blotter

As funny as that would be, Chanters aren't summoning actual living creatures but rather approximating their forms by channeling the energies of spirits and tapping ambient soul fragments. Or I think it's something like that. Something along those lines might make for an interesting premise for a protagonist in a new Pillars game: a Chanter tries to summon the spirit of a dead hero, or one who never actually existed or was a composite figure abstracted from various people, to assist with some battle or task and ends up bringing you into the world. Varied accounts of the hero could allow for the normal range of customization options and an inborn attunement to the events the hero is known for could enable you "relive" similar experiences if they wanted to integrate the unearthly visions angle here as well without resorting to the use of another Watcher for a lead.

He's actually the god of birth and rebirth, though I quite agree that not being able or inclined to have children isn't a barrier to worshipping Eothas. Then again, Lord_Mord recognized this possibility as well when he initially raised the question, as seen here:

Sure, no problem. I was also interested in confirming the news. I agree the reverse pickpocketing angle opens up a nice set of opportunities for carnage, especially if we can fine-tune the detonation times. It'd be fun to set explosives to go off on tavern performers just after they finish a song, for example, or as the audience winds up for applause. I'm guessing it'll probably get worked into quests as well; maybe there'll be opportunities to plant incriminating evidence on people now and again. That sounds like it could be an interesting tactic for a Watcher who's infiltrating/double-crossing one faction for another.

Sawyer and Null confirm the existence of an Alchemy skill during Q&A 4 (https://www.reddit.com/r/projecteternity/comments/5vsoiy/pillars_of_eternity_ii_deadfire_qa_4_transcript/; or https://www.twitch.tv/videos/124031593?t=38m55s for the specific point in the video where the question is answered). According to the Q&A, Alchemy doesn't allow you to create explosives so much as use them more effectively. While it hasn't been stated outright, it's easy to see how the skill's benefits could similarly apply to potions and drugs that you find throughout the game, which would help to give the skill a bit more scope beyond just making explosives more explosive.

Ah, my mistake. That does throw a bit of wrench into things, but it also depends on who the first test subjects were. For example, some orlans have natural lifespans as short as 50 years; between that and other physiological differences, they might hit puberty significantly earlier than humans. It also makes sense that the orlan babies might have been used as the first test subjects for the process given their frequent status as second-class citizens at best throughout much of the Dyrwood. If memory serves, Durance actually does talk about how the initial crop of wichts might have been written off as manifestations of "female weakness" and orlan inferiority if it hadn't been later confirmed that others transformed into wichts as well. Edit: It is worth noting that Orlan lifespans can range between 50 and 80 years according to the guidebook, so what I mentioned earlier would be at the lowest end of the continuum. By contrast, humans in Eora tend to have lifespans ranging from 60 to 100 years.

Keep in mind that it's not like they had already devised the technique of transplanting animal souls into the bodies of children/babies; this was something they came up with based on the need created by Waidwen's legacy. Before they could actually put it into practice, they had to first determine if it was possible and then develop a way to effect the transfer without immediately crippling/killing the host or something. The fact that the process itself was completed as hastily as it was most likely speaks toward the animancers' desperation to solve the problem, which may also account for their failure to predict the problems their "solution" would cause down the line.

It might be the case that while some godlike are commonly associated with a particular god as far as people in Eora are concerned, that the different types in the game aren't necessarily tied exclusively to one god or another. Just as there are different gods associated different aspects of death, there might be individual death godlike whose characteristics lean more towards the distinct representations of death that Berath, Gaun, or Rymrgand cover, for example. Similarly, some nature godlike might have closer ties to Eothas' spring and fertility aspects than Galawain's nature as survival of the fittest paradigm. One thing that I do want to point out, though, is that when I called Galawain the guardian of nature, those weren't my words aside from a little paraphrasing (the exact words from the first guidebook were "he is also protector of wild places and untamed wilderness, where the hunt manifests in its purest form as a daily struggle for survival"). And while he's the god of the hunt, that doesn't make him exclusively tied to hunters per se: remember that he also delights in shifts and reversals in the predator-prey dynamic, so he's someone the hunted might also turn to for guidance and inspiration. The orlans are some of his most ardent followers and they represent this blurring of the lines pretty well: while predominantly centered around nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyles themselves, they often find themselves the prey of other kith both in the sense that outside their own environments they're often relegated to slavery or worse and in the sense that in many cases they literally have to adopt the techniques and mindset of prey animals to avoid this fate. It's someone else's theory, I just paraphrased it. Godlike can have different traits. Like I mentioned earlier, the guidebook's race entry for them doesn't even specifically call out godlike by the types they're classified into in the game, so the idea that those types are particularly meaningful outside of what's convenient for the game or definitive of how they actually "work" in Eora general may be misleading: a godlike with ties to Ondra might exhibit affinities for her moon goddess aspect and her sea goddess aspect, but in that case it may be more productive to simply described the godlike as being tied to Ondra rather than trying to pin them down as a moon godlike or sea godlike. The pnp stuff they come up with may clarify this further as well, as may dialogue with Tekehu. In any case what the guidebook has to say on the subject of godlike is this: Then it goes into features that carry over from their parent races and examples of variations in godlike features, like some having goat eyes or appearing to have gold for skin (which sounds like a recipe for a short and miserable life; I wonder how much gold godlike skin sells for...)

