Silvaren

I was bored by DOS1 vs DOS2, elemental gimmicks quickly become overused and besides of this system these games are hollow, every combat plays the same, only resistances force player to change tactics. I hated early acces of BG3 for playing too similar to DOS series. It was D:OS reskin with original sin mechanics contradicting D&D 5E ruleset. Goblins could score ciritical miss by rolling 1 on d20 and still manage to kill one of my characters, so there were instances when AC and saving throws did nothing. Everything was messed up. Larian Studios somehow fixed some parts of the game or completly changed its features and the release version was a blast. Bugs were and probably still are the biggest issue. Sometimes I noticed things like during an attack game displays animation, but combat log has no attack roll, so with animation nothing happened, action resource is used without any effect. The story is the worst part of BG3. Too many things was changed during development, even not so long prior official launch date. The story works fine when you are playing first time but even then it holds up until you start Act 3. If you replay the game, lots of plotholes came up to the point when key characters act completly nonsensical, the main goal become oposite to the main goal. I completed BG3 five times in 5 months after launch, playing only on tactician and honour mode without any cheese tactics, just utilizing D&D ruleset and some synergy with gear. I can say my relation to this game is like a redemption arc. From terrible early access, which I hated, BG3 managed to become one of my favourite games. But still, D&D 5E is too much simplified to be engaged in multiple playthroughs. Solasta did better job adapting the rules, especially with mod for multiclass. Possible build count in BG3 just quickly deplets. Ruleset is even more simplified than in p&p. The most OP things in 5E like Haste are even more powerful in BG3 (casting unlimited spells in a round, possibility to stack multiple action and bonus action and even exchange bonus action for action via illithid powers). BG3 is asymetric. Throug entire game only one enemy uses Haste by drinking single potion. Combat is just too easy even without any exploits and cheeses. Action economy is completly fracked up. BG3 is great game, but it's also bad Baldur's Gate game. It has very little in common with original series. Even Siege of Dragonspear is better as succesor to Bhaalspawn saga. I played original BG for years, thousands of hours. I didn't like what Larian did with some returning characters, while some of them like Minsc & Jaheira are great in BG3. BG3 just plays different, feels different, has different structure which block access to some powerful items until act 3, so there is a lot less metaplaning for another playthrough than it was in BG1 & BG2. Both Pillars of Eternity did better in that regard and for me PoE series is true BG successor with more interesting lore and even gameplay mechanics. I like Pathfinder games too, but they feel more like Neverwinter Nights series with more linear progression throug game world, full of invisible walls and constrains in structure with a lot of additional "tycoon" gameplay which I don't like in cRPG (yes, I know it can be turned off, but turning it off blocks some features like teleportation circles and supply of crafting items).

I'm huge fan of Wall of Many Colors and I often placed on it Pull of Eora to, well, pull back anyone who could escape this colorful line of awesomeness. Casting from stealth before combat allows to almost immediately cast second spell. Many AoE spells (like Symbol of Eothas, Ninagauth's Freezing Pillars, Storm of Holy Fire or even Delayed Fireball) and ranged attack can finish paralyzed/dominated mobs while tank can engage those, who somehow managed to escape CC effects. You can always give your tank an item to prevent forced movement effects to protect against Pull of Eora. I also like to combine Pull of Eora with Call of Rymrgand both placed ofcourse on the line of Wall of Many Colors.

There was Tunglefoot spell in the first trailer, so some flavour of druid can be used in the game.

Any chance for restoring random loot tables to the state before the latest patch? It's completly different now.

Someone put this in the chat during PoE1 stream today: "However, while Avowed will, apparently, take place shortly after the events of Deadfire, Patel says it won't narratively be connected to it. "The two storylines are very separate," she adds - as separate as the continents they take place on. "The process that Eothas sets in motion at the end of Deadfire is not an instantaneous state-change in the world," she explains. "It's something that is going to take place and slowly change the world over generations, not overnight"

Looks great: https://youtu.be/bfEdLugnpuo?si=Q6_mrZEth0gjWg4_

The latest patch bugged stun. Somehow stunned character is (sometimes) able to run while recovery time is on hold and such character can't do any action. Previously stunned characters just, well, were stunned which were unable to do anything. Right now stun icon often isn't even displayed properly and the game displays current action. I recorded short video to get some hits from phantoms (it starts around 1:20): LINK TO VIDEO

I'm sure this was reported years ago, but the game still cuts out the audio at the beginning of some voice lines.

EDIT: I'm not sure if it wasn't fixed already, but Second Wind from Athletics causes damage instead of healing to the character while Battle-Forged ability (fire godlike racial) is active.

@thelee I got my Steam Deck today. I didn't have time to getting acustom to controlls, but it's working pretty good and the game can be operated via touch screen in the same manner as android/IOS ports of Infinity Engine games. Enabling AI scripts for party would greatly improve flow of the combat. Sorry for dishwasher in the background. Steam Deck isn't that loud! I will test most of my cRPG library and put some footage - all Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, Pathfinder, Tyranny, Fallouts, Torment: Tides of Numenera, Wasteland 2 & 3, Knights of the Chalice, Gold Box series, Avernum, Age of Decadence, ToEE, NWN and more.

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2022-03-07-pillars-of-eternity-2-deadfire-no-longer-coming-to-nintendo-switch So Steam Deck (or similar hardware) will be only way to play Deadfire on the go.

Initially my Steam Deck delivery was planned for February, now it says Q2. Since it was delayed 2 months I will probably get my deck in april. I bought it mostly for playing both Pillars of Eternity games. My friend programmer played both PoE on Linux without any issue, I checked Proton DB too. Even Pathfinder games should be playable. One of youtube channel is posting gameplay footage from many games. He showed Baldur's Gate 3, Divinity: Original Sin II and will check Pillars for sure. I heard those haptic touchpads are pretty good for strategic games even RTS, so isometric RPG shouldn't be a problem while playing on the go. I even bought PoE1 on Nintendo Switch recently but I was too busy to check that port. I heard terrible things about bugs, but maybe it's better now, even if publisher won't release more patches.

Hi Is there any way to extract 2D icons from the game? I want to make a guide on my blog and dedicate it mostly for PoE1, PoE2 and Avowed in the future. It would look better with icons players are familiar with. I downloaded package of PoE1 icons from Nexus. I guess I could get most of the icons from official wiki.

As always I'm late for the party. I was playing other games since 2019 instead of focus on the series I really like the most in recent years. Anyway, I think now it's time to try my luck with SC Chanter but it can be hard without Withdraw. @Raven DarkholmeVictor, I'm watching your current playthrough with several challenges. Did you give up on Ultimate? ;< How about you,@Boeroer? I remember you mentioned that you prefer playing with party and you won't be aiming at Ultimate. Maybe something changed? There are still 2 places on the Roll of Honor iirc.

Why you argue realism in flanking mechanism while all weapon swings are made without any footwork, without constant moving forward or backward? I would say this is unrealistic and it looks like that in almost every cRPG (Kingdome Come Deliverance probably made it more realistic?)! Flanking was designed that way to fit rest of the systems in the game. It adds another tactical layer to the combat. It just works. You can't efficiently react to all enemies surrounding single character. If all of them are engaged in melee combat the one who is flanked can't efficiently react to ranged attacks either or incoming spells. It seems logical for me and realistic. Even if your low level character is flanking legendary hero - "nec Hercules contra plures". Flanking has it own set of abilities and talents which provide characters with for example better defense against flanking attempts, like One Stands Alone. There are tools to boost your acc and twist RNG for your advantage.