Eternity Pillars of Eternity + The White March Expansion Thread

[mitochondritom]

Sawyer considers Yxunomei challenging? I enjoyed that encounter, but challenging isn't how I'd describe it.

Maybe now that I have played through the game 5 + times over the years and understand how the games systems work, but Yxunomei was the game ender for me when I played Icewind Dale on release. Granted I was 12 but it was really hard. The bit in the temple before when all those dudes turn on you is similarly challenging for a new player.

 

[Infinitron]

The Obsidian forums are kind of dead but let's see where this goes http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/88...ts-hard-counters-sillier-companions-and-more/

 

[AwesomeButton]

On Slide 2, JES has a naked woman for wallpaper? Class!

Slide 24: the opposition "backers" vs "professional reviews"
(which opinion should be more important and why?)

Slide 32: The big confession: rough edges are fun. (!!!)

 

[Roguey]

Maybe now that I have played through the game 5 + times over the years and understand how the games systems work, but Yxunomei was the game ender for me when I played Icewind Dale on release. Granted I was 12 but it was really hard. The bit in the temple before when all those dudes turn on you is similarly challenging for a new player.

For someone new to D&D absolutely, but people new to RPGs also find many encounters in Pillars difficult.

He places her, a critical path boss, next to Kangaxx, who's optional and difficult to everybody who doesn't know the specific tricks you need to know to beat him. I would have gone with something optional from Icewind Dale 2, like the Lost Followers.

Roguey

What? They did add all those things through patches.

 

[Neanderthal]

Durance were funny as feck.

 

[Semper]

On Slide 2, JES has a naked woman for wallpaper? Class!

that's a painting called christina's world.

 

[Infinitron]

BTW here's a German writeup of Josh's talk: http://www.4players.de/4players.php...elche_Lektionen_sie_daraus_gezogen_haben.html

 

[Rev]

I know a lot of people complained about the much too serious tone of PoE's world and characters, but I don't think there should necessarily be more silliness in the next game.
After all, Maneha was by far the most silly character and no one liked her, while Durance was the most appreciated companion to many people. I think Eder's humuor worked fine: he had some silly lines but he was never dumb; and Hiravias was funny too, but adding a jester-type companion wouldn't be what I call an improvement.

 

[Wolfe]

I agree, I thought having characters such as Eder and Hiravias was sufficient.

 

[Roguey]

I hope Josh puts up a poster of Grobnar as an example of how not to write a silly character (yes, Chris was pressed for time).

 

[mitochondritom]

He places her, a critical path boss, next to Kangaxx, who's optional and difficult to everybody who doesn't know the specific tricks you need to know to beat him. I would have gone with something optional from Icewind Dale 2, like the Lost Followers.

Actually, yes, I agree there. I don't think I ever managed to beat those assholes in that graveyard. Or the higher levels of BattleSquare. I don't think any encounter in Pillars comes close, in fact the hardest fight for me are the shades in the temple in Gilded Vale. When you just go in there right way you are woefully ill equipped for their difficulty.

 

[Lomer2]

He places her, a critical path boss, next to Kangaxx, who's optional and difficult to everybody who doesn't know the specific tricks you need to know to beat him. I would have gone with something optional from Icewind Dale 2, like the Lost Followers.

Actually, yes, I agree there. I don't think I ever managed to beat those assholes in that graveyard. Or the higher levels of BattleSquare. I don't think any encounter in Pillars comes close, in fact the hardest fight for me are the shades in the temple in Gilded Vale. When you just go in there right way you are woefully ill equipped for their difficulty.

Did you find the battles with the Adra dragon, the Alpine Dragon and Llengrath (and her 2 dragon companions) easy (on hard or higher difficulty)?

 

[mitochondritom]

Yes to all of them, though I think the Adra dragon was the hardest of the three. Its just a function of the amount of tools available to you in those encounters compared to the relative lack in the early game. I wouldn't say I was the most amazing player in terms of min - maxing, I used all in game NPCs and by the end of the game was practically duoing everything with Maneha and Pagellina. Oh, I upscaled act 2 and 3 also after doing the White March bits. I really enjoyed the game, but the difficulty just nosedives after you get some gear in the White March.

 

[CptMace]

Why would these fights change on hard ? Easy - normal - hard only changes the number and type of dudes you encounter as filler combat. I think only POTD changes the core fights - either optional or mandatory - like Llengrath or Thaos by changing their stats.
To be clarified.

 

[Lomer2]

Yes to all of them, though I think the Adra dragon was the hardest of the three. Its just a function of the amount of tools available to you in those encounters compared to the relative lack in the early game. I wouldn't say I was the most amazing player in terms of min - maxing, I used all in game NPCs and by the end of the game was practically duoing everything with Maneha and Pagellina. Oh, I upscaled act 2 and 3 also after doing the White March bits. I really enjoyed the game, but the difficulty just nosedives after you get some gear in the White March.

For me these battles were very hard since I had couldn't control and keep all my 6 characters alive before I could clear the minions and concentrate all my fire on the bosses. Maybe I simply suck in RTWP combat (despite my huge experience with it). The fights would be much easier for me in turn based. I defeated them all at the end but it took as many reloads as the battle for the Holy Avenger in IWD2.

Why would these fights change on hard ? Easy - normal - hard only changes the number and type of dudes you encounter as filler combat. I think only POTD changes the core fights - either optional or mandatory - like Llengrath or Thaos by changing their stats.
To be clarified.

You are right that switching the difficulty (except for PotD) changes only the number and type of creatures but I thought that applies also to the dragon's minions. Perhaps I am wrong.

 

[mitochondritom]

Certainly for the Adra dragon I just retreated to the West of the chamber and she essentially blocked off any interference from the minions, with the Alpine dragon all the minions were weak to fire so Kana singing the dragon flame AOE with Pagellina immolating them all meant they just died immediately. Similarly, I recall the bog mobs all being fire weak and this AOE combo just incinerating them all. I did make sure to make all my guys eat dragon meat food before the fights and I had Durance use a sort of AOE defense boosting globe spell so I was as prepared as I could be. I don't feel like I cheesed them as it was satisfying to kill them, more that I didn't find them to be as challenging as I thought they would be (on my first playthrough on release I could not kill the Adra Dragon at all). In some ways its a credit to the game that I understood the systems enough and had built my team to the degree that nothing could stand up to them? The guys that were being rinsed by ghosts at the beginning could walk up to the minions of a god and blow them away.

I know a lot of people complained about the much too serious tone of PoE's world and characters, but I don't think there should necessarily be more silliness in the next game.
After all, Maneha was by far the most silly character and no one liked her, while Durance was the most appreciated companion to many people. I think Eder's humuor worked fine: he had some silly lines but he was never dumb; and Hiravias was funny too, but adding a jester-type companion wouldn't be what I call an improvement.

I agree about the humour level being just about right except for how all the characters seem to have a sort of flippant irreverence to how they react to things, the most jarring being when

Spoiler

Meneha just sort of offered up her life at the end of the WM2.

I strongly think the wacky gnome trope needs to die and hope Hiravias is as close as Pillars gets to a Grobnar/Jan character.

 

[Lomer2]

I think I'm finally going to give White March a go. Thing is, I was using only Durance and Aloth before, the other companions being made by me. Is there any reason, such as quests or whatever the fuck else, to switch those guys with Eder and co. from the base game or just wait and switch them as the new companions become available?

Eder is a great tank but you could probably improve on him with your customized heroes. In terms of story, every single companion has her/his own quest chain the outcome of which is reflected in the final slides. Besides that, finishing their quest counts as stronghold turns, which gives you additional events and taxes. So you should definitely use them at least for their quests.

 

[mitochondritom]

The original gang have quite a lot of interactions in the White March areas. I took Kana, Pagellina, Sagani and Durance with me and I am pretty sure they all had new voiced dialogue and lots of written interjections to the story. There are 3 new guys to pick up in the DLC but they are all offensive types so plan accordingly.

 

[Lomer2]

Certainly for the Adra dragon I just retreated to the West of the chamber and she essentially blocked off any interference from the minions...

And how did you survive his breathing which could one-shot my entire party except for Eder and possibly the playing character?

 

[mitochondritom]

I ran in with Pagellina, she had stupidly high defenses, everyone else was way back in the corner. I gave her the boots which give even higher defence against being rendered prone. She ran in and dragged the Adra beast towards her, I think she got a breath attack off then. While this was happening I was using Durance to raise everyone's accuracy in the corner. When Pagellina and the dragon were in range I used Durance to reduce the dragons accuracy with spells, and also my wizard casting expose weakness. Sagani, Kana and Meneha then tore it to pieces in like a minute. I think in the middle of it all I used a scroll of moonwell and Maneha has the boots that cast the healing spell so that was refeshing my melee guys (Pagellina and Maneha). I think when I did this one I had just finished WM part 2 so my team was ~ 14 or so. They were 16 when I did the swamp and alpine dragons.

 

[Lomer2]

I ran in with Pagellina, she had stupidly high defenses, everyone else was way back in the corner. I gave her the boots which give even higher defence against being rendered prone. She ran in and dragged the Adra beast towards her, I think she got a breath attack off then. While this was happening I was using Durance to raise everyone's accuracy in the corner. When Pagellina and the dragon were in range I used Durance to reduce the dragons accuracy with spells, and also my wizard casting expose weakness. Sagani, Kana and Meneha then tore it to pieces in like a minute. I think in the middle of it all I used a scroll of moonwell and Maneha has the boots that cast the healing spell so that was refeshing my melee guys (Pagellina and Maneha). I think when I did this one I had just finished WM part 2 so my team was ~ 14 or so. They were 16 when I did the swamp and alpine dragons.

Very impressive tactics. Perhaps I was at too low level then (11 if I remember correctly). My tactic was to lure the minions at the southeast corner, finish them quickly and then concentrate on the dragon. Eder was holding him, while I (paladin), Grieving Mother, Aloth and Hiravias hit him as hard as we can and Durance was healing Eder (and hitting with his own powerful spells). I managed to lower his health to "near death" several times but then he would always one-shot Eder and wipe easily the rest of the party. On my only successful attempt the dragon managed to down 5 members of the party with only Hiravas left but then the former got stuck in some corner. By that time Hiravas has exhausted all his meaningful spells and finished the dragon with his crossbow (took him more than 15 minutes). Such win is obviously as cheesy as it gets but I keep repeating to myself that my party demonstrated superior spatial awareness.

 

[mitochondritom]

If its stupid but it works its not stupid...

One thing in Pillars that makes a humongous difference is how high your level is relative to the enemy you are facing. If an encounter is hard at level 8, it will be a cakewalk at level 10. By the end of the game Pagellinas defences were so high that she could just stand there immolating while the level 2, 3 and 4 bounties I missed doing earlier just plinked at her hopelessly. It sounds dumb but its really satisfying. Similarly the way I built Meneha to focus on crits and then abusing carnage to crit multiple enemies at once with "The Hours of St. Rumbalt" sending them all prone was monstrously overpowered, but never unsatisfying. This set up again was absolutely barbaric against the drywooden peasants etc.

 

[Wolfe]

I cheesed the fight a bit by dealing with the adds first. I started in the top corner, got rid of the Adragans fast, then pulled the Xaurip pack with a skeleton summon from Kana. After that, it was only a matter of buffing the party's accuracy and lowering Adra's defenses, while making sure to avoid the breaths and tail swipes. I still think it was the hardest fight in the game (did it at level 12 on the Hard difficulty), took me a lot more attempts than Concelhaut, Alpine or Llengrath.

 

[AwesomeButton]

that's a painting called christina's world.

I rate this post informative but a little saddening

 

[Sacred82]

I'm playing my first non-priest, relatively magic heavy party and I'm getting my butt kicked in Defiance Bay by anyone who can get at my rear (like outdoor encounters).

Either I suck at positioning (which is likely) or the game is still insanely random with its NPC behaviour.

I guess when people solo this, do they cheese their way through the game or do they just outlevel things?