Pillars of Eternity Hints, Tips, Spoilers

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Jag
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Re: Pillars of Eternity Hints, Tips, Spoilers

Post by Jag »

Jaymann wrote:I am going to try that with the fox. I have had little success with pulling and thought the mobs were linked.
Depends. Some are linked, some aren't. It's really trial and error. I pulled mobs back to a choke point with my high stealth ranger. It worked well.

Plus a sneak attack ranged opener can one shot some enemies.
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Re: Pillars of Eternity Hints, Tips, Spoilers

Post by NickAragua »

If you have a couple of bugged skeletons that permanently join your party and spawn in random locations on each map you enter, it really helps distract the bad guys and get them to pile up all on top of each other and not recognize that they're being whacked from range (although if you approach to melee, they'll figure it out). Heh, I guess it's kind of a situational tip.

As for some real tips, I love me some bouncy spells (rolling flame, lightning bolt). Get the bad guys to pile up in a narrow hallway, and angle your fireball/lightning bolt so that it bounces almost perpendicular to the direction of the hallway - now you're getting multiple hits on the same guy. It works best as an opener.

Also, a caster's int score has real bearing on the friendly fire/non friendly fire radius. Aloth pimped out with a +3 int ring and +2 int resting bonus has a ridiculously small friendly fire radius on his AOE spells, so you can blast away much more indiscriminately.
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Re: Pillars of Eternity Hints, Tips, Spoilers

Post by Madmarcus »

I've never been able to bounce those spells well. Either some little bit of clutter bounces them back my direction or I can't get a clear shot to fire them off in the first place without hitting my front rank.
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Re: Pillars of Eternity Hints, Tips, Spoilers

Post by DD* »

POE and the expanions are currently on sale at GOG. In related news, I am weak.
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Re: Pillars of Eternity Hints, Tips, Spoilers

Post by NickAragua »

It's funny, I tried to get back into it to go through the expansions, and I just couldn't do it. Probably because I set the difficulty to "Path of the Damned" so that every other fight means half my guys die, half of them in the first two seconds of the fight. Next time I get in the mood, I'll turn it down a bit.
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Re: Pillars of Eternity Hints, Tips, Spoilers

Post by DD* »

I had it on my Steam wishlist, but I never caught it on sale. Managed to get the base game and both expansions from GoG for less than just the game on Steam.
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Re: Pillars of Eternity Hints, Tips, Spoilers

Post by Zaxxon »

NickAragua wrote:It's funny, I tried to get back into it to go through the expansions, and I just couldn't do it. Probably because I set the difficulty to "Path of the Damned" so that every other fight means half my guys die, half of them in the first two seconds of the fight. Next time I get in the mood, I'll turn it down a bit.
"Mom, I made this game un-fun, and then I was surprised that I didn't enjoy playing an un-fun game. What should I do to resolve this?"
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Re: Pillars of Eternity Hints, Tips, Spoilers

Post by NickAragua »

Zaxxon wrote:
NickAragua wrote:It's funny, I tried to get back into it to go through the expansions, and I just couldn't do it. Probably because I set the difficulty to "Path of the Damned" so that every other fight means half my guys die, half of them in the first two seconds of the fight. Next time I get in the mood, I'll turn it down a bit.
"Mom, I made this game un-fun, and then I was surprised that I didn't enjoy playing an un-fun game. What should I do to resolve this?"
Right, I'm not complaining about the game, I'm complaining about my poor decision making (which, unfortunately, cost me about a week's worth of gaming time since I can't just turn the difficulty down mid-game).
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Re: Pillars of Eternity Hints, Tips, Spoilers

Post by Zaxxon »

I'm just being overly sarcastic. I also once started on too high a difficulty level.
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Re: Pillars of Eternity Hints, Tips, Spoilers

Post by Suitably Ironic Moniker »

I don't even mess around these days, I just set the difficulty to easy/very easy on these types of games. I'm mostly interested in the stories/world building, and I don't feel like getting too bogged down in combat.
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Re: Pillars of Eternity Hints, Tips, Spoilers

Post by Daehawk »

Ok just made my fighter and this is what I ended up with for my first real go at the game. I plan to have 2 weapon sets..one will be dual wielding something and the other will be a shield with something.

