Jojobobo

If not for her being a Godlike with a freakishly shaped head. I always thought it was a little stupid that things like the Crossed Patch and Arret Munacra aren't wearable by Godlikes. I find the idea that they can't wear helmets a little ridiculous too, even if they can't wear standard helmets someone would be able to smith a custom design that would work for them.

Scrolls of Confusion are your friend (or just the spell if Aloth has it), drop one on the group and with a little luck the Blights (who I think are immune to it, to lazy to check) will turn on the Adragans - either that or you'll probably avoid them attacking you (attacking you is a 1/4 chance, as is doing nothing, wandering or attacking their buddies - so you're more likely to get a favourable outcome). Either that, or you can use Arret Munacra to charm two of the three while focussing your efforts on the last one. Or, as others have said, just leave them and come back. Adragans are always a monumental pain, there's nothing wrong with saving them for later.

I've come to the conclusion that the lists can be a bit fickle, especially if you leave an area and then come back to it. However, on my latest playthrough I got everything I planned for (the good old day 4 at Raedric's Keep, netting you Gloves of Manipulation, Belt of Bountiful Healing and Boots of Stealth) so I don't think they've changed. As digited mentioned on the previous page, your character's name apparently can also affect loot lists - for whatever reason however this almost never happens to me, which is why I think most of my problems of from revisiting areas, etc.

I don't really think I cherry picked, I just demonstrated that a lot of the Scientology principles are represented in some form or another (without I would say forcing the analogies) in the game. This doesn't mean to say the game is inspired by Scientology per se, just that it's coincidental otherwise. I'm also not really talking about the themes running through either, games possess narrative themes that tend not to run directly through an entire religion. If you consider souls and their place in the world to be a theme however, I would say that it's a fairly central theme to both Scientology and Pillars (so long as you approximate a soul as a Thetan, which sound extremely similar) - with Scientology being far more concerned about your soul as a physical entity than a lot of mainstream religions. Their religion focusses on that one aspect to a extremely large degree, other religions though they care about souls tend to be a bit more multifaceted. I also said that I don't see it in anyway agreeing with the goals of Scientology or serving as propaganda (as mentioned Thaos, arguably the pinnacle of what Scientologists would want to achieve, seems hell bent on obscuring rather than revealing knowledge as Scientologists claim they want to do), but you can obviously borrow from a religion's spiritualism (and by spiritualism, I mean philosophical principles of the spirit being a distinct thing and its place in the world) and dogma as a source of inspiration without sharing in its goals. I think the specific links are the whole soul cycle (which could have come from other sources as you say), the ideas that souls can be awakened to gain knowledge of past lives and this knowledge is often problematic (though most reincarnate with no knowledge and live in ignorance), that you can use scientific method and principles to (more or less) cure problems arising from past lives or problems with your soul you currently have for other reasons, that mastering your soul and gaining full knowledge of your past lives produces enormous power (Thaos), and that the chief organisation in the game has a rigid hierarchy where knowledge is actively obscured from members on a need to know basis. Obviously as I mentioned above Scientologists see the immortal part of themselves as an actual race, but taking it for what it sounds like (an immortal thing that reincarnates) it does seem more or less in line with what the conventional notion of what a soul can mean to others outside the religion. I think that's a whole bunch of things that are quite specific, or even if you don't see them as being specific enough, when you take them as a whole there is a large volume there overlaps with Scientology. Obviously they could have pulled the lore from all sorts of myths and fiction as well as other religions, but when there's one religion that encompasses large parts of the game's spiritualism certainly drawing from that one source would be easier. As you say, the game's religion (the created gods, etc.) undoubtedly draws from a different source - but religion can of course be separate from the game's spiritualism (again by this I mean the principle that the spirit is distinct from matter and by extension how it interacts with the world). If the game is anything to go by the literal system of souls being continually reincarnated and being a tangible thing that you can interact with existed before the creation of the gods (the Engwithans used their soul knowledge to make the gods, and did much other experimentation as seen in the Endless Paths plus all their machinery) and so it the game they are somewhat exclusive concepts (the soul stuff is not contingent on the existence of gods), so naturally they can draw from different sources of inspiration. I'm also not trying to claim that Scientology is the game's only source of inspiration, just that for the stuff concerning souls (which is a huge part of the setting) there seems to be a lot of shared concepts and principles. Naturally we'll never know unless one of the writers chimes in, but that's the point - discussing whether the validity that it could have served as a source of inspiration. For me personally, when I first played Pillars or when I was hearing about the setting in the backer process, I had no idea where they could possibly be pulling inspiration from as the whole thing seemed so alien (souls being a tangible physical thing that can be interacted with directly, there being more or less a science of souls in Animancy, etc.) - but after learning a bit more about Scientology many of those extremely unfamiliar concepts seemed to be covered by the religion.

