Thread #3954902
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Continuing the comfy thread from >>3939690
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>>3954905
I like this game (close to finishing my first playthrough, I posted about my barbarian last thread) but it is a bit silly how every single goddamn sidequest is about transferring or otherwise fucking around with souls
I know it's the setting but they could have made some other stakes for quests
I only have Twin Elms left in the main game and did White March 2 up to the outside of the Abbey. I fucked up there, I ran into one of the patrols and figured the rest wouldn't be hostile. Turns out I was wrong and I had to genocide the entire outside of the place, so I probably lost my chance to have fun dialogue by pretending to be the guy they're waiting for
Oh well, my MC is 100% honest and never lies anyway so it fitsFuck those monks btw holy fuck stop tearing my party apart
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>>3954912
They abbey is one of the hardest parts of the game outside the last levels of the cad nua dungeons. But it's also one of the most fun
>twin elms left
kino incoming
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>>3954927
Yeah the boss.
>Does killing all the dragons change anything in POE2? I'm not sure I'm built for that
There are dialogue changes mostly, especially for the dragon boss in the Caed Nua. The sky dragon has a quest linked to it andif you say to Hylea you'll kill the dragon, complete it and then back track on your promise to her. She'll send birds to shit all over your ship in Deadfire giving it poor stats until you upgrade it
I think you can also get special dragon pets in deadfire too from them. Not too sure
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>>3954912
>>3954923
Second playthrough and I must have been an absolute idiot in my first one.
Never infiltrated Raedric's Hold, went in blasting. Was there relatively early, which made the Berath paladins really tough. Good loot, made a lot of money.
I had no idea that you could disguise yourself as Woedica cultist and partake in that ritual. Just killed them.Godlike can't really wear the mask lmao
I don't even remember what I did in that abby. Probably killed them all. Will try to do it the proper way as well.
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>>3954956
I disguised myself as a Woedica faggot and then reloaded a save because "my barbarian wouldn't do that, he'd just start swinging a sword"
I don't think it's possible to not slaughter your way to Raedric, ignoring stuff like intentionally sneaking past combat encounters. Everyone in the keep is automatically hostile and you can only decide to side with him when you actually meet him
I feel like this game has a handful of instances where you slaughter your way through an entire army and then when you meet the head honcho you can go "yeah I wanted to ally with you"
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Just beat Kaoto. I always heard he's one of the hardest fights but I just memed him with pig related
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>>3954905
I think I might've overdid it and played the game too much, so much in fact it became kind of boring while it was supposed to be comfy.
I respecked the paladin lady (figured since she died more often than other members she's not fit for my party combo), shes... more akin to MC, and I still am not sure how paladin auras work lol, it seems they have extremely limited range (at least compared to the cleric) and doesnt stack, right? I've chosen her a different aura, one that makes you hit more often, and MC has the one that makes you harder to be hit, all n all design decision of this game are really awesome - like, sure I only get one companion per class, so no triple fighters/paladins for example, but who needs that when the encounter design and balance is made so you never really need more than double class in party.
I'll chill the fuck out a bit just to not lose interest in the game and make a properly made big ass full completionist save to port into the sequel which I'll play in the following year.
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>>3955600
Bonuses from the same source usually don't stack. That applies to equipment as well, if you haven't noticed. A piece of armor with + 1 Perception and a helmet with + 2 Perception won't result in + 3 Perception, but + 2. It only takes the highest.
Different auras should work, though. The attack increase aura in general is very good.
And yes, Pallegina has shitty Intellect (for a Paladin), therefore her aura tends to be rather small. Her attribute distribution is probably the worst among the companions.
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>>3955712
>It's certainly not as unfinished as the end of Tyranny
Don't remind me....
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>>3955708
It's short, but it never felt unfinished to me. There being fewer sidequests is just a natural consequence of the narrative. In Act II it makes sense that there's a lot of sidequests in and around Dyrford and Defiance Bay; Defiance Bay is the largest city in the region and you're doing a very general investigation into the Leaden Key and following multiple leads. By the time you get into Act III you have a much clearer goal to follow so it makes sense that you're going to spend less time getting distracted by sidequests, and the Glanfathans hate you so you don't get every second villager asking some outsider to pick up their mail.
You still have all the god quests, a few smaller sidequests in Twin Elms, finishing off the last of the companion quests, probably the last of the Endless Paths, and a couple of consequences from decisions you made earlier in the game like The Champion of Berath and hearing if that kid cut all his fingers off with the dagger you gave him. If you want more content you can always leave WM2 until Act III as well.
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I despise the base game and deadfire. Is white march worth it. People say its like iwd. But does that mean its just a snowy dungeon crawl. Because iwd actuaply had some pretty good mage duels with simulacrums and stuff. It wasnt just diablo
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>>3955830
>I despise the base game and deadfire. Is white march worth it.
No. It’s the same shit. If you didn’t like the base game, nothing in the DLCs will change your mind. Kind of amazed multiple anons are saying otherwise
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Reinstalled recently, game still has engine issues, but I managed to lower the hitching and stuttering significantly, so it's playable without me noticing, still I feel like recent games and the fact that their a stutter fest, really makes going back to this a treat. It's very dense, but that's part of the charm narrative wise. It's like eating Wendy's you love it, but too much of something you love will get stale. Anyways that's my Ted talk, also download the new AI companion portrait mod on nexus, has great new additions to the female cast, notably nice tit's.
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Leaden Key's main goal is the preservation of the secrets of the gods, right? But, in service to that goal they have stood at the center stage of every major historical event...essentially they control how history develops.
Do we actually have any evidence of this? Or should we take Thaos at his word?
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>>3956469
>Do we actually have any evidence of this?
