HawkSoft

The VERY original D&D had a system for creating sentient swords, that was cool but I don't want all the random nonsense that an AD&D (EG) dragon hoard became. I like that most of the weapons in PoE make sense from the point of view of the crafting system, most of the *technology* is still current, Crafting might be a bit too easy, in that you can enchant stuff whilst hiding in a ditch from enraged enemies, but it is consistent with the *feel* (for me) of the setting which I find mechanistic rather than fantastic. The 3.0 beta has some nice tweaks to some of the uniques. My only complaint with the soulbound kit is that it is too concentrated in the area covered by the White March part 1, for obvious reasons. I hope that it gets spread around for for the final release.

Endurance. Restoring health requires diverting a talent spot for Field Triage (?) or the self-help equivalent. I like the system, there's only so much in the way of cuts and bruises a body can take before requiring proper rest.

I'm sure it comes to the attention of the devs and testers every time they try a new build It's the sort of thing that would have annoyed me when I was a dev.

I've now got back to Caed Nua and found a nice (but grisly) bonus in the treasure chest, however I've also found more errors (see attached screenshot).

@Aarik, thanks' for the response, I had suspected that athletics no longer pumped base endurance. Since I first posted my monk char has been putting a lot of skill into athletics and survival (not something I'd have done in v2), some comments: Second wind is very useful and can restore significant endurance but still seems like a renewing potion rather than a *natural* effect. I think there are too many different survival bonuses some of seem more related to athletics (EG movement speed) than survival. I can (sort of) justify to myself why survival may boost creature specific damage but think it's too flexible. I think it's a big improvement on v2, well done! My (revised) suggestions: Survival gives a boost to health, no boost from levelling up. Every 2 levels of survival earns a per-rest bonus (as current beta): Improved Healing, DR bonus, Consumables Duration increase (note DR 2nd, it's too good to be 1st). Every character might be able to take a *racial enemy* when they reach EG level 3 (give new players time to think about it). Athletics gives boost to endurance, no boost from levelling up (as current beta). Every 2 levels of Athletics earns a per-encounter bonus (selected on rest/camping): Second Wind, Movement Bonus, Attack Speed bonus (or Deflection?)

There's plenty of gun armed adversaries in the North March.

Actually I'll admit that for the higher level powers at least that might actually be a concern if you aren't playing on PotD. On PotD though so far it isn't an issue. The Cipher is just the closer instead of the opener now. I'll admit to only playing on normal.

Nice item upgrade from v2. These boot look like they are more suitable for an armoured knight on horseback rather than trudging across a frozen tundra. Good luck trying to stay silent with tin cans strapped to your legs.

Given that all the passive healing abilities EG (un)constant recovery also have shorter durations (so you don't want to prolong fights) now it looks like the cipher will only be useful after the fight has ended

The buff to Sagani's bow is nice and adds flavour. However it has the potential drawback that Aloth may now outrange Sagani so during a (low micro/lazy) stealthy approach he could be the first character to attack so copping most of the return fire. Iselmyr doesn't like this and has threatened to break Sagani's bow

Most chanters are ranged and need squishies to harvest focus from. Yes, in some fights you have more focus than you could possibly use but in many tough fights my cipher has been reduced to plinking away in the hope of gaining any focus at all. Key thing is DR of enemies and/or piercing immunities. I stopped running 2 ciphers in a party (mid game) because there was not enough potentially harvestable focus to go around (normal difficulty).

I disagree. While the player may be unable to know the immunities at first, because of the abstraction of combat mechanics, I think Éder would be able to look at the dragon he is fighting and notice it was too big for him to knock prone. Then surely it should be lore based? not automatic The dragon example may be *common sense* (I'm surprised Eder can knock trolls prone) but many of the other immunities are much less obvious.

It would be very nice to have an AI script that automatically switched to a character's next available weapon if the current missile weapon is unloaded. To prevent looping it should not switch back to the first weapon set automatically. Also, if the player manually selects a weapon during a fight the auto-switch behaviour should be suppressed. This would allow the AI to mimic the historical use of single shot pistols without micromanagement by the player.

If you put them on display you had better be on good terms with the Adventurers' Hall/Dozens or somebody is likely to finance an expedition to redistribute *your* loot

In the 3.0 beta you get ALL immunity information on first contact with an enemy (I've posted a thread on the beta forum). I don't like this as it breaks immersion and is inconsistent with how the Cyclopedia fills out. OBS say this was changed because some people complained about *wasting* attacks, to me that is part of exploring in a cRPG. OBS are asking for feedback on this *feature*.

In previous versions (as I remember) when you opened a grimoire in a wizard's inventory you always got a learn spell icon on spells they did not know. In the current beta you only get that icon if the wizard character is currently selected. However if you right click on an unknown spell you do get a Learn Spell button at the bottom of the description.

It's such an obvious usability improvement that I'd guess there's a messy technical reason why it's not happened yet.

On your first run levels 1-2 can be quite tough too, especially if you go bear hunting solo…

I don't think I've seen a single one of these games to come out of development hell. Oh, sorry, I mean Early Access. That would make them quite accurate models of real world military procurement then *Crafting* seems to be the current fad in games design, if i wanted to build a custom pixelated world I'd borrow my nephew's Lego… EDIY: typo

The Stronghold was a Kickstarter stretch goal and grew in scope as the funding campaign progressed. In it's current (v2) form it's OK but lacks *life* and feels tacked on, my parties use it a lot as a *motel* and the Endless Paths are a decent dungeon and source of loot What I've experienced so far of the v3 beta changes are good. I would not want the Stronghold to become the focus of the game and be forced into playing the roll of local lord with regional economic responsibilities or for the Stronghold to become a sandbox (= litter tray).

The result for the Ringer Finger Quest contains: *Missing Characters 1742* PS: Nice change to the Stronghold Quests, good fluff

I like Kana, his character, voice acting and quest (although it's a bit short) but I've had to relegate him to gate guard duty and Endless Paths specialist because the chanter AI just sucks. I use AI to try and ensure everyone keeps busy, it might not always attack the best target but at least DPS is going in the right direction Unfortunately the [3.0 beta] Chanter AI has a fetish about skeletons and will always cast them ASAP making it almost impossible to save Kana's phrases for anything more useful. I'm still low enough level for the skeletons to have some value in combat but it's very annoying to have them suddenly appear where I don't want them Kana is currently on a Stronghold quest to retrieve a dead murderer's thumb (or some such), what little I've seen of the Caed Nua tweaks so far look good

In my view Paladins are the closest PoE class to AD&D clerics (most of my Infinity Engine protagonists were clerics of some kind). You can build them in many different ways to suit your play style. The PoE Priest class stands on its own and doesn't try to mimic the AD&D cleric.

For the Bilestompers in the Adventurers' Hall I got: Missing Itemmods 461

@blinkicide, I was not disagreeing with you, my comments were directed towards Obs. They have created a new skill, Spell Mastery, which is all about repeatedly casting a spell rather than mastering it. Playing on normal I would be tempted to take spells with fast casting speeds in the *mastery* slots because I know I will always find time to use them in a combat. I asked about Grimoire swapping because I suspected that very few players do it in combat, I can usually find much better picks than the quick change perk for Aloth It would be nice to have grimoires have more meaning rather than being generic *stamp albums*. Maybe grimoires could be enchantable (like shields?) with the enchant limit varying by wizard level which would prohibit lower level wizards from equipping them. There could also be genuinely unique grimoires with small but useful abilities.