MortyTheGobbo

I'm going to spare everyone my (extremely low) opinion about Pathfinder, and simply point out that comparing a tabletop game to a video game is dishonest, to put it mildly. You keep bringing up how a GM in PF will do this or that - Pillars has no GM.

Pillars' attributes are hardly ideal, and I do hope Obsidian will take a new approach to them in Deadfire. But using D&D attributes and skills like something to strive for is a very bad joke. D&D attributes are just about functional enough; D&D skills have been a mess in pretty much every edition. Honestly, D&D would do just fine without attributes - people have made elegant solutions for doing it in 5e. Because the way you advance them is just that predictable for any given character type. People keep calling for turning Might into more traditional Strength. Congratulations - you've just made it the ideal dump stat for 50% of character concepts. This time, it's not even a D&D thing. Strength being less useful than other physical attributes is a pretty common thing. Dexterity being the "god stat" is a meme in White Wolf games for a reason. Strength as it's usually portrayed just isn't useful to characters who don't actively duke it out in melee. Maybe archers, if we tie strength to bow damage (which, of course, can't really apply to crossbows and guns). It's far easier to reward a physical character for having good intelligence, charisma or whatever, than to reward a brainy/quick/etc. character for being beefy. And vice versa, to punish such characters for having low "dump stats". Making Might a universal damage and health attribute was a pretty unusual way of going about it. The only real problem with it is that whoever wrote scripted interactions didn't get the memo, and it's consistently portrayed as physical strength, which it's not supposed to be. What I hope Obsidian does in Deadfire is basically to keep trying to actually achieve their original goal - make all attributes useful. But that's not a problem with the concept, it's a problem with balance.

14 strength means you can cast Shield and fight goblins or other minions effectively in melee as opposed to being completely useless without spells. And a Bull's Strength stacks on top of that 14 so it does not "cease to matter". In Pillars your character plays exactly the same and you hardly notice any difference from stats unless you heavily min-max your character. I like the point buy system in NWN. Take the Wizard for example. You can pump Int to 18 and maximise your spellcasting power but be weak elsewhere. Or you can have 15-16 Int and 14 Str/Dex/Con which does give you a completely different melee presence. Point is that you can actually influence how your character plays which gives you choice. In Pillars that choice is so subtle it hardly matters. ...and then you stop fighting goblins, and those points you put in Strength aren't going to cut it. The Bull's Strength you cast on yourself is a Bull's Strength you didn't cast on someone whose actual job it is to fight in melee. Or a Glitterdust you didn't use to shut down several enemy combatants. Again - d4 hit dice, no armour, no weapon proficiencies, 1/2 BAB. Some strength isn't going to matter. Sacrificing intelligence for anything is a strictly worse choice for a D&D wizard. It's one thing to be dissatisfied with attributes in PoE, but propping up D&D's as some sort of example to strive for is naive. D&D classes range from those who can pump one attribute and ignore the rest (wizards, druids) to those that need at least four (monks, paladins). But there's always going to be one stat you need to get as high as you can, to keep up with the game's math - intelligence/wisdom/charisma for a spellcaster, strength or dexterity for a weapon-user. Also, Pillars has attributes matter in conversation and scripted interactions more than any D&D-based RPG that's not Torment.

A D&D wizard who puts 14 into strength is going to be every bit as hopeless in melee combat as the one who put 10 there. A +2 bonus to hit and damage doesn't negate a d4 hit dice, no armor and not being proficient with anything better than a blunt stick. Unless they use spells to render themselves into melee powerhouses, at which point their strength scores cease to matter. D&D attributes are an illusion of choice more often than not.

Borresaine is the plan, yes. It was suggested in this very thread. Persistence will go to Sagani, as usual. Yeah, that talent didn't look very impressive. I guess I can respec again. I'm saving up for Borresaine, but I should hit the point where enemies start dropping Fine equipment left and right soon.

The difference is that both Intelligence and Dexterity are widely applicable to every character concept, while still working as they usually do. Traditional Strength is the perfect dump stat for anyone who doesn't fight in close combat. Making damage dependent on a different attribute depending on what weapon or ability you use would upend the balance of what Pillars tries to do with attributes, as well.

