Gromnir

April 2018 confirmed release HA! Good Fun!

am gonna admit we do not understand much o' the hate for strength. sure, there is "bad" builds possible with strength. building 5 strength and 18 constitution pure casters is reasonable, but worse, is current the obvious route to take with character development. similar, is more than a few tanks who can zero-out strength and jack constitution for net fort save benefits and atmospheric health at the cost of weapon damage... weapon damage no doubt countered by some kinda spell damage and healing given the multitude o' multiclass options. strength is not w/o exploitive opportunities. the thing is, might were equal bad with any number o' players simple doing the same kinda silliness with resolve. takes a few minutes, but review the builds section o' the poe board and see how many folks recommend basement resolve. resolve were a dump stat for a large % o' poe builds, whereas strength is a dump stat for a handful. might is, in our opinion, a big mistake for deadfire. we liked might in poe, but poe did not have multiclassing. paladin/caster, monk/caster, rogue/caster, barbarian/caster, and almost every other combo o' anything/caster, is seeing exploitive builds taking advantage o' big weapon damage. *chuckle* should be obvious many o' the current most unbalanced multiclasses is the combos which is gonna disproportionate benefit from a return o' might. a warlock, which is already doing comical damage in the deadfire beta, will be affected in what way by a revert to might? will already excessive damage numbers increase or decrease? am actual surprised by the proposed might revert from obsidian. am hopeful there is a twitch soonish 'cause am gonna want to know what has changed since might were adopted to make a reversion anything other than a terrible idea. again, we liked might in poe, but deadfire is not poe. multiclass changes the equation. HA! Good Fun!

our thinking this resolve "solution" were necessarily linked to a reversion to might. once might becomes the modifier for weapon and spell damage, then resolve returns to teh suk, yes? is no reason to current power-up resolve, is there? regardless, am preferring a random refund than a random empower, but... *shrug* HA! Good Fun!

is nothing wrong with choosing to abandon internal coherence. un chien andalou is kinda a mind %$*&, but am s'posing there is a place for such. am actual not having a personal problem with players voluntarily choosing to abandon any semblance o' internal coherence for their game if they so choose. sadly. 'cause this is a crpg, a considerable % o' players is gonna complain if the game doesn't react to their choices. the main character is gonna be written so vague as to embrace any class combo, race or gender, which is why crpg protagonists is usual boring. the writers can't do such with the companions w/o making 'em similar dull. the npcs is where crpg stories with vague protagonists is actual developed, and try and make companions infinite malleable ciphers (not the poe class) would be a serious handicap to storytelling. give choice and people is gonna complain when game doesn't react reasonable, or at all. Gromnir, for example, were kinda cheesed off when game only reacted to our priest o' wael at one point in the game, and only if we had two tiers o' honest disposition. companions is gonna be written far more specific than the player-- is essential. pallegina keeps responding to disalogues as if she is the monotonous paladin she were in poe, but bob is playing his pallegina as a bleak walker/berserker, and is complaining to obsidian 'bout lack o' reactivity. is pretty standard for players to have limited capacity to customize companions in story-driven crpgs. likely gonna alienate fewer folks by simple adopting custom in the genre as 'posed to throwing open companion customization and then needing deal with crpg grognards who bemoan lack o' choice and consequences... and yeah, if you don't like the perfect viable companions as-is, you do have the option o' creating hirelings. HA! Good Fun!

am thinking such a scheme needs to be cognizant o' the many spells and abilities which do not much benefit from empower. casters have many spells which get zero or negligible benefits from power level. is more than a few fighter and rogue abilities which would see little benefit from a random empower. our templar with big resolve just got a random empower. fantastic! wait, what do you mean we got a circle of protection empowered? should not adopt a cheesy game show mechanic. HA! Good Fun!

