Luckmann

Not that I've noticed.

This is my experience also. It seems possible to get into "waves" where you progress in the game and keep finding the same trash over and over and over again. It's actually pretty frustrating. You consider boots that make the poor sod wearing them run into any encounter before the party can catch up, as unique? They're a nuisance at the best of times, since they break up what's left of your formation, even while in stealth. Yeah, fair point, since there's also the Dissapointer. A rather unique item on the same lines. Honestly though, having it on your tank is a godsend. After running out of important Talents to grab for Edér, I took Fast Runner and gave him Boots of Speed. It's wonderful when it comes to sneaking into groups of enemies to pull aggro. The only annoying thing is that he tends to move faster than Durance and tend to trigger traps that we haven't seen yet, but it's not that common. Having +Speed on Aloth was.. a worse idea.

Well at least we can assume that it stings like a motherf***er. I dunno. There seems to be an awful lot of power in a single soul if harnessed properly. Twelve of them essentially blowing themselves up..? I don't know. Maybe. And it might not be required to kill, per see, but shatter. If the gods are essentially amalgamations of thousands of souls fused together, and we know that souls can splinter to create new souls that grow, who's to say that twelve people splitting their own souls and destroying them wouldn't blast one divine soul to kingdom come, enough to turn it to rubble? Either way, we know that Magran at some point at least participated in the punishment of Woedica, which left the latter significantly weakened. So maybe Eothas isn't dead, maybe he's not even splintered or shattered, maybe he's just.. diminished. And on that topic, I must say that the conclusion of Durance's quest feels all kinds of weird, but.. I'll probably start a thread on that at some point, because.. it's s**t.

Thanks a lot Elerond for filling us in on all the possible endings. But I must say that two of them are.. odd, because I see no reason why they'd be mutually exclusive. Or rather, they are mutually exclusive, but they shouldn't be. I mean.. uhm.. If you do nothing, Raedric turns out to have snapped when his wife birthed a hollowborn child, and continues to be crazy, and everyone loses. If you kill Kolsc, things.. actually turn out pretty fine and dandy. But.. why? It's not explained in slides, apparently..? Why would that not be the result if you did nothing, too? Or vice versa? Also, where is Kolsc in everything for ending #2? Slide #2 (from the ones you describe) makes it sound like you killed both Kolsc and Raedric.

One tiny, teensy-weensy possible correction. We don't know if they are killable. There's a good case for saying that they are, but at the end of the day, it would be hard to tell. Yes, I'm going to keep grasping at the straw of Eothas being alive or splintered into the twin deities of Mercy and Vengeance.

That's actually a fair argument for a character's decision. My bleak walker tried to help her, but ultimately have no clue whether what Raedric is doing is going to help or not, and didn't empathize enough with Calisca's sister on a level where it'd warrant opposing Raedric - after all, opposing him could make matters worse anyway, and Calisca's sister might get a healthy child; and if she doesn't, who's to say that she isn't cursed, or not suffering from a disease that causes the hollowborn? If they were fine as they are, the interference/non-interference discussion would be meaningless and unnecessary. If we can't refrain from interfering when things aren't as we want them to be, when are we supposed to not interfere? The idea of letting people solve their own problems really stems from the fact that things are more complicated than we can usually understand, and that changing things for the "better" (from our point of view) might actually make things worse. There's plenty of examples in real life history of interference in local affairs and the business of other people's that have turned out absolutely terrible. Also, there's no guarantee Kolsc won't screw up even worse. Yes, on an objective level, I realize that Raedric VII is sorta crazy, of course I do, and my arguments here shouldn't be taken as an adamant real-life position - things are often too complicated for that - but from the perspective we're offered in the game, at that point, it's entirely reasonable to think that this is not your place to interfere, and I'd love it if the epilogue was a bit more.. ambiguous or unexpected. It is too.. simplistic-enforced-21st-century-morality to have two objective good vs. evil, and I think it's shallow roleplaying writing to make the options so obviously distinct. This is an equally good argument to bring to Raedric, really, but in situations like this, I can see people operating on a guilty-until-proven-innocent basis. Raedric is grasping at straws, sure, but he might feel compelled to do something, and from an in-character perspective, theres's no evidence that it's not helping. Also, I'm not convinced that he thinks that it has anything to do with their wombs. I'm actually pretty sure that the reason they are punished is because they bear hollowborn, and Raedric is convinced that it's a divine punishment for worshipping Eothas. For example, his wife was killed not for bearing hollowborn, but for worshipping Eothas, which, for all we know, could be the cause of her bearing hollowborn to begin with. Read the OP. You have to oppose Raedric before you even get that option; you have to oppose him and then change your mind. That's the whole issue, really. Like "Well, alright, I'm going to do a 360 and moonwalk out of the door now because of flimsy reasons, forget about the whole killing you part".

Which is weird, considering that the people went all Kiev on Defiance Bay, yet there's not a trace of it happening.

