Durance/Priest is irreplaceable in party? :/

[Himself]

Heya, started playing a couple weeks back.

Even though I don't like Durance very much (there are cooler party members), he seems kinda irreplaceable since his class/spells are just too good, going without him feels like playing the game with a handicap :/

 

Possible workarounds would a priest protagonist (meh), or making a custom priest companion (well, that would be even worse than durance).

 

Since I don't think this class or NPC is gonna be rebalanced, can we get a new Priest NPC that actually is cute/cool? (And female to boot at that)

 

Please include this at top priority for new NPCs.

[DreamWayfarer]

They are not adding new NPCs, or any content, at this point.

 

And Priests are not really necessary, if you adjust you playstyle accordingly. Paladins and Chanters can buff well enough, and Druids have some very good healing. While none is as good at supporting as a priests, the first two require less micro-management, the last is better at damage and control, and all three are tankier.

[Marceror]

 

Since I don't think this class or NPC is gonna be rebalanced, can we get a new Priest NPC that actually is cute/cool? (And female to boot at that)

 

Like Cadegund maybe?

 

If you didn't follow the Kickstarter campaign for PoE, originally a cute blonde priestess wearing heavy armor was planned to be part of the game. Apparently MCA didn't feel inspired by this character, so he created Durance as a replacement when he wrote the priest companion for the game.

 

I have Cadegund on my PoE mousepad, so I see her everyday, and I definitely lament the lack of her in PoE. I've heard tell that she has her supporters within Obsidian, and may yet show up in a future title.

Edited April 3, 2016 by Marceror

[anameforobsidian]

Priests are probably the closest thing to an irreplaceable class in the party.  You can make do without them.  Paladins can do a bit of the heavy lifting with Lay on Hands and reviving exhortation.  Chanters can definitely lay down some decent buffs.  However, I still think that priests are definitely the closet thing to irreplaceable.  Maybe they could give druids a bit of a healing buff and an improved revive spell in the future.  Druids most useful healing spell seemed to be moonwell.  Nature's bounty did not feel deserving of its spell slot.

Edited April 4, 2016 by anameforobsidian

[house2fly]

You should be able to romance the cute female priest, as well.

[Crucis]

While priests are exceptionally useful, it is entirely possible to get along without one.  In the party I just completed, I ended up putting Durance in my "reserve" and used a full party without a priest, relying on Pallegina for combat healing duties instead.

 

I will say though that if one does intend on using a paladin in place of a priest in a party, it helps a lot if you take certain abilities.  Lay on Hands/Greater Lay on Hands for healing, Aegis of Loyalty for dealing with Charmed, Dominated, or confused team mates, and Reviving Exhortation for revivals.  And either Zealous Focus or Zealous Endurance.  A well built paladin can cover some of the biggest holes left by not having a priest in the party.  And in addition to this, the new-ish Second Wind self-healing ability that comes from the Athletics skill also helps in this regard too, since it's often a character's first option for healing lost END (at least if the character has enough points in Athletics to make Second Wind strong enough to heal a decent amount of END).

 

And the upside here is, that if you are able to get comfortable with a party without a priest, you may end up with a more capable offensive fighting force.

Edited April 4, 2016 by Crucis

[Rosveen]

My first playthrough was without a priest. I used Durance in my second until I got to White March, where I switched him out for Maneha - I now have Kana as my only support character, no priest, paladin or druid. It's not an optimal party, but it works well enough. All problems I've had so far can be attributed to my inadequate skills with managing my team, not the team's weakness. I'm not sure yet how I'll fare in the hardest encounters, but I imagine I will be fine with just scrolls. I mean, come on, people solo this game, so everything's doable.

 

You should be able to romance the cute female priest, as well.

I won't lie, Viconia is still one of my favorite characters. I doubt that's the kind of cute the OP is looking for, though.

[Himself]

Edited the first post to reflect difficulty (since it was not clear ENOUGH for some people).

