Pillars Of Eternity Receives Hundreds Of Bug Fixes

Pillars of Eternity's Patch 1.05 is now available on PC, Mac and Linux. The update makes several hundred changes to the fantasy role-playing game.

The long list of changes encompass several aspects of the game. The exploit allowing players to move to new areas with dead characters has been removed, much to the chagrin of speed runners. Companions will no longer lose items when assigned to the stronghold. The abilities Marked Prey, Draining Whip and One Stands alone will now work properly.

Obsidian Entertainment also made another pass at balancing the game. Scroll of Paralysis's power has been reduced and its skill requirement has been raised. Wizards and Ciphers now have higher base endurance. The XP rewards for certain quests, such as bounties, have been tuned down so players won't hit max level before reaching Twin Elms.

Patch 1.05 brings new features as well. For example, you can now customize your character's portrait and sound after creation in case you've got buyer's remorse. Furthermore, you can reset new companions' so you can choose their level up bonuses yourself.

Here's the list of new features and general fixes included in the update. For the complete patch notes, check out this post on Pillars' Kickstarter page.

New Features

• You can now rename save games.
• You can now change the portrait and sound set of characters from the character sheet. Click on the gear icon to open the customization window. You can only use this feature on player characters and hired (non-companion) characters.
• New Stash sorting. You can now sort stash by item type, enchant score, and sell value.
• Added a Latest News feature on the main menu to keep you informed on patches and Kickstarter updates.
• Added a new color for unique items in the inventory.
• Added a new hotkey for switching weapon sets on selected characters.
• You can now bind extra mouse buttons to Ability hotkeys.
• There's a new option to reset newly recruited companions to level 1 (without losing the experience). This will allow you to level up companions to your liking.

General Fixes

• Removed exploit of being able to transition into a new area with a dead player character.Sorry speed runners.
• Spells and abilities stuck in 'Already Activated' state will be fixed whenever a game is loaded.
• Now camping in a stronghold map when Brighthollow is unlocked uses Brighthollow instead.
• Party members will no longer switch weapon sets when charmed.
• Resolved a problem where misses on some secondary attacks were not being reported in the combat log.
• Camera should center on party members faster.
• Trial of Iron: Loading a game will now force a save to happen to prevent save scumming.
• Fixed many issues related to auto pause.
• Firearms will now reload when combat ends on alternate weapon sets.
• Poison and interrupted VO now has a cooldown.
• Allow quick-loading when UI windows, like dialogue, are up.
• Removed unneeded navigation blockers in the Valewood that were causing animal companions to become stuck.
• Fixed issue where Guest Hirelings that were available at the Stronghold for hire were not being saved properly into the save games.
• Fixed additional problems with prestigious visitors visiting the Stronghold after they had been killed.
• Fixed a problem with Stronghold prisoners showing temp text at times.

Obsidian is also working on Patch 1.06 of the game and expect to release it later in May. They say it will bring another set of balance changes, bug fixes and features. You'll be able to test it out before launch, though.

In addition to releasing patches, Obsidian plans to eventually launch an expansion pack. They said previously that it's comparable to the Baldur's Gate expansion Tales of the Sword Coast, which added a few hours worth of optional quests to that game. Obsidian promised before releasing Pillars that details on the expansion were a few months away.

Pillars of Eternity launched on Steam in late March. If you're having trouble progressing through the RPG, check out our full list of cheat codes.