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beccaelizabethPlayed a lot of hours that feel like not many places. Levelled up a couple times, finished quest lines for Graybor and Finnean, did more Dragon stuff... dragon makes things considerably easier, my stats are ridiculous and you get three feats that don't care about prerequisites so I mixed a little human and elf into my half elf.
... my build was never optimised this play through, I built for intelligence without going arcane with a half elf Master of All and decided to mean it, and at level 20 I have skill focus in literally everything, 20 ranks in almost everything, and 10 each in mobility and athletics. Since losing the Azata All Skilled I still don't have the proficiencies to use the weapon I have been using but it hasn't made me put it down yet. So I use Intelligence to hit things too. My Rogue hits things a lot and does so much ability damage. It's funny turning a sneak attack precision damage build into a gigantic dragon. I suppose your claws can also be very precise, but the ability to sneak around stealthily like that is hilarious. Even as a humanoid you are getting so big tall and glowy now, sneaking seems like you'd have to rearrange the universe to do it.
The big set piece we did was Iz.
The main thing that gave us trouble there was the weather. Rains of blood and lightning get in the way a bit. But we stomped around the map wiping things out very handily.
We got all buffed for the Big Fight, summoned All The Things, got the midnight bolt to the archer and saved the game...
and then Daeran Arendae one shot a Demon Lord.
His powerless prophecy makes him go before most people, though I got to do a dragon breath first.
I reckon now I've slept that I should therefore have given him a midnight bolt for his crossbow.
But we did not do that.
Daeran looked at a Demon Lord and thought
well why not Dismissal?
So Daeran Arendae one shot a Demon Lord with a fourth level spell.
Now I feel that if Owlcat had implemented Dismissal like it says in the book then this wouod not have been the dramatic cut scene triggering paradigm shift moment that we got. He'd send the demon lord back home and annoy him a bit, right? Except our banner is flying over Iz, and the banner makes terribad nasty squish noise things happen to demons who teleport. So the banner puts up a blessed barrier of some kind. So the power of the spell was working with that.
Daeran swatted a Demon Lord against the banner like a bug on a windscreen.
I am, as you may infer, very pleased.
Of course technically that means there's something that fight never did that is needed for some versions of the ending, but that just means I'm not doing that ending this time.
One fourth level spell. One demon lord. Splat.
I am less pleased with being a dragon so far. It's got game mechanical advantages all over, but I am beginning to feel that I am not, in myself, a dragon. I am not looking at the me character and thinking yaay a dragon, I am thinking involuntary bodily transformation with scales and claws and feeling squiggly about it.
If I hadn't played this many hours as the character and instead think of them as an outside me play piece like Lann or Graybor then this would not be a problem.
But as it is it feels weird and a bit bad.
Which I did not know before, so, am learn.
Other than that is still a fun game.
Crusade has cleared the map, the fortress is built outside Threshold, and the only thing stopping me going for Threshold today is finishing the myth path and the assortes DLC. And Nenio, Seelah and Daeran's quest lines. Those take a lot of doing.
Think I should probably stick to alternating days of play though, I can do a lot of hours in a row this way.
... my build was never optimised this play through, I built for intelligence without going arcane with a half elf Master of All and decided to mean it, and at level 20 I have skill focus in literally everything, 20 ranks in almost everything, and 10 each in mobility and athletics. Since losing the Azata All Skilled I still don't have the proficiencies to use the weapon I have been using but it hasn't made me put it down yet. So I use Intelligence to hit things too. My Rogue hits things a lot and does so much ability damage. It's funny turning a sneak attack precision damage build into a gigantic dragon. I suppose your claws can also be very precise, but the ability to sneak around stealthily like that is hilarious. Even as a humanoid you are getting so big tall and glowy now, sneaking seems like you'd have to rearrange the universe to do it.
The big set piece we did was Iz.
The main thing that gave us trouble there was the weather. Rains of blood and lightning get in the way a bit. But we stomped around the map wiping things out very handily.
We got all buffed for the Big Fight, summoned All The Things, got the midnight bolt to the archer and saved the game...
and then Daeran Arendae one shot a Demon Lord.
His powerless prophecy makes him go before most people, though I got to do a dragon breath first.
I reckon now I've slept that I should therefore have given him a midnight bolt for his crossbow.
But we did not do that.
Daeran looked at a Demon Lord and thought
well why not Dismissal?
So Daeran Arendae one shot a Demon Lord with a fourth level spell.
Now I feel that if Owlcat had implemented Dismissal like it says in the book then this wouod not have been the dramatic cut scene triggering paradigm shift moment that we got. He'd send the demon lord back home and annoy him a bit, right? Except our banner is flying over Iz, and the banner makes terribad nasty squish noise things happen to demons who teleport. So the banner puts up a blessed barrier of some kind. So the power of the spell was working with that.
Daeran swatted a Demon Lord against the banner like a bug on a windscreen.
I am, as you may infer, very pleased.
Of course technically that means there's something that fight never did that is needed for some versions of the ending, but that just means I'm not doing that ending this time.
One fourth level spell. One demon lord. Splat.
I am less pleased with being a dragon so far. It's got game mechanical advantages all over, but I am beginning to feel that I am not, in myself, a dragon. I am not looking at the me character and thinking yaay a dragon, I am thinking involuntary bodily transformation with scales and claws and feeling squiggly about it.
If I hadn't played this many hours as the character and instead think of them as an outside me play piece like Lann or Graybor then this would not be a problem.
But as it is it feels weird and a bit bad.
Which I did not know before, so, am learn.
Other than that is still a fun game.
Crusade has cleared the map, the fortress is built outside Threshold, and the only thing stopping me going for Threshold today is finishing the myth path and the assortes DLC. And Nenio, Seelah and Daeran's quest lines. Those take a lot of doing.
Think I should probably stick to alternating days of play though, I can do a lot of hours in a row this way.