What Are You Playing 10: Ten Builds, Zero Progress

[MCerberus]

Destiny 2, doing the final expansion cleanup before the game heads to its supposed finale. Aside from cosmetics the d2 community is going a bit nuts because

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their two favorite (and one of them dead) husbandos are fighting in a cutscene
Speculation abounds, but it seems to be implied that the ghost-dragon-cat that grants wishes did it
Presumably because it's funny

[Rynjin]

Been chewing my way through Yakuza: Ishin. Pretty solid but the minigames this time around are kinda...eh for the most part.

[IthilanorStPete]

I'm at "Four Builds, Some Progress" in Mechanicus. I'm about a third of the way through, judging by the Necron Awakening meter. It continues to be interesting, though it seems to be getting fairly easy; I'm not having much trouble with regular missions. I might try one of the boss fights I have available, since those are the only missions with Hard difficulty available right now, and there's not much of a penalty if I fail.

I apparently tempted fate by saying things were getting easy. The next mission I played had a bunch of Immortals; instead of the tesla guns that do AoE damage, they had a different type of gun that just dealt a lot of damage. I squeaked out a successful mission with only 2 tech-priests remaining.

On the plus side, Mechanicus 2 just got announced.

[GloatingSwine]

Tyranny is... What if the villains had already won... And then the evil apprentice dropped the ball in hilariously epic fashion joined the resistance and totally screwed the whole thing up.

Or decided they fancied a go at being the overlord, after figuring out the super evil trick.

Joining the resistance is not the intended path.

[Anonymouswizard]

Or decided they fancied a go at being the overlord, after figuring out the super evil trick.

Joining the resistance is not the intended path.

To be fair it is by far the easiest way to fulfil the Edict, even imminent death won't get those Archons working together. Which is of course foreshadowing.

...Darn it now I'm reinstalling Tyranny.

[warty goblin]

So by "play less Age of Wonders," I clearly meant "keep playing Age of Wonders." Or at least that's what happened.

The last game was rather odd in that the AI won. Technically I also won, since it was a military/diplomatic win, but the final alliance was put together by an AI, and I was definitely a lesser partner in fantasy NATO. The game was really clear about this, once the alliance formed, a pop up told me that so-and-so would end the game in two turns, unless I broke the alliance. Because my alternative was a long war I'd almost certainly lose, and I was playing a bunch of hippy peace and love high elves, a fourth place win seemed the most prudent option.

[Zevox]

Well, today was the day Granblue Rising got its that new DLC character I was looking forward to trying: Beatrix, a special agent swordswoman character. Turns out ArcSys gave her so many special moves reminiscent of Sol Badguy from Guilty Gear that some players are nicknaming her "Luna Goodgal," which is amusing since she honestly doesn't share that much with him beyond their general archetype. Even the move that most visually resembles one of his is actually functionally more like a similar move that another Guilty Gear character, I-No, uses (a low sliding attack that resembles Sol's Vortex/I-No's Stroke the Big Tree). And their normals aren't anything alike, so there's that - though I guess you argue that Sol's far slash from Strive is already basically a universal mechanic in Granblue in the form of dashing light attack. Eh.

Anyway, I'm finding her quite fun. She has a lot of ways to keep the advantage on an opponent once she gets them blocking, and multiple moves that let her close in while making her advantage on block, so oppressive pressure is her game plan for sure. Her normals are a bit stubby, but not too terrible. Her unique mechanic is a time-slow effect that her heavy specials can apply, but only if she's either stocked a use of it by landing her command grab first or her health is at 30% or below (in which case it's always available, albeit with a cooldown once used). Which is cool, but honestly less important or impactful than it sounds, I'm finding. She can already do great combos in the corner, and even midscreen she's average at worst and possible above-average compared to the rest of the cast. Having that effect will mean little in the corner - you can squeeze some extra damage out with it, but not much - and while it does allow better midscreen combos, I'm not finding myself often in a situation to take advantage of that, since the flow of battle naturally results in being in the corner a lot one way or the other. Though honestly this is good; my fear with this was that it would be like the problem another character, Percival, has, where he needs his unique mechanic stocked in order to do basic combos other characters can take for granted. I'm glad it's more of a bonus.

