JerekKruger

I realise Fighters weren't the highest DPS, nor did I say they were. What I said was that, unlike tanks in MMOs they weren't designed to be passive roadblocks, but were also capable of doing some damage.

Given we're currently at 4.076 million, I think you might be right

Hah! Renaissance night vision goggles? I like it!

Oh, sorry, I had assumed that "Join the Black Isle Bastards Crew" extra was for this. I'll redirect my money now

Man, I was backer 31012. So close.

Done!

Animancers aren't watchers, they can't see souls directly. Instead they use all sorts of instruments to do experiments with souls, much like scientists use all sorts o instruments to measure things that can't be observed directly. As such I doubt being an animancer would have any effect on ones ability to fight well.

If you wanted a response from me you might have tried not misrepresenting what I said. Unfortunately that ship has sailed so, like I said, this conversation is over.

Honestly, if your eyesight is bad enough I think you're probably better off wearing glasses (even if they risk getting smashed) than not. If I am going to do something where failure risks death I will take every advantage I can.

I just backed Deadfire and included the extra $8 for BIB.

Of course. I want it to tell me it's backstory with its talking words More seriously sure, I want more than just that. Like I said, I'd love to see it interject during dialogues like companions can, and I'd hope it has a quest associated with it. I just figure if it's going to be soulbound then it might as well make use of the soulbound unlock mechanics as well.

Yeah, this is the end of this conversation.

I hadn't thought about that, but that works perfectly. Perhaps have it's unlocks tied to visiting locations that are somehow related to it's memories? Perhaps with a Grey Sleeper style riddle (although this time I might work it out rather than look up the solution).

Whilst I agree, I think they do need to make concessions to ensure we can actually see our characters on the deck of the ship.

Wasn't gladius also slang for ****?

So because work was put into creating this, we should lie and say we think it's great? PrimeJunta mentioned Pirates of the Caribbean once, in the first paragraph of his post, as a short hand for what Deadfire is going to be like. He/she might correct me, but I don't think he/she was saying Obsidian should use Pirates as a source on inspiration, and the ships he then goes on to show images of are not ships from the Pirates movies.

I'd like to see something more subtle myself, rather than a weapon that shouts cheesy lines about it's lack of formal edumication. Ideally I'd like it's dialogue to be limited to (a) directly talking to it and (b) scripted interjections in quest dialogues. To make (a) more interesting, have it have a quest line where as you make progress on the quest it tells you more about its backstory.

Obviously the talking sword.

Fantasy settings that explain all their incongruences away with "magic" tend to be terrible fantasy settings.

Agreed! I couldn't quite describe why I didn't like the ship (boat?) but what you describe about it being too rectagular and the aft castle being far too large for it is spot on. It just doesn't look sleek or fast as a result. I think perhaps the mistake that Obsidian made was trying to include a windowed cabin a bit like larger ships from the age of sail had, but to avoid this cabin being tardis-like in its dimensions they had to make the aft castle far too big.

I was just about to say caravel. I can think of several types of ship appropriate to the equivalent historical era, but it kinda depends on what sort of size limit Obsidian have in mind.

Every character, regardless of class, starts with a base of 20 in each of the non-deflection stats, and gains +3 every level, so at level 16 they have a base of 65 in each. Deflection varies with class, with the Fighter starting with 30, Chanters and Monks with 25, and every other class with 20 or less. In particular, Paladins start with 20. Deflection gains +3 with every level like other defences, so again at level 16 a Paladin would have a base of 65 Deflection (a Fighter would have 75). However Paladins have a special ability called Faith and Conviction that automatically activates when combat starts. This gives them a bonuses to all defences dependent on their reputations. With 3 or higher in both of their favoured reputations and no points in their disfavoured ones this talent gives +11 Deflection and +22 to all other saves, giving Paladins an effective base of 76 Deflection and 85 in all other defences. This is the reason Paladins are considered to have the highest potential defences. As far as I recall, all other bonuses to defences are available to all classes and hence can be taken by a Paladin, so they can maintain their lead on other classes if they wish. Onto more specifics of how to build a super defensive Paladin: focus your attributes on Might and Intellect, followed by Resolve. Dexterity should be your dump stat (if any), keep Perception at 10 and Constitution no lower than 8. This gives you high Fortitude (the most important defence) and Will defences. You will then take Weapon and Shield Style and use a shield to raise your Deflection and Reflex saves even more. You definitely want to use the Outworn Buckler for an effective +5 to all saves as well. This will probably raise all your defences to around 105ish at level 16. Beyond this point you could take some or all of the defence boosting talents, but honestly doing so is probably overkill. With gear and spell buffs you'll already be at the point where you can tank every encounter in the game so you really don't need all of them. Perhaps the Fortitude one is worth taking, as is perhaps one of the situational ones that add +20 to specific types of attacks.

More of a shame were the terrible looking helms with good stats in my opinion.

For gods sake! I've never said that tank, healer dps etc. don't exist: I said the idea that your list of six archetypes are some sort of universal standard that everyone follows is rubbish. It would be stupid to claim that "dps" doesn't exist since it's simply a descriptive term. It's that you try to argue that you have to have a tank, a semi-tank, a melee dps, a healer, a ranged dps and a ranged cc that I have a problem with. And no, obviously not. Builds aren't divided into amazing and rubbish, there's a whole spectrum in between. A randomly selected Rogue build will (probably) fall in the rubbish end of the spectrum and, since Rogues are easily the weakest class in the game right now your party will have a hard time finishing hard mode without any deaths. It won't have a hard time beating hard mode at all though, unless you insist on killing all dragons etc. Rubbish. Well I imagine writing a fully fleshed out companion is much more time consuming that adding in some of this other content, but honestly I suspect they've placed her at 5 million as a tool to encourage backing. Remember that they've said that they'll allow funds raised after the campaign ends to count towards her stretch goal so I'm guessing they're hoping they'll reach that over the next few months.

It really didn't though. Fighters might have been intended to be able to soak more damage than other classes, but they were also designed to be capable of putting out damage. Tanks are, by very design, meant to sacrifice offensive capabilities in exchange for extremely good survivability and, more crucially, tools that allow them to protect their party. In fact, if you actually look into the origins of the term tank it does precede MMOs, appearing first in MUDs*. I'd argue that it's a fundamentally CRPG term since it relies heavily on manipulating AI targeting rules to ensure that most enemies attack the tank whilst the rest of the party focuses on killing the enemies. This simply doesn't work in tabletop games where the GM can decide on behalf of the enemies who they will attack, and isn't bound by some artifical targeting rules. *Unless you can provide me with a quote that refers to AD&D Fighters as "acting in the role of tank" of course.