@Scotch_Lufkin - that fireball example is interesting. I still need to finish Pillars 1 (I am pretty far into it) but I cannot recall all of the mechanics. I don’t recall that “little” leveling having that dramatic of an impact on a given spell’s/abilities power. If my memory isn’t faulty, it sounds like a big improvement (to my tastes anyway) to the original game’s mechanics (which I wasn’t all that wild about; lovely game otherwise though).
This is my take away as well, and not just with the concept of Power Levels either. So many mechanics feel better here in the sequel, from afflictions/inspirations to concentration and multi-classing.
Had a request for a “Gunslinger” build using the Fighter (Black Jacket) sub-class option and I have to say, I’m a bigger fan of the Black Jacket than I was before. Lot’s of potential there.
That’s pretty slick. Imagine that with upgraded guns. I would take some points from Con and put them into Might though. That might have to be my 2nd play through class.
What do you think of pistols for just the first weapon set and nothing but blunderbusses for the rest?
Yeah, it’s a great little build, but I improved upon it greatly with a suggestion from my comments on the video - multi-classing Black Jacket with Ranger (Sharpshooter) to gain access to ranged abilities I can actually use with pistols (like Wounding Shot) as well as bonus accuracy or penetration with ranged weapons (depending on if targets are far or close; meaning bonus accuracy at range and then bonus penetration for the blunderbuss at close range).
Coupled with a massive, extra armor bear companion, that fight was trivial and he went down before I even got the fourth weapon set activated!
As for pistols and then blunderbusses, I actually do that very thing in the end of the video (or I think I did…?) and it works great. Blunderbuss does a fucking TON of damage at point blank range, making me respect them a lot more (I’ve never used one before, ever, in these games) to the point where I may give any long ranged bow people I have access to one in another weapon slot instead of a melee weapon for if enemies get to close to them.
I actually did that last night after building a Black Jacket. The passives and even fighter skills (outside of Disciplined Strikes) felt so limited that I started wondering how a multi-class could improve. And like a dumbass, I actually sat there wondering for a minute or two which other class would work best before Ranger occurred to me.
I think I went with the boar instead of bear though, I’ll have to check that out tonight. Sometimes I think playing with all these multi-class optional builds is more fun than actually playing the game itself.
Edit: Heh, you got another build request in the comments on that video, one for a battlemage. Which now that Might is Might again, is probably a viable build.
I saw that, and I am going to try it at lunch because when I tried one before it was terrible and didn’t work at all. I’m interested in trying it now that (as you mentioned) Might is back to covering all those bases but also now that spells in general are faster to cast. Any suggestions would be welcome, but I’m leaning towards heavy armor and a shield/one handed weapon and high deflection/armor while also casting powerful short range damage spells and buffs like Mirror Image and Spirit Shield.
EDIT - Yeah, the beta was worth $20 or whatever all on its own to be able to play with different builds for sure. I have almost 50 freaking hours into the beta, gained over 150 new subscribers and thousands of views on my channel, and had fun conversations with a variety of other enthusiasts about the game that at this point the full version could not come out and I’d feel good about my investment.
This is freaking amazing.
As a special treat for fans of the show, the Critical Role cast is returning to the characters they popularized in their first Dungeons & Dragons campaign, Vox Machina, allowing Deadfire players to choose Critical Role’s character voices for their created party members in the game. Special Vox Machina player portraits will also be available as a free DLC when Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire launches on May 8th
I made another hunter, this time with a hearth orlan (10% of turning hits into crits), ended up with these stats:
Might 17
Con 9
Dex 18
Per 20
Int 8
Res 6
Reloads on those blunderbusses are still slow even when spec’d to reduce reload times and with that eyepatch you can buy taking 20% off. But the dmg is nice.
Whipped up a Battle Mage, Fighter (Unbroken for extra armor when wielding a shield and to be tanky) and Mage (no subclass to have full access to all schools of magic). He’s pretty damned fun.
His Tactical Barrage buff is instant and grants him +5 INT and upgrades his Power Level (so all his skills get better) while also providing the Aware buff to give him more Perception and convert grazes to hits. Instant means it just goes off without interfering with his attacks, sort of like a bonus action.
