Wormerine

Yeah, she rarely leaves my party. Great tip about blind fighting... I haven't thought of that. Though in that particular fight, sister didn't blind my characters - just such out attributes on failed save throw.

Well, I kinda did. The problem is, that in general I don' find the game too difficult. And I generally like to engage with combat. After initial difficult wall, as game throws permanent ATT drain, I thought I had things under control enough to complete it all on "challenging". I didn't find story too engaging, outside of individual sequences everyonce in a while, and considering how combat heavy the game is I really don't see a point of playing it for anything other then combat. It's very IcewindDale'y in that regard. So yeah, this is kinda where I run into problems, as I ended up with only a Priest in my party and no other spellcaster. Valerie as main tank, Amiri for smacking people, and my PC, ranger (because Deadfire fooled me into thinking rangers can be fun🤣). Harrim, and then sidequests leftover Nok-Nok, Kalikke. That's clearly not great, but other quests were so easy up to this point, and enemies I enocuntered on my path we so disposable, I made a mistake of pushing through it before swapping companions (I really like -2 to strength Nok Nok makes with every hit, and I have been working on Kalikke to continue.... ekhm... with the other branch of her romance so to speak. My character is a Tiefling too, so... you know. Triple Tiefling sandwitch). Bless, then prayer once battle starts. I tried the unbreakable heart in case it would have an effect on sister's "stare" but I didn't notice an improvement so skipped it. Had plenty of potion so buffed stats - DEX and CON for characters who will get in melee range with driad - one for extra AC if possible and other for Fort save against her touch effect. also STR, WIS and DEX for attack/spell attack. Also attacks boost spells for my ranger (there is one which increases chances to hit, and another for sneak attack). Greater Dispel to make driad as hittable as possible. I tried other stuff like bane, but I never managed to land it. In later attempt, as the goal was to land as many "bad touches" as possible I focused on that after greater dispel. Whatever protections potions/scrolls I had (blur, dispacement, aid, shield of faith), though as driad casts couple dispells I don't think those survive until I can secure safety of Tristian. Thinking now, I probably should have saved them and drink them during engagemenet - after driad casts her dispells. Then one res in case I need it (priest was the one to fall anyway once he started to touch the driad with negative energy spells), and true strike to combo with slay living for immediate decent/great damage. As priest was the most reliable source of damage once her defences were dispelledhe was stacked with negative energy spells. I tried death ward but it didn't work on her attack. I greatly felt the last of slow and haste, but what can you do.

I agree. And that's why I backed WotR. I have somewhat a soft spot for the game, even if sometimes I want to tear my hair out (if I had any left that is). I sunk 123h as of writing. I think there is plenty of good in it to justify asking price, but I am not so sure if it has been worth the time investment. There is a bit too much space between moments when I am having fun. Anyway. I ended up tinkering with the difficulty option as "challenging" difficulty was boosting enemy stats even further. With that brought down, I actually had a chance to land a hit and with a lot of touching from Harrim she died. Restoring all my companions sucked out all my remaigning funds 😭. Sorry villages, you shall have to remain barren for a wee bit longer. Next step - DLC dungeon to resture some of the funds. Lesson learned - never compromise on party composition in order to trigger continuation of your tiefling's romance.

Well, it matters if your enemy has only one weakness which at the moment I am not equipped to exploit. I am facing lvl 20 character, who has touch attack which pretty much one hit disables anyone she attacks (prone + what seems like 3-6 DEX damage) and is unlikely to miss (as if I didn't see it miss), and she needs to crit fail to be hit by anything - be it AC attack, touch attack, reflex whatever. Now it's possible that there is one of bunch of Pathfinder spells which will prevent me from getting dex damage. Is there one? Which one it is? Do I have a party member who has it? I don't know. The game even doesn't allow me to see what buffs/abilities the enemy has, because I was not deemed high level enough to inspect it. I have no doubt that if I show up with correct combination of buffs, and correct unit composition I will roll through her. How am I supposed to know what those combination is, and even more importantly, how am I to know it before I entered a no-return dungeon almost 1,5 hours of playtime ago? I have no clue. I genuily don't think I played a worse put together RPG. I understand that people can appreciate such commited translation of table-top system, but the campaign itself is really amatuerishly put together. Lots of filler and little killer and half of it poorly designed.

