[My biggest complaint about Pillars of Eternity? I miss the Magic Missile.]

And I think the Magic Missile spell is a good example of what I don't like about magic in Eternity.

 

(For those who don't know, Magic Missile is a D&D level 1 spell that most wizards or sorcerers start out with). The Magic Missile spell was awesome in the old IE games because it scaled with your level--the higher your level, the more missiles you could shoot, the more missiles you could shoot the more damage you could do.

 

It was great. That made the Magic Missile spell useful even at high-levels. It was also a great visual indicator of character growth. When I hit level 2 in Baldur's Gate, for example, I don't feel like I'm getting stronger because I can do slightly more damage and have slightly better stats--I feel stronger because instead of shooting out one dinky missile, I shoot two. And then hours later when my wizard is blasting 10 missiles from each fingertip--that feels truly badass.

 

Which brings me to Pillars of Eternity.

 

None of the magic (that I've seen so far) scales with the player, so low-level spells very quickly lose relevance. There are also no visual or mechanical changes to the spells... and that's really disappointing to me.

 

I love Pillars of Eternity, don't get me wrong: it's almost everything I'd hoped it would be. But I always play a wizard/sorcerer character in games like this, so it's disappointing to see that Pillars of Eternity is yet another in a long list of CRPGs that simply fails to (even try to) reach the same level as the old IE games.

 

 

Magic missile has always been op in the past IE games and pen and paper D&D, I've played a lot of 3.5 with the correct feats magic missiles will do a whopping 300++ damage (can't remember exact numbers) no need to roll for damage cause it's maximized oh and did I mentioned that it's also quickened?? LOL and yep you guessed it no save, no defense against it outside of magic resistance (I f****** hate autohit spells). Now that said most people are ok with it (personally I think it's op) because it uses up spell slots. In 4th edition not so anymore.

 

Spells scale in the past games because it "always" use up spell slots, they don't scale in POE cause later on lvl 1 and 2 spells shift to per encounter instead of per rest. This is the only first installment of POE, I'd imagine if an expansion or POE2 comes out they will raise the cap introduce new spells and maybe lvl's 3-6 spells will shift to per encounter.

 

Spellcasting classes in POE are OP as it is, they hardly fail because of the graze mechanic. Your lvl 1 slicken or lvl 1 natures mark is still effective even in the endgame. You just need to get a graze.

[Simple Fix for Many of the Game's Combat/Balance Problems]

People will just abuse the AI and mobs will die to disengagements attacks a lot. Then people will then suddenly complain that the AI is dumb.

[A suggestion battle playback/replay feature]

Would it be nice to add a save replay battle feature. With all the pausing, especially in large battles it would be nice to see how it plays out in actual real time. Now I'd imagine with the current system save files get bloated, I'm no modder but maybe limit said files to 3 or something.

[What exactly is a stronghold "turn" ?]

Yep I agree. I personally don't hire hirelings and manual resolve every attack on my keep that way you actually "gain" money maintaining the keep.

[Magran flames?]

Mine are lit must be a bug.

[What class do you play as?]

 

Storm of Vengeance

 

A 9th level spell? This first installment of PoE is a low-mid level campaign (not that that stopped the devs from giving casters game-breakingly powerful spells like mass Petrify, mass Paralyze, mass Confusion...).  Priests do get a number of powerful Burn damage spells, especially the higher level ones. They're one of the few classes I think it makes sense to give Scion of Flames.

 

Yes I know, like I said I was "EXPECTING" them to be on par with 3.5 clerics which are complete powerhouses... y'know given Obsidian's history with D&D based games.

[What class do you play as?]

I rolled a priest first expecting it to be as equal as the D&D 3.5 cleric. Was disappointed cause of the lack of offensive spells, not saying that priests aren't a good class they are just well suited for support in PoE. Rerolled a druid atleast this class has a spell that resembled Storm of Vengeance, shame that wearing full plate has a huge downside still.... This is the class that reminded me the most of 3.5 clerics.

[I don't understand combat in this game...]

You might also want to check spell descriptions "FOE AOE" means it only targets enemies so don't be afraid to target spells on top of your party, "AOE" means it targets everyone within the red circle but doesn't hurt your allies in the yellow circle the higher the intelligence of the caster the bigger the yellow aoe becomes. This is also the same if the spell has "FOE BEAM" and "BEAM".

