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...And I have to say it was quite an interesting experience! I also went for "No Rest for the Pro", and it didn't make the game all that much harder now that there's no travel fatigue anymore. And I managed to legitimately miss "Zero Knockouts" achievement in a solo run, which, I guess, should be an achievement in its own right. :D Just for clarity: I was playing without Trial of Iron (I don't believe in legitimate triple-crown-solo anyway) and without Expert mode (finished on Expert my first time, but decided to enable spell area indicators and info on dialogue checks for the second). With a final official kill count of 140, I've successfully finished most of the side quests in the base game (didn't touch the expansions yet, except for some stronghold stuff, but not all of it). A few exceptions (besides party members' quests, of course) are: - Endless Paths of Od Nua. I've only reached level 6, and consciously ignored some heavily guarded stuff on previous levels. I did kill that ogre chieftain on level 3, though. - Divine quests of Galawain and Berath (first could be done without much kills due to a bug, but I decided not to, and second requires clearing out Etik Nol, which is totally not a pacifist thing to do). - Clandestine Cargo - I could do it kill-free with a Rite of Walking Shadows, but it wasn't worth spending such a rare scroll for such a useless reward. Ignoring it (and, eventually, failing due to destruction of the Sanitarium) turned out to be the right decision: I really needed all these stealth rites later. By far, the most interesting find of this playthrough was the fact that this game does have almost everything needed for a "pure pacifist" run with a non-rogue class, even if the developers probably think different. My total number of story kills is 14. That is, 11 in the very first location (too much, I know, but I guess I was a little dumb when I started), and 3 in the final battle with Thaos. Everything in between is strictly optional, as far as the kill counter is concerned. So, after reading about the 12-kill run with a rogue elsewhere, I think that the real minimum would be 7. However, getting clean stats globally would be tricky - perhaps still possible without rogue's shadowing beyond, but I can't be 100% sure. For example, there isn't much XP to get in Chapter 1 unless you finish Raedric's hold (which isn't doable without a single kill), and you really need that XP to up your stealth. And, even if you manage that, I'm not sure a pure pacifist could do Cliaban Rilag without all the extra XP for non-pacifist side quests: for the last guarded door in this dungeon, you need stealth 15 + mechanics 8, or, more realistically, stealth 12 + mechanics 8 + lore 4 + a single rite of walking shadows. Me? I played as a pure pacifist story-wise (refusing to kill anything the game so often tried to trick me into killing just to progress), but wasn't aiming to do my second playthrough super-boring, so I did kill for side-quest XP when I had to - and, in a few cases, when I wanted to, which amounts to around 10 extra kills out of these 140. And, of course, there's that three-tusk staelgar leader whom I poisoned via dialogue without raising the kill count... *** And now, some rant... 1) Athletics and survival still look totally useless, despite their new mechanics. Not sure what was the point of changing them. I mean, high athletics is now equal to 1 extra healing potion per encounter? Great, but who needs that? Survival bonuses look nice... in theory... but in practice, they are just too weak to justify spending so much skill points. Of course, I'm judging from a solo run perspective, so perhaps I'm missing some great tactical opportunities for a normal party... 2) Who the hell decided that limiting item summons to 20 seconds was a good idea?! They are already limited to 1 summon per rest, so you basically killed off a game feature. As if there's not enough dumb "balancing" limits taking the fun out of the game already. This was a huge disappointment and a horrible thing to do with a patch, I never expected to come back to something like this. Although I did find a lot of use for summons in my pacifist schemes, but that's about everything they are good for now. 3) I would very much like it if some future Obsidian RPG showed a little more respect for stealth characters. Namely, I hate proximity scripts which force me out of stealth for a "very important" dialogue before I am technically detected. And I absolutely hate that convenience script on stairs in Heritage Hill tower! Ruining my stealth just to ask if I want to go to the second floor, or to the first floor? Yeah, great idea, great time saver. Especially when there's a bunch of hungry undead waiting for me on both floors, just near the stairs. Thanks devs, I really needed that. Twice. Not that it helped you much in tricking me out of my pacifism... 4) A little less underestimation would be nice too. Remember those looters under Madhmr bridge? I actually sneaked around their 2 lookouts, only to find the rest accusing me of killing them because they "heard fighting". So I just killed them all. That was also the biggest exception to my pacifism, because, technically, I didn't have to, but they didn't give my cruel character any good reason to spare them, and Peregund promised reward... 5) I totally expected the final fight to be tricky on solo path of the damned, but I didn't expect it to be impossible without using a horrible (and, thankfully, still unpatched) exploit. Looks like it is. Cipher is definitely not a bad solo class, but totally helpless against Thaos' will stats and extra resists. My only chance came from re-rolling the stats in a tavern (that was the second time I had to do this in this run, with first being before Cliaban Rilag due to a lack of mechanics) and re-making my cipher into a stupid tank with super-high endurance, deflection and accuracy. Oh, and that exploit too, otherwise I don't think my kiting skills would be enough still. I do remember someone complaining about Thaos being too vulnerable to paralyse-lock in original game, so I assume this was rebalanced with a later patch. Good call perhaps, but still not a good idea to lock ciphers out of the party completely. Perhaps a few skills/talents/items/drugs with good spell-accuracy buffs on self would help. Of course, if anyone knows how to kill Thaos with a solo 12 lvl cipher on Path of the Damned without any dirty tricks, I'd be very interested to hear all about it.

