Pillars Of Eternity Options

[Acadian]

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

[SubRosa]

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.

This post has been edited by SubRosa: Aug 5 2017, 01:00 AM

[Acadian]

Thanks for keeping this updated with all this good info!

[SubRosa]

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.

[Acadian]

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.

[SubRosa]

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.

[SubRosa]

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.

Persephone and company take on a Green Ooze

Aloth and Durance (at far right) kicking ass in the Battle of Yenwood Field

Alpine Dragon

Dragonfall

In the end there can be only one...

[Acadian]

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.

[SubRosa]

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.

This post has been edited by SubRosa: Aug 10 2017, 12:41 AM

[Acadian]

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

[SubRosa]

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.

[Acadian]

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.

[SubRosa]

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.

[SubRosa]

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.

This post has been edited by SubRosa: Aug 13 2017, 03:47 AM

[Acadian]

Congrats and thanks for the update!

Lots of good, detailed info archived in that post.

[SubRosa]

The Dead God

Battling the Eyeless

Eyeless + Tentacles

The Kraken

Bridge of Ghosts

[Acadian]

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).

[SubRosa]

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.

[SubRosa]

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.


Sky Dragon

The Council of Stars

Final Battle


This post has been edited by SubRosa: Aug 14 2017, 02:46 AM

[Acadian]

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