Valdegard

Thanks for the advice so far! I think I've narrowed my choices down to Paladin/Wizard, Fighter/Wizard, or something involving Trickster. What are the differences between a Paladin/Wizard and Fighter/Wizard in terms of playstyle? Paladin obviously has the support via healing and auras and such, but I see Fighter/Wizard recommended in terms of locking down fights and using summoned weapons well. Would the more offensive approach be more beneficial in the long run? Trickster seems really cool as well and I'd probably pick that for sure if I didn't have likely rogues in Mirke and Ydwin already.

Yeah, I gave the sidekicks a real close look and would definitely be picking up Fassina as a conjurer/druid even if my Watcher had some healing or support going on themselves. I'd rather stay away from priests and druids for my Watcher though, moreso for roleplay reasons than anything else. Can something mixed with Paladin or Chanter fulfill a frontline casting support role in such a party then? Or considering possible turn-based mode, is it perhaps more viable to crank initiative and go for some kind of far more offensive casting approach (via Wizard, Cipher?) to lock down fights so that the less robust party healing isn't as needed? I'm a little spoiled from coordinating my offensive melee Cipher with a ranged Grieving Mother throughout PoE1, being able to work together to dominate fights on PotD there.

I just recently replayed Pillars of Eternity (as a Cipher) and got Deadfire on sale. I had been wracking my brain trying to think of what kind of multi-class I should do for my first playthrough, but I started thinking that perhaps I'm taking the wrong approach and might instead consider how my Watcher will fit in with the rest of the party. I've decided to use only sidekicks instead of full companions (barring perhaps briefly getting their questlines out of the way) due to either feeling they had their limelight in PoE1, or simply not being interested in them compared to the sidekicks, who all seem pretty cool. Given that, what would be a decent multi-class combination for a Watcher partying with any or all of the sidekicks, assuming PotD, and probably turn-based mode? Ideally some sort of martial/caster multi-class too, but I'm open to suggestions. Thank you!

One last approved post before I can post freely, so I'll say...thank you! That's a good reason to go peek into Durgan's Battery early! (I just unlocked it but was putting it off)

Will I get a companion rogue to join my party? I love playing rogues and thieves in these kinds of games, but Cipher seemed too interesting to pass up. Little did I know Grieving Mother already was one (although they do work well together). I realize I could hire one, but on this first playthrough I'd rather get to know the standard members and their strengths and weaknesses before making a super customized party. Another encounter I had a bit of a difficult time with, although I didn't have to reload, was the Cail the Silent. Eder and Pallegina tried to engage as many things as possible, Durance laid down Circle of Protection, Devotions for the Faithful, and Watchful Presence, and basically tried to keep those up. Aloth opened with Confusion and Expose Vulnerability then attempted Chill Fog and whatever else he could muster (besides Fireball and Slicken), and lastly my Cipher and Grieving Mother would pop one drake with their guns, keep Cail dominated/paralyzed and would make sure to dominate at least one other drake while focusing on shooting things low on health to just reduce numbers. I forget how it happened, but Pallegina got stranded on one side, which was very good since my Cipher and Grieving Mother used her to anchor that beam spell to play ring around the rosie and flat out end some little trouble things that wouldn't die. I feel like I could be getting more out of my party, though. Based on the above, are there any general recommendations to just keep in mind for future difficult encounters? Scrolls I should always have, potions, some fight changing maneuvers I wasn't taking advantage of, etc.? Again, I managed, but not gracefully (they ate Aloth and Durance) and I am learning and getting better somewhat.

Yeah, I quickly figured out a couple things with spirit type enemies, fire and paralyze is great, as is putting any freeze reduction stuff on whoever they feel like killing first, which they WILL (usually my main character). Despite that, it seems like any individual one is harder than any other enemy type overall and they throw 10-15 at you at once, even with freeze reduction they all just...converge and blow me to pieces before I can cast anything. Still, whatever I'm doing now is working, just barely. The bestiary seems to fill up the more enemies I kill, and seeing their resistances while hovering over enemies I'm assuming is related to that, but it seems like every encounter resets them all to ???, so I'm having to just memorize everything. Well, I'll continue mangling my way up through Hard if I'm not doing anything grotesquely inefficient. I made sure to pick someone to work on mechanics, but when is Stealth useful? Besides the obvious I mean, but I'm noticing that, minus a Rogue, either everyone in the party needs to have stealth or none of them, since encounters just sort of (ideally)...begin around your tank anyway.

Ah, thank you! I don't know if I made it clear, I did make it past the shades with some clever reactionary maneuvers, but it wasn't very graceful...prompting this topic. I appreciate the advice, but there are some terms I don't understand. CC is...crowd control, so like Binding Web and such? What is alpha strike?

Hello! I grew up with Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale and got into things like the first Fallout games and Arcanum as I got older, so Pillars of Eternity interested me greatly. I originally bought and played it and kept getting wrecked at the Temple of Eothas with 3 party members, but a year or so later I'm trying again and very much enjoying my time (I've got one area of Defiance Bay cleared of sidequests now.) The Lighthouse quest (The Weeping...something? With the banshee) caused me to double take with fearful flashbacks of my first run, I spent a good hour developing a method to clear the first floor. Although I managed, I decided to be proactive and just ask to see if there are some very simple, beginner things I could be doing differently with my party. Right now the members I like to stick with are: Eder with a sword and shield (I tend to not like typical tanks in games, but Eder is strangely endearing), and some defensive talents, Pallegina with an Estoc and Hold the Line, trying to be some sort of not-dead-in-one-hit off tank (I don't know Paladins very well) Aloth with the fire bonus talent and Blast, but not Arcane Veil since I haven't seen him get into too much trouble. My MC, a Cipher, and Grieving Mother, working as a tag team, usually shooting enemies with a pistol/arquebus then using whatever focus to try and shut down/finish off as many enemies as possible, sometimes getting an opportunity to shoot again if the fight lasts that long. Then I've been flip flopping between Durance and Kana in the last spot. Durance's priest stuff and Kana's chanting have both saved me in situations, but when I used them together, one or the other tends to do a whole lot of nothing, so I decided to switch them around depending on how much raw healing I'd need. The rest of the party members I've been swapping around as well so I like using everyone, but that's the setup I found worked well so far. Now, I'm very much used to really getting into the mechanics and making sure every last bit is stretched to the most useful and practical elements, like with my Heart of Fury Icewind Dale II runs...but I'm very much not ready for that yet in this, and I was wondering if there's more simple advice I could use until I get farther and figure out what the hell I'm doing with my party. Such as, nobody really has much equipment of anything, who gets deflection/resolve/whatever crap I pick up eventually, are there highlights in special weapons coming up that one or more characters would really get mileage out of, any stupid hard fights I should be prepping someone for ahead of time, things like that? I could probably punch through and keep flailing around until I beat it, but that Lighthouse shade fight made me just want to reach out for a little reflection. If I have to retrain my characters, I'd rather do it now at level 6 than at the end of the game.