JFutral

My only problem is how "combat started" is the delineation vs non-combat. So I'll set a trap, shoot someone with a bow, and run back to the party. Before engaging in combat my guy clearly walked between party members. Now all of a sudden he can't, so he either gets stuck in a vulnerable position before he can buff with a potion or cast a spell (which everyone else has already done), or he finds some god-awful circuitous route which just as often runs him back into the enemy. In the midst of a fight I kind of actually get the difficulty imposed. But before the battles actually rages/engages seems kind of peculiar. Joe PS, but really. Don't give up the farm by suggesting constraints! The developers need some challenge of their own. JF

Why? I have no idea. This is the nature of this game. Why did some area of effect spells in BG not discriminate sides? Used to drive me nuts. Pretty much renders many high level spells pointless unless I was doing a solo run. Why are BG Druid's useless and PoE Druid's one of the most viable classes? My only answer I can offer is Pillars of Eternity is not Baldur's Gate and BG is not PoE. Joe

This probably needs a constraint on it like: both parties in the switch need to recover from their current action before the swap can occur. Or maybe just the one invoking the coordinated positioning does, the recipient then incurs an idle penalty that gets added to the recover that it still has left. What's wrong with you guys? _We_ don't want constraints. Well, I don't. The developers get crazy ideas about constraints well enough on their own, we don't need to volunteer them. "Balance... blah, blah, blah." Let me have it all, I say! Seriously, I only want four things: Faster load times Let my ranger animal have its own leveling up tree and not eat up mine Let my rogue either layout more traps or stop gimping the ones I disable And faster load times And, maybe, faster load times. Joe

Well, that's unfortunate. Joe

Maybe I wait too long to take on the Eyeless, but so far every time I get to them, they are largely too easy. I've never even used the cannons on them nor called for ogre reinforcements. Even on PotD. Maybe the RNG gods have always favored me in that. The hammer is pretty cool. Abydon has to be disappointed in them. Maybe I'll feel differently with my two man run gets there (ranger and rogue, I'm practicing for a solo run). Joe

Yeah, timing Confusion is tricky sometimes. You have to let Confusion do its thing. It's one of my favorite things to watch a dragon take care of the riff-raff for me. You have to buff before casting. Or stick to single target or limited area of effect buffs. When you guys are confused, you have to de-Confuse companions first. Every once in a while I'll Paralyze, hit a few, then cast Confusion just before they loosen up. Timing is everything! Joe

So do you keep a selection of weapons on hand to match the opponent, maybe even getting the weapon slot bonus to make changing out easier than memorizing opponents or restarting a fight with the right weapon? Or do you accept that some opponents won't be hurt as much but you still do enough damage for other reasons that it isn't as much a concern? Two reasons I ask. One I'm just curious if everyone is as lazy as me. I keep a melee and a range weapons in each slot, but I don't usually swap out, say blunt for piercing or slashing, or cold vs fire. Two, I am playing "almost solo" (still dating someone, getting some strategy practice in before I go full solo, also really hate not having a rogue, specializing in mechanics, in my party) and have noticed that even when a weapon comes up as "Ineffective" (I have the game set to pause on that) I still do damage (which makes the pause kind of annoying. I am still doing damage, just maybe not piercing, for instance.) It really is kind of amazing how many things I never really cared about when I had a big party to handle just about anything. Joe

Dang. So much for Rimecutter. Joe

Does the Solo Achievement also preclude recruiting companions to man the stronghold for those quests? Does that mean you have no way of getting those items? Joe

They usually are. I'm not sure why the vampyr attack was so difficult, unless it came up when I was too low a level for some reason. That was an anomaly. Joe

I think you have to select "Resolve Manually" when you read the notice. I had an incursion of Vampyrs and other undead, or whatever they're called. I kept losing my favorite unique hirelings, so I opted to resolve automatically after trying every strategy I could come up with. No loss of hirelings, just damage to repair. I'll take that trade off. Joe

In terms of dialogue options I seem to recall a couple of cipher and priest choices. I could be wrong, but I don't think so. Are there any other class specific dialogue options? Joe

That's why I sometimes like to put my range attackers like Sagani and Kana in that area. If an enemy gets through to the spell caster, they are close enough to engage if necessary and with decent enough melee stats to actually make a difference. Although once my wizard has finally unlocked all of Gyrd Háewanes Sténes, there isn't much he can't hit. Joe

One thing I had to really get used to that's really different than BG, is the benefits of food to boost attributes, as well as resting at different inns. IIRC, boosting intelligence should help the duration of spells. Joe

