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The base DR of an armor applies to all forms of damage that do not have individual DR values listed. For example, a Brigandine will have something like 13 crush DR, 8 corrode DR, and 10 DR to everything else (slash, pierce, burn, freeze, and shock). Only the 13 crush DR and 8 corrode DR will be specifically listed.

With friends like these, who needs enemies? I've never thought of this strategy before, but I have managed to use charm to my advantage before. The idea is to run one (off)tank into the middle of all the enemies while your party attacks from a distance and uses an Ectopsychic Echo on him. Before your tank can take too much damage he gets charmed and the enemies disengage. Your charmed tank will then pull out a ranged weapon (make sure it isn't a powerful one) and the enemies have to walk through the beam to reach your party. One CC can leave the grouped enemies trapped in the beam, plus whatever AoE you've added to the mix. This worked particularly well in the fight against Nridek in the Bronze Beneath the Lake quest. I doubt it would be nearly so useful when numerous enemies can use charm, but I may give it a shot anyway. EDIT: This plan worked out far better than I could have hoped, earning my a comfortable victory first try. I sent my Monk ahead to trigger the battle and eat a charm and used an Ectopsychic Echo on him. Meanwhile my Paladin boosted my Wizard and Druid's accuracy, my Druid cast Relentless Storm, and my Wizard used Call to Slumber on the gap between my Monk and my party. The Monk was rapidly stunned and as the enemies moved on to my main party they all got caught in CC (including my now charmed Monk) before they could charm again. Raedric kept breaking out and fireballing my party, but a Moonwell kept my endurance up. It was a simple matter of alternating nukes and CC on the Fampyrs until they died. After that Raedric was little threat.

The key to winning any difficult battle is keeping the enemies CCed. On PoTD you not only need access to CC abilities (Wizard, Cipher, and Druid are your best options) but the accuracy to land these abilities (and preferably more than just a graze). Against enemies with charm/dominate it is a good idea to have boosted defenses against these abilities, summons active to reduce the chance your characters are targeted, and a plan to respond to a charmed character. For example, you can use your Cipher to charm the charmed character and make him into a friendly. The Priest is enormously useful for this battle with his Prayer Against Treachery and Devotions for the Faithful. The bonus defenses, reduced enemy accuracy, and shortened charm/domination duration are all incredibly helpful at mitigating the frequency and severity of charms. The bonus accuracy to your party will significantly increase the success rate of your CC. That said a Priest isn't necessary for any battle in this game. On my current PoTD run I have not been using a Priest and I'm close to reaching the second Raedric battle. Just last night I took down the Adra Dragon without the use of any consumables or figurines (though it did take about 3 tries). Once I polish off undead Raedric I can report back with more specific advice for you.

Again, half the reason Burn and Freeze damage is commonly hitting my tank is because my spellcasters are nuking him when need be. I still don't think these damage types are that uncommon as there's more than a few abilities and spells that utilize them. And when it comes to tanks there aren't any racial abilities that provide a consistently useful bonus like Wood Elf does for ranged characters or Hearth Orlan does for melee DPS. Moon Godlike is always a safe choice but it isn't as reliably useful here as on an off-tank and I prefer to avoid stacking this race anyway. Wild Orlan is also going to provide a nice defensive bonus in many of the tougher battles. I just personally hate the concept of a tanking Orlan, as it doesn't feel right to me. The rest of the bonuses are either minor or require your tank to be at low health to make use of them. In anything short of boss battles I'm doing something really wrong if my tank is that injured.

With a solid understanding of the game mechanics and knowledge of the most overpowered spells, abilities, and combos, PoTD isn't really a huge challenge. For a more difficult experience one can utilize one or more of the triple crown options - Expert, Trial of Iron, or solo. However, none of these particularly appeal to me. I currently have only really limited myself in two ways - avoiding use of consumables (food, potions, scrolls, traps) and not abusing the rest system too badly. These have not been enough to prevent the overwhelming majority of battles to be one-sided romps (after Act 1, at least). Thus I would like to impose additional handicaps upon myself in subsequent playthroughs. Essentially I want to be able to power-game within limits so that the game remains a reasonable challenge. I have a few ideas so far. Some or all of these could be used to make the game more challenging while hopefully not making it less fun. In most cases I have a potential variant of an idea to further increase the difficulty; I will list these in italics. Random class selection (no duplicate classes). The first class must be your PC. Each sub-race cannot be taken more than once. No Moon Godlike or Wood Elf. Each character is limited to one maxed attribute and one dumped attribute. All other attributes must be between 7 and 15. You may not have the same attribute maxed or dumped on multiple characters. Alternative to the previous idea: randomly distribute a -6, -3, -1, +1, +3, and +6 modifier to each attribute. Negative modifiers reduce the maximum you can set an attribute to while positive modifiers increase the minimum. Each character must be from a different culture. Each character must be from a unique background. Each character is restricted to weapons from one weapon focus (once the weapons become available). You may not have multiple characters using weapons from the same focus. Taking the relevant weapon focus talent is optional, however. All characters must wear armor. You may not use the same armor type on multiple characters. Each individual Spell, Invocation, and Cipher Power may not be used more than once per battle. Ciphers and Chanters may repeat an Invocation/Power if each one has already been used once. Only one figurine may be used per battle. Or they could be entirely off limits. Randomly select two favored and two disfavored dispositions (Priests and Paladins should use their presets). You must follow your favored dispositions whenever possible (choose if both are an option) and you may never select options from your disfavored dispositions. Priest Deities and Paladin Orders are chosen randomly. Please let me know what you think of these potential handicaps, particularly in regards to how they would impact the difficulty and fun of the game. If you have your own handicaps you use or think might work well please don't hesitate to share.

I definitely like making my tank a Pale Elf. Burn and Freeze damage are relatively common. In particular the death explosions of Spectres and Flame Blights are way less annoying when they can barely scratch you. As a final bonus you can make better use of cone AoE spells (such as Fan of Flames and Winter Wind) when you don't have to worry about massively injuring your tank. Just be careful about boosting accuracy too much on the spellcaster or you might manage to crit your tank... It is also worth nothing that you can reliably get your hands on a pair of boots with +5 Corrode DR and another with +3 Shock DR. Equipping these when necessary further reduces your elemental vulnerabilities. Corrode is the rarest damage type to encounter, but I some slimes, traps, and spellcasters (Wizard/Druid spells) do utilize it. For whatever reason most of the higher level spells that would fit with Corrode are instead Raw damage, so you won't get punished too badly for neglecting it.

My understanding is that the 14 DR applies to any damage type that isn't listed individually as being higher or lower. So in your case the 14 DR likely only applies to Burn, Freeze, and Corrode damage (your Shock DR will be much weaker when using plate armor).

Cipher can be a bit weak early on as you are going to be lacking the accuracy needed to reliably land your abilities and to generate your focus. A Paladin with Zealous Focus or a Priest with Blessing can definitely help a lot. As stated above pay attention to which defenses you are targeting. A Cipher really doesn't come into her own until the end of Act 1 unfortunately. But once you're level 5 or so and have a nice weapon to use (I prefer Warbows for maximum damage per hit without a reload) the Cipher should start to become an a tremendous asset. One of the big challenges on PoTD is the large amount of enemies each battle throws at you. Paralyzing one plus inflicting stuck on some others really eases the pressure. And if anything should get past your tanks you can stop them in their tracks with Mental Binding again or use Ectopsychic Echo to deal some massive damage. Don't forget to use additional accuracy boosting equipment or abilities. Devotions for the Faithful works wonders as does a Darcozzi Paladin's Liberating Exhortation. Late in the game the Cipher loses ground to the caster classes. The Wizard becomes a CC god once he can spam Slicken each encounter. The Druid's high level spells can deal great damage and often deliver CC as well. The Priest has his highly accurate Repulsing Seal eventually become per encounter. Of course pretty much every class pales in comparison to high level casters, not just the Cipher.

My Darcozzi Paladin has high Intellect and I couldn't imagine lowering it. For one high INT allows for more consistent aura coverage. Zealous Focus is a huge asset to my team, particularly since I'm lacking a Priest. The bonus accuracy, graze to hit, and eventual hit to crit (with the relevant talent) are always welcome and pair nicely with the many weapons I'm using with effects on crit. A Priest can certainly replicate most aura bonuses, but it takes time. Having more immediate bonuses (particularly for your initial strike) and lessening the buff load of the Priest is nice. The most important reason for high INT, however, is to extend the duration of Liberating Exhortation (buffed by the Liberating Exhortation talent). You can give one character +20 accuracy or two characters +10 accuracy each. I absolutely love to drop the +20 accuracy bonus on a Cipher wielding Borresaine. This allows for an absurd amount of high duration CC. In standard battles the extra duration of Liberating Exhortation isn't usually needed but in the toughest battles you'll be glad you have it. To get yourself the necessary attribute points an easy place to start is by dumping Constitution. Paladin durability primarily comes from massive defenses and the health/endurance hit isn't too severe. Everything else is a bit of a sacrifice, as you'll have to sacrifice deflection, damage, or speed. I personally opted for something like 10/3/10/18/19/18 and it has been working great for me so far.

A complete ability/spell tuneup to account for the Perception change and existing imbalances would be wonderful. I just don't think this is a realistic expectation to have, which is a big part of the reason I'm so concerned. The amount of rebalancing needed to properly account for a change to a core mechanic is much higher than we could reasonably expect, even in an expansion. Thus my goal is to brainstorm some simple changes that can minimize the potential damage.

That would be absolutely crazy. The overwhelmingly vast majority of spellcasters are not going to be Orlans from The White That Wends. The game needs to get less focused on min-maxing, not more. Even an Orlan spellcaster from The White That Wends (this is the part where we lament the lack of white fur for Orlans and no portraits with white fur) that maxes out Perception to get that +11 will be passing on other things, such as Might, which would've increased the damage of the spells used, Intellect or Resolve (assuming Intellect is no longer a consolidated caster stat), Dexterity (which would be useful if Robes counter as Clothing, instead of an arbitrary form of armour, or if the spellcaster used Clothing), or even Constitution (assuming it's buffed). +10 Accuracy is good, yes, but you don't have infinite points. What're you going to dump? You may not have infinite points but as a long range caster you don't have to make much of a sacrifice to achieve high Perception either. Any ranged character is going to want to be a Wood Elf and probably take The White That Wends as a culture. This gives you Distant Advantage and allows for 20 Perception. Next you dump Resolve and Constitution as they are purely defensive stats. Compared to currently optimized ranged characters you'll be squishier due to a lower deflection score but stronger CC should more than make up for it. This leaves you 52 points to distribute between Might, Dexterity, and Intellect. This leaves you only 2 points short of reaching 18 with each of these attributes. A Ranger or ranged Rogue will probably take the hit on Intellect while casters would probably prefer to sacrifice some Dexterity and/or Might. You definitely have a point here. If the Perception change goes through an alternate solution may be to give all enemies a passive +10 defense against CC effects on PoTD only. This would allow casual players to build sub-optimal characters without being punished while min/maxers wouldn't be able to break the game by pumping Perception and spamming CC.

