rheingold

Going melee heavy isn't a problem. I normally go with a 4 melee, 2 ranged split and it works fine. Problem potentially with the party is that there are some micro intensive melee options there - a rogue, monk and druid shifter are going to take some attention to get the best out of them. Also while it's heavy melee, there are not a lot of tanking options. So the rogue and druid are going to be targeted which is probably not in their best interests. The speech checks are not that important if you can't make them. I like them from the role playing side, but they are not necessary. Resolve is probably the most important check, but in general 13/14 in the relevant stats will be fine as it's easy to get stat boosting items. Rogues are pretty good for that as you probably don't need to max dexterity or might especially if you are dual wielding. So lots of 14's or 15's in your stats will be really balanced and make sure you get most of the checks if that's what you want. But the checks will mainly be for flavour though....

Not a bad review though my major criticism would be it's length, it took me almost as long to read as a play though takes. I'd also take a bit of issue though, I thought he was a bit harsh on the base game without the White March expansion, but clearly he put in a substantial amount of time and thought into it.

Not bad advice:) defense rogues are good. It's just that I have found on hard and below rogues are definitely not the bottom of the food chain, but as a class who only deals damage and doesn't bring much else to the table the extra mobs and defensive and offensive stats everyone gets hurts them far more than any other class. Which is why I keep asking for Obs to just increase their base stats. (Anything else is really not going to happen at this stage.) Heck if they are worried about balance on the lower levels just give them xtra health/endurance, accuracy and deflection on PoTD. It would make them much more of a viable class.

My experience on PoTD and Hard with rogues is completely different. On hard a dual wield saber build is absolutely murderous, definitely the easiest playthrough I've had on hard. Boots of speed and the rogue will slaughter entire ranks of squishes, before the mage/cipher/Druid has time to blink. Just give him/her high resolve and take some defensive talents and it will be fine. PoTD, on the other hand, well it's like playing 2 completely different classes. They really take strain with the increased stats, and as Boeroer says a more defensive build is probably more fun.

Chanters are excellent tanks even at low levels. Just take 12 or 14 con and use whispers of yenwood. It's actually much easier to make a chanter tank than a paladin, mainly because you can focus on taking all the defensive abilities and talents without harming the build at all. With any other class it becomes a compromise, they generally have other talents/abilities they need. I find 16 might, 16 Int, 12 con and 14 resolve works awesomely from a defensive and roleplaying point of view.

Everything I have seen from the devs gameplay wise, seems to suggest that they have not made any major changes, and it is still distinctly POE. I wouldn't panic just yet. Dragon Age origins was a 3D action rpg. There is a massive difference between it and Pillars. I'd just look at it as a positive - selling more games means more money to Obs.

It seems to have been pretty common in Bronze and Iron Age Europe, testified by many moor mummies. Just 15 km South of where I live a 16 year old girl has been found that was sacrificed: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yde_Girl So most of the people of Western European descent have ancestors that practised human sacrifices. I am not prepared to assume that they were all evil people. Just interested, what would your definition of evil be, if not human sacrifice?

Well, we live in hope, and I still want a Davy Jones shapeshifting option! Though I wouldn't put money on it being in the game.

I'm not fond of simplistic good v evil responses normally, but generally people who engage in human sacrifice aren't nice people...

Love Tommy Lee Jones! Showing my age a tad, but I remember him from "lonesome dove" a fantastic mini series.

Fantastic! Is there a medal to go with the title? Or maybe some sort of financial reward? Money or propert perhaps?

I would ask that you bestow that title unto Sagani if you would. The darn eyeless encounter at the fortress, which is actually easy if you expect it.... but I had just fought my way through the entire... fort. When I finished speaking to the crazy readceran I thought the quest was over, so I exited. With no spells left, and all the front liners in really, really bad shape. Eder, Meneha, Zahua, and my chanter dropped like sacks of potatoes leaving Sagani and Hiravious who despite having small legs can actually run quite quickly with suitable motivation. Still, he couldn't do much, could only plink away with a crossbow. And he eventually got caught. But Sagani with stormcaller pretty much won the fight single handedly, in spite of eventually losing her pet. It was a looooooooong fight though. I first thought that I really didn't want to do the entire map again, (the last save I could use) but about a third of the way through the fight I realized that it would be quicker to do the last 5 maps again.

I prefer the quest idea rather than a Druid learning new forms as they level up. Having said that, has anyone heard anything from the devs which suggests that it's an option this time around?

I remember sometime along the path to POE, the devs were talking about a pc Druid learning new shapeshifting forms as a quest reward. I loved the idea, obviously it never happened though. Haven't heard anything about it in Deadfire, but it would be great. Regarding ocean themed stuff it would be great, particularly if there was a Lovecraftian feel the shapes. They seem to be moving in that direction with some of the monsters so....

It would be nice if there are new shifting forms for Druids in Deadfire, cause what I want, what I really really want is:

I'm definitely not having ago at you. And I'm a fan of your builds even if the role player in me does cringe a bit. (Though your builds always have a large element of background story to them, they are slightly too min/maxed for me) I'm just pointing out that I've read more than a few posts about how easy the game is on PoTD.... on the 50th playthrough.

I am really not in favor of destroy on hit weapons- though Obs at least applied the effect on a critt, it's still to easy to stack accuracy. But if you guys do want more of a challenge, don't take a priest, wizard or paladin. Does certainly increase the difficulty. And, thinking about it, the game is certainly a difficult game even on the easier settings, but when you know the system backwards, and you know each encounter including the enemy ai perfectly, because you have put in 10000 hours into the game, then, yeah it is too easy Can't really blame the devs for the game being to easy....

Wadda you mean! Islemeyr would make a fantastic antagonist. And I'm pretty sure she could count on Eder's support.

The eyeless are fine as is. The problem is more abydons hammer and the redeemer which turn all vessel fights into easy mode. Darcozzi Paladins are good, but a priest to buff accuracy against them is insane.

Druids are great. Not to knock anyone's builds but I find a generalist Druid build ridiculously powerful. By that I mean taking a few shifter talents and a few defensive ones, as opposed to taking all of one particular group. Tends to be really flexible that way.

Yeah, really hope the expansion happens at the end rather than the middle. WM and Pillars were excellent - on their own. Put together they made no sense. There simply was no reason for the Watcher to go to WM.

Thing is, apparently the fig investors only get payed out for a pc version. I posted this some time back. Which is why it makes perfect sense for deadfire to end up on consoles. And it really is not a problem at all. Consoles do NOT have to mean dumbing down - the target market is what decides that. It has nothing to do with the platform. You can make more complex games on a console if you put your mind to it. Personally I think it's a win/win situation - Obs make more money which means that they make more games. To elaborate on the console dumbing down theory, I don't agree with some things that are being changed - but nothing I have heard from Sawyer suggests the changes are related to consoles.

Not sure if this is the same video which has been posted. But it's easier to find:) http://www.pcgamer.com/pillars-of-eternity-2-video-highlights-improved-gameplay-in-a-new-nautical-world/ Looks good, really good, some nice changes from what little I can see including some use of stealth! Can't comment on visuals to much. Bandwidth is slow, so I'm not sure how much compression is happening. But exciting stuff.

As much as I like Gog, or at least the idea behind Gog, I gotta say that my steam collection is growing while my Gog collection has definitely hit a plateau. Which, while a pity makes sense. Steam just works...

Yeah, one of the reasons I choose to hang around on these forums is because I don't have to listen to self entitled, privileged whining. There are plenty of other forums out there for people who do.