Enoch

The caveat about Nalpazca is that, in the most recent stream, it was the first word out of Josh's mouth when he mused about subclasses that might need a balancing pass. In a plentiful-drug environment, they're probably a little too good. We should probably anticipate some weakening of drugs, the Alchemy skill, and/or Nalpazca abilities. Also, the most natural multiclass option for a Nalpazca is clearly a Priest of Wael.

That's my understanding as well. You don't get to pick subclasses for the Companions. Eder and Aloth are base classes in all their options. Pallegina has 1 of 2 Paladin orders, based on her Pillars 1 ending, and any multiclass is a base class. The new-in-Deadfire companions all have at least 1 unique subclass of their own. Both of Xoti's and Tekehu's 2 class options are locked into their unique subclasses. Serafen has a unique Cipher class, but is a base-class Barbarian, if you choose that. Maia has a unique Ranger subclass, and (I think) is base class in any multi. The Sidekicks are a littler more up-in-the-air. Fassina is a Conjurer Wizard, but I don't think we've seen any confirmation about subclasses for the other Sidekicks.

Indeed. Some bits I hadn't seen anywhere else: Kate on what Rekke is saying Ominous hint from Josh: Neat little thread on accents. Huana & Rauatai have American-ish accents mostly because they didn't think they'd be able to implement something more exotic consistently. No playable Steel Garotte or Woedica Priests. They considered it, but didn't have time.

Not sure why that would be a factor. It's not as if it's a technically challenging thing to pull off-- it's simply a function of the amount of resources committed to that element of the game. Why would publishers be more likely to make a deal with Feargus based on his ability to hire more voice actors and book more studio time? "Knows how to spend more money on a game" is probably not a positive factor in the eyes of the folks who are considering fronting the money to make a new one. Also, Obsidian has made fully-voiced games before. New Vegas; Alpha Protocol; South Park (I think).

"But we could have used that money to add MOAR CATS!" -Josh Sawyer, probably Per Obsidian's "indie-ness," it's a 100+ person studio that gets a majority of its funding via contracts with big publishers (but that also has one independently-funded project). That's not EA, but it's a ways off from the "indie" stereotype of a few dudes/gals working on a game in their basement.

Whichever Specialist Wizard looks lousiest (IDK, Enchanter, maybe?), single-classed.

Some further silliness from Sawyer. The first pic is a screenshot of a response to the above. And this one is a response to that. Make of it what you will. (Clearly, we're getting a romanceable Estoc )

Three more Critical-Role-related companion VA teases: Xoti Ydwin Maia Rua Assuming that all these are being tweeted by the Narrative Team member primarily responsible for writing the character, that has Paul Kirsch writing Maia and Tekehu, Megan Starks writing Xoti, Alexander Scokel writing Serafen and Ydwin (although he credited Kate Dollarhyde with the particular Ydwin line he quoted), and Kate Dollarhyde writing Rekke. And all those characters being voiced by one of the CR cast. Edit: And Josh adds Eothas. (Who probably isn't a companion.)

Pallegina memein' Presumably these are her starting outfits in Kind Wayfarer and Five-Suns modes.

Similar posts from Alexander Scokel (Serafen) and Kate Dollarhyde (Rekke).

Narrative Designer Paul Kirsch teasing Tekēhu's VA.

Wasn't Hel-Hyraf substantially nerfed in the recent Beta update? (From -5 Armor to -2?) Is the consensus still that it is useful/necessary?

For what it's worth, in the recent stream Josh talked a little about subclass balance, and the first subclass he mentioned by name was Nalpazca. (As "still probably kind of crazy.") So, (1) this probably means good things for the general availability of drugs in the main game, and (2) expect that some nerfs will be applied to Nalpazca, drugs, and/or Alchemy.

Here's the announcement video.

That's... embarrassing. Carrie better be getting a bonus for this or something.

