Alesia_BH

Cool! Looking forward to seeing your priest in action. I'm sure I'll learn a lot. A perception of 10 is lower than I'd be inclined to go, but I do prefer to prioritize dex over per with priests, unlike the majority of classes. Priests spend much of their time buffing, a dex not per dependent activity. And for fights where you intend to use your priest offensively, to attack directly, there's blacsonn, which essentially converts two excess dex points to three per points. That's the approach I've taken with Arya. Faced with the choice between two extra dex points or two extra per points, I chose two dex point when I need dex, and three per points when I need per. It makes sense to me. We have Grieving Mother now, so we'll have paralysis v will, which should be great for that fight. I don't imagine we'll be able to lock Cali continuously with that alone, though. Mental Binding should be part of the plan, not the entirety of the plan. The breath weapon + Dire Blessing sounds really awful. I think we'll tackle that late, if we tackle it at all. Best, A

No. That's not what I was thinking, at least! Walk me through that one: How did that remind you of Mae'Var's Guild Hall?

Great job! I love reading your posts! Among other things, you've reminded me that I have a few more quests to do in Defiance Bay. Best, A. Btw, what level would you recommend for a blind run of Cali the Silent?

Cragholdt Bluffs? Alpine Dragon? Bounties? I still haven't done Cragholdt, Od Nua 9-15, the Alpine Dragon or the White March II bounties. Alyssa's run should be the one for those, I think, since I don't intend to post on her in any case. Best, A.

Arya, Moon-Godlike Priest: Entry 5, Defiance Bay, Part 2 Let's move on, shall we? Defiance Bay, part 2! This post will cover Undying Heritage, Missing Sentries, The Final Act and The Wailing Banshee. It will also include the first installment of a game that I've decided to call "Dude That's Totally." As in: The Sanitarium. "Dude, that's totally Spellhold!" As I said many moons ago, virtually everything in PoE has (to my addled mind) an analog in BG. We'll play with that in upcoming updates. I'll share a screen shot of a character or an area or a situation, and you'll all guess who the analog is in the Baldur's Gate world. Could be fun! Example Ambush To the combat. When we returned to Defiance Bay, we were greeted by assassin. We have these 100% down now. I'll post one and only one: this one. Since I'm using Auto-Pause: Enemy Sighted, we can easily see our foes and scout for positioning before initiating combat. In this case we chose the stairs. We put beetles down directly in front of us and then let Aloth fight the air war, leading with Slicken. Arya preps Eder, Kana and Pallegina for melee. By the time the beetles vanish, the casters are down and we're ready to hand out some beets. Easy, peezy. Undying Heritage I was a little nervous heading into this. None of the fights in Undying Heritage pose a run ending threat, at least not to a party. There is, however, non-zero knockout risk, due to the skeleton wizards and dargul paralyzation. So far, Arya's crew is knockout free. I'd like to keep it that way, at least for a while. Alyssa's team was also knockout free at the start of Undying Heritage. They weren't by the end. In retrospect, it was entirely avoidable. I had done