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I cannot for the life of me figure out how a Cipher would work with low Resolve. The minmaxer in me wants to dump it, but the rper has a big aversion against it. Like even ignoring my background as a slave (who would need resolve to mentally survive), then comes the Cipher ability. reading all those minds around you when like 10% of those are benevolent towards you would drive one insane not having a... 'sturdy' mind. And even ignoring all that, you are a leader-role. A leader without irl resolve sucks ass. I really struggel with this and just for that reaosn I consider going Paladin or Chanter after all xD

I would like to make a build of Elric of Melnibone from Michael Moor****'s books for RP and PoTD upscaled solo with Berath Blessings (not neccesary Megabosses). It will be nice if you can share your thoughts to make a fun build. I would appreciate if you would detail everything about the race, stats, equipment, skills, abilities, etc. You can see some information about him at this link: https://outskirtsbattledomewiki.com/index.php/fictions/5337-character-profile-elric-of-melnibone As you can see, he has a lot of powers that fits differents classes and is difficult to make a build around him. My first thought was a Devoted/Soulblade with Sanguine Greatsword/Voidwheel/WotEP, high Alchemy using drugs and the Cipher Powers. Race: Pale Elf (you can customize the look very similar with white skin and hair and red eyes and sickly) Stats(with BB): 18/9/18/18/18/9 / 18/6/18/21/18/9 / 20/5/20/20/20/5 Devoted + Cipher = +3 Penetration, so you can reach: 12(Mythic) + 3(Devoted/Cipher) + 2(Potion/food) + 1(Flanked) + 2(Body Attunement) + 1(Blackened Plate Armor) = 21 Armor Penetration. I would like to make him as fast as possible (more fun) with Mob Stance, Armored Grace, Pet, Equipment and Consumables. He also have a very powerful ring, but I don't think there is any that powerful. Thanks for your suggestions!

