Ymiraku

Btw I was actually not aware that the bonuses from gauntlets of accuracy and belt of bountiful healing did not apply when spirit shifted. I just assumed that they did. Still nice to have high perception though so those spells hit.

The accuracy bonus from gallants focus will apply to the spiritshifted form. Spiritshift doesn't last that long so if I am still going to be in melee when it expires I will cast Firebrand, that will actually benefit from gauntlets and having the belt. Im pretty sure that intelligence actually affects the overall duration of concecrated ground on shod in faith because it lasts for friggin ages.

I have played druids dozens of times and they don't need to be trivialized just to relentless storm etc. As boeroer has mentioned before spiritshift boar + veterans recovery leads to some really good self healing, especially if you put on a belt of bountiful healing for +25%, cast moonwell on yourself and you are pretty OP. Although I wouldn't dump resolve unless you are very experienced. It is great for avoiding being interrupted and for making your druid a bit tankier. Druids get an aoe called Venom Bloom on higher levels which is ridiculous because it is a passive aoe and deals raw damage. When spirtshifted you can deal use taste of the hunt for a really decent heal and a nice little DoT also. Sunbeam is nice because it does decent damage and blinds enemies for a long time. I find what has worked really well for me with druid is to spec higher perception of about between 15-17 then use gauntlets of accuracy and the +4 accuracy aura (cant remember its name lol) if you don't have a paladin in the party. I find druids kind of need decent accuracy for spirit shift attacks and for spell casting. And yeah shod in faith boots are really nice but im not sure if the proc stacks with moonwell. I usually use boots of stability, fenwalkers etc.

I like it :D How would I be going for accuracy with only 13 perception? Would i just need to keep casting eldritch aim for +15 accuracy. I was thinking that high perception would be better than super high might with this concept because high perception leads to more crits = more damage. Also would it be possible to do any sort of soloing with this character or would it be mostly dependent on team support and buffs + heals etc.?

More Dexterity always increases action speed so there is no true max action speed. That said, if you reach zero recovery (fairly easy to do as a Wizard with Deleterious Alacrity of Motion) then the extra speed from increased Dexterity becomes fairly minor. Personally I'd keep Dexterity at 10 for any Wizard: many of your spells as Fast casting and, once you get it, DAoM should always be the first thing you cast in combat (and you should almost always pick if for your level four spell mastery). Hang on a minute... i thought that if you reach zero recovery then stacking more dex won't make any difference? Or is that only the case with casters? For example if I am playing a dual wield warrior with armored grace, durganized sabres and outlanders frenzy then I am already at 0 recovery, would stacking dexterity above 10 in this case allow me to get even faster???

Wow these are great suggestions. Thanks alot for your input boeroer. Have you got a list of items that I should use on my Irenicus? You mentioned items with spell holding and spell steal. Btw do you think 8 constitution would be enough? If you did take a hit before you got your defences up wouldn't you get evaporated?

Hey guys, I was just wondering how i would go about building a fast casting and hard hitting wizard in the theme of Jon Irenicus from Baldurs gate 2. A caster which can shrug off attacks like they are nothing and fast cast and explode everything around him. Would I stack dexterity or go for high might and perception and then use alacrity? I would love some guidance on this, thanks.

I love pillars of of eternity for the huge variations with class play, party compositions, fight mechanics, art, music, voice acting (some of it), and some of the lore is great. But honestly I have always felt like the main story is quite lacking. I find it to a well told but dull story. The story seems somewhat short and lacks depth. There is no really interesting twists and turns and its fairly devoid of any meaningful subplots. But then again pillars of eternity 2 is coming out and that looks to have a much deeper story and longer story.

Well, the extra stat from Culture is not that important from a metagaming persecpective, unless you want to push beyond the normal 18 stat cap. Otherwise I choose background based on - Starting Items. Most cases Rauatai and Old Valia gives mail armour (9DR base) so I like those. But plate armour is quite easily gotten from gold plate npcs in the first village if you so decide to kill them. - The available backgrounds. From memory I like Colonist (+2 Sur), Labourer (+1 Mec/Ath), Philosopher and Artist (+2 Lor). Since points for these skills are exponent with levels, it makes more sense to choose a suitable background. I like +2 Sur when possible as the effects from the level scaling is very good. Especially for frontliners. If I had to choose a stat to max, it will mostly be Per if you are using it more for debuff, Mig if you are pushing up dmg. So the corresponding Cultures. Cipher spells generally have good base duration so max Int is not that important. Ofc, RP is another different thing altogether. You can take a lower than average Res as shield + weapon and shield talents is really good. But I wouldn't completely dump Res. Something about 7-8? Would it be a good idea then to put something like belt of chimes on a cipher offtank to stop him from being interrupted?

So if i make a pale elf paladin tank and a pale elf cipher tank, then a wood elf wizard and a moon godlike priest would that be a solid 4 man party? I do like chanter as an offtank because of the great team support and tankiness he can bring + summons etc. but if a wizard is a more intelligent choice then I will do that.

Well i don't want my cipher to get crapped on constantly so I think i will stay with the sword and board option, it seems recommended. What Culture should i choose, is old vailia for extra aoe and duration good for melee cipher? And what sort of stat point distribution would I want? Should I max intel and strength and not worry about resolve as a melee cipher?

