Gromnir

https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/99959-paradise-of-the-mind-conversation-wont-start/?hl=%2Bparadise+%2Bthe+%2Bmind https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/99954-a-paradise-of-the-mind-bug/?hl=%2Bparadise+%2Bthe+%2Bmind developer/qa asks if problem persists in 1.1. yes, problem exists as described in the links in 1.1. cannot speak with copperhead to complete the quest. HA! Good Fun!

gd's libertarian utopia is no less naive than any other party's platform. vote libertarian does not change people. same prejudices. same stoopidity. same intolerance. marry whomever you wish? what 'bout sister-marriage or child brides? well of course such stuff wouldn't be ok, but how? how to prevent unhealthy or protect innocent in a libertarian utopia. ubless you appoint a wise king as a benevolent dictator, your other option is likely gonna be democracy, and democracy is behind all those evils gd rails 'gainst. and sure, you wouldn't need to get as many permits to put up a fence(don't be so ridiculous to believe all permits would go away... and who decides which permits is necessary? democracy?) but then your neighbor who plays ska at 2:00am at window shattering volumes on a property he has converted into a dog fighting arena/rendering plant would also be okie dokie. Gromnir is most often identifying libertarian who is fiscal more likely to align with republicans. even so, the libertarian utopia is fantasy. we do believe there is a handful o' freedoms which need be protected from government/democracy. freedom o' speech. freedom o' religion. freedom o' press. freedom 'gainst unreasonable police interference. etc. the US Constitution has most o' the important stuff covered, but there is always folks and organizations trying, often with the best o' intentions, to limit the vitality o' those protections. our brand o' libertarianism is to be protecting the fundamental rights and allow the democratic process to decide the rest. smoke in restaurants? drink while under influence o' alcohol? marry 10 year-old sister wife? beyond the economic and international affairs naivete o' most libertarians running for elected office, there is always the problem o' people being people. can't change people by voting libertarian... which isn't a bad thing. HA! Good Fun!

am thinking eothas is underrated. am suspecting eothas doesn't get much love 'cause is almost no unique spells other than sunbeam. wrong way to think 'bout it. with limited spell selection, getting essential spells for free is a big advantage. as a support priest, we would choose pretty much every eothas bonus spell save for fact we would choose resurrection or revive the fallen rather than both. the other subclasses have bonus spell catalogs which is far more situational or build dependent to be useful. also, sunbeam is one o' the better bonus priest spells given its low level, extreme range and ideal affliction-- blind snipers and ranged casters forces 'em into melee range. however, am gonna note how at lower levels, or if one is building a tanky priest, wael defensive spells are soopergrooveykeen. the skaen spiritual weapon options is great for an evil dual wield build, but we rare play cruel. the wael blast rod is likely the most deadly spiritual weapon choice, but 2h is kinda meh. the main reason we would go with a 2h weapon focused priest is to take advantage o' the wael spiritual weapon... and perhaps the soul bound bardiche. eothas choice is flexible as we can go weapon and shield route or 1hand, and with all the abilities and weapons which is current crit-based, am much liking going hearth orlan 1h route. oh, and we would argue the current four best weapon modals is flail, club, morningstar and rod, with the scepter being situational op. eothas is easy overlooked 'cause seeming offers little new or unique. is truth in such criticism. even so, the no-frills priest option which is the eothas subclass is highly effective both as single class and as a multi. HA! Good Fun!

this bug exists in 1.1. copperhead wishes us good luck but otherwise will not respond to attempts to initiate dialogue. HA! Good Fun!

federal tertiary education spending for 2018 is gonna be 'bout $28 billion. federal agriculture subsidies for 2017 were $23.9 billion. *shrug* individual states are shouldering less and less o' higher education, so fed and students get stuck with more o' the load compared to past years. support services at Universities has also increased dramatic over the years. not just paying for education but for country club amenities. regardless, from a practical pov, both higher education and your mcdonalds lunch is being subsidized by the fed. HA! Good Fun!

