Valci

The system has it's problems I agree but is workable. Might for magical damage and healing doesn't make the must sense it's true... But it's much easier so have all damage dependant in only one stat for design purposes. Aside from that you more or less get around the strength requirement restriction issue for equipment in the sense that almost anyone well pick up at least average might due to it's importance... All in all I think they chose ease of game design rather then rp value. Is it ideal? Probably not... But it works well enough. I don't see it as something to get too wound up about...

Dude. Please don't build a one handed rogue build. Don't get me wrong you can do whatever you want but if your looking for effectiveness dual wield, or possibly look at using two handed with tidefall. Both options are way better then single handed. Don't worry about accuracy and critical hits with rogues. They almost allways never miss and they crit all the time. You certainly don't need to go a 1 handed build to increase you chance of hitting or crittting. Hah... I could never build a rogue that uses a 2H weapon... its just not rogue-ish enough. RP > effectiveness for me

Therein lies the problem ... there should (imho) always be enough reason to take a class all the way to max power level. Multi-classing should be more about versatility and options rather then raw power. If that is not the case then its simply bad design for me...

Personally I hope they are consistent throughout when it comes to the drawbacks of multiclassing and there is as little "cheese" as possible. I'm still haunted by the infamous kensage (kensai/wizard) of baldur's gate for instance. Or the fact that there was no reason to go as a single class thief... Virtually any dual class from thief (one you got the appropriate points in your lock picking, trap finding etc.) was more powerful then the single class thief... I hope pillars avoids this type of stuff and by the sound of it they are going about it the right way in the sense then you won't be able to reach top tier powers of either class of you multi class. I just hope that trade off is significant enough that it doesn't make single class redundant... But then ofc this is coming from someone that is admittedly not that much of a fan of the multi class system...

Voice of the Mountaintop is the one Chanter gear that almost every build uses. It's pretty close to a "must," as it extended the range of your chants significantly. The others really depend on context and preferences. I no longer run a tanking Chanter on PotD, and I use a 2nd-line pike Chanter using Tall Grass. (I might give Tall Grass to the 2nd pike user in future runs though.) So on the 2nd line, the Chanter is a bit more protected and do not need tanking gear so urgently. But I tend to try to collect Rings of Deflection, Rings of Protection, and Blunting Belts in the first act and early 2nd act anyways for all my melees. That will happen if you ignore your deflection. If you really want to play a glass cannon DPS chanter then you should at least have a secondary panic button setup, like hatchet + shield and possibly the Weapon and Shield Style talent. My own chanter builds always start with dual-wielded hatchets + Cautious Attack talent or hatchet + shield setups on weapon switch to discourage attackers. While not particularly tanky by an stretch before you reach Caed Nua, their high defenses means that mobs mostly ignore them . This is important because, as I mentioned, you should be attacking (specifically flanking, to increase crit rate) whenever possible. Note that "But Reny Daret's Ghost..." is excellent for setting up flanking since you can choose where to summon it. Ranged weapons are also helpful if you're one of those adventurous types who likes fighting wilder-type enemies early on. Caed Nua opens up Resolve resting bonuses and adventures that reward you with various defensive goodies. The Superior Deflection talent should also be available a little after this point and you'll have access to more consumables (like scrolls of defense). Once you reach this stage then as long as your chanter doesn't get themselves surrounded by hostiles or are taking on very powerful enemies too early then you're good to go for the rest of PotD. Yes, if you dual wield hatchets and get Superior Deflection or Cautious Attack, then you will bump up Deflection - along with the Caed Nua Resolve bonus. But the build I was reading here seems to head toward a full-blown DPS build? I think that's too taxing on PotD for micro-hater like me! By the way, is the Resolve bonus the Caed Nua resting bonus you generally take? I understand what you're saying but I've never had much trouble so far. I usually start it off with a well placed pistol shot while the front liners engage and then move the chanter into a flanking position (switching to melee)... The formation I use doesn't have the chanter in the front line per say. It has Elder, Itumaak and Pallegina then the chanter in the mid line solo and aloth, sagani and durance with ranged weapons at the back...

