Giantevilhead

I assume they force you take an activated ability because if you don't, then your class resource is useless. If you don't take crippling strike or escape, then you can't use your guile points.

I wonder how powerful those high level abilities will be, and what passive high level abilities there are. If level/ability progression is set, multiclasses might be at a big disadvantage at higher levels. Multiclasses are only able to get level 7 abilities when they reach level 19? And they'll only be able to get 3 level 7 abilities when they get to max level. But a single class will be get level 7 abilities at level 13. And they'll have 3 points for level 7 abilities, 3 points for level 8 abilities, and 6 points for level 9 abilities when they reach level 20.

I like to level the Unlabored Blade against those spiders that can cast moonwell. They're not very powerful and they constantly heal themselves so you can keep hitting them until they run out of health.

I used stealth to steal the Theorems of Pandgram from the archives. I did not make anyone hostile and I didn't fight anyone to get it. However, when I gave it to Nedyn, she said that she heard there was a massacre and acted like I killed everyone at the archives to get it.

I think a simple way they could improve the engagement system is if they made it so that clicking once to move a character allows them to slowly move away without suffering disengagement attack(s) but double clicking to move tells them to run and suffer the disengagement attack. Also, disengagement isn't a turn based mechanic. There are RTS games where units have directional armor, so they'd have stronger armor in the front but weaker armor on the sides and back. When they retreat, they can be ordered to turn and go at full speed but expose their weaker back armor or remain facing the enemy but move at a slower speed.

Wizard spells are pretty powerful. For example, Chill Fog is much better than Eyestrike and Slicken is better than Mindwave. They also have more elemental spells so they benefit from talents that increase elemental damage. With Ciphers, you can throw around powers in every fight. With Wizards, you have to plan out encounters more. Scout the enemy to see if how many of them there are and how powerful they are to see if you need to cast spells.

The wizard has some very nice debuff spells that can cripple enemies and make them easier for your other characters to kill. For level 1, Slicken is an aoe knockdown. Chill Fog does damage, blinds, and is foe only. Level 2, Web is aoe hobble. Fetid Caress paralyzes and sickens. Miasma lowers perception and resolve in an area, making enemies much easier to hit.

Yes, there is a quest/sacrifice. However, you can't get it from leveling and there are no consumables that can permanently increase attributes.

I find that a two handed weapon is better for Monks than dual wielding/unarmed. Even though the Monk gets bonus damage for their unarmed attacks, since you can't enchant your fists, enchanted weapons are way better. And there are no gloves or magical items that enchant Monk unarmed attacks. If you want to go unarmed, rather than having no weapons, I would suggest putting a weapon in the offhand so you can have two types of damage and get some of the bonuses from the weapon. There's also a bug (feature?) that lets you get the bonus for using a single one handed weapon when you put a one handed weapon in your offhand.

Those stats are fine. Most builds are pretty viable. The Cipher has some of the best debuffs so I would suggest maxing Intellect to increase their duration. If you want to just sit behind the lines and blast everything, then I would max Intellect, Dexterity, and Might at the expense of Perception and Resolve. It's more risky and micro intensive but very powerful.

I don't think it's fair to compare PoE companions to BG companions since there were long term buffs in BG, enchanted items that raise attributes by a lot, and characters had specialized items/abilities. For example, there was the mage spell strength that raised a character's strength to 18 for 1 minute/caster level, negating the poor strength of Jaheira and Mazzy. There was the belt of fortitude that can boost constitution to 18 for 8 hours, making fragile characters like Aerie and Viconia durable. Edwin has his awesome amulet that gave 2 extra spells per level.

Coincidence? I think not.

You're not actually guaranteed that you'll get anything when you back a kickstarter. So it's more like a bunch of people pooling their money to buy lottery tickets and then splitting the winning than it is an individual person going out and buying a hamburger.

It's good that they're not making him a stereotypical big dumb fighter/barbarian.

Hopefully, there will be items or quest reward talents that affect racial abilities. It would be cool if there was an artifact that made it so that godlike abilities activate earlier, like making it so that the death godlike's ability activates on enemies with less than 50% endurance or nature/fire godlike's ability activates when they're down to 75% endurance. Also, aren't the godlike abilities affected by attributes and talents? Doesn't a moon godlike with high might heal more and a fire godlike do more damage with scion of flame?

Guillermo Del Toro called, and he wants his heads back.

Due to the lack of long term buffs and the way constitution works, frontline battlemages probably won't be too good. However, glass cannons seem to be pretty viable. The Cipher especially seems to be well suited for that.

Wizards have a much greater variety of spells compared to the Cipher's powers. The Cipher also can't change their powers while the Wizard can switch out their spells. The Wizard also has more spells that do different elemental damage so they will benefit more from talents and items that increase their elemental damage. One other advantage the Cipher has over the Wizard is that they have high level powers that can do raw damage, which I believe is irresistible or very hard to resist.

well just a very simplistic example for weapon damage: 1 attack per second 10 base damage + 20% dmg through some talent + 10% through enchantment = 13 dps 1 attack per second 10 base damage + 20% dmg through some talent + 10% through enchantment + 20% through might = 15 dps 1 attack per second +20% speed bonus (so effectively 1.2 attacks per second ) 10 base damage + 20% dmg through some talent + 10% through enchantment = 15.6 dps Since damage multipliers are additive in poe, the more you stack, the more you end up profiting from an increased attack rate. Of course this is just theorycraft, but it's just something to keep in mind in regards to recovery bonus scaling. Basically any damage multiplier you have will scale with reduced recovery times, which is not the case with might. Not trying to say Dex is better or even as good as might, I don't know the game anywhere well enough to make any kind of judgement like that, but it's just important to keep in mind that the math and impact of a damage bonus and a recovery bonus are quite different. But if dex only affects attack/casting speed and not recovery time, then the bonus it gives is really only half of it says. So you'll need a lot of additional effects and damage bonuses to make it worthwhile.

I guess dex allows you to cast buffs/debuffs faster. Maybe it allows you to use certain abilities faster. But that doesn't seem very significant.

That sucks. So there's basically no incentive for taking dexterity over might. With might, you actually get the bonus it says but with dexterity, you get less due to the other factors affecting speed.

How exactly does dexterity work? How is it calculated? Does it just reduce the time it takes to perform an action or does it speed up how fast an "action meter" fills up? Is there a recovery time that it can't reduce? Is there a minimum action speed? Like if I use a weapon hits every 2 seconds on a character with 20 Dex, does that mean the weapon will hit every 1.4 seconds? Or are there other variables and calculations involved?

They can probably turn off their flame. Otherwise, how would they sleep in a bed? Not to mention the risks of burning down houses.

I would assume there will be magical gloves that give bonuses to unarmed attacks.

Increasing their stealth skill teaches them to alter their flame so that it emits more infrared radiation and less visible light.