I'll definitely be playing a fair bit more of her for a while. Still think my main will remain Belial, but she'll be up there among my favorites it feels like.

[GloatingSwine]

To be fair it is by far the easiest way to fulfil the Edict, even imminent death won't get those Archons working together. Which is of course foreshadowing.

...Darn it now I'm reinstalling Tyranny.

By “easiest” you mean “the one you can lock yourself out of in character creation?”

[Anonymouswizard]

By “easiest” you mean “the one you can lock yourself out of in character creation?”

I mean in-character. Any other option means essentially fighting two armies at once.

[Corlindale]

I recently picked up Animal Well for the Switch. An atmospheric puzzle game with pixel-graphics. There are many things to like about it - I enjoy how the items you find are extremely mundane objects that never the less turn out to have a multitude of uses. There is a real joy in discovering new uses for each items as the game progresses. I generally think it's clever that the game manages to communicate so much to the player despite having extremely little text. I like that there is no actual combat (your character is a small, defenseless blob), so you have to handle threats by being clever and using the environment.

On the negative side there has been a few platforming sections that I've found a tad frustrating. Not a big fan of the point in puzzle games where you've worked out exactly what to do but just struggle to actually do it because your reflexes aren't great. It also does not seem to be an overly long game, although that's not necessarily a negative. I've only played a couple of hours and I've already found two of the four flames, and I'm pretty sure I'm very close to the third. Although of course I have no idea how much game there is after that, and there does seem to be a lot of hidden eggs to find still.

I've also been gravitating a bit towards some of my old staples on the Switch. Played a bit of Slay the Spire and finally managed to beat the Heart on Ascension 20, something that I've struggled to achieve for a while. Ended up doing it with a Perfected Strike deck on Ironclad, of all things. Had some really good luck with relics, with Necronomicon being especially key.

Also played a bit of Hades. Finished the main storyline, but I'm still enjoying climbing the Heat levels and upgrading my weapons. There always seem to be new builds to try and new stories to discover. Even met a miniboss I'd never seen before yesterday (the Tiny Vermin). I had a really strong run with the Hidden Aspect of the bow, using Dionysus buffs on the Special combined with the Hammer that gives + 4 arrows. I also had Hermes buffs to gain +3 dash charges and + 40% move speed, as well as Divine Dash for invulnerability and deflect during dashes. Which led to a very satisfying gameplay loop of quickly poisoning everything and everyone with a hail of arrows, before I began to zip around the battlefield at near-relativistic speeds while things died to the poison.

[Beelzebub1111]

Started playing Chaos Gate Daemonhunters. I am having a good time. Need a break after I lost my ironman solasta run to an unlucky crit from a wraith. I thought I was at a level where I didn't have to be worried about death from massive damage, but they sure showed me.

Chaos gate is fun. It was described as Warhammer X-Com and I was sceptical but I'll be damned if they aren't right on the money.

[warty goblin]

Chaos gate is fun. It was described as Warhammer X-Com and I was sceptical but I'll be damned if they aren't right on the money.

The thing I appreciated about Chaos Gate was the degree to which it took the XCOM template and removed a bunch of the weird and annoying rules quirks, particularly around actions and turn ends. At the end of a fight all your dudes automatically reload, and that's great, this almost totally pointless busy work gone for free.

Getting to the good bits in Spellforce 3 now. I had forgotten just how solid the writing is. The setup is very much Fantasy RPG basics in a lot of respects, but delivered with enough thoughtfulness and twists that it pops. I particularly like that the narrative makes you a specific person with a set background, and makes that matter without instantly turning you into the chosen hero. You are a talented person certainly, but not exceptionally so, and you aren't pur on a weird player character pedestal.