Well I don't really like orlans so what if i make a pale elf melee cipher with a shield and weapons in one slot and a gun in the second slot, fire off a shot at the start of the fight then change to sword and board. So would this work well? Pally tank Chanter dragon wail tank Melee cipher Priest

I've never tried a melee cipher before. I have always just used guns with cipher and played them from range. I thought with melee weapons and in melee range they would max focus too often and lose soul whip then get interrupted when you try to cast. How would I build a melee dps fighter? Would I stack some resolve? Another question: would it be viable to have a ranged cipher instead of a wizard in PoTD?

Hey guys I was wondering if i could get some suggestions for an effective four man PoTD party. Last time I played PoTD it was before white march came out and with a 5 man party of two fighters, two priests and a druid, ever since then I have played hard mode duo's and trio's but want to have another go at PoTD. I was wondering if this would be a viable and powerful four man party for PoTD 1.) Fire god-like paladin tank 2.) Chanter dragon wailed tank/offtank. 3.) Moon godlike priest of eothas 4.) A wizard or cipher with high perception and intelligence. Is this viable? or should I go for a 5 man party and throw a dps fighter or barb into the mix?

Cipher required too much micro though. Hmm, what about a ranged Chanter? This was my initial choice, but I think Dragon Thrashed won't apply much on the enemy back-line? Micromanagement is one of the things that makes the game really fun on hard and PoTD. Maybe try a smaller party of no more than four and then you can focus more on getting the most out of each party member.

Rogues look good in spandex

I don't know about a one shot but a max might fighter with champions boon, devotions of faithful etc. can take a decent chunk off a dragon with charge.

Yeah dual stiletto would be pretty lame for pally FoD. Honestly try using dual bittercut both with corrosive lash on a bleak walker paladin then take scion of flame and spirit of decay. If you want to do really stupid damage make an aumaua or dwarf bleak walker with living lands and maxed might. Take effigy's resentment eder or maneha for +1 might, gift from the machine and galawain's boon (+1 str each). Merciless hand and dungeon delver. Get bittercut, make it superb and duplicate it with helwax mold. Take all FoD buffs for bleak walker then scion of flame and spirit of decay like i mentioned before. Get Maegfolc skull for +4 might and ryona's vambraces for +3 dr bypass and spec vulnerable attack. Then with your OP dual bittercuts go and FoD a random mob and watch it explode into little giblets. Btw dual hammer is really cool also, shatterstar has annihilating and then there is godansthunyr which is amazing dual wielded with a barb. Imo the best weapons for FoD is pretty much what has already been stated in this thread. Firebrand, hours of st rumbalt, bittercut, an arquebus, dulcanale etc.

Magran's faithful bounty on PoTD is an insanely hard fight. It's actually worse if you have a smaller party because the casters in the back spam firebug and will annihilate a small team. Forget about stacking reflex they have so much accuracy it doesn't matter lol. I found the only way to beat this on PoTD was to quickly lock down the casters in the back to stop them from casting firebug and then drop a symbol of magran to blind then a venombloom etc. Then send a barb in and heart of fury them down xD

But toward end-game, you should be assumed to have 2 Durganized weapons and the Attack Speed gloves. If so, then I guess 2 Bittercuts are almost always better than 2 Rimecutters? What if I want to wear heavier armor? Is there any scenario where 2 Rimecutters are better? I love using dual rimecutters with vulnerable attack, and I like having high perception and gauntlets of accuracy for endless crits. Ive used dual sabers plenty of times (resolution and purgatory and dual bittercuts with corrosive lash) but I still prefer dual rimecutters with high accuracy. Also what can work really nicely is dual bleak fang with vulnerable attack and ryona's vambraces. There is really so many awesome combinations though.

wait so combusting wounds doesn't trigger with abilities like infestation of maggots, plague of insects etc. anymore?

This might be a really dumb question but where is brisk recitation? Is it only available if you actually rolled as a chanter as the main character? I have played a chanter a long time before my current chanter and even then i don't remember having this ability. Chanter is a custom npc, on level 13 so far and tanks like a champion xD.

When I said two hander I should have specified Hours of St Rumbalt. You are dead right when you say that firebrand and rumbalt are the two best two-hander options. I ran A bleak walker with forgemasters fingers for firebrand with scion of flame, merciless hand, dungeon delver etc. With priests champion boon on the paladin I would see crits for over 300 with FoD lol. Although I never tried it with a chanter in the party though with aefyllath ues mrth fyr I could imagine crits over 400. Firebrand is so cool plus it kind of reminds me of those death knight guys around durlags tower which would wreck your face in 3 hits.

I think with two paladins you would get bored later in game and really I would prefer a barb or a fighter using duel wield over a paladin. A bleak walker with a 2 hanger is pretty OP though when you use flames of devotion. I have ran with a dual wield barb as a tank and a paladin offtank and it works extremely well. With two chanters and two pally's in your team is would seriously make things boring, you would just pop sacred immolation with both pallys and probably have both chanters using dragon thrashed and everything would just almost instantly vanish.

In my opinion fighter and priest are the two most overpowered classes. I am going to see how I go with chanter for a while though. Do you always love having a barb in the team also? A high dps barb with high intellect just obliterated an entire gang in a second with heart of fury lol. I remember once at the start of magran's faithful bounty I just leapt into the mass zerg with my barb, hit heat of fury and they all just exploded lol. Sometimes it lags out my computer its so satisfying.