Rosveen

@Luckmann about the second spoiler, because cutting quotes on mobile is so tedious: maybe Mechanics required for the backdoor is lower than for the front door? It would help unoptimized characters.

Levelling speed is a consquence of the level cap, which is 12. It's low for most new RPGs, but in line with games Pillars was inspired by, like Baldur's Gate (even lower cap) and to lesser extent Icewind Dale (a bit higher cap). Of course, I'm talking about the originals here, not the sequels.

The get the impression that you're all talking about Trial of Iron, not Path of the Damned.

If anyone's interested, I asked my transgender friend about it and her reaction amounted to "meh". Of course, she doesn't speak for all trans people who may be playing this game, but still.

Wait, what? What? They don't carry over? Oh god, I wasted so many points. I need to pay more attention to these pesky numbers.

The duelist hat was one of the first things I looted in the game, I think it dropped even before Gilded Vale. Maybe it's a random drop?

I don't know what difficulty you're playing on, but either way it's insanely hard at level 3. This thread has some helpful tactics. Generally I'd recommend coming back later, but if you want to attempt it at level 3-4, then at least go south to Margran's Fork and recruit Durance. You could also go to Caed Nua and grab Kana, he stands right outside the gates, so you don't even have to do anything in that location. Also, consider attacking right away instead of intiating conversation with Raedric.

I'm considering rerolling as a fighter and I never play fighters, so there's that. The only thing keeping me from it is the fact that there are no rogue companions, I want to learn as much about each class as I can in my first playthrough. Paladins seem interesting, maybe that?

Yes, they are backer NPCs.

It's possible on normal difficulty, seeing as I did it just an hour ago. Well, if you leave your team down the stairs and send only one person to talk to Raedric. I tried to keep everyone dazed or blinded as long as I could, I used up most of my scrolls (Rolling Flames ftw), but really it was just a matter of luck because I haven't quite got the hang of aggro yet. When I didn't manage to grab enemies with Eder, I promptly got slaughtered.

That website ad was horrible. It should have never been accepted by Obsidian. However, I'm okay with the other tombstones; they're immersion-breaking, but it's a small price to pay for an incentive to back at the $500 tier. That money helped make the game better for all of us. I can live with a few tombstones I will never interact with again after I discovered what they are.

In all fairness, though, I never ran into this problem just following the main quest line. Sure, if you head straight north after visiting the Friendly Arm Inn for the first time and come across a couple Ankhegs you're gonna be in a world of hurt, but there were plenty of times I went into the Nashkel Mines as fresh level 2s and while it was tough, it wasn't constant party wipes. I'm not trying to be defensive, I'm just pointing out that im going to the places the game naturally points me to go. I don't know, that mage in front of Friendly Arms Inn was a remarkably difficult fight compared to other early encounters. My previous post was focused on Readric's Hold, if you didn't go there, then my comments don't really apply. I play like you, just with pre-made companions on my first run, but still, I think creating your own is a good idea if you're having trouble. Also, there's another companion in Caed Nua, just outside the gates. Despite what some forumites say about standard difficulty settings being too easy for them, this game is different than old IE titles and there's a learning curve involved. I can honestly say my experience is similar to yours and I've played Baldur's Gate more times than I care to count. It'll just take time, I guess.

Level 3? That's kinda low. Are you in Readric's Hold now? You can move through it with almost no fighting, but if you go against Readric in the end, that battle is really hard for less than a full party. It's one of those places where it may be wiser to come back later when you're stronger. You could also hire an adventurer from the inn in Gilded Vale and custom-build him into whatever role you want filled the most. I agree the game doesn't require mix/maxing, you just need to take your time to get used to different mechanics.

Expert mode doesn't really make combat harder. Maiming doesn't matter if you don't die in the first place, AoE highlights and defense tooltips are a memory, not tactical challenge, and I'm not sure about combat tooltips, but I assume they aren't terribly useful for people who know what they're doing.

You know that the expansion is going to be a DLC, right?

Another thread, and I'm slowly accepting that I must just be terrible at video games. Alternatively, everyone else plays with a full team including hired adventurers.

This one can be changed in the settings. I don't remember the name of the slider, but it's set very low.

My go-to game for the past several months was an MMO. Man, it's so refreshing to see someone say 20% isn't a problem.

This isn't nearly as disappointing as Wasteland 2 when I picked up radio chatter in Russian and fully expected to see it translated, as one of my Rangers was Russian. Nope, just "you hear a conversation in a Slavic language" or something. Made me wonder what was the purpose of nationalities in the first place.

They messed up the coding. Special characters seem to have been lost. Sucks to have a non-English name...

Huh? It's written very clearly what the Digital Fun Pack includes. Everything in the descriptions + all from lower tiers. That means both the almanac and the collector's book - just not the strategy guide. If anyone has doubts, all included products and their download links can be found in the Backer Portal.

Out of curiosity, is there any way to get the KS backer achievement unlocked if I buy the game on Steam in the future? I redeemed my copy on GOG. I guess not, but it doesn't hurt to ask.

Yeah. I'm getting slaughtered in there. I don't know how you people play on Path of the Damned or whatever. I'm contemplating making a deal with him to avoid that battle, but that would just be so awful. I'm not sure which locked door you're talking about because I'm playing a rogue with high mechanics, so I don't even pay attention when I'm unlocking stuff, but there's a hidden lever on the wall in a chamber east of Nedmar, it opens another way to his room. Does that help or did you mean some other door that can't be bypassed this way?

Just like every Dead is Dead challenge, Trial of Iron is best attempted as an experienced player who finished the game before and is familiar with most encounters. This is only my opinion, but using it on your first try is just asking for a wasted playthrough. I don't know how anyone can possibly succeed without any prior experience with the game, with or without difficulty tips.

edit: nevermind I'm an idiot