Ivanfyodorovich

You also get a .5 Pen per Ability Level -1 of the spell. Fireball should have +1 Pen just from Ability level (Ability Level 3-1=2*.5 pen=1 pen) From Thelee's PL Compilation Thread: Here's an example of the baked in bonuses to Pen you get before you ever add bonus PL (this doesn't include prestige, buffs, etc.). Ability Level AL Pen Bonus MC PL Pen Bonus at 20 SC PL Pen Bonus at 20 MC Total Base Pen Bonus SC total Base Pen Bonus 1 0 1.5 2 1.5 2 2 0.5 1.25 1.75 1.75 2.25 3 1 1 1.5 2 2.5 4 1.5 0.75 1.25 2.25 2.75 5 2 0.5 1 2.5 3 6 2.5 0.25 0.75 2.75 3.25 7 3 0 0.5 3 3.5 8 3.5 0.25 3.75 9 4 0 4 So for a MC Wizard at level 20, that 7 pen Fireball is actually 9 pen before adding any bonus PL or other pen Buffs. Scion takes it to 10. Add 4 PL for 11. Add food or Tenacious for 13. The AL bonus is why higher level spells are better than the low level ones, even with PL scaling. Meteor Shower actually has a base pen of 11 (as well as +16 bonus Accuracy from Ability Level).

I can confirm that Blightheart lash applies to spells, also.

I confirmed that it's stacking with Paladin's Zealous Focus (+5 Accuracy). It's either the mod, or a specific issue with Devotions for the Faithful.

Congrats Serg! What an accomplishment! Glad to see you already moving forward with Deadfire. If you want to talk mechanics at all, I'm game. I've been collecting various tidbits from the forums, wiki, etc.

Congrats! Great accomplishment! I’m curious what class choices you will make in Deadfire with your chanter. It pairs so well with just about every other class for multi-classing, and has several sub-class options that are all cool when built around.

Jan, Wild Orlan Fighter: Act III & IV Act III Arriving in Twin Elms, we set to work doing chores for the gods. We complete all of the tasks, but pledge ourselves to Berath. Balance seems like the best move here, when dealing with thousands of souls and their futures. For Galawain, we side with the lion. Clever beats strong most days. We fight the Sky Dragon and it almost goes poorly when the dragon bugs out in the air via paralyze scroll. We can't target it with any attacks, but it's back on the ground stomping us. I figure out that AoE attacks will still hit it, even though no direct targeted attacks will. Before we make the leap down into Sun and Shadow, we head back to Caed Nua to finish the endless paths. I remember that it's possible to talk Od Nua into letting you through without a fight. I figured I could get there without reading up on how to do that. I couldn't. We still prevailed. I'm not willing to risk this run on an optional and challenging boss like the Adra dragon. I still really want the treasure, though, so we make friends and I trick that poor dragon hunter. I specifically chose to not install any of the expansion content so that the weapons and armor from the base game would still feel meaningful. It feels great to get these and equip most of them. Onward to Sun and Shadow. You might notice that I did not go back to defeat undead Raedric. Let's just say I forgot about that, and I'm sorry Gilded Vale. Act IV We have all hit level 12 by this point, and it feels satisfying for this core game content. Here's the team at 12. Sun and Shadow poses little threat to the team, but I take it slow and enjoy each fight leading up to Thaos. For Thaos we prepare some scrolls of Maelstrom along with Prayer Against Confusion. We eat all of our expensive food, and leap in. Jan grabs the Judge and Eder, the Executioner, while our DPS whittles brings Thaos down, jumping to the Judge. We switch and kill the Executioner first. We spread out as much as we can and bang on Thaos for a bit. Snowcaps keep us frosty. Finally we break through and he drops quickly. We send him and the souls to the wheel. Our next adventure awaits in the Deadfire!

In TB, terrified doesn’t always break engagement, or at least something else happens to re-engage before the enemies flee. I’ve seen disengagement attacks from it several times.

Echoing what others are saying about the difficulty spike here, I’m also curious if the enemies have a buff called Berath’s Wrath. I completed Overgrowth after killing the druids near Sayuka, and all of the enemies inside the Engwithan “reactor” had a buff called Galawain’s Wrath or something like that, giving them all bonus inspirations - tenacious and hardy if I am remembering correctly. Is that what’s happening here, too?

