Pillars of Eternity

Convincing Hiravius' soul twin to back down is actually bad option from what I heard

Anyhoo, you can kill the noble whose name I forgot in Dyrford without problems

Also, wait, you had to cheat at final boss :P Shame on you! Its not that hard once you figure a trick to it

what is the trick to it? That each of the statues have a defense they really suck at? I could beat him, but It was kinda hard.

on that note, the adra beetle summon trinket was indispensable in that fight. Adra beetle is best off tank.

edited 8th Apr '15 9:59:24 AM by Blissey1

XP granted for befriending a giant magical spider!

I just had Edeir distract Judge, had ranged guys run so that they weren't targeted by Hangman, beat stuff out of Thaos, beat stuff out of Hangman, Beat Judge and then finished off Thaos.

Basically, as long you have Edeir distract the one Thaos possesses first, and ensure squishy ones aren't engaged with one of them so they can heal and spell from distance, you can gang up on each of them :P

the fight became a lot easier when I realized that the hangsman has shit deflection and the judge has shit reflex defense. made focus firing work a lot better.

I had my main char, a pally tank, glued to thaos, pallegina offtank the judge(who has lower damage output but knocks people down) and the adra beetle and later a greater blight tanking the hangsman(who has a lot higher damage output).

I had the rest of my guys focus the hangsman, and it just so timed out that the hangsman died right after thaos possessed the judge. so then it was jsut focus the fudge then focus thaos.

XP granted for befriending a giant magical spider!

So, my thoughts after beating the game:

The final boss fight had the regular combat music instead of something different and more epic. I am disappoint. But it is a rather minor disappoint.

Goddamnit, Aloth! I helped you learn how to take charge for yourself and get rid of Iselmyr, and how the fuck do you repay me? By restarting the goddamn Leaden Key. Fuck you.

Durance threw himself on a pyre because I couldn't be bothered to finish his quest, because he's an ass who only lets you talk to him so much before telling you off before the next rest. Also he's just an ass.

Sagani was sad times. She disappeared in a blizzard trying to prove herself. I guess I didn't do well with her.

Otherwise, I think I did pretty well - I used the essence to strengthen the Dyrwood, Caed Nua is glorious, Eder is the mayor of Dyrford, the Grieving Mother delivered the first healthy baby in over a decade there, Kana is a great adventuring scholar, Hiravias got his hunter title and moved on, and Pallegina was eventually proven right.

Did you speak to Aloth? :P He has in final dungeon conversation about Leaden Key

And He becomes Leaden Key leader if you basically tell him during the entire game to depend on authorities/on you, if you tell him to be more independent he burns the robe and goes on personal crusade to dismantle Leaden Key

Anyhoo, yeah, seems like you failed with Sagani(did you at least finish her quest?) and Durance :P

edited 14th Apr '15 10:00:22 PM by SpookyMask

I did finish Sagani's quest, but I guess I chose the wrong dialogue options.

As for Aloth, No, I didn't have him with me in Sun in Shadow. I think wizards are kind of lame in this game. As for my dialogue choices with him, well, I remember being something like "Well you've got me to rely on, friend!" after having the chat with the animancer, and I let him steal the animancer's notes to protect his privacy, because I didn't imagine that these renaissanceish people have developed modern psychological consent standards. But ultimately, I did help him take control of himself and get rid of Iselmyr.

Hmm, well what did you choose with Sagani's quest? There are pretty much three options at least from what dialog options seemed like, one were you tell her to tell about guy's achievements leading to her becoming village elder, one about telling guy stag about his family leading her to retire and live with her family and one were you tell her to do what she feels like which causes her to give up in despair because of hunting a stag for five years which apparently leads to the miserable ending :p

Ah, yes. I chose the latter. Welp.

So I finally got the game. And so far I despise this piece of junk. I think I do everything wrong. I play on easy and die constantly, combat is tedious with neither AI for companions nor the ability to queue commands.

One of the things I'd recommend during combat is that you pretend it is semi-turn-based, you won't be pausing every few commands, you'll be pausing every few frames, the combat can get messy but with enough management you can prevail (Ok, the Shadows are a real pain in the ass).

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Keep an eye on the red and green lines that sprout from the feet of friends and enemies. These are lines of attack that will tell you exactly how many enemies your tank is occupying, and whether a squishy character like a magic caster is in the sights of a dangerous bad guy. Pillars of Eternity lacks the AI-tweaking tactics systems we've seen in Dragon Age, and just ordering your entire party to attack will only work for the very weakest enemies. Constant micromanagement is essential, but chances are you'll soon fall in to a default rhythm for tackling smaller foes.

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Some character classes can't take a punch. They need to be protected, and the best way to do it is to put them behind a big ugly bruiser who can soak up damage in their stead. Where you can, use positioning to force enemies into a battle line with your fighters, and then arrange your rangers and mages behind the line.

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A good custom formation lets you start the fight with perfect positioning. You have two slots for custom formations, and you can bring up the customisation menu with the F key. There you'll be able to place character portraits on a grid. The top edge of the grid is the edge that will face the enemy, so line up your tanks closer to the top.

FORMATIONS ARE LIFE SAVERS! TRUST IN ME!

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If you move a character away from melee contact, the enemy gets an instant free attack with a significant damage and accuracy bonus that also forces your character to pause momentarily. During that pause the enemy can re-engage. The system punishes careless movement and makes it hard for squishy characters to get away from fighters. If you're taking a ton of damage and aren't sure why, you might be triggering a bunch of disengagement strikes without realising by giving your engaged fighters lots of movement orders.

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Hopefully my advice will help you, and you expeience the parts the game is best known for. It is by no means a piece of junk!

It's not just a good story-driven RPG, it has a challenging combat system that's rewards strong tactical thinking. And this is from a fan of classic RPGs, it is less frustarting, fair, and more complex combat-wise having played them.

And remember, watch your step and don't set yourself on fire

But again, the combat is not for everyone...

edited 25th Apr '15 11:01:28 AM by YoKab

<_< I suck in these games and I found this game pretty easy... What am I doing wrong? xD

Because it's more fair, simple as that. There is also that the later half of the game doesn't expect you to do many sidequests (said sidequests help a lot!), there was also that hidden bug which made the party GIT GUD, it look a while for Obsidian to find it.

I also liked micromanaging the party during combat, as great as Baldurs Gate was, there was a point I just started clicking on enemies and wait for the inevitable victory, it adds more challenge... Pillars Of Eternity reaches that point too when you do a lot of sidequests until the final boss, except you'll still get the party killed if you just click and wait.

edited 25th Apr '15 12:25:44 PM by YoKab

Thanks for the tips. It's appreciated.

I on the other hand haven't had so much problems in any RPG I've played. But then, I never played older ones (the oldest being Kotor).

Yeah, if you haven't experienced the Infinity Engine games in any capacity, I imagine it would be rough to adjust to this one.

"It's so hard to be humble, knowing how great I am."

Eder is big beautiful tank who don't need no god

"Never let the truth get in the way of a good story." Twitter

To be fair, a strong bruiser is an ugly bruiser, it's a figure of speech.

Ugly = Hard to kill.

edited 26th Apr '15 11:06:47 AM by YoKab

So Chris Avellone just announced that he left Obsidian.

At first I tough it was a joke when he tweeted

Then followed by

He's a good writer, a sad event for his fellow staff at the studio... Now the ultimate questions is: What is he going to do now?

Bethesda drove a dump truck of money up to his house to write Fallout 4's plot? Bioware scattered rosepetals and diamonds across his bed to be the new writer for Dragon Age? He has to return to his own dimension now?

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It appears that he has been held back in the writing department in the last few years after New Vegas. He wrote a bunch of characters in Torment: Tides of Numenera, Wasteland 2, and Pillars of Eternity. To be honest, I think he has the talent to lead any of those projects. I really hope he stays in the game industry.

edited 9th Jun '15 9:32:07 AM by YoKab

Games Industry Biz article.

Man the collectible card game made it way past the initital goal

Pillars of Eternity: The White March expansion has been announced.

It's the first part of a multi-segment expansion. Features include new abilities, new companions, soul-bound weapons, a level cap increase, and more dialogue options.

Fan wiki page on the region the expansion is named for

Edit: There's an announcement trailer too.

edited 16th Jun '15 7:31:50 PM by lrrose

Goddamn goddamn goddamn.

Okay, so I went back and beat the game again. I killed both the Master Below and the final boss fair and square.

Note: "Fair and square" in the Master Below's case involved spamming paralysis scrolls so the Master could never get a single move off.

Details on "The White March Part One

The tl;dr version:

• They split the expansion in two parts because they wanted to release it sooner rather than later. Release date is still TBA.
• Level cap is increased to 14.
• The new content is available once you get your stronghold.
• Two new companions: a drug addicted elderly Monk and a Construct Rogue who is a known murderer and likes to use guns.
• New Monk ability: Dichotomous Soul: splits the users soul into fire and ice embodiments which fight your enemies.
• Soulbound Weapons are powerful artifacts found in the White March give you special abilities based on your class. These weapons get stronger by completing specific achievements.
• You can bring your Expansion companions and items back into the vanilla game.
• Free patch to be included with the expansion contains:
  • The ability to set AI behavior for your companions.
  • Individual stealth: you can send a stealthy character out alone and your party will path around traps detected.