Eternity Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire + DLC Thread - now with turn-based combat!

[ArchAngel]

I finally started playing this game (Ultimate edition) 2 days ago. Lvl 5 now, basic Druid. Playing on 2nd hardest difficulty, Turn Based combat.

So far I had two fights I could not beat:
1. first island, bottom of the pit with some young drake and bunch of panthers - I only had my guy + 2 companions for this. Panthers just ignore Eder and move to murder my back line.
2. I got raided on the sea by a bigger ship and I chose boarding and they had like 12+ guys with guns vs my 5 + few useless crewmates. So similar to above but since they all got pistols they focus fire on one to two of my guys and bring them down before they can get any useful spells off (and spells do bad damage compared to guns). After first island I went directly for the pirate island quest and this was probably the problem as I guess stronger enemies are in that region.

I got a feeling TB is tougher than real time in this game.

Otherwise this start of the game gave me an overall Meh feeling. Both Pathfinder games are much better than what I played so far.

 

[Roguey]

I got a feeling TB is tougher than real time in this game.

Those are both challenging in real-time. With the first, taking advantage of stairs is useful, with the second, if you want to do that at all, do it in ship combat.

 

[ArchAngel]

I got a feeling TB is tougher than real time in this game.

Those are both challenging in real-time. With the first, taking advantage of stairs is useful, with the second, if you want to do that at all, do it in ship combat.

I read that you can just ignore Drake+panther fight and go do the mission under it and they go away after it so I just stealthed around them after losing 3 times and did the missions in the dungeon below.

So all ship boarding combat is cancer or can you do them later? I wanted to try out Aloth and the green Cypher for first time and didn't expect to be smashed this hard lol. Aloth managed to kill 3 guys with his Lighting spell before finally going down. That was I think only 3 kills my side did in that fight lol. Maybe if I bothered to try it 10 times I could have won but I just loaded a save before I ran into them.
I had enough AoE to probably win but with all their 20 damage pistols they kept interrupting all my spells.
Also how does Druid summon shit? I didn't choose one of the druid subclasses because it said it loses ability to summon stuff so I assumed this is works like DnD where Druids can change spells into summons.

 

[Roguey]

So all ship boarding combat is cancer or can you do them later?

You can do them later. It's just that that particular ship is higher level than what you are right now. You either destroy it with your ship or go to Neketaka and do quests there to either level up enough or acquire a pirate flag to disguise yourself so they won't attack you. It's there to gatekeep.

 

[ArchAngel]

So all ship boarding combat is cancer or can you do them later?

You can do them later. It's just that that particular ship is higher level than what you are right now. You either destroy it with your ship or go to Neketaka and do quests there to either level up enough or acquire a pirate flag to disguise yourself so they won't attack you. It's there to gatekeep.

Ah so it wasn't a random encounter.. since there was no talking but just combat I assumed it was just a random pirate attack.

 

[Roguey]

Ah so it wasn't a random encounter.. since there was no talking but just combat I assumed it was just a random pirate attack.

There are no random hostile ships, they're all hand-placed with set patrols.

 

[ArchAngel]

Ah so it wasn't a random encounter.. since there was no talking but just combat I assumed it was just a random pirate attack.

There are no random hostile ships, they're all hand-placed with set patrols.

That sounds boring. So after you clear them you can just ignore that whole mechanic..

 

[ferratilis]

Engwithan Digsite and Gorecci Street are actually the hardest fights in base game, everything after that becomes too easy. But you can use stealth to skip them, so there's that.

Most of the real challenge comes from DLCs.

It's not that hard to avoid enemy ships at sea because enemies give up after chasing you for a short time. When you have all companions, you can just board everyone and fight, if you don't like ship combat.

And playing a game designed for RTwP in TB is a mistake imo.

 

[ArchAngel]

Engwithan Digsite and Gorecci Street are actually the hardest fights in base game, everything after that becomes too easy. But you can use stealth to skip them, so there's that.

Most of the real challenge comes from DLCs.

It's not that hard to avoid enemy ships at sea because enemies give up after chasing you for a short time. When you have all companions, you can just board everyone and fight, if you don't like ship combat.

And playing a game designed for RTwP in TB is a mistake imo.

I've done Gorecci by telling the dude to play cop for a while so I didn't get to fight him. But fighting his looters in that map as soon as you spawn in was not easy with only 3 people, especially since you are like lvl 2 and I didn't know PoE2 removed daily spells and turned them all into encounter ones so I was trying to conserve spells :D

EDIT: In ship boarding combat all your companions get to fight? Do you control all of them or only your 5 guys?
And I am playing TB because I am playing it with a controller on Xbox. It works better than how WL3 worked with controller.

 

[Roguey]

That sounds boring. So after you clear them you can just ignore that whole mechanic..

There are over 30 ship battles, that's enough.

 

[Lacrymas]

I see the drake continues to take people's butt virginity. This pleases me. Gorecci street is imo harder than the drake and the only fight I needed to recruit an extra mercenary to handle. Drake really depends on what class you are if you are going with Eder and Xoti, being a Druid massively lightens the fight.

 

[ArchAngel]

I see the drake continues to take people's butt virginity. This pleases me. Gorecci street is imo harder than the drake and the only fight I needed to recruit an extra mercenary to handle. Drake really depends on what class you are if you are going with Eder and Xoti, being a Druid massively lightens the fight.

How? Panthers took out my druid in one turn :D
Maybe I should put Heavier armor on him. I try to use Leather armor or Robes to reduce Initiative penalty as my main idea was to spam spells and pistol from the back row and only use bear shape as last resort but it seems AI all charges back line and there is nothing in the game to stop them. Eder stands in front but he only engages enemies on his turn..

