gsrs1277

Just did this for fun while zoning out. Ridiculous OP but still amusing to write Jaerl's Utter Malediction Level 9? 8? Modified version of Arkemyr's Wondrous Torment. Reduces Might, constitution and dexterity by 12 versus deflection Do Not Touch Me Level 9? .3 casting time Causes anyone targeting, engaging, or adjacent to the caster to be pushed, knocked down and staggered for 10 sec vs. Will. Too similar to Cipher power? Kalakoth's/Kyton's Cursed Caress Level 9? Designed as a more versatile Ninagauth's Killing Bolt for creatures with high Fortitude or ridiculously high and diverse ARs on POTD. Touch attack that deals massive slash/shock damage vs deflection and pierce/freeze damage vs will 65-90 slash/shock damage vs deflection 65-90 pierce/freeze damage vs will Cleoshyra's Anticipatory Deflector of Unerring Accuracy Level 8? 0.3 casting time More powerful version of Thrust of the tattered veils. Cancels recovery for the caster while interrupting the target's subsequent action and reflecting it back on them as raw damage. Cancels target recovery and bypasses <2 concentration. Melicanther's Spatial Relocation Level 7? Tactical. Moves a single target, friend or foe, from one location to another instantly over massive range and causes Disoriented; automatic for allies, vs Will for foes Caractacus's Geomantic Displacement Level 8? Wild magic. Randomly teleports all in AoE and causes dazed vs Will Uromach's Maleficent Hexagon Level 8? Designed to compensate for ridiculously high Fortitude defenses on POTD. Cursed hexagon that reduces Will and Fortitude by 20 in a small area vs Deflection Deurloth's Folly of Transference Level 9? Wild magic. Deals 500 automatic raw damage to the caster, but grants the target ally Brilliant, Energized, and Courageous inspirations for 15 seconds Deurloth's Deranged Incantation Level 8? Wild magic. Causes random tier 1 inspiration or affliction to everyone in massive AoE

Tekehu was charmed by a vampire gaze. After casting a ring of unshackling suppress affliction on Tekehu, which worked, the timer for the suppress affliction expired, and Tekehu was then listed as "Charmed" under "negative effects"--but he wasn't behaving as if he was actually charmed. (Forgotten Catacomb)

Though stated in the imperative, these are all just my opinions or preferences, obviously; I recognize it's a bit late in development but I wanted to put this out there. -Portraits in the inventory screen ought to be on the top right hand, rather than the top left hand. Its awkward to drag items diagonally across the screen. -Scripted interactions should have an option allowing you to go back and re-read previous screens -In the cyclopedia, there should be a rough ti meline of some kind so that it is easier to situate events in the meta-narrative. 50 years ago vs 200 years ago vs 400 years ago are all each significant but the relative differences can get murky,especially for people who are visual learners. -In the cyclopedia, there should be an entry for how the Iorocian (sp?) Calendar system works, and perhaps how months roughly correspond to our real worldGregorian calendar . -In the cyclopedia, in the "Equipment" and/or "Lore" tab, there should be an entry detailing explicitly how grimoires work and what they are and why theyare unique to wizards.

--The magic system in BG2 was obviously unwieldy --with so many spells and counterspells and contingencies and triggers that didnt always quite work unless the game was modded. I understand this messiness is probably something designers want to avoid in a new game of this kind. On the other hand, the complexity of all these immunities/counterspells, the use of time stop and improved alacrity, and the ability to store groups of spells in triggers and contingencies made gameplay incredibly fun and made wizard battles almost like mini puzzles in themselves. Would you consider adding future features to PoE 2 like this? I already notice some metamagic-type passive talents for wizards in the new Beta update, which is a promising sign. But I want high-level abilities that enable you to store and cast groups of spells. --If there's no printing press, how/why are there so many copies of the same book? Scribes? Can people reproduce books by magic? Was there a narrative reason to exclude the printing press in this world? --Obviously loaded, but-- if Watchers weren't quite adequately distinguished from Ciphers in the first game, I also feel like wizardly magic in particular was not distinguished from magic in general which in turn was not distinguished from animancy. Does animancy require knowledge of magic to work? Why is animancy a "science" and not "magic"? Where does wizardly magic originate? What language are spells in?

