Kai
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Posts posted by Kai
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They are all fairly similar, but I think the thing to keep in mind is how shapeshift scales with level (or rather how it does not scale much).
At the start of the game shapeshift (and the bear in general due to higher DR) is downright gamebreaking because almost nothing will do more than minimum damage to you (whiel you have relatively huge damage output).
As the game goes on however, that DR that used to be so high relative to enemy strenght will become very mediocre at best - and not suited to tanking. That's why if you are willing to sacrifice a little power at the start for a little power later on I'd rather recommend one of the forms that have some sort of active ability that can help CC or debuff.
Even in shapeshift form you will want to avoid melee against powerful enemies late-game and focus on casting, so I think that wolf makes a lot of sense because that knockdown will give you a great escape-mechanism if you get engageed. Just knock them down and then get away. I think this is probably a better ability to have than the other ones that you can have because by this point you will have so many debuffs and other such things to work with anyway that a bear-roar just isn't going to be doing a while lot for a batter. Better to have that oh-**** button to keep your druid alive when an engagement goes sour and the tanks fail to pick up all the aggro.
In general I think shapeshift needs some rebalancing. It is way too powerful early, but then becomes very "meh" later on. For being such a core feature of a class (with talents tied to it and all) It needs to scale way more simply put to stay relevant.
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In general I love the concept of druids, but in games where they're playable I've usually loathed the way they play except for one game: WoW. The diversity of the class around the lich king/cataclysm expansions was awesome. They could turn into a tree and cast spells, or they could go cat and dps, or go bear and tank. Especially the old feral tree there was great, and mostly relevant to this topic. If a druid was in feral dps spec and then the tank suddenly died in the middle of a fight you could go into bear, pick up aggro and make sure you survived the encounter. Or if tank specced, you could still dps a bit in cat form when needded. Or skip the forms and cast some spells in between only to go back into an animal form.
Now having that kind of diversity for PoE isn't very realistic, gameplay in WoW and PoE are quite different, but some aspects of that class construction could still be used. First: have the shapeshift form available at will, no restrictions. Make sure bear and preferably one other form are viable for tanking (that is: lower damage, higher resistances/deflection), then the rest for dps for a full encounter. Add talents for additional shapeshift abilities to use depending on dps or tank form to make it interesting while also make sure that resistances and damage scale properly either with level or equipped items. Then allow druids to either focus on their spellcasting or shapeshift form so they can still use both, but only excel in one, or be average at both. Or allow a druid to sacrifice say 1 spell cast/spell level per rest in exchange for better shapeshift form to avoid making them OP.
There's so much fun stuff a game can do with druids but WoW is the only game for me that's come close to make them completely awesome from a gameplaying point.
*edit: awful grammar mistakes :-P
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Ah, it's in Twin Elms, in the inn I think; he sends someone to issue you with a challenge. If you were racing to the end at that point, makes sense that you missed it.
That's kind of a part of the problem then--- If you just happen to never get that quest, then the game is just kicking you in the face for no reason whatsoever.
I actually liked the way it occured, the dude in the inn has an NPC description of "Frightened villager" and do appear to be sort of afraid in the dialogue from all that occured and not overaly earer to talk with you. And was kinda nice to simply find out about it in manner, no big waving alarm flags or forced dialogues, just a frightened dude in an inn. Made me feel more immersed in the game world.
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It seems there's a little misunderstanding.
I'm not suggesting that any specific spell (that you'd get or not get to choose) would become per-encounter. I'm suggesting that you'd have, for example, two per-encounter and two per-rest level one spell slots. This way you could always use two arbitrary level one spells for free in every encounter, but the third and fourth would consume a per-rest slot each.
This is an excellent solution. Priests and Druids do not have spellbooks/spell slots like that, but I would love this for the Wizard. Suddenly one of the slots in the grimoire gets a golden glow, or a new kind of slot opens up, and oh, look, anything in it can now be used Per-Encounter.
I think I would enjoy being able to pick, say 1 or later on a 2nd 1st level wizard spells at lvl 9 that my wizard could cast per encounter, say 2 times instead, and choose it via the leveling screen (and not be able to change it afterwards). Would make a bit of sense that the wizard have gotten so used to casting that spell he doesn't need to focus as hard as previously to cast it. It wouldn't be the same kind of huge spike in output as it is now, but you could still keep your wizard busy with one or a few low level spell(s) even for the trash mobs without being screwed when you get to an encounted where you need to unload.
Still think the priest and druid should have a similar system as the wizards, but with a bit less options than wizards since they do have a lot more options for casting as it is at the moment.
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I also agree with pretty much everything b0rsuk wrote.
