Drath

Yea I did Mechanics on my Rogue main and yes it was pretty costly in terms of skill points. But as you say, its a roleplaying game and it wouldn't seem quite right to have a Rogue not doing roguey stuff like opening locks and detecting traps. I also didn't know better back then, so I just went with what felt natural to me. Now that you can reconfigure party companions to your liking (post-patch 1.05), you can certainly get one to specialize in Mechanics upon picking them up. That being said, there are also a few cases where Mechanics are needed in conversations... as I mentioned earlier, unless you specifically configure your main for it, you'll probably not have access to some conversation lines in any case. I don't see that as a bad thing as quests can be finished in more than one way. I would also argue that if you're playing a Rogue main, you DO want to see some battles. Why else play a dps character lol 'sides the loot is good. That's how I see the class anyway, as a swashbuckler/assassin type first and a smooth talking spy a rather distant second. Refer to the wiki if you don't think that's a realistic picture for a Rogue. On Mechanics, If you don't have enough, but still want to open locks/detect traps, these options can help a bit: a)Resting at a place that gives you a Mechanics bonus: i)Laborer's Rest, Black Hound Inn, Gilded Vale (110cp, +1 Perception, +1 Mechanics) ii)Fletcher's Stay, Fox and Goose Inn, Copperlane (140cp, +1 Athletics, +1 Mechanics) iii)Caed Nua (assuming you have built the Artificer Hall)(+1 Mechanics) b)Hoping you get lucky by opening a chest/container that has Gloves of Manipulation (+2 Mechanics, +1 Dex) If your friend is lazy and would rather metagame it, he can check the list of "random" items here and open the "right" chest on the "right" day to be assured of the gloves. Also, not being able to open 1 or 2 chests safely isn't the end of world. You can either get the tank to open it and soak the damage or come back later when you've levelled up and have more skill points to spend. Anyway the max you need is about Mechanics 12. At Mechanics 10 you can already open vast majority of boxes. My Rogue's skills for reference at L12 (includes some earned talents, but not item bonuses) - Stealth 4, Athletics 5, Lore 4, Mechanics 12, Survival 1. There are of course item drops in-game which boost Lore, Stealth, etc, so depending on what the situation requires, you can boost the relevant skill if needed. On quests needing Resolve well not all quests are like that. A good number actually test Per or Int.

My pick for pets would be Miniature Giant Space Piglet ... maybe name him Groo He's probably a little too low to go for the eyes though, maybe he should go for the nuts instead And then I could say "beware of the dark, you're likely to be eaten by a..." P/S - I don't really have one. But its a cool pet all the same

