Slapstick87

I really don't get why they can't just all be at the same level. It's annoying as heck.

Same issue here

Same here, playing solo

If you wanted to make an easy implementation of this it could be a background. "Muse" You've been the inspiration of artists, composers and philosophers. Beguilingly elegant and gorgeous, there's been no shortage of people who've found their passions stirred to great achievements by the mere presence of your visage. You've never wanted for food or shelter, though envy and lack of appreciation for your character and ideas has been a stone in your plush, velvet shoe. Bonus: +2 Diplomacy Now if someone who could actually write something coherent made this into a background, I could totally see myself playing a female beauty if it had all the interactions to go with it

THIS! I was livid when I had enchanted a weapon with an enchant that was "ok-ish" and discovered that the one I really wanted but couldn't get at the moment disappeared. How they missed this part of the UI I can't understand.

So why make it 75% in the first place? It's just an annoyance until you cap the XP then. Because from RPG perspective, the inactive members aren't really doing anything so they don't gain as much experience as the one going around traveling. This is just a toned down version because jRPG takes it to the next level of not giving them exp at all. The only real flaw from not taking companions along is that they don't grow through special quest dialogue which affects the reputation point they have with you and your other companions. I take your point, but it's still not an argument in favor of this solution. a) If it's for the coveted 'immersion' then giving them a substantial part of the XP still breaks it. And b) I'm not really buying that it's important or even noteworthy immersion-wise. Levels are arbitrary distinctions in power that makes only a limited sense in the game world. And if I had picked Aloth back up again and found him to have similar XP as the others, I wouldn't have gone "well this is just totally unrealistic". I'm not really trying to be difficult about it, I'm just surprised if it's not more commonly opposed. It can't possibly be that anyone will look back at Deadfire and think "one thing I really appreciated is how companions I didn't use for a bit didn't get as much XP as the rest of the team. That really did it for me".

So why make it 75% in the first place? It's just an annoyance until you cap the XP then.

How come my companions don't have the same XP, preferably the same XP as me, regardless of wether they're in the party or not? I was "encouraged" to bring along Tekehu for a romp through The Gullet, and he changed places with Aloth. After going through that area and a few more side-quests, I wanted to switch back to Aloth - only to find him a couple of thousands of XP lower than my existing party and missing a level to boot. Why? I'm hard pressed to see any benefit to this, though I see a lot of con's. Con's - It discourages trying out companions you're not instantly loving - It discourages switching out party members to try out new tactics - It discourages switching out party members to get a feel for how different NPC's get along - Being "encouraged" to bring certain characters for certain parts of the game feels like the game is intentionally shoving stones into my shoe to irk me. - It's just plain annoying - I really hate it Pro's? - Making me want to play with a locked in party from start to finish probaby increases the chance I'll play it twice. Wohoo I guess? I simply fail to see any reason why it's like this... at all. It would be much much better if the entire party simply had the same XP and were at the same level at all times.

Yeah I agree! Mulling over new builds and characters is a favorite passtime of mine, and having to slowly somber my way over to the chair each time is a bit of a drag. Would be nice with a "faster character creation" option, where you just "poof" into the chair and "poof" into the ship.

This is the only part about Pillars 2 I'm quite decidedly not looking forward to. I already think it's hard to figure out how to make room in my party for "extra" characters that I want to include. If they had said "Guess what guys, 7 PARTY MEMBERS!!" I would've been overjoyed! Right now I'm trying to get through a game without a priest and proper tank so I can finally find room for what I perceive as non-essential characters for once. 2 tank/melee, 1 priest, 1 wizard is pretty much mandatory IMO. Sure you can hybridize the roles, but it's still hard to fit more than a single character rotation into a party setup with the player character filing one new role so you can try out one new character. The restrictions on party composition doesn't change, but whether or not you can include extra characters just for fluff and giggles is seriously reduced.

I just completes a normal run with a rogue - lots of fun Beginning of the game was just high stealth and almost no fighting until somewhere in Defiance Bay. Focused on high dps and killing enemies before they could kill me until mid-level where I rerolled to retaliation tank. Food and summons where used for hard/main fights, and defensive potions saw ample use. But it's just another skill button really, didn't use scrolls as I never invested in lore. Gearing requires a bit of thought, which is part of the fun imo. Rogue has just the right amount of tools and active combat skills to be entertaining, and some vicious damage so killing things was reasonably quick. I also think a monk would be a good fit for you. You will however not get entirely away from summons/food/potions etc. when you go solo. This is more of a tactical rpg, and not so much an action rpg.

