Pillars of Eternity 1, Part 23: Otter 841, Sanitarium, Heritage Hill, Endless Paths Floor 13

We clear the Sanitarium and climb Heritage Hill. But that's not important. What is important is that I want your Otter 841 fan art. I need it. Please, send it to me. Give me your Otter 841 fan art.

Right, anyway. About Pillars 1. Sanitarium and Heritage Hill are fine. Good quests. But, the absolutely atrocious AI and combat system is really starting to show itself here and with Cragholdt. You can see against things below us, we can just attack all. It doesn't even matter the AI doesn't use all our Per Encounter abilities, or even acknowledge cross-class ones.

But, the moment we *need* the game to actually use our skills, it is utterly incapable of doing so. It can't manage even knowing it is already in range to cast spells, instead wasting 5-10 seconds getting in to position to cast things we were already in range for. Melee characters will sometimes walk out of engagement only to go back into the same one. Combine this with oppressive, continual CC -- CC you can't save to negate, just save to reduce -- and you have a frustrating combat system that feels unrewarding both when facing a challenge or trash mobs.

I want to like Pillars, I really do. But engaging with combat is a huge demotivator. Hopefully I can keep up the energy for the rest of the game. Share your Otter 841 pictures to help motivate me.

00:00 Otter 841
01:30 Sanitarium Quest
08:45 Nothing Ever Goes Right
24:50 Return to Caed Nua
31:30 Heritage Hill Quest
01:01:15 World Tour
01:05:30 Endless Paths 13
01:10:29 Failure