Boeroer

Sure - only problem is that Gromnir didn't say anthing along those lines. You were just assuming that he's white and tried to put him in a corner by picking the most absurd interpretation of his words. I guess it's a) then and you're just too embarrassed to admit it.

Brillant. Never thought about this and now I wonder why.

I didn't accuse any individual of xenophobia. I just pointed out that conservative Poles are not famous for xenophilia. That's not an accusation but a fact: https://balkaninsight.com/2019/08/13/new-polish-migration-policy-seen-enshrining-xenophobia/ So if a person accuses somebody else of racism they should be extra careful if their own demographic group and/or political spectrum has a certain and not entirely unfounded reputation for being xenophobic or racist - even if that person themselves is not. Because especially if you are not you don't want to give the impression of being a hypocrite or klutz. If that alleged non-racist person then accuses a native american of having white supremacist tendencies this person just looks like they either a) didn't know the accused person was native american or b) are nuts Pick your poison...

Yes, if you shoot at a bulk of enemies with party members like Edér among them then Powder Burns will hit them. But it has very low PEN and is an AoE attack. So if Edér has thick armor and uses the modal of Large Shields then he will not even feel the Powder Burns damage. And in cases you really don't wantto hit party members with it you can simply turn the modal off. But usually you can do like: Escape to the enemy group --> shoot dual mortars with Arterial Strike + Powder Burns until you have too many enemies attacking you or focus is full --> Escape elsewehere or cast a hard CC. Then Repeat. There shouldn't be too many party members around. Also note this: the helmet "Heaven's Cacophony" has Avenging Storm (1/rest) as enchantment. Hand Mortar has the enchantment "Blinding Smoke". Blinding Smoke generates a ton of hit rolls but doesn't hurt (only applies Distracted). But still: every hit roll from Blinding Smoke triggers a lightning from Avenging Storm. It's very devastating. Also because it adds on top of all the AoE hits that also trigger Avenging Storm. But watch out: Blinding Smoke does friendly fire iirc.

Ha... who likes to watch Davis Bertans play as much as I do? Every time he hits a contested three pointer and his defenders go "WTF NO!" I have to laugh. I was the same in my active years - only that I didn't hit and my defenders went "Pfff! LOL!".

Edér: totally works. Cadhu Scalth and max Athletics+Metaphysics and he's sturdy as a rock while engaging everything and everybody. Aloth: works as usual Tekēhu: Carnage does proc Static Charge. Not sure about Storm spells. Did they ever? I think they do not nowadays. +3 PL for Druid's storm spells seems to be better than Static Thunder, I agree. I mean if you plan to use lots of storm spells that is (and why wouldn't you). By the way Deltro's Cage gives +2 PL for Druid's shock spells as well and it stacks with the Voulge's +3 to storm. just i case you forgot... Serafen: always dual mortar. The AoE-problem got fixed. Now the AoEs of Hand Mortar (1 AoE) and Fire in the Hole (2 AoEs because of Chain Shot) all apply Rogue's afflictions and DoTs like Arterial Strike or Toxic Strike to ALL enemies that got hit by the AoE. Also they have dual damage (slash/pierce) and the AoE targets reflex instead of deflection. If you are using a mod for subclasses anyway why not making him a Streetfighter and profit from mortars + Powder Burns for a constant "Heating Up" bonus? Monk: it got fixed but I value WotEP mostly for its Offensive Parry which is kind of wasted on a Monk - except if you are playing Shattered Pillar where it's good (beause Offensive Parries generate wouds for you - usually a Shatterd Pillar needs to auto-attack to generate wounds but with WotEP his parries can generate the wounds while he can spam abilites like Force of Anguish etc.). Also the cone doesn't work with Whispers of the Wind and also not with Instruments of Pain and also not with Swift Flurry/Heartbeat Drumming. Fists are great especially if you stack Power Levels (Nature Godlike, Stone of Power, Prestige and so on) because they scale with (universal) Power Level and not character level. You can get better-than-mythic fists that way - which are very powerful. Another alternative is Morning Star. It can be very strong because Body Blows (the modal from weapon proficiency) lowers enemies' fortitude by 25. Then Enervating Blows weakens the enemy o crit, taking off another 10 points of fortitude. Then use Stunning Surge to stun: another -10. Enemy's at -45 fortitude which will not only allow your party members to apply fortitude spells more easily (great in boss fights) but also most of times the value of fortitude will be much lower than deflection. If you now attack with (Efficient) Force of Anguish which targets fortitude you will produce a lot of crits which all have the chance to trigger Swift Flurry/Heartbeat Drumming - multiple times in a row if you get lucky - one-shotting the enemy. It is a devastating option if you use your monk to rush squishies like casters etc. mostly. Basically against anything that has low to normal fortitude. And against bosses it helps a ton to apply stuff like Combusting Wounds or Disintegrate and such. But generally you can't go wrong with fists (and a non-crushing backup weapon setup for the times you meet crush resistant or even immune foes).

