Mr. Magniloquent

Agreed on so many levels. I picked them up on a steam deal and just couldn't get into it. If driftwood mated with a zombie, you'd get Geralt. Worst protagonist ever. Combat was also very dull for me. The story, which is supposed to be a selling point couldn't pull me in because I could not care less about any of the characters, factions, or their motivations. I also found the binary choices very forced in a world that was supposed to consist of shades of grey. I like the poker dice game, and I thought atmosphere was very well done--the environments were fully realized and alive. Beyond that...*yawn*.

While I enjoy it, the demigod aspect is not precisely what I appreciate. I like how magic is...magical, and allows me to approach things from an clever angle that would have otherwise been insurmountable. I do believe that magic should be potent and capable, but I think the best way to balance that out is through verisimilitude that does not scale. In the original Deadlands RPG rules or with Fate RPG where everyone basically can be killed and maimed by everything--even devastatingly sometimes. Phenomenal cosmic power can still be stopped by an unsuspecting dagger or a lucky arrow.

I picked up Divinity: Original Sin with the 33% Steam discount. This game is incredible. I wish I had backed it. I was unfamiliar with the studio when it was kickstarted, so I didn't back it despite the promising look. I will most certainly entertain Larian Studious in the future. This game is everything right with an RPG. It doesn't hand hold, it give you total freedom, lots of problem solving/solutions, classless design, great sense of humor, copious detail for those who explore, and--oh yeah, IT'S FUN. Like a really good time. This is probably the best game I've played in over a decade. Let's hope the industry takes note!

Please do, I'm interested in hearing your response. I am fairly confident that you believe Al-Qaeda didn't plan and commit 9/11 but I may be wrong Considering 9/11 has absolutely no bearing on this thread, it sounds like you use that as some sort of litmus test for psychological dysfunction. The Soviets used to do that for anyone that criticized The State. If you didn't like the Soviet system, you were insane and had to be committed. The glory of the Soviet system was obvious, and disagreeing with it was self-evident of western sabotage or insanity. Your insertion of 9/11 is eerie in that regard.

#1: Quoted myself. #2: No taunts or aggro, but AI may be including some "aggro-lite" evaluations in the upcoming patch. #3: They can move, but any movement or action that had been in process will be interrupted when engaged. Should the engaged character move away, they will be subject to a free "disengagement attack".

Absolutely. Its what governments and bankers do when the fraction reserve system has created catastrophic debt and liabilities that endanger their positions. It's also a useful tool for quelling dissent and controlling domestic populations to boot. Declare a war and suddenly people seem to be aquiesent to things like...ignoring the law, human rights, morality, you know it. That's a bit historically speaking though. To be more specific, the foremost reason presently is preserving hegemony through the Petro Dollar Standard. The importance of this cannot be understated. It gives those whom create the dollar and those with easy access to it the ultimate power in the universe, "something for nothing". With it, you can rule the world.

He was suspected of not paying protection money to his self-proclaimed masters. The NYPD ended up killing him in pursuit of it. Capiche? We are told that this is both Freedom and Civilization. Laugh if you want.

Er... what about George Bush Snr.? But i agree with your general point. Work in the security services should bar you from overseeing them. Of course Bush Sr. is corrupt evil. So was his NAZI collaborating, and military-coup attempting father. Just because I recognize Putin for the cloak-and-dagger, fascist, autocrat that he is does not mean I fancy Anglo flavors of the same evil(s). Right now, it's the Anglo branch that's begging to bait Russia into WWIII so that it can preserve The Petro-Dollar Standard and provide cover for the collapse of its eviscerated and mostly illusory economy.

I'm sorry but that's nonsense, Garner wasn't assassinated by the police for not paying protection money. You are starting to sound like Vals, next thing you will be expecting us to believe that 9/11 wasn't committed by Al-Qaeda He died while resisting arrest, you do know that arresting arrest is illegal right? See the video here. NYC maintains that it has a monopoly on the sale of cigarettes. The "privilege" to participate in this monopoly comes with many costs, mostly notably the tax levied on their sale which much be collected and remitted to the government of NYC. Eric Garner was SUSPECTED OF competing with NYC's monopoly by selling cigarettes at a lower price by not adding the extortion surcharge, also known as protection money, or taxes. Eric Garner was incidentally murdered in process of the NYPD enforcing its cigarette racquet. If he hadn't been murdered, he would have been merely assaulted, kidnapped, then extorted through the "justice system" in enforcement of said cigarette racquet. The ultimate reason this scenario happened, is because he didn't pay his protection money. Plain and simple. Is selling cigarettes illegal in NYC? No. Is selling cigarettes without collecting/paying taxes illegal? Yes. Ask yourself why that is.

