JerekKruger

If story mode is optional I don't see the problem. I, probably, won't use it, but I don't begrudge people who want to experience the story of Pillars of Eternity but don't enjoy combat, or find combat too difficult even on easy. To address the "they should read books instead comment": (i) an RPG without combat (or with minimal combat) is not the same as a novel, it's a different experience; and (ii) as far as I am aware the Pillars of Eternity story is not available in novel form. As for the concern that introducing this mode will reduce development time from other aspects, I guess that's true to some extent by definition. That said, given the story mode is presumably meant to very easy it shouldn't take much effort to balance: if in doubt err on the side of easier rather than harder and you won't go far wrong. Of course there are other reasons this mode could detract from other aspects, for example if loot is redistributed in this mode to allow player to get access to hard to obtain items more easily. That said I am not overly worried about this, Obsidian have shown there willingness to push forward release dates to make sure their products are finished so I doubt they'll let this story mode stop them from releasing a good product.

Yeah, it's a weird one that doesn't make much sense to me beyond game balance reasons. I would have preferred hatchets to share the battle axe's bonus to critical damage, and for swords to have the bonus to deflection (although they might have to make swords slash only to balance this). Other weapons I would see changed are spears gaining reach instead of accuracy and some change to clubs (perhaps higher interrupt).

I hope they won't introduce a human female cipher in White March II. Not only do we already have one in Grieving Mother, but four of the ten companions are human. If we are going to get another Cipher, which I doubt, I'd like to see a female wild Orlan. As one of the two more original races in Pillars it'd be nice to see more of them and also since Hiravias is my least favourite companion it'd be nice to have a second Orlan option. They could even be a Glanfathan Brîshalgwin, though I'm not sure if Glanfathan Orlans are hearth or wild. That said, my guess is the only new character will be a Barbarian and a female Coastal Aumaua seems a likely option (especially given the portrait). Having a Barbarian companion will certainly be cool though, although I share the concerns about them being available only very late in the game.

One idea would be to revise the current weapon focus groups to have some overlap. It seems to me that soldiers, adventurers and knights would all be trained to use swords, not just knights, for example. I'm not sure how I'd assign the weapons off the top of my head, but this might make the choice of weapon focus a little less of a no-brainer. The weapon focus groups are a strange set of talents. On the one hand I like that they give more flexibility than choosing a single weapon to focus on, but on the other I dislike how sometimes the two weapons I actually want to use are in different groups.

Yeah, as long as there are several "non-armour" armours in the game I'm happy with the rag-like underwear. It's actually nicer than having a default unarmoured look, since I get to pick what that look actually is.

I'd love to see pencil style drawings for items, but it's not the end of the world if they aren't any (fingers crossed for future Pillars of Eternity games). What I do really want to see genuinely unique and memorable magic items. Baldur's Gate 2 did this well but in NWN2 you could craft as good, or better, items as you could find, and that's a shame to my mind.