Rheios

I don't really mind prebuffing, since I think most of POE's buff spells being cast in combat makes them less worth casting when compared to another fireball or enemy debuff. There's instances, like trying to protect against mind control or when you can net the whole party, where they can be slightly more beneficial but for my part I mostly just spike damage. And micromanagement in general is fine with me but there's a reason I turned off party AI and other people love it. I agree with the INT thing here, though

I don't think the idea was ever to run out of camping supplies if you were practicing a little discretion, but as sortof an existing discouragement for the 5 minute workday, alongside inn buffs. So that if you did do the 5 minute work day you had to A) keep finding them or B) keep buying them. The second's fine and the first I'll agree should have been harder, but I also think the amount you can carry with you should have been set at 3 and not 4. That being said, sure you can still have a 5 minute workday, and many probably do, but I always found that as self-imposed boredom. I didn't allow it at my D&D table, and I don't let myself do it here, but I found the limited resources and fatigue mechanics were good about forcing me to rest in turn. Come Deadfire and I'd completed half of Nekataka without sleeping over the course of several (in game) months or more because of my preference to push ahead until wound, fatigue, and additional resource loss force me to stop. The loss of some of those mechanics was just lost complexity/choice-impact in my book. Not world ending, not horribly done in this case, but not any sort of improvement.

I myself marked POE1, as I'm actually fine with per-rest spells and most mechanics, although I think there's a *really* solid argument for martial classes to have the per-encounter thing stick. So far as 'why does a spellcaster just forget their spells', I don't think they do. I always envisioned it more as spells were a thing that took time to weave and hang around you and when you finally cast them you were just using the prior set up trigger. It also explains how certain spells could copy or steal them in some games and fits the concept that casters prepare their energy (soul or otherwise) for external use in large impacts/realty modification whereas most martial classes invest their energy into their own forms and become something more than a normal town guard or even skilled swordsman - which is why I do like the empower system for martial too, although I don't feel like I got a chance to utilize it as much for them because I never really find myself running out of resources in POE2 for them at all, nor did I ever feel like the +10 power level impacted them as strongly as casters. It might, I just didn't notice feeling as significant, even when I empowered stuff like Penetrating strike or the Flagarant's path. So far as why I like spellcasters as per rest? I personally liked the micromanagement. Making a choice between 'blow it all now and fight with a wand on this character or prep for later' and my own risk adverse nature, coupled with limited resting supplies, meant that I was always trying to push as long and far as I could go without resting but also didn't want to waste my resources too early as a result so it was a lot more judgment calls and management. I never felt like my back was against a wall in POE2 in the same way as when my actual health is low, but I have a few more big spells left, and a bonus from the last inn I was in that I want to stick around, so I push on in POE1. Although I would propose poe2's food buff if you eat it while resting, in place of just inn/survival buffs (or make their effectiveness depend on survival instead), compounded with the limited resting resources (I'd be fine if they knocked it down to 2 or 3) could be nice. Not that I hated POE2's system, just that it wasn't really an improvement, just different, and wasn't really *that* new or unique as of 4e D&D.

This is good to know. I thought that half of my soul was someone who would have done that sort of thing, and I was just lying to it. Since, frankly, I just wanted it back.

Rewatching that video, it seems I remembered incorrectly. I thought that, after the absence of gods form Egwithan mythology that the wheel was a belief they just created to be true along with the deities, but after a little rereading, it seems it was more about the gods and consistency of reincarnation. Maybe souls getting stuck in Hel was a common problem previously? Its where Maros Nua was supposed to be drawn from, but that without Gods individuals like Od Nua went to great lengths to try and preserve or enforce the flow in some way. Ironically Thaos's comment about grinding souls is exactly what Rymrgand's whole shtick is, so it seems the options are 'inconsistent reincarnation that eventually breaks souls down' or 'consistent reincarnation with someone who controls how the souls break down'. So Eothis seems to be breaking the consistency of the cycle in that case, but I can agree that they probably need to put in some stuff to clarify more of Eoathis's position. I still think most of the Gods are ignorant about the full scope of how things work without their intervention, simply because they've never existed without it. Although maybe they are more knowledgeable and its just that Eothas, in some absurd quest to see if humanity has 'improved', plans to destroy the ability to reincarnate *at all*, every variation of the wheel, by blocking it up through destroying the parts the gods were previously controlling. Like the path existed but the Gods put in spirit flow controls and insulation and a pump back to birth and by Eothas destroying the pump he's not just not just reverting to the old cycle but actually *blocking* the old with pieces of the new and consistent cycle. It'd explain why they talk about the In-between actually emptying.

As far as I remember from the first game, the Engwithans did believe there was a cycle, but that there were plentiful other cultures that had other interpretations and beliefs and gods. Then the Engwithans got deep into metaphysical research and ended up disproving existing religions, and realized that they had *no idea* what happened after death. And in their frustration and fear of the unknown they *built* a wheel and created the Gods to define things like birth and death, tribulations, passion, evolution, law, and rebellion. Others too of course, but the main point being that the Engwithans realized, or thought they realized, everyone was wrong and that everybody *could* be doomed but they didn't know for sure. So, honestly? I don't think the Gods know what happens afterwards either. What happens after the wheel they created is destroyed. Maybe all their conglomerated selves, sustained by the souls in the In-between that will slowly bleed out to who knows where, will evaporate. They may fear the world will end too, but I think they fear more that *their* world will end.

