Tips I'd be glad to know when I was starting my run. Classes, Attributes, Skills overview.

[ak47training]

Gods know I spent several hours being intimidated by Character Generation screen.

I'm writing for you guys / gals who stare at screen and can't for the love of it find anything reliable to help you decide where to commit those sweet points and what perks to take.

I will stay away from spoilers. Only spoil a few minor things like some items.

I've almost completed my first PotD run with Spellblade (Streetfighter / Wizard). I stayed away from most broken/OP things for challenge's sake, and I feel I was powerful, but not outright broken. I value RP options pretty highly. That's my point of view, and I'm going to give tips with that in mind.

First thing first I'd recommend you to figure out which playstyle/flavor you want to go for your main character. This will dictate a number of later choices.

NOTA BENE: Respec exists in the game, but is bugged and broken and unusable. Unfortunately, you have to get you build right, reroll basically means starting the game over.

I would group combat roles as Support, Melee/Offtank, Tank, Artillery Nuker and Artillery Crowd Controller. Your Watcher's combat role is the core thing you should decide and build from there.

Most classes are capable of performing in at least a couple of these roles, and sometimes hybrid a bit.

Tanks need to be sturdy and sticky. Stickiness is achieved via being able to hit like a truck with Disengagement attacks. Tanks have to be able to deal good damage in this game to function. They also need at least 3 Engagements. There are items and buffs that improve this, you don't have to exclusively rely on innate character abilities.

Melee/Offtank characters need to be as sturdy as tanks, but with those guys you sacrifice some stickiness for more mobility/damage or a bit of direct crowd control. It's a real thing to build a dual-wielding shotgun "melee" killing machine.

Supports need to be FAST and reasonably sturdy. They often have to react very quickly to someone suffering a crit, or to dispel a debuff, or to save someone under fire with armor buff.

Artillery Nuker needs to be able to hit things accurately and painfully in expedient manner. You may sacrifice sturdiness a bit with this flavor of character, but I'd advise against it - there are a lot of rogue-type enemies in the game who enjoy teleporting in your backline and oneshot KO your glass cannons. Nothing brings me joy more than witnessing those assassins fail because my "glass" cannons are made of rock. And poisoned spikes.

Artillery Crowd Controllers need to make their debuffs land and for those debuffs to stick. Otherwise they are the same as Nukers.

There are a total of 7 full-fledged Companions in the game. You may want to bear in mind their combat roles before deciding which Watcher style to go for. There are 2 Tanky/Offtanky companions, 2 Supports, 2 Artillery Nukers and one dude who can be anything but Support basically. Some of them might leave your party pending your story choices, but you will always have access to 1 Tank, 1 Support and that hybrid fellow.

Companions are...

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Pallegina (Palading, Herald, Crusader) and Eder (Fighter, Rogue or Swashbuckler) - Melee/Tanks
Xoti (Priest, Monk, Contemplative) and Tekehu (Druid, Chanter or Theurge) - Supports
Maia (Ranger, Scout or Geomancer) and Serafen (Cipher, Barbarian or Cipher/Barb) - Artillery
Aloth (Wizard, Spellblade or Battlemage) - can be any flavor of Artillery or Melee/Tank
Eder, Xoti and Aloth won't leave your side whatever choices you make unless you specifically kick them. Others are very likely to forfeit your cause during later story developments.

 

So, to Class/Race selection.

Race does not matter in most of cases. Period. Choose on aesthetics. There are some synergies here and there, but they are usually obvious enough.

I would advise to NOT pick a Godlike. There are some really dope helmets in the game, and Godlikes look ugly. Exception being Spellcaster or Support Watcher. I did not find any worthwhile helmets for those archetypes, so Nature Godlike is fine in this case.

Classes and perks.

 

Frontliners (no spoilers!).

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Fighters and Paladins are the most sturdy ones, with Monks, Barbarians and Wizards close seconds. Curiously enough, Rogues are exceptional multiclass option for your tanks due to Persistent Distraction perk (+1 engagement, everyone engaged suffers Distracted affliction). Sneak Attack and a couple other things are just gravy.

