Your RPG system sucks!

[Sedrefilos]

Nah system is fine. Don't have much trouble with combat. I don;t find it even chaotic and super fast as many were saying all that time.

The sneaky approach is a necessity, true, because of the old style view distance, which is my onlu concern and I hope they will chande on a later title. You should be able to see as far as eye goes not just 10 meters away.

[Valsuelm]

To those who answered my question earlier: Thank you!

[AncientToaster]

 

 

 

Disagree on almost every point - I guess this game isn't for you. Move on.

 

[edit] with thanks from me for kickstarting it...

 

You disagree because it's wrong, or because you love banana's?  I'd seriously like to hear some counter-crits here as the OP has pointed out some factual issues.

 

 

 

It's kind of hard to counter points since he really didn't make any.

 

SNIP

 

I just wanted to hear some real counters, not another "you just suck at this game go play something else" response.  I don't have the game myself so I like to see these points actually debated.  I find that a lot of times someone's gripe about a game is something I would really like.  Different strokes.

 

 

If you don't have the game at all, why did you originally post about there being facts embedded in the Topic Creators rage fueled rant?

 

You have literally no room to cite factual issues with his post because you have zero experience in the combat system to draw from.

[AncientToaster]

Naw. It's not perfect, but it doesn't suck. Admittedly, though, it would have benefited from, like, 2-3 additional months of playtesting.

 

Complaining about the pause button points to the OP not having played the IE games, which ... yeah, those had that. It's modeled on them. It's there on purpose.

 

Engagement is terrible, though, and the whole thing would be better without it. It mostly just hurts tactical movement.

 

If there is one thing I dislike the most so far, it's the Engagement system. Early game enemies can safely ignore it (looking at you Shadow enemies...) and trash you, but you're bound by it's design. It's hard to get used to and really does hurt the tactics, I agree. I find myself having to use spells and abilities I do not want to use just to move a fighter or my Bear pet. 

Edited March 28, 2015 by AncientToaster

[Marceror]

"And trying to manage a party of 6 in real-time combat is patently absurd - even at slow speed. All it does is result in spamming the space bar pauses."

 

 

 

I think the OP may have gotten off at the wrong bus stop. I'm sure there's a good FPS out there that would suit him better.

 

More perplexing is that he's a backer. I don't think he paid close enough attention to key details like real time with pause, 6 characters in party just like the infinity engine games. Clearly wasn't paying attention.

[Darkpriest]

it seems someone forgot how BG played.... over there there was not even an engagement or AoO to help you out with guys focusing your squishies (although AI could ahve been exploited by single pulling and only tih mods you would see how difficult the game would be, since it would make AI actually TARGET your backlines if possible)

 

there are old tactics still valid like holidng narrow spaces (unless teleporting enemies) or using engagement tools like fighters abilities or talents) to keep enemy at bay...

 

personally i prefer TB games, for various reasons but this RTwP system is good enough to enjoy the combat. Revisit your strategy and positioning is the first advice, the second advise is to pay attention to what DRs enemies have during the combat when you use different dmg types to them and capitalize on that, use combat log A LOT if you are playing first time on higher difficulties, you will see the needed details and can adjust your tactics. ALSO make sure you have various physical dmg types covered in your party.

 

I have no idea what else to tell you... the game and system are good (even the engagement system), so.....

[Voqar]

Disagree on almost every point - I guess this game isn't for you. Move on.

 

 

Agreed.  I find the design of the classes, spell, mechanics - everything to be refreshing and pretty awesome.  I've been playing pnp rpgs and crpgs for years and this is one of the slicker systems I've ever seen.

 

Put your tank into defensive stance and gear them up with all your best defensive items.  Let your tank initiate so mobs go for him.  In this game you get a ton of abilities, spells, per battle abilities, per "rest" abilities - and you kinda need to use them because the combat isn't generally a pushover.  You don't need to unload everything in every battle but since you can rest within reason there's no reason to hold back either - do what you need to do to survive and thrive.

