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I'm confused as to the two-and-two armor reasoning? Is the idea that two guys is enough to focus-fire the armor down to start landing CC effects? The armor system is probably the greatest reason I never finished the game.
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Jan 19, 2021 01:50
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It's equal parts your own armour and your offensive options available to you. Say you're up against a group of six enemies: three of them have high physical armour but low magic armour, and three of them have low physical armour but high magic armour. You want your own melee-fighting bruisers to fight their squishy mages, and you want your squishy mages to fight their bruisers. They likewise want the same thing, and fights are generally about your mages/healers sitting in the backline while your point men are trying to bust through to get at them. This is a part of why positioning is so important in the strategy of this game. Now, let's say you're four-zero and everyone on your team is a fighter. You'll have an easy time breaking through the enemy lines in order to get to their mages, but, likewise, the mages will have an easy time breaking down your armour and forcing you to fight through nerfs, dangerous terrain, and powerful crowd controlling spells. If you have all mages, the enemy team will have a hard time keeping pace with you and the million billion different things you can hit them with, but as soon as one of their tanks manages to break through, your Wall Of Stuff is compromised and you're going to need to push them back in a hurry, or else it'll snowball badly. And the reason you never, ever go three-one is because, if you have two tanks, they can work together and capitalize on each other's success well enough already; a third tank isn't going to turn the tide of a fight any easier than two tanks or four tanks will. Likewise, the one guy all alone won't have a friend to back them up to help capitalize on their success. A single mage trying to heal three tanks is a nightmare; a single tank trying to defend three mages is going to get overwhelmed in a hurry. In summary, you're correct in that two guys is enough for focus-fire a target and start controlling them; four guys is a different challenge and, like I said, some fights will be a bit lopsided, but you can make it work; and there is no tactical purpose to ever going three-one.
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Jan 19, 2021 02:11
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Keep the Red Prince as a Fighter. It always felt like a good class for him.
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Jan 19, 2021 06:26
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I'd argue that in terms of party offensive composition, Four physical zero magic actually works better than the 2/2 split because of the way the CC works and the way damage is balanced. There's only one physical element, and 5 magical elements. Physical is never an option that doesn't work at all in that nothing has 100% physical resistance. Whereas elemental attacks run into immunities all the time. To list the most obvious example, there's poison healing undead, so the earth mage just lost the use of all their poison spells. Or any straight elemental enemies messing with their respective mage. 4 physical party also can have no build duplication at all. Fighter (2H or 1H), Archer, Dagger Rogue, Necromancer. Everyone uses different weapons, no conflict. And you have a spread of offensive stats, with 1 or 2 strength, 1 or 2 dexterity, and 1 int. So people use different armors too. Once you punch through the armor, everyone can use their CC. If you try to have a 4 mage party, even on neutral aligned enemies, the mages are interfering with each other. You use a water spell to make someone wet, the water and lightning mages like that, but the fire mage both loses damage, and removes the water once they throw a fireball. You set someone on fire, the water mage can't use an attack without dousing them. The 4 mage party is also fighting over gear. They want the same general stat sticks and all want int gear. The battle system is pretty cool, but the balance is questionable. The mod DOES help in how it changes the armor system, but magic damage is still weaker due to the way the stats and skills work. With all that said, the game isn't so hard to need extreme optimization. As long as your build makes internal sense, any character will contribute reasonably. If I vote Red Prince Fire Mage and he becomes a fire mage, would you show off all the fire damaging avenues? Cause sometimes the poo poo you can get up to with a fire-focused character can get goofy. Edit: Thinking about it, the build I'm thinking of for showcase purposes would be 'Fire Warrior'. Warfare skills, Pyrokinetic focus, and bonking people with a fire staff. Red Prince feels like the most suitable character to become effectively a living inferno. Keldulas fucked around with this message at 07:12 on Jan 19, 2021 |
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Jan 19, 2021 07:08
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Keldulas posted:If I vote Red Prince Fire Mage and he becomes a fire mage, would you show off all the fire damaging avenues? Cause sometimes the poo poo you can get up to with a fire-focused character can get goofy. I can promise that I'd try! I consider myself fairly knowledgeable about the game and doing this LP is a chance to try some strategies I wouldn't normally have gone for. The vote is to hold onto the Red Prince, at least for now, and it's tied between giving him a skillset that I would prefer, and making him a fighter. A fighter/pyromancer that uses a staff isn't a strategy I've ever tried before, and pyromancy is a good school of magic to have on hand, so, hell, let's see how that goes.
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Jan 19, 2021 11:07
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Whatever you prefer I've tried this several times, but the inventory system and old school jank like 'the correct character has to talk to the vendor to get the best price' really grated on me after a while. It is super weird that there are so many great parts in this game, and they botched the inventory so badly.
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Jan 19, 2021 13:10
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Lump me in with the 'like the writing, bounced off the gameplay' group. I just can't wrap my head around it well enough to play. Hoping this goes all the way through because I never got off the starting island. I'll vote to Keep Prince and I'm fine with him as a fighter. He's a terrible person but his sheer smugness is somehow charismatic in a way. He's probably my favorite of the party members
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Jan 19, 2021 14:38
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Keep the Red Prince but make him a Summoner. He definitely seems like a person who wouldn’t want to dirty his own hands if he has others to do it for him.
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Jan 19, 2021 17:58
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Maple Leaf posted:I can promise that I'd try! I consider myself fairly knowledgeable about the game and doing this LP is a chance to try some strategies I wouldn't normally have gone for. Key things: all your damage scales off of int, try to keep the staff fire elemental, and don't forget the spark skills, those are key. It's a quirky build.
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Jan 19, 2021 18:57
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I certainly hope we get to see more of what Sir Lora's about. Voting keep and whatever combos best with Pyromancy.
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Jan 20, 2021 02:33
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I disagree with 4 mages being worse because 4 mages are cool and you can blow stuff up 400% better 
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Jan 20, 2021 18:07
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quote:This is our first attempt at persuasion, and is a part of the learning curve of the tutorial. You’re given a number of discussion possibilities, and your success depends on two things: if you have the points in Persuasion necessary to succeed (if you don’t, you auto fail); and if the stat you’re using to persuade the target is high enough (for instance, if my Wits, Constitution, or Finesse reaches a certain threshold). That's a little incorrect. The most important part is the dialogue option you pick. This is because different persuasion options have different chances of success. How likely they are to succeed is based on the circumstances specific to that situation. Different characters will find different choices more persuasive Each Persuasion dialogue option is one of the following:
Obviously "Always succeeds" and "Always fails" don't care what your Persuasion is. Next, the game checks your Persuasion. If it meets the target, you succeed. If it doesn't, it checks the listed Attribute. If that attribute meets a certain threshold, the persuasion succeeds, otherwise you fail. quote:Pressing the Sneak button is a simple yes-or-no equation. Are you currently in someone’s line of sight (highlighted in this picture as the red area)? If no, you are now sneaking. If yes, they will notice your attempt and call you out for it, and depending on their attitude and your location, it may just result in a fight. As long as Siwan doesn’t turn around and look at us, we can read, or even steal, the book if we want. I think that there's a button you can press which shows NPC vision cones, so you can check to see if you'll be spotted immediately before trying to Sneak. - You don't need to break down the door to the kitchen on the Merriweather, there's a key under a bucket near Ifan. The Magister doesn't care if you use it to go in and loot the place. - If I recall, if you have Telekinesis as your Civil Skill, you can snag two of the Deathfog barrels from the room before crossing the trigger line which breaks all the remaining barrels. They're extremely rare, so shouldn't be used lightly. In fact I think those might be the only two around until Act 4. quote:The enemy AI is programmed to prefer to target anyone with high defense (and then the bruisers target the squishies, etc), and shields grant a shitload of both, so Prince would be drawing a lot of agro with that shield of his. Was that changed recently? Because on release, it was exactly the opposite: the AI was programmed to focus on the LOW defense characters. *** I used a 2/2 party on my first playthrough, with a Fire/Earth mage and an Ice/Air mage, and didn't have problems with them interfering with each other. Just be careful about target selection and what you want to accomplish. Even in a 4-mage party, each mage should specialize in two schools, for the cases where there are elemental immunities. *** I don't hate the Red Prince, he can be nudged into character development... that said, I don't think having him as another Fighter is a good fit, as Fane takes up most of that niche already. For that reason, I think he could be perhaps a Battlemage [Int specialization]. That is, if he's even sticking around in the party, as there are other good possibilities. To elaborate, because of the disadvantages to splitting points into primary attributes, there are two main ways to make a Battlemage (Warfare/[Elemental Magic]). Int-specialized Battlemages pump points into Int, use a Staff as their weapon, and get a handful of points into Warfare to use the Warfare melee skills. Staves deal elemental damage, and work with Warfare skills like Whirlwind and Battering Ram. There are also a few close or melee-range elemental attack spells in each school, and they can also use long-range spells if desired. The other option is Str-specialized Battlemages, which pump points into Str, use any non-staff melee weapon(s), and use the buff spells from the elemental schools to buff themselves/allies or remove debuffs, and utility spells. This variant ignores the Int-based damage dealing spells. Stabbey_the_Clown fucked around with this message at 21:21 on Jan 22, 2021 |
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Jan 22, 2021 18:59
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I say keep the Prince. Despite him being a clearly terrible person, I'm rather fond of him regardless. Being the one lizard rep is probably part of it, but there's more than that. We don't necessarily need him as a fighter, though; let him be pyromancy lizard wizard.
