Silvaren

I was confused during my first combat scenario and now it seems clear enough. Except the wind which seems totally random. I know this isn't Empire at War but targeting specific part of the ship seems cool and I would like to see it in the game - while probably not so realistic at this stage of technological advance. Maybe different types of ship's upgrades will make sea combat better. Now it feels too long because player is doing the same things over and over again. Maybe few types of different AI behavior will make encounters more interesting. I never had a chance to board enemies' vessels. Resource management probably need some clarification. It's obvious that crew need water and food and better stuff make them happy, but how morale affects the crew? And ship's repairs is a little confusing at first. Is resource management supposed to be gold sink?

Go for balance or realism - not both. If you want realism in PoE, consider that movement in melee combat is the most important thing. Ashi sabaki in kendo, footwork in fencing, long sword manuals and any older medieval combat. You cant't make proper attack without dynamic of the body, kinetic force from movement. It's something what was strange in D&D from the begining. Two combatants standing square by square, swinging swords while rooted in place. Outside action computer rpg first Neverwinter Nights was probably the closest game to represent movement in combat. If you want realism, start with the most important thing, then aim for another. Better stay with the balance And in case of shields, acc penalty has reason - because oftym balance, as trade off. But I like am idea about bringing shield for offense, but as special talent or subclass ability. But it's only a flavour to make weapon + shield dps. It would be interesting to change display of the offhand weapon so it could look like shield and add some attack animation with shield. So character trained in two weapon style fight with weapons in both hands, but for sake of flavour offhand could be displayed as shield. Or just give some damage stats to shield and special talent to use it for attack purpose and bring all benefits from two weapon style.

How party assist is calculated? Sometimes compansions have skill at level 3 and 2 and the game give +2 party assist, while sometimes one companions has skill at level 3 but the assist is only +2, different situation when companions have skill level 3/2/2 and party assist grants +4 or they have 2/2 and give together +3.

Nope. In BG2 you could pick spells for sorc and mage from the same list. Sorcerers lend themselves more towards nuke than battlefield manipulation? It's individual player's choice. It was D&D 4th edition which changed roles of sorcerers and wizards. 4th ed changed them because of the way most people played them in 3.5. Same list, yes, but Sorcs pick fewer from that list and end up with a noticeably smaller spell selection that is capable more often. Consequently, wizards tend to have much larger and more variable spell lists while sorcs tend to be narrowly focused. For a lot of 3.5 gamers, that focus was often nukes, especially if there is already a wizard in the party. Still, before D&D 4th edition it all depended on player's choice. If you have favoured spells and know how to use them, then probably sorc is better. Especially in BG 2, where Int or charisma won't grant more slots per level or higher DC.

Nope. In BG2 you could pick spells for sorc and mage from the same list. Sorcerers lend themselves more towards nuke than battlefield manipulation? It's individual player's choice. It was D&D 4th edition which changed roles of sorcerers and wizards.

I wonder, dev team ever consider adding classic feature from many role playing games - damage treshold? I know that Josh is against insta kill but it's an interesting rule. Maybe it's bad idea because power gamers could learn how to abuse such thing like damage treshold, but it's great and rarely feeling to slay enemy with single strike.

It's probably one of my favoured things in BG2. Fight against mage is complex and fun minigames in BG2. But players have lots of tools to use in those combats. No game has ever repeat such complex approach to layers of defence's spell and ways to break those magic barriers. But what about other games? Neverwinter Nights has counterspell system took from D&D 3.0 but I never really use it while playing this game. During p&p session of D&D 3x I occasionaly put counterspell in use. It was quite good in The Temple of Elemental Evil but this game is the best adaptation of D&D ruleset ever (and first game based on D&D 3.5). Counterspell in pure turn based combat worked well, but still, it was only occasionally useful. Second edition of AD&D wasn't balanced at all. D&D 3X is balanced but only at 8 character level (second attack for classes with BAB 3/4, stone skin for sorc etc). Before and after 8 level it's total mess with more and more additional prestige classes, feats, spells. I guess that's why Icewind Dale II offers set of feats which are basically Player's Handbook content - stricte basic stuff. Talents from first Pillars of Eternity are similar to feats from D&D 3X Player's Handbook with the same addition of features as Icewind Dale II has - so talents (feats) which boosts for example fire damage. I don't see how arcane duels could work in PoE ruleset. Maybe like AndreaColombo said - Deafire's keywords or magic's schools are means to achiev cool new system. Sure, we don't have spells like Breach, Pierce Shield, Sequencers, Spells Immunity, Contingency etc but I think there is a potential.

