Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire, by Obsidian Entertainment

Ahh, hadn't seen that concept art. But in that sense it is kind of a sliding scale — a full-blown possession and you get St. Waidwen, a chime in childhood and you get a godlike, a chime later in life and the Watcher becomes the Herald of Berath. So could Xoti have a chime of her own, or the equivalent? Is that what leads Reaper to become Soul Collectors, if they don't offload their lanterns regularly? How exactly did Xoti come by her lantern, the adra mantle within, and/or the knowledge of how to assemble one? And, had the Watcher retained Berath's chime for a longer period of time, would they have gained any death godlike traits, or do those only manifest at puberty?

Mostly being rhetorical at this point.

Edited by Unsung on Jan 11th 2019 at 1:31:14 PM

It's possible that the chime's transformative properties only occur if placed in a developing fetus. It presumably messes with the growth of the unborn child. By the time the Watcher gets Berath's chime, they are already an adult.

Which isn't to say that a transformation down the line isn't impossible given enough time or an increase in the power. Waidwen underwent a physical transformation due to the sheer power involved — being possessed by Eothas in his full might is very different from the chime.

It is worth noting that while their godlike appearance is unmistakeable even at birth, how different they look varies. And as seen with Pallegina, severing the chime's link can reduce the transformation considerably.

From the godlike page on the POE wiki:

What's interesting is that even if the chime is "severed" this way, the connection to the gods' is still present. Hence why Pallegina is apparently not safe in the hypothetical situation of Hylea recalling the souls of all of her godlike to herself.

Edited by M84 on Jan 12th 2019 at 4:44:09 AM

That seems to be how godlike are created, but given how Berath makes you her Herald by the same means, I do wonder if it's possible they forge similar, stronger, or weaker connections with other kith, and kith, lacking Giacolo's animantic knowledge or a Watcher's sight, have simply never noticed or documented their existence.

Is there any clarification on what the chime actually is? Is it physically there, I wonder? I pictured it as sort of a ghostly, spiritual manifestation, but for all I know it could be something that a given god literally implants inside the body by some means.

If it was a physical thing, it presumably would have been discovered long ago. If it took an animancy researcher like Giacolo to discover it, it's presumably a spiritual thing.

I think it's entirely possible for the gods to forge connections of varying strength with mortals through different means. It doesn't seem like there's anything really stopping a god from pulling a Waidwen of their own. Why they would deign to do so? That's another story.

Edited by M84 on Jan 12th 2019 at 4:57:27 AM

Well, it might not necessarily look like a bell in its physical state, if any, and who knows if a godlike's external changes don't also apply to some internal anomalies as well. I don't know. I mostly just find the concept odd. As much for the poetry of it as anything.

Edited by Unsung on Jan 11th 2019 at 2:03:19 AM

One grim possibility is that the first known godlike were literally torn apart by a mad scientist or two back in the day to see if there was anything physical inside them like an extra organ that triggered their transformations.

I consider the chime to be a small fragment of the gods' power implanted in the unborn child's soul. One that acts like a fishhook of sorts so that if the god decides to claim the godlike's soul, all they have to do is yank, so to speak.

Edited by M84 on Jan 11th 2019 at 5:04:39 PM

Sounds about right. Makes sense, on both counts. Kind of wonder if there's anything more to the symbolism of it specifically being a bell.

Probably not, barring the possible symbolism of bells used in funeral tolling. Since the chime is after all a potential death sentence for the godlike if the god decides to take their soul.

So I heard rumors of obsidian working on turn based mode for Pillars?

If they would do it really well, that is great because it might actually make me like gameplay of the game :D

(yes, I'm one of those people who play real time crpgs despite them being real time :p In the easier crpgs its mostly just "Wait until mooks are dead, faster the better" meanwhile the actually hard fights are impossible for me to micromanage. I can't deal with any of mega bosses for example <_<)

Anyhoo, on side note of Eothas and Rymgandr originally being a same god, that would possibly explain Yezuha god actually if Engwithans created 11 gods but one of them split into two, so thats why there are slots for 11 titan bodies at Ukaizo but apparently 12 gods.

Would also explain why Engwithans would create a god with interest to break their plan :p They didn't, it just developed that way when left unsupervised

Also on creation of titan bodies: That is what the Godseed sidequest in forbidden sanctum that you get from Tayin or Llengrath if you side with them twice is about

Edited by SpookyMask on Jan 15th 2019 at 11:41:20 AM

Making use of the auto-pause menu can already help. Technically the turns are there in the system, you just have the option of changing what you're doing mid-turn.

I do understand the appeal of a pure turn-based game, though. And it's interesting that the pendulum has swung back the other way — Real-Time with Pause was created specifically because purely turn-based games like Fallout or Might & Magic couldn't break into the mainstream.

Eothas, Rymrgand, and Berath could all almost be one god. There are also a few hints in that direction, as well as some that seem to suggest that Rymrgand might actually be older than the other gods, something different from what the rest of them are. Or I could just be reading something into all of that.

Didn't know that about the godseed. I still only get a fraction of my saves when I load the game, and the one save I got that quest on is a character who usually doesn't ask a lot of questions.

Edited by Unsung on Jan 15th 2019 at 11:55:07 AM

The Godseed quest implies that the titan bodies are grown somehow rather than created using existing materials.

It's possible that Rymrgand is something different from the other gods, considering he keeps up the "mysterious otherworldly being" act when all of the other gods pretty much ditch it since you know their true natures.

