Pillars of Eternity - Eat my Cipher!

[Relic]

GoG patch is up.

[Jasta11]

And, clocking at precisely 60 hours, I have finished.

This is a really, really awesome game. Best RPG I played in years, easily. It edges out Dragon Age: Inquisition, even if not by much, thanks to its well designed mechanics, great writing and immense reactivity. It doesn,t displace Dragon Age: Origins as my favorite RPG in history, but it edges out all the other IE games save perhaps Planescape: Torment. I could gush all over the game for a long time, but instead I'll just point out things I don't like that much for a shorter list;

-Stats are a bit too specialized. DPS wants Might always, Dex if they use weapons and Int if they use AoEs. Per, Con and Res are dump stats for them. Tanks want Per and Res, a bit of Con, rest are dump stats. Deviating from that very probably gives you a sub-par character.

-Talents aren't really thrilling. There are some must-haves (mostly weapon talents in regards to Accuracy, which is THE stat you want to increase at any cost, and some class talents) but the rest are just a bit mediocre. The modal abilities in particular just aren't that good.

-Balance is a bit out of whack even post-patch. Monks, Rangers, melee Rogues and Wizards can be pretty sub-par, and several abilities are just worthless such as the druid's shapeshift. Melee dps is just not as good as ranged dps because you take far more damage and deal not much more, if not less.

-The plot is decent, but I thought it failed to establish a connection with the main character. I was pretty much just the guy in the wrong place at the right time who chased the villain around for not much reasons beyond that it's what protagonists do. You do have a stake in the plot, but the game doesn't put a lot of emphasis on it until closer to the end.

-The beginning and end of the game are pretty linear. Act 2 is very open, so it's not a big deal, but I have a feeling everything around Gilded Vale will grow tiresome on replays just as Irenicus Dungeon was in BG2 and Ostagar in DA:O.

And really, apart from that, the game is aces practically from start to finish. Probably Obsidian's magnum opus. I'm very happy to have backed this, and hope they do an expansion and a sequel that are just as good.

[Relic]

Jasta, any news on the expac, level wise? Could be we get some nice talents added to higher levels.

I'm only 30 hrs in but I do have some minor gripes.

Outdoor areas are too small, and lack the sense of exploration that BG2 provided.

Combat becomes a melee clusterfuck on hard difficulty, and would be impossible without a tank. Melee rogues are pretty useless, as my PC has learned. He basically pings arrows until there are only a couple of enemies remaining for fear of getting KOed for the 20th time.

Party companions come preleveled so you get stuck with whatever the computer picks for them in terms of skills and talents. My hired cipher is way way better than Grieving Mother due to this.

The world could be far more reactive to my actions. I kill the king and it's as if nothing happened, for instance.

Otherwise best rpg I've played in a long time. Far better than Wasteland 2, imo, and more enjoyable than Shadowrun: Dragon Fall (which I thought was pretty damned good).

[The Drunkard]

Finished. Brief paraphrasing of my ending report:

(end game + endless path spoilers)

- Souls returned to the cycle. Hollowborn parents still have soulless children, but the curse is lifted for all future kids. [Followed Berath's advice.]

- With Raedric's influence gone Gilded Vale becomes a popular place to live, but lawless even by local standards. Many people travel there after the Defiance Bay riots but leave just as quick. [Put Kolsc in power and then killed vampire-Raedric. I suspect leaving Raedric alive and killing Kolsc may achieve the best ending, as a ruler would remain in control and he would stop being such a lunatic with the curse ended.]

- Everyone everywhere hears of how amazing Caed Nua is. People travel there to see it, all the lords envy it, it's the best thing ever. [because I cleared Od Nua and restored it fully, I assume.]

- The Knights of the Crucible establish control over Defiance Bay because of the role they played during the trials, and are reinforced by knights from Fleetbreaker Castle. Internally they continue to study animancy cautiously, but eventually the High Justice declares indefinite martial law and takes control of Defiance Bay. [Chose the knights over the criminals and the Dozens. Told the commander that they should continue to study animancy. I suspect that the forge knights are what causes the martial law bit.]

