Eternity Pillars of Eternity + The White March Expansion Thread

[Lacrymas]

There are builds that don't have the Priest just be a buff-bot. Skaen Priest f.e.

 

[AshenNedra]

What was Durance's deal in pillows? He had killed a god's avatar and was really broken up about it?

Crisis of faith of a true believer, basically. Not much more than that.

 

[Lyric Suite]

I always played the Infinite Engine games with a "no rest unless absolutely necessary" rule which meant using buffs was a strategic choice, but i assume most people played those games by resting up at every opportunity which means every single fight involved spending 10 minutes stacking buffs and Pillars was designed to get around that, which to me is retarded because the correct way to fix that issue is to limit resting and Pillars already partially takes care of that problem (and adds a strategic element to resting itself through resting bonuses to boot, which is a good system).

Blessing knights and arms was actually a thing in the middle ages and it still even happens in modern times:

The whole armouring ritual in Warhammer 40k is also inspired by this medieval practice. This is another case of Pillars going against a well established and easiely understood concept for the sake of "balance". Buffing during combat only is just unintuitive from a conceptual point of view, but then again that is just the norm in Pillars.

 

[Modron]

I always played the Infinite Engine games with a "no rest unless absolutely necessary" rule which meant using buffs was a strategic choice, but i assume most people played those games by resting up at every opportunity which means every single fight involved spending 10 minutes stacking buffs

Most IE game enjoyers say Mages are overpowered but if you play without resting after every/every other encounter they'll wind up maybe doing at the most 2-3% of your party damage. Reasonable play sees them being can openers and occasional buffers/crowd control. Only exception is PST since that game doesn't have a max level and several open ended +damage per caster level spells means the Nameless One can dish out a dozen nukes per rest or more.

 

[gurugeorge]

Vancian magic is a beautiful thing from the point of view of realism and immersion, but it only really goes with proper scouting, proper intel/inspecting/conning and a proper resting system.

Otherwise you might as well cut out all the faff, go more arcadey and just have most abilities per-encounter.

 

[Lacrymas]

You can at least choose to challenge yourself with a Vancian system when the devs don't have the balls to do it themselves. Otherwise it turns into rote tactics like in PoE2.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Most IE game enjoyers say Mages are overpowered but if you play without resting after every/every other encounter they'll wind up maybe doing at the most 2-3% of your party damage.

I always imagined the roles of wizards that of just being a reserve trump card. Even Gandalf was like that in Lord of the Rings. I never liked pew pew wizards in games. I always liked how they were designed in D&D with all those lore laden, situational spells that could turn the tide of a battle on a pinch. Even in the worlds of Robert E. Howard magic worked like that. It makes magic seem mysterious and otherwordly when it's rapresented that way.

 

[gurugeorge]

You can at least choose to challenge yourself with a Vancian system when the devs don't have the balls to do it themselves. Otherwise it turns into rote tactics like in PoE2.

I dunno, it's six and a half dozen, it depends on your focus while playing the game.

If you're immersed, smelling the roses, living in the now and taking the experience as an adventure sim, then as I said, Vancian is king.

But if you're at the stage where you're focused mainly on the tactical gameplay and builds, all that stuff is just a tedious timesink, and you want to have all your toys lined up for every encounter.

 

[NotSweeper]

So the game's way more difficult than I remember it, I know it got updated and patched and what not...

Playing on PotD and looking at the stat spread on companions make me want to barf. So now I'm left with using unmin-maxed shitbags that are fucking trash in combat, or I go with adventurers while the story companions sit in Caed Nua.
This is why you do custom companions OR story companions, doing both results in this bullshit.
>Yeah but the reddit crowd won't get the cool party MCU banter quips if we don't include retard build companions
Fuck you Josh.

 

[AshenNedra]

Most IE game enjoyers say Mages are overpowered but if you play without resting after every/every other encounter they'll wind up maybe doing at the most 2-3% of your party damage.