I've always thought a 1 Int moron build might be quite fun (Int 3 with Ultimate Hat of Alluring Perfection), I guess a Paladin is probably best for the job as with their naturally high defences you're less dependent on Scrolls of Defence (which are worthless with low Int more or less) to get those defences up.

Agreed with Boeroer, the game gives multiple ways to complete many of the areas of the game without conflict (even Llengrath) so I don't really get the issue. If you do want to kill the Dragon, there are plenty of ways and builds that will let you do it, even on solo. I killed the Alpine Dragon solo PotD in around 3 minutes no sweat, it really is just a matter of tactics and buffing. I would say Llengrath, on the other hand, is a pretty challenging fight with no easily exploitable weaknesses - but that still doesn't mean it's not doable. I for one, really enjoyed all the main boss fights. They were a definite highlight of the game for me.

No I think their fine, their defences are good so they're capable at tanking what solo PotD has to offer them. I think on the whole they can play a little bit blandly however, a lot like a Paladin, so I'd have a look at the different builds in the archive at the top of this sub-forum and select one made with a particular interesting quirk you like the sound of.

I don't know, I think it's mainly the specifics, like empirical approach to working with the soul and especially what Thaos can do when he unlocks his soul's potential (which I do think are quite specific to Scientology). I guess Plato's Immortality of the Soul philosophy does also seem to share a lot with the spiritualism of the reincarnation cycle, and there's a lot of other religions with a reincarnation cycle too, but that there was more to the comparison I made. Scientology is almost certainly a mishmash of other ideas, but it has been shaped into some with its own characteristics which are distinct from its inspirations - at least to me. From what I've heard as well, most religions with reincarnation believe in karma weighing them down - which from my understanding works as a negative force that determines what the reincarnate as or affects their life. By contrast in Pillars and Scientology it seems like baggage from past lives is a material negative experience that can be corrected or treated, and not a negative energy that effects your life. It's again a more quantifiable and physical interpretation of what can come out of a past life, as opposed to a rather abstract sense of karma (the difference between here's a thing that happened and I can remember from past life and I can treat it, compared to bad things are befalling me though I have no recollection of what I did in my past life that caused that to happen). Personally, I've also never heard of anything espousing the spiritualism (in fiction or otherwise) that is found within Pillars, except Scientology where it does seem to be pretty similar. While it can be influenced by other sources, and I'd be interested in hearing if this particular brand of spiritualism is present elsewhere (i.e. the soul cycle, and that you can physically deal with souls, and that you can master your soul and more or less unlock your potential in a manner linked to past life memories), to me Scientology does appear to be something that encapsulates these ideas specifically and so can very likely have been a source of inspiration.

