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[Fantastapotamus]

So, I'm curious what other RPG fans here think about this: You know how in most cRPG games you can get, let's say, 8 companions but can only have 5 of them with you? Why is that?
Cause I feel like this severely limits the capability of the writers. I know this allows the player more customisation but I'm not sure if it is worth it. If the writers always knew which characters are in your party at any point, the interaction between those characters could be much more interesting than it is at this point.

Yes in PoE characters will from time to time talk to each other but it's not really about relevant things. To me the story of my party is always much more interesting then the story of the world around them. And I'm kinda sad that I feel little to no connection to most of my party members in PoE.

In NWN 2 the first people to join your party after the tutorial were a sassy rogue and a noble elf and it lead to some great interaction between those two, because they reacted to choices you made. Those were possible cause the game KNEW they were in my party at this point. And ultimately one of those two left me cause I always sided with the other. She didn't even turn on me, she was just like "Look, you never listen to me anyway I'm gonna leave your party and stay here, okay?" That's great. That's just great. I can't tell you a thing about the story in NWN 2 but I still remember who turned against me during the last fight. (Sand you asshole).
When I played Mass Effect 1 for the first time I was kinda shocked, cause none of my party members would really talk to each other, something BW did in Dragon Age and Kotor so I just kinda asumed it'll be here as well. There was just no conflict, at any point. They didn't care whether I killed or helped the spider aliens. Oh, they SAID "I would do this" but wouldn't react in any way when I did the opposite. That's....lame.

And I get it, obviously. PoE was made with 4 million dollar. That's nothing for an RPG of this size. So I can't criticize the game too much, I'm just curious what you people think about this in general. Would you accept a cRPG that dictates who is in your party the entire time but in return could focus more on interactions and conflicts between your party members? I know I would.

 

[Red Arremer]

So I don't know if my game is bugged or not

Spoiler

I'm currently in sewers of raederic's and can't open a door on the east side of the map, I went up the ladder and killed the guards but couldn't pass through there either. I checked online and some people keep referring priest Osyra but she's not in the room she's supposed to be in (the one with all the tombs that was guarded by a bunch of enemies). Did I miss something or will I have to brute force my way in?

Spoiler

Some of the doors can only be opened by the master key you get from the priest that's locked in the Temple floor. The animancer, though, is not in the room with the tombs, she's in the room bordering the one with the weird green test tube and bench that looks like it's straight out of Frankenstein. But you can move around without the key, too.

 

[Nohar]

I got a nice surprise at the end that didn't happen on my last playthrough

Spoiler

Skaen showed up and tried to convince me to give the souls to Woedica. Now I wonder if Wael only appears when you do his act 2 sidequest in the 'correct' way

I actually wonder what is the trigger which prompts

Spoiler

Skaen to appear

. For

Spoiler

Wael, I assume he will always appears, unless you are right and it is required to do correctly his quest during Act 2, or complete our dear Druid's quest and make him believe in Wael over Galawain

.

 

[Violet_0]

I actually wonder what is the trigger which prompts

Spoiler

Skaen to appear

. For

Spoiler

Wael, I assume he will always appears, unless you are right and it is required to do correctly his quest during Act 2, or complete our dear Druid's quest and make him believe in Wael over Galawain

.

Spoiler

on my second playthrough I didn't have GM with me in the temple so I let the cultists go through with their plan (still killed them afterwards). Pretty sure that was the trigger

 

[Nohar]

Spoiler

on my second playthrough I didn't have GM with me in the temple so I let the cultists go through with their plan (still killed them afterwards). Pretty sure that was the trigger

I'm afraid you are wrong,

Spoiler

because I stopped the cultists, and Skaen still appeared during the ending. On a side note, I guess you just gave me the perfect solution for this quest, since I didn't bring GM along when doing it

.
To be honest, I'm quite puzzled myself, since my character was an angel during all my playthrough and her reputations were mainly good ones (heck, I reached Benevolent 4!).
At this point, I'm afraid only Wael knows the answer to this riddle.

 

[Violet_0]

I'm afraid you are wrong,

Spoiler

because I stopped the cultists, and Skaen still appeared during the ending. On a side note, I guess you just gave me the perfect solution for this quest, since I didn't bring GM along when doing it

.
To be honest, I'm quite puzzled myself, since my character was an angel during all my playthrough and her reputations were mainly good ones (heck, I reached Benevolent 4!).
At this point, I'm afraid only Wael knows the answer to this riddle.

nah, I already assumed that

Spoiler

killing the cultists has no consequences and isn't acknowledged by the game e: oops, misread your post. Maybe healing the girl will lock you out from having the conversation, or perhaps your reputation

as a side note, my character is probably the worst priest of Berath ever but then again the game never gave me unique dialog options regarding my class or deity, so eh

I've seen a few Eothas pieces of dialogue.

clearly, I'm worshiping the wrong god

 

[Xiraiya]

nah, I already assumed that

Spoiler

killing the cultists has no consequence and isn't acknowledged by the game

as a side note, my character is probably the worst priest of Berath ever but then again the game never gave me unique dialog options regarding my class or deity, so eh

I've seen a few Eothas pieces of dialogue.

