Katarack21

Enchantable capes, helmets, and boots. Craftable weapons, armor, and rings. Not just given to me; I want to do something to learn how forge rings from gold, silver, etc. that I find, and then enchant those rings with the same kinds of enchantments I can find on rings I loot. Multiple, varied enchanting recipes for many more things. Some of which are quest rewards or even looting recipes. A stronghold that's integrated into the side quests, so that when you get the upgrades each one provides different options. If I have a chapel, I want to be able to send the lost young girl to it. If I have a dungeon, I want to take people prisoner and deal with their friends coming for ransom or revenge. I want to do quests to get new blacksmiths and force some evil wizard to create potions for my shop. In this same vein, I want companions to react to my race, class, background, and culture. If I'm a Priest of Eothas, Eder should really be reacting. I was playing a hard core cipher; I expected a lot more interesting dialogues with Grieving Mother. The system they have is excellent, but doesn't get applied enough. I want the world to alter in various, subtle ways based on all these choices I've made.

Well, that's pretty sweet. How'd you do that?

Minsc was and is funny, it's just a different kind of humor. Personally, I find Eder's blunt, world-weary cynicism and sarcastic observations more entertaining, but that's just me.

I concur. I wouldn't be surprised if, near the end of the expansion or possibly second game, there's some sort of point where being loyal to Skaen now, and doing what he told you to do now, results in Skaen making Woedica and all the other gods choke on their own whips when the time is truly ripe.

Should I cash it in? Is there any benefit later in the game to keeping the favor until I need it for later?

Where are my peanuts?

Within the quest itself, I don't remember any implication that these actions, if true, were anything less than a moral event horizon. The veracity of the accusations is questioned--whether Harond actually did what he was accused of--but nobody reacts as if the accusation is anything less than horrible if it's true. It's not normal behavior in this world, not even for nobles; hell, he's accused of his nobility to hide from the consequences. I'm not making any of this up; it's all in the dialogues with different characters. The quest line is set up so you can question the validity of the accusations and you can question the appropriateness of various punishments, or you can extort him to hide his crimes. But the moral judgment about the accusations is never put to question; it's terrible and everybody agrees on that.

And again, slashing and piercing is exactly what a swordsman would use against a lightly armoured opponent (including presumably all sorts of fantastical beasts), and a greatsword is perfectly capable of slicing through all kinds of cheeses and melons without exploding them. Against a heavily armoured opponent things would, of course, be different. Piercing would absolutely play a part still - usually preceded by some wrestling and half-swording - but crushing using crossguard and pommel would grow in prominence. Against a heavily armored opponent, all else being equal, you want a flanged mace. Preferably with a giant spike on the top. It'll shatter and crush even the heaviest armor, and the spike can can do equally well against joints and other weak spots. Nobody is questioning the slashing and piercing being used against people in leather armor or mail armor. My point was that halberds, pollaxes, battle axes, and to some extent great swords were not designed primarily as slicing weapons nor intended for use to slice with. The creation of heavy plate armor lead to the direct increase in size from the armoring sword to the long sword to the greatsword and then the estoc, and the invention of various subtypes of crushing and bludgeoning weapons with pierce capability. Slashing weapons were used by foot soldiers against foot soldiers, not against armored opponents. Eventually longbows, crossbows, and then especially firearms lead back towards less armor and more diverse weapons. Eora takes place in a hodgpodge world where many of these types of weapons and armor, which are separated in our world by hundreds of years, all exist at once.

There is humor, it's just less slapsticky and goofy. Eder has some cutting remarks, and Durance has my favorite lines: "The Shining One. Never shined brighter than when the Godhammer hit him. The epithet is outdated. Ash doesn't shine."

Not a CRPG, but...didn't FF VII have a time limit? I seem to recall if you didn't go finish things when the clock hit 99:99, Sephiroth summoned Meteor and ended the world, right?

That is absolutely true. This is why we are arguing about the endings. We can see past their narrowmindedness, because as you said, they only care about their own "portfolio". Right? I really wish their was a "screw the gods" option, maybe eating the souls or maybe using them to incarnate a new god in opposition or something.

Here's the problem: None of the gods plans is really sound because none of them take into account anything beyond that individual gods pantheon. Hylea is a great example; she wants you to put the souls of the children back into the children, but I don't think she wants to because it's "good". Her portfolio is about helping and loving children; she never thinks or worries about the consequences of the action, or the wider societal implications, because that's not what she was made to care about. The gods aren't gods; their just ideals given shape. The philosophies and moral considerations of a society given form and power; they are no more or less flawed than the philosophies and ideals that were incarnated. All of them seem narrowly focused, concerned only and entirely with this small portion of the world that they were incarnated to ward over. **** 'em all.

Actually, battle axes and such depended more on sheer weight and mass for their damage then anything else, with the sharp edge designed to concentrate this mass. This is especially true in the middle ages when large axe-type weapons were designed for a combination of crunching and slicing plate armor.

