Any_ILL

A Gatsu, Gutz or, as more commonly know, Guts is a large mammal. It has a hard black shell and a gigantic appendage similar to that of a praying mantis. Its defence mechanism also include a fairly powerful spilling limbs were its fourth limb should be. It's known to be aggressive to the point of paranoïa and it is recommended not to engage it without a professional help. Despite a fairly limited population it has caused many casualty within the naturalist community.

Thanks for all the answers, I just got a rather nice blunderbuss (might be the Lead spitter actually, I don't have the name in mind), and as I just hit lvl 6 I was still not entirely clear on Penetrating Shot, ok dex affect everything but does penetrating shot malus affect reloading time on top of attack animation? Cause if it's the case it's not only bad for pistols but it's actually a malus.

I was under the impression than might bonuses applied after DR but since you're saying it's the opposite then yes you're right might is more beneficial against armoured opponents. Although against these type of enemies I tend to use a pistol rather than a Blunderbuss (finally found one) and the difference in power between might and dexterity become less and less the highest your damage is. Especially with all those DR reduction and steal. On top of that since I'm using dexterity, my casting time have visibly reduced (especially since I have to fire a shot before starting) and my Echo play is a lot safer so I don't think I would trade that speed for additional damage on groups. On big armoured bosses or enemies I'll just have to pierce and debuff enough to negate the advantage of might over dexterity unless spells are the main damage source on those big bosses from the cipher? That has not been my experience in the few big fight I've been in but I'm fairly new yet. I'm certainly going to enchant might as soon as I can in any case! By the way, I'm not finding much in term of equipment advice (apart from weapons, there's tons of things on weapons), that's a little strange for a RPG. As for maximum focus, although I did re-specialize, It was more to correspond to my idea of an ideal and permanent balance between gameplay and RP, I'd rather avoid using the re-specialization function just to be able to get rid of a sub-par talent I've taken knowingly to make early game easier but it is good advice gameplay speaking! Yep, most of the fun in the few I've visited of the endless paths has been to discover ways to trigger the spell optimally without my cipher getting destroyed. I had to find optimal placement for my team compared to my cipher and go pull with a char that could slow a group, it was tons of fun ^^

You can get some of your NPC friend to do some actions for you though in the "textual adventures" part of the game though, There is one early on, I'm not sure how frequent these are though.

Those 16 MIG and DEX and lowered CON are bad.But Respec can help you Ranged Cipher Wood Elf. 18(19) as much damage as we can get. 10(9, we can earn item with +2MIG +1CON in Defiance Bay) 10 19 18 we need our debuffs lasts longer 3 we are ranged. We don't need RES. OK. You need great might & perception to deal your physical damage, thus regaining focus, and your powers are useless without INT. Prioritize Per over Dex as that gives lots of accuracy to your controlling powers. With low CON you can be nuked by enemy's AOE spell on Hard and PoTD, but for Normal i think dumping CON for DEX could work. Weapon:Blunderbuss. On early levels you can use war bow or pistol. Early levels - shoot, then use powers, then shoot again. 7+ level with blunderbuss use powers, shoot, use powers. A good trick that you can pre cast Pain Link and Ectopsyhic Echo out of combat, regain default focus then engage. Now I've tried dex at 16, I don't think I'll lower (or not much) it's really comfortable to use. And the multiplicative nature of might and dex makes it more optimal dps-wise and focus-generation wise until DR enters the picture (but if I'm not mistaken about how DR works, if favors attack speed more than it favors additional damage). I know might is better for power damage but dex makes it so much safer and easier to cast. As for AoE, well I'm rarely at the same spot as my party and engage a little later with Ectopsychic Echo, but even if they do nuke me with AoE, well that's all the more damage everyone else will not receive ^^. I can take a loading here and there for additional comfort when I don't get nuked. I do know about the pre-cast but I'm lvl 5, so I can't do it before next level I would guess (it's 2.5 focus per level right?) since I would need 20 starting focus. I intend to take advantage of that! I will keep your advice in mind in case the experience gets worse later on though!

@Nobear: Thanks a lot for the detailed answers. I like your point about Ruffian allowing to switch between two types of gun depending on the enemy, that's very consistent with my character. I'll probably have another of my party taking the role of Arquebusier, most likely the priest, he seems to like them and if I find that debuffing arquebus (and if the stat are more or less what I thought they would be) that will help the damage of my main character. I also succumbed to the sirens of min/maxing, dropped 2 con (at 6 now, I really need not to get attacked but then again it's only hard not PotD) and 5 Res: Might: 16 Constitution: 6 Dexterity: 16 Perception: 18 Intellect: 20 Resolve: 3 and the dex does make all the difference in the world. Even if enemies spot me, there is no way shadow can teleport before I paralize them, I can chain Mental Binding and a gunshot pretty smoothly, whisper is also a lot safer and faster. The resolve is a little low RP-wise; I mean my char is not a hero nor someone who has strong convictions, she seems pretty similar to [ACT 1 SPOILER] that animancer in Raedric's dungeons [END SPOILER] but not as inclined to do horrible thing and risk an uprising of the population but she's still very much into solving all these mysteries and 3 resolve sounds pretty low for anyone that would even consider doing the main quest. I'll survive the inconsistencies I guess ^^

I was thinking of Ducanale (just saw the stat on a wiki and oh my does this look powerful) or Pliambo per Casitas (the debuff sounds awesome) as an arquebuse, I really like the idea of a scientist with arquebuse and it seems like the arquebuse would be less hurt by low dext. I agree that dropping 2 points in intell would allow me a more decent dext but I really can't RP wise. In any case I've made my char and I don't think you can respec your attributes right? If you can I may drop 2 points from either con or res cause there's really nothing else I can sacrifice (I'm pretty sure than lowering might for dex does not result in a damage/focus boost with these kind of weapons...)