Unfortunate, since some of it is dead wrong.
ogres and trolls are very common, not rare. blights are spirits, not primordial. kith vary across the board because they can be any class, and use any weapon or armor, which means some of them can be quite tough. blights are not susceptible to ranged attack, unless it does crushing damage.
you know, there's a reason I posted the link to both guides.
*shrug*
Valid point, I'll admit I don't have all beast types in memory and do still have quite a bit to learn about different mobs.
I don't see much reason for the kith ench though since in general I don't have that much problems with those mobs, and if I have to chose between elemental damage/better quality of the weapon and slaying, slaying is the one I prioritize last as it's far more situational. And my priority based on which mobs in general gives me the most trouble, I'd go Spirit->Vessel->Beast->Primordial->Kith->Wilder-> early on and Vessel->Beast->Spirit->Primordial->Kith->Wilder-> at higher levels. (yes, I did consult the chart for various creatures
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Path of Exile: PoX.
Pillars of Eternity: PoE.
/shrug
Really couldn't care less how people chose to abbreviate as long as it makes sense. It's probably always going to be PoE for me.
[...] thanks to a Turbonegro [...]
Hey, hey, hey, hold it right there. That sounds racist and I'm possibly offended.
Not really, that name is hilarious.
Feel free to read the entry about their name on wikipedia, I did get a laugh out of it
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I've gone for a speedy ranged wood elf cipher in my new game, use hunting bows, clothing instead of armor and high dex. Got draining whip for first talent. Only level 3 so far but I really like the build so far, gonna get a blunderboss for opener once I find one, but really enjoy the hunting bow so far. Haven't had any issues with getting focus and survive so far, and she dishes out a fair amount of damage.
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I've chosen my slayer ench based mainly on which type of creature I have the most problem with, so early on mainly spirits. Vessels are mainly useful for fampyrs since I hate their charm spells and beasts for dragons (though that is kind of situational). I also agree with pretty much everything b0rsuk wrote.
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Seems like the sort of thing that might appear on nexusmods if enough people ask for it, would love to see new skins for animal comps. Especially if some frost resistance/fire vulnerability was added.
@ PBJam The Stag could get a moose skin, because moose are awesome. Wolf could get a attack dog skin, Lion - Tiger.
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Acronyms are sorta fun, when I read FTW I still think "F*** the world" instead of "for the win" thanks to a Turbonegro song. I haven't played Path of Exile so PoE makes sense to me, but I can understand why someone who've played it might be annoyed by it. But PoE seems to have stuck and it do makes more sense than other acronyms (PE could work but some of the things that share that acronym isn't very flattering, albeit sort of funny...) even if there's another PoE out there. So we'll probably just have to adapt and accept that there's 2 different PoE out there now.
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Usually people who like to whine or have actual constructive criticisms about the game are waaay more vocal than those who simply enjoy the game on forums. Which is why it's often sort of pointless to scan forums for actual opinion on a game and use it as an indication to if that game is worth playing, since A LOT of those opinions either come from from a point of view that's irrelevant to yours, or they are simply idiotic. ;-)
Also OP, I'd recommend you use the pause button frequently, it will make things easier and more fun for you.
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None yet, but it would make me extremely happy if there were such a button. That and being able to use key commands for most actions in combat would be a nice addition in a future patch.
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As far as Bioware goes: haven't played DA:I at all, and the rest of those games seems to have been covered enough.
In the Mass Effect games though, which are my favourite Bioware games, I think they struck a perfect balance in how much impact your companions had on the story. In ME1, they sort of tag along and have similar goals but it feels like everyone including Shepard is growing into their role.Then in ME2, Miranda seems like the link between you and the Illusive Man so she is sorta vital to the story, then you see how Tali and Garrus have developed just as you character have. Wrex and Liara have gone diffferent paths from your ship but have grown perhaps even more and take vital roles within the universe in between ME1/2 or during ME2, and they all have reasonable and different motivations for tagging along. And they are very much a part of the final mission there, the way the final part of ME2 is handles might be my favourite of any game.
And then in ME3, they've grown even more, Wrex and Tali are even more vital to their people, Liara wields a significant influence and so does Garrus in his own way. While the ending of that game sucks, at you get a sense that those 4 matter a lot to the plot of ME3, not to mention Legion depending on your choices. While some of your older comps from ME2 walk diffferent paths and still try to make a difference in ME3. Having everyone being super vital to the story and/or ending can make things too much which can be as bad as having no comp feel connected to the main arc. And I still think Bioware struck the perfect balance in ME, especially when you view it as a triology and with the way they all evolved during all the games.
