History YMMV / PillarsOfEternity

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: Eothas. Did he really set out to become a conqueror? [[spoiler: Or was his invasion of the Dyrwood a desperate gambit on his part to end the plan of Woedica?]] (The answer is revealed in ''VideoGame/PillarsOfEternityIIDeadfire''.)

* ScrappyMechanic: When managing the player's fortress, some events (tax raising, length of companions offscreen adventures, and various random events) are based on a special in-game clock, occurring in "turns" instead of using the normal calendar; one turn passes each time the party completes a quest. While it forces the player to act in the game instead of allowing them to exploit the system (i.e. rest continuously and amass infinite money and resources generated from the keep), linking this feature to quest completion has some unfortunate consequences. You can gain several turns in a row then none for a long time, depending on how fast you complete quests, and it eventually is stopped when you completed all the quests. Also, to benefit most from the keep, you need to rush to Caed Nua with a low-level party[[note]]and at this point, there's only four plot companions available, though you already can recruit custom companions[[/note]] while completing as little quests as possible, which is especially counterintuitive because Caed Nua's courtyard and dungeon are filled with DemonicSpiders.

* FunnyAneurysmMoment: In Aloth's personal quest, a sanitarium consultant cheerfully asks Aloth to slip into a soul-measuring machine that looks like a rusty medieval torture device. Naturally, Aloth declines. This is hilarious until one reads [[https://eternity.obsidian.net/media/stories Aloth's short story]], [[AllThereInTheManual which reveals]] [[spoiler:that while at the academy some classmates illegally acquired one and tried to test it on him. He narrowly avoided being the test subject, while the one who did became a drooling vegetable.]] No wonder he doesn't want to get anywhere near that thing.

* SpiritualSuccessor: The game is explicitly a SpiritualSuccessor to the Infinity Engine games, all of which used a version of 2nd edition ''Advanced TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'', modified for real time with pause gameplay instead of turns. ''Pillars of Eternity'' uses a rules engine that is very similar to D&D 3.5. Specifically, both systems share:
** 6 analogous but differently named primary stats. ''Pillars'' does its best to make stats more streamlined and generically useful, however, with tweaks like Might setting all damage (not just melee), making it useful for ranged characters and spellcasters.
** 4 defenses that cover the same 4 kinds of attacks (single target physical, area of effect physical, bodily intrusion, mental attacks).
** The same number of classes. ''Pillars'' replaces the Bard with the very similar Chanter (both characters with limited spellcasting, medium durability, and powers based on song) and rolls the Sorceror into the Wizard. The only class unique to ''Pillars'' is the Cipher, a casting class focusing on mind-affecting spells cast with mana points generated by attacking with weapons. Tellingly, the ''Pillars'' classes not only gain most of the same abilities as their D&D inspirations, they gain them at the same levels, with the same power spikes in the level curve.
** Awarding customizable perks every few levels, some of them meant to strengthen class abilities and others to grant generic bonuses. Again, they're called by different names but share the same function.

** Awarding

* SpritualLicensee: The game is explicitly a SpiritualSuccessor to the Infinity Engine games, all of which used a version of 2nd edition ''Advanced TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'', modified for real time with pause gameplay instead of turns. ''Pillars of Eternity'' uses a rules engine that is very similar to D&D 3.5. Specifically, both systems share:

*** Really, anything that petrifies the enemy counts, since petrification ''doubles'' any and all damage they receive. And ''that'' is after it was heavily nerfed: it used to '''''[[UpToEleven quadruplicate]]''''' the damage received by the petrified target. Even after the nerf, it is enough to trivialize any and all fights, up to and including [[spoiler:the Adra Dragon, Thaos and the Sky Dragon]].

* CrossesTheLineTwice: Your dealings with Gordy, the boy in Defiance Bay that wants the dagger, can be this. If you've already found the secret he tells you about, he offers another one - namely that his dad often visits the Salty Mast. A possible response is to tell him that ''his father doesn't love him or his mom'', resulting in the kid breaking down into tears. Then, spotting him later shows that his dad is confronting him about the dagger, thinking he'd stolen it - the player can cheerfully deny having purchased the dagger for him, resulting in Gordy getting punished.

