Casting and turn based combat

[bclund]

I bought the game on recent sale and so far I really like the setting and quests.

My character is a wizard and I chose turn based combat, because I usually prefer that.

So far my character is pretty useless in combat. Casting spells take a long time and is often not cast at all. I checked for mods and only found one that reduces some casting time. Is there a mod that makes all casting instant? I would prefer that a lot over the current system. Thanks.

[psychotron666]

Improve your dexterity, wear light armour or no armour to increase casting times.

Wizards imo are the best class, even in turn based mode. Without casting time, there would be no point to not having an entire party of wizards, as they would just be way too good.

You can also cast free action spells (buffs) instantly and as many as you want in a turn. You can use every buff spell on the same turn, and then still cast a spell. Already op as it is, no need to be even more op.

[bclund]

I have gotten a little better at planning the spell casting, but it still does not work well. I wish I knew dexterity helped when creating my character. The game heavily recommended might and intellect, not dexterity.

I read somewhere that you can retarget your spells if the enemy moves, but I cannot figure out how to do it. If I can do that then that would help a lot. How does retargeting work?

[psychotron666]

Originally posted by bclund:

I have gotten a little better at planning the spell casting, but it still does not work well. I wish I knew dexterity helped when creating my character. The game heavily recommended might and intellect, not dexterity.

I read somewhere that you can retarget your spells if the enemy moves, but I cannot figure out how to do it. If I can do that then that would help a lot. How does retargeting work?

You can't retarget in turn based mode, only in real time mode unfortunately. It was to make dex better, because in real time mode Dex is the best attribute, while in turn based dex is downgraded a bit and perception is the best attribute. Before they removed retargeting, people were just dumping dex and giving their wizards heavy armour.

[bclund]

Originally posted by psychotron666:

You can't retarget in turn based mode, only in real time mode unfortunately. It was to make dex better, because in real time mode Dex is the best attribute, while in turn based dex is downgraded a bit and perception is the best attribute. Before they removed retargeting, people were just dumping dex and giving their wizards heavy armour.

That sucks. I wish I had known all this before starting the game. I just assumed combat was the same as in the first game. I guess I will manage as long as I stay away from AOE spells.

[Matilda Cinematic Universe]

That's just blatantly not true, you can retarget in Turn Based Mode up until the spell is cast. You can't move or anything when it's not your turn, but you can change the target of the spell to any other point or character already in range

[psychotron666]

Originally posted by Versace Versace Versace:

That's just blatantly not true, you can retarget in Turn Based Mode up until the spell is cast. You can't move or anything when it's not your turn, but you can change the target of the spell to any other point or character already in range

No, you can't retarget anymore. That was removed with the latest update (5.0). You used to be able to, cus I used to do it all the time, but it got removed as a feature. If you can still do it then you have an older non updated version.

https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/109592-why-cant-i-retarget-now-in-turn-based-mode/


You can find posts about it all over the place. You may also have grabbed a mod that puts the feature back in.


If this feature wasn't removed, this mod would not exist.

https://www.nexusmods.com/pillarsofeternity2/mods/331/

[katzenkrimis]

Originally posted by bclund:

Casting spells take a long time and is often not cast at all.

You are getting interrupted. You can't allow that to happen with casters.

There are several things you can do, stats you can increase and skills you can get that prevent interruptions.

My two casters rarely get interrupted. It was one of the main things that I made sure of when building the characters because I remembered how important that feature was in the first game. It was so important that even years later I never forgot.

It can literally cost you the fight if you don't build casters properly.

[Matilda Cinematic Universe]

Well, it turns out the beta branch on Steam is actually not on the 5.0 update despite me thinking that a beta branch would only ever be at par with or ahead of the public build. So you're absolutely right. I was thinking you were crazy when I played last night and could easily retarget.

But I will say I'm level 20, post-DLC in my game and I don't think I'm going to update before I finish. Retargeting spells is just too necessary as a wizard in Turn Based. I think the beta build still has most of the bug fixes as well.

I guess that explains why the turn based option is still called a beta in my game, despite me knowing that it released.

[psychotron666]

Originally posted by katzenkrimis:

Originally posted by bclund:

Casting spells take a long time and is often not cast at all.

You are getting interrupted. You can't allow that to happen with casters.

There are several things you can do, stats you can increase and skills you can get that prevent interruptions.

My two casters rarely get interrupted. It was one of the main things that I made sure of when building the characters because I remembered how important that feature was in the first game. It was so important that even years later I never forgot.

It can literally cost you the fight if you don't build casters properly.

This is a good point. Another reason why removing casting times is a big time cheat, this entire game revolves around the interrupt system, which wouldn't exist if spells were all instant.

Make sure to keep up spells like spell shield that give you concentration. The more concentrations you have stacked, the more interrupt attacks they need to hit you with to interrupt you.

[Matilda Cinematic Universe]

Originally posted by katzenkrimis:

Originally posted by bclund:

Casting spells take a long time and is often not cast at all.

You are getting interrupted. You can't allow that to happen with casters.

There are several things you can do, stats you can increase and skills you can get that prevent interruptions.

Don't like getting interrupted? Wear this: https://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Rekvu%27s_Fractured_Casque
A wound isn't a big penalty for a caster who should be avoiding most hits anyways.

[bclund]

Is there any way to respec attributes? I really want to switch from high might to high dex. Thanks.

[bclund]

Never mind. I used the console to reduce my might and increase my dex. I think this will make combat less frustrating. Thanks for all the advice in the thread.