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[infi]

Crazy person update, at least 2 people on Reddit are now claiming to have gotten triple crown solo legitimately. http://www.reddit.com/r/projecteternity/comments/31hoha/am_i_the_first_solo_triple_crown/ I'm still stuck trying to find a way past 5300 XP with a barbarian. I have these four problems:

Spoiler

Can't kill wolves in Valewood reliably (wouldn't get level 4 even if I could).
Can't kill single guard at top of Raedric's Keep reliably.
Can't kill anything in dungeon of Raedric's Keep, so that path is out.
Can't figure out a way to get another 3000+ gold for the figurine unless it's trying to kill tons of NPCs, something I'd really like to avoid.

from the reddit comments
"I did stupid things like stealth up to doors between enemies to open them, pray I didn't get knocked down or stunned before I could shadow and run through and make it far enough to not get dumpstered."

So he used a Rogue and avoided fights where he could. Will be interesting to see if you can manage it with Barbarian.

 

[Rawket Lawnchair]

BTW, for people who think the map is too small, it may be, but the game in and of itself is pretty big. Steam says 63 hours, but the first 10 was idling due to having to do stuff around the house the first couple of days after release.

For someone who plays on harder difficulties, decides to take it easy, read all books and generally immerse themselves in the lore, a playthrough can easily clock 100 hours.

Although admittedly, a lot of the game consists of annoying backtracking and many fetch and go-talk-to-that-person quests that no matter how much Durante disagrees calling them that and sugar-coats them as golden RPG goodness, remain simple fetch and go-talk-to-that-person-again quests.

 

[Rhaknar]

ok that first dungeon (in the first town you go to) was fun, more of this please.

any other sidequests around I should worry about or should I move on with the story? im quite OCD with sidequests

edit: well just found one in the blacksmith

 

[Nordicus]

Damn, still can't assign level 1 spells to my recruited character for some reason, but I also noticed that they nerfed Spirit Shield from +10 DR to +3. I hardly knew thee, +10 DR for 60 seconds level 1 spell. Your secret OPness will die undiscovered.

What? No, Spirit Shield was always +3 DR, +30 Concentration. I'm still playing with the unpatched version (and will keep going until I'm hit with something severe, or GOG gets the hotfix)

You're probably thinking of Bulwark Against The Elements?

 

[Haunted]

Micromanaging Monk attacks every single turn is pretty annoying, game could use a "automatically use this ability as the standard attack if you have enough wounds available" setting or something.

 

[GordonHalfman]

So they might have gone a bit far with the Brilliant Radiance nerf. I have a 23 might priest with Scion of Flame and it does like 5 damage. Halving and doubling strikes again. Searing seal also took a hefty nerf. I guess that one was needed though.

Something cool I noticed if your weapon has an on crit proc like knockdown it applies when you crit with carnage attacks, which doesn't happen that often but is still nice. Barb seems pretty op in general, mine has total damage output almost as high as everyone else put together. (Which is sort of expected since she's the main AoE damage dealer with adventurer stats, but still pretty striking.)

Another random thing I noticed, the Penetrating Shot feat works with some spells that do physical damage. I'm not sure what the condition is exactly but I know it works with the Cipher's Mind Blades and Spirit Lance, and the Wizards missile spells. It's only 5 extra damage but it might be worth it, especially for the Cipher if you're using it with a Blunderbuss anyway.

I still can't decide whether to go with GM or Alothn for my party. I think I like the Wizard spell list better. Part of the problem is the Cipher's single target spells feel a bit pointless in the game up to now, since the majority of encounters have tons of enemies. Like the dominate spell for example is usually good in rpgs but here you're spending 5 seconds to dominate one out of twelve enemies when could just be spamming mind blades. Part of the problem is I skipped her Mental Binding spell at level 2 because I was trying to be different, I might just go back for it.

I actually like her Phantom Foes spell, the AoE is huge, it gives you sneak attacks on everyone if you have a rogue and I think the deflection debuff stacks with other status effects like blindness. Another underrated spell I like for the same reason is Miasma of Dull Mindedness, the stat penalties add up to -20 deflection, (as well as -40 will, -20 reflex, -30 concentration) and it also stacks with status debuffs. You can debuff enemy deflection down to nothing with a few spells.

 

[Rhaknar]

are there any guides for this already? kinda dont want to miss out on any quests

I think im done in Gilded Vale, I did

Spoiler

the dungeon there and the quest inside, I found the dog pet (I dont know if thats a quest but I have him out now just in case), I got a quest from the blacksmith and a quest from the a lady in a house who is the sister of the warrior lady from the start of the game. Oh and I did something else but they called it a "task" where I resolved the feud between the mill guy and some dwarves

My posse is the

Spoiler

wizard guy who was being acosted

, and the

Spoiler

warrior dude by the tree

. Did I miss anything?

