jtbehnke

Skaen is also the patron of the underdog. All underdogs. And among the gods, who is more of an underdog than poor, weak, outcast and silent Woedica?

Won't their wizards be able to blast me with impunity at that point?

I understand that part, I'm just not sure WHAT to eat WHEN. Like, I have a Duc's Own Beefloaf, a Farmer's Spread and a Pearlwood Chicken that have just been sitting in my Stash since Gilded Vale because I keep forgetting to eat them before a fight and then when I'm not in one I want to save them for something difficult, but then forget again.

I've now gone through the Temple of Woedica and am now working through sidequests in Defiance Bay, with plans to go to Dyrford soon. I'm surprised by how much money I'm tripping over. Caed Nua's almost fully constructed already! Question: now that I've bluffed my way through the Temple of Woedica, I'm wondering if I should go back there and take out the Leaden Key flunkies there. I know there's no in-game incentive to one or the other, as they won't react if you return after doing one of the quests you got from there, but I naturally feel leery letting a branch of the cult continue operating, especially after I finish those quests and find out just what they've been up to...Should I go back down there after I've rested and just slay everyone down there?

I've had a hard time using doors as choke-points, honestly. I've got too many melee/frontliner types: my Cipher, Eder, Pallegina or Azemar de Telaneir (a Goldpact Knight I made as soon as I reached Gilded Vale, but he's largely been replaced by Pallegina, so I mostly have him doing Stronghold quests), and either Kana Rua or Hiravias. Sometimes even Aloth joins in the fun with Wizard's Double and Concelhaut's Parasitic Staff. The only consistent ranged combatants in my party are Durance (with an arquebus) and Sagani when I bring her along.

That's good advice too! I'll keep it in mind for future playthroughs. Thank you!

Honestly, I'm not certain what to do with the food I've got. I am making meals when I can, but I tend to have too many of one ingredient and too few of another. What ARE the best meals to have on hand anyway?

I finally finished the first act of the game and have entered Defiance Bay and my old enemy, Indecision, has reared its ugly head. I'm not sure what order to tackle the Main Quest and side quests in. Should I start going around to places like Dyrford and Stormwall Gorge before quests send me there to get as many companions as I can? Should I focus in side quests in Defiance Bay first? In what order should I do them? At what point should I start delving into the Endless Paths? The White March? I know that I shouldn't go to the Animancy Hearing before finishing the White March if I want to temper the Eyeless and stuff, and I'll lose access to Defiance Bay after the Hearing's over, especially the Sanitarium, but apart from that I'm not sure how to break up this big meal into smaller chunks that are easier to chew...about the only thing I KNOW I want to do is get money to completely finish fixing up Caed Nua. What would you who've completed the game before advise?

I entered the Throne Room from the Scriptorum, since I sided with Nedmar, since I was trying to avoid killing any more of Raedric's flunkies than necessary. Other than Raedric's throne room guards and Osyra in the Dungeons, none of the other denizens of the castle were harmed.

The specific mention of an old dwarf treating it as a kind of sick joke is the MO of Berath's Usher form. As the wiki says, "He creates the circumstances for the wayward to stumble into their own graves." Skaen doesn't really have much of a sense of humor.

Thank you for the advice! I was able to win this time, though it was incredibly close.

I'm stuck on the first battle with Raedric on Normal difficulty. At the moment, my party consists of my Pale Elf Cipher, Aloth, Eder, Durance, all of us being 4th level, and a Mountain Dwarf Paladin (Goldpact Knights) at 3rd level (I hired him as soon as I had the option to do so at the Black Hound, but he's always one level behind the rest of the party). I'm finding that I easily get swarmed by Raedric's gang, especially since I tried to take out the Archmage in the back and the melee fighters plus Raedric himself bogged them down. Should I just leave and come back with Kana Rua in tow? What are other ways I can even the odds without actually changing the difficulty to Easy?

The "Hel" referenced by "Helwalkers" comes from an Aedyran word for The Beyond or The Veiled. It is, like you describe, a temporary afterlife. Souls travel through it to reach The Wheel so they can be reborn. In the second game, you actually spend a little time there yourself, before Berath restores you and the game begins proper. The adra veins in the world sort of act as literal ways into this Hel, as souls are attracted to them and the network connects to the Wheel's physical location in Ukaizo, which is why in the second game you can use adra formations to track and predict Eothas' course. As far as what's been indicated in both games, there's no real sense of punishment or reward, apart from direct intervention by Berath.

