sibakruom

Is this how it actually works in-game or just a typo? I would have expected the duration modifier for a hit to be 1.0 rather than 0.5. This example on the other hand seems to imply a duration modifier of 1.0 for a hit and of 0.67 for a graze (as well as a 0.67 damage modifier for a graze).

Durance's sidequest made it clear that they at least don't know everything and can be fooled (even if involuntarily).

If the Abydon's Hammer trick works then using the Druid's Nature's Bounty (+5 Might) rather than Frenzy should just get you to 28 Might.

I don't remember where I read that (possibly the wiki or here on the forums), but I think only the Watcher will have the option to steal the ring.

I feel the reason for that lies directly in its Kickstarter pitch: trying to be a spiritual successor to all the IE games. The problem that in insight should have been obvious was that the IE games were a widely varied bunch. People don't remember Planescape Torment for its combat, nor do they remember Icewind Dale for its companions or choices and consequences opportunities. Let's be realistic, a game with "the central hero, memorable companions and the epic exploration of Baldur’s Gate, [...] the fun, intense combat and dungeon diving of Icewind Dale, and [...] the emotional writing and mature thematic exploration of Planescape: Torment", with each element at the same level of quality as they were in their respective inspiration, was never going to happen. As a result of trying to chase too many different games Pillars of Eternity ended up somewhere in the middle of all of them, with no single aspect able to really fill the "this is what the game is going to be remembered for" role. The best way I could sum up how I feel PoE compares to the IE games would be that it's stronger than any of them in their respective weak points but weaker than any of them in their respective strong points.

Thaos may also be deliberately not targeting the Glanfathans. One of his goal is stopping the progress of animancy and the Glanfathans could be his allies of circumstances here. He might be planning to instigate a war between them and an heavily weakened Free Palatine in the years to come, delivering a final blow to the latter.

Unless I'm missing something, you list -5 DR bypass from Vulnerable Attack in your damage bonuses but you don't actually have Vulnerable Attack in your list of talent.

FO:NV also had the advantage of having a toolset that was already well-known by the existing community. This allowed for a massive amount of accurate information to be readily available to anyone.

The nazi analogy isn't applicable here anyway. No one ordered the Cold Morn massacre, and the mob had no chain of command that could put the blame solely at the top.

That's because you're trying to do a 1:1 switch. You're correct that no other class is going to cover the Priest's role in a team better than a Priest, but different classes can do different parts of a Priest's role while bringing something else on the table. For example a Paladin and Chanter duo may be able to cover the same needs in a team as a Priest and Fighter duo. Try shaking up your party composition more and see if you can find something else that works like you want it to work.

Interesting that Sawyer isn't working on Tyranny. That would open up a World of Darkness rpg pitched by Paradox to Obsidian. That seems rather unlikely, at least for now. We know Obsidian is currently working on the Armored Warfare MMO, the Pathfinder Adventure game, their new RPG Tyranny, the Lords of the Eastern Reach tabletop game, and the last few patches for PoE and its expansions. While the last two look close to being wrapped up, that still leaves a lot of work for a company the size of Obsidian to take on another RPG at the same time.

While it's likely that there will be a PoE 2 at some point, there has been no official annoucement yet. In fact, Obsidian has just announced that they were working on a brand new RPG unrelated to PoE. So the answer to all your questions is: no one knows, and that probably includes Obsidian themselves.

Porting to Unity 5 is so much work that it only makes sense commercially if they plan to sell this enhanced edition to a market that doesn't already own the game. That would mean either a port to consoles like W2 or D:OS did, or forcing people who already own the regular edition to pay again for the enhanced edition - neither of which are likely to happen.

If memory serves it was an idea discussed at some point in development and maybe in a Kickstarter update. It was ultimately dropped because making any new spiritshift form would require a disproportionate amount of work, notably on the graphic/animation side, for a single class feature.

I think scaling was always planned to some extent, but PoE didn't really support abilities changing with level until it was implemented in patch 2.0. I remember Sawyer talking about this.

Gamebanshee only released their guide a little more than a month ago. And as they said at the time, the White March section is still under construction.

Being willing to wait for several months after the game's release before starting it up does not exactly spell "quick gratification". And isn't the saying 'games used to be released when they were done' something usually associated with said classic style gamers? Because they sure didn't learn to "take part in the long journey of a multi-patched RPG system" from the classic games.

InXile first announced they were working on their port of Wasteland 2 in February, so 6 months seems like a bare minimum. Frankly, unless Obsidian decide to make it coincide with a console version as well, I don't see an upgrade to Unity 5 happening for PoE. There's simply no way it can be a worthy investment of time and money.

