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POTD difficulty, trial of iron, solo playtrough. This guy started to talk to me as i stepped in the range of his totems in stealth. Didn't notice them before Conselhaut caught me in his best trap ever, made of a deadly totem and a lack of pause during the dialogues. During the dialogue, my character seems to have died from the totem effect, continiously doing whatever it does. After dialogue ended, i have a map full of fog of war, no characters and no game over message. I can save and load this state of the game, and I have a dead save file. I don't think that supposed to happen. To repeat the bug you just need to go to this encounter, get in range of totems while in stealth and talk to Concelhaut. Your character will die while in dialogue and you will get the result. Here is my save file - https://www.dropbox.com/s/9e3nglttwokxvun/Zerral%20%28c70d0256-241e-444b-9489-9879381787d6%29%20trialofiron.savegame?dl=0

Hey there! Long time lurker, first time poster. With the release of 1.1 I've been meaning to start my PotD playthrough, and I've been looking for a way to make use of a Berath priest, preferably paired with a martial class. Anyone have any ideas?

Hi all, I finished the game in normal difficulty pretty easily and wanted to retry on PotD. I've spent hours looking over these forums, Reddit, steam guides and other places Google has directed me in an effort to figure out how to progress through Path of the Damned. I've just started my third new playthrough attempt. The first attempt, I made a monk designed to be an off-tank and collected Eder, Durance, Aloth and Kana. I got the party level 4. I struggled but eventually killed the bandits in Black Meadow with a LOT of restarting from saves. I couldn't get that group to Defiance Bay, couldn't complete the Temple in Gilded Vale, and generally died a lot. The second attempt, I created a chanter to be a summoner/dps/middle of the party dude. I struggled in all the same places had even more trouble with the bandits and had to lead them into a group of trolls to thin the group before I could kill them. I got this group to the second level of the Temple in Gilded Vale but couldn't get further. Lots and lots of saving and retrying. The third attempt, my current one, I started a DPS cipher using this build and hired five custom companions and used all characters here except the wizard. I'm not far in yet, but I'm still dying and struggling a lot. I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong. Hoping some of you have some advice.

https://www.nexusmods.com/pillarsofeternity2/mods/43/ Hello guys, I released the first version of my mod, aiming to increase the challenge on POTD. I would love it if you could give me feedback on whether things work the way they are supposed to. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- DEADLY DEADFIRE v1.8 New optional weapon balance tweaks! New HARDCORE version of the mod has been added! New modular mods have been added for maximum customization! Changelog: NORMAL VERSION: v1.8 - Adjusted XP reduction to -28%. I finally found the perfect value. v1.7 - Increased XP reduction from -20% to -30%. v1.6 - Fixed duplicate files in download directory. v1.5 - Fixed Player Character Health getting buffed by the mod. v1.0 - Release HARCORE VERSION: v1.0 - Release WEAPON TWEAKS: v1.2 - Fixed uniquely named weapons not being afffected. v1.1 - Fixed spears and sabers not being affected. v1.0 - Release This mod is for all those that want to be challenged more by the combat encounters in this game. The devs have already said that the game is not difficult enough when played on Veteran or Path of the Damned, and this mod wants to fix those issues without breaking the feel of the game. *** THIS MOD IS MADE FOR POTD / VETERAN DIFFICULTY WITH LEVEL SCALING (UPWARDS ONLY) *** WHAT DOES IT DO: 1. Level Scaling - In vanilla enemies only scale upwards a maximum of 4 levels. If you are level 15 and find a level 5 enemy, he would be scaled up to level 9 but not any further. - This mod increases the scaling limit to 9. That enemy would now scale up to 14. (not quite this simple with location levels etc but you get the idea) 2. Named Enemies - Important Named Enemies will now scale an additional 2 levels higher than a normal enemy. If you find a level 8 named boss at level 10, he will now scale up to level 12, in an effort to keep even previously-missed lower level boss fights challenging. (again location levels matter too but this is the idea) 3. Increased HP - Enemy health has been increased by around 30% across the board. This is an attempt to stop a single empowered spell from halving the opponents right at the start of combat. 4. Reduced XP - Experience from quests and combat has been reduced by around 25% and 20% respectively. This is not really noticeable at the start but it will help with the over-levelling issue in the lategame. HARDCORE VERSION: I recommend starting with the normal mod, which already makes the game quite challenging. Then, if you feel like the game is still too unforgiving, or if you feel like the difficulty drops off during the latter part of the game, you can switch to the hardcore version. This hardcore version is very punishing, especially in the early game when you are lacking accuracy. Therefore I don't recommend it for a new game. WHAT DOES THE HARDCORE VERSION DO: - Further increases the scaling bonus levels and scaling range, for both normal enemies and even more for bosses. - Further reduces the experience gains up to a total of 35% and 30%. You can switch from normal version to hardcore version without problems. But keep in mind that enemies are generated when entering a new zone, so if you upgrade to the hardcore version, only areas you haven't visited yet will get the increased stats. WEAPON TWEAKS (OPTIONAL MOD) I have added a new optional mod called "Weapons Tweaks". - It reduces the penetration of all one-handed weapons by 1. Many have asked for this and I agree it makes sense. Now two-handed weapons have a purpose. In addition to dealing more damage, they now have more penetration compared to 1H weapons. HOW TO INSTALL: 1. Go to the Pillars of Eternity 2 folder (Pillars of Eternity II\PillarsOfEternityII_Data\) 2. Look for or create an "override" folder in Pillars of Eternity II\PillarsOfEternityII_Data\ 3. Unzip the mod inside the "override" folder. 4. The path to the mod files should look like this: /PillarsOfEternity2_Data/override/DeadlyDeadfireModX.X/gamedata/ 5. Launch the game. 6. The mod should work on existing savefiles, but only for areas not yet visited. 7. A new game is recommended. COMPATIBILITY WITH OTHER MODS: This mod changes these files: characters.gamedatabundle 'MaxLevelAdjustment' property changed; characters.gamedatabundle 'MaxHealth' and 'HealthPerLevel' values changed; progressiontable.gamedatabundle 'ExpectedCharacterLevelAdjustment' arrays expanded and 'AdjustedLevelAmount' values changed; global.gamedatabundle 'QuestXPMultiplier' and 'CombatXPMultiplier' values changed.

