Boeroer

I find Xoti's Monk subclass very limiting. Also there's not much synergy. For example a Sister of the Reaping Moon gets +3 wounds when she downs an enemy - but only if she does so with a melee weapon. So killing and enemy with the pretty awesome "Blessed Harvest" spell of the Harvester of Gaun doesn't count and won't give you +3 wounds. That is not cool. High level Priests d have some awesome dmg spells so the synergy could have been great - but he "melee weapon only" restriction destroys that. I can see her being cool as SC Monk if you plan to make her your main damage dealer or kill-stealer - because with Whispers of the Wind you can kill pretty nicely (Inner Death doesn't give wounds on kill iirc because it's not a weapon attacks - it should work with Community Patch though). But then I'd have to get a hireling Priest and I try to avoid hirelings - so I almost always use her as SC Priest.

Yeah no idea really. Even my mother in law who's a medical doctor (70 years old) thought about not getting vaccinated - because she's afraid of yet undiscovered long-term side effects. I mean what are the odds that a side effect of a mRNA-vaccination will be more severe than an infection (which is likely to happen) at that age? Luckily she thought it over after some talks with her children (who all have 2 or more kids themselves) and now she will get vaccinated. My own parents who used to be blue-collar workers and didn't receive higher eduction would get vaccinated asap though. Weird times...

That would be my personal approach, too. Because I find real turtles pretty boring (even though they can be very effective in a party). But given the directions and requirements the OP provided I wouldn't go that route in this case. The only gripe I would have with mostly using summons is that they take a long time to deploy due to their casting times - and it doesn't help if you have low DEX, too. As the tank you really have to watch out to not get interrupted while summoning. The window of opportunity for the enemies to hit you with an interruping ability is very big. So maybe get some layers of concentration or even wear Rekvu's Fractured Casque + injury.

Because not even alleged?

Quick status from Germany: The new highly infectious mutant from the UK was officially discovered in Bavaria and Berlin. As we can see with the UK: Germany's current "soft lockdown" won't be enough to flatten or even drop the curve. At the same time vaccination in Germany isn't going smoothly. The EU was too conservative and cautious when pre-ordering vaccines and German logistics aren't working out (which is a bit of a surprise - well maybe not given the fact that Germany didn't upgrade its local health authorities during summer). At the same time about 50% of the nursing staff doesn't want to get vaccinated (wtf?). People who were rel. compliant so far start to moan because German politicians keep meandering from one half-baked solution to the next. A hard lockdown for two or three weeks could buy a lot of time in order to vaccinate more people (and to improve distribution and acceptance) and keep the incidence under a certain threshold until spring/summer, But you won't see that. I guess Merkel would do it if she could (she campaigned for more strict/impactful measures right from the start and tried to listen to scientists very closely - maybe because she's got a PhD in physics) but she can't just bypass the gouvernors. I'm usually not a fan of Merkel's uninspired politics - but she was and still is trying really hard in this case. Her approval ratings are going through the roof right now (83%) but at the same time it's like she's Don Quijote. I also want to come back to that thread from Feb. when Merkel said something along the lines of "This will be the greatest challenge since WWII" and I agreed but several forum users expressed doubt (fair enough) or even ridiculed me. I'm too lazy to dig out the quotes but still:

lmao - who is that moronic Caitlin?

Sure, but that doesn't take a lot of effort or preparation. My point was that often the work (or money) you have to invest to doesn't pay off.

You don't need per rest bonuses or even consumables to play PotD successfully. Megabosses aside (here you need everything you can get). I play PotD exclusively (party and the occasional solo run) and I almost never care about resting bonuses and especially not about consumables besides food (which you just have to use during camping so might as well pick the good stuff if I happened to pick it up - I'm not looking for it/hunting it/hoarding it actively). Unguents are an exception because they can be very helpful in scripted sequences and when trying to pick locks and unlock dialogue choices - but they don't help with combat so I guess they don't count when we talk about difficulty. And yet to me most parts of PotD seem to be rather easy. Again: not Megabosses - those are just awful. Of course that's partly because of meta knowledge and experience with the mechanics - but still: you don't need resting bonuses not consumables to play PotD and have fun. I did my first run on PotD (no scaling) and had fun - and didn't use resting bonuses or consumables. SSS and FS became a bit more challenging without them but still doable.

