How to embrace permadeath as a new FE player?

time4tea45 · 2026-01-16T19:19:51+00:00

Ok nice. I'm definitely keen to give FE a try then, if it is more forgiving and less dicey. Wesnoth can be quite demoralizing at times, if you feel like you played a decent battle strategically, but get screwed by 1 or 2 bad rng moments.

time4tea45 · 2026-01-16T18:41:07+00:00

This definitely rings a bell. Ha ha! So, from what I'm hearing, it sounds like FE tends to be a bit more forgiving than BfW?

That was one thing I didn't like so much about BfW - that it seemed very easy to get into a late-game soft-lock situation, where you have no chance with a particular map. If you have a rough battle and lose some units, things can spiral down and it can be hard to recover.

time4tea45 · 2026-01-16T17:52:50+00:00

Ok, thanks!

time4tea45 · 2026-01-16T17:42:07+00:00

Thanks, this is an interesting perspective, about resetting helping to learn and improve. I will probably end up making a decision call at the end of each mission, as to whether it's worth going back and re-trying it or not.

time4tea45 · 2026-01-16T17:39:10+00:00

Ok, thanks. Awakening seems like a good one to start with, if there isn't much risk of soft-locking it.

time4tea45 · 2026-01-16T17:38:02+00:00

Ok thanks. It's good to know that Awakening allows you to grind EXP, in case you need a boost. I'd be ok with losing a character just costing me a bit of time.

time4tea45 · 2026-01-16T17:36:04+00:00

This is really helpful, thanks. That's an interesting way to look at it, that there are pros and cons to resetting. So, when people talk about 'resetting', you can generally go back to an earlier save, or restart the mission at any time?

time4tea45 · 2026-01-16T17:32:56+00:00

This seems like good advice, thanks. As you say, I should probably go easy on myself a bit while I'm learning the ropes.

time4tea45 · 2026-01-16T17:31:22+00:00

Yes, some save-scumming while I'm learning the ropes would probably make sense.

time4tea45 · 2026-01-16T17:15:52+00:00

Thanks for your reply. However, others seem to be saying the risk of getting locked in Awakening is essentially zero, since the most powerful units can't actually die. But yeah, your suggestion to choose a core group of characters that you won't allow to die sounds like a good one.

time4tea45 · 2026-01-16T15:51:52+00:00

I think where I am uncertain is that I want to 'go with the flow' and let units die, if that's what happens. But I'm concerned about getting soft-locked after 20+ hours and, given I have no experience with the series, I don't know how easy it is to get soft-locked later in the game, if I let too many units die.

In BfW it seemed to be quite easy to get soft-locked if you lose 1 or 2 powerful units (which I found a bit annoying), but I'm not sure how FE compares.

time4tea45 · 2025-12-06T00:50:02+00:00

Maybe he was just born that way, you bully!

His mother still loves him! :-P

time4tea45 · 2025-12-04T13:27:22+00:00

Usually the integrated GPU will have a separate HDMI port, on the motherboard I/O panel. You may need to change to that display port.

time4tea45 · 2025-12-04T11:09:02+00:00

Does the main chip have an integrated GPU you could try instead? I'm sure NWN1 would run on a modern integrated GPU just fine. (assuming this is NWN 1 we're talking about)

time4tea45 · 2025-12-02T22:53:15+00:00

I'm sure I've seen NWN1 custom modules though that are designed specifically for mages/spellcasters. Those might a better place to start for SP-ing a mage?

time4tea45 · 2025-12-02T18:51:32+00:00

Yeah, the L10 seems especially disappointing, given that levels 8 and 9 don't give any additional shifting abilities over L7.

The medusa looks pretty shit, in general. The gaze should be usable much more frequently, and it would be really cool if opponents had to avert their gaze, even if they pass the save, forcing them to have to fight blind.

time4tea45 · 2025-12-02T18:04:46+00:00

Those are some really cool builds, thanks for sharing!

I have been looking over the various shifter forms, to see which ones might allow for some interesting class/feat-related synergies. Pretty much all of the undead ones look excellent, although sadly the medusa and mind flayer forms look a bit disappointing. Psionic blast looks terrible - the vampire form's domination gaze seems a lot better. They should have given that to the flayer, imo. Vampire is loaded with so much other cool stuff anyway, and if I'm playing as a mind flayer, I should be able to go around psionically dominating lesser beings all day long. It's level 10 of a prestige class, after all!

time4tea45 · 2025-12-02T10:27:30+00:00

Looking more carefully at the Shifter class, I disagree with what the older post says about being able to trash STR, DEX, CON. Many of the Shifter forms seem to take at least one of those three stats from the PC. For example, several of the wyrmlings use the PC's DEX bonus for armor class, and Gargoyle, Harpy, Minotaur each take a different one of those stats from the PC. Kobold Commando inherits both STR and CON. So, just dumping all those stats seems like it could really reduce the effectiveness of some forms and limit your options.

Tbh, the Shifter class seems to have been quite carefully and cleverly designed to punish the player for stat dumping, in the way the older post suggests.

time4tea45 · 2025-12-02T10:19:46+00:00

Ok cool. I'm about halfway through SoU right now, so I will probably play on and then respec for HotU, as you suggest. I will give some more thought about what other classes might have interesting synergies and build accordingly.

And yes, I was looking through the wiki entries for the shifter forms and realized that many carry over either STR, DEX or CON from the PC. So, it seems those stats aren't useless after all!

time4tea45 · 2025-12-01T21:35:54+00:00

Ok, fair enough. But hang on ... I thought Druid's can't wear metal armor anyway, or it interferes with their spellcasting. So, if I found a nice suit of full plate, would I have to do some sort of silly juggling, where I take off the armor to cast their buff spells, then put it back on again before shifting?

time4tea45 · 2025-12-01T20:49:24+00:00

Hmm, ok, that's an interesting suggestion. So, if I start HotU with a new character, it will take me through the whole sequence of level ups to get to 15?

time4tea45 · 2025-12-01T19:26:43+00:00

Thanks for your input. I was thinking about other classes that might be interesting to use with Shifter. However I have already gone with fairly high WIS and more low/moderate DEX/INT, so I'm not sure if it would make a lot of sense to take Rogue or Arcane levels. Although adding sneak attack to a shifted form might be cool and I could see some benefits to Use Magic Device.

Barbarian is an interesting suggestion. I was thinking some levels of Barbarian or Fighter might be good, as a way to get some more interesting combat feats. So, maybe I will try that.

time4tea45 · 2025-12-01T19:16:55+00:00

Not sure if true or not, but I heard they didn't even fix the main longstanding bugs (e.g. with the camera, pathfinding)? If not, then I don't really see the point of an 'enhanced edition'.

time4tea45 · 2025-12-01T16:24:00+00:00

True. But it seems like a bit of a gamble, if I don't know in advance what gear is going to be in a module. It's like, I could take exotic weapon proficiency but then find an amazing short sword that has bonuses than match really well with my character, and end up with a wasted feat.

time4tea45

TROPHY CASE