alternative: sacrifice tek to the poe2 skaenites. sorry, but the self-important schmuck who s'posed only acts arrogant 'cause o' all the perceived pressure he is under from overwhelming expectations o' his people deserves to die in a ritual sacrifice only slight less than does ydwin who is technical already dead... and as such, an abomination. from a practical pov, tek most often replaces aloth for us. while tek can also heal, he is primarily a nuker who does admirable damage... particular 'gainst the fire immune foes in the game. insofar as dispositions tek is less grimm and more irresponsible than aloth. for example, have the blue monkey and aloth in a party at same time is gonna have frequent disposition failures for somebodies. so, we got a dutiful party and a light hearted party with a few variations for faction alignment. tek is part o' the lighthearted group... though eder, as our only genuine tank, is a fixture regardless. as an aside, am gonna need play a tank next so as to give us a bit more variety for eder. HA! Good Fun!

comey overstepped his authority. as such, am understanding the ig findings as am reading. shouldn't have been comey making the decisions he were making. didn't actual have authority to make such decisions. even so, on multiple levels, lynch appeared to be compromised. woulda' been far easier for comey to do nothing and let the ag handle any public disclosures regarding the clinton investigation. am doubting Gromnir woulda' done as did comey, but our reasoning woulda' been based on practical career concerns. comey made the choice more likely to put himself in crosshairs o' eventual political machinations. is unlikely we would willingly make our self a target as did comey. that said, when the weiner emails were discovered... investigators had been looking for the proverbial smoking gun in the clinton investigation, and the obvious candidate for such evidence were the thousands o' deleted emails. when the weiner computer emails were dumped into the fbi's lap short before the election, it looked as if investigators had their smoking gun. unfortunate, were many thousands o' emails. certainty before election seemed impossible. disclose and possible swing election. don't disclose and make seem as if the fbi were hiding smoking gun evidence to protect clinton. am sympathizing with comey, but he did violate chain o' command. *shrug* regardless, the significant findings o' the ig report is being large ignored by folks at both extreme ends o' the political spectrum. ig says comey conclusions as to the possibility o' charges being level'd 'gaisnt clinton were correct. ig says regardless o' the assjackery o' a few fbi folks, the investigation o' clinton were not tainted or politicized. the rest is providing for interesting reading for those wanting to expound their personal conspiracy theories, but the significant findings o' the report leave us exact where we were before the findings were released. as an aside, can you imagine if the work emails o' every fed employee were searched for anti-trump and anti-clinton comments during the election year? sure, most folks who opined how a clinton or trump Presidency need be stopped were not working on an investigation o' a Presidential candidate, so am not suggesting strzok comments were innocuous. most folks speaking o' preventing clinton or trump from being elected were no doubt talking 'bout getting out and voting and encouraging fence-sitters to choose the "right" candidate. investigating a candidate for President is different. but again, while strzok comments is getting headlines, the ig findings show no actual politicization o' the investigation... and the strzok comments is actual an incredible small portion o' overall findings. HA! Good Fun!

once probable cause were found in support o' witness tampering, bail were gonna be revoked unless could be shown to a certainty Manafort posed no flight risk or danger to the public. woulda' been genuine shocked if bail were not revoked. need also remind some folks jail is not same as prison. Manafort's incarceration ain't due to finding o' guilt on any charge. is pre-trial incarceration 'cause is probable cause to believe the defendant violated terms o' his house arrest. as to the weird reading o' the ig report by both democrats and republicans, am admitted not surprised, but nevertheless disappointed. really nothing monumental comes from the report, though am admitted only 1/3 through. were already known/admitted comey went 'gainst chain o' command to release info regarding the investigation. comey's reasoning for insubordination is debatable, but after the tarmac meeting 'tween Clinton and Lynch, comey concerns were understandable even if you thinks he acted inappropriate. also, is hardly surprising there were folks in the fbi who disliked candidate trump and hoped he would not be elected President. *insert feigned surprise here* dumb o' such folks to include their obvious distaste for trump in an email while investigating Clinton, but hardly monumental news. more important, the report vindicated the fbi investigation o' Clinton, revealing the there were no politicization which affected the findings o' the investigation, and the report made clear charges would not have been level'd 'gainst Clinton by any ordinary prosecutor. nevertheless, we talk to hardcore democrats and they see report as proof comey ruined the election for Clinton. hear republicans and they see vindication o' deep state. weird. HA! Good Fun!

