Gromnir

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2016/03/24/a-japanese-fleet-killed-333-whales-for-research/ one can only dream o' the countless scientific discoveries that will flow outta japan now that their research program has resumed. ... am suspecting that the discoveries will be limited to enhanced efficiency o' dispatching large, marine mammals... and perhaps a few curious culinary advances. am predicting an iron chef special/reunion with whale liver as the secret ingredient. HA! Good Fun!

typical. a misattribution o' an opine to josh sawyer regarding his willingness to do a poe sequel? *snort* is similar to how the poe-as-spiritual-successor nonsense got started. the genesis poster seems to wish to perpetuate old mistakes in addition to creating a new one. *sigh* that being said, the last thing we want is "godlike heights" and "epic levels." even a good rule system will inevitable crumble as you add more and more... features. d&d 3.0 is actual a decent example of a good system gone bad. oh, sure, harm and 1-level-of-ranger/rogue were initial flaws, but any new system is gonna have growing pains. unfortunate, with every new splat-book and setting expansion, new and "better" were introduced, resulting in new and better ways to break an otherwise decent system. ever more ridiculous spells, feats and prestige classes contributed to the eventual ruin o' 3.0. similarly, following the almost comic book-style narrative one upmanship the wotc writers employed, the most popular d&d settings became a increasingly gut clench worthy. each new supplement resulted in less internal logic and worsening balance. am thinking that for any sequel, the developers need be very careful o' increasing power levels. refine what they already got? sure. poe needs refinement, but am thinking we has already witnessed how the addition o' new and more powerful gear, spells/abilities and talents is already stretching poe mechanics to the logical limits. is gonna be difficult for obsidian to do otherwise than to give marc what he and others wish. there is gonna be an expectation from many fans that poe2 will provide an additional dozen levels. even so, am hopeful that the developers take a step back and recognize just how much they can do to improve the current world and level-scheme they got in place. obsidian did iwd2 not bg2. the same core o' developers also had a hand in nwn2 and kotor2. the black isle and obsidian folks has shown a willingness to do a sequel that returns the protagonist to square-one. heck, even bioware, since bg2 and tob, has seen the wisdom o' avoiding level-bloat. for mass effect and dragon age, bioware had sequels return to level 1. we got a much longer list o' what we do wish from poe2, but for the moment we will simple observe that more is rare better when it comes to a rule system, and we hope that obsidian avoids the epic level trap for poe2. HA! Good Fun!

You are dead to me. indiana jones and lara croft is a bit different... though we has always thought that lucas didn't genuine understand the appeal of indiana jones. honest. lucas seemed to believe that indiana jones were camp. the character and movies were intended as a tongue-in-cheek homage to the b-movie adventure flicks o' a bygone era. am s'posing that is why so much o' the sequel movie content went over poorly with fans. stuff that lucas thought were campy fun, such as short round and aliens in south america, typical didn't go over quite as well with audiences. raiders of the lost ark were 'posed to be camp. for Gromnir, it wasn't. oh sure, there were moments o' humor in indiana jones, but perhaps we were too young to realize that we weren't s'posed to take indiana jones and nazis searching for magical treasures in the deserts o' north africa with any degree o' seriousness. we don't know lara croft as we has never actual played the games, but to an outsider, the appeal o' the character would seem to be different. to us, lara croft were not so much trying to replicate the appeal o' indiana jones so much as it were trying to one-up pitfall harry. as to daisy being too soft for the role, we will observe that linda hamilton were far more soft before the second terminator film. http://www.writeups.org/img/inset/Sarah_Connor_h1.jpg compared to https://s2.graphiq.com/sites/default/files/7522/media/images/t2/The_Terminator_6828440.jpg or http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMzUzMjE4MDE2M15BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwOTU2NjU0MQ@@._V1_SX640_SY720_.jpg ... am s'posing that the actress transformations o' linda hamilton and jessica biel from too soft is why we is so disappointed with gal gadot's wonder woman efforts. even so, is no reason to believe daisy can't be hard... if that is the direction intended for the character. HA! Good Fun!

