gkathellar

PoE's combat is a rough approximation at best. It is not a simulation and should not attempt to be. That said, there's no real way to get away from an opponent quickly without one of you lowering your guard. As has been said by wiser men than me: turning to run in a sword fight only means you'll die from wounds to your back.

I went with Raedric, but to call him "harsh but fair" is stupid. His management of the Hollowborn crisis was cruel and short-sighted. But I couldn't shake the impression that if he didn't have to worry about Korsk, he would become less harsh and less inclined to hang people from Gilded Vale, and that once the crisis was over, he would become a more respectable leader. the part about him being fair is the part about his wife. his choice may have being cruel, but considering he had no clue as to what was going on or how to solve it and the wild west type of place the Dyrwood is (first we hang him, then we decide if he is guilty), the measures were not extreme. if the target of these measures was anyone but the locals, the people would be more than happy to participate in the hangings, but since they were included, Raedric was unpopular Lemme see if I can sum up this point. "Raedric's behavior was stupid and terrible, but at least he was stupid and terrible to everybody! He may have been killing and exiling his people en masse over unfounded assumptions, but that's okay, because he was also willing to kill and exile his loved ones over those unfounded assumptions. After all, people in the Dyrwood frequently kill people for crimes they have no evidence of those people committing, and since it's customary, it must be okay." Which is ironic, because it's mentioned later on that Kolsc was actually a pretty good leader until vampire Raedric made off with his head.

Durance doesn't like Eothas or his worshipers, but that's a personal score. Honestly, Durance doesn't like most people. If you ask him, he makes it clear that he thinks animancy is the cause of Waidwen's Legacy, so he's certainly not in alignment with Raedric or any of his efforts to solve the problem.

Yes, actually! If you read through their entry in the bestiary, it states that animats are made using a suit of armor and the soul of a willing participant, and that they rely on dedication and sense of purpose to sustain themselves. They're (at least in the lore) especially vulnerable to doubt, to the point that it can disable them outright. This is actually one of the really clever things about PoE's lore. Since basically everything capable of autonomous function has soul energy, it makes sense that mental attacks working through soul energy would work on basically everything. Vessels (constructs and undead in other games) and primordials (oozes and spores and such) are both stated to have souls, even if they lack any actual intelligence. As for other cases, I think it's just a question of intensity, right? If you sicken a disease pudding or frighten a ghost, it means you're just that badass. Honestly, I'd prefer to see immunity to minimum damage for certain types (not unlike what Rymrgand's Mantle does for PCs) combined with stupidly DT against those same types, rather than outright immunity to the damage types. Maybe this is just me, but I don't mind if, like, the Adra Dragon or a 12th level wizard named Jaya Ballard or whatever can unleash fires sick enough to burn a Flame Blight. Well, actually, only the smaller class of bats (including all insectivorous bats) use echolocation. The larger grouping (including all fruit bats) has exceptional eyesi- /shot Okay, okay, enough RL science. But since many blinding effects, like Curse of Blackened Sight, target Will, who's to say they're not neurological/spiritual effects? After all, there's been studies demonstrating that blind humans who use echolocation are subject to many of the same perceptual illusions as sighted peo- /shot Coastal Aumaua and mountain dwarves both have specialized defense bonuses, and there are talents covering basically every type of effect.

That's just handled by having a reduced DT against those damage types, which I think is a very elegant solution.

It seems you missed some subtle things about how PoE works. No matter how much DR you have, 20% of the (minimum ?) damage will still be taken. So high DR does not equal immunity. On the other side, you might want to have a monster that is immune to charm, but not against fear. Raising its will save will make it immune to both, so that way you are inflexible. At the same time, there are some afflictions which can be gotten from abilities against different saves, so you can make the monsters only immune against packages of afflictions. Immunities are a way more elegant solution to this. Bonuses to Defense against particular afflictions/effects are already coded into the game. You can give a monster +45 defense against Charm and Dominate without boosting Will. I'm all for niche cases of damage immunity, but afflictions are generally ambiguous enough in nature that immunity to them could actually be confusing.

"Gay men are removing the porn from my video games and making the women look like men" is Luzarius' pet hangup.

In my opinion, the opposite is true. They are totally overpowered. They make too much damage. The only difference between a mage and a fighter, if the only thing they do is creating damage is the animation. And there are strategies that can even make them more powerful (I went through half of the game just with my mage and Aloth). Like dazing, damage, dazing, damage (I killed the big troll that way. You know, that headhunter job everyone complains about, because it is sooo hard). Add a druid and you don't even have to face your enemies anymore. Just create an area of thorns, fire, slicken, whatever you want and burn them all alive. I think the notion that wizards were underpowered mostly came from the Backer Beta, where there was a real sense that they compared unfavorably to the druid. Due in part to the patches since, that's no longer a well-founded opinion. Hell, MadDemiurge not only figured out how to beat the Adra Dragon with a solo wizard, but even how to beat her with a solo melee wizard. At this point, it's probably switched places with cipher for the title of definitively strongest class.

