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.
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.