- Because of my convincing argument against the Leaden Key during the animancy trials, people stop blaming animancy and instead the popular belief is that a Leaden Key spy assassinated the Duc. The Sanitarium is rebuilt. [Argued in favour of animancy, blamed the Leaden Key.]

- Leaden Key spies return to Heritage Hill and reactive the machine. The area is permanently abandoned. [No idea.]

- Dyrwood becomes a prosperous town with all remnants of Skaen gone. [Killed the Skaen guys, saved the noble's niece.]

- The dragon isn't sure what to do with her freedom, and is last seen boarding a ship to foreign lands. [Helped the Master Below escape.]

- Edér settles down in Dyrwood and is eventually made mayor. He helps the town thrive, ironically by following Raedric's example, offering land to new settlers. [Not sure how I achieved this.]

- Hiravias leaves Eir Glanfath for the first time and travels the world, enjoying life. He becomes a legendary figure known for his temperament and odd advice. [Not sure how I achieved this.]

- The Valian Republic capitalizes on Dyrwood's weakness and takes over trade, despite Pellegina's deal with Twin Elms not to take over the Dyrwood trade. She is exiled for disobeying and joins the King Wayfarer paladin order. [Told her to go against her orders.]

- Durance stops consorting with Magran and becomes a quiet, contemplative wanderer, seeking some way to have revenge. [Told him that Magran conspired against him? Not sure.]

- Sagani returns home in triumph, everyone is happy, she becomes a respected elder and eventually some new huntress goes seeking her soul. [Not sure how I achieved this.]

- Aloth dedicates his life to dismantling the Leaden Key. [Pretty sure it's because I insisted that it needed to go.]

- Kana returns to the lore college saying that the tablet was destroyed and that they need to find their own meanings in life. He goes off to wander the world collecting new info [No idea.]

- Grieving Mother, her bad memories wiped, returns to the Birthing Bell and waits mothers and children that never come. [Wiped her memories after she asked me to. A lot more depressing than I imagined.]

Nothing to do with Twin Elms that I noticed, which is weird, because I'm pretty sure I did every quest.

Skaen is such a troll. Because I had appeased every god, right before I made my final decision he pops up with a changed mind, and decides that because I had labored for all the other gods without receiving much in return I should screw them over and do as Thaos would and assist Woedica.

[Independent George]

I finally got to block some time off and really play yesterday, and holy crap do I love this game. I finally started to understand how to manage traffic and use AOE spells, which suddenly makes combat got a lot easier.

My priest alternates from being overpowered to useless depending on the battle; where everybody else seemed to have trouble with shadows early on, my priest was wiping them out with her burning radiance spell. In other battles, though, she gets mobbed by enemies unless I'm extra-careful with traffic management, which I think is a good thing. Combat is properly hard without resorting to cheating.

I could use some tactical advice, though, in Defiance Bay:

I got my ass well and properly kicked at the lighthouse. Given that I've cleared out almost every other dungeon in the city with only moderate trouble, I assume I'm doing something wrong, but I got mobbed and wiped out almost instantly when I approach the stairs. I've searched the rest of the ground floor, but didn't see anything that would let me pass. Do I just wait a couple levels before returning? It seems so much ridiculously harder than everything else in Defiance Bay that I think I'm either missing something fundamental, or it's someplace I need to come back to.

[Maia]

So, that's funny. I have thought that I had tried the right exit from an area to get to the intact bridge into the city, but it turns out that I hadn't. So, I have been thinking that maybe some event was needed to unlock it or maybe that I had to take a boat from some other place, and have been hoovering the other locations ever since (I like to 100% and area), thinking that the enemies and locks/traps were becoming really tough. Finally, I got tired of it

temple of Skaen and all the drakes really broke my will, I have to say

, looked up a walkthrough and LOL. City, here I come! The lesson - you really need to pay attention to where you exit an area for the first time.

[White Walker Texas Ranger]

My only advice for the lighthouse is to get your characters in a proper formation before sending your one character to the door to start the fight. Maybe set up a trap. Kill the shades first since when they die, they take shadows with them. Also the top floor is much harder. What's annoying to me is that it's a no rest area so I have to retreat to an inn after each big fight. Especially since so many shadows ignor your tanks.

