Ichthyic

btw, here's a paladin, POTD solo... with videos to prove it... http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/77212-build-paladin-solo-potd-video-of-the-last-boss-included/?hl=%2Bpotd+%2Bsolo one of the first POTD solos IIRC. so your contention gets a big fat yawn from me.

bull****.

no. this is not correct. the difference is NOT the level of difficulty, but whether your PC was a paladin vs one of your NPC crew. it makes a HUGE difference because of faith and conviction. those of us like myself, that played a paladin as our main, will have a very different view of them. I played hard since the very moment I could add a companion, and felt the pally was perfectly suited to an off tank and support role. have been quite happy with it overall, only feeling like the auras should be party wide instead of area, and perhaps have some level scaling involved. but other than minor tweaks, I had no problems at all using my paly as an off tank and arbalest user. none. I could be wrong, but I do recall that Gromnir was part of the beta testing crew.

with the strategy you were using, you're probably better off using a phantom instead of the wisps, and hope for some stuns. that said, blizzard works wonders in that cave. several ways to get access to that spell, including using Hiravias. curious... think I was level 7 at least when I hit that cave, what level were your guys? I got hit by a fireblast, but nothing major, don't recall it being that tough of a fight, even on hard. I can imagine it being a lot tougher if I was level 5 though.

I'm getting the serious impression that a lot of people during beta felt that everything you kill should drop whatever it was carrying, period. but... even at very low prices for all that gear, places like the skaen temple under dyrwood village will net you well over 20k in just crap to sell! I have no idea if all that stuff has any other negative impacts, like on savegame size (it really shouldn't, but it's possible). point being... does EVERY enemy have to drop a complete set of everything?? why not have it be random? some enemies only drop a weapon, some armor, some nothing. there's just way more junk than I think I have ever seen before....

tough titties I say. at least a few quests NEED to have limited decision trees like this one does. it adds variety and spice, and helps remove the bland flavor too much of this game already has.

oooh. yes. into the dungeon for a a few sessions with mr Happy, my prisonkeeper and torturemeister. re-education camp ftw. plus, you can let his own family judge him. If they want him back, let them pay a hefty ransom. if they don't want him back....

I wanted to go with Eder's suggestion, actually: Lynch mob. used grieving mother to free Aelys and told her to hit the road (brutal honesty) then I wanted to go around town and tell everyone who knew she was preggers what actually happened. ...then expect an instant lynch mob to take out the Noble. sadly, closest I could get was taking him out myself. Hey, the noble got what he wanted... Aelys was leaving with a supposedly healthy pregnancy. And I got what I wanted... a complete an utter dirtbag removed from society. win win.

also, people forget that all characters can use scrolls in this game. putting a few points in lore will allow your dps fighter to buff himself with some rather excellent spells, and you want those spells to have decent duration. by and large though, i think the reason a lot of people forgo scrolls is because overall combat is not that difficult. at the moment, anyway. future patches or mods might change that.

I had no idea you were supposed to find new companions and come back when I first played this game. I went with the tanky paladin build suggested pretty much on the day the game was released: hearth orlan shield bearer 6, 10, 6, 20, 13, 20 for stats, IIRC. not only did I manage to solo everything between the starter dungeon and gilded vale, I did the bear too. took 3 tries, but I did it. so it's entirely doable solo (at least on normal) with a paladin. As soon as I had 2 companions, I boosted the difficulty to hard. Paly still felt like a valuable member of the team to me, both in combat and out, all the way to the end. I still think the ONLY thing palies need is a bump to their support features, like say a customizable aura that works for all party members, instead of just by a tiny area, and scales with level, and making it more flexible in which traits you can choose on levelup (e.g., don't force a paly to choose the lay on hands ability if they later want to choose the ability that supresses buffs on enemies). that's it. that's all they need.

...there's something about that line that makes me think it would make a good, if very confusing, signature.

http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/76809-why-wont-blood-pool-let-me-sacrifice-a-non-story-character/?hl=%2Bblood+%2Bpool

Does Miracle Max exist in this world?

Hence his not so subtle name... enDurance...

I totally agree. 3 DRB should be enough for estoc, 2 for stiletto. I also think slashing weapons should be buffed a bit. Slash/Pierce (Best) is an almost non-existent benefit over plain Pierce, as there are very few enemies that are more vulnerable to slashing than piercing. some of those enemies are actually pretty significant though... Adra Dragon comes to mind. but yeah, it's a short list including, completely: spore monsters, revenants. yeah, that's it. is it worth focusing on a weapon that has both slash and pierce? nope. but at least your great sword becomes useful to chop mushrooms and dragons made of soft rock. oh, and the reason the estoc has dr bypass (armor piercing), is, as someone mentioned, that Sawyer likes the history of weapons, and the Estoc was specifically designed to be a superior weapon against armor. I very much doubt that he will want to change that. you *might* be able to get him to agree to add range to a poleaxe, or increase the base damage on a greatsword slightly though. I don't want either of those things - I just want the DR bypass reduced. I'm fine with the Estoc bypassing DR in principle, it's just completely unbalanced as currently implemented. Adding range to a poleaxe makes the issue even worse because then A) the poleaxe is the best reach weapon period due to double damage type and B) the Adventurer weapon focus becomes even MORE dominant, shafting the Greatsword even more. And the Greatsword doesn't need more base damage, all the 2H weapons have the same base damage and there's no reason to change that. Just reduce the DR bypass on the Estoc by 1 or 2 and think about shifting the Poleaxe and the Estoc out of the same weapon focus. Either/or would fix the issue. seems the more logical choice would be to reduce the base damage on the Estoc slightly, to make it still more valuable against armor, but the others doing more base damage agains tthings that don't have any armor... except there really isn't anything that doesn't have armor in the late game IIRC. no easy answer.