Fighter's signature ability is Stances. They are reasonably powerful/flexible. Cleave is good for heavy hitters, Guardian is good for tanks. They also have access to amazing Disciplined Strikes ability, which converts a lot of their Grazes to Hits and Hits to Crits for a reasonable time. They also later gain Charge, which is strong mobility + aoe tool. Vigorous Defense and Unbending actives may make your Fighter impenetrable, but usually it's just not necessary - resources are better spent dealing damage. 

Paladins offer party-buffing auras, most notably +5 Accuracy, +5% Hit to Crit conversion. They also gain a passive +15 to all defenses in Deep Faith perk, which allows them to eschew shields completely and go for that sweet Dual Wielding damage with Flames of Devotion spam. Most points should be spent on passives - Paladins have a plethora of strong passives. FoD spam is so good you hardly ever want to spend Zeal on anything else. Paladins can try to play Support-ish, but opportunity cost is pretty high - they lose out on FoDs and can't wear heavy/medium armor.

Wizards have a bunch of cheap self-buffs which make them surprisingly decent melee characters, both standalone and multiclassed. Don't make a mistake and pick a Wizard subclass. Best Wizard spells are scattered throughout many Schools, and losing access to Schools is almost never worth the meager bonus subclass offers. Pick Fleet Feet on level 1. It's useful and very rare. Spirit Shield is also extremely good, but it's easy to find in grimoires. Level 2 get Infuse with Essence. Level 3 Llengrath's Displaced Image. Level 4 Flame Shield. 

Monks have Swift Flurry which is considered OP ezmode if you optimize for it. I avoided it on purpose, and took Lightning Strikes alternative on my monk sidekick. It's very flexible and strong, and some of the most annoying enemies have Electricity vulnerability, which is nice. Pick one or two Wound-dumping abilities and avoid all others. Torment's Reach seems to be a thing. Watch out for things with long cast time / recovery time - don't take too many of those. Check out Enervating Blows passive - it's pretty fun. Rooting Pain perk is amazing, but you have to be able to dump your Wounds quickly to reap those sweet interrupts and aoes - take some for expensive things. It might seem counterintuitive, but it's perfectly OK to take both Rooting Pain and Duality of Mortal Presence - you can manage your Wound stack according to situation at hand.

Rogues are a bit weird - they are very fragile for a proper frontline character; They rely on active defensive measures instead. They have access to a bunch of Invisibility sources and short-term defensive buffs. Escape is amazing. Hobbling Strike is useful, because its a Full Attack ability that costs only 1 Guile. Rogues are very Guile-starved overall, so focus on passives with them, don't pick too many actives. Shadowing Beyond invisibility breaks when you attack. Devastating Blow is strong. Blinding Strike is decent, but your Guile is usually better spent elsewhere, unless you multiclassed for a tanking role and don't want to abuse invisibility. As I mentioned, Persistent Distraction is dope for melee Rogues. Pick Deep Wounds, Dirty Fighting and Slippery Mind when offered. Riposte is trash, even for Tanks. It's mere 20% or smth proc chance, and if your opposition misses your tank so much it procs Riposte reliably that encounter is so easy you don't need Riposte anyway.

I don't have any experience with Barbarians as of right now :3

Supports (still no spoilers!)

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Priests, Chanters, Druids and, to a lesser extent, Ciphers and Paladins might fall into this category.

Priests are not the staple support they used to be - majority of their buffs are kinda trash now, they either expire extremely quickly or take very long time to cast for a very weak effect. There are several notable exceptions which make Priest a reasonable Support after all. Lategame you can forge your support Priest into flame-slinging powerhouse - there is a lot of item support for this. At Level 1 Restore, Halt and Interdiction are all reasonable (they target Will, which is often good). At Level 2 Withdraw and Iconic Projection are alright. Level 3 pick Consecrated Ground. Dire Blessing is reasonable, but I'd recommend Divine Mark for later. Level 4 finally rewards you for choosing Priest - Devotions of the Faithful is super strong. Honestly, just pass on all other spells in this tier, even though some of them are pretty great as well. You want to cast Devotions 2 times per combat, period.

