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

[Roguey]

This whole franchise in a nutshell.

This is most RPGs.

 

[oldmanpaco]

So I'm goona bite the bullet and try this with the TB mode. PKM was a lot more fun that way and I'll see if the same holds true here although the bullet sponge commentary has got me a little worried.

I did finish the game on PotD with a Bleakwalker/X custom party a year and a half ago using RTwP.

This time I think I'm gonna go Wizard/x. What would be the best combos do you think?

Thinking I probably want a fighter (MC), Chanter, and Cleric. When I did the frozen crown thing in POE1 my main tank was a chanter but I don't know if sawyer balanced that out.

 

[Russia is over. The end.]

Don't these games (PK, POE) become too long with TB on? Their amount of trash fights wasn't designed for it.

 

[oldmanpaco]

Don't these games (PK, POE) become too long with TB on? Their amount of trash fights wasn't designed for it.

Well PFK you could switch back and forth between RT and TB. That game only started to really lag at the end when you fought wave after wave of the same fay enemy. We'll see how far I get with this since its a much worse game overall.

 

[Bara]

Don't these games (PK, POE) become too long with TB on? Their amount of trash fights wasn't designed for it.

Well PK the swap helps deal with that when it comes up but I find if your party is strong enough you'll chew through encounters quick enough that even with trash mobs it doesn't matter as much.

The only time it really sucked a lot was fighting foes that would continuously spawn minions to eat up time with their turns. Which I only remember happening once really in POE.

 

[Roguey]

Don't these games (PK, POE) become too long with TB on? Their amount of trash fights wasn't designed for it.

It's my understanding that Deadfire doesn't have any trash fights, a bunch of one-and-done areas.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

old city is full of shitty fights that take forever on turn-based

 

[Quillon]

old city is full of shitty fights that take forever on turn-based

guess they wanted to compensate for the lack of endless paths

 

[jf8350143]

Josh Swayer said they are aware people complain about too much trash mobs in PoE 1, so they reduce the number of them in deadfire.

For the most part they did a decent job, even in TB mode it didn't feel like a drag most of the time, and there are quite a few example of decent encounter design.

Kingmaker on the other hand has more trash mobs in the first three chapters than both PoE combined. I hope they learn the mistake in the sequel but from the gameplay video that's not the case.

Maybe that's their plan:"you want TB mode? I'll show you that RtwP is superior, by having tons of trash mobs to make TB a bore fest."

 

[vortex]

I love trash mobs. hides in the corner

 

[Desiderius]

I love trash mobs. hides in the corner

Part of the challenge in P:K (as it has been in other games) is getting to the point where you could dispatch the trash fights without burning resources or risking a wipe. The carrot of minimizing rest in P:K made that an enjoyable and meaningful challenge.

 

[Haplo]

So I'm goona bite the bullet and try this with the TB mode. PKM was a lot more fun that way and I'll see if the same holds true here although the bullet sponge commentary has got me a little worried.

I did finish the game on PotD with a Bleakwalker/X custom party a year and a half ago using RTwP.

This time I think I'm gonna go Wizard/x. What would be the best combos do you think?

Thinking I probably want a fighter (MC), Chanter, and Cleric. When I did the frozen crown thing in POE1 my main tank was a chanter but I don't know if sawyer balanced that out.

Well, I'd definitely go Bloodmage (max Con, ~base Might). Pure is fine, high level spells are really potent and getting faster access to new power levels is pretty sweet too.
On another wizard subclass I'd feel obliged to use the Grimoire of Vaporous Wizardry for +1 cast/spell level and that almost necessitates the use of Rekvu's Casque to negate Interrupts. And as a nuker you REALLY want to wear Deltro's Cage helmet instead!
Human for the sweet bonus when Blooded - with Blood Sacrifice you can stay Blooded all the time!

My nuker Bloodmage Assassin was fun also. Spells cast from stealth get the sweet Assassinate bonus: +25 Accuracy (Huge!), +4 PEN, +50% Critical damage (happens often!). You can use Shadowing Beyond to re-hide ~3 times per fight (Free action, like Blood Sacrifice and majority of your buffs - use AFTER Blood Sacrifice) plus a passive stealth on kill from Assassin Slippers (short, not easy to use). There's also the Arkemyr's unique invisibility spell (Arkemyr's Brilliant Departure), but its not great action economy to waste a turn

For a slightly more gishy/defensive aspect, Steel Garrote Paladin / Bloodmage. Defenses and Armor trough the roof. Use Whisper of the Endless Paths Greatsword with Offensive Parry enchant to keep retaliating at missing opponents - Dazing them in the process and enabling Garrote passive health drain. So you can be the party frontman basically. And it happens in the background and you still keep your caster arsenal!

For a more aggressive/martial gish approach, Bloodmage/Monk I guess. I like Forbidden Fist. YMMV.

 

[Prime Junta]

Don't these games (PK, POE) become too long with TB on? Their amount of trash fights wasn't designed for it.

It's my understanding that Deadfire doesn't have any trash fights, a bunch of one-and-done areas.

It has way fewer trash fights than Pillars 1, but it certainly does have them. My favourite dungeon in the entire game (Hanging Sepulchers) has a fair few in fact.

Encounter density is still more or less okay even for TB. Could maybe have been thinned out a bit. A bigger issue with TB is that on PotD at least many of the encounters have an obscene number of mooks and they take a looong time to move. Big motivator for flashy openings that thin the herd early on.

 

[Riddler]

Josh Swayer said they are aware people complain about too much trash mobs in PoE 1, so they reduce the number of them in deadfire.

For the most part they did a decent job, even in TB mode it didn't feel like a drag most of the time, and there are quite a few example of decent encounter design.

Kingmaker on the other hand has more trash mobs in the first three chapters than both PoE combined. I hope they learn the mistake in the sequel but from the gameplay video that's not the case.

Maybe that's their plan:"you want TB mode? I'll show you that RtwP is superior, by having tons of trash mobs to make TB a bore fest."

The issue is that every single fight becomes a trash fight after the 15h level or so (which occurs fairly quickly) and the majority as early as 10th level.

 

[MajorMace]

This whole franchise in a nutshell.

This is most RPGs.

In case there are still people who ignore this : poe's criticism revolves mostly around it being your average rpg. Confirming the good ol' joke-but-not-joke about how the codex hates rpgs. Or how it's objectively a poor genre. Or whatever the next topic on the matter will have as a title.

 

[coldcrow]

I kind of like it. It's so pretty, while still offering a modest challenge and sufficiently complex systems.

 

[Prime Junta]

BTW Pillars 1 does suffer badly from trash fights. Many of the maps have you fighting the same mob over and over again, even as far as WM2.

(TBF BG1 has the same problem. Oh good, more kobolds.)

 

[NJClaw]

Don't these games (PK, POE) become too long with TB on? Their amount of trash fights wasn't designed for it.

I don't know about PoE, but Kingmaker goes very smoothly with the TB mod, especially thanks to a more precise control on your AoE spells and to the animations speed multipliers available. There are a lot of trash fights, but you can easily deal with them in a single round (or two at worst).

My playthroughs with the TB mod didn't last any longer than those in RTwP.

 

[Dwarvophile]

I love trash mobs. hides in the corner

Part of the challenge in P:K (as it has been in other games) is getting to the point where you could dispatch the trash fights without burning resources or risking a wipe. The carrot of minimizing rest in P:K made that an enjoyable and meaningful challenge.

Taking the trash mob out, every fucking day. An adventurer's life.

 

[Luckmann]

What items, specifically, did one get by backing and pre-ordering, respectively?

I'm about to install Deadfire and bite the bullet, but I obviously do not have those specific GOG install files.

 

[StrongBelwas]

What items, specifically, did one get by backing and pre-ordering, respectively?

I'm about to install Deadfire and bite the bullet, but I obviously do not have those specific GOG install files.

This set of items for anyone, this pet and this hat depending on your tier (Or in the pricier editions after release), and a ring if you owned Pillow's One (Might still be available?)
There was another pre-release campaign that gave some other stuff but the non-cheat stuff seems to have been integrated into the base game.

 

[FreeKaner]

This game has such a good itemisation. I have noticed once more after playing PFK recently, while itemisation in PFK is definitely not bad with variety of items and unique bonuses, it doesn't even come close to deadfire's itemisation. So much so that how varied, unique, gamechanging the itemisation is compensating for the streamlined system otherwise. I definitely like PFK as a whole experience, where it's more of a greater than sum of its parts type of deal. Ironically, deadfire feels opposite, it has many great parts that don't really sum up well.

 

[Lacrymas]

What items, specifically, did one get by backing and pre-ordering, respectively?

I'm about to install Deadfire and bite the bullet, but I obviously do not have those specific GOG install files.

This set of items for anyone, this pet and this hat depending on your tier (Or in the pricier editions after release), and a ring if you owned Pillow's One (Might still be available?)
There was another pre-release campaign that gave some other stuff but the non-cheat stuff seems to have been integrated into the base game.

Gaun's Pledge and St. Drogga's Skull are invaluable if you, like me, have a save file from PoE1 in which you didn't talk to any of the companions, i.e. you don't have Eder along with you at the start. Well, the way to beat the cave at the start solo on PotD is choosing the rod mastery in character creation, but Gaun's Pledge makes it less risky and the sabre helps if you mess up your kiting. Still, though, pretty valuable. I'd say the sabre should've been a different type of weapon, we already have too many of those in the game.

 

[FreeKaner]

old city is full of shitty fights that take forever on turn-based

It's bunch of shitty fights, but I would call only a couple in the middle portions with a handful of zombies and grubs trash fights. Especially the fights with wraiths, the event fight with bunch of spawning zombies, the one with named cipher and the ones with earth elementals are all hard fights.

 

[Ulfhednar]

I definitely like PFK as a whole experience, where it's more of a greater than sum of its parts type of deal. Ironically, deadfire feels opposite, it has many great parts that don't really sum up well.

Sums up my experience with these two games. Deadfire checked off a lot of boxes, but PK had real soul and convinced me I’m not too old for this shit.