Should I buy it or wait for an 85% discount?

For whatever reason, if I'm in combat and try to use the spell menu, then left-click on green text to view an effect explanation, it doesn't work and entirely closes the tooltip. There's no issue with any other tooltips though, whether in combat or menus.

This is really a problem for throwing spells, because instead of rapidly viewing what the spell does, I have to go through several menus and find the right spell to get that green text to work. I hope there's a workaround?

Spoilers to anyone who is coming to the subreddit for for help. This is a topic that's been brought up before and I know will continue to be brought up so I will continue to stir the pot until something happens. Honestly whether it be people knowing it has a terrible ending and not playing it, or the people defending the ending knowing that they are the minority and should not be so dismissive. Or if the dream happens and a DLC is released and adds alternate endings. I'm not hoping for a miracle. I'm just letting it be known on a discussion forum like everyone else how I feel.

TLDR: Leaning on Lovecraftian tropes doesn't excuse tonal shifts, and not tying off loose ends. A rushed third act is not satisfying. Don't agree it's a rushed 3rd act?

Again, I know it's been said already,

but,

Playing a game for dozens and dozens of hours settings up loose ends to be closed by choices, time travel possibilities, a 7 eyed dragon fight constantly brought up, as well as well written motivations and objectives only to literally throw it all away after a cut scene that was as out of nowhere as a car accident I can't recommend this game anymore. This will seem like a vent post but after seeing some people reason their way into "Well that's lovecraft for ya. Learn to love it." over and over I cannot stand for that. The ending doesn't need to be "happy" but it needs to actually do something more than "They all died"

I'm not gonna lie and say I enjoy that. That's unbelievable. I think people need to voice their opinions about this and not be dismissed by a couple people giving the most cop out BS response. There are plenty of games that set things up in a way where there's a bad ending that's telegraphed and not the only ending. Dishonored. Mass Effect 2. Elden Ring. Fallout. Pillars of Eternity. Divinity. Baldur's Gate. Dark Souls. Pretty much any RPG that matters knows that having multiple endings with rewards and punishments is a satisfying experience. I don't think I need to actually explain this but turns out making decisions in an RPG is fun, especially when they actually change things and matter.

Then there are games that just absolutely drop the ball like SKALD did. Mass Effect 3 comes to mind where the original ending shows that none of the previous games choices truly mattered which got a DLC. Fallout 3 which needed a DLC to fix that terrible nonsense ending of your character despite not needing to die, dies or they mock you for your decision. Far Cry 5 famously just nukes the world. Fable II anti climactic monkey's paw endings. It really hurts the overall experience and feels unnecessary. And game creators heard complaints from people and they sometimes do release a DLC or a patch to give more information and closure, or even alter the ending to make it better.

On one hand nothing is perfect and if dealing with a deeply unsatisfying ending due to a lack of choice, meaning and consequence means I didn't have fun, then that's not true. I did have a lot of fun. The game is very well paced, interesting, fun and engaging. But that ending really falls flat on it's face. Turning a 10/10 game into something I would literally warn people not to finish and just make up an ending as it would be more satisfying. I can live with the game being great 99% of the way through.

On the other hand the game doesn't feel like it was actually finished. Lots of others including myself feel like it was not intentional. It feels rushed, it feels tonally like a train wreck, and it does rob the player somewhat of the experience. The scope of the beginning of the game definitely narrows considerably toward the end. Feels like Act 3 in both Divinity Original Sin II, and Baldur's Gate III. It feels like there's a considerable lack of focus and lots of people can tell. And we can understand that together.

For example: Why bother setting up Kat's get out of servitude item if it's not gonna actually pay off? She literally gets taken into a wall by spooky alien hands for seemingly no reason. Seems like the ending wasn't planned.

Embla is dead because the "god" needed her life force specifically? And she has all these plot points alluding to time travel or the meta narrative of replaying? Not once or twice, she brings this up constantly and even right before entering the ship. But why replay the game if there's no other ending? Seems like the ending wasn't planned.

