AndreaColombo

A couple extra thoughts. While it is true that gods and religious beliefs play a big part in Pillars of Eternity's plot, there is no inherent benefit—mechanical, narrative, or otherwise—to playing a Priest (and as DreamWayfarer noted, Paladins aren't necessarily devoted to a specific deity in this game and, in fact, often aren't.) Durance, on the other hand, has a personal story that is both interesting and related to the main plot; while it is absolutely not necessary to bring him along to understand or fully appreciate Pillars of Eternity's story, I believe there is something to be gained—narratively—from having him around and playing through his quest. His personality was purposefully made spiteful, hateful, and overall unlikable so don't expect your typical Goody Two-Shoes Priest. That he manages to be unlikable to everyone is a testament to the effectiveness of his writing. If you want good damage with high INT and RES, just set the latter two to the desired level and put the rest in MIG. Sure, you may end up having a slightly sup-par stat spread, but as DreamWayfarer mentioned, that's not really going to be a big deal on difficulty settings other than PotD (and even on PotD extreme min/maxing is not strictly necessary.)

Link Please let me know when you've downloaded it so I can remove it from my dropbox; it's pretty big.

The bug I spoke of is that Two Weapon Fighting doesn't speed you up if you're equipping a Bash shield.

Yes, you've got it right. You may only have one enchantment per type on any given item. That is—for weapons—one quality (Fine, Superb, Accurate, etc.), one lash, and one creature slaying. Some unique items in the game are an exception to this rule and have more enchantments of the same type. Existing quality enchantments can be overwritten by new ones (e.g. you can upgrade a Fine item to Exceptional or Superb.) There are no recipes to be found in the game; what is there at the beginning is what you get (with the exception of Durgan Steel, which you gain access to by playing TWM pt. I).

Tbh, I'm mostly keeping that armor for the looks; Frenzy doesn't stack with any of the buffs I typically use in spades so I could easily replace it with something else even now. I also wouldn't take Outlander's Frenzy for the LoP for the same reason (doesn't stack with my usual buffs) but of course YMMV.

When I try to run the SweetFX mod, I get the following error message and it doesn't really work: C:\Pillars of Eternity\Sweet.fx(236, 35): error X3004: undeclared identifier 'ReShade_Start_Enabled' C:\Pillars of Eternity\Sweet.fx(236, 56): error X3000: syntax error: unexpected ';', expected '{' Any idea what it could be? EDIT: nvm, I've downloaded the latest and greatest version of Reshade/SweetFX and it works now. Honestly I'm not as big on this as most people seem to be. SMAA would be kick-ass, but it makes text look crappy at any setting worth using \ Some slight HDR and vibrance make the picture pleasant in a gimmicky way, basically via color over-saturation and black/white clipping. Maybe I'm too much of a video purist

Dude, enjoy your well-deserved time off and have a great one!

Have faith. Soon there will be a new version of the IE Mod out, and you'll be able to use its extra slow combat option.

It doesn't; just run a quick test.

^ day and date with TWM pt. II in late January. Unfortunately nothing more precise has been announced yet.

I don't think the fix was retroactive. If you hit the dude with no icon with Borresaine now, you should see that the icon no longer sticks after the effect expires. However, to get rid of it on the other guys, you'll probably have to reload an earlier save. Unless hitting them with Borresaine again triggers another timer on the existing icon and makes it disappear afterward. Just speculating, of course, but it might be worth trying.

Hi Spring, I sent you a message over at Nexus too; I'm on Windows but if I can help in any way, I will. Kudos!

I know Monk used to be a popular TCS class early on; not sure whether this has changed with the recent updates (I've never tried a solo run.) Indeed, if you're playing just for the achievement I suggest skipping every fight that is avoidable to increase your chances. Come to think of it, why isn't there a "TCS completionist" achievement? For the really hardcore guys

Hi, 1. I believe it is a cone, but I'm not 100% on this. A typical strategy is to send your tank alone to take the breath attack while you buff the other guys in the back, then go all in on the dragon (it will be a while before she uses her breath attack again.) 2. Bonuses to the same thing from the same source don't stack; it is normal. Just swap items around until everything's active if you want to make sure you're not "wasting" anything with suppression. 3. If you give the amulet to the dragon-slayer, you'll have to fight her. It's an easier fight with decent loot, but you miss out on the dragon scales. If you betray the dragon, the dragon-slayer will teach you her techniques and you'll gain the Scale Breaker talent which is a pretty good dragon debuff.

^ Those would be must-have talents that overshadow every other talent for any Wizard build, though. Imo, Josh's solution to have one spell as 1/encounter on top of the per-rest uses is better in that it leaves your talent slots untouched (I've never had issues finding talents for my Druids and Wizards.)

