arkane83

Easy fix then: Swap xoti for pallagina and then you make your watcher a mix of priest, monk or druid. I personally like either monk/priest or monk/druid just because monks can get sweet bonuses to intellect (and might if helwalker) which gives some nice benefits to spellcasting.

Eder fighter rogue Xoti priest monk Serafen barbarian cipher Maia wizard ranger You Paladin Troubadour (herald) Or You Paladin Druid (liberator)

The bounce upgrade on fire in the hole goes a long way to add a few more targets to an aoe arterial strike or FoD. In my party my watcher is able to do most of the damage, but I didn't run this solo. I built eder as a persistent distraction tank with high disengagement defense. Start with arterial and have your tank drag them around. They will usually bleed out quick just from that. You get two aoe chances to apply each debuff and only need one to make enemies hemorrhage HP like no tommorow. Explosives skill is going to be more of a back up. I rarely used it, to be honest. The itemization adds a ton of accuracy and the extra point of pen really helps.

I like the Howitzer build too. One of the nice things about my build is that it works nicely early game. You get hand mortar super early and some of your better abilities are PL1-4. The other gear is really easy to get too. Both rings are early game and the hat is pretty cheap. Penetration can be tricky with auto attacks, but I rarely feel resource starved.

This should help nicely when wearing Casita Samelia's Legacy

I decided to share the build I am using for my current play through: The Holy Hand Grenadier Subclasses: Paladin (Goldpact, Bleakwalker or Kind Wayfarer), Streetfigther A build which combines streetfighter and paladin to lob explosives which debuff your foes with DOTs and afflictions. Paladin defenses let you safely self-afflict distracted with the blunderbuss modal and have constant streetfigther speed bonus. Author: arkane83 Game Version: 1.2 Difficulty: PotD Solo: Not tested Companion: -

The Holy Hand Grenadier (OK, so he is really a holy hand mortar maniac… but I wanted the Monty Python reference!) Class: Holy Slayer Subclasses: Goldpact, Kind Wayfarer, or Bleakwalker / Streetfighter Description: This is a very straightforward build. You use blunderbuss modal to activate streetfighter’s amazing speed boost. The hand mortar and fire in the hole are both AOE weapons and can be used to quickly spread afflictions and Damage Over Time (DOT) to your enemies. Paladin provides a ton of defense which helps offset the downside of constantly fighting under the distracted affliction. The hat and rings make your FoD laser accurate. You can quickly move around the battlefield with escape, and your zeal will feel nearly endless for AOE ranged full attacks. Use escape to get really close, have a nice deflection, and blast enemies with hand mortar. I went with Goldpact for a more balanced, survivable build; however, if you want to maximize crowd control and AOE (Area Of Effect) DPS (Damage Per Second) I recommend Bleakwalker. The added corrode damage and sicken affliction are extremely strong when applied as an AOE. Goldpact is going to add a tremendous amount of armor which is going to go a long way to keep you alive and helps offset some of Streetfighter’s inherent weaknesses from fighting distracted. Kind Wayfarer is also great since you will be using Flames of Devotion often, but can sometimes work against wanting to stay blooded. The choice is completely up to you, the build works great with any paladin subclass, but if running Goldpact with exalted endurance, it gives you a way to keep your health at 50% in relative safety without worrying that your next FoD is going to drop your dps. Race: Human (Any will work) Race is very unimportant to this build. Pick what you like. I went with Human for the DPS boost while blooded, which is a state we like to be in anyway! Attributes – No Berath’s Might: 16 Constitution: 10 Dexterity: 10 Perception: 18 Intelligence: 18 Resolve: 6 Attributes – With Berath’s Blessing (Recommended) Might: 16 Constitution: 10 Dexterity: 10 Perception: 18 Intelligence: 18 Resolve: 18 Attributes – With Berath’s Blessing (Min Max DPS) Might: 20 Constitution: 8 Dexterity: 16 Perception: 20 Intelligence: 20 Resolve: 6 I personally hate min-maxing, so I made my character well rounded with a high resolve and nothing truly weak. Dexterity is unimportant to this build as you will get tons of speed from the synergy of streetfighter and powder burns. I like to run with a chanter in my party running Sure Handed. This build will also always dual wield. This game has a funny way of stacking speed where there is a diminishing returns on gains past a certain point of speed increase. I would keep dexterity as close to 10 as possible in your stats since the gain is quite marginal with so many sources of reload speed. Abilities: Level 1: Sworn Enemy, Flames of Devotion, Crippling Strike Level 2: Lay on Hands Level 3: Deep Faith Level 4: Zealous Aura, Blinding Strike Level 5: Two Weapon Style Level 6: Escape Level 7: Sworn Rival, Arterial Strike Level 8: Gouging Strike Level 9: Eternal Devotion or Shared Flames (if in party) Level 10: Exalted Endurance or Focus (your choice), Level 11: Strike the Bell Level 12: Finishing Blow Level 13: Deep Wounds, Psion of Flame Level 14: Eliminating Blow, Pierce the Bell or Ring the Bell (more dot damage) Level 15: Withering Strike Level 16: Virtuous Triumph, Toxic Strike Level 17: Improved Critical Level 18: Uncanny Luck Level 19: Stoic Steel, Death Blows Level 20: Whatever you want I took Strike the Bell for even more DOT stacking, but this is completely optional. Shadow step is one option, but IMHO the paralyze affliction doesn’t last quite long enough for the heavy guile cost. The core of this build is the combination of dual wielding aoe blunderbusses with rogue debuffs and using paladin’s great defenses to make you less of a glass cannon. There is actually a ton of room in the above abilities depending on your personal preferences. I stuck to ranged, so I skipped riposte and persistent distraction; however, you could easily work them in by dropping withering strike and toxic strike. You will have a ton of great damage abilities and sometimes it’s nice to have DPS do some off-tanking. Proficiencies: Blunderbuss Skills: Athletics, Explosives, History (if using Giftbearer’s) Weapons: Set 1: Hand Mortar and Fire in the Hole (upgrade for bonus damage <2m and projectile bounce) Set 2: Your favorite dual wield combo of melee weapons (Modwyr and Duskfall are great) Other Useful Gear: Head: Acina’s Tricorn, Ranged accuracy and reload speed Ring: Ring of Focused Flame, more accuracy with FoD Ring: Ring of the Marksman, more ranged accuracy and penetration Armor: Anything that improved recovery or action speed. Devil of Caroc and Miscreant Leathers are both great.

