boffmoffet

What a bummer to lose Kana, but accepting the narrative of a hardcore run is part of the appeal I suppose. I am a serial save scum addict who will reload if I don't like a consequence, yet when I lost Kana in Pillars it was the first time I accepted the loss and moved on. My last save was only 10 mins old but for the first to me in a infinity engine style game that I just did not care. Poor boring Kana.

There are certainly two bugs I would love to see squashed. 1. Confident Aim being broken is lame, would love to see that patched out finally. https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/87873-303-confident-aim-loading-damage-bug/ 2. Stuttering dialogue, particularly in the opening prologue, the most repeated material in the whole game, and has existed since launch and every patch. Please keep looking at this one, it has been like an itch I cant scratch through so many restarts. https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/72428-dialogue-sound-issue-glitch/ Keep up the good work!

Fair enough to ask for clarification on that point. Isometric RPGs are more often then not, open world in one way or another. Main objectives are given and can be followed at the players discretion, leaving the main story beats and character developments pacing up to the player. When romances are written to activate or evolve slowly over the games course(bg2), one can never be sure the events will activate and the context and timing is usually horrible. PC: "Just finished that dangerous drow ambush, time to enter a deadly dragons lair folks!" Aerie: "Sunsets and tears! I love you and miss my wings!" PC: "Damnit Aerie!" This is the my main reason for criticizing romances within the context of the format. Romances should not be a glossed over timed event. They need to be thematically tied into the main source material (main quest) or they dont work. To write 2-3 romances is quite a lot of time and money if you want to do it well. I also worry that romances causes writers to railroad certain traits into an NPC just to make them compatible with romance. I would not want Sagani considerable for romance, they might not have written her a family. I dont want to romance GM, they might have made her less aloof or mysterious. I would not want Josh to write Pallegina as potential romantic partner because while she is passionate, she channels her passion into dedication to proving herself to her brotherhood and serving her country as best she can. No one who is a Bioware fan can deny that the success of the romance features altered the very way they plan and write their companions. So for me romance has become one of those features like 3D camera or full audio that seem like a natural evolution for the genre but ultimately undermined the quality of the products, leading us to dissatisfaction and the desire to fund Pillars of Eternity, a deliberate regressive exercise. Asking for romance is asking for a repeat in that history. So yeah, timing and the undermining of quality writing. I hope I expressed those correctly.

Ahhh has it been a few days already? It cant be avoided I suppose, let me get my romance thread typing gloves on..... Romances in isometric RPGs? No Why is this brought up constantly? In new threads as well, when like 12 already exist. I get that quite a few people like romances in their RPG, but of all the games to suggest it for, Pillars is the most ludicrous. Let a develop tell a nice depressing tale of soul sickness and false gods without having some railroaded Bioware romance eating up development time and money.

I like Paladin, smiting infidels and healing allies. I have always enjoyed playing support characters that help other classes excel at their own roles, but I also have an ego problem and always want my PC up front with sharp swords and heavy armor. Kind Wayfarer is also a one two punch of being mechanically the best choice, and fit in with my past Paladin characters dedicated to helping troupers and travelers. Also I am a trained cartographer and map geek, the final nail in the wayfaring coffin. Druid gets special mention, I found their spells to be a blast. If they had one or two more class talents or abilities, they may have been first choice. Druids really are one step behind the other vancian casters in terms of leveling being fun/interesting.