Positives: Obviously as many have said the art and lighting and blend of 2D and 3D elements are great. Looking forward to seeing more integration of vertical 3D mechanics into isometric 2D perspective. Also, I love the calender/weather/day/night system. It always bothered me in traditional Baldur's gate that the season/weather/dates/times didn't seem to sync up very well. Both of these are beautiful. As for the character design. Basically I think the system is a radical overhaul. And it actually seems like a pretty cool design. I just think it’s a little too radical. I think a little conservatism is warranted. Classes should *not* be perfectly balanced. And people still want flexible builds with a plethora of diverse abilities that do different things, particularly if they are spellcasters. I feel like there's a middle ground to be found here. For my taste, magic (as in, spellcasters) should be distinguished from non-casters, and spell lists should be expansive and versatile. It seems at least plausible that you could lessen the rigidity of the new system somewhat: by allowing some version of universal or semi-universal feats/talents, and by broadening spell-trees, particularly for casters, and *especially* for wizards, and particularly as you gain levels. More Detail: As it is, to summarize, everything is organized into trees of abilities which are like spells. These are all class-specific and determined by power-levels which are like meta-points determining how powerful an ability can be. You can use the universal "empower" feat to bump up the thresholds of abilities. In addition, you can multiclass as any two things and there are over 144 possible combinations. As someone else said, all this is basically like one step away from having a classless game entirely. And conceptually its actually pretty cool as a design. I think what's good about this can be retained but loosened up to allow for more flexibility, perhaps at the cost of overall balance. In my opinion a game like this should *not* be perfectly balanced and I’m suspicious of excessive balancing. As it is the costs of this radical change are maybe too high for my taste. You almost lose the core identity of D&D-style play. You lose overall character flexibility and as someone else said, you lose the sort of overall chaotic breadth and expansiveness of different spell-lists that make this kind of D&D-based game unique --ie what’s compelling is not one powerful spell but groups of spells, their variety. In BG2 you even had contingencies and sequencers and things like that which, while often overpowered,were part of the appeal. I can foresee the mechanic of grimoires being used to counteracting these concerns somewhat. Ideally for me, wizards would have the broadest possible range of spells, followed by priests, and druids, followed by ciphers (?) That's a key feature of the appeal of the class system, to me. I think restricting that for things like keywords/schools is fine to an extent, but I think restrictions on number of abilities should open up, especially at higher levels, so that a higher-level druid/priest/wizard gets access to a broader range of possible spells, or at least receives that as an option.

If anyone could post links to where Obsidian has addressed this it would be greatly appreciated, too.

I'd love it if the design team could address this question at some point. I'm not in the habit of using message boards, so apologies if I'm missing some of the etiquette or if this is addressed elsewhere (But I don't think it has been). If a veteran of RPGs plays PoE 1 with all the latest updates and expansions on the highest difficulty level, its entirely possible for them to advance levels very quickly relative to the core game content, particularly if they seek out and pursue lots of challenging side content. This is paradoxically offset by the frustration of *not getting XP* for kills, either because they hit the XP cap for monsters very quickly (as there are so many enemies on Path of the Damned) or because they out-level hostile NPCs. The main drawback of this is that it means a large handful of encounters become unchallenging for experienced players. Is this going to be addressed in PoE 2? Obviously its a relatively complex design issue; but, for example, probably the simplest solution would be to add an option that makes you level up more slowly (i.e. by requiring more XP). I'd love to ask this question directly of someone on the design team; I understand it's only relevant to a small group of veteran players but I just wanted to get this out there publicly. So excited for PoE 2! Edit: The title of this post should be: "Question about Making the Game Challenging" but I forgot the "M" and don't know how to fix it!