JFutral

Yeah, well, I've learned nothing about this game is all that obvious, like affecting undead with mind control stuff. Intuition is relative. Also, there must be something else going on with regard to length of affect. I guess the monster's intelligence at that point? Since the Skirmisher's paralyze lasted all of a second or two, but the Phantom's Stun I could not escape for nothing. (Not to mention there were four of them tagging me with severe regularity). I was also wondering if these are also hit/crit triggered FX. And this stuff in particular was easy enough to handle or even ignore with a party. It takes on a whole new significance solo. Thanks guys! Much appreciated. Some things are only obvious if you've been paying attention. Obviously, I wasn't. Joe

Well, I didn't think this was that esoteric a question. Ah, well. Joe

I FINALLY beat the Shadows and Phantoms at Caed Nua on my first real solo run (making a go of it as a druid). I feel like I only beat them when lady luck finally rolled my way after a gazillion restarts. It's early in the game so I have found no decent armor or accessories that protect against things like Stun or Paralyze. Not sure how I overcame the Xaurip Skirmishers' paralyze quickly enough, but the Phantoms' Stun were kicking my butt. Is there a list somewhere of which attribute helps against what affliction? I couldn't even quaff a Recovery potion or cast a Protection scroll fast enough. It was quite annoying. Or maybe there is a better strategy I haven't stumbled upon yet. Joe

The game just straight up makes potions, especially, too difficult to use. You can only use them in Combat mode and even then you are usually too easily interrupted when imbibing, What's worse is then you have to make your character retry! Why? Why isn't it still in my character's cue to do? It's as bad as when the game makes your character stop running when you have auto-pause set for Enemy Spotted and Combat Start. So many annoying little things for an otherwise excellent game. Joe

Each of those potions do differing things. Endurance is a one-shot boost. Regeneration is for ongoing Endurance healing and is usually best against low damage opponents or in concert with the Survival camping benefit of Health Recovery. But TBH, I am not up on the mechanics of health recovery, regeneration, and similar effects like Veteran's Recovery. I think Recovery potions reduce the time it takes to overcome disabling FX like Confusion, Stuck, etc. I almost never use them. I probably should! Joe

It depends. Four slots across six characters is a lot, if you think of it that way. My front line fighters usually have at least an Endurance potion and a couple of other buffs like Movement or ACC boosts. Maybe a summons, but not usually. Oh and a Resist Elements potion if I don't have a druid handy. It is nice to spread out Revive scrolls to other high Lore characters in case the Priest goes down. My range characters will usually have the Summons items. But really, the larger my party the less I use the item slots, except for my Rogues or other high mechanics characters who always have traps loaded. I love traps, even though they are severely gimped these days (traps in this game need to really be fixed, really.). I just can't shake old habits from other CRPGs. Smaller parties I feel like I tend to use each character more fully. I'm trying my first (true) solo game right now and I am about to give into a Deep Pockets selection even though I usually feel like that is a waste of an upgrade. My last 3 and 4 party runs one character always had Deep Pockets, though. I use food tons on PotD or small party runs. Usually only the ones that boost an attribute by 2 or boost DR. In my last run, at some point I felt like I had a ton of dragon meat, I'm not sure how. Maybe I kept buying it whenever I came across it in the later game and money was less of a problem. I don't know. All those things that hide in the task bar I keep forgetting about in larger party games. Too much to keep track of or out of sight out of mind. Something like that. Joe

At some point (I forget when, exactly) I stop relying on Confusion for CC. I have to stop buffing my party or else the bad guys enjoy the buff and then Poof! They are enemies again! It is fun to watch a dragon wipe out the flash mob of critters that surround them, though. I prefer more targeted CC in mid to late game. Or something like stuck or paralyze spells and scrolls. Confusion is good when I absolutely have to get the enemy off my back. Joe

This is one of my favorite weapons. I usually give it to my wizard, though when I once played a druid as my main character, he used it. You have time (and should probably want a bit of time to build up alliances) before you have to battle that lord. That is not a timed encounter. You get to initiate the battle. Joe

I did a double take trying to find out info on Defensive Harmony. Did you mean Defensive Mindweb cipher ability? That's all I can find. I still don't grok ciphers, so I am sure I overlooked the value of this. My ciphers end up shooting arrows. I should learn better cipherisms. Joe

Annoyingly, the one non-rest reliant method, potion of Infuse with Vital Essence, can only be used in combat mode. Why and how that makes sense is way beyond me. Similarly the Wizard spell of the same name. There are the two skills/talents/whatever that silly delineation is, Wound binding and Field Triage which is rest dependent (as in one use per rest), but at least not combat mode reliant. It comes in handy to help you get a little further without needing a rest. I can't remember what Lying on Hands heals—health or endurance. I don't run with Paladins, so I don't have it memorized. Gamepedia says endurance. Joe

Well, yes. That is true. And I suppose it is possible to build a character or even a party that takes full advantage of both. But compared to the multitude of ways to handle endurance, the lopsidedness is still an issue, IMO. Joe

And this is where I am thankful that the enemy loses interest in my characters when they are knocked out instead of finishing them off. This has been my only complaint about the health/endurance split, effectively no viable way to heal health, save for one potion, one spell (which only works on the caster), and one skill/talent/whatever. Which, as it seems, is not THAT big a deal. Else I would have stopped playing! :-D Joe [ETA, and then only in combat, except for the triage thing.]

I came to the same conclusion, especially if it looked like my other characters could handle the fight without them. Joe

I've seen a couple of solos, including rogue and wizard. I am amazed at any of the solo games and gamers. I am not that good. Joe ETA: I will jump for joy if the reason is to help with load times!