I see no reason for him to have lied but in Deadfire you encounter an isolated tribe who are in ruins that are from the Leaden Key and you can experience visions of Thaos doing stuff within the Deadfire Archipelago
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What's the deal with PoE? At first it simply seemed weird that the more I progress into the game the slower the game is, I'm at act 3 and at this point it just serves me freeze frames when entering big locations (not inside of the houses), fights often lose FPS tremendously, like from 30 to 15 without any apparent reason, not necessairly when magical sfx happen or physics (I guess critical kill meat looks like ragdoll). What the hell is going on? I deleted previous saves and it didnt help here. Are later stage locations badly optimised or what? Or game is slowly losing it?
It's not like my machine is some powerfull rig, but It played fucking KCD at 30ish FPS, and PoE is mostly static backgrounds with some rather unatractive 3d models.
Anyone else experienced this?
Fuck if it goes further I'll have to skip sidecontent and go straight for the ending.
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>>3956486
Ooe1 gets worse with each act and poe2 gets better with each act iirc. Both have massive design failures, but are okish as dungeon crawler. 2 has better dialogue as 1, but not good. Too much cuckyfornia. Recently learned that fetish and swinging scene is massively inflyenced by california.
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>>3956486
>Anyone else experienced this?
Yeah, was too fast. I had a brand new laptop 3.5k or so and poe2 couldn't run of full specs. It's ridiculously bad optimized. You need to turn off bloom and the like and then it works well enough on ultra. 6 things you have to turn off in 2, lilely the case in 1. Water and grass, shadows I really don't remember anymore.
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Pretty funny that DLC 2 spoils one of the biggest story/lore things you learn at the end of the main game
Anyway, does POE2 still have as much shit to pick up as 1? I laughed every time I fought bandits and looted all their shitty items
Also my inventory is full of consumables I never once used
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>>3956001
i'm sorry to say this but i never suffered any stuttering even when i was playing it in my old pc with 2gb memory and a really old 9800gt in a HD older than most anons here. Sure it would TAKE FOREVER to load areas but it was very playable.
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>>3956903
Understandable, a few people don't see the hitching, since you have to have an eye for it, unfortunately most people can and have issued their complaints since release. It's been confirmed to be an engine issue with the game. Even on beefier hardware it's noticeable.
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>>3956776
I found that in Deadfire my inventory was constantly full of pets. It’s not too bad though as there’s a machine in the wizard shop in Neketeka where you can kill two pets to combine them to get joined bonuses
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>>3956776
>POE2 still have as much shit to pick up as 1
Very bad itemization and basically there's only standard gear aka useless gear and some magic items, like few per category. Cuckyfornia can't make good games anymore. Is tb revised now released?
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>>3957328
Fuak, not one of these anons, but I have been actively laying traps, which were not always triggered by the enemies. Don't think I bothered to defused all of them.
My game is largely running fine, except some spell effects really make the GPU work harder. Fans start spinning louder. Could be the bloom.
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>>3957414
Orlan Cipher. Most reactivity for race and class plus the Orlan racial bonuses are good to for it
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Lol, what a weeb.
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>>3957493
I only used durance and custom characters. I've read that the new tb isn't worth a replay. Shame, poe1 and 2 are beautiful, but annoying to play. Not a pleasant experience, despite me loving the genre.
Might play some psp rpg. Haven't had one and I've read there are excellent rpg for the psp. Mostly trpg, a form of crpg.
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>>3957493
The only characters actually statted to function right are Durance, Eder, Devil (not hard, Rogue is kind of OP), everyone else is some shade of very unoptimal. The singing dude is based but that's because his class is OP not so much because he's got good stats. The sequel is at least a big improvement in terms of companion stats and choices, though less likeable overall
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What the fuck is up with act 3? I just go into a temple for one of the gods, murder everyone because I'm too lazy to stealth, and no one says shit about it? And that's the only way (again, too lazy for stealth) to do one of the god quests and one side quest?
The fuck
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>>3957694
You can follow the gods or not. Poe2 has plenty of reactivity for 1. Gods are omnipresent in 2, so be certain they will pummel you if you fuck with them.
>sawyer
What a hack. Just watched my first content with him. What a hack. He admits that he realized to late that there are lore dumps everywhere.
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>>3957744
Yeah but like I said there was a normal sidequest there too. I guess it's fine I murdered everyone cause they were foreign Elves making the ice spread
Anyway I wanna say "fuck you" to all the gods but I'm gonna do their quests anyway cause they have interesting things to say. Roleplay wise my character probably wouldn't assassinate random people for Berath but I want his perspective so screw it
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>>3957694
Considering the god it’s the quest for, the killing and lack of shit given for it is very on brand.
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>>3957914
I like how this thing just flat out kills you in a cutscene, megafucking all the fake gods in the process including himself (possibly, the dlc hinted that he predates the rest of them and might actually be a REAL god), if you're rude to him.
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>>3957935
Yeah he’s based. I can’t remember the cutscene but I know you can keep insulting him in a standard dialogue encounter with him and he just disintegrates you on the spot, ending your game lmao. All of the god interactions in Deadfire are fun
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Spoiler tags for the newfrens, this is a spoiler for the end of the game, don't read itHow did the gods get specific domains they're responsible for? How did that work? Like a wizard studying one specific field or is it inherent power?
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>>3958071
Readthe man who became skaenthe gods seem to be made of the personalities and features of the mortals they were. The skaen book implies that aspects of the mortal’s personality became basis for Skaen.