am not seeing anything 'bout edér teylecg which would preclude him possible joining the clergy, though am honest not knowing what is the actual requirements for such admission. priesthood admission o' formal religions typical also have rules and duties for those who would minister as other than a lay person. am not knowing the lore o' such to comment. if is no such lore, then you got a new problem eh? edér "taking up the cloth" or whatever is the eothasian equivalent, would be significant and noteworthy. add rogue or fighter or mixture o' both is hardly narrative essential material as difference 'tween two is simple chosen style o' combat skill, neither o' which is mutual exclusive. however, add priest to edér and have writers not address the spiritual metamorphosis would be more than a little curious. failure o' the writers to address such a change for edér 'tween poe and deadfire would no doubt raise the dreaded immersion hobgoblin, albeit with some justification. sure, writers could complete ignore the priest aspect and have edér address eothas issues same as his lay character, but failure to make note o' his change from lay status would be, at minimum, a curious and salient oversight for many players o' deadfire. if deadfire writers don't feel comfortable in their ability to elegant avoid the sacrament o' holy orders, we got some sympathy for such concerns. a simple one-off dialogue inclusion for edér which recognizes his status as a priest would suffice? feels cheap and unworthy. no mention would be potential more jarring than would the one-off. keeping in mind just how limited is the character development opportunities in a crpg such as poe or deadfire, take on holy order admission w/o addressing or changing edér would nevertheless linger much like chekhov's gun for many players. so obsidian writers choose not to complicate? fine. am aware edér has orlan bigotry issues which the obsidian writers is gonna explore to some degree, and game development writing is not novel writing-- is zero sum. can't pragmatic simple add more writing to answer more questions. got things you wanna achieve with eder and as such it makes sense to avoid any unnecessary distractions and clutter. may simple not have time to do priest bit justice. if edér became a priest, we would expect mention. if any o' Gromnir's close friends became a priest, we would have questions for 'em. avoidance o' such a topic would be a bit unnatural. if the writers genuine don't feel comfortable writing while pretending to ignore the elephant in the room, such is a good enough reason for 'em to not try. am hoping for deeper and more complex characters than poe. if the obsidian writers see priestliness as an obstacle to a well-written character, then am preferring they don't try and force such an alloy into existence. deadfire is not an exercise for undergrad creative writing aspirants. give us best effort, or don't do. and keep in mind if you genuine want a fighter/priest or rogue/priest o' eothas, you can make a hireling who fits the bill. everybody wins. HA! Good Fun! ps am gonna observe how if not edér, then another priest option woulda been nice. dump pallegina and instead offer a unique paladin/priestess o' woedica? now that sounds like win to us.

again with the hyperbole. actually, you probable don't realize you is arguing 'gainst self... seeing as how a quickend summon and extended duration ain't gonna help firebrand one bit, eh? firebrand issues clear ain't a "summoned weapon" issue as if all is represented by a singular set o' problems. oh, and firebrand is exact the kinda thing we were talking 'bout when we mentioned spells not rebalanced following early changes to penetration. nobody disagreed that firebrand were situational useful. poe firebrand were far too powerful and folks transparent lamenting its loss were comical. nevertheless, when penetration were a genuine threshold as with the first beta, then a weapon which would target burn armour instead o' pierce or slash or bludgeon as does ordinary weapons, would be a situational lifesaver... which were the actual firebrand issue. sure, deadfire firebrand, first beta release firebrand, did have usefulness, and its long duration were indeed a balance plus 'cause combats common do last 60 seconds or more (duh,) but the problem from the start were that casters get relative few power choices per level. hard to justify choosing firebrand over other spells at same level when it were only situational useful. regardless, instant cast and long durations ain't gonna fix firebrand now more than it did when the deadfire beta were first released. cast time and duration were never the problem with firebrand no matter how much boeroer indulges in hyperbole. sadly, the usefulness o' firebrand during first beta release has been marginalized by the penetration fix. took a situational useful spell and reduced usefulness even further by "fixing" penetration w/o any kind o' rebalance o' firebrand to take into account the penetration change. complete unreasonable to be treating the summoned weapons as some kinda uniform class when each is having unique strengths and weaknesses. pretend the ineffable weaponness demands long durations and insta casts? that were indeed unreasonable, and common. ignore that spiritual weapons were doing ridiculous damage in the hands o' a wide variety o' multiclass combos, regardless o' absence o' insta cast? unreasonable. etc. am frequent disagreeing with josh, but is one issue he got right. but hey, keep pointing to firebrand as if it is the poster child for all summoned weapons, while ignoring fact the proposed blanket fixes o' quickened cast time and lengthy durations wouldn't make firebrand even a smidge more desirable. also unreasonable. HA! Good Fun! ps the beta feedback echo chamber has produced valuable feedback. no question. nevertheless, show isolated instances o' insight or sanity does not in anyway transform the host o' additional unreasonable demands, particular 'bout summoned weapons. is kinda like the silly "i have ____ friends," response when being accused o' bias, as if such isolated exceptions disprove general bias. regardless, we feel troubled admitting as may be used against us in the future, but josh is correct.

