patronkus

Some additional encounters and some better placements, still currently just looking into more spawn ID scripts etc but I think there is some interesting potential here. CEConcelhaultReturned.txt CEDoubleDragon.txt CEFireborn.txt CEWhiteVoid.txt CEBeasts.txt

I took the time to plot the following coordinates to determine where everything ends up on the ring. Basically you have a range of coordinates from (x=10-35, y=1, z=10-30) and will appear on the ring in the indicated positions. In general, increasing X value from 10 moves the position to the southwest and increasing Z value moves the position to the southeast. Hopefully the graphic makes it clear (I had to compress it majorly to make it fit into the upload size)

This would be a more advanced version of what I am currently working on. What I considered is taking a screenshot of a fully populated ring and then editing the coordinates of the spawns over top so users can see where their monsters would be placed. The other thing I considered iterating onto this is a type of "randomiser". Basically by using a "Randbetween" function to randomise a number and that number correlates to a spawn ID at each coordinate you could generate random encounters each exec of the txt. You could assign this to every coordinate on the ring, randomising a number between say 0 and 6 where 0 is nothing and 1-6 are preset monsters (say tiger, panther, scourge, lich, menpwrga, rathun) but different at every coordinate.

No script unfortunately so I resorted to manually checking and guessing. I used the 3 X 3 grid as a basic template but I could have gone further for placements and had them all over the ring, the issue with that for the template "dummy.txt" is it would be hard for someone new to the template to figure out what is going where so I kept it to a small, dense placement population. I did some more exploring for coordinates and could likely get a full grid of placements and in the TXT itself I could comment maybe where they would appear, possibly segmenting the ring into quadrants for ease of understanding for new users. In terms of further functionality I don't know how you would get an S4 style format running however you could setup a 5 or 10 battle gauntlet by just importing 5 or 10 txts into your folder and running them consecutively. I think it would be an extremely fun challenge for the community to collaborate on and some interesting encounters could be designed. For instance I had the themed "Double Dragon" and hopefully I will be able to get the Circle of the Archmagi encounter functioning by finding the spawn commands for Tayn, Arkemyr, Maura and Llengrath. I'd be curious to see what other users would come up with.

Monk and Barbarian are extremely strong in this game. Monk if you take Swift Flurry, Heartbeat Drumming and Whispers of the Wind is ridiculously powerful and Barbarian with Driving Roar or Barbaric Retalliation is incredible. In terms of who pairs well with them it's honestly anything. Wizard is nice for Combusting Wounds and Expose Vulnerabilities, Cipher is great for Pain Block, Phantom Foes and Mental Binding, Paladin can be nice to take the heat off them and heal too, Priest is fantastic in general. I did a run with a Priest, Wizard, Monk, Barbarian and Cipher recently and it was so easy and comical how much damage the monk and barb were doing.

Yes it's totally bizarre how the naming conventions of the game IDs correlate to the actual names of creatures. In any case, with some trial and error I was able to get some more monsters to work, maybe i'll keep a TXT log of all confirmed functional IDs to use for creating custom encounters.

Yes it is a total pain to find what can actually work through the console. For instance I had hoped to do a Circle of Archmagi fight where you'd face each member of the Circle which appears in the game (Concelhault, Maura, Tayn and Llengrath I believe) but I couldn't find Maura, Tayn or Llengrath IDs to spawn them sadly.

Second installment is the third return of everyones favourite Lich Concelhault! After being slain once more a Bekarna's Observatory part of his essence was thrown to the White Void where he brokered a deal with the Beast of Winter itself, procuring another body and aid of some of the entropy gods chosen. Backed by the fearsome aurochs, and some additional ancient liches for good measure, he comes for the Watchers soul once more! ConcelhaultReturned.txt

First installment of the Custom Encounters is Double Dragon! You'll face Jaderfelas and Neriscyrlas simultaneously (along with some associated minions for each). One is fire immune and the other is weak to fire... you'll need to balance your elemental attacks appropriately to bring both down while also contesting with Jaderfelas' summons and Neriscyrlas spells. Good luck! DoubleDragon.txt

