1. Introduction and Character Creation
Chandagnac
Broken Robot
- Location
- Nowhere
Hey, guys! In case it wasn't obvious from the title and the above images, I've decided to post a Let's Play of Pillars of Eternity (which I will sometimes refer to as POE 1). I'm trapped in an unhealthy love-hate relationship with this game. It's given me lots of enjoyment over the years – all told, I've spent 370 hours playing it, according to my Steam account – but there've been plenty of times when I've wanted to uninstall it and never look at it again. I know there are several people on this board who really hate this game. I can understand why: in places, it deserves to be heavily criticized. But I also think there's some very interesting stuff in POE 1 and I want to share it with anyone who can be bothered to read this.
Pillars of Eternity was developed by Obsidian Entertainment, who also made Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords, Neverwinter Nights 2, Fallout: New Vegas, and South Park: the Stick of Truth. If it sounds like they've made a lot of games based on other people's intellectual properties, it's because they have. The way I hear it, before they made Pillars of Eternity, they really wanted to make something new and original, something that would be successful: that would please their fans, be critically-acclaimed, and make massive amounts of dosh. Instead, they made Pillars of Eternity.
I kid, I kid…
Nah, before they made Pillars of Eternity, Obsidian were in financial difficulties because they'd been jerked around by bigger companies and had a bunch of projects cancelled. So, they decided to do their own thing, make the game they really wanted to make, and crowdfund it using Kickstarter. They tapped into a rich seam of nostalgia for the old infinity engine games (Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale, mainly), promising to make a spiritual successor to those games, but with updated graphics and a more streamlined interface. Also, they appealed to fans of fantasy roleplaying games who'd got sick of how major videogame publishers seem obsessed with better graphics at the expense of story and content. Their crowdfunding campaign was very successful and raised over $4 million. Overall, Pillars of Eternity was a success, which meant that Obsidian Entertainment could stay in business and make games such as… uh… Tyranny (a game which can charitably be described as 'like Pillars of Eternity, but not as good'), Pathfinder Adventures (a game which can charitably be described as 'a crappy mobile game'), and Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire. Woohoo, I guess!
Anyway, I'm going to be playing this game on the 'Hard' difficulty. On the lower difficulty settings, the game is a bit too easy and I never feel hard-pressed enough to need to use any of the consumables (potions, scrolls, etc). The hardest difficulty is 'Path of the Damned', which I can't be bothered with because even the low-level mook enemies have massive amounts of health and it just wrecks my suspension of disbelief.
I've played through the whole game on 'Expert' mode and quite liked it, but in general I prefer to know whether I'm about to summon a magical wall of flame angled towards me, at right angles to me, or on top of my own party. Useful to know, huh? So, this time, I'll be playing with some of the 'help' features enabled.
Oh, right. This is what the game is really about. The loading screens. If you can be bothered to play this game, you'll be seeing more of these than anything else. If not, I'll suffer so you don't have to!
77,000 fans, eh? Hmm. Imagine if Obsidian turned them all on at once.
Here's the opening crawl:
Pleasant-voiced American-accented narrator, slightly pretentious narration, ominous foreshadowing and scene-setting. We're off to a good start!
Now, character creation!
Am I a boy? Or am I a girl?
[] Male
[] Female
(Yeah… I'm more used to running quests on this site. In fact, I'm running two right now. If I go a long time between updates it's probably because of that and because I'm got a full-time job as well.)
Basically, this is a cosmetic choice that makes no real difference to gameplay. Male and female player characters in POE 1 have the same stat bonuses, are treated exactly the same, and have basically the same dialogue options.
However, despite the fact that player characters of either gender have equal opportunities in this game, I get the impression that the setting of POE 1 is kind of sexist. All of the authority figures we'll meet in the Dyrwood are male, with the exception of the high priestess of Magran and a few mid-ranking Knights of the Crucible. There are numerous examples of female NPCs whose lives seem dominated by men, or who've been abused by men, and little to suggest that this isn't seen as 'normal'. Or maybe that's just a sadly accurate reflection of the real world. I dunno.
One of the early 'complaints' about Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire that I saw posted online was that each major faction has at least one high-ranking female character: some of them have female leaders! (Shock, horror, etc!)
If I'd bothered to reply, I would have said, "So what?" and pointed out that they all have high-ranking male characters as well. It's a depiction of a society where men and women are treated equally – what's wrong with that? However, the complainant seemed to think that this was unrealistic and that Obsidian were pandering to Feminists and 'Social Justice Warriors'.
Ugh, it depresses me that so many gamers seem to think that equality is a bad thing. It makes me despair for the human race, it really does.
Speaking of which…
It's time to choose the player-character's race!
Aumaua are… they kind of remind me of Orcs, but from one of the more morally-ambiguous fantasy settings where Orcs aren't Always Chaotic Evil. In the sequel, there's an Aumaua Druid whose skin colour, voice acting, and general appearance are such that if you put him in, say, Eberron, and told me that he was an Orc Druid, I'd believe you. Aumaua are big and strong, have sharp teeth, semi-webbed hands and feet, and lay eggs.
They come in two flavours: Island Aumaua and Coastal Aumaua. Island Aumaua have brown and yellow skin; Coastal Aumaua have blue and green skin. Island Aumaua get an extra weapon set (which is kind of a crappy bonus, unless you make it an essential part of your character build). Coastal Aumaua get added resistance to being stunned or knocked prone (which is… very circumstantial, but not terrible).
After playing through POE 2: Deadfire, I'm tempted to make my next player character an Aumaua named Ernesto "Ekera" Guevara.
In appearance, Dwarves are very similar to the generic Dwarves in any other bog-standard fantasy setting: short and stumpy, but very solidly-built. However, Obsidian tried very hard to make them different from the norm. So, instead of living underground and being great miners, smiths, and craftsmen, Dwarves in Pillars of Eternity have a racial predilection for travelling and exploring the world, and have a reputation for being the first to travel to… pretty much anywhere, really. (Except in POE 1's expansion pack, The White March, which focuses on an underground fortress built by Dwarves who were great miners as well as being some of the best smiths their world has ever known. The more things change, eh?)
There are two varieties of Dwarf in this game: Mountain Dwarves, who are your basic, generic, globetrotting Dwarves; and Boreal Dwarves, who live in a frozen, snow-covered landscape and have to be mighty hunters to survive. Mountain Dwarves get a racial bonus to resist Poison and Disease attacks (which is a crappy bonus, way too circumstantial, and they changed it for the sequel). Boreal Dwarves get a huge bonus to accuracy against Wilder and Primordial creatures (which is an incredible bonus, makes you extraordinarily deadly in battle against… uh, roughly a quarter of all the enemies you'll fight in this game, but they toned it down for the sequel).
Most of the Elves we'll see in POE 1 are Wood Elves. They're kinda like the elves in every other generic fantasy setting. Except not. Yes, they have pointy ears, tend to be decent archers, some of them live in the woods, and they can live for hundreds of years, but apart from that… they're not particularly wise or mystical, they're not beautiful and they don't seem to have any special connection to nature. In fact, elves in this setting are so well-integrated into human cultures that a lot of them have human names. As we go through POE 1, we'll come across elves named Lilith, Nestor, and
It makes me wonder why Obsidian bothered to include Elves and Dwarves in this game. I mean, on the one hand, I applaud their attempts to avoid the usual fantasy clichés, but on the other hand if they were going to change everything people thought they knew about Elves and Dwarves, why keep them as Elves and Dwarves? Why not change them into completely new fantasy races? I mean, the Aumaua are pretty cool. They could have created another couple of races like that, maybe?
I suspect that Obsidian's writers didn't really want to include Elves and Dwarves in the Pillars of Eternity setting, but felt like they would lose sales if they didn't. Certain fantasy fans really like Elves and Dwarves (uh… mainly elves, to a creepy extent) and would probably have refused to buy the game if they couldn't play as Princess Galadriel Moonflower or whatever.
Anyway… Wood Elves get a racial accuracy bonus when attacking enemies at long range. That makes them excellent archers. You'd think that would be a useful bonus for wizards as well, wouldn't you? Well, you'd be wrong. Most wizard spells in this game are too short-ranged for the bonus to make any difference.
Pale Elves are the other variety of elf in this game. When I first played through POE 1, I got the idea that they were mysterious and inscrutable beings, enigmatic natives of the frozen lands of the far south who worship the god of cold and oblivion. I thought they were very interesting, if strange. But then the Beast of Winter expansion pack came out for POE2 and showed me that, actually, most Pale Elves are happy-go-lucky Scandinavian-accented fellows who seem entirely too cheerful at the prospect of imminent death and the annihilation of their souls. So yeah. Nothing mysterious about them, really.
The Pale Elf racial bonus is very situational, but in a lot of ways it's almost too good: they get massive amounts of resistance to cold and fire damage. By itself, that's almost enough to completely shut down certain enemies in this game. Of course, this bonus was toned down for the sequel.
Orlans are kinda like hobbits. In fact, they seem to be based on one of JRR Tolkien's comments about how, being short and physically weak, hobbits would probably have been enslaved by humans if Middle Earth were a more realistic setting. And so, Orlans are very short, hairy, and physically weak; and at various times many of them have been enslaved by the larger races of the setting. For that reason, Orlans have had to be ferocious fighters to have any chance of preserving their lives and freedoms.
Orlans come in two flavours: Wild Orlans and Hearth Orlans. Wild Orlans are covered in thick fur; Hearth Orlans are much less furry and have more human-like faces. Wild Orlans get a bonus to all of their defences after someone attacks their Will save; Hearth Orlans do more damage when fighting in groups and attacking the same target. Decent bonuses, but it depends on what you use them for.
Humans are… mysterious creatures. Don't know much about them, sorry. They come in three flavours: dark chocolate, caramel, and extra milky.
Seriously, though… there are three types of Human in this game: Ocean Folk, Savannah Folk, and Meadow Folk.
Ocean Folk are dark-skinned, renowned for being bold explorers and world-travellers. They originally came from Old Vailia, where everyone talks in a comedy Italian accent which sounds like they're doing impressions of the Mario Brothers. (The Vailian language seems to be mostly based on badly-mangled Italian but with a few words borrowed from other romance languages such as Spanish.)
Savannah Folk have tanned skin and originally came from the Ixamitl plains, which are roughly analogous to Mesoamerica. You see, while most high fantasy stories take place in a fantasy version of medieval Europe, POE 1 takes place in a fantasy version of America after the colonizing
Meadow Folk are your generic white people, who originally came from Aedyr, which is largely covered in tropical rainforest. Despite the fact that they evolved in a hot, sunny country, they have pale skin because… oh, I don't know: evolution is a lie, kids!
(In case you were wondering… I'm being sarcastic. Very, very sarcastic.)
Anyway, the three different types of Human all have the same stat bonuses and a racial ability which means they temporarily power-up when their Endurance is reduced below 50%. (In POE 1, Health and Endurance are separate meters. Related, but separate. It's complicated.)
The Godlike are… well, they're not really a race. They can't breed, for one thing. Basically, a god imbues an unborn child with special powers and changes their appearance to match their theme. Doesn't matter if the child is human, dwarven, aumaua, or whatever – they're still 'godlike'.
There are ten gods in this setting and they all have their own godlikes, but the player character can only be one of these four: Nature Godlike (associated with Galawain, god of the hunt), Death Godlike (associated with Berath, god of death), Fire Godlike (associated with Magran, goddess of flames and war), and Moon Godlike (associated with Ondra, goddess of the sea).
Nature Godlike tend to have antlers or horns. They're often covered in plants or fungi. Death Godlike have strange cancer-like growths covering their heads. Fire Godlike look like they're made of metal and their heads are on fire. Moon Godlike have glowing blue skin and moon-shaped growths on their heads.
Because of their horns, strange growths, or oddly-shaped heads, Godlikes can't wear helmets, but they make up for this with powerful racial bonuses. Nature Godlike get a hefty boost to their stats when their health dips below 50%. Death Godlike get increased damage against enemies who already have low health. Fire Godlike get more damage reduction and do fire damage to anyone who hits them when their health dips below 50%. Moon Godlike generate waves of healing energy when their Endurance dips below certain thresholds.
So, now you've seen all the options, it's time to decide!
What race should I be?
[] Human
[] Aumaua
[] Dwarf
[] Elf
[] Orlan
[] Godlike
(The different races of Pillars of Eternity aren't cross-fertile, so no half-elves.)
Next, I need to choose a Class...
Barbarians are powerful – if somewhat fragile – melee combatants who can do a lot of damage to large groups of enemies at once, frighten their enemies, or quickly charge to the other end of the battlefield. That sort of thing.
Chanters are the Pillars of Eternity equivalent of D&D Bards. They invoke the power of the spirits by chanting ritual phrases which buff their allies or debuff their enemies. Then, when they've gathered enough power, they can use it to cast spells or summon friendly monsters. Very cool. Chanters are one of my favourite classes in POE 1.
Ciphers have psionic powers. They gather power by doing damage to their enemies. Then, when they've done enough damage, they can use psychic powers. For example, they can take over an enemy's mind, stab them with psionic blades, or steal someone else's mental strength and use it to buff themselves.
Druids have a mystical connection to nature which enables them to shapeshift and cast powerful spells. Very similar to D&D Druids.
Fighters are good at fighting. It's obvious, innit? (Well, more seriously, every adventuring party needs a meat shield, someone to engage enemies and soak up damage. Fighters are good at that.)
Monks are martial artists and dedicated masochists who gain power as they take damage. They leap into battle shouting the mystical phrase, "Hit me harder!"
Paladins are fanatical warriors devoted to a specific cause. They don't have much in common with D&D Paladins other than the name and the knightly theme. Their zeal gives them mystical powers because… uh, I don't know. Probably something to do with soul energy, like everything else in this game. Some non-playable Paladin orders are devoted to serving a specific god (for example, the 'Fellows of St Waidwen Martyr' are devoted servants of Eothas; the 'Steel Garrote' [sic] are dedicated to Woedica), but the player character can join one of only five Paladin orders: the Bleak Walkers, Darcozzi Paladini, the Goldpact Knights, the Kind Wayfarers, and the Shieldbearers of St. Elcga. None of them have much to do with the gods.
In theory, the Bleak Walkers have a really interesting purpose and motivation: they're dedicated to ending wars by making the consequences of going to war so horrible that no one will ever dare fight again. They're cruel and merciless, but they're doing it for a cause that seems kinda noble. However, in practice, they're a bunch of murderous psychotic thugs who often seem to be used as pawns by evil rulers who don't care about the consequences of their actions.
Old Vailia (the land mass where the Ocean Folk humans originally came from) was once a unified nation, but more recently it collapsed into dozens of warring city-states. The Darcozzi Paladini are Old Vailian loyalists dedicated to the restoration of the Ancien Régime.
Goldpact Knights are the perfect mercenaries, dedicated to money. Once a contract is agreed, they have a reputation for being incorruptible.
Kind Wayfarers are dedicated to helping travellers lost in the wilderness, protecting them from monsters, and so on.
Shieldbearers of St. Elcga are an Aedyran institution, dating back to the time just before the elves and humans of Aedyr were united. Elcga was an elven noblewoman who was trying to negotiate a peace treaty. The original Shieldbearers of St. Elcga were her bodyguards. At one of the negotiations, they were unarmed except for their shields, but they still managed to foil an assassination attempt. Elcga's negotiations eventually led to the unification of the human and elven kingdoms, forming the Aedyran Empire. In her memory, the Shieldbearers of St. Elcga are dedicated to peace through diplomacy and honest dealing.
Um… at various times, while playing POE 1, I got the feeling that elves are second-class citizens in Aedyr, even though they're supposed to be equal to humans. Partly because the human kingdom of Aedyr joined with the elven kingdom of Kulklin to become the Aedyran Empire. Partly because the unification is based on the symbolic marriage of the human fercönyng (pronounced 'fayr-co-ning', which means 'first king') and the elven mecwyn (pronounced 'may queen', which apparently means 'illustrious queen'), but according to all the lore books it seemed like the fercönyng was in charge of everything, at least in the Dyrwood, while the mecwyn was fairly passive.
The alliance between elves and humans is supposed to be held together by symbolic marriages, or 'haemnegs', between noblemen of the one race and noblewomen of the other, but the only one we ever get to hear about, other than that between the mecwyn and fercönyng, was between a powerful human nobleman and an elf woman who was a relatively poor minor noblewoman. It destroyed her marriage to her elven husband: overwhelming jealousy turned him into an abusive drunk. Yeah, these symbolic marriages are supposed to be non-sexual, and people entering into them are supposed to already have husbands or wives of their own race, but apparently they're often used as a cover for adultery.
I dunno, I really got the feeling that, to paraphrase George Orwell, the elves and humans of Aedyr were equal, but some of them were more equal than others. All the human-elven relationships I got to hear about seemed weighted in favour of humans.
However, in POE 2: Deadfire, I read some lore about a poor human noblewoman in haemneg to a rich elf nobleman, and it didn't seem like she was having a good time of it. Also, I met the warriors of the Steel Garrote [sic], a group of fanatics dedicated to following the orders of the mecwyn no matter what. It made me feel that maybe my earlier impression was mistaken.
The alliance between elves and humans is supposed to be held together by symbolic marriages, or 'haemnegs', between noblemen of the one race and noblewomen of the other, but the only one we ever get to hear about, other than that between the mecwyn and fercönyng, was between a powerful human nobleman and an elf woman who was a relatively poor minor noblewoman. It destroyed her marriage to her elven husband: overwhelming jealousy turned him into an abusive drunk. Yeah, these symbolic marriages are supposed to be non-sexual, and people entering into them are supposed to already have husbands or wives of their own race, but apparently they're often used as a cover for adultery.