Lately I have been spending much of my free time playing around with character builds in Pillars of Eternity 2 and reading these forums. In addition to being a huge fan of Obsidian games, CRPGs, and fantasy genres in general, I also love to write fantasy themed music. (Actually Obsidian games have been stealing a lot of my time which I would normally spend writing new music lol.) I wanted to share with everyone (and shamelessly self promote) some of my work. You can listen to my music (for free) in my musician profile at Reverb Nation: https://www.reverbnation.com/danielgarzone

There is a warhammer, Resounding Call, that gives you thunderous blows on destroying barrels in combat.

The problem with losing access to opposite schools in exchange for power level is that not every spell benefits the same from PL. Multi projectile damage or a damage over time spell is way more power level hungry than a fixed bonus spell with a duration. Opposite schools should have -3 power level and recovery penalty but still be usable. That would give a 5 PL gap between specialized schools and opposed schools. You would still really want to avoid your opposed schools, but could manage a lower duration mirror image if your a conjurer. I think the real problem with my idea is that evokers are really strong as is. Fix 4 broken specialties to make the fifth overpowered. Maybe we just need better/more unique specialist only spells?

Pair with rogue and carry dual blunt weapons in one set and hand mortar in second set. Unshifted spread aoe dots and debuffs. Shift into cat and go to town on sneak attack vulnerable enemies. Dual blunt for damage type diversity. I recommend trickster. Mirror image can be cast while shifted and really makes this combo more survivable.