 

[Treechopper]

First cRPG ever and I can tell it's not quite my cup of tea, but I'm really digging the experience. Leaving a lot up to the imagination while still guiding you with the visuals is super interesting. Don't know how long I'll make it, but I'm really glad Obsidian got the full price sale from me.

I don't think so. You can't transition to a new area while in combat, and enemies chase rather intently from what I've seen.

I outran a

Spoiler

forest troll

and it halted combat. They do chase you intently, but as long as nobody in your party has died and the enemy is outside the fog of war you should be able to escape.

 

[Verdre]

And I get it, obviously. PoE was made with 4 million dollar. That's nothing for an RPG of this size. So I can't criticize the game too much, I'm just curious what you people think about this in general. Would you accept a cRPG that dictates who is in your party the entire time but in return could focus more on interactions and conflicts between your party members? I know I would.

I don't see why having whoever you want in your party would restrict anything as all they have to do is a simple check. Like in BG2: Have Korgan and Mazzie in your party and you have some great banter or Viconia and Aerie. The banter can really change up thanks to that. If anything, I'd argue having the game dictate who you must have in your party actually lessens the replay value, as you'll get all the companion banter on your first play through, while in a game where you decide who is in your party you can have different banter on multiple play throughs.

(I'd also argue that there's no connection to the PoE companions simply because most of them just aren't memorable at all.)

 

[Alastor3]

So, I'm curious what other RPG fans here think about this: You know how in most cRPG games you can get, let's say, 8 companions but can only have 5 of them with you? Why is that?
Cause I feel like this severely limits the capability of the writers. I know this allows the player more customisation but I'm not sure if it is worth it. If the writers always knew which characters are in your party at any point, the interaction between those characters could be much more interesting than it is at this point.

Yes in PoE characters will from time to time talk to each other but it's not really about relevant things. To me the story of my party is always much more interesting then the story of the world around them. And I'm kinda sad that I feel little to no connection to most of my party members in PoE.

In NWN 2 the first people to join your party after the tutorial were a sassy rogue and a noble elf and it lead to some great interaction between those two, because they reacted to choices you made. Those were possible cause the game KNEW they were in my party at this point. And ultimately one of those two left me cause I always sided with the other. She didn't even turn on me, she was just like "Look, you never listen to me anyway I'm gonna leave your party and stay here, okay?" That's great. That's just great. I can't tell you a thing about the story in NWN 2 but I still remember who turned against me during the last fight. (Sand you asshole).
When I played Mass Effect 1 for the first time I was kinda shocked, cause none of my party members would really talk to each other, something BW did in Dragon Age and Kotor so I just kinda asumed it'll be here as well. There was just no conflict, at any point. They didn't care whether I killed or helped the spider aliens. Oh, they SAID "I would do this" but wouldn't react in any way when I did the opposite. That's....lame.

And I get it, obviously. PoE was made with 4 million dollar. That's nothing for an RPG of this size. So I can't criticize the game too much, I'm just curious what you people think about this in general. Would you accept a cRPG that dictates who is in your party the entire time but in return could focus more on interactions and conflicts between your party members? I know I would.

As I remember in Baldur's Gate 1, the story was really centered around you, in fact everything was centered around your character, the story, the companion and the NPC.

It seems it's the same thing with POE. I agree with you that I would have like more interaction with characters between themself, but this is really your story.

 

[Fantastapotamus]

I don't see why having whoever you want in your party would restrict anything as all they have to do is a simple check.

"Restrict" is probably the wrong word, it's more work obviously. And you could have more than two companions interact with each other, but you are obviously right that it can be done.

As I remember in Baldur's Gate 1, the story was really centered around you, in fact everything was centered around your character, the story, the companion and the NPC.

It seems it's the same thing with POE. I agree with you that I would have like more interaction with characters between themself, but this is really your story.

Maybe? But...I dunno, I just finished Act II and I kinda don't even know what I'm doing.

Spoiler

I'm chasing the Leaden Key leader but it feels like I'm just doing it cause I have nothing better to do. If the "going insane" subplot had any effects whatsoever, some sequences, anything, it might have felt like a bit more is going on but...I dunno, I'm just not feeling the main story at all so far. It feels like they put the "You might go crazy" thing in the simply so your character has any motivation whatsoever to find this guy. I know there is probably more to it but after what I asume are 2/3 of the game the plot feels very, very thin

 

[szaromir]

Help me, Hirovias has just become ridiculously slow, and he doesn't even move in stealth mode. Is it a bug? What can I do about it? It happened on the 11th level of Od Nua.

