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Hey everyone! Thank you so much for reading! A quick intro. I’m a huge Infinity Engine enthusiast. Baldur’s Gate 2: SoA+ToB is pretty much my favorite game of all time (read best game of all time). Playing as a mage and blasting through everything like Irenicus on speed is probably the greatest feeling I can get from dancing pixels on a screen and I wanted to re-create that feeling in Pillars of Eternity. There have been plenty of posts on soloing the game, but the information is not standardized and consolidated. Also, there isn’t much for mages in the way of target gear and tips for expansion content. This guide aims to help with those issues. I’m sure plenty of people have some better ideas than what I’ve written. Please feel free to comment and I will update the guide as we progress. A few things that should be known before reading This is a NORMAL DIFFICULTY solo guide. Should work for hard mode as well. I’m hoping to make a TCS guide in the future. This is a completionist playthrough. All quests have been done (to my knowledge) and all battles have been fought. Both expansions have been cleared entirely. The only encounters that have been skipped are a few bounties that I couldn’t be bothered to do. They shouldn’t be too difficult at max level. This guide allows for picking your favorite race and lifestyle. I played through as an Aedyran Human. Obviously this isn’t ideal in any way, shape, or form. The most optimized race for this would be Wood Elf as their attribute bonuses (Dex & Per) are amazing for wizard and they get a ranged damage buff which benefits a blaster mage incredibly. The most optimal culture is really personal preference but I would go Rauatai for the much needed constitution bonus. This is a casual guide. I don’t care about the solo achievement so I randomly picked up followers to grab their quests and to throw them in my keep to work. That being said, every battle was fought solo and every quest was done solo. If you care about the achievement you can just simply not do this. Picking up followers here and there doesn’t really give you any advantage except a bit more money from keep adventures and a bit more experience from the follower quests. It’s pretty negligible in the grand scheme of things. You’ll be level capped in act 3/WM1 regardless. This guide is for a “blaster” type wizard. What’s the point of being a mage if you can’t nuke throngs of enemies? :D Be patient. Just like in the infinity engine games, the early levels as a wizard solo are a bit tough. You’ll have to rest a lot. It will pay off in the later levels when you’re blasting everything into oblivion. If you’re having too much trouble on one fight, come back to it later. The main plot quests (critical path) are easy as hell (bar white march 2) so you should be fine there. My advice is to leave the main plot for last and then blast through it when you’re insanely overqualified. It’s really fun seeing things melt. Have both expansions installed at all times. This will ensure that every experience point is used. Complete the entire vanilla game up until the point of no return (end of act 3). Before you jump into the pit for the final phase of the main plot, head over to complete expansion content. You’ll be level 14 (WM1 cap) by act 3 and level 16 (WM 2 cap) by early WM1. I never scale the difficulty when given the option. You should be rewarded for being prepared and overqualified, not penalized. My opinion of course. J Now that that’s done, without further ado, allow me to present the guide. I’ll update as I find more out. Race: Elf (Much needed bonus to Dex & Per) Sub-Race: Wood Elf (Amazing damage buff for ranged spells and shots) Culture: Rauatai (Much needed bonus to Con) Background: Aristocrat (Lore bonus will allow using powerful scrolls in early game) Attributes This is a blaster build and we are not intending on getting beaten down. Therefore, I’ve chosen to ditch resolve and constitution in favor of boosting the power and accuracy of our spells. Make sure you loot the barbarians in Cilant Lis and equip your hatchet and shield right away. It helps a ton. If you’re dying too much in the early game, you can take a point out of Perception and 2 out of Intelligence and pump them into constitution. You can respec later when you get tougher. Might: 18 Constitution: Dump Dexterity: 18 Perception: 17 Intelligence: 18 Resolve: Dump Skills Your endgame skills should look as below. They don’t have to be base, these include static buffs. For example my Aristocrat Bonus + Hylea’s Boon + Wizard Bonus gave me 5 Lore points, and I put 5 through level ups for a total of 10. You’ll want your lore to be 10 to