Talwyn224

Why is it that certain people feel the need to jump up and get all righteous and puffed up, and quite frankly come across as arrogant, on internet forums? Zweibelchen, I would have enjoyed to have a discussion with you however the tone of your post and the words you choose to express your point of view leave me feeling nothing but pity and a degree of mild contempt. You even contradicted your own argument at the end: "gods were created by people for very worldly reasons." The gods were created by people is the salient point here. They would not exist without people bringing them into reality. All else is extraneous after that fact. Don't bother engaging me any further because I don't want to argue with people who aren't at least that much respectful nor show any care in the words they choose to express their PoV.

Yeah this pretty much sums up my dislike for Durance. I think all of the companions are well written and Durance's back story... well as he said, he burned people alive which I find utterly horrific and, since I was playing a kind wayfarer paladin, would be expect repulsed and disgusted by hearing that from someone who is supposed to be your ally. Also he's not not good as a priest as many have pointed out so on my 2nd play thru I will not be picking him up at all. I wouldn't even want him in Caed Nua to clean the privies as he has too much blood on his hands and is unrepentant and more than a little insane to have hanging around your stronghold. In fact I think if you do recruit him he should lower your reputation in general and as mentioned before, he really should have had more negative random banter with all the party members thus making it really hard to justify keeping him in the party. Personally I'm glad he burned himself to death at the end, its a fitting punishment for such a damaged soul. I must say again though that this is good writing as it's elicited an emotional response from me. As for the rest of the companions, well I quite liked all of them as they all brought different things along with them Eder is the dependable guy, Kana is the fun loving bard, Pallegina is the noble but not right so holy & righteous paladin, Sagani is just a decent tribeswoman trying to forefill her traditions, Aloth has flaws but admits his mistakes and vows to make amends if you give him a 2nd chance, Hiravias is just fun and is an awesome combat DPS wisecracking beast plus he & my PC seemed to have some interesting random banter which I didn't expect and thus made me like the dude even more and GM had the most intriguing story of all.

Yeah that dam near had me falling off my chair laughing when I heard his reply. Its a perfect snappy comeback to an inane question plus response 3 is an equally great re-posit/re-joiner line too. I picked number 3 just to see how he'd respond and full credit to the writers here, he almost loses his temper but lets it go but you know he's not the sort of guy you can push back much with.

For my own 2 coppers worth on this subject: short answer - maybe slightly longer answer - BGII, Mass Effect, Dragon Age [all Bioware games] had romance narratives/storylines embedded within the original game and although not crucial to the over all outcome of the game, did give [iMHO] a greater depth to those games. PoE has elected not to go that way and I don't see how a DLC would be able to shoe horn in a romance subplot into the game. However, if a new game such as a sequel were to follow on then perhaps there could be scope for a romance subplot to be included? Again these things don't appeal to all players yet there are enough out there who do enjoy them and get something from them as part of the story they're engaging with. I don't see though any of the original companions being available as potential romance interests in a sequel because we know what happens to them once the game concludes. If there is a PoE II then any romance subplot will have to be with a new set of potential partners.

I think that the companions should only follow you into the Sun in Shadow only if you've completed their own personal quest lines. It shows that you have helped them with their personal agendas and so they will return the favour. I didn't take Sagani in because of all the companions, I felt [from an RP perspective] the she deserved to go home to her family after we'd completed her quest. Taking her into sun in Shadow seems very selfish and since I was playing a kind wayfarer paladin, that sort of felt like the wrong thing to do. I also didn't take GM as she needed to be useful to the world once more. Durance was an easy choice as he was seeking answers and he needed to confront Thaos and the evil he'd done. Eder was just a stalwart dude who you knew would have your back so no problem there in asking. Pallengina being a paladin has no problem facing up to evil and possible death so she's an obvious choice. Aloth needs to come as he needs to help you end the Leaden Key and finally Hiravias should come as he like the idea of the hunt and Thaos is the one you've been stalking all this time.

Gods were created by the people who worship them. I'd recommend reading the book "Small Gods" by Terry Pratchett. This goes a long way to explaining the relationship between mortals and gods and I think mirrors the situation we see at the end of the game.

I actually thought he was going to turn out to be Thaos at one point when he said he was going to judge you. I liked his character/storyline as he was a religious fanatic who had done terrible things in the name of his faith and now questioned everything he believed in. His ending was sad but in a way, not unexpected. He was a deeply damaged soul that in his own eyes, was unredeemable.

Hiravias has some of the best lines in the game. [you] "where did you come from" [Hiravias] "My mothers crotch! You?" On entering Galwains Maw - "Be glad we don't have to go in the other way" There are a few others but those had me lol'ing hard.