While being the god of the hunt, predatory beasts, and assassins is primarily what he's known for, that isn't the extent of his connection to nature. Galawain is specifically the god of the wilderness and the guardian of such areas. He's also responsible for the creation of the Great Western Stag, so the Nature Godlike's greater resemblance to prey animals isn't necessarily proof that they aren't related to him. That said, I have seen it argued that they might actually be related to Eothas/Gaun in his capacity as a god of spring and harvest; there's a tendency to focus on his more dramatic role as a god of the light and the sun, but it is possible that the manifestations of godlike might be influenced by cultural emphasis on deity's aspects and in that sense one of Eothas' role in seeing to abundance in harvest/fertility in nature does seem like something that may be of much more practical importance to people who live or die based on their crops' yield.

It is true that the possibilities aren't endless, but if Tekehu is really an Ocean Godlike or whatever, that sets a precedent for different godlike based on individual portfolios. Since each god has 6-9 portfolios (potentially 10, depending on how things went in the White March expansions), that's room for a lot of different varieties of Godlike. Of course, in some cases, these varieties would become increasingly absurd, like Door Godlike, Apprentice Godlike, and Language Godlike, and others might be too abstract, like Relentlessness Godlike, Inevitability Godlike, Memory Godlike, or Invention Godlike. There's also the redundant ones, like Ocean Godlike vs Tide Godlike, Light Godlike vs Dawn Godlike, Cold Godlike vs Winter Godlike, Hunt Godlike vs Pursuit Godlike, and so on, but even taking all these cases into account that's still dozens more possible. That's actually why I was terribly thrilled with the news that Tekehu was going have his own unique Godlike type because of the above: once you start parsing out different types of Godlike for the same god, it seems like it'd be hard to draw a non-arbitrary line on where to stop. That's also why I prefer more variety in appearance and racial talent options for the existing types rather than escalating subdivision of types in the vein of D&D elves and their myriad subraces in settings like the Forgotten Realms (edit: although on further consideration, I think the Godlike already have a comparable number of different types). Incidentally, the guidebook doesn't even specify these existing types as established categories and basically suggests there's an almost unbounded range of variation amongst them outside of some basic constants like having humanoid body structures and weird heads. In that sense, the concept of specific Godlike types may be more a matter of game convenience and subjective observer classifications that might vary from place to place rather than anything that represents the fundamental nature of the Godlike themselves.

Assumed? Yes, by some. Confirmed? No.

A special spiritshift form for Tekehu has been confirmed here (https://jesawyer.tumblr.com/post/163414967741/will-player-made-rangers-and-druids-have-access-to).

Here's a screenshot of multiclass title drafts from Sawyer's tumbler: https://www.instagram.com/p/BWyXIbQFAXU/?taken-by=jesawyer1975

(edit: Doppelschwert clearly beat me to the punch here, not that I noticed this while typing my response on and off for a while) None, if the players in question actually knew how soulbound weapons work. Accuracy bonuses from any sort of proficiency apply to the use of soulbound weapons regardless of whether you're actually proficient with the weapon type they belong to. The idea of progressing proficiency based on in-game hallmarks in the vein of soulbound weapons (e.g., kill X number of enemies, land X number of critical hits, etc.) could be interesting, but that can lock players out of the opportunity to advance their skills with particular weapon types as well, particularly towards the end of the game. Conversely, if the hallmarks are too easy to hit, then you'll just end up with everyone becoming proficient in the use of every weapon type they have any inclination to be proficient in, in which case the concept becomes pretty meaningless. It's likely hard to balance in either case, especially taking into account the divide between completionists and those who stay focused on the storyline. Another thing to keep in mind is that proficiencies in Deadfire do not provide accuracy bonuses like they used to. They introduce modal abilities for the weapons you use, like Dangerous Implement for Scepters or Savage Attack for Greatswords. Even without proficiency with a given weapon type, you won't be incompetent while using it. You just won't have access to weapon-specific options which, given the tradeoffs some or all of them may have, you may not want to use in the first place. Edit: And to make this post less than 100% redundant, I'll mention that the Black Jacket fighter subclass is based on adaptable weapon use, gaining more proficiencies than other classes. That might be of interest to you.

