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So I posted the profile and background I wrote in the The Outer Worlds: Stories (Spoiler Warning!) subforum, as I thought the "stories" part of the forum's title was suitable. But then I realized that might have been a mistake since there are not any spoilers in it, and posting it in a forum in which there are posts with spoilers might mean that not a lot of people see it. I'd love to get critique and thoughts on my character, so I'm reposting it here, which I hope is okay. Let me know if it's not okay, or if I need to delete the other one. Anyway, I'd love some comments! Basic information Name: Sarah Eleana Yardeen. Nom de guerre: Brightfall. Aliases: Sarah Brightfall, Captain Alex Hawthorne. Birthplace: London, England. Birth date: 2270. Age: 15. Spoken languages: English, Arabic, Hebrew, Dutch. Religion: None. Favourite poem: Invictus. Family: Ashraf Medad Yardeen (father, deceased), Liesbeth Saskia Yardeen (mother, née Kroes, deceased), Patrick Aalbrecht Yardeen (older brother, in hibernation on the Hope), Yasmin Miriam Yardeen (older sister, deceased). Moral alignment: Neutral Good. Current weapons Dead-Eye Assault Rifle Mk III with Whisper Quiet Muzzler, Mag-Num magazine and Exact-O-Sight. Bolter Pistol 3.0 with FunTimes Barrel, Gyro Sight and Mag-Num magazine. Officer's Spine Titanium with Mr. Power plasma damage modification and SpeedGrip handle wrap. Security Blade with telescoping handle. Background Sarah was born in London, England to a Palestinian father and a Dutch mother. As a young child growing up, Sarah had often looked up at the starlit night sky. She had always dreamed of visiting them, of travelling to distant star systems and boldly setting foot on unfamiliar worlds. Her parents, who were both scientists, had often told their children that the stars in the sky were indeed beautiful but that none could match the brightness of Sarah and her siblings. They said their children were as if the greatest stars had fallen to Earth and become human. Sarah took it to heart. When she was eight years old, tragedy struck. One of the major corporations had decided to “volunteer” Sarah’s parents for indentured service, as they desired their scientific talent for their projects. When the corporation’s requisitions team arrived to collect, Sarah’s older sister Yasmin attempted to resist and was shot dead on the spot by the corporate soldiers without a second thought. Yasmin bought time for Sarah to escape, but her parents and brother were taken. Now alone in the world, confused and filled with hate towards the corporations and rage at the injustice that had happened, Sarah felt lost. After a year on the streets, she had just about given up on life when she was approached by a woman who claimed to represent a group dedicated to ending the corporate tyranny. The gaping hole in Sarah’s childish heart was filled with tales of honor and justice. Assurances of vengeance. It sounded like a new chance at life…one with purpose. Sarah soon found out that the group was far more organized and well-funded than she had initially believed. They functioned like an elite military special forces battalion, one that was vehemently anti-corporate. The battalion was led by a man who called himself Jack Harper, though this was likely an alias; all that anyone knew is that he was an illusive man. The rebel group had no qualms about using children, and Sarah began training immediately. She had inherited her parents prodigal intellect, and her heightened but still growing mental faculties began the process of being forged for purposes of disciplined violence. Her training progressed quickly, in body and mind. Her intelligence, her reflexes, her muscles, her physical senses; sight, smell, hearing - every fibre of her being, everything within her that could have been directed towards brighter endeavours - was corrupted and fine-tuned towards one purpose: killing. After five years of this training, at the age of fourteen, she was slated to join the rebel group’s elite assassination unit after completing one final mission. The mission was assigned to her by the woman who had recruited her, and it was to assassinate two of the leading scientists of a very specific corporation; the corporation whose actions had set Sarah down this path. She leapt at the chance to finally enact a measure of the vengeance that had been promised. Strangely, she was given no names; only a general physical description of her targets and their exact and when they would be there. Sarah knew this to be unusual, but she was so consumed by vengeful purpose that she never questioned who her targets were. Not even when she was right upon them and realized there was something strongly familiar about them. She still did not hesitate. It was only when their blood covered her hands and she looked upon their faces for the first time that Sarah recognized them. Her parents. She slumped down onto the floor. Her body was still, her face and eyes frozen in a contorted visage of pain and horror of indescribable magnitude. The rebel group had known exactly who her targets were, and they had intentionally kept it from her. They were always meticulous with gathering information; during training, Sarah had been assigned to gather information about other targets herself. Slowly but surely, the brainwashing and mental conditioning that had been instilled in her by the rebel group began to crumble and lose its hold. She remained on the floor when the corporate security team arrived, and she did not even look up when the grunts raised