 

[Nohar]

So, beginning a second playthrough with a orlan rogue, who used to be a raider. I'll try to roleplay him as a ruthless, cunning, amoral and occasionally lying dude, though I'm really not used to play that way at all. I just hope that playing that way, without venturing too much into the Chaotic Stupid/Stupid Evil category, won't penalize me too much in the long run.

I also kinda hope they will revamp sneaking...

 

[MoonGred]

Spoiler

Some of the doors can only be opened by the master key you get from the priest that's locked in the Temple floor. The animancer, though, is not in the room with the tombs, she's in the room bordering the one with the weird green test tube and bench that looks like it's straight out of Frankenstein. But you can move around without the key, too.

Thanks for that, I don't know how but I completely missed a whole part of that area

 

[ThoseDeafMutes]

How do I get to one of the regions I can see on the map?

Spoiler

Twin Elms and stuff. I thought Stormwall Gorge looked like it would be the place to cross at, but there doesn't seem to be anything there.

 

[wolfhowwl]

How do I get to one of the regions I can see on the map?

Spoiler

Twin Elms and stuff. I thought Stormwall Gorge looked like it would be the place to cross at, but there doesn't seem to be anything there.

Have you

Spoiler

completed the second act yet? The water will drain and you can continue on your way.

 

[szaromir]

Help me, Hirovias has just become ridiculously slow, and he doesn't even move in stealth mode. Is it a bug? What can I do about it? It happened on the 11th level of Od Nua.

Looking deeper at Hiravias' stats I noticed this:

Anything I can do about it? :/

 

[Uthred]

Just finished Durance's quest.

I... honestly did not expect that (major spoilers):

Spoiler

Magran allied with Woedica in order to kill Eothas. It wasn't Durance who was wrong and who disrespected (or didn't understand) his goddess: it's his goddess who betrayed him and all the gods, using him (and the original Dozens) as a pawn to kill Eothas. And it seems she planned for him to die too, in order to keep her involvment secret. It is only thanks to the nature of his damaged soul that Durance managed to survive, Magran unable to recognize him, and thus assuming he died with the rest (on that note, did the others Dozens just "died", or did their souls get destroyed altogether? Can't remember how exactly they met their end).

Long story short: Durance was not that far from the truth when he called her a whore.

I would have liked if they expanded on that a bit,

Spoiler

considering Magran's alliance with Galwain and her advice to you seem to contradict her alliance fo Woedica from Durance's background

Finished the game last night, all sidequests and whatnot wrapped up, played on hard, clocked in around forty five hours. Today I remembered I hadnt done any bounties so I spent some time doing them. Enjoyed my time with it but ultimately it feels like a good not great game. I'll certainly be buying any expansions and looking forward to a sequel though.

There are less pros than cons. That’s because it’s generally easier to critique something than praise it. Don’t get me wrong. Pillars of Eternity is a good game. I enjoyed my time with it; after all I wouldn’t have put in nearly fifty hours (so far) if I didn’t. Some of these I wrote as they occurred in play so some may be more strident due to that.

Pros

• Sidequests - Often a source of sub-par distraction compared to the main quest in PoE I felt that the sidequests were of a much higher calibre than the main quest. They did more to get you involved, a lot of them had better writing and were better constructed; they did more to place you in the world, etc. Now there are a hell of a lot of sidequests so I'd say if you combined sidequests and mainquests you'd end up with more good quests over all due to the sheer volume. But at the end of the day they’re still framed as a sidequests.
  
• The World - Some areas of the world are certainly lacking (as I discuss below). But other areas, despite feeling a little generic in the broad strokes, are quite well constructed and combine to make a compelling setting. I think the big selling point is the fairly realistic approach to politics and commerce the world presents as well as its metaphysical and religious setup. It generally feels like real people have made real decisions (and thanks to some of the NPC's feels like they’re living real lives). This adds a layer of verisimilitude to the larger setting concerns that helps the world feel more real to the player.
  
• The Dialogue system - The dialogue system is great, it has an impressive depth and allows you to make use of the full complement of your characters skills, attributes, reputation and behaviour.
  
• The experience system - You don’t get experience for killing monsters. You get it for completing quests and overcoming challenges such as succeeding in skill checks, etc. This is a good system because it allows you to take different approaches to problems without being penalised one way or the other for it.
  
• Presentation - The presentation is generally excellent, the game is lovely looking from the level backgrounds to the "hand drawn" cinematic sequences. This graphical polish is matched by a solid soundtrack with some stand out moments and most importantly an intuitive and responsive user interface.
  
