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Hi again, It seems like a small topic probably, but on my side I am a bit frustrated because on two instances I had not sufficient skill to disarm traps (example in 8th level of Caed Nua), and also it takes a lot of skill points. Initially I chose to have my Barb PC doing the mechanics, because I thought a good idea to have someone strong to scout ahead (in case he is discovered). Now at level 8 I have seen it is quite useless because I always scout with a full party, given how stealth works... So my question is who is filling the role in your party ? And is it really a waste to have my Barb do it ? I am aware that I can build some +mechanics rest building at my stronghold, but it seems like a pain to have to come back here all the time (and also I would lose the other bonuses available). I have Aloth, Sagani, Eder, Pellegina, and Durance as NPCs. On a wider perspective I was also wondering which skills are really useful for a Barb. Thank you. Aginorh

From what we know, Obsidian are going to make the inner mechanics of Attack Speed system more transparent and intuitive. Plus things like speed, armor and other recovery-affecting stuff will also start influencing reloading_duration. Source: This made me thinking how exactly could the speed system be improved: 1. the game should clearly communicate all phases of action cycle and stick to the same terminology everywhere. 2. tooltips should specify the correct phase that is getting affected. For example in PoE1, speed tooltip reads "+20% Attack Speed", when in fact it reduces recovery. 3. if the tooltip reads "+20%" then.. it should be +20% (at least in the absense of other effects). And I think this can be achieved even if we don't touch the attack duration. Example: Link to spreadsheet. Pros of this approach: - player can calculate in mind how much will his attack rate get increased from taking x talent or using y buff. - reloading weapons are now fully affected by speed, armor and other recovery-affecting effects. - armor penalty is heavier now, in line with the tooltip values. - reduced gain snowballing when approaching zero-recovery. But this is compensated by the fact that other speed categories are now as important as AttackSpeedMult, and will have higher impact when pushing for the last mile. - flexibility. You can easily change recovery_factor without breaking anything; relative speedup will be the same. You can also make attack_duration getting decreased when recovery becomes negative (i.e. remove the hard-cap), without fear of getting to extreme 0 attack-duration. Formulas: P.S. Few questions regarding terminology: - how would you name the blue phase? In PoE1 it was named "attack" or "totalAnimation" (if in code). But this also refers to buffing/casting animation and potion consuming. - how would you name the green part? - how would you name the yellow phase?: "recovery time" or "recovery duration"? We can't just use the term "recovery", because it will lead to duration <> speed confusion.

'twas cool. Yeah, too sleepy to write something; I just opened this topic so we can post stuff about the newest Q&A information here instead of spreading around in multiple topics. So someone interested only in the newst "news" can check out/discuss here. Yeah you get my point Edit: btw, the steam is here at the moment: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/158677319

To minimize eversprawling speculation threads, I decided to make this one. I put links from information from Josh Sawyer about new mechanics and other interesting stuff. I do believe we'll get more detailed updates for what's new in Pillars 2 by the devs themselves soon enough, but untill then we can use these and talk around them. Fell free to link any other info I might (probably) missed! - STREAMING: new Q&A session with Josh Sawyer at Oct. 8th https://twitter.com/WorldofEternity/status/828797084643897344 - Interviews: http://www.mmorpg.com/pillars-of-eternity/interviews/pillars-of-eternity-ii-deadfire-returning-companions-and-continuing-saves-1000011515 (thanks Barbedbeat!) https://www.bleedingcool.com/2017/01/31/inside-pillars-eternity-ii-deadfire-game-director-josh-sawyer/ - About when we'll meet the companions: http://jesawyer.tumblr.com/post/156538181671/so-with-3-of-the-6probably-7-soon-companions http://jesawyer.tumblr.com/post/156540200006/hi-josh-as-we-already-know-at-the-beginning-of - About grimoires and trinkets: http://jesawyer.tumblr.com/post/156538820176/any-chance-in-poe2-grimores-could-be-made-a-little from L4wlight in the Josh sawyer something awful poe2 thread http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/91241-josh-sawyer-something-awful-poe2-posts/?p=1880328 - About multiclassing: http://jesawyer.tumblr.com/post/156540101641/i-know-that-you-tried-to-avoid-trap-builds-in-poe from L4wlight in the multiclassing thread: http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/91182-one-word-multiclassing/?p=1878734 - About cloaks and necks: http://jesawyer.tumblr.com/post/156567713041/critical-question-will-there-be-separate-cloak - About skills: http://jesawyer.tumblr.com/post/156585382271/in-the-first-pillars-the-character-progression-was - A little more about Xoti (stretch goal companion): http://jesawyer.tumblr.com/post/156604263206/did-you-know-about-lantern-shields-and-will-there - Josh Sawyer Q&A: The entire video in text (from kirottu's thread! http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/91394-twitch-qa-in-old-skool-text-form/)https://www.reddit.com/r/projecteternity/comments/5rju7y/link_deadfire_qa_session_with_josh_sawyer_1h05m/ - About reputation system: http://jesawyer.tumblr.com/post/156893676606/in-deadfire-will-we-see-changes-to-the-reputation - About proficincies and skills: http://jesawyer.tumblr.com/post/156893948066/weapon-proficiencies-are-in-but-are-the-weapon - About importing saves (from Fig comments section, contribution by IndiraLightfoot): Can someone tell me which savegame should I keep "safe" until Pillars 2 is out? The "gamecomplete" one? Feargus: just asked Adam, and he said it is the one called "End game save". - About racial bonuses & godlike types (From Fig comments section, contribution by IndiraLightfoot): 1. Are racial bonuses going to be changed? ​2. Will there be different types of Godlikes? (Wael, Skaen, etc) Feargus: Racial bonuses are not going to be changed, and (2) For right now, there are not going to be different types of Godlikes. - About party size (From Fig comments section, contribution by IndiraLightfoot): Faergus: I can say the party being five people is something we will stick with. - About system requirements (From Fig comments section, contribution by PrimeJunta): System requirements unchanged from Pillars 1 (sorry for not providing a link or a copy-paste crom the original post but it's lost in the 2k+ comments in Fig and I though it was important).

I got my hands on the White March 1 & 2 at last (very good expansions, btw, especially the 2nd) and playing the game again after so long, something occured to me that I didn't notice (or didn't care for some reason?) at the first time: humanoid opponents behave like midless beasts when it comes to initiate combat. What I mean: I was walking around some military encampment, trying to find a way to slip in and a lonesome guard notices me an my party of 6 high level, heavily armed adventurers. What does th he do? Charges at us in melee and, naturally, dies in seconds. And I though "what an idiotic behavior!". I mean, shouldn't he run for assistance, trying to alarm the other guards that a group of dangerous looking strangers sneaking around? Of course he should. But the game treats all opponents as "monsters". As soon as green meets red, combat to the death occurs. I'd like to point this as a suggestion for the devs to consider implementing in the sequel. Humanoids should have a way to "measure" situtations. If enemy is way more powerful, maybe they should run, try calling for backup or -if there's nowere to go- have a fear debuff and a cornered buff, or somethings like that. Sorry in advance if this topic has already been discussed somewhere else.

I am having trouble figuring out how exactly cipher"s focus generation is calculating. I have noticed it being variable instead of the stated 33% from draining whip up to 55% percent on attacks made. While using bittercut with corrosive lash I was hitting normally for around 45 to 55% focus generation for attack damage and lash. I switched to drawn in spring to test a separate weapon and found a similar upscale in focus generation but none seemed to generate while the wounding lash was doing the DoT. I was hitting crits on some attacks but I am taking note of the total damage combined between the two. I don't know if it is a bug or if any might is directly added to soul whip similar to normal attacks, as in 3 might adds 9% whip to 42%?

