Pillars of Eternity 3.03 sans expansion: Final Judgment from the 1st Disciple of Sawyerity

[FreeKaner]

I wasn't all that impressed with the fights in WM1 to be honest. They're pretty repetitive. Each location had a different type of mob, but you ended up fighting the same mob over and over. (Haven't done Crägholdt yet though.)

WM1 bounties are memorable and so are encounters in the battery itself, although yeah it gets boring dealing with the lizards all the time, even though they are quite challenging especially if you don't go overleveled. WM2 has really memorable fights however.

 

[Starwars]

I think there are some pretty memorable fights in both expansions but they still have the encounter rate way too high. Many areas feel too much of a slog and it impacts the really good encounters in a negative way. Hope they let the areas "breathe" a bit more in PoE2.

 

[Prime Junta]

Yeah the bounties are pretty good, as is the alpine dragon and a few others. But there are too many repetitive mobs. Quite IWD2-esque...

 

[Fever]

(Haven't done Crägholdt yet though.)

Cragholdt was truly memorable, the best stand-alone quest of the game in my opinion.
It had a great atmosphere, interesting characters and I also probably had the luck to get there at the perfect level (I think my party was 12/13) in order to have very challenging but not frustrating fights.

 

[CyberWhale]

Yeah the bounties are pretty good, as is the alpine dragon and a few others. But there are too many repetitive mobs. Quite IWD2-esque...

Sawyer gonna Sawyer.

 

[Roguey]

Sawyer gonna Sawyer.

It's not a "Sawyer" thing. It's a "we're marketing this as an expansion and are concerned that players will be disappointed if it feels too short" thing.

Fortunately Obsidian is just sticking with DLC in the future so they won't have this problem again as for as additional content goes.

 

[Rivmusique]

everything except Berath's quest and one that required bird-stealing; neither fit my benevolent artist's character

The bird-stealing one can be solved by convincing him eating birds is dumb. Don't quite remember though, this might have ended in QUEST FAILED. Anyway, you can do it when you first bring him a bird or after talking to the Hylea worshipers or the woman with the bird in her house.

 

[Infinitron]

Roguey What were some of your favorite quests in the game?

 

[you know what time it is]

I know there are quite a few powergaming strategy/tactical game pros here who disagree with me on both counts, but I'm just an above-average player who thought that Hard was plenty hard (no, I won't be playing Path of the Damned)

Annoying is the word you are looking for.

Speaking of modded IE games. Irenicus' dungeon with BWP installed (big world project, idk what combat related mods are included in there, been a while) is, by far, the best combat/difficulty experience i'v had in RPGs. Pretty sure i'v used every single arrow/potion/wand n such during my run through it, shit was intense.

 

[Roguey]

The bird-stealing one can be solved by convincing him eating birds is dumb. Don't quite remember though, this might have ended in QUEST FAILED. Anyway, you can do it when you first bring him a bird or after talking to the Hylea worshipers or the woman with the bird in her house.

Oh, I didn't think to revisit him.

Annoying is the word you are looking for.

I didn't find it annoying.

Roguey What were some of your favorite quests in the game?

Lord of a Barren Land, Never Far from the Queen, A Two Story Job, The Final Act, Blood Legacy, and Into the White Void.

I liked the writing in Brave Derrin though it's more straightforward.

 

[Infinitron]

The Final Act was cool. Did you notice how the three victims you investigate are a lower class, middle class and upper class individual? And the lower class victim is the only one the killer refuses to admit she even knew.

 

[Rivmusique]

Did you say what 2nd act faction you sided with?

 

[FreeKaner]

The Final Act was cool. Did you notice how the three victims you investigate are a lower class, middle class and upper class individual? And the lower class victim is the only one the killer refuses to admit she even knew.

Just bourgeois things.

Did you notice House Doemenel ends up being the best option for Defiance Bay's future? Libertarian free-market agenda pushing.