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Jan 23, 2021 00:06
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Keep Prince but I'd like to see an Archer because I never used one. I did a 3/1 split. Lohse and Beast were fighters and Sebille was a rogue. Those three did great! Ifan was a battlemage and just sort of existed, casting healing spells, encourage, and trying his damned best but not really doing anything other than support. Which was really needed at times, but I just could not figure out a way for him to help do damage very much.
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Jan 23, 2021 07:19
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And that's the problem with the 3-1 split.
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Jan 23, 2021 10:07
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GuavaMoment posted:Keep Prince but I'd like to see an Archer because I never used one. Archers can range from pretty solid to ridiculous murder machines, depending on how well you're able to leverage the various bonuses accessible to you. Archers, like mages, tend to be able to focus on priority targets more easily than fighters and rogues, who tend to need to use jump skills/gap closers/spend AP moving. While your base damage might not be as good as a two-handed fighter type, you often make up for it by simply getting more attacks because you don't have to move. Additionally, while everyone gets a base damage multiplier from height advantage (and increased range on abilities), Huntsman boosts your multiplier even further - and it is a separate multiplier like Warfare, not simply additive with your normal stat bonuses the way that the core weapon skills (Ranged/One-handed/etc) simply add their bonuses together. Finally, simply using a bow, without any other inherent investments required, gives you access to special arrows, which allow you to convert your normal physical to elemental damages (to help your mages break magic armor or to target weaknesses), to apply status effects on demand (nearly any CC you want!), and special arrows don't cost memory slots and have no cooldown, being limited only by your supply. Archers inherently come with a shitload of versatility. Keldulas posted:And that's the problem with the 3-1 split. Instead of a 3-1 split, going all in unfortunately tends to pay off better. If you had made Ifan an archer instead of a battlemage, dipping into geomancy/hydromancy for support abilities still works about as well (since those don't scale on Int) and he'd have been able to to contribute to breaking physical armor alongside the rest of your crew. Olesh fucked around with this message at 16:52 on Jan 23, 2021 |
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Jan 23, 2021 16:50
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I was always a little worried about keeping my supply of arrows up. How much of a concern is that to an archer? I did craft a ton of special arrows, but those were always great trader trash that kept the money flowing. Money was tight until I read about a pickpocketing exploit...
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Jan 23, 2021 17:17
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Lots of the stuff I read advised against archery (or at least the Huntsman skill) in favor of Warfare due to Warfare's immediate bonus to physical damage. That may be moot with this run's modded combat. The wikis also said give everyone Polymorph to use some of the higher-end spells to cheese the harder bosses, so perhaps their advice wasn't the best.
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Jan 23, 2021 18:35
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GuavaMoment posted:I was always a little worried about keeping my supply of arrows up. How much of a concern is that to an archer? I did craft a ton of special arrows, but those were always great trader trash that kept the money flowing. Money was tight until I read about a pickpocketing exploit... Not that much of a concern with 1 archer at least in a physical party. You only really need knockout arrows and you can usually get buy 2 or 3 each vendor refresh. The other specialty ones are rarer but you don't really need to use them either and elemental arrowheads does a lot of work for an archer in a mage comp. Archers are great in this game now and they can fill in both physical and magic comps. The huntsman skill line itself isn't as good as warfare, but really nothing is for physical damage. Even necromancers max warfare first.
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Jan 23, 2021 18:55
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Yeah, Larian made Warfare apply to ALL physical damage, and it is multiplicative, not additive, which means more damage. Because offense is better than defense in this game, that unfortunately leads to Warfare being the one skill to rule any Physical damage build. Are you deep into Necromancy? max Warfare. Use a bow? Forget the Huntsman and Ranged skills, max Warfare. Are you a dual-wielding Rogue? Forget Scoundrel or Dual-Wielding, you want Warfare.
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Jan 23, 2021 19:04
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Negative_Earth posted:Lots of the stuff I read advised against archery (or at least the Huntsman skill) in favor of Warfare due to Warfare's immediate bonus to physical damage. That may be moot with this run's modded combat. In the base game, Warfare's description is that it "increases all Physical damage you deal" by 5% per point. Obviously, you're deeply incentivized to spec into Warfare if you deal any sort of physical damage because of that. The mod wanted to give more freedom to other builds, and encourage Warfare builds to get into the thick of the fight, by giving you +2% damage for every enemy within 4m of you and giving you +3% vitality per point invested. (Which means it's still a juicy pick for rogues/scoundrels, but what can you do) Likewise, they wanted Huntsmen to want be snipers, so they buffed the Huntsman school by giving them +0.25% on all attacks for every 1m distance to the target, as opposed to the base game's additional 5% damage for if you have the high ground. Stabbey_the_Clown posted:Was that changed recently? Because on release, it was exactly the opposite: the AI was programmed to focus on the LOW defense characters. Now that you mention it, I'm not totally certain; I could have sworn that was how it went, but I may be mistaken. I'll just edit out the bit entirely rather than risk having wrong information in the post.
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Jan 23, 2021 20:10
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Since people mentioned the Warfare mess with the base game skills, I may as well add my two cents. So in addition to my point about physical damage never being stopped by an immunity, every physical character only ever needs warfare for their base multiplier on damage. The balance isn't helped by there being a talent point which gives you 3% (on last remembrance) to health per point in warfare. If you built your archer knowing that they want warfare, their damage actually gets really amped as time goes on due to being able to get elevation damage with Huntsman in addition to the Warfare boost. Plus investing in Warfare for any of the physical builds means they all get access to another jump skill in Phoenix Dive basically by default. Mages can max their respective damage type by maxing their skill, but if they want to have any sort of offensive versatility (to avoid being stonewalled by elemental immune enemies), they need a 2nd magic school. Trying to invest in two magic schools for damage severely cuts into your ability to take other skill points, which hurts mages further. Plus they kind of want some points in Huntsman to get a self-mobility skill.