Perhaps one of you people who live and breathe the mechanics can help me out. As I understand it during combat, Endurance on your party members goes up and down as they receive damage and are healed. At the end of the fight, any missing Endurance is topped up from the Health pool and when health is low, its time to rest up or your characters may not survive the next encounter. The Fighter's 'Constant Recovery' mechanic restores Endurance during combat at a rate of (formula). The problem is that damage taken by my fighters and restored by constant recovery seems to STILL be deducted from their Health. For example: Fighter receives 100 damage over the course of a fight. By the time it ends, he has recovered 80 points of it through constant recovery, another ten from healing effects and is left ten points short of maximum Endurance. But I am consistently seeing health pools on fighters fall by not the 10 points missing from Endurance but by all unhealed damage AND every point restored by constant recovery. As if the effect of the ability were not to restore endurance, but rather to transfer points out of Health and into Endurance while combat is still on-going. In the above (hypothetical) example, Health would drop by 90. This leads to situations where despite ending every fight close to his total Endurance, my party fighter is sitting around with a red Health bar while the remainder of the party are nowhere near needing a rest - the fighter has now become a drag on the group by forcing constant naps to recover his Health. Am I imagining this? Are the tool-tips on the ability grossly misleading? Is Constant Recovery really this much garbage? While its nice of my fighter not to lie down and die mid-combat, id rather be able to heal his damage through spells and procs that don't make him a one-fight wonder than be forced to watch his Health pool irrevocably slurped up by a passive before it even becomes worth dropping a moderate heal on him. The endurance enhancing ability is making him much less durable than everyone else - at this stage id sooner swap him out for a Strange Mercy+Lay-on-Hands paladin.

I feel this is a very basic question, but I haven't found the answer anywhere so I'm hoping to get one here: Do the "+25% damage to creature type" talents work on spell damage, or just weapon damage? And what about the weapon enchants with similar effects (lashes)? Thanks in advance for any info on this!

I'm really digging the cipher class, but I can't figure out what the heck Recall Agony even does. I can read the description just fine, but I've tried it in combat and can't see anything relevant in the log. Surely it doesn't just do 30% of one blow's worth of damage over many seconds (in which case it actually gets worse with high int)? If anyone could point it out to me I'd be very grateful

After years of silence in which I have played games casually while studying philosophy I think it is evident that some problems may be persitent or it may be, that what I think is problematic and a flaw in the design is not something the community or the designers feel urgent to correct and change. Many things can be said to strengthen such a view, but I will leave it at that. I will in the following make a comment to the combat system and how it handles the translation from program structure (mechanics or systems) to meaning for the player. Pillars of Eternity is a game I backed from the beginning and I played the beta a little while, but soon found that the game was a dissapointment. Beeing a game made by my childhood heros of sorts I did not give it much thought and was sure that in time things would come around and the game would ship in perfect order. Struggling to make a character with a historical depth due to my age mostly (39) I managed in the end to come up with a roleplaying idea of no small measure. I am playing an aged and tired Korgan Bloodaxe. Yes, the Dwarf from Baldur's Gate. A retired mercenary that no longer have the taste for blood and axes and just want to settle in a new land away from the problems of the world and the men and organizations that tend to hunt him for his past deeds. Korgan is now a greyhaired stoic and deceptive dwarf and he refuses to get involved in the world around him, but as the story goes, beeing a Watcher, he soon finds that one last involvement becomes a pressing matter. Before Korgan Bloodaxe, I played around with forty different avatars trying to get a sense of the mechanics and power of the different defenses, classes, weapons and so forth. This is probably due to my current studies and the fact that I have played games for over 20 years and is hard to please. I attend a master at a local university studying games. The only university in fact, that has such a program. I am from Denmark, Copenhagen and have a bachelor in philosophy. Design is all about creating structures that gives the player a good sense of depth and meaning. In games such as this one, structures should support and account for pyschological depth and philosphical thoroughness both formal and non-formal. What is a beeing you could ask? It does not matter whether such a beeing is an elf, dwarf or human. They can all be mercenaries and originate from the same region so all races should have a generic pychological potential and therefore be restricted, "controlled" (Foucault) and moved by the same cultural instituitions and phenomenons. The question of; what is a beeing, comes down to the question of; what we as humans are, since whatever races or other beeings we "construct" are mediated by the way we see ourselves and have seen ourselves throughout history. There is nothing else. Everything is first and foremost humanoid no matter what horrors or extraterrestial creatures we construct. A ghost is a memory, a horror is a nightmare and so forth. Nothing otherworldy can be created in reality and what is otherworldy to us, is only our way of making a thing obscure, secret and dramatic. This is the strength of art. In fantasy video games specifically, we can make a magic system and by so doing say something about the existence of Man in subtle ways. Combat I see a string of questions. The first one is whether it is possible to play Pillars of Eternity without a some way besides defenses of surpressing afflictions? I will see past difficulty. The normal difficulty should be the only difficulty in my opinion. Here the game should be perfect and should tell the story vivdly and make the right challenge appear at the right time all the time. Korgan Blood axe is a physical powerhouse of proportion. He has poor reflexes and not much brawl in him any longer. He is old and the passion for war and his fearful demeanor has all gone. Korgan is a troubled man now with countless of deaths on his conscience. He has super strength (21), super constituion (18), high dexterity (16) and high intelligence (16). Perception and resolve is rock bottom (this is how i translated and made him). As such, his reflex and will defense are poor, but his fortitude defense is extreme. He is basically a fighter made as if he was a barabarian (Berserker in his case). I looked forward to see how such an avatar, the famous Korgan Bloodaxe would fare in-game and I was stunned.. Example 1 Ghouls (weakness) Korgan fights a single ghoul and is almost killed. How is this possible? Well the ghoul has a high attack speed and can reaaply the weakness affliction permanently. Korgan hits the ghoul 4-5 times and it dies, but Korgan is hit maybe 10-12 times and looses 100 health and almost goes down. Is Korgan tough? Do I feel a sense of power as the player playing him? I most certainly do not. The entire battle gives me sense of a flawed combat system and Korgan Bloodaxe is nowhere to be found. Example 2 Mushroom cave (prone) So I venture into the cave to collect mushroom samples for a cure. Three sentient mushrooms attack. Korgan is surrounded, but a battleworn mercenary like Korgan will surely just dispose of theese neutral enemies defending there mother hen. Korgan is prone. Korgan is down. A flawed combat system? The combat system does not commute to the player how things should and would be in real battle, but tries to uphold a structure or mechanic. This is a serious issue. A mechanic should serve an intellectual purpose or meaning and never rule. If the combat system begins to repair itself just so it can exist, then the combat system is flawed (Nietzsche). It should not be possible to knock a character like Korgan on his heels and then pound him to grinded meat with 6 attacks dealing +15 damage. Korgan has ONE defense and my entire roleplaying idea hinges upon this defense. When both a ghoul with indefinte weakness apllication and a few sentient mushrooms just pummels him to dust, something is wrong. The problem can be corrected. To make apparent my point and not to give technical recommendations, it is done by resolving how afflictions work in relation to GRAZES. A graze should not be able to knock Korgan out for 3 seconds! This is contraintuitive, it kills the mood and the battle realism. My story crumbles and I am lead to believe that this game can not be played without a priest or by drinking potions. Hence I reload and begin with the spell "suppress affliction" and set Korgan loose. The battle is over in seconds. But if this is inteded, then it is no longer Korgan I am playing - it is nothing but a damage MACHINE with an immunity field! It kills the "person" Korgan Bloodaxe (commuted in combat primarily through attributes and defenses) or at least I have to "repair" him with another story to justify such a flaw. Obviously this is not a solution. This then, in turn, removes the impact and cultural meaning of the entire defense system. The pyschology, history and any philosphical notion about our existence, that such a system should serve and support, is removed from the game and this can not be intended. If in stead, Korgan would have resisted all but very few seconds of weakness and perhaps 1 sec of prone, then Korgan as a "person" would have been present. I would have felt his presence – attacks grazing, strengt applied, damage soaked, vicious damage dealt etc. Combat systems CAN NOT remove the historical fleshy personality and replace it with a mathmatical structure like an ORC in Warcraft or a Hydralisk in Starcraft you just need to buff. The stuctures we program to commute personality should serve and never rule. What I experience should be "Korgan Bloodaxe" and hence his defenses and attributes, not the fact that he is some-thing that needs a buff or a potion to modify a number or else he will stop operating. The numbers and structures should be invisible and serve a well thought of intellectual scheme. In a game where an avatar is core such flaws are just not welcome. It reduces the combat system to the systems known in real time strategy games. I do not want my avatar to be a piece in a puzzle, I want my avatar to be special and want my choices in character creation to have a huge impact on how I experience the game. M

