JerekKruger

Oh, good point, it's really too similar in the state I suggested. Perhaps a little too close to Wounds though?

I believe (though I might very well be mistaken) that different quests advance different numbers of turns, with bigger quests and storyline quests advancing multiple turns whilst small tasks like Aufra's potion in Gilded Vale only advancing one turn. If this is the case I have no idea what the various rates are though.

How about an inverse wounds system: the more damage you do, the more "rage" you build up. Perhaps there could be a compromise e.g. the more rage you have the more damage you do, so that you have to decide between spending rage and losing damage or keeping it and maintaining damage.

Not yet, though it's something I've been considering. I am still only level 5 so I don't (think) I would have the requisite talent points required to do so at the moment.

Huh, looks like the Gloves of Manipulation have been removed from the loot pool for the little chest in Raedric's Keep. I wonder where they are now...

Huh, I'd never considered disabling the floor traps solo like that. I always have Heodan do them all for experience before lighting all the torches (even though at that point, lighting all the torches isn't necessary). I'd also never though of returning to Cilant Lis. Usually I am ultra conservative with my Camping Supplies, although in my current playthrough I could probably have benefitted from an extra free one.

True, but don't you finish Cilant Lis with two Camping Supplies anyway? Thus, unless you rest at some point during Cilant Lis, you're going to be leaving on behind anyway.

Fingers crossed for such talents in PoE2 eh?

Personally I'd say expert mode is best suited either for lower difficulty playthroughs where you want to emphasise roleplaying (not knowing which dispositions dialogue options will build, not knowing the AoE templates of spells etc.) or for PotD playthroughs when you've got a very good handle on the game (you already know what enemies are weak against what etc.) and want to grab the various achievements around it. I wouldn't got PotD+expert on my first PotD playthrough. Then again, I have never used expert at all, so what do I know

Just got Resolution and Persistence (and Llawren's Stick of course). Party was level 5 and the fight against the Greater Black Ooze was no joke. Also of interest was the fact that I actually found the Xaurip floor pretty hard, but then the few Ogre fights I did were surprisingly easy. It turns out that the combination of Whisper of Treason and Mental Binding make a party with a Cipher really good in fights against a few, tougher enemies, but being swarmed by lots of weaker enemies is a lot harder. EDIT: oh yeah, quick question: I picked up a Ring of Searing Flames, does the damage caused by Burning Wounds build Focus?

Not true. Since everything is additive, Might quickly gets dwarfed by other damage bonuses for classes that have them. For example, a level 1 Fighter with Might 18 does 24% more damage than a level 1 Might 10 Fighter, but at level 6, if both have taken the appropriate Weapon Specialization and Weapon Mastery that drops to 19.2% (1.49/1.25). If both are using a two-handed weapon and have the two-handed weapon style that drops again to 17.1%. Finally, if we throw in Savage Attack it drops to 15%. Throw in buffs and gear that add to damage and the lead drops even more. Of course, even if the Might 18 Fighter is only doing 10% more damage than the Might 10 Fighter that's still a decent chunk of damage. However the lower Might Fighter can invest those 8 points into another Attribute, probably Perception if doing damage is their aim. A crit is another +50% damage and every time the lower Might Fighter crits when the high Might Fighter doesn't they're doing 14.1% more damage and if they hit whilst the higher Might Fighter grazes they do 19.4% more damage. Obviously who comes out ahead depends on the Deflection of the enemy they're facing, but it's not clear to me that a high Might Fighter necessarily comes out ahead. This all applies to Rogues (much more so if you can activate Deathblows) and the Cipher (thanks to Biting Whip).

In PotD the immunities should still be present at the bottom of the box (I know since I am in the middle of a PotD play through and check them regularly). Are you also playing on Expert mode? That might remove them I guess?

I pretty much agree, hence my point about weapons being a bit unexciting.

Fair point, I should have said "some people" - it's definitely not the first time I've seen someone talk about high Intellect making no sense for a Barbarian - but you're right that for many people the problem is more that it's just replacing one norm (dumb muscled brute) with another (intelligent low finesse brute) rather than giving allowing a new option. I'd say the Obsidian came a lot closer than most (class based) CRPGs in achieving the "there are no bad stats" and "every class can benefit from every stat" objectives, but I agree that the Barbarian is one of the classes where this feels less true.