I'm at a point where I've basically done all the quests in the first act of the game except Lord of a Barren Land and pressing on with the Main Quest by going to Caed Nua, and I'm not sure which I should tackle first. I do want to deal with all of Act I's side-quests before finishing the Act itself, but at the same time, I've run into some fights I struggled with, even on Normal difficulty with a party of 5 (My Pale Elf Cipher, Aloth, Eder and Durance plus a hired Mountain Dwarf Paladin), and I understand Raedric is one of the more difficult fights in the first act, so I'm debating whether I should wait until I go to Caed Nua so I have Kana Rua in the party too, or maybe even until after I get Sagani just afterwards, before going to Raedric's Hold. Can I beat Raedric with the party I have?

Oh, the item? (I had to google) I'm completely guessing, but I think so. The game never makes an option to tell her, "Oh, yeah, I ****ed this up on purpose." So I think so long as you complete the quest, you get it. Even if you horribly messed up the quest (on purpose) in the process. Thank you. I'm seriously debating with this quest (even though at the moment I'm still working through the first game). On the one hand, the results are awful (especially if you're like me and want to help the Huana resist Rauatai imperialism), so deliberately botching it is an attractive option, but I also want to build a positive relationship with Maia (I want to build a positive relationship with all my companions and sidekicks), and I can imagine no faster way to alienate her than by deliberately sabotaging her companion quest (apart from, you know, being a completely horrible person and sacrificing Kana to Skaen in the first game). Plus, sabotaging the quest seems real metagamey: you, the player, know the end results, but the Watcher won't because Maia and Atsura are deliberately keeping them in the dark about it.

The wiki is predictably vague, but seems to hint that it's random. It might be worth it to save scum visiting the island camp a few times to see if that's true.

Knowing what I know about the Beast of Winter DLC for Deadfire now, I'm starting to wonder if I should reconsider this background. The new companion in Beast of Winter, Vatnir, has the White that Wends/Mystic background, so I worry that if I made my Cipher a White that Wends/Mystic, it'll be redundant with Vatnir, especially since we'll probably learn more about the White that Wends and its culture, especially since there's already a Pale Elf Cipher from the White that Wends, Ydwin. I confess, the main reason I picked the White that Wends is that that's where Pale Elves come from. A Pale Elf from the Ixamitl Plains would be weird, right?

Here's a terrible question: do you still recieve Three Bells Through if you deliberately sabatoge the quest to keep the victims alive?

I'm a bit of a newbie myself, but I do feel that INT has its uses even if it's not benefiting your Paladin abilities directly, specifically for conversation options.

Had a question regarding the interaction between the armor and cloak in the thread title. Many of the upgrades to Magnera's Chain boost your defenses, like Fortitude and Will, and the Giftbearer's Cloth has become famous on these boards as one of the best cloaks in the game for boosting all your defenses except Deflection if you pump your History skill. Do these stack with each other, or would the cloak's bonuses supersede the armor's once it gets higher than it, similar to how it works in the first game? If I'm wearing Magnera's Chain for fashion reasons, would it be better for me to give Giftbearer's Cloth to another party member to make them tankier, or can I combine the two to MAKE MY WATCHER INVINCIBLE?!

From what I've seen on the wiki, you'd win that bet! His name is Vatnir, and he's a Priest (White that Wends Mystic)! Looks like I was wrong about Wael godlikes having many eyes, though. Seems Rymrgand has cornered the market on that...

Besides, as Deadfire shows, you don't need to feel bad about killing him, as it was clearly only an inconvenience...

Ondra, specifically. Which makes sense, considering all the legends of her pining for the moon and the actual fact you learn that she literally dropped Eora's third moon on Abydon's head. So yep, she's got two types of Godlike offspring. I imagine a Wael Godlike might have parchment-like skin, or maybe have multiple eyes on their body like Greek mythology's Argus.

I was combing through the wiki and I was wondering if the following combination of gear was the best, since it provides the biggest stat boosts, effectively giving you a +4 to each stat, since I'm under the impression that you can't stack multiple gear bonuses to one stat: Head: Maegfolc Skull (+4 Might) Rings: Gwyn's Band of Intellect (+4 Intellect) and Iron Circle (+4 Constitution) Gloves: Siegebreakers (+4 Resolve) Neck: Mantle of the Excavator (+4 Perception) Boots: Viettro's Formal Footwear (+4 Dexterity) I did not include a belt here because these six items each boost one individual stat, meaning you could basically wear any belt you wanted. Also, if you're like me and don't wanna wear a skull for a hat, Abydon's Hammer also provides +4 Might and it's significant to the story! Am I looking at this correctly? Is it best to get one item that boosts each stat, or can you stack bonuses from multiple pieces of equipment (my impression is that this is only possible with Constitution, specifically by wielding the Whispers of Yenwood sword, since it was singled out in its article as an exception that does stack with other stuff)? And what about ability boosting soulbound items like Belt of the Royal Deadfire Cannoneer, which, while not boosting as high as these items, boosts multiple stats at once?

Isn't that the one that hurts you each time you swing it?