This is my support priest build. There are many like it, but this is mine Class: Priest (of Eothas) Race: Human* *but it can be anything that strikes your fancy. I chose human just because. Background: Old Vailia - Aristocrat* *again, it can be anything that strikes your fancy. I chose Aristocrat for the +2 Lore as the priest is also my main scrolls guy. Old Vailia can be swapped for any other location so long as you move the stats around to reflect those given below. Stats: MIG: 10 CON: 10 DEX: 18 PER: 10 INT: 16 RES: 14 Why these stats? The main thing I want from my support priest is the ability to dish out buffs fast, which implies having a high DEX score. The faster he buffs, the sooner my other men reach their full potential and start wreaking havoc. The second thing I want from this build is long duration for my buffs, and of course a wide AoE so I can buff as many people as possible even when they're not crammed together in a itty-bitty living space. So INT follows. Last but not least, I want my priest to avoid being targeted from enemies, and to be able to withstand some blows if he is. So RES (and of course a shield, as you'll see below.) Skills: Lore: 10 Everything else is up to you (and patch 3.0 will significantly change how Athletics and Survival work, so no point in mandating scores in those two skills right now.) All I need from skills on this build is the ability to use all scrolls. Talents: in no particular order Interdiction Painful Interdiction Empowered Interdiction [or Savage Attack] Hope Eternal Weapon and Shield Style Weapon Focus: Adventurer Aspirant's Mark [or Vulnerable Attack] Why these talents? Hope Eternal and Weapon Focus: Adventurer give you +16 Accuracy with flail, which is the weapon we're going to use. If you want this build to contribute to the fight after buffing/debuffing, it will come in handy. Weapon and Shield Style boosts our Deflection and Reflexes, thus making it more likely that enemies won't target the priest (and won't crit if they do.) This means the priest can buff/debuff unhindered and doesn't risk leaving the fight prematurely. Interdiction + Painful Interdiction are a pretty good per-encounter debuffs. Empowered Interdiction gives +10 Accuracy to the main Interdiction effect, which is always nice (especially if you plan on using the debuff before buffing your Accuracy), but it is not vital so you may swap it for an offensive melee talent if you want to go into the fray after buffing/debuffing. Aspirant's Mark will become 1/encounter in patch 3.0, which makes it a pretty good per-encounter debuff too. Alternatively, Savage Attack and Vulnerable Attack will increase your damage potential if you plan to make the priest contribute to the party's offense once all buffs have been cast (this build attacks fast and can reach good Accuracy once buffed, as you'll see.) Equipment: Garodh's Chorus (offensive version) Use Dunryd's Demon until you get Garodh's Chorus. Clothing (enchanted to Exceptional, Proofing of your choice, +2 INT.) Don't get the +2 INT enchant until you replace Dunryd's Demon with Garodh's Chorus as the two won't stack. Ring of Deflection Ring of Protection Dream Dancer's Sidestep Gauntlets of Swift Action Blunting Belt Boots of Stability Redfield Use Ilfan Byrngar's Solace until you get Redfield. Unforgiven (enchanted to Superb*, Durgan-refined.) *or keep it to Exceptional if you need the Sky Dragon Eyes for something else; I had one to spare and used it for this character. Also, it makes no sense to enchant this weapon to Superb if you don't plan on making the priest contribute to the fight beyond casting buffs and debuffs. These will bring your MIG to 13, DEX to 20, INT to 18; you'll also get +15% attack speed from the Gauntlets of Swift Action, and bestow a -3 Accuracy penalty on your enemies just standing there (Redfield.) So how does it work? Casting speed: I typically make extensive use the +3 DEX resting bonus from Caed Nua and Rauatai Sweet Pie on all my party members to increase their action speed. This brings this build's DEX score to 25, or +45% action speed which is pretty rad. You may or may not decide to sip a Potion of Deleterious Alacrity of Motion at the beginning of the fight: If you do, you'll lose some time when the fight starts, but cast really fast afterward; if you don't, you'll cast at good speed right away but will need to sit through some recovery between spells. Attack speed: With a durgan-refined Unforgiven and the Gauntlets of Swift Action, this character packs +50% attack speed (which means 50% faster recovery) right off the bat, with no speed penalty from wearing armor (since they're wearing clothes.) What is left of their recovery is slashed almost in half by the +45% action speed bonus from DEX, which means this build attacks really fast. With a Potion of Deleterious Alacrity of Motion you'd attack with no recovery, or very little recovery if using Vulnerable Attack (which would be advisable.) Dishing out those buffs: My typical strategy is to start the fight with Devotions for the Faithful, followed by Champion's Boon on my main DPS guy, and Dire Blessing. If fighting specific enemies that bestow afflictions, I protect my men against those afflictions first (e.g. Prayer against Fear when facing dragons; Prayer against Treachery when facing spores or fampyrs; etc.) and remove the afflictions that went through at the beginning of the fight (Suppress Afflictions.) For tough fights, Crowns of the Faithful goes through after these last few spells, then I get cranking on the offensive buffs. This priest will be able to cast all these at speed and with good duration and AoE (I advise making extensive use of Casità Casserole to bring their INT to 20.) Debuffing the offenders: Painful Interdiction + Aspirant's Mark in rapid succession mean all enemies around get -10 Accuracy, -2 MIG, -2 CON, -2 DEX, -2 INT, -2 PER, -15% attack speed, -1 movement speed, -20 Fortitude, -20 Will, -8 Reflex, -8 Deflection. No need to debuff further: Pretty much anything will land after this, while enemies' DPS massively drops. Contributing to the fight: As mentioned above, this build attacks fast. Once buffed with Devotions for the Faithful and a Scroll of Valor (which this build could handle, but I typically delegate to my Wizard), its Accuracy is more than enough to handle most enemies. The only problem is its sub par damage output: Works great against no-DR or low-DR enemies; not so much against tougher guys (though the burning lash on Unforgiven helps.) Savage Attack and Vulnerable Attack are a great help in this department, if you elect to take them. At higher levels, you can cast the Minor Avatar spell once you're done buffing/debuffing to gain additional +42% damage (+24% from the extra MIG, +20% from the spell itself), +24% action speed from the extra DEX, +8 Accuracy from the extra PER, and more. At that point, you can really maim your enemies Avoid being targeted: Now, my parties generally comprise low-Deflection, offensive-oriented characters that make this priest's Deflection the highest I have. It ensues that, in my play throughs, this priest is never targeted. If you play high-Deflection characters, you may want to buff the priest's Deflection at the beginning of the fight 'cause at level 14, its Deflection score is 93. Not bad, but no particularly great either. Luckily, most foes will be unable to crit the priest if they engage them, and Garodh's Chorus gives you Retaliation which is always good for those cases. Here's what this priest looks like when fully buffed (including Minor Avatar), without Savage Attack or Vulnerable Attack: Active buffs: Devotions for the Faitfhul, Minor Avatar, Scroll of Valor, Scroll of Defense, Dire Blessing, Armor of Faith. Not shown in screenshot: 30% graze-to-hit conversion, 40% hit-to-crit conversion, +30% crit damage, +50% attack speed, +25% burn damage. ... and that's all folks, I suppose