Enlarge Image

ive only touched it with a few minutes play before and I dont own any addons. I think I have a fun time ahead of me as I loved the old Infinity Engine games of the past...own them all and finished them all including addons.
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Re: Pillars of Eternity Hints, Tips, Spoilers

Post by NickAragua »

Some advice:

0) (this is the most important) If you see a dude with a gold plated name tag, ignore him. It's stupid fan fiction from game backers and has no bearing on the game whatsoever. There are many of these, and each one is a huge wall of poorly-written text. Also, you can feel free to ignore the text on gravestones in grave yards.

1) Stick with one weapon set. The "feats" (or whatever they're called) tend to specialize you in a specific weapon and fighting style.
2) Don't know what difficulty you're at, but you should plow through to Caed Nua as fast as possible, so that you can have a five-man party. You can also pay some amount of gold to create an extra PC at the inn to "fill the gap". Once you've got six people you can start screwing around and completing side quests.
3) I hope you're not doing "Path of the Damned" difficulty, because jeebus that's hard. Just don't do it. I mean, unless you're a tactical savant who knows the ins and outs of this particular game system like the back of your hand.
4) Don't be afraid to blow your per-day and per-encounter powers. And frankly, use up your one-use items too. Especially on boss fights. Don't be afraid to strip everyone naked afterwards, you'll need the money. If your mages aren't panting and sweating and begging for a break from the spellcasting after every fight, you're not doing it right.
5) Oh yeah, and you'll basically want your thumb directly over that space bar every second of every fight. Micromanagement is key.
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Re: Pillars of Eternity Hints, Tips, Spoilers

Post by Daehawk »

Thank you Ill keep it in mind.

Im on story mode difficulty. It said its the same as normal but has unlimited camping supplies. I dont like features that screw around with things I like to do like camp and rest as much as I want to.
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Re: Pillars of Eternity Hints, Tips, Spoilers

Post by NickAragua »

Daehawk wrote:Thank you Ill keep it in mind.

Im on story mode difficulty. It said its the same as normal but has unlimited camping supplies. I dont like features that screw around with things I like to do like camp and rest as much as I want to.
Then you can just ignore everything except point 0. :)
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Re: Pillars of Eternity Hints, Tips, Spoilers

Post by Daehawk »

Also, you can feel free to ignore the text on gravestones in grave yards.
So no cool stuff like
"Here lies Nicky Vee, took an arrow to the knee?"...Shame . I think it was Fallout or something that had some good ones.
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Re: Pillars of Eternity Hints, Tips, Spoilers

Post by Daehawk »

Ever notice the music will stop? I mean I decided here at the start while out on the first little quest to stop and look at all my pages and and maps and such. As i was doing that I was listening to some wonderful music playing and was rather enjoying it all when it just stopped. A new track did not start and I was left in the quiet. I was a bit disappointed as the music seems very well done in this game. It reminds me of Jeremy Soule and such from the old games. I will need to look up who does this music. Shame.

Also here is the latest pic of my warrior.

Enlarge Image
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Re: Pillars of Eternity Hints, Tips, Spoilers

Post by Daehawk »

Seems Im one of those characters where people near me die badly. So far Im just to the machine cutscene that steals souls. I had two with me and thought I was doing well. Then for no reason i can see the girl sneaks off and dies. thought we were getting along fine and she would make it to her sister's. Nope. Then the guy I take a chance to save and actually did save him and got him rested up dies. He is fine then we see something in a cutscene and I wake up to him dead right beside me. Im all alone again.

Its a little worrying in how the game simply removed them. Both to a silly senseless death. Either or both could have gone their own way with a good outcome but instead the designers felt the need to kill them instead with no story to their deaths. After what we'd been through together at the start. Now Im wondering if the rest of the game treats death so senselessly or if it gets better.

