omgFIREBALLS

Hey, thanks nonetheless. But can you confirm that there's no trick to spawning the merchant or anything; you simply go to his location at Anslög's Compass at any point during the game and he'll be there?

Trying to install that (Steam user) just launches the game. Also, in my Steam DLC list I have Pillars of Eternity - Deadfire Pack checked, installed, the works. As I press view downloadable content for PoE on Steam, every listed item (WM1, WM2, Deadfire Pack) is flagged as already being in my library. In short, nothing in any Steam interface leads me to believe that there is something I have yet to install. I actually don't even understand why you say the portraits and the merchant aren't part of the same deal. They're in the same patch notes.

I had a disproportionately large download that added some portraits and asked me if I wanted to enable telemetry. It is my understanding that the bonus merchant was supposed to be part of this. At the menu screen, it says my version is v3.7.0.1280

I saw a few people having this problem in the patch announcement thread. Well, me too. I've checked on multiple saves with vastly different progress, with vastly different choices made and from vastly different patches. One of my groups was informed about mastered spells when I loaded... And just now I tried reinstalling the game, still to no avail. It did wipe out my custom portraits though :/ and on that note, the new portraits are working, but the merchant is nowhere to be seen. Is there something I need to do to spawn him that everyone else knows but isn't telling me? I could attach some saves but as implied by the first paragraph, I doubt you could find a common factor between them. Still, if you ask...

Can one of you people who can see the new merchant at least show/tell us where we're supposed to be looking? I don't know if my game or my brain is bugged. Edit: NM, it's my game.

Raising accuracy or damage of your attacks is also a huge deal. I'd just like the weapon to actually matter. Let a wizard with a broken stick for a weapon suck a bit at casting, just like a fighter with a rusty sword would against a dragon. I'm not advocating a game design where wizards are balanced around having no bonuses from their weapons and become overpowered if they have them. I'm not sure I'm informed enough to address the grimoire argument. Would I have to choose between a grimoire that buffs me and a grimoire that has good spells in it, or can I put the good spells in a grimoire that also buffs me? The latter would work. I'm not a fan of that item (and it's a scepter ), but let's say I am, then we have a good "caster weapon" even though it's only good when attacking, but it's only really a caster weapon on the basis that it can't bind to non-casters.

That's not what I'm advocating. But if a fine weapon gives +4 accuracy and some damage over a normal one, then having a fine weapon equipped could give a caster +4 accuracy on their spells too. Voila, something as simple as a fine weapon is now useful to everyone without needing to actually hit with it.

@daven Can we talk about good game design rather than realism? It's a matter of character progression. We can discuss the "logic" of magic here until a mod locks the thread or a doomsday prediction turns out to actually be true. It's really exciting to get a better weapon for a fighter. It isn't for a caster because the weapon only gets to be better for when you're not casting because it's an easy fight and you don't want to micro, or you want to save spells. When it comes to fighting the Dark Lord whatever you have equipped might as well be your empty hands. @Valci That's an interesting perspective, but I don't think you couldn't balance this. You could design an encounter to be a reasonable challenge if everyone has a superb weapon, even if the superb weapon helps the fighter more than the wizard.

But then we're barely improving over PoE1. You still have to find some obscure item to buff up your spellcasting, whereas a sword is upgraded by a fine sword, available in countless places. On account of what, giving you extra Fireballs? It doesn't really qualify for me. Pretty much every weapon you can come up with ends up as, it does this thing that in a way enhances spells, but this same thing also enhances melee abilities, and a fighter could wipe out a village with it in half an hour. It's not a caster weapon in my book as long as it does way more for melee. I see the design philosophy behind not wanting weapons that are for casters only but we don't need to go there, we just need to give casters the same smooth weapon progression that fighters have. There are loads of weapons that are effectively for not-casters only, because they have no value beyond what they can smack someone for and at least my casters don't smack in a difficult fight.

Okay, I see your points. But what remains is that a fighter with a standard greatsword vs. a fighter with Tidefall is a massive difference, whereas for a wizard it's like... yeah okay it matters if I actually attack. It's really unexciting to get a "better" weapon for a caster unless it's something like Unforgiven/Gudansthunyr, whereas a fighter feels good just going from basic to fine. If we're not making caster weapons then we should make fine/exceptional etc. enhance spell damage and accuracy too, because until you get to these dragon-protected specialties a weapon upgrade for a caster is just an improvement to their C game. A big weapon for a fighter improves all their games, their per-lifetime super abilities as well as their "trash pack AFK let the AI handle it" auto-attacks.