hogwash. w/o constant parental supervision and correction, your kindergarten is lord o' the flies meets hieronymus bosch painting by the second missed nap time. is a Fact that kids brain develop in stages, albeit some reach stages quicker than others. little kids is not all sunshine and smiles. got it reversed. adults tend to project goodness onto children, and they do indeed have the potential for goodness, but particular for little crumb snatchers, even the capacity for ethical decision making doesn't develop until teens and even tweenties. we will agree many parents don't know how to parent, but a large part o' that is 'cause the current generation o' parents were themselves raised so fundamental different. kids ain't born with parenting skills, and the last couple generations has been learning increasing less 'bout parenting for reasons we already identified. tv and internet is increasing raising kids more than is working moms and absentee dads. HA! Good Fun! ps edit: were unfair o' us to claim "most" parents don't know how to parent. were indulging in the kinda hyperbole we frequent chastise others. corrected.

pretty much explains the root problem, which ain't actual changed much since Gromnir were in school. as for school violence and sob kids, am thinking is worth observing how many o' the adolescent school shooters is from families which ain't norman rockwell fodder. hardly a surprise, eh? single parents. absent parents. working parents. a couple generations past and it would be typical for mom to be stay-at-home, and divorce were far less common. parenting were not a weekend and evenings gig a mere 30 years past. some 21st century parents maybe see their kids one weekend a month and perhaps a bit longer during summer vacation. no nightly sit down dinners where mom or dad ask billy "what happend at school today?" is not a shock when the sob kids is functional rearing themselves and often flubbing the job. am actual a bit surprised so many 21st century kids turn their lives 'round rather than ending up in prison, or worse, as millennials with entitlement issues. HA! Good Fun!

Well Gromnir uses them. That has to mean something... indeed we do. regardless o' cast time, most (not all) spiritual weapons is a no brainer selection for any priest or priest multi who the player intends to use frequent in weapon combat. and the parasitic staff is a powerful low level (genuine low and not relative pretty low) spell which is particular dangerous when wielded by warlocks and helwalker monk sages. get some silly exploitive results from such. the summoned weapon threads were typical amusing in part 'cause so many folks were indeed using or wanting summons such as spirit lances for their multiclass power builds. even the folks who admitted the priestly spiritual weapons were kinda op inexplicable frequent argued for insta-cast and lengthened duration 'cause o' some weird ineffable weaponess which made it intuitive necessary for such to be insta-cast and last for the duration o' combat... though boeroer seems to think such weapons all do last for the duration o' most combats, so go figure. were much puzzling abandonment o' reason in the summoned weapon threads. HA! Good Fun!

... had to double check to make sure we read correct. if the American prisons which is housing violent offenders is deserving "luxury" description, then am thinking we found the root o' most crime in the US. if for the ordinary citizen life nowadays is so harsh, so soul crushing such that pelican bay and folsom is comparative luxurious, then we weep for the American dream, 'cause is already dead. HA! Good Fun! ps "guns kill people" bit largely ignores the reality o' lack o' viable deterrent, particular for massacre shooters, but also for the largest identifiable segment o' gun violence victims: suicides. add accident? moment o' passion or stupidity? etc. is many gun deaths which would be impacted not at all if sentence were a one billion year term in the pit o' despair And have your lips chewed off by robot weasels with jagged rusted teeth.

