Aramintai

Reload at Ukaizo.

There's a passive ability that makes you perma distracting. So just any active ability with affliction will do to set it up.

I think it's a bad design choice to leave players unrewarded for all their efforts at the end of the game. Because, really, no matter what we did in the game in the end it didn't matter much - there was no way to avoid a railroaded ending. It would have been fine for other genres, perhaps, but not for an RPG. And, btw, all the main quest areas were criminally short. Especially Ukaizo - it felt like devs ran out of money at the end and cut things short. But at least everything is voice acted

Why would they go to such lengths to ensure that nobody knows the truth (referring to the Leaden Key activities here) if they wanted people to remember though? Perhaps because the Wheel system was created before the gods project. And after the gods were made they got their portfolios and identities, some of them decided to hide everything related to their creation. That included the remainder of Engwithans themselves, who were later destroyed by Ondra bringing down a moon on them. It is entirely possible they messed with the Wheel too so that reincarnated Engwithans would not remember anything of their past knowledge. Seems logical to me.

Yep, Vela's still not properly fixed. Her one liners are of the generic crew member and she disappears after first visit of the ship.

Lol, Vela still talks like one of the generic sailors and disappears from the ship. Still not fixed properly.

Btw, here is the video of the exact things the gods were saying about the Wheel and stuff: https://youtu.be/o97L5vX6Xzo?list=PLN39y5i_H0FkkkRl2hhJ4-doVQ1QS-KW3&t=1385 Souls will be stuck in the In-Between, the Beyond will gradually empty and nothing will come out if to reincarnate. Everyone's ****ed. But at least Rymrgand will be happy And gods do nibble at souls fragments, so it may as well be them that degenerate souls not something else. Also, Cohh provided a good theory in that video - what if Engwithans originally created the Wheel to transfer collected knowledge through reincarnation? That would make them sort of immortal like Thaos - being reborn will all memories intact. Clearly it doesn't work like that now, but people still do Awaken from time to time. Maybe, once created, the gods meddled with how it worked earlier, Ondra and Woedica sure would love for kith to forget all about Engwithans and their secrets.

Ah, yes, you're right. I replayed the beginning again - you start in the In-Between but then get sucked through adra into the Beyond, Berath welcomes you to it. Btw, gods live there apparently.

Well, according to the game the In-Between is also part of the Wheel system - a soul sieve through which the gods take their share to sustain themselves. Some people here even speculate it's the gods fault that souls degenerate as they "nibble on souls". So with the Wheel broken the In-Between is broken too - gods will weaken unless this whole thing is fixed. Also, the lore about the In-Between says that it's a place into which the Watchers peer to speak with lost souls and that the gods cannot reach it. So I wonder, with it broken, can Watchers even still retain their abilities? Or is this another in-game lie? Because lore says gods can't reach it but here we had Berath right at the beginning of the game sitting in the In-Between (what for is the stupid lore cyclopedia if you can't even trust it...).

I had the same thing with Maia on my previous run. She was not in the party but initiated an automatic dialogue with the Watcher out of the blue. Even got it bugged already in this thread: https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/97728-out-of-party-companions-can-initiate-dialogues/ Guess it's a general problem for all companions.

No, companions bugs will be fixed later.

Btw, I didn't see it being brought up here, but at the beginning of the game Berath says she needed the Watcher because 1) part of your soul is still in Eothas, 2) his whole body is full of souls, so it'd be easy for an experienced Watcher to track him down through souls. Kinda makes sense and she mentions any Watcher would do, so you're not some special snowflake.

To elaborate some more on Josh's Od Nua example. Here's what it says in the game: So, Od Nua wanted his son to be reincarnated "properly", but without the gods it wasn't possible. Looks like Od Nua lived before the creation of the gods and the Wheel system. What was considered a "proper reincarnation"? Not being reincarnated into an animal or splintered? Maybe being reincarnated at all? Why were the gods needed for this? To pray for better outcome? Or did Od Nua already knew about the Engwithan plan of making the gods to control the process? And it looks like the only way to get a soul back from the Beyond back then was to forcibly pull it out through adra. This doesn't contradict what the gods are saying in POE2 about souls getting stuck in the Beyond without the Wheel.