something foolish. We sent Alora, wearing scale, to get us started with an opening high damage arbalest shot. That, of course, led the skeleton wizards to target her in return with Bounding Missiles. Scale is weak against piercing. Predictably, Alora was dropped immediately, in the opening salvo. As I said, foolish. Not wanting to repeat that mistake, our two most vulnerable party members, Arya and Sagani, were equipped in a breastplate and pierce proofed hide, respectively. We then had Eder trigger the encounter, wearing plate and a blunting belt. That makes way more sense. We absorbed the opening salvo, with very little damage, and then dropped the wizards before they could pose a threat. Better. The remaining minor outdoors fights were completed with per encounter abilities, notably At the Sound of HIs Voice Ok! Time for the main attractions. We kicked butt here. Virtually no damage. We fought from the top of the ramp. We used scrolls so we could buff quickly. We then sent Arya to the ledge above the ramp. That left her positioned to drop Holy Pillars on distant casters. Aloth took care of the rest with Slicken->Chill Fog->Fireballs. Cleanup phase. Onto the tower. Now low on spells, we used Fan of Flames scrolls here. Fan of Flames is a good spell for backlines. It's a great spell for the frontline. In the next encounter we sent Pallegina on a backline mage assassination mission, wielding Firebrand. This was cool. She one shoted both of the mages: the first with a 98HP crit, the second with a +100 crit. Fun! I'll forgo coverage of floor two. We went spell light there, using Prayer Against Infirmity and little else. And that, of course, ends Undying Heritage, at least from a combat perspective. As for our RP choices, we chose to stop the machine, not destroy it. That seems more fitting for a priest of Wael. And the slaves, you say? Well, writing this has reminded me that I completely forgot to free them. I'll take care of that soon! Saeda was saved; the adra beetle was recovered. I debated whether we should use a Rite of Hidden Wonders here or just let Eder risks a knockout. We used the scroll. It a bummer that you can't quaff a potion before triggering a trap. Missing Sentries We used Circle of Protection + Scroll of Protection and the Scroll of Paralysis from the tower. We failed to paralyze Leyra this time. That led to us being paralyzed in return. Happily, the durations were short and the beetles were in place to absorb any damage. No worries, in the end. Leyra fell soon after, with Arya landing the final blow. The justiciars, wearing plate, were devastated by our adra beetle's Shocking Blasts. What was left of them fell quickly. No drama here at all, in the end, despite the paralytic unpleasantness. The Final Act I continue to struggle with the movement physics of this room. Nonetheless, we prevailed without significant damage once again, largely thanks to Slicken, Chill Fog, Shocking Blast and Fireballs. Arya's buffs helped, too. The Wailing Banshee We can cover this super quick. Standard buffs + triple Fan of Flames from Aloth, Kana, and Pallegina. Dude That's Totally, Round 1 And that brings us to our game! Remember, I show you a picture from PoE, and you guess the BG analog. I picked a moderately challenging one for the opener. Here it is: Who are these people? What place is this? Best, A.