Don't Devoted also suffer more than most classes from our current lack of metaknowledge of what the cool weapons are of each type, and where in Deadfire to get them? Seems like they'll be much better on a second playthrough, when you'll know in advance what unique weapons you want and can beeline for them. (Similarly, Nalpazca and drug availability.) I think Obsidian is going to try their best not to play favorites with weapon types, but there are limits to how far those efforts can go. And with Deadfire's more non-linear structure, the risk that you'll miss an item that you "should" have by a certain point is higher.

So has anybody watched this closely enough to determine what the abilities associated with Xoti and Tekehu's unique subclasses are?

For what it's worth, here's the part of Monday's Q&A (transcript) where Josh addressed balance issues with regard to subclasses: "Feel pretty decent about subclasses overall. I will say that there are still some subclasses that we look at where I'm kind of like,"I don't know, is that really working? Is that really a good advantage, or is that disadvantage actually practical?" I know the Nalpazca is still probably kind of crazy. Soul Blade is still a little wild. And like some people said, the Black Jacket maybe seems like it needs either a bigger benefit or a reduced penalty, for not being able to have Constant Recovery. So, there are little things like that."

Lots of options, really. Transumuter Wizards can shift into an Ogre, but they lose access to Evocation casting, so not much fire magic there. Druids have both transformations and fire magic-- consider a Shifter there. A base-class Wizard can't transform but has lots of self-buff options for self-buffs, defense, and summoned weapons. The summoned weapons, though, are not swords. I wouldn't recommend specializing as an Evoker, though. It'd help your fire damage out, but you lose Conjuration, which is pretty important for a gishy wizard (Arcane Veil, summoned weapons). Magranites aren't technically "mages," but they get a powerful sword-and-pistol loadout with their Spiritual Weapon and have access to lots of fire damage spells. All of the above make for pretty good multi-classing with melee damage classes. Paladin, Monk, Barbarian, Fighter, Rogue. Personally, it sounds to me like the flavor you're looking for is a Magran-Helwalker Contemplative. (Helwalker is a Monk subclass that gains MIG-- boosting weapon and spell damage-- as they gain Wounds.)

Not Josh-- the screenshot is attributed to Narrative Designer Kate Dollarhyde. If I'm reading this right, Kate has been favoring the Principi in this playthrough. Not entirely surprising that Aloth wouldn't be at his happiest when hanging out with a bunch of sweaty pirates.

I could be that Berath, Rymrgand etc. were gods that were previously believed in before their creation and the Engwithian's decided to instantiate them, while Skaen, Abydon, Woedica and the "newer" aspects of the pantheon were created whole cloth by the Engwithians at the time of the creation of the gods. Getting into wacky pet theories here, but maybe the Engwithans weren't the only ones who figured out how to manufacture divinity-- the tale as told by Thaos and the ruins in the Eastern Reach probably isn't the whole story. Maybe the Engwithan animancers found diminished husks of ancient gods, topped them up with some fresh souls, then set about making some more? (Admittedly, cycles of ancient technology and ruin is a bit of a cliche.) Perhaps there was an Engwithan-Huana arms race in godmaking, in which Woedica was supposed to be a crowning achievement, before the rest of the gods united to overthrow her.

The voice set option from Pillars 1 that appears to be missing in the Deadfire Beta is the ability to choice a voice for your character without regard to the selected sex.

Do the Deadfire element-bonus talents affect Damage-over-Time abilities? If they've tied this clearly to the keyword system, then I might prefer Deadfire's. Clarity is good, and, conceptually, it never made much sense that a character Talent made flaming swords more flaming. How many posts have we seen on forums like these asking about the scope of these abilities, often getting surprising answers (such as with DoTs, as mentioned above)? While it is certainly true that a narrower scope makes the ability less advantageous to the player, I have to assume (at this point) that effort has been put into balancing abilities against each other.

Secret character option, or secret companion?

Tumblr post on naughty bits. Edit: Unlike most things that could be described as I have above, this link is work-safe.