Pus-in-Boots

Don't be so harsh, gentlemen. It is perfectly understandable that designers give players an option to play a classic goody-two-shoes paladin. Sure, it is a worn cliche, but some people enjoy it and expect it to be available. I'm personally repulsed by it as well. I really see something fresh and interesting in Gold pact paladins. No judging, no self-righteousness, just calm reason. And I agree with you that Bleak Walkers are unnecessarily cruel. They are said to be efficient and brutal, sure, but it has nothing to do with kicking puppies that you are forced to do if you want to stick to the guidelines of the subclass.

I've got the impression that Wael is some kind of benign combination of Sheogorath and Hermaeus Mora from the Elder Scrolls universe.

I picked lore/RP for my favourite - the paladin. I really like what they've done with the class. The conventional paladin is stiff, boring and bland. In PoE there is so much variety to the class. You can be empathetic and good or cruel and ruthless, or dispassionate and professional. And each of your RP choices is reinforced with a bonus to your defenses. Really nice touch. I personally enjoy playing cold, rational Goldpact paladin who takes nobody's bull**** and shrugs at madness that surronds him. My secont choice would be the monk. I really like the gameplay AND lore. Power through pain is an interesting concept and I appreciate it that monks in this game originate from some other place than usual and have somewhat different vibe to them. As of my least favourite class, that would be the ranger. And the reason is pretty simple - I didn't find anything interesting gameplay-wise in the class. Maybe I'm just a noob, but I don't find shooting arrows while your animal companion distracts enemies very appealing. The next in the least favourite row would be the barbarian. I never liked the class wherever I encountered it because of the lore attached. In consequence, I didn't care to learn how to use them effectively in PoE.

Well, after my first solo attempt at beating the game (with a monk character) I can tell you that PotD with a full party wouldn't be a challenge either. Especially with a custom-built one. Even dragons and bounties will go smoothly, if you know what to watch for. And after several reloads - you will.

Well, I can see the OP point here. He wants for the companions to be more involved in conversations. What we've got in PoE is more like consigliere whispers-in-the-ear type of dialogue. But I understand why Obsidian designed it that way (probably). I guess they intended for the companions to be just that. People who accompany you while you enjoy yourself on your goofy adventures. They stay in shadows and can only make some quiet suggestions, but don't try to wresle the control of the situation from player's hands. Remember that annoying, bratty companions in games where the influence system was implemented? In those games companions could be very vocal and insisting which quickly could spoil the fun of playing because you were shackled by your party's possible infavourable reactions and subsequent influence drop. So I guess this time Obsidian devs decided to go in the complete opposite direction of the influence system and make companions' interjections as light-weight as possible. And I agree with the OP to some point. The interjections could be written more naturally and not in the "voices-in-my-head" fashion. But then again it is a fundamental desicion of how much the presence of companions can change a flow of a conversation. And I also think it would add a lot more flavour - dialogue which do not change contents of a conversation overtly but suggest that your companions are still alive, as a part of the game world and not some kind of force-ghost advisors. But perhaps it requires too much effort, I don't know.

No, the souls come to your rescue only if you don't have any other means to save yourself. I guess high con overrides the helmet and the helmet overrides the souls.

I have this problem with Pellagina only. Others execute normal running animation while she just walks. Like a proper lady. Nothing have worked - I've tried resting, reloading, etc. My game version is also up to date. WM 1&2 installed.

She was also the goddess of cunning war strategies, while Ares was just mindless bloodlust. (It helps that most of what we know of Greek Mythology was written down by Athens cholars, and Athena was their patron goddess, so they wrote her in a flattering light while her rival god, and the god of one of their rival cities, Sparta, got written very unflatteringly.) I'd say Magram sounds like she has the personality of Ares but also has some traits of other female war gods and warriors, like Athena and Jean d'Arque. And I've always wondered how it is that Athene is the goddess of wisdom and she still quite foolishly involved herself with that "beauty contest" preceeding the Troyan War (according to myths). And it probably wasn't the only unwise action of the goddess of wisdom. And Magran... She isn't the most interesting of the PoE gods. You can easily associate war and fire, nothing original there. But! Magran is also the goddess of change, transformation and progress. It's a facet of war that is often overlooked! It is said that firearms were her gift to kith. This is why she's allied with Abydon. Also, as Durance preaches, she likes her trials. It's debatable if it is always "become stronger or die and be branded by flame" but nevertheless it seems somewhat Nietzschean (Chris Avellone loves to write this kind of characters). And that trait she shares with Galawain.

And it is an interesting thing about Skaen (at least for me) - the natural instinct for most people is to sympathise with people who got exploited, e.g. slaves. So you should like a god who is their champion of sorts, right? But then you realize that Skaen is also the god of hatred, resentment and betrayal. This is the kind of ambiguity I appreciate. The quest involving skaenites in Dyrfort accentuates it very well. In essense, the priest there wants to fight against priviliges that nobles are entitled to in a feudal society. But what did he do? He sacrificed hundreds of human beings in an extremely bloody ritual in order to mind-rape an already unjustly harmed woman. The cause is a noble one and I would gladly watch a man like Harond die, but the means the priest resorted to are just so over the top crazy... But this is Skaen in a nutshell - theoretically noble goals, practically insane methods.

