You have something you want to ask him, one question above all others, spinning madly in your mind...

There's something about tales of exploring one's own past life and/or unraveling secrets of ancient empires that reaches out to my soul on a primal level. There are very few stories that scratch that itch for me. Pillars of Eternity did.

It is a story both personal and down-to-earth... and grand beyond the scope of mortals,

You are here because you are lost. May you fare better in your next lives.

https://eo.steamhost.cc/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3142361272
As far as cRPGs go, I am neither that good at them, usually opting to play on story difficulty for, you guessed it, the story, nor have I played that many. But what I've seen of Pillars of Eternity, I enjoyed - including, and maybe most of all, the challenge of combat.

I played a priest because after finishing BG3, I realised that clerics are kinda OP in these magical worlds. As a priest, you unlock a TON of spells on level up that can provide great damage, great buffs, and healing. Like in D&D, you have a certain amount of spell slots per level per rest, and need to rest to replenish your spells. Some spells are per encounter - so if you want, you can save up and go longer without camping, since you can only carry a limited amount of supplies (6 on easy, 4 on normal, 2 on hard, unlimited on story mode). When you run out of supplies your options are to return to an inn or to your keep - to buy more supplies and to rest (resting in inns and in keep with upgrades gives certain bonuses that persist through camping).

You will need to camp when your health drops low - which is also an interesting system in PoE I. You have 2 meters - Endurance and Health. When your endurance drops low, your character becomes knocked out, but they can still get up after combat or after a "res" ability is used. But if your health runs out, that character dies. Period. Endurance replenishes between encounters, but health does not, so to replenish it you must rest (that's the main way to replenish it).

My favorite memory from playing this game comes from the very start of it, when you first obtain your keep. I went to explore the dungeons under my keep and on one level, not too far in, I found a hole going deep underground. Of course, I did what any reasonable person in my place would do - and I jumped in it.

Only to come face to face with a DRAGON!!!! drake. There's only 5 in my party, all level 3 or 4 - and I don't have that much in the damage skills department. I don't know where I am and there's no way back - only through. Hours it took me to kill that drake and the adds that would stunlock my party. For the first time, I had to use every buff, every spell slot, every food item, craft potions, craft scrolls, and strategically position my party to outdps the enemy before they would outdps me.

And what an experience it made.

And Pillars of Eternity is full of such memories.

Mainly because the difficulty modes are... strangely balanced. Personally, I can't find rhyme or reason to them, but I can't deny that it might also be a skill issue. Throughout my campaign, I was ping-ponging around between easy, normal, and hard difficulties, trying to adjust my experience when the game became too easy... or too hard.

Say, for example, you're starting on easy. In the first village, in the main square, where you meet one of your first companions, there is a stairway leading down underground. No one tells you to go there, but I mean, it's right there. So you go down, accept a quest... and the mobs there aren't exactly what you'd expect from an easy difficulty - they will easily steamroll you if you aren't careful, and you need to rest after every pull.

Not sure how you would tell that you aren't supposed to go there straight away if the difficulty spike relates to you being underlevelled (since it's the beginning of the game), but yeah. It adds its own level of challenge (that I, personally, didn't dislike).

One time the game kindly asked me if I wanted to increase the difficulty of encounters (outside of the normal difficulty options) since i'm overlevelled for the next zone - and playing on hard at this point, I agreed. How could I have known that the next moment it would spawn 10 spell-casting, club-bonking ogres on me and decimate my party? Moreover, that every trash pull in that location will be similar? I couldn't have. And I didn't save. I had to put the game back on normal for future locations and sneak through the Elmshore with utmost caution.

Also an adventure.

What of your cohorts then? They have followed you to their deaths.

The real main story is the friends we made along the way. There are 8 companions in Pillars of Eternity (and 3 more in the DLC). 3 of them will go on to join the cast of the second game. Pillars of Eternity I, unlike its successor, doesn't feature romance - but in my opinion, it only serves it for the better here. (Although, a couple years ago, I would say it's a major negative point - I'd take Alistairs and roses all day any day, thank you.)

All of the companions have their own story that needs resolution. I have to be fair, I am not exactly certain what happens if you don't resolve them. I mostly travelled with Eder, Aloth, Durance, Kana and Hiravias/Pallegina, and I think i got a well-rounded and loyal adventuring party. That they don't have any reputation systems only makes it better because you don't have to worry about squabbles.

Some companions have a reputation for being somewhat annoying, but I personally can't see why. I didn't have any trouble with Durance, and the only character I didn't bother resolving the quest of was Grieving Mother (because she's a cipher, she appears kind of late in the game, and I already had a full party anyway).

Your memory shall be your penance.

I imported my save into Pillars of Eternity: Deadfire and so far, I... am not really liking it. For one aspect it improved over the original game, it took two steps back in another. The RTwP combat feels sluggish, the per rest mechanics are gone, you don't get your full array of spells as a priest, and what you do have you can only cast a few times per encounter because... priest charges???? what are those???

Pillars of Eternity is just something... One of a kind for me. On the one hand, it makes me sad that its sequel is different. On the other, it makes me appreciate it on its own even more.

If it wasn't obvious, hard recommend.