K Galen B

Wouldn't a .txt full combat log be great? One little Combusting Wounds and I no longer have any idea what is doing how much damage to whom in combat - I can only tell than non-fire-immune things are melting.

Sometimes nostalgia just doesn't make up for the bits you don't like in a retro-style game.

I see... Dammit, what exactly did I do? Look and find out? https://www.dropbox.com/s/ik2rdyvk5q48hrw/LootsDays.xlsx

I don't think a Chanter, however powerful, is a good fit here. It is the opposite of "active in battle," particularly on normal difficulty. Some folks - including me - just like to spend more time microing their mc because he's the mc.

Seems like it might have more to do with Spell Holding items than DAoM/Dangerous Implements. I recall there being something else that interacts poorly with Spell Holding gear, too, but can't think of what it is.

You can get Badgradr pretty early if you go to WM soon after it is possible & don't run around doing a ton of side quests first. You can pick it up during the WM 1 main quest. Level 8 or so perhaps?

Whatever weapon you're using I wouldn't touch Larder Door. Bashing sounds cool, I agree, but having an ineffective character due to -8 accuracy (for everything!) and very slow attacks with your weapon (that, unlike bashing, actually does decent damage) can really, really ruin a lot of cool factor. Gloves of manipulation + mechanics scroll = +5 mechanics and you can have both (with some attention to random loot tables) before you get to Tidefall.

Everything being significant tends to resemble nothing being significant after a while. There is, of course, a balance to be struck between the two - not pointless encounters or battles all the time. Personally I liked being reminded that traveling through the wilderness is dangerous, sleeping in hellhole-of-your-choice unwarily is a terrible idea, and that from time to time monsters make terminal mistakes about how dangerous sleeping adventurers are.

Edit- Llengrath's Safeguard seems to fail due, in some way, to Spell Holding items such as Shod-in-Faith or Raiment of Wael's Eyes. I seem to recall some other spell or ability has or had a bug to do with Spell Holding items, though I can't think of what it was. Still not sure if DAoM/Dangerous Implements affects things at all but those are more of a pain to test & I'm tired of reloading and fiddling with gear for the day. ----------------- Is Llengrath's Safeguard working correctly (in 3.03) for everyone? I often wonder why I'm getting my kicked inna fork so often below 50% health, then look at my effects list & stats to find out that Safeguard never fired. With a wizard using DAoM + Dangerous Implements it seems not to fire about half the time (or more) when the wizard hits 50% endurance. If this isn't unique to me, I suspect it is because what reduces him to 50% health is often damage dealt to himself via DAoM or Dangerous Implements. Or perhaps Spell Holding and/or debuffs are interfering somehow. I'm going to try to test this a bit more. IE Mod *might* be the culprit but I can't think of how it would be (whereas self-damage, spell holding, etc. look like good culprits). I'm pretty sure I was getting curious about Safeguard's behavior before I touched IE Mod anyway.

I missed them. Definitely missed them. Sure, they were annoying in BG but the world seems a little less organic without them. That doesn't mean they'd have to work like they did in BG. You could pacify areas after certain quests are complete - particularly suitable as a ruler of the area. Encounters could be limited to 1 or less per transition/rest period instead of completely random (no reloading a save because 2 random encounters in a row with no health or spells left for the second one). Encounters could be tied in with factions... in such a way that you can kick someone's teeth in and make them stop. There's lots of stuff you could do with random encounters that wouldn't make them seem out of place. I don't mind a certain number of trash fights at all, personally. They add tension to important battles by contrast, make your characters feel as if they're actually growing stronger, keep you on your toes a bit, and if done right make the world feel real.

I'd post this somewhere else but I'm not sure it is a bug & this subforum seems to have the most technical knowledge available. Is Llengrath's Safeguard supposed to not trigger if you hit 50% health as a result of self-inflicted damage? It seems that the defensive effects only fire in half of battles at best and I can't think of another likely reason for it to fail.

