HawkSoft

The Aggressive script states that Sworn Enemy will only be used if Per Rest is enabled. Should this be changed as I understand it is now Per Encounter?

it does seem to be more general. I had the monk wander off again, this time to attack an already known enemy (small bonus). They stopped smacking on a troll just after it got stunned and went to help smear a slime leaving a couple of my squishies standing by the troll.

^That may be a reasonable approach at v0.9 but much less so at v3.0

Just had the monk wander off again, this time to attack an already known enemy (small bonus). They stopped smacking on a troll just after it got stunned and went to help smear a slime. Is this some kind of warped code-of-conduct? Monks don't kick opponents while they are down

Update: Based on other comments on this forum I re-specked the monk, 500cp wasted (will reload) still no Turning Wheel effect or Scion of Flame. Edit: Battle forged (my monk, Zu San, is Fire Godlike) does work but it can zap the character, see attached screenshot:

Second Wind increases with Athletics and can be quite significant, I don't like it though, it seems more like an adrenaline booster from cyberpunk than a physical ability from a *realistic* fantasy setting. It's too quick, I'd prefer everyone to have some form of constant recovery that scaled with Athletics and for Fighters to get a significant boost to it. At present Second Wind just functions like a scaleable per encounter potion. I think the DR boost is too strong to be the default Survival bonus, I feel the default should be healing bonus. Some of the abilities seem like they should be tied to Athletics (EG faster movement) whilst other (EG racial damage bonus) requires fore knowledge of what you are going to fight (breaks forth wall a bit).

Mastery should be MASTERY, not spamming. I like the idea of a Grimoire upgrade instead, it builds on what is unique about Wizards in PoE rather than following more established tropes. It might have a similar effect (EG per encounter slots in the Grimoire) but it seems to mesh better with the lore. PS do many people swap grimoires during combat?

I've seen some odd things with a monk using Disruptor/Defensive script, she's run off in the middle of several fights to attack previously unspotted enemies

I've turned crippling injuries off. It's just no fun with a rapid attack monk as protagonist and very few decent bits of kit. A monk MUST take damage to power their abilities and a rapid attack build can't afford long recovery times from standard issue armour so can take a lot of damage quite quickly against some opponents. This results in the monk getting KO'd more often than other characters and most crippling injuries seem to affect attack speed and/or staying power so a rapid attack monk gets nerfed possibly more than most (a tank might just need another potion or two). Late game, when the party has lots of fancy kit, crippling might have some play value. Right now it's just a PITA.

I completely agree with this and will add that most of my ciphers' focus was spent on low level spells because so many of the higher level ones were too expensive for what they achieved, even reading a low level scroll was better than wasting focus on the high level dross. My experience with (mainly ranged) ciphers, playing fairly casually on normal (I make some mistakes) is that in a tough fight they can run out of squishies to harvest focus from and end the fight as sub-par archers/gunners, saving their last points of focus in case it can make a difference. It all depends on the DR of your opponents: Lots of squishies = Focus glut (how do I spend all this?) Few squishies/foes invulnerable to piercing = Focus famine (cipher useless after initial barrage)

Only if you spam rests, The per-encounter spells gave you a renewing resource to deal with trash mobs. Maybe, if there really are less of those, then spell mastery might be OK but it seems odd that spell choice becomes restricted whilst the Survival skill now gives you a bonus you can reselect each camp.

I'm running on Steam and you get to the saved games by: Hold down the ALT key and in the Finder menu *GO* select *Library* then browse to: Application Support Pillars of Eternity Saved Games

Nothing really. I scrapped my first 2 or 3 parties when I couldn't make them work and settled on a support paladin for my *real* play-through. I enjoyed the process of exploration and discovery, of being cautious (afraid even) of every new monster type. Now I know the game and the setting I read strategy guides/class builds but usually avoid walk-throughs except when I hit a brick wall. Enjoy your first visit to Defiance Bay and make it special.

Because there is a real potential to fall below the power curve by not achieving good synergy between spells and skills. One of the major advantages of wizards is their flexibility: X spells per level per rest chosen from any spell book you possess allows for a lot of fine tuning and experimentation. The new spell mastery system is the antithesis of that. Why not just allow 6 spells at levels 1-4 as appropriate for increased in-combat flexibility instead? It probably won't be a problem at normal difficulty or easier.

My monk character has their AI set on Disruptor/Defensive but persists in wandering off in the middle of a fight apparently looking for new (previously unspotted) enemies to fight (and usually finding them -> reload). I'm on the first level of Od Nua and in most cases there is a green engagement link running from my monk to the enemy they just abandoned. I'm assuming this is an aberration of the Disruptor script as none of the other characters are doing this.

I've just loaded up a higher level party led by a cipher to check. Cipher spells are all 10 focus per level, so 2nd level cost 20 instead of 15, 3rd level 30 instead of 20 etc. Choosing mastered spells for wizards is going to be tough and could potentially result in broken builds if you pick the wrong ones, a bit like how sorcerers could be awesome or awful in BG2 depending on their spell choices. This may make the re-specking shops an unavoidable expense for all *optimised* wizards I think it also pushes up the value of the extra spell slot skills for increase flexibility.

I've only just got to Caed Nua with my 3.0 beta party so it's going to be a while before I can pick up Grieving Mother and check. Kana still has skeletons and it's still a L1 spell (read somewhere here it became L2). I may well be wrong but the exterior of Caed Nua seems to have been scaled down so that it is no longer possible to sneak in with only 1 mob fight (something I achieved in my last 2 play-throughs), Had to trash 4 lots of spirits to get in this time. This will have the benefit of making it quicker to traverse for the majority of the game if it has been reduced in size. EDIT: Whispers of Yenwood gets a +2 buff to constitution making it a possible keeper worth upgrading instead of being reserved for slaying spirits.

I thought about that but I feel that restoring health should be tied to Survival, not Athletics. Maybe it could replace the movement bonus which seems to fit better with Athletics? I've also spotted that the AI sometimes uses Second Wind but it seems to be very erratic.

Yes, shades use frost attacks (I checked the log). Durance's revised staff (crush/burn) helps a lot with these fights which used to be horrible for a low level party However my monk's Turning Wheel does not seem to be triggering

The description of Apprentices' Sneak Attack makes no mention of Prone (etc.). Is this an omission or a deliberate change to the ability (now a flat bonus to all attacks)?

I've noted this on the beta forum as well but I think that Second Wind just adds more micro to combat. I also think that some of the survival bonuses cross over into athletics territory (otherwise a great change). Maybe both Athletics and Survival could have a list of per rest bonuses to pick from?

I've now had a chance to level up the party in the beta and I see that Second Wind replaces the old endurance boosts for athletics. Sorry, no. this just feels like everyone is carrying around a per encounter endurance potion (that scales by Athletics) - one more thing to click. I don't believe the AI makes use of it, even if it did why not just add it to a characters endurance pool? EDIT, it does, but erratically. The re-engineered Survival skill (generally good) also seems to conflict with Athletics as it can give you a movement bonus on resting (how? bonus damage also seems a bit *gamey*). Maybe Athletics aught to have its own set of per rest bonuses? EG movement, attack speed and second wind.

This is a known bug that I have also experienced, it's mostly harmless

I'm not seeing any *tool tip* information on my monk's Turning Wheel ability and the battle log show only crush damage. Battle Forged (she's fire Godlike) does flag up when her endurance falls low enough. EDIT: But only by the character portrait, not in the tool tip.

So far, only to nerf engagement even more than it was by exploiting its pixel-perfect knowledge of engagement distances