Rarity of enchanted items?

[Geldon]

I was wondering how common magical weapons and other enchanted gear will be in Pillars of Eternity? Personally I'd prefer them to be relatively rare like how it used to be in Baldur's Gate as oppose to a lot of more contemporary RPG's. Take Dragon Age: Inqusition for example. That game is littered with über pimped hardware all over the place. It made me lose any sensation of excitment and accomplishment for the stuff I aquired over the course of the game. I would sometimes get fancy purple gear with all the bells and whistles after slaying a dragon only to find myself discarding it later on when I found a higher level "Common butter knife" in some generic barrel or whatever.

[Mannock]

I was wondering how common magical weapons and other enchanted gear will be in Pillars of Eternity? Personally I'd prefer them to be relatively rare like how it used to be in Baldur's Gate as oppose to a lot of more contemporary RPG's. Take Dragon Age: Inqusition for example. That game is littered with über pimped hardware all over the place. It made me lose any sensation of excitment and accomplishment for the stuff I aquired over the course of the game. I would sometimes get fancy purple gear with all the bells and whistles after slaying a dragon only to find myself discarding it later on when I found a higher level "Common butter knife" in some generic barrel or whatever.

 

I completely agree with you. Both Dragon Age series and Mass Effect series have their games littered with overpowered items to a point where it becomes dull and feels like a chore switching out the old items for the new ones ever 20 minutes or so.

 

Less is more.

[Forlorn Hope]

I was so excited when I found this.

Edited March 4, 2015 by Forlorn Hope

[Geldon]

I was so excited when I found this.

He he exactly, I think the best weapons in the whole vanilla game was like +3 or something so that one is a keeper for sure

[Mannock]

I was so excited when I found this.

 

My favourite in BG2 is the Blade of Roses. A modest yet powerful sword at the same time, considering you are able to get it fairly early in the game.

[DruidX]

though you can just enchant items yourself?

[Mannock]

though you can just enchant items yourself?

 

Yes, you can, however I have always found that a lackluster function. My own creations could never meet the awesomeness of Flail of Ages or Short Bow of Gesen for example.

[Lephys]

Hehe. The Flail of Ages!

 

If you're between 9-13, it grants +72 Fire Damage. If you're between 14-18, it grants +50% attack speed. If you're between 19-24, it grants an active-use 10-second invulnerability. If you're between...

 

[Sock]

 

though you can just enchant items yourself?

 

Yes, you can, however I have always found that a lackluster function. My own creations could never meet the awesomeness of Flail of Ages or Short Bow of Gesen for example.

 

 

I know what you mean. Crafting is a lazy option for developers to use to itemize their game. DA:I had HORRIBLE itemization, there were no special rings or amulets or even weapons, everything was weaker than what you could craft, and what you could craft just ended up being boring too, and ridiculously OP compared to loot. What you could craft was significantly better than anything you could find, and there was nothing special involved in crafting. You'd aquire all the best ingredients just by playing the game. It was extremely lazy implementation of itemization.

 

I would much prefer it the other way around from what DA:I did. Crafting can make decent gear. Better gear can be found. But the best gear is aquired by going on a quest for ingredients to craft with, or a quest specifically to locate a "legendary" weapon.

 

Personally, I fear PoE's crafting system. I'm really worried that it's going to be too easy to walk around in fully enchanted stuff.

[Lephys]

I enjoyed DA:I's crafting system, compared to none at all. But, yeah, assuming a game already has a crafting system in it's available-gear-library, it could've been WAY better done. Recipes were haphazardly placed. Some stuff wasn't even "better," really. You'd have one hilt with a Utility slot, so you can slap 6 metal in it and get 6 Strength or something. Then, you'd have another hilt that was all Defense slots, so all anything can give you is one of like 3 elemental defenses, and the highest you can get until you spend another 15 hours in the game to find some higher tier materials is like 5%. Or, better yet, the all-Offense-slot equipment components, which allow you to get like "+2% chance to bleed on hit," or "+3% attack." YEAH!

 

*shrug*. It seems like they came up with the system, then just ran out of time and kind of threw stuff all over the place. And yeah, the loot you find is almost always either:

 

A) WAY worse than anything you can craft, ever.

B) Far better than anything you can craft until you find some way better recipe hours on down the road.

 

That, and you kept finding loot items that WOULD be really good, but they possess ZERO upgrade slots.