 

[Infinitron]

Too bad they appear purely criminal until you're looking for a sponsor for the hearings, at which point you may have already locked them out.

 

[Roguey]

The Final Act was cool. Did you notice how the three victims you investigate are a lower class, middle class and upper class individual? And the lower class victim is the only one the killer refuses to admit she even knew.

Yes, she was awfully hostile about just that one.

Did you say what 2nd act faction you sided with?

Crucible Knights.

Did you notice House Doemenel ends up being the best option for Defiance Bay's future? Libertarian free-market agenda pushing.

I was satisfied with Crucible Knights minus the Forge Knights.

 

[FreeKaner]

Too bad they appear purely criminal until you're looking for a sponsor for the hearings, at which point you may have already locked them out.

I sided with the chick during quest for delivering that morning after pill weed and returned back and killed the warehouse owner because he sounded like a weasel to me. Ended up with an ending where invisible hand of free market fixed everything in defiance bay and everyone lived happily after rich and free. It's agenda pushing I tell you, when will we get this libertarian propaganda out of our games?

 

[you know what time it is]

Annoying is the word you are looking for.

I didn't find it annoying.

Stop being so laid back and reasonable, it's unsettling.

 

[Prime Junta]

Hey WM2 is pretty good, so far at least. I've barely even started and already found a pretty cool sidequest right in Stalwart. Nice fights. Also a nice nod to BG1 there.

(Also, I've got Maneha dual-wielding Spelltongues -- I cloned it with the Hellwax Mold. It's pretty lulzy. She can single-handedly wipe out massive mobs. Just pop Savage Defiance and, if you like, a buff or two more, and let her loose... they never wear off.)

 

[FreeKaner]

The quest in WM2 where one villager in tavern asks you to help with bleakwalker he hired was fun. When you do it as a Paladin there is a bit of Paladin specific banter depending on your order.

 

[Prime Junta]

Damn this WM2 is good. It feels like they finally had the time to do it properly instead of rushing things together to hit a deadline. If Pillars 2 is all this quality it's going to be some serious shit.

 

[FreeKaner]

WM2 gave me the feels.

Spoiler

The funniest part is I found myself half-way agreeing with Ondra's fucked up philosophy because of how non-judgemental she seems to be.

 

[Prime Junta]

BTW, what's the deal with all the Maneha hate? She's clearly not my #1 companion of choice, but I don't find anything actively offensive about her. Pulls her weight nicely too.

Zahua is a hoot though. It's a shame I just don't like the way monks play much. That one talent where gets more DR when he racks up wounds helps lots though, and some of the high-level monk abilities are pretty rad.

-- Yeah this really ought to have been a post-ending expansion. I've occasionally popped back out of WM2 to do a bit of Endless Paths for example, and it turns the rest of the game into a total yawn. Select-all and auto-attack wrecks everything there, more or less.

 

[Starwars]

Someone brought it up before but I think Maneha just didn't work for me because of the voiceacting. It just didn't at all with the character. Too chirpy.

Zahua is one of my absolute favorites.

 

[FreeKaner]

Monks are absolute beasts late game, just gotta baby-sit them for a little bit at the start of the combat until they build up few wounds and then just let them punch the strongest guy in the combat to death very rapidly. They also offer nice comboes with their kick.

 

[Jick Magger]

Yeah, it's not that Maneha's voice acting is bad, it's just that it feels like it doesn't fit her character at all. Feels like the voice director had a totally different idea of what her character was than the design team had. The Devil was a decent enough companion story-wise, it's just a shame that her stat distribution is abysmal (she's a rogue with shitty dexterity, enough said) and none of her native abilities really make up for it. I'd like to use Zahua more, but I also don't like the way Monks work, so I just sub him out for Kana or Pellegina most of the time. They're both mediocre fighters, but that doesn't really matter since they can get AOEs and buffs going while Grieving Widow goes around doing the real damage.