speaking o' nitpicks, why is there a need to make analogous to d&d attributes? poe resolve is not d&d charisma d&d, nor is it 'posed to be as far as we can tell. poe resolve represents will and purpose, which is why durance has high resolve. is arguable that durance has crummy charisma, but am understanding why the developers and writers o' poe would see durance as being resolute. resolve boosting deflection is the abstract quality o' the poe attribute. somehow in the poe universe, strength o' will adds to deflection, but resolve insofar as ordinary dictionary definitions is not an abstract concept. is not charisma. is not 'posed to be charisma-by-another-name. poe might? is more abstract than even resolve and while it largely follows the mechanical role o' d&d strength, it has not a specific d&d analogue insofar far as representing the qualities o' a personages character. IF might represents some kinda quality o' the poe character, it is a largely unseen and enigmatic descriptor o' o' the being's soul. is not d&d strength that represents a character's physical brawn. poe perception is not the same as d&d wisdom. the actual oddity o' perception is not how poe uses perception but rather how d&d has, at least since 3.0, used wisdom to represent both good judgement, but also as some kinda modifier o' situational awareness. johnny manziel could arguable have fantastic perception, but am doubting anybody would think to call him wise, yes? play football at a high level, particularly at the qb position, requires amazing awareness. conscious (or unconscious) recognize dozens (hundreds) o' small details simultaneously while being chased by multiple men weighing 'tween 250lb-350lb, men o' who is intent on slamming you to the ground with force similar to a car crash, requires near preternatural perception. be a qb at college or pro level, as has been shown many times, does not require any kinda wisdom. etc. discussion o' poe attribute strengths and fails will be more productive if the d&d baggage is abandoned at the door. HA! Good Fun! ps one quibble we got with josh presentation and comments regarding the poe attribute system is the insistence on referencing the intelligent poe barbarian as some kinda representation o' the diversity possible with poe characters. *snort* one o' our main gripes regarding the poe classes (not attributes) is that the barbarian is integral linked to carnage. we can make a low intellect poe mage who focuses only on single-target spells that have instant durations, but try and make a decent poe barbarian with crappy intellect. one fail o' poe classes is that for the barbarian, intellect is not much o' an option. carnage is a class defining ability o' the barbarian (which is 'posed antithetical to poe philosophy) and intellect is necessary to fully realize carnage. for josh to continue using the example o' the smarty poe barbarian to illustrate points 'bout freedom o' the poe attribute system strikes us as intellectual dishonest.

dr is often rock/paper/scissors. developers near always leave one or two best or better options for overcoming dr, so even if you can't lower dr, you can use paper to cover rock. even so, there is multiple dr reducing or bypass options. is weapons that have dr bypass. use an estoc bolstered by vulnerable attacks? can have your cipher use body attunement. can have pallegina simple laugh at foe dr after using wrath of the five suns. etc. and yeah, increasing damage output is another blunt approach to overcoming dr. petrify an enemy doesn't lower dr, but it significantly increases damage done to the petrified foe. got a high dr opponent that is subject to petrify? *shrug* in any event, there is options for reducing dr, but mostest obvious approach for overcoming is rock/paper/scissors. HA! Good Fun!

Okay, so after hearing "isometric Dragon Age 2", this is about the SECOND harshest way I think you could describe the game. However, just because Oblivion completely sucked at using this kind of system, doesn't mean it has to, too. dunno. in a perfect scenario, improve-by-use might not be complete dreck. less crpg and more "linear" helps improve-by-use systems as the number o' possible uses o' _________ becomes more predictable and less subject to degenerative gameplay. regardless, one needs do considerable mental and practical gymnastics to prevent improve-by-use from being anything other than moab. come up with a good improve-by-use mechanic is a curious thought experiment, but poor game design even so. obvious solution is to avoid improve-by-use rather than expending considerable effort to keep such an easily broken approach from breaking. HA! Good Fun! ps am not using "moab" to reference a place in utah. pam from archer knows where Gromnir is coming from on this. apologies as is nsfw.

