SimpleEnigma
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Posts posted by SimpleEnigma
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I think this guide is a little redundant, it's a role-playing game - you're expected to play it through more than once and so you can try different attribute combos on subsequent play-throughs. The only thing I was holding out on before completing the game (which I still haven't, hopefully soon) was a release without bugs which wasn't there initially; after the most significant v1 patching my laptop broke and when I got fixed I thought I'd wait for both White March releases so here I am.
Point is, don't procrastinate. If you didn't notice, the game is combat heavy. I felt much more of an impact in New Vegas where there were many many different skill and attribute combos for dialogue, which is great - however I don't begrudge Pillars for not offering that. Needlessly putting off a game because you don't know how to optimise the dialogue options is a little pointless when most of the options achieve the same thing and it's really not the core of what the game is about.
Besides, the game has been out for an age now in terms of modern games. No one is going to read this guide for beginners, as no one is a beginner anymore apart from apparently you - particularly with a crowd funded game where the core audience is aware of the game and has already funded/bought it on release. Sorry to burst your bubble.
With WM2 just released and steam sales all the time I am sure there are people trying out the game for the first time. Not all guides are for everyone!
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Modern British English is not really any more similar to Medieval English than modern American English, though. Some older features were better preserved in American English, actually (and some others in British, they're just different modern branches that diverged from the same source). And if it was actual Medieval English, it wouldn't be understandable to the majority of players, as the pronunciation was vastly different.
I agree, it's just a perception thing though. English accents just "sound" old, at least to a lot of Americans.
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Nice guide, But I'd say that one could make a damage-dealing rogue work pumping only mental attributes, since MIG is not that useful for you anyway and if you reach zero attack recovery, raising DEX past 10 won't be necessary anymore.
And if you use rapier, dagger and light armor or clothes, you even look the part of a silver-tongued swashbuckler or charming duelist. You wont be as hurty as a specialized damage-dealer, but you will talk your way into victory whenever possible.
EDIT: But early game will be hell for you.
Yeah I agree it would work but it's kinda a novelty build that would probably be hell for a new player. Although on Normal difficulty perhaps it would be less severe. Rogues in general seem like a poor choice for a first playthrough unless you heavily researched the mechanics of the game beforehand.
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I don't see how British accents are any more appropriate than American ones in a *fantasy* settings. Also, remember that Dyrwood is an overseas Aedyran colony, it would make sense for Dyrwoodans to have American accents and people from the Aedyr Empire to have British ones, for example.
I think the British voice being standard for fantasy characters is a mix of Tolkien intentionally writing in a very old English style and writers following that style. Plus high fantasy normally loosely models a Medieval Europe so modern accents sound weird in that environment. Finally for a variety of reasons (for instance I read an article on how British stage actor training gives them skills to better sell/act out a fantastical role) British actors get cast more often for fantasy roles.
I enjoy seeing specifically video games address the accent issue though. For instance Dragon Age dwarves have American accents.
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I think a rogue fits what you want to do best. Because of how damage bonuses are calculated might isn't that key of a stat for rogues. A high PER, high RES rogue that focuses on getting lots of crits can be a very strong build. Single wielding a rapier or similar will further increase your chance to crit. However if you want to go toe to toe with enemies you will want that shield or a weapon that stuns or prones or somehow disables. Even with high resilience rogues are notoriously fragile.
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1) For melee I vote monk as your best bet for what you are looking for. Pure melee class with a lot of interactivity. Shapeshifter Druid is fun too plus gives you quite a bit of versatility. Rogue has the high potential to be very frustrating since rogues are very fragile and depend a lot on positioning. They are they most interactive melee class though in my opinion. I prefer ciphers played as ranged.
2) Eder is one of my favorite video game companions of all time. He has good lore insight, friendly, and has some really funny moments. Everyone has to experience Durance at least once. He's rather... prickly but has a unique story and is quite different from companions found in other games. Kana is your gentle giant that also chimes in with lore frequently in conversations. I think he's a bit underrated. Sagani is worth it alone for her banter with Eder. Devil of Caroc has interesting quips too.
