Kazuma

Hey Boeroer, A while back you had suggested a rough idea for a build on Pallegina (Fire Missile General I think you called it) and I had some questions - 1) Arm's bearer is for swapping multiple blunderbuss for more frontloading/alpha strike? Something like - Sworn Enemy -> Blunderbuss FoD + Wrath + PenetratingShot x 2 -> Minor Missiles x 3-5 -> Swap Acc Weapon + Shield for rest of fight. 2) Is Prestidigitator's Missiles a must have in your opinion? It seems kinda lackluster from what I've read compared to just wearing the Cloak of minor missiles? It has only 2 missiles vs the 3 of the wizard spell that the cloak grants? Anyhow here's what I was thinking for talents/abilities, any suggestions? - Pallegina Skills: Stealth 4, Athletics 5, Lore 8, Survival 10 (The order probably needs work) L1 Flames of Devotion (Lv1) L2 Weapon and Shield Style L3 Zealous Focus (Lv3) L4 Wrath of the Five Suns L5 Sworn Enemy (Lv5) L6 Penetrating Shot L7 Coordinated Attacks (Lv7) L8 Arm's Bearer L9 Lay on Hands (Lv1) L10 Weapon Focus Ruffian Prestidigitator's Missiles or Soldier/Knight Focus (Warhammer/Sword) L11 Healing Chain (Lv11) or Liberating Exhortation (Lv4)? L12 Scion of Flame L13 Sacred Immolation (Lv13) L14 Superior Deflection L15 Righteous Soul (Lv9) L16 Prestidigitator's Missiles or Veteran's Recovery Vulnerable Attack Intense Flames Spirit of Decay (Might be a bit much for just the missiles) As you can tell I can't really decide on the last talent. WS1-Main Strike Hard / Shame or Glory WS1-Offhand Outwarn Buckler / Little Savior WS2-Main Scon Mica's Roar WS2-Offhand WS3-Main Lead Spitter WS3-Offhand Head Hermit's Hat Oops, Godlike. Neck Cloak of Minor Missiles Armor Ryona's Breastplate or He Carries Many Scars Belt Coil of Resoursefullness or Belt of Bountiful Healing? Ring1 Ring of Protection Ring2 Pensiavi Mes Rei or Ring of Deflection Hands Ryona's Vambraces Boots Boots of Zealous Command Quickslot Scrolls of Revival *Edit* Swapped talents around a bit. In hindsight being able to get two blunderbuss shots off is more dmg than what scion of flame would add so I prioritized Penetrating Shot > Arm's Bearer > Scion of Flame. I'm also wondering if picking Weapon Focus Ruffian is the right call as I'd be using sworn enemy for the alpha shots. Better to pick a focus related to my weapon and shield?

Ah, yes. I wasn't thinking about the endless paths. That's one exception but then again if you really can't make it back to the surface then maybe your going too soon? But taking the shortcuts are optional iirc, right? So.. slow and steady would be my preference. Another thing that changed my opinion on per rest vs per encounter is health. You're going to have to rest often soloing just because your health gets whittled down fairly quickly. At least when you're tanking for prolonged periods. So I don't bother saving my per rest abilities like I did at the start. Rest and save often, imo.

I'm pretty sure people only mentioned their difficulty in case a difference could be determined. Afaik nobody found any outside of game version. You're welcome to test it if you want to be absolutely sure. I don't have the time to. I was just trying to offer suggestions, not start a debate.

Nothing of an expert myself but... 1) I'm pretty sure there's still a thread about a solo potd wizard build here on the first page - if not google w/site:obsidian.net. These forums seem to be the most active and therefore up-to-date. At any rate even if you don't plan on playing potd or solo I'm sure you can get an idea of what spells are useful and why. Also I thought I'd hate the per rest abilities vs per encounters but keep in mind that for the most part you're never in a position where you can't leave, go back to an inn/stronghold, and rest. It can kinda be annoying to travel back and fourth all the time. That's why I started using console commands to "rest". You lose achievements and some here would probably call it cheating but I call it convenience. It's not like I'm able to get the resting buffs that are available from other sources. 2) If you're finding an encounter too difficult solo search for videos about it or just watch let's plays to get some general ideas of what to look for when it comes to using choke points, kiting, splitting, etc. Even tanky characters have problems taking on many mobs at once solo. Mobility and using mob pathing/AI against them is quite common. Anything you can do to limit the number of opponents actively attacking you. As far as stealth goes it's never going to be like D&D where it approaches invisibility at higher levels. The higher the skill the slower mobs will detect you and there is no way to restealth (aside from one later ability) once in combat. Stealth is most useful in bypassing fights. Otherwise you want to debuff enemies, i.e. flanking so that you can sneak attack them. That is where the dps comes from with rogues as I understand it. 3) I suggest reading through the builds stickied at the top of this forum to get an idea. 4) I haven't played a cipher in a long time. They've been changed quite a bit since I played them but I felt they were more like psionics - that is attacking with the mind against the will. There's some threads here about them. Read and test I'd say. If you have the patience play a class thru the first dungeon to get a feel for them then restart and try another. I wouldn't call wizards weak at all and perhaps your putting to much faith in a rogues dps. Ideally you'll have another party member tanking/debuffing while your melee rogue flanks/sneak attacks. It takes more setup to achieve their ideal dps. Mainly you have to throw out some of your preconceptions. For example any class can use any weapon or armor. Therefore there is no class restriction against a rogue or wizard in full plate. For a rogue you have to worry about speed debuffs but there isn't as big of an issue for a wizard. I was just like you a few weeks ago. If you don't want to go thru your own trial and error then watch some let's play videos to see what works (just keep an eye on versions, ymmv). Keep in mind this mostly relates to PotD. As lower difficulty is not that demanding once you've read about the mechanics a bit.

Well I do happen to be playing PotD, but afaik nobody ever made that distinction here. They would have discovered that early on and started two lists. It's not like the gear itself is different between difficulties, so I'm not sure why'd they have different lists. Unless it was to cut down on the occurrences on "good" loot to make it harder. I kinda doubt it. More likely in a game with leveled loot, but more typically the gear would be better not worse in the harder mode. Games can't be all sticks and no carrots if you will. Not all of us are masochists.

I'm on 3.03 and have opened at least 6 and gotten what I wanted from the base game. But I'm just finishing up act I so take that with a grain of salt. Perhaps WM is the issue. The only suggestion I saw in this thread is that sometimes you have to reload at least once within your session. Odds are you've already done that though. The only thing I can add is that I've been using "AdvanceTimeByHours x" to get the correct date. Which means I wouldn't get achievements if I was in fact playing it on a platform that tracked them. /shrug Never been into that personally. Anyways the point being that you might use that console command to do some testing if you haven't already. If you care about achievements just reload before you iroll20'd. *edit* You could also try reinstalling the game. If that worked it would suggest there is some configuration that defines/influences the lists that has gotten corrupted one way or another. Backup your saves to be safe of course. I think most unistallers ignore or ask if you want them these days but if you click yes thinking it wanted confirmation on the unistall... For a 100% clean test you might also want to do a fresh (easy difficulty) game to rush to the first spot on the list to see if the list is in sync (in case the state of the savegame also effects loot). If it still doesn't work in your old saves but it works in the new run then unfortunately it's some corruption in the saves themselves.

Ah, yes. I don't really remember much about the fight against Raedric besides there being a lot of guards. In potd I'm sure it's fun... especially with white worms... I guess I know what I'm doing next. Hit lvl 5 clearing out the first lvl of paths. I haven't done Maerwald though. Trying to decide what I should get from the random loot spots on this level. Another pair of boots of stability and another ring of overseeing maybe. Ring of searing flame? *edit* I just realized a bit ago that regen talents like Ancient Memory and Veteran's Recovery have a duration. In hindsight I should have realized this was the case. It doesn't make much sense mobs would get persistent regen (assuming they share the same mechanics for abilities). It's kinda disappointing though. Guess pulling a whole room to a choke point is not always the best idea if your healing is limited to such talents as they'll run out before you're done with the killing queue. *edit* I should have known bodies don't persist between areas or loading (that's at the very least needless savegame bloat). I at least have the room just before the throne room left to accumulate bodies. Raedric is the last thing I need to do before heading to baldurs gate Defiance Bay. All the guards have to donate to the stronghold restoration fund first. *edit* Oops, I should have pulled the worm food guards to the bedroom door to the right of Raedric's thrown. It's a real choke point and Kana wouldn't have died seconds after he cast white worm (paladins are tough, who knew?). From what I can tell Raedric's dialog doesn't really give any rep (you'd think the paladin order topics would give you one of the favored reps) so I'll probably just pull him without talking this second time. It'd also help if I was wearing my armor... ><

