AshenPlanet

If you are soloing, then these per-encounter spells may not be enough, but you are going to be camping/sleeping more often solo anyway. Whether you are a fighter or a caster, you have to rest more often solo, that's just the way it is - you can't heal health between encounters except for a not great talent. In a full group, the per-encounter spells are more than enough for most fights, and the big fights, you'll use your higher level spells.

"Ah, thanks, great point (on Weapon Focus: Peasant). Re: Level 9, I thought you got a few casts per encounter (not unlimited), maxed at 4 L1 and 4 L2. Was that changed in a patch?" No, it hasn't been changed, but in practice, the 4 level 1 and 4 level 2 spells you won't get to cast by the time combat is over if you are in a full group against most encounters. If you are up against a boss/dragon/tough fight which will take longer, you are going to want to use your higher level spells anyway. In practice, unless you are soloing, you don't run out of spells after 9th level. With elemental talents, max Int and might, you do a lot of damage with your spells.

Definitely, as the others have said, Int is the most important, you want to max it, and then Might, and then whatever is left for Dex (depends entirely on whether you want to gimp other stats to max dex also... I wouldn't bother with penetrating shot, just keep up with your enchantments, fine early game, exceptional at level 8+ - Penetrating shot slows your attacks. The stuff with high DR is the stuff you generally will want to use your spells against anyway. Once you get to 9th level and up, there's no reason to use your bow anymore at all unless it's too easy, and you don't want to bother casting any spells.

Rods/Wands/Sceptres are awesome for Wizards, because they do area effect damage with them, and with dangerous implements and the DR bypass feats, they can really do well. For anyone else, including druids, they suck... Take focus peasant, and go with hunting bow. That way, you can use wild shape if someone gets close to you, and hunting bows with the same focus. It's all only until you get to 9th level anyway, after which you can cast spells all the time. At 9th, you get unlimited 1st level spells, and at 11th, you get unlimited 1st and 2nd level spells. Even 1st level spells will do more damage than the best weapon in the game. Spell talents are great for a druid, go shock, fire, decay, cold in that order (if you want all of them).

'Real diplomacy'? Real diplomats lie all the time, that's why wikileaks was a big deal. Diplomacy is getting other people to do what you want, by telling them what they want to hear. Telling them what you really think about them and being 'nice', doesn't get you anywhere, any 'real' diplomat knows that. Convincing someone that their goals are the same as yours, but this particular course of action is the best way to accomplish those goals - that's diplomacy. The choices linked to gaining diplomacy in this game are pretty accurate. Turn the alerts on to see what your choices mean, or leave them off and play the way you want to play. Your choices may have nothing to do with diplomacy, but so what? You can role-play how you want, and who cares what the game thinks of your character? Highest rank, btw, is 4 in any of the character traits.

For single target DPS (like bosses/dragons), no non-spellcaster can beat a rogue, but they are only single-target. For general DPS, no non-spellcaster can match a barbarian. Intelligence is a barbarian's most important stat - max it and use +int equipment. All your attacks being area of effect gets pretty sick. It really is that simple, max Intelligence, max dex, and max strength (in that order of importance), and go to town on everyone.

Diplomatic is telling people what they want to hear, plain and simple. It's basically the opposite of 'honest'. For a good and funny example of diplomacy, talk to pelegrina's boss with her beside you. Do the exact opposite of whatever pellegrina wants to do, and that's diplomatic. She's honest and passionate, the opposite extreme to diplomacy.

Works great on a rogue with two-weapon style, but totally worthless on a firearm user.

Decay works on the corrode spells initial damage, but the problem is the DOT portion, which most corrode spells have is not in most cases augmented with decay.

It doesn't affect melee or ranged attack speed. What it affects is melee and ranged recovery. eg. the time delay between an attack and the next attack (which is also affected by armor). Reload is a separate counter.

1 handed style is never worth it for a monk or rogue. For a fighter or paladin, 1handed style is good in the beginning of the game, when it's really hard to hit stuff. Later in the game, as you gain accuracy from levels, it becomes less useful than any of the other weapon styles.

The thing with monks and weapons vs. fists is all based on your build. If you took only 10 str or less, then you can do better with weapons. If you took high or maxed str, then fists is the way to go. Your fists, unlike any other weapon in the game, receives strength bonus damage twice! So, if you invested in strength, fists become very good. Basically, the more str you have, the better fists become, compared to other weapons.

1) dump con and dex, avg str, and max int/per/res. 2) Zealous Focus is the only good option unless you have multiple paladins... 3) Monk - human or godlike, and Barbarian orc (amanua) or halfling - I prefer human monk and orc barb, but not a huge difference in race for most classes. 4) melee weapons - spear, hatchet as these share your weapon focus group, crappy hatchets, but there are a couple very nice spears. Hands are actually your best weapon if you went max str on your monk as hands benefit from str modifier twice, but if you went avg. str or low str, then other weapons are better - carry weapons and hands, monks get a free weapon slot since you always have hands available even if your weapon slots are both filled with weapons, so you can switch from hands to piercing against high bludgeoning DR. 5) Ciphers - hunting bows, although the good named hunting bow is very late game, and you can get nice warbows much earlier, in which case go adventurer and warbow if you don't want to make your own hunting bow and wait for the late game one. You have intrinsic damage bonuses so you want a speedy weapon, avoid reloading if you are not using weapon switches. Blunderbuss sucks for ciphers now. 6) Druid > priest. Druid is also better than fighter starting at 9th level when you get unlimited spells.