We've known for a while now that the devs are likely to change Perception so that it is linked to Accuracy in place of Deflection. There is some promise behind the idea but I'm concerned that it may be outweighed by the negative consequences of such a change. If the devs are indeed committed to such a change I would like them to understand the problems that would likely arise so they can take steps to eliminate or mitigate them. Before I start criticizing I'd like to highlight some of the benefits that we could expect from changing Perception: The Good Perception will now be a valuable attribute for everyone instead of just tanks. Starting with higher Accuracy will make the first act less difficult, bringing it more in line with the difficulty of the rest of the game Tanks will no longer be able to stack Deflection to absurd levels that render them effectively immune to most enemies. Constitution will no longer be a nearly universal dump stat as tanks will have to be able to survive additional damage. Melee DPS characters will now have a use for each and every attribute. There will still be more optimal choices but at least there will be real consequences for forgoing any particular attribute. The Bad Perception will be a nearly mandatory stat. Even tanks will find Perception fairly desirable. Tanks need Reflex somewhere (and Dexterity probably isn't worth it until you've covered Damage and Accuracy) and the Accuracy is very useful for the initial attack, offensive abilities, and scroll usage. Higher maximum accuracy will make the later game even easier than it is now. Ranged characters will receive what amounts to almost a pure buff. Their damage and disabling capabilities will be enhanced with the only real cost being lack of Concentration. CC spells/abilities will be boosted to potentially game breaking levels, and CC is already the optimal answer in almost every battle or situation. When CRPGs are at their best every battle has its own unique optimal strategy, a locked door requiring a specific key. CC is currently a skeleton key and we risk making it a battering ram. Similarly weapons that inflict Stun or Prone on crits will become significantly (more?) overpowered. Companions will fall even further behind hired Adventurers. Companion attributes are already sub-optimal without bringing Accuracy into the discussion. The Wood Elf and Hearth Orlan are currently top tier choices for Ranged and Melee DPS, respectively. As both these races have bonuses to max Perception, their status will only be enhanced making other choices less competitive. There are definitely some real benefits to changing Perception but at least as many pitfalls we need to avoid. Quite simply Pillars of Eternity is in need of many balance changes to reach its fullest potential, and tweaking the Attributes only makes this more clear. Let me detail some specific ideas: Mitigating the downsides Reduce or remove accuracy bonuses from spells and abilities with CC effects. Enhance enemy AI behavior and unit composition to make defensive stats not nearly so irrelevant on Ranged characters. Give specific bosses or enemy types immunity to hard CC. Apply an internal cooldown to weapons that can inflict stun or prone on crit. The option to have enemies scale to level is a good first step to making the game less easy near the end, but specific battles may also need to be enhanced. Implement a custom difficulty option (separate sliders for enemy quantity, attributes, and AI intelligence) that will allow players to more accurately obtain the challenge they desire. This should allow for the game to be played at a difficulty beyond PoTD. Players who have completed the game should gain the option to build companions upon hiring as they would when hiring an adventurer. Only appearance, sound, and (probably) class would be set in stone. Buff the least popular races to give players multiple viable options for different build types. In particular the Nature Godlike and all Dwarves have awful bonus abilities. Humans are also rather lacking in my opinion. I am quite confident there's more potential upsides, downsides, and fixes I've left out. Please feel free to share your own thoughts on this matter or respond to my particular points.

If Perception is changed to give an accuracy bonus that forces every optimal ranged character to dump Resolve and Constitution. Assuming that you are playing a ranged Wizard, I'd recommend something like: 18 MIG 3 CON 16 DEX 20 PER 18 INT 3 RES Your race will be Wood Elf to get Distant Advantage and higher PER and your culture will be the White that Wends. PER will be by far the most important stat for a Wizard as it allows their CC to be ungodly good. Slicken is powerful enough without frequently landing crits. INT is next most important to maximize your AoE radius. MIG and DEX are both important but not as critical. I personally would opt for higher MIG to maximize spell damage, but you could swap it to 17/17 or 16/18 without it making much difference. Of course you're more than welcome to take something less than optimal for roleplaying or challenge purposes. As long as you aren't dumping the crucial stats you'll be plenty powerful enough to succeed.

A few points I'd like to make: 1) Your basic War Bow is typically better than your basic Rod or Scepter. Excluding weapons that you have to reload, War Bows have the highest ranged damage per hit. Stacking things even more in favor of War Bows is that you can find some awesome unique ones while the Rod and Scepter options are either significantly lacking or only available late in the game. However, as a spell caster the Druid isn't quite as dependent on her weaponry so you could certainly get by with whatever you find appealing. 2) There aren't really any essential talents for Druids so you don't need to be incredibly concerned about poor choices crippling you. Talents that help with ranged combat and provide bonus spells are helpful early on while those that boost elemental damage are particularly useful later on. 3) Normal or Hard is a good difficulty to start on, but don't be afraid to change the difficulty if need be. The first act can be surprisingly difficult if you have trouble adjusting to the mechanics and/or don't pick up companions in a timely fashion. If you're making sure to hit most of the optional content the difficulty drops off towards the end. In retrospect I should have switched from Normal to Hard halfway through my first playthrough. I'm not particularly sure why Hunting Bows would be a good choice for Druids. The unique you can get somewhat early seems like it needs to be used by a class with more accuracy and the amazing unique can only be obtained late in the game.

Mental Binding and Ectopsychic Echo definitely work wonders at keeping the battlefield under control. Paralyze/stuck can allow you to deal with enemies piecemeal while Ectopsychic Echo is a nasty surprise for anything that gets between your front and back lines. Buff your Cipher's accuracy as much as possible for maximum effect. One tactic I often use in open areas is to send my best tank ahead to trigger the enemy attack. This leaves enemies a long walk through both a damaging beam and ranged fire before they reach the rest of my party. On trial of iron I'd recommend caution with this tactic, however, as your lead tank can be dangerously exposed against certain enemy types.