[totally new to these forums so I apologize in advance if I'm missing any conventions about sharing builds or in the wrong forum with this post ] Out of the night when the full moon is bright comes the Watcher known as Zorro! The Huana huddle together in the center of their village, parents putting on brave faces as they hold whimpering children close. Cloaked figures with swords drawn advance on all sides, wicked intent written on their faces in the dim torchlight. Vailian mercenaries, Rauatai soldiers, Crookspur thugs - whoever they are, they mean to do evil on this night. But just as they're about to strike, dancing lights suddenly appear in the night sky. The ruffians look up warily as the lights arrange themselves into a letter “Z,” then flit away to the roof of a nearby hut. There, silhouetted against the full moon, stands a figure in a brimmed hat, rapier in hand, their cape fluttering in the breeze. "It is Zorro!" cries a Huana child, joy replacing the terror on their face. "Zorro is here!" "SHOOT HIM!” cries the leader of the cloaked figures, but they might as well shoot at the moon. As they scramble to discharge their weapons, the figure has already disappeared amid the crack of gunfire and shouts of alarm. Through the smoke and tumult, his sword flashes here and there, felling foes in its wake like trees in a storm. Panicked, the soldiers scatter as the villagers erupt in cheers. The night rings with jubilant chants of "Zorro! Zorro! Zorro!" --- I'm still getting a handle on the game's mechanics so I don't claim this as an optimized build at all, and it's only been tested so far through 9 levels, but I would love to hear people's ideas about how to make it more viable! The idea on offer here is to an Eoran Zorro: daring swashbuckler, champion of the oppressed and terror to tyrants across the Deadfire, who appears and disappears like a ghost leaving only the sign of the Z. Zorro fights one-handed with a rapier, and a pistol when necessary for his second set, emphasizing trickery, mobility and daring as he darts about. The accomplished swordsman easily maneuvers across the battlefield, deftly parrying his opponents' strikes and delivering ripostes to critical areas. Diego de la Vailia, the Lord of Caed Nua, an idle dandy the dashing swordsman ZORRO, unrecognizable behind his mustache! By day, the self-absorbed and foppish Diego de la Vailia, Lord of Caed Nua, dallies in the courts of the Deadfire's various contending powers. By night, the enigmatic bandit known as Zorro steals medicine for the Roparu, infiltrates pirate forts and plunders Crookspur ships with his black sloop "Tornado." Diego's sharp, sometimes cruel wit suggests vanity and disdain for the problems of others, while Zorro acts with both passion and compassion for the downtrodden. To the Bardattos, Dereos and Hanzanuis of the world, he is a callous mercenary; to the Huana tribe who he's helped escape from a cruelly exploitative VTC contract, he asks for nothing in return. Knave though he is, Zorro is not without his own sense of honor. He instructs his companions to stay out of his duel with Captain Benweth on the ramparts of Fort Deadlight, for example. And if he should pursue a bounty on any kith, he always announces himself before setting upon his quarry. Name: Diego de la Vailia Species, ethnicity, nationality, background: Human, Ocean Folk, Old Vailia, Aristocrat Role: Rogue (Trickster) / Fighter (Devoted: Rapier if you really want to fit the role, but I went with Black Jacket for the versatility and because regen isn't too important for this build) Voice: Percival de Rolo (lol) Stats (after human & Old Vailia bonus, before Berath's Blessings): M: 10 C: 9 D: 12 P: 18 I: 10 R: 19 (This was less about the stats perfectly fitting the roleplaying concept, and more about trying to fit the playstyle: accuracy, crits, high deflection & riposte. Thought about a higher Intelligence to fit the concept & for the Trickster's illusion spells, and it's hard to accept a Zorro who isn't Dexy, but I wanted to maximize that accuracy & deflection without dumping might or con.) Top skills (you'll want the Berath's Blessings and paid trainers to really get away with Zorro's levels of mary sue-ism): ATHLETICS - to scale the walls built to separate and control the people of the Deadfire! MECHANICS - no lock can stop the cunning fox Zorro! STEALTH - he appears and disappears like a ghost! BLUFF - who is this masked renegade? Surely not the preening Vailian aristocrat Diego de la Vailia, who spends his days idling at the Luminous Bathhouse or shopping at Iolfr's Raiments! INTIMIDATE - to address bullies in the only language they understand! Secondary skills: SLEIGHT OF HAND - for various shenanigans DIPLOMACY - Diego is a Vailian gentleman, after all INSIGHT - Zorro always seems to know what makes his enemies (and friends) tick Maybe? skills: RELIGION - Zorro has always found friends among those of the cloth HISTORY - politics and culture aren't wholly separate from Zorro's purpose, after all Gear: this is the least-developed part of the build, and where optimization clashes the most with the Zorro concept. I honestly did some googling to make some of these choices, since again I haven't even taken this build past level 9, so take them as a very gentle suggestion. I am also very keen on hearing people's ideas for better gear! (I did decline to pick up the Unstoppable fighter ability, which grants resistance to dexterity afflictions, because of Cipher's Shackle covering that resistance in this gear - so if you want a different amulet, you might want to adjust the abilities.) Weapon: Rännig's Wrath, which Zorro somehow plundered from the Bardatto vault at the same time Diego helped foil the Valeras' heist... Weapon set 2: Eccea's Arcane Blaster (crush damage option for piercing-immune enemies) Armor: Miscreant's Leathers or Fleshmender will fit the look, Casità Samelia's Legacy doesn't so much but its bonus deflection, which benefits from intimidation, fits nicely with the riposte build - but for endgame, after Zorro's identity has been exposed and the Vailian Trading Company is out for vengiatta, the Gipon Prudensco is perfect for deflection against disengagement attacks, which you can then bait and turn into ripostes Boots: Boots of Speed (disengagement defense and stride = totally Zorro's jam) Rings: Entonia Signet Ring, Chameleon's Touch Amulet: Cipher's Shackle Helm: a tricorn hat is the closest you'll come to looking like Zorro; the broad-brimmed hat only comes in light brown. otherwise the Blackblade's Hood will give you +10% action speed for carving Zs with a rapier, and a hood's not terrible for someone who's supposed to be hiding his identity, or Fair Favor will boost your crit chance and damage with your rapier while vaguely fitting the rapier-duelist look. Cowl of the Piercing Gaze is creepy and doesn't give you the bandito look but it will at least hide your identity, if for some reason you feel the mustache isn't enough. sadly there's no brimmed hat with a bandit mask, at least not until this wildly popular build prompts Obsidian to create one! Gloves: Burglar's Gloves fits the concept but maybe you want Killer's Gloves for the crit damage Pet: Zorro, of course! Abilities: again I've only played this build through level 9, but planning ahead, these have been selected as an awkward balance the Zorro concept - more to do with evasion and controlling the battlefield than actually dishing out pain - and what I imagine will be more successful in a video game where you have to actually down enemies, not just carve Zs in their pants and disappear. So take this with about ten pounds of salt- 1- Escape, Disciplined Barrage 2- Fast Runner 3- Crippling Strike 4- 1h style, Fighter Stances 5- Confident Aim 6- Determination 7- Riposte, Disciplined Strikes 8- Smoke Veil 9- Strike the Bell 10- Shadowing Beyond, Tumbling 11- Persistent Distraction 12- Dirty Fighting 13- Uncanny Luck, Conqueror Stance 14- Superior Deflection 15- Vigorous Defense 16- Slippery Mind, Clear Out 17- Refreshing Defense 18- Sap 19- Deathblows, Power Strike 20- Coordinated Positioning