Well, I've gone ahead and respecialized. My stats are: MIG 16 CON 8 DEX 15 PER 16 INT 14 RES 9 Res was supposed to be 8, but it seems the respec panel didn't take the bonus from Aedyr into account. At level 5, my abilities are Flames of Devotion, Sworn Enemy and Zealous Focus. Talents are Intense Flames and Critical Focus. I figure I'll take Weapon Focus or Envenomed Strike when I hit level 6.

Right, but it still uses the pistol, doesn't it? Besides, if I'm going ranged, it's with a bow. Even if it's not as optimal as it could be. Like I said, I'm not going to play on high difficulty, so I just want something that'll synergize decently.

The traditional RPG gear treadmill has always been annoying. This feels like a more old-school version of it, though. I remember it from Baldur's Gate - the quality of a particular weapon group depends on how easy it is to get the cool unique pieces. Now, Pillars offers remarkably easy crafting to sort of make up for it, but the uniques have abilities you can't replicate by crafting. So, yeah. I also hope they change it somehow in PoE 2.

I've already said I'd rather not use a slow-firing weapon for this. I'm also not fond of dumping stats, even if I have no real need of them,

If roleplaying is a problem, you don't actually need to pick those high-might options in dialogue and scripted interactions, anyway.

Yeah, the idea of paladins is certainly a lead from the front knightly sort. But I've always liked playing against archetypes. And Pillars is more permissive about it than most computer RPGs. Well, it's not like I play on Path of the Damned, or anything. As long as I can buff my team while stunning and possibly poisoning bad guys, I should be fine. I'll enact the plan the next time I can respec my paladin (I just reached Caed Nua with her). I am so glad they introduced respeccing eventually. Makes such dilemmas that much easier.

Hm, interesting. Normally I'd be willing to use an arbalest or arquebus, but I've just finished a run where I used a crossbow. So it might be repetitive. So it's either making a war bow work, or back to the melee plan. Particularly since I'd like to play a high-Res character this time, to make all those checks. My first character had it around 14, and my second one ignored it. I don't see Envenomed Strike as any less becoming of a Kind Wayfarer than shooting bad guys with a bow. So if it's a way to make a war bow work, I could consider it.

The six stats have only endured in D&D; every other RPG, tabletop or video game, has tried different ways of expressing them. Pillars of Eternity tries to make attributes more broadly appicable than "fighter needs strength, wizard needs intelligence". "Don't fix what isn't broken" sounds nice, but it's a pretty stubborn obstacle to getting new, interesting things. If anything, I'd argue it doesn't do enough. But, like I said here or elsehwere - the only remotely controversial part of PoE's attribute system is the way Might works in conversations and scripted interactions. Everything else is absolutely normal. And, frankly, PoE uses attributes in non-combat situations far more often than most RPGs, in my experience. Baldur's Gate, that people are so nostalgic about, practically never does it.

I've started a new game as a Kind Wayfarer paladin. So far so good, but I'm still undecided about her weapon choice. I'll either go for dual-wielding (sabre/stiletto, most likely) or a war bow. And it's the second part I'm having some trouble with. Nothing stops me from doing that - the lack of weapon restrictions for classes is one of Pillars' greatest strengths. But paladins kind of default to melee, as do their recommendations. So, how do I build a paladin for ranged combat/support? I'm guessing she doesn't need Resolve that much, although I'm not sure why paladins have it recommended so much. Do I increase Dexterity, Perception and Intellect and focus on passive buffs while plugging away with the bow?

It's just unfortunate that pets were so lackluster in the past game. The fact that Rangers can depend on their whole party to put distance between them and the enemies, means pets feel kind of superfluous. They tend to not offer all that much utility, and what they do is pretty limited. I'd like to see far more options for building up pets. Some classes get so many spells, like druids. Rangers just felt sort of lame, and the pets even more so. Even Druids felt lackluster in animal form. But at least that didn't seem to detract from their base. Pets seem to detract from the base Ranger, but pets don't really add all that much imo. So the whole class was one of my least favorites. I actually had to re-roll because I hated Ranger's so much. They were the first class I picked. Yeah. I never played a ranger PC, but Itumaak becomes a machine of murder with the right abilities. I didn't even use Predator's Sense, I think. Vicious Companion and Merciless Companion were enough for sick damage. If pets need something, it's better survivability. They kind of die easily, and you only get supportive abilities for them at a high level.

