Search the Community

So I hit level 12, and went to go assign my skill points, but they were greyed out and I couldn't click on them. Thinking maybe it was because I was in a combat zone, I left the planet. Still couldn't. I have since leveled up, stripped naked, etc in game, reloaded the save, and I still can't assign skill points. Worse, I tried respeccing thinking that would help. I now have 120 skill points I can't assign. So basically, my character has become unplayable

I'm not sure where to write my grounded idea sketches. Do I get an answer as to whether it is right here? Thank you so much for the great game and all the imagination you leave us! The File "Ideenskizzen_Grounded.docx" (35 kb) is in german, should I translate it with google translator, or would you do it yourself? I would appreciate a short message about the receipt of the file. Ideenskizzen_Grounded.docx

So I'm doing his main quest to retrieve his data from the outlaws. I betrayed Cassandra after agreeing to help her but shot her in the back. Also got Porter to leave peacefully. I'm trying to either turn in the data to Anton or keep it, however as I'm roleplaying as a total d-bag, I want to convince Anton to kill himself. However I don't get the persuade options that other players seem to get, despite my persuade skill being 50+. And I keep reloading to different points trying to remedy this, and I either gain certain dialogue options but lose others? Like I can't seem to tell him about the " Black marks and paperwork " in response to Jameson's death in one save, but in another I can. Like wth is happening? My stats are high enough and I've been a jerk to him the entire time, what's going on?

I'm playing on a PC. Skills and perks won't save. I believe that when I press E (Apply), they're supposed to save. Has anyone had this problem? Do you know how to fix it?

Hey! Just curious what people are going to play as their 1st build. I’m personally thinking of a charming sneak thief that is high in leadership. I’m wondering if I can do a totally pacifist play through. I’ll sneak everywhere in disguise and if I get caught try to talk my way out of it, and if all else fails my companions can get their hands dirty. I’m just curious if this is even plausible early game... can you befriend marauders? Not kill aliens or robots? Thoughts please! Thanks!

KnockDown skills are only serving to delay enemies or to interrupt, nothing more. The enemy falls and raises on the same turn and still strikes as if nothing happened. Another important detail, the fallen enemy has the same deflection as if standing? Does it make any sense? Those who are fallen are not in a position to defend themselves, should have a penalty of 50% for attributes of avoidance as reflex and deflection. In my opinion who is knocked down should lose the turn and suffer avoidance penalty while on the ground.

Let's compile some tips and tricks on how people distribute skill points to their party members. Which skills are most worth having and which do you normally skip? Why? Do you put 10 points into 2 different skills or 20 points into 1 skill? Or some other distribution? Does it depend on the gear you plan to you use? If so, what gear will affect how you distrbute points? Do you take party assist into account for certain skills? If so, how does this affect your skill point distribution? Do you take your class skills into account when deciding which skills to give to which character? Do you take background choices into account? When selecting a background, do you try to maximize the class skills or diversify into as many different skills as possible?

Would be really cool if we could adjust the amount of skill points you get each level in the same way we can for Super Charges Weapon Proficiency inter alia. I was hoping for something like this: "SuperChargeCountByCharacterLevel": ["0", "3", "0", "0", "0", "0", "0", "0", "0", "0", "0", "0", "0", "0", "0", "0", "0", "0", "0", "0"], "WeaponProficiencyPointsByCharacterLevel": ["2", "0", "0", "1", "0", "0", "0", "1", "0", "0", "0", "1", "0", "0", "0", "1", "0", "0", "0", "1"], But for Skills instead of Super Charges Weapon Proficiency. Edit: Changed Super Chargers to Weapon Proficiency to avoid any confusion.