Hello. I'm a new user and I looked around the forum, tried the search feature, googled around, and found no answers to my questions... hope I am asking in the right place, if not, I apologise in advance. Here goes. Is there a roleplaying community? PoE world seems almost perfect, almost ideal for a roleplaying community, one to exchange stories in writing and over IM. I was looking for a forum, for a Discord server, found nothing, no trace of it, no such need expressed. Am I alone? Is there a community like that? If not, can we start somehow, is there need out there like I feel? I saw mods. But they all concern statistics or cosmetics. Are there new quests mods and more important new location mods with maps and interiors and expansion on sailing routes, and introducing NPCs to do and say things? This game begs for equivalents of giant mods like TES's Skyrim has, such as Falksaar or Wyrmstooth where entire new maps are made by players who do voice acting. Again, as with roleplaying, I found no trace, no need expressed. These things make games literally immortal. Am I alone? Why is there no new location or quest mods? When will games be released on consoles, I suppose after DLCs, somewhere in 2019 maybe? Thank you in advance. Peace

Does it have any function? I started thinking about this in the Walking Request thread, and thought it deserved its own topic. Mainly in cities (Would Guards warn you to sheath your weapons if you have them out, etc.)

You set your character background at character creation, but there's also the first conversation with Callisca. What you say ends up in your biography. Some people in the game will react to this - I'm not going to list those in this thread. Some backgrounds hide professions you wouldn't expect there. Now you can choose something you like the most without restarting. Maybe I should update the wiki. Aristocrat (all except The Living Lands) Artist (Old Valia) Clergyman (Aedyr) Colonist (Aedyr, Old Valia, The Living Lands) Dissident (Aedyr, Ixamitl Plains, Old Valia, Rauatai) Drifter (All) Explorer (Deadfire Archipelago, The Living Lands, The White That Wends) Hunter (All) Laborer (All) Mercenary (all but The White That Wends) Merchant (All) Mystic (The White That Wends) Philosopher (Ixamitl Plains) Raider (Deadfire Archipelago) Scholar (Ixamitl Plains, Rauatai) Scientist (The Living Lands) Slave (Aedyr, Deadfire Archipelago, Old Valia, Rauatai)

I'm playing a morally-ambiguous rogue, correcting wrongs where profitable and punishing douchebaggery where affordable. I've barely set foot inside Defiance Bay and there's already been a few cases where the more lucrative course of action was at odds with my own morals, but made the most sense in light of character. Some of it involved the deaths of NPCs that I didn't want to see dead (spoiler: like Moedred because I..uh..my character, wanted to loot his office) and the resulting inner conflict has only made the game more interesting. Anyone got stories like that? Does your character do the things you would, or do you do things your character would?

I'm not going to bother with spoilers tags since this is a spoiler forum so just assume I wreck every single detail of every possible ending. In the last few scenes of the main story arc I found myself agreeing with Thaos' motivations, albeit not necessarily his methods. I convinced Aloth to take up the mantle of the leaden key after Thaos' death and I agreed with him in his conversation options during the final face off. I was really disappointed that there didn't seem to be any opportunity to be convinced that freeing Woedica is the right idea. I might have been able to be persuaded. Instead he kind of ignores my agreement with continuing to spread religion and just attacks me. I guess because I got too close to him and didn't really agree with his slaughter of countless innocents. I had high scores in benevolent, honest, diplomatic and rational, so its possible I just didn't play enough of a psychopath to get that option. I guess I still don't really understand Thaos' motivations for siding with Woedica and why the Leaden Key would sacrifice themselves just to provide her with souls. Isn't the huge mob of Leaden Key that sacrificed themselves in the huge chamber at the end in the final vision the Engwithans who invented the gods in the first place? I'm sure I'm missing something about that. I'll probably be able to figure it out on my next play through. Anyway I'm a little disappointed that there didn't seem to be an option to side with Woedica. Maybe they tried to make it so her side was always too horrible to consider. But I did agree that Thaos was doing the right thing by supporting the gods and preserving them.

Good day all, new kid on the block, huge fan of CRPGs even though havent played that in retrospect. Really looking forward to this game My question, has probably been answered before, but I was wondering how much depth would in game party companions would have ie. personnality, romance, random opinions, hate talk, etc. This part was one of my favourites from BG2, I'd love how Minsc, Edwin or Viconia would just randomly spew hilarious stuff (especially Minsc). Thx!