[PrimeJunta]

I'm kinda enjoying engagement precisely because I have to use those abilities to break it, and there are so many ways to do it. I've also gotten better at avoiding it. In fact I'm thinking Shadowing Beyond was a waste of a level-up talent because I barely ever use it; Escape is enough.

 

It does make combat feel very different from the IE engine though. Whether you like it more or less is, to an extent at least, a matter of taste.

 

Personally... it's growing on me. I've just learned to really dig IE engine combat (thanks to Sensuki, Stun, and others here), but I find P:E combat super-rewarding as well. Tactics make a huuuge difference; play an encounter badly and you get wiped, play it well and you barely get your armor scuffed and only use a couple per-rest abilities.

[Bryy]

I'd be agreeing with the OP if the games mechanics are the way they are "just because of nostalgia" (like Broken Age). But they're not. They are drastically different from previous games in this genre. 

 

I honestly don't know what game the OP thought this was going to be. 

[Lucifiel]

Well, I can't say much about most of the points since I did not find them so irksome but I have to say, I have to agree on the spell bit.

 

I am playing on Normal and chose a wizard as a class. I have the autopause when combat starts option active but it can only do so much. It pretty much gives me enough time to cast a Shield (forgot what the actual name of the 1st level spell is) on myself and that is about it. The spells are slow so before I can even cast anything AOE, the NPCs already rearrange themselves to get well out of range, which, unless I am dealing with ranged enemies such as archers, wastes a perfectly good first or second level spell which exhausts before rest. You can't even properly organize choke points because the starting levels terrain offer mostly wide spaces.

I admit to not having played BG games, but i enjoyed a lot the DA:O system (yes, I know, different dev team) and I madefull use of the pause feature there (I am a sucker for micro-managing my party).

 

I also don't much understand the limitation of spells with regards to rests. I am forever grateful for that one spell or whatever that is which allows me 2 uses per encounter. The rests I needed to make were not so much related to injuries as much as having to restore my spell slots.

 

Anyway, I guess I will have to get used to the system and I hope I will get more spell slots as I evolve.

[Captain Shiny]

I have experienced everything the OP has written in regards to combat. Ranged weaponry is almost useless as the speed at which the enemies close to engage is quicker than the time you can get a 2nd shot off. Scouting/sneaking seems to be a whole party affair as well. I can't get a single member to sneak only the whole party. Not that it matters as my range of discovery is the same as the range of my ranged wepaonry, so there is no tactical advantage.

 

In fact, I reduced the difficulty to easy and had 4 armed and armored ready players and couldn't even kill 4 Boars (2 of them Young Boars!).  Let's not even discuss the Cave Bear which required 3 of the 4 players to die, every potion drunk, all dinner plates wiped clean and several spells mis-cast to finally kill that thing. Pre-combat buffing seems to be impossible as most of the buffs can only be cast after combat has already started and their duration is too brief, never mind how long it takes to cast even the simplest buff.

 

Trying to figure out the functional difference between endurance and health is a real head scratcher. What is the point of actual health when it is a non factor in combat? Once you lose endurance, you're out of the battle. You could have hundreds of health points and get knocked out in the first round!

 

Reading the replies carefully I see there is a lot of blind fanaticism to genuine critisism and your devotion to an inefficient system does no service to the game.  Curiously, I played the beta more than once and didn't run into these specific problems, it's almost as if they wanted to surprise us with them.

[Ohioastro]

Rather than trying to play some other game: try playing this one. Seriously. We're reacting this way because a lot of us are familiar with the genre, and we understand how it works. Take an encounter that seems tough and try different tactics. Have ranged weapons in secondary, sneak, open with a ranged volley. Send the tank in first to catch aggro. Use the per encounter abilities early. It makes a huge difference.