To quote the OP: It might be a case of things getting lost in translation, but that sounds a lot like "Barbarians shouldn't use Intellect" to me. As for Intellect being required for a Barbarian, I'd agree that it is perhaps the most obviously useful Attribute for the class, but you're not going to be gimping yourself that much if you went with, say, Intellect 10. Dumping your Intellect down to 3 is probably possible too, though you'll essentially be playing without Carnage and so the Barbarian will be rather different.

Another good example. I loved those books.

Yeah, I'm a Boreal Dwarf this time round and their racial is really noticeable. Against the Skuldrs in Eothas's Temple I was critting all the time. I even managed to crit charm the first Skuldr king you meet and he proceeded to tank all the other Skuldr in the room until he died and one wounded Skuldr remained.

In addition to what KDubya said, which I completely agree with, I think it's a bit strange that people can't accept an intelligent Barbarian. Howard's Conan, probably the first fantasy Barbarian, was no slouch in the brains department. It's only later that the trope of Barbarians as stupid but strong fighters that charge mindlessly at their enemies appeared. Even if you're drawing on the idea of a berzerker* there's nothing that says you have to be stupid. My bigger problem with Barbarians is that, with very high Intellect, Carnage starts to feel a bit silly. The way I imagine Carnage is that Barbarian is making great sweeping blows (like D&D cleave attacks) which therefore hit other nearby targets. However when you're at really high Intellect you start hitting enemies behind you, or a long way behind your initial target, and the cleave idea starts to break down. Of course, as with most things in PoE you can explain this away with some sort of soul power: the Barbarian's blows are powered by his soul and that's what causes the AoE damage. *There's actually very little evidence that berzerker's as we imagine them were a real thing in Norse culture. A theory I've heard is that the term actually refers to a champion of an important person, marked by wearing a bear pelt; not a warrior who works himself into a frothing rage before battle.

That's why I refuse to wait before fighting them. Got to show them who's boss In my first full playthrough, with a melee Cipher on normal, that was the first fight that really caused my trouble. This is why I was surprised that they were immune to paralyse since I am sure that's how I eventually beat them (Mental Binding). I battered my way through Caed Nua shortly after beating them. I almost managed to clear the courtyard in one rest, but had to camp for the final largish fight near Brighthollow. Then I beat two spirit fights inside the keep itself but was forced to retreat to Gilded Vale before fighting Maewald since Edér had three injuries and was on 1 health After that I did all the easy fetch quests in Gilded Vale and am about to do the Temple of Eothas.

Oh well, I suspect it will never get fixed but we can hope. I did restart by the way. Went with 18/8/10/16/18/8. Spellcasting is, unsurprisingly, a lot slower, but my damage is up a fair amount allowing me to cast spells more than once a decade. Perhaps when I get to a higher level I'll consider changing my attributes again. I just fought the Forest Lurkers near the Shrine of Galawain in Black Meadow. Five man party (Me, Edér, Kana, Durance and Aloth), all level 3, got down to one Forest Lurker at "near death" and Aloth and so I ran around in circles taking the occasional potshot with his sceptre and it eventually died. I swear they didn't used to be immune to paralysis. In earlier play-throughs Mental Binding was always the key to beating them. Has that changed?

Huh, all I found were vegetables I think. Might it have been in the bear cave? I think the hidden cache there has a weapon (I forget what since by the time I fought the bear I had Edér and Aloth in my party (yes, I am a filthy casual who doesn't even solo the bear cave )

Yeah, it's a shame they didn't do more with unique dialogues based on background, culture, class etc. I guess they just ran out of time.

Quick question: is it me, or is Mind Wave's targetting template messed up? Whenever I cast it the template appears centred on my character rather than the intended target. It makes it even harder to accurately use it.

You're right mosspit, if you leave any in Durgan's Battery then, after completing it, they're lost forever.

You can add an Alpine Dragon to your party, so I suspect you can add Odema