anameforobsidian

It's in the Southern Hemisphere.

I really wish they would contract a geographer for a short period and design a decent world map. The descriptions of the various cultures don't feel like they fit quite together.

Does the POE lore provide underwater cities and areas? I would be surprised if it didn't at least include underwater areas. Aumaua are described as semi-aquatic, and having webbed hands and feet. If they were amphibious or evolved on saltwater, they would probably make the ocean a major feature of their architecture. I haven't found a reference on whether they breathe water or not though. However, diving bell technology existed long before the Renaissance, and Europeans started experimenting with new ones in the 1500s (which seems about right or slightly late timewise). Also, I would love to play a game set in Rauatai.

I liked NWN2 much better than NWN1. Deekin was a good NPC, but besides that the characters weren't memorable. I liked the larger party size. I liked the exploration of NWN2. I liked the Shandra Jerro jokes. I liked the commander of the keep sections. I thought MoTB was better, but I think people are overestimating how different the two are. SoZ was fun.

A whole invasion game is waaay too far from scope. I would just say add some npcs, and give them the quests the gamewarden has, just with some writing. Once they complete those inventory stock (including items the wandering shopkeeper may have had) or resting bonuses go up. One of these days, it would be nice to be able to buy hiro's cloak. The lack of gamewarden gold would also lead to less economy bloat. [edit - also, they could have used the lord of the stronghold as much better plot device to get you in the city / investigate animancy for the duc].

Well, I mean there are two counters - 1. It could be that you have to die to be transformed into God(ess). 2. The fact that it did make you stronger could mean that you need a lot more souls. The one in Heritage Hill was only one that acted as a bank, and it only captured souls in a very, very small area. The rest of them acted as a network that spanned a large country.

That could be a picture of the big wave that hit Defiance Bay.

The Vithrack could be trying to make some hivemind god like the Illithid had in D&D. Without the whole stupid mind control coming from a god in a possible future. But there's already proof in game that mortals can devour a large amount of souls and reinforce their individuality. Fampyr in general do that, use the souls of others to increase the integrity of their identity. The talking Fampyr in Caed Nua is especially proof of this. Why couldn't they do it on a larger scale? Hell, the gods themselves could have originally been living people who died in the process (or were dusted).

How would we understand the sublime nature of beauty without a reference point. From my point of view, I could have done with far more Iovarra. Yes. I can only decide whether or not I like chocolate if I also eat poop. And once I decide that I like chocolate, I must compare every other food I eat for the rest of my life to it. It's worth pointing out that much of the world hates American chocolate because of the way it is processed. If you only had poop to eat your entire life, chocolate may not be your bag of tea. Or you could be a dog. 1 out of 1 dogs I tested preferred poop to chocolate.

I have to say I found mages to easily be some of the most effective characters in the game. Even without getting into the stacking status effect game (which is critical and they excel at), slicken and fan of flames are extremely effective at the first level. Fireball and Wall of Flame aren't as ubiquitous, but they're still pretty useful blunt damage dealers. And Kalakoth's minor blights is a pretty common damage dealer. That's with the fact that wands are pretty good by themselves. Some of the higher level spells were gamebreaking last time I used them (adragan). And they do have unmatched access to status effects, to the point that some spells like Fetid Caress make enemies weak against repeated applications of the same spells. But the Wizard is best when stacking effects so you're consistently getting hits and crits instead of grazes, which makes the whole party much, much stronger.

How would we understand the sublime nature of beauty without a reference point. From my point of view, I could have done with far more Iovarra.

If she was meant to be Deionarra, it seems to me that it would have been far better to introduce her as an ambiguous vision in the beginning.

The metaphysics are a realized system that represents a developed cosmology. Complaining that everything is the result of souls is like complaining because all of our technology uses electricity. D&D, including BG's cosmology is fun to play with, but makes no goddamn sense sometimes (negative energy being perhaps the worst offender). The endless parades of Gods and Goddesses are ridiculous: Buscemi - the slimy god, the shark man god, the misfit god of redeemed monster races, the redemption god of dark elves, sharkman's eviler half-brother sharkmantula, the god of werewolves, Hungry Harry, the goddess of cutters, Mopey - the god of gloomy dwarves, Blibdoolpoolp, the evil deity of half-monkey octolizards with schizophrenia, etc. Fun fact: only two of the Gods above are my own invention. But now I really want to run a D&D session in the Island of Misfit Toys.

