MasterPrudent

They haven't said anything about the exact nature of the expansion although a lot of people have speculated that it will be along the lines of Tales from the Sword Coast. Here's what they have said about it: The expansion will come out approximately six months after Project Eternity is released and is not being funded by this Kickstarter. That’s right, it’s not DLC, but a real honest to God RPG expansion pack. We don’t have the details on the Expansion yet, but you can bet it will be what you’d expect from an Infinity Engine game expansion. So it's obviously intended to be more than red boots but whether its more like Tales and Heart of Winter/Trials of the Luremaster or Throne of Bhaal is yet to be determined.

^This. I can wait on the physical goods if it means I get the latest build on the disc. Both options are going to give you the latest build on the disc. The difference between the options is whether you get the other physical goods at the same time as the disc or earlier.

Lle A Rhemen has a couple of minor issues. I should stop being lazy and write them up.

The Beta Addon would be sufficient. Once purchased you'd just go to your products page and then copy the extra beta key and send it to him. Having said that I'm pretty sure it would be cheaper for him if he cancelled his steam preorder and you got him a copy of the game as well as the beta through the backer portal.

If you skip ahead to about 35:30 in this stream Josh Sawyer hosted you'll see the recruitment dialogue for one of the companions. There's a little more interaction later in the stream too.

Sure:

(And just to prove that I really was the wrong person to answer this question I should note that magic spells are pretty diverse and depending on the spell can target any defense, not just will (mind attacks) and reflex (aoes).)

I think having the quick slots and weapon sets so far away from the spells and abilities would be a bit of pain in combat but I guess U shaped UIs aren't really for people who care about mouse travel.

Actually what I wrote is at least partially bullocks: Monks currently have the same base deflection and endurance as paladins and fighters and have a better endurance to health ratio. Having said that you probably don't want to equip them with shields and heavy armour (because you need them to get hurt so you can power their abilities) so they're likely to fall behind when it comes to minimizing the damage they take. Barbarians have better endurance and the same ratio but rubbish deflection. As for defense against ranged attacks and magic? They'll deal with ranged attacks okay because of their high deflection. How well they handle magic, like all classes, depends on whether you've spent points in the attributes that govern will and reflex saves.

Monks have been pretty damn good in all of the beta versions but I think they're particularly powerful in this build because of a bug associated with interrupts. Without that I think paladins and fighters have a significant edge when it comes to survivability as a result of their high base deflection and endurance to health ratio. Rogues are not intended to be able to take a lot of hits but their damage output can be very, very high. Try making a Hearth Orlan rogue and be sure to create the conditions for sneak attacks. To increase their survivability you can either use a bow or hold them back until the enemy has engaged your tanks. I haven't really messed around with barbarians but I know a few players have said they can be very useful against large groups of enemies. Take all this with a grain of salt though as I'm not nearly as conversant with the mechanics as aeonsim, sensuki and others. Also the game is a work in progress and they're still tweaking the balance.

To answer the OP's question no, there are no monk orders in the game.

It seems to be a bug. A bunch of us aren't hearing any music at all in game in 435.

This seems to be the right way around to me? If it were the other way round I would assume I didn't have enough of the item to craft the bonus (for example 1/5 would indicate to me that I needed five to craft the bonus but only have one).

It's not that bad at all. It's an instantaneous cast and moving doesn't interrupt it.

It's intended. Modals are "combat only" abilities now. In the last build that meant you'd have to turn them on for each fight. In this one they just automatically recast them at the start of each fight. Edit: Ninja'd

Sure. Although I don't think anything has really changed? There is a border around the abilities once they've unlocked and I should thank the devs for that seeing as it was something I requested.

Is that viable? Everything other than a fully dedicated tank seems to get rocked in melee. It is on normal. Priests, in particular, can be pretty hardy.

Even for frontline caster builds?

Wait, really? Korgrak had bears in the last build on normal and again in both 434 and 435.

On normal the Korgrak fight is considerably easier than it was last time around. I was able to beat it the first time with only one party member downed, albeit with a paladin added to the standard BB party.

Hey Oerwinde, I'm interested in Bastion and Spec Ops.

It's worth keeping in mind that they accidentally uploaded the wrong build (434) and that this might be fixed in 435 which should be uploaded for Linux and Mac this morning.

The chains are much more obvious ingame but yes, the effect is a bit much.

I can confirm this issue in 435. Ambient sounds are working as intended and music plays on the menu screen and during initial character creation but I'm not hearing any music ingame despite all the sliders being set all the way up.

I'm with Sensuki on this one. I find the system as is to be pretty intuitive and I think it makes it easier to quickly select the character I want for scouting or whatever.