Yeah, I guess your advice was on the assumption I was soloing it. I forget the name of the mob but the white spirits that stun (lock) you are pretty annoying. I might have been able to kill one by itself while I was soloing but splitting them inside the temple's close confines is a bit harder (or maybe impossible? AI seems inconsistent on when mobs leash). The mantle could have definitely helped with endurance between the stuns. But I figured I'd stop being stubborn and pick up kana for the healing/dps. I'll duo until I can pick up pallegina. At any rate I cleared the courtyard of Caed Nua easy with his help before I went to bed. I did try the first pull inside and it was going well until I got the brilliant idea to use white worms as a finishing blow after I had thinned out their numbers. In my sleep deprived state it didn't occur to me that they seldom leave corpses behind, oops. With Kana's chant gone I got unlucky and my pally got knocked out (more like I waited too long to use LoH). *edit* Looks like this is the place people typically sneak past and use figurines/scrolls to finish up. My second try was much worse. Must have gotten lucky first time. Next time I'll wait till lvl 5 when I have 5 stealth so I can find a better position. I eventually killed them no thanks to fan of flames - 1 hit, rest miss. Kana with the Yenwood and end chant one the day. I probably could have continued to solo with my pally but I felt it was getting a bit tedious. If I do an actual solo run next it'll be with a class/build that can hopefully dps faster or has aoe. @Kaylon - Yeah the bear was pretty easy at lvl 4 once I downed some consumables and found the corner I could chokehold the bears pathing. Out of curiosity what is considered the hardest mob in ch.1?

Yeah... I sorta looted all hidden/special containers up to Raedric's Keep. When I decided what to get from them (using the random loot list) I figured I didn't need Rhymrgand's Mantle because I wasn't really using the "cast-on-top-of-the-chanter" aspect of your chillfog build. Instead I got - Boots of Stability Boots of Stealth (so I could save some skill points on sneaking) Belt of Bountiful Healing Gauntlets of Accuracy and Gloves of Manipulation From what I can see on the wiki the next logical place to look for it is in the endless paths... you know, after all those spirits I have to kill? ahem.. Ah, well. I started to clear the Temple of Eothos B2 and realized it's going to be annoying. So I went and grabbed Kana. Deciding if I still want to do chillfog or something else with him. He might be lacking in the RES department but it hasn't mattered thus far. HP Battery?, yes pls.

Yup, he was a surprise but I managed with a little bit of luck. Ah, yeah I saved the chef. Even managed to free him solo on my last potd run using a dps build. Those bandits aren't that hard considering. I've been picking up little tips watching videos while I play. i.e. got the plate from killing the backer npc right outside the temple ruins in town (cleared the top floor of that, waiting to do the next - spirits). I had just assumed they'd made killing all backer npcs a pita in someway. But it seems it's only some of them. Ymmv, save often an all that. Slowly but surely getting some halfway decent gear. Which was to blame for my dps. Now I wish I had some more Acc, but I'll manage as I start picking up enchanted stuff I think. Trying the quest A Mother's Plea before I head off to start clearing Raedric's keep. Hopefully I'll gain 1-2 levels doing so. Sorry, didn't really mean to start a play by play - I'm sure this all old hat to you veterans with many playthrus. Suffice it to say the solo pally build I'm using is working. Though with the amount of kiting with a bow I'm doing I feel like a poor man's ranger in plate.

I'm doing alright solo so far. I managed to clear all but one of the bandits for the smithy quest. The last guy has some serious regen and I already got the package so I left him guarding an empty camp. I did cheese a little and got the leader fighting a troll while I took care of his lacky. Speaking of trolls... ugh.. soooo slow. I lack dps right now because I haven't taken flames of devotion yet. I don't regret it because zealous charge works wonders for kiting/splitting. In my previous run I went straight to town (though I probably picked up more xp than you). This time I cleared Cliant Lis solo and did all but the wolves and bear in valewood. I've finished up the wolves but I've yet to go back for the bears. That thing scares me. Ah, 2 DR booze and more CON ftw. Though right now I think my problem is dps related. Hard for me to overwhelm anything with endurance regen. Haven't tried the shrooms or the lurkers yet. Got a spellward amulet and managed to take care of the paladins+caster south of the vale. Do all Xaurip Skirmishers have paralyze on their weapons? (at least in potd) I fought one omw to the looters quest and that was pretty annoying. Starting to think I need to pick up Kana soon for the extra dps.

Ah, I see where I got that number from. My old build spreadsheet that I recycled has the base deflection for each class. Obviously the games been rebalanced many times since then. I forgot to update that stuff. Though I suppose it's possible I entered it wrong in the first place. They did nerf Faith and Conviction from what I was reading so it's likely the base was adjusted. Ah, well so long as I can get a better start this run I don't really mind if paladin is sub-optimal for a (semi) solo potd. *edit* Oops.. accidentally trained some wolves on Durance. He died and I didn't notice until a few hours later he was missing. Ah well. Only place I would have used him was the effigy and there's probably better picks.