So as the topic says, I am going to attempt my first PotD play through. I want to do a non-custom party build using all the standard recruits. I woud like to play the PC as a tanky front lines dps, I just finished doing a ranger in POE 2. I am thinking a monk or something similar to tank/dps. This would put Eder in the side roll of offtank/dps Kana as ranged dps/backline buff, Aloth as back line dps Durance as priest buff/heal And possibly Hirivias as shape changer dps, maybe Take grieving mother depending how it all plays out for more ranged dps. Any thoughts on what I need or could learn before I fail my first try?

What do you think, should the Blessing of Berath to be changed or removed for PotD difficulty?

I decided to go for a Helwalker Monk as my PC but I'm already having issues keeping him alive. I feel like my monk don't have the high deflection / Armor needed to properly survive. Sure I could throw some heavier armor on him but it feels like that would hurt his damage too much. I'm only level 6 so haven't gotten that far into the game but I'm really thinking about restarting and going for PotD instead of Hard but also going for a regular monk or even the shattered piller one. What are you guys thoughts? We are talking Hard/PotD difficulty

A great tactic has been found. If you use cracking bolt and rolling flame from a long distance, the enemy will not notice the party, which in turn means endless spells. This method allows you to destroy almost any encounter or lure enemies one by one increasing or decreasing the distance. Also, since the spells are power level 2-3, This strategy can be effectively used by any wiz-multiclasses, making the strategy a great way to complete solo PoTD. If you a smart wizard, you should practice sniping. Also, if an enemy encounter contains healers trying to kill someone is pretty useless unless you can kill mob with one blow, but in this case, such exploits are simply not needed. Still great for luring.

Lvl 9 xoti single classed priest casts into takedown combo for 593.3. Seems high. That wasnt executing either half my party is still in stealth on potd. http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198049990075/screenshot/922553829341613585

Hello folks! I have gotten almost to the end with my The Ultimate run with a wizard and I have a question because with my scouting char I can't seem to defeat Brynlod. This might be due to upscaling being on but I maneged it once and I wanted to know if getting the enemy separated and picking them off in smaller groups should be considered cheesing? Because I really want to make this a clean win but I can't seem to pull it of without resting through one encounter. Thanks in advance!

