ghostwriter

Exactly this... especially since the resting system is much more liberal in this game.

I would say -15% damage per point of penetration below armor level, capped at -75%. No boost for penetration above armour level except for +30% damage if it's double. Of course this is based on nothing other than "it feels right".

For discussions. Lol... Guys, the purpose of all this is... discussion. Don't take the role of the guys over the melee by commenting on the finery the uselessness of certain debates.. We discuss and the developers do what they want with these returns. Point. Of course we should have discussions, that's the entire purpose of the forums. I was just pointing out that this is definitely an aspect of these discussions that the devs should take into consideration. Especially before making any major changes to an already well functioning, simple and elegant multiclass system.

You don't even have to go as far back as PoE 1 to see this pattern of behaviour... Remember the threads when it was announced that party size was going to be cut down to 5? A few days into the Deadfire beta and this doesn't even seem to be on anyone's radar. There is very often difference between what people on these forums immediately insist they can't live without, and what is actually best for the game as a whole.

These are the full portraits of returning companions... looks like Pallegina might have gotten tweaked a little, not 100% sure. She and Eder still look different from the PoE 1 versions, however I'm trying to judge these new portraits on their own merits and I have to say they look pretty amazing. Great work by the artists. Just hope they don't go for the en face style again in future games as the thumbnails end up looking a little crazy.

An important part of the new system where we now collect Grimoires instead of Scribed Spells is that the Grimoires are supposed to feel like cool items in and of themselves. Iirc, supposedly some of them will be unique items with special effects. Like, you'll get a Grimoire filled with Fire spells and +10% damage with fire spells. So, I'm not sure I agree that there should be a too big incentive to switch Grimoires, since that would conflict with the cool factor of wielding a unique one. Priests and Druids really need that boost, but once they have it, they'll still be heavily outclassed by wizards for flexibility. I'm not sure you understood what I meant. Obviously the change to grimoires was specifically designed to make you experiment with different ones throughout the game and maybe finally settle on one that best suited your wizard. I was just pointing out that this aspect of wizard gameplay still existed even if you reduced the number of set spells from 2 to 1, because of interesting grimoire passive boosts and unique set spells in the grimoire.

Sawyer mentioned on twitter that they were going to try giving priests and druids an additional spell on hitting a new power level so they could choose 3 per level total for single class. Personally I'd like to see this applied to wizards as well, and reducing the set spells in grimoires to 1 per level instead of 2. It would allow for more personalized builds, flexibility and then all traditional casters would follow a similar leveling structure. Between unique set spells(shadowflame, crushing doom etc.) and interesting, powerful passives I think there would still be a big incentive to switch up grimoires with this change.

I like what we've been shown so far... Favourites are definitely the new nature and fire godlike models, great stuff. Feel it should have been the other way around, they should have made new portraits for some of the new godlike faces. Especially since some of the old godlike portraits from PoE 1 looked weird and not even in the same style as the other portraits in the game. Off the top of my head, the female nature godlike portraits, but maybe a few others.

Disagree with both these points... Definitely don't want a permanent familiar companion following my character around. One of the reasons I never take rangers(and appreciate the Ghost Heart subclass) is because I don't want some pet in the party to deal with. Also I like seeing the grimoires only during combat. Looks cleaner, for lack of a better word...

General talents existed to complement core class abilities(especially spells) not replace them. When you present them as equal you're opening the game up to a lot of gimped builds. There is a difference between allowing respecs and encouraging them, and you would be crossing that line with this mechanic. It really doesn't sound good to me if you have to tell new players "Hey you know this option that is being presented as equal... it actually isn't and you would probably be hurting your build severely if you pick this." Just sounds like overall bad game design. Sounds simple but it would require a major overhaul of the current multiclass system. Once again, it sounds simple but would require a reshuffle of class talents across the board. I think it is also worth asking obsidian devs whether they wanted to make individual classes more distinct as a design goal and leave the wacky/hybrid builds to the multiclass system.

The problem is casters would have to give up spells to get these talents. And with the already more limited spell selection, that wouldn't be fair at all. Especially to new players who didn't know what they were doing and weren't going for some specific build. How would you get around this?

Same reason a fighter can't take Gunner anymore... same reason my wizard can only pick one spell per level now. The game has to accommodate multiclassing, which leads to different priorities with regards to distinctiveness of classes and balance.

