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Se each one of these grants +1 to an attribute, which you can simply adjust for in the previous screen of the character creation flow. E.G. I want my char to be from the White that Wends, which grants +1 perception, which I don't need, so I just press back, set my perception to 9 (which will be 10 after I select my culture), and move my attribute point to whichever attribute I happen to need. I never liked culture bonuses because they force me to make a decision between my stats and bonuses and the dialog I will get when playing the game. The system in deadfire solves this problem, but using the technique above seems like you could achieve exactly the same thing by simply not having culture bonuses at all. Why not just remove them? I think the benefit of having the flavor of "chars from XXX are more perceptive" is pretty weak given that most people will adjust for it anyways. Job bonuses seem more justified, IMHO.

1. Developers, can you share information on the backgrounds and cultures that will be in the Pillars of Eternity 2? We can assume that all the variants from the first part will remain ... But will there be new options? 2. I would also like to touch on the backgrounds of the companions. When will you reveal this terrible secret? Eder - Farmer; Aloth - Gentry; Pallegina - Soldier; Maia Rua - ?!? Xoti - ?!? (Farmer?) Serafen - ?!? (Raider, Slave or Pirate?) ? ? ? ? ?

Well, I am playing as a boreal dwarf with Deadfire Archipelago as my chosen culture. I see many extra dialogue options from time to time, based on culture, well not so many, but they exist yes? So, I expected there would be at least something, with Sagani... Nothing, she talks to me as if I am a tourist and not a local. She is 5 years in this continent, how many more boreal dwarves has she found? And when she meets me, she treats me like an alien, that really breaks immersion in my opinion. Anyway, not a major problem of course. I just thought to mention it.

Update by Tim Cain, Senior Programmer and Designer Hello! I'm sorry I haven't done an update in a while. I've been working on classes and everything related to classes: abilities, skills, spells, combat...you know, the good stuff. For the past several months, Josh and I have been refining the designs for the non-core classes, the classes that are most unusual, classes like the chanter and the cipher and one of my favorites, the monk. Monks in Eternity are different than you might expect. There are no restrictions on armor and weapons – you could wear plate and use a sword, if you wanted to, and the talent system is flexible enough so you could build a great monk that specialized in that gear. But at the core of this class is a little rule about how monks take damage. You see, when a monk gets hit, only part of the damage is inflicted on him or her immediately. The rest is redirected to a Wound, which is an effect that causes damage over time (called a DoT effect) to the monk. That slowly-ticking Wound would only seem to be delaying the inevitable result except for one thing: the monk can get rid of that Wound by using special attacks. The monk gets all kinds of cool special attacks that do extra effects beyond simply damage and, as a side effect, also eliminate his Wounds. Some of their special attacks include: Torment’s Reach - this ability increases the range of melee attacks by 200% for a short duration. Enemies between the monk and his or her target are also attacked. Costs 1 Wound to activate. Turning Wheel - if the monk suffers from a DoT effect (including Wounds ticking down), he or she adds a proportional fire bonus to his or her melee damage. This is a passive ability which works automatically whenever the monk has any DoT effect. Clarity of Agony - when used, this ability cuts the duration of hostile status effects in half. It lasts for a brief amount of time, halving both incoming effects and ones that are currently on the monk. Costs 2 Wounds. Each of these attacks makes monks stronger in battle, and many also consume their Wounds, hopefully before those Wounds have done the damage the monks were originally supposed to take. And as monks level up, they get more than just these special attacks. They can gain room for more Wounds, so they can have more of them at once to use at the same time for an extraordinarily powerful attack or use them across multiple special attacks. Monks can also change how their Wounds function. For example, they can choose to have their Wounds do less damage at the start and more at the end, so getting rid of them faster is advantageous. Monks can also choose to do their damage sequentially, letting the monk build up a lot of Wounds to fuel a crazy powerful ability and not take much damage for doing so. So as a monk, your goal is simple: you want to take damage, so you get Wounds, so you can perform extraordinary attacks. But remember when I mentioned the monk in plate mail using a sword? Sure, you can do that, but that plate armor will inhibit your ability to get Wounds, which means you don't get as many special attacks. And unarmed attacks are among the fastest types of attacks, so a weaponless monk can get rid of his Wounds faster than any armed monk, so he will suffer very little of their damage-over-time effects. That's like having extra hit points for free! FOR FREE! Who wouldn't want that?! This is why you see a lot of unarmed and unarmored monks running around. Not because the rules say you can't use those items, but because in most situations it's one of the best ways to play. An unencumbered monk can be a terror on the battlefield, a nightmare that just won't seem to die, no matter how hard he gets hit. Blows that seem like they should kill him only serve to make him stronger. Trust me, you are going to love playing a monk. But if you ever feel the need to use a magical sword for its raw damage potential or wear enchanted mail to gain fire resistance for battle with a dragon, you can do that too. Because Project Eternity is all about bending the roles of each class, so you can play how you want, resolve conflicts how you want and solve problems how you want. After all, this is *your* game. Culture Concept Concept artist Kaz Aruga has been developing the look of some of Project Eternity's various cultures. So far, he's created concepts for people from the Dyrwood, the Vailian Republics, the Aedyr Empire, and the Valley of Ixamitl. We hope you like the range we've come up with. Let us know what you think!