their weapons to put her out of her misery. The only reason she lived to see another day was because the corporate commander ordered them to capture her alive for interrogation. Sarah didn’t respond to any of their questions for weeks. It was only when they told her that her older brother was still alive and that he had been granted a place on the Hope colony ship that she began to speak, asking to see her brother before he left, but the only response was that he refused to see her due to what she had done to their parents. In solemn acceptance of this, she began to cooperate anyway and provided information on the rebel group to the corporation. She had two other, final requests. The first was that she would be granted a place on the Hope colony ship alongside her brother. The second request was that they let her join them in taking down the rebel group. When they stormed the facility where Sarah had grown up and trained, she personally cornered the woman who had recruited her, trained her and assigned her the mission to unknowingly kill her parents. The screams heard from that room reportedly caused visible unease in the corporate troopers, their faces going pale as winter snow. After the screams stopped, there were a few moments of silence before Sarah opened the door and walked out covered in blood that was not hers. Those possessed of weak stomachs threw up in their helmets at the sight inside. Some passed out. The illusive man known as Jack Harper was never caught. To Sarah’s surprise, the corporation granted her first request as well and granted her a place on the Hope. But the silent look in their eyes or the fact that they all consistently avoided looking into her own told her that they simply wanted her gone, but were too afraid to try to kill her. As Sarah stepped into the hibernation pod aboard the colony ship known as UDL-002 the Hope and closed her eyes, her final thoughts before everything went dark was of her family. Not how they had been torn apart by the corporations or Sarah herself, but the memories she had of them from when she was a child, before everything had happened. She remembered how her parents had loved her and her siblings. She remembered how she, together with her family, had looked up at the stars and wondered what it would be like to go there. Now, despite everything that had happened, she was going to find out. Name etymology Yardeen: Sarah’s family name. Derived from the Hebrew word Yarden ( ירדן ) meaning “one who descends”. Combined with Eleana, it forms the basis of Brightfall, Sarah’s nom de guerre. It is also a reference to Yalena “Dutch” Yardeen of Killjoys. Eleana: ( Arabic: إليانا ) Sarah’s middle name. According to Wikipedia, the name is translated in Arabic as “the Bright”. Ashraf: ( Arabic: أشرف‎ ) The name of Sarah’s father. Means "most honorable one" or "very noble". Medad: Ashraf’s middle name. Hebrew word with the meaning of friendship and love. It’s also a pun/dad joke. Me, dad. Image gallery

My ongoing peeve with Reputation gain (i.e. the pre-defined meaning and intention of conversation options) vs what I actually intended the option to mean. Currently, in PoE(2), the reputation system is, as in most (all?) other games, static. You choose Conversation Option A, and it has already been given a meaning by the writers/devs, no matter what meaning you and your PC may put in it. Example: In BoW, I convinced Neriscyrlas to find respite and release herself to the Void. My PC (paladin, dimplomatic, good) took this direction with the best intentions, since there's no option to release Neris to the Wheel (that I could find). But after playing the same dialogue sequence with Reptutations in conversations turned on, I found that this was in fact the "Cruel" option! Why? Why would this me more cruel than killing her? Well, sure, you're telling her that she's already dead and have been living an utter pointless existence for centuries, but is that really cruel? It wasn't for me, until I played it with the pre-set meaning of conversation options releaved. What I think would solve this problem, is a way to change the Reputation, i.e. the intention of conversation opotions. The example I just gave could just as well have been Honest, or even Benevolent (a peaceful solution), which was the way "I" meant it. These static "choices" breaks the immersion, restricts your ability to RP the character the way you envisioned it. You want to RP? Well, I as my character would have said this, but according to the rep-gain my character must say that in order to be aligned with the reputation-mechanic-RP aspect, if you catch my drift. You'll end up with having to pick choices just to align with the "correct" rep gains, or choose the "wrong" convo/rep options to align with what you would say, thus ending up with an ingame-personality that does not reflect your RP. Am I making sense? So, please, in PoE3, look into the possibility of being able to change the Reputation, i.e. intention/meaning of certain conversation options. E.g. dropdown for [chose your intention], where it makes sense, where you can select between a few options. I think that this would make the RP aspects of the game a whole lot more rewarding, since you can be much more dynamic in the way you approach conversations. Again, this is not something particular to PoE2, but PoE 1 and 2 are the RPGs I've spent the most time playing and enjoyed. Also, I do think that the PoE devs are more receptible to suggestions than, say, Dragon Age devs would be (simply due to the more corporate, top-down nature of how Bioware/DA is managed).

