Hamenaglar

Yes, I've taken Psychovampiric Shield, also Mindblades. So, I need to choose a lvl 3 power. edit: I ended up taking phantom foes, but it's bugged and enemies lose flanked debuff. Grrrr. Now I'll have to reload and pick something else, probably mental binding.

Okay I started with a wood elf cipher. Attributes: 17, 12, 15, 10, 10, 14. I've just reached level 4 and need to choose a power. I can't decide between: 1) Phantom foes (aoe enemies flanked) 2) Mental binding (used to be great, but now circumstancial, average casting time, short duration) 3) Amplified thrust (good damage) 4) Whisper of treason (slow casting, but long duration). 5) Soul shock (aoe decent damage) Mental binding used to be such a great spell but now it's kinda meh, but I can see it being useful against single enemies that deal heavy damage. I'm leaning kind of towards phantom foes, because it's a unique debuff and aoe.

Hi, I would like to make a swordspell build. I'm using 2.03 version but not white march. I will be using a high elf (sub-optimal choice I know). I'm planning to use either a single sword (no shield) or a two-handed sword (no weapon summoning spells). I can't decide between cipher or wizard so any advice is appreciated. I would like to make a build that is a front liner. Ideally he would get hit rarely. So basically I'm wondering about attribute spread (I don't want to dump stats) and which class to use. I was thinking of (for roleplaying purposes) 14 Might, 8 Con, 15 Dex, 15 Per, 10 Int, 15 Res, The idea is that decent Perception and Resolve offset low accuracy and deflection. However if I will be using a single sword, I'll have a buff to accuracy. So perception could be lowered for intellect. Is 8 Con to squishy? Should I increas Con and potentially lower Might? I'd like to keep high Dex for roleplaying purposes. Thank you. But basically my questions are. Should I offensively favour Dex or Might? Resolve vs Constitution? Single sword vs Two handed sword.

How would one go about building a gish char in Pillars of Eternity. Wizards have poor accuracy and deflection and all the buffs seem short duration, also there is no pre buffing. Ciphers seem kinda gishy, but they have really low endurance and no way to buff their defences. Any advice? Which class to take, which attributes?

How are keys being distributed? E-mail? I haven't received anything. Thanks. edit: Nevermind, found my way on backer portal.

They don't just seem identical when the next map has the remains of the skeleton I killed in the previous one. Didn't think of using wilderness lore though, even if I have it on one character. It's a skill I actually need to actively use? Lol, I'd give it a go but already cheated my way through. there is typical 3 paths leading out from most maps. some exits will send you backwards. is simple breadcrumbs solution. use fallen skeletons garbage gear to mark which entrances/exists is dead ends and which is not, and have one other bit o' dropped gear to identify if you is on map 1-4 (or whatever) o' the identical seeming maps. is plenty o' dead skeletons for just such a purpose. is annoying and a bit time consuming, but is not complex or difficult. am suspecting folks get frustrated and quit before trying to figure out the puzzle. If I remember correctly, you can also use map notes (on the map screen) instead of dropping trash. But yeah, it was a pretty annoying puzzle because it was so long and repetitive. I don't know why you all hate Fellwood, I loved it, in fact it's one of my most favourite memories from IWD2. And you didn't even need to have the wilderness skill, if you listened to the directions of one NPC before entering fellwood.

In my opinion, the term degenerative gameplay hasn't become so vilified (spellling?) here because it's a bad term, but because of the way Josh goes around creating convoluted fixes that create different opportunities for degenerative gameplay. So let's take the rest spamming. Obviously the issue was that you could rest after every little fight and constantly be in optimal shape. No resource management in terms of HP or Spells. So how does Josh goes around fixing it? Let's create a complicated health system, one being a long term resource and another an encounter system. He also comes up with an idea that missing is not fun (I have to say that opponents not being able to hit me is fun) and designs the system so that there are a lot of hits. This results in a situation where your fighter/tank is the first guy that needs to rest. Usually after every fight, because he takes so much hits. How would I go around fixing it? Well resting is a choice, like every choice there should be a consequence. 1. You want to rest in a hostile dungeon. Try it. See what happens. You'll likely get attacked. Okay, you might get decide to reload and rest again, but look at that! You get attacked again (that's because random seed for resting is saved along with game - no save scumming for you). 2. You want to go back to the inn and rest. There are two consequences. One, it's a drag. What would happen if you attacked someone then went home to rest before you attack again. They would prepare themselves. They know you are coming (respawning enemies on already cleared levels, or adding extra enemies to uncleared levels). 3. Resting takes time. There is not a worse thing in RPG when they tell you to hurry, you need to do this really quickly or someone will day. But you can spend 5 in game days before anything happens, because the whole world is waiting on you. Ofcourse, what I say isn't really perfect, because now there is maybe not enough incentive for resting. It seems very punishing. Perhaps there could be some safe locations on maps where you could rest. There would be a higher chance of successfully resting in wilderness areas, as opposed in enemy dungeons/castles. Hell perhaps instead of saving a random seed to see if an encounter is triggered, let's think about it this way. What would happen if a player decided to rest here. A)It's a forest, so he might get attacked by wolves. Maybe, maybe not. B) It's Lord Badman of Eviland's Castle. Resting here before clearing it out would be bad idea. Lord Badman would try to launch a counter attack with his remaining. Okay, there should be a scripted event that happens in such a case. If a player survives that attack, he killed a lot of the bad guys so the rest of the dungeon should be clearer. Perhaps Lord Badman himself would die. Maybe player finds a safe location to rest, but Lord Badman is prepared and expects him. Maybe, player can trick Lord Badman into thinking the party is gone for good and therefor weakening his defense, before coming back. Summary: My point in short is. I think Josh goes the wrong way about this, bottoms up, rather than top down. He thinks in terms of gameplay mechanics and then designing roleplaying around them. I would prefer if he was thinking of roleplay mechanics and design gameplay around them.

