Faerunner

Poor Aloth, nobody likes him . Honestly, he is the companion I pity the most. I mean, if he, an intelligent and almost sane person, joined the Key, a shady group whose purpose is to hide secrets even they don't know, then his life must have been completely void of meaning back then. And if he decided to travel with the first mysterious stranger that appeared because tge agent that was supposed to contact him did not show up, and sticked with said stranger even if it meant opposing the Key, his life as a cultist must have been equaly empty. And now his new friends turn out to only really like his annoying Awakened intruder, who gets him into trouble all the time and usurps his body. That's true. Not to mention his abusive childhood where his drunken brute of a father who sent him to good schools then beat him black and blue if he got so much as an A-. He must have always felt so much pressure to keep up appearances and get good marks to not only keep from getting beaten, but to hide his horrible home life. Then Iselmyr Awoke, and, while she kept his dad from beating him again, her random outbursts (usually to start fights with people whenever Aloth felt scared or stressed) just created more problems for him, and he felt he had to keep her hidden too. Both of these probably made him feel like he had to keep his distance from his peers; first to hide the shame and vulnerability of having an abusive father, then to hide his wild alter-ego who just liked to start trouble. This might explain how distant and aloof he is with everyone. ... In fact, now that you mentioned it, how'd you describe the Leaden Key? "A shady group whose purpose is to hide secrets even they don't know." His whole life was all about hiding secrets up to that point. Hide his abusive home life, hide Iselmyr. Between that and his empty life void of any meaning or friendships due to said secrets, it's almost no wonder he fell into the "wrong crowd" with the Leaden Key, and then left because that wasn't doing anything for him either. Then his new friends find out about Iselmyr and like her better than him. Ah. Layers upon layers of "What a shame." It's too bad, because I really like Aloth. He's my favorite character (and that's saying something because I love most characters this game). I really liked being able to help him through some of his issues, and show support during some of his more difficult moments (I will always love the scene where you can hold his hand to gently reassure him when he's under hypnosis and lost in the terror brought on by reliving the day Iselmyr Awoke), and I was so proud of how far he'd come by the end. I wish it was possible for the Watcher to convey how much he meant to her (i.e. "I like you more than Iselmyr" or "I'll always be on your side"), especially considering how much the other companions and the world in general dumped on him, but alas. What's shown in the game is still really nice too.

Oh, I'm so glad to hear! I love the druid and the ranger and I was afraid they'd never get fixed. Way ahead of ya! The animal companion is the main reason I love this class, so it'll be the focus of my build. =) LOL They're still pretty fragile? Some things never change. XD Oh well, that's where buff and healing companions come in. That's perfect. That's all I really wanted.

I got this game right after it came out. Despite being the two classes I was looking forward to most, the ranger and druid classes were a huge let-down. Ranger: Despite being marketed as one of the main damaging classes, the ranger's DPS was nothing to write home about. Neither was the animal companion. (But I kept playing anyway, because I love animals.) The Druid was an even bigger let-down. Despite all the pre-release updates gushing about the spiritshifting abilities, it turned out to be very weak. It was only mildly effective during the first few levels of the game, but then it failed to scale up with the character. That, combined with the complete lack of special abilities to boost it the way you got tons of abilities to boost your spellcasting, meant you quickly had to abandon it and stick to spellcasting exclusively. (I know I sound greedy and ungrateful since the druid was one of the best spellcasters at the time, but it was the spiritshifting ability I really wanted. I would have gladly taken the option to focus on spiritshifting over spellcrafting, and sacrificed being able to become a first-rate spellcaster to become a second-rate warrior if only it meant spiritshifting didn't get me killed every battle.) There was some talk about the devs eventually balancing them better, but I quickly finished my first playthrough then moved onto other games and projects while I waited. Now I'm back, and I'd like to know if anything has changed since I've been away? Or should I aim to finish my cipher or chanter instead?

I really love the party banter where Eder asks Sagani if he can pet her white fox. She says sure, but he bites. Eder says he's gonna pet him anyway. The follow-up party banter where she asks how's his hand, and he responds that it's turning purple but hasn't come off yet, is priceless. "If I'm not supposed to pet him, how come he's so soft?!" I also love the party banter where Eder offers to buy Aloth a drink some time. Aloth sounds surprised and touched, but then Eder awkwardly replies that, well, yes, he can come too, but he was mainly offering Iselmyr. Aloth then gets huffy and wonders why does everyone love her more than him? Eder says something like, "She just tells the best stories!" with open admiration. (Gotta love Eder's complete open-mindedness. He loves all animals regardless of how wild, feral, vicious, or deadly they are, and when he likes a woman he'll go right ahead and ask her out, even if she's the Awakened split personality of a prim, proper, haughty male elf.)

