Infinitron

lol, I was waiting for somebody to say this. D&D had lots of spells that scaled with level. There were people who complained that PoE had multiple magic missile spells instead of just scaling up the basic one with more projectiles like in D&D. This change makes it more like the Infinity Engine games.

The big question is, how do you implement the scaling without ruining low level single-classed characters who had powerful Level 1 abilities in PoE1? For example, a full-strength Rogue Sneak Attack could make many characters with just one level of Rogue incredibly OP. But you wouldn't want to give a poor single-classed low level Rogue a nerfed 5% damage bonus Sneak Attack either.

The latest Fig update talked mostly about the mechanics of leveling up multiclassed characters, but on the way it also off-handedly dropped this bomb: https://www.fig.co/campaigns/deadfire?update=250#updates Effectively, that means that abilities and spells (all of them? only some of them?) scale with level now. Not just their chance-to-hit like in PoE1, but their actual effects as well. This is a significant change in how the Pillars of Eternity system works. It's going to be one heck of a challenge to balance.

Yes, yes, you keep bringing up how much you dislike Vancian, but the fact of the matter is that the only actual experience we have right now with per-encounter spellcasting in a PoE game is high level Wizards, Priests and Druids in pre-Spell Mastery PoE1, and it's not a great one. That's a compelling enough argument to me. Wait, do you even understand what I'm talking about. The post-release update removed (or greatly nerfed) the per-encounter bandaid.

The issue here is not just whether Vancian is good or bad. It's also that the suggested replacement for it, full-blown per-encounter spellcasting, has already proven to be a pain in the ass - see PoE1 before Spell Mastery.

One of these posts confirms that Wizard don't need to grimoire switch anymore or even need a grimoire equipped to use their spells. I hope there is a limit to how many they can learn... Without grimoires you can only take spells from level ups, so that's a pretty definite limit.

Glad to see somebody has taken over here while I was gone.

I was kind of thinking of something similar; what if all spells just consumed the same, per-rest resource, with higher level spells taking more? Wouldn’t that make it a mana system? And while I do prefer mana-based systems I haven’t really seen that many pro-mana people in D&D crowds outside of XPH lovers. Basically, just not regenerating like most modern mana systems. Just throwing ideas out there in any case, and I do like Ganrich's idea for Empower better. As for spamming, Vancian allows you to spam (relatively speaking) anyway, just limited by the number of times you can cast a spell/level. This would just consolidate all of them into consuming one resource. The point is that it doesn't allow you to spam everything you've got in one battle and then do it again in your next battle.

Possible Solution: Make the weakened per-encounter spells use the "Empower" resource too (in addition to their per-encounter limitation!), but far less of it. Noobs get to throw a decent amount of spells, grognards don't get the feeling that combat is an unlimited spamfest.

Lindsey should work on all the games

You didn't even try.

My level-halving idea ignored, bah.

https://www.fig.co/campaigns/deadfire?update=241#updates

https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3807509&userid=17931

The Divinity: Original Sin-ification of Pillars of Eternity.

http://jesawyer.tumblr.com/post/156448088931/so-weve-got-obsidians-biggest-grognard-as-lead Sort of, but not really. Something to keep in mind is that, while Bobby definitely is OEI’s biggest grognard, that means that, like me, he started playing A/D&D in the early 80s. In TTRPGs and CRPGs prior to BG2, spell counters were not as common. BG2 stands alone among A/D&D games in its heavy emphasis on them (arguably a few of the later Gold Box games, but even they weren’t as reliant on them). What Dave Williams (our lead system designer) and I have done is expand the keyword system and introduced counters between keyword types. E.g., Water can counter Fire. Note that Boiling Spray, which does Burn damage, has the Water keyword, but it will still extinguish a persistent Fire effect. In our Fig trailer, you may notice a shot around the 2:40 mark where barrels of gunpowder next to Pallegina explode. Only a Fire effect will ignite them, causing them to explode within a few seconds, but a Water effect can counter that. We have a reorganized Affliction system with a better set of counters to them and a redesigned Concentration/Interrupt mechanic that makes their use more deliberate and specific to combat circumstances. All of this is to say that hard defenses and counters are, broadly speaking, more of a part of Deadfire, but those elements are spread across the classes, not concentrated among wizard spells.

Matt MacLean and Robert Land still have their hands free (much as I'd love for MacLean to be involved in PoE2) Do they? Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky have a game that needs making.

In his own words: Hells no.

Source?

So, where can we find more info about the man? Well, here's his LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bobby-null-52155a5

January 27th: http://www.pcgamesn.com/pillars-of-eternity-2-deadfire/pillars-of-eternity-2-josh-sawyer-interview