Two things: 1) Proficiency groups like Ruffian no longer exist, all proficiencies apply to a single weapon type, 2) the way enchantment is planned to work in Pillars 2 thematically restricts the sorts of abilities you can add to weapons and also limits the quality level they can be raised to (e.g., fine to exceptional and no further). Consequently, players may find it highly tempting or even necessary in cases (such as when faced with enemies that are highly resistant or even immune to a particular damage type) to switch to weapons that aren't of their chosen type depending on what's available through item drops and stores. Even if finding/being able to buy weapons of more or less any type up to the exceptional level is more or less guaranteed, you may well find yourself deprived of access to unique weapon traits that might otherwise greatly compliment your build so long as you continue to restrict yourself to the use of a single weapon type.

Part of it may relate back to having the priests of different deities have their own associated lists of prohibited spells, which we've heard about before, but I'd expect that to be balanced out by the deity-specific spells that such priests gain access to. The benefits from the Nalpazca subclass could easily extend to alcohol consumption. [Edit: On second thought, I don't think the sentence that used to be here was particularly helpful.]

I asked about unarmed proficiency a few Q&As back and Sawyer stated that it won't exist. As long as the plan for unarmed is to have specialization in it be monk-exclusive, I wouldn't expect the Devoted subclass to be able to tie their benefits to it. As for the Devoted's drawbacks, it might involve limited proficiency resource progression after level one and/or raising proficiency levels at increased cost (if there's more than one level). This comes back to the issue of sidestepping the drawback by sticking with your chosen weapon, but there are several things in Deadfire that may make switching weapons very tempting at times: 1) the quality enchantment ceiling, 2) the fact that other forms of enchantment are limited to progressions along preestablished lines for the weapons you find/buy, 3) enemy damage resistances/immunities, 4) the types of weapons that are made available to us via loot or merchant stocks throughout the game, and 5) the emphasis on making such weapons more unique/distinct from each other. These can easily interact in ways that would make clinging to your one chosen weapon type situationally subpar at the very least and perhaps even generally subpar for significant stretches of the game if the particular weapon type you're devoted to doesn't turn up with enchantments that favor other aspects of your build. With all that in mind, I doubt that they'll really need to implement more drawbacks on top of that; if anything, it seems like a fair bit of planning/metagaming may be required for this subclass to not run afoul of the new design philosophy for weapons/enchantments too often. If they did need to add something else, though, increasing their recovery time on attacks while wielding other weapons seems like it'd be a simple and effective, as well as a thematically appropriate way to represent awkwardness while using other weapon types. I also think it's extremely unlikely that Sawyer meant that the subclass would devote itself to a single weapon as opposed to a single weapon type since a) it runs directly counter to the basic purpose behind their rehauling of the enchantment system to begin with, and b) assuming the wouldn't impose some generic soulbound progression on whatever weapon you start with, it would make the subclass even more radically dependent on knowing what you'll gain access to throughout the game, when you gain access to it, and planning your weapon devotion choice based on that, which would make it rather problematic for people who want to choose this subclass for their Watcher on their first playthrough.

So we got hear about a new monk subclass during Q&A: a Broken Pillar (or was it Shattered Pillar?) Monk whose wound generation mechanic is tied to the damage they inflict on others rather than the hits they soak up, allowing for a purer focus on offensive builds. As I recall, the trade-offs are that their damage thresholds for gaining wounds are higher than a base monk's and the maximum number of wounds they can maintain at a given time are lower. It sounds like it'd synergize particularly will with cipher multiclass options, which was something I was considering to begin with, so I'm looking forward to that one. The Brotherhood of the Five Suns isn't being opened up to player characters, but depending on how things turned out in the first game, she might be a Kind Wayfarer instead, if memory serves.

Lore's being broken down into more specialized fields, providing options based on education in more focused areas such as religion and metaphysics, Intellect is still going to be a stat that will presumably feature in dialogue options, and Streetwise has already been listed among the examples of passive skills being planned for inclusion (http://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Pillars_of_Eternity_II:_Deadfire#Features). There's no indication that Diplomacy will function to the exclusion of these options at this point.