I just modded that stuff until it worked right - or at least worked how I wanted it to. Don't think I've played more than 1/4 of the way through a Bethesda game without major mods. Unmodded Oblivion was memorably atrocious. Morrowind, Skyrim, and Fallout 3 & 4 at least have style. Wish Bethesda would get over this percentage-reduction-armor thing of theirs. Makes me want to toss my cookies.

Well, you can hit at least level 4 before you go through Caed Nua if you complete the possible side quests before that. Are you sure that stun doesn't target Will? Quite a few do. If you're getting hit with crowd control, buffing your defenses/debuffing enemies is a bigger priority than buffing your offense - I would save Bless for when you aren't actively dying. If you have Chill Fog or Curse of Blackened Sight those will take a big bite out of the phantoms' accuracy. If all else fails, Consecrated Ground is generally an "I Win" button at low levels. (10-14+ AoE healing every 3 seconds for a decent duration). Hmm... don't forget consumables, either! No need to save a ton of money or materials by not crafting - you'll end up with tons of gold even if you eat like a gourmand, chug potions just because you're thirsty, and use scrolls to light your campfire. Bulwark Against the Elements and Mirrored Image potions would be particularly helpful in this situation, as would scrolls of Defense and Protection if you can craft or buy those yet.

Not sure about Strike Hard but Shatterstar at least has a 1.0 second interrupt.

I have to wonder how much of this 'loading time' is really to do with loading/autosaving. My gaming computer is getting old and I never upgraded to a SSD - I run it on a SATA 2 10k rpm hdd (meaning I can't transfer data at anything like the speed of a decent newish SSD) yet my transition times are only ~18 seconds in Act 3 + halfway through WM1 with both expansions installed. The way people with SSDs talk about 20+ second load times I should be considerably slower. I wonder if the engine is sensitive to some particular hardware configurations... or how much processing goes on between areas? But then, my processor is just an overclocked i7 920 - any new gaming-ish computer should be at least as fast if not faster.

What's "very"? Rotting flesh constructs have 20+ dr against both, too. Maybe some other stuff I can't think of.

It would be nice (and possibly an easy change?) if the Stronghold merchants were somewhat more useful. The General Goods merchant, for example, could sell foodstuffs. In my current play-through the ingredient merchant is the only one I've found to be truly useful. The weapon and armor merchant could be, I suppose, if I needed a particular item early in the game. As for the others, the scroll merchant only sells 2 types of scrolls, the traps merchant only sells 3 types of traps, and the general merchant is only useful for camping supplies (that I can get in pretty much any town, plus at least 1 in most wilderness/dungeon areas). Not a major complaint by any means but it makes me a little sad that my awesome stronghold has worthless tenants. Especially the general merchant... inside my treasury! Is he selling me things I already own or what? XD

There was a lot of talk earlier in the thread about Pull of Eora flinging enemies out of its range & being poor crowd control. From the perspective of a solo wizard, I have to disagree - the spell seems very effective at keeping foes from doing much (other than getting dragged around the battlefield). With high Int and good positioning (perfection not necessary) I can usually avoid melee engagement from all but one foe, two at the most. Overlapping the AoE with Chill Fog in most battles (mastered) probably helps since anything hit by both has lost 3 movement speed. The only thing I really find annoying about Pull of Eora is that it sometimes seems to cause the visual and real positions of pulled enemies to differ by 5-10 meters. Never quite sure what I'll hit with the Blast.

I wouldn't go so far as to say they need rebalancing. They could use a few things to make them more interesting choices for building around, though: 1) Speed buffs not affecting reload at all is a bit silly. 2) The game needs at least one more unique arbalest. 3) Powder burns might or might not need to be improved even after the 3.04 bugfix. Not entirely sure how it works - I only tested it casually. Overall I like the way firearms actually feel like firearms in this game. They aren't just a slow, high-damage bow or crossbow. Crossbows and especially arbalests end up kinda bland and weak (except Twin Sting) but that's nothing too unusual for this kind of RPG. Kinda difficult to differentiate a bunch of projectile weapons that all rely on the good ole' "put a leak in the flesh bag" principle.

