Pillars of Eternity

**Kong** · 07-21-2015, 09:04 PM

I'm currently playing Pillars of Eternity. I'm not positive but I estimate I'm about 60% through the main and side quests.

tl;dr. I highly recommend it if you are looking for a new old school D&D RPGs like Planescape, Balder's Gate, Icewind Dale etc. There aren't many options in the genre but even if there were more choices this would still be an excellent game.

Buck Rogers: Countdown to Doomsday » Genesis is one of my all time favorite games and it's a rare genre that is almost never made 2D. PoE did a amazing job of revamping the dying genre.

The back story/lore has the feel of being written by Tolkien. It's a huge (too) detailed world with an enormous back story and lore. It is very wordy. I find it annoying and overly detailed and slows the pace of the game. I end up feeling bogged down in details and skipping conversations and playing on auto-pilot. But if you like a highly detailed fantasy world then PoE is for you.

The default difficulty is too easy. You can play on auto-pilot without fear of dying. But there is an option for increasing the difficulty. Character death is permanent. If you up the difficulty then there is need for strategy and tactics that is often good but sometimes tedious.

Your choices, skills and personality traits of your main character affect the game, the way NPCs interact with you and the quests that are available and sometimes the options you have to solve problems. I love when games do that and I've never seen a video game that does it better than PoE. It gives your the feel of a real pen&paper Dungeons and Dragons game. One complaint is you have 6 characters in your party but only your one main character has this ability. Your main character develops a reputation, Aggressive, Kind, Shady, Stoic, Honest, Cruel, etc. People will treat you differently based on your reputation.

You can have a party of 6, and you can create all 6 characters from scratch, but the game encourages you to create one main character and then use 5 per-generated characters you find along the way. It doesn't foreshadow this so I wasted time and resources creating 6 characters and then never using 5 of them.

There are excellent crafting and blacksmithing options but I've never used them because the difficulty is too easy and so no incentive to upgrade weapons or items.

The beginning of the game teases of a "stronghold" that you will receive later in the game. I'm not going to describe it because spoilers but it is fantastic. They really added a ton of options in the game. If you play I suggest avoiding spoilers so this is a surprise.

It was funded by Kickstarter.

Most reviewers give it around a 90% ranking. I agree.

I would prefer a game with a smaller story, more the size of Countdown to Doomsday. It is too wordy. Default difficulty is too easy but that's fixable. But they got nearly everything else right.

If you like the genre and want something new, then you will enjoy this one. I've played the first 5 minutes of Wasteland 2, a similar new game, and it looks like it might be even better. I will play it next.

Pillars of Eternity
Official Pillars of Eternity Wiki
Pillars of Eternity on Steam
https://www.gog.com/game/pillars_of_...y_hero_edition

There is an expansion pack coming out later this year.

http://youtu.be/hei5V9jGGrc

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ml3EdUJJOPw"]Review: Pillars of Eternity - YouTube[/ame]

**DrunkN** · 07-22-2015, 12:03 AM

I've heard a lot of good things about this game. Obsidian is a company notorious for having awesome plans and ideas but rushing products that are crammed with bugs and rife with cut content. From what I've heard, this title is not reflective of that.

**Dudebro** · 07-22-2015, 10:36 AM

I've had this on my wishlist since it came out but you say it's wordy to the point of being obnoxious? SOLD! Well not really but SOON!

**Kugyince** · 07-22-2015, 11:43 AM

Been interested in this one for awhile now. I'll wait for a sale and when I have a smaller backlog though.

**psimaster** · 07-22-2015, 10:06 PM

Aren't Obsidian the guys who did Knights of the Old Republic 1&2, or something like that? Because I love those games.

**Dudebro** · 07-23-2015, 09:18 AM

Bioware did the first game and Obsidian did the second. They did NV too. Besides that they're famous for FO1 and 2 and other great stuff back when they were Black Isle Studios.

