JerekKruger

I had the Gloves of Manipulation and the +2 Mechanics resting bonus from Caed Nua so I was okay. I knew from past attempts to rush Tidefall that it required a lot of mechanics to get.

Yeah, unfortunately you can't get them. If you're not trying to earn achievements then you could console them in.

So it turns out that Drakes on PotD are pretty damn tough for a level 5 party. I guess I'll be coming back for Tidefall later EDIT: They're still tough at level 6, but I managed. Cail the Silent has always been a walkover on my hard playthroughs but here he was genuinely a pretty tough fight. I've also found a new fondness for Prayer Against Fear. Anyway, I now have Tidefall. Would I be right in thinking the best Lash to put on it would be Burning, since I'm eventually planning on taking Scion of Flames?

To be honest, if they'd allow your character model to display a basic, non-magical cloak, even when wearing a necklace that'd satisfy me. I can understand the desire to restrict the number of magic item slows, but I'd like my dudes to be sporting snazzy cloaks (except Elves because for some reason their cloaks float above their shoulders for me).

Yeah, I agree that Twin Arrows loses less, I was just pointing out that that's probably the reason powder burns doesn't stack as well. Honestly I'm not sure why you can't stack the various ranger modals, I suppose the argument could be made that firing fast precludes firing viciously and firing two arrows simultaneously precludes either due to the complexity. Perhaps, in theory, powder burns involves loading the gun with a lot more gunpowder, and hence precludes reloading fast?

I think there's a balance to be had here. On the one hand, obviously developers should give the players what they want for the simple reason that they want to sell their product. On the other hand, who wanted Planescape: Torment before it was released? It is more difficult in the case of a Kickstarter campaign where the players are also, in a sense, the investors.

Could wear two suits of full plate with no speed penalty

Isn't the same true of twin arrows?

Yeah, he's good in that role, except I hate making him wear anything other than his robes (which have a secret bonus resist to fire beyond the usual +3).

Whilst I agree that it's a dumb nerf, I think it might also be the actual reason.

I'd say Priests are possible the strongest force multiplier class in the game, their buffs are really good. As I understand it, a few of the more experienced players over on the Character Builds subforum deliberately avoid taking a Priest for this very reason: it makes the game too easy. In particular, this means it's very possible to play on PotD without a Priest, though it'll be more challenging. Personally I quite like Durance. To be more accurate I think he's a horrible person, but he's well written and I enjoy having him alone. One thing to note though: Durance is by no means a perfectly optimised Priest. Try a merc with a 10 10 18 10 18 12 stat spread and learn just how slow Durance is.

Yeah, that one bugs me. At the very least I'd like an option where you're honest, but then also add "you should probably take the potion anyway, it might help you in other ways" whilst at the moment if you tell her the truth she decides not to take the potion at all. Don't get me wrong, I think the disposition system is a decent idea, certainly better than most morality systems in games, it's just sometimes a bit wonky.

Okay that's pretty crazy. Would you rare double Bittercut better than double Drawn in Spring?

Yeah, I just feel like it's a waste talent, but the game is sometimes a bit unfair in what it lets you do. I had to let Gordy have the March Steel Dagger because apparently the only other options available to me we to threaten him or to lie to him, to my mind there ought to have been an option to simply say "I don't think this dagger is suitable for a child" and not have him reveal his secret, but apparently that didn't occur to my Paladin. Edit: to add, if this wasn't my first PotD playthrough I might consider taking it, but at the moment I am being a bit more powergamey than I usually am.

The formula is +/- 0.8 Deflection and +/- 1.6 Defence per disposition point, rounded down. EDIT: Rounded down is the same as being truncated in this case. It means that you always round to the nearest integer (whole number) less than the value. What I think you might be thinking about is rounding to the nearest integer, where you'd round up if the decimal was 0.5 or more, and down if it was less than 0.5.

Wait, does little saviour's defence aura stack? That's pretty damn powerful if so

Raedric down. The fight was pretty easy to be honest, though Aloth got knocked unconscious. My entire party was level 5 and I had six of them so that's probably why it was easy I'm guessing. My Paladin is now rocking Justice whilst he waits to get Tidefall. EDIT: I will say that having Deceptive as a negative disposition for my Kind Wayfarer is a pain. I couldn't resolve Lord Byrnwigar the way I wanted (sending Aloth) as that involved lying, and after letting the looters near Madhar Bridge take the stuff (Benevolent) I was forced to either lie to the merchant or simply not complete the quest. I lied, but now I am paranoid about ever doing so again.

