Check Enemy Stats out of Combat?

[PyroMancer]

As the title says, I've been trying to figure out how to do this and quite frankly it's annoying having to save scum to deal with this simple issue.

Strategic combat is fun, but in order to be strategic you have to know how things work. Obviously I'm new to the game and I went into my first fight against an enemy that was immune to my damage type. Well since all my members primarily did piercing damage I was screwed. Had to reload and swap out gear before the fight and go again.

I know some people are going to say you need to "learn the game" but that's no excuse for bad UI. The second I enter combat I can mouse over the enemy and see their defenses and attack stats. Since the information is easily available there should be a way to view this out of combat so your characters can make a strategic plan on what to equip for the battle.

The learning isn't an excuse because not everyone has a great memory and can recall every monster they have ever encountered. Plus this method mainly rewards experienced players who have good memories for stats. The rest have to start combat, take a look at their defs, load and re-equip as necessary.

It would be one thing if stats were revealed as your characters learned them during the course of the game, but even then you should be able to see them going in.

Being new hopefully I simply overlooked this option.

[Isokon]

Journal (J) > Cyclopedia > Bestiary

You may not get all stats for a specific creature unless you have killed a couple, but their defensive stats are usually the first to be revealed.

[Fendelphi]

Well, you learned a few lessons here. First being always bring different damage types. It is a stable in most RPGs, so will help you in other games too. ;)

Also, as far as I remember, on harder difficulties(Expert mode?) you cant even see their strengths and weaknesses in combat, so maybe the in-combat info is as much help as was intended. In many RPGs you dont even get to see enemy strengths and weaknesses at all, but will have to find out by attacking them and then form your own conclusions.

Outside of that, it is up to you to set up a party that is flexible enough to deal with most encounters. You dont have to memorize every enemy type, just make sure you have different tools available(this includes bringing and using spell scrolls that can provide you with other damage types/effects).

So I would say that it has little to do with wanting people to memorize the game. Just play the game as if it had no save option, so that you force yourself to consider all possibilites. Ofc, you can still save(the F5 quick save is great) to test things out if you are still unsure, but the more you play it as if it had no save function, the better prepared you usually are.

[PyroMancer]

Originally posted by Fendelphi:

Well, you learned a few lessons here. First being always bring different damage types. It is a stable in most RPGs, so will help you in other games too. ;)

Yeah I already know that. As I mentioned I just had to re-equip my characters because I had other damage types available. I always come prepared with a variety of tools, my issue is not having the information to know what tools to pick. I handled it quite nicely after retooling the party, the point was had I been able to check the stats before hand I wouldn't have needed to save/reload.

Originally posted by Fendelphi:

Outside of that, it is up to you to set up a party that is flexible enough to deal with most encounters.

As with all RPGs flexibility is something that increases with level. Starting out your options are very limited which makes it all the more important to get as much info as you can.

Originally posted by Fendelphi:

Also, as far as I remember, on harder difficulties(Expert mode?) you cant even see their strengths and weaknesses in combat, so maybe the in-combat info is as much help as was intended. In many RPGs you dont even get to see enemy strengths and weaknesses at all, but will have to find out by attacking them and then form your own conclusions.

I never really understood this mindset of hide the enemy info. The mechanics of RPGs are about strategy and tactics, not knowing what the enemy can do is like playing a game of chess where your not told how the pieces can move and learn by seeing what happens as other players move.

After all in RPGs your characters should know something about the beast that inhabit the world, just like most people in our world know the weaknesses of werewolves, vampires, zombies, and etc even though they are not real. Similar stories about such creatures and how the hero vanquishes them would be common in the RPG world.

In PnP games you have a DM who is suppose to give you feedback on combat. But some of the worst DMs I've had would actually laugh after a session about how stupid we were being using curtain damage types on monsters that were immune to them even though his combat would go along the lines of... DM, "Ok you hit roll damage." Player, "I rolled 26." DM, "Ok, Next player." basically no indication it was doing nothing. Where as at least in PoE it shows your not doing any damage.

