Eternity Pillars of Eternity + The White March Expansion Thread

Although we've been over this I'll say it again. While this is a noble goal to have and it makes the stats more than just a part of the mechanics, their stats shouldn't be so bad. There is no reason for Durance to have 9 DEX, it actively decreases his usefulness and the support role of his class. Yes, it's a problem with PoE's system because some stats are universally good for 99% of builds and classes (DEX, MIG, PER, INT), but they don't really make sense from an RP stand-point. It'd be as if Viconia had had 11 WIS, sure, she has 19 DEX, but she wouldn't be able to get access to the majority of her spells, making her a bad cleric. It's not as dramatic in PoE, but it's similar.

 

The stats are neither bad nor good, they're simply not chosen for their combat viability. The stats need to make sense RP wise, that's it.

Have you ever met an agile priest?

 

Just looking at the guy, he doesn't come across as dexterous at all. A wobbly, creaky older man who needs that firey staff of his to walk properly.

 

Like I said, I agree that it makes sense, but it could've been 12 DEX with the same RP result. Durance does say that he can pull his own weight while traveling, though, so he isn't some frail ruin who needs constant vigilance. The companions should be competent in a mechanics sense or should do very heavy narrative lifting, which Durance does and that's why I have him in my party. Didn't MCA say that companions should be first and foremost gameplay viable? I'm not saying Durance, or anyone else, isn't, but they could be slightly better without sacrificing their stat consistency. The Devil's innate recovery rate can be -20% instead of -40% f.e. At this point I don't see myself using the companions any time soon and I guess that's ok.

 

Look at the other companions' dex scores, that's what they have.

Hence why he has a dex of 9 instead of 3.

They actually did give Durance's stats a buff in one of the early patches. He received +2 to both constitution and intelligence. Dexterity is working as designed.

Wait, scratch that, they just moved 2 constitution to intelligence.

 

Grieving Mother has 16 DEX... I guess all that baby farming has a rigorous full-body stretching regimen and probably all kinds of cardio, so rigorous in fact that she has the highest DEX of all of them, Aloth being the second best with 15. Man, all those dexterous hours spent reading those books.

 

Did you forget all that fancy fingerwork GM does when she's birthing babies?

And Aloth's an elf in peak condition, of course he's going to be high in dex. He's not some scrawny nerd mage.

Fun fact is that Sagani used to have one of the highest dex scores until 3.00 when I guess they realized that a stubby little dwarf probably shouldn't be nimbler than everyone else.

 

That's getting waaaay too specific, though. What's to say Durance can't move his fingers fast? Is moving only 1 part of your body enough?

 

Nothing about a battle-scarred, middle aged man is going to be quick. Professional team sports players typically retire a decade or so before they reach Durance's age because they can't cut it anymore.

 

Yeah, no. :p That's why I said it's very specific. And I'm fairly certain it doesn't take even half that much flexibility and speed to cast spells. If we give GM a free pass because she can move her fingers fast then everyone should get that, too. If everyone is shit and have 11-12 DEX (which they do) the shittier characters will be even more irrelevant and replaceable. Like Durance. Do we want that? He even has 19 RES lolol, the dumpiest stat of them all.

 

They aren't trained pianists or even trained in doing what she does. Her finger agility is a skill.

Additionally, I looked up Prokofiev and it appears he was never a veteran and he certainly never survived something like the Godhammer bomb which seared Durance's soul in two. It's a testament to Durance's resolve that he was not only able to survive that but survive it without being permanently crippled.

 

I mostly posted that video to show off Sokolov's (Prokofiev is the composer) speed at middle age, but I'm fairly certain there are some musicians who were also soldiers at one point and then returned to music. Or have been in detention/POW camps for years, like Messiaen. There's also a colleague of my father's who has played the violin for 15 years in the past, has quit decades ago, but he was still able to play some pieces, understandably a bit out of tune, on my viola in tempo. He's 70. You know that Rosie the Riveter poster for feminism? She was actually a cello player who stopped working at the factory after a while so she doesn't fuck up her hands. So, yeah, finger dexterity =/= age.

Also, Durance has 19 RES because reasons, but GM, whose only motivation is to stop the Hollowborn by any means necessary, has a RES of 10?

 

Aloth is an Aedyran Battlemage. Good DEX.

Grieving Mother is a rogue who spent her entire life running away from responsibility and pretending to be a midwife. She constantly takes the easy way of mindraping people and she herself went crazy after a mindrape. Good DEX, ok Resolve.

Durance is a single minded priest with years of dogma behind him, whose latest exploits was presiding over inquisition and murder of opposite faiths. He's also ancient and playing cello and videogames isn't what Pillars' system is testing. While a hand eye coordination goes up with age, your performance goes down with constant warfare and being next to a nuke at some point of your life. Low DEX, High Resolve.

 

...by picking flowers till player comes along and then nagging the player about her way is the right way, such resolve. at least durance has not settled down, been wandering the jungles, seeking answers till he saw us in the flames

tho in this way of thinking Sagani's resolve prolly should have been the highest

 

d00d

Yes Durance would be more effective with higher DEX.

No it doesn't make him a fucking cripple who needs to be babysat and can't pull his own weight.

I thought you were the big romantic type all into immershun and shit, and here you are, whining about minmaxing like a 13-year-old WoWhead.

 

If the companionstats really are such a big deal, just edit them in IEMod tbh. I'll admit that I edited Durance's DEX myself, although it does leave me with a bit of a sour feeling.

 

Like Delterius said, GM is known for taking the easy way out - hence why she started using her Jedi Mind Tricks on mothers of Hollowborn children, and why she even wants to take away her own memory. Not very Resolved.

Durance, on the other hand, survives on sheer faith and stubbornness alone, so it makes sense for him to be as Resolved as they come.

Not really. Yes, for her it probably should have been higher, but she was always open to the possibility of her hunt for Persoq being all for nothing (even though she was certain she would eventually find him).

 

BTW Lacrymas, you can build Durance into a perfectly capable frontline tank.

That high RES will come in handy, and the low DEX just means he won't be able to chain-cast... but seriously, with two priests in your party able to synergise their buffs, do you really need Durance to chain-cast? Make him play bass to your lead guitar man, it's groovy

 

Do we have any idea about Durance's age other than "middle-aged"?

 

I've never been the romantic type lol. I'm actually using Durance to chain-cast most of the time, that's one of the reasons I take him instead of getting a druid or something. My priest is only chain-casting in the beginning to get the buffs rolling faster, then goes into almost full melee mode, that's what she's built for. If things get too hairy then I step back and chain cast with Durance. I've thought about him being a tank, he has the stats for it, but he'll be almost useless outside of being a meatshield, his low DEX and a lot of - recovery will allow him to cast very rarely, which means that my priest would have to cast more, defeating the purpose of the sneak attack build.

The wiki states early 40's, but without a citation.

 

It's from the strategy guide.

Aloth is 62, Sagani is 57, Eder and Hiravias are 32, Kana Rua is 31, Pallegina is 26, GM's is unlisted. PoE's companions skew on the older side compared to Bioware's games.

 

Maybe its just me being bad or my absolute unwillingness to rest in dungeons and 'enemy bases', but I generally have two 'secondary tanks'. Since Health eventually runs low for Durance and Kana Rua, both of them are ready to change weapons and armor to switch to a more damage oriented role. Durance goes from casting openings (seals and certain buffs) with armor to chain casting with a rifle and his robe.

People like Durance, Edér and Aloth always felt pretty effective because I bothered understanding their classes. Kana Rua was the extra meatshield / distractions generator. They aren't optmized but this isn't quite AD&D, where the difference between 18 and 19 STR is a +6 to damage.

 

To not rest at all in the dungeons you'd have to play very defensively. I usually rest because either my priest or my barbarian have almost ran out of Health and I can't afford to continue on in that state. Durance and the cipher pretty much never get hit because they have boots of speed + survival movement speed bonus, and none of the mobs are remotely as fast. I could give them all heavy armor and not have them take that much damage, but the combat will considerably start to drag on because they do 50% less dps (-50% recovery/attack speed) and I don't think I'd enjoy it very much. The combat is already kind of a compromise and the enemies won't slow down or become less numerous if I play more defensively.

 

I think some people tend towards that playstyle naturally.

 

If health is constraining your resting rather than per-rest ability uses, you're not using enough per-rest abilities.

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If one of the team gets low on health, consider crafting and using a potion of Infuse with Vital Essence. Pop that towards the end of combat and you're right as rain.