rjshae

This is an illusion, though. Wizards pump INT here just as they do in D&D. Look at the build lists and look at how many Wizard builds involve maxed or at least strong INT scores. Look at how many Fighter builds involve maxed or at least strong MIG scores. No, that does not demonstrate it's an illusion. The attribute design was intended to make multiple possible builds be viable. The fact that many player's Wizard builds involve high Int does not disprove that. It only shows that a high Int Wizard is what many players conceive of as a "strong" Wizard character. What would demonstrate it is an illusion is several playthroughs using a low Int (but otherwise well-designed) Wizard, which all show it is a piss-poor non-viable character. Yes, and a low INT Wizard (just as a low INT virtually anything) is a piss poor non-viable character in Pillars. Compare a character with minimum INT to a character with maximum INT and tell me there's not a massive gulf in strength and usability. INT controls too many core elements to be anything but a god stat for basically every character (doubly so for characters who use a lot of spells... such as Wizards!) A Wizard with low INT will have spells which are effectively single-target when they should have a small AOE, will have DOT's and debuffs that last a couple of seconds when they should last several, will not be able to substantially benefit from short-term buffs like Eldritch Aim, etc. I swear, time after time, all these people acting like Pillars doesn't have god stats and dump stats just must not have ever really paid any attention to the system or tried a variety of builds. Once you start doing that it becomes immediately obvious that Might and Intelligence are the best stats, and stats which EVERY class and role wants. It's absolutely no different from classes having assigned primary attributes in D&D. It just gives the illusion otherwise. It may help if you looked at this issue from a different angle. The point of the attributes system in PoE is to allow multiple different builds to be viable. That does not mean that every attribute needs to be equally weighty to each class. Indeed, every class has a few slightly more favorable attributes and a few less favorable. So what? The point is you can still build a decent character even if you don't max out those favored attributes. Regardless of whether Might and Int are the marginally better stats for a Wizard, they do not limit the types of builds you can have. A player can build a playable Wizard with average to sub-par Might and Int, if they want to focus on a different play style. Does that make sense? If you want a properly balanced attribute system, you play Champions and accept the extra complexity. It isn't needed for PoE.

I held off on finishing my last playthrough because I didn't want to undergo the final now-pointless boss battle again. I wonder if that means I won't be able to import that character into PoE2?

There are plenty of spells available that mostly deal damage and/or have effects that last for a short duration. These are going to be least impacted by a low Int. To me it's mainly a matter of tuning your spell selection to your attributes. Low Mig/High Int: go for Aoe spells with long durations; High Mig/Low Int: targeted spells with short durations; Low Mig/Low Int: maybe jack up your Dex and Per, focusing on rapidly spamming a target with damage spells.

iZombie is back up and running. Seems like Seattle may become the first zombie nation. The fix for that, of course, is more coffee.

Now all we need is to clone a Megalodon so we can strap the frickin' laser to its forehead.

This is an illusion, though. Wizards pump INT here just as they do in D&D. Look at the build lists and look at how many Wizard builds involve maxed or at least strong INT scores. Look at how many Fighter builds involve maxed or at least strong MIG scores. No, that does not demonstrate it's an illusion. The attribute design was intended to make multiple possible builds be viable. The fact that many player's Wizard builds involve high Int does not disprove that. It only shows that a high Int Wizard is what many players conceive of as a "strong" Wizard character. What would demonstrate it is an illusion is several playthroughs using a low Int (but otherwise well-designed) Wizard, which all show it is a piss-poor non-viable character.

It might be entertaining to have a few characters that speak the common tongue poorly, but can communicate well in certain regional dialects. If you share a common background then you get the full interaction with more options, and you receive a reaction bonus of some sort.

If they are going to develop another game set in the Forgotten Realms, I'd rather see it based in a whole new locale. How about letting us explore Algarond or Chondath, for example?

I just tried working an example. In D&D v3.5, a +2 Con adds a +1 to hp total. For a fighter, a 1d10 hp/level gives an average of 5.5 hp/level. So the +1 hp increases the total for the fighter by about 18% for a +2 Con. In PoE, a +2 Con gives a +10% health and endurance. It's similar for Str and damage: +2 Str increases long sword 1d8 (~4.5) by +1, for a 22% damage bonus. In PoE a +2 Mig gives a +6% damage bonus. To me it looks like PoE has scaled attribute impacts back by roughly half or more. But that may be to balance out lack of level scaling for spell damage, as well as other factors. I think we would need to look at the entire picture.

Whoops, double-post -- sorry.

Hmm, this topic has already been heavily debated with little consensus reached between the two sides. The main concern seems to be that dealing direct damage is the only way to build a good Wizard (or a good Druid for that matter). This is simply a false assertion. However, I do think it's incumbent upon the developers to make it possible to build a Wizard that can inflict direct losses on the enemy forces without the need for a high Might score. That might require things like providing more longer duration spells that apply damage over time. For example, maybe your wizard will need to exchange a Fireball spell for a Pool of Fire spell.

It might be easier to implement the reverse: have individuals who express a preference for a particular race and gender. That way the developers only have to code for one possibility rather than many. "Well, since you're a... one of those... divinely touched, I'll even throw in an extra 100cp to appease the gods. Blessing of Magran upon you, brother."

When you say "you", presumably you mean 'you' rather than 'us'. I usually don't track the battle logs in cRPGs in enough detail to notice what difference the attributes make, but the differences are still there in terms of the raw data. You would normally notice the stats in D&D because of the skill modifiers. In PoE, you notice the attributes during the scripted interactions.

Idk why you've put Llengrath to easy ones, for me it was the hardest (solo) Phantoms in Caed Nua - only few of classes can beat them solo, better to stealth out. I think he meant lagufaeth, that being the Pillars equivalent to the sahuagin, instead of Llengrath. I think those were pretty easy to beat myself. It depended a lot on your level. For me they started out being quite a challenge, and by the time I'd leveled up a bunch they were trivially easy.

No, pumping up both stats creates a versatile Wizard, just like pumping up Cha and Dex creates a versatile Rogue in D&D. You don't need a high Mig to cast deleterious alacrity of motion, expose vulnerabilities, confusion, dimensional shift, slicken, curse of blackened sight, bewildering spectacle, merciless gaze, &c.

Here's NWN2 Plug #12:

This isn't true. Compared to D&D, they've actually expanded the range of possible Wizards. You can now have a stupid brute who can cast targeted damage-causing arcane spells in a powerful manner. This just isn't possible with a game system where arcane magic is entirely dependent on Int. You can still play a physically weak but mentally powerful Wizard by focusing on AoE spells and non-damage spells. In many battles, a larger area will more than make up for a diminished damage rate.

Might in PoE isn't anything except a representation. One may choose to intepret it in a certain way, but it isn't defined as a specific physical property. I choose to interpret it as muscle power that serves as a magical capacitor; you choose to view it as a property of the mind. Either way works; they both could be wrong.

Must a godlike always have a unique head that prevents wearing a helmet? Couldn't they have, say, unique feet that prevent wearing shoes?

It's not at all abhorrent. Sounds like a sensible option to me. I'd like to see them take it even further and provide an optional After Action Report with different levels of detail. But I know that wouldn't be a priority.

Gen. Michael Hayden: N Korea will make nuke capable of hitting Seattle! Situation will be dire as soon as they can hit a city worth saving. — Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) April 6, 2017 Disregarding the pure evil nature of her statement, implying that an opponent can strike a U.S. city without repercussions will encourage that opponent to do so. The only logical position is to say that a strike on any U.S. city is a strike against the entire country, be that city Seattle, Detroit, New Orleans, or M. Coulter's kitchen.