Shadenuat

Playing with Deadly Deadfire which cuts xp by almost 30% (28% to be exact) made me realise just how ridiculous the XP gains in this game are. Even with this cut, after finishing most basic business in Neketaka and doing a quest or two outside, I am level 10 anyway and most things become very, very manageable. I am not even sure that 30% cut is enough, since I don't do stupid stuff like rushing to give out all my bounties and roll around with cargo hold full of bloody heads. Still with that 30% cut it feels a lot more like BG series, where every level after 8th or so felt earned, not just for free. The XP gains seem to be balanced for player to go around Neketaka and some main plot, gaining 5-7k xp for things like walking 10 meters from one NPC to another (like that quest with island deed near Vailian embassy), hitting level 15. Somehow I doubt even the most story loving people would like not having ANY more party growth after ~20 hours or so, in a game that takes some ~70 hours to complete. Then there's slight increase in HP, about 20%, which makes enemies not die to single fireball from Evoker or a 1-2 combo from a monk. Enemies still die quick though, and Empower is still broken and can simply 1-shot many enemies. But with PoTD armor scaling and that extra HP from mod now it takes not just spell and awesome button, but maybe a buff/debuff or two. And that's on levels ~10-12. Although it does say things about your RPG system when 300-700 hp enemies "are not strong enough". Obsidian should stop derping around with nerfing hatchets against plant enemies and fix this for their next difficulty reiteration.

It's the cheapest and one of most effective heals in the game, especially upgraded or with the right kit. Although Pallegina's stats are not great. But if you're having trouble with it, your character is either stacked with heavy equipment and weapons, or you're controlling battle wrong. Try casting it before character gets hit, interrupting enemy with something like Thrust of Tattered Veils or simply skipping an attack or two on your tank healer so character is always recovered and is ready.

Used to clear whole encounters of mobs with pike & fire chant. Now I don't even notice the extra damage. Heart of Fury is carnage.

Any dps class basically. Ydwin multi-classed is actually an excellent example. I gave her ghostlady estoc during my first playthrough and she was teleporting around, doing nothing personnel kid and casting spells.

Well yeah it makes sense. You're an intruder and door is guarded. It was strange guards would say like NO TOUCH but then you just open it from other direction and waltz in no problem.

More like in this game you don't really need scrolls anyway.

Aka that dual wielding second pseudo weapon but worse. Played it on a rogue illusionist with counter attack passive and bonuses to deflection and 20 resolve. Nothing special. Nearly not as good damage as 2 weapons, and nothing compared to survivability of a fighter or paladin.

Should shields really reduce your acc though? You get grand acc bonus for single weapon, damage (*theoretically*) and reach from 2 handers, and lol 2 weapons = double damage anime. Seems like shields might not reduce your acc at all, but could have been balanced around different defences: buckler = better deflection + parry, medium shield = some extra saves or whatever, largest = best against ranged weapons but penalty to Stride.

5k gold blessing to hire your icewinddalestormofzehir bestdudes and equip them for another hack and slash adventure and you're all set.

Common mistake. When choosing pet, choose bear. Bear stronk. Druid form? Bear. Pet-pet in inventory? Also bear. You'll have to wait until it gets some xp and perks like extra armor. But in general, pet + lay on hands tanks alright. Some of the pets are also very fat and enemies get stuck between their models and doors. Great tool. For now, you can just use pet to eat enemies opening salvo and die, while you cast chillfog on them.

I doubt they'll ever do Dark Souls/Knights of the Chalice respawns/locking player out of rest. They'll say something like "it's too stressful to lock players out of their rests". It would turn encounters into a gauntlet. Which would be awesome, but only for aforementioned 1%. Although maybe single optional dungeon could make use of that. My guess for PoE3 is just a more streamlined version of what we have now. Maybe work on encounters and make them a lot better&unique so every one makes you think which ability is best to use. Add some automatic light pre-buff system for you and enemy that would allow to put some spells like summoned weapons into there, but for player it takes money/resources/food/ingredients. Remove rest & per rest alltogether. But it's all just guessing. There might not be PoE3, and for me personally a lot of things Josh does are still very hard to understand (recently tried to explain to a friend why priest's ability did 25.9 damage to undead while having 12 base damage +20%+24%, was hilarious).

If anything sword & shield is he least attractive choice in the game, while dual wielding ninjas are le best. You can make a good tank by just slapping some super armor and items and heals on him and do fine.

You may not like what you will get. Tyranny had cooldowns. It made every combat into same monotony of rotating abilities for the win, exhausting every ability because there was no point not to.