I define a caster weapon as something that augments spells in some way. These are really rare in PoE1. I mean there's Rimecutter, Unforgiven, Gudasthunyr which to some degree fit the bill... and to get them you need to hope for Azzuro, kill a dragon or kill a really mean dragon. But more importantly, a might or attack speed bonus is exciting for melee too, definitely if you superb the weapon up whereas none of that really interests a caster. Actually attacking with the weapon is Plan C. So, for starters, I would like staves and daggers to enhance spellcasting in some way. Yes, the basic white items. Doesn't need to be anything big. +5 accuracy to spells or +1 DR penetration. Just something that makes them better than your bare hands for spellcasting. Now you might say, why only staves and daggers? Well, wands and the likes have the benefit that you can make a ranged attack from relative safety which makes them a better Plan C. But as for all the other melee weapons (maybe maces for priests though), I admit I am biased towards traditional mage weapons. And then, when you get a fine staff, it enhances spellcasting a little more, just like a fine greatsword is an upgrade for the fighter's basic greatsword. And then on the cool named ones, we have things like attack speed (which is still also casting speed I hope), stat bonuses... I'd also like chance on SPELL hit/crit procs. I mean, last I checked in Diablo 3 how hard you nuke with a staff is proportional to how hard you hit with it. Straight up uses weapon damage as a coefficient for spell damage. I'm not asking to take it that far, but I really don't want to have to kill a dragon to get a weapon that is useful to my wizard beyond their ability to swing it, and I want fine/exceptional/superb/mythic to also mean something for spellcasting, and chance on hit to work for spells. And I would like a magnificent wedding cake! Okay not particularly, but let's pretend I do so that giving me everything else I requested feels like an acceptable compromise.

So, I'm a merc addict and only use real NPC's for their quests to trigger stronghold turns. But Aloth doesn't want to give me his. Wiki says that it becomes available after Never Far From The Queen, during which he finds out I'm a Watcher. I've progressed the main quest so far that I just need to step in and attend the animancy hearing. Now obviously he wasn't with me for any of that but that hasn't messed his quest up before. If this indeed is the trigger, I might have bugged it when I went directly to the Leaden Key hideout rather than speaking to the ghost at the ruined temple first. I've never skipped that step before. I talked to the ghost long afterwards - with Aloth in the group even - but I still can't squeeze a quest out of him. Does the wiki have the trigger wrong or have I indeed messed it up? I've pretty much licked act 2 clean of main and side quests, companion quests and the Endless Paths aside.

Yeah you're right, plus we better not turn this thread into "discuss anything at all here". We have a whole forum for that.

I agree it's gonna be silly if there's such a dramatic difference between having N or N+1 DR. However, I'm gonna guess monsters will have different amounts of penetration so it's not like if you're safe against xaurips you're safe against dragons. The other concern though is that the more you move to percentages the more it's just a saving throw against damage, with no randomness involved.

[omgFIREBALLS: Extraordinary Positive]

I know you don't know more than what's in those videos, but I don't even know what's in those videos (and their respective threads), and I was hoping someone had compiled the information somewhere, or just pieces of it. I'm not expecting anyone to share dirty secrets. I mean, that's how wikis work isn't it. So again, I'm not looking for an Obsidian developer or someone who has hacked their systems or seduced their way to inside info. I'm only after summaries by those who have been following the development. I fully realize I'm not entitled to it, but Wikipedia is brimming with summarized and source-linked information I'm not entitled to either. I'm hoping, I'm asking, I'm not expecting or demanding. Because I'd like to save hours of spare time digging through all those videos if possible. That's all.

Thanks for all the replies. Now I'm gonna sidetrack a bit... There is at present seemingly like 40 update videos and most of them aren't even linked on the forum. Furthermore, each of them naturally sparks a few pages of replies, which I'm sure hold even more information assuming Obsidian take the time to clarify a little here and there. And with all this, we're looking at, I might not say a ton of information but certainly a ton of media to browse to find it. The Deadfire wiki seems to have been last updated in... February? And it hasn't even attempted to speak of the game systems. I would like to participate more here but it seems an overwhelming task to get up to speed. Your summary is exactly what I needed to understand the transition, but then there's attributes and dispositions and classes (x10 for emphasis) and combat systems and new stronghold mechanics and probably half a dozen more items I didn't think to mention now and half a dozen more that might be new to Deadfire that I will valiantly share an opinion about once I know about them.

I do know Tyranny, and the conquest is pretty much what I was hoping for for a new character. That puts me quite at ease, thanks ^^

Please elaborate for those of us who haven't played it.