I have no idea. I just discussed stuff on the forum and made the passive icons. If I had the time I could dive into modding myself and reupload CP and whatnot. But... I'm doing software development for a living and don't feel the urge to "code" during my free time as well (unlike other software guys I guess who never stop). I enjoy doing things that don't involve an IDE or editor after work.

So... let me sort this out: you as a seemingly conservative Pole (who are not famous for their xenophilia right now*) accuse a native american of being a white supremacist? )* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racism_in_Poland

Yes, maybe he did it after CP went live and it wasn't incorporated yet. Can't remember. I only know we talked about it and he said that he changed it.

Baldur's Gate I + II Enhanced Edition costs ~55€ for consoles while it's 16€ on Steam. Divinity:OS II: 60€ So Deadfire's price for consoles is nothing special it seems. You have to keep in mind that those are often Ultimate/Definitive/Whowzawhoopwhoop version with all kinds of stuff, too (not that anybody would need that whole package but still).

I feel you. Had the same problem the first time I played Deadfire and picked up Edér.

I think Fury got fixed by Phenomenum, but I'm not 100% sure. Its jump didn't stack with Driving Flight which was odd and caught my attention. For Arcane Archer's imbue shots it's intended. THe inbues trigger from every jump already. If they also triggered with very AoE hit it would be absolute mayhem. With Woundig Shot I think it was a kind of nerf at first because Wounding Shot's DoT used to be very strong. Then they nerfed the DoT, too and I guess they simply forgot to remove the restriction. No proof for that theory whatsoever though.

That would at least explain why he's there (besides the story of him and his compagnon trying to rob Arkemyr resulting in helpful notes for any following thief).

I don't think that's what he meant. He's talking about the auto-level-up option of companions (when you pick them up for the first time). After starting or loading a playthrough you can escape and go into Options-->Difficulty (I believe you can't pick that submenu from the starting screen and that may be the reason why you couldn't find it like in PoE). There you'll have the following option:

Never met any other fortune teller than the "Fortune for a pand, good sir?"-pinocchio in the Dark Cupboard.

Yes, it was fixed at some point (but it took a while). I want to add that it's not only afflictions but nearly all hostile effects (DoTs for example). Even rolls that triggere secondary AoE effects will work (e.g. Clear Out + WotEP = cone attack where each hit triggers an additional cone attack or Heart of Fury with Hand Mortar where every hit of HoF triggers a mortar AoE attack). I say nearly because Wounding Shot's DoT does not work with any AoE weapon (besides on the initial target of course). Arcane Archer's Imbue shots also don't care for AoE weapons. Maybe there are more but I don't remember.

At the same time players complained that "mundane" classes in BG/BG2 had not much to do besides auto-attacking and felt less interesting than mages etc. Which is true. On the other hand that means a hell lot more micromanagemet if everybody in the party can use impactful active abilites - this can make the game more complicated and might push more casual gamers away.

