pi2repsion

Wee! It went live. Oh, well. Fixed for 2.0.2, undoubtedly. Releasing the 2.0.1 patch with this bug outstanding when players have been clamouring for a patch for a week has got to be one of those damned if you do, damned if you don't situations.

Galvino's workshop's monsters stats increasing to absurd levels is a confirmed bug that is fixed in the next patch. See: https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/81374-damaged-enemies-have-absurd-stats/?hl=galvino

Quite simply, the developers chose to use a different system for their CRPG world than the more common D&D inspired one, which has led many players to mistakenly believe that might = physical strength and on the basis of that wondered what the hell was going on. There is a reason, however, that it is named might, not strength: Namely that might isn't equal physical strength in the POE universe. There are many other ways to create game systems for fantasy worlds, and Pillars of Eternity uses one that is suited for the whole soul/magic aspect, where faith can move mountains, and where somebody who is physically weak can hit as hard as somebody who is strong so long as he's focused enough or, as we'd say when discussing the weak assaulting the strong in the real world and succeeding, puts his soul in it. In the Eternity universe, this is how things work (stolen from the wiki, which took it from the game): Might: a character's physical and spiritual strength, brute force as well as their ability to channel powerful magic. Constitution: a combination of the character's overall health and endurance. Dexterity: a character's hand-eye coordination, balance, and overall grace. Perception: a character's senses as well as their instinctive ability to pick up on details. Intelligence: a character's logic and reasoning capabilities. Resolve: a character's internal drive, determination, fearlessness. It is reminiscent of the way character's inner strength boost their physical capabilities in a number of good fantasy works. Glen Cook's Black Company books and Steven Erickson's Malazan Book of the Fallen would be the obvious examples to look at, both taking it to the logical extreme. And perhaps a bit beyond.

This has been around since 1.0 and is frequently reported, so either there are multiple bugs causing it and Obsidian are whacking them one by one, or Obsidian never got around to fixing it such that the button always said "RECALL" when it should in the first place. It was so well known shortly after release that, returning to the game after four months absence, when I noticed it was still the case in 2.0 I didn't bother reporting it because surely Obsidian must have this logged in their bug tracker with some low priority that meant nobody ever had time to address it. But when Aarik D now asks for details, I guess it is possible that it somehow got lost amidst the multitude of other bugs. Here are some of the threads in which it has previously been reported, sorted with most recent first: https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/80636-wrong-button-label-in-the-stronghold-actions-section/?hl=assign https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/79648-stronghold-is-sometimes-displaying-assign-instead-of-recall-causing-you-to-recall-by-mistake/?hl=assign https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/75846-stronghold-adventures-disappear-after-patch/?hl=assign https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/73791-stronghold-adventures-button-says-assign-when-it-should-not/?hl=assign I am not available to upload a savegame + log for the next several hours, but if nobody has provided Obsidian with the necessary data by then, I'll do so tomorrow.

It was a bad mechanic to begin with and I told everyone so. I am replaying on PoTD for 2.0, and find that I really like the current engagement/AI mechanic: It is now an effective limit on the battlespace a character can control via attacks of opportunity rather than magical glue. Don't get me wrong - there are still some glue aspects to it, but whether due to changes to the engagement mechanic or to enemy AI, it doesn't dominate to the degree it did in 1.0. Some enemies respect it, some do not, and those that don't get punished via disengagement attacks. With the changes, proper tactical use of several melee characters on the front line and taking advantage of terrain and magical control and environmental effects to restrict enemy movement is needed if I want to protect a fragile rear line of archer or magic-users, and having the rear able to protect itself in an emergency has become imperative for the times when controlling the battlespace fails, especially for characters with low-DR armour, making the tradeoff of running around with next to no armour on the rear line for minimal recovery penalty much more interesting: It makes the character a much more interesting target. (Especially fun for wizards that may now want to slot rather more defensive spells in their grimories than they did previously.) I can only applaud this slight move towards behaviour common in the RPGs I grew up with and loved (D&D 1st-3rd edition) over the modern "tactics are hard for players, so we glue enemies to the tank by aggro mechanics or taunting so the players can concentrate on dealing damage".

As a workaround, I experienced the same Gaun's Share bug on one of my party members and resolved it by removing the party member from the party and then adding him to the party again, which cleared the effect. This obviously won't help if the main character is affected.