ah. so what you actual meant were that the priestly lash weapons have effective a long duration, able to last an entire standard combat encounter. entire combat is not "pretty short," but only relative short when compared to one specific summoned weapon: the unnecessarily long enduring firebrand. converse, spells with durations far exceeding the standard combat duration might deserve 'pointlessly long' as a descriptor, yes? after all, 30 seconds is not pretty short compared to combat duration o' most priestly spells with a duration... with the notable exception o' seal spells... for obvious reasons. half expect boeroer to use searing seal as the benchmark for duration if we don't specific mention. relative to other priestly combat enhancer spells, spiritual weapon duration is average. champion's boon is single target and is 30 seconds. litany of body and litany of spirit is similar single-target and 30 second base. holy meditation can buff a party as 'posed to a single player, but the duration is a mere ten seconds, with a cast time of three seconds and a recovery o' four. we would use "pretty short" to describe holy meditation, but it seems to be the outlier as holy power, which provides a similar tier 1 inspiration to potential multiple players (albeit with a smallish radius-from-caster,) lasts 30 seconds. given how admitted powerful the priestly lash weapons are, a standard duration capable o' lasting entire ordinary combat, don't seem particular short. as an aside, am not suggesting boeroer is accurate with his guesstimate of typical combat encounter duration. is hyperbole. as noted elsewhere, am as often as not exhausting our caster combat repertoire in beta encounters. sure, is a fair number o' exceeding brief encounters, and Gromnir is typical playing veteran, but am also having far more experience with poe than a typical deadfire purchaser will. we use standard merc party or, more recent, companion analogs as 'posed to ridiculous optimized customs who is meant to exploit balance problems. exploitive is also not gonna be typical, is it? as an aside, the one thing we would wish changed which did not get mention by josh is a complete revamping o' penetration. in all fairness, is probable too late for so such a change, but penetration is, in our mind, fatal broken. admitted, poe dr scheme did not scale particular well, so is not as if the previous mechanic were the proverbial shining beacon on the hill. unfortunately, penetration v. armour appears utter unfixable to our mind. at the moment, there is little/no motivation to wear light armour, and even medium armours is a suspect choice, save for encounters involving specific elemental or unique damage-type reliant enemies. is not quite a matter o' go plate, or go naked, but am admitted seeing the the disproportionate benefits o' armour. goldpact's boon and bear shape for druids is conferring quasi invulnerability during any save boss encounters. however, am suspecting enemy penetration will scale, with boss critters having typical overwhelming penetration. am genuine curious what kinda penetration we is gonna see from dragons. will it make more sense for an entire party to simple fight naked? hope not. odd, but penetration were even more o' an alpha and omega issue at release o' first beta build. failure o' penetration to at least equal armour meant a weapon or spell were functional useless. the drastic extreme o' penetration has been curtailed a bit, but unfortunately, any number o' spells and weapons are still balanced with beta 1 penetration as a primary factor. any beta folks planning on taking warhammer proficiency? is too late to scrap penetration v. armour. however, am admitted baffled by obsidian ignorance o' a problem pre-beta. am genuine curious how the penetration scheme got from drawing board to beta w/o the developers recognizing problems. haven't yet seen an elegant solution from community or developers to what we see as the problem o' penetration. however, the failure o' Gromnir imagination and the absence o' solution now do not preclude the possibility o' a future epiphany, so whenever we see obsidian plans for future deadfire improvements, we hope for a penetration fix. HA! Good Fun!

so on the one hand casters suck in part 'cause casting times are so slow-- barely even have time to cast those fireballs obsidian developers crow 'bout 'fore a combat ends. on the other hand, a summoned weapon with a base 30 second duration is deemed "pretty short." ... am wishing folks would be a bit more consistent with their criticisms. is hard to decide which bit o' puffery is hyperbolic and which is meant with seriousness. HA! Good Fun!