I think Ondra was mentioned to be mostly made up from Aumau/the original inhibatiants of Ukaizo which were Aumau. Cannot remember where it was said though
https://pillarsofeternity.fandom.com/wiki/The_History_of_Eora,_Volume_ X:_The_Man_Who_Would_Be_Skaen
Also one of these books seems to predict the plot of Avowed: https://pillarsofeternity.fandom.com/wiki/The_History_of_Eora,_Volume_ XII:_The_Reclamation_of_the_Living_ Lands
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>>3958108
If only Magran could bring such joy to Durance...
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>>3956666
it does big cpu spikes so i think they're doing some of that gpu-able postprocessing on the cpu. their disk access times and memory management are pretty poor too; i run POE2 on a ramdisk (yeah I know, 53 gigs of ram ouch), and it doesnt seem to change load times that much from just running it off hdd. ggwp no idea how they managed to make ramdisk feel slow
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So what exactly can I turn off on Deadfire to boost my fps without making the game look like ass? My system is way above the recommended requirements (and the game is on a SSD) but I still get massive slowdowns when lots of effects are on screen and stuttering. I have tried the CPU core limiting trick but it doesn't really seem to boost my fps.
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>>3958266
i honestly dont seem to get much different performance on high vs low graphics settings, maybe with the ocean it's different but on land it's 22 vs 25% cpu, 35 vs 40% gpu. seems like it's baseline kinda fucked
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>>3958324
Every class in 2 is per encounter though, so it doesn't stick out as hard. Cipher is OP in 1 because it's the only class that doesn't need to rest to keep going and actually has good combat stats, same with Chanter. All the casters are pretty OP but compared to those two you need to know what you're doing
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>just want to cast wizard spells like armor and wizards double and then hit stuff with a sword, think wizard/devoted
>cant seem to figure out a good stat spread or learn the ruleset
>game takes so long to get started, and build seems to take so long to 'come online' that i always burn out a few hours in
>cant find any info online on such a build as if no one's ever done it
>never get past the first few hours of poe 1 or 2
Feels bad man.
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>>3958945
>cant seem to figure out a good stat spread or learn the ruleset
Warlockracy did your build in his review. Tried to make my own and the results are decent (low level party, adventurer level 5):
Race: Hearth Orlan (Hit-ToCrit on flanking is very good)
Class: Wizard
BG: Rautai-Slave
Stats
Mig - 10 (one-handed weapons have very low bases, there is a better way to boost damage at lvl 4)
Con - 14 (rest of stat points go here)
Dex - 17 (to overcome the modal penalty of "vulnerable attack")
Per - 15 (Gives more than enough interrupt and accuracy)
Int - 17 (Enough to boost 45 sec spells to a minute)
Res - 5 (Dump stat, most of your deflection comes from Mirrors/Doubles)
Essential Spells: Spirit shield, Wiz Double, Chill fog, merciless Gaze, Mirror images (EA is a waste), Expose weakness
Essential Feats: One-Handed Style (using only 1-handed gives +10 to accuracy, which is a ton), Vulnerable attack (modal, essential for low might one-handers), Arcane Veil at later levels (mirrors will be enough till then)
How to play: Keep "Vilnerable Attack" modal up, Pick one Saber as the main weapon (free +20% slash damage, Resolution is the endpoint that deals massive crits) and flank the enemy (tank attacks upfront, you hit from the back, gives -10 deflection to enemies). Armor - Padded (good palance between recovery and pierce protection). Use spells when necessary. Get to Caed Nua level 4 as fast as possible for "Resolution" to make things work better.
Basically, you'll be crit-locking basic enemies with high interrupt while having both utility and damage (spells help lower enemy resistances and buff your defences for huge numbers).
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>>3959524
Will try this, thanks a lot.
Ran two concurrent chars through the tutorial area yesterday; both elves with 16/10/16/10/16/10, dual sabers Beguiler/Trickster one, and greatsword Wizard/Devoted the other.
Wizard/Devoted is definitely more what I'm looking for, but the Beguiler seems pretty fun. I did notice that hit-to-crit on the Orlan and almost rolled it, but I just like elves.
I've tried that 10Mig/Res dump in the past, but I never managed to make it work, though I probably gave up at or before level 4.
I kinda dislike the idea of single sabre, but I'm gonna roll that build and see if I can stick it out. Really appreciate the write-up.
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>>3959524
>Essential Spells: Spirit shield, Wiz Double, Chill fog, merciless Gaze, Mirror images (EA is a waste), Expose weakness
Infuse with Vital Essence is also good, as it's one of the few ways to restore Health and is by far the best. By the time you need it you probably have more potions than you know what to do with, though..
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I only have the alpine dragon left as a big enemy, guess I'll try that in turn-based mode
Any tips? I'm using prayer against fear for the debuff and can clear his adds relatively easily but he just does too much damage
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>>3959524
>one-handed weapons have very low bases
>Vulnerable attack
So the only weapon with Vulnerable Attack modal is estoc, but saber's Windmill Slash causes increased Recovery, which is mitigated I guess by Dex, so I'm assuming you do indeed mean sabre. Wait time still felt stupid long with Windmill Slash and +20% Recovery armor, though.
Felt pretty good, but ended up wiping to the bats. Will keep messing with it.
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>>3959940
Space your party to avoid his damage, will be easier in TB mode, use fire damage as I believe he’s the only dragon weak to it, keep using Eder as a tank, use Durance as the fear debuffer and use a cipher to use psychic backlash that will constantly stun the dragon
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>>3960414
Wm is by far the best part. Met some sqeenix dev on a fair or con or whatever that's called and he explained to me that the purposely make the game worse than the dlc. They can't top the dlc and hence they gimp the game. It's a business decision. One of the reasons larian doesn't do dlc. I don't mind expansion packs, I love good ones, but this dlc craze hit gaming hard.