Because its awesome to see your characters intelligently moving / manoeuvring around the battlefield, and you know that you made it happen by setting a particular combination of strategies. Its not like a movie at all. It imparts an enormous sense of accomplishment and fulfilment to the user / player.....it makes you think about countering enemy moves in advance and prepare yourself for upcoming battles in unique ways, it also allows the game to offer players more difficult and challenging encounters (as it provide devs more room and options to play with) and allows the players to have an excellent tool to better manage these intelligently designed superior challenges. Can't imagine why anyone would consider current AI setting options sufficient for this kind of game, most of the settings are dumb and make you waste your spells / abilities in one way or another. One should never do anything half-ass, either give us a comprehensive AI strategy setting system, or don't do it all. I normally keep the AI settings turned off at all times, i even forgot that it exists, its simply that bad. Not sure why its so 'completely beyond you'? There must be a lot that goes beyond you, I am guessing... Thats funny Brimsurfer, for someone who has like 4 threads running where you refuse to change your opinion about something and repeat the same arguments over and over to rile up the other members, I assumed you were our resident forum user for whom things are completely beyond understanding. As for the AI, I think pathfinding could have been resolved better, but I dont really need a beefy AI. I agree that Dragon Age's AI system was FUN to play with, but I ultimately exercise to much control to care if such a system is implemented again. Thanks for the reminder of that AI system, I kinda miss it, might visit Dragon Age again.

I kinda feel like that would stack to much DR. There is plenty of it floating around in the game, even in POTD, even withholding level for a greater challenge, I stack so much DR on my front liners that it is a non issue for most fights. ......Brimsurfer.....thanks for dragging your trolling deflection argument here.........offhandedly rejecting perfectly valid arguments in your own topic......isnt enough?........

I have never seen someone make it so difficult to help them.

KDubya kinda hit the nail on the head I feel like. You want a high resolve build paladin right? 18 might, 15 perception, 15 resolve, keep a shield for the first 5 levels if you want to main tank. You will have enough resolve to make most resolve checks with one resolve item or rest bonus.

Old post of mine, kinda summarizes my actual defense of the class. Dual wield healing machine is fun. Fire a big gun sometimes. HA! Good Fun! - Gromnir

You play a paladin because it fulfills the desire to role play as a much loved fantasy trope, cleverly adapted to a new campaign setting? Because you enjoy support roles that help others shine? Perhaps a great storm struck your village during a lovers tide and through sheer resolve you managed to save a few villagers and get them inland through dangerous land. Left without a home and filled with new found sense of purpose you set fourth as a Kind Wayfarer. There are others who may need help on the long road, and your arm seems strong enough to help. Moral Posturing?

This one may be on GOG.com. If Steam or the paradox store don't help, you may wish to contact GOG and let them know their Pillars sub-site links to a store dissociated from their services, causing the mistake. I find GOG customer service will go above and beyond Steams. That is a low bar, but they are way above that low bar. Edit: I just read that the IN GAME news menu took you to the store. Yeah that is an oversight on Obsidian's part.

I would say balancing 11 single classes in combat in relation to one another is difficult enough. For systems like dungeons and dragons where the rule set can be adapted to an infinite number of scenarios and possibility that can play themselves out for YEARS and YEARS, its worth taking the time to come up with multi class systems. For finite experiences within the context of a video game the amount of time it would take to balance a multi class system simply is not worth the design and development time.

Great post, well made points. If people want to mod in romances then by all means, mod away. I may even check one or two out. But please developers, dont spend time and money on romances in game. Pillars of Eternity more than any game I have followed has demonstrated through blogs and interviews that every bell and whistle takes a whole lot of time and money. I would prefer that these resources go towards refining other, more vital features. Some of the companions feel like more backstory or interaction was planned but unable to be implemented in time. Given that, I would rather they pad the word count elsewhere.

Hahaha, I thought that! Talk about insufferable! I actually thought Keldorn was a little insufferable as well, but oddly in a way that made me like Paladins for the first time. He kinda jump started my Human characters phase, destroying the elf loving ways of my youth. But guess what OP? I always selected Jaheira for romance, and gave Haerdalis a place in my group, so what do I know?

Haer'dalis=Death Godlike. I am gonna have to say that making Haer'dalis anything but a death godlike would be a crime. Sure Haerdalis was kind of charming and handsome, but he was a Tiefling member of the Doomguard, a sect of fighters who recognize the multiverses as entropic. Demon baby who worships entropy? Hello Death godlike!