I feel your pain. Or I felt it anyway. I was in exactly the same place when I started PoE. PoE Druid is nothing like BG. And Grieving Mother/Cipher took me three run throughs before I finally got the hang of her and the class. Actually your approach is how I kind of still handle battle. I try to get as many attacking one enemy at a time as I can, use Durance to buff and heal, and the Druid to also send some CC sort of spells like the Returning Storm, Infestation of Maggots, and Insect swarm in the lower levels. Even Dancing bolts at the lowest levels. But by the time you get Grieving Mother and Hiravias you should be pretty far along. Since there is no potion drinking, scroll casting, and even some spell casting until Combat _starts_ (not just seeing an enemy) I usually set my party just out of the fog of war (always "sneak" to avoid attention first) set and or cast a trap by a rogue and or the priest just in front of my party, send my fastest moving, longest range shooter ahead, and fire to officially engage, then run back like a MF. Rogue with escape or smoke screen (or whatever it is called) comes in darn handy for this. With combat started and some distance for the enemy to trek I usually have enough time to buff with spells and potions and cast a summons or two if I need. If your wizard is high enough to have Pull of Eora, that is a great spell to cast on top of a trap to help make sure someone sets it off. I also tend to drop the druid spell Wicked Briars on top of that and any kind of Wall spell, even Chill Fog. For CC, the Cipher can cast Whispers of Treason and Phantom Foes at low levels. Wizards can cast Bewildering Spectacle and Confusion spells. Slicken and Web spells are my best friends in the early game. Even Instill Doubt and Despondent Blows spells can help reduce their accuracy, so don't let yourself think the Priest is without means. Even Halt can help an ally get away long enough to drink a potion if needed. With six in the party I usually divide the duties up as two melee, two range, two slinging spells. The cool thing about Kana is he can melee or range attack even while singing. That's pretty helpful. Grieving Mother seems suited for range to keep her productive while waiting for Focus to build back up. Although I did pretty good once with her using a two handed sword. Combat mechanics are definitely different in PoE than BG. I am sure others here have great and better strategies than mine. You can also avoid most combat encounters. I find that anathema in an RPG, but hey, that's just me. But don't feel like you have to kill everything to gain experience. Not all encounters require a fight and those that don't usually award the same experience either way. [eta: And some allies can only be recruited if you didn't kill everything in sight.] Joe

A couple of times now, since the last update, my cursor will disappear when leaving an area and loading the next area. I can move my mouse around and see clickable areas highlight, so I can scroll/fumble around and save the game and restart and everything is fine then. Joe

I don't believe in coincidences, but I apparently _just_ achieved this, um, achievement. Go figure. Joe

Of course you would. I'm lucky to remember I even have scrolls, much less use them. Joe

I wouldn't rush to get them unless you really want or need a full 6 member party. For your first playthrough, getting them as you come across them does give you time to get to know each character and how to use them before you have to manage 6 characters. I'm actually fond of small parties (three or four). I feel like I use them each more fully than when I split my attention across 6. Joe

I don't think the ring of protection stacks with the cloak of protection. I'm a big believer in Perception, but I probably would have put a couple of those into Dexterity. I love using my rogue for hit and runs with escape, smoke screen, and any disengagement bonuses. But mine are primarily archers until about mid-game game. For melee I usually go with sabre and stiletto or dagger. I had two unique stiletto's for a while and did fairly well. Although right now I am using the Nightshroud mace Rogue definitely takes more management, which is probably why I like him so much. Most everyone else I kind of have my own play style set on auto-pilot, but I love micromanaging my rogues. A lot of setting a trap, then using a bow to draw the enemy in. He retreats to behind the group and then pulls out melee as or if the enemy envelopes the party. When my wizard gets Pull of Eora, I usually drop it centered on the trap. Unless you feel the need for your rogue to use scrolls, I wouldn't waste any points in Lore. I am a big believer in 3 points in Athletics to get a decent Second Chance, especially early game. Just some thoughts, Joe

Got it. The rogue can do some amazing damage, but has been criticized for being "squishy" as they say. Abilities like Escape and Smoke Cloud come in real handy, both for escaping against heavy hitters and sneak attacks. The PoE world doesn't offer the protective bonuses to high dexterity that D&D does. So don't be afraid to use more protective armor. I love the rogue just for that reason, Easily my favorite class. You have to find that balance between defense and the offensive damage promised by the class. Joe

I wouldn't worry too much about that on Easy. Get to know the game as it is. Easy is very forgiving, so take the opportunity to experiment and try things that sound interesting. The joinable NPCs are as much about the story and have (IMHO) enjoyable side quest and interactions with you and with each other. Use the builds as a guide, not orthodoxy, to get to know the game's mechanics and consequences of choices. That first playthrough is more about the joy of discovery, IMHO. You won't get that opportunity again. I don't get too bogged down with builds for the first game. Joe

My last PotD playthrough was by far my favorite party. I don't have particular builds, I just go by gut. I usually start off choosing defense skills/talents then go heavy into damage choices. After that I just gauge if I am mostly dying... er being knocked out... or mostly staying alive, but not killing fast enough to decide what to choose next. I do try to keep with an eye to synergies to maximize where I can. Charname: Wizard built Chanter/Thief (ranged mostly, but great sword capable) built melee-ish Priest built Fighter Grieving Mother (ranged) Hiravias (kind of bounced back and forth ranged/melee) My front line was fighter and swapping out between my priest and chanter depending on how each fared at any given levels. And sometimes I was just lazy enough that I wanted my thief to deal with traps and locked chests up front instead of walking all the way from the back of the group. Joe Oh, I also had a rogue in the party until I came across GM and H. So I was at 5 party members for much of the early game. I used the 6th slot to pickup NPCs, level them up for the hell of it, and then use them for stronghold quests whenever I got the stronghold.

I could be wrong and not seeing how to check, but there seems to be a cut-off time and the log only goes so far back. But looking at this makes me wonder, there were some adventures that provided different levels of artifacts (some two levels of artifacts), but there were some where the adventure itself was labeled as Major. Does that mean adventures are not all applicable to the Achievement? Now I am even more confused. Joe

Thanks for that. I was speaking more about some way to know which levels of the adventures you have completed and which you have not for that achievement, something telling me "You've completed Minor, Average, and Major, you still need Grand and Legendary." My last playthrough I got to a Legendary and I thought I had done them all by then, but apparently not. Not sure which I missed. Joe