Raven Darkholme

Well the cipher does a lot more damage without spells than both wizard and priest, which is quite a fair point in soloing if you don't enjoy to spam rest. Also as Boroer pointet out the mind control is just crazy strong even the level 1 power never loses it's charm, if you'll excuse the pun.

Good point. So let's say something is realistic, something isn't. But this has nothing to do with the fact that swapping firearms like crazy is just a way to gain what? a second? thanks I'll pass. I don't play rpg games speculating on how many second I can save if I change a weapon. For me, if I like a barbarian who fights with a can-opener, I'll do it. I don't care if there is the Almighty sword of Conan" hidden in the game. Simply there are min-maxers, and non min-maxers. No reason to mock the latter. Where did I mock anybody?

It wouldn't make them a lot stronger. The strongest spell of all Ecto echo requires an ally to work either way. Amplified Wave is not that spammable anymore. You can get healing thru enough other means than painblock, ofc the 10 dr would be kinda nice.

In Baldur's Gate you could switch anything except armour around in combat with no penalty whatsoever like there's no tomorrow. I don't think losing your turn in "real pen and paper" (lol Boroer) is such a big deal even tho I never played it I doubt that penalty means much more than the reduced recovery (without quick switch) in PoE. Games just aren't realistic otherwise we wouldn't be fighting dragons in the first place.

I voted it works fine. That being said you and Boroer are absolutely right, there is no balancing reason for those spells being allied only. It's just not good game balance to make a character more powerful for solo, especially since the cipher can solo already, when I soloed the first time which was my 2nd overall playthrough btw I used a cipher. You might not be able to do some of the upscaled content solo, but it's optional anyway. A game like this should be focused on parties and frankly I think it's way too easy for full parties, even for half parties it doesn't feel challenging at all. (I assume the same goes for duos.)

How to play ranged cipher: Get 3 weapon slots either through race or talent. Pick Quick switch. Pick 2 pistols/bb/arquebus and 1 bow. Open up with the heavy weapons voila you have between 60-100 focus, cast and switch to bow. If you get aggroed use whispers of treason if the enemy is very dangerous or Ectopsychic Echo if you can tank him for a little.

I'd definitely go monk it has more survivability than barbarians and is generally more inituitive to play. If you goo moon godlike and pick veterans recovery for even more survivabilty.

Sacred Immolation works quite well with those, too

Let's not forget, that our character has probably met Thaos over other lifetimes and never got awakened then. (The tree chicks in Twin Elms say this) So something special about him/her now made the awakening possible.

Their power is gained by their faith. That's why priests of Eothas can work without their god. For classes I love paladin, priest and druid. Cipher is fun for lore but I don't like class mechanics. Paladin has fantastic roleplay, endurance in combat and nice abilities. Druid is killing machine, spiritshift is insanly good, a lot of spells makes life easier. Finally I decided for priest because I remember how hard POTD was without this class (especially last fight and expansions). Best buffs, best debuffs, good roleplaying, insane healing on higher levels. I like priest for still waters running deep - you can feel rising power for the course of game. Very similiar feeling I have for wizards. Let's not forget, that the gods, while not real gods are there as "artificial beings" (?) and can indeed support those who ahve faith in them like Thaos at the end or the mc when going down the pit. I voted cipher but I also could have voted chanter, priest or paladin. All make perfect sense storywise, cipher the most. Rping is most fun with paladin and priest because dialogue choices matter.

Int is super important for wizard definitely go 16 if not max it. Stuff like Arcane Veil and Eldritch Aim needs any duration buff you can get.

Phew you are pretty harsh on invocations To be honest I find them better than chants for a long time, at least until you get the damage reduction and dragon thrashed chants. Even then seven nights is great, the burst damage is insane. Add almost permanent paralyze and the phantom which I useful till 8th level... Well up to level 9 you are right, but you can get there quite easily. After that I often just use them to end a fight cause of stacking dragon slashed.

My post was only about how the chanter is viable in easy difficulty and had nothing to do with how strong he is. If you find that boring ok, it's cause it is boring, but it has nothing to do with PotD but your personbal expectations. The most intersting char for me personally is the cipher.

Then why did you title the thread non PotD chanter?

Dex is not a good stat, Per is much better.

Oh you're right they are boring as in ability use. But if you have Kana with high Lore you can gic´ve him plenty of scrolls to spam. :D

edit:deleted the video since it was not helpful to the OT.

It's not useful solo, but I can see how it could be cool n a party if you wanna disengage melee enemies from your squishies.

Only thing is the invocation are just an extra gimmick of the chanter and not his main strength which is .... chanting.

If you wanna min max for solo maxing Res will just not do at all, 10-12 Res more is not needed either. As mentioned before the fortitude coming from MI and CON is much more important. I would always max MI first the health from CON is not that important.

Let's not forget that in some scenarios reach is more useful than a shield if you manage to use a chokepoint in a way that you are aggroed by weak enemies in the front row and you ignore those with your staff/lance and always kill second row and the weak ones last. Doesn't work wih big bodys like bears or bigger but sometimes wonders vs humans.

I wouldn't necessarily say you don't use the staff/lance with a tank. When I started my solo wizard on level 3 I did the bear cave without figurine, combined with vital essence the endurance regen from staff hits is super helpul and the massive damage output is worth as much as higher defense if you can kill a dangerous target quicker. Through Veil I had like 80+ def on 3 without shield, too that's not bad at all.

You only keep your shield as long as you haven't cast the spell for staff/lance but higher deflection can be useful for casting your defensive spells at combat start. Armour you can easily go light, damage reduction is sadly not that awesome in this game unless you get huge chunks of DR like +30 from damage shield chant. If you solo plate is more ideal but you can easily solo without plate.

Best tank dps is chanter, tho the dps doesn't come from weapon damage but chant. Probably not what you wanted to know but I threw it in there for good measure. Otherwise everyone else is right about monk ofc.

Must be a tad boring though:) Yea, it's zero Micro. One of the few parties where AI actually works pretty well. There's a reason I never finished my 6 chanters and it's definitely not because it was to weak. :D