alright! Yeah, as someone not being born yet at that time, and growing up in mostly apple free environments I didn’t see the direct parody. Still, while apples might have taken an advantage “the year” it didn’t seem to try mobilise it’s underage demographic to pester their competitors in what is purely a corporate **** measuring contest, Oh, I absolutely don’t like Apples strongarming companies by not allowing third party stores. I don’t it’s even comparable to Steam - steam SELLS games, so it’s only fair they want to make cash from selling games on their platforms, and they still allow for 3rd part stores like humble, GMG, Kickstarter and others. Unlike Apple which sells hardware, but then charges for every app for privilege of being on iOS. Both cuttting Apples 30% cut, and Steams’ is potentially good, but I have no doubt that Epic doesn’t care about anyone else beside their bottom line. I really doubt Epic will continue being so “benevolent” once it’s manages to overthrow competition. 7,5million claimed their free copy of Total War Saga: Troy. So clearly a lot of users are fishing for free game. How it translates to an actual business - I have no clue.

My experience with it is a rollercoaster. There some bits that I really enjoy, overall I feel it wastes too much time with lack of convenience (like having to transition between At least 4 seperate “areas” when coming back to kingdom), and every once in a while it will infuriate me. Yeah, to my shock I found Jubilost to be the answer to most problems. Touch spells is what I need right now, and unfortunately due to quests I have been doing on the way, I have glaring lack of it. I will rest and reconfigure my party to the best to my abilities. If that won’t work, I will have to load auto save and do the whole dungeon once again.

ok. I hate this game so so much. Sorry but I have to rant for a bit. I could complain for many things, but there is one thing that really pisses me off - and that's the complete randomness in enemy difficulty and level in the same dungeon. One would think that it has been a standard practice for many years now (I mean BG1 did it back in the day) to clearly communicate to players how difficult the area will be. So you put a welcoming party pod and players will know if they have a chance to push forward or not. Oh, but Kingmaker is above such mortal concerns. This amazingly designed game will go from pitting you against lvl3 enemies to lvl18 in the same level. And as annoying as it is, generally there have been some way to back up and come back later (which is still a pain as game doesn't even allow to take notes without modding on this overstuffed with trash locals worldmap, so you are expected to remember every node in which the game pulls that ****). But now I tried to do the Tristian quest (the one where you locate him after he leaves the party) and after a lengthy, repetitive dungeon of pushovers, which I would be able to kill 30-50h ago, the final encounter has a defaced sister. I killed those in droves before, but this one has seriously buffed stats for some reason. Now, that's kinda on me, as my party is quite suboptimal due chaining quests. But ****! You poorly communicate expected difficulty of the area AND lock player inside without an ability to fetch other party members, change equipment. This game is so incredibly self indulgent.

Fortnite got removed from Apple and Google stores after trying to bypass the obligatory pay cut to said companies. Epic sues both Apple and Google. Epic claimes an absurd high moral ground by trying to rally it's mostly underage demographic against the corporate overlord Apple: Nothing speaks genuine, like pre-rendered Orwell video ready for release. I hope at least the kids will read 1984.

Why? We are talking about an RPG after all. What you as player know or can do, is less relevant then what your player knows/can do.

Total War Saga: Troy is out an can ge grabbed for free for 24 hours on the Epic Game Store... if you have have no soul that is.