• Fun - Despite the cons listed below the game is quite simply fun to play. Despite shortcomings in individual elements they all gel well together and provide a return to the kind of RPG experience we haven’t seen in a while.
  
• The Companions - Even the ones I didn’t like were still well written and well realised. The companions are quite varied and all have their own interesting personal stories which tie in well with the "mood" of the world.

Cons

• The System - Mechanically PoE feels like a fantasy heartbreaker from the late nineties. As a computer game PoE is the next iteration of the Infinity Engine games from that time which were based on the AD&D 2nd Edition and D&D 3rd edition rulesets. In the P&P RPG design space there has been a lot of work done in the intervening decade, both by later editions of D&D and other RPG's as well. A lot of innovation has taken place so even mainstream modern RPG's have incorporated lessons learned from indie's, smallpress games, etc. Unfortunately PoE's system seems to have ignored all of this design work. It feels like the classic fantasy heartbreaker, a reaction to D&D which tries to solve some of the problems with it and ends up introducing new problems of its own (it even contains some of the classic selling points of fantasy heartbreakers, "More classes!", "Mages can wear armour!"). Unfortunately it’s a reaction against a version of D&D that D&D itself has long since surpassed. So it’s this odd hybrid where it’s not "new" enough to take advantage of any "advances" in modern design but also too new to really appeal to an OSR vibe. In short it’s something of a mess. It also has that fantasy heartbreaker classic of various sub-systems for the same thing, some of which end up being clearly superior to the others. Honestly I can find very few good things to say about the system, "It works" is about the best you can say for most of it. I suppose in fairness some areas where I would say it doesn’t work; it would be more accurate to say it doesn’t match my preference. But really, other than a game based on his works, I don’t think there’s an argument to be made for the inclusion of Vancian magic these days.
  
• The World - Yes the world setup is both a pro and a con. While some parts of the world are good and will hopefully provide a solid groundwork for fun stuff to do in the expansions (primarily the political setup) other parts of the world setup range from average to flat out bad. It’s the old fantasy heartbreaker feeling rearing its head again. You have cultures jammed together without much rhyme or reason and with very little intermingling and mixing, often widely disparate cultures. "This is the not-Celtic country", "This is the not-Renaissance Italy country", etc. It’s hardly a problem unique to PoE but it’s a problem all the same. You see the same thing in enemy placement around the world, why am I running into this giant pack of lions in the middle of a fucking forest? Did a wizard do it? The world feels decidedly artificial, beyond its existence as a setting for a videogame. Which possibly would be ok if it did anything to distinguish itself but it’s generally painfully generic.
  
• A static world - The world does a poor job, well that’s not true, generally it does no job of all, of reacting to your actions within it. Once you've passed whatever scripted event an area contains the game doesn’t care anymore.
  Spoiler

  You snuck into the secret meeting? Grand, once that’s done feel free to parade your entire party through said meeting as you loot whatever chests are in the room. Discovered that such and such is a necromancer and you just watched someone get eaten by a monster? Sorry their boss didn’t notice and doesn’t want to talk about it because there's no scripting for that. Or when you hire a prostitute and then march in with six heavily armed guys, "Oh no this totally isn’t gonna go all Leaving Las Vegas!" Or when you run into someone, then get sent to find them but don’t "remember" meeting them before (apart from the one quest where they do).
  It makes everything you do feel remarkably artificial. It also has the near omnipresent issue of "Gotta do this pressing thing! Time to spend a few weeks dicking around!"
  
• The main storyline - Workmanlike at best.
  Spoiler

  You get involved in events that you initially don’t know a lot about (not simply because they’re mysterious but because the game doesn’t present you with information your character would know but you do not) and never really have much of an organic reason to care about. For a lot of it you're going through the motions because, hey, it’s a videogame, that’s what you're supposed to do. The main storyline also often did a poor job of differentiating itself from the sidequests, certainly towards the beginning of the game you basically stumble through the (meaningless) end of Act 1 without any fanfare or really even noticing. At least the main antagonist is good and it does a good job at times of presenting you with interesting ambivalent choices
• The companions - Specifically the fact that you can’t assign their attributes or, more annoyingly, their abilities, before recruitment. This is exacerbated by the fact that you can hire adventurers who you have full control over. It wouldn’t be as big an issue if the majority of the companions didn’t feel deliberately mechanically sub-optimal.
  
• The experience system - Another double edged sword, while it has advantages if they aren’t going to provide experience for combat then they shouldn’t include so much of it in the game. Especially so much meaningless combat in the form of pointless wilderness encounters and "wandering monster" rubbish in dungeons. They should have pared back the encounters to only the significant ones and spent a bit more time making them feel distinct from one another.
  