Ah ok, I think I misunderstood... I thought you meant like some spells which would have been influenced by might/int in the first game are no longer being affected in Deadfire.

Hey thanks dude, appreciate it. Unless it's a bug that seems to be a big change to might and int. Can you elaborate a little? Which spells that you tested are no longer affected by int and might?

The thing is, the system you're talking about didn't have to accommodate a complex multiclass system alongside it. I don't think anyone would be against having more build diversity for single class characters, but how would you do that without making multiclassing more complicated, inelegant and hard to balance? It's not as easy as just adding back the missing general talents because that would force players to choose between picking those talents and their core class abilities. This is especially problematic with the more limited spell selection of casters, which I discussed in an earlier post in more detail. Also I think calling single classes lackluster and bare bones when they're at 6th-9th level with barely any unique equipment might be a little premature.

Hey guys, couple of questions for people playing the beta: Is the Shadowflame spell in the game? Can you learn it on level up? Is Arcane Veil a spell now? If so, what level? Since wizards take longer to cast now, does dex become the 2nd most imp stat for most builds after intelligence?

It will definitely be a newbie trap and that's no small consideration. New players tend to make choices that are the least intimidating to them which is especially applicable when it comes to spellcasters. If they are forced to choose between spells whose descriptions they can barely understand and two handed style, for example, which gives 20% extra damage, what do you think they would go for? It's one thing if you choose to pass up spells because you're going for a certain build, but it's different when you don't pick spells because you don't know what you're doing. This was obviously never a choice in the first game, and I don't think it should be one here.

I agree with Gromnir on this. While a lot of these general talents had uses in experimental and off the wall builds by players on these forums, I think many of them felt useless to the majority of the player base and were never picked. As has already been pointed out, getting rid of them makes single classes more distinct yet also more limited. However every single class(with the exception of the ranger) still has at least a couple of roles it could perform well in the party, and if you want to expand on those there is the subclass and multiclass features available to the tinkerers on these boards. Also I think reintroducing general talents would cause a big problem for single class casters in this system. Since spells/abilities/talents have been merged, and you only get one per class level to choose from, you might end up with a caster that has zero picks in a particular spell level because the player felt they needed to take a few general talents for their build.

Never liked the look of lashes on firearms in Poe 1... I think it would look much cooler if the guns looked normal, but when the bullet hits the enemy it created a small elemental explosion depending on the lash type.

Wayfarer could be used for ranger/chanter... it's not perfect, but definitely better than wildrhymer. Also like I mentioned in the OP, paladins have nothing to do with religion in this setting. So holy avenger(or holy slayer for that matter) is not really appropriate for paladin/rogue. Hope they change that.

A Crusader is simply someone who fights for a cause. Doesnt have to be a religious cause. I think the question is(as Sawyer mentioned in the update), what provides a clearer character concept? For me, the champion of a paladin order would be the best combatant or fighter in that order. Technically, 'crusader' can be used in different contexts. But it's most appropriate use is when referencing a holy warrior. Same with Bard, it's the name with the most clear character concept. Harbinger sounds pretty nebulous.

Wizards seem to have far fewer spells than the first game. Can somebody please ask Sawyer on tumblr or twitter exactly how many spells per level they get to learn during level up? I'm not on any of those sites...

So how do you guys feel about them? Also, do you think we should get the option of naming our multiclasses ourselves? Here they are: https://playfig.s3.amazonaws.com/CampaignMediaItem/image/rich_text_editor_image/2017/09/20/fb142528-dd26-4489-8728-3ef2cc6ce87d I think Chanter/Rogue should definitely be Bard... it's the most obvious and appropriate title/class concept out of all the 55. Harbinger isn't too bad, it could be used for Chanter/ pretty much anything other than rogue. Also Fighter/Paladin should be Champion. Crusader brings a religious feel to a class that has nothing to do with with religion. I'd much rather see Paladin/Priest as Crusader. Templar is a reference to an actual real life organization so it feels a little out of place in this setting. Crusader feels a bit more general. There are other names which don't fit too well(Wildrhymer lol)... but these two were bugging me the most. Thoughts?

Aww.... Pretty sure i had enchanted my Pirate's Disappointed to Legendary Status haha same here...

Come to think of it, I also like Sheathed in Autumn and Drawn in Spring... completing that set in the sequel would be pretty cool.