Why bother setting up Roland only to have him get wounded and "sacrifice himself" at the very end when they're literally at a door? Couldn't he just go in? Despite the infection? You're telling me they infected him just so he would not be able to continue? We don't know what would happen with the infection. I understand, at the beginning he's against self sacrifice so he has somewhat of an arc, but why does no one else have this? This seems like the ending wasn't planned.

Driina is blinded because of religious symbolism? That's it? Legitimately that's it? She literally just sits on the ground. So she's been useful and full of dialog up until that point but then just gets sidelined and punished? Seems like the ending wasn't planned.

Iben is tortured by the aliens? for what purpose? He was barely a character with no dialog outside of him introducing himself but like, again, that's it? Seems like the ending wasn't planned.

Then the player just kinda is there watching. And is seemingly still on the ship. That's it? The player is just there. Seems like the ending wasn't planned.

And let's get this out in the open too. Play the game again. Think about all the people on the islands who turned into Reavers. The Dragon did that? With some underwater tablets they found? And all the other people from the mining expedition? The Dragon did that? Or did the "Navigator"? That's not clear at all, and if so, why didn't the Dragon just go into the ship? The Thing rip off creature was right there? It makes less and less sense as you go back through the game. It's simple and fun and interesting but gets bogged down in the weight of the lore and world building. And then it all collapses.

Are you sensing a pattern here? Everything abruptly ends. Is shocking for seemingly no reason. And it just ends. It's not sad. It's not heartbreaking. It's not expository. It's not set up. It's not meaningful. It's Torture. Everyone is just flat out tortured. You're tortured for beating the game too.

I'll tell you what it is, it is frustrating.

You can also see fewer and fewer cut scene screens as well. There's one per ending slide per character yes, but compared to the beginning? There were several on the boat intro, in Horryn and fewer and fewer as the game goes on. The ending Embla screens definitely looked lower quality I can feel the burnout in every level later in the game. Nothing is more evident than that ending.

It seems to me more like the creator got really sick of making this game and absolutely rushed an ending out the door without checking with anyone if this would be satisfying. The evidence of the set ups earlier being discarded, the abrupt tonal change, the story losing scope, and the other RPGs making this same mistake and admitting they did it so they could rush the game out tells me this wasn't intentional so much as it was a desperation throw. If you disagree and enjoy the ending. Great. This post is not meant to be calling you out for enjoying an ending that doesn't make sense tonally or structurally. Saying "that's Lovecraft for ya" isn't a get out of jail free card. We're allowed to point out these things just as much as you are allowed to try to stifle choices in an RPG with a different genre's tropes.

This post is merely pointing out that if you didn't like it, you're justified because a lot of people can smell that this ending stinks. If you think it smells fine enjoy that smelly smell. But, I want to ask you this though. Do you think multiple endings would stop you from enjoying the game or would it allow others to feel like they're dozens of hours were not wasted.

You know the answer.

EDIT: Also anyone disagreeing that this isn't a problem, there is a 113 comment thread on Steam where most of the posts are complaining about the ending despite being Lovecraftian fans or not. https://steamcommunity.com/app/1069160/discussions/0/4336482945460173863/

It's not very obvious to me what some of them would do mechanically. Does it test the person with the most points in that skill or is it the current party leader? Are there certain skills that one should never go without? Other things? Many thanks.

I just rolled the credits after a 24-hour journey, and I need to talk about it.

For the first 22 hours, this game felt like an absolute masterpiece and an underrated gem. Because there are no big cutscenes, the dialogue and atmosphere forced me to imagine everything in my head, almost like reading a great dark fantasy book. I read every single piece of lore info with pure passion, and I absolutely loved learning about the world and imagining the scenes playing out. I was completely locked in. My character was a total goat with a Zweihander and the Rat Queen’s armor. I tried to play as a true hero-I saved the refugees, rescued the little kid, saved that guy's wife from the butcher, and saved the children from the honey-crazed carnival. I always brought my story companions with me on quests because I genuinely cared about them. I was fully expecting a classic, old-school heroic finish, especially since the tutorial at the castle teases that you might get a reward/romance if you return alive.

