Cyrus_Blackfeather

I would easily sacrifice Durance to the Blood Pool for the sake of getting him to finally shut up.

Keep in mind that the penetration bonus works only from stealth/invisibility... Oh, good to know! Never mind then. Durance it is.

Can someone let me know if sacrificing the Devil of Caroc to the Blood Pool still lets you get her breastplate later? If so, I might just do that - Dex/Pen is a nice bonus to have.

Hey guys, So, I'm making my custom PoE backstory and I'm trying to decide whether I should sacrifice one of the "Sir Not Appearing in this Game" companions (Personally leaning toward Durance, because judging by the ending slides to PoE1 he either self-immolates or turns into a god-hunter based on your choices so it's not terribly likely you'll run into him again). I'm wondering if it's ultimately worth doing that, or if the +1 Constitution and 5% health (Probably one of the best raw statistical upgrades next to the Devil of Caroc) is worth condemning someone to a horrible death of essentially drowning in their own blood. ... ... Well, he is a sexist, ethnically biased, racist old man with plenty of resentment. Skaen would probably appreciate the gift. ... On the other hand, the Readcerans DID kind of have that whole Godhammer thing coming. I'm asking this here because while it is a story discussion, it's also a discussion about the mechanics of the game. With the current decisions I'm making, I'm looking at average Constitution and 5% health from Gift of the Machine (A much less difficult decision to make) but I'm wanting to do a front-line, low Deflection build, so grabbing health upgrades wherever I can is definitely in my best interest. Thoughts?

Hey guys! So, it's been a while since I played Pillars 1, but when I went into Deadfire I decided I wanted to try to make a custom backstory rather than just picking one of the pre-generated options. Of course, considering that I've started and discarded like, twenty of the things I'm beginning to wonder if I should just pick the "Survival of the Fittest" backstory and have done with it. I'm trying to make a backstory that offers a decent amount of personal power while at the same time not being too "video gamey" (I.E., I want decisions to be as internally consistent as possible. It doesn't make sense to be a murderhobo in general, but tell the DoC not to kill Harmke just so her Breastplate is an option*). *Does anyone know if, past 1.1, sacrificing the DoC to the Blood Pool still makes her Breastplate available? In particular, for people who have PoE1 fresher in their minds. 1. Does supporting animancy = Aloth dismantling the Leaden Key? I've always been a fan of supporting animancy in PoE1 as I feel like the animancers, honestly, have a lot of the right ideas in mind regarding developments in soul science, especially when one considers how harmful things like Awakening to a past life can be for someone. Of course, animancy also runs the risk of exposing the secrets of the gods to the world at large, which doesn't seem like a terribly good idea. "Hey everyone. All of the religious beliefs that you've structured your society on are all lies!" It's also important to note that even if the gods ARE fake, they still exert a tremendous amount of power on the world. So threatening the position that they feel entitled to doesn't seem like the best way to go about things. We don't need Woedica dropping a moon on the planet and exterminating all life (If that's something she can even do on her own). More to the point. I was wondering if it was possible to take something of a middle of the road approach regarding animancy. Legalize it, but also have Aloth work to reform the Leaden Key so that, instead of being all about the witch burnings and ripping the tongues from the mouths of heretics, they just focus on gentler acts of subterfuge to ensure that knowledge of the gods' true natures stays out of the hands of those who would misuse it. Or is Aloth's new Leaden Key centered around the animancy issue moreso than just the "Keeping the gods' secrets" issue? This is definitely the biggest question plaguing character creation for me, as it informs a lot of decisions regarding companions - like whether or not to strengthen Eder's faith, whether Aloth should reform the Leaden Key or not. And that's why context is important here. Is Aloth totally against animancy in general when he reforms the Leaden Key, or does he just want to protect the gods' secret to prevent the panic that would surely result from that? 2. Thoughts on murderhoboing: I do genuinely want to get the Devil of Caroc breasplate from my personal story. Unfortunately, doing this requires making a choice that seems, in context, not to really fit the sort of character I'm going for. I know the particulars will never come up again, but is there a way to justify not killing Harmke that moreso reflects the fact that to kill him, you'd have to kill all of his friends who had nothing to do with what she's after in the first place and that that would just cause more problems for you, the Watcher, in the long term? Or would that be a conclusion that could easily be drawn from the dialogue presented? I'm wanting to play a Neutral Evil character who still has some scruples - one of which being he tries to keep collateral damage to a minimum where possible. Killing a bunch of bystanders who have nothing to do with the conflict in the first place just creates further problems. Another point of contention regarding this is the Blood Pool. Durance is always my go-to victim for Papa Skaen's Wild and Wacky Fun-time Tour because he's honestly the companion that offers the least incentive for keeping him around aside from Priest magic (And I think he's one of the few companions who actually has a somewhat well optimized build. He's certainly a better Priest than Xoti, mechanically speaking). Is it possible to do the Blood Pool thing with just the companion you want to sacrifice so that the rest are none the wiser? Apologies for getting long-winded. What I'm looking for here is proper context behind some of the big reaching decisions from PoE1 so that I can better decide what best makes sense from a roleplaying perspective.