Game play wise, White March is to PoE as ToB is to SoA. It's an expansion that adds radically powerful items and abilities that fundamentally change the nature of combat. That's what the description would suggest. I haven't tried it yet. It isn't available until L15. I've never gone past L13. Do you intend to do everything in your current run, including the dragons and high level wizards? (I should do the dragons and such with Alyssa. I just hate the idea of entering a battle knowing that I'll probably have to reload. I can't bring myself to do it.) Best, A.

It's better, I think. Slicken is a perfect opener. Serg's use of Slicken is what nudged me in that direction. Interesting. I doubt I'll take that approach, but it's good to know. Thanks! In this case, we hadn't had the second conversation, so that wasn't an option. That was okay, though. We were light on coppers. We wanted the loot. It was good to have an excuse. Best, A.

Arya, Moon-Godlike Priest: Entry 4, Raedric Hold To quote a late 20th century luminary "Oops. I did it again." Ok. Britney Spears is not a luminary, any more than I am a player who learns her lessons. I know by now that L6 is far too late for Raedric Hold, and yet I find myself doing it at L6 over and over again. It has become routine: a routine I'd like to break. I actually considered fighting Raedric at L4 this time, before Caed Nua. We entered the Hold. I was committed. But then we ran into the high priest, and Aloth made some remark about us getting lucky and suddenly I lost my nerve. We left, sold our Berath robes, and never looked back- not until L6, that is. Since we sold our robes, we had to do this the bloody way, upon return. No matter. I kind of enjoy storming the sanctuary, although it does make Nedmar seem a little ridiculous. I mean, you arrive in his office, bathed in the blood of his acolytes, colleagues, peers and protectors, and he's all: "Yeah, sure. I'll help you, but only if you free one of my acolytes. I hate to see them suffer." It's a little odd. Anyhoo. I fought this battle a bit differently this time, in part because I was testing a method for a L4 assault in my next run, but also because I'm in the process of shifting my approach to kith battles. I've alway followed the buff-self-first formula and I've met with some success with that approach. I recognize now, however, that variations on that theme can make sense. The BG player in me wants to pre-buff, and pre-buff well, layering on oodles of spells before combat truly begins. But if you spend too much time buffing in PoE that grants enemies an opportunity to land early disablers. That's a problem. So, what I've started doing instead is: Arya, Inspiring Radiance (quick ACC buff); Aloth, Arcane Veil (instacast)->Slicken (on enemy casters) and then buff. I like this. It grants more time to buff, not less. It works. Importantly, those exact spells would also work at L4. Here's our opening. Pallegina, Scroll of Defense; Kana, wood beetles; Arya, Holy Radiance; Aloth, Arcane Veil. Now that the Holy Radiance has hit, we immediately move on to Slicken->Chill Fog from Aloth and Fan of Flames from Kana, while Arya buffs the party for melee. Blindness and Slicken both lower Reflex. Fan of Flames targets Reflex. With the scroll on the ramparts, the burned lady mushrooms that you can pick up en route to the Hold, and the spear spider leg from Cilant Lis, you can have at least 3 Fan of Flames scrolls heading into this fight. That, I suspect, is part of the formula for a L4 win. Just clean up with targeted spells now. Hooray! Next time, I'll really, truly try it at L4. Unless Aloth scares me again, that is. Then I might get all Britney. Best, A.

The best method I've found is Chill Fog on the mindbreakers, Whispers of Treason on the priests and focus fire on the melee threats. If you charm the priests, they'll buff your party, instead of theirs, which is a huge boon. It also takes Despondent Blows and the Holy Pillars out of play. Use the Arret to minimize focus bottlenecks. The mindbreakers aren't much trouble once they're blind. Best, A.

On portraits. 210 x 330 NAME_lg.png 76 x 96 NAME_sm.png Deposit them in Pillars of Eternity\PillarsOfEternity_Data\data\art\gui\portraits\player You'll see a male folder and a female folder. Choose accordingly. I use OSX's Photo app to format pictures I find online. On Alyssa. She's at L13 and pretty badass. I've equipped her with Eldardh Dwr, Rain, and the Sword of Daenysis, all durganized. Wearing the Gauntlets of Swift Action, and under DAOM, she can wield both of her weapons at 0 recovery, despite wearing a breastplate. Her casting recovery is but a 5% armor penalty away from zero. I feel that's worth it, given that the best zero recovery option, scale, is weak against piercing- less than ideal for a ranged fighter. She's started dabbling in melee and she's pretty good at it. She wields her sword one handed style which, with zero recovery, can be better than dual wielding, especially with Merciless Hand + Dungeon Delver + Azalin's. She maximizes her focus generation with Burning Lash + Aefyllath Ues Mith Fyr (chanter phrase) + Scion of Flame. Due to the +12 ACC from one handed style, she crits constantly for ~40-50 damage each. Her complete attack cycle is ~14 frames. For comparison (using a weapon you're familiar with) an Engwithan Scepter attack while wearing clothes takes ~47 frames. So, she's fast and she hits pretty hard, though less so against high DR (melee isn't her forte; I've added it for goofy fun; for a dedicated melee cipher I'd prefer a heavier weapon). She's great with her bow. Her crits with Rain reach the low 100s. Her attack cycle with Rain is ~35 frames. I'll have more to say later.

Sounds good! And I can reciprocate with some thoughts on my cipher, Alyssa, if you like. Best, A. Btw, I agree: it's best to do the ogre area counter clockwise, approaching the druids from the north. Otherwise you end up with a mess, pulling two crews. That fight is harder than Zolla by far.

