that rellys so much on the first unchangeable desicions you make for the creation of the main character that any unskippable tedious tutorialous(?) content becomes an annoying task real quick. If you want to try a new build to see if a character works out or if you want to roleplay a new one from the start, you are forced into all that tedious unskippable contat like (Maje, Pirate fort, First part of Neketaka) before letting you explore the "open world" and enjoy the "open game". its the main reason that prevents me to keep trying builds and replaying the game. Not only that but all the DLC are end-game enabled so if i want to come back to the game and play those with a new character its a mountain of annoying repetition to reach that content. *I consider this a massive development problem which i hope is adressed and solved for a Pillars of Eternity 3. *Editted to try to explain better the points i made using better english (sry its not my main lenguage) I don't think that not having different loading screens (and/or different music) for different maps is a screwup so much as it's potentially a missed opportunity. OTOH, this sort of stuff would require more money. And when they're on a limited budget, I think that most people would prefer that the limited development money be spent on playable content, and not loading screens. It seems to me that different loading screens and different loading screen music is a very low priority luxury, not an important priority. Also, I don't consider the beginning content thing a "massive development problem". You do. But again, it's a question of the prioritization of resources.

First of all, it greatly depends on where a PoE3 was taking place. Obviously, if it took place in the Deadfire (unlikely), you could see pretty much the same cast of characters. OTOH, if a PoE3 took place elsewhere, you might end up with very few or none of the familiar faces. Frankly, I think that having Eder back seems fairly likely, no matter what. And since the voice actor for Aloth is the same guy who does Eder, it wouold seem that the chances of Aloth being around would also be pretty good. As for the other companions, unless a companion actually travels with the Watcher from the Deadfire to wherever, it will always require a real story-telling stretch to get that companion over to the new location. Just look at PoE2. Eder is there because he travelled with the Watcher. Aloth is there because he just happened to be chasing a Leaden Key lead that led him to the Deadfire. And Pallegina just happened to be ordered to the Deadfire by the Valian Trading Company. But it seems to me that you can only reuse those reasons once, except for the travelling with the Watcher one. Eder now has a bit of a history of tagging along, so it wouldn't be a stretch for him to tag along again. Not long ago, there was a thread on what you'd like to see in a PoE3. And I suggested that a possible interesting story might be for the Watcher to escort Rekke home to "Rekke-land". Were such a story to occur, it would seem obvious that including Rekke as a companion would be justifiable simply because the Watcher was bringing him home, presumably on the Watcher's own ship. Anyways, I'm with Boeroer on this. I'd prefer to see plenty of fresh faces. I might not mind seeing someone from PoE1 who didn't show up in PoE2. But so much about which old faces, if any, could be seen would depend on where the PoE3 story took place. Place the PoE3 story in the mysterious Rekke-land, and the only familiar faces you'd be likely to see would almost have to have come along with you. Place the story in, oh, the Living Lands, and it becomes more possible for familiar faces to show up. Pallegina would have to be, because with it we addressed several issues: antipathy towards the gods, the defense of the progress of animancy, hatred towards the godlike and the future of the republics. With Maia, Kana, or one of her brothers, something similar, but with Rauatai. See if they can be inclined more towards war or the co-operation and their advance in ships, firearms and machinery. Hacros, I don't see it that way at all. I'm tired of all these "serious" issues, such as the gods, animancy, godlike related racism, and so on. I would prefer a return to a lot more fun and adventure, and a lot less of the "serious" stuff. For crying out loud, we get more than enough of this "serious" crap in real life. Why do we have to wallow in it in our games as well? I have fun dealing with serious issues in video games. If I wanted something super happy, I would play Viva Piñata. XD In addition, the gods, animancy and racism are the central "pillar" of history. I don't (have fun dealing with serious issues in computer games). I want fun and adventure and exploration in my fantasy RPGs. If I want serious … stuff …, I'd just watch the news or politically oriented youtube videos.

