Cyrus_Blackfeather

Bleh, I don't. Though I suppose I could just speed through the story and just skip past all of the cutscenes/side stuff. I just need to get to Ukaizo, right?

Hey guys, To have enough Blessings points to use the stats and skills blessings, I need three more Blessing points. One of the ways I can get them is through the Faction quests. Would I be able to do that without bum rushing the main story quest, or do I have to do that for the Faction quest to be considered 'complete'?

That's a good way to look at it, I think. It's not like it's a console command or a cheat, you do have to 'earn' them through actually playing the game (Even if some of the achievements are pretty easy to get. I'm just bummed I don't have enough to do the skill blessing AND the stat blessing. Might rush a Huana campaign or something for a few extra points and try that. Do you have the achievements for making scrolls, potions, explosives, and for laying traps? Those are really easy to get, and can boost you enough quickly. Got all of those. Considering bum rushing one of the factions I don't want to do on my "main" character on easy mode.

That's a good way to look at it, I think. It's not like it's a console command or a cheat, you do have to 'earn' them through actually playing the game (Even if some of the achievements are pretty easy to get. I'm just bummed I don't have enough to do the skill blessing AND the stat blessing. Might rush a Huana campaign or something for a few extra points and try that. If I had to choose between stat or skill blessing I would pick skill blessing. Makes the scripted interactions easier in your PT so you can focus on other things. You think so? Alright, I'll stick with that then.

That's a good way to look at it, I think. It's not like it's a console command or a cheat, you do have to 'earn' them through actually playing the game (Even if some of the achievements are pretty easy to get. I'm just bummed I don't have enough to do the skill blessing AND the stat blessing. Might rush a Huana campaign or something for a few extra points and try that.

What's up? So I'm trying to decide which active/passive skills would be best to focus on for my Watcher, since I won't be using the Bonus Skills blessing this run. So far, I definitely know that I want companions to focus on Mechanics, Explosives, and Arcana, so I'm thinking having my Watcher focus his efforts on Sleight of Hand and Stealth would be for the best, with a little bit of Athletics added in. As for passives, I'm thinking Insight + one conversational skill to keep the point spread fair, and then just have companions for the different conversation skills for party sharing benefits, as well as Mysticality/Religion/History and so on. Thoughts?

The only thing I really don't like about it is the fact that they're darn sure to let you know you're using it. Granted, the same is true of pretty much any other permanent stat buff, like Gift of the Machine or things you get from gear. Ah well. I think I might try my 'imperfect' build first and then see how far I can get. I may need to play on Veteran rather than PotD, but that's fine.

Hey guys, So, I recently got enough Blessing points to use the +2 Attribute Blessing (And nothing else) through all of the crafting achievements and such, and I'm considering starting a PotD playthrough with it. My plan is to use it so that I don't have to dump Dexterity and Resolve quite so low to get the starting Might/Perception/Intellect that I wanted, as well as a respectable Constitution score. In order to counteract this somewhat, I decided to pass on Effigy's Resentment (Which would have given me another 10% health effectively). So, my question is... does anyone else use this Blessing, and how do you stop it from trivializing the game? I'm playing on PotD and please note that I actually do feel challenged by the enemies.

It's not that I'm confused about how he got to 20, I'm just confused as to what had to be dropped to get there.

First off, thank you to Eternal Dreams for providing the raw numbers! Second, looking at the attack speed calculator, it does seem like dumping Dexterity and Resolve both would be a good way to go about things, so I'll probably go with that. Definitely aiming for DoC Breastplate as soon as I can get it, though.

Hmm. Alright, that makes sense. I'll go with my original plan - allying with Galawain, Magran, and Abydon and having Aloth reform the Leaden Key.

Hey guys! So, I have a bit of a lore question regarding devoting the Hollowborn souls to Woedica (As opposed to Galawain, as I'd initially planned). The rationale behind this is that Woedica, while still as petty and vindictive as all of the other gods, is at least only one person, and finding a way to deal with her while she keeps the rest in check seems like the best way to go about things. The only problem is, she despises animancy. That being said, so do all of the other gods - because it just means humanity is getting closer to uncovering their secrets. But Woedica seems to have a pretty significant vendetta against it - you don't see Galawain organizing centuries' long plots in order to destroy knowledge and keep kith intellectually stunted. And on the one hand, that sort of gung-ho philosophy does sort of make sense. Animancy is a dangerous science sometimes practiced by dangerous individuals. On the other, animancy stands to offer a lot of benefits to kith struggling with different soul-related aliments. Imagine being able to silence an Awakened past life, or bolster your soul to deal with depression. So, I got to thinking - could there be a middle ground? Aloth seems to want to reform the Leaden Key, when he does decide to take up the mantle, into something of a watchdog organization dedicated to preventing kith from getting too close to the secrets of the gods. And, as a temporary measure, that's okay. We can't find the big giant switch that turns them off, so it's best to just work within the limits they've set for us until we can. Besides, there were gods before and there were gods after. Some people just need something to worship. So, could I devote the souls to Woedica, put the Leaden Key under new leadership, and then promote the more beneficial aspects of animancy? Or rather, would all of those choices seem logically consistent? I know Obsidian obviously hasn't accounted for every potential nuance/interaction between every potential choice that it's possible to make, but I just don't want to stray too far out of 'line' here. I suppose it's also worth noting that doing something with the souls just acknowledges that you're going along with that particular god's plan because you think it's the right thing to do in that particular instance, not because you think that they are always right about everything.