[Himself]

Actually I would edit but there is some lame restriction on this account that forbids me to :/

 

Anyway, the game is playable without a priest, sure.

 

I can play without using my hands or hitting the keyboard with nose strikes only for added difficulty! Fact stand that thus far going without Durance sure as hell looks like a handicaped experience, don't see me changing opinion soon, but might happen, haven't met all NPCs yet, unfortunaly have to save 1 slot in party for this bearded buffon

[Himself]

I won't lie, Viconia is still one of my favorite characters. I doubt that's the kind of cute the OP is looking for, though.

 

Viconia was cool. Most characters in BG games had a redeeming qualities to them.

 

Same can't be said for poor Durance -> F* ugly, F* annoying and boring religious NPC, still have to keep him around while "learning the ropes" cause hes damn useful.

 

Learn from that Obsidian! When you're going to make an NPC that most players have to stick with, at least make it a pleasant one.

[redneckdevil]

I think the whole reason we got durance instead of the blond priest was bc it's was MCA way of trolling the Romanicers on the boards.

"I can just see it now, all those people begging and complains about romance options....well I'd like to see them ask for romance options on a bigot crazed f-ugly male now muhahahaha"

[house2fly]

I think Avellone said that if he was in charge they would have done companion romances because they're an Infinity Engine thing people wanted.

 

Different people have different tastes, I personally like Durance and find him interesting, but they let you create custom NPCs specifically so if you don't like the pre made companions you can still have a priest/cipher/druid or whatever in your party. So just go to the nearest Inn and create your perfect moé priestess and kick Durance to the curb.

[Tigranes]

I still remember people complaining priest / Durance was crap...

 

Priest is very far from the most useful class. Just ditch Durance if you don't like him, you'll adapt your party, and it'll be fine. You won't know that yet because you haven''t met all the NPCs and that means you haven't tried all the classes either. 

 

Of course, you could make an all custom adventurer party, copy and paste in custom portraits of hawt chicks, and go for it, if you so wished. 

[tinysalamander]

priest protagonist (meh)

 

Why? Join our priest protagonists' guild and recieve a cool invisible unicorn as a gift!

[Rosveen]

If I wanted to do an "evil" playthrough, I'd definitely go with a Skaen priest. Such a fun concept. Throw in a Bleakwalker companion and you're set.

[Crucis]

I think Avellone said that if he was in charge they would have done companion romances because they're an Infinity Engine thing people wanted.

 

Different people have different tastes, I personally like Durance and find him interesting, but they let you create custom NPCs specifically so if you don't like the pre made companions you can still have a priest/cipher/druid or whatever in your party. So just go to the nearest Inn and create your perfect moé priestess and kick Durance to the curb.

 

One thing that I've kind of wished existed was a step between fully realized Companions and mercs that you create entirely on your own.  Note that I fully understand that there's only so much that the devs could do with the time and resources they had, and that this wish would probably have never been made regardless.

 

But what I've sort of wished for was to have some sort of intermediate semi-premade mercs   Probably with their own portraits, and probably using pre-set voices from the existing voice selections.  And probably with their own fixed attributes, race, class, along with a little background history.  But otherwise being barely a step above regular mercs.  No banter.  No personal quests.  Essentially a partially pre-made merc.  And maybe spread them around at the various inns around the region.  For example, maybe a rogue named Lily might only be found at the Salty Mast, while a ranger named Rolf might only be found in Dyrford's inn.

 

Why?

 

Because sometimes one can't come up with a character concept that floats your boat, and some of us might not like creating little merc robots that had no personality, even if that "personality" is nothing more than I list above.

 

Anyways, like I said before, I know it won't come to pass and like never would have.  But I think that it might have been a cool idea regardless.

[Crucis]

 

I won't lie, Viconia is still one of my favorite characters. I doubt that's the kind of cute the OP is looking for, though.