Guess I'm just addicted to speed. I feel the need.. the need for speed!

Yep, DaOM works perfectly well and using it on a wizard who has sky-high dexterity and uses armour with minimal recovery penalty* is as fun as ever. * i.e. enchanted Berathian Priest robes from Raedric's Hold. 2DR, 5% recovery penalty and you'll look much more stylish than wearing ordinary Dyrwoodian clothing with 0DR, 0% penalty, while avoiding the harsh penalty of normal robes with 3DR, 15% penalty. Though the Gwisk Glass robes are a decent alternative once you get them, trading the higher recovery penalty for the Second Chance enchant.

Good point. Might even be worth taking the Interrupting Blows talent for +15 interrupt since the effect doesn't mention only applying to attacks; I assume it also works for spells despite the name of the talent. (This needs to be tested). EDIT: Nope, doesn't seem to work. An update on this. I'm now running a MIG 18, CON 3, DEX 19, PER 16, INT 19, RES 3 Pale Elf wizard on POTD supported by the default companions, wearing a torc of the falcon's eyes +2 (so PER 18), and while the first four levels were rough (considerably rougher than 1.6), now that I have DAoM I can spam lowlevel AOEs without getting overrun while casting, and I am seeing a decent number of successful interrupts from the +24 interrupt modifier from perception due to the sheer number of interrupt rolls made. Not, alas, enough to rely on it against any individual enemy, but every enemy action interrupted in the big fights against hordes of enemies when playing POTD is a win as far as I am concerned. I can only imagine how good this would be on easy to hard difficulties, where enemies don't have sky-high defenses. I'm not certain that it is better than a wizard RES build, but so far it works well.

Good point. Might even be worth taking the Interrupting Blows talent for +15 interrupt since the effect doesn't mention only applying to attacks; I assume it also works for spells despite the name of the talent. (This needs to be tested). EDIT: Nope, doesn't seem to work.

While the other soulbound weapons look interesting and potentially useful, that Greenstone staff had better have something that is useful for spellcasters when fully unlocked or it is a bit of a joke to have it bind to monks, druids, and wizards. Especially with the squishy wizards, I'm trying hard to think of any situation in which whacking monsters from near the front ranks with a 2H staff is a better idea than casting a spell or shooting them with a wand, sceptre, or rod (perhaps boosted by Blast).

@OP There are two steps involved: #1. Activate the AI. Left clicking the little head on the action toolbar toggles the AI script for the chosen character. When the head lights up, the script you have selected is enabled. (See screenshot below) #2. Selecting AI script. Right clicking the little head on the action toolbar or left clicking the little head icon in the in the bottom-right corner of each character's mugshot in the character sheet brings up the script configuration. By default everybody is set to defend self and to not use any per-rest abilities; In other words, they'll stand still, attack enemies in range of their weapons, use per-encounter abilities, and nothing else. (And that is IF you have activated the AI). You need to decide which engagement range (passive, defend self, defensive, or offensive) fits that character best, choose which of the available scripts for the character (depending on class) you want to use, and whether you want to allow the character to use per-rest abilities or not.

Okay, I have a reproducible case here affecting everybody's favourite priest, and it persists through exiting and loading the game. In the attached save, Durance has a ring of minor deflection +5 and a torc of the falcon's eyes +2 in inventory, which affect different characteristics, and he has no other magical equipment equipped, nor is he affected by any ongoing spells. If you equip one of them on Durance, that item's stat modifier is not applied. (Erroneous behaviour) If you equip both of them on Durance , both items' stat modifiers are applied. (Correct behaviour) If you remove one of the two when both are equipped on Durance, the remaining one's stat modifiers is applied. (Correct behaviour) If you remove both of the two when both are equipped on Durance, none of the modifiers are applied. (Correct behaviour) ...and you are ready to loop back to step 1, where equipping any one of them does not apply the stat modifier. The output_log is from immediately after swapping the two items in and out of Durance's item slots a couple of time, making the save, and exiting the game. output_log.txt 73e497a8-3d51-4f84-b022-e64a37107086 quicksave.zip

Good to hear. It truly is a minor bug, but an annoying one.

