Rumpelstilskin

The guide says they are purely cosmetic, but when I equip one, my accuracy on the stats screen increases by 5. It's pretty bugged though - sometimes it 'sticks' and I get +10 after changing to a different pet, and it goes away entirely if I load or even save the game, or start combat.

Just finished the Endless Paths (hard; party lvl 9/8), and I think it has all you guys are asking for. There are mobs that dominate you on sight, spirits that teleport and mass-paralyze you, enough ranged units and AoE casters. And then there's the Master .. As it was mentioned several times, it's likely intentional that the main quest is not too hard, so that people don't hit a brick wall. But for the most combat-heavy experience there's optional content. Edit: ok, added a spoiler tag)

I don't think tanks are a problem, kath auto (that's a pretentious way of saying per se). The problem is that melee AI lacks aggro and just targets the closest unit. That said, most non-filler fights have ranged units that target your squishy back line, casters that do AoEs, occasionally even mind strikers, so I too regard claims about just clicking through everything with some skepticism. Mental binding is a bit OP, but I think making it single-target is enough to fix it (I don't even see why it's an AoE in the first place). Of course, adding aggro, or perhaps even deliberate bee-lining to your most vulnerable units would instantly make tanks almost useless, except if there are natural choke points. Even engagement won't help much, since it just means they'll land a free attack with a pathetically weak single-handed weapon they are likely using. Maybe breaking engagement could also result in a free knockdown attempt.

Watcher =/= Cipher. It's like... A Medium vs Prof X. One can talk to and see souls (often dead ones), while the other manipulates living minds to bend them to their will. Similar, but distinct within the lore. Well I didn't mean it as in completely the same, just felt very cipher-ish.

Well, ciphers and chanters are Obsidian's inventions, so of course the wanted to OP them a bit to encourage people to play them. Also it looks like the main story almost assumes that the PC a cipher? Can't attest personally for chanters though, as I don't have in my party (since they seemed quite boring - too much emphasis on passive skills).

Traps can be avoided or 'disarmed' by triggering though. And I hope there are no plot-critical high-level locks. I actually find the other skills more disappointing. Stealth is borderline useless above .. 3 points maybe? So is athletics, but unlike stealth, having those 3 points is almost a must, since otherwise characters start to drop tired after only a couple of battles. Which is a problem with many pre-made NPCs with 0 starting athletics, especially if you get them when they are far from the next level-up. Outside conversations, lore is only useful if you want to spam scrolls, which hardly anyone would (too laborious). Survival is the same for potions, but since it's not preventing their usage (only buffs), and I don't even recall it being useful in any conversation, it probably gets the prize for the most worthless skill dump.

I think lockpicks can only bump your skill up one point (and the required amount is level+1). You can get another +1 from resting in certain places, and there's a +3 (i think) scroll locked in the Vaillian embassy, but that's obviously a one-timer (perhaps there are more though)

I think it's worth pointing out that in RPGs not all encounters are supposed to be nail-bitingly hard. Many are designed to be power trips filler just opportunities for your party to practice and enjoy their skills and levels. Of course, if there no hard fight at all, that's a bit of a problem.

Fa real I can't even think of a reason why it is that way. Can't be technical, since necklaces don't even show up on the character. Doubt it's balancing either, since most buffs don't stack anyway. As for the helmets, I wish they had a second "under helmet" model for each hairstyle, since wearing hats suddenly makes my cool characters completely bald. Especially jarring on women.

Summoning figurines are really good. They aren't expensive at all for what they do (although I bought them pre-patch, and one of the patch notes was "adjusted figurines' prices"). Also, a lot can be found lying around. One can summon an adra beetle for instance, another one 3 shades.

No, that's not what he pretty much said. He pretty much said both factions won't like it, and

If anything, having a hero of one faction defect to another undermines the former much more than if it were a neutral person. During the weapons quest I was hoping I'd be able to give them to the knights instead, at one point or another, but that didn't happen (not spoiler-tagged, since even if technically it is a spoiler, it's one that people should know about instead of finding it for themselves).