Been thinking of making a good melee cipher build that can take a hit while still dealing good damage. Not saying I'm gonna off tank with it, just don't want to be squishy and prefer using melee weapons as opposed to ranged, any helpful advice would be great, thanks

Finally got White March after waiting for Part 2, and decided to use my first party, with a Monk main character. What I discovered is an amazing synergy between unarmed attacks and the new Cipher spell Reaping Knives - namely the fact that they apparently benefit from unarmed damage boni, as seen here: This makes my Monk do absolutely bonkers damage while my Cipher pretty much generates more focus than she can reasonably spend. The best strategy for everything at that point seemed to be buffing the Monk as much as possible and just letting her take apart everything pretty much on her own. Note that this makes her do 100% raw damage, so the unarmed damage essentially gets transformed into raw. Just to be sure, I tested Reaping Knives on my Barbarian as well, and sure enough, they took over the slot from the equipped weapon, so it's not like they just add their raw damage on top of the equipped weapon. I assumed the Reaping Knives being affected by unarmed boni is not intended, but I went back to check the Accuracy breakdown - and lo and behold, Monks actually get double Weapon Focus boni here. Note that Reaping Knives apparently give you a Weapon Focus bonus even if you usually wouldn't get them for daggers, so long as you have any Weapon Focus talent at all. Here, however, they get it twice - my Monk has both WF: Peasant for the unarmed attack and WF: Ruffian for the secondary set of double stilettos. All of this leads me to believe that this is not merely an oversight or an unintended interaction, but actually designed so that Reaping Knives don't overwrite fists like other weapons, but rather get grafted onto them. adding their damage to the base damage of the fists and transforming it all into raw damage. If so, I very much like my monk being Godlike not just in appearance, but combat ability. tl;dr New Cipher spell Reaping Knives seems to stack with Monk's unarmed attacks, giving them super-strong raw damage fists

Hello everyone, At release, it was viable to have a Cipher dual wielding stilletos or sabres. In fact, if you look at the Zealot Fenix build in http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=416939844 , it shows a build I had in mind. However, 3.0 is now released and there have been many changes across the board. Has anyone created a viable dual-wielding build for the Cipher class? If so, can you please share? Thank you in advance!