I always imagined the roles of wizards that of just being a reserve trump card. Even Gandalf was like that in Lord of the Rings. I never liked pew pew wizards in games. I always liked how they were designed in D&D with all those lore laden, situational spells that could turn the tide of a battle on a pinch. Even in the worlds of Robert E. Howard magic worked like that. It makes magic seem mysterious and otherwordly when it's rapresented that way.

The less obvious magic there is in any work of fiction,be it games, films or games, the better said work is. It's a universal rule imho.

 

[AshenNedra]

So the game's way more difficult than I remember it, I know it got updated and patched and what not...

Playing on PotD and looking at the stat spread on companions make me want to barf. So now I'm left with using unmin-maxed shitbags that are fucking trash in combat, or I go with adventurers while the story companions sit in Caed Nua.
This is why you do custom companions OR story companions, doing both results in this bullshit.
>Yeah but the reddit crowd won't get the cool party MCU banter quips if we don't include retard build companions
Fuck you Josh.

I just finished a POTD run with story companions and content upscaled, given that I've nothing else to play and I never did POTD difficulty setting at release.

Only my MC was minmaxed.

I did it but some parts were a pain in the ass, the most egregious being the fucking Abbey of the Moon and the Lagufaerth or something in the expansion.

Too much combat. Same routine every fight against every trash mob or you die. Basically raise perception with a priest is a prerequisite in every fucking fight.

Icewind Dale apologists and combatfags, yes there is such a thing in a CRPG, fuck off.

 

[NotSweeper]

Icewind Dale apologists and combatfags, yes there is such a thing in a CRPG, fuck off.

I disagree

 

[Lyric Suite]

So the game's way more difficult than I remember it, I know it got updated and patched and what not...

Playing on PotD and looking at the stat spread on companions make me want to barf. So now I'm left with using unmin-maxed shitbags that are fucking trash in combat, or I go with adventurers while the story companions sit in Caed Nua.
This is why you do custom companions OR story companions, doing both results in this bullshit.
>Yeah but the reddit crowd won't get the cool party MCU banter quips if we don't include retard build companions
Fuck you Josh.

I just finished a POTD run with story companions and content upscaled, given that I've nothing else to play and I never did POTD difficulty setting at release.

Only my MC was minmaxed.

I did it but some parts were a pain in the ass, the most egregious being the fucking Abbey of the Moon and the Lagufaerth or something in the expansion.

Too much combat. Same routine every fight against every trash mob or you die. Basically raise perception with a priest is a prerequisite in every fucking fight.

Icewind Dale apologists and combatfags, yes there is such a thing in a CRPG, fuck off.

Does min/maxing really make that much of a difference in PoTD.

I was planning of making my own custom companions but i wasn't going to min/max them, mostly just keep them in line with the quest companions. The only one i min/maxed is my main, though right now i'm actually having second throughts about doing that i'm likely going to respec into a more reasonable stat spread. I'm just waiting to get to Redric Hold and use that as a test for both my own main and custom made characters.

 

[Lacrymas]

You don't have to minmax, the only thing that is always good to keep as high as possible is accuracy, but PotD is harder than the IE games ever were, even vanilla BG1. SCS is harder than PotD though.

 

[NotSweeper]

Does min/maxing really make that much of a difference in PoTD.

In the longterm prolly not, but before Caed Nua having a paladin and priest that doesn't suck cocks (sorry Durance) made a massive difference for me. I'm rampaging through Raedric's shit with ease currently.

 

[Lyric Suite]

SCS is harder than PotD though.

Well, in that case min/maxing isn't really necessary. After all, BG companions aren't that well optimized either, outside of a few outliers like Minsc.

 

[Lyric Suite]

BTW, scrolls actually work great with a pally. I wonder if kills made with scrolls count for abilites triggerd by kills? Like the Bleak Walker one that triggers a fear effect or the Kind Wayfarer one that triggers aoe healing.

 

[AshenNedra]

So the game's way more difficult than I remember it, I know it got updated and patched and what not...