use all useful scrolls including but not limited to Maelstrom, Paralysis, Confusion, Prayer Against Fear, etc. Mechanics is great for obvious reasons (detecting and removing traps, finding secret items, etc.). Stealth is pretty much optional (less so in the early game). Eventually you’ll be strong enough to not need to sneak around anymore. It’s still nice to have though for the purpose of getting the drop on harder trash mobs. Survival can also be useful for the campsite resting buffs, although you probably won’t need any for trash mobs. Don’t worry if you botch up the point spread. You can always respec and it’s more about personal preference anyway. Lore: 10 Mechanics: 10 Stealth: 8 Talents You’ll get a talent choice every second level. I like to keep them primarily defensive and utility based as your offensive capabilities will never be an issue. Arcane Veil + Hardened Veil is also very useful in the early game. If you’re having trouble surviving, you can take it and respec later. Level 2: Weapon & Shield Style Level 4: Fast Runner Level 6: Secrets of Rime Level 8: Superior Deflection Level 10: Deep Pockets Level 12: Bear’s Fortitude Level 14: Snake’s Reflexes Level 16: Bull’s Will Spells This pretty much covers every spell I used in the game. I’ll update if I forgot anything. More than 4 are listed in some levels, just switch them out as you need them. Level 2 is a trump card of amazing buffs and debuffs. I would only take Necrotic Lance in longer fights where you are in danger of running out of spells. Bewildering Spectacle is great until you get Confusion. Your end game trump card spells that make things melt are “Minoletta’s Precisely Piercing Burst”, “Kalakoth’s Freezing Rake” and the single target “Ninagauth’s Killing Bolt”. Ninagauth’s takes time to cast so make sure you’re not in danger before you cast it. Finish enemies off with “Minoletta’s Concussive Missiles” if you run out of powerful spells. I’ve put a star next to all of the absolute essential spells. Level 1 - Chill Fog * - Fan of Flames * - Eldritch Aim * - Arkmyr’s Dazzling Lights * Level 2 - Concelhaut’s Corrosive Siphon* - Curse of Blackened Sight - Miasma of Dull-Mindedness * - Bulwark Against The Elements * - Necrotic Lance - Bewildering Spectacle Level 3 - Lengrath’s Displaced Image* - Fireball - Deleterious Alacrity of Motion * - Expose Vulnerabilities Level 4 - Confusion * - Essential Phantom * - Ironskin * - Minoletta’s Concussive Missiles * - Wall of Flame Level 5 - Blast of Frost - Malignant Cloud * - Nanagauth’s Bitter Mooring * - Ryngrim’s Enervating Terror * - Wall of Force * Level 6 - Arkemyr’s Capricious Hex - Gaze of The Adragon - Minoletta’s Precisely Piercing Burst * - Ninagauth’s Freezing Pillar * Level 7 - Ninagauth’s Killing Bolt * - Wall of Draining - Substantial Phantom - Concelhaut’s Crushing Doom Level 8 - Wilting Wind - Llengrath’s Superior Elemental Bulwark * - Kalakoth’s Freezing Rake * - Minoletta’s Piercing Sigil Spell Mastery Unfortunately with the 3.0 patch, wizards got a massive nerf with the removal of per-encounter spell levels. This has raised massive quality of life issues for soloing as we can no longer ignore resting for the longer dungeons and quests in the game. The per-encounter spell levels have been replaced with “Spell Mastery”. Essentially at the level that you would normally get all spells in a certain spell level as per-encounter, you now only get to choose 1. By the level cap, you will have 4 per encounter spells castable only once/encounter. The spells I chose are essentially my main buffs and the best trash mob spell in our grimoire; Chill Fog. Spells are as follows: - Chill Fog - Bulwark Against The Elements - Llengrath’s Displaced Image - Eldritch Aim Pre-Fight Buffs Consumables Unlike in the infinity engine games, our spell buffs can only be used in battle. Apparently spell casters in Eora are on some kind of honor system. That being said, we can still acquire extremely powerful pre-fight buffs. These come in the form of consumables. There are all kinds of consumable buffs including food, drink, and drugs. I tend to stay away from drugs because they usually cause a debuff after the main buff expires. There is no need to use these consumables for trash mobs. You’ll only need them for boss fights and other major encounters. To use these consumables, simply click the crafting button in your inventory screen, and pick the desired dish. If you don’t have the ingredients, you can buy them in various marketplaces. Most food ingredients are fairly cheap (except dragon meat which will break your bank at 3000 gold/serving). Once the food is crafted, simply drag and drop it on to your character in the inventory screen and you will