“Scorpions are nature’s way of saying, ‘Screw you! I’m gonna combine lobsters, spiders, wasps and nightmares!’” This build provides a tanky Rogue, who also has high single target damage and produces his own status effects through the Stun on crit version of Cladhalíath. Dexterity and Intellect have been pitched so that you can keep an enemy permanently stunned so long as you score a hit on the Stun vs. Fortitude roll that results from a melee crit. In this way, you can have high damage against a single target – while simultaneously disabling other enemies through periodic Riposte stuns as well, giving this build a nice offensive-defensive balance. Hopefully this should subvert the idea a Rogue is a weak class, with defences that are comparable to other solo tank builds but compared to some a great deal more damage. While the Yellow Flash build also uses Riposte mechanics to great effect, it seems more pitched towards the classic tank style of grinding enemies down with a wounding weapon rather than aiming for high single target damage. The Flaming Porcupine build seems to be much of the same idea as this build, but seems to have weaker defences and a slightly different focus (use of a two-handed weapon for one). As such, I think this build is distinct enough to warrant its own write-up. Why the name the Sprightly Scorpion? Because scorpions are well protected and defensive, Cladhalíath provides a stunning sting, and it’s sprightly because its attacks are fast enough to chain Stun. And because I said so! I will say this build is ENTIRELY UNTESTED (apart from the Stun-locking mechanics, which I've just had a play with, making sure the Stun-locking works). I hope to get around to testing it soonish (after Christmas maybe) but currently lack the time. I’ll update the build when or/if I finish testing it (or if one of you kind people do first), however I don’t anticipate their being any problems in terms of solo viability with the build. Without further ado… =================================== The Sprightly Scorpion =================================== Difficulty: Untested, but will test on expert PotD solo, no respec, with full upscaling -------------------------------------------------------------- Class: Rogue -------------------------------------------------------------- Race: Wild Orlan -------------------------------------------------------------- Background: Old Valia (Colonist) -------------------------------------------------------------- Starting Attributes: MIG: 17 CON: 15 DEX: 10 PER: 5 INT: 19 RES: 12 Final Attributes: MIG: 21 (Gift from the Machine, Garodh’s Chorus) CON: 16 (Rymrgand’s Boon) DEX: 14 (Viettro’s Formal Footware) PER: 8 (Elryn’s Jacket, Song of the Heavens) INT: 26 (Gwyn’s Band of Union, Forum resting bonus) RES: 16 (Siegebreaker’s Gauntlets) -------------------------------------------------------------- Important skills: Survival 16, Lore 9, Mechanics 5 (boostable to 10). This gives third stage survival accuracy bonus for +20 accuracy against anything but kith, as well as access to things like Scrolls of Confusion and Paralysis in tougher fights. Skill point allocation: -------------------------------------------------------------- Abilities and Talents: Abilities: 1 – Crippling Strike 3 – Reckless Assault 5 – Deep Wounds 7 – Dirty Fighting 9 – Adept Evasion 11 – Riposte 13 – Deathblows 15 – Withering Strike Talents: 2 – Veteran’s Recovery 4 – Weapon and Shield Style 6 – Weapon Focus Peasant 8 – Vicious Fighting 10 – Wound Binding 12 – Deep Pockets 14 – Superior Deflection 16 – Deflecting Assault Quest Talents: Blooded Hunter Dozen’s Luck Dungeon Delver Gift from the Machine Rymyrgand’s Boon Song of the Heavens Scale-Breaker The Merciless Hand --------------------------------------------------------------- Weapons and Equipment (listing only new enchantments): Weapon set 1: Cladhalíath (Stunning, Vicious, Superb, Durgan-Refined, Freezing Lash) and Badgradr’s Barricade (Superb, Durgan-Reinforced) Weapon Set 2: Alternate Stunning or Overbearing weapon, Little Saviour (Durgan-Reinforced, Legendary) Armor: Elryn’s Jacket (Legendary, Durgan-Reinforced) Neck: Cape of the Master Mystic Belt: Looped Rope Rings: Gwyn’s Band of Union and Ring of Protection Hands: Siegebreaker Gauntlets Head: Garodh’s Chorus (Retaliation) Feet: Viettro’s Formal Footwear --------------------------------------------------------------- Weapon accuracy and defenses: Cladhalíath accuracy 100 Def/Ref/Fort/Will 110/108/108/118 Calculations: Buffed defenses: Def/Ref/Fort/Will 160/168/170/148 Calculations: -------------------------------------------------------------- Playstyle overview: Using Cladhalíath, every crit on an enemy triggers a Stun vs. Fortitude roll. Stun itself gives a -30 Deflection debuff, meaning that once an enemy is stunned crits against that enemy should occur extremely frequently (with the Deflection debuff, but also with 40% hit-to-crit conversion from Vicious/Dirty Fighting and Durgan-Reinforcement). This provides more Stun vs. Fortitude rolls, which so long as they result in a hit themselves will result in the enemy being permanently stunned with the 14 Dex 15 Int combo. Cladhalíath itself can also be made Vicious as the second enchantment, dealing an extra 20% damage to stunned enemies. With a permanent Stun effect, triggering criteria for Deathblows becomes trivial. Both Withering Strike and Sever the Soul themselves debuff Fortitude through the Weakened affliction, meaning you will easily trigger both Stun and Weakened in a single attack opening up Deathblows. Crippling Strike and Figurine flanking, as well as occasional Eyestrikes from Elryn’s Jacket, give enough other means for you to get Deathblows easily in a single encounter. With the previously mentioned massive -30 Deflection debuff from Stun, Badgradr’s Barricade also really starts to shine, with every Bash crit resulting in a Thrust of the Tattered Veils, which itself targets the massively debuffed Deflection and is effected by Deathblows. This combination of effects against a stunned enemy gives you great single target damage, while also being defensively bulky. Riposte, Retaliation and Deep Wounds provide an excellent means of crowd control. Riposte itself gives free attacks to surrounding melee enemies on misses and grazes, made viable by the build’s good Deflection, giving you a chance to Stun these enemies with Cladhalíath for a few of seconds. As these enemies are entirely immobile during this time, this reduces the overall damage you’ll take from a melee group, making it an indirect defensive maneuver. Deep Wounds and Retaliation ensure that all melee enemies are constantly taking some raw damage, making them much weaker when you get around to targeting them specifically. Eyestrike from Elryn’s Jacket has nice synergy with Riposte, Retaliation and Deep Wounds as essentially melee enemies are always at risk of something (miss/graze -> Riposte chance, hit/crit -> Eyestrike chance, all the while taking Deep Wounds raw damage and Retaliation hits). When an enemy has been blinded, their accuracy debuff means that they’ll now tend towards more misses and grazes, and as such trigger even more Ripostes. For spellcasters, the extremely strong Adept Evasion (75% reflex grazes to misses, 50% reflex hits to grazes) coupled to your reasonable Reflex score means their attacks really aren’t much of a concern. When you couple this to the 20% spell reflection from Durgan-Reinforced Badgradr’s Barricade, and the chance they also have of suffering Eyestrike, they can be comfortably left until the end of combat when you’ve dealt with the melee enemies. Hopefully this rundown should have given you an idea of the build’s high damage, coupled to some great defenses that marry some of the best qualities of a Rogue and a tank. -------------------------------------------------------------- I’ve provided a few other little sections below, for anyone interested… Attribute score choice: Race and equipment choices, damage calcs: Talent and ability choices: Early game equipment: Big boss advice: Pairing for party play: -------------------------------------------------------------- And that’s that! I hope you’ve enjoyed the build, and even if it isn’t playtested I think it’d be worth a try. If anyone manages to give it a playtest before me, let me know and I’ll update the build with your findings. Have a nice day! EDIT: Re-tested Cladhalíath, and found the previous attributes I listed to be way off. The new set work fine to chain Stun on Stun roll hits.