That said, for PoE I felt like Durance, Grieving Mother, Eder and Aloth had something at stake with the main story, though for diffferent reasons. They had all been affected directly by the Hollowborn plague, the war with Waidwen or the Leaden Key. (Haven't played Kana enough to know how much LK affected him or Pallegina & Hiravias). So that's half the party members having a reason to see it through to the end the way I saw it in the game. Which feels ok, the could certainly been more involved with the main story, but I think the most major reason for having them tag along was to understand the world and the way it worked, similar to how the companions in ME1 were. In an expansion or PoE2 where players have a deeper understanding for the lore and the world around them, I would probably prefer to have the comps being more invested in the main story as well.
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I want to play without the killing. Violence makes me sick. Can you mod that out too? Maybe we than get a E10+ rating. And please mod every mention of religion out. People may think this is a hate-crime-condoning-game. And also, mod out wichts. People are also forced to kill children - soulless children none the less. And don't get me startetd on the topic of souls. It may anger non-religious people. Please make a mod for it and call it energy-bar. But this may anger anti-sports oriented players.
And the title: Pillars of Eternity. Clearly a phallus oriented title. Maybe we should make a mod for it and call it "Small wooden beams of timelessness".....
From now on, I shall refer to my "pillar" as "The Pillar of Eternity" while mocking others for their "Small wooden beam of timelessness"...
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My rogue had a few interactions/dialogues based on her class, but they were very few. May have been some more if I'd made some different choices.
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Yes, the delay in bringing up the load and continue options on the menu are due to the number of saves. Seperate issue.
Ah okay. That's my actual issue. My other "in-game" loads/saves so far are fine. Slightly long but not game breaking.
I went into my savegame directory and deleted all of my saves prior to the last two days but that doesn't work. When you launch the game, it checks that directory and if they're missing it puts them back. I don't have that many savegames anyway so that's probably not the solution.
Try deleting them from within the game, which doesn't take very long once they've loaded. I did that to decrease the delay and they haven't reappeared on my steam version.
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OP I just... While you may have some points, claiming that you are offended basically makes me want to throw up in my mouth and automatically disagree with everything you say. Claiming you are offended sort of makes you take up a position of a helpless victim who've been victimized by a heinous crime, crying out for help while making a sharp line in the sand where the only 2 options are to agree or disagree with you. Which I absolutely despise since the truth/answer is usually somewhere in the middle. Claiming to be offended is a great way to annoy the hell out of a lot of people who might otherwise be inclined to agree with you. Disappointed? Fine. Angry? Fine. Annoyed? Fine. Offended? No, just no.
Also, games are very different from cars or computers (or a movie) as far as what to expect from initial performance, they are an entirely different kind of craftmanship and usually they are not perfected in the beginning. I simply don't expect any game to perform to 100% with zero bugs at release while I do expect my new computer with 1 day on the market to do. I don't expect a new operating system (like win10) to perform perfectly since bugs in software are far more common than in hardware.
Starting PoE with these expectations in my mind, I haven't been disappointed at all (played the game the day after it was released), though I also kept an eye on the bugs forum here between sessions to see which possible game breaking bugs that might appear. Had none of them so I guess I was lucky. But I do expect a lot more from a game that's been on the market for a year or so since again, this seems to be the norm for the vast majority of games.
Also, Shadows of Revan in The Old Republic MMO was the latest game (or expansion) I played on release day and it was a complete cluster**** as far as game breaking bugs, awful performance and using early access for bug testing, not to mention costing those who played it early a ton of in game credits ingame no refunds. Compared to that PoE was wonderfully smooth but I also realize by expectations for new releases might be VERY low as well.
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Don't take my word as the Gospel Truth, but I also wanted some social skills for my ranger without completely sacrificing combat competence (it helps that I'm playing on Easy), and think I found a decent solution.
I made a ranger with:
16 Might
16 Dex
12 Perception, Intelligence, and Resolve.
Not to give anything away, but pretty soon you'll find inn rooms and items that grant bonuses to "social stats" (though temporary with inn rooms, so time it carefully) which will give you a decent boost for those skills. While many conversations require 16-18 Int/Per/Res, a decent amount also have 12-14 Int/Per/Res checks. So if you can hold out for stat-boosting items, it's pretty satisfying. (Better than D&D-style cRPGs, where Rangers had NO social skills whatsoever.)
I'm thinking 16 Might, Dex and Int, 10 in the others. Should make me competent enough in battle, give me a fair go in most conversations while still not presenting any real weaknesses.
That's a good solid build, though I'd personally recommend 16 Might, 16 Dex, 14 Int, and 12 Perception. (And 10 everything else.)
Reason being that I've noticed that a decent amount of conversations only require 13-14 Int and/or 12 Per checks. (Resolve? No, they almost always require more...) I found the Int modifier frustrating at the starting game since I only had 12 Int, yet kept bumping into 13-14 Int dialogue options ("So close, yet so far!"), but after I got access to some Int-boosting items and inn rooms, it's been smoother sailing. 14 Int is also a pretty good spring board to hop into the desired 16 Int with items and inn rooms later, while still having 12 Perception to sprinkle onto the occasional conversation like garnish.
