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My understanding of the AoE circles was that the 2nd yellow circle of an AoE isn't supposed to affect friendly units. I've seen a tip popup to this affect a few times. However, with the Pernicious Cloud ability, allied targets entirely in the yellow circle are still affected. In the image below, every enemy and ally of the caster is hit by the cloud, and suffers the debuff, including the bear on the far-left who is clearly outside of the circle. The caster wasn't suffering any intellect affliction.

During the beta AOE weapons were fine, but since 4.0.1 (perhaps 4.0 launch, didn't get any aoe weapon when I replayed when the patch launched) no martial abilities work with the AOE weapons like Whispering greatsword or Citzal's Lance. The ability only affect the target (and no aoe dmg) and my character just keep launching the same ability again & again until no more resources. EDIT : Both Hand mortar weapons aren't affected. Perhaps only melee AOE weapons are bugged? Don't know if i'm the only one affected (problem with my game?) since no one report it but AOE weapons are useless right now.

The -mostly- finished version, in testing, of Waethir the mean. Version: 2.1, POTD Compatible, Solo run untested. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sorcerer: Animist / Wizard (No Subclass) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A magical dps that focus on dmg, CC, Debuff and general unpleasantness. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Race: Nature Godlike ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mystic Background ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Might: 15 Con: 8 Dex: 14 (+1 NG) Per: 15 (+1 NG, +1 White that Wends) Int: 15 Res: 8 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Skills: Metaphysics (for the Chromatic Staff), Sneak and Sleight of Hand (for fluff) or any you want. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Weapon Focus: Medium Shield, Dagger, Staff, Flail ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Spellbooks: Ninagauth's Grimoire & Snakeskin Grimoire ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Spirit Form: Stag ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Abilites: Free (f), picked upon leveling (p), Grimoires (g). Abilities I won't use from the grimoire are unmentioned. lvl 1: Sunbeam (f), Chill fog (p), Nature's Mark (p) lvl 2 : Fleet Feet (p, replace once you get DAoM) lvl 3 : Talon's Reach (p, replace with Touch of Rot later) Slicken (g) Sunbeam and Chill Fog both blind, but don't deal the same dmg/target the same defense. Nature's Mark makes Sunbeam and Talon's Reach hit easier. Talon's Reach got great early dmg, but will be replaced with Touch of Rot for additionnal DOT dmg to synergize with Combust wounds. Fleet Footed will be replaced by Arkemyr Dazzling Lights. lvl 4 : The Moon's Light (f), Infuse with Vital Essence (p), Insect Swarm (p) lvl 5 : Automn Decay (p) lvl 6 : Combust Wounds (p) Could pick Combust Wounds earlier but felt like I needed enough DOT to make it worthwhile (YMMV). At this point I rush to Neketara to do the Arkemyr Manor and get my grimoires and some items. lvl 7 : Returning Storm (f), Infestation of Maggots (p), Llendrath's Displaced Image (p), Arduous Delay of Motion (g), Ninagauth's Death Ray (g), Noxious Burst (g) lvl 8 : Deleterious Alacracity of Motion (p) lvl 9 : Expose Vulnerabilities (p) lvl 10 : Conjure Blight (f), Moonwell (p), Heart of the Storm (p), Ninagauth's Shadowflame (g), Ironskin (g) lvl 11 : Calling the world's Maw (p) lvl 12 : Form of the Delemgan (p) Here I got Nannasin's Cobra Strike. It doesn't work that well with the build, but I must try it once to see if it's as cool as it seems. lvl 13 : Plague of Insects (f), Relentless Storm (p), Rapid Casting (p), Ryngrim's Enervating Terror (g), Malignant Cloud (g), Ninagauth's Bitter Mooring (g) lvl 14 : Embrace the Earth Talon (p) lvl 15 : Llengrath's Safeguard (p) lvl 16 : Sunlance (f), Venombloom (p), Death Ring (g x2), Ninagauth's Freezing Pillar (g), Gaze of the Adragan's (g) lvl 17 : ? lvl 18 : ? Another two slots I'm not sure how to fill. I already got all the spells I wanted, so either more spells (if I missed something important, do tell) or passives. lvl 19 : Lashing Vine (f) Nature's Bounty (p), Lasting Empower (p), Tayn's Chaotic Orb (g), Ninagauth's Killing Bolt (g) lvl 20 : Potent Empower ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Equipments! Weapons: Dagger and Medium Shield at first for the increased defense using the modals (only if I read correctly and the additionnal recovery time is only for weapons), then options are; The Spine of Thicket Green, Chromoprismatic Quarterstaff, Magran's Favor or Watershaper Focus & Sun and Moon, Griffin's Blade, The Eye of Wael are all going to be in my bag. Griffin's Blade and Chromoprismatic Quaterstaff have my preference however. Armor: Aloth's Leather Armor, Miscreant Leather, Effigy Husk or Spider Silk Robe all feel like good choices. Gloves: Firethrower's Gloves Neck: Baubles of the Fin, Charm of Bones or Stone of Power Rings: Kuaru's Prize, Ring of Greater Regeneration Cloak: Ajamuut's Stalking Cloak Belt: The Undying Burden Shoes: Footprints of Ahu Taka This build plays pretty easely; Buff up, throw a spell that include Crowd Control or Debuff that your enemy is weak against, throw a few DOT spells, add Combust Wounds and wrap up with Infestation of Maggots. Although I included more defensive spells and items, it's still pretty damn fragile and qualifies for the crystal chekhov armory. I intend to have a pretty amoral POE1 backstory to have Effigy ressentment (CoC). This build can Blind, Stun, Petrify, Sicken, Weaken, reduce defences and attributes... I hope I'll make Galawain proud.

