thelee

Near the end of the White March, some of the fights got a bit more challenging (mainly all the paralyze and stun effects being tossed around), and a few of the fights elsewhere were a bit challenging (mainly the ones with the Lagofeth Broodmothers), and of course the dragon was a bit challenging, but all in all, I was a bit disappointed in the ease of the expansion. (I was level 11-14 and using the "high level" version of the white marches.) It's kind of a continuing trend from the main game. I think the game just really lacks a good difficulty curve after about level 8 or so (probably no coincidence after you start getting per-encounter spells for your casters). The Bestiary seems to confirm this - the vast, vast majority of enemies cluster around the lower to mid levels. Enemies at level 9 and higher are extremely rare. It's just disappointing to be getting all these high-level goodies and hardly ever being in a fight that warrants their use. I mean, maybe I'm just super good at the game (I doubt it), but for the most part Path of the Damned difficulty seems to just to be on par with what we were playing with back in the days of BG2 and IWD2, and even then I feel like everyone's initial encounters with Drow, Mind Flayers, and Liches were still harder than any vanilla fight in Path of the Damned Pillars. Ironically, I would say the most "interesting" fights happened by accident - back when the enemies in Galvino's workshop kept getting stronger upon each save/reload. After a few save/reloads, all the enemies were tough enough that I had to approach each fight eyes open and I was using everything at my disposal and the 2 camping supply limit actually felt like a constraint. i guess i could start playing with fewer than 6 characters as a handicap, but it would be nice if the base experience were a bit more challenging (or a IWD/IWD2-style "heart of fury" mode existed).

Eh, after playing with it I don't mind so much. I guess this means the range indicator shows up only when it's most relevant: when determining how far I need to move the character for a spell/ability to hit.

This is a weird regression. Maybe it was intentional? At least for me, it's a step back from what was a really great feature in 2.0. In 2.0, range indicators were pretty much always visible. In 2.01, this is not the case. I can't quite tell when they disappear, but the most reproducible and easily the most annoying is when I'm targetting an ability/spell. Before, I would always see the range indicator, now I only see it if my targeting reticule is *outside* my range, which is kind of annoying. Maybe this was an intentional change. At least I hope you add an option to re-enable the 2.0 behavior, which is to always have range indicators at all times.

It's been reported several times, and as far as I can tell no explicit acknowledgement by developers. It's possible they already know about it so they aren't commenting, but it's kind of a bummer that this has been around for a long time.

Sorry! Long gone, but I can try to recreate it while waiting for Galvino's Workshop to be tweaked.

Great! I'll have to abuse this while I can.

Are you sure it's a large delay and not just the effect wearing off normally? I've noticed a problem with suppress affliction effects completely not working with paralyze effects.

@NerdCommando I also respecced my ranger, come to think of it. Good eye.

I also had 0-knockouts. Like Jajo said, these fights are basically the save-or-die for Pillars, except in this case even if the attack grazes you're still probably dead. Alpine dragon is worse. I just accidentally stumbled into it and boom! Wiped out (also the many wraiths) You better believe I reloaded and am gonna come back at a higher level with many scrolls.

That's good to know. *Cross fingers* Hopefully I can get back to this otherwise fun game after the next patch.

I'm in Galvino's Workshop, and I started noticing that all of a sudden fights were getting really hard. Check out the top-left tooltips in these screenshots: 1. 2. 3. Those are *insane* defenses. Notably, look at the difference between #2 and #3. Same exact fight, only difference is that I quit the game and started it again because I suspected something was up. Upon re-trying the fight, magically the stats for the foes got even *higher*; +48 to all defenses apparently, and notably when the game reloaded all these foes had "Barely Injured" as if they had gotten a maximum health/endurance boost upon the reload. This is very obviously buggy behavior. I was eventually able to win fight #1 using lots of debuffs, but the fight in #2/#3 are clearly impossible. Nothing will ever be able to penetrate 250+ stats like that. Clearly some kind of difficulty adjustment is being applied repeatedly, possibly upon every single reload. This maybe a Galvino's Workshop/area-specific behavior, since I've cleared the area to the west and east of Stalwart and the rest of Durgan's Battery opening area with lots of reloads without running into insanely hard fights. Here's my dropbox link: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/qnm3o7gwuwrglac/AADm6WLTXOWvmt8zYctXSmjJa?dl=0 I've been able to stomach a lot of the bugs that cropped up with 2.0/White March, but this is insane. The game is literally unplayable now. In case it's related: i'm playing on Path of the Damned and I selected "High Level" when entering the White March; party is level 13. (I hit level 13 while in this general area, so it might also be related to that, since every other area [where I had no problems] I was at level 12.)