>veteran
Game is unfun on potd without pigeonholing builds. Doing this it becomes trivial. Bad optimization. I'd play a poe 3 as crpg are rare, but the first two games have laughable issues. Idk what they are doing.
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>>3960510
Yeah I googled beforehand because you never know with these RPGs how much dumb bullshit there is on higher difficulties and the main thing everyone said about POTD is that accuracy gets nerfed so hard it's not even fun anymore
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>>3960543
>penetration
Makes no fucking sense. Why do sabers have better base penetration than straight swords? Being able to thrust would make them better against both soft armor and make it easier to target gaps in plate armor.
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>>3960547
1. Mushrooms. No, seriosly, giant fast-growing mushroom. Easy to harvest while growing, hard as stone when dried but is light as wood.
2.Silicoid Crystals. Same as mushrooms but weight more. Still, are very easy to enchant and "grow" naturally in caves, which makes tham popular with novices and poor enchanters.
3. Exoskeleton shells. Giant insects are a common enemy in fantasy world.
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>>3960670
>fampyrs
See? Exactly why I want something with more thought. Mixing two materials is also boring. It's like stone, but it isn't. It's a gem, yet a stone???
>xaurip
Much better than hel or fampyr.
>>3960676
I onow
Friend of me makes cardboard out of mushroom and it's genous
Idk why I didn't think of it. Heck, you can live of mushrooms alone and make houses of it. Ideally it can replace plastic. Ridiculous what these space plants and or animals can do.
>Easy to harvest while growing, hard as stone when dried but is light as wood.
It's beyond ridiculous.
>crystals
Another low hanging fruit. You can use music or sound and form them on a molecular level. Great!
>carapace
The only thing I can think of other devs did right. Even bg has it and it's awesome.
>>3960670
>>3960584
Take an example at
>>3960670
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>>3960741
The first Pillars came hot off the heels of the brief wave of new-atheism in the oughties with the "four horsemen" doing talks and releasing books like God Is Not Great (How Religion Poisons Everything) and The God Delusion.
And as a critique, deconstruction and analysis of theism, Pillars was an absolute fucking master class.
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>>3960813
As fucking if.
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>>3960776
>The first Pillars came hot off the heels of the brief wave of new-atheism
What? Pillars came out like a decade after that whole tjing had left the zeitgeist. By then polite society was back to pretending religious thought had any merit whatsoever, thanks to a few overpaid, reactionary dullards at the NYT and Atlantic becoming enamored with that bipolar hack Peterson.
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>>3961078
POE1 has turn based mode now and has been getting patches since around November for it. Deadfire hasn't had anything yet but hopefully they can improve the Deadfire TB mode based on the POE1 one as it's better and been created with player feedback. Plus it has a toggle
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>>3954902
This shit is so fucking boring and lame.
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>>3961086
It's a semantic debate anyway because the gods in pillars are demonstrably real. They may be artificially createdexcept Sapadalbut they are actual gods. They exist, have power, exert power and influence and are worshipped.
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>>3961090
>it’s a retarded idea
Not from a business pov where you’re going to get more players in your game especially when rtwp is quite unpopular these days. At least there’s a toggle and a choice and you’re not forced into one or the other. If there’s a POE3 though, I think it will be fully turn based
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>>3961134
I don't want to start an argument, but to me TBM is the stupidest fucking thing imaginable. It's a holdover from before games could calculate shit in realtime and there's no reason imo to ever go back except you simply can't handle realtome decision making AND can't pause fast enough to not constantly fuck yourself, neither of which should be made my problem by forcing me to play turn-based shit and waste my time.
Only exception would be like stylisticly grid-based tRPGs like X-COM. I can tolerate those being forced turn-based.
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>>3961137
I haven't played Pathfinder or BG3 yet, if those turn-based systems turn out to not make trash mob fights take fucking ages, I'll be ready to admit that TB is good
I like it in games built for loads of combat (XCOM like you said, or Tower of Time or whatever) or made to be comfy. 4 niggas in a row games with TB are fine, given that they are actually TB and not ATB shit where a boss gets 5 turns while you're in an animation
I think mostly it comes down to me being a casual RPG enjoyer, I'm not doing the break your balls challenge where you need one specific optimized team and the kind of fine control TB gives you
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>>3961137
>I don't want to start an argument
too late but I feel the same about RTWP. It's basically turn based anyway with the amount of times you're pausing to micromanage. The only benefit I see of RTWP is faster gameplay but that's only because RTWP is constantly full of trash mobs to inflate the gameplay.
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>>3961140
>but that's only because RTWP is constantly full of trash mobs to inflate the gameplay
Kind of a moot point in this game where obviously they didn't design the amount of encounters for TB then. Though from what I heard they did give everyone in TB an inherent damage buff to make it go faster
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>>3961140
BG2 really didnt have that many trash fights and if u ran into one it usually took couple seconds, meanwhile TB makes every mundane fight take eternity and most of the time you spend watching enemies take their turn. BG3 is especially outrageous with it without speed slider and overly long and cinematic animations.
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>>3961142
This.
You can also make any (good) RTwP system functionally turn-based anyway (BG2 has an option to pause the gane for you on basically every condition imaginable, including the end of any creature's turn), but you can't make a turn-based game WTwP the same way. Or, no TB game has done it yet.
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I'm a proud RTwP hater and I can honestly say that the implementation of it in both Pillars games, especially Deadfire, and Tyranny are the most well refined and enjoyable forms of RTwP. I still prefer TB and always will, but the way Obsidian created RTwP in those games should be applauded but it's likely going to be abandoned going forward in the new TB world.