IIRC, more has been said about the prospect on Something Awful than anywhere else. What has been indicated about it is that it may be accessible multiple times, but is likely to be prohibitively expensive (in game, of course) if that's true. I don't think anything's been said on the subject of PC vs. companions, alas. That said, Console Commands other than IE's additions are totally stable, so if you really want, adjusting attributes and ability choices the slow way won't muck up your game. Just a few tips for these two characters from my recent PotD playthrough:

Right. Prone just means "lying on the ground." If drakes and such were immune to Prone, that would preclude the image of a fighter leaping into the air and smashing them into the ground with a single blow, as well as elegant spells like Call to Slumber. That would make the game less awesome. If the price of being awesome is that I have to assume that Slicken coats a Drake's wings, making them unable to gain lift, and that makes the game even more awesome ... awesome.

You want a sequel, not an expansion. An expansion....expands the game. It adds to the game, makes more of the game. It's like turning an naval orange into a larger naval orange. What you are looking for is a grapefruit for your next meal, since you liked the orange so much. In fairness, ToB was both a sequel and a TotSC-style expansion for BG2. Whistleblower was DLC, but it was also an entirely new plot line for Outlast and answered some huge questions about the original. Brood War had a whole new campaign for Star Craft, just as Frozen Throne had for WC3. NWN had two expansion packs, both of which added stories just as large as the OC. MotB was a sequel to NWN2. Dragon Age: Origins had several pieces of DLC that added entirely new plotlines, including Awakening, called an expansion by most, and a former BW employee once told me that Dragon Age 2 was originally intended as an expansion for Origins as well before EA made them move it as a separate game. My point being, uh ... you're characterizing this person as a little more unreasonable than they're actually being. What's that? A strikethrough at the end of my post? Nonsense, I would never write something that could get my source in trouble if their identity was known, and then put a strikethrough on it. ... You'll never take me alive, coppers!

Maybe? From wanderon's account, it seems like it may have been removed recently, but I honestly don't care enough to check. You could also think of it differently: Eder gets the free Rapid Recovery talent (since that's the one you'd probably never spend a purchase on, otherwise). If you want him to take Ruffian (and Defender, since that's his level 3 ability pick), then you should go for that. On the other hand, if you're like me, and you prefer to spec him as an offensive fighter with Adventurer, Confident Aim, and two-handed weapons in general, it's better to keep it off when picking him up.

Fair enough. Again, I'd point you away from Folk, and advise flail/shield over double flails - flails are particularly good for characters with low accuracy, just as axes are good for those with very high accuracy. You'll need durability for the Thaos fight, mostly so that you can outlast his opening defensive buff before casting your own.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, we get it, you're SO HARDCORE If your point is that trivial fights are both too common and consume too much in the way of resources at early levels, then I agree (although not without reservations). But that's a more systemic problem that really has very little to do with spells using the same to-hit math as normal attacks. Frankly, I'm not sure it's a problem that can be resolved at all without dramatic changes to the pacing and structure of the game. "Magic isn't powerful enough" really isn't a legitimate claim about PoE, though. Perhaps "mook defenses are too high" is one, but I don't personally agree.

Frontliners in PoE take damage. No exceptions. You might as well get some mileage for your money, as long as you're spending - that's what monks do.

Ok, although I think this sounds a bit misleading. I think many people wanted to have the ability to cast spells that give damage-type immunities, which probably still won't come. He only talks about inherent damage-type immunities for special enemies, as far as I understand his comments, so he didn't make a total u-turn on his design decision. Personally, I prefer it that way. PoE is never going to have IE-style mage-chess, and I have learned to appreciate that for what it is. Giving players access to damage-type immunities would kind of throw things out of whack.

That was fun. In boss fights, sure. Less so in the more trivial encounters. Mind, BG2's mechanics allowed you to settle those encounters mostly with auto-attacking, so that was a different beast. But the comparison stands - direct damage spells may sometimes miss in PoE, but on the other hand, non-damaging spells sometimes hit.