As I recall the game reviewed well.
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Re: Pillars of Eternity Hints, Tips, Spoilers

Post by Zaxxon »

That's a pretty unique moment in the game. IIRC, the devs wanted to get a party-based tutorial in before starting you off on your own.
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Re: Pillars of Eternity Hints, Tips, Spoilers

Post by NickAragua »

Yeah, you're not going to have party members yanked out from under you any more. Any further ones that you lose will be exclusively your fault. :)
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Re: Pillars of Eternity Hints, Tips, Spoilers

Post by Daehawk »

In the old games I would hurry along at times. There seemed to be so much to take in and read that mostly all I did was look at the item or look at its stats and that was that.

But in Pillars Im taking my time and going very slowly. Everything I find I am right clicking and reading the story that goes along with it. Some or quiet interesting. I just found some dead guy's magic gloves and got +2 dex and a good little story with them :) I hope I dont burn myself out doing this but for now I am enjoying the ride and scenery.

EDIT: I dont know why this go at this game is special but Im having so much fun. Im in the first little town of idiots but just standing in a fantasy game village outside the local blacksmith is just so warm memory like feeling. Im smiling as I play and leaning over to show me wife and bug her during her shows to tell her stuff she cares nothing about :)

Its nice to be here.
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Re: Pillars of Eternity Hints, Tips, Spoilers

Post by Daehawk »

Since grouping up that elf in the first town Ive had some oddities. Hell if I didn't have oddities it just wouldn't be me now would it?

When I loot stuff its all going straight into my stash instead of either mine or the elves backpack.

When controlling both at the same time it seems to be the elf who talks and leads. Same when fighting.

And now I cant remember how to turn on the elves AI so he will do his thing and cast spells and stuff all without me controlling him.
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Re: Pillars of Eternity Hints, Tips, Spoilers

Post by morlac »

Daehawk wrote:Since grouping up that elf in the first town Ive had some oddities. Hell if I didn't have oddities it just wouldn't be me now would it?

When I loot stuff its all going straight into my stash instead of either mine or the elves backpack.

When controlling both at the same time it seems to be the elf who talks and leads. Same when fighting.

And now I cant remember how to turn on the elves AI so he will do his thing and cast spells and stuff all without me controlling him.

Click the stash (chest) when looting to loot there or click a portrait of the charter to put the loot there. Elf is 'tagged' as leader move their portraits around on the top left. Think all this was in tutorial?
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Re: Pillars of Eternity Hints, Tips, Spoilers

Post by Daehawk »

So many games over these years has made me watch the weight I carry or to mod it so i can carry 5000 lbs :) that when I loot someone I grimace when I auto loot a large amount of items. I know the game doesn't have a weight built into it just slots but I still cringe.
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Re: Pillars of Eternity Hints, Tips, Spoilers

Post by Daehawk »

I must admit Im finding Pillars a fine game. Not only is it beautiful to behold but is well put together. No bugs either...so far. Im just in the 2nd large map..where the 2nd watcher is. I fear something bad is wrong in this place. The ghost are quiet enjoyable to interact with and learn the story of the place from. Seems they are all crazy too.

This dead keep is giving me feelings of The Severed Hand from Icewind Dale. But it seems a bit....well dead or empty. Many of the rooms simply have a spot to look at. Nothing in them,,,,no ghosts, no loot, no secrets. Hope they detailed other areas better.

But the place itself is wonderful. I have my old smile on as I explore. I now have 5 of us traveling together. Not sure to turn on their AI or to choose their spells or just grab everyone and target one guy at a time and that be that. Id love to see more individualism from the casters in what they do. All I really need is for myself and the other fighter to block the bad guys from getting to them.

Anyways I am highlighting all my guys and clicking one bad guy at a time. Right now I feel super overpowered. No one dies and no one much gets hurt. But I chose story mode difficulty because it expressly said it was normal mode with unlimited camp. And according to its info normal mode is tougher than easy. Maybe Im just good. Im using either 2 yellow con weps or 1 yellow wep and a yellow shield. I distribute the rest of the loot on down the line. Im not being greedy in the loot with my party. Im guessing they are in it for the duration of the game.

But Obsidian did a wonderful job on this game as far as I can tell...so far. Loving it. The old times are back again and Im glad.
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Re: Pillars of Eternity Hints, Tips, Spoilers

Post by Daehawk »

Are there any long term consequences to being an ass? Like picking rude or assertive responses in dialog?

