Boeroer

Wouldn't call those tough guys, but fair enough.

actually simple vs. totally not simple at all 0:3

You don't steer a party in Diablo. It's the stuff from 6 or 5 party members that fill up the screen at the same time which makes it difficult to tell what's going an. Also because the combat mechanics are much more complicated than in an Action RPG and you have to pay attention to what enemies do, when your guys' recovery is over and so on. Huh? James Ohlen was the lead designer in both games and thus might have had the biggest impact on all design decisions. Feargus Urquhart (whom you mean with "main man from Obsidian" I assume) was President of Black Isle (which was the RPG development team of the publisher Interplay). Black Isle didn't develop neither BG nor BG2. That was Bioware. Bioware got assigned by Interplay (but was no part of it). Black Isle developed PS:T, IWD and IWD2. Feargus supervised the development of BG as well as BG2 for Interplay while it was done by Bioware (for Interplay). Here's a quick schematic representation: By the way: whatever one thinks of Feargus: he was the one who suggested to use Bioware's tech-demo engine "Battleground Infinity" for D&D CRPGs. Which they did then with great success for all games that I mentioned above. Without Feargus they would most likely not have been made (that way).

Don't really know about BG2 (I guess some companions were fleshed out more than others - I can't really remember much about Mazzy for example) - but most of the companions in BG had less content than Deadfire's Sidekicks. But there were 20 iirc, so no surprise.

Nope, the guy's simply completing the action in the afterlife.

Standing behind a tough guy is rel. difficult when you're doing the ultimate. Llawran's Stick is nice because it comes so early. The crush-only dmg is a little problem - but luckily there's Durance's Staff which comes even earlier, does crush/burn and can be used as backup. Later Firebrand - since you will be using the RDC belt anyway I would assume. I can't remember if there are any enemies which are immune to crush AND burn. Blade of the Endless Paths has Marking which is great in general but of no use when going solo with a Cipher. And it might prevent enchantment up to legendary (? don't remember). As the quarterstaff an estoc has only one dmg type (pierce). Flame Blights are immune to burn and pierce for example. Of course you can always pick whatever backup weapon and just live with the -6 ACC (if your weapon focus doesn't match). Or use a Soulbound. Too bad a Cipher can't cast Reaping Knives on himself...

I think it influences your initiative and your stride?

They did that as well: when you press pause, the VFX on the screen become translucent.

No, the reason was that Deadfire's characters have a lot more active abilites (with their own animations and VFX) than the old IE games. Especially when multiclassing. Players complained that the combat in PoE was overwhelming and that you couldn't really see what was going on - too much micromanagement and too much stuff on screen at a time. Thus Obsidian decided to reduce the amount of "stuff that's going on in combat" with several tweaks - one of them was to reduce the party size. There was also transparency of VFX effects during pause, custom AI scripts and so on. But the reduction of the party size stirred fans up the most.

They are not bad. Compared to Bittercut: slash damage vs. corrode/slash "only" 50% additive damage bonus on crit - while Bittercut gets +20% additive for all hit qualitities (except miss of course) and a +5% multiplicative lash if you enchant it with a corrosive lash) But the draining on Purgatory is nice indeed.

Yes. The rogue is pretty frontloaded with good abilities, there's nothing in the middle of his power levels that you MUST have asap - that's why it works so well in multiclass setups I guess. Same as Paladin I'd say.

I also don't get that affinity for factions. Could totally do without those. Maybe it's all supposed to create some "choice and consequences" stuff - but I still don't find it very appealing. I'm not against boundaries per se. It can help to have some clear limits. Like if you know you want to play a sneaky pickpocket/lockpick guy you can play a rogue and be sure that your fighter buddy will never learn that and make you dispensable. But I still don't think that PoE/Deadfire leads to samey characters - if you don't want to. By the way: besides the fact that stats don't have a massive impact on your character - the classes' stats don't really progress the same. At least not all (only accuracy and defenses). And most start at a different level (defenses, health, endurance). The differences are not huge though.

