Nssheepster

Eh... The idea of mixing side and main quests like that isn't one I personally would want. I want to know what I can or cannot skip. As it stands, when I replay Deadfire there are a lot of quests I skip because I don't enjoy them, and thanks to the wide number of side quests and what people keep calling 'the XP problem', I can DO that and enjoy the game regardless. As for old and boring.... Okay, but what do you REPLACE them with that actually makes sense? Replace them with different schools, it works out. Replace them with... what else, really? What else would you want to replace them with that isn't a school/specialization/focus of study?

Fighter: Bodyguard Barbarian: Make Berserker the Default, and then the other classes have an upside and downside in one by not getting the 'better' Frenzy that Berserkers get. Rogue: Bandit/Thief? As for the 'school' issue...Yeah, they do lack a bit in originality, but that's not always a downside. My major issue with them is they don't seem to... fit, with what spells are in what school. Evoke should cover any kind of summoning. Conjure, however, should ALSO be the same thing. Transmute, thanks to POE lore... Should cover ANY kind of spell, because ALL spells are causing an effect by Transmuting essence. It would make more sense to have schools focused on, say, evoking Weapons, call them the Arcane Armsman or some such. A school for the Elements, perhaps with sub foci in specific elements? And then a school for afflicting and buffing. That way you cover all our existing spells, leave clear space for new ones, and actually make sense instead of naming the subclasses so generically that you could easily swap the names around and people wouldn't really know you did it.

Assuming we stick to the aforementioned Rekke angle, the story could start by just aiding his return home, then noticing that his religion seems cult-like, investigate, and then discover this new/old god or whatever. It's worth noting there can only be so much mystery. If there's TOO much mystery, players are left going 'WTF am I supposed to do?' and that's not a feeling anyone enjoys, especially not in a game. You do need to make the path to follow decently clear... But you CAN obscure what the path is actually for, or what it leads to, as long as you still make it clear that it IS the path. Necromancer/Summoner is definitely a class I love to play in most games, so I can't say as I'd mind that. I like the schools simply because it makes sense to me. It's only natural to specialize in a field, especially a field that seems as wide ranging as wizardry, so... It made it feel more like a career choice to me. I mean, 'Hero' or 'Herald of a God' isn't really something you chooce to work towards, nor does it usually pay well. The schools make things feel more realistic, IMO.

Your comment about subclasses raises a good idea... What if our CURRENT Wizard subclasses were either rebalanced or modded to, instead of LOCKING schools, simply made the spells perform at a lower power level? That way it indicates you've focused on X school, but you aren't somehow incompetent at everything else. If the Wizard subclasses were all JUST + X Power Level to Y School, - Z Power Level(s) to everything else, that'd be great TBH, totally usable. Endless Paths was definitely a huge boon to POE 1, really awesome to have that constant challenge to go back to, to slowly chip away at, or to wait and then bum rush through in one massive burst. POE 1 did do well with that, with going from 'You've awakened, oh crap', to 'Leaden Key', to 'Hollowborn, not good', to 'Woedica's Favored is the issue'. POE 2, the side content feels like the story. You don't need any allies or to do any faction missions to complete the critical path, so.... It just doesn't really mesh too well. I do feel like a plot ot overthrow wouldn't work in Eora as it stands, just because there really isn't any place it will work and not contradict some of the things you do or may do in POE 2. It needs to be an issue that crosses borders to even attract the Watcher's attention and make them give a dang, so... Not sure what exactly you could go with that isn't God-related. Maybe instead of related to the EXISTING Gods... Maybe the current Gods are the final product, but the Engwithans made a 'Test God', to see if they could? And they thought it was destroyed, but it wasn't, it was raising a cult in Rekke's homeland and now it's coming back to destroy the legacy of the Engwithans or the current Gods or some such.

My major annoyance with Ciphers is the need to bounce so many things of an ally, but you can't just do them to yourself. As long as Wizards don't pick that up, I can handle that I suppose

I can definitely agree on the Grimoires. They were okay in POE 1, they were your source of spells, they made sense and felt valuable. In POE 2... They feel almost useless. You can easily go without a Grimoire entirely as a Wizard, and yet your casting animation still makes it seem like you're holding one. Hell, thanks to the late addition of trinkets, I would gleefully just take a trinket on most of my wizards instead. As for replensihing resources... Wizards in POE 1 felt awful. Wizards in POE 2 feel great. I don't really want a return to the per-rest nonsense of the past. It makes sense for a pen and paper game perhaps, but in something like this it just feels like wasted time rather than a mechanic to make your choice of spells and spell uses matter. Maybe, just MAYBE, if they let you rearrange both spells AND spell uses, I'd be more supportive.... But part of that would be because I love Magic Missiles, and would just turn all my spell slots to L1 and use nothing but Minor Missiles all the time.

