Definitely give Ruthless a go, I love it… reminds me of early game ARPG’s on higher difficulties. Positioning really matters, you have to adapt based on what you get. It seems to have been the proving ground for PoE2’s new tempo.

I was going to do an origin character as a solo play-through and a custom character for a group play-through with my mates, but now I might do it the other way around… which means hours in the character creator! Ha.

NPCs! Definitely not PCs! Ha.

I have seen people that don’t track spell slots for NPCs and just have them all at-will, which I think is an interesting idea. But I tend to give players non-combat objectives in their encounters, which prolongs them significantly so spell slot usage can become important for balance for NPCs in those cases.

I just have a series of “pips” that I colour-in when used and erase when claimed back. Super simple, easy to see at-a-glance, and robust so it’s not going to get messed up in my bag. Added bonus is that it works when being DM too and you have several casters to track simultaneously.

“Out of the frying pan, into the fire”

I think after Dawn of War III, caution is the key! But yes, this is certainly one to watch!

In the original XCOM my brother and I didn’t realise you needed to collect and research everything. We thought it was like a horde-survival game, however it could infact be completed. Learning this years after starting to play was one of my best gaming experiences - I came back to my parents for the weekend just to blow my brother’s mind!

Wow, that’s amazing! They must have had a great teacher to achieve those results!