Max res, end, and perc, averege might, dump dex, 12 starting int https://www.gog.com/forum/pillars_of_eternity/ultimate_run_successful I'm starting this character, so I plan to post updates here, to see how this plays in group (no solo)

“Say hello to my little friend!” As a bit of a foreword, this build is designed to exclusively use guns with class abilities, even in the tough boss fights. I’ve yet to kill any of the really tough bosses (the Kraken, Adra or Alpine Dragons, Concelhaut, Llengrath) but all the bounties are completed as is the Radiant Spore and Sky Dragon, so being an impatient so-and-so I thought I’d post up the build and I’ll post up details of some of the tough bosses as I go along. I’m just at the Abbey of the Fallen Moon, so I’m also missing Gwyn’s Band of Union for the time being – but it will come shortly. I’ll post edits up here as I go when I get the big things killed off. EDIT: All the bosses are now complete! =================================== The Gunslinger =================================== Difficulty: Expert PotD solo, no respec, with full upscaling -------------------------------------------------------------- Class: Chanter -------------------------------------------------------------- Race: Wild Orlan -------------------------------------------------------------- Background: Old Vailia – Colonist -------------------------------------------------------------- Starting attributes: MIG: 10 CON: 9 DEX: 18 PER: 12 INT: 19 RES: 10 Final attributes: MIG: 11/15 (Gift from the Machine, 15 with Maegfolc Skull) CON: 10 (Rymrgand’s Boon) DEX: 22 (Viettro’s Formal Footware) PER: 15 (Elryn’s Jacket, Song of the Heavens) INT: 26 (Forum resting bonus, Gwyn’s Band of Union) RES: 10 -------------------------------------------------------------- Skill levels obtained: Survival 11 (Jack of Wide Waters, Rymyrgand’s Boon, Colonist), Mechanics 13 (Dungeon Delver, Gloves of Manipulation, Chanter bonus), Lore 11 (Chanter bonus, Viettro’s Formal Footware), Athletics/Stealth – who cares? These levels weren’t really optimized, I was originally shooting for higher Survival aiming for Lore 8 – but then I quickly found out you really need Scrolls Against Imprisonment in WM part I, so it’s all a bit of a mess. However, I found these levels perfectly adequate for what I wanted to do. -------------------------------------------------------------- Abilities and Talents: Phrases: 1 – Come, Come Soft Winds of Death and At the Sight of their Comrades, their Hearts Grew Bold 3 – Blessed Was Wengridh, Quickest of His Tribe 5 – Sure-Handed Ila Nocked Her Arrows with Speed 7 – One Dozen Stood Against the Power of the Saint 9 – The Dragon Thrashed, the Dragon Wailed 11 – Choice (I went for Aefyllath, but I think Silver Knights’ Shields would be occasionally more useful) 13 – Her Courage Thick as Steel 15 – With All Your Strength Slay the Beast Invocations: 1 – But Reny Daret’s Ghost, He would not Rest 2 – White Worms Writhed in the Bellies of the Dead 4 – Choice (I picked Hel-Hyraf, but rarely used it) 6 – At the Sound of His Voice, the Killers Froze Stiff 8 – Choice (I never got much use out of Shatter their Shackles, so I’d probably recommend The Lover Cried) 10 – Seven Nights She Waited While the White Winds Wept 12 – The Brideman Slew Thirty 'Fore they Crossed Half the Hall 14 – The Bride Caught their Ruse and Set to Make them Pay 16 – Called to His Bidding, the Ancient Instruments of Death Talents by level: 2 – Veteran’s Recovery (can pick Ancient Memory with the 3.04 fix) 4 – Gallant’s Focus 6 – Gunner 8 – Envenomed Strike 10 – Penetrating Shot 12 – Bear’s Fortitude 14 – Deep Pockets 16 – Snake’s Reflexes Additional talents: Gift from the Machine Song of the Heavens Rymrgand’s Boon Second Skin Dungeon Delver Weapons and Equipment (listing only new enchantments): Weapon set 1: Silver Flash (Legendary, Durgan-Refined, Freezing Lash) Weapon Set 2: Pliambo per Casitàs (Superb, Durgan-Refined, Slaying (Vessel), Corrosive Lash) Boots: Viettro’s Formal Footware or Boots of Speed when needed Armor: Elryn’s Jacket (Legendary, Durgan-Reinforced) or Starlit Garb (Superb, Durgan-Reinforced, +2 Perception) Neck: Cape of the Master Mystic Belt: Looped Rope Rings: Ring of Protection and Gwyn’s Band of Union Hands: Gauntlets of Accuracy Head: Arret Munacra or Maegfolc Skull You can maybe throw in Ilfan Byrngar's Solace with your fist for when you’re being stunned (no other weapons to live up to the gun-only archetype) but whenever I switched to it while stunned I still got beat down so in the end I didn’t bother. --------------------------------------------------------------- I was going to break this into individual sections using the spoiler tags so people only have to look at sections they wanted to, but apparently the forum only puts the first paragraph of a section inside the tags So sorry for the horrendous length of the post, I've put the different topic titles in a nice lurid red so you should be able to spot them easily enough through scrolling. I will however keep the first point in spoiler tags for suspense... EDIT: Turns out I got the spoiler tags working after all. Why would you want to play this build? Why is the Silver Flash so neat? Class choice: Race, attribute, equipment and talent choices: When the build was tested, what worked and what didn’t? Different act equipment and chant/invocation advice: Changes for party play: Big bosses: -------------------------------------------------------------- So there we have it, I hope this has been interesting and demonstrated another sweet gun build (and the only solo one) is possible. Let me know if you have any advice or changes to suggest or if you want me to clarify anything, and I’ll try to catch any typos I’ve made later. Cheers!