With some reviews mentioning the lack of impact of basic attributes on gameplay and a possible upcoming 1.07 change (making Perception give bonus Accuracy instead of Deflection), I figured this is probably a good a time as any to restart some discussion on it. This includes how everyone generally views the attribute system, whether we would like to see some changes made and if we need those changes now or would they be better suited to an expansion. PoE is a game that borrows heavily from DnD (from its 6-attribute system to saves to spell progression) so I'll be basing a good number of comparisons below Vs 3.5e DnD (yes I know the current version is 5e, but Josh has brought up mostly 2e and 3e/3.5e in his videos and 3e/3.5e is the version I'm most comfortable/familiar with). I heartily welcome references to other versions to make up for this. Might One common complaint with Might is that besides influencing physical damage, it also represents direct spellcasting damage and healing output, but a lot of conversation options/in-game branched options using Might appear to just reference physical prowess or strength for intimidation. But let's say we put that aside for the moment, and focus on physical damage output. Strength in DnD gives +1 damage for every 2 points for 1-handed weapons, +1.5 damage for every 2 points for 2-handers, while also providing +1 melee accuracy. Might in PoE gives +6% damage for every 2 points for any weapon. 6% for a standard average speed 1-hander such as a sword (11-16 base damage) comes out to an increase of about 0.66 - 0.96 (average 0.81) and for a standard 2-hander such as a greatsword (14-20 base damage) comes out to an increase of about 0.84 - 1.2 (average 1.02). As magical weapons in DnD give +1, +2, +3 to damage rolls and Fine, Exceptional, Superb give 15%, 30%, 45% increase over base damage (applied to 1-handers, this would be roughly 1.65-2.4 (ave 2.03) for Fine, 3.3-4.8 (ave 4.05) for Exceptional and 4.95-7.2 (ave 6.08) for Superb). Therefore, while the contributions of Strength and magically enhanced weapons are roughly equal in DnD; Might in PoE, contributes less to damage as compared to Strength and contributes very significantly less as compared to its own weapon quality, aside from the fact that Might has no effect on melee accuracy. Another worry with the current system is that Might being additive with all other damage modifiers (weapon quality, crit/hit/graze system, sneak attacks, etc), will lose its luster at higher levels in an expansion or sequel. Here, Matt516 suggests making Might multiplicative (a good idea IMHO) which would allow it to keep up with Dexterity in later levels. Considering all this, its not too surprising that some have pegged attributes in PoE as a little underwhelming. Suggestions: 1)Bumping Might to +4% damage will make the bonus a little more inline with standard DnD. Probably not a bad thing as hp totals are a little inflated in PoE. 2)Making Might multiplicative will increase its impact considerably as well, improve scaling into later levels and probably do away with the need to increase its % contribution further. Constitution Con in DnD gives +1 to hit dice for every 2 points. Con in PoE gives +6% Endurance and Health for every 2 points. Most people wouldn't dump Con on casters back then because DnD Wizzies and Sorcs only came with 1d4 hit dice (average 2.5hp/level) and the Con bonus would pose a VERY significant contribution. A modest 14 Con in DnD for +2hp every level, was not seen as unusual, and almost doubled (80%) expected hps every level. A modest 14 Con in PoE only gives +12% Endurance which is not terribly important in the larger scheme of things, considering you start off with a good deal more Endurance and gain more per level as compared to hp progression in DnD. Its no wonder that people like to use Con as dump stat or at least never increase it beyond 10. I am NOT however suggesting we follow the DnD version as an old complaint about it was that low level DnD characters were often too fragile. A compromise in some manner between the two, would probably be nice IMHO. Suggestions: 1)To discourage min-maxing and stat dumping, have increasingly severe penalties for values below 10, say -3% for 9, -6% for 8, -9% for 7 and so on. With this system, a Con of 3 would yield 16% of normal (Con 10) Endurance/Health, and a probable candidate to be 1-shotted as should be the case, if you go with traditional interpretations. Admittedly, its not as new player friendly as compared to the current system though (a flat 3% shift per stat). Dexterity The equivalent Dex in DnD is a completely different stat with no bearing on Attack Speed so it'd be a bit like comparing apples and oranges here. I'm quite glad with Dex in PoE taking the current bonuses and that the bonus speeds up all major phases (attack animation frames/recovery frames/reload frames). DPS classes will certainly find it a needed stat. That being said, it's supposed to be 3% increase in Attack Speed per point in Dexterity as per description, but upon closer scrutiny of attack frames (data and conclusion generously shared by Daemonjax here), 2.25% appears to fit the data better. So depending on what was actually intended by the devs, it might need a few tweaks. In a good number of other games, Dex is also sometimes linked to accuracy/to-hit and/or dodging attacks but it might be a little too much to tie another strong bonus to an already useful stat here, unless its contribution is pretty minor. Perception Quite different from Wisdom but I suppose that's the nearest DnD equivalent. More importantly, it appears likely that Perception is going to give +1 Accuracy per point instead of +1 Deflection per point in 1.07. While this will certainly dent the effectiveness of existing tank builds, its not necessarily a bad thing as it shores up a core stat. Accuracy is currently the odd stat where no attribute affects it and is entirely dependent on initial class, the fixed 3 per level increase, talents/abilities and the odd item. Implementing such a core change in a patch is really awkward though and I'm hoping the devs will allow a free attribute respec if the change comes to pass. Also +1 Accuracy per Perception point is arguably not really that huge. DnD had Str give +1 melee attack bonus (the equivalent of +5 Accuracy in PoE) for every 2 points and Dex for a corresponding ranged attack bonus. Couple that with a faster base attack bonus progression (+1 BAB per level for fighter types (+5 Accuracy equivalent Vs +3 Accuracy/level in PoE)) and at higher levels against weaker opponents, you might want to burn your excess attack bonus using Power Attack for more damage. PoE Accuracy bonuses on the other hand are pretty scanty by comparison. Assuming Perception also applies to spell accuracy (looks like it probably will), I expect it'll be pretty sought out by PotD casters as you really want to land every spell you cast. Unlike DnD I haven't seen any cases (AFAIK), where even when the opponent saves, you still deal half damage or at least some minimal damage. Looking at current tanking companions, Eder starts with Per 12 and Pallegina starts with Per 14 so both will be affected, becoming a little more vulnerable. Currently hitting 130 Deflection or more is certainly quite possible for a L11 Eder, self buffable to 150 for 15secs with Vigorous Defense. which is usually enough to tank most mobs effectively. Taking a -5 dip from losing Perception will make things a little more difficult but still quite doable. Intelligence Another stat with fairly different implementation, which makes comparisons difficult. DnD's Int gave bonus spells per level, affected saving throws and even determined the max level of spells you were able to learn. PoE's Int gives increased AoE range (6% per point) and added duration (5% per point). Great for crowd control, debuffing and AoE spells. Resolve +1 to Deflection for every point in Resolve +1 to Armor Class for every 2 points in Dex (DnD), which is roughly equivalent to 5 Deflection as PoE hit rolls are d100 instead of d20. Again if compared with DnD equivalents, the boost from Resolve to Deflection is fairly modest. One particular difference is DnD does not apply automatic bonuses to AC as you level up, only to base attack bonus (class dependent); whereas in PoE you get bonuses to both Deflection and to Accuracy and these are both a flat 3 per level, regardless of class. However mob types in PoE, even in the later parts (Act III) do not differ very much from the starting ones, so at some point it may feel quite possible to outstrip mob accuracy and take very little damage. The big question for me would be if such an Accuracy/Deflection system will still hold up well at higher levels or will it need a revamp. In summary, I do feel certain comparable attributes in PoE do feel a little weaker than their DnD counterparts. On the plus side, its "harder" to make a bad character as differences are smaller but to players accustomed to DnD and expecting builds to vary quite a bit in effectiveness depending on stats, they may prefer an attribute system with more impact. Finally I'm wondering if people would like to see basic attributes playing more of a role/restriction in other game aspects in terms of: 1)future talent selection (ie Power Attack could only be taken as a feat if you had Str 13) 2)weapon selection (ie Composite Bows required a certain level of Str to use without penalty) 3)influencing skills (Int influenced skill points per level in DnD, and various attributes contributed to skill checks (ie Dex modifier added to Move Silently checks)) P/S - I also have some thoughts about weighted point buy, uneven scaling and diminishing returns for stats... but I think I've ranted enough for today. Comments, discussion and constructive criticism most welcome.

