Marigoldran

Here's an interesting idea: Old Seic's chant gives back 12% of damage done as healing. So the more damage you do, the more healing you get back. Berserkers are confused, meaning that their attacks hit friend and foe. They also get carnage, which also hits friend and foe if confused. So the idea is simple: A party of 3 heralds and 2 Berserker/Monks (for Swift Flurry). The heralds summon a crap ton of minions and use Old Seic and various other healing abilities. The berserkers hit enemies. As they hit enemies, they'll trigger Carnage. This carnage ALSO hits all of the minions. Berserkers never die as they heal from carnaging the minions. Bonus points if one of the berserkers carry "Grave Caller."

Yes, well when the base spell is "ancient weapons," that's still pretty good. If you want a summon class, Heralds is by far the best. The other good summon class, ironically, is Bersker. Get the weapon "Grave Caller" and have a beckoner in your party to summon skeletons. Then with your berserked abilities, massacre these weak summoned skeletons. With the right enchantment, every time the weapon Grave Caller kills a skeleton, it summons an imp. Boreoror's idea, btw. Enjoy your imps. Another good weird summoner class is Ranger/Rogue Heath Orlan. The key is getting Essence Interrupter, which summons stuff every time you kill something you've critted. With Rogue and Ranger passives (sharpshooter and dirty fighting) and your Heath Orlan bonus, you'll be critting a lot once every 3 hits, and the Essence Interrupter shoots FAST with the Hunting Bow Modal.

Paladin/Chanter. Herald. Paladins provide tankiness and auras that support not only themselves but also the summons. Build an entire team of Heralds (Paladin/Chanter) and the game is easy mode. With a team of 5 Heralds (all beckoners) you can have up to 30 summons on the field at the same time. By themselves, each individual summon does 2-3 damage per hit. But if you field 30 of them, they'll kill anything and tank for you, too. By the time the enemies kill them, you can resummon them again. Summons in this game are AMAZING. You should try it, especially when multiclassed with Paladins.

No, I played this to the end. It's one of the few builds that's survived restartitis (because it's effective from beginning to end). 35 Int is from 21 +10 +4. 21 from attributes, 10 from Turning Wheel, 4 from items (strand of favor, +2 intellect helm, some other intellect giving item). +2 or +3 might from pork or whale meat. I haven't even been using Clarity of Mind. The final might number is 32 (16 + 10 + 4 + 2) once tenacious and food is factored in. With a bit more min/max I could have might of 35, but whatever. The numbers add up. Try it. You'll like it especially since with the Hunting Bow modal you shoot once ever 1.5- 1.7 seconds. Turning wheel's fire bonus doesn't even matter. What really matters is might and int stacking with Ascension.

See? Boeroer agrees.

The idea is to have heralds WITH morning stars who can switch to sword and shield (or dagger and shield, or club and shield) on demand. That way they can debuff and heal and summon and tank. I mean, it's not like they're going to personally do much damage, which means they have the freedom to fill every other role the party needs. Herald face tanks enemy, smacks it with a Morning Star, and then Cipher disintegrates it.

Multiple aura stacking. Accuracy and crit aura AND armor and healing aura. Healing chants AND faster reload times AND extra fire damage AND damage shields. With one herald you have to select between these choices. With two heralds you can select them all. It's a right number for a party. Thinking of replacing Tekehu with a Sorcerer with Deltro's Cage, Lord Darryn's Voulge, and Bloodmage for mass Chain Lightning and Storm casts. I mean the only reason I bring Tekehu along is for his potions spell.

2 heralds, 1 Tekehu, 1 Eder and 45 second disintegrates from the Helwalker/Cipher. Heralds distract and apply Body Blows. Tekehu hands out healing potions, Moonwells, and Lightning Storms (has Deltro's Cage and Lord Darryn's Voulge). Eder kills/distracts the mages. Cipher ascends (quickly too, with Hunting Bow modal, Essence Interrupter, Dance of Death, and 30+ Might, +2 Pen, from wounds and Tenacious blows). Casts Disintegrates during the 75 seconds of ascension (fast casting speed, too, due to 16-ish dex and swift flurry) and It's over. A single disintegrate at 35 Int and 30+ Might can kill most bosses.

Like shooting them with Maia or an Ascendant/Cipher. I understand. But I don't like Maia and I'd rather use game companions and Xoti is pretty useless until Whispers of the Wind and Resonance and Inner Death so I'm left with Eder. It's not like you can have Serefen leap into the back lines and stay alive. I agree that Eder is middle of the road and no good compared to what we can custom build (e.g. Berserker/Paladin- Bounding Leap and Spirit Frenzy for maximum backline disruption. Pally for tankiness). But if you have to use him as a companion then he fits into the "mage interference role" better than the "tank" role as Pallegina is simply the better tank.

Didn't you already get one of these rude messages deleted last time by a moderator after I reported you? My point is simple: Eder isn't the best tank, which is something the OP also mentioned in his post. Hence, my reasonable suggestion is to have the primary tanking done by something else (like a herald) and have Eder do other useful things. I hope that makes things clear.

If not herald, then Pally/Wiz. As a wizard you won't just be a body. You'll have a lot of CC's.