Hmm. Alright. Right now I'm looking at 20 Might 13 Con 6 Dexterity 18 Perception 18 Intellect 6 Resolve I want to keep Perception and Intellect at 18, but I suppose I could dump Might and Constitution down a bit to bump both Dexterity and Resolve up to 10. I don't know. My Perception and Intellect do offset the penalties to Reflex and Will considerably, though I get much less of a bonus.

Hey guys, So I'm all set to start on a low Resolve character (A grand total of 6) and I'll be playing a Berserker/Streetfighter Marauder (Who, I'll remind you, benefits heavily from being flanked and bloodied). I'll be suffering a pretty huge penalty to Deflection if I go through with this, and I'm slightly worried that I won't be able to survive in the state I need to get the most out of that particular subclass. Also, my Dexterity is down to 6 because of the Action Speed buffs provided by Marauder as well as the Lord Darryn's Voulge weapon I'll be going for shortly after getting out of Neketaka (10% chance to grant Lightning Strikes on hit). I believe that 4 points below 10 is -12% Action Speed. Is that going to be terribly significant for a melee character? Thanks for your time! I'm looking forward to starting this character, and just wanted to get that stuff cleared up.

I think the idea is just to boost your armor as high as possible so that attacks won't damage you as much. You'll still get hit, but they won't penetrate your defenses. Less avoidance tanking, more mitigation tanking. Furthermore, lower Deflection entices enemies to attack you more than your allies. It's great if you can pull it off. I would like to hear how you managed 20 Resolve though.

Hah. Yeah, admittedly... they don't. It takes me back to my 4e days where a Pixie built for charging could instagib things three or four size categories taller than them by virtue of an incredibly specific set of feats. My DM HATED me. But then, 4e was never optimized as a roleplaying game, just an action game with some rudimentary RPG elements. Still, considering Dexterity really doesn't matter for the speed boosts you get from Barbarian/Rogue, and the fact that I could never pump Resolve up enough to pass dialogue checks without dumping something else that's very important for the build to function properly, I'll stick with this. Just flavor "Terrified" as "PTSD flashback."

Okay, I actually answered my own question. My character is a broken man. He's lost pretty much everyone he ever cared about, and is trying to claw himself back from the brink and claim a piece of what he feels was stolen from him. It's why he took Raedric's offer, and why he pushed on through the first game. By the time he was Lord of Caed Nua he could relax a little bit, but when that was taken away, he started to crack again. Thus, he's significantly more susceptible to psychic attacks, but is able to resist the worst of the effects through relying on his knowledge and experience. As for the Dexterity, that could easily be explained through old injuries, which he's able to overcome briefly through relying on his Barbarian Frenzy and other abilities. By essentially surrendering himself to his baser impulses, he can fight at close to his original capacity once again - he's just a little sluggish starting out. And there, I've effectively accounted for my min/maxing.