*** Shadows, Shades, Phantoms and Specters appear in two early-game locations, one of which is plot-mandatory (Caed Nua) and the other being accessible right in the first town (the Temple of Eothas). At low levels, all three types of spirit deal high amounts of damage even to dedicated tanks like fighters and paladins, and some of them also have a chance to stun on hit, and perhaps most annoyingly, will ignore frontline fighters in favor of teleporting directly to fragile backline characters. Specters, on the other hand, can instead stun-lock squishy party members to death from extreme ranges. Shades spawn even more Shadows in, though fortunately [[CriticalExistenceFailure once the summoning Shade is gone, its summoned Shadows dissipate as well]].

** As noted in the DemonicSpiders entry, Phantoms have the ability to stun enemies on a hit, and once they stun something, their subsequent attacks get Sneak Attack bonus damage. Chanters can summon a Phantom [[DiscOneNuke from the start of the game,]] and unlike other spellcasters, they don't run out of spells. At higher levels, they also gain the ability to summon animated weapons, which in the first game are immune to nearly all status effects and come with powerful offensive abilities usually reserved for Fighters, Paladins and Rangers. And in ''Deadfire'', a high-level Chanter can even summon dragons.
** The Cipher's ''Mental Binding'' spell. It's a paralysis spell that's fast, fairly cheap for a Cipher spell, and most importantly, available by ''third level''. This is the absolutely earliest one can inflict paralysis, allowing Ciphers to shut down plenty of enemies right from the start. Considering one can be only a few hundred experience short of level three before they even reach Gilded Vale...
** Some combinations of spells can quickly lead to the demise of your enemies. The Wizard in particular has ''Chill Fog'' which deals Freeze damage but, more importantly, blind your targets (which reduce their Accuracy and Deflection by a whooping 25 and 20 respectively!), ''Expose Vulnerabilities'', which lower damage reduction, deflection and concentration of your foes (and there is no risk of friendly fire while using it) and ''Call to Slumber'', which make characters prone, preventing them from taking any actions and reducing once again their deflection.

** ''Gaze of Adragan'', a 6th level wizard spell, can petrify multiples foes. It comes pretty late, but once you can cast it, every single encounter of the game becomes a joke if your targets are petrified, since not only are they stunned, but they also completely lose their damage reduction, and the effect lasts for 20 very long seconds (and since Wizards usually have high Intelligence - which prolongs the duration of any status effects -, your foes can be petrified for over 30 seconds quite easily, leaving you ample time to kill them). Scrolls of Petrification have a similar effect and can be crafted from relatively common ingredients.

** Also the Cipher spell ''Amplified Wave''. It's a level 6 spell, so you'll get it only very late but boy is it ever powerful. It's cast on a friendly and inflicts an ''enormous'' foe-only [=AoE=], dealing a substantial amount of crush damage and knocking enemies prone. Encounters that would have been challenging like Banshees and Shades become an absolute joke as they'll be knocked down for basically the whole time. And this being a Cipher spell, you can cast it every encounter multiple times if you wish, as there's no limit on daily usage.
** In ''Deadfire'', the Druid spell Call to the Primordials summons several oozes at random. The true gem among them is the Bog Ooze, which has unlimited uses of several powerful spell-like abilities, with Insect Plague inflicting damage over time on enemies and lowering their Constitution and their ability to heal off damage, while Foul Wave damages and stuns enemies in a line similar to the Druid spell Overwhelming Wave, but is party-friendly.
** In ''Deadfire'', characters can unlock level 9 spells and abilities. For Wizards, [[MacrossMissileMassacre Minoletta's Missile Salvo]] bombards a small area with scores of magic missiles for staggering amounts of damage. Ciphers can tear down even the tankiest foes with [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Death of 1000 Cuts]], and Druids can devastate a battlefield with Great Maelstrom.

** The Chanter class is basically TheBard, but powered by necromancy; chanting stirs whatever ghosts are nearby to aid the Chanter's allies and hinder their enemies. While they still have the popular SummonMagic trope, as a whole the class is much closer to mythological necromancers than the classic goth-flavored MookMaker. Bonus points if you make your Watcher a Chanter, for the full suite of white and black necromancy.

* MagnificentBastard: [[BigBad Thaos Ix Arkannon]], the immortal grandmaster of the Leaden Key. Millenia ago, Thaos led an Inquisition that tortured and executed anyone who refused to worship Thaos's gods. When one heretic named Iovara led a rebellion against Thaos, he convinced a close acquaintance of Iovara to lead her into a trap so she could be tortured and executed. Thaos later formed the Leaden Key, a secret society dedicated to hiding the gods' secrets. Thaos manipulated the entire world for millenia, with only a handful of people being aware that he exists. When the animancers in the Dyrwood come close to learning the gods' secrets, Thaos resolves to discredit and ban animancy. He uses soul manipulating machines to cause nearly all children in the Dyrwood to be [[TheSoulless Hollowborn]], making it appear to be divine retribution for the death of the god Eothas. He prepares to feed the stolen souls to the goddess Woedica, so she can use the new power to hide the gods' secrets. He sabotages high profile animancy experiments, in one case causing a zombie outbreak in a major city. Eventually, Duc Aevar, ruler of the Dyrwood holds a hearing to discuss banning animancy. [[PlayerCharacter The Watcher]] takes the opportunity to expose Thaos and the Leaden Key. However, Thaos possesses an animancer into murdering Aevar, causing horrific anti-animancy riots to break out. This [[MultipleEndings usually]] ends with [[TheBadGuyWins animancy banned in the Dyrwood]].

*** Shadows, Shades, Phantoms and Specters appear in two early-game locations, one of which is plot-mandatory (Caed Nua) and the other being accessible right in the first town (the Temple of Eothas). At low levels, all three types of spirit deal high amounts of damage even to dedicated tanks like fighters and paladins, and some of them also have a chance to stun on hit, and perhaps most annoyingly, will ignore frontline fighters in favor of teleporting directly to fragile backline characters. Specters, on the other hand, can instead stunlock squishy party members to death from extreme ranges. Shades spawn even more Shadows in, though fortunately [[CriticalExistenceFailure once the summoning Shade is gone, its summoned Shadows dissipate as well]].

** [[LightningBruiser Monks]] become this in the ''White March'', where the fights put greater emphasis on using support spells over pure damage. When backed up by Paladin and Priest support, Monks can devastate even a high-level, well-buffed team due to their tendency to dive the party's backline with Flagellant's Path -- and this when they don't just scatter the party's frontline with Force of Anguish, both knocking them aside and leaving them prone and useless for several seconds. The innate abilities of Monks also mean that they only get stronger as the fight drags on; should they take enough damage without being killed, they ''will'' use Duality of Mortal Presence to [[FromBadToWorse spawn two hard-hitting copies of themselves]] -- and at the [[spoiler:Abbey of the Fallen Moon]] and Crägholdt, Monks ''almost always appear in groups''.

* MagnificentBastard: [[BigBad Thaos Ix Arkannon]], the immortal grandmaster of the Leaden Key. Millenia ago, Thaos led an Inquisition that tortured and executed anyone who refused to worship Thaos's gods. When one heretic named Iovara led a rebellion against Thaos, he convinced a close acquaintance of Iovara to lead her into a trap so she could be tortured and executed. Thaos later formed the Leaden Key, a secret society dedicated to hiding the gods' secrets. Thaos manipulated the entire world for millenia, with only a handful of people being aware that he exists. When the animancers in the Dyrwood come close to learning the gods' secrets, Thaos resolves to discredit and ban animancy. He uses soul manipulating machines to cause nearly all children in the Dyrwood to be [[TheSoulless Hollowborn]], making it appear to be divine retribution for the death of the god Eothas. He prepares to feed the stolen souls to the godess Woedica, so she can use the new power to hide the gods' secrets. He sabotages high profile animancy experiments, in one case causing a zombie outbreak in a major city. Eventually, Duc Aevar, ruler of the Dyrwood holds a hearing to discuss banning animancy. [[PlayerCharacter The Watcher]] takes the opportunity to expose Thaos and the Leaden Key. However, Thaos possesses an animancer into murdering Aevar, causing horrific anti-animancy riots to break out. This [[MultipleEndings usually]] ends with [[TheBadGuyWins animancy banned in the Dyrwood]].