I've started a wizard playthrough and came across this issue multiple times. When enemies in the backline not engaged by any allies are attacked, they move towards their attacker, completely ignoring other creatures in the way. If the path is blocked they move their allies out of the way, sometimes out of AoE spells and more. Here is an example This is not limited to 1 enemy moved either. Eder can engage 4 enemies but one creature in the back can move all 4 of them out of the way to go for the wizard in the back. Companions have no trouble blocking each other in the same situation (they try to move around allies), so why is that not the case with the enemies? It's like enemies just don't stick to the floor properly or something. Anyone else has this issue? Edit: After some testing, I noticed companions also doing this occasionally. It's like when characters engage something they become attached to that rather than the floor.

One of my major gripes with PoE is the amount of AoE that is available. Most casters have a huge amount of it. Get ready for a wordy post, and I apologize if it isn't very well laid out. My Computer is on the fritz, and i had to do this on my tablet. :/. Ryzen can't come soon enough. Lol So what do each of the caster classes have that are AoE? Priest - heals, buffs, debuffs. Wizards - debuffs and Damage. Druids - lol Chanters - almost everything, but they make sense as AoE monsters. Ciphers - they have some too. Pally - Auras Barb - Carnage Monk - Torment' Reach and Rooting Pain Rogues, rangers, and fighters - not much. Scrolls - a lot. I may have missed some. Obviously, these have varying degrees of AoE size. So, we have some changes in classes, scaling being added to abilities via Power level, reduced party size, Empowering spells and abilities is a new mechanic, and Vancian is going away. I bring these points up because I think that these changes could be used to tone down the sheer amount of AoE, and allow more single target abilities. Now, this isn't saying that there aren't single target abilities in PoE1, but that the first game has a great deal of AoE, imho. Maybe too much. But that could just be me, and some might prefer how much there was. First we need to look at why PoE had so much AoE: A). Justifying Intellect. Intellect effected AoE and Duration. So abilities that were over time, AoE, or both were common. It is a ramifications, in part, of the attribute system. B). The amount of enemies in the field were often equal to or larger than the 6 man party. This justified AoE because of enemy numbers. C). IMHO, (and I could be wrong) if you scaled the enemy stats too high you ended up with PotD type stat bloat (which is great on PotD, but could be agitating for those on lower difficulties), and I think that the easier option was adding enemies vs finding that sweet spot in enemy stats for each difficulty increase. This isn't to say this is impossible to fix, but that it is what it is in the first game. A quick note: I asked if attributes were changing in the Fig comments, and Feargus (I believe) said that they were planning to keep attributes the same. This is something we should keep in mind because whatever debate is had we must try not to reduce any attribute's value. So, in this case, Intellect will still govern Duration and AoE, and we don't want to create a dump stat. Also, unrelated, but info I've had answered on Fig are that racial bonuses should stay the same, and each class still gets equal number of skill points. I've got a few ideas that I'd like to discuss in this thread. One thought I've had is a ramification of moving away from Vancian, adding the Empower concept, and adding scaling is that we could have less AoE at lower levels. Perhaps, those lower level abilities could become more potent with scaling or Empower usage in terms of damage/rebuff/buff strength, but lack the AoE component. This means you can AoE with a higher level spell but have a more marginal effect, or you can use a lower level spell/ability that has scaled to do a stronger single target effect. What these buffs/debuffs would effect/target would be the same , but the single target would have a greater effect numerically (example below). This would still allow Intellect to play its part on Duration early on, and AoE in later spells/abilities. Example: Level 1 spell that debuffs reflex by 2 and movement speed by 10 for 10 seconds. This single target scales with the power level (Arcane for Wizards, for instance). A level 4 AoE of the same