 

[Randomizer123454444]

I have played the game for few hours now. At first I had hard time getting into it. I tried immediately to go into the dungeon below first town and I had incredibly hard time there.. somehow I managed to clear it, but I thought that was an indication on the difficulty of the game. Then I realized that I shouldn't be afraid to explore. I was too stuck in the old "clear one area completely, then move on" to see that I can come simply back when I am more beefy. There are plenty of areas I can go to. I just got the stronghold. It feels a bit empty but I'm starting to get into stride! Having a full party (my char + 4npc + 1 hired guy) really helps.

I am a bit confused though... my priest has this once per encounter ability (brilliant radiance?). It says "friendly AoE" and "foe AoE". Foe AOE does damage? But I haven't found HOW I can do damage with it? I can only heal my party members. Is it a talent unlock or am I simply missing something?

 

[Sir Garbageman]

The good loot are in the container next to her. She drops nothing worthwhile If remember well but the building becomes a inn after you solve the quest.

Crap I did not know that. Anything interesting unwithin the inn?

 

[Nordicus]

Another underrated spell I like for the same reason is Miasma of Dull Mindedness, the stat penalties add up to -20 deflection, (as well as -40 will, -20 reflex, -30 concentration) and it also stacks with status debuffs. You can debuff enemy deflection down to nothing with a few spells.

Yeah, it's great. For whatever reason I used to remember that spell lowering 10 of each defense type but the effect is much more effective than that, so I've been using it more often since figuring out the proper numbers

I am a bit confused though... my priest has this once per encounter ability (brilliant radiance?). It says "friendly AoE" and "foe AoE". Foe AOE does damage? But I haven't found HOW I can do damage with it? I can only heal my party members. Is it a talent unlock or am I simply missing something?

The spell does damage to Vessels, aka undead with bodies. It's a group-heal and D&D Turn Undead wrapped in one ability, kind of.

 

[Randdalf]

I'm having a hard time geting into this game; I've never played something like it before. It's not that I'm not enjoying the world/story/presentation etc, I'm just a bit overwhelmed by the combat system for two reasons: I haven't fully grasped (or looked much into) how all the damage types/stats work; and the sheer number of spells on Durance, right off the bat, (and those available to Aloth when he levels up) is making it difficult for me to know which one I should use in which situation.

 

[Randomizer123454444]

Yeah, it's great. For whatever reason I used to remember that spell lowering 10 of each defense type but the effect is much more effective than that, so I've been using it more often since figuring out the proper numbers The spell does damage to Vessels, aka undead with bodies. It's a group-heal and D&D Turn Undead wrapped in one ability, kind of.

Aaah, thank you for the clarification. I guess I need to read the descriptions better

 

[Atraveller]

are there any guides for this already? kinda dont want to miss out on any quests

I think im done in Gilded Vale, I did

Spoiler

the dungeon there and the quest inside, I found the dog pet (I dont know if thats a quest but I have him out now just in case), I got a quest from the blacksmith and a quest from the a lady in a house who is the sister of the warrior lady from the start of the game. Oh and I did something else but they called it a "task" where I resolved the feud between the mill guy and some dwarves

My posse is the

Spoiler

wizard guy who was being acosted

, and the

Spoiler

warrior dude by the tree

. Did I miss anything?

There's a "find missing cook for inn" task.

 

[Rhaknar]

There's a "find missing cook for inn" task.

Isn't that the dwarf I rescued in the previous zone?

 

[ViviOggi]

Is there some kind of shortcut to leave Od Nua or will I have to go through all these loading screens again?

 

[Nordicus]

Feargus Urquhart talks a bit about the upcoming expansion in a PCGamer interview

Speaking of expansions, can you give us any details on what might be coming in the future?

Sure. So, with the Kickstarter we announced that we were going to do an expansion, and so how we're approaching that is to actually do the expansion in two parts, and have one part out sooner than the other part. The idea being that people are really enjoying Pillars right now and they're going to get finished their first or second playthrough within in the next two weeks, a month, something like that. And so, we definitely want there to be content for them to enjoy and I think we're going to be talking about that pretty soon. I don't think we've released anything specifically, but it really ends up being this concept of this story that expands parts of what you would see in those sort of old school expansions we made for Icewind Dale and Baldur's Gate. So not just these three, four hour downloadable DLCs, but definitely big chunks of a story and a new hub to go to and things like that.