https://jesawyer.tumblr.com/post/171289309831/various-deadfire-changes We’ve had a lot of good feedback from the Backer Beta, both in terms of online anecdotes/experiences on the Obsidian forums and myriad offsites as well as the telemetric data we’ve been collecting from players. There’s been a lot of feedback about spellcasting times, especially for characters like ciphers, the dominance of certain martial characters (especially multiclass combos), penetration, etc. Here are some general changes we’ve made that will appear sometime in a future Backer Beta update: * Canceling an action no longer consumes the resource for that action (including item use). This includes moving, switching actions, or simply canceling. Resources are now consumed on the launch frame or when actively Interrupted. Yes, you can actively early cancel to avoid an Interrupt if you are a pinball wizard with high APMs. * Cipher Focus gain per point of damage has been doubled. * Following feedback on MaxQuest’s cast/recovery speed mod, the cast times of many cipher spells have been reduced, the Long Cast and Recovery times have been lowered, and most weapon summons have been moved from Long to Average cast (I’ll say this is against my better judgment, because those weapons are ludicrously powerful IME). * Weapons have been unified into two major categories: Average Penetration and High Penetration. Damaging spells have largely been moved up into Average Penetration values if they weren’t already. “Best of” weapons have 1 point lower Penetration than single damage type weapons, e.g. a sabre at 7 Slash and a sword at 6/6 Slash/Pierce. Damage values on weapons have generally come down a bit, especially on weapons that were previously in the Low Pen category. * We are implementing a combat speed slider on the main HUD to adjust your combat speed to slower or faster speeds as your heart desires. Here are some future/speculative things in the works: * Rogues are in a weird place. Our telemetrics data shows them as being fairly modest in DPS terms when single-classed, but often among the most powerful characters when multiclassed. There are many possible reasons for this: 1) combining with other martial classes increases durability and/or stacks passive damage bonuses 2) combining with other martial classes makes players more likely to put them in heavier armor, which also increases their survivability 3) some particularly crazy combination of abilities. We’re examining the telemetrics data further to gain more insight. * There are certainly some goofball combinations floating around, notably monk/wizard when console hacked to higher levels (probably a combination of Swift Strikes, Citzal’s Spirit Lance, and other goodies). * We continue to talk regularly about Might/Strength and Resolve. As always, there are difficult problems to solve here. The easiest path would be to revert to the way Pillars I Might and Resolve worked, which seemingly would make more players happier and result in less weirdness when building certain character classes. We had high hopes (or I did, anyway) for the Concentration gain idea, but there were logistical problems and practical balance problems with that approach. We also discussed a passive Power Level gain derived from Resolve, but that also ran into problems. We don’t have much time left to mess around with base attributes, so we’re discussing one final idea, which focuses on adding a random chance to Empower (or Depower, with low Resolve) any active ability when used after a short time has elapsed in combat. If this design does not pan out, we are likely to revert to Pillars I Might/Resolve. There are myriad other minor and not-so-minor bugfixes and adjustments in the works, but these are the ones that seem of greatest interest to the community at large. Thanks for reading. (end josh post) initial observations: am actual kinda disappointed 'bout a reversion to might. am much enjoying a templar tank with high resolve. haven't played a vanilla cipher since first beta release, but have been doing runs with party loadouts based on revealed companion classes. our knock-off blue monkey is not suffering any kinda' shortage o' focus. as a witch, a hearth orlan is doing monster damage and using an offhand club with modal activated when necessary, is getting good use o' powers opposed by will. our feelings 'bout summoned weapons were made clear early after beta were initial released. am frequent disagreeing with josh, but not 'bout summoned weapons. negating the loss o' resources for cancelled actions is a much appreciated change. HA! Good Fun!

immunity spells is utter impractical in deadfire. you only get a small number o' powhaz per spell/power tier. choose protection from dominate power/spell makes no sense in deadfire. in spite o' the terrible efficacy o' enemies spamming dominate, the number o' encounters wherein there will be dominating enemies is relative small. similar, remove fear were a powerful defense in poe, but is gone in deadfire. gonna give up restore or suppress affliction to get remove fear for 5% of encounters? is already too many situational useful priest spells; add another such layer would be bad. HA! Good Fun!