I'm genuinely intrigued. Do you get drunk before these posts, or do they get you high in their own right? Eric Garner was killed for not paying his protection money. He simply wasn't paying his dues. NYC government considers itself head of the cigarette cartel in the city, and killed this man while enforcing that cartel's position. One has to be intoxicated on koolaide to not see that for what it is.

Russia is just a neofeudalistic duchy. Modern Russia exists as many western politicians can only dream off--unapproachable oligarchy and openly corrupt bureaucracy sitting high above the peasant and serf population. Putin has more economic sense than many of the fascists around the world, but he's still a fascist autocrat. He came to power through the ranks of the secret police. There are never good people working in secret police and intelligence agencies ever--for any country, entity, at any point in history. Just the corrupt and those waiting for the opportunity to become corrupt. Just ask Alexander Litvinenko.

I'd like to see engagement changed, but not removed. I don't like the it operating outside of weapon reach, the damage nor the accuracy bonus. I can live with the free attack and zero recovery time--even if that's arguably the greatest culprit of it being exploitable.

How so? i always liked the BG2 one more( in appearence and on design/functionality,), but as i was talking about how the areas were depicted both games are about the same. I just find the BG2 colored icons pretier The BG map was superior to the BG2 map in that it had greater character. It fleshed out the lay of the land better, because the areas populated and covered the map in a semi-contiguous manner. To be fair though, if BG2 had the same style map, it would have felt empty and devoid because the areas were designed much differently. I imagine that's why they decided to add color and a more vivid background.

The Priest is very much a "heal bot" in PoE. Their offensive spells incur no friendly fire, but they aren't particularly worthwhile either. Personally, I prefer the per encounter healing/status purge of the Paladin over the cleric. With the full release, I may find encounters to be challenging enough to where I might need healing but that's doubtful. Healing Endurance is ultimately immaterial and a waste of time in PoE so long as one character is left standing when victorious.

I just made a party of 6 orlan rogues specialized to attack speed/critical hits using pikes. Absolute murder. I would stealth my party into position around the enemy in pairs, then ambush. The only thing that caused them to even momentarily blink was engagement. Considering this party needed to be highly mobile, I found engagement irritating for the first time. Not really making a point of any kind, just sharing.

Combat hasn't been chaotic for me since v300? I've lost track of the iterations, but I believe it was the second update. I think most of the ability activation and recovery times still need tweaked, but otherwise I'm fine with the pace of combat.

The Law doesn't matter. It suits the purposes of those in power. Like the many rulings from various courts, the police have no obligation to protect you or anything else. The only good thing about this Ferguson ordeal, is that it has shown what the police are actually paid to do. They stand idle while looters pillage, ransack, and immolate property across the street whilst wearing combat armor, automatic machine guns, sniper rifles, and armored combat vehicles keep the actual protesters monitored.

Voted for Baldur's Gate, but only because that's the best amalgamation of the mixture they presented. There is much to like about any of these games listed. The narrative of PS:T and NWN2 MotB, the adventure of NWN2 SoZ, the mood, steampunk, and crafting of Arcanum, quest structure/outcome of both Arcanum and the Fallouts, the superb combat of ToEE, etc. While I did like IWD 1&2, they are my least favorite of any of the games presented here. I played them, and enjoyed them well enough, but they were merely consolation for my lack of any new BG games. I've never actually played KotOR 2 though. I've been meaning to, but just never got around to it.

Nonsense. You don't understand his philosophy. The mirror images can be torn down fairly swiftly with a variety of attacks (including mundane attacks), hence it is not a hard counter. The Mirror Image spell in PoE, all things being equal, is actually more powerful than its AD&D counterpart. Several images with the same poor AC versus one character with very high Deflection that goes down piecemeal with every hit - the former are easier to destroy. Hardly. +20 Deflection that decreases with each hit is far inferior to a high percent chance that the next attack will be totally invalidated. That it doesn't scale makes it even worse. With the AD&D Mirror Image, no matter how powerful the attack or how far outclassed by an opponent your character is, you've got a reliable time-frame to (likely) avoid all damage from weapon attacks. That is tremendously powerful. With PoE, +20 Deflection (for one attack) could potentially push an equal opponent's accuracy to where they may actually be able to miss--but overall will not accomplish that much. You're still going to get it. You're still likely to take damage. If that opponent far outclasses you or has high innate accuracy/damage (relative to level), then it's not going to do much of anything for you. The AD&D Mirror Image functions like a lesser AD&D Stoneskin in that the damage type it protects against is absolutely negated. Critical hits, dragon claws, knockdown...all negated (for a time) by each image shed. Compare that to a <=20 Deflection bonus against a monster in PoE with >70 Accuracy....meh. You'll be slightly adjusting their graze and critical range down. That is the design difference. That is what has become of the no hard counters design. Nothing is absolute, everything is a threshold. Furthermore, those thresholds are balanced to be low enough so that they shall be overcome. It's a world of difference. Agreed.