[sim-h]

I have experienced everything the OP has written in regards to combat. Ranged weaponry is almost useless as the speed at which the enemies close to engage is quicker than the time you can get a 2nd shot off. Scouting/sneaking seems to be a whole party affair as well. I can't get a single member to sneak only the whole party. Not that it matters as my range of discovery is the same as the range of my ranged wepaonry, so there is no tactical advantage.

 

In fact, I reduced the difficulty to easy and had 4 armed and armored ready players and couldn't even kill 4 Boars (2 of them Young Boars!).  Let's not even discuss the Cave Bear which required 3 of the 4 players to die, every potion drunk, all dinner plates wiped clean and several spells mis-cast to finally kill that thing. Pre-combat buffing seems to be impossible as most of the buffs can only be cast after combat has already started and their duration is too brief, never mind how long it takes to cast even the simplest buff.

 

Trying to figure out the functional difference between endurance and health is a real head scratcher. What is the point of actual health when it is a non factor in combat? Once you lose endurance, you're out of the battle. You could have hundreds of health points and get knocked out in the first round!

 

Reading the replies carefully I see there is a lot of blind fanaticism to genuine critisism and your devotion to an inefficient system does no service to the game.  Curiously, I played the beta more than once and didn't run into these specific problems, it's almost as if they wanted to surprise us with them.

 

You're obviously frustrated but accusing people who perhaps cope with the system better of blind fanaticism is silly.

 

I love the combat system. I didn't play the beta, I'm playing on 'Hard'. I had a few reloads in a particularly difficult area, which was disappointing - but then I did choose 'Hard' . And one reload was when a phantom 'appeared' right beside my maimed Mage, perma-killing him with no warning. That was harsh! (reload...)

 

Ranged attacks are good for a single hit - often enough to kill an enemy if you concentrate on one target. What do you expect, an enemy to stand there and allow you to attack? Remember it works both ways too, if you're under fire you can close down your enemy quickly.

 

The endurance and health difference is another great idea. You can recover after a fight, but only for so long before you need to rest to treat injuries and fatigue, or face being maimed.

 

I would say you just need to get used to the system. Once you do you'll realise that the difficulty you are experiencing just adds replay value and longevity to the game.

 

[edit] I also think the engagement system is great! Of course if you run past an enemy they are going to get a free hit. Maybe it needs toning down a bit if so many people are hating it - but I don't think so. Worst case is someone gets knocked out now and again - especially (slight spoiler alert ahead...) due to those annoying teleporty shadow things in a certain fairly early location. Oh yeah and how do they know my mage is hiding outside the room and teleport into his face anyway?? THAT, I do dislike

Edited March 29, 2015 by sim-h

[Slimjimjohnson]

I have no issues controlling six party members in real time with pause.

 

Maybe you should break your cherry on some of the total war games. This system is very similar to the ie systems imo and they all play rather similar.

 

This style of game doesn't appeal to you possibly. It doesn't mean it's bad.

[Dekeon]

I agree with alot of the OP. This combat is WAY too fast. This game is over hyped no doubt. So far every combat is handle the same way. This game needs another 90-120 days of fine-tuning IMO.

[Skor]

Sawyer says that you can easily ruing a character in D&D by not specing it properly. Well how is this any different? I can't make a basic class worth a damn with this stupid system you guys devised, just gimmick builds.

 

How does this game not force you into play styles? You basically always have to sneak into battle. You pretty much have to crawl around sneaking everywhere, which is a PITA.

 

Your non-tanks are beyond squishy. Monks have to get hit in order to use their skills/powers? That's ****ing stupid beyond belief! Almost every fight my rogue/monk/wizard get dropped. The tanks can't hold aggro. It's just bad design all around. Yet again, this shows the major problem with paid betas when its the fanboys telling the devs what they want to hear instead of giving them the criticism they need to hear.

 

And trying to manage a party of 6 in real-time combat is patently absurd - even at slow speed. All it does is result in spamming the space bar pauses. DOS is infinitely better with its turn-based combat.