3) I think the DLC is worth it but either get both DLC or neither since the two combine for a story arc. You can wait until you've completed Act II though before deciding if you like the game enough to buy more content for it.
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INTRODUCTION
Hello there! Let me guess, you just got this awesome game called Pillars of Eternity and so far it seems really fun but you just cant seem to decide on that perfect main character. Or hey maybe you've had the game for months, still sitting at that "create character" screen waiting for divine inspiration. That was me. I bought the game in December and had over 100 hours played before I even created the character I eventually completed the game with. This post will hopefully help you find that perfect character quicker than I did, and give you some tips on creating that character - different from the kind of tips found in most new player guides. There will be extremely minor spoilers, but probably spoilers you've already seen if you are on this forums and reading guides.
CONVERSATION
Conversation attributes are the great sirens that lure many of our new character dreams into the reefs. Let me take one large chunk of conversation anxiety right off the bat: with very few exceptions your race, background (home and job), class (including paladin orders and priest deities), and gender only give you flavor text with no real impact on the outcome of the conversation. So with these options just choose what you want to roleplay as and occasionally people will remark on it - which is pretty cool but does not really factor in how the game plays out.
Mental stats (Int, Per, Res), skills (like lore, mechanics, and survival), and your reputation from conversations (are you honest, clever, cruel, etc) tend to be the modifiers that actually influence how an encounter will play out. Unlike many other games however, just because you pass a check for a certain dialog option doesn't necessarily mean it is the "best" option. For instance a high int may let you point out a hole in their logic, which pisses them off and they may even attack you for it. They always aren't the "good" option either. Resolve for instance sometimes gives you options to bully people into doing what you want or extorting poor people out of money. Also know that sometimes you could have multiple unlocked options and you'll have to pick one (say a resolve option, perception option, and a lore option)
Having a character with high RES, INT, and PER pretty much limits the character to some type of tank or support role. There is no build I know of that can do top tier DPS and have all 3 mental stats approaching 20. Paladins and Chanters normally fit into this type of build best (shameless self plug for my Rauatai Captain build but there are other good builds on here for convo builds) but most of the other classes can make a convo build work at some level. You will get gear and other bonuses that raise your stats so don't think you have to max out all 3 stats at character creation to hit all the checks.More importantly don't feel obligated to chase after all 3 stats. In the end it doesn't change things THAT much. As I mentioned earlier there are a lot of conversations where you can choose only one of several special options so there's a fair bit of overlap. Nearly every build will have a significant number of points in at least one of those 3 stats. Focusing on just one or two of the stats will still give you lots of unique dialog.
Lore and Survival open up the most dialog options of all the skills (helps that with 3.0 survival is pretty much a must have). Towards the second half of the game your personality will change how people react (you can turn on the meta tags for conversations if you want to ensure you build a specific personality).
COMPANIONS
If you are reading this guide you are probably interested in the full story aspect of the game and want to have a party full of story companions. The nest suggestion I have is to try grabbing all the core (non DLC) companions real quick just so you can get a feel for their personalities and decide if you want to create a character that compliments a team of your favorites. In case you don't own all DLCs the companion classes available are:
Core game:
- Fighter
- Wizard
- Priest
- Ranger
- Druid
- Paladin
- Cipher
- Chanter
WM Part I:
- Monk
- Rogue
WM Part 2:
- Barbarian
CLASS
With WM II DLC making all classes available as story companions you can pick any class and have companions that will fit well with your build. Do note that the DLC companions take a little longer to get to (and aren't available if you do not own the DLC). Paladins and Priests get minor benefits for being the main character. If you are like me and want your main character to be the one you focus on most in combat then Wizards, Priests, Druids, Monks, and to a lesser extent Ciphers and Rangers tend to require the most direct attention.
On normal and even hard difficulty the game is forgiving enough that most builds can be successful. That's how I ultimately decided on my character. I found smiting bad guys and having my allies benefit from it was a fun mechanic, so I created a build around it and enjoyed it through the whole playthrough. I think most around here have a build they consider their "own" that they really connected with.
CONCLUSION
I would try to avoid metagaming this game as much as possible. There are a lot of cool little secrets and surprises this game offers that trying to prepare to do them perfectly is near impossible and just kinda spoils the surprise. So just go, try out some builds, and when one just grabs you by the throat then you know you've found the one!
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I do that with a chanter all the time because they also tend to have high MIG and INT. You can get 7 Fireballs per rest with the Sabre from the Endless Paths (Flames of Fair Rhian: 3/rest), Taluntain's Staff (3 per rest) and Curoc's Brand (1/rest). How many uses does the Mail have? Alltogether that's nice for a "Pyromancer"
. And then there's also scrolls of course. The mail has 3 uses. I briefly added other items like molten shield and such but I ended up with so much stuff to cast I was hardly swinging my sword!
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Ah - nice idea with the Sun-Touched Mail - I should put that on Pallegina because with her special Sworn-Enemy-talent she's my Scion of Flame at the moment.
Towards the end of the game I realized Paladins make for pretty solid battlemages because of their high int and might. I bet there's a solid build out there for a paladin that focuses on fire spell items. Casting speed is quite lackluster though.
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I love Eder. Decently built, pretty funny, and in my opinion has by far the best banter with the other companions (everyone else seems to kinda hate each other). I found his story arc to be the most cohesive and well done. I actually liked Sagani but that's probably because her banter with Eder actually made me laugh out loud. I also like Kana too not so much that his story is that interesting but he adds a lot of good lore flavor to a lot of situations. Devil is good fun. Aloth is just inconsistent and Grieving Mother just didn't work for me. I still need to have meaningful playthroughs with Hiravias, Pellagrina, and Zahua before I have an opinion on them. And buy WII for our new friend.
Durance is just in a category on his own.
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I recently beat the game with this build (pre WMII) and I made some optimizations (too bad I can't edit them in). First up St. Ydwen's Redeemer is awesome with this build. The Destroy Vessels makes for easy Inspiring Triumph procs plus of course the other goodies St. Ydwen brings. I also wore Sun-Touched Mail of Hyran Rath. Transitioned into more of an off tank as this build really needs an Eder type (and a ranger pet as well). Go with Intense Flames and Scion of Flame and your Sunbeams get pretty nasty. I also picked up Righteous Soul because disables are the worst. I didn't end up taking Sworn Enemy, Critical Focus, or Weapon & Shield style.
In the end this build worked best as tanky fiery ball of buffs. I did respectable damage while also having 2-3 defensive buffs up on my group most of the time. This build is best with a melee heavy party to soak up the buffs. Priests, Rogues, and Barbarians in particular like that extra tankiness to shield their frail souls. Also completely ignore the items in my original post as I didn't know that you couldnt stack the same stack bonuses. Instead I tried to get the highest stat boost across the board. Buff Constitution first because the low CON can lead to a lot of early game resting if you are tanking a lot.
I bet a tankier version of this build would work sticking with Outworn Buckler and going with plate armor like White Crest Armor.
Oh and this build can hit all RES/PER/INT convo checks with some proper resting and gear. (One thing I just realized - where are the Shieldbearer convo options? I think there are supposed to be 2 or 3 checks for them but I don't remember seeing any
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I have yet to beat the main story for the first time. I own WM I but I haven't bought WM II yet. Without spoilers would the story flow better if I complete WM II before finishing the main story? I have completed most of what was in WM I if that makes any difference.
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Sinle target dps is what I want. Someone to make the annoying enemy druids/wizards/priests/etc disappear!
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That is accurate for v3…
Detailed advice indeed.Cipher.
Hihi I did a damage per hour in combat calculation on a "we just dps" party once and cipher was going at a nice 1200+ clip (from the start of the game I had a consistent party). Next in line was barbarian at just over 1000, rogue was at about 750 (no deathblows until high level unfortunately but after that it goes higher). Per rest casters were not run though as I was speeding and did not want to rest.
Was there a ranger in this group? I thought they were among top dps.
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Bleed rogue sounds interesting, but I think I'm kinda jonesing for a build with massive burst. Anything that can just chunk down a beefy enemy in a couple shots? I assume it will involve guns or a two hander.
