PoE2 Deadfire tips/help thread

Pillars of Eternity II
I'm not sure what "powers" do in Deadfire (sounds like extra resource required for class specific abilities?) but I certainly enjoyed hell out of Kingmaker skills and abilities. I don't think you were far into Kingmaker yet?

Around Chapter three - but I did study the classes :)

Powers are essentially active powers that you manually activate during combat.

In any rate, good to hear you are enthused over Deadfire - let's see if I end up enjoying it too :)

Keep in mind that I'm not as big a fan of the genre as you seem to be. I prefer a more modern take on CRPGs - but I'd say PoE 2 and Kingmaker are close to equal - but in different ways.

Kingmaker will probably win overall once it's fully polished and all DLC is out, but that's because I'm deeply in love with D&D 3.5 and Pathfinder is close enough.
 
With all the DLC out, I'm finally getting around to character creation. And, damn it if there aren't an overwhelming number of permutations of multiclasses to consider. Not since Icewind Dale's 3.5 ruleset has char creation been this daunting!

Exciting nevertheless.
 
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It's excellent. I especially like how it's possible to mix and match. I seem to recall making a fantastic Paladin/Wizard and Monk/Druid. Can't remember the specializations.
 
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I've restarted about six times now. Some of the restarts were due to second-guessing my plans, and then there were a couple that I realized the ideas behind the build were based on old, since-nerfed class information.

I think Obsidian's rules and mechanics are way too generalized, especially in this Deadfire sequel. Accuracy for everything. One set of inspirations negating any opposing afflictions regardless of their respective strengths. Spells and abilities that all feel mundane since they've been balanced for usage in every encounter.

I have probably 100 hours in the game (so Steam tells me) but 95% of that is alt-tabbed doing something else because the game is just so average. I thought I was going to enjoy this game, having thoroughly loved NWN2: Storm of Zehir. But what that game had going for it was an established rule and character-building system that appealed to people who wanted to plan out an interesting (and powerful!) character. While I enjoyed the first PoE (17,000 patches after launch), I feel Deadfire's changes to an already simplistic ruleset mire the game in mediocrity.

And these incessant nerfs that make finding relevant build ideas nigh impossible don't help matters.
 
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The game is just so shallow. That is the most proper description for it in my view. From companions that are "just there" to locations created simply to add simplistic padding to the game, the game doesn't create a world for you to explore so much as it creates a series of slides for you to look at and kill everything in.

  • Just now, I walked up to some random NPC and the only option beyond "farewell" is a completely incongruous "read his mind" option. It's completely out of place and only serves to as a means to rob the poor schmuck.
  • The "islands" I visit are little more than 5 minute detours with a single, contrived encounter - usually for the sake of a bounty (such lazy game design!).
  • Practically every vendor you visit has high-powered magical equipment you can simply purchase. Why bother exploring? Way too much loot with easy access.
  • Nerfs!! So many nerfs! There is just so little variation between classes with any outlier power curves getting slapped upside the head.
  • Speaking of variation between classes, who in the world of common sense game design thought it would be a good idea to make tier 8 & 9 druid spells castable from a craftable scroll by anyone with requisite arcana skill? So much for rewarding a caster class.

There's just so much mediocrity packed into this game, it's crazy. The only improvement Deadfire has over its prequel thus far is the interface. Anyway, rant done. Here's hoping Tim & Leonard continue as project leads for Outer Worlds and Josh Sawyer stays the hell away.
 
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So… do you like it? ;)

The craftable high-level scrolls are indeed lame. I was thinking about playing a Druid in PoE 1 and carrying him over to PoE II. That takes a little shine off the idea.
 
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Right now it's firmly in the category of 'time-filler'. While there are some really fun little moments (I absolutely adore the Mirke sidekick's personality and the various ways to get rid of her… old boss), a lot of the game seems like quantity over quality for me.

I'm also not really a fan of the various factions and their motivations - it's all oddly reminiscent of the Trade Federation in Star Wars: Episode 1. Economics and trade were a mundane plot device there and so they are here as well. There's certainly more to the game than the factions but for the portion that they're front and center, I just don't really care much. Imperialism, Natives, Pirates, Former colonists, Zzzzz… meanwhile, I'm often left wondering just where in this mire of tedium my main quest is actually advanced.

Another annoyance… Megabosses. I thought I'd like them, but they are implemented so hamfistedly that they completely screw over attempts at freeform exploration. I play with "skull indicators" off (basically indicators explicitly telling you the relative power level of something before you engage it - too gamey for me), so suddenly encountering something in a level 10ish area that's intended for a player at the level cap of 20 w/ a full repertoire of gear and skills is off-putting to say the least.

So, do I like it? It's very mediocre a lot of the time in its design, so I'd have to answer that question with a halfhearted shrug. It kinda makes me want to try Pathfinder: Kingmaker to tell you the truth.

Regarding druids (as well as priests), I believe their spells were reworked to have longer recovery periods after casting, in Deadfire. Also, if you aren't aware, although they completely reworked spells to be per-encounter, they also completely skewered your versatility - you can only cast 2 spells of each level, per encounter. More mediocrity.
 
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Regarding druids (as well as priests), I believe their spells were reworked to have longer recovery periods after casting, in Deadfire. Also, if you aren't aware, although they completely reworked spells to be per-encounter, they also completely skewered your versatility - you can only cast 2 spells of each level, per encounter. More mediocrity.

Eh? Only 2 casts per encounter regardless of level? So, for example, a level 15 Druid can still only cast two level 1 spells? That makes no sense whatsoever.

Did you import your PC from PoE 1? I'm having a difficult time deciding on a class because I'm trying to plan it out over both games. I've now played the prologue and parts of the first town with a Fighter, a Rogue, a Monk, a Barbarian, and a Druid.