In old IE games when you wanted to create a character with whom you could really role-play your way out of situations and unlock special dialogue options that made the story deeper you just had to pump charisma up. That of course gave you a weaker character in many situations as for many classes charisma was a dump stat. So basically some roles were more appropriate to become a role-playing character and this in some way forced you into making certain choices if you wanted to role-play. Now in PoE, because the focus has been put on giving us the chance to have all kinds of viable character types a real question is: If you want to have a role-playing-heavy character which attributes should you concentrate on? At first glance it seems that, out of the 6 attributes, the most important one will be intelligence for obvious reasons, then maybe perception, which apparently permits you to open-up new dialogues through noticing some details. Might and dexterity could be useful in some instances requiring a skill-check action. Resolve is a tricky one, it says it's basically a leadership skill but will that influence any interactions? It seems like an important one anyway. And finally constitution is the obvious dumb stat here....(or is it? ) Also, from what we can see from the latest gameplay vids, it seems that usually an attribute has to be around 14 to be able to enable certain options in interactions... Here's an attribute distribution I'm thinking about (for now) for a role-playing oriented char (total should be 71): Might: 8 Constitution: 7 Dexterity: 14 Perception: 14 Intellect: 14 Resolve: 14 So basically if you dump constitution and another sacrificed attribute you can pump all the rest of them...but of course one wonders if there is indeed a such a threshold as 14, and if it is interesting to have an attribute higher for example. But it seems you can basically get a "smart" character if you dump the "physical" attributes.. According to that, an "ideal" class it seems (at least for now) would be a non-combat oriented character, so the obvious, number one choice, would be chanter in my opinion, then priest/wizard/cipher, then it's a little more tricky.. So for now, although I'm not really complaining about this, it seems that the basic rule of intelligent-oriented characters being better role-playing characters is still valid. But for the definitive answer we have to wait for the game to release, it will all depend on what skills each class has, because this will make an intellect build viable or not. I would love to have an Aragorn-like rogue role-player who could use his intellect to pump one of his skills up in combat..

Imagine this: You're walking down the road when, suddenly, bandits spring out of the bushes! They say "We're going to kill you and take your stuff!" They refuse any further conversation than this. They automatically know where you are so there's no avoiding the encounter with stealth. Invisible walls form a sphere around you so there's no escape until all the bandits are dead. You fight to the death, collect the loot and XP from the bandits, then the game otherwise continues as if that encounter had never happened. My opinion is that this has absolutely no place in a roleplaying game whatsoever. Before I can tell you why I think this, first I have to tell you what I think a roleplaying game should be: An RPG is a series of questions posed to the player (usually implicitly) and a set of systems the player can use to give their answers. The DM sets the scene asks "What do you do?" and the player says "I do X." When I play an RPG, I want interesting and meaningful questions and systems that allow me to give my answers in a satisfactory way. There's a lot to be said about the systems but today I want to talk about the questions, specifically the "interesting and meaningful" part. Let's give another scenario: You're going down the highway with a dead body in your trunk. There's a loaded handgun in the glovebox. A cop pulls up behind you and turns on his sirens. There's several different approaches you could take here, each with its own set of risks: Do you floor it and try to get away? Do you pull over and try to play it cool? Do you grab that gun out of glovebox just in case? If you screw up, there's several different consequences depending on exactly how you screwed up and how you act to try to fix your mistake. The consequences range from mild (you get away with a speeding ticket but no suspicion from the cop), moderate (you have to kill the cop to get away, so now you're wanted for 2 murders), or severe (the cop arrests you after finding the body). Furthermore the situation is both defined by the earlier context of the narrative and your answer defines the later context of the narrative. Are you guilty? If you are, who did you kill and why? If you aren't, why is the body in your trunk? Are you being framed and trying to cover up the (false) evidence? If you are, are you trying to find the real killers and find justice, or are you just trying to get back to your life as fast as possible? How much deeper are you willing to dig yourself in? Compare this scenario to the one I posited at the beginning. There's no proper context because the bandits just pop in out of nowhere and you never hear from them again. They're attacking you for no reason except that they're bandits and, thus, the Bad Guys. You have no choices in what answer you can give except Fight to the Death, or stand there and die and reload a previous save (and get attacked again next time you go through that area). There are no meaningful consequences because you either win and continue with the game, or you don't. It fails as a Question to pose to the player by every conceivable metric. Yet this scenario is absurdly common; Probably 99% of your time in your average CRPG is spent wasting your time with this nonsense. Why?