First of all, it greatly depends on where a PoE3 was taking place. Obviously, if it took place in the Deadfire (unlikely), you could see pretty much the same cast of characters. OTOH, if a PoE3 took place elsewhere, you might end up with very few or none of the familiar faces. Frankly, I think that having Eder back seems fairly likely, no matter what. And since the voice actor for Aloth is the same guy who does Eder, it wouold seem that the chances of Aloth being around would also be pretty good. As for the other companions, unless a companion actually travels with the Watcher from the Deadfire to wherever, it will always require a real story-telling stretch to get that companion over to the new location. Just look at PoE2. Eder is there because he travelled with the Watcher. Aloth is there because he just happened to be chasing a Leaden Key lead that led him to the Deadfire. And Pallegina just happened to be ordered to the Deadfire by the Valian Trading Company. But it seems to me that you can only reuse those reasons once, except for the travelling with the Watcher one. Eder now has a bit of a history of tagging along, so it wouldn't be a stretch for him to tag along again. Not long ago, there was a thread on what you'd like to see in a PoE3. And I suggested that a possible interesting story might be for the Watcher to escort Rekke home to "Rekke-land". Were such a story to occur, it would seem obvious that including Rekke as a companion would be justifiable simply because the Watcher was bringing him home, presumably on the Watcher's own ship. Anyways, I'm with Boeroer on this. I'd prefer to see plenty of fresh faces. I might not mind seeing someone from PoE1 who didn't show up in PoE2. But so much about which old faces, if any, could be seen would depend on where the PoE3 story took place. Place the PoE3 story in the mysterious Rekke-land, and the only familiar faces you'd be likely to see would almost have to have come along with you. Place the story in, oh, the Living Lands, and it becomes more possible for familiar faces to show up. Pallegina would have to be, because with it we addressed several issues: antipathy towards the gods, the defense of the progress of animancy, hatred towards the godlike and the future of the republics. With Maia, Kana, or one of her brothers, something similar, but with Rauatai. See if they can be inclined more towards war or the co-operation and their advance in ships, firearms and machinery. Hacros, I don't see it that way at all. I'm tired of all these "serious" issues, such as the gods, animancy, godlike related racism, and so on. I would prefer a return to a lot more fun and adventure, and a lot less of the "serious" stuff. For crying out loud, we get more than enough of this "serious" crap in real life. Why do we have to wallow in it in our games as well?

First of all, it greatly depends on where a PoE3 was taking place. Obviously, if it took place in the Deadfire (unlikely), you could see pretty much the same cast of characters. OTOH, if a PoE3 took place elsewhere, you might end up with very few or none of the familiar faces. Frankly, I think that having Eder back seems fairly likely, no matter what. And since the voice actor for Aloth is the same guy who does Eder, it wouold seem that the chances of Aloth being around would also be pretty good. As for the other companions, unless a companion actually travels with the Watcher from the Deadfire to wherever, it will always require a real story-telling stretch to get that companion over to the new location. Just look at PoE2. Eder is there because he travelled with the Watcher. Aloth is there because he just happened to be chasing a Leaden Key lead that led him to the Deadfire. And Pallegina just happened to be ordered to the Deadfire by the Valian Trading Company. But it seems to me that you can only reuse those reasons once, except for the travelling with the Watcher one. Eder now has a bit of a history of tagging along, so it wouldn't be a stretch for him to tag along again. Not long ago, there was a thread on what you'd like to see in a PoE3. And I suggested that a possible interesting story might be for the Watcher to escort Rekke home to "Rekke-land". Were such a story to occur, it would seem obvious that including Rekke as a companion would be justifiable simply because the Watcher was bringing him home, presumably on the Watcher's own ship. Anyways, I'm with Boeroer on this. I'd prefer to see plenty of fresh faces. I might not mind seeing someone from PoE1 who didn't show up in PoE2. But so much about which old faces, if any, could be seen would depend on where the PoE3 story took place. Place the PoE3 story in the mysterious Rekke-land, and the only familiar faces you'd be likely to see would almost have to have come along with you. Place the story in, oh, the Living Lands, and it becomes more possible for familiar faces to show up.