Notably, not only is Rymrgand the only god who agrees with Eothas' plan, the only god who isn't afraid of him at the meeting is Berath. If all three are indeed aspects of one god...

Edited by M84 on Jan 16th 2019 at 1:49:34 AM

You know, if that rumor about them implementing a turn-based mode is true... Wonder if there's any hope of further content. Probably too much to hope for but, unlikely as it is, I still really want that post-endgame Yezuha DLC. Probably going to have to wait for a sequel one day, though.

Turn-based Pillars would be interesting, and a definite change of pace from the normally frenetic pace of combat here. I imagine they'd handle casting times sort of like the Action-Based Alternative Initiative that D&D's Mike Mearls came up with.

I think if anything is going to happen with Yezuha, it'll be in a sequel. Visiting an entire new continent and empire seems to be beyond the scope of a DLC.

We'd probably have to wait a while though. Obsidian's got a new game coming out to fill the void left by Fallout. And I'm kind of hoping we get a Tyranny sequel first.

Still, I doubt we've seen the last of Eora. Obsidian really struck paydirt with this ip.

Edited by M84 on Jan 16th 2019 at 5:08:37 PM

Not sure about gold; while the game itself is solid, and definitely one of the best CRPGs to date, the poor sales just left Obsidian on shakier ground, and honestly we can only hope Microsoft still sees as much potential in this IP and lets Obsidian push through with more adventures in Eora.

So I finished my Witch playthrough. The Oracle seemed a lot harder for some reason.

Anyway, was anyone else amused when they realized Wall of Many Colors was one of the best spells to use against the boss? Remember that this guy invented that spell.

Maybe if he'd had his memory back he'd have remembered that scaling up and going full One-Winged Angel never helps. But yeah, running him around that circular arena and having the recommended Aloth and Fassina in the party definitely helps out.

Anyway, my next playthrough is a male human Barbarian (Berserker) / Rogue (Streetfighter) Marauder. Guess his name. Answer: Conan. Remember that Conan in the original stories was a Guile Hero of sorts.

So uh, I managed to defeat 3 out of 4 mega bosses by changing difficulty to storytime. They are still hard as hell, but on storytime they don't require optimization anymore <_< Sigil master was relatively(VERY relatively) easy because on storytime she has only 3 sigils and they are fear, missile and cleanse, Bekranga was easier because spiders spawned more slowly and even with 50+ dead it wasn't enough to oneshot party members, Duradgan was still hard but on storytime its just about having enough healing potions and avoiding the mine attack to dps him before he finishes you off, but...

...Yeah, I have no clue how to beat blob one even on storytime. Sure I can get first blob dead, but I have no clue how to beat rest of them fast enough before they combine back to original one. So uh, yeah, help?(btw, mythic quality doesn't really help much huh. At least when it comes to defeating them :P)

With the blob you just need to be able to reliably interrupt its merge ability — the crossbow modal or a monk or two with the right abilities make it fairly straightforward once you take out the first phase or two.

I haven't tried the last two megabosses (save issues), what are they like?

I love the streetfighter. There's a mod that lets you turn Eder into an Unbroken/Streetfighter swashbuckler, which is excellent.

On normal? On normal the colossus deals ridiculous amount of damage, heals from burn damage and has really high armor. On story difficulty besides lower stats it loses the healing from burn ability, but it still has the ability that forces every character next to it and then deals fire damage and the one where it spams fire bombs that explode after a delay that deal like 200 damage each(presumably more at normal). Sigilmaster Auranic on otherhand has five obelisks (which in addition to three previously mentioned, final two are Chaotic Orb spam and chain lightning) besides being ridiculously high level wizard, when she is at low hp, she activates all five sigils at same time.

Anyhoo, I guess I have to try out that interruption build stuff because uh, I don't really get how mechanics of this game work so uh, let's hope Mirke knows how to interrupt or there is someone good with crossbows in party

Edited by SpookyMask on Jan 21st 2019 at 8:14:50 PM

Sigilmaster Auranic sounds interesting. Also kind of annoying, but a stupid-high-level wizard sounds cool. Wish I could load my main.

I believe Xoti defaults to having crossbow proficiency in all her builds and her level 1 domain spell is a big help even if she's not a monk.

Sorry I can't be more specific about monk abilities off the top of my head. I think the various stun abilities they get should work, plus there's that high level passive that gives them a percentage chance of interrupting, and since they attack so fast, it adds up.

Edited by Unsung on Jan 22nd 2019 at 5:25:25 AM

Soo yeah managed to eventually beat the blob with crossbows. It got surprisingly hard when it was down to only half of the blobs because I couldn't kill the splitted ones fast enough without using the ability that makes one of them disappear for while(its nice that splitted ones aren't as invincible to effects as the original one)

There are other interrupts that will work — killing them just as they're about to merge, for example. Too late now, I guess, but I remember that I used the monk ability that summons the two doubles a fair bit. Focus-firing is important and they do need to be within a certain range of each other, so a couple of good tanks (Eder and Mirke for me) and making sure you kill the blob in the middle makes a difference. Hell, at that point in the game, you can just go to an inn and retrain Mirke or just recruit a new level 20 adventurer to get the interrupt specialization you need.

So that turn-based version? Apparently that's coming this week. Still beta, but yeah. Kind of crazy, I wasn't expecting it that soon.