• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Pillars of Eternity |OT| You must gather your party before venturing forth.

Miletius

Member
From the posts here and elsewhere it seems that Barbarian is by far the less played class in the game. Not that surprised but I am a bit surprised by the apparent lack of Priest players. Clerics/Priests are always great in these types of games and I would definately considered it as my second option if Wizards didn't exist. And D&D types of Clerics I always have found way more fun than Paladins and AFAIK you can definately play as a ''warrior type'' Cleric even if not exactly an optimal for tanking jobs. Paladins always have seemed to me a more boring version of a ''BG type cleric''.

Any Barbarian players here? I extremely rarely play a full melee class in games like this but I would have definately taken Barb over Fighter/Paladin.

I'm going to go for a Barbarian on my second run, a PoTD/POI. I feel like he'll be a good damage dealer, and contrast the cipher I'm playing well.
 

Coxswain

Member
Whoever said you can hit enemies just fine in PotD... Yeah right.

I've done everything I can at this point to get my 2-Handed fighter to hit enemies (fine weapon, acc skill and weapon focus) and he is still not really hitting consistently.

On PotD, hitting consistently isn't just about building your own party to be accurate, but also about bringing enemy Deflection down. If you can get your Accuracy to be equal to the enemy's Deflection, you'll get a Graze-or-better 85% of the time. If you're lower than their Deflection, you'll obviously miss more, and if you can get their Deflection down 15 points lower than your Accuracy, you'll stop missing entirely.

Anything that lowers enemy Perception or Resolve will lower Deflection, 1:1.
Flanked and Prone will reduce Deflection by 10.
Stuck and Blind will reduce Deflection by 20.
Stunned reduces Deflection by 30, and Paralyze or Petrify will reduce it by 40.

Within the first two spell levels, Ciphers can apply Blind versus Fortitude, and Paralyze or Flanked versus Will. Priests can debuff all defenses and cause Prone versus Fortitude, as well as cause Stuck or directly debuff Deflection versus Will. Wizards and Druids can cause Prone and Blind versus Reflex, respectively, with first-level spells, as well as a fairly wide variety of debuffs that lower Deflection versus Will and Fortitude. Chanters have a few stuns and paralyzes, can flank using any of their summons, and have some chants that inflict Frightened to debuff Resolve by a couple points, Rogues can Blind versus Reflex, etc.

Occasionally you'll run into some motherfucker with high defense scores to Deflection, Reflex, Will, and Fortitude, but in those cases it's basically the same deal, except you start by throwing whatever you have at it until something sticks, and then you target whatever defenses are most lowered by the initial debuff to keep them gimped long enough to apply more effective Deflection-lowering debuffs.
 
cipher is hilariously overpowered but i love it. Only downside is that i have to reduce the number of companions so i dont fall asleep during battle. Which means i wont be hearing their input in the story... sigh
 

Wozzer

Member
About to begin the adventure, is there anything I should know before deep diving in? Any mod advice, configuration improvements or warnings on class balance issues would be lovely :D
 

Varna

Member
On PotD, hitting consistently isn't just about building your own party to be accurate, but also about bringing enemy Deflection down. If you can get your Accuracy to be equal to the enemy's Deflection, you'll get a Graze-or-better 85% of the time. If you're lower than their Deflection, you'll obviously miss more, and if you can get their Deflection down 15 points lower than your Accuracy, you'll stop missing entirely.

Anything that lowers enemy Perception or Resolve will lower Deflection, 1:1.
Flanked and Prone will reduce Deflection by 10.
Stuck and Blind will reduce Deflection by 20.
Stunned reduces Deflection by 30, and Paralyze or Petrify will reduce it by 40.

Within the first two spell levels, Ciphers can apply Blind versus Fortitude, and Paralyze or Flanked versus Will. Priests can debuff all defenses and cause Prone versus Fortitude, as well as cause Stuck or directly debuff Deflection versus Will. Wizards and Druids can cause Prone and Blind versus Reflex, respectively, with first-level spells, as well as a fairly wide variety of debuffs that lower Deflection versus Will and Fortitude. Chanters have a few stuns and paralyzes, can flank using any of their summons, and have some chants that inflict Frightened to debuff Resolve by a couple points, Rogues can Blind versus Reflex, etc.

