Elric Galad

TBH my expectations for that game have gone downhill throughout this path month. I'll probably play it once to check out MCA's character and George Ziets' work on the Bloom, then I'll shelve it (metaphorically) and never look back. Well, I'm currently playing it and I agree it is a bit disappointing. Not a bad game, an overall good experience, but not great either and a lot of flaws. And not close from Planescape, except from times to times for a couple of nice encounters. It seems the game was too ambitious. Console version, totally new game system, the tide concept, tons of promises... Stating "Torment" in the title might have been a bit over-confident. Pillars of Eternity seems to have been much more under control. They reached their purpose, and maybe a bit beyond. I have just watched "Road to Eternity" and it was really enjoyable to watch this bunch of passionate and talented people working together with a (rather) limited budget. Making a worthy spiritual successor of some of the greatest PC games ever was a true challenge. Even with crowdfunding, planning it is not enough to succeed. InXile did fail at it, even if Tides of Numenera is NOT a bad game IMHO. But congrats, Obsidian, because you did it !

https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/88395-what-are-the-most-powerful-classes-in-303/ So basically, Wizz or Priest are consistently seen as best class, with druid #3. I thought priest was 1st. Then I discovered priest damage spells. And now I am even more convinced. Special mention to Symbol of Eothas which is basically strong support spell mied with strong friendly AoE damage spell. And Rogue weakest.

I made a party where 2 chanters with shield (and dragon trashed) were the only tanks, they had only 10 Res and 12 Con and were only supported in this task by a Wolf Pet. To be honnest, you don't even need a REAL tank. Several "not too squishy" characters are better than a single uber tank. Still, a paladin fills the "Tank and AoE DPS" about as well. Immolation does about half damages as Dragon Trashed, also heals your teamates. Their support abilities are great. They tank a bit better, and can deliver huge damage with Alpha and Beta Strikes. Pallegina is especially suited in this role due to Wrath of the Five Suns. Auras, instant revive, lay on hand, coordinated attacks (especially when used with a marking weapon for an instant stacking Accuracy Bonus) are nothing to look down at. I think they gain as support what they loose as DPS. The only difference is that 1 Paladin is enough for any party while several chanters stack better. I would take Kana and Pallegina over Eder. Eder has way too much defensive stats. Fighters never die anyway, even with 10Res/10Con... In my experience, fighters are far more suited to take the offensive and smash priority targets while not caring about retaliations. Because, like the honey badger, Fighter doesn't care.

+20% damages, a worthless feat ? Even for martial class, taking it for your lash damages worths it. +5% multiplicative damage boost is an honnest bonus (that you'll pick after style and focus of course). I would be curious about what you think is a good talent then. Extra cast are among the mehest talents at high level, not to mention that on boss battle, you'll rarely swing your wand a single time. Caster classes have a damage type with excellent spells (wizzard : ice, druid : electrical, priest : fire), so picking this one talent is highly recommanded.

It's hard to imagine a better advice than "take a priest with High Dex, you're first PotD run will be safer" I won't lower Constitution below 10, because the first quality of a priest is to be alive. Perception is good only for damages spells, and you better have might for this instead. Might also works well for healing. I would even consider taking another priest if your main is a priest. The first task of priest is to be a buff machine, but their medium to high level damage spells are awesome. With one single priest your MC will mostly buff things. With a second one, you'll buff quickly and start spamming firestorms. For other advices : Act I is tedious, be sure to get a couple of scolls of fan of flames. Have at least one Hard crowd controller in your party. At least one Wizard or one Druid is a must. Chanters and Paladins are good supports and tanks. At high level they are also excellent (in the case of chanter crazy strong) AoE damage dealers.

You'll also miss dialogue option with too low Might, Dexteruty and Constitution even if it is to a lesser extent. Due to magical items and food bonuses, you don't really maxed mental stats. You'll be confortable around 14-16 mental stats and still free to get a couple of points for phsyical attributes, or at least not dump then. A Tank/Crowd Controller chanter using short phrases and Paralysis Cone Invocation could be a good choice. It would benefit from Int, Per and Res. I think it could be better that Dragon trasher ones who is optimal with high might. Graze/Hit/Crit mechanic doesn't benefit much to chant as it change only the duration of the lingering. It won't benefit that much from Perception.