Pillars is definitely not too dark, there's been games with more and with less grimness. The thing with pillars that may offend sensitive people, however, is that all the dark is part of the main story. The OP mentioned Arcanum as being light-hearted - well, that's only the main story. Arcanum and Eternal Darkness had the best stories in all the RPGs that I've played, I like them more than planescape, BGs, NWNs, etc. But, here's the thing. Arcanum was very dark as well - what the gnomes did to the mayor's wife, how the city dealt with the orc strike, the racial and societal oppressiveness, etc. were all pretty bleak. All those elements, though, were not part of the main storyline. So, if you were a sensitive person who gets easily offended, you could skip most of the good story, and just complete the game, which didn't directly involve you in all the politics and societal mores around you. Eternal Darkness, on the other hand - all that cthulu goodness was right there in the main story, in fact there was no side story, it was right in your face. This, surely would offend some people with delicate sensibilities, in much the same way POE does. In POE, all the dark elements are part of the main story - you could skip taking durance, mother, or eder, who are the ones with the bleaker storylines, but most people would consider the companions an integral part of the story and take them, do their quests, etc. Could POE have been written a little more like arcanum where the main story was cleaner, and the darker elements were sidelines? Sure, but I'm glad they didn't. This may offend a very small number of people, as the poll shows, but on the whole it's just the way they chose of doing it, and most people aren't bothered by it. There can be good games with both styles - putting everything in the main story, and putting most of the story in side-plots and background while keeping the main story simple and clean. POE does a decent job of the first type, not the best, but decent - and I enjoyed it.

Amazing! Good job. I have gotten gloves of manipulation from the roof of readric's hold which isn't on your list for that chest, but my rogue char was not the 'team leader', so would have a different list, I guess. Thanks, this is very interesting - I'm looking up some of the items I never found in 3 playthroughs...

Take both, they are both better than the ranger. Thoughts on which is superior - Hiravias is better vs. masses, Aloth is better vs. bosses. Druid spells are almost all AOE, some are foe AOE, but many are straight AOE. Mage spells include more targeted spells and better debuffs. Both have petrify, frighten, blind, prone, hobble, push, etc. but mages have better versions of the best ones - blind, petrify, and prone (quicker/longer lasting) and also have paralyze, weaken, slow, -DT, daze, etc. Mages have better self-buffs (+crit, +accuracy, +speed, +max endurance, +miss chance), but druids have healing and 1 group buff. In general, after the fan of flames nerf, druids have better low level elemental spells, and mages have better high level elemental spells. Another factor: druids are cheap, all their spells are free, give them a good hunting bow, and they're good to go; mages require lot's of money to scribe the spells you find. Neither need to use any weapons after they get to 9th level - they can spam spells constantly without resting. Consider that when choosing whether to take blast, penetrating blast, implement, focus or wild strike, improved wild strike, dual-weild, focus talents. That's more than half your talents, and there's no point in taking blast or wild strike unless you go all the way with all 4 talents. Summary, druid > early game, mage > late game.

Mechanics of 10 (8+ 2 from gloves of manipulation) is enough to never be hit by a trap in the game. Mechanics of 12 (10 + 2 glove) is enough to disarm every trap in the game. Traps of 11 and 12 are not in the way of regular travel, they are revealed with 10 mechanics, and they can always be avoided or walked around, you're only missing out on disarm xp which is not a big deal. You could get away with less mechanics if you have good fort/ref saves, but a lot of powerful equipment is hidden behind 10 mechanics like tidefall or adra beetle fig. 10 mechanics, 3 athletics (1 + 2 from equip), and the rest into lore (you can get +2 lore equip in endless paths) would be fine.

I thought Durance actually had the best storyline out of all the characters. In my first play through, he realized what Magran had done, and how she had her 11 most faithful killed off just to keep the secret. Durance pledged to find a way to kill Magran, and I believe him. I'd go as far as to say my character would join with him and help try to kill Magran. It took 12 faithful to kill eothas, (and, yes, I think Eothas is dead as do most of the people in Dyrwood). It may take another 12 to kill Magran, but I and Durance are 2, and we can surely find 10 more (Eder and hiravias are 2 who may be easy to sway)... As for the actions Magran took not making sense, I think they make total sense. Magran is all about preserving herself and her powers. She does not want to die, she will fight to keep her life and her spheres of influences intact. When Woedica became too powerful, with the infusion of too many souls (think to your flashbacks of a previous life, where an entire city was sacrificed to infuse her with more souls), Magran had to stop her as Woedica threatened to become the one true god, and eliminate all the others, to create a monotheism from the existing pantheon. She banded with the other gods and burned Woedica, they divested her of all the soul power she had gained from the inquisitions and mass sacrifices. When Eothas made his play, his intent was to reveal the secret, to show every peasant that they had the power to stop the gods. Of course, Magran had to stop him, she broke her own rules, and empowered the dozen to kill the God who could end her way of life. That makes perfect sense to me. At that moment, Eothas was the biggest threat to her continued existence, a bigger threat than Woedica. She is god of war, she burned one who thought herself Caesar, and she helped kill another God who threatened all the gods. What she did afterwards to take out her own followers to keep the secrets of God-killing hidden, is what gives Durance (and me) the drive to kill her as well. Durance killed 1 God, He can very well kill another...