Occasionally you'll run into some motherfucker with high defense scores to Deflection, Reflex, Will, and Fortitude, but in those cases it's basically the same deal, except you start by throwing whatever you have at it until something sticks, and then you target whatever defenses are most lowered by the initial debuff to keep them gimped long enough to apply more effective Deflection-lowering debuffs.

Thanks. Been figuring this out, but you just saved me some time. Probably should have paid more attention to tooltips and whatnot.

Made it to Caed Nua and I avoided as many of the enemies as I could before making to the keep. I skipped the dungeon in Gilded Vail since I know those enemies are going to be a pain in the ass without a full group. Hopefully this next segment isn't too rough.

About to begin the adventure, is there anything I should know before deep diving in? Any mod advice, configuration improvements or warnings on class balance issues would be lovely :D

I highly suggest turning on the "slow" combat option... it just feels right. Maybe it's just because I played way too many IE games but default speed is ridiculous for tactical planning. Slow speed let's you command units without having to pause all the time.

Guns seem way OP and since every class can use every weapon with the same initial proficiency there really isn't much point in using anything else for range options.
 
About to begin the adventure, is there anything I should know before deep diving in? Any mod advice, configuration improvements or warnings on class balance issues would be lovely :D

Double Speed for movement, Slow Mode for combat, and when you get gear that has +stats make sure you check your character sheet as armor bonuses don't stack. So if you have a +5 Will Chest and a +3 Will Glove on the same character, the +3 Will from the Glove will be "suppressed" and thus a waste.
 

O.DOGG

Member
So, Kana reached level 10, and I can't decide what level 3 invocation to take. The drake sounds awesome but so do the two ogres (I love that invocation name :)). My reasoning is that the drake's attack is slower, and it's only one, whereas two ogres may conceivably do more damage or engage more enemies for the same duration. What do you guys think?
 

Violet_0

Banned
So, Kana reached level 10, and I can't decide what level 3 invocation to take. The drake sounds awesome but so do the two ogres (I love that invocation name :)). My reasoning is that the drake's attack is slower, and it's only one, whereas two ogres may conceivably do more damage or engage more enemies for the same duration. What do you guys think?

I had the two ogres invocation on my last playthrough and they worked pretty okay as meatbags (useless against the Endless Paths boss) but drakes on PotD are a nightmare with their deflection and damage resistance and fire attack so I'm inclined to think they might be better
 

Kimaka

Member
cipher is hilariously overpowered but i love it. Only downside is that i have to reduce the number of companions so i dont fall asleep during battle. Which means i wont be hearing their input in the story... sigh

At the start of battle, I can easily get three enemies paralyzed before the first one's duration runs out. Once I give Grieving Mother the spell, it will get ridiculous. Loving it.
 

Coxswain

Member
So, Kana reached level 10, and I can't decide what level 3 invocation to take. The drake sounds awesome but so do the two ogres (I love that invocation name :)). My reasoning is that the drake's attack is slower, and it's only one, whereas two ogres may conceivably do more damage or engage more enemies for the same duration. What do you guys think?

Ogres are generally better, but the Drake is more 'fun'. The Ogres have ridiculously high HP (278 each, compared with the Drake's 233), and ridiculously high Accuracy (89 compared to the Drake's 71), but they're just big, dumb walls of meat. The Drake has a Fear aura (more or less an extra free chant), two uses of a Fighter's Knock Down ability, and a single use of a breath attack that's basically Fan of Flames.
 

Volodja

Member
Ogres are generally better, but the Drake is more 'fun'. The Ogres have ridiculously high HP (278 each, compared with the Drake's 233), and ridiculously high Accuracy (89 compared to the Drake's 71), but they're just big, dumb walls of meat. The Drake has a Fear aura (more or less an extra free chant), two uses of a Fighter's Knock Down ability, and a single use of a breath attack that's basically Fan of Flames.
The range on the breath attack is really low, however.
 

