On March 27 2015 08:41 JazVM wrote: My impression so far is really mixed. I really dig the feel of the IE games but somehow the combat just doesn't feel right. I am not sure what is missing or what is just too much, but I just don't dig the combat system at all :/. So far it just feels like spamming the /combat abilities as much as possible and use the other abilities just as seldomly as possible tot save them in case you run out of campfires.
Yeah it's a bit hit and miss. I kinda appreciate the feeling of attrition, but i feel like it goes too far. Combine that with the engagement rules and i've never felt this salty about casters in my party. Usually they're something i want, but so far they feel like a burden with no upside.
Casters are really essential, although quite a bit of emphasis on cc and buffs. Positioning going into a battle is key though, or things go south very quickly as your wizard won't be running away if he gets engaged. Try sneaking in obviously dangerous areas to give you a bit of planning time.
Casters might be essential, but, compared to the IE games, they've basically been gutted in the name of class balance. The wizard and priest spell lists are so uninspired. From what I've played so far, (not much admittedly) OE haven't actually made fighters (for example) any more interesting. Instead, they've just made wizards and priests less interesting compared to their IE counterparts.
OE have made conscious design decisions to reduce the strength of spellcasters compared to their IE counterparts; it's obviously their right to do that. For me, though, I'm not convinced at this point that this anti min/maxing and commitment to class balance has made the combat any more interesting.
i dont know what you are talking about, my cipher is rocking everyone.
And compared to D&D 2E, fighters have much more to do, they have at least a pull and 2 knockdown skills. My fighter in BG had his heavy armor and his greatsword with strength 18 00
How high a level are most people when complaining about casters? I think some people are comparing level 1-4 casters with casters in baldurs gate 2 where you start at around level 7. Starting casters in Baldurs gate had one or two level one spells per rest. Druids are one of the highest dps casters right now with nice aoe and CC. Remember might is used for damage for all classes, and intelligence increases the size of your aoe for all classes.
Some things I found out about on accident:
S key will slow everything down to half speed, which is nice for microing combat with less pauses. D key will speed everything up, which is nice for sneaking or running thru explored areas.
You can hire new adventurers from the barkeeper at the inn in the first village, which you can customize as any class you want to fill your party up fast. You can always replace them with companions when you find them. These videos are long, but if you are stuck at work or some where that you can't play, they give a nice over view of the mechanics with no spoilers:
Casters are just as if not more useful than BG1 where they were largely summoning machines. In BG2 wizard spell books were obviously massive and the Mage combat was fantastic, but they were 100x better than all other classes. Clerics and Druids were very lacklustre by comparison. Chanters are new, interesting and pretty good. The worm spell can do a lot of damage, Druids are also cool (my pc is a Druid), the shapeshift is actually good as are many of the spells. I would agree the priest spells are too far into the buff machine territory but I can only do lvl 2 ones so far. I'm doing path of the damned expert mode and Aloth and my PC are the most important characters, having to use different spells for different enemies too. In BG your level one spell was Magic Missle (or sleep early on) lvl 2 was scorcher or melfs or web, all have equivalents here, unless doing a fighter Mage (the Mage combat buff spells could definitely be improved in POE), so I'd argue the early spells were far less interesting.
Are there any true unique weapons and armor pieces in this game? I found several weapons that had names but I couldnt find any difference to swords that I could craft.
Anyone dislike the way the companions get random awful talents and skill points? Why aren't they just the correct level for us to place the skill and talent points?
It makes playing on harder difficulties require an entire party of created optimized characters.
On March 28 2015 01:27 KillerSOS wrote: Anyone dislike the way the companions get random awful talents and skill points? Why aren't they just the correct level for us to place the skill and talent points?
It makes playing on harder difficulties require an entire party of created optimized characters.
Because their point is to be simulations of real people, not a min/max combat companion. BG games also didn't have perfectly min/maxed companions.
As you said, if you only care about their combat min/max effectiveness the game provided you a way to do so.
On March 27 2015 20:15 Goibon wrote: Yeah it's a bit hit and miss. I kinda appreciate the feeling of attrition, but i feel like it goes too far. Combine that with the engagement rules and i've never felt this salty about casters in my party. Usually they're something i want, but so far they feel like a burden with no upside.
Casters are essential and not hard to defend with good positioning. Aoloth is the second best damage dealer in my party and is absolutely essential when it comes to big fights. Durante is a good secondary tank and priest spell have a lot of control and buff/debuff AoE. My cipher is kind of mix caster/melee and is doing a very good job at control and dps. Kind of squishy though.
On March 28 2015 01:46 travis wrote: So, hiring new adventurers. How does it work? Does it basically just let you create a new character?
Yes you make a custom character. Like playing MP alone in badurs gate or playing icewindale.
On March 28 2015 01:48 LaNague wrote: BTW, how does spell accuracy work, is it always base accuracy plus what the spell says? can weapons or anything improve it?
On March 28 2015 01:27 KillerSOS wrote: Anyone dislike the way the companions get random awful talents and skill points? Why aren't they just the correct level for us to place the skill and talent points?
It makes playing on harder difficulties require an entire party of created optimized characters.
Because their point is to be simulations of real people, not a min/max combat companion. BG games also didn't have perfectly min/maxed companions.
As you said, if you only care about their combat min/max effectiveness the game provided you a way to do so.
Pretty sure min/max is a base requirement for PotD
Funny bug, Raedrics hold had 100% crash rate on area transition for me. Had to manually open the save file in 7zip and remove the area files for it to work. Which also resets the areas...
EPT![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/Cd8AcJx.jpg?1)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/rgHyNt2.jpg?1)