Given PL scaling a good early damaging ability like "Thrice..." can't really become weak in the late game, can it? I mean besides immunity issues which should not be a problem in this case. I think Skeletons are underrated. They do very poor damage in most cases and especially in the later game because while their stats do scale their weapons (poor swords) do not - which leads to severe underpenetration very quickly. Thus they hit like wet noodles. But they have engagement slots! Thus they can be seen as a steerable/controllable CC effect: they will reliably stop enemies from approaching (if you didn't opt out of movement cancellation on engagement in the game options menu), block melees and present cannon fodder for ranged enemies, too. And if they die they will at least provide two replacements (which are not controllable but still). You just shouldn't look at them as damaging tools. They are very bad in that regard. If I would play a dedicated tank who focuses on soaking damage and do support I wouldn't raise PER and I wouldn't use Thrice wSW or any offensive invocation. Summons can be a good substitute to direct CC (skeletons engage, whisps are great interrupters with unlimited knockdown uses) and damaging (wyrms, later animated weapons etc.) invocations without the need for any investment into accuracy and PER. Thrice wSW is a really good invocation but I don't think it's a mandatory pick - especially not for a supportive, non-aggressive tank.

Both PoEs run on rel. old hardware (not smoothly necessarily but they do run). Also they work on Win/Linux/Mac. So your hardware and OS are not really a limiting factor - something that cloud gaming wants to overcome. So maybe that's why those games are not the no.1 focus now. Also the player base isn't that big to begin with. Are the Divinity games there? Also I know that several Obsidian devs are not very fond of Cloud Gaming in general - the dev/publishers have to agree to their game getting put on Stadia. If they don't like the while business model it could also explain why their games are not there. Is Outer Worlds on Stadia? Any Obsidian game?

The point is that Obsidian didn't do this. It's the publisher. I guess Obsidian does gain something from the console ports (no doubt actually), but they said right away that they will only do PC and nothing else. The publisher then took the game and handed it over to a development team to do a port. Of course this will fall back on Obsidian because they developed the game and their name is still on the box. But I just think they don't have a big say in this.

I can close the circle then and ask: If that was a problem for the majority of PoE players and a reason of disappointment so big they decided to not buy Deadfire: why isn't that reflected in the user reviews of PoE - which are very positive and don't talk about the mechanics a lot?

I agree to the general statement - but Full VO for RPGs is extremely overrated given its immense costs* which makes it a bad choice for games with small and mediocre budgets. The increased immersion (and that's debatable, too) almost never outweighs the drawbacks (a lot less money for other things that would do the game good). Also, while CRPGs certainly aren't books - they come pretty close in comparison with other video game genres. Adventures, too. Same as TTRPGs which are a bit like interactive books. While I like the DM to put on some fitting music and try to speak with different voices it's not really needed for immersion. Makes it easier of course - but often the ton of work required from the DM to pull that off doesn't warrant the outcome (even if it's nicer than without no doubt). )* If done professionally. And you def. don't want to do amateurish VO.

Which is awesome.

Stormlands got canceled - yet it was pitched successfully before. I think in this case Microsoft approached Obsidian though iirc. Besides that: Stormlands was supposed to be a multiplayer game with online raids etc. and not a single player RPG/Elder Scrolls on Eora. Two quite different games. Stormland's leftovers were used for Tyranny by the way.

He's not putting distance between that world - while you wrote your post he probably continued to write for the Pillars TTRPG. Also - while he's not directing Avowed he said several times that he will give feedback during development. I wouldn't call that "unwillingness to be involved".