There's a great example of this early in the first proper gameplay map, where you get a side quest to track down a guy who's stolen a bunch of food from a refugee camp and run off. You find him and discover he did it because the leader of the camp refused to keep feeding his senile and probably nearly dead father.

So naturally I chose the "I won't tell anybody, it's great you stole all those starving people's food" option because it's an RPG and that's always the correct choice, and then the actual commander of the expedition interrupted and was like "that's BS, give the food back right now" and totally overruled me. Fantastic actual RP consequences, and showed exactly what sort of person the commander is, which became very important a bit later.

[LibraryOgre]

THERE'S the depressive slide that makes it impossible to enjoy anything. Let's revisit my Kingmaker Alchemist once I don't hate the world, eh?

[IthilanorStPete]

THERE'S the depressive slide that makes it impossible to enjoy anything. Let's revisit my Kingmaker Alchemist once I don't hate the world, eh?

Hooray* anhedonia!

More seriously - I know how that feels, it's rough. Hope it passes soon.

*not actually hooray

[AlanBruce]

They released a new update for Stellar Blade today.

Thankfully, everything offered in this update is free, which consolidates how the studio wants to leave its mark in the console space. There’s a Boss Rush Mode, which I believe all of these games should have (Sekiro, I believe, being one of the first). You get a very nice outfit for beating them all, which is a nice incentive.

They also added two new outfits to the inventory automatically and two extra outfits for purchase with Roxanne, the local store NPC. Add a few quality of Life features and it makes for a solid update.

I only wish they had added Photo Mode. If any game deserves it, it certainly is this one.

[Zevox]

They released a new update for Stellar Blade today.

Thankfully, everything offered in this update is free, which consolidates how the studio wants to leave its mark in the console space. There’s a Boss Rush Mode, which I believe all of these games should have (Sekiro, I believe, being one of the first). You get a very nice outfit for beating them all, which is a nice incentive.

They also added two new outfits to the inventory automatically and two extra outfits for purchase with Roxanne, the local store NPC. Add a few quality of Life features and it makes for a solid update.

I only wish they had added Photo Mode. If any game deserves it, it certainly is this one.

Yeah, I'd seen some news on that. I'll probably have to hop back in and give that a try, a boss rush mode is exactly the sort of thing that plays to that game's strengths. They can keep the new outfits though, the biker one's the only one I need.

Not right now though. Aside from Granblue Rising, I'm replaying another of my old PS3 games: Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time. An adventure-platformer that may as well be a saturday morning cartoon; oh yeah, this is my kind of game. Camera handles a little weird, but not too bad, and otherwise, just some silly, cartoony fun. Sad the series has remained in limbo since this one, especially since I remember it ending on a cliffhanger. Though that was really a dumb idea on the devs' part - even when this came out games like it were nearly extinct, sad though it may be it's not really surprising that there hasn't been another. But hey, all the more reason to enjoy the ones we've got.

[Anonymouswizard]

Got an urge to replay Alpha Protocol, and decided to try a Recruit run. So yeah, thirty skill points behind but that shouldn't be too hard, gun skills are nice and I can do pretty much anything other than Russia focusing on stealth, technical skills, and martial arts. Even then I think the one boss significantly resistant to the almighty kung fu can be stunned and then pummeled to death.

...okay, the tank also resists your almighty kung fu, but you're not actually meant to use your guns on it either.

[Errorname]

Destiny 2, doing the final expansion cleanup before the game heads to its supposed finale. Aside from cosmetics the d2 community is going a bit nuts because

Spoiler

Show

their two favorite (and one of them dead) husbandos are fighting in a cutscene
Speculation abounds, but it seems to be implied that the ghost-dragon-cat that grants wishes did it
Presumably because it's funny

Spoiler

Show

Technically they've both died

I'm actually really excited for this one, I think they know they have to deliver and can't get away with another Lightfall. Feel bad that I'm going to miss the launch window because I'm traveling and Bungie refuse to budge on Steam Deck support.

