Gromnir

as can be seen from osvir links, if one wishes to wade through such murk and muck, Gromnir has always been in favor o' a single respec opportunity, with the potential for that opportunity to be reset following a major patch that changes gameplay... such as 2.0 will. http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/70370-option-to-respec/?p=1566871 http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/70370-option-to-respec/?p=1568555 http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/71211-can-you-respec/?p=1586759 now, you can all be astounded by our prescience... or not. not take a carnac to have predicted the state o' poe at release or the likelihood o' significant developer changes thereafter. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=263eG7HfwBM regardless, we has always requested a single respec option. HA! Good Fun! ps is worth repeating that our post o' 18 march 2015 identified our continuing befuddlement regarding the interrupting blows talent. took multiple patches for obsidian to recognize that the talent in question were not modifying anything. more than a few folks chose a complete impotent talent. their role-play choice were cheapened through no fault o' their own. a limited respec option makes such inevitabilities less painful and affords the developers more time to fix such oversights as the player has a way to mitigate the developer's unintentional cheapening o' the player's character development choices.

Not humorous, just got reminded about some old ideas and some old discussions on the matter after reading the discussion about respeccing here. What I mean is not that your character "transforms" into something (be it werewolf or undead), but rather, taken out of their own body, and put in another body. That new body, that other body, will have other traits, other physique, another brain maybe even. Respecialization could become a mechanical feature this way, and a narrative short story at the same time. am not sure what is the point of your distinction. your new undead, lycanthrope, or, we-kid-you-not half-golem body from 3.5 d&d, (half-golem? Half?) is gonna have other traits and other physique, and possibly no brain whatsoever given we are talking 'bout a magical world where anything is possible. is unnecessary sophistry. *shrug* regardless,the golemization bit doesn't strike us as Necessarily a respec opportunity. moreover, if this is some kinda Serious attempt to avoid view 619's sarcastic immersion break, we believe it is wholly unnecessary and potentially counter-productive. one use o' respec is that given changes made by the developers, intentional or otherwise, respec allows the player a chance to recraft his character so that it more close matches his intended character design. for folks who built their fighter tank character with perception being their primary defensive attribute, their post 2.0 character will, through no fault o' their own, sudden become more efficacious in a dps role as 'posed to tank. developer changes with 2.0 is gonna invalidate more than a few individual role-play choices. force an additional change on the player, golemization, if they wanna see their character more close match their intended design strikes us as counter-productive and manifest unfair. now, if you wanna add a golimization opion complete separate o' respec, that would not offend our delicate role-play sensibilities. "Yes, it cheapens the decisions regarding character advancement and the interaction between the characters as characters in their own right, and the mechanical representation thereof." talk 'bout unclear on the concept. if you are arguing that bob's use o' respec, or an opportunity to respec that you never use and never plan to use nevertheless cheapens Your gameplay, then you are not offering an alternative to matt's point. you are agreeing w/o realizing. and you still ain't shown any kinda grasp o' what is strawman. we did not invent a weak argument and attribute it to you. ... is genuine surreal when dealing with luckman on this issue. is why we bring in old threads 'cause otherwise is just spam... been there and done that many times. HA! Good Fun!

we lived south o' buffalo for awhile. leafs were, at the time, kanadas' team... all the more so in the geographic area near to Gromnir. and we thought it were obvious that Gromnir were no more serious than you. HA! Good Fun!

am gonna, for the nonce, assume you is being humorous. nevertheless, there is obvious analogous rpg situations for exactly the kinda thing you speak of in your post. d&d 3.5 addressed the application o' templates to a player character. becoming undead or a lycanthrope (or dozens o' other template options) resulted in gains/ losses o' abilities, changes to saves and alteration o' level progression... if the dm allowed such. your example strikes us as fodder for template as 'posed to respec. HA! Good Fun!

Oh, Strawnir, as usual, no-one has made that argument. Actually there has been some that have made that argument in some threads concerning topic of respec in PoE, which was bit strange to me. I don't see what other argument there could be against respec, Luckmann, other than the aforementioned resource hog issue. What's your reasoning, then? What's wrong with them offering a respec option when changing core game systems that affect character builds? Does that impact your enjoyment of the game? "Immersion breaking" /sarcasm *chuckle* oh well, is gonna go off the rails quick, but luckman, as seen from the link, has some difficulty grasping strawman regardless. on-topic, we will once again observe that a change to companion paladins and faiths and convictions would be worth consideration. oh, and cassowary animal companions for rangers. HA! Good Fun!

That is an election. not necessarily. formal, organized and vote is typical inherent qualities o' an election... 'least 'ccording to basic dictionary definitions. HA! Good Fun!