It would be nice if there was a way to have access to the inventory of ALL party members, both active and those in your reserve, even if it was only on your ship. It kind of stinks to have to make a reserve member active, just to check out their inventory.

The idea isn't to "base" the 3rd story on Rekke. He's just the hook to get you from PoE2 to PoE3. You could very conceivably just dump him when you return him to "Rekke Land", and go on your merry way, with Rekke having nothing more to do with the story. You know what I mean. Even as a hook, it's risky. OK, but I guess that I like the idea of exploring what would be a land that's totally unknown to the Watcher. And if that land was to be "Rekke Land", it seems like Rekke is the story link to give the writers a reason to send the Watcher there. Right now, I don't know what's going on in the Watcher's mind. (I haven't played the DLC's yet, and don't know if they'd have any effect on this.) Caed Nua has been destroyed. Would he want to go back and rebuild? Or being the stranger in the strange land of the Deadfire (if he's not from there in the first place, of course), would the Watcher want to take this opportunity to go exploring? Maybe the Watcher might feel some sort of obligation to get Rekke home, if that's what Rekke even wants. After all, why was Rekke in the Deadfire (albeit shipwrecked) in the first place? Meh, who knows? Or the writers may go in a totally different direction. If they stick to the existing and known locations on Eora, then I think that I'd like to see the Living Lands used because if its wide variety of environments. I'd think that that would make for a wide and wild variety of locations that would be fun to explore. OTOH, a place like the White That Wends might be a bit boring, and reminiscent of Icewind Dale. Of course, the basic concept of the plot might drive which location is chosen. So, again, who knows?

The idea isn't to "base" the 3rd story on Rekke. He's just the hook to get you from PoE2 to PoE3. You could very conceivably just dump him when you return him to "Rekke Land", and go on your merry way, with Rekke having nothing more to do with the story.

The way to deal with the "what am I supposed to do" problem is to have NPCs that help you. Remember the old woman that headed Defiance Bay's CIA? Something like her, but not always as demanding or controlling. The first such NPC might be Rekke's father. Say that Rekke's father is the head of a fishing fleet. He'd be a fairly well to do person. And maybe you'd want to run an errand or 2 for him, to get some early money and see the sights. You might learn of some troubling things happening in the land and report them to Rekke's dad. He might not know what do to about them, but perhaps he suggests you go off to some city to see the local governor who might be able to help out. And so on and so on. Each of these nodal information NPCs might give you some quests, not all of which are main story quests. Indeed, you wouldn't even know which ones weren't and which ones were. You'd have to work the quests to see what information you might dig up, and report it back to the nodal information NPC, who might be able to make some sense of the new information, or send you off to see a new N.I. NPC when the trail of information seems to be pointing to another city or town. And so on and so on. Eventually, you'd probably come to a point where you've gotten your "teeth" firmly into the problem and perhaps know who the bad guy is, and can go down the rest of the story line on your own. Or maybe not. Depends on how it's written. I agree with you on Berzerker. And also bandit or thief would be a perfectly good generic subclass for Rogues. Bodyguard for Fighter is rather meh. As for schools, I honestly hate them with a passion because they're so damned old and boring.

