Vasvary5050

Thanks @Shai Hulud and everyone else. I really appreciate your help. This is a nice helpful community :)

This is a good point, and yes, I guess it makes penetration really not so important for high accuracy build. Thanks again for the useful analysis. I think at this point, from what everyone has said, I should really start again for a faster smoother run. I'm not dying yet, but I can tell it's not quite working well. I made some questionable picks up front and I'm just tweaking now to try to make it better, when really I probably just need to do another reset. If I start again (again), how is the following composition: 1) Paladin/Troubadour 2) Bloodmage/Soulblade - never played a bloodmage or a soulblade so should be interesting. Not sure why I didn't go with this in the first place as I originally intended. 3) Seer (Ghostheart/ascendant) 4) Berserker/Rogue [I've never played a Berserker, let alone a Berserker Street-Fighter, so I'm a bit apprehensive about it]. Or I guess I could go for the easier to manage Berserker/Devoted 5) Something (not sure what, maybe a SC druid)

Thanks to @thelee@limaxophobiacq@Boeroer @Kaylon @Shai Hulud for all the in-depth analysis and suggestions. I really appreciate it. Rather than starting again, I'm slowly swapping out my companions/hirelings. I've kept my War Caller for now as my only tank (who can also chant-summon meat shields). I've removed my second tank completely, replacing with a Devoted (hunting bow)/Ghostheart using the Essence Interrupter that @Boeroermentioned above. I probably should have combined ranger with rogue or berserker or helwalker, but I went for Devoted in the end to get the +5 penetration from devoted and penetrating strikes. In any case, this change by itself has already made a huge difference, making the fights go quicker and the bow often morphing dead enemies into 2-skull allies to help me. I hadn't realised this bow summoned in such powerful allies, and with POTD upscale also upscaling my summons, it feels like a game changer. I've also now given my Mindstalker Tekanhu's rod (Watershaper's Focus), which I'm using to apply the rogue attacks. It's smashing and blinding packs of enemies, with the rod's AoE blast modal, and the rod's leaping arc, which is rather nice. I'm not sure what to do with my final 2 characters. Looking at @Kaylon's 3 party suggestions, I can see that I've gone way over the top with support/healers and I need to fix this. Looking at Kaylon's 3 party suggestions in turn, it looks like party #1 has the paladin/troubadour as healer, party #2 has the troubadour/priest, and party #3 doesn't really have a healer at all (though I presume the SG, troubadour or ascendant are meant to do a bit of healing?). Notably, no druid in any of the 3 setups, and a priest in only one of them. My problem is, while I am surviving fights on POTD upscaled - so far no one has died in any fights - in some fights I'm taking a lot of damage, surviving by the skin of my teeth, and it feels like the only thing keeping party members from dropping is the Druid/Paladin who is pumping out healing with the Druid's HoTs and the Paladin's Flames of Devotion (dual-wielding range). I haven't yet figured out how to keep my party alive at this difficulty without the crutch of a lot of healing. I think I could probably survive without the Druid's Hots, or without the Flames of Devotion, but not without at least one or the other. Maybe I could replace the Druid/Paladin with a Helwalker/Paladin and that would be more of a healer/damage-dealer hybrid. On the other hand, my priest feels like a third-wheel most of the fight, useful for Dire Blessing, Devotions of the Faithful, Shining Beacon, but not much else at the moment. I do really like Devotions of the Faithful and Shining Beacon, but I could probably dump the priest and put in a more dedicated damage dealer in their place, perhaps a ranged Berserker/Streetfighter like @Boeroersuggested, or a Devoted/Berserker, or a forbidden Fist (though if I go for another melee, I probably should ramp back on the summons). My party is only level 8/7 (8 for MC and Xoti, 7 for the hired characters) at the moment, so this may all smooth out at higher levels when more character abilities come online, but with POTD upscaling, there seems to be plenty of front-loaded difficulty to deal with first. My question is, if I bench my priest and druid/paladin, can you give me some suggestions for what to replace them with that will increase my party's damage output whilst still giving me some decent party healing?

