Boeroer

Sorry... really sorry... but this is the most presumptuous thing you ever wrote in this forum. How on earth can min-maxing in a CRPG be ethically dubious? If you don't like it for yourself - fine. If you don't feel good when doing it: don't do it. But don't judge powergamers who want to build a very effective character - because they get fun out of it. This is not an totalitarian system where some higher moral instance decides how the subjects should behave. It's a game that is supposed to be fun for most people. Compromises have to be made of course to make it fun for most players - so stuff like balancing and smoothing the edges is ok - but arguing that min-maxing itself - and that means trying to be very effective in the boundaries of the rules is somwhow ethically dubious... it reads like utter hubris.

"A character that is crippled is literally incapable of doing the things your character does in Pillars & Deadfire. In this case your argument can be reduced to 'the numbers can mean anything you want', which doesn't seem to be a very good role-playing system to me. I'm not arguing for the 'removal of fixed boundaries'." @Yosharian: It was an example how a lower boundary restricts you from roleplaying and does not foster it. You mustn't split hairs. And the numbers can mean anything you want, but that was not was I was saying. I wrote that the numbers mean what the designer wants them to mean. So if a 3 in PoE means "he's dumb but can manage" and the same goes for a 7 in Pathfinder then what's the problem with the 3 unless it hurts your aestehtic feeling for numbers? I didn't suggest in any way that you are arguing for the removal of fixed boundaries. I am though.

Nobody. I knew about this but simply forgot it. So much cheesy stuff. Another one with Shroud of Phantasm: Living Illusions also duplicates a Ranger's animal companion. And I believe those don't have the low health as the duplicate of the char has. Don't think that this is usable for the Ultimate though since the 1/rest cast won't get refilled by Brilliant. Did somebody consider Ranger's animal companion as a bodyguard for Vela or something? Ranger also has those passives that help against AoE spells. Maybe good against some bosses? Also Beast's Claw cheese (also usable with ranged weapon/melee weapopn setup - think of blunderbusses' multishot with Driving Flight), + Marked Prey + Survival of the Fittest + Stalker's Link to help with the hitting, AoE Concussive Tranquilizer, long lasting Binding Roots to stop enemies from reaching Vela, Takedown Combo for interrupting and +100% dmg ... Tactician/Ghost Heart maybe? More engagement, lots of ACC (cheese), plenty of interrupting and removing buffs (Takedown Combo, Concussive Tr.), defensive buffs, a bit of CC, an additional body. Maybe there's even a glitch where you can cast "Play Dead" on Vela, hehe.

Exactly. First two seconds and also from stealth counts as hitting afflicted targets. THat's what I described in my post above (and why this restriction doesn't really feel like a restriction). Anyways: Beguiler is very powerful in terms of focus generation because of that and you don't need to use a weapon at all which makes him a perfect candidate for caster/cipher multiclasses or anything else that doesn't use weapon attacks that much. This includes Forbidden Fist by the way: the ability does not count as weapon attack and thus generates no focus. So if you want a Forbidden Fist/Cipher you might want to try Beguiler (or Psion). Forbidden Fist (Enfeeblement on enemy) + 10 INT + Disintegrate is very strong.

Not correct. Deadfire had significantly less backers. The achieved sum was due to investors + backers. PoE1 also got funded more quickly. Due to all the nostalgic players who wanted the "spiritual successor of Baldunr's Gate". It may seem smoother because the team had more experience with managing a crowdfunding campaign after doing it for PoE. While I don't know who was in charge of the Kickstarter campaign for PoE (maybe nobody in particular but it was a group effort)I know that they let Katrina Garsten manage the fig campaign of Deadfire and she did a great job. But still the funding didn't went as well as for PoE - if we are looking at the number of backers. And that's the only indicator that matter in this case. There may be several reasons why Deadfire didn't sell as well as PoE. The "questions" that Wormerine listed are all possible reasons for people to not back/buy Deadfire. There are metrics that show that a very small percentage of PoE players finished the game. There were quite a few vocal grognards even here in the forums who where disappointed with PoE in it's role as successor of Baldur's Gate. Several people said they don't like a Pirates of the Carribean theme compared to a more traditional medieval theme. Lots of people complained about the bugs in PoE - also about the constant rebalancing (or nerfing). The performance (Unity) was an issue with PoE (and still is with Deadfire). But: there were not that many complaints about missing multiplayer in PoE. So while this may attract more players (most of them a bit younger I guess) it can't be the only or even the biggest reason for Deadfire's lower sales numbers.

