I"m running into an early game issue where my characters don't seem to be able to climb or descend staircases.  No icon appears above these locations but I know that they must be usable considering most walkthroughs I"ve seen show these locations being used.  Currently I've made it to the Old Watcher mission but am now trapped storywise because I cannot enter the basement.  I've run into a similar issue when trying to infiltrate the castle of the Lord of the first town.  I can enter the castle fine but once I'm in a room that requires that I go up or down I'm stuck on that floor.  Help?

Verify the game installation:

Steam -> Library -> Right Click PoE -> Properties -> Local Files -> Verify integrity of game cache

GOG Galaxy -> Righ Click PoE in the left column -> Manage installation -> Verify / Repair

 

Upload a savegame and the output_log to dropbox.com or sendspace.com.

Where to get those files: http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/72439-must-read-how-to-report-an-issue/