Eh, it's good if you focus on wound spending over wound accumulation. Different types of builds do well by it. The fact its autoattacks only really limits what a shattered pillar can do. Maybe if they allowed them to gain wounds from all damage dealt, but at different rates. Something like 20 auto attack damage, 40 martial ability damage, and 60 spell damage wouldn't be too OP. As-is a nalzpaca just does the whole wounds without getting hit better... plus drugs are cheap and plentiful

We can also try confuse the enemies (esp. barbarians and AoEers). This way there is a higher chance they will hit our charmed party members. That raises an interesting question: if an enemy charms one of your people, and you charm an enemy, and the enemy you've charmed your charmed party member, what happens? Fampyr mating ritual

I actually only used pistol because my watcher on that playthrough dual wields blunderbuss. Blunderbus is really good because it gives 4 chances to hit for kind wayfarer aoe heal. I wouldn't even bother with the aoe weapon just so you get 8 chances for at least 1 (max 2) PBAOE heals

Dual wield hand mortar and fire in the hole with a scout for tons on aoe bleeds

I had this in my party at one point: Troubadour/ kind wayfarer - 18 might, 18 Intel exalted endurance, ancestral memory, dual wield pistols and FoD heals in a small aoe. Standard LoH. Makes a great healer with two concurrent aoe heal over times. You can run a second chanter buff of your choice concurrent. I used sure handed most of the time. Invocation less important because this char won't activate brisk as much. Troubadour/ Ghost Heart - my summoner and rifleman. 18 int, 10 might, 18 per. Brisk any buff you want and summon chanter summons of your choice. Summon your ghostheart bear to start combat (behind enemies). Build the pet as a DPS since you can re summon a ton of times. I kept my chanter near each other so they both benefited from sure handed. You can have this guy use sure handed and your dual buff guy run something else if you want. Rifle of your choice, gunner and two handed style Both of these guys were really ability starved and stat starved because I had them doing so much. However, they were solid support, summons, and dps. I would often have both of them summon different things. I could also see making the wildheart a beckoner, but I'm not a fan. Big ogres more often pls. Just some ideas for you. Plenty of room for improvement on my builds

You are quite correct, but insane gore is part of the infinity engine legacy. Fallout 1 and 2 had some amazingly hilarious death animations (and a perk that would force them). Shoot a guy with a 9mm and half of his torso went missing. Oh bloody mess You could almost argue that being forced to turn down gore makes the corpse eater broken as a class. It should really be some kind of on kill mechanic and maybe a way to heal wounds out of combat by eating corpses (not that hardtack is that expensive or resting even matters).

Turn off the gib option in the game options menu - then you can eat all killed enemies (I mean kith/wilder/beast of course), no matter how they died (except Dintegration). It's the same with White Worms and Death's Maw and so on: doesn't work on exploded enemies and enemeis that leave no corpse. Gib option is the first thing I turn off - even before turning off companion auto-leveling. It's ridiculous anyway: exploding enemies on crits? Yeeeeah... meeeeh... My Holy Slayer has a hand mortar that completely disagrees with turning off gibs. There is something just super satisfying about a fiery flames of devotion dual wield blunderbus explosion that instantly explodes half of the enemies in front of me.

I have the same bug with a Holy Slayer (Streetfighter / Goldpact). I am losing all of my level 1 abilities when I respec

I have a Holy Slayer (Streetfighter / Goldpact) which cannot respec without losing all level 1 abilities. Do we have any ETA on when respeccing will be fixed?

Edit: oops duplicate post

Trickster is a great pairing. You will be a much more durable ranged damage dealer thanks to defensive illusion spells. Streetfighter is great too. Use blunderbus modal and you can self trigger their speed boost. Assassin isnt bad either. Use an arquebus and open from stealth. Go with what sounds fun

A quick note on planning builds around a respec: I have two saves where I lost all of my level 1 skill selections after respec. That's games started after 1.2 Just keep in mind you may not be able to respec out of anything. I am stuck on my saves without the ability to respec as originally planned

I think a strong multi-class is one that has abilities that either fill gaps in each classes weakness or have good synergy to do something more powerful. Example: Ciphers generate their resource by damage foes with weapons. Martial classes rely on weapons to do damage. Martial classes ability to better use weapons help them generate faster focus as a cipher. Paladin, for example, gets a cheap level 1 ability that has bonus accuracy and a full attack. Lets say you are rolling an inquisitor, FoD while dual wielding blunderbusses or pistols, wearing a ring of focused flame, ring of the marksman, and acina's tricorn is going to give you a very cheap way to generate a ton of focus. FoD will end up with a boatload of accuracy and a high focus gain as a result.

I lost my level 1 skill selections respeccing a holy slayer. Does obsidian know that this bug was not fixed despite the patch notes that say it was?