Gromnir

*chuckle* am pretty certain the first video o' a solo kill o' the adra dragon via path o' the damned were a rogue, so... the problem insofar as s'posed weak poe classes were with a new system people failed to understand that a poe rogue were so not like rogues from d&d or pathfinder. greatest initial outrage during the beta for poe were related to the fighter, which just kinda stood in the middle o' combat and soaked up damage. everybody knows fighters do damage in combat. the poe paladin were having little in common with a bg2 paladin being more o' a support class. most crpgs has weak arcane spellcasters at low levels who then become world beaters mid-to-late game, but that weren't the case for poe as wizards started out middling powerful and kinda stayed at middle of the pack; effective but not overwhelming. if you wanted to play a poe barbarian, your most important attribute were intelligence? what? that can't be right. that doesn't feel right. etc. one o' the obvious mistakes the poe developers made were only obvious after the fact: class nomenclature created false expectations. make a game which is meant to appeal to ie fans, then create poe classes with the same names as ie classes which have attributes and roles extreme different from ie norms ain't gonna work for many fans. also, while poe2 addressed the feedback issue, poe combats were frenetic, confusing and often unsatisfactory. spell effects tended to be overwhelming particular when stacked so it were difficult to see what were happening during fights, and even if you had the game literal pause after every player or enemy action, it were difficult to decipher why a specific combat action were a success or a fail. were a party wipe the result o' rng or were it bad tactics/strategy? poe were a new system and so combat transparency shoulda' been a premium concern for developers. wasn't. note to developers: do not make your audience feel stoopid or impotent. also, as a new ip with no voluminous print history to draw 'pon, the developers were gonna necessarily be offering... less. each monster in poe were new. oh sure, poe ogres were kinda like d&d ogres (but not. we got serious slobberknockered by the ogre druid in the endless paths third level... took more than one try to get past that battle,) but it weren't as if obsidian could just port d20 stats for ogres into their new system. everything in poe were needed having start from scratch. not surprising, the diversity o' spells and monsters and everything else were a bit limited compared to bg2 or even iwd. predictable, poe felt smaller than d&d games o' similar duration. etc. however, sarex complaints is exact what were the problem for obsidian, 'cause while am sure his issues is heartfelt, they is so utter vague and ambiguous there is nothing actionable for the developer. so sarex wanted poe to be more septic and less like rolex and more like... timex? what? as feedback the developers rare got anything more than sarex kinda complaints, or stuff such as we see from kp and shady. which is not a criticism o' sarex, kp or shady. fans don't need articulate exact why they prefer chocolate to vanilla. the non specific complaints o' poe is real and represent obsidian fails to satisfy their customers. even so, not swiss watch and "i can't quite articulate," criticisms is difficult to address. 'course for deadfire the developers did exact opposite o' what the funding response suggested were a likely outcome for deadfire. the fig campaign brought in buckets o' money, but there were far fewer people contributing money for deadfire than were the case o' poe. for deadfire the developers doubled-down on distancing from d20, seeming to choose an appeal to those people who already liked poe as 'posed to trying to grow the hardcore base they had built. fig funding results shoulda' been a huge warning sign for the developers but instead they spent far more money creating a game with necessarily more narrow appeal. doomed from the start. poe was most certain not bg 2.5 or bg3. that were the game's biggest shortcoming. poe did combat different and classes different and it awarded xp different, which mighta' been ok, but fans not only believed they had been sold an ie game "spiritual successor," but the game had all the trappings and even the visuals o' the ie games while it felt to many as if the developers were unabashed crushing player expectations. there were no holy avenger or crom feyr in poe. min/max didn't have anywhere near the same payoff in poe as d&d or pathfinder, so subjective good builds didn't look much different from mediocre builds. there were a couple overpowered abilities and spells in poe, but the obsidian developers kept nerfing such stuff. the nerve. a not d20 approach were fine given the hardcore fanbase obsidian had cultivated, but they needed to tailor their expectations to the reality that as they got further from an idealized bg2 successor, their purchasers would shrink. fig funding showed there were plenty o' interest in obsidian's new ip, but management clear overestimated their capacity to grow purchasers by doubling down on what seemed to cheese off kp, shady, sarex and so many others. is worth noting there is very few o' the hardcore poe fans, people who to this day continue to post on this board, contributing to this thread. obsidan curious didn't realize how with poe they had successful created a hardcore crpg fanbase which nevertheless had little overlap with people who wanted to play games such as kingmaker. obsidian spent far too much on deadfire. HA! Good Fun!