 

The spell system and spells themselves are terrible. Fights happen so fast that de/buffs are basically pointless because the fight is over by the time the spell is cast. It also makes most food/potions/scrolls useless in that regard as well. The spell times should be instant - seeing as you get so few spells to actually cast anyway and mana doesn't play a factor. And durations on all that stuff should be upped by a factor of 10 at least. I should be able to have those buffs going for an entire map. Otherwise, it's just camping after every encounter - and that's way too expensive at low levels.

 

There are so many things I *hate* about the system you designed. Why did you try and reinvent the wheel? Yes, D&D is far from perfect but it's a damn sight better than this rubbish. And that's the real shame of it just completely takes the fun out of the game and destroys all the hard work that was put into the beautiful artwork and excellent writing. I've loved most all of Obsidian's work - and Black Isle before that - down through the years, but this is really just awful, awful stuff.

 

I hope you guys can do a follow-up for Fallout 4 a la FNV. I'll at least look forward to that - so long as it doesn't use this crappy system.

 

I would like to start off by saying I love the game.  Been waiting 15 years for another BG2 like game.  I love so many aspects and improvements in the UI and the way you manage your party.  However, the OP has made solid points, if not in a rather abrasive fashion.  I love, LOVE the slow speed (especially the auto slow when combat starts) and the double speed for traveling.  Pure awesome.

 

1)  The attributes, which are the foundation of any RPG, are completely borked.  They should have just stuck with traditional definitions.  Seriously, in this game any mage worth his salt is going to look like arnold swartzenhager.  Might for both spell and physical power is retarded.  Split that stuff up and put it where it belongs.  Its very confusing and is not intuitive to even rpg veterans who have been playing pnp rpg games for 30+ years, like myself.  This in and of its self for me was the single biggest aspect of the game to accept.

 

2)  Some classes are near pointless, yes I'm looking at you chanter and ranger.  I so wanted to love the idea behind the chanter but not being able to use half his class abilities in most combats makes the class feel like wasted character slot.  May of the racials and class abilities are based off of incurring negative factors.  This is a horrible mechanic.  Like he said, basing the monk off of getting hit is lame.  Many racials are the same way.  In any RPG that has abilities like this, I always tend to go with something else.  I'm not building a character around him getting his ass kicked. And there is too much of that in this game.

 

3)  The spells are difficult to use at best.  You basically have to ambush your enemies, via sneak, in order to have any chance at catching them with aoe type spells.  Otherwise, they are in your grill before you can get most things off.  I feel there needs to be more spells that target a single target, that way you can select the target and its ok when he moves.  Your spell is still going to hit him.  Unfortunately, many spells that should be like this are tiny aoe spells instead, which make it near impossible to utilize before your enemy rushes in to engage you.  I also wish you could cast a lot of those 'gotta be in combat' spells before it officially recognizes that your in combat.  I too would like to see long term buffs that you can cast out of combat that last for a much longer period, like 10 mins while on a map or something.

 

I'm as close as you get to a fanboi without losing perspective on good rpg game mechanics.  I want nothing more than to see this game succeed beyond belief, so we may have many more in the future.  Don't just be yesmen, but help with supportive criticism that will lead to better design.

[Katarack21]

I have experienced everything the OP has written in regards to combat. Ranged weaponry is almost useless as the speed at which the enemies close to engage is quicker than the time you can get a 2nd shot off. Scouting/sneaking seems to be a whole party affair as well. I can't get a single member to sneak only the whole party. Not that it matters as my range of discovery is the same as the range of my ranged wepaonry, so there is no tactical advantage.

 

In fact, I reduced the difficulty to easy and had 4 armed and armored ready players and couldn't even kill 4 Boars (2 of them Young Boars!).  Let's not even discuss the Cave Bear which required 3 of the 4 players to die, every potion drunk, all dinner plates wiped clean and several spells mis-cast to finally kill that thing. Pre-combat buffing seems to be impossible as most of the buffs can only be cast after combat has already started and their duration is too brief, never mind how long it takes to cast even the simplest buff.