**Dudebro** · 07-31-2015, 09:28 PM

This game is dope. I'm not very far yet(just now leaving the first town) but I'm loving every minute of it.

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Originally Posted by Kong

PoE did a amazing job of revamping the dying genre

Agreed. We need more games like this.

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It's a huge (too) detailed world with an enormous back story and lore. It is very wordy. I find it annoying and overly detailed and slows the pace of the game. I end up feeling bogged down in details and skipping conversations and playing on auto-pilot. But if you like a highly detailed fantasy world then PoE is for you.

This is for me. I'm loving the conversations and all the lore cut scenes. I even like the sometimes corny ones made by backers(gold named npcs). My only complaint is the wordiness of some of the items. I don't need to know the backstory of that red capped mushroom I picked up. This is a very minor complaint though because you only see the wordiness if you look for it.

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The default difficulty is too easy.

Well it does clearly say that easy mode is for people new to the genre. I picked normal or w.e and I've already died a couple times. I suspect it'll be easier for me now that I have party members though.

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Your choices, skills and personality traits of your main character affect the game, the way NPCs interact with you and the quests that are available and sometimes the options you have to solve problems. I love when games do that and I've never seen a video game that does it better than PoE. It gives your the feel of a real pen&paper Dungeons and Dragons game. One complaint is you have 6 characters in your party but only your one main character has this ability. Your main character develops a reputation, Aggressive, Kind, Shady, Stoic, Honest, Cruel, etc. People will treat you differently based on your reputation.

Yeah the character/world building with dialogue/actions thing is what's really getting me into this game. For example that caravan npc that you get on your team for a short time, it seems like he can die a few times before he even joins your party. I'm afraid to look up if this kind of thing is true though. I was so let down by Shadowrun Returns if I find out none of my choices matter in this too I might cry.

They probably only let the main character get those stats because it's his/her story. The premade party members seem like they are completely optional and can even be missed if you're careless. It'd be nice to have that though, maybe in the next game.

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You can have a party of 6, and you can create all 6 characters from scratch, but the game encourages you to create one main character and then use 5 per-generated characters you find along the way. It doesn't foreshadow this so I wasted time and resources creating 6 characters and then never using 5 of them.

I've been reading up on this game and from what people are saying the custom characters are a waste unless you don't care about the side quests and extra lore. They're supposed to help if left in the stronghold but people were saying they don't seem to have much effect and can be skipped without a problem. It's really a shame too I think the character creation is fun.

Hope you don't mind me belatedly picking apart your first post Kong.

**Kong** · 07-31-2015, 11:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dudebro

For example that caravan npc that you get on your team for a short time, it seems like he can die a few times before he even joins your party.

Spoiler of first cave. Don't read until after leaving first cave.

( Click to show/hide )

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if I find out none of my choices matter in this too I might cry.

Answer, not much of spoiler, but spoiler.

( Click to show/hide )

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The premade party members seem like they are completely optional and can even be missed if you're careless.

They can easily be missed by either not finding them or not making correct dialog choices, although the dialog choice is nearly always something obvious like "can I join you? yes or no".

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I even like the sometimes corny ones made by backers(gold named npcs).

Ah. Is that what gold means? I thought gold just meant don't talk to this pointless windbag. I was wondering how they were able to get so much back story. They had kickstarter write it? And the books you find, also written by kickstarter? There must have been a professional editor or gatekeeper because most of it is higher quality than average internet dribble.

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Hope you don't mind me belatedly picking apart your first post Kong.

Enjoy. You will probably finish before I do, I don't play often and I'm trying to 100% so far.

**Dudebro** · 07-31-2015, 11:57 PM

I can't believe she robs you in your sleep. The path I took she seems like such an honorable person. Pretty cool.

I did the weapon throw thing hoping I would actually lose my weapon. I was happy to see it worked but not happy when I got stuck with just a bow as a dwarf paladin.

