Boeroer

I'm sure there's some research that can back up that claim. Just not in this universe...

Not a lot bought the game anyways. If Full VO would draw a lot of customers then we wouldn't have those sales numbers. I think it's a big stretch to say that Full VO sells a lot more copies. It's just convenient for some but not mandatory for many - would be my take. Not many would refuse to buy a game just because it has not Full VO I believe.

If she doesn't drop it and you used Essence Interrupter then I would wonder if its loot eating big is still active. For me (never use Essence Interrupter) it always drops. I fight Katrenn downstairs by the temple (between the pillars there) - usually no bypassers go there.

Keep in mind that Deadfire is also out on consoles - so Steam etc. may not play a role there. Selling 600k copies on several platforms is still not a lot. But great if it starts to make profits now. Without Full VO this point could have been reached a lot sooner...

Absolutely. The high level spells (PL8 and 9) are awesome.

Of course. The Power Level 8 and 9 spells are exceptionally good. That is not correct. Adressing your points and using the Wizard as example: Damage: spells are now 2 (or 3 with Grimoire of Vaporous Wizardry --> 4 with empower or even unlimited with a Bloodmage) per encounter instead of 4 per rest. Not tuning the damage down would be completely unbalanced. Accuracy: all classes start with the same base accuracy of in Deadfire and the enemies' defenses are balanced towards that - in PoE Wizards started with abysmal base accuracy compared to martial classes: 20 Wizard, 30 Fighter for example - and thus the spells had to have bonus ACC to make up for that. defensive spells are garbage: again they are castable per encounter instead of per rest. Also Wizards start with 20 deflection in Deadfire instead of 10 in PoE - thus the deflection buffs don't need to be as high. You end up with the same (or even more) deflection in the end. The other thing is that all defensive buffs from items will stack while in PoE they didn't. Since defensive buffs have increasing returns it would be too unbalanced to allow the stacking of defensive items + sky high wizard self buffs + higher base deflection. Then you get the new spell tiers which weren't there in PoE which contain some very potent spells like Missile Salvo and such. You also get Power Level scaling which makes sure that low level spells stay powerful throughout the game - something PoE didn't have. At higher levels a PoE Wizard wouldn't bother to cast a puny Fan of Flames anymore because its damage wouldn't scale at all. In Deadfire you get +5% multiplicative damage per Power Level, more penetration and more accuracy for the lower level spells - which is a HUGE advantage over PoE's casters. And I haven't even touched the Empower system that sykrockets spells on a per-rest basis for the really tough fights - you can even improve than with talents. Also casters now have spell shaping and other casting related passives like faster cast etc. which were not there in PoE. Following that reasoning: caster classes aren't a disappointment at all in Deadfire. They just work a bit differently to make them fit the more systemic per-encounter system. Some players might like the old per-rest system better or even the whole PoE game, but that doesn't mean casters are objectively worse in Deadfire.

Exactly

No

For one invisibility use per encounter check out Cape of the Master Mystic. There's another items that can give you an additional use of Shadowing Beyond: Nightshroud.

@LeviGenesis: Second best thing in boarding fights* is to use a large shield + modal. You don't need weapon & shield style, only the proficiency for the modal. Ranged damage suffers a 50% damage malus then - which is actually a lot more severe (for the enemy) than the numbers suggests because like grazes and underpenetration it goes through double inversion during the final damage calculation. Thus a large shield + modal ("the Wall") is the best option to survive focus fire by gunners which often happens at the begnning of ship combat (because you all start the fight unstealthed and often with messed up party formation). After that you can ususally switch to your usual weapons since the chaos of battle prevents another salve from multiple gunners that's specifically aimed at you. Thick armor which is good against pierce dmg (like plate) and a Blunting Belt also help a lot as Haplok said. If enemies hit "the Wall" AND underpenetrate you'll get very little damage. Monks get a ton of proficiency points they don't need so picking Large Shield proficiency is a good use of such a point. )* best is to avoid them entirely and just have two or more master cannoneers

I'd really miss Konstanten's laugh though...