Not trying to argue your preferences here, but "press pause, evaluate the situation/adjust orders, then unpause" is supposed to be the fun in this game's combat. You are not supposed to let the game flow for any length of time unless you mapped everything to hotkeys and tried to play it Starcraft-style.

Same here. I had to enable "Allow desktop capture" but from then on, it always reliably worked.

There are a few things to keep in mind about this. The first is that proofing is not always a flat +3 bonus vs the chosen damage type. It's percentage based and the UI does a very poor job communicating it (by which I mean it does not communicate it at all.) Hence, you get the most bang for your buck by proofing armor against a damage type the armor is already strong against. Counterintuitive, I know. Slash, Crush, Pierce are more common across enemies than elemental damage types. Thaos's minions, IIRC, deal Slash and Crush respectively. Not sure about dragons as I think they deal different types of damage depending on the attack; should check the in-game bestiary but I'm on my smartphone now. Generally I proof vs the damage type for which I have the lowest DR among Slash, Crush, Pierce regardless of any other consideration (except, obviously, whether some other items are already boosting my DR as proofing doesn't stack with them.)

Spelltongue had the same issue and it was fixed in 2.03. If Borresaine is still doing it, we'd better raise it in the tech forum. It is indeed a cosmetic-only bug, though rather annoying in my book.

SAVED GAME: link OUTPUT LOG: link REPRO STEPS: Load the attached saved game. Observe that all characters in the party are custom made. In particular, observe that Aloth is notably absent. In this saved game, Iovara's dialog has just happened; move to your right to go to the stairs that lead to the final area. Observe that as you go toward the stairs, Aloth's voice will speak the "So ... it's true. The gods are sham [...]" line even though Aloth is absent, and the sentence is attributed to the main character. That's the sentence Aloth speaks at that point, after which the dialog icon appears on his portrait to signal he wants to talk to you. This bug has been in for as long as I can remember, to the point I actually thought it had already been fixed (been a while since I last beat the game.)

Hey, hope it worked; I had to remove the file from my dropbox 'cause it was huge and I needed room for other files. Let me know if you still need a download link.

This looks (aesthetically) a lot like my pure-support priest build, except mine is in clothes—same shield and similar color scheme, though. Also looks a lot like Christmas with all the red :D I like this chanter's concept a lot, but something inside me just doesn't want to play with slow builds. All of my party members are constantly high on ... speed to the point that combat is typically over before I can execute the "slower" combos (which aren't really slow in absolute terms) unless it's a "tough" fight.

Was your Borresaine-weilding dude charmed by any chance, and hit your party members with the bow? What game version are you on?

We need a Dunryd Row spin off in which the main is a Dunryd Row detective and all quests are crimes to solve, with the main story as an overarching conspiracy. Like, dudes ... serirousry.