Fighter feels too generic to me. Rogue seems ok, but it's not my favorite class from a role-playing standpoint, and I hear the recruitable Rogue is one of the more interesting NPCs anyways. Monk seems ok. Barbarian and Druid have been the most fun for me so far.
 
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You can create a "Legacy" prior to starting PoE 2. In essence, the game will go through perhaps three dozen questions regarding how you solved various quests in PoE 1.

Pure monk and wizard seem to be the best single class options. As far as multiclassing is concerned monk, rogue, barbarian, fighter, paladin, chanter, wizard are all good options. Notice I didn't include druid, priest, or cipher :D That's not to say that there aren't good builds involving them, but the cast and recovery times for their spells require you to know what you're going for ahead of time - it's simply more limiting. By comparison, a wizard can cast 3-5 self-buffs near instantly, turning him into an untouchable powerhouse; this makes for very viable martial class mutliclassing (at least until your spell durations run their course).

Regardless, this is all pretty subjective - the subclass mechanics and the potential they offer for multiclassing are one of the better parts of the game. You can create practically anything you want. The problem for me lies after that, wherein differences in character mechanics all get muddied in a stew of egregious balancing and RTwP chaos.
 
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There's really a lot to like in this game. There appear to be a lot of viable classes in the game, you get a choice of 3 classes for every character you recruit, you can and you can still just roll your own NPC if you don't like your choices.

The battle system seems pretty good to me except that nobody but the BIG bosses do much damage compared to hit points, making for long battles. I don't mind long battles too much, though, as long as I've got something interesting to do through it all and that has been happing regularly. Difficulty seems pretty good.

I'm thinking about quitting half way through, though, because there's a lot of things that aren't so fun.

First and foremost are the stories. The main quest is pretty interesting where you're trying to follow this supposedly-mostly-good god as he kills countless people. Unfortunately, I'm finding that I spend very little time on it. Instead, I'm doing things for a bunch of factions, none of which I like at all. The stories that go with them are pretty uninteresting, too.

Another is that I keep getting to the bottom of dungeons and finding I'm not high enough level for them. I've set the game so that encounters scale upward but not downward (I didn't want trash fights) and that could well be behind this problem but it sure hurts. I fight my way down, sometimes against pretty nasty groups, finally get to the climax - and I find I have to trudge back out again with a mental note to come back after I've earned another level or two.

The isometric system isn't so great, either. Sometimes a battle will take place where my characters are north east of a building, which means I can't see them or the enemies around them (though sometimes I can see their weapons!?), which is a major pain. If a battle takes place at the very bottom of a map, I run into trouble as well because I can't pan the screen down past the edge - leaving my character behind part of the GUI! This form of gaming is decades old! Why am I dealing with problems like this in a $60 game!?

I haven't gotten into a ship vs. ship fight yet so no comment on that aspect. I haven't got enough money to beef up my ship yet.

I haven't seen any problem with overly-powerful items for sale, either - or at least none I could afford. My poor paladin had to give up on the pike as there seems to be no magic pikes in the game at all. Sure are plenty of magic swords, though.

EDIT: Typical. I looked up where I could get a good pike. There's one in the very first ship bounty. Grrrrr
 
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I'm getting burnt out trying to finish all the side quests - the only reason I'm still hanging on is because I don't have high rep with most of my companions (2 for Pallegina and Xoti, everyone else at 1 except for Eder who's at 0). I'm guessing you don't progress with romance if you have less than 2 in rep? I rejected Xoti, didn't flirt with others but nothing from Aloth lol. Going to give up and go straight for the main plot again unless you guys think level 14 is too low?
 
I might have to follow you in. There's a LOT of side quests and most are exceedingly forgettable. (Though the druid's quest has been interesting.)
 
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I just finished the game at level 18. I headed to the final location with level 16 party but gained 2 more levels by the time I got there. The "final" boss fight was the most fun I had with the combat in the whole entire game but even then it wasn't that interesting... I also didn't like the ending - not caring for factions really affected the ending heaps, I ultimately made Deadfire a whole lot worse place (sort of like, "I'm FINALLY free from these horrible Gods and petty human faction, I'm outta here, suckers!").

Anyway, I usually play the game twice to write a review but not sure if I have strength to for this game.. might just write up something short instead and not play it again.

TL:DR - It was "ok" to play it once but likely won't replay it.
 
I found the game to definitely be an exercise in quantity over quality. All those islands... with a completely forgettable location or two to visit.
 
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Well, the systems sure are sweet. Being able to pick whether you want turn based or RTwP is really nice. Being able to set level scaling how you like is, too. You won't see many games that give you either option!
...I ultimately made Deadfire a whole lot worse place...
No worries, they had it coming to them. ;)
 
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Well, the systems sure are sweet. Being able to pick whether you want turn based or RTwP is really nice. Being able to set level scaling how you like is, too. You won't see many games that give you either option!

The problem is, I found the combat so bland or tedious regardless of which mode I'm playing on.

No worries, they had it coming to them. ;)

I guess, but I still like happy ending!

My final impression of the game is posted here:

https://www.rpgwatch.com/forums/showpost.php?p=1061573996&postcount=3049
 
Wait, only 50 some hours? But I'm over 100 and only at level 13! I'm playing at Vet difficulty with enemies that can scale up but never down, though. It's rare for an encounter not to have at least a few 1-skull enemies and I've had to graze some reds to death. (Disintegration has helped a lot recently. That cypher spell does MASSIVE damage!)
 
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I played on classic with no enemy scalling. About the level, it seems that the main quest line provides heaps of XP so you aren't too underlevelled even if you don't finish all side quests.
 
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