Zaimos Curi Race: Island Amauna Class: Rogue Culture: the Living Lands Background: Scientist Zaimos Curi started out a small time thief who was not the most cruel and uncaring thief but did what was necessary to make a living. He was relatively intelligent and good with picking locks and looking into the mechanism of booby traps and disarming them. He was also clever and brought a rationale approach to matters. He became a friend and lover of another Amauna named Saebat Holai but she was not a thief and was instead a scientist studying the relationship between plants and animals and the soul magic of animancy. She wasn’t to any degree awakened or sensitive to soul magic but rather she was collaborating by writing correspondence and reading/research to other scientists or animancers and studying to find any animancy relationship to conventional categorizing and physiological biology of animal, plant, and mushroom organisms including mystical beasts. Zaimos found he had a knack for science in particular building apparatus using his mechanics skill and he also pitched in to contemplate matters of reading research findings and case studies. And finally research demands money and materials including rare reagents and as a thief he could contribute there as well. Eventually his love died of a sickness and rather than try to continue her project in the Living Lands he elected to travel to Dyrwood Caravan and restart his life there. He is wounded from his loss of his love and still is neither cruel or uncaring but also not the most benevolent and honest and is more self centered on becoming powerful and wealthy and falls in with the Doemenels but again he is really not cruel and not at all sadistic. ——————————————————- Stats so far (assuming I remember correctly and don’t make error): Rogue Level 10 Might 17, Constitution 10, Dexterity 12, Perception 16, Intellect 13, Resolve 10 Skills: Stealth 1, Athletics 1, Lore 2, Survival 1, Mechanics (everything else) Back row Gun switching fighter and after 2 guns are shot off then can switch to one handed (two melee slots options so can hit through immunities) of vulnerable targets but try to avoid being targeted himself. A glass cannon type. 4 total weapon slots. 1: Blinding Strike 2: One Handed Style 3: Dirty Fighting 4: Vicious Fighting 5: Escape 6: Quick Switch 7: Crippling Strike 8: Arms Bearer 9: Withering Strike 10: Weapon Focus Ruffian Plan for future?: 11: Deathblows (a full party helps enemies have multiple status afflictions)? 12: Shadowing Beyond? 13: Smoke Cloud? 14: Backstab? 15: Feign Death? 16: Enigma’s Charm? Marksman or Gallants? Defensive talent?