Having just finished my second full campaign of Pillars of Eternity and my first with the White March installed (I know I'm late to the party but I've gotten completely hooked having played 220 hours in the couple weeks I've owned the game) I've decided to push myself by playing on PoTD with Expert Mode enabled, and given that Deadfire is on its way early next year I want to create a character to import. However, I'm torn on how to build my party since I found Hard difficulty quite challenging by itself, and I built my party quite poorly to the point that I wasn't able to beat the Alpine Dragon or Llengrath, so I'd like some help building it this time so I don't run into the same problems. I do have a few ideas though, and some I'd be reluctant to part with. My MC has to be an Aedyr Meadow Folk because I have a custom portrait I intend to use, and I'd like to prioritise relatively high Mental stats to maximise dialogue options, but background and class are quite flexible. I'd like to pick a class that could have potential multiclass synergies, and I'd like to play one of a Cipher, Druid, Monk, Chanter or Ranger (in descending order of how much I want to play them). As far as the rest of the party goes, I'm planning on using Aloth, Edér and Pallegina throughout since they carry over to Deadfire, but the last 2 companions are quite flexible. I'd prefer not to use Sagani though, throughout my last campaign Itumaak was bugged and seemed to have a movement speed of 0.00001 in combat so I'd rather not have to deal with that again. Any help is much appreciated. (Side notes: Should I kill or bargain with Sefyra? It seems like I could run into her in Deadfire if I help her escape, but Scale Breaker seems like it would pretty useful. Same question applies for Llengrath. Also, I know it's a bit late to pledge for Deadfire, but I'd like to do so; however, is there any issue due to the fact that I'd be converting from GBP to USD?)

Hi. So I've been playing this game for a while every now and then, I've beaten the OC on hard multiple times, and only did like 10% of WM 1. I have a fair bit of knowledge and experience, but I'm far from a pro at the game. I still want to finally defeat the Adra Dragon and not p**** out every time for free xp lol. I want to do a full playthrough on PotD, however, and I'd be grateful for some general advice. My specific questions: - If I go to WM1/2 to get some early items that are needed, then go back to OC (original campaign/vanilla game) and only return after high levels before dealing with Thaos, will I get an option to upscale the content? - Are there any user-friendly mods that re-enable achievements? Because I'd really want to roleplay as a good character (benevolent, honest), but I have this thing that I want my MC to be a hardcore dps every time, and getting that amazing +0.3crit damage is only possible through the Doemenel faction. And if I'd choose to be more of a tank or cc monkey, I'd be forced to hire mercs, but I want to play with the fixed companions. - I usually go with 5 people, would I need 6 (probably not, but asking anyway) for PotD? Onto the matter at hand. As I mentioned, MC is preferably high-end dps. I'm thinking about Barb/Rogue/Cipher or maybe even Priest (mainly for RP reasons, I noticed there are a ton of dialogue options for the Magran faith). Must be physical (as in utilizing weapon) dps, as I prefer using a really nice weapon to do the main source of damage for me. This is why I like to dps with items like Stormcaller (Ranger), Tall Grass, etc.. high physical (+ lash & nice on-hits ) dps with a badass, highly enchanted weapon. Just my prefered playstyle. Can be melee or ranged, any suggestion (talents, stats and items) is welcome for those classes. Now, I was thinking the usual: Edér as main tank, Aloth for mainly cc, Durance for them epic buffs and heals, maybe Hiravias for amazing aoe potential and the strong shapeshift to reserve per-rest uses, Kana as support (really liked his ranged attack speed boost chant, along with the +25% flame lash chant with my Stormcaller Ranger, don't know if he could be equally useful with a melee dps MC) and maybe GM as a support/cc Cipher. I found Barb to be very fun with Tall Grass/Hours of St. Rumbalt combo, while the tank is holding down a choke or simply letting everything sorround him if no chokepoint. I also enjoyed a dual-wielding Rogue with 2 stilettos/2 sabres. However, that one proved to be extremely squishy, even when I was maneuvering with a lot of care. Not sure if they'd work on PotD. I'd be very much interested in a dps-centric Cipher, as well, and I'm pretty sure you can still use some cc like Whispers and Puppet Master despite being a main dps. That's all that comes to mind, sorry for the fairly long post, I hope somebody with a lot of experience finds the time and patience to read this mess of a thread and reply. For that, thanks in advance!

Paladin {me} Godlike: Moon -> Darcozzi Paladin -> Orlan: Wild -> Slave Culture: Old Valia Stats: high RES, high INT, high MIG, normal PER, low DEX, normal CON Abilities: Lay on Hands, Zealous Endurance, Liberating Exhortation, Inspired Liberation, Reviving Exhortation, Greater Lay on Hands, Talents: Weapon & Shield, Superior Deflection, Hold the Line, Cautious Attack, Deep Faith, Sacred Immolation, Scion of Flame Weapon: Shatterstar, Larder Door Fighter ~ Godlike: Fire -> -> Slave Culture: Living Lands Stats: high MIG, highCON, normDEX, normPER, lowINT, highRES Abilities: Disciplined Barrage, Armored Grace, Confident Aim, Critical Defense, Vulnerable Attack, Unbroken, Savage Attack, Take the Hit, Talents: Two-Handed Style, Apprentice's Sneak Attack, Weapon Focus & Mastery: Adventurer, Bull's Will, Scion of Flame Weapon: Spectacular Spetum/ Grey Sleeper Rogue ~ Moon Godlike -> Dwarf: Boreal -> Laborer Culture: The White That Wends Stats: highMIG, normCON, highDEX, highPER, lowINT, normRES Abilities: Crippling Strike, Reckless Assault, Deflecting Assault, Dirty Fighting, Vicious Fighting, Deep Wounds, Finishing Blow, Adept Evasion, Death Blows, Vulnerable Attack, Finishing Blow, Lethal Blow Talents: Weapon & Shield, Superior Deflection, Weapon Focus: Knight Weapons: Battle Axe {We Toki} Ranger ~ Moon Godlike -> Orlean: Hearth -> Slave Culture: Living Lands Stats: highMIG, normCON, highDEX, highPERS, lowINT, normRES Abilities: {Pet: Bear} Wounding Shot, Resilient Companion, Vicious Aim, Stalker's Link, Arrow Sense, Defensive Bond, {lvl 11 retrain: Antelope} Resilient Companion, Strengthened Bond, Stunning Shots, Twinned Arrows Talents: Gunner, Penetrating Shot, Apprentice's Sneak Attack, Weapon Focus: Ruffian {lvl 11 retrain} Marksman,Weapon Focus: Adventurer, Apprentice's Sneak Attack, Bull's Will, Mental Fortress Weapons: Blunderbuss/Pistol until lvl 11. Chanter ~ Moon Godlike -> Elf: Wood -> Slave Culture: Old Valia Stats: highMIG, normCON, highDEX, normPER, highINT, lowRES Abilities: At the Sight of their Comrades, their Hearts Grew Bold; White Worms Writhed in the Bellies of the Dead; Dull the Edge, Blunt the Point; The Thunder Rolled Like Waves on Black Seas; Sure-Handed Ha Nocked Her Arrows with Speed; At the Sound of His Voice, the Killers Froze Stiff; Rime and Frost Followed the Footfalls of Karth, Shatter their Shackles; Cast off their Chains, Aefyllath Ues Myth Fyr; Oh, But Knock Not on the Door of Urdel and Gurdel; The Dragon Thrashed, The Dragon Wailed; Seven Nights She Waited While the White Winds Wept; Seven Nights She Waited While the White Winds Wept; They Shielded Their Eyes 'Gainst the Fampyr's Gaze; Their Champion Braved The Horde Alone; Talents: Fast Runner, Shot on the Run, Marksman, Weapon Focus: Adventurer, Scion of Flame, Secrets of Rime, Apprentice's Sneak Attack Weapons: Ranged {Cgadob's Hazel} Priest ~ Fire Godlike -> Elf: Pale -> Slave Culture: OId Vailia Stats: highMIG, normCON, lowDEX, highPER, highINT, normRES {About 6ish will be retraining: highMIG, normCON, highDEX, normPER, highINT, lowRES } Abilities: Deity: Eothas, Inspired Radiance, The Hope Eternal, Bonus 2nd lvl Spell, Heart of the Storm, Bonus 3d lvl Spell, Bonus 4th lvl Spell Talents: Weapon & Shield Style, Scion of Flame, Superior Deflection, Weapons: Ranged Grateful for you sharing your time and Gravity. May you ask the Goddess to eternally alight your path. Please feel free to criticize my planned party. According to many Fighters are better tanks simply for the engagements. However being a Paladin, and the non-rogue dps to be ranged, is of want by me. Other than that everything is changeable.

Hi guys, I'd like to apologize in advance in case my question is dumb. I'm currently finishing up my Triple Crown play through (currently at Council of Stars) and I'm wondering which party composition would be optimal for the last boss. I currently have lvl 12 party (will be 13-14 after completing WM2) with the following: 2x Rogues (including main character) Barb with Tall Grass Monk with fists Tanky Chanter Cipher I have only completed the game once on Easy/Normal before, so I had to do some research and figured that priest and wizard would be nice to have (resurrecting + Gaze of the Adragan). So, a question: 1. Who should I dump from the party to grab these two? Barb seems to be the obvious choice as Carnage is not useful on this boss. But who should be the second one to dump? I'd like to keep the monk (his damage is ridiculously high) and the chanter (ogres for the win!). 2. Or am I overreacting and should just go and kill the boss?

Hello folks. I don't really have much experience with PoE yet other than blasting through it right now on hard with the default companions. I'm not too far into the game but so far it seems a tad too easy. I was thinking of starting an alternate playthrough with a solo character on POTD. I know there are builds out there but it kinda looks like most of them are outdated so I thought I'd ask you guys for some help / recommendations. The classes I'm taking into account are rogue and chanter. Maybe ranger if you convince me but I'd really like the build to be melee. Not really a fan of wizards and such because of the ancient mechanic of rest that should die a long time ago but hey, a man's gotta be open-minded. I'm thinking both rogue and chanter should be more than doable and I could probably figure out some builds on my own but I'm very interested in what you guys think about this. Thanks in advance for any input.

Hello you all! After being persuaded by my brother to finally get a new computer just to play the only recent game I am actually interested in and spending 2 days choosing a class... I am at a loss xD luckily I still have time till i have my new computer I definitely want to play a hearth orlan cipher, no question there anymore, but I can't choose a combat-style or stats. While I don't mind min/maxing to a certain extent, I do mind ignoring roleplay. My brother said, as I am used to playing Baldurs Gate on SCS (heavy AI-improvement mod), I would feel at home on PotD, though they are very different games... How does a melee Cipher fare on PotD? What stats should I go for? Or is ranged far superior to melee on a Cipher? Do I suffer role-playability (compassionate good guy with racial issues because of 'heritage') because of necessary powergaming when I go melee? Probably stupid questions (dunno, me tired) but still relevant to me ^^ Greetings Adelard

For people wondering if the dragons can still be soloed in 2.03 here are my new videos: - vs adra https://youtu.be/j5g_bmRfAIk - vs alpine https://youtu.be/TKrA1BvcQDI