Druids have a very versatile kit. Avoid Spiritshifter. Lifegiver's downside is negligible. You probably do want to go hybrid with Druid and invest in some crowd control or damage spells. Don't be rused by seemingly OP support options - double check their Range and AoE. Most of those things have miniscule AoE and Nature's Balm for instance is centered on the caster. Level 1 pick Sunbeam. Nature's Vigor is good for dispelling Sickness, Tanglefoot and Nature's Mark are decent too. Level 2 Moon's Light is your bread-and-butter healing, and Woodskin is a very strong proactive response to heavy Fire/Pierce encounters, of which there are A LOT. Level 3 is probably Nature's Balm and some painy thing like Twin Stones or Returning Storm. Take Moonwell, and anything else you fancy - all Level 4 spells are amazing, except for probably Wicked Briars.

Chanters are on a chopping block for nerfs. Spellcasting-capable summons have a truckload of Empower resource, which makes Beckoners ridiculous. Troubadours are the next best thing with their utility. Chanter's resource management got reworked since PoE1. You don't have to rely on level 1 Phrases if you want to build up your Invocations ASAP. High level Phrases are very valuable now. It's kinda weird, but most of your early points are a wash - you probably won't use that level 1 Invocation or a Phrase at all later in the game. It's one of the arguments for multiclassing your Chanter - you can invest in something good your second class offers early. As far as Invocations go, you probably want to pick some niche utility early on - Not Felled by the Axe, or maybe Hel-Hyraf. Gernisc Slew the Beast which summons Wurms seems good as well. As far as Phrases go, there are the usual culprits - Sure-Handed Ila and Silver Knights are super useful, Ancient Memory if you are light on healing, Long Night's Drink is surprisingly good because it prevents enemies from healing effectively, and a lot of enemies do try to heal themselves. Seven Men, They Shielded their Eyes and One Dozen did not prove as handy as I supposed they would - there are a lot of other sources for Affliction Resistances which are worth investing into, both perks and item-wise. On PL7 Chanter gains access to AoE Brilliant Inspiration which generates per-encounter resources for your group. It's considered broken good. 

Ciphers have a bunch of "Echo" keyworded spells that buff their friends in a variety of ways.  Honestly, most of these things turned out to be surprisingly sweet. I don't think they are enough to pull off a single-support Cipher, but, please, prove me wrong. Valorous Echo is cheap and useful, inspirations it offers are semirare early on, and later it can remove Stun and Blind. Pain Block is very good, and I did not quite test Echoing Shield enough to form an opinion. Defensive Mindweb is overrated in my experience. As far as subclasses go - none of them combine well with Support role.

I've touched on Paladin a bit already, so to reiterate - they do have a lot of utility skills to choose from, but hardly ever have resources and opportunity to use them. Lay on Hands, for instance, is melee range single target with long Recovery - rather clunky for a primary Support. It's kinda broken with Shieldbearer subclass right now, but probably will be nerfed soon. Liberating and Reinforcing Exhortations are nifty, but, again, consume 2 Zeal. That makes them good situationally, but you don't want to rely on them exclusively for your utility needs. However, I must mention Kind Wayfarer subclass - it is capable of aoe healing with Flames of Devotion. That might be good enough to exclude any other specialized healer from your group.

Artilleries (almost no spoilers here as well!)

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Rangers, Wizards, Ciphers, Fury Druids and basically anyone who wants to wield a Pistol.

I hate pet classes, and Rangers are extremely Pet-focused in their perk tree. I tested it a bit, and investing in Pet seems hardly worth it - it attacks slowly, no active abilities etc. etc.. At least they can be reasonably tough to not screw you with Bonded Grief. I'd recommend avoiding all pet-related perks except for +2 Armor one maybe Stalker's Link. Takedown Combo is a trap - pet is too slow to execute it. Ignore Pet Healing as well, rely on Support. However, not all is lost for Rangers. They have extremely high potential Accuracy (and, therefore, natural Criticals), they have Gunner perk to speed up reloads, they have Driving Flight perk to partially double dip into their Full Attack powers and Rangers have the amazing Concussive Tranquilizer, which is the single best offensive dispel in the game. Because screw you, Katrenn. And you too, Concelhaut.

