Eternity Pillars of Eternity + The White March Expansion Thread

[IHaveHugeNick]

Damn, they delayed the release a month?

 

[Fry]

Damn, they delayed the release a month?

A couple of weeks. The original estimate was "late January".

 

[AwesomeButton]

for a while i've been wondering about a system where all bonuses stack, but they stack on a geometric progression (triangular or square) that correlates to a linear bonus increase. i like triangular progressions because the values become more interesting to play with even under the assumption that everything is stacking.

Gotta love the guy :D

 

[Drudkh]

Great... First episode we explore the abandoned Dwarven forge, now Saurons army is coming.

 

[Kem0sabe]

Would have preferred an expansion that continued the story after the ending instead of these two parts that have nothing to do with the main story and overleveled your character for the remainder of the game.

 

[Neanderthal]

Meh, thought Golden Army was shit after first film. Sounds like intro from Diablo 2 at first, no bad thing really.

 

[Maculo]

I am not going to lie, I reloaded to fight an un-scaled Thaos. I made the mistake of bringing more companions to get additional story/ending dialogue, and it made Thaos so damn annoying. I do not remember the fight being that difficult. Even Concelhaut was not that bad. Then again, I had less story companions with me when I fought Concelhaut.

Also, did Obsidian add new slides and endings with 2.0? My ending felt twice as long and even more depressing. Specifically:

Spoiler

All of the gods dicked over everyone, except for Hylea, whom I kept my promise to release the souls. By the end of those slides, I had to raise my hands up. The gods send horrible winters, famines, droughts, killer lions/bears, wildfires, killer golems, mass suicides, and stranger danger. The shit just kept coming and coming. Jesus Christ Obsidian, I get it, the gods are dicks.

In addition, I do not remember Wael and Skaene giving me additional options on what to do with the souls. How about an Eothas revival option?

 

[Roguey]

Solid details on the new stronghold content:

The stronghold additions are mostly focused on new or revised content. Visitors have dilemmas you can resolve in the great hall. Adventures now actually have names, descriptions, and resolutions with unique items for each one (and there are about 35 of them IIRC). Finally, there's a new quest line directly connected to the stronghold.

As a reminder, this is all base game stuff, you don't need the expansion to get it. I'm still probably not going to bother.

 

[Morality Games]

Spoiler

All of the gods dicked over everyone, except for Hylea, whom I kept my promise to release the souls. By the end of those slides, I had to raise my hands up. The gods send horrible winters, famines, droughts, killer lions/bears, wildfires, killer golems, mass suicides, and stranger danger. The shit just kept coming and coming. Jesus Christ Obsidian, I get it, the gods are dicks.

In addition, I do not remember Wael and Skaene giving me additional options on what to do with the souls. How about an Eothas revival option?

Spoiler

They only do that if you vow you'll do what they want with the souls back when you turn in their quests, but side with another god instead. Probably because making such a vow gets you their blessing, a +1 bonus to the attribute that has the most affinity with their faith. Don't know how you get Skaen option, but Wael shows up if you do the quest for his Dyrwood temple where you recover his scroll

 

[Maculo]

Spoiler

They only do that if you vow you'll do what they want with the souls back when you turn in their quests, but side with another god instead. Probably because making such a vow gets you their blessing, a +1 bonus to the attribute that has the most affinity with their faith. Don't know how you get Skaen option, but Wael shows up if you do the quest for his Dyrwood temple where you recover his scroll

Spoiler

That makes sense, as I never did the all the god quests before.

The Skaen option was weird, because he just defers to giving Woedica the souls.

 

[Morality Games]

Spoiler

They only do that if you vow you'll do what they want with the souls back when you turn in their quests, but side with another god instead. Probably because making such a vow gets you their blessing, a +1 bonus to the attribute that has the most affinity with their faith. Don't know how you get Skaen option, but Wael shows up if you do the quest for his Dyrwood temple where you recover his scroll

Spoiler

That makes sense, as I never did the all the god quests before.

The Skaen option was weird, because he just defers to giving Woedica the souls.