Helwalker/Ascendant multiclass. The two go together like peas in a pod. Here's a simple combo: Teleport Eder into enemy back line. Have your cipher cast Echoplastic Echoes on Eder. Spam mindblades when ascended. Watch things die.

But Swashbucklers kill mages faster (Deathblows, Persistent Distraction, Sneak Attack, etc.), which means Eder can more quickly teleport to the NEXT target. Also, Devil of Caroc armor is better for a Swashbuckler than a Fighter. Fighters kill targets 1-on-1 too slowly compared to Swashbucklers. A fighter shuts down mages, but Swashbucklers shut down mages AND kill them. It's primarily the rogue passives that you want. Also, as a rogue, he can blind spellcasters, which is just as useful and more resource efficient than constantly knocking a mage into the air. Once a mage has their eyes gouged out, Eder can just autoattack him to death.

This class is fun and effective from beginning to end and at every level it does RIDICULOUS amounts of damage (that becomes even more ridiculous at level 16 when it gets Disnitegrate). Key features of the build: Primary weapon: Essence Interruptor. Unlike other Hunting Bows, the Essence interrupter has both Pierce and Shock meaning that it's effective even against heavily armored enemies like Ironclads. You can get this weapon immediately at the start at Port Maje with Berath's Blessings. Why Essence Interruptor? Because of the modal (-50% recovery time, -15 accuracy). With this modal and light armor and Swift Flurry and Cosmo's Cat, and a herald providing faster reload/recovery times for ranged shots, you're literally shooting once every 1.5 seconds. This means you get 3 attacks when everyone else gets 1. Now, 3 attacks without penetration aren't that useful, BUT because of the Essence Interruptor's shock damage type, and the Cipher's and Monk's bonuses to weapon penetration, it means you can consistently penetrate even against heavily armored targets DESPITE using a hunting bow. The -15 accuracy is countered by the Monk's Enduring Dance, which provides an accuracy buff. Enduring Dance also provides wounds, and as a helwalker each wound provides an extra might. With the Helwalker (+10) Might bonus, and Turning Wheel (+10 int), and the smart inspiration from Clarity of Mind (another +5 int), you'll spend most of combat with 30 might and 35 int assuming you prioritized those traits during character creation. Dump Res. With your hunting bow of DEATH, you build focus like crazy, which means that you can ascend quickly. Once you ascend that 35 int means that you can ascend for 75 seconds. (even longer with +duration of beneficial effects items like Strand of Favor or Mantle of Authority). That's an eternity. At which point you can annihilate everything with 30 Might, 35 Intellect mind blades and echoplastic echoes in the early and mid game, and Disintegrates and Amplified Waves in the late game. The only downside to this build is that it's best with a Heath Orlan but THERE ARE NO SEXY PORTRAITS OF HEATH ORLANS, which is why is I selected "Elf."

At first I thought he was "less tanky than a herald" and "does less dps than a dps built character". What role does he fill in a party? Why should I include him? The answer is: mage killing. Unlike pure rogues, Swashbucklers can teleport to the enemy backlines and survive a standup fight against multiple opponents. That means you can stick Eder on a mage or a priest and that mage or priest will NEVER cast a spell again. Since most fights are won or lost by how effectively you can crush or interrupt their spellcasters, this means Eder is rather useful despite not being as tanky as a herald or as "DPS" as like a Helwalker/Ascendant. It also helps that an Eder in the enemy backline is the perfect target for Cipher spells like Echoplastic Echoes and Pain Block.

Swashbuckler, with dual swords (Duskfall + Watcher or Modwyr). Teleport (Escape) to the enemy mages and priests and gouge out their eyes and beat them into the ground. For sheer tankiness, heralds are better than Eder can ever dream to be. But as a swashbuckler Eder has the mobility that the heralds lack, which makes him perfect for spellcaster interrupting. Have a cipher provide echoplastic echo on Eder and it's even better.

Yes. The power of the single class monk.

The single damage type of Pistols is the reason why I chose Essence over Unique Pistols. Also, you get the essence much earlier. Still, there's no reason not to carry the Arcane Blaster.

Yes but you shoot so fast that even if you miss it's not big deal. Dance of Death gives a ton of accuracy, and when you add in flanking bonuses from allies that's enough to consistently hit. Also, Tekehu has Nature's Mark. There's a ton of things that can give you accuracy and when you combine it with a super fast bow that means a TON of damage.

If you enchant the essence interrupter to do extra 5% damage with fire, will it stack with the ring?

https://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Weapons_(Deadfire) -15 Accuracy, my bad. But -50% recovery.

Which synergizes well with a Hunting Bow (modal gives -10 Acc and -50% recovery time). You're shooting once every 1.5 seconds.

Hence: heralds - and 1 rogue- (for the megabosses).

Priests, I guess. But Paladins are simply better at keeping things alive (Lay of Hands IS Barring Death's Door, but more spammable and heals target too).

it still does massive damage to bosses because of the DOT. You only need to hit once in your ascended period to take a dragon down to Near Death. With 30 int, a Disintegrate lasts 30 seconds, which is 10 ticks. It's massive. It's real power is the fact that you only need to hit once, which means that you can reliably Disintegrate even high fort enemies once you've ascended. The heralds keep everyone alive as you watch it tick down.