Ink Blot

As noted, the idea is that the story is more personal and is about your character. Your party members, while they can't contribute in convos, can sometimes interject comments in conversations, and you can many times choose to use whichever you want in scripted events (the story board cut scenes). I believe Obs went this direction so you couldn't get all the options available during one playthrough.

Check this thread: http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/76075-gloves-of-2-mechanics-minor-spoiler/

You don't need to move your quest items into your inventory. In fact, I don't think you can anyway. If the quest item is in the stash it should automatically be used where you need it. If it's not working then you either don't have the proper key, or you've encountered a bug.

Be mindful of your patch versions though.

Yes, it is.

This, of course, presumes I have a Druid, which I don't. As for the Rogue, that's an option, certainly, and can work in some situations. But sometimes it's not possible to use her. That specific situation aside, the fact that if you pass by any hostile critter then you're suddenly stuck in an engagement web and stop moving completely, is annoying as hell. *edit* As a note, I feel the Attack of Opportunity in D&D was a decent mechanic. You could still suffer a penalty for moving past a critter in combat, but you weren't tethered to them.

It's also damned frustrating that if you decide to eat the disengagement attacks (like trying to save your wizard from shadows, for example) as soon as you pass a mob while heading somewhere, you're automatically engaged and the character stops moving. Several times, I've tried to run my tank or DPS back through the crowd to help out my Cipher or mage which involved running by three or four mobs. The engagement stops them cold every single time. By the time I finally get the bloody character disentangled the Cipher/mage is pretty much floor polish.

Gotta agree. The Engagement system is a good idea on paper. In-game it doesn't shine. At all. I also find the combat to be rather boring, which is a shame, seeing how there could be a lot of potential here. And I also tend to agree with the assessment of the story. It's almost like they put so much effort into the combat that they forgot there should be a great story attached as well. And yeah, I guess Monte Carlo summed it up pretty well: I ain't feeling it.

FFS, does it always have to degenerate to this? I like Skyrim. A lot. For what it is, it's a great game. Doesn't mean I suffer a lower IQ than the rest of humanity. Jeebus.

Caster, presumably, since it means they recover quicker and can off more spells during combat. Although I've found that any mobs that aren't actively tied up with engagement with your tanks will make a beeline right to your lowest armored party member, which tends to be your casters. So keep that in mind.

I believe it's two attacks, as it acts like wielding two weapons. Wait for confirmation though. Side note: does this also grant a knockdown effect? I seem to see some mobs being knocked down sometimes without me actually activating the talent, so I wonder if that's a component of Shield Bash as well.

Unfortunately, I find I'm agreeing with this. I've turned the difficulty setting down on my game (to normal) so I can resolve the battles quicker just due to the tedium. It's rather disappointing, as this is what I think of when Dragon Age 2 is mentioned, where I did the same thing just so I could finish the game quicker and see the story. The combat is, very unfortunately, not even close to a high point in this game, as far as I'm concerned.

Cipher, although you'll likely find you default to only a couple or three spells that you end up using 90% of the time. As noted, you'll get companions to add to the party so you'll get a taste of other classes as well (unless you plan to solo), so no need to fret too much about your main's class.

As noted, you pretty much end up swimming in consumables and they can be bought at most vendors anyway. Use 'em with abandon. Upgrade your armor and weapons as you find better items. As for combat, just throw your tanks into a chokepoint (like a doorway) and pew pew with your others. There are very rare occasions where this won't work to win the encounter in short order with little to no damage to your party. Use the priest to buff your party/debuff enemies. Use Chanters to buff and summon. Use the mage to pew pew with spells.

I'm just going to take this opportunity to whine about you whining about the whiners whining about entitled whiners.

The rest will attempt to mob the tank, ignoring your back-line unless somebody engages. That's not been my experience. Anything not engaging my tank/fighter just bypasses them and makes a beeline right for my Cipher. Every time. My Cipher has more knockouts on her record sheet than any other party member.

Thanks, I actually found the item code a few minutes ago. Appreciate the reply though.

As far as I'm aware the Grimrock games are FP perspective, which I loathe. So, even though I've not played Grimrock 2, it's an easy choice for me... PoE.

So I got all the parts for the Blade of the Endless Paths and returned to Dunstan to have it reforged. "Great", thinks I, "that was a pain in the ass to gather, so it will be nice to have a nifty blade to swing at the mobs". So Dunstan forges the sword and I get... nothing. I've checked my stash and my individual character inventories 4 times. It ain't there. Nor is he hiding it in his store, attempting to sell it to me. I thought perhaps I needed to let time pass and then talk to him again. No dice. No convo option to say "Yo, Dunster, gimme mah pointy stick". So I'm stuck wondering what went wrong. Dunstan, why you take my sword? Anyone have this issue? Anyone know the item code for it so I can spawn it in? I wants me two-handed razor.

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Assuming this isn't a troll attempt: Are you complaining about the banter/talks with the recruited NPCs? If so, just make your own and leave them behind. Or ignore them. Or are you talking about the dialog/script in the overall game? If that's the case, I have to ask if you did any research whatsoever into what you were getting with this game? All that onerous reading is one of the big selling points of the game, as it's heavily story driven. Having said that, it's probably easy enough to just ignore the dialog, click through it without reading, and just choose options at random. You'll still be able to finish the game, I think. Conversely, perhaps it's just not the game for you. I'd say you may want to avoid CRPGs and concentrate on ARPGs instead. And just a heads up: don't bother with Torment:Tides of Numenera when it releases. It's going to have even more dialog than this one.

Since properties from items don't stack, I don't see why there aren't separate slots, although I guess you might be able to powergame some separate properties, causing the downfall of civilization as we know it, degenerative gameplay, and general anarchy. But yeah, I'd like to see separate slots as well. I guess if there's any objective angle at all, it's that the IE games had separate slots, so...

You mean like... Athkatla?

wrong. they even added story modes to IWD and BG, specifically for people who want to play for the story and visuals. for this game, as others have mentioned, you can use the console to make it so you take no damage in any given combat. just open the console, and type: GodMode the rest of the commands and instructions are here: http://rien-ici.com/iemod/console that should get you through any of the fights you are finding difficult. all that said, I don't expect a real story mode for this game to be released for quite some time; could be months at least. Actually, just to play the pedant, the command is just: god

I haven't made it as far as Twin Elms yet, so can't comment on that, but I found Defiance Bay had its good and bad points. The five districts is very reminiscent of Baldur's Gate, of course. And as has been noted, there was quite a bit of cool stuff in Ondra's Gift and I also thought Copperlane was pretty solid. But I found First Fires and Brackenbury quite light on content. And they seemed small. Not a lot of buildings to poke around in (although the loading times would make entering and leaving a lot of non-plot related buildings somewhat tedious). I was also amused at the 'Kirkwall feel' of it, as I think of it. Specifically, the comment as you're entering about the influx of refugees and yet when you're wandering the city you're kind of left wondering "So where are they hiding these thousands of refugees?" At least, I felt that way. I think overall, what pulls Defiance Bay up short is that the areas are actually relatively small, and there just doesn't seem to be the bustle of activity that there was in Baldur's Gate or Athkatla. So it really doesn't have the feel of a big city. More of a large town, I guess. Don't misunderstand me though, I really like the city, but I feel it could be so much more. The potential there is enormous.