Thanks a lot for the very useful post! You're right about guns, I can just pick them thematically without committing and I'll figure out by myself wich one I like best. I guess the only problem would be whether or not I take the penetrating talent because it's 10 time better with Blunderbuss but then again I can push that one back. I will consider range and cast speed as a factor when picking spell since I'm still considered very squishy. Thanks everyone for the advices, I guess I'm going to start now!

Guns really seem to fit my character's personnality both statistically and psychologically, which means I probably shouldn't lower my perception if I want to avoid disastrous miss and stay consistent. Thanks for the information on gun reloading, that's exactly the kind of thing I needed to know. How does this new stat spread looks: 16 8 10 18 18 8 or should I go 10 con for 6 resolve? What's the reasoning behind taking a hit being more important than avoiding interruptions? I'm going to look at the guide you linked me, in the meantime if anyone has any insight into the choice of the type of gun (normal gun? Blunderbuss? Arquebuse? I am partial to arquebuse myself...), what you think of this stat spread in hard difficutly or how ability damage scales, tell me!

Hello everyone, I'm a "new" players of Pillars of Eternity (backers, I have started a game before for a few hours but never got time to finish it) that wants to seriously invest in the game now. The character I want to build is a Death Godlike Cipher. She's a scientist from the Living Land with high intelligence and perception above everything. So I went for something like this: Might: 14 Constitution: 6 Dexterity: 14 Perception: 18 Intellect: 18 Resolve: 8 I am still undecided about a few things: first the dump stats, is it better in 2.0 to dump in con or resolve? RP speaking low but not too low resolve and very low con seems more logical, but what about gameplay, is it better to be able to take more damage or to be able not to be interrupted while casting. Does 8 resolve make any difference from 6 in term of not being interrupted? And perception. I want to use Gun (or Blunderbuss, since apparently it's not the same thing/edit: Oh there are arquebuses too? What about that) cause... Might as well use the latest tech, I find it cool. What's the best option of the two with high perception? Furthermore, does going up to 18 open me more options than lowering to 16 (dialogue speaking for example, that's probably the most important part for me) or should I lower to 16 to balance it with 16 might? I'm also kind of confused by the ability numbers, I don't see how they scale. Does they only scale with base stats? So the only way to ever increase your ability powers is to get items with bonus on these stats (which will barely increase the power by a dozen percent)? How does it all work, and without the scaling, how can I know which ability will dish the best damage long term? Do the ability always have the same relative damage to one another? I'm very tempted by the Eyestrike/Soul shock combination at level one (powerful debuff + easy damage), why did I read that it was a poor damage spell later on? I've tried to read information on the net and some on the sticky but I'm still not entirely clear (especially since it's harder to find post patch infos). Oh and I intend to play on hard difficulty, not Path of the damn.

I didn't felt ripped off after seeing Empire Strikes back even if I paid for a full movie and the story only ended in Return of the Jedi (granted that might be because I saw return 5 min later and I didn't actually pay anything to watch it at my friend but you get my point). The important thing is not that there are one or two expansions, or that they follow -or not- the same storyline. The important part is that each feels like a distinct and complete experience. For all the ****storm it provoked, I liked what they did in starcraft 2 (not in term of writing, god no, in term of story balance between the main game and the first expansion and the fact that each had its own definite themes and conslusion).

God I've been looking for information about the game all day and all I could read was about this meaningless argument. Thanks for brightening my day mate. Anyway, I hope the game is selling well because as much as Wasteland 2 and Divinity were good games, I sincerely belive PoE is better. It's a true success and I'm sincerely happy I backed it. I wish Obsidian the best of luck for future sale numbers!

Why is it so surprising? Well when you examine for example the number of XBox 360 sold in NA and EU, you find somthing like 70% more in NA, in general 2 of the 3 consoles are vastly more popular in NA. When you look at the number of server some "traditionnal" MMOs have, there is not an european "supremacy" either (for example wow has pretty much as much US servers than EU ones). But apparently when it concerned active forum member for Pillars of Eternity, there is about 55% more european than people from the rest of the world. It's not obvious so I can understand it being surprising ^^ I suppose Mr Sawyer is right and that is the main factor, Anyway to answer the original question, I'm from France myself, Paris.

Already done it two time these days, going from 20 to 35 then to 50. I'm not rich enough to pledge "at loss" (or even pledge more sadly) so I won't be able to go higher :/

First, there is a difference. Homosexuality is something that has existed in every culture, at every moment, in every place of the world. Sometimes hidden and punished, sometimes openly but it's universal at least in the human species. I have a hard time imagining how something so incredibly important cannot be included if other mature theme (and especially if any sexual theme) is present inside the game, even more when the game itself want to ensure the immersion of the player in a credible world. They could maybe not include it if they want to create a 100% heterosexual human species, but they will need to justify this choice (as well as any difference with the real world)