*insert eye-roll here* as to your continued confusion 'bout strawman: http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/79911-the-all-priest-challenge/?p=1699870 HA! Good Fun! ps elerond is correct. every time we see such, we is mystified. other than a resource argument (which luckman did not proffer here) there don't appear to be a rational argument 'gainst respec.

you guys have elections? we always kinda figured that once a year y'all agreed to go to the same bar after a leaf's game to kinda decide stuff. HA! Good Fun!

well, to be fair, in the south they has done considerable scrubbing where the civil war is more frequent called the war between the states, and the slavery angle is significantly downplayed even in some school textbooks. the revisionist brand o' history made the war 'bout tariffs in spite o' the fact that the current tariff scheme in place at the time o' the war were actually authored by southern states. calhoun and others in the south promoted an idea o' state nullification, but the need for nullification were precisely 'cause o' disagreements 'bout slavery. the southern state declarations o' cessation invariably mentioned slavery as a fundamental point o' irreconcilable disagreement, but in the south, many kids is still taught that slavery were a propaganda issue cooked up in the north. still, removal o' civil war computer games and apps is silly... 'course we think that the whole approach to flag removal has been counter-productive, so am perhaps not the most neutral observer. HA! Good Fun!

additional link... mostly retread. http://wccftech.com/pillars-eternity-white-march-part-1-adds-characters-higher-level-cap/ HA! Good Fun!

folks being resistant to respec 'cause players other than themselves might actual use the respec is wholly irrational. think respec is a waste o' resources? sure, we get that, but whenever we hear the bass-ackwards philosophy o' the crpg purists who is offended by the indignity that a person they will never meet will possibly use respec in a game such as poe... well, we weep for future generations when we needs must read through such complaints. HA! Good Fun!

much o' Gromnir's complaints 'bout setting exposition from the companions is unfair but genuine nevertheless. you gotta ask kana or sagani 'bout their homeland and culture to get that info-- is all optional. developers have durance give us all kinda details o' saint's war, but am admitting we were less annoyed by his exposition 'cause the info were given more natural than did sagani or kana. grieving mother also had info-dumpitis but it were much more limited to the hollowborn. part o' the problem with the setting exposition from the joinables is that even though such stuff is optional, we don't necessarily know which bits is genuine and true optional. gotta dig through all dialogue options regardless to make certain we didn't miss an important quest trigger. may sound like a silly meta-game solution, but if the developers were more clear 'bout which companion dialogue options were pure setting exposition, we could then feel as if skipping such, or at least delaying, were not hampering companion quest advancement. make us feel that delaying is not hampering companion quest advancement would actual go far in mitigating the impression that companions is in auto-exposition mode. regardless, we gotta admit that is not as if the companions is forcing 'pon us ridiculous details 'bout how the coriolis effect is real in the poe world. we gotta ask for such details 'fore they give. however, given the gameplay aspect o' companion quests, we never feel as if companion dialogues is functional optional. our complaints is thus unfair, but genuine. as an aside, we wanted to like grieving mother, but it were hard. well, like is wrong word as she were a deeply disturbed lady. the initial hook were sufficient. the creepy wrist windchimes, and the mind-bending midwife angle were all working to make us want more from grieving mother. unfortunately, she never got past the gimmick stage for us. she had her crisis o' faith, which were overcome simple 'cause Gromnir told her that her soul were strong? grieving mother were a particular fail for us 'cause we were initial intrigued, but became less so. anybody seen the tv show called deadwood? a character named swearengen had a fun kinda relationship with a prostitute named trixie. warning: the following is sweary and crude, but it sums up the dialogue option we wished we woulda' had available to us after the fifth or sixth time we had to deal with grieving mother's alter-state nonsense... is sweary. is extreme sweary. if moderators remove, we complete understand, but am warning again, jic. durance were equal as loopy as grieving mother, but he were far more real to us. the frothing zealot ultimately learns that he is betrayed by his goddess. his rage is believable. as ridiculous as durance frequent is, given that he is developed as a sweaty-toothed religious maniac, his excess o' color is curiously reasonable. his eventual choice, as played in Gromnir games, is wholly understandable given that the context that durance is a deranged fanatic who sees much o' the world as a decayed old-growth forest in need o' a firestorm cleansing and rebirth, with durance gleeful starting the blaze. grieving mother and durance is both broken creatures, but we get durance's rage where we never connected with grieving mother's... loopiness. perhaps if we had ever taken lsd, grieving mother and Gromnir woulda connected. HA! Good Fun!

is arguably spoilery (yes, we said spoilery) so consider yourself warned. http://nichegamer.com/2015/06/latest-pillars-of-eternity-update-reveals-new-character-details/ HA! Good Fun!

am actually gonna suggest the opposite. a large % of possible foes ignore engagement altogether. some others have rational ai, but the ai is a bit too simple-- go straight for your squishies. given how predictable the ai is, it is easy to position your off-tank to exploit hold the line. for the most part, enemies will engage your tank whether the tank has hold the line or not. if your tank is first to engage, poe enemies will attack the tank regardless o' whether it is a paladin w/o hold the line, or a fighter in defender mode. we typical end up taking hold the line for our paladin tanks, and we give 'em a weapon that increases engagement by 1, but based on considerable paladin tank gameplay, doing so is not actual necessary to hold enemies. a doorway is a far better option for holding foes, and there is no shortage o' doorways in poe. HA! Good Fun! ps is easy to see when engagement doesn't hold a foe. converse, is much harder to determine if engagement actual is what held an enemy. with eder playing the off-tank role, we get far too many free disengagement attacks for hold the line to be working particular well as a defensive ability/talent.

