Boeroer

That wasn't an analysis, only a possible in-game explanation. Of course the real reason for lvl 1 has not much to do with the story. Only that it's more interesting to play from lvl 1 to 20 instead of 16 to 30 (or something similar, fighting Megabosses all day to keep encounters interesting). But one could argue that you start as a realtive weakling again because Eothas sucked up the biggest part of your soul. And as Eothas states himself: "I can't give back your soul yet, for I still have use for its great power." Gaining levels before getting parts of your soul back is a normal process. Souls grow more potent with proper experience as we know from PoE1. So it is to expected that the part of your soul that was left with you can grow again without Eothas. Nevertheless: it would have been nice to really "feel" (as a player), that you just got back a big chunk of your "old and already powerful" soul. As I suggested above: like to tie this Watcher/lost soul thing to real mechanical advancement like Watcher-levels or so. Taht might have led to more perceived investment and motivation. Most players like it if they get something cool - like for example a new Watcher level where they could pick a new (good) ability on their own - not some per-rest stuff that's predefined by dialogue options. You get a bit of that with Gift from the Machine and Effigy's Resentment (when you get them back - if you had them in PoE in the first place) - but in my opinion that's too weak to really get players excited.

I would also use Helwalker because the +10 INT is great for the AoE of Garland's Rake and the +10 MIG anyway. Stunning Surge is nice, especially with the 3/6 projectiles (3 chances to crit - or 6 with Driving Flight). But afaik Garland's Rake profits from Sneak Attack, Deathblows and such - so why isn't that a good synergy? E.G. with a Trickster who can first lure enemies to a spot with Dazzling Lights, then later rack the hit-to-crit rate up with Gaze of the Adragan.

That is not the story. It's more like: Eothas killed you, Berath revived you and forces you to follow Eothas in order to find out what he wants - or you will die. You just left out the "do this or you'll die" part. Quite significant part if you ask for motivation I'd say. Edér also says that they got you on the Defiant because the farther away Eothas got the worse your condition. If we measure the power of one's soul in character levels then Eoths took 93,75% of your soul when he crushed Caed Nua. Sounds like enough to care about. I guess players would have cared more if the whole Watcher thing would have been like a mini-class with a seperate ability tree on its own. And instead of leveling up that tree by XP you would have leveld that up by talking to Eothas and getting back parts of your soul. So it's not only meanngful for the character but also the player (even the powergamer).

Since you mentioned Paladin: I played a Bleak Walker/Arcane Archer with Spearcaster and is was an absolutely solid build. Also due to the fact that Flames of Devotion counts as elemental attack (so no Arcane-Archer malus), gets +10 ACC by itself and +10 ACC from Ring of Focused Flames plus the Arcana bonus for Spearcaster. Add Zealous Focus, Marked for the Hunt, Survival of the Fittest and Stalker's Link. It's very difficult to graze or even miss enemies. Also works with other Paladin subclasses of course. Bleak Walker just had the higher FoD damage. Also: Eternal Devotion puts its burning lash (10%) onto every direct damage you cause, including the imbued shots and the damaging procs (Missiles, Fireball). Imbue effects will proc with every jump of a projectile (Blunderbusses' 4 pellets count as 1 projectile), so Driving Flight is a must (imbue shots proc twice). An alternative to Spearcaster can then be a weapon which already has a built-in jump, like Watershaper's Focus. Then an imbue shot will proc thrice. This can be very potent (even with non-damaging procs): three parallel Pulls of Eora (applied with first shot from stealth), combined with three Binding Webs (second shot after stealth) packs enemies together very, very, very tightly and takes them completely out of the game for a very long time. As long as there are no immunities one of the 6 parallel procs every 3 secs will always hit. You can then shower that dense cluster with all sorts of AoE nukes while they can't get anywhere. I value this a lot more than Missiles or Fireballs. Also you'll have no PEN issues at all. Enemies with Escape, Evasive Roll or Leap might be able to escape randomly though (see Splintered Reef fampyrs) if the AI is smart enough to time the ability right. In this case an (or more) additional Slicken from a fellow Wizard can be great.

Why would that sound sarcastic? Rot Skulls is a ranged weapon which the Priest of Berath can summon. And the imbue shots of Arcane Archers only work with ranged weapons. Since Arcane Archers get an ACC malus when not using imbue or elemental attacks it may even be that Rot Skulls will prevent that (if it's tagged as corrode weapon) - but as I said I didn't test that combination.

I never tried Rot Skulls with Arcane Archer. Could be a thing...