More ammo for my cause. I really do think Rekke and Rekke land is the way forward. Nice big plot hooks. Rekke seems quite popular from what ive seen. New part of the world gives new narrative blood space to stretch their legs. New religion is interesting both for folk who are into the lore and folk who are sick of the current gods. (Tho im usually up for more rymrgand. Hes funny) Also this provides other great opportunity. Shipping watcher off to rekke land and ascending/stranding/killing them there minimises the shadow that the watcher casts upon the rest of the ip. This is other reason id like continuation of watcher tale. Watcher now impactful enough to distort ip around them. One way or another, watcher needs to be something that is resolved for good imo, so future writers arent frantically retconning everyones beloved creation. This idea might have legs, provided implementation doesnt go overboard. Coming up with a fancy name for each class that basically means 'all-rounder', without tying it too much to lore might be fun. 'Gestalt Mage'? lol. As an aside, regarding mage subclasses, this has traditionally been hard as key maxim of mages be 'versatility uber alles'. Most mage subclasses have just been added power at expense of this versatility. Dragon age got around this by making mages *only* spellcasters in lore. Ergo they could 'subclass' as what are essentially clerics, druids, necromancers etc. Maybe is failure of imagination on my part, but feel will be very hard to create meaningful mage subclasses without seriously narrowing broad spectrum of base class. Im kinda resigned to notion that mage subclasses will always be slightly rubbish in game that doesnt revolve around mages. EDIT: cant type. As if i even have to say this anymore Part 1: "Rekke Land" I love it! It's a nice turn of a phrase. And in lieu of an actual name, it's as good as any and does convey that it's where Rekke's from. As for liking Rekke, he wasn't particularly memorable for me as a party member. But he absolutely reeks (pardon the pun) of being a hook for PoE3. Part 2: As I just pointed out, druids already do this, i.e. not having the option of a "no subclass", because their generic druid is basically the Animist. This is what I'd like for all classes. As for wizards and a generic wizard subclass, I think that just calling them "Mages" gets the job some elegantly enough. Come to think of it, another Wizard subclass could be the Sorcerer. The Sorc might be sort of a generic wizard, but a little more powerful, but with some sort of offsetting downside. One thing should be losing the general +2 bonus to Arcana that wizards usually get. Sorcs should be more about the POWER of their arcane energies rather than being learned practitioners of the craft. Maybe the real downside would be a +1 or +2 PL bonus to offensive spells and a -1 PL to all other spells. I generally agree with your observation about generic wizards usually being all about versatility while their subclasses being about power in one area at the expense of versatility. I have no problem with that concept. My problem is that the old wizard schools concept is boring as all hell. I'd like to see the wizard subclasses show more originality. As for coming up with some fancy name for a generic subclass, I don't think that that would be all that hard. For one thing, there are some classes that don't even need it. Druids already have Animist as their "all arounder". Paladins and Priests have their orders and their deities. Wizard, as I suggest above is super easy; just use the term "Mage". That leaves 7 classes, IIRC. Fighter: Armsman? Guardsman? Guardian? Barbarian: Warrior? Monk: Just create another Order name. Not that difficult, I'd think. Silent Fury? Rogue: Cutpurse? Ranger: Woodsman? Cipher: Mentalist? Chanter: Here's a simple one. Call him a "Bard".

An additional thought on "removing the no-subclass". Look at Druids. They don't have a generic "no subclass" option. The generic druid is the Animist. That's what I'd like to see for all classes. A subclass that is the generic version of the base class. Nssheepster, top be honest, I really would prefer to see the existing "school" based wizard subclasses removed. They're too damned boring because the entire concept has been around seemingly forever in fantasy games. I like my idea of a generic wizard subclass, the Mage, and some specialist subclasses like Spell Blade, Elementalist, and Necromancer (or perhaps use the Blood Mage term). And remove the damned book, er, I mean, the grimoire. Yes, POE1 didn't dump the entire story on you at once. However, it did smack you in the face, figuratively speaking, by clearly putting you on the main story line path right at the very start, rather than creating a mystery. Heck, POE1's main story would have been perfect for a mystery, since the first clue that something was wrong in the Dyrwood would have been the Hollowborn crisis. You could have had to investigate that crisis and in the process discovered the clues that peeled back the layers of the main story's "onion", so to speak. As for the idea of a plot to overthrow a leader, it was just an idea. Consider though that my primary story line thought was to set the story in a mysterious new land, the land where Rekke is from, presumably far to the east of the Deadfire. After writing that post, I did have the idea that perhaps there was some sort of new god in the making, or some extremely powerful villain wanted to ascend to godhood. Heck, maybe the existing Gods urge you to travel east to this undiscovered land because they're sensing something malevolent, maybe something that seeks to overthrow the existing gods and replace them with a new God (or gods?). Hey, after reading the last couple of sentences in the final paragraph, I think that we're coming around to about the same idea. Of course, the problem I have with what I said in the previous paragraph, is that I'd prefer for the story to be more mysterious. And having the existing gods tell you to head east to search for something malevolent isn't exactly what I had in mind. It's not all that different from Berath telling you to follow Eothas to find out what he's up to. I guess that I'd rather that the storyline required you to do some exploring and investigating to figure out what's wrong rather than just have the Gods tell you something's wrong right up front.

