Katarack21

Except for the wyrmling. Five years makes no difference to a dragon.

1) Will they have "updated to the new graphics" versions of all the old portraits? Because I'm going to need to both a specific portrait, and to have that portrait get one eye all ****ed up looking. It's *important*.

Ydwin is from the White that Wends and managed to attend the Academy in the Vaillian Republic--that is, from one of the poorest places and went to one of the most prestigious schools. She's just trying to fit in.

One more for the block list. Problem solved.

You mean that time you pulled one anime-style picture that vaguely resembled Ydwin from a page full of small sword wielding elf females in skirts drawn in a western style?Yeah. Let's hope nobody recalls that. Not like the basic argument that Ydwin is just another small-sword wielding Elf duelist female remains entirely the same. No, slick, it wasn't "a page full of small sword wielding elf females in skirts drawn in a western style". There were a handful of images on that results page that *weren't* anime. Your argument that this is a western trope is foolish, and I had assumed that you'd wisely abandoned it after I pointed out how silly it was. Apparently I gave you too much credit. Whatever your reasons for failing to address that point, it makes the fact that you're now accusing me of intellectual cowardice pretty laughable. But please proceed. I have nothing better to do at the moment. You proved your intellectual cowardice when you decided to use a logical fallacy of reducing my argument to absurdity instead of actually refuting it. You continue to show it as you use petty nicknames.

Oh, no. My memory is very questionable; my logic, however, remains sound.

You mean that time you pulled one anime-style picture that vaguely resembled Ydwin from a page full of small sword wielding elf females in skirts drawn in a western style? Yeah. Let's hope nobody recalls that. Not like the basic argument that Ydwin is just another small-sword wielding Elf duelist female remains entirely the same.

Not really. It makes it really easy to win a debate when you never present a coherent argument for me to have to defend against.

"Everything" is a strawman, and a logical fallacy designed to humiliate me instead of actually, you know...refute my argument.

Exactly what these problems are seems to vary significantly based on who's explaining them. But to clarify, in the post you've quoted I'm not asserting that Ydwin and Xoti would be considered anime-esque for the same reasons; one of the few points of agreement on this subject thus far is that there are plenty of possible reasons for making anime comparisons, even if there's far less agreement about the validity of these reasons. Dual wielding normally two-handed weapons like scythes, as suggested by the "akimbo scythes" description, would seem fairly likely to elicit anime comparisons, however (even if I do dimly recall hearing about a death knight in the Mystara D&D campaign setting who dual wielded greatswords). It obviously didn't, though, hence my surprise in the post that Xoti seemingly wasn't attracting any anime-based hate herself. Even though duel-wielding two-handed weapons has been a goal of every min-max munchikin in D&D since 2.0 like...ever? EVER? Duel-wielding Orcish duel-bladed battle-axes with monkeygrip and mercurial blades is like...the biggest 3.5 munchikin powergamer cliche *EVER*. Final question: If you take this picture: And you make it a female and replace the male clothing with feminine clothing of the same period, wouldn't you wind up with something pretty close to Ydwin? With a similar outfit, a fairly close sword, elfin ears, etc. The only difference is that one is in an action pose and one is female. I think it's all perception bias. People are seeing "anime influence" because it's a cute elfin female with glasses and a small sword in a skirt, and they're built an association with that inside their own brains. It's not meaningful beyond that.

Yes, for me Fulvano's Voyage didn't grab me the same way Od Nua did. Also, I don't give a crap about fishing *at all*. I do love me some companions, and sidekicks fall in the same category so YAY, but fishing, really? The things that grab me about the sequel are things like importing a character with a Deadfire background and seeing what happens.

That's exactly what Cragholdt felt like to me, you know?

Note that I'm also terrible at tactical combat, so it may just be my constant reloading coming out.

They're *ALL BASTARDS*. Each and every mob, all of them, all the time. They're all a bunch of onery little bastards who ignore your front line and go *RIGHT* for your back line. Basically engagement is meaningless and there is longer any such thing as a viable "tank". You know that whole "huge pile of a mess" that JSaw was complaining about Baldur's Gate being, that they instituted engagement to get rid of? Yeah, that's back because everything just ignores engagement now. They'll pause for a few seconds, then go right for your back end.

