KDubya

The team looks good. The only comments I have is the Aumaua Monk a Coastal with the prone defense or the Islander with the weapon slot? Extra weapons do little for a monk unless you want a dual fist, fist and shield and dual spears set up. For Monks I prefer either Dwarf, either Orlan and Pale Elves. They all have nice bonuses. With the paladins I'd skip any reviving exhortations. Your not going to get KO'd and if you do you can use a scroll. The whole team does damage, its not as if there is only one superstar who does all the work who needs to be kept alive. I even skipped Liberating exhortation last time through and did not even miss it. I just cowboy upped when an affliction was active. I'd get everyone but the Chanter a weapon focus, especially early an extra +6 accuracy helps a bunch.

If you go with: 1.) MC Bleak Walker paladin - a strong combatant plus adds group buffs 2.) Zahua Juggernaut - a strong combatant who gets a lot of use out of all the team buffs 3.) Pellaginna - another great team buffer who also has some strong alpha strikes 4.) Kana - all around great buffer and jack of all trades. His damage does not matter, his job is to sing, regen aura the team, keep the +25% fire lash active at all times and blast out the huge foe only paralyzing cone as often as he can. Eleven plus seconds of paralyze is crazy good, especially with no friendly fire. 5.) Devil as tanky rogue - recruit a merc first thing to be the trap monkey until you get to devil. Or you could be the mechanic and re-train after you get the Devil. It is easy to get mechanic up to ten which will serve you until high level. With a shield and a stunning weapon she'll be able to set up her own deathstrikes by flanking and will be sturdy enough to survive. A few LoH or reinforcing exhortations will go a long way here. 6.) open slot to swap in companions as needed Your team will be a wrecking crew. Two Paladins get you four FoD alpha strikes, four LoH, four reinforcing exhortations for maximum tankyness, and later two Sacred Immolation death auras. With two Paladins you'll be saying "Priests???? We don't need no stinking Priests!!!" With two Paladins it is easy to keep Itumaak alive if you like Rangers. A reinforcing exhortation and a few LoH will keep him going through most fights.

The companions have stats that are good enough, no need to go custom min/max. In my opinion going full on min/max actually makes the game harder as you'll do more damage but will be much more vulnerable defense wise, especially on PotD. Also the banter is really nice. For team synergy I like to have a Chanter (Kana) with the two regen auras, the cross class paladin accuracy aura and the cross class druid debuff, with a Paladin (Pellaginna) with the zealous endurance (DR and hit>graze) and LoH for burst healing. Add in a Juggernaut Monk (Zahua can work) and you have three solid self supporting frontliners. At higher levels you'll have two big AoE damage auras to really kick it up to eleven. Just need to add in a mechanic. For this I like to go with Devil with Starcaller flail (stun and spell striking) and Balgrdr Barricade shield. With only these four I'm doing a PotD run (on hold for the next patch) and they are kicking ass. Plus everything is per encounter so they only rest to heal. if instead you want to add two more guys you can grab whomever, just keep them close enough to the frontline to all fit in the auras. A Barb with a reach weapon standing in the second row would speed up the killing speed, especially after level 13 and Sacred Immolation. Between Carnage, Dragon Thrash and Immolation enemies will be dropping quickly, probably before they even get into contact range.

Actually there is a form of PVP - the Tavern Fight Club You can recruit up a Rogue and a Barbarian and have them fight it out. My thought is that due to a Rogue's low deflection and low health pool a Barbarian would win due to DR and health tanking unless the Rogue was able to chain stun and keep the barbarian out of action. A Monk will whip them both

Remember that you can get the blue pajamas (padded armor Jack Water or something like that) and get +2 Survival. Just change before you camp to save a bunch of skill points.

With a durable party you can always whip out some scrolls and cast like a boss. With a glass cannon party it is hard to overcome the glass aspect, especially if things start to go sideways.

Actually once you get a good sized endurance and health pool you can start lightening up the armor. Getting iron wheel definitely makes it viable to go lighter. When you add in the massive regen you can get from Veteran's Recovery and the two Chanter auras you end up as Wolverine, you just won't go down and the faster attack speed of lighter armor helps tremendously. I'd still go with Brigandine or Plate until level six or so, it makes a huge difference early. Buying the Brigandine from the caravan merchant is a game changer. In my Juggernaut 3.0 run I went with the Superior Hide Armor from the first area in White March. It had a nice defensive boost and the Superior grade made up for a bunch of the difference from Exceptional Plate. Manneha's Armor would also be nice with the healing bonus.