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>>3961158
>RPG elements
I would say it’s a full blown RPG with a strategic layer. It has plenty of quests where your decisions influence the state of the world. Sadly its weak points are the story and humo, which aren’t to everyone’s taste. I dropped the game because of that but I know some people enjoy it. I don’t know why it’s so hard to make an RPG with good serious story and solid combat.
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>>3961210
>hating the game because of a lack of romance
He was right.
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>>3961125
>Not from a business pov where you’re going to get more players in your game especially when rtwp is quite unpopular these days.
99.9% of everyone who was ever going to buy the Pillars games has bought them already. I don’t see them getting any new sales from this
>At least there’s a toggle and a choice and you’re not forced into one or the other.
Agreed
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>>3961240
>I don’t see them getting any new sales from this
I think it's more about getting players, especially console ones into the series. When Avowed was released it was one of the top games on gamepass and as a consequence both pillars games also jumped up in numbers on gamepass. It's probably Microsoft making sure that all games are playable on console because it's been confirmed that we are getting more Eora games whether it's Avowed 2, PIllars 3 or both.
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>>3961142
This is why freely switching between the two modes is best. RTwP for easy fights that you can let autorun and turn based where you can account easily for every action. Wrath of the Righteous demonstrates this perfectly
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>>3954902
I didn't really like the game, and I can't really remember much of it at all (played it back on release)
But I will say it does deserve some credit for bringing back the isometric (and isometric adjacent) crpg genre at the time, so I will not hate it. May you who do enjoy it have fun
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>>3961307
Infinity engine games weren't even true RTwP. Black Isle just set an arbitrary interval for round duration (6 seconds), and made the game run in what's basically phase-based mode. True RTwP is something found in squad tactical games like Men of War.
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>>3961408
>Infinity engine games weren't even true RTwP
auto attack doesnt waste full round so by focusing full team on enemy doesnt also waste turn of ur caster because he threw his shitty sling.
It makes IE games so much smoother and fun to play than Pathfinder RtWP system.
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>>3961418
you should do it yourself for story reasons, as well as minmax. the level up screen is pretty well designed and lets you easily grab class appropriate spells without having to dig or anything. ive never used the auto-level feature, but given how those tend to work in other games, i'd imagine it probably picks a bunch of goofy shit that isn't really story or class appropriate anyway
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>>3961455
Yeah that’s good but if you want to import into Deadfire, Orlan has better racial bonuses as the wood elf changes. Not really a big issue either way. My main character for pillars was a pale elf cipher from the Deadfire which I enjoyed.
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>>3961465
You meet an Orlan cipher in Deadfire and the class picture in the guide is an Orlans so they’re not unusual but just pick whatever you will enjoy the most.
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>Unstable constructs in turn-based mode
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>>3961867
There's an Arcane Veil shield you can cast and Veil-Piercing weapons that counter it. But this ability makes it sound like the Veil is some kinda permanent thing:
https://pillarsofeternity.fandom.com/wiki/Veil-Touched
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>>3962077
Why? To have a tank? Ranger's pet alone is pretty awesome. Always when I think of pets, I think of pathfinder. There's a barb class with a smilodon pet. The smilodon is much stronger than the barb, at least for the first 5 levels or so.
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What are the best skills for a Cipher MC? I've seen mention of not going too deep into Mechanics on the MC, but rather specialize a companion instead. Survival has some nifty bonuses, but a lot of points are required for the higher levels.
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>>3962111
What would be a good mix for Gilded Vale and its immediate surroundings, for the first level up (to level 2)? I vaguely remember from my first playthrough attempt (circa 10 years ago) that there's an Athletics check along the way. And I'll only have Aloth and Eder with me for a while.
My Cipher has 1 Stealth, 2 Lore, and 2 Mechanics from character creation.
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>>3962113
That check (if I'm thinking of the same one you're thinking of) only gives you access to a decent pair of gloves and is covered by a grappling hook you can find in stores and from loot crates. I can't actually think of a failed check that totally prevents you from getting an item or accessing an area, a lot of them are covered by items like grappling hooks, prybars and what not. You can pretty comfortably spec whatever you want and not miss anything at that level anyway.
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>>3962108
Lore can be useful for dialog checks.
What I like about Stealth + Mechanics is the ability to sneak ahead and place traps under the eyes of the enemies. If you have only Durance with high Mechanics, but shit sneaking, then you either have to place them far away from the enemies and funnel them over great distances. Or not use them at all.
You don't need to use traps, can just sell them. But they can help. There are also sometimes situations where the traps are placed inside the room with the enemies, meaning a fight can make you trip over them.
You should always have at least one Survival.
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>>3962419
Problem is, they don't remove any trash encounters when you switch to the turn based mode. So a 120 hours game becomes a 300 hours game. Same shit with Rogue trader.
It baffles me how devs don't understand that you need to remove all or most the trash in the turn based game.
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>>3962458
It's easy to see that it has imo. Roll a d100 to hit, and anything under 75 does reduced damage before armor mitigation reduces it further, 75-100 get reduced by armor, and only 100+ get any bonus damage, but still get reduced by armor, so at least 75% of the time you're doing way less damage than your weapons do on paper. Nice for player survivability but pretty shit for actually killing enemies in a reasonable time.
Maybe I don't fully understand the ruleset though.
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>>3962485
I'm still trying to settle on a gish. I can't decide between single class wizard, wizard/devoted, or cipher/rogue. I just tried the hearth orlan cipher/ranger as kind of a gimmick. As good as it was in the beach zone, I imagine the familiar falls off in the mid game or earlier, and I don't really like the class anyway.
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Alright yeah I've got full option paralysis here.
I really wanted at first to be an elven Devoted Wizard using a greatsword, because I only want to self-buff and use the fighter skills to trip enemies and stuff.
