Paladin Ryan

I also have this issue via a manually created world state on both the live patch and patch beta. Blade reforged, Master killed and scale breaker learned. Whispers appears as it should but not the Blade. It's a shame because I rather need both for the character I want to do next.

I'd be fine with this as long as it is a natural fit and not forced awkwardly. Like we need a fitting culture to use said weapons that we, as of yet, don't really have. Rauatai seem sort of eastern in some ways; I get an Ottoman vibe from them. But as far as far east we don't seem to have a proper culture for that yet. So unless they add one in I don't want items of said cultures; nothing is worse than a forced theme or items when they don't really fit. Personally I could take or leave such weapons. They aren't my style in general. If added I hope the katana is a two handed weapon (maybe like a two handed saber in function). We would likely need to pick and choose which weapons would be added as they are unlikely to ever add a full selection of new weapons from said cultures. However, there are many weapons from said cultures that could be placed in the same class as existing weapons in terms of function but with their own different look. For example, the Chinese jian is a double edged sword like the normal sword in game. The Chinese dao is a single edged sword like the saber and indeed some variations of the dao are called sabers in english. There are plenty of daggers in other cultures, spears and polearms, etc etc. So it wouldn't be hard to integrate many such designs into existing weapon classes, I just wouldn't expect more than one or two new weapon classes if they did decide to add oriental cultures and their weapons.

This bothers me more from a story/interaction point of view than anything. From a gameplay perspective, sure I can make do with 5 but I will miss the input and personality of that 6th companion. I backed the game but sincerely hope this changes; anything that diminishes player choice is bad in my opinion and this definitely limits it. If people want to play with 5 they can play with 5 but the option for 6 should be there for everybody else. Given that this is a single player experience it should give the player as much choice as possible to shape their experience in my humble opinion, never less.

If it is a serious personality weapon then I'd want a sword of some kind. If we stick to the trend of epic weapons from POE then it will be an Estoc (The Grey Sleeper and Blade of the Endless Paths were probably the most epic weapons in POE due to the quests involved to acquite them) but I doubt they would do that. But in all seriousness swords are the most universally liked weapons. I'm not saying that makes them the best but they have a generally positive image. I know that I certainly like them more than most weapons. If it is a comic relief personality then it should be a gun. I want it to say bang whenever it shoots. Like Deadpool style. That said I am hoping it is a serious personality, comic relief talking items are overdone (plus we have Lilarcor from BG2 for that in this genre).

I think Obsidian could do wonders with a larger budget but not too much larger. I think like 10 million would be enough for them to deliver just about a perfect product. Maybe not a flashy one but they could get all the content they want, test it properly, develop the world, etc etc. Too much money could lead to a loss of focus on the project, trying to do everything and thus failing to do anything well. I'd trust Obsidian more than most but even the best companies with the best intentions can fall into the trap of having too many resources for a project that doesn't truly need said resources to be great.

I'd be excited for more Paladin orders. I tend towards the Shieldbearers and Wayfarers as is. I'd also prefer if the orders were a bit more present in the game. Like Bleakwalkers were actually characters we interacted with, Goldpacts were frequent enemies, Wayfarers were pretty commonly referenced in items and the keep quests. The other orders seem completely absent from the game outside of your character and even the aforementioned orders could use some more presence. As for orders that could be added I would say Crucible Knights would be a good choice as they are unlikely to be a plot element this time around and are very familiar to us as players. I doubt they want to let us be a member of the Five Suns since our favorite Avian Godlike is back. We would probably want to avoid the deeply religious ones to avoid overlap with priests. So yeah, Crucible Knights are probably the big one I could see them adding since their order is largely not religious even if they do have a patron deity. Otherwise they might need to invent new ones. Just my thoughts.

To be honest I just kind of assumed that there was an appropriately shaped hull in the water that we couldn't see from the point of view of the image.

If Chanter + Barbarian isn't Skaald I am going to riot and I don't even play those classes.