I used to emphasize Lore for all of my characters, from the start, but then I noticed that only a fraction of my characters were actually using scrolls in the early game. At this phase of the adventure, we need one person to handle Scrolls of Defense and another to handle Scrolls of Protection. Those people should not be our primary casters, so as not to slow down our buffing and initial aerial assault. We're using Kana and Pallegina for those roles. That's why Kana and Pallegina are at Lore 6+ and 4 respectively. Scrolls are helpful for offense, too, but in the early game, factoring in cost, Fan of Flames is almost always the best choice and that only requires Lore 2. Kana and Pallegina are there. Eder will get to L2 soon. By the time we get to Thaos, our Lore scores will be higher. But as was the case in Arcadia's battle with Thaos (which went very smoothly, nearly damage free) I don't expect to make extensive use of Scrolls of Maelstrom. They're nice -I absolutely agree- but after I factor in all the things I need to keep everyone safe, there really aren't that many free slots for them. We'll have one character carrying a stack of Scrolls of Maelstrom. That character will probably be Kana That's a game time decision that should be made based on the buffed accuracy score of the individual who's casting, the number of available slots, and the best attacks available to your party members. Recall that in Arcadia's game we were rolling with 2 wizards. We also had the Sigil of the Arcane. Additionally, Arcadia's buffed accuracy was pretty high relative to Thaos's Will, since we reached Sun and Shadows at L12, just before the option to upscale is offered. With all that taken into consideration, it made sense to take Thaos's buffs down. If the math is less favorable, when you arrive, I'd advise reserving you Arcane Dampener for the Headsman. His Will is low and his Deflection, post debuff is only 60. You could then use your Deflection attacks against him, freeing up limited use Reflex attacks for Thaos. Best, A. Btw, what are you up to Semiticgod? Are you playing?

Arya, Moon-Godlike Priest: Party Status Update 2, L6 in Defiance Bay Eder Kana Pallegina Aloth Arya Sagani

