Pillars Of Eternity Options

[SubRosa]

It is out today. Has anyone bought it and given it a try yet? It is on my To Do list of games. But I was hoping to hear a bit more about it. The Reviews are solid. It sounds like a modern successor to the classic Baldur's Gate-style rpg games, with a new fantasy setting, an isometric view, party of characters, lot of races and classes to choose from.

[SubRosa]

I think you should give buying Pillars some serious thought. I think you would really like it, given how much you enjoyed Baldur's Gate II. It is definitely an archer-friendly game (unlike Dragon Age), and a glass cannon type character can work really well here so long as they have a Mazoga to run interference for them.

For me the biggest difference between Pillars and the old BG and NWN games is the Attributes, and what they affect. In the old games if you wanted a Fighter, you put your points in Strength and Constitution. If you wanted an Archer you put them in Dexterity. If you wanted a Mage you put them in Intelligence, etc...

But Pillars changes how all that stuff works. For example, Might is important to almost all characters because that is your damage bonus for everything, melee, ranged, and magic. Constitution is what keeps you alive. Nuff said there. Dexterity is important because it is what reduces the time you spend doing nothing between attacks. Perception is important because that is your To Hit bonus. Resolve is important because it adds a small bonus to your Deflection, and it is your defense against enemies Interrupting your attacks, and finally it is your Will save vs mind attacks. Intellect is the only true dump stat for some characters, in that it affects the range of area of effects and durations. For Fighters not a real big deal. But for a mage it makes a big difference.

I am finally getting the knack of distributing points around, and which ones are important for various classes. Like a lot of games, you really don't get enough points to spread around, considering how just about everything matters. So I started using the console to add another 8 Attribute points after character creation. That seems to work well, without making a ridiculously overpowered character.


I tried a little more of the Ranged Rogue with a Wood Elf this time. What I have observed is that Sneak Attacks are what makes this character work. That first shot in combat that is a guaranteed Sneak Attack always does a lot of damage. So do the shots following Hobbling Strike and your team Fighter's Knockdowns. But once those Sneak Attack opportunities are gone, your damage output really drops. So the longer the fight goes, the harder it becomes to hurt the bad guys.

The Ranger OTOH, is a lot more balanced. She doesn't do that walloping damage to start with as a Ranged Rogue. But when you add her animal companion in, she's no slouch either. Unlike the Rogue, she's just as good after all the Knockdowns and Hobbles have been used up. Plus her Companion runs interference for her, meaning she needs less armor, which in turns means faster attacks.

Now that I have played through the beginning "Tutorial" section of the game I have learned a few things as well. The Culture you choose determines your starting weapons and armor. But don't pick a Culture just to get a sword or a spear. There is a merchant right by you when you start, and you can sell the weapons you start with for anything else you might want. Don't bother buying armor unless you want something heavy to start with. If you explore the map you can find a dead body in the south east with a suit of Leather, which is a good medium armor. Then once you start fighting bad guys, lots of suits of Hide and Leather will become available.

The following is very spoilery, so don't read if you want to find it all out for yourself: (spoiler quotes don't seem to work!)

When you have the big showdown with the bad guys who have taken Heodan hostage, you will probably have a lot of dialogue choices. Most of them don't really change anything. Don't lower your weapons, because you will still have to fight, but with your bare fists instead! Most of the other options seem to turn out the same, with Heodan being crippled and knocked down and a fight starting. The Lore option worked the one time I tried it, allowing Heodan to get away clean and start the fight without any wounds and debuffs. I did try sneaking in and avoiding the dialogue entirely by shooting the bad guy leader with a bow. That just resulted in Heodan automatically dying, so don't do that! (Though it is possible I targeted him by mistake!)

Once you run inside the ruin to hide from the storm, you will get some camping supplies and a dialogue choice to rest or not. If you rest, Calisca will run out on you while you are sleeping. So you will have to do the dungeon without her. If you don't rest, Heodan spends the whole time with some serious penalties from his debuffs that only rest can heal. If you try to be clever and say we'll continue on without resting in the dialogue - then rest anway a little while later - Calisca still deserts you. However, if you use the console to force a rest, the game doesn't seem to realize what you did, and Calisca stays, and Heodan gets healed. Finally, if you manage to get Heodan through the battle outside without any crippling injuries the dialogue choice between pushing on immediately or resting never appears. You can then rest and Calisca will remain with your party!

But no matter what you do, both Calisca and Heodan die once you exit the ruin. So don't get attached to them.

This post has been edited by SubRosa: Sep 1 2015, 07:36 PM