JerekKruger

Two weapon proficiencies and a boost of defences definitely. I rarely use more than two weapon types on any given character anyway. In fact I already disliked the fact that I'd end up picking proficiencies I'd never use, so the change has an added bonus for me. Yes, the class trees will still feel rather empty. That's something else that will hopefully be improved by Obsidian in time. I also agree that the ability for Fighters to take these talents as both proficiencies and talents is not exactly thrilling. There's still a way to go, but it's a big improvement for all single classes other than the Fighter.

Does anyone know yet whether this means Carnage attacks will no longer proc on hit effects, since they are now clearly a separate attack rather than a duplicate of the main attack with a damage and accuracy penalty?

No we haven't. The beta probably has months to run and the two aren't mutually exclusive.

Looks pretty good to me.

It doesn't have to be. I may be wrong, but I believe it's the first time I've brought it up. You have a bizarre idea of what it means to be rational. As I said in my previous post, we all have personal preferences which act like axioms from which we then argue rationally. If you believe you don't then you've not looked at your own arguments carefully enough. Yes, and? And there is, of course, a balance to be had. I happen to think this balance can be achieved whilst leaving many universal talents in the game. If you have a rational argument as to why it's impossible to balance the game whilst keeping universal talents in the game do feel free to share it. You seem to have a remarkable knowledge of what I am thinking and what I believe. What exactly is the point that I believe such posts are making? The more I read of your posts, the less clue I have as to what you think rational means. The lack of "in my opinion" was hardly the problem with your statement. The problem with your statement was your insinuation that those arguing in favour of universal talents were being dishonest in their arguments (keeping secret their true problem with the changes) and that it was largely an issue of entitlement. I believe Obsidian set out what they wanted to see from the new system, then tried to come up with a system that fitted that vision. The vision however was not achieved through cold hard reasoning.

It's not rational to state something is the case when one doesn't have evidence that it is. Believe without evidence is textbook irrationality. You could have said "I think that the real issue at work for many is the sacrifice of power level and ability tier that comes with multiclassing", but instead you stated that this was the real issue, that people who don't admit it's the real issue are lying or hiding it from themselves, and that it's an entitlement issue. Because that's something that bothers people. It, presumably, doesn't bother you, and that's great, but it does bother some people. To jump to the assumption that they're making it up because they don't want to admit their true issue with the system is a stretch. Evidence I am demanding? Where am I demanding evidence? I'm well aware that it's an appeal to feel as you call it. I'm also well aware that there's no way of rationally dismissing such an appeal. What you seem to be missing is that this is, ultimately, a feel issue. There isn't a rational argument one way or the other on this issue that doesn't, eventually, boil down to something that is decided on personal preference. That universal talents would make this system harder to balance presupposes balance is a priority for people (for many it's not); that multiclassing increases the number of options compared to Pillars presupposes people are happy to always multiclass (some aren't). Ultimately Obsidian will have to decide what feel the game is going to focus on, then find the best way to achieve that, but I don't really see the issue with people expressing their own desires in the mean time and dismissing them as appeals to feel rather than rational is, in my opinion at least, silly. It's also a mistake to assume they are not. They might have different preferences to you or Josh, but their conclusions are almost certainly built rationally upon those preferences. There's plenty of evidence that builds or options that I, or others, might want to use can't be done, or require multiclassing to achieve. You don't think that's a legitimate criticism of the system but to claim otherwise is simply wrong.

It does. I tested it with the Paladin's Mental Fortress ability (using console commands) and it negates the confusion.

I assume you have evidence for this statement, what with you preferring rationality over feelings.

Only the most talented individuals think to ask their smith to make the necessary modifications of course

Yep, a good idea indeed. This was my original idea, however given Obsidian have been moving away from per rest I'm not sure it's likely.

That's a good idea actually. Hmm... perhaps. They could be decent but I guess if you didn't know which ones to take they were a bit of a trap. The more specific ones like Mental Fortress should (and are) already. This might be a problem however since as I understand it the resist _stat_ afflictions is really quite good.

The new command is "AddAbility".

Agreed, or at least do as in Pillars and, after choosing a background, adjust the attributes accordingly in the summary below.

Paladins have Mental Fortress (Resistance to Intellect Afflictions) as a passive ability. Unfortunately it's Power Level 4 so can't be reached by multiclass characters in the beta, so I can't test whether it works with the Berserker's Rage. EDIT: "AddAbility CHARNAME Mental_Fortress" allowed me to add the talent to my Berserker/Paladin. As far as I could tell it suppresses the confusion from the Berserker's Rage. It wasn't entirely obvious, since after using Rage a red "confusion" text over on my Berserker on screen, however mousing over the various buffs next to his portrait showed no sign of confusion, and his carnage attacks didn't hit his allies, so I think it works.

Same. It's not clear that she couldn't have survived the walking into the sea thing. It's mentioned that she rusts and can no longer move, but she's aware of this which suggests she's still alive. Hopefully we'll dredge her up.

