thelee

- Larger version increases area of effect by ~30-40% and reduces PL of the spell by 5, bonus area is "foe only" (only the second targeting circle is increased) - Smaller version reduces area by ~40-50% and increases PL of spell by 1, also removes safe zone from Intellect and makes the area "friend-or-foe only" (except "foe-only" spells) OMG 5 PL O_o ?! -5 is when we roll to full or when we roll any above standard ? Generaly i like this new feature, but - 5 pl is quite harsh if going from normal to large lets you target from 1 to 2 foes, then you've basically already made it worth the -5 PL penalty. I think it only becomes a toss-up really if you go were targeting five or more, and only gain one more target in the process. (just as a general rule of thumb. you may want fewer targets at higher impact at times)

it might be a systems limitation... modwyr lets you enchant it to legendary, but i think it's because the way it's implemented is that once you finish its questline your soulbound modwyr gets actually replaced by a non-soulbound version of the item. but i'm not a modder so i could be wrong.

this is worth a double-check. i could be wrong about some of my stacking interaction understanding, but I definitely tested potion and intellect inspiration stacking interaction for monastic unarmed training (in my case I used acute instead of brilliant) and they didn't stack. same thing with potion and food that gives you +PL bonus. if amulet really does stack that would be a very pleasant surprise. you're talking about hte +1 intellect that gives you an ability to get +1 PL until end of combat? i thought because that was an actual ability you had to activate it wouldn't stack... but it wouldn't be surprising because items are a little weird sometimes. same thing about the cipher ascendant bonus. edit - you mean the pike, not spear edit2 - make sure when you're checking PL that you're ignoring the effects of PL bonus you get just for being at a higher PL than the ability you're using

Arguably, ship combat is rigged completely in your favor because save/load and the enemy can't. Also ship combat is generally designed to be beaten, not vice versa.

upvote for letting you get superb soulbound weapons to legendary somehow

seems ironic because having mythic items in the first place would help with the megabosses... and after you kill all of them you frankly odn't even need legendary to beat the base game. would love a way to manually upgrade soulbound weapons. my precious marux amanth is great but really wants to be legendary.

spitballing, i think the highest possible bonus PL is a wizard subclass: +3 (general) <passive> death godlike +2 (wizard+evocation) <passive> evoker subclass +1 (general) <passive> prestige +2 (fire) <passive> magran's favor +2 (fire) <passive> sun and moon, during the day +2 (evocation) <passive> firethrower's gloves +2 (general) <active> potion +1 (general) <passive> spellshaping, reduced area +1 (fire) <passive> Otto Starcat pet bonus ...and then being at near-death and casting a spell like fireball that is keyworded as both evocation, fire and can be spellshaped into a smaller area, for a total of +16PL (empower for an additional +5). I don't have a good knowledge of all the items in the game though, so there may be more ways to stack bonus PL. edit - added sun and moon for +2. I forget if it's +2 or +1, but wrote +2 here based on wiki (which could be out of date) edit2 - at level PL9 (since you have prestige), that fireball would actually get +22PL (+6 just for being PL9 versus fireball being a PL3 spell, +16PL bonus). Probably better off casting delayed fireball even with a smaller PL bonus. edit3 - how could i possibly forget about Otto Starcat??

to elaborate on the keywording: in your scenario, a cipher using a cipher ability at near death would get +7 PL (death godlike bonus, ascendant, and then prestige) that same cipher using a fire scroll would get +8 PL (death godlike bonus, magran's favor, potion, and then prestige)

that's not actually +13, due to stacking rules. potion and brilliant won't stack, neither will amulet. you should also specify that some of it is keyworded. +3 (general) PL death godlike +3 (cipher) ascendant +2 (???? fire) weapon (assuming magran's favor) +2 (general) potion of ascendance +1 (general) prestige brilliant and amulet are suppressed by potion. also, i'm not positive, but i suspect that the ascendant PL bonus is an active effect itself and may suppress potion of ascendance.

I rolled a new character last night and played for ~40m. I didn't run into this issue--alternated weapons normally (had a rapier and a dagger and could tell by damage type in combat log what was happening). Is there something that triggered it for you in beta?

I actually think it's the best way Obsidian could go about it. I just like the power creep I had with the original version i don't think it was the best, but it was certainly the easiest (instead of a more complicated version making higher-level spells recharge slower). 6s is probably "good enough." martial classes don't benefit as much, casters benefit more, just not as obscenely as before... maybe 3 restored spells from Ancestor's Memory instead of 6 for base (and slower shenanigans with Salvation of Time).

it might just be table stakes at this point, but I do have to say Obsidian I really appreciate the ongoing new content and support you give to the game! Looking forward to rolling a Hylea challenge game

i think this would add way too much variance to the game to be a good change. Essentially, con would give you stat that is "% chance not to die." That is a wild swing in outcomes from battle to battle. (And there's a reason why not every AD&D mechanic was implemented in BG/BG2. AD&D--even though it's a system I'm sure many of us are nostalgically fond of--is really just a terribly designed game system. I mean, for crying out loud, if you were playing it correctly, you didn't even get to pick what class you got, it was essentially picked for you by the stats you rolled, which is why all those "minimum" stats things were a thing--however mostly meaningless--in BG/BG2.) Anyway, I'm on the train that if there's any change to con, increasing healing received effectiveness is a good one to have. We already have some stat overlap (intellect influencing durations, resolve also affecting durations), so it's not unprecedented.

is there any special loot you miss out on by doing so? (or did they fix that bug with essence interrupter?)