I've recently created a new character in Pillars of Eternity. Being an avid roleplayer, I've written a profile and backstory. I'm posting it here to show it, and I'd love to hear what people think! Alendra Davar Full name: Alendra Eleanna Davar. Birthdate: 2808 AI. Age: 15-16. Titles: The Watcher. Race: Meadow Folk. Class: Cipher. Culture: Aedyr, Living Lands. Background: Aristocrat bastard (originally), Colonist. Backstory: The bastard daughter of Lord Santach of House Anuasal - an Aedyran noble family - and Gwreiddyn, a housemaid who died giving birth to her, Alendra was raised amongst the nobility for the first decade of her life. However, as she was a bastard, she did not receive her father’s noble name, taking her mother’s given surname of Davar instead. Alendra’s maternal grandfather, Caillte, was a Glanfathan tribal who, in the year 2784 AI, had been forced into indentured servitude in House Anuasal for reasons unknown. At the age of 10, it came to light that Alendra had the mental abilities of a Cipher, and a powerful one at that. Filled with prejudice and fear of her abilities, Alendra’s “noble” father had her, without warning, unceremoniously thrown out of the house and onto the street one rainy autumn morning. Alendra was forced to survive for weeks and months, begging and stealing for food. Almost a year after she had been cast out, Alendra was found by a man named Anam Cara, a member of her grandfather’s Glanfathan tribe who had come in search of his long-lost kin, but found Alendra instead. Anam Cara was a Glanfathan warrior and a Cipher like Alendra herself, and he took Alendra under his wing to foster her, teach her and train her in the ways of the Cipher as well as physical combat. With the help of an animancer, they also discovered that Alendra and her mother were essentially the same person; upon death during childbirth, Gwreiddyn's soul had immediately reincarnated into her daughter. However, Alendra does not possess any memories of her previous life. Due to ignorant persecution of Ciphers, the two had to leave the heart of the Aedyr Empire. As Anam Cara did not wish to return to his tribe, they signed up with a group of colonists and travelled to the Living Lands while keeping their Cipher abilities a secret. Alas, a few years after arriving at the colony, they were found out. The colonists proved to be far more ignorant and fearful than even Lord Anuasal, and they gathered a mob, complete with pitchforks and torches, to lynch them. Anam Cara sacrificed himself, staying behind so that Alendra could escape. After these harrowing events, Alendra travelled the world aimlessly, with no destination in mind...that is, until she joined a caravan heading to the Dyrwood under the leadership of Caravan Master Odema. Name etymology: Santach; Gaelic word that means “selfish, greedy”. Anuasal; a Gaelic word that means “lowborn, ignoble”. Gwreiddyn; a Gaelic word that means “root, origin”. Caillte; a Gaelic word that means “lost”. Anam Cara; a Celtic phrase meaning “soul friend”. Credits: Sathynae, for the image.

Hello Forum! I have been wondering if there could be more options to choose from when building our Priests and Paladins, those elements make the classes not only more diverse through unique abilities but also really flavorful for those who enjoy RPing. Being that there are 11 gods that we know of and only 5 to pick in PoE 1 it would be cool to see more added. Introducing new paladin orders that could be native to the Deadfire archipelago would also be interesting. What do you guys think?

After reading the post on the Crono Trigger party I thought my next play through would be a group of characters from another universe and was inspired to do a Final Fantasy IV party. I'll use IE mod when necessary to adjust the 'racial' abilities since I don't want Fighting Spirit on every character. I'll also use IE mod to add two Weapon Focus talents instead of one (so Kain can be a spear and pike master, more on this below in Kain's section). For attributes I use combinations of low/med/high and max, since I don't want to worry about the numbers quite yet I'll add more characters to this later, but these 7 give me plenty of variety for now (and there's not that many more FFIV characters anyway!) Without further ado, the FFIV Pillars Of Eternity Party: Character: Cecil --------------------------------------- Modded "racial" ability: Defiant Will --------------------------------------- Class: Paladin --------------------------------------- Might: med/high Constitution: max Dexterity: med Perception: med Intelligence: med Resolve: high --------------------------------------- Weapons: Sword, Axe, Shield --------------------------------------- Other IE mod modifications: Order: Kind Wayfarer Order Talents: Shielding Flames, Shielding Touch --------------------------------------- Thoughts: - Cecil as a Paladin is closest benevolent and passionate favored disposition, and deceptive and cruel for disfavored. - The shielding talents are closer to his 'Cover' ability from FFIV than any of the others (Fighter's Take the Hit) is much closer but I can't see making post Mt. Ordeals Cecil a Fighter Maybe I'll give him that talent from the console at the level when a Fighter can get it. - I think Defiant Will is the more RP choice here for Paladin Cecil. ===================================================== Character: Kain (protagonist, Kain is my favorite) --------------------------------------- Modded "racial" ability: Fighting Spirit --------------------------------------- Class: Barbarian --------------------------------------- Might: high Constitution: med/high Dexterity: high Perception: med/high Intelligence: med/low Resolve: low --------------------------------------- Weapons: Spear, Pike, Sword, Axe, Shield --------------------------------------- Other IE mod modifications: --------------------------------------- Thoughts: - If I choose to level a Weapon Focus I'll give Kain both Weapon Focus Peasant and Soldier (for spear and pike buff) and strictly use only spears, pikes, swords, and axes. Swords and axes are not buffed by those Weapon Focus talents so I consider that fair, since in FFIV you'd occasionally equip a sword or axe on Kain when it was an upgrade. I wish PoE had more direct Weapon Focus talents like: swords, greatswords, sabres, estocs, but oh well. - Barbarian because of Dragon Leap. ===================================================== Character: Rosa --------------------------------------- Modded "racial" ability: Minor Threat --------------------------------------- Class: Priest --------------------------------------- Might: med/high Constitution: low Dexterity: med/high Perception: med Intelligence: max Resolve: med --------------------------------------- Weapons: Bow --------------------------------------- Other IE mod modifications: --------------------------------------- Thoughts: - I chose Minor Threat to mimic Rosa's 'aim' skill from FFIV. She could do good damage with good equips throughout the game, so I think this makes the most sense for a racial ability. ===================================================== Character: Rydia --------------------------------------- Modded "racial" ability: Hunter's Instincts --------------------------------------- Class: Chanter --------------------------------------- Might: max Constitution: low Dexterity: med Perception: med Intelligence: med/high Resolve: med/low --------------------------------------- Weapons: Rod (no whips :/ ) --------------------------------------- IE mod modifications: --------------------------------------- Thoughts: - Chanter is the closest thing to summoner we have. - Rydia as a chanter makes sense, the whole time she is chanting is for the purposes of summoning, and in FFIV SNES when she was summoning it looked like she was chanting - The chant buffs I can live with RP wise. - Hunter's Instincts because she's spent all that time with the Eidolons and knows their physiology - Summoning of a drake as Bahamut is too hard to pass up. - If I want a wizard I'll create FuSoYa. ===================================================== Character: Edge --------------------------------------- Modded "racial" ability: Fighting Spirit or Minor Threat --------------------------------------- Class: Rogue --------------------------------------- Might: med/high Constitution: med/low Dexterity: max Perception: high Intelligence: med/low Resolve: med/low --------------------------------------- Weapons: Sabres or other one handed bladed weapons (no katanas :/ ) --------------------------------------- IE mod modifications: --------------------------------------- Thoughts: - I considered making Edge a fighter but he is a ninja in FFIV so I think rogue is much closer to that. Also, Edge is DPS and not too tanky so rogue makes more sense to me. - Edge has a temper so Fighting Spirit makes too much sense RP wise. ===================================================== Character: Yang --------------------------------------- Modded "racial" ability: Defiant Will or Towering Physique --------------------------------------- Class: Monk --------------------------------------- Might: med Constitution: high Dexterity: med Perception: high Intelligence: med Resolve: med --------------------------------------- Weapons: Fists! --------------------------------------- IE mod modifications: --------------------------------------- Thoughts: - I think Towering Physique or Defiant Will make the most sense RP wise. Yang is shredded and is a martial artist so either one make sense to me. I'll likely go with Defiant Will though, favoring the martial arts disciple aspect for RP. ===================================================== Character: Golbez --------------------------------------- Modded "racial" ability: Death's Usher or Elemental Endurance --------------------------------------- Class: Cipher --------------------------------------- Might: med/high Constitution: med Dexterity: med Perception: high Intelligence: high Resolve: med --------------------------------------- Weapons: Rod --------------------------------------- IE mod modifications: --------------------------------------- Thoughts: - Wasn't sure about wepaon type, but the Dissidia games have him using a rod so I'll go with that. - Cipher is perfect for Golbez's mind games =====================================================