one of the gods eventual answers that exact question. so you only need wait a few dozen hours to get get your answer. however, keep in mind wotr ain't dostoyevsky. if you are expecting a good explanation, you will be disappointed. owlcat takes the anime approach and feeds you a plate full o' implausible exposition and then just kinda moves forward as quick as possible hopeful you won't dwell on the inadequacy o' their contrived explanation. an observation from captain obvious: wotr is an EPIC adventure in which mortals is the driving force in a conflict between vast and enigmatic cosmic forces. the main goal is to make the players feel important and powerful and not to reveal heretofore hidden or unrealized truths about the human condition. hoonding's character is vital and the answer you seek need only confirm that necessity. HA! Good Fun!

we got an early edition o' charlie and the chocolate factory tucked away in our attic. the oompa loompas were original written as african pygmies who worked as slaves in the factory and were "paid" for their services in coca beans. is not as if the book were written in the 1700s, so is hardly a surprise roald dahl took some heat from groups such as the naacp, although it were the movie production which sparked most criticism. the 71 movie oompa loompas were orange o' skin and green o' hair 'cause o' the aforementioned outrage. to his credit, roald dahl did change the oompa loompas in subsequent editions o' his novel recognizing that his original depiction were, at best, cultural insensitive. early 1970s wokeism? not a bad thing. just imagine how cringey the hugh grant scene from the trailer would be if it were an african pygmy under the glass jar. next to mr. bean, willy wonka is 'bout the most english character evar and to have yet another american actor take on the role is curious... albeit no less odd than juaquin phoenix playing napolean in an almost entirely english production o' a movie 'bout the famous french general and emperor. yet another willy wonka movie elicits from us the following predictable reaction: however, while am not at all interested in wonka, we will observe timothée chalamet is an excellent actor. am looking forward to future timothée chalamet performances. am just not interested in a willie wonka prequel movie. HA! Good Fun!

there has been a few changes with the azata mythic boss since release. original his ac were in the 40s. people understandably complained 'bout what a pushover he were in spite o' his massive levels. yeah, every round he would do a mass summons and unleash fire spells which did irresistible divine damage, but with the comical low ac the battle were kinda a joke. am pretty sure that initial ac were a bug 'cause after a few patches he were buffed a bit. maybe owlcat overcompensated? HA! Good Fun!

and HA! Good Fun!

the other day we complete blanked on gene hackman's name. we could name a large percentage o' his films and we recalled his usmc service and his brief time at the university o' illinois. we 'mebered how mr. hackman's mother were canadian and that the last film he did before he quit acting were welcome to mooseport. etc. just couldn't recall his name. we referred to our memory fail a "senior moment." a house guest responded by observing how our blanking on gene hackman were no big deal, but that if we started leaving our keys in the fridge we should begin to worry. HA! Good Fun!

is not 'bout the burden of the ordinance. if you have ever worked the kinda job where such rules is applied, you know there is often a tension 'tween workers and management regarding perceived laziness. from management pov, a ten minute break becomes fifteen or twenty in practice and a half hour lunch break is forty-five minutes in reality. every concession owners and management makes, workers find ways to exploit, or so goes the narrative... and is not complete untrue neither. is a perception that workers is always the exploited and owners is money grubbing capitalists, but truth is that american small business is predictable more likely failing or barely surviving. running a small construction or landscape maintenance company in the economy o' the last couple decades is probable gonna involve many sleepless nights and worries over money. a couple ten minute breaks during the increasing brutal summers in much o' the US is likely insufficient and am expecting most employers is gonna have those big ten-gallon yellow igloo water jugs available so workers may hydrate as needed instead o' just twice a day + lunch. only a couple water breaks during the day for roofers on +100 degree days in arizona, california and west texas would result in mass heat stroke issues. however, am thinking the existence o' the ordinance in question suggests more than one employer in austin were not being reasonable. you get ordinances like the one in austin 'cause more than one employer is routine doing unreasonable. HA! Good Fun!