I'm no fan of simplistic, repetetive combat from Dragon Age Origins. It was better in sequels, where you could put status effect on enemy and then triggered it with cross class combo. It added more tactical value to combat in the series since DA:O. About Taunts - it could work similar to Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition. Tank use ability which do something + taunt enemy/enemies. Taunted enemy can attack whoever he wants, but all attack rolls against other than tank who taunted him are made with great penalty to hit chance (-5 if I'm correct, so after translation to d100 in Pillars it would be like -25 accuracy). I would like to see abilities from p&p RPG rather than computer games. If I could, I would pick Time Stop (it was hell of a fun in soloing Baldur's Gate II and Neverwinter Nights) so it's doable (probably) plus some kind of teleport spell - in combat or world map. We already have some abilities from Diablo, like leap.

Potential holes in new system reminds me of epic raidbosses from Lineage 2. Indestructable tank with healers behind his back just coudn't die during raid. There isn't much healing spells in Deadfire beta, but I guess combining some abilities, special items and other stuff will casue new health system to break or just being exploited. There are ways to prevent it, like for example: make healing abilities to heal large amount of HP instantly and buff small HP recovery over moderate period of time, while this over time bonus would block any other means of heal until it ends. But why bother? It's better just drop new concept and go back to original system. It's great that game mechanics in first Pillars works well with the lore of Eora - Berath's cycle. Old system was much better, especially with addition of wounds. In PoE I always try to push my party to their limits thanks to endurance+health system. I rest only when I know it's too much risk to try another fight. I like wounds in new system. It seems reasonable that characters can be wounded by traps or certain special attacks. Current beta hasn't crafting system at all so we can't make meals to cure the wound during rest. I found only few meals to use while playing beta. Since all abilities are per encounter and health regenerates like old endurance I rarely rest. If I could cook some meals then probably I would sleep only to restore Empower points for hardest fights or to get some bonuses from camping. Isn't it strange for game like Pillars of Eternity? Edit: I like Barring Death's Door spell from PoE. Health + endurance was more strategic.

Is that your personal feeling of what an Eoran wizard is (or should be), or is that canon ? 'cause I do not seem to find any lore explicitly stating that wizards are "the skilled and trained ones among all casters". Wizardry in RPGs is, generally, the ability to evoke effects (with or without resorting to implements and/or magical reagents) (arcane casting) as opposed to being allowed to cast this or that spell because of one's devotion to this or that deity (divine casting) or because of one's heritage (demonic abilities, draconic abilities). Nothing in there entails that the wizard (or divine caster) be particularly good at his craft, or underwent special training (or training at all). You make it seem as if wizards are the elite of the arcane casters, for which I can find no canonical reference. The wiki page for wizards, Description section, states they are "students of arcane [...] often forming academies or guilds". It goes on to say (background section) they are "of high education and extreme mental discipline". The page specifically states that wizard academies and guilds are "devoted to research and development in magical studies". There is not one thing in there supporting your claim/assumption that wizards are the elite of arcane casters, having undergone this or that rigorous training. One may very well conceive of a wizard as a somewhat recluse, somewhat close-minded researcher and pursuer of esoteric knowledge, who's had no field and combat experience whatsoever. One may as well conceive of another wizard being brought up and trained specifically as a battle-mage. True but I'm assuming that wizards have arcane powers because of lots of training and learning magic, which is probably hard and long path. It seems different than ciphers, druids or pirests, who (I guess) gain their power in more in-born/granted/gifted/natural way than hard work. That's why I compare wizards to fighters as those who learn their skill by both theoretic and practice way more as profession, ocupation (like scholars, soldiers). They are made, not born. But I pointed all this just for one purpose - at least Wizards should have ability to graze with spells just like fighters do with their attacks, thanks to, steady aim.

Some passive talents could solve problems of the wizards. Wizards in Eora are similar to wizards from D&D settings. They pursue knowledge, train magic as apprentices by practicing arcane arts. Wizards are the skilled and trained ones among all casters, just like fighters are disciplined soldiers among warriors. The point is - they could have equivalent of fighter's Steady Aim talent but for magic. I would go further in comparing wizards to fighters. Give them equivalent of stances. 3 stances with particular bonuses wizards could switch between as fighters do. Like Arcane Piercing (bonus PEN), Arcane Quickness (quicker casting) and the third one for bigger damage from spell or interputting strikes while using implements. I don't like how grimoires works right now. I don't like that spells are missing grazes as result of attack roll. I think that narrow choice of spell is good for subclasses but pure wizard knows too few spells and has no interesting abilities to help him switch grimoires depending on situation. Overall, while I like control wizards the most I had quite good fun with Evoker this time. WIth Destructive Channeling and random 30% chance to repeat attak roll I was able to oneshot-instakill one of quasibosses (the named one left from the stairs at second level of Poko Kohara) using empowered 4th level Minoletta's Missiles. But still I had too many "no pen" and misses during lots of fights. Casting time of spells is too long so I often lose spell because there is no reason to use it when it's at finish of casting or in case of change of situation I need to use something different - but the unfinished spell is lost because there is no way to cancel it and save it for later.

