OCapn

Thanks Thanks! Maybe in another decade or so I'll get my ultimate badge.

This may not be a big achievement by the standards of this forum but I'm pretty proud of myself after trying for this for several years. My personal rules included 1) no watching YouTube videos for cheese tactics, and no direct copying of builds from this forum or elsewhere; 2) using only story characters in the party (apart from hiring one mercenary in Gilded Vale to get through Act I); 3) no using a backup save file without Trial of Iron enabled to test combat tactics; 4) no force-quitting or other obvious cheating. However, I did allow myself to consult the wiki for certain stat checks and so on. After so many failed attempts, this became a necessary time-saver. I'd come close to getting Triple Crown several times before but failed in the usual spots (Lagufaeth, dragons, Kaoto, Thaos). Eventually I realized that the best strategy, given my rules, was to be at the maximum possible level for every difficult encounter. Which meant that as cautiously as I thought I'd been playing, it wasn't cautiously enough -- for example, delving deeply into the Endless Paths at a low level just to grab Persistence, etc., is a bad strategy for getting the Triple Crown and Frozen Crown achievements. I also had better results rotating characters through my party as opposed to focusing on six characters exclusively; in my failed attempts, I tended to over-rely on Eder and certain other characters I realized I was bringing along mostly out of habit. Some classes are just better suited to certain encounters than others. And I did have luck on my side once or twice with this successful run -- especially when I made it through the Abbey of the Fallen moon without having to confront the High Abbot at all. I really had thought that was impossible, but this game continues to surprise after so many hours. My endgame party was: 1) PC: Human monk built for speed with turning wheel and iron wheel as the bread and butter damage skills, Maneha's armor, Shod-in-Faith, Drawn in Spring and Bittercut, and Scon Mica's Roar. 2) Zahua built to tank and wielding two stunning Cladhalíaths. 3) Pallegina built for fire damage (especially Firebrand) and a little support. 4) Grieving Mother with the Lead Splitter doing crowd control. 5) Durance with an arquebus doing buffs and heals. 6) Aloth with Gyrd Háewanes Sténes and Abydon's Hammer doing damage or whatever else is needed. As frustrating as it could be to lose again and again at this challenge, finally beating it made for some extremely satisfying gaming. I think I'm going to import this character into Deadfire for a trial of iron run on normal difficulty, because Deadfire's PotD is much harder. Thanks to everyone here for all your helpful posts!

I think this is true. I play through POE1 & 2 about once a year to attempt the triple crown challenge, which usually involves dying repeatedly to bosses until I find a party that clicks, at which point I give up on triple crown and enjoy a normal playthrough with my strongest builds. To me respeccing a character or relying on custom adventurers instead of story companions feels like a failure so I rarely do either. And on my latest run (potd unscaled) I really noticed how out of whack the Deadfire DLC areas are with the rest of the game, even when "overleveled." I don't think it's my fault anymore. I think Deadfire needed a lot more development time to smooth things out. The White March parts 1 & 2 fit perfectly well at almost any point a player chooses to do them in a POE 1 playthrough. This is not the case with POE 2's DLCs, which is especially unfortunate because the open world map design should encourage exploration instead of punishing it. This isn't only an issue with the DLCs either. The narrative momentum of Deadfire stumbles when you reach Neketaka and get sent to Hasongo, because if you sail straight to Hasongo you're too weak to fight the Naga, but if you level up with side quests, the rest of the game is too easy -- until you hit the ridiculous DLCs, at which point your progress effectively gets reset to zero. I love both games but after all this time I have to admit that while Deadfire improved on the first game tremendously with muliticlassing and QOL tweaks, POE 1 was better designed when it came to dungeons and bosses and pacing, which is most of the game.

I'm level 10-ish heading in to Act 3 in my latest Triple Crown attempt. I have a DPS rogue main character with a party of Eder, a custom barbarian (high INT fire godlike using Durance's staff), Durance, Pallegina, and whoever else I feel like in the sixth slot (usually Grieving Mother). It's a durable party that's well-equipped for most encounters but I'm not confident it could take out a dragon without some heavy scrolls, which I don't really have the lore skill for. I don't run a duplicate party on non-ironman mode to work out strategies and I try to avoid the wikis because that's how I interpret the spirit of the challenge. I think I could actually finally beat the game with this party but maybe not the White March, but if i fail i won't be mad. It's the most fun I've had in gaming for a long time just making decisions about whether to attempt one quest or another for fear of losing the entire run. There's so much talk these days about the difficulty of From Software games and I had some fun learning what's involved with those but I think Pillars I and II high-level achievements are really working on another level of masochism and one that's both more enjoyable and less repetitive in my opinion, especially when it comes to the fundamental gamelplay aspect of designing effective character builds.

Thought I replied but I guess not (or else my reply got eaten). Aloth has a few spells left, not sure at what levels. Grimoire pic attached. Durance might have one revive spell, but again I can't be sure. Pallegina can revive one person with an item and one person with her ability. If she revives Durance, he could run away and revive the player character while Pallegina revives someone else and takes on the group, but then what? Is it even possible to win this fight? Maybe I should start over.

I just screwed up what I thought was going to be my first successful Triple Crown run. It's maybe my fourth serious attempt. I haven't cheated by backing up saves or force-quitting although I admit after this near-wipe, 60 hours in, I was tempted. I nearly wiped twice in the White March and thought I'd learned my lessons. Alas, I was not ready for this fight. I have a level 10 party in Noonfrost. Everyone is knocked out except for Pallegina, who managed to run away. She is at half health, and hiding out in stealth mode near the entrance. My main character, a dual-wield saber rogue and the party's main damage dealer, also ran, but got knocked out in an otherwise empty hallway in the north side of the map. Vesgel the pale elf mage is standing over his body so he won't wake up. The rest of the party (Eder, Durance, Aloth, Grieving Mother) fell near the righthand doorway in the circular room near the entrance. There are half a dozen enemies still lurking around up there including paladins, a sorceror, and a healer who wanders in and out of the room. Pallegina knows reviving exhortation, and I have the Remembrance Ashes on hand. She has zero mechanics skill so she can't lay traps. Everyone except Durance and Aloth (I think) used up their summon items before they got knocked out. (Durance has the wurm item and Aloth has the shades.) How do I rescue this situation? If anyone can do it, it's the people on this forum. Help me please!

Was away for a while… I was on whatever the latest Steam build was at the date of my original post. Can't say much more about the circumstances that led to the bug except it was on the ambush fight with two bandits in the intro (caravan) map. PC was a death godlike chanter. IIRC the phantom was summoned just as the fight came to a close.

My bugged phantom survived the biowac too, it's a tough bugger.

I got this bug too just now at the start of a triple crown run. So… maybe I won't reload or cast any other summons, thanks