Treldon

Priests are support chars if they are killing stuff you're doing it all wrong, or you are about to wipe. At most they are a very temporary emergency extra tank, and that usually means you messed up. The idea with a priest is to multiply the effect of other chars via buffs and heals. With a priest behind them a fighter has 1.5-2x more hp and can thus deal that much more damage.... and squishies don't die (or come right back after they do!). Xoti single class is doing great for me @lev 16 PoTD (Trial of Iron)... The only thing she has that's damage useful is a spiffy good hunting bow. All my chars are singles... Eder Fighter (tank, can't hit **** but sure can take a hit). Serafen Barbarian (off tank, dbufs, hits ok) Xoti as mentioned and 2 wizards, Aloth + Main. ... you don't know happiness until you've tried to fight smart and conserve the per rest stuff and a fight starts to get out of control... then you say "enough of that" and lay down Power-Up + Empower + Wilting Wind with two wizards, to leave just one opponent standing at bloodied... After which one can only say "because I said so!" Two tanks, two wizards and a healer, all single class (plus something for fun like rogue or ranger in games where 6 party members are allowed, don't like the 5 char party setup here at all, makes it boring) is easy mode and owns every one of the BG, POE, and Divinity games and really any thing similar so long as you use terrain (Divinity was particularly good for that with the high ground bonuses) to your advantage religiously, don't neglect crowd control spells and as long as you don't let your wizards be too specialized in one damage type (one key reason to have 2). This works so well that I've been forced into playing on ToI to keep it interesting. (I prefer that to level scaling which is silly since it means there's no reward for playing well, with ToI you're level of care in choosing your battles and not fighting every time is way more realistic ).

I just want to say I'm really liking this game. I played Baldur's gate and completely stomped Neverwinter Nights as an evil necromancer, and have generally played this genre (witcher, PoE 1, DoS 1&2 most recently) at the level below Path Of the Damned having been turned off from "insane" levels of all sorts after I glimpsed the level of cheat that was being applied for computer opponents in Emporer level in Civiliztion I ... But as i was pondering the start screen in this game I realized Beraths blessings are awesomely designed for a PoTD trial of Iron campaign. Sure you die some but as you collect blessings, you can pick aids that make the early levels you've already mastered go faster. Many of them have little or no effect as the game advances which is perfect. What's 5k Cp once you're level 7? It's long gone is what it is . Start at level 4, and you are only up by 1 level by Nekataka... So having tired of trouncing warlord modes I pledged to do only PoTD/ToI plus Berath (no scaling... because need some chance in ToI )... and it's working out really nicely. Made it off Port Majde on my 5th try (died twice on the stupid thugs, once in the cave and one time Eder died on the ship in the first scene and I just quit (DOH!). Now on my 6th try after oopsing #5 in the gullet and I've now got several triumphs and finished most of the first section of Nekataka. Yesterday I had a narrow escape with the troll bounty, but realized it was hard early in the fight and literally used every spell and ability and barely made it. Talk about sweating bullets Each fight is life or death, and I'm now considering the sensible way out (pay 50cp when I'm holding 20k cp rather than risking a fight etc) especially since killing random people is often not very profitable (no xp). Also I feel like the writing is deeper and better thought through this time around. It just feels like there is more going on among party members and with more reputation consequences in conversations, and the party members interact more too. Only flaw is there is one grindable aspect in the game.... (I suppose if I mention it that's a spoiler for some) But for PoTD/ToI I'm kind of thankful for that At any other level it would feel a lot cheesier, but having a way to build up before venturing forth seems not unreasonable when it's really life or death and start at the beginning again... I do wish we still had 6 chars though. MUCH easier to set up a proper tanking/off-tanking/3rd/4th backups plus summons scheme and still have 2 fun wizards to lay waste to stuff. With 5 it seems I'm always living in fear of open field fights, or that one fatal miscue where I fail to pick up targets with the tank. (that's what happened in the gullet on #5 and my squshies got squashed real early) Having fun and happy to find a mode that's a solid change of pace and not "just like all the rest" Thx to the devs and backers! And a special thanks for making it work in Linux!