*chuckle* one reason obsidian removed grazes in deadfire were 'cause o' such complaints. a charm or dominate graze o' three or four party members were frequent a wipe, particular before wm when there were no absolute protections 'gainst such. in any event, were so many complaints 'bout stun and charm and dominate grazes that obsidian rid deadfire o' such. 'course is few such foes doing such stuff in the beta, so the beta folks demanded a return o' grazes. deadfire paralyze is not poe paralyze, so were tough to get a sense o' the harsh impact o' graze afflictions as were so ire inducing in the firstest game. whom the gods wish to destroy, they grant wishes. HA! Good Fun!

sometimes obvious is best. orlan or human ix plains scholar as a templar tank (kind wayfarer/priest o' eothas) will be a no lose support character. start with 20 resolve for win. tanky templars is one o' the no nonsense builds which benefits most from the change o' might to strength. resolve is gonna improve templar invulnerability as well as spell damage and heals. the fod heal ain't particular robust, but with +13 base int it will cover an entire party by mid levels, assuming predictable int boost or aoe boost gear. at low levels, +19 health x 5 party member heals (approx 100 health per fod) will be a serious life saver in many battles. by mid levels, fod, at a mere 1 zeal cost, will be functional spammable and will no doubt be healing mid 20s x 5 party members 'cause o' predictable further boosted resolve. sure, priestly restore is gonna be better 9 x outta 10, but having fod heals means you can use other level 1 priest powers. (aside: sunbeam is actual a fantastic 1st level spell as it has a 15m range and causes blindness as well as damage. use on enemy casters and ranged who is attempting to stay outta melee combat.) the upgraded lay on hands is a fantastic support power, and the templar can target self, if needed... which is only gonna be an issue in few boss battles as the paladin defense powhaz makes the templar tank near invulnerable even if they don't go the goldpact route. priest inspirations is gonna, once again, be offering most support flexibility o' any class, and no doubt minor avatar will be the unnecessary overkill for making the templar tank actual unassailable in all but a handful o' deadfire encounters. choose ix plains for the resolve boost, and the scholar background provides arcana. both paladin and priest gets arcana as a skill bonus, so starting with +3 to arcana is pretty groovy for a support character, particular given how total powaz available is more limited for deadfire classes than poe. whatever support essential spellike powhaz the templar don't have access to 'tween the paladin's amazing single target buffs and the priest's diverse party coverage spells can be supplemented with scrolls. is all win. oh, and 'cause resolve will be ridiculous high, those handful o' silly powerful offensive priest spells (or scroll spells) if you choose to select any, is gonna be doing near empower kinda damage w/o the need to empower. am also liking heralds... and pretty much paladin+anything for that matter. a herald is gonna be another fantastic tanky quasi support monster. sure, the herald will be as much a summoner or debuffer as true support, but will be extreme effective even so. still, we says go obvious. go big. go win. some other builds will be able to do one or two things exceptionally well, but templar will be valuable in any encounter and against any foe. the orlan, ixamitl plains, scholarly templar (kind wayfarer/priest o' eothas) is straightforward and simple support And tank gold. HA! Good Fun!

afflictions, o' which we has seen only a small sampling in the beta, will play a much larger role in deadfire. terrified, stunned and dominated is particular harsh, and other than monks, few classes have cost effective defenses for dealing with more than a couple afflictions. have enemies spamming such attacks will wreck a party which is unprepared. to build a chanter capable o' protecting 'gainst all such is improbable as it means sacrificing offensive capabilities and there simple ain't as many inspirations available to the chanter. druids is greater for heals and offensive spells, but have few inspirations. paladins is fantastic for single target buffs, heals and inspirations, but the lack o' party inspirations is a serious limit. etc. priests is far more flexible in support than other classes, which were their chief advantage in poe. won't be any different in deadfire. am recalling how many folks were woeful unprepared for vithrack and fampyr following the poe beta. were funny the complaints. immediate following release, folks were building naked ranged characters and rogues n' such, only to see such dps dynamos getting 2-shot killed by dominated or charmed party mates. duh. history will repeat... it almost always does. HA! Good Fun!