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For my next playthrough I want something that just obliterates npcs. Preferably strong single target damage to quickly snuff out high priority targets (I'm looking at you ogre druids). For single target dps can anything challenge rogue and ranger? I'm planning for this build to be my first triple crown completion so rogue seems like a poor choice in that regard. Would a spellsword wizard be in the same realm? A rogue seems fun but their affinity to faceplanting once they inevitably get aggro during some fight has me looking at other options.
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So... sorry, something I've never been clear on: do druids stats all directly affect the animal form?
Yes that is correct. Special perks from equipment tends not to follow you though.
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Critical Focus can definitely be replaced by anything else. There's a good chance I won't even end up taking it myself. I like Deep Faith for the early game tankiness since the low constitution is most inconvenient then. Sworn Enemy is to help the paladin be more effective against bosses and such but is certainly swappable.
Inspiring Triumph is surprisingly easy to activate, just as long as you give your paladin a chance to last hit some squishy minion that seem to be thrown in most fights. Of the talents you listed this is the one I'd keep. I like your idea to replace critical Focus with intense flames and I'll probably update the build to reflect that.
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I just tested all 3 abilities together with the Outworn Buckler and as far as I can tell they all stack (a whopping +30 deflection and +12 to other defenses!). However just about any other defensive bonus will get overridden so choose your companions' talents carefully.
I did not know about the Pilferer's Grip/Durgan Steel issue though. In that case I'd probably go Bracers of Enduring or Bracers of Endless Rage. The low health pool from low constitution has him needing to rest more often than I'd like so I'm using gear to compensate for that. I'd probably do +int or +per for the armor enchant but I imagine the accessories you want will depend a lot on the party you have.
I thought of your quick switch paladin but all the weapon switching was a bit more micro than I wanted. If only you could program the AI to automatically do that.
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Like any proper aumaua Halgrim sought after the secrets and art of war. Since a child begged for books on battles, fighting styles, great generals... anything remotely related to war and the men who fought in them. Once an adult the military quickly recruited him. Halgrim was not the fastest or strongest aumaua, but his military knowledge and intelligence was surpassed by only the top ranks of the Rauatai military. However unlike most in Rauatai, his true passion veered towards land warfare instead of naval combat. Placed into the infantry officer program he quickly mastered the battle theory taught by his superiors. In fact on a few occasions he challenged the theory taught, bringing in references from battles no aumaua was within leagues of.Fed up with his clamoring for more training while ignorantly slighting his instructors, Halgrim's commander came up with a shrewd plan. Pulling some favors the Rauatai army allowed for Halgrim to join the paladin order Shieldbearers of St. Elcga, with the condition that the army could recall Halgrim at any moment of need. Learning under the storied order was a dream come true for Halgrim while his commanders hoped the order's legendary control and tact would sink in him as much as their battle acumen.Always eager to learn, Halgrim volunteered for an assignment to travel to Defiance Bay to report on the deteriorating political climate in the city. He hoped that he would get a chance to learn about the Saints War. Especially how it ended - there was no way it ended from blowing up a god... right?===================================The Rauatai Captain===================================Difficulty: Hard v. 2.03--------------------------------------------------------------Class: Paladin--------------------------------------------------------------Race: Coastal Aumaua (Any tanky race will work)--------------------------------------------------------------Background: Rauatai - Scholar--------------------------------------------------------------Stats:MIG: 15CON: 9DEX: 10PER: 15INT: 17RES: 12--------------------------------------------------------------Abilities/Talents (a=auto, !