I got bored of all that snow in the White March. Whole game like that? Brr..

Uh, that's nice and all but I'm kinda iffy on playing again until companions and relationship system are fixed, there are a lot of bugs related to them.

I did read them and in the end they all boil down to gods are not telling the truth. Them being programmed or forgetful is just the same - not telling the truth, lying.

White that Wends is double boring - freezing wasteland of nothing but snow for miles ahead. Living Lands on the other hand, are very diverse and awesome sequel material: https://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/The_Living_Lands https://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/True_Stories_from_the_Living_Lands

So the only excuse for a retcon you guys can give is that the gods are lying even if there is no evidence in the game? Personally, I don't find it convincing - it's a cheap cop out that can excuse too many things, even lazy writing. But if it satisfies you, whatever, I'm not gonna argue...

I really hope we go there in the next game. Well if there's a POE3. Booring and too many aumaua again. Better go to the Living Lands with crazy geography and fantastical things to explore.

That's a lot one has to assume about the gods without backing of anything substantial in the game. So far the gods are the only source of lore regarding the matter. Sure, there is no way to corroborate their info, but I don't think they were lying to the Watcher, because they sounded pretty sure of what they were saying and there was no real reason to spin lies in such an elaborate muppet show before the Watcher - the situation was very dire for everyone and the Watcher powerless to do anything about it anyway. I agree they're no omniscient and may have been programmed to not know something, but so far it looks like they know everything Engwithans knew because they are Engwithans in a way. In any case, it's not our job to headcanon plot holes and explain retcons - it was supposed to be devs job and they did it poorly in the game. I hope they will elaborate on it more if there will be future installments.

Pretty sure none of the romances are long-lasting. Aloth can stay with you if convince him to let Leaden Key fall apart on its own (not sure how it is spelled if he's pro-Leaden Key though, but also possible). And judging by data mined ending slides you can piss off Bearn so that he hates Eder, that way Eder goes back to your ship and Dyrwood in the end.

What did the gods say in game that contradicts what Josh said? They've said that with the Wheel broken souls will go to the Beyond but won't reincarnate and sooner or later all of Eora will be lifeless. Josh implies that the machine was there for the gods to manipulate the process, with it broken gods won't be able to do so anymore and it will be...more chaotic maybe? Again, how does that contradict anything that Josh said? He only discusses the state of things before the disappearance of the Engwithans. It's a contradiction in the game lore. People somehow lived on Eora before the Wheel for untold generations and didn't die out, but here the gods are saying that everyone is screwed now with the Wheel broken and will die out. Earlier lore said that reincarnation was natural on Eora, but here it says that it is not and was created by Engwithans. I appreciate Josh giving us some meta knowledge, but it is very poorly presented in the game itself.

What did the gods say in game that contradicts what Josh said? They've said that with the Wheel broken souls will go to the Beyond but won't reincarnate and sooner or later all of Eora will be lifeless. And Eothas breaks the Wheel as a mortal trial for the kith - overcome it by fixing it, with or without the help of the gods, or perish. Josh implies that the machine was there simply for the gods to manipulate the process, with it broken gods won't be able to do so anymore and it will be...more chaotic maybe?

Yea, they were really freaked out about it. Maybe they were lying though or maybe they just don't have a clue, but that would be weird since they're Engwithans made gods, they should have all the knowledge.

Somebody asked Josh about the Wheel/reincarnation before the Engwithans: https://jesawyer.tumblr.com/post/173973262826/pillars-of-eternity-2-spoilers-as-i-understand Looks like Eothas broke something, but something was there before but worked differently, nobody knows how . That's not what the gods have said in the game though, and it's weird that people have to go to the designer devs to get plot explanations.