crdvis16

I went with: MC = Priest(Wael)/Barbarian(Berserker) for healing, buffs, and the confuse->withdrawal trick. Adventurer#1 = Wizard(Bloodmage) for self buffs, Minoletta/Thrust auto hits, and maybe later on conjuring a weapon + Phantom. Adventurer#2 = Chanter(Beckoner) for summons and more support/buffs. Adventurer #3 = Monk(Nalpaszca) for tanking with Blade Turning. Adventurer #4 = Druid(Ancient) for more summons/support. Everyone had their perception tanked at character creation and I am trying to not cast abilities that have hit rolls, though I do auto attack. I was originally going to mod companions into these classes/subclasses and mod their stats as desired but I didn't think the immersion would work well with them given that they all have their own personalities that clash with the theme I'm going for. The adventurers have portraits that lend themselves to looking as if they were self blinded in their devotion to Wael which is cool and I'm having fun constantly picking shady/clever diologue. I might try some of the other suggestions at some point too but for now this is working pretty well.

These are all fantastic, thank you!

I was hoping to get some help with builds for a new playthrough. I've done lots of playthroughs at this point so I find that I need some sort of angle to keep playthroughs interesting and I think maybe I found one that could be fun and bring me back to deadfire. But it's been a while since I've played so my familiarity with items/abilities and mechanics isn't what it once was so I'm struggling to plan it out on my own. The idea would be to play as a group of Wael fanatics who have blinded themselves in their devotion. So every party member would have their perception minimized in order to roleplay. This means my accuracy would be quite low and so I'm looking for ways to work around this usually very important stat. I would have at least a few of my party spots for buff classes, since accuracy is not needed to be effective in that role anyway and the extra stats available to use elsewhere after minimizing perception would be helpful. So probably a Druid and a Priest (of Wael because roleplay) focused on buffs rather than debuffing the enemy. Most of their action economy would be spent not rolling their accuracy. I'm also thinking that a Chanter focused on buffs and summoning could be effective with low perception. My understanding is that a summon's accuracy isn't dependent on the summoner's accuracy so hopefully the summons could help with damage and still hit things? If so, all of my characters would probably use summons if available to their class (priest and druid as available). I think a Monk focused on Blade Turning could work too, because I'm fairly certain I remember that the accuracy of the redirected attacks are just based on the attacker rather than the monk. This would probably be the tank dealing with the enemy melee. I'm struggling with the last spot. Maybe an assassinate Rogue because the subclass perk might help overcome low accuracy and still hit things? I'm not confident that even with the extra accuracy that I'll end up critting very often, though, so the crit bonus might be a bit of a waste. Is there a class with good miss -> graze or graze -> hit? I think Fighters have a bit of that. Fighters could also be built to have pretty good accuracy in their disengagement attacks and then find a way to force disengagement on enemies (I don't think I'd have the accuracy for the terrify -> disengagement strategy to work, though). I think I'm not opposed to using perception buffs in this roleplay- having an 'Intuitive' buff on a blind character doesn't seem like a betrayal of the roleplay but more like some of the cool characters in other media that are great fighters despite being blind (a few examples come to mind) so maybe classes/subclasses that can stack lots of accuracy buffs to overcome their low base perception could be a way to go. Or is there any other way of dealing damage I'm not thinking of without needing to use the character's accuracy in the roll aside from Monks with Blade Turning or Chanters with summons? Maybe some class of attacks that might use base accuracy not dependent on the character or use some other stat when rolling for their hits. And then after that, I'm not sure if there are some specific items/weapons that might fit this type of play. There are lots of items with miss -> graze or graze -> hit that could be really useful (can a single roll chain from miss -> graze and then also go graze -> hit? Do multiple sources of miss -> graze stack?). Thanks ahead of time for any help/tips!

Yeah- killing Thaos to take his place as the true worthy champion of Woedica works for RP purposes- thanks for the suggestion!