• Tone - The game was very downbeat/melancholy. Initially it added a bit of verisimilitude, as a layer of dirt generally does for a fictional world, but after a while it felt a little oppressive and then it became expected and lost any impact, it went from "Ugh, grim" to "Who cares?".
  Spoiler

  It felt like everyone had a sad story to tell, or every sidequest had a sting in the tail (the epilogue continued this trend), like a horror game with too many scares it drained the events of any real emotion. I would have been more surprised to get sent to find someone who didn’t end up dead or with something horrible having happened to them.
  It’s the Belle & Sebastian of GrimDark fantasy worlds.
  
• Pacing - The pacing of the main quest feels all over the place
  Spoiler

  , Act 1 passes almost unnoticed with no real delineation between it and Act 2, Act 2 has more to do (sidequests and tasks) than Act 1 & 3 combined and Act 3 feels extremely truncated (you can bang right through the main story part of it and there aren’t that many sidequests either). The split between Act 3 and 4 also felt largely artificial (as most of the Act breaks apart from the end of 2's)
• The Reputation System - The way it works pretty often breaks ones sense of immersion, if I secretly murder an old man in an inn behind a closed door then why am I losing major reputation with various factions? Deeds done in secret shouldn’t garner reputation
  
• The encounters - There’s too many (and they’re too boring) considering the game has a combat system that incentivises taking the one approach to combat and encounters which do nothing to shake the player out of that routine.
  
• The bugs - There were, and still are, a lot of them. Despite several patches being released there are still game breaking bugs (on main storyline quests) in the game. Do a lot of other games, especially rpgs, release with bugs? Yes. But that’s even more reason to complain about it.
  
• Missing "Quality of Life" - The game is missing some fairly basic qol stuff like being able to sort your inventory/stash, being able to name your saves, etc.
  
• The spark - This is both wildly subjective and wildly unfair, but I felt the game just never made me think "This is great!" it never gave me that kind of "Holy fuck!" mind boner moment that indicates greatness.

Ambivalent

• Travel - You spend a lot of time running across the same maps again and again. The ability to fast forward time does help, but considering they highlight all important locations on the area map anyway it feels like they could have introduced a fast travel option
  
• Voice acting - Some of its good, some of its atrocious, most of its workmanlike
  
• No niche protection - The limited number of skills and over-lapping competencies and talents mean that the majority of classes lack a true niche. Which isn’t really a problem per se as they’re all being controlled by the player. But conceptually it feels a little inelegant.
  
• The factions - While there was clearly an attempt to add some dimension to the various factions I don’t think it was particularly successful.
  Spoiler

  Personally I found nothing sympathetic about the Dozens and the Domenels are flat out criminals. While the Crucible Knights have a racist for a door keeper and their ultimate commanders plan for magitek-robocops was stupid the higher ups you deal with in Defiance Bay all seem fairly reasonable
• Prose vs voice - Its jarring reading descriptive prose interspersed with voice work when the voice work offers no pauses to give you time to read. Especially when it’s completely redundant i.e. the prose is describing the voice work. In some sections I simply turned off the sound because it was too distracting.
  
• The plot -
  Spoiler

  Some elements of the plot felt fairly deprotagonising or purposefully inflammatory in a "Ha ha you wasted your time!" type of way. Hardly unique to PoE it’s an issue with most games that have a story to tell, just that in the context of RPG's and open ones like PoE it feels exceptionally "rail-roady". The games big revelation felt like a bit of a let-down (and painfully heavy on exposition), while important from a metaphysical standpoint it felt largely immaterial to the day to day world you were dealing with for a lot of the game (and based largely on a semantics argument). There were also times the game seemed to be pushing an agenda masquerading as the settings metaphysics.
• The Stronghold - This would be a con if it was actively bad, as it is it simply feels pointless. There’s no particular benefit to upgrading it, there’s no personalisation or any choice at all other than ticking a box involved in upgrading it, it’s located just far enough away from the main story areas to be annoying. It’s an occasional distraction that has you click a box or two. Feels like a wasted opportunity. Even for the few things it is good for it feels clunky (I don’t want to have to see three different loading screens just to rest in my stronghold)
  
• Itemisation - Much like the stronghold, its not bad per se, its just really boring. There's not a lot of variation, the unique weapons dont feel particularly unique or special and dont offer anything notably better than the stuff you can craft yourself (crafting is also fairly unexciting). The game gives you basically no incentive to craft and the minimal hassle involved can actually feel like a disincentive
  
• Loading times - They seemed excessive considering it was running from a SSD on a decent machine. Or perhaps I was overly sensitive to it as I took a break for Bloodborne due to loading times in order to play this. The quest design for populated areas exacerbates it as you are frequently going back and forth through the same areas.