Also What about devouring a soul? Im at an old man that attacked me and killed him and my choices are let him go and get 2 prestige for my keep, bind him and get 2 security for the keep, or devour his soul and find a treasure in the dungeon below it later. Im not up on what those stats do so Im thinking of the treasure choice...but I have to destroy the soul for that one.
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Re: Pillars of Eternity Hints, Tips, Spoilers

Post by Zaxxon »

If we told you that, we'd ruin it for you. So I'll just say that yes, your choices have an impact.
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Re: Pillars of Eternity Hints, Tips, Spoilers

Post by Daehawk »

I just took possession of the keep. There is SO much stuff to do with it and repair and build . I LOVE IT! This is the keep Ive always wanted in these games. BG2 came closer than ever but this seems to be what I wanted. Full control. Stuff to fix up and get adventurers and citizens visiting. Maybe get some income. Perhaps even have enemies attack me.

Question.....is the money I carry in gold or copper or what? One upgrade said it was 500 copper to do but when I bought it it only took a few coins from my inv.

Oh...just a general hint would do....is there an area I should concentrate on with the keep early so its all better later? Like should I do stuff to raise security or prestige or maybe a building I should repair first to bring people or money into the keep?
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Re: Pillars of Eternity Hints, Tips, Spoilers

Post by dobberhd »

After a while money won't be much of a problem. At first you may struggle to afford the upgrades, but eventually you may have more money that you can spend.

I think all of the currency is the same value.
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Re: Pillars of Eternity Hints, Tips, Spoilers

Post by NickAragua »

I only played through the game once pre-patch (with one abortive too-high-difficulty run subsequently), but it depends. If you want to use the keep as a source of income, you want to build up the crowns and padlocks at a roughly even pace. Keep in mind that time advances in the keep kind of weirdly, some of it is based on game time passed and some of it is based on number of quests you complete. I forget how it works exactly.
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Re: Pillars of Eternity Hints, Tips, Spoilers

Post by Daehawk »

I upgraded the main keep. It took my money this time for sure.

The way the map and travel system works is both pretty normal and pretty annoying at the same time. Im worried Ill miss entire areas. It seems to matter which direction you leave a map. Leave one way and you'll not see an entire area to go to if you left another way. Just now I couldn't find a map area I needed to visit. I went back and started trying different exits from the map areas I had already been to. Luckily I stumbled upon it about the 2nd area I did this.

This is going to waste a lot of my playing time just trying every exit there is to find what map areas it opens up for me to travel to.
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Re: Pillars of Eternity Hints, Tips, Spoilers

Post by Daehawk »

Im only a couple levels down into the dungeons and halls under my keep but this has me wondering......is there some town/keep portal/recall spell Im missing? Some way to exit these deep halls without having to walk back up through all of them? Ive found tons of loot I need to go sell but all this walking back through lvls Ive passed is killing my fun game buzz.

If there is no way then I cant see myself ever finishing this game. I love it but walking up down up down all the time is not something I find fun enough to do.
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Re: Pillars of Eternity Hints, Tips, Spoilers

Post by NickAragua »

The dungeon under your keep generally has little side exits every few levels. Just make sure to explore the whole space. Also, once you get to one of the side exits, you should be able to get back in at that same level after heading back to town.

That being said, can't you just shove all your stuff into the stash and not worry about taking trips back to town except to rest?
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Re: Pillars of Eternity Hints, Tips, Spoilers

Post by Daehawk »

Forgot my stash. Can it hold an infinite amount? I was just selling for the room plus the money lets me repair more stuff in the keep thats broken down.
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Re: Pillars of Eternity Hints, Tips, Spoilers

Post by Zaxxon »

Yes, it's bottomless IIRC.
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Re: Pillars of Eternity Hints, Tips, Spoilers

Post by KDH »

...