Welcome to the fandom Actually fighters has so much innate defense and sturdiness to begin with, that you don't have to build them ultra-defensive. It can be much better to build some offense into them so they can be a properly disruptive force on the field. It also helps the AI not ignore them and just go for the glass canons instead, which they are liable to do if the tank is no threat. As you say, you usually don't even use vigorous defense! Rapid Recovery is generally not needed, at least not if you have a priest or druid for healing. Overbearing guard I haven't tested, but I find offensive talents more attractive. Disciplined Barrage is +20 to accuracy, which is huge. It's for anything the fighter might be doing the next 15 seconds! so the knockbacks will land, that's for sure. If you put spellbound items that charm or dominate, or scrolls, you can see how that's pretty awesome! With Armored Grace and Weapon Specialization he can ramp up the damage he can get out of a sabre quite significantly. Clear out, and then charge are all nice powers. he's still not going to go down unless you want him to I do keep vigorous defense in my build for the nastier stuff though.

A "New Game+" option that makes a solo play experience more tolerable. Such as making you unable to take companions, but also gives you immunity to hard CC's like paralyze and petrify. They can still be detrimental in some way, just not a hard CC making you dead the instant a 10 sec petrify lands.

I'm not quite sure why an "annoyance factor" is so objectionable. If I was an adventurer, trying to get to the bottom of a pit/dungeon/quest/whathaveyou, and I was so rubbish at being an adventurer that I would have to go back to town to rest all of the time, that would be REALLY ANNOYING. If I then became a better adventurer and didn't have to go back to town all the time, that would be a REAL RELIEF because the alternative is just so darn annoying. I'll concede that some people might not find it entertaining, but I'm happy that for once I'm playing a game that doesn't set out to be a "no bumps in the road" fun-fest all of the time.

I actually dislike it if dexterity/finesse becomes a defensive value that's competitive with armor. I find it utterly ridiculous actually. If you're a swordsman in the medieval times, and you know you're going to fight in a battle, and you have the option of using armor, you can be assured that anyone regardless of how lithe you are would want to put on that suit of plate. There's some very good reasons why armor was one of the most important technologies to develop and the best troops had the best armor. Of course there's a fantasy stereotype to cater to, not all medieval armor sacrificed all mobility for sake of protection, and fast agile persons are actually harder to hit than a sack of potatoes. So it agree that finesse could give a defensive bonus for those with a very high dexterity, compared to a fat slob of a man that's been drinking and eating his days away in some pub. As long as it doesn't become comparable with or a possible substitute for properly equipped knights in armor.

It really boggles my mind that they stumbled onto (well... 'worked really hard to design' is probably more accurate) a formula and combination of game mechanics that worked really well, so well in fact that the game was highly successful and beloved, and the devs then go "Right! Obviously we need to change all that!". It works just fine, and the extra layer of strategy/considerations you need to make adds some complexity to interact with. If it works, don't fix it.Change for the sake of change isn't necessarily bound to be good.

I definitively prefer a dark setting and tone, with sparse but well place humor, rather than having a dark setting too saturated with comic relief to be able experience an immersive and feelings-tugging dark-ish story. Showing people trying to cope with a hard and strenuous life, war and death, through a bit of humor is a much better experience to me than having overt comedy shoehorned into the game (Like a talking comedy relief weapon). The tone of PoE is a major part of why i like the game so much. Durance is my favorite character. I dislike the *person* - but as a character he's great and I really enjoy the writing. Eder, Sagani, Aloth, Palegina are all great. Grieving Mother I dislike through-and-through. Hiravias is a bit too obvious to me. As if they're trying too hard. I really hope they continue the current style of seriousness with occasional quips, and don't go all D:OS on it. I don't mind leaving "dead baby world", as long as I don't end up in "fantasy theme park world"

