JJGee

I really don't like the idea of having dual/multiclassing in PoE. The classes are pretty flexible as they are, especially disregarding metagaming, and allow for a lot of variety within any given class. I love having a definitive starting point for a character, yet being allowed to develop that character in almost any direction. My main party had a Wizard whose background was Scientist, and her abilities were focused so that she was especially effective in fighting Spirits and Vessels - in other words, she was an "undead hunter", these walking corpses and lingering ghosts being also the field of her study. In terms of weaponry, she focused on swords (with one-handed combat style) and crossbows. She was essentially a fully fledged warrior, except she was a Wizard. If she had been a Fighter/Wizard, it wouldn't have felt nearly as original, and it would have over-emphasized the combat skills - she was still a Scientist first. What I'm trying to say is, I don't see how Pillars of Eternity needs a system like dualclassing or multiclassing. There's already room to develop much more diverse characters than in a vast amount of class-based role-playing games, and I feel it would just turn a free-form, unrestrictive system into something binary and clunky.

I wholeheartedly agree. It shouldn't be too much of a chore to unlock all the existing colors for all races, right? I mean, it's not like they even have to necessarily create new colors.

I was just thinking about this yesterday. I just started a new PotD playthrough, and as I was tweaking the AI options for my party, I thought to myself, "man, I really miss the Tactics system from DA:O". It was perfect for the less challenging, less critical encounters - after spending a fair amount of time fine-tuning the party tactics, in combat you could pretty much just sit back and let the party handle the combat on their own. It made some of the less significant battles much less taxing to undertake.

There's two moments that stand out to me. Firstly, I must praise the conclusion to Durance's questline - Durance is, in my opinion, quite a fascinating character to begin with, but the way his quest ended was, in some odd way, devastating and impressive at the same time. It was one of those "I should have guessed" moments, but it still sort of stunned me in how tragic his tale ended up being. In an instant, Durance expressed a more humble, vulnerable side than he had throughout the entire journey, and that was the icing on the cake that was this interesting, well written character. EDIT: And I simply just adore the voice acting for Durance. Amazing. The second one is more of a thing about the reputation system than companions themselves. My main character was one of those ruthlessly efficient mercenaries, who didn't enjoy cruelty but didn't shy away from it if it helped her reach her goals. She mostly sought personal gains, but the one thing she hated most was liars and cowards - the only thing that would make her shift from her initial course was if she found out someone had lied to her. For example, if she received a quest (or a "job") from someone, but she'd later find out the person who hired her lied about something she should have known, she would go back and make sure they would never lie again - pretty much regardless of what the quest itself was. Now to the part about the companion - I was searching for Persoq with Sagani, and we were conversing about what to do next or whatnot. I believe I asked her if she trusts my main character enough to hunt this Persoq based on just her visions, to which she replied (among other things): "At least you're honest. I know you wouldn't steer me wrong in this." My reaction to that was, "you're damn right I'm honest". I was so genuinely happy to see that in this game, this person who has accompanied me for quite a while through all kinds of adventures, knows that I never lie. That was a moment that made me totally fall in love with the reputation system; even though it was just a line of dialogue, I loved that the game recognized that detail about the character, and that Sagani also responded accordingly.

I disagree. It's different because they have more spells, it's just not smart to use them. And more importantly, Fighters have significance beyond their special abilities; their placement in the combat situation makes a lot of difference, and they play with engagements and such. Casters are supposed to have a wider variety of options because their placement isn't so instrumental. While the tactical choices with a Fighter or another "brawn" class have to do with movement and location, casters only need to move away from immediate danger, and their tactical depth comes from the spells they use.

I guess... Although I personally don't need them to do anything in the game. I'm fine with them being just cosmetic. I could actually take even more cosmetic features in the game. Some trivial consequence for having a pet like the ones you suggested might be fine, but I'm not really crazy about having them be any kind of a mechanic.

Or maybe have them just run around all over Caed Nua, without manually having to do anything besides placing them in the Stash? It's obviously just cosmetic, and I didn't even think about it before you said it, but it does sound like a neat idea.

I think that's a good middle-ground between the two existing alternatives, and I think it would make a lot of sense. It wouldn't stifle the possibility to mix up your tactics in any given encounter, but it wouldn't let you spam those spells battle after battle, either.

I don't believe changing classes mid-game would make a lot of sense in Pillars of Eternity, considering that it could lead to changing some of the character's background, which in turn could conflict with some decisions already made within the game's story - in other words, you would have been in situations that, considering your new class, you couldn't have been in. So it would sort of break some parts of the narrative. I can't think of many examples, but at least some NPCs react to the player based on their class, so changing the class would sort of overwrite that. Maybe I'm overthinking it, but that's my first reaction to the concept.

My first character (which is still my primary one) is a female human Fighter, a Mercenary from Aedyr. That's pretty much as average as possible, which was intentional - before I knew much about the game, I wanted my main character to be something that could be taken in any direction, and with as little about them dictated right from the start as possible. It worked out pretty well, and using that initially generic character I've familiarized myself with most things that the game world consists of. Now it's much easier to mix it up with more unusual or unique characters, since I can already embed them into the world based on what I know.

Exactly - you put it better than I did. What harm did choice ever do? If the spells you tend to use the most were the only spells available, then you'd feel like you use them because you have no choice. But having a bigger selection of which to pick your favorites, it makes it feel like you have a little more tactical and creative freedom. By the same logic that there's too many spells, aren't there too many classes too? You can only have 6 members in your party, and there's a concept for an optimal party setup, so why not just have 6 classes available? And why are there 8 companions, plus 3 more from the expansions, if only 5 can be present at any given time? Sorry, that sounds more hostile than it was supposed to. But my point is, I love how old games used to have a lot of things you could do, but a lot of them you never would, or at least not in a single playthrough. I also love that in Pillars of Eternity.