it is tending to be the coverup and the lies which get politicians in trouble as 'posed to the initial perceived evil. can pull old Gromnir threads and see we has, from the start, predicted that whatever russia collusion did take place were gonna be banal and mostly due to ignorance and chaotic nature o' the trump campaign and administration. real danger were gonna be trump's idiotic and reflexive desire to "fight back" by lying even when unnecessary and bullying those he perceives as his opponents. we don't care if the russia involvement in the campaign were minor, though use the troll farm indictments as indicative o' the entire russian scheme strikes us as naive-- 'course is gonna be the incompetents and b00bs who get caught firstest. degree o' russian interference and their lack o' competence doesn't matter. isn't particular relevant. 1) were there at least some illegal involvement with russians by members o' the trump campaign? 2) did trump campaign/wh try and cover up such entanglements or hinder the investigation(s)? yes to both questions = deep p00p for trump... as it should be. HA! Good Fun!

priests is less essential as healbots and buffers in deadfire than they were in poe... not that they were genuine essential in poe. chanters get a few extreme powerful buffs. paladins and druids is capable o' much healing... and am thinking kind wayfarer heal is underrated, though we think it should trigger on a graze. 14 health ain't much o' a heal, but for a tank paladin with max resolve and decent intellect, the heal is gonna be mid 20s and almost spammable at mid/high levels. add fact that scrolls and potions can heal folks, and the need for a traditional priestly healbot/buffer is reduced. however, am thinking the priestly capacity to suppress afflictions is poor understood by most beta folks, so priests is actual a bit underappreciated at the moment. almost immediate following release, obsidian claimed they were gonna do some kinda afflictions tutorial. never happened. doubt it is gonna happen-- too little development time remains. perhaps sometime following release? in any event, beta is a bit misleading as we has been seeing a relative small number o' affliction based attacks from enemies. once we get dark spores and horror causing spirits and all kinds o' other nasties, people is gonna more appreciate priests. sure, other classes can also counter afflictions, but priests appear best suited to such a role, a role which will be increasing vital. ... converse, the limited powers available to all casters means priests won't necessarily have a needed affliction killing power available to 'em during every battle. am suspecting there is gonna be a few seeming vital counters which will nevertheless only be situational useful. am foreseeing the potential for a bit o' frustration when trying to choose priestly powers. 'course the frustration will be linked to the perceived, if not wholly accurate, need for a priest with the appropriate counter. our solution in deadfire is same as poe: add two priests to a party. will likely have xoti and a main character with priestly multiclass. belated full disclosure: we tend to play as a priest. HA! Good Fun!

simon and garfunkel, sound of silence. slow dawning o' realization is almost painful to watch. HA! Good Fun!

HA! Good Fun! ps @ gd: is sad/funny to do searches for little kids who were suspended or expelled for making the finger-gun gesture at a school. is not a singular oddity. This poor kid didn't even do that much. He just commented the radix a symbol used in math for some 700 years no is not more looked like a pistol. I guess we'll ban square roots and radicals from class now. It will make math a little easier for the kids. It will be problematic for the future advances in science and engineering though. At least for American students. If someone mentions the + looks like a rifle cross hair maybe we can get addition banned too. gd kinda lives on the slippery slope, eh? isn't necessarily a bad thing to see isolated examples o' silliness as harbingers o' impending doom. the margins is indeed where battles for freedoms need be fought. however, is best to recall that most tragedies, petite and grand, begin not with government conspiracies or corporate cabals bent on world domination, but rather is spawned by the comic alchemy o' poor judgement and mistake. outlier stories always get disproportionate press, but so often the only real message is that even smart people can do woeful stoopid things. am personal more cognizant o' the seeming mistakes which is repeated so often as to be representing trends or policy. our job has us working at the margins. violations o' first amendment rare happen where law is easily understood. such failures, predictable, happen at the margins. mistake occurs once is possible anomalous. mistake is repeated a bunch a times might still be little more than a quirk o' statistical probability when one considers a population o' 325 million. however, trends is genuine disturbing for us. the gun element is not the silliness Gromnir sees in your example. perhaps gd hears goose stepping stormtroopers coming ever closer when he reads a story 'bout an effort to control guns? right to bear arms has never been absolute and for much o' history, local limits on gun ownership and use were a given. thanks in part to the strength o the gun lobby, 21st century firearms protections is stronger than they has been for most o' our history. the thing is, we see a pervasive evil in your linked story, but is only tangential related to guns. the actual issue we see is with zero tolerance school policies in general. http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/education/queens-girl-hauled-school-handcuffs-caught-doodling-desk-article-1.194141#ixzz1D0s6Esse teachers and administrators repeated come to absurd conclusions 'cause they believe they is following zero tolerance policies. zero tolerance, as often as not, is a way for folks to wash their hands o' a hard responsibility. kids get expelled for having a mini-bottle o' mouthwash 'cause o' zero tolerance alcohol policy. six year old is sent to a month-and-a-half reform school 'cause he brings his cub scout multi-utensil to school. multiple kids has been suspended in numerous states 'cause they possessed alka-seltzer in violation o' school zero tolerance drug policies. the "blade" on a set o' clippers for scrapping grime from underneath the leading edge o' a fingernail were enough to get a kid expelled for bringing a weapon (knife) to school. am not seeing a national nightmare o' insanity regarding guns. gun ownership and use has rare benefited from so many protections. the insanity is zero tolerance, which folks too often read as zero judgement. *descends from soapbox* HA! Good Fun! ps edit- keep forgetting the US population is growing.

