b0rsuk

All spells/strategies he listed work just as well (better) with a full party setup .. I know. But why obsess so much about beating the game solo on Potd ? That's a very limited way to play the game. It's like playing Nuclear Throne and only ever using the starting Revolver.

But it's not the same because pre-buffing is literally the same exact routine. In combat you may not always wish to buff as your first action, and even when you do, you may not always think the same spell is the one you should cast first. PoE is 6000% better in this regard. If we rephrase it as: "Casting all your level1, level2 spells in each non-trivial encounter", it's not really that much better.

Druids ARE more versatile when it comes to spell choice, at least "How do I up these guys". Yet, almost all their spells are either cones or ball-shaped effects. Ciphers get some zany effects, like single target damage spell that targets an ally, a spell that creates a lasting, highly damaging beam zapping stuff between your two party members. Or a spell that targets an enemy and only hurts enemies in a cone behind it. Many strange or awkward targeting rules. You can drain stats from enemies, have strong single target buff (Pain Block), damage over time, single target debuff that targets will (Fractured Volition). While ciphers are psionics and that's not unheard of, they seemed to have went out of their way to make their abilities as non-traditional as possible (when it comes to mechanics). Note that you can recruit both cipher and druid as companions in act 2. How to roleplay a Cipher ? That's EASY. Start each of your sentence with "My mind...", just like the companion cipher does. She only knows two topics of conversation, and you can guess the other one from her name. She's like a 15 year who only talks about the size of his ****. There is 1 (one) druid-specific dialog option in the game.

Unfortunately, true. What's worse, they went out of their way to make level1 spells pretty good and relevant even in late game. And then, they applied D&D thinking to them ! "Here, you can now cast these spells per encounter, because they're weak." But they are NOT ! You just went out of your way to make them relevant, remember ? Charm Beasts is level1, Hold Beasts is level2. Guess what creatures count as beast ? DRAGONS.

Shouldn't you guys, like, play Diablo instead ? There are so many solo action-RPG games, why insist on PoE ?

Because it's inspired by D&D, Pillars of Eternity still falls into the trap of giving many more abilities to casters than any other kind of class. Fighters get a few and it's MUCH more than the 0 they have in Baldur's Gate. Monks are a bit better (if you like micromanagement), can use their abilities more often, but ultimately don't have that many active skills. I wouldn't like a cliched Archer class with abilities like hail or arrows, triple arrow, fire arrow, blinding arrow... That's trying too hard. Those are arrow spells, not abilities an archer could learn and use effectively. Ultimately an archer is just someone who shoots a bow and all you can really do is aim better.

You are obsessing over invocations, as if the class was called Invoker, not chanter. It's a bard replacement. It's meant to be passive for the most part. The "best case" scenario - best case for you, that is - ends up with Chanters crossing the line from passive support to casters. And then... someone will have to come up with a new bard substitute. Why do you act like phrases do nothing ? -10% damage dealt is not bad for a first level phrase, and stays good in late. If it sticks on Adra Dragon, that's -6 damage per hit. Endless Host is -10 enemy accuracy. Sure-Handed Ila is about +20% firing speed. Seven Men - lightning, freeze(+10DR!) and prone resistance. There's a chant with +25% fire damage lash for the entire party. And you don't use a single chant at a time, unless you REALLY want a very specific bonus. Chant linger time is half of the duration at base, so if you use chants of the same level... ########xxxx ########xxxx ########xxxx ########xxxx It becomes clear half of the time you have two chants at the same time. On average, 1.5 chants at the same time.

Ogres would make more sense, they are tolerated in Twin Elms. They would be hard to balance, though. Xaurips are routinely slaughtered by adventurers en-massage. If you suddenly start treating them as fully worthy races (for the lack of a better word), moral implications are huge. There is one xaurip you can be friendly to in the first ruin, and in Raga's encampment. Both xaurips and ogres belong to the 'wilder' group. I think this suggests they're barely civilized. Either way, peaceful contact with them is very hard. Ogres can easily attack and kill other races, and xaurips the opposite - they're too easily victimized. But I would like ogres or xaurips as a faction you can be friendly to if you like.

I don't know about that. Do either of them take a -15 accuracy penalty for using ranged weapons, as rangers take a -15 penalty for using melee weapons? That penalty is a pretty nasty hit to any ranger's effectiveness in melee, IMO. Why do you keep repeating that ? You've already been corrected in another thread. There is no -15 penalty for using melee weapons. There probably was at some point. Don't rely on the outdated wiki. Fighter and Barbarian are literally the worst classes for ranged combat. Even Paladins can do crazy single target damage for a few attacks. A monk can use Dangerous Implement talent, Swift Strikes, Lightning Strikes, Turning Wheel, maybe Stunning Blow.

Actually, rangers have a number of abilities that work in melee. All animal companion abilities. Swift Aim, Marked Prey, Wounding Shot, Binding Roots. Only Vicious Aim and Stunning Arrows don't work, as far as I know. Ranged fighters and barbarians are in a worse position.

Surely ranged fighter must be better than a ranged ranger ? ;]

Any sufficiently advanced piece of fan art is indistinguishable from official concept art. Can someone recommend me video capture software for Linux?

With Constant Recovery, you might decide to do something crazy like Dangerous Implement. You know, it might just work. I'd test knockdown with ranged weapons first. For when you are ambushed, you have Clear Out.

Many, many characters in this game don't react to godlikes.