iscalio

Thank you very much, Aramintai.

For intimidation that works. But lifting up rocks and bending metals bars (and the descriptive text is specific that these feats are physical) has nothing to do with intimidation.

Hello. I was happy to learn of the shift from Might to a more traditional strength stat, as character attributes in RPGs are a big part of the immersion fantasy for me (and mechanical balance is secondary), and I hated how my healer (in order to have strong healing) would have to be able to break down walls with his bare hands.* I enjoy when the stats on my character sheet contribute to describing the traits of a character. Now from what I am gleaning the "Strength for physical might, Resolve for magical might" solution has reverted to "Might for all damage and healing". As I do not have access to the Beta, I was wondering what the current build looks like in this regard. And has there been a statement regarding a final decision regarding the Might attribute from the developers? * to be fair, the fact that a barbarian needs to be very intelligent in order to have long reach in his cleave is not much better.

Thanks!

This is Nighy, a priest of Eothas, my Watcher from the first game. I tried to give him the watercolor treatment, but I failed. If someone more talented than I could assist, then my gratitude would be assured. I would also be grateful for watercolor versions of these five portraits if you feel particularly generous:

And classic Aloth:

I made one from an Icewind Dale portrait.

Same here. About the only similarity are the eye shadows and generally curly hair for the second pair. I admit the picture I found for Ellaria Sand does not fit the artwork that well (at least not compared to the other one, in which the whole composition is obviously inspired by the picture I posted of Catelyn Stark), but if you look at more pictures of the character you should see the enormous resemblance. Jawline, nose, mouth, even the sneer-like expression - in all of it Facina is Ellaria Sand. She is therefore also the first ocean folk art that clearly does not depict an African face, but rather an Indo-European face with dark skin. Maybe I am more sensitive to these things. Maybe I am just deluded and see things that aren't there. Still interesting to have read the replies, so thank you for the feedback.

Well, those are actual portraits from the game. Facina is a sidekick in Deadfire, and Renengild an NPC in the White March expansion. That's the point of my post.

I want to say first that I really like the portrait art of the games, but after seeing Facina today I immediately saw a darker-skinned bastard from Dorne. It is not the first time a famous genre character is very obvious as the art inspiration for a Pillars of Eternity portrait. I wondered how people thought about this. See Renengild and Catelyn Stark or now in Deadfire Facina (unsure about the spelling of her name) and Ellaria Sand.

How would the "no reroll" part work? Since you generate your stats at the beginning of the game, anyone desiring a reroll could just restart.

I used photoshop. I mostly played with layers and filters and did some line drawing. I don't remember the details unfortunately.

I tried my own version. I might as well share.

Edit: Weird double-posting. Sorry.

It seems the portrait style changed. This is probably not news, but I only just saw it in the Neketaka video. Or is this style only used in scripted interactions perhaps, and the status screen will still have the old style of portrait? Coastal Aumaua Watcher, Edér, Aloth, Xoti, Pallegina I like Xoti's look, and Edér's. Pallegina looks worse than in the previous game, I think. (Off-topic thought: Since my Watcher is a priest of Eothas, if I take Edér and Xoti, more than half my party is Eothasian.)

A barren female is still female. It is a cultural artifact, a legal fiction basically, that categorizes all Godlike to be genderless in the Vaillian Republics, as they cannot sire or bear children. She is still female though, and is still perceived as female by people (most prominently by Maneha). Godlike aren't genderless, just like a mule isn't genderless. Just incapable of procreation.