 

Trying to figure out the functional difference between endurance and health is a real head scratcher. What is the point of actual health when it is a non factor in combat? Once you lose endurance, you're out of the battle. You could have hundreds of health points and get knocked out in the first round!

 

Reading the replies carefully I see there is a lot of blind fanaticism to genuine critisism and your devotion to an inefficient system does no service to the game.  Curiously, I played the beta more than once and didn't run into these specific problems, it's almost as if they wanted to surprise us with them.

1) Ranged weapons are meant to be used at range. You need melee characters to engage in melee, so that the ranged characters can attack from range. This isn't a flaw in the combat system, this is how combat works. Sneaking provides major tactical advantage; as one example you can sneak up, fire, and move back using the pause system to time it properly thus causing the enemy to walk over a trap. I do this a lot.

 

2) You shouldn't use combat encounters like that to prove how screwy it is because the problem may well just be you. I killed that cave bear, on normal, with three characters (MC, Eder, Aloth) and had no problems--didn't use up all my spells, didn't use up my potions, etc. The boars were more of a problem, but again--I succeeded.

 

3) Health and endurance aren't that complicated. One is short-term, the other is long-term. That's literally the distinction. Health works more as a controller of the pace and amount of exploration; if you are going into battle with low enough health to worry about actually dying, you're doing it wrong.

 

4) There is no fanatcism, just mocking.

Edited March 29, 2015 by Katarack21

[Brastias]

 

 

 

 Always have to sneak into combat? No. I base whether I do or not on my character, e.g. my Paladin does not sneak anywhere unless someone in the party is searching for traps etc. (although I'm annoyed the Paladin has to also enter sneak mode to achieve this).

 

I agree with this as well.  I really wish you could select which person you want to scout, vs. it just making everyone scout.

 

 

Not to pick on anyone but I don't understand this. You can just scout with one person. Click the character you want to scout with. Click the scout button and move that character only. Leave the others behind. Am I missing something?

[Jean-Luc]

Can't be bothered to go into details so I'll just say I'm enjoying the combat a great deal playing on hard. 

 

Despite being superficially similar to the old IE games, PoE's rules are quite different. It just takes a bit of getting used to, that's all. 

 

It's a game that requires a bit of planning and thought, you can't just attack+move your way through enemies. Once you figure it out it's very satisfying. 

[Mythrell]

I love the game but still I have to agree that there's something wrong with the combat system, I think it has a lot to do with everyone taking different time on same actions, depending on their "recovery time" and in general it just feels that combat is slightly too fast. I find the slow speed makes it feel a lot better but it doesn't quite fix it.  

 

 

 

2)  Some classes are near pointless, yes I'm looking at you chanter and ranger.  I so wanted to love the idea behind the chanter but not being able to use half his class abilities in most combats makes the class feel like wasted character slot.  May of the racials and class abilities are based off of incurring negative factors.  This is a horrible mechanic.  Like he said, basing the monk off of getting hit is lame.  Many racials are the same way.  In any RPG that has abilities like this, I always tend to go with something else.  I'm not building a character around him getting his ass kicked. And there is too much of that in this game.

 

I have to disagree with that. I made my main a Ranger and he's doing the most damage in the group easily and the bear companion has turned out to be really useful. Then again I don't have a rogue with me. Also I have Kana the chanter with my group, I gave him a great sword and a plate mail and he's doing great. Sure, his spells don't really get used that much, but then again most of the short combats don't require any spell using so there's that. His buffs are quite nice for a non tanking damage dealer. Sure it might not be optimal way to play, but to me it's a RPG, not a power gaming simulator..