 

Viconia was cool. Most characters in BG games had a redeeming qualities to them.

 

Same can't be said for poor Durance -> F* ugly, F* annoying and boring religious NPC, still have to keep him around while "learning the ropes" cause hes damn useful.

 

Learn from that Obsidian! When you're going to make an NPC that most players have to stick with, at least make it a pleasant one.

 

 

Himself, without spoiling anything, religion is a major factor in PoE's storyline.  Beyond that, priests are, well, PRIESTS!!!  Of course they're going to be religious in nature!  How could they not be and still be priests?  To me, a "priest" who wasn't religious would be one without any priestly powers because his deity wouldn't bless him with those powers due to his or her lack of faith.

 

I will say that you arguably have a point about how he could be a more pleasant character.  But then again, Durance wouldn't be who he was if he was any other way.   Without going into any details, I'm not sure how well a "pleasant" priest NPC would interact with the main storyline.  In a story that didn't include so many religious elements in it, a pleasant priest would probably do just fine.

 

The thing with Durance is that he is ugly, annoying, and unpleasant.  But most people also think that he's very well written as well. 

 

Might it have been nicer to have a pleasant priest Companion?  Perhaps.  It just seems to me that the Durance character is better suited to the story PoE tells than a pleasant priest could be.

 

But if you don't like the idea of having a "religious" Companion in your party, then I'd suggest that having a Companion priest isn't going to be a good fit.

Edited April 4, 2016 by Crucis

[Crucis]

If I wanted to do an "evil" playthrough, I'd definitely go with a Skaen priest. Such a fun concept. Throw in a Bleakwalker companion and you're set.

 

Or you could play a Bleakwalker PC and use Durance as your "evil" priest, since it doesn't seem like being in a party with a Bleakwalker PC would bother him much, if at all ... though I can't speak for any of the other Companions.

[Himself]

The thing with Durance is that he is ugly, annoying, and unpleasant. But most people also think that he's very well written as well.

That hes very well written is not in question, I agree to that completely. But hes still the most annnoying NPC thus far.

 

The issues are, in no particular order:

 

1- Balance. I can ATM trade him for Aloth, Kana, Sagani or Pallegina. None of these 4 are nearly as useful as he is.

 

2- Priest class. Its a very cool class with so so many options and background, unfortunatelty its stuck campaign/story-wise with that annoying NPC. (Custom hired adventurers are ridiculous, no matter how bad Durance is, hes still a lot better than an empty, ZERO content custom created randomic priest party member.)

 

3- Durance quest. Have to carry the guy around and be constantly poking him for dialog, as if he wasn't annoying enough, devs found a way to make it worse.

 

Religious background in games or NPCs is cool,  problem is, PoE is a new and fresh setting. This whole thing with soul manipulation and animancy and gods here and there are a major reason that makes this game hard to digest, they could/should have sticked to simpler things, at least until people grow more familiar with the newly conceived setting. But alas common sense is underrated in fantasy circles. That would be discussion for another topic though.

[MonkeyLungs]

Having a second Priest NPC would be cool but there is a time constraint issue involved. That said, even though Durance is one of my favorite video game characters in a good long while, don't knock playing as the Priest. Turned out to be one of my favorite playthroughs even though I wanted more Eothasian centered dialog choices.

[Crucis]

Having a second Priest NPC would be cool but there is a time constraint issue involved. That said, even though Durance is one of my favorite video game characters in a good long while, don't knock playing as the Priest. Turned out to be one of my favorite playthroughs even though I wanted more Eothasian centered dialog choices.

 

Well, playing a priest PC is one way to get around having Durance in your party.

[Tigranes]

1- Balance. I can ATM trade him for Aloth, Kana, Sagani or Pallegina. None of these 4 are nearly as useful as he is.

 

You'll get a thousand different answers from a thousand different players on this one, but I think one thing most people will agree on is that wizards are pretty amazing. 

