Torm51

I can't hit a damn thing and I use a tower shield (larger door) plus Faith and Conviction as a Paladin. At a 100 at level 4.

Ya I just dumped dex for that reason

Hah that's what I did!

So I ran into a group of these at level 3. I killed them but man they hit my tanks VERY hard. And these are min maxed tanks with 90 Deflection at level 3. I still have starter armor so my chainmail has no Pierce DT could that of that been part of the problem lol holy crap I was sweating for a minute.

Only thing I can think of is an Enemy Paladin casting Liberating Exhortation but I don't think any Fampyr has Paladin allies..

Keep walking south to Gilded Vale. I am assuming you just started the game. Check your Journal.

I know man I know. And you are right. I just cant bring myself to make a super dumb character. I know hes not actually DUMB in the game..lol. I am a frustrated RPG gamer as I want great results (Min/Maxer) but like SOME RP. These don't mix usually.

-You could go Cipher or Rogue as they have per encounter abilities. The Cipher has awesome CC and can do good dps. The rogue built correctly is a ball of absolute hate. he can really dish out pain. I would recommend both eventually as a Cipher with mental binding and rogue with penetrating shot can absolutely murder things. The hardest boss in the game (I wont say anything as I don't want to spoil it) I turned into swiss cheese thanks to mental binding and a rogue with a 4 blunderbusses. Wizard sucks early cause ALL of his spells are per rest (just like the druid). at level 9 though first 2 level spells are PER ENCOUNTER and are still very powerful. Slicken, Eldritch Aim, Fan of Flames, the Dazzling lights debuff, even the missiles can hit super hard. You also get a super long per encounter blind (Curse of Blackness) and Miasma of Dullness to ware down defenses of enemies. The rest of their per rest high level spells can make some fights VERY trivial. But this is late game. I agree early game they just turn auto attackers who have to wait for the big fight to be useful (same as the Druid). Also Aloth is built very questionably as his might is terrible so his dps suffers but if you use him as a debuffer hes useful as he can caster pretty quick and has a large AOE thanks to his high Int. This also makes his debuffs last a long time. Also if you are not playing double tanks Eder can made into a good consistent damage dealer with ok survivability. Let your tank Paladin(my favorite class) face tank the big bad guys.

Raven you are like my PoE psychologist hahah. I am at work and thinking of this crap I have serious issues. I am 30 years old lmfao. Ok cool. Tossing 2 mental bindings asap is pretty solid though. I still feel like on PoTD the AI has a damn CHEATING DICE! What weapon would you recommend for a ranged Cipher? I know Blunderbusses aren't what they used to be. Firearms? Warbows? Hunting bows? (Thing with huting bows is the low damage against high DT targets).

I thought I was picking biting whip. doh. I playing trial of iron so I cant go back. is this going to gimp my cipher or is it recoverable lol. Honestly I should taken an accuracy talent this early I am a moron lol. She can cast 2 Paralyzes immediately which is good but accuracy early game is so damn critical in PoTD. I do have my priest tossing accuracy buffs out but a lot of the time it just not enough man. Painful accuracy issues early game in PoTD. I just feel like the AI has a cheating dice man. I haven't died but no matter how much I accuracy I can buff I just tend to get terrible rolls. Roll the dice type combat is really slapping me in the face and I like it. I haven't played on RPG with this system since Kotor and while on hard it seems like the PC and I have the same dice I feel like on PoTD the AI is damn cheating!

That's good advice and very similar to what I have been doing. Though I find that in act 1 even heavy hitters with high accuracy have A LOT of issues hitting stuff. Even with my priest buffing them with accuracy. I am playing a Paladin tank as well and I just do not have room for high INT (I don't dump it though leav it at 10) in order to get my back liners with Zealous Focus. So I just take Zealous Endurance which is very good anyway for tanks and my front line. The graze procs a lot (or maybe I am lucky) and its more DT. Currently I am running a similar build to your planned Moon Like except I playing a Coastal Aumaua with a similar build to your Godlike except he has more dex and 12/12 str and con. My original Moon Godlike who I beat the game with (Trial of Iron Hard) was a Moonlike with 4 dex and I just cant stand how slow it is. I know its good for dumping though on a tank. If I did that I could get more Fort from more Con/Might or more Int but I just hate playing such a slow character. At 8 Dex you really don't notice it at least and you get a few more points for Fort saves.

Right as a tank I am definitely getting max per or damn close (17) so I usually have after W and S style a lot of reflex. Just being slow is blah sometimes lol

Agreed. I am reforming the party for sure.

Agreed. Granted its a Leader class and has a lot of good support abilities so I get not having offense like a Fighter. On the 1.06 patch I have it. I don't quite understand what the buff was. When I cast on Exhortation I still have to wait on the recover time. Is it because ACTION SPEED no longer matters with those spells? I think that's it. Mad you are a big time hard liner so I like your advice (Everonyes is welcome obviously lol). You really think there is little value in having a high dex tank that interrupts a lot? I think I know where you are coming from in that there is very limited amount of enemies in the game that warrant being interrupted. Also mages are usually in the rear of the enemy formation at the start of the fight. You wont be able to run over fast enough and you will take 10 disengagement hits before you get there. I guess a Chargadin could make it work. A guy that runs a lot of disengagement defense with Zealous Charge. Seems a bit limited and gimmicky though.

With so many enemies on PoTD they must get to your back line. You just burn whatever gets through the tank?