That sounds quite similar to my first playthrough as well, in terms of XP gain. Did all Act II quests/tasks I could find, except the bounties and 4+ levels of Od Nua and ended up 2/3rds of the way through level 9. If I had done an additional 3 bounties, Seal of Endless Paths and Kana's personal quest as you had, plus exploration and bestiary XP for Od Nua levels 5-12, I do believe I would have ended up at roughly level 10 as well, as you have described. And yes I also agree that doing Act III at levels 9-11+ feels a little overleveled somewhat. I suspect some of these players may have been soloing or picked up companions really late. As soloing gives 50% added XP, that could account for the disparity. Devs, especially the artists and writers (or so I'm told ) like people to see their work, so I'm pretty sure they do value the completionists at some level and would try to cater to this group as well. And if they had miscalculated level gains, I don't think that should be so, as PoE XP gains are fairly easy to gauge since you have no random encounters and XP from quests is fixed and finite, assuming a 6-man party. There are not a whole lot of quests or even bestiary xp to gain in Woodend Plains and Stormwall Gorge so I'm not sure how another 2 levels came about there. If you had done everything before then, bounties, full Od Nua, L10 doesn't sound too farfetched or terribly overlevelled.

I don't think that's even possible. On a new 1.05 playthrough, I explored areas thoroughly and completed every available quest (including bounties), and it resulted in my characters being between 10-11 after completing Act II. Are you sure you didn't encounter a bug or something? Greyfox, I'm quite curious how this came to be as well as Insolentius's character levels match my own fairly well. Do you have earlier saves which show what levels your characters were, say right after killing Maerwald? Were you soloing for the better part of the game? At what point did you get a full party? As for XP bugs, I've noticed upon reentering Teir Evron to turn in quests you receive XP again for exploring it, although you've already received it previously. This can be abused infinitely by leaving and reentering if so desired. Of course that's in Act III. Haven't noticed any XP bugs in Act II or earlier but if I was given XP covertly and it didn't pop up in some message in the text box, I wouldn't have noticed as I don't check my characters for XP every few minutes.