Another approach is instead of going for massive CC to lock down all the enemies in order to protect the squishier classes, is to build a much more durable team that can survive in melee for a long time and grind up the enemy. A team that has 1-2 Paladins (Pellaginna does fine, possible MC Pally), 1-2 Chanters (Kana does fine, possible MC Chanter), 1-2 Monks (Zahua and MC Juggernaut or Witchdoctor), Barbarian or Rogue and a Ranger or Cipher. Basically a frontline of at least four with no more than two ranged guys. Since there are not any casters you can roll until you need to rest for health and with four front liners you can hold the injured back a bit and let the others carry the injury load more evenly. Get the Chanter Regen chants, some good DR, the Zealous Endurance aura (hit to graze helps a lot when you have high regen). A reach or ranged weapon on switch is also good in case the field is constricted. You can use a Vancian caster in one of the ranged slots as well, just try to conserve spells so that he is not controlling the rest intervals.

1.) Like Boereor said having a high Con makes the issue go away. I would not go with less than a 15 base and more is better. Sacrificing Durance and the gift from the machine gets you the equivalent of like an extra 3 con and 15% health, or endurance, either way more of a big number is what you want. Look at it like this Plate armor has 14 DR and hide has 7 DR. With the knights quest you get +2, Exceptional is +8 and Superior is +12, paladin Zealous Endurance gets you +3 and some drink gets you another +2. With Exceptional Plate you get 29 DR, with Superior Hide you get 24 DR (I use exceptional Plate as there are not any Superior Plate available while there is a nice Superior Hide available early in White march). This is 17% less, with just +3 Con you'll have +15% endurance and health that works against all damage. Think of your high Con as a sort of universal armor, plus you'll have faster attacks. 2.) Zahua has stats that makes a nice Juggernaut, not as good as a focused build will have with regards to damage output and the main character perks, but still does a fine job. For the AI I use the aggressive setting and it does a fine job of banging out Torment's Reach. Sometimes it is slow to refresh Swift Strikes so you'll need to watch that. The other abilities the AI does not activate so you have complete control of when, where and who you use Flagellant's Path or Force of Anguish on. Which is what you want anyway. I would not use the Disabler AI as it tends to just get you hit a lot from disengagement attacks, much better to either prone your surrounding foes with FoA and run to the back or just Flagellant's Path right to the offending Wizard in the backline.

You might want to go with a Rogue. You can do good damage without pumping Might and instead pump dexterity for faster attack speed. You'd be good at stealth due to starting bonuses. Your deflection would not be that good. Something like this: Pale Elf Might 10 Con 10 Dex 20 Per 14 Int 14 Res 10 Go with an on crit weapon like St Rumbaldt great Sword (prone), Tall Grass (prone) or Mabec's Morningstar (stun). The target you are attacking will be disabled and won't be able to hit back.

To expand on the good advice from Dream Wayfarer above I'd focus on fewer things instead of spreading out. Resolve is good for many classes but Monk is not one of them. Use a high Resolve with another character in another play through. That frees up a few points which I'd add two to Dex to make a ten and place the other two in Con. Monks have great multipliers on endurance and health and really benefit from a big Constitution. It also lets you get by with lighter armor which will improve your DPS by having you attack faster. The 15 base Intellect will get you good dialogues as well as great area on your Torment' Reach and really long duration on your Force of Anguish prones. You will definitely not be useless in battle

Yes, MC is for Main Character or Watcher. An MC Paladin has a slight advantage due to Faith and Conviction and following the Paladin Order's personality but it is not that big. Better to choose whatever you enjoy for the MC. All of the builds you've listed will work with the story companions or with the MC so go with what you enjoy. For me, success at PotD comes down to having a durable team that can survive in melee combat while mutually supporting each other with auras, chants and buffs. I've become a big fan of regen from the Chanter talents combined with Veteran's Recovery, add in some good DR armor and the defensive aura, Zealous Endurance, from the Paladin and you have a team that will not get KO'd. Keeping your team in the fight is better than having glass cannons that spend the fight trying to escape or flat on their backs. I also play with the crippling effects after being KO'd and try to limit rests as much as possible. Another boon from the team you've listed is that most of their abilities are all per encounter. You can let loose with everything you have in every fight and not feel like you need to hold back in order to save for the next fight. With that style the shapeshifter Druid might be better as you can shift every encounter.