A few story aspects of the game leave me confused. Maybe someone here can explain them to me better than the game did. I will start with two issues for now. - 1 - The Engwithans around Thaos created immensely powerful beings (which apparently they knew how to do) because of two reasons: They found out the gods commonly worshipped during their time did not exist (how they could prove this negative is not explained) They thought gods are necessary to civilize and to morally guide kithkind Thaos describes how depraved and barbaric the people were without his gods, engaging in human sacrifice, cannibalism, constant war etc.; he also makes it clear that he wanted to remedy this state of kithkind. He fancies himself a civilization builder. Point of confusion: If you can turn "ideals" into "gods" and if you want to use these gods to inspire mortals to be civilized, moral and prosperous, then why are several (if not most) of the gods you create jerks? I mean, what positive behavior is Skaen supposed to inspire? Envy, secret hatred, cruelty, deception and resentment are disruptive of a healthy society, and Skaen's horrific rites are just as bad as the those heathen cults you complained about. I admit, Eothas appears to represent wholesome ideals, but Magran and Galawain glorify violence, and Rymrgard celebrates famine and plague. How, um... inspiring? - 2 - Why is everyone in the end saying that the gods created by the Engwithans are not real? Obviously they are real. They talk and act and conspire and whatnot. Sure, their origin story is different from what you thought, but they are still real. I mean, they were never worshipped as God with a capital G in the philosophical sense anyway, i.e. the eternal principle and origin of all being, omniscient, omnipotent and omnibenevolent. They were never "absolute", but rather thought of as finite (albeit immensely powerful) immortal beings that squabbled with each other but guided and cared for mortals and represented ideals and natural forces. And that's what they still are. Whether the origin story of Ondra is that she was born of sky **** thrown in the ocean or licked from a glacier by a god cow or whatever, or whether the origin story of Ondra is that an ancient civilization made her in a god machine does not really change anything essential about her. She is still real, she still tells people to make a big deal about throwing stuff away, she still protects sailors and so on. So why does Iovara's movement claim "there are no gods"? Thanks for reading, and thanks in advance for your response.

Thanks for the feedback. Regarding the personality reputations, I agree that people obviously display competing character traits. The problem with the first game's implementation is the following: I am very blunt and open with some people, which has earned me "Honest 2". However, I am consistently engaging in subterfuge and duplicity with others, earning myself a reputation of "Deceptive 3". Normally, the latter would override the former. Nobody would trust my word if I am known to be deceptive, regardless of how often I said the truth. To put it differently: It is easy to earn a reputation for vice, but much harder to maintain one of virtue. Someone who displayed the behavior necessary to earn both Benevolent 4 and Cruel 4 would not be known as benevolent at all, but as unpredictable, dangerous, erratic and, well, still cruel. But I might be overthinking this. And I do appreciate the way complex characters can be reflected by this system, instead of having a reductionistic and simplistic good-evil dichotomy.

Good afternoon. In the vague hope that the designers will read this, here a list of my hopes for Deadfire. You will notice that they are all concerned more with roleplaying than with game balance or combat. I hope this makes me come across as passionate about your game, and not as presumptuous. Please add something like the body shape options from Tyranny. It is unfortunate if every character has to have a perfect figure. Maybe even add an overweight option. More face options than the first game and more freedom in hair color (actual black hair for example) would also be great. Some very basic hair or beard styles could be added (like very short hair, or a chevron moustache). So yeah, in general more aesthetic choices, but body types and faces are most important. Don't leave out conversation options that the situation really demands. Not being able to tell Edér or Durance that you are a priest of Eothas when they talk about their faith/their background for example is jarring. It's roleplaying poison. Scripted interactions are good for storytelling and as non-combat challenges. I loved how the White March added more spell and talent use in them, and how some had multiple steps (like the burning house in Stalwart). Please do more of these; they can also make underused talents useful. If Might will determine damage and healing for spells again, please write different desciptions in scripted interactions for magic-users. Playing a skinny elven wizard that is able to tear down walls with his muscles is weird. He could use a magic blast in the description instead. Separating the physical strength stat from magical power (like Tyranny did) would also solve this. I love party member activity in storyline events. Especially Edér is great. The best one I encountered was his consideration of leaving Durance in the Abbey to be "forgotten" when encountering Maneha for the first time. Please do more of these. They don't have to affect the storyline; they simply do such a great job at making the characters seem more alive and present. I would welcome more skills than the five from the first part. Crafting/alchemy/enchanting could work, maybe by reducing ingredient requirements or by granting small bonuses at higher levels. Persuasion, Etiquette or Intimidation could easily be incorporated instead of having the base stat Resolve dominate so many conversations. Skilled enchanters might also be able to put stat bonuses on hoods, capes or boots maybe. I might be wrong about this, but I believe the Mechanics skill determines the discovery of hidden things. Maybe replacing it with Survival in wilderness areas would be possible? This next one is probably unrealistic, but different (yet obviously overlapping) spell lists for the different priests would be great for flavor. Do very high personality reputations ever matter? I don't remember any level 4 impacts to exist. Add those. How does it make sense to be both known as deceptive and honest? Both stoic and passionate? Both cruel and benevolent? Thank you for reading, and thank you for making great roleplaying games.

My main character is an Eothasian priest, I only just recruited Eder. In my conversation with him we talk about his faith in detail, yet I am given no option to tell him that I not only share his faith, but that I am in fact a priest of his church. That felt... weird.