Eternity Pillars of Eternity + The White March Expansion Thread

[Roguey]

Level 7? You haven't even met Cabiros. You might want to finish Heritage Hill and learn Engwithan before you do that, though...

Already finished with most of act 2, it goes by very quickly when you beeline.

In the paths themselves I'm actually only as far as level 4, but now I'm getting fed up with it, and I'm remembering from my previous playthrough that levels 5-7 aren't any better as far as encounter variety goes.

Your enjoyment of TEP hinges solely of your enjoyment of the combat.

I'd like this megadungeon just fine if there were only 1 to 2 fights per level since that's all they designed.

 

[Infinitron]

IMO you don't want to miss Level 8 and Level 12 (and after that, you're pretty much in the dungeon's "endgame"). The levels in between them...they're combat crawls, but you might find some of them more interesting than 5-7, I think.

 

[Ziggy]

Does Eora have anything like Underdark Illithid colonies and other such things? If you don't play The Endless Paths, you won't know. It's fun to be a discoverer.

you will discover in WM part 2 Whispers In The Dark sidequest

 

[Grunker]

A p. interesting quest with some of the best encounters in the game by the way that makes Infinitron's point a million times better than TEP.

There's one encounter there which is a serious contestant for the game's best encounter period.

 

[eXalted]

Currently in Dyrford on Act II in my first playthrough (on Hard). Game is gut, really enjoying it so far. I am level 9 (and a half). I think that I am starting to overlevel - Dyrford quests were a breeze.

I am also at depth 8 in Od Nua. So my question is when should I play the expansions? After completing Act III? Will the level scaling be enough?

 

[Rivmusique]

Reload a ~level 6 save and do TWM stuff from there. Level scaled isn't as good. Of course, then you have to scale the vanilla content when you get back to it, which is also bad. But TWM at its best is better than vanilla at its best. The thing to do is probably finish your playthrough now, ignore TWM content, then load back and stop playing when you're done with expansion stuff (including wizard house and swamp). But then you won't get the precious ending slides.

 

[Turjan]

Does Eora have anything like Underdark Illithid colonies and other such things? If you don't play The Endless Paths, you won't know. It's fun to be a discoverer.

you will discover in WM part 2 Whispers In The Dark sidequest

Yup, that one was a nice change of pace. My first reaction was "Oh, they have Illithids!"

Funny enough, in the Endless Paths, I have also made it only to level 7 so far.

 

[eXalted]

Reload a ~level 6 save and do TWM stuff from there. Level scaled isn't as good. Of course, then you have to scale the vanilla content when you get back to it, which is also bad. But TWM at its best is better than vanilla at its best. The thing to do is probably finish your playthrough now, ignore TWM content, then load back and stop playing when you're done with expansion stuff (including wizard house and swamp). But then you won't get the precious ending slides.

This kinda sucks as I don't have such old saves. TWM1 at level 9 that bad?

Really thinking of saving the expansions for a second walkthrough in the future, but knowing myself I will probably never do it.

 

[ilitarist]

Why would you leave them out?

If you don't want to roll over at least some content you have to use level scaling, no way around it.

 

[Prime Junta]

TWM1 at level 9 that bad?

Not that bad.

If you want to do everything in a single playthrough, play all the way to the moment before the endgame, then do the rest of Od Nua followed by the WMs level-scaled. Then enjoy being grossly overpowered in the endgame dungeon.

 

[Grunker]

The problem is that Main Game content and White March content really is two different games. It's like if you rolled up Baldur's Gate + Icewind Dale into one; doing all content with the same party would leave one of the two games a breeze for the most part.

 

[eXalted]

Not that bad.

If you want to do everything in a single playthrough, play all the way to the moment before the endgame, then do the rest of Od Nua followed by the WMs level-scaled. Then enjoy being grossly overpowered in the endgame dungeon.

This seems like a good alternative. I guess TWM content will be more interesting than the end game of the original?

 

[Grunker]

TWM content is in general much better than original game content

 

[Prime Junta]

I guess TWM content will be more interesting than the end game of the original?

The encounters are better designed in general, and the best ones are very good by any standards (although there are still rather too many repetitive fights). There are some extremely cool items there, perhaps even too many extremely cool items; they lose some of their effect when the entire party is kitted with soulbound stuff. It's also very very pretty.

The story -- or stories, they have some really nicely fleshed-out sidequests -- are good for what they are. If you're a lorefag you do learn a quite a bit about relations between the gods, two of them in particular. The two-act setup is pretty good: part 1 sets the stage, and part 2 resolves the questions.

Overall I'd rate it as more interesting than the OC endgame mostly because it's markedly harder. If you're anything close to a completionist, the endgame crit path will be a bit of a sleepwalk.

 

[Sizzle]

What Grunker said, TWM has: better fights, role-playing (including using feats, spells and items in those illustrated scripted interactions - which are also a lot more numerous than in the base game), items (which can be OP, but that was to be expected) and story (that's actually interesting and D&D-like, and not base game freshman philosophy major-like).

 

[jaydee2k]

Yeah the difficulty curve is completely fucked. Going in White March at level 7 is a blast to play. Very demanding and memorable encounters.
After finishing white march remaining act 2 is a borefest. Its just sad...

 

[eXalted]

Thanks for the recommendations. I will play them with level scaling before entering the ending dungeon.

How does the level scaling works? If I am level 12, which level will be they?

I'm at level 10 and still not on Act III. And I almost don't use any per rest spells for my whole party...

 

[Grunker]

D&D-like

This can't be stressed enough. Siege of Crägholdt is a completely indulgent stroll down memory lane for anyone who has played an AD&D module. It's fantastic. A pity grognards hate Pillars so much, they would love all the awesome callback fluff that White March has for those of us who like pre-3rd edition fluff much more than modern fantasy.

 

[Prime Junta]

+1 on Siege of Crägholdt. In terms of pure good clean fightin' and lootin', it's a contender for the best bit of the entire game.

It's hilarious if you go into it at, say, level 6, feeling pretty good about yourself, and wake that drunken orlan...

 

[Sannom]

I think I completely missed out on the Siege of Crägholdt experience. I sneaked through the entire camp, had to kill maybe one or two guys before reaching the captain and his posse, whom I couldn't sneak past and had to fight.

 

[Grunker]

The best parts is the wizard's dungeon and the epilogue quest following the siege itself.

 

[Parabalus]

Remember that you can always upscale stuff at any point using the console (ToggleScaler <scaler>), which is useful if you want to do a bit of WM, then go back to Dyrwood, without the rest of WM being a pushover. Dunno why they left out the option to upscale Act 2 or double-scale Act 3.

The endgame area is too easy (*cough* designphilosophy *cough*) even if you do little "optional" content, which are, as the posters above mentioned, by far the best bits, so don't worry about it.

 

[eXalted]

Is the scaling good if I go to TWM just before the end dungeon of the orignal?

Does it scale the enemies to your level or it gives them a few levels?

 

[Prime Junta]

Is the scaling good if I go to TWM just before the end dungeon of the orignal?

Does it scale the enemies to your level or it gives them a few levels?

Ehh just go play it already.

(Level scaling bumps up enemies across the board. It's a single bump and doesn't take into account your exact level.)

 

[Sentinel]

Wait people actually liked the wizard's dungeon?
Why?