More or less. Looked up a bunch of African words and names for my wild orlan "main" character and her warthog companion, since I imagine they came from the Savanna. Wound up with Nya (meaning "Purpose," but doubles as a pun since Japanese culture attributes cats as saying "nya" the same way English-speaking countries attribute cats as saying "meow") and Rhys. (Not an African word, but it suits him.) Named my death godlike cipher Alessa as a reference to Silent Hill. Named my moon godlike chanter Arianrhod since it's the name of a Welsh moon goddess. Named my nature godlike druid Faline since she has antlers and spiritshifts into a stag.

Wild Orlan Ranger with a Wild Boar Companion. Oh yeah.

Oh my God! Is it true? Have my prayers been answered? Is the Spiritshift finally a viable combat choice?!

I said "Tolkien-esque," not Tolkien himself. Oh I see, you're one of those types. You're not wiling to use any creativity, imagination, or role-playing yourself; you want to sit back and watch the game do it all for you. If characters don't constantly remind you that your character is aumaua or dwarven, you'll forget and blame the game for the race choice being meaningless because you wouldn't exert the effort to make meaning out of it yourself. Last I checked, the protagonist is fairly "blank" regardless of gender, race, class, or background. Characters don't treat you too differently if you're female verses male either, but are you going to start talking about how gender selection is shallow and pointless, or how a female protagonist is "just male with a different body type" just because characters don't constantly treat you differently for being female? Are you going to start talking about how we should just get rid of gender selection "because of game/story perspective they are just males with different body type," even though that small difference makes all the difference in the world for a player who wants to play a character that is that gender? From a "story perspective": You're a newcomer to the area who discovers there's a problem and you investigate and solve it, regardless of your gender, race, class, and background. Since you're not a local and everyone you meet is a stranger, no one feels very invested in your gender/race/class and so they don't make a huge deal about it. The extended CC exists so player can make a character they like/identify with, and use their imaginations (I know that's a challenging concept) to imagine how their character's gender/race/class/background affects who they are, how they see the world, and how they decide to solve quests and missions. Maybe the problem isn't the game. Maybe in your mind, "human = default, non-human = deviation from the default. Since I decided to play a non-human, I'm deviating from the default and so characters should always react (or treat my character) differently. If they aren't treating me differently for being a non-human, that means they're treating me like a human and thus the different race is pointless," when the reality is they just treat you like a newcomer regardless of your physical characteristics, and physical characteristics are not a huge deal in this world anyway since (from a story/setting/lore perspective) the different races have co-existed and built societies and cultures together for thousands of years. Just because you didn't find meaning in playing a non-human (because the game didn't spoon-feed it for you) doesn't mean no one else did.

I'm with Varana and Sylph_14. Too many Medieval European fantasy setting rely on the "planet of hats" trope, where all people of one race or area behave in an overly specific way because they're part of that race. For Tolkien-esque fantasy settings, it's as predictable as clockwork: "Elves are archers and lovers of art, poetry, nature, magic, etc." "Dwarves are stubborn and drink beer." Etc. In fact, I was talking about this with my boyfriend the other day. He pointed out that most fantasy races are just exaggerations of various parts of human nature. Elves are lovers of art, music, poetry, nature and magic. (The "hippie-dippy" part of human nature.) Dwarves are exaggerations of honor-bound melee warriors and miners, smiths and craftsmen. Halflings are basically wanderlust gypsies. Orcs are basically exaggerations of human's thuggish, brutish impulses. D&D gnomes are basically human's intellectual philosophers, inventors and tinkerers. Remove the "fantasy race" justification and what are they? Just highly stereotypical and exaggerated caricatures of aspects of various human personalities, cultures, occupations and ethnicities. BioWare's Dragon Age series was the first one that made me question "non-humans are all the same because they're inherently similar" by having various races have their own cultures just like humans, but how much individuals within those cultures subscribe or reject it depend on their personal preferences or upbringings just like humans. For example, elves aren't inherently more in-tuned with nature than humans; they're just taught to value it because tree motifs are tied to their lost heritage. (Even then, city elves and Dalish elves are very diffierent culturally.) Dwarves aren't inherently more honor-bound; those who live in the ancient city-kingdom are just taught to value it more, while surface dwarves who weren't raised to value such couldn't care less. Etc. Of course, BioWare undermines it's own message by having most non-human characters closely subscribe to their racial cultures, and then introducing an OMG SO UNEEK companion who's SO DIFFERENT from most other elves/dwarves/Qunari. For example, Sera. OMG she's SO. DIFFERENT. She's "not your typical elf ;)" because she rejects and hates anything "too elfy." Varric? He's a human in a clean-shaven dwarf's body. Iron Bull? He's the opposite of literally every other Qunari shown in the series so far; while they've all been stoic and tight-lipped, he's fun, loud, and boisterous. For how much they bludgeon the audience with "people are people regardless of racial or cultural backgrounds," they sure like to bash us over the head with how UNIQUE a non-human companion is for being "not like" most people of their race. Which is it? A Planet of Hats with a few exceptions, or just people from various cultures who're encouraged to think a certain way but may or may not depending on that individual? I like how Pillars goes the extra mile by having people of various races be people first, not exaggerations of various aspects of human nature. People of different races also have cultural values that are just that, cultural. They were raised to think, feel, and value certain things, and how much they do so depends on where they were born, how they were raised, and how they are as individuals. It's able to explore the difference between "race" and "culture" because it doesn't rely on the tired old Planet of Hats trope, and that's fine with me.