So in theory some classes can feely less distinguishable - for example if you play a Wizard with plate armor and a Great Sword and a Fighter with plate armor and a Great Sword - that's your problem? But at the same time the Wizard in robes with the staff is a lot different from the Wizard in plate with the Great Sword. Ergo: There is no loss of options or uniqueness of the individual character. What you lament is basically a removal of boundaries. If cats can only be white and dogs only be black then they are very distinguishable. But there are not a lot of options. All cats are the same, all dogs are the same. If both animals can be white or black then there are more options and the individual animal is "more unique" (let's just role with that somewhat nonsensical expression). But there will now be the chance that you'll see a black cat and a black dog - and they'll look more similar than before. That doesn't mean that the potential of being more unique is smaller. It's still bigger.

Most TTRPG systems that are classless try it I would assume. I don't know a ton of CRPGs with a classless system, but quite a few TTRPG ones. Classless CRPGs I know: Arcanum, Avernum, Darklands, Skyrim, D:OS 2... Aren't the Ultima games classless? Can't say if any of them has enough abilities etc. to truly achieve what I described, but you can see where the advantages are. TTRPG rulesets often contain a lot more content when it comes to abilites etc. so I guess it's easier for them to make good use of a classless approach. For example the Dark Eye v. 4 and 5 are quasi-classless. You have professions like Fighter, Gladiator, Wizard of Academy X or Y and whatnot - but it's more of a background thing mostly. The Pillars TTRPG is classless, too. GURPS, Traveller... They are designed so that you can build the idea you have in your head while providing a balanced ruleset. I would argue that those systems provide a much bigger variety and "uniqueness" than a class based system. Classes can make it easier to identify your role, but they really limit you if you want to play something that's more "outside the box". The Dark Eye started as class based system and slowly transendet into classless. And I played all of the iterations from childhood to adulthood. The classless approach is much better for uniqueness of characters than classes. I mean obviously. Classes enforce more difference from one another but inside a class there's not much difference. Stuff like Prestige classes are just a crutch - or a way to break the mold. Same as dual- and multiclassing. If you think multiclassing further you end with a classless system. The only prerequisite: the classless system needs to have at least the same amount of abilites as all classes in the class based system have, if not more. Since stats have a rel. minor impact on the performance of classes in Deadfire it's not that much of a defining feature for "uniqueness". Arguing that rel. similar stat progression (apart from attributes which don't increase at all) makes all classes feel same-y just ignores this. What makes the classes distinguishable are the abilities, not the stats. I wasn't talking about you but about players in general. Again: sombody who only knows D&D will most likely like classless systems less than sombody how knows more systems, including classless ones. Pretty obvious observation - but feel free to disagree and make the counterargument that people who only played D&D are more inclined to like classless systems... Giving classes the potential to develop in all kinds of direction leads to more uniqueness of every build because there are more possibilities. That's only logical. Thus if all your characters end up the same it's not a lack of potential but of imagination (in this special case and game - not in general) or the lack of eagerness to experiment. Maybe also a lack of time or the willingness to dive deep into the system. All fair enough. Don't know what of that statement is so outrageous that you feel it's below the belt though.

When I reach lvl 20 (and you get access to PL8 long before) there's more than 30% left. Last time I played an SC character was Tekehu as SC Stormspeaker - and when he got Avenging Storm for his dual mortars I think there was something like more than 40% left (at least felt like it - measured in game time. Including DLCs of course). Gambit is also PL8 so that should be similar. Besides that: SC Rogues scale their Sneak Attack faster and higher and can unlock Deathblows a lot earlier. People seem to dismiss that but this can make quite some difference even in the mid-game - if you miss a special ability darely. Same with other classes like Priests who can unlock Devotions a lot earlier and so on. But ususally that's less interesting than cool multiclass synergies.