Spoiler

Running theme in Pillars of Eternity is an abundance of counter-intuitive Yin-Yang dependencies. Woedica is the god of laws and oaths, but constantly cheats. Eothas is the god of enlightenment and second chances, but wages purges and holy wars against the other churches. Wael is the god of knowledge, but also of mysteries and obstruction. Skaen is the god of rebels and disloyal servants, but he is also apparently the only god allied with Woedica, who as the Queen of the gods should be his foremost enemy. Most likely he wants her to win because he believes she'll be such a terrible authoritarian influence over the cosmos that his own faith will increase in standing and power as Kith and gods alike chaff under her rule, perhaps allowing him to finally throw the world into darkness and anarchy

 

[Zanzoken]

Has the expansion done anything to address the problems in the base game? I'm about halfway through my first playthrough of vanilla and just went back to read Roxor's review... and I agree with every criticism he has of the game. Literally every single word is spot on.

If the new content makes a lot of improvements then I will might give PE another try during the summer, but if not I think it'll be one and done.

 

[Excidium II]

Better to just wait for gold Adra edition at this point.

 

[Darth Roxor]

|Roxor's comments are somewhat obsolete, as 2.0 plays very differently to 1.0

im certain thats 100% true

 

[Theldaran]

If I'm not mistaken The White March, as the name implies, takes place in a frozen mesa... guess they weren't content with paying (inadequate) homage to BG and wanted to appeal to Icewind Dale nostalgia too...

PS: An Instagram called "Pandgram" should be just awesome, don't you think?

 

[Maculo]

Has the expansion done anything to address the problems in the base game? I'm about halfway through my first playthrough of vanilla and just went back to read Roxor's review... and I agree with every criticism he has of the game. Literally every single word is spot on.

If the new content makes a lot of improvements then I will might give PE another try during the summer, but if not I think it'll be one and done.

It makes some slight improvements to the base game, but nothing major. The White March content by itself is better than the base game in my opinion. Specifically, the fights feel better and more varied, such as Concelhaut (however you spell it, damn it). Moreover, I believe it makes better use of the Watcher abilities in dialogue and the reputation system. Also, I think Durgan's Battery has more atmosphere than most of the base game.

Also, now that I think of it. The White March has one of the more depressing companion endings.

Spoiler

The Devil of Caroc walks alone into the wilderness until she rusts and falls apart. Her last act was to see the ocean and let herself sink into the water to feel the waves.

 

[Dorateen]

Also itemization, since that was another criticism of the base game. The best weapons and armor are to be found in The White March.

 

[Somberlain]

But does it change anything in the base game or does it just add new stuff? It's nice if The White March content is better but the main game, which is most of the experience, still remains with bad itemization etc.

 

[Infinitron]

White March Part 2's "Myrkul level":

 

[Excidium II]

Loooks p. nice.

 

[Anthedon]

That looks a lot like the ice temple from Icewind Dale II in the earlier pictures, sans the skeleton. Which brings back memories of the battle squares.

 

[ArchAngel]

I think I will rather play BG:SoD at time of release of White March.

 

[Jedi Exile]

I'd rather play D:OS 2 beta (a man can dream). Or replay D:OS EE. Turn-based combat is so nice...

 

[Neanderthal]

Aye that's fucking canny that Fallen Moon place, wonder how owt got that fucking big? Wonder if statue in Caed Nua were related some way, hope its interesting as it looks.

 

[Roguey]

This is the big one, folks.

Prayer against ________ spells now grant full immunity to their afflictions, though the base duration was reduced a bit.
...
As of TWM Pt. II, there are scrolls for all Prayer against _______ spells and Lore can be used by anyone. Chanters get a 4th level Invocation that (among other things) cancels/prevents Frightened/Terrified. Paladins have a new passive ability called Aegis of Loyalty that makes it very difficult for Confused/Charmed/Dominated characters to hit them (lowers Accuracy) and if the paladin hits a teammate under one of those effects, the attack does minimal damage and cancels the affliction.
...
I also just added a fighter ability available at 7th level called Fearless that grants immunity to Frightened and Terrified.

Hard counter spells.