Hello.
I bought Pillars of Eternity shortly after release but never meshed with it mechanically or storywise. After watching a lecture by Josh Sawyer on the method behind the stats ('Pillars of Eternity' and Proper Attribute Tuning) I gained a renewed interest to take the game on its own merits. I have run into a snag and hopefully someone can suggest an attribute or talent reshuffle to prevent me changing classes and restarting the save file.
I am level 4 and finishing off the side quests around Gilded Vale. Hard difficulty and using 3 npc companions. I wanted to go for a high resolve, high dexterity rogue, to see the resolve speech options, use heavy armour and not be so much of a glass canon. Coasting off the sneak attack and crit chance to do damage, and avoiding weapon specialisation to have fun with different weapons as I find them, be it dual wielding or two handed, and I wanted the build to use the riposte ability. The problem I have is the character is still just a little too squishy and I am worried about the deflection being too low to make riposte effective as levels progress.
The Attributes are
Might - 11
Constitution - 10
Dexterity - 16
Perception -14
Intellect - 10
Resolve - 17
For Talents
Blind Strike
Two Handed Style
Dirty Fighting
Vicious Fighting
The character can stay on its toes against a non boss, non chaffe enemy but anymore and it gets a little dicey; they go down the most out of the party. They have no capacity to eject themselves from a difficult position.
Would it be viable to readjust the stats to boost constitution or resolve? I am not interested in min maxing but maybe a less mighty rogue?
How much dexterity is needed if using heavy armour?
Are there talents I have overlooked that can keep the character in the fight, or help extradite from a bad situation?
With the ring of minor deflection, the deflection is around 38. Taking some hints Yellow Flash build on this forum and going sword and shield it is possible to boost the deflection higher to the 50s-60s but at the penalty of locking myself out of weapon versatility. They could never use a two handed weapon, or dual wield.
Will the lower starting deflection of rogue become less severe as levels increase? As in the penalty is worse at lower levels.
Can a non shield rogue get a high enough deflection to trigger riposte without something cheesey like dual wielding hatchets?
Will more defensive talents become available at higher levels and it would be better to tough it out a bit?
I enjoy the rogue playstyle of setting up conditions for sneak attacks. I usually open combat with a ranged sneak attack and use positioning to funnel enemies to the main tank, however the front line rarely coagulates for long. In tough fights where we get swarmed, Aloth and Durance usually go down before the rogue so it feels like the build is close to where I want it to be.
Is the lack of a dedicated off tank the problem?
Am I trying to have my cake and eat it?
My other option would be rolling a fighter for higher endurance, deflection and endurance regeneration, and then focussing on damaging talents to try bring the fighter dps up to a rogue's level, and using scrolls to make up for the more boring playstyle. However I don't want to redo the game and I would have to lock into a specific weapon category (soldier or adventurer, etc) for damage which limits the versatility. Any advice would be appreciated.