is this a trick question? "wales" is the obvious answer. HA! Good Fun!

neerdy romance is not our thing, but am recalling... were in hawaii and saw this couple who had darkish wedding bands o' lord only knows what kinda material? ceramic? polished wood? regardless, each band had a narrow strip running down the center o' bands, and when the two rings got w/i a couple feet o' each other, the strip in the bands would glow. the glow weren't something you would notice in daylight, but at night, particular in a dark room or even restaurant dark light, the sympathetic blue-green glow were noticeable. *shrug* thought such were kind neerdy and sweet. HA! Good Fun!

feedback regarding ship combats: --enemy ships have a tendency to blow up ignominiously. were mentioned in a chat, so developers is aware. --jibe is odd. am knowing the absence o' wind direction makes any number o' actions difficult to implement accurate, and w/o a more complex 2d map, wind direction no doubt becomes a prohibitive complex. nevertheless, jibe-fire-jibe-fire should not be start and end o' tactics once in range. but again, jibe were also mentioned in chat by josh as an issue o' awareness on the developer's part. --need make more clear the full sail v. half sail advantages and drawbacks. get three actions during a turn, but 'cause o' crew skill am only able to get one full sail action as 'posed to two half sail. will cover more distance with half sail than full sail using standard crew at start o' beta. such info is not intuitive. --is likely too late, but would be fun to add wheel and rudder slots to the ship management interface. find/buy magical or superior sails, hull cannons, wheel and rudder during the course o' deadfire adventuring would help make the ship game more involved. perhaps add a few crafting recipes specific for ship items as well. --am knowing the ship stuff is 'posed to be a gold sink, but it does appear to be mighty expensive to maintain a ship, much less a fleet o' ships. nevertheless, am not able to judge economics based on beta... just seems expensive. suggestion: would be nice if we could choose intent to board at start o' a ship-to-ship combat encounter. allow for option of ai to determine if enemy ship gets away or not, and rather than spending a dozen turns to get to boarding action, maybe simple skip ahead to the actual traditional squad-based tactical combat. sure, am suspecting one would want a warning if during attempt to close, your vessel were taking excessive damage and were in danger o' being sunk-- perhaps allow opportunity to halt ai and retreat from combat if ship takes X% damage? suggestion: skull and shackles pathfinder adventure path has a few nifty pirate/nautical quests and encounters. highly recommend for developer reviewing at least if only to consider dlc or expansion content. island of empty eyes is a particular well designed adventure, but am gonna specific note the free captains' regatta from tempest rising as something deadfire's current ship combat mini-game could handle. would be nifty to have a ship race implemented in deadfire with numerous cutscene and standard deadfire combat events occurring during the course o' the race. am understanding the ship combat is not the game but rather a mini-game. is unlikely the ship stuff becomes too robust and is actual quite involved in its present state. currents? no thanks. start getting into complexities such as ship speed on a close haul v. a run is gonna be unnecessarily difficult to implement and even more difficult for players to understand, particularly without a map showing relative position o' ships and wind direction. am thinking the ship combat, as a mini-game, is okie dokie as-is... just so long as a few o' the already mentioned issues is cleared up a bit. HA! Good Fun!