its fine... im probably gonna go for the Scion of Decay build with Bittercut... atm im alternating between PoE and BG:EE (on core rules... might be increasing it shortly) ... just cause i got nostalgic

With the risk of revealing my ignorance (lol)... What does TC stand for?

the current plan is to use one of the unique Chainmails and dual-wield a pair of Bittercuts because reasons... lol. Mostly an RP thing but want it functional too. That would be paired with Corrosive lash and Scion of Decay. You're absolutely on point that you need to be on the tanky side in melee and i have no intention of going that low. In principle you can always add stats to your armor so i expect to him 18 might off of that for one thing. Int is also available so i will be hitting 18 on that as well. Currently my Dex is 12 (cause of the Favulo gloves i believe) ....

so far i havent had particular difficulty except as mentioned in the Readric fight seeing as my party is still low level... but otherwise my "Hel-Hyraf" debuff, Ice fog thingy from Aloth for blind, putting dazed on the targets and so i havent had trouble hitting my targets with my chanter... in fact after the initial engagement i usually use him to get into "flanking" positions for the extra ACC debuff... I might respec into White Worms just cause of the power level and the amount of corpses you end up with in POTD... and i fully intend to use "The Dragon Thrashed" eventually. I wont be expecting my chanter to tank so i wont be putting him in heavy armor mind you... I have Eder and Pallegina for that... Anyway, thanks for the lengthy analysis

yes i was aware that White Worms does quite a bit of damage as i tried it at one point or another but i purposefully avoided it. Im going for more debuff type invocations... the lvl1 invos i have so far are the one that reduces DR by 5, the thunder one (dmg + stun) mostly for the stun effect, and the one that summons a phantom which is especially helpful at lower levels and gives me easy "flanked"... i can always respect it ofc... I noticed that the chants keep going while withdrawn just the other day actually But anyway, do i get anything extra from killing Raedric then i do from killing Klosc? Cause i went with killing Klosc this time around like i said... still got Justice (the sword) plus some cash... whats the downside?

Can't say I agree on that. I like the way the chanter is designed by and large. On POTD at least currently (at low levels) I use invocations multiple times in a fight what with the enemy not being easy to kill... That is especially true in the fights that actually matter which are usually longer and more difficult and is where the chanter shines. For melee you can always use the general non class specific talents to get bonus dmg and accuracy...I do like your name though... Wasn't Firkrag the dragon dude that hires you to help him then frames you for killing some paladins etc. in BG2?

Yeah works the way I thought it would then. Thanks for the clarification. Perhaps it would have been easier to just ask in our native language?! lol. As a side note... As a lvl 4 party of chanter, aloth, eder and durance I found it impossible to kill Raedric and his boys on POTD difficulty... I used the bottleneck strategy after talking to him, threw out CW and the ice fog thing, had eder tanking at the door and everything... But I ran out of spells on my priest and mage before managing to kill them all and eventually the 3-4 that were still alive would ware me down... So, unlike any of my other playthroughs on lower difficulties I decided to kill Klosc and found that fight surprisingly easy... The difference is staggering. I assume the problem was my low ACC at this level and the high deflection on the paladins and such in the throne room? Ofc I could have come back later but I'm a stickler for finishing up an area before moving on...

I get that part but say I am dual wielding burning lashes, have scion of flame and the chant on top of that? Would that be 4 instances of fire damage? As for bittercut and scion of decay not having synergy ... Doesn't scion apply when the damage is dealt as corrosive (not slash) ? What about if I put corrosive lashes on top of that?

I think 10 was about average (for adventurers anyway) back in BG and it has stuck with me... It's my reference point

Question... Does the regular fire lash enchant of a weapon stack with the " chanted" one? Meaning you get 50% fire damage? As for dual bittercut I generally have each character using a different weapon type (and having a different focus) so if I do duplicate it it would only be used to dual anyway... I just thought that it was the best/among the best for damage which is why I wanted to dual them. Also, I'm a sucker for symmetry would it be sub optimal damage wise? Would I get more out of dualing different blades as far as melee damage goes? As for spirit of decay... Did you mean that whether I dual them or not I still only get the bonus+5 once? Because I'm assuming that's the case...