I have a bit of a hang-up with games like Pillars of Eternity: I get really, REALLY anxious when I run into a "skill check" or something and my stats aren't high enough in one area to achieve success in it. The best example is probably Neverwinter Nights 2, which was my favorite for years. I tended to want to play high Intelligence, high Charisma characters, even if that wasn't the key stat for my class, because I didn't want to fail Diplomacy, Bluff or Intimidate checks, since my own character was the only one in the party who could USE those skills, and I also wanted to be able to select conversation options from other skills like Acrobatics, Lore, and Spellcraft. This led to me using cheat codes so my Shardbearer could basically make every skill check in the game by themselves. My admittedly limited experience with Pillars of Eternity, both in the game itself and from reading the builds on these forums, indicates that this game is gonna drive me crazy. Each of the checks I've seen in the introduction sequence alone requires a stat of at least 15, and there's literally no way to make a character with a 15 in each stat. There IS a way to get 1 rank in each skill starting out by picking backgrounds that fill the gaps your class has (a Cipher/Slave, Fighter/Drifter or a Monk/Merchant or Scientist). And all the builds I've seen insist on dumping one or more stats down to the bare minimum to get their core combat stats as high as possible, so they can do things like Solo or Path of the Damned, which I've really got no intention of doing as I'm here for the story. So where does that leave someone like me who doesn't want to get a bad outcome to a quest because one of my stats wasn't high enough, or where the kid in Defiance Bay loses some fingers because my Survival wasn't high enough by the time I reached him in the game? I'm a real perfectionist/obsessive-completionist when if comes to the RPGs I play, and I'm well aware that I can't do EVERYTHING in this game (the Knights of the Crucible, the Dozens and House Doemenel are mutually exclusive), but I want to get the best possible outcomes in everything I do, and I'm not sure how to build a character capable of doing that with ANY class...

The Lone Polymath is now available at the Deadfire Nexus. This adds a trinket (and an identical ring for grimoire lovin' wizards) intended to help those soloing tackle skill checks without the benefit of party assist. I really want to do an item that instead multiplies skills, but there's no "SkillMult" or "SkillAllMult" status effect types that I'm aware of (trying to add a skill's value to itself resulted in numerous violations of the time/space continuum and shan't be discussed further here ). The Lone Polymath is a cheat and/or a tool. It's ridiculously overpowered and yet not really enough. Do with it as you will. Thanks to @peardox for the post in which numerous function names were revealed, including Boolean IsAnyCompanionActiveInParty() which is exactly what I was looking for. (As anyone who has been crestfallen at how the "loner" ability of some items are defeated by the simple addition of a pet or animal companion has indirectly learned, the Boolean IsAllyCount(Guid, Single, Operator, Int32) function has no filter.)

The companions with "Attacker" classes in my party use skills themselves without having any behaviour set. Both slots are set to "No Behaviour Set" for all companions. A.I. is turned on and auto-attack is set to "Defensive" for some, and "Defend Self" for others. It doesn't seem to be a problem with spellcasters like Aloth or Xoti. (At least I haven't seen them use any spells unasked) Maia just throws out all her Ranger and Rogue attacks and is out of resources really quickly, despite no behaviour being set.

So, I don't know whether devs will increase skill points given at level up, tweak party assist some more or reduce skill checks values later on, but right now I feel that there are too many "must have" good skills and too few skill points to spend. Some classes by their role (fighter) need less active skills, some classes need more (rogue), while passive skills are needed by all. So I've this idea - how about starting from 10 points every extra 3 points spent on an attribute give according skills a free +1 point? Active skills: Arcana (Intelligence) Athletics (Strength) Stealth (Dexterity) Sleight of Hand (Dexterity) Mechanics (Perception) Explosives (Dexterity) Alchemy (Constitution) Passive skills: Bluff (Resolve) Diplomacy (Resolve) Intimidate (Strength) History (Intelligence) Insight (Perception) Metaphysics (Intelligence) Religion (Intelligence) Streetwise (Resolve) Survival (Constitution) So each attributes governs that many skills: Strength - 2 skills Constitution - 2 skills Dexterity - 3 skills Perception - 2 skills Intelligence - 4 skills Resolve - 3 skills It's not equal among the attributes, but it doesn't have to be, because otherwise it would not be very logical and some attributes are useful enough as it is (Strength, Perception), while some need more love so that players won't dump them (Intelligence, Resolve). So, for example, if I have a rogue with attributes like these: Strength - 16 (+2 Athletics; +2 Intimidate) Constitution - 8 (no bonuses) Dexterity - 19 (+3 Stealth; +3 Sleight of Hand; +3 Explosives) Perception - 16 (+2 Mechanics; +2 Insight) Intelligence - 10 (no bonuses) Resolve - 9 (no bonuses) Feel free to bash it