Next up I drop Spirit Armor - this grants 3 more armor (putting him with his Plate Armor at an astronomical 15, nothing will ever beat that outside of a crit in the beta) and Concentration.
From here skies the limit. I have spells that terrify and sicken melee range +1.5m out, lightning bolt for big damage swings, illusion magic that can daze or make him more difficult to hit, and etc.
Gave him a Shield and activated the Modal for it for extra protection, because the drawback (slower weapon recovery) doesn’t affect spell casting, and gives him a flat 25% to block any attack. So far so good on that one.
Overall very pleased!
LOL posted while you did.
Yeah, blunderbuss reloads are killer. My suggestion to someone on my comments section was a back ranged Hunter (Black Jack/Sharpshooter) with light armor, two sets of pistols for general use, one set of blunderbuss for short range work if someone gets into melee with you, and a fourth set for melee weapons (dual daggers - since you’d have two-weapon skill) in case you can’t get away or wait for reloads. Then you get yourself Tumble so you can disengage easier, and eventually get back to pistols again from a range. I think that would work really well with that gunslinger build.
My battlemage experiment was trying to make Devoted (single weapon proficiency) > Conjuror work, choosing the weapon type that you summon as your one proficiency, but without seeing the entire spell tree it’s hard to say. I went with quarterstaff as the single proficiency because of Concelhaut’s parasitic staff at level 1, but the higher level stuff are pikes (Citzel’s spirit lance). So that negates the Devoted bennies because it explicitly states no new proficiencies are gained during level up.
My other spells were stuff like Fleet Foot, Arcane Veil, etc. The first game’s battle mage used stuff to boost speed, defense, and then summoned one of those magical weapons (while wearing very little armor, maybe robes, to keep your attack speed super-high) and you went to town. It was probably my most powerful build, Int was at 10 and the highest stats were Might and Dex, with Per around 15-16. The nice thing in the first game is that those summoned weapons hit everything around you, and I’m not sure if that mechanic exists in teh sequel.
Someone on the Obsidian forums mentioned that Mule Kick used with the Spirit Lance hit ALL enemies around you, sending them up into the air. And did a lot of other crazy synergies as well, so I suspect that is still a thing.
Good to know. That’s an amusing visual just to imagine.
I guess you could go Devoted + pike > Conjuror and just skip the Concelhaut staff at level 1 and use an actual pike along with other spells that boost your stats and defenses. Once you’re high enough to cast the spirit lance spells the real bennies kick in.
Edit: or start with rod or wand to get the Devoted bennies right away and go with another wizard subclass.
Edit2: switched the battlemage over to nature godlike, because Might/Dex/etc inspirations grant +2 power level and this toon will have fleet foot/infused running all the time. Went with pike and didn’t take concelhaut’s staff.
I was doing some more testing with Power Levels this morning and realized the range on that second fireball (and the stats in general) are modified in real time by events in the game. In this case, it hit me watching some creatures perform a Smoke Bomb effect on me that left me “blinded” and sure enough, that reduced the range of all my abilities by half.
I also got a better look at power level 1 vs power level 7 (normally this would require character level… 14?) because I rolled a pure Nature Godlike who drops a spell right away that provides +5 INT and +5 CON, triggering his Wellspring of Life natural ability (+2 all power levels while under the effect of any Might, Con, or Dex inspirations). Compare level 1 with no bonus to power level to character level 9 with +2 power level, and note every spell is changed in various ways through a combination of not just power levels, but stats (like Fireballs casting speed being lowered by DEX - in the previous shot I had compared the two Recovery time n early doubled, and that was again due to a DEX debuff I was under the effects of when I took the original shot).
So no bug, just me not grasping the situation yet again. ;)
Ah, nice!
Obsidian marketing has a scavenger hunt for codes to give free DLC. Steam version only. This just released so no sites listing all the codes yet, but I’m sure they’ll be available in a couple of hours.
Or sooner.
Now, if anyone wants to do this, the Obsidian forums have been collecting these codes since they first started appearing. All 31 codes we have seen (though one of them will not work and everyone from Reddit to ResetEra has tried what seems like every possible combination) are listed.
EDIT - I didn’t realize @Lamalo link was to the codes, but I’ll leave mine because I described what the link is.
Here is what putting all the codes (that work) in looks like so far.
Great, thanks. Yep, 30 out of 55 done so far!