:happy-cheerleadersmileyguy: ... Pillars of Eternity: Definitive Edition ... arrives November 15
On November 15, the Definitive Edition will be made available via digital distributors everywhere for a suggested retail price of $39.99, and will include:

* The original Pillars of Eternity, a modern RPG with classic inspiration, and winner of multiple awards for its rich story, art, and world design

* The complete, expanded world, characters, and content from The White March: Parts I & II, which adds new places to travel and quests to complete

* All premium content originally sold with Pillars of Eternity: Royal Edition, including the original soundtrack, a digital collector's book, an original novella set in the Pillars universe, and much, much more

* The all-new Deadfire Pack DLC, which includes new in-game items to earn and discover, and new portraits from the forthcoming sequel, Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire, releasing in 2018

Alongside the release of the Definitive Edition, the original Pillars of Eternity: Hero Edition game will receive a suggested retail price reduction to $29.99
.
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Re: Pillars of Eternity Hints, Tips, Spoilers

Post by Paingod »

Okay... so everyone playing Pathfinder: Kingmaker provoked me to try and play through Pillars of Eternity. I've told myself I shouldn't buy another RPG until I actually play one I own.

I'm doing okay so far, but have run into one of my biggest enemies - Alt-itis. I started a Druid, but am not finding him overly compelling as a lead character. I can't figure out if I'm supposed to be a spellcaster or a melee fighter. I try to do both, and don't think I'm great at either. I spend more time in direct control of my self-made NPC Rogue, who scouts ahead, picks locks, finds all the best stuff, and is generally more fun - but squishier in combat, so I use her as an archer. Open with an Arbalest from stealth on the "worst" enemy, and that problem ceases to exist. :D

I'm struggling with difficulty. I'm playing on whatever the default is, but tend to get my ass kicked in every single fight - well, at least my Druid does. Enemies seem to know he's in charge and everyone else will be at half/full health while he's in the red. This may be due to improper use of spells, or poorly timed spells, or not enough spells. I don't really know. I've avoided using consumables simply because it's my nature and I always put them off assuming there's a better place to use them further along.

I don't think I'm studying enemies enough or paying enough attention to all the little details when I get into a fight. I don't think I've once picked a target based on weakness or switched weapons to accommodate a defense. I don't even know where I'd see that info, and reading through this thread, it sounds like I should be checking it.

So I'm going to start over. Alt-itis. The Druid just isn't doing it for me, and knowing there's no Rogue ahead of me - and knowing Rogues are DAMN useful for traps/loot/backstabs it seems a good logical choice.

On the plus side, I'm not so far in that it's a huge loss and I can power through all the dialog quickly to save time.

*Edit: Yeah. I'm reading guides on combat, and there's a lot of detail I just wasn't paying attention to. Attack Speed vs. Recovery vs. Reload vs. Penetration being a big one. I assumed "higher numbers are better" but didn't really know the math behind what I was doing. So it's not always better. I didn't understand how Recovery on armor impacted actual combat speeds - I assumed this was like "If you fall down, this is the time to get up" kind of thing - not "The time between weapon animations"

*Edit: It really is a good game. I'm a little dismayed that for the 3 or 4 times I started it up, I never made it past the tutorial areas. My team died and I quit. That was it. Over and over. There's a whole lot here I never saw. :doh:
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Re: Pillars of Eternity Hints, Tips, Spoilers

Post by NickAragua »

I plowed through this for the last time about half a year ago, so my memory is a little fuzzy. I posted a couple of tips on July 18th of last year apparently.

Most of them still hold (especially tip 0, ignore the gold-plated characters). The only thing that changed was that I went through on "Path of the Damned". I had to follow several build guides in order to construct my party into a finely-oiled machine for massacring the opposition. There are a couple of points, if you have the expansions, where the game will ask you if you want to "scale the encounters to your party's level", or something like that. First time that happened, I went from mopping the floor with every group of dudes to having to run back to the nearest inn after every fight.

For the record, I had a variation on "the mad hornet", a rogue with a hunting bow. I think it was called "Persistence" or something like that. Basically, her every shot would cause a bunch of bleed damage and some other debuff, so the approach would be to rapidly cycle her fire through all enemies to bleed them to death. The rest of the party was Eder on tank duty, Durance on healing, Aloth on "area of effect" firepower and then two "flexible" slots. At the end, I think I had Pallegina as a secondary tank/damage dealer/healer/area buff and I'll be damned if I remember the last character. Kana Rua maybe? I like his re-usable summons and constant area buffs, so it was probably him. Yeah, definitely him.