So, I still had a savegame with him. Only of the testing session on Port Maje though - the savegame of the run I did I seem to have deleted. But I guess the test dummy is good enough because I don't remember that I changed a lot of stuff (besides adapting to encounters during the run of course). The gist of it is that you use Willbreaker and turn your Animal Companion (AC) and an Essential Phantom into your main damage dealers - while you drop down the defenses of the enemy - and then also deal damage. The Essential Phantom inherits your items. If you are currently equipped with Concelhaut's Draining Touch (CDT) then the Phantom will have it as well - and it will not lose it on hit. Instead it will keep it until the Phantom is killed or expires. CDT targets Will instead of Deflection and also has high base damage - so on crits it does substancial damage even with the non-optimized phantom. It also drains health which lets the phantom last a lot longer. It weakens on hit - that lowers enemies' fortitude and health. All in all a formidable weapon. So what we want to do is to throw enemies' will defense on the ground - so that the phantom (or us when while are using CDT) will crit nearly every time. Dazzling Lights + Miasma + Willbreaker will drop enemies will defense really fast and reliably (-50 and beyond if you also use terrifiy effects). Your phantom will crit the heck out of such will-debuffed enemies. Club would be even better, but here's the other part of the build that calls for a Morning Star: The Animal Companion, besides his normal attacks + passives, has Takedown Combo (TDC) which makes the next attack on target get +100% dmg. This can be used with the phantom for a really hefty CDT smash or for your spells (like Necrotic Lance or Killing Bolt). Unfortunately TDC targets fortitude. That's why we will use a Morning Star + modal to lower enemies fortitude by 25 via Body Blows. This makes it way easier for the AC to land its TDC. The Phantom with CDT also helps (-10 fortitude). Besides TDC also a lot of spells profit from the lowered fortitude. So the Willbreaker is the ideal weapon for this combo since it lowers fortitude AND will. It's important that we really hit the enemy with our initial debuffs before the phantom and AC can go to work, Hence we need lots of ACC. At the same time we are also tanking a bit for our compagneros who are not supersturdy - so we want to have very high AR. Stalker, spells, armor and items help. If you want to also attack with the CDT once your enemies are set up correctly and you seek to clean up more quickly you can use the "keep CDT for the whole encounter" trick: only cast it from a grimoire (don't learn it). Once it's there, before hitting anything with it, change the grimoire to one that doesn't have CDT: voilá - it will not disappear after a successful hit and you can use it like a regular weapon - very effective in combo with club + modal in a dual wield setup to drop enemies will even further and without the need to recast Miasma etc. all the time. I'd only do that when enemies' fortitude is low anyways and the enemies are not supertough. In boss encounters the Morning Star is always better in my opinion because several impactful spells need to overcome fortitude (e.g. Combusting Wounds vs. Lich Dragon which really helps to bring it down a lot faster). Besides that you also want to interrupt the enemy once its about to do something that would really mess you your strategy. That's why Concussive Shot/Transquilizer is so good. That's also why I don't keep hitting the target mindlessly with my morning star but ionstead watch what it does, let the AC/Phantom do the hitting and stay ready to interrupt or debuff the enemy. Nothing's more frustrating when you see the enemy starting a nasty ability but you can't interrupt because you are in the middle of a recovery phase. Since our recovery is rather long due to armor we want to fight smart, not hard. The dmagae dealing is done by our guys anyway. ---------------------- Race: Mountain Dwarf (not that important, Coastal Aumaua, Wild Orlan are also nice - resistances in general are good since neitehr Ranger nor Wizard have passives for that. Pale Elf is also good) Background: Old Vailia - Hunter (background doesn't really matter but I want the +1 INT) Classes: Stalker/Wizard (was pre Bloodmage - I would consider Bloodmage nowadays. The combo of Concelhaut's Corrosiphe Siphon and regeneration gear + Blood Sacrifice is hard to pass. Although an empowered spell + Takedown Combo can save the day, too) MIG: 10 CON: 11 DEX: 17 PER: 18 INT: 19 RES: 03 Skills: Athletics 20, Survival 20 (you'll have to retrain for certain events, this was used during the fight with Neriscyrlas - I didn't need the Survival though. I guess a leftover from some skill check before) Abilites (I fiddled around with the console with this test char, so maybe there's too few or to many abilities here, I didn't double check) Ranger: Actives: Wolf Companion: highest damage per hit. But I would consider Boar or Bear for better staying power due to endless regeneration/higher AR. Marked Prey --> Mark of the Hunt: We want the bonus ACC mainly for the tough-to-hit bosses in order to debuff for our allies (Phantom & Animal Companion) Wounding Shot --> Accurate Wounding Shot: same, also unlocks Predator's Sense as a bonus Takedown --> Takedown Combo: works with spells and also for the Phantom's attacks Hunter's Claw: wasn't present when I did this. I think I would take it now if I had enough metagaming knowledge - e.g. if I knew which enemies come next. You can really supercharge your ACC against bosses during some mob encouters before if you know whom to hit with it. Concussive Hot-->Tranquilizer: you really really want to use this gainst some bosses (e.g. to prevent Neriscyrlas from casting Llengrath's Safeguard) Passives: Vicious Companion Resilient Companion Merciless Companion Protective Companion --> Stalker's Link (more ACC) Predator's Sense Survival of the Fittest (more ACC) Wizard: Actives (important ones in bold; besides Concelhaut's Draining Touch it doesn't matter if from Grimoire or learned. Make it so that you don't put too many points into leanred spells but also have a collection of these without too much Grimoire swapping): Arkemyr's Dazzling Lights (lowers Will directly by 10 and dazes--> enemies' PEN -4 - which is important since our sturdyness comes from AR/underpenetration of enemies) Spirit Shield (Concentration + AR is golden) Miasma of Dull-Mindedness (massive -40 drop of Will defense which stacks with Dazzling Lights and -10 Deflection) Mirrored Image (prevents crits should we get targeted) Combusting Wounds (always good if you have multiple sources of attack rolls - like two allies) Necrotic Lance (nice as early single target spell in combo with Takedown Combo - but only the initial dmg will get the +100%, not the DoT) Concelhaut's Corrosive Siphon (source of healing) Infuse with Vital Essence (more INT = more duration) Essential Phantom (our super punchy ally) Llengrath's Displaced Image (see Mirrored Image) Ryngrim's Repulsive Visage (terrify targets Will and lowers Will at the same time and is very powerful alltogether) Concelhaut's Draining Touch (do NOT learn this but use it from a Grimoire - see "the gist" description above) Arkemyr's Wondrous Torment (like Miasma but longer range and lasts longer - backup if you have no uses left for Miasma) Llengrath's Safeguard (more AR when things go south) Ryngrim's Enervating Terror (moar terrify!) Iron Skin (everlasting +5 AR as long as you don't get hit - can have its uses) Citzal's Martial Power (+20 ACC for the times you really can't hit something) Substancial Phantom (should you run out of essential ones - this is actually worse in our case since it often starts to casts spells when we want it to smack things) Ninaguath's Killing Bolt (great with Takedown Combo's +100% dmg boost) Passives: Rapid Casting Martial Caster Quick Summoning Accurate Empower (if not Bloodmage obviously) Items (will change from encounter to encounter obviously - depends whom you are facing - but basically) : Head: Death's Maw (great early game source damage reduction that stacks with underpenetration) White Witch Mask (terrify when blooded is nice, the +1 PL for our Illusions/Will debuffs is as well) Back: Shroud of the Phantasm (Animal Companion also gets its Living Illusions: hilarious. Also I had my Living Illusions cast Essential Phantoms: even more hilarious). Three Trolls Stiched (in combo with other regenration items can be nice for a Bloodmage) Cloak of Greater Deflection (due to our low RES we can really use some more deflection) Neck: Cog of Cooh (Communal Carnage is not that important but nice - but the constant Aware inspiration from my dudes killig things sells it) Wahaki Tua (when you don't want to get terrified) Strand of Favor (generally useful especially for a 3-RES char) Precognition (the crit protection can be a live saver against arquebus gunners and such) Dragon Pendant (agaisnt slashing enemies it's great: +1 slash AR that stacks) Armor: Nomad's Brigandine (I didn't use anything esle once I got this. Tactical Withdraw: it's so useful for this char to cancel enemies' engagement entirely. With the Horde gives us +5 deflection all the time as AC and Phantom are always there, Head of the Column gives us another +5 deflection vs. melee weapons - stacks nicely with stuff like Mirrored Images) Hands: Gatecrashers (the knock down occurs from time to time because we crit frequetly due to our very high ACC + flanking, Reeling Blow is nice) Hylea's Talons (to keep up Predator's Sense most of the time) Corroded Vambraces (reduce enemies' PEN by -1 on 50% of crits: nice) The Left Hand of the Obscured (terrify chance on crit: nice) Engwithan Bracers (when you really don't want to get Paralyzed etc.) Bracers of Greater Deflection (see Cloak) Weapon: The Willbreaker (Battered Mind, Unavoidable Demise - will drop Fortitude by 25 points via Body Blows which we will never turn off. Will also lower Will per hit) Concelhaut's Draining Touch (pure destruction to targets with low Will and corrode AR) Rings: Ring of Greater Regeneration (especially Blood Mage) Ring of Regeneration Ring of Minor Protection Waist: Blunting Belt (most of times) The Maker's Own Power (when you are facing mostly crushing enemies and expect to get pommeled real hard) Undying Burden (best if your enemies are underpenetrating at -3 anyway - since its DR stacks with underpenetration - like Death's Maw) Upright Captain's Belt (when you face pushing enemies you really want this - else they push you away from your AC and you'll lose 1 AR which we don't want) Boots: Boots of Speed Boots of the Stone (resistance) Pet: Abraham (I used nothing else although Animancy Cat might be nice as well for the Phantom in situations where it has trouble penetrating)

