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]

If you ever pick it up? Does that mean you are actually considering it?

I rolled a new toon tonight. Oya is a human barbarian ocean-folk. I am trying out something I noticed in last nights tests. I invested most of her attribute points in Dexterity for the higher attack speed, and Perception for the hit bonus. Then in Constitution to stay alive. Then I went dual-wield with her, using with weapons that have a Fast attack speed.

Weapon speed is either Fast, Average, or Slow. The slower ones obviously take more time between your strikes.

I also noticed that weapon damage is the same for all weapons of the same speed. So daggers do the same as rapiers, clubs, flails, hatchets, and stilettos. I think the real difference between them is that there are also three different types of damage. Piercing, Crushing, Slashing. Some critters have better defenses against one type, but are weaker against another.

Each weapon also has a bonus. Oya's hatchet gives her a +5 Deflection bonus. Stilletos bypass 3 points of Damage Reduction (armor).

So anyway, my thought with Oya was instead of concentrating on a high Might attribute for damage, to try going for a very fast, flurry of attacks style. So far it is working really well. I cannot believe how much faster she is attacking than my previous characters. She is taking down bad guys a lot faster too. So less damage per hit, but more hits in less time, is really working.

My only concern here is that Damage Reduction reduces your damage per hit. So far Oya has only been going against baddies with a moderate DR. When she runs into tougher creatures with a high DR, it might be that not much of her damage gets through. I could perhaps invest in a couple of stilletos for those occasion, for the armor piercing effect they have.

She is also my first time trying a Barbarian in this game. Like other games the Barbarian has a Frenzy ability that makes them tougher in combat. It gives a bonus to Might, Constitution, and attack speed, but reduces their Deflection. It is usable once every combat, so is a real workhorse. Unlike other games, there is no penalty to her stats after it wears off. So it is pretty awesome.

As a Barbarian she also gets an ability called Carnage, that gives her automatic attacks with lower damage against every baddie around her. So very handy when being mobbed. And lets face it, in these games you are always being mobbed by three or four times your own number.

Oh, and something I have been forgetting to mention. If you press the Tab key, it highlights all the objects on the screen that you can interact with. Just like in the old games (notice how often I am saying that?).

This post has been edited by SubRosa: Aug 30 2015, 03:11 AM