Why do people debate Skyrim now? Doesn't matter if you liked Skyrim or not. Nobody meant that Feargus wants to make a game that's an actual Skyrim clone in Eora. Skyrim's just a symbol to quickly transport an image - to avoid having to say "first person action RPG" in Eora. Of course it wouldn't have the quirks of Skyrim. I mean come on... it would have others. But really: of what use is it to debate if Skyrim was better than Oblivion in your opinion - in regards to a new Pillars game? The reason why Obsidian thinks that a first person RPG in Eora (will not mention another game as placeholder again since the next random guy will write an essay on that game then, too) is simple: first person RPGs sold like hot cakes recently, Outer World's (which is the same but in Space) did very well. So they have the technology/engine, the knowledge and the (financial) motivation to make such a game. I'd say it's a given. Or how did Josh put it: "Feargus wants to make one - and usually Feargus gets his way."

Went. Completely. Nuts.

I repeat: only invocations. There are no other classes with invocations, so...

Only one of the three incarnates that appear is bugged. The other two will work fine. And the buggy one can still soak damage.

Of you want to play something similar to a Stormcaller Ranger then I would take a look at the Frostseeker war bow. Use a Single class Ranger (aim for Twinned Shots) or a Ranger/something multiclass - preferably one that lets you crit more often and does increase your damage (Devoted Fighter, Rogue, Cipher, Helwalker Monk, Furyshaper Barbarian and so on). Judging by your post a Scout (Ranger/Rogue) might be your thing. The bow shoots three projectiles and every one of them can crit which causes an AoE blast of frost. With Driving Flight (and Twinned Shot) you can crit 6 (12) times per attack in theory, causing massive AoE dmg. If you invest in Arcana you can then also use Avenging Storm which will trigger with each projectile and also on the AoE blast. It's not a Stormcaller but a Frostseeker - but the basic idea and vibe are similar. A bow that does shock damage and is focused on single target dmg (and summoning creatures on kill) is Essence Interrupter. It's also quite powerful. Actually there are some really nice bows in the game.

Which is what every developer/publisher should do if there's a good chance that it will sell well on the respective platform. PC grogs who don't play a game just because it was also released on consoles or other platforms - and all those other gatekeepers really - can bite the dust* for all I care. "But it's going to get dumbed down!" :eyeroll * not literally of course.

BG grogs went completely nuts because of TB combat in BG3.

And most of those are from the Deck of Many Things.

Unfortunately that ring does not really counter the self damage from Voidward (recently tested - but other sources of raw damage it does counter).

There is a difference in wishing for something and being sad that you won't get it on one side and being driven away on the other. How can I be mad at Obsidian if Deadfire sells so poorly so that they have to make RPGs which sell better then? It's not like they didn't try. That comparison is flawed because judging by the sales numbers Deadfire is what nobody wanted while Skyrim and other first-person RPGs like Outer Worlds is what everybody wants at the moment. It's just not what you want. Well... yes. Like PoE was jumping on the bandwagon of Infinity Engine games. If you want to make successful RPGs you must either do the goofy D:OS style with multiplayer and silly writing - or a more actionesque first-person RPG it seems. Or pure action RPGs maybe. Skyrim is just a popular example of a first-person RPG. I could also have said Outer Worlds on Eora or Witcher on Eora - but that sounds a bit misleading for different reasons. It has a Metacritc score of 94 (which is pretty impressive) and sold extremely well (over 30 million copies - one of the most successful RPGs of all times). So clearly the majority of users and critics differ from your opinion. I liked it, too. I didn't play it as often as PoE/Deadfire but it was fun nonetheless.

But then it would be bad for everybody who doesn't use Monastic Unarmed Training or Transcendent Suffering, wouldn't it?

Why would it drive you away? Simply not buying would be reasonable if you don't like those types of games. I personally would like to see those games. I'm not limited to isometric, party based role playing games. And after all: if they would aquire two million new fans but lose those 200K who bought Deadfire - should they care (as a company that has to earn money)?

In general this can work well. Only the modal of Quarterstaff doesn't stack with the usual deflection buffs like Mirrored Images. Chromoprismatic Staff comes a bit late, but before that you can use the Spine of Thicket Green which has a nice enchantment for Restoration spells.

I don't doubt that you have those problems. Deadfire IS heavy on the CPU - I just don't experience that magnitude of heating-up (and the game runs pretty nicely for me, too).

Wael is really good on the defensive side though. No (desperate) need for thick armor or/and shield if you can have some quick Mirrored Images. That can make you cast faster (less armor recovery) and more precisely (no ACC malus from shield).

It's like saying that the Witcher has a truly nice beard in the third part and judging by all the people who bought Witcher3 that must be the reason for its success. Could be totally unrelated. Even if the beard is superdandily nice (which seems to be debatable) this doesn't mean that it's a prominent reason to buy the game. You have a theory but no data to back it up - like most theories we might come up with in this case.

When you sail around you can see those coordinates change on the map - as you said. 8 degrees 4 minutes south and 56 degrees 56 minutes east is you goal. If you sail north you will see the first number (south) decrease, if you sail south it will increase. Same with west/east. What exactly is unclear?

My CPU is about the same as yours iirc - I have no such problems.

Ohhhhh - you didn't read the BG3 forums it seems.