The other thing I remember is that I stuffed my characters' quick item slots with summon items as much as possible. A person can only have one set of summoned critters out at a time, and I think you're limited to five total, but it's amazing how much damage and special ability nastiness a couple of spiders can absorb.

One other trick is to look up build guides for the classes of the companion characters as well and follow those as much as possible. The game gives you the option to spread your skill/talent choices out, but that's a bad idea. What you really want to do is specialize, specialize, specialize. Double, triple, quadruple down on a small set of character features until you can't max them out any more.

For example, every skill/talent choice I made for Eder was for the purpose of making him better able to absorb damage. He couldn't do damage for beans, but by the end, his armor and deflection were so high that even a dragon could barely get through it.
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morlac
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Re: Pillars of Eternity Hints, Tips, Spoilers

Post by morlac »

Why agonize over picking your main character. My first long 3/4 done playthrough I went with a Druid as well but also rolled and hired a Barbarian as soon as I had the cash at level 1.
Random answers:

Druids: You should pick to focus on beast mode or spell slinger. Hard to be good enough at both. That being said still engaged beast mode on occasion when I got surrounded for extra tankiness.

Don't "lead" with your Druid in combat. If you trigger a high damage or high aggro debuff too early you will get swamped. Let your tank gain their attention and then unleash hell.

Use your abilities, spells, potions and scrolls. The per combat abilities should be exhausted in every tough fight. This is also the first game I made regular use of one time usable. everyone get s a self heal if you boost the athletics skill, iirc. use it!. Also, multiple classes get some type of healing via an AE healing wave, sucking life force from enemies, etc. Use them! Don't just rely on 1 healer.

Lastly, there is no 2 ways to skin a cat. It's more like 10. You can roll and devolp a melee character who: Excels at deflecting damage and doing it in short burst, excels at AE damage and absorbing damage, can't hurt anyone but has a million HP, dual wielding death dealer who is hard to hit but fragile. They are all viable and possible. Same holds true for every class (mostly) Trick is to pick the style and stick to it. Example above; my second character was an Orlan Barb who excelled at causing crit damage and had a ton of resolve but little con. Every perk, ability, racial trait and item was geared toward this. However, I had to play him the right way which was to be patient and attack enemies who were already engaged (major crit multiplier on his build for this). It took me awhile to realize this because every RPG i ever played there is zero chance you could have a viable melee build and completely tank con or max out Int. Very anti establishment :). It also makes for wonderfully divergent play through and I would kill for some sort of Arena mode where I could build and test party compositions in lieu of restarting every 4 months.
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Paingod
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Re: Pillars of Eternity Hints, Tips, Spoilers

Post by Paingod »

I appreciate the feedback ... but had already restarted last night. I really wasn't diggin' the hybrid class.

Good tips on combat, though. I had been typically keeping back my casters and letting everyone in front AI attack, Druid included, all at once. I guess I didn't (don't) understand aggro rules. It sounds like I need to approach it like an MMO and send people in waves. High Deflect Tanks, then DPS Melee, then Casters.

I decided to try a Pike build Rogue and it's working better for me as a "leader" because I feel less like I need to watch what he's doing and I can focus more on the group. He just stays behind the tank. Done. With more understanding of the stats, he's more combat effective as well.

I touched the Hard difficulty, too. It seems like all it does is limit camping supplies and multiply enemy spawns. Since I was already dying in combat on Normal, I reverted back to Normal. Finding two bears in that first "outdoors" cave (where one guy was killed by another, who tried to run off with his wife) was a shock.

Out of curiosity, I chose to rest so the Rogue could heal when we first escaped the storm, over the Fighter's objections - but didn't. I disarmed all the traps on the bridge and cleaned up the whole dungeon. I stripped her down to nothing and went back to Camp. Normally, if you slept right away, she dies on the traps. I imagine she dies on the spiders if you disable the traps but don't kill them. With the cave cleaned out, she got out but appeared slain near the ceremony outside. It's neat that they accounted for all the ways I could handle her running off and dying.

Another question: Does anything in this game respawn, are there any random encounters - or is this a game of finite resources and experience? I think the only random element I've seen is Keep attacks.
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2021-01-20: The first good night's sleep I had in 4 years.
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