* ScrappyMechanic: When managing the player's fortress, some events (tax raising, length of companions offscreen adventures, and various random events) are based on a special in-game clock, occurring in "turns" instead of using the normal calendar; one turn passes each time the party completes a quest. While it forces the player to move in the game instead of allowing to exploit the system to gain free gains (i.e. rest somewhere for an indeterminate time and amass infinite money and resources generated form the keep), linking this feature to quest completion has some unfortunate consequences. You can gain several turns in a row then none for a long time, depending on how fast you complete quests, and it eventually is stopped when you completed all the quests. Also, to benefit most from the keep, you need to rush to Caed Nua with a low-level party[[note]]and at this point, there's only four plot companions available, though you already can recruit custom companions[[/note]] while completing as little quests as possible, which is especially counterintuitive because Caed Nua's courtyard and dungeon are filled with DemonicSpiders.

* StrawmanHasAPoint: Pallegina often criticizes the Valian Republics' Council of Ducs as being too short-sighted, to the point where she considers going against their orders to end trade deals with the Dyrwood in favor of the Glanfathans. However, the Dyrwood's problems are so dire that only an act of a very specific god will actually allow her plan to work. The ducs can hardly be blamed for not considering that possibility, and looking at how most of the endings play out, their plan appears pretty sound by all appearances, and Pallagena herself ends up looking like the one who's short-sighted.

* ScrappyMechanic: When managing the player's fortress, some events (tax raising, length of companions offscreen adventures, and various random events) are related to a special in-game clock referred as "turns" instead of using the normal calendar; one turn passes each time the party completes a quest. While it forces to move in the game instead of allowing to exploit the system to gain free gains (i.e. rest somewhere for an indeterminate time and amass infinite money and resources generated form the keep), linking this feature to quest completion has some bad consequences. You can gain several turns in a row then none for a long time, depending on how fast you complete quests, and it eventually is stopped when you completed all the quests. Also, to benefit most from the keep, you need to rush to Caed Nua with a low level party[[note]]and at this point, there's only four plot companions available, though you already can recruit custom companions[[/note]] while completing as little quests as possible, which is especially counterintuitive because Caed Nua's courtyard and dungeon are filled with DemonicSpiders.

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: Eothas. Did he really set out to become a conqueror? [[spoiler: Or was his invasion of the Dyrwood a desperate gambit on his part to end the plan of Woedica?]] (The answer is revealedin ''VideoGame/PillarsOfEternityIIDeadfire''.)
* BaseBreakingCharacter: Durance. Some players find him to be an interesting and morally-complicated individual with a very sordid past that ties in well with the main plot of the game. Others see him as a thoroughly unpleasant and downright repulsive human being who's leaped well past the MoralEventHorizon. The fact that his personal quest is structured differently than everyone else's barring the Grieving Mother (requiring you to either put him in your party and talk to him over the course of the game or else just sit in your castle and sleep whenever he tells you he's done talking if you don't want to use him) doesn't help.

** As noted in the DemonicSpiders entry, Phantoms have the ability to stun enemies on a hit, and once they stun something, their subsequent attacks get Sneak Attack bonus damage. Chanters can summon a Phantom [[DiscOneNuke from the start of the game,]] and unlike other spellcasters, they don't run out of spells. At higher levels, they also gain the ability to summon animated weapons, which in the first game are immune to nearly all status effects and come with powerful offensive abilities usually reserved for Fighters, Paladins and Rangers. And in Deadfire, a high-level Chanter can even summon dragons.

** Some combinations of spells can quickly lead to the demise of your enemies. The Wizard in particular has ''Chill Fog'' which deals Freeze damage but, more importantly, blind your targets (which reduce their Accurancy and Deflection by a whooping 25 and 20 respectively!), ''Expose Vulnerabilities'', which lower damage reduction, deflection and concentration of your foes (and there is no risk of friendly fire while using it) and ''Call to Slumber'', which make characters prone, preventing them from taking any actions and reducing once again their deflection.

** In Deadfire, the Druid spell Call to the Primordials summons several oozes at random. The true gem among them is the Bog Ooze, which has unlimited uses of several powerful spell-like abilities, with Insect Plague inflicting damage over time on enemies and lowering their Constitution and their ability to heal off damage, while Foul Wave damages and stuns enemies in a line similar to the Druid spell Overwhelming Wave, but is party-friendly.
** In Deadfire, characters can unlock level 9 spells and abilities. For Wizards, [[MacrossMissileMassacre Minoletta's Missile Salvo]] bombards a small area with scores of magic missiles for staggering amounts of damage. Ciphers can tear down even the tankiest foes with [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Death of 1000 Cuts]], and Druids can devastate a battlefield with Great Maelstrom.