Arya, Moon-Godlike Priest: Entry 3, Defiance Bay (Part 1) Defiance Bay! Yay! Defiance Bay. I like Defiance Bay. It's fun. It's easy. It's loaded will cool quests and great loot. What's not to like? It's a great place for a party to grow up. And that's what we did: We grew up. Upon arrival we completed Rogue Knight peacefully and then swung by the docks to pick up Pallegina. We handled that peacefully, too, just because I wanted to see what would happen, for future reference. Built to Last Our first battle occurred in Built to Last. We're using Kana as a tank in this run. Our intent is to let him use scrolls for additional damage. That's worked out well so far, as in this case with Fan of Flames We took little damage in this fight, thanks to Arya's buffs, Aloth's spells and Kana's scrolls. The only threat worth noting was the backline charging rogues, who jumped over our frontline. Targeted spells, including Divine Mark, handled them. The Parable of Wael I'll admit to being a little disappointed with this quest. Our protagonist, Arya, is a Priest of Wael. I was expecting something extra, something special- some additional dialogue with Wael, or with our companions. Something -anything- to commemorate the occasion. Arya met her god; that should count for something. Sadly, very little changed. I was bummed by that. With that aside, the quest went well. This group always looks dangerous to me, but they never really put up a fight. I can't imagine losing to them. In prior runs I used a Scroll of Defense in the fight. I now realize that isn't necessary. Priest buff->Iconic Projection + Divine Mark from Arya, Chill Fog + Combusting Wounds->Arcane Assault +Concelhaults from Aloth, Fans of Flame from Kana, and good old fashion melee from Eder and Pallegina won the day. Sagani chipped in with some timely arrows on Iben. You'll note that Itumaak is down here. The last time I used Sagani was in my blind run of the White March. There, I got in the habit of using Itumaak to detonate the unstable constructs and distract other dangerous foes. Apparently that has carried over to the beginning of this run. I need to stop doing that. It's pretty lame. There's no justification for marching Itumaak off to his death. His Old Self His Old Self was next. Focused fire brought Nyrid down before he could cast. Pallegina, wielding a two-hander, and wearing her breastplate, required a precautionary Withdraw. The rest of the party emerged unscathed. The battle on floor two went smoothly as well. We had enough spells left over to win with ease. In the interest of building Arya's deceptive rep, and role playing a Priest of Wael (I guess), we didn't tell Kaenra about Purnisc's side job. I must say that I'm not super-pleased with the way deceptive options are implemented in dialogue. Many of them (although not this one) are pointless, transparent lies. All Hands on Deck Since one of our posters had a near miss in this encounter recently, I've come to handle it with care. We didn't have trouble, but I did see why other parties could. The Parable of Wael crew is weaker than it looks. These blokes are tougher than they look. The named enemies have some staying power, and the use of Escape can frustrate tactical positioning. Blindness (CF + CoBS), Divine Terror and Despondent Blows were all used to good effect here. No injuries to speak of. The Queen That Was As an experiment, in preparation for a solo run, we collected our woedica hood from the initiate, instead of the corpse. That works. I'm beginning to see a way forward for my solo rogue, Arista, now waiting in the Goose and Fox. We fought one troll and a handful of oozes. That was all. Arista could have stealthed by most of them, if not all. The Man Who Waits Had I not used Itumaak for distraction -and had I found the Party AI Off toggle- we would have completed this encounter without damage. Claiming Uscgrim's cell, and using wood beetles + Itumaak to buy us time to buff, put us on excellent footing at the start of the fight. By the time our enemies arrived we were ready to blast them. Chill Fog + Combusting Wounds from Aloth; Fan of Flames from Kana. We moved on to Fireballs and that's when things got a little messy. Kana, who had been hit by an Eyestrike, raced off on an AI retaliatory mission, putting himself right in the line of fire and sacrificing his strategic position. We Withdrew him immediately. All this time I've been fighting the AI. I'm looking forward to turning it off. Clandestine Cargo Finally, Clandestine Cargo. This went well- better than it had in prior runs. We dispatched the adra animats before they could use corrosive breath and took little damage from the smaller animats, thanks to tactical positioning. Both fights were clean. Note that Pallegina is wielding Firebrand here. We bought her the Forgemaster Gloves just before the quest. Next, up: Raedric Hold. But first, a party status update. Best, A.

Possibly. Hopefully! (I had never noticed the option. I see it now. I'll try that.) Best, A.

Arya, Moon-Godlike Priest: Party Status Update 1, L4 in Defiance Bay Eder Kana Arya Durance Aloth

Arya, Moon-Godlike Priest: Entry 2, Caed Nua Once the bane of our challenge, Caed Nua has by now been fully tamed. Arya's journey through the keep reflected standard methods. In the courtyard we stealthed by the spirits and used the Hermit Hat for the will'o'wisp After harvesting the primal flames we headed inside. We upgraded Yenwood before beginning the fray, fighting from the left corner. Chill Fog + Combusting Wounds did most of the work here. The spiders went quietly, although they did force us to Withdraw Kana. Kana becomes a fine tank later on in the adventure, but he is comparatively flimsy in the early game. Finally, Maewald. Since we had found the Golden Celery this time, we had the pleasure of wasting a pair of Bulwark potions. We had given those to Kana and Eder, since they were the ones likely to take one for the team. Fortunately, that wasn't necessary. We used a Tanglefoot scroll tokeep Maewald in our Chill Fog for as long was possible. Fans of Flame from Kana; Minoletta's from Aloth; and Iconic Projections from the priests ended Maerwald quickly. I was happy with our performance until I reviewed the screenshots and realized that I had failed to refrain from pausing during an Iconic Projection cast, causing Arya's, but not Durance's, to hit twice. I need to get better with that if we're going to use Iconic Projection. I don't want it bugging out all the time. Time for some fun in Defiance Bay! Best, A.