I don't think there is a definitve fixed ranking. It depends so much on the player. The Vanishing-Strike/Gambit mortar Streetfighter or Assassin are not last for me though. But generally I put Rogues rel. low on my personal list of favorite classes. As Assassin you will have +15 ACC and +4 PEN while Vanishing Strike is up. Also +50% crit damage and all Backstabs. As Streetfighter with mortars you will have -50% reload time and +50% Sneak Attack while adding Backstabs. But the best thing is basically that you are untargetable (and stun via Ajamuut's Stalking Cloak). Shadowdancer also does a lot of damage, maybe comparable. Marauder, too. I'm just saying that SC Rogue is good with Vanishing Strikes and/or Gambit - not that it's top of the pops.

If you use a classless system and give a much bigger choice of abilities and ability-upgrades or even trees (also more passive ones and those which influence stats more) - I think you could achieve both.

Hm... that's like saying "I have watched people fly through the windshield because they didn't use the safety belt, but I still think it's better to never put it on". However, for the earlier parts of the game I agree that the SC Rogue isn't super appealing.

You obviously didn't watch the animated gif I included. I don't know a lot of builds that can kill off a bunch of dummies that quickly (besides empowered Missile Salvos, Greater Maelstroms and such). An SC Rogue, properly build, is very good at high levels. But you have to reach those first. SC Rogue isn't particulary great before reaching the highest levels - although the higher Sneak Attack and Power Level scaling work in their favor. Here's a video of @Kaylon as SC Rogue killing the Beast of Winter solo with spamming Gambit (using Rust's Poignard and Scordeo's Edge) quite quickly:

I suspect it will still trigger since the attack roll should still be done? Not sure though. A good cipher weapon is Bittercut. It has dual dmg (corrode/slash), its +20% dmg from Spirit of Decay always applies (even for the slash dmg), it comes with +20% dmg as all sabres and if you also put a corrosive lash on it you profit twice from Spirit of Decay (first you'll get +20% additive dmg bonus and then the lash gets raised from 25% to 30%). Anything with speed and dual damage is also good (Last Blade of the White Forge, Strike Hard). If you later equip a shield with Durgan Steel you can reach 0 recovery with Time Parasite, Vulnerable Attack and durganized mail armor. Which is a great dps boost and at the same time you benefit from the shield's defense. I personally also like Hours of St. Rumbalt because it's obtainable early and stys being good. Cipher's don't have Full Attacks so picking a two handed weapon is ok. Justice (Raedric's Blade) has a "secret" second 10% crushing lash which stacks with its 25% crushing lash. Since lashes (except wounding) also generate focus this is a good cipher weapon. Often the smaller lash can't make it through enemies' DR so lowering it with Body Attunement helps a lot in the long run. But usually I think speed enchantments are the best thing for ciphers. Keeping Fireband as backup is still a good idea. It works with any weapon focus and once you are in White March it can be of great effect againt all those iceish enemies.

My quote above is from the wiki which has a reference to a fig campaign update. So I don't think it was the fig campagin. I suspect it was only misreading, but if there is such a passage in the gamepedia wiki it needs to get edited - hence a pointer to that passage would be cool.

Players who also know other, maybe even classless systems will like PoE's approach a lot more than players who got imprinted with D&D's restricted class system and didn't try much else. If your characters in PoE are not unique then it's due to lack of imagination, not lack of potential. At the same time D&D rogues are very different from D&D wizards, sure, but all D&D Rogues are very similar to each other while all D&D wizard are similar. In PoE a wizard may be a bit less distinguishable from a fighter (because less retrictions) but two wizards may be a lot more different from each other than in D&D. It's a matter of preference and those can be influenced by gaming experience. Usually a broader experience qualifies for a more informed judgement. But taste is taste and not really argueable.

Right. It's difficult to explain something if you don't have a clue what you're talking about in the first place.

Can't say for sure because I don't play Deadfire on Turn Based Mode - but from the top of my head I cannot find a reason why it wouldn't work.

I made an animated gif which showcases the principle (attention, huge file - might take some time to load). Note how health goes up constantly despite Sacred Immolation's huge self damage because my parries drain the life from the tigers: