Eternity Pillars of Eternity + The White March Expansion Thread

[Roguey]

I totally disagree with that reading. The game's maps are dotted with those hard optional encounters in an obviously deliberate fashion. I call it the "Deathclaw Promontory design principle".

Yes, but they're harder encounters you can take on at the level in which you're supposed to enter the area. Though I suppose it may be different on PotD.

 

[Bonerbill]

Bounties were one of the best things about Pillars. Loved launching a bounty-hunting operation from Caed Nua. It had more of a personal connection to me than the developer's forced narrative. No chosen one, special snowflake background necessary. Same with the White March content and Cragholdt Bluffs. The more divorced from the writers story, the better.

That kind of thinking was the reason why the stronghold used to suck.

 

[Ziggy]

random groups of pirates that now live in a cemetery for no reason

But I'm not crazy about the idea that the game spawns in those encounters just because you decide to take the quest

it makes sense with the passage of in-game time, when it's been months of traveling since you've been to some early location, why wouldn't something show up
dont call me larper

 

[Prime Junta]

Yes, but they're harder encounters you can take on at the level in which you're supposed to enter the area.

hmmm

The lighthouse. The Cean Gula in the tomb in First Fires. The entire design of Endless Paths, which JES specifically stated was intended to ramp up faster than you so you'll be more or less forced to turn back from time to time. The various mobs on the map where you meet Sagani, forget what it's called. The Alpine Dragon. The bear, the wolves, and the bandits in Valewood that you'll be all alone at level 2 when you can meet them the first time. The temple of Eothas in Gilded Vale.

If you're lawnmowing you will meet all or some of these "too early" get punched really hard. Certainly hard enough to count as legit difficulty spikes in my book.

 

[Turjan]

Yes, but they're harder encounters you can take on at the level in which you're supposed to enter the area.

hmmm

The lighthouse. The Cean Gula in the tomb in First Fires. The entire design of Endless Paths, which JES specifically stated was intended to ramp up faster than you so you'll be more or less forced to turn back from time to time. The various mobs on the map where you meet Sagani, forget what it's called. The Alpine Dragon. The bear, the wolves, and the bandits in Valewood that you'll be all alone at level 2 when you can meet them the first time. The temple of Eothas in Gilded Vale.

If you're lawnmowing you will meet all or some of these "too early" get punched really hard. Certainly hard enough to count as legit difficulty spikes in my book.

Yup. That bear was a no go. At the moment, I still have those feral druids on the Storm Gorge map and some group of primordials in the last corner of the Dyrford Crossing map to wrap up (when Aloth is back from some stupid stronghold quest).

I also ran into the situation where I had difficulties with the last encounter on a map. I had a group of 5 with only Eder as melee character on level 4 in Raedric's Hold. They seemed to have disabled all cheese tactics here, and it took me quite a few tries to finally get through this. RTwP with pause every 2 seconds.

 

[Prime Junta]

Raedric's Hold at L4 is pretty challenging, yeah. You can always run back to the bedroom and have Edér hold the door though; Aloth's AoEs with Durance's buffs should be enough to beat it from there. Maybe throw in a couple consumables for good measure.

 

[Turjan]

Raedric's Hold at L4 is pretty challenging, yeah. You can always run back to the bedroom and have Edér hold the door though; Aloth's AoEs with Durance's buffs should be enough to beat it from there. Maybe throw in a couple consumables for good measure.

I tried this, but the front characters got immediately immobilized and stuck in place every time I attempted this. If you send someone to the front to initiate the battle, he gets stuck and clobbered to death in seconds. I found no other way than to do the battle on the platform.

 

[Prime Junta]

I tried this, but the front characters got immediately immobilized and stuck in place every time I attempted this. If you send someone to the front to initiate the battle, he gets stuck and clobbered to death in seconds. I found no other way than to do the battle on the platform.

Only march one character forward to trigger the dialog, and make sure the first phrase in Kana's chant is the one that gives extra movement. Then retreat in good order. If you do get stuck, counter with Suppress Affliction. Also don't forget about consumables: defensive scrolls, potions of Deletrious Alacrity of Motion etc. You will probably ahve to use some if you're at level 4 and less than a full party.

 

[Infinitron]

The real challenge is to do it before you even have Kana.

 

[Prime Junta]

The real challenge is to do it before you even have Kana.

Yes, that would be seriously hard. Haven't tried it; the hardest I've beat it at is L4 party without Sagani on Path of the Damned. That was plenty hard.

 

[Turjan]

Hmm, I will have to look into this if I ever try this again. I sent Eder, and he wasn't too slow, he could not move at all. I tried it several times. And I wasn't joking about "clobbered to death in seconds". I didn't have Sagani.

Anyway, I managed this with moving 2 chars to the side edges of the platform, as far as the dialog trigger distance allowed.

 

[Grunker]

White March definetely worked better as a story because you were not the central character of every single event

 

[Roguey]

hmmm

The lighthouse. The Cean Gula in the tomb in First Fires. The entire design of Endless Paths, which JES specifically stated was intended to ramp up faster than you so you'll be more or less forced to turn back from time to time. The various mobs on the map where you meet Sagani, forget what it's called. The Alpine Dragon. The bear, the wolves, and the bandits in Valewood that you'll be all alone at level 2 when you can meet them the first time. The temple of Eothas in Gilded Vale.

If you're lawnmowing you will meet all or some of these "too early" get punched really hard. Certainly hard enough to count as legit difficulty spikes in my book.

Those were the ones I was thinking about.

Most of them have the benefit of being behind a loading screen, as opposed to being a random much-higher level encounter in a map with lower level encounters, and you'll be able to take them on not too long after you meet them, as opposed to the bounties, which appear to be intended for late act 2-act 3 level characters.

 

[Grunker]

Hardest fight in the game is probably the fanatics, it's certainly in the top 5

 

[Sensuki]

The lighthouse. The Cean Gula in the tomb in First Fires. The entire design of Endless Paths, which JES specifically stated was intended to ramp up faster than you so you'll be more or less forced to turn back from time to time. The various mobs on the map where you meet Sagani, forget what it's called. The Alpine Dragon. The bear, the wolves, and the bandits in Valewood that you'll be all alone at level 2 when you can meet them the first time. The temple of Eothas in Gilded Vale.

I never had to come back against any of these, granted I didn't complete the Endless Paths. The bear in the cave is the only one that's probably a bit hard/not feasible without perfect rolls with one character. The others were not difficult.

 

[Tigranes]

If you know what you're doing, you never have to come back to anything unless you want to do the entire Endless Paths the first time. A more reasonable way to put it is that some areas had encounters that are clearly more difficult than their neighbours, which is very true. (See: all the whining on wahhh i cant beat the lighthouse (or whatever) im level 5 and i dunno what a fortitude save is wahhh this game sux)

Once I worked out the systems, my experience is that Raedric's Hold at L4 with all expected party members is a breeze, but there are numerical thresholds where it will require you to pull out all the stops; e.g. going solo, or even with just one companion that isn't Eder, being at level 3 (though level 3 with 3 party members is probably still fine). That actually suits me fine, and WM1/2/upscaling ultimately provided some fights at POTD level that really make the player think there's still a challenge after all the new gear and levels.

If only everything below POTD wasn't retarded-easy, and if only the actual base game didn't have difficulty broken after Defiance Bay

 

[Roguey]

Turns out Caed Nua's critical path encounters are quite tough on hard when you ignore literally all optional content. Certainly a brick wall for a lesser player, who would probably be playing on normal/easy/story time mode anyway.

 

[Rando Thoughtful]

This game engrossed me. Maybe not like BG1/2/ToB did when I was young as fuck, but it gave me the vibe. I just finished WM-2 and I appear to have lost a lil' interest in the main story, but I know i'll finish it. I think they did good.

 

[Nekot-The-Brave]

Sawyer is wanting people to get "The Ultimate' achievement. Supposedly there's <.01% of players who have the thing. I was thinking of doing it but I'd need to buy the x-packs. I've done TCS though.

 

[Excidium II]

Sawyer is wanting people to get "The Ultimate' achievement. Supposedly there's <.01% of players who have the thing. I was thinking of doing it but I'd need to buy the x-packs. I've done TCS though.

What's that, PotD with all boxes ticked?

 

[Ninjerk]

Probably. Will be quite different, I should think, to the people that did it when that red breastplate had counterattack and there were no hard counters (to whatever extent those have been added).

 

[Nekot-The-Brave]

Sawyer is wanting people to get "The Ultimate' achievement. Supposedly there's <.01% of players who have the thing. I was thinking of doing it but I'd need to buy the x-packs. I've done TCS though.

What's that, PotD with all boxes ticked?

The Ultimate
Complete the White March and Pillars of Eternity, defeat all dragons, all bounties, and both archmages on Expert, Trial of Iron, and Path of the Damned modes without taking any companions after Cilant Lîs.

 

[jaydee2k]

I'm on my third playthrough and really enjoying it so far. It's a different game after patch 3.x.
Like the fights in the expansions very very much.

 

[Grunker]

Trial of Iron + Path of the Damned sounds next to impossible without cheese like alt-F4. And with no companions + Expert on top? Surprised anyone completed the thing.

 

[Prime Junta]

Trial of Iron + Path of the Damned sounds next to impossible without cheese like alt-F4. And with no companions + Expert on top? Surprised anyone completed the thing.

I know someone who did. He said all it takes is patience: you have two computers side by side, one on ToI, one not. You play normally on the non-ToI one. When you get a challenge, you practice on it until you have a reliable strategy you can execute, then you do that on the ToI one.

Not my idea of fun, but autists will aut I suppose.