Not all spells with an AoE feature friendly fire, the per encounter wizard spell for example. The easiest way to see is if it highlights any of your party members when targeting them.
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Pillars of Eternity |OT| You must gather your party before venturing forth.
- Thread starter EviLore
- Start date
Not all spells with an AoE feature friendly fire, the per encounter wizard spell for example. The easiest way to see is if it highlights any of your party members when targeting them.
hemtae
Member
There's also some spells that only do damage to foes. It should say something like "Foe AoE" in the description.
Seriously, the fact that people don't expect that hurling a fireball into a melee fight hits allies and enemies alike is an indictment of modern RPG design 
True. Obviously you should always read the descriptions of spells.
Pinko Marx
Banned
It looks like everything shows up as it should. But I know for a fact that I've double clicked to replace armor several times.
The bug is apparently not nearly as far-reaching as initially presumed. It seems like for most abilities it's fine even if they no longer show up in the UI.
TharpDaddy
Member
I have some apologizing to do to my tanks then, I have launched a lot of aoe without care.
The most recent RPG I played was DA:O where it was based on difficulty, bad habit for me to form.
Seriously, the fact that people don't expect that hurling a fireball into a melee fight hits allies and enemies alike is an indictment of modern RPG design
True. Obviously you should always read the descriptions of spells.
The most recent RPG I played was DA:O where it was based on difficulty, bad habit for me to form.
GordonHalfman
Member
Against
I sent my priest in first and then had her cast withdraw on herself as they were running in, while everyone else was waiting at the bottom of the stairs around a bunch of repulsing seal traps. So.. medium amounts of cheese. I don't how I could do it having everyone walk up there.
Raedric
Shake Appeal
Member
Slaughtered
on the first attempt. I think I may already be over the early-game difficulty hump.
was the MVP of that fight, once you figure out all his available powers.
(My basic strategy was
)
Raedric VII
Durance
(My basic strategy was
Eder ties up Raedric and most of the guards. My adventurer Barbarian struggled to hold down the left flank, but he was mostly dealing with the weakest enemies, so it was okay. Durance was at the back firing off heals and buffs (the one that heals while doing freeze damage is immense). Aloth cast lots of Blindness and related status effect stuff that let my rogue slip around where needed and stab everything in the throat.
Pinko Marx
Banned
My nature Godlike passive isn't activating. I think I can deal can that.
The Technomancer
card-carrying scientician
Goddamn I can't tell if I'm underlevelled or the game is just hard. I'm level 3 and trying to
and I just about make it through every encounter by using all of my per rest spells. But I feel like I SHOULD be able to do better
clear the spirits out of the keep
You could use the method I described, but really, I don't even think it's worth the hassle for that.
Speaking of spell descriptions, I'm glad that the smaller tooltips tell very visibly which type of defense they're checking, but, I'd appreciate if they were as easily visible in the full descriptions. Usually it's somewhere in the middle of text and in more complicated spells it's annoying. Like Cypher's "psychic wave" or something that attacks the Will of the closest enemies and Fortitude on the enemies behind them
Spoiler for the conclusion of the first major quest you complete when unlocking your stronghold:
What option did you pick for the fate of Maerwald?
I chose to bind him to Caed Nua, because it seemed to me if he was reincarnated into another life, he would still end up tormented by his past lives, just like he was now. It seemed like an option that would give him some peace - letting his spirit stay in the place he resided.
Of course, I also considered that binding a crazy old wizard's soul into a cursed ruins site is a great way to create a Final Boss in something like Pillars of Eternity 2, but eh. What are ya gonna do?
I chose to bind him to Caed Nua, because it seemed to me if he was reincarnated into another life, he would still end up tormented by his past lives, just like he was now. It seemed like an option that would give him some peace - letting his spirit stay in the place he resided.
Of course, I also considered that binding a crazy old wizard's soul into a cursed ruins site is a great way to create a Final Boss in something like Pillars of Eternity 2, but eh. What are ya gonna do?
The Technomancer
card-carrying scientician
Goddamn this combat is way too fast.
Do you have a full party? Also, if you're new to this type of game, I made a lengthy post outlining some basic battle tactics.
Looks like you are using a non-default DPI scaling setting in windows. Try disabling it.
Also, set the downsampling resolution and fullscreen mode in-game.
wolfhowwl
Banned
Really starting to hate the engagement system. It's clunky, and extremely frustrating whenever you're caught out of position or trapped in a very tight space with a lot of enemies. Mobs bashing your squishies? Oh well, guess they're dead since as soon as you try and move them away they lose 90% of their health from unavoidable hits.
In that scenario the damage comes too hard, too fast and you can't really do anything. Even if you could and moved your tanks to try and interrupt the mobs so that your soft targets can try and escape, then the tanks are gonna take hard disengagement hits in the process. It becomes Benny Hill real fast. Unnecessarily cumbersome and punishing.
In that scenario the damage comes too hard, too fast and you can't really do anything. Even if you could and moved your tanks to try and interrupt the mobs so that your soft targets can try and escape, then the tanks are gonna take hard disengagement hits in the process. It becomes Benny Hill real fast. Unnecessarily cumbersome and punishing.
