It is. Perception seems purely a combat stat (deflection and interrupt) and used in dialogs, while mechanics is the non-combat stat (finding traps and secrets).

http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/71122-secrets-and-traps/
Nobody disagreed, yet.

https://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/211651/why-am-i-having-trouble-finding-secrets

Pro: perception is not a mandatory main stat if you don't want to stumble absent minded through a dungeon.
Con: it feels awkward. Even the name "perception" screams "put points into me if you want to notice stuff".

[Maybe spoilers ahead]





As for the difficulty, I find it rather too easy after a while. The first few areas were undoubtly tough. The traps on chest blew me up every time. Calisca is a pretty durable fighter, though. Try to concentrate your attacks on one enemy at a time. The shadows went down pretty fast that way. You can sometimes pull fewer enemies than a whole group of 4 or 5 with a ranged weapon. And you can use Calisca to block a door so not all enemies can swarm your ranged characters. Try to experiment with positioning a bit.

Once you get to the Gilded Vale and recruit Eder, Aloth and Durance it became almost too easy. I gave Eder the door... I mean shield you get early on and gave him many defensive skill at each level up. Standard tactic is to use him and my animal companion to block doors/narrow passages and have Durance cast spells that restore endurance and boost defensive stats.

More edit: don't choose constitution below 10. I've read it many times, that people min/max everything and drop CON to 3, the lowest I think. Enemies make quick work with you that way and I always found glass cannon characters extremly difficult to play in D&D based RPGs.

I am quite surprised that an experienced RPG player would find the game so hard. I'm playing on hard, and this way, the game is not that hard, just hard enough for my taste. If, by “experienced in RPG”, you mean Diablo, I guess what your problem might be.
I believe I am not that good a RPG player, so the only thing I can think about that could ruin your experience is the space bar. Do you hit it often? and the D and S keys? Because no pause means death, and fast or normal speed means too hard. Especially with the maddening pathfinding and the characters changing their orders all the time.

Strange, the logs made me to think the otherwise, but I'll be making experiments from now to verify that.
Thanks by your answer.

If you find the temple of Eothas hard then wait and see what the Endless Paths bring lol. Im playing on Normal but having a party of six makes it easier. Plus both the temple and the endless paths are near places where you can rest. Exploit that. You don't have to finish off the temple in one take

Thanks guys for your replies, but I am afraid I haven't been very clear to some of you (my bad).

With "I have played RPGs for over 20 years" I did not imply that I am very good at them, but that I can recognise when the difficulty of such games have not been done properly. Sorry, if you can go "around" this and still have a good time playing PoE, good for you. And good for you also if you find this game very easy, you must be good, what can I say.

That is not the point, guys. I am not here to measure dicks to see who is "the best at what they do".

I am not going to play a game where I have to walk in a straight line to go over a map to reach a certain point, because if I stray too far away from the path, I am going to encounter trolls and groups of bandits that will annihilate me with a gaze, only to go back there much later on when I will be 2-3 levels higher.

I am also not walking back to previous section of the map, still in a straight line, in order to hunt for side quest and level 2-3 levels up, just so that I can carry on with the story. The first ruin (Caed something, I don't recall) is an example of this. I had to go back and try to level up, only to discover that you don't make XP by killing monsters. So walked back to the first village and strated looking for side quests, when I realize "Why bother, really...I already bored to death".

I think this game is great, it could have been super great accessible by all and not only the veterans that have the infinity engine as a brain.

Have fun guys, I'll go back playing Divinity.

In that case, I would suggest dropping the difficulty to easy. That's what it's there for, and you'll get your money's worth of fun. In fact, that's what the game recommends you to play if you're not an Infinity Engine veteran, which you yourself say you're not, so I'm not sure why you even went for Normal. The game is not a competition, there's no multiplayer, there's really no reason to not go for easy option - unless you want to waste your money that is.

From what I've read it;s Mechanics. Maybe perceptions plays a role (it should, but probably does not). Some secrets may require 0 Mechanics.

3 constitution character is playable. My Rogue has 3. And she fights in melee. For a low base endurance/health class the percentage drop may not do so much harm. It makes the game more difficult, of course because you have to manage your fragile character. And not every class will survive with such low CON.

I didn't consider it at first, but I wanted to have at least two dialogue usable attributes as high as possible, and other attributes like Might and Dexterity were more important for my class. As for stats like resolve, intelligence and perception and their impact on dialogues, notice that they have to be over 10 to make an impact. So form this point of view 10 is as good as 3, AFAIK.

