Party composition

[Lephys]

Not really the same thing. In fact, it practically is necessary for you to equip weapons, unless you make a party of Monks. Can you still attack things? Sure. Will you actually make it through the game? Probably not. MAYBE on Easy?

[Sock]

Well few months ago having priest was a must, but now i'm not so sure. I've heard that the game isn't as deadly as it was before - either by correcting the bugs connected with interruptions and such or just by lowering the difficulty level (??) ... or both. I'm struggling with this choice (having priest in my party) myself - as i like to play dmg oriented party - so dmg dealers and buffers/debuffers/crowd controlers, but no healers and tanks - but sometimes, as said before, it's simply a MUST.

 

I managed to complete the beta with a party that was:

Wizard, Chanter, Cipher, Druid, Paladin, Barbarian.

 

I took Lay On Hands with the paladin, the self-heal for the barbarian, and everyone else was on their own. My paladin was either using LoH on herself or the barbarian, everyone else was charming and paralyzing, it was all about the CC game, and it really worked.

 

Regardless of party compensation, you still need ways to counter enemy damage--healing is one way, but preventing the damage from occuring at all either through extreme DPS or heavy crowd control, works just as well. My barbarian was the one most often in trouble of dying, but he was a front line fighter in hide armor just cause. He still managed to top the damage charts while dual wielding.

[Failion]

I'll probably go with a barbarian then whatever else. I think when I first played a infinity engine game way back when and was a noob I made a barbarian. Theres something really appealing about a class that gets slugged around and plays with death. A berserker kind of fighter is cool in general in most media.

 

[Madscientist]

I seem to recall early on that there was an intent that if you wanted to use a party of six of one class, you could, it would just be difficult. Saw the PCWorld interview  from 5 days ago where Sawyer says pretty much the same thing, so seems to me that whether you want a priest in your party (or a "typical" party makeup) is up to you....and one's preferred playstyle. So...I think I'm going to assume a priest is not "necessary" and my first party will attempt to not have any. 

 

We did design the game so you don't have to have a nuclear party. You don't need to have a fighter, a rogue, a wizard and a priest if you don't want to. You can make gimmick parties, you can make a party that's all paladins or all rogues and wizards. Whatever you want. It is designed so the game will be viable and completable no matter how you built your party.

 

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2886976/pillars-of-eternity-josh-sawyer-talks-mods-pc-first-focus-big-head-mode-and-more.html

 

This is good to know. But I guess I will have a typical party when I play.

 

By the way: Right now I play NWN2 again (I had forgotten how many bugs there are and how the AS (artificial stupidity, you can´t call this behaviour intelligent) can drive you crazy).

I like the party members, but I dislike the influence system. I choose an answer because it gives "You have gained +2 influence on X) and not what my character would do if he was alone. Same goes for KOTOR 2. Kreia was the best character I ever had in a party, but the system "forced" me to choose the answers my companions like. When you see numbers, you get the desire to min/max and conversation becomes a mini game for reputation.

 

I hope there is no such system in PoE. If you have an influence system in PoE, please do not show us the numbers. It is a system that prevents you from acting in character.

[ISC]

I hope there is no such system in PoE. If you have an influence system in PoE, please do not show us the numbers. It is a system that prevents you from acting in character.

 

 

There is a "personality tracking" system which shows what choices give you a "minor" or "major" reputation of being X personality or with Y faction, but no numbers.