Cipher: A beginner's guide to GUNMAGE Introduction This guide merely exists as an example on how to build a ranged Cipher, and isn't strictly the only way to build one. As such it may a bit wordy here. This guide is intended for Path of the Damned, but there's no reason why it couldn't work on lower difficulties. Races Personally the race choice doesn't really matter too much, though some races are a lot more useful than others. Wood Elf is the race chosen for this build, it doesn't hurt to explore the other races as some can possibly offer more. Human A ranged Cipher typically want to avoid damage whenever possible, so the Human's racial ability isn't particularly something you want to rely on, and the ability itself is pretty weak compared to what the Godlikes have to offer. On the other hand, unlike Godlikes, you can still wear a hat which may be significant. Wood Elf Typically the race of choice for a ranged Cipher, since just by being 4m away from an enemy you'll gain damage and accuracy bonuses. This does however restrict your power selection a tad bit, as you'll most likely want to avoid powers that move you close to an enemy, such as Ringleader. Pale Elf Resistances to burn and cold damage is never a bad thing. Cold damage resistance in particular is very helpful when dealing with Shades early in the game. Both types are also very useful to have in Cragholdt as the numerous casters in the area favor those two elements. Overall, I'd say its a pretty strong pick. Mountain Dwarf Poison and Disease resistances are alright I guess. Most of these types of attacks usually come from melee attacks, however enemy Druids are very trigger happy with spells of these types. Its not a bad choice for a melee Cipher, but for a ranged I'd probably look at other options. Boreal Dwarf Accuracy bonuses to Wilders and Primordials is actually better than you think, since a lot of the most dangerous enemies in the game are of these types! Adragans and Ogre Druids are among these, and we all know how much of a pain those two are. Coastal Aumua Not too many enemies will be using Prone attacks on a Cipher, assuming you're able to keep them away from melee attackers. Ranged Stuns though can come from Cean Gŵla, Greater Wind Blights and a majority of enemy Druids. Stun however is mostly deadly for frontliners due to their greatly reduced Deflection, though it is an annoying status effect as a whole. Island Aumua An extra weapon set can provide some utility. One strategy is to equip two guns and fire one shot from each to generate a large amount of Focus and then switch to 3rd faster attacking weapon like a War Bow. Obviously if you plan on taking advantage of their weapon sets, you'll want the Quick Switch talent to minimize the amount of time you take swapping weapons around. Overall, this race's usefulness ultimately hinges on your play style; personally I think an extra weapon slot is quite useful. Hearth Orlan An excellent race, Ciphers love crits and this race helps increase your chances of getting them. Not much else to add really, enjoy getting those crits! Wild Orlan Getting a bonus to all defenses upon being hit by a Will attack is pretty good, as enemy casters (In particular other Ciphers) will likely aim their spells at you. This will also work on fear auras which can be very useful when fighting dragons or drakes. Nature Godlike Functionally, their ability is similar to a Human's, though it packs much more of a punch. You do lose the ability to use a helmet though. Death Godlike Death's Usher is a pretty good damage dealing talent when paired up with damage over time effects or AoE. The Cipher however does have a fairly limited number of them available. Its still a pretty good race overall though. Moon Godlike Blah blah Silver Tide. This ability is great on any class and Cipher is no exception. Fire Godlike These make very potent melee Ciphers... but since we're talking about ranged... they're not really an option. Attributes The attribute spread I would recommend is: MIG 18 DEX 18 CON 3 PER 18 INT 18 RES 3 With Deadfire Archipelago - Drifer chosen as the back ground. This is min/maxed of course and isn't always the optimal spread, as such you may choose to add extra CON or RES to help with your squishiness. Just a few guidelines though: Might A primary stat for the Cipher and one of the most important. Might affects all damage you deal, and as Ciphers are designed to primarily deal damage, this is obviously important. Perhaps more important however is that the amount of Focus you gain is directly based on the amount of damage you deal. As such, the higher your Might, the more Focus you'll generate with each attack, making this stat perhaps even more important to the Cipher than it is to any other class. Dexterity Dexterity affects your attack speed and casting speed. With the 3.0 changes, Ciphers don't have as many powerful slow casting powers as they used to, so this stat is slightly less important. Its still however very useful for Focus generation as this will affect your attack speed with your weapons, and faster attacks means quicker Focus generation. Constitution Extra endurance never hurts as damage is ultimately unavoidable. A ranged Cipher though will most likely opt to dump this, as if they're getting swarmed they're gonna die regardless of how much Endurance they have. Perception Accuracy is paramount for a Cipher, as missing or grazing with your weapon is extremely costly as it'll have a powerful effect on your Focus gain. Also a lot of the Cipher's powers have much shorter duration than the spells coming from a Wizard or Druid, as such Ciphers value crits a lot for their duration bonus. With high perception it becomes significantly easier to score crits with your various powers. Keep in mind that the value of this stat decreases as you get further in game; especially if you have a Priest. Intelligence As mentioned above, the duration of powers is a little on the short side compared to spells. Having a high Int though, will make your powers have much longer durations. Int also affects the AoE size, however Ciphers do not have too many AoE powers, and some of them like Mind Lance or Mind Blades, are unaffected by Int. Resolve A lot of what I mentioned in Con also applies to Resolve. It should be noted though that Resolve will have an effect on concentration. If you plan on running low Resolve, consider making Potions of Spirit Shield when fighting enemies that utilize a lot of interrupting effects (Such as the Ogre Druid's Insect Plague). Talents I recommend the following: 2 - Biting Whip 4 - Draining Whip 6 - Penetrating Shot 8 - Weapon Focus: Ruffian 10 - Apprentice's Sneak Attack 12 - Gunner or Outlander's Frenzy 14 - Marksman You can of course take them in any other order you choose. Or even take other talents, just a "quick" rundown on them: Psychic Backlash and Brutal Backlash Enemy Ciphers commonly pack these two, which is part of the reason they're annoying. These two talents though are highly situational, so its hard to recommend giving up a talent slot for these. I am almost certain these do however work on fear auras, which would make them very useful when dealing with dragons and drakes. Biting Whip Probably a given, but being able to hit harder equates to more Focus generated, so you will always want to grab this. Draining Whip Another obvious one to take, as this will increase the amount of Focus you generate with your attacks. Greater Focus The main reason to grab this is the fact that it can increase your starting Focus, which means its possible to use your higher level powers at the start of combat. This is especially useful during early game as your starting Focus pool is very small. Late game however, you'll have much more sizable Focus pool, as such this power may be slightly less useful depending on your playstyle. Weapon Focus Accuracy boosts are always welcome. Once you've decided on the weapon you want for your build, you'll want to grab the appropriate talent. Marksman For ranged Ciphers you get another accuracy boost to play with. Envenomed Strike Not a bad talent actually, the raw damage is very strong. However, its hard to justify picking this over other talents. If you have a free talent slot though, by all means go ahead and grab this. Gunner If you plan on using a firearm (And not swapping weapons) this talent is a must-have. Reloading is the bane of any gun user, and being able to quicken it is always a welcomed ability. Dangerous Implement Implements aren't very good at generating Focus, however you may want to use them when dealing with pierce immunes. One weapon however worth considering is the Golden Gaze, which hits multiple times and generates a solid amount of Focus. If you want to use that, then you'll want this of course. Beast Slayer/Primal Bane/Ghost Hunter/Sanctifier/Wilder Hunter They're not bad talents but they're very situational. You could grab one of these and pair them up with a camping bonus to get a huge bonus against one type of enemy, but still you usually have better choices to pick. If you had to grab one of these though, I would say Ghost Hunter is the best choice, as Spirits are incredibly common and are very dangerous. Interrupting Blows Compared to other classes, Ciphers are actually terrible at generating Interrupts, so I wouldn't recommend this. Penetrating Shot The ability to ignore DR means you'll be able to deal a lot more damage. This is especially important in PotD, as a majority of enemies have good DR values. Bloody Slaughter Not a bad talent actually, typically you use this to power up DoT or AoE effects. You could however fire an attack at a enemy low on endurance and generate a slightly larger amount of Focus. This ability also works with Death's Usher, so a Death Godlike with this ability can be quite fearsome on low Endurance enemies. Snake's Reflexes/Bear's Fortitude/Bull's Will/Superior Deflection A bonus to defenses is always welcomed. Grabbing these if you have talent slots to spare if often a very good idea. Quick Switch Swapping around weapon sets brings a lot of utility to your Cipher. If you plan on swapping around weapons a lot, this talent is a must-have. Otherwise you can probably ignore this. Its worth noting there's also a belt in the game that has this talent on it, which can allow you avoid using this on a talent slot. Apprentice's Sneak Attack An easy way to boost damage. You should ideally be setting up the conditions for this to kick in, especially since a lot of the Ciphers powers are good at doing this. Outlander's Frenzy This is a very potent talent, giving you a damage boost and attack speed boost, which can do wonders with your Focus generation. Keep in mind though that the attack speed boost does not stack with Time Parasite, and if you're using a Gun, this will do nothing to your reloading animation. Powers Finally we hit the section we've been waiting for, the Powers. There's gonna be a lot to cover here, of course first up we have the one my build uses: 1st - Antipathetic Field, Mind Wave, Soul Shock, Whisper of Treason 2nd - Mental Binding, Phantom Foes, Psychovampiric Shield, Recall Agony 3rd - Ectopsychic Echo, Secret Horrors, Soul Ignition 4th - Body Attunement, Pain Block, Silent Scream, Wild Leech 5th - Borrowed Instinct, Tactical Meld, Detonate 6th - Amplified Wave, Disintegrate 7th - Time Parasite 8th - Reaping Knives, Defensive Mindweb And of course I'm gonna sum them all up, hoo boy. Lets get started. 1st-level Powers Antipathetic Field This is a very powerful tether based power, dealing more damage than the Wizard's Ray of Fire! Its does have the limitation of being forced to move around to position it, plus you must avoid getting your allies caught in it as this will destroy them in no time flat. Eyestrike Blind is a very powerful status effect and being able to freely use it in each encounter makes this extremely useful during the early parts of the game. This also affects Will as well, which a lot of enemies during Act 1 have a low value in that area. If you have a Wizard or Druid though, this power does become less useful during a skirmish they may decide to toss out a spell or once Spell Mastery is available, as their sources of blind are much more effective overall. Mind Wave Knocking a group of enemies Prone has a lot of applications, especially if you run a lot of other casters. It can help with being swarmed and it can allow Reflex and Deflection based attacks land much easier. Soul Shock A potent and extremely spammable AoE power. It deals decent damage and has no affect on your own allies. This power alone will decimate a majority of early game encounters. I find myself using it less later in the game, but its still a pretty good AoE attack, especially if you have someone running the Stormcaller. Tenuous Grasp Its very hard to recommend this over Whisper of Treason now, due to its average cast speed and less powerful overall effect. The Frightened effect though has a very long duration, which can really help out with landing a majority of your powers. Whisper of Treason The signature move of a Cipher and with good reason too, as this power is just incredible now. It has a fast cast speed and it also inflicts Charmed which has numerous applications. A Charmed target will distract enemies, and also attack them too. Charm also lowers all defenses by 25 points, which makes them very easy to kill. 2nd-level Powers Amplified Thrust Much like Soul Shock, another early and powerful source of damage. This power though gets outclassed a tad bit quicker than Soul Shock though as you start to get more powerful weapons and powers. Mind Blades A decent AoE power, this move does less damage than Soul Shock however, but it does affect a much broader area. Mental Binding Paralysis is an excellent effect and is a good way to stop a dangerous enemy in its tracks. Paralysed enemies also make the best Focus generation targets. As such an ideal use of this power would be to open with it and then fire a shot at them and generate a huge chunk of Focus in return. Another thing that makes this power really stand out is that any enemies near the paralysed target get inflicted with Stuck, making this useful even for controlling groups. Its duration though is very short, but its still there. Phantom Foes This power has a very long duration and a very large radius. Its very useful for triggering Sneak Attacks, especially in areas where setting up flanks is difficult due to the narrow space, like a lot of indoor battles. However, this does get suppressed by other afflictions that lower Deflection, including Blind. Psychovampiric Shield Oh hey I wrote about this recently. Copy/Paste +25 Deflection is pretty nice, but I've always preferred this Power for its -10 Resolve. -10 Resolve from Psychovampiric Shield is a great way to lower an enemy's deflection and will defense. It also lowers their Concentration as well which great for Interrupting. This also doesn't get suppressed from Miasma of Dull Mindness which means you can get a -16 Resolve on one enemy target. It also doesn't get suppressed by Wild Leech either which could potentially lead to a very tasty -20 Resolve, however Wild Leech does pick a random attribute so it isn't exactly reliable Wild Leech doesn't get suppressed by Miasma either, so in theory you could stack all three and potentially get an incredible -26 Resolve! But I haven't actually tested it, and it would be difficult to test since Wild Leech is so random. Recall Agony The Cipher's equivalent Combusting Wounds, though it unfortunately only affects a single target. Functionally though, you would use this in the same manner as you would use Combusting Wounds by pairing it with a lot quick rapid hitting attacks. This power also stacks with Combusting Wounds, though ticks from Combusting Wounds won't trigger any damage from this and vice versa. 