Elgyn

I think unique is just used improperly in that sentence. I personally cannot recall any special spell that only came from a grimoire.

That's not true at all. It's much like the movies. If Movie A makes 30 million off a 3 million budget, the studios take notice. If Movie B makes 150 million off a 100 million budget, a lot of times they shelve that franchise. As for the DnD edition wars, I won't really get into that. Sword Coast Legends is going to live or die by how good it's story is. If the story is good, it won't matter if it's a bastard version of 5E or not.

When story NPC's are involved, I like as many as possible. I want all the interactions, all the banters, all the story. If I'm doing something like IWD, or just an adventurer party in this game, I like 4 NPC's. The classic set-up of tank, dps, healer, caster.

It's not a top tier ability by any means, but I've gotten some use out of it. Pushing someone from Red to Yellow, or Yellow to Green after a fight, or even using it mid combat for someone who was low red and starting to get the limited health. I don't understand why Kana himself had the ability though. It doesn't seem to really mesh into his character concept (that I can recall) as well as some of the other picks.

Thanks but that's not really the issue I am worried about. I had never seen him w/o the weapon focus, so I was worried the game was bugged and God knows what else would mysteriously vanish from my characters later on. However, I guess I just recruited him a little too early or Obsidian changed Eder gaining a free weapon focus. I'll have to make a new character and get him to the Vale and check and see.

I'd love to see a RIFTS video game. (Not counting that N-Gage handheld quickie of a game.) I never really liked the system Palladium uses, but I love that setting.

I quite enjoyed Shadowrun: Dragonfall, thought Shadowrun:Seattle was pretty decent, enjoying the hell out of Pillars of Eternity, and dyyyyyying for Star Citizen and Torment. I'm pretty happy Kickstarter is around.

Sadly, WOTC trashed that world as part of their big '4th edition is the greatest thing ever,' push. Now it's just a generic points-of-light fantasy setting.

It would be in Talents and Abilities. AFAIK, there's nothing that says 'You may engage: X' in the character sheet however. It's just thought that if it doesn't say anything, it's one, if it's more, it's in the description of an item/ability you have. A character can engage one target only base-line. Abilities like Defender increase this number, as do Talents like Hold The Line. Some items even increase this number as well by having the Guarding enchant, such as a rapier you can find pretty early in the game.

Thanks for the replies. I will have to go back to an old save and check, but I thought I grabbed him at level 3. I could be wrong however. So you are saying Ruffian is basically a flavor talent he gets for free at a certain point, and he's not actually missing any talents?

So, I started a run to mess around until the big patch hits and noticed Eder was having a lot of difficulty with landing hits compared to normal. Checking his character page I realized he didn't have Weapon Focus: Ruffian. I can't think of ever picking him up and him not having this weapon focus. (Don't get me wrong, being able to select a different weapon focus for him sounds amazing, I'm just worried if this is broken what else is borked with my save?) Did something change between my last game start and now? He's level 3 and has the talents in attached file.

Cipher is my favorite, however I have had a lot of fun playing as a melee Rogue and as a Wizard.

It's doable at four. Big things is the Archmages have to die first, and then the Champion. If you are getting overwhelmed, you can use the doorway across from the throne steps as a tanking point and have your casters rain spells safely from behind. Kana's summons also work well as distractions during the fight. You also could go hire an adventurer for the fight (even if it's just for the one mission) if you want another meatshield to protect your backline.

Oh man, the Orlan he just posted is fantastic. Nnnn, need more male Orlan portraits!

Yeah, see, it's one thing for the foreigners to curse in foreign tongues. But when the game spells "duke" and "earl" as "duc" and "erl," even though the pronunciation and meaning are identical, I kind of feel like the writing is being a little self-indulgent. Just a little. (Now, if it were pronounced "duck," on the other hand, that'd be awesome.) I could be wrong, but I thought those were the old Norman and French spellings of the words we now say as 'Duke' and 'Earl'. I get your point though. I just think that Pillars was trying to be consistent with it's language instead of just pulling off letters from real world titles like Bioware does quite a bit.

I'm a freak. I just love reading those massive walls of descriptive texts.

I always thought the RED ring was for FOEs. Is this right? Is the YELLOW ring foes only then? If so, I have understand magic the opposite way, LOL. The Red Ring (inner ring) is the spells normal size, which can damage anyone in it's radius. If it's a foe only spell, then you are safe putting it anywhere. If not, it will damage your party. The Yellow Ring (outer ring) is the spells expanded size through Int, and it only targets enemies for direct damage spells. You will still catch your own party with say Slicken or Chill Fog if friendlies are in the ring, but a Fan of Flames won't effect them. Edit: I can't spell this early in the day!

How do you keep the wizard alive on POTD? Won't he go down in a few hits? Yes. It sounds like a smart-ass reply but I don't mean it that way, but you just don't get hit. I'm currently playing with a PC Wizard on POTD (With Aloth as well) and there is just a lot of positioning and peeling involved, and I even had to cast that Priest spell (name escapes me atm) that fades you out of combat for a few seconds in Eothas temple when ALL the bloody shadows decided to hop on my PC. As you start getting more and more CC, it starts to become pretty routine to keep a Wizard from getting tagged during fights. I'm actually playing without a Cipher this run, but if I had Mental Binding I don't think I'd ever really be worried about something getting on my caster.