odd. we wouldn't equate hand shaking with bowing/saluting. to us, bow and salute is similar as is typical signs o' respect and/or difference. fail to hand shake when proffered makes one a schmuck. fail to salute or bow when is appropriate is possible insubordinate. 'course our interpretation ruins gifted's zinger, so... HA! Good Fun!

tn is no different than most states. exclusion is an almost uniquely American concept: evidence becomes tainted because o' police mistake or malfeasance. is a curious notion to allow admitted guilty people to escape justice 'cause o' cop failure, but such is how we read the Constitution. however, because exclusion is an oddball notion o' justice, it is tending to be given justifiably limited scope. the purpose o' exclusion is to prevent inappropriate actions by law enforcement. don't want cops barging into homes on a hunch or ransacking cars 'cause the driver fits a profile. however, if law enforcement is acting lawfully (and sometimes not need be lawful but need only show good faith) then what is the rationale for excluding evidence which tends to prove the guilt o' a defendant? while lawful searching Bob's home the police find evidence which leads to charges being filed 'gainst Dave. good. Dave lends his car to Bob and the car is subsequent limited searched lawful incident to an arrest of Bob and during the arrest and search, evidence is found which leads to conviction o' Dave. good. exclusion is quirky and American and often a bit illogical. however, the result o' exclusion is guilty people go free. as such, exclusion is tending to be applied narrowly and with recognition o' the purpose o' exclusion-- is a limit on the excess o' law enforcement. if law enforcement acted appropriate, then is no good reason to exclude. law enforcement is always pushing boundaries. other than your personal home wherein you current reside, there is few place wherein you got a reasonable expectation o' privacy which would bar police searches... and your personal expectation o' privacy is not transferrable. even so, lazy cops and bad cops is constant pushing limits o' the kinda searches which is requiring warrants. am not in favor o' decreasing a person's zone o' privacy to accommodate bad or lazy cops. however, the tn situation ain't representing police excess. routine and perfect legal search made incident to arrest uncovers evidence which is eventual used 'gainst car owner. good. is no reason to exclude such evidence. is no police excess which need be blunted. the tn law is not unusual broad. is Constitutional. HA! Good Fun!

... *shrug* will comment in depth at a later time. maybe. however, am gonna suggest it is a given obsidian will continue to try and balance deadfire. am ignoring obsidian motivation or any qualitative judgement for the nonce, but is undeniable the best predictor o' future behavior is past behavior-- obsidian will continue making balance changes. the thing is, am gonna admit some frustration regarding retrain functionality. recognizing the often significant changes to classes and abilities obsidian is continuing to make, one would expect getting the retrain feature to work proper would be a high priority. to foresee dramatic changes to the way in which a deadfire class plays following a major patch is not requiring the wisdom o' a prophet, eh? is similar predictable more than a few people will be frustrated by such changes. as such, we might assume the retrain feature, which helps alleviate a degree o' frustration faced by players who is having their favorite build nerfed by build 1.__ , would be tops o' the list o' things to get right. note to obsidian: please make retrain fix a priority. HA! Good Fun!