3rd-level Powers Ectopsychic Echo The most famous (infamous?) power in the Cipher's arsenal. Much like Antipathetic Field, this power deals enormous amount of damage, rivaling the likes of the Wizard's Bitter Mooring! However what makes this power even better is that you can tether to an ally with it, and this power has no friendly fire attached, making it much more user friendly. Attaching this to a melee character at the start of a combat and having him move around behind the enemy lines is an effective use of the power, and can potentially make this the Cipher's best source of AoE damage even. Fractured Volition This power is a massive debuff to enemy defenses, making it a pretty ideal power to make use of against major targets. If you have other sources of Hobbled and Weakened though, you may want to pass on this. Pain Link Basically the Fire Godlike's racial ability made into a power. Its pretty underwhelming and generally not worth the Focus to cast unless you're up against a really large group, and they're all targeting one character. Puppet Master Whisper of Treason will usually be a better use of Focus since Charmed does nearly the same thing as Dominate, costs significantly less Focus and has a much longer range. Puppet Master does have a few things going for it though; for one it has longer duration than Whisper of Treason. Dominate also doesn't incur a massive penalty to accuracy and defenses like Charmed does, making a Dominated target much more of a potent threat to their own allies. Secret Horrors This power inflicts Sickened and Frightened in a wide area, which excellent for lowering enemy defences. This power is really good if you're packing a lot of casters as this will make Fort-based spells much easier to use. Frightened is also good since it lowers Will, so this power can also work as an accuracy boost for your Cipher. Soul Ignition Strong DoT affect; though it only affects a single target. 4th-level Powers Body Attunement Lowering enemy DR is always a good to have. This is also gives you sizable boost to your own DR which can be handy in some situations. Mind Lance This is a very damaging AoE attack, it is however a line based AoE so you'll most likely have to adjust your positioning in order to avoid damaging your own allies with this. As a line AoE, this also puts it at slight odds with Ectopsychic Echo and Antipathetic Field. Pain Block This is the Cipher's one and only healing power, its a pretty good one though. It heals for a decent amount and also gives a delicious +10 DR to the affected ally. Silent Scream This power may seem less impressive than Mind Lance until you realize that this baby deals Raw damage. Which means it flat out ignores DR, making this an incredibly deadly AoE attack. It also inflicts Stunned on the primary target as well, which you can also use to gain back the Focus you spent on this power too. Wild Leech This power can seem unreliable since it affects a random attribute so you don't have too much control over it. It is however a -10 to a random attribute so the effects will still be felt regardless of what it affects. This also in turn gives you a +10 bonus to random attribute which can be very powerful since it has a fairly good chance of affecting one of your primary attributes. 5th-level Powers Borrowed Instinct What an incredible power. -8 to Intelligence and Perception is pretty dang good, but to add to it you also get all kinds of accuracy and defensive bonuses as well! Ringleader AoE Charmed and Dominate is as good as it sounds. The range of this is painfully short however, so caution is advised when using it. Detonate Yep, that's a lot of raw damage. It also deals a sizable amount of Crush damage should you kill a target with this, making it an incredible source of AoE damage. This does have friendly fire attached, so make sure your allies are either out of range or well defended. Tactical Meld Fairly unerwhelming since Borrowed Instinct is overall a better use of Focus. It is useful as an opening against some of the toughest fights though, where getting Borrowed Instinct to land isn't guaranteed. 6th-level Powers Amplified Wave This deals a decent amount of Crush damage and affects a wide area. The real reason you want to use this though is the fact this also inflicts Prone. Coupled with its massive AoE, this is an excellent CC tool. It does cost an enormous amount of Focus however. Disintegration Quite possibly the most powerful DoT effect in the game, this power deals colossal amounts of raw damage. Mind Plague AoE confuse is pretty good and this power disperses in a wide area too. However 60 Focus is hard to justify for it, especially when you can just use Scrolls of Confusion or even just a Wizard for similar effects. 7th-level Powers Stasis Shell This power can be used to lock out an enemy from combat, they won't be able to take any damage however. This makes it highly situational, and with a 70 Focus cost, its almost not worth even using. Time Parasite A combination of Deleterious Alacrity of Motion and Arduous Delay of Motion. Not a bad combo by any means but it does cost an enormous 70 Focus; but if you're running a Dex heavy build, the benefits can outweigh its cost. 8th-level Powers Reaping Knives One of the best summoned weapons in the game. It deals excellent damage, can be used by martial classes like Monks and each hit with it gives you Focus. Highly recommended if you have a dual wielder of any kind. Defensive Mindweb The best spell for turtling. This is a game changer, as having a Paladin or Fighter in range makes this into a massive defence boost. Suddenly, now your entire party can tank a dragon (Or at least attempt it). Equipment This I confess is an area I'm not very good at. What I typically run though is: Weapon 1: Scon Mica's Roar Weapon 2: Golden Gaze Head: Helm of Darksee Body: Vengiatta Rugia Neck: Talisman of the Unconquerable Hands: Pilferer's Grip Feet: Glanfathan Stalking Boots Waist: Girdle of Maegfolc Might Ring 1: Ring of Protection Ring 2: Ring of Thorns Which decent but I'm sure many of you can think of better builds then that. I won't really delve into this though, as there's a ton of items and I'll be here forever trying to cover them all. So here's a brief list on some other good choices. Weapon 1: Scon Mica's Roar, Lead Splitter, Dulcanale, Fellstroke, Persistence, Stormcaller, The Rain of Godagh Field, Borresaine, Lenas Êr, Stormcaller Weapon 2: Golden Gaze, Pretty Pretty's Rib Head: Helm of Darksee, Hermit's Hat, Stag Helm, Azalin's Helmet, Tempered Helm Body: Vengiatta Rugia, Starlit Garb, Raiment of Wael's Eyes, Angio's Gambeson, just plain boring enchanted Clothing Neck: Talisman of the Unconquerable Hands: Pilferer's Grip, Bracers of All-Consuming Rage, Gauntlets of Swift Action, Gauntlets of Accuracy, Ryona's Vambraces, Gloves of Manipulation, Rabbit Fur Gloves Feet: Glanfathan Stalking Boots, Boots of Speed, Boot of Stealth, Malina's Boots Waist: Girdle of Maegfolc Might, Broad Belt of Power, Sentinel's Girdle, Belt of Stelgaer, Coil of Resourcefulness Rings: Ring of Protection, Ring of Thorns, Ring of Searing Flames, Ring of Unshackling, Pensiavi mes Rèi, Sigil of the Arcane, Frigid Claim, Bartender's Ring Conclusion I have probably missed a TON of things. So go yell at me for anything I missed or anything I may be unaware of.