It largely depends on how much you rest. If you don't mind resting fairly often, the casters are certainly superior and don't run into pathfinding issues trying to get into position to melee the right mob. If you're going for the "less than 10 rests" achievement or don't like using camping supplies/travelling back to the nearest inn or just simply don't like resting much (maybe imposing a self limit in terms of time taken to finish the adventure?) then the classes that don't depend on it so much will shine more, including rogues and fighters. In these cases, your rests are dictated by health and fatigue rather than spell availability. Players who want to have dps meleers but prefer to keep incoming damage on non-tanks to a minimum can also opt for reach weapons (pike, quarterstaff). Anyway I think it boils down to a matter of preference.

If you're not doing bounties, I don't think current XP is too much. In my playthrough, at the end of Act II, the party was roughly level 9 (about 2/3rds of the way through). I did all quests/tasks I could find, except bounties and only 4+ levels of Od Nua. Act III at L9-11+ does feel quite a bit on the easy side. After finishing Twin Elms content, including some of the relevant companion quests, the party was roughly level 11 (about 1/2 the way through). I then turned back to finish up Od Nua, the bounties and the Champion of Berath quest. Nalrend and his group of ogres was one of the tougher bounties for me. If you hit Twin Elms at L7, I'm actually not sure if there's enough xp to get to L12, as there aren't that many Act III quests/tasks.

Yea would be good to be a little higher there for the lower level. IIRC, I cleared the upper level at around L3 (4-man party: PC Rogue/Aloth/Eder/Durance), except the big group of Skuldrs and their king and the 4 Will O Wisps and came back for them at L4 (5-man party: added Kana) and also the lower level. Shades are pretty irritating as they tend to target the weaker party members with cold ranged attacks and have that teleport move. Take note of the icon over their heads as to what they are casting/doing and mouseover them to see which party member they are currently targetting. With some pausing, you can probably move the targetted, weaker party members away in time before they teleport in, to let the tank engage first. I used Aloth's Fan of Flames a lot here (yes sometimes it'll miss but it should do good damage when it does hit). Kana also did some damage with that Fine Estoc when he managed to hit with it. Against foes with high DR (Shades, Skuldr King) it was one of the better weapons. My rogue did the rest of the damage while Eder tanked them. Durance applied Blessing for better accuracy/damage and kept some heals going. Tried Divine Mark too if memory serves though I don't think I actually hit with it. Anyway its definitely one of the tougher encounters at lower levels and you'll probably take some damage here. If you've been to Caed Nua's keep, you can get a sword with spirit slaying at the entrance, which should also help somewhat. As for the Forest Lurkers in Black Meadow, I didn't tank them. They were obviously slower than party members and I wasn't going to risk getting a tank mauled so I just shot from a distance and retreated when they approached. Might take a while as they have high pierce DR but its less traumatic that way.

Your party setup looks similar to the one I had in midgame, so I'm quite tempted to suggest going with a Rogue as the main character. Its really up to you though in terms of what role you prefer. I would say you have enough tanks in that setup. Eder is a solid tank and so is Pallegina. Priest can be a good idea as you don't have one in the party, though I'd like to think that Paladins provide enough support (especially after the boost they got in 1.06) that you don't necessarily need one. You'll also need someone to do Mechanics too and while this is probably best served by having a companion specialize in it (if you're in the camp that would prefer your main having high Lore for convos), a main Rogue character can tackle this just fine as well while still keeping decent ranks in Lore and Athletics. You already have a good number of characters who can provide crowd control (I actually feel Grieving Mother is at least as much CC as she is DD, as she starts with Int 17 but only Might 11 and Mental Binding is one of the best CC powers) so IMHO a Rogue main is going synergize well with this group by dishing out the required high damage when mobs are disabled. I'm not too sure on making Pallegina 2-handed dps though. Might 12 and Dex 11 means she won't be hitting very hard or very often. If you strap her in plate for offtanking, that reduces her attack speed even further. Yes she does good damage with Flames of Devotion but that's basically just twice per encounter. I usually just strap on an Arbalest/Arquebus on her and let her open battles with that, get some attention and then switch to hatchet and large shield for tanking. Eder on the other hand, once you get past all the necessary Deflection abilities/talents for tanking, usually has some leftover talents if you want to make him more offensive. If you don't change his initial setup, he starts with Weapon Focus: Ruffian and you can bump that up further with Weapon Specialization, Weapon Mastery, Confident Aim, Disciplined Barrage, etc. While he doesn't have much Dex either (like Pallegina), at least he starts with Might 16.