O.DOGG

Member
I had the two ogres invocation on my last playthrough and they worked pretty okay as meatbags (useless against the Endless Paths boss) but drakes on PotD are a nightmare with their deflection and damage resistance and fire attack so I'm inclined to think they might be better

Ogres are generally better, but the Drake is more 'fun'. The Ogres have ridiculously high HP (278 each, compared with the Drake's 233), and ridiculously high Accuracy (89 compared to the Drake's 71), but they're just big, dumb walls of meat. The Drake has a Fear aura (more or less an extra free chant), two uses of a Fighter's Knock Down ability, and a single use of a breath attack that's basically Fan of Flames.

Thanks for the input, guys. I decided to go with Urdel and Gurdel mainly because I only have one tank and my second line of shooters are squishy even though they're armored. Having ogres distract the enemies and act as meat shields may work out better.
 

jersoc

Member
so how do items that say spell hold: spell name work?

I got boots with consecrated ground, saw it go off once and that was it. figured it was once per rest, but havent seen it since.
 

Ayumi

Member
I'm inside
Raedric's Hold and went there through the sewer. Are there any other ways than up the ladder? I tried twice but got owned hard by the guys up there.. so now I feel kinda stuck. If I can't take those, who am I supposed to kill the big man?
 

Nordicus

Member
I'm inside
Raedric's Hold and went there through the sewer. Are there any other ways than up the ladder? I tried twice but got owned hard by the guys up there.. so now I feel kinda stuck. If I can't take those, who am I supposed to kill the big man?
There should several different stairs up, at least 2 others. But yeah, if you can't kill regular guards, I dunno if you can beat the quest at this point. You can stealth and talk your way to the end, but when you reach the man himself...
 

Ayumi

Member
There should several different stairs up, at least 2 others. But yeah, if you can't kill regular guards, I dunno if you can beat the quest at this point. You can stealth and talk your way to the end, but when you reach the man himself...
Thanks for your reply!

I don't really know how to properly fix my party. I have a full party but I can't find weapon or item upgrades.. everything that drops is worse than what I have and I don't know how much effort I would have to spend to use enhance to get something decent.
 

Calabi

Member
Anyone able to help me out with downsampling and this game? I'm stumped.

If your using Nvidia you have to change your desktop resolution. I dont see much point though really, it doesnt improve the graphics that greatly. It only improves the character models and the 2d visuals text looks slightly blurry at 4x.
 

GECK

Member
From the posts here and elsewhere it seems that Barbarian is by far the least played class in the game. Not that surprised but I am a bit surprised by the apparent lack of Priest players. Clerics/Priests are always great in these types of games and I would definately considered it as my second option if Wizards didn't exist. And D&D types of Clerics I always have found way more fun than Paladins and AFAIK you can definately play as a ''warrior type'' Cleric even if not exactly an optimal for tanking jobs. Paladins always have seemed to me a more boring version of a ''BG type cleric''.

Any Barbarian players here? I extremely rarely play a full melee class in games like this but I would have definately taken Barb over Fighter/Paladin.

Barbs are great, even without the overpowered bugged One Stands Alone/Jolt Shock boots(both which I did not use).

From my Hard playthrough glasscannon Brute Force/Threat Presence/Two weapon Barb, using a 6 man party the entire game where a bunch of the trash encounters were over by the time Frenzy was cast:

Enemies defeated: 1020
Total damage: 130483.5
Crits: 3124
Hits: 6614
Highest Single Target: 125.4 (Sabre)
 

Anoregon

The flight plan I just filed with the agency list me, my men, Dr. Pavel here. But only one of you!
Any Barbarian players here? I extremely rarely play a full melee class in games like this but I would have definately taken Barb over Fighter/Paladin.

i love it. i just wait for a swarm of enemies to bunch around my tank and then i switch from pistol to 2h and hit like 10 guys at once. i have a weapon that Prones on crit. Its glorious.