I'm also in my second run, doing TB and PotD Upscaled. I didn't have a priest for most of the beginning and realized how much that was slowing me down to not have Devotions for the Faithful and Aware on demand via Dire Blessing for my whole party (especially my Serafen Barbarian). I've already committed to a Lifegiver Druid as my healer, so I created an Accuracy Buffbot Tactician/Magran with all of the Fire DMG spells. Right now, I've replaced that character with Vatnir filling essentially the same role (with a little more diverse spell selection). Looking at your party 1, it looks like it would need a priest the least with the Fighter Multis and Ranger buffs. I believe the accuracy weapon modals don't stack with Devotions, so depending on weapon selection, you might not miss it on the paladin.

Yep - that does account for most of what I'm seeing, then. Have medium shield modal resists also always triggered a Riposte check? The ones I'm seeing are rolls that would have been misses in RTWP. I've also seen some grazes triggering a Riposte, so I think it's the same thing being checked here. If the final number is between 1-25 I believe a Riposte can still happen, even if it's ruled a graze now based on TB change. Can anyone else confirm this behavior? (the second image here could have been triggered by the miss, so not terribly conclusive)

Doesn't the expanded Graze range in Turn-Based mode make riposte builds rather terrible? Anyhow, I'd suggest waiting until TB is out of beta before putting significant effort into build write-ups specifically for it. I'm running an MC Iron Hammer right now in TB (don't have any of the special equipment yet, but high Res Trickster/Unbroken), and I am seeing very few Ripostes (tons of grazes). I imagine it's definitely less effective in TB (though some of that might just be me playing on PotD Upscaled without the right gear yet). That said, I am seeing some odd combat behavior. There does not seem to be any consistency in what triggers a Riposte attack. I've seen misses trigger and not trigger. I've seen Resists from the medium shield modal trigger and not trigger. I've even seen a graze trigger (most do not). Is that normal from RTWP?

Jan, Wild Orlan Fighter: Act I & II Act I was smooth sailing. I picked up the custom adventurers right away and moved through all the available quests in Gilded Vale. We brought along Eder for all of them. Having a druid has been a fun change of pace. Picking up the utility talents like Scion of Flame and Heart of the Storm feel immediately useful. No photos taken during Act I. I entered Defiance Bay with everyone level 4. We will hold off on Raedric until we gain another level for the team. Better safe than sorry, even on Hard. Act II we try a little bit more streamlined approach. I skip some quests in Ondra's Gift, as well as a few odds around town. We snag some of the easy ones first to level up to 5 for everyone, including starting the crucible knight quests. At level 5 we take a pause and go back to depose Raedric and snag a cash infusion. We jump back on Act II quests, heading to the catacombs fully rested and ready. We talk with the Records Keeper for Eder, making good use of our high resolve MC. We get the battlefield part of his quest out of the way, and swap him out for Aloth for most of the rest of Act II. We give him some heavier armor and a shield with lots of buff spells and he makes good use of the summoned staff. Hardened Veil keeps him happy in the middle of lots of enemies. We clear out Heritage Hill and the Sanitarium, completing his quest in the process. Out in Dyrford I try an experiment to see if a custom cipher can wipe Aelys during Blood Legacy. (the answer is no) We let her go. I'm not feeling quite cold enough to kill her right there. Somehow the idea of her murdering her abusive uncle seems fine to me. While in Dyrford, we settle some local issues, too. I manage to pull the whole spider cave at once and have a somewhat challenging fight that turns out to be quite fun. Our last work here is investigating Cliabin Rilag. For the first time in several playthroughs, I manage the spore room without triggering any traps. Having everyone equip a ranged weapon to take down the immobile spores works great. Huzzah! Before we wrap up Act II, we head to Caed Nua and clear the first 6 or 7 levels of the Endless Paths with Kana in tow. We complete his quest and fight the Leaden Key operatives on level 1. Back in Defiance Bay we tell the Duke that Animancy should continue - if Dyrwood doesn't, someone else will. Current Party Builds Our Wild Orlan Fighter Jan is maximizing DPS with a sword and shield. He's taken Weapon Focus and one other fighter talent to match, along with Weapon & Shield Style and Bear's Fortitude. Our Hearth Orlan Cipher Nath has Weapon Focus Noble and the Whip talents. He swaps between a rod/scepter and our best 1 handed Mace & Dagger. Our Hearth Orlan Ranger Kat has built her Boar Companion Java for maximum damage and resiliency. We also have taken Driving Flight. Persistance or Sagani's bow when we fight pierce immune enemies. She also has Weapon Focus. Our Nature Godlike Druid has Heart of the Storm and Scion of Flame, along with Bear's Fortitude and bonus 3rd level for more storms. So many fun spells to play around with. We took Sunbeam for our first mastered spell. Lastly, our Mountain Dwarf Priest Giulia has built out Inspiring and Aggrandizing Radiance and Painful Interdiction. We took Armor of Faith for our first Mastered Spell.

