EphemeralToast

Your choice may depend on how "off" they are, I suppose. Moon Godlike is always a strong choice for a party member who will be getting hit, especially since you're not going to have a priest, those extra heals will be helpful. A Barbarian has ungodly terrible deflection so the WIld Orlan's racial will help that in fights where an enemy is spamming fear aura or what have you, and a Pale Elf's will help in dragon or shade fights. The Coastal Aumaua resistance helps greatly against 2 of the worst disables for a tank to have, again extra useful without a priest. If you want to focus more on the DPS side of things, a Hearth Orlan is strong. A Human is an ok choice for Barb if you like to live dangerously, and there are a couple Barb abilities that thrive on low endurance. Ultimately you can pick any race you like and be successful, though. Also, I don't know about Monks, but Barbs can be superb in the second row with a reach weapon. Buy Tall Grass ASAP and have fun. Obviously limits their tanking ability to a certain extent, of course.

What shops sells regents/ingredients? And when do they restock? In Defiance Bay: -One of the outdoor merchants in Copperlane sells minor gems -The guy standing outside the Vailing Trading Company in Ondra's Gift sells minor gems and creature parts -A sketchy dude sells the more expensive gems in Ondra's gift, only at night and only if you know his password. You can find it during a certain Act I quest. In Dyrford Village, Hendyna, the lady with the outdoor alchemy cart, will sell more ingredients when you do a quest for her. There are many more merchants in Act III. I don't know when they restock exactly. Seems like at least a day has to go by while you're elsewhere. You will also have your own supply of ingredients if you build the herb garden and the curio shop in your stronghold.

1. There is only one fight in the game with 4+ fampyrs. It's considered to be one of the hardest fights in the game. It's also optional. And yes, I would say level 10 is too low for that fight unless you intentionally want to make it an even bigger challenge. Fampyrs are among the most dangerous enemies in the game but you will usually not face more than 1 at a time. If you focus ranged fire on them or start the fight with a strong disable you can often avoid having anyone charmed. A dead fampyr casts no charms. 2. Yes, if Auto-Attack is turned on your companions will sometimes attack a charmed party member. This is annoying but it can be avoided with vigilance and the pause button. The combat in this game is built around frequent pausing so you'll be doing that anyway. As for party members "wandering into" fireballs, well, that is either a result of the character killing an enemy and running to Auto-Attack another one, or your friend not practicing proper fireball safety! 3-4. As has been noted, I suggest you build your character the way you want and don't worry too much about the conversation checks. Reputation is the other major thing that unlocks dialog in the game and you'll get that naturally simply by [role]playing. But if you are dead-set on being able to complete quests in the most peaceful way possible (or tell tremendous lies), then play a tanky character and invest in maximum Res. It's the only stat that frequently unlocks resolutions you can't get in other ways, and takes the highest checks to do so.

Aloth has a surprising amount of dryly sarcastic lines for a guy who's supposedly so uptight.

Thanks everyone, I appreciate the guidance. I have always felt pretty terrible about murdering these poor idiots and I will happily use metagame knowledge to avoid it. ETA: Yeah, it is unfortunate that so many peaceful quest resolutions are tied to ultra-high Res so you'd never really be able to get them other than by playing a PC tank. Fortunately this interaction seems to be an exception.

I've tried several different responses to the drunks who are fighting with Aloth outside the inn in Gilded Vale and every time it ends with me having to murder a bunch of villagers as my very first act in the town. I'd just like to know if there is actually a way to resolve this standoff in a peaceful manner so Aloth doesn't have to tell me his life story over a bunch of gibbed corpses. I'd appreciate it if anyone could help save me a few reloads here. Thanks.

You mean Disciplined Barrage disappeared entirely from your spell bar? That sounds like a bug. A screenshot would be helpful to confirm though.

Tax money is added directly to your funds as far as I can tell. Quest rewards, however, should indeed be in the chest.

Yes, it does change. I supported the Knights but told them the Forge Knights were a bad idea and took the "middle path" at the hearings. In my ending, the Knights returned more to their roots as smiths and remained protectors of Defiance Bay. I considered it a "good" ending.

Description: I chose to scare off the merchant Rinatto in the Twin Elms quest by threatening him. He left town, then was waiting in Elmshore to ambush me with some pals. I killed him. Now, he is standing by the bar in the Celestial Sapling very much alive. He does not say anything when I click on him and seems very unconcerned that he is, in fact, dead. Steps to Reproduce the Issue: 1. Finish the "Hard Bargain" quest by using the Deceptive/Might dialog options to make Rinatto flee. 2. Go to Elmshore, kill Rinatto during ambush. 3. Return to the Celestial Sapling and find him in the bar. Link to savegame showing RInatto "alive" in the bar after being killed: https://www.dropbox.com/s/8nhfelpk6q040tz/29f2cf08a1b2472395d16147afd052df%2015622344%20TheCelestialSapling.savegame%20.zip?dl=0 System specs Macbook Pro 15 inch mid 2012 2.3 GHz Intel Core i7 8 GB 1067 MHz DDR3 Intel HD Graphics 4000 384 MB OS X 10.8.5 (12F2518)

Seems fine to me, and locking mobs into your frontliners early is a sound choice. Personally I find Improved Frenzy to be a little weak (basically like eating Beefloaf), but it's not a life or death choice. Barbs are fun, and Estocs are good weapons with some nice unique options. Enjoy wrecking faces.

