Barbedbeat

Drank two good glasses of "Punk", an Italian IPA. Fragrant (its smell reminded me of passion fruit), fresh, bitter and topped by a nice and firm foam. An overall delightful drink.

Awesome thread, Cyseal. Will gladly post my 2 cents as soon as I have some free time in my hands and a good keyboard under my fingers.

I love her character: awesome design (did you notice the engravings on her head?), cool writing, engaging story and adequately creepy personality. Also, "quechmate". From now on, I'm going to write that word in the chat box everytime I win an online chess match. "Checkmate" is just so prosaic.

In spite of a strange flu-like malaise that has been messing up with my stomach all day, I indulged in a tiny bottle of "Pietra", a very nice chestnut beer from Corsica. Pleasant, fruity smell; slick, nutty taste; quite bitter. It was an overall agreaable drink even though, to be completely honest, I found it slightly too thin on the palate. Perfect for accompanying strong, aged cheese. Would recommend.

Well, one's man meat is another man's poison it seems. Personally, I adore wizards in this game. They are my second favorite class, right behind ciphers. I like the way the spells system has been implemented in the game (especially all the grimoire "lore"), an prefer it over other games' (such as Baldur's Gate's and other AD&D based rpgs). Being an inveterate cipher-head myself (most of my "serious playthrough" mains but one- a chanter- have been ciphers), I'd say all these classes are quite different in concept, purpose and fighting role. So, using them instead of wizards only because they can "cast indefinitely" sounds quite strange to me. I've always thought class-based rpgs to be a lot like a game of chess: every piece has its own, very peculiar role and must be deployed with the correct strategy. For me, wizards are great mob rulers and invaluable damage dealers. I can't imagine building a party without one, ignoring the fact that, from a role-playing perspective, I won't enjoy fights as much as I do if I didn't have a mage on the battlefi- TASTE MY FIRE, SU****!! Cough. Where was I? Ah yes. Jokes aside, here you can find a few tips on how to use your mage without getting too frustrated by the excessive amount of pained "Agh!"s, "Oof!"s and "Yelp!"s coming from the edge of the arena: 1) Give your mage a pistol or arquebus and keep them far enough from the heart of the fray. Don't waste your time by giving them a close-range weapon: rushing into battle kicking and screaming is just not what they're meant to do (unless you want to create a specific mage build for that, AKA the Melee Wizard). Also, the Ring of Wonders can work... wonders in boosting your mage-related confidence. 2) I never really thought of them as "insufficient". Yes, low-level wizards have... limited resources at their disposal, but as soon as they level up, the number of spells they can use tends to increase quite delightfully. Also, the Ring of Wizardry can help (I found it nearly game-breaking at a certain point. High-DEX cipher + overpowered wiz and WM 1= steamrolled). Giving them even more spells per rest would turn an interesting and challenging class into an avalanche of gruyère: cheesy as heck. 3) Wizard and party placement is CRUCIAL. That's where all those movement speed-related abilities (fast running wiz for the win!) come into play. I, for one, love casting Rolling Flame and Twin Stones. They can create a whole lot of confusion on the battlefield and are very useful in interrupting enemies. But yes: the danger of harming your own is omnipresent with these kind of spells. And this is exactly when the chess-playing logic comes to mind: "sacrifice a few for the good of the many". Oh blimey! I'm so sorry, Durance! I didn't mean to turn your burning passion for Magran into a literal, physical manifestation! Here, let me help you. Ha! Suits ye well, ye auld bampot! 4) You know who really likes crafting and using scrolls in battle? Me. Would I swap my multi-purpose wizard (who comes with a nourished, ready-to use arsenal of those spells in the first place) for an intensive scroll employment? No. Because it would be impractical. Imagine a fighter, busy hacking away at an enemy's head. Or a cipher, struggling to gather some much-needed focus for his casting. They both need to STOP what they were doing in order to produce, unfold, make sense of and finally read a scroll out loud (all while receiving a sound beating in the process). Scrolls can be used as support casting resources and they can be very useful indeed, but they cannot substitute the wizard class in any way. Also: try and give your wizard a few scrolls for an extended spell roster. It's hilarious, I assure you. Or try and give them some healing and revive spells they can cast on fallen party members in tandem with a priest. You won't regret it, I assure you.