Well, maybe that's your problem right there... Looks like this game is not afraid to (sometimes) punish mindless meta-gaming and reward role-playing & careful choices. That's a good thing imo. Not if it's poorly designed though. The knights were clearly also interested in the weapons, so there should have been an option to do the same quest for them. Yet there wasn't. There should have been an option to give the weapons to the scripted patrol encounter instead of having it unconditionally turn hostile. Yet there wasn't. There should have been an option to bring the weapons to the knights instead of the Dozen. Yet, well, there wasn't. Finally, lying to the Dozen about not knowing how the weapons worked suggested that they would probably just ditch them, so I actually helped the knights there (since if someone else retrieved the weapons, he might have told the full story). But of course, there was no way to tell that to the knights. I honestly did the quest expecting any of these options to pop up.. well, in addition to some metagaming, since the quest looked more interesting interesting than an errant job the knights offered.

If you've completed Bronze Beneath the Lake, and spoken with Lady Webb in Hadret's House (Brackenbury) then you should have a quest to gain an invitation from the factions (check with Lady Webb about this, in case of doubt). If so, the Dozens will give you their support since you've helped them resolve Bronze Beneath the Lake (you can ask them about it if Webb has told you that you need support to attend the hearings at the Ducal Palace). I did the Bronze quest(since it looked like an interesting one), but I lied to the Dozen about not knowing how the weapons work, essentially thwarting them. I actually wanted to give the weapons to the knights instead, but there wasn't any such option. I don't have an invitation quest yet (presumably because I have only investigated 2 out of 3 visions), but the knights refuse to allow me to proceed with their quest line, so it looks like eventually I'll face the same problem (and I really don't want to help the Dozens). Will 1.04 address this? (and if so, when? like a super-rough estimate?)

Speaking of Hold-Wall, wasn't it universally inferior to a general fine arbalest though, pre-patch, while costing twice as much? I compared their stats many times, and wasn't able to find how it compensated for inferior damage. As for the arbalests nerfing, yeah, that was an incredibly, devastatingly sad news. I was a bit perplexed why they were better than arquebuses on all accounts, while supposedly being a same-tier weapon, but the problem is that they still are, and that's simply because arquebuses suck and desperately need a boost (perhaps even an arch-boost). Although I'm starting to suspect someone at Obsidian just hated the idea of having firearms in a fantasy game and tried to sabotage it, with the 'disappointer' pistol being a grand metaphor for it.

Oh no no no no, what have you done to my squad of arbalestiers

Yep, happened to me as well. I wonder if it's universally bugged, or only in some cases. It does seem to turn off if i dismiss and re-hire the character, although it it'll stick again if used. Looks like the best 'fix' is to never use it and add another ability instead via console.

I recall in Monkey Island 2 there was a joke where Guybrush is underwater and he says to himself that he's likely going to drown since there's an heavy anchor in his inventory holding him down and the game has no 'drop' verb.

Yeah, Endless Paths doesn't feel too easy, like, at all. Although in my book hard means that you have to reload a lot; if for you it only happened twice, I would call it 'normal' at best. I mean, if you didn't have to reload a particular fight, it obviously wasn't hard. Also, my lvl4 Eder has base deflection 36, lol. Maybe I had some kind of an anti-stacking bug..

For me just running it as an administrator fixed it, so I suspect it's the main thing.

That's what I thought as well. Except maybe not necessarily servants, but definitely an ox cart, and the stash is an abstraction of the fact that after clearing a dungeon you make several otherwise uneventful trips down to collect the loot and load it onto the cart.

So, wait, those texts are written by Obsidian then, right? The backers only provided the general direction? In that case, I am shocked that the general quality of the backer NPC texts differs so much (from Mary-Sue-ish stories to a well-written story about getting out of a depression or stories about prejudice). Well, I can only speak for myself, and in my case yes, it was completely Obsidian. Though they told me the designers would write it from the beginning, so I assume it's the same for everyone, or most people at least.

FWIW, my NPC was completely changed by Obsidian. He was supposed to have a multiple-option dialog with attribute and inventory checks, and then a small scripted event. I was worried how Obsidian would create and playtest 100 of backer characters though, so the way they streamlined it was probably the most realistic one. Also, I liked the story they made for him; I think it captured the general idea. Perhaps I might have appreciated an option of being able to write the story myself first, and only fall back to Obsidian writers if they decided it was ****.

For me this happens on a second PC with cloud sync. I assume the save files themselves are ok, since they load fine on my first PC, but on the second PC they just send me to the menu.

For me cloud saves don't work even with the same OS (Win7), sadly. It does the sync, and I can see the list on another PC, but when I try to load any of them, it goes straight back to the menu.