Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire – Beast of Winter Interview

A double feature interview dedicated to Obsidian Entertainment’s upcoming Beast of Winter DLC for Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire has gone up on MMORPG.com and GameSpace.com. In this interview, Obsidian’s game director Brandon Adler talks about the DLC’s story, content, and new features that include a new item type. He also briefly mentions Obsidian’s plans for the PoE franchise, the free update that will accompany the DLC, and more. Here’s an excerpt from the first part:

MMORPG: What kind of content can players expect (i.e. how many new quests)? Will there be any new followers and / or crew to find?

Brandon Adler: Beast of Winter adds all of the things you would expect from an Obsidian game – new areas and dungeons to explore, dozens of new items and creatures, and fun, engaging quests. We have also added Vatnir, an Endings godlike the player can convince to follow them into the depths of the White Void.

Due to the nature of the DLC, some of the game’s previous companions will also have quite a bit to say. For example, Ydwin, as a pale elf animancer, has a lot to talk about as it relates to the people of the cult, Rymrgand, and the nature of souls.

MMORPG: Are there any completely new features being added in this DLC or in the other two coming later this year?

Brandon Adler: There is a new item type being added to Beast of Winter – the Trinket. Trinkets are items that allows characters to cast powerful, once per rest abilities that can turn the tide of a battle.

We also have many other new features planned for future DLCs and patches, but we will talk about those later.

And a sample from the second one:

GameSpace: What about the free update for all players. What can everyone expect to find with the update that launches alongside Beast of Winter?

Brandon Adler: Along with Beast of Winter, we are also releasing The Deck of Many Things DLC for all players. It’s a free DLC which introduces a new ship to the world map, The Deck of Many Things. This ship, ancient Engwithan in origin, has some of the most unique items and crew in all of the Deadfire. And for those that want to try to take the ship on in naval combat, it’s the hardest ship fight in the game.

We are also adding Magran’s Fires, which are special challenges that allow players to go through the game with additional limitations. For example, a player doing Berath’s Challenge is unable to flee from combats and their party members are permanently killed if not revived within six seconds of being knocked out. One of the stranger challenges is Galawain’s Challenge, which gives all Beast type creatures additional random abilities in combat.

These challenges are all played on Path of the Damned and have a special version of level scaling enabled which only allows for upward scaling.