limaxophobiacq

For combining fighting and magic, the options are generally Cipher, Chanter, and Paladin. Of those three, Cipher is more offensive and fragile while Chanter and Paladin are more tanky. Ciphers also require more micromanagement than the other two while Chanters require the least. Chanters are the most bard-like but the stats and equipment they want is very different than Baldurs Gate bards, they are best with high intelligence, might, and constitution, low dexterity (they gain very little from it), heavy armor and shields.

Main, otherwise I wouldnt think disposition would matter.

If they nerf it to not stack it should at least be increased to -10 (it was originally supposed to be -20 non-stacking after all). Given that another weapon property gives other people +10 accuracy to target the same enemy as you and doesnt require you to hit them leaving it at just -5 seems pretty weak in comparison.

Actually this seems to be a problem with many (all?) abilities that have a two seperate saves, only the first seems to get the level bonus. These are cipher powers, the second difficulty should be 5 points lower but they're actually 19 points lower at level 14.

I can't get faith and conviction over 8 (or 8.8 but it rounds down) deflection even with DispositionAddPoints to get 4/4 in my favored disposition, and I had to level up after raising them to get that to work. Is this a bug or a nerf? 8.8 seems a weird number to cap at so it feels like a bug. It used to cap at +11 deflection +22 fort/ref/will.

The two of them have probably the worst attributes of all companions save the Devil of Caroc. Palleginas attributes are a bit less bad but she's stuck with Flames of Devotion which isn't good at all for her. You could probably use a real tank though if you are going to have Edér go two-handed.

So to be clear, that (still in 3.0 beta) the -5 to defenses from Disorienting stacks with itself if multiple durations overlap is intended? It was just the original description text that was wrong?

Barbs dont need to be berserkers though, Frenzy is optional.

One part (the regular Daze from Interdiction) seems to get the level bonus to accuracy (+14 for level 14) while the other does not. Don't know if this is new for 3.0 or if it was always like this.

Many classes can heal (though priests are still probably the best at it) but for buffing defences you definately want a priest, the 'Prayer against' spells are lifesavers and with 3.0/white march will give you immunity to hostile effects.

Int isn''t really more crucial for barbarians than it is for Priests or Wizards though. I'd say actually a bit less than it is for Priests. As a priest most the things you do are area & duration based, while barbarian abilities are area (x)or duration based. I don't feel it's fair to say there aren't different ways to build barbarians. Going for on-hit effects or interrupts (high Dex and Perception) or damage (Might) certainly affects how you choose your attributes.

I find it a rather charming quirk of the system. I wouldn't want carnage or frenzy changed to not depend on Intelligence. I like for bonuses/penalties from attributes to consistent, if Int says it increases durations and AoEs then it should affect all durations and AoEs.

For priest I'd go: 1. Halt (I feel this doesn't get enouch love, in many fights it lets you just ignore the thoughest enemy while cleaning up the trash and it's Fast. Would be withdraw if it actually did what it says it does.) 2. Consecrated Ground (Doesn't feel wrong to just use this at the start of every fight.) 3. Dire Blessing (It's always usefull and it's Fast.) 4. Devotions for the Faithful or Shining Beacon (Depends on how many weapon-users, including weapon-summoning wizards, you have.

I'd have infinitely prefered they just make every ability and spell in the game per-encounter instead. This just means you can't go through as many trash mobs as you used to before you have to rest.

Note on Interrupting Blows if you dont have 15+ perception: You are better of buying down Might 5 points and Perception up 5 points and taking savage attack rather than taking Interrupting Blows, both give same accuracy and interrupt but savage attack gives +20% damage vs +15% for 5 might.

Deprive the Unworthy is pretty buggy, it also has no save and just 'affects' anyone you use it on like if it was a friendly effect rather than getting a hit/crit/graze/miss (http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/79617-deprive-the-unworthy-autohit/). Makes the Thaos fight kind of a joke and enemy paladins way more dangerous than they should be. This should probly be Technical support as another bug.

I haven't actually used a chanter since 1.06, when was Dragon Slashed damage (and chants in general) changed to account for Might? It always used to list modified damage when you took it on level-up but just apply the base damage if you looked at the combat log. Attributes not meaningfully affecting chants was a big part of why i completely stopped using them.