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Jan 24, 2021 04:33
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GuavaMoment posted:I was always a little worried about keeping my supply of arrows up. How much of a concern is that to an archer? I did craft a ton of special arrows, but those were always great trader trash that kept the money flowing. Money was tight until I read about a pickpocketing exploit... Eh. It's a consumable balance sort of thing. You don't need to blow consumables on every arrow you fire or on every single fight, and there's a talent that reduces the average cost of blowing a consumable by 1/3rd (meaning that, say, for every 3 knockdown arrows you fire, you only spend 2 on average). Early on the cost of consumable arrows seems expensive, but by the end of the game your supply is more limited by the amount the vendors actually carry rather than your ability to purchase them - since special arrows/crafting ingredients for arrows don't go up in price, but the cost of gear/sale value of gear continues to inflate as the game progresses, arrows effectively get cheaper as time goes on. As far as the base game is concerned, though, archery benefits from more multiplicity than any other skill. Damage in the game mostly functions by taking the base damage (100%) and then adding together all additional damage sources. Every point of INT as well as every point in Pyromancy gives you more damage. If you have +100% damage from a high INT, and then +50% damage from 10 points in pyromancy, this gets added to your base 100% damage to equal 250% damage total. However, physical damage works a little differently. Your mainstat and weaponskill damages get added together like normal, but Warfare gives you an additional 5% damage per point that multiplies and scales separately rather than being added in the main pile. This doesn't seem like a huge deal, and frankly early on and at low levels of skill, it isn't. In the long run, however, it makes a substantial difference. Core attributes (Strength, Finesse, Intelligence) start at 10, cap at 40 attribute points, and provide 5% damage per additional point over 10. Ignoring bonuses from gear, this means that your core attributes can provide up to +150% damage to whatever attack method you choose. Then, you have abilities - the Weapon Abilities (Single-Handed, Ranged, Dual Wielding, and Two-Handed) which all provide 5% damage which is added to the core attributes. Then you have the elemental skills, which also provide 5% damage to any damage done of that element, regardless of whether the source is a "weapon" (i.e., a staff or elemental arrow) or spell and is also damage added to the core attributes. There are two exceptions here, however: Warfare is a seperate multiplier, that adds an additional 5% multiplier to whatever physical damage is dealt, and Huntsman, which adds an additional 5% multiplier to the damage dealt from a height. So, let's demonstrate hypothetically - we have a Pyromancer, dealing 50 base damage, with 40 points of Intelligence and 10 points in Pyromancy. The 40 points of Int provide a +150% bonus to damage, the 10 points of Pyromancy provide an additional +50% bonus to damage, and the end result is a 50 base damage * (100% + 150% from int and +50% from Pyromancy = 300%), for 150 total damage. However, for a physical attacker dealing 50 base damage, with 40 points of Strength and 10 points in Warfare - the 40 points of strength still provide 150% bonus to damage, but the 10 points of warfare provide a separate +50% damage multiplier, so the formula looks like this: 50 base damage * (100% + 150% from STR) * (100 + 50% from warfare) = (50 * 2.5 * 1.5) = 50 * 3.75) = 187.5 total damage. For the exact same stat and skill investment, it's an additional 75% damage. But where Ranged gets even crazier, is because for your good old fashioned Fireball spell, there's basically only Intelligence and Pyromancy that you can bump to improve it. Not so for any archery attacks! Archery uses Finesse as the base stat, for sure, but you also can treat bonuses to Ranged as bonuses to Finesse. Additionally, Warfare works multiplicatively for physical damage attacks, which all archery attacks are to start with. Then, let's assume you're a proper archer, and taking advantage of your higher ground bonuses. Well, Huntsman starts at a 10% bonus to higher ground with 0 points in huntsman, and then gives you an additional * and completely separate * multiplicative 5% bonus to damage for every point in Huntsman if you have higher ground over your opponent. So, hypothetically, let's say you have 40 Int, and 10 Pyromancy, and 10 Huntsman... you could gain a total multiplier to your base damage of (100% + 150% +50% ) * (110% + 50% from Huntsman), or 300% * 160% or 480% total. With 0 Huntsman, you're dealing 330% base damage. Each additional point of huntsman is worth the equivalent of 3 stat points (15% base damage). With physical damage, though, this just gets sillier and more ridiculous, because you have _two_ separate multiplicative influences. Without any stat boosting gear, and with maximum Huntsman and Warfare, your base damage is from 40 Finesse (+150%), multiplied by 10 Warfare (*1.5), also multiplied by 10 huntsman (*1.6), for 250 * 1.5 * 1.6 or 600% base damage. If your base attack did 50 damage, here's how the differences shake out: Elemental Magic (no height advantage): - 150 Warfare (no height advantage) - 187.5 Elemental Magic (height advantage, max Huntsman) - 240 Warfare (height advantage, max Huntsman) - 300 These differences become more pronounced with additional skill/stat boosts to bring Warfare and/or Huntsman beyond 10 points (and/or the core multiplier, derived from Str/Fin/Int and additive with weapon/elemental skills) beyond their normal caps. With archery, you generally can benefit from Finesse (to boost your base damage), Warfare (multiplier to physical damage), Huntsman (multiplier from height advantage), and then any boosts to Ranged skill and, if you're using elemental ammunition/the Elemental Arrows skill, any elemental skills like Pyromancy/Hydromancy depending upon the arrow type, added retroactively into your base damage. This is, of course, before any modifiers applied due to individual skills. Under the right circumstances, it's entirely possible to open a combat by using the archer to completely
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Jan 24, 2021 07:08
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Where do Summoners fall? Are they considered a type of Physical?
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Jan 24, 2021 07:32
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Olesh posted:Eh. It's a consumable balance sort of thing. You don't need to blow consumables on every arrow you fire or on every single fight, and there's a talent that reduces the average cost of blowing a consumable by 1/3rd (meaning that, say, for every 3 knockdown arrows you fire, you only spend 2 on average). Early on the cost of consumable arrows seems expensive, but by the end of the game your supply is more limited by the amount the vendors actually carry rather than your ability to purchase them - since special arrows/crafting ingredients for arrows don't go up in price, but the cost of gear/sale value of gear continues to inflate as the game progresses, arrows effectively get cheaper as time goes on. Nerd. 
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Jan 24, 2021 09:27
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The Lone Badger posted:Where do Summoners fall? Are they considered a type of Physical? e: If we're still voting, keep him until we find someone more suitable, summoner because a prince obviously won't do anything by himself.
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Jan 24, 2021 09:59
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The Lone Badger posted:Where do Summoners fall? Are they considered a type of Physical? Summoners really only get one actual, offensive attack... and the element is random each time you use it (which can include physical). The basic imp summon's element depends on the surface it's spawned on. If you summon it on water, it'll do water damage. If you summon it on blood, it'll do increased physical damage. Towards the midgame, summoners can learn spells that can change a summon's element to something else, as the battle requires. Some summons have a predetermined element - one spell, Fire Slug, summons a slug that is fire element, predictably - but, with the activation of a Larian Gift Bag, those same element-changing spells will work on those, too. Maple Leaf fucked around with this message at 11:38 on Jan 24, 2021 |
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Jan 24, 2021 10:04
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Olesh posted:Damage calculations Wait, Olesh, they seriously made Warfare a separate multiplier, but the Pyromancy or whatever boost ISN'T? So not only are mages disadvantaged due to CDs and limits of # of spells, they also end up mathematically screwed compared to physical characters. This is such a facepalm moment. Summoners are actually pretty good in this game because they're completely stat agnostic as far as offense goes, since they're all on their summons. So.... there's no reason not to have Con and Memory as your primary stats, ignore offensive skills, and go all-in on support magic. A summoner effectively adds two tanks to the party for one character (and the summon's damage isn't bad, if not as high as a Warfare character). Keldulas fucked around with this message at 11:54 on Jan 24, 2021 |
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Jan 24, 2021 11:52
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What sucked (or perhaps was balanced) about Summoning was that it only allowed you to have one summon active at any time. There are several summoning spells, but only one summoned creature can receive the damage/whatever boosts. And only that one summon gets a boost at Summoning 10. Needless to say, my Red Prince Summoner had a very straightforward two-turn casting rotation for the entire game: Summon (2 AP) > Boost 1 (1 AP) > Boost 2 (1 AP) ; Boost 3 (1 AP) > Boost 4 (1 AP) > Dimensional Bolt (2 AP).
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Jan 24, 2021 16:34
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Negative_Earth posted:What sucked (or perhaps was balanced) about Summoning was that it only allowed you to have one summon active at any time. There are several summoning spells, but only one summoned creature can receive the damage/whatever boosts. And only that one summon gets a boost at Summoning 10. In addition to one summon, you could have 3 turrets up at a time. The turrets have low health, but last for a few turns. If placed properly, they can chip away at enemies, forcing the enemies to either ignore them and take a bunch of chip damage, or to attack the turret, wasting AP on a temporary construct which can be immediately replaced. Like the Incarnate, the turrets also get their element from the surface they're put in. Of course, which enemy the turret attacks is random, so you could inadvertently cause unwanted surface interaction if say, an Air turret hits an enemy standing in blood or water. Keldulas posted:Dimensional Bolt isn't really worth casting, you're much better off doing buffs. The buffs in this game are legitimately good, and you can go around preventing or curing status effects on your other party members. I pretty much only ever use Dimensional Bolt to create a small surface to drop a turret on, if one hasn't been created by the fight. This might sometimes produce an surface I don't want, wasting the AP, but it's usually not a big problem in most fights. Stabbey_the_Clown fucked around with this message at 00:38 on Jan 25, 2021 |
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Jan 24, 2021 17:01
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The turrets are actually incredibly cheap because the enemies have no good answer to them. They take 1 AP to summon, take more 1 AP to get rid of, and are continuous damage. They're constantly getting pecked for damage, and if they try to destroy them, it's a really bad AP exchange for them. Dimensional Bolt isn't really worth casting, you're much better off doing buffs. The buffs in this game are legitimately good, and you can go around preventing or curing status effects on your other party members. And yeah, I never used any summon except the basic Summoner one due to the 1/limit and that one being the only one to get a major upgrade.
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Jan 24, 2021 22:37
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If voting is still going, I say we make the Prince a Fighter with Pyro secondary. He seems beefy and can already breathe fire, might as well go all in on it. I enjoy the combat in the game for the most part, but my biggest issue is the high ground mechanic. It seems more annoying than anything, and most of the time it just feels like an excuse for the game to constantly throw ambushes at you where most of the enemies start with an advantage. I feel like I spend the first few turns of any encounter just teleporting enemies off their towers or finding places to hide from mages and archers that I can't reach with melee characters. I could jump or teleport up there, but then that character is stranded afterwords. It really seems like something that benefits the enemy much more than it does the player.
