Gromnir

run headlong into a burning building w/o thinking might sound brave, but if all that happens is you add one more body to the pyre, or you create a situation whereby you make rescuing the children more difficult by your ill-advised rescue attempt, then no, am not in favor o' such. two minutes later, when additional fireman arrive to aid rescue, they realize that not only has gd got himself stuck in the burning building and is needing rescue himself, but gd took needed first aid supplies (or whatever) which is gonna actual hamper the Real rescue attempt. thoughtless, brave or not, frequent makes a bad situation worse. is a lesson we keep trying to learn. if fireman training says you do not run into a burning building alone w/o knowing building layout or situation, then am not gonna criticize the fireman who stood outside impotent with his "hose" in his hand waiting for backup... even if kids die. so change fate. florida officer rushes into school and accidental kills a kid(s) or teacher(s) while getting himself wounded or dead and then we all shake heads sadly and lament his stoopidity, particular when pundits line up to be proclaiming the officer's recklessness and failure to follow protocol. "and this is why you never go into an unknown situation like that without backup." am not a pundit. am not knowing. am not saying the policeman were right to wait. am not judging neither. HA! Good Fun!

lincoln for the win Abraham Lincoln Was A Skilled Wrestler And World-Class Trash Talker 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.

is probable good advice to avoid mentioning "hunting" and ch!ef executives, past or present, even in message board posts as various law enforcement agencies take a jaundiced view o' such humor. keywords and phrases is easily misconstrued and misattributed. as to the cop who waited 4 minutes in fla, our first thought were wondering what the cop were trained to do in such a situation. enter school and asses the situation? call in and wait for backup? am having no idea what is procedure or protocol. am not actual certain what is considered reasonable or proper by experts. as such a scenario seems to be having a high charlie fox quotient, am inclined to not pass judgment w/o at least a little feedback from folks who know far more than Gromnir does 'bout such situations and what is deemed appropriate responses to such. HA! Good Fun! ps we got advice from a coach in college and unfortunate it stuck. "you are going to make mistakes, so make 'em at full speed." we try to be reflective as 'posed to reflexive, but we frequent find self taking action 'cause am subconscious imagining self running stadium stairs for hours if we hesitate. in high pressure situations, we react as if it is better to do and be wrong than do nothing and be wrong. am wrong far too often, but is kinda reflexive.

am thinking cadet bone spurs calling out the cowardice o' others is a bit hypocritical, no? then again, if trump quit being comic hypocritical, he would need be silent on many relevant issues. 'tween pu$$y grab comments, knowing hiring o' illegals to build and work in his properties, skeevy exploitation o' charity status, russian pandering, and a whole host o' other issues, we might not hear from trump for another ~three years if he avoided overt hypocrisy. oh, and silly comparisons to clinton and obama is not needed in a reply. we can get vacuous moral equivalency nonsense from putin and the transparent russia honks. HA! Good Fun!

random grizzly attacks. guns don't kill people. grizzlies kill people. HA! Good Fun!

I guess you assume everyone is armed. and people wonder why the cops in this country seem so excitable. from our pov, the gun issue is all reversed and inverted. sure, ar-15s and ak-47s get all the press 'cause o' mass shootings, but handguns result in far more needless deaths due to accident, stoopidity, rage, whatever. guns is okie dokie for maintaining a militia, so from our pov, limit handguns, but not semi-auto or bolt action rifles. would have far fewer deaths and cops would be less jumpy 'cause ain't as if any motorist or angry pedestrian could have a gun in his coat. am also in favor o' limiting large magazines and bumpstocks and similar nonsense. hell, most o' our nra friends is perplexed by why bumpstocks weren't addressed by the atf or Congress immediate following vegas. most gun folks we knew genuine weren't aware o' bumpstocks. "of course automatic weapons should be illegal; they already are," were a familiar refrain from nra folks pre-vegas. most nra honks we know is fine with magazine limits and bumpstock prohibitions. convenience and accessibility is what makes handguns the real threat to people in this country, even if rifles get all the press. fear the government, then rifles make more sense. fear foreign invaders or indian massacres as were the fears o' founding fathers and rifles make more sense. want militia, then rifles make more sense. wanna reduce stoopid homicides and suicides (which actual vast outnumber murders,) then rifles makes more sense as the firearm deserving protections. a rifle is not so much an impulse weapon as is a handgun, and is gonna be making life less scary for cops to rid handguns and keep the rifles. is an impractical solution. would never fly in this country, and there is constitutional issues, but rifles>handguns makes more sense... at least to Gromnir. is all backwards. HA! Good Fun!