see the buff on your portrait when you return to the game screen. They usually last roughly few minutes. You should have a full stack of the following consumables for major encounters: - Dragon Meat Dish - Rauatai Sweet Pie - Farmer’s Spread - Ixamitl Ricepan - Pearlwood Chicken - Casita Casserole - Ale Resting Buffs In addition to your consumable buffs, you can also acquire a passive rest bonus by staying at inns or from your campfire if you have skill points in survival (they do not stack). Arguably the best rest bonus comes from a tavern in Dyrford Village called “Dracogen Inn”. The highest end room in this inn (Dragon’s Lair) grants a massive attribute boost (+2 Con, +2 Mig, +2 Int). Unfortunately it only lasts one day. For a longer 3-day bonus, your keep’s rest bonuses are excellent as well and let you choose a single attribute for a +3 buff. Make sure you upgrade your keep! Prostitute Bonus In Defiance Bay’s Ondra’s Gift district, you will find a tavern/brothel called “The Salty Mast”. It contains various prostitutes that confer great bonuses for their “services”. The greatest thing about the prostitute bonus is that it will stack with your inn/campsite bonus making for a great attribute buff. Obviously, you can only benefit from one prostitute’s buffs at a time. For even more good news and hilarity, if you have at least 19 dexterity (which should be easy with buffs or gear), the prostitutes will be so impressed with your performance in bed that they will give you back your money resulting in a free buff! There are great prostitutes for both major sexual preferences, listed below are the best of each gender. - Lyrina – Female Prostitute (+2 Con, +2 Mig, +1 Athletics) - Aldwyn – Male Prostitute (+2 Per, +2 Int, +1 Lore). Quick Slot Items Like most RPG’s of this nature, Pillars of Eternity allows you to put on-use or consumable items in your quick slot for use during battle. With the “Deep Pockets” talent, you’ll have 6 slots in total. Your standard layout should be: - 5 Scroll of Maelstrom - 5 Scroll of Paralysis - 5 Scroll of Prayer Against Fear - 5 Scroll of Prayer Against Imprisonment - 5 Endurance Potions - Obsidian Figurine You can change these as you need to. Some of the more difficult fights require certain approaches. You’ll want extra accuracy during any dragon fight so you can replace “prayer against imprisonment” with a “flask of war paint” for the great accuracy buff. Scrolls of Confusion are also indispensable for tricky fights. But this set-up should do you for the overwhelming majority of the game. In the early game you can switch out maelstrom and paralysis for more figurines as you won’t have high enough lore to use them yet. Best In Slot Gear & Enchantments This gear set up worked wonders for me. I made a point to explore every map and get every item (to my knowledge). The main point of your gear set up is to get as high a buff as you can on every major attribute and every major save. Usually the highest attribute buff is +3 until you hit White March. At that point you will begin to uncover +4 items. Keep in mind that many of these drops are random and certain items/enchantments are dependant on what you have equipped. For example, if your random belt drop was the +3 constitution belt, you won’t be putting a constitution enchantment on your chest armor. Gear buffs do not stack and you can only have 1 of every attribute. If I missed anything too good to ignore, please post and I will update. Until you get the items posted below, use anything you find following the rules above. For example, until you get the “Mantle of The Excavator”, a great alternative is “Lillith’s Shawl” found in the Lighthouse of Ondra’s Gift, Defiance Bay. You can check various sites with item databases to map out what you need. By the end of the game, I was wearing the following pieces: Gear Item: Garodh’s Chorus Slot: Helm Notable Stats: +3 Might, Retaliation (Variable depending on your choices during quest) Game: White March 1 Location: Reward from quest. You’ll need to gather the 3 parts of the helm from Russetwood, Stalwart Village, and Durgan’s Battery Main Floor. Item: Starlit Garb Slot: Chest (Robe) Notable Stats: DR: 9, +10 vs. Spells, +2 Athletics Game: Vanilla Location: Part of a quest in act 3. Robe can be found in a hidden stash in one of the dwellings in Elms Reach, Twin Elms. You’ll need to follow the quest until you get the map for it. Item: Ring of Protection Slot: Ring 1 Game: Vanilla Notable Stats: +9 to Fortitude, Reflex, and Will Location: Random drop in various locations. You can also buy them from one of the merchants in Copperlane, Defiance Bay. Item: Ring of Deflection Slot: Ring 2 Game: Vanilla Notable Stats: +9 Deflection Location: Same as above. Item: Boots of Speed Slot: Feet Game: Vanilla Notable Stats: +3 Movement Speed Location: Random drop in various locations. Item: Girdle of Eoten Constitution Slot: Waist Game: Vanilla Notable Stats: +3 Constitution Location: Random drop in various locations. Item: Mantle of The Excavator Slot: Cloak/Neck Game: White March 2 Notable Stats: +25 vs. Poison, +2 Survival, +4 Perception Location: West Tower, Durgan’s Battery Item: Bracers of Spiritual Power Slot: Gloves Game: Vanilla Notable Stats: +10% Spell Damage Location: Random drop in various locations Item: Hearth Harvest Slot: Weapon Game: Vanilla Notable Stats: +5 Deflection, +25% Burn Damage Location: Corpse in Woodend Plains Item: Little Savior Slot: Shield Game: Vanilla Notable Stats: +5 to all defenses, +50 Defense while stunned, +50 Defense while prone Location: Adra Dragon’s treasure horde. Enchantments You can enchant your weapon, shield, and chest armor. They should all have the highest quality enchant while still making room for the amazingly powerful “White Forge” enchant from White March 1. On your chest armor, the +2 attribute enchantment should be whatever you need based on what’s dropped. Remember to not overlap attribute bonuses, they don’t stack. Strategy & Rotation Positioning Proper positioning is absolutely imperative in solo play. Whenever possible, you must pick your battlefield. Some of the hardest fights in the game are the ones that plop you in the middle of a field surrounded by a bunch of strong enemies. The most ideal position is to bottleneck your opponents through any narrow space such as a doorway or a corner whereby only 1 or 2 of them will be able to hit you. In some of the trickier fights, this will be the difference between succeeding and dying. If there aren’t any good bottlenecks around just make sure your back is against a wall of some sort. If the enemy manages to get the flank debuff on you it will seriously effect your defenses. Trash Mob Rotation A “trash mob” is identified as any non-boss or major encounter fight. They’re essentially just the regular inept minions you fight in the wilderness or in dungeons. They’re mostly just fairly weak annoyances with the exception of perma-stun mobs like vampires and some ghosts. The White March 2 mobs are also pretty tough. You’ll have quite a time in the “Stalwart Mines”. That said, you could take out nearly every trash mob in the game with the following rotation: 1. Chill Fog (Make sure to cover as many enemies as possible) 2. Bulwark Against The Elements (Buff) 3. Llengrath’s Displaced Image (Buff) 4. Ironskin (Buff) 5. Eldritch Aim (Buff) 6. Concelhaut’s Corrosive Siphon (Again, hit as many as possible) 7. AoE mobs until dead (Use any area of effect spell) This is the full version of the rotation. Obviously you won’t need to go this crazy for most of the trash mobs. For example, in the early game you wont have access to Ironskin (level 4 spell) and you might not want to waste your few level 2 casts on buffs that aren’t needed. You also won’t need concelhaut’s regeneration because mobs won’t lay a finger on you when blinded by chill fog and you won’t need the accuracy bonus from eldritch aim. Therefore, you’ll be able to skip steps 2-5 and go right to nuking the enemy down with either Fan of Flames or Arcane Assault. Remember to cast Chill Fog in such a way that you are enveloped by the yellow part of the spell radius. This ensures that if enemies get behind you they will still be blinded and damaged by the spell. Concelhaut’s Corrosive Siphon will leech health from the enemy, which is great to have in any fight. Understanding the concept of divide and conquer is of pinnacle importance to success as a solo mage. Often times you will be surrounded by a group of powerful enemies. Confusion! Confusion! Confusion! While confused, the enemies will waste no time beating on each other while you cast buffs on yourself and blast them into oblivion. Have it in your spellbook as well as scrolls in your quick slot. This is huge for dragon fights as you can keep them friendly while you blast them to death. Make sure to buff your accuracy (Eldritch Aim/Flask of War Paint) and Miasma them first! Dragons have insane saves so even with your high perception you will miss constantly if you don’t buff yourself and debuff them. Extremely Difficult Fights These are a few encounters I had trouble with and how I ended up beating them. It goes without saying that you should be fully buffed for all of these fights (except the Eyeless and Cragholdt mobs, they’re just tough trash). Minoletta’s Burst, Ninagauth’s Killing Bolt and Kalakoth’s Freezing Rake are your end game can opener spells. They hit like a