I thought I'd share my battle with the 3 early bears in the cave...Done on my second try so I had some luck I'm guessing, but at lvl 2 on PotD, you probably need "some" luck since 1 hit and you're dead anyways... I tried this after Eler in my party died in my current Wizard game (hated resting so he had low health) so I may restart as a Cipher again and start over (Trial of Iron). Never did like the whole limits on casts/day anyways. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUprh94zNM4

Hey guys, I'm playing through PoE and hit 5th level on easy mode. The hardest thing for me now so far is deciding between all the companions available to me. They all seem so interesting! This is my current line up: Me (a Cipher), Aloth, Sagini, Kana, Eder and Durance. It's a solid party so far, especially because I'm playing on easy, but I wanted to know if I should explore other companions. I'm wondering if playing on easy means I can basically have any party combination I want without really suffering heavy penalties. Also, what companions, in your subjective view, have the most interesting quests / personality? Finally, can I recruit and dismiss and re-recruit companions easily?

Hello I made a decision that i will play Gun-Cipher charater, propably wood elf. I have some questions about this class since im beginner. 1. What are the best "spells"/powers for Cipher Gunslinger ? (he will propably use bow at the begining) 2. What do you think are the best talents for this build ? 3. What stat distribiution whoud you guys sudgest ? i give him something like 18 MI 6 PE 16 DE 10CON 18 INT and 10 Resolve.. is that good ? Patch is 1.6 if i recall....

On my solo run last night I found that enemies I affected with the confused condition from Mind Plague were not giving my Cipher focus upon attack. My guess is there is some code that prevents you from attacking your allies to gain cheap focus, and that allegiance-switching/-blurring spells make a target your ally for the duration. This is seen by their target circle changing from red to green on many such spells. I imagine that this would be a pretty simple fix to add a flag to your party members preventing focus gain, but then some code to allow gain from any other target regardless of allegiance. Version: 1.06 Steps to reproduce: Use Mind Plague on a group of enemies from stealth. When confusion sets in for target, start shooting with a ranged weapon. Focus will no go up. I noticed this while fighting Crystal Eaters on Level 12 of Od Nua.

When I discover the temple of Woedica, I can't wear the Woedica hood asI am a Cipher, and no way to fight all the ennemies. Too strong for me. Any idea?