Nice! Do we know if you still get it if you sacrifice her to the Blood Pool? I'm not too sure actually. The critera for getting DOC is if she dies. But I don't know if sacrificing her = her dying. I mean how would she be retrieved for material if she was sacrificed to the blood pool. Yeah, I feel like if it does, it's a bug.

Nice! Do we know if you still get it if you sacrifice her to the Blood Pool?

Hey guys, I was hoping someone could give me an outline of which decisions are taken in each of the pre-generated backgrounds (Hylea, Berath, Galawain, etc). I want to create a custom backstory that's a more nuanced take on the survival of the fittest backstory. Is there a Reddit thread or a table or something that lists them all?

Hey guys, So, I'm gearing up a frontline direct damage Marauder and I wanted to know which would be better, the Devil of Caroc Breastplate or the Garari Cuirass? The Devil of Caroc Breastplate would definitely allow for a lot more weapon choices since I wouldn't have to worry about using Modwyr to purge my Confusion (I'm thinking Lord Darryn's Voulge), but the Garari Cuirass seems like a solid option as well. Thoughts? This is for Veteran, by the way. I'm not quite mad enough to tackle PotD and Veteran gives more or less exactly the same encounters.

Hey guys, So I'm on the Steam version with Patch 1.1, and I've noticed that the game never seems to want to close properly. I have no problems actually playing it, and all my saves seem to be perfectly fine, but whenever I exit the game completely it hangs for a while and then gives me the "Deadfire Has Stopped Working" error. I'm wondering if something was corrupted in the game's files (That's happened before with other games) and whether or not I should do a full reinstall of the game.

Hey guys, So I've logged about 80 hours into this game and most of that has been rolling a bunch of different characters to see which ones I liked. I finally decided on a Marauder (Berserker/Street Fighter) because I love the risk-reward playstyle of it, and the idea of being a Barbarian tank. Now, I'm ALMOST done with all of the content I've seen so far (Port Maje stuff, and a few bits and pieces of Neketaka), but I'm definitely feeling the fatigue of doing the same stuff over and over again (I've got most of the dialogue for Port Maje and the surrounding areas memorized right now). I had a few questions for folks regarding the scale of certain aspects/playstyles of the game, and I was hoping you could help me out. I also have one random question regarding a choice made in the first game that doesn't seem to have been properly reflected. 1. How big are the factions in this game? One of my biggest issues with PoE1 was how little the factions in Defiance Bay had for you to do. You did the two or three quests for your chosen faction, they gave you support at the animancy trials, and then they popped up again during the Battle of Yenwood Field (Which was, to be honest, one of my favorite parts of the White March). I've heard the factions in this game, especially the New Principi, lauded as being a vast improvement over the first game in terms of their interplay and the NPCs involved. I just hope there's more to do for them. 2. How big are Neketaka and Dunnage Quest-Wise? Port Maje is definitely the "Gilded Vale" of Deadfire, which I suppose makes Neketaka "Defiance Bay" (Multiple districts, regional seat of power, etc.). My issue with that is that, once Defiance Bay was over, the game felt pretty sparse in terms of quests. You had the god quests and a few others in Twin Elms, but that was really it. I've never been to Dunnage, but I'm hoping that it's at least a little more substantial than Twin Elms. 3. How much do you lose out on by playing a 'bad guy'? I'm playing this game as a character who lives by the philosophy of survival of the fittest, and favors abusing and manipulating those weaker than him to get what he wants. For instance, I threatened the Dawnstars on the road to Port Maje for their money and killed Ilari so he wouldn't be a problem later (Gorecci Street is FUN on Veteran). I was actually thrilled when Eder called me out on my actions and I had the option to tell him that I don't apologize for who I am. My question is, how much does the game punish you for playing such a self-serving character? I've played a lot of RPGs that seem inclined toward the 'good guy' route, and taking a more aggressive/murderous option seems to result in getting locked out of a lot of stuff. Bonus Questions: 1. Can someone link that spreadsheet with all of the background specific dialogue checks again? I want to see how many options Raider gets compared to Slave. 2. Where the heck is my cannon? I heard that if you bound the souls in Durgan's Battery to the cannons, you get a special one for your ship, but it didn't show up at all. Is it bugged, or do I have to wait for Hasongo to get it?

