Meant to reply earlier. FWIW I loved BG2 when it came out, but I tried to replay it a number of years back and I couldn’t get past the 2nd chapter. The inability to start a conversation with your companions was surprisingly stifling. Though maybe that’s for the best, with conversations like this. That’s without digging into (probably far worse) Aerie or Jan dialogue.
As far as the main story goes, the beginning had promise, but Irenicus ended up far less interesting than I expected. Just your run of the mill villainy.
The adventure itself was a lot of fun though, and I still have fond memories of playing the game, but I think it’s been surpassed in every way except for the sheer volume and variety of content (and the archmage simulator thing)
Does anyone know if the latest patch greatly changed the balance of any classes or mechanics? I quickly went through the patch notes and nothing really stood out but it doesn’t hurt to ask I suppose.
I started an Evoker in the version before the latest patch and I’m wondering if it’s safe to continue or if I should start over.
The DLC is definitely worth the extra $10; you’ll get your money’s worth out of them. They are a little more combat-focused than I’d like, but they were solid additions. And for that price, if you like this style of game you can get a lot of replay value out of it. Doesn’t quite measure up to the original PoE, but it’s still in my top 5 games in terms of playtime on Steam.
Ok, I need someone to nudge me towards a main character class otherwise I’ll never get past the character creation lol.
I’m currently playing an evoker on TB mode (normal difficulty), just got to the ruins on the first island where I picked up Aloth. A little disgruntled that I now have two wizards in the team I did some research and decided that my core party members will be Eder, Xoti and that druid (can’t remember the name atm). Last spot Will be either Aloth or Pallegina. All will use their respective main single class.
This will also determine my class, and I’m undecided between a cipher, wizard and paladin. Furthermore, I noticed that some wizard buffs are free action in TB and I’m now regretting picking a subclass a bit because it locked me out of some pretty good buffs, not to mention spells like chill fog and slicken.
I’m leaning towards cipher and having Aloth as self buffer/summoned weapons melee wizard/cc when needed but if ciphers suck in TB or anything like that I wouldn’t mind knowing in advance.
Also, what’s up with Dex? Some people say to dump it, some to leave it neutral (10). How does it apply for ciphers in TB? It was quite important in Poe1 on rtwp but I can’t tell if dumping it to 6 would severely gimp the character. I’m guessing cast times would be an issue?
Also, are turns between your party and enemy forces 1 to 1 or does higher initiative give you more turns over longer combat sequences?
Whenever I get around to playing it, I’m going with a cipher since it seems to be the most unique of the classes offered. I look it like this: I can play a paladin or a wizard in nearly every fantasy RPG ever released. But how often can I play a cipher? I player a cipher in the first Pillars and liked it well enough. I’m looking forward to trying one out in turn-based mode.
I am trying really hard to resist getting this, given the huge backlog of other things I have. I know this means nothing for the rest of you, but perhaps typing it out will help me resist until the sale is over. :)
It’s the best CRPG since IWD for me. The quality of life improvements like combat and movement speed, area looting, health regen after combat, being able to load directly into an interior area from the map screen, weapons don’t need a specialisation to use - just for special moves, 5 characters instead of 6.
Thanks for that nudge, it was exactly what I needed. I’m basically continuing the same character (nearly identical stats too) from the first game, plus Ciphers fit in really well for a Watcher’s role.
I decided against picking a subclass though and just went with vanilla version, the subclasses seemed a little too limiting or railroaded into a particular playstyle. If I ever get around to playing a Wizard I’ll probably opt out of subclasses too.
The thread bump inspired me to finally jump into this game too, especially with turn-based mode being complete. So far, I’m liking turn-based mode a lot. I already find combat more engrossing than in the first Pillars and it doesn’t really feel like it prolongs the enconters that much.
My main is a cipher with the beguiler subclass. As I said above, it’s the most unique class and, yeah, it does make the most thematic sense for the character. I mutli-classed Eder and Aloth, and deeply regret doing so in Aloth’s case. Eder not having access to 8-9 level fighter stuff is probably fine and having him be a class called swashbuckler makes too much sense for this game’s setting. On the other hand, Aloth not being able to use 8-9 level wizard spells is probably going to limit his use in the late game. Oh well, at least I didn’t multi-class my healer.
I do like the option to select between two classes or to multiclass for party members. This is really cool since usually one of the given options fits whatever party you’re building around your main. For example, a character joins you early on and you can choose between him being a cipher, barbarian, or to multiclass the two. If he had to be a cipher, I doubt I’d ever use him, but since he can be a barb he fits my current party perfectly.
Will get this when it goes to Xbox and wait for a sale. Just hope Paradox doesn’t leave this a buggy mess like the first PoE. I beat the first including all DLC on the Xbox but am still pissed off about the shoddy support it got, with bugs present that were fixed years ago on PC.
I just got to this point today and really appreciated this feature. I was ready to write him off based on my wiki research but now that I can actually use him as a barbarian until I get my preferred party members I’ve seen that he’s a good dude, so all my party planning went out the window.
How do you find beguiler and what is your party composition like? Is it hard/time consuming to set up flanked etc to trigger conditionals for beguiler to work?
Flanking is usually not too hard, especially if Maia is in the party since she has a flying pet that can find its way behind enemies. Even when I can’t, it’s only a penalty to focus regen and my Watcher does okay damage with a pistol. Not being able to flank is not ideal, but it’s still workable.
I’ve been rotating my companions so far. That said, Aloth is getting to the point where he’s by far my least effective character since I multiclassed him. He gains new spells so slowly that most of them are underpowered by the time he unlocks them. Maia is probably the character that works best in my party, mostly for her pet.
Right now, my preferred party is Serafen (for tanking and melee damage), Pallegina (same, but also with some healing and buffs), Xoti (for healing), Maia (for her pet), and the Watcher (for crowd control and debuffs). The only problem is the relationship system the game uses. Pallegina and Xoti conflict a fair bit, so I need to keep an eye on their relationship score. Eder works well as a tank and Tekehu can sub in for Xoti to an extent, so it’s not too bad. I’ve read that if companions’ relationship score gets too low (-4 presumably) you have to choose between them with the other leaving your party permanently. So, I’d like to avoid that. I do like the companion relationship mechanic itself though. It adds another layer to party construction.
sigh. I was pretty deep in on turn-based and left it for --god knows what. Now I will return. Unlike many turn based addons or mods --this does seem to fit this game.