No There is the limit of 3 PoE does use a sensible number. 3 is a sensible number. It all boils down to "what does a score of X mean?" - and that's described during character creation. In this case "3" can translate to a "7" in Pathfinder. The number system itself doesn't matter. You could have used a system that uses numbers from -10 to 10 to describe a stat as INT "as dumb as it gets" up to "genius". If Pathfinder chooses that 7 is the dumbest a character can be then fine. Lower than 7 then maybe means you wouldn't survive on your own if that was your permenent INT. PoE chose that 3 is that number. The removal of fixed boundaries doesn't prevent anybody from roleplaying. That argument is moot. What if you want to roleplay a crippled character - but you can't because DEX is fixed at 7 (meaning really clumsy but not crippled)? You can't then. Restrictions only restrict your roleplaying. THey don't make it better all of a sudden. Usually there are sound mechanical reasons why stats are restricted (see 35 as max in Deadfire now). But roleplaying reasons? Nay...

Yes. Those tiers above are highly subjective and not applyable in a general fashion anyway.

Ha! I indeed had the "Rattenfänger von Hameln" on my mind when doing the Beckoner icon. Is is an indian snake charmer's pugi that I depicted though. Just to make it more recognizable.

PM me the strategy? Are you with the Hand Occult or something?

Don't know if it's a bug - since it was reported and even mentioned in a patch note if I remember correctly. I didn't play Beguiler recently though. Hope that didn't change or anything. I simply loved his focus generation through Deception spells. The fact that it only works on afflicted enemies (which I almost forgot) is like no restriction in reality: casting from stealth counts as if every target is afflicted already(!) That first cast also has the usual stealth recovery bonus of -85% recovery time. That means a ton of focus AND afflicted enemies for all your next spells right at the start of the battle (because stuff like Phantom Foes or Secret Horrors lasts quite long).

Why two bug reports for the same bug posted by the same person? 🤔

I use the Enhanced UI mod and never saw this during countless wanderings on that island.

Yessir, it gives you more focus back with Deception spells. It's awesome. YOu can cast Whisper of Treason etc. for free. Actually I think it even gives you more focus back as it costs even though it's just single target (iirc, after some PLs). Cheap spells with huge AoE like Phantom Foes will give you huge focus refill - the more enemies you hit the better. That's why I like SC Beguiler so much: Shared Nightmare with Beguiler is just... I can't...

This should clear it up (the underlying mechanics of "speed vs. time" haven't changed since release): Especiallly this example about speed vs. time from that thread: "For example: I am going with a car at 100kmph. And at that speed going from A to B will take 60 minutes. a). if I am asked to lower my speed by 25%, I would slowdown to 75kmph. [the speed is 25% lower, the trip duration is 33% longer] b). if I am asked to increase the time it takes to arrive there by 25%, I would slowdown to 80kmph. [the speed is 20% lower, the trip duration is 25% longer]" It's simply a mathematical "problem". If you increase your speed by 25% that's not he same as reducing the time by 25%. But since Obsidian uses attack speed bonuses but finally shows their effect on the attack/recovery times they have to transform the numbers like in the example above.

If you are looking for a spell spammer I would completely forget about weapons and just pick a Beguiler. After picking Draining whip the Beguiler gains so much focus from a single AoE low level Deception like Phantom Foes that you can then spam a few shred powers or other damaging stuff and then drop a deception again to refill. No need to skill for weapon damage at all. Just put everything into spellcasting. I like a single class Beguiler best because the high level püassives are just great - but it even works very well with several multiclasses like Helwalker/Beguiler or Berserker/Beguiler that seem to be martial combos - but don't need to be because some of their key abilites work with spells as well (+MIG and +INT, Thunderous Blows, Swift Strikes, Enduring Dance, Berserker's Spirit Frenzy, Bloodlust, Blood Thirst and so on).

