wanderon

I'm still deciding - I'd say 99% chance of taking Eder & Pallegina as well as either Durance or Grieving Mother (possibly both). I'm probably never going to play a mage PC so that means Aloth will probably be there altho I'm thinking it may be entirely possible to play through without a wizard so he may be in and out over the course of the game depending on how well I like the character. For PC I am currently trying out some different classes in the BB to see if I can get enough rogue skills along with dialoge options (lore) without playing a rogue and for the first time ever I am considering a monk for PC but that's pretty tenuous. I may in fact be leaning towards just playing a two weapon melee/ gunslinging rogue to solve the whole no rogue companion deal. If the ranger gets better with the final BB build that would be a possibility as well for PC or for taking Sagani and I haven't ruled out either Hiravias or Kana Rua either. (Did I mention I am still deciding? )

Isn't this an exploit ? Is it? If you are packing 3 guns and they are all loaded shouldn't you be able to use one and switch to another the same as you might switch from any weapon?

Release is only 30 days away has anyone figured out what class they will start with and which companions they expect to have in their first party? (extra credit for verbosity)

If I understand it correctly for conversations (other than special scripted events like the dragon egg) isn't it only the Protagonist attributtes & skills that will be accessible for opening other options or will other party members have the option to chime in if they have the needed stat/skill?

Number of camping supplies you can carry is set by difficulty apparently - on Hard you can only have 2 - could not figure out why I couldn't complete the transaction as I tried to buy 2 more..... I like that concept (limiting rest in the wild) myself.

Time is winding down (30 days to release) do you still think we will get another build of the BB?

But then I have to ask you exactly what you actually played, because even disregarding party members (for whatever reason), almost everyone has legit ways to deal with wizards and protection spells. Archers get Arrows of Dispelling, Paladins have Carsomyr, and Assassins simply go up and stab them in the face before they even become an issue. The only "issue" with how spells/counterspelling worked in BG2 was that it could be hard to figure out which protections were up and what you needed to use to dispel it. But even so, just throwing what feels appropriate (which I do, because I can't be arsed to figure out exactly what does exactly what against what, even 10 years down the line) you can just sorta half-ass your way through the game when it comes to mages. Honestly the vast majority of mages I simply swarm and beat on them until they die, this is true all the way up until they get Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting. This isn't because I can't do better, but simply because it's the best solution. One day I'm really going to play the game as a Wizard Slayer/Thief just to see how hard I can wreck the opposition. I'm in Throne of Bhaal with my Assassin run at the moment, and Viconia has 110 Magic Resistance. I mean. C'mon. I didn't say I could not get through them I said I found them annoying and that because I chose not to pre-buff most battles were more difficult as well - as for what I played almost every class in the game outside of mages sorcerers and Kensai altho I did solo a Female Gnome Thief/Illusionist about 2/3 of the way through (into the Underdark) before the battles just became too tedious.

I really hated them along with the whole pre-buffing regimen - perhaps because I could never get on board with them and still almost always play with very limited buffing which of course made such battles much more difficult/annoying for me I also pretty much never play a PC mage either

I am pretty much with you on this - a mix of BG1/PS:T that allowed your characters to get from leve 1 to levels in the mid teens would be perfect for me - frankly once D&D based games get beyond those levels I just lose interest and the game would also have to lose the BG2 mage buff/debuff nonsense for me as well.

Agreed. Althought I wouldn't play another Witcher game if you payed me $50 to do it, so that's me. :D Me three!

Personally I found combat in ToEE much more tedious than the IE games and would pretty much always prefer RTWP over turn based.

But this is the same as having a "Fine Warbow" bonus of +4 Accuracy, isn't it? Or the Mace of destruction + 10 melee accuracy...but I think the point is that's not the ONLY way accuracy is added/subtracted from the base - there may be spells or talents that could effect them also. And while we are at it if an item has two seperate accuracy bonuses (boni?) do they stack? Or does only the higher of the two count (I seem to recall at least one item in the BB that had +5 from one source and +4 from fine is that +9 or just +5 (the higher of the two)

You have to watch for fire in their eyes!

Space piglet? Oh crap where we gonna hide THAT from the guards at the beginning of POE2???