Can someone please explain to me the purpose of the skill system? I understand the basics, meaning I understand that you can pick locks with high mechanics or you can receive extra dialogue options with high lore, but are these skills class specific? Should I focus on certain skills when I play with certain classes or should I develop all the skills simultaneously? The athletics skill for example doesn't appear to be useful beyond a certain point. If my fatigue is already reduced by 90% what's the point of developing the skill even further? My barbarian won't become stronger from athletics as far as I can tell... His health and endurance are based on his level and attributes. Or am I mistaken? The situation is similar with the rest of the skills as well. Maybe stealth and mechanics are exceptions (I suspect I will encounter more observant foes and stronger locks towards the end) but I am not sure. I think from a role playing perspective a stealthy barbarian would be pretty ridiculous just like a wizard with high athletics. I have an aumaua barbarian and I have the first four companions but I have no idea how to develop their skills. So far I gave mechanics to Aloth and developed his lore. I also developed the athletics and survival skills of my barbarian. But I don't know what to do with the rest. There are only 5 skills so there aren't too many options. When I find the ranger companion I will give her stealth... but apart from that the skills of most of my companions look the same. It's quite depressing. I checked the game manual for more information but its skill descriptions don't match the in-game descriptions so it wasn't particularly useful. Can someone please explain to me the skill system? I would appreciate some suggestions regarding how to develop the skills of my party members too. As I said my party contains a barbarian, a fighter, a wizard, a priest and a chanter.

I noticed the following issue with Barbaric Blow: Even though it's supposed to be a Full Attack, from the combat log it appears that my character is only making an attack with his main weapon (see screenshots below). Reading the tooltip for Full Attack, I thought it was supposed to be a simultaneous strike with both weapons, dealing double damage, or at least more damage than an attack with one hand. In my example below, the following strike, which was a standard one handed attack, actually dealt a bit more damage than the Barbaric Blow itself! Barbaric Blow screenshot: http://imgur.com/4M3uwYp Next attack screenshot: http://imgur.com/4M3uwYp Is this a bug, or did I not understand the meaning of Full Attack correctly?

im playing solo on hard, its fun but i have to run back town every 3-4 fights, its stupid. i dont think i gon play anymore untill i can find somekind mod for this. does anyone know where i can find a mod like that.

Can anyone out there peel back the onion of a particular Chanter phrase for me? I'm wondering exactly how Come, Come, Soft Winds of Death works. As in, does it do the listed damage (something like 4.1, I believe) multiple times at a particular interval over the phrase's duration, or does it just do the 4.1 damage once? And if it's the latter, is the 4.1 damage applied over multiple incredibly small hits? Either way, it leads me to my next question... Does it have a chance of interrupting opponents? I've got a high-Perception Chanter tank in the works, and it seems like -- depending on what's actually going on under the hood, mechanically -- this could be a pretty great phrase for him to pick up. Especially since there's also the lingering effect of Thick Grew Their Tongues, Stumbling O'er Words to consider. Since this tank won't be doing a whole lot of damage, some soft AoE CC available at a very low level is certainly appealing. Anyone able to edify me, here?