Maybe, but I tried to take into account what a "Skald" actually was (historically). They were norse poets (not singers). Kind of wandering historians, too. So I chose the norse axe. Rapiers and such really don't fit the original Skald, even if they are good for crits in Deadfire. 🙂 Sure: I mustn't stick to such things too fiercely. But if any north european player reads "Skald" and sees a Rapier he/she will be like "wtf???" 😆 Evoker: no problem, I can do plenty of variants for a Fireball. Or I use Missiles since they would "fill" the space better...? Fury: I just reused the shape from Toughened Fury (trying to spare some time). Good idea with Storm from X-Men. Maybe just an angry face with sparky eyes or something will do. The ones I don't like myself (but let them be in order to get the first round finished😞 Combat Focus: looks too geomatrical somehow. I wanted to depict the "focus" of a camera lens but it just doesn't seem to fit. Prestige: the combo looks a bit weird somehow. Maybe I will just remove the arrow and use a bit simpler laurel wreath? Black Jacket: Although the Black Jackets indeed wear black brigandines (hence I depicted one) it just looks too different from the other icons. Berserker: not really meaningful. Corpse Eater: I like the idea of the filed cannibal theeth - but it looks more like a monster atm. If I put it in a human face it also looks weird. No idea how else to depict Corpse Eater though. Helwalker: looks more like a Fakir. But I thought "walking Hel and suffering increased dmg"... Psion: Just difficult to differenciate the cipher subclasses, especially Ascendant and Psion. They are all "psionic" classes somehow. So I wanted to emphasize on the telekinesis which is special. Need to draw it in another way. Or I do indeed use the meditating one for Psion (who meditates kind of to gain focus) and invent somnething alse for Ascendant (mayne "angel" wings as a sign of ascension). Iron Will: the general idea is ok I guess, but it looks off. Ghost Heart: I like that the antlers form a heart-shape. But the spirit-swirly stuff has to be done better. Stalker: eh meh Stalker's Link: eh meh 2 Wildstrike Frenzy: I'm so out of ideas and this is the best I could come up with after several (internal) iterations Enchanter/Transmuter: too similar. Also maybe to filigree with the lines and all. Thanks for the continuous and thorough feedback @MaxQuest! 👍

You have to keep in mind that a bonus to attack speed of let's say 10% is not the same as the reduction of attack time by 10%. Sometimes the descriptions list the bonus to speed. But once you look at the character's attack and recovery times (like the seconds it takes to do x or y) this will translate to different - bit lower - numbers. Other example where that happens: Frenzy. It lists the bonus as attack speed improvement but if you look at the reduction of attack time it's a lower percentage.

The loot drop bug wasn't mentioned in the patch notes. But I can't reproduce it anymore - so I think it indeed is fixed. Hope the same is true for this special bug.

Ok, all subclasses' icons done - at least the first iteration: Feel free to comment. Next step is to create the last missing general passives (Quick Summoning and such) and then to incorporate the feedback I get/got from you. Some changes I already implemented, but not too many of them. I will compile a list with the feedback so far.

If you take Savage Defiance the self damage is manageable even with high MIG (since the high MIG and Power Level scaling also boosts Savage Defiance's healing). You can also use the Voidward ring to reduce the self damage further if it's too much for your taste. Nice synergy with Berserker's self dmg: a Monk as second class (Nalpasca or vanilla. Helwalker dies too soon and the others don't gain wounds from self dmg). Berserkers don't have tzhat many dmg bonuses so dumped MIG does hurt their dps a bit. If you multclass with a Rogue: no problem, you can dump MIG. If you multiclass with most other classes and want to deal lots of damage... maybe don't dump it if you can counter the self damage with Savage Defiance sufficiently. If you multiclass with Paladin you shouldn't have any problems at all (due to Savage Defiance + Lay on Hands which you don't want to upgrade + Exalted Endurance). Berserker/Livegiver also no problem most of the time.

Erm... I almost never sacrifice anybody to the Blood Pool. Except when I play an evil blunderbuss user. Then Devil of Caroc. Maneha sounds nice. Prone and stun are very annoying. Another alternative would be Durance. Barbs get a lot of base health and endurance and Durance in the pool will give you +5% max health and +10% max endurance. Or Hiravias since DEX is always nice an the +1 slash DR... hm why not?

Scordeo's Edge is not only great because of Blade Cascade but also because of Adaptive. It stacks with every other ACC buff since it's from an item Speaking about Avenging Storm: against mobs Hand Mortar is still the most awesome way to use it. Especially if you can crit a lot with Adaptive (+20 ACC) or even Strategic Shot (+30 ACC). As said earlier Blinding Smoke triggers Avenging Storm and every AoE attack roll from the mortar has the potential to trigger the AoE cone of Blinding Smoke. In addition to the Disorient. So Tactician/something sounds like a good idea. If you combine it with Pull of Eora & Clear Out you generate (AoE_targets_Clear_Out * AoE_targets_Hand Mortar * AoE_targets_Blinding_Smoke) hits which all trigger Avenging Storm. And against single targets I would presume that Scordeo's Edge + Xefa's Empirical Explication should be very nice as well once Blade Cascade triggers. Or doesn't it remove reload time as well? Always used it with another melee weapon...

Short update: Only Wizards' subclass icons are left...

I often said that Driving Roar does bonkers damage and is awesome. I looked at the base numbers and didn't know why. I assumed I must have landed crits a lot. Now I know better. Thanks for sharing that info! 👍