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Posted by: SubRosa Mar 26 2015, 07:05 PM

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. http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2015/03/26/pillars-of-eternity-review/ 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.

Posted by: ArtemisNoir2 Mar 26 2015, 08:00 PM

Somebody I know on a small, private forum (so I won't repost ) has just written up his impressions after about an hour or so of play, and he's extremely impressed. This is a guy who really loved BG2 and PS:T yet also enjoys more modern games. So.. bodes very well indeed. I'm seriously considering picking this up for my new machine, though I also want to grab Dragon Age: Inquisition.. and Witcher: The Wild Hunt when it comes out.... and I need to buy clothing (badly).. As the Brits would say... Bugger!

It's so nice to see that isometric games have made such a comeback recently! Hell.. I still sometimes fire up the BG series, PS:T and even the IWD games.

Posted by: SubRosa Mar 26 2015, 09:57 PM

One thing I am really interested in hearing is how the new stats work. For example, I read that there is now a Might stat. But it is not simply how physically strong a character is. Instead it is the base for how much damage they do. Any kind of damage, be it with weapons, spells, etc... Likewise Intellect is supposed to govern how large area of effects are. So a mighty wizard and an intellectual barbarian can both be good build options.

Posted by: Acadian Mar 26 2015, 10:06 PM

You can really see the BG influence in the shots and bit of footage. I wonder if normal mages will have to memorize spells the night before - I always found that a very clunky part of D&D.

Posted by: mirocu Mar 26 2015, 10:11 PM

But I´m not done with Oblivion and Fallout 3 yet..!

Posted by: stargelman Apr 16 2015, 05:28 PM

Don't have time to post, really. As one of 77000 backers, it's my solemn duty to enjoy this game rrrrrright now!

Posted by: SubRosa Aug 28 2015, 12:37 AM

Since it is on sale at Gog, I decided to finally buy Pillars of Eternity. I installed it and started it up to make sure it works, and created Persephone as a God-Like (it is an actual race!). It looks really good, and what little I have done so far plays just like the good old RPGs of yore: Neverwinter Nights, Baldur's Gate, etc...

The Nexus has some mods, and I downloaded a bunch of portrait packs. Naturally I also created a custom portrait for Persephone, using a screenshot from Skyrim (I have one I use for all the other games she appears in). It was really easy to make. They have to be in the .png format. There are two pictures you have to make, a small and a large one. The small one needs its name to end with _sm, and the large with _lg. The small one has to be 76x96, and the large 210x330. Finally, the go in your Pillars of Eternity/PillarsOfEternity_Data/data/art/gui/portraits/player/female or player/male folders. Like the BG games, you can change both your portrait and voice any time during the game just by clicking on your portrait.

Speaking of voices, there are about 7 or 8 to choose from per gender. You can also select no voice. They are not as cringe-worthy as in the old NWN games. But I still only found two that I really liked, the Smooth and Stoic ones. I see a Morrigan voice mod on the Nexus, so the voices are definitely moddable.

There are a lot of options in character creation. Besides sex, race and class, you can pick where you came from, which seems to determine your starting equipment. You also pick a background, which gives some extra bonuses. I also found an item list on the Nexus, which should make it easy to use the console to add things. I will probably try giving Persephone a greatsword to start with.

Okay, I just tried that. You open the console the regular way, with the ~ key. But then you have to press the Enter key before you can type things in. You have to go to Cheat Mode first by typing in iroll20s. Then you can use the Additem code to add your item. Then you disable Cheat Mode by typing iroll20s again. Apparently so long as you are Cheat Mode, your achievements are disabled. Like I could give a crap about that. But apparently some people do. I have no idea what the other cheats are. The add item one is probably the only one I will ever use.

So far it looks really nice. But I think I am going to hold off on actually playing it for a while. I still want to play Persephone in FONV, and have that Mad Scientist/Lich idea for FO3 as well.

Posted by: SubRosa Aug 28 2015, 11:18 PM

I also forgot to add that it starts out exactly the same way as Baldur's Gate, with a narrator giving you a brief introduction with a backdrop of a still picture. I am positive it is even the same man doing the narration that did it in BG1.

Speaking of which, the very first NPC you talk to is played by the same voice actor that did General Vargas in Wasteland 2. I also recognize the voice the second NPC as well, a female fighter who teams up with you. I am not sure where I remember her from, but I have definitely heard her before. Ok, I looked her up. She is played by Cindy Robinson, who did Astrid in Skyrim.

Posted by: Acadian Aug 28 2015, 11:45 PM

Thanks for sharing your impressions, SubRosa. I know we have a common frame of reference (BG/NWN) and that makes it easy to follow your thoughts. Let me know when you learn if it uses the D&D spell mechanics of having to memorize spells the night before.

Posted by: SubRosa Aug 29 2015, 03:40 AM

Okay, since you forced me, I spent the evening rolling several different toons to experiment at pwning the game with.

The first I tried was an Elf Wizard. Wizards can only cast the spells that are in the grimoire they have active. I am not sure how many spells you can put in a single grimoire, but I know you can have more than one of them. You can cast any spell you want from the active grimoire however, up to a certain number per rest period (read per day in the old D&D days). Once you reach your limit, your master of arcane magic spends the rest of the time bashing things with a club or hurling pointy sticks, as befits one of great mystical power. My Wizard had 2 spells per rest period, which meant she spent most of the time not casting spells.

So it is basically just like the old days of D&D. Well almost. Every class receives a special ability that they can perform once or twice per combat. This refreshes between fights, so you can use it over and over again without resting. The Wizard gets one called Arcane Assault, which is a basic magic damage ranged attack. So you will always have that to do twice every time you fight, even when you are out of spells.


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.

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.


Concerning resting, you can only do it in an inn, or if you are in the wilds if you have camping supplies. So far I have not come across either one, so I have not been able to try resting out.

I also tried a Druid. Their special ability is to Shapeshift once per combat. You can choose from half a dozen different animals, each with its own special buff. The bear has a lot of extra endurance and a frightening howl. The wolf can knock enemies down, and so on. The Druid also gets spells, but unlike the Wizard you don't have to fool around with any of that grimoire business. You have access to all the spells of your class, without having to memorize them. But there is still a limit to how many times you can cast them per rest period. For my starting Druid it was twice. She spent most of the time shapeshifting into a bear and beating on things, which I admit I found very satisfying. Outside of that she had a couple of times she could strategically use a spell.

Finally I tried out a Paladin. The Paladin gets to pick one out of two possible special abilities. Either a Lay on Hands that heals people, or a Flaming Weapon that gives you extra damage for one attack. I went with the latter. Otherwise the Paladin played like a Fighter. I think they have some passive abilities that improve their defenses.

The first NPC that joins you is a Fighter, so you get to play her as well. Fighters get a Knockdown special ability that they can use twice per combat. It is nice, as putting someone on their back means they cannot attack you until they get back up. It is handy for crowd control, because you can knock one baddie down, then run to the annoying archer shooting you from a distance and clobber him before the first one gets back up.

Here are some observations on the nuts and bolts of how things work:

Might is how much damage you do. It is sort of like Strength, but is all damage, melee weapons, ranged, or magic. So Might is good.

Dexterity improves your Action Speed, which I think means how quickly you can attack. Your armor seems to also slow down your attack speed, based on how heavy it is. So a low Dex, heavy armor character does not get a lot of chances to do anything.

Perception is your chance to hit (not Dexterity!), and to Interrupt your target's actions (see below).

Constitution does exactly what you think.

Intellect affects area of effect and durations. Not just for spells, but special abilities as well. I am not sure how many non-spellcaster abilities there are with aoe or durations though. I didn't notice any to start with.

Resolve seems to be a lot like the traditional charisma stat, in that it is used for threatening or persuading people. But it also adds to your Deflection some, and a lot to your Concentration. If you are hit while performing an action, be it casting a spell or swinging a sword, you can be interrupted. Concentration is your defense against that.

PoE is a little weird in that you have two health stats. One is Endurance, which completely refreshes between every combat. If your Endurance goes down to zero you get knocked out, but not killed. After the fight is over you get back up and get all your Endurance back. Health is the other stat, which only recovers from resting. You have a lot more Health than Endurance. One of my characters had like 55 Endurance and 170 Health.

Attacks damage both Endurance and Health. So you are going to get knocked out before you get killed. Unless you have been fighting a lot without resting, and your Health has slowly eroded. I saw my characters taking Endurance damage a lot more than health. But of course it completely refreshes after every fight.

So stats to pay attention to are Might for damage, Perception to hit, and of course Constitution to stay alive. Armor slows down your attacks, so tanking up on the heaviest armor is not necessarily the best idea.

Posted by: Acadian Aug 29 2015, 03:55 AM

Wow, thanks for such wonderfully detailed observations. Sort of too bad about the wizards - they were always a pain to play or fight against in BG II.

Posted by: SubRosa Aug 29 2015, 04:16 AM

Forgot to include http://i.imgur.com/WtjhJjQ.jpg. It will look familiar to anyone who has played the BG or NWN games.

The biggest difference in the UI is that the character portraits for your party are the bottom left. When you click on a character's picture, it automatically brings up a line with their abilities, spells, and weapon sets above. That makes it easy for spellcasting and using special abilities. Like the older games, you can have several weapon sets, starting with two. That makes it easy to switch from something like a sword to a bow on the fly.

By default the game automatically pauses at the start of every combat, and you can pause at any time to issue orders to your individual party members. So just like with the older games. There is also a slow time option, that lets you keep the action going without pausing, just slower. But I think I prefer the old way of pausing best.

There are basic AI routines you can assign to your party members for them to do automatically, like attack everything, attack only those attacking you, etc... Just like in the old games.

The races are interesting. Besides the standard Human, Elf Dwarf, they have an aquatic race called Aumaua. They kind of are the orcs of the world, in that they are bigger and stronger than others. But not green or tusky. The Orlan are smaller, so might be similar to Hobbits or Gnomes. But they seem half-animal, with horns, fur and so on. I made my test Druid an Orlan. The Godlike are the most interesting new race. They seem to members of the normal races that have gained Divine mojo, which has altered them physically. They come in different flavors, like Nature Godlike, Death Godlike, Fire Godlike, and Moon Godlike. Each has their own special abilities.

Besides picking a race, when you create a character you also pick the Culture (not race) they came from. Basically it is the area they grew up in. Each confers a +1 bonus to a different Attribute, and determines what equipment you start with.

Then you pick a Background. Basically what you did. This gives you a bonus to one or two skills. Not all backgrounds are available in all Cultures.

You can change your character picture and voice at any time during the game. You can even use the voices of the opposite gender if you want. You can also change the primary and secondary colors of your character's gear at any time during the game.

http://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Pillars_of_Eternity_Wiki is a handy place for all sorts of info on the game.

Posted by: Acadian Aug 29 2015, 02:21 PM

The screenie looks great. As you say, quite familiar looking. But better, sharper and crisper - very nice. In fact everything you describe sounds like minor tweaks to BG - which is a good thing. I liked the pause stop and start during combat since I'm not the best at quick clicking combat. Neat!

Posted by: SubRosa Aug 29 2015, 05:45 PM

I did some digging, and found https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/69199-possible-spoilers-modding-thread-a-simple-mod-and-console-commands/.

I experimented, and the Rest command does force a rest, even if you do not have camping supplies. Like the old games it takes you to a short vid of a campfire while you rest. Then you pop back to the game with full health and spells. So this is one way you can make a mage viable, so long as you do this between every battle. Though that would probably get tedious.

As with the Additem command I used before you first have to open the console, and type in IRoll20s to enter cheat mode first, and then do the same after to disable cheat mode.

I was thinking if you simply modded the spells to be per combat rather than per rest, that would eliminate the craptacularness to playing a mage. But modding Pillars does not look as easy as Bethesda games.

I found some mods that alter gameplay, and tried reverse-engineering to see what the modders did. But so far no luck. Obsidian has not released a game editor like the creation kit. I think people are just using hex editors to open game files. Though I could be wrong. I used Notepadd++, and while I saw a lot of stuff, I was not sure what I was really looking for.

Pillars is using the Unity Engine, so I think I will try looking for ways to edit that in general as a starting point. http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/69197-modding-thread-asset-editor/ from last year talks about a Unity Editor which might be just the thing, but it seems to need some custom extensions to handle Pillars of Eternity.

Posted by: SubRosa Aug 29 2015, 10:10 PM

Ok, here are some basic console commands that work. Remember, start by entering iroll20s into the console to enable cheats:

AttributeScore Player {attribute} {Final Value} = This changes the player's noted attribute to the value you put in. It is always Player for the PC, no matter what name you gave yourself. With Companions it is the Companion name. But it is not the name you see in the game, but the game's internal name for them. They start with Companion_***. It looks like they each have a file in the Pillars of Eternity\PillarsOfEternityData\Assetbundles\Prefabs\ObjectBundle folder. So Aloth is probably companion_aloth, Grieving Mother is companion_gm, etc... You could also use the FindCharacter code (see below) to get the name as well.

AddAbility Player {Ability Name} = Again, get the ability names from the same ObjectBundle folder above.

AddTalent {Talent Name} = same as before, except it seems to automatically work on the player without having to specify a character.

Skill Player {Skill Name} {Value} = Gives you the given skill at the value you enter.

Additem {item name} {amount of items} = Uses internal item names, automatically gives them to the PC. Again get the internal names from the ObjectBundle folder above. Most are simple: Great_Sword, Great_Sword_Fine, Sword, Sword_Fine, etc...

SetZoomRange {minimum zoom} {maximum zoom} = I find SetZoomRange 0.2 1.2 works good.

ManageParty = opens the party management screen

GivePlayerMoney {Amount} = does what it says

AddExperience {Amount} = again, does what it says

AddExperienceToLevel {Level} = Gives the entire party enough xp to reach the Level specified. If a character already has more than that, they are unaffected. This is good for bringing hired Adventurers up to the same level as the PC.

Rest = Forces a rest period, even if you do not have camping supplies.

HealParty = Automatically heals all party members.

UnlockAll = Unlocks all the containers on the map.

FindCharacter {Name} = Displays all the internal names matching the name you give. This is handy with other commands like AttributeScore.

Kill {Internal Character Name} = Kills the character you list, get the internal name from the command above.

AdvanceTimeByHours {hours} = Moves the clock up by the number of hours you specify.



There are some new commands only available in the latest version of IE Mod:

Ctrl + Y = Inflict 50 000 damage to whoever is under the cursor (Party included, be careful with that one)

Ctrl + S = Restore Spells and ability uses

UnlockSoulBond = Fully binds all equipped soul items for the selected character.


ChangeClass {name} {Class} = Respecs the named character to level 0 in the class given.

Warning: do not attempt to transition/quit/save game while your character is level 0. You need to level him up first. Do not attempt to open your grimoire, etc. Just immediately proceed to leveling up.

If you're respeccing into a Paladin or a Cleric, you'll need to manually assign yourself a Paladin Order or a Deity. Use the following console commands:

AssignClericalGod {simple name} {god}
Charname should be that actually displayed in the game, and not the internal name used in other commands. Possible values for godame: None, Berath Eothas, Magran, Skaen, Wael.

AssignPaladinOrder {simple name} {order name}
Possible values for order name: None, BleakWalkers, DarcozziPaladini, GoldpactKnights, KindWayfarers, ShieldbearersOfStElcga, FrermasMesCancSuolias.

Posted by: Acadian Aug 29 2015, 10:26 PM

I can see that if I ever pick up PoE, I'll be coming back to this thread, your notes and that link you provided.

Posted by: SubRosa Aug 30 2015, 02:00 AM

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

I rolled a new toon tonight. http://i.imgur.com/MVMdgHy.jpg. 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?).

Posted by: SubRosa Aug 30 2015, 09:29 PM

I bring glad tidings from the world of Pillars. I played some more with Persephone today, and leveled up twice. So now I can share some things about leveling.

I have already mentioned Abilities and Talents. Every time you level up you get to pick one. On odd numbered levels you get an Ability, so level 1 (when you start the game), level 3, 5, 7, etc... They appear to all be class-specific, and there are not that many to choose from. It looks like you get two or three new ones added to the available list every time you hit an odd level.

On even numbered levels (2, 4, 6, 8, etc...) you pick a Talent instead. There are a lot of Talents. A handful appear to be class specific. But the vast majority are ones that anyone can take.

So these are like the Perks of D&D 3.0 and other games since. There are lot more of them than you can ever take, so here is where you really customize your character.

So far I have not had the chance to increase any Attributes. So it looks like in D&D 2.0, where you were stuck with whatever you started with for the entire game. But I am only 3rd level, so I could be wrong.

Today Persephone also came across a dog that she was able to adopt. It was just added to her inventory like any ordinary item. To make it appear in the game she had to equip it (there is a specific equip slot for pets). So now she has a http://i.imgur.com/70oLU8B.jpg following her. From what I read there are other pets you can get, and they do not fight, or get attacked. They are just there for looking at.

I have also discovered what appears to be a bug with the latest game version (2.00-something). http://i.imgur.com/6aQyH1h.jpg. It doesn't seem to do anything, or signify anything. It shows up on every character I create from the very first moment of the game. It does not appear on any of the NPCs in my party. I asked around the official forums, and it looks like at least one other person has it too. Apparently it is a bug. Though granted, not a serious one. It is just strange.

Posted by: haute ecole rider Aug 30 2015, 11:52 PM

Thanks to your reviews, I downloaded Pillars for the Mac (on sale in the Mac App Store, too, for 33% off). So I haven't yet fired it up, since I'm deep in Skyrim with my newest toon. But someday . . .

Posted by: SubRosa Aug 31 2015, 12:49 AM

Yay, another forumite has been Pillared! Since everyone had it on sale with the same amount off I am guessing it was Obsidian that decided to put it on sale, and not any one individual store.

I discovered something new today. Traps are detected and disarmed solely using the Mechanics skill. So it is a good idea to have at least one character invest heavily in that.

Some other thoughts on skills are:

Everyone should have 3 points in Athletics. Apparently combat adds fatigue to your characters. Atheletics at this level reduces that fatigue by 90%. So this way your party won't need to rest as often (at least because they are tired)

Survival increases the amount of time that potion and food buffs last.

Lore is needed to use scrolls. I just tested it, and anyone with a high enough Lore can use scrolls, not just magicians. Lore also unlocks more info on the monsters you fight. It also adds extra dialogue options in some cases.

Stealth is what you think it is.

With this in mind I am going back and using those cheat codes to redistribute my party's skills...

Oh, and Pillars is very Alt+Tab friendly. I just Alt+Tabbed from it to go back to my Desktop right now and post this.

Posted by: SubRosa Aug 31 2015, 03:35 AM

I went and bought http://www.gog.com/game/pillars_of_eternity_the_white_march_expansion_pass. Right now only Part 1 of the White March is available. You buy it standalone for about $15. I decided to buy both parts from the link above since I have played the game enough to know I am going to want Part 2 when it comes out, and this way it saves me about $5 overall.

It also came with a preorder bonus. It turned out to be a ring that adds Endurance twice per rest period, and a giant miniature space piglet pet. http://i.imgur.com/Gyd8PfK.jpg.

The expansion also adds a couple of Companions. One is a Rogue, who I am already looking forward to finding. I was surprised that there were no Rogues in the original game. Except for the Adventurers you hire at inns. The other is a Monk, who I am not sure I want to bother with.

Posted by: Acadian Aug 31 2015, 03:41 AM

Boo has been replaced by a piglet!

Posted by: haute ecole rider Aug 31 2015, 03:45 AM

Because my new Skyrim toon is in the midst of the Civil War quest line (she's a Stormie, but getting tired of hearing the rhetoric), we took a break from schlepping all over with the Biggest Nord that Ever Walked Out of Skyrim. Yup, she's got a companion, a custom voiced mod named http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/25360/. I'm thinking of renaming him to Valdimar, because he reminds me so much of that bigger than real life Nord. Voice to match, too.

But we digress . . .

So I stepped over to my MacBook Pro and fired up PE. Currently SeJin is a Ranger (it seems that these are my preferred play style) with a Bear companion. Just leveled up to 2 and made Ursula a Faithful Companion. Working our way to the first town. Thinking of customizing the portrait, I'd have to do a little digging around first. Not sure if I can do so on the Mac.

Posted by: SubRosa Aug 31 2015, 04:23 PM

Acaidan: I was thinking of Boo as well! Hamsters and rangers everywhere! Rejoice!

haute ecole rider: Valfar looks creepy. Like an Aryan Brotherhood enforcer. I prefer a nice, friendly http://i.imgur.com/fmFJvcP.jpg

I have not tried a Ranger yet. But from what I read they seem to be a viable class, unlike Dragon Age, where they nerfed archery. I hear that with version 2.0 of the game, they fixed some issues with the animal companions not leveling up, so now they are a lot more potent.

Posted by: haute ecole rider Aug 31 2015, 05:20 PM

When SeJin leveled up, I didn't notice if Ursula leveled up too. I'll have to go take a peek.

The Mac App Store versions tend to lag behind the PC versions, but I'm on the lookout for the White March.

I haven't played this kind of RPG in over ten years. It's bringing back tons of memories for me. Namely one called https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pillars_of_Garendall, a Mac-only RPG that let you play as a Fighter, Scout or Wizard. I always liked the scout/ranger class best, as I prefer to take on my enemies from a distance but can go toe to toe if necessary. The Wiz always died if a puny little mud crab moved to the tile next to him, while the Rocks-for-Brains always had to get up close, even when he was outclassed, before he could deal some damage.

So that's what I tried to do with POE. What I do like about this is that I can customize my character, so that's really much nicer than POG. The graphics are good, too, though I'm so used to Oblivion/Skyrim.

What I hate about this game is pretty much what I hate about these types of games - namely the top-down view (I guess you call it isometric?) which doesn't feel all that immersive for me. But that's okay, the story line is already pretty intriguing.

Posted by: SubRosa Aug 31 2015, 07:38 PM

I like the isometric view. It works better for strategy style games, where managing multiple characters and positioning is important. One reason I never use companions in Bethesda games is they always run in front of you when you are shooting, or they shoot you in the back. That kind of thing doesn't happen in isometric games, because you can control the actions of not only yourself, but your companions.

Since you forced me to, I created a Ranger to try out, and took a lion companion. Turns out the Lion has a roar power that frightens enemies and gives them penalties to things like their accuracy. The trouble is I am never sure if he has done it yet or not, and if I miss it he just stands around doing nothing until I realize I need to make him attack again. So I think I will create a new character with a different companion.

