Sharp

As of today I have finished solo PotD twice (not yet with level scaling yet though, will try that next) and thought I would share the build I used to do it. I am by no means a pillars expert and nor do I pretend to have a strong understanding of the games mechanics, so there is a fair chance I messed something up and it could be done more optimally. However, this build worked for me. 1 thing that makes this unique is it is playing monk as a Helwalker and is not consuming wounds, rather it is using them for the extra damage increase. It is a monk/paladin hybrid and is as follows: Advantages of this build: Incredibly tanky (despite being a Helwalker). Easy early game (Having Lay on Hands makes the early game for a monk quite easy). Decent enough Single Target (it isn't quite as good as a pure monk due to not having Inner Death, but Flames of Devotion is quite nice regardless). No need to go weapon hunting (your fists will be your primary weapon throughout the entire game). Disadvantages of this build: No real Area of Effect outside of consumables (Sacred Immolation is quite lackluster). Forced dialogue choices (to maximize your paladin's Deep Faith Bonus). Forced Passive Skill allocation (to maximize the bonus from The Giftbearer's Cloth). Repetitive Combat. This build doesn't gain any new offensive powers from 1 through 20 with the exception of Flaggelant's Path, making the tactics you use for almost every fight identical with no real need to improvise. You lose out on the top tier monk powers, which are really really strong Character Creation: Race: Pale Elf (Optional Moon Godlike). Class: Monk (Helwalker), Paladin (I went with Darcozzi, however, Bleak Walkers would be the stronger choice, I just hate making Cruel choices). Might: 8 (I went 18, but I have updated with some theorycraft). Constitution: 18 (I went with 17, but would rectify this). Dexterity: 12 (I had 11). Perception: 18. Intellect: 3. Resolve: 18. Origin: Rauatai Job: Scholar (I went with Hunter for mechanics, however, Scholar would be stronger). Weapon Proficiency: Small Shield (for the Tuotilo's Palm variant). Level ups: I allocated my skill points as follows from level 1 through 20, the brackets indicates in which class the skill should be allocated: Swift Strikes (Monk), Lay on Hands (Paladin), Flames of Devotion (Paladin). Deep Faith (Paladin). Fast Runner (Paladin). Zealous Aura (Paladin) - I play with Focus as active, Two Weapon Style (Monk). Long Stride (Monk). Retribution (Paladin). Greater Lay on Hands (Paladin), Swift Flurry (Monk). Soul Mirror (Monk). Eternal Devotion (Paladin). Exalted Focus (Paladin), Duality of Mortal Presence (Monk) - I play with Mind as active. Crucible of Suffering (Monk). Bull's Will (Either). Uncanny Luck (Paladin), Enervating Blows (Monk). Tough (Either). Weapon and Shield Style (Either). - Only take this if you intend to make use of Tuotilo's Palm shield, otherwise, take Snake's Reflexes. Virtuous Triumph (Paladin), Turning Wheel (Monk). Flagellant's Path (Monk). Improved Critical (Either). Stoic Steel (Paladin), Heartbeat Drumming (Monk). Spell Resistance or Snake's Reflexes (Either). Some notes on passives which I have not taken and why I have not taken them: Lesser Wounds - As this build does not consume wounds in the first place, gaining them is not an issue especially as a Helwalker has some to begin with. Rooting Pain - When you are always at maximum wounds, this isn't really going to do anything. Parting Sorrow - Same as above. Anything related to empower - most of the time you will not be empowering abilities with this build and if you do use empower, it will be to gain additional charges of Greater Lay on Hands/Swift Flurry/Exalted Devotion. Torment's Reach is not included because in the early game before you get Turning Wheel, with 3 int it has very low AoE and is unlikely to hit more than 1 enemy, making it feel quite lackluster as a single target ability and most of the time you are better off using Flames of Devotion or just basic attacking. In the mid game, it isn't really necessary as for any fight with a small group of enemies you can normally 1 hit everything down with Flames of Devotion and for large groups of enemies you have the Obsidian Lamp. Then in late game, with 15 Arcana you can just kill everything with scrolls anyhow if you so desire to, but by then the build is so strong you won't have any issues regardless. Active Skills: Mechanics 7 first. If you are a hunter, that is 7 including the hunter bonus. You will then take Elias Zelen's Training (can be found in Dunnage) to get to 8. For all locks of Difficulty 10/11 use the Burglar's Gloves which can be purchased from the merchant in Periki's Overlook. Any locks of difficulty 12/13 can be lockpicked using Thief's Putty in addition to these, which can be found in Delver's Row, in The Gullet. There are 2 or 3 level 15 locks and 1 level 18 lock which you will not be able to pick, however, these are doors which are, with the exception of 1 of them, able to be passed with some form of key. Arcana 14. If you are a Scholar, that is 14 including the Scholar Bonus. Geirvard's Training will get you to Arcana 15. Any other skills can be placed wherever you like, they won't impact your gameplay too much. Passive Skills: History, every single point. This is to take advantage of the Giftbearer's Cloth cape. Gear: For the most part, the gear choices for this build are not that important. The helm slot especially, is difficult to find an amazing helm for and I only found 1 that I really liked after I had killed everything in the game. When I can remember