So, I bought the game when it launched, but I've had zero time to play it until recently. There are 2 character archetypes I am interested in: An agile monk, who forsakes weapons, using dodging, parrying, and skill to win, over broad constitution and soak. A dashing corsair, renown for her fencing ability, and her quick witted tongue. This particular archetype includes the parry/riposte dueling style (one rapier or saber, and no shield). I have read that Rogues have Riposte as a skill, but that it is terrible. Is a chanter perhaps? or another class better suited toward this concept? I played through the intro as a monk, but realized that a lot of the monk guides seemed to toss out all care for RP dialogue options. I don't really like this approach as, well I don't get a lot of time, so the chances of me replaying the game are negligable, at least for quite a long time. So basically I am looking for a build for either a monk, or a rogue. That still satisfies dialogue checks to keep RP interesting. I am looking to do it with characters met in the world (checking the option to build them myself is allowed however, I will not be making adventurers at the tavern.) I had a stat spread of something (i'm out at the moment.) close to 18 str. Something con. 16 dex, 16 perception, something int, and 16 resolve. I seem to remember con and int being rather low. At any rate, I was curious as to whether a build of either of those archetypes would be able to do well in Hard difficulty. I don't particularily like dropping stats that low, but it seems to meet a lot of the dialogue checks I need to for the desired social impact in RP, and/or the deflection stat for parrying. Is a monk with lower con, and higher resolve, awful? Same question in regards to the pirate theme. Also, do resolve dialogue options always make you into a brute? I would much rather a sarcastic/dashing approach, say Dread Pirate Roberts, than an abusive its my way or the high way! type. I doubt it needs to be stated, but I have no interest in playing a ranged rogue. A sword in one hand, and a pistol in the other is a possibility, but it needs to be a rapier, or a saber. I am sorry if this post comes across rather convoluted, I am in a bit of a hurry and wanted to give people time to respond by the time I get to play!

Hi, I have recently finished my PotD run with a full party of 'supposedly min/max'd' (ew) custom characters. Now that I feel comfortable enough with the mechanics, I feel like it is now time for me to focus on the one aspect I have always loved in the IE games: theme of the party. Before we (or I) start, here are some links to some amazing high quality portraits with similar styles; permission already granted through their websites: http://www.jasonseow.com/poeportraits by Jason Seow - full permission to modify and repost http://wespenfresser.deviantart.com/ by wespenfresser - disallowed cropping and posting without link http://lucanii01.deviantart.com/art/Rain-the-Cipher-522921730 by lucanii - free download Feel free to let me know if there are more of these around so I can add them to OP. The topic at hand: Themes Many comes to mind when Pillars of Eternity contained such deep lore, the posibilities are limitless! I often imagine my group has just arrived in Dyrwood only to find the newborne nation to be in deep dissent rather than trying to solve the soul crisis. I'll list two of my favorites: Vailian Mercenary Warband Commissary - Gold Pact Paladin/Old Vailia Aristocrat Captain - Fighter/Old Vailia Mercenary Lieutenant - Fighter/Old Vailia Mercenary Sergeant - Fighter/Old Vailia Mercenary Specialist - Rogue/Old Vailia Laborer Chaplain - Priest/Aedyr Clergyman The White that Wends Expedition Emissary - Chanter/Aristocrat Adventurer - Fighter/Explorer Scout - Ranger/Hunter Guard - Fighter/Mercenary Fugitive - Rogue/Drifter Scribe - Cipher/Mystic These groups are far from being the most viable composition for PotD, but, hey, it's more fun this way.. based on personal taste. Post your party and its theme, along with whatever info you'd like to provide: Names, roles, classes, backgrounds, even bios! Let us all start lobbying for custom biographies for all the hired adventurers!