Yeah, the pathfinding can be irritating, I micromanage my characters in combat as a result.

So I've learnt Yeah, the resting bonus allowed me, Eder and Aloth to beat the Valewood bears and the bonus vs spirits was very handy in Caed Nua.

I'm coming round to this point of view I think, especially since I really can't afford to be having characters doing little or no damage on PotD.

Agreed. Until I started running Pallegina as a pseudo fire mage I don't think I'd ever worn mail or scale beyond the very early game. I probably "shouldn't" wear breastplates but I think they look great so tend to anyway. Yeah, for me Sagani and Hiravias tend to wear hide or leather. Luckily there are some decent examples of both, but I'm sure they'd be better in something with lower recovery. It's the same for Sagani and guns: a lot of her dialogue talks about her using a bow and it just seems wrong to equipe her with a gun or even a crossbow, so I stick with bows all the way. Luckily Stormcaller eventually happens and everything works out, but still... No that's how I play too, I just have an allergy to taking on speed penalties. I only wear White Crest once I've got the White March Boots of Speed for this reason. It's purely psychological, I don't think a movement penalty is bad really, I just don't like them.

To be honest, I don't disagree. Personally I'd prefer plate to simply have a steeper recovery penalty, either 55% or 60%, but a -1 movement could work too (and could be offset by the talent if you wanted). I just got distracted is all

Well, it's going well so far. I ended up going with an Island Aumaua since I feel Pale Elves look a bit weird wielding Great Swords (they're too slight). I also dropped Intellect and Perception by a point each and raised Constitution to 10 as KDubya suggested. I just finished clearing Caed Nua and killed Maerwald with a level 3 party and only one rest. By the end my party was pretty beat up though. Also PotD really is a step up from Hard, I got wiped by the group of boars on Magran's Fork of all places

A. Up until the late Middle Ages/Renaissance yes. The Italians and Germans (and later other European countries) started to develop techniques to "mass" produce plate and allow it to be equipped to more and more soldiers. Given the level of technology in PoE I'd say that it represents something similar to this level of technology. B. No that's fair. I doubt anyone used the term "distributing weight" back then. C. Once again, by the late Middle Ages you start to see a development of professional soldiery. Partly it's mercenaries and partly you start to see nations realising that training and equipping the non-Knightly classes well turns out to be a rather useful thing to do. D. Oh sure, but similarly knights (or at least most knights) would have done the same. The lesson that practising whilst wearing armour would have been learnt and passed on from father to son over the years. E. Well I'd expect that someone wearing plate will run a slower 100m sprint that if they weren't wearing it, but the actual sort of running you do in combat isn't generally all out sprinting (even in a charge) since the ground is unlikely to be even and you want a certain level of cautiousness when charging angry enemies with pointy things. The one situation I can see it making a difference would be during an all out rout, but it's surprising to see from history that pursuers in routs were usually not that eager (they were probably tired, they couldn't afford to abandon formation the way the fleeing enemy could and they were probably happier taking it easy and letting the enemy flee).

Certainly nothing barring a incredibly lucky shot from a 1000lb+ draw weight arbalest was going to actually punch through plate (I'm not even sure about that one to be honest) before firearms appear, but blunt weapons like maces and war hammers could transfer a lot of force through plate and cause injuries to the flesh beneath, and spiked weapons like the spike on a war hammer could dent plate sufficiently to cause damage too, though in both cases this is primarily targeted towards the head of the opponent. But yeah, swords became more and more specialised towards thrusting and less about cutting as plate improved, culminating in swords like the estoc which are basically long spikes. That doesn't mean you wouldn't take swings still (well perhaps not with an estoc) because hitting someone in the head well with a 2kg iron bar is going to daze them even through a helmet, perhaps giving you the opportunity to stab them through a joint etc., but yeah you aren't doing so with the intention of actually cutting through the armour because that was basically impossible. As for jousting armour, you're probably right about weight and rigidity being advantageous in jousting, but I think they were also specialised to give maximum protection against potentially injury during jousting. Frog helms like you see in PoE were essentially only used for jousting, and if you think about it you can see why.