Personally I like the comic relief talking weapons. But if you were to go super serious on it, I'd like to go dark and ominous. Maybe something like the Shadow Priest Artifact Weapon Xal'atath, Blade of the Black Empire from WoW. Intermittently whispering dark, disturbing and mad thoughts and half-truths from the old gods, hinting at the future and real meaning of the universe, but never truly being comprehensible. Maybe it could have ties to Wael. Whispering ominous allusions to the true meaning of everything, secrets about the people you meet, making you question everything and yourself. Can the weapon even be trusted? What evil lurks in the minds of the gods, the turning of the wheel, and is the weapon luring you to serve the obfuscated interests of a God no one comprehends? Maybe it's best just to throw it away, and not risk its use? Or is it the dangers of using such a relic worth it for the power it offers? Or how about a holy relic of Rymrgand (my absolute favourite diety and if I can play a priest for him that will be my first character). It grants you a powerful destructiveness in combat for sure, but wherever it goes, a bleak and relentless enthropic end follows you, as the weapon interjects Rymrgands will into discussions, quests and resolutions. Are you willing to bear such misery to touch the world, believing it's power is essential to, what...? Save the world? Magic weapons doesn't have to be just a boring old soul container. I'd love to have some more mystical and dark magics being in the works. As for weapon type? A reforgable weapon that can become any weapon type is good from a game mechanics point. On the other hand, I wouldn't want it to be the one weapon I will always use regardless of class or build, so I suspect it will be a weapon that is just never useless, like a sword.

Granted I haven't read every single post, so the point may already have been made, but I think a risk with removing per rest abilities is this: If you have all tools available all of the time, all encounters must either push you to the limit to be exciting (making balancing difficult, multiple fights tedious, and optimal composition more important), or most encounters will be boring "trash" pushovers because you can go all out, all of the time. I actually think PoE nailed it with its current design. You have to manage when you use how many of your abilities to avoid losing too much health, yet save enough to cover your behind if a fight turns against you or you run into something genuinely scary. You can't rest between every fight, but must consider when to proceed or when to retreat. It just nails it bang on in terms of immersion, balance, strategic and tactical decisions. I don't think it's broken, and I don't think it needs to be fixed. If I were to change anything it might be a) wandering/hunting monsters interrupting you when resting in non-secure areas making it more important to push forward, and b) if you start clearing specific areas (like dangerous inhabited dungeons) but retreat, monsters will respawn and even FORTIFY their positions in defense against the invaders.

So far, so good. I finally went ahead with Aumaua Shieldbearer Paladin Tank #1 (15/8/8/15/17/15), Fire Godlike Barbarian Tank #2 two-hander (19/17/10/13/16/3), Cipher Warbow (17/7/12/18/17/7), Moon godlike Magran Riflepriest (18/7/14/11/18/10), Ranger (16/7/17/19/14/5), Druid (18/7/12/16/18/7). Just killed of Raedric with a lvl 5 group, and it went reasonably well. The Paladin went down in 0.2 seconds from focus fire, but some wood beetles were able to shore up the gaping hole in my frontline. I've had quite a few knockouts already, and I generally feel the group is quite squishy. I'm wondering if my con/res is too low all around. Or maybe I'm just not used to POTD. I'm still in rubbish gear and at lvl 5 I've mostly just gotten weapon focus talents. I've discovered a problem with the barbarian tank, which is that he loses grip on enemies when he does his yell because it seems to break engagement locks. All in all I'm happy to have made it well into act 2 without dying, but the team doesn't really seem to jive for some reason.

Alright, I've decided to ditch the fighter and go for a Councilor Ploi-ish Paladin tank. The accuracy boost should be welcomed for my Barbarian. Went with Coastal Aumaua, because being prone sucks. Fiery Barbarian I'm interested in seeing how a barbarian fares with the Forgemaster gloves for tough fights and scion of fire (I assume it works) for the tough fights boosted by a priest and the paladin. Will be using Tall Grass for trash, or maybe even Durance's staff!? Concidering going fire godlike. Stat spread roughly around 17/8/14/17/17/5 somewhere? Chanter Tank 17/10/5/10/18/18 ? Maybe use ravenwing to up the damage in early game, or Shatterstar for the extra guard if I can't control things as is. Undecided about race. Maybe Moon godlike, maybe Pale Elf, maybe Aumaua again. Leaning towards pale elf. Cipher Don't really know how to build this one. 18/7/10/15/18/10 might do the trick. Thinking of going for a quickswitch island aumaua gunman. I'm not sure if the focus generation will be sufficiently fast, or I should go for a bow build. Once I get to WMII the Twin Sting actually seems interesting. Which only leaves me with two spots left, and I really want a druid, priest and ranger as well. I guess the choice really stands between barbarian or ranger, but I so do want to try out stormcaller. Maybe a tankish druid such as batsh!t crazy or tanky barbarian like the golden dragon could fill the spot for either the chanter or paladin instead. Hmmm