Personally, I think that one of the problems with subclasses in PoE2, in general, is in the way that they're (mostly) designed. They mostly all have benefits and negatives. What I think would have been better is if they'd only given them benefits, and no downsides, or limited downsides that weren't too punitive. And then, instead of having a "no subclass" generic version of the class, they should have created a subclass that sort of represented the generic class, but with its own bonuses (so that it wasn't weaker than the actual subclasses). Take the wizard class for example. I'd like to have seen them scrap the school system and done something like the following. The generalist "subclass" would be the Mage. The Mage would have been the stereotypical learned wizard. His "specialty" would be his great knowledge in the generic spells, represented by +1 or +2 PLs, and perhaps even an additional bonus point in the Arcana skill. The 3 subclasses that come to mind for me are: 1. The Elementalist: This subclass specializes in elemental spells, i.e. fire, ice/cold, electricity, acid, etc. 2. The Spellblade: This subclass specializes in magics that allow him to act like a warrior. Protective spells, spells that conjure a weapon, spells that enhance his physical abilities, etc. 3. The Necromancer: This subclass specializes in death magics. All three of these subclasses should get a bonus spell at each spell level, similar to how priests get a bonus spell that is related to their deity. These wizard subclasses would get bonus spells that related to their subclass. Also, they would get +1 or +2 PL in the spells that strongly relate to their subclass, and -1 PL in all other spells. Further note that the generalist subclass, Mage, does NOT get any bonus spells. They are, after all, generalists. (Alternative, if it seems necessary for them to have these bonus spells, for some reason, give them some very generalist spells.) Anyways, that's just my take on this.