I'm thinking about doing another playthrough so curious for more build ideas myself. To contribute some of my favorites from previous playthroughs (which are typically more along the fun/gimmicky side rather than OP/cheesy): https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/126860-die-and-res-barbarian-review/#comment-2304129

I'm considering doing yet another pillars playthrough but hoping to keep it fresh by RPing my character differently this time. I've already done the default relatively good guy approach as well as a semi evil/cruel character. I've sided with all factions in the Deadfire as well. First, a few ideas I have myself: 1) "Everything Bad" is a pre-configured option one can load up for Deadfire. I'm interested in possibly re-enacting this with POE1 and carrying it into POE2. Does anyone know what specifically "Everything Bad" entails? I've found some info on Wikis but it mostly just covers the big highlights (dead companions, gods pissed off at broken promises). I'm curious how I should resolve all other quests, though (maybe it's somewhat obvious to just try to screw everything up?). I'm also curious what kind of RP would lead to these outcomes. Someone with the personality of the Joker from Batman? Maybe a priest of Wael? 2) Woedica's henchman. I think in all my playthroughs I've been pretty hostile toward Woedica and Engwith so it might be interesting to ally myself with them. Though I don't understand how that would play out when the ultimate goal of POE1 is to stop Thaos? Maybe stopping him but still giving the souls to Woedica is enough (though why would my character stop Thaos to then do exactly what he wanted?). I assume you HAVE to kill Thaos but maybe not? Aside from these suggestions, does anyone have any particularly good RP playthroughs they'd like to share that worked out really well? I might have trouble bringing myself to do either of the above ideas so maybe there's another path that would be different enough to keep a new playthrough fresh?

Hello! I just published a mod for a variety of new choices for class/subclass/multiclass for all of the companions and sidekicks. These are just mods that I did for my own personal playthroughs over the years but I figured I would publish them on the off chance that anyone else might want to use them too. The link for anyone that's interested: https://www.nexusmods.com/pillarsofeternity2/mods/657 Edit: copying some of the mod description here directly: These are my personal class/subclass/multiclass modifications made to companions/sidekicks over the course of many playthroughs. I wanted to play lots of different combinations but don't like using hired adventurers so this was my solution. Included are: Aloth: Bloodmage, Transmuter+Tactitican, Unbroken+Illusionist, Priest of Woedica Eder: Blackjacket+Streetfighter, Tactician+Cipher, Unbroken+Trickster, Priest of Wael Fassina: Ancient, CorpseEater+Shifter, Evoker+Assassin, Shifter+Conjuror Konstanten: Beckoner+Berserker, Helwalker+Ghostheart, Mageslayer, Shifter+Nalpazca Maia: ArcaneArcher, Gunhawk+Assassin, Gunhawk+Cipher, Stalker Mirke: ForbiddenFist, ShatteredPillar, Skald+Debonaire Pallegina: Bleakwalker, Troubador+Goldpact Rekke: Berserker+Devoted, Enchanter+Bellower, Fury+Helwalker Serafen: Mageslayer, Psion, Priest of Skaen, Soulblade+Furyshaper Tekehu: Lifegiver Vatnir: CorpseEater, Rogue+Skald Xoti: Priest of Gaun+Streetfigher, ShatteredPillar, Priest of Skaen Ydwin: Beckoner+Soulblade, Beguiler+Trickster, Psion+Priest of Berath

I just modded a companion to be a Priest of Skaen and was also surprised at how effective his spiritual weapon is. It takes time to cast and doesn't last super long but while it's up it does nice damage.

FYI- the Assassinate buff only works with certain spells. Something like minoletta's missiles would only benefit on the first missile. Some spells that you'd think would benefit either don't or sometimes do (which is weird). For instance, Fireball works if you target the AoE very close to you but if you cast it far the buff often won't be included. From what I remember, Torrent of Flame and Precise Burst consistently worked. Edit: though there is the route of using Arkemyr's Departure and then casting lots of debuffs from stealth for the Assassinate accuracy buff (no benefit from the penetration of course). Brilliant Departure's stealth only breaks from causing damage.