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Jan 25, 2021 05:58
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To start this update off: at the end of the previous update, when we watched Dallis obliterate Atusa, we got enough experience to level up. Now, you might be asking, ‘why did we get experience watching someone explode someone else?’ Anyway,  With each level up, we are guaranteed to get two attribute points to spend as we like, as well as one combat point. We also get one civil point at level 2 and then one every four levels after that, and we get one talent point at level 3 and every five levels after that. Meaning level 18 is a whole smorgasbord. A quick rundown on our stats:
Because Fane is going to be the front-and-center big heavy bruiser, I’m going to give him a point in Strength, and one point in Memory. I don’t have any new skills or spells for him to learn yet, but that’s going to change in a hurry, I promise.  This is our Combat Abilities screen. We’re guaranteed to get at least one point per level to spend as we like here. In the base game, putting points into your Weapons skills or your Defence skills was, in my opinion, a waste of time. The Ranged skill gives you +5% damage when attacking with a bow or crossbow, with an additional 1% Critical Hit chance per point. However, putting a point in the Marksman school also gives you +5% damage (only when attacking from high ground, but as a Marksman, you should never, ever be fighting on even or lower footing anyway), and it gives you access to stronger, more varied Marksman skills. You get less when putting a point into Ranged and therefore, it’s just not worth it, at least to me. At the risk of making this info dump even info dumpier, forums user Olesh made an effort post on the game’s numbers and calculations, and how the game does damage for the points you put into various skills. Here’s the whole thing in its entirety: quote:Damage in the game mostly functions by taking the base damage (100%) and then adding together all additional damage sources. Every point of INT as well as every point in Pyromancy gives you more damage. If you have +100% damage from a high INT, and then +50% damage from 10 points in pyromancy, this gets added to your base 100% damage to equal 250% damage total. The Divinity Unleashed mod tried to buff some of the non-school skills a bit – Leadership’s range is increased from a paltry 5m to a much-more-manageable 15m, and Perseverance restores HP per turn rather than armour after you recover from a status – but I still consider them to be wastes of a point when you could be putting that economy into your schools and reaping their benefits instead. To that end, I put Fane’s one point into Necromancy. In the base game, each point in the Necromancy school restores 10% of the damage you’ve dealt with a physical attack back to the user; in Divinity Unleashed, it’s nerfed down to 3%, but it also grants 0.09% damage for every 1% of vitality missing from the target. So, if a target is at half HP, I’m suddenly hitting them for 4.5% more, which means I’m also healing more. There are more moving parts, but it also increases depth.  These are our civil points: they determine how we act in a society and how that society perceives us. I’ve already gone over Persuasion and Telekinesis; Sneaking reduces the cone of vision every NPC has when we’re trying to sneak, giving us more freedom of movement; Thievery determines how much monetary value and/or physical weight we can steal from a person; and Lucky Charm determines the possibility of finding rare and powerful loot from anything that we search. If you find an unopened barrel, or casket, or book shelf, there’s a chance you’ll find something rare inside it if you have Lucky Charm. Fane is our face of the group and will be doing 90% of the talking, so it makes sense to give him all the Persuasion points.  The Red Prince has Spellsong, an innate talent that all lizards have that grants them +1 Persuasion for free, but he won’t be our negotiator. Instead, he already has a point in Bartering, so he may as well be our barterer. In the base game, if you wanted good prices from vendors, you needed to speak to them with your barterer. That meant that they also had to carry all your vendor trash, so if your barterer was a weak mage, they’d get encumbered in a hurry. One of the Larian Gift Bag mods makes it so that the character with the highest Bartering stat shares their stat with the group, so if your barterer has a 3 in Bartering, then everyone has 3 in Bartering. This way, The Red Prince can still be our barterer, but he doesn’t also need to be our pack mule and I don’t have to switch to him whenever I want to shop. For his Attributes, I give The Red Prince one point in Intelligence and another in Memory, and for his skills – we decided that we wanted the Red Prince to be a Fighter, but he fights with a staff and focuses primarily on Pyromancy. This isn’t a build I’ve ever done before! I give him a point in Pyromancy: in the base game, all it does is increase the damage of fire-based spells, but in Divinity Unleashed, it does an additional 2% damage to targets that are already on fire – and they do 4% more if I am also on fire. And these are by point, so, another point will do 4% and 8%, etc. Speaking of: while I do intend to transition him to fighting with staffs, we don’t have that kind of equipment to help him out with just yet, so, he’ll be rocking the sword and shield, at least for now. This is a big ol’ info dump on character stats and allocations, but at least I’m getting them out of the way now, while we’re still learning about stuff.  With all that sorted out, let’s finally enter Fort Joy.   : Your Tale Awaits You Down The RoadAnd the first thing I see when entering the ‘Fort Joy Ghetto’ is a trio of cages, barely large enough for a person each. A welcoming sight, if ever there was one.   : At the very least, that poor lizard won’t have to deal with the pain of mortality any longer, now that she’s in the Hall of Echoes.: Erm… not that I’ve ever been, of course! : What can you tell me about those two figures, Dallis and Bishop Alexander? They’re in charge of this prison, correct? : Bishop’s the son of the dead Divine. Dunno when we’ll get a new one, but Alexander’s lookin’ after us in the meantime all the same. : So how did an upstanding, um, physical paragon like yourself come to be stationed here at Fort Joy?: T’were in the time of Lucian, o’course. Who wouldn’t join up with God himself? He was all glory, all goodness. : Would a person calling himself ‘the Divine’ and being called ‘God’ by others really have approved of a place like Fort Joy, where his subjects are corralled, collared, and stripped of their belongings?: Lucian gave his life to protect Rivellon. If we let the Voidwoken get to it now… well, we’d’ve lost him for nothin.’ : How can you know that this is indeed the will of the Divine?: Can’t for certain. But I reckon when God himself gives his life to protect you, you don’t *hack!* waste the gift. You protect it with everything you got. So that’s what we do.: So… changing the subject for a moment, but, when will I be allowed to, you know… leave?: When you give up the darkness that’s inside you! T’ain’t your fault it’s there, mind, but it’s there all the same.: They’re workin’ on a cure for ya even now. Got some good leads, so I hear! *Haw!* You can trust Dallis to take care of it. And once you’re cured, your life will start again.After what Dallis did to Atusa, I wouldn’t trust her within a hundred feet of me.  What about you, got anything to share?  : You’re referring to the tall, lanky creatures that was with that Magister just now, correct? : Let’s just say I’m still a little wet behind the ears. : Better get to it, then. A Magister’ll come find you when they’re ready for you. Could be a while, though. We’re up to our hoods in sinners these days.Okay, not a lot, then.  There’s a civilian standing at the gate, looking like he wants to greet us for joining the prestigious clan of the Fort Joy Ghetto. If we’re going to be prisoners here, we might as well start building our rapport – at least until we can escape.  : What I saw was them brutally murdering one of their own. : Can anyone truly say that they haven’t let somebody down in their time? : The Divine Order’s all that stands between everything you see and a Voidwoken’s throat. Any traitor to them is a traitor to us all. Believe it or don’t. The Divine Order doesn’t need our loyalty. They’ll save us in spite of ourselves.What a bootlicker. Word of advice, my friend: don’t drop the soap.  Just up ahead is… Ifan, from the ship! He made it to Fort Joy just fine! And it looks like he’s found himself a posse already.  : Come on then, legsy! Pay up! : I find only bread. I want no trouble.: Bread or a brisket, toll’s the same!: Your Griff teaches you to bully others. Pathetic.: You keep his name out your mouth, y’filthy cud-chewer!: *Spits* Have your cud.: Digustin’. Just like all your kind.: Disgusting like theft? Disgusting like threats?: Graved god, will you quit draggin’ this on? T’ain’t that hard, legsy. Just hand over the gold.: I will not.Sounds like we walked in on a good time. : This is not your business, long pig.: Don’t let this moss muncher talk to you like that. ‘Specially a cheapskate like this’n. Griff already knows she don’t like to pay her fair share. : An intense-looking man steps between the thug and the elf and rolls up his sleeves, revealing well-muscled and heavily-scarred arms. You recognise him: it’s Ifan, who you met aboard the ship on the way here.: Just stand aside, why don’tcha, mate. This is no business of yours. : Lone Wolves decide their own business.: The thug freezes in fear for a moment, before shuffling back to the protection of his crony. : I know a shakedown when I see one, even if it’s by another name.: You two ought to be thankin’ yet lucky gods it’s us and not the Magisters enforcin’ ‘round here. A fool never knows what they’ve got ‘till it’s well and gone. : I’m not going to just stand here and let you steal every last gold piece the woman has.: And neither will I.: We got a system. And it looks like you don’t want to fit in. : Combat Music 2 : Thugs In The GhettoOkay, so we’re in a fight versus two thugs acting on a guy named Griff’s behalf. I have full control over Fane and The Red Prince, while Ifan and Elodi are allies: friendly towards us, but computer-controlled.  