=important, r=recommended):Faith and Conviction(a)Lay on Hands(!)Zealous Focus®Flames of Devotion(!)Inspiring Triumph®Sworn EnemyRighteous SoulSacred Immolation®Deep Faith(!)Shielding Touch(!)Shielding Flames(!)Weapon Focus: Soldier®Critical FocusWeapon and Shield StyleTwo-Handed Style---------------------------------------------------------------Items (! = essential, r = recommended):Weapon set 1: Shatterstar® or Godansthunyr® with Outworn Buckler(!)Weapon Set 2: The Hours of St. Rumbalt®Boots: Fulvano's BootsHead: The Pilgrim's Last VigilArmor: Heldrik's Coat®Neck: Ruphec's Watchful CloakBelt: Broad Belt of PowerRings: Snerf's Folly® Ring of Wonder®Hands: Pilferer's Grip®---------------------------------------------------------------Greetings! This is a shameless copy of Boeroer's class build template. This is also the maturation of a build idea I posted earlier. The main idea of this build is to leverage the Shieldbearer specific talents to create a Paladin tank that makes his allies tankier. With this build, FoD, LoH, and killing blows by the paladin will grant his allies in range more defense plus another defense bonus from Outworn Buckler. Since our captain wants to get last hits he needs to have respectable offensive capabilities. For this reason this build will work much better as the player character - we depend on Faith and Conviction (further enhanced by Deep Faith) to shore up our tanky stats. I am currently progressing through Hard difficulty - and despite being new to Hard difficulty this this guy is having a smoother time than some of my Normal characters.This build is focused around triggering the defensive auras as much as possible, keeping them up as long as possible, and affecting the whole team with the buffs. Because of this Int is our most important stat. I use Perception to help buff the paladin's accuracy and by mid game to reliably crit. The secondary objective of this build is to prone enemies with Godansthunyr and The Hours of St. Rumbalt. All the defensive buffs help your back line deal with those inevitable jerks that run straight past your tanks. This also allows your other tanks to build for more damage (for instance I have Eder dual wielding sabres right now). Keep in mind that all the defensive buffs in this build do NOT affect the paladin so make sure you can survive.The ideal way to start off an engagement with the captain is to have him last hit a weak mob with FoD right off the bat. This gives two of the buffs at the start of the fight and should last long enough to kill any high damage enemies or those that escaped through the front line. Swap between 1H&S and 2H as needed to maintain a good balance of tankiness and damage.While I was originally only aiming for INT and PER, once you get all the accessories this build should be able to pass nearly all the mental mind checks in the dialog. For those looking for that holy grail of effective in combat and a strong conversationalist out of their main character - this is the closest I have come up with.
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All the barbarian posts have me interesting in making a barbarian. However I notice there are a lot of build similarities between rogues and barbarians. They both seem to have a reputation of doing immense amounts of damage while being rather squishy. The main distinction I see between the two are rogues are superior at single target dps while barbarians bring a lot of AoE damage. What else helps distinguish these classes from each other?
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Tehehe: a Shieldbearer dual wielding sabres.
Sounds fun!You know what they say, sometimes the best shield is a good sabre!
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I found a dual wield Shieldbearer paladin to be really fun. Shieldbearers get a modification to Flames of Devotion (first level damage ability) that gives nearby allies defensive bonuses whenever FoD is used. There's another talent that gives another defensive bonus if you get the killing blow on an enemy. I only played it on normal but I found it to do decent damage and the defensive buffs helped prevent my party members from dropping like potatoes. It works with 2H or 1H and small shield but dual wield makes it easier to get the last hit. Stat distribution I'd use:
16/9/10/12/18/13
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@Boeroer do you have a written build of your Tidefall barbarian? It's a build I'd love to try out.
. And then there's also scrolls of course. 
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Fresh Playthrough to Import into PoE2
in Pillars of Eternity: Characters Builds, Strategies & the Unity Engine (Spoiler Warning!)
Posted
With Pillars of Eternity 2 on the horizon and the fact I haven't played White March 2 DLC yet, I'm looking to do one fresh run that I'd use to import into POE 2. I beat the game with a paladin so I'd like something that plays a little different from that. I'm considering priest since it fits into the lore so well but I can be persuaded into a different class, especially Cipher. I'm looking to play on Hard difficulty with story companions. I'd like to use the 2 DLC companions since I didn't play with them much in my first play through so someone that meshes well with them is ideal. Primarily I want a character that feels really connected to the lore and story of the game (subjective I know) which is part of why priest and cipher appeal so much to me. Any suggestions for builds or comments from the crowd?