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However you are NEARLY always able to ask every dialog question and the order you ask doesn't matter. I find it annoying because it is allusion of choice and would be quicker to just give me all the dialog right away.

I've already skipped plenty of options because they're labeled as cruel or aggressive. It seems like even mundane conversations have a jerk option and a saint option. If you pick both a lot I would hope it effects your reputation. The game said something about your abilities being effected by how well you serve your god, or something. Is that just for paladins?

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Ah. Is that what gold means? I thought gold just meant don't talk to this pointless windbag. I was wondering how they were able to get so much back story. They had kickstarter write it? And the books you find, also written by kickstarter? There must have been a professional editor or gatekeeper because most of it is higher quality than average internet dribble.

When I was reading people giving advice to new players they seem to always say skip the gold names. The general feeling is that it's pretty lame. Some have been interesting I thought but having no chance of following up on that lore takes some of the fun out of it.

**Kong** · 08-01-2015, 01:55 AM

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Originally Posted by Dudebro

I can't believe she robs you in your sleep.

My memory might be off. Could be she just runs off with the stuff she was carrying, and I saw that as my stuff, therefor stored in memory as theft. Anyways, I took all the stuff from both of them then sent them to die in a trap.

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labeled as cruel or aggressive.

Those are NOT the dialog options I meant. Pretty much everything except those is what I was referring to. After you play a bit you start to see the questions falling into 2 categories. The ones that are labeled are always in the meaningful category.

Labels at the front of a dialog option mean you met a requirement to unlock it. If there is a label at the end then it means choosing it will affect your reputation.

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If you pick both a lot I would hope it effects your reputation.

It does. You can see it on your party stat sheet, after you have a rank in something.

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The game said something about your abilities being effected by how well you serve your god, or something. Is that just for paladins?

Yes.
Paladin - Official Pillars of Eternity Wiki
If you are paladin then your reputation affects your defenses. Negatively or positively.

Some side quests, rewards and dialogs are available if you have a specific reputation.

Where I'm at there are multiple factions in the city. Positive reputation with one faction means another faction wont work with you. So some side quests are mutually exclusive.

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skipped plenty of options because they're labeled as cruel or aggressive

There can be advantages/disadvantages to being cruel or aggressive.

@gold names. I started off reading them all thinking they were important. 3 problems. A) 1% of the time they actually are important. B) There are sooooo many of them. C) They are long.

Tip. In the keyboard config options you can find a key to toggle on objects instead of pressing tab to highlight them. Very useful.

When you hover over an item like a treasure chest, your hand will be silver or red. If red then it means you are going to steal. You can safely open everything. Stealing only happens when you click take, not open. You can go into stealth mode and steal with no penalties. If you take without being stealth then you lose reputation in the city you are in and sometimes everyone in the room will attack you.

When you enter stealth your character's circle is either clear, yellow or red. As long as the character doing the stealing is not 100% red then you are stealth.

I have one character that specializes in lock picking and another character that specializes in stealth. The stealth character should be your fastest runner.

I also have another character that specializes in athletics but everyone should have a little bit of it or else they have to sleep too often.

**Dudebro** · 08-01-2015, 04:33 PM

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Those are NOT the dialog options I meant.

Either way I'm forced to miss a lot of speech options and I think it's well done because it makes me wanna play through again already. I don't like just saving and reloading to read it all in one go.

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1% of the time they actually are important.

Nah I'm pretty sure all gold names are unimportant. Do you mean the scripted quest npcs that act like a gold name? You see their soul or w/e and then get a bunch of text?

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When you hover over an item like a treasure chest, your hand will be silver or red. If red then it means you are going to steal.

If you scout around and find hidden stashes they never count as stealing apparently. I opened one right in front of a npc and the hand never went red.

I'm missing a lot of stuff because I have like 1 or 2 mechanics and my party has jack shit as well. I didn't wanna spoil myself but I read a little about hidden stuff and I'm not able to even see some of it.