Hey guys, you might know me from the Project Eternity forums. My first few threads were a bit of good-natured trolling, but I would hope that since then I've proven that I'm very interested in discussing games on a deep and serious level. Like many of you my gaming background includes playing classic RPGs by great developers like BIS and Obsidian, and I've played more recent RPGs as well in addition to other genres of games. In an age of blockbuster titles with huge budgets, it's remarkable what Obsidian (and several other studios including inXile) has achieved via Kickstarter, and I believe that this bold and innovative move on the part of the developers has great potential to benefit gaming in general. However, I think that if progress is to be made, we can't simply rely on the production end; the consumers must make efforts as well, and there are many ways to do this, ranging from talking with one's wallet to simply creating and sharing new ideas. In fact, I think that activists, critics, designers, and theorists all have a part to play in the progress of gaming, and I want to foster these efforts by creating a common home for them. The level of discussion in the Project Eternity forums has been very inspiring to me, and I've actively participated in a lot of exciting discussions. I suppose I can only speak for myself, but in my eyes the thing that tends to happen is that, in the course of giving suggestions specific to Project Eternity, we reference other games, and then we find ourselves making theoretical statements about RPGs in general, and finally we end up dreaming up cool stuff that is probably beyond the intended scope of Project Eternity. While I'm ultimately sure such ambitious suggestions don't hurt, it's got me thinking about whether there might be a better place for some of the brainstorming. Project Eternity will be a great game, but it's obviously not going to include all of our crazy ideas. However, that doesn't mean that the ideas that are left out aren't great ideas, and I think it would be a shame for such ideas to languish, buried by tons of other Project Eternity-specific stuff. Needless to say, I'm not proposing a replacement for the Project Eternity forums, but I think all parties stand to benefit from there being a place where broader discussion can take place among like-minded individuals, and to promote other games similar to Project Eternity. To that end I've been doing some searching for a gaming community based around discussing the theory of game design and ideally also promoting more grass-roots development and consumer activism. The thing is that I have not really found anything that entirely suits these purposes. RPGnet seems to be the place to go for tabletop RPGs but it's a bit lacking in video game-related content. The Forge used to be another popular place for such things, but now it's closed. Gamasutra has some quality blogs, and there are a lot of other cool game design blogs out there, but ultimately I don't quite think blogs achieve the objective. I'd like to see a place where everyone, not just the minority who are committed enough to run their own personal blog, can share their ideas about game design and promote projects they feel are worthy. I just don't know of such a place currently, though feel free to correct me if you do. With this in mind, I was just like "what the hell, I'll give it a go". Yesterday I started messing around with creating a free forum, and I'm a complete noob at it, but I'd really like this to succeed because I think something like this could greatly improve the gaming experiences of those involved. If any of this resonates with you or you've always wanted somewhere to post your ideas about RPGs or gaming in general, I encourage you to come visit what I've got so far. As you can tell the work has only just started, and there are plenty of opportunities for anyone to help out and have their own influence on this endeavor (nothing's quite set in stone yet, especially the name). Please feel free to post in there or on this thread if you have input or suggestions, or if you feel like this is enough of a worthwhile endeavor that you'd like to assist me. -mcmanusaur

I was reading this post by Nordicus and it got me thinking: Rather than have a static cap for players using a free trial, wouldn't it make more sense to have the trial level cap linked to what you'd been doing? I don't have any idea of what would be in your game or what the technology would be, but from the player perspective the aim is to have them actually doing stuff, and stuff which makes life more interesting and fun for paying players. If you tweak it right then you will have the free players both improving the in-game experience for the paying punters, and building their commitment bias so they will eventually convert to paid people, taking their lovely good attitudes in with them. Super good or super evil people might even attract mod attention and get given free access.

Not sure if this has been really addressed before in here, if it has please link to the thread and close this. In many Bioware games, and, indeed, RPGs in general, when rpesented with choices/options in conversation or for resolving quests, the "good" choice is almost always the choice that nets the biggest/best rewards. I dislike seeing this dynamic, and I hope that this game addresses that. Just because the "evil" way can be the quick and dirty, doesn't mean it should quantifiably net less reward for the duration of a campaign. Example: Do a quest to retrieve a clan's legendary sword for them, they offer you some gold and their loyalty. Maybe I want that sword, and the clan's allegiance is nothing to me. So maybe I take that sword, worth 3x as much as the gold, but then the clan tries to ambush me later in the game, as opposed to helping me defeat some Big Bad, or reclaim some player housing option (retake a fortress) Just my two cents from my gaming experiences, but I usually play games through at least twice, once as a good aligned, and once as evil (if allowed).