So I watched the live-screening Louis Theroux's documentary on Scientology last night (it was okay, not great), but what did strike me is there seem to be a lot of parallels between Scientology and Pillars of Eternity. My Scientology knowledge has been pieced together from the documentary last night and through a bit of lazy reading on the internet this morning, so if anyone has more expertise on the area or want to mention where I'm misinformed about Scientology please do. This also isn't a thread to criticize Scientology in any way, just to draw parallels with its spiritualist outlook and what is presented in the game (before people claim I'm some sort of religious bigot). Here go my complete lay-man observations: 1) Scientolgists believe that every person is an immortal Thetan (a race of supremely powerful beings, but also more or less the soul itself), who dies, undergoes assumption (reincarnation) and then dies again - repeating the process ad infinitum in ignorance of their past lives (unless you of course adhere to Scientology). This spiritualist viewpoint to me seems identical to how it works in Pillars, with people dying, being returned to the Wheel, and being reincarnated - often with ignorance of their past lives, or when they do have knowledge of their past lives it is often harmful. From the UK Scientology website, "It is a fact that unless one begins to handle aberration built up in past lives, he doesn’t progress. In Scientology, one is given the tools to handle upsets and aberrations from past lives that adversely affect the individual in the present, thus freeing one to live a much happier life," sound like the Watcher much? Or indeed anyone we found who has been awakened most of the time in the game, Mahena, etc. 2) Thaos has all the hallmarks of an Operating Thetan, both in terms of personality, powers and more or less by literal definition. Operating Thetans are supposedly fully aware of their past lives and are an actualisation of Thetan race that lies dormant in the rest of us, attributed such powers as projection out of their body, telekinesis and the ability to control others - sound familiar? In terms of the personality traits, Scientologists believe in a Reactive Mind and an Analytical Mind. The Reactive Mind stores experiences (both of past and present lives) that debilitate people in their remembrance (called engrams), where as the Analytical Mind serves consciousness. Scientologist undergo auditing, which seems to be a variation of mindfulness, in order to neutralise feelings towards these engrams and allow the Analytical Mind to operate - with a larger view of restoring your inner Thetan to its power. As you can imagine, this can make Scientologists aloof and confident, as well as giving them great mental fortitude and the ability to create mental barriers. All of these Thaos also has, acting extremely disinterested in the Watcher, and being extremely difficult to crack into as well as inscrutable (Lady Webb barely gets anything out of him). Thaos seems to be more or less an Operating Thetan personified. 3) The Leaden Key seems to have more or less the structure of the Church of Scientology, with the lower members kept in more or less total darkness to the massive secrets known only to the top tiers. In Scientology, from what I can make out, this power structure is maintained to protect less enlightened members from knowledge that may overwhelm them. I guess the difference here would be Scientologists purport to want to enlighten people, whereas Thaos quite clearly wants people kept in the dark. 4) Animancy in general seems to have a distinct Scientological vibe, the ability to improve on the immortal soul through empirical and practical methodologies instead of souls being approached with mysticism. This very practical approach seems extremely contrary to most real world faiths' beliefs on the soul, and yet meshes very well with that presented by Scientology. If anything, you could argue that Animancy is more or less Scientology in the game - whereas the conventional gods are a distraction from this truth (and arguably, a means for Thaos to keep people away from this level of power that he and the other Engwithans originally obtained). Thaos seems like an Operating Thetan and Suppressive Person (i.e. someone who wants to keep the Thetans down and not allow people to realise their inner potential) all rolled into one - which I guess is heretical from a Scientological stand point. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- And, that's about all I've got. I guess I'm not trying to say that Scientology is anything to do with the religious aspects of the game (e.g. keeping people ignorant, creating gods, etc., which seem very dissimilar to a Scientologist's ideals) however in the practicalities of spiritualism and the nature of the soul in the game, and the power granted by having full awareness of everything your soul can do as well as the burdens past lives can create, seems extremely similar to a lot of what we find in the game. Any thoughts?

I know playing as an Wild Orlan in White March at some point someone (Cevestin, I think) called me a "hairy little cat****er," which I think has to be a first for any game I've ever played. I think also the Fampyr group in Russetwood has a lot of unique options, with the same Orlan their leader mentioned boiling off my fur so they could eat me and someones mentioned that by playing a Berath priest you can get them to ally with you and take down some ogres. A very nice list, thanks for sharing.

I would go for Bear's Fortitude over Body Control, I'm reasonably sure most Stun (and Paralysis and Petrification) attacks target Fortitude anyway (things like Physic Backlash target Will, but they're pretty damn rare) - so you're looking at a universally applied +10 defence over the situational +10 defence (I was faced with this same choice on my current character and picked Bear's Fortitude when I realised Body Control only offers 10 and not 15 or 20 defence against the attacks). Other than that, nice update on a new alternate version of the build.

I think any class should work if you try to build them like a tank with moderate endurance, some classes are still interesting to play as tanks (Chanters, Rogues, Wizards) while some are a little less interesting (for me, Paladins). In terms of a pure tank Rogue (spoiler tags so the post isn't so lengthy)... For a Chanter, you will want high Int. Just build them tanky and let the Dragon Thrashed do all the work, it really is that simple.