This build is adapted for 1.05 and the lower starting focus. Role: Offtank/DPS -You still have all the other cipher goodies, but the micro actually comes from moving around than anything. Race: Moon = Fire Godlike > Wild Orlan = Human -You'll eat some disengagement attacks here and there so having an endurance heal is good. Fire Godlike can also be decent, but Moon is much more forgiving as you run around the battlefield. Fire does give you retaliate focus which is better for mid game. Powers: Antipathetic Field + whatever else. Probably Ectopsychic Echo for the theme, but you are still a cipher in the end with other powers. Stats: Dex > Res > Mig > Int > Per > Con -Besides the typical higher deflection, flavor to preference. Oddly, Grieving Mother can also do this build. -Int is kept relatively high for other effects, but doesn't help the 6 second duration of Antipathetic field for the damage portion -Dex can be dumped for the heavier armor setup, etc, but for the growing pains I like having faster casting at the beginning. Talents: Fast Runner, optional: Weapon/Shield style, Wound binding (for health heals). Gear: Hatchet/small shield, heaviest armor. Optional: Disengage cloak. Playstyle: Target a back row enemy with the Antipathetic Field, then if not engaged, run around so the beam hits everyone. If you are engaged though, you can sort of circle click around them to rotate your beam... Or if you're bored, just eat the disengage attacks and go crazy. Why is this better than ranged cipher? -Talents necessary to realize this build is done at lvl 4, focus gaining is sort of a non issue. -By the time you outgrow Anitpathetic field, you have all the other cipher goodies -Sometimes, you get lazy... cast, shift click move them around the battle area... and still profit for extreme damage. -Sometimes, you wanna have an offtank, this provides a relatively decent one for the early game, and late game, its just about the aoe/cc/damage.

Here is the playlist of my finally completed my Let's Play of Pillars of Eternity! Totaling 120 parts (117 actual parts, 3 'extras' where I previously cheated to win the game but decided to go back and finish legit instead), this is my first playthrough of the game, going into it with backer beta gameplay knowledge. I play a Death Godlike Cipher named Abattoir, a Philosopher who tries to show that Death Godlikes (even the big, scary ones) can be kind-hearted and honest. My mouse is, unfortunately, off-center for the first 27 parts due to my monitor's native aspect ratio being 5:4 and me recording the game in 16:9, but I go back to the native resolution on part 28, though it won't perfectly fit youtube. Throughout the series I give thoughts on certain parts of the game, and certainly point out pieces of writing or action that are either done poorly or just completely nonsensical. Overall I enjoyed the game, though as a Baldur's Gate enthusiast I'd give it a 7.5/10. Thanks Obsidian for your hard work. Was quite enjoyable to play one of these kinds of games again.

Hello community, I am a long time RPG player, including both computer and PnP RPGs. Thus I have experience with these types of games. However... I do feel a bit overwhelmed, mainly by the lack of proper descriptions in this game. I decided to start with a ranged Cipher character. I read a few threads around this forum and have an idea what talents/spells are good picks. Skills, however, are a mystery to me. I want to ask - how many points does a character get? Because I want to put a few points in Athletics, Mechanics, Stealth, Lore... you get the idea. Now, I understand it might be better to focus and use NPCs to fill the holes, but I have no knowledge of what NPCs there are. My question is - between how many skills can I split my points and still function late game? I was thinking of getting Mechanics max, Lore up to 10 and some points in Stealth and Athletics. Is it doable? Also how's that for an attribute spread for my Wood Elf (i really really like the female elf model) Cipher: Might 16 Constitution 5 Dexterity 15 Perception 8 Intelligence 17(+1) Resolve 16

I started out really liking Whisper of Treason, but then I read it becomes obsolete with dominate powers later on. Tenuous Grasp (fear/confuse) seems kind of pointless when you can charm or dominate them for a longer duration. Though I guess you could use it against a solo enemy and have it not break on damage. Antipathetic Field apparently does its listed damage once per second, I read, despite the description not stating this. Which makes it do way, way more damage than Soul Shock. A beam shouldn't be too hard to avoid friendly fire with. Though strangely, the description says nothing about an intellect duration bonus, so I guess it doesn't have one? Eyestrike seems like a great debuff. Mind Wave sounds good because it does irresistible raw damage and knocks down a crowd (no friendly fire, either). Do I have all that right?

Does cipher get 1 more spell/power selection at level 12? Having a tough time picking the 2 6th level spells, but if I can pick the third one at level 12, there's no real problem.

So I just got this game and am looking for some help on creating my first character, which I've decided to make a Cipher. I've been reading up on different classes, and I was between a Cipher, Druid, and Wizard. Since I can get a Wizard NPC early, it came down to Cipher and Druid, and the Cipher description just sounded really cool so I figured I'd try one first. According to their description, they sounded like they could play as melee mages, in a sense, but many threads I've seen have made them sound too squishy really to play melee all that much, and that ranged weapons are King with a Cipher. Is it possible to do a hybrid build where I can use both ranged and melee options? I'd like to be able to start out ranged in tougher fights, throw out spells, and then move into melee range or something like that. And with easier stuff just be able to melee. If this is possible, what kind of stats should I start with? For ranged, it seemed to be to max Might, Dex, and Int, and put the rest into Resolve I think? Which means dumping Con and Perception. But would that make me extremely terrible in melee? I really have no idea what a good way to distribute my stat points would be. Basically, I'd like to use both melee and range, and sling spells for CC/damage. Any thoughts/ideas/advice would be greatly appreciated!