Building a gish with the wizard class is not quite as easy as it once was. I find that in making one, I don't assign attribute points much differently than a conventional wizard. Might: Not very important. Keep it at 10. Dex: Difficult call. It's desirable to minimize your casting and recovery time, but I feel it is ultimately a lesser choice to other stats. I keep it at 10. Con: Not necessary. I put lower it to 3. Particularly with the low health multiplier, it's more important to avoid damage than endure it. I imagine many would disagree with this. Per: Maxed. Necessary to do anything, and you need to compensate for the wizard's poor innate accuracy. Int: Maxed. Deflection is essential. Res: Maxed. Many of the spells suited to this style have a duration, and keeping from being interrupted is important. For talents, I like Peasant weapon focus primarily to get bonuses with staffs for the Concelhaut's spell. Using reach weapons like staffs and spears doesn't hurt either--even if they are slower. A hatchet and shield works fine for when you need to be more defensive and/or quick as well. Grimiore Slam doesn't seem to be working for me, otherwise I would select it. Talents that improve deflection are advisable. For spell selection, use Spirit Shield, Concelhaut's Parasitic Staff, Curse of Blackened Sight, Miasma of Dullness, Expose Vulnerabilities, Ironskin, etc. are your bread and butter. Don't bother with Wizard's Double or Mirror Image. Only use Eldritch Aim if you are using fast weapons, like two daggers. With how short durations are and how ineffective most of the self-buffs are, gishing with a Wizard isn't very satisfying right now. Having to recast all of your short-lived protections and enhancements each battle is taxing and inefficient--even with no recovery time from your defensive spells. You're much better off flanking with a reach weapon and casting select debuffs than anything else. Tanking can be done though. Heavy armor with Spirit Shield and Ironskins will allow you to take on the hurt.

Saudi Arabia cannot suppress prices forever. The Ghawar reservoir is depleting. The House of Saud may take its marching orders from the US, but they can only endure so much. This gambit is not likely to strengthen western presence in Syria either, which is the ultimate intention of this play (by weakening Russia). There are secondary benefits in that it provides the illusion of strength for the US dollar and promotes confidence in the all important Petro-Dollar Standard. The US and Israel better be careful not to overplay their hand though. If the House of Saud were to get nervous over lost revenue or overselling of their only product...it could be disaster for The West.

That's the problem with The State though, it's a tool with only malignant methods. The State only enacts anything through theft, kidnapping, and murder. Every act carried out by it, no matter what the goal nor intention is ultimately accomplished through theft, kidnapping, murder. There is nothing good or productive about forcibly organizing society around a compulsory system of theft and violence.

I was logging out when I saw your statement. Name 5 meaningful ways Obama is different than Bush. Blue vs. Red is a false dichotomy that compose your left and right shackles. The only way to win is not to play.

I was always very cautious without how I regard Rand Paul because of his hawkish tendencies. When he "came out" by "happily endorsing" Mitt Romney, he showed that in the end--he was bought and paid for. How cheaply, nobody knows. The price doesn't matter though. He espoused support for a State-worshiping, thoughtless, talentless, self-aggrandizing, Fascist. The only thing good about Rand Paul's endorsement is that it removed all doubt about what he actually is made of.

Conservative Anarchist Total-Isolationist Humanist Liberal Collectivism score: -67% Authoritarianism score: -100% Internationalism score: -100% Tribalism score: -50% Liberalism score: 17% Some of it is operating on bogus definitions though. Deciding not carve a bloody crusade across the globe to eradicate perceived threats to my culture makes me an isolationist? Every question dealing with foreign issues involved State participation. They are kind of a false choice. I didn't see the "unregulated voluntary trade and travel with everyone" option. Other than that, the title doesn't feel too off-the-mark.