AndreaColombo

That would be the most sensible solution, though frankly I could settle for ensuring that perks like the Devoted's apply to them. It's kind of odd to have your soul bound to a weapon and not be proficient in its use, is it not?

Hey Caleb, looks like it's even worse on aumaua models (using the heroic pose in this screenshot):

Based on their description and lore (from the first game as well), Soulbound weapons should be universal and any character whose soul is bound to them should be considered proficient in their use. Hence, I would expect a Devoted not to take the -10 Accuracy penalty when wielding a Soulbound weapon, regardless of whether it is of the kind they are devoted to. Currently, that is not the case: Is this intended (i.e. the Devoted's restriction is meant to apply to Soulbound weapons too) or are Soulbound weapons mistakenly not flagged as universal in the current beta build?

Here's the summary: Note that Berserker has the most damage taken because he was wearing the lightest armor on the team. Watcher was a Devoted/Helwalker. The highest single-target damage does belong to the Devoted/Soulblade, but it's actually closer to 140-150 from an Empowered Soul Annihilation. For some reason, the record sheet didn't pick that one up. A few notes from my game: Devoted/Helwalker is really good; about as good as Devoted/Shattered Pillar. It really comes down to whether you prefer a more active or passive play style (Helwalker being the passive option.) Devoted/Soulblade is perfect for taking down priority targets quickly, as Soul Annihilation one-shots most enemies. Shifter/Helwalker is a killing machine. You could make a similar killing machine with Shifter/Shattered Pillar if you preferred a more active play style. Swift Strikes + Spiritshift (Cat) makes you deal a boatload of damage with very short recovery. Devoted/Berserker is a very good combo which I suspect will shine brighter on Path of the Damned due to Carnage. The two classes have a lot of good synergies. In this party, the activation time of Frenzy meant the Devoted/Berserker was always the last one to join the fray so he didn't get as much action (but when he did, he was pretty strong.)

Another thought: It would be good if we could access a character's ability tree from the character record screen. As it is, we can only preview it at character creation and see it again at level up.

Probably unintended; worth reporting in a separate thread imo.

Agreed. Besides, Swift Strikes seems to be stacking with the potion you start with that gives extra speed; in PoE 1 it didn't stack with Deleterious Alacrity of Motion, IIRC. So stacking rules appear to have changed. Imo different abilities from different classes should stack, since we have multi-classing and are encouraged to explore synergies.

I echo the sentiment. The tiered system’s really good! It just needs to be clearly explained in the game (which I reckon Obsidian are working on) as well as an in-game quick reference chart with the tiers and effects listed clearly and neatly. It’s pretty good to be able to devise combos to overcome stuff like the Confusion effect from a Berserker’s Frenzy. Only thing is that the resistance to X afflictions racials are much better than most others, so it really pays to play one of those races. The other racials should be made roughly equal in utility/power.

I noticed that in order to solve this quest—and I mean to get to ANY kind of resolution—you must have high Bluff (and/or another skill I can't recall.) I'm all for skill checks that make a difference, but there should be a way to end the quest even if you didn't invest in specific skills. Having the skills could make it easier/quicker to reach the same conclusion, or it could open up more options/paths to conclusion, but they should not gate the quest's completion imo.

Ah yes. This very much. IE games had a very smart solution in place and it would be really good to have it in Deadfire. I'll also never understand having green circles for neutral NPCs. It is counter intuitive. Neutral NPCs should have cyan circles, like they did in IE games.

I play on normal speed. For easier fights I can use Fast, but it's generally because I was using it to move around and forgot to toggle it when combat started.

Why not the ability to select fists as a proficiency? This way a Devoted/Monk could benefit from the Devoted's perks while using their fist. If a spiritshift's natural weapons also counted as fists for the purpose of proficiency, a Devoted/Shifter would also benefit.

If estocs were given a slight damage bump, that should even things out? This is right up Dave Williams’s alley; isn’t he the one with the spreadsheets that calculate relative damage and stuff?

Happy Thanksgiving! Have a good, well-deserved rest; thank you for all the hard work you are putting into this

When looting it appears that Thaos's portrait is overlapping that of my Watcher: Not sure what triggers this exactly; all other characters are unaffected.

I believe the correct structure for this sentence requires a "to" there (i.e. "better to X than to Y"):

Just tried with a hired mercenary that had a different name and got the exact same behavior.

On a related note, when spiritshifted the sassy pose doesn't lay the write on the hip, but rather leaves it hanging in the air:

Seconded. It's actually fairly annoying that you need to micro-manage everyone after using an ability or they'll just stand there idly.

Agreed. New systems require testing and polishing. Obsidian have a pretty good track record of listening to testers' feedback, as proven recently by Josh's tweets about changes to talents, armor penetration, and even the walk toggle. Let's have some faith in them

The way casters are right now, you'd better multiclass them with a Fighter regardless if you want them to contribute anything to a fight. Game gets a lot easier the moment you remove casters and only keep a Fighter/Priest for the occasional healing spell or Suppress Affliction.

I think Tekehu will be Druid, Chanter, or whatever the combination of Druid/Chanter is.

As soon as I get to the end of the beta, I'll make a screenshot of their stats and post it here

Currently running a 9th-level party on Veteran with scaling on for all content: - Devoted/Helwalker - Devoted/Berserker - Devoted/Soulblade - Devoted/Priest of Skaen - Shifter/Helwalker I can put combat in Fast mode and win every fight with ease. Granted, they're all dual-wielding one-handers whose recovery time is too short and will be patched to 3.0 seconds, so that'll be a significant nerf—but the synergies are pretty good for all combinations except the Devoted/Priest. Given the current casting times, I only really cast Restore or Suppress Afflictions as needed with a Priest, so I needed one that could also be good at melee combat. We definitely need a buff to casters as right now a fully melee party just mops the floor easily while casters are completely useless (especially if single-classed.) On a related note—the Devoted/Berserker isn't really shining much despite its obvious strength 'cause by the time he activates his Frenzy, the other guys have already killed everybody XD To be honest I haven't noticed much difference at all between Veteran and Classic? Perhaps I should try PotD.

They did say in a QA session that they would not guarantee those talents would remain, or that they would remain in the same form, but that they would try to give you something if you had them in your imported character. Guess we'll have to see when the game's out.