Artillery Wizards used to be FOTM with stacking of +Fire Power Level items and nuking everything that moves with Meteors or whatnot. I never tried it myself, because it sounded too good. Anyways, for a Wizard you want to watch out for items that grant +Power Level for specific keyworded spells. There are quite a bit of those out there, Sun and Moon flail for +2 PL to Fire/Frost and 33% chance to repeat a spell for free, or Chromoprismatic Quarterstaff +2 PL to Acid/Electro/Fire/Frost, or a certain Scepter and a Hat for +5 Illusion PL combined. As far as build goes, you want to focus on a single keyword and maybe have another one as a backup. There are a more than a few enemies with elemental immunities in the game; As far as I remember if you go for, say, Fire and Shock you more or less cover everything. Ignore Conjured Weapons, they are a trap. Pick up one spell you consider essential on every level, and invest in passives the rest of your points. It's a good idea to pick up a couple of basic defensive buffs to show a middle finger to opposing assassins.

 

I can't tell much about Crowd Control Wizards. Keep track of whether a given spell is Foe-only or friendly-fire. Chill Fog is as good as ever. Binding Web is a major PITA. Ryngrim's Repulsive Visage is dope, but requires you to jump into hotzone (which you can handle with buffs).

Don't dump Will if you plan on using buffs - Arcane Dampener is VERY popular among enemy WIzards.
Oh, and if you plan on using Elemental spells at all - take care to level up Metaphysics for that sweet Chromoprismatic Action speed bonus. Or don't. Up to you.


Artillery Ciphers also come in two distinct flavors - Crowd Control and Damage. Ascendant seems good, Beguiler is getting bashed on forums for some reason. Idk, it does not seem too bad to me, especially if you run Persistent Distraction frontline to setup for Beguiler's drawback. 
For nuking Cipher on Level 1 pick Penetrating Visions and either Whispers of Treason or Valorous Echoes. Soul Shock has a 3 seconds cast time, not worth it. Mind Wave is a trap, Antipathetic is impossible to position properly. Level 2 Mind Blades is you bread and butter. You may also pick up Amplified Thrust for single target damage here. Recall Agony is a trap. Draining Whip is dope. Level 3 get that Ectopsychic Echo and Hammering Thoughts. You can make a case for Soul Ignition if you somehow have both high Intellect and high Might. Level 4 is Pain Block and Greater Focus. Body Attunement is a trap, Mind Lance is too tough to line up and Pierce immune is abundant. I don't think Silent Scream is worth it's super slow cast time and Recovery. Level 5 is Burrowed Instinct. Rapid Casting speeds up spell Recovery time as well, so it's a worthwhile pick even though most of your spells have 0.5 sec cast time. Burrowed Instinct does not stack with Devotions of the Faithful.

Crowd Control Cipher is full of traps - lots of spells are just plainly too weak for their cost. But there are enough decent ones to warrant it's existence. Level 1 pick Lingering Echoes and ignore Penetrating Visions. Whispers of Treason is #1, but Valorous Echoes is also a good pick for you. I'm afraid Eyestrike is still very meh, there are many better sources of Blind out there (i.e. Chill Fog). On Level 2, honestly, Mental Binding can be passed up. Cast time, duration and AoE are bad. It still has value mostly because it targets Fortitude, unlike most of your kit. The surprising sleeper is Psychovampiric Shield. Later in the game its a cheap, spammable little spell that DESTROYS Will defense. You eventually will land it even on toughest of dudes, and soften him for your Charms and Terrors. Don't forget Draining Whip. Level 3 Fractured Volition is a trap, Secret Horrors is decent. Puppet Master is like a 30 Focus Whispers of Treason that potentially burns some of victim's resources, not sure if worth it. Hammering Thoughts are good for you. Levels 4 and 5 pick same stuff as Nuker Cipher. Ring Leader has miniscule AoE, but is still worthwhile if you opted for high Intellect and brought your +10% AoE Ring.

Attributes.

Might: 10 for weapon-users, around 14 for healers, and 16+ for damage-dealing spellcasters.

 

 

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Might is counterintuitively good for your squishy characters and not as good for big dudes with sticks. That's because Might damage bonus is additive. Trust me, you will regret those 20 Might when you look at combat log and witness [20 base +50% Sneak Attack +60% Legendary Weapon +25% Critical +100% Devastating Blow +30% Overpen +45% Might = 62]. Difference between 10 Might and 20 Might in that case is a difference between 62 and 56 damage. And that 6 damage cost you half of your starting attribute points.

