...And Then You Remember.

Last week I was thoroughly enjoying the CRPG Pillars of Eternity.  Then, after one tragic and very frustrating encounter, I decided I'd had enough.  My trend of being unable to finish CRPG's continues.  I am an utter failure.  /sadface.

My whole frustration started with a bounty.  Once you have built the warden's lodge as part of your stronghold, you can accept bounties that send you after different characters scattered all over the map.  These bounties are designed to be high paying, high experience, and high difficulty encounters.  So yeah....they should be a challenge.  The first bounty sent me to kill a large earth elemental creature called "The Dweller."  The Dweller possesses some unique abilities--he can cast druid-like spells that inflict sickness on your group AAAAND the best part....he can summon these ridiculous earth elementals which are giant, floating balls of rock.  Along with his obnoxious spells, it is also accompanied by several trolls.  The first major difficulty of the fight is to decide if it's better to just mow down the big, baddy itself or to try to take out the minions.  Despite being made of rock, The Dweller is surprisingly squishy.  My advice to anyone who wants to take on this bounty is to go straight for him.  Don't waste time on the minions because he will just keep resummoning more earth elementals.

One of my biggest frustrations with PoE has been the difficulty of keeping enemies focused on my "tank" characters.  I have found that in many instances enemies will either completely ignore my fighters or become very easily pulled off.  It's easy to deal with the aggro from a few small enemies that are killed off easily, but it's much more irritating when the big ones won't stay in one place.  I am not sure what I am doing wrong--I am focusing fire on one target so there shouldn't be a reason for them to attack anyone other than my fighter.  I do not fully understand "engagement" and how it works.  I know my fighters can only engage so many enemies at a time and that it is partially determined by the talents you take for your fighters.  I have been rolling with one tank and that might be my mistake.  I have read that it is recommended that you take two fighters and I think I'm going to have to adopt this strategy.

It took me a few or twenty attempts before I finally managed to down The Dweller.  The battle was challenging, but not so hard that I couldn't manage it.  I decided to move on to another bounty and immediately hit a wall.   Sly Cyrdel is no slouch.  He also really hates any casters in your party and will completely ignore your fighters to smack your squishies around.  Beside his un-tankability the fight is further complicated by the presence of casters who will heal Sly.  A head-on battle resulted in failure every time.  The strategy I settled on was highly unorthodox--I would send my wizard running across the map which would allow him to kite Sly away from the group.  In the time it took Sly to chase and kill my wizard, the rest of the team could take out his posse which would allow me to focus all efforts on taking out Sly.  This actually worked!

Sly Cyrdel and his band.  I hate them.

Taking out Sly on his own turned out to be just as difficult.  Sly was far enough away that my group came out of combat and could crawl away and re-group.  Re-engaging Sly was much easier, but he still felt the need to go straight for my wizard.  It's no easy matter trying to whittle him down--he has a big, two-handed weapon and hits like a Mack truck.  He also has freakishly high resistances.  It didn't matter how many spells I slung at him trying to reduce his damage or damage reduction...he continually managed to slay my group.  I spent hours trying to kill him.  Then, I threw my hands up in futility.  I give up!

I think I just need a little break from Pillars and then I will end up finishing it.  Where I initially found the complex mechanics to be refreshing, now I am finding them frustrating.  Maybe I am just not "hardcore" enough for CRPG's?  I struggled with Divinity:  Original Sin and still haven't finished it.  Ugh.

UPDATED 5/31/16:
I decided to give PoE another go.  I skipped over good ol' Sly and his bounty and returned to the main questline and side quests.  I was having a pretty good time and had almost forgotten how frustrating the complicated combat systems can be when I was reminded of something else...the game crippling reality of bugs.  The Endless Paths of Caed Nua were needing some exploring and I bravely ventured past the fifth level.  Once on the sixth floor I discovered the progress blocking door that requires you to find three seals (from the quest with the title something like "Seals of the Endless Paths").  I already had the quest for the seals since I had stumbled across one of them on the fourth floor in my previous explorations. But, lo and behold, when I went to slot them into the door I found that I only had two in my bags.  The third seal had mysteriously disappeared, which meant that my progress on the Endless Paths had come to an end.  Did I sell the seal?  Nope.  It's a quest item which means it's unsellable.  I ventured back to the fourth floor to explore the original spot of discovery only to find that the seal was not there, which I already knew.

Could I keep playing?  Yes, I could.  Not being able to explore the Endless Path's isn't really a game-killer.  Do I want to keep playing?  Nope.  I think I've had my fill and just need to give up on CRPG's.  Maybe it's just not meant to be.  /sigh.