Arya, Moon-Godlike Priest: Entry 1, Cilant Lis to Caed Nua Good news, everyone! Arya's adventure is off to a fine start. Her team has navigated the early game, without suffering any knockouts. We're now ready to take on Caed Nua. Cilant Lis The opening area was, as usual, drama free. The only question was whether Heodon would make it through the first battle without a knockout. He did. I'd like to credit that to Armor of Faith. I like Armor of Faith. Guilded Vale: Wolves and Bandits In her first level up, Arya took Incomprehensible Revelation. She put her +10 with quaterstaves to use soon after, helping Eder defeat the Valewood wolves in a per encounter ability battle. When she isn't casting, Arya spends most of time smacking things with her quarterstafff, standing behind the front line, wearing brigandine. That will change soon. Having spared our spells against the wolves, we had plenty at our disposal for the bandits. Aloth, Arcane Veil->Eldritch Aim; Arya, Armor of Faith; Durance, Blessing. That was followed by Chill Fog->Combusting Wounds from Aloth, while the priests used Divine Terror and Divine Mark. A Divine Mark and a Minoletta's finished it. Guilded Vale: The Eothasian Temple Next, we headed to Caed Nua, picking up Durance and Kana along the way. I considered sending Arya into Caed Nua at this time, at L3, but eventually I decided to head elsewhere to pick up that last level. We started with the Eothasian Temple. Level 1 was completed with limited use of per rest abilities. We skipped the large spider group, the large skuldr group and the will'o'wisp. Kana and Eder handled front line duties while Arya and Durance used their staves, standing just behind. Aloth stayed at range, using his scepter and Arcane Assault. The focal battle on Level 2 went wonderfully, save for some auto-attack foolishness (Is there a way to disable auto-attack; I absolutely hate it; it's my least favorite part of PoE). Once upon a time this fight posed significant knockout risk for my characters. No longer. We selected a safe sport and then sent Eder ahead. Eder, Kana, and Aloth are in the from line, Arya and Durance in the back. Buffs included Armor of Faith, Blessing, Holy Power and Consecrated Ground. Here we are, ready for battle. The plan had been to have Aloth step to the side where he could use Fan of Flames. Unfortunately, Eder charged off on a damn fool retaliatory mission against an ooze, messing up our positioning and precluding use of Fan of Flames. No matter. We had enough party friendly spells to get through with ease- partly due to the fact that the larger ooze never showed up. He/She/Whatever is usually the dangerous one. Not this time. Black Meadow: The Smith's Shipment The Smith's Shipment got a little interesting- more interesting than I would have liked. We got off to a good start. See here, for example: solid positioning, buffs in nicely layered, damage and disablers en route. We're looking good. The bandits cleverly charged out backline, but with Arya in Brigandine, Aloth Veiled and Durance next to Eder, there was little havoc. The invaded were dispatched with ease. But when Aloth's Arcane Veil lapsed, he was targeted with crossbow bolts. Choosing to pull back, out of range seemed like a good idea: his spells we're needed, after all. The problem was that went a little to far, pulling 4 trolls. That's a little much for us at this stage, with tapped books. What to do? We bailed. And let the tolls finish the job. We then swung back to pick up the crate. Good thinking, Aloth! That actually worked! Caed Nua is next. Best, A.