Or decided they fancied a go at being the overlord, after figuring out the super evil trick.

Joining the resistance is not the intended path.

I mean, they wouldn't let you do it if they didn't want you to, but it's true that most of the paths (and the ones they expect first time players to get) are the evil ones.

[Anonymouswizard]

Urgh, this Tyranny discussion is threatening to make me try a magic knight build for the game. Which is annoying because you want five of the six stats and like six skills at decent levels, hence the closest party member being more 'resilent nuker' than 'sword mage'.

The other option is to go with Shortbow or Javelin as my secondary fighting style, but that reduces the ability to grind Lore.

I mean, at least it isn't class based, but if anything that just makes my job harder.

[MCerberus]

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Technically they've both died

I'm actually really excited for this one, I think they know they have to deliver and can't get away with another Lightfall. Feel bad that I'm going to miss the launch window because I'm traveling and Bungie refuse to budge on Steam Deck support.



I mean, they wouldn't let you do it if they didn't want you to, but it's true that most of the paths (and the ones they expect first time players to get) are the evil ones.

It says a lot about destiny that one of the squirreliest race concepts in recent science fantasy needs less elaboration than what degree of dead things are.

[Errorname]

It says a lot about destiny that one of the squirreliest race concepts in recent science fantasy needs less elaboration than what degree of dead things are.

Space Dragon that grants wishes is honestly pretty self-explanatory, it's just unusual for the genre. Usually stories about shooting aliens in abandoned megacorp buildings on the moon don't also feature a magic city built by elf witches with the power of a space dragon.

[Cespenar]

I recently picked up Animal Well for the Switch. An atmospheric puzzle game with pixel-graphics. There are many things to like about it - I enjoy how the items you find are extremely mundane objects that never the less turn out to have a multitude of uses. There is a real joy in discovering new uses for each items as the game progresses. I generally think it's clever that the game manages to communicate so much to the player despite having extremely little text. I like that there is no actual combat (your character is a small, defenseless blob), so you have to handle threats by being clever and using the environment.

On the negative side there has been a few platforming sections that I've found a tad frustrating. Not a big fan of the point in puzzle games where you've worked out exactly what to do but just struggle to actually do it because your reflexes aren't great. It also does not seem to be an overly long game, although that's not necessarily a negative. I've only played a couple of hours and I've already found two of the four flames, and I'm pretty sure I'm very close to the third. Although of course I have no idea how much game there is after that, and there does seem to be a lot of hidden eggs to find still.

Yeah, pretty good and atmospheric for a pixelated platform puzzler, but my main gripe about games like these (and Hollow Knight, for example) is that after you do the first pass through an area and got all the "exploration fun", then remain all these small bits and secrets along every region of the game. Okay, fine, but then 99% of the time, the fast travel system either doesn't exist or is very limited, so you walk and walk and walk just to check a tiny dark space in the map x 25.

Still pretty good game though. :P

[MCerberus]

Space Dragon that grants wishes is honestly pretty self-explanatory, it's just unusual for the genre. Usually stories about shooting aliens in abandoned megacorp buildings on the moon don't also feature a magic city built by elf witches with the power of a space dragon.

I guess the dragon fluff and paracausal biology aside they do basically fill the role of the fey. The 9 they were also going for the cosmic horror thing, but then they made their one servant a silly little boy that goes around with a world of warcraft reference.

[Batcathat]

I felt like something different, so I decided to give Wildermyth another try and had a lot of fun with it. Finishing one campaign took maybe five or six hours of playing over the course of the weekend, which is a pretty good fit for someone who mostly plays on the weekend.

Also, between this and XCOM, I've realized that I like it when games like this have an ironman mode or similar, to protect me from myself so I actually progress instead of reloading even if I lose someone I like (though in this campaign of Wildermyth I managed to keep everyone alive until retirement or the end of the game, which might be a sign that it was a little too easy. ).