I haven't played The White March with a Level 7 character yet, but I'm not sure you need to do that. It's not required for progression, and you can always come back later.

Godlikes are explained pretty well in the game and related material. They're not actually even a species, as much as they're an anomaly that occurs arbitrarily with offspring of all kith. They're often not something a parent wants - not just the inability to reproduce, which is an apparently inevitable part of being a Godlike, but also the fact that they're likely to face some difficulties growing up different from anyone else. Those difficulties might just as well carry on into their adult years. I haven't been interested in playing one, but Godlikes are quite a fascinating element in the lore of Pillars of Eternity, in my opinion. They're all unique in not just appearance, but in the way they deal with their "condition" - particularly, their relationship with the deity whose essence they reflect. While some do think of it as a blessing and feel all the more special for it, others curse the god that made them such freaks, questioning the righteousness of the state of their being. As for the original question, I think it's pretty accurate to say that subraces are still the same race - the differences are more geographical than genetic, so presumably reproduction is entirely possible between individuals from different subraces, as long as the general species is the same, essentially eliminating the possibility for half-elves, half-aumaua and the such. Which I think is entirely fine.

A bunch of people seem to be of the opinion that a smaller number of spells intended for a specific situation is better than having a wider variety of options that may not be as distinguished from one another, just for more choice. I don't agree with that, because that's what a bunch of recent mainstream games does - streamline everything, have as little of everything as possible, and hopefully attract the maximum number of players, none of whom will get as invested because there isn't that much to invest in. If there's three spells that can be used to achieve the same goal, so what? Is it really a bad thing that the game allows that tiny feeling of tactical choice? I hate the idea that there is a single right answer to every challenge the game presents, because that also means there's an absolute right way and wrong way to play it. And that doesn't suit a game like Pillars of Eternity. Not to mention the fact that out of a few similar choices, many players may develop their personal favorites, making that playthrough that much more personal. As for the topic itself, I'd like a bit wider variety of Per Encounter spells to pick from. It doesn't need to be like it was before this latest update, where you could cast a bunch of spells Per Encounter, per spell level, but maybe 1 extra spell from each level for each encounter? In other words, instead of picking one spell to "master" or having a large number of all spells to cast in every combat situation, perhaps take the middle ground and allow one "free" spell from each of the first few spell levels in every encounter. This would allow for at least some tactical thinking in fights, and work as an incentive to revisit the lower level spells instead of exclusively using the higher level ones, but it wouldn't cripple your casters quite as quickly, as you could probably manage the more trivial combat situations without dipping into the Per Rest spells. I'm not all that disappointed in having only a few "mastered" spells to use Per Encounter, but it does minimize how much I vary my playstyle between separate encounters. I suppose that's not a big issue, but I did like mixing it up with a bigger pool of renewable spells.

I loved pretty much every track in the original game's soundtrack, and I was taken by surprise by the fact that The White March seems to be even better. I love the boss battle theme, and generally every track just fits the game so damn well. In general, I'm amazed by how the music is so in keeping with the nature of the game; what I mean is, it reminds me of Baldur's Gate and those games, but not like it's recycling the same stuff or anything. It's clearly fresh and original, but it feels like those old games just like Pillars of Eternity itself does. And besides, not a lot of games these days seem to have music that contributes this much into the general experience.

I must agree with this, at least partly. I also noticed that those few "mastered" spells do get cast in every encounter, and after that, all casting only happens if it's a tough one. I liked how before this update the lower level spells became Per Encounter, so that instead of throwing in all the highest-level spells right away, there was an incentive to go back to using these less formidable spells and develop tactics that those spells would work well in. This limitation certainly has dampened my creative thinking in terms of strategy, and it's definitely a little disappointing. I think it would be cool if it at least went back halfway; allowing for one low-level spell Per Encounter, per spell level, as an extra, and beyond that go back to Per Rest uses for all spells. That would at least allow you to pick from an actual pool of available spells before dipping into the spells that you don't get back after the encounter.

I didn't even realize this was a thing. Do you get a notification or something if someone escapes? Because now that I think about it, I thought I had at least one prisoner locked up, but when I checked the dungeon just today, there was no one there, so I assumed I remembered wrong. So do they just disappear, or do you get a message about it?

I would be a little bit disappointed if Pillars of Eternity 2 featured the same protagonist. I'd be excited to leave this hero behind and imagine their exploits from that point on, and start anew in a new place. What I'm most fascinated by is the opportunity to learn more about the world, and see an entirely new region through the eyes of a brand new character. As for the story and whatnot, if I was to say "I hope X, Y and Z happen in PoE2", I'd already be really disappointed if those things came true. I definitely don't want the story be something I'd be able to predict that easily. Whatever the story is, I just really hope it's something the good folk at Obsidian have created with the same integrity with which they created the world to begin with. I don't want them to please anyone specific with the story - I want them to tell the tale they want to tell. Finally, I don't think I'd be thrilled about tethering the sequel to the first game in any significant way. I don't want numerous references to specific choices I made in this one, nor do I want to meet all of this game's companions again, or anything like that. I don't want a Mass Effect game. I want something fresh - the world itself is original enough to make the sequel feel sufficiently familiar just by being there. I want less "Hey, remember this from the last game?" moments, and more of those moments of discovery and excitement that Pillars of Eternity has offered so far by being something entirely new.

It would be kinda cool to have a .pdf compilation of all the books available or something to that effect. But in the meantime, that list should do nicely for me too. Thanks!