[DanMan3395]

Sawyer says that you can easily ruing a character in D&D by not specing it properly. Well how is this any different? I can't make a basic class worth a damn with this stupid system you guys devised, just gimmick builds.

 

How does this game not force you into play styles? You basically always have to sneak into battle. You pretty much have to crawl around sneaking everywhere, which is a PITA.

 

Your non-tanks are beyond squishy. Monks have to get hit in order to use their skills/powers? That's ****ing stupid beyond belief! Almost every fight my rogue/monk/wizard get dropped. The tanks can't hold aggro. It's just bad design all around. Yet again, this shows the major problem with paid betas when its the fanboys telling the devs what they want to hear instead of giving them the criticism they need to hear.

 

And trying to manage a party of 6 in real-time combat is patently absurd - even at slow speed. All it does is result in spamming the space bar pauses. DOS is infinitely better with its turn-based combat.

 

The spell system and spells themselves are terrible. Fights happen so fast that de/buffs are basically pointless because the fight is over by the time the spell is cast. It also makes most food/potions/scrolls useless in that regard as well. The spell times should be instant - seeing as you get so few spells to actually cast anyway and mana doesn't play a factor. And durations on all that stuff should be upped by a factor of 10 at least. I should be able to have those buffs going for an entire map. Otherwise, it's just camping after every encounter - and that's way too expensive at low levels.

 

There are so many things I *hate* about the system you designed. Why did you try and reinvent the wheel? Yes, D&D is far from perfect but it's a damn sight better than this rubbish. And that's the real shame of it just completely takes the fun out of the game and destroys all the hard work that was put into the beautiful artwork and excellent writing. I've loved most all of Obsidian's work - and Black Isle before that - down through the years, but this is really just awful, awful stuff.

 

I hope you guys can do a follow-up for Fallout 4 a la FNV. I'll at least look forward to that - so long as it doesn't use this crappy system.

 

None of this is accurate at all.

[Hiro Protagonist II]

Ranged weaponry is almost useless as the speed at which the enemies close to engage is quicker than the time you can get a 2nd shot off.

 

Scouting/sneaking seems to be a whole party affair as well. I can't get a single member to sneak only the whole party.

 

Pre-combat buffing seems to be impossible as most of the buffs can only be cast after combat has already started and their duration is too brief, never mind how long it takes to cast even the simplest buff.

 

Trying to figure out the functional difference between endurance and health is a real head scratcher.

 

Curiously, I played the beta more than once and didn't run into these specific problems, it's almost as if they wanted to surprise us with them.

 

You played the beta and didn't run into any of this? This was all in the beta from day one and was never changed. There is no surprise here. 

[TheUsernamelessOne]

I think the biggest difference between D&D (besides 4th Edition, anyway) and the mechanical system in PoE is that the former, however clunky, is designed to provide a bundle of numbers and rules on what to do with them which simulate your character and the things they do. It answers questions like "Are you stronger than Joe Orc?" or "Do you know enough about Knowledge(whatever) to answer some question?" The stats and whatnot are (theoretically) designed to be intuitive. If you pretend THAC0 is intuitive, anyway.

 

Pillars of Eternity's rules and mechanics are just an arbitrary game, more like Clue or Monopoly (albeit way more complicated). Why does Might determine both your physical strength and the power of your spells and the effectiveness of your healing? Who knows. Maybe it's the same reason that the distance you move per turn in the mansion in Clue is random. Why is it that two guys swinging away at each other can only attack every couple of seconds when, depending on their relative speeds, one character fleeing from another can potentially be subjected to near-infinite attacks in the course of a few frames? Why is it that being strong-willed and charismatic (Resolve) helps you dodge bullets but being physically fast and coordinated (Dexterity) doesn't? Why is it that casting Slicken on an ooze makes it trip and fall prone?