 

[ThoseDeafMutes]

Have you

Spoiler

completed the second act yet? The water will drain and you can continue on your way.

It wasn't clear to me I had to do that, but no I haven't. Alright.

 

[Nohar]

Looking deeper at Hiravias' stats I noticed this:

Anything I can do about it? :/

More seriously: that's a weird bug. Try to submit it on the official forums.

 

[Alessandro]

Coming from a 10 hour playthrough of FF type 0 I find the experience system of PoE sublime. The whole party gather experience and most importantly it doesn't come from grinding mobs.

It's a nice experiment and it works great because it doesn't punish and you'll feel relieved knowing you can skip a though encounter without penalty.

 

[HK-47]

So, I'm curious what other RPG fans here think about this: You know how in most cRPG games you can get, let's say, 8 companions but can only have 5 of them with you? Why is that?
Cause I feel like this severely limits the capability of the writers. I know this allows the player more customisation but I'm not sure if it is worth it. If the writers always knew which characters are in your party at any point, the interaction between those characters could be much more interesting than it is at this point.

Yes in PoE characters will from time to time talk to each other but it's not really about relevant things. To me the story of my party is always much more interesting then the story of the world around them. And I'm kinda sad that I feel little to no connection to most of my party members in PoE.

In NWN 2 the first people to join your party after the tutorial were a sassy rogue and a noble elf and it lead to some great interaction between those two, because they reacted to choices you made. Those were possible cause the game KNEW they were in my party at this point. And ultimately one of those two left me cause I always sided with the other. She didn't even turn on me, she was just like "Look, you never listen to me anyway I'm gonna leave your party and stay here, okay?" That's great. That's just great. I can't tell you a thing about the story in NWN 2 but I still remember who turned against me during the last fight. (Sand you asshole).
When I played Mass Effect 1 for the first time I was kinda shocked, cause none of my party members would really talk to each other, something BW did in Dragon Age and Kotor so I just kinda asumed it'll be here as well. There was just no conflict, at any point. They didn't care whether I killed or helped the spider aliens. Oh, they SAID "I would do this" but wouldn't react in any way when I did the opposite. That's....lame.

And I get it, obviously. PoE was made with 4 million dollar. That's nothing for an RPG of this size. So I can't criticize the game too much, I'm just curious what you people think about this in general. Would you accept a cRPG that dictates who is in your party the entire time but in return could focus more on interactions and conflicts between your party members? I know I would.

See but I'd also want party members that will leave or try to kill me if I do things they hate or cant reconcile so that ends up causing the same problem.

 

[Dolor]

Wow, just finished last night, and this is quite possibly my favorite RPG story ending of all time. Actually thought-provoking...

35 hours all told. Took my time in act 1, but I think I rushed acts 2+. No regrets though.

Loved it and can't wait for what they do next.

 

[Dresden]

Fuck you Keldorn, stop killing Viconia.

 

[Miletius]

This game is completely beautiful sometimes. They really nailed the painterly look, which gives a modern flair to the old isometric style.

My current party, image is non-specific enough to be not spoilery My PC is in blue.

 

[Lactose_Intolerant]

This game is completely beautiful sometimes. They really nailed the painterly look, which gives a modern flair to the old isometric style.

My current party, image is non-specific enough to be not spoilery My PC is in blue.

I'm not sure how that is painterly

 

[water_wendi]

High Intellect/Might Barbarian is ridiculous now. With a resting bonus of +2 to Int/Mig i have a crazy sized melee AoE. i dont know how to view Ravage in-game but with 20 Int (+60% AoE) i can get an idea from a scenario i just had.

Tank is in front of narrow passageway. Slimes are piled in front one after another in a line. My Barbarian can stand behind the tank with a long range weapon and get Ravage hits on the slime behind the first. Slimes are huge. Thats like a 10m radius if my visual guesstimate is correct. Get a weapon with Overbearing stat that has Prone on Crit and shit is ridiculous. im trying to see how many i can get in one swing. Theres not enough enemies in one combat encounter to test how many i can hit at once. The feeling when you hit like 7-10 enemies for like 45-55 damage, with a few falling on their face from my crit proc,from a regular melee swing is pure bliss.

 

[Uriah]

Spoilers for Sagani's quest, The Long Hunt

Spoiler

Where the hell is the Persoq in Elmshore? I'm by the Adra Arch, but I don't see his spirit. Is he not showing up because I went to Northweald first?

 

[senahorse]

Is there a way back from the beginning of Act

Spoiler

4

or is

Spoiler

jumping down the pit

a point of no return?

 

[Basileus777]

Is there a way back from the beginning of Act

Spoiler

4

or is

Spoiler

jumping down the pit

a point of no return?

Spoiler

There's no way back.