So that's kind of how we're really approaching it, like we've done with Eternity throughout is this idea of, these games kind of went away but not for a reason they should have. The industry shifted to so much console with this idea that PC wasn't so much of a gaming platform, which I know no one thinks that anymore. So, back then when you got an expansion you got this meaty thing with hours and hours of gameplay. And that's really what we're trying to do. So, while we're splitting it in two, it is like one continual story that people get to play.

 

[JC Sera]

nice

 

[cripterion]

Feargus Urquhart talks a bit about the upcoming expansion in a PCGamer interview

Thanks for posting. A continuation to the story sounds great.

 

[Cerity]

who's idea was it to put the latest stronghold updates on the bottom of the log?

 

[Chaos17]

I'm having a hard time geting into this game; I've never played something like it before. It's not that I'm not enjoying the world/story/presentation etc, I'm just a bit overwhelmed by the combat system for two reasons: I haven't fully grasped (or looked much into) how all the damage types/stats work; and the sheer number of spells on Durance, right off the bat, (and those available to Aloth when he levels up) is making it difficult for me to know which one I should use in which situation.

I advice you to read the manual, it explains the basics about the stats.
You can always lower the dificulty until you feel confortable enough with your party to go higher.

 

[Durante]

Although admittedly, a lot of the game consists of annoying backtracking and many fetch and go-talk-to-that-person quests that no matter how much Durante disagrees calling them that and sugar-coats them as golden RPG goodness, remain simple fetch and go-talk-to-that-person-again quests.

Again, if other, lesser developers created "fetch quests" which are as well-backed by lore, conversation options, storytelling, and unique content I wouldn't complain about them

Take the "fetch quest" were you get the piece of the

Spoiler

Godhammer

from

Spoiler

Searing Falls

. Not only is that

Spoiler

cave

unique to that quest, it also features a

Spoiler

unique boss battle

. And afterwards, you get an awesome dialogue with

Spoiler

Durance

(if he is in your party) looking into some of the historical background on the

Spoiler

Godhammer

and his "unique" perspective on it. And when you bring it back, you still need to talk to

Spoiler

Fyrga

in the right way in order to have her

Spoiler

regain her faith and light the fires, ultimately resulting in an understandably huge boost to Defiance Bay reputation

. Or you can tell her what you actually think

(I think the last time you brought this up I replied similarly with an entirely different quest. In most RPGs, I can't even remember the names of places or people in a "fetch quest" 2 hours later. So, if you want, call it sugar coating, I know that it's not. RPGs are not -- or at least should not be -- purely mechanical)

Edit: one thing I forgot: it also helps when the battles you fight during that quest are actually mechanically interesting, with good encounter design and tactical gameplay.

 

[Atraveller]

Isn't that the dwarf I rescued in the previous zone?

I think so, I got the task from the inn keeper, though when I went back, he's already dead.

 

[Violet_0]

so what does the generic armor DR (not specific damage types like slashing or elements) actually do?

 

[Remmy2112]

so what does the generic armor DR (not specific damage types like slashing or elements) actually do?

Reduces the damage taken by the listed amount, though it can never reduce the damage to 0, apparently.

 

[questionmark]

Isn't that the dwarf I rescued in the previous zone?

There's also another quest/task in the previous zone that ends in Gilded Vale.

Spoiler

Kill the bear

 

[Violet_0]

Reduces the damage taken by the listed amount, though it can never reduce the damage to 0, apparently.

never mind, I just figured it out
when the armor has, say - DR 8 (piercing 9, fire 3) - it means it's better against piercing and worse against fire
and it only took me roughly 80 or so hours

 

[AcAnchoa]

So I managed to pass that combat of yesterday. Now I'm stuck at another one where half my party dies at the begining because of history's most epic thunderstorm.

This is it, I'll go down to easy if I can't win this in a few more tries. I still don't know how I have been able to finish act one in hard.

 

[JC Sera]

never mind, I just figured it out
when the armor has, say - DR 8 (piercing 9, fire 3) - it means it's better against piercing and worse against fire
and it only took me roughly 80 or so hours

Well if it makes you feel better it took me your post to figure out EACH CHARACTER CAN HAVE A TRAP

 

[Purkake4]

What's the level cap? I'm at the beginning of Act II and I'm already level 5.

 

[justsomeguy]

Currently 8 levels below my stronghold. Have to echo a previous post and say fuck

Spoiler

fampyrs

, one in particular

Spoiler

and all his friends

 

[justsomeguy]

Well if it makes you feel better it took me your post to figure out EACH CHARACTER CAN HAVE A TRAP

Ugh, I only just realised from your post. Sigh.