It's a Role Playing Game. The attribute system is supposed to allow and enhance that. Allow people to play the roles. It's supposed to be grounded in realism. They allow people to use the in game mechanics to describe their characters. It allows the game world to recognize that character. Forget about combat. If I want to build a strong character, game world should recognize me as strong. An NPC would say, hey dude you are really strong, help me move this cart. Or a mutant challenges you to arm wrestling and you beat him because you are stronger (and pumped with stims). I want to be an intelligent character, game should recognize it and offer me possibilities that lower intelligence characters can't do. Otherwise, let's just go with the following attributes: Damage Hit points Dialogue options Spell saves.

In IE games I loved to issue commands at the start of the fights and only tweak as fights progressed. For tougher fights, I would micromanage much more. It was a good design/system with lots of fights that didn't require micromanagement (but still reguired you to use your wits) and those that did to break the pace. One thing I disliked about Dragon age: Origins, was the amount of micromanaging I had to do (tactics were useless), even on easy fights (particularly during later games).

Nope. Never had that problem in IE games. Quite the contrary. Also I don't see anything wrong with enemies trying to bypass the front line to get to the squishies. It's quite common military strategy (breaching through flanks or center to attack targets behind enemy lines). Hell it's the whole point of the defensive line in American Football. Not to mention that I was always looking to attack enemy spellcasters first, and only then melees. But no I never had an issue with an opposition melee guy targeting my wizard if I positioned my party correctly. More options. Apparently all that fighter can do is hold the line. In BG1 you could at least have them specialize for defense and Armor class, offense and damage or ranged combat. BG2 with kits is on a whole different level. And we shouldn't even be comparing BG1 with PoE. Let's compare BG2 and NWN games. Josh could have decided to build on those games, instead he decided he "knows better" (this is purely my impression, but this is how it looks like to me).

True. But there is a good argument to be made that PoE isn't improving, but actually regressing. I don't consider myself a fanboy of AD&D (actually I prefer 3.5 significantly), but a lot of the changes that OE is making from IE games I don't like.

There is nothing wrong with might except maybe the name. I bet if they renamed it power or potency then less people whould whine about muscle wizards. No I wouldn't because strength is would still be missing, you can not have a bow that requires a strength to pull it back or a proper ecumbrance system, and kills role play. This game is supposed to be a spiritral successor to the BG series but the might attribute is more akin to a tribute to world of Warcraft. There could never be a way to allow bashing in of doors or chests. Its flawed. It allows the most powerful or mighty wizard to hit someone with a two handed sword as it does a fighter. That's wrong. Two things: 1. BG didnt have a very good encumbrance system either. In fact, its inventory system was a mess that was only remedied by potion bags, bags of holding, ammo bags, and gem bags (which all effectively negated the need for inventory slots or a strength score). 2. You are looking at it all wrong. Who is to say that magical power CAN'T make you swing a sword better? Hell, worked pretty good for this guy... You do understand that Gandalf is a demi-god/angelic creature?

Okay, so how do I make a buffy muscle wizard? Or a weakling barbarian? How will the world know if I'm a weakling or a powerhouse physically? Not to mention, according to your explanation a massive 2m tall guy pounding you with his fists will actually do less damage than a weakling wizards hitting you with his fists. According to you, a stat that has been a core stat for almost all cRPGs in the last decade and a half (since I remember), doesn't have a representation in this game, meaning it doesn't exist. Oh, and where does it say that Might is actually Soul Strength? I've never ever read something like this from devs or from game. If Might is Soul Strength, why isn't it named that way. Soul power would be far more intuitive and clear name than a Might, don't you think so?

Standard D20 attribute names, actually. Not D&D. Those are freely available for anybody to use. The issue is that PoE would edge dangerously close to being mistaken for a D&D setting(especially with the BG/IWD/PST connection), while Star Wars clearly is not one. Also, legal troubles doesn't equal that their legal opponent actually has a valid case. Lawyers don't work for free, after all. And you didn't just ask for the names, you basically asked for the entire core attribute system to be used. There's actually D20 rulebooks for Star Wars, though they don't fully fit in with KotOR. D20 is under OGL, and should be able to be used (an indie game Knights of the Chalice uses it, I believe). Not to mention, Dragon Age origins uses almost identical attributes, except Magic is Charisma, Willpower is Wisdom, Cunning is Intelligence. The names are a bit different, but the similarities are obvious. The issues with Might is (IMO), we don't know what it represents. Can anybode give me a definition of what it is? Physical prowess, soul power? How to roleplay a mage that is physically weak, but has destructive spells? Should he have high or low might? Is that concept even possible in the world of PoE.

Sword and spell - You sacrifice one or multiple spells for a bonus to Attack and Damage (maybe also deflection). Duration is affected by resolve. Requires free hand to be activated (or free hand halves the activation time). Improved version does not require free hand. Game implementation would be something like a metamagic from NWN games. You choose the ability and then you choose spells to sacrifice. Another option: Offensive spelldance - same as above, affecting only Attack and Damage. Defensive Spelldance - defensive version. Affecting Deflection and other defenses (unnecessary due to Arcane veil?) Combat style bonuses (dual wielding, two handed, single handed, sword and shield)