Great question. 1. Story wise, I'd stick with the Watcher main character. But here's what I'd do for the story. Remember that sidekick, Rekke, who you find floating in the ocean and doesn't speak any known language? I'd assume that he comes from previously unknown continent on Eora. And that the Watcher wants to return Rekke home and go exploring! Beyond that, I'd really like it if the writers could avoid a story where the central plot point was on the gods of Eora. Have it be something else. 2. Subclasses. I really like the foundations of the subclass and multiclassing concepts, but do NOT like the subclasses that were used, for the most part. a. I'd love to see the plain "no subclass" option removed … sort of. In its place, what I'd like to see is a subclass that was a generic version of the class, but had more flavor than just thinking of it as "no subclass". b. I'd love to see subclasses restructured in a way that removed their negatives and only gave benefits. Or at least made it so that the negatives don't feel really negative. c. I'd like to see a good deal more "flavor" added to the subclasses, particularly in their descriptions. d. I really hate the Wizard subclasses, except for Blood Mage, because those damned wizard "schools" are soooo boring and unoriginal. Maybe an actual "spell blade" subclass would be a good fit. And maybe an "Elementalist" subclass, where wizard greatly preferred (obviously) elemental spells, i.e. fire, ice/cold, electricity, etc. And perhaps the way to make them work would be to give each of these subclasses a special spell at each level, similar to how priests get special deity related spells at each level. Also, perhaps the subclasses would get a +1 or +2 power level for spells related to their specialty and maybe even a -1 power level for spells outside their specialty. And lastly, there should be a generalist wizard subclass, perhaps called "mage"(?). The Mage wouldn't have any specialty spells, but would have a power level bonus to all of the generic spells. (And maybe come with an extra +1 skill point bonus to Arcana to reflect his more learned approach to wizardry.) Oh, and lastly, I agree with Verde. Scrap the Grimoire system. I find it too damned confusing, and is one reason I've tended to shy away from the entire wizard class. With the PoE2 per encounter model, wizards seem a bit more like the old Sorcerers from BG2, rather than BG2's wizards. So, might as well just dump the damned book, and streamline things to make them simpler and more intuitive for the player. e. Rangers: Completely change the entire concept of animal companion to being more like the "pet" that the main character gets in PoE2. Something that doesn't get in the way during combat, but gives the character (or even the entire party, I suppose) a minor benefit. And then focus the Ranger's abilities on the Ranger him/herself. There are too damned many A/C related abilities, and it's to the point that if you play a Ghost Heart (i.e. the no A/C option, sorta), your ability choices are highly limited due to so many abilities being A/C related. Guys, I could go on and on, but I think that you're getting the gist of things. One last thing though... One of my problems with PoE2's story, aside from a return to a religion based story, was that it felt a lot shorter than PoE1. I also missed the presence of an immense dungeon. One of the best things about PoE1 was the Endless Paths dungeon. And I loved the massive dungeon in Icewind Dale 1's Tales of the Loremaster. I don't know if it's even possible to do properly, but I'd love to see a story where it wasn't so obvious what the main story even was for a good long time. In PoE1, you don't even get out of the initial chapter (or the preface, I suppose) of the game without getting clearly put on the trail of the main storyline. In PoE2, you already know the main story line before you create your character, for crying out loud. How about a story where the main storyline DOESN'T pretty much kick you in the face right at the start? Maybe you have to do some exploring and digging before you can even get a clue as to what's going on? Maybe you have to do a number of what seem like side quests, but end up being something like "fact finding" quests on the path to discovering "what's really going on". The story doesn't have to have some major moral message to it. It could be a story about a secret invasion, or a secret plot to stage a coup to overthrow a government/king/queen, etc. I'm sure that there are all kinds of possibilities. Anyways, that's all for now.

I guess the problem I have is that I actually like being able to let some of my party members run off the AI. I don't like having to micro every single action of every single member of my party. I don't mind some degree of management, like trying to focus fire some party members onto a single enemy out of a mob. But having to constantly manage the usage of every single party member's active abilities is over the top for me and boring. Maybe this works for those of you who enjoy tiny parties or solo-ing your main character, but I prefer playing full parties, because that's always felt like how fantasy games should be played to me. So, I guess that we're on the same page. I don't like Ranger animal companions. Even with the Ghost Heart subclass, you're still faced with the problem that far, far too many of the Ranger's skills are linked to the A/C in some way. So, if you even try to play a GH and not use the ghost A/C, you'll find yourself stuck without all that many good class skill choices. === On a related note, I think that the Ranger class would have been much better if Ranger A/C's had been like the pets the main character can have, i.e. nice furry little friends that don't actively do anything in combat, but give the character some little bonus and don't really get in the way of playing a Ranger instead of a "beastmaster".

So, what does that make a Rogue/Cipher multiclass, when the rogue is strong early, but less so later on, while the cipher is the opposite?

I honestly think that the devs made a huge mistake by sticking with the old and tired wizard schools paradigm (i.e. Evoker, Conjurer, and so on). I think that it would have been vastly more interesting if they'd tried something along these lines. Subclass #1: Spellsword: Spellswords would specialize in spells that conjured magical weapons and defenses, as well as spells that buffed them personally. Spellswords can cast ONLY "spellsword" spells, but they do so at +1 (perhaps even +2) power levels. Subclass #2: Elementalists: Elementalists would specialize in primarily elemental (i.e. fire, cold, electricity, and acid) offensive spells, though there might also be some defensive elemental spells as well. Elementalists can cast ONLY "elemental" spells, but they do so at +1 (maybe even +2) power levels. Subclass #3: Necromancers: Necromancers would specialize in death spells. This would include poison spells, paralyze or petrification spells, spells that terrify enemies, as well as death spells. Necromancers can only cast necromancy spells, but they do so at +1 (maybe even +2) power levels. "Subclass" #4: Mages: The Mage is a true generalist, having access to all wizard spells. (The Mage would be the "no subclass" version of the wizard.) Mages are also more learned wizards, having a greater knowledge of arcana than more specialized wizards (represented by a +1 or +2 bonus to the Arcana skill). Mage's spells are weaker than more specialized wizards (no bonus to power level), but this is offset by their ability to choose any wizard spells. A possible interesting benefit for Mages might be that they are treated for spell casting as if their intelligence was +2 higher than it really is, to reflect their greater mastery of the arcane arts in general. They may not have the raw power of the specialists, but they can gain the benefits of greater Arcane knowledge with an innate +2 to their INT for their spells. Anyways, this is just a rough sketch of what I think would have been a much more interesting model for wizard subclasses. I left out anything to do with illusions because I kind of feel that illusion and deception should be the domain of the cipher, while raw arcane power should be the domain of the wizard.