I sort of envisioned the character as akin to some swashbucker/mage and blade builds I did in BG2. So I decided to make him into a dual-wielding melee character. What you probably wanted was a dual wield Cipher. Perhaps something like a rapier/stiletto combination for RP-Swashbuckler look, or perhaps many of the other weapon mixes. The Cipher is basically the Fighter-Mage (Fighter-Psion actually) in the game. If you want to mageblade, it's the class easiest suited for it. I don't understand how to use mages in this game. Almost all of the offensive spells seem to be AOE, which are damn hard to aim correctly. My biggest use for him is to paralyze (via fetid caress) and let the other characters whack the hell out of the baddies. The trick is to use the second AOE ring (the yellow) which is FOE only. The more INT Aloth has, the larger the yellow ring is. Also, there are Foe only spells which you can just cast to your hearts content. Since you are a BG vet, micro-managing a mage will come second nature to you, and you will notice Aloth will really start to shine. Just learning how to position for Fan of Flames could carry Aloth through most of the game. Mages have a power curve much like BG. At first they don't seem very special, by mid game they are really coming into their own, by late game they can rain hell on the enemy every single fight (since Level 1 and Level 2 spells become encounter instead of daily.). You don't spell duel like you did in BG though. Mages are either buffer/debuffers, or AOE nukers for the most part. And by running multiple grimoires, they can do this pretty much at the same time if need be. I really like Mages in this game (I do think the magic system needs a little work though) and don't think they are anywhere near useless like you see come up in some threads. Durance: Due to his quarterstaff, he ends up in melee more than I'd like. Give him a gun, give him talents for a gun, watch him curse and shoot from the backline effectively. The Heal spells work pretty much like every other game, his Seal line of spells is really good (I especially like Repulsion), and with his mechanics he should also be able to lay traps for you for ambushes. He also does really well buffing your party/debuffing the enemy in tough fights. Ionic whatever (Spark?) is another really decent spell as it's a slight-aoe frost damage to enemies, while giving heals to your party. I've played Durance quarterstaff first but it's not that great. Kana: Seems okay, but aside from using a gun, he's sort of a repetition of my character (even knows most of the same chants). I only have him in because I haven't found more story NPCs yet. I'm sure you know you can make your own chants, and that's the huge power boost of the Chanters. Non-stop party buffs which can lead to much stronger team fighting. The rapid reload is a personal favorite of mine. His summons can also be game changers, especially the shadows with their bloody perma-stun capabilities. You can also use Link spells with his summons (or Ranger pets) to really mess up enemy packs by placing the summons behind the enemy and then linking to them with your caster. I like using Kana as a float. He has an Estoc for damage, a Flail and shield for emergency tanking, and a rifle for safe damage when he's singing the rapid reload chant. Sagani: Just got her a short while ago. I don't mind her so far, but I hear rangers suck. Still, It's sort of upsetting that I keep getting squishy ranged characters and casters. I don't like Rangers in this game with how they are currently built. Maybe someone else will have some tips for you.

Out of the two you listed I would go with either a Rogue or a Cipher. They are both are more interactive compared to other classes, and both are very strong. The Rogue has several abilities not only to get in position and then do damage, but to disengage or control the opponent they are fighting. If you don't want to bother with any finger-waggling, go with the rogue. There isn't a Rogue NPC past the tutorial, so unless you were going to hire an adventurer, you can fill a unique spot in a story party with this character. The Cipher is just a fun class to play, don't worry about any 'bandwagon'. It's basically the gish/fighter-mage of the game, and that class combination has always been super popular. My favorite character is a Hearth Orlan Cipher with a pike and a firearm of some type to fall-back on. Amazing control of the flow of fights, interactive class, great damage potential and has tools for any situation.

It can trick you because there's a block of higher quality weapons, then a block of normal gear, then another block of higher quality gear - which the buckler is hiding in.

Would it be possible to tie XP penalties to difficulty modes? Say Hard mode is -25% XP, POTD is -50% (or whatever numbers you want.). It wouldn't solve all problems but it seems like that would be a quick and easy fix for how easy it is to over-level the games encounters at the moment.

There is a merchant who sells diamonds, sapphires, and all that in The Gift. I've never checked to see if he restocks the items though.

It's a PotD thread on the fight. I'm not a difficulty elitist (people should play whatever level they consider fun imo) but you can't really compare Hard to PotD. I ended up quitting my hard run of the game in Act 3 because I hadn't even had one character suffer a knockdown, much less come close to a party wipe, and was just getting bored.

Well, I meant more along the lines of SCS-type behavior. Not actually SCS modded by DavidW for Pillars. I halfway agree as I would like to see xp slowed down, but I still would love to see smarter enemies/targeting patterns and more dangerous spellcasters.