[Bug: Hiravias can cast too many 1st level spells.]

My Aloth has the same problem as well, he is currently at lvl 10 with 10/10/10/10/3 spells per rest. He did have telda's ring and ring of the solenan equipped.

[For the love of Eothas nerf petrify.]

The dice for this matter doesn't matter they can still make the same mechanic using a d20 dice, although the accuracy and save bonuses that we get now in PoE will come in decimals.

[Caster accuracy (Cipher/Chanter average; All others very low)]

Spells hardly ever fail in PoE cause of the graze mechanic, cause of this status effect spells are really really strong. In the past games you either miss or hit.

[Per encounter spells]

So apparently not only does the wizards low level spell become per encounter, but it applies to all spells i.e. priest and druid too?

 

I can't remember reading this anywhere in the game or level up, spells just seems to reset after encounters.

As Druids/Priests/Wizards gain power, their weaker spells eventually shift to per encounter use. It all says says this at character creation.

[For the love of Eothas nerf petrify.]

I personally think its the graze mechanic, I suppose grazes are ok when it comes to damage but debuffs are still effective when you graze. Petrify graze for 10 secs is just ridiculous.

[Edér lost his weapon focus]

I noticed this one as well. Was playing yesterday, recruited Eder he's lvl 3 same as my PC and checked his stats and his weapon focus is there also with defender stance iirc, decided I'm not happy with my character rerolled another one today though this time, I went straight to Gilded Vale (ignored the wolves and bandits with the chef in valenwood) recruited Eder he's level 2 this time (my PC is level 2) and noticed that he doesn't have his weapon focus and defender stance, figured I'd just get those the next level  and to my surprise I can only select 1 fighter talent.

 

All of this is in patch 1.03 btw playing on steam if that makes a difference.

 

Edit: not guardian stance it was defender stance.

[Scion of Flame, Heart of the Storm, Spirit of Decay and Secrets of Rime.]

http://i.imgur.com/1AGdxCj.jpg

 

 

Seems like it works. I'm going over the tooltip's damage on a character with no DRs.

Well at least scion of flame works. Still would be nice to get a dev resopnse, its like what Hatred said kinda hard to test these things.

[Scion of Flame, Heart of the Storm, Spirit of Decay and Secrets of Rime.]

Yes

 

From what I've read, they are supposed to improve spells. Does that spell you did the test with definitely do elemental damage? I'm only asking as some may have an elemental sounding name but do other damage such as crush.

Yes winter wind does freeze damage.

[Scion of Flame, Heart of the Storm, Spirit of Decay and Secrets of Rime.]

Do these talents work with spells?? Cause it's not showing the +20% damage on my spell sheet. And tested secrets of rime with winter wind (50 "hit" attacks) and I'm not noticing any difference.

[Male spell chanting voice/spell casting voice too low.]

I just tested all the voices for male:

 

Voices that have very low casting sounds (barely audible):

 

-Sinister

-Noble

-Mistic

 

Voices that have med casting sounds (Audible but a bit more would be nice):

 

-Stoic

 

Voices that have a good audible sound (Perfect):

 

-Feisty

 

 

I hope there is a way the devs can tune up the volume on the first 4 because i dont like Feisty that much, tough his casting is badass.

Roughly the same as my problem though, I would say that stoic is the same as others and Feisty is spot on.

[Priest combo attacks?]

bump... Anyone??

[The Official Romance Thread]

I'd really like to see a character who "constantly" flirts/hits on the protagonist. Even if you say no, that said character will still try from time to time to hit on you.

[Priest combo attacks?]

What are priest combo attacks? http://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Priest

 

I'm fairly early into the game will it be introduced later on??

[Question about Aloth casting spells]

Is your character male by any chance? I think I'm having the same problem as you I think its a bug not sure. Posted my issue here http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/75479-male-spell-chanting-voicespell-casting-voice-too-low/

[Male spell chanting voice/spell casting voice too low.]

bump

[Male spell chanting voice/spell casting voice too low.]

Male spell chanting/casting voice is too low... it's there, but the volume is too low almost to the point that you can't hear it. Female's voice is loud and clear also for some reason, I recruited Aloth and his spell chanting volume is ok. Tested with a priest and wizard for both male and female and the chanting voice is too low on males.