Thanks for the headsup. This is going to be a pretty big change if implemented. As of today, it doesn't seem to be actually implemented properly though. The description on the character sheet for bonuses provided by Perception is indeed changed to Accuracy instead of Deflection. However on checking the derived attributes for Accuracy and Deflection (on the left hand side of the character sheet) these are still much the same as they were previously, with Perception contributing to Deflection and not Accuracy. Checked with an actual battle in-game and the combat rolls also indicate Perception does not contribute to Accuracy. Started a fresh new game and again rechecked in a battle. Same result, Perception still only gives a Deflection bonus and no increase in Accuracy. While it would be nice to have some attribute linked to Accuracy, I'm not too sure if its a good idea to make such a sweeping change now, when players have built their party members around Perception being a "tank" stat rather than dps. Frankly I don't mind not having this particular tweak. P/S - Bit of a rant, but with all the bugs in the earlier versions of PoE (saved file auto deletion, Sanitarium aggro, enchants not working, etc), and a thread in general discussion called: "Should POE's Final release have been called "Early Access?", you'd think the devs might be a little more cautious in pushing out half implemented tweaks/fixes for fear of confusing players further...

Crucis has already covered most of it. I'll just add that I found a good tank pretty mandatory in the early game and so I started off Eder's build as a tank (assuming your PC isn't built as one and you're not hiring one from the inn). Later on in the game, most of the abilities and talents that improve Deflection will already be taken, so you can either go with abilities/talents that mitigate damage even further like Critical Defense or go with talents that improve damage to make him a bit more offensive. Pallegina can serve as a good tank as well and in some fights with small chokepoints and enough crowd control, you really don't need more than Pallegina plus an animal companion as offtank. In those situations I was happy to let Eder dual wield sabres in light armor/clothes and weapon mastery would certainly help there.

Not sure why this would be important as all of them start with pretty basic weaponry as has been noted by other forumers and you'll soon find better weapons during play. Anyway here's the list and none of them start with flails. Aloth: Scepter, Rapier Eder: Sabre, Medium Shield, Warbow Durance: Quarterstaff with Flaming Lash, Rod Kana: Arquebus, Fine Estoc Sagani: Fine Hunting Bow, Fine Dagger, Fine Hatchet Pallegina: Fine Greatsword, Fine Pistol Hiravias: Fine Spear, Fine Wand Grieving Mother: Fine Dagger, Fine Crossbow P/S - The various Weapon Focus talents I consider to be more important rather than what they start with but that's already covered by Fardragon and manageri and is also changeable. Generally companions start with weapons which they have talents in, which would make sense and are equipped with fairly typical items for their class/background.

Yup, I wondered about them as well. Could be a cut quest or just flavour stuff (you know, like those pirates in the cave beyond the hidden door in the Sea's Bounty tavern in BG2. There never was anything connected to them). Yea I wasn't able to find anything much off those bandits or the bandit leader or the surrounding containers, so I'm going to agree with it being purely flavor stuff as well. They weren't hostile, but when a game labels characters as "Bandits", I think I should be forgiven in starting hostilities Maerwith doesn't appear to return to the Charred Barrel after you get her to go to the Lighthouse, so if you don't like the 3 pirates she was with upstairs, you can deal with them similarly too. Again they don't drop anything interesting or even worth selling much.

Let me second this suggestion for Confusion, strongly! Another option with a Cipher would be Mind Plague which will last you a while into the fight (or Tenuous Grasp if you don't have Mind Plague). Ringleader, Puppet Master and Whisper of Treason are not really great options because you need to be in combat first and the casting range is extremely short (walking right up to ogres and then spending an "eternity" just waving your hands at them is not a good idea). Yep the time which is needed for them to pull off said spells is longer than the time it takes to make a sandwich and coffee and get back to the game. For the Elder Bears, I let them come nearer and then hit them both with Hiravias's Charm Beast. So yea those irritating Ogre Druids still casted Insect Swarm and Stag Horn, only thing is this time they casted it on their own folks. Maybe its just me, but there's something uniquely gratifying seeing them bash each other over the heads... yea I know, I'm quite easily amused sometimes Had to expend quite a few spells here, the ogres are very sturdy. But between them bashing their own people, using Call to Slumber and Mental Binding when things got out of hand and lots of AoE dps on disabled mobs, its possible to get through without too much trauma.