working as intended, though i wish the game were a bit less "spikey" in terms of difficult fights. use a lot of debuffs to get their defenses down, and for the adra dragon try (once you get her defense down a bit) using effects like confusion or paralyze to block her from using her one-hit-wipe breath attack. I've done it several times on Path of the Damned, so you should (eventually) be able to do it on Normal.

@Aarik D, it looks like Play dead isn't the only ranger ability that is misapplied to the ranger. Merciless Companion is also misapplied, and Kefky documented a whole lot of other buggy abilities. I attached a save game and screenshot in his post as well.

I added a response to your post to help give it some attention.

Just to chime in, I just discovered that Merciless Companion is also affecting the *ranger* not the *pet*. It seems all sorts of ranger stuff is just broken and misapplied. HEre's my dropbox link with a save to test it out: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/lp3qeligf5h41sx/AACUe7DVIXwNtKjbD5EHfGcwa?dl=0 Screenshoot proof: The money shot is in the combat logs -- notice in the screenshot that Elka (the ranger) has a Merciless Companion boost for damage, whereas Zelda (the pet) has nothing listed. This is a clear regression from 1.6. EDIT: since it's not clear from the screenshot, all of this constructs are disabled so every one of them is eligible for sneak attack/merciless companion boost.

Yeah, I just realized it's all sorts of ranger stuff. I just discovered that Merciless Companion affects the ranger, not the pet.

Are you sure that it's not just the paralyze effect wearing off? In my above example, one of my characters snapped to, but it was only because the paralyze effect had grazed for a couple of seconds, whereas my main CHARNAME had been paralyzed for ~6 seconds and sure enough even with the suppress affliction they stayed unmoving for the entire time.

And for further edification, a series of screenshots showing: 1. paralyzed characters 2. post-suppress affliction characters who now have a different debuff icon but are still unable to take action.

Here's a link to try it out (I've been using this save for other issues, but it's handy because it's easy to trigger several of the problems with one go): https://www.dropbox.com/sh/bu470ehekco0qo0/AADmTwodWv6Z8d-tIAfXAtgma?dl=0 Go fight some of the Lagufeth (or whatever) and wait until a Paralyze effect triggers. Then either use Durance or Elka (the custom ranger)'s Suppress Affliction on those characters. THe paralyze icon will be replaced with some different icon, and the paralyze tooltip will go away, but the characters are still unable to take action.

apparently toggling the AI button appears to have worked for the stag companion. thanks! (still annoying how it silently got broken though...)

Here's a screenshot of my ranger with play dead instead of my pet:

Clarification that I just discovered: The problem appears to be that my *ranger* has "Play Dead" and when activated, my *ranger* gets the Play Dead ability, instead of my pet. Here's a dropbox link with a save and output: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/bu470ehekco0qo0/AADmTwodWv6Z8d-tIAfXAtgma?dl=0

Here's a drop box link for the ranger AI bugs: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/df1at5h5mdihypd/AABRZ-ZIXVlBnqDKxjpQYgyKa?dl=0 Just enter combat to the right and note that neither pet nor ranger will do anything interesting. Ranger will auto-attack, but that's it.

Enter the fight with the stags to the right using the save game her: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/df1at5h5mdihypd/AABRZ-ZIXVlBnqDKxjpQYgyKa?dl=0 Observe how the stag companion will stand around and do nothing, despite having "Aggressive" auto-attack AI set for the ranger.

1. Zafua did not start with transcendental suffering. I had to respect him before he picked up these very crucial monk abilities. 2. After you choose duality of mortal presence, successive respecs DO NOT clear this away. In effect, it becomes a free talent/ability.