Don't pump Might on Weapon-using characters, they get a "free" 60% Legendary damage bonus that diminishes your Might investment greatly. Not to mention gazillion other sources of +% Weapon Damage.

 

Spellcasters, however, are a different story. Spell damage bonii are hard to come by, so Might is worth it for Nuking Wizards, Ascendant Ciphers, Fury Druids and the like. Might might also be worth it for healers, but there are some ridiculous +Healing% bonuses out there like Chanter's Phrase Mercy and Kindness for +100%. Item do offer a bit of +Healing, and there is only one perk for 15%. 
But don't dump Might either. As far as I gathered, negative Might actually is multiplicative (correct me if I'm wrong). Which is a very big deal.

Constitution: 15+ for armor-tanking frontline, 12-14 for Supports, 10 for everyone else. 

 

 

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Having a deep health pool is good for everyone. Even your backline will suffer from opposing assassins or fireballs regularly, and if they dump Constitution, they will be oneshot with no reaction opportunity for your Supports. Supports are hit more often than other backliners and are crucial for party survival, so they would benefit from a somewhat deeper health pool.
Frontliners are a bit tricky. Pure Tanks - especially Paladins - can have such a high deflection that they are almost never really hit. Combine this with their naturally high HP - and you can get away without investing in Constitution with them.

Rogues, Monks, Barbarians, Wizards and hybrids of those usually can't achieve such exorbitant defenses, partially because they want to use weapons in their offhand instead of shields (The single Brawling shield being a special case). They do get hit constantly and rely on their armor and health to survive. These want high Constitution to be able to take a couple of crits and be standing.
There is a number of +15 / +25 max HP Necklaces in the game. Very helpful early.

 

 

 

Dexterity: 10+ for tanks, 18+ for Supports, 14+ for everyone else. 

 

 

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Dexterity is THE stat of the game. Dump all your spare points here. Going fast = good, being sluggish = bad. Tanks don't need it as much, because they rarely need to execute immediate reactive actions. Except for Exhortation Paladins I guess. Supports without high DEX are risky - they have to react to thing all the time, and their spells tend to have tedious casting and recovery.

Damage dealers want at least a reasonable 14 Dexterity, but for different reasons. Offtanks want to execute their Full Attacks in a reasonable timeframe, and use their active defensive abilities regularly. Spellcasters have long ass cast times, but, for them it's much more important to squeeze the most juice out of their limited high level spells, so Perception comes ahead.
There is a pet in the game that provides Armored Grace-like effect for Watcher, you can find him pretty early. 
There is a hat that gives -20% Reload time with Firearms/Arbalests/Crossbows.
There is a spellcaster staff which provides bonus Action speed scaling with Metaphysics.
There are a few weapons that just hit faster than their counterparts, i.e. +15% Action Speed passive or -25% Reload time.

 

 

 

Perception: 18+ for Spellcasters, 15+ for frontline, 10+ for Supports. 

 

 

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Breaking news, hitting with stuff is important, missing sucks. It's VERY important for characters with very low and very valuable resources - i.e. high level spells for Wizards and Druids. Perception is also important for Ciphers, because not only their spellcasting output depends on Accuracy, but also their Focus generation.
Frontline characters usually have much more abundant / cheap resources and can afford missing from time to time.
Critical damage in Deadfire is rather low-ish, especially for weapon-users, but there are plenty of weapons with extra procs on crits. Very worthwhile procs on crit, I must add.

Supports generally don't need to hit with anything. Unless you are talking hybrid Fire Priests or Lifegivers - these do want some Perception for their damage.

There is a number of Gloves that convert 15% of Misses to Grazes, or even 30% of Misses to Grazes for weapons.

Straight up +Accuracy items are extremely rare. There is a Ring +10 Accuracy with Fire keyworded powers.
Perception is the most used attribute in interactions. By far.

 

 

 

Intellect: 18+ for Crowd Control, 16+ for Supports and AoE Artillery, 14+ for self-buffing frontline, 8+ everyone else.

 

 

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It's easier to mention those who do not need reasonable Int, than those who do. These are single-target bursting builds that don't self buff like Assassin, Ranger and maybe Cipher. Some pure weapon-based characters like Streetfighter or Paladin may get away with low Intellect as well.

