alhoon

Hello. Agents are considered the most difficult class and they need special playstyle. I don't play agents but others will tell you. What I wanted to contribute here is: What difficulty do you play at? Have you tried to recruit NPCs to join your party?

I think that could work because the Barzites in their first quests target the Awakened. I am not sure.

Wait, will I lose my 1 dot in of create thahd?

So, what kind of non-D&D crossovers would you imagine?

There's ... a book of Shaping thahds in the rooms of Keeper Thossila, who is a common. She also mentions spells to heal serviles (I don't see any such book and I would like more healing) and healing falls under Shaping although perhaps Shapers don't consider it so. What happened?

Could we use this thread for a bunch of mini-mods? Like the one someone made as a trainer or one I use to make Fyoras look smaller to be closer to what they are in the art and not as big as you?

A possible change I noticed was with Shanti and Sharon. Shanti apparently told Sharon ... good things about me. That is peculiar, considering I have been saying pro-Servile things day in and day out. Perhaps I have not said enough by the time I reached Sharon. Or there is no different choice. Regardless, Shanti seems more likeable in this version, tough but not obnoxious and more involved in your training. Or it could be that I know what happens to her but I think not; I think she is written as more likeable to make a bigger impact.

I don't know the Order of the Guardians and the Dawnslayers bring only a vague familiarity with the name, but the Keepers of the Feather would probably give the Shaper a wide berth and even spy to see that he is not going to fall under Strahd's thrall or he isn't going to be a know-it-all butthole that looks down on non-shapers and oppresses his Creations. And unless the Shaper is a rebel, they will be disappointed. I do not think they would move against the Shaper though just for this. Now, if the Shaper you are talking about is a Drakon Lifecrafter... that is a very very different discussion. Ravenloft is a land of prejudices.

Magic skill also increased their cone attack damage too.

They could have at least picked a better name! Loyalists. Faithful. Believers. Traditionals. See? I found four. Was it so hard?

What was that idea? Also, hardcoded exit? At least, she could be in the town so you could talk to her. Say "hi", chat a bit, invite her back to your apartments for some wine when Shanti is not there...

Both of you talked about the differences between optimal and viable. I think that for normal difficulty, even veteran difficulty, it is viable to have more than one Shaping type. Not the best, but viable. For all it's worth, I want my late-level party to have a combo of: Drayks, Gazers, a single rotdhizon + a Vlish for blessings and/or Drakon there just to have a drakon. My early-mid party I envision Fyoras/cryoas, a clawbug and vlish. Or a Drayk if I can get them early.

With 10 battle Shaping and 2-3 in the other shaping trees ... could you even control 7 fully leveled Roths? One of my Fyoras went rogue in the mines (the attack-them kind) and I have "weak" control.

I would expect not. While they do healing their services are not for free and I am not sure that Shapers do regrow limbs for people. A lifecrafter that was skilled enough probably. If Ezmeralda could pay - or the Shaper needed her services and goodwill and the shaper had the necessary skill perhaps. But I am not sure new-version Ezmeralda would even want to be indebted to a strange mage she doesn't know for him to use on her powers she doesn't understand in order to regrow her leg.

I would say that depends heavily on the Shaper, but I would assume Ezmeralda would be more understanding while VRichten would be more cautious.

At level 16, that would be 150 skill points to play with, leaving 90 for shaping and essence mastery. With essence mastery starting at 4 +8 from any source, you get according to that formula: 4 + (12+1) x 18 = 238 essence. Which is already a ton, at the expense of at least 2 levels of shaping. It seems from your very useful break up above that 200 or so essence would get a bunch of drayks and rots with key upgrades, with plenty of essence leftover for spells or to boost them with more levels etc. Thus 200 essence is a nice target for say... level 18? The equation becomes 4+(EM+1)x(18+2) = 200 => (EM+1) = 196/ 20 => EM=9. With Essence Mastery 9 from any source, you would have 204 Essence by level 18. So the question now becomes: When you say "three are reasonable by endgame even without killing faction leaders", is it reasonable to expect at least +2 by level 18? If yes, then Essence mastery above 7 is a waste for a Shaper.