Haha yea I think I know the one you're referring to. I was kinda prepared to fail it conversationally as duping someone is always tricky, so I'd positioned my party in a way that the less armored ones would be somewhat shielded. What I wasn't prepared for was actually getting a positive reputation increase after killing the target and no decrease in reputation on killing other mobs. Which is funny because if you tried killing a Defiance Bay noble/citizen, you can be sure your rep is going to plunge. In short I don't consider taking the brawl route as quest failure, its just another way of doing things. The quest completes, you get positive rep and lots of loot to boot lol. To be honest, I don't think it would have been fair to ask for more As for a Paladin being the party face, I don't see it as objectionable or unnatural. Back in IWD2 and older games, Paladins with their high Charisma used to fulfil that role as well, sometimes Sorcerers too. Sure, I agree that it'd be a great addition to have Diplomacy/Bluff/intimidation factored in as well but I found the current system to be workable once I got the hang of it (as in not expecting I'd be getting every single conversation option available).

A good deal of the difficulty drop in Act3 is IMHO encountering the same enemy types with hardly any increase in encounter size. You get wolves and forest lurkers in Northweald as well, some stelgaers, various beetles. Nothing you haven't encountered before. A group of wolves might be a standard challenge for a 4-man party at L3 back at Magran's Fork. The same group is trivial for a 6-man party at L10. Similarly, shades and spectres in Burial Isle aren't something new. You've seen them before, you've dealt with them before. If you could do the Lighthouse encounters, these will be no different, probably easier as there are more chokepoints. There are a few more Cean Gwlas here and their paralyzing wail can be irritating but it's possible to pull just 1 (at most 2) at a time, so no encounter should end up too damaging. The only new mob was the Adragan at Elmshore and I don't think it was terribly impressive as most encounters only had 1 or 2. Focus fire and/or paralyze it from the start and you'll end up with just a bunch of slow moving blights and beetles which can be dealt with easily. The standout fight for me in Act3 was the Sky Dragon. I think the rest can mostly be dealt with using per encounter abilities only, whether it be the bottom part of Stormwall Gorge, Elmshore or Noonfrost . That being said, I still do feel that L9 casters also factor in somewhat in terms of making encounters feel easier. You get swarmed by a good number of spiders in the Ogre cave in Dyrford crossing but Mental Binding plus Chill Fog followed by Fan of Flames spam results in stuck/blinded mobs getting in each others way while getting flamed to death. Throw in a few disabling prones from the tanks on any mobs actually reaching them and you end up with very low damage encounters which you can repeat again and again.

As noted by Darth Roxor and Decado in their reviews and also a good number of forumers here, the current skill system mostly only makes Mechanics (which you need increasingly high ranks, but can confine it to 1 person) and Athletics (which everyone needs a minimum of 2-3 ranks to reduce resting), essential skills. The rest are a good deal more situational. IMHO, it would be nice to have a system similar to the Athletics-Fatigue setup for Survival to make its effects felt throughout the game as there are few conversation checks for it and +5% Consumable duration is kinda meh, at least for me. Let's call it Survival-Hunger, whereby as a baseline: No food/drink for 1 day => Status: Hungry (stacks with Fatigue): -5 Accuracy, -2 all defenses, -10 Concentration No food/drink for 2 days => Status: Famished (stacks with Fatigue): -10 Accuracy, -4 all defenses, -2 Might/Con/Dex, -25 Concentration No food/drink for 3 days => Status: Starving (stacks with Fatigue): -15 Accuracy, -6 all defenses, -4 Might/Con/Dex, -50 Concentration And ranks in Survival extend the time before you get hit with hunger status effects. This would also make food a little more useful. Of course the details above can be tweaked. It's just a basic template. Similarly it would be nice to see Lore getting more applications, especially on say solving mysteries/puzzles, decoding scripts, gathering information etc. Crafting would also be nice to have as a skill as noted here, though a valid concern is that it would end up somewhat like Mechanics (one person taking high ranks, the rest never bothering with it). Most of the other DnD skills like Climb/Swim/Jump appear to have been collapsed into Athletics. Balance/Tumble/Move Silently are represented by Dex and Athletics or Dex and Stealth. I can't really think of many other DnD skills that could make the transition well and have enough uses in a CRPG to warrant putting skill points into it. What are everyone's thoughts on this? Would you like to have the exact same system in an expansion or would you tweak it?

I've noticed this as well. Seems like file size gets bigger as you progress through the game (my first few saves were 0.5Mb and towards the end, these were around 6Mb). Reducing stash size seemed to improve matters a bit for me (appeared to load slower when I had 6 pages of assorted weapons as compared to after I sold most items off). It's just a hunch though, might not really be so.

On the above issues: 1. Opponents with Charm and Dominate are easily some of the most irritating foes in the game. Start the fight by downing one via ranged attacks and disabling (paralyze/prone/confuse) the rest. Cipher has Mental Binding and Mind Plague whereas a Wizard can use Slicken and Call to Slumber. In some cases, I rush in a ranger's animal companion first if that's what I think would hurt my party least as opposed to another character getting Charmed/Dominated. Charmed is not so bad if you've placed said character near enough to the enemy. Even upon being Charmed, chances are sometimes it'll still keep wailing on that same target or stand there doing nothing. 2. As stated by other forumers, the AI tends to attack the nearest target in most cases but if you pause enough and redirect your party members to the right targets, this should not be too big a concern. I do back off from Charmed party members to give time for the effect to wear off. For Dominated ones which are pursuing your characters, a non-damaging ability which disables the target (ie cipher's Mental Binding) can help. 3. The vast majority of scripted conversation and skill/attribute checks are indeed for the main PC. Very occasionally there are checks where you can send another party member though. Managed to get a unique Morningstar from one of these. I think the intent isn't to be able to meet every check that comes your way but rather to make do with what you've set out with and adapt accordingly. 4. There's a pretty wide range of checks. Even with Per 12 and Int 12 I managed to meet a fair number of attribute checks with my Rogue, especially the earlier ones in Gilded Vale. Later on you'll get items with Per +3, Int +2 and the like, which extends the range somewhat. There are also bonuses from resting that can boost attributes. Of course there are also checks which require really high scores (18 and above) but there are always other routes you can take to resolve things. There isn't any quest that necessitates you to say have a Res of 18, otherwise you fail it. That being said if your friend would like to get more conversation options, I'd like to think he'd enjoy playing a tank PC (probably Paladin or Fighter) since Resolve and Perception both contribute to Deflection and are also checked fairly often in-game.

Wanted to make a fresh thread for this but since there's already a similar one, I'll just add my thoughts to this one. Seeing as this game is all about quests and tasks, with game XP heavily tied to it, I'm also wondering what was everyone's favorite side quest or task? Perhaps it was good writing. Or choices that mattered or made sense. Or different ways to resolve it satisfactorily. Or even a nice reward at the end of it all. Here are my 3 favorites in no particular order (Lots of spoilers here probably, just a warning): 1)A Two Story Job It says from the wiki that it can be received directly from Abrecan Doemenel, but I got mine from killing the thieves and then I stole the gem and gave it to him. I liked that you had to figure out who AD was in the letter and that it led to something significant. Would like to see more quests like that where it isn't immediately obvious what to do. Nothing too obtuse but finding where the gem was and sneaking by to get it without engaging Reymont guards was exciting (though I suppose you could kill everyone if you wanted to). You needed fairly high Mechanics as well to disarm the trapped chest and you got some nice loot from other containers. 2)Blood Legacy Wasn't clear how Aelys disappeared, so some exploration/investigation is needed. I liked going about asking people when they last saw her. The Skaen underground lair is nicely crafted with memorable locations like the Blood Pool. Using a Cipher to free Aelys was a nice touch, showing how different companions/classes can have an impact on the storyline. Would like to see more instances of this. Maybe have a Ranger help track a wanted criminal in the wild, picking up on footprints and other clues. The battle vs Wymund could be costly as the party is out in the open at the outset. I remember expending a Call to Slumber here to ease matters. And of course you get murder Wymund and Harond both if you're into that. I told Aelys to seek refuge at the temple, wanting to check on her later again. Didn't see her there though and the priests there had no further conversation options. Was thinking that could use a few added lines perhaps. 3)Buried Secrets It was nice that you could resolve this quest in quite a few different ways (Confront Wirtan, give him the remains, let him go, kill him outright without any conversation, deliver remains to Urgeat instead). I liked the design of Temple of Eothas and that you had to figure out a bell puzzle to pass. There really should have been more of these in the game and tie them in with some skills, like Lore perhaps (which is a bit underused IMHO). Honorable mention: The Long Hunt, Lord of a Barren Land