I've also never been a fan of rangers being shackled to an animal sidekick. But it's also true that they need something to set them apart from just being rogues or fighters who happen to hang out in the wilderness a lot. In PoE, this something is pets. I'm curious about the subclass that replaces the pet with a summon. We'll see how it does in play.

You skill survivial up to 14 and use Fulvano's Amulet or a Belt of Bountiful Healing and give him Ancient Memory + Beloved Spirits + Veteran's Recovery + Weapon & Shield + other defensive talents like Cautious Attack and Superior Deflection and start the game with March of the Kamoa until you get Dragon Thrashed. Or you skip the regeneration part altogether and put all talent points into defensive talents like Bear's Fortitude and stuff. That's because you didn't know that Blast works with on-crit effects like stunning and overbearing and also works well with spell chances like that from the soulbound sceptre or the Golden Gaze, making it proc its spell a lot more often (depending on how many enemies you hit with one shot - Pull of Eora helps). You maybe also didn't know that Kalakoth's Minor Blights will work very well with Blast, creating cascading explosions which lead to a lot of hits. This can be used with Combusting Wounds to deal tons of damage. Blast can also be awesome if you combine Penetrating Blast + Expose Vulnerabilites. It'll overcome 10 DR then which makes it powerful against mid-DR mobs, too. It used to be even better: Blast worked with Envenomed Strike so that all enemies which got hit by Blast also got poisoned. Sadly, that got nerfed recently. Interesting! I'll keep it in mind for future runs. Although I suppose I could test it out on high-level bounties when I'm done with Concelhaunt on this run.

Dragon Age-style tactics would be very welcome. There's a lot of moving parts to PoE's combat, so automating some of it would help a lot to use your team to its fullest. That said, I'd never trust an AI with per-rest abilities.

I like Second Wind for making it easier to keep characters on their feet, but it is very much a stop-gap. And skills need some thorough reworking, anyway. They're kind of an afterthought.

Isn't it confirmed that spells for the formerly "vancian" casters will be per-encounter, with a pool of points you can use to empower them and that regenerate on rest? It's a pretty welcome change for me. Having to ration spells is what keeps me from using priests, wizards and druids to their full potential.

In the playthrough I've almost finished, I always brought Eder along as a tank, since I could never manage to replace him with anyone. Pallegina and an adventurer barbarian I made lacked something. Beyond that, I liked to pick people who could stack conditions that set up my crossbow rogue's deathblows. I have to ask: how do you build Kana Rua as a tank? He's always felt fairly fragile to me, but getting him to replace Eder in the role sometimes sounds tempting. I'm also surprised that Blast is considered useful... the damage dealt by implements has always felt negligible.

I guess I'll decide when I meet Grieving Mother on my next playthrough. I do have her in my party right now, but I'm about to face Concelhaunt, and then it's just the final dungeon left. Which I won't be bringing her along for. Also, where do you get Forgemaster's Gloves? The wiki doesn't say. I vaguely remember having this item at some point... Also also, it seems I've mistakely treated Ciphers as casters, rather than DPS/caster hybrids.

Mechanically, it works fine. Where it creates a weird disconnect is dialogue and scripted interaction, where it often corresponds to physical power, even if your character is a wizard, priest, thief and such. My orlan crossbow sniper rogue lifted humans by the neck... somehow. But maybe fixing it isn't worth the trouble. Resolve has always felt like a weird ability score to me. It does a bunch of different things. I'm not sure why it's recommended for paladins more than fighters, for example.

I sort of gave Golden Gaze to someone in my current run and forgot about it. I could give it to GM in my next one, but it'll be a while before I reach White March. So she'd have to use something else in the meantime. An estoc of greatsword is an interesting choice for her. Maybe I'll go for that. Like I said, she spent my first two runs firing away with a blunderbuss, so moving her to the front row would be a change of pace.