Is Fortune's Fool (Deluxe Edition background) OP?

[Jamers]

I'm watching a video review of the game and the reviewer clicked over to the Fortune's Fool background choice during character creation, which it notes is included as a Deluxe Edition choice.

It gives +50% Loot at the end of battle. Another Deluxe background is Savant, which grants +10% XP after battle.

Generally I'm all about taking perks like this early in an RPG, but the +50% Loot seems a bit overtuned. Then again I haven't played the game yet so don't have experience with the economy, so I don't know how much of a difference this would make.

Thoughts from those who have played?

[Mieumieu]

If you click on that perk to get the details of it, it says this: "This attribute provides a percentage bonus increase of the amount of gold you find by looting corpses after combat."

It's specifically gold only, and only gold found after combat. So no, it's not really overpowered.

[khamsun]

Maybe at the very beginning it can make a difference, but overall I felt battle loot is negligible, hardly starved for resources.

[MilesMk1]

No, they're probably the worst backgrounds you could take.

Money is not really a factor. I ended the game with something like 15-20K gold despite buying a fair amount of stuff and several of the really expensive items from the deluxe edition vendor.

I also hit the level cap of 20 with 6 characters quite easily even though I was deliberately avoiding random encounters during the later stages of the game because they were tougher than some of the story fights and way too frequent.

Your best bet is to take whatever background gives you skill bonuses you want. Diplomacy, Lore and Awareness are best for the main character, since you don't get any companions that are really good at those, or at least not for a long time.

[NzFox]

as far as I can tell Fools fortune is completely useless. It increases the amount of gold you loot from bodies at the end of combat so even if you ignore the fact you steal most of the costly items, the vast majority of the gold you make is made off selling loot so not effected.
The xp one is a little better as it buffs all xp gained, including group xp events so it sometimes effects the other party members, but as others said xp is not a major issue in the game, if nothing else you can farm random fights.

Honestly the movement one is a lot better than those two imo, as that extra moment is useful for charging or moving for a backstab, but its far from a 'must take'

[etalian]

Yeah the +1 movement "scout" is the best one of the batch since it's something you can use in every fight.

[Jamers]

Originally posted by NzFox:

so even if you ignore the fact you steal most of the costly items, the vast majority of the gold you make is made off selling loot so not effected.

Thanks!

Regarding stealing, I've read elsewhere that you can steal all the high value stuff. Question though: does this come down to save scumming?

Attempt steal, fail, reload until success, else previously friendly NPCs are attacking you and you're screwing up your reputation and whatnot?

I have no interest in save scumming if that's the case as I don't see the point to even playing if you're guaranteeing yourself success.

I used to play the original Fallout games like this back in 1997 and 98 and now I just see it as a huge waste.

If the game is better than that about how it handles thievery, what are the penalties for failing?

[MagiKarp]

Originally posted by Jamers:

Originally posted by NzFox:

so even if you ignore the fact you steal most of the costly items, the vast majority of the gold you make is made off selling loot so not effected.

Thanks!

Regarding stealing, I've read elsewhere that you can steal all the high value stuff. Question though: does this come down to save scumming?

Attempt steal, fail, reload until success, else previously friendly NPCs are attacking you and you're screwing up your reputation and whatnot?

I have no interest in save scumming if that's the case as I don't see the point to even playing if you're guaranteeing yourself success.

I used to play the original Fallout games like this back in 1997 and 98 and now I just see it as a huge waste.

If the game is better than that about how it handles thievery, what are the penalties for failing?

If you fail to steal the NPC won't trade with you anymore. When you succeed it increases the vendor's suspicion which makes your next attempt at stealing from that NPC harder by increasing the DC, the value of the item seems to determine how high the base DC is.

If you have a character with high thievery skill and gear to increase it even further you can pretty much guarantee success the first few times you steal from a vendor.

[Rufert]

Also higher suspicion means worse buy/sell prices

[Caaaameron]

I took Savant for my first run and hit Level 20 at The Tower of Ash. I still had one whole island to explore. So I did not need it.

+1 that the extra movement background would be the best option. Or one of the others that promotes roleplay and lets you play the PC that you see in your mind's eye.

Its a 2D6 (2-12) + X modifier game; by the mid-late game you will have +10 ish Dodge and to hit bonuses at least, which are weighted much more than in an equivalent d20 system.

So small bonuses at the start are actually really beneficial.

By the the second island, Roland simply could not fail an Athletics roll, Kat a Thievery, Idren a Survival nor Embla a Lore roll. At all, ever.