 

PoE is weird and jarring to me, maybe because I was expecting something more along the lines of any of the other RPGs the folks at Obsidian have ever made. In PoE one half of the game is roleplaying and one half is story and never the twain shall meet. Now, much like in Planescape: Torment, your stats inform the options you have available to you in roleplaying scenes. Unlike PS:T, none of your stats are actually designed to model a person, they are arbitrary video game notions that have no basis in reality. So I'm roleplaying a wood elven Cipher right now (or I was until the Horn of Moderation bug borked my game, leaving me the free time to write this post), a scientist who studied and dissected souls until their strange obsession forced them to flee their homeland and travel to the Dyrwood, where they got mixed up in plot. My character uses a bow because that's what they grew up with and they slice their enemies' minds apart because hey, might as well put all that study to good use, right?

 

So, naturally, this character has maxed out Might (and Intellect, to be fair) and poor to middling everything else, right? Because if I want to deal lots of damage with my powers, I've got to have high Might, which according to the roleplay sections of the game means that I'm really really strong--stronger than any of the NPCs I've come across so far, in fact, including the front-line fighter types who march around in plate armor. Apparently my character's enormous muscles come in real handy when using psychic attacks or shooting a gun, in addition to helping bust through solid stone walls like the Kool-Aid Man and rip iron bars out of castle windows. But my psychic character who specializes in perceiving and manipulating the very stuff that souls are made of obviously isn't very perceptive and has average charisma and willpower. Those things are of no benefit to a psychic.

 

PoE is very much a game, not a roleplaying game. It's an arbitrary system of arbitrary rules that has little to no connection to reality, fictional or otherwise. When you hear lore or Watcher souls about battles in the history of the PoE world, it's plainly obvious that the events they describe could not happen in the framework of the game mechanics, any more than you could recreate the colonization of the Americas in a game of Settlers of Catan.

 

That isn't necessarily a bad thing. It does mean that there are people who (apparently very loudly and irascibly, judging by the OP) don't like the game. To me, it's a tedious chore, plain and simple. I'll do it, if only out of spite, because I like the writing, pretty much the same attitude I have towards Dragon Age 2. If you do love it, hey, more power to you.

 

If there's a point to this post besides me just being frustrated and bored because a game-breaking bug (hopefully temporarily) ended my current playthrough ten hours in, I guess I would request that attributes either be more intuitively mapped to the roleplaying qualities of your character, PS:T-style, or else not be used in roleplay at all? Also I understand the OP's frustration, though I don't think yelling at people on the internet is very productive or polite. PoE is an interactive story with a miniatures wargame welded onto it, and even if you don't enjoy the miniatures wargame you have to get good at it if you want to experience the story. Why is that a problem? How is that any different from any other video game ever made? I don't know. I mean, I'd be playing it right now instead of rambling about it if my Cipher could regain Focus in combat.

 

Oh, and to everyone bragging about playing on Hard: please stop. Hard mode is not actually any more challenging. All it does is increase the number of enemies. If you know what you're doing then numbers seriously don't matter. By the same token if someone does not understand how to play the game, condescendingly telling them to turn down the difficulty is useless. As an alternative, tell them to just Pillars of Eternity better, since that is actually helpful, if non-specific.

[Hiro Protagonist II]

Pillars of Eternity's rules and mechanics are just an arbitrary game, more like Clue or Monopoly (albeit way more complicated). Why does Might determine both your physical strength and the power of your spells and the effectiveness of your healing? Who knows.

 

Soul power iirc.

[Lohi]

I like it so far.  Hurray for getting rid of D&D baggage.  Later versions of D&D were so far from perfect they're just awful.  I loved BG and BG2, except for the D&D annoyances.  If the OP has designed his own game then perhaps we can evaluate it for nits.

 

It plays smooth, I don't have to sneak everywhere.  Monks getting hit to build up powers is a great concept.  Multiple ways to be a spell caster, including the old D&D method for those who like running out of spells before noon.  You'd have to work pretty hard to screw up a build in this game, maybe it won't be as efficient but so what?