Healing is not dependent on damage done, both talents scale. Sword and shepard is base 20 +7 every three levels after, strange mercy is base 35 +12 every three levels. At level 6 my sword and shepard heals 32 endurance per swing(64 total endurance), Strange mercy 56. Sword and shepard only has reduced effectiveness if you blow the ability yourself at the top of combat which should be used to throw out sworn enemy. PC should always be set to support, only Pallegina should be set to aggressive to get her 20% haste at the top of combat, PC should be managed to save FoD for allies, LoH for yourself. If things are really bad you wanna save up your FoD for killing blows to combine the two.

I can respect that from a roleplay perspective. I would let Patrick Rothfuss provide my reply though. "Remember this, son, if you forget everything else. A poet is a musician who can't sing. Words have to find a man's mind before they can touch his heart, and some men's minds are woeful small targets. Music touches their hearts directly no matter how small or stubborn the mind of the man who listens."

I will say this, a dual wielding kind wayfarer with the two order specific talents is a walking dervish of healing and killing. They can replace Durance for all but the toughest fights for healing, allowing a greater variety of interesting party set ups in the campaign, even on POTD difficulty. The Strange mercy talents probably has the highest healing potential of any ability in the game, with no cap on the number of times it can trigger and restore all but your beefiest companions to full health. Works well with dual wield or 2-handers. The sword and the shepherd talent works better while dual wielding, as the healing from flames of devotion will activate twice, allowing it to serve as a full heal for surrounding front liners. The two order specific talents need to be supplemented with Lay on Hands so you can handle self heal as well. Keep in mind Lay on Hands is the only time your healing without doing damage, and its a heal over time, allowing you to return to the righteous slaughter quickly. One downside to a Kind Wayfarer protagonist is it requires high might and perception values, lowering resolve, which for me is the most important player character attribute for scripted interactions.

So the chanter class is pretty well balanced within the current build, and I love that the POE "bard" can really be a jack of all trade. I have had chanters in a ranged, melee dmg, and tank roles and they all work great. I do feel that they could use more mechanics to emphasize their theme as musicians and storytellers, and I think ranged implements animated as musical instruments would be great for that. Woodwinds: Slash/Pierce Percussion: Crushing/Slash Strings: Crush/pierce The animations for every single ranged weapon in POE was gorgeous, from the slightly naughty rod shake to the arbalest crank. Honestly in the sequel if instrument ranged was implemented I think it would be a better vehicle for the wizard's blast mechanic, and on a class who could use a little variety in their auto attack existence. Maybe keep it in mind for a sequel. Anyone like/dislike this or have better ideas for refining?

I would not mind seeing that in the sequel. It could be a defensive talent for everyone, with better scaling than the enchantment. Or perhaps a modal fighter talent, maybe a Shield Training toggle that can be offensive (bash) or defensive (deflection bonus?)

So I had always used a kind wayfarer for my main, but I always kept him tanky because tank stats tend to give the best conversation prompts in events. I built one in my current build with Strange Mercy and the Sword and the Shepard, and talk about a walking heal machine! I did not imagine those two talents would be so powerful. Between keeping himself up with lay on hands and every other front liner up with the aforementioned talents, I now know I can plan a merc party without a priest, even in POTD. Maybe still need a druid to regen the back line every now and then, but then again the Shod-In-Faith boots might be all I need for them.

I like the idea! Some custom weapons and armor are so heartbreaking to give up. I made poor Haer'dalis use chaos and entropy well past their prime, just like Durance and his staff.

I have been using a tanky Eder with defender, hold the line, +1 engagement weapon, and the new talent that knocks people on their butts. Thought I would give it a try and I think its a blast to play. I gave him decent stealth which any POE player knows can result in a few free disengagements at the top of combat. Its not as supremely effective as stacking other tanky abilities, but its damn fun.

The post that keeps on giving. That link was perfectly hilarious Gogocactus!