Err...am I supposed to be looking at the one pic that isn't anime or is the link broken? EDIT: In case it wasn't clear, I'm mostly busting your chops here, but since this is all in good fun, re-run that search and don't stack the deck by adding the words "Western RPG" to the beginning. Tell me what you get "Western RPG" is the point! This game is a Western RPG, and they're using a Western RPG trope! THIS IS A WESTERN RPG TROPE, NOT AN ANIME TROPE! It's just another female elf with a rapier! It's a common deal, almost a cliche.

But...pale elves are literally the exact physical opposite of Drow and share nothing culturally with them.

If they were going for anime, then as far as I'm concerned they failed. This is just another elf with a rapier. It's all over google; it's a trope itself. Nothing wrong with anime; I love me anime (to my personal taste, of course!), but this is just...well, look at it! https://www.google.com/search?biw=1216&bih=571&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=western+RPG+female+characters+with+rapiers+pleated+skirt&oq=western+RPG+female+characters+with+rapiers+pleated+skirt&gs_l=img.3...51051.55352.0.55563.14.14.0.0.0.0.67.675.14.14.0....0...1c.1.64.img..0.0.0.wvIKW4Sd1d8

Just descriptions of character archetypes which originate in but are not exclusive to Japanese media.

It's probably not going to be every single one. I doubt you'll get to choose yes/no on blowing out that candle without a save, for example--but who knows if it'll have any effect?

I doubt very much that sidekicks will have *no* interactions. They won't participate in the relationship system; that doesn't mean they won't banter and say stuff on occasion.

Baldurs Gate2 worked quite well, and as Josh pointed out many of those characters had limited interactions and no story archs. the observation by josh were a criticism o' the bg2 approach. rather than doing as bg2 wherein a handful o' companions got full treatement and a few received little more than bg1, all poe 2 companions will have quests and party dynamic dialogues and whatever else obsidian deems essential to core companions. no companion crapshoot for the new player such as existed with bg2. you perhaps liked mazzy and only realized after a few dozen hours o' gameplay she were gonna be developed less than jaheira, and less than even non-romance options such as keldorn? sucker. the poe2 sidekicks, on the other hand, will get less development than companions, and the player will be aware from the start that he/she is only gonna get bg1 level development when choosing a sidekick to be filling a party slot. HA! Good Fun! Right, so instead of getting 2/3rd of the way through the game and realizing this character is mysteriously silent all the time, you'll know going in. Exactly like BG2, some characters will have less interactions, but *unlike* BG2, you'll know before hand. That's literally the only difference--you'll know what characters have full interaction and what characters don't. How in the world could knowing how much interaction you'll get out of your party be a bad thing? I don't understand that at all.

Maybe they were just doing their own thing! https://www.newscientist.com/article/2106866-five-wild-lionesses-grow-a-mane-and-start-acting-like-males/

Using a monk for the first time now, actually, and have a *bunch* of questions 'cuz there's just a ton of stuff I don't know! Like, if I put a dagger in my off-hand but have just fist in my main hand, does that count as duel-wielding? Do I get my weapon accuracy bonus to my special attacks with my off-hand but not my primary? Do I get the speed bonus for duel-wielding? What about a shield in my off-hand and nothing in main, is that weapon-and-shield with my fist counting as the weapon? If I have a bashing shield in my off hand and nothing in my main, is that still weapon and shield or is that suddenly duel-wielding? Is it even worthwhile for a monk to wield a bashing shield in his off-hand and nothing in his main? Etc. Should've played a monk sooner!

Not party size limits; companion resource costs. Sidekicks don't have narrative arcs and don't participate in the companion reactionary system, so they don't cost *NEARLY* as much to make; thus, you can make a lot more of them for the same monetary and time cost, and you can get more of them in. That's it. That's the *whole* point. More player choice for same amount of investment from Obsidian. That's literally the whole point.

You aint kidding. I don't really mind, but I am sort of glad I didn't back eastern reach and get saddled with another badge. Speaking of, what's the "Deadfire Watcher" badge for? That's what I came to ask. Slip the beans Karkarov! The people deserve answers! Answered: A really big backer donation, not known exactly but up in the thousands.