I was actually going to ask this same thing, so that's good to hear. I want to try a 2H character, and Barb seems like the obvious choice. I figure I'll try to get that badass greatsword in the
hidden stash by the drake in searing falls cave
ASAP.
 
The only adventurer I had in my game was a Barbarian, but I didn't enjoy using him very much. His damage output versus Eder didn't really seem to make up for his fragility versus Eder, but I was probably using him wrong.
 

Farks!

Member
So, I'm finally able to really play this game and I'm enjoying it. The only gripe I have is that you have to pay coin to learn new wizard spells. I mean, why? How the hell does that make sense?
 
So, I'm finally able to really play this game and I'm enjoying it. The only gripe I have is that you have to pay coin to learn new wizard spells. I mean, why? How the hell does that make sense?

After about the first third of the game money becomes a non-issue. Playing on hard I finished the game with 100K in the bank with probably another 50K worth of random junk in my stash. Thats after maxing out the stronghold and buying all the super expensive items and mats I wanted.
 

huxley00

Member
I'm tempted but hesitant. I loved Baldur's Gate. I thought I would love Divinity: Original Sin, but I kind of lost interest after a little while with that one (though may go back). Help push me over the edge?

I wouldn't say Divinity is the same. Plus, Divinity had a very very British humour inspired story, not everyone's cup of tea (including me). This fits a lot closer with Baldurs Gate play style and story style.
 

Farks!

Member
After about the first third of the game money becomes a non-issue. Playing on hard I finished the game with 100K in the bank with probably another 50K worth of random junk in my stash. Thats after maxing out the stronghold and buying all the super expensive items and mats I wanted.

Still, it's a bit senseless. Who or what are you paying exactly?
 

GECK

Member
I wouldn't say Divinity is the same. Plus, Divinity had a very very British humour inspired story, not everyone's cup of tea (including me). This fits a lot closer with Baldurs Gate play style and story style.

Uh, no. BGs NPCs had personality and soul. D:OS was a decent turn-based combat game and a empty-husk of writing/itemization which is basically the polar opposite of Baldur's Gate.
 

Nordicus

Member
One thing I'd really like to see is a method to back down from a fight with neutrals if you accidentally pull them into it.

I had a fight with some assassins in middle of city, and I decided to use Rolling Flame for laughs. I wasn't laughing anymore when 1 hit on a neutral animancer aggroed the whole city district against me, and I had no way of backing down from a fight without butchering the whole lot. Can't use mind magics to make them properly docile, can't hide and wait for things to cool down, can't escape to another zone in combat, can't pay off anyone, can't explain to the town guard, etc. Only option was to reload because of a single mistake. I would not mind if I had to pay a massive fine for assault, just give me an option to stop fighting
 

huxley00

Member
Uh, no. BGs NPCs had personality and soul. D:OS was a decent turn-based combat game and a empty-husk of writing/itemization which is basically the polar opposite of Baldur's Gate.

Oh, sorry, by "This" I meant Pillars of Eternity, not Divinity, I agree, Divinity's story was just a splash of paint on a tapestry, it had no meat or soul.
 

Anoregon

The flight plan I just filed with the agency list me, my men, Dr. Pavel here. But only one of you!
Still, it's a bit senseless. Who or what are you paying exactly?

The grimoire itself. It has a mind of its own and uses the coin at the brothel

flip through those pages nice and slow girl that's right
 

FlyinJ

Douchebag. Yes, me.
Can someone point me to where the Cipher companion is? I just made it to act 2 and I haven't seen one yet...
 

GDJustin

stuck my tongue deep inside Atlus' cookies
Is there much solo PotD theorycrafting happening around the net yet? Surprised there aren't more hardcore Twitch streamers giving Triple Crown a go.

I know people seem to think it's "impossible" but given a big enough pool of gamers you'll see impossible things pulled off all the time. Dark Souls beaten without leveling up, etc.