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

Here is a crazy idea I wanted to share: I remember in one of the twitch-streams Josh mentioning that the annotaion system from Tyranny is being moved to PoE2: Deadfire. It will provide not only lore but also translation of foreign languages. Now I assume it is nothing big, just couple words, or phrases here and there. BUT WHAT IF: There are many factions from different regions. They speak different languages. WHAT IF you could only understand languages you know as a character - for example in PoE1 I played as an Orlan from Old Vailia. That would mean my character understands Vailian. The game would provide translation of Valian phrases but not Aedyrian or language of native Deadfire tribes. On the other hand, I might have Aloth in a party and he might act as a translatior for the Aedyrian. It might give your character and party a better sense of belonging and origin. Now, WHAT IF the foreign conversations weren't just small phrases. WHAT IF when walking up to a couple of Vailians talking you would be able to overhear a bit of their conversation. It would be a gibberish if you don't know the language, but you would learn something more, if you do. Some flavour text, get insight into their motivations, extra details about quest etc. Now if that would be implemented into quest design it could get interesting - Opening new ways, hints about possible ways to resolve situations, extra loot stashes. What is more, as a character you might get drawn to the faction which speaks your native language, as your interactions with them would be more... complete so to speak. I think it would be a nice and fluid way of connecting character with his background and the world around him/her. Naturally, the idea isn't simple at all, as it would require dedicated writing and quest design. But hey, just throwing it out there.

So I came up with a idea, as my group of adventurers found themselves in a mysterious dungeon. Whether the Lore skill be used like perception. But instead of secrets and traps you could be granted more of those magnifying glasses. You could get more of those icons on top of some banners and what not, where you could read about the meaning of them or who those belongs to.. Aaaand i'm returning to adventure further.

might 18 dex 15 Con 10 int 17 per and res is 9. Will this stats let you stand a chance during combat? So question is weapon choice? Should go for 2h or dual wield? Because of per and res, deflection is not that good. So comes the armor issue. Cloth or medium armor? comments, ideas, other build suggestions are welcome.