Wait, you would use a cipher without charm or dominate?

Reincarnation: Reincarnation is a natural feature of the world. Thaos says "Without our Gods... only a Wheel, turning without mercy, grinding our spirits to dust." So reincarnation and entropy existed before the Gods. The nature of this comment itself implies one of three things about the PE universe: A. Thaos is wrong. He seems to view the entire universe as a one way entropic slide. The vegetarian druid seems to say that plants are constantly creating new bits of souls. Souls are constantly being created as well as destroyed, and certain types of souls have a limited inherent ability to pick up soul fragments as well as lose them. His powers, as well as the Ardra dragon would argue this for me. B. Thaos is right, but hints at a deep mystery. If the universe is constantly splitting souls, that means that if you go back far enough all souls were unified into some pre-Big Bang style mass. This could mean a fundamental numinous nature to the world. This could be the case, and there's some evidence (druids in general), but not a ton. C. Thaos is right, but the universe was created very recently with a couple big souls that are constantly decaying. Like all trickster God / no evolution scenarios, this possibility seems trivial at best. About the other Godlike: I would love to see a Wael influenced Godlike. I bet they're horrific and awesome. That could make a good race of monsters, shifters, slightly saner Malkavians, or something just plain strange.

I think it's safe to presume there are more. Pallegina is an avian type, and that's inaccessible for normal player characters.

I'm in the engagement fan club. I like the way it creates zones of control and elevates the importance of positioning. Moreover, I like the decision it creates when the optimal move is to break it; do you wait and use a CC ability or do you just suck up the hit? It feels like it has nice synergy with many of the caster spells. I hope they get increased engagement range with polearms working in the next one. Furthermore, it's not like defenses from disengagement attacks are impossible to find either. There's Wild Sprint, Escape, Grimoire Slam, and the Fox chant. A full 1/3 of the classes have some means of dealing directly with engaged foes, and that's without using indirect methods like CC. It's entirely possible to build a party around laughing off disengagement attacks if it really bugs anyone that much; however, that requires a strategic choice in build and party composition, which is apparently anathema.

I agree with the sentiment. I would like to see weapon quality be inherent to the weapon (no more making superb weapons), and then use crafting to add effects.

Are the Godlike the decayed bits of Gods? We know that: A. The Gods were constructed by the Engwithans. B. In the animation showing their creation, it takes the souls of hundreds if not thousands of willing and unwilling people fed by the Engwithans. These were spliced together somehow. C. Woedica wants to suck up the extra souls Thaos has been taking to gain more power. So it's pretty clear the Gods are some sort of super-soul chimeras. But: D. The game is very clear that souls disintegrate over time, and break into bits. E. More powerful souls mostly resist this for longer, but the game is pretty clear that it's always inevitable. F. Soul energy can be used to change your body. The two sects of druids in Twin Elms live forever by eating souls. G. Hylea gives no goddamn answer when asked why the Godlike exist. I think you could reasonably take this to imply that the Gods are decaying and Godlike are their remnants. Or they are constantly falling apart, but they're constantly eating souls to maintain integrity.

Has anyone soloed the game with a barbarian on POTD? Would be hard. I did it before expansion came out. Moonlike barbs have high surviveability. I used the rush talent to pull enemies / run away. Add in some retribution gear, and you have a lot of health and damage.

You could also buy another cipher and run with two ciphers. Or you can get one of the items that gives a character daily charm.

They moved from a fully mobile camera to a fixed one. Seems like they learned to me.

I love mimics, but they're pretty dumb in anything approaching a realistic world. I think the same kind of effect (DM dickishness) could be reached by filling a chest with enemies.

Does anyone know different reasons why the camera angles were chosen?

Wizards are super, ridiculously powerful in a party. Slicken alone is amazing crowd control for the entire game. That doesn't make them the best soloing class. I've found that classes with escape moves and high damage work very well. However, people have soloed the game with every class.