Hello devs/others, I just wanted to offer my feedback on the game. I haven't gotten all the way through yet, I'm only about 55 hours in, and level 9 (the next plot quest in my queue is "Undying Heritage"), but I wanted to leave a lot of my initial impressions type feedback now, while it's still fresh in my mind. I normally don't play games on release (I held out until Witcher 2 EE was released to play it at all, despite loving the first), and I'd been planning on waiting till the expansion to play PoE, but my excitement got the better of me. It's been 2.5 years! I've read every kickstarter update, and been checking the forums and dev tracker religiously since last summer, but I almost never post, cuz I'm a Watcher. I was not in the backer beta, and I jumped into the game on hard/expert, without actually reading the manual too much, thinking a modern game should do a fine job of explaining itself. If it helps qualify my feedback, I'm mostly a powergamer, I've spent hundreds of hours in the IE games, and my top 10 RPGs of all time are: ****************** GENERAL FEEDBACK *********************** For starters, I love the game. I think my pledge was totally worth it, and I'm glad I ponied up for the expansion and some playing cards as well. I think you guys delivered on what you promised, and the game deserves the 93 metacritic it has right now, and a 9.5 from users. Seriously. I want to be very clear about this, because I'm going to say a lot of things shortly that might seem overly nitpicky or critical, but I only say them in the interests of making a Perfect Game in the future, via sequel or expansion. AND because Jorge said you like every bit of feedback, so blame him. I like the music, particularly the main title. I know some people have complained about the combat music, but to be honest I just tried to remember what it sounds like, and I have absolutely no idea. After spending hundreds of hours in BG2 the only music I can remember off the top of my head is from character creation also, so maybe it's just me. The slow mo mode is great The fast speed mode is even better, but I really want a 4x option, not just 2x. It's still tedious walking back and forth across maps. In the IE games I just enabled the cheats and would teleport my party around city maps, to avoid having to watch them walk. I miss party AI a lot The graphics and sound are everything I would ask for. The dyrford area is particularly pretty. I've found a number of technical issues (most of which are minor), which I've reported in the support forum, but in general the game has been very stable for me and run very smoothly. I'm generally pleased with the level of technical polish. I do have a background in software engineering, though, so maybe I'm more understanding/forgiving of these things than your average user. I wish you'd stood strong on the locks and traps xp, and left it in the past where it belongs. The things in the chest are the reward. I actually like the bestiary xp, on the other hand. It's a pleasant reward as I fight things (and there are lots of things to fight on hard, apparently), but it doesn't encourage me to wipe every map clean. Plus it makes sense that I gain xp as I learn about a creature, but once I know all of its secrets the xp flow stops. Good good. I like the idea of the "accurate" fonts in the almanac, and the notes in the margins and stuff, but I have to really concentrate to read that gothic font I know this probably isn't your guys' fault, but it's slightly disappointing my physical copy hasn't shipped yet. Not that it really matters, I don't have the collector's edition and I already have a digital version of the game. ****************** USABILITY/UI *********************** I like the general look of the game HUD (I've only used the solid version). Since I'm playing on hard, I've never seen any of the little creature UI bars or anything like that, but I honestly think they're unnecessary. For me, I have all the information I need just looking at my screen. Which is great! I wish there were hotkeys to quick cast abilities and to switch weapon sets It would be nice if the companion quests had their own category in the quest section, because their names are hard to remember and I keep clicking on them looking to decide which quest to do next. If they don't get their own section, highlight them somehow so they're clearly companion quests I like the inventory, journal, and stronghold UIs The buying/selling UI is awful. I have to click like 100 times to sell up all the xaurip **** I picked up (which is apparently my main source of income for a while). There should be an option to select all [level of quality] items, or move every item of a certain type into the sell box. It's also tedious to scroll through the vendor inventory, and the sort buttons should actually remove items from the list, instead of just greying some of them out. I think not showing spell area indicators on expert mode is a huge mistake. I cannot for the life of me understand why someone would want to play without being able to see the exact AoEs of their abilities. It's not like counterstrike where no-scoping makes you a pro, and not having AoE indicators in the IE games was a failure of UI, not something that should be replicated. This game is about pausing and planning exact movements and strategies. Since I never played with the circles, I had to straight up guess at my abilities when I started playing, and as a result I'm completely unable to carefully place area spells amongst enemies I'm engaged with. All 4 of my friends I mentioned that "feature" to thought it was ridiculous also. the links and tooltips to explain game mechanics are very useful When I first started making my character, the game asked me to choose a race before ever explaining the attribute system. It would be nice if the char creation screen featured the same tooltips that the rest of the game does, because I had skip forward to the attribute allocation, read about all the attributes, and then go back and start again. I could've minimized and dug out the manual, but to be honest I didn't trust its accuracy, because I know lots of things can change in the last month before release The enchanting UI isn't super clear. I initially held off on enchanting things at all until i was level 7 because I didn't know if I could later overwrite or remove enchantments. Actually, I'm still not sure if you can remove them. I know portraits are super time consuming, and it's unrealistic to expect a portrait for every 3d face in the game, but the godlike options are quite limited in terms of portraits, at least for death godlikes. Also a lot of the portraits were a little more... happy? than I'd like. I don't make whimsical characters with bright eyes or wide smiles, I make characters that kill whimsical characters with bright eyes or wide smiles. I felt like some of the more serious portraits were kind of over the top with snarling or making angry faces. I actually almost reconsidered my character archetype because I couldn't find a portrait I liked, and eventually chose a helmet with horns that very vaguely resembled my godlike's head. If it helps, my favorite set of portraits from the IE games was from IWD2, by far. Actually, does anyone know if you can import portraits into the game? I'll just copy those over. I wish the game actually did the dps calculations for me, so I could see EXACTLY how changing armor types is affecting my damage output. ****************** COMBAT/MECHANICS *********************** On the whole, I think the new/updated mechanics are great, I think the design team did an excellent job Engagement is good. Third ed D&D had engagement in the form of of attacks of opportunity, and I think the ability to control areas makes this game far more tactical, not less I think the tactical choices between different spells and damages types is pretty good. I always look for which saving throw type an enemy is weakest against, and cast that sort of spell at it. I don't bother to check enemy, DR values for different physical damage types, but I know that I should. I just don't need to. My initial impression of spell diversity is that it's pretty good, in terms of both effects and damage types, but could definitely stand to be fleshed out a bit. A good starting point, though. Thank god there is no ammo. Dealing with ammo is ****ing tedious, and there's no point to it. Thank god for the stash. Filling every inventory with gems and other **** you're just going to sell so you can pack it out of the dungeon is also tedious. I like how some items automatically go to the stash There seems to be absolutely no incentive whatsoever to diversify skill selection. Seems like every character should put points into one skill, and only one skill, with the possible exception of athletics, because damn that priest getting tired is annoying. As far as I can tell, survival is useless and mechanics is super, super, super important. Stealth is useful for stealing some trinkets, but not really important either. Lore lets me use scrolls, which is moderately useful It's tough for me to tell how useful any of the skills but athletics would actually be in conversation, because expert mode doesn't show me dialog options I can't choose, so maybe some of my perceptions are off I wish I could stack bonuses from items. I understand this is hard to balance, but it also lets me customize my character more heavily The rest supplies limiting... I understand why it was put in, but ultimately it doesn't actually keep me from just going to the inn, getting some more, and heading back down. It makes rest spam more tedious, but doesn't actually remove it. It might be an unsolvable problem, though, aside from just removing the ability to rest in dungeons, which is far more realistic, but maybe a little too punitive. I don't know. I think the resting supplies was maybe the best possible solution, but that still doesn't make it a great one. I really dislike the whole "stealth is scouting" thing, it just makes me creep around the map really slowly so I don't miss anything secret. It's tedious I also don't really like how every combat starts with stealthing the whole party in Characters should be able to stealth invidually I think the general combat and game balance are vastly superior to the IE games, as they should be. I'm going to enclose a ranting digression about why I believe this is so in spoiler tags here, because it's not completely germane ****************** CLASSES/RACES/ATTRIBUTES*********************** I think wizards and rangers are by far the weakest classes, just from my experience with the companions The wizard's spell selection just doesn't seem to be as good as the druid's, at least early on. Seems like the druid not only has a bigger spell selection because he's not grimoire-limited, but he also has great untargeted (returning storm, anyone?), and single target damage options. Druids also have the summon, which is amazing. I couldn't imagine beating the game without a priest, which I think is a problem. I think the buffing and healing should be distributed a bit more amongst the other two heavy caster classes, so you don't HAVE to have a priest. I also think the priest should have a little more offensive capability in terms of spells, but that's just me. Every fight he just casts buffs or heals constantly, unless the fight is easy, in which case he just stands and fires his rifle. Ciphers seem to be amazing. I'm totally going to make a cipher as a second character. Three bouncing mind blades at the start of every fight? My cipher OWNS groups of enemies. Not to mention the damage amp spell (hourglass icon, can't remember the name) is fantastic against boss type enemies. She even hits pretty hard with her attacks, thanks to soul whip. I don't think the value of immediately available, limitless, per-encounter abilities can be overstated. The chanter seems to be sort of a reverse version of the cipher in that he has to wait a long time before casting one ability, then wait a long time again, and it's definitely for the worse. I think the idea of the class is really cool, and the passive, customizable chanting is good, but it absolutely pales in comparison to my aforementioned bouncing blade salvo at the start of every fight. My chanter will get off one, maybe two spells per encounter, and while some of them are really good, it's just not as powerful. I think the speed at which he sings should be sped up, so he can cast real spells sooner into combat (the first 10 seconds of combat usually determine how things will end), and I think his chanted verse effects should persist a bit longer. I think the mage desperately needs more per-encounter abilities. I carried the mage companion until at least level 6, and he was the main reason I had to rest. That, and the stupid priest running out of health constantly. He just doesn't have enough spells on demand to compete with the cipher in terms of damage, particularly since all his damage spells I've found also hurt my party, and he can't sustain damage output. I think the wizard should be able to use one free spell of every level he knows, per encounter. That way he's useful and exciting in easy and moderately difficult fights, without completely blowing his load before things get serious, if you know what I mean. I can't speak to the paladin, barbarian, or rogue, because I've never seen any of them. The latter two look good on paper, though. Haven't read much about the pally yet. The ranger seems to be bad. Which is really unfortunate, because I like playing them. I think the issue with the ranger is they're penalized so heavily when their pet dies, and the pet just dies like crazy. That thing lives to die. My experience with the ranger (who I carried with me for 2-3 wilderness maps worth of encounters) was that any time the pet is engaged in melee, it is dead. You really need to attack the target your pet is attacking, which means if the pet is engaged you can't focus the same target as the rest of the party, and disengagement attacks destroy the pet immediately. Also any creature actually attacking the pet destroys it immediately as well. Then the ranger is useless. I think the pet needs per-level bonuses, if it doesn't get them already, and at least needs its tankability increased greatly. Maybe make it so the pet can't engage targets, or at least not without a talent, but make the damn thing hard to kill. I think it needs to be more like a ranger pet in world of warcraft to be viable. I'm happy with the bowman actually doing all the damage in the background, but since the pet is so important to the ranger abilities, it needs to be able to survive much better. I plan to make a custom party next, and carry a tank of some sort, a fighter or barbarian for damage and secondary tanking, a cipher, priest, druid, and maybe a rogue. All the character creation options are great - the backgrounds, abilities, all the little choices In general I like the attribute system, although I'd rename might to power and dexterity to speed Shouldn't interrupt be based on how much damage I do? Having one's arm chopped off tends to disrupt one's casting, after all. Or maybe it could just be based on weapon type, with a % chance to interrupt on the weapon that's checked on every hit, with an increased chance to interrupt on crits I don't really get perception and resolve. Like, if I make a high perception character, what have I just done? I'm good at interrupting? Is that a thing? Will that make me master of the universe? Might, con, int, and dex are all very clear, I could see basing characters around those stats, but perception and resolve I sort of stared at for a while, wondering if I should put points into them. Seems like those two stats could maybe be combined, and the saving throw bonuses be redistributed a bit so everything's even. I do like how multiple stats influence each saving throw type I also like how every stat is actually useful for every character, and I'm not sure how someone could complain about this. No, an int-only fighter isn't GOOD, but it's not ****ing wretched like it would've been in an IE game, either. Sometimes leveling up does feel a little bit empty, even though it's more exciting than than leveling up in the IE games. I think the game should show me what passive stats I gained on the level up screen. It would also be nice if I got stat points occasionally, just to spice things up. Have you guys played Wizardry 8? Best level ups I've ever had. Lots of stat and skill points to allocate every level, new spells, AND new skills unlocked by maxing out stats. Plus you leveled often, which is exciting too. I also really liked how in that game you'd increase skills by using them, it made every combat important and rewarding, even if you didn't get phat loots. I realize that as an IE successor that sort of thing is maybe a little non grata in these parts, but it was still cool. In general, I like how every class can use every item, weapon, and armor, but I feel like maybe they should be differentiated a little more. Maybe certain classes are better with certain armor types, but there's no reason you can't just wear whatever you want. Even after playing all this time, I still have no idea what the best way to build my chanter or cipher would be, partly because the game doesn't nudge me in any particular direction, and their mechanics aren't so straightforward I can just eyeball the best way to increase their dps. Most notably, I'm not sure if they're better in melee or ranged. ****************** QUESTS/ENCOUNTERS/LOOTS*********************** Unfortunately, I think the game is generally too easy. Or maybe just the optional content is too easy (at least so far). I completed all the wilderness areas around gilded vale, then went to Od Nua before completing raedric's hold (cuz I got the bug), so I was without what I have to think was a large chunk of xp. I had 5 chars in my party: my high might, con, and perception death godlike fighter who wears plate and dual wields swords (I call him "the grim reaper" because I took the bloody slaughter trait, I wanted him to specialize in finishing things off), the fighter companion, wizard companion, chanter companion, and priest companion and delved straight down to level 8 of the mega dungeon. I think I was level 4 or 5 when I started? I didn't go to defiance bay at all. I did have to come up and rest and resupply a few times, of course, but there was no point in the dungeon where I ran into something that made me think "ok, I've hit a wall, time to go elsewhere." Which is what I was expecting. Some of the battles were hard, don't get me wrong, but not so hard I couldn't beat them. I'm sure there was no way I could've beaten the whole thing right then, but I expected it to be harder, like I'd only get through 2-3 levels at that point, particularly without a full party. In light of the above, I think enemy leashing should be removed, at least on hard and super hard, and all the enemies in a room should aggro if any one of them is. Or maybe they're supposed to, and it's bugged? Yeah, I know kiting and abusing the leashing is cheating, but killing the same group of ogres 5 times gets tedious. It's just a shortcut to something I could've accomplished anyway. Pulling is too easy, and since my strategies all revolve around choke points, I usually don't even know there were un-aggroed creatures until I've already killed the first half, and proceed further into the room. I think the hardest area in the game for me by far was the temple in gilded vale. I tried to do it first, before I even had any companions, and then again after I got one, but was unable to beat it until I had 3. Even with three, I had to go do some other things first, because there was one shade fight I just couldn't seem to beat. As a result of my doing a lot of the optional content first (I went straight from Od Nua to Dyrford), the critical path is now very, very easy. I can even just run through the encounters with slow-mo disabled, like in the IE games of old. I like the quests so far. I've done all the optional content up until defiance bay, and a lot of the optional content within, from what I've found. I've done 3 of the plot quests in the city, also. The absence of fetch quests is nice, and organizing things into quests and tasks is great. It's GREAT that there are different solutions to some quests, and a lot of things are not what they initially seem On the whole, I'm a bit disappointed with the loot in the game. The fine/exceptional/superb progression is clear, but kinda boring. There seems to be a huge shortage of boots and belts in the game, and I kinda miss having a separate cloak and necklace slot. The unique items are cool, but I feel like there aren't that many of them, and the abilities they give are largely... soulless? I'm not expecting every weapon to be a Lilarcor, of course, and some of the items are really cool, but there's a lot of +1 to a stat, or +25% frost damage, and the like so far. Things that are good, but I haven't seen anything like a vorpal weapon, or a crom faeyr, or a wave halberd, or a belt of inertial barrier, tansheron's bow, heartseeker, blackrazor, the answerer, psionicist's blade, etc. Things with cool extra effects or abilities. I do really like the items that improve specific class abilities I feel like I have a ton of money, but can't find anything good to buy with it. I've already cleared out the shops in the stronghold, defiance bay (that I've found, and I've been to 4 of the areas), and dyrford village The shops in the stronghold are disappointing, also. They didn't sell much I was interested in; I expected them to have some really high level things. Maybe the really cool loot is waiting for me down the road, but I'd rather have it available now, just really expensive. One of my biggest pet peeves in a game is not giving me the loot I feel like I deserve. For example, I see that this drake in od nua has a room STACKED with gold and treasures, and I go to an awful lot of bother to kill him. I think to myself that I am now in the money, and rub my palms together with glee. Except the giant pile of gold turns out to be what I'd refer to as a "pittance" of coppers when I actually loot it. Somehow, a group of people in another area whose whole thing is that they're slaves, serfs, and the homeless downtrodden are considerably more wealthy than 7 levels of mega dungeon combined. On average I'd say I got maybe one usable item per level? Some of it was pretty good, don't get me wrong, but I felt like I didn't get much out of some of the levels, except the ability to go to the next level. The enchanting system is cool, and I think the crafting system has potential, even though I haven't used it (I'm level 8 now, I think) For the mega dungeon, I kinda wish there were more levels that were purely diplomatic, or at least, not super combat-heavy. It gets to be a bit of a slog wading through darguls room after room. I even wouldn't mind some levels that were just one encounter. One unique, tactically different encounter, maybe bookended with some dialog. I love a good hack and slash as much as the next guy, but I think a little bit more level to level diversity would've been a plus. Or maybe just weaving more of a story from level to level? I really liked finding the pages of the journal from the expedition, it would've been cool to have the journey downward be a little bit more of an exploration about what the endless paths actually are, and who the master is, as well. If I didn't say it already, I do really like how different all the od nua levels feel, in terms of aesthetic and enemy types. Also the giant adra man is still cool ****************** COMPANIONS/PLOT *********************** I like most of the companions (although I've never had the paladin in my party), but I don't think there's a Minsc, Jan, Morte, or Dak'kon in the group. Meaning the companions are good, but I don't think there are any super-memorable standouts, at least for me. The plot is good, but not great, from what I've seen. In BG2, Torment, the kotors, and the Witchers, some of my all-time favorite plots, I felt a lot of personal investment in the story. There are big things happening to my character, that I can identify and/or empathize with, and I want to figure them out, get revenge, whatever. The bastard stole my soul. I'm going to hunt him down, tenaciously, because I hate him. "You... you live *yet*! You possess less than a fraction of your soul, and yet you continue to oppose me?!" I'll oppose you all the way to hell, in fact, you sorry son of a bitch. Give me back my soul. I need it, for doing things with. In Pillars, I know that the hollowing is a Big Bad, but I don't feel that personally connected to it. My character isn't even from the Dyrwood, he's from the White that Wends, where I don't think the Problem exists. Yes, the one guy accidentally made me into a Watcher, but I didn't actually really realize that that was apparently another Big Bad until much later, even after the important convo in Od Nua (which I thought was very well done, by the way). I actually thought it was kind of a good thing. Or at least a mixed thing, like being a Bhaalspawn. Maybe I haven't gotten far enough in, and it picks up, but for me I don't feel quite as drawn into the story as I did in some of those other games. Again, the plot isn't bad by any means, I like the writing and I think the plot is interesting, but some of that might be because of the rich history of the world, and the mystery surrounding the gods, etc. I also like the whole idea of souls being important. I think the world was built very well. I really liked the ranger companion, but I didn't take her because I thought her class wasn't good enough the wizard companion was fine, I didn't get to know him too well before I replaced him the druid companion is sort of irritating, but also funny sometimes. I mostly take him because I think druids are good, not for his personality I like the fighter companion the cipher and priest companions are interesting, I've talked to them and I like their hidden depths (were they the Avellone characters?) I was a huge Kreia fan too, though, and I was always really disappointed I didn't get to find out more about Fall-from-Grace. I think the chanter companion is a bit of a boof, even after doing his class quest (his is the only one I've finished). I've not been super motivated to talk to him for fun a number of the companion interactions have been pretty funny I'm sure some of this is a little unclear or verbose, because it's late and I'm very tired, but hopefully it's helpful to the devs. I guess this turned into kind of a labor or love, but I like this game, and I want to see sequels and expansions that build upon the success established here. I'd be happy to clarify or expound on any points, should it please the court. tldr - I think the content in the game is good, and the systems in the game right now are a great jumping off point to creating more content in the future, either in this game or in sequels/expansions.