 

[senahorse]

Spoiler

There's no way back.

Thanks for the quick response,

Spoiler

time to reload my save point at the top

 

[Miletius]

I'm not sure how that is painterly

The complete screenshot probably looks better, but I'd say the character models look great there, and the landscape is soft.

 

[Rawket Lawnchair]

Spoilers for Sagani's quest, The Long Hunt

Spoiler

Where the hell is the Persoq in Elmshore? I'm by the Adra Arch, but I don't see his spirit. Is he not showing up because I went to Northweald first?

You should have Sagani in your party for it to appear.

 

[Nordicus]

Ooohohohoo, Pillars of Eternity is playing dirty now. Traps right in front of stationary/slow backrow enemies, so they're really tough to scout out before a fight without getting caught? I can handle that, as long as the traps aren't those weird sunlight traps that deal 400+ damage to single target. Those are just BS. I can handle the weaker AoE ones

 

[justsomeguy]

Just finished the game... agree with a lot of Uthred's points, but have to say overall I really enjoyed it. I was ready for it to end when it came.

End-game spoilers:

Spoiler

First time vs. Thaos my party died in an instant - unfortunately Durance and Aloth got one-shotted because I picked the wrong opening move for each of them - and once those guys are down basically you're screwed.

Second time around I opened with a bunch of defensive spells & potions, giving Aloth time to Confuse and Grieving Mother time to Dominate - at which point I just took the mobs down one by one. Thank god for the figurines, too - gave me a couple of extra npc tanks to keep loose mobs tied down while I re-dominated, etc.

Only problem was Kana's "ogre summon" wouldn't cast - I got the icon up but he kept on firing his arrows, nothing got summoned which was really annoying as it was key to my "if people start dying..." strategy. Luckily his "revive fallen party member" chant worked instead, and revived Aloth > 2 ogres, really, so it all worked out ok

One thing had me howling with laughter - when Thaos was trying to undermine all the characters and asked Eder if he was welcomed home, and Eder says "Well, they made a cake" - absolutely. bloody. brilliant.

Really liked the epilogue taking you through all the things that happen - really brought home how the choices you made in the game affected "the future". Thought that was a great touch, and now I'm annoyed I didn't finish off a couple more questlines. That said, The Endless Paths just got boring and grindy so I think even doing over I wouldn't bother completing it.

Main criticisms of the game:

- It pretty much forces you into a playstyle of "one tank, plus 5 ranged weapons": stay at range, take no damage, pick enemies off with a gun/bow while Eder tanks seems more viable than having multiple characters getting stuck in

- Rogues are too squishy. My main was a rogue, she ended up being mostly a gun rogue, as melee killed her too fast, often, even though I had some sweet melee weapons.. At which point she became basically "yet another gun holder" - I would have fared better with a spellcasting PC

- IMO unless you're playing one of their classes already as your PC,

Spoiler

Durance, Grieving Mother, Eder and Aloth

are indespensible,

Spoiler

only really leaving you that last slot to play with. Aloth is just too powerful (especially AoE), Durance is just to "keepy alivey", obviously Eder for the tankage and GM for crowd control and dishing out some nice damage.

But overall, very happy with the game. Not sure my wife feels the same given the 55ish hours I've put in to it... Now I need to convince her that The Witcher 3 is a good idea... ;-)

 

[Uriah]

You should have Sagani in your party for it to appear.

She is, that's the strange thing. I wonder if it's a bug.

 

[dreamstation]

Not sure if it's related to my refresh rate problem but even with Vsync enabled I get a line of what looks like tearing about ¼ of the way down the screen from the top. It only shows when I move the camera around but it's damn annoying.

Paging Durante, any ideas?

Well I finally found out what the problem was. I had Aero disabled in Windows (I prefer using the Basic theme) and that was causing the line of tearing near the top of the screen.

Bloody weird eh. Was driving me nuts.

 

[WanderingWind]

High Intellect/Might Barbarian is ridiculous now. With a resting bonus of +2 to Int/Mig i have a crazy sized melee AoE. i dont know how to view Ravage in-game but with 20 Int (+60% AoE) i can get an idea from a scenario i just had.

Tank is in front of narrow passageway. Slimes are piled in front one after another in a line. My Barbarian can stand behind the tank with a long range weapon and get Ravage hits on the slime behind the first. Slimes are huge. Thats like a 10m radius if my visual guesstimate is correct. Get a weapon with Overbearing stat that has Prone on Crit and shit is ridiculous. im trying to see how many i can get in one swing. Theres not enough enemies in one combat encounter to test how many i can hit at once. The feeling when you hit like 7-10 enemies for like 45-55 damage, with a few falling on their face from my crit proc,from a regular melee swing is pure bliss.