maneha were a barbarian in poe. not much in the way o' scottish accents, and war pigs from her neither... though she did have a battleaxe. well, she had a battleaxe for ten seconds 'til we changed her weapon loadout. get the archetype from obsidian is gonna be the exception rather than the rule. HA! Good Fun!

be careful what you wish for, yes? obsidian likes to subtle subvert the archetypes. previewers o' poe mentioned how aumaua were stand-ins for half-orcs, so kana were the aumaua companion. erudite and jocular. poe already had a dwarven companion and she were an inuit mom more than a tolkienesque scottish berserker with axes and war pigs. we did expect a dwarven companion for deadfire if only 'cause deadfire is one o' the locales where dwarves seeming predominate, but we weren't expecting traditional dwarves. perhaps a pirate or merchant captain. maybe a witch doctor/priest o' berath. etc. hammers and axes and war pigs would be unlikely. HA! Good Fun!

already noted why am not gonna play a human, but just for sake o' full disclosure, am likely gonna go orlan or dwarf for our main. orlan appears to have intriguing dialogue options with all the prejudice and bigotry directed their way, and the resolve afflictions is quite debilitating. hearth orlan crit chance boost will also be keen depending, but such a benefit is more build dependant. and speaking o' build dependent, if we do not play a templar for firstest run, then chances are we play a contemplative. am much enjoying _______/helwalker contemplative. unfortunate, helwalkers will suffer damage spikes. helwalker damage increase means our contemplatives frequent suffer big damage. last thing we want is for our contemplative to be unable to receive heals considering how managing health is so vital to a helwalker gameplay. mountain dwarf, with resistance to sickened and weakened, is a foregone conclusion for Gromnir's contemplatives. similar dwarf logic applies to a few o' our barbarian builds which rely 'pon frenzy. orlan or dwarf, but no human for early runs 'cause human racial is meh. HA! Good Fun! ps: (late edit, but too short for a new post) am also liking coastal aumaua racial trait, but am using most for our tanks.

did a bit o' beta with the following: pc hearth orlan goldpact knight/priest o' eothas nature godlike herald with no subclasses (pallegina) hearth orlan witch with no subclasses (blue monkey) human priest of eothas (xoti) wood elf wizard (aloth) no speed mod as we see it as utter unnecessary. confirmation bias from those who see as improving deadfire? *shrug* on veteran, with a non-optimized party, we were going through lagufaeth a bit like batman does nameless warehouse thugs empowered fireballs (am being a bit more free with empowers) is kinda keen save for when we roll a 3. damn you nameless gods o' rng! the witch is doing big weapon damage while getting considerable use from psychovampiric shield and whisper o' treason. we were worried 'bout witch squish, but psycho shield is a nice counter to the deflection penalty from frenzy. the herald tanks better than the 'edér' swashbuckler build we have been using for most recent beta plays. is a solid party loadout. HA! Good Fun!

you would think so HA! Good Fun!

well, our prospective party could change based on this info. pallegina is definite getting win options with crusader and herald, though am admitting our two least favorite poe companions, from a writing pov, were aloth and pallegina. there is now multiple rogue options to fulfill trap/lock needs and maia could replace or supplement aloth as a mage in a prospective party. tekehu is no longer our only chanter option. xoti remains essential for any possible Gromnir party. we were considering a pc votary, crusader, contemplative or templar. Gromnir as an orlan templar (curious combo of goldpact knight and priest of eothas) maia as a geomancer xoti as contemplative last two? pallegina as herald or tekehu as theurge (the theurge in our beta runs has been surprising effective.) and aloth as spellblade or edér as a swashbuckler or serafen as a witch edér interactions with an orlan protagonist should be fun, but aloth as a spellblade stressing the spell half might fit our party better. a deadfire beta witch is an effective combatant and am gonna do a few runs with a hearth orlan witch to see how it fits with our group. is subject to change based on subclass options and actual playing the game. am more interested in intriguing characters than effective killers, but am not gonna ignore party synergies neither. one priest. given how useful priests is, am still a bit surprised there is but a single priest option. HA! Good Fun!

always bothers us. send folks links to ruger mini-14 and explain how it is, from a performance pov, virtual identical to an ar-15. we typical spend +20 minutes explaining what is semi-automatic and why the "ar" in ar-15 doesn't stand for assault rifle 'fore we can even get to Heller. etc. ... the thing is, Gromnir ain't any kinda a pro-gun advocate, but the oft repeated "military style" nonsense drives us up the wall. every time there is a mass shooting with an ar-15 we brace our self for the predictable p00p storm o' misunderstanding and misrepresentations. am not like gd. we believe the US could benefit from additional gun regulations (preferable at the local level) and we ain't afeared o' the ridiculous scenario whereby if today we allow the State to increase background checks for gun purchases, then tomorrow the newly formed national police will be breaking down doors in the heartland and forcibly emptying citizen gun cabinets. even so, the right to bear arms is in the Constitution, so is a far more significant freedom than is drinking coffee while driving or smoking in restaurants. many liberals wanna pretend as if every dead school child in a mass shooting makes radical changes to gun ownership a forgone conclusion, and we do not share such a perspective even if we ain't pro-gun. regardless, is impossible to have intelligent conversations 'bout gun control when politicians and media is indulging in hyperbole with the "powerful military style" nonsense. is exhausting. HA! Good Fun!

if Gromnir takes companions, we take 'em as is. can always take a hireling if we don't like the companion. ... however, am gonna note we have little patience for the mechanics thresholds. if you don't have one companion with at least 15 perception and another with maxed mechanics, you is gonna be consistent failing a significant % of traps and lockpick opportunities. cut-scene traps and puzzles could be fun, but the traditional crpg trap/lockpick mechanic is mindless replicated in these games with no genuine gameplay value as far as we can see. worse, poe/deadfire has adopted the utter idiotic class bonus for skills nonsense. coulda' simple made backgrounds more significant and complete exorcised skill bonuses linked to class choice, but nope, that were one o' the anachronisms obsidian chose to mindless repeat in poe. we don't want hirelings our firstest run. at the same time we don't necessarily wanna have edér be a swashbuckler or rogue just so we more consistent succeed traps/locks traps compared to some other companion (with the exception o' the blue monkey) with no bonus to mechanics. developer makes plentiful traps and locks whereby we fail frequent if we do not have a rogue or cipher in party with max mechanics? stoopid. am likely to add gloves o' manipulation to our party the first time our tap/lock companion inevitable fails 'cause they ain't a rogue or cipher with the hunter or artist background. failing such, we will lament, at least momentarily, our inability to respec companions via retrain so they have adequate mechanics. so yeah, we concede our own extreme limited hypocrisy on this issue. complete aside, am current running betas with the following hireling loadout: human swashbuckler-- edér moon godlike theurge-- tekehu human contemplative-- xoti wood elf mage-- aloth am figuring this is gonna be our party for deadfire, so might as well see now how best to combine skills and abilities n' synergies. yeah, am suspecting tekehu is gonna be other than a stock moon godlike and xoti doesn't exact follow eothas, but am getting a feel for party dynamic. the thing is, the only reason we got edér as a swashbuckler is 'cause am figuring he and serafen is our best option for a trap/lock companion who won't be consistent failing sans the benefit o' gloves o' manipulation or some kinda console cheat. is an unfortunate party need. stoopid anachronism. HA! Good Fun!

for poe we rare played human, 'cause the human racial ability were relative weak. in deadfire we are unlikely to play as a human 'cause the racial ability is suck. Gromnir is not a complicated man. HA! Good Fun!

... belated response: is few sins which we find more unforgivable than slavish devotion to canon. if a writer or director or artist is gonna utilize source material as 'posed to original material, then they better shoot for better than the source. proclaim loyalty or faith to inspirational material as some kinda crutch for failure to exceed source is the most pathetic o' excuses. we see no inherent value in accuracy replicating source material. do better (different ot otherwise) or don't do at all. heath ledger's joker were our favorite big screen joker, regardless o' the heresy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BavcnnmOsjg even liked heath ledger's performance better than jack nicholson. as to shady opinion o' justice league, we felt the same way 'bout BvS, though our initial viewing o' BvS were the extendo' cut as 'posed to theatrical, so perhaps such made a difference. fan reviews o' BvS were so consistent scathing that our expectations were for +2 hours o' pain. girded our self for the worst. other than lex luthor, we thought BvS were mildly entertaining with a few nice fight scenes and a handful o' decent performances. haven't seen justice league yet, but we wouldn't be surprised if we had same reaction to JL as we did to BvS. HA! Good Fun!