I'd like to collect all the precious ideas within your souls I'd want this thread to be one where we ask and try to answer questions that will increase our knowledge of the game. A lot of this could be used by players wanting to do special playtroughs ( Path of the Damned, Solo, 100% completion, Achievement, Speedrun). Asking questions: Be clear on what you want, and why. Answering questions: It's encouraged to link to a source if it has already been answered. It is necessary to give proof (At least say how you tested it when you answer, or where you know it from) Attitude: This thread is only interested in knowledge, cooperation, and sex. Keep judgements, opinions, ect outside ----------- Barbarian-)Carnage Does the size of the main target influence the size of the splash ? Dexterity: Is it inferior to Might *for DPS* in every scenario, and = at best (0 DR) ? (It would be better in scenarios where damage does not matter IE: Might is a dump stat and you need to attack often: I can imagine a caster casting only CC spells, or someone with maxed Perception trying only to interrupt ? ) Weighting accuracy: What is the value of Accuracy VS 1.XDmg for different values of (Accuracy-Deflection) and (Damage/Hit - DR ) ? (I am not exactly sure how to nail the formula. I'd like to do examples with in-game normal values, where you have to decide between weapon enchants and talents that give one or the other) Explaining the value of high Defenses / Finding the sweet spots. Every point of every defenses is more valuable than the previous point, up to a certain value. What is this value ? How can players find it in game ? What are examples for a playtrough. ( I suppose it's something like Ennemy accuracy +100 ? Or do we want only +75 and DR for the grazes ? ) Not really siding: Completing all quests Is it possible to do all 3 Defiance Bay questlines ? (Dozen, Crucible, Doemenel ?) by losing reputation with one and starting with another ? Get... every item I've noticed that in the caravan begining, you can gain much, much more by slaying the whole caravan ! How much of the world a ''completionist'' could steal/loot ? (Do every quest then kill & loot everyone, except a few ? ) To be continued ! Usefull stuff: Sensuki Youtube channel Pillars of Eternity Wiki