So I've been thinking of starting a few threads about stuff the community would like to see in the upcoming expansions/DLCs going forward under different various topics. I think it's safe to assume we're going to be seeing 4 DLC's/Expansions at a minimum, due to the level increase increment stated in the White March Part 1. If it's raising the cap by 2 to 14, it can probably be expected that Part 2 will raise it to 16, and I doubt we'll see a stop there and assume that the final level cap will be at 20. So that's a lot of content coming down the pipe, and plenty of time to suggest/opine/discuss stuff we might like to see added to the game now that we've had some time with it. So . . . NEW SKILLS! One of the things I'm especially wondering about is how the Skill system is going to stay balanced as the higher levels come in, especially since the current soft cap of 10 levels in any skill is more than enough for anything you could want to use that skill for. I mean, if you max out Mechanics at 10, while there may be some new level 10 traps and locks here and there, are they really going to be adding level 11 and 12 locks and traps? While Lore going up makes more sense (for higher spell level scrolls), what's the real benefit for going higher than 10 in Athletics or Stealth. At those levels you're already way beyond the skill's average utility bonus. But you're still going to get six points for skills every level, and so it seems like every character is going to just max out all their skills by the time they reach level 20 once all 4 expansions are done . . . unless new skills are added. Adding new skills is really the only way I can foresee making the Skill system going forward into the higher levels stay relevant, so what are they going be? What do you want to see? What would make for a good skill in PoE that isn't already in the game that would match how the skill system in PoE works already (as in, there's both a definite Conversation possible effect AND a definite in-game mechanical effect, either passive or active)? For myself, the skill idea I've been mulling over is skill to affect the trading aspect of the game (not that you can't get enough money already, though I tend to think the in-game economy needs to get a bit of a rebalance to maybe make it tougher to get quite so much money as you can currently outside of quest rewards and potentially Stronghold taxes, and there DEFINITELY needs to be a system in place for merchants to clear their inventories since they pile up with the junk you sell them). Mostly because trade skills always feels very tabletop-style RPG to me. At the same time, since Perception doesn't seem to affect mechanical detection values (only conversation detection, whereas MEchanics affects ALL other detection values) a skill that ALSO makes some sense to raise there could also make sense. So I'm thinking something along the lines of Appraisal or Assessment might be a good idea for a skill. It could give a direct bonus to cash values (both buying and selling) when trading goods worth over 100 coppers (so it won't work to help raise values on a single sword, but it can on a decent set of armor or a fine or better weapon), and it will split off the detection of hidden caches from being related to Mechanics (which makes sense for detecting traps, but not necessarily anything else that's hidden) and possibly Stealthed enemies (if they're ever added to the game, which would be pretty cool if they were in my opinion). Now I have read from earlier Fallout related stuff that Mr. Sawyer doesn't like boring "Barter" skills that just give you a flat cash modifier. So I'm thinking Appraisal/Assessment could be related to a new, more active ability - Haggle. A per rest ability that allows the player to attempt to raise or lower the prices on a trade with a merchant based on a skill check: of the Appraisal skill. The idea being that when you make a trade with a merchant, rather than just buying the goods at the agreed upon price as normal, you can also try to haggle with them instead, and then the game will make a roll here - if it fails, the price you pay goes up rather than down by the potential modifier, if it succeeds you get your Appraisal modifier added to the transaction and if you critically succeed you get your modifier doubled. Haggling would be an alternate option to just buying and not back out-able (once you select it your stuck with the results), and like I said, you'd only get to use it a certain number of times per rest (based on the PC's Appraisal skill value). The total potential modifier amount would be affected by the whole party's total Appraisal skill (so there's a reason to potentially raise it for characters other than your PC). It would look something like this: Appraisal Rank 1 - 1 Haggle Attempt per rest at a 5% modifier, Detect Level 1 Hidden Objects/Creatures Appraisal Rank 2 - 1 Haggle Attempt per rest at a 10% modifier, Detect Level 2 Hidden Objects/Creatures Appraisal Rank 3 - 2 Haggle Attempts per rest at a 13% modifier, Detect Level 3 Hidden Objects/Creatures Appraisal Rank 4 - 2 Haggle Attempts per rest at a 16% modifier, Detect Level 4 Hidden Objects/Creatures Appraisal Rank 5 - 3 Haggle Attempts per rest at 19% modifier, Detect Level 5 Hidden Objects/Creatures Appraisal Rank 6 - 3 Haggle attempts per rest at 21% modifier, Detect Level 6 Hidden Objects/Creatures Appraisal Rank 7 - 4 Haggle Attempts per rest at 23% modifier, Detect Level 7 Hidden Objects/Creatures Appraisal Rank 8 - 4 Haggle Attempts per rest at 25% modifier, Detect Level 8 Hidden Objects/Creatures Appraisal Rank 9 - 5 Haggle Attempts per rest at 27% modifier, Detect Level 9 Hidden Objects/Creatures Appraisal Rank 10 - 5 Haggle Attempts per rest at 30% modifier, Detect Level 10 Hidden Objects/Creatures But then, that's just one idea for potential new skills, what are yours?

Gaming. Description: You have always been drawn to the roll of the dice, the turn of the card or the placement of the playing piece, and have at times won a fair amount of coin in such pursuits. In truth though your talent extends further than mere games however, you have an innate grasp of strategy and tactics, a calm calculating grasp of odds and chances, and how one may influence them. Effects: Now this is where I come unstuck, I really can't think of a reasonable bonus for this skill, that slowly increases over time and doesn't unbalance anything. There are of course many chances to use such a skill, games of chance in a tavern for instance, but I can't think of any mechanical advantages. Perhaps something to do with the stronghold, or maybe a very small experience bonus? Any ideas?