But >>3959524 seems really fun, and going single-class wizard means I'd get to cast Citzal's Enchanted Armory which sounds cool as fuck.
But if I'm playing a Hearth Orlan sabre dual-weilding Beguiler Rogue sounds fun, and has a lot of synergies, and I could skillmonkey with Mechanics, although it seems like the game wants me to make Eder a Swashbuckler, in which case maybe he could do that.
All three sound too fun and I can't decide.
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>>3962796
Game's starting to piss me off with the way AI handles buffing (every condition that has my character cast Wizard's Double has them spam cast it until they're out of spells) so I might end up playing Beguiler.
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>>3962763
Swashbuckler Eder in heavy armour and a greatsword is a pretty strong party member, assuming you're not playing PotD
Mutliclass gets you constant recovery and passive buffs to auto attacks too and that's nice
Single class wizard also gets to cast the most fun spells in the game, as well as getting higher level spells faster. Rather than tripping stuff with skills it becomes crippling enemies with magic, so you gotta decide which one is more appealing to you.
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>>3962111
>Durance is generally my mechanics mule.
Doesn't Durance start with 0 Mechanics if auto-leveling is disabled? That's can become a bit of a disadvantage, since the multiplier activates from the first point you spend (unlike Aloth, who already has 1 point, so the second point only costs 1).
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>>3955607
>Bonuses from the same source usually don't stack. That applies to equipment as well, if you haven't noticed. A piece of armor with + 1 Perception and a helmet with + 2 Perception won't result in + 3 Perception, but + 2. It only takes the highest.
According to the wiki, there's a specific exception to this, namely stat bonuses from weapons.
They apply independently from other sources, so they stack with the next highest stat bonus from another equipment piece.
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>>3963713
Fair enough, fair. If murdering the randoms is what gets you off all the power to you. Depends mostly on the character I'm trying to play for me but if I build a good combat character I get doing all the combat you can
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>>3964127
>I know y'alls didn't just imply that lil ol me is annoying! If I was annoying then surely my god Guan would've let me know. His shaning liiight keeps me on an honest path and y'all wouldn't want to use a AI mercenary over Guan's chosen!
Tekehu best healer anyway
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>>3964167
This is true, because all modern CRPG companions are all psychopathic alphabet people, but the lack of banter feels lonely after a while.
>>3964163
I haven't made it far enough into the game to have a really informed opinion, but she really puts me off in the introduction.
On one hand she's all 'aw shucks, i'm just a hackin' southern belle' but she also wants to reap souls and apparently murdered a dude when she was 11.
I can't tell whether it's a misunderstanding and she's actually a Good person, or the devs made her a heckin' wholesome psycho on purpose, but the incongruity really puts me off.
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So apparently you can exploit the retraining system a bit. If you have one or more wizards (doesn't have to be the MC, Aloth also works), you can fill all the owned grimoires with the spells they already know, retrain, and pick different spells during the new level up. Then open the grimoires and learn the previously-scribed spells.
It's absolutely not cheap, and there's a soft limit to how many times you can do this (since they always forget the spells they used to know, so it turns into diminishing returns), but, if you have the money, you can pad out their spell library with spells that are nice to have, but not must-pick.
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What dispositions are the most important/useful for getting the best quest completion rewards?
I read a bit ahead on the wiki, and seems like Stoic is required to avoid a couple of bad fights (and solve the associated quests in an advantageous manner for the MC).
However, Stoic responses can get suboptimal results in other quests.
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Is it true that Linger on Chanter phrases is broken in the current PoE TB beta? I've seen somebody mention in the Steam forums that the Linger effect doesn't work, the phrase's effect ends at the end of the combat round.
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>>3964163
>>3964167
>>3964225
>>3964274
Outside of Eder and Vamp chick who are cardboard cutouts, I don't feel like Pillars 2 has a good companions selection.
>muh fish dick
>muh bird bpd
>muh honor psychosis
>muh guan
>muh broken key
>muh fuzzy dick
Maybe the missionary from the fuck off islands past the storm belt is interesting but generally everyone's kind of got very annoying personality traits and are absolutely NOT likeable unless you like simping for big tits/dick
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>>3962455
>They've made attacks hit harder in turn based mode for everyone to speed up trash encounters.
With the notable exception of dual wielding (two-weapon fighting) which does less damage than in RTwP. Though admittedly the second weapon always strikes, no primary/full attack separation like in RTwP, so you always get two separate hit calculations, with two separate chances for effects.
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>>3963713
Garbaggio Street is pretty infamous as the hardest area of the game for the level you're at. It's the same as POE1, you get owned to death and come back later.
>You can, but what's the fun in that?
For stuff like that I usually do the fight to see what it's like, then reload if I wanted the preaceful option
It's VERY funny as a druid with charm beasts
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>>3964819
I only played 1 but she was kinda one-note. She has to do a trade agreement or whatever and that's her entire character. She has maybe one line about how hard it was to join the Paladins or some shit
Now that I think about it, no companion besides Durance really has a character outside of their quests. Maybe I'm just a stupid old retard but I feel like I remember characters in older cRPGs having more to them
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>>3964867
Hiravias is hilarious, he has a lot of character and interactions with others.
Edér is a good boy. He has lots of good lines.
Zahua has some nice reactions to quests (in the White March DLC) and well-written dialog scenes.
Aloths character is his bitchy sister.
Grieving Mothers character is too much exposition.
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>>3964879
Maybe I'm the retard here but I wouldn't classify "Hiravias talks about wenching and boozing in a throwaway banter line" as character. They should chime in more when you do quests and shit
>Aloths character is his bitchy sister.