Might want to note that it looks like the 3rd level of the blade does take some power through as it suddenly grabs the Terrible Condition until 1500 slash damage is accrued. Isn't worth stopping the build over but you may want to plan ahead for an easy way to jet through that step

I suggest using a Druid (if you're high level and have access) if the fire damage is getting to you. That temporary immunity from all elements is a massive saving grace. Especially during future fights against things like the Alpine dragon.

I think it had a lot of memorable moments. I do agree that they were presented differently, but I actually find I liked that. It fit the world that was full of questions and had alien elements at work in a way that, beyond Irenicus, the BG series didn't have. The threat, even when hidden like in BG I, was always very straightforward. Sarevok wants control, so he's killing Bhallspawn for power and has a bunch of enforcers assaulting merchants and corrupting Iron. In his absence the enforcers make the direct threat. Irenicus wants your soul so he can become a god, you want him dead for any number of reasons, culmination in you thwarting his attempts at Godhood. In his absence the enemies you overcome are just stepping stones to him and Imoen (which actually has the most in common with Pillars. The second half of the game is effectively just bouncing from one problem to another, trying to fix things enough to have permission to go where Thaos is going by brute force or lying tricks). Throne of Bhaal has the remaining Bhaalspawn in massive wars that you get drug into. Nothing is as subtle there - even Melissan is suspicious from the fore. Meanwhile you're a lot more anchor-less in Pillars. And you're supposed to be. You don't have knowledgeable friends to direct you in the same way. You got hit with a biawac and survived. That's already amazing and terrifying to a person. You stumble into this rundown ****hole, which you were told was supposed to be growing and was inviting settlers, and then effectively told the Lord's kid is dead and, unless you want to decorate the most morbid holiday tree in history, you'd best leave. Then a dead dwarf is talking to you. Everything that happens has you questioning your sanity, especially Maerwald. (In fact after him I thought we might actually end up the badguy. Leading a bunch of aimless people towards a bloody future while they trust in our madness. And from Thaos's perspective that's probably what happens) The big chunk of the first third of the game is supposed to make you feel a bit hopeless and aimless in a way that BG only made you feel until you reached your party members at the Friendly Arms inn. After that in BG you have a destination, you're back in control. In Pillars every destination is just dropping vague clues and hinting that you're a ****ing nut. It felt different. Less Heroic epic and more similar to Planescape:Torment in the sense of feeling lost and worried, to me at least. And then even once Thaos is your target, unlike very enemy up there, he DOESN'T care about you. And that's brilliant because until the very moment you slay him and have his soul in hand, he shouldn't. He's stepped on who knows how many people, hell how many Watchers, in his time. How many did he even create explicitly for some purpose and then ditch to go mad? And he seems insurmountable in a way Irenicus isn't. Irenicus can die. Hell its what he'd terrified of, its one of the many human things about Irenicus. Thaos is something else. Thaos on his worst, most murdered day, doesn't think "NO I want to live!!!", usually. He thinks "Gee, this is mildly inconvenient." Thaos is terrifying, not because he can burn down a castle or pimp slap 12 wizards at once. Thaos is terrifying because he knows an unknowable amount of **** and has his god's direct backing in a way just shy of Waidwen. Even if he's a meh combatant he probably never trained to be. Why would, in most cases, he even need to? He's the chessmaster with unlimited turns. And when he's in trouble Woedica lets him conjure massively powerful defenders to the scene. That's what's memorable about Thaos to me. He's an manifestation of his God's conceit, just as Durance is actually a pretty good crystallization of all of Magran's passion and selfish desire (hell his culminating moment has him deciding, in essence, to become a god in Magran's place. Which seems very Magran like to me). Anyway, some of the other big moments to me were: - When Thaos kills Lady Webb -The first time I saw the Sky Dragon. Thinking it was actually a pretty cool variation on dragons but was better balanced for initial combat -Then the Adra Dragon and getting curbstomped in a way no BG dragon ever did. (Seriously the Adra and Alpine dragons decimated me way worse than Firkraag or his ilk) -The death of your initial comrades from the caravan actually was really memorable to me because I cared about them. -The first description of you being in the adra and copper filled building after you see the machine (your first flashback) was memorable because it got me hooked on wanting more of your past. - The way you make your own past's backstory was SUPER memorable to me. I love it even now because its so replayble. - Grieving Mother, Pallegina, Durance, and Eder's story quests. Actually all the story quests but those ones stood out to me because I did them first - The riots in the city and the direct way what you said in the lecture hall effects how some people act during the destruction. - The discussion with the Gods - Stopping the worshippers of Skaen from releasing that poor woman as a murderer. - Wael's little surprise visit - The big reveal about the gods being less than gods as we think of them. That actually really threw me. I was super pumped to be working toward the rebirth of the Hollowborn with Hylea (even though I liked Woedica initially, but thought she was going too far) and then that bomb got dropped and I felt at a loss of how to proceed. Especially because the concept of nothingess after death, even in a way like Pillars, scares me viscerally. All of that and I didn't even hit White March. Whose most memorable part so far have been the Forge activating, the awakening of another person of your choice (that was a tad chilling), the poor hunter's son, of course the Dragon eating his soul-twin, and now the army marching in. (The Iron Flail actually reminds me of the Iron Throne just by virtue of its name and power grab. (Haven't met them yet though))