in more than a few red states in danger o' going purple or blue in the near future, the us v. them polarization has resulted in banal differences regarding policy being transformed into perceived existential crisis. IF the localities is houston or austin, then the unstated problem being addressed is not so much some kinda generalized push for deregulation but rather a need to hold the line against the tyranny of the libs. it's not about railroad safety, mandatory breaks for construction workers or even mask ordinances during a global pandemic. texas is protecting its liberty loving citizenry from what comes next, 'cause if you don't stop local governments and their democratic elected representatives from passing common sense ordinances to keep people from dropping from heat stroke or heat exhaustion, tomorrow those same cities and municipalities will be trying to come and take your bibles or your guns. they will create reeducation facilities for adults who do not comply with their authoritarianism and school curriculum will be perverted to indoctrinate youth so that the battle for tomorrow will already be won. etc. malcador sees big state government imposing an unreasonable restriction on localities who wish to prevent their non union workers from being harmed and requiring otherwise unnecessary and expensive medical and emergency service attention. is unlikely the original ordinance were passed in a vacuum, so one is left to wonder how many austin employers were taking the oliver twist approach to employee safety and welfare such that the city felt the need to pass such a common sense rule, yes? even so, the inevitable sacrifice o' a few construction workers is a small price to pay in the texan war on tyranny. HA! Good Fun!

but he does start with a summons. the sciroccos and other stuff technical happen after the summons and may be interrupted in rtwp. am knowing most folks seem to think this battle is easier in tb, but is possible to utter emasculate him in rtwp. have done the battle multiple times for azata and aeon routes and thus far he always started with summons and chances are he don't get any other action if you rush him with a strong melee party. your own summons can be problematic as well as they lead to a potential charlie fox making it less likely your melee will reach and potential interrupt your opponent. sometimes less clutter is an advantage, or at least if you have a strong melee party. this battle is so not like playful darkness who is a melee engine o' destruction. summon a wall o' summons is less beneficial. you got a ranged and caster heavy party which as already noted is not ideal for this battle. the boss in question has a relative unimpressive ac and cmd. if you surround him with melee combatants who all have outflank and most of whom have ever ready, he should go down quick enough. if you are going court poet am understanding why your party is mostly casters + seelah, but there is nothing wrong with switching things up for this battle. for example, regill has high dex and with levels o' sacred huntsmaster you may stick him on a velociraptor or some other critter. aside, we did try and do the battle via an old azata save and we got a bug in spite o' no mods-- the boss in question has 3hp. he has 64 ac on core and with all buffs he gots a functional ac o' 72 on unfair, both o' which is zero challenge for our level 19 party, but he nevertheless has only 3hp and his caster level is presumable set at 1, so is kinda a pointless encounter in our game at the moment. will check an earlier azata save later to see if that is also bugged. weird. edit: fixed the bug did again on unfair and core and the battle is clear skewed in favor o' a party which is able to deal weapon damage asap. our party were lann (zenn archer/divine hunter with a velociraptor,) regill (got 12 levels o' sacred huntsmaster and a velociraptor,) ember as a fire spammer, sosiel with 1 level o' crossblood sorc to exploit ice spells (no madness domain, rides a boar) seelah with 1 level of sohei, and the main is a skald/crossblood sorc (18/1). no protective luck or fortune exploits. regill with his bane boosted gnome hook hammer and lann's velociraptor were co-mvps although the guarded hearth + mark of justice + skald bonuses were functional what were the winning formula and we would need to serious rethink our approach with a caster party. raptors has been nerfed considerable but a celestial raptor nevertheless provides significant damage potential for boss battles. ember died each time we did the fight on unfair but survived on core. boss ac on unfair with all buffs is actual 91 but that were not a genuine problem. additional late edit: if our game saves weren't so temporal remote, we definite would include ulbrig in a party to take on the particular boss in question. greyboar dishes out serious pain, but his precision damage is wasted in this battle and he is so slow, relative speaking. trever is not complete terrible, but he is also slow. we do not use camellia, but for most non ranged builds she is crit driven, although if you give her the metal curse her usefulness increases significant. arueshalae is ranged but her instant enemy + hunter's bond is gonna power up your entire party so she is a good choice in our opinion. even so, am thinking ulbrig and regill is obvious choices. HA! Good Fun!

is a tv theme which always comes to mind first when we think o' henry mancini. and lion in winter is our favorite christmas movie, so... 'cause it reminded us o' Gromnir family christmas. HA! Good Fun!