So, I think I finally finished Port Maje in a way that I'm satisfied with (Was generally a **** to everyone, killed pretty much everyone I could kill except Mokeha (Because why kill the daughter of the woman who was supposed to free my boat?)) and now I'm in Neketaka. I was just wondering how much Port Maje matters in the grand scheme of things later on? I've heard you go back there for Maia's personal quest, but could you theoretically do anything with Oderisi's notes later on if you didn't give them to Clario, for example?

Hey guys, Just a quick question - I was wondering how important Might was for dialogue checks in this game? In the first one, it was used for a lot of intimidation type choices - throwing people around and breaking stuff, that sort of thing. However, with the addition of so many conversation type skills it seems like that would be more covered by the concept of Intimidate. I ask because the build I'm using has pretty low Might (11 to start, 12 later on before gear) but I still want to play that sort of intimidating/rough type of character. Could I do that by just investing in Intimidate? (That said, in exchange for low Might I max out both Perception and Intellect, which I think is really cool).

She's not annoying! She just has abandonment issues. Or something.

Niiiice. So, I wanted to share what I think is going to be my finalized build here! 12 Might (10+2) 12 Con (1+1) 10 Dexterity (9+1) 18 Perception ( 8 ) 18 Intellect (8 points) 10 Resolve (9+1) No bonus INT from Nature Godlike, but I can dump Dex and Resolve down a little bit and still maintain average stats from racial/culture bonuses. Maxed Perception and Intellect for affliction duration/Carnage AoE radius, and Might can easily be brought up. Constitution is effectively 14 in regards to health gain due to Gift of the Machine and sacrificing Durance (Who certainly has enough resentment to make Skaen very happy, and I'm sure there's some sort of cosmic joke in there about giving a servant of Magran to one of Woedica's allies) As for abilities... Level 1 - Frenzy and Crippling Strike Level 2 - Escape Level 3 - Blooded Level 4 - Blinding Strike and Barbaric Blow Level 5 - Thick Skin Level 6 - Dirty Fighting Level 7 - Arterial Strike and Bloodlust Level 8 - Two-Weapon Style Level 9 - Confounding Blind Level 10 - Persistent Distraction and Spirit Frenzy Level 11 - Adept Evasion Level 12 - One Stands Alone Level 13 - Barbaric Smash and Deep Wounds Level 14 - Interrupting Blows Level 15 - Unflinching Level 16 - Withering Strike and Improved Critical Level 17 - Brute Force Level 18 - Slippery Mind Level 19 - Deathblows and Spirit Tornado Level 20 - Blood Thirst Still not fully sure about that level 18 talent, but all of the rest are pretty much locked in at this point. I'm also still debating weapons. I really want to use Modwyr and something else for the sake of flavor, so I'll probably end up doing that. Plus I sacrificed a lot to get that 18 Intellect, so dropping it down to 13 just seems wrong somehow. Does anyone have any good neck slot recommendations or would it still be a good idea to go with the Protective Eothasian Charm?

Probably going to stick with Human personally, but Death Godlike does look fun. Devs, if you're still reading this, I LOVE what you've done with the Death Godlike heads compared to the first game. Very creepy.

Edit: I might get rid of Adept Evasion for Riposte or something. I don't know how good my Reflex would be late game, so it's hard to judge how much enemy attacks that target it would graze.