In your quest for absolute defense, it worths noticing that items with Preservation add +50 all defenses when prone or stun. Preservation on a shield (like little savior) stacks with one from another item for a total of +100 all defenses. You might even try to prone your own character to trigger this awesome bonus. One may argue that a prone character is not very useful. But sacred immmolation still procs even when proned which makes paladin decent candidate. Finally if your cipher cast defensive mindweb, all your party will gain +100 all defenses (plus possible paladin bonus if you used paladin for it). Chessmate. Let's call this build the "humble preserver".

These are alternative possibilities that would certainly work, and I considered them for this build. However, there are also reasons why I made other choices. First, about single target Crowd Control. Most of the time, you'll find yourself in front of 2 possibilities: either you're in front of a very high priority target that you really want to CC and Full Attack knockdown will do the job better than anything. 3 knockdowns per encounter are enough for this task IMHO. Or you're in front of a "normal" ennemy for which CC is only a nice-to-have. And then I can live without additional CC. The abilities suggested above are cool, but I think they will slow the pace of my fighter based on fast impact. It is certainly a good idea to have these items in your inventory by the way. Hour of St Rumbalt deserves a mention. Even if the CC it provides is less reliable IMHO than the one from full attack KD, Anhilating is always a good idea with a high accuracy build. I also wanted to pick items that had good passive bonuses as well as interesting abilities. That is why I picked Bittecuts. They are casting items, bit their DPS is among the best ones for weapons. Ring of changing heart was in direct concurrence with Siegebreakers for Resolve bonus, and I preferred Siegebreakers. Finally, I considered Nidhen's Finger because of its activable Mindlance and bonus to CON. It would replace Swaddling Sheet for the case you want to better control activated effects.