[MerenthaClone]

My only advice for the lighthouse is to get your characters in a proper formation before sending your one character to the door to start the fight. Maybe set up a trap. Kill the shades first since when they die, they take shadows with them. Also the top floor is much harder. What's annoying to me is that it's a no rest area so I have to retreat to an inn after each big fight. Especially since so many shadows ignor your tanks.

You don't have to

fight Lilith, btw. Sneak around and steal some stuff, then go talk to the person outside the Lighthouse.

Also, scrolls of Fan of Flames are really, really nice to put on your front-liners. They take, like, 2 points of Lore to use, are really cheap to make, and do monstrous damage to fire-weak critters like Shades. Consumables, people! There's a billion of them and they're really, really good.

[White Walker Texas Ranger]

It's kind of funny because in games like Skyrim or Fallout 3, I always hoarded consumables, but never actually used them, because what if I needed that frag mine for a tougher boss? I've used plenty of potions and food, but where do you get scrolls other than looting them?

Eta, wait you can craft scrolls?

[Independent George]

I, too, am an RPG-hoarder. At least, I am on my first playthrough; once I know where the tough battles are and what works in them, I tend to let 'em rip. The most precious resource in the BG series were Protection From Magic/Protection from Undead scrolls, because of how useful they were against liches (and Kangaxx the Demi-Lich). Since there were only a few in the game, they were wasted on anything less than that.

How big of a hypcrite am I for hating the weightless ammo/stimpacks in FO3, but shamelessly using POE's stash to amass a fortune?

[MerenthaClone]

Eta, wait you can craft scrolls?

Yep! Fan of Flames costs like 75 cp and some fairly common materials for 2 scrolls, and they remain useful into the late game especially if you made Eder (or whichever tank) tanky rather than hurty. I think I went overboard and both Eder and Pallegina are full-on tanks, leaving pretty much only my main melee Cipher for great damage. Kana, Grieving Mother, and Durance made an okay crossbow/gun line for some nice burst damage, but they just can't keep up with my main.

e: You can't craft all scrolls, btw, just some. Check out the crafting tab. Food is also really good but not often used, especially if you've put points into Survival. 6cp buys you alcohol, which gives you +1 DR for 300 seconds. Dirt cheap and always useful.

[Werthead]

Thanks to massive work overload, I haven't had any time to play. Only 9 hours in, Level 4 and Raedric is kicking my frigging arse. Should I come back at a higher level? I've kind of run out of other shit to do. Can you go to Defiance Bay before taking out Raedric or is that a bad idea?

I think my biggest problems are 1) only 5 characters (might have to recruit someone else at the inn) and 2) shitty AoE spells, in particular not getting Slicken. I might have to bounce to grab those.

[Daeric]

I think I did Raedric at around that level, and I believe the only guy left standing was Aloth due to the aoe spell that steals endurance and gives it to him. That fight is really about getting rid of their range asap while trying to get the champions onto your tank and then if you are running Durance just dumping all the heal spells onto it

[TheRevanchist]

Thanks to massive work overload, I haven't had any time to play. Only 9 hours in, Level 4 and Raedric is kicking my frigging arse. Should I come back at a higher level? I've kind of run out of other shit to do. Can you go to Defiance Bay before taking out Raedric or is that a bad idea?

I think my biggest problems are 1) only 5 characters (might have to recruit someone else at the inn) and 2) shitty AoE spells, in particular not getting Slicken. I might have to bounce to grab those.

Raedric can be done later. Or side with him, which I think will be the best long term solution.

Definitely recruit another one. I just recruited a druid (I am level 6) and it seems a very nice class.

[White Walker Texas Ranger]

My only 50% cheesy way to beat Raedric with 6 lvl 4 characters and no slicken on Aloth (though main was a Cypher, so I spammed that really good paralyze spell) was to set up a good defenseive formation sort of in the open area of the chapel. I then placed an area effect trap between my party and the entrance to the ramp and had all my characters perform a ranged attack on the bottom left dude to start the fight without talking. Consecrated ground and the priest armor buff on Eder meant he was pretty much invincible. I summoned the skeleton for a meatwall as soon as Kala had the phrases.