The party is definitely viable. With a frontline of the juggernaut, either druid, Paladin and chanter plus the pet you'll be durable enough to handle anything. The Ranger will be safe in the back plus whatever you want for the sixth man. You could cycle through the companions for the last spot. I believe all of those builds are just as viable using the corresponding companion as in you can make a fine juggernaut using Zahua. This would free you up to pick any of those for the MC or make the MC something else entirely. If you are not making the paladin the MC use Pellagrina. Her unique abilities are very nice and her stats are good enough If I am fixed on a particular companion and class that I can't get until later in the game I'll frequently make up a henchman of the class and use them till I can swap for the real companion.

I like to keep stats at a minimum of ten as the negatives are worse than whatever small bonus you think you are getting. Since min maxing stats don't really make a huge difference that makes the story companions fine to use to get some banter and interaction going. With that I'd trade one Chanter for Kana and drop the Darcozzi Paladin for Pellaginna. A melee core of two chanters and two Paladins is very strong and self supporting. You'll have double regen chants, and lots of Chanter buffs and debuffs. With two auras you can have both accuracy and DR, plus double exhortations and LoH. I really don't like Priests but since its your MC I guess you are stuck with him. With the core of double Chanter and Pally the Priest can spend his time doing damage spells as he won't need to heal or buff anything. For the last guy I'd cycle through all the story companions. The base team of double Chanter and Pally is strong enough to do the entire game on PotD, especially with a Priest.

I'm in the enchant everything as you go camp. By that I mean I'll add a lash to every weapon that I use, I'll freely upgrade to Exceptional anything I use and I'll even make up specific monster slaying weapons for my harder hitting weapon users. A mundane Exceptional or an upgraded minor unique with a lash and a monster slayer enchant is a great weapon to switch to when you encounter packs. Much better than using the one better weapon that you have all the time on everything, unless it is something like Borresaine and you crit a lot. For example you will be using TideFall but you don't have it yet. Instead of using the best sword you have all the time (Justice) I'd craft up some dedicated monster slayers. Throw a kith slayer on Justice and use it for bounties, grab a mundane Great Sword and throw on a lash and a vessel slayer and switch to that against undead. The only materials that are limited are those required to upgrade to Superb or beyond and Durgan Steel. Those you need to save for your endgame equipment.

it looks like you have a frontline of a Paladin, with Kana and Itumaak as helpers. I'd say that is the problem. You need more beef on the frontline or you need to be quick with crowd control and keep the monsters all prone, stunned or whatever most of the time. I like to keep a frontline of four with two ranged. Or even just a four man team of frontliners with no casters. If no one is squishy there is no one to protect and the damage can be spread amongst the entire team just by changing the marching order around. I'd drop Aloth, Durance or Sagani for Zahua or Eder. For the shield I'd go with small unless a bigger shield has some real tasty enchantment like Old Gerun's Large Shield with a big hit>graze. Definitely vender trash the terrible Larder Door as it seriously lowers your DPS with the terrible Bash. For stats I'd just leave the companions with their base stats, they work fine. Min maxing can result with weaker builds with huge weaknesses that are not as durable as balanced stats. I try not to dump anything below a ten on anything.

Btw, have you ever been interested in NWN2? Iirc there were great opportunities for character-building. Especially with Kaedrin's Pack. I find PoE builds to be more interesting than NWN2. NWN2 just gets entirely too cheese'y with the four class multi-classes, mandatory min-max and the overpoweredness and near requirement of certain classes (hello Red Dragon Disciple). Here you can make a successful melee character out of multiple classes and races. In NWN2 a melee that does not go for the RDD is pretty gimped. I believe it is due to the inability to multiclass. This has you tweak your build through abilities and talents instead of adding cheese classes. The lack of minimum stat requirements also frees you from the mandatory min maxing needed to satisfy the cheese classes requirements. Another thing that PoE has better are the races. The various god races here have special abilities but also limitations such as the no helmet allowed. The Gensai in NWN2, Yuan Ti and Drow are just straight up mathematically more powerful. Overall the builds here are much more flexible. I look at Boereor's builds and think "I might move a few stat points around to suit my style" and it will be different but still work. In NWN2 if you add strength to your wizard or add to other non-essential stats its just plain wrong and inefficient.

