Planning a new playthrough (some help putting together my party and MC)

[DeeKayNL]

Hello All,

 

After a few hours playing with a custom party I realized that I really love the have compagnions in my party and a custom party really  takes away the fun of the game.

So I am planning my next playthrough.

I will first list the companions I would like to have in my party:

- Eder (probably) Swashbuckler?

- Maia (certainly)

- Pallegrina (Maybe) Herald?

- Tekehu (Centainly) Pure Druid?

- Aloth (Maybe) Batle mage?

Companions I dont want : Xoti, Serafen,

Never had any sidekicks in my party.

Based on this list could you Give some advice on who to take in my party to have nice party balance en what class I should make my MC?

 

Edit : put Aloth on the maybe pile

Edited January 3, 2021 by DeeKayNL

[DeeKayNL]

Ok maybe I answer my own question but what about this party?

Eder Swashbuckler (TANK)

Pallegrina Herald

Tekehu Druid

Maia

 

That only leaves my MC to be decided. What would fit here?

[AndreaColombo]

27 minutes ago, DeeKayNL said:

That only leaves my MC to be decided. What would fit here?

Pretty much anything, in my opinion.

Cipher would be a very good addition to this party, perhaps multiclassed with a martial class so you can be a damage dealer.

Wizard would also fit for AoE nuking (though Tekehu can also fill that role.)

SC Ranger Maia has become a staple of my recent playthroughs, as she's oh so powerful with Spearcaster.

[DeeKayNL]

1 hour ago, AndreaColombo said:

Pretty much anything, in my opinion.

Cipher would be a very good addition to this party, perhaps multiclassed with a martial class so you can be a damage dealer.

Wizard would also fit for AoE nuking (though Tekehu can also fill that role.)

SC Ranger Maia has become a staple of my recent playthroughs, as she's oh so powerful with Spearcaster.

I like the Cypher multi with a martial class.

So what would be good?

Cypher/Paladin Great Swords?

Cypher/Monk barehanded?

Cypher/Barbarian not sure which weapons to use.

 

Eder needs the Sabres with shields

Pallegrina needs the two handen weapons? Any tips?

Tekehu uses Wand

Maia uses the arquebus.

Edited January 3, 2021 by DeeKayNL
Textual edit

[AndreaColombo]

Ghost Heart / Ascendant is pretty great with either estocs (BotEP, Engoliero do Espirs) or Frostseeker if you prefer ranged.

Devoted / Ascendant is similarly good with estocs but less versatile unless you’re happy to suck up the Accuracy penalty when you switch to a different weapon.

There are many other good combinations but I’ll let others who have actual in-game experience with them to vouch for them.

Just a note that even if the game strongly implies that Maia should use arquebuses, IME she is more powerful with Spearcaster.

[Boeroer]

My personal favorite party composition with official companions is:

• Edér as Swashbuckler (main tank, engagement)
• Xoti as SC Harvester of Gaun (buffing, damage, healing)
• Aloth as SC Wizard (CC, debuffing, damage)
• Tekehu as SC Watershaper (healing, damage, CC)
• MC

Mostly because PL 8/9 spells of Priest, Wizard and Druid are lots of fun.

But obviously there's tons of other nice compositions. It depends a lot on how you want to play. E.g. if I want to use AoEs a lot then the above composition is great - but I have to make sure to cramp enemies together in a spot (with the tank, pulling, luring etc). If I want to go for strong single target action instead then the above composition is not that good. 
 

[DeeKayNL]

Ik was thinking about a dual wield build for my MC ? Nice to have one. Ik already have Eder do the shield and sword. Pallegrina do the two handen weapons. 

What would be good for dual wield?

Witch OR trancendent? Both seem quote fun.

 

I can use Both arbalest and arquebus with Maia? 

 

PS my playstyle is normale more melee based, i love melee characters, in Baldurs gate I usually play dual wielding characters. 

I want to get my party early, are there any consequenses for getting those party members early? In BG you could level up them early tot your wishes. 

 

@Boeroer I'll make sure ill try your fav comp in the nearby future, is Eder enough for engagement to keep others safe?

Edited January 3, 2021 by DeeKayNL
Added question for getting members early

[Boeroer]

Edér with a shield already has 4 engagement slots once he uses Defender Stance, 5 as soon as you pick Persistant Distraction. You can add more with other abilites or items but I think that more than 6 engagement slots