You're either on iron Man mode or you have a mod. Autosave is table stakes in any game these days.

hey, sorry i missed this post when you first made it. a couple things: the guide already mentioned that abilities get .5 pen per ability level. and i try to be clear between ability level and power level because they're different things. but you're right it's a bit confusing, and i probably could go through the original post with another editing pass. part of the confusion is also because the game itself is inconsistent about calling it "power level" or "ability level" in the combat log, because sometimes things that are very clearly "power level"-based scaling get counted as "ability level." when i have some more time i'll try to make things clearer.

I noticed some weirdness with traps so I did a little bit of research and updated the OP. For those who don't want to dig into the OP just to see what's new, here's what I added:

Yes. dumb thought (haven't tried it even once yet) - is it something where you have to physically lead one ooze away from the other to prevent them rejoining?

Thinking about a ranger build but nowhere near a copy of the game. Was wondering if anyone could confirm or deny whether the acc bonus also helps your pet (also the damage/deflection bonus from the upgrades).

From a mechanics standpoint- sure.But from a roleplaying perspective- how would being of good vitality mitigate Armor Recovery Time? Does constitution also make you quicker, when dexterity essentially does the same thing? I think that the best way to address it is to not necessarily change the mechanics of how constitution works, but rather how healing spells/abilities/potions work. Instead of healing a flat 10 HP, have it heal 25% of max health. A level 1 Fighter with 10 constitution would have 42 HP - Meaning healing at 25% would be 10.5 HP Restored. A level 1 Fighter with 18 constitution would have 58 HP - Meaning healing at 25% would be 14.5 HP Restored. If both of those fighters get hit with an attack that deals 20 damage, the first fighter would heal to 32.5 HP vs the second fighter's 52.5 HP. The second fighter would heal significantly more- making constitution a more worthwhile investment. I doubt that obsidian would make any widespread changes like this of course... At least not until PoE3. I love this idea. I agree that it is unlikely to ever happen, but I love it from a flip angle than what you consider - it makes taking away from constitution more painful. Currently, for anyone who's not expected to actually tank on enemies, constitution (and resolve) are stats you can safely dump, because unlike the other stats these stats only help you if you're actively being hurt (whereas e.g. dexterity is always useful). If instead all healing came in % form, then taking away from con means that when you do get hit, a low con actively makes it harder to recover from those hits (whereas currently as far as e.g. Scroll of Moderate Healing is concerned, it's irrelevant whether your max health is 90 or 300). It's ironic because Tyranny actually does %-based healing. While I didn't like Tyranny nearly as much as PoE1 (or Deadfire), there are aspects of it I really want to be ported to the PoE system, and I think % healing is one of them.

Found from this thread: https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/106473-charge-really-useless-now/?p=2108972 Basically, every single ability and attack has a baseline accuracy of 20, on top of which perception, ability, power level, etc. modifiers are added. For some reason, Charge is missing this. Compare against another attack: Dropbox link to save and output log: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/hvjjyqkhh29u42w/AAD6rb7Z4YU-bcbCebg3B2tAa?dl=0

there's a couple things going on here. on the plus side: i think archaven actually found a legit bug! first, the UI is inaccurate when it comes to ability accuracy. from the power level guide: charge should inherently have a +6 ability level bonus to ACC, and then each PL you have higher than PL4 should give it another +1 at least. The combat log will show you all the modifiers that actually end up getting used: Eder is a single-class fighter at level 20, so he should get +6 ability level ACC and +5 power level ACC, which he does. The bug appears to be that all abilities should also have a baseline accuracy of 20; this is just the starting accuracy for all characters, and then they get +3 per character level above level 1. For whatever reason, Charge isn't getting this. I'll go report this in the bugs forum.

great research. this is something that i frankly wish was rolled into the base game, because as it is sleight of hand is pretty much a trap choice. that way i can do some slightly more meaningful pick pocket while rolling one of the god challenges.

thanks for that clarification. -5 PL is definitely a more significant trade-off for more aoe. looking forward to playing with it.

Resolve is niche, not bad. The problem with resolve is that gives you a bonus that has increasing returns (deflection), so the difference between a few points of resolve could literally mean infinite survivability. You buff it as a stat and you end up only slightly helping the majority of cases while really making degenerate builds all the more powerful. Con is also pretty niche, though with less dramatic upside than resolve. I don't really think it needs much help. The penalty is large enough that unless you love being targeted by every enemy archer in the fight, you shouldn't really dump it more than a couple points. It is a little lame that healing effects are less effective against high health characters, so I wouldn't say "no" to some sort of buff that linked CON to bonus healing (though penalties would overlap with con afflictions). My bottom line: it's OK if a couple stats are a little more situational than others. I don't think investing in Con or Resolve is a trap choice for most players. If it were, I'd be more concerned about stat imbalance.