Enoch

It was a design decision to avoid having optimal play require the tedium of standing around and casting spells on yourself for before every tough fight.

Are there actually any world-state changes that happen with the beginning of Act 2? I'm not aware of any, but I've had less time with the game than a lot of folks around here have.

Yeah, I can't imagine what other utility they'd have. If they're not actually increasing spell damage, it should be reported as a bug. (IMO, they're a good investment for Druids-- specifically the freeze, shock, and burn variants-- but less so for Wizards.)

I started a new game with 1.03.0524, and all the VO sounded fine through the first 3 maps. (And it was consistently fine with 1.02.) Overnight, the game updated to .0526, I went to recruit Durance, and the first few seconds of each of his lines get skipped. VO plays normally in conversation with Eder, though. Haven't tested further than that. Edit: And now, upon closing the game and re-opening it, Durance's VO plays normally. Will continue monitoring to see if there's a pattern.

The equipment items are probably more interesting decisions to those who play with restricted Stash access. Do you bring that rope and crowbar along, knowing that it'll limit your space for backup equipment and loot?

The problem with WF: Peasant is that the only ranged weapon it gets you is a Hunting Bow. Ew.

That's why each class has some "recommended" stats. I think Obsidz wants the player to have invested some thought into making their character creation decisions, so that it feels more meaningful when NPCs reference, say, that they're a Wild Orlan Dissident from Rauatai.

Question: On the Save/Load thing, does this apply to areas where you *can recruit* companions, or areas where you *have recruited* companions?

Ah, the DPS Paladin. A.K.A., the "****ty Rogue"

I think many people wanted something you can build for, rather than a early game crutch. I like making viable shifters. Boo-hoo indeed. I suppose that's fair, but implementing such a change would require a pretty heavy corresponding nerf to the class's casting abilities. It's a borderline-overpowered class as it is. Shifting being weak is less a "balance" issue and more a "I wish this apple had been a pear" issue. In the meanwhile, if you want a furry and fragile damage-dealer, may I suggest a Wild Orlan Rogue or Monk?

Did you mean that you're not missing much by avoiding them? How do they fall short? Sorry, yes, my pronoun antecedent was unclear. That last "them" was referring to the Wildstrike talents. The +% bonuses to elemental damage Talents are probably the "best option" that you're missing out on by taking Wildstrike. Nice to have, but not the kind of thing that really changes the way you fight.

I think it's fine. You don't get to be the best damage-casting class and one of the better melee-damage classes at the same time. Boo-hoo. Shifting makes for a great early-game crutch, when your spells are few and relatively weak. Later on, it's a nice situational ability to generate some extra DPS and close out low-threat fights quickly without expending any per-day resources. Investing talents in it increases its useful life and effectiveness in those roles. It's probably not an ideal use of a Talent, but it's not worthless either. (The other Druid-specific talents are such that you're not missing a whole lot by taking a wildstrike Talent.) (Edit in italics.)

Well, they killed the God of Dawn, and day still happens, so I'm thinking that you're SOL.

It benefits from the base +ACC and +DEF that you gain on level-up, and you can invest talents to improve it (WF: Peasant; the flavors of Wild Strike). It also benefits from active buffs (e.g., Paladin auras) as other attacks do. But as enemies scale to be a challenge to warrior classes using enchanted gear, that doesn't quite keep up.

FWIW, mine popped up when I started a new game for the second time.

If you want a not-too-passive melee class, I suggest a Monk. They gain a resource called "Focus" by taking damage that can be expended for activated effects. And they're pretty flexible-- they can be fragile and high-damage (the idea being to build Focus quickly and take down opponents fast), well-armored and durable, or somewhere in-between. A min-max'er would say to pick one extreme and go for it, but a build that is somewhere in the middle works, too, as you can then alter your approach via different equipment loadout and tactics based on what you're fighting and who your companions are. They're one class that really does get something rather useful out of every character attribute.

The temple in the first town isn't much better. It's seriously overleveled for the player (and party) at the point you get to it, and there is no indication at all that this is the case. There's also nothing that tells the characters to go down there, other than that it's a door that the player can have him/her enter. "Hey, the authorities in this town are looking to lynch folks at the drop of a hat-- let's go poke around in the basement of the ruined temple to the god whose followers were at the top of the hangin' list!"

Spells/day is level dependent, and not influenced by any of the Attributes. You can increase it via Talents, but that's it.

Shifting is... situational. It's great early-on, and it's nice later as a finisher in low-threat fights, but the Druid's base Accuracy gets out-classed by opposing defenses quickly enough that it doesn't have much of a role in tough battles once you have full group. I agree that investing Talents in improving it is not likely to be optimal over the long haul. (Although that's a pretty low opportunity-cost mistake, as Druid isn't a class that has a whole lot of difference-making Talent options.) The appeal of the class is the spell list. As such, I don't see much sense in using armor. It could help get you out of a jam if you over-extend while trying to use a cone- or ray-type spell, but there are other ways to deal with that kind of situation that don't involve slowing down all your actions.

I like the Wizard's per-encounter and Blast abilities better than I like the Druid's shifting. Beastmode is stronger early-on, but becomes very situational as you level up. Arcane Assault has more staying power, I think, particularly in inducing the "dazed" effect. Enemy accuracy debuffs never go out of style.

From the /con ("consider") command in EverQuest and maybe earlier (and/or subsequent) MMORPGs or MUDs, whereby you checked the relative level of a mob ("Mobile OBject" or NPC/monster) you had targeted. EverQuest would respond with a color-coded message ranging from green for easy "you'd probably win this fight" to red for "what would you like your tombstone to say?" Common sense should prevail in Pillars. You never want to fight. If you can avoid the fight, do so. Consider that! That said, an option to present color-coded relative level tooltips (or just outright present the level number itself) would be useful. Maybe tie it to the bestiary system so that it begins rather vague (perhaps even just red/purple to warn you away from truly dangerous beasties) and then refines the more you glean with experience. Thanks, that was a more patient explanation that my joke deserved. I mean, it was clear what the original post meant from context, but I do appreciate the etymology. Anyhow, I wouldn't necessarily be opposed to an options setting to give the player more general difficulty information about enemies, but, personally, I wouldn't turn it on. It'd just dissuade me from attempting difficult targets that I would otherwise stumble into and attempt. And those stumbles are part of the fun of a first run in a new system/gameworld.

Maybe the old SSI Buck Rogers games? The first was "Countdown to Doomsday," and I think there was a sequel, but I don't recall the name.

A "con system"?

I'd argue that the shifting is very worthwhile in early levels-- a shifted Druid is a really nice source of damage to already-engaged enemies. You have to be careful with it, as you would with a melee rogue, but it'll get you through a lot of routine fights more efficiently than burning a per-day spell or just plunking away with a bow or a reach weapon. Later on, yeah, enemy defenses outscale the Druid's low base accuracy to the point that its usefulness is very situational. So I do agree that investing talents to improve it is not likely to be optimal in the long run.

Druids are as-advertised. A caster class with a versatile suite of available spells (weighted to AoE elemental damage) that has a short-duration per-encounter transformation into a fragile high-damage melee combatant. The efficacy of the shifted form declines as level increases, as the Druid's base Accuracy doesn't keep pace with opponent defenses. The effectiveness of their spell list more than makes up for it, though.