Re: alignment - I'm always amused when I see posts/comments regarding the D&D alignment system. People always read that the characters alignment was set in stone and could never change however this was never the case and if anything was a starting point that helped shape a characters personality plus also helped players play their better characters as they had a guide as what the character believed in [or didn't] and gave them a morality [or lack there of] in which to base their characters choices. In addition, any decent Dungeon Master would have said at the outset of any campaign that alignments can shift through the actions the character makes. The BG series reflected this rather well as it gave you some fairly clear cut choices on the consequences of your actions throughout the game. Unfortunately PoE doesn't really reflect that & it seems in dialogue choices, when you pick the "evil" option, all that happens is you sound like you're being an as*hat. Yes you can alienate companions but that doesn't effect the over all outcome of the game. There are only a few key choices you make in the game that have any definable moral gradient in their results in the epilogue. Anyway, PoE is not D&D but it does stands in its shadow and since many people have played BG & D&D comparisons will always be made. Thus in conclusion, Detect Evil is not necessary in PoE at all especially since you are The Watcher and can peer into peoples souls and see a defining moment in that persons life thus get an impression of who that person is. To me that's a far better ability than just being able to detect evil which is, in all honesty, very vague and unspecific. In regards to some other points the OP has raised: I found the difficulty on normal level quite acceptable. I've only played the game once all the way through [just finished yesterday] and beat Thaos on my 2nd battle after being stomped on my 1st attempt. I missed fighting the Adra dragon as I was more focused on the main storyline rather than the main side quest "The Master Below". Knock Spell - there is no need for it and I doubt they could have included it as that'd be encroaching on D&D's IP. Yes there could have been an equivalent spell however I found the mechanics skill sufficient enough to cover that area. - Vendor Updates - agreed. More variety and an updating roster of merchandise over time would be nice to see. Diversify Crafting - agreed. I have to say I hardly bothered with crafting in the end as I found enough consumable items from loot drops throughout the game making the whole crafting of potions/food/scrolls sort of a pointless distraction. I liked the idea of upgrading your equipment but I never saw that as actually crafting as such, just enhancing. Crafting is making something from scratch from raw materials. I'd have liked to have been able to create my own equipment in game and enchant it. - More Models for gear - again agreed. I would add more gear as well plus, as it's been said elsewhere, separate the neck item slot from the shoulders. I found it very disappointing that I could not equip a character with an amulet and a cape at the same time. And, returning to the previous point, I'd like to have been able to create my own items from a a palate of styles. The stronghold needs more work. Assigning characters not in the main party roster to go off to do solo adventures & escorts is nice but they too need more work. I think the adventures could be like those points in the game where you go to text & a selection of choices. It'd be like a choose your own adventure for the particular character and in addition, success should be determined not only on the choices made but also the level & equipment the NPC has. A grand adventure should require a level 10+ NPC with a full set of equipment to have any chance of success. If you don't equip them properly and send them off on these adventures then the NPC should have a high chance of failure & perhaps even be permanently killed thus lowering your reputation and overall standing/morale. I'd also like to see hireling & perhaps unassigned NPC 's guarding the dungeon. There should be a number of random attacks that get progressively nastier if you ignore Od Nua and of course this gives you more incentive to totally clear out the dungeon otherwise you'll be facing more & more assaults from the creatures below. Oh and while I'm on the topic of Od Nua, I did find it a little bit disappointing. Some of the maps/levels where just far too small with only a few set encounters in them. I was hoping for something like the Underdark from BGII which was huge and had multiple levels and areas to explore. Ahh well. I also agree that the rest bonuses given by the fully upgraded stronghold were pretty lame compared to the ones you could get from resting at certain Inns. Perhaps once you've unlocked all the upgrades they should stack together? It'd make upgrading Caed Nua far more attractive plus you'd want to rest there as you'd be getting +1 to a lot of attributes. I'd also like to see more of the lands around Caed Nua, ie; more maps/areas that are unlocked once you start rebuilding the stronghold. You're getting taxes from somewhere, why not go out and actually meet your "peasants"? In addition how about you decide what sort of landlord your going to be: an evil tyrannical high taxing one who ignores his obligations to his people or a benevolent compassionate one who actively aids them and only takes from them what is absolutely necessary to maintain the stronghold? Another stronghold addition should be you holding court, ie; you have to be there to settle disputes, enforce justice, solve the odd crime/mystery that has arisen. If you're not there to do that then you could delegate an NPC companion to be your seneschal however that runs the risk of them failing if their attribute scores aren't high enough such as Intelligence, Resolve etc. Thus again your reputation would suffer for it etc. I also found the spellbooks and numbers of spells a wizard could have in their grimoire was a bit limited. Plus the clerical magic was also not developed enough. Basically I wanted MORE! I did though very much like the cipher character class and I'd really like to see that expanded in any further updates/games that come out. In regards to achievements I couldn't care less about them. I would rather see more focus on better game play and enhanced storytelling than knowing that I've now defeated the Quaziqwargs of Qwarg and unlocked the Golden Spoon of Egg Destruction. Give me more magic/spell content is what I'm saying Overall I liked the game however I can't help but compare it to BG and in all honesty, BG still just had so much more than PoE and for me at least is where I'm feeling a little let down as I had hoped that PoE would be as big, as enthralling, as in depth as BG was. I'm glad that PoE has happened and I'm proud that I backed it and don't regret that at all. Here's hoping that the follow up for PoE can be more like BG II. Just do more please

agreed!

I too have this bug with my game but it didn't seem to effect the hirelings in anyway? I'd like to see a new function in the game where you could increase the loyalty of hirelings by paying them more money or perhaps even giving them special items.

I always try to create a character with a high[ish] Int score for games like this as I've found it seems to count towards a number of dialogue options but also it helps with the role play element , ie; your character is smart enough to figure things out.

The only thing I'm disappointed about regarding PoE is how soon the game ended. I very much enjoyed the story and the design of the game but I wanted more!

Does anyone remember Fantasy Gaming Unlimited's superhero p&p RPG Villains & Vigilantes? Quite possibly one of the best games in that class/genre and so easy to play and so much fun! It'd be a game I'd like to see Obsidian transform into an online MMO.