 

THAT, and you'd find a recipe for this spiffy axe you like a lot, but for some reason, it only has a 78 DPS rating with Iron, but this other axe that you don't like has a 112 DPS rating. And you don't even find those in that order, necessarily. It's really weird. I don't know who was in charge of the overall logistics of that system.

[Sock]

Most crafting systems end up that way, unless they actually work on developing a real crafting and gathering system, and then it gets underutilized because that crap is boring.

 

I -like- finding loot, and I also especially like finding rare loot with awesome stats. I like buying loot, too. The closest I've come to ever being pleasantly engaged in crafting was EQ2. Everything else, I've found crafting to be an indecypherable mess (D:OS), ridiculously OP and easy (DA:I), or useful but still optional (Witcher 2).

 

Decide what role crafting will have in your game, and since this game doesn't have any talents associated with crafting, I don't hink crafting should be the primary source of itemization.

 

Frankly, I don't like quality enchantments. That should be something you should get either through loot or buying, and then you enhance it with crafting. Not unlike ToEE requiring masterwork gear.

[Suhiir]

I rather like the idea of being able to upgrade the enchantments in items.

In far to many games the gear you want to use for ascetic reasons isn't the same gear you want to use for game-play ones.

While of course many players could care less what stuff looks like as long as it has "uber" stats, some of us do care.

[Sensuki]

BG2 and KotOR2 are the games that have the best crafting IMO.

[Darkpriest]

BG2 and KotOR2 are the games that have the best crafting IMO.

Agreed.

[teknoman2]

just a reminder: there are no +1 +2 +3 items in PoE. there are items made from different materials that have different properties. some have enchantments, some not and all these enchantments can be upgraded or modified

ie you find a darksteel longsword that gives a bonus of 1 to might. you can also craft a darksteel longsword and use some item to enchant it with +1 might. and in both cases you can add another enchantment that gives +1 to dexterity

[Ark Evensong]

There kind of are, though. Weapons and Armor have a Quality rating, from 'Normal' -> Fine -> Exceptional -> Superb.

 

For weapons, this means an increase in damage and accuracy, and is kinda comparable to the +1, +2, +3 enchantments from D&D. For Armor, it's a bonus to Damage Reduction. I don't believe Quality is considered 'magic', but you can upgrade your gear like this in the Enchantment menu.

 

Aside from Quality, gear can have up to three enchantments giving extra bonuses. IIRC the +Attribute enchantments can only go on gear, not weapons, at least from the Enchantment upgrades available to the player.

 

I have not seen anything to indicate you could craft regular weapons or gear yourself, but this may be available through quests.

[vsanders]

BG2 and KotOR2 are the games that have the best crafting IMO.

I see what you did there.

 

Edit: Misposted. Just meant to /agree.

Edited March 6, 2015 by vsanders

[teknoman2]

There kind of are, though. Weapons and Armor have a Quality rating, from 'Normal' -> Fine -> Exceptional -> Superb.

 

For weapons, this means an increase in damage and accuracy, and is kinda comparable to the +1, +2, +3 enchantments from D&D. For Armor, it's a bonus to Damage Reduction. I don't believe Quality is considered 'magic', but you can upgrade your gear like this in the Enchantment menu.

 

Aside from Quality, gear can have up to three enchantments giving extra bonuses. IIRC the +Attribute enchantments can only go on gear, not weapons, at least from the Enchantment upgrades available to the player.

 

I have not seen anything to indicate you could craft regular weapons or gear yourself, but this may be available through quests.

yes, but unlike DnD the quality does not make them inherently magical, especially on the "what can be killed by this" department.

a normal silver sword with certain enchantments may be more convenient to have equiped than a Superb steel sword with other enchantments (especially if you deal with enemies weak against silver), unlike the DnD where the +2 is better than the +1 regardless of circumstances

[Valsuelm]

BG2 and KotOR2 are the games that have the best crafting IMO.

 

Never played KotOR2 so I can't speak to it, but I agree and would add that I think BG1's crafting system was just as awesome as BG2s.

[rjshae]

Making enchanted items common for adventurers is not the same thing as making enchanted items common.

 

Adventurers go where few others would dare to tread; there they encounter deadly foes that like to accumulate power, and, in a fantasy setting, acquiring enchanted baubles is a definitive means to increases one's potency. Hence adventurers that survive the experience are more likely to find enchanted items.