 

You find Durance super useful. You also don't like his particular character. It's not the end of the world and no, not everyone else in the world feels that way. If you drop him your party's not going to be utter crud, and if you keep him you don't have to talk to him.

 

How would you solve the problem, anyway? Write another priest? Then devs would have to write another wizard for those who don't like Aloth but also refuse to use custom adventure companions and also think wizards are irreplaceable. And ciphers. And...

 

I mean, if you think priests > * and Durance < *, I understand, that's how it is for you and I respect that. I just think it's not a catastrophe here and you have options available to you.

[Crucis]

 

The thing with Durance is that he is ugly, annoying, and unpleasant. But most people also think that he's very well written as well.

That hes very well written is not in question, I agree to that completely. But hes still the most annnoying NPC thus far.

 

The issues are, in no particular order:

 

1- Balance. I can ATM trade him for Aloth, Kana, Sagani or Pallegina. None of these 4 are nearly as useful as he is.

 

2- Priest class. Its a very cool class with so so many options and background, unfortunatelty its stuck campaign/story-wise with that annoying NPC. (Custom hired adventurers are ridiculous, no matter how bad Durance is, hes still a lot better than an empty, ZERO content custom created randomic priest party member.)

 

3- Durance quest. Have to carry the guy around and be constantly poking him for dialog, as if he wasn't annoying enough, devs found a way to make it worse.

 

Religious background in games or NPCs is cool,  problem is, PoE is a new and fresh setting. This whole thing with soul manipulation and animancy and gods here and there are a major reason that makes this game hard to digest, they could/should have sticked to simpler things, at least until people grow more familiar with the newly conceived setting. But alas common sense is underrated in fantasy circles. That would be discussion for another topic though.

 

 

1. Like Tigranes said, Durance is very useful TO YOU.  But others seem able to get along without him well enough.

 

2. I'm not so sure that I'd call mercs "ridiculous".  Just because you get a lot of enjoyment out of Companions doesn't mean that other players can't get along fine with silent mercs in their party.  Heck, I've often had a merc rogue in my party (particularly early in the storyline), simply because I prefer having a rogue in my parties to do traps and locks work.  Do I wish that a/the companion rogue was available a lot earlier in the story?  Sure.  But she's not, so I have to work around that absence somehow. 

 

I will say that, generally speaking, I enjoy having Companions in my party over silent mercs, but it's not the end of the world either.

 

 

3. Durance's quest is no worse than Grieving Mother's.  And depending on one's tastes and preferences, some might find her quest worse than Durance's.

 

 

As for the religious aspect of the storyline, well, it is what it is.  Would a simpler, less religious story line have been better?  Maybe.  But I think that the writers of PoE were trying for something more involved (?) or deeper (?) or more adult (?) than a simple adventure story, for better or worse.   

 

As for common sense, what you see as common sense, others may see as something else, and I'll leave it at that.

[Rosveen]

 

 

If I wanted to do an "evil" playthrough, I'd definitely go with a Skaen priest. Such a fun concept. Throw in a Bleakwalker companion and you're set.

Or you could play a Bleakwalker PC and use Durance as your "evil" priest, since it doesn't seem like being in a party with a Bleakwalker PC would bother him much, if at all ... though I can't speak for any of the other Companions.

I could, but I can't stand Durance. Besides, that post was prompted by an earlier one talking about priest PCs.

[Himself]

Given that I'm a newcomer here, and by the look of things, it appears these stones have been knocked over more than a couple times before...

 

But yeah lets say its just a ME problem, bcs trying to argue common sense with users that have been into this game for god(s) knows how long, certainly have UNbiased opinions and see common sense when presented, would be a delusional issue.

Its a good game so far but not without its problems from ground design to execution, still gonna say the same about Batman VS Superman while to some it remains a masterpiece.
(http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2975590/board/thread/255177474)

 

Anyway, yeah, opinions.