 

[EndcatOmega]

Thanks for posting. A continuation to the story sounds great.

I think he means more both parts of the Expansion will have the same story rather than a continuation of the main quest?

 

[infi]

What's the level cap? I'm at the beginning of Act II and I'm already level 5.

12, I reached it early in act 3

 

[jim2point0]

Currently 8 levels below my stronghold. Have to echo a previous post and say fuck

Spoiler

fampyrs

, one in particular

Spoiler

and all his friends

That fight was rough for me as well.... mostly because I have no idea how to prevent my guys from being charmed. That fucked me up constantly on that floor. I had to rest 3 times before clearing it, which is a sign that I need to improve my party before taking on the 9th floor.

 

[EndcatOmega]

Charm seems really strong for both you and foes; the main problem on your side is that you don't get the priest defence spell against it till level 11, and most other 'stop afflictions' abilities don't work on charmed friends because they count as enemies.

 

[Nordicus]

Spoiler

Holy shit ogres are badass! When they can prone 3 of my melee characters at once with their sweep and then deal 30 damage per hit, there's not much I can do. Sorry Pallegina, but you're going to have to tank these guys on your own. Rest of the group's gonna be ranged, save for Itumaak

I put an anti-Wilder enchantment on Sagani's unique hunting bow to make them go down a bit quicker.

Was not prepared for the greeting I got in Searing Falls either.

Spoiler

"Okay, I've now arrived, let's quicksave an- OHMYWHAT A DRAKE PATROLS HERE? Quick, Aloth, interrupt that drake's Fan of Flames before our asses are toast!"

 

[EndcatOmega]

Spoiler

Holy shit ogres are badass! When they can prone 3 of my melee characters at once with their sweep and then deal 30 damage per hit, there's not much I can do. Sorry Pallegina, but you're going to have to tank these guys on your own. Rest of the group's gonna be ranged, save for Itumaak

I put an anti-Wilder enchantment on Sagani's unique hunting bow to make them go down a bit quicker.

Was not prepared for the greeting I got in Searing Falls either.

Spoiler

"Okay, I've now arrived, let's quicksave an- OHMYWHAT A DRAKE PATROLS HERE? Quick, Aloth, interrupt that drake's Fan of Flames before our asses are toast!"

Floor 3 is probably the hardest floor till like, 8, so there's that.

 

[Alrus]

Spoiler

Holy shit ogres are badass! When they can prone 3 of my melee characters at once with their sweep and then deal 30 damage per hit, there's not much I can do. Sorry Pallegina, but you're going to have to tank these guys on your own. Rest of the group's gonna be ranged, save for Itumaak

I put an anti-Wilder enchantment on Sagani's unique hunting bow to make them go down a bit quicker.

Was not prepared for the greeting I got in Searing Falls either.

Spoiler

"Okay, I've now arrived, let's quicksave an- OHMYWHAT A DRAKE PATROLS HERE? Quick, Aloth, interrupt that drake's Fan of Flames before our asses are toast!"

Had to kinda cheese the "boss" fight of that level, I tried taking all the enemies in the room at once and would consistently wipe (damn druids :/) so I ended up pulling only the druid and one other without the boss and guards, which made the fight a lot more manageable.

Also abusing the Cipher ability that paralyze to pretty much lock out one big monster for a long time make fights much easier (except when it whiffs).

 

[Melchior]

Just a question for those who have finished the game. When you beat it can you explore the world after the game ends or does a ng+ start?

 

[EndcatOmega]

Spoiler

Neither. It ends. The game makes a 'before the point of no return' save for you though.

edit: not sure this really needs a spoiler but can't hurt.

 

[Melchior]

Spoiler

Neither. It ends. The game makes a 'before the point of no return' save for you though.

edit: not sure this really needs a spoiler but can't hurt.

Okay thanks.

 

[Shaldome]

Currently 8 levels below my stronghold. Have to echo a previous post and say fuck

Spoiler

fampyrs

, one in particular

Spoiler

and all his friends

Well you do not have to fight the one in particular. He drops a nice breast plate though.

 

[Sir Garbageman]

Playing on hard and have been on cruise control from the middle of Act 2 to the beginning of Act 3 until

Spoiler

I got challenged by Raedric for a rematch

. Holy shit what a fun / tough fight. Took me a bunch of tries and had to pull out all the stops to finally claim victory. Basically ended the fight with just Eder and Kana standing. Had to summon 3 sets of ogres to finish the job. Damn.

Random question concerning the Endless Paths Floor 8.