http://news.softpedia.com/news/pillars-of-eternity-the-white-march-reveals-new-companions-updated-features-485242.shtml not much new save for a few details 'bout the companions. HA! Good Fun!

am thinking that hold the line is misunderstood. is the name that makes it misleading. hold the line is not 'bout holding enemies, it's 'bout making those enemies pay when they try and get past you. hold the line isn't a defensive ability as much as a potent offensive talent for front-liners. for a tank with wretched accuracy, hold the line does not offer much o' a pay-off. conversely, for a high accuracy off-tank that is preventing possible flankers, hold the line will generate much pain 'pon the enemy. HA! Good Fun!

... uncanny. we can actual suffer brain-freeze sensation from reading vol posts. HA! Good Fun!

This may sound very "Bah Humbug" we would say predictable rather than bah humbug. no biggie the thing we specific recall from recent josh interviews is his recognition that the criticism that later parts o' the game became too easy for far too many players was a justified complaint and that the developers were taking steps to fix that problem. am not sure what the fix is. scaling of at least the major encounters would be a good start... could even make it optional scaling as with the expansion material. regardless, while the decreasing late game difficulty were not addressed in the video or other recent expansion news, josh did address the problem and admitted that change were desirable. is still a head scratcher problem given how certain the obsidian folks seemed regarding xp progression. adding token lock and exploration and bestiary xp were no biggie precisely 'cause o' the complete awareness the obsidians had o' xp awards and the ease with which they could balance such awards. clearly the notion that level 12 would require a dedicated completionist and would only be attainable in the extreme late portions o' the game were a misapprehension. somewhere along the way, the xp calculations were flubbed, and not in a small way. as matt observes, the late game, critical path encounters appear balanced for level 9-10 and levels confer significant power in poe. oh well, whatever were the cause, the developers is not only aware o' the xp issue, but they admitted that it were a valid concern. am expecting some kinda adjustment... though whether the changes is sufficient will require gameplay. HA! Good Fun!

more on soulbound weapons. http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3706905&userid=0&perpage=40&pagenumber=555#post446991217 HA! Good Fun!

the ie mod is 3rd party and has resulted in some quirks in the past. am understanding why some folks might avoid the ie mod, but it is good that you bring the mod up as an alternative, 'cause baring a developer option, it may be the only alternative available short o' restarting the game. HA! Good Fun!

... am confused. fact that poe is using an attribute distribution familiar to those who saw those suggestions made by matt516 and yourself is cause for additional sensuki caterwauling, or rejoicing? HA! Good Fun! Haha - I think he's remarking on the fact that if that change is made, it'll be not similar to (which it already was), but pretty much exactly what we suggested. Only difference would be the numerical values of the boni - though an important one to be sure. the numerical values is indeed important, but again, shouldn't it be a positive to you and sensuki that obsidian is gonna, for at least this incarnation o' poe, use an attribute distribution so familiar to you both? you seem pleased. the change is a good thing, yes? does sensuki seem pleased? is a question. HA! Good Fun!

... am confused. fact that poe is using an attribute distribution familiar to those who saw those suggestions made by matt516 and yourself is cause for additional sensuki caterwauling, or rejoicing? HA! Good Fun!

the closest thing we ever got to a confirmation regarding the perception changes for 1.07 (now 2.0?) which we assumed were coming based on a bug, were the following: http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/80214-106-hotfix-live-on-steam/?p=1703332 josh answered a few questions about respec and perception today in the 2.0 announcement thread: http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/80445-update-99-announcing-the-expansion-and-update-20/ HA! Good Fun!

I was just talking to Roby and Adam about a respec feature. It's a little complicated, but it's not something we're opposed to and we're going to look into the logistics of implementing it. I know that's vague but character creation and advancement are complicated and sometimes seemingly simple things are quite difficult. With some of the new scaling, I've been tuning down some of the other means of powering up base abilities (like Talents). Until now, Talents were one of the only mechanical ways that we could scale some abilities up. again, thanks for the feedback. if respec cannot be done without breaking the game, we understand, but no doubt you can understand the frustration more than a few folks will feel when they realize that their carefully crafted build no longer performs quite the same given the depth and breadth o' the forthcoming changes. HA! Good Fun!

Doesn't that only affect PC Priests? NPC Priests might need the scaling. am glad you bring that up, 'cause if we are speaking o' the need for npc priest scaling that they do not get from favored dispositions, one wonders if a similar boost for companion paladins is forthcoming. faith and convictions bonuses from dispositions is a very powerful benefit for a pc paladin, particularly for a tank. this benefit will actually be relative enhanced now that perception's deflection bonus has been nixed. so, is there any option for scaling companion paladin faith and convictions? we has suggested a talent or ability, but it would be odd that holy radiance would get a buff but not faith and convictions, yes? HA! Good Fun!