Would be good for your purpose.

I wasn't fond of most of the Ultima games except Underworld (and only because I played it with a friend side by side) so no: I didn't even try Ultima IV. The only Open World game I really enjoyed was Skyrim - but only because I turned it into "Thief"- or "Hitman"-ripoff. Eh and Deadfire obviously.

Even if it was impossible to play PotD without meta knowledge: it's something completely different to take that statement and then use is as a reason for bad sales numbers of Deadfire. Only a very low fraction of players even tried PotD or even Hard. Most players just started both games on normal, enjoyed it for a while and that's it. So the majority of players wouldn't even know how the game's like on harder difficulties, nor would they follow a pedantic min-maxing path to optimization. For them the look, feel, atmosphere and story are more important than the exact stacking rules and potential powergaming. That is the bulk of players - at least that's what telemetry and surveys were telling Obsidian and I have no reason do doubt that data. So to take a very special approach to play those games - which isn't the apporach of the majority of players - and then deduce that this failed approach and the feelings it induced represent the feelings of a majority of players - who then didn't buy Deadfire in disappointment is rather... venturous. The issues that are mentioned do exist, no doubt. But I doubt they are the reason for a massive sales drop - because most players didn't even notice.

Maybe you have Open World Syndrome. PoE was more "guided" than Deadfire is, also because content was gated behind its acts. I personally don't like "Open World" and this whole "you can go where you want, yeah!" approach very much. It often leaves you felling lost - or not feeling compelled to really do anything. You can experience the same when you play TTRPGs and the game master just lets you run around without nudging you into the right direction. Open World is completely overrated and isn't necessary for a great CRPG - at least that's my personal take. Maybe other players like it but I feel that it takes significantly longer to really connect with a game if it follows the Open World approach. What saved Deadfire for me was Fort Deadlight. I entered secretly and did a "Thief"-like dungeon crawl in order to reach Benweth. It's such a satisfying part of the early game that I got hooked. So maybe try that one first?

I played both PoE* and Deadfire on PotD without any meta knowledge and was absolutely fine. Had to reload a few of the known tricky fights like Bear Cave, Gorecci Street, Digsite or simply choose a non-violant apporach or come back later - but overall it went pretty smoothly. Nowadays - with meta knowledge - PotD is too easy but I don't play those games for a challenge anymore but rather to verify fun character concepts. Like "useless", "perfect" or "pregnant", "impossible" is a pretty absolute term. I wouldn't use it if I weren't really sure that it fits. )* with PoE I canceled my first playthrough on normal difficulty after some hours because it became too easy and restarted with Path of the Damned.

I don't recall whether Animal Companions receive injuries or not, but if I wanted low micro I would def. turn off knockout injuries in the game options (which is an option that is not related to the general stages of difficulty). Sure there are nice implements, especially if you have WM I installed you can get Gyrd Háewanes Sténes very early and it's awesome. Engwithan Scepter is also a very good implement because of the speed enchantmemt that allows for 0 recovery with Durgan Steel and Deleterious Alacrity. But the thing with Minor Blights is that besides their awesome accuracy bonus of +20 they do AoE damage - and every attack roll in that AoE produces its own Blast(!). That means if you manage to hit 5 enemies with one shot of Minor Blights for example it will trigger 20 Blasts attack rolls (25 attack rolls with one shot in total). With a "normal", even unique implement - no matter how cool it is - you'll only generate 1 initial hit and 4 Blast rolls (5 in total). With the Golden Gaze you'd do 2 initial and 8 Blast hit rolls - but the initial rolls will have low base damage. So imo as long as the enemies stand tight there's nothing better than Minor Blights + (Penetrating) Blast - especially if you are also using Combusting Wounds (which is debatable in this case because: more micro). But of course summoning Minor Blights will cost you a per-rest spell use of tier 3 which is the same tier as Deleterious Alacrity. So you cannot have Minir Blights AND Alacrity as spell mastery - which is sad. So you should def. pick a non-summoned implement as backup and only use Minor Blights in fights where its special advantages would be most effective (like in tough fights with a lot of enemies who stand near together for example). A build for inspiration on how you could build a low-micro Blast WIzard without using Minor Blights too much can be found here:

I would play Path of the Damned with no scaling. It will be a lot harder in the early game (so don't give up - use sneaking or other non-violent approaches here and there, especially on Gorecci Street!) but then the difficulty drops once you reach Neketaka (which is still very early in the game). Megabosses will still be a bad grind and totally suck - but everything else should be roughly in line.

I don't think any caster who's supposed to actually cast spells in combat can be low micro. Only exception may be a Wizard who just summons Minor Blights and uses Blast/Penetrating Blast and then auto-attacks. That's the lowest micro (yet effective) caster I can imagine. Priest are the strongest class for a party-run imo but they need to cast buffs. Casting is micro-intense. Without casting buffs a Priest is moot. Same with Ciphers. If you only want to weapon-attack with a Cipher and not use his casting powers frequently you might as well pick a Rogue. A Rogue can be micro as heck if you build him squishy, but a sturdy one can be pretty hands-off. You don't need to actively trigger Sneak-Attack conditions. There are weapons that can do that automatically for you and if you bum-rush enemies with melee guys they will most certainly get flanked which also unlocks Sneak Attack. One of the most low-micro rogues I played was a shield rogue with Godhanstunyr + Badgradr's Barricade and while being strudy he also did very solid dmg. You didn't say Monk up there in your list - but there are Monk builds that are also potential low micro, for example the Anvil build in this forum that evolves arounr retaliation which doesn't need a lot of input. A quite low-micro Barb is one with Tidefall (Great Sword). You simply hit stuff with great dmg and also heal from it which takes away the necessity to look after him as much. Same can be done wotjh Tall Grass since then he doesn't have to be in the fray all the time but can poke into enemy clusters from the flanks. A Barb with Hours of St. Rumbalt can also be low-micro as soon as he reliably crits enemies. If you give your Barb the Sangune Plate you don't even need to trigger Frenzy manually. Works with every other class as well obviously. Fighter is one of the lowest micro classes, especially if you focus on all his passives. Can be good to have as tank because those don't have to do a lot anyways besides binding foes and soaking attacks. You can build them into great rushers - but that again requires micromanagement. But if you only want to "select all and attack" then they a good fit. Rangers bring an additional body which can deal significant damage (e.g. the wolf). You can just select all and attack. Additional bodies are very effective especially if you don't want to invest time into casting/resting etc. Animal Companions don't have health (only endurance) so they won't ge forced to rest to fill up health. You can use them as cannon fodder which is as good as new in every encounter.

The White March is not an expansion that takes place after the main game. It's an expansion that expands the main game. It adds a "side-campaign" if you will which is only loosely coupled to the main game's plot. How to get there: While you are playing PoE and are at your stronghold you should receive a letter from Renengild of Stalwart (a village in the White March) via your steward. Renengild urges you to come and help with something. You can then see Stalwart on the world map and can now go and travel there any time during the main game. I think it's best to wait until you reach lvl 8 (6 if you are a very experienced PoE player) lest it's too hard. On the way to White March you will also see something called Crägholt Bluffs on the world map. That is also part of the expansion but it's very high level material. YOur steward will have warned you not to go there too soon - so better don't go there on the way to Stalwart. Better to do that later. If you already completed PoE and beat Thaos you will have simply missed the White March (you must have completely ignored your steward then though). But you can load a savegame before jumping into the pit in Twin Elms and travel to the White March then. It will be quite easy at first because you will be a bit overleveled - but after some time it becomes harder, especially the second part of the White March as well as Crägholt Bluffs.