I think a fighter Tank is more capable of offense. His natural accuracy is higher and you get confident aim. Even with Zealous Focus fighter accuracy is better. I think if a Paladin wants to deal damage he needs to go all out. All offensive talents and a 2hander get rid of even the buckler. Maybe I'm wrong but I've beaten trial of iron a few times (on hard I know soft) and that's what I see. As a tank I think with end game Faith and Conviction he's the best tank. But it's a pure defense meat shield. You could argue the fighter I know. As a Paladin you just want too many stats. It's either offense or defense. Again maybe I'm wrong.

Yep that was my thought process. As skip do you mean dump it completely or leave it at 10? I know there isn't a correct answer but I am curious as what you would do.

Something like (Coastal Aumua..I like them lol and I like the Racial for tanks) Might 12 Con 10 Dex 14 (if you go Deadfire Archipelago) Per 16 Int 10 Res 16

so what is the answer here? I guess not dumping dex and being a rust bucket has some benefits?

That's good advice definitely. thing is as Paladin losing a lot of Resolve sucks as you lose a butt load of deflection. You would have to dump something to get high Dex, Res and Per. I guess you could dump Con (I would leave it at 10 and grab Might for the saves and LoH heals) but fort saves are awesome and Weapon and shield talent more then makes up for low Dex as it gives you super Reflex saves with the more Deflection your shield has. But yes you are interrupting that's true. Maybe that's what he was better at just in the given situation it didn't matter.

So I rolled at a tank that did not have a negative in Dex this time around. My last one Dex was his dump stat and he did his job as an immovable object. This guy was overall more balanced. with no negatives in Dex. He should technically DPS better no? But as the example below states it didn't matter as I feel like if you have equipped a one hander It just doesn't punch through DT like it should unless you have offensive talents (like vulnerable attack) which most tanks don't spec or a high accuracy class. The only thing he did better was kill soft targets faster. Which my rusty old 3 Dex did as well. Just slower. Is there any point in dumping dex as a defensive tank? Does a defensively specced tank have any hope of punching through High DT? He is likely using a hatchet or some type of one hander. If you switch to a single weapon you will not have the defense and get worn down on POTD. Last night my trial of iron ended cause I walked into the leaden key meeting with my party by mistake (haha!). I had bad positioning and my most of softess got chewed up. It was just me and Eder and we just couldn't kill the Plate wearers in there (we did kill all the softees). Funny thing is they could not kill us. I went to take a shower and came back 15 minutes later and we were still hacking away at each other. I just exiting the game and counted it as a loss. I didn't prepare properly by bringing scrolls. Point is this tank had supposedly had better "DPS" with 10 Dex yet did the SAME job my rust bucket 3 Dex guy did. Why not have the stats into more deflection at that point? I just hate stat dumping. Regards, Torm

Currently I am still alive after Maerwold/Raedric fight and the Spider Queen. So it cant be that terrible but I suspect late game this party may cost me. Party Set up is what is suspect and I need help with. I have tried a 3 tank set up to make up for the extra mobs and it does give me a lot more staying power as I don't have to worry about my softees getting chewed up.. offtank 3 will pick them up. Party is as follows: Pc Paladin tank Darcozzi for accuracy buffs. Eder tank spec Kana offtank spec probably a mistake as his stats don't lend to tanking but his dex is low too so his dps is meh. I gave him weapon and shield style and cautious attack and he can take on 2 bad guys without getting seriously hurt. He cannot tank heavy hitters or 3+ mobs. Obviously he doesn't have the stats for it. But PHANTOM is CLUTCH early game. Rogue Warbow specced. I think she does good damage but isn't as good as my Blunderbuss Island Aumaua with 4 Blunderbusses at least not up front. maybe in a long boss fight. I don't know. Durance standard priest buff/debuff stuff (doesn't get pro until level 9 I hate per rest classes early game). Aloth CC/Damage (I have slicken, Accuracy buff, chill fog, missiles and Miasma but I should of taken blind first. that's next level). So obviously my burst is low which is why I think end game this is a no go. Outlasting hard hitters like The Master Below with non min/maxed builds can cost you. my tanks will have about 140 deflection and high 110+ saves if I get there which is good but not enough to outlast her so she has to die FAST. Would switching out Kana be safe? it has worked well early game but I am afraid the dps will just not be enough late game and ill succumb to bad rolls since the fight lasted too long. Granted by then he will have Ogres and If I stick with 3 tanks he will have the time to cast it. What would you guys switch in this party set up?

What other perspective do you feel that they use?

I do not think I have ever played a game where people think its properly balanced. Whine City all day everyday. I agree it isn't perfect but it isn't bad.

As far as the Goldpact Knight goes I understand and its good for RP purposes (which I very much like) but his/her Faith and Conviction wont grow lol cause the NPC doesn't make behavior choices of Rational and Stoic hah! But ya I mean I guess having +5 deflection and the base +10 (I think it is) to saves at rank one isn't terrible it just could be A LOT better. Ya I think just automatically giving NPC paladins a rank of Faith and Conviction every 4 levels would make sense since they cant make decisions or making you pay for it buy having to buy untroubled faith in order for that NPC paladin to achieve those ranks. This is rarely a problem for me as I usually am the Paladin (not always but a lot of the time) but sometimes I want try a duel Paladin run and I am not getting the full extent of that second Paladin.