I think you're more the exception than the rule, but yes I think your opinion on it is well reasoned even if I don't necessarily agree with it. I don't think balance would really be affected, as the Cipher is already using these strong buffs on other party members. I'm not really sure what combo people necessarily would think would make the Cipher loads better if they had access to these options. Beyond a balance point, I think for consistency's sake it would be better - it must be confusing for new players when Priest and Chanter spells affect themselves and others where as the Cipher's don't because... reasons?

If you want satisfaction the secret is... don't play Trial of Iron. It seems a little weird to be annoyed that people died in the difficulty where people die, if I were to attempt it (which I might at some point) I wouldn't be taking chances on anything.

Thanks for the response, and yeah I guess I should have thrown in I knew about Aloth and the Leaden Key, but that's the first I'd heard of the Grieving Mother. Still, neither of those are heavy on the setting of the region - we only learn about the importance of the Leaden Key through the story so Aloth being a member doesn't enrich the backstory so much. Still, any added info would be appreciated.

I think it's weird people vote no on questions like this, as all it is doing is enabling more options as opposed to blocking them off (and they made Chanter Invocations affect them recently, the Cipher situation is perfectly analogous). However people needlessly do vote contrarily, and then quite possibly when trying to present the case to the devs the more or less 50-50 vote doesn't look convincing. I did a similar poll for adventures being completable on solo (renting people out, or whatever, to complete), and still there was a large no vote - which is stupid as it only effects solo play in the first place so most people who voted no weren't even affected by the result. I think they were asking me to make solo easier, which isn't the case as there really isn't any items that could be considered more overpowered than the current set available in solo - they just provide more options. What I'm getting to is, polls suck, and the fact this has 4 no votes is ridiculous. This is a solid idea, and though this was never meant to be a solo game people clearly like to play that way (like me) so it makes no sense to deny the option. To give the option cost (a dedicated ability) as Boeroer mentioned is an even better idea.

The OP didn't articulate himself well and so it's hard to get on board with him, but I have to agree I found the Abbey of the Fallen Moon pretty crappy. I was soloing upscaled on PotD, however even with a party I don't think I would have enjoyed the (I want to say) 15ish Monk encounters where they all have sky high stats and are a complete chore to deal with - and they're all pretty much the same invariant encounter (and yes you can just ignore the combat by choosing social options, but who wants to wimp out like that?). I didn't even find the High Abbot the hardest, it was just the encounters that had many more of those damn monks. I get the feeling that some abilities that no one actually takes, like Rooting Pain and (though to a lesser extent as it's actually useful if you can squeeze it in) Stunning Blow, were made just so the enemies could have them and make your life more miserable. Overall, it's just a sea of the same fight over and over again, and I outwardly groaned when I got to Caryon's Scar and thought I'd be free of it only to get a few more of the same encounters yet again. If you can do one of these encounters you can do them all, but the repetition truly sucks and it becomes more of an endurance of what you're willing to sit through to get through the game. They don't even offer intriguing difficulty, such as improved AI, just unpleasantly high stats to wade through one at a time. It took me about a week to get through the Abbey, not due to time constraints, but because the encounters were so tedious and yet also very involved and repetitive that I did one or two a day and then couldn't face the exactly same crap again - even when they didn't actually take very long to complete. And I know, I was solo PotD, but I defy anyone to tell me they had a "fun" time here in the game when there's so many groups that offer the exact same challenge. Even if you found the mobs easy with a full group, it's the exact same thing over and over, it's so dull. But yeah after that I pretty much liked all the other encounters and boss fights, I stored them all up until after WM part II and really enjoyed their varied challenges. The Abbey of the Fallen Moon however - boooo!

Well she is easy to miss... almost half a person...

I guess if I'm going for a true tank build Battle-Forged is a little at odds with that (in that I'm trying to keep my defences sky high and my health for the most part up), so I'll probably stick with normal Retaliation even if the damage is significantly worse (or possibly I won't bother with Retaliation at all now). I'd say Enervating Blows would work, but I'm too lazy to test, and besides I don't really have room for it with what I have in mind. With what you said about Torment's Reach proc-ing on crit effects, with Enervating Blows it would seem that would make them an even better stun-locker than a Barbarian in some ways (with Weakened being much better than Sickened). They also wouldn't have the accuracy penalties of Carnage, and you could give them the Executioner's Hood to keep them all constantly Frightened with the Will debuff.