I've been using a Barbarian in my party on my current PoTD run. While the Barbarian has by no means been bad, I've noticed that the Barbarian is not very useful in high leverage situations. Once you have enemies contained the Barbarian can dish out a ton of damage and provide periodic CC on top of that. But should enemies spill past your tanks, a back row character be in extreme danger, or an enemy spell caster ready something nasty, the Barbarian is not going to be a great choice. In the toughest battles I usually have to hold my Barbarian back until things calm down or he's pressed into off-tanking duty. I will say that the Barbarian has been quite good for efficient cleanup. Once I've won the positioning battle and have disabled the nastiest enemies my Barbarian can help me drop the numerous weak enemies before their hits start to add up (or the 20 accuracy buff I've used on my Cipher wears off :D). I've also found Barbaric Yell to be a surprisingly useful debuff, though that may be largely due to my party lacking a Priest or Chanter.

I had a problem a few days back where my Wizard could move and receive commands but was unable to actually attack or cast spells. He'd do the proper animation but nothing would ever appear in the combat log, no enemy would receive damage, and his spells would never take effect. This persisted from battle to battle; my Wizard only returned to normal after relaunching the game. Today this happened again and I managed to figure out the problem. I cast Eldritch Aim and moved my Wizard after the cast animation was complete but apparently before the spell took effect. It did not deplete a level 1 spell or provide the accuracy bonus to my Wizard. However, the spell icon was grayed out and mousing over it told me it was already in effect (again, it wasn't). I'm not sure why or how I am able to get my Wizard stuck between the spell completing its cast and taking effect, but it definitely needs to be fixed. I'm not yet certain if this can happen with other spells, but I suspect it can. If I find any more out I'll report it in this thread.

Monks are good because they can do an adequate job tanking and still deal good damage. You might be able to get away with lighter armor on your Monk but it probably isn't optimal. Having your Monk take damage is no big deal but he does have to survive. Your options are either high defense or high damage reduction. High damage reduction is easier to obtain and doesn't require you to sacrifice DPS attributes (STR and DEX) for tanking ones (RES and PER). Using fists is less of an issue but weapons are still probably better. You can get some really awesome enchantments on weapons while fists just have standard accuracy and damage bonuses. Taking damage to earn wounds isn't as big of a deal as you'd think, assuming you have plenty of constitution. As long as you have sufficient healing endurance damage is largely irrelevant unless it comes too rapidly (with a Priest in the party and/or the Monk as a Moon Godlike healing isn't hard to get). Thus your only concern is health, which can me made up for by simply resting more often. Only in long battles where the Monk is really getting pummeled will you run out of endurance or health too fast.

A single player game doesn't need perfect balance but the game would be a lot more fun with better balance. My favorite part of crpgs is puzzling out the tactics needed to win a particular battle with my specific group. In Pillars of Eternity the same tactics tend to serve you well for the vast majority of battles. There are other issues contributing to this problem but having notably overpowered spells/abilities is definitely a big part of it. If I need CC from my Cipher, Mental Binding is always a good answer and usually the best one too. If I want to use a level 1 Druid spell the element of the spell and the defense are irrelevant because the blind from Sunbeam is so useful. Any of the pitifully weak spells is one less viable option we have at our disposal. Ultimately I think the goal should be to implement minor nerfs to the outlier spells/abilities, major buffs to the useless ones, and have the max difficulty increased (either PoTD gets harder or a new difficulty beyond it is introduced). Hopefully that would get us a lot closer to each battle being its own unique challenge.

You'll find her in the Ducal Palace in the First Fires.