 

[Haplo]

Wear heaviest armor you can find in Turn Based mode. In fact, activate the shield modal stances for even more defense.
That's painful in real time but almost free in TB.

And for fuck's sake, equip heavy armor on everyone when doing ship combat early.

Also chickened out on Digsite? So you missed the baptism of Deadfire.

 

[ArchAngel]

Wear heaviest armor you can find in Turn Based mode. In fact, activate the shield modal stances for even more defense.
That's painful in real time but almost free in TB.

And fo fuck's sake, equip heavy armor on everyone when doing ship combat early.

I carry medium shields and use that modal that gives chance for 0 damage. And it is not free in TB combat. I have seen characters get two actions for one of some of mine. This is not Pathfinder TB, more like actions you do just move you down the initiative scale by few points and if you do many fast actions you can get more actions that others.
Not in same turn but you can be last in current turn and then before your enemies in next turn. And also spells move enemies from their initiative and they can do the same to you with hits.

 

[Haplo]

Hmm, moving down the Initiative queue, sure. But I don't think I've ever seen enemies getting another round before you finish yours.

 

[ArchAngel]

But I will try to give medium armor to everyone and see how that works. I don't have any heavy armor anyways.

 

[Yosharian]

I got a feeling TB is shittier than real time in this game.

FTFY

 

[Yosharian]

I have seen characters get two actions for one of some of mine.

Are you certain? Pretty sure that's not how it works

 

[ArchAngel]

I have seen characters get two actions for one of some of mine.

Are you certain? Pretty sure that's not how it works

As I said above, I think it was that same character was last in one turn and then first in next turn. But it happened a few times that I got to go twice before enemies did, it also happened that enemies went twice before some of mine (mostly Eder) did.

EDIT: Also there is some fuckery with knockdowns. When Eder knocked down someone, they get up on their turn and attack. When they knock down Eder he gets up but game only lets me press end turn with him..

 

[Haplo]

Well, going last and then first can happen. For example when doing fast actions vs slower ones (like casting). Delaying turn can also help to get like 2 moves in a row.

 

[Nikanuur]

I love Pillars, so I was excited to replay with the TB but got very disappointed very soon to be honest. The dreadful "start doing the action now, finish sometimes later the next turn." thing. The "I knock you prone, and you rise before any other character can use the advantage." thing. And then some. I eben tried creating a character with 18 dexterity and a light armor. Still, this would happen. There was no fun in reading into 37+ features of the initiative in a combat of 12+ actors for me, maybe some Sheldon alternatives could have have fun in this :D
Curious thing though, initially the turn-based was the usual stuff; your turn meant your place to cast spells, or attack, or move, etc. Obsidian had changed it sometime during the development of TB. Somewhere on the Steam there was a manual for downloading the version of Pillars II with the initial turn-based idea.

 

[Haplo]

Could have been great, if it was not based on universal turns.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

I don't think you can have two modes without one sucking. Cringefinder is exception I guess, because they slapped a TB on something that was already a TB with RTWP slapped on it.

 

[Maculo]

I see the drake continues to take people's butt virginity. This pleases me. Gorecci street is imo harder than the drake and the only fight I needed to recruit an extra mercenary to handle. Drake really depends on what class you are if you are going with Eder and Xoti, being a Druid massively lightens the fight.

How? Panthers took out my druid in one turn :D
Maybe I should put Heavier armor on him. I try to use Leather armor or Robes to reduce Initiative penalty as my main idea was to spam spells and pistol from the back row and only use bear shape as last resort but it seems AI all charges back line and there is nothing in the game to stop them. Eder stands in front but he only engages enemies on his turn..

I played recently on PotD and the digsite/drake fight took me a couple of tries ( RtwP though). At that point, I would recommend hiring an adventurer or two to either solidly the frontline and/or can charm/dominate some enemies. My cipher was spamming dominate/charm on the drake the entire time.

I believe Druid has dominate/charm animal, which you can use to take either the drake or panthers out of commission. Scrolls or spells that debuff willpower before hand come in handy too.

 

[ArchAngel]

I see the drake continues to take people's butt virginity. This pleases me. Gorecci street is imo harder than the drake and the only fight I needed to recruit an extra mercenary to handle. Drake really depends on what class you are if you are going with Eder and Xoti, being a Druid massively lightens the fight.

How? Panthers took out my druid in one turn :D
Maybe I should put Heavier armor on him. I try to use Leather armor or Robes to reduce Initiative penalty as my main idea was to spam spells and pistol from the back row and only use bear shape as last resort but it seems AI all charges back line and there is nothing in the game to stop them. Eder stands in front but he only engages enemies on his turn..

I played recently on PotD and the digsite/drake fight took me a couple of tries ( RtwP though). At that point, I would recommend hiring an adventurer or two to either solidly the frontline and/or can charm/dominate some enemies. My cipher was spamming dominate/charm on the drake the entire time.

I believe Druid has dominate/charm animal, which you can use to take either the drake or panthers out of commission. Scrolls or spells that debuff willpower before hand come in handy too.

I was avoiding hiring silent random mercs. If I like the game well enough and learn how to make characters I might do another run and have full merc party.
And I didn't take beast manipulating spells since you can only have a few and I never pick spells that only work on one group of enemies. This is a problem 2x worse with this PoE2 system, at least in IE games you have all spells and while you will never fill your limited spell slots with such spells you have the option to change them, rest and go do the fight.
Here everyone is a fucking sorcerer and you should never pick spells that don't have universal use unless you already played the game and you are just metagaming the shit out of it.