I'm about to roll my second character and it's gonna be a barbarian. Besides high intellect and might, what else should I take? Dex? Resolve?

 

[AntiFacebook]

In the Blood legacy quest,is there a way to stop

Spoiler

Wymund's plan

Spoiler

without killing the girl

?

 

[Gurgelhals]

In the Blood legacy quest,is there a way to stop

Spoiler

Wymund's plan

Spoiler

without killing the girl

?

Yep, but either your main character has to be a Cipher or you need to have Grieving Mother in your party for that.

 

[Nohar]

In the Blood legacy quest,is there a way to stop

Spoiler

Wymund's plan

Spoiler

without killing the girl

?

Well...

Spoiler

Someone implied that you should bring Grieving Mother with you for that quest

.

 

[AntiFacebook]

Well...

Spoiler

Someone implied that you should bring Grieving Mother with you for that quest

.

yeah,but my party was full

 

[WanderingWind]

Would you accept a cRPG that dictates who is in your party the entire time but in return could focus more on interactions and conflicts between your party members? I know I would.

Probably not, no. From reading this thread, most people seem to have really liked Aloth. I hated how the wizard played late game, so I moved him from my party. I disliked how the druids were basically another type of wizard, so I never used that character. Initially, I found the paladin to be super weak, but with enough investment, that character became one of my last standing toward the end. My cipher killed the end boss with literally a sliver of health because I made that character good with pistols.

In a game like you described, I may have been stuck with a character's whose playstyle I didn't like, or stuck with a character I didn't like at all, or been forced to experience a character's growth on the same path as everybody else. I don't think I would have liked PoE so much if for instance, I was forced to play with Aloth and the druid the entire time.

 

[Raphael]

The last fight was a joke. It was over sooner then I could notice. Few of my party members were occupying

Spoiler

the statues while some started fighting thaos, some negative effects casted on him and my rogue just wrecked him. Ended wayyyy too fast while I tried to micro the guys handling the big guys. Anticlimatic. I was like, wait that's it?

PotD here I come I guess.

EDIT: Any recommendations who to play on a second play through? I am feeling rogue is the best class there is when it comes to damage dealing and fun. Thinking between barb, ranger & cipher but I don't know. Seems like they will be worse.

 

[Labadal]

Is there anyone else who hasn't had any attacks on their stronghold? I'm in mid to late act 2 and it hasn't happened once.
__________

I was thinking about how broken this game would have been with multiclassing.

Rogue-barbarian with AoE sneak attacks

Rogue-cipher high damage means nonstop gained focus

Fighter-barbarian with AoE knockdown

Paladin-fighter could make a brick wall with modals

Cipher-wizard with spells galore

Rogue-ranger sneak while your pet distracts

 

[Wulfram]

Is there anyone else who hasn't had any attacks on their stronghold? I'm in mid to late act 2 and it hasn't happened once.

I had a couple early on, then they stopped. I guess they get less likely as you boost your security?

 

[Violet_0]

I'm about to roll my second character and it's gonna be a barbarian. Besides high intellect and might, what else should I take? Dex? Resolve?

definitely dex, the few extra points to deflection won't matter

The last fight was a joke. It was over sooner then I could notice.

PotD here I come I guess.

that fight is a bit different on PotD, you basically have to do it in a specific order unless you use some of the crazy mage/cypher spells I guess. He has very high deflection and high defenses which was a problem for my tank & spank party since I couldn't bypass or lower them

monk and barb are my two favorite non-

Spoiler

companion

classes, although the barbarian is pretty much just an auto-attacker

 

[Labadal]

I had a couple early on, then they stopped. I guess they get less likely as you boost your security?

I have no idea. I guess that is what security is for.

I do get money stolen according to my tax updates.

My hirelings are also still marked as unpaid.

 

[decoyplatypus]

I have no idea. I guess that is what security is for.

I do get money stolen according to my tax updates.

My hirelings are also still marked as unpaid.

Once I had my security over 20 (with four or five hirelings patrolling the grounds), I never saw another raid.

Don't worry about the hireling "unpaid" notice. That's the game's confusing way of warning you to reserve money because it's not hireling payday yet. Almost any time you check the hireling menu, it's going to say "hireling unpaid." It would have been clearer if the notice said "X cp due in Y days."

 

[Violet_0]

my PotD party's endgame stats

custom priest, warrior, paladin
monk, druid, Sagani

the paladin and fighter have nearly identical stats (important to note here is that the fighter got a strong magic greatsword early in the game). I'm starting to think paladins might be just as good or better than fighters if you don't just look for a full tank

the monk has the second highest accuracy, by far the highest attack speed, good damage and the highest deflection. Weak in the early game, strong lategame

Sagani with hunting bow was - not much of a help

and lol at the Times Knocked Out numbers