Evershade

Thank you so much for your continued input. And thank you @NotDumbEnoughtoo for your post. I was viewing the possibility of having 2 paladin subclasses in the group as something to be avoided or sub-optimal, but I don't think this is the case anymore. They will each have different auras running namely ACC for the AA and AR + healing for the Herald, plus they will be doing different things. Since the Herald can be made into a tank and still hold the ranged dps chants up, Dowry will go the AA and the Herald will be focused on simply tanking it out. Thanks again!

Thank you so much for the reply! If I do go for a Herald tank (Troubadour), I would dumb might, is that right? Since I won't have him do Ancient Memory, but rather the burn on weapons and the ranged attack speed buffs, I would be allowed to give him more resolve? I've ran around with the following party for some time now and am level 6: Tempest for MC (Fury/Berserker) Sage (Helwalker/Evoker) Herald (Kind Wayfarer/Troubadour) Priest of Galawain (mod) Fighter (Stalker/Unbroken) It's overall okay. The Sage needs some time to build wounds and I wish that Mend Pet was not completely bugged for the AI tactics (the fighter tries to heal the pet even if it's unconscious and the tactic has "is unconscious, NOT" set), but the Tempest nukes hard, when he does not graze or miss. Also, Charm Beast is OP. The Herald's double healing because of dual wielding is insane; 25x2 heals x Zeal amount x 6 (because of the fighter's pet) or x9 because of her own wurms. Poor Lay on Hands just can't compete. Combats look like this; tempest enters frenzy and spiritshift, casts Storm's Rage while the Priest casts Holy Power for the group and clears the tempest's confused status with the first INT litanny for him to then AoE nuke safely. When the Sage reaches 10 wounds, he has 35 might (holy power) and casts his own spells for devastating results. Meanwhile, the Herald's wurms do just so much damage. I'm having some trouble with ship combat and the enemy's rogues, but I don't think I can do too much about that. The AA would definitely be much better in picking off enemies one by one and I definitely have no ability to focus fire specific targets outside of missile spam with the sage, but that's a downside I have to deal with, I guess.

Thanks for the response, Boeroer! I was tinkering with a Hunter (Stalker+bear/Unbroken) build, but I am not sure how to allocate the stats. Should I go for Resolve & CON or try something else?

Thank you for this one! What I would ideally like to find is a tank build that is very hard to instantly drop even if it is assaulted with focused fire and does not require too much attention on my part. I don't mind managing tanks, but I would preferably like to manage my Watcher and other dpsers on the team, or the active healing, when needed.

Yeah, I mean that the Herald is indispensable. Could you provide a stat attribution of a tanky healer Herald with a good engagement limit? And yes, I see what you mean!

Hey all! I finished my first playthrough a week or so ago, not paying too much attention on fights, not setting up AI tactics etc. Now, I want to start a new game on PotD difficulty and I want to have a fully custom group running around. Problem is, I'm finding it very hard to settle on something and round out the members. So, the candidates for the main character are the following: Hunter (Arcane Archer/Devoted): Spearcaster, stack Arcana, max MIG, DEX, PER or Shepherd (Arcane Archer/Bleak Walker): Dragon's Dowry, same overall logic. Note on these: if the main's a ranger, I want my Troubadour to chant for the ranged attack speed and the 15% burn, thus I think I'd prefer the Chanter to be ranged in this case, herself hold DD and make her a Herald with the FoD upgrade for extra recovery. Thus, I can only see Hunter being the valid choice between the two. Fighter seems to have better offensive passives for the AA too and Penetrating Strike works at ranged for a total of +5 Penetration (+2 from Devotion and +3 from the ability itself). The Hunter would also anyway receive the chanter's bonuses. Only counter-argument here is that DD + FoD's upgrade for extra burn damage after the hit would stack even better with the recovery speed buffs provided by the chanter, but then, I get a 2nd Arcana maxing char (due to Spearcaster being held from chanter's hands) and force both chars to essentially only deal fire damage. Another consideration for the main char is Tempest (Berserker/Fury): Frenzy + Wisp + Cage + Soulbound Pollaxe + Nature Godlike passive + 1 more PL from a Priest's INT buff (which also will remove the nasty friendly-fire from the Tempest's AoE spells). Notes on this one: a priest is not something I don't want to have anyway; it's immensely valuable support via her buffs. Mentioned here for clarity is another main character potential choice in Sage (Helwalker/Evoker): stack all wounds with scepters, nuke with those plus Priest buffs at 35 MIG and 35 INT. Note on this one, before I comment on both of the last ones together: if I go for this, and if -as I've read somewhere- the cap on stats is 35, which Helwalker reaches very easily via +10 in MIG and INT through his modal and basic wounds system, I would be wasting Berath's Blessing stat buff, since I would be buffing with my Priest (Devotions of the Faithful + Litany for the Spirit). He can always be not the main character though. Now, thoughts on the last two: if I do any of the two, I don't feel like I cannot go for a passive healer Herald that will help both of those (Tempest to recover him through Frenzy and Sage through the self-burn of the Scepters). That is fine, even as the Herald will be doing nothing other than healing, since her chants will be limited to Memory & something that would help the current battle. If I do that though and also recruit a Priest (which I want, for the buffs), I'm only left with 1 spot open for a full party, and I have no knowledge to create a good sturdy tank. Also, if I go for those two, my DPS will basically be only magical and coming in huge bursts of very limited time frames from those two characters, while the others will be tanking, healing and buffing for them. The Sage will certainly do some damage with his scepters, and sure, it's not bad, just feels limiting, IF I get a proper tank, which again, I have no idea how to create a very sturdy one. I hope you can see my predicament. I feel very torn and have restarted a hundred times already trying to find a golden spot. What would you suggest? Any idea is welcome, either for the main char, the support, the setup etc. Thank you for reading!

