Kudos to the devs

[Treldon]

I just want to say I'm really liking this game. I played Baldur's gate and completely stomped Neverwinter Nights as an evil necromancer, and have generally played this genre (witcher, PoE 1, DoS 1&2 most recently) at the level below Path Of the Damned having been turned off from "insane" levels of all sorts after I glimpsed the level of cheat that was being applied for computer opponents in Emporer level in Civiliztion I ... 

 

But as i was pondering the start screen in this game I realized Beraths blessings are awesomely designed for a PoTD trial of Iron campaign. Sure you die some but as you collect blessings, you can pick aids that make the early levels you've already mastered go faster. Many of them have little or no effect as the game advances which is perfect. What's 5k Cp once you're level 7? It's long gone is what it is .  Start at level 4, and you are only up by 1 level by Nekataka... So having tired of trouncing warlord modes I pledged to do only PoTD/ToI plus Berath (no scaling... because need some chance in ToI )... and it's working out really nicely. Made it off Port Majde on my 5th try (died twice on the stupid thugs, once in the cave and one time Eder died on the ship in the first scene and I just quit (DOH!). Now on my 6th try after oopsing #5 in the gullet and I've now got several triumphs and finished most of the first section of Nekataka. Yesterday I had a narrow escape with the troll bounty, but realized it was hard early in the fight and literally used every spell and ability and barely made it. Talk about sweating bullets

 

Each fight is life or death, and I'm now considering the sensible way out (pay 50cp when I'm holding 20k cp rather than risking a fight etc) especially since killing random people is often not very profitable (no xp). Also I feel like the writing is deeper and better thought through this time around. It just feels like there is more going on among party members and with more reputation consequences in conversations, and the party members interact more too.

 

Only flaw is there is one grindable aspect in the game.... (I suppose if I mention it that's a spoiler for some) But for PoTD/ToI I'm kind of thankful for that At any other level it would feel a lot cheesier, but having a way to build up before venturing forth seems not unreasonable when it's really life or death and start at the beginning again...

 

I do wish we still had 6 chars though. MUCH easier to set up a proper tanking/off-tanking/3rd/4th backups plus summons scheme and still have 2 fun wizards to lay waste to stuff. With 5 it seems I'm always living in fear of open field fights, or that one fatal miscue where I fail to pick up targets with the tank. (that's what happened in the gullet on #5 and my squshies got squashed real early)

 

Having fun and happy to find a mode that's a solid change of pace and not "just like all the rest" Thx to the devs and backers!

 

And a special thanks for making it work in Linux!