priest is not weak and am gonna disagree 'bout feeling powerful... is just a different kinda powerful than strikers or nukers. https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/99362-what-is-your-worst-single-class-in-deadfire/?p=2022103 has only been a dozen or so similar posts from us regarding priests since first beta release. paucity o' spell catalog coupled with an over abundance o' highly situational spells is the biggest priest problem. for chrissakes, with significant larger spell catalog wizards also get grimoires for potential 18 free abilities by level 20. is not a power problem. our party is weaker w/o single class priest xoti and Gromnir has played priest/whatever with both o' our completed runs. lack o' options coupled with too many pointless options is what hurts priests most. am suspecting our #1 suggestion for priest improvement would be programmer difficult, and thus impractical, but am gonna repeat... again. one spell per ability level should be fungible. at rest the deadfire priest is provided an option to choose a different spell from the priestly spell list. 'course, particular at high levels when priest has access to almost every spell they might possible want anyways, there is gonna remain the issue (inexplicable to some degree) o' paucity o' choice faced by the priest. nevertheless, the issue o' situational useful spells which is common for priests is not so much a problem with a *sigh* bit o' Vancian returned to the priest.... and you cannot know painful it is for us to actual advocate even quasi-Vancian anything. oh, and am gonna agree there is a few spell levels which is head scratchers. however, am gonna note we personal got much use o' tier five priest abilities, but is mostly due to the fact we played a contemplative and a shaman our first two runs. litany o' the spirit, with the power level boost is actual a nice spell if kinda expensive as it is a single target buff and we used almost constant for our shaman, even when not raging. alternatively, baring death's door were fantastic for our contemplative. and seal spells is constant underrated. but again, a prime priest problem is the situational usefulness o' priest catalog. level 9, other than incarnate, is baffling... and incarnate is actual more baffling given how op a couple variations is. if all tier 9 were the suck, we might understand the oversight. even so, am understanding why passives is few for priests. priests were a bit too strong in poe and the developers ain't looking to make same mistake. passives multiply potential multiclass balance issues, and single class priests is already powerful if limited and underrated. add a second spiritual weapon choice per deity. add more options per ability level. allow priests to genuine make use o' the admitted situational useful priest spells by making 1 spell per level subject to change at rest. do such stuff and priests is gonna continue to be a boring support class most people don't wanna play, but the suggested changes will address the most pressing problems o' the class. is not a complicated problem: priests need options. so, get 'em options for spiritual weapons and spells. HA! Good Fun!

according to obsidian's deadfire telemetry, the two least played characters is contemplatives and shamans. our first character were a priest o' eothas/helwaker contemplative. our second character is a priest of wael/berserker shaman and am almost having completed this recent potd run. am gonna observe how both the shaman and the contemplative is excellent combatants, with the contemplative being a particular powerful caster. the helwalker contemplative is initial dependent on ranged wielding of a sceptre-- the sceptre modal causes wounds which empowers the helwalker. one hand or dual wield sceptres is both viable. staying ranged during early levels prevents the helwalker from suffering overmuch from the helwalker's received damage malus. by mid and late levels, the contemplative is largely immortal due to combined monk and priest abilities, so feel free to enter melee range and exact terrible devastation... or stay ranged and nuke with pillars of holy fire which are receiving enormous damage bonuses from your helwalker inflated might and due to the inexplicable nature o' the monk's turning wheel ability affecting spell damage. am personal prefering going one-hand or dual wield for the contemplative, so the priest o' berath's spiritual weapon is not the ideal weapon, but is gonna be highly efficacious even so. priestly spiritual weapons do not require metagame knowledge to access early, and combined with helwaker bonuses, you will be causing huge damage just so long as you are able to create enough penetration. as an aside, scepter modal provides a significant penetration bonus and there is a couple nice sceptres in the game. a one-hand style, hearth orlan with the soulbound dagger, or any other 1h weapon, will ruin anybody's day... and you may always switch weapon sets so as to take advantage o' a couple o' the power level boosting items when casting. caution: the helwaler malus is significant and will require extra micromanagement to keep the helwalker alive through a number of battles. alternative, the berserker shaman is gonna be making your spiritual weapon summons viable from early stages o' the game as berserk rage provides extra penetration... but again, am not certain if two-handed weapons is the best route. there is a deadfire intelligent sword which provides immunity to intellect afflictions. the main drawback for a berserker is being confused while raging. priest have level 3 and level 5 abilities which provides an intellect inspiration which will negate the berserker confusion, but only the level 5 spell is actual worth the investment. sure, you could cheese the system and retrain your shaman once he/she reaches level 13 and has access to level 5 spells, but retrain is current broken... still broken. go dual wield and use swords or swords and _________ is likely a superior option to needing cast prayer for the spirit or litany for the spirit at the start of every battle, though our priest o' wael shaman (a 2h weapon focused character due to rod modal) managed just fine doing so. regardless, the barbarian and berserk benefits not only make you devastating in melee combat, but the cheap dexterity and might bonuses will also enhance your priestly spell casting. a barbaric blow from a berserk shaman wielding the berath spiritual weapon is gonna do overwhelming damage to most any foe. play a contemplative or shaman is satisfying and skews obsidian telemetry. win. as an aside, even after 1.1, alchemy is the no-brainer choice for skills. final thought: if you make a martial priest o' berath multiclass, do not use your character primarily in the support role. bring along xoti or pallegina or even fishboi for healing and/or buffing. both the shaman and contemplative we mention is excellent healers, and don't hesitate to heal when necessary, but most priestly heals are fast casts. try and buff and heal and also be a whirlwind of weapon and/or spell casting is gonna leave you dissatisfied. stick to damage and some heals and let others carry the buffing and additional heal load. HA! Good Fun!

suicides is simple to decrease. not kidding. current US suicide per capita rate still hasn't reached levels it were at when coal gas were used in ovens. change from coal gas made suicide more inconvenient and suicide rates dropped dramatic. current opioid crisis has put lethal amounts o' legal narcotics into the hands o' millions of Americans. is no wonder the recent increase in suicide rate is mirroring the suicides by drug increase. as such, am suspecting the single most effective means o' decreasing suicides in this country would be to put greater limits on handgun ownership. sure, is constitutional issues, but in terms o' most immediate impact, take away a common and simple means o' self execution would be having immediate and lasting results. as sad as it is to consider, suicide is most easily prevented by making the act inconvenient. force folks to reflect for even a short period o' time and chances are they step back from the brink instead o' going through the extra effort needed to end their own existence. is the worst kinda dark humor to acknowledge the laziness o' the ordinary suicide. make suicide more inconvenient and large numbers o' lives is saved. yeah, the root problem o' large numbers o' depressed peoples is not addressed, but make suicide inconvenient at least gives friends and family time to save the potential suicide.

Does anyone knows for sure? yes. definite coincidence if your gameplay suggests otherwise. am knowing through painful experience a high perception is needed for more than a few traps. not many 20 perception traps, but is a few. HA! Good Fun!

for most builds save for gun havers and tanks, dexterity is the god attribute, with perception coming in a close second. perception is also ridiculous common in dialogue checks. am s'posing we could build a ranger with bad perception, but given the current reality o' deadfire mechanics, we have a difficult time coming up with a good reason for doing so other than personal aesthetic. might try lower perception on a few o' our tanks, but even then... dunno, seems as likely for us to go low perception ranger as unarmed training ranger who primarily uses fists in melee combat. no party character with perception eclipsing 13 is difficult but doable with metagame. highest level traps and hidden objects require 20 perception to reveal, but 20 is hardly essential and such stuff is representing extreme small amount o' game. if you don't wanna miss anything, then can always add maia for those extreme perception check scenarios and give her svef or the perception berries + a perception boosting item. @ genesis poster: no attribute is true essential for success in deadfire, but perception is kinda close. let us know how it goes. HA! Good Fun!

iwd2 is linear. economics in a game with a large number o' tangential and optional side quests is dissimilar to iwd2. metagame and completionism make a joke o' any developer attempts to address money saturation problem in a game with a large number o' tangential and optional sidequests. in a game such as deadfire, there needs be enough money and 1007 drops for a first-time player who does naught but the critical path. as such, for a game with much content which is occurring removed from the critical path, the completionist will always acquire more 1007 than needed. axiomatic. problem is further exacerbated by metagame knowledge. with perfect knowledge, the player is not wasting time (money) mowing the world map or upgrading gear which will not be part o' the party's endgame kit. at night the player can steal X sabre from Y vendor? such stuff mocks developer efforts at economic balance as much as does completionism. the economics o' deadfire works. look to the genesis poster. 45 hours in... is little over half the hours o' Gromnir's first run. most players is not hardcore completionists. most players do not have metagame knowledge to any significant degree. economy o' deadfire is designed for most, 'cause is inevitable a game such as deadfire, a game with a large number o' tangential and optional sidequests, will be economic broken for the completionist with metaknowledge. HA! Good Fun!