So I started POTD upscale run. In the end I went with: War Caller [Unbroken Troubadour] - tanking Battlemage (Aloth) - tanking Mindstalker [Assassin/Ascendant] - damage Liberator [Lifegiver/Kind Wayfarer] - healer Priest (Xoti) - buffs Party now at level 5. No party wipes yet, and yet the party doesn't feel in a great place (though hard to evaluate at low levels when abilities haven't come online yet so maybe I just need to wait and see how things develop). My biggest problem at the moment is simply that fights are taking ages. This party doesn't seem to have great damage output. Mindstalker is doing decent damage, but everyone else's damage is meh. I think I've got too many tanks and supports, and not enough damage dealers. Just not sure how to fix it. I might start again. Any suggestions. How can I squeeze in a second good damage dealer whilst still having 2 tanks, non-priest heals, and priest buffs? Should I abandon the idea of 2 tanks? Or maybe make one of the tanks a tanky-priest. [I have no idea how people do POTD upscaled solo when I'm only just managing with a full party]

Hi folks. I've decided to restart my POTD upscaled run again. This time I plan to just focus on having a strong party rather than focusing on role-play and could do with some input. Here are my thoughts so far: Hierophant (Bloodmage/Soul Blade) - Dps + support + off-tank [Main Character] Hunter or Wildrhymer with bear pet - 2 tanks for the price of one Either mindstalker (assassin/ascendant) or shadowdancer (assassin/helwalker) - ranged dps + support Priest - primarily for buffs and debuffs, but also some dps Druid (Tekahu) - primarily for heals, but also some dps I really want a chanter in the mix somewhere, which is why I put Wildrhymer (ranger/chanter), but maybe it is better to have priest/chanter or druid/chanter. I'm not sure. Any thoughts? POTD upscaled viable? I've played POTD upscaled a couple of times, but some of it was a slow/difficult slog, and I stalled at SSS. This time I'm hoping to go with a stronger party that has a smoother and faster run, and so I would really appreciate your suggestions (feel free to be a bit brutal! I would rather know if I'm making some bad calls before I get into the run!).

Thanks everyone for these comments and suggestions for Serafen as cipher or witch, and for priests in general. I'm sort of coming back around to my original conclusion for Serafen that he is at best a challenge class, and at worst a trap class as @thelee suggests above. I really want to make him work, but his unpredictability in combat is hard to deal with. Some great ideas for priests though which I'm looking forward to trying out!

Hi folks. I want to start a new playthrough and could really do with a few suggestions. I want this to feel a bit different to my previous playthroughs and could do with some help on the following: 1) Serafen: This time around I really want to have Serafen in my party throughout. Previously I've always benched him because I find single class Barbarians a bit boring, and his Wild Mind too risky. But this time I really want to see if I can make him work as a Witch (Barbarian/Cipher). Any recommendations for how to play him, on PoTD, so that it's not a bad thing (for me) if he explodes. I'm used to playing with a fairly close squad most of the time, but I guess the trick with Serafen is to have him fighting as a bit of a stand by himself berserker away from the rest of the party? How big is his explosion? Any suggestions for how to build him as Witch to make him more survivable and not a liability? 2) Serafen's party: Any suggestions for a good party to build around using Serafen? I'm happy to use a mixture of companions, sidekicks and completely custom mercenaries. 3) Priests: As a side question, I'm thinking of making my main a Priest/something this time around. I've never played a priest, and it occurred to me that in a story that heavily involves all the gods of Eora, being a priest might offer some role-playing/narrative potential that other classes lack. Do any of the priest subclasses have interesting narrative during the interactions with the gods? Any suggestions for what a Priest might multiclass well with. Best wishes, Vasvary.

As part of a party (as opposed to solo), I've found War Caller and Herald to be extremely good tanks, albeit I tend to lean towards Troubadour for my chanters. Herald (Kind Wayfarer Troubadour) is amazing IMO. I think when I used a War Caller I also had a Kind Wayfarer in the party so it felt just as solid. However, if you mean as a solo-character, then I'm not sure (solo isn't my thing). I've tried using a Skald, and found it fine, but I much prefer Troubadour.

@Noqn Thanks! I thought it would be somewhere in the vicinity of about 25. My first time around the wheel I was eager to move on from SSS to FS so just did the mandatory fights and moved on, but this time I've ramped up the difficulty and I'm enjoying the challenging combat so happy there are so many optional fights (kinda wish there were more actually).

Just a quick note to say that I just stumbled upon this (S4) whilst googling about S3, and I can definitely see me coming back to do this once I've finished my current playthrough of Deadfire. Very cool!

Hi folks. A few quick questions regarding SSS. I thought I did a "complete" playthrough of Deadfire about a year ago but I now realise I skipped a lot of the content for the SSS DLC and moved on to FS before finishing the game. This time I'm challenging myself to completing the entire game including all 3 DLCs on PoTD upscaled so I want to do every challenge/trial in SSS. Can someone please tell me how many actual arena fights there are if you do all the memory-item hunts? Also, I've just noticed that I can re-do trials after already completing their fights; can you just endlessly repeat them? And do they give the same rewards each time?

In my current run I've been playing PoTD with upward-only level scaling but not with Trial of Iron. I have to salute you, Watcher! Do you play pretty much the entire game (i.e. main story + most side quests + all 3 DLCs) on PoTD + ToI? I had to repeat a few fights in Arkemyr's Manor, the Hanging Sepulchers, and had more than a few wipes in BoW and SSS, and I'm sure I had to repeat a couple of other fights as well, and I think I would get very frustrated having to restart from the very beginning with ToI mode. I find just regular PoTD with upscaling challenging and slow-going enough for me. Out of interest, I presume your Herald is a kind wayfarer (my current main character is a kind wayfarer/troubadour Herald and it's healing is awesome through dual-wielding flames of devotion and chants).

Hi folks. I'm currently doing SSS and then straight on to FS. I want to bring Fassina with me (to see her dialogue and relationship with Konstanten as I missed those in my previous run). However, I have no idea what to do with Fassina. Her conjurer sub-class seems to add little (as most of the conjuring spells don't benefit much from PLs) and remove a whole bunch of decent wizard spells. Any suggestions for how to build and use her (open to suggestions for her as conjurer, lore-master or sorcerer). Just for info, the rest of the party I'm running for the DLCs is Herald (main) + Howler (Konstanten) + Priest (Xoti) + Mindstalker (Ydwin), and I'm playing POTD upscaled and currently level 19.

Thanks @Boeroerand @patronkus. You give me many good ideas to think about

Hi folks. I could do with some suggestions for how to configure my party for the SSS and Forgotten Sanctum dlcs. I've done these DLCs before on an easier difficulty setting using the regular companions but this time want to take Ydwin, Konstanten and Fassina (to see their dialogue and barks). I am playing on PoTD upscaled, and finding it doable but rather difficult, and as I recall SSS and FS are pretty tough, so I want a solid party set up that works well, but struggling to think of a good combination that includes my main character, Ydwin, Konstanten and Fassina. For vanilla and Bow I used the following party: Paladin-Chanter (Main Character) + Fighter (Eder) + Druid (Tekahu) + Priest (Xoti or Vatnir) + Rogue-Cipher (Ydwin) (for BoW I replaced Tekahu with a Ranger-Druid so I could use Concussive Tranq on Neriscyrlas). For SSS and FS I'm thinking of filling the Druid spot with Fassina (Druid-Wizard), but I'm concerned that a multi-class caster/caster is not a good idea. What do you think, can Fasssina as Druid/Wizard (Sorcerer) work on PoTD upscaled? I'm also not sure what class to use for Konstanten and who to replace. Maybe remove Eder and configure Konstanten as a Barbarian-Chanter (Howler)? In summary, I could do with any suggestions for the party as long as it involves my Paladin-Chanter, Ydwin, Fassina and Konstanten. I haven't yet recruited Fassina and Konstanten so no class selection has been made for them yet (and I can use mod to reset the class selection for companions/sidekicks if necessary). Best wishes, Vas.

@BoeroerDungeon Master, Eye of the Beholder, Baldurs Gate and Icewind Dale were classics I also played when I was young (though I somehow missed Pools of Radiance). And I get what you say about MMOs and forums. I went through an MMORPG phase (mainly World of Warcraft and Elder Scrolls Online) but nowadays just play single-player CRPGs like Deadfire and Pathfinder, and other tactical/strategic games and get my gaming community fix through forums and discord rather than in-game chat.

@BoeroerHehe, I can sympathise. When I look at the total time I've got invested in all the RPG games I've got in Steam then I start to feel a bit weird too.

Quick open question for fellow visitors to this forum; how many times have you been around the wheel in PoE and Deadfire? I'm nearing the end of my second complete run-through and whilst I have a backlog of other games to play, I'm seriously thinking of immediately starting a third complete playthrough. (I'm usually a one-and-done player when it comes to CRPGs so for me this is quite unusual).