But aren't random, hostile encounters minimum to non-existent if you stay on the road? If memory serves, exploring the wilderness yields some interesting fights and encounters (trolls, ogres, undead, giant spiders, etc) only if you leave the path. (Whenever I don't feel like or my characters don't have the energy to fight, I just stick to the road to get to the next town so I don't have to fight anything.) Whenever the characters leave one map to another (with the narrative saying it'll take 4, 8, 16 hours), I just assume they stayed on the path and that's why they weren't molested on the way. Also, depending on how you dealt with the Temple of Eothas, you can meet the guy from there again at Magran's fork, in Act 2, I think. Oh, hey! There you go!

I'm pretty sure I was given that option, the second time I played through that quest line. He gave me the breastplate, I promised to keep quiet about his ancestry, and no one died. Maybe it depends on attributes or reputation? Or maybe because second time around I was a hulking great barbarian? Really? Did he give you the breastplate before or after you handed over the affidavit?

They're finally changing/improving the animal companion? Happy day! I'll hold off replaying the game for a while until they reveal the changes.

Wilderness areas aren't bland or devoid of any content. Every now and again you run into something interesting, like a bear cave where a murdered spirit dwells, a bandit camp where the bandits hold a prisoner, a xaurip camp, a nest of dragons, an ogre cave, a body with a letter on it that triggers a side quest, or what have you. You also occasionally stumble upon interesting creatures like forest trolls, dragon skeletons, etc. I enjoy exploring the wilderness because I look forward to seeing what I'll find, not because I anticipate some monster jumping literally out of nowhere once every five steps, but because I enjoy not being molested until I find something of note. (I always thought that concept was iffy too. Have you ever hiked in forests or wilderness settings? Hostile creatures don't literally jump out of nowhere at you every few steps, so why is that okay for a game?)

Right, because people who go around conquering dungeons and killing monsters are psychologically incapable of falling in love or lust with another person.

This is probably petty, but more in-game acknowledgement of our chosen race and subrace (DAO has really raised the bar), and companions of a similar race, culture, background, and/or nationality to give more acknowledgment of us being like them (like Aloth toward an elven or Aedyr PC, Eder toward a fellow Eothas worshiper, Durance toward a worshiper of Magran or Eothas, Hivarias toward another orlan and/or druid, Pallegina toward a godlike, etc.) I know it's cheaper and easier to have the PC be "The Player Character" (i.e. white male human) and have everyone regard you accordingly, but given that the dialogue is mostly text-based rather than mostly cutscenes or audio files (which are much more time- and resource-intensive and take up much more space), I don't think it would be too time- or resource-consuming to sprinkle in more text-based lines acknowledging our CC choices so they feel more immersive than cosmetic. I also wouldn't mind exploring new regions beyond Dyrwood. =)

The more I think about it, the more I'm okay with White March having dungeon-crawling in it (for those who like it), but I hope dungeon-crawling is not all there is to it.