I completely relate to the dumping stat nazi thing. I never dump anything below 10 which I take to be average... It's the roleplayer in me. Can't immerse myself into the character if he is a klutz (extremely low dex) a wimp with sticks for arms (extremely low mig), a retard (int), blind as a bat (per), has the willpower of a toad and so on and so forth... I just can't do it... lol. Guess it's a good thing I'm not a min/max-er else I would have developed split personality

i dont mean to hijack this thread or anything but as im rolling a chanter too atm im trying to understand... on my one the stats are: MIG: 16 CON:12 DEX:10 PER:12 INT:16 RES:12 at least as far as i can remember atm seeing as how im at the office right now and cant check. My intention is to make a dual sabre wielding chanter (is it worth it to dual wield duplicated Bittercut?) in medium type armor (chainmail maybe) with a Pistol as a side arm. I'm going for the "blade" spec from BG. I dont want the chants to be useless though and since i want to also fight i thought Might and Int at 16 was decent. Is this setup workable or not? Also, for RP reasons i would prefer not to drop any stat below the average 10. Looking at those 3-4DEX builds makes me imagine some klutz that trips over himself. Wasnt it in BG that if your INT was too low you were borderline illiterate?... lol

i was thinking the same... unlike most im not a fan of the cipher and have never used them much in any of my playthroughs... I'd hate to have to start now as it will require i abandon a char that i actually like... Currently im looking at PC(chanter), Eder Pallegina and Ittumak on the front line, my Chanter smack in the middle of the formation with a back like of Sagani, Aloth and Durance (if i have to) ...

so, i beat the game on hard way back when it was launched and started a new one recently having bought WM1&2(both runs i went with a priest as the PC)... got to about level 10-11 (while in upscaled white march) and wasnt having much trouble with fights... so i decided to abandon that and start a POTD run. This time around i went for a chanter PC (bard/blade was my favourite back in the days of BG) ... but i really struggle to see how one can do it without a priest. I immediately went ahead and got Durance cause the Temple of Eothas Shades were extremely annoying for Eder/Aloth/Chanter... and he definitely makes it workable whether by buffs or straight up heals. I will say that i dont min/max stats and only use the NPC's the game gives you (no hired adventurers) as im big on the RP aspect too... Having said that, ive seen that people have completed it without a priest and even done solo runs (which i believe were also on POTD)... Do you just skip the temple at the beginning and come back to it later or such? Cause i really struggle to see how someone could solo content of that nature on POTD without a dedicated buffer/healer and even more so solo... I'm not enamored with Durance myself (maybe ill grow to like him i dunno) but perhaps someone can give me a few pointers on how i would go about doing the content without him?

I was planning to play a priest from the off anyway...this update made me even more committed. I can see how some might find it rather "boring" but personally it's everything i expected. The is nice cause it illustrates the nature of their beliefs not as zealots but rather men who, through faith, search for the answers to life's questions and (like the pilgrims of old) travel and share the knowledge they have accumulated either through divine or mundane means. Personally, i think that Berath, the god of death, sound really interesting and it reminds me of my NWN2 playthrough as a doomguide of Kelemvor. Can't wait. Josh Sawyer mentioned that because they are sort of like "traveling" pilgrims and gatherers of divine knowledge that this will be reflected with a bonus to athletics. Does that affect combat in any way? Also, a question for Josh - Will the deity "favored weapon" (like with Magran and firearm) be reflected in some way on the character? I plan on going with Berath and was wondering if it has any influence on using my preferred weapon (the staff)? Are priest viable in melee to begin with?

agreed TheTeaMustFlow. This is supposed to be an RPG where you're roleplaying the protagonist. The companions are separate people themselves not extensions of your will. If it were a real life situation if i'd say "step where i step" i'd expect a companion that is not brain-dead to do exactly that... not waltz around smelling the roses. Which is why a "follow in the leaders footsteps" is a logical feature. Once you have maneuvered around the traps with the party leader it's obvious that you can beat the game's challenge in that particular location so why do it 5 more times instead of having this feature? ... it's no longer a challenge, it's a chore.