I was having a lot of trouble with the temple in Gilded Vale. I had to look it up and lots of other people were complaining about it too. I ended up beating it because I took the suggestion of having my mage sneak up and use his fan of flames to start the fight. Sometimes he would destroy 3-4 ghosts before they ever got to engage. Without that the fights did not go well.

Also I made two characters to beef up my party for the temple, a monk and a priest. Priest helped big time. Monk was good too because his attack is crush and I guess ghosts are weakest to it? It was nice to have them along for the red shirt effect too, I never once worried if they died.

**Kong** · 08-01-2015, 06:19 PM

Some of the soul history dialogs are important most are not.
Pretty sure gold name = has a soul history dialog.

I think I've seen important soul histories from gold names.

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If you scout around and find hidden stashes they never count as stealing apparently.

Not true.

If hand is not red then it just means it is free for the taking. Lots of stuff can be taken without ever triggering theft. Sometimes there will be two similar looking chests in a room next to a main character. One chest has red hand, one has silver.

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I'm missing a lot of stuff because I have like 1 or 2 mechanics

My lock pick character is

( Click to show/hide )

You find him in

( Click to show/hide )

I would

( Click to show/hide )

Tip. To open up destinations on the world make you have to exit an adjacent location in the same direction at least once.

Example.
If you are in Texas and want to add Oklahoma to your world map you have to take the north exit.
After you exit you can go to any place on your map but to add new locations you have to exit in the correct direction the first time.

So explore an exit on all four sides of a map. If there are two north exits you only need to enter one of them.

**Dudebro** · 08-01-2015, 06:33 PM

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I think I've seen important soul histories from gold names.

How can you tell if it's important?

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Not true.

If hand is not red then it just means it is free for the taking. Lots of stuff can be taken without ever triggering theft. Sometimes there will be two similar looking chests in a room next to a main character. One chest has red hand, one has silver.

Have you found hidden things while scouting and they count as stealing?

I got Durance but didn't use him yet. I'm done with Gilded Vale now so I'm sure I'll run into that other guy soon.

**Kong** · 08-01-2015, 07:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dudebro

How can you tell if it's important?

Hard to tell, things happen later on because you know their back story.
Early example. Right after the first cave you see the occult thing that gives you the ability to see souls. The next map is a forest. There is a cave to the far north. In that cave is a bear and a dead guy. You can read the dead guys soul and see who killed him. That opens up a side quest. Since he was a dead guy maybe he wasn't gold. And since it opens a side quest it is a bit more obvious. But there are several similar things that are for sure triggered by the soul memories and I think all of the soul memories are triggered by gold names.

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Have you found hidden things while scouting and they count as stealing?

Yes, but you can get away with it as long as you aren't spotted - in scouting and not full red circle.

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I got Durance but didn't use him yet.

I started using all the pregen characters right away so I could start leveling them. Also he has a side quest where he has to be in your party for X time and it's a long time.

**Tails** · 08-01-2015, 07:52 PM

Reading this it sounds fun.

**Dudebro** · 08-01-2015, 07:53 PM

As far as I recall that cave bear ghost is not gold named he's just a side quest. Gold named npcs are strictly flavor text made by donors. It's confusing though because they had them share the same soul viewing system with quest npcs.

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I started using all the pregen characters right away so I could start leveling them. Also he has a side quest where he has to be in your party for X time and it's a long time.

I just wanted to finish that damn temple since I knew it wasn't that long. Btw one of the traps in there blasted my whole party and almost killed two of them. Now I try to spring all the traps with the rest of the party out in the hallway, my paladin can take it like a pro.

**Kong** · 08-15-2015, 09:44 PM

DB how far are you?

Me...
Character level: 8.
Currently in Defiance Bay. Been here for a long time.
Game time: 2 months, 11 days.
Gold 28,000 plus tons of special equipment because I never sell or use it.
Enemies defeated: 680.
Highest single target damage: 80.
Hollowing quests completed: 7. Discovered: 10.
Quests completed: 13. Discovered: 22.
Tasks completed: 9. Discovered: 19.
About 75% of stronghold built. 27 prestige. 23 security.