No offense, but given the guy's track record (said tree) he hasn't exactly shown that he values kith life. At the very least, he seems to find lives expendable and replaceable. As what's-his-face said at Gilded Vale said, he desperately seeks soul experts and rids himself of them just as quickly (meaning the tree), then calls for more to replace the executed. The population in on the verge of collapse due to not only the Hollowbirth epidemic, but his counterproductive measure to banish all mothers of hollowborn. What's his solution? Call for settlers to come in and replace the dwindling population, of course. It's very likely that you slaughtering most of his castle has him thinking, "Well, I can just hire replacements." He probably feels it's much more beneficial to him to have the killing machine working for him instead of against him. He also probably assumes that his cousin tricked you into killing his men. I mean, once you arrive in the throne room (however you got there), he starts in on a Hannibal Lecture asking if Kolsc put you up to this? did you know Kolsc is his cousin and is using you? why don't you work for me? Etc. Again, given his lack of value of kith life, he probably sees you butchering his men (if that was your route) as an honest mistake that can easily be fixed with you working for him and him hiring replacements to the ones you killed.

I hope it's not just a dungeon crawl. I'd like to see more stories, quests, characters, and explore more themes in the expansion. =(

I've heard it did successfully enough that the devs are making expansions and plan to make books, board games, sequels, and in all other ways franchise it. So, yeah. Making more like it counts as a success in my book.

How dare they. So you dislike them because their entire stories and personal quests aren't intricately tied to the main character's main story and quest? Does every companion have to be intricately tied to the main plot? It's not possible to encounter other people in the setting who have their own goals and affairs, but who team up with you because traveling together would be mutually beneficial and/or it would help further each other's goal even if you and they don't have the same common goal? It's "personally tied to the main quest" or bust? First, I think that would be a bit contrived. Second, from what I've read from Obsidian staff regarding the Pillars of Eternity game (and BioWare for the Dragon Age franchise), companions are a good way to showcase different in-universe races, cultures, classes, and factions. Each companion "represents" their respective people. For example, Aloth represents the Aedyr culture and high-class upbringing (especially given various Dyrwoodans' reactions to him), as well as the wizard class's intellectual bend. Pallegina represents the Valian Republic since that's her culture, and she shows a bit of what it's like being a paladin (how one's duty can conflict with one's convictions), and shows a glimpse of what some godlike go through in their day-to-day lives (like getting into a male organization by being an infertile godlike and thus "not legally a woman," and often getting cheeky remarks for her godlike features). Sagani "represents" the boreal dwarf culture and the ranger's (in-universe) bond with their animal companion (due to her bond with Itumaak). Hiravias "represents" the Glanfathan and druid culture, as well as the orlans and the discrimination they go through. I personally see all of the characters as "representatives" of different races, cultures, classes, and factions within the game. Sure, we get text descriptions of each one and encounter NPCs that give their sob stories, but companions we spend a lot of time traveling with, getting to know, possibly forming deeper bonds with, and learning about their backgrounds and upbringings and feelings about their culture/people. We get much more detail than we could just talking to an unnamed villager who basically goes "Help me with X!" "Here you go!" "Oh, thank you! *rewards with gold/gift/xp*" So, I don't think being disconnected from the story is a bad thing. I think it adds a touch of realism (since I still think it would be a bit contrived if all our companions came with us only because they all had personal business with the main plot, begging the question of "Isn't there anyone who wants to tag along just because we happen to be going the same direction?" as is the case with most RPGs), and they can still enrich the lore and setting of the game in other ways without being personally tied to the main story.

You're disappointed in the expansion before it's even come out or we've learned what it's about and how it relates to future installments?

Thought I'd share the resized hypothetical Deer-like Nature Godlike portraits I shared above. (Didn't bother with the "albino orlan" because, as it turns out, orlans can't have white fur in the CC. Boo.) Resized these pictures from original artwork by Mothtail at deviantART. For Wild Orlan fans like me, I resized two portraits I found on other websites, and thought I'd share them here. This one I resized from a portrait I found here: (Aside: This one is great for the ranger class because the animal icon doesn't cut off her face. Notice her cheek is tilted away from it.) This one I copy/pasted from here:

Yay!

Another Pillars playthrough, and I keep trying to finish my Mass Effect 1 playthrough, but I keep hitting a roadblock after rescuing Liara (first main quest after being made a Spectre), in that everywhere I go and everything I try to do results in me getting killed. (If there's a leveling gate on certain quests, I seem to keep hitting all the hard ones.)

Heh, my beau and one of my best friends are GREATLY looking forward to this game. I still need to play Fallout 3 and New Vegas (I would play 1 & 2, except I have a long list of other games that need attention) so I know what all the fuss is about and can anticipate it with them.