HA! Good Fun!

from one of our favorite soundtracks also, we realized how with every passing year, on her majesty's secret service moves up on our list o' favorite bond themes. were always top ten but somehow in spite o' more films, it is now a perennial top three. HA! Good Fun!

HA! Good Fun!

is three days a year am ok with neighbors setting off fireworks w/o any kinda notice given until 12:30am: new years, chinese new year, fourth (fifth) of july. keep in mind we got a dog who is terrified by fireworks... and thunder, large planes, and even heavy wind/rain. terrified is understating. even so, am understanding 'bout fireworks for three days outta the year. we figure just 'cause our dog has issues or 'cause we need for sleep before work there is nevertheless an unspoken compact 'tween neighbors which implicit requires us to put up with some stuff we don't like if only 'cause there is a chance one day we will do something our neighbors don't appreciate and a bit o' reciprocal understanding would be welcome at such times. converse, fireworks a week before and after the 4th? fireworks at 2am? am an easygoing person, but there needs be limits. HA! Good Fun!

crazycakes is 99% good enough to disarm traps and open locks. few wotr traps is genuine lethal regardless. is also maybe a couple chests where your main character will be solo, thus the 99%. if you are genuine concerned, put one point in traps and with skill and dex boosts you should be able to overcome those exceeding rare obstacles. however, spotting traps and hidden stuff is the other aspect o' the thief skills. perception is also a useful dialogue skill. ideally your main character should have high perception, but most perception checks is gonna be overcome by your party. wotr offers multiple party npcs who may achieve high perception, but if you got them positioned at the rear o' your party, they may be poor situated to spot traps before your vanguard stumbles across 'em. regardless, we would say if you are willing to suffer camellia for the entire game, she should be satisfactory at handling "rogue stuff." HA! Good Fun!

depends on your chosen stimulant/depressant: alcohol: cayden cailean psychedelics: desna coke: gorum meth: lamashtu weed: gozreh caffeine-- to stay awake in anticipation o' fighting undead during the hour of the wolf: pharasma all of the above: rovagug HA! Good Fun! ps elf + coke and psychedelics: calistria

happy 4th. HA! Good Fun!

too bad, but this is one thing owlcat got right. the reality is, you identify a pathfinder problem which owlcat translated accurate. go to the paizo forums and look for complaints about sword-and-board v. dex tanks, particularly on levels past twelve or so. pathfinder tanks is so not like mmorpg tanks which is designed to facetank bosses, and sword-and-board is arguable the worst tank option. especial with wotr and epic opponents, a pnp sword-and-board tank is gonna get hit more often and have less party utility than a dex tank. is not a bloat issue or even an owlcat implementation issue 'bout which you rail. is a whole lotta stuff owlcat does wrong with wotr and their pathfinder implementation, but the diminishing value o' sword-and-board tanks were a paizo problem long before owlcat began breaking things. HA! Good Fun!

stat bloat is not necessarily the problem. pnp pathfinder is designed for four person parties and there is no reload, so even if owlcat made some effort to balance the game, bloat would be a likely fix to the advantages a Crpg player enjoys. also, the "general consensus" is not what you assume. the owlcat forums get little traffic nowadays, but during the beta and immediate following the release o' the game there were some activity in spite o' the complete absence o' developer feedback. again, stat bloat isn't the real issue 'cause is not all encounters which is problematic. if were all, then you would simple drop the difficulty slider a bit and everything would be swell. the problem is the difficulty spikes related to specific encounters, and not all such encounters is predictable boss fights. even so, at the owlcat forums, the "general consensus" were that if you saw a problem with playful darkness, blackwater or baphomet, then you were playing the wrong game and maybe you should try mario kart or something similar instead. and keep in mind that the game is easier today than it were at release, particularly if you have the additional dlc loaded which results in your party being overlevel'd and over geared compared to original release parties. of the handful o' balance fixes owlcat bothered to implement, most have later game impact when you are likely roll-stomping regardless. example: aivu were nerfed, but you only get aivu at mythic three and the changes didn't have much impact until she hit mythic six or so. the stat bloat was a crude way for owlcat to deal with player power and for most encounters that ain't a problem, but 'cause the game appears designed to scale down from unfair, numerous encounters on more reasonable difficulty tiers are prohibitive challenging for players who has not invested hundreds o' hours in the system 'cause the normal encounters nevertheless require exploitive behaviour. sure, on core or normal you don't need all the exploits, but you are gonna need a few to overcome playful darkness. nevertheless, we understand the owlcat approach 'cause a simple numerical approach to adjusting difficulty is not resource challenging. the owlcat approach is rational and reasonable even if it punishes casual players. what is curious is the indifference and even applause from the fanbase as 'posed to a general consensus o' complaint. HA! Good Fun!