I disagree. I think the presentation of Sarevok was well done in BG1 and continued in ToB perspective-wise. In BG1 you get to know Sarevok as is, it's your first hand experience with the power-hungry god wannabe. All the information you get about him is more or less first hand whereas in ToB you gain access to information the past, the way his destiny was shaped etc. via the divine presence of the Solar. There is know way you (as in your character since its an RPG) could have found out all that information except maybe from someone like Railtar who had been with Sarevok all his life (though from what i can remember he was unaware of Sarevok's divine herate himself). By the time you meet Railtar though you'd have already destroyed his plans in the Naskhel and Cloakwood mines and having a heart to heart with him wouldnt really have made much sense. So basically, in ToB you access the pool of divine/universal knowledge via the Solar...and it makes perfect sense. This information is meant to help you deal with what Sarevok is in his current incarnation and influences your own fate (towards darkness or light). So it's not so much a continuation of Sarevok's story as much as a means for you (the protagonist) to reflect on your life, your actions and where they might take. The fact that the moral dilemma that is presented is tied into your half-brother is just a way to give it more depth. Anyway...regarding the topic itself... personally i prefer expansions to be continuations of the story. Like in a TV show with episodes. Personally, if i like a show i look forward to see what happens next and if this game is as good as i hope it will be then you can bet i'll want to find out what happened to my character afterwards (as opposed to seeing a big "THE END" sign). I dont mind expansions that have a different protagonist and different story then the first game, in a different time or that happened in parallel to the events of the first game.... it's just that i prefer the other kind.

So you don't want to hoard all the trash items? Ironic...your name is Trash Man after all... hehe. But yeah...i agree with what you're saying for the most part.

I honestly can't remember a lot of times where i absolutely needed specific gear to beat an encounter. It may have happened but i can't say of the top of my head. In IE games i literally sold everything my party didnt actually use. Some gear might have made certain encounters easier (i.e. the weapons tailored to fighting dragons for instance) but they were never mandatory as you could beat the encounters without them... so i just sold them more often then not. Requiring a very specific setup to beat an encounter is bad design imho. When it comes to spells its a bit different because there were cases when i needed to rest so i'd have the whole arsenal at my disposal for an encounter. Having said that, in PoE the game seems designed with this in mind as you have abilities /rest and also /encounter. So it's just a matter of using them smartly as i see it. Or rather, not using your most powerful spells (which are likely to be /rest) on encounters where you dont need them just cause it's easier that way. The game seems to be designed to encourage forethought and tactical thinking which imho is great. I'm not judging anyone mind you...im looking for an explanation. Why would someone want to take away this fundamental part of the game's design? As to your second quote... you're right. To me it does seem like cheating which for me isn't fun. You can't even claim to have beaten the game afterwards because in truth it would have been a watered down "EZ mode" version and didnt provide the challenge that was in fact intended. Again, im not here to berate anyone...just wondering what the motivation is.

its OT i know but since it was mentioned... why would people want rest anywhere or inventory/stash anywhere mods? ... doesnt that detract from the inherent difficulty of the game? ... i mean, these limitations dont seem to be put there for the sake of it. The inventory/stash one i might understand though why it would be needed at all i dont get. Do people actually go about changing gear on their characters for specific encounters? ... i never do as i cant say ive ever needed to. The rest anywhere one is another cookie altogether. From my understanding there will be abilities that are limited in number /rest which adds a layer of difficulty to the game in the sense that you have to know when to use one ability or another so as not to "waste" them only to realize you'd have needed them at a later stage in the same area (not having a rest zone between two encounters for instance). This seems to be a core mechanic to the way PoE treats spell/ability use. Why would you want to circumvent that?