truck and can down the toughest bosses in the game quickly. The problem is surviving while you buff yourself, debuff them, and take care of their annoying minions. When in doubt, before you start blasting them, keep your enemies confused or paralyzed and make sure your accuracy is buffed (Eldritch Aim/Flask of War Paint) and they are debuffed (Miasma). For dragon fights add “ Scroll of Protection from Fear” to the mix as their terrify aura will cancel out your accuracy buff. Undead Raedric (Act 3: Vanilla) If you happened to put the psychotic lord of Gilded Vale down in act 1, you’ll be “thrilled” to know that you’ll see him again in act 3, freshly raised as a Vampire. If that isn’t bad enough, he’s got an entire coven of bloodsuckers backing him up. This fight puts Bodhi (Baldur’s Gate 2) to absolute shame. This guy is tough and hits like a truck. Make sure you run down the stairs and into a corner so they can’t flank you. Make liberal use of confuse. At this point you won’t have enough spells to take this walking corpse down so make sure you have some Maelstrom scrolls (if you can use them) or other AoE scrolls. If I remember correctly, they have a pretty significant cold resistance, so Freezing Pillar might not be as effective. Go with Minoletta’s Precisely Piercing Burst. Don’t waste it if they’re confused into friendliness, it’s a foe AoE. This quest gives an insane amount of EXP so make sure you do it! Adra Dragon (Od Nua Level 15, Caed Nua: Vanilla) The one and only “Master Below”, Adra Dragon is a seriously tough fight and you’ll probably have to load the game a bunch of times before offing her. There are a few strategies for dealing with this one. You can see them all being executed to perfection at MANoob100’s youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/MANoob100/videos?shelf_id=0&view=0&sort=dd My favorite method is the “Barrier Strategy”. Be sure that you talk the dragon into telling you about the dragon slayer that is after her. She will offer you a deal to leave your keep if you kill the slayer for her. After you tell the dragon slayer of her plans, you will be taught the “Scalebreaker” ability. This will do wonders for every dragon fight in the game. Go back to the dragon and prepare for a fight. Your rotation is as follows: - Run to the far left of the map - Cast energy barrier where the dragon will be coming - Essential Phantom - Prayer of Protection from Fear (on you and your phantom) - Llengrath’s Displaced Image - Eldritch Aim - Scalebreaker - Arkemyr’s Dazzling Lights - Miasma of Dull Mindedness - Ninagauth’s Freezing Pillar - Ryngrim’s Enervating Terror - Ninagauth’s Freezing Pillar (X2) - Malignant Cloud (X2) - Finish dragon off. Remember that all of these AoE spells should be hitting the dragon and any of his minions that break through. They’ll be a pain. You can also make use of confusion to make this fight even easier. Alpine Dragon (Cave, Longwatch Falls: White March 1) Arguably the hardest fight in the game. After about 50 tries, I finally put the little bastard down without a scratch on me. I pretty much followed Kaylon’s awesome strategy shown here with a few minor changes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBPgwipx3OM As for all of these encounters, you’ll need all pre-fight buffs on you for this fight. Make sure you hit up Dracogen Inn and The Salty Mast. Grab your food buffs right before engaging, and make sure you equip anywhere from 10-15 scrolls of confusion. One full stack of scroll against fear is essential as well. Try not to hit any of the dragon’s minions, you’ll be using them for their weak saves to confuse and distract the dragon. Quickly run to the bottom left corner when the encounter begins. If one of the creatures is on to you, confuse it immediately. If they’re lagging behind and not yet in your view, use the opportunity to thrown a protection from fear scroll on yourself. Accuracy is a must in this fight and the dragon’s terrify aura is as good as being blinded. You’ll need all of your high damage spells to take this guy down. Personally, my 2 “I win” spells are Minoletta’s Precisely Piercing Burst and Ninagauth’s Killing Bolt. They do insane damage and high saves are worthless against them. It’s important to understand however, that Ninagauth’s Killing Bolt will constantly miss unless you are immune to terrify (scroll), have an accuracy buff (Eldritch Aim/Flask of War Paint), and the dragon is debuffed (Miasma of Dull Mindedness). So remember that in between confusing the minions to distract the dragon, make sure all buffs and debuffs are up. Keep confusing to buy yourself time to cast if they aren’t. It helps a lot if the dragon itself is confused. When the dragon