I had really hard time with them as well. In the end I defeated them by kiting one half of the group with the least useful party member on that potion that grants a bonus to the movement speed. The other half was more or less easily dispatched by the rest of my party. I can't imagine how it would be possible to defeat them with a less cheesy tactic. But my imagination isn't the greatest thing there is, so...

Nah. Cyric is just crazy and destructive. Skaen is more calculating, silently malevolent, which makes him more interesting. Also, as the game seems very Nietzschean, he is the slave morality personified. What is Rymrgand then? My thoughts when compared to DnD are: Berath: Kelemvor(missed opportunity, meh) Eothas: Lathander(can't see anyone else) Rymrgand: ??? (Jergal? Myrkul?) Skaen: Talos Wael: Mystra Hylea: Oghma / Correlion Larethian Magran: Kossuth(this theme especially fits Durance) / Kord from Greyhawk Ondra: Ulmo / Osse lol(don't care sorry) Abydon: Gond Woedica: Hoar Gaun = Eothas, so... Galawain: ??? (I haven't been able to find anything...wild enough for Gal) note: it's funny how Helm is missing :D Well, if you insist on comparing the PoE gods to the D&D gods... Rymrgand would be some combination of Jergal and Auril. Galawain is the most similar to Malar, I think.

Nah. Cyric is just crazy and destructive. Skaen is more calculating, silently malevolent, which makes him more interesting. Also, as the game seems very Nietzschean, he is the slave morality personified.

Well, the thing about gods is all about their aspects. Things that they oversee. You rather don't have clear cut equivalents of the Pillars gods in the real world mythologies and every time you design a god, you must assign a field a god if responsible for. I think that Obsidian combined those aspects very nicely. For example, you can easily associate the sea with things lost and forgotten, like some wreck hidden below the waves.

Well, a choice between those two is pretty obvious. Eder is one of the two first characters you can recruit, which works to his advantage. Add his joking, easy-going personality and he wins easily. He is well rooted in the game world and - as a Eothas worshiper - reminds the player about the themes of the game. Maneha is underdeveloped. She seems to me like a cartboard cutout, just to make a predefined barbarian available for recruitment. My favorites of all the companions would be Zahua and Devil of Caroc, in that order. As of the rest of them... Aloth is somewhat bland and his timidness can be annoying. His quest reinforces the themes of the game, but I can't say it does me any good. Durance is interesting and well-written, but unpleasant and unable to shut up about things and people he's bigoted against, which can also become annoying. His personal "quest" is probably my favourite of all companions' quests. I like Hiravias. His humour is crass, but it resonates well with me, most of the time. His voice-acting is over the top at times, though. As for his quest I felt it was interesting, dealing with his identity crisis and with the matter of soul mechanics. At first I liked Kana's thirst for knowledge, but it became annoyingly old very fast. As well as his naivety. His quest was very good, especially its unfulfilling conclusion. Pellagina... I like her personality, but her "quest" is not very engaging. I hardly could understand why she expected some stranger she just met to be fully on board with her problems. And, frankly, I had to force myself to care. Sagani you can call boring or dull, but I quite like her "down to earth" attitude. She is very relatable and nice to have around. Plus, I have a thing for short brunettes. And her quest... A bit repetitive in dialogue and I became quite tired of "Persoq this and Persoq that". But its conclusion was pretty nice. I have trouble understanding though how is that possible for a kith soul to inhabit an animal body. Isn't it an entire point of wichts and "the salvation" that animals and people don't mix, soul-wise?

I can't stand Grievieng Mother. The wording of her dialogue is strange, she doesn't shut up about precious babies, doesn't have any interaction with other party members. I cringe each time I hear her chimes. So every time I happen to play an evil character I recruit her only to sacrifice her at the pool of blood.

I drowned them. They attack me on sight and are pretty powerful. I won't release a pack of mad dogs into the world just for the feeling I'm a kind, compassionate guy. Imagine how many innocents cound have suffered from this.

Actually, this makes sense. It seems to me that Glanfathans were indoctrinated to protect the ruins by the Leaden Key (or by the gods aligned with their agenda at the time), in order to make learning Engwithan secrets harder. So they are surely an useful tool.

Of course, not every single one of the ruins has an soul-sucking machine inside, though they are exclusively located in some ruin or the other. And since the Glanfathans stick to them in order to protect them it seems strange to me that they of all the people are blessed with so many healthy offspring. Yet we are talking about Twin Elms now and probably there isn't any machine nearby. Unless you count that giant one in Sun in Shadow.

Which is really weird considering they seem to be never very far from some Engwithan ruins.

Although I don't think any of the companion quests is particularly interesting, I would say I enjoyed talking to Durance the most. He is twisted, cruel little man, but it was interesting to unravel his inner workings. Also, the need to rest in order to continue the conversation gave me this feeling of gradual discovery. Also, the final conversation with him when you have the oportunity to shatter his entire worldview is very satisfying, to me at least.

I binded them to cannons with an assumption that this place would need protection from the greedy, the power-hungry and the crazy. I didn't see any impact of my decision, though. Perhaps it improves the cannons barrage ability you receive at the end of the expansion, but I never used it so I don't know. Well, I suppose I would free them knowing that it didn't matter in any way.