You people really think that most modern audiences would appreciate being put into starter dungeon with wizard and skeletons, modron maze or will easily go through Curst prison? You just don't understand the level of proficiency you have even if you beaten nothing but PS:T or say NWN2. Most people are very bad, so bad you won't believe. They don't like RPGs, even if you think that combat in a particular one is "easy", you'll be suprised how hard it actually is for them. They might even not notice the "Story" difficulty you made for them before you tweet them about it. And they will still ask for something easier than story mode anyway. That's not even beginning on the discussion about that in PS:T you have to *read*, and a lot. Which is also "hard". So saying that tweaking combat to be harder is for people who "like RPGs" might seem arrogant, but in modern meta - it's more often than not correct, because the bar is lower than lowest of the low.

http://www.nma-fallout.com/threads/i-need-a-god-mode-cheat-for-planescape-torment.192097/ https://steamcommunity.com/app/466300/discussions/0/1319962173911859938/ https://www.gog.com/forum/planescape_torment/tno_vs_trias

You can't design every game system around box ticking. Rest & resource management in general is pretty important part of the core experience.

Not sure, in theory you could lose stats some other way and die (there are a few debuffs, traps, spells that can do this), but yeah it wasn't common. If it was very common, it wouldn't make these enemies special. You still did not provide explanation why you think something is a gimmick or not. I fail to see how illithid and kangaxx are in the same boat. But whatever, I think the topic was exhausted enough. I seen this discussion 9000 times especially during PoE1 development. PoE1 development I think proved that people who are for more complicated rules for bestiary instead of one design suits all were right.

Not for me anyways. But, it doesn't matter if it has exactly something like Kangaxx or not. The problem is it has nothing to replace it. Just like PoE1 first had no immunities but also did not replace them with anything. PoE can have it's own thing, maybe not the gimmicky one. What's important is that thing or things should a) deconstruct combat so you're not stuck on pressing same buttons all the time and b) it should be memorable. Vampires are a good example even if, ultimately, they are basically made of (and broken by) 1 single ability and everything else they have is not what we haven't seen before (teleport + basic class abilities). Shadows in PoE1 are another.

Dude please you're killing me. You can probably make an educated guess if your Minscs fall in close combat to some tentacle things around vats full of brains, that something might be wrong, just like when something is wrong when fighting vampires in close combat. Even if you don't figure out the INT thing right away (which I figured out by simply checking character sheets after one of the fights first time it happened), you don't need it to defeat these enemies. If you feel like melee doesn't work, you sit back, think for 2 seconds, and try ranged combat/summons because melee doesn't work for you. Even without this knowledge you will come to an effective tactic from a simple realisation that you shouldn't be hit. After this realisation, all the paths are open to you and game gives you tools for this. You are arguing against gimmicky fights that can't be won without knowing gimmick by stating multiple and many things in the game that allow you to win these sort of fights right here. Suddenly, Sawyer is wrong that you can't fight without wizards, because traps and scrolls can win against liches. Oops. I mean, I see the fact that traps are viable as a positive thing. You can fight fair, or if you're bad/lack something, use some cheesy traps. Can you use some cool traps in PoE1? I think you can install like 1 and they ****ing suck and do nothing against high level mobs. I'd prefer powerful traps to that. Basically DS bosses come in 2 variations, plus minus a combination: things that can be won by simple reflexes, and things which require guessing and may end up easier if you know some "gimmicks". Players argue that some secret boss with deep lore TM and which does something that other bosses don't is "gimmicky" (like having multiple stages or whatever) so it's "bad", but dudes in armor who only require to roll and slash them with weapons are good because they are "true skill" cause reflexes = skill. This is somewhat of a debate between souls-people. The worst example of gimmicky boss is Bed of Chaos which is basically you step onto something and lol you die (and I believe it's not optional, since it has a quest item). But there are also good examples. I think developer's explanation for this was something like "this is a lesson that sometimes... you die. and can't do anything about it." Japanese are mega philosophical like that. For Deadfire, I can say I would probably enjoy something like you walk in and oops you die happening at least once. Just to break the overall monotony of the game and feeling of total invulnerability with your super summons/foods/bombs/almost infinite money/rich XP rewards etc. Define "gimmicky". Illithid have dominate, are somewhat resistant to magic, and dangerous in melee. If that's "gimmicky" for you, I have bad news - most of D&D bestiary is "gimmicky" then. Kangaxx is a pure example of "gimmicky", it's more of a puzzle than classic enemy. You solve the puzzle, you feel smart about yourself. So? You will hate all the puzzles? If anything, what you said about Kangaxx shows that you can even defeat him with simple brute force. As you said you only need a good weapon. But the ways you can defeat/counter him are multiple. Every player will have their own story how they did it, from changing form, to using some weapon, or character like Korgan or Viconia, etc. It is ultimately a memorable thing about the game we're arguing here in 2018. Instead of arguing about packs of lions from PoE1. I wonder why.

Le patch destroying build thus ruining whole playthrough. Lmao. So much posing.

Yes, it is an optional gimmicky fight. The whole point is the gimmick. It tests your knowledge, unlike some other, more brutal fights like parties of enemies that are more about common tactics. So? This sort of thought lead to most bosses in new Dark Souls games turn into dudes in armor. Because players understand better how to mash buttons against dudes in armor and think it requires more skill.