is friendly, you can hit it with Ninagauth’s Killing Bolt. When it isn’t friendly, run up behind it while it’s attacking its own confused minions and spam your Minoletta’s. Use “Scalebreaker” at your own discretion. When it dies, clean up the surviving trash mobs and claim victory! Concelhaut (Cragholdt Bluffs: White March 1) One of my favorite quests in the game, Cragholdt Castle is a really cool zone filled with epic mage battles that are just challenging enough to be fun, but not annoyingly hard. The first thing you’ll have to do is take care of the mercenaries laying siege to the castle. They’re insanely annoying trash mobs that are going to take some patience to deal with. Use your trump card spells like “Minoletta’s Precisely Piercing Burst” and “Kalakoth’s Freezing Rake”. “Confusion” is also your friend here. When you finally reach the castle (a much more lax atmosphere), you’ll find that the first thing you have to do is knock off Concelhaut’s 4 apprentices. You can also make a deal with them, but I chose to slaughter them all. The fights are fun and fairly easy, be sure to make use of the amazingly convenient doorways. The vithrak apprentice is a bit of a pain, but you shouldn’t have too much trouble. Eventually you’ll reach the liche lord Concelhaut, archmage of Cragholdt. The good news is you’ll pound him one on one, the bad news is he has a hefty little undead army with him. Make sure you’re fully buffed as opening the door to his quarters will make you fatigued. You might as well run back to Dyrwood Village and Ondra’s gift to get your bonuses before you walk in. Try to lure out Concelhaut’s minions before engaging the mage himself. It’s important to take out that nasty death guard separately. If you get him and Concelhaut together, your chances of survival are low. Once you lure out and kill the death guard, you can safely engage the rest of them (although luring out and killing as many as you can is recommended). Cast your buffs, make sure you’re immune to fear, and spam “Kalakoth’s Freezing Rake” to clear the minions. Concelhaut himself is immune to ice, so as soon as you kill the minions; buff your accuracy, try to “Miasma” him, and spam your “Minoletta’s Precisely Piercing Burst” until he falls. You’ll need to be immune to fear for this whole fight so make sure you’re using scrolls. Llengrath (Mowrghek Ien: White March 2) After taking out Concelhaut, make your way back to Stalwart to finally find out who was behind the siege of his castle. It is none other than the archmage Llengrath. There aren’t many encounters before you fight her, go to the zone that unlocks once you get the quest in Stalwart and make your way to the Northwest of the map. You’ll run into a few packs of her druid minions, you should stomp them fairly easily. They’re way easier than the mercenaries in Cragholdt. Before you enter the forest clearing, make sure you’re fully buffed with food and inn/prostitute bonuses. It’s worth noting that if you give Llengrath Concelhaut’s little Kangaxx head and choose your words right, she’ll let you off with a nice permanent buff to your attributes. To hell with that jazz I say, WE FIGHT! As is impossible to miss, Llengrath is accompanied by 2 young Bog Dragons and one inept druid apprentice. Just like the Concelhaut fight, they’re all manageable on their own but become a nuisance due to the fact that they’re ganging you. As soon as the fight starts, run the far right corner. Buff yourself up while they’re still coming to you. - Bulwark Against The Elements - Llengrath’s Displace Image (How ironic) - Ironskin - Scroll of Prayer Against Fear - Scroll of Defense - Eldritch Aim As soon as all you buffs are up, spam “Kalakoth’s Freezing Rake”. You’ll need to get all 4 of them within the AoE radius. After your third and last rake, Llengrath and her apprentice will be dead. Now for the 2 lizards. These 2 hit pretty hard so you wont survive by just standing your ground and casting. Thankfully, unlike Llengrath, they aren’t immune to paralyze. Whip out a scroll and incapacitate them both. Re-buff your accuracy and “Miasma” them. After that just keep re-paralyzing them before they break free and spam “Minoletta’s Precisely Piercing Burst”. One should survive after the 4th cast, finish him with “Ninagauth’s Killing Bolt”. This fight is actually pretty easy, might take a few tries though. You have now officially destroyed the 2 (formerly) most powerful mages in Dyrwood. You may now proudly proclaim yourself Archmage! Llengrath and Concelhaut’s grimoire contain never before seen exclusive spells that only you will have. They’re amazing, make sure you read through them and try them out. Radiant Spore (Stalwart Mines, Stalwart: White