Thuringwethil

I would've liked an option to place pets in the stronghold and see them enjoying the place when not part of the party. It seems a lot of people think the keep needs a bit more life around as it's built up, and piglets rolling in the dirt or cats evading dogs to find places to curl up and sleep in Brighthollow could be a step in that direction.

One can do the first quest for any/all factions and gain access to that faction's merchant without officially siding with that faction, I think, though I'm only sure of that in the case of the Dozens merchant (I went Doemenel on my first run, and Crucible on my second.)

Hiravias is short, but his banter makes clear he's up for anything, and probably anyone - though I suspect even he'd avoid Durance, who for all his talk of whores was probably rendered impotent by the pox anyway.

I think that if Hiravias is in the party with you and Sagani when you finally find Persoq that he may egg Sagani on until she starts a fight with the Fangs even if you ask her to avoid bloodshed... or maybe he's only that mouthy if you've been encouraging him back toward his original patron. (I don't remember if I had him in my party at that time in the playthrough where I encouraged him toward his more contemplative path.)

If you cleared out the lighthouse for its new owner before the Defiance Bay riots, it's in the process of reconstruction when you return - the lowest level is a tavern but no rooms for rent because the construction crew is still working on the upper floors. No significant content, but a nice touch.

13 seems to trigger a fair number of Perception and Resolve checks (though not all, of course) and can be achieved on your current character once you've acquired a few stat-boosting items. Don't be ashamed to switch to different item sets for combat vs. dialogue situations - in a single-player game it's your fun that matters and you shouldn't have to nuke your character to start over, especially since as you point out the Cipher seems a useful class on the whole. I made a Cipher for my own current playthrough and frequently stand just behind the tougher front-liners with a pike, which isn't deal for all the Cipher's abilities but does allow one to let off a fair bit of mind-magic and then recharge Focus by poking nice bloody wounds (I the pike Tall Grass) in whoever Eder and Co. are holding off. Or if you find the Cipher still squishes too much, you should be able to get by with the missile weapon of your choice even without having so many abilities invested in it. Don't give up hope yet!

The + sign can be hard to see on some of the character portraits. I had a similar problem spotting it to level my PC.

Anyone playing a Godlike's going to have to resort to brute force, if the nonviolent option depends on wearing a hood.

I appreciate the Boo tribute, but couldn't leave the poor loyal Black Hound to pine for a person who abandoned a good dog. I grew up with rescued dogs, currently live with two great cats from a shelter, and hope those who are able consider adopting animals in RL need.

I wanted someone who'd be unlike any of the companions I'll be recruiting along the way. So here I am as a Fire Godlike monk. The racial ability's handy when fights get tough, and she looks flaming awesome.

I'm glad to hear you sought treatment and that the doctor sounds willing to consider the possibility that it might not go away in a few days and may well be serious if it remains or gets worse. I received some needed medical treatment myself today; here's hoping we're all healthy and fit to play PoE when it's available to us!

I rarely use familiars in other games that have offered them as an option for wizards for exactly this reason. I find the penalty to the wizard to be a liability that nearly always outweighs any benefit the familiar brings. The 'nearly' is for games/situations in which the familiar can physically hide to avoid the risks of combat yet remain close enough to grant benefits to its wizard; I specify physical hiding because every protection spell cast on a familiar is magic the wizard would otherwise be able to use to another purpose.

I don't have time to properly care for a dog right now, but I grew up with a few, including a Beagle/Dachshund mix who was perfectly sweet to humans and a perfect terror to raccoons... none of which ever looked behind to see the tiny weinerbeagle chasing them up trees and/or out of the yard. I haven't scanned any of the few old photos of that dear old dog, so here's someone else's happy 'hund:

Garage/yard sales are the square root of the original problem. Yeah, what you'll find is completely random, but it might be quite interesting vintage stuff and it's almost certain to be cheap.

You could play a (non-Death) Godlike.

Eh, that's not all bad, at least not when the office air conditioning doesn't work very well and cold drinks are provided at the farewell 'parties.' (2 retirement parties in the last 2 weeks, here... a lot of co-workers even older than me, yup.)