I still have not used a single chanter ability, I am a level 7 chanter now, even my chanter companion who is with me exploring the endless path underneath my keep is level 7, combat never last until round three. I even try and drag combat from multiple encounters into a single fight. I once hit round three, cast a summon just as combat ended. Completely useless class: Chanter. I would have had a more meaningful experience with any other class. I have no abilities to use except the chants themselves, which do very little. If you want an AoE fighting team just make 6 priests and use holy radiance all at once, when the enemies encircle you. The chants are way to small, your stats do not effect the Endurance from ancient memory, which is another thing that makes them suck alot. This saddens me, because I figured, knowing most the story before the game came out, I knew I wanted to play chanter or cipher to go through the game. Buts its also as meaningless as any class would be towards the story - EXCEPT being a certain priest type, or certain God-Likes. Seems aside from being a watcher, those class/races get all the lore. Fire or death-godlike and priest of Eothas would be best.(IMO) anyways, the game is really easy. TOOOO easy. and if I am what the devs called "Half-way" then the game is roughly only 15-20 hours long or so. So, I fear I might be heavily disappointed. Though, I did like the gaunts ring, the cloak of obsidian would be nice if it at least did something other then look cool/neat too. I do not use the ghost pig much, after travelling around, I noticed he didn't matter, so i switched to the Black hound, which is much nice, plus, as an adventuring team, having a blood hound just makes sense! OH and P.S Eder, is just the best character Ive seen in an RPG in yeaaarrs! Way to go whomever designed him, I friggin love you ! So, realistic and well rounded, emotional, thoughtful, concrete, idk, he's awesome, and believable. better then the characters in Torment, form back in the day even.