You have to get an item from one of the Gods before you speak to their leader. This. Unless you're doing all the deity-centric quests for some reason, specifically Rymrgand in this case, some of the quests are downright wonky, not to mention unsatisfactory and weird. There's definite issues with both Noonfrost and the Temple of Hylea questlines unless you're doing Rymrgand and Hylea, respectively.

That's actually a point I really like. There are numerous times in the game where the game actually forces quests upon you, even if you practically decline them, but I can see a lot of characters actually not caring that much for it. I'm very much a help-others-to-help-themselves kind of person, myself, and while I wouldn't agree with Raedric VII by any stretch of the imagination, and likely not be closely as lauding of his consistency and strength of character in practice, I would have a hard time, especially as a foreigner, to excuse coming to the vale and immediately start interfering with their social and political affairs, in a political and legal framework I know absolutely nothing about, let alone carrying out a frontal assault on the keep or an actual assassination of a local ruler, especially not in favour of someone I've barely met and know practically nothing about (Kolsc). So some alternate ways to deal with this entirely without having to carry out the quest A-to-B (with an alternate C) would be nice. Or an option to simply drop it, let's say Kolsc asks you to go there, you tell him no, and the quest never starts, or you tell him you'll visit Raedric's Hold, you get there, the guards stop you, and you actually just go "Alright. Fine." and go back to Kolsc and tell him nope, not gonna do this, and the quest stops. And then later, in Act 3 or so, if you have a really good Reputation with Gilded Vale, Kolsc shows up to kill you for supporting Raedric. If you have a terrible reputation with Gilded Vale, Raedric shows up to kill you for attacking or hurting his lands. Or something.

http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/portraits-for-poe-thread.98127/page-3 http://www.jasonseow.com/poeportraits Check out his other work, too. Also, notice the scales on Sawyer's armour. Yeah, I'd want to see Cain, Avellone, and all the leads as well (Adler, Brennecke, ect.). We should start a pool and have them commissioned. It's too bad Kaz has a steady job.. well.. uh, not for him, of course, but it would be fun if he freelanced and took commissions. 100% in-art-style portraits custom-made. Now, if only I was a millionaire..

Complaining that your characters can only see maybe fifty feet, tops, in open terrain in broad daylight is like saying Tetris has too many blocks? Wha? The complaint isn't sight range, it's exploration. That being said, I'd love it if the sight range was something more.. I don't want to say reasonable, because that's not entirely correct, but.. I guess just larger, to feel more real, even though it clearly wouldn't be real-real. But then I'd want the maps to be 10-20x larger to compensate. OP:s complaint would still remain, the rest of us would still laugh at him, and I'd enjoy deliciously huge maps with a good sight range. If it wasn't for the fact that each map would take a week to load, this would be a perfect world.

Nothing happens. There's not a single chair knocked over or a single person harmed once the dust settles, not a brick torn from the road or a building burned. Except the madhouse and the inside of Dunryd Row, nothing will have changed.

Things happening = interesting. Things not happening = uninteresting. Racials that are largely circumstantial or only triggers once in a blue moon should be trashed.

So, relatively speaking, yesterday. I mean, it's possible, but.. I find it a bit far-fetched. The belief that Godlikes have been touched by the gods, blessed or cursed, seems to be near-universal. Even if Durance wouldn't believe in it, it would be downright bizarre to contemplate that he doesn't know about it, for which reason I think that if this was true, he should at least comment and say that he doesn't. As in, if he believes in Firelikes being blessed or cursed by Magran, he should say something. If he doesn't believe it, he knows that it's a widely acknowledged fact, and should point out that he will not treat you differently, because he doesn't care.

Well, yeah, you're correct in this. Another issue caused by the infinistash, really. You'll get leaps and bounds more chaff loot to vendor at PotD, compared to Normal or Easy, and subsequently, more monies.

So you're not going to play a fantastic, beautiful and enthralling game because of some dumb poem that made an offensive rape joke and got removed in an update. great choice, well done you. There was a poem that made an offensive rape joke? When? Where? What?