[Lord Raziere]

In FFXIV, I've gotten my Dark Knight to 70 and I love it, the class that makes me play tank, call me an edgy girl, but I just love its aesthetics and concept. after that, I leveled Warrior to 50 and seemed like just pure tank without any glamour but I haven't played it past 50. I'm now leveling Black Mage (my first class that I started with) and at 42 its starting to pick up and get better with Fire and Ice 3, the Black Mage might be the most deliberate class I've played in FFXIV, with like tanks or melee DPS you just go in and begin attacking and pressing buttons but with Black Mage you slow down and cast each spell because each spell you do deals so much damage at once- its truly a glass cannon rather than Wow's mage which felt more like a glass assault rifle to my memory, because you move as little as possible and you make each spell count and the constant flow between fire and ice to make your mana go up and down, and I think it was a good idea to go to other classes and experience things as not a black mage, because Black Mage is actually pretty different from how most things play in FFXIV because how slow and deliberate it is and I wouldn't have gotten context about FFXIV if I didn't change which speaks to the strength of its job changing system because the character I did all this in, is the same character I've used since starting FFXIV, starting as black mage was so long ago I barely remember it, and its great that I don't need to make another character to change things up and experience a class I find more fun or easier to learn and use, and I might've assumed all FFXIV classes were like black mage if I didn't, and I'm glad I changed to monk that first time. but I'm also glad I'm coming back to Black mage with more experience and understanding of how FFXIV in general works.

[Catullus64]

Looking through this thread got me back on a CRPG kick, so I decided both to re-try some old favorites and take another crack at ones I could never penetrate. It's Owlcat vs. Obsidian time!

On the Obsidian front, I honestly have no useful advice for someone trying to break through with Pillars of Eternity, I love that game so much that I've lost all perspective on what it's like to feel stuck in it. Deadfire certainly improves a lot of things in terms of making its systems more accessible and tightening up the combat, and ship exploration and upgrades are way, way more fun than fortress management in Pillars. Unfortunately, the writing seems to have taken a notable step downwards in many respects.

Tyranny is really, really great, and I've never finished it. The quest structure, even after you finish resolving the Edict, is very linear compared to the more traditional exploratory vibe of Pillars, and that turns me off, and I can't seem to make my character and party builds work and really crack the combat like I could with Pillars. The writing is incredible, it's quite possibly the best game about politics I've ever played, and the art style is distinctive. I really wish I knew what I was doing wrong.

On the Owlcat side, I rebooted Rogue Trader, and have had much more luck with it after I spent a solid 2+ hour wiki walk on just its combat mechanics. The writing is overall good and feels authentic to the 40k setting, but it has the same problem with its dialogues that I encountered with Owlcat's Pathfinder games, where the consequences or meaning of my dialogue choices always seems unclear. Characters often seem to be reacting to things in a way that's a little disconnected to what I actually said, and I often feel like there are really, really obvious things my character should be able to say, but can't. But I like the combat and the characters much better than, say, those in Kingmaker, and so I may end up sticking it out to the end.

[ArmyOfOptimists]

On the Owlcat side, I rebooted Rogue Trader, and have had much more luck with it after I spent a solid 2+ hour wiki walk on just its combat mechanics. The writing is overall good and feels authentic to the 40k setting, but it has the same problem with its dialogues that I encountered with Owlcat's Pathfinder games, where the consequences or meaning of my dialogue choices always seems unclear. Characters often seem to be reacting to things in a way that's a little disconnected to what I actually said, and I often feel like there are really, really obvious things my character should be able to say, but can't. But I like the combat and the characters much better than, say, those in Kingmaker, and so I may end up sticking it out to the end.