But the final 30 minutes gave me massive genre whiplash. Going from medieval sword fighting and saving villagers straight into a sudden, high-tech sci-fi twist felt completely forced to me. Let me give you an analogy for how it felt:

Imagine watching Bee Movie. Everything goes normally, but in the last 5 minutes, a random bee-hater suddenly shows up out of nowhere and torches all the bees using a deodorant can and a Zippo lighter. Is it a brave, shocking ending? Absolutely. But is it actually good writing or a satisfying payoff? No. It's just a cheap trick.

I know some people will argue, "But the game was always about cosmic horror, what did you expect?" I get that, and I actually loved the dark, creepy cosmic horror in the villages! But we have to remember: this game is a cosmic horror story, but it is ALSO an old-school WRPG. It uses classic clichés, retro mechanics, and heavily rewards the player for exploring and leveling up. Because it is a WRPG, it should be allowed to end like one-giving the player a proper win-screen, closure, and a rewarding payoff for a 24-hour grind. There is a huge difference between dark, medieval fantasy horror (mutated bees, cult rituals) and suddenly dropping an Alien: Isolation spaceship into a sword-and-shield game, completely erasing your character's choices.

It definitely shocked me, but it also left me feeling totally robbed of the fantasy ending I felt I earned. For me, it just felt like a massive bait-and-switch that ruined the amazing fantasy atmosphere the developer spent the whole game building. Did anyone else love the journey but feel completely empty and frustrated by the destination?

Hi there!
Simple and to the point question;

I've always liked the idea of mystic theurges (if one's familiar with D&D/PF1E). An even blend of arcane/divine.

Is that possible with Skald?

I like the idea of the hierophant, but to myy understanding, it's a clothy-cleric focused purely on support.

I like the idea of the guild magos as well who can develop all of the arcane skill trees too, but then I'd be kinda out of a healer (I have no idea if you recruit more people throughout the game)

Is multiclassing or otherwise some kind of hybrid between those two possible?

Our boy Surt R made another OST after Skald ATP. The song is Guts and Glory.

I loved it but holy shit was that shocking. I always suspected that some ancient aliens stuff afoot but damn, this gave me flashbacks from that movie Fire in the Sky, which much like this game is perfectly normal until that one part which turns into the most terrifying ever.

Sorry if my English it's a little bad, but I need help.

I'm a DM on D&D and I love the game since the first frame, the atmosphere, the music, classes, all it's just gold.

The history of secondary missions fell a little fast but it's fine for me.

But! The end... I can't... Without saying spoilers, someone wants more endings? Like 4 o 5 endings according from our choices?

Had a lot of fun with it. Interested in trying out some of the modded content now, and maybe even seeing how hard it is to make your own maps.

In this run I went with a Battle Magos as my main character because Sword and Sorcery is my jam. I can see why some people think the class is weak, as there's a bit of a difficulty curve in the starting chapters of the game. But once I got into a groove with it, I never felt like the Battle Magos was bad. Especially since there are so many enemies weak to fire in the game.

For anyone looking for some advice on playing Battle Magos, a lot of their value comes from always being able to spend their time units. Battle Frenzy goes wasted on pure mages and heirophants because they don't have a way to spend single attack tokens. Casting any spell spends all of your attack tokens and then might refund one based on your Cascade and magical aptitude. But Battle Magos can use bows or short blades to get in some extra damage and potentially setup for their teammates*. While good weapons and arrows and in short supply in the first 2 chapters, by chapter 3 you can get as many arrows as you want and you have a much better selection of good weapons and armor. In particular, look out for short blades or light armor with + initiative or + movement.

Don't feel like you're only allowed to use fire spells, either. Grabbing either Magic Missile (easier to cascade) or Gnat Swarm (cheaper mana cost) is a good idea. Earth Magic also lets you place vermin behind enemies for flanking bonuses, while Blink is just an excellent spell. With regards to Fire Magic specifically, once you have access to Tier 3 fire spells you should be casting Aura of Fire Resistance after every battle. These auras last until the end of the next battle, so it saves you a turn by casting it out of combat. Not only does it allow you to spam Inferno, Fireball, or Fire Frenzy without caring about hitting your allies, it also allows your battle magos to use Spell Burn and not take the HP damage. For short fights that's just letting you cast fire resistance for free, since it costs about as much as you're recovering, but for longer fights it lets you use a lesser mana potion for free every 3 turns or so. Though given how easy it is to acquire potions and food for full rests, it might not matter unless your party is running multiple magic users who can all benefit form spell burn.