After having my curiosity peaked and looking into it a bit, I have created a custom template the community can use to create encounters and run them. I have an idea for the use of this template that I think would be great for the community which I will discuss at the end but for now the technical side. Most people are likely aware of the SpawnPrefabAtMouse command which people often use for testing. There is also the SpawnPrefabAtPoint command which is lesser used but still interesting. To keep it simple, all I have done is create a executable TXT which spawns enemies at preset locations on the Crucible ring (to zone into this map, enable the console, press F11 and type "Crucible" into the search bar, the bottom one is what I tested this on). I have attached 3 TXTs to this post, 1 is called "dummy.txt" which is the template. It spawns 9 dummies in a 3 X 3 grid on the Crucible. What I then did is simply go into the "dummy.txt" and change the creature IDs to whatever I want, close the game and rerun the txt. I attached 2 more TXTs to this post, one is "dragon.txt" the other is "random.txt". "dragon.txt" includes Jaderfelas the Ancient and some other enemies and "random.txt" is just a bunch of stuff I threw it to see if it worked. To modify the TXTs to your desire all you need is the creature IDs, which are harder to find than you might think sadly. This is an incredibly rudementary "mod" if you could call it that but still accomplishes something I have wanted for a while, a custom battle "mode" for deadfire. To run it, paste the TXTs into the following pathway F:\Steam\steamapps\common\Pillars of Eternity II\PillarsOfEternityII_Data\data\batchfiles and just type "exec XXXXXX.txt" into the console with the XXXXX as whatever the name of the txt file is. There is much that can be experimented on with this including other maps, monster types and placements. The placements I used were just ones that worked but there are tons more, I am just not familiar enough with Unity Engine geometry to understand it beyond lots of boring copy paste testing. In my testing there were some issues with certain monsters, for instance the Sea Dragon. The Sea Dragon battle is tied to it's lair and as such, spawning it outside of the lair breaks the fight a little bit. Also, some monsters will fight amongst themselves (this occured with the Memory Hoarder and Steelclad Constructs), which while amusing can impede the intended encounter design. My idea for this "mode" is for the community to come together and effectively create our own Seeker, Slayer, Survivor. I think it would be a great community event where we all come together and create custom encounters for each other to play through and the best can be voted upon to create a series of encounters we can play through as our very own arena gauntlet. That is just a concept to build off this "mode" which I hope people can enjoy/find use for. dragon.txt dummy.txt random.txt

So I decided to give this a whirl and have found that the green part is feasible (though I am uncertain of the degree). I have attached a txt called "dummy.txt" which when executed spawns 10 dummy creatures (the Rotghasts). I will be exploring other creature spawn commands but this should be compatible with most things. What I am unaware of how to do is to determine the placement of the creatures relative. I imagine there would be some displacement command, i.e you could spawn it (+x, +y) distance from the mouse and produce spawn configurations that aren't a giant cluster of monsters. The txt goes into the following pathway, F:\Steam\steamapps\common\Pillars of Eternity II\PillarsOfEternityII_Data\data\batchfiles and when in the game type "exec dummy.txt" into the console. This is extremely rudamentary but proves the foundation of a type of community oriented encounter design could be accomplished. EDIT: I tested this with another encounter, I wanted to have it where you battled all the Dragons in the game at the same time but couldn't find Neriscyrlas spawn command. I replaced her with 3 Steelspine Warriors instead. This encounter highlights an issue with this format in that some enemies like the Sea Dragon can have mechanics that don't work outside of their area. The Sea Dragons huge Crush Nova is defended by the wards in the location you battle it in, those wards are not present on the Crucible ring so the Dragon can deal extreme Crush damage to your whole party for free basically. However, I still think this is a promising idea, call it Double Dragon if you will, a throwback to Llengrath's battle. Still unsure of how to fix the placement of the spawns but when you engage the enemies they will force themselves apart so it is still functional. EDIT 2: Experimenting with the SpawnPrefabAtPoint command has shown that you can place the enemies in seperate, pre plotted locations. The command requires an X Y Z coordinate input which without more knowledge into the games distance coordination I can't say much more on. What I can say for certain is using coordinates like in the range of (15-30, 1, 5-35) will place foes on the ring succesfully. I would need to try out more coordinates to see what works and where they will end up to be sure. Also I believe the Y coordinate should just stay at 1, it seemed increasing it past this made no change and is probably a function for maps with more verticality than the Crucible Ring. EDIT 3: See the Builds and Strategies forum for a more complete thread about this "mode". dummy.txt dragons.txt