There are enemies in front of the exit to the level, including an elemental of each element. Tinkering with the blight machines in each room teleports the appropriate elemental blight into the little "prison" and they no long appear as enemies that you have to fight to leave the level. That's all those element-themed rooms do. They have nothing to do with Kana's quest.

I don't run in blindly either--as noted, I scout! My stealthiest party member goes in to check things out. Nothing wrong with your strategy and I'm sure it works for whatever class combos are in your party but the question was specifically about a Barbarian, the dude who wants to be in melee range pronto because Carnage doesn't work at range. I'd consider it a waste to spend a precious talent on something he'll be doing 10% of the time or less (plinking with a bow) when I could spend it on something he'll be doing 90% of the time (beat-sticking). OP's Barb also has Fast Running, apparently, which means he'll be able to get into melee range even faster for that sweet Accurate Carnage. Seems a shame to have him hanging back instead of racing in to wreck faces with that combo.

The only reason to take Arms Bearer is if you think you'll be using 3 different weapons in *the same engagement* really commonly, like a gun rogue with Quick Switch. Otherwise you're not accomplishing anything that couldn't be done by simply scouting out the encounter ahead and manually changing a weapon set out for something in your inventory before you engage. My Barb keeps a Pike and a Staff with different element enchants in his two weapon slots because sometimes switching from pierce to crush or fire to shock is useful in a melee with various enemy types. But he keeps Persistence in his inventory because he's not specced for ranged. The rare times I see something coming up that I know I prefer to fight from range with all party members (like charm shrooms), the bow comes out of inventory before the fight. Talent saved.

I got a kick out of the notes of the animancer in the sanitarium basement. "…unexpected results. The canine host was listless and unresponsive, but it was determined that this was simply the implanted feline soul. Yarn resulted in vigorous stimulation."

That's a Sunlance trap--what does Sunlance target, Deflection or Reflex? Figure out which one it is, then boost the appropriate stat as much as you can with gear and food and pray for a miss. ETA: I don't know if this works for solos, but you could also try to abuse equipment with Second Chance (the merchant in Ondra's Gift sells a ring) or the Dead Man's Stands you get off the encounter in Magran's Fork, boots that delay death by 3 seconds, giving you time to drink a potion.

I'm on my second playthrough on a MBP with 10.8.5 and a trackpad… no problems at all, just make sure you have a right-click equivalent set (command-click, two-finger tap or the like). Other than cloaks not appearing on the character models, it's an identical experience from what I can tell.

Laethryn was the child of Aedyran farmers, both of whom who perished in an epidemic before their baby girl could even speak. Having no remaining kin nearby, the child was taken to the village's Eothasian temple and was raised there by the priests in the faith her parents had followed while they lived. (Is raising orphans something Eothasian temples would actually do in Aedyr? I don't know, but they do it in this story!) Laethryn was only 6 when the news of St. Waidwen's apparent destruction reached the temple, but the child only nodded when she was informed and said, "Then it is just as he told me." She could not be pressed to elaborate further, but the priests were sure that she had had some sort of vision in the final days before their god's disappearance. Thus it did not surprise her elders when, having reached adulthood, Laethryn announced that rather than remain with the temple, she wished to travel to the Eastern Reach to spread the faith. She knew the risks any self-professed Eothasian would take in the land of the Godhammer Bomb, of course, but she insisted that was precisely the reason she was needed there. And so Laethryn departed everything and everyone she'd ever known, taking a ship to Readceras, where she was welcomed warmly by many locals. It would have been easier to stay in that pious land, but duty called her to press south into the place where there were so many suffering kith who needed to know that the Shining God had not abandoned them. She soon got word of a Dyrwood lord inviting settlers to his lands, and she knew it was the opportunity she needed. *** This character is a Meadow Folk Aedyran Clergyman Priestess of Eothas, max Res, because I wanted to RP someone who'd have a strong personal reason for doing random quests for people in the middle of trying to solve her own problems. She's going to win the hearts and minds of the Dyrwood for Eothas with her Benevolent questing. Unless they reject the teachings of the Shining God, like Raedric, in which case they will get rekt. :D

Cool, that is very helpful, thanks everyone.

So I'm trying to avoid story spoilers for this game, and have miraculously succeeded so far, but I find myself in need of a bit of guidance and I'm not sure how to ask for it in a spoiler-free way. I'm going to do my best. Any help is appreciated. I'm in Act III and gotten to the second major city in the game, and I've just gotten what seems like a major endgame plot-dump from two… individuals there. I'd sort of like to know how close I am to the end of the game, so I can decide whether this is a good time to go back and finish clearing Od Nua and do the bounty quests. My party's level 10 and I've done 3 out of the first 4 bounties, but I hear there are a lot more, and I'm on level 11 out of ?? of Od Nua. I don't know how much deeper it goes but the encounters are starting to get pretty tough so I imagine not too much more. So my questions are: Am I really close to the endgame now? Or is there, like, an Act IV, and I will have time to do this stuff later? Is there a "point of no return" after which doing these side tasks will be impossible, and if so, is it made obvious? Also, it seems pretty obvious that there is going to be a boss at the bottom of Od Nua, and I'm wondering if he/she/they are considered easier or harder than the end boss of the main story, since that will also affect when I want to finish the dungeon.