Rosveen

Not all games end with the main quest. All good games do. Uhm... Ah... Pokemon. There, you're wrong. Also Morrowind, but I don't want to start another Elder Scrolls debate.

Not all games end with the main quest.

About Athletics checks, you can't always choose the character involved. Some seem to involve the whole group, like getting across a chasm, thorn wall etc. It was usually my main with 0 Athletics failing, but on one occasion two of my characters were injured in the process (I assume the check was slightly higher here).

But if you do move them, yes, you can restore them later and continue playing with the old character.

Fun > realism, every time. I explored all maps west of Caed Nua before reaching it, I'd have nothing to do but repeatedly rest 8 hours until the barbican is repaired. Oh wait, but I can't rest in Caed Nua, there's no inn yet, and I don't have enough camping supplies on Hard to rest 3 times. I'll have to move to another map and back to pass the time. It's not a problem, of course, but... what's the point? Does going through additional loading screens somehow make the barbican construction more immersive? I probably can't do much there, but it depends on my level of course. Unlike my first playthrough when I explored everything, so going down would have been an option, this time I want to grab all companions as soon as I can and then start questing - so I don't want to go down Od Nua and even if I did, I'm going to get creamed at level 3.

I don't know if I would ever call Durance good, although I admit I didn't travel with him very long. The Grieving Mother, while well-intentioned, used highly questionable methods in her work.

This. I thought it was like the OP describes, then I saw someone explain it here on the forum and had a mind blown moment. I don't know if in-game tooltips describe how it works, but I played without tooltips and I missed so much information.

I practice daily, it's become second nature to me.

I don't look at individual characters when I play, I look at the whole team. Is the team fun to play? What's the overall team level of micromanagement? I don't mind having some people mostly autoattack. My rogue isn't on her own, she relies on others to set up sneak attack conditions for her, so I count caster spells as an element of rogue strategy. Then there's positioning to flank people. It's not your typical vanish-and-backstab rogue, but it's still fun to me.

Yeah but in order to get that mod u need to pay for registration with nexus - what the ****Scroll all the way down and choose the free option (or simply click continue, don't remember). Paying for registration is completely optional.

FFS, does it always have to degenerate to this? I like Skyrim. A lot. For what it is, it's a great game. Doesn't mean I suffer a lower IQ than the rest of humanity. Jeebus.Yes, this. TES is my favorite game series, I greatly enjoyed Skyrim despite all its flaws, but here I am, backing all these IE-style RPGs and anticipating Tides of Numenera with bated breath. I wonder if it means I have good taste in games or I'm a half-witted console kid. Make up your mind, RPG elitists!

In case you didn't know, there's a fast mode (press D). Running across the map doesn't take long at all - at least not long enough to do anything productive while the game is minimized.

I found like, 10 copies of that thing. It's everywhere.

Well crap. I should have taken Perception then.

But doing what? Moving everywhere at walking speed?

What's wrong with them? I understand if you dislike gameplay encouraging the use of strict roles, but even so, they are accurate descriptions.

I'm genuinely curious how you take 80+ hours to finish this game. My save time is about 55 hours, it's longer with reloads, but I don't know by how much because I got the game from GOG. I also haven't read all books, I put them in Caed Nua library and will return to read them when I have time.

For a group of players taking pride in favoring old school RPGs without silly quest markers, you're awfully annoyed by lack of "Plot NPC here!" and "Not plot NPC, ignore!" pop-ups. I like reading stories for the sake of stories, not only to move the plot forward. I treat backer NPCs like every other background NPC in the game: usually I ignore them, but sometimes I stop by and listen to the odd comment or read the soul story. They aren't all as horrible as you say, some of them are actually rather nice, except those with ridiculous names of course. I knew they weren't quest-related by the time I left Gilded Vale, it really wasn't such a terrible bother.

Five? You missed Sagani on your way to Hiravias. Anyway, while having 8 companions was a perfect setup for an equal 50/50 split, I can live with 37.5/62.5. My character was female, so it evened out. It's true that some take longer to get, which is a problem especially for Hiravias and the Grieving Mother - I was well over halfway through the game before I found them (yes, I know you can technically reach them earlier than Pallegina, but did you on your first run without previous knowledge of their location?) What's an RPG without a warrior and a mage in the first location? Be glad Mechanics isn't a class skill or we'd recruit a rogue in Gilded Vale too. I don't think Aloth is all that witty, though, he's rather subdued. His occasional passionate comments are, uhm... a spoiler. And Eder easily won the favorite companion poll here on the forum, so give him a chance.

RP-wise, I don't think resolve has anything to do with class at all, especially in Pillars where rogues aren't by default shady thieves like in some settings, but simply fighters light on their feet and cleverly exploiting debilitated opponents instead of charging head on. Resolve is your determination, drive, intensity, leadership qualities etc. I don't see why a rogue couldn't have these qualities, but of course it's up to your character vision. I pumped resolve on my cipher for no other reason but to reflect his aristocratic upbringing (hence leadership) and passionate nature.

Why would you pay money for portraits when there are tons of them for free on the internet? Paying for convenience, as with so many services. It saves time and ensures the portraits will fit the style of the game. Almost every time I find a portrait pack, I have to manually remove portrais I don't like. Finding individual new portraits, renaming and cropping them to the required size is also time-consuming.

Please don't.

What inevitable beating? I never died, I struck a deal with the dragon and set her free.

Fun fact: I kept some weapons found in Act 1 all the way to the final battle. Most enchanting supplies aren't that hard to come by, so go ahead and enchant the interesting weapons you find. Money also will stop being a problem halfway through Act 2 (which ties into enchaning, since some ingredients can be bought).

I most definitely brokered a truce there on my second runthrough.How? You can convince Hylea to accept your decision to leave the dragon alive, but you can't actually talk the dragon into living semi-peacefully. She and her kids are still a massive danger to all kith in the vicinity and the temple stays unusable. Not that I complain, I mean it's a dragon, I can't blame her for not caring what pesky little humans want of her. Just to interject here: According to the Wiki (spoilers on the page), mature dragons do not seek unecessary conflict, so it's possible they could live in relative peace, as long as the dang humans leave them alone After all, she didn't attack us on sight, so she's not some total murderer Nice to know. So I guess she chased away the priests to make the temple a safe place for her and her young? However, the wyrms could still be a problem, as they're highly aggressive.