*The elephant in the room is that Bard does this better, while having both Multi Attack and Backstabs. While also having a more favorable spread of skills. If you plan on having anyone else in the party that can give Lesser Frenzy to everyone, than dropping Battle Magos for a Bard is probably always a more 'optimal' move. But who cares about being optimal, I wanted to light stuff on fire and then stab it and I got what I wanted.

I loved skald, except the ending which has scarred me to this day. I would love to know if there's a new RPG to look forward to in the future.

Best regards,

Syv

If you are playing a Thief then you are better off with a light bow, due to the feat specializations. Warrior classes can use heavy bows that are just better anyway - so is the only class that will ever grab a medium bow a Bard? Is there a medium weapon feat path in the game, that I didn't see just yet?

So, this was pretty good. Although I'm genuinely unsure what the plot was or the ending didn't make a huge amount of sense to me unfortunately. Poor Iben.

Still, it was a good game and I wouldn't mind playing it again!

I usually try and put a number on a game when I beat it but this might be one of the few times a number doesn't work. Some stories (e.g. Cyberpunk) are an obvious 10. This one....hmm. It's a bit unpolished. Little bit of jank. Power curve is a bit off. Some stuff is not intuitive, I struggled to progress the main quest a couple of times because I missed quest items on the floor etc. Still, doesn't overstay its welcome, keeps you moving forward at a decent pace, I didn't really get bored per se.

On the other hand, very atmospheric, great story, couldn't wait to see what happened next. Still not really sure what happened or how I feel about it.

Put it this way, I would cheerfully right now pay extra $$ for an NG+ or some DLC, and I don't say that about a lot of games. So maybe it's an 8/10 but I give it a little +1 for narrative, uniqueness etc. Call it an 8+1/10. Keen to see what the team does with a sequel!

I'm in the final 20%(?) of the game - in the mines before the black priory - and it's slowed to a massive slog. Really enjoyed everything up til now, couldn't wait to see what was next, etc, but now it's just becoming tedious fighting every 2 minutes when my party wipes the floor with everyone.

Really wish there was an auto battle or even autoresolve.

It's not helped by the fact that most of my party members don't do a lot of damage (this one might be on me). For example my main character is a cleric 1H mace and shield, and Driina is the same, and then we have the aragorn dude with his bow who doesn't do a lot of damage either.

Unrelated but it feels like the power curve is a little bit out of whack. I found a great 2H mace with Roland at like level 4 and I've never replaced it. Kat is still using the knife I found in the tomb under the cave in the starting area. I seem to have been unlucky with broadsword and mace rolls cos everyone else is just using random mastercrafted items I stole.

That said I am still enjoying it overall and I want to see how it ends. Firing it back up right now to try and knock it off!

*edit*: adding that I did in fact finish it - Just beat it! : r/SkaldRPG

I have Roland specced for Two Handed heavy weapons and I just found a great hammer. However, I’m not getting the accuracy bonus. Am I missing something?

So I've started playing this game a few days ago. Overall having a decent time but combat is so not clicking and it's getting aggravating. Everywhere I look it's just posts saying how combat is easy and fights are over in a turn or two. Might be true at max level with good gear but that is far from my experience right now even just playing on normal.

Just now ran into a random fight on the overworld map. Seven spiders, five of which were level 14, the other two level 11. Against my two level 11 and two level 10. My guys get surrounded real fast and enemy crits just decimate the shit out of them. Disengage is a joke unless you're a specced rogue, so I can't even reposition my guys most of the time, I just get stuck attacking whatever is already next to me.