March 2 This one is another doozy. In fact, this entire quest is quite difficult. The cavern you will have to navigate to find this optional boss contains arguably the hardest trash mobs in the game. Massive packs of Vithraks (Obsidian’s answer to D&D’s Mind Flayers) and their slaves will charge at you with a vengeance. Paralyze scrolls work wonders against them, and they’re quite soft so they’ll die with minimal effort. The challenge is pretty much surviving their onslaught and constant stunning. You’ll get the hang of it eventually. Use summons to distract them and use Confusion on the slaves. Eventually you’ll reach this massive annoyance of an encounter. It’s essentially a giant boss level spore (Obsidian’s answer to D&D’s Myconids). Upon engagement, the spore will try to interact with you. Unfortunately you won’t have the constitution or resolve to make this fight easier, so just choose to attack it or you’ll get a debuff. As you might expect, this boss is pretty soft and will die quickly. What makes things incredibly complicated is that it’s tentacles hit like a truck and it’s accompanied by an army of charmed Vithraks. The first thing to do is run to the rightmost part of the screen. You’ll see an area that will block the spore’s line of sight to you allowing you to deal with the vithrak’s first. Spam “Minoletta’s Precisely Piercing Burst” to take care of the vithrak warriors and sporelings. The lone vithrak caster should be easy to deal with using some mid level damage spells like “Malignant Cloud” and Minoletta's Concussive Missiles.. Once you kill the caster and it’s summons, run back behind the cover, heal and buff yourself. A “Scroll of Defense” will help a lot here. Have summons get the spore’s attention, buff your accuracy, debuff the spore with “Miasma”, and slam it with 4 Killing Bolts. If it’s still alive, finish it off with Malignant Cloud or Minoletta's Concussive Missiles and make sure to run back behind the cover to heal if you need to. The Eyeless (Various Areas: White March 2) Technically a trash mob, but insanely difficult if you don’t know how to fight them. They can kill you almost instantly, they’re immune to confuse and blind, and they have a load of hit points. One thing they can’t resist however is our trusty old “Scroll of Paralysis”. Paralyze them before they get off the insta-kill eye laser move. Then just blast them with anything until they’re dead. It only gets tough when you’re fighting 2 or 3 of them at a time. You’ll have to paralyze all of them at once or you’re dead. “Kalakoth’s Freezing Rake” is amazing for these encounters as it does a load of AoE damage and is cast almost instantly. Keep re-paralyzing them before they break out of their current paralysis. If they knock you on your arse you’re pretty much gone. Again, you’ll get the hang of them after a few encounters. The Kraken (Final Boss: White March 2) Ondra’s little pet will be the last thing keeping you from the expansion’s final objective. This is actually one of the easier boss fights in the game, but you’ll be vaporized quickly if you don’t know how to approach it. This thing has a bunch of tentacles that will assist it in trying to kill you. Don’t waste spells on them. If the Kraken dies, they die too. Run right up to the Kraken’s head and spam “Minoletta’s Precisely Piercing Burst”. This encounter would be easy as pie if 2 Eyeless mobs weren’t triggered when the Kraken is at about half-life. Make sure to get a paralyze off to disable the 2 Eyeless before they start hitting. If anything is going to kill you here, it’s going to be them. I actually managed to paralyze them and the Kraken at the same time. Finish off the Kraken first to get he and his tentacles off of you, and then keep re-paralyzing and blasting the 2 Eyeless using my Eyeless strategy above. Overall this fight isn’t that hard, you’ll understand what to do when you’re there. Conclusion I think that pretty much covers it. If anyone thinks of anything else, please do not hesitate to post. I’ll be putting this guide up on the PoE forums as well as Reddit. Thanks again for reading and a really special thanks to everyone who is supporting this genre of gaming. I can’t wait for the next Pillars of Eternity. Take care! - Bathory 2016 Game Version: 3.01

Combat against any of the larger creatures in this game is absurdly difficult. I enjoy a good fight, a hard one. I play Doom on Nightmare in my sleep and have beat Sekiro on more than one occasion. But the larger creatures here feel impossible. Poison arrows, smoothies, spike strips, armor, club II, parries...still it just feels like there isn't even a point to trying. Am I missing something? Is this how the game is supposed to feel?