Apart from the items, I think you also need to consider the talents each faction gives, before tweaking. The Knight talent is obviously geared towards a tank or a tankish main character. A tank won't need say the extra crit multiplier from Doemenels, by comparison. As for the sword, it isn't impressive mostly because getting Valiant to activate requires going below 50% Endurance. While it would be good for dps characters if it activated, personally I'd really prefer not getting them hit in the first place. The sword could be equipped on a tank, which probably might increase the chance of activating Valiant. But if your tank is clad in plate (fairly typical) and suffers considerable recovery penalties, I find it doubtful that the added damage would be significant. I suppose if you keep on playing with characters at Critical Fatigue, you could get Valiant to activate pretty often, offsetting the Accuracy penalties. The Dozens talent is fairly useful for most classes and getting it to activate shouldn't be hard in battles, unless you're soloing or going with a limited party. Its at its best when operating at the +0 to +10 (Accuracy - enemy Deflection) range, where you're effectively converting misses to crits. Its also strong at lower ranges where you really need to land that hit to overcome DR. At higher accuracy where you're only converting grazes to crits, it doesn't have that much of an impact, especially with enough positive damage modifiers that your grazes inflict significant damage. The bow as praised by quite a few people, is a great weapon no doubt and good to have for ranged combatants, of which most balanced parties will have some. Finally the Doemenels. The value of +0.25 crit multiplier (or +0.3 if the devs ever get to correcting it in a future patch) really depends on how often you crit. This is rather difficult to assess as the enemy Deflection tends to vary quite greatly over different mobs. This is further compounded by PotD having higher values and also with various buffs and debuffs (Paralyze, Sky Dragon's Terrifying aura, etc) coming into play. I haven't really run any figures but my gut instinct would be that this talent might be a little better for crit-focussed Rogues. For other dpsers, I'd probably stick with +5 Accuracy from Dozens, if playing on PotD.

Googled a bit and came up with: http://www.usgamer.net/articles/what-faction-should-i-choose-in-pillars-of-eternity Seems like the favor part might be opting for more Stronghold protection. Doesn't really appeal to me but YMMV. As for Misery's End, I agree that while its fairly decent, you may have equal or better 1-handed weapons at that stage. My party doesn't really have a lot of people using 1-handers for dps and I already had Ravenwing and Resolution at that stage, amongst others. Didn't notice any option for money or favor for Dozens during my playthrough (supported by the above linked article). Cloudpiercer with its Jolting Touch proc is a really nice weapon though, especially in view of a lack of unique Warbow drops in the early game (for me at least). Ordinarily you might not be getting a whole lot of crits, but once an opponent is Paralyzed (from say Mental Binding or other means), chances go up very significantly.

Was going to type something rather long but I see Omnicron has already covered it I do think the vendors fit the faction's specialty/theme pretty well, exceptional heavy armor for Knights, exceptional bows for Dozens exceptional firearms and roguish gear for Doemenels. As for which faction should be chosen, roleplaying reasons aside (doubtless every faction has its own flaws but I think most goodie do-gooders would probably default to the Knights ), it largely depends on your class/role. Have a look at some previous discussion: https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/79566-3-factions-question/ Finally, here's the testing for peddroelm's correction. And thanks for testing http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/78474-the-merciless-hand-talent-doemenels-broken/ P/S - Didn't know the Doemenels gave a choice of 20k instead of the dagger (I went for the Dozens during my playthrough, Doemenels were a bit too mafia-ish for my taste). Hmm, seriously could probably make another better weapon with the copper by crafting... not to say money is scarce in the game of course...

Yep I gave said shield to Eder. Fast way to up his Deflection. Speaking of which, I'd have ripped a new one off the nearest house if I had known making large shields was that simple. PoE: The game where you are allowed to kill villagers but you cannot vandalize houses.

Party of own making, fully customizable and combat oriented brings to mind IWD2 more than BG2. Both were good in their own right certainly. On my subsequent PoE runs I took different classes, barbarian, ranger, monk to see how differently they worked out. so yea some companions weren't used much. On PoE NPCs leaving the party, well... Aloth and Pallegina have some fairly strong opinions about animancy too. But yea PoE companions don't react to your dispositions much as far as I can tell. The DnD alignment system is fairly black or white though, with not very much in between. It has its own charm certainly, but I was thinking perhaps an affection/approval meter could also be good? In Dragon Age: Inquisition, you got fairly varied reactions from each companion depending on As for making premade characters a little more special/unique in terms of gameplay mechanics, maybe make them gain a few additional stats or get an additional talent or skill after resolution of his personal quest? I was actually hoping Hiravias got something a little more substantial after he finished his personal quest, with all the description of autumn glow settling into him.