Honestly, I would think: Magic for Guardian (For the buffs) and Battle for the Agent (For tanking/melee/meat-shielding)

I have found that I am very fond of Zora the Scout, which is a very useful (but not very brave) scout with a battle roar. Her dialogue and picture are all good too. I like her very much and I wish she had more dialogue which can be arranged for future games. I really want to see what Zora does after GF2 and I think her being sent to the Ashen Islands for being involved in Drypeaks is a reasonable outcome. Furthermore, Zora is awesome to have in your party early game. Here are some wise words about Zora the Scout:

Ehh... guys, I am at level 4 and I have bought a bit of essence mastery and a bit of Fire Shaping. I kinda feel that the one thing both of you agree is that I should not have done that. I will probably soon be level 5 and ... You know what? I will buy leadership and mechanics. I have 4 essence left and all the rest tied by my 3 Fyoras. I have them with the haste and cone breath and fast recharge (which seems a waste to be honest as so far nothing survives three breaths). But after level 5, should I focus on Shaping Mastery instead? Even in GF5, I had to reach like level 40 before I could field 7 top-tiers. I plan to have some decent blessing, a bit of battle magic and mind magic and decent healing by end game. It may be suboptimal but it's what I want to do. I doubt I will get battle magic 5, but some battle magic to get a few decent attack spells is something I will buy.

Thank you for this. Now, would it be too hard for you to do an educated guess, I am not asking for an extensive analysis, for "early game" (say up to level 7-8), "Mid game" (levels 8 to say 13-14, having picked a faction and explored quite a lot of the map) optimal creations? The synopsis above, with 8 levels in Shaping seem like early-high level - as you assumed 8 levels in the required shaping class and all sources to boost the creations. A shaper could get 9-10 to compensate a cannister or training lost by those levels. Early level one hasn't have access to many creation types and getting that tier 3 instead of this tier 3 can make a difference. I would also like to know if you are in the camp of "spend a lot on essence mastery to get more creations" or the "spend more on shaping mastery for tougher creations." I would also know where the various people you recruit fall in that analysis, if possible; what I mean is that early game, Nora the scout is an exceptional battle-creation replacement with her high hp (for level 4) and her roar to boost the others.

What? Raising is the Barzites right? Back in the previous game, they had a cannister mad lass that was seeing shadows and ghosts.

From what I can see, she is holding the hilt of a slightly curved sword, face-down. If the game had AI-gen graphics, it would be mentioned on Steam and it isn't. Honestly, I don't see the weird angle and I find it reasonable for a scout to have lots of belts. What I can say with certainty that it is bizarre and it was as bizarre in the original, is the map where you have rivers merging in a lake... and no outflow. Where does the excess water go? That lake is not an ocean; unless those rivers only flow for a couple of months the water that comes in is nowhere close to what would be evaporated.

Someone asked before, I think. Not sure where. Is their level capped at the moment you hire them, or is it set? I.e. if I get Zora (who also has a very beautiful art) at later levels, is she higher level? I do not want to check the script files for spoilers. Her roar is great, her hp and damage combo make her better in fighting than a Thahd I could make.

Was that like that in the original? I remember the Awakened ignoring Drypeak, but I think the Takers wanted Lying Zakary the Deceiver dead. Or it could have been me. Not sure. I will kill him. Perhaps I will do it before the end game, but I will kill him. I am not leaving the valley with that guy alive. Yes, I know the Shapers also kill him. But I want my cold eyes to be the last thing Lying Zakary the Deceiver sees as he departs this world. The other guy I will certainly kill is the guy that will kill Shanti. I will play along with Barzhal's little games till I can kill that guy.

Prip the Servant mind in the mines and the Pylons. Apparently, I think I could turn on the Pylons; I confused Prip. But I do not want the mines to work! I want the Awakened to crush the Shapers like bugs and the Servants* along with them (which is what a Taker would say not an Awakened, I see that, I see that...). But "story-wise" my character is not anti-Shaper yet. So, going out of my way to NOT fix a glaring problem when my character is not aware there is an entire populated valley Is it possible to fix and then sabotage the mine? Is the reward worthy enough for me to do it? Reputation is a kind of reward for me. *As long as I am not the one killing the Serviles that look at you with big eyes and ask you to save them, like the Servants in the mines. Obviously I saved those. The Drakons can kill them or convert them later.