Lol, yes I guess that is the distinction to make - not maxed RES. My Chanter and Rogue had the first and second highest RES in my party. oO; Probably why it felt like my chanter with weapon and shield could tank longer in a couple fights they were forced to... At any rate my MC will have maxed RES this time around. I'll pick up Kana after a while and duo as much as I can. That's the plan at least. I know how the last one went - with me having a hard time keeping my tanks up. Ancient memory definitely a priority. 20 base? 5 less than Paladin iirc, but spells certainly lend some flexibility. Still Boeroer I'm beginning to think you're trying to see how many times you can get me to change my mind on classes I do that well enough my self. Kidding. At any rate I started my new game. Not going to bother with updating the other builds until I get a ways in. Off to kill Calisca so I can try my hand at soloing from the get go.

@Boeroer - lol no prob that was what I figured. I just thought I had missed some sort of cross-class mechanic for a second. Having played a little with this party I've decided to change tactics a bit. There are a few things that didn't work as well as I imagined - 1) Rushing to make a Custom party. There's still a 1-2 level gap early on and spreading the xp across 5-6 characters not getting the xp bonus slows down progress. 2) Tanky builds. Are in fact pretty squishy at low levels as they don't have their full toolset and I imagine they need levels to start to shine. 3) Mobility. I didn't put enough emphasis into this and because a full party is slow to start it became an issue with some encounters I found I couldn't take all at once. i.e. the blacksmith bandits. My poor rogue was used as a sacrifice to split them. *edit* I realized afterward I could have cheesed them into the trolls with my chanter. So I figure I'll do the following - 1) Use the official companions like most were suggesting. ahem, should have listened. The fact that they'll scale to my level means I can go solo for as long as I can to drive up my levels quicker. Though I realize it's possible to solo the entire game it's not really my goal to. 2) Change my MC's build. I'll start with a solo minded build. My MC's a paladin already so it won't be much of a change. Just less DPS+more tank. Keeping Survival low so I can bump mechanics kinda sucks but it's not a huge deal. Picking up Zealous charge for the mobility/splitting as well. There's a few other things I'll need to tweak. Obviously the devil won't need mechanics. Pallegina's build will have to be adjusted a bit. I'm thinking of running a barb as that was the other class to get love in the patch. Live and learn. I have a feeling I'll be doing the beginning of the game a few times before I'm happy with the party. Well that and become somewhat less of a noob

@hobbitmonk - True, second wind is better than nothing. And since I posted my question I've quickly learned that with some potd encounters cheese is needed (my first time). I can see how kitting/splitting would be necessary solo. Going to have to get familiar with all the little reusable items methinks. You're making me want to attempt a solo run, but I suppose I need to run thru potd once with this group just to get some experience with what to expect.

"Rogue Lover... Rogue Lover.. this is more than a crush.. Rogue Lovaaa..." or not... But the title of this thread inspired me in an unwanted fashion - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Um99r6sgspY Ahem.. anyhow. I hope I don't ended feeling the same as you after this playthru as I have a rogue in my party.. Though it's not exactly integral to the party.

I'm basically the opposite (at least in the past). Typically I focus on ranged classes, especially when it comes to single character games. But lately I've been trying my hand at melee toons. That said on the occasion I get suckered into playing another mmo (have a love/hate, mostly hate, relationship with them) I still stick with ranged classes as the trend seems to be on huge arenas with lots of telegraphs and other gimmicks to avoid. That's when it's got to suck as melee. Start feeling like you're playing a dancing game. Avoid-Avoid-Avoid-jump-self-buff-rotation-jump-avoid-rotation-colapse-on-group-to-avoid-instagibing... or something like that. I still find it out that PoE ranged classes don't get debuffs for attacking in melee range. That's such an ingrained mechanic. Well, if they aren't built tanky there is still a reason to get out of range but that's another thing altogether. In which case kiting is probably thing to do.

^ Nice post. Though I might have missed it in the wall of text (or I'm being a noob about monks), but how does this build manage healing if both Moon Godlike and Shod-in-Faith are optional?

