Pillars Of Eternity Options

[SubRosa]

It is weird, because like in New Vegas, it is a fairly linear world. It is basically divided into three areas. You start out in one, and then each successive area is unlocked by moving along to specific points in the main quest. So it should not be too hard to match the level of the monsters to what level the players are going to be when they encounter them.

But Obisidian still gets the difficulty out of whack, with areas that have monsters that are a walkover for a your level mixed with others that are impossible for your level. Or areas you reach early like the Endless Paths of Od Nua or Cragholdt Bluffs, which are impossible for low level characters. With all the people playing the beta you would think they would have recognized how unbalanced the creatures can be. But it just went right over their heads.

Instead you learn that there are some areas you just cannot go to until late in the game. White March is one of those, don't try it until Level 9 and you have Prayer Against Infirmity. Don't try Cragholdt Bluffs until right before the very end of the game and you are Level 13 or so. Don't try going past the first level of the Endless Paths of Od Nua until you are level 10 or higher.

Speaking of which, I have done a bunch of bounty quests. That makes a little over half of them done. Now I have returned to The Endless Paths of Od Nua. I am down to Level 12. So I am hoping to finish it all off before moving on to the Third Act area.

This post has been edited by SubRosa: Sep 25 2015, 09:01 PM

[mALX]

It is weird, because like in New Vegas, it is a fairly linear world. It is basically divided into three areas. You start out in one, and then each successive area is unlocked by moving along to specific points in the main quest. So it should not be too hard to match the level of the monsters to what level the players are going to be when they encounter them.

But Obisidian still gets the difficulty out of whack, with areas that have monsters that are a walkover for a your level mixed with others that are impossible for your level. Or areas you reach early like the Endless Paths of Od Nua or Cragholdt Bluffs, which are impossible for low level characters. With all the people playing the beta you would think they would have recognized how unbalanced the creatures can be. But it just went right over their heads.

Instead you just learn that there are some areas you just cannot go to until late in the game. White March is one of those, don't try it until Level 9 and you have Prayer Against Infirmity. Don't try Cragholdt Bluffs until right before the very end of the game and you are Level 13 or so. Don't try going past the first level of the Endless Paths of Od Nua until you are level 10 or higher.

That is so strange! But I remember reading about the original Fallout games being nearly impossible to live through at any stage due to the toughness of the enemies (same developers as this game), and since those early Fallouts developed a cult following maybe they are striving to reproduce that success with this game by using that same method.

It does seem to be their signature; "if you somehow survive the first 10 levels, we'll reward you by making you strong enough to beat 7 more, then give you three you can breeze through..."

[SubRosa]

I finished the Endless Paths of Od Nua. It went pretty easily for the most part. There were a couple of fights where paralyzing enemies gave me some trouble, but I was able to work though it with Prayer Against Infrimity and Suppress Affliction.

There was an Adra Dragon at the end of it. But Team Deadwalker was able to slay it without too much trouble. The Deadwalkers turned 14th level just before facing it, and I am sure that helped. Serana was able to turn the paralyzing tables, and paralyzed it for most of the fight. It only got one really good hit in (which took the entire team down by more than half their health). But Sofie's healing kept the Deadwalkers in the fight, while the others put a lot of killin' on the dragon and its minions.

And I think I forgot this pic of the White Forge from The White March.

[Acadian]

Great pictures, SubRosa. I'm still greatly enjoying following Team Deadwalker through the Pillars of Eternity.

[mALX]

I finished the Endless Paths of Od Nua. It went pretty easily for the most part. There were a couple of fights where paralyzing enemies gave me some trouble, but I was able to work though it with Prayer Against Infrimity and Suppress Affliction.

There was an Adra Dragon at the end of it. But Team Deadwalker was able to slay it without too much trouble. The Deadwalkers turned 14th level just before facing it, and I am sure that helped. Serana was able to turn the paralyzing tables, and paralyzed it for most of the fight. It only got one really good hit in (which took the entire team down by more than half their health). But Sofie's healing kept the Deadwalkers in the fight, while the others put a lot of killin' on the dragon and its minions.

And I think I forgot this pic of the White Forge from The White March.

Ooh, cool forge!

[SubRosa]

Tonight I beat the game like a red-headed stepchild. A sky dragon was crushed under Persephone's undead heel, and the same fate would befall Woedica's Guardians.

Before embarking on the final set of levels, the game told me I was higher level than intended for the content, and asked if I wanted to increase the difficulty. The same as the White March did. I kind of just wanted to get it over with, so I left the difficulty as it was. By this time Team Deadwalker was Level 14, the maxiumum for the game with the White March expansion. I think it is 12 without White March.

At the end you get to decide what to do with the big bad you defeat, and then with all the souls of the people he has been stealing (I don't want to give away too many spoilers). After you make your choices, you get a slideshow of how your actions affected the world. This not just about the main quest, but all the other things you did, such as how Gilded Vale fares depending on what you did to Raedric, what faction takes over Defiance Bay, how Caed Nua fares, the Endless Paths of Od Nua, The White March, etc... Pretty standard stuff for an Obsidian game these days.

[Acadian]

Congrats for beating the game with your toons!

[mALX]

Tonight I beat the game like a red-headed stepchild. A sky dragon was crushed under Persephone's undead heel, and the same fate would befall Woedica's Guardians.

Before embarking on the final set of levels, the game told me I was higher level than intended for the content, and asked if I wanted to increase the difficulty. The same as the White March did. I kind of just wanted to get it over with, so I left the difficulty as it was. By this time Team Deadwalker was Level 14, the maxiumum for the game with the White March expansion. I think it is 12 without White March.

At the end you get to decide what to do with the big bad you defeat, and then with all the souls of the people he has been stealing (I don't want to give away too many spoilers). After you make your choices, you get a slideshow of how your actions affected the world. This not just about the main quest, but all the other things you did, such as how Gilded Vale fares depending on what you did to Raedric, what faction takes over Defiance Bay, how Caed Nua fares, the Endless Paths of Od Nua, The White March, etc... Pretty standard stuff for an Obsidian game these days.

Holy Cow, those enemies are HUGE!!!

[Lopov]

Congratulations!

I assume that the big bad boss is the masked guy from the ruin in the tutorial. Woedica's guardians remind me of fire giants from Baldur's Gate

[SubRosa]

Thaos - the guy with the big helmet at the end of the tutorial - is indeed the big bad. When you get to the endgame you learn a lot more about him and his motives, as well as why you see all those people being tortured in flashbacks, and even what your own involvement was in all of it in a previous life. The story overall was well done.

All in all Pillars was a very fun game. Players of the Baldur's Gate games will easily recognize it's style and gameplay, and I would say it holds up to them extremely well. Better in many regards. I am in the mood for other things right now, but I know I will get back to playing Pillars some more in the future.

I have a mind to try playing a Wizard, and using only the vanilla companions throughout the entire game. After having some time to play with Serana as a Wizard adventurer-companion, and even doing another quick test creating a Wizard PC for the first level of the game, I think it would work fine. Something I would never say of the old BG games.

Magic works a lot better than I initially realized. I believe all Wizards start with an implement (a wand, rod, or scepter). These are not melee weapons as I had initially thought, but ranged weapons. They are like the staffs in Oblivion or Skyrim. A Wizard's spell casting is still limited by per rest, but they can use their implement indefinitely for a ranged magical attack. The damage is comparable to the starting one-handed swords, daggers, axes, etc...

If you take the Blast Talent (which I believe you should), attacks with your implement get turned into a small area-effect blast with a 5 point DR bypass (armor-piercing). Add the Penetrating Blast Talent, and that turns into a 10 point DR bypass. So you have a continual source of magical attacks with your implement that are nothing to sneeze at.

Plus of course you always have your Arcane Assault ability, which gives you two ranged magical attacks every encounter.

Finally, IE Mod allows you to change how many spells you can cast per level, how many your grimoire can hold per level, and whether your spells are castable per rest or per encounter (also selectable by level). I highly recommend IE Mod, not just for spellcasting.

This post has been edited by SubRosa: Sep 28 2015, 10:09 PM

[Acadian]

Thanks again, SubRosa. The rich details, insights and advice you have shared in this thread really do make it a wonderful resource for anyone undertaking this game. It also serves as a neat sharing place for those who are playing it.

[SubRosa]

I discovered something today. The Weapon and Shield style stacks with the One Handed Style. So take both for your Sword and Board characters. However, the caveat is that they don't stack if you are using a shield with the Bash effect. Turns out the Bash makes the shield count as a second weapon.

[SubRosa]

I have some news for the other Pillars of the community. The White March Part 2 was released on Gog just a few days ago. Since I bought both back when the first DLC was released, I am downloading it now.

Turns out my game is so out of date that White March 2 won't install. It is too out of date for the patches Gog has up as well. So now I am redownloading the entire thing.

This post has been edited by SubRosa: Feb 19 2016, 09:16 PM

[SubRosa]

IE Mod has been updated to work with Pillars version 3 (with White March parts 1 & 2). Installing the new IE Mod was a real nightmare, but I eventually got it working. Now when you start the game, you have to use the new IE Mod launcher, instead of the regular game icon.

I decided to start a new game, and created Aela as a Priest, since she is primarily a Restoration/Healer type character. Instead of using the vanilla companions, I decided to go the route of hiring Adventurers and turning them into her old adventuring pals from Seven. I spent last night and this afternoon creating portraits, and trying to figure out who to use. Right now I am looking at adding Ungarion (who I might try making a Cipher instead of a Wizard), Valens, Seridwe, and either Talun-Lei or Nashira.

I am not sure on which of the last two to go with. Nashira would obviously be an Ocean-Folk. I am not sure what race to make Talun-Lei. Maybe a Nature Godlike? Whichever one I pick, they will probably be Barbarians though.

While I know I want Seridwe on the team, I am not sure to class to make her either. She is an archer, which initially makes me think Ranger. But she never had an animal companion in the Aela fic, and was more of a fighter who used a bow. So I could go with a Fighter or a Rogue instead. But most of their abilities are geared toward melee fighting.

This post has been edited by SubRosa: Jun 13 2016, 06:54 PM

[SubRosa]

Here are some nuts and bolts on game versions and IEMod

The latest version of IEMod is 5.1.0. There are a couple of optional beta updates to it, that replace just the IEMod .dll file. I am using the more recent, which is 5.2.1. It works fine for me with no issues. But your mileage may vary. This version of IEMod works with Pillars version 3.00 (Gog-13) or 3.01 (Gog-14).

I did some checking, and there were two game patches released since I installed version 3.0 of the base game and the two White March dlcs. I downloaded version 3.02 (a.k.a. Gog-15) and gave it a whirl with the newest version of IEMod. It does not work with game version 3.02. So beware. I made a copy of my old game folder before installing 3.02, so I will just be reverting to that.

Some other bad news. While IEMod in general works with the earlier versions, its Per Encounter Spell settings don't. The settings are there in the Options -> IEMod sections, but they don't do anything. It is because the developers completely changed how Per Encounter spells work with game version 3. There are some other things IEMod does which I like, so I am still going to use it with my older game version.

Speaking of which, now in the vanilla game instead of gaining access to all of your 1st level spells at Level 9 as Per Encounter rather than Per Rest, they changed it to you can only use one spell per level on a Per Encounter basis. They call it Spell Mastery. So that is a big nerf on spellcasters.

Some other big changes are that the skills are more useful. Now the Survival skill grants you a special stat bonus every time you rest in the wilderness. Each rank in the skill unlocks a new type of bonus. You pick which one want to use for each character whenever you camp. So that is really cool.

All characters now get a new ability called Second Wind, which is tied to the Athletics skill. It is a once per Encounter self-heal. The amount it heals up is based on your Athletics. So the higher your skill, the more healing you get. That gives your tanks a good reason for maxing out Athletics.

This post has been edited by SubRosa: Jun 14 2016, 09:27 PM

[SubRosa]

After going back to my old 3.00 game, I downloaded the patches to 3.01 from Gog. There are three of them, one for the base game, and one for each part of the White March. Install them in this order:

First install the base game patch.

Then install the White March Part 1 patch.

Then install White March part 2 patch.

It worked fine after that, and I can confirm that IEMod does work with version 3.01 (a.k.a. Gog-14).

[SubRosa]

Nits and picks about patches and mods aside, I have been having a blast in my new playthrough of Pillars of Eternity. As I said before, I created Aela as my main character, and made her a Priest. I am having a lot of fun playing her. I miss being able to summon things, but otherwise she plays close to how I would imagine her. I actually stopped playing her in Skyrim because she couldn't do the things in the game the way I picture she can. The same with Oblivion. So this is nice. The whole Watcher business of PoE and its ability to see and communicate with souls also dovetails nicely into who she is, so that even works.

Since this is a team game, I was originally thinking of bringing in Ungarion, Teresa of the Faint Smile, Tadrose, Methredhel, etc... to be her sidekicks. But that is more the Fighters Guild team. Instead I went back to her days in story Seven, and formed her original adventuring band. Plus this way I can also do another gameplay in the future using Teresa, Tadrose, Methie, and some of the other Fighters Guild folks.

Aela's Five

From left to right is Aela, Ungarion (who is trying on a new horned helmet, he just has to make sure everyone notices him), Seridwe, Valens, and Do'Sakhar. The wolf in front of Seridwe is her animal companion Trinimac. While the glowing transparent pig is one of the Preorder Bonuses, a giant miniature space piglet pet. I got that without pre-ordering. Thank you Gog.com!

Ungarion is a Wizard. I was originally going to try him as a Cipher, and I actually did start a test game with him as the main character just to test out the Cipher abilities. I did like the class. but it didn't feel right for him. So I fell back on the Wizard, which is of course what Ungie is. Seridwe is a Ranger, since she is primarily an archer, and that class is focused on archery. The animal companion is new, but hardly a deal-breaker. I briefly considered making Valens a Paladin. But he's not the Nerevarine yet. At this point in his life he is a warrior and a general, so I went with Fighter. Do'Sakhar was the most difficult, and actually won out over Talun-Lei and Nashira. I was able to find a pic of a Khajiit with black and white stripes from a mod to use for him, and that helped clinch him. There are no Khajiit in PoE, so I made him a Moon-Godlike. He is also Barbarian, which makes my first time playing one.

Here is the same pic without the user interface

And finally zoomed in as far as I can go and still get them all in the pic

Aela has been rolling her way through Act I. She is over half way done, and I have only been playing a few days. The Five are definitely my most powerful team yet. They are awesome monster bashers. (I know I am jinxing myself by saying that). So far they have plowed through everything without much trouble. Only once has a team member been knocked down so far. Most of the time the baddies are dead by the time Do'Sakhar turns on his Barbarian berserk power. So he hardly ever really gets to make good use of it.

This post has been edited by SubRosa: Jun 15 2016, 07:05 PM

[McBadgere]

Well they look thoroughly awesome!...

I know I should really look up what this game is about, as I don't know anything about it... ...

That story, btw, (Y'know, that little Seven thing you did) was just proper awesome...Absolutely loved that...

I know Trinimac is something old and mythical etc...But wasn't it - most importantly - the three-headed dragon in Dungeons & Dragons?... ...

Awesome pics!...

Hope you enjoy the game...*Applauds heartily*...

[SubRosa]

Well everything I do is proper awesome! I would never do anything improperly awesome.

I think you are thinking of Tiamat as the 3 headed dragon? Trinimac is the ancient elven warrior god. He is the one who got turned into Malacath. But some Orcs still believe in Trinimac, and worship him in his old form. They think that if enough people also believe the same, it will turn him back to how he originally was. Who knows, they might even be right.

Pillars of Eternity is a lot of fun. If you like the old isometric team dungeoning games like Baldur's Gate or Neverwinter Nights you will enjoy it.

I just wish they would stop patching it constantly and be done with it. I suppose I should be happy that Obsidian is still putting so much effort into it. But it gets exasperating when I try to keep up with the constant updates, which always break IEMod in the process. It is like Skyrim was with SKSE. Every time Beth patched Skyrim it broke SKSE, which in turn broke every mod like SkyUI that was dependent on it.

[McBadgere]

I think you are thinking of Tiamat as the 3 headed dragon? Trinimac is the ancient elven warrior god. He is the one who got turned into Malacath. But some Orcs still believe in Trinimac, and worship him in his old form. They think that if enough people also believe the same, it will turn him back to how he originally was. Who knows, they might even be right.

Pillars of Eternity is a lot of fun. If you like the old isometric team dungeoning games like Baldur's Gate or Neverwinter Nights you will enjoy it.

Ah!...Yes...Yes I am that... ...Thank you!...

Also, thanks for the info...I had completely forgotten that...

I shall have to youtube some gameplay...I've no idea what those gaming things are...Aside from very old versions of Hero Quest on the Amiga or something like, Final Fantasy 9 aside, my first "modern" dungeon fantasy game was Oblivion... ...