1901

At the risk of sounding like a big dummy how do you respec your companions? I haven’t played the game in a while so if it’s part of the normal process I have forgotten about it.

1902

So my main is still going Fighter, he’s doing pretty well as a damage dealer. Valerie is going more defensive, although both my main and her now have Precision Strike which is proving very handy. Linzi is getting a bit more long-range skill to complement her buffing. And Amiri? I’m turning her into a beast lord, so she’s currently on the Inquisitor path, has a couple of useful spells, and moreover has a very good wolf boi. This has transformed my party and things have become much more interesting! (as if they were not already interesting enough) I did manage pick up a constitution curse in a swamp, but burned half my gold on a couple of remove curse potions which have helped.

Really enjoying this.

Ooh! I know the answer to this! Go to Oleg’s Trading Post and there’s a character indoors who will do it.

1903

Wow.

Turn-based mode is completely revolutionary. It’s like a whole new game. I’m blown away.

Classes that require lots of micromanagement, like Inquisitors and Magus, are suddenly infinitely more viable. Because no one has the patience to deal with that crap with RTwP. But with turn-based, of course you’re going to click those buttons.

Secondary and tertiary abilities that you never use in RTwP suddenly have a place. It’s now possible to use Burning Hands and dozens of other spells effectively. This makes spells that were mostly useless before suddenly very useful.

The downside is that turn-based is going to turn a 150+ hour game into a 200+ hour game.

1904

I find that turn-based doesn’t really actually make it take that much longer. You’ll be so much more effective in battles you’ll spend less time healing up and buffing etc.

You can also turn it off temporarily for trivial fights.

1905

It’s still easy to breethe through trash fights with RTwP. Of course this only highlights how many unnecessary fights are there.

It’s much better than Pillars of Eternity 2 approach. I consider PoE2 to be a much, much better game and I enjoy its gameplay much more. It has very few trash fights. But TB mode is a slog there cause you can never switch to RTwP. And so you spend 5 minutes on a trivial fight. Or fight a huge fight against a lot of enemies for 10 minutes, and then you spend 5 minutes more just chipping away health of the remaining enemy tank. PFKM allows speeding up the combat 10 times, or you can go with standard speed but speed up everything with space.

Also I don’t understand why did they ever bother implementing running attack for all melee characters as well as many other abilities before TB.

1906

I will always choose TB mode over RTwP in any game like this.

1907

Glad to hear several people mention turn-based mode being a big improvement. I fired this game up for the first time when the big enhanced edition update came out and was finding the RTwP system to be holding me back. I don’t necessarily dislike the idea of RTwP, but I don’t like when the implemented expects you to pause all the time. If I’m expected to pause very frequently, I think the game would be better off as a turn-based game. Just my own personal taste/preference.

Anyway, my last impression before shutting the game down was that I didn’t care much for the RTwP system, although other stuff in the game looked pretty promising. Next time I fire it up I’ll give turn-based a shot. Not knowing much about the game, I was worried it was “hacked in” and a suboptimal way to experience the game.

1908

Nah man, it’s really well done. I thought it was bugged with 5-foot steps, but nope, I didn’t understand the rule (you can’t do anything that moves you if you take one, so no edging around a blocker to get a charge off).

1909

My goodness, this is lightyears better than RTwP. It plays so much better I’m a little shocked the latter got through early prototyping. The systems feel clearly built for turn-based.

1910

The time I’ve spent playing TB mode since restarting has shown just how good TB mode is in this game, and I’m always a RTwP player if it’s available. Just being able to focus on all the nuances of the combat pivots the game to something I’m enthusiastic about. TB made a hugely positive difference and I recommend it.

1911

Turn based for this game has catapulted my interest in its sequel, no doubt.

1912

You can use the person at Olegs, but that can’t change level 1 choices, so most people use a mod to make the companions have better stats and/or classes.

1913

Be aware that some characters, particularly Harrim and Tristram I believe, can cause later bugs if you don’t let them have at least one level of their starting class - unless the mod fixed this since I last played. Also, some classes/abilities (like Harrim) are unique to them and can’t be picked at normal character creation, iirc.

1914

Even on the hardest difficulty you can get away with having one level off so it’s not required if you know early enough what you want to switch a companion to.

1915

Definitely got back into this with the turn based combat, really impressed with how they have bolted it on. I struggle a bit with RTWP as I have no interest in deeply learning the ruleset and min-maxing builds so never really understood what was happening. Turn based means I can now get through combat efficiently with much less resting afterwards.

1916

Any recommendations for a PC? Last time I played with a Paladin if I remember correctly (no kit) and felt like it was an underpowered fighter.

Class guides for companions on TB mode would also be greatly appreciated.

1917

Here’s my PC recommendation from Feb 2019 in this thread:

My Paladin didn’t feel underpowered to me. Good combination of dps and utility. Maybe things have changed since then.

1918

Slayer is pretty insane for a PC so far. Max STR, dual wield, murder everything. It’s not unusual to hit for 30+ at level 4 between main+offhand attacks. Been much happier since switching to light armor - trading off one AC for the improved movement is a huge win.

1919

Dammit - that sounds way too interesting! I have so many builds and classes I want to try out, that it is insane!

I was all set on an Eldritch Archer because the name sounds cool (Yeah, thats how I roll!), or a Monk, but this? Arrggh!

Right now I am just waiting for them to fix controllers, so that one of their two major additions to the “Definitive Edition” actually works :-D

1920

Yeah, Slayer is really “what if Fighter/Rogue, but like super overpowered?” It’s just absurdly strong for a pure damage dealer. I love that they implemented Full Attack properly, where if your first hit kills your target, you’ll point remaining attacks at any enemies in range.

Whoever suggested (@Balasarius ?) turning Octavia into a sneak-attacking Arcane Trickster was right on. She’s quite effective now, and once she gets tricksy it’s just going to get better.

2H Fighter for Amiri is vastly superior to Barbarian IMO. Mostly you want her to Hit Things Real Hard, and 2H Fighter is much better suited to that. At level 3 you can have Power Attack + Cleave + Cleaving Finish, which gives her a solid role in mowing the lawn. Her single level of Barbarian ain’t bad even, she gets the bonus move (which doesn’t suck), some rage, it’s all good.

Harrim’s okay. He’s not completely incompetent at melee, and giving him Shield Homies along with Valerie turns him into a credible tank who locks down the front line pretty effectively with her. And heals. You just need the heals, man.

Linzi…well, Linzi twees her way through life, occasionally landing some moderately useful crossbow hit and giving the ol’ Inspire Courage to the actual adventurers around her. She sure does spoil the heck out of a Hearty Meal, though!

Val’s a damn truck. She parks, she very rarely gets hit, she just clogs up the lane while doing moderate-low damage. A little better now at 4 that she has Weapon Specialization, but still. If doing damage is analogous to shooting free throws, she’s Shaq.

Turn-based combat mode makes everything so much easier (and more fun, because I get to actually use my characters properly). I might have to bump the difficulty. It’s a whole new game.