which is better: cake or pie? HA! Good Fun!

observation: the battle with jeslyn is also more difficult if you do not have the aid o' the inquisitors. HA! Good Fun!

#1 complaint o' all the ie games were regarding difficulty... some folks said too ez and others too hard, but difficulty were always the most common issue. #2 (or #3) complaint o' bg were all the emptyish maps with endless mowing to find brief and pointless hobgoblin/wolf/whatever encounters. wasted hours. (not immediate relevant, but #3 or #2 complaint for bg were the underdeveloped joinable npcs, which were also obvious addressed in bg2) durlag's tower from totsc were kinda the first expression o' bioware's solution to the complaints 'bout bg monotony, and most fans responded positive to durlag's tower maps and encounter density/types. the walking speed of parties was not increased until bg2, but durlag's represented a serious improvement based on the preponderance o' boardie feedback #1 complaint for bg2 was difficulty. #2 complaint for bg2 were the lack of bg-style exploration. no win. HA! Good Fun! ps (edit) am gonna observe how the first time you played wotr, chances are you didn't know which encounters were critical. yeah, jeslyn (grey garrison) swarm lady had a key you required, but you didn't know she had the key until you killed her, yes? we didn't know playful darkness were optional, not the first time we encountered it. the midnight fane in pnp were much different, so we had no useful guides.

the woman with the scythe who summons the swarms luckily has not great initiative, and thanks to the ritual which functional perma hastes your party at the start o' your grey garrison attack, it is relative easy to rush her before she can do anything save buff herself. we always have at least one dog, wolf or leopard in a party, so chances are she is tripped and then subsequently eliminated before she can do any damage to us whatsoever. on the other hand, othirubu, the alchemist, is the grey garrison encounter which gave/gives us the most trouble. those blinding bombs are no joke. even after multiple replays we need be extra careful with the alchemist encounter. particular at the lower wotr levels, depending on your party composition and typical strategies, difficulty is gonna be subjective. we literal have only two different winning approaches to the unfair water elemental encounter from the shield maze. one option requires a leopard animal companion and the other depends on kiting and a whole lotta luck. HA! Good Fun!

xp cap for bg were 89,000. totsc raised it to 161,000. so your vanilla bg fighter could reach level seven, and eight with totsc. and bg were pretty freaking long, much longer than it is today. people don't recall how the walking speed outta combat were increased with ee and mods. HA! Good Fun!

good ideas frequent run up against player expectations. for example, the poe wilderness encounters you mention were original intended to provide 0 xp 'cause the whole point were the implementation o' quest/objective xp as 'posed to per kill or per action xp avoiding predictable degenerative gameplay. 'course people complained so obsidian provided small xp for kills up to X number o' lions, xaurip priests or whatever. no xp meant there were no point in killing and you could simple avoid most such filler combats. 'course people also demanded xp for exploration, so players nevertheless reflexive scoured every inch o' every map and years o' learned crpg behaviour taught players to kill all monsters 'cause you never knew when that pack o' wolves might be right next to a rando rock with a hidden magical doohickey. instead o' avoiding the pointless filler combat in poe, people went ahead and engaged mass slaughter mode regardless o' the absence o' a meaningful payoff for such an approach and then complained at being insufficient rewarded. sure, not all poe filler combat were avoidable, particular in the expansions and the hastily cobbled together endless paths, but the game provides a great example o' how player expectations derail a good developer idea. remove 2/3 o' wotr combat and more than a few maps become barren wastelands, which means you likely make maps smaller further reducing gameplay hours 'cause less o' the exploration is needed. anybody doubt a pathfinder game where you reach level 20 and mythic rank 9 or 10 after a couple dozen hours would enrage the hardcore fans? that's not how it were done in baldur's gate. HA! Good Fun!