Many times the obvious stuff is still locked behind finding the right things in the environment or piloting the quest triggers correctly. Which I'm torn on. It's a very literal interpretation of "You know that, but your character doesn't." Rogue Trader seems to be a bit worse with it than the Pathfinder games, where I didn't have as many issues triggering the special dialogue.

For example, early on when you head to the governor's planet that has a very obvious cult operating in it, you can only get the correct dialogues to convince him to take it seriously if you've scoured all the corners to find the crazed citizens wandering about, fought some demons in the underbelly, destroyed a weird artifact, and a few other things that need doing. Given the state of the planet, it's frustrating if you miss one event and lay out 90% of the issues to him only to have him say "It's nothing. Trivial matters with the commonfolk." On the other hand, futile screaming into the face of nonchalant Imperium nobility is very on brand for 40k.

It'd be nice if they included an optional toggle that would reveal all the special lines in dialogue, with them being unselectable if you hadn't fulfilled their requirements. At least then you'd know if there was something you'd done or missed that made the conversation flow wrong.

[LibraryOgre]

On the Obsidian front, I honestly have no useful advice for someone trying to break through with Pillars of Eternity, I love that game so much that I've lost all perspective on what it's like to feel stuck in it. Deadfire certainly improves a lot of things in terms of making its systems more accessible and tightening up the combat, and ship exploration and upgrades are way, way more fun than fortress management in Pillars. Unfortunately, the writing seems to have taken a notable step downwards in many respects.

So, sticking with PoE, what do you recommend wrt "generalist" v. "specialist", especially where skills are concerned?

I have an urge to go with a generalist for my MC... pretty spread out skills between Athletics, Lore, Mechanics, and Survival (I almost always put stealth type skills on a non-main character). So, I might have specialists in my party, but I keep fighting the urge for that generalist. That also often goes for attributes... I am terminally unable to dumpstat.

How big a problem is the Godlike's inability to wear helmets?

Does Fighter "keep up" as the game goes on? I'm liking their regenerating endurance feature, but not sure if they remain viable.

***

Unrelated to PoE:

I'm poking away at a bard run on Kingmaker... I have a type... but also decided to play Wizardry 6: Bane of the Cosmic Forge. I downloaded a mod that increases the likelihood of good stat rolls, then sat down and made my party

Dwarf Priest... who immediately became a valkyrie
Rawulf Priest... who immediately became a Lord
Felpurr Alchemist... who immediately became a Samurai
Elf Alchemist who became a Ninja
Mook Psionic who became a ninja
Faerie Bard who stayed a bard.

Aside from the bard, everyone met the bare requirements for their classes, then pumped up Strength and Vitality and Piety... high Str and Vit giving good encumbrance once changed, high PIE giving an improvement to mana regen, which was already high because everyone's first class (except the bard) was a full caster.

And by "immediately" I mean "the first actions I was able to take". The way I figured it, I could get decent gear for everyone pretty quickly (selling the amulet of life), and while 1st level would be a chore, once I hit 2nd level, I was little different than someone who started as that class and got a bad roll.

[Mx.Silver]

So, sticking with PoE, what do you recommend wrt "generalist" v. "specialist", especially where skills are concerned?

I have an urge to go with a generalist for my MC... pretty spread out skills between Athletics, Lore, Mechanics, and Survival (I almost always put stealth type skills on a non-main character). So, I might have specialists in my party, but I keep fighting the urge for that generalist. That also often goes for attributes... I am terminally unable to dumpstat.

Skill investment depends a lot on what you want your character to be doing.

Mechanics requires a pretty heavy investment to stay useful for trapfinding (the highest you'll need for every trap in the game is 12, iirc). Its bonuses to trap accuracy will also benefit from continued investment to stay effective into the late game. As such, it's mainly only worth investing in for a character who's going to be a dedicated trap-springer (and you are going to want someone who can be that).

Athletics can be useful to have a rank or two for everyone, but isn't going to see much use beyond that for anyone who isn't on the frontlines. It can also matter for some scripted events and conversation choices, although the former generally won't require it to be the main character who has the stat.

