Jojobobo

I wouldn't say it's the best one. You have to have one Mechanic in your party. It's also nice to have Lore for your main character for dialogs or for fighters so they use scrolls. But other than that all skills seem useful to me. The problem with Mechanics is it gives EXP and items so you just have to have it. True, but there's no bonafide mechanic early on - really putting the emphasis on that being the player character. You're much more rewarded for having mechanic skills than other skill in the offing. Durance or a custom adventurer? What is Durance - like a 2 to begin with? Even then, you have to know to go to Magran's Fork (admittedly, not such a hard decision, but no where you'd make a beeline for) - plus you miss out on the valuable Disappointer, which is greta to hit the ground running. And personally I don't like faceless customs, at least at this stage. I'd rather go for the storied characters on these early playthroughs and then concoct weird harebrained parties when I start to get bored. Currently I've only accepted storied companions and not hired help.

They probably should have kept it as such, the phat lewt really is reward enough already (people don't need both the physical reward and extra experience base upon a fairly arbitrary skill choice).

So I was pretty pleased with how the Endless Paths were implemented - I had zero interest in the paths during the backing phase but Obsidian thought of a clever way to incorporate it. The fact that they're underneath your very stronghold almost incentivises you to get to bottom of the whole mess and drive the evil from your house. This instantly ramped up my interest, and now I can't help but explore. Did anyone else think this was a nice way to implement it? Beyond that, use that as a way to discuss the Paths in general (I'm only just touching the surface).

I trialled a few things like Ranger and found the damage output pretty poor (I've not played Cipher but I've heard it's great). Now having a high Might and Dex Aumuau Barbarian I'll really dishing out the pain and so satisfied, it was definitely a good pick.

I'd say it's the dumpiest stat on people who naturally have high endurance and health anyway. On my current Barbarian I'm playing con 3 (4 with and item I've found, 8 with Frenzy, 10 with Greater Frenzy whenever I get round to taking that) and they still have more or less equal Endurance of Eder without Frenzy but with much greater health. Really Int is a much better way to go, as then your Con is boosted for longer under the effects of Frenzy anyway, ergo it's pretty pointless. That said, Con is very useful on people like Chanters who aren't damage focussed to begin (as they Obsidian recommend, Int/Con/Res really is a good way to go). I'd also go for it on Fighters just there to take the pain rather than dish it out (leaving that to the other guys).

I think hard mode is currently fine, and a good introduction for a first time player. I may amp it up to Path of the Damned next time, but it maintains a good level of difficulty currently without being a ball-ache.

I'd pay for a small voice and portrait DLC, the current set was adequate within their initial means but I would more set around the $5-7.50 mark.

Yeah I wish you didn't have to scout for these items, I wasn't even aware it was necessary to begin with making me miss the valuable Disappointer. Surely you should be able to spot these items without scouting - sneaking is not going to improve your ability to physically see things and so it makes very little sense. Maybe if mechanics was -1 or -2 outside of scouting then fine (showing that they're now looking "harder" when in the scout mode, not that they were never using their trained capabilities at all which is currently the situation), but to have this "on or off" thing is slightly irksome when that really shouldn't be the case. Hopefully it's something they might reconsider in future patches.

I'm intrigued as to build, class, etc. but this is likely just trolling.

I wouldn't say it's the best one. You have to have one Mechanic in your party. It's also nice to have Lore for your main character for dialogs or for fighters so they use scrolls. But other than that all skills seem useful to me. The problem with Mechanics is it gives EXP and items so you just have to have it. True, but there's no bonafide mechanic early on - really putting the emphasis on that being the player character. You're much more rewarded for having mechanic skills than any other skill in the offing.

So far I've really enjoyed it, notwithstanding Obsidian's rulings on censorship (and whilst that does annoy me, it's still by the by in terms of the game's obvious strong points). It has good combat (IMO), reasonable character development, culture and the rest. Not all classes and races are created equal, but they give a strong enough showing that I would never consider any class or race not worth a try. I like how there's no unequivocal dump stat - there's always going to be one attribute of use to a certain class - but it might be nicer if some of the attributes had been more explicit (i.e. the description of Might didn't convince me it would do extra ranged damage from the description - it is a bit too lose and confusing for people who are unfamiliar with this new IP).

I don't enjoy having to activate scout mode to spot traps and hidden items stashes - what about sneaking makes me be able to see things better? I didn't even realise initially that you had to be in scout mode to spot these things, meaning I missed out on the Disappointer and a truck load of money because of it. I also don't enjoy sneaking everywhere to find these kinds of things - I guess now I'm only activating scout mode when I think it's likely something is hidden, but that's really just my opinion so I'm sure I'm still missing out on a lot. But yeah, mechanics is clearly the best skill by a country mile - regardless of anyway you shake it.