See title

The Paladin is by far the class I've played the most, and since paladins are generally the class I favour the most, it is also the class that I have the most thoughts on. The Paladin class has a number of outstanding issues that I'd like to raise, but first, let's go through what the Paladin gets, level per level. Character creation. At this point, the Paladin gets to choose between Flames of Devotion, a 1-per-encounter Ability that does Weap.Dmg.+100% Burn Dmg. and Lay On Hands, a pitiful 3-uses-per-day HoT (Healing over Time) Ability. The Paladin also gets Faith and Conviction, a passive bonus to all defences that depend upon your Behaviour/Reputation; the Paladin also gets to choose an Order that defines what Behaviour improves or diminishes the bonus from Faith and Conviction, however, what disposition is celebrated or condemned by each Order is not actually explained or expanded upon, which is just all kinds of odd. Finally the Paladin gets +1 Lore and +2 Athletics, which strangely implies that the Paladin is more Athletic than even a Fighter. Skill Points and a Talent. Nothing special, which makes perfect sense and it's alright. All Paladins get to choose between a number of unique Talents, same as any other Class, really. Skill Points and a Class Ability. Apart from the aforementioned Flames of Devotion and Lay On Hands, the Paladin now has three more Abilities to pick from; Zealous Charge, Zealous Focus and Zealous Endurance. All of these are Modal Abilities that can be toggled, with a incredibly short range of 2.5m, acting as Auras, and as of v392, only Zealous Focus is remotely worth considering. Skill Points and a Talent. Nothing to see here, same as everyone else. Move along. Skill Points and a Class Ability! This time, the Paladin adds the following to his list of choices: Inspiring Triumph, a passive Ability that triggers a defensive bonus to all allies within 5m every time the Paladin downs an enemy; Sworn Enemy, a once-per-rest Ability that targets a single enemy and gives the Paladin (and only the Paladin) a damage and accuracy boost until that one enemy dies; and finally, the first "Command"-style Class Ability, called Liberating Exhortation, a once-per-encounter Ability that lets a single ally ignore Hostile Effects for 15 seconds (they will resume afterwards). Skill Points and a Talent! Skill Points and a Class Ability, go figure! Again, the Paladin gets to choose from all the previous Abilities that hasn't already been chosen, and adds Deprive the Unworthy and Reviving Exhortation to the list. Both are "Command"-style Abilities, but for some strange reason, the offensive Deprive the Unworthy does not follow the same pattern of being named as an Exhortation. You'd think they'd at least come up with something analogous, such as Depriving Judgement or something. Anyway, Deprive the Unworthy is a straight-up offensive version of Liberating Exhortation, and it suppresses the Beneficial Effects of a single enemy for 15 seconds. Strangely, the Paladin only gets two-per-rest of Deprive the Unworthy, whereas Liberating Exhortation is once-per-encounter. Reviving Exhortation, also added at this level, is also a once-per-encounter "Command"-style ability that allows the Paladin to revive a fallen ally with a modest amount of Endurance restored, much of which will be taken away from him after 15 seconds. Guess what. Skill Points and a Talent. Booyah. Skill Points and a Class Ability! Another two Abilities are added to the list; Righteous Soul, a underwhelming passive Ability (why are passives even offered up as Class Abilities?) The exact nature of this passive is questionable, because the wording of the Ability is ambiguous at this point, but it supposedly makes you resist all Poisoned, Diseased, Charmed, Dominated, Frightened and Terrified Effects, as well as reducing their duration by 5 seconds. Potentially powerful, but again, why would passives even be offered up as Abilities? Passives are by their nature and definition passive, and even if powerful, definitely not contributing to interesting choices in combat. Second, Reinforcing Exhortation, a twice-per-encounter Ability that increases the Deflection of a single recipient ally for 20 seconds. Another "Command"-style Class Ability. Skill. Points. And. Talent. Skill Points and... Class Ability! This time, only a single Class Ability is added: Hastening Exhortation. This is unsurprisingly another "Command"-style Ability, but this time it's three-per-rest, and it multiplies the attack speed of a single ally by 1.2. Final level. Skill Point and a Talent. Final stop. Everyone get off the rapetrain, it turns out that it's got brakes after all. Now, after going through all that, let's take a look at the available Talents as of v392: Critical Focus; Improves Zealous Focus. Deep Faith; Improves the defensive bonuses of the Order-dependent Faith and Conviction passive. Greater Lay on Hands; increases the healing of Lay on Hands. Intense Flames; Increases the damage of Flames of Devotion. Untroubled Faith (Paladin); negates some of (removes?) the negative effects from Reputation on Faith and Conviction. At the very least, this should be renamed, because it really stands out with that "(Paladin)", since no other Talent is class-marked like that. There are also several Order-dependant Talents, all which affects either Flames of Devotion or Liberating Exhortation (for some damn reason), or triggers on kills: The Black Path, Bleak Walkers; similar to the Inspiring Triumph Class Ability, except it Frightens all nearby enemies whenever the Paladin kills someone. Remember Rakhan Field, Bleak Walkers; nearly identical to the Intense Flames Talent, except it adds 50% Corrosion Damage instead of 50% extra Burn Damage to Flames of Devotion. Inspiring Liberation, Darcozzi Paladini; affects Liberating Exhortation, and gives the target ally a bonus to Accuracy in addition to the normal effects. Fires of Darcozzi Palace, Darcozzi Paladini; affects Flames of Devotion, giving the Paladin a Flame Shield upon using it. Enduring Flames, Goldpact Knights; causes Flames of Devotion to also cause a Burn-dmg DoT equal to 50% of the total damage. Bond of Duty, Goldpact Knights; whenever the Paladin uses Liberating Exhortation, the target ally also gets a large defensive bonus against Charmed, Confused and Dominated. Strange Mercy, Kind Wayfarers; again similar to the Inspiring Triumph Class Ability, except nearby allies gain Endurance every time the Paladin kills someone. The Sword and the Shepherd; Kind Wayfarers; every time the Paladin uses Flames of Devotion, all nearby allies heal a trifling amount of Endurance. Shielding Flames, Shieldbearers of St. Elcga; similar to the Kind Wayfarers ability above, it grants a small deflection bonus to nearby allies every time the Paladin uses Flames of Devotion. Shielding Touch, Shieldbearers of St. Elcga; again, the target ally gains an Accuracy bonus when the Paladin uses Liberating Exhortation. Yawn. Now that I've gone through all of that so that everyone gets a more or less clear picture of what the Paladin has and can get, several thoughts and ideas have occurred to me based on playtesting paladins in v392 BB. In no particular order of importance, here are some issues and potential solutions. Mileage may vary. • First of all, the paladin suffers from a lack of combat options. This is particularly glaring for the first 5 levels, which in the context of Pillars of Eternity is a figurative eternity. The fact is that at the moment, Flames of Devotion doesn't just appear to be a default assumption made by the developers that the Paladin is expected to have (judging by Talent support, more on that later), but it completely obliterates Lay on Hands. So while every (almost?) other class gets either multiple uses per encounter of one ability or another, or gets something that hinges on being deployed tactically, the Paladin gets a once-per-encounter ability that is swiftly blown (because there is often no reason whatsoever to not use Flames of Devotion almost immediately, or even attempt to initiate with it) and is then relegated to autoattack. At level 3, when the Paladin gets to pick a new Class Ability, all that is offered up are auras. Now, likely to inflate the sense of combat options artificially, Auras have been turned into a "Combat Only"-Ability, but it doesn't functionally change the fact that it is completely passive. It is not until level 5 that a Paladin can even think about doing anything in combat that isn't healing 3 times per day, or use flames of devotion once per encounter followed by auto-attack. • Second, the supposed core abilities of the Paladin is seemingly lost in translation. It is my understanding that a few aspects of the Paladin was intended by be part of his core concept, primarily Commands (Exhortations + "Deprive the Unworthy") and Auras. Due to the way ability gain has been modeled, however, it is entirely possible to opt out of these things completely. This isn't necessarily something bad, and it depends largely on what the developers want to do with the class, but it is definitely something that should be discussed. What is the concept of the Paladin, what assumptions are made? This ties into a third point. • Third, the Order-specific Talents are somewhat out of whack. Why is it that the Order-specific Talents all favour either Flames of Devotion or Liberating Exhortation specifically? There are two notable exceptions, The Black Path (Bleak Walkers) and Strange Mercy (Kind Wayfarers), both which gains on-kill bonuses to nearby allies. It is still a very strange, lop-sided favouritism that seems to assume that these two abilities are part of any Paladin's core skillset. The Paladin-specific Talents need to be looked over, and spread out to apply to more or different Abilities. Not a single Order-specific power affects Lay on Hands, for example, even though you'd think that such a thing would fit the Kind Wayfarers like a glove. Even though there only exists two different Paladin abilities that can be taken on creation - Flames of Devotion and Lay on Hands - only one of them is consistently affected by Order-specific talents. This is very odd and jarring. This also goes double for Liberating Exhortation. If Flames of Devotion seems to be a default assumption of the class that can conceivably be missed, it is currently very unlikely that anyone would. Liberating Exhortation, however, enters the scene when there are multiple possible abilities to choose from, and it is entirely possible to build a Paladin completely without picking up Exhortations. • Fourth, the oddity of the 2 Athletics, 1 Lore starting Skills. It is odd that a Fighter would be notably less Athletic than a standard Paladin, but I also think that there is a missed opportunity at play. I would suggest that instead of cementing the starting Skills of the Paladin, make the starting Skills 1 Athletics, 1 Lore, and 1 Order-dependent as such; http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/69902-v392-class-skills-starting-skills/?do=findComment&comment=1553094 • For some concrete suggestions, partly based on personal preference and interpretation: Revamp and look over all the Order-specific Talents, to diversify them based on more open-ended assumptions. It should not be assumed by the entire system that you end up with very specific Abilities, unless these Abilities are specifically granted. There are many Exhortations, why only favour one? There are two starting abilities, why only favour one? Lay on Hands need to be considerably buffed. In earlier versions, healing was stronger than it is now, and it was supposedly nerfed across the board. I do not think it would be inappropriate for Lay on Hands to be a premier healing Ability that blows others out of the water; it is per-rest, and potentially a core ability of the Paladin class as a whole. It should also not be a HoT; it should be instant. The Greater Lay on Hands Talent could add a HoT to the Lay on Hands ability instead. For some reason, there is no "Extra Lay on Hands" or "Extra Flames of Devotion" Talents. This should be rectified, and the former should add two additional uses of Lay on Hands per day, and the latter should add one extra use of Flames of Devotion per encounter. It is not interesting, but it is useful and consistent with what other classes can often get. Make Auras a core part of the Paladin concept; on Level 2 or 3, allow the Paladin to choose one of the three auras independently of other Abilities. Additionally, there should be Talents to support all Auras, not just Zealous Focus, an aura already well-known to currently be the only worthwhile one. Rebalance the auras. Especially Zealous Charge is utterly useless due to the Engagement system's current implementation making movement in combat largely meaningless. Also, auras as "Combat Only"-abilities (if "Combat Only" is to be a thing at all, rubbish as the concept is) is utterly ridiculous, an artificial buffer at the initiation of combat meant to inflate the feeling that the Paladin is doing something worthwhile besides auto-attacking. Stop it. Auras are passive modals that should be on at all times if the Paladin wishes it to be so. Rework the Exhortations (including the oddly-named Deprive the Unworthy); ideally, they should similarly be part of the Paladin's core skillset in some capacity, possibly being granted outside of the regular choices offered to the Paladin. Additionally, they should all either be Per-rest (preferably not) or have a similar Per-encounter use (preferably). Them being so conceptually similar as to share names almost across the board, but mechanically dissimilar feels odd and contrived. Instead of making the core functionality between them different, balance them based on the assumption that their functionality is conceptually similar, such as "2 per encounter", "1 per encounter", or "3 per day". Create the framework for how the concept is meant to work, and balance it based on those assumptions afterward. If all Exhortations would be offered outside of the normal Paladin Ability choices, all of them would ideally be offered up at once, instead of the odd progression that they go through. There is no conceptual reason why Liberating Exhortation should be offered before Reviving Exhortation, and I believe this to be a vestigial holdover from a time when the Exhortations were granted at given levels, rather than as a choice amongst a plethora of different abilities. Righteous Soul is terrible. Complete passives should never be offered up as full-fledged Class Abilities. This feels much more like a high-level Talent than anything else. The Paladin already suffers from combat option(s) starvation, and while flavourful and perhaps powerful, this is a bad choice not from a player perspective, but from a development perspective; it should not be offered like this at all. Inspiring Triumph should be made into a Talent. There are several Paladin-only Talents with the exact same functionality, but with different effects, and this has no business being a Class Ability to begin with. It would be much better served being turned into a Talent. Doubly so not only because of it's relation to how other Paladin-specific Talents already work, but also because of the aforementioned "passives are bad as Class Abilities, especially for Paladins"-issue. That is it for today, and I hope that this doesn't read as an enormous wall of text. I did my best to avoid it, but I'm not sure how successful I was. I hope the relevant developers take the time to read this brick, and any thoughts not just on my thoughts but also on the Paladin class in general would be greatly appreciated. It is not uncommon for large posts to kill their own threads, but I hope people instead see it as cause to discuss the Paladin class and possible perceived issues with it. This is by no means an exhaustive list, and is just some thoughts and notes on my perceptions of the Paladin class and issues I've discovered during play or from subjective analysis.