It's actually kinda annoying (and sad) that most choices are so blatantly obvious. It would've been interesting if Raedric VII turned out to be the better choice if you actually fixed the whole crisis and returned the souls. Or killed himself in grief over having done so many in over something that changed nothing. Or actually was praised as having solved the crisis and stopped being a lunatic about the whole thing. And if Kolsc turned out to be a self-indulgent noble splerglord that couldn't rule effectively to save his life. I am inclined to agree with you. The first time through I almost sided with him then realized he had just killed his wife. My character was a nice guy and we just couldn't stomach that action. Gilded Vale deserves a better ruler than either one of those men. I would've been more worried if he hadn't killed his wife. There's an (a good) argument that Raedric VII is draconian or even crazy, but the fact that he doesn't treat people differently or engage in nepotism makes me feel that he's at least not corrupt. And I think it would've been interesting to take that approach; Raedric VII is the legitimate heir, a draconian and religiously misguided but consistent ruler that genuinely believes that what he does is necessary for the good of all, to the point where he will even sacrifice his own wife for the well-being of his people and his belief in the rule of law. Stoic, Rational, Honest, Cruel. Lawful Neutral, Lawful Evil. Kolsc is an illegitimate upstart, a generally benevolent but corrupt ruler that isn't alien to whims of fancy, nepotism, and arbitrary rulings based on his idea of what is right or wrong. No-one in his family would ever be punished for breaking the law, but he's also not hanging people due to religious hangups. Benevolent, Passionate, Deceptive, Aggressive. Neutral Good/Chaotic Neutral. I think that would've been more interesting, tbqh. And if you kill both of them, the region should fall into years of varying degrees of anarchy, with brigands on the roads but the towns better off under their own out-of-necessity rule, maybe the birth of a mayoral bourgeois in the region, in time, maybe. The fact that Kolsc mislead me was key in cementing my Bleak Walker's decision to kill him instead of Raedric. The fact that he had acted lawfully and killed his wife, thus showing that he's a strong and just ruler that does not shirk responsibilities, willing to take matters into his own hands and carry out even the sentences we do not like himself, only cemented that decision. Had I been allowed to figure out what was going on in the basement of the castle or been allowed to talk to Nedmar, my Bleak Walker would probably have reconsidered that decision and decided to murdersplurge Raedric VII with a sharp object, but.. yeah, no such option. Which, again, sucks monkey-ass.

You don't need to enter iroll20s when using the IEMod.

If one companion gets the unique snowflake treatment, all of them should, and at that point, none of them are weird. There would be a fundamental difference between a One-of-Many in a party with a Male Dream-Hag and a Half-Celestial, and a Vithrack in a group of mundanes. It stands out, it's jarring and it's weird. It feels wrong. I know that this was sarcasm but BG2:EE actually *had* a vampire companion. And it wasn't as bad as I expected it to be (from a writing point of view... she was hilariously overpowered from a gameplay perspective). Man I really need to finish my ToB playthrough to get to her epilogue... And who doesn't like some hot afro-vamp girl-on-girl action complete with bloodsucking. ...That was unintentional... BG2:EE is basically a bad mod of BG2. Nothing more, nothing less. It's par for the course for such mods to have non-standard amounts of focused writing, jarring additions that stands out as sore thumbs, and mary-sue-esque overpowered characters with snowflake abilities only they have.

Bull. S**t. I can't say whether it still works in 1.05 or not, or if it did in 1.04. But saying that it never did is objectively wrong. It absolutely used to work. When and if it was changed, I have no idea, but it used to work.

PotD has nothing to do with loot, but you do get random loot on all difficulties. So you're just being lucky.

It's actually kinda annoying (and sad) that most choices are so blatantly obvious. It would've been interesting if Raedric VII turned out to be the better choice if you actually fixed the whole crisis and returned the souls. Or killed himself in grief over having done so many in over something that changed nothing. Or actually was praised as having solved the crisis and stopped being a lunatic about the whole thing. And if Kolsc turned out to be a self-indulgent noble splerglord that couldn't rule effectively to save his life.

I wouldn't know, because as I pointed out, I couldn't even talk with them. Which is just ridiculously terrible quest design.

Dude, I hate to be a grammer nazi but, in English, when you use an expletive infix, it goes ahead of the stressed syllable. E.g. Fan-mother****in-tastic would be correct. Fantas-mother****in-tic would be incorrect. So, really, "Durance" can't take an expletive infix because the stress is on the first syllable. Again, sorry, it just bothers me when I see grammar mistakes in English. I doubt that there's hard rules for inserting -motherf***ing- into things, but I knew that it didn't fit on the structure alone. Like you say, Durance can't take an "expletive infix". I just didn't care. Why would she? Old Vailia != Vailian Republics. If you're Italian and go to, say, Mexico, do you expect the people there to go "HI, FELLOW COUNTRYMAN?" Have a very nice day. -fgalkin This largely comes down to when Old Valia and the Vailian Republics split apart. It we're talking Mexico, we're talking New Spain, so if you're making a comparison, we should compare it to Spain, not Italy. And today, yeah, fair point. But let's say Mexico 1820's-1830's, maybe even a bit later? Yeah, I'd expect there to be some talk between the two. It's hard to really say, though, but I get the feeling that there's a lot more tying Old Valia together with the Vailian Republics than such a comparison would allow for. After all, Mexico today cannot in good conscience be called a child of Spain. But Vailians in both Old Vailia and the Vailian Republics seem to refer to themselves as Vailians, and share overall ethnicity, as well most social conventions and assumptions. It's hard to tell for sure, but whether they have a strong shared cultural and national origin or are largely antagonistic towards eachother, either would merit conversation.

After the unmitigated stupid that was 4e, D&D is dead to me, and Forgotten Realms shouldn't be anything short of forgotten.