It's not obligatory, no, it's clearly viable to be a ranged rogue... But the stereotype class identity is that of a sneaky, thief/assassin, strike from the dark kind of guy. Using a bow in plain sight really doesn't fit the style that's intended. It works in the game, in fact Rogue is probably the best ranged attacker as it stands... But it's not really what the class was meant for IMO.

Pretty much all their offensive powers work with ranged attacks. So does their main feature, sneak attack, and its upgrade, Deathblows. Ring the Bell has a clause for ranged attacks. So I'm not really seeing any of that. Stealth focused class, Backstabs, it's kinda their stereotype... And then Backstab is under 2M distance. Also can't self-flank from range, so Sneak Attack will only help after you STOP sneaking to apply an affliction. I'm not saying it can't be DONE, or it isn't VIABLE... Just that it doesn't fit the class's standard identity, that of a sneaky, strike from the dark, assassin/thief type. I do think Rogue is currently the best ranged attacker, but I don't think that's Rogue's best role, and it's really only because the class that is supposed to take that position is Ranger, which really isn't great IMO.

Ranged Rogues are inherently defying their own class IMO. The Stealth is a major part of the identity of the class, and the stealth stuff doesn't work from range. And yes, it makes sense for both rangers and rogue to fight in range and melee.... Rogue is better in melee, and Ranger is better at RANGE, it's in the name. Being not as good when you are doing something that doesn't fit the class makes sense TBH. I don't feel like the capability of other classes to fight from range needs to hold back Ranger. And I agree about the pets, the game clearly cares but refuses to act like it.

I feel like ranged rogues are always suboptimal. The identity of the class is linked to stealth... And the stealth buffs don't work from significant range. CAN you do a ranged rogue? Sure. You can also do a ranged fighter or monk, but that's not really the classes identity.

TBH I enjoyed the crafting in POE 1 more than 2, simply because, outside of POTD, basically ANY named item was viable all the way to the end of the game. Literally anything golden you pick up, you could upgrade and use and get away with it. In 2, that's not honestly the case. Some items are just plain bad, or not good enough, to really complete all the content... And no, I'm not even counting megabosses. I liked that kind of system, where we had only a few items that were unique, but they were ALL unique and viable and felt different to use, just a bit. It's not something that's viable in many games, or even attempted where it IS viable, but I enjoyed that immensely.

Personally I hated the Endurance/Health mechanic with a passion. It doesn't feel like an impactful game system, it feels like you have Health, and then this tiny hidden Health bar that's separate, gets punished seperately, and is annoying to restore. I don't need two kinds of Health, just ONE. Honestly that's a thing not just Obsidian but most Devs seem to forget at times.... If you have ONE of something, you do NOT need a second that does basically the same thing. Don't add things just to have more things, or just to pretend that there's more 'depth'. Drowning the player in excess BS is not good depth. As for POE 3... I don't think we can have a satisfying continuation to the Watcher's story. Right now, the Watcher is either restoring a castle or getting swarmed with people asking questions... Or both. It's not going to be entertaining to see THAT... But the Watcher can't really justify ditching all that unless something huge comes up. What's gonna come up? The gods aren't going to risk getting uppity for a while yet, unless Woedica decides to be insanely stupid. There's just no realistic justification for an interesting game. I do think we could get a POE 3, that occurs AFTER the Wheel is fixed/replaced, and new things that occur then. THEN it would make sense for, say Woedica to try to take over, or Magran to decide we need another great trial and try to cause a cataclysm of some kind. Or maybe, Eothas disintegrated himself, but there's still a god-shaped hole in the design, and a new one is filling the space but doesn't know the history, or restraint. That last one would be a decent explanation, actually, they could roll with that.

In other words, there must be lots of Vailians collecting Adra with the souls of their deceased family and friends, using that essence and preventing the resurrection of their loved ones. I mean, memories are what make us who we are, so technically, the second your memories are lost you cease to exist, just leaving unnamed, unclaimed essence behind. So it's more akin to them profiting off the corpses of their loved ones, not their loved ones themselves.

I wonder if maybe 'Luminous' Adra didn't exist before hand. If the 'light' of the luminous adra only exists because the adra near Ukaizo is forced to contain more souls than elsewhere. IE, someone dies, their soul goes to the NEAREST adra, then gets funneled through that adra into adra closer to Ukaizo. Then funneled again, and again, until it gets into the Deadfire area, but since so many souls are being shuffled along to that area, the adra is more full and thus 'luminous'. It might just be that pre-engwithans, all adra glowed proportionate to how many people died nearby in a certain time frame. Also, never had this confirmed I don't think... Adra has been referred to as 'roots', roots of the world... Does that mean all adra is connected physically, or through the in between, or is it just fanciful speaking and adra isn't connected to other adra at all? I get the impression there is a connection, and the glimpse of the in between suggests that... But I don't recall if we see it confirmed by a god, engwithan... Or a dev.