"What more can you want?" How about being able to have an ogre with a bazooka as a main character? Now that would be cool. Looking forward the expansion. To the OP - simple really. Did you enjoy and if so do you want to play more POE? I'm ok with the ending as is - it's the story of the Watcher. I'd hope that if there is POE2 that it would be with a new character and that they could deal more with the back story regarding the gods then. Generally agreed, although I'd prefer they go with something less cosmic for PoE2. To make a comparison, it's sort of like how Persona 3 set the high watermark in terms of scale for that franchise, such that it's virtually impossible to ever go bigger without undermining the setting's foundations; that, in turn, has let them tell (comparatively) smaller stories without much serial escalation, since the truly foundational conflict has already played out. PoE reveals the truth behind some pretty important mysteries surrounding Eora, and I think that sets the stage nicely for some smaller stories. That's a lie and you know it. Yes, insult not just my opinion but also me, personally, on something inherently subjective. That'll make you sound reasonable. NWN's OC was a sloppily executed mess of fetch quests and fantasy cliches. This is a fairly common opinion, which is why I feel comfortable tossing it offhand. You are welcome to dispute that opinion, and obviously the consensus on it doesn't make it some kind of objective fact; enjoying NWN's OC is not a personal fault. You are allowed to have fond memories of things that other people think are bad. Hell, you're allowed to have fond memories of things you think are bad. But those fond memories don't make them somehow magically, objectively immune to criticism. For the record, I don't fault Bioware for NWN's garbage OC - they were busy with other things, and the OC was clearly meant as a generic sampling of what the toolset could do. But when I compare it to their (still decidedly mediocre, but much improved) later offerings in the expansions, or especially to fan modules (like Pig Farmer, or Tales of Arterra, or anything by Stefen Gagne, to name a few personal favorites), it's difficult for me to say anything about the OC other than that it stinks. But yeah, the UI was pretty solid. BW has always been good about that.

You're kidding, right? Two-handed weapons in this game are beastly. They hit like trucks, and they get by far the best weapon talent in the game. Many have excellent starting enchantment profiles (Tidefall, I'm looking at you). Their only big problem are the doubled enchantment costs, which impose pretty heavily on your party. You may not like it, but it's a good design decision. Personally, my only problem is that the stats for the saber and the axe should be flipped, since axes are currently the best weapons to single-wield by a pretty significant margin, and that's aesthetically displeasing to me. Because the simplicity of the system lends to a greater number of potentially "best" options for any given character, and a smaller loss when you don't go for the best choice.

Okay, well, in any case, I believe his actual talent pick at level 2 is Rapid Recovery, which is an aggressively bad choice. WF: Ruffian was always granted as a bonus, which was kinda confusing.

OP clearly never tried to land a spell that was negated with a saving throw at high levels in BG2. Against level 15+ enemies, the odds of a successful save were somewhere between 90% to 100% unless you cast 2-3 debuffs first. That was missing too much.

TWF on a priest is kinda pointless, IMO, since priests really live and die by their spellcasting. Once you hit level 9, using spells all the time is pretty much optimal, and the main reason not to is laziness. Bear in mind that the +10 accuracy talents don't actually make them exceptional, since priests start with 10 less accuracy than fighters/rogues/rangers/monks - I think the only ones worth grabbing are Magran's (for the arquebus) and maybe Skaen's (for the sneak attack). Honestly, folk don't make for very good spellcasters unless you intend for them to be on the front line. Wild strike really isn't worth it - shifting declines rapidly in usefulness after early levels. Also, I encourage you to take the lightning, fire, and ice-boosting talents on any and all druids: they have access to big-name damaging spells of all those types, and there honestly aren't a lot of other talents for a druid that are worth taking. As to Thaos in particular, if you want to fight him 1v1, the big challenge is going to be outlasting his ridiculously long Shields of the Faithful. Plan to survive for 100 seconds without using many spells. Aside from that, he's honestly pretty straightforward.

Basically, Maelstrom is beastly. If you're having trouble with the AD, that means you're just not using enough Maelstrom.

Cant basically has the right of it. You can steamroll the whole of the game on PotD, including the Endless Paths and the Adra Dragon, using the existing companions and their stats. I know, because I finished doing it like two days ago. I had Pallegina in particular specced as a shield-using offtank, and I'm pretty sure that by endgame she could have soloed just about anything other than the boss/miniboss fights. The two most important things in this game are talent choices and player skill. Attribute spreads are certainly important, but as long as they're not aggressively bad, you'll do fine.

On that note... I wish all these games were as massive, and open to the community as the original Neverwinter Nights. Huge number of expansions for that game, along with a massive community created load of content that didn't require hacks and mods to work. Love the modular setup they took. And multiplayer to boot even with those. Very best, NWN was revolutionary, and everyone wants it to have a second coming. But bear in mind that it took ages to develop, had a terrible official campaign, and was technologically rudimentary for its time. The toolset was the focus of development, and it ended up being the whole point of the game. Developing games has gotten exponentially more complicated, and the associated challenges of making a toolset thay's accessible to end-users are even bigger than they were at the time. It's unrealistic to think that games with a focus on story and aesthetics can play the role of successor to NWN, when they're generally so busy being actual good games.