In addition to being item dependant, barbs also strongly benefit from buffs if you want them to really shine. F.ex. if you're running them with a small shield as an interrupting off-tank, Crowns for the Faithful not only gives them a defensive bonus like it does for all tanks and off-tanks, but also gives them a big bonus to their offence by increasing carnage AoE and their interrupts. Barbarian with a priest and barbarian without a priest are quite far appart in effectiveness. As a class, barbarians have pretty bad innate stats, and beyond their starting ability and savage defiance their abilities aren't all that great (compared to what say a rogue gets), but their starting ability is great and has huge synergy with items and buffs. The class is really all about carnage and finding something it synergizes well with.

Funny, on forums I'm usually on you'd have been banned for a month, others would have been warned, and the thread closed. Personally I find moderation here to be a bit to relaxed.

'Low effort' is not an opinion or a feeling, it is a statement about the work required to design a certain system. In this case you are simply wrong, it does not take less effort to design an elegant system than an 'interesting' one.

Not giving you 100% hit chance (which also isn't really true, you will practically always hit a paralyzed enemy in PoE) doesn't make a spell more 'interesting', just more powerfull, and no one can dispute that PoE spells are powerfull enough.

1. Yeah, but it overwhelmingly represents creatures you wouldn't think of as beeing the targets of a hunter the way creatures in the beast group are. Which is probably why hunters insticts was clearly originally intended to work against beasts and not primordials. 2. There's lions on that very map, and if you take a right into Stormwald Gorge and Dyrford theres more of them and then beetles and spiders.

You certainly seem to have made up your mind to what kind of system you prefer, but please stop calling the one you don't like a sign of "low effort". Designing spells with little thought for balance and just making up a new mechanics for every spell rather than making a coherent system that encompasses all of them is not a sign of hard design work. Also, the people actually making the IE games did none of that (IMO questionable) work, it was already done for them in AD&D, which was an evolution of years of work by many writers over the years since 1e.

Can only echo Abbzug and say that's a really smart use of spelltongue. Wouldn't you get better dps if you switch ring of overseeing for a ring of deflection so you can substitute bracers of deflection for gauntlets of accuracy or vambracers though? You already have pretty good AoE expecially if you are wearing Dunryd Demon over Gharod's Chorus.

Spells are boring and strong in a boring way. Spells give noticeable debuffs to enemies and help finish combat faster in PoE but they are implemented in a bad way that makes them seem bad. In IE games you have Sleep, Hold Person or Horror. All 3 spells let you finish combat faster but it was not through just reducing some enemy defenses but through changing the battlefield. Closest PoE has at low levels is Knockdown. In IE you have Magic Missile which was your dependable spell, PoE has Missiles of magic that just give a bit more accuracy. Magic Missile in IE has multiple purpose: it always hit, it did force damage which almost nobody was immune to and it was cast fast and you could interrupt enemy casting with it. I did low damage as a negative but you always had most lvl 1 spell slots so you could have many of them . PoE magic Missiles do nothing else but what 10 other spells in PoE do. PoE is full of same spells with a bit different flavor that at best change around the amount of numbers they change on enemy defenses while in IE games spells had different mechanics and changed how the game played. Being blinded meant no longer being able to target single target spells, while being invisible meant none could target you directly. Mirror Image didn't just give some deflection bonus but actually changed mechanics and gave you a chance to hit the caster or image. PoE took easy way out with spells when compared with IE, it is low effort game and it shows. I hope they overhaul the spell system for PoE 2. 'Every other spell has it's own entire system' I not really very elegant design, and D&D rules except for 4th edition can best be described as a glorious mess. I think PoE in general strikes a good balance at beeing something between 4e and other editions of dnd (more so than 5e does). Sleep and Hold person also have equivalents other than spells that inflict prone. Stuck, Hobbled, Stunned, and Paralyze all do something other than lowering defenses or accuracy, as does Confusion, and Horror effects in IE were such a pain having to hunt down fleeing enemies I didn't think anyone used them. The thing magic missile does where it always does a little bit of damage can be done in PoE with any spell that does Raw damage. AD&D 2e (the system in the IE games) is not really a system like anyone would actually set out to design, it is a collection of disjointed mechanics accumulated over the lifespan of D&D. PoE on the other hand is a more consciously designed system were thought was put in beforehand into what kind of effects one would want in the system, supporting them in the mechanics, and then putting those effects under different spells, instead of over years comming up new spells with new effects and then inventing new mechanics for each of them.