Intheflorsh
Banned
So use slow mode!
depends on the difficulty level and how many companions you have with you. On my first char I managed it with only the two starting companions and it was pretty tough and took me a while, on my second char I rounded up all the companions from the surrounding areas and was done within minutes (both on hard)
The Technomancer
card-carrying scientician
Like three spirits just walk up to my monk and wail on him and I can't get them to leave. In the time it takes me to heal him they've gotten off six more attacks
I really disagree. It makes the flow of combat easier to control and predict than in the IE games, and therefore makes tactical positioning more reliable.
Or pause. I much prefer pausing.
SpiceMelange
Member
The tanks aren't the only one who can break engagement. Book bashing for a wizard, any accuracy debuff like blind (they have to actually land their disengagement attack), slick is a must, mirror image the one who wants to disengage, etc...
And trust me, you would rage so hard with no engagement system, all the mobs would lock on your squishies constantly running away in circles.
That's worked, thank you. Only downside is being on a 32-inch TV, everything in Windows is tiny.
I never played the IE games so perhaps it is easier to control than those, but it definitely doesn't make controlling the flow of combat easier than any other RPG I've played. Everything rests heavily on your setup - if you initiate combat with all your pieces perfectly positioned, no problem. If you get swarmed by half a dozen mobs in a tiny room and they start punching your soft targets, what exactly are you supposed to do? You can't move them, disengagement hits can 1-2 shot mages and ranged characters no problem. There's no consistent way to peel targets.
The only option available to me in that scenario (several hours into Act II) is to have my tank knockdown whatever is beating on my mage/ranged/chanter/priest and then move them. But I only have 2 knockdowns, and in the meantime the tank is taking disengagement hits for moving as well. I fail to see the superiority of this system.
Plenty of other RPGs have had systems of control that didn't involve your characters being immediately glued to any enemy that comes close to them, with punishing hits if they try and move. This system limits your options, it doesn't increase them.
I didn't realise AOE spells caused friendly fire until I noticed in the log that a spell missed one of my own party (I knew diving in on Expert was a silly idea). So to stop any possible self inflicted accidents in the future I moved my front line a liitle bit further apart in one of my formations. Starting to remember how critical good positioning is.
SpiceMelange
Member
Did you conveniently ignore all the options I spelt out to you how to disengage, while you actually have a mage and only use knockdown?
I know comparisons to Dark Souls are played out but that was the last time I was into every little piece of lore like I am with this game. It also has that quality where me and my brother are playing and its almost like 2 separate games in how different our approaches are.
My only disappointment so far is that fights seem to be one sided. Very few fights feel Luke I won them with my skill and tactics. Either I blow the enemy out or they blow me out.
My only disappointment so far is that fights seem to be one sided. Very few fights feel Luke I won them with my skill and tactics. Either I blow the enemy out or they blow me out.
SpiceMelange
Member
Sacrifices must be made.
BrokenFiction
Member
Like others said, slow with pause makes this a very tactical game.
SpiceMelange
Member
Shaking my head.
Intheflorsh
Banned
Not only do you have those abilities, but there's also plenty of equipment that gives you a huge defense boost when you disengage.
Have you fought Leyra in Heritage Hill? If so, can you honestly tell me that the engagement system is fun and liberating during that encounter?
That feeling when you let off a rolling fire ball into an enclosed room
nothing early on
I think theres high level priest spells and chanter invocations which do this IIRC
nothing early on
SpiceMelange
Member
What's really funny is he asked earlier how to "git gud".
Guess he doesn't actually want to.
The Technomancer
card-carrying scientician
The problem I'm having is that the enemies just run around to my vulnerable guys and engage them
Kinda why I like rolling with a bunch of Aoe mind-spells or summons rather than Aoe damage in IE games
Since we were talking about money a bit earlier, selling disarmed traps is pretty damn profitable in the early to mid game at least.
I find it incredibly satisfying when a battle works out as planned.
You are supposed to not get into that situation in the first place. Use a stealthy character to scout, and set all engagements up in a way that is favourable to you.
I find it incredibly satisfying when a battle works out as planned.
Sensuki has been posting tomes about how poor the engagement system is at rpgcodex. I guess he needs to git gud too.
Don't forget that priests can cast an invulnerability shield on a target putting them out of combat.
Also, at level 5 fighters unlock the ability to pull an enemy into melee range.
This is not possible with every situation in the game.
SpiceMelange
Member
I haven't yet, and if I get flanked with my pants out I get flanked with my pants out. That's why scouting ahead like Durante said is a must and if you can't like I already said there's multiple ways to help you not instantly get shit on.
Intercept enemies with your tanks, and/or use stun/root/daze/confuse spells, and/or leverage the area's layout, bottlenecks in particular.
23 hours in, I haven't found one yet. (And even if there are a few later on, a handful of encounters in a massive game don't outweigh the advantages)
SpiceMelange
Member
Like it should be. I don't expect every fight to be a perfect ordered choreograph