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

For those who are interested on increase the difficulty during Solo Mode. Here are small variants might keep you on the edge of your table trying to survive and earn reputation in Eora. I recommend only try this new mode after you played at least 1-2 times the solitaire mode (so you are familiar with the mechanics and rules of the game) I created these variants due to I noticed while I played couple of times in solo mode, achieve highest score was not hard, since the player can send all the army cards to attack even highest dungeon and there are no risk for been attacked later on. With this mode player may be attacked by monsters during the event die phase. Here is the link for the new mode I created in the past days. Solo Mode -> Path of the Damned If you achieve a astounding victory (either by killing 3 bosses or getting minimum VP for that level) let me know because maximum I have reach in this new mode is 35 so far. Beside I am working/thinking to create a 2nd part for those player that want to continue using a 2nd city deck after the first one is depleted. I will keep inform for any further new ideas.

Easy difficulty is fine 90% of the time. But there are certain encounters where the difficulty ramps up considerably (usually boss fights) and makes it almost impossible for a casual player to succeed. Pillars is a spiritual successor to the isometric RPGs of my childhood, and I respect the deeply strategic combat that has been inherited from these ancestors. Unfortunately, I am now suffering from a condition which makes computer use difficult and I would appreciate an easier 'easy' mode, so that I can enjoy this game. Is anyone else in the same position? As I say, for the most part easy is fine, but there are some critical encounters which have been frustratingly difficult, and in some cases I have had to abandon them.

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.

Banished is a city building sim that is so much more than that. It's basically a 'try to not kill your entire village that you're starting from scratch' sim. You were kicked out of your old group/tribe/civilization, and now are forced to rebuild your own way in the wilderness. Imagine, if you will, Civilization, but instead of just building junk in one city then moving on, you need to micromanage everything. Your citizens health, their education (which is actually amazingly important), their general happiness. Oh, and make sure they don't freeze the death. Or hoard food (they do that). Or friggin' murder one another. Or drown. Or die in fires. It sounds pretty basic, much like Sims, but it is much more nuanced and in-depth. And unlike Sim City where you are rather limited in how your towns look (after a while, they all just end up becoming blocks of houses and electric poles), you can really create some impressive villages. I was able to split Gabentown up into residential, commercial, and industrial fairly early on. I could set my coal mines to the side, away from my core settlement, and place a line of fisheries along the coast. Up to my north was town hall, and all of the crops and pastures. But in all honesty, it's as if FTL decided it wanted to be Sim City. It's still on sale on Steam. Not as cheap as yesterday, but still discounted.

So I've been playing and replaying some of the older IE games and some other cRPGs these past few months and I've noticed that a lot of the riddles in the games are riddles that I couldn't remember the answers to many years later. I thought it was good fun having to figure out the answers again. However, as soon as I looked at the answer choices, the solutions were simple enough. All I had to do was pick the right choice (or reload and pick the right choice (or reload...)). Anyway, it would be nice if either on hard difficulty or as a game option, we would be able to type in the riddle answers instead of picking from a dialogue option. Might and Magic III:Isles of Terra is the only game I've played where I could/had to type in riddle answers through keyboard and I really enjoyed having to figure out the solutions. Anyway, it's worth bringing up. Computer AI is nowhere near being able to accept dialogue that is typed, but at least we can do a simple IF (typed answer) = "actual answer" THEN correct() ELSE incorrect() for riddles. It would be enjoyable and definitely harkens back to the good old days when video games were actually tough because of the riddles. For those of us who want to just go through the story or who don't have a strong background in English, we can remove this option to get through the riddles. I can see this being a problem for localization and translations, but hopefully there is a workaround. Oh, and don't make it case-sensitive.