But even those tend to have some Afflictions tucked on their attack abilities, or acquire Affliction-on-Crit passives from items, so dumping Int too low is probably not wise.

You can find a number of rings with +10% AoE passive, and one of your companions will have an Overseeing armor on him.

 

 

Resolve: 14+ for frontline, 10+ for Supports, 8+ everyone else.

 

 

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Resolve is not what it once was. It's primary value now is Will save and reduced time on Hostile Effects duration. Dumping it too hard might lead to... unfortunate circumstance of your character being stuck with a 50 dmg / 3 sec DoT for 30 seconds. You can safely reduce Resolve to 8 for backline characters with high Intellect - they tend to get hit by Hostile effects rather seldomly.

Frontlines are being smeared in debuffs all the frigging time, so you need at least some Resolve on them, especially in light of high amount of opposing Rogues who love poking your Paralyzed offtanks to death.

There are very few items that provide -% Hostile Effect Duration - namely, a Necklace with -15% and a ring with situational -35% while wearer is away from friends. Don't expect to compensate low Res with items too much. There are several straight up +2 Resolve items, though.
There is a one-handed sword in the game that provides wearer with Intellect afflictions immunity.

 

Weapon Proficiencies.

 

Don't take the bait and take Proficiency for weapons just because you intend to use it a lot.

Proficiencies offer situational abilities for specific encounters.

 

Absolutely take Rending Smash Mace proficiency early on at least one of your melee characters. There are numerous enemies with SCREW YOU IM CAPTAIN AMERICA amounts of armor. Maces have very high penetration themselves and -1 Armor debuff they apply really helps.

After that you can acquire Flail, Club and Morningstar proficiencies to help setup your spellcasters. You don't need to go redundant on this - just one frontline character/companion with it will suffice.

For your ranged ladies pick Medium Shield / Dagger proficiencies and keep Dagger + Medium in a spare weapon set. This combo makes even a squishy character somewhat tanky and helps survive enemy dives. Quarterstaff proficiency is a reasonable alternative.

Pistol proficiency is very strong, especially on One-Handed Style caballeros. I enjoyed kitting my offtanks with dual Blunderbusses and going ham with Powder Burns and Full Attack abilities. Transforms those single-target dds into aoe gib machines. Very low accuracy though, try to assist with Crowd Control or buffs.

Arbalest proficiency was okay. Spear proficiency was useful on monks and paladins who struggled with +engagement bonuses.

 

Scepters are extremely strong, and their Proficiency is also good. The dirty secret here is Scepter damage type. They are the only ranged weapon offering Crush/Slash combo, which the only out for your Sniperinos facing off hordes of Skeletons and stupid Constructs.

 

Wands are trash. Rods I found unimpressive - too slow / low damage.

Most proficiencies that provide straight up +damage, or +penetration or some such are traps. Unless you're playing Devoted Fighter, but then you know what you are doing.

Skills.

Passive skills are used in dialogues and special events. There are also some items that scale with your passive skills. Notably, Metaphysics spellcaster Quarterstaff and History defensive Cloak. There are also Metaphysics scaling Large Shield, Intimidate-scaling medium armor, and a bunch of others I don't remember immediately. There was something scaling off Stealth. I don't recall any items scaling off Bluff, Diplomacy, Insight, Streetwise and Survival.
Insight is checked very often, and Metaphysics was checked... Almost never. Once or twice. Survival is often checked outdoors, but you can use a companion for most of these. Same story with Streetwise, but in cities.

Active Skills are to be applied in gameplay in one way or another.

Explosives and Sleight of Hand are useless. Very rarely checked. Sleight of Hand at 2 was enough to pickpocket all valuables everywhere I bothered to. 

Mechanics is good. Lots of traps, lots of locks. My Watcher was Mechanics specialist, I never looked back. Probably can be circumvented by a companion specialist.

Stealth was surprisingly good. Obsidian bothered to design many otherwise hostile places in a way that a stealthy character can solve those efficiently. Certain NPCs outright asked me to do things discreetly, without alarming anyone and were pleased when I managed to. Not to mention plenty of booty just lying around waiting to be stolen. Multiple outdoor interactions, too. I noticed that these often make stealth check for the most clumsy character in the group, so it may be worthwile to invest at least a point for everyone.