There has been some discussion in the various video threads on Backgrounds, including references to weapons and why one is going to choose a certain background and such, but I thought it would be fun to have a topic on this OUTSTANDING aspect of the character creation process. For reference: http://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Culture_and_background (N.B. I don't know if there are multiple wikis or not or if there is any competition, and if there is I have no vested interest one way or another, this is just the first that came up with a google search of PoE Wiki). A couple question I want to ask to start out with - 1) Are these ALL the background choices? Are there going to be some more with different racial/subracial choices? I saw a number were locked to culture selection. 1a) If they are inclusive already, is there a chance of adding any more? I doubt there would be time with additional dialogue and such, but it can't hurt asking. I would particularly like a soldier background, which I think is distinct enough from mercenary, unless there are dialogue options to make mercenary seem more like an ex-soldier then a sell-sword. 2) This is a question in honour of Sylvius the Mad, but do we HAVE to choose a background? Is there a mysterious wanderer background for us to choose if none fit our roleplay preference? Is this included in a drifter (although this sounds like a fantasy hobo to me; a stabbing kind of hobo of course).

I'm curious to find out what the developer's take is going to be with the various races. I know they have some geographical-based categories they have listed before, as well as some regional cultures, but what about the racially-specific cultures and behavioral norms? Will they be using stock archetypes for elves and dwarves, or implementing something a little different? Will elves be tree-hugging, poetry spouting, effeminate artsy-fartsy types? Are the dwarves going to be beer belching, beard toting, grumpy gold hoarders? What do you think?

iKnow that all of us are excited to see the various factions and regions being cooked up for us by Obsidian, but as we know they're still forming. I've seen lots of ideas thrown around vaguely and as part of other, larger posts about types of governments (specifically matriarchies or "Amazonian" societies). I thought I might run down a short list and then we could jump off talking about them or other, even more interesting ideas of what system of government various cities\states could use. Theocracy Rule by religious authority; would essentially adhere to a quasi-Pope or council of theocrats. Would be interesting for a number of reasons: perhaps as a Watcher or due to soem other circumstances you can challenge the potentate's authority so they try to knock you off/butter you up\send you on an impossible quest and try to make sure it's your last. There could also be religious laws about Plane Touched and magick that require all sorts of careful manuvering to avoid a kerfuffle. One might also have some right whereby anyone can challenge someone to a duel if they challenge dogma or somesuch. Matriarchy Ye olde Drow obviously have this, and if the Lake of Drow Tombs is anything to go by I'd say we may be seeing some of them-- but what about a surface-side, or even human matriarchy? Would give options for gender-specific quest related possibilities, and reverse the normal casual sexism a'gainst "girl-'ventureres." Maybe only women are citizens and you get into some legal kerfuffle that requires your party's women (possibly including yourself) to try and clear the names of the men who've all been arrested because they've been framed or due to prejudice. Would be an interesting altParty moment, like in KotOR II when you return to Drexl for the Ondoron Civil War shtick but with perhaps more dialogue and a good bit longer. Oligarchy Oligarchies are not rare, just rarely done representatively as I'd like them-- that is to say, many disparate plots and manuverings towards various goals. You'd have to pull favor for each of them to get them to OK some sort of agreement you had to strong arm them into, like in DA:O at the Kingsmoot-whateverthefluck-- saving the guy's kid and finding the documents and such won them over t'you. Should also be mutually exclusive people who want you on one side or t'other, and the two different players have different benefits that come with cooperation. Any other ideas for systems of government? Also, in the "Free Palitinate" do you hope to see City States or a singular at least slightly cohesive government? Would the idea of an occupied Dyrwood by imperialists in some places like port cities be interesting to you, or would that fall too much into the lines of "and there are rebels and an evil empire now which do you choose" tropes?