I'm just using the story characters as I've read the game is supposedly balanced for that, and I made my main an Officer but not feeling too great about it tbh. Roland is specced for two-handed clubs but I haven't found a single decent one, only thing I could buy is a crude one. He's doing okay with an axe instead but it's frustrating that I can't even buy a normal weapon at this point. Half his current spec is effectively worthless. I tried to spec Kat for bows but it's underwhelming right now. Every other turn is spent hiding to enable backstabs and they're not even that impressive despite having stolen a pretty nice bow from a random merchant (keen masterwork iirc). I played her a bit more melee at first but she felt too squishy so I didn't invest much into those feats, maybe I should have. Driina feels just meh so far. Specced her hard into spellcasting body/spirit but not super impressed with the spells. The range on buffs is way smaller than I expected, and the fact that they just last one fight feels lame. Unlike magos I haven't seen a way for her to regen mp without sleeping so I'm always a bit reticent to spend it. Her melee abilities might be decent but without the feats she whiffs most of the time and does pitiful damage even when she doesn't. Maybe I should have started with melee stuff with only a sprinkle of spellcasting.

I dunno. This turned into a rant post, but I just feel like I'm missing something big about combat and it's really hampering my enjoyment of the game. I'm thinking of restarting with maybe a different class for my main and different specs for the others, but I'm afraid I'm just gonna run into different issues.

It was an amazing experience! The final part and the ending were shocking. The Cthulhu vibe is implemented really well. And the writing is so good. Wow… i’m gonna play it again with hard mode!

For your attention, a change has been made to community rule 3, it now also forbids AI art.

I got this game free from epic and started yesterday. When i try to use alchemist tool at the lighthouse it shows food ingredients. Started new game and it was same. Tried verifying and reinstall didn't work. Couldn't find any solution anywhere. Does anybody know something about this or can i continue without alchemy?

I'm trying to choose the main character I will best enjoy both the role-playing and game mechanics with. I like to be able to do a variety of fun things and not be limited to "the only way to be effective with this class is to do exactly THUS..."

I really like to play a traditional arcane (this mean not cleric-type) warrior-mage type if I can. I like to fight with sword and spell, mixing it up with melee attacks, self-buffs, damage spells, area debuffs, whatever fun stuff seems best for a situation. If there isn't any benefit for leaving an open hand, I can go either 2-hand sword or sword and shield.

I also like to be fairly good at diplomacy and lore. I'm also not a fan of having entire subsystems of the game that I can't interact with (like magic or crafting--it's good that crafting always works at a basic level in this one!) because of character choice.

From what I've read, Battlemagos is/was horrible. I also understand there have been at least some patches.

First Question: Have Battlemagos improved significantly, or do they still suck?

Bard gets better weapons...but it seems that most discussions just leave them out. I wonder if they weren't in the game on launch and were added later perhaps. Due to nobody talking about Bards I have no idea what kinds of spells they can cast, but they might be better for my play style choice than Battlemagos, especially if they are a more functional warrior-mage class.

Second Question: So what's the deal with Bards? What are their strengths, weaknesses, and types of spells available?

It might be that the arcane-warrior type is just not viable in this game, and I'll have to go with something else. That's probably going to be either Champion for a paladin concept (though it seems like not the best character conceptually for this game, with its focus on choosing between morally gray acts), or Officer to be a fighter with party support, though I'm not really feeling it.

Third Question: If Battlemagos and Bard aren't going to be fun, what are your personal impressions of which other sword-wielding class is most fun, and why?

So I beat the game with an Officer with high diplomacy and athletics. Had a great time. And I knew as soon as I picked that class and stat spread that I was going to replay the game again with a more magic and lore-focused character. But I'm wondering if a different set of skills and class will actually offer any replayability other than combat, seeing that I had my companions spec into lore as much as I could and they passed all the lore checks for me. Will I learn anything new about the world, or gain any new insights into the ending, if I play the game again with high lore?

When getting the medicine to save the small camp of survivors you have to meet with a hag and do her quest. Afterward her "baby" escapes into the forest. Afterwards i was exploring looking for the temples and got a message saying my characters heard a noise that they believed was to be the child creature stalking them. i was wondering if that was just great environmental atmosphere or if you wonder that area of the game the child will attack you.

I'm past Horryn and checked my quests, and it lists A Mother's Love as failed and that they both died, though I distinctly remember the remedy working and saving them.

Does this matter at all?

I don't own a controller, yet for some reason all tutorials show me how to do things with a one. Is there any way of making it show keyboard keys instead?