Hello people. I would like the community's help on a matter. I want to pick a class and i just can't decide which.I'm torn between a few because they each have some of my prefered playstyles. I like to use tactics and outwit my opponents. I liked the Shadow class from Dragon Age Origins.It has stealth,illusions,bombs and different poisons,basicly loads of fun. I tend to like summoning classes that are more active.Think WoW's warlock and Titan Quest's Spirit. I just want a fun,active and skillfull playstyle.So,that being said,i've reduced my classes to the following: 1.Rogue = in this game it feels too passive with no neat tricks and a few active abilities.You position and auto-attack. 2.Chanter = would've liked more dark and gritty summons but it's ok.It feels passive and it takes long to get them out.Most fights are finished by then. 3.Cipher = I play him melee with focus on illusions and deception.Almost no nukes.But it feels like i'm on the cipher band wagon with everybody and their grandma already there. Please help this poor wretched soul finally pick a class and finish the game(rerolled like 10-15 times)...

As much as I love my cipher, it would appear that amplified wave is bugged. The prone effect caused by the spell lasts indefinitely, as can be seen by these two screenshots showing an hour of game time in between them. This unfortunately makes the spell incredibly overpowered. This occurs on v 1.03.530 from GOG. Screenshot 1 Screenshot 2

Most of the times I used the cipher spell "Ringleader", the enemies are charmed for less then a second, even though it says they're dominated or charmed for 10-20 seconds. Is this a bug or is there something I don't know about? I didn't have problems like this with the "Puppet Master" spell.

Heyo I have been lurking both here and the Reddit sub for a while, and been reading all the fun builds people have theory crafted. After finishing the game on normal, cheesing my way through with 5 rangers and a cipher, I decided to try and rerun the game solo, going for the Triple Crown Solo, and starting with the hard difficulty. Was wondering if anyone could help recommend a good solo build, I especially had the Cipher kite and run and Rogue retaliation tank builds that are currently popular on this sub but any suggestions are welcome. Also if you wouldn't mind touching into gear, talents, attributes etc.

Hey you guys, actually I really haven't even started playing pillars because I'm quite pinned to the character creation screen. xD Now I'm some kind of picky - I know. But in order to finally decide on my character I have some Lore concerning questions: After hours of consideration I finally decided to play as a cipher (eventhough rogue seems appealing to me). First I though rolling for a druid, but then, since Baldur's Gate I know that these games tend to be heavy in city related plots so druids kinda feel like the third wheel being all for nature. But ok I decided to go for a cipher since I want a unique pillars of eternity experience and because I always play humans I wanted to go with one of them. Now old Vailia seems a cool origin for this character I wanna play and I already found a great portrait for him. But (!): Ciphers origin from an Aedyr colony named Eír Glanfath and the phenomenon seems solely to be found among orlan and elves. Ok now there are some animancers from Dyrwood that researched the topic, but Dyrwood too is no possible home country for your character (like Eír Glanfath). Does this mean Aedyr would be best suited for human ciphers? This leads me to my initial questions: Is it possible for humans to obtain this ability? If yes: Can they be born with it or do they have to learn it? If they can only be learned: How is it possible for an old valian citizen to hear from this abilities and learn them? Obvious is obvious: you can choose to play a old vailian cipher, so there must be an explanation. But I wanted to know if this combination is good in terms of game experience (like how NPCs react to this race/class combination or if they never wonder at all). Because if it's totally uncommon for humans or old vailians to obtain these abilities and nobody notices during the game it's kind of lame. I ask because my first companions "Heodan" and "Calisca" thought it pretty normal that a guy from old vailia had a purple glowing sword. :D Ok ok I know this is no pen and paper and the game can't react to every decision I make, but I just wondered, and since I felt so excited about pillars I really want to dive into this world. So I want to create my character according to the lore of the world. As an pen and paper veteran for me that's highly important for my gaming experience. I would love to hear from your points of view! Many thanks in advance! May the gods be on your side!

The shield is supposed to only affect melee attacks, and probably only enemy attacks as well. 1. have a party member equip Sura's Copper Plate 2. cast any of cipher's abilities on said party member 3. cipher receives dmg As far as I know it's only affecting cipher's abilities atm. It's quite annoying because Pain Block is a really good buf that provides DR but it kills my Griveous Mother... See the combat log(i casted blindstrike because you can't cast party buffs ooc) you see that after the first miss eder retaliates. I assume the retaliation uses the main weapon as Eder has a stilleto equipped.

I'm still thinking if to go melee or ranger style. What do you guys suggest, what should my build look like? Preferably melee, maybe. What build do you use? It's been a week since game launch and I'd like to hear what you've learned so far. Thanks

So, how far i would get in hard mode with party of 2 fighter as tanks (10/10/10/19/10/19, kinda ballanced), priest, cipher, wizard and chanter.Fighter with shields, and casters with guns. What do you suggest as dps?Is chanter worth just for reload speed aura?I got cipher and priest using pistol and arbuegus and is pretty good.Should i make chanter as off tank when some mob pass my fighters? I played party with 4 melee dps, and i ofted dont have room for them to properly place on target.

Description: Casting mental binding on a troll twice triggers a graphical error. I've only noticed this to occur when the second mental binding is cast thile the first is still active. The actual distortion grows with time (even when the game is paused), and disappears when the troll is killed. Steps to Reproduce the Issue: Cast mental binding on Troll. Cast it again before the duration of the first cast is over. Important Files: DXDiag Screenshot 1 Screenshot 2