Athletics provides you with 1/encounter quick selfhealing ability called Second Wind. It is extremely useful. Invest at least a few points on every character. Multiple party-wide Athletics check in dialogues/events as well.

Arcana is necessary to peruse high level Scrolls. Scrolls crafting is expensive, but there are plenty around the world. Honestly, even on PotD game was simple enough to not use any scrolls. I did use some traps and potions though, which brings us to...

Alchemy. Improves efficiency of potions and drugs. That is, BOTH duration AND effect. You can have +7 Might/Const/Dex for 400 seconds from a drug if you invested in Alchemy. Potions may heal for twice as much, or provide buffs for twice as long. I found Alchemy fun and strong.

Phew, that post got out of hand. And I also wanted to talk about companion builds. Some other time, I guess.

Edited June 1, 2018 by ak47training

[wRAR]

But you don't really need combat roles until the next patch?

[gkathellar]

Eh. Unless you're actually tanking, and in some cases even if you are, you can dump Resolve into the bottom of the ocean.

 

Also Maia gets Ranger/Wizard, not Ranger/Chanter.

Edited June 1, 2018 by gkathellar

[Dorftek]

I think u are overselling Constitution and Resolve. Otherwise very well written guide and great for new players to find.

[Tomice]

Great beginner guide, thank you!

[ak47training]

  On 6/1/2018 at 2:43 PM, wRAR said:

But you don't really need combat roles until the next patch?

 

I have no idea what do you mean by this :| Tactically, those roles are very useful distinctions.

  On 6/1/2018 at 2:43 PM, gkathellar said:

Eh. Unless you're actually tanking, and in some cases even if you are, you can dump Resolve into the bottom of the ocean.

 

Also Maia gets Ranger/Wizard, not Ranger/Chanter.

 

Thanks! I'll fix Maia.

 

  On 6/1/2018 at 3:24 PM, Dorftek said:

I think u are overselling Constitution and Resolve. Otherwise very well written guide and great for new players to find.

As for Resolve and Constitution dumping. I can see where you're coming from. 

My argument will be "If your backline does not need Resolve and Health for this fight, it's a very easy fight, so you wouldn't need that extra PER/DEX anyway".

I noticed that most fights I lose tend to tip the moment one of my backline characters is being murdered. Either by one or two rogues executing Shadowstep to Paralyze and nuke my Support, or by some stray hard-hitting Fire AoE spell putting my Cipher at 10% HP and killing him shortly after with high damage Burn DoT. It's almost impossible to play around these things tactically, so having a tougher-than-a-wet-noodle backline is the solution that worked best for me. Wizards hold a special place in my heart for being unkillable bricks.

[wRAR]

  On 6/1/2018 at 11:18 PM, ak47training said:

 

  On 6/1/2018 at 2:43 PM, wRAR said:

But you don't really need combat roles until the next patch?

 

I have no idea what do you mean by this :| Tactically, those roles are very useful distinctions. 

 

 

I mean the game is finishable with autocombat.

[InsaneCommander]

Thanks for posting this. Specially the information about Sleight of Hand.

[Lokithecat]

There is a Spear that uses Survival scale, for damage.  Actually had it with my tank, since it was decent, and spear modal for + engage is handy.

 

Another useful thing I noticed, for casters / support characters taking a shield, with a modal ability is a great investment with very few downsides.  Especially if you can afford to spend a talent on the Weapon/Shield style for the +Def and Shield Def bonus to Reflexes. 

 

If your character is a healer or buffer, they don't realllly need accuracy, so taking a tower shield + modal is a giant boost to your Deflection, Reflex, and helps vs. range damage.

A Medium Shield (If you are closer to front line, and can take a -4 accuracy hit) modal has a 30% chance of ignoring being hit by weapons entirely.

Small Shield (meh) Gives you +Accuracy after someone misses you, and is more useful for a front line melee character.

 

The down side to shield Modal is recovery, but if you look carefully, the recovery penalty is only to weapons.  So putting a medium shield (and modal) on your nuke wizard, greatly enhances survival, and the only penalty to using it (and the modal) is 4 accuracy.

[AeonsLegend]

With these games as long as you have a front and backline you're all set. Can't really make any "mistakes". I just went in blindly and selected whatever had my fancy. I'm happy to note that I never used a sabre. Good times.