two decades o' following interplay/black isle and obsidian games has ruined Gromnir. we know it takes 3(or more) patches for an obsidian game to be genuine stable. we know balancing is gonna be an ongoing issue, though we appreciate continuing obsidian efforts. … any developer comments which even remote approach puffery status gets same response from us today as they did back in the late 90s. am too old and experienced to get "motivated" by developer update videos. am more likely to be enthusiastic 'bout a josh post at sa or elsewhere as such contributions, while less broad, tends to be providing detail absent in general developer update material. HA! Good Fun!

having an expensive ship and crew is... expensive. travelling the map and repairing your ship is expensive. keeping your crew's morale high with fruit or booze is expensive. ship ownership, travel and maintenance is expensive by design. at the end o' poe, a large % o' players complained how they never had anything 'pon which to spend money. ships change the equation. ship ownership is subject to exploitation. if you buy the correct ship and work the world map as efficient as possible, you will still be cash poor for much o' the game, but you will also level extreme fast and have superb level gear early in your run. *shrug* don't bother with ships and deadfire is still playable and fun... and you will have more dough. is a choice. regardless, your poverty deep into the game is by design. HA! Good Fun! ps rewards do not scale, though there were a bug at release which had random legendary weapons dropping during a few encounters-- were fixed almost immediate.

for dialogues, the checks is mostly skills + perception. perception and insight often overlap in dialogue checks. need 5 insight or 16 perception. that kinda thing. not too many might dialogue checks. not too many attribute dialogue checks other than perception. however, is more than a handful o' might cutscene checks. come to a door or have a jungle brush encounter or need get past a rusted grate or heave a grappling hook up to a high enough window, then might will be checked. more than a small number o' such cutscene slide might checks. likely we did not clarify, so apologies in advance. HA! Good Fun!

helwalker sages are only prohibitive squishy early. by mid levels you will have enough monk talent defenses and wizard spell defenses to go full melee if you so desire. while spirit lance and other 2-handed weapons is mighty keen, we would recommend dual wield or one-handed. dual wield is a fantastic options as you will eventual be able to double-up power level bonus weapons. if you are gonna use helwalker bonuses most to power your spell casting, then go with dw. alternative, one-hand weapon is also a great option 'cause while many o' the on-crit weapons has been nerfed with 1.1, crit abilities and modifiers is nevertheless powerful. a one-handing orlan with a high accuracy weapon is gonna crit frequent even at potd difficulty. am a fan o' helwalker contemplatives, but sages is more powerful. that said, the helwalker squishiness does add an element to gameplay which requires micromanagement, and there will be combats wherein your main character is forced front-and-center following a cutscene, which is not ideal for a helwalker. in spite o' the drawbacks, the benefits is substantial... though less now with 1.1-- turning wheel damage bonuses were multiplied. at release a helwalker contemplative casting pillar of holy fire could do 700 damage per target before an empower. silly strong. helwalker sages is still strong, but the ai options won't be sufficient for many combat encounters. need to be extreme hands-on with a helwalker, particularly early but also for a few tougher encounters. HA! Good Fun!

long guns one side and double bronzers the other. could go all double bronzers, but am liking longs to disable sails as early as possible. still, two salvos from a junk with all double bronzers will sink everything. HA! Good Fun! Your proposal isn't spending, it's an investment! is why we specific responded to the query o' how best to spend money. facing a brewster's millions quandary were not what we were addressing. HA! Good Fun!

long guns one side and double bronzers the other. could go all double bronzers, but am liking longs to disable sails as early as possible. still, two salvos from a junk with all double bronzers will sink everything. HA! Good Fun!

review. initial poster had 120k and nothing to spend 'pon. even so, a starting berath's blessing character will have over 55k. for non berath's blessing, is not difficult to do port maje and the non-combat stuff at neketaka for the 54k one needs to purchase a junk. so yeah, save every copper to purchase a junk which one may outfit with cannons for gratis by save-scum shipwrecks. then go on a rampage 'cross the deadfire and kill and 1007 your way to relative invincibility faster than it takes to say, "why didn't i listen to Gromnir and buy a junk asap?" HA! Good Fun! ps can do same with a dhow for 31.5k, but requires considerable more effort. is worth the money to go junk.

attempting to retrain a level 7 contemplative resulted in a loss of the swift strikes starting monk ability. HA! Good Fun!