Unsure if intended or not but the Sacred Immolation rework is not benefitting from any PL (fire or Paladin). Unsure if this is already known or not but figured I'd share.

Definitely Brilliant would be awesome, I'll be taking Ancestor Memory on the Cipher to have renewing Venomblooms to keep the spores plentiful.

They definitely could be however even if they are they still die frequently enough without this intended killing field for the bonus Zeal to be impactful.

I had no idea about the Khapa Tea immunity! Definitely makes it an option for other melee party members to get among the spores. Blightheart is a great call for the Chanter, I'd probably run the Eld Nary chant for offence which would be sure to pick up some kills for more phrases for more Eld Nary. Fassina would be an excellent option for this as Conjurer gets most of the desirable spells we want and boosts the Conjuration summons and Malignant Cloud. I am a bit partial against Multiclassing so while your suggestion is great I might keep it SC Beguiler for simplicity sake.

I also forgot Malignant Cloud is poison too and could be layered on top of the Venombloom. It also syngergises with Combusting Wounds for even more procs!

I somehow overlooked the following interaction that seems too good to be true and yet I never exploited it until now. Paladins can become Poison immune through Righteous Soul and (IIRC) that includes the Druid spell Venombloom. Paladin's also have Divine Retribution which recovers Zeal when a party member dies. Chanters can use their Skeleton Chant to create an unlimited supply of fodder skeletons to die for the Paladin to recover Zeal. Skeletons are not immune to Poison, so we are going to attempt to use these interactions to create a hazard zone where our main tank (Paladin) is immune to it, enemies are killed and debuffed by it, and the skeletons run into it only to die and have the paladin renew their Zeal. So our party would involve a Poison Druid, Tank Paladin and Chanter. For more specifics on these three, it'd involve our Druid casting DOTs like Infestation of Maggots, Plague of Insects and Venombloom to provide damage and debuffs. The druid can also double as a healer with Moonwell, The Moons Light etc to keep the main tank alive. In situations where enemies are Poison immune themselves negating Plague of Insects and Venombloom (2 key spells) the Druid can switch off to Storm spells instead. Also, I doubt a second Plague of Insects will be required most fights due to it not stacking and already having a high duration. Whatever is left after the first PoI it probably isn't worth recasting it as you won't gain the benefit of the full duration so it'll likely be PoI into Relentless Storm anyways most fights but is worth nothing poison immunity isn't uncommon. The Paladin would be the plain Sacred Immolation Tank build, nothing super special here. Chanter would be summon oriented but there could be a few neat things to go through, mainly if any Chanter summons are immune to Poison also so could run into the Venombloom safely. As for the remaining 2 party members personally I can't not have a Beguiler in the party as an affliction bot, it's too nice not to have. That leaves 1 final slot which I am unsure of. It's going to want to be something either poison immune or ranged to avoid the Venomblooms. I thought maybe Wizard for Combusting Wounds and Expose Vulnerabilities but honestly not sure. What would fit into this setup well and would the setup itself work well? EDIT: I tried this out in Noqn's SSS Standalone mod and it was fun (except Survivor trials which are abysmal in any setup) but had some issues. When firing on all cylinders, it's fantastic you are applying 2 tier 2 afflictions with Venombloom which improve your tanks survivability with Frightened and make your follow up Fort targetting spells like Combusting Wounds or Plague of Insects more likely to hit. The damage is great and you have a fantastic spread of healing through Pain Block, Lay on Hands, Moonwell and The Moons Light across 3 characters, ensuring healing is always available. The absolute biggest problem for this build however is that Sacred Immolation is just far too risky to use. It does an absurd amount of damage to the Paladin even with Voidward and was so bad I had to bench the ability. Without it, the DPS definitely slowed down quite a bit but the consistency went way up since your tank is randomly dying to their own effect. It's not the end of the world without Sacred Immolation tho as you can still access nice Paladin features like Lay on Hands and Inspired Beacon.

I am not a modder by any means but a rudementary way of doing this would just be spawning every enemy manually with the console. Definitely a tedious and undesirable process but maybe some type of executable txt with the SpawnPrefabAtMouse commands could work?

Agree, this is why I enable the console and just teleport to where I need to be to save time, not gaining anything new or diminishing the experience by sailing through deadfire for the 100th time. To the point of custom battles etc you can achieve a similar effect by just spawning desired foes with the console although it's a bit tedious. I think something really fun for the community would be putting together are own SSS style trial. Users could create and submit battles which could be spawned inside of the Crucible and fought through. The community could vote on their favourite and create a top 10 or top 5 which players can play through and test their mettle with.

I basically agree with your entire assessment here. I think it's a known fact now that the caster classes (Druid, Priest, Wizard) are head and shoulders above the other classes and truly in a league of their own. Below them is stuff like Chanter, Paladin, Cipher who hold their own but have some limit on their usage of powerful effects whether through building focus, phrases or having to be high level. I also agree with building everyone to basically be a tank in their own right because of how the AI targets the party based on it's defences. Overall, I think the trio Druid, Priest and Wizard could beat the game just those 3 very easily (albeit with lots of micro) and the remainder of the classes are just there to autopilot through some encounters. I don't think a party gets much better than this (without class stacking) besides maybe replacing the Barbarian with a Cipher as you suggested or building your priest into a Fire Priest as per MaxQuests build for a more potent damage dealer while still retaining the buffing prowess.

Just played through the S4 mod today and have to say it was so good. The mod trims all the annoying **** out of the game like sailing around to buy all your items, uncharting the map, going between quest givers and just gives interesting battles for a more expedited experience. It's a great bite sized experience to try out classes, subclasses and items in. Super sick mod, only thing that'd make it better is if there was like custom arena battles afterwards. I suppose that'd be a bit different from maybe the design intent, nonetheleless banger mod!

In a brief bit of testing this morning, I saw the change to Ajamuut Stalking Cloak and tested it with Whispers of the Wind. Bushwhack appears to apply to all the hits of Whispers of the Wind as WotW applies Invisibility to the monk inbetween it's attacks (I think). Suffice to say this is an extremely powerful combination of effects. Unsure if intended or not but wanted to make note of it.

Keen to get into it again!

What are some nice classes for Wizard to Multi into? I originally thought maybe Fighter as it sures up the defensive side but figure if I am casting from the backline I wouldn't need those defensive aspects. Also I thought for Fighter you could do Draconic Might (whatever the 7th level unique buff is that does terrify on hit and adds Lashes) + Spirit Lance for a terrify tank. Use Wall of Draining to prolong stuff like Unbending and your other buffs so you don't have to recast a bunch. Alternatively I considered maybe Monk for Turning Wheel, Helwalker and Dance of Death. It gives lots of Might, Intellect and Accuracy and possibly Dexterity though DAoM exists already. Spell wise I'd do Grimoire of Vaporous Wizardry + Rekvu Casque for extra slots and dump stuff like Combusting Wounds, Freezing Pillar, Malignent Cloud, Bitter Mooring etc.

Nemnoks Cloak/BDD is the only thing I've found that works consistently. I considered trying to CC them away from my Barb so the loop couldn't go off but it was hit and miss.