Spoiler

Can someone summarize or point me in the right direction as to what that fampyr guarding the stairs reveals? I think my gamed bugged out a little bit. He asked me to clear out his buddies, but I never got a quest notification and even though I did I could never engage him in dialogue again. Ended up just attacking and killing him and all his buds, but I am very curious if he says anything interesting.

 

[Labadal]

I saw this linked in the rpgcodex PoE thread.
PC Gamer interview

Speaking of expansions, can you give us any details on what might be coming in the future?

Sure. So, with the Kickstarter we announced that we were going to do an expansion, and so how we're approaching that is to actually do the expansion in two parts, and have one part out sooner than the other part. The idea being that people are really enjoying Pillars right now and they're going to get finished their first or second playthrough within in the next two weeks, a month, something like that. And so, we definitely want there to be content for them to enjoy and I think we're going to be talking about that pretty soon. I don't think we've released anything specifically, but it really ends up being this concept of this story that expands parts of what you would see in those sort of old school expansions we made for Icewind Dale and Baldur's Gate. So not just these three, four hour downloadable DLCs, but definitely big chunks of a story and a new hub to go to and things like that.
So that's kind of how we're really approaching it, like we've done with Eternity throughout is this idea of, these games kind of went away but not for a reason they should have. The industry shifted to so much console with this idea that PC wasn't so much of a gaming platform, which I know no one thinks that anymore. So, back then when you got an expansion you got this meaty thing with hours and hours of gameplay. And that's really what we're trying to do. So, while we're splitting it in two, it is like one continual story that people get to play.

Do you have any plans for an Eternity tabletop RPG or anything like that? I mean, you created this new world and all this new lore, do you see that expanding out to other media?

Absolutely. So, actually one of the things we're going to announce very soon, I don't even know if I talked about it. Not in the latest backer update but the next backer update, we're definitely going to talk about how we're going to be Kickstarting... not us, but another group is going to be Kickstarting a Pillars of Eternity card game. This isn't like a CCG or anything like that, but it's more just a fun, kind of, four people get around and play a single session card game. You have heros, and you have a village, and all that kind of stuff, and you can take your heroes into a dungeon, and you can also take your heroes and armies and attack your friends while they're playing, so it's kind a very fun card game and it's actually designed by Chris Taylor. Not... there's two Chris Taylors. [Laughs] It's Chris Taylor, a friend of mine for many many years who was the lead designer of Fallout.
So, that's the first thing we're really looking at, and also, absolutely on the tabletop roleplaying. We're not sure yet how we're going to do it, we were kind of going back and forth on, do we use the game's rules, do we use someone else's rules, do we come up with another set of rules? And it's something we're going to be talking [about] soon. But absolutely, we want to expand. New books, roleplaying, all that kind of stuff.

 

[EndcatOmega]

Playing on hard and have been on cruise control from the middle of Act 2 to the beginning of Act 3 until

Spoiler

I got challenged by Raedric for a rematch

. Holy shit what a fun / tough fight. Took me a bunch of tries and had to pull out all the stops to finally claim victory. Basically ended the fight with just Eder and Kana standing. Had to summon 3 sets of ogres to finish the job. Damn.

Random question concerning the Endless Paths Floor 8.

Spoiler

Can someone summarize or point me in the right direction as to what that fampyr guarding the stairs reveals? I think my gamed bugged out a little bit. He asked me to clear out his buddies, but I never got a quest notification and even though I did I could never engage him in dialogue again. Ended up just attacking and killing him and all his buds, but I am very curious if he says anything interesting.

Spoiler

There's no quest notification, you just clear out the rest of the level and he lets you pass. He just gives some minor titbits about the Engwithans and Od Nua and how a rebellion came down here to stop their experiments (which he gleefully describes as awful).

 

[Kinthalis]

I saw this linked in the rpgcodex PoE thread.
PC Gamer interview

So getting that card game!

 

[Conezays]

I saw this linked in the rpgcodex PoE thread.
PC Gamer interview

Too much goodness to take in. Ahh....

 

[Durante]

I saw this linked in the rpgcodex PoE thread.
PC Gamer interview

Neat interview. I'm not interested in the card game, but I didn't know that they are splitting the expansion in two. I think I like it.

 

[EndcatOmega]

Neat interview. I'm not interested in the card game, but I didn't know that they are splitting the expansion in two. I think I like it.

13-16 in one, 17-20 in the other half sounds about right.

 

[Purkake4]

13-16 in one, 17-20 in the other half sounds about right.

Really hoping for one that is tight and story-focused like Mask of the Betrayer.