Well I've been wondering how much points should we allocate in each skill before you get diminishing returns. So far, I've noticed the following: Athletics: I know 3 points are enough to avoid combat fatige, but an extra point does not hurt for long travels. At least one party member should have high Athletics for scripted events, but i don't know beyond what point you are wasting points. Lore: Give this to any character you wish to use scrolls with, anything more than 10 points is a waste since they highest level of scrolls is 5 and no scripted event requires more than that. Mechanics: Only one party member needs this, but it has to be as high as possible. I'm not sure if there are any locks or traps that require more than 10 mechanics though. Stealth: It's a matter of taste. Two points for everyone are enough for basic pre positioning, every point from there will allow you to get closer to mobs undetected. The characters who get the most out of stealth are rogues and tanks so maybe you could give them some more points. Survival: The least useful skill, consumables are usually long lasting enough to last the entire battle. Still the more you level up, the more points you'll alllocate here if only because you don't need to go higher in other skills. 4 points give you a 20% extra consumable duration, so it's not something to go crazy about but then again it's not that expensive since it only takes 10 points to get here. Last but not least we have the skills for the main PC since those are the ones the game uses for dialogue. By far lore is the one that gives the most dialogue choices, Stealth and Survival pop every now and then however they are not difficult checks. I don't recall any Athletics or Mechanics check in dialogues.

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.

Hello there, I'm planning on playing through as a Chanter, but don't want my character to end up with a build too similar to Kana Rua, as he seems like the kind of guy I might like to go adventuring with down the line. Does anyone know what abilities / talents he already has when you meet him, so that I can avoid having two identical chanters in my party? If anyone wants to post the same for other NPCs too feel free!

The character sheet for Aloth says he has 7 lore, but I've given him 2 scrolls that say they require 2 lore and he can't use them (they're greyed out and the lore requirment text is red). Am I missing something?

Hi, I have one question just to make sure - on level-up when you don't use all available skillpoints, are those lost after closing levelling screen or does the game adds them for next level-up? Also, thinking of dialogue options with main character - it is better to be best in one skill and leave other skill undeveloped or is it good to put some points into every skill? Thanks.

I'm very excited for the PoE release, but one thing has me a little worried: Skill points. Will there any incentive not to max one skill per character? Won't buying, say, five or ten points each level-up be mainly a matter of "clickclickclick" on the same arrow for the same skill each time? This is in order to reach skill-check thresholds. Mechanics is the classic example--who won't have a character in their party with maxed Mechanics in order to unlock and disarm everything in sight? (Before you say, "I won't, I don't like mechanics or rogues"? It's just an example, thanks.) I realize you guys had changed things up a bit for an earlier beta build, where you buy "packages" of skills, talents or some combination thereof. While a little hard to sort through, I found this more interesting. Not trying to revive a debate about that particular design, but it took more thought to decide "I'm going to forgo all these perks and JUST max my Mechanics skill check". In other words, you could still min/max skills, but it came at an actual cost of missing perks, not the possibly-fake cost of forgoing skills you would never use with that character anyway.

DISCLAIMER: I'm not in the beta. I watched videos about various classes and looked into their skills and abilities, so take what I say with a grain of salt. Now, I like playing Paladins. I also like playing "non-standard" paladins (the aligment is goal, not a singular path). So my paladins tend to be more lax and open in most situations and with some good brainstorming, one can justify a lot of things. But this is for D&D so its doesn't apply. What does apply is the combat gameplay. Some time ago I ran into a paladin kit for BG2 called Holy Avenger. It was a very combat-oriented paladin. No lay on hands, no ranged weapons, bonus against evil, penalty against good. It had some interesting abilities, including an aura of fear (can break enemy morale), aura of vengance (enemies that get too close get a small amount of damage) and my favorite, a high-level ability Heavens Fury (adds all types of elemental damage to your weapon for 2-3 rounds) Add in some standard cleric spells like Divine Might, Armor of Faith, etc... and you had a very powerful paladin, one I loved to play In PoE paladins use their faith/conviction to burn their souls for various effects. I don't see why this would be so narrowly specialized into leading troops. I like me my freedom to branch outside of a class stereotype. So far I don't really see much in the paladins arsenal for that (other than that skill that marks one as preferred enemy) So in case some devs are reading, I hope you take that into account. Failing that, PoE should be moddable enough that I can tweak it to my linking (I hope)