Stealth is another one that's useful to have a couple of ranks on everyone for exploration and pre-combat (re)positioning. Higher investments tend to only be of benefit to melee characters since they're the ones who'll want to get closest to enemies (although if you want to try sneaking past enemies entirely, you'll want more on everyone - although this won't get around the more important fights).

Lore is good for anyone who wants to be using spell scrolls. Importantly: every 2 ranks in Lore unlocks a new level of spell scroll — so odd ranks don't matter — and there are only 6 levels of scrolls so there is no reason to take more than 12 points (and even then there's only 1 type of level 6 scroll in the game, so 10 points will get nearly everything out of it). There are some decent scroll options available at all levels, so how much you want to put into depends on how much time a given character will be using scrolls. It also has a quite a lot of conversation options tied to it, so it can be worth it for the MC if you want to see those (which is the only time odd ranks will unlock anything).

Survival always has some utility, since every point invested either unlocks a new camping buff to use (up to 6) or improves an existing one (every rank after that, up until 18). The buffs are, in order: more damage reduction; more healing recieved; faster move speed; more accuracy against a chosen type of enemy; longer duration for potions/consumables; more damage against flanked targets. Not every character is going to benefit from every bonus, but they'll always benefit from at least one of them. Having a higher survival also fills-out your bestiary faster, although that's not terribly significant.

How big a problem is the Godlike's inability to wear helmets?

Not very big. While there are some strong helmet-slot items in the game, most of them (aside from the Company Captain's Cap) won't show-up until the White Marches expansion areas, which are pretty late in the game. Some of those are very good but, as with most 'optimal' choices in Pillars, not having those isn't going to impact your game unless you're on the hardest difficulty settings.
(note that Godlike can still put on the hood you need for a specific storyline quest, so playing as one won't get in the way of that).
Wheather it's worth it aesthetically is another question

Does Fighter "keep up" as the game goes on? I'm liking their regenerating endurance feature, but not sure if they remain viable.

Yes, they do. Pillars doesn't really have any "bad" classes; the optimisation ceilings and versitility for some may be a little higher than others, but every one is perfectably viable throughout the game.



One other general tip for new PoE players is that NPCs with gold nameplates are kickstarter backer created characters and you never need to interact with any of them.

[Catullus64]

So, sticking with PoE, what do you recommend wrt "generalist" v. "specialist", especially where skills are concerned?

I have an urge to go with a generalist for my MC... pretty spread out skills between Athletics, Lore, Mechanics, and Survival (I almost always put stealth type skills on a non-main character). So, I might have specialists in my party, but I keep fighting the urge for that generalist. That also often goes for attributes... I am terminally unable to dumpstat.

How big a problem is the Godlike's inability to wear helmets?

Does Fighter "keep up" as the game goes on? I'm liking their regenerating endurance feature, but not sure if they remain viable.

In terms of skills, you absolutely want a party member who specializes in Mechanics, as Trap difficulties can be a hard barrier. Aside from that, it's not super important to have a party member with max ranks in anything, so I like to generalize; every party member should have at least 1 Rank in Athletics & Survival ASAP for camping bonuses & second wind. A few ranks of Lore is decent on a PC for dialogue interactions, but I haven't encountered many of those with a particularly high requirement.

For me, I typically like to have either my own PC be the mechanics specialist, because I know they'll always be in the party. If not, I usually have Aloth do it. I also like to put decent ranks into Eder's Stealth; as the designated tank, he's often the one I want to sneak into close positions with the enemy, before revealing him to draw aggro.

The helmets thing is pretty trivial. High-powered headgear won't really be a thing until the late game, and by that point it's pretty easy to blow the power curve up anyhow.

Fighters are the best tank from early through late game, hands down. Eder or a PC Fighter can take ungodly amounts of punishment. As melee damage dealers, they're not quite on par with Rogues or Barbarians, but they're decent.