But even so since damage is a random dice roll it's hard to tell if your just getting unlucky or if they have high resistances without some form of info on enemy stats. And I haven't played harder Diff as I'm new but I again I think the information should be readily available as hiding the info as higher Diff only means you punish players who a poorer memory as they now have to jump through more hoops to get the same information. Difficulty in RPGs is about Strategy and Tactics, not memorization. Which is why I feel as much info should be as easily accessible as possible, I like how D:OS handles it as you can view complete status on things at any time to see resistances of enemies and plan accordingly.

[Fendelphi]

Which is why I am saying that having that kind of setup from the start is the desired result. Playing as if there was no save means that you always equip yourself to have a mix of damage types, so that you dont have to reload if it turns out an encounter involves immunities(that is one of the reasons why you have an extra weapon slot from the start after all).
Certain weapons have 2 damage types listed and these are excellent for dealing with most immunities, because they will always use the most efficient damage type for the damage roll.

In many games you dont know how your opponents are going to move or behave, their skill sets etc.
In chess, you might know how all the pieces move(it is, after all, a game with relative simple rules compared to a full RPG), but you dont know how your opponent intent to move them and their habits until you actually play against them or see them play against others.

As for weaknesses of our pop-culture Vampires and the like, that varies greatly on the author/culture, so I wouldnt use that as an example. Too many exceptions.


In DnD(PnP), you barely get to know anything, outside of the basic visuals of the enemy you are facing, unless you can pass a skill check(like nature, history, arcana, religion, or what is appropriate) and even then you only get to know the nature/type of the creature and what it's traits are, not it's exact abilities, how much health it has, it's to hit modifier or how many attacks it does.
If your DM is not telling you or hinting at that your attacks are ineffective, they are bad at DM. However, you wouldnt know if your attack was bad until you actually engage that enemy(again, unless you did a skill check before hand and found out any particular strengths or weaknesses it might have).

In games like Dark Souls you only get to see a health bar.

In X-com(a very tactical game) you can see enemy health, armor(if any) and your chance to hit them. That is about it.
Ofc, you rarely have a choice about engaging them, but HOW you want to engage can vary based on the skills/abilities of the enemy, which you will only learn by engaging them.

In many Jrpgs, you see enemy health and MP and your chance to hit them. Not skills, immunities, special abilities or other triggers.

In Elder scrolls games, you only see enemy health.

And I could keep going. The only game I have played where I get almost all the info on my opponents before engaging is D:OS1+2. And that is only if I have a high enough rank of Loremaster. It just makes for a different experience, that is all.


As for the damage rolls in this game, they dont vary that much(compared to something like DnD). What is important is penetration.
For each point of penetration that you have lower than your opponent's corresponding armor type, you deal 25% less damage, down to a cap of -75%. If you have higher penetration than your opponent's armor(I believe it is 3 higher), you deal 30% more.
You can guestimate how much armor an opponent has by looking at them(before combat) and see what type of armor they are wearing. If it looks heavy, they will generally have a high armor value, although usually 1 of the physical and 1 of the non-physical armor types will be lower, and sometimes 1 will be higher than the average as well.
Same can be done concerning Fortitude, Reflex and Will. Frontline warriors will have high Fortitude, archers will have high Reflex and wizards have high Will.
For Deflection, enemies with shields will generally have a higher Deflection.

Outside of that, typical game logic applies in most cases. Creatures made of fire are immune to fire. Skeletons have high armor against piercing or even immunity, etc..

So you want your spell casters to have different types of spells, like different damage types, as well as spells that target different things(Fortitude, Reflex, Will), or you might end up with a caster that can do very little.
Luckily you can have multiple spellbooks in your quick slots(either bought from a shop or taken from fallen wizards) which contains 2 spells of each tier. So it is relatively simple for wizards to switch to a different strategy.
It is a bit harder for the other spell casters like Priest and Druid though, so here you should be more aware of these parameters.


All in all, I feel I get all the info I need. Again, if in doubt about an upcoming engagement, press F5, engage, and if it turns out bad, hit F8.

All this being said, I wouldnt get mad if they added the option of seeing enemy stats before a fight. I just personally dont think it would change much. There might even be mods out there that does this for you, if you want it.

[👌m8]

Just let your tank dive in the middle of the mob.