yeah, the fact that we can use a single paladin to replace a fighter AND a priest in a potential party loadout is quite the boon. am knowing we said this earlier, but this thread reminds us o' a few o' the very early, and largely dismissed, post release paladin complaint threads. "shortly after release there were considerable criticism o' the paladin... which we didn't get. claims that fighters were better tanks than paladins seemed wholly misguided. after all, the paladin were a support class. the observation that the paladin, while effective enough in the tank role, 'could support far better than any fighter build, were seeming ignored. another frequent complaint o' the paladin were that it were not as effective in support as a priest. 'course such folks ignored the fact that paladins were far more resilient than priests and that they typically required less micromanagement than a priest. claim that priests were better than paladins in support mighta' even have been true, but such claims ignored that priests and paladins played very different and that both were effective at supporting a party. not as good as a fighter at tanking and not as good at support than a priest were s'posed a meaningful critique. misguided." we revealed a support paladin earlier in this thread, one that had the kinda overkill deflection that is the prime determinant o' tanky success. our tanky henchman paladin also had numerous, powerful, per-encounter support abilities that no fighter main character or henchman could replicate. in our illustration, we described how our paladin actual responded in ordinary combat encounters. our henchman paladin were hardly optimized, but am thinking it took little imagination to see that she would be effective in a potd run. wanna play a ranged-support paladin with a bit more dps? is not only viable but extreme effective. we got a few wood elf archers who make efficient use o' the per-kill abilities. our bow wielding paladins is not tanky, but they is still resilient and their auras is more likely to affect the second-row party members. 'course other folks offered a few striker paladin builds as an alternative to Gromnir's tank-support hybrid. for laughs we built a non-optimized, human striker paladin that wields peasant weapons. is not our favorite poe character build, but it is a potent dps paladin... even w/o a few obvious optimizations such as death godlike and savage attacks. heck, we had the paladin in relative crappy gear and you can see that he were critting frequent and doing considerable damage... even as we purposeful avoided using immolation. used durance's staff as our primary weapon. we also did not petrify any foes to inflate our high damage totals. "bog guardian" is toughest kill 'cause we were using primarily on the mowrghek ien map o' a potd run, so it weren't as if we were facing the wimps o' poe to generate numbers. is a pretty straightforward striker. cast liberating exhortation on self for the +10 accuracy and then kill stuff. wait a moment or two to choose who to target with sworn enemy, likely after a priest or druid debuff on foes, then wade in and use flames o' devotion to make the enemy disappear. maybe use forge master gloves to create a fire brand for extra laughs. *shrug* at some point, given all the folks who is disagreeing with brim, folks who is supplying specific builds supported by screenies and tactics, a reasonable person might consider that the problem might not be with the paladin class. could be a problem o' expectations. could be something else. dunno. regardless, am thinking that nothing said in this thread will change brim's mind. he needs see to believe, though am not certain what is causing his selective paladin blindness. the only reason why we posted as many times as we have is 'cause we suspect that there is other critics o' the paladin reading the thread, and perhaps those folks is actual a bit more open-minded. HA! Good Fun!

not wearing a helmet, on a dirt bike with no lights, at night, wearing dark clothing, is not only more likely to cause an accident, but is more likely to result in a fatal accident. that being said, our cousin works as an er nurse at a major midwestern hospital. she says she is actual relieved when motorcyclists don't wear helmets, 'cause they is more likely to die at the scene o' the accident. am guessing she has seen some particular grisly motorcycle accidents where an individual survived 'cause o' a helmet. poor bastards.

if that is the new formulation, then Gromnir would be okie dokie with that. as noted elsewhere, the difference 'tween +8/+17 and +10/+20 is significant but not huge. we could live with it. however, obsidian specific mentioned that no changes to faith and convictions bonuses for main characters was intended with 3.0. we were told that the problem (+8/+17) would be fixed. all we really need is an explanation that makes sense. HA! Good Fun!

if you are trying to build a dps/striker paladin, Pallegina Order Abilities > Protagonist Orders Abilities *fixed* if you wanna dps as a paladin, pallegina is your best option. you can still play an effective ranged or melee striker paladin, but pallegina will best you. so, fixed, but not wholly relevant. in poe you are able to build a resilient and low maintenance support-class character using multiple paladin orders. 'course that issue has been ground into hamburger over the course o' multiple pages. you do not like the per-encounter abilities or do not believe that such abilities is actual useful. many other folks disagree. fine. play another class. is a relative large number o' classes, which by necessity means that such classes is more distinct and narrow tailored. is axiomatic that more genuine unique classes offered by obsidian, the more likely it becomes that you won't like one or more o' those class offerings. if the per-encounter support abilities don't work for you, then don't play a mc paladin. HA! Good Fun!

http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/85411-faith-convictions-now-still-always/ fight the power, brother. this is one o' those "bugs" that has endured since 3.0. has been repeated reassurances that the issue was, or would be addressed. ... the thing is, am no longer certain what bonuses main character faith and convictions is 'posed to provide, but we do know that +8/+17 is inexplicable. with base +4/+8, we can find no way to end with +8/+17 if the player has maxed dispositions. a good starting point would be for the obsidian folks to at least tell us what post 3.0 faith and convictions bonuses should be. HA! Good Fun!

well, if that is all you want, then consider the possibility o' doing both two-handed and sword & board with a peasant weapon focus. all you genuine need for the high deflection you want with a paladin is the sword and shield talent, the outworn buckler and a resolve that ain't in the basement. keep your dispositions maxed (and wait for faith and convictions to be fixed) and you will have the kinda overkill deflection and reflex saves you wish. add superior deflection eventually and/or make as a shieldbearer to use modified lay-on-hands to increase your own deflection. as we suggested peasant, you will also be able to use hatchets if you feel you need extra deflection in a battle... and bitter harvest is an underrated tank weapon for a fire spamming paladin, no? in addition to burning lash it gots the deflection boosting quality all hatchets provide, plus it gots dr bypass. as for reliably chopping up cc'd mobs, am gonna again suggest going with peasant weapons. that gets you spears, hatchets and staves. spears give increased accuracy, which is nice given that initially you will have average accuracy at best. too many builds is endgame. am thinking folks forget that more than half the game is played at mid and lower levels, and the increased accuracy from spears ain't something to sneeze at for the early and mid-level paladin. ritezzi's thorn can be purchased in dyrford and the vile loaner's lance is available relative early. even better is cladhalíath, a spear that you can custom add numerous different unique qualities. for chopping up cc'd foes, we personal recommend stun-on-crit PLUS +20% damage to prone/stunned/flanked foes. am more a fan o' wild orlans for tanks, but possibly go hearth orlan for the increased crit chance. as stated earlier in the thread, we would also suggest apprentice sneak attack. oh, and you can still have durance's staff and forge master gloves equipped. durance's staff is one o' the more underrated weapons in the game with reach quality and unique crush/burn damage type. make sure to take scion of flame and intense flames. vulnerable attack is gonna benefit any melee weapon type, so is worth considering, but am still thinking you got room for two-handed weapons. players switch 'tween ranged and melee all the time. you can switch 'tween shield and a two-hand weapon. honest, flames of devotion + scion of flame + intense flames + forge master gloves = dead enemies. sworn enemy is not a cc'd mob killer's choice, but is gonna guarantee that at least one foe in each battle is gonna be owned by you. earlier in the game, sworn enemy will help you overcome indifferent accuracy when facing wolves or trolls or whatnot. later in the game it will finally start being useful in boss battles. as for race, death godlike is an obvious choice for extra kill, but we wouldn't ignore orlan for the bonus crit chance or the defense bonus. also might consider island aumaua for the free weapon set. am thinking you need recognize that your character is not gonna be particular varied in support... 'cause you want a character that fills multiple roles with a class that isn't ideal suited for the roles you wish. monk gets you what you want easily, but monk is seeming not an option. well then, am thinking you gotta accept that you will need make some hard choices. HA! Good Fun!

pallegina may be a better option as her unique abilities is arguably superior for dps than any of the main character or henchmen options. take wrath of the five suns, intense flames, scion of flames and eventual immolation. also consider going two-handed weapons and apprentice sneak attack. oh, and get the forgemaster gloves. forgemaster give 3 per rest firebrand, which creates a two-handed universal weapon that does burn damage. for paladin abilities other than fire stuff, knock yourself out as it is all flavor. *chuckle* might as well get inspiring triumph as you will be killing frequent. HA! Good Fun!

