Aramintai

I find it stupid that spellcasters will get a deflection buff basically for free because Resolve will be their highly recommended attribute, which in turn will make them better tanks by default than most melee classes, which in turn is illogical and breaks preconception that spellcasters should be squishier than melee classes. If deflection were to be placed into a more logical attribute like CON or DEX I'm all for it and will invest accordingly.

Most would, no doubt about it, maybe not to 18 but bigger than 10 for sure. And non-tank melee classes will still have less deflection because for them it's gonna stay a dump stat.

Yea, I rechecked the barbarian twice, it has lower deflection than any other class. Can't say it doesn't make sense though for that archetype. For me the solution would be to either move and/or dupe deflection onto more fitting attributes like CON or DEX or take it out of the attributes altogether and have it affected only by armor, shields, deflection increasing spells, etc.

Looked at Deflection some more, here are the results as of the current beta: Now let's look at the new system where every spellcaster and his mama will take 18 Resolve to pump their spells: So basically, even without putting on armor and other bonuses spellcasters will be better tanks than any melee class unless these melee classes specifically invest in Resolve just to pump that Deflection. May not look like much for a fighter who most likely will take some points in Resolve anyway, but things are not looking too good for such Resolve ditchers as Barbarian and Rogue. So how can you not find it stupid that spellcasters are gonna be tankier than melee classes?

Lol, I like this

See? Sounds kinda iffy that rogues will be much more squishier than wizard nerds, no?

There's still gonna be that one attribute that people will want to pump to the max depending on class. Why not make it more logical at least? But I can also go with dividing spells - defensive spells go to Resolve, offensive to Intelligence.

Don't look solely at fighter. Take other melee classes into account, a rogue for example.

I'm just gonna copy what I wrote in another thread:

Btw, if we're separating damage here why not borrow from AD&D some more and separate some more? Relegate physical melee/ranged damage to Strength, wizard spells/ciphers abilities to Intelligence, priest spells/paladin&chanter abilties to Resolve (like Wisdom in AD&D).

For me Intelligence sounds more fitting as mental power that governs spells than Resolve.

I feel the same. Too bad devs don't want to ditch Resolve altogether. Could have solved the dump stat problem once and for all. If spells damage\healing power and melee damage absolutely must be separated I'd rather it be Intelligence and Might (Strength) that govern them, at least it would be logical.

You're right. Don't know how much of kickback power those old guns had though. Could dislocate your shoulder or leave a bruise.

It's clear that party assist doesn't work properly in the beta. In some instances, scripted interaction for example, it is not taken into account at all. Gotta wait for a patch to see how it develops. However I do agree that skills points right now are given rather stingily and some active skills appear to be way too useful to not be taken by everybody. Worst offender is indeed athletics. And some classes, like rogue for example, will have a hard time properly roleplaying his role because there are so many active abilities that are basically that class' staple - mechanics, stealth, sleight of hand. Rogue also gets extra item slots which kinda hints at explosives, but there are simply not enough points for that. Perhaps POE2 should adopt some more stuff from AD&D and give different classes varying amounts of active skill points. Rogues in AD&D had the most skills in that regard and were true jacks of all trade.

Damn, all this talk about BG, now I wanna replay it again

Well, to be fair, bows and crossbows do require quite a bit of strength to draw/reload them. Rapier is still a sword too, albeit a lighter one, but still need strength to swing. Not sure what to say about guns...they were just added to the pile?

I lose the experience of importing. One of the things I enjoyed most about the Baldur's Gate series was importing my character, but if Baldur's Gate 2 had used D&D3e I wouldn't have. Feels the same here. So importing stats was more important to you than story decisions? BG1 didn't import story decisions to BG2, but I guess they made a way around it by making some things canon. And I get what you mean, importing 100% same character with all the same attributes, skills and spells and portrait was satisfying. But that was AD&D for you, there was no need to tweak anything. But personally, after Mass Effect series I got used to devs tweaking stats system in every new game, importing story decisions started to feel more important to me.

Puts me off importing altogether. I might as well treat it as a completely new game. Well, you won't lose anything by not importing, except maybe for some exclusive perk for being a veteran. The game will have a system akin to Tyranny where you'll be able to choose whatever decisions you made in POE1.

I personally find it to be a very refreshing approach to sequels. So often you see same game being made over and over again without an attempt to fix its issues. Obsidian doesn’t seem to be interested in solving problems PoE1 had. That might mean they will introduce new ones. I am really surprised people dislike this change as combining strength and magic prowess seemed like an odd decision to me. At least it was unique. Now it is getting more similar to your generic AD&D. Which is not a bad thing per se, but AD&D had years and years of polish while POE system was barely off the ground and is already getting a huge revamp. Shoulda just tweaked the old system, there was nothing terribad about it.

Possibly, but it just feels jarring to me. It also bugs me from an import point of view: if I import a high Might Wizard from Pillars into Deadfire I have redistribute their attributes to achieve the same sort of character, and that puts me off importing at all. With so many big changes I don't think anyone will be able to make the same type of character from POE1. Importing is gonna be good only for story decisions.

There is also a simple solution, I've suggested it earlier - remove deflection from attributes altogether. Make only armor and shields affect it (and some deflection increasing spells maybe). That way there will be no auto-tank spellcasters and everyone will give more thought as to what to wear. Want to be a tank? Put on some heavy armor, man.

Accuracy is rolled against all 4 defenses while Deflection is just one of them so ... kinda yes. Looks like suckage of Resolve and crappyness of casters had been dealt with in a single blow. Good job Obsidian! Yeah so the conclusion seems to be Deflection being inferior to the bonus other stats provides, and that's why Res is not a good stats. I'm not sure it's a good idea to compare offensive and defensive bonuses. And the point I'm trying to make is not about usefulness, but about logic and fairness. Deflection logically by description doesn't suit Resolve and spellcasters should not come close to deflection of melee classes, not just the fighter. And it is unfair to other attributes to put so many bonuses into Resolve just because right now it is a dump stat and needs some love.

That's some good news. In theory. Right now skill points seem rather scarce and it is unknown how much you have to pump them to pass most checks.

I'd say they're on par. Accuracy to help hit things, deflection to help not get hit.