Hm. It looks like my opinion won't change things here, but this is the internets so I'll benevolently gift these forums with my wisdom anyway. A skilled, wealthy mercenary (adventurer) that uses flintlock firearms (particularly pistols) who does not have as many as he can find places to carry them is the one on the side of "unrealistic." Historically, even in the days of cap and ball revolvers where they had more firepower per weapon, anyone who could afford it would carry as many firearms as they could. Spending the time to reload a non-repeating weapon, or even early revolvers, when the enemy is in your face and you could potentially draw another and fire again is almost suicidal. People only quit carrying multiple pistols into battle (again, when they could) once we worked out removable magazines.

Like Greensleeve said, most builds posted on the forum are mid-game to end-game builds. They need abilities, talents, and gear from later in the game for their mechanics to start working right. Monks work too if you don't mind dual-wielding (unarmed or with weapons) instead of using a 2-handed weapon. They are great offensive tanks early (and late) in the game - it is hard to go wrong with them. Race: Coastal Aumaua, Dwarf (either), Pale Elf, Godlike (fire or moon), Orlan (either) - pretty much anything works. Moon godlike is easiest at low levels. Culture/background: Skip Aedyr and Ixamitl, otherwise it all works. As above, survival is very useful for the healing bonus. Stats MIG 16+ CON 14+ (you have to get hurt to do most monk stuff) DEX to taste (you're dual-wielding and using Torment's Reach a lot for full attacks, so your effective attack speed is already pretty fast) PER 10+ (Accuracy and interrupting is nice) INT 10+ (helps Torment's Reach AoE, Swift Strikes/Stunning Blow/Force of Anguish/Veteran's Recovery durations) RES up to 10 (other stats are generally more important but being interrupted too often could be bad) Level Ability/Talent Torment's Reach Weapon Focus Peasant (or the WF for whatever weapons you want to use if you don't like unarmed) Swift Strikes for DPS or Force of Anguish if you want single-target CC. Lightning Strikes if you took Swift Strikes or Two Weapon Style Turning Wheel (more DPS but at its best at low levels), Stunning Blow (CC), Swift Strikes, or Force of Anguish Vulnerable Attack, Lightning Strikes, or Two Weapon Style Replace any of the talents with Veteran's Recovery if you're having trouble healing/tanking, though that shouldn't be too much of a problem with a second tank (Eder) and Durance for healing. Equipment is pretty similar to the barbarian above except you want to dual wield whatever weapons you prefer. Stick to the heaviest armor you can find until higher levels and don't forget to enchant it. Fulvano's Gear is again not bad. Don't forget to eat food and use other consumable items to help with at least the more serious fights - you'll be rolling in money later so the small cost of crafting that stuff soon becomes negligible.

Most of that stuff screams rogue. Ranger doesn't have anything particularly special going for battlefield mobility, alpha strikes/sneak attacking, or advanced scouting (pulling/splitting/breaking engagement).

Additional DR penetration seems pretty straightforward but I prefer to be certain. So... Is there anything this DR penetration does not apply to? Does the DR penetration apply before or after the 1/4 DR division for the (two?) different kinds of DoTs, lashes, and anything similar I may be forgetting? I assume before but you never know how stuff really works until you test it with games like this. Any other situations where the DR penetration might not behave intuitively?

Pillars of Eternity druids are great protectors, wardens, etc. They just prefer to defend via killing the life out of the offending parties... Of ~8 ish spells in most levels, druids only have 1, sometimes 2 buff/healing spells per level. Contrast this with damaging spells - about half of druids' spells are focused on direct damage or damage over time, with or without other effects.

Could you have accidentally changed difficulty to PotD?