Playing on PotD and looking at the stat spread on companions make me want to barf. So now I'm left with using unmin-maxed shitbags that are fucking trash in combat, or I go with adventurers while the story companions sit in Caed Nua.
This is why you do custom companions OR story companions, doing both results in this bullshit.
>Yeah but the reddit crowd won't get the cool party MCU banter quips if we don't include retard build companions
Fuck you Josh.

I just finished a POTD run with story companions and content upscaled, given that I've nothing else to play and I never did POTD difficulty setting at release.

Only my MC was minmaxed.

I did it but some parts were a pain in the ass, the most egregious being the fucking Abbey of the Moon and the Lagufaerth or something in the expansion.

Too much combat. Same routine every fight against every trash mob or you die. Basically raise perception with a priest is a prerequisite in every fucking fight.

Icewind Dale apologists and combatfags, yes there is such a thing in a CRPG, fuck off.

Does min/maxing really make that much of a difference in PoTD.

I was planning of making my own custom companions but i wasn't going to min/max them, mostly just keep them in line with the quest companions. The only one i min/maxed is my main, though right now i'm actually having second throughts about doing that i'm likely going to respec into a more reasonable stat spread. I'm just waiting to get to Redric Hold and use that as a test for both my own main and custom made characters.

It's a huge difference in my experience. My build is basically this one minus the proc-on-crits items (found it myself, which I'm a little proud of, considering I generally suck at min/maxing):

https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/86064-class-build-the-thundercat-or-crit-me-maybe-on-more-time/

It did ten times the amount of damage of the others combined and was the main crowd controller has well with the Storm/stun spells. Add confuse and the obligatory prayer against ailments, fix the fight with a tank and off tank, cast storm, transform, melt enemies (max damage dealt: 301)

Very nice build but the routine is always the same.

If you just want to have fun, just play on hard imho. The achievement is not worth it.

And it used to be that the dragons were the hardest fights in the game, which is both interesting and coherent. More importantly, there are only a few a them. Now dragons can't hold a candle to two brood mothers Lagufareth and her cronies.

You fight maybe 30 such groups and 80 fucking monks.

Very fun. Very creative. good encounter design and balance.

 

[Lacrymas]

SCS is harder than PotD though.

Well, in that case min/maxing isn't really necessary. After all, BG companions aren't that well optimized either, outside of a few outliers like Minsc.

The evil BG companions are (literally) overpowered and more than min/maxed. Coran has an illegal proficiency in longbows.

 

[AshenNedra]

You don't have to minmax, the only thing that is always good to keep as high as possible is accuracy, but PotD is harder than the IE games ever were, even vanilla BG1. SCS is harder than PotD though.

Which means upping accuracy with two of three spells every fight, even against trash. That is really tedious.

 

[Lyric Suite]

So i just made a custom barbarian, basically the character i wanted to make originally. Last time when i got to Raedric i had only Eder, Durance and Kana and it was a pain in the ass. This time i'm taking an extra friend. They are super cheap at low level anyway.

 

[Lyric Suite]

BTW, i got a point in aggressive disposition, nothing in cruel yet. Nothing much changed in terms of outcomes, but the early quests are mostly inconsequential anyway. Trying not to portray my character as outright evil, just following the Bleak Walker ideal, but since i have no idea what dialog choice is what in expert mode i'm going by instinct and most of the time it feels i'm just being a bit of an asshole for no reason. Was fun to call the magistrate a bitch, but there weren't any consequences for that either.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

You spent 2 weeks research best character to do dialogues with, but you're gonna give up reading the dialogue after 30 minutes.

 

[mediocrepoet]

You spent 2 weeks research best character to do dialogues with, but you're gonna give up reading the dialogue after 30 minutes.

Well how the hell is he going to know what xaurips and fampyrs are then?

 

[ERYFKRAD]

You spent 2 weeks research best character to do dialogues with, but you're gonna give up reading the dialogue after 30 minutes.

Well how the hell is he going to know what xaurips and fampyrs are then?

Well fampyrs are easy, they're vampires without teeth.
Xaurips are obviously loot stealers, named after the sound they make tearing your bags.