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]

There are some things I have figured out about Defenses, and how combat works.

There are four types of Defense in the game. Deflection, Fortitude, Reflex, and Will.

Deflection is your defense against physical attacks, be they melee or ranged, and I think a lot of physical spells.

Fortitude is used against things like poisons, and resisting knockdowns.

Reflex is your defense against area of effect attacks.

Will is your defense against mind-effecting things.

When you attack you roll a 1d100 and add in your Accuracy bonus. The defender's appropriate Defense score is subtracted from that. If the end result is a 5 or less it is a clean miss. If it is a 6 - 50 it is only a Graze, and you do half damage. If it is 51 or higher it is a Hit, and does normal damage. If it is a 95 or higher you get a Critical Hit, and do an extra +50% damage.

So what I see here is that Accuracy bonus you get from Perception not only helps you hit in the first place, but can be the difference between getting a Graze or a Hit, or a Hit and a Crit. The same is true of any Debuffing spells or powers that reduce your enemy's Deflection, like Aspirant's Mark.

Of course once you do hit, you roll damage based on your weapon, with your Might stat adding to it. Then the defender's Damage Threshold subtracts its amount from that, and you inflict what is leftover in damage. Usually Damage Threshold is a straight number, but armor, talents, and items can give bonuses or penalties to certain types of damage, like Burn, Freezing, Crushing, Piercing, and so on. Weapons and spells usually do one of those specific forms of damage. For example an Estoc does piercing damage. Some critters might have a higher than normal resistance to Piercing, and others a lowered resistance to it.

This post has been edited by SubRosa: Sep 1 2015, 12:35 AM