I wouldn't advise it for a novice player, though.

If anything, I find it easy on normal with my Cipher. She simply plowed through the enemies even in the beginning, when she was alone. I've found that the key to winning fights is to use affliction attacks (dazed, blindness, hobbled, etc.) before releasing your damage attacks. That way you can effectively control the battlefield and snipe enemies from the distance. Since my Cipher is pretty squishy in melee, I've given her a crossbow and later switched to arbalest, when Eader joined and I had someone to keep the enemy tied down.

Scouting locations is essential. You can position your characters, set up traps and inspect enemy number and their weaknesses. Shadows are a real nuisance. Phantoms are even worse. Both have daze and stun attacks, respectively, plus teleport spell for shadows.

I've found that the best way to deal with them is a fast weapon, with decent interrupt (0.35 is ok but 0.5 is ideal). That way you can overwhelm them with attacks, while denying them the chance to hit you. Since they teleport to your weakest characters, have Durance protect that character with sanctuary spell once their endurance starts to get low - sorry, can't remember the name of the spell in PoE. Other tactic is to interrupt shadows with ranged attacks (hunting bow is great because of it's speed) while your fighter hits them with high damage weapons (Fine Estoc or Justice work fine). Once you get it, Whispers of Yenwood sword is also good for dealing with them, because of Spirit damage. You can also enchant other weapons to deal that type of damage. Shadows and Phantoms have high will, so spells attacking that work poorly.

Potions raising your deflection and speed are also good investment when dealing with shadows and phantoms.

I am a little confused by what you say here if you have played lots of RPG's, I am a very experienced RPG player too but like your self I wouldn't say I am the best, but it is pretty standard in a lot of games that you will have to back track at some point, its not unheard of for a named higher level NPC to have a camp in a low level area, or a dungeon or keep to require say a level 5 party even though the mobs in the surrounding area are only level 2.

My tactic has always been over the years to wait till I get another level or go and get some help, that's how I understand that you are supposed to play such games, don't let this ruin it for you, you really would be missing out, its just part of the game. As you can fast travel easy enough at least you don't have to walk all the way back as I have encountered in other games.

Danipenn, mate, I wish I had as much money to burn as you do :p

Don't give up on the game yet.

Like you said, this isn't a dick measuring contest. So why not drop the difficulty to Easy and get comfy with the game that way? I'm familiar with the Infinity Engine, and I still did that. This isn't a game that punishes you for taking the Easy difficulty (to the best of my knowledge) so why not do that?

I find a lot of what you describe as pretty familiar RPG stuff. It's expected from a more old school take on the genre. And as for Caed Nua, if you mean the Endless Paths, I think the idea is to not do it in a single go; I think the idea there is to recreat a really old school mega-dungeon, where it's par for the course that you have to leave and re-enter a few times.

I've also been playing RPGs for almost 20 years, and my perception of 'normal' difficulty in the genre was shaped by stuff like the original Fallout and Baldur's Gate, both of which I recall as being much tougher than PoE. Of course, it could be that I just got better at this stuff, but I dunno.

It is difficult on "hard" at the beginning, but gets easier once you have a full party, good items and skilled your chars a bit.

Although I have been playing CRPGs since the 80's, I also was taken aback the first time I ran across the temple's shadows. And then I recalled what worked when I played TSR's Forgotten Realms, with a twist: I placed a fireball trap at the entrance, shot at the first one I saw and pulled back to the rest of the party on the other side of the door. Two or three shadows would get hit with the trap and my PCs would kill off the first one immediately and then concentrate on the second.

PoE may be harder than most rpgs, but I suspect that has more to do with the terms -- resolve, dexterity (I'm more familiar now with D&D) -- and their usages than with the actual monsters.

Mage is pretty easy actually on normal. Just use Arcane Assault/Minoletta's. I couldn't kill the bear though on my own. Don't give up yet.
Recruit Eder and Aloth in Gilded Vale and do some sidequests. I recommend the Temple of Eothas pretty early, it's not hard with those two. And then you can go towards Caed Nua around level 4-5.

I finished the game on Path of the Damned as my first playtrough without bigger problems. Now im playing as Ciper Solo on Hard difficulty and its goin pretty well, im allready in Twin Elms. To me, you are either ignorant or complete noob. Try to check some basic stuff. And pause the game to issue orders. cant help u anymore.

Necroing a 1-year old thread just to lob an insult. Classy...