Hebruixe

For the record, I'm extremely pleased with Pillars of Eternity. I haven't been this invested in the future of a game franchise since Half-Life 2 was announced.

I'm fine without silliness. Some of the banter is hilarious anyway. Btw, recently I purchased BG2 enhanced and plan the very first playthrough of my life. I was on an old mac back when it first came out. Does anyone know where to look for character creation tips? Gotta agree. Some of those conversations with Hiravias had me giggling hysterically. But you have to dig for the humor in Pillars, whereas in BG1-2 you just stumble into it everywhere. As for character creation tips...it's pretty self-explanatory, and the enhanced edition tells you during character creation which attributes are essential to your character class. Remember that tanky characters need decent wisdom scores for their will saves. The easiest character to build is the mage, who basically only needs intellect. The hardest build (imo) is the paladin, who needs everything except intellect. Google has tons of in-depth guides available once you've chosen your class.

Personally I am happy with PoE in its current state. But you're right -- there were some fun and amusing features in the old IE games that didn't carry over. I recently started a new BG2 game and was surprised at how laugh-out-loud funny some of the storytelling is. That silliness is a bit lacking in Pillars, at least on the surface.

BG2 hands down

That's the second toughest fight in Raedric's hold. I seriously doubt you can escape that unfortunate situation. Sorry =/

I for one was relieved that they didn't implement an artificial aggro system that forces enemy AI to obey cheese tactics like taunting. Aggro is fine for MMOs (where immersion hardly matters) but it really doesn't belong in single player rpgs. I agree with most of your other points though. Great game, and I can't wait for more content to be released!

Ha ha, yeah, I've done the same thing a bunch of times.

These kind of posts always dazzle me. I've got my butt handed to me on PotD on several different occasions. Be it in a ambush fight at Caed Nua where a group of virthaks (verthaks? the scarecrow-like dudes from the Endless Dungeon) start the fight by paralyzing my whole group before dominating two to three of my characters, or against some of the bounty groups which have so many dudes that they swarm my two tanks and then go straight for my back line throwing around disables and nukes as if they were confetti. Or the fight at the top level of the lighthouse where you just cannot tank the mobs properly and have to rely on buffs/heals/disables to let your squishies survive the onslaught. Maybe it's just me, but on PotD (and even on Hard) the game offers plenty of challenging encounters where I had to think about my formation, setup and some buffs/debuffs/disables to keep the enemies from tearing through my softer party members. Or maybe I just don't remember every fight that I eventually managed to win after five reloads as 'too easy' I agree completely. I've rerolled countless times in PotD mode and it's always an engaging combat experience, requiring forethought and finesse. Enemy AI may not be realistic (especially for sentient opponents), but the battles are always a reasonable challenge. The people who show up to complain about difficulty are just egomaniacs advertising their epeens. They really don't deserve your attention.

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The escape mechanic in D:OS was badly designed -- it was basically a cheat button. I don't think anyone wants that mistake repeated in PoE. However. PoE absolutely needs escape mechanics. It should be part of the gameplay...something that requires tact or expensive resources. For example, in Fallout 3 there were extremely rare items called Stealthboys that could instantly turn you invisible, evading any fight. It was an emergency item. There was a finite supply so you didn't want to waste them...smart players saved them for worst case scenarios. Another example...in Baldur's Gate, you could sacrifice a tier 4 mage spell slot for mass invisibility. Having that emergency spell could really save your @ss from a bad situation. It wasn't free. It wasn't a cheat button. It was a gameplay option.

Unfortunately PoE doesn't excel at making great first impressions. But it's got depth. And it's got some truly inspired content, tucked away like buried treasure. If you race through the world like it's Azeroth (God forbid, seriously), you're gonna miss a ton of mysterious and exciting lore.

You just abandon him after the biawac hits. Might not be aggressive but it's definitely cruel.

I don't agree with the OP at all. Baldur's Gate 1 may seem a bit crude and unpolished to modern eyes but it's a real gem of a game, once you get into it.

...taking a **** on someone else's hard work is an easy way to make a name for yourself.

It takes a shallow person to overlook the rich lore of PoE.

The intro was pretty great.

Meh. I found the article pretty disinteresting. The author is just another attention whore trying to make a name for himself.

It started happening around level 5 or 6. I wish they'd hotfix this -- it's not fun having stupidly overpowered spellcasters.

Glad I'm not the only one who experienced this. Any way to fix it? Without using cheats? Or do I just have to wait for a patch.

I've had this weird issue where removing and re-recruiting companions seems to give them bonus spells. Durance, Aloth, and Hiravias for example have like 30 level 1 spells. I've only noticed it happening on premade companions (not custom ones). And it seems possibly to be connected to the bonus spell talents you can sometimes choose on level up.

That doesn't seem like a great build for a paladin. But if you don't want to restart, you'll be able to buff some of those stats with enchanted items. There's nothing wrong with maxing out lore, but as a paladin you need strength to be able to deliver killing blows in order to utilize some major class abilities. In my experience paladins are at their best as backline ranged support units...with an emergency hatchet/shield for offtanking purposes.

This is how I kept the combat dangerous and exciting throughout the game. It isn't for everyone. But it breathed new life into the gameplay experience of acts 2-3 for me, and I suggest others try it out. When my premade party (Eder, Aloth, etc.) reached level 8, I retired them to Caed Nua as "veterans" enjoying a vacation from life as adventurers. I created custom characters around level 2-3. I gave them all my best gear so they had a fighting chance. And with that party of nooblings (led my high-level main character) I rediscovered the danger and excitement of early Act 1. I recommend it to anyone.

Rangers start out very simple. But they gain some nice abilities as they level up. Your animal companion will learn to knock down enemies. You'll get a nice snare ability (immobilizes and damages an enemy), usable x5 per rest. And your attacks will eventually auto stun any enemy if both you and your pet are attacking it. The Ranger is not he most complex or dynamic class, but it's got mojo. And it's supposedly the second highest single-target damage dealer (next to rogues). Raedric's hold can be a pain in the butt if you're undergeared. You probably need to find a better weapon -- ideally a blunderbuss or arquebus, which have some inherent DR penetration. You can easily get your hands on a rifle by recruiting the companion Kana. But I'll refrain from elaborating (so as to avoid giving spoilers) and let you google Kana if you want his gun. Monte Carlo's post above is full of great advice. I recommend studying it.

For a while I didn't think the writers of this game had a sense of humor. Then Hiravias surprised me with his hypothesis about Pallegina's cloaca. I could not stop laughing. 10/10 for Obsidian