Pillars of Eternity: Characters, Companions, and Combat

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The next three articles, including this one, will end Awkward Mixture's 2018 video game reviews (to be followed by an end of year wrap up). The final game of 2018 is one of the best received games of 2015, Pillars of Eternity. Developed by Obsidian Entertainment, Pillars is notable as the first game the company produced under their own initiative. In the past, Obsidian relegated itself to sequels of popular franchises, like Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II, Neverwinter Nights 2, and Fallout: New Vegas, or produced games on commission from other companies, such as South Park: The Stick of Truth. Successful in their previous ventures, Obsidian decided to design their own game.

Unfortunately, working for other companies, even producing acclaimed games, hadn't generated a windfall of cash, so Obsidian turned to Kickstarter, requesting a minimum of 1.1 million dollars to produce Project Eternity. Instead they received 4 million, the largest contribution for any game at the time. With the investment secured, they composed the first game of their phenomenal series, inspired by the classics of Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, and Planescape: Torment.
Pillars of Eternity is a classic isometric RPG, and combines a superb story with a good combat system. Like most classic RPGs, the player designs their character, and Pillars offers no shortage of options. The world of Eora, and more specifically, the region of the Free Palatinate of Dyrwood, includes six races, such as Human, Orlan, or Godlike, each which contain at least two subspecies. Then there are eleven classes to choose from. Unlike the Neverwinter Nights series, Pillars does not allow multi-classing. As someone who isn't concerned about maximizing a character for damage output, and doesn't want to read a dozen guides to create a suitable character on Gamefaqs.com, this is a relief, but it may disappoint some players.

Once the player chooses a race and class, they distribute points into six Attributes. Most RPGs require certain classes to focus on particular Attributes, but Pillars innovates to offer the player more choice in designing their character. In Divinity it would be insane to create a Wizard-like hero with high Dexterity, because the Attribute boosts, “Offense rating with Dexterity based weapons”, which Wizards don't use. In Pillars, any of the 11 classes can utilize Dexterity because it increases attack speed and the chance of dodging attacks. Or consider Strength in Divinity, which boosts “Offensive rating with Strength based weapons”. In Pillars, Might (Strength's corresponding Attribute) increases any Damage or Healing done by the hero. Strength is only for front line fighters, but Might is effective in builds for Wizards, Rogues, Barbarians, Priests, and more. In Pillars, every attribute is potentially valuable to any class, which makes it difficult to say there is a correct build.  It unlocks myriad possibilities. I wanted to play a protagonist skilled in dialogue and solving problems through conversation, so I needed Perception, Intellect, and Resolve. The character creation tutorial didn't recommend any class with a focus on those three skills to the exclusion of others, but Rogue fit best. Instead of dealing massive amounts damage (the most common Rogue build), my protagonist was excellent at interrupting enemies actions, dodging their attacks, resisting spells, and inflicting long lasting damage-over-time to the back lines. In spite of the unusual build, the game was not difficult, on normal difficulty, and was much easier than my normal difficulty game of Divinity.
With the protagonist created, the player ventures forth and meet their Companions. These are the eight characters who join the player and contribute to their adventure. Because there are eight Companions, and eleven classes, the player will have to hire an Adventurer if they want a Barbarian, Monk, or Rogue in the party. Adventurers are allies who fight, but contribute nothing to the story. They are hired at any inn. Also, the player commissions hirelings at their castle. Hirelings are not the same as Companions or Adventurers.  They never leave the castle, but defend it if attacked. The eight Companions come with hours of well written conversations to engage in and banter they exchange as they walk about the map. Each has a personal quest. Their motivations, their personality, their hopes and fears are incredibly detailed. Each companion's quest, in addition to expanding the character, also teaches the player about the world. While most quests are enjoyable, there are one or two duds. The Paladin's was too short, while the conclusion of Aloth's quest was so anti-climatic, I didn't realize I'd finished it until I looked on the wiki for when it ended.  The heroes who join the protagonist in Act I have better quests because they are longer, with multiple steps to its conclusion. Of these heroes, Eder and Sagani's quests were the best, with the proper mix of personality and pathos.