Thanks to both for answering!

You really need to ask for the information shown on that thread to be updated. I was looking at the thread, but since the game version of the build refers to 1.0.0, I -and well, anyone- really cannot tell whether or not the build is still possible or as viable as when conceived! Thanks to all 3 for your responses so far! I don't mind micromanagement, just don't want an absolute ton of it!

Hey all! I am happy to find this place! I very recently discovered this series and after taking in PoE-I, I now started playing DF. I made a priest of Eothas going blind in both games. I've finished PoE-I and am level 10 in DF. Haven't gone further than Nakateka though. Really poking around before progressing the main quest. Just hit the town that Eothas stomped on and is filled with Naga. Now, after asking for no further spoilers on story plot points (item spoilers are perfectly okay), let's get to the point. I was generally happy with my Priest in PoE-I, due to his immense versatility (no spell choice, incredible list of spells, power-level of spells) and since I've always enjoyed a healer and am myself extremely LG irl, it fit perfectly, just like it does now in DF. For RP purposes and taking in the amazing games Obsidian has created, I cannot play something else other than a priest of Eothas. My problem is that painfully obvious direction of the balancing of the class. Having a lot of end-raiding experience and general game experience over the last, well... two decades now -shudder- it hurts me seeing the Priest having spells that are simply outclassed by similar spells (like Concecrated Ground vs Moonwell/Moon's Light) in every possible way, even with the Community patch and the priest rework mod installed. Not to mention the bad placement of spells spell-slot-level-wise, the taking away of unique features of the spells, the reducing of their power (Crowns really hurts reading its description) etc., especially when compared to what I was used in doing with the same char and the same spells in PoE-I. Now, don't misunderstand. I do not argue for or against the Priest being OP or not in PoE-I, that is not the point. My point is that the character, combat-wise, is not as fun for me. Also, what I would like to do is have another character with completely different RP and on the highest difficulty (playing on Veteran with the Priest) following the progression of the Priest, and I think this is a good time to start him up. Problem is, I had just made myself familiar with the combat system of the series and then multiclassing was introduced. I've only multiclassed Takehu (Druid+Chanter = Theurge) and I've stayed away from it otherwise, to my disappointment. What I want to do: Start an alternate campaign in Deadfire with a fully customised party of -if not only- mostly multiclassed characters with the "everything bad" history state on PotD. My first "correct-RP" campaign is basically -from what I understand- the benevolent history state with some variation, due to it being custom and is on Veteran difficulty. My difficulty is that, despite my huge progress in knowledge of the game's mechanics and workings, I don't know it well enough to create my own builds and with the game being out for so many years already, it's not already been mostly solved, but due to the multitude of patches, I only find outdated information online. What I want and don't from the builds: -Not too gimmicky: I really don't want to do things that I would not be doing in normal gameplay by basically using exploits taking advantage of game mechanics in or out of game. I admire the shrewdness of these builds, but I don't want to use them myself. -Not requiring too much micromanagement. I really don't want to pause every 2 seconds just to have the build rolling. I would like to focus on combat, not forcing the build to play out. -Not exploiting: I don't want to do something that was not intended to be a thing from the devs. I don't consider it cheating, it's just not my cup of tea. -I want them min-maxed. I'm not asking for you to do the min-max, but what I'm looking for are studied builds. For example, you would multiclass Wizard to use X spell with Y subclass, because it interacts with this feat/feature/skill of the other class and produces Z result. Do A before that level until you get it. -I want them extreme. I'm very much a fan of extremely low and high stats. For instance, I've been extremely intrigued to play a 3 CON Arcane Archer simply because they also get an extra -15% HP on top, or play an Aumauma Helwalker Monk with 3 CON & RES due to his 50% extra damage taken at 10 wounds, but immense MGT stacking. Problem is, I really don't how I could make those builds work well enough. A problem that I'm facing is that I don't know the best gear that exists, and I can't make my own to have fun with those builds and create my own challenge, you know? -Lastly, multiclassed if possible (due to the sheer amount of possibilities), but I am really not against pure builds. I also like them a lot and their simplicity. I've had problems with tracking Takehu's action economy in combat and he's not THAT hard to handle as a Theurge. If you read all this and respond to my ramble, simply thank you, [,] Eothas' faithful