The GWJ CRPG Club - Game 2: Pillars of Eternity (Over)

fuzzyslug wrote:

I"m in!

Woot! Glad you made it.

JMnITup wrote:
Godzilla Blitz wrote:
Spoiler:

Wait, the dead dwarf animancer hanging in the tree? Isn't she, um, dead? And female? Is there another dwarf animancer I missed? I came across the priest, Durance, and he's in our party now. Is that who you mean?

Spoiler:

Nope... I'm surprised you missed it, I assumed it was set to trigger no matter what, but I guess... hmm, thinking through it, that unlocked the first time I Rested (I had gone solo into the temple ruins, rested in the room with the camp supplies that gives you the popup tip about resting), and during that rest, you have a dream about her. After that, you can go to her, and that's the first time you have an experience that makes your weird visions start making sense... it gives you the next step of your main quest too, so the fact that you could just blow through town and not even get this is interesting to me. I'm curious how that would play out.
I don't know if you have to be in the town to trigger it, in the ruins, or if it's just your first rest, but... yeah, you should have a freaky dream about her, then you can go 'talk' to her. Though you are right, you technically aren't talking, and she says as much...

However, no, you don't recruit her. After speaking to her, you can speak to the guy hanging around just outside the tree, Eder, and can eventually recruit him as your fighter... he was my first recruit, took me from being destroyed in most combat encounters to making them not QUITE trivial, but close, with just some health loss buildup over time

Ah, okay, thanks. I actually did everything you mentioned, but thought you were suggesting that the animancer was recruitable. Reading it again, I can see that you were pointing out that the other guy is recruitable after you talk to the animancer. It's all good now, thanks again!

I started up last night with a dwarf pally tank who hopefully will unlock a lot of conversation options and soak up a lot of hits.

I picked up 3 companions fairly quickly and am just mulling around the first town before getting stuck into the main quest line. So far I am quite enjoying it, I'm surprised by peoples reactions to the companions as I have found them interesting so far.

I've finally got to start the game . Druid character. Something out of the ordinary for me. Looking forward to the journey. Catform is OP to start out with.

tundra wrote:

I've finally got to start the game . Druid character. Something out of the ordinary for me. Looking forward to the journey. Catform is OP to start out with.

Nice! I'd be curious how you end up building him. I have no idea what I'm doing with mine.

I played for another hour or so this evening, and completed a first dungeon exploration/quest. I'm having a blast. I love the combat, the exploration, the artwork and style.

Combat went fairly well tonight, but I'm still a bit unsure of some things. On the whole though, except for a few stupid mistakes, the combat in the first dungeon was successful. I didn't need to restart, and no one died. My druid got knocked out a couple of times, but nothing that a quick trip back to the inn couldn't fix right up. Sure glad their isn't concussion protocols in this game.

Random things I'm wondering at the moment...
Do spell-casting orders stack, or does ordering a second spell cancel the first spell?
Are their weapon class skills, or can anyone use any weapon equally well, except for their stats, of course (might, for example)?
What's up with the different colored weapons and armor? I found something blue, and maybe something yellow/gold. But in looking at the damage on a weapon, it seems comparable to a normal weapon. However, in looking at some of the effects of the weapon, there were a couple of notable side effects. So is it these side effects that make the weapon better?

Anyway, I look forward to starting a new quest tomorrow.

Godzilla Blitz wrote:

Are their weapon class skills, or can anyone use any weapon equally well, except for their stats, of course (might, for example)?

All the weapons do what they say for everyone, plus any situational modifiers (using a 1-handed weapon with empty off-hand always gives you +12 accuracy, for example)... However, at level-up, you CAN choose weapon skill talents which give you benefits to a certain set of weapons (like, noble weapons gives you +accuracy or something to daggers, rapiers, and some other weapons)... these aren't obvious, it is easy to overlook that the Talents list has 4 tabs (Class, which is default, but also offense, defense, and... something else?). The Class tab is specific to that class, but the other 3 tabs are all the same choices for all classes as far as I can tell.

Godzilla Blitz wrote:

What's up with the different colored weapons and armor? I found something blue, and maybe something yellow/gold. But in looking at the damage on a weapon, it seems comparable to a normal weapon. However, in looking at some of the effects of the weapon, there were a couple of notable side effects. So is it these side effects that make the weapon better?

