No idea

Agreed. I dont like it either. I didnt even like DAO (the first one) combat and attribute system (altough DAO had also very good things, mainly the storytelling), and it seems PoE is much like DAO in that aspect. Bad news, imo. I dont understand why the hell they dont just copy (with some tweaks) the system that has worked well for decades (D&D).

You are a lost cause... getting xp for combat is not grinding xp... grinding is a process the players partakes in, with a specific goal in mind. Getting xp for kills is just a mechanic. You can grind kills for xp, just as you can grind quests for xp. It ultimately comes down to the how the mechanics are implemented in the game, (whether or not it's encouraged or practical to grind in the first place) and the what the player decides to do with them. Yeah, by eliminating combat xp, you can effectively remove the ability to grind kills for xp, (however practical or not) but in a combat-centric game, it also works to make one of it's core aspects, utterly boring and pointless, with little to no incentive for players to even want to participate in the first place. So true.

You know? A good way to solve that kind of problem is letting you play the game the way you want. If your build is underpowered, just grind some more experience.

Not allowing experience grinding is not a bad design philosophy. Experience grinding is not a way of playing, it's a progression mechanic. If killing everything is what you love to do (this is a way of playing), just kill everything the game allow you to do it, they haven't removed that option. Obsidian decided against experience grinding because that's not the kind of progression mechanic they wanted to have in the game. Not letting people play the way they like IS bad design philosophy. If people like experience grinding, let them, unless there is a good reason not to do it. Balance? So what if balance goes out of the window? It is my game and sometimes i dont like it to be balanced, but to become a juggernaut. Come on, i am sure many of you who talk about experience grinding have done the same in many games. It is just another way of playing. Sometimes i feel like roleplaying, and sometimes i simply like metagaming in every possible way. Why giving away one of the options when you can have both is beyind me.

Really ntrigued about aod. Thanks for pointing it.

So what about experience grinding?. Let people play the way they like. The contrary is not a good design philosophy, imho.

Agreed, i dont understand why they dont simply use an ecl system to give combat experience, if they are afraid of combat lovingplayers getting too much experience in random encounters. It is really simple.

I have always thought that taking away combat experience unfairly punishes a certain way of playing. And with no good reason, imho.

Of course, it doesnt have to be real. In fact, most things in a RPG world (even those things you think are realistic) are pure science fiction. But any world and any system, no matter how fantasy ones, must have internal coherence. And I just dont see it in the attribute system. Some explanation is needed about this "soul powa".

Care to explain? I dont know if you are being sarcastic or you really know something we dont.

If you're still around, I'll comment that I complained about this aspect as well. It seems every spell, ability, class unlock, and talent (and even some skills) are oriented to make you better at combat, which doesn't make sense to me if the game is supposed to be designed to give you lots of options other than combat. I'm hopeful that this is something that will change in the final release and we'll see a lot more things aimed at the non-combat side of things. Anyway, I agree with your points here. I'm just thinking that the beta is set up to have you engage in combat more than the actual game would so we can test the mechanics and find the bugs easier. There's still time for tweaking and adjustments to make this something you may like a lot better. Yes, it is quite a nonsense, especially because there is no xp reward for combat (quest combat apart). They try not to make a game where combat absolutely rules and, at the same time, they dont give non combat options (non combat spells and options to avoid engagements).

The problem, imho, is that MIght is extremely confusing. What is it, exactly? It seems to be "strenght of soul" (whatever that might be), but then, we have no such a basic attribute for a RPG as PHYSICAL strenght (all rpg systems I know have physical strenght in one way or another). And if it is a mix of "strenght of soul" (again, whaever that might be) and physical strenght it becomes extremely confusing. The stronger somebody is the stronger his sould is? Why that connection?

Simply read their explanation of what they are. And with same system imean not the mechanics,but in how thwgame system defines a person, not how those attributes work (altough there are a lot of similitudes)

Last i looked, we only got con, dex and int out of that list. Perception is clearly wisdom. Same for Resolve with Charisma. The attribute system of poe is the very same as d&d (nothing wrong with that, imho) except for str, which doesnt exist, and instead we get a mix of physical and soul strenght which is rather confusing.

How does one measure physical strength then? I'm just curious. Not with an attribute - not in this game. Then i have to agree with others that the system doesnt make much sense. You give us con, dex, int, wis and cha, but no str? That system has always made sense because it was very intuitive. The might attribute and what it represents seems a change in the d&d system for the sake of change, so that nobody can say they are just copying the d&d attribute system. But the problem is that they have left us with a counterintuitive system whoch doesnt make sense. If you copy, make a perfect copy or make sure what you change really improves the system.

This is true. However, there are two mitigating factors: 1) Wizards do decent damage anyway, even without a high Might score. The spells are just inherently tough. 2) D&D didn't actually have any stat that increased spell damage, so you could say its attributes didn't exactly support that archetype either. Between Might as the stat that increases spell damage and no stat at all, it's probably better to have an option. Not directly, but indirectly int, wis and cha increased the damage dealt. A lot.

What you quoted is accurate except for one "little" detail: in d&d ( 3 and 3.5 edition) an encounter is like a quest, so killing a group of monsters,any group of monsters (or a single one), GIVES XP.

I said storytelling, not story. They tell the story (with that cinematic view and good voice acting, at least in my version) really well. Story was ok, imho, even if some other stories are much better. DA one smells too much of GoT.

I fully agree. Story can be good two or three times, but after that it usually becomes repetitive. Even DA, which had lots of different endings and the best storytelling so far, had problems after two runs, because, imho, gameplay was a bit lacking. I simply couldnt stand to grind through so much combat to get to the end.

I think a mix of both systems should be perfect. Give a good part of the xp for doing quests, but leave something for people who like combat. I understand the "we just give xps for quests" as a way of rewarding non combat ways of making quests, but i think there should be some reward for combat. I think combat (and i am talking about non boss combat) will end being annoying if we dont get some reward for it. I think going the "just for quests" way is punishing a lot of players who like combat and/or giving a level edge to their characters.

I really hope we dont get the aligments we got in d&d (except the 4th edition) because they make the world feel like a completely artificial place. Nobody (well, almost nobody) acts lawful good always, nor chaotic evil. At least a human. A demon is a different thing. The contray makes for humans which dont behave as humans. So it all feels artificial. I think the aligment system is oneof thegood things of d&d 4th. Edition. It is more a far more natural system.

I hope druids dont suck, like it happens in most crpgs. Anyway, hello everybody¡