Arya, Moon-Godlike Priest With sincere apologies to Alyssa, I'd now like to introduce my new character: Arya, Moon-Godlike Priest. Game Version: 3.7.0.1318 with White March I & II Difficulty: PotD Settings: Maim Before Death: On; Injuries: On; Expert Mode: OFF Mods: None Gaming Notes: I decided to abandon Alyssa and begin a new run with Arya because Alyssa's run felt broken to me. Alyssa's actions and movements in the game world made little sense from an RP perspective. Further, due to frequent respecs and stylistic shifts, the run felt sloppy to me, unworthy of sharing. With Arya I seek to explore a new class while maintaining greater stylistic consistency and RP plausibility. Her stats, which are, by my tradition, matched to her portrait, instead of being sculpted in accordance with power-gamer recommendations are a reflection of that objective. It is my hope that this will be first PoE run that I can be unequivocally proud of: one the combines good coverage, sound play, RP plausibility, and a bit of style. Wish Arya luck, as a character. But also wish me luck, as a player and poster. I've been flaky so far in the PoE world. My hope is that I've finally grown up. Best, A.

Precisely. In addition to completing party runs, for the joy to be found in it, in and of itself, I'm of auditioning builds for solo play. Priests seem to have excellent potential. I'd like to force myself to explore them further by making one my PC. Best, A.

Quick Note on Alyssa's Game: Alyssa is currently at L13. She's ready to finish the adventure. I am, however, reluctant to post on her run, since I'm not entirely proud of it. I made too many RP sacrifices in the interest of power and I respecced our protagonists, Alyssa and Alora, multiple times. Their styles also shifted dramatically from one stage of the adventure to the next. The run ended up being an exploration of mechanics, rather than a story driven adventure with tactical elements. That's not the way I like to play. This run no longer feels alive to me, although Alyssa and Alora do, technically speaking, continue to live. Since I like Alyssa and Alora I do intend to re-run them- this time with RP friendly stats and stylistic consistency, leveraging what I learned in this run. But running them now would feel too much like a parallel save run, so I'll reserve that for a later date. What I'd like to do now is start a new run, with a new character: a moon godlike priest. This appeals to me because I feel I have a lot to learn about priests, but that I also understand the class well enough to play without herky-jerky stylistic shifts. I'll introduce my priest, Arya, shortly. Please consider Alyssa officially withdrawn (although you should expect to see her again at a later date!) Best, A. Btw, apologies to everyone for my inconsistent coverage of runs in this thread. Consider it growing pains as I learn a new game. I do sincerely hope to get coverage right in Arya's run, covering events without undue delay, and with a balance of RP and tactical content. I've been a challenge founder who has been a terrible challenge participant. I'll try to set a better example going forward!

I just completed White March 2 for the first time. I did not upscale and I regretted it. I'll also note that I prefer WM2 to WM1. If you'd like to play the White March safely, without totally trivializing it, I'd advise starting WM1 at L8, just before the upscale option becomes available. That will insure that your levels will be high relative to the content, but not super high. I'm not sure what the cutoff is for WM2. A little help here? Best, A.

Were there enough priests to cast four projections? What I noticed was that you had autopauses active. You also mentioned pausing multiple times. I think that if you pause at the exact moment that an Iconic Projection crosses a target it causes the animation to stutter and the damage to be applied repeatedly. It's a bug. I just did a search and I found a report of the same problem. One poster offered a candidate explanation: That's consistent with the impression I'm under. My suspicion is that pauses are one of the causes of collision detection errors. I've gotten in the habit of refraining from pausing while Iconic Projections pass by, although I haven't done it systematically, since I'm still not sure that's what going on. That has seemingly reduced the frequency. I have still seen it happen, however. I think that pauses are a cause, but that there is at least one other. I suspect movement. I think that if the target is in motion when the projection passes through the engine can record multiple collisions. We should test both of these explanations. Does anyone else have thoughts on this? Best, A.

Oops!

Iconic Projection is weird. Sometimes it does way too much damage. I've seen it happen on both sides. It's happened to enemies and to my own party, as it happened to you. At first I thought Iconic Projections bounced, like a Rolling Flame or a Crackling Bolt, hence the occasional outsized damage. But after reviewing your screen shot I now think something else is going on. First, I'd like to do a little survey: Who else has seen Iconic Projection do outrageous damage? Wise move! There's little joy in winning if you break the game world in the process. Good insight! Best, A.