I didn't see anything like that in my runs with it. Go for it!

Making another go of it for Jan. Jan, Wild Orlan Fighter: Introduction (Attempt 2) Game Version: 3.7.0.1318 - No DLC enabled Difficulty: Hard Settings: Maim Before Death: On; Injuries: On; Expert Mode: Off; Trial of Iron: On Mods: None Main Character Description: Jan is a philosopher from Ixamitl Plains, where he studied for many years, but grew tired of abstract ideas without connection to real embodied and lived experience. His training with arms was that of an armored foot soldier, and though inexperienced with combat, his skills have potential. He needed to spend less time in his head, and so, set out for something new. The call to come settle in the Dyrwood came at just the right time. Custom Party Members: The core party will be 4 custom characters: Cipher, Ranger, Priest, Druid. I'm also rotating a spot for Eder and Aloth.

My experience with it was that it worked correctly. Do you know what the bugs were supposed to be?

Bingo. They were jammed up real well on the stairs at the start, but once the sporelings died I did not maintain the front line and once one troll got in the back my low level custom characters were short lived.

Update: Trolls are no joke at level 4, even on Hard. The party has died. I feel good about the experience, though. I was cruising through at max speed, without much care for the risks, and I've learned the limits of that approach. I will probably recreate a similar team, but think harder on my path through act 2.

Jan, Wild Orlan Fighter: Introduction Game Version: 3.7.0.1318 - No DLC enabled Difficulty: Hard Settings: Maim Before Death: On; Injuries: On; Expert Mode: Off; Trial of Iron: On Mods: None This run is meant to create more space for me in PoE2, with another main character to play with. Now that I have a sense of PoE2, this character is built for transitioning into that world and system a little bit more thoughtfully than my last. This group will be primarily 4 custom characters, with the last space sometimes occupied by a companion and sometimes empty. I plan to complete some of the companion quests, but not all. Main Character, Jan, Wild Orlan Fighter: Main Character Description: Jan is a philosopher from Ixamitl Plains, where he studied for many years, but grew tired of abstract ideas without connection to real embodied and lived experience. His training with arms was that of an armored foot soldier, and though inexperienced with combat, his skills have potential. He needed to spend less time in his head, and so, set out for something new. The call to come settle in the Dyrwood came at just the right time. Custom Party Members: The core party will be 4 custom characters: Barbarian, Ranger, Priest, Wizard

Great to hear from you Serg and Semiticgod. I just completed a PoE2 regular reload run and am playing around with the turn based mode with some new characters. It's really more my style (Temple of Elemental Evil and Final Fantasy Tactics are top 5 games for me), and it really changes so much of the system (as if PoE2 needed more new things to consider). I'm also starting a new PoE1 NR run with a new group to take into PoE2. I'll get first post in here, but I intend to keep it light. I'll document some key fights and summarize my play experience for each Act. I'm trying it with a slightly more vanilla set up - no DLCs and trying to move through the core quest more quickly. I'm ready to start a PoE2 NR run whenever we are ready.

Hey all No-Reloaders. What's the temperature like for moving over to PoE2? It's been quiet here. Hope all of you are well!

Quality is the only enchantment you can overwrite. The others are one time choices, so if you pick a proofing or attribute bonus, that’s what you have for the rest of the game on that item. Choose wisely!

What about a corrode / poison focused caster pairing up? Are there ways to improve defenses against these afflictions and damage sources a la bilestomper from poe1? Could this Howler stand in the middle of a big green cloud while everyone around him dies?

Ponamu is only available in the PC version.

I believe it's 2d50+prestige. Wiki Article

That is helpful info and makes sense. I’m curious how y’all will find PoE compares from a ruleset/systems perspective. I agree that ability scores matter less for PoE, but also that there should be some continuity. It feels weird to have the stats be totally different. There’s a great talk on YouTube that Josh Sawyer did a few years ago about ability scores for PoE that is interesting if you’re into game design. They intentionally designed the system to make choices feel impactful but with a much smaller range of outcomes - I.e. no bad builds and no god or dump stats. Results are mixed, but it sounds worlds away from BG based on the talk. I think we should give as much room here as we can in terms of freedom to change them, but still make it feel like it’s the same character. A 4 point difference feels fine to me. What does everyone else think?