I did a potd playthrough shortly after launch, and just now finished up a run through WMI & WMII on hard. Now I'm thinking of starting a Triple Crown game for a 100% playthrough, but I'm a) deadly afraid of Ironman mode, and b) I loathe... no, despise not having spell area visible. It always bugged the hell out of me in the old BG games, because if you play P&P it's not like you can't tell your GM where you put your fireball, so why in gods balls does it have to wild guess on a pc? One of the best things about PoE is showing where spells actually hit, and now I have to make do without it. Just because they made an achievement out of it, and by the gods I'll have it dagnabbit! *shakes fist violently* SO I would love a party that is both sturdy and relies more on foe AoE or predictable spells, and not on risky magics that's as likely to fry your enemies as it is turn that house over yonder to cinders. I'll bring my own 6 custom characters (that's a first!), though I don't want more than max 2 of any class, preferably 6 different classes. Also I love cheese. Especially for an Ironman run. Can't have enough cheese for that. I'm considering this comp a) Fighter Tank with a dose of dps. I generally like fighters, but I *might* be tempted to bring a paladin instead. b) Priest. For that godly support. c) Barbarian. Never used a barbarian seriously. Maybe a prone/stun build? d) Cipher. Ranged build I s'pose. e) Druid. Lightning storms are cool, and extra healing and summons are always welcome f) Chanter, Ranger or maybe another Cipher. Chanter is a decent 2nd tank, and has summons to boot. Ranger for stormcaller shenanigans. I haven't used barbarians or chanters more than just giving it a whirl to see what the abilities are, so it'd be more fun than "just another wizard again". Paladins apparently kick ass, but I never felt very inspired by Pallegina's performance in my previous games. There's a couple of builds I'm oogling to see if they're a good fit for me. The Anvil or Monksterlash, Consular Ploi, Bat**** Crazy, Golden Dragon. Darn, so many interesting builds I wouldn't have thought of myself. What would YOU do, if you wanted to absolutely positively just NOT die on Triple Crown?

The duplicator is best applied to a specific weapon you wish you had another of, if you run a dual-wielder in your team. Like the sabre "Bittercut" which you should find early in WM. I know "Drawn in Spring" dagger is also popular against hard enemies like dragons, but I suppose that's mostly a concern on potd difficulties. Never used it myself. I have no idea if it's the best strategy, but I generally prioritized stat increase over other abilities, and defensive abilities (+def against whatever) above utility abilities. As such, I didn't get to use most of the cool cloaks or and whatnot, but the effects seems too situational compared to the always attractive stat boosts or defense vs. status effects. I really wish they could tie some minor stat boosts to the utility items, so I didn't have to choose between 3 perception or a cloak that occasionally does this weird magic trick that might be useful, but rather it could have 2 or at least 1 stat increase as well. Also I suffer from consumable-aversion-syndrome, where I avoid using consumables and on-rest abilities because "I might need it later" to the extent that it never ever gets used. So passive effects (like shod-in-faith) > on-use effects for me. Playing a wizard is a good exposure therapy for me, but I haven't found a way to force myself to use items enough. I think I need a class that revolves entirely around drinking bottles, reading scrolls and eating freshly grilled chicken to get over the last hurdle.

In my last game I used Devil of Caroc as a semi-tanky dps character as her stats leaned that way to begin with. With a saber, small shield and some defensive items she had no problem reaching defensive values comparable to Eder or my monk. Though slightly squishier with lower health, she was excellent for wrecking the backline of the enemies without fear and could easily handle a few mobs singling her out. I wouldn't necessarily say she outperformed my two-handed Eder or my Monk, but a rogue certainly lends some unique utility with mobility, disables and some spectacular finishing blows at times Having a third sturdy character actually helped a lot and made this run more enjoyable, compared to my previous 2 tanks + 4 glass cannons setup. I built her with Blinding Strike, Reckless Assault, Escape, Finishing Blow, Withering Strike, Deathblows and Sap. In retrospect I probably didn't get enough use out of Finishing Blow, and could've used Coordinated Positioning instead.

For big fights on potd, I found crowd control to be essential. Aloth's Bewildering Spectacle should in itself make the fight reasonably doable, since it's very possible to have half of his guys kill the other half of his guys. The benefit of potd is that the mobs you confuse/dominate is also that much stronger Disable and Control, Divide and conquer. Remember to debuff. Oh, and Shod in Faith boots are really nice on potd since enemies tend to crit frequently and the heal is pretty decent for an extended period through the fight. Doesn't cost all too much either if you haven't blown all your cash on gear already.