Don't like it, you don't have to have it. Thank goodness romances generally aren't mandatory to advance RPG plotlines Sometimes I play out a romance plot, sometimes I don't, perhaps it has to do with me having a RL spouse waiting for me to log off the game but I'm generally not impressed with the romance plots I've come across in games. Is it a function of me usually creating a female PC while writers spend more effort on the male PC/female NPC pairings? Maybe, given the one such subplot I found most satisfying was Planescape:Torment's Platonic meeting of the minds of Nameless One and Fall-From-Grace. But my dear one tells me most of the romance options offered male PCs in D&Dish RPGs are just as awful as the meager fare offered my female PCs... I can only cringe at the realization that that creepy stalker Elanee was apparently meant as a romance option for some poor souls while hoping I'm not the only one who found hilarity in pursuing Casavir.... as a female orc. (As Gromnir says, HA! Good Fun!)

That may have something to do with Canada having teams in a couple of majority-U.S. sports leagues.

Yes, but with factional influence taken into account, not being forced into it, the dependent not being the PC, and without a trial by combat against McBadass being forced at the conclusion. McBadass was a lot less so given a) missile weapons and spells were legal in that duel, b) that guy, fierce as he was in melee, had no ranged combat capability, so c) most people I know who played through ended up leading him on a merry chase around and around the arena until his Frenzy wore off and anyone could finish him off in all manner of embarrassing for the Luskans) ways.

It still wouldn't be as sweet as WeerdBeard's setup for one of my all-time favorite games.

If you think Dwarven brethren get no love, try the female of the species. I played one on a NWN2 server for a couple of years - I think one of four in the hundreds of characters over the history of that server. For my first PoE playthrough, I'll probably consider the prewritten companions so as to maximize race/class variety in the party, my whim at the time of what sort of role I want (I tend to favor tanky sorts with at least a few magical options, but variety's the spice of life and all that) and yes, how cool a character looks. My definition of 'cool looking character' may vary somewhat from average. I wanted sideburns for my NWN2 dwarf-lass.

Finland You’re extremely liberal and you love being close to nature. You can sometimes seem a bit aloof, but that’s only because you enjoy silence. You’re honest, reliable, and exceptionally loyal. (And J.R.R. Tolkien based Quenya on Finnish, I'm told, so that's a nice bonus.)

I ilke that, for me that's a sensible and sensitive way of dealing with the little critters. My first cat was unclear on the whole concept of chasing mice, so I got a non-kill trap. Around here the mice seem to come right back in if they're not exiled at least a half-mile or so away, so I used to drop them off in a nice open area near work instead. After the first dear old cat's passing, I specifically asked the local shelter about cats that had lived on the streets and had needed to hunt for themselves, or better yet to feed a litter of kittens too. The male cat's only flaw as a mouser is that he prefers to play with a rodent for hours before killing it and leaving the carcass where it will earn him praise for being a good boy. The female, who fed her own pregnant belly before the shelter found her and gave her a safe place to become a mamacat, is more interested in eating than playing and will often lose patience and move in for a quick kill on a rodent they've both cornered in the basement. She'll never steal one that the male has already killed, but she'll believe for the rest of her life that she needs to eat enough to nurse a litter of kittens, often leaving only what I think is the stomach and I know is a lot harder to spot before stepping on than a whole dead mouse is.

My high school percussion instructor invited someone much like that (though not from Japan) to a lesson once. Old slow guy turned into Animal behind the drum set, then after finishing his demo alternated complaining about his arthritis wth chiding all us young'uns for being slower with two hands/feet than he could be using only one, with extra special vitriol for modern rock drummers whom he suspected of using two bass drums to cover for their inability to pound out quick beats with one pedal. I've played rarely in recent years, and my musical chops have sadly deteriorated from those days - not that I could keep up with the instructor back then, let alone his old buddy! As for what I did today when I probably could have practiced a bit, I spent a majority of it playing Heroine's Quest and otherwise mucking about on the computer, a few minutes in the morning filling a crockpot with meat, sliced veggies and broth to provide ample good food in the evening after shoveling snow outside and doing assorted chores about the house this afternoon. But then, a quiet day at home's better than most days at work.

I haven't tried Birthright, but years ago I arranged for a party to find a mysterious ship and figure out how to make the thing fly... Had I asked them in advance, I bet they all would have said Spelljammer sounded too weird and 'not really D&D' but it turned out the genre cross-pollination ended up producing some good times, not to mention a running gag when the party decided they could use a few more hands on deck and wanted to hire a squad of those firearms-loving hippo-people. Oh myyy.