where I found something, I listed the item location next to the item name. Helmet: Not important, I used Helm of the Falcon for most of the game including the final "fight". Neck: Token of Faith. Body Armor: Fleshmender (Ikorno's Bounty). A good early game chest can be found from killing Benweth in Fort Deadlight. Ring 1: Minor Ring of Protection (never found a suitable replacement). Ring 2: Ring of the Solitary Wanderer. Boots: Boots of Stone, can be found in Dunnage. A good early game pair would be the Shorewalker's Sandals (cannot remember where you find them, but they are an early on item). Cloak: The Giftbearer's Cloth (Fampyr's Crypt, Northwest section of the map). Gloves: Greater Gauntlets of Reliability. Belt: The Undying Burden (Delver's Row). Pet: Eviee (I think you find her in the Adra Sawmill in Queen's Berth, but I may be wrong). Shield: Tuotilo's Palm. This is an optional Shield that can be purchased from the armorer in Periki's Overlook. It is not required for the build, but makes the build even safer to play (keeping in mind it is already very safe) and almost completely nullifies any death due to mistakes, at the cost of a large amount of damage. Thanks to KentDA for pointing out it exists! Useful Quick Slot items: These are items I find useful to have on the quick slots. Obsidian Lamp Figurine - Really strong early on and through the mid game, can be found in Delver's Row (1 of the shops sells it). Scroll of Meteor Shower - Good in the late game for dealing with Fampyrs. As far as I can remember I never used a health potion nor a scroll to restore health, I did not find it necessary with Lay on Hands. A note on respeccing: Respeccing is currently bugged and will cause you to lose 1 of your initial powers for a multiclassed monk/paladin in addition to losing both of the plot related powers and losing all trainings. Due to this, if you attempt to respec an existing character to this build you will have less ratings available than the number I have illustrated here. Some Theorycraft: Due to the whole Perception vs Might argument, I created a spreadsheet comparing Perception and Might based on my general observations of how both stats behave, which I will list here: Accuracy is additive with your defensive statistics. Critical Strike damage is additive with other damage bonuses. Grazes are additive with other damage bonuses in some really weird format, found this thread which explains it: https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/98616-game-mechanics/ Might is additive with some damage bonuses. Lashes are multiplicative with Might and additive with each other - left out of this as a result as they have 0 effect on the net result. If any of the above are incorrect for a specific reason, this theorycraft will be incorrect, so feel free to look over it and tell me if I went wrong, but from my triple checking the maths looks correct. The way this spreadsheet works is as follows: Chance of missing * damage on miss+Chance of hitting*damage on hit+ Chance of grazing*damage on graze+Chance to crit*damage on crit. If there is a difference of 0 accuracy and deflection, the chance to hit is 50%, the chance to miss is 30%, the chance to graze is 20% and the chance to crit is 0%. The Defense Delta is the difference between the defensive statistic and accuracy, if you have a defense delta of -30 it means your accuracy is at least 30 less than the enemies defensive statistic. This spreadsheet does not take into account the extending of skill duration on crits, the reduction of skill duration on grazes or the extra penetration on crits, these 3 factors will modify the results in favour of perception however, given the results without them taken into account, it just further proves that perception almost always beats might. The higher the value for whichever column you are looking at, the better the result. By default I have set it to a damage bonus of 1 (which matches what you would have with my build with base might and 2 stacks of retribution) but you should modify it to whatever you should have for your circumstances. This does not take into miss to graze, graze to hit or hit to crit conversion. Nor does it take into account blunted criticals or armour. Link to spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Qzou9qoy-R7_oTOQ2nNyb12pm7VlH0kZ6jCd4f3hFGI/edit?usp=sharing The tl;dr is perception is almost always better than might for the purposes of dealing damage.

It is possible to spam this ability with no recovery time while dual wielding if you interrupt the hit with the second weapon by recasting the ability again. To replicate: 1) Make sure you are dual wielding 2 weapons, in my case I was a multiclassed monk/paladin using fists. 2) Cast Eternal Devotion on your target of choice. 3) After the first cast hits and before the timer for the second cast reaches 0, pause the game (this is to make it easier to order a recast). 4) Issue the order to cast Eternal Devotion. Net result: The controlled unit will interrupt the second hit of Eternal devotion with the first hit of another Eternal Devotion. Whilst this does cost you half of the abilities damage, it does allow you to chain it without end with no cooldown provided you have at least 1 zeal.

Respeccing your character will cause you to lose any training you have received from npcs in addition to losing the abilities tied to the story (cannot remember their names, lost them already, but the ability that distracts enemies with spirits as well as the 1 that terrifies enemies). To reproduce: 1) Train with an npc. 2) go to in. 3) Respec character.