PrimeJunta

Yeah, well you are wrong too, because i never complained about DA:O which is the best of those series, BUT here is the thing fanboy, DA:O has NONE of this problems that POE has. There you are, P:E brings back game design from before DA:O. Before the games before DA:O, actually (NWN, NWN2). A lof of us felt that fantasy RPG design had gone on the wrong track with all the features you like -- no FF, aggro mechanics, cooldowns instead of per-rest spells etc. -- and wanted the old-school style games back. Fortunately for you, there are many cRPG's made with the mechanics you like so you have lots of choice for games to play. We would very much like to keep this little retro niche we've carved ourselves with Obsidian's help though. I believe that if you took a deep breath, studied the systems a bit, asked around about how the game is supposed to be played, and practiced a little, you too could learn to enjoy it though.

Don't be overly modest, Justin. I know good music when I hear it; I've been listening to classical since I was a kid, and my gold standard for epic sword-fighting dragon-killing music is Wagner's Ring. (To get to that level you, uh, still need a bit of practice.) What I think you do better than Shore in LotR is that you don't shove the music in our face. You're more sensitive to what it's for and what's going on. It's beautiful, present, and evocative without sounding like it wants to elbow out what else is going on. That's a crucial quality for film or game music which Shore didn't IMO entirely achieve in some fairly important points. Obsidian is very fortunate to have someone of your caliber on board! And yeah, I really really hope you'll be able to record the rest of the tracks live. They so deserve it. (I pick up a vibe of Shire theme from Od Nua by the way. Intentional or incidental?)

Since we're on this level of wants... I want enchantable hats. I want the Vailian outfit to be properly tintable. Purple just isn't my color you know? I want powdered wigs. Enchantable, powdered wigs. I want a buff on the rapier. I insist on using it due to my station and because of its elegance and style, but it kind of sucks for killing people. The +6 ACC doesn't make up for the really bad damage. Did I mention enchantable hats?

You can already feed an orphan to a gûl. Does that count?

Yes. Very much this. I loved the theme from the Kickstarter already, and you Justin just built up from there. The music -- and the sound design in general -- contributes enormously to the game. You do deserve an award -- and the tracks that you didn't have time/budget to record live deserve that treatment. You beat the pants off, say, the music from Peter Jackson's movies -- and they weren't half bad.

One of my pet peeves also. A bit of an embarrassing oversight too considering how meticulous Josh is about languages...

The man-tears ITT are delicious. Keep them coming folks.

Problem with Numenera is that the Effort mechanic makes everything very same-y, as do cyphers and the wide-open skill system where you can Train and Specialize in anything. There's ultimately not that much differentiation between characters. There is such a thing as too-light mechanics, and IMO Numenera is pretty far in that direction. It's very easy to play with but ultimately more of a way to structure storytelling than actually... you know, play a game. PS. I know what I'm talking about, I've run a campaign and wrote this http://www.prime-junta.net/numenera/

Chill Fog was a rare exception where a damage-dealing Wizard spell didn't hit allies. This meant you could safely stick it directly on your squad to damage anyone who got close. Now it hurts your team too. I actually agree that it could use a buff now. The issue is that nerfing it in this way has the opposite effect and makes Fan of Flames superior. Fan of Flames seems superior on the damage front, but it's cone shape AOE and ability to damage allies made it situational. Chill fog wasn't as devistating but was useful more often. Now it's just not so great. Chill Fog is way easier to use because you can fire it from the back.

Re the armor, I keep two or, tops, three armored characters for insurance. I'm on a Trial of Iron run on Hard, got to Defiance Bay, and haven't been in serious trouble yet; the closest I've gotten to that more armor wouldn't have saved me. (Raedric's Hold boss battle; Edér got knocked out in the opening and things got a little tense but I ended up with everybody else still standing.)

Okay fine. Meadow human (tall, blond). Rogue 'cause I'm into very much into figuring out how things work (mechanics). From White that Wends because that's where I'm from. Explorer background because I've traveled and lived in lots of different places. Stats: MIG 11 (average strength) CON 14 (relatively healthy :knocks on wood:), DEX 16 (I have unusually fast reflexes), INT 18 (yeah I'm a genius, deal with it), PER 8 (somewhat naive, somewhat absent-minded, not naturally good at observing or noticing things), RES 6 (terrible willpower, low pain threshold, easy to troll). As a rogue I'd stack up on Mechanics and Lore, and use the bejeezus out of scrolls everybody else has made. Talent-wise I would go with a gunner build because I'm kind of a coward and prefer hurting people from a safe distance. Also I'd pick this portrait 'cuz it kind of looks like me even though it's for an elf and I'm blond-going-gray rather than red-haired:

I'd prefer a system with no attributes at all, or with really minimal attributes. My homebrew one uses only two, Mind and Body, and I don't care that you can pick Traits which let you make one of them irrelevant.

I'd be Lord Raedric.

It also affects Carnage which is at least as important. Genius barbarians FTW!

In re Slicken, IMO it makes sense both as a single knockdown (floor is suddenly magically incredibly slippery for a second or two, after which the oil goes back wherever it came from) or as a longer-term hindrance (magically produced oil remains in place until it soaks into the ground). However: for the latter, the knockdown effect should not be anywhere near as reliable as it is. If it has a significant duration, it should hinder movement reliably but only knockdown on crits or something like that. Basically, until the nerf it was way OP. If the other spells were underpowered, that's a different problem and one I believe they've also addressed.

Yes you can! If you do it so nobody's looking, e.g. in the privacy and comfort of their homes, you can do it with complete impunity! (The hats... Oh, the hats!)

@hollowcrown Then start using spells more. I dunno, maybe it's just me, but I find myself running out of spells and health around the time fatigue starts kicking in, most of the time. It feels just about right. However, I do notice that I start using spells more if my health is running low or if someone has minor fatigue, to keep on truckin' a bit longer.

Yeah THAC0 is just plain weird. The DnD3+ attack bonus vs positive AC ends up in exactly the same place without being such a mind... kiss.

@Ondb Whatever you may think of the resting mechanic, that doesn't have much to do with the "no bad choices" design intent. Also, there's another thread for that.

IMO the estoc is fine because of the weapon group it's in. There's no really good ranged weapon or really good one-handed weapon in that group, so if you pick Adventurer weapon it's gonna be just the estoc. You gain in maximal striking power but you won't participate in opening volleys and you won't be much good at tanking or hitting accurately when that's needed. Don't nerf the estoc I say.

That never was a bug, just an unclear description. IIRC the description has been fixed, not sure about that though. Check the notes.

Yes there was. The long save/load was caused by player-laid traps persisting, including the frost traps laid by Kana's frost trap song when your party moved around. That's been fixed. You sure that's the cause? 'Cuz I barely use traps and my save/load times are ginormous and growing. Kana has that one chant which makes characters lay frost traps as they move. That was the main cause. There were other objects that were supposed to be non-persistent which ended up in the saves and bloated them, which have also been cleared out, but that's the main one.

Why in the name of Crom would I do that? I don't know! Wet blankets puzzle the hell out of me, but there's always one out there somewhere.

Yes there was. The long save/load was caused by player-laid traps persisting, including the frost traps laid by Kana's frost trap song when your party moved around. That's been fixed.

@Alweth, what strategy other than tank/damage would you recommend?