JerekKruger

No, all the music in Deadfire will be ethereal music, not actual music, sorry.

I would assume the 4 on top of the star is the number of Empowers the characters have left, and the blue/purple numbers are the number of casts per encounter.

He actually appears to have constructed languages (to some degree) and then made names using those rules. Yeah, the impression I got is that he has been doing Tolkien-level language stuff for Pillars. Wouldn't surprise me if they end up releasing a "How to speak Aedyran" book at some point, with a whole actual language in it. I don't think he's going to quite the level that Tolkien did. My feeling is it's more of an outline of what the languages are like: pick one (or a few) real world languages as your base, add in some general rules, construct a small vocabulary and some phrases. I very much doubt they've constructed the entire Vailian language for example.

There's not all that much in terms of gameplay but damn does Neketa look beautiful. It's definitely a step up from Defiance Bay both in general quality and in it's exoticism. I look forward to exploring it.

That's Citzal's Spirit Lance, the wizard spell. It's actually a pike.

Trick question. The answer is actually the solo character designed by Boeroer of course!

But I really want to be a Bowbrainer

I hope you're feeling a bit better Fluffle. Do take care of yourself.

The hardest battle is definitely soloing bear cave, whilst fatigued, after finishing Cilant Lîs as a mage having used all your spells

That's exceedingly cool! Thanks for sharing that with us.

That's my feeling as well. Had they made the whole thing five or six floors deep I suspect it would have been a better dungeon overall. I think the route they took with Fulvano's Journey will result in better (less filler) content.

And another. I trust the Deadfire team to do a good job, and trust they didn't make the decision on a whim. I've enjoyed CRPGs with party sizes of 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6 in the past, so I can't see why I wouldn't enjoy 5.

Yep, that's right. Something worth noting that's not at all obvious, mail armour doesn't have +5 DR against Slash and -4 DR against Crush, instead the bonuses and penalties are treated as percentage modifiers. This isn't usually important, however when applying one of the "X-proofed" enchantments to armour it's worth noting that this percentage modifier applies to the enchantment as well. So whilst it might seem natural to apply a "Crush-proofed" enchantment to mail, to make up for its poor defence against Crush damage, you'll only get 3*5/9 = 1.67 extra Crush DR (I think this rounds up to 2) whereas if you apply "Slash-proofed" you'll get 3*5/3 = 5 extra Slash DR, making the enchantment much better. Not a major factor, but worth bearing in mind. This also applies the the bonus from quality enchantments as well I believe. Also worth noting is that, whilst Durance's Robe is largely unexciting, it has a very high DR against burning damage, and with a high quality enchantment it might provide the best Burn DR of any armour in the game (since again, this bonus is a percentage modifier). Just food for thought.

What's worse than Azzuro never visiting? Azzuro visiting repeatedly, but always selling the same item. I had one game where I ended up with four Scâth Gwanneks: I think I'd have been perfectly happy with just one, or even none.

Important question: which of Durance's staves?

I think Josh said at some point that there will be more variation between the spell lists of each Priest, with more unique spells as well.

I played through the White March part I a few times before part II came out.

I don't think I've ever used it. As you say, accuracy vs. deflection seems far more important than DR in Pillars.

I agree that there's not really such a thing as a main tank per se, but I tend to have one character built tougher than anyone else who I initiate combat with, and they tend to end up tanking more enemies than other meleers simply because they go in first. It's also the character who tanks dragons when necessary: I wouldn't want to tank a dragon with a Resolve 10 Paladin using a two-hander. I honestly never found the need for a shield on my two-hander Paladin.

Unless you're planning to be the main tank (which your probably not if you're going two handed) you don't really need any extra Deflection over what you get from Faith and Conviction (assuming you max your disposition bonuses). As for accuracy, perception 14 makes you almost as accurate as a base fighter which I find to be fine. Meanwhile sacred immolation really befits from high intellect and might.

I played a two-hander Paladin a while ago (on PotD). I went Kind Wayfarer with Strange Mercy and Inspiring Triumph and, wielding Tidefall and an aquebus for starting fights, I did pretty well. I can't remember exactly what my attributes were but they were something like: Mig 18 Con 8 Dex 10 Per 14 Int 18 Res 10 He did a good job of off tanking, doing not terrible damage and supporting the party. Long story short: it's definitely a build that can work.

I'm not playing at the moment, but I am mulling ideas for another play through in my head and when one catches my imagination I'll start a new game. I'd say I tend to start a new play through every two or three months, though not all of them go the full distance. Regarding Edér's recovery, if you follow the build I linked then at higher levels you can reach very low recoveries even whilst wearing plate, and with buffs you can reach zero recovery. Of course this relies on items, enchantments and talents so he'll be slower than that early on, but hopefully not painfully so. If you dual wield it's even easy to get low recovery. As Boeroer says, there's no problem with killing Maerwald. He's sort of independent to the rest of the Endless Paths.

Boeroer's Counselor Ploi build is my favourite Paladin build. It does everything you'd want from a tank/support Paladin and quite a lot more (Paladin's aren't normally a class with charm, but Boeroer made his one with items). It's a Wood Elf, but you could easily make it a human without much trouble (you'll lose some Accuracy with your charms, but if you're playing on Hard mode or easier, you'll basically be getting +15 Accuracy compared to Boeroer's game anyway). For something a little simpler Sh!t's on Fire is basically the standard Paladin build. Again the stated race is Wood Elf but you could go Human without any problems. Beyond that, all the Paladin builds in the Build List are excellent so you can't go all that wrong picking one.

I usually build Edér as an off-tank/single target damage dealer using Andrea Colombo's Lady of Pain build (or one of the variants thereof). He'll still be tough enough to tank most enemies without any real difficulty, but also does pretty good single target damage as well. He won't compete with a Rogue for single target damage, but he also won't die as often, and he will struggle to tank the really big enemies like dragons, but he's still a very useful party member in this role. I usually use a Chanter or a Paladin as my main tank. If I'm not playing one of those two classes, I'll usually use Pallegina in this role.

You don't need to reset your companions attribute points to play PotD efficiently. In fact, without using a mod and/or console commands you can't (respeccing works differently for the main character and for companions). I would, however, not have them auto-level*, but if you've been auto-levelling them so far you can fix that with a respec (gold should stop being an obstacle somewhere around mid-late act II). Personally I tend to leave Durance using his staff, even though Priests of Magran aren't really suited to wielding staves, because it's so integral to his character. Given his low Dexterity, and the importance of buffing, he probably won't spend much time swinging his weapon in difficult fights anyway so it hardly matters. I guess that a sword and shield would be more optimal since Magran's talent gives an Accuracy buff for swords and the shield will make him less of an obvious target, but I never really had any problems using his staff on PotD. Chanters tend to come into their own at higher levels, when they've got a bit more endurance, got all their regeneration talents and, most importantly, have the Dragon Thrashed chant (level 9). Before then you might want to act more as an off-tank than a main-tank role. I like Sagani, and I find the addition of Ituumak very handy when it comes to controlling the battlefield. Not sure when you last played Pillars, but rangers received a fair amount of love with the White March part I with Twinned Arrow and Stormcaller (which can be obtained very early into act II if you rush it). Pallegina might also have been improved if you last played before she got her unique talents (Vielo Vidòrio and Wrath of the Five Suns). Personally I like to switch out companions periodically so they all get taken some of the time. In general though, most parties are viable for PotD. You'll probably want at least two sturdy frontliners, but since your main character is one already that's almost a given. After that you can't go all that wrong. *The game is almost certainly still completable if you do, I just don't like the choices the game makes for my companions.