Hello. I'm sure this has been asked but it's a big forum and I'm a small fireball with no idea what search query could find me the answer without having to poke through a hundred threads I've heard that our Watcher's choices in PoE1 will have consequences on PoE2. For one, I wonder to what extent; will it affect character power in any way or will just people be like ah yup, there sure was no adra dragon flying out of the ground in the wake of Eothas' emergence because the Watcher killed her to death. But we all know she wouldn't bother anyone in Deadfire anyway, it's just nice to recognize the Watcher for it in casual banter. I mean, PoE feels too modern to do like Baldur's Gate where you were decidedly weaker if you made a fresh BG2 charname rather than importing one that had picked up tomes. I think there was even extra loot to be had? I am going to assume our choices will have some impact on character power, but I will also assume we can just say at PoE2 character creation (rather than import) that, in these crucial situations in PoE1 my Watcher did this and that. I certainly hope I don't have to first figure out which choices give me the best PoE2 situation and then actually make a playthrough where I side with the Dozens, help the vithrack in every case possible, reach EP14 but don't do anything more there, side with Berath but betray her for Rymrgand, avoid building the Chapel because doing so will cause Eothas to absorb power from the scrolls when he destroys it, and acquire exactly 3 points in stoic, clever and passionate whilst my sum of the other dispositions is a prime number. Or have to fabricate such a save. Tell me I'm worrying over nothing and that there's no disadvantage to just creating a fresh PoE2 Watcher. Not that I don't have dozens to choose from, but from a powergaming PoV I don't want to have to go back to PoE1 to lay the best foundation to my awesomest possible PoE2 character.

I can't recall, but I think 11 or so. I knew from a standard PotD run with the same setup that the group would just be more or less permastunned if I tried meleeing her, so summon zerg was actually Plan A there. There must be something I don't know about avoiding her terminal stuns, but I hadn't intended to experiment on ToI, so. Given that the whole group had like 10 might and had shields on, prioritized defensive talents and equipment, they were beyond awful at punching through high damage reduction. That being said they outlasted other dragons (Adra, Alpine before I managed to get my priest knocked out, Llengrath's pets), and I'm sure I could have outlasted her too if I knew some way to avoid getting stunned repeatedly by her. @Boeroer That's just making fun of the typo, it's "wailed"

I'm way too fond of Zealous Endurance and the Herald defensive aura for any party. I also tried Sure-Handed Ila + Rime And Frost... + Zealous Charge kiting and while that was quite powerful it was also quite tiresome. Plus, my paladin was a Goldpact Knight so her Liberating Exhortation (another ability I love) was extra good to use on my priest so she could buff more safely. I didn't even take Sacred Immolation as I needed neither more AoE damage nor more AoE healing. In fact, there was so much AoE healing going on that I lost a chanter twice to death. They heal each other's endurance so much that in a long losing fight they run out of health unless I manage to pull them out and give them a bow. I didn't miss CC so much. Tough fights I would open with figurine summons while I buffed up and accumulated phrases. After that, time was on my side so to speak. The AI seems rather inclined to prioritize weak targets, rather than weighing ease of killing against importance of killing, so summons were always good fodder. Did not kill fast though (the chanters had 10 might), but outlasted like hell. The group was royally awful at killing dragons however. The sky dragon took a long long time to kill and it was just crowding her with ogres that occasionally managed to graze her. I had to do that with the alpine dragon too but that might not have been needed if I hadn't lost my priest to hubris. The group was all pale elves, I got them all a blunting belt, nearly all of them had +10 will/reflex/fortitude talents, all had weapon and shield style, most had deflection bonuses, they had heavy armor etc etc. Even the priest had a breastplate.

Thanks so much for this! I've played a lot of caster groups, but I always found they couldn't casually beat trash encounters, which I just want to blaze through and save micromanagement for bosses. So I moved on to melee-heavier groups with the pronepike and while they were fun, I realized what I really wanted was a tanky squadron that played for a slow, safe victory. And this is it. Four chanters, a paladin and a priest. Each of them pumping defenses and damage reduction, the chanters weaving Dragon Thrashed and protections; there are no easy targets in my party. And for trash encounters I can just throw some mastered spells with the priest, perhaps some invocations from the chanters if it lasts that long. After noticing how much it suited me I started over as a Triple Crown attempt, which was my first such. Expert Mode is actually strangely liberating when you have a good feel for spell AoE size and know the important skill/stat checks; you don't need to worry about those and you are freed from "Should I really say THAT? What will people THINK of me?!" And now I've beaten that! Even Frozen Crown. Killed all dragons to death, never backed down when prompted about high level scaling etc. Though admittedly, the Plan B of run away, stand at a distance and drown the baddies in ogres did feel cheap at times ^^

My issue is that most encounters are easy enough that I don't care to micromanage my party much, but I might still end up taking unnecessary amounts of damage if I don't at least use my per encounter abilities. And that becomes a chore pretty fast. Disciplined Barrage, Vigorous Defense, Charge. Yes, Smashbreak, again. Also you, Breaksmash. Is this possible to handle with a third party program? Any recommendations?

Can't reset it AFAIK, unless of course you still have a save from before speaking to Maerwith.