I haven't read up on this, this is just from empirical evidence, but... I think there are just 2 general 'groups' of weapons... regular weapons and unique weapons. Regular weapons are just a base with some number of enchantment slots (the anvil with 0/12 by it)... if there are 0 enchants, it is white, if you add an enchantment, it turns blue. I don't know if it changes to other colors if you add more enchantments or not.
Yellow/gold weapons/items are just unique... they aren't necessarily better (for example, I found 'The Disappointer', which was a gold pistol near the beginning... it sort of makes fun of this system, I think, by describing itself as 'looking like something special, but when used or closely examined, you realize it is just a pile of crap, and always disappoints it's user'... it is a little more flowery with it's story, but I thought it was funny, as it's basically saying 'gold isn't necessarily GOOD, you just THINK it is!"

So really it comes down to the enchantments on the base (or if the unique has some useful property or other), more than white > blue > gold. Some whites might be situationally better than blues (like, a slash/pierce white might be a lot better than a pierce blue, against skeletons maybe, and just better flexibility, or a white melee weapon with longer range might be better than a blue dagger if you are stuck behind a melee line you can't wade through).

Cronox wrote:

I started up last night with a dwarf pally tank who hopefully will unlock a lot of conversation options and soak up a lot of hits.

I picked up 3 companions fairly quickly and am just mulling around the first town before getting stuck into the main quest line. So far I am quite enjoying it, I'm surprised by peoples reactions to the companions as I have found them interesting so far.

I enjoy the companions. I haven't spent time with all of them but I saw a lot of the five that were in my party for my incomplete previous game. I think they're well done for the most part.

I think I am going to have to start fresh even though I made it maybe two-thirds through. Too many of the mechanics have slipped my mind, never mind the plot.

tundra wrote:

I've finally got to start the game . Druid character. Something out of the ordinary for me. Looking forward to the journey. Catform is OP to start out with.

I am pretty sure the Druid stays pretty powerful throughout though the shapeshift gets overtaken by mega-spells.

Godzilla Blitz wrote:

Random things I'm wondering at the moment...
Do spell-casting orders stack, or does ordering a second spell cancel the first spell?

If I remember correctly, you can hold shift, and queue up multiple commands like in an RTS, so you could pause the game, and queue up a couple of spells.

I haven't done it this run through but I seem to recall doing it quite a bit my last time playing PoE

Yep, you can queue spells. Never used it much, between your first and second spell much could change, so who knows if you are even interested in casting the next spell when you get to it. But if it is just buffs and such, it works fine.

Regarding item colors, I guess they loosely represents a rarity system, but as JMnITup says it is not 100% linear. The type of bonus on the item matters much more than the color at least. Enchanting your items also matters a great deal, so an item that has only used 2/12 enchant slots so far, might end up better than another which has used up 6/12 enchant slots, since you have more freedom in how to enchant the former. As such, a weapon found early in the game can easily be used throughout the game if you keep improving the enchants (fine, superior etc.)

There is one exception I guess, in the expansions a kind of "legendary" items were added. By doing various quests with those items you make them more and more powerful, and they are generally better than other items in their respective slots.

Btw, a fairly important aspect of gear and stats in PoE;
Stats from gear do not stack. As in, you cant have 2 of the same stat on two different armor pieces; you will only get the benefit from one of them. Likewise with two of the same stats on two weapons/shield.
However you can get the same bonus from both a weapon and an armor piece.
Making it important to match gear that does not have the same stats on them, and when enchanting, to spread out the enchants to different types as well (like, dont enchant +2 might on two different armor pieces).
The quality enchant (Fine, superior etc.) does not count as a shared stat however. All items can have those.
On one of the character stat screens you can see if your character got multiple of the same stats, and if one of them gets cancelled out. Worth checking that.

Nature Godlike Cipher, Coastal Aumaua Druid, Hearth Orlan Rogue, trusty ol' Wood Elf Ranger? I may have to roll a few for trial runs before my head explodes with possibilities!

JMnITup, Shadout, and Skraut - Thanks so much. My brain just leveled up from reading that!

benign1 wrote:

Nature Godlike Cipher, Coastal Aumaua Druid, Hearth Orlan Rogue, trusty ol' Wood Elf Ranger? I may have to roll a few for trial runs before my head explodes with possibilities!

Yeah, I can already think of a number of things I'd do differently if I were to start over.

So far I’m finding my cipher more interesting than my rogue. Kind of feels like a cross between a chanter and a wizard.

It helps to have more crowd control. I should have used more of that when I played before.

I liked rogue quite a bit, but yeah, cipher in many ways is the star of the show. The spells are not encounter or rest-based, so you avoid the annoying aspect from most other chars of having to save spells for later (seriously D&D casters, go away already). Good mix of dps, crowd control, (de-)buffs etc. And of course the class fits directly into the main story as well.
Unsurprisingly it sounds the sequel is designing all classes to be more like the cipher in terms of spell usage.