** The Orlans are like a sort of hybrid between hobbits and cat people, and have been constantly enslaved and victimized by all the larger kith races, to the point that they've been driven further into the wild or resorted to guerrilla warfare. This is as likely as not inspired by an interview by Tolkien, where he denied Literature/TheLordOfTheRings being a direct allegory to WWII because, among other reasons, both the humans on Aragorn's side and Sauron's side would have enslaved the hobbits since they were so small and easily dominated.

* ScrappyMechanic: When managing the player's fortress, some events (tax raising, length of companions offscreen adventures, and various random events) are related to a special ingame clock refered as "turns" instead of using the normal calendar; one turn passes each time the party completes a quest. While it forces to move in the game instead of allowing to exploit the system to gain free gains (i.e. rest somewhere for an indeterminate time and amass infinite money and resources generated form the keep), linking this feature to quest completion has some bad consequences. You can gain several turns in a row then none for a long time, depending on how fast you complete quests, and it eventually is stopped when you completed all the quests. Also, to benefit most from the keep, you need to rush to Caed Nua with a low level party[[note]]and at this point, there's only four plot companions available, though you already can recruit custom companions[[/note]] while completing as little quests as possible, which is especially counterintuitive because Caed Nua's courtyard and dungeon are filled with DemonicSpiders.
* SlowPacedBeginning: The first act of the game is both the hardest and most linear part of the game. You're restricted to the town of Gilded Vale and surrounding wilderness, with less than a handful of companions to choose from, a small selection of sidequests to gain experience from, and the Shadow enemies encountered can be immensely difficult given your low level. Only after meeting the master of Caed Nua does the game open up and become a lot more sandbox: the stronghold feature is unlocked as are the Bounties, all the companions can be recruited, the BonusDungeon of Od Nua is available, the BrokenBridge to [[CityOfAdventure Defiance Bay]] and [[TownWithADarkSecret Dyrford Town]] is repaired and the White March expansion can finally be accessed.

* ThatOneLevel:
** Related to the DemonicSpiders entry, the Temple of Eothas in Gilded Vale can be this, depending on how early in the game you take it on -- its second level is absolutely filled with Shadows. The "Buried Secrets" quest seems to be intended to be completed as soon as the Watcher arrives in Gilded Vale, but the second floor can be extremely dangerous without a full party or at lower levels.

* BaseBreakingCharacter: Durance. Some players find him to be an interesting and morally-complicated individual with a very sordid past that ties in well with the main plot of the game. Others see him as a thoroughly unpleasant and downright repulsive human being who's leaped well past the MoralEventHorizon. The fact that his personal quest is structured differently than everyone else's barring the Grieving Mother(requiring you to either put him in your party and talk to him over the course of the game or else just sit in your castle and sleep whenever he tells you he's done talking if you don't want to use him) doesn't help.

* BrokenBase: A [[OfficialFanSubmittedContent backer-submitted]] poem about a man who was DrivenToSuicide after discovering that the woman he slept with [[UnsettlingGenderReveal was actually a man]] due to getting pissed drunk the night before was changed after getting the backer's approval and edit. Some applaud the developers for being sensitive towards transgender fans and removing a poem based on a stereotype often used to attack trans people, while others see this as an example of PoliticalCorrectnessGoneMad, with some people pointing out that this is a CrapsackWorld where such a thing is common anyway. This was further complicated with the revised poem being a TakeThat from the user to the people who complained, which only led to more arguments in the fanbase. %% As this is a sensitive topic, please observe the Rule of Cautious Editing Judgement when elaborating.