But I did think the ranged combat worked out well. Wounding Shot worked very well at hobbling most enemies and slowing them down. I noticed that the Rogue class gets a sneak attack on all enemies that are hobbled. So it looks like a Ranger and Rogue would be a deadly combo.

I am now wondering how a ranged Rogue would do? I think the devs intended the Rogue to be mainly a melee fighter, but it seems most of their abilities and talents work at range as well. Except I know their Backstab talent only works up close.

I just tried it out with a Hearth Orlan, and a Ranged Rogue is very powerful. All Rogues automatically get Sneak Attack, which does an extra 50% damage to enemies who are blinded, hobbled, flanked, prone, etc... It also works on all attacks in the first two seconds of combat. So a Ranged Rogue's first shot is always going to be a sneak attack.

The Rogue picks from Hobbling Strike or Blinding Strike at character creation. If either one hits it insures a Sneak Attack on all your hits afterward. Hobbling Strike seems ideal for a ranged character, as it slows your enemy down. If you have a Fighter with you (and you should!), their Knockdown will also provide you with more Sneak Attack opportunities.

The downside is that unlike the Ranger, you don't get that Animal Companion to run interference for you, and you definitely don't want to be alone with this character. The upside is Sneak Attack makes you a beast with a bow. I was dishing out far more damage with the Ranged Rogue than the Ranger. The downside is that I also drew more fire, and when I got hit it really hurt. This is definitely a great idea for a glass cannon type character.

Posted by: Acadian Aug 31 2015, 10:11 PM

Drawn in by all this talk of ranged combat, animal companions and glass cannons. . . .

Posted by: SubRosa Aug 31 2015, 10:14 PM

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.

Posted by: Acadian Aug 31 2015, 11:16 PM

That's great news. As you can imagine, I gave Dragon Age Origins an epic fail after trying very hard for about six weeks to like it. The sneaky rogue glass cannon or ranger behind a big critter both sound great for bowgirls. Do the rangers have any degree of druid type magicks?

Posted by: SubRosa Sep 1 2015, 12:17 AM

The White March dlc adds in some new Talents you can take starting at Level 2 that mimic some of the Class Specific Abilities. There is one called Aspirant's Mark that you can use 2 times per Rest. It mimics the Druid spell Nature's Mark. It is an area effect spell that reduces all enemy Deflection, Reflex, and Will defenses by -8.

That seems to be about it. There is no true multi-classing (yet at least). And Rangers don't get spells like in D&D. http://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Ranger. But I do see an ability in there called Binding Roots that is similar to the old Entangle spell.

I just rolled another toon to experiment with. This was a Wood Elf Ranger named Skadi with a Wolf companion (Fenrir). She worked out really well, so I think I will be keeping her. I maxed out her Dexterity at 20, and she is pretty good with a bow. I noticed that the Wolf dished out a lot of damage. I have seen people say that it is one of the highest DPS animal companions, and I can definitely see that. It doesn't have any special abilities you have to manually activate, so it is pretty simple to manage. Just point and it bites.

Posted by: Acadian Sep 1 2015, 12:23 AM

Oh that sounds fabulous - a wood elven bow ranger with a forest critter and a tangling vines spell. That really is exactly the 'druidy' stuff I was hoping for and both those abilities are ideal for an archer.

Posted by: SubRosa Sep 1 2015, 12:30 AM

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.

Posted by: haute ecole rider Sep 1 2015, 03:58 AM

I agree with all of these points - it really helps to plan out the attack before hand and to be able to tell your companions which enemy to go for. I was able to send Calisca and Ursula (my bear) to attack a bandit chief while I took out the bandit archer. It worked well - the two of them took out the more powerful enemy pretty quickly, and I was able to redirect them against the archer, by which time he was pretty hurt.

I forced you to create a Ranger?


Now that give me an idea . . . I had initially considered going with a Rogue character (that or a Druid), but settled on the Ranger as that had more Might.

Thank you for all the info. This is really my first D&D based RPG - and I had never played D&D, so I'm totally unfamiliar with all the terminology and rules. But I don't care beyond having fun following the story. However I do want my character to live long enough to get through the storyline! So your information breaks it down into more manageable chunks for someone like me.

Posted by: SubRosa Sep 1 2015, 07:15 PM

The downside to the isometric view that you might be feeling is that it feels less personal than the standard third/first person games that Bethesda does. In Sky, Ob, FO, and so on, you get up close and personal with your character. You see their face. In the games like Pillars, Baldur's Gate, NWN, and so on, you are withdrawn from your characters. You watch down from on high, like a distant deity manipulating their actions. The character portraits help alleviate that somewhat, because they give you a close look at each character's face. But for the the most part they are little squiggles on the screen. And I am sure that can be dissatisfying for many.



That's like talking about having a great chicken salad, or pizza, or a cheeseburger. After hearing that, can anyone listening do anything other than go out and eat one themselves?




I have been playing D&D style RPGs since, well, since playing actual D&D! Most computer games simplify the rules, even the ones that use them. Or at least they hide most of it behind the screen so you can just play the game. Pillars is actually lot simpler than the old pen & paper D&D games.



I have talked a lot about the nuts and bolts of the game and classes and how to make a character. But one thing I have not mentioned yet is the world itself. One thing that h.e.r. mentioned is how she liked the setting. I do too. It is mostly your basic fantasy setting, with very European-looking buildings and armor and clothing and weapons and social systems. Though unlike most this is more equivalent to the Renaissance Era than the Medieval. There are firearms in the form of arabesques and blunderbusses, which from what I read are really awesome first strike weapons, but are so slow to reload they are useless after the first shot.

I will admit that the idea of any sort of firearms in a fantasy game turns me off. But the truth is it is no different than the Sengoku period of Japan, or Hideoyoshi's invasions of Korea, or good old Western Europe in the 14th and 15th Centuries, when plate armor reached its zenith precisely because it was the only thing that could stop a bullet. Movies and books set in those periods are fun, and I have to admit that playing a game set in one would be too.

Anyway, on top of the generic Fantasy world they do some really creative things with souls, and a naturally forming crystal called Adra. Adra absorbs the souls of people who have died, and in time transmits them to the Spirit World. Then after a while they return to the physical world born into new bodies. Basic reincarnation with some crystals acting as the duct work. Where it gets interesting is that there are scientists called Animancers who study souls, as well as rare people called Watchers who can actually see souls. There are also cases where souls become "Lost" and don't go on to the afterlife. Worse, there is a growing problem of the Hollowborn, babies born without souls. Sometimes the Lost Souls even find a home in these Hollowborn children.

The player character is a Watcher, and the game has some really neat stuff once your Watcher ability turns itself on. You start seeing the souls of people long dead, and reliving past events in the lives of people who are still alive. It is some very cool stuff, and it all fits together really nicely. I don't know where it is all going as I am still only at the very beginning of the game. But it really like it. It is a very welcome change from fantasy worlds I loathed, such as those of the Dragon Age and Witcher games.

Posted by: haute ecole rider Sep 1 2015, 09:32 PM

I also like how the choices you make in the dialogues open up some decision trees and closes off others. It has a major impact in how the game progresses and how the NPC's interact with the player.

So SeJin and her party just died. In Black Meadow. Fighting something called a Forest Lurker. After fighting two Forest Trolls one after the other. Guess I should have rested the party after that second Troll . . .

So I'm taking a break from this and going back to Skyrim for some im- im- immersion!

Can you tell I'm off from work today?

Posted by: SubRosa Sep 2 2015, 12:55 AM

Yay for staying home and playing computer games instead!

I figured out how you can tweak the stats for your animal companion. This is after Skadi's wolf got knocked out in a fight with some Shadows. A 60 Endurance just doesn't cut it for a front line fighter.

You use the same line as when tweaking your player character, only you have to change the name Player to the animal's name. Of course it is not as simple as the name you see in the game. As with the regular companions, you have to find the internal name the game uses. Which of course is going to be vary with each animal companion in every game.

So start with:

FindCharacter {Name}

Use the name you gave your animal companion. It will spit out the internal name. Probably something like CRE_Wolf_Companion(Clone)_6. Then use that name in the AttributeScore code.

AttributeScore CRE_Wolf_Companion(Clone)_6 {attribute} {Final Value}

Raising the animal's Constitution will also raise up their Endurance, and your companion will last a lot longer.

Posted by: Acadian Sep 2 2015, 01:08 AM

I can see this thread will be a great resource for anyone looking to play. Thank you for posting all these wonderful bits of helpful goodness as you discover them.

Posted by: Lopov Sep 2 2015, 10:19 AM

After reading through this thread and some reviews on the Internet, I'll probably start PoE soon, especially if it's a successor of Baldur's Gate, which was my favorite game when I was younger.

My only concern is that I'll find it too difficult since I had many troubles with BG and so I cheated at times. But since I'm mostly interested in storyline, cheating from time to time probably won't ruin my experience with PoE.

Very much this!

Posted by: haute ecole rider Sep 2 2015, 05:07 PM

So in the TES games, you cheat by opening the console with the tilde key. But in POE, how do you go into cheat mode? Noob question, I know, but I'd like to buff my party up a little more.

Posted by: SubRosa Sep 2 2015, 05:15 PM

The exact same way. Except that once the console is open you also have to press the Enter key before you can type anything in.

Posted by: Lopov Sep 2 2015, 08:59 PM

I started PoE today -> my character is a human monk called http://shrani.najdi.si/?2g/LA/2FySEG6U/2-mowrin-the-monk.jpg. So far he made it to the Gilded Vale and is currently resting inside the Black Hound Inn. Alignments seem to be gone but that's not necessarily a bad thing, I intend to roleplay Mowrin as more or less a good character.

I felt funny when I started playing PoE, at the same time memories from playing BG came back but I felt an urge to go play some Fallout since I haven't played any game from an isometric view in years. But in a few minutes I was hooked.

I was nicely surprised inside the ruins where you have to take shelter from the windstorm and Mowrin was capable of disarming most traps on his own and quickly found the exit. I haven't explored the rest of the ruins but I assume that disarming traps was a shortcut of sorts. And since his Athletics is high, he managed to act fast enough to save Heodan (one of tutorial companions) from the bandit chief in the camp before, I like it when skills and abilities have an impact during dialogue.

To reach Gilded Vale, he crossed Valewood where he http://shrani.najdi.si/?1a/qY/1YqOYfMb/1-mowrin--the-bear.jpg but also found out the sad story behind Perly's death and now intends to punish Perly's traitorous friend. From Valewood he finally arrived to the Gilded Vale and met Aloth, one of the possible companions but for now refused to travel in a company.

I'm still getting used to the game, so far I have tutorial messages enabled, I play on the easiest difficulty and I didn't really study the combat in depth yet. Upon leveling up, I chose the Veteran's Recovery talent, which recovers Mowrin's endurance by itself or something similar and I invested points mostly in Stealth, Mechanics and Athletics.

SubRosa, IIRC, you said that you didn't find camping supplies yet. They can be found on the corpse which you encounter immediately when arriving to Valewood.

EDIT: Is it possible to alter skin color and hairstyle mid-game?

Posted by: SubRosa Sep 2 2015, 09:58 PM

Another Pillar of the community!

Mowrin looks like a pretty ferocious man of spiritual enlightenment!

Disarming traps is purely based on your Mechanics skill. So you must have at least one point. So too is detecting them, though I think you have to be in Sneak mode to find traps.

Wow Mow killed the bear all by himself! That was one tough ball of fur.

So am I the only one who sees "Valewood" and thinks "Valenwood?"

I did find more camping supplies by now. In fact, as soon as you get in the cave from the biwiac storm you automatically get 1 set of camping supplies added to your inventory. If you follow the cave left from the entrance, there are two more sets of supplies in a crate.

I don't think you can change your hair or skin once you start. But I am not positive. I know you can change your portrait and clothing colors.

There is a Respec option you can select at any merchant. It is mainly for redistributing your points, abilities, and skills. But it might let you change your appearance as well. Nope, I just tried it, and it does not allow you to change your hair or skin.

Posted by: SubRosa Sep 3 2015, 12:47 AM

http://i.imgur.com/ZNrl3G4.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/pJHv2ik.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/BJV6ibh.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/o3Ry7x9.jpg

Posted by: Lopov Sep 3 2015, 07:11 AM

How do you manage to get "so close" to your characters?

Wow, forest Trolls look tough and ugly.

--

I want to change the hairstyle because Mowrin in game has shorter hair than on the pic but if it can't be done, I'll get used to it. Perhaps I'll find a more fitting portrait online and swap it. I have some good portraits with short hair but the skin is too bright. EDIT: Found http://shrani.najdi.si/?1W/QN/1dVj1gnx/2-mowrin-the-monk.jpg that fits and changed it. Now he looks much less ferocious but more similar to his in-game appearance.

Surprisingly his stats say that the hardest enemy he fought so far, was a young wolf that he killed together with Calisca in the tutorial.

Now I'm about to do some reading regarding the Monk class before I'm off to work. IIRC they couldn't use any weapons in BG but supposedly they can in PoE.

Posted by: Acadian Sep 3 2015, 12:38 PM

Great shots! I was looking on those sites you linked earlier in this thread and am quite intrigued. I really like the concept of an elven rangerarcher with a furry familiar. I was pleased to find that such a character (unlike in BG) can function as a real scout because they can learn to handle traps and locks.

Posted by: Lopov Sep 3 2015, 01:57 PM

This means that we can expect to see Buffy joining us soon?

Posted by: SubRosa Sep 3 2015, 02:08 PM

Lopov: I used the SetZoomRange {minimum zoom} {maximum zoom} console command to get the camera to zoom in so close. I don't know what it isn't that way by default. I find SetZoomRange 0.2 50 works good. Though I might try reducing the second number, as I find the game looks kind of hazy when I am zoomed out that far. I changed it to SetZoomRange 0.2 1.2, as a just a little bit of the second number goes a really long way.

I took on that Bear alone with Persephone, and it killed her about three times in a row. When she finally did manage to defeat it she has used up all her potions and was down to just a handful of Endurance.

From that giant miniature space piglet, I see you sprung for the White March too! Let us know how the Monk works. I have not tried playing one yet.


Acadian: One nice thing about Pillars is that picking locks, disabling traps, and so on are not solely dedicated to the Thief/Rogue class. The Mechanics skill is all you need, and anyone can raise it and become the team lockpicker and trapfinder.

I hope this does mean that we will see a blond bowgirl joining us soon!

Posted by: Lopov Sep 3 2015, 02:24 PM

Maybe the bear wasn't that difficult because I play on the easiest difficulty? I enjoyed playing Monks in Baldur's Gate but at low levels it was very difficult to survive on your own while in PoE (for now) this doesn't seem to be the case.

I actually didn't know that the version without the WM exists too, though I haven't tested the piglet yet. I was busy trying to find out how to drop items on the ground and then I read online that it's not possible.

BTW, can you eat ingredients that you pick up? For instance, in the tutorial your objective was to find some healing grapes but once picked up, they move to Stash instead of Inventory and the only interaction possible is to read its description but you can't actually use them.

Posted by: SubRosa Sep 3 2015, 03:28 PM

I play on Average, so maybe that is why the Bear was harder for me.

I had to buy the White March separate. It must be because you are in a different region it came bundled with the game where you are.

To use an ingredient you have to move it to your Quick Items bar in your inventory. I had the same problem until I figured it out.

I think you can drop things. Look down at the bottom of your Inventory page, next to the Stash. There should be a Drop button there. I have never used it though. It is probably something that added with one of the patches. One thing I realized after looking online for answers is that a lot of posts people have made about the game were made when it was in Beta, and this game has changed a lot over the time it has been out. 2.0 - the version we have now - is a lot different from the previous ones.

Today I tried out http://www.nexusmods.com/pillarsofeternity/mods/1/ which has a beta version for Pillars 2.0. It does a lot of things, but what got me interested is that it incorporates other mods that do things like change the number of spells mages can cast between rests. There is even an option to change them all from per rest to per encounter. So that makes playing a wizard a really viable option.

There is another option to allow you to use items that are regular inventory and not just in your Quick Items bar. It also lets you switch items between characters during combat.

One thing I like is Fast Scouting Mode, which allows you to move at normal speed while in Stealth Mode. That makes it easier to find hidden and trapped things, by being in Stealth Mode all the time.

It does other things as well, such as allow you to customize your UI, and change a lot of game elements like the circles drawn under the characters to be more like the old BG and IWD games.

Posted by: SubRosa Sep 3 2015, 06:38 PM

One thing that has not been mentioned for the benefit of folks who have not bought the game yet is Engagement. It is similar to D&D 3 and up where you got attacks of opportunity on opponents who tried to move past you in melee. In PoE, you can Engage one opponent by default, and more with talents. When you Engage them, the two of you are basically stuck in with each other, and they cannot move away without taking an immediate free attack from you that comes with a huge bonus. Naturally it works both ways, and the monsters will engage you as well.

http://i.imgur.com/SF2aQiN.jpg. The Wicht in the middle of the screen has engaged Fenrir, my Ranger's wolf companion. The red line that arcs from her to him shows that she has engaged him. Likewise, Fenrir has engaged her as well, so he has a green arc going to her. Finally, to the right of the Wicht is the party fighter Eder, who has also engaged the Wicht. (green is always for good guys, red for the enemy)

I kind of like it. It ensures that enemies "get stuck in" with your front line fighters, and keeps them from just running past them and attacking your squishy mages in the rear. http://i.imgur.com/BJV6ibh.jpg. The front liners on both sides are engaged with each other in the center, while the squishies in the rear are flinging spells and arrows. So tactics and thinking really works, it isn't just a bunch of characters rushing around pell mell hacking everything that moves.

Granted, it is not so fun when the front line has to step to either side when the mage uses an area spell that would otherwise fry them as well - like Rolling Flame - and the baddies get at the squishy mage before the front line can get back in place. Then the mage is stuck in melee with an enemy slugger. But it should cut both ways, and it makes the game interesting.

Posted by: Lopov Sep 3 2015, 07:01 PM

I just alt-tabbed out of the game and have a question - how do I move items from stash to quick items so I can interact with them? I can't drag items from Stash, they seem like they can't be moved.

I don't see the Drop button next to Stash either, which is odd, since the version which I use (the White March) should be fully patched. Well unless it's not.

Posted by: SubRosa Sep 3 2015, 08:14 PM

I just started using IE mod, so it could be that added the Drop button. I also just installed a patch for White March, which might have added it too. It must have been added by one or the other, because I just looked back http://i.imgur.com/Gyd8PfK.jpg and it is not there. I now have a Drop button right under the Crafting one.

I just drag and drop from the stash to the character inventories and it works fine for me.


Edit: Just tested it and it is the IE Mod that adds the Drop button.

Posted by: Lopov Sep 3 2015, 09:06 PM

Okay, maybe I'll use this mod in the future as well.

http://shrani.najdi.si/?1Y/LF/273vofSi/3-in-the-ruined-house.jpg

http://shrani.najdi.si/?3W/7B/3XBRxSsZ/4-wolves-attack.jpg

Posted by: Renee Sep 4 2015, 02:21 AM

Aww, so cute to see you folks rolling nu t00ns to pwn teh game with. Keep it up!

Posted by: SubRosa Sep 4 2015, 03:25 AM

Ph3&R U$ n00bS!

Posted by: SubRosa Sep 5 2015, 02:20 AM

Some notes about Wizards.

I already mentioned before that Wizards all get Arcane Assault, which is a short ranged attack that they can do twice per encounter. Well, they also can take a Talent called Blast which allows them to fire an unlimited number of short ranged attacks through a wand, rod, or scepter. Yet another Talent gives the Blast at +5 DR reduction against their enemies. So between Arcane Assault and Blast, you can at least keep up a continuous series of magical attacks. Granted, neither does a lot of damage, 10-16 for AA, and 6-11 for Blast. The first is about the same as a sword or bow. The second is lower than a dagger.

The IE mod also does allow you to increase the number of spells you can cast between rest periods. It also allows you to make all spells castable per encounter rather than per rest. Or you can use it to make 1st and 2nd level spells castable per encounter sooner (in the vanilla game they become that way at 9th and 11th level respectively).

So with all this - especially IE - Wizards are a viable class for a player character, rather than just a support character only useful once in a while for strategic spell usages, and missing the bad guys with a bow or sling the rest of the time.

Posted by: Lopov Sep 5 2015, 07:04 PM

I rolled a new toon, a monk again, but this time I paid more attention when choosing attributes and leveling up, besides I didn't like some choices which I made with my previous character.

Now I'm using the IE mod, mostly to have the Drop button in the inventory. It annoyed me the most in the vanilla game that you couldn't drop any items. It has several other cool features but I haven't tested them yet.

One thing I really like in PoE is that I'm not "afraid" to start any quests since (so far) all of them have multiple outcomes, suited for different types of characters. Unlike in TES & Fallout where a lot of quests can only be done in one way. There aren't any essential characters either.

However, I find the game quite difficult at times (attack at Raedric's hold for instance) or perhaps I'm doing quests which were meant to be done at higher levels.

This is my new character - http://shrani.najdi.si/?1f/AF/3wrS4KUo/1-yetizad-in-the-xaurip-.jpg (I'm using the zoom range as recommended by SubRosa at page 1)

And http://shrani.najdi.si/?43/up/3hDkPh7p/mhufi12lg.png (the large version)

Posted by: SubRosa Sep 5 2015, 07:17 PM

A Yeti monk! I know that pic, it's Aarin Gend from NWN 1! I always liked him.

I just finished Raedric's Hold with Skadi, and it was a tough series of fights, especially the last one against Raedric himself and all of his bodyguards. Aloth got knocked out in that one.

There are two ways to sneak into the castle though, rather than going through the front door and fighting through all the guards. If you go to the left, near the very end of the land is a section of wall you can climb that gets you up into the second floor where all the priests are. There are a bunch of spare robes in the crates you can put on, and blend in as priests. That will get you through the second floor at least without a fight.

If you go to the right on the outside map of the castle, near the end is a section of rocks where the moat is shallow and you can walk across. Then there is a sewer grate you can pry open and get into the basement. There are a bunch of undead down there to slay your way through. But I didn't find them too much trouble. I had Durance with me by then, and his Holy Radiance does wonders against undead.

Posted by: Lopov Sep 5 2015, 09:34 PM

The name Yetizad is from a comic book. Yetizad was an African necromancer who traveled to the USA to spread evil. However, except the name, the necromancer doesn't have anything in common with monk Yetizad.

My previous party attacked the keep though the front gates and didn't have much problems until getting inside, then it got problematic. They somehow made it to Raedric but defeating him was impossible.

Are you far through the MQ, SubRosa and is it difficult?

Posted by: SubRosa Sep 5 2015, 09:51 PM

Wow, I had never heard of that Yetizad. But I stopped reading comics a while ago. Aside from the Yeti, the other thing the name makes me think of is the Yazdegerds - the kings of the Sassanian Persians.

I am only a little ahead of you. Skadi killed Raedric a few days ago. She found Caed Nua yesterday, and I just cleared its outside today and started working on the Eastern Barbican. As I understand it, you have to complete that before you can go any farther in the world, and reach Defiance Bay. While I wait for the construction to be done, Skadi and company are exploring the Endless Paths of Od Nua. It is a over a dozen different dungeon levels under Caed Nua.

So far I would not say it is too difficult. One thing the developers said was that they wanted to make a game that you could complete without having to min/max your character. To me it looks more like they spread around everything that a character is going to need into so many attributes that you cannot really min/max a character. There are no real dump stats anymore. But what I see from people posting is that you can finish the main quest without being overpowered. Still, I think I am going to institute a house rule of giving every character a +1 to an Attribute every four levels, like we could in Neverwinter Nights.

I have also seen many people say that the enemy AI for version 2.0 is much improved from the previous game versions. Since now the bad guys act more intelligently, they are harder to defeat. I have seen them trying to do end runs around my front line fighters to get at the squishy mage behind. But I keep Durance back from the front as a reserve, and he intercepts anyone who tries that in melee. Otherwise he is there for support with either spells or ranged weapons.

I think the real secret here is make sure you are always fighting in formation. Keep your fighters up front where they can pin the enemy and soak up their damage. Eder is a great tank. I gave him that magic flail I found early - Guan's Share - and a magic shield I bought at the smithy in the first town. He is really tough in melee. I also gave him an arbalest, so he can get off one good shot at the beginning of every fight. After that he switches to his flail and shield, since it takes too long to reload.

Keep your mages and archers back out of the way, and use them to make pin-point attacks on the enemy. Aloth usually just uses either his Arcane Assault or Blast, and doesn't do much damage. But when something looks really tough, he is my first up to attack with an area spell like Rolling Flame. I found the Slicken spell is really hand too. Cast that directly in front of the party at the start of a fight, and it makes the enemy fall down as they charge you. Then Aloth and your archers can pick at them with ease. Chill Fog is a good 1st level Area of effect spell you can use the same way, as it keeps going for an extended amount of time. Just be careful not to step into it! Ghost Blades is another good 1st level spell. It hits everything in an arc in front of the caster, does decent damage, and doesn't seem to harm the party. Fan the Flames is similar, but it definitely does friendly fire to the party, so I don't use it.

Finally, keep at least one second-line fighter ready to step in and block off an enemy that tries to flank and get into your rear. Durance is a Priest, and he works really well for this. He can fight in melee with his staff, use spells to support the party, or a ranged weapon to attack the enemy from behind the front line. His Holy Radiance does damage to undead like Turning in the old games. I took a talent that increases that damage, and it really does the trick once they all close into melee. It also heals the party, so hold back on using it until later in the fight.

I play in slow mode all the time to make sure I can see keep track of what is happening. I still have to pause a lot to issue orders. My biggest problem is I cannot always tell if a character has cast a spell or fired a weapon yet.

I also never charge in. Instead I keep the entire party in sneak mode, find the enemy, and then deploy for battle from a distance. Then I open up with ranged weapons, and force the enemy to come to me. They will almost always charge. That is what makes that Slicken spell so useful.

Posted by: Lopov Sep 5 2015, 10:15 PM

Yetizad was featured in an Italian comic series called http://www.sergiobonelli.it/sezioni/2460/zagor, these comics are mostly popular in Italy and surrounding countries (like Slovenia), I doubt they ever made it over the ocean.

These are some great combat tips. One thing I'm using a lot, is to engage only enemies at the edge of the fog of war. Sometimes the enemy closest to the edge will notice one of my characters sneaking and will go to investigate, thus separating from his group. Then I pick them off one by one unless another enemy comes patrolling around.

I was never that good with mages / priests but I better learn how to make a good use of one. Fortunately, PoE gives some pretty good tips too if tutorial messages are enabled.

Posted by: SubRosa Sep 5 2015, 10:24 PM

I like that bird logo Zagor has on his chest. It looks like a black phoenix.

I use that same trick of attacking from the very edge of fog of war. You can often get them to come at you one a time that way, and pick them off. I tried that against Raedric, and it almost worked. I got everyone to attack except his Archmage. Which I am thankful for, since he might have turned the tide of the battle against me.

I am still not making the most of the Priest class too. I am trying though. I am not used to all the various buffing spells they have. But I am working on it.

I just found Kana, and am really having trouble getting the knack of using him. He's a Chanter, and I am not really sure how to use him the best. Mostly I just use him as a front line fighter, but he's definitely not as good as Eder or Skadi's Wolf Companion. He seems to chant all the time, and I just figured out how to move the phrases around in the chant. But I am sure there is a lot more to it than I have figured out. I am giving a lot of thought to removing him from the party.

Posted by: SubRosa Sep 6 2015, 03:24 AM

http://guides.gamepressure.com/pillarsofeternity/guide.asp?ID=29831. It shows where the companions can be found (green arrows), and where each territory links to the next (yellow arrows).

I also made a https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlva1XG4s0E&feature=youtu.be of Persephone, Eder, Durance, and Aloth taking on the bandits in Black Meadow. It should give folks who have not played the game an idea of what the gameplay is like.

You can see how formations are important when the two "front lines" meet. A bandit tries to sneak past at the top of the screen, but Durance - the Priest - stops him with a Halt spell. Then he moves in to flank himself, which incurs a penalty upon the target.

The bandit archer way to the left probably gave me the most trouble. Persephone's team does not have a dedicated archer. Persephone and Eder (the team's other Fighter), carry bows as backup weapons. They typically only use them for the first shot before going into melee. So Aloth - the Mage - had to step up to take on the bandit archer. The only trouble is that while Aloth has ranged attacks, they are shorter range than a bow, so he has to get a lot closer.

Posted by: Acadian Sep 6 2015, 04:05 AM

Very nice, SubRosa! It's great to see there are some strategy guides/walkthroughs out there. And the vid looks very familiar to this old BG player!

Posted by: SubRosa Sep 7 2015, 03:55 AM

http://i.imgur.com/tIfaJgm.jpg

Speaking of whom, I had an idea, and started Persephone over. Tonight I reached the first town in the game, and was able to hire two Adventurers at the inn. Unlike the Companions, who are NPCs that are fully-fleshed out, with backstories, custom portraits, quests, and so on, Adventurers are basically blank slates that you can hire to join you. Each is a specific level, and the higher level ones naturally cost more. Once you hire them, you go into the character creation for them, just like you did with your PC. This is nice in that it allows you to create them exactly how you want them. So you can do this to fill a specific role on your team.

The downside is that the hired Adventurers are always several levels behind you. But I found a way to get around that. The following console command will bring them up to the level you specify, and wont' change your PC's experience if you are already the same level:

AddExperienceToLevel {Level}

http://i.imgur.com/Sremg2R.jpg

Posted by: Lopov Sep 7 2015, 12:51 PM

SubRosa, Persephone's race is Godlike, right? How did you manage to get her such a humanoid look without any kind of horns?

I'm curious to try out the Godlike race myself.

Monk seems a difficult class to play for now. In combat, they can't use their special powers until wounded enough, because to use a power, they have to spend a wound, so to speak. The better the power, the more wounds are required. They aren't meant as a first line warriors, it seems.

Posted by: SubRosa Sep 7 2015, 04:27 PM

Persephone is a human. When I first tried her out it was as a Godlike, but I deleted those saves. The horns just didn't fit. I did make Darryl a Death Godlike. He has a horned helmet in Skyrim, so they are perfect for him.

The Monk looks confusing to me, with all that business of using Wounds to activate powers. That is why I have not tried one yet. I still have not figured out the Chanter either, or the Cipher.

Posted by: Lopov Sep 7 2015, 07:14 PM

Yeah, it's quite confusing, though the good thing is that you can use special powers in every encounter, you don't need to rest in between. It seems that monks are similar as in BG - difficult to play at low levels but (I assume) tanks at higher ones.

Posted by: SubRosa Sep 7 2015, 08:06 PM

http://i.imgur.com/KSmg5yU.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/NmCKAIl.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/frrr9oF.jpg

Posted by: Acadian Sep 7 2015, 09:57 PM

Spectacular shots, SubRosa. That sword spell looks wonderfully related to a couple of the older BG sword spells. And your team looks very well assembled. I'm guessing the crew is 'Adventurers' that you hired crafted to your purpose from the inns instead of existing in-game companions. If that is so, do you miss the NPC banter much?

Posted by: SubRosa Sep 8 2015, 12:09 AM

That Ghost Blades spell is awesome. It is a 1st Level spell, so you can start the game with it. It shoots out those ghostly swords in an arc in front of you, and it doesn't harm your allies. That one shot killed everything in the room.

Those are indeed Adventurers hired from an inn. So far I am very happy with using them, as I was able to not only give them the stats I wanted, but the identities as well. So far I don't miss the regular companions. All of their comments and banter seem to be scripted remarks that come up during specific pieces of dialogue, and is generally somehow quest-related. Otherwise they never really talk among themselves.

You do of course get some talking from even the Adventurers. Like when you go into stealth mode, one will say something about being sneaky. Darryl seems very talkative, as it is his voice I hear most often from them. It sounds like Clancy Brown.

Posted by: haute ecole rider Sep 8 2015, 12:12 AM

Clancy Brown sounds perfect as Darryl!

Posted by: SubRosa Sep 8 2015, 12:42 AM

It is the Male - Sinister voice. Turns out is done by Matthew Mercer, who also did Aloth and Eder! I never would have guessed that. He is a good VA, especially considering how he can change his voice to do multiple roles that are all so distinctive from one another.

Posted by: Lopov Sep 8 2015, 06:42 PM

Nice shots - Darryl is humongous!

Team Deadwalker looks great in action, but most of all I like Aloth Serana holding her grimoire firmly even in the heat of the battle.

I'm considering cheating in PoE -> combat is quite difficult for me to fully understand with what limited time I have for gaming, and since I'm mostly interested in story, I'll make my main character a little overpowered to get through difficult battles easier. For some reason I can't use cheats in Yetizad's game, the command "player" isn't recognized while if I start a new game, I can use console commands fine. Maybe because I started his game without IE and added it later on, I'm not sure.

Today I accidentally spoiled myself by reading about console commands on some forum and the discussion went off-topic and some guy revealed the name of the robed man (the one which appears in the intro) and who he is. It's quite a spoiler but fortunately I still don't have a clue about the rest of the story.

Posted by: SubRosa Sep 8 2015, 08:11 PM

I used the console to buff up Team Deadwalker's attributes to match what I felt each character ought to have, based on what they were like in Skyrim. So they are pretty impressive. But the combats are still interesting and a challenge.

I had one case where the game didn't recognize Player. What I did was use this command

FindCharacter Player

It gave me the internal name that game was using for the Player. The cheats worked just fine when I used that.

I also made a nice discovery. The White March adds those new Multi-Class Talents. I took Apprentices's Sneak Attack for both Persephone and Darryl, and it works really great. Like the Rogue's regular Sneak Attack, it gives extra damage for the first strike, and against all enemies who are prone, hobbled, blinded, dazed, and so on. It combines perfectly with the Fighter's Knockdown ability, because once they knock down someone, they get extra damage against them.

Posted by: Lopov Sep 9 2015, 10:25 PM

I couldn't get cheats to work in Yeti's game, so I started over. Seems that whenever I start a new game, I discover something new.

It's a spoiler so I'll put it in tags:


http://shrani.najdi.si/?3i/13E/2uM2jpXy/1-leaving-cilant-lis.jpg

http://shrani.najdi.si/?9/6S/3GVSZxol/2-the-sole-survivor.jpg

http://shrani.najdi.si/?2y/10X/4fxyEIpm/3-time-to-rest.jpg

Aryan is a monk from Old Vailia, "gifted" with some powers that put him above an average character but still not anthying god-like.

Posted by: SubRosa Sep 9 2015, 11:21 PM

Good luck to Aryan!

The amount of variables in Cilant Lis is just amazing. If you actually get Heodan through the fight at the encampment without him suffering any debilitating injuries, you can rest in Cilant Lis without Calisca leaving, or there being any discussion about it at all.

Persephone and her gang have discovered Caed Nua, and have been exploring the endless depths below. Wow, some of these fights are just brutal, and I have only gotten down to Level 4 so far, out of 15 or so!

Posted by: Lopov Sep 10 2015, 06:15 AM

Even more, if you managedto get through the fight by interrupting the bandit leader's attack (I think that your Dex has to be high enough), Heodan doesn't get hurt at all and an option to rest doesn't appear, it happened with my first character.

Posted by: SubRosa Sep 10 2015, 11:59 PM

The Deadwalkers have been plumbing the Endless Depths of Od Nua. They got down to the 8th Level so far before returning to the surface. By then the Eastern Barbican was completed, opening the way to the rest of the map. Brighthollow (the living quarters of the stronghold) were done by then, and the Warden's Cabin.

So after getting a good night's sleep without having to pay for it or use camping supplies, the team talked to the new Warden. He gave Persephone and company a slew of bounties to collect upon. Most are in the areas already explored on the way to Caed Nua. I left the team on the way to the first one.

The Endless Depths were tough. Really tough. I had to use the HealParty cheat several times. The first few levels were not too bad. But once I got deeper it seemed like almost every fight was a boss battle. Up until now the Xaurip have been pushovers. Basically Kobolds. But not down there. They paralyze with every attack, come in hordes that outnumber you three of four to one, and have a zillion endurance. And they are the easy ones!

I started trying to use traps down there. But even with a Stealth of about 7, Lucia cannot get near the monsters without being detected. So she has to set them at the edge of bow range. It seems that you can only set one, since when I put a second one down, the previous trap just vanishes. After all that work, the monsters nearly always manage to avoid the traps. They walk around them, so clearly they know they are there. So I have given up trying to use traps.

Fighting in doorways seems to be working best. Persephone and Darryl can block the widest ones, while the rest of the team stands behind and uses wands and bow. Serana putting a Slicken spell right in front of P&D helps. But some enemies seem to teleport, and appear right behind the party. Mainly ghostly undead ones, so maybe that is a special power of theirs. Still, even with Sofie healing them during the battle, and using potions, either Persephone or Darryl often go down, or nearly down, in many fights down in Od Nua. Yet they each have over 700 Endurance, and wear heavy armor. I can really see how many people say that the latest version of the game is significantly more challenging than the it used to be.

Posted by: SubRosa Sep 11 2015, 04:18 AM

Team Deadwalker ventured beyond the Eastern Barbican of Caed Nua, and began exploring the next outdoor area - Woodend Plains. I am relieved to say that it is not the gladiator school that the Endlesss Paths of Od Nua are. The Deadwalkers have been handily dealing with everything in the area. So it looks like the Endless Paths are basically turned up to 11. My guess is they do not expect you to try to tackle them until late in the game.

Posted by: Lopov Sep 11 2015, 06:23 AM

Are Endless Paths of Od Nua completely optional or must you fight through some levels? They must be really tough, if even Xaurips are challenging.

--

Aryan made it to Gilded Vale and got acquainted with http://shrani.najdi.si/?1F/TL/3pgqZHQ5/4-raedrics-law.jpg. After such warm welcome, he doesn't intend to stay in Gilded Vale for too long. He went on a walk before sleep and descended down the stairs leading to the collapsed Temple of Eothas, which I haven't noticed until now. He picked up a quest there but will see to it the next day.

Posted by: SubRosa Sep 11 2015, 09:45 AM

You only have to do the dungeon of Caed Nua, and about half of the first level of Od Nua proper. The rest is all optional.

You haven't been in the ruined temple before? Aryan better get some help from Eder and Aloth, or hire some Adventurers. That's not a place to tackle alone!

Posted by: haute ecole rider Sep 11 2015, 06:17 PM

Reloaded the game. Got further against that Forest Lurker but still got killed. Trying to figure out the strategies in this game and Sage Rose's posts have been helpful, but I still feel like I have much to learn!

Thanks for the heads up on Cael Nua - sounds like a place for lots of saves (like after each battle!).

Posted by: Lopov Sep 11 2015, 07:43 PM

SubRosa, do you by chance know a console command to remove items, specifically quest items?

After completing the Buried Secrets quest in the Temple of Eothas, I'm stuck with Bones of dead priests, because Aryan finished a conversation with Wirtan and didn't give him the bones. After the conversation the quest was completed and bones are now a permanent quest item. Apparently they can be given to magistrate in Gilded Vale but only if you don't talk to Wirtan first. I know that bones are located in stash and don't take up space in my inventory but it gets on my nerves that I can't get rid of them. I tried various commands like removeitem, takeitem, deleteitem but to no avail.

Posted by: SubRosa Sep 11 2015, 08:02 PM

I found the best way for dealing with Forest Trolls and their Forest Lurker big brothers is with archery. Most notably lead off with Wounding Shot to hobble the target. That cuts their movement way down, and gives you more time to pepper it with missiles.

The other thing is that every member of your team needs a missile weapon, including the melee tanks. What I did was give Persephone and Darryl (my tanks) each an Arbalest. It has a long range and does a lot of damage. The glacial reload speed doesn't matter for them, since they are normally only going to get off one shot before going into melee anyway. But against a single, hobbled troll or lurker they can often get off two shots.

Your other characters need missiles as well. Your Wizard should have a wand, scepter, or rod. I find I like the wands, because they have a fast attack speed. Make sure you take the Blast & Penetrating Blast Talents for them. Between that and their Arcane Assault they always have a medium or short range attack. Your Priest can use either a bow or wand. I have Sofie using a wand, and find that works well for her. Finally your Ranger or ranged Rogue should have either a Hunting or War Bow of course.

I always sneak around with the entire party. Give everyone at least one point in it. Then when I find the baddies I deploy for battle at the edge of missile range, make sure I switch everyone to ranged weapons, and have everyone open up on a single target. That often kills it right off. If not, they should be hobbled and taking continuous fire from your archer, wizard, and priest as they limp near. If they survive to meet your line, have one tank engage them head on and lead with a Knockdown. Have the other tank or your Priest circle completely behind them. That gives them the Flanked debuff, which lowers their defense (and makes it easier for you to hit).




I have had success with RemoveItem. I think I used it like this:
RemoveItem Player misc_item 1

Just be sure you have the right name for the character, use the FindCharacter command to make sure and the right name for the item. Even the player character is not always Player. I have had it come up as something else. You should be able to find the item names in PillarsOfEternity_Data\assetbundles\prefabs\objectbundle

You could also try taking the remains to the guy first talked to when you entered Gilded Vale. I think his name is Urgeat. http://guides.gamepressure.com/pillarsofeternity/guide.asp?ID=29861

Posted by: Lopov Sep 11 2015, 08:54 PM

I found the correct code, it's quest_item_sack_bones. I tested it by using the command additem quest_item_sack_bones 1 and it works - I get another set of bones in my inventory. However, the removeitem command doesn't get recognized, even if I insert player (or the reference of the player) in the command line. Can you please test it in your game and see if it works with this same item? I get the response "No command or script 'RemoveItem' accepting 2 parameters exist.

Posted by: SubRosa Sep 11 2015, 09:06 PM

I am not having any luck with it now. I even tried using RemoveTalent, which works on both talents and abilities. It might be something that changed with the White March expansion. Or I might have been thinking of removing abilities or talents.

Posted by: Lopov Sep 11 2015, 11:02 PM

Thanks anyway. I'll wait for the save editor to be updated at Nexus, then I'll manually delete bones.

--

Aryan teamed up with Durance and they were on a way to Caed Nua, crossing the Black Meadow, when they found supplies, intended for the blacksmith from Gilded Vale. They backtracked to return the smith's shipment and rented a room at the Black Hound Inn, planning to journey east to Caed Nua in the morning.

http://shrani.najdi.si/?1F/A/4c7GW69S/5-against-a-shadow.jpg

http://shrani.najdi.si/?1a/Hy/2cSw3fdI/6-forest-battle.jpg

http://shrani.najdi.si/?2i/11N/1RD3UC0R/7-lurker-dies.jpg

Aryan rushes to the combat while Durance stays behind and fights with his spells. He only joins the fight directly when Aryan does most of the work.

Posted by: SubRosa Sep 12 2015, 02:13 AM

Aryan is taking on the world with just one companion? He definitely has cajones! I'd go with a much bigger party.

http://i.imgur.com/HZjBZmQ.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/jcs4dWJ.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/yhqXP0v.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/UuHdNH6.jpg

https://youtu.be/3tHEboP6ixs I made showing the Deadwalkers in a typical battle. Make sure you set it to play back at 1080p, otherwise it just looks all blurry.

You can see how I pick a choke point in the cave to fight, and start out with everyone concentrating their missile attack on one target, a Flame Blight at the lower left. Sadly it survived, because I forgot that it is immune to piercing attacks (which means arrows). But it still suffers the debuffs from archery powers, notably the Hobbled effect from Lucia's Wounding Shot. That at least slowed it down and kept it out of the fight for a while.

Then Persephone and Darryl switch to their melee weapons and step up to block off the tunnel. Lucia switches her target to the on coming Xaurip, with the hopes of Hobbling the nearest one and slowing it down as well. Finally Serana and Sofie continue working on the slowed Flame Blight with their wands.

After a few moments I noticed the Xaurips had an archer that was taking potshots at me. So he became Lucia's sole concern. Since Serana and Sofie have shorter range attacks, I used them to support Persephone and Darryl by attacking the enemy front liners they were engaged with. That gave me a 2-1 advantage at the point of contact.

I find ganging up on the bad guys works really well in this game. I try to use Persephone and Darryl to block off the enemy horde at a bottleneck like a doorway. Then I will usually leave one of them to fight on their own, while the rest of the party all gangs up on the baddie the other has engaged. That way I get a 4 on 1 at that spot. They tend to go down pretty quickly that way. Of course that can be rough on the one tank going it alone, and sometimes they get 3 or more baddies on them. But that is why they are the tanks, and have over 800 health. When things start going bad for them I have Sofie switch from ranged attacks to healing buffs.

Posted by: Lopov Sep 12 2015, 07:57 AM

I buffed both of them with the console, so they can manage on their own. I prefer smaller parties myself.

An undead cat looks familiar - did team Deadwalker by chance found her in Raedric's dungeons?

I've never met a live drake yet, only their remains scattered over Black Meadow. I assume that bigger drakes a.k.a. dragons inhabit Eora as well.

So that's how Ray of Fire looks like. Aryan keeps this scroll for a special occasion.

Posted by: Acadian Sep 12 2015, 03:25 PM

SubRosa, love the little black cat familiar! So it looks like Serana still has a bit of a friendly fire problem - this time it's fire instead of ice spikes in the back?

Posted by: SubRosa Sep 12 2015, 07:13 PM

Ray of Fire is very effective. But it damages any friendly who gets caught in the ray as well. So you have to be really careful about where you use it.

I have run into regular drakes, and really a really big one in Searing Falls. As I understand it, there are dragons as well. Including an Adra Dragon, which sounds really dangerous. But I have not encountered one yet.

That is indeed the black cat from Raedric's dungeons. I thought he'd be perfect for the Deadwalkers.



There are a lot more fire than ice spells in Pillars, so just like you said, now Serana is shooting us in the back with flames instead of ice spikes!

Posted by: Colonel Mustard Sep 13 2015, 09:56 AM

Eyyyy!

*Finger guns into thread*

I've just been reading through all of the thread as I'm quite interested in getting a copy of Pillars, and I had a couple of questions about the game:

1: Is combat turn-based/can it be turn based? I quite like isometric games in a old-skool Fallout/Baldur's Gate vein, but I much prefer isometric combat to be turn-based rather than in real-time, as I tend to find managing multiple characters in real-time combat to be a confusing, overly-difficult mess. I find turn-based stuff way more enjoyable.
2: Is the inventory complicated? I tend to end up carrying loads of excess stuff when I play RPGs and frankly I hate that. I always end up just getting confused and tired out of trying to sort things out and deal with merchants.
3: How cheesy do you have to be to make a gunslinger build? Flintlock firearms are cool as hell. I want them. I want them all.

Yeah, those were my main questions. Cheers in advance, everyone!

*Finger guns out of thread*

Posted by: SubRosa Sep 13 2015, 04:54 PM

It is real time combat. But you can pause the game whenever you want and issue orders to each of your characters. Then unpause, watch what happens for a few moments, then pause again to issue new orders. So it isn't like the original Warcraft games where you have to scramble like mad to click on every one of your units. You have all the time you want to think, change weapons, consider spells, and order your characters around.

The inventory is relatively simple. There is no weight to items. Each character has a small inventory of about twenty items that they can carry directly on them. There is also a Stash which you can put things directly into which has an unlimited capacity. The Stash is sorted into several groups based on weapons, armor, alchemy, and so on. So what I do is keep all the stuff I might want to use in my character inventories. Everything I want to sell goes into my Stash. Then when I get to a merchant I just dump my Stash on them, except the alchemy, which I keep for enchanting.

Guns aren't available to start with. I found a Pistol somewhere in Act I. At the end of Act I you meet a recruitable companion who has an Arquebus. Now that I am in Act II I am finally coming upon Araqubuses and Blunderbusses for sale. Of course you can use the Additem console command to get them any time you want. However, all firearms are really slow to reload. So in practice they are only good for the first shot. After that you need to switch to another weapon for the rest of the fight.

Posted by: haute ecole rider Sep 15 2015, 12:28 AM

So I'm trying to figure out a way to customize the portraits for two NPC's but reading this am I right in understanding that this can't be done for the named companions such as Aloth and Edér? Drat! I have custom portraits for those two! Now I'll have to think of something else!

Posted by: SubRosa Sep 15 2015, 12:33 AM

If you could find where the game keeps the companion's portraits and what their file names are you could replace them with your custom pics.

Found it. All of the companion's pics are in your Pillars of Eternity\PillarsofEternity_Data\Art\Gui\Portraits\Companion folder.

Posted by: haute ecole rider Sep 15 2015, 12:40 AM

YES!! Found it, thanks!

*scurries off to make cosmetic changes*

Okay! https://www.flickr.com/photos/hauteecole_rider/21236195808/in/album-72157656310217123/lightbox/

Posted by: SubRosa Sep 15 2015, 01:07 AM

It's Elrond! And is that James Bond beside him? I cannot put a name to the Asian girl, but I am sure I have seen her before.

Posted by: haute ecole rider Sep 15 2015, 02:26 AM

Yup! And Yup - my favorite JB.

SeJin (my PC) is inspired by the character Kim Sun Hwa from the K-Drama IRIS. She is played by Kim Seo Yeon, one of my favorite actresses ever.

Posted by: Lopov Sep 16 2015, 10:00 PM

Now if someone says that http://shrani.najdi.si/?1V/e0/1qN46lm2/1-kind-wayfarer.jpg aren't similar...

...I was itching for a new character, so I created Mitya, a paladin belonging to Order of Kind Wayfarers. The portrait is custom but with plenty of character options I could more or less recreate him in the game.

Paladins differ in quite some aspects from other games, namely they belong to several different orders and not all are good, some are brutal and evil. All paladins are rather zealous but their alignment can shift from good to evil and everything in between.

Posted by: SubRosa Sep 16 2015, 10:24 PM

It's https://youtu.be/QgViHyueIDQ from Veronica Mars!

Posted by: SubRosa Sep 17 2015, 08:58 PM

I am getting near the end of Act II, and things are going really well. The fights have gotten easier. I think I was biting off more than I could chew by trying to tackle the Endless Depths of Od Nua so early. I have not had a party member get knocked out in long time, or even take a quarter of their health in damage. My trick of giving everyone a missile weapon and concentrating all their fire on a single target at the start of combat almost always kills said bad guy instantly. Which really helps with enemy spellcasters.

Speaking of spellcasters, mine have just reached Level 9, which means 1st Level spells are now castable per encounter, rather than per rest. Serana has been a beast with Minoletta's Minor Missiles, and Lucia with Barbs of Condemnation.

I think once I finish up Act II, I might take another crack at Od Nua, and try out the new areas in The White March.

http://i.imgur.com/uRFm3nh.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/t9QJXop.jpg

Posted by: Acadian Sep 17 2015, 09:05 PM

Your team looks great! Still love the little cat. Good to hear that the fights seems a little better now.

It sounds like magic use has been improved. Have the enemy mages been toned down at all? I recall from BG days that your mage had to be totally devoted to anti-mage operations, else your team would end up getting charmed/confused/dazed and attacking each other. I remember quite a few reloads when things got to that point.

Posted by: SubRosa Sep 17 2015, 10:52 PM

Enemy mages are not nearly as bad as they were in BG2. I know exactly what you are talking about, with needing special spells to break enemy mage's defenses and the like. It is not unusual for many of the party to suffer debuffs like Dazed, Hobbled, Stunned, Paralyzed etc.. But the durations are rarely more than 3-5 seconds. Nothing like being frozen for over a minute while the baddies all hammer away at you like they did in the Baldur's games.

To be honest, I mostly just ignore the hostile debuffs. But the Priest class does have a Suppress Affliction spell that suspends all hostile effects you can use. The same spell turns up in some magic items too. Plus the Priest has other good talents and spells to resist enemy debuffs. So resisting them is not that difficult.

Posted by: Lopov Sep 18 2015, 05:42 PM

Deadwalker by runelight is a great shot, I love the cat's eyes.

Following in SubRosa's footsteps, I'm beginning to create my own party instead of relying just on vanilla companions.

In Gilded Vale, Mitya met his old friend from many adventures, a dwarven rogue named http://shrani.najdi.si/?1C/RA/tVa3CR4/maledwarfcustom01lg.png and they http://shrani.najdi.si/?12/WW/4MLSQWco/2-a-paladin-and-a-rogue.jpg forces. Mitya isn't good at all with picking locks, disarming traps and being stealthy, so Ballat will come in handy in above-mentioned actions and even more - acting as a shock troop, luring enemies to Mitya or by setting traps. I'll probably add some vanilla companions as well with time to make the party more diverse.

Posted by: SubRosa Sep 18 2015, 06:10 PM

The vanilla companions add more quests to the game, and of course have unique voices and dialogue. I still want to try a playthrough of the entire game with only them. But I like the create-your-own Adventurers quite a bit. If I didn't already have such clearly defined personalities from previous games they would probably feel bland. But Darryl, Serana, and co are such a part of Persephone's death that bringing them into another game just feels natural.

Ballat looks like one of the dwarves from The Hobbit!

Posted by: SubRosa Sep 18 2015, 11:54 PM

I started the White March today. Here is an important safety tip - akin to not crossing the streams - do not go to Cragholdt Bluffs! I thought it was the first territory you had to go through in the new area added by the dlc. It is filled with mercenary titans who alternately teleport or fall out of the sky onto you. Only using the healparty command have I been able to survive the battles with them.

Now I found that this area is recommended for characters Level 13 and up! With 14 being the highest level in the game I believe. The regular White March area is behind Cragholdt on the area map. http://i.imgur.com/IiWnLvO.jpg.

So I backtracked and went there. The game said I was higher level than expected for the content, and offered to increase the difficulty. With the butt-whooping from Cragholdt still fresh in my mind (and rear), I said no thanks, leave that difficulty where it is!

Posted by: SubRosa Sep 19 2015, 02:59 AM

Okay, so I went to the beginning of the regular White March area - Stalwart Village. All I could think was http://i.imgur.com/8V9yGQx.jpg! The wintery mountains really conjure up the feel of the old IWD games. They even added in a frost effect for the character's breath.

Thankfully, the baddies are not nearly as bad as they were in Cragholdt Bluffs. So far the Deadwalkers have fought off an ogre attack on Stalwart. It begins immediately upon your arrival. So you cannot save until you defeat the first group of ogres. Afterward the team got the lay of the land from the locals, and had the opportunity to rescue two people from a burning building. Sadly, Persephone was only able to get one of them out (it is sort of a Choose-Your-Adventure style text sequence, and is heavily based upon your skills, attributes, background, and even spells if you have them).

So far it is really good. I am loving the White March.

Posted by: Lopov Sep 20 2015, 10:20 AM

The White March sounds and looks awesome, I like almost anything happening in snowy areas.

In my case it gives characters more depth, as I imagine they had some adventures before events in Pillars of Eternity and they're more "connected" among themselves since they know each other from before.

In any case, Mitya and Ballat teamed up with Eder and now they're traveling to Anslog's Compass, to help Aufra, the sister of Calisca from the caravan. In Magran's Fork they came upon Durance who offered them assistance but Mitya refused his help. Something about the fire-loving priest didn't seem right.

Posted by: SubRosa Sep 20 2015, 05:14 PM

I have done some more exploring into the White March. The new game world http://guides.gamepressure.com/pillarsofeternity/guide.asp?ID=31663. You enter at Stalwart Village at the bottom of the diamond. Then to the east is Longwatch Falls, and to the west is Russetwood. Finally Durgan's Battery - the final area - is to the north.

After defending Stalwart Village from the ogres I went east to Longwatch Falls. I am disappointed to report that the enemies there are all very overpowered. Nearly every one either paraylzes or petrifies with every hit they land on you. There is a 5th level Priest spell called Prayer Against Imprisonment which can protect you from the paralysis. So you have to be at least 9th level before you go there (to get 5th level spells), and your Priest needs to cast this before every fight. That means a lot of resting since you only get two 5th level spell castings per rest at 9th level, and three at 10th level.

There is also an Ice Dragon in Longwatch. But you only meet him if you go down in his cave. With the right stats you can talk your way through the encounter as well, rather than fight him and his army of ice blights. I did the latter, as I was sick and tired of overpowered enemies by then.

West of Stalwart Village was a lot nicer. Russetwood was mostly filled with wolves, ice trolls, and ice blights, plus one group of undead. So no constant paralysis attacks. The whole area went very well, and I only rested once, after clearing out the entire surface area and venturing down into the ogre cave. I left off just inside the ogre cave, so I am not sure how that will go, or what Durgan's Battery will be like yet.

Posted by: Lopov Sep 20 2015, 05:53 PM

I remember basilisks from original Baldur's Gate, they were one of the rare creatures, able to petrify you, but fortunately they weren't common. But if almost every enemy can petrify you...

...I wish that you could avoid fighting some dragons in Skyrim via dialogue options too. IIRC, in Baldur's Gate it was possible to avoid all dragon battles except the one at the very end of the game, in the Elven settlement. And there were two more dragons in Throne of Bhaal which you had to fight as well.

--

Mitya, Ballat and Eder are currently camping outside Raedric's castle, waiting for nightfall to sneak in the castle, most probably during the sewers. Mitya was awakened by Eder who said that he was shaking in sleep and that he had problems waking him up. This happened for the first time although Eder has been a member of every party of mine so far, so I'm not sure what's the trigger. Perhaps it was caused because Mitya talked to him two nights ago and Eder revealed some of his past.

Here is the trio camping some night ago at http://shrani.najdi.si/?28/VM/8NU043l/3-in-rangas-camp.jpg in Anslong's Compass. Mitya has a new tricorn hat.

Here's the trio fighting http://shrani.najdi.si/?25/1j/3WOJPLVE/4-against-wichts.jpg in Esternwood. Ballat just killed one wicht with his fine arbalest while Mitya and Eder are about to attack the second one.

Posted by: Lopov Sep 20 2015, 09:32 PM

Mitya, Ballat and Eder managed to end Raedric's reign of terror. Mitya and Eder went to talk to Raedric while Ballat stayed behind, hidden in shadows, his pistol ready, BTW, we found the pistol in Raedric's castle. As soon as the battle started, the trio concentrated on Raedric's Archmage, Ballat's sneaky shot did most of the damage and Mitya's Flames of Devotion finished him off. Afterwards the trio focused on Raedric but surprisingly he didn't last very long. The rest of his bodyguards weren't so difficult to bring down either.

Posted by: SubRosa Sep 20 2015, 09:41 PM

Wow, three against Raedric and his thugs is amazing! I barely survived the two times I did it with parties of five characters.

Posted by: Lopov Sep 21 2015, 06:21 PM

I had troubles before as I said earlier in this thread, even with a party of four. I think that the Archmage was a source of the problem that's why this time I concentrated on him.

I'm about to play now and see if the tree in Gilded Vale has "changed" with Raedric gone. Then it's off to Caed Nua.

Posted by: SubRosa Sep 22 2015, 08:53 PM

http://i.imgur.com/nDNv0FS.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/w1Qgp44.jpg (Serana is maneuvering around the flank to use her Ray of Fire on the trolls).

http://i.imgur.com/SU8dulZ.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/L7dMGXq.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/hdO6YVR.jpg

Posted by: Acadian Sep 22 2015, 09:54 PM

SubRosa, those are some great action shots. Your Deadwalkers look really good. And those ice trolls look like quite well done monsters.

Glad to see Serana maneuvering to sweep fire through all three trolls with no friendly fire.

Posted by: SubRosa Sep 24 2015, 01:16 AM

I finished up White March today, except for Cragoholdt. The final area was Durgan's Battery, which has a large exterior area, and the actual dwarven fortress with two interior levels. In the exterior is Galvino's Workshop, which is another interior area. So there is lots to do in just that final section.

It all went well, I ran across a few Laugerfeth's near the entrance of the Battery, but Sofie was ready for them with her Prayer Against Imprisonment, so no one was paralyzed. The interior had a few big fights, but nothing I could not handle. The final big fight in front of the White Forge got so busy the game got slow and choppy. That is the first time I ever had performance issues with the game. I think it was just too much stuff going on, and too many fancy fx, for the game engine to handle.

Now the Deadwalkers have returned to Caed Nua, where I have also finished the final piece of construction. So it is all built. I think I am going to concentrate on the bounty quests, and then tackle the Endless Paths of Od Nua for once and all.

Posted by: mALX Sep 24 2015, 03:20 AM

Maybe there is a certain order that you have to follow for your character to develop up to the enemies they will be facing? Like clockwise or something?

Posted by: SubRosa Sep 24 2015, 01:45 PM

Not really, its pretty random. I think Obisidian just did not really playtest and balance the difficulty in certain parts is all. The Laugerfeths would not be particularly bad if they did not paralyze with every hit, including grazes. If they only paralyzed on a critical hit for example they would be in line with all the other monsters. As it is you cannot go against them until you are 9th level and have Prayer Against Imprisonment. So basically don't consider the White March until you are at least that level.

Posted by: mALX Sep 25 2015, 06:57 PM

Obsidian did a leveling system in New Vegas where enemies were extremely overpowered at early levels; a decent fight at medium levels; and way underpowered as compared to the player at high levels. Maybe that is the same standard they used for this game. (go back there at level 20 and own those paralyzing beasts, lol).

Posted by: SubRosa Sep 25 2015, 08:55 PM

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.

Posted by: mALX Sep 25 2015, 09:06 PM

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..."

Posted by: SubRosa Sep 26 2015, 01:32 AM

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 http://i.imgur.com/F2J5SbG.jpg 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 http://i.imgur.com/TIMkCDd.jpg from The White March.

Posted by: Acadian Sep 26 2015, 01:46 AM

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

Posted by: mALX Sep 26 2015, 03:17 AM

Ooh, cool forge!

Posted by: SubRosa Sep 28 2015, 02:44 AM

Tonight I beat the game like a red-headed stepchild. http://i.imgur.com/NLOhva4.jpg, and the same fate would befall http://i.imgur.com/WXHyTlT.jpg.

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.

Posted by: Acadian Sep 28 2015, 02:47 AM

Congrats for beating the game with your toons!

Posted by: mALX Sep 28 2015, 06:42 PM

Holy Cow, those enemies are HUGE!!!

Posted by: Lopov Sep 28 2015, 06:44 PM

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

Posted by: SubRosa Sep 28 2015, 08:52 PM

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.

Posted by: Acadian Sep 28 2015, 09:58 PM

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.

Posted by: SubRosa Oct 2 2015, 05:49 PM

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.

Posted by: SubRosa Feb 19 2016, 09:05 PM

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.

Posted by: SubRosa Jun 13 2016, 06:31 PM

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.

Posted by: SubRosa Jun 14 2016, 08:41 PM

Here are some nuts and bolts on game versions and IEMod

The latest version of http://www.nexusmods.com/pillarsofeternity/mods/1. 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.

Posted by: SubRosa Jun 14 2016, 09:29 PM

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).

Posted by: SubRosa Jun 15 2016, 01:52 AM

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 http://chorrol.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=5381, 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.

http://i.imgur.com/MJHBDsu.jpg

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.

http://i.imgur.com/Pn1PkQx.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/o9XUH2D.jpg

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.

Posted by: McBadgere Jun 15 2016, 12:37 PM

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*...

Posted by: SubRosa Jun 15 2016, 07:02 PM

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.

Posted by: McBadgere Jun 15 2016, 09:15 PM

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... ...

Posted by: SubRosa Jun 15 2016, 10:36 PM

I have a short vid of a battle a page or two back. It gives an example of what the combat in the game is like.

Posted by: McBadgere Jun 16 2016, 03:49 AM

In short, complicated!... ...

Absolutely fair dues to you...I know it's all to do with practice and all that...And it's similar to the turn-based thing of the Final Fantasy thing, but...

Though it did make me want to dig out Dungeon Siege III, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xbk1tyPKxJk, being Obsidian as well...*Watches video*...Or not...I thought the caves and the characters looked a bit...

Nevermind... ...

Fair dues...Reading through your snippets, it really does sound like it's an excellent game and also, that you really enjoy it a lot...*Applauds heartily*...

Posted by: Acadian Jun 16 2016, 03:16 PM

I'm always drawn to the BG / Icewind Dale type of D&D games so I really enjoy following your progress. A nice bonus is that it all remains safely here in case any of us go get PoE and want to give it a try. Thank you. As McB says, proper awesome indeed.

Posted by: SubRosa Jun 16 2016, 09:42 PM

Gog.com has Pillars on sale right now for $18. So if I was a Marine Aviator or Medieval Knight or Buff Elven Archer I would buy it, and relive my old glory days of adventuring along the Sword Coast...

Posted by: SubRosa Jun 17 2016, 05:44 PM

Aela's Five finished the first Act yesterday, killing Raedric and clearing out the surface of Caed Nua. Last night and this morning they have been plumbing the Endless Depths of Caed Nua. I have gotten down to level 6. They are not blitzing through everything anymore! The Trolls and Black Oozes have been really difficult. Likewise with the first Drakes I am now seeing.

http://i.imgur.com/u8RaeTW.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/J4czRky.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/6dlQcjj.jpg

Aela and Ungarion are really surprising me in this game. Most of the time they are support characters plinking away with their wands and scepters. But when they pull out their cans of whoop-ass, they really clean up. Just a little while ago they teamed up against an undead Ranger that was shooting the team from afar. In one turn Aela Barbed it, and Ungarion hit it with Minoletta's Minor Missiles, and that killed it straight out.

Posted by: Acadian Jun 17 2016, 05:57 PM

Very cool stuff and it sounds like you're making great progress with the Aela and Ungarian +3 team. I remember D&D dragons as OMG hard but it was nice that fighting them was often sort of optional.

Posted by: SubRosa Jun 22 2016, 02:13 AM

Aela and company cleared out the Endless Paths of Od Nua down to Level 8. It was getting really difficult down there by that point. So I decided to give it a break and come back when they are higher level. So instead they went to Definace Bay, and now they have done almost all the quests there. They only have one more quest for the Crucible Knights to do, and the final quest for Lady Webb. Then I can do the Animancy Trial and finish Act II. I still have a few of the outdoor areas around Defiance Bay to explore as well. Probably after the trial.



http://i.imgur.com/7fhqMOC.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/M8EBCKa.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/tekAVd2.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/zJW3p7A.jpg

Posted by: Acadian Jun 22 2016, 02:28 PM

Very nostalgic to see your screens - they look great! Guns in D&D?!? Oh I love those mage summon independent blades spells from D&D!

Posted by: SubRosa Jun 23 2016, 07:10 PM

There are guns, but it isn't D&D. The game is basically set in an early Renaissance Era world, with magic tossed in for good measure. So there are matchlock firearms and heavy plate armor that was developed specifically to stop the bullets from them. The guns have such long reload times that they are only good for the first shot in an encounter. Then you have to switch to your main weapon for the rest of the battle. It does make for a very effective Alpha Strike to lead off every fight if you arm most of your characters with arabesques and all shoot the same enemy from stealth. It kills most things instantly.

The blades in that spell don't fly around attacking things like the dancing sword spells in D&D. They just fire out once in a 180 degree arc from the caster, slicing up everything in their path. Best of all there is no friendly fire damage. So it is a handy 1st level spell you can use when the enemy crowds in close around your front line fighters.

I discovered something new yesterday. Version 3.xx expanded on the stronghold quest. Now they included a major battle you have to fight with the former, legal owner of the keep (who abandoned it and left it to rot, until you lifted the curse on it and killed all the monsters within). The allies you make in other parts of the game can be called upon to aid you in the battle, which is neat. So too the hirelings you recruit for the stronghold.

I didn't really like the battle much though. It was too big and confusing, and it was really pushing the limits of the game to do. That kind of thing is better left to the Total War games like Rome or Shogun.

Which brings me to something else I have come across this time around. CTDs. I have been getting them ever since I started playing version 3. I already went back from 3.02 to 3.01 because IEMod won't work on 3.02. I was getting a ton of CTDs in the Endless Paths of Od Nua and so rolled back farther to 3.00. But I still get them from time to time, usually during battles when I press the pause button. I am not even sure if it is the game causing it, or IEMod.

Posted by: Acadian Jun 23 2016, 07:20 PM

CTD's? Oh my. . . I thought Bethesda had the copyrights on CTD's.

Seriously, sorry though. I hope you can resolve the problem.

Posted by: mALX Jun 24 2016, 05:03 PM

Oh, it is too bad there is no loot; that table in the first screen looks like it would be fascinating to ransack!

I like the running commentary in the lower right corner of the second screen; kind of keeping you appraised of the kills your team has made and what bootie they took from the enemies,

BWAAHAA! Don't state the obvious, lady Webb!


Boy, I just don't see how you can tell what is going on in that last screen, that is one hot mess!

Great shots!

Posted by: SubRosa Jun 24 2016, 06:17 PM

I have been dealing with the CTDs by quicksaving often!

The feedback box in the corner of the screen is an old holdover from the old days of isometric RPGs like Baldur's Gate. It gives you a full run down of everything happening. Telling you who hit or missed, what damage they did, etc... It also tracks the dialogue, so you can go back to see exactly what someone said. I like it very much. It helps out a great deal.

At times it can be difficult to tell what is going on when the screen gets filled with magic effects, like from fireballs. I find the colored circles under everyone makes things easier, because allies are green, enemies are red. Dead people might still be on the screen, but they won't have a circle, so that tells you what you can ignore.


http://i.imgur.com/SQIySqs.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/rUochY0.jpg (if you look close, you can see that the lightning bolt actually killed one of the baddies own guys)

http://i.imgur.com/dp24tXk.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/q1QrCZJ.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/Nt0KRBV.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/RW9jD31.jpg

Posted by: Acadian Jun 24 2016, 08:57 PM

Quicksave vs CTD.

Wow, that is one big battle!

Very cool effects and the aftermath indicates a mountain of loot it appears!

Posted by: Lopov Jul 2 2016, 04:57 PM

That's a real full-scale battle!

While Baldur's Gate had many tough battles, there were rarely so many NPCs involved as in this one.

Love the reference to Countess Bathory.

Posted by: SubRosa Jul 4 2016, 02:57 AM

I finished part one of The White March, and the Endless Depths of Od Nua. Seridwe has been using Cloudpiercer Stormcaller, which she found atop Durgan's Battery in the March. So far it has been most impressive.

http://i.imgur.com/xyWDvoh.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/DrrpEVi.jpg (for those who have not watched The Guild, it is an http://www.thinkgeek.com/images/products/zoom/e61f_fawkes_codex_highland_sextasy_poster.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/Ou755Cv.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/CTKoBCU.jpg

Posted by: Acadian Jul 4 2016, 01:05 PM

Great shots! That first dragon looks pretty impressive. Not familiar with the Easter Egg, but I'm glad you left the UI up in that shot - a nice opportunity to see the portraits you imported for your characters. Oh, and the kitty. Actually, both the kitty in the portraits and the one walking around on the floor.

So what is Cloudpiercer and what does it do?

Posted by: mALX Jul 8 2016, 09:11 AM

I love the building and textures in the "Court" screen!


But I'm Totally lost on the battlefield screens. I don't know how you can see such tiny little figures in action and think to know how to defend or attack! You are amazing!

Oh wow, do they give you enough time to loot all those bodies? AWESOME !!!

I kind of like the screens with the UI on so I can read what is going on, see Aela, etc - but the battlefield did look a little closer in that screen without the UI. Does it bring it in a bit closer to remove the UI?

Awesome Shots !!!! Sorry it took so long to get here, have had a bad couple weeks here - too much going on.









Holy Cow, that dragon is huge compared to the Player!

OMG, that easter egg is so funny! I haven't seen the show it comes from; but just really love when games do stuff like that! Say, in that shot do I see a housecat? Is that part of your troup or something like a pet?

That contraption looks like something from the old board game "Mouse Trap,"

I think I am beginning to remember when you played this game before and posted screens that so many of the enemies seemed really huge and scary to face (from my perspective) and wondering if they were scaled like the dragons are in Skyrim or if they were like the huge things in ESO = REALLY tough? Those Drakes look Awesome!

Sorry I was late getting here, I somehow lost track of my email notice on this post, urgh!

Posted by: SubRosa Mar 25 2017, 03:04 AM

Wow, looks like I was updating the wrong Pillars topic.

Pillars of Eternity game version 3.05 is out now (it is Gog-18). http://www.nexusmods.com/pillarsofeternity/mods/1 is also now up to date with it. With the crowdfunding campaign for Pillars 2, I am suspecting (hoping!) that this is the final version of the game.

One of the really nice things about the latest version of IEMod is that it finally allows you to edit the stats of the Vanilla Companions. When using IEMod the game will use an XML file to get the attributes of the Companions. You can edit that however you want. There is also a backup XML file with the default values.

Posted by: SubRosa Mar 26 2017, 09:48 PM

I found a way to save Calisca and Heodan from dying at the end of the prologue. All it requires is the console.

Before you leave the prologue cave - Cliant Lis Dungeon - open the console and use the ManageParty command.

Dismiss Calisca and Heodan from the party.

Now leave the dungeon and enter the Clian Ruins outside. Go through the entire level alone, and proceed to Valewood.

Once in Valewood use the ManageParty console command again. Now you can recruit Calisca and Heodan.

I did it tonight and it worked just fine.

Posted by: RaderOfTheLostArk Jun 6 2017, 08:19 PM

It is currently on sale on GOG for $18. Not sure how long the sale lasts. I am intrigued by the game and want to expand my isometric RPG experience, but I also have a bunch of games in my backlog.

Still, I am considering buying the game. I take it most people here would recommend I pounce on it at this point?

Posted by: SubRosa Jun 6 2017, 09:25 PM

I love it. If you liked the Baldur's Gates, Icewind Dales, and Neverwinter Nights games, you will like this.

Posted by: RaderOfTheLostArk Jun 15 2017, 07:12 PM

I do have Neverwinter Nights in my GOG library, but haven't gotten around to it yet. Haven't played any of the BG or ID games.

Still thinking about it, but I may buy it soon. I want to expand my isometric RPG repertoire. I'm not as interested in party-based RPGs, but I'm still willing to try it (I have played a bit of Planescape: Torment and have enjoyed that so far, but need to get my files off of my previous computer). One thing I can't quite seem to definitively figure out: it isn't a turn-based game, right? I like having the ability to pause in combat if I have to, but I'm not really a fan of full-fledged turn-based gameplay.

Posted by: SubRosa Jun 15 2017, 09:17 PM

Technically it is a real time game. But like the Total War games, you can pause any time you want and give orders to everyone in your team. So that sort of turns it into the equivalent of a turn-based game. There is even a name for that game style, but I forget what it is... Real Time Pausable I think? I pause every few seconds when I play. To me it feels the same as playing a true turn-based game like the original Fallouts, Wasteland 2, or Divinity Original Sin.

One thing you might not like is you cannot rotate the camera like in Neverwinter Nights. The environment is static. It becomes transparent when you go under arches and gateways, but it still can make things difficult to see. That is my biggest gripe about the game. I like being able to spin the camera around to see the action from any angle.

Posted by: RaderOfTheLostArk Jun 16 2017, 02:33 PM

Oh, that's fine by me. Sometimes I will need to pause, but I like the feeling of overall real-time much more.

Shame about the camera but that's not a deal-breaker for me. I recently played and beat the phenomenal Divine Divinity, which didn't let you move the camera. That was also a real-time game but let you pause in the middle of battle (which did save my hide in some hard battles). As long as the game tells me how to deal with mechanics affected by it, like if there are doors to open that aren't immediately noticeable due to the camera (something that DD could have done a better job with is explaining mechanics like that), then I don't think it will be too much of a problem.

This definitely makes me lean a bit more towards buying the game, but not sure if I am ready to pull the trigger on a purchase just yet. Thanks for the info.

Posted by: SubRosa Jul 23 2017, 04:07 AM

I started up a new Pillars game with Persephone. My plan is to go through the game using the vanilla companions this time, since I have still never done that.

I always liked Aloth. But one thing I never liked was his initial loadout of spells. Most of them I never use, and end up wasting future spells taking things like Slicken, Chill Fog, and Ghost Blades - 1st level spells every starting Wizard should have. I discovered a sneaky way around this. After you recruit Aloth, go into the tavern and recruit an adventurer. Make them a Wizard, and take the spells you want Aloth to have. Then once you have created the adventurer, give their grimoire to Aloth and have him copy the spells he wants to his own grimoire. Then dismiss the adventurer from the party.

Posted by: Acadian Jul 25 2017, 12:17 AM

Have fun with Persephone! If it is like BG II, I know what you mean. I preferred the personalities of the in game companions but the ones I liked had subpar stats/skills. So I used an editor to adjust their stats/skills so they were effective as well as fun to travel with.

Posted by: SubRosa Jul 27 2017, 11:10 PM

Thanks to the latest version of IEMod you can edit the attributes of all the companions. So now they are a lot more useful than before. I found that Heodan especially made for a powerful rogue, being good with a bow and up close and personal with two stilettos.

It has been nice to hear the interactions between companions, and their interjections into conversations. It is the one thing missing from the adventurers you create yourself to be companions.

http://i.imgur.com/3I15346.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/pcijCjv.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/25hhBKi.jpg

Posted by: Acadian Jul 28 2017, 04:27 PM

I love seeing shots of you playing PoE. I very much enjoyed my time in BGII and can very much see the family resemblance – that is a good thing. In fact, PoE is on my list of possible future games.

It is great news that the game is supported with mods that allow tweaking the available companions.

Posted by: SubRosa Jul 28 2017, 06:24 PM

https://www.gog.com/game/pillars_of_eternity_hero_edition often has it on sale, and always during the quarterly seasonal sales and on holidays. I can keep an eye out for the next time it is on sale if you want to try it out. I know you felt burned with Dragon Age. But PoE is definitely not like that game.

However, PoE is very difficult to mod. So there are not many mods out there. IEMod is the main one, but thankfully it allows you to alter many of the aspects of gameplay. Other than that there are a few mods out that that alter the look of some of the suits of armor, and how some of the talents work. For example there is one that improves the Ranger's talents, another that makes the Druid's wildshape last as long as you want it to, and one that does likewise with the Arcane Veil for Wizards. Plus there is a huge amount of portrait mods you can use for both the companions and the player character.

Modding the companions stats is easy however. It is just a simple XML file now (with IEMod). Which basically means you can do it in Notepad. Eternity Keeper also allows you to mod the player character's attributes as well. You can also use the console for both, and for adding items, talents, skill points, and so on.

Thanks to the improved stats I gave all the companions, and the Ranger talent mod I mentioned, the Ranger companion Sagani is pure awesome now. I think she is the top damage dealer of Persephone's group.

Posted by: Acadian Jul 28 2017, 06:50 PM

Oh, thanks for that info. You know how 'monogamous' I am about games though so no immediate plans unless ESO breaks or becomes unplayable. I do like to have a back up game at least in mind though.

The mod news sounds fine since the two things you mentioned seem readily available and simple (portraits and tweaking player and companion stats).

I've probably asked before, but does PoE magic require the BG D&D tedium of trying predict the night before which limited numbers of spells you expect to cast the following day? That was one of my complaints with mages, though later on, the sorc class had a much better way of dealing with that than the mage class.

Posted by: SubRosa Jul 28 2017, 07:13 PM

The magic is much better than in the old D&D games. Each mage starts with an implement (wand, scepter, or rod), that works as a magical ranged attack. They never run out of ammo, and the do the same damage as other weapons. The Wizard also always has a Arcane Assault ability they can use twice per combat that does raw damage (which cannot be resisted).

Then they get their spells. They still have a limited number of spells they can use per day. But it does not get specific to each spell. You can cast any spell you know. You start with 4 1st level spells you can cast per rest. As you level up, you get more more castings per rest. So at the start you can cast Slicken 4 times. Or you could cast Slicken once, Minolletta's Minor Missiles once, Chill Fog once, and Ghost Blades once. Then you have to rest to get your 4 spell castings back. When you get to higher levels you can start casting a few spells that you pick on a Per Encounter basis rather than Per Rest.

Wizards get a little more tricky than the other spell classes since they have a grimoire. Priests and Druids automatically learn all the spells available to them when they level up. They can pick their 4 (or more) castings from any of them they want. Wizards start with only a specific number of spells you pick at character creation. Then you learn one or two more at every level up. In addition you can learn more spells by copying them from the grimoires of enemy Wizards you defeat (or from other Wizards in your own party). You can only cast the spells you have in your grimoire. There is only a specific number of spells per level you can have in your grimoire. Something like 4 or 5 spells per level. You can change out spells in your grimoire, and even carry multiple grimoires and swap them out on the fly (though there is a cool-down period when you swap them, so it is not the best to do in combat).

IEMod allows you to change the number of spells you can have per level in your grimoire, as well as what level you start being able to cast spells Per Encounter, and how many of them you can so cast. I have it set to 6 spells per level in the grimoire, which I think works well. It helps keep the Wizard from being overpowered.

So the end result is that spellcasters in general are more more versatile and powerful than in the Baldur's and Icewind days. You can pretty much cast any spell you want at any time. You just have some limits to how often you do it. Which I do not mind, as otherwise the spellcasters would just overpower the game. The Wizards are especially powerful. They are the premiere damage dealers when they want to be, and have a lot of talents that give them other forms of attack and defense outside of actual spells, like their Arcane Assault for attacking, Arcane Veil for defending themselves, a Grimoire Slam attack, Blast talents that improves their damage, area effect, and even grants armor piercing with implements.

Ungarion was pure awesomesauce in this game. Aela was no slouch as a Priest either. The two of them dominated their game.

Posted by: Acadian Jul 28 2017, 08:19 PM

That all makes perfect sense in terms of logical improvements to BG I and II. Sounds great, thank you!

Posted by: SubRosa Aug 1 2017, 02:20 AM

I have been playing the vanilla companions for a while now, and have a few observations to make.

I like Eder is a companion. He is a fighter, a farmer, a soldier, and a man whose faith was not so much lost as broken. He is not only a useful companion in terms of pure game stats, he also has a good voice actor, and a good story.

Aloth also makes a good companion. Like Eder, he is in many ways a stereotype of his class, in this case the wizard. But his split 'personality' adds a lot of color to him, and his own quest makes the business of souls awakening and animancy a very personal and visible issue for the player. He does not start with the best loadout of spells. But as I noted a few posts back, you can fix that by hiring a Wizard Adventurer and copying the spells Aloth needs from their grimoire.

Durance is a typical crotchety old man who complains about everything, especially the goddess whom he is a priest of. His voice acting is top-notch as well. I have not finished his quest yet, but he seems to be having a crisis of faith about his role in the slaying of a god (that happened years before the game began, something Eder is caught up in as well). Tbh, he can be annoying. But he is a Priest, which makes him very useful.

These are the three core companions, and you find them fairly quickly. I am sure it is no accident that they are three of the most standard classes in all RPGs - Fighter, Wizard, Priest. The only thing missing is a Rogue. Which strangely enough you cannot get as a companion until the White March Part 1, which is a long way into the game.

Kana is a companion you meet near the end of the 1st Act. He is a fun character, with a good voice and neat story. Basically he is a giant (physically) and a scholar, researching legends in what becomes your castle. His story unfolds as you explore deeper into the Endless Paths of Od Nua below the castle. He is a Chanter, one of the brand new classes to Pillars. Chanters are half-bard, half summoner. In fact, they are the only summoners, which makes them useful. But they sort of fall short as a fighter, and fall short as a magician. I liked having him in the party in Od Nua, but not beyond it.

Pallegina is a paladin you meet in the middle of Act II. She has a really cool voice actress, and instead of hair, has a head full of feathers. So she stands out. She is a cool character to have in the group, and a really solid front line fighter. I am not quite so sure about her personal quest yet, except that it seems to be about learning more of animancy in the area.

Hiravias is an Orlan Druid. I just cannot get into him. His voice acting does nothing for me. But more than that I am really not sure what to do with him. As a Druid he can shapeshift into a wild animal, and he racks ass in combat that way. But he is also a spellcaster, with a huge array of magic. I am never sure what to do with him, rip things up in melee, or stand back slinging magic. So I did not use him much at all.

I just met The Grieving Mother. She is a Cipher, another of the new classes to Pillars. Tbh, I just don't know what to make of Ciphers, even after I experimented with playing one for a bit. So I have not really done anything with her at all.

That leaves three companions you meet in The White March:
The Devil of Caroc - a Rogue
Zahua - a Monk
Maneha - a Barbarian.

I have not gotten to them yet, so cannot really say much about them.

Posted by: Acadian Aug 1 2017, 04:45 PM

Thank you! This thread is such a treasure trove of a resource to have available if I ever delve into PoE.

Posted by: SubRosa Aug 4 2017, 11:24 PM

There is a new version of IE Mod. It has many new features. Including a toggle to unlock all the inventory slots normally locked off (like helmets for Godlike races, Grimoires for non-Wizards, Pets for Companions). It also opens up all the Weapon and Misc Item slots.



There are also some new console commands:

Ctrl + Y = Inflict 50 000 damage to whoever is under the cursor (Party included, be careful with that one)

Ctrl + S = Restore Spells and ability uses

UnlockSoulBond = Fully binds all equipped soul items for the selected character.

ToggleSpellLimit - makes you ignore spell limits.


ChangeClass {name} {Class} = Respecs the named character to level 0 in the class given.

Warning: do not attempt to transition/quit/save game while your character is level 0. You need to level him up first. Do not attempt to open your grimoire, etc. Just immediately proceed to leveling up.

If you're respeccing into a Paladin or a Cleric, you'll need to manually assign yourself a Paladin Order or a Deity. Use the following console commands:

AssignClericalGod {simple name} {god}
Charname should be that actually displayed in the game, and not the internal name used in other commands. Possible values for godame: None, Berath, Eothas, Magran, Skaen, Wael.

AssignPaladinOrder {simple name} {order name}
Possible values for order name: None, BleakWalkers, DarcozziPaladini, GoldpactKnights, KindWayfarers, ShieldbearersOfStElcga, FrermasMesCancSuolias.


This new ChangeClass command means you do not have to use the workaround I mentioned previously to get Aloth more starting spells. You can just drop him to 0 level and completely start over with him, picking his 1st level spells yourself.

Posted by: Acadian Aug 5 2017, 12:51 AM

Thanks for keeping this updated with all this good info!

Posted by: SubRosa Aug 5 2017, 01:21 AM

I also discovered that you can use the AddAbility command to give a character the abilities of any class. This is an effective way of multi-classing. You can also add spells this way, even to a non-magician character. However, while the character knows the spells, I do not see any way to actually cast them, as an icon for spell casting is not added to the character's interface. There may be a way around this with UI customization mods though, like the one built into IE Mod.

Posted by: Acadian Aug 5 2017, 01:36 AM

That is sounding very promising. What we sort of ended up with in BGII (long ago) with some modhelp was Buffy as an elven ranger (archer sublcass) but I was able to boost up her druid spells so things like entangling vines and a summoned forest creature were part of her package.

Posted by: SubRosa Aug 5 2017, 02:35 AM

There is already a cross-class talent called Aspirant's Mark that is similar to the entangling. It is a small area of effect that reduces enemy deflection and reflex defenses.

There is a better one called Runner's Wounding Shot that Hobbles the target, causing them to move slower. But you could use the console to give yourself the Ranger Ability it is based on - Wounding Shot, which does the same, but is more effective because it can be used twice per encounter, while Runner's Wounding Shot is only once per encounter. Rogues get a similar Ability called Crippling Strike. You could use the console to take all three, that would give you 5 times you could cripple per encounter.

I did find that the Wizard Abilities like Arcane Assault work fine with a character from another class. That would give a non-Wizard a nice magical attack that works twice per encounter.

Posted by: SubRosa Aug 6 2017, 11:59 PM

I finished out The White March Part I. This is my second, or perhaps third time finishing it. It was good. Though the Laugerfeths are overpowered with their poison darts that paralyze with even just a Graze. But as long as you have a Priest who uses Prayer Against Imprisonment at the start of every battle you can negate that.

The Devil of Caroc's personal quest is finished in WM1. There is really not much to it. You talk to a few people in Stalwart, then go to the adjacent map of Russetwood for a showdown with one of the men who murdered her family. I do like the Devil though. She has a neat, metallic voice that goes with her golem-like body. Plus it is nice having a Rogue in the party. She can go back and forth from melee to ranged very easily, and her sneak attacks make her really potent.

I just started White March II. Maneha and Zahua's quests take place in it, so I will be learned more of them in the coming days.

http://i.imgur.com/GI9CdJ3.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/H0cGWjf.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/ze0VxlL.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/52kQbRx.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/Kfj9dbx.jpg

Posted by: Acadian Aug 7 2017, 01:18 PM

Oooh! Group of six stacked up to take on a dragon! That brings back some BGII memories. Wonderful shots!

Sorry to keep bringing up BGII but it is handy as a point of mutual reference. Is PoE relatively 'linear' in the same way that BGII was? I found in BGII, the best way for me to play was leisurely go through the game, then simply start over and enjoy it again with perhaps some adjustments to team composition, tweaks, slightly different quest ordering etc.

Posted by: SubRosa Aug 7 2017, 08:38 PM

PoE is mostly linear. It is divided into 3 Acts. Finishing the 1st Act opens up the map to the 2nd. Finishing that opens up the map to the 3rd Act. So you cannot get to an area belonging to the next Act until you finish the Act you are in.

There are a couple of detours on the map however. The first is the Endless Depths of Od Nua. It is a massive 15 level deep dungeon that sits underneath the castle you get as your stronghold at the end of Act I. You can do as much of that as you want starting in Act 1. The enemies down there are tough, so you probably won't really start delving deep until the middle or end of Act 2.

The second detour are the White March dlcs. WM1 opens up near the beginning of Act 2. WM2 opens up once you finish the main quest of WM1, and rest once outside of the White March. Both of these are pretty sizeable, and better left until near the end of Act 2. But you can do them whenever you want, and go back and forth between the White March and the Dyrwood (the main game world). Or you can ignore them completely. Likewise the Endless Depths of Od Nua can be ignored completely as well. You don't have to clear out any of the three to complete the game.

When you enter the final dungeon of Act 3 you are locked in however. Once you finish that, you end the game, and you cannot go back and do anything you missed. So if you want to do the Endless Depths and White Marches, make sure you get them done before the end of Act 3.

In this run through I started the Endless Depths at the end of Act 1, and did about 3 or 4 levels. By then the enemies were too much. So I went off and did all of Act 2. Once that was done I went back to the Endless Depths and did them down to level 13. Then I backed off once more, and did The White March part 1. After that was done I went back to to the Dyrwood to finish the last two levels of the Endless Depths (the last is a dragon battle).

When that was done the White March 2 started because I rested in the Depths. So I went back to the White March, and am currently doing Part 2. I am going to finish that off, then go back to The Dyrwood and do Act 3.

Posted by: Acadian Aug 7 2017, 08:45 PM

I see. That sounds pretty good. Thanks for the info!

Posted by: SubRosa Aug 12 2017, 01:40 AM

There is a new version of Pillars on Gog. It is 3.06.1254. Now I can see that the most recent version of IEMod I mentioned the other week was made for this (though it also works on Pillars 3.05). The new game version only fixes three things, and there is no patch for it. You have to do a full download of the game and reinstall. So I am not sure if it is really worth it.

Posted by: Acadian Aug 12 2017, 02:09 AM

No patch to upgrade version? How odd. I guess the uninstall/download/reinstall may boil down to if you can keep your saved games and how much tinkering it'll take to keep your mods going.

Posted by: SubRosa Aug 12 2017, 03:58 AM

Usually they do have patches. I am not sure why they did not do one this time. Thankfully save games are usually compatible with version changes in Pillars. Mods are not that hard to deal with either, since there are not that many of them.

Posted by: SubRosa Aug 13 2017, 03:20 AM

I finished out The White March I and II. Both are good additions to the game. The first opens up Durgans Battery and the White Forge. This is notable because it allows you to add Durgan Steel to your item and armor enchantments. It increases the speed of weapons and increases the chances of a critical hit and crit damage. It reduces the speed penalty of armor and makes you less likely to be critically hit. So it is good all around.

WM Part II is a direct response to your opening of Durgan's Battery. The big bad in it are the Eyeless: the same creatures that wiped out the Dwarves from Durgan's Battery centuries before. Opening the Battery puts them back on the warpath. In the process of stopping them, your actions determine whether a god is resurrected or not.

The final showdown requires that either your character or a companion sacrifice themselves. But there are some ways around it. First is if during the White March Part I you returned the spirits of the Dwarves back to the Wheel. In that case they have been reborn into Lagerfath, who save you and take you to safety (I think this is only if you choose to have the player character make the sacrifice).

Another way is a Diving Bell helmet that is a quest reward. If you sacrificing character has the helmet, they can wear it to get to safety. Finally, if they have a Constitution of 18 they can survive. I am not sure, but it is also possible that the Devil of Caroc can survive as well, as she is not alive to begin with.

I finished up the quests of the companions added by the White March in the process. Maneha's directly tied to the WM2's main quest. There is a side room in the Abbey of the Fallen Moon where you can finish her quest. Your actions decide how it all turns out, which is nice.

Zahua's quest was difficult to start. He is recruitable during WM1. But it is not until WM2 that his quest becomes available. You have to talk to him after starting WM2 and go through his dialogue trees to find the right thing to start it. Once you do you go to Whitestone Hollow to complete it. It was a fun, drug-fueled, vision quest. Very suitable to the character, and different from the other companion quests.

I did have one issue with WM2. There is a quest granted by a smith in the new Temple of Abydon in Stalwart that requires you to go Defiance Bay. But at the end of Act II Defiance Bay is sealed off, and you cannot get there again. So now I cannot complete that quest. So it is best to do both parts of the White March before doing the Animancer Trials and completing Act II.

Now I am back to The Dyrwood and going into Act III.

Posted by: Acadian Aug 13 2017, 03:38 AM

Congrats and thanks for the update!

Lots of good, detailed info archived in that post.

Posted by: SubRosa Aug 13 2017, 03:41 AM

http://i.imgur.com/pn0Gelt.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/SGy0eIv.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/fFLbHe4.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/5IEPxW4.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/qP3yWFT.jpg

Posted by: Acadian Aug 13 2017, 07:25 PM

Some more epic fighting it looks like! Brr, some of that area looks freezing. Kraken? Ewwww - that is one ugly m...(well, just imagine what Arnold would say).

Posted by: SubRosa Aug 13 2017, 11:22 PM

Thankfully the Kraken was more scary to look at than to fight. It has a lot of tentacles coming up through the ice. But I just ignored them and had everyone attack the head with everything they had. It didn't last more than a few rounds.

I cleared out Cragholdt Bluffs (which is added by White March 1) for the first time ever. The first time I tried I was about 8th level, and I got my rear completely kicked, and didn't go back in that game. This time my characters are 16th level, and it was nearly a walkover. The ending is a big fight with Concelhaut, one of the famous mages from the Pillars world, and a Lich to boot.

I am almost finished up with Pillars now. I am at the point of petitioning the gods for help to reach Thaos (the Big Bad). There are 4 gods, each with their own quest. You only have to do one of them. I kind of did one by accident already, when I went to Hylea's temple and found the Sky Dragon there. Persephone decided to let the dragon live, as she was raising the last of her eggs there. Plus a Sky Dragon in a Sky Goddess' temple seems like the right thing. I am not sure how that will play out when I try doing Hylea's quest. It might automatically complete, or I might have to go back to the Sky Dragon again.

I have completed all the companion quests except Durance's. I should be getting his done the next time I play. I finished Hirvias' quest. It is centered around Twin Elms (the last area of the game map unlocked by starting Act III). It is an interesting story, once again centered deeply in the game's theme of souls. But I don't like the voice actor for Hirvias, and I still don't know what to do with a Druid - whether I should use him for a shape-shifted fighter, or a spellcaster. So I was glad to be done with him and removed him from the party once his quest was done.

I finished Grieving Mother's quest as well. It doesn't require going anywhere at all. Rather you have to talk to her about her past as a midwife. Then after a few rests you new dialogue will open up when you talk to her again. After about three of those you can complete her quests. It is heart-breaking, about crisis of hollowborn children (children born with no souls) plaguing the Dyrwood.

I played a bit more with her in the party. The high level Cipher powers are really something. There is a 9th level spell that gives every member of the party the highest defense stat possessed by a party member. So whoever has the highest Deflection, shares the same with everyone else, etc...

I finished Pellagina's quest once I got into the Twin Elms area. Her quest is about brokering an exclusive trade agreement between Eir Glanfath and her homeland - The Vailian Republics. Pellagina can see that this is likely to lead to war with The Dyrwood, as it means stealing trade from them. But those are her orders. In the end you guide her to follow orders and set up the trade deal, to cancel it, or set up a minor trade agreement in things the Dyrwood does not buy from the Glanfathans.

Posted by: SubRosa Aug 14 2017, 02:30 AM

I beat the game like a red-haired stepchild. Phew. That was a really good game.

It turns out that talking to the Sky Dragon in Hylea's Temple did indeed count as finishing her quest. It skipped to the quest end once I talked to her in Teir Evron. I did Galawain's quest as well, and decided to make a pact with him to return the souls stolen by Thaos and the Leaden Key to the Dyrwood, in return for his boon (which turned out to be a bonus to Might and Athletics).

I also completed Durance's quest in Teir Evron. You have the opportunity to convince him that his goddess Magran betrayed him and tried to kill him after using him to forge the Godhammer (which killed the god Eothas before the game started).

I did like doing the game with the vanilla companions. They have good stories, and there is a wide variety of them to choose from. I found my favorite lineup was this:

Eder - Fighter
Pallegina - Paladin
Aloth - Wizard
Durance - Priest
Sagani (with Ituumak of course!) - Ranger

I liked The Devil of Caroc a lot as well. She has a great laugh. I would have swapped her out for Durance, but that would have left the group without a Priest, which did not strike me as wise. But if I played the game as a Priest, I would leave him off and take the Devil instead.

There are interactions with all the companions with you when you finally meet and defeat Thaos. I think some of them might effect the end game plates, at least for Aloth and Eder. Durance, Sagani, and the others seem to be set by how their quests ended. Pallegina fate is partly determined by her quest, and whether or not you return the lost souls to the Dyrwood. Doing the latter brings her best ending, as it redeems her decision to ignore her orders and instead make a limited trade deal. This keeps the Vailian Republics out of a future war with the resurgent Dyrwood and creates a strong trade between Dyrwood, Vailia, and Eir Glanfath.


http://i.imgur.com/DmmXxvW.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/yX49HPH.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/tOIBzDT.jpg

Posted by: Acadian Aug 14 2017, 03:52 AM

That sky dragon is beautiful! And what a great resource you have provided with this thread for anyone considering PoE!

Posted by: SubRosa Aug 17 2017, 02:54 AM

Pillars of Eternity is now on sale for $18 at https://www.gog.com/game/pillars_of_eternity_hero_edition. If you don't own it already, now is the time...

Posted by: SubRosa Oct 29 2017, 02:24 AM

https://i.imgur.com/cEFf5HR.jpg for Pillars. I was thinking that I would use all the regular companions with her. Except for Durance, since I don't really like him much. My plan was to hire an Adventurer for the team's Priest.

I could just create a generic character for the Priest. But I was thinking it would be cooler to use another Fallout character. So now I am looking through my other Fallout characters and the games NPCs to find a good candidate. Killer Frost is probably my best pick from former player characters. Out of NPCs maybe Julie Farkas from New Vegas? Dr. Li is too much of a stick in the mud. Daddy James does not feel right. Maybe the medic from Mothership Zeta? But he was kind of a wuss. Maybe Doc Mitchell?

https://i.imgur.com/YiSXGTA.jpg

Posted by: Lopov Nov 6 2017, 07:16 AM

Wasteland team is conquering the Eora.

Frost Killer is now the priest!

Both Doc Mitchell and Julie are good options too, and maybe also Daniel from Honest Hearts, he is a missionary IIRC.

Posted by: SubRosa Nov 6 2017, 10:04 PM

In The Flash tv show Killer Frost is a doctor/bio-engineer. So she fit the bill for a healer type. Ironically Hecate is also a medical doctor/nurse. She learned from Daddy James in Vault 101. But never had time to finish her medical schooling there with him.

I forgot all about Daniel from Honest Hearts. He would have been good too.

Sadly, now that I started Hecate in Skyrim, her Pillars game has fallen by the wayside. At least for now.

Posted by: SubRosa Nov 17 2017, 11:54 PM

Gog.com has https://www.gog.com/game/pillars_of_eternity_definitive_edition for sale for $30. It is the base game plus the two White March expansions. Plus it has some new soul-bound weapons and pirate-themed goodies inspired by the new Deadfire game that comes out next year.

Sadly, the Deadfire Pack is only for game version 3.07. But IEMod has not been updated for that game version yet.

If you like team-based strategy RPGs, buy it.

Posted by: SubRosa Mar 16 2018, 12:40 AM

Sadly IEMod has yet to be updated to 3.07. However, I have seen several people say that it does work with that game version, at least mostly. So I installed 3.07, and the Deadfire pack with it. So far it works even with the older version of IEmod. No CTDs at least, and I see the IEMod options there and they seem to work (except the spells per encounter, which did not work before either).

So I started a new game with Hecate. This time I decided to try something fancy. In Fallout Hecate has medical training, though is not quite a doctor. Dear old Daddy James was a doctor and scientist, and Hecate had been following in his footsteps when she was forced to flee the vault. So I decided to try to use the console to create a Ranger/Priest hybrid.

You can use the console to add spells to non-spellcaster classed characters. But since they are not spellcasters, there is nothing in the interface to allow you to cast them. So I made Hecate a Priest and saved. Then I opened up her save with Eternity Keeper, and used the option in it to edit Raw values. Buried in all the values in there are things like Base Deflection, Melee and Ranged Accuracy, Base Health and Endurance, etc.. I used https://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Classes to give Hecate the values for a Ranger. Then saved and went back to the game.

Once in the game I used the console to give Hecate a bow to start with, and the Ranger abilities Swift Aim and Wounding Shot.

I played through the tutorial dungeon and beyond a little bit. So far it is working great. Hecate is an archer, who can heal. There is no animal companion, but that is fine, as she never really had one in the Fallout games anyhow. I will just have to use the console to give her archery abilities as she levels up.

Posted by: SubRosa Mar 17 2018, 03:12 PM

Well, I decided to cancel my 3.07 game. IEMod was working. But unfortunately other mods that rely upon were not, like Ranger Improvements and Arcane Veil Modal. I could tell because when I used the modded abilities I their graphics wold not appear correctly. Instead I would get a bright pink square on the screen. If that much was not working, the rest of the mods must not have been either. I found a few replacements, but none that did quite the same thing, in the full manner.

So I am going back to 3.06. Looks like this will be the final game version for me.

Posted by: SubRosa May 13 2018, 03:09 AM

Pillars of Eternity II is out, so I bought it. It is huge. About a 25 gig download. I have a pretty fast internet speed, and it took me about 5 hours or so to download it.

I had some issues right off the bat. First whenever it I started the game, it would only show about an inch of it along the top of my monitor, and my desktop along the rest of the screen. I would have to Alt+Tab back and forth multiple times before I could get the game to show up full screen. It took some digging but I found out that in the game's options -> graphics it was set to Windowed. Setting it to Fullscreen fixed that.

I also had a huge amount of screen flickering whenever I moved. I mean really painful to the eyes. I found that again going to Options -> Graphics and setting the MSAA to 1 stopped that.

I also found that at one point the keyboard just stopped working. That was a real pita. Restarting the game seemed to fix it. I think.

So getting to the actual game, I only played enough to get a feel for it. You can import a save from Pillars of Eternity I. So long as it is from just before the endgame. I experimented and imported Persephone's save.

An interesting thing is that even with an imported save, you still have the options to change your character's race, class, portraits, etc... Basically you still start your character over from scratch. So it isn't really importing your character. Instead I think it is just importing your choices from the first game. Because if you do not import a save, you still have to tell the game how the first game turned out. There are half a dozen choices to pick from, on a sliding scale from really good to really awful. So PoE II takes it for granted that your character was the hero from the the first game, whether you actually played it or not.

Another observation is that the beginning is rather long. In PoE I you start straight with character creation, then you are dropped into the world and the tutorial starts with a little bit of talking, and then you can start walking around doing stuff. In PoE II the game starts with your character being dead and in the afterlife, and you get a very brief replay of some of the key events of PoE I. Then you talk to the goddess of death and she tells you that shit has hit the fan since you have been gone. Then you finally get to create your character. Afterward there is some more talking, you get a second chance at life, go back to Eora, and find yourself on a ship. Then there is more talking. And finally a battle with pirates.

So basically the opening of PoE II is a lot more long and drawn out. Not really a good thing if you like creating a lot of characters (like me).

I also discovered something pretty quick. In PoE I you had two character portraits: A large one and a small one. In PoE II there are four of them. Obisidian calls the two new ones watercolors. I call them crappy artwork. Why anyone would want that over the good artwork is a mystery to me.

I also saw that all of the classes from PoE I were present from the start of the game. I did not see any new classes or races. However, there is the option to multi-class now, and there are subclasses as well.

I didn't really go any further. I just got a sense of it. I am not really in a big hurry. If it is anything like the first game I expect there to be lots of updates to the game, some of which will probably require restarts of the game because of save game incompatibility. Instead I went back to PoE I. Maybe I will finish that with Aela, then import her save to PoE II and play here there after the versions get settled down some.

Posted by: SubRosa May 16 2018, 08:53 PM

So I am back to my PoE I game starring Aela and her TES pals.

https://i.imgur.com/VFdZjfl.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/HkVjaYI.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/HEHxPZx.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/iK59Wr6.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/vSsX4Gr.jpg

Posted by: Acadian May 17 2018, 04:02 PM

Hee! Nice, I recognize the red head with the faint smile!

Posted by: SubRosa Mar 2 2019, 02:48 AM

Good news! https://www.nexusmods.com/pillarsofeternity/mods/1 for game version 3.07. That is the final version of Pillars of Eternity I. I just downloaded it, and it seems to work fine. I think I am going to try a new game with Aela and the vanilla companions.

Posted by: Acadian Mar 3 2019, 02:42 AM

Back to D&D! I look forward to seeing/hearing some of Aela's adventures.

Posted by: SubRosa Mar 3 2019, 04:36 AM

I have added some mods for 3.07. So far on the Nexus there are mods for making Arcane Veil modal (which I insist on), and improving the range and speed of Arcane Assault. There is one that removes the time limit for Druid shapeshifting. One to improve Rogue talents, and one to improve Paladin talents. Sadly, there is not one to improve the Rangers.

I tried my old Ranger talent mod that works with 3.05 and 3.06, but it does not work on 3.07. So far that is the only difficulty I have found.

Posted by: SubRosa Apr 20 2020, 03:13 AM

I spent some time experimenting with January in Pillars of Eternity 1. I am trying her as a Monk class, because that is basically what she is. The trouble is, I don't really like how PoE does Monks. Your class powers are based on Wounds, which you only get from taking damage. Which is really counter-intuitive.

The class does do some serious unarmed damage right out of the gate. More than the regular classes do with the base weapons. But where the Fighter can do a Knockdown twice every battle, Jan can do no special attacks at all, because she is not being hit.

After Cliant Lis January went it alone. I removed Heodan and Calisca from the party so they did not get killed. I can bring them back into the party if I really want to. But so far I decided to try it solo. January hit a lot more, took a lot more damage, and so was able to use her special powers. So far the only one she has is Torment's Reach, which is a cone-shaped area attack that does extra crushing damage. It was really cool.

She took on the bear in Valewood solo. That was touch and go. The bear hit her once and gave her 5 Wounds from all the damage. That gave her tons of special attacks. Then the bear hit her again and she was dead. I reloaded and tried once more. This time after being hit once Jan took about 7 Wounds, and was nearly dead. She was able to drink a healing potion and get her health back. Because of that she survived.

So I am not sure what to think. It can work, but it is really weird. I don't like all this Wound business. I wish there was some way to use your powers without them. Or a mod that would let you start every battle with X number of Wounds. But sadly there is not, and this game is just too insanely difficult to mod for me to create one.

So I might just restart and try her as a Paladin instead. She is not especially devout. But she is a magical fighter, and she is definitely an inspiration. She does work as a sword and board fighter, as she has been doing in Skyrim. She is a Viking after all. I have always imagined her eventually learning to fight with a sword in the Stormcrow fic. I could go Fighter, but Eder is one, and he is the first companion you meet. Likewise, he works best as Sword and Shield. So maybe I could do January as a two-handed sword Paladin?

Posted by: SubRosa Apr 20 2020, 07:30 PM

I am having a lot more fun with Jan as a Paladin. Now I just cannot decide what to use -> Spear and Shield, Sword and Shield, or Greatsword. I think I am having the most fun with the Spear and Shield combo so far.

Posted by: Acadian Apr 20 2020, 08:16 PM

Glad you're making some progress. Aela or Jan?

Posted by: SubRosa Apr 20 2020, 09:49 PM

Oops, I got confused. Jan is the Paladin. Aela has signed on to be her cleric in this playthrough. All the other NPCs will be the vanilla ones. I just don't want to use the vanilla cleric NPC, since I don't like him.

Posted by: SubRosa Apr 22 2020, 12:15 AM

I am enjoying playing January as a Paladin a lot more than my attempt as a Monk. She has a talent called Strange Mercy that I just adore. Whenever she kills an enemy, it heals all of her party members.

I did some things differently with her that I normally would. I gave her the Arcane Veil ability, which normally only wizards get. It is basically a force field, and gives a big defense bonus, making it harder to hit her. At the same time she does not wear armor (well, she just now upgraded to a set of robes). So she has the full attack speed, even with a Great Sword. But if she does get hit, she does not have any armor to soak any of the damage up. I maxed out her Constitution at the start, so she can take a lot of hits however, just like in her fiction.

She is also a Pale Elf, my first time every playing one, or even having one in the party. They get a defense bonus vs. Fire and Cold attacks. I am not sure if that is making a difference or not.

So far, she is a pretty awesome tank who also dishes out massive damage. That is why I went with the Great Sword over the Spear and Shield. I wanted her to be a damage dealer, rather than your more traditional tank who just soaks up the damage but does not dish out a whole lot themselves.

So far it is working. Though the battle with Lord Raedric was kind of touch and go for her for a while. She needed healing from the cleric mid battle, and had to heal herself too. But she never got truly near death.

I also decided to replace Aela with another cleric hireling. It did not feel right for Aela to have a mace and shield and sometimes fight people in melee, which this party needs sometimes. So I created Yemaya, a Coastal Aumaua. She uses a War Bow and Mace + Shield. Her order gets a bonus ability with the Mace, which is why I went with that. She is working out well as the classic cleric, serving up buffs and healing, along with occasional ranged spell attacks and stepping in to fight in melee when there are too many bad guys for the front line fighters to block them all.

What is kind of weird is that since I decided not to use Calisca and Heodan after the tutorial, her party does not have a Rogue. So it wound up falling on January to do all the Thief work, since the other party members naturally have their skills elsewhere. I wound up taking the Scientist background for her when I created her. There was no writer background after all. Dissident was closest, but she's not really a revolutionary, except by merely existing. Besides, I was not thrilled with the skill bonuses for that.

Posted by: Acadian Apr 22 2020, 01:16 AM

I'm so pleased that January is finding her way in PoE! Transitioning a clearly established character to a new game can be a challenge as you have to work with what the game can provide while trying to stay true to her nature.

Posted by: SubRosa Apr 27 2020, 09:42 PM

I discovered something interesting today. While you can use the console to give yourself spells, unless you belong to the class that uses them, they won't show up anywhere in the UI. So you cannot cast them. But when I was looking through the prefab files, I noticed that there are many named spellbind_ability. I think these are spell-like effects granted by magic items. These will appear on your UI no matter the class. So you can give yourself these with the console. You can use this to sort of multi-class. I might do this to give January a lightning bolt, or jolting touch spell.

Posted by: SubRosa May 9 2020, 09:50 PM

Last night I beat PoE like a red-haired stepchild. I had a lot of fun playing January through it as a Paladin.

I also gained a new appreciate for the Barbarian class. I added Maneha to the party near the end, and finally figured out how to use her. I like to have my entire party go into sneak mode with ranged weapons equipped as they travel. When they find the enemy, they sneak up to the edge of stealth mode. Then they all open fire on one bad guy. That usually kills them instantly thanks to the hail of spells, arrows, and crossbow bolts.

The trouble with the Barbarian is their Frenzy ability takes a full turn to activate. So if they fire with everyone else in that opening shot, they just stand there for the next turn activating Frenzy. In the meantime the bad guys are running past them to attack the squishy mages in the rear. Sometimes the battle actually ends before they can even do anything.

The Frenzy ability is of course the whole point of being a Barbarian. Like all other games that have it, it gives big bonuses to physical attributes.

So what I learned is to simply eschew the Barbarian having any ranged weapons at all. Instead they are a pure-melee focus. When everyone else opens fire from stealth, they turn on Frenzy. Since it is the opening action, it takes place just as fast as all the attacks the rest of the party is making. Which is pretty instantaneous. Then the next turn the Barbarian is ready to fight just like everyone else.

The cherry on top is at high level the Barbarian gets a Dragon Leap power. It allows them to instantly leap to any spot in a really long range, and do massive damage when they land on someone. So they can practically teleport across the map once the battle starts and get right in with the bad guys.



https://i.imgur.com/N188sVz.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/eN1Y2qi.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/NwDei2P.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/23UvcnZ.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/3KobWQ1.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/NmY1u4h.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/B5pQQXu.jpg

Posted by: Acadian May 9 2020, 11:20 PM

I'm glad to see you enjoying PoE. It looks like a worthy successor to BGII and the ilk.

Posted by: SubRosa May 11 2020, 12:39 AM

It is a nice way to play the Baldur's Gate games again, without the D&D version 2 rules.

I have been playing Pillars of Eternity 2 for about a day now, and have some observations.

There are more options for speeding up and slowing time during battles now. The little time icon in the gui now has a slider at the bottom, which you can move back and forth incrementally to set it how you like it best. I have it set to one tick from the slowest.

The game also gives you the option of playing it in a true Turn-based mode now, as well as the Real Time Pausable mode from the original. I have not tried Turn-based, since I find I like the RTP.

It is very similar to PoE1 in look and feel. The same races and classes are all there. The same spells. The same perks (which like the original, they call Talents and Abilities, but they are Perks). However, now you can do true multiclassing. When you meet a companion and have them join you, the game gives you the option of what class they will be, with a limited set of options specific to each one. For example, Eder returns as a companion. He was a Fighter in PoE1. You can set him to be a Fighter, Rogue, or Fighter/Rogue in PoE2. Since I am new to the game, I am sticking with the straight classes for now.

Each class now has several subclasses to choose from as well, with different tweaks like specific Perks. I found a mod that adds a Knights of the Storm sublcass for the Paladin, which I originally tried for January. But I was not thrilled with it. It replaced the Paladin's Flames of Devotion attack with an electrical-based copy, which I was fine with. But it also gave a power to turn into an Electrical Elemental, which I don't see myself ever using. But even more so, I learned that there are dialogue options that open up for specific classes and subclasses (which PoE1 did as well). I am thinking if I go with a modded class, I will never get them. So instead I went back and restarted January as a Kind Wayfarer, which she was in PoE1.

As I mentioned before, you can import your final save from PoE1, which that game automatically makes for you now. That carries over your choices from that game to PoE2. But you can also manually set your choices every time you start a character as well. You can even save those sets of choices.

One big change I found is that Perks and spells no longer have a set number of uses Per Rest or Per Encounter as before. Instead they have gone to essentially a power (mana) point system. You start each battle with a set number of Power points based on your level. Every Perk you use costs a set number of points to use. So you can use whichever Perks you like, as often as you like, until you run out of points. This resets with every fight. I like this a lot better than the old way, or how some other games like Dragon Age gave each Perk a cooldown period in which you had to wait to use it again. This way if January wants, she can spam her Flames of Devotion as often as she likes.

Spells are treated exactly like the other Perks now. When you level up a mage or priest picks the same number of spells as a fighter would pick his perks. Likewise, they cost power points to cast the same as regular Perks. So basically, they are Perks. That is a big change from PoE1, where every time a priest leveled they automatically gained all the spells for that new level. I think mages still need grimoires, but I am not positive. Under the new system they seem kind of unnecessary.

The console commands are the same as PoE1, plus some new ones, with a caveat. There is no IEMod for PoE2, and it added several of its own console commands. Like the Jump command, that automatically teleported you to your cursor location. I used that a lot to avoid wasting time backtracking over ground I had already cleared. Now you can use the Ctrl + T command, but you have to do it from the console. Since there is no more IEMod, for any commands to work you have to use the IRoll20s command first to enable cheat mode. Which can be annoying.

The game world is basically the Caribbean, pirates and all. In fact your first encounter is with pirates, almost as soon as you start game proper. Instead of having a stronghold like other games, this time you have a ship. It seems to work like a stronghold you move around the game map. I know you can change ships, and upgrade certain parts of them like the guns. You have to hire a crew, just like you stronghold needed guards. As near as I can tell you have to use the ship to move around the world map to get from island to island. Though once you are on an island, you can move overland on your own.

Speaking of which, moving on the world map is different from PoE1 as well. That was like Baldur's Gate 2, where areas would open up on the world map, you would click on them, and automatically be teleported there to the tactical map of the actual area. PoE2 is more like the original Fallout games, where you have a strategy map that you move a cursor through (with your face on it). You see interesting areas open up as you near them, are blocked by rivers and mountains, etc... You can click on an area of interest to go there and transition to the tactical map for it. Or just bypass it.

So my guess is the way it basically works is you use your ship to travel from one island to another. Then once on the island you use this land-based strategy map to move around from location to location as you explore it. It is actually a lot like the old Pirates games that way, just with better graphics.

Finally, food. Food is no longer an item you eat in or before combat to get buffs. Instead it can only be eaten when you rest in the wilderness. From what I gather, if you don't have food when you rest, you don't get the benefits from resting. If you rest in an inn, it just ignores the food and gives you whatever the inn's bonuses are. Different food items have different bonuses as before. I gather that you select what food each party member uses when you rest, and they get the appropriate bonus.

It also looks like you have to feed your crew now too. I am not exactly sure how that works. But from the hardtack I have found while adventuring, food affects their morale. What their morale means in game mechanics I have no idea. But I do know its better not to feed them hardtack. January was pleased to see that hagfish is an option, and it gives a Resolve bonus. Very appropriate, since in another life her armor is made out of hagfish snot.

Posted by: Acadian May 11 2020, 01:49 AM

Very cool initial review of PoE2. Thank you! I am always on the lookout for a game to have in reserve. Who knows, in a few years I may need to move to my next game.

Posted by: SubRosa May 11 2020, 01:59 AM

I have seen people mention that mystic archers are a thing in PoE2. I think it is a Ranger/Mage multiclass.

Edit: There is a Ranger subclass called Arcane Archer, that has a special Imbue power, that allows you to fire spells rather than arrows. It does not sound like it works very well at present however.

Posted by: SubRosa May 11 2020, 05:36 AM

Something else I noticed about PoE2 is that they streamlined the Health stat. Instead of two stats for health like they had in PoE1, there is just 1 in PoE2, and it fully refreshes at the end of every battle. It is a lot simpler, and a big improvement.

I am still poking around the first island you start on. So far I have met 3 companions. You start the game with Eder (Fighter), then on the island you find Xoti (Priest), and Aloth (Wizard). So Eder and Aloth carry over from PoE1. I think Pallegina is the only other companion from PoE1 that appears in PoE2. But I am not sure where she is.

It also looks like you can hire generic adventurers in the inns, like you could in PoE1.

This game is a lot more moddable than PoE1. Thanks to that, there are a lot more mods out there. I have a ton already. I found one invaluable one called https://www.nexusmods.com/pillarsofeternity2/mods/269, which increases the number of times spellcasters can cast their spells per fight. This brings them into a more even level with the other classes and their perks. I modded it to add a couple more castings.

Most of the game files are basically text. But it is best to use something like Notepad++ to open them, as otherwise they are a literally wall of text. I have been using Visual Studio Code, which works pretty good.

Posted by: Acadian May 11 2020, 12:32 PM

Nice to hear that the command console works well and that the game seems quite moddable. What's the best way to get and run the game with minimum 'middlemen'? Can it be purchased/run standalone or does it require something like GoG or Steam?

Posted by: SubRosa May 11 2020, 06:04 PM

I bought it from Gog, though Steam has it too. Those look like the only two outlets. I just looked at Obsidian's (the developer) website, and they refer to you one of them. So I would definitely go Gog, and maybe wait for a sale. Right now the standard edition of the game is $40, and there are a bunch of dlc, though many are free.

Speaking of which, I have the free Critical Role pack dlc, which adds new voices. All are from the folks who do https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-p9lWIhcLQ&t=1460s, a group of voice actors who are also super nerds and post their gaming sessions online. They even have a comic book, which is pretty good. Matt Mercer, who is their GM, does many of the voices for Pillars already, like Eder and Aloth. I have been using the Keyleth voice for January. Keyleth is a somewhat innocent and naive character, and has been a perfect fit for Jan. She probably would be great for Buffy as well.

Posted by: Acadian May 11 2020, 08:11 PM

Oh good. I do have GoG so could get it there when/if the time comes I figure. Can you think of any reason I could not pass on PoE 1 and just get PoE 2? I understand the changes to BG style play you've discussed and quite like some of the changes to classic AD&D you spoke of.

Posted by: SubRosa May 11 2020, 09:04 PM

You can definitely skip PoE1 completely. The plot of PoE2 depends on things that happened in PoE1. But as I said, you can tell the game exactly what those things are. I even found they have some pre-made PoE1 endings already in PoE2 that you can select. Basically from the kindest to the evilest options. Or you can get really granular and pick every single thing that happened. And you can save those choices for future characters.

The beginning of PoE2 even takes you back through the major events in PoE1, so it will tell you the basics of what happened.

I do know that where you find Pallegenia in PoE2 and I think her circumstances depend on how her quest in PoE1 ended. There is also an item called the Devil's Cuirass (or something like that) which is built from the Devil of Caroc's body. She was an automatron in PoE1. The Cuirass only appears in PoE2 if you chose to not kill her arch-enemy Harmke in PoE1. Killing him actually gives her a much nicer ending in PoE1, which is how I went. Even though it means that armor does not appear in PoE2.

I played a bit more today, and I am liking how magic works better in PoE2. In PoE1 my spellcasters were essentially archers who occasionally cast spells. Now they are using all their spells every fight. I may have gone a little overboard in modding how many spells they can cast per encounter. So I will probably pare it down a little. OTOH, casting spells seems to take a long time compared to swinging a sword, so I might not have gone too far after all.

Stealth has also been refined more. Now when you go into stealth mode and approach enemies, you will see a white ring appear around them. This shows the range that they can hear things. You will also see an orange wedge radiating out in front of them. That is where they can see things. That can help you get right up to the edge of detection. There are also items like firecrackers that you can throw while in stealth. The noise they make distracts monsters and gets them to go investigate where they went off. Which can clear a path for you if you want to avoid a fight. https://i.imgur.com/dxAlcIt.jpg. The patch of pure red is a trap I detected.

https://i.imgur.com/q178cm5.jpg

Posted by: Acadian May 11 2020, 10:28 PM

Very encouraging. I enjoyed BG II, especially once I got comfy with the command console and customizing things a bit. And the 'improvements' you highlight also seem to be exactly that to me as well - improvements. Thanks again.

Posted by: SubRosa May 11 2020, 10:30 PM

You will probably appreciate https://www.nexusmods.com/pillarsofeternity2/mods/350, a mod that tweaks the Ranger class. I think the vanilla Ranger was kind of underpowered, and this improves it. There are a number of these 'Funnening' mods that improve a single class.

https://www.nexusmods.com/pillarsofeternity2/mods/333 seems to fix some of the issues with the Arcane Archer's Imbue ability.

Posted by: SubRosa May 12 2020, 08:50 PM

I spent a couple hours playing yesterday, and was not really thrilled. I finally got my ship fixed and left the first island. I decided to do some Elder Scrolls style exploring of the world. There was not much to find. There are plenty of islands around. You can only land on the ones that have an anchor icon, which is where you can go ashore. Even then though, almost all of these had nothing but text-based encounters, or simple click on the trees and you get vegetables added to your inventory situations. Only a tiny handful had actual dungeons, and those were tiny, just 3 or 4 rooms.

I did fight pirates a lot. There is a scripted meeting with a pirate ship that happens shortly after you first set sail. This one is friendly, and you get another companion from it, and Orlan Cipher. I tried him out in one of the only dungeons, and I still don't like Ciphers. Like in PoE1, their Perks are all still based on their Focus and Soul Whip, which I still cannot make any sense of. So I stopped using him quickly.

After that I encountered a lot of pirate ships while on the seas. When you encounter a hostile ship the game gives you the option of immediately boarding, fighting a sea battle, or attempting to escape. I tried a naval battle once. It is completely text-based affair, and was really, really underwhelming. Especially given the kind of real naval combat games like Shogun 2 Total War had, or Assassin's Creed Black Flag. Even the original Pirates from the 1980s was better.

So the rest of the time I did boarding actions. The game goes to the tactical screen with your two ships side by side and a wide board linking the two. You start up opposite the board, and so far I have just ran forward to stop the enemy there, and eventually push on to their ship. The NPCs in your crew do join in the fight, though you cannot control them. People can even jump over the sides of the ships rather than using the boarding plank. But I have not figured out how that works yet.

It was interesting at first, but after a while it gets tedious, as it is the exact same map every time, and the fight generally goes the same way because of it. I am sure the maps will change as I face pirates with different kinds of ships. So far I have only fought those with a Dhow.

There is a lot of overhead with ship management. You have to assign crew members to different tasks on the ship. Each sailor has skills in different areas, so you have to juggle them around to make the most of them. You have to assign food and drink to them. It is not enough to simply have the stuff in your inventory. You have to physically move it to a queue on the ship management screen. Otherwise you crew will starve while you are literally sitting on a mountain of rice.

You can easily buy more of this stuff when you go to ports. When you are on the strategy map you just have to click on the port, and the screen will come up to buy supplies. But it is a lot of overhead which I personally do not give a crap about. I wanted to play a game about adventuring, exploring dungeons, slaying monsters, grinding my toons, Ph3R M3 N00b$!, all that good fantasy rpg stuff. Playing a ship captain simulator is not my idea of a good time.

The game points you to the capital city in the region once you leave the first island. I think I am just going to head straight there, and see if that opens up some quests, or something to point me to an actual dungeon I can raid.

Posted by: Acadian May 12 2020, 09:17 PM

Hmm, hope things look up for in the game. It sounds too like it may be pushing you in linear direction. And we are rather spoiled by the free-flowing open world exploration of TES.

Posted by: SubRosa May 12 2020, 11:24 PM

TBH, right now it does really seem to be a free-flowing open world. Just one with nothing in it to find.

Posted by: SubRosa May 13 2020, 06:43 AM

I made it to the capital city of Neketaka today, and started exploring it. It is just like the cities in the Baldur's Gate games, PoE1, and the like. Lots of places, people, and little quests around the city. There are a lot of bounty quests. It turns out I did a lot of them already, by killing pirates along the journey to get to the city.

I also hired a generic adventurer, and used him to create one of January's pals from the Knights of Nerddom - Ryo. He is a Rogue. I am getting to know the class through him. They have some neat new Perks in PoE2.

Posted by: Lopov May 13 2020, 07:01 AM

Are islands randomly generated or will they be exactly the same on your next playthrough?

Neketaka looks really big, from the map I've seen online.

Posted by: SubRosa May 13 2020, 05:45 PM

The islands are fixed. There is an https://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Pillars_of_Eternity_II:_Deadfire_interactive_world_map. So far I have explored the south-west corner of the map. Then bypassed Katapu Channel and went straight for Neketaka.

Neketaka itself is huge. It is much bigger than Defiance Bay was in PoE1.

Posted by: SubRosa May 15 2020, 09:19 PM

I did some more exploring in and around Neketaka over the last few days, and had more fun. As I said before, the city is huge. Something like 6 or 7 separate districts. I found an undercity of several levels, and a couple of explorable tombs. Of course there are tons of the 'normal' city quests, steal this, find medicine to these people, arrange with pirates to feed those people, and so on.

I have noticed that even in the pure dungeons, there are fewer monsters than normal. It seems like the direction for the game is smaller dungeons, fewer battles. Which is too bad, as that is the most fun for me. Especially given all the per rest stuff like spells has been done away with. It is easier than ever to do huge dungeon crawls now. In fact, I have only had to rest a handful of times so far.

There is a map maker in the port district who gives you a quest to map out parts of the Deadfire, and name the islands there. You can also buy a spyglass there, which I did in spite of how pricey it was. I have read that it helps you avoid ambushes on the high seas, especially of pirates lurking in wait within wrecks.

I also found another companion - Ydwin. She is a Cipher or Rogue. I picked Rogue, and retired Ryo. Though now that I look her up, she is classified as a Sidekick. This is one of the new things in PoE2. The game has a handful of companions. What I read is that you can only have yourself + 4 Companions in your party. So the cap is 5 characters instead of the normal 6.

I am not really sure what the difference is other than that. Ydwin has a uinque voice and dialogue. She seems to be involved in a lot of quests in two of the DLCs. But it looks like she does not have a personal quest. Most companions do.

I found another full Companion in the Watershapers Guild named Tekēhu. He seems to be a Druid/Chanter. I was utterly unimpressed with him, so left him to his own devices.

I have found some console commands which have been changed since the first game.

Shift + T = Teleports you to your cursor location. Use it with the console closed.

GiveItem now does what AddItem did.

Fog now does what NoFog did = removes the fog of war from the map you are currently on.

OpenCharacterCreation = this is handy. It allows you to recreate your character from scratch, which the retraining option in the game does not even allow (That just sets you back to 1st level, but still leaves you with the appearance, race, and class you originally began with). This starts completely over. The downside is that you lose all your experience points, and any special Perks you picked up along the way. But you can get the first back with the AddExperienceToLevel command, which has not changed. The others can be added back through the console too.

It does not look like there are many options for a Kind Wayfarer Paladin. So far I have come across only a single one. So I might try resetting January back to a Knight Of The Storm after all.

Posted by: SubRosa May 16 2020, 07:54 PM

https://i.imgur.com/AqFeDw9.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/zjwUpCt.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/YkBXByB.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/jOSlXjj.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/zDW5taI.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/QNXiaEu.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/vgm1nIz.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/tLEEXcX.jpg

Posted by: Acadian May 16 2020, 08:19 PM

Nice shots. Those detection aides for stealthing make great sense. It is nice being able to pause combat to issue orders and control how quickly combat proceeds. A necessity really if you're controlling a group of NPCs. No doubt which one is Stormcrow in that last shot!

Posted by: SubRosa May 18 2020, 03:16 AM

I just finished (mostly) a mod that replaces all the 'watercolor' pictures with real artwork from various portraits packs or otherwise stolen from the internet. It was a real pain going through every picture, resizing and renaming them all. But it looks so much better.

I still have to go through the game and see how appropriate they are for the characters. A lot of the watercolors are so poorly done that I literally cannot tell the race or gender of the individuals. I looked them all upon the Pillars wiki, and that helped with a lot of them. But some did not have entries, so I just had to guess.

Finally there are about 2 dozen from the expansions that I could not replace, as they are just too weird to find anything appropriate to replace them with.

Posted by: SubRosa May 19 2020, 07:52 PM

I just found out that Sidekicks do not exceed the 5 character limit to your party. It seems that Sidekicks are just Companions without a quest or as much unique dialogue.

Posted by: SubRosa May 22 2020, 12:47 AM

I am still playing PoE2. I am enjoying it, now that I know what to expect. I really like the setting, which is a big departure from the standard Merry Old England of so many CRPGs. It is part Maori, part Italian, part African, part Japanese. The music is just pure awesomesauce. The actual gameplay within battles is an improvement from the past. I just wish there were more battles.

I have taken to using the Ctrl + T command to teleport around when sailing. That allows me to cover the big, empty spaces of the ocean without wasting much time in the real world, which really drove me nuts playing the game the normal way. It allows me to skip over the islands with nothing on them, to find the few where there is something to actually do.

The capital city of Neketaka is amazing! It is jam-packed with quests to do, and has a number of hidden dungeons to explore.

I am still playing January as a Kind Wayfarer Paladin. But I decided to use the console to give her some of the Lightning-based powers from the Knights of the Storm mod. This way I get the best of both worlds. I still get dialogue options based on being the Wayfarer, and I still get lightning in her games. I started with just the Avenging Storm power, which is like the lightning cloak spell from Skyrim. It does shock damage to enemies around you. I will also be giving her the lightning bolt power that comes with Knights of the Storm too soon, once she reaches the same level it normally becomes available to the KotS.

I also discovered some handy graphics tweaks. The visual effects can become overwhelming in a fight. But in the Graphics options there is a slider call VFX Pause Opacity. What that means it that it makes the visual effects transparent whenever you pause. If you put it all the way over to the left they disappear entirely. There is also an Occlusion Opacity option too. What it does is make your characters visible with a white outline around them whenever they walk 'behind' a wall that would otherwise obscure them. Both are handy little tools to help see what is going on.


https://i.imgur.com/mgVnrjk.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/Mj2VqgB.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/WIkcvb6.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/luM8R5N.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/1IM555Q.jpg

Posted by: Acadian May 22 2020, 08:36 PM

Haha, Lopov is right – nice Jack Sparrow outfit.

The only Rolling Flame that really hurts is the one you don’t see!

Stormcrow opens up a can of shock and awe!

Posted by: SubRosa May 25 2020, 03:16 AM

Jan started out with the pirate outfit - a Vailian Frock Coat - but had to move up to some more serious armor.


https://i.imgur.com/YxQVbUp.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/iYgkaQq.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/2IVXoxY.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/h2PalTc.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/GNzBbXg.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/ILeFL7b.jpg

This one did not yield anything. Sometimes you get a weapon or piece of armor. That's it for the entire island. You never leave the Strat Map.

Posted by: Lopov May 25 2020, 09:55 AM

Interesting, so it's point'n'click, I thought that as you click on the village or on something else that can be interacted with, that the view switches to 3rd person.

Can combat take place from this perspective?

Posted by: Acadian May 25 2020, 06:31 PM

Thanks for the screenshots, SubRosa. Unless I'm missing something, exploration seems a bit. . . underwhelming?

Posted by: SubRosa May 25 2020, 06:56 PM

It is all point and click and text messages. The only time it switches from this strat map to the 3d isometric view where you fight is when you find an actual dungeon, or a surface encounter. The surface encounters are usually part of a bounty quest. It will be a small outdoor area, with the monsters in the center. It will be the only fight on the map. The dungeons tend to be 3 - 4 rooms, again, with one group of monsters to fight at the end, and maybe one or two lone monsters in the hallways as you get there.

That is how probably 90% of the islands are. The remainder seem to be part of the main quest or the faction quests, which have more meat on their bones. There is a large pirate castle that you can explore in Fort Deadlight. There is a little pirate island that is basically a small city with 4 areas which you go to. The capital of Neketaka is a sprawling city, bigger than the city of Baldur's Gate. That has tons of city quests, and several dungeons.




The whole exploration side of things left me really unenthused. I spent hours sailing around, finding only nothing-burger islands like that. What I have started doing is using the teleport cheat = Shift + T = to quickly teleport around the strat map of the islands, so I can see where there is something that might be worth looking at. Then when I do land I still use Shift + T to quickly get to the places of interest and back. Otherwise entire days in game time can pass when you explore a single island with no encounters.

Posted by: SubRosa May 27 2020, 08:11 PM

I uploaded my first mod to the Nexus - https://www.nexusmods.com/pillarsofeternity2/mods/434. It simply changes Arcane Veil from a spell you have to cast to a modal ability that you can have always on if you like.

Posted by: SubRosa May 28 2020, 12:09 AM

Gog now has both Pillars games on sale for 50% off. If I haven't completely ruined everyone's desire to play them.

Posted by: SubRosa Jun 1 2020, 07:32 PM

I am still playing Pillars 2, and in spite of the previous gripes, I am still enjoying it, now that I have a better idea of what to expect.

I am finally figuring out some of the changes in the combat system. Pillars 2 has a Penetration stat for all weapons and spells. When you attack someone, you compare this to the armor stat of the enemy. If your Penetration is higher than the armor, you do full damage. If it is lower, you do less damage, by a magnitude of how much lower it is. If your Penetration is way higher, you do increased damage than normal. https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/95310-could-someone-please-eli5-penetration-to-me/

I have also mentioned Power Pools. Your active abilities are all used by spending the Power Points from your class. There is also an Empower mechanic that everyone can use. You click on https://i.imgur.com/Mj2VqgB.jpg. I have not quite figured it all out, but you can Empower a spell or attack, and it will do more damage. If you click on your character portrait underneath, it will refresh some of your Power Points. Every time you use Empowerment, the number drops, until it is 0 and you cannot do it anymore. Resting refreshes it. I think the number goes up as you level.

I have also been doing some experimenting with January. I rearranged some of her abilities, and have been using just a regular sword with no shield. Doing this with the One Handed ability gives you extra Critical Hits. https://pillarsofeternity2.wiki.fextralife.com/Critical+Hit Then you do extra damage of course. January has been getting a lot of Crits this way, and because a one handed sword is faster than a two handed, she hits more often. So far it seems to be balancing out with the two hander.

From a min/maxing point of view, it looks like this would work better with a Fighter class. They get some abilities that give you bonuses to your attack roll (which will help you get up to that magical 100 mark for a critical).

I have even considered re-rolling January as a Paladin/Fighter, to get those extra abilities. But I don't know that I really want to do that.

Posted by: Lopov Jun 1 2020, 07:53 PM

I'm following your PoE observations, because this is one of the games I will try in the future, but I'll start with PoE 1. I already tried it a few years back, but it didn't really gripe me back then. But I like what you describe in PoE 2 - sea exploring, the big town with lots of quests, etc.

I got some odd thoughts reading about penetration but thanks for explaining anyway.

Posted by: SubRosa Jun 1 2020, 08:49 PM

When I saw that Penetration was a statistic, I immediately imagined that the developers must have been male...

The Fighter class has an ability called Penetrating Strike at 2nd or 3rd power level (which I think it class level 5), which gives you a bonus of 3 points of penetration. Once I get that, I just ignore Knockdown.

There is also something called a Full Attack vs. a Primary Attack. It seems to be for Dual Wielding only. https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/pc/227477-pillars-of-eternity-ii-deadfire/faqs/76599/full-attack-vs-primary-attack. As I understand it, an ability that uses a Full Attack works for both your dual-wielded weapons. While an ability that uses a Primary Attack only works on your main hand weapon.

https://pillarsofeternity2.wiki.fextralife.com/Penetrating+Strike

Posted by: SubRosa Jun 4 2020, 12:00 AM

Still playing Pillars. I picked up Maia and Pallegnia in my party a few days ago.

Maia is a Ranger, whom you can multiclass with a Rogue. I tried that at first, but found I did not like it much. It seemed like I wasn't really using the Rogue abilities to good effect with her. So I went back and tried her as a pure Ranger. That seems to be working much better. She puts out a steady amount of damage throughout every battle. Usually 30 points every shot, which is quite respectable.

She is a Gunhawk, a special NPC only class that gets a bonus to the reload speed of firearms and crossbows. But even with that, and the Gunner ability (which again gives you a bonus to reload speed), the amount of time it takes to reload an arquebus is just ridiculous. She spent about three-quarters of the first battle just reloading.

For a while I left her with the arquebus and gave her a war bow as a backup. She would make the first shot of the battle with the arquebus, then switch to the bow for the rest of the fight. But then she picked up an Exceptional level bow, and I noticed that it does the same damage. So I just gave up on the arquebus all together and went pure bow. She is really shining with it.

I also found that you cannot modify your animal companion's stats through the console the same as you can with the regular companions. I usually give animal companions a Constitution of 30 so they can survive the battles. So instead I created a mod that raised the stats of her bird companion. You could do that with the other animal companions, but I suspect the changes would apply to all animal companions in the game, not just yours. Which might make fighting enemy Rangers really difficult.

I am playing Pallegina as a Paladin/Fighter. She is working out as a really tanky tank that way. The Fighter class gives her abilities like Armored Grace (which lowers your armor's recovery penalty) and Penetrating Strike (which gives you more penetration. I use her Flames of Devotion Paladin ability for melee attacks, and the Penetrating Strike for when she uses a bow. The Fighter's Disciplined Barrage also gives her a bonus to hit (and thusly to Crit). Finally the Fighter's Weapon Specialization means more damage for her proficient weapons.

I have gotten more experience with multiclass characters now. It is a little tricky, because you get roughly the same amount of abilities when you level up, but you have to spread them out across two classes instead of one. So you really need to pick and choose very carefully. You also get less power points in each class than you would if you went single class. So you might not be able to rely upon one class' powers for a long fight. With Pallegina it is working out, because she is primarily melee, and she can use either Flames of Devotion or Penetrating Strike with her sword.

I also learned that with two paladins in the group, their zealous auras don't stack with one another if they are the same. So I started having January do the accuracy aura, and Pallegina do the Endurance one. Combined with buffs from my Priest, everyone typically has lots of bonuses in every fight.



https://i.imgur.com/KnIgT5k.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/kKSH14k.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/G9B2JAC.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/VrG2zCy.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/yNsVsqN.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/iOTEub9.jpg

Posted by: Acadian Jun 4 2020, 12:56 AM

Neat. Jan is the one with the short circuit. Eww is right - even the name 'cave grub' sounds pretty yuck.

Posted by: SubRosa Jun 4 2020, 06:31 AM

I managed to change Maia to an Arcane Archer subclass. I am really liking it. Every other level or so you get a new Imbue ability. These are basically you imbuing your arrows with a spell. The first one is Minoletta's Minor Missiles. The second is Web. The third is Fireball, and so on. Basically you fire your arrow and it does its normal damage. And the associated spell goes off as well.

https://i.imgur.com/XEnhnCv.jpg. You can see the arrow itself did 41. The additional fire damage of 7 added to it is from one of the Paladin's Flames of Devotion auras (when a Paladin hits with Flames of Devotion, it gives your entire party a bonus). Then beneath that you can see the damage results for the Minoletta's Minor Missles spell that came with it. So it basically pushed 50 points of damage into 100 points of damage.

The downside is that the Imbue powers are expensive in Power points, so you cannot use a lot of them in a fight. I might mod them to make them cheaper.

The other downside is that an Arcane Archer has a -5 Accuracy penalty if they are not shooting with an Imbued arrow. Other things can make up for the loss. For example Jan's Paladin zealous aura gives a +5 to Accuracy to the party. But it is a downside.

Edit: I guess it is not that bad of a penalty overall. https://i.imgur.com/AJH32gW.jpg In the Accuracy section you can see the -5 for Arcane Archer. But there are a lot more bonuses.

The other penalty to Arcane Archers is they have -15 hit points. So they are a bit of a glass cannon. But that is not too big a deal really, given that your health is going to be up around 200 in no time anyway.

I have tried looking around the game files to mod out the -5 Accuracy for Arcane Archers, but I cannot find the data for the classes anywhere. Nor can I find anything online that mentions it.

Posted by: Lopov Jun 4 2020, 06:52 PM

Cool armor, cool mask!

January's the one with the beard, right?

Is that mother of all mudcrabs?

Kill those sea dogs!

Can lotus seeds be picked up?

The tree is alive!

Posted by: SubRosa Jun 5 2020, 12:39 AM

Sadly, you cannot pick the Sacred Lotus seeds from the flowers. I so wanted to jump in that pool and start clicking on them, just like the good old days in the Imperial City. Sadly, you cannot even get in the pool.

I discovered where the Arcane Archer's stats were, with a little help on Obisidian's official Pillars 2 forums. They are in the LAXG subfolder. Apparently it is one of the additions in a later patch. So I was able to easily mod out the -5 accuracy penalty for non-Imbued arrows.

Speaking of which, I have been spending some weeks now modding. There are no official modding tools. But most of the things you would want to mod are in a bunch of json files. It is a plain text format, and you can open them with any text editor. But they will look like a fearsome wall of text. It is best to use an advanced editor, like https://notepad-plus-plus.org/. It has a https://sourceforge.net/projects/nppjsonviewer/ you will want to add.

Then go to your Pillars of Eternity II Deadfire\PillarsOfEternityII_Data\Exported\Design\gamedata folder. Or go to one of the LAX folders you will see off the Pillars of Eternity II Deadfire\PillarsOfEternityII_Data folder. Those are all the additions from patches and dlcs. The files will be named *.gamedatabundle. Open them with Notepad++. Select the entire document with Ctrl + A. Then go to the menu bar up top, and click on Plugins -> Json View -> Format Json. That will reformat the document into something readable.

From that point on it is just a matter of finding what section of code you want and changing it. You can just modify the gamebundle files directly. But it is better to create a mod. https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/103384-tutorial-modding-basic-concepts/ is a great resource for how to make a basic mod. I created a template that I use for every mod I create. Then I just copy and paste that to my Override folder and start filling in the blanks.

For example, the Arcane Veil Modal mod I created looks like this:

manifest.json =

I saved a picture of the Arcane Veil icon from the wiki, resized it, and renamed it Thumb.png and put in my mod folder. You see that in the game where you can turn the mods on and off.

The main file (you can name them anything so long as they have the .gamedatabundle suffix) is Arcane_Veil.gamedatabundle =



I basically copy and pasted the entire Arcane Veil entry from the vanilla abilities.gamedatabundle file. You don't have to copy and paste it all. But I am not very good at figuring out how many of those trailing brackets I need when I try to pare it down. If you miss any, your mod won't work. I did manage to pare it down with my Arcane Archer mod to just this:

ArcaneArcherFixes.gamedatabundle =



Since I am already using the https://www.nexusmods.com/pillarsofeternity2/mods/333/ that some other fixes and tweaks the Ranger class, I just added my new gamebundledata file into that.

Posted by: SubRosa Jun 5 2020, 02:00 AM

Also, since I have been playing Maia as an Arcane Archer, I have been enjoying her immensely. I really like this class.

Posted by: SubRosa Jun 5 2020, 08:40 PM

I just figured out how to get Visual Studio Code to format json files again. I know I was using it at one time, then I forgot how. This time I wrote down notes:


You can download Visual Studio Code here: https://code.visualstudio.com/

I cannot remember if I had to manually install a json plugin for it or not. The same site has a menu bar option for Extensions. Click on that and search for Json, and you will find a bunch of plugins.

Open Visual Studio Code and set the language to json. Down in the bottom right corner it will probably say plain text. Click on that, and it will bring up a search engine to select the language mode. Type in Json, and select it.

That will still not format your json files. Next you have to press Shift+Alt+F or left click to open a context menu, and select Format Document.

It might ask you to select which json formatting you want to use before it can continue. I used the Prettier version.


There are more particulars on editing json files here: https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/languages/json




You can make Visual Studio Code automatically associate .gamedatabundle files with json by manually adding in some code.

Go to File -> Preferences -> Settings.

Look to the upper right corner of the menu bar. There will be three little icons. Click on the left-most, that looks like a piece of paper with one corner folded over, and an arrow coming out the other side and pointed back at the page.

This brings up the Settings.json file that Visual Studio Code uses itself. It will have two brackets already in it, and otherwise be empty. Between the original brackets add in the following code:

So in the end the entire file will look like this:



You will still need to format json files with Shift + Alt + F or through the left-click and context menu. But this will automatically put Visual Studio Code in Json language mode.

Posted by: SubRosa Jun 6 2020, 10:40 PM

One thing I have not mentioned yet are Sigils. They are obelisks you will sometimes encounter that will give you a curse if you get too near them. Basically some sort of penalty, which you can only get rid of by resting. There are three or four different kinds. I have seen Sigils of Darkness, Death, Nightmares, and think Atrophy is the last type.

There are also consumable items called Wardstones. Each will negate the effects of one particular kind of Sigil. So you eat one beforehand and you can safely travel pass the Sigil. You only have to eat one to protect the entire party.

You can destroy them through normal methods. But if you get too near, you get cursed. In my experience even being in bow range is too close. You need to be really far away. I found that the Wizard spell Rolling Flame is ideal for destroying them, as you can cast it from really far away. Two or three hits by it will usually destroy the Sigil.

https://i.imgur.com/fyC7UCf.jpg

Posted by: SubRosa Jun 11 2020, 04:07 AM

https://i.imgur.com/spxUGUG.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/3nnu6Qg.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/3tcUJNB.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/7z2GNPq.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/CB1BdwV.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/O3S8e7u.jpg

Posted by: Acadian Jun 11 2020, 06:33 PM

Nice to follow Jan’s adventures and that she seems to be enjoying PoE.

Quite an explosion! With no gunpowder in TES of course, ESO has some quests where you can set off barrels of ‘kindlepitch’ as part of the quest to bring down a mineshaft or such.

Those fire giant are pretty darn big!

I expect there’s an interesting story associated with all those spirits.

Fireball arrows look pretty potent. I believe I do recall using them in BGII.

A new Golden Saint hat for Jan!

And finally, a red winged twilight?

Posted by: SubRosa Jun 15 2020, 11:28 PM

I beat PoE2 like a red-haired stepchild. The end game has basically 5 different options. All involve you going to the lost city of Ukaizo, where the machinery that runs the forces of reincarnation in the world reside. The only real difference is how you get there. Either with the help of one of the four main factions, or totally on your own.

Since I was feeling pretty disgusted by all the factions, I went it alone. Though I do have second thoughts about maybe helping the native Huana. They are the faction I find least detestable, simply because their Deadfire is their home, and all the other factions are either colonial powers intent upon their conquest, or just plain criminals. Speaking of which, the Pirates are the faction I like second most, after the Huana. At least they are honest villains.

The final two factions are the Rauatai and the Vailians. The Rauatai remind me of Imperial Japan from the late 1800s through WWII. They are from a very hierarchical, aggressively expansionist society ruled by a military-industrial complex. The Royal Deadfire Company is their official presence in the area. But in reality it is just one part of the Rauatian Navy, staffed by the military. Along with this comes a healthy (or unhealthy) dose of contempt for members of every other culture. It is not racism per se, because the Huana are of the same race as them. Rather it is Nationalism and xenophobia. The Huana are beneath them, put in the world for them to crush and reduce them to what is slavery in everything but name.

The Vailian Trading Company is more like King Leopold II of Belgium, or the British Empire/East India Company. Where the Rauatians are overtly militaristic, they are overtly capitalistic, with absolutely no ethical or moral restraint. For example, they are blatant slavers. There is even an incident you can get involved in where the Vailians tricked a local Huanan chief into signing over the sovereignty of his island and tribe, all written in a contract that he literally could not read. Leopold II did this exact thing when he conquered the Congo. It was the pretext he used afterward to commit genocide, and start lopping off hands.

The Huana themselves are the natives of the Deadfire, the region the game takes place in. They are heavily inspired by Polynesian/Maori culture, with a smidgin of the Caribbean tossed in for good measure. Pirates and all. They have an inflexible caste system that leaves their poorest literally starving to death. There is one incident where a chief whose whole island is teetering on the brink of starvation executes a man for saving the seeds of their produce, so they can be replanted for the next year. This really got my goat. On one hand, a society too stupid to save their seeds to plant for the next harvest literally does not deserve to survive. Not from a moral standpoint. But from a Natural Selection one. If they are so incapable of surviving, nature will weed them out. That is just how reality works. But on the other hand, who the F is writing this crap? I mean, hunter-gatherers figured out the whole saving seeds and planting them thing tens of thousands of years ago. Do the game's developers really expect us to believe that these people are so utterly idiotic? It really pissed me off at the game designers themselves.

Finally there are the Principi, who are the pirates. They are divided into an old school gentlemanly breed of Vailians who like to put on airs of moral and cultural superiority, and opposite them are the new blood, who are just plain pirates with no pretensions. Turns out the old school guys are also in bed with slavers. While the new blood wants you to wipe out the slavers to destroy the old blood's power base. Not hard to choose sides after all there. But still, they were pirates, so Jan was not going to work with them. But I have to admit, Captain Aeldys of the new bloods did have a lot of flair and style. I liked her. She is a scruffy-looking scoundrel, and probably herded a few nerf in her day as well.

There are also the gods, who feature a lot more prominently in PoE2 than they did in PoE1. They seem to be written specifically to irritate me. Seriously, they are one arrogant, insufferable, repulsive lot. It really made me sympathetic to the one rogue god who is out to destroy the world. That is the plot of the game. The god Eothas who gets some mentions in PoE1 is back to finish what he tried to start before he was blown up by the Godhammer. It is not quite destroying the world, but close. He is going to destroy the machinery that created the gods in the first place. His end game is to end the gods. He knows he is going to die in the process. He knows he has to.

Unfortunately a side effect seems to be that the whole process of reincarnation in the world will also grind to a halt. Though they are kind of vague on this, as it did exist before the gods were created by this same machinery. Likewise whether or not this will actually end the gods is a headscratcher for me as well. Because some of the dialogue at the end makes me think they will still be around, just weakened. In any case the threat here is that with no way of souls to be reborn in new bodies, all life on the planet will eventually become extinct. Unless the kith (people) can find a way on their own to restore the Wheel. Whether or not that happens is left to a sequel, if another game in the series is ever made.

So in any case I went to Ukaizo, where there is an insane final boss fight before you get to talk to Eothas one last time before he ends the world. You cannot stop him. All you can really do is try to temper his actions in various ways, or push him into all-out entropy and ending everything for good. January, being January, convinced him to send his power into the souls of inventors and experimenters and thinkers and philosophers, so that they would have a better chance to finding a way to literally reinvent the Wheel of Life and Death.

Because January did not pick a side, the Deadfire was locked in chaos afterward, as all four factions continued to squabble and fight. It was open war between Rauatai and the Huana, while the Vailians exploited the countryside with the Huana's back's turned. The pirates, being pirates, of course profited by preying upon all the new Vailian ships hauling away the Huana's riches. That makes me wish I had stuck with the Huana in spite of the poor light they are portrayed in.

That is one of the things I really did not like about both PoE games. This need by Obsidian to portray every side as being awful. I get it that they are trying to create real factions/nations, all with their own unique personalities. And in the real world there is no such thing as a White Knight country. They all have their ugly sides. But I don't play computer games because I want more of the real world. I want to get away from how my country sucks, and how every other one does as well, just in different languages. I don't insist on a picture perfect society to support. But I do want the people I am helping to be worth saving. That is one of my mandates in my writing, as a matter of fact. Obsidian does not deliver that, by choice.

Will I play it again? Sure. I am little burned out right now, so I am going to move to something else. Maybe Baldur's Gate. It is worth playing? Yes. The combat - where you can find it - is really good. The world-building was really well done, if nihilistic in many respects. There are tons of options in character building. Lots to explore. Lots of quests. Much more moddable than the first game. Solid RPG fare. Buy it when it is on sale and you should not be disappointed.

Posted by: Acadian Jun 15 2020, 11:59 PM

What a welcome and insightful summary of PoE's factions and end game.

Buffy and I can identify with January's dilemma. Two bad choices in Skyrim ('Skyrim is for the Nords!' or 'Any last words before we lop off your head, elf?') so Buffy never chose. Both were too stupid to unite against the real threats (Thalmor and dragons). One thing I do rather like about TES though is religion. The devs and lore folks make the Divines out as pretty good lot and leave them vague enough for us to fill in our own gaps as suits our purpose.

ESO has some faction problems in some of the zones. Buffy really struggled to help any of the Great Houses or the Ashlanders while in ESO's Vardenfell since they were all very rude and condescending dirtbags in her view. Many of the large zones, however, have their own politics and factions with some manifesting pretty clearly as nice/good. Some of the factions encountered are a pleasure to help.

Posted by: SubRosa Jun 16 2020, 04:09 AM

Skyrim is another good example of game designers insisting on pushing bad decisions on players. I imagine they think they are being really mature by presenting factions with bad things about them to balance out the good. But I think they just come off as giant bags of dicks by refusing to allow you to have a choice rooted in basic decency.

I have a ton of PoE2 pics.

https://i.imgur.com/FjbF793.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/as3rlYj.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/SridW6O.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/twqSWKb.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/5aXLWjo.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/wrcU7Mx.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/3TeeW3U.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/Vp87HF0.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/UATkONT.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/IsvXcun.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/H4RJkyl.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/Iu6mAbP.jpg

Posted by: Acadian Jun 16 2020, 06:33 PM

That dracolich is an interesting critter. A briarheart-style heart hole!

Ominous portal!

Wow, an abominable snowminotaur.

Nice shot of January.

Guardian of Ukaizo looks like the Dwemer got ahold of some dracolich plans?

That ancient weather machine looks a lot like the orrery.

Eothas is one big dude!