Getting +2 bonuses to abilities get pretty easy by ch2, and another +1 or +2 can be obtained from inns (and +4 for int), but if I want a char that can pass almost all speech checks, would I need something like 15 in per/int/res? I too seem to recall a lot more 16+ resolve options, so it seems reasonable to get that one higher.
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I'd agree with Durance for role playing reasons. Plus his initial points into it (at least on my first playthrough) makes him useful in it from the beginning. From a gameplay perspective though, I'd say either Kana or Aloth only due to their initial +1 bonus to mechanics (from their classes) which makes a lot of difference in the end if you want it as high as possible: (SORTA SPOILERISH)
Points spent for each skill point:
Skill: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
0 bonus 1 3 6 10 15 21 28 36 45 55 66 78
1 bonus 0 1 3 6 10 15 21 28 36 45 55 66
3 points 0 0 0 1 3 6 10 15 21 28 36 45 (a rogue with a mechanics background)
Since the most points a char can get is 66, that puts a nice cap to the skill depending on their bonus. IIRC you can get Durance, Aloth and Kana at lvl 2, which means they've spent up to 6 points already on other skills, meaning Durance can hit 10 and the other 2 can hit 11. And then you have an additional 5 points to spend somewhere else. And getting those gloves who boost mechanics isn't always easy to find (never found them on my first playthrough despite looting everything I could see), so having it as high as possible can be nice. Aloth is a bit squishy so I'll go with Kana for my next run. GM is usually a higher level when you get to her so not sure she can hit 11 which is why I don't consider her really.
I really wish one of the followers had at least +2 bonus to mechanics from the start, since a custom made rogue can always be 2 levels ahead of the best followers in it.
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Voted Grieving Mother, Durance is a very close second, then Sagani and Eder for shared 3rd followed by Hiravis.
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I was really, really disappointed there was no "consume the souls yourself and become godly" option
Would've been a nice bonus option for someone with a lot dialogue points in cruel and/or deceptive.
Went with Hylia, my pc sort of bonded with Grieving Mother and went from a cynical (rational) and slightly homicidal slave to someone who wanted to help the powerless while still doing as much as possible to spite those in power.
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Learned a lot of interesting things here, still feels like I got a lot to learn about the combat. I'm just wondering, am I the only one who love the 3rd level spell Expose Vulnerabilities? The AoE effect + long duration combined with lowering the DT and Deflection has made it an extremely useful debuff against most mobs for me in the game so far.
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For some odd reason, Aloth got targeted with charm almost every single time my party ran into a fampyr, other party members got targeted about 3-4 times during the entire game. So after a while I simply unequipped his weapons when I saw a fampyr and made sure no other party member targeted once he got charmed. Though sadly that's probably not a viable tactic for all playthroughs, though I'm sort of curious as to why he got targeted that often.
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"When KOTOR was a huge success,"
No more than the BGs or NWN.
"NWN graphics was a massive downgrade compared to previous IE games."
No.
Care to elaborate as to why you disagree?
from my point of view, while 3d graphics was nice from an immersion perspective, the graphics themselves were so completely lifeless and dull compared to those in PS:T, BG and similar games. While NWN2 had far better graphics, they felt far more mass produced than the area graphics from 2d games
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Min/Maxing in this game is overrated. Due to the reverse difficulty curve of the game (game starts out incredibly hard, then gets progressively easier as you reach higher levels), you can do just fine in PotD with non-min/maxed chars. I tried it.
While difficulty makes min/max more or less important, I agree that it isn't a necessity. Though this game probably have 2 extreme types of gamers with the majority somewhere in between: those who care mostly about the story and not so much about combat, and those who care far more about the challenge of combat. So for those who combat is a significantly higher focus than the RP experience, it makes sense to min/max stats and chars.
While I prefer to have characters with slightly flawed stats (don't mind the companion stats whatsoever) since they make them more interesting and realistic in my mind. I'm still on my first playthrough with an orlan melee rogue whose stats I assigned before I had a proper grasp on how the system worked, she's kinda flawed but still fun to play since it's a challenge sometimes to make things work around those flaws.
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Godlikes and the Gods
in Pillars of Eternity: General Discussion (NO SPOILERS)
Posted
Somehow, I imagine a godlike associated with Rymrgand being frostlike, sort of the an ice version of a fire godlike. That leaves death godlike free and they would fit with Berath.
A godlike from Abydon would have golem and armor features in their appearance.
Agree with some others that someone from Wael would just be an ordinary person, with some extraordinary and subtle ability. Like maybe being able to find hidden things easier, or a bonus to stealth or an amazing ability to lie?
Someone from Skaen would be corroded and scarred, looking more ghoul or zombielike.