**Dudebro** · 08-16-2015, 10:33 AM

I took a break because I was frustrated. The battles became annoying, not challenging. I started doing better when I removed some of the premade NPCs and created a couple of my own though. For example that King guy who ruled over the Gilden Vale, when using the premades I kept getting rekt because I couldn't do enough damage and I had too many soft characters. I switched out all my soft guys except the mage and I replaced them with a monk and two barbarians. The monk sucked but the barbs tanked well and put out some good dps. Even with that though I had to use a tactic I read about online, lob a ball of fire into the boss room and pull them to the door. It felt cheap.

I have several stronghold buildings made already because I killed everything in that castle and sold all the gear. I'll post my stats later.

**Kong** · 08-16-2015, 12:10 PM

If the battles are tough you are probably not in the intended location/quest/path. You can go anywhere in the game. It keeps you on story track by making areas tough for low levels.

---------- Post added at 01:10 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:38 PM ----------

Where are you? If you have a couple levels of your stronghold built then you should probably be in Defiance Bay, which is designed to span several character levels. So there are both easy and difficult battles there.

**Dudebro** · 08-16-2015, 03:26 PM

I tried heading to Defiance Bay but the zone before it started to kick my ass with those forest lurkers or w.e. I managed to sneak through the zone but the next one didn't work out as well. I decided to head back to kill that King and wrap up the Vale quest line. The only hard part of that was the boss fight and even then it was mainly his paladins messing me up.

Btw is there a way to stop your npcs from turning around and fighting when they should be running? I try to use one guy to kite enemies into a choke point but sometimes the enemy will hit him and he'll stop, turn around, and start fighting the pack of mobs in front of him. I have to pause it and make him run again but he already stopped and moved a little so he's gonna take a few more hits. Half the time I try this the puller dies and I have to reload. It's very annoying. It's also a big problem when I'm in the middle of a brawl and I need one person to fall back, they almost never make it.

**Kong** · 08-16-2015, 05:29 PM

Spoiler: Link is the mapped path of least resistance. Sounds like you should be at 9 but are skipping to 16. I'm around 26.
Walkthrough: World map - Pillars of Eternity - Game Guide and Walkthrough

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dudebro

Btw is there a way to stop your npcs from turning around and fighting when they should be running?

Don't think so. I often have similar problem of giving them a command, example knock down enemy, but they are interrupted and default to autopilot ignoring my command. Seems like a design flaw, like the designers didn't consider retreat an option.

**Dudebro** · 08-16-2015, 05:52 PM

I'm at 16 and hit a wall at 16. The enemies there were just stomping me. It's like I'm not playing right or something. Not sure what I'm supposed to do against 2-4 of those big treant guys all attacking at once and no chokepoints in sight.

Gonna try again soon though. I think I'll make a full party of created characters and go for it. I can always check with the npcs after each quest to see if it unlocked anything, hope that's enough.

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like the designers didn't consider retreat an option.

It's funny because there's stuff to buff retreating, an ability you can pick I think.

**david man45** · 08-29-2015, 07:17 PM

I reaalllly don't like the aspect of "X per encounter" or anything that is like that. I played a few minutes into it and it does seem to be a game that I need to play very slow and pick through everything with all the detail and dialogue. I can't say much after playing ten minutes but.. BG still >

**Kong** · 08-29-2015, 07:57 PM

x per encounter?
BG = Blackguards? PoE is more open ended, larger game where your decisions matter. Not on rails. You can skim over some details and dialog in PoE but not nearly as much as in BG.

**david man45** · 08-29-2015, 08:02 PM

Baldur's gate I mean, and I created a mage and it seems though a lot of the characters have these abilities you can use a certain amount of times per encounter and that mechanic and everything revolving around it I really don't like