Could be worse than coming to sentience and remembering being chained for years. Could suddenly come to sentience only to realize theirs a hungry, raging animal fighting for control of their body...and they remember *eating their parents*.

True facts. The problem basically is that backstab only works off stealth or invisibility, and it has a 2 meter range. So you go stealth, position yourself, and backstab then go right into melee and take damage while waiting for escape or something similar to go off, because if you take your tank out of stealth to go up and take the threat so you can get a single backstab off before entering combat you immediately go out of stealth. And you can't hang back and start with with a ranged backstab because 2 meter range.

Even so, it was not like he was eating slaves for breakfast and drinking blood of unborn babies. He is not as monstrous as cultists presented. Until that point the cult was about slaves and their masters - and was even understandable. But here it looked like clear interfering with domestic matter, where they had no business at all. They used a frightened pregnant (double unstable) girl to kill yet another noble, which did not do anything to them. Cultists could not even use her hatred - she had none, they infused her with hatred of others toward other people. What do we know for sure? There is a noble girl, raised exclusively for one purpose - to marry a noble man and give him his heir. (We know she is not a warrior, priest or anything) Outside that task she simply would not be able to survive, as pi2repsion pointed out. The lord did a really bad thing but it did not change anything in her life, except she potentially would become more rich, since uncle would leave everything to her baby. And the thing he did - as horrible as it could be - others on a daily basis did/do worse. He did not deserve the faith cult intended for him. 1) No, he's not drinking the blood of babies. Just quite possibly raping his niece. Repeatedly, until she gives birth to his baby--her desires be damned. 2) She didn't have any hatred because she was to full of fear. 3) We know she's not a warrior, priest, etc. We don't know that she was raises exclusively for any purpose--it never says that. As far as we know she's just an ordinary person of noble birth, not a breed-mare. Nobody ever hinted or implied that was normoal thing in this world. In fact, it's pretty clear based on peoples reactions people thought he was kind of extreme, even before the whole incest baby came up. 4) "The lord did a really bad thing but it did not change anything in her life, except she potentially would become more rich, since uncle would leave everything to her baby". Did not change anything in her life...except for being betrayed and used like a tool by her uncle, quite probably raped, then taken out to the wilderness where she haw no recourse and nobody to ask for aid while she's forced to give birth to her uncles baby. You want slavery? Her uncle is treating her like a brood mare. Not like a little girl.

Or maybe it has nothing to do with "your opinion isn't valid because whiney busllhit", maybe your opinions just a load of self-serving ****ery and nobody likes it. Wow, did I move your cheese? I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that. It's just that whiny sellf-pitying bull**** meant to justify somebodies discrimination by rationalizing their ****ty discriminatory crap as "legitimate opinions" is really annoying.

Or maybe it has nothing to do with "your opinion isn't valid because whiney busllhit", maybe your opinions just a load of self-serving ****ery and nobody likes it.

Some of them have specific uses--like the estoc's DR bypass being useful in punching through DR for powerful creatures. Or the pollaxes double damage type (crush/pierce).

Wait, if I'm allowed to consume some other content if it offends me, why is Obsidian then not allowed to change the content if it offends them? If Obsidian was offended they should have said that. No one vetted the backer content that was submitted? Bull****. Of course they vetted content. The backer content was submitted and they had no problem with it. It was only after some loser posted on twitter that this was an issue. And again, if you have a problem with content, go elsewhere. "I disagree with what they did, so I'm going to insist that it must have been intentional no matter what anybody says."

That's the problem. The rogue that you've stealthed behind the group gets thrown out of stealth when your tank gets spotted. You're right that the entire party going into stealth at the click of a single button isn't a problem, though. People seem to confuse the two things, though (I'm not saying you did). Yup. Between this and the 2m limitation that applies even to ranged weapons, backstab is effectively worthless.

What about the ones who aren't dead? What about the wichts running around, with animal souls puppeting Hollowborn children's bodies?

Feargus isn't *just* a business man. His field of business is a creative field--he is in many ways an artist as well. He has to balance his business savy with his artistic sense and desires.

Rymrgand: But wouldn't these destroyed souls be robbed of a chance to have a normal life again someday? It feels kinda harsh to me. Skaen: Evil comes in great variety and Skaen is definitely not good, based on what his followers are doing and on his own words. Hoarding power and knowledge isn't necessarily evil, it depends on how you've gotten this knowledge and power and how you're going to use it. I doubt Skaen would use his power to entertain little kids at birthday parties. The dragon, well, it depends on how it got all of that gold. If it was acquired by burning down little villages with farmers and children, then off with its evil head. If it did some really smart financial investments in its younger days then it has every right to protect its hoard. No, Skaen would hold his power dear (and secret) until just the right moment...then use it in one flash to cripple and maim a much more powerful enemy who is directly responsible for Skaen's problems.