The difficulty isn't actually too bad once you get the hang of it, but the game can be a bit complex at first. If you're confused ask questions on the forums or consult the wiki. The wiki isn't completely up to date but it is generally accurate on the underlying mechanics. Some specific advice that will serve you well early on: The game will be much easier once you have a full party. Make recruiting companions a priority and don't be afraid to hire a custom character as a stopgap if needed. Standard battle tactics is having some tank characters engage enemies in melee while DPS oriented characters attack and cast spells from range. Learning the engagement system and using it to your advantage is crucial. Accuracy is incredibly important and affects both your attacks and spells (excluding heals and buffs which are automatic). With low accuracy you'll find yourself missing or grazing (-50% damage and duration of effects compared to a hit) while high accuracy will get you a lot more hits and crits (50% extra damage and duration of effects). Talents, items, and spells that buff you can be really useful, but buffs to the same stat will sometimes suppress each other - only your highest bonus will count. The same stat can be buffed once by items and once by active/modal abilities. You can also stack as many passive bonuses to the same stat as you want. For a ranged Rogue ideal races would be a Wood Elf or Hearth Orlan. The Wood Elf gets accuracy and defensive bonuses against enemies more than 4 meters away; the Hearth Orlan converts some hits into crits when attacking the an enemy that is being targeted by a teammate. When building your character Might and Dexterity are the only must have attributes. Of the remaining attributes Resolve and Intellect are probably more useful for your build than Constitution and Perception, and will be useful attributes for conversation options. An ideal weapon type for the Rogue is the War Bow, as there are some very nice ones that have effects on crit. You will also do well to master how to set up sneak attacks for your Rogue, which do 50% higher damage. Any attack made in the first two seconds of combat are automatically sneak attacks. After that you'll need the enemy to be Blinded, Flanked, Hobbled, Paralyzed, Petrified, Prone, Stuck, Stunned or Weakened for a sneak attack. The Rogue can get some early abilities that can blind or hobble the enemy. Flanking can be achieved by attacking an enemy in melee from both its front and back (which can be difficult to pull off if there is a lot of enemies). Various spells and abilities on other classes can inflict these status effects on enemies as well.

Here's my thoughts based upon separate role-playing and power gaming perspectives: Role-Playing You have correctly identified the two classes that best correspond with Lorgar Aurelian, the Paladin and Priest. Either class requires a choice of favored/disfavored dispositions, by way of Order for Paladins and Deity for Priests. Dispositions that align strongly with Lorgar Aurelian would most likely be Diplomatic and Passionate. Dispositions that align poorly would probably be Stoic and Aggressive. Possible Orders for your character as a Paladin: The Shieldbearers of St. Elcga - Diplomatic and Honest favored, Aggressive and Cruel disfavored. This aligns with one key favored and disfavored disposition, though I'm not sure if Lorgar Aurelian would place high value in honesty or be opposed to the use of cruelty to achieve an objective. The wiki says that "The Shieldbearers were founded in honor of an elven noble who helped unite the Aedyr and Kulklin kingdoms after a long war", which is somewhat analogous to the Space Marines and the Emperor. Kind Wayfarers - Benevolent and Passionate favored, Deceptive and Cruel disfavored. A minor fit on disposistions and nothing particularly stands out in terms of lore. Darcozzi Paladini - Clever and Passionate favored, Cruel and Stoic disfavored. Again we match one favored and disfavored disposition and Lorgar Aurelian could fairly be described as clever as well, though in this game clever often translates to smart-ass. The wiki says that "Darcozzi Paladin were founded as the guards of the Darcozzi Palace in Grand Vailia over 2000 years ago." However Grand Vailia has since collapsed so there is some timing issues here if we're trying to make it comparable to Warhammer 40k. Looking at possible Priest deities doesn't reveal very promising options in terms of disposition. Not a single Deity corresponds with Diplomatic or Passionate as a favored disposition nor does any have Stoic as a disfavored opposition. Looking at the Deities themselves Eothas is a strong choice. St. Waidwen was supposedly a living incarnation of Eothas until his death in the Saint's War. This isn't a perfect correlation with the Emperor and again the timing is off, but Eothas as a focus of worship is closer than any of the other deities the Priest can choose from. Dispositions favored would be Honest/Benevolent and dispositions disfavored would be Cruel/Deceptive. This doesn't align with what we're looking for but it at least doesn't conflict with it either. I think a Shieldbearer or Darcozzi Paladin would be a strong fit to allow you to play your character in a way that would correspond with Lorgar Aurelian and be rewarded for it. A Priest of Eothas would provide a reasonable lore fit but will encourage you to play your character as more of a do-gooder than you might prefer. Power Gaming Obviously any time you involve role-playing you're accepting that your character will be less than optimal. This doesn't mean you have to create an ineffectual character though. Both the Paladin and Priest are strong choices of class that can fit into most any party. The Paladin is more of a frontline tank/support character while the Priest operates more from the rear as a healer/buffer with a few offensive spells in the mix. A well designed party should ideally have two characters capable of tanking, so if your party composition would otherwise leave you short the Paladin can fit in nicely. Note that the Priest is less reliably useful early on unless you rest frequently, but becomes far more powerful later on (particularly starting at level 9 when you get level 1 spells per encounter). A Priest would typically use ranged weapons primarily with melee only as a backup while the Paladin would initiate with a ranged attack then immediately switch to melee. However, the Quarterstaff has increased reach and could be used by a Priest standing behind your tanks. Unfortunately the only noteworthy unique Quarterstaff is only available very late in the game. There is a really nice Morning Star that is dependent on RNG for acquisition, and is thus unlikely to be found very early. There is a good mace that can be found early in act 2, though it isn't quite as impressive as some of the alternate one-handed weapons late in the game. The optimal Priest Deity is typically considered to be Magran for the talent that provides a nice accuracy bonus to the Arquebus (and Sword). You can get an accuracy bonus to the Morning Star with Eothas, Quarterstaff with Wael, and Mace with Berath. The most notable bonuses from Paladin Orders is a talent that allows Liberhating Exhortation boost accuracy of the target for Darcozzi and a couple talents to cause Flames of Devotion/Lay on Hands to provide allies with deflection bonuses for Shieldbearers. My Suggestion I would personally opt for a Paladin as they make great leaders and if you plan to use the companions in your party (as opposed to custom characters) you'll find they're lacking on solid tanks. I enjoy Darcozzi Paladins personally but I believe the Shieldbearers would be a better fit. Race should be Human of course, your culture should be Aedyr, and your background should be Clergyman. You'll want plenty of Intellect, Resolve, and Strength. You can distribute the remaining points as you see fit, but I would recommend not skimping on Perception. A Mace and Shield will serve you well as your primary armament. Finally I would suggest that you still have a Priest in your party, either Durance or a custom character.