How would one build a wizard for hard or PoTD party in 2.0? It was so terribly simple to make a kickarse wizard in 1.6 by going max MIG/DEX/INT and putting the remains in RES, but I have to wonder whether things have changed enough for that to no longer being the case. Going for RES for deflection and to avoid interruption will mean lower accuracy from PER, while going PER obviously makes the Wizard more vulnerable to interruption. Of course, a wizard using CON as a dump stat isn't supposed to get hit much in the first place, so dumping RES might not create all that many interruption problems (especially with the Spirit Shield for +30 concentration in hard fights), but on the other hands the enemies are somewhat smarter and happier targeting squishies, so there are likely going to be more attacks hitting the wizard and perhaps dumping CON completely to -35% is a bit optimistic. Anybody with experience from the beta or playing like madmen since White March release with input on this issue?

2.00.706, Windows, Steam. I decided that the White March expansion was a good excuse to replay the game, this time with developer commentary turned on. Which led to unintentional hilarity and a bit of grumbling on my part. If game speed is set to normal, the commentary playback plays as intended, and when the developer stops talking, the notification in the top-right corner disappears. Great. If speed is set to slow, the commentary playback plays as intended, and the notification disappears quite some time after this. If speed is set to double, the commentary playback is cut short mid-sentence about half-way through and the notification disappears at the same time. Needless to say, the playback should be the same regardless of game speed, and should be the behaviour that is currently only experienced at normal game speed.

Just get the six Berathian robes from Raedric's keep - they are readily accessible with a minimum of combat if you climb the wall, look pretty good, and have 2DR with a 5% recovery penalty. Surely 5% recovery penalty is a small price to pay not to look like a random peasant or villager.

There is one other significant difference between Noxious Burst and Fireball, namely that Fireball has fast cast speed while Noxious Burst has average. Depending on the situation that can make a difference, as Noxious Burst while it has the highest damage per spell slot does not have the highest damage per frame of the two.

While I agree with much of what Anhilde wrote, I must disagree with the comments regarding at least three of the spells: Rolling Flames is an good but situational spell until you get a lot of higher level damage spells so long as you are willing to let your wizard be the one starting encounters by launching it at distant enemies. It does decent damage, especially if you manage to angle it correctly to bounce through the enemies multiple times, and it can be cast outside of combat. If you set up a decent firing lane you can get off two of them and then intercept incoming enemies with your frontline combatant(s) before they can reach the wizard to punish him for his offensive behaviour. If you use multiple frontline combatants and careful positioning so you get enemies strung out attacking your front rather than clustering around a single "tank" you can also use it to strafe the entire enemy line when they are engaged with your frontline, but this is definitely a niche use (and one at which Ray of Fire is in some cases better). Fireball is a very nice spell; Its damage is frankly mediocre, but it is a fast cast AOE spell with a large radius. Whether spammed alone or under the effects of DAoM, you can always squeeze in a Fireball, and due to having a large radius it gets a pretty large yellow safe-zone with high intelligence, overcoming most of the problems attendant on it not being Foe only. Deleterious Alacrity of Motion is the most powerful wizard spell by far in any encounter that is dangerous enough that you don't just zerg it; It lasts for a long time and allows you to cast a lot more spells during that time than you otherwise would, and once you are into 3rd and 4th level spells (or above), you are not going to be limited by spell slots in hard encounters (as you will face them rested), you are solely going to be limited by how many spells you can cast in the available time. I consider DAoM the single most powerful spell of all the spells available to the magic-using classes. Substantial spell haste is just that good when you are concentrating on controlling your spellcasters, because it works as a force multiplier by increasing the spell throughput substantially. Use it with a high Dex PC Wizard wearing clothes or light Berathian robes for minimal base recovery penalty to maximize absurdity, but it is pretty damn powerful even used by a mediocre Wizard like Aloth.