=================================== The Unstoppable Wave =================================== Difficulty: PotD v. 3.05 -------------------------------------------------------------- Class: Fighter -------------------------------------------------------------- Race: Coastal Aumaua -------------------------------------------------------------- Background: Deadfire Archipelago - Aristocrat -------------------------------------------------------------- Stats: MIG: 16 CON: 10 DEX: 12 PER: 16 INT: 14 RES: 10 Note: I'm not a min-maxer, and I didn't count special talents for a main character. -------------------------------------------------------------- Skills: 7+ Survival ® 10+ Lore (!) A bit of stealth and athletics are always good to have. -------------------------------------------------------------- Talents (a=auto, ®=recommended, !=important) Two Weapon Style (!) Vulnerable Attack ® Superior Deflection Bonus Knockdown (!) Weapon Focus : Ruffian ® Weapon Mastery : Ruffian ® Apprentice's Sneak Attack Spirit of Decay ® Abilities Constant Recovery (a) Knockdown (!) Confident Aim ® Disciplined Barrage (!) Armored Grace ® Weapon Specialization : Ruffian ® Unbroken Charge (!) Triggered Immunity Note: Unbroken and Triggered Immunity are mostly there because I like feeling invincible. This might be too much defense, and they are unecessary for this build. --------------------------------------------------------------- Items (*=additional echantments; (!)=important, ®=recommended): Weapon set 1: Bittercut x2 (*Legendary, Corrosive Lash, Durgan Reinforced, Duplicated with Helwax Mold) ® Weapon Set 2: Abydon's Hammer (!) Boots: Boots of Speed (!) Head: White Crest's Helm Armor: White Crest (*Superb, Durgan Reinforced, PER+2, Crush-Proofed) (!) Neck: Swaddling Sheet (!) Belt: Looped Rope Ring 1: Pensiavi Mes Rèi Ring 2: Ring of Protection Hands: Siege Breakers ® Quick slots: Scroll(s) of Maelstrom, Scroll(s) Paralysis/Confusion ®, Potion(s) of Major recovery, Potion(s) of Deleterious Alacrity of Motion Abilities from items with regular set (feel free to change between battle to get even more per rest casts): Per Encouter: 1x Ring of the Ancient Forge 1x Abydon's Labor 1x Overwhelming Wave (triggered on crit, Foe Only) Per Rest: 1x Dancing Bolt 4x Vile Thorn (fast cast) 1x Recall Agony 2x Infestation of Maggots (fast cast) 1x Clear Out 1x Overwhelming Wave ----------------------------------------------------------------- Principle Good Old Fighter... The plainest of all classes... It does not mean the lamest. However, it's not that easy to build around them. I had the idea of this build when I realized there was a huge potential with one of fighter's 1st level ability: Disciplined Barrage. Disciplined barrage is an instant +20 accuracy for limited but significant time (15s +Int modifier for something like 20+s) No other class has something similar that high. You can get up to +15 from consumables, but that makes a lots of consumables if you want to use this every battle. And that is still not +20 and it is not instant cast. My thought was: What can one do with +20 accuracy and a naturally high basis ? And my answer was: About everything !!! Accuracy works for damages, and works even better for crowd control. The problem was: A fighter has a limited number of active abilities, and they are usually not comparable with High level spells (apart for charge and its crapload of damages). But it is possible to add them through items and scrolls. Item Choices So, accuracy works for CC and damages, so what about picking the best CC and damages spells from items ? Overwhelming Wave from both White Crest and Swaddling Sheet drew my attention. So that was the basis of the build. These waves are quite powerful. Sure, White Crest is only once per rest, but when you start a bounty battle with a “Disciplined Wave” in their faces, you're pretty happy to have it. Swaddling Sheet's wave is uncontrollable, but does not cost casting time, and often works with pretty satisfying and fun effects (especially with that +20 accuracy). I also liked the idea of the wave. It really fitted the fighter's gameplay, with charge and Knockdown, running into the fray and crushing anything. Coastal Aumaua fitted this theme quite well by the way. Duplicated Bittercut was my choice for dual wielding. In addition to be a popular choice for DPS, these 2 Bittercuts also bring some additional castings, which was nice for this build based on item's abilities. Plus Wave -> Water -> Acid and Wave -> Sea -> Pirate -> Sabers, so it fitted nicely with the theme. Abydon's Hammer is not in this build as a weapon. Abydon's Hammer is here for Ring of The Ancient Forge. 1x per encounter mass stun with +20 Accuracy pretty much wins the fight by itself once you have it. Siege Breakers were another good choice for even more Crowd Control. +4 Resolve brings various benefits including half of the Deflection from a regular deflection bracer, a bit of Concentration, and Will Defense. This is decent raw power, but Siege Breakers are of course in this build because of the Clear Out casting. Boots of speed were necessary to compensate for White Crest movement penalty ; mobility is always nice anyway. Apart for this, the other items are pretty much just passive boosts. I thought that I already had enough abilities, and I didn't found something reallly appealing for the other slots. And yes, I find diving wave a bit weak, especially when you have already 3x Full Attack Knockdowns... Consumables are another way of getting interesting abilities. Some good endgame choices for scrolls are scroll of maelstorm and paralysis, to cover the damages and CC aspects. Apart for them, some potions of deleterious alacrity of motions help for important battle, as you won't have sanguine plate to auto-cast frenzy for you. Gameplay This character is made to take the initiative, and to quickly “break” the battle. That's why I call him a siege breaker. In my current experience, 20s of disciplined barrage might not be enough to last for the whole battle, but it is often enough to WIN it. 20s are enough to kill the most dangerous foes, encapacitate several others and deal a lots of damages. Instant cast is INCREDIBLY convenient when you try to get the initiative at the beginning of a fight, so it fits very well with this strategy. The most intersting openers are Overwhelming Wave from White Crest or Ring of the Ancient Forge from Abydon's Hammer. You will often hit or crit, and you'll pretty automatically graze even in PotD. Fighter's incredible toughness is also a very convenient for optimal positionning as you don't really fear standing in the front. In my latest fight Concelhaut himself didn't have enough time to recover from stun before getting killed and most of his party shared the same fate. Disciplined Barrage + Knockdown is a very interesting combo that you can access very early game and repeat on every fight. Knockdown is a full attack, and you get 2 rolls also for the prone part. This was my main reason to choose dual wielding. Very few ennemies can avoid being prone with 2 rolls at +20 acc. You are also likely to crit, causing around 10s Prone with decent Int. This is probably the best guarantee of single target Crowd Control in the whole game, even if it is not the longest. This fighter gets great potential for assassinating any dangerous ennemy in the back row when Charge finally shows up. Charge is combined with a (full) attack on the main target. That deals a lots of Single Target damages in addition to AoE from Charge. It is also 3 separate attacks on the target, which means 3 interrupt rolls. This build has a high Perception, mostly for accuracy, but the bonus to interrupt also results in pretty much guaranteed interrupt on Charge. This might not sound that awesome, but this means you're likely to recover and Knockdown a caster before he got enough time to react. And due to fighter's durability, you're not likely to get killed even if isolated in the back row. Due to this combination, this Fighter is able to act as the perfect assassin, except for the stealth part of course... These abilities will be your bread and butter(cut) for minor encounters. On major ones, you'll have a lot of item abilities at your disposal, especially when consumables are included. So this build is quite versatile. Infestation of Maggots deal a lot of DoT (now that it is not bugged anymore... maggots... bugged... got it ? Got it ?) and fast casting Vile Thorn can deal a fairly good amount of AoE. Clear Out acts as a Backup AoE CC once your powerful openers have been used. Fighter's single target DPS and physical damages resistance are very high, so you'll have a quite decent team member even after all these abilities have been used. I have almost finish the game in PotD so now I can confirm this character was nice as a MC. The “Charge Assassination” part was really what really fun to use, and having all these ennemies stunned by your waves was quite enjoyable. My MC Fighter is above my barbarian for damages and close to my dragon trasher chanter for kills. This might be because of MC's slight bonuses and additional micromanagement. But it was efficient for sure. -------------------------------------------------------------- Various side notes : - Vulnerable attacks also work with Charge. - I picked up Disciplined Barrage and Knockdown early and Weapon Focus (and the likes) quite late. That enables you to choose whatever single handed weapons you find for dual wielding, which is very convenient. For example, Ravenwing isn't an awesome endgame weapon, but is really strong and easy to get early on. - Fan of flames scrolls are of course your early game joker. Hello Caed Nua ! - Clear Out should be nice with this build, except I don't like it (per rest are ok for items, but I don't like them as abilities. Totally subjective...).

