Yria

In the first game, if you sent Eder to unlock a chest he'd say "That's not nice!" (not sure if he still has that line in Deadfire), so I assume he disapproves. Just a bit.

The Watcher seems to believe it was Woedica. From Aloth's quest in Deadfire, reply 4: But yeah, he was clearly an exceptional case either way.

It wasn't even an ability iirc, Lady Webb states that he reincarnated just as anyone would, but Woedica returned his memories when he reached adolescence each time.

My head says VTC, and this is the faction I supported on my first run, but my heart belongs to the old Principi. They might be scum, but I find the idea of Furrante actually settling down on Ukaizo and founding the New Vailia irresistibly funny. I really didn't expect him to go through with it, thought it was fancy words to convince the Watcher that he has some grander goals than just slavery and plundering. I don't know if I will ever choose this route, but I sure like how it plays out. As for the rest, they all have their ups and downs (aside from maybe Aeldys reactivating the storm machine on Ukaizo? Sounds like the worst ending possible to me), but Rauatai's attitude towards the Huana is a huge nope for me, and I don't like Onekaza very much, so...

Problem is, you can still show that you know those aspects of faith if you have high enough religion. And in the base game having high religion was always (or almost always) interchangeable with being a priest, which creates an impression that all priests know basic stuff about other faiths, related to their own deity or no. Ydwin's biased point of view was interesting to listen to, but I'm not talking about her perspective, I'm talking about knowing facts, like what this cult's main doctrine is (which, again, you can know if your religion is around 14+). Anyway, after finishing the DLC I have to say I enjoyed it a lot. Would have like a bit more pale elf reactivity, and the ending was abrupt, but these are the only negatives I can think of. New lore tidbits about Ukaizo and Waidwen were especially welcome. I even grew to like Rymrgand somewhat, and he was one of my least favorite gods before BoW. - Why are you such a jerk?! - This is my nature. ...yeah, not sure what answer I expected Will try to ask a more relevant question next time.

Do all the sidekicks have new conversations when you bring them to Ukaizo? I saw Rekke's somewhere on tumblr, and it was darn sweet.

To be fair, I'm only, like, 1/4 way through the story. Maybe it gets better (but I'll be surprised if it does, judging from the lack of reaction in the beginning). If it stays this way, I guess I'm just going to think that my priest of Wael elf is trolling everyone by pretending not to know jack about her own people, or something. I still kicked Ydwin out to minimize the lecturing though. It feels like they invested a lot of effort to flesh her out, but forgot about the Watchers who have a similar background in the process.

I'm rather late to the party, but I've just started playing BoW, and even though I like the setup, so far I'm also really disappointed with the lack of reaction to a pale elf Watcher from the White that Wends. Like, any reaction at all. It also feels extremely weird to have Ydwin lecture me on the pale elf theology and culture when my own character is a bloody priest (AND a theologist, which was one of the Mystic background options in the first game, so there is an extra lol factor). There is a couple of high religion checks that can help you bypass at least some of this weirdness, but I never invested much into religion because in the base game it was always interchangeable with priest dialogue options, so I eventually decided to spend those points on more useful skills. After having so many various reaction to classes, backgrounds and races in the base game this is really surprising. At the very least there should have been some reaction to the pale elf Watchers.

I assume by "Delver's Row stuff" you mean that you completed the rogue watershapers quest from the prince, too? A few patches ago Tekehu's +1 triggered either after the "Kahanga Roaylty seem to be really taken with you" conversation or after finishing this quest. But I haven't touched the game since BoW's release so I don't know if this was changed.

It's a different location faaaar in the east, somewhere in the mountains near Varnhold.

Is this a SSS part? I can't believe they are actually doing something with the sidekicks.

There is a regular fight on the other side, but it's way easier than the boss, and the rest of your party jumps in immediately anyway (or at least they did for me, not sure if it's not a bug).

Just finished it. I assume you are talking about the huge wooden bear thingy aka the final boss? For some reason I thought both split groups would have to fight so I sent away two companions when I only had to dispatch one. Good thing I kept Jubilost the alchemist in the main group because he was the only one in the party who had some ways to attack stuff with fire. Well, my PC had a couple of fire arrows in her spellbook, but once I was out of them it was bombs, bombs and more bombs. The bloody gnome just single handedly saved the barony. Employee of the month, this one. I would find this funny if I wasn't so exhausted.

I'm enjoying the game, but Ondra's nipples, whoever designed the Womb of Lamashtu must be a sadist. A huge cave filled with nothing but attribute-devouring spiders, even though the whole chapter leading to this dungeon had absolutely nothing to do with spiders, so I'm not sure how we were supposed to anticipate this and prepare the necessary potions and spells. Had to actually walk out (because no resting in dungeons, ugh) and rest to memorize communal delay poison spell on the priest. I feel like I'm beginning to understand all those people who are afraid of spiders in games and mod them out with various model replacements.

Huh. I didn't notice that, aside from lanterns. Nice. Can't say much about mechanics because I'm a filthy casual and play on easy to avoid frustration, but I'm really liking the overall feel of the game so far. It's like I'm playing BG1 with better graphics and more extensive dialogue trees. The story is fairly simple, sometimes even silly, but in a good way. And there are so many areas to explore with fun stuff happening in them, stuff that doesn't even reckord in the questlog, it's just various scenes and encounters.