You know what you say is somewhat ironic concidering creature abilities in Deadfire have no descriptions whatsoever and often you don't know if they are bugged or work as intended (retaliatory vampire gaze is the best); and unlike D&D, there is no monster manual to read. Not that I believe that everything, including mysterious liches, should have a ****ing manual lying around telling you how to defeat them exactly. You meet something unreal and try everything, fail, guess, swear, until you find that weak spot, exploit and win. Why is the process of repeated trying and failing - and learning, feels so punishing for many people? It's a very natural process, whole real life is almost based around it. That is not that different from fighting any battle. It's just that rules are more punishing and require more learning and knowing your abilities than average. It reminds of a recent stream of Pathfinder: Kingmaker. Dude goes into dungeon and dies repeatedly against bunch of skeletons. After a few deaths he says "Yeah, maybe I should read what my abilities actually do" and reads what his abilities do (turns out one of abilities he used was either innefective or even healed his enemies). Is it a big problem to read what Secred Word does and compare what enemy does? I'm surprised what would people think of japanese Wizardry-likes or some other JRPGs that usually have 20 afflictions in the rulebook each countered in 3 different ways. Yet for some reason these are still kinda popular. They're-- They're called "mind flayers".

Obsidian had lotsa games (heck, almost all of them except DS maybe?) worthy of replaying simply because of their stories and companions. PoE series and Deadfire especially is just not one of them. What's there to discuss? How Xoti licks your ear? There are already threads about that. I am personally waiting until fangirls will pull their **** together, up their game and since they're not allowed to marry Eder will remember good old days, when if you didn't get something, you opened notepad++ and made yourself some hot Edwin romance mod. I can't wait

The lock & key features of IE are actually exaggerated, including what Sawyer said, really. You can beat BG2 without wizards (I actually did this on my 2d playthrough when game just came out, and I wasn't even that great at reading english at time; and I am no goddamn genius). You don't have arcane spells, you can use druid's spells like insect plague or improving your magic resistance. You don't have that, priests have protections; don't have a priest, paladin kit has dispel; don't have that, there are anti-magic kits, weapons, scrolls & potions of magic defence and other counters and summons and godknowswhat. You can't protect from level drain, you can try and melt the vampires; or use summons that are immune to their effects. I think when people played these games for first time, everyone found something of their own to beat encounters they weren't totally prepared for or didn't understand their mechanics completely. I don't think anyone ever had a perfect party during their first playthrough, yet people did beat the game. The game without any locks, see PoE1 before year of patching. Slicken for days up to dragons. Even PoE2 after patching often turns into routine of rotating same abilities. Summon something. Throw some buff or heal. Press the I Always Press These Buttons buttons like gouging strike on rogue, barbarian hit on barbarian, ranger mark on ranger. Done, next. That's kinda sad to hear. Yes, Deadfire doesn't seem to have a super spike like adra dragon. Some monsters depending on level when you meet them can be tough, but they're not designed for you to completely re-think your strategy like Adra dragon was. Vampires seem closest to a truly dangerous enemy in that style.

It's very hard to judge IE games difficulty because they taught many players how to play these real time with pause RPGs. But D&D is more lethal, and has less handholding in it. Even vanilla IE games with maxed difficulty are infinitely more lethal than PoE in some of it's variations. You always have less hitpoints, the hits and crits destroy you and enemies (which is why people so often use ranged weapons in BG1 & IWD to get that early combat advantage), things like poison (anyone used antidote in Deadfire? I sell them for free moneys) and paralyze are simply brutal and can destroy characters, most of spells do truckloads of damage and only allow save for half, and there are effects that simply can't be ignored in combat less you die horribly, like confusion, level drain, and that not to mention death spells. Immunities are extremely more prevalent, and some creatures blatantly one-shot you moment you misstep (beholders, illithid), and they come in packs or even parties. Yes, if you learned solid strategy fights can easily become trivial, but that's after you learned it. Also, the fact that these games still hold up, and modded provide excellent challenge, and the fact that these whole discussions HURR TO KILL VAMPIRES YOU JUS NEED TO PREPARE THESE 3 SPELLS, EQUIP THESE 2 ITEMS AND DO THIS even exist shows that, well, PoE has ways to go. I think some people will be surprised that, even after all these years Sarevok fight in BG1 actually holds up very well as a combat encounter compared to even much of PoE content; by design it's just a very decent fight: area layered with death traps which you can't do anything about, an almost immune to magic super-brute, dude with exploding arrows, mage with a contingency effect, another high damaging brute and something extra I believe. Google "sarevok fight" and people when EE for BG1 came out ask for help on steam and beamdog forums at defeating him. Transfer 2018 and enemies like Concelhault and other seemingly "special" encounters just collapse when players arrive even somewhat leveled up and with decent equipment. After White March (which I praised for high difficulty, greatly improved encounters & epic itemization & generally saved PoE experience for me) it almost felt like a step backwards.