Jokes do, but only if they are uttered with malevolence. The one in-game was more of a dirty limerick, hilarious but not malevolent in scope. The author is OK with it, and in this particular case we should be too. The principle is still wrong, however. No, as I mentioned, there's literally no evidence that jokes cause any kind of behaviour to start/continue. The issue should have not been taken seriously from the off. I'm not sure you can hold up a lack of research as proof that something isn't happening. Are there papers disproving that this happens? Or has the subject not been explored yet? Not trying to slam you, just genuinely interested in the topic. This feels a bit like insisting that violent video games cause violent behavior, and as we know that's been disproved pretty thoroughly. People have used the "sleeping with a man disguised as a woman" jokes when telling me face-to-face why transgender people are disgusting and why it's okay to be violent against them, though, so I guess it's a little difficult for me to disregard that (admittedly anecdotal) evidence. I think it is a lack of evidence kind of factor, which still means that people vehemently insisting that "x causes y" when in terms or prejudice when there's no documented research that that's the case is still potentially a load of crap - they should not be reporting their opinions as fact. The evidence is just not there that this is the case, and many many people - myself included - enjoy risqué jokes and yet lack any prejudices themselves. Obviously direct and personal (and ultimately humourless) persecution of yourself with "jokes" is not acceptable, and I'd be the first to damn that - but this was not a case of that.

No patch for macs or linux on GOG yet unfortunately.

Jokes do, but only if they are uttered with malevolence. The one in-game was more of a dirty limerick, hilarious but not malevolent in scope. The author is OK with it, and in this particular case we should be too. The principle is still wrong, however. No, as I mentioned, there's literally no evidence that jokes cause any kind of behaviour to start/continue. The issue should have not been taken seriously from the off.

I hate this idea people have that jokes perpetuate a culture of a certain kind of behaviour or attitude - jokes don't perpetuate anything. I've had a look into whether there's any academic literature and journal articles to substantiate things like sexist jokes or rape jokes or anything like that promote those behaviours because I've had this argument many times before - and you know what, there's zero evidence they do. Prejudices and illegal behaviours arise from the cultures people grow up in and and their own personality, not because they heard a joke and it made them do it. Saying that a risqué limerick perpetuates transgender hate is beyond stupid. Vocal morons preaching that certain jokes are going to make the world turn into a sea of prejudice and inhumanity are complete idiots - they have no backing to their argument on any kind of level (go onto any kind of academic literature database like Web of Knowledge and have a search, I dare you) and the more people pander to them the more people believe these stupid notions have any kind of basis. That is why Obsidian shouldn't have altered the verse - they shouldn't have even approached the guy in the first place suggesting he should change it.

I've took it and from what I can tell it does do lot more damage. The x1 is likely just a typo - and even if it isn't and the damage is all my head it would be something that would be patch sooner or later.

Cool, thanks! I'll look out for that when I get there, seems perfect for my fast and hard hitting Barb.

It's pretty pathetic they changed it, but I guess maintaining good PR and coming off as not transphobic was probably more important to them as a company especially when the source of the problem was so trivial in the first place and easy to change. Still it may have been nice for them to maintain integrity and lay down that having a poem about prejudice in a game ≠ real life prejudice. It was clearly jokey in tone, it's annoying when people tell other people what they are allowed to find funny as there's a world of difference between finding a non-politically correct joke amusing and being a prejudiced person who persecutes minorities. It sends a bad message on a whole range of levels. And I mean for god's sakes, they've got gay people on the development team. If none of them thought that a guy killing himself through shame because he committed a homosexual act was offensive, why should that be changed now?

Cool, thanks for the pointers you two.

Does anyone know where to get Gwisk Glas? Seems pretty perfect for a high DPS Barbarian.

Didn't know that, looks like I'm maxing intellect then. With that in mind I'm now thinking of running Coastal Aumaua from The Living Lands and run Might 21, Con 3, Dex 18, Per 3, Int 18, Res 15 - the way I see it Con doesn't need to be high as Frenzy with Greater Frenzy will give me +6 anyway and Barbarians naturally have ridiculous endurance, I see very little point in having even more. Reducing Per, though slightly annoying as I won't get much interrupt, doesn't affect my raw damage and whilst it does reduce deflection that isn't a barbarian strong suit anyway - besides maybe my high hit rate will allow me to interrupt anyway. Resolve is so I don't get interrupted myself. Thoughts? I would go dual wielding and take Two Weapon Style so I'm hitting crazy often with frenzy, and also use lightish armor to really pump my DPS.

Thanks, I just timed it myself anyway as a quick test and I can see that it does.

Basically exactly what's in the title. I'm thinking of re-rolling as a barbarian and wanted to know if intellect affected frenzy, I'm not too bothered about the yell abilities so if frenzy is unaffected I doubt I would invest much in intellect.

Is the "combat not ending properly" thing referring to per encounter actions that count as "already accessed" and so can't be used anymore? It was very clear TBH. I hope they get the patch out soon, most of Europe has Easter holidays right now so for people lacking solid plans like me this is a great time to be playing the game uninhibited.