I found it quite difficult to the point I gave up. There's only so much running around with single digit HP, waiting for your health to slowly regenerate, while Practical Incarnation chases you in circles that you can take.

I had a bunch of healing items and they were all used up in the fight against Ignus who I barely beat after being killed and resurrected multiple times. But you can't resurrect against Practical the way you can against Ignus. It's not like I can teleport out of my fight with Practical Inc to get some more healing items. Also, without a party with you in the Fortress of Regrets, your inventory space is massively limited. I would have to load back to Sigil, losing hours of progress, to get more healing items that may very well just be used up while fighting Ignus again.

Again I find it very interesting that what is hyped as a story, dialogue based game is now just about stat buffing, getting stronger or buffing INT/WIS, and level number boosting. This very thread and the posts here prove it. We're here talking about how to buff up, stock healing items, or grinding INT/WIS just to beat Practical Inc, or you lose the game like I did.

And it's interesting that when I outright say this game has too much emphasis on buffing, grinding, and level crunching instead of story, I'm told I'm incorrect and then told immediately without irony how I need to "buy healing items, raise ability status, am too low level" etc. No offense intended to anyone, I just find it very strange.

Oh c'mon, Fortress of Regrets is a quite small location. It's no more than 10 minutes to get to the point where you are, now that you know what to do. Did Ignus stop you for a few hours? Just buy tons of Heart Charms and you should be fine.

Basically every RPG relies on stat buffing in one way or another. It's nothing unusual that later in the game you encounter enemies that require your character to specialize in something. Maybe you should switch the genre if you don't like this kind of gameplay. There are also some RPG's with massive level scaling (Oblivion for example), which don't require a superior character in the endgame.

We're constantly talking about buffing because this is the topic of conversation. It doesn't mean that PT relies on this thing. In fact, it's the opposite in my opinion. RPG's that so heavily rely on storytelling are very scarce.

It took way more than 10 minutes because I was constantly fending off the monsters in the Fortress of Regrets. And that fight with Ignus took a VERY long time (it might have been over an hour).

The difference between PST and other RPGs is that many other RPGs allow you to teleport/escape out when you make a mistake and rearrange your stats. Two Worlds goes so far as to have special trainers to respec your character.

I love RPGs and have played scores of them. Every single Ultima game, both Knights of the Old Republics, both Neverwinter Nights, both Icewind Dales, Baldur's Gate, Skyrim, Wizardry, the original Rogue (yes I actually got the Amulet of Yendor and beat THE Rogue on which all Roguelikes are based), Fable, Two Worlds, the entire Witcher series (1-3, transferring the character each time), Ys series, Final Fantasy series, the entire campaign of Lord of the Rings Online, Star Wars the Old Republic MMO up to VItiate's death, Neverwinter MMO up to level 60, Elder Scrolls Online entire main campaign, Marvel Ultimate Alliance, both X-Men Legends games, Grim Dawn, Diablo 3, Sword Coast Legends, and more. That's at least 50 RPGs I've beaten the main campaigns of (I'm probably forgetting some) and I hope to beat many more RPG's in the future. Planescape Torment is literally the only game out of every single one I just listed that got me down.

I'm not going to "switch the genre" because RPGs are my life. In the literally scores of RPGs I've enjoyed vs Planescape Torment which was awful for me, at some point people have to stop making assumptions that I don't like the genre (in light of the 50+ RPGs I've beaten) and think maybe there are indeed flaws with Planescape Torment itself.

That's a lot in both cases. Which class did you play? Warrior should get through the pre-Ignus part like a hot knife through butter. Did you have Ignus in your party for most of the game? If so, he probably leveled up a bit and that's why the confrontation was so hard. But I'm not sure if the game transfers exactly the same character for this part. I really never had any problems here.

Most modern RPG's have this feature, but not the classic titles. Where you can find a place to respec your character in BG? Or in NWN? It's also not so uncommon in RPG's that you reach a moment with no return. This is true especially for endgame faze. Once you leave Athkatla to get to Spellhold in BG2, you can't return until late faze of the game. Once you get to Nine Hells, you can't get back at all. Now NWN HotU. After you finish the first act, you can't get back to Waterdeep before the final fight.

I'm not saying this is impossible. Not everyone can love every game. Did you try Torment Tides of Numenera?

If you're heavily criticizing a classic title which is considered a masterpiece in the genre, don't be surprised that people will accuse you of reluctance to RPG's. :)

My Nameless One was a fighter, and pre-Ignus monsters were going through my character like butter. :O I didn't have Ignus in my party, but he was among the worst bosses I faced in my gaming experience and I only won because the Nameless One can keep resurrecting in this fight.

In NWN Hordes of the Underdark, even when your character is in Cania they still have access to merchants in safe town areas. They even lampshade this with people asking why anyone still uses gold after they are dead. Contrast this to Carceri in PST where the entire town is overrun by monsters and you cannot even get to a merchant safely.

At this point I will just admit Planescape Torment isn't for me and maybe I will move on to Tides of Numenera like you suggest.

Alright, you can use merchants in the City of Lost Souls, but once you leave it after the dialogue with Planetar, you'll loose access to it until the end of the game. There's no way to get back earlier. There's still of course a portable merchant, if you have the appropriate item from the first chapter, but I wouldn't treat this as a standard way of buying items. There's a possibility that you won't have the item after all.

Prepare for more points of no return. :) But the game has many options of resolving almost every quest. You can almost completely avoid battles, if you play it right.