It’s difficult to tell with the big banister in the way, but Elodi spends her turn moving behind Burro and stabbing him once with her knife, before opting to pass her turn to save her AP.  Burro, meanwhile, sees an opportunity for a great Battering Ram and takes full advantage of it before also passing his turn. Up next is Prince.  The Warfare school has an ability called Bouncing Shield. If you’re equipped with a shield (which excludes Fane, unfortunately), you can Captain America your shield at an enemy and it’ll bounce to a second one if it’s within five meters of the first. The amount of base damage done is determined by the shield you’re throwing.  Unfortunately, Burro and Kana are too far apart, or else the game would have given us a faded white line to show who the shield was targeting.  Prince hucks it at Burro, then tries to reposition to use Battle Stomp and get them both – but I misclick and he steps just a smidge too far, consuming one AP. Battle Stomp requires two, so, Prince also forfeits the rest of his turn.   Ifan Encourages the team, then uses Pin Down on Kana, giving her the Crippled status and dramatically lowering her movement options.   She still manages to reposition behind Elodi to throw a back into her knife before lunging the distance for a Backstab, though.   With one AP remaining, Kana uses Adrenaline, giving her two more AP immediately but removing two AP from her next turn, and she uses those two more AP to hit Elodi one final time.   Fane, moving last, uses Mosquito Swarm on Burro to cause Bleeding, and then he passes the rest of his turn. This will give me six AP to work with on the next one.   Kana takes the Attack of Opportunity just so she can have the pleasure of cutting Burro face-to-face, before passing the rest of her turn.  Burro, apparently not taking a liking to that, uses Battle Stomp exclusively on her. But when he tries to turn and run to reposition….   He takes two more hits to the back.  With the last of his AP, and taking some inspiration from Ifan, he turns around and swings at Elodi’s knees.    Prince is in a better position to Battle Stomp the two enemies himself, and then shanks Burro in the shoulder with his shiv on a stick.  Elodi is getting focused pretty hard by both of the enemies, and we don’t have a healer on our team yet. So, Prince uses Fortify, a 1 AP Geomancer skill, to dramatically increase her physical armour and give her some defense against them.   Archers can dip their arrowheads into any nearby surface in order to give their arrows additional damage of that surface type. For example, dipping into oil will have his attacks do additional Earth damage. Dipping into blood will deal additional physical damage, and he shows that off right here before ending his turn.  Kana only has three AP to work with this turn, so she chucks her knife at Elodi once more and then passes her turn.    Fane finishes off Burro with a swing; an All-In; and, thanks to Executioner, he gets two more AP to spend, so he Battering Rams Kana. At this point, it’s just a matter of beating up one last lone enemy, and her knees are freshly broken thanks to Battering Ram. She gets one last Throwing Knife in against Elodi.   Although I do use Prince’s Fire Breath on her, since I’m sure a bunch of people would like to see him breathe fire sooner rather than later. I get Ifan in the blast, but I’m sure he’ll forgive me.  : Follow me. Before more of them trouble us.: I’ve an errand to run around here first… I’ll catch up with you there later.: Remember: past the kitchens, down to the beach, inside the caves there. There is a safe place. Elodi wanders off, likely to where she had just described to us, leaving us alone with Ifan. So… sorry about the whole breathing-deadly-fire on you at the end, there. : Ifan rolls his sleeves back down and casually wipes some blood from his cheek. He nods at you, the shadow of a smile on his lips.: Good worth there, good work. I can tell you’ve got chops. Say, you were on the ship here with me, weren’t you? : I’m, uh… I’m a germophobe.: Suit yourself. Probably wise, given the rashes you can pick up around this place.: Say, you don’t look all that busy now that we’re safely on dry land. I could use someone to watch my back, and it looks like you could use someone to watch yours. : Getting out of Fort Joy sounds like my idea of a good idea. How can we do it?: The usual way. Haphazard, terrifying and drenched in blood. Haven’t quite worked out the details yet, but I’d wager it’ll be no worse than what’ll happen if we stay put. : So… what was this about an errand you said earlier? We went through a lot of effort to rescue that elf woman. Did we just rob Peter to pay Paul?: Everyone needs to make a living. I make mine running errands. : You mentioned on the boat that ‘you wouldn’t put a man down without good reason.’ I’m assuming being a Magister is reason enough… unless you’re after an inmate.: He shoots you a flinty look, all teeth and peril. : (If nothing else, I certainly shouldn’t be making enemies….): He grins, sharp teeth glittering in the midday sun.: So, before we hit the road? It’s best if we decide battle strategies up front. Should keep more of our blood in. A Wayfarer, like I described in the last update, is an Archer by a different name. He fought that battle with a crossbow, as well. We can, of course, decide to give him a different primary job, if we’d like. Should we keep Ifan, and if so, what class should he be?  : He scans the horizon for threats with one green eye, then nods back at you.: Right you are. Lead the way. Hell, it’s not even a real crossbow. Funny enough, Ifan’s Bartering score is 3. Humans get the talent Thrifty, which increases their Bartering by 1, and he dumped both of his level-up points into Bartering already. If we decide to keep him, we should respec Prince into being… something else. Our Loremaster, maybe. While I sort through Ifan’s inventory and set up his hotbars as I like them, I find a note hidden in his pocket.  Well. If there’s ever a Magister that needed killing, it’d be the most important one. And we have a mole among the Magisters to help us out – meaning there’s a very real chance that Atusa was guilty of aiding escapees. An operation that dangerous couldn’t have been done by just one lizard. Also, what kind of first name is Roost?  Just a few paces ahead, enjoying the show that was our fight, is Lohse, the red-headed jester-and-demon-host from the ship. What a coincidence!  : Hey! I know you!: Lohse, the dark-eyed jokester you met aboard the ship, waves enthusiastically and dips into a mock-elegant curtsey.: Back then, I was *ahem* Madame Josephine Gribbles De Peeb. And you were… you! Glad to see you made it!The bucket certainly does leave an impact, I’m sure.  : If I’m honest, I haven’t a clue. I fell into the water, and I remember sinking… and now I’m here.: Me too… : I did. A disembodied voice, clear as this sky, telling me that it wanted me to live.: I heard the same thing! Do you know what this means? It means I’m not the only –: Lohse’s voice catches in her throat. The joy drains from her face; her eyes lose focus and her whole body goes rigid. : … Are you okay? Is this normal? Ifan, is this normal mortal behaviour?: Her head snaps to you mechanically and her eyes lock with yours, dark pupils dilated into great, black voids. Light suddenly flashes back into her face. The grey veins drain to pinkish flesh, and her whole body relaxes. : (It may be more tactful to not draw more attention to what just happened. Not yet, anyway.): We were on a ship; we both nearly drowned; a voice called to us both, telling us to live?: Ah, yeah. Yup. It was a shipwreck alright… Not much more to say about it, I guess. Papa Joris used to tell me ‘Lohse!’ he’d say ‘Lohse, you ever find yourself in a sinking ship, follow the rats. They’ll find you a way out.’ : Papa Joris, you said? Why does that name sound so familiar…? : (This sounds related. If she breaches the topic first, modern etiquette suggests it’s safe to ask for more.): Can you explain more about this incident?: Well, I was giving this concert up on Overlook Hill. There was a great crowd – they were really feeling it.: But I guess it was too good. I had me a little Source flare up. Everyone went a bit… I don’t know. Wild. Rabid. : That’s how these Magisters get you. Even the tiniest inkling of Source around you anywhere, and next thing you know, you’re here. : What does that mean?: Put it like this: You’ve never been a… host, I bet. That’s because you’re an infested clump of leaves on the side of the road. That ain’t bad though. I’d give just about anything to be like you.Uh… well, it gets lonely being putrid and discarded and forgettable, occasionally. : But I’m a… a roadside inn. Red door, flowers out front, friendly lady at the door beckoning you in for half price. : You may not believe me when I say I get it, but I get it.: She gives you a searching look. : We all do what we can, at the end of the day. : Oh, the Joy! Aptly named, it is. If you’re a roadside inn, Fort Joy is a glimmering palace, with marble pillars and silk tapestries with your name sewn onto them. And don’t get me started on the open concept floor plan – that’s forward thinking ingenuity, right there!: So true! And you can stay as long as your heart desires, free of charge. : The sound of my numbers being stronger certainly sounds nice!: It does, right?: Before we head out: I’ve got more than a few tricks up my sleeve, so you’ll have to pick which one I’ll pull out if – when – push comes to shove. Being an Enchanter has her start with points in Hydrosophist and Aerothurge, meaning Lohse will be our best candidate for a healer. Do we keep Lohse in our party? If so, what should her primary job be? Naturally, I just go with her being an Enchanter for now.   : So… *ahem* If we’re going to be travelling together, you should be aware that I have certain, um, mortality issues.: Well duh. I’m sure that disguise will fool most people, but I’m a very sensitive and discerning soul. Most fleshy folk aren’t really alive, anyway. Don’t sweat it. Or… whatever it is you do. Now let’s go! Alright, that’s our fourth party member! You can only have a party of four in Divinity: Original Sin 2, so, assuming we’re okay with these characters, this will be our team. But weren’t there two others on the boat that we met…? Well, if us four all survived the wreck, then odds are decent that the other two survived it as well. One of them, the dwarf, was a captain before he was a prisoner – it’s a safe bet that he knows how to swim.  