I'm not super plugged in to POE's systems or anything, but it seems like Druid would be a good pick? Lots of utility spells, a good "oh shit" button, etc.
 

Moondrop

Banned
Bought it, rolled a cleric, then spent an hour reading lore within the character creation screen to make sure my cleric's background was logically consistent. Then I went on to play and it's BG3. Glorious. Thanks GAF.
 

Violet_0

Banned
I'm not super plugged in to POE's systems or anything, but it seems like Druid would be a good pick? Lots of utility spells, a good "oh shit" button, etc.

the shapeshifting ability becomes weak midgame, it's poorly balanced

people have been successful with rogues and barbarians, one guy apparently got the triple crown achievement with a stealth rogue
 
In act 3 now and it feels a lot more disjointed than act 2. One quest left me going "buh, who cares?" (
choosing whether the bear or the cat are the champion
) and another left me wanting a "forget the pair of you" option (
kill the 'adopted' child or poison the father
) - I don't want to pick either choice, just leave them to their nonsense.

Did just kill a massive
dragon
though, which was a gnarly fight.

Ready to hit the endgame now, just hope its soon.
 

Xiraiya

Member
the shapeshifting ability becomes weak midgame, it's poorly balanced

That reminds me, are there any one handed guns in the game? I've only seen two handed ones so far.
I wanted to create a wolf druid and give him a sword and gun and turn him into the Bloodborne protagonist to see how that goes.
 
I was expecting more out of shapeshifting, like a second form or something... made me sad that I never found one.
That reminds me, are there any one handed guns in the game? I've only seen two handed ones so far.
I wanted to create a wolf druid and give him a sword and gun and turn him into the Bloodborne protagonist to see how that goes.

No. They're all two-handed.

Gotta reload somehow, right? :/
 
I like how your party members can affect side quests, like the
Grieving Mother for Blood Legacy
and
Kana for The Farmer's Plight
in Act II. I appreciated the options they gave me instead of the other ones I've heard about.

I'm still in the beginning of Act III because I haven't been able to play in a week, but it seems like it's a good thing since the game seems bugged even worse with the newest patch?



Grieving Mother for Blood Legacy
So if you don't kill the girl, Grieving Mother can save her right? I didn't really understand the wording of what the Grieving Mother said right before events went down.
 

Alavard

Member
From the posts here and elsewhere it seems that Barbarian is by far the least played class in the game. Not that surprised but I am a bit surprised by the apparent lack of Priest players. Clerics/Priests are always great in these types of games and I would definately considered it as my second option if Wizards didn't exist. And D&D types of Clerics I always have found way more fun than Paladins and AFAIK you can definately play as a ''warrior type'' Cleric even if not exactly an optimal for tanking jobs. Paladins always have seemed to me a more boring version of a ''BG type cleric''.

Any Barbarian players here? I extremely rarely play a full melee class in games like this but I would have definately taken Barb over Fighter/Paladin.

I played a Female Pale Elf Barbarian, sticking to 2h Polearms/Swords throughout the game. Loved it. She was getting a little fragile by the end of the game, but it's because I tried to keep the lightest armor I could get away with on her.
 
Grieving Mother for Blood Legacy
So if you don't kill the girl, Grieving Mother can save her right? I didn't really understand the wording of what the Grieving Mother said right before events went down.

IIRC
Grieving Mother would make the girl forget. She'd forget that she's supposed to go crazy and kill her uncle or whatever. She would forget that she was abducted by the cult of Skaen and all the subsequent horrible ritual stuff done to her. She would then be free to live her life as if it didn't happen. Far as I understand, aside from the unsavoury family stuff, she would live a decent life. It was really the best option.
 
For my second playthrough, I'm trying to figure out which class/weapon combo would have the fastest attacks. First time through I was a Aumaua Paladin wielding a great sword most of the time - slow as heck. This time through, I want something that is as fast as possible. Damage strength won't matter so much as long as I can hit and hit and hit - just to see the results. Monk maybe? Any ideas?
 
Top Bottom