I'm curious if we're going to get a new class added. Twelve would be a nice even number and a new class would add replay value to the base Pillars of Eternity game.

NPCs not being able to increase Faith and Conviction through disposition is definitely a questionable design choice but an intended one. It is you, the PC, making the choices that alter your disposition so it wouldn't really make sense for your companions to be forced to adopt the same disposition. Consider hiring a Goldpact Knight Paladin. Once hired they will fulfill their contract even if they dislike the actions and disposition of their employer. Thus the PC might be a passionate and aggressive individual, but the Goldpact Knight Paladin won't stop being his rational and stoic self while serving alongside the PC. I assume a major consideration in implementing this system was to give players the freedom to roleplay their character without worrying about a Paladin ally accumulating penalties to Faith and Conviction. Unfortunately this forces anyone concerned with power gaming to take a Paladin as their main character if they should want one. I would love to see an added option to bind your Paladin's disposition to the PC upon hiring. Another option would be to upgrade the Untroubled Faith talent to allow companion Paladins to draw bonuses from the PC's disposition. For now your best bet is the IEmod. It is working perfectly fine for me (on the steam version), though you do have to download an updated version after each patch. I mostly like the IEmod for its convenience features. I remove auto-saving to speed up loads and enjoy being able to make ability/talent choices without worrying about crippling my character. I just pick whatever looks useful or fun and try it out for a while; if it proves to be a wasted pick I can just remove it and add a new one in its place.

With a Priest as backup you should be perfectly fine with either Zealous Focus or Zealous Endurance. Zealous Endurance might be nice for trial of iron due to the hit to graze conversion, which will slow down incoming damage and mitigate CC duration. I will also note that if your aura is missing your ranged DPS characters the effectiveness of Zealous Focus is greatly reduced. With your low intelligence this may very well be the case. It is my personal preference to take Zealous Focus for a few reasons: Reliable accuracy boost early on when the Priest can't spam level 1 spells Innate graze to hit bonus and eventual hit to crit bonus (with Critical Focus talent) further boost DPS Zealous Focus is a huge asset for your initial attack whereas Zealous Endurance only matters once the enemy responds. If your Priest sits out the initial attack you can usually have Armor of Faith up before anyone gets hit. But I haven't done trial of iron yet so if a battle ever goes horribly wrong I can just reload. It would be interesting to get the perspective of those who are more experienced with this mode.