durlag's tower. number one complaint regarding bg1 (by a large margin) were the lack o' complex locations. were too many wilderness maps with a couple minor encounters. even bg city were failing from brevity o' quests and lack o' depth, figurative and literal. following totsc, fans clamored for more durlag's tower. wanted deep and involved 'dungeons.' okie dokie. clear bg2 needs more o' what wormerine identifies as superior design, yes? is 1999-2000 'stead o' 2017-2018, but is same issue, no? bioware responds by doing more complex locations for bg2, with involved multi-location quests. cult of eyeless. de'arnise keep. windspear hills. etc. number one complaint o' bg2 following release is lack o' all the wonderful exploration from the inaugural game. ... developers is constant attempting to find elusive balance 'tween deep and involved v. exploration. is zero sum. more o' one means less o' the other, and is no golden path as the perfect balance is gonna be different for everybody. am personal in favor o' more durlag's and less exploration. would rather have a handful o' readric's hold and abbies with lunatic monks, but more o' such stuff functional limits those smaller and insular encounters which is resulting in players feeling like they is getting to explore and choose. only so much developer resources. as for endless paths, there were good levels and bad. clear the developers phoned-in their work on a few levels just to have a level. promised X number o' levels in kickstarter campaign and they provided X levels. coulda' cut number o' levels in half and made more levels akin to 13 'stead o' so many such as 10 and 11. endless paths weren't terrible overall, but there were too many filler levels. regardless, is once again the durlag's v. exploration conundrum for the developers and the developers will fail to meet expectations, 'cause this is one o' those curious design choices which is inevitable fail. Gromnir and many others would be pleased with a greater emphasis 'pon moon abbies and raedric's, but doing more such necessitates reduction o' the exploration encounters. is a fair trade for us, but is an inevitable fail for the developer. HA! Good Fun! ps as an aside, given deadfire is a volcanic archipelago, am expecting at least one active volcanic location. am knowing is silly, but always annoys us when we see players walking along a stony path immediate adjacent to a flowing river o' lava. kinda wanna see players walk into a cavern with a'a lava flows... and die. get one o' the cutscene encounters and all choices lead to players dying from asphyxiation, lungs blistering, or literal bursting into flames.

good to know it is actual working. am suspecting the dispositions is part o' the ui which is not yet available to us as yet. https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/96154-reputations-and-factions/ HA! Good Fun!

am not recalling seeing any change to faith and convictions/deep faith (+10/+15) based 'pon dialogue choices in the beta, but given how few such opportunities we have, we wouldn't expect change neither. HA! Good Fun!

perhaps the bigger question is what impact dispositions have 'pon gameplay beyond dialog limits. as kp notes, dialogs in the deadfire beta frequent have corresponding disposition tags. one assumes there will be disposition thresholds for any number o' deadfire dialogs as there were in poe. one might assume priests and paladins will again have gameplay affected by dispositions, but other than the ability to choose denominations and orders for templars, is unclear what such limits might be. holy radiance remains a priestly ability, but to what degree do dispositions affect holy radiance... if at all? similar, dispositions were particular important for pc paladins. deep faith is now a talent with a flat modifier to all defenses. does such mean disposition aligning no longer impacts paladin defenses as were the case in poe? am also recalling developers mention o' dispositions in regards to companion and possible even factions, though to what degree a player can affect changes to the aforementioned is unclear. regardless, dispositions is in deadfire based 'pon dialog options and templar multi-class limits. example: choose kind wayfarer during character creation results in eothas as the only priest option for a prospective templar. if one checks the list o' templar possible combinations, the limitations is all based 'pon poe disposition conflicts. HA! Good Fun!

heck, if obsidian is gonna make paladins religious, then might as well make 'em all eothasian. gods don't provide poe/deadfire priests or paladins with their powhaz, so is possible for three (or more) knightly orders to interpret what it means to 'follow' eothas complete different. just like rl, eh? have equivalent o' bleak walkers, goldpact knights and kind wayfarers all s'posed dedicated to eothas. return overt religious connection to paladins and then you can get stuff like Heretic Smite and Excommunicate as paladin abilities. is too late for such a change, but coulda' been fun and intriguing from a lore pov. HA! Good Fun!

They won't understand, they'll just keep responding to each other and keep the thread alive... They haven't watched Frozen am admitted not a frozen fan. ain't gonna make our top ten disney toon flicks list. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrH8DuobJtw HA! Good Fun!

^I don't have the beta, so basing on what I've read it seemed like combat was nearly over before the wizard got a spell off - or maybe two spells for a longer fight. If that's not the case then it's probably fine. Are there faster, lower damage spells vs. slower, higher damage (or substitute damage for CC-effect/buff/malus, etc)? In which case it's a tactical decision to make. E.g. are level 1 spells faster than level 3? spell level has little impact on casting time and recovery. big damage spells typical have longer cast times. larger aoe or longer durations also typical result in spells having longer casting times, regardless of spell level. such a result shouldn't be too much o' a surprise. thrust of tattered veils is cast quick and has high penetration, but it only hits a single foe. thrust is an ideal interrupter spell. fireball (level 3) and chill fog (level 1) can both be cast before or to start combat and have slow cast times. chill fog is level 1 but it imparts the blind affliction and has a significant duration. fireball simple does big damage, although penetration is low, but against foes with poor burn armour who you can confront in an actual or functional doorway scenario, fireball is a killer. as to the speed o' combat, the beta folks is being either hyperbolic or intentional misleading. in a typical encounter, would Gromnir rare have difficulty firing off a couple fireballs, though am ordinarily not casting fireballs. am using expose vulnerabilities and other 3rd level spells before trying fireballs. didn't use fireball much in poe either as we rare have the patience to lure foes into doorway combat. if facing lagufaeth, which show up frequent in the beta, we need account for the fact that they is quick, just as they were in the poe expansion. chances are if we do not block fisheads in a functional doorway, they is gonna encircle our party before we can get a fireball cast. minoletta's bounding missiles is gonna be a superior option, eh? also, kalakoth's minor blights has been kinda op, even with the switch from might to strength. fireball is not our first choice but is for reasons other than cast time. for example, we do use chill fog (an equal slow cast) for pretty much any battle save for those which include foes immune to blind. in spite of slow cast, we use chill fog almost every encounter, and is not as if our wizards is standing 'round impotent after doing so. hell, it is not unusual for us to survive battles in which our 6-9th level wizard complete exhausts their spell repertoire and is forced to resort to weapons combat... which would be a problem save for the fact that am typical playing wizards with strength o' 5 and constitution o' 17 to take advantage o' the quirky strength v. might change. pew-pew with 5 strength wizard wielding a wand (for debilitating blows) and a tower shield is Not boosting our wizardly damage totals. regardless, am not surprised by enoch's experience with caster combat. no doubt many who has read the beta feedback regarding casting times will be shocked once they get a chance to actual play the game and realize casters is not only viable but effective in deadfire. HA! Good Fun!

there was a bug with the initial beta release which affected weapon speeds. particular if you were dual wielding sabres or something similar, combat speed were comedic fast. were benny hill yakety sax skit speed. two handed weapon speed were also relative glacial compared to one handed weapons, but there were multi class combos with paladins and assassins n' such which resulted in ridiculous high weapon damage. however, as a pure caster, there just weren't customization options which made massive damage output possible. recent builds have altered/corrected weapon speeds. however, the massive weapon damage exploits from a few multiclass combos remain. initial impressions is hard to shake... and almost nobody ever advocates nerfs. as such, the beta reaction to casting speeds is not unexpected. edit: HA! Good Fun!

multi-class combos which focus on a few exploits is still the clear win at the moment. obsidian has addressed a few o' the weapon speed issues, but am suspecting obsidian is gonna need work to reduce specific exploits if the multiclass problems is gonna be fixed. however, is not as if single-class casters are ineffective. build a vanilla deadfire deadfire beta party and your offensive caster, relying on chill fog, thrust of tattered veils, necrotic lance and fireballs is gonna be doing impressive damage w/o even need consider the value o' wizardly debuffs. is not as if casters is ineffective. however, am gonna concede the new multiclass approach has resulted in pure/vanilla casters being limited from a customization standpoint compared to poe counterparts. am feeling such is a largely necessary concession given all the potential balance problems multiclassing represents. unfortunately, building pure casters has become less fulfilling for many/most players. level-up and maybe choose a weapon proficiency and a spell. that's it? the frustration is understandable. pure casters ain't as terribad or weak as much o' the beta noise suggests. even so, there is understandable cause for frustration. HA! Good Fun!