So, in creating a character, I've run into a problem that has been brought up here from time to time, that is creating a character that embodies every aspect of a concept while still making the best use of the stats available. There are some stats that, mechanically, aren't the best for every character build but do shine in a roleplay sense, and vice-versa. For example - A character wanting to be the 'tank' of the party and engage multiple enemies might benefit from high Constitution, but Constitution serves no purpose in dialogue. It's effectively a roleplaying "Dump stat" despite serving a purpose in the gameplay aspect of the game. And then we come to the reason I started this whole thread - Resolve. I've brought this up in other cases, mostly asking about the number of Resolve checks in game. After all, Resolve was, in Pillars 1, effectively your Charisma stat. It determined how good you were going to be at enforcing your will on a situation, and was one of the big "Talky" skills along with Perception and Intellect. In PoE2, it doesn't seem to matter as much. High Intellect can easily offset the Will penalty. But then there's the issue of the little annotations on each stat that kind of give you an idea of what sort of person you are for having each score. Obsidian seems to have taken the D&D approach here - 10 points is average, anything lower than that is deficient, but thankfully since each save has two stats attached to it, you can offset the losses somewhat. But then there's that roleplay aspect. My current character has a Dexterity and a Resolve of 6, with solid scores in all other stats, which effectively makes him a fairly durable, insanely strong, perceptive, and intelligent, spineless coward. I get that I chose to make his stats that low, as it made the most sense gameplay wise. Since he's a Streetfighter, I want enemies to gang up on him so he can get bonuses for being flanked and bloodied, so low Deflection makes sense. His Intellect helps with his Frenzy duration as a Barbarian, as well as the durations of the Afflictions he's laying down as a Rogue. High constitution is self-explanatory. Because Barbarian/Rogue offers so many boosts to Action Speed, I don't really 'need' high Dexterity. But then I think of it from a roleplay perspective. I want to play a character who's unflinching, not afraid to back down from a challenge - and in fact, fully embraces each when it comes. He's a former slave from the Deadfire who's opted to essentially come full circle and take a chunk of it for himself to make up for what was taken from him. He doesn't go out of his way to start fights, but he goes out of his way to finish them. But, according to this, because I chose to min-max, he's a coward. I wouldn't be asking this if it wasn't such a... striking character trait, to say the least. A low Intellect means your character is dumb, I get it - we've all played the big dumb fighter. A low Wisdom means they're more gullible, while a low Charisma means they're not very motivating, or they might have a bad smell. My point to all of this - How would you justify playing a character with significant maluses in one or two stats for the purpose of roleplaying? Is it fair game to just ignore what the stats say your character 'should' be like in favor of enriching your own experience? I suppose I could translate the lack of Resolve into a sense of superstition. Just as long as Eld Engrim doesn't ask me to throw more gold into the bloody sea to appease Ondra.

Thanks! I'll probably stick with two-handed for Lord Darryn's Voulge then.

Yeah, 6 (With boosts) is about as far as I'm willing to go. I assume I'd want to stick with dual wielding then, for the attack speed boost? Or do the boosts that Marauder gets naturally make that unnecessary?

Gotcha. And Intellect more than makes up for the loss of Will caused by low Resolve, just like Perception makes up for poor Dexterity. So I could do something like this... 20 Might (8+2) 13 Con (12+1, +10% health from sacrificing Durance AND Gift of the Machine) 6 Dexterity (5+1) 18 Perception (8 points) 18 Intellect (8 points) 6 Res (5+1) I just can't bring myself to drop a stat down to 3.

Yeah, I did. I was actually the one who posted that, but it went dead for a bit so I wanted some opinions on stats specifically since I pretty much know what abilities I want to pick up.

I guess my question is, at the end of the day, is an extra 20% or so more HP worth a 15% bonus to ability duration in the long term? I feel like it isn't.

I recently decided not to sacrifice Durance to the Blood Pool (AKA, Mr. Poole) because, frankly, ~20 HP (For my particular class) hardly seemed worth it. I'm willing to hear other opinions on this of course. Now, my Marauder build - which is supposed to focus on heavy engagement/armor/HP with low Deflection looks something like this: 12 Might (10+2) 11 Con (+1) 10 Dexterity (9+1) 18 Perception (8 points) 18 Intellect (8 points) 10 Resolve (9+1) +1 Might is from Gift of the Machine which also gives 5% HP. +1 Dexterity is from the Deadfire Background I wanted to maximize Intellect for Affliction duration and Perception for Accuracy. Dexterity is somewhat low due to the attack speed buffs I'll get from numerous other sources. Since Might caps at 35, and is one of the easiest stats to boost through consumables/resting buffs, it didn't seem worth pumping except for RP fluff purposes (And even then, with high enough Alchemy, I can make that happen anyway). Should I drop some points from Intellect to boost Constitution? Maybe go from 18 to 15 Intellect and from 11 to 14 Constitution? That'd be a loss of 15% effect duration, which doesn't seem like it'd be too much of a loss. Thoughts?

See, that's the issue. With Gift of the Machine, it's an easy choice to make - You could either release a bunch of random soul essence back to the Wheel or take it into yourself to strengthen your own soul. The ethics of HOW you get to that point are pretty dark (You need to feed someone to a Ghul to get the knowledge you need) but the decision itself is a little more justifiable. For the Blood Pool... I guess it's a credit to the writing team, but anything our character might say to justify doing so rings hollow. They're making the conscious decision to get rid of someone for whatever reason to make themselves more powerful, and they have to be the sort of person who's willing to live with that. Edit: Basically, it's an RPG not letting you get away with trying to rationalize taking an action that is unequivocally cruel and selfish. Heck, it's not even part of the Survival of the Fittest custom background. Granted, I'm not sure it would be part of any custom background, since the devs obviously wouldn't want to make a choice like that for the player, so there's that.