I totally agree. 3 DRB should be enough for estoc, 2 for stiletto. I also think slashing weapons should be buffed a bit. Slash/Pierce (Best) is an almost non-existent benefit over plain Pierce, as there are very few enemies that are more vulnerable to slashing than piercing. some of those enemies are actually pretty significant though... Adra Dragon comes to mind. but yeah, it's a short list including, completely: spore monsters, revenants. yeah, that's it. is it worth focusing on a weapon that has both slash and pierce? nope. but at least your great sword becomes useful to chop mushrooms and dragons made of soft rock. oh, and the reason the estoc has dr bypass (armor piercing), is, as someone mentioned, that Sawyer likes the history of weapons, and the Estoc was specifically designed to be a superior weapon against armor. I very much doubt that he will want to change that. you *might* be able to get him to agree to add range to a poleaxe, or increase the base damage on a greatsword slightly though.

shouldn't it be +4 deflection for minmaxed defensive orlan? +2 on both perception and resolve.

so... show me the classic old textbook from all the previous games that feature a cipher. oh, that's right... IT'S A NEW CLASS. gees. *rips hair out* egads, the comments are inane here.

Its not a MMO like World of Warcraft, the class mechanics will not change very often here and the number of available encounters is limited. Also, there are only so many ways you can play a class. So I don't think having separate forum for each class is an efficient idea. wow, I don't think I've ever read such a short post that I disagreed with more. the class mechanics will actually change CONSTANTLY, as there are entirely new classes here, as well as huge modifications to classic classes, and that can ONLY mean that there will indeed by many changes that come over the next few months. the number of available encounters is irrelevant, though hardly really limited, even in this game, let alone any sequels. the classes in this game have more ways you can play them than any other fantasy crpg of this type I have ever played, and I played every single infinity engine game ever made. most classes can be entirely changed in how they work; making them into back row ranged casters, or into damn near melee tanks. people have done just that with the cipher and rogue, for example. ....but I suppose you didn't notice... because there aren't class specific forums to browse through to see it.

first character I added to my party at the first inn was a ranged rogue with good stealth and mechanics, and the cripple and blind abilities. either persistence or boressaine does well, though in my case I got a weird version of borresaine that does double damage. it actually was too overpowered, so I put it away in my inventory and chose persistence instead. being able to switch targets quickly and always manage to get an interrupting attack off that does good damage made this character invaluable until I hit level 7 or so. nearly any disabling spell gives your rogue sneak attacks, so you do good damage, even with a hunting bow, and much, much faster than with an arbalest. I was happy with that. also gave her escape and the invisibility skill, as well as the hood that casts charm, and she became very versatile and deadly, and very rarely ever got into trouble. could lay traps anywhere, start a fight by charming the most powerful member of a mob (ogre druid now on your side), or just sit back and disable one target after another. very useful. I felt the ranged rogue was at least as powerful a ranged character as a ranger, if not moreso. seems to hit a plateu at around level 8 though. plus, I left her at an inn once, and on retrieval she had the "no more talkie" bug. will probably create another one after I finish most of the companion quests.

yes, they can. again... every 6 seconds, who they percieve as an enemy changes from: 1. their own team 2. your team 3. nobody while powerful, the only downside to confusion is that you can never tell when a confused enemy will suddently decide to go hostile on you or not. you likely haven't experienced this yet, as most fights simply don't go on long enough to notice the differences, but they are there. wait till your own team gets confused, and watch as your party members sometimes can attack enemies, sometimes not... same thing. that said, confusion suffers from what ALLLL spells in this game suffer from: unnecessary bonuses to accuracy tacked on to them. they simply should all be more subject to saving throws from reflex/will/fortitude. all of them. I really don't get why they felt the need to actually *add* bonus accuracy to almost all spells and abilities. the only thing I can figure, is that too many backers whinged about their spells missing. but... that is the way they are SUPPOSED TO WORK. it's one of the big reasons hard seems wayy too easy for most people who have played similar games before... misses, spells or otherwise... for your teammates are actually pretty damn rare.

no, he means it will change every 6 seconds, at random. it does not depend on whether you hit that enemy or not. this is the way it should work. your confusion does not end just because something is hitting you. in your mind... it could still be perceived as a friendly, and you just can't figure out why they're mad at you...

example: say I'm looking for build guides to ciphers. I don't want to count on someone putting the right tags in their op. I also don't want to wade through the dozens, eventually hundreds, of posts that contain references to "ciphers" I'd rather just go to a dedicated forum on the class, and browse through the threads there.

this game is a new direction in crpg, with entirely new classes. yes, it really DOES need seperate forums for each class. +1 to OP.

as an aside, if you want another character to grab engagement like a fighter, give them the shatterstar warhammer as well as hold the line. now you're at 3, which is more than enough. I agree with Gromnir. buff the already existing choices for the paladin as a support character, and that would more than make this class a valuable member to any team. how about making the auras level up? every 3 levels, you get another point of damage reduction, or another 2 points of deflection, or another 2 points of accuracy, etc. or maybe you could even customize your aura! start off with a combination boost to each, and then every 3 levels, choose a direction to improve it. So, say start at 2dr, 3 accuracy, and 3 deflection, and every 3 levels you get to choose to add another point to dr, or 2 to deflection, or 2 to accuracy. then it would keep growing in benefit as long as you have your paladin, through this game and all sequels, AND everyone would have custom auras that suit their playstyle! make the liberatiing exhortion a party wide effect instead of single target. allow paladins to choose this, or the effect that defuffs enemies, regardless of whether they chose lay on hands or not. just subtle changes like that are all that's needed imo.