And yet we are talking about sales numbers and low barriers to entry and accessibility. If you want people to grasp a ruleset quickly then a systemic approach is mandatory. Having to study and memorize a lot of exceptions is what will put off a significant amount of non-hardcore-players who don't want to get a Master's degree in that specific ruleset or to write a thesis about the unique spell effects of spell XY (I include PoE/Deadfire here as well). In the end it doesn't really matter how the spell effects goes through what attack resolution, if that's a unique mechanic or not . What matters is if it feels nice to cast it. For example Pull of Eora is a unique spell effect but it uses the same attack resolution. It's more interesting than Fireball which uses the same attack resolution but is fairly boring. So I would argue the uniqueness or joy of spells should come with their effects and impact on the game world and not how they are applied mechanically. The advantage of a universal attack resolution: nobody needs to look the hit mechanics up each time they want to cast a spell. I've played my fair share of P&P during school and university and I can only say that most players hated it if you had to reach for the rulebook all the time. A supernerd who could recite every rule was very welcome, even if he (usually a he) didn't contribute much else and fell asleep at some point because all the "role-playing" bored him... There always were some hardcore-nerds who loved to take a deep dive into the depths of exceptions and special rules - but most don't. Also those experts often really like the game to stay that way. They will usually argue that a more systemic (doesn't mean simplistic!) ruleset will "dumb down" the game or make it less interesting. I guess a part of that is that they invested a huge amount of time and brain schmalz to learn all that stuff. What's that worth if everybody suddenly can grasp or even decuct the rules quickly? Those players are gatekeeping. At the same time they only buy one copy like everybody else... D&D games most certainly don't sell well because the mechanics are so awesome, interesting or unique. Simulationisticly and also in terms of convenience they are bad. They manage to be complicated and at the same time don't really simulate anything very well. That's ok because they are a result of organic growth over long years with massive legacy problems (thanks to conservative and vocal hardcore-nerds) - and it doesn't matter much because the P&P audience is used to it and the whole other stuff around the rules is -whike at times a bit chaotic and silly - very rich and attractive and most players know it - they even grew up with it. Nostalgia, custom and popularity are more important than a slick, high quality ruleset when it comes to commercial success. A clear advantage of every D&D licensed game. Another thing: I read that Stardew Valley sold 10 Million times now. After release for PC only it sold 1 million copies (which is pretty awesome for such a game). Only after the game was ported to consoles and more importantly mobiles (iOS and Android) it surged again and went for the 10 million mark. Imagine a Deadfire version for mobiles... What changes would it have to go through in order to make it playable and fun on mobile devices? I mean if we look forward to a possible third installment? RTwP seems to be a pain on small screens I reckon?