I agree with a lot of what has been raised here. If a paladin had a 1vs1 fight with a fighter the fighter would win easily I think beacuse of the fighter talents unbending and unbroken. Unbending is an incredibly powerful ability that doesn't get mentioned much on these forums. The fighter can also dish out higher damage due to weapon specialisations. Paladins are still fun to play with though, I have managed to be able to build them to there tank/ buff role with limited success. I can't build barbarians that have any real relevance yet but I'm still trying. Its not a one on one arena match, its a team based game. On a team a Paladin brings so much more that it is incomparable to a Fighter. Enemy Fighters are tough to fight because they are tough to kill. Even on PotD I don't find my parties in serious death struggles where I need a Fighter to go to that extreme in order to survive the encounter. All of the extra survivability of the Fighter is wasted as it is hardly ever needed. Meanwhile all of the team enhancing abilities of the Paladin are used every encounter in order to improve the efficiency of the team and manage the team's resource usage. If the game was balanced such that only a team buffed Fighter could survive an encounter Fighters would be much more useful, even necessary, but the game would be much worse as you'd need to follow the one true optimal team in order to play rather than the multiple paths that the game allows which can all be successful.

I'm not a solo expert or anything like that but here are my thoughts: 1.) If you are too squishy get a shield and heavier armor. More Constitution is not bad, or at least do not dump it. 2.) Sabre and shield will be more survivable and have near the same damage as a two hander. Also has the bonus of having pistols and blunderbuss in the same weapon group. 3.) If you want to solo, build for that. If you want additional dialogue options then use a team. trying to do both is going to leave you frustrated. 4.) For a Rogue use more scrolls and/or spell casting items 5.) Craft up a slaying weapon for each type of creature and swap as needed before each battle. Even a plain old Exceptional weapon with Vessel slayer or whatever is going to be better than a slightly better unique, at least until durgan steel comes around. 6.) Throw a lash enchant on everything you use. They are cheap and always help.

With a Dex of 3 and a Per of 4 you will have a terrible reflex save. Why go with Adept Evasion? With non-dumped stats and weapon & shield style you can get Reflex high enough to get some use out of it. Riposte still seems pretty bad. It triggers on 30% of grazes and 20% of misses. If you got to where deflection = accuracy (a big if as you are shieldless), you'll riposte 0.2x 15% + 0.3 x 35% = 13.5% of the time. Even blinded and debuffed enemies where your deflection was 50 higher than their accuracy you'd only have 0.2 x 65% + 0.3 x 35% = 23.5% chance to riposte (which is the best case scenario). On top of it Riposte still needs to hit. I'd think a Monk or a Barbarian would get better use out of the Fire Godlike fire aura at <50% endurance as they'd have the endurance pool to survive. Retaliate items just take up an item slot and can apply Deep Wounds and have a chance of hitting every time you get attacked instead of 10-23.5% of the time. Riposte seems like a flavor type pick that you'd take with a tanky sword and shield Rogue like Devil with Starcaller and Balgrdr Barricade shield who frequently gets a Reinforcing Exhortation from the team Paladin. Even then it'd be a late choice when the other choices are for one of the crappy strikes that Rogues get.

Well Bad Luck is usually a fatal occurrence.

Guilt by association? You don't know that. Some of them might have stayed at home, some might have been children at the time. In game they state that the woodcutters were all involved with the Cold Morn Massacre and that they frequently mentioned it as a point of pride. They sound pretty guilty to me.

Why would you not want to kill the other members of the murderous mob that killed every man, woman and child in Cold Morn? The other woodcutters might not have burned down Devil's house, but they were all there at the massacre and they burned down someone's house. They got it coming just like Harmke.

Would it be better to save the mold for something else? The only good thing about the fire sabre is the three casts per day of fireball. You can grab the wand and the staff that have fireball casts and just use them in your other slot for the fireball and then swap to you main weapons. Unless you intend to cast more than one fireball per battle. Just need to cycle through them after each battle.

From a pure mechanics standpoint Rogues get a lot of criticals and stun is the best on crit effect. This makes Starcaller the best choice. It has a tasty on crit spell proc of one of the missile spells that can also benefit from Deathblows. It has a fast attack speed and stun on crit that gets you -30 deflection debuff which sets up a vicious cycle of perma-crits and perma-stun. The downside is you don't think it is very Rogue-like, and flails do not have any other one handed weapons in their group. They do have War Bows in the group so there is that. You could pair Starcaller with Drawn in Spring. You'd miss out on the weapon focus with the dagger but you would get the inherent +5 accuracy and the +4 from the Orlan game. Or you could use the Unforgiven flail that has speed enchant. The spell stealing flail also opens up some possibilities with Deathblow and Deep Wounds enhanced spells. But if flails are a definite no go then go with the standard dual sabre set up. The on hit procs of the Soulbound weapons do not synergize with a Rogue unlike a Barbarian. If you can use a Warhammer or spear there are two other on crit stun effects but both are average speed weapons instead of the fast speed flail.