SpitefulOne

Same, started a new play through and Xoti’s companion quest is stuck at finding an Adra pillar after talking to the animancers and dumping the souls.

The final discussion is about faith and free will. Iovara isn't really an atheist. She is against manufactured religion because she does not see religion as merely a social construct to control people but as an exercise in Faith. The Engwithans could not prove that a God or Gods existed and lacked the faith to believe without proof so they decided to create Gods which didn't require faith and could be used to provide guidance and meaning to people. Iovara argued that the Gods were false and that they were robbing people of their chance to have faith and find their own purpose and meaning by tricking them. Thaos argues that false purpose and meaning is better than no clear purpose or meaning when the answer cannot be proven and must be taken on faith (different religions fighting, differing beliefs, lack of faith entirely). Iovara argument is that truth must be reached subjectively and by taking a leap of faith which is very similar to Kierkegaard's arguments.

She wasn't saying that gods didn't create the world. She was saying that if there were gods out there, the Engwithans didn't have the means to detect them nor were the Gods blatantly communicating with people. The Engwithans created Gods because they couldn't handle functioning on faith.

Actually, I didn't have Survival at all, the town crier mentioned the kid cutting off his fingers, but I still encountered the father, with no mention of finger removal. I just assumed it was a bait and switch type thing, with me feeling bad because of the crier, but it turning out it was actually another kid. May have been a bug, though. Interestingly, I was also attacked by assassins in Brackenbury, who killed Serel (I couldn't stop them fast enough/didn't realize they were going to attack her.) I don't think they're meant to attack her, I actually reloaded so that I could intercept the assassins before they killed Serel. I think she's just not in their 'faction' so the AI decides she's valid target. But I disagree with the main post. What you do does matter to all of the people you interacted with in the course of the game. You actually do shape the fate of the nation with many of your choices, it just isn't as blatant or didn't turn out exactly the way you wanted it to.

Food works for conversations. You can use the dragon egg or dragon meat meals to raise your resolve before a conversation. It's expensive but it works.

Yeah, I mentioned vaguely that KotOR2 is Kreia's story somewhere in this thread. You are right about KotOR's characters, although the plot wouldn't happen without Bao-Dur since only he had the codes needed to operate the device on Malachor, but otherwise yes. Most of them still have some ties to the narrative though. I think if Obsidian were given more time with KotOR 2 they would've been developed even more, the restoration mod by itself gives a lot of insight about what could've been. I never mentioned that every single companion had to be important or involved in the main plot, but they at least have to have a reason to come with you. BG 1 and 2 really aren't bastions of writing and I haven't mentioned them anywhere. I agree about them though. I don't want a KotOR sequel, I just want coherent companions ;p The companions being well developed is not true. They have so little screen time and that screen time is used to give exposition and play therapist. And they are "used to tell the story of the watcher"? What does that mean? What "story" would that even be? Thaos and co.? The companions have *nothing* to do with *anything* related to the PC or the main plot, so I don't know what you mean. See, you're not capable of getting it. How the main character interacts with the companions and responds to their struggles defines the main character, Its not about the result but the process which can be said for most of the game and how many people are complaining about how their choices don't matter. It all depends on if you think the ends justify the means or vice versa. If you're all about the end result then you will not like this game since it is mostly about how you interact with the game. It's a major theme in this game.

I think we both can agree that the companions in general aren't very well developed and used. Kind of meaningless to have companions when that is the case since exposition can be delivered by other NPCs that aren't your companions. You can just use the adventurer's hall. It is a waste and I do hope Obsidian would do it better in the sequel and I KNOW they can, because of all their other titles being amazing in this regard. We already talked about this and came to the conclusion (or maybe I just did) that even if that was true it doesn't go anywhere and it isn't supported by anything within the game. There is no "pattern of unanswered questions" and the game doesn't really bring up any kind of meaningful questions. It even gives answers to questions that weren't even asked and/or were made up in the last half of act 3. ;p This is exactly where we're disagreeing. We are all telling you that the companions are well developed and used to tell the story of the watcher. They're just not integral to moving along the plot. I'm guessing this is just a concept that's beyond you at this point.

Guess you'll just have to be disappointed that they designed the companions as a way to define the PC and not as plot vehicles. You always have the next Final Fantasy to look forward to.

I don't really know what you want or what you expected at this point and reading your posts. Forced party composition, unkillable companions and heavily integrated plot characters are all very JRPG traits. The companions in PoE exist to provide more flavor to the world and act as a sounding board to find out the character's stance on the big issues. They don't drive the plot because they can all be replaced by a mercenary or completely ignored. So you are right, they don't drive the plot that's not really a bad thing. Certain characters can interject at certain junctions in the plot if you've brought them along but it was all designed so the companions would be optional.

Hylia on one character because the whole quest had become about making sure to complete was Calisca could not by saving Aufra's child.

That's them, I was just surprised that there was nothing about it in the ending slides. I had expected the nice choice of helping them to have resulted in a new Vithraki kingdom starting up in Gilded Vale or something.

The stories of his death have been greatly exaggerated.

They only needed enough proof to convince themselves of this truth. They used the technology at their disposal to prove that there were no beings that they would define as a deity that they could detect effecting their world in anyway they could measure. This was enough to convince them to draw the conclusion that there were no deities. They had zero evidence of a being that they would classify as a deity which was enough for them to assume that they don't exist since they had nothing to give them hope that they did. You can prove a negative by the way, if you establish that there's no proof that it's positive.

Who says it was a random accident? It could have all been orchestrated by Eothas without you knowing.

The device woke you by causing the second biawac. The first was probably caused by the first guy (just an ashen statue by the time you arrive).