What about Rekke? Does he get any dialogue content in the DLCs (or the vanilla game for that matter)?

So I guess Ydwin, Konstantin and Fassina for SSS

Hi folks. I've just hit level 16 in current run and about to start doing the DLCs. Last time around the wheel I did the DLCs without using the "sidekicks". This time I want to see their dialogue. Two questions: 1) Firstly, my understanding is that the following sidekicks have significant content in the DLCs: BoW (Vatnir and Ydwin), SSS and FS (Konstantin and Fassina). Is that about right? Do Ydwin and Vatnir get any content in SSS and FS? 2) I stumbled upon a post that suggests that Rekke actually gets a good amount of content in the above DLCs. I assumed in my previous run through that he had no significant content seeing as he doesn't speak any Deadfire language. Is it worth taking him with me?

So I guided Xoti to the dark "reaper" path by encouraging her to keep the souls in her lantern and it's clear from her morbid dialogue about the things she hears, sees and dreams that her mind is quite broken now. I've been keeping her in the party to see if this manifests itself in any interesting ways but it just seems to be these occasional repeated darker dialogues snippets. If I keep her in the party, does it ever become anything more than these occasional snippets of dark dialogue?

So one thing I've discovered is that if your hired adventurers who are not part of your current party die whilst defending the ship from a boarding attack, they are permanently killed. Had a battle against 18 people on the enemy ship, and whilst they all went down easily, not before they swamped my non-party companions on the edge of the battle. Guess it's a good idea to keep them all levelled up and well geared at all times even if they are not part of the main party. Not sure if that also applies to the companions (Aloth nearly died in the fight whilst not part of the party, had to heal him up quickly otherwise he would have dropped).

@dgray62 Funnily enough, I had also given some thought to roleplaying a fanatical revolutionary with the aim of liberating the Roparu and destroying the slavers, nobility and corporations. Pretty much would put me at odds with all the major factions in Neketaka. It's a shame there isn't really a Roparu faction in Deadfire (feels like an omission); I guess the new-blood anti-slaver arm of the Principi is the closest thing.

Wow, returned to more replies than I was expecting. Nice. Thanks everybody! With regard to the main companions, I think Xoti's "dark reaper" pathway is the only real darkness I've seen from them. Yes, it turns out that Maia is an assassin on the side (shame she doesn't have a ranger-assassin class option), but hard to judge her for that considering how many "monsters" I've slain for their sweet sweet loot over the years even when playing an ostensibly good-aligned character. I wonder if it's possible to create a custom PoE 1 history that makes Aloth a bit darker? As an aside, I've only had him in the party for short stretches in Deadfire and haven't seen Iselmyr come out during any of that. Maybe next time around the wheel I'm have Aloth in my party as a regular. I've not really used the sidekicks much except Ydwin (the only companion/sidekick that makes a decent pure rogue or mindstalker). I will try Vatnir next time around the wheel though it's fairly late into the game that he is available. With regard to class, I guess any class can be used for a "dark" main character. I like the Bleak Walker because it provides some actual pressure to follow the cruel and aggressive dialogue options (shame only Paladin has disposition-related links). I like the suggestion of a bleak cannibalistic fanatic (bleak walker/corpse eater). Xaurip companions would be a lot of fun. It's a shame you can't have Xaurips (Deadfire's Kobolds?) and Lagufaeth companions (Mother Sharp Rock as companion please) or as a playable race, though I guess they would be fundamentally outcasts in civilised areas (though you do see the occasional wilder in Neketaka). With regard to dark magic, I find animancy to be quite dark, or at least the unethical experiments that put people's souls into constructs. On that note, pity that the Devil of Caroc isn't available as a companion. Interesting that animancy is such a major part of the Pillars world and yet there isn't a character class option that really leans into animancy per se (e.g. some sort of construct controlling class). TBH, I'm not really interested in playing a "genocidal" character. That sounds like hard work - especially on PoTD. More interested in just trying to follow a darker path, trying to skew the story in a darker direction, being cruel, aggressive and deceptive, rather than mass-murderous per se, ... but I would really like to see what happens if you do kill everyone on Port Maja island. Curious to see how you get off the island if there is no one left to help you repair your boat. I've played PoE 1 through once but again I played the hero in that; was there more scope for "darkness" in that? From the histories you can select when you start Deadfire it looks like you could really "mess things up".