Are we so adverse to thinking for ourselves, that we need to be spoon fed and outlined the consequences of choices? What happened with just rolling with it, your character made a blunder... why does that ruin your game experience? :shrugs: Of course I understand that you guys are angry with the fact that you feel cheated by the game (which is a ****ty feeling), I just don't see why you feel that way. there is an expert tag that doesnt spoon fed those that dont wish to in my next playthrough i will know. However on my first game I planned from the beginning to join the knights, i dont know how you cant see why so many people feel upset about it. (especially on first playthrough) So, you were spoiled enough concerning the game's story that you planned from the beginning to join a specific faction in the Defiance Bay conflict that you wouldn't hear about in-game before act 2, but not spoiled enough that you knew which steps to take... and somehow this is a problem, because you were able to take steps that prevented you from reaching your goal without warning you as you were taking them? If I heard about some nice artifact or companion in the game before playing and thought it would be great to have only to discover that actions I've taken in-game preclude me from getting what I want, I don't consider that to be a problem with the game or something to be upset about, as I have no expectation that the game will confirm to my desires in such respects by handing me what I want, and I'm struggling to see what the difference is here. I mean, I get that you are upset, for you say so and I have no reason to doubt you, but I'm really struggling to see why. Leaving aside that issue, while the player may consider this joining a faction, the game is very clear that the main character is not, in fact, choosing to join any faction - the main character operates as a free agent, gets a reputation with the various factions, and it is not a question of whom he wants to join but about what they are willing to entrust him with as part of their power struggle based on his actions for them and for their opponents. This then, in the story, leads to the main character to ask those that are likeliest to grant him a favour when he desperately wants to be invited to the ducal audience. To put it bluntly, if the main character (operated by the player) strongly favours one faction, the rational thing for him to do would be to support that faction, not strengthen the other factions and then wonder why his favourite faction isn't willing to trust him with the hard stuff.

No, the game does not deserve to have every single word voice acted, nor is it desirable. Professional VO can certainly add to the personality of some people in CRPGs, but amateur VO is almost universally bad. More importantly, fully voice acted games is the bane of large scale CRPGs due to the costs involved. It is exorbitantly expensive when compared to writing. The last thing I'd want to see was for Obsidian to get the idea that playerbase value VO over other content. No VO, or extremely limited VO to help establish a few key character personalities, as done in Pillars of Eternity, is much to be preferred as it keeps VO costs low and removes constraints from writers, who are able if necessary to perform last-minute changes to text. (Not that the latter is something to make a habit of, but once VO is locked in it becomes the next thing to impossible.) EDIT: This was the instinctive response after reading your original post. After reading further I've come to better understand that your intention was merely to ask how you yourself could implement more voice acting because you prefer games that way. As a bit of advice, if you want to ask for technical help on a controversial topic, don't start out by claiming that the game deserves to be the way you would prefer it to be by comparing it to other games, which it is deliberately trying NOT to be, following it up by denouncing those that disagree with you as having low standards. It tends to give the wrong impression.

Anybody not getting Deleterious Alacrity of Motion amongst the third level spells should have his head examined. You get to buff yourself with HASTE for spellcasting with a long duration, perfect for when you just want your wizard to burn through his spellslots slaughtering everybody in tough encounters. Anyhow, in my first attempt (abandoned due to bugs) I wrote down the spells I could pick up from grimoires in the very early game, which proved quite helpful for my second attempt with a PC wizard. L1: Chill Fog C. Parasitic staff Dazzling Lights Fan of Flames Fleet Feet Ghost Blades Jolting Touch K. Sunless Grasp Minor magic missiles Spirit Shield Thrust of Shattered Veils L2: Bewildering Spectacle Bulwark vs Elements C's corrosive Fetid Grasp Miasma of Dullness Necrotic Lance Ray of Fire L3: C. Draining Touch Crackling Bolts Fireball You get more of L3+ from later grimoires, but this is quite handy knowledge to have for the first few level-ups.

