MunoValente

Obsidian merely just merged and then implemented both of them. Sounds like something I said in May: Although this had nothing to do with getting rid of high level per encounter spells, it was related to a complaint the wizards didn't have much to do per encounter at lower and middle levels.

If they are going to do it this way, which I think is a fine way of doing it, I don't think they should wait until level 9, they should start at level 7 or perhaps 5. Casters need more per encounter abilities earlier in the game and by making this weaker, that should allow it to be available earlier. I'd also like to see talents that increase the amount of mastered spell uses.

My biggest peeve with her is that you can't restore health. I was using her as melee DPS with Grey Sleeper and she was doing well, but she was getting knocked out a lot, but only after she had done a ton of damage, but she was always the first person low enough on health to make me want to camp and I couldn't use wounding binding or field triage on her. If anything I think her background should make her easier to restore to health, it's not like she's bleeding out all of the place and needs natural healing process. Throw her a built in wounding binding type of ability as part of her background and I'd be happy.

So why can't Defender be active at the same time as Savage Attack or Cautious Attack? Why does Gallant Focus turn off Vicious Aim rather than simply not stack it's bonus? A better solution seems like nearby allies should get the bonus, but not the Ranger if you don't want them to stack.

That's not true, there are a bunch modals you can have active at the same time. Unfortunately the game gives you no indications on which ones you can use together and which ones you can't.

I've done this pretty much every time I've done that quest, it only requires 17 resolve, so it's not that tough of a requirement with some gear and rest bonuses. You only need to sneak one person though and it will initiate dialogue with your main character even if they weren't the one doing the sneaking.

My issue with more expansions is that my load times were mostly fine until White March was added but since then they have been poor, at least later in game. I read somewhere that load times were related to how many places you've visited and explored and if that is the case more expansions would just make things worse and worse. The load times aren't too big of a deal in places like Durgan's Battery or Cragholdt or other wilderness areas, where you don't load much, but doing the Twin Elms content after the expansion content has been a horrible slog of slow loading screens. If they want to add more expansions, they need to work out a way to make the late game loading times much better. It kind of reminds of playing New Vegas on a console after several of the DLC came out.

As far as I know you can go up two levels with lockpicks, but not 3. So if you have 5 mechanics, one lockpick can open a 6 or 3 can open a 7, but you cant open 8s at all.

You can do one or do more than one. Gives you a chamce to hear all their offers before choosing. Doing the one for galawain unlocks some conversations with durance.

Do the priest abilities that add to specific weapon types work with universal weapons? Nightshroud seems like it should be good with a priest of Skaen, but normally a mace wouldn't benefit from Prey on the Weak.

Has any game ever successfully implemented pick pocketing that wasn't driven by lame save scum mechanics? I remember one of my disappointments with New Vegas was that they got rid of most save scum mechanics, with the notable exception of pick pocketing and on top that you needed to do lame tricks like reverse pickpocket armor and weapons onto to people to get some of the unique items.

I've been using Greenstone on Aloth toward the end of my current game because I didn't really have anyone else to use it and it's better doing better than expected and he doesn't have very high might. Would be nice if priests could use Greenstone though.

First time I did White March, I ended up completely respeccing my Ranger 90% of the way through the game to become a twinned arrows/stormcaller user, rather than quick switch/arquebus user. It was worth it and the game lets you do it, but it is a fairly jarring change in style.

Yeah 4x slicken or chill fog per encounter is a bit much, but at the same time I think having something per encounter is good, which is why I think making it something 1 per encounter, plus 4 more per rest, would be a better balance. Perhaps up it to 2 per encounter at even higher levels or with a talent. Even better I think would be regenerating 1 per encounter, that way if you go a few fights without using them you can end up with a full load again or you can just use one per battle and immediately get it back.

Thinking about it a little more, the only item I'm really annoyed about being random is Gloves of Manipulation, pretty much every other random item is much easier to work around or has some vaguely similar replacement. Maybe Boots of Speed as well, but that is about it.

I could see giving a high might wizard a staff or pike for trash mob fights, they even have a spell that gives them a staff, Concelhaut's Parasitic Staff. Wizards are one of the classes that can use Greenstone Staff.

When in doubt I take spirit slaying because I hate spirits and their teleporting.

Main thing that makes me to not want to take defender now is that is doesn't work with Savage Attack and for no good reason, I wanted use to it with a character more focused on damage dealing than defense, but still tough enough to be in the frontline. The engagements are useful and if your fighter has good Con they should still survive pretty well even with the penalty. Wary Defender is really boring, although it might be worth taking at higher levels when there aren't as many other good options.

When I completed Feara's quest in the White March I got her to admit what she was doing and agreed to stay quiet about it. A while later back the stronghold I received a bunch of money, some svef and note called "Mysterious Missive" signed by "M'"; does anyone know who M' is or if I can do anything else related to this letter?

Sleeping at the stronghold triggers their conversations and there is more reason to do that now that the stronghold rest bonuses are better. That you can do it as much as you want to try to trigger their quests with no real cost. You don't really need to them party that long, usually if I get one of their dreams in Chapter 2, I kick them out of the party until chapter 3 and can usually get their next vision pretty quickly after that, I got them both between the start of chapter 3 before getting to Twin Elms this most recent time. Durance's last conversation is very specifically triggered by something very late in the main story, so no amount of keeping him around will help with. The bigger issue is that is no real guide or transparency on what the specific triggers are. Some of Aloth's triggers are hard to know about as well and he even has some important conversations you can miss after you finish his quest.

I was able to take the ring with Aloth. When I saved both and got the ring with Aloth, I used gear/food to boost his CON, PER, STR by at least two each, and a scroll to get his athletics to 6. I didn't pass any survival checks. The scenario doesn't show all the checks, some you don't know about unless you are high enough and one of them, a check for PER 14, near the start was needed for me being successful with low survival.

Some of the checks in the expansion are really high, although I think if you used the brighthollow resting bonus that adds to mechanics, you could still open most of them, if you're willing to use a few lockpicks. Of course getting the +2 mechanics resting bonus means you're not getting another better resting bonus for your entire party. Finding some of those scrolls that raise mechanics can help with tough locks as well, not as useful for finding secrets though, if you don't already know where they are, and those scrolls are rare. If gloves of manipulation were in a shop, I'd seriously spend like 20,000 gold on them. I think selling a few of the more unique random accessories in shops, even at very high prices would a nice way find a better balance of random and not random.

I was having Pallegina use it, just took her armor off for a few trash mob battles and had her charge in unsupported, get killed then would revive her with a priest or scrolls. Scrolls you can get even before your priests are high enough level to cast revive. I always take Eder's armor and give it to someone else if I'm not using him, it's really good. I was having problem with the second upgrade on Redeemer because a bunch of my kills weren't counting, but then I took her to the level of Od Nua right after the drake and have her solo a bunch of undead and got it really quick. Od Nua is great for a lot of kill X enemy type challenges.

I think New Vegas does the role playing side better, the range of characters and personalities I've been able to do in New Vegas is really impressive to me. Dragonfall I think has better writing and similar quality role playing, but at a much smaller, more limited scale. I agree with most RPG having unremarkable combat. I've heard Divinity is good for that, but gave up on it pretty quick because everything else was boring and ugly looking and decided if i wanted turn based combat I'd just play XCOM or Jagged Alliance. Dragon Age doesn't do much for me. I think Pillars is better almost across the board, but that's just me.

I saved both with Aloth, but you have to do it just right. Used some gear and food to pump up a few stats and one of those athletics raising scrolls. You don't get much for saving either of them though, beyond the satisfaction of saving them. They do have minor parts in some other quests though.