Oh, Lohse already specced into Loremaster. That only leaves Lucky Charm for Prince to respec into later. That or thievery or something.  So, Lohse… who’s your friend?  : This would be a good opportunity to learn more about mortal cultures and religions. Could you teach me this ‘Endless Prayer?’ : If words could restore people back to life, I don’t think I’d–: …I don’t think we’d have a need for cemeteries. : Haven’t you heard? Bishop Alexander, the Divine’s own son, is Godwoken. He will ascend. He will protect us from this darkness. Do not doubt that he will come into his powers at any moment. And then he shall ascend!Being Godwoken sounds like a sweet gig. Endless cadres of devoted followers and strength enough to end all wars forever. If God tells you to stop fighting, what are you going to do, not do that? Anyway, we have the entirety of the Fort Joy Ghetto to explore from here, so any direction is as good as any other. I guess I’ll head west.   : Erma! Erma? : She’s gone, Fara. GONE! : A missing child is a terrible thing. What can I do to help?: Oh! Oh bless you, bless you! She’s been missing for days now, and not a single soul will help me look for her. Erma’s her name. She’s about as high as your hip. Black of hair. A quiet child. Not prone to wandering off. : Is there anything more you can tell me about her disappearance? : (Not prone to wandering off… disappeared suddenly… left her doll behind… it’s not sounding like she ‘wandered off.’): … Can I take a closer look at the doll?: Yes, of course. Here – you should take it with you. When you find her, give her the doll and tell her Mummy says this is for her little chicken, and it’s time to come home. That’s what I call her. My little chicken.: She soaks up a steady stream of tears with her shirtsleeve. : (I may already know the answer to this question, but….) Why is it that no one else will help you look for her?: This place turns people cold. Cold and wicked. That fellow Jeth over there speaks unutterable evil, but I can’t move away from him. What if Erma comes back and I’m not here?: Well, I promise I’ll do my best to find her. Farewell for now.: You are an angel. Truly you are!Jeth speaks ‘unutterable evil,’ huh? Might as well ask him what’s up with that. : A fella can’t hear himself think with all this racket! Day and night she hollers after that child! : Do you two have history together? : She’s a mother that’s looking for her lost child. That’d make anyone distraught, but I wouldn’t call her crazy.: ‘Distraught’ don’t even begin to cover it. She’s hollerin’ after that child of hers – killed by a Voidwoken, she was! Been dead and buried for a month now. Never even stepped foot in Fort Joy. And there ain’t no amount of hollerin’ that’ll bring her back.Interesting; Fara said that Erma’s disappearance was recent. Is Jeth incorrect? Or… perhaps Fara really is crazy? Fara and her missing daughter isn’t a quest and it has no resolution or reward. Do we tell her that Erma is dead? Or do we leave her be?  Behind Fara and Jeth is a ladder leading up to the wall surrounding the ghetto of Fort Joy. Prisoners are allowed to travel anywhere in this open island prison, so, might as well get a good look at the lay of the land.  A Magister scout’s posted up here, too, and she’s been pacing back and forth for some time.  : You there. I’m looking for an inmate. He wears a large bronze ring with a dragon stamped into it. Name of Migo. : (I’m no friend of the Magisters, but if she’s this worried about an inmate, it’s possible that she’s one of the defectors that’s trying to rescue Sorcerers from the island.): May I ask why you’re looking for him?: None of your business, inmate. Find me if you hear of a Migo. Otherwise, don’t waste my time.Well, alright then. So much for that.   Next to the Magister is one of the wall’s towers, overlooking the beach we had just come from. It’s a hell of a vista up here. And we’re not alone.  : Being Divine sounds like a lot of responsibility. At least he can finally get some rest. : If there’s no rest fer the wicked there’s plenty o’ rest for Lucian, m’friend. So we oughta beg all the harder for his return!Let the man sleep, goodness.  Just a bit southward, still on the wall, are three inmates playing a card game. Something about ‘calling Court.’ Looks fun!  : Lookie lookie here, mates! A fresh face. We love fresh faces, don’t we? Oh-ho yes, we do. Uh, the last time we heard such joviality towards ‘fresh faces,’ an elf woman was being mugged in the open. In the fort’s landing, of all places. But maybe I’m just being paranoid. Do we play cards with these three inmates?  In the meantime, I head back to Fara and head southwest of her, along the plank walkways around the base of the wall as I explore further south.  You’ll notice here that we’re speaking as Ifan, not as Fane. Some dialogues are character-specific, and during those times, we may be forced into handling the situation as them rather than as our avatar. : As she catches sight of you, recognition flashes in her terrified eyes. She drops her hands from her throat and starts hyperventilating. : Maybe I did. But calm yourself: you won’t be among them. Not until someone hires me to, anyway. : Keep him away from me! Help, somebody! *Gasp* KEEP HIM AWAY!He’s clearly a hit with the ladies. You could say he leaves them breathless. Heading further south, we’re coming up on some kind of… campsite? Maybe this is the ghetto’s shanty town? There are ripped tents everywhere with shoddy places to sleep, as well as drying racks filled with fish that we could loot to steal everyone’s lunch.  This guy has a staff that’s glowing green. Clearly he’s a mage of some kind – maybe he’s a trader.  : Why do you ask? This guy, Gawin, is asking us for our attention – but he only wants Fane, not any of our three companions. Given he’s clearly a mage, he probably isn’t one of Griff’s thugs, but who knows what an invitation like that is asking for, especially in an island prison. Do we hear out Gawin, or do we insist that we stick with our crew? Maple Leaf fucked around with this message at 07:13 on Jan 30, 2021 |
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Jan 29, 2021 06:10
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 Moving further south, into the shanty town, there’s a drunk dwarf singing sea shanties to himself.  : I can promise you that your knickers are the last thing I’m searching for on this island. : Ho! Right kind o’ ya, m’friend! I’ve grown quite attached to ‘em over the years. Almost literally in this filthy place! HO! And as we’re talking with the dwarf, a blue-skinned lizard (apparently a more common variant of lizard) comes to the campfire to get himself warm. He seems a bit lost in his own thoughts.  : Yet so quickly, we find Source so dangerous. What in his death caused it? So the Voidwoken are attracted to Source… but why? When another Divine rises, will Source change back? What if there are no Sourcerers left…? And why hasn’t Alexander risen yet?Also very-much common among the lizards is their face, apparently. This guy has the exact same face as Red Prince, haha.  : Surely there is something more exciting you could be doing than watching the ground dry. : It may be easier to work through your thoughts if you talk them out, if you’re willing. What’s on your mind? : Believe me when I say that I’ve had ample time to ask myself the same questions.: Naturally. How could one not? We’ve used Source for thousands of years. We have used it to heal – to grow. How can it be that it suddenly summons these… these horrors from the Void? And when will Alexander ascend to Divinity? We cannot continue like this.Rezik reaffirms everything that we know so far – primarily that using Source is summoning creatures called Voidwoken from a place called the Void, and that this is a new occurrence – but he also implies that Alexander should have ascended to become the setting’s equivalent to God, but he hasn’t, and nobody knows why. So that’s something to keep in mind.  There’s an opening in the fort’s walls that lead back to the beach along the western coast of the island. Since I’m doing a full, counter-clockwise rotation, I might as well head out there and see what I can see.  There’s another dwarf on the beach, tending to a wrecked ship and singing more sea shanties – that sounds awfully familiar. There’s also a crab in between him and us.  : Well, the good news for you is that I don’t have the taste for shellfish. But that doesn’t mean I’ll stand here and take that sort of insult from something that doesn’t stand up to my ankles. : Sounds like someone’s got a complex from being so very inferior. : Alright, fine. Let’s say you really are the most powerful Sourcerer on the island. Can you tell me if there’s a way off it, so that I don’t sully the shadow of your greatness with my presence any longer? : … Far be it from me to believe anything my captors say, but, they did say that they brought me here to cure me. : What goes on in the fort, then? : How did you come across your Source skills? The tall races are all born into it. : This power is my birthright, same as yours! But one of us has grown to astounding heights, and the other has sunken to depth too humiliating to describe. Pity.Well. To recap: I’ve been arrested, collared, and chained; I’ve nearly drowned; I’ve fought several maggots the size of a large dog; I watched a lizard woman explode; and now I’ve just been spoken down to by a crab. It’s a good day so far. Let’s see what that other dwarf is up to.  Oh, that’s…!  : …and combs it out all dilly-eye day. He twists ‘n’ rubs and teaks the nubs, he strokes ‘n’ pokes like all the blokes… He say he’ll touch it all day long… and combs it out all dilly-eye day.What a charming little song about… beards. : C’mon, y’stubborn hunk o’ garbage!: The dwarf’s fingers clamp around a splintered chunk of wood nailed to the skeleton of an old ship. His whole body strains with the effort of wrenching the plank free – to no avail. : Need a hand?: Got two of ma own, haven’t I?: The dwarf spits into each of his callused palms and rubs them together before placing them both back on the plank and pulling.: Ngh… HRGH! : I swing around a big rock on a big stick a lot. I may have the strength to help you with that nail, if you’d like.: *sigh* Go on, then; give it a go.: You grab the plank and pull. The rusted nail pops loose – and the plank promptly crumbles to pieces in your hand.Fission Mailed, as they say. : Well, lookit that! Nice o’ you to finish the job after I – erm – loosened ‘er up.: He winks and flips a gold coin toward you. It makes a long, high arc, glinting in the sun, and lands squarely in your hand. : I doubt that old piece of rotten wood was worth anything at all, much less a coin.: No. But I’d hoped to build something with it that’d be worth a thousand. It were a fool’s errand, thinkin’ I could make somethin’ outta this heap, but I couldn’t help myself from tryin’.: He sucks a finger and holds it up to the wind, testing the breeze. : Capsized? You were hoping to build a boat out of the remains of a larger one?: He gives you a wry look, as though deciding whether to trust you. : If it’s about getting out, I want to get in. : A sea-faring captain ought to be a valuable ally once we make it off this island!: That’s the spirit!: He lifts an invisible cap and bows with the grace of a courtier. : Ah, the famous dwarven rebel, in the flesh! Everyone in the world knows your story. You failed a coup against Queen Justinia and you were cast out for it, correct? : So how did you come to adopt your moniker?: I’ll tell you when you’re older.: Anyhow – we’re a team now, so the me is not half as important as the us. Let’s get down to brass tacks. Fighting, I mean. Like all the others, Beast is offering to join our party, and his default class is a Battlemage, similar to what we voted on making The Red Prince. Should we take Beast into our party? If so, what class should he be? : Ay! But it seems you’ve no room for ol’ Beast in your clan for now. You come find me when a spot opens up. And take it from me – you’ll want to find a place for me at your side.For what clearly isn’t story reasons, we can only have four teammates in our party at any given time (excluding summons and allies). If we take Beast, that means cutting somebody else out. If you’d like us to take Beast, who do we replace?  Well, with that squared away, Beast goes back to the planks of the ship skeleton and does what he was doing. Southward from him are two more people – some dude, just standing there off to the side, and a woman with a cooking pot, looking to try and make herself some lunch. As we approach, the man standing stock still suddenly becomes rather animated, and he turns and bolts straight for Prince.   : Hum. You’re not the first to make a sorry attempt on my life, and looking at the rags on you, you won’t be last. I hope my would-be usurpers can eventually threaten me with a challenge – if they’re going to send hired help after me, I’d at least like for it to be interesting. : Not an attempt, mate! Not if I can bloody help it. Time’s up, your ‘ighness! Let’s dance!  : Combat Music 1: Narin The AssassinThe very first thing Narin does is pull a shitload of Pocket Sand out of his pocket and throw it at each of our eyes. Blindness reduces our range to anything within our weapon’s reach, meaning, for example, Prince can’t throw his shield more than a few meters, and Fane can’t Bull Rush further than a step. After that, he casts Burning Blaze on the space between Lohse and Prince, igniting them both.   For Prince’s turn, he hits Narin with Battle Stomp, knocking him down, and then he chucks his shield at him – even with his reduced range, Narin is still decently within Prince’s striking distance.    Ifan’s first action is to use Encourage, which buffs everyone’s primary stats, and then he dips his crossbow’s arrows in Narin’s blood. With his last two AP, he aims for Narin’s ankles – which is impressive, given he’s still blinking the sand out of his eyes – and he manages to Cripple him, dramatically reducing his movement options.   For Lohse’s turn, she starts by making it rain, dousing the fire she and Prince are in, and making everyone wet. Her second action is to cast Hail Strike on Narin – Fane is danger close, and I couldn’t hit Narin with all three of the hail bullets for maximum damage, but the one that does hit him freezes his feet in place and turns him Snap Frozen, meaning he can’t move at all, now.   Fane, seeing that his opponent is frozen in place, summons a swarm of mosquitos to make Narin bleed – and literally every single mosquito misses a stationary target. Cool. So I just whack him with my axe and call it a turn.  Narin is low on options thanks to the Crippling and the fact that his feet are frozen to the sand, so he chucks an oil flash at Prince, making everyone around him slow and primed for ignition, and then he saves whatever AP he has left.   Prince casts Fortify on Lohse, since her health is currently the lowest, and then trudges through the oil to hit Narin with his shiv-on-a-stick.   Ifan lifts a rock out of the ground and kicks it at Narin like a soccer ball, which causes it to explode on impact and spread even more oil all over the place, before letting one of his bloodied arrows into Narin’s chest.   Staff users like Lohse get the weapon-specific skill Staff of Magus, which essentially lets them fire off a Magic Missile of that staff’s element. Since Lohse is currently equipped with an air-element staff, her attack does electric damage – and since Narin and Fane are both wet from the rain, and they’re both standing in conductive fluid (water and blood), they’re both Stunned from the attack. Since Fane’s already stunned, Lohse figures, hell, might as well double-down, and she fires a lightning bolt at Narin to cap off her turn.  And thanks to the stunning, Fane only has 2 AP to work with, which is enough for one swing of his axe and nothing else.    Narin attempts to move behind Prince for a backstab, but he opens himself up to Attacks of Opportunity from both Prince and Lohse, bringing him down to just a sliver of HP remaining. He does manage to stab Prince in the kidney, which causes Prince to bleed, which spreads beneath himself, Fane, and Narin, which causes his blood puddle to mix with Narin’s, and since Narin’s blood puddle is electrified, that means Prince’s blood is also electrified, and, finally, all three of them get zapped once more. This is what I mean when I say this game’s combat is deep as hell. This is stuff you need to think about when you want to properly strategize, as opposed to what I’m doing right now, which is, essentially, just beating a man to death. Prince chugs a potion to restore himself to full HP, just in case, and he and Ifan hit Narin once more each to put him down.  Prince has something he’d like to say, now that we were all just involved in an attempt on his life. But first, as any proper adventurer would do: we loot Narin’s body.  Some money; an arrow for Ifan that causes Knocked Down; a shoddy shield; an Invisibility Potion (which might have helped the, you know, assassination attempt); a Scroll of Restoration; a crafting item… and a note.  Sure hope it was worth it. Also: nothing in this note outlines an escape plan. Narin… was either stupid, or beyond desperate.  : Someone just attempted to kill you, and you’re taking it rather casually.: Oh, one gets used to this kind of thing so quickly. This is hardly the first time someone’s filled some poor fool’s purse and bid him kill the prince.: I’ll tell you what, though: whomever wants me out of the picture will have to do a lot better if they seek to get the better of me! All those bumblers they’ve sent so far, mark a mere insult to my swordsmanship. Wow, he really doesn’t care. This is such a regular occurrence for him that he’s become totally numb to some weirdo trying to shiv him on a prison island. A prison island! Prince’s enemies convinced some guy to get himself sent to a prison island so he could try and stick a knife into him! Just how badly do they want him dead?  So anyway, there’s a nice lady with a cooking pot at the south-western bend of the island’s coast. : The woman looks out on the gently lapping waves. She seems totally at peace, but as you approach, she turns to you with a cheerful smile. : I couldn’t have been here for more than a few hours, yes. : Well. Don’t worry too much if you have a hard time settlin’ in. Takes a while to get used to the place. : I’ve been fortunate enough to meet up with some companions since I landed here.: She gives you a long look.: You keep them friend of yours close, hey? Some of us haven’t got anyone at all, anymore. : You sound like you speak from experience. Are you here alone, yourself?: Used to be I had a family. A husband and a little boy. We were healers. Source was in our blood. Then they brought us here. I couldn’t stop ‘em from taking my boys from me when they did. Reckon they were cured, maybe even released. Dunno why the Reds didn’t take me too. : (This is a good opportunity to learn more about the modern familial unit.) Could you tell me more about your husband and your son? What were they like?: Her eyes sparkle. : She talks for some time, about birthdays, about Felix’s prickly beard, about the skunk Stefan once dragged home for a pet. Joy radiates from her as she remembers. She places a warm hand on your shoulder.: What a gift to think of them. I’d like to give something to you, too. A family recipe. One of Felix’s best. He’d be happy to know it went to such a… a warm soul. Take care of yourself, you hear? You’re a sweet one.Good to know some part of me radiates heat! Listening to Margo’s story rewards you with a Restoration scroll. It’s nice to know that there are some people here on Fort Joy that aren’t total cutthroats and can even find the time and solace to sit and think of better days.  As we continue along the southern coast, we find someone else standing in the sandy shallows – an elf, given his height and posture. The last time I approached a man standing by his lonesome, just a few short minutes ago, I was gruesomely attacked – hopefully this one goes a little better.  : That’s an unusual way of constructing your sentences. Is it a regional manner of speaking? : What do you mean? You speak as though we’ve met before, but I would have taken note of a dialect like yours. : We are unfamiliar, yet familiar. We are the same material, you agree. I am very curious. So tell me! Tell me your tale! : I… am not from the lands surrounding Fort Joy, nor am I, precisely, a native to the time we’re in. You could almost say I’m as alien to this world as the Voidwoken. : I was a scholar in a past life, and in this life, I seek to continue my studies. I want to learn more about the world that we live in – and I want to learn about the fate of the world I left behind. : I… couldn’t begin to guess. I just hope it ends with answers.: To draw back the veil and see the truth is no simple task. To seek the unknown. Maybe even the unknowable. True to his word, he hands us a ruby. They’re just vendor trash. : Thank you. I’ll be sure to cherish it.: It is nothing! Many fragments swirl on my shore. See what I gather…At that, his bartering menu automatically opens up. I’ll go on more about bartering in the next update, and on who sells what. Maol offers some crafting ingredients; some junk; and, more importantly, he sells Geomancer skill books.  Up ahead is another part of the derelict ship that Beast was fighting with (or perhaps a second ship entirely) that’s been split in half by the beach’s sand bar. There is a fishing rack by the ‘entrance’ to this little dune…  … and it looks like someone’s set up a little home-away-from-home here. A place to sleep, a campfire, a roof (with tears in it, but it’s better than nothing), even some food, baskets, and beverages lying about.  Continuing on, we come up to the southern entrance to the Fort Joy Ghettos… and crouched behind a barrel is Sebille. She looks like she’s in the middle of something – stalking somebody, maybe. A bit of a far cry from the woman rolling dice to tell fortunes on the ship. : Amid the squalor of Fort Joy you suddenly spot an elf with diamond features: regal and radiant, but cold too, and sharper than any knife. She was the one who sat rolling dice in the ship that went under, ‘deciding fates’ with every roll – or so she said. : What about that lizard has you–: No sooner have these words left your mouth than she turns about and grabs you in a stranglehold. You feel the tip of a long needle being pushed a little ways into one of your neck’s vertebrae. : (She already knows I’m undead, so…) The truth is, I’m of a race called the Eternals, and I’m looking for my long lost people – or, at least, I want to know what happened to them. : I see. It does so satisfy to have a purpose in life.: A push, a pivot, and now you suddenly face her, the needle still all too deeply embedded in bone. : So… why were you stalking that lizard?: Because it is my desire to question him. Intensely. As for the reason: you’re staring at it.: You see, once upon a bad old time, a lizard cut this thing, this living scar into my cheek: the mark of a slave. But now I’m free – of sorts – and I’ve traced that lizard here, to Fort Joy. : Sebille, please, I am not your enemy, nor am I even your target. Lower your weapon and let’s talk this through.: No.: She drives the needle in deeper and whispers:: In truth, it does not matter in the least who you really are. You saw me mark my prey. You could warn him, save him, or kill him before I get my chance. : What if – and hear me out – what if, instead of killing me, we work together?: A bright sparkle of laughter follows your proposal.: How amusing. I admit I had not seen that twist coming. I was certain the pitiful begging was about to begin.I mean… it’s four against one, so….  : I’m looking to escape this island, and if I’m to do so, someone with your dexterity and deftness could come in very handy. And for anything that can’t be solved with a few picked locks or deft hands, I can solve it with my battle axe. (That I made myself by tying a rock to a stick.) : I didn’t have to go back for you on that ship when it was being torn about, you know….: Well played. Oh, little needle mine, what should I do? Push or pull? Mmm… The agony of choice…: You know what? Today is a rather fine day. Sunshine and an easy breeze. Yes, I’ll let you live. I’ll even agree to travel with you, provided we talk to that lizard I mentioned. I’m not quite sure the weather will save him.Oh. What… what if it’s the same lizard that Prince needs to speak to…?  : So… throughout all that, you must have noticed that you wouldn’t have been very successful in bleeding me out.: Yes, the needle did find you rather tough to chew. Then again I already knew I’d have to push hard, knowing what you really are. This may strike you as rather eccentric, but the thought of travelling with one such as yourself quite enthuses me.: She tilts her head ever so slightly, and looks at you almost… mockingly. You can’t help but contemplate with both dread and delight the absolute darkness at the heart of her cat’s eyes.: Yes. This will be jolly good fun…. Let’s discuss our respective roles then, shall we? You, me and death will be playing many a round of hide and seek, so what role would you like me to play? Sebille is available to join our party, and her default class is a Rogue. Do we take Sebille into our party? If so, what class should she be? And who should we remove? This was a very, very long update! I wanted to get all of the named characters reintroduced and get the votes going on who we should take and what they should do. I also transcribed every NPC I came across, which might not be a practice that I continue going forward  So, to recap our votes: Do we tell Fara that her child is dead? Do we play cards with the three on the wall? Do we hear out what Gawin has to say, or do we stick with our crew? Do we take Ifan? If so, what should his class be (default is Wayfarer)? Do we take Lohse? If so, what should her class be (default is Enchanter)? Do we take Beast? If so, what should his class be (default is Battlemage)? Do we take Sebille? If so, what should her class be (default is Rogue)? And, since we have the whole crew, do we take Prince? If so, what should his class be (default is Fighter and the previous vote was for Battlemage, but there's still time to be flexible)? Let me know by tomorrow!
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Jan 29, 2021 06:12
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Do we tell Fara that her child is dead? Yeah, why not. Do we play cards with the three on the wall? What's the worst that can happen. Do we hear out what Gawin has to say, or do we stick with our crew? Hear him out. Voting Ifan, Beast, and Sebille.
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Jan 29, 2021 07:17
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The inferno-warrior build for Prince is mine, so I'm hardly going to vote against him. I'm not going to weigh in on the plot votes most of the time due to having done it enough times, don't feel like tilting the scales. Let's get Prince, Beast, Lohse in there. This early on, you really can't specialize the builds due to the utter lack of gear. You only really transition into the staff when you invest enough in Int and Pyro to do more damage than the regular weapons. This is a full-int build, so points of strength are wasted in the long run. There is ONE trick you can do early. Make the Fire/Warfare hybrid skill, and have fun. Try it with Battle Stomps, Battering Ram, all the melee aoe skills. At least in Divinity Expanded, the points of Warfare aren't wasted anymore due to the effect being changed. I can't attest to Preserverance/Retribution, since I haven't done either build myself. But Leadership is actually a very decent skill now, with a caveat. Leadership gives durability boosts to everyone BUT the leader. So.... investing in it turns the person into a target due to being squishier than the others now. They better be able to handle the increased aggro. I did a support spell tank summoner build with maxed leadership, leadership does a LOT to keep the other party members alive. I think I got it to like 15 leadership with boosts at some point, which gave everyone else an absurd +30% to dodge and +45% to resistances. As for build suggestions, feel free to ignore these as I already got a build in and I'm deliberately going to suggest weird builds. Beast becomes the real pirate with Dual-Dagger Finesse, Dual Weapon skills to up the dodge tanking, and a side of polymorph/hydro for the support spells and to show off the poly/hydro heal spell in a melee party (and he should be able to make it rain for theme). The lady of stone Lohse who decides to be the walking juggernaut. She's playing Poker, 'hit me', with Warfare taunting, Retribution, and Geomancy stacking. (Warning, as stated I haven't done a Retribution build so I don't know how it'll work).
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Jan 29, 2021 09:30
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Do we tell Fara that her child is dead? - Yes Do we play cards with the three on the wall? - Yes Do we hear out what Gawin has to say, or do we stick with our crew? - Hear him out Do we take Ifan? If so, what should his class be (default is Wayfarer)? - No, he scared the kitty Do we take Lohse? If so, what should her class be (default is Enchanter)? - Yes, stick with Enchanter Do we take Beast? If so, what should his class be (default is Battlemage)? - No, we have physical heavyweights already Do we take Sebille? If so, what should her class be (default is Rogue)? - Yes, rogue is useful and add a ranged weapon if possible And, since we have the whole crew, do we take Prince? If so, what should his class be (default is Fighter and the previous vote was for Battlemage, but there's still time to be flexible)? - Yes, stick with Battlemage.
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Jan 29, 2021 14:39
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Sebille, Lohse, and Beast for party members.
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Jan 29, 2021 14:53
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Sebille, Lohse and The Prince for the party. As for what they should do, Lohse stays Enchanter and I don’t mind about the rest.
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Jan 29, 2021 15:12
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Voting Ifan for the party, he needs more love. Might be worth it to make him a Summoner.
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Jan 29, 2021 17:04
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