Most "OP" caster without too much gymnastics is Bloodmage. Once you get Wall of Draining and any healing over time in the party or yourself (Blightheart's healing or Healing Gloves will do) you can prolong the healing endlessly along with all buffs which allows you to spam Blood Sacrifice - which gets you back Wall of Draining (and the other spell uses). You can't empower spells then but cast them more often (e.g. PL9 ones).

It is like you assume. And you won't lock yourself out of anything. I would still give the tablet to the faction you like better and plan to support (if you want to support Huana or RDC in the first place).

It seems that you are using the wrong default AI setting?

I like some of the "clever" dialogue options the most and I think that a Rogue (and especially a Debonaire - and also Beguiler) seems like a great fit for that.

Hi @Venatoris78, let me answer in English so that everybody can chime in. So basically you're asking for advice on party composition (whith official companions) and which kind of MC (dialogue options, skillcheck options) would be nice for a (female) player. She didn't play PoE or other CRPGs yet besides Tyranny. I personally would pick Edér, Aloth, Xoti (mainly because they are the first three you meet and their classes harmonize well in a party). I like to make Edér a tanky Swsashbuckler, Aloth can be whatever he's able to be and Xoti is nearly always Priest for me. And then for the fifth one it depends if you would like to support the Prinicipi (pirates - pick Serafen), Huana (natives, pick Tekehu), Rauatai (like a mix of Japanese and Prussians, pick Maia) or the Vailians (like the East India Trading Company but with Italian/Spanish "Medici" vibes, pick Pallegina). I personally prefer Tekehu because of his class choices mostly (both are fine). I don't remember which class, skill- and stat-choices provide the most dialogue options or the most options for scripted interactions. I simply play what I like. Other players may have more details. Since the first four party members above already cover most stuff you can play anything, but I personally found it nice to play the party Rogue and "Talker" for the first time. I think if there would have been the Debonaire subclass at release I would have played Debonaire/Beguiler with "passive" skills in Diplomacy, Bluff, Insight and so on. And "active" skills in mainly mechanics (as the party's lockpicker and trap finder/disarmer). High INT, PER, DEX mostly. Debonaire/Beguiler is not only a thematically cool concept but can also be very effective at crowd control and single target damage. You can charm enemies and get 100% crit conversion if you attack them. That also means you can charm an enemy and then cast Disintegrate on them which will always convert to a crit (if you don't miss or graze). Disintegrate on a charmed enemy will not flip it back (as other damage would do). Also works with Soul Ignition. So it's not only a cool roleplaying concept but can also be very useful in combat. Beguilers don't have to damage opponents to gain focus (casting a Deception spell on enemies is often enough to refill focus - if you manage to hit enough of them) but they still can - and here the Sneak Attack and other damage bonuses of the Debonaire will help. I would go with a ranged weapon. Maybe single pistol (+modal) since it somehow fits a Debonaire for me. Other players may have other ideas for an interesting MC for a nice first run.

Same

Most of the builds, the theocrafting and mechanics discussions in this forum are about RTwP. Just because that's the mode Deadfire shipped with. I don't know enough about TB mode to be able to recommend/not recommend it.

It seems you didn't deactivate the gib option - which can be a significant disadvantage.

Yes - I didn't say it's bad without a Monk, just that it's best with one.

Criticism, wrote down decently. But you are wrong: open world is no fun. That is unfortunate and also unusual to admit. How come?

Wow - I had no idea they were involved. I will aks Josh when he streams next time (if I don't miss it).

Tuotilo's Palm is best with a Monk because "Balanced Shield" only works with wounds and it's a great enchantment.

But you wrote "on kills" both times: You only nerfed procs from plural to singular.

I just meant that every time somebody in this thread said "it's simple" it turned out that it wasn't.