Ok this was new for me - was doing the final temple scene with the girl -(avoiding spoilers) went to combat and was getting my butt kicked - lost my BB fighter. pally, and PC rogue and still had 3 foes left including the damn preacher (chanter?) with only one of them on the ropes - as the hurt foe went down, so did BB priest and BB wizard right behind him just as BB rogue used his last escape which I think the preacher interrupted as he ran right to the spot BB rogue was headed for so I figured battle is over now but lo and behold for some reason BB Rogue is now stuck in invisibility so neither foe is attacking him and he stabbed them both to death - It did take a very long time in spite of every hit being a sneak attack and he's hitting for 8 - 16 each hit with very few misses but these guys both had 4 dots left when he started so I guess that works out right. BB Rogue didn't come out of invisible mode until the next area transition then we took him back to the tavern and poured whisky down him until we passed out...

I have started combat with a fireball - the issue folks are having I guess is the spell animation appears to alert the hostiles (stealth immediately fails for the character casting or attacking?) and thus unless you can guess where the enemy will be when the spell actually hits it's a real hit or miss situation - in my case usually more miss than hit - this however seems to be dependent on the range of the spell or attack you open with as I have opened combat with the beetles usuing a firearm from a distance and they did not react until hit. attacking neutrals - (Medreth or the Nyphre party) - is pretty simple as you can set up your party as you wish - pause - give everyone orders - and unpause to begin the battle. I battles like Medreth where you want to use dialgoe to begin you can still set up your party first and pause immediately when the foes end conversation and attack and give orders etc. All in all I really don't have much of an issue with this as things currently stand.

If they take any advice from this thread, this is it. I still think interrupt is fine though so there! Who cares if it favors duel wielders, it is okay if a stack is not must have for everyone. Depends on what interrupt accomplishes doesn't it? I haven't looked all that closely but BB rogue (on Normal) seems to get an interrupt with everything except a miss - graze, hit, crit, etc and his misses are few and far between so if it stops your opponent from taking his current action (thus having to start a new action) and each new action is likely to fall behind BB rogues next non-miss that would seem to be OP. I certainly would not want to be on the other side of that equation with an enemy rogue attacking me and being unable to even get a swing in.

BH

And after pausing and choosing the next weapon click on where you want to attack or let the AI take over?

I've been fooling around with a Aumaua "gunner" today with multiple firearms but I have not been able to figure out how to get him to fire one after the other without several seconds pause between each one. I make sure he has them loaded ahead of time then as soon as he shoots I switch to the next but the lower bar on his status still crawls down at a snails pace - any suggestions? (Now I just recently got the "Quick switch" talent but it doesn't seem to make much difference)

1. Are wizards, chanters, ciphers lacking in "tactical advantage?" 2. Druids currently have over 50 spells. Is this more than necessary to have a "tactical advantage?" Isn't there some room to give? 3. Do you feel that because druids/priests have become such do-it-all casters that more traditional aspects of being a druid/priest have been compromised? (shapeshift/diety specific abilities/bonuses) 4. Would you do anything with your druid/priest other than stand in the back and cast spells? Does this feel tactical or compelling? 1. Wizards have the grimoire function and are not limited to the number of spells they choose on level up. Both ciphers and chanters are new types of class and I am currently deferring to the devs to create them as they see fit before deciding whether or not they work as planned. 2. Druids and clerics currently have about the same number of spells as they did in the IE games altho the number of spells is not as much the issue to me as having to choose only a limited number and no I do not want to see that form of choosing for these classes I prefer the current version so no there is no room to give. 3. I have yet to see a shapeshift handled in such a way as to make it worthwhile for me to use in any game so nothing new to see here and how is casting NOT a traditional aspect for these classes. 4. I have always done more than just stand in the back casting with these classes and even in battles where the casting becomes more important than other forms of offenses/defenses yes I do feel it is both tactical and compelling - particularly when you have a large range of different types of spells at your disposal and it is less so when you restirct the number and types of spells - especially in a new game with a new system where you have little or no knowledge of what works well and what doesn't - what are you supposed to base your spell choices on? Intuition? Coin flips?

Unless they implement some way to have clerics and druids learn spells other than only choosing X number of them at level up I much prefer the current system for it's additional tactical and even RP advantage (using spells the character is attracted to at times vs always going with the most powerful yet keeping the most powerful available when necessary)

For the most part my guys are not getting up from being knocked out without having lost some health and I'm guessing endurance also - (not a number cruncher so not paying close attention) it's enough to make me want to keep them standing but I have yet to discover a sure fire way to do so - most of the time they are taking more damage than any of BB priests choices can handle and thus far I have stayed away from the triage & wound binding and concentrated more on class & offensive perks

Trouble with that is information found in a tavern is like information on the internet - some good some bad and little or no way to tell the difference between the two...

There definitely should be one. And then a talent to avoid it?