Exactly, his only character trait is you researching his Awakened state in his quest. That's exactly the kinda stuff I mean
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>>3964901
I even had to take screenshots of this conversation.
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>>3964909
Why the fuck do you care.
There is some nice reactivity from NPCs, but it's not like they are falling down on their knees when they see your godlike appearance.
And don't tell me you care what anons think about you. Play what you want. Be an adult.
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>>3964940
Doesn't it also depend on the type of Godlike they are (Nature vs. being a Death Nigga for instance) as well as status iirc. Pallegina was a noble or something.
>>3964941
>Talking to backer NPCs
Biggest mistake anon. Terrible taste all around for Obsidian to let backer NPCs through without revisions and the backers themselves to giga-fluff their character
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>>3964882
The chiming in is maybe a symptom of Pillars 1 having pretty low budget and not being very refined as an RPG. I think what is there of the characters has plenty of personality, most of all Durance and Zahua are very big and upfront. I liked the Devil too, as insane as she is all the dialogue really nails the whole BPD psychokiller bit to a hilarious degree. Yeah a lot of them are tied to their exposition and their quest because of the nature of the game but you get a fair amount of information as to their state, wants, their hobbies. There's real soul behind 1's writing, even if it has eons of exposition and is low budget. 2's writing, eh... not so much. Characters chime in a lot more but what we get is so milquetoast and even more one-note. Eder is offensively basic in 2, he just loves animals. Meanwhile Aloth, a completely fine character to transition and expand on from his quest, just got turned into Thaos 2.0 and a shifty jew at that
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>>3965052
>Terrible taste all around for Obsidian to let backer NPCs through without revisions
One issue is that, while backer removal mods exist, they just delete them, without adding other characters in their stead. So some areas (taverns) now look weirdly empty.
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>>3958945
>>3959524
>>3962763
>have not one but 3 powerful Gish Classes with Cipher, Chanter and Cleric
>instead of playing them decide that for some inane reason you really need to turn the only pure Caster into another gish
Are you people actually retarded?
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>>3965052
>>3964940
>Doesn't it also depend on the type of Godlike they are
Yeah. Moon godlikes seem to be the only tolerated ones. nature ones too possibly, but the moon ones are viewed as a blessing. Though being a godlike is still shittyonce it's revealed that they're nothing but batteries for the godsalso fuck being a Skaen godlike
>Children "blessed" by this god are born mutilated and deformed. Many are killed before anyone even realizes they are godlike, and even knowing what they are, many parents are not willing to raise what is considered to be an abomination. Those who do survive spend their whole lives in misery.
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>>3965182
>>instead of playing them decide that for some inane reason you really need to turn the only pure Caster into another gish
I don't know why you quoted me twice because I'm both playing a gish and have no idea what NPC you're even talking about.
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>>3965052
I think it's a nice gesture to the backers (and they probably made shitloads of money with that kickstarter tier), and they even have a loading screen hint telling you these stories WILL break your immersion. Still though, I knew about them beforehand so I didn't touch them after talking to one of them and reading 3 paragraphs of self-insert wank, but I can see someone missing the loading hint and being confused what the fuck those retards are
>>3965186
Does it keep their name? Cause then it'd be hell to try and find the quest NPCs. I love it when games do it like POE2 where all the ambient NPCs are named generically but the ones with actual dialogue have unique names
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>>3965200
>Does it keep their name?
It doesn't touch anything other than the goldnames, iirc it changes their names into generic descriptions like sailor, drunkard etc. Think it also stops you from interacting with them as well but not too sure on that one
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>>3965207
Yeah that's perfect then. Would make sense you can't interact with them, otherwise the mod writers would have to write ambient dialogue for all of them, or copy it from the NPCs in the area in which case it doesn't fit their role/type
>>3965182
What's wrong with wanting to try a specific build a class clearly has options for?
>nooooo you can't just use a gun as a fighter, there's a ranger already
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>>3965182
>Cipher
Good abilities need charging focus, Wiz can pop them anytime.
>Chanter
Phrases have shit defences, only useful chants are summonings. Wiz has spells leagues above chanter for defence, as well as summons.
>Cleric
Spells are low-impact or healing, god-specific ACC buff is good but Wiz has Haste, Summons and Chill fog, as well as MG and Acceleration.
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>>3965200
>>3965208
I think this is the one I used
https://www.nexusmods.com/pillarsofeternity/mods/347
>Replace Backer Name
>Changes the names of Backer NPCs in the game in the chosen way. By default, the backers have their default name. The "Fantasy Names" option will randomly choose a name from a list of fantasy names, which are contained in fantasyNames.json. These values were compiled and taken from the original IE Mod. The "Race Only" option will replace the name tag of the Backer NPC with just the race of their in game character model.
>Disable Backer Dialog
>This option prevents backer dialog from triggering if a Backer NPC is clicked.
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>>3965118
This is fair I guess, it's just talking to these guys is hilarious with the whole
>I was a demigod exactly one month ago but honestly I don't want to do shit so I'm going to ignore the current crisis despite being a needy whore desperate for attention
>>3965200
No doubt a nice gesture and some are okay, but frankly they're so tone-death with the game that they probably should have had some revision or better integration by Obsidian. I think they even admitted that backer NPCs was a mistake on a dev stream one time.
>>3965209
Cleric spells actually have some of the best damage output potentials and good enough CC. As it goes for casters I feel like on top of the acc buff they're just straight up more reliable than wizards until your wizard gets to fluff up for 3-4 turns. Fair point on Cipher and Chanter but also
>infinite casts
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>>3965188
>Infertile (this may be an upside, depending on the type of godlike you are)
>Constantly smell
>Spare battery for a mecha
>everyone is racist towards you one way or the other
>but you get cool superpowers
>hated by your parents and family still for being a freak
It's a mixed bag, honestly. You could be the ones that smell horribly and then no one will tolerate you since they believe you're an ill omen, but you could also smell like flowers all the time and have everyone love you and fluff you and tolerate you being a sex-pest with a lack of commitment
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>>3965375
>Mechanically what is the POINT of Pale Elfs?