I don't know if this was ever brought up, but apparently there is at least one instance when you CAN try telling people about the Engwithan origin of the gods. It's in the conversation with Adaryc. In my case he reacted to my Clever 2 rep and called me a heretic. Xoti also gave me a huge disapprove but didn't comment on it. Can't say I'm surprised, it's more or less what I expected from them, though Xoti could at least ask me to elaborate I guess.

You might want to consider sparing Benweth if you are planning to support Furrante, Benweth capturing Aeldys does save a lot of time in the end of their questline.

You can do most, if not all their quests on the same playthrough. I don't know how many of the faction quests you've covered on the Huana route, but quite a few of them actually intertwine, so you'll have to deal with both factions anyway. Same goes for locations. As for NPC, Principi have their two leaders, Benweth, Mad Morena, and Dereo, all of whom are more or less interesting (except maybe Morena). VTC have Castol, Alvari, Flaune Elette aka the chief animancer, and a bunch of dukes and princes from the Republics whose names I don't even remember since they only appear in one single scene. So I guess Principi win in terms of numbers. But again, you can get to deal with both sides' characters regardless of who you support.

I think the Circle is a wizards only club lore-wise, but apparently other classes also get to ask if they may join, and Arkemyr refuses them with the same arguments he uses for wizards, not because they are a different class. So who knows. I would love to see my wizard join them, but realistically I'm not sure this should happen. The Circle are the most powerful archmages in Eora who have entire schools of magic named after them, and we, as renown as we might be as a watcher, are never stated to be a particularly strong representative of our class (whatever that class may be).

If you aren't against killing in self defence, you can go talk to the hazanui, listen to her assassination plan and refuse. RDC quarters will turn hostile, and you'll have to fight on the way out, but after that both Onekaza and VTC will agree to work with you without blowing up the powderhouse.

My Watcher was a scientist who supported animancy research in both games (albeit reluctantly), so from the moment Castol opened his mouth I had a strong suspicion VTC would be the ones I'd eventually end up helping. The slave trade idea of his wasn't great, but I just killed Master Kua, and things worked out fine. I also chose to tell Eothas to inspire the kith to look to the future, and the ending slides sounded quite promising. With the RDC it became clear from the first conversation with the hazanui that we were not going to get along. I can somewhat tolerate people who are at least honest about wanting to exploit a foreign land, like VTC, but rauataians try to make it look like they have a noble cause and are here to help the savage Deadfire. Sorry, go preach about your white man's burden to someone else. They may bring order eventually, and it has its appeal, but the way they go about it is a huge no for me. I tried really hard to like the Huana, and I kind of did, but my problem with them is that it's not the Huana as a whole that you lend your support to but the Kahanga royals, and Onekaza was... not impressive. The tantrums she constantly throws when things don't go her way in every minor detail eventually turned me away from her. When she started yelling about Ukaizo being Huana land that no outsider should be allowed to set foot on, I thought "Well, I'm an outsider, so I guess this is where we part ways" and went to join the VTC. Still, it is likely that I will choose them on some other playthrough. Pirates are just pirates, they didn't really make me like or dislike them because they were exactly what I expected them to be. Aeldys turning the storms of Ondra's Mortar back on is the reason I will never support her though. The idea of Furrante somehow succeeding at founding an independent state is at least funny enough for me to help him if I ever decide to create an Old Vailian Watcher, but the slavers will have to go, same as on my VTC run.

A random pirate is more suited to hunt a god than a godlike who is worshipped by the entire Huana society (regardless of what he thinks of it)? I like Serafen too, but come on. Nevermind that them being or not being suited for your mission has nothing to do with their motivation to join you, which is what your initial complaint was about. I guess his desire to settle things with Eothas gave him the power to teleport across the sea from Aedyr to Caed Nua then. Why didn't he teleport directly to the Deadfire though, if it was Eothas he was after and not you?

You can head to Deadlight right after Port-Maje, and he will still tell you about Remaro even though he barely knows you. The only difference between the quality of his motivation and Tekehu's is that you are okay with one character but dislike another. If you want to talk about companions who don't have proper motivations to join you, look at Eder who goes back to Adyr to reunite with his parents if you don't finish his quest in the first game. Yet in Deadfire he is suddenly by your side because reasons, even though he doesn't really owe you anything.

I actually have some questions about Serafen sticking around when I don't head to Fort Deadlight until very late in the game. He isn't really here to help me kill Benweth, he is here for Remaro, so why does he stay with me if I avoid visiting Deadlight for many months? There is a risk Remaro's trail will run cold. But I just roll with it because it's a videogame, and not everything makes perfect sense if you do things out of order. No it didn't. There should be an option to kick her out after her quest, and I know quite a few people who were surprised that it wasn't there.

It's there. If you ask him about the reasons he wrote to the prince prior to his recruitment, he only says you'd better discuss it away from the guild as anyone could be eavesdropping. But you can ask him again when he is on your crew, and he reveals the whole watershapers visiting the Gullet thing. At least that is how things go if you talk to the prince before you meet Tekehu. But even if you do it out of order, the conversation about the watershapers going into the Gullet is still available after you recruit him, even though some lines are a bit different iirc.