I don't know if any of the devs will read this, but I have something minor that I'd love to see. Maybe 2 related things. 1. The Nekatakan queen has an outfight that's absolutely gorgeous. But sadly, it's just clothing. I'd love to see it turned into a nice Robe so that it can be used, and not pretty much ignored. 2. I'd love to see the clothes that Ydwin wears turned into padded armor. I see no particular reason why "padded armor" has to only look like armor. Why couldn't it be an outfit that looks like clothing, but is actually padded like "padded armor". And along these lines, I think that it'd be cool if there was a cloak or robe that looked like a long coat.

Although the mega-dungeon was a nice stretch goal idea for PoE1, it clearly got away from them when it reached 15 levels and I never though it was a particularly engaging piece of content. Each to his own I guess, but I vastly prefer "dungeon content" similar to Raedric's Hold -- which we got in Deadfire in the shape of Fort Deadlight and Hasongo, which were both awesome. I also really enjoyed The Hanging Sepulchers and The Old City, both in Neketaka, though the latter admittedly could've been a bit bigger. But yeah, I'm always for more dungeon content, though I don't think they need to be 15 levels. In fact, I think I'd prefer them not to be that big. Some of my favorite dungeons ever -- Durlag's Keep, Dragon's Eye, The Severed Hand, Upper and Lower Dorn's Deep, Durgan's Battery -- are between 5 and 10 levels, which IMO is the sweet spot. I don't think of Raedric's castle as a dungeon, per se. Well, the dungeon itself was a true dungeon, i.e. jail or prison. When I think of a dungeon in a game like these, I'm thinking more of a mysterious cave complex. It's hard to think of a something like the above ground portion of Raedric's keep as a "dungeon" in the loose sense of the word, because it's an active castle, rather than some dark, dank, and mysterious cavern infested with monsters. Hey, clearing out some evil warlord's keep is nice enough too. But I always like to have that dark, dank, mysterious cavern infested with dread monsters too. I said it earlier, but the dungeon in IWD1's Trials of the Luremaster was a great "dungeon". Nicely large. Mysterious. And very fun.

This is no different from POE1. Unique armors and capes/cloaks always seemed to have fixed colors schemes. I have no problem with this at all. There are small tweaks I'd rather see. For example, the Queen of Nekataka has a very nice outfit that you can acquire. But sadly, it's only non-enchantable clothing. Id' rather that it was either considered an enchanted Robe. It's far too beautiful to go to waste as mere clothing. Also, I'd like to see clothing like the Valian clothes that Ydwin wears when you first meet her be made into a VERY stylish form of padded armor. And possibly a long coat that's either classified as a robe or a cloak. I think that that sort of coat would fit into the environment of Eora.

This is actually fine. In Pillars 1 it would be stupid, with that resting system, but in Deadfire this makes sense. It's kinda.. fluff I guess? Not really needed. And doesn't really have anything to do with the topic ;p It's not really clear what you're saying here, Manveru. I'm not sure if you're agreeing with me or not.