Sabers are still good, and warhammers are really good too. But there are a lot of possibilities based your class or purpose.

Raising accuracy (Devotion for the faithfull, blessing, etc...) and using mental binding from cipher usually helps a lot. Focus on the paralyzed one. Scrolls of paralysis cast from a fighter with disciplined barrage active is a nice solution too. Might save some precious time. Your party isn't perfectly balanced (Don't need to be) but you have lots of good single target damage dealers, so the focus fire strategy might work. Druids have a level 5 AoE petrify which might help. It is rolled against thoughness, so be sure to buff ACC first. Marking weapons, if you have some, are awesome to boost CC. And don't blame cipher. He is perfectly fitted for the job.

A vessel vessel. Got it ? Got it ? A ship with a soul !

A delemgan prostitute. Or better, an Adragan one. A girl that makes you feel as hard as rock.

Durance is not impotent. He's just ugly. That is kind of frustrating too. Based on his stats, he's also not a very good dancer. The "priest is a bit like a daddy" might be his best bet, but that limits him to very vulnerable women.

Discovering you're part of a video game if you selected : "Are you real ? [lie] Yes." the first time you met Zahua in PoE1. It would be a very funny easter egg.

Durance brings the bad stat distribution to another league. But to his defense, this is because Resolve is a meh stat.

I think 6th slot opens interesting possibilities to customize the party once each essential role are fullfilled. But I can live without it and see what happen.

Hamsters should cause blindness on hit or crit.

Thou shalt count to six, no more, no less. Six shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be Six. Seven shalt thou not count, neither count thou five, excepting that thou then proceed to six. Eight is right out. Once the number six, being the sixth number, be reached, then thou shalt stop and have a party.

Yeah, good skill. Druid basically gets a party-wide version of it at the same level which stacks better with similar effects. I guess wizard can't be perfect ^^

It might be better to consider Riposte as a fun traits of a classical rogue (preferrably dual wielding) than a build on its own.

Heart of Fury is really fun to use AND powerful. Carnage is great and smart design on its own, but HoF puts it on another level. For spells, I would say the whole Storm line (returning, relentless, avenging) has fun mechanics and big impact on the battlefield. I like it. I hoped so much for storm spells to be unique and powerful in bg, but they were rather meh...

Fighter is already the vanilla class. Vanilla Fighter might a class with zero ability, 35 starting Deflection and Acc, and +5 Acc and defense per level. The most vanilla of them all.

Paladin + Rogue = Holy Sniper Wizard + Priest = Overpowerer Monk + Druid = Kung-Fu Panda

Vithraki are Vithrak riding giant spiders and raiding Ixmatli Plains. They are waiting for the giant spider that will weave the world. It is known.