I have played the Druid in so many other RPG´s that it was quite obvious for me that i will give it a try in Pillars of Eternity too. And i must admit: It´s a lot of fun! My aim for the solo druid was to push the power of his spellcasting while still being tanky enough to survive the difficulty settings of PotD. Lets take a closer look! Which Race should i pick? Moon Godlike is one of the best choices. Thanks to the healing waves you can tank and outlast your opponents much better. Wood Elf is a good choice for the better ranged accuracy. Also gives you a little defence against ranged enemies. Boreal Dwarf +15 Bonus vs. Beasts and Primordals can be very helpful Pale Elf +10 resistance to fire and cold is not to be taken lightly. Adjusting your Stats There is no „best build“ in my opinion so you have a little bit of freedom to choose one build that fits your playstyle most. Some examples: Precision Druid----------Swift Druid----------Defender Druid Might 15--------------------Might 15--------------Might 15 Con 10----------------------Con 10----------------Con 10 Dex 10----------------------Dex 15-----------------Dex 10 Per 15-----------------------Per 10-----------------Per 10 Int 18------------------------Int 18------------------Int 18 Res 10----------------------Res 10-----------------Res 15 High Might and Int are nearly essential. You will not only hit harder but your spell area will increase significantly. If you remember how many AoE-spells the druid has this one is a real nobrainer. Dex, Per and Res are more about taste. Do you want to cast faster, hit more often or get tankier? Your choice! Con at 10 is all it needs especially if you are playing Moon Godlike. Personally i prefer the Precision Druid. The reason is quite simple: Unlike Wizards the druid has no spell to boost his accuracy. Missing spells too often can hurt you a lot. The Beast within: Spirit Form Choice I think anything will work. Personally i prefer the Catform for its high attack speed so i can clean up badly wounded enemies really quickly. If you want more tankiness choose the Bear. Fun note: The Spirit Form works great against some tougher opponents. Do you remember the infamous Shadows in the beginning? The Catform will kill them easily with a few swift strikes. Choose your Talents Weapon + Shield Style / Cautious Attack / Superior Deflection: If you are building tanky like this your deflection will jump over 100 around level 11. Thats not too bad and will save your day more than one time. Bull's Will /Snake's Reflexes / Bear's Fortitude: These too can be lifesavers. Just take a look which defenses are in need of an upgrade most. The numbers will also jump over 100 around level 11. Sounds good. Heart of the Storm /Scion of Flames /Secrets of Rime: Giving your elemental spells a better punch (+20%) always looks good. But after the nerfs to some of the druid spells its a good question wether they are worth the point. Personally i still like the talents a lot. Oh, and dont forget the +5 elemental damage reduction bonus. Bonus Spells: Bonus spells can be quite useful in longer fights where you will need any extra portion of power. Just remember that high Dex Druids will get a little bit more benefit as they can cast their extra spells faster. Wildstrike / Weapon Focus Peasant / Two Weapon Style: You want to play a bit more like a Shapeshifter? In this case you should take a closer look at these talents as they give nice bonuses to your wild form. Thinking about Skills Mechanics should be your primary focus. Opening chests and disarming traps is just too good to pass on. Everything else is quite optional – your choice. Its all about Equpiment As a primary weapon i mainly use Hatchet (+5 deflection) + Small Shield (no accuracy penalty). A Hunting Bow like Lenas Er can be quite handy too. If you have to tank a lot you should definetly use any kind of Plate Armour. If your summons are able to tank all night long than Clothes are the better choice: Faster casts = More Damage. Just be careful. With regards to all your Accessories. Do not think about them too much. Just make sure to find any stuff that buffs your primary attributes Might and Int. And always take a closer look at items like Ring of Deflection or Ring of Protection to boost your defensive power. Shod-in-Faith-Boots can later on be a lifesaver in tougher battles. Boots of Speed are quite funny if you want to play hit and run (works great against Thaos too). The power of summons Thanks to the new immunities your summons are now quite powerful. If you use them smartly they will tank like gods giving you an easy time casting your damage spells. Lets take a look: Earth Blight: Slashing + Corrode Flame Blight: Piercing + Fire Rain Blight: Piercing + Shock Wind Blight: Crushing + Frost As you can cast them only in combat its best to start the battle with a heavy CC like Overwhelming Wave. This gives you time to reposition and summon your Blight. Fun note: Have you ever watched big bad Thaos trying to burn down a Flame Blight? Try it on your own - and laugh! Nerf incoming? Fun Note II: Looking for some easy xp? Just kill your own blights! You will get experience as if killing hostile ones. Which Spells are useful? LEVEL 1 Tanglefoot: Nice engagement tool that can give you time for better positioning and summoning. Worth to remember: If you run away far enough some of the hobbled enemies will cancel their engagement so you can minmize their numbers. Natures Mark: Fine debuff with -1 Deflection, -10 Reflexes in a large area. Cast it first and watch them suffering! Sunbeam: Great debuff and burn damage. Blinded enemies will not only miss you more often but they are even easier targets for your own spells. Charm Beast: A gamechanger. Cast it on beasts and watch them fighting each other! Remember the infamous bear cave at the beginning? Thanks to this spell you can clear it at level 2. Talons Reach: Deals quite okay AoE Slash Damage and - the best - its fast cast. Winterwind: A large cone that will deal frost damage (damn nerf). Works great in corridors with lots of enemies. Fun note: The knockback effect will completly immobilize Blights and Will o Wisps so you can easily kill them. Natures Vigor: Okay healing over time. This spell will also increase your maximum endurance by 15 %. Can work nicely in longer fights as long as