spell does the same amount of debuff statistically (reflex -2 and MS -10 for 10 seconds. However, just to cast that spell it requires Arcane level 15 (arbitrary number) so it doesn't scale yet. However, the level one version has scaled a bit by this time, and it will give reflex -4 an MS -20 for 10 seconds. However, when your Arcane level is 30 the AoE variant is now scaling, but it still isn't as potent as the single target. Add Empower to the mix and you could increase Duration, accuracy, or add another effect (root for 5 seconds or -x recovery speed). This sort of system would tone down on the AoE porn by shifting some importance to Duration, while keeping AoE important/useful for later levels. Intellect would grow in importance to casters as they level, it still wouldnt necessarily be a requirement. Side effect would be Multiclassing into caster classes might get away with minimal intellect, but that may be a good thing for build diversity. Empower "could" add an AoE component to some things, but I don't know if that's wise. But it's worth discussing. So, please do. Also, this will obviously effect different classes differently. Chanters will most likely retain heavy AoE abilities through out, but scaling could make their lower level chants more viable over time and reduce the need for higher level chants requiring longer cast times because they haven't scaled yet. Thus fixing their issues of building phrases potentially. Just a thought. Where a Wizard/Priest/Druid/Cipher would start more focused on single target abilities and build into AoE as examples above if that's their design. Ciphers could become even more single target focused to differentiate them from the rest of the pack of casters. 5 man parties will reduce enemies on the field to an extent, and this means single target abilities could be a better focus and durations strength could benefit here. This is by proxy of reducing the weight of importance of AoEs. Depends on how you look at it, I guess. Scrolls - they need more variety anyway, but they would likely be changed if a system like this was implemented anyway. More single target abilities means more scrolls based on those abilities. Non-caster classes: Rangers, fighters, and rogues aren't AoE focused, and would be largely uneffected by this as far as I can see. Barbs can have carnage's AoE grow as they scale in power, and via intellect. Pallys would be similar with their auras. Monks have a few AoEs, but I havent put much thought into them. So, ideas are welcome. Anyways, this is all hypothetical, but I find it an interesting topic for discussion. Do you think this would negatively impact the value of intellect on some classes? I don't think so, but I'm sure there are things that I've over looked. You could also have Intellect effect the Duration on single target abilities slightly more than AoE if you feel that change would be needed. This would give some choice and consequence to spell casting that I felt was missing in the first game. Do you hit that big guy with a hard debuff, or blanket everything with a smaller one? Anyway, I hope this topic interests you as much as it does me and we can discuss it at length.

My main character, a Cipher, for some reason does not get any AoE bonuses from Intellect, while other characters do. The character screen claims I'm getting bonuses, but the area highlight never shows the yellow zone, regardless of my Intellect. I verified that it's not only a visual glitch - the area is indeed not affected by bonuses. I tried disabling/re-enabling the area highlight to no avail. I also tried manipulating the attribute score through cheats in attempts to "unstuck" the calculation, and it actually worked (I got the yellow zone) until I reloaded from a save. I can no longer reproduce this... The version is 1.0.2.0508, GOG. This kind of ruins my game... Any ideas? All relevant files (saves, logs, screenshots, dxdiag info) are here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/iqto22xb8lfftzi/aoe_bug.zip?dl=0

Hi folks, so how exactly do you time/aim your spells so that they hit the intended targets without damaging party members? The tanks can pin down enemies so they make easy targets but then the spell will hit the tanks as well. If I do not charge my tanks in then the enemies will be moving which makes it very difficult to aim the spell, the spell may very well be wasted. Even if the spell does hit, in most case there's only enough time to get one AOE spell out before the enemies reach the party.