Edit: I asked about this fight earlier in the thread and some other people gave great advice.

[Maia]

I think my biggest problems are 1) only 5 characters (might have to recruit someone else at the inn) and 2) shitty AoE spells, in particular not getting Slicken. I might have to bounce to grab those.

Level 4 is the right one and having 5 characters is OK. What class is your PC? Also, did you explore the dungeon? There is some nice equipement there.

If you have patched your game, then Slicken is not nearly as powerful as it used to be. Look at your other crowd control spells - Chill Fog is quite useful and so is the blinding spell if you have picked it wirh Aloth. Look at Kana's chants - quick movement is useless, put together the buff and the fear effect. Put Kana into a lighter armor, so that you don't have to wait forever for his phantom summon or for his arquebuse attacks. You can give him dual hatchets or a hatchet and a buckler as an alternate set to provide some extra deflection in case he gets mobbed.

Ale gives you + 2 DR that last for a long time - very helpful in tough fights in my experience. Even +1 DR from beer makes a difference, so have everybody partake. Look at the foods you have ditto. They all have long durations, so eat/drink before you start the fight. Buff and debuff with Durance. His armor and attack buffs really help, as does the Interdiction. Generally he has lots of really useful spells, don't use him just or mainly for healing. With the Slicken nerve and if your PC is not a caster, he has spells that will let you stop some enemies in their tracks. You know not to move characters that have been engaged in melee, right? Oh, and try to take out the enemy spellcasters first. Concentrated ranged fire and all that.

[MerenthaClone]

Plate armor doesn't affect the speed of chants, so Kana's not a bad off-tank. Also, you can pick up every party member besides one before getting to Defiance Bay. That said, Repulsing Seal is still really, really good. Honestly, anything that denies action is incredible and should be spammed.

[Maia]

Plate armor doesn't affect the speed of chants, so Kana's not a bad off-tank.

Are you sure? I am playing unpatched, but it took so long for invocations to appear for him initially that I wasn't seeing them at all and began to wonder if he was bugged. Then I switched him to a fine padded armor and since then they activate much more quickly and can be used even in relatively short fights. YMMV. Not to mention that his arquebuse is actually a very powerful weapon early on and it is hampered by heavy armor too. In fact it is so powerful that I'd recommend enchanting it to "fine" or "accurate 1" as soon as you have the ingredients.

That said, Repulsing Seal is still really, really good. Honestly, anything that denies action is incredible and should be spammed.

Absolutely. Priest spell that denies movement is also great for keeping powerful single melee attackers at a distance. Kinda funny that priests and druids have more spells available to them off the bat than a wizard and those spells are also more varied and have better casting and AoE ranges.

P.S. A question to all of you who have "unmet requirements" enabled in dialog - are there any significant differences between what is available to male and female PCs? I mean, I have come across several instances where it is clear that the pronoun would be changed, but it seems to me so far that there aren't as many differences as, say, in BG2, where picking a different gender offered a lot of replayability. Though there, of course the bulk of it came from the romances. I am surprised that a certain

creepy, sexist and sexually pre-occupied

NPC isn't trying to hit on my PC or to belittle her.

[Fez]

I need to get back into this. I haven't been able to play anything for a week now thanks to travel and other things. The detour out to Dryford Village is done, and I need to just focus on wrapping up Defiance Bay quests for now. I also had trouble with the Lighthouse fights, I ended up going away and figured I'd come back once I leveled up a bit more (and I think I was 5 at the time, I'm 7 now).

[The Drunkard]

P.S. A question to all of you who have "unmet requirements" enabled in dialog - are there any significant differences between what is available to male and female PCs? I mean, I have come across several instances where it is clear that the pronoun would be changed, but it seems to me so far that there aren't as many differences as, say, in BG2, where picking a different gender offered a lot of replayability. Though there, of course the bulk of it came from the romances. I am surprised that a certain

creepy, sexist and sexually pre-occupied

NPC isn't trying to hit on my PC or to belittle her.

I never saw any male/female dialogue options.