Here are my thoughts on the Pillars of Eternity universal talents and how they should be implemented (if at all) in Deadfire: Weapon Focuses: I'm happy to see these removed altogether. As others have said, for characters who used a weapon these were basically mandatory so the bonus wasn't really a bonus at all. Not sure why it's currently included in the Barbarian tree, a class previously know for its poor accuracy. If any classes are going to have this I think it should be Fighters and/or Rogues. Weapon Passives (Two Weapon Style, Two-Handed Style, One-Handed Style, Weapon and Shield Style, Marksman, Gunner, Dangerous Implement): other than Dangerous Implement, which is now part of Scepter Proficiency, I'd like to see these remain in the game. I'd also like to see them appear more widely in class trees. They don't necessarily need to be universal, but I think martial classes should have access to all of them (or a large subset of them). "Slayer" talents (Beast Slayer, Primal Bane etc.): I'd like to see these made universal. Combat Modals (Savage Attack, Penetrating Shot, Cautious Attack etc.): many of these have been rolled up into specific Weapon Proficiencies, which seems fine to me. Defensive talents (Snake's Reflexes, Mental Fortress, Superior Deflection etc.): I'd like to see these made universal. Elemental talents (Scion of Flame, Secrets of Rime etc.): I'd like to see these made universal. At the very least have them included in the trees of Mages, Priests and Druids. Utility talents (Quick Switch, Deep Pockets, Arms Bearer): I'd like these to be universal, although this would cause some problems with the Black Jacket. That said, as it is right now the Black Jacket is not great, so hopefully it'll be reworked anyway. Wound Binding and Field Triage: healing has changed in Deadfire so it's not clear how these would work, but if an interesting implementation were found I'd be happy to see them included as universal talents. Bloody Slaughter: terrible in Pillars, shouldn't be included in Deadfire. Also change Death Godlikes so they don't suffer from the same problem as Bloody Slaughter.

I was wondering the same. The above portrait clearly had her wearing her Five Stars breast plate which, you would imagine, she'd stop doing if disgraced.

You might already be aware of this, but Pallegina doesn't necessarily become a Kind Wayfarer in Deadfire: it depends on how you resolved her personal quest in Pillars.

Pallegina's portrait looks a lot better bigger than it did small. I quite like it.

If I recall correctly, the Berserker's Rage ability afflicts the Barbarian with confusion. If so, I suspect that, at the moment, casting an Intellect Inspiration on them would remove it, making this subclass usable at least.

The Berserker subclass causes Rage to afflict the Barbarian with Confusion (if I recall correctly), which is pretty terrible. I wonder if, at the moment, casting an Intellect Inspiration on the Barbarian would remove this affliction, resulting in superior Rage without the downside. More interesting would be whether this mechanic (assuming it does work that way) is intended i.e. whether Obsidian intend for Intellect Inspirations removing Berserker's confusion to be a valid strategy. This would actually make the subclass decent (for those who can be bothered with the micro of always casting an Intellect Inspiration at least).

I'm liking the Inspiration/Affliction system a lot, and the "resistance X affliction" racials seem really good as a result. Might and Dexterity seem particularly good as they can give immunity to particular hard forms of crowd control. My thoughts on some of the other racials: Island Aumaua: I haven't noted exactly what penalties slog zones impart on characters (other than slower speed) but unless they are crippling this will only be good if slog zones are incredibly common Boreal Dwarf: I'd prefer that grazes became universal again, but if they remain limited then this might be pretty good for spellcasters. Death Godlike: do more damage to enemies you've basically already beaten, and do more damage shortly before you die (or are healed). Pretty bad. Fire Godlike: the Ashen Skin bonus is too low at the moment. If Battle Forged doesn't scale with level then it's pretty awful too. Moon Godlike: if this scales with level it might be okay, otherwise it's only useful in the early game. Nature Godlike: the worst godlike in PoE is now pretty good in Deadfire. I like this ability. Human: much like Pallid Fate this isn't great since it requires you to be low on health. At least in PoE it activated and you kept it after healing. Hopefully these will be tweaked a bit.

That's certainly an option too. I quite like the idea of grazes but if they are removed altogether and the game is balanced around that then that's fine too.

- Increase access to Grazes. Either make them universal again, or have all Weapon Proficiencies allow characters to Graze with the proficient weapon as a passive bonus in addition to the modal. This would probably also require that Confident Aim and the Boreal Dwarfs' racial passive be changed, probably to a Graze to Hit conversion. - Change the Conjurer's Summon Familiar ability. This one requires more thought, but at the moment the ability is pretty terrible: it gives a random buff to the Wizard (often useless to the situation at hand) which is removed if a rather frail summon is killed, and it uses one of the Wizard's level 1 spell casts. At the very least I'd change it so that the Wizard chooses a specific familiar at character creation so they have some control over what buff they get. I'd also suggest having it not use a spell cast to summon and be instantaneous to summon. Even with this changes I'm not sure it'd be worth summoning most the time. I probably wouldn't make the familiar a permanent companion both because that would encroach on the Ranger's shtick and because Conjurer/Rangers would get a little crowded.

I am almost certain they did both, but I'd have to check to be sure.