I'm not just going to blanket bash all new ideas. I've seen a plenty of new stuff I like. But, there are some that are so incredibly misguided that I think whoever invented them, should be ashamed of themselves. So, let's talk about them here, mechanics you love to hate. Back in the day, there was exactly one "Press Something" message that we saw in just about every game, that being "Press Any Key to Continue". Well, some backwards thinking fool decided to take that to a whole new level of WTF?! and set the whole world ablaze with an idea seemingly tailor-made to create repetitive motion injury. "Press L Repeatedly, Now (0.8 sec) Press E!" - And, just when we've started to fight tunnel-carpal with keyboard and controller designs, someone introduces a whole new future filled with completely unnecessary (as narrative) button presses. Can you imagine Half-Life 2 with this mechanic? If every valve, crank and lever in the game game with "press x,x,x,x,x press e!"? What if every use of the gravity gun had a key pressing pump-up mechanic complete with power meter to send something flying within the game? A horror to be sure. (Breaks out into a terrible rendition of Sarah McLachlan's "I will remember you.") Oh yes... I'm going to call this one: Mission: Remind players that they are too stupid to understand choices, consequences and branching narratives. Thank you Telltale for popularizing this particular brand of "dumbing down". No really, it is catering to simpletons. I don't care what justification anyone has. This is a feature born and bred on play testers that just didn't get the idea that video game plots are not static like those of a novel. I personally find nothing more thought-interrupting than seeing the words "x will remember that" appear on my screen. Each and every iteration of this terrible, terrible idea throws itself as a monkey-wrench into the business of contemplation. Can you imagine the horror of these words: Deekins will remember what you say! Imagine many of your favorites with this, from Knights of the Old Republic to PS: Torment. What a terrible idea. Telltale, to their credit, put in a feature that allows the player to turn these messages off. But, even with that I can distinctly recall a video interview with the designers that explained that they had to go back and put "placebo" messages in the game so that it isn't so obvious to the player where major lines of consequences were rooted. I am also glad to see that some studios are fighting the good fight and have decided against to such nonsense. Sadly, some studios need to be reminded that the thoughtless adaptation of popular trends isn't always a good idea. So, what newfangled mechanics may you display bad-smell-kitty-face??

Please discuss your thoughts, ideas, complaints, suggestions etc. on Pillars of Eternity here.

It's a considerable design change, but I like it because: It's more strategic. It's now harder to mindlessly max out a specific skill. You actually have to sacrifice a talent if you want to be maxed Mechanics, maxed Lore, etc. You can have more/deeper talents, focus on more/deeper skills, or find a balance. This is more interesting to me than deciding which guy is going to max Mechanics, which one Lore, etc. It's more logical. Linking talents and skills makes flavor sense--Hold the Line tying into Athletics, for instance. Having skills exist in their own vacuum, completely independent of talent selection, seems odd now. It's more fun. I don't miss the dull process of pumping more points into whatever skill I want to max in order to reach gated content or unlock chests. Let's see what you guys think. If you don't like it, how would you redesign it?

Quote from J.E.Sawyer (full post), emphasis added: That part in italics seems misguided, for a very simple reason: Disarming traps and picking locks is a Mechanics skill check. Therefore, reaping all XP rewards will require a Mechanics-focused character in your party. None of the other sources of XP require specific skill focus. Between bestiary, exploration, and quest/objective rewards, together with carefully-designed levels, progression should be plenty frequent without forcing players (or at least "power players") to max Mechanics. That skill's plenty desirable without binding it to an XP pool. What do you guys think? Sign the poll and speak your mind. (I realize there is another thread that touches in this issue, but its survey is broader and its discussion has mostly devolved into yet another combat XP debate. So please, focus discussion on Trap and Lockpick XP, and whether it's good for the game. Thanks!) Edit: To clarify (thank you, wanderon) the problem isn't so much that Trap/XP is bound to Mechanics, it's that the other skills are NOT bound to XP pools. Even Bestiary unlocks are not strictly Lore-gated; low-Lore parties can unlock entries, they just need to fight more of a given beast. Even if each skill had an associated "XP activity", though, we'd have to make the usual-suspects group of rogue, wizard, fighter, etc., or else lose out. You may as well pick a skill for your character on creation and have it auto-level. Why provide multiple skill points per level if you're going to max one?

Have you tried crafting yet? What do you think about it and enchanting? I think crafting and enchanting shouldnt be done by your adventurers. Food and SOME potions and scrolls are fine since you have wizards, druids, chanters, priests and such but I think some recepies should maybe be tied to the survivalist and lore abilities (make a party-wide check to see what the highest ability score is). I honestly think towns should have an "Enchanter" merchant though. It could be the person selling you the potions and ingredients in the village for example.Sure you have wizards, druids, chanters, priests and such of your own but it would feel weird if a team of fighters, rogues, and rangers would be able to enchant. In games that have crafting and enchanting I always hoard materials first and then in-between quests or locations I sit down, have a good think and craft/enchant. It feels unecessary to be able to do it on the fly. To me it should be a ritual thing done during moments of pause since it tends to be a big deal, and giving a face to those moments via an NPC that facilitates the craft as a service would help flesh out the system and give it more personality and inmersion, imo. This is of course my issue on how the mechanic is implemented and presented, not about the mechanic itself and the metagame of it. Feel free to give your opinions on that.

I'm having a bit of trouble with the asynchronous nature of combat. This is not a problem for standard attacks, but certainly makes spells and abilities unwieldy. Even with a cleric and wizard standing idle naked in reserve, they often do not have enough time to appropriately respond or apply spells both offensively and defensively. Add the necessity of armor with their own standard attacks, and it's almost as if they are acting independently of the battle conditions. The shifting melee contributes to a high degree of misses, since spells need to be cast at the edge of their periphery to avoid friendly fire. Action and equipment delays regularly necessitate a healing spell to be cast at the first sign of damage or risk it being cast on a corpse. Having each actor on their own unique time-sequence with the added potential for each to be altered by interruption and movement, the exact nature of the problem is difficult to discern. The experience is reminiscent of solving multivariable calculus. If I were to guess, I would wager that the problem is with the standardized cool-down and use speed of spells/abilities. I think that they too will need some variation--likely based on spell level and attribute scores rather than weapon type. To reiterate, I'm not sure. I'm just wondering if this is a problem for others, and what their thoughts might be.