That’s a roleplaying question, not a mechanics question. You’re supposed to pick the character you want to play because you think it will be interesting or fun. Making roleplaying decisions based on mechanical benefits is faggotry supreme.
>but anon, why would I want to roleplay as a pale elf?
I dunno man pillars has shitty lore and no one cares about it
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>>3965375
Fire is a pretty common damage type and it's a little helpful early on before you get decent protection. Freeze is pointless Ice DR is pointless though since by the time it's common enough to care about you should have spells to cover
Nowhere near as good as woodelf bonus, especially in deadfire. So like anon said, mostly an RP choice
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>>3965375
I used a pale elf druid as a kamikaze frontliner - run into the fray, aggro everyone, cast blizzard + storm on yourself and make Aloth cast chill fog on top of you, then insect shell yourself and wait. You can make use of their higher freeze and burn threshhold to draw enemies into cold-based control spells and pin them there.
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>>3965375
for sex
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>>3956486 (me)
I've decided to finish the white march before finishing the game to level up a bit and be able to finish megadungeon and or that one fucking dragon in the wind temple.
And dear God... the eyeless... who the fuck balanced this? My party is at level 15 and just two of these fucks gives me sans bad time. Like I can literally use up every fucking single ability I have, including DAILY spells to take down two. Please tell me I will not have to fight against three at once. I'm only inside that fucking cave, but I've checked the map and its pretty big, so I guess Ill have to fight some more.
Fuckers are immune to pretty much everything, is there any way to rekt them without simply raw damage?
Jesus Im playing on lowest difficuilty here, and no I aint gonna git gud, I;m fucking 51, you dont just get better at my age.
These fights are such a chore, fucking monks that (btw very fun combat design) kick you 50feet, or zoom like on a fucking scooter just to bitch slap a backline caster, kek. Anyway, fights in DLC are direct upgrade to the base game, ie there are different, monsters like these battlefield controll monks, agile fish, or nightmarishly unstoppable hammer time not-sirenheads. But you know what? If you cut down the HP of everyone (including the party ofc) like by 30% it would actually be better because it would not boil down to 6 people gangstabbing a single monk for two fucking minutes.
God, the amount of times when all player agency in combat is just a "finish fight with 0 stakes 30 seconds faster" is astonishingly high.
Also, the pathfinding fucking sucks, and it's even worse in the DLC.
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>>3956486 (me)
I've decided to finish the white march before finishing the game to level up a bit and be able to finish megadungeon and or that one fucking dragon in the wind temple.
And dear God... the eyeless... who the fuck balanced this? My party is at level 15 (and I didnt choose amped enemies in the DLC) and just two of these fucks gives me sans bad time. Like I can literally use up every fucking single ability I have, including DAILY spells to take down two. Please tell me I will not have to fight against three at once. I'm only inside that fucking cave, but I've checked the map and its pretty big, so I guess Ill have to fight some more.
Fuckers are immune to pretty much everything, is there any way to rekt them without simply raw damage?
Jesus Im playing on lowest difficuilty here, and no I aint gonna git gud, I;m fucking 51, you dont just get better at my age.
These fights are such a chore, fucking monks that (btw very fun combat design) kick you 50feet, or zoom like on a fucking scooter just to bitch slap a backline caster, kek. Anyway, fights in DLC are direct upgrade to the base game, ie there are different, monsters like these battlefield controll monks, agile fish, or nightmarishly unstoppable hammer time not-sirenheads. But you know what? If you cut down the HP of everyone (including the party ofc) like by 30% it would actually be better because it would not boil down to 6 people gangstabbing a single monk for two fucking minutes.
God, the amount of times when all player agency in combat is just a "finish fight with 0 stakes 30 seconds faster" is astonishingly high.
Also, the pathfinding fucking sucks, and it's even worse in the DLC.
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>>3965561
>Also, the pathfinding fucking sucks, and it's even worse in the DLC.
Not an issue in turn-based, walk anywhere as long as it isn't next to an enemy. Even plots the intended path, via those white dots.
>hurr TB is a crutch for bad game design/coding
Don't care, had fun.
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>>3965561
Knock them over anon. The bigger they are the harder they fall. Also use your summon items on them to distract. I always felt they were undertuned, honestly. Especially by the end of the expansion. I don't play on POTD though.
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Is Pillars hard to go into blind and will I end up in an Underrail situation where if my build is shit I'm gonna have to restart? Are there any recommended starter classes? I'm thinking I'll either go paladin or ranger and use guns.
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>>3966295
Yeah, you can pretty much go in blind. It's hard to fuck up your build completely, especially on normal difficulty.
Both paladin and ranger are good starting classes and not too difficult. When playing paladin, enable the meta-informations to appropriately roleplay. Intellect is important for their auras. Your paladin can be tanky (high resolve) and also pretty killy (good might, average dexterity and perception can work depending on the weapon).
Ranger is also pretty cool and straight-forward. Some good might, more dexterity, and especially perception. You can ignore intellect and resolve.
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>>3966322
>Are there any noob traps or pits to be aware of?
Don't get discouraged by the ghosts under the first town you go to. You can leave and get a character that can help or just come back later, it's not a vital dungeon.
Also make sure you check out the cave a certain hunter tells you about in one of the. early wilderness areas. He's just exaggerating!