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: Eothas, constantly, both in-universe and by players. Did he really set out to become a conqueror? [[spoiler: Or was his invasion of the Dyrwood a desperate gambit on his part to end the plan of Woedica?]] (The answer is revealedin ''VideoGame/PillarsOfEternityIIDeadfire''.)
** Eothas even moreso in the sequel. There are ''many'' ways to interpret his actions. The first is to take what he says at face value and assume that he is being completely rational and honest. Another option is that he's [[spoiler: having a SuicidalCosmicTemperTantrum, since destroying the cycle of reincarnation and dooming the world in a few generations seems like a bit of an overreaction, and planting even a small amount of negativity in his mind leads to him killing the world. Another is that he just couldn't handle being killed as Waidwen and was broken in mind as well as body, which would explain his seemingly erratic behavior as his while his goal makes sense, the method by which he tries to achieve it seem pretty bizarre given the information the players have. [[MindScrew a ''fourth'' interpretation]] is that he's just [[DespairEventHorizon so depressed]] that he's not being reasonable and is going to extreme measures, since he's being described as being more regretful than any mortal could ever be and the only way you can defeat him in any sense it to make him even more depressed.]] To the credit of the developers, your character is able to act as if they believe any of these interpretations.

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: Eothas. Did he really set out to become a conqueror? [[spoiler: Or was his invasion of the Dyrwood a desperate gambit on his part to end the plan of Woedica?]] (The answer is revealed in ''VideoGame/PillarsOfEternityIIDeadfire''.)

*** Shadows, Shades and Specters appear in two early-game locations, one of which is plot-mandatory (Caed Nua) and the other being accessible right in the first town (the Temple of Eothas). At low levels, all three types of spirit deal high amounts of damage even to dedicated tanks like fighters and paladins, on top of having a chance to stun on hit, and perhaps most annoyingly, will frontline fighters in favor of teleporting directly to fragile backline characters. Specters, on the other hand, can instead stunlock squishy party members to death from extreme ranges. Shades spawn even more Shadows in, though fortunately [[CriticalExistenceFailure once the summoning Shade is gone, its summoned Shadows dissipate as well]].

** This game is basically ''Literature/AlsoSprachZarathustra: The Game''. The overarching plot is that [[spoiler:the ancient Engwithans used animancy to create the "gods" so that folk would have something to believe in that would give their lives order and meaning]]. They also [[spoiler:used animancy to grant a form of immortality to Thaos]] so that he could make sure that the lie would never be uncovered. [[spoiler:Iovara]], however, discovered the secret and tried to reveal it to the world, [[RousseauWasRight believing that people would still be good]], and [[AntiNihilist that life would still have meaning]], even if the truth were exposed. This was, in essence, Nietzsche's view of religion: a handful of ancient visionary heroes had created religion to give humanity something to believe in that would give our lives order and meaning. Without that, humanity would slowly go extinct unless a new visionary hero could somehow create values that people would live and die for without any belief in a higher power.

** [[LightningBruiser Monks]] become this in the ''White March'', where the fights put greater emphasis on using support spells over pure damage. When backed up by Paladin and Priest support, Monks can devastate even a high-level, well-buffed team due to their tendency to dive the party's backline with Flagellant's Path -- and this when they don't just scatter the party's frontline with Force of Anguish, both knocking them aside and leaving them prone and useless for several seconds. The innate abilities of Monks also mean that they only get stronger as the fight dragons on; should they take enough damage without being killed, they ''will'' use Duality of Mortal Presence to [[FromBadToWorse spawn two hard-hitting copies of themselves]] -- and at the [[spoiler:Abbey of the Fallen Moon]] and Crägholdt, Monks ''almost always appear in groups''.

*** Cean Gŵlas and their ''White March'' counterparts the [[UndergroundMonkey Battery Sirens]]. The former have a constant Frighten aura around them (which reduces Accuracy, among other attribute debuffs) while the latter . What really makes them frustrating, however, is their paralyzing shrieks with deceptively high area of effect. If there's more than one of them, they ''will'' shriek one after another to keep entire parties helpless for half a minute.

** [[LightningBruiser Monks]] become this in the ''White March'', where the fights put greater emphasis on using support spells over pure damage. When backed up by Paladin and Priest support, Monks can devastate even a high-level, well-buffed team due to their tendency to dive the party's backline with Flagellant's Path -- and this when they don't just scatter the party's frontline with Force of Anguish, both knocking them aside and leaving them prone and useless for several seconds. The innate abilities of Monks also mean that they only get stronger as the fight dragons on; should they take enough damage without being killed, they ''will'' use Duality of Mortal Presence to [[FromBadToWorse spawn two hard-hitting copies of themselves]] -- and at the the [[spoiler:Abbey of the Fallen Moon]] and Crägholdt, Monks ''almost always appear in groups''.

