Heijoushin

I doubt it somehow. It's a key item after all. Still, that ooze is hardly a big deal right? With such an extreme play-style, I think you'll run into a few minor problems.

Yeah... I hated getting charmed, so I tried mental fortress... didn't seem to help much.

I liked Sagani least. Not useful in a fight, a long-winded boring quest and just... boring. I suppose she breaks the dwarf stereotype of beer, mining and blacksmithing... only to be a stereotypical hunter/Inuit girl. @b0rsuk: Yup, read the Blade Itself. I love Joe Abercombie's work. They should have him write for the next PoE.

They chat before the battle but I've yet to have an intellectual conversation with one (then again, I haven't finished the game yet...)

They sometimes comment on your decisions, but I've never had a case of one leaving. There are a couple of instances where you can tell them to go take a hike, but I wonder if anyone ever makes use of that? As others have said, there are just too few for them to be super sensitive.

Very nitpicky. The printing press hasn't been invented yet, so book variety is limited. Also, as others have said, it's a religious text not an actual journal.

Wow, that's pretty depressing... perhaps they should have gone with less backgrounds and instead try to make them more detailed? I like how gods and religion are meaningful in this setting. And as such, playing a priest should be a little more fleshed out...

I would, but you always seem to lose buildings if you do that. It's a lose-lose situation...

I swear, even if you don't use AOE spells, all the hired help at the fortress goes hostile after you finish off the attackers...

So, unless you have the super bad luck of stepping on a trap during combat (yeah... been there), aren't traps kind of pointless? Since, when you're out of combat, you heal immediately anyway. I mean, overall, I like the health/endurance system, but it does make you feel a bit like an immortal outside of combat...

I think it's realistic. I mean, if you killed a sword-wielding knight wearing full plate mail and he dropped absolutely nothing (or something random), wouldn't you be annoyed at that? I don't think the animals need to drop things, but humans should.

I've almost finished a play through with a wizard (I'm on level 12 anyway). And I think I must finally admit, Ciphers are more useful in terms of spells (I was in denial for a while). Here's how I see it: Level 1 is great. Fan of Flames does decent damage and Slicken and Chill Cloud are both great for supporting rogues and sneak attacks. Level 2 is okay. The best spell seems to be Fetid Carcass, since after Petrify, Paralyze is the best status effect to score crits. I suppose Necrotic Lance is okay for a single target attack spell. Level 3 is great again! On this level you get distant AOE attacks like Fireball and Noxious Burst. For the first time, you can just stand back and lob spells without worrying too much about hitting your people. Level 4 feels a little lacking. It contains the wizards only summon spell Essential Phantom, which is nice, but it might have been more fun if the phantom used the same weapon as the wizard. Fire Wall's damage is tiny which really makes me feel that level 4 lacks a good damaging spell. There's a bunch of defensive stuff, but I mostly use arcane veil in a pinch, so that's not great. Level 5 is good. Blast of Frost has great damage and became my primary attack spell in the last part of the game (it can do 100 damage with a good roll)... Torrent of Flame is kind of fun as a defensive spell. When lots of enemies are crowding around you, you can let it rip. The others don't really stand out for me. Level 6 is okay and yet somehow I was hoping for more. The petrify spell (Gaze of the Adragan) is great. Death Ring feels cool as an Armageddon kind of spell, but the range is so vast that you always hit your own people so... Citzal's Martial Power is a typical "change wizard into fighter" which I guess is interesting though I don't use it much. Arkemyr's Capricious Hex seems strange... why use a random spell when you have other spells that always work perfectly? Couldn't this have been on a lower level? Thoughts?

If you have a rogue in the party the enemy will be hobbled for the rest of it's life 60 seconds of backstabs would be nice. Sure, but you're already getting paralysing spells on level 2, which is much better than hobbling. I love wizards, but as others have said, their spell progression is really strange...

I sympathize with everyone. They made a game where it's not necessary to wear heavy armour (which is cool), so one wants to choose something visually appealling. Just one tailer shop with a little variety would have been great!

I have to agree with you, considering the level that you get it at, it isn't particularly amazing. I suppose if you've got them choked in a doorway then it could be useful, but in a wide open area, enemies just run through it for a tiny amount of damage.

.... I thought Twin Elms was pretty. Could it use a few more houses? Sure. But it was great how contrasting it was to Defiance Bay.

I'm level 12 and I don't have 6 first level spells... was that changed in the patch or something? I think on my next playthrough I'm going to go hardcore mode and only do critical stuff... we'll have to see how far it gets me!

Well, I do feel with tough at this level. The usual mobs are falling like wheat before my blade! If I'm near the end then perhaps this is good.

Hmmm, I see what you mean, it is a little OP. But it's not like the enemy holds back with petrify and all their charm spells... fight fire with fire I guess.

So... I've been playing really slow, completing as many quests as I can. And now I find myself level 12. I'm not sure how much of the game is left (just reached Oldsong in Twin Elms for the first time) but it seems like there's a lot left to do! (the rest of the Endless Paths, random quests etc.) Now, I have no problem that 12 is the max level. But it sucks to reach it so early. I think experience gain needs to be a little slower... Has anyone tried to go through the game without doing many extra quests? What level do you finish at? No spoilers please!

So... I reached Hylea's temple for the first time. I have Pallegina in my party. Couldn't there be a single line of dialogue about this? Like: "Oh, you're an individual blessed by our goddess! You must be a sign from the heavens!" or "You have feathers! Stay awhile and listen!"

Don't you think it would be an awful waste if she did forget it? It might influence where she can travel and work one day.

Yeah, I know what you mean. I think that people have certain standard expressions that they like to use in certain situations (like a favorite joke or catchphrase). When you speak multilple languages, you start reaching for one of your catchphrases... only to realize that the person you're speaking to won't understand it. Also, I know what you mean about speaking in shorter, less discriptive phrases. This is probably a side effect of often speaking to people for whom English isn't their first language, but I like to be clear and avoid flowery language. I know this is the Off-Topic forum, but I think PoE's language is sometimes a little too flowery to be clear.

A moment of frustration. I'm on level 8 of the Endless Paths, the floor with all the Fampyrs. In every fight, they manage to charm my main character almost instantly. Their range seems to be extremely far and their casting time almost instant. Their accuracy is also great. Is there ANY way to counter this?

lol, it's difficult to detect how serious you are based on your tone. An RPG where you're an adventurer king instead of a wandering vagrant might be interesting. I'm sure it must have been done before though (though I can't think of any examples at the moment). Anyway, I guess the problem is balance between management RPG and action adventure. Those two genres don't really work well together. EDIT: Something like Dungeon Keeper might be nice. You build rooms, train creatures and repel enemy attacks...