Because they want classes to be unique. I think it's good to have these abilities class specific. I would even go further and nerf multiclassing as it is completely overpowered in this game. Or they could just buff single class characters and get the same overall effect. Also, personally, I find most of the subclasses rather boring, and would love to see some major changes to them to make them less so. There is no problem with most of the classes except that I would diversify them even more. The main issue is with multiclassing as there is no downside at all for choosing it. You should have some serious considerations choosing to either multiclass or single class. So far only Wizard and Monk are classes that are decently strong when compared to any multi class variant. Right now you're gimping your character if you go single class. So I would opt for both. Here's some suggestions to make single/multi class more interesting: 1. Diversify individual classes, make it worth it to go all levels. 2. Diversify skills. Make it worth to pick a certain class for a specific skill set. Survival only for Ranger, Druid and Barbarian for instance. Or make it so that survival can only be picked every 3 levels for characters that don't have this as a primary skill. Make skills worth more when applying them and not just have 80% of skill checks at 2 levels of this skill. Right now every character can max skills easily. 3. Make skills more interesting by having different effects than they do now, such as using herbs to (partially) heal wounds in the field (Ranger skill for instance). Limit resting. 3a. Limit multi classing to max level 5 abilities to make them level up slower. Be stronger late, and weaker early. Make abilities scale harder with power level. Weaker early and stronger later. 4. Make multi classing level up different classes every even and odd level. So a swashbuckler will level up fighter at 1st level and rogue at 2nd level. 5. Have low level abilties gain new effects with power level. This SHOULD be implemented. Right now single classes are meh and multi class is too strong. They should be evenly matched and be chosen for a specific reason or build. Not every multi class has to be viable. I can't agree with your list. 1. You're unclear on this point. 2. Strongly disagree. I like that skills aren't class dependent. I will say that perhaps there should be a floating maximum skill level that cannot exceed something like 1 point for every 2 levels so that you can't rocket up through a single skill. OTOH, this would probably require a rebalancing of skill checks in the game, so it's probably not a good idea. 3. First sentence: This one deserves some thought, so I don't immediately disagree. Second sentence: Limiting resting. Not as such, per se. What needs to happen is, first, require every character to rest once per day, or suffer increasing fatigue penalties with each passing day without rest. Also, perhaps a character's Power Level should be reduced by fatigue, perhaps by -2 PL for each level of fatigue. 3a+4: No. Just no. 5: This happens already with upgraded abilities that you have to select. No need for this one.

I have to admit that I don't like reading up on builds that are focused on gear. I care much more about builds that are focused on race, class/subclass/multiclass, attributes, and abilities.

Because they want classes to be unique. I think it's good to have these abilities class specific. I would even go further and nerf multiclassing as it is completely overpowered in this game. Or they could just buff single class characters and get the same overall effect. Also, personally, I find most of the subclasses rather boring, and would love to see some major changes to them to make them less so.

First and foremost for me is having Pallegina in the party, and for her to have the Aegis of Loyalty passive ability. Also, it helps if you have her armed with a bow as a secondary weapon so that you don't have to have her walk over to a charmed ally. It's just easier if she hits them with an arrow to de-charm them, and then get back to whatever she was doing. It also helps if you've taken the Warped Scales upgrade to the Shimmer Shield to give yourself immunity to gaze attacks. And IIRC, there's a Chanter chant that helps you to resist charm attacks. For what it's worth, the Fampyr battles are some of the more difficult ones, but they're far from unbeatable. I will say that I had to bail out of the Fampyr island in the extreme SE of the map, because I didn't think that I was up to it, after getting spanked a couple of times. I returned later and returned the favor.

That's pretty much all the companion stories? Anyway, subjective and all- people will respond differently to different characters- but I don't think that can honestly be called a bland story, just from the aspect of it being so unusual. Yea somehow all companions have some sort of issue you need to comfort them on. There's no one that doesn't look for praise, pat on the back or encouragement. They're all some sort of melodramatic cry-me-a-river goofball. Some less sane than others. There's a difference between talking to someone like a friend and someone who is so damned trouble that they need a psycho-babbler.