** Shadows, made worse by the fact that they show up early in the game. They deal a surprising amount of endurance damage, have a chance to stun on hit, and, perhaps most annoyingly, love to ignore your frontline fighters in favor of teleporting right to your squishier long range characters. And then there's Shades, which [[MookMaker spawn Shadows]]. Fortunately, [[CriticalExistenceFailure once the summoning Shade is gone, summoned Shadows dissipate as well]].
** Fampyrs, who spam Charm willy-nilly as soon as combat begins. Any fight involving them (especially if there's more than one) devolves into a chaotic mess, as half your carefully selected and placed group begins attacking the other half.
** Perhaps surprisingly, the Mercenary Brawlers and Drunken Orlans in the Cragholdt Bluffs can be some of the toughest enemies in the game, thanks to a combination of their ability to duplicate themselves, other mobs in the area supporting them (such as mercs with ranged weapon stun abilities), and having the ability to teleport, which they use to attack your squishiest party members.
** Cean Gwla are also an example of this: they have a spell which paralyzes anything in the near vicinity, and they have a tendency to use it repeatedly during the course of a fight.

** Related to the DemonicSpiders entry, the Temple of Eothas in Gilded Vale can be this, depending on how early in the game you take it on--its second level is absolutely filled with Shadows. Still, this can be mitigated by building up a full party, or a bit of leveling and returning later.

* BrokenBase: A [[OfficialFanSubmittedContent backer-submitted]] poem about a man who was DrivenToSuicide after discovering that the woman he slept with [[UnsettlingGenderReveal was actually a man]] due to getting pissed drunk the night before was changed after getting the backer's approval and edit. Some applaud the developers for being sensitive towards transgender fans and removing a poem based in a stereotype often used to attack trans people, while others see this as an example of PoliticalCorrectnessGoneMad, with some people pointing out that this is a CrapsackWorld where such a thing is common anyway. This was further complicated with the revised poem being a TakeThat from the user to the people who complained, which only led to more arguments in the fanbase. %% As this is a sensitive topic, please observe the Rule of Cautious Editing Judgement when elaborating.

** Shadows, made worst by the fact that they show up early in the game. They deal a surprising amount of endurance damage, have a chance to stun on hit, and, perhaps most annoyingly, love to ignore your frontline fighters in favor of teleporting right to your squishier long range characters. And then there's Shades, which [[MookMaker spawn Shadows]]. Fortunately, [[CriticalExistenceFailure once the summoning Shade is gone, summoned Shadows dissipate as well]].

** The almighty ''Devotions of the Faithful'' priest spell, which not only dramatically increase your character's accuracy (+20 for both melee and ranged), but also decreases your enemy's accuracy by the same amount, while improving your Might by 4 and decreasing your enemy's Might by 10. This one spell can absolutely cripple your opponent while buffing significantly your allies.
** ''Gaze of Adragan'', a 6th level wizard spell, can petrify multiples foes. It comes pretty late, but once you can cast it, every single encounter of the game becomes a joke if your targets are petrified, since not only are they stunned, but they also completly lose their damage reduction, and the effect lasts for 20 very long seconds (and since Wizards usually have high Intelligence - which prolongs the duration of any status effects -, your foes can be petrified for over 30 seconds quite easily, leaving you ample time to kill them). Scrolls of Petrification have a similar effect and can be crafted from relatively common ingredients.

** Also the Cipher spell ''Amplified Wave''. It's a level 6 spell, so you'll get it only very late but boy is it ever powerful. It's targetted on a friendly and inflicts an ''enormous'' foe-only [=AoE=], dealing a substantial amount of crush damage and knocking prone. Encounters that would have been challenging like Banshees and Shades become an absolute joke as they'll be knocked down for basically the whole time. And this being a Cipher spell you can cast it every encounter multiple times if you wish, there's no limit on daily usage.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: Some players were disappointed to find out the prologue's companions were killed in a cutscene once you leave the ruins, especially after discovering that Heodan is the only pregenerated Rogue of the game (prior to ''The White March'').