Eternity Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire + DLC Thread - now with turn-based combat!

[Lacrymas]

I don't think anyone despises this game. It's competent, but the writing and narrative structure drag it down, like discussed many times.

 

[Tigranes]

Plenty of people liked POE1 & POE2 (or liked one, hated the other, etc). Just some people went into a years-long savage frenzy of obsessive screaming. People would go into supermarkets and start yelling about Josh Sawyer's Balance Conspiracy when they saw all the milk cartons were sized the same.

Now we have shit like the Outer Worlds, of course, how time flies

 

[pomenitul]

I don't think anyone despises this game. It's competent, but the writing and narrative structure drag it down, like discussed many times.

That's far too reasonable a stance. Either it's the worst game of all time and Obsidian are literal Cali-commie war criminals or it's chin-stroking canonical material of the highest order, there can be nothing in between. How else am I supposed to stay entertained when firing up rpgcodex.net?

 

[Yosharian]

I don't think anyone despises this game. It's competent, but the writing and narrative structure drag it down, like discussed many times.

That's a perfect summary of this game: competent, and utterly boring.

 

[Lacrymas]

Speaking of balance, there are some really questionable subclasses. Berserker for instance, is it worth being confused and not seeing your health for 2 armor pen and whatever the constitution buff gives? Those buffs can be gotten elsewhere without the considerable downsides.

 

[Tigranes]

I don't know if it's "worth it" in strictly minmaxed terms, but Barbs / Berserkers can be extremely strong and fun to play in Deadfire. +2pen and +2AR are pretty nice, and that 30% Hit->Crit conversion is a motherfucking beast.

I'm sure I'm misremembering half the details but something like dual-wielding frenzy rage extravaganza with carnage bonuses basically means walking into a packed room and hitting every enemy in a 10 foot space with a billion attacks per round most of which end up Critting.

For example, I think it was Barbaric Smash set up properly can be like 50% Crit + 30% from Frenzy + anything else you have, with rage refund upon kill? And you can synergise with any bonuses against low HP enemies (Death Godlike) and Cleave style skills (Fighter?) - basically you just keep chaining crits and killing shit once a second and getting rage refunds.

Yes, it's a glass cannon, but even on POTD they don't have much time to hit you when you're critting them in the face 80 times a minute.

 

[Horvatii]

Either it's the worst game of all time

That honor belongs unequivocally to Pillars of Eternity 1. Ekera.

 

[Desiderius]

Well, yes, Gorecci Street and the excavation site (exterior + optional skellies there) are quite possibly the toughest encounters in the whole game.
I always visit Gorecci after clearing the digsite, with a 4-man party.

Some people even hire specific mercs just for the digsite (like a druid with Charm beasts or a Blood mage with Chillfog)

But consider the satisfaction of beating them!

All the other side quests are perfectly doable before the digsite.

Pro tip on Gorecci - it’s much easier if you enter from the bottom. You can even sneak by if you like.

 

[Tigranes]

I like places like Gorecci in POE2, the Bear in POE1, or even arguably Depot A in Underrail - early proving-grounds for your fledgling build, and you can make it more/less difficult as you prefer.

And in the case of something like Gorecci, you can sneak past basically the entire map and solve the quest peacefully. Or even skip the quest with little to miss out. Digsite can be more of a bitch on POTD. I tend not to recruit Xoti and sometimes it's just me and Eder running from boars.

 

[Yosharian]

Who fucking recruits Xoti? Fuck that annoying bitch

 

[Desiderius]

Who fucking recruits Xoti? Fuck that annoying bitch

I mean on some level having a redneck Mary Sue had to be intended to be sort of a cultural olive branch, but as with much else on the writing side the execution was lacking.

There was even some broad verisimilitude to her depiction. I’ve known girls more or less like that, and have some sympathy for them, I’d just never go on any sort of adventure with them in a million years.

Likewise Cleric and Monk should fit together reasonably well, especially with her special equipment, but I was never able to get to the point where she felt particularly valuable.

 

[Roguey]

She makes really fierce music

She oversings too often and would be more listenable if she dialed it down a bit.

 

[oldmanpaco]

Do you at least get to make port in Xoti's anchorage during the game? During my first aborted play-through the companions irritated me so much I used a custom party when I finished it with the DLC.

 

[Tigranes]

I don't have a problem with Xoti existing in a franchise whose spiritual predecessors includes Nalia, Anomen and Aerie. I'm just... not going to take her.

 

[Yosharian]

I don't have a problem with Xoti existing in a franchise whose spiritual predecessors includes Nalia, Anomen and Aerie. I'm just... not going to take her.

Aww that's so cute, where are Viconia and Jaheira in Deadfire? (for that matter - where is Edwin? Where is Korgan?)

"LOL JUST DON'T TAKE HER" is a fucking disingenuous argument and you know it.

 

[Ramnozack]

Didn't really find Xoti to be that annoying. She is just kind of there, she's no durance, thats for sure.

 

[Tigranes]

I don't have a problem with Xoti existing in a franchise whose spiritual predecessors includes Nalia, Anomen and Aerie. I'm just... not going to take her.

Aww that's so cute, where are Viconia and Jaheira in Deadfire? (for that matter - where is Edwin? Where is Korgan?)

"LOL JUST DON'T TAKE HER" is a fucking disingenuous argument and you know it.

Oh, I'm not pulling the "x super terrible feature is perfectly fine because it's optional STOP COMPLAINING ABOUT ANYTHING" brigade, which is a retarded argument that I despise. I simply didn't think Xoti was that bad - but also I don't really know, because I have never taken her along.

I would argue any day for getting rid of Aerie from the universe

 

[Butter]

Xoti's not that bad once you've met Tekehu.

 

[Ramnozack]

I like places like Gorecci in POE2, the Bear in POE1, or even arguably Depot A in Underrail - early proving-grounds for your fledgling build, and you can make it more/less difficult as you prefer.

And in the case of something like Gorecci, you can sneak past basically the entire map and solve the quest peacefully. Or even skip the quest with little to miss out. Digsite can be more of a bitch on POTD. I tend not to recruit Xoti and sometimes it's just me and Eder running from boars.

Gorecci is not really the same thing as Depot A, nor is the bear. They are just kind of intentionally overtuned areas to either test your skill and knowledge at the game, or to make you learn to approach something a different way (approach from the south and sneak by them) or simply come back when you're stronger.

They aren't really good tests for any build, as the rest of the game is considerably easier, though there are some tougher areas later in the games. One example I can think of would be the fight in the Splintered Reef where you assault the ship guarded by all the fampyr wizards (especially when scaled up, when I fought them the fampyrs were all casting level 9 spells and spamming arcane dampener forcing me to actually pay attention to what they were casting when and making me actually use spells to interrupt them and cast arcane dampener to dispel them)

 

[Yosharian]

I don't have a problem with Xoti existing in a franchise whose spiritual predecessors includes Nalia, Anomen and Aerie. I'm just... not going to take her.

Aww that's so cute, where are Viconia and Jaheira in Deadfire? (for that matter - where is Edwin? Where is Korgan?)

"LOL JUST DON'T TAKE HER" is a fucking disingenuous argument and you know it.

Oh, I'm not pulling the "x super terrible feature is perfectly fine because it's optional STOP COMPLAINING ABOUT ANYTHING" brigade, which is a retarded argument that I despise. I simply didn't think Xoti was that bad - but also I don't really know, because I have never taken her along.

I would argue any day about getting rid of Aerie from the universe

Ok maybe I misunderstood, my bad

 

[Desiderius]

Xoti's not that bad once you've met Tekehu.

In a way he's so bad he's not so bad. If you're going to force gay dudes into your games, at least make them gay and not just superior versions of regular people.

 

[Daidre]

I don't have a problem with Xoti existing in a franchise whose spiritual predecessors includes Nalia, Anomen and Aerie. I'm just... not going to take her.

And all of three are treated with healthy dose of skepticism in-game, when Deadfire writers do everything in their power to hint player that he needs to defend Xoti in dialogues with Eder so they could be friends.
Talking about BG2, I've recently encountered this pearl for the first time after years of playing:

Spoiler

 

[Haplo]

Likewise Cleric and Monk should fit together reasonably well, especially with her special equipment, but I was never able to get to the point where she felt particularly valuable.

Well, there was some decent build wrote up for her multiclass. But I prefer my clerics pure. Can't wait too long for Devotions of the Faithful and Salvation of Time. Particularly the latter is absolutely fantastic for poweful but short lived effects, such as Fighter Unbending or Cipher Ascension. Or Brilliant. Or Cleric's own Barring the Death's Door. Even other healing effects, such as Paladin's Lay on Hands or Revival.

As such, she's rather fine, really. No question of her usefulness. She does get nice "domain" spells. The Circle of Protection is very good, Symbol of Eothas is definitely among the top persistent aoes, the huge Vine is a fine summon. Plus she also gets to pick Magran's Might at PL IX, which is one of the top pulsing single-target spells.

I agree she can be annoying, though.

 

[NJClaw]

Do you at least get to make port in Xoti's anchorage during the game? During my first aborted play-through the companions irritated me so much I used a custom party when I finished it with the DLC.

Yes, regardless of your main character's sex. She might be a redneck, but she is very progressive as well.

The best part is that her romance can trigger almost anytime anywhere. In my playthrough, we were in a crypt, surrounded by centuries-old corpses and suffocated by the smell of death, when she decided she wanted to make a cute voice and cuddle.

 

[Horvatii]

Uwu, at level 13 the chanter troubadour just breaks the game with Weapon summons and skelleton spawing every 3 seconds. The weapon summons are 1200 hp every 15 seconds...
and if you marry the chanter to a barbarian with his instant recovery on kill...

I wish there was a list of items with effects like
onHit
onCrit
onKill
onBeingHit/Crit