So far, the game is fantastic, just a couple of nuinances while playing with a Druid on Normal and Expert: 1. Is there a way to view more spell detail other than right clicking on a spell to get a pop up window? Right now I just right click on a particular spell and this brings a floating window with a lot of great detailed info. The problem is that if you right click on another spell to view its detail, a second window will pop up with the appropriate detail, but the previous one (even though you cannot see it anymore) still lingers. After viewing a few spell details (5 popup windows openned), I have to go back and close each of the windows one by one before I can open a new one (the game even allows you to open the same spell details multiple instances of the same popup windows). 2. Is there a way to determine how far away an enemy is in meters? This also applies to AoE spells, is there a way to visually determine the area/cone that the spell will affect? I suspect this is because I am playing on Expert but I dont want to find out Im wrong by disabling it and not being able to enable it back again. Thanks for your help, folks!

Hey all! I know these "choose my class" threads are painful, but as I wasn't around for the beta test, I'm gonna need you scholars to aid me in my quest. So my favorite game of all time is BG2: SoA and my favorite class by far is the Sorcerer. I love being able to snare and nuke enemies with all sorts of shiny spells and see my enemies laying before me when the dust clears. Would the obvious choice for this be wizard? I also read somewhere that druids were better for exploding enemies more efficiently from a DPS standpoint. What do you guys think? Also, any recommendations for a fight/cleric type class. My second favorite would have to be a flashy melee type fighter that can buff and charge in chunking enemies like a pro. I guess pally would be ideal? Thanks a bunch all.

Here's a link to a (non Beta-specific) post I made about a new system for utilizing INT bonuses for AoE abilities. Would love some feedback. http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/67742-how-to-solve-the-aoe-problem-while-making-the-int-stat-more-compelling-and-int-characters-smarter/

Hello all. As you probably know, there is currently a problem with area-of-effect abilities and INT - namely that the inability to adjust the AoE of certain abilities can actually be a disadvantage instead of an advantage. With really high INT, you sometimes end up in situations where you are hitting yourself with a negative AoE spell. This disincentivizes INT as an attribute - and disincentivizing an attribute is never a good idea when building RPG systems. Some have proposed a system in which AoE is adjustable. This is a great idea. And it seems obvious that they'll have to implement it at some point if they don't want to completely gimp certain INT builds (fireball that kills the entire party? anyone? ). But I'd like to go further. What's the point of an INT-based character, anyway? From both a thematic and a mechanical perspective, an INT focused character should be able to tactically control the battlefield through intelligent use of abilities. An adjustable AoE would support this goal from both a thematic and mechanical perspective - but why not give the character (and player) even more choice? I propose a system in which the AoE of abilities is adjustable... but when you increase the AoE, the duration decreases (boo!).... and when you decrease the AoE, the duration increases (what? ). Basically, there would be a discrete number of distributions (equal to your INT) that you could adjust on the fly (with mouse wheel while targeting, for example). At one end of the spectrum, you are applying your entire INT bonus to increasing the duration, and at the other end of the spectrum you are applying your entire INT bonus to increasing the AoE. Obviously if the ability has no AoE, the duration is just maximum and if the ability has no duration the AoE is still adjustable. This would take the tactics of AoE control abilities to an entirely new level. With a merely adjustable AoE, you're just adjusting the AoE to get the maximum ability coverage without hitting your own people. But with a sliding scale of applying your INT bonus to either AoE OR duration, we've achieved the ultimate in INT character decision-making - a system in which the intelligent character is able to masterfully adjust their abilities to fit the tactical situation, weighing the pros and cons of a battlefield-blanketing minor stun vs an incredibly powerful small area stun (for example). I've attached a link to a spreadsheet with some more information and the ability to try out some different curves for bonus values (since obviously the numerical values of the bonuses would have to be adjusted if this were implemented). Unfortunately the forum wouldn't let me upload it. :/ Link here: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/29325716/Pillars%20of%20Eternity%20INT%20fix.xlsx Older versions of Excel: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/29325716/Pillars%20of%20Eternity%20INT%20fix.xls Thanks for reading! It would make my day to get a dev response on this (even if it's just "that would be cool but we don't want to do it").

Here's a link to a (non Beta-specific) post I made about a new system for utilizing INT bonuses for AoE abilities. Would love some feedback. http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/67742-how-to-solve-the-aoe-problem-while-making-the-int-stat-more-compelling-and-int-characters-smarter/

Reading about the confirmed attributes and one thing struck me about spell AOE, what if the Wizard who manipulates the damage can mitigate its effects on his companions? One assumes that the Caster is in control of his creation, or else how can he shape and direct it, so why not have him proof his companions against these effects? Obviously there should be a price for this, as a matter of strategy and balance, perhaps a daily or per encounter ability is burned up in the casting of these wards. Would this totally unbalance the game, and destroy the usefulness of various protection spells, or would the fact that it is only the allied Caster's spells that are warded against and it does not affect the enemies spellcasting one jot make it more palatable? Well ladies and gentlemen, is this heretical thought crime that eliminates careful tactical play or careful preparation by wise players and blessed by He On Earth?