Obsidian has already done New Vegas, and it didn't follow Bethesda design. I have no doubt that no matter how Skyrim-like Avowed will be, it will still be an Obsidian game first. I don't think most people think of games in terms of presentation rather then content or structure. People called Witcher a Skyrim killer, and the two have barely anything in common... aside from being open world, which can be utilized in myriads of ways.

When the leak mentioned magic with physics system, all I could think of was:

POLICE BRUTALITY! 🤣

If someone wants to playtest Baldur's Gate3 in Gent, Quebec City or Kuala Lumpur you can find more information and apply here.

Possibly, along with home owners calling guards when you steal stuff. I think it took me 3 or 4 playthroughs of BG1 before I discovered it is possible to knock someone out.

Didn’t BG1 had some for of non-lethal damage? Like if you beat someone with bare fist, they would get caught unconscious rather then die. I am pretty sure I was able to beat up a hostile guy in one of the taverns and he would always be there. Kingmaker does kill characters when they reach 0 health - they become unconscious and they will get up after combat. However, they get negative hit points if damaged further. Once they get more negative damage then they have CON (so for a character with 16 CON it would be more then -16 HP) they will die. However, in game it works only for your characters. If there is any additional non-lethal system, then I don’t know of it.

Yes, welcome. But just a word of warning: only posts with multiple paragraphs are accepted here.

Actually just did a quick research, and aparently Gothic stealing is far more broken then I remember 🤣

Yeah, this is very much like stealth problem - how do you make being caught not an instant failure and yet make being caught relevant. Didn't Gothic1&2 kinda solve it? If they caught you they would beat a crap out of you and take your money as a lesson. Or you were leveled up enough to beat a crap out of them. Not enough RPGs allow for non-lethal combat.

I mean I watched a bit, and learned there are perks that you gained for doing certain things. Played Witcher2 3 times, and never knew about that bit. Also news: If for some reason you are still not sold on absolutely fantastic looking Avengers game, you will also be able to dress your heroes up in skins championing your favourite mobile provider. Amazing. Virgin Media for life.

Though you touch on an interesting part of open-ended RPG design, which I often fail to take an advantage off - unintended, negative consequences. I don’t think I would ever allow such “failure” to become part of my playthrough.

Too much? Alright, here is much shorter one about Witcher1.

Brief look at Witcher 2

Nah, just a typical Polish lady. Ask Geralt why he chose Yen. Choosing anyone else is simply non canonical.

Yes, even though I enjoyed Mass Effect 1&2 a lot I would never call them good RPGs. I am also with you - I don't see the appeal of killing everyone - there are people who play that way, but IMO it's missing the part which RPGs do well, especially as combat generally isn't their strong suit. I do like the consistency of mechanics, though. I think there is a lot to be gained when tools player has work consistanty, rather then in scripted situations only (ability to fight triggers only in combat situations, you can converse with only select individuals etc.) That something D:OS2 does really well, though I do think that the way it allows every quest to continue (and pretty much gives the same info no matter if you talk, talk to a ghost or read a not) puts it in "you can do everything, but nothing matters" category. If only other hand how we play would open more individual paths to progress - that would be something. And I think roleplaying range the game allows will change from game to game - Witcher, Disco, Mass Effect do give you to some extend defined protagonist protagonist (Great video on sharing Commander Shepard from Mark Brown) and while Geralt is very defined, Shepard less so, and Disco the least (defined past but open future, ala. Planescape). Games with more freedom (lke Fallout, Pillars etc.) will benefit more from allowing players to craft their characters - and it doesn't mean just going full psycho. Being able to initiate combat yourself is a valuable way of interacting in an RPG world. And if you CAN pickpocket/lockpick/kill everyone that opens a neat ability to create neat situations without having to be clearly communicated. I thought classic Tim Cains RPGs always did that well. It's a difference between game saying: "ok, so do you want to talk, attack them or sneak past them?" and you actively being able to look for opportunities to apply your build's strenghts in each situation. Also Gothic1&2. Those were really good as well.