Including Ghost Heart pet ? Since technically it's a summon... It is a Summon, but... It IS a Beast, but was it ever actually TAGGED as a Beast and a Summon? Might not have been. I know regular Animal Companions are tagged as Beasts, but Ghost Hearts are also a Spirit, so... Is it still tagged as both? Or does Spirit override Beast?

IMO, the Stalker subclass is decent, but it's more because being in melee with your Companion is the best way to make real use of it. It's far easier to keep it alive when you can easily catch it in Heal/Buff AOEs that you'd already be wanting to use on your melee characters. Plus, there's the Companion passives with the extra defenses if they're nearby.

If you really want to make the most of the pet, you want to go melee as a Stalker. Use AOE Heals/Buffs and catch both of you in it.

I would be fine with a Beastmaster class and a Ranger class, separately. Or a Ranger class as is, perhaps with a subclass to emphasize the Beastmaster style, and then a class geared for ranged attacking that isn't Ranger.

Ghost Heart seems closest to what we should've gotten.... It makes sense for a Watcher to be able to summon the spirit of a dead animal to aid them in battle. It makes sense for spirits in general to aid the Watcher. A class that has, at base, a chance to summon a Spirit Animal on doing X, probably on hit with Ranged Weapon, would make sense, and then Subclasses that specify which type of Spirit Animal rather than a random one, or one that allows multiple random summons.... That I'd go with. Because THEN, the Animals are extra buffs, not annoying meat bags that die and punish you for them dying. Also, I realize, it's a fantasy game, realism isn't a focus... But how did a STAG Animal Companion survive a ship wreck and get to the beach, exactly? Clearly your Watcher didn't get them to the beach, you don't know what's happened when you awake. You don't always have Eder, depending on your history, so it wasn't him. Who exactly got a STAG through choppy seas to the beach? Can't be Chitupec, he's not certain to survive. So you have Old Man, Dwarf, or Woman Who Can't Lift A Crate, as your potential life savers, who supposedly swam to the beach in stormy waters with floatsam around, while keeping a Stag alive. Or are Stags somehow insanenly good swimmers and I just never knew?

I'm just baffled as to how my Kind, Passionate, Rational character that keeps being Diplomatic, somehow got the 'Cruelty' one. I haven't been Cruel to anyone! I haven't glared or anything, like what the hell?

... My KIND WAYFARER, with NO Cruel or Agressive Reputation or responses, just got 'Cruelty of Death's Herald'. What the what? At this point, I guess we just need to hope for developer comment, or someone with the know how to crack open the game files and look for sure.

True. For some reason, though, while I can appreciate and enoy microing one character, I can't stand doing it for a full party, which is why I keep running solo runs, or with parties that are fairly self sufficient. TBH, it's hard to make convincing enemy AI, especially in games where your enemies are supposed to be non-human. Also, the comment you quoted was more me referring to the party AI system, not the enemy AI... I think you know that, but just in case someone else is confused.

That's... a LOT of investment, especially given that only Nalpazca really NEED drugs, and they aren't going to benefit from a 'positive' crash effect since the subclass brings its own. Seems like Alchemy has been dumped really hard and just left that way for a while now. Dissapointing, especially since the last DLC is out now so the chances of a patch to fix the issue isn't likely to come out any time soon.

Or... you could view it as it comes with this random melee attacker that you can use as a bodyguard to help your ranged attacker do its thing. I just can't view it like when the pets dies SO easily. As for 'designing the class without it'.... What exactly do you LOSE? A few abilities, which could easily be replaced. Passives, but most classes don't have as many passive options as Ranger does, specifically because of the pet. Remove the pet passives and it looks like all the other classes, actually. You're not actually changing/losing a lot. I imagine the most difficult thing to replace would be the higher level abilities that rely on the pet, but... It's not like a 'Ranger' specifically needs a pet. It's not in the name, and it really only has that reputation because of prior fantasy games, and the attached lore that Rangers specifically love animals. There's nothing saying that Rangers LOVE animals, it would easily make lore sense if you claimed that some Rangers just HUNT animals, viewing them as prey. I get that the two part character is some people's jam... But I'd really like a class meant for Ranged Attacks, that JUST does that. No pet, no stealth or within two meters stuff, no melee specific abilities.... And the closest we have in Deadfire is Ranger.

It's not hidden to the AI though. HP, Self, Under 50%, Second Wind. Or Healing Potion, if you'd prefer. Maybe Lay on Hands or some other healing ability if you're multiclassing.