your enemies do not have burst damage. LEVEL 2 Autumn´s Decay: Great cone spell that will deal corrode damage over time. As corrode damage isnt resisted that often it will hurt most enemies quite a bit. Blizzard: Large AoE that will deal frost damage and reduce attack speed by 20 %. Works best against large and fast attacking enemy groups. Burst of Summer Flame: This spell will deal AoE burn damage. Works nice for finishing enemy groups thanks to its fast casting speed. Conjure Lesser Blight: Great spell – for more info take a look at the „Summons“ section. Hold Beasts: You are surrounded by a pack of beasts and thinking its over? Dont worry! Cast this spell and watch them freezing. Now you have time to turn the fight around and hurt them badly. Works against dragons too – great! Insect Swarm: Fine AoE spell that will deal piercing damage over time. Works nicely in combination with Autumn´s Decay. The -10 concentration will make it easier to interrupt your enemies. Woodskin: Gives you +6 DR against Piercing, Shock and Burn for 15 seconds. Rarely used but quite okay self buff. LEVEL 3 Beetle Shell: If your summons are desperately in need of a shield this might save them. Absorbs 100 points of damage and gives you time for other healing spells. Infestation of Maggots: A tricky spell. Will deal 10 Damage by percentage of health lost over time. This means the more wounded your enemies are the more damage they take. Works great against groups that are already suffering from spells like Autum´s Decay and Insect Swarm. Natures Balm: The healing over time isnt that great but may help you through longer fights. Rarely used. Returning Storm: Great spell that will deal shock damage and stun. As the lightning will continously strike you may be able to stunlock your opponent. Spreading Plague: This spell leaves the primary target Hobbled and Weakened before jumping to 5 other enemies max. Nice debuff that will make it easier to hit your following spells. Twin Stones: The two boulders will deal Crush Damage to any enemy within their path and explode to deal Pierce Damage to all nearby enemies. Quite okay spell against large enemy groups. LEVEL 4 Boiling Spray: Large Cone that will deal burn damage. Works best against large enemy groups. The knockback will immobilze Blights and Will o Wisps. Calling the World’s Maw: Great CC spell that will deal Pierce Damage to enemies and will knock them down. Just remember that there are several opponents that cannot be knocked down. Conjure Blight: For more info take a look at the „Summons“ section. Hail Storm: This icy storm will deal Crush Damage and 25 % Freeze Damage. The huge (!) radius of this spell can hurt dozens of enemies. Moonwell: Nice healing over time and +10 to all defenses. Will help greatly in tougher battles – if you get the time casting it. Overwhelming Wave: Very powerful engagement tool that will not only deal Crush Damage but will stun enemies in its path. Use this time to start your pain train! LEVEL 5 Embrace the Earth-Talon: Powerful spell that will not only deal Pierce Damage but also petrify enemies. Only downside: The duration isnt that long so you will barely be able to hit your enemies more than one time while being petrified. Relentless Storm: Hands down this is one of the best spells in the game. An AoE stun that will continuously strike your enemies? Cast this at the start of an engagement and use the stuns to follow up with damage spells. Works best against dangerous groups of spellcasters like Adragans so they will never get the chance to petrify you. Plague of Insects: This spell is also great as the insects will deal Raw Damage, reduce Concentration and Sicken enemies. Nice followup after Relentless Storm. Firebug: Deals good amount of burn damage and jumps up to 8 times. Feels weaker than the other spells on this level but is quite okay as a finishing move. LEVEL 6: Conjure Greater Blight: For more info take a look at the „Summons“ section. Garden of Life: The healing is only useful when there are plenty of corpses around. Rarely used. Rot Skull: Will change your weapon and let you throw skulls that will deal crushing and AoE corrode damage. Sounds cool but i rarely used it. Sunlance: Good single target piercing + burn damage that works best against tougher opponents in 1vs1 situations. Venom Bloom: The Weakened and Frightened Debuff is great. Only downside: Its duration is very short. Remember, Remember Do not try to burn down a Flame Blight like Thaos! Always take a look at the resistances of your enemies. Positioning is key. Using bottlenecks like doors can save you from many harm! Debuff your enemies to make sure you will land your spells more often! Use your summons for distraction so you get time for your damage spells! Inns will become your best friends as you will run out of spells quite often! The more you eat, the more you get. Or: The power of food buffs. Why i am not using all those traps i have collected?

Here's another video showing how a paladin is able to tank the adra dragon in potd and without heals - no traps, no cheap tactics. Base stats - wild orlan 17mig/15con/4dex/20per/3int/18res. Adragans had to be killed first to prevent summons/healing for the dragon... I used jolting touch scrolls because they're common/easy to craft and don't require high lore. https://youtu.be/0nNLwfGrpKQ

...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.

Since scaled Thaos can be even more cheap and brutal than the dragons I thought it would be interesting to find a good method to kill him. Tanking him (video 1) is possible but not very reliable (various bugs mostly and sometimes rng can screw you badly if you don't play perfectly). The second method is to run and shoot them to death (video 2) since the map looks like it was designed for that . https://youtu.be/6oGAmsXep34 https://youtu.be/E8jh6m-fO9o PS. In my game the spellward amulet is bugged and I'm losing 10 more defense against spells. With it you could reach 100% protection against Cleansing Flame more easily.

I finally managed to kill him with my ranger an I must say it was easier than expected considering that my character wasn't even fully optimized (no durgan enchantments, no scale breaker...). Now I am 100% positive that a ranger can also beat the game solo without skipping any encounter. https://youtu.be/NBPgwipx3OM