One disappointment I had with the companions was the lack of conflict. While each companion came from a different faction, and held strongly opposing allegiances, they never brawled or demanded the protagonist alter himself to accord with their beliefs. They never threatened to leave, and all eventually acceded to the protagonist's world view. This was unlike the Knights of the Old Republic 1 and 2, where the player can only maintain loyalty with some of their companions, because they are willing to bend, but not forsake their original beliefs. I really believed that the companion Durance would make demands or threaten to leave, but in the end, even the most stubborn companions can be converted to the protagonist's cause. It seemed like the perfect game to infuse with internal conflict, and Obsidian missed this opportunity.
Though every attribute contributes to dialogue, their true relevance is in combat. In most games, combat is built around depleting the health of the enemy until it reaches zero, before they do the same to you. Pillars offers a mild variation on the classic formula. Every character has a total health pool, but also a smaller Endurance pool. When injured, a character loses Endurance and Health, but the health pool is much larger. Losing all of one's endurance in a battle is a minor setback, as long as the battle is won. When a hero loses all their endurance, they are knocked unconscious. When the battle is over, stand up, and their Endurance is refilled from their Health. Anyone knocked unconscious receives a Maim effect. A Maim effect decreases one or more of the heroes Attributes. If a hero loses all their Health they will be Maimed. If a Maimed hero loses all their health they die. Permanently! No resurrection scrolls in Pillars of Eternity. But this is outcome is extremely unlikely because the player can order a rest.

Before we talk about resting, I need to discuss spellcasters. Wizards, Druids, and Priests are limited to a certain amount of spells. In the beginning, the quantity is very limited. A level one wizard can only cast 2 level one spells before depleting their allotment. A level three wizard can only cast 4 level one spells, and 2 level two spells. At some point, (around level 5 or 7) spellcasters begin to have enough spells to use them more often. But in the early levels of Pillars of Eternity, Wizards (I am talking about this class specifically because the 1st or 2nd companion is a Wizard), are both the most powerful class, and the weakest. Any individual spell is incredible, but the few available limit their stamina for extended dungeon adventures.
With a wizard, I found fights much easier than those of Divinity: Original Sin. Combat is easy if one uses spells, but difficult if one doesn't. The trick is to win the fights with just the minimal amount of spells necessary. The reason for conserving spells: because they can only be restored by resting.

Resting is an essential part of Pillars of Eternity. It refills health, removes Maimed effects, and restores spells. Heroes can rest in an inn for a small fee, or at the player's castle for free. A party can also camp. Heroes can camp in any area which doesn't contain an inn, and isn't in a city. Camping costs the party one Camp Supplies. In normal mode, the party can only carry four Camp Supplies at a time. Since the player doesn't want to leave a dungeon and run home every time they deplete their Supplies, they need to ration their use, and therefore ration their spells and health.
Once the player has killed their foes, items litter the ground. There are three classes of items; basic, enchanted, and special (which are very few). Items will never disappear, ever. But the player shouldn't leave them lying around. Heroes can carry an infinite amount, and stores will buy everything with an unlimited budget. The player won't need the cash to buy other weapons though. Most of the companions arrive with one special item, which is so good, I almost never replaced it.  I never bought a weapon. As the characters increase in power, they can add permanent buffs to their own weapons, called enchantments. Different buffs require different crafting resources, plus a particular character level. All items have a maximum amount of enchantments they can hold, but it can be difficult to unlock a few. At 42 hours of play, I was still missing some crafting items which were deep in a unnecessary dungeon called The Endless Paths.

A few final thoughts on combat. Pillars of Eternity allows six heroes in the adventuring party, including the protagonist. Unlike Divinity: Original Sin, where the enemy's level determines the difficulty, Pillars enemies never change. So if one encounters a troll early in the game, and sees another later, it will remains the same. A troll is always a troll, but in Divinity, a level 1 troll and a level 10 troll are incredibly different. Most spells can only be cast in combat, and healing spells are useless outside of it, because they only restore endurance, not health (and endurance is restored naturally outside of combat). Combat is live, not turn based, but the player can pause, to issue commands. It is possible to program the heroes to act, but I micromanaged them. Often when a hero killed an enemy, they would stand around not doing anything, even if heroes were still fighting, so the player needs to keep a close eye on their activity. There is a little indicator above every hero's portrait which indicates their current action, and also indicate inactivity. Unfortunately, the Ranger's pet doesn't have an indicator, so sometimes it was difficult to tell if the animal was attacking or relaxing in the middle of a fight. This is compounded by the fact that it is often difficult to see what is happening when there are ten or so character all bunched together, hacking at each other, while one or two launch fireballs and electric storms into the melee's midst. A final problem with combat is the path-finding. I complained about Divinity being unclear what terrain the heroes would walk on when they moved, but in Pillars, sometimes a hero will be unable to maneuver around a bunch of characters.  It seems as if they run directly toward the location where the player clicked, and if it is blocked by allies or enemies they will become stuck.
Finally, finally, Blights are the most frustrating enemy (immune to common types of damage) and the escape ability, Escape is not nearly as useful as Divinity's Cloak and Dagger. The later allows movement through anything, including walls, while the former seems to be blocked by most solid objects, including living ones.

Next week, the second article, about Pillar of Eternity's world.

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