step 1: choose the monk class. ... rest is easy. *shrug* there is some nice striker paladin builds around, but you are actual creating contrary to the original design concept. flames of devotion, and dps building talents/abilities were late additions to the paladin class... were concessions to a vocal handful o' folks that pined for more dps from what were original conceived as a low-maintenance and highly resilient support class that were focused on per encounter abilities. monk is actual already what you are asking for, but w/o the support aspect. HA! Good Fun!

more appropriate folk song. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kcik02ULOlM HA! Good Fun!

am thinking aarik had a long day. after awhile all the numbers likely start doing a kinda fantasia dance in the noggin. is difficult to see things clear. the thing is, am thinking that we is finally on the right track. am seeing movement in the right direction. all we need is to have obsidian explain how faith & convictions is 'posed to work and how it will work when it is fixed. faith and convictions bonuses from dispositions is currently inexplicable to Gromnir. am not seeing how to go from base +4/+8 to +8/+17 utilizing the incremental disposition bonuses that existed pre 3.01. am genuine baffled by the math that has +4/+8 become +8/+17. even so, it appears that the folks at obsidian realize that a problem exists. is a good first step. before the fix is implemented, we must needs make sure that the fix actual addresses the problem, but at least now we is hopeful. our inner jules were getting agitated. HA! Good Fun!

grace rules. am typical not a shieldbearer, but from a recent potd run you should be able to see that our paladin is formidable. grace is a hireling, so she don't have optimal faith and convictions. is pre-battle, so no buffs save gear and +3 intellect from the stronghold. no food or scrolls or active spells. for grace we boosted intellect and resolve and went average everything else. 137 deflection is more than enough to snooze our way through most potd battles, but we can use lay on hands on our self to get that to 149 and have and additional 176 endurance to play with. priest casts crown of the faithful? our perception, intellect and resolve go through the roof. as you can see, grace has decent accuracy with battle axes and swords. she hits stuff often enough to hold baddies. most battles has grace starting off by using a reinforcing exhortation on a squishy, or simply hitting somebody with flames of devotion (110 accuracy?) which confers +10 deflection to nearby allies. depending on the kinda enemy faced, we will then typical use a liberating exhortation opportunity on those party mates most likely to be targeted with a debilitating hostile effect. once the enemies is softened up a bit by priest/wizard/druid/cipher debuffs, likely we go to immolation, which thanks to our ridiculous intellect covers a sizeable portion o' the battlefield and lasts forever. we get 3 per rest of hastening exhortation, meaning we can use it once every-other-battle... or thereabouts. without any priestly or food buffs, hastening for grace lasts 48 seconds, or pretty much an entire battle. etc. the only thing our fighter-tank has that we genuine wish we had for our paladin-tanks is charge. 'course that would be overkill and would only be situationally useful as we don't wanna out-range our zealous focus. HA! Good Fun!

do we now receive points for the fourth disposition? am asking 'cause in the past we only received bonuses for tiers 1-3. but again, am curious how, starting at base +4/+8, Gromnir and everybody else ends at +8/+17. what does each level o' positive disposition confer as of 3.02? if am currently getting benefits from 6 instances of bonus dispositions, then how do we go from +4/+8 to +8/+17? am admitting that Gromnir may be missing something very obvious. HA! Good Fun!

ok, two separate issues. 1) how does the math result in +8/+17 even with a penalty from disfavored? a penalty which we do not have btw. 2) huh? why would we add the deep faith talent to show our faith and conviction bonuses? deep faith is an additional bonus, yes? "ps just to clarify. current base deflection/defenses for faith and convictions is +4/+8. one would expect that maxed dispositions would provide an additional +6/+12 as obsidian stated that no changes to disposition based faith and conviction bonuses were intended with 3.01. +1/+2 for each tier o' disposition advancement, yes? that is how it has worked since... always? while dispositions allow for a tier 4, faith and convictions stops giving bonuses at 3. with two paladin relevant dispositions, that means we got 6 individual opportunities to receive faith and conviction related bonuses-- +6/+12. so, max possible is +10/+20, yes?" should be +10/+20 BEFORE deep faith. explain +8/+17 in the absence of deep faith. with a starting point of +4/+8, how does Gromnir or you end with +8/+17 with maxed dispositions? is possible Gromnir is missing something, so please explain +8/+17. HA! Good Fun!

when fighting monks, drop a seal o' repulsion underneath your squishies before initiating combat, then make sure to hit the collected monks with something that reduces fortitude saves. no doubt one or two o' the monks will do the flagellant's path thing straight to whomever in your party has the worst deflection, but even if your seal only grazes the monks who sudden appear in your midst, that will be more than enough time for your rogue to hit 'em with tall grass and effectively perma-prone them. HA! Good Fun!

even if we had disfavored, how would that result in +8/+17? that being said, no stoic and no cruel for our darcozzi paladini. will try and get a save later. HA! Good Fun!

see, our concern is that it is "fixed." "ps just to clarify. current base deflection/defenses for faith and convictions is +4/+8. one would expect that maxed dispositions would provide an additional +6/+12 as obsidian stated that no changes to disposition based faith and conviction bonuses were intended with 3.01. +1/+2 for each tier o' disposition advancement, yes? that is how it has worked since... always? while dispositions allow for a tier 4, faith and convictions stops giving bonuses at 3. with two paladin relevant dispositions, that means we got 6 individual opportunities to receive faith and conviction related bonuses-- +6/+12. so, max possible is +10/+20, yes?" +8/+17 for faith and convictions when dispositions are maxed? explain. with base +4 deflection and +8 all other defenses, please explain +8/+17 for a level 13 paladin with 4 in both relevant dispositions. perhaps you mean that it is "fixed" insofar as that is how it is and that is how it is gonna stay? definite. firm. broken forever more? am being a smidge snarky, but it doesn't appear that the problem has been corrected, even if faiths and convictions is fixed. HA! Good Fun!

in our most recent potd run, we got excellent use outta devil. against nasty monks at level 12? alpha strike then send send paladin tank and a monk off-tank into the p00p first. onrushing monks is gonna be momentarily occupied by tanks and disabled by slicken or whatnot. chances are that by now multiple monks is prone, weakened, terrified, and flanked. at this point devil switches from gun to tidefall or tall grass, and bolstered by paladin's lay-on, liberating or reinforcing exhortations... and likely a priestly buff such as crowns for the faithful, wades into the mix near one o' our tanky front-liners, and wrecks terrible havoc on lightly armoured monks. *shrug* HA! Good Fun!

http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/85155-faith-and-conviction-nerf/?p=1790165 ... am having a jules winnfield moment here fellas. so tell us you fixed it...one more g0d damned time. kidding. sorta. HA! Good Fun! ps warning: sweary link

faith and convictions is, at the moment, inexplicable to Gromnir. http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/85143-26gb-steam-download-302b/?p=1786371 http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/83952-v300929-px1-steam-faith-and-conviction-nerfed-of-bugged/?p=1786366 we got a save from ninth level main character paladin with maxed dispositions that has the same faith and convictions bonuses as when he reaches 13th level, so faith and convictions in this patch is no longer level-based. ... am perplexed and am waiting for any kinda feedback from obsidian before we continue with our paladin. that being said, in all fairness, our expectations as 'posed to reality is not resulting in a major difference in gameplay. our expectations were that with 3.1, maxed dispositions bonuses to faith and convictions would result in +10 deflection and +20 to all other defenses for a main character paladin. the current (busted?) faith and convictions is actual providing +8/+17. is not a huge difference. HA! Good Fun! ps just to clarify. current base deflection/defenses for faith and convictions is +4/+8. one would expect that maxed dispositions would provide an additional +6/+12 as obsidian stated that no changes to disposition based faith and conviction bonuses were intended with 3.01. +1/+2 for each tier o' disposition advancement, yes? that is how it has worked since... always? while dispositions allow for a tier 4, faith and convictions stops giving bonuses at 3. with two paladin relevant dispositions, that means we got 6 individual opportunities to receive faith and conviction related bonuses-- +6/+12. so, max possible is +10/+20, yes?