How does normal Retaliation compare? On my current Monk build I'm going much more tanky so I wanted to go Wild Orlan again, especially as the helmet slot adds more to defences (and you can go for Garodh's Chorus Retaliation)?

Though Battle-Forged is definitely a major perk to this build, using Zahua means you can dedicate you head slot to something like Retaliation Garodh's Chorus to achieve similar effects. Overall it should work pretty similarly.

I think there's a general problem with these kind of effects to be honest, for example if you Charm an enemy and you have a Paladin aura active (or Gallant's Focus) those benefits will persist with the enemy after they switch sides again. I never bothered to mention it as it seemed more like a minor annoyance, however it seems like your issue is a much worse and noteworthy manifestation of the same problem.

So I've only ever played the game solo so far, apart from my very first run which I didn't get close to finishing. However from what I've read, and rather weirdly, it seems there's a whole truckload of setting information packed into the companions' storylines. I'll probably play with the story companions at some stage, but I'm still interested now in getting a bit of a run down while I'm enjoying playing solo. From what I've heard, things that companions reveal are: Eothas in the form Waidwen knew that Woedica and the Leaden Key were up to something, so the invasion of the Dyrwood was to try and knock that on the head (from Eder's stuff?). However, Magran blew him up as she wanted for some reason to demonstrate that gods could die (from Durance's stuff?) for reasons I'm not all too clear on - perhaps keeping the secret that the gods were manmade under wraps (though I'm not entirely sure why fighting the Leaden Key would have necessarily demonstrated that) or because gods aren't supposed to interfere in mortal affairs? If anyone could care to elaborate on these mentions I'd be pretty interested, as it's hard to find the concrete facts easily. It seems a bit presumptuous to think that people, even if they are okay with taking on companions, would want to necessarily ever take on Eder and Durance - so I'm not too convinced on the design choice to have so much backstory crammed into two companions. On unrelated points, but things the game has left me questioning anyway that I don't want to dedicate a whole thread to: What the hell is the Leaden Key for? I don't mean the organisation itself, I mean the physical Leaden Key you get in the catacombs for killing the Acolyte? I never saw any use for it, even in Sun and Shadow. How "dead" is Eothas? Obviously Abydon "died", but he seems fine and dandy now? Is there any official line on this (that's perhaps clearer with companions piecing in important info), or are we just supposed to speculate that gods take time to come back from the Wheel or that perhaps the Godhammer Bomb obliterated Eothas's soul (assuming gods also have souls seeing as they're made from them) in a way that a big juicy moon couldn't for Abydon? I guess that could be why Abydon forgot so much on his death, as his soul had fragmented slightly. Thanks in advance for entertaining my annoying questions that I could probably just answer myself if I played the game like a regular person with a party.

I really can't imagine you'd be playing the same character in PoE2, few RPG games adopt that kind of continuity because each character people play usually has a different temperament and it would require save checking and the like from the previous game to keep it consistent. Plus not everyone who plays PoE2 will have played PoE1, especially if Tyranny broadens the fan base. If there is going to be a mention of the PoE1 protagonist, then they'll likely just refer to the Watcher of Caed Nua rather than have them in the game - so in that case you might have some of their exploits from the expansions spoiled for you. They may not even want the player as a Watcher in PoE2, they could be special in a different way or perhaps not even special at all - it's not like you're playing a Dovahkiin in every TES game. In terms of the events of White March, I could see some of them getting a mention. Without really giving much away, the outcome of Durgan's Battery itself might get a mention and also in the second half the Aedyr Empire and Dyrwood butt heads a little again - but I'd be pretty surprised if the specifics surrounding the WM part II ending were really delved into. What I'm trying to say is, no I wouldn't worry about it.

Maybe someone with the Beta should check if this is the case? It does seem like the problems are related (stuff proc-ing when it shouldn't - Torment's Reach itself or the weapon effects) so hopefully the fix treats all these issues as one. I'm a lowly GoG using worm unfortunately so I can't check myself.