2043

So you still have not read it. Because there is nothing in the text about a ‘lifestyle’.

2044

It didn’t imply that at all. The joke was entirely on the guy so insecure about his own sexuality that a silly little incident drove him into suicide.

2045

FFS take it to P&R. No one gives a crap about your proxy culture war.

2046

Completed it, took 70 hours, did all the quests i could find, all the bounties, all 15 levels under the keep.

Really enjoyed it, takes me back to my BG1 / PS:T days for sure. Look forward to an expansion. will maybe try to reply with different party members on the hardest difficulty someday.

Durance and the Grieving mother Companions were excellent, i LOVED both their quests and stories, the stand out companions by a mile for me.

2047

Amen. I much prefer heated discussions of dump stats and stealth mechanics; those are actually relevant and useful to playing the game.

2048

I even made a thread in P&R so games/books/film threads wouldn’t be ruined by the ongoing socjus/identity politics/culture war etc. I should have named it “Argue about SJWs” but didnt want to mention those 3 letters, even if Time does these days :/

2049

Yep, I misunderstood what you were saying. I thought you were talking about the stealth talent.

2050

I’m tempted to make this my Easter full price game, even if it is a hefty 35 quid. The words “Baldurs Gate 3” are particularly appealing, a game which recieved its fourth playthrough last year when I was bedbound.

edit: and done. I best read this thread whilst downloading.

2051

Hi everyone,

I really, truly apologize for bringing the culture wars into this. I had no idea.

Turns out I really didn’t.

2052

Yes, once someone used that term I immediately tuned out.

2053

Confusion is so awesome. I dunno how people are possibly finding wizards underpowered.

Also, going arbalest-arquebus-pistol-pistol with the +Accuracy paladin aura and the +ranged chant does not in any way suck. Woof.

2054

I find wizards underpowered, although i am only level 5.

On path of the damned you only have 2 camping resources and fights are hard/long. The wizard spells/abilities that i’ve seen so far are simply not game changers compared to what my chanter or cipher can do, and they need to be because i’m only able to cast 1-2 max per fight unless i FREQUENTLY travel home to rest. Other classes have more damage or more control spells, and are also not so limited.

Maybe when they get high enough to cast level 1 spells per encounter they are useful, but then they also used the most useful low level spell that everyone used as a justification for bringing a wizard.

I agree on the ranged power when combined with the ranged chant though.

My current path of the damned party is:
Fighter (melee)
Paladin (melee)
Chanter (ranged)
Cipher (ranged)
Ranger (ranged)
Priest (ranged)

My fighter and paladin tank stuff, with a tiny bit of help from my ranger’s non tank pet (it is the npc one, so it isn’t a great tank at all, but semi useful). Then everyone else single targets things down. My cipher also does mind control and some area effect stuff.

I’d be interested if anyone used wizards from low level (ie did not buy a high level follower wizard) on path of the damned and actually found them worth their spot.

2055

Just ran into a sky dragon in a temple area north of Twin Elms and got my level 9 party’s butt kicked. That breath attack was vicious.

Glad I read the last few pages of this thread, was about to head down into the Pit and was curious if that could be a point of no return. I’m on level 9 of the Endless Paths, have only done like maybe 3-4 bounties, and still have lots of general and companion quests to do.

2056

Because in the latter case, it’s representative of a bandwagon, not a heartfelt, meaningful objection. There aren’t that many LGBT people in the world :)

Nah, this whole modern SJW thing stinks to high heaven, it’s of a piece with the inanity of Muslims getting up in arms about cartoons. It’s way beyond any point of meaningfulness, it’s herd mentality and automatism now.

But back to the game: doing that first dungeon on PoTD, I have to marvel again at whatever thought processes were going through Obsidian’s minds when, having introduced the new “engagement” mechanic, the first proper dungeon in the game has mobs that totally bypass that mechanic. Way to shoot yourselves in the foot guys :)

2057

I’m at least 70 hours into this game now and I’m not done with it. Still have a few bounties and the very last of the main quest to finish. I did the endless path, I did all the available gods and pretty much every quest I stumbled upon. The only quests I know for sure I didn’t do were faction quests where I knowingly pissed off one and killed them all.

Didn’t even pick up the paladin, didn’t make a barbarian or a monk. Didn’t use the ranger or the chanter for more than an hour. I got to level 12 on all my active chars a long time before the end.

The wizard starts weak but grows very strong after he gets “confusion”. Still, the cipher is a game changer at the highest level. Makes hard fights easy with her mind control spells, you don’t even have to aim it since it spreads. Cast a few spells and watch the enemies fight each other until there’s only a few of them left. I’ve literally watched big mob fights play out where I only ever melee attacked one of them.

2058

Are you enjoying the game? I’m just curious.

2059

I love it. Considering this thing was crowdfunded and that it’s based on new gameplay mechanics, I think Obsidian did a damn good job with it. Its systems need iteration though, so I imagine a sequel would have the balance and refinements some are complaining the game lacks at this point.

2060

Liking this quite a lot, though I wouldn’t put it quite at the level of BG2. Closer to NWN2, but with better pacing and a lovely game engine that doesn’t feel as clunky as NWN. The combat grew on me once I gained a few abilities and party members, though my PC rogue character feels overly squishy and a little underwhelming. Playing on hard, the difficulty feels about right for a non-frustrating challenge, though they did inherit some of the flaws of CRPG D&D combat.

Biggest disappointment so far is how dull the party members are. Hard to believe that the Obsidian/Chris Avellone who created the amazingly unique characters from Planescape and Mask of the Betrayer would write such uninteresting companions. Also in some ways I prefer the Divinity:OS combat and game engine - but they’re both fantastic games, and I’ll happily purchase any DLC/expansions for either.

2061

Chris Avallone created Durance, whom many have strong feelings about, as do I, so I do think he succeeded in that particular department.

2062

I haven’t finished it yet, but so far i think it falls short of the three great rpgs of our time (planescape, baldurs gate 2 and mask of the betrayer). This isn’t a death sentence though. That would be like saying you’re a complete failure in life unless you’re the president of the United States. You can still be great, without being the best and this game still seems to rank up there with the greats.

As a fan of party based and story based rpgs, there generally aren’t a ton of games that cater to me anymore these days. You have your open world games, your action rpgs and now we have some dungeon crawlers, but games like BG2 are mostly gone with few exceptions. It is nice to have a game released “for me” finally, especially after bioware told their old fans to take a hike after dragon age origins.

I imagine space sim fans are feeling the same sense of someone looking for their business again with Elite and (to a lesser extent) star citizen.