It is interesting that the society of the Free Palatinate seems to be almost universally rejecting of avuncular relationships. Surely you must be kidding. There are two aspects to consider here: #1: He is a lord in Defiance Bay, and you choose to extort him for money, and you wonder why your Defiance Bay reputation takes a hit? Let's put it this way: When he returns home, he's not going to be your biggest fan. #2: The villagers don't like him because he is an obnoxious visitor who has his guards harassing them with questions, not because of what he and his niece were up to, something of which they are unaware. Anything you do to make him go away will make them happy. Some of them are also pretty vindictive and close to the Skaenite way of thinking if we believe the notes we find (apart from the actual Skaenites, that is). Killing him, manhandling him, or spreading rumours about him makes them even more happy than merely making him leave. --- My own choice was to have the Grieving Mother free Aelys and tell Aelys to roam the world as she saw fit, then letting Lord Harond go. I must say that I found the resolution of this quest utterly idiotic and unsatisfying. She says that she can't go back to the inn, and all I get are different options of advice on where she should go, when I send a woman who is manifestly unprepared to face the world on her own out to find her own destiny in the Dyrwood without money, food, or means of defending herself. Yeah, that's a noble choice. I didn't get the option that would have made sense in a medieval world with no social safety net and bandits and monsters roaming the wild, namely to try convincing her that she should overcome her fear and return with me to the inn and the life she knew. Which is pretty absurd on its own, but made even more absurd by my character having the aristocrat background. Or if we are being even more blunt, how about an option to remind her of the many benefits of avunculate concubinage followed by an arranged marriage when compared to the risks of starvation, living in poverty, rape by opportunistic strangers, death from bandits or monsters, or having to sell her body for coppers on the streets or in seedy inns, all things for which her pampered upbringing have left her ill prepared? And having sent her out in the world - or if we are being generous, accepting that that was her free will and not being a clear case of a malicious player character taking advantage of her emotional fragility - I don't get the option to inform her uncle where I sent her so he can do the best to protect her, I only get the option to tell him that she lives and that he should go home, that is if I don't want to lie to him and say she died or want to extort him for money or kill him. This was truly one of the most unsatisfying quests I have done as yet, because it assumes that the player will act from sensitivities of outrage at the situation rather than thinking of consequences or, quite simply, not think the situation is all that outrageous in the first place given the information he knows. Because, let's face it, if you aren't playing a Cipher, what you know about the situation is very limited. You know that she's pregnant, and there's a lot of insinuation, but the claims of actual knowledge about her actions and feelings come from the Skaen cultist in town, who is outright lying to you, and from the Skaen cultist in the temple, neither of whom can be considered reliable sources of information. The the lady herself, confused and newly escape possession, all you get is a desire not to return to the inn. And yet your options are limited to believing the Skaen cultists' claims and being outraged at them. --- One does have to wonder whether the almost universal rejection with which the avuncular relationship is met in the Free Palatinate would also extend to acknowledged avunculate concubinage and avunculate marriage.

The following is how I did with my blaster wizard PC. At level 5-6 I was using my wizard autoattacking and using the arcane assault on trash fights, but in important battles I approached in stealth, positioned my wizard to open the battle, and then let the wizard open the battle from stealth with Rolling Flames angled to go straight through most of the enemy group, preferably angled such that the enemy would also get hit on the rebound. After that it was run a bit back while my two melee guys took up position in front, and assess the situation. A not uncommon followup was to cast DAoM or Fireball (as those were the two level 3 spells I picked first, and they were a very, very, good choice), and then move such that I could flame all or most of the enemies with Fan of Flames with minimal friendly fire - either by moving to the flank and angling the flame in front of my melee line or moving back such that no friendlies were in the green base range but the yellow (int-based) area overlapped both my front rank and the enemy front rank. (Player created wizard with 19 INT - I expect Aloth with his lower INT but an item with overseeing should have no problem doing the same, but I haven't used him much). Enemies hanging back were good follow up targets for more of the Rolling Flames. I also experimented with casting more than one Rolling Flames to open up battle, though this took more tricky positioning; Basically have your front liners be the one scouting out the enemy, have your wizard hang back rather than right in front, and arrange for a firing range. It puts more limitations on your ability to angle the ball of flaming death perfectly for rebounds but is a safer position for the wizard. Except with very slow enemies, you'll need your frontliners to engage after the second Rolling Flames has passed them. (Also, remember that the ball of flame requires a quite broad opening to not singe your front liners) There is one more annoying thing and that is that in some positions with some angles, the wizard will simply fail to cast Rolling Flames when attempted out of combat for no reason I could fathom, requiring repositioning and trying again, but at least it doesn't break stealth and doesn't cost spell slots so it is only an annoyance. But again, this was with the player character being a blaster wizard, so I have pretty much built my party around letting the wizard do the heavy lifting in encounters (Eder and Durance as tanks, Pallegina as offtank/2H dps, Kana Rua and Grieving Mother as ranged support) creating a broad front line for enemies to engage, and I find having to choose the right positions to get the most out of the wizard spells a fun part of experience. Admittedly that becomes less important at higher levels due to the abundance of fire-and-forget AOE that can safely be cast from the rear; I still need one combat spell that can be used out of combat to initiate the fight, but after that it is DAoM and then casting a stream of AOE or control spells with the very occasional self defense spell... but mostly AOE.

Minimizing CON is what Infuse with Vital Essence was invented for. (Well, that and Dangerous Implements for DAoM Blight auto-attack spammers.)