I also like the cipher npc though, so no loss to get her instead of maining a cipher (well, except that her attribute distribution is terrible).

<3 Doorways: Monsters public enemy no. 1
IMAGE(http://www.shadout.dk/games/poe/PoE-2018-2.png)
If only there was a Create Doorway spell when fighting in open areas everything would be so much easier.

Yeah, rogue’s not bad or anything. I was doing a serious amount of damage and some of the abilities are fun. Maybe some of it is the newness of the cipher since I didn’t use the NPC in my other game.

Oof. This game generates more junk loot than Mass Effect 1. And that generated a LOT of junk loot!

IMAGE(https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/921424104842671801/8B0BB5CA94FD13EB305970F53F0A80779C4FD426/)

In general though, now that I'm into the "Baldurs Gate-esque" roaming around a more open region hoovering up side quests I'm feeling a lot better about the game in general. Even if I do still find the rules systems and weapon stats entirely incomprehensible. Just give me numbers that go up (green) or down (red) dammit!

Thought I'd pop in and say I'm having a lot of fun with this game. I have no idea what I'm doing in combat, but it seems to be working ok. So far!

I finally toppled my decision paralysis and rolled a character. I had so many possibilities thought out and prepared to go. I could make a whole party. Settled on a Human Barbarian. Barbarian because I enjoy causing melee havoc. Human because I decided William Riker was the template.

I almost had a Nature Godlike. I had Lorne from Angel ready to begin adventuring.

Played through the early stages and had a blast. It handles brilliantly on console with a controller. The ability to toggle between stick control and cursor control is great.

Picked up a crossbow and pelting enemies from afar as they approach is as fun as wading in with a two-handed sword!

pyxistyx wrote:

Oof. This game generates more junk loot than Mass Effect 1. And that generated a LOT of junk loot!

IMAGE(https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/921424104842671801/8B0BB5CA94FD13EB305970F53F0A80779C4FD426/)

Boy does it. As a result you end up with a lot of money though. Well that’s a contributing factor anyway. Many a times have I dropped an army’s arsenal of crappy equipment on an unsuspecting vendor.

RnRClown wrote:

I almost had a Nature Godlike. I had Lorne from Angel ready to begin adventuring.

Brilliant!

More progress today. I completed a couple of tasks/quests that took me to the areas around the first village. I ended up clearing two areas in the process, and only suffered one knockdown. Still many things I'm foggy on, but I think I'm starting to understand the basics of combat.

Everyone's at Level 4 now, and some of the battles got noticeably easier once we made the jump up. Having said that, I feel like I'm playing incredibly slowly at the moment. I'm a pretty slow player on the whole, but this might be setting a new record for me.

RnRClown wrote:

Picked up a crossbow and pelting enemies from afar as they approach is as fun as wading in with a two-handed sword!

Humm. I haven't used bows at all yet. I'll have to check that out!

pyxistyx wrote:

Oof. This game generates more junk loot than Mass Effect 1. And that generated a LOT of junk loot!

At least you get a portable hole (well.. chest/stash) to just shove everything into so you don't actually have to worry about it until you need to see if you have something specific or just want to sell off... I actually like its balance of personal limited inventory space and unlimited stash, much better than games like Elder Scrolls that let you pick up TONS of pointless items but then limit your weight AND mix them into the stuff you care about! I always try to maximize my income gain, so I try to pick up EVERYTHING and juggle getting back to sell and getting back out, and while the impulse to do this is uncontrollable and something I CANNOT escape if they provide a means, it is an aspect I distinctly hate, so I definitely appreciate this. I always loved how, starting in the old AD&D Gold Box games like Pools of Radiance and Curse of the Azure Bonds, how the enemies I fought would actually drop the gear they had, and to this day I still love that mechanic... even though it leads to the hilarious image of your adventuring party wandering into town carrying 14 suits of leather armor, 20 swords, a dozen spears, and pockets full of spoons!

Shadout wrote:

so you avoid the annoying aspect from most other chars of having to save spells for later (seriously D&D casters, go away already).

Well, at least they went with the more flexible mechanic of level pools rather than memorizing specific spells, like the newer Sorcerer/bard mechanics... I've definitely come to appreciate mana pools over allotted spell slots, but there's still something about all of the existing systems that I still want to hold onto... maybe it's just nostalgia. I have that issue of never using limited resources (especially when it comes to potions and consumables, but almost as bad for consumable spell slots), so I can't say I disagree with you... but maybe it's just Stockholm syndrome, but I don't really want the more explicit mechanics (like D&D wizards, memorizing specific spells, or MAYBE like clerics, with specific spells but being able to swap them on the fly for cure/harm spells). I like when you have choices among the systems, with tradeoffs/benefits to each. Of course, I can't say whether I LIKE that, or just "like" that... I'm so confused!