It depends...If a dragon can one shot your tank, then you need a disabler instead. If enemies can hardly scratch you, then you don't need a (defensive) buffer/healer. If there is a single tough enemy, then instead of AoE you would want singe-target specialist. After the first run, we usually get a good understanding of how to cover all encounters (that we have faced) in the most optimal and comfortable way. Oh god, four is indeed too low.On the other hand... in Tyranny solo'ing might result in even faster progression (in realworld time) than with full party. My cut off for still feeling things are fairly easy, even on PotD was three—a melee fighter (any fighter class or rogue), ranged attack (chanter, rogue, ranger, cipher), spell caster (priest or wizard). I thought three would be more challenging, but the right three is about as easy as 4-6. Right now my duo party is a ranger, and a rogue. I guess the animal companion sort of counts as a third! I'm not sure I could figure out how to go solo. So, it really depends on the enemies. Joe

I hate the 6 character limit. If I want a party of 12, I feel like I should be allowed to. I get kind of tired of the whole "balance" argument. Besdies, balance only matters to true neutrals. Any discussion of balance always seems to revolve around arbitrary and plastic rules. If the story is that the world I am inhabiting seeks a balance, but I am trying to upset that balance, that's part of the story. If I am trying to restore balance by defeating some super powered evil/good, that's a different story. If I am trying to defeat evil to make the world good, that's another story. If I am trying to become powerful enough to defeat a powerful enemy who illed my family/freinds, etc., yet another sotry. But all that is arbitray based on the precepts of the story, which was never really clear in PoE I. Of all the issues with the BG series, the goal was never unclear. But I seek more advanced and powerful magical items to get an advantge, not to have that advantage negated by ever stronger enemies. Otherwise it's the same game all the way through. Now, if the problem is pragmatic regarding gaming engine or even programming limitations, okay, that's a different discussion. But as PoE I shows, if I really want a challenging game of strategy, limiting party size and make-up is the only way. At least after the first couple of run-throughs. In reality the characters advance faster than the person playing the game. So, whatever on party size. To me the question is why, what is the goal. Joe

I could be wrong (I deleted all my past games in hopes of speeding up load-times, which this does, BTW), but I don't remember having a mechanics of 17 by the time I got here in the past, and I've always played it upscaled. I do wonder if this area was made more difficult for detecting with the most recent patch. I don't think I've hit this area since then before now. I mean, it is an arch mage's treasure. Makes sense it would be the most difficult traps to detect. There's a trap I can put down that does 100 dam?! Where do I get my hands on that? I feel so cheated. Not only can my rogue/mechanics guy only put down one trap at a time, but they are gimped to near uselessness. Pick one or the other for balance, but not both. I mean, I'm a rogue for goodness' sake! That's my jam! Joe

Well, that was how I remembered the door being trapped. ;-) Reloaded a couple of times trying to detect it to no avail. Of course ,what's a little trap when there is booty on the other side? Joe

The only thing that annoyed me, once I figured out the difference between health and endurance was not being able to heal health with who I would figure should able to, the priest. Instead, there is a potion that helps (but I can only use it in combat???), a wizard spell for the wizard, and a skill or talent or whatever it is called, that anyone can get. A wizard spell! I mean, what??? Realism, schmealism. This is fantasy. I already accept that an enemy is not going to finish me off when I am knocked out. Now that's civility! Joe

I don't know if this technically counts as a spoiler, but I've always been able to find before. I haven't always been able to to disarm them, but I've always found them and at lower level than I am now (16). I pumped my thief up to 17 mechanics and 20 perception, stealth mode, and as close to the door as I can get, and still no joy. Not the end of the world, or even the end of this suburb. But with just my party of two, I do make as much use of traps as I can (every little bit helps and is that much more damage than I would have done otherwise). Just odd. One of which is one of my favorite traps, Storm of Fire I think it is called. Ah, well. Joe

What attribute helps detect traps? I have my dynamic duo with 18+ perception and 15 mechanics. But, where I know there is a trap and have always found it before, I can't "find" it this time. Just curious why that might be. Joe

Took me six runs to get it. Joe

I find it kind of humorous how each run-through has a different wave of magic items. I remember my first run I kept coming across Troll belts, minor ring of protection, and minor cape of protection. And that trader guy tried to sell me three Rimecutters. Then my next run I couldn't come up with any of those (except maybe where sold) but I couldn't sneeze without coming across those Constitution +3 belts and the ring that add +10% area of effect. Another game was all about the amulet of health. My latest run seems to be all about Shimmering capes and Belts of Mortal Protection. Right now I've got four of each in my stash and using one of the belts. This time I never found a ring of minor deflection before I found a ring of deflection. Joe

IDK. I feel like we over think this. Unless you are so good that you don't ever restart any battles your first playthrough (I'm not that good, so YMMV), the hard battles will be hard enough and the easy battles should be easy. Xaurips and skeletons should get easier to kill as you progress. Tell me you are too high a level when you kill one of the major dragons your first time through. Another possibility is to drop a couple of your party members. I've found the point that makes the biggest difference is dropping to two. Joe PS, This is to say, you won't advance more slowly, but the battles will be considerably more challenging. And I have to say I certainly feel like I use my party's talents and skills more fully. I rarely walk away from an encounter thinking I had too many potions, spells, talents, or skills left on the table! Joe

Lighten up. Just having fun. It just sounds like saying "I really want to pay more for this product. I obviously haven't paid enough." But then, I own an iPhone and a Mac! Joe