Good advice as usual Besides the weapon issue it's mainly being low level that is the problem. Not far enough along in the builds to have Flaggellanth's Path for example. And it's not like I had a problem with the few fights I was in. It just didn't feel optimal because I had one or two chars twiddling their thumbs. I do have escape in my rogue build so repositioning to the back front should be possible in tight spaces. Though there is something to be said about blowing an oh-****-button for that (well I guess the oh-**** buff was added this patch). I don't have Coordinated Positioning but at 2 uses per encounter that's starting to sound good even without this problem as you can use it on mobs too. At first glance I'm thinking I'll swap out Adept Evasion for Coo-Pos. Adept Evasion sounds nice but it's reflex saves only, but it was also buffed this patch. Hmmm.. decisions. Dimensional shift seems unlikely for me to leverage as I don't have a wizard and all the items I found that grant it are low use per rest. Perhaps I'm missing something? Wait, a Paladin can take a rogue ability? Or did you just mean swapping her out of the way with my rogue if she got stuck in the front? Oh, wait.. you meant Coordinated Attacks from the back row. Gotcha. Iirc Heritage Hill is in defiance bay? The zone with the Tower? Hmmm.. well since there's no penalty for attacking in melee range with a ranged weapon I suppose there's nothing stopping me from having her sit right behind the person I want to give the Acc buff. Might actually be easier to control that way than side by side. Yeah, losing the shield kinda sucks but the options are better with the pistol... I think. Too bad these are flintlocks. Pistol and shield, like riot police. Or maybe it's enough to just give my rogue more mobility and give the chanter a reach weapon. Not that he's going to do much with it. Wait, why am I thinking my chanter needs to do something? Chants and invocations are plenty even if he can't get in melee range. I must be half asleep still. So, One Monk, two pally's that need to be melee to be optimal, one chanter chilling behind them, and a rogue that can blink in or out as needed. Just have to tough it out a few levels and I'll have those options. The solution for the non-problem

@Boeroer - Yah, I might have to try that. I've realized one problem with having 5 melee in a party - there's 5 melee in the party and hit boxes/pathing can make choke points even when you don't want them. Not that big of deal in the end but it would be nice to have someone ranged to pull. Just something I had forgotten about.

Sooo... somewhere along the line I got it in my head that Pallegina was a Darcozzi. Oops, my bad. Guess I'm sticking with a custom on that one too. Don't want to bother working out another build. Race becomes more important since I'm not replacing the custom toon. @Baldurs_gate_2 - To each their own. I didn't have a druid or a cleric in my last playthru and it wasn't super difficult.

Yeah, I changed around the races a bit. Made the monk Boreal as suggested and when I realized bittercut has a poison debuff on it I switched my bleak walker to a mountain dwarf. Now I'll be break even on Poison DR if I end up doing 2 x bittercut. Still don't really know what I'm doing gear wise. Followed suggestions where I could but I'll just make it up as I go along. I'd post my table of gear but it wouldn't format right and I'd end up with a really long post instead. /shrug.

I hear ya. The build called for Fort. I figured Beoroer knew what he was doing but I like to tinker with things. It's one way to learn. In retrospect Snake's Reflex isn't enough to cover the -12 Reflex save from low dex and it's probably better to have two good save scores than 1 good and two mediocre. Coupled with what you mentioned about afflictions and the old trope, "Get the guy in the dress!!!", Fort really does serve this build better, imo.

Ah, I see. I honestly hadn't even looked at what weapon and shield style gave you. lol. Fort is the bigger pain so Bear's Fort it is.

Class: Chanter (revised Chillfog) Race: Pale Elf Bg: Living Lands / Colonist Stats: MIG: 19 CON: 10 DEX: 4 PER: 10 INT: 18 RES: 17 Skills: Athletics 5, Lore 8, Survival 12 Talents L2 Weapon and Shield Style L4 Ancient Memory L6 Beloved Spirits L8 Veteran's Recovery L10 Secrets of Rime L12 Bear's Fortitude L14 Cautious Attack Superior Deflection L16 Wound Binding Phrases L1 Quickest of his Tribe (+Reflex/+Move), Soft Winds of Death (Foe End) L3 Hearts Grew Bold (+10 Fort/Will) L5 Harbingers Doom (Fear Foe) L7 Power of the Saint (Def vs Fear) L9 Seven Men (+Prone/+DR Freeze/Shock) L11 The Dragon Thrashed (Foe Slash/Burn) L13 Old Siec Sated (Drain) L15 Mercy and Kindness (100% Healing) Invocations L1 Thunder Rolled (Crush/Stun) L2 White Worms (Let the bodies hit the floor) L4 Crashed Shield (DR-) L6 Froze Stiff (Paralyze) L8 The Lover (Charm) L10 Seven Nights (Freeze) L12 Gernisc's Beast (Summon Drake) L14 So Singt (Freeze+4 Targets) L16 Called to his Bidding (3 Summons)