Haha. Yep, totally agree. I like this inventory system. I don't mind junk as long as it's easy to manage.

And it's light year's ahead of Shadowrun Dragonfall's system, for sure.

imbiginjapan wrote:

I think I am going to have to start fresh even though I made it maybe two-thirds through. Too many of the mechanics have slipped my mind, never mind the plot.

Not that I'm trying to disuade you from starting fresh (apparently I had 160 hours into my last saves in 2014, but rather than follow the advice here, I started fresh, and only vaguely remember most of what I'm going through now)... but one thing Pillars does REALLY well is having an AMAZING journal.

My guess is, if you loaded your last save and read through your Journal bio, much if not most of the story/plot would come back to you, if not the mechanics. They are really good at documenting your progress and choices, and if I wanted to, I could probably have picked back up on my 160 hours after a fairly hefty amount of reading from my journal... but like you said, I'd probably be totally at a loss on how I specced my characters and how to use them, but I'm sure if I'd TRIED, I would have figured that part out without too much pain.

Basically, while restarting is often best, I did want to give PoE props for a journal system I wish would be matched by other games!

I was having a lot of trouble with

Spoiler:

Zolla, the ogre

but I think at level 4 I'm just not ready yet. So, I'm backing out of that dungeon and going to do some more questing. I need to find all of these vanity pets pyxi's talking about. I only have a

Spoiler:

sad little black dog skulking about

so far.

Trying to figure out how much to stick with my current character, or re-roll and start over. Just not feeling it. Based the character on one of the guides on the PoE forums, and she's just WAY too glass cannon for my tastes. Each encounter, one of 2 things happens. 1) she takes out the enemies within a few seconds of them engaging with the tanks, or 2) she gets knocked out because one enemy didn't engage with the tanks.

It could be that I'm playing on Hard, but I tried dropping the difficulty, but, as noted when I tried to change the difficulty, the difficulty change only takes effect in areas I haven't already visited, and I've done a LOT of exploring, just not a lot of quest solving, because most of the time, I'm trying to avoid the encounter, because I don't think I can beat it.

I'll try to get to level 5 and see if it changes anything, but right now it's a lot of reloads, to not make a whole lot of progress.

Godzilla Blitz wrote:
RnRClown wrote:

Picked up a crossbow and pelting enemies from afar as they approach is as fun as wading in with a two-handed sword!

Humm. I haven't used bows at all yet. I'll have to check that out!

For sure. It's a carry over from Baldur's Gate, for me, where most everyone had a ranged weapon in tandem with a mace or sword. Once a bow or crossbow was available in PoE I had the second weapon slot on my Barbarian, and a Rogue companion, tooled up. Seriously quick support can be got to the tank. And if an enemy is for coming to me I'll loose a few arrows, or bolts, and save the boots a few yards wear.

I'm unsure how this will hold up as enemies become tougher, and more numerous, but in the early going it's helped level out the starting armour and health pools.

Skraut wrote:

Trying to figure out how much to stick with my current character, or re-roll and start over. Just not feeling it.

Do you have a full group?

Things get easier after around lvl 4-5. Until it does, one big help can be to make sure the enemies simply cant attack anything else than your tank. As in blocking them in doorways etc. Your tank can rarely engage all enemies on his own, especially on Hard (more enemies spawn).
Or keep your main character away from initial combat and only move her in after enemy positions seem somewhat stable. Or kite around if she is ranged (that is like half of my combat strategy so far... the other half is doorways)
If you have the gold, the summoning figurines are quite good as off-tanks - there is one at a vendor in the first city, for 6000 gold. It is only 1 summon per rest, but for larger fights they can help quite a bit.

Other things for handling very squishy characters; I think it's the mage, or maybe the priest, got an invincibility bubble spell. Super useful for casting on a character that is getting swarmed. The character cant do anything in the meantime, but at least they aren't dead.

Yeah, I have a full group, but I'm not in love with the composition. I just upgraded everyone's gear, so we'll see how that goes in the future. I'm a ranged character, but I'll face a large group, and it will look like 3 enemies are running at my tanks, 2 will engage with the tanks, and one will move through and run back to my character.

I feel like I need some sort of taunt skill or something on my tanks, to force that engagement, anything else other than my wizard. I forgot how un-fun only cast x spells per day was. Because you either end up playing super conservatively, and camp after every encounter, or you have huge mental debates about using a spell, or saving it because you might need it later