I dunno, I really got the feeling that, to paraphrase George Orwell, the elves and humans of Aedyr were equal, but some of them were more equal than others. All the human-elven relationships I got to hear about seemed weighted in favour of humans.
However, in POE 2: Deadfire, I read some lore about a poor human noblewoman in haemneg to a rich elf nobleman, and it didn't seem like she was having a good time of it. Also, I met the warriors of the Steel Garrote [sic], a group of fanatics dedicated to following the orders of the mecwyn no matter what. It made me feel that maybe my earlier impression was mistaken.
The "ae" in Aedyr is pronounced "a" as in 'cat'. "Aedyr" is pronounced "a deer" and means 'people of the deer'.
One of the most commonly-used Vailian words is "ado", which means 'hello'. However, despite my fervent wishes, I've yet to hear any of the NPCs singing, "Ado, Aedyr, a female deer!"
The voice-acting in POE 1 is generally very good, what little there is of it. However, some of the pronunciations are a bit iffy. According to the in-game pronunciation guide, Ixamitl is supposed to be pronounced "Ishamitl", but I've heard it pronounced "Icksamitl" by at least one of the characters in the game.
Also, despite listening to all the voice acting, I've still got no idea how the names of two of the gods are supposed to be pronounced. Maybe 'Skaen' should be pronounced the same as 'scan', but that just seems silly. I've heard it pronounced as 'Skahn' with an elongated 'a', and 'Skine' with an 'i' sound, but neither of those match the digraphs noted in the pronunciation guide. Maybe 'Wael' should be pronounced 'Wal', but I've only ever heard it pronounced 'Wahl' with an elongated 'a' or as 'Wile', which would make sense because Wael is kinda wily, but I dunno. Even after all that, I've got no idea.
One of the most commonly-used Vailian words is "ado", which means 'hello'. However, despite my fervent wishes, I've yet to hear any of the NPCs singing, "Ado, Aedyr, a female deer!"
The voice-acting in POE 1 is generally very good, what little there is of it. However, some of the pronunciations are a bit iffy. According to the in-game pronunciation guide, Ixamitl is supposed to be pronounced "Ishamitl", but I've heard it pronounced "Icksamitl" by at least one of the characters in the game.
Also, despite listening to all the voice acting, I've still got no idea how the names of two of the gods are supposed to be pronounced. Maybe 'Skaen' should be pronounced the same as 'scan', but that just seems silly. I've heard it pronounced as 'Skahn' with an elongated 'a', and 'Skine' with an 'i' sound, but neither of those match the digraphs noted in the pronunciation guide. Maybe 'Wael' should be pronounced 'Wal', but I've only ever heard it pronounced 'Wahl' with an elongated 'a' or as 'Wile', which would make sense because Wael is kinda wily, but I dunno. Even after all that, I've got no idea.
Anyway, moving on, Priests are very much like D&D Clerics, only more fragile. Early on, they're a bit of a liability as they don't have enough spells to last for very long. However, later on, they gain loads of incredibly powerful spells. Their buffs are so useful that I'd go so far as to say that if you go into combat without a priest, you're handicapping yourself. (Priests in POE 2: Deadfire are so powerful that, before a recent patch, a level 20 Priest could defeat the final boss with a single empowered spell.)
- One of the NPC companions who can join the group early on is a Priest, but… well, he's a bit of a controversial figure, shall we say?
Priests draw their power from the gods. All of the gods in Pillars of Eternity have their own priests, but the player character can only serve one of these five gods: Eothas (god of light and rebirth, most benevolent of all the gods), Berath (god of death), Magran (goddess of flames and war), Wael (god of knowledge and mysteries), and Skaen (god of violent rebellion).
Rangers are dedicated ranged combatants with animal companions who aid them in battle. Very similar to the D&D class.
Rogues are sneaky fellows who take advantage of status ailments to do extra damage to an enemy. Again, similar to the D&D class.
Wizards are Vancian casters who rely heavily on their grimoires as tools for casting spells. One interesting quirk of POE 1 is that, while a wizard only gets a certain number of spells per day, they can swap grimoires to gain access to a different range of spells, so long as they haven't already used all of their spells for that day. This makes wizards very versatile, if you've got a few spare spellbooks lying around. (Or, if you're like me, you fill a single spellbook with some of your favourites and never bother swapping them out.)
So, after all that… what class should I be, folks?
[] Barbarian
[] Chanter
[] Cipher
[] Druid
[] Fighter
[] Monk
[] Paladin
[] Priest
[] Ranger
[] Rogue
[] Wizard
I'll let you guys decide what sex, race, and class my character's gonna be, but after that I'm choosing the specifics.
Last edited:
