JerekKruger

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.

They did that in PoE too.

One minor thing I don't like is the Pale Elf "ice freckles" (for want of a better term). The look itself is fine, but to me it would fit better with a "frost godlike" than an elven subrace.

Generally speaking, apart from losing access to generic talents most classes have roughly the same number of abilities as they did in Pillars, but you're right that the way they're laid out at the moment makes them feel very limited. Hopefully once higher level abilities are added to the tree (and hopefully when most generic talents are returned) it will feel less so. One thing that is definitely appreciated by me is the increase in upgradeable abilities, and I think a big way Obsidian could make the tree feel more populated would be to increase the number of such upgrades. Plenty of people. Losing access to high level abilities might very well be a deal breaker for someone who wants to build am "arch mage" style wizard who uses implements (not exactly an odd build I'd say). The same sort of people who don't want their pure wizard concept being a Wizard/Ranger probably don't want to take talents with names that evoke bows or guns or hunting. Bread and butter is probably an exaggeration, but Obsidian is one of few companies catering to role-players, and for many role-players these things do matter. If my character concept is your typical scholarly mage then no amount of in game benefits from multiclassing would make me do so. I'll only multiclass if it fits my concept (or I'm trying something like Triple Crown Solo and aren't focusing on the story side of things).

Currently summon familiar is a spell, only usable in combat, that summons a random familiar that can fight and gives its Wizard a buff. I am not sure whether it despawns after combat as I lost the combat I tested it in, but I'd assume it does. The buff I got was +3 Burn damage resist (or whatever the new name for damage resist is) which seems rather lacklustre, though I haven't played enough to really judge. At the moment I don't think the ability is particularly good.

I don't miss the Weapon Focus talents. I do miss the ability to give my Paladin Weapon and Shield Style, or my Wizard Secrets of the Rime, or balance out the Defences of my characters by taking the appropriate universal defensive talent.

Okay, having spent more time in the beta I find myself agreeing with Boeroer's sentiment completely. The removal of universal talents is a mistake and makes single class characters feel very railroaded in their development. I find it particularly bizarre that mages and priests (possibly other classes?) get no talent options at all.

Wellspring of Life is the Nature Godlike's racial.

Given how slow the beta for PoE was, I'm not overly concerned about this issue yet. It's clear that the are things Obsidian can do to optimise performance before release.

Interesting changes for Island Aumaua, Boreal Dwarfs, Wood Elves and Wild Orlans. Boreal Dwarfs and Wood Elves were perhaps the default DPS picks due to the strength of Accuracy in Pillars so I can understand why that change was made, and similarly for Wild Orlans and tanking. The change to Island Aumaua is a shame though. Obviously their racial was powerful for multi gun builds but other than that I don't think it was too powerful. Also yeah, Wellspring of Life looks like it could be pretty good now, which is nice.

It has indeed, as has the Deadfire pack for Pillars. I am rather excited!

I don't have the patience to sit through Ellohime's stream, but hopefully in a few hours time I'll be able to explore this stuff myself.

It's usually the case that games are cheaper to back than they are to buy at release so as to encourage people to back them. Of course they'll probably be cheapest during a sale a while after they've been out, but if you intend to buy Deadfire at release then it's almost certainly cheapest to buy it now.

Yeah, that's a pretty good ability and a nice alternative to the Shattered Pillar for a Monk who doesn't want to take damage.

Quote from the stream regarding multiclassing companions: So, currently, it looks like we won't have full control over how we multiclass companions. A little disappointing, as I had been looking forward to making Edér a Fighter/Priest of Eothas, but perhaps it'll change.

Tomorrow is never today, it's always tomorrow. Thus the beta will never actually be released.

Oh I agree that the new system will probably be fine, I'd just have preferred if they left the endurance/health mechanic and, if they needed to remove something, they removed injuries. It's not a big deal though.

Wow, I wasn't expecting it to be that soon. I was expecting "beta in two weeks" or similar. I was getting ready for another wait. This is awesome.

Yeah, I love sallets. It's such an elegant design. Sure, they doesn't provide as good protection as something like an armet, but they provide very good protection whilst allowing the wearer decent vision and breathing. Bonus points if there is a suit of plate that has a gorget.

Same. I'll be a little sad to see it go, although as you say the new system isn't all that different.

Obviously buy the addon. Get yourself some sweet sweet beta action then, like I did for the Pillars beta, play it for less than an hour