Being non-profit is irrelevant - in fact, you're explicitly allowed to make for-profit products with Unity Personal under certain conditions. If I understand things correctly, the problem is that content created with Unity Perso (fan mods) is tagged as such by the software, and content created with Unity Pro (Pillars of Eternity) will simply refuse to run it. It would require more than just ignoring the ToS to get around that - cracking this security would be needed. And as far as I know, modding communities usually make sure they stay on the legal side of things, simply as a matter of not having the developers turn against them. At the very least, mod-hosting websites will refuse to host mods created this way.

Small nitpick on this point: Unity does not allow the mixing of content produced with its free version with content produced with a licensed professional version - which Obsidian undoubtedly used. From their software license agreement: "You may not combine or integrate Licensee Content that you develop with Unity Personal simultaneously with any Licensee Content that you develop with Unity Pro or any Unity Pro Add-On Products. Licensee Content developed with Unity Personal will be tagged with an identifier that is used to enforce this restriction."

According to the wiki, the stronghold is Caed Nua, north of Defiance Bay. I've got no clue which location is the correct one.

I don't think so. AFAIK, the two big cities will be Defiance Bay and Twin Elms. Dyrford is visited as well, and Caed Nua is the stronghold/big dungeon. I suspect much of the game will take place in the border region between the Free Palatinate of Dyrwood and the Ruins of Eir Glanfath, maybe further east in the forest as well. I doubt we'll see much if any of the Vailian Republics, the White March, the Penitential Regency of Readceras or the Ixamitl Plains.

Because that's a problem that's pretty much inherent in systems where one stat scales linearly with the character level while another doesn't: health versus damage, accuracy versus evasion, etc. These systems tend to have a level range where they work best, where all components function in harmony and are relevant. Outside of this range, they usually break down from their intended purpose: too random, too long, too easy, some stats become irrelevant, etc. The DnDs video games I played had some form of this both at very early and late levels, with the middle levels being the sweet spot. There are ways to compensate for that, though. - The stats that don't scale with level usually scale with gear, so introduce a 'level with gear' mechanic. The solution used by Diablo et al and even NWN to some extent at high and epic levels (which I very much do not want, for the record). - Do some serious number juggling to expend the good level range. Might be necessary to not make the scaling stats completely linear with level. Which is how BG2 did it with HP at higher level. And both BG and NWN did it somewhat at level 1 by giving you the max roll for HP, but that wasn't enough. - Limit the number of scale/don't scale comparisons. Makes it easier to balance those that are left. Mages usually have something like that by default, with their 1d6 damage per level spells. - Probably others I haven't thought of. I haven't played PoE's Beta, so I can't really judge, but from what I can see from the wiki Obsidian went with a mix of option 2 and 3 - which incidentally tells us they're perfectly aware of the problems in such systems. Scaling stats get a fine boost at level 1 compared to their per-level boost (this had always been the biggest problem for levels 1 to 3 in DnDs-based games), and Accuracy versus Deflection are now both level dependent. Still, as I understand it the Beta is made to test the system primarily in the mid-level range, where we're expected to spend most of the game. Getting more eyes on the early and late levels couldn't hurt.

It's not the perceived length that's the problem, it's the low level themselves. In my experience with early levels in IE and NWN games, they were the most annoying, by far. Damage mitigation was done by attacks missing, but since everybody had low HP it made the fights swingy. And since everybody had only one attack per round and a low attack bonus, it made the fights longer as well. So yes, if you told me a D&Ds inspired game (or a NWN module) made you spend half its length in the early levels, I'd be worried as well. NWN 1 and 2 were clearly aware of the problem, as both made you leave the tutorial dungeon around level 3-4. In BG1, the 6 character party alleviated the problem somewhat, but even then you'd reach level 4 no later than 1/3rd into the game, probably even earlier. Nevertheless, all these points are moot since PoE uses its own system, which from what I can see attempts to correct this problem (higher Endurance buffer at level 1, no rounds), and we won't spend half the game in the early levels anyway.

Unless I'm mistaken, you've now played through most of chapters 2-3 side content at least once, leaving only Windspear Hill, the secondary companion quests (which neither of your companions have anyway) and the slew of high level encounters Sensuki mentioned. If you're not hooked on that by now, I doubt you'll feel differently by playing more of it. However, chapters 4-5 are definite changes of pace, that may or may not be more to your liking. So I'd advise you to do what you had in mind before: drop the side-questing for now, punch through the chapter 3 main quests quickly and start chapter 4.