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!

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.


Aela holds court

The opening salvo in the Battle of Yenwood Field (if you look close, you can see that the lightning bolt actually killed one of the baddies own guys)

Aela and company start in the opposite corner

The lines come together

Without the UI

The aftermath (the glows on the ground are corpses you can loot)

Quicksave vs CTD.

Wow, that is one big battle!

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

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.

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.

Aela and company square off against an almost dragon

I had a good laugh at this (for those who have not watched The Guild, it is an easter egg of a painting that was in the show

This is a very disturbing place

Battling drakes

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?

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!

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

Pillars of Eternity game version 3.05 is out now (it is Gog-18). IEMod 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.

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.

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?

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Persephone and her skeleton horde smite a Wyrm

Destroying an ancient soul-stealing machine

Boom!

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.

Gog.com 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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

Thanks for keeping this updated with all this good info!

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.

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.

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.

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...

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Congrats and thanks for the update!

Lots of good, detailed info archived in that post.

The Dead God

Battling the Eyeless

Eyeless + Tentacles

The Kraken

Bridge of Ghosts

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).

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.

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

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

Pillars of Eternity is now on sale for $18 at Gog. If you don't own it already, now is the time...

I created Hecate 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?

In the end I went with Killer Frost

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.

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.

Gog.com has The Pillars 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.

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 this page 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.

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.