Alright! Abilities - Take 3 Level 1 - Frenzy and Crippling Strike Level 2 - Escape (Changed from Backstab) Level 3 - Blooded Level 4 - Blinding Strike (Changed from Smoke Veil) and Barbaric Blow Level 5 - Thick Skin Level 6 - Dirty Fighting Level 7 - Arterial Strike (Instead of Finishing Blow) and Bloodlust Level 8 - Two-Handed Style Level 9 - Confounding Blind (From Bloody Slaughter) Level 10 - Persistent Distraction and Spirit Frenzy Level 11 - Adept Evasion Level 12 - One Stands Alone (Instead of Shadowing Beyond) Level 13 - Barbaric Smash and Deep Wounds Level 14 - Interrupting Blows (Instead of Devastating Strike) Level 15 - Unflinching (Instead of Tough) Level 16 - Withering Strike and Improved Critical (Instead of Barbaric Shout) Level 17 - Brute Force Level 18 - Sap/Slippery Mind/Toxic Strike (Not sure which) Level 19 - Deathblows and Spirit Tornado Level 20 - Blood Thirst (Instead of Perishing Strike) And, provided I don't need Might (And I can always get drugs for Might) 12 Might (10+2) 15 Con (4+1) 10 Dexterity (9+1) 18 Perception ( 8 ) 15 Intellect (5) 10 Resolve (9+1) I might want higher Intellect, though I'm not sure. I do know I can boost Might through drugs.

I actually like this spread, and build. We're working to start showcasing some good builds out there from the community, would you be averse to Obsidian showcasing this build and discussing it? Sure! Wow, I'm honestly very flattered. I can't wait to hear what you guys have to say about it.

I'm REALLY hesitant to drop Might, but I did a little bit of rearranging the attributes and wound up with this. 16 Might 10 Con 11 Dexterity 18 Perception 15 Intellect 10 Resolve Again, this is with all bonuses factored in. If Might REALLY isn't that useful, I might drop it down to 10 (Adjusted to 11 with the Human racial bonus) and then have a more even spread of Dexterity, Perception, and Intellect. Can someone weigh in on this?

Alright, thanks! I'll rethink the skills a bit and post an update in the next post. As for the build, it looks good - though I kind of agree that having higher Dexterity might be preferable, especially since I won't get those bonuses from Death Godlike. Does anyone know if Flanked + Distracted counts for the 2 Sneak Attack conditionals to trigger Deathblows?

It now gives -25% damage instead of -75%, so it's not a lifesaver anymore. Almost all damage reduction items and abilities were nerfed, though they never been that great anyway. You might have -40% damage reduction and expect recieving only half damage, but with enemy using superb weapon you will get 100%+40%-40%=100% versus 140% instead of 60% vs 100% (0.7 damage multiplier vs 0.6). Overall more damage modifiers for the enemy - less useful damage reducing effects. Ouch, that's gonna hurt! I was really counting on that reduction for my Marauder. Seems like I will not be staying Blooded much. And good points about Escape I guess. If I were the TC, I wouldn't entirely ignore Backstab / Smoke Veil and/or Shadowing. It's a part of the Rogue package and rather potent tools to eliminate priority targets. Particularly if he goes with the 2handed weapon option. Btw. from what I read seems like Lord Darryn's Voulge might be the most reliable way to stay permanently Flanked as a Berserker (as long as you don't clear Confusion). Also Withering Strike seems a bit expensive for what it does (3 Guile). On the other hand, if you go 2H, Sap seems a very nice, cheap attack (1 Guile) - Primary weapon only though. Also no Blinding Strike -> Confounding Blind? Not very cheap (2 Guile), but an early Blind with a Deflection destroying upgrade? Plus Reflex save for even wider selection which defense to target? What's not to love? Hmm... I'd feel less icky about staying confused if I had better Intellect. Going from 10 to 5 hurts. It now gives -25% damage instead of -75%, so it's not a lifesaver anymore. Almost all damage reduction items and abilities were nerfed, though they never been that great anyway. You might have -40% damage reduction and expect recieving only half damage, but with enemy using superb weapon you will get 100%+40%-40%=100% versus 140% instead of 60% vs 100% (0.7 damage multiplier vs 0.6). Overall more damage modifiers for the enemy - less useful damage reducing effects. Firecrackers now have dual check - Deflection and Will, and count as negative effect, so duration is cut by resolve and other effects. Much harder to apply to Rogue now. Bloody Slaughter isn't that helpful. About Chill Fog and perception resistance - it works more reliably than Firecrackers now, but not without a downside. Blinded gets downgraded to Disoriented instead of Distracted (you still get +50% Recovery time, so -50% from Streetfighter is negated by affliction). But it remains a solid strategy, as you still get sneak attack boost, recovery penalty is negated and enemies suffer from full effects of Chill Fog. Spell penetration is low, so with some decent armor and buff from Frenzy you will get close to none damage from the spell. I don't see Evade ability from Rogue. Don't underestimate it. Mobility tool, which ignores water, webs and enemies and gives +50 Deflection is pretty neat. Personally I run with high Int Marauder (personal preferences) and this 3 seconds are stretched to almost 6 seconds for me. You throw Marauder forward with it and usually it results in Marauder getting surrounded by enemies, who miss their first attacks due this Deflect boost. You get best position for your Streetfighter, allow support characters to cast freely and negate alpha strike from enemies. Upgrades for Evade are too costly in my opinion. Also you can use Priest spell to prolong this +50 Deflect by 10+ seconds with Time salvation, though there are better effects to prolong than that. I completely ignored Smoke cloud, as I wanted enemies to hit my Marauder instead of support characters, but I suppose it's a good 'oh ****' button and setup for Backstab. Would you mind sharing your starting stats? One of the big things I'm leery about with this build is reduced Affliction durations while I Frenzy. I also didn't realize that Shadowing Beyond is an upgrade of Escape, so whoops! Revised Abilities: Level 1 - Frenzy and Crippling Strike Level 2 - Escape (Changed from Backstab) Level 3 - Blooded Level 4 - Blinding Strike (Changed from Smoke Veil) and Barbaric Blow Level 5 - Thick Skin Level 6 - Dirty Fighting Level 7 - Finishing Blow and Bloodlust (Or One Stands Alone) Level 8 - Two-Handed Style Level 9 - Confounding Blind (From Bloody Slaughter) Level 10 - Persistent Distraction and Spirit Frenzy Level 11 - Adept Evasion Level 12 - Barbaric Yell (Instead of Shadowing Beyond) Level 13 - Barbaric Smash and Deep Wounds Level 14 - Devastating Blow Level 15 - Tough Level 16 - Barbaric Shout (Instead of Lion's Sprint) and Improved Critical Level 17 - Brute Force Level 18 - Sap/Slippery Mind (Instead of Withering Strike) Level 19 - Deathblows and Spirit Tornado Level 20 - Blood Thirst (Instead of Perishing Strike) With only but so many chances to pick up certain powers, I'm probably going to have to neglect something. Unless someone has a better idea for how I should pick my abilities, this is probably going to be the one I end up going with. As far as Staggered goes, I'm pretty sure it interferes with Flanking, so I might go with Blood Frenzy/Blood Storm instead. Or maybe not even upgrade Frenzy at all and use the slots for something else. I might dump Resolve (Besides, lower Deflection makes me a more attractive target) but I don't like the idea of playing a Watcher who's that deficient in one area. Especially if I miss out on anything because of it (Though in the grand scheme of things, having ten resolve for dialogue checks means I might as well have three). ErlKing, please share your high INT Marauder starting stats, and everyone please feel free to give your feedback on my updated ability picks. I feel like this build just needs a little more polish before I'm ready to take it into the game! Also, since Protective Eothasian Charm is now nerfed pretty hard, can someone recommend a better neck slot alternative?

Edit: If I decide to go without Backstab/Smoke Veil, I wind up with something like this... Level 2 - Barbaric Yell Level 4 - Blinding Strike and Barbaric Blow Level 12 - Barbaric Shout Do you guys think those would be better options or should I stick with what I have? Blinding Strike is 2 guile for what it is, when Crippling Strike only costs one Guile for a similar effect. I could pick up Dirty Fighting at Level 4 and get my Weapon Style passive earlier.

Hound of Galawain might be a better name. If a trifle blasphemous.

That's a good point - I'll definitely consider it. Persistent Distraction sounds like it's going to be really fun to use. Just causing an affliction to anyone I've got engagement on... Very nice! There's just so many different multiclass options to consider - Barbarian/Monk, Fighter/Rogue, Barbarian/Rogue... Doing the math, there's hundreds of different combinations I could possibly use.