Will we see any examples of NPCs pushing the limits of their classes in ways akin to Concelhaut's magical research and Llengrath's transference of knowledge? Will we encounter or hear about Cipher or Chanter equivalents to archmages, for example? Are we going to have more options for dealing with prisoners (assuming we still have the option to take them?) Are there any notable monastic orders that we'll have opportunities to interact with while we visit the Deadfire Archipelago? Do you have any more details to share about the talking soulbound weapon, such as whether it's morphic/limited to a single weapon type or if its personality will be slapstick in the vein of Lilarcor? Also, how will the current policy on enchantment ceilings and limitations impact the feasibility of its long term use? Are there any plans for multiclass talents along the lines of the Practiced Spell Caster feats in D&D 3e/NWN2? It's been mentioned in past Q&As that there are attitude-based idle animations being introduced in this game for the Watcher, such as the sassy idle we saw with the deer spiritshift form during one of the videos. How many different idle sets are being planned, and do you have any other examples to share? Some have expressed concerns regarding the 5 party limit's restrictions on exploring companion relationship dynamics; to what extent, if any, can these relationships be developed and explored during down-time on the ship between quests/encounters? How do death godlike fit food in through their scabby face tumors? Do they pre-digest their meals and slurp them up with proboscides like giant flies or something? In regards to the ship's customizability, will faction allegiance limit options or will faction allies response to customization choices that pattern your ship off of rival factions? Can we expect to see any unique reputations that aren't tied to faction or disposition, like Prize Fighter or Grave Digger from Fallout 2? If the Watcher gains levels as a ranger, will there be any dialogues or banters that are based on their animal companions interacting with Maia's bird?

In the origin story from http://pathfinderwiki.com/wiki/Amiri Amiri's motivation depends on one-upping a tribesman who boasted of seizing a frost giant's dagger as a trophy and describes the weapon she finds by the frost giant corpse as an "immense bastard sword", but it could be out of date. The handle would be a bit odd in light of that, but that's easily explained by her getting some smith to customize the weapon to be more manageable for her. It does make for a less impressive origin story though: the first tribesman brags about his frost giant dagger, Amiri finds a slightly bigger dagger, tries brandishing it before her other tribesmen when she learns they were trying to goad her into getting herself killed, and exiles herself from her tribe after she hacks up these other tribesmen in the midst of falling over herself trying to wield this slightly bigger dagger. Then again, they said the earlier dagger was the size of the guy's arm, so maybe it was more of a letter opener or pocket knife for the frost giant in question (though frost giants don't appear to be too big on reading, or wearing pants for that matter), and there is a more respectable distinction to be drawn between a letter opener and a bowie knife. I still don't like the thing, but the story does make more sense that way.

Not really. Bastard swords sized for humans average around 4 feet in length in Pathfinder, according to the wiki (http://pathfinderwiki.com/wiki/Bastard_sword). According to that same wiki (http://pathfinderwiki.com/wiki/Frost_giant),Frost Giants are generally around 15 feet tall. There's no specific mention of the average height for humans in Pathfinder that I could find (not that there needs to be either), but if you go by http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/advancedRaceGuide/ageHeightWeight.html#core-race-random-height-weight, it's probably around 5'3" for women and 5'8" for men. Given that the sword's "only" about as tall as her, it'd probably be on the petite side for an ogre's bastard sword, let alone a frost giant's. Regardless of whether it's too big, too small, or just right in terms of size, it's still pretty damned ugly to me.

Yeah, I agree that it tends to be less jarring when such content clings more closely to the base. Especially in games like Pillars 1 and 2, where the stakes for resolving the plot are saving your sanity in the first game and, quite possibly, what's left of your soul in the second, it seems extremely important to integrate added content into the overarching story, so I also hope that they do so for Deadfire if they go the parallel expansion route. That being said, I'd still hope for an expansion taking place after the events of the main game, possibly as an epilogue of sorts. Whatever plans they may or may not have for Pillars 3, Pillars 2 plus any expansions should probably mark the end of the Watcher's story; I'm not keen to see any further soul-draining shenanigans to justify the Watcher's involvement in the stories for any other games down the line.

There actually is a reason to go there tied to the main plot: the Steward mentions having heard disturbing reports of the Leaden Key's movements in the area, suggesting that they have an interest in the ruins as they have in others throughout the game. In that sense, the Watcher's trip to Stalwart isn't much different from their trip to Dyrford, with both being little more than transit points en route to the far more interesting ruins that are nearby, even if the lead you get to head over to Clîaban Rilag is significantly more compelling given its source and Lady Webb's interest. The main problem that I see is that the Leaden Key angle potentially ceases to work as a motivator once you learn that their known agents in the area are already dead, though you could argue that the Watcher might remain interested in investigating the ruins that drew them there.

I'm not exactly an ardent fan of traps as they're currently implemented, but it seems to me that in addition to the interactions and outcomes you've listed above, it's also possible for you to lure or force enemies through traps as well, perhaps all the more so in Pillars 2 with the added emphasis on fighter abilities to drag enemies around. Beyond the possibilities available in terms of immediate responses to traps, the fact that they exist in some areas also changes the tone of exploration to an extent by introducing the possibility of unseen threats of a different nature than the monsters that are bound to be creeping about. Of course, whether this change in tone is a good thing or not is quite debatable. If they were going to dump traps, then I'd hope they'd make up for it by stressing the importance of terrain more. The prospect of being guaranteed that the only thing that could possibly impede or endanger you within locations is whatever critters happen to be present there sounds pretty boring to me.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BVntBSFlZTj/ New clothing/robes model screenshot.