@Christliar Good news then, but I would like to see some passive skills as well. In PoE casters gained abilities, talents and spells, now there are only spells to gain.

I mean that priest's subclasses doesn't have anything special to catch interest of player. What makes you choose certain priest's subclass over another priest's subclass? Answer is - the things that are banned (mechanically it's the most important factor), then roleplay and maybe god's favoured weapon. I think it's bad design if you can't pick something what is cool (there are no cool unique abilities for each priest's subclass) but you pick something which sucks less than other choices (banned set of spells). All "unique" subclass specific abilities are probably better merged via multiclass system at the moment. Priest as general idea is great, but not in current, narrow form. For me, priest's subclasses have no unique selling point if you compare benefits and tradeoffs granted from different classes' subclasses (just for context reason). You choose devoted fighter or unbroken, berserker, corpse eater, shifter, fury etc. because these subclasses grant something cool, not because they suck less in compare with other choices you have. Your decision should be based on benefits, not on drawbacks.

I think that priest's subclasses have no unique selling point. Obsidian team took away general talents. They narrowed down options for each class in terms of abilities, making classes more unique and distinct from each other. They emphasized their role. So why the hell they made priests so generic? There is no much differences between subclasses. The only one "unique" abilities of each priest's sublcass are borrowed from Druids, Wizards and Rogues. Why should I choose Pirest of Berath if I can mutliclass any priest with Druid? Why should I choose Priest of Eothas if I can multiclass any priest with Fury? Why should i choose Priest of Magran if I can multiclass any priest with Evoker? Why should i choose Priest of Skaen if I can multiclass any priest with Rogue? And why should I choose Priest of Wael if I can multiclass any priest with Wizard or even Trickster? Priests have no unique selling point. They don't say what you get, they say what you won't have. With such narrow choice of (only) active abilities, or rather spells, it's more important what certain subclass banned for player and - ofcourse - roleplay aspect of each priest. Gods take huge role in setting of Eora. I would say it's on the same level as in Forgotten Realms (and as people who made Mask of the Betrayer, Obsidian team should know that better than most of us). Priests are iconic heroes in fantasy settings. In D&D 3X is general pool of spells + two (or more) domains for different flavour of each religion, to make priests distinct from each other. I would like to see some variation from PoE 1 mixed with D&D 5, where priests have acces to all spells but they can pick small number of bonus "domain" spells, specific for their dieties, to cast without preperation, per encounter from different pool.

@KDubya Their voices aren't distinct enough from each other for me. Probably because they are mercs. Shouts during combat seem random and missleading and "no pen" pop ups require scrolling combat log to be sure who and when failed to penetration.

I need one feature from Infinity Engine games: Each party member in Baldur's Gate was saying something like "my weapon is useless" when they coudn't hurt an enemy using a weapon with too low enchantement. This could be very transparent in marking "no penetration" during fight. I know that it would require few extra voiced lines but it could help. Player would instantly recognise to whom the voice belongs and then instantly react and adjust to the situation.

It occures to me once, both in Shrine and Chieftain's Lodge in Tikiwara. I enabled stealth but there was no reaction from NPC, even if I turned stealth off and on few times. Reload solved this issue.

I had the same issue. It was caused by loading the game in that area. It relocates entire party. I heard that there are other places where this bug occures.

I asked in different topic. Scepter proficiency grants Destructive Channeling modal +2 penetration and +20% damage. It works not only with regular attack of scepters but it affects all damaging spells too. Is it bug or it works as intended? Great sword modal skill is to extreme for me too.

I saw that too. It seems to be some kind of destination marker, like this giant dagger when you click on Tikiwara.

It's kind of hard to miss experience - even for the dead xD I noticed that too.

It happened to me as well while changing armor of fighter merc in stealth mode.

Pause with active Ray of Fire glitched sound effect of the spell so it was constantly playing. Step by step: I casted the Ray of Fire spell on party member. I paused the game when I saw damage log. I opened leveling menu to pick new abilities (increasing level by one). I unpaused the game and after spell's effect finished the sound was still playing in the background. Reload and exit to main menu didn't solve the problem.

Me too.

Like the topic says (sorry for my spelling mistakes), modal skill from scepter proficiency affects penetration and damage of spells. Is it bug or a feature? It would be good if description of Destructive Channeling shows amount of raw damage it does with every attack (it inflicts no damage while casting spells, only during base attack with the scepter but grant benefits to both types of action).