This was an idea in the "Small Suggestions..." thread, and it was growing a bit big there, so I decided to move it here. The idea is for the game interface to allow the player to utilize inter-character teamwork (in some form) to pull off things like friendly-fire-avoiding AOE abilities, or any other ability in which an ally's position would detriment the effectiveness of an attack. The initial idea was callouts, much like the "grenade out!" in a lot of shooters (as such things are actually used in military group tactics so that no one inadvertently charges into a grenade zone or something, etc). I realize now that what I'm after may be achieved through various implementations (not simply callouts). BUT, maybe the callouts are codewords (like I said, so the enemy remains unawares), and maybe they, at the very least, give your allies who are within the blast zone a bonus modifier to defense/evasion, since they know it's coming? I guess it just seems silly to me that there's almost NO synergy there in avoiding friendly fire. It's like 1000% of the control for even very simple AOE scenarios comes down to the player. It almost feels, in most games, as though you need to meta-game your way around things, so that everyone will be in the desired position, and your spell/ability will go off at the desired time. Almost... What if we simply had more positional control? As in, maybe your Fighter (or other melee combatant) who is engaged in direct melee combat with an enemy can "Push back" to a targetable location (short-range) at the cost of defense/attack effectiveness? So you can feasibly get enemies into better positions for simple, small-scale AOE's, without it simply being a matter of "Welp... friendlies are in the cone. Do I hurt them, or do I just stand here like an idiot because I can't really do anything else...?" The type of character cooperation/capability I'm after makes more sense if thought of in terms of non-magic abilities, like ducking melee arc-swings or side-stepping arrows from archers, etc. There's a huge difference between the player selecting a character and saying "You there... you STOP fighting and move 3 feet to the right!", and letting that character know that another character needs them out of the way for an attack or ability to land, and having that character be able to time a sidestep in the midst of combat. *Le shruggles* EDIT: Just realized that the Wizard's Familiar enables additional positional control over spell "aiming." I just didn't really think of that before. That's along the lines of what I'd like to see, rather than a Wizard who has to run around for 10 minutes like he's trying to get a good spot at a concert. Hehe.

Here are some suggestions for spellcasting in P:E. Please add ideas that you think would suit the game. First off, I'd like to see spells project their Area-of-Effect Marker on the ground, before you cast-confirm them, like in NWN2. Because I need to know if I'm about to barbecue my friends with this fireball spell as well as those pesky ice trolls. I understand if some folks would rather play it old school without the AoE marker, because learning how spells behave was always part of the appeal. So maybe just have it toggleable in the gameplay options? Some players might use it for a while, then voluntarily disable it later, or vice versa. This example is in NWN2/3D of course. I just mean project the marker onto the isometric background in P:E. Secondly, Buffing Spell Chains. I mentioned this in the Readied Actions post but will re-summarise it here. I wonder if it's possible to see a small extension to the spellbook UI where you can add a string of buffing spells to a list -- a spell chain -- order them however you see fit, and save them to that list so that when you anticipate a battle or the need to buff, you click the "spell chain" button on your main game UI for that character, who then begins casting in the order you specified. As long as you have all the spells in your current spell pool, it will cast all of them in sequence. If any are missing, it'll skip to the next one. This is not to be confused with Spell Sequencers, where you pre-cast a chain of spells into a robe or other magical accoutrement so that they all trigger instantaneously at a later command. I don't mean that. The purpose of the buff chain is to both save time and to ensure a level of consistency when you need to cast the same pattern of buffs many times over during gameplay. And of course, as you gain new spells, you simply adjust the spell chain as you see fit. Maybe there could be 2 or 3 optional spell chain buttons on the UI for different spell arrangements? And if I were to really push the boat out, it'd be cool if on the spellbook UI, it showed you spell stats like casting time and spell duration, so you could assign long-duration spells first, and short-duration spells last, for optimum efficiency. I imagine the UI would also require target settings for each spell, such as Caster, Centered on Party, Party Leader, etc. An example using IWD2 spell stats. Of course, you don't have to use it. You can keep buffing manually the way it's always been done. What are some spellcasting features you would like to see in Project Eternity?