So far I'm leaning toward: Main = Bleakwalker/Bellower. I don't know that there is any special synergy here but it's two subclasses that I'd prefer to multiclass so may as well combine them. He'd be a front line DPSer with chants tailored to his benefit and occassional big invocation casts. Maybe some healing too. Eder = Tactician/Cipher. Totally not in line with his personality but so it goes. Cipher should help trigger Tactician bonuses and the Tactician side would probably focus on controlling enemies with clear out, etc. Built as the tank and support. Xoti = Skaen. I'll pretend her Gaun worship is leading her down a dark path that ultimately turns her to Skaen (will encourage her darker character arc). She'll buff and then attack weaker enemies along with some healing. Aloth = Bloodmage. Nothing special but will make him feel a bit darker to go along with my dark playthrough. Serafen = Mageslayer going after the enemy backline casters. I'll cover healing by committee (a little from my main character, Eder's cipher side, and Xoti's Skaen). Will have lots of interrupts from Mageslayer and Cipher. Certainly not some optimized lineup but should do well enough.

I modded a companion (I think Konstanten) into a Shifter/Monk last playthrough that did something similar. Monk has all those active attack buffs (including a few lashes) that stacked with the Shifter's and it felt quite potent and the animal forms can use the Monk active abilities to knock back, etc.

I've played Assassin before and had some fun with it. Steel Garrote is another subclass I haven't played but I thematically don't really like being a Woedica henchman haha. Trickster seems to be so good pairing with almost any melee damage dealer.

I've always found it odd how effects from weapons can count as "weapon attacks". It seems to open up a lot of crazy results. MCing Mageslayer with Arcane Archer seems inconsistent in terms of theme (mageslayers are supposed to hate magic and all that) but that does sound like a crazy combo.

I'm looking for some help in utilizing a few subclasses that I've yet to play with. In case it matters, I plan to play with the community patch and BPM installed. I plan to have my MC be a Bleakwalker. I haven't done a cruel/aggressive type of playthrough before so I wanted to give it a try (as opposed to my usual good guy playthroughs). I'm thinking he will be an offensive focused Paladin rather than a tank or healer and I've heard that a Bleakwalker's Flames of Devotion hits hard. However, I've never been a huge fan of the Paladin's PL8/9 spells so I'm thinking I'd like to multiclass him with... something. I'm not sure what, though. I think I've read in the past that Bleakwalker/Assassin works well and seems somewhat thematic. Does anyone know of other recommendations for multiclass and does anyone know of items that are good to build around for an offensive Bleakwalker? Next, I plan to mod a companion or sidekick into a Tactician. Again, I think a multiclass would be nice here in order to give this character a built-in way to flank/interrupt enemies to trigger the Tactician bonuses. I know I could have other party members cover flanking but I like the idea of the character being somewhat self sufficient I guess? I'm leaning toward this character being a tank/support. I think a Cipher could be a good choice (lots of spells that can cause flanking and some interrupt spells too). I imagine multiclassing to Wizard could work as well? I think my plan would be to spam Clear Out with all the extra discipline I'd be generating? I've played a Bellower before but I don't think I really used it to its fullest so I wanted to try one again. I often feel like Chanters NEED to be multiclassed because otherwise they end up auto attacking between invocations. Better to multiclass and use that action economy for something better. However, a Bellower in particular is all about PL and multiclassing means your PL will always be lower than if you'd gone SC so I'm not sure. If I did multiclass I'm not sure what to go with- is there a multiclass that would build on the power level theme or that works well? Mageslayer is next. I'll be using BPM which I believe made Mageslayer stronger. I'm tempted to go SC as I think high level Barb skills are worthwhile. He would be the caster killer of course and seems pretty straightforward? Dual wielding for more interrupt stacks I assume? I also want to use a Priest of Skaen and would prefer SC to get those PL8/9 Skaen abilities. Skaen seems like it pushes you toward being a semi Rogue so I imagine he'd spend some time buffing and then killing. I'm interested in Bloodmage. My impression, though, is that their abilities are mostly suited toward long boss fights and for most encounters you really don't need those extra spells. BPM has potions of enlightenment so maybe it kind of makes Bloodmage less relevant? Last, I've always been interested in making Debonaire work but every time I've tried it just seems so clunky. Is that subclass just too wonky to use effectively? Any help would be appreciated! I've been searching for past posts on these subclasses and have found some discussion but often from a long time ago (other than recent posts on a solo Bloodmage build ).

I believe there was another post recently where it was confirmed that a bashing shield would benefit from both two weapon style and sword and shield style.