From a systemic point of view and also as a Pen&Paper ruleset D&D is just terrible - at least the ones I played (<4). D&D has a great atmosphere because of the huge lore and content it produced and because of all the nostalgia. What you like (e.g. different attack resolution for x and y) makes players stop playing and literally (P&P) and (figuratively - using Google) grabbing the rulebook all the time. Deadfire, while complex, tries to minimize this by being more systemic (stat effects, inspirations, afflictions, basic attack roll vs. defenses etc). It didn't go all the way (see things like Miasma and non-systemic stacking) and didn't explain things well though. People can't really argue that Deadfire's core rules are harder to understand and to memorize than D&D. Details and exceptions: yes (because obscured), but D&D has plenty of exceptions and band-aid rules as well. But the general ruleset: no way. Put somebody who doesn't know D&D in front of both and then decide. Doesn't mean you can't like it better nevertheless of course. I like PoE over Deadfire despite it being more messy and a lot less systemic. I would never say that PoE has the superior ruleset though.

Maybe I still have it as a savegame. Will look it up once I'm at the PC, stay tuned.

They use D100 though.

I generally agree. But on the other hand a deeper system can result in a better gaming experience like @omgFIREBALLS said. WhereP oE and Deadfire fail is explaining their rules in a decent and catchy way. I'm sure that part of the problem is that rules get changed even after release and thus it's very difficult to make a good tutorial that a) doesn't become obsolete after some patches and b) isn't too vague in order to circumvent a). I said this a couple of times already but a great tooltip system (for every mechanic in the game) that explains everything perfectly well is the one of Slay the Spire. Maybe a future RPG with new rules could adopt something similar. Also the Enhanced UI mod for Deadfire is very good and helps to understand mechanics with simple icons and mouseovers. If I were Obsidian I would have tried to incorporate that mod as soon as it was published. An example for an understandable yet rel. deep combat system is Battle Brothers. It's not for dummies but yet the rules are not hard to grasp. Ok, it's turn based - that means all the obscure attack speed calculations for RTwP don't need to happen...

You should compare Gorecci Street with the bear cave. Both Gorecci Street and bear cave are optional sidequests that are very hard if you do them in order of occurrence.

The more I look at resource pools and -cost the more I think the game should have used numbers like 10 (ability cost) and 100 (resource pool) instead of 1 and 10. That way you could easily fine-tune the cost of abilities without changing its mechanics at all. Now if you cut the cost in half from 2 to 1 you have to rebalance the whole ability even if it's basically working well. Of course higher numbers don't look as pretty and would not work with the current UI I guess. I agree that Greater Lay on Hands doesn't have twice the power of LoH. Except in situation where you desperately want to counter a CON affliction.