[ Sking... *pinches bridge of nose and lets out a big, fat groan*, oh Sking. My dear, dear Sking. "Chanters are boring", you say? Well, I beg to differ. Chanters are awesome. And they are exactly like this (WARNING: swearing included)-> I can't see a single speck of boredom in a hundred-mile radius of pure, sheer epicness, my good Sir. Harrumpf.

I beg to differ. There's nothing I abhor more in a RPG than romances. Give me an enthralling story, give me well-written companions, give me clever quests with tons of different solutions, give me challenges. But don't you dare get anywhere near me with an RPG "romance". Unless you want to witness my ladylike demeanor dissolve in a plum of smoke, suddenly replaced by a barbaric explosion of disgust & rage, soon to be followed by a poisonous stream of profanities.

This. So much this. Also, random encounters, like the ones in Fallout 1 and 2, would be awesome.

I had to struggle SO HARD not to scream. Awesome news.

Yes, that's how the vast majority of things works, I it seems. But again, one man's meat is another man's poison: I, for one, detest games that most people seem to enjoy to the fullest. Oh, well.

Hello Gender Nihilist, and welcome to the forum! I really dig your question, and I'll reply straight away. Let's start by saying that, since you are a Black Isle (ah, nostalgia is grabbing me by the throat yet again) RPGs fan, you absolutely need to get your hands on PoE. I'm positive you'll enjoy quite a lot. And here are the things I personally liked the most out of Pillars of Eternity: 1. Companions. Let's be frank, I love them, their concept, their writing- which I think to be generally well done- and their personal motives/quests AND quirks. Following the good Black Isle tradition, they are all very far from the stale, exaggerated stereotypes one would expect to encounter in this kind of games and I was pleasantly "surprised" by this on my first playthrough. 2. Combat mechanics. I like them very much, and feel like they are some of the smoothest I ever found in an isometric rpg so far. I perceive the combat system as well-attuned, granting a very good synergy between all different classes as well as making room for the player to experiment with various different strategies. 3. No class restriction for armours, weapons, skills and talents. During my first playthrough, this made me literally squeal with joy. You want one of your chars to become a very stealthy fighter equipped with nothing but a loincloth and an arbalest? You can. You want your priest to turn into an athletic, heavy armored, axe-wielding maniac? Do as you please. One of the reasons I come back to Pillars is for messing around with various builds and equipment combinations. 4. Story. Simply put, I found it very interesting and immersive. Moreover, I love the setting and its lore, even though some things still need to be perfected and/or defined more clearly (but I'm sure that's will be fixed in Pillar's sequel/s). 5. An interesting villain. Things I don't like. Or, to put it better, "let me squeeze my tiny brain to think of something i didn't like as much as everything else, ah, ok, maybe this I guess". 1. Some things about how the plot is orchestrated towards the last part of the game. Mainly because it gave me the faintest feeling that there had been some more content that was somehow cut from the final game, and whose impalpable remains still lingered surreptitiously in some overheard dialogues and character reactions. BUT! 1. This is simply my own, personal, subjective opinion; 2. The latest (and definitive) game update has fixed and polished some narrative bits, and I didn't reach that part in my newest, patched playthrough yet, so I don't know whether I'd get the same felling still; 3. This didn't bother me one bit. Actually, the last act of Pillars of Eternity is one of the parts I enjoyed the most. Felt like there were some noteworthy moments, especially if you happen to have two specific companions by your side (heck yeah character development!). ... And these were my two-cents. Keep us posted on your Pillars-grabbing decision!

Hello everyone! So, I recently started my new Pillars playthrough in order to fully appreciate all the new content/mechanics which came along with the new patch (I'm really loving it so far). I just got to the point where, after defeating Maerwald, me and my party are packing up in order to leave for Defiance Bay and investigate on everybody's favorite shady organization: the Leaden Key. If I remember correctly, the first time you set up camp and rest after leaving Caed Nua, Aloth is supposed to sneak up on you (further proof of the fact that elves are, actually, a bunch of weirdos) and ask if something is currently worrying us. And, with an high enough PER, it is possible to pry quite an interesting reaction out of him. But this time, it didn't happen. Instead, all I got was the usual "Aloth wants to talk to you!" icon appearing on his portrait, and after agreeing with him that going to Defiance Bay was the "most logical decision" we could take, off we went for new (MIS)adventures! So, since I read somewhere else on the forum that there had seemed to be issues with "missing companion lines", I was just wondering whether this small interaction was cut on purpose or had just "mysteriously vanished" from my game.

It really seems to be a problem on the app store's end, not Obsidian. How long ago did you try to buy TWMptI? Perhaps, as of late,they've been "busy" impementing the second part of the expansion, and had to cut the link for pt I (for reasons unknown to mortal men, evidently). But hey, at least they were honest and gave you your money back Anyway, I'm quite positive you will be able to purchase both parts of the expansion as soon as pt II is released on the Store (which will happen way before Christmas, I hope).

I bought twm part 1 on the app store without any problem. Regarding part 2, they (apple store) have not released it yet. Did you try contacting them directly and explain them your problem?

I thought so. Well, I'm going to un+re- install my game as soon as ver 3.0 comes out then. Thanks for your reply, Aarik, as always!

Yay, congrats, everyone! And Osvir, that prose is absolutely gorgeous. Good job!

I thing that what Luzeryn meant to say was that, even if you reinstall the game, you won't need to restart anew, because all of you saved games will be kept (I can confirm this, having done so myself a couple of times already. No worries)

Hello all, by taking a look at my account on the App Store, it looks like my copy of Pillars of Eternity needs to be reinstalled, in spite of it being fully present on my computer and working flawlessly. Could it be because I accessed the program files ( I did nothing except from adding few custom portraits, I swear!) as Aarik kindly showed me to ( https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/84537-mac-osx-how-to-upload-custom-portraits/?do=findComment&comment=1779074 )? Or perhaps that's because the App Store finally released TWM pt II (even though, by looking at the game page on their website, that doesn't seem to be the case)?

Aarik, you genius, I don't know how to thank you. After more than six months worth of attempts, not only did I manage to upload some custom portraits (yay!), but I could finally have access to all the game files as well!! Thank you again! *big hug*

Thank you a lot, Aarik, but I'm afraid that thread only explains you how to upload your portraits on the GOG version of the game. I had already tried "eviscerating" the program package, but no matter what I do, it seems I have no access whatsoever to the game files/folders.

I bought poe from the App Store as well, and it works fine. WM is a midgame expansion: you need to travel to your Stronghold and talk to the steward in order to access the additional storyline.

Dragons. I hate having to kill such majestic creatures.

Dear All, I'd like to inquire whether, since I bought my copy of PoE from the App Store, it would be possible for me to upload some custom portraits on my game and, if yes, I'd love to understand how. Thank you in advance.

@Keyrock wonderful choice- Dave Brubeck was nothing short of a genius, and Take Five was one of the tunes I loved to play the most on my old piano. But alas, for the time being, I've become quite fixated with W.A.S.P, and I'd like to share with you one of my fave songs from my fave album of theirs: Asylum #9- The Neon God pt1. "I'll shrink where you think till your fears are subsided I'm your physician-SLASH-magician of minds" https://t.co/AzceecoBGg …

So I'm not the only one who gets annoyed at their own music! I feel somewhat relieved by this! Ps: I love your PoE soundtrack as a whole: it's just so evocative!