Pillars Of Eternity Options

[SubRosa]

Now if someone says that they aren't similar...

It's Dick Casablancas from Veronica Mars!

[SubRosa]

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.

The Deadwalkers find another Engwithan machine

Deadwalkers by runelight

[Acadian]

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.

[SubRosa]

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.

This post has been edited by SubRosa: Sep 17 2015, 10:52 PM

[Lopov]

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 Ballat and they joined 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.

This post has been edited by Lopov: Sep 18 2015, 05:44 PM

[SubRosa]

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!

This post has been edited by SubRosa: Sep 18 2015, 06:11 PM

[SubRosa]

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. Take Note.

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!

[SubRosa]

Okay, so I went to the beginning of the regular White March area - Stalwart Village. All I could think was Welcome to Icewind Dale! 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.

This post has been edited by SubRosa: Sep 19 2015, 02:59 AM

[Lopov]

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

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.

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.

[SubRosa]

I have done some more exploring into the White March. The new game world has it locations set up in a diamond-like shape. 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.

[Lopov]

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 Ranga's Camp in Anslong's Compass. Mitya has a new tricorn hat.

Here's the trio fighting wichts in Esternwood. Ballat just killed one wicht with his fine arbalest while Mitya and Eder are about to attack the second one.

[Lopov]

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.

[SubRosa]

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

[Lopov]

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.

[SubRosa]

Ice Troll

Deadwalkers vs Ice Trolls (Serana is maneuvering around the flank to use her Ray of Fire on the trolls).

The same without the ui

Exploring the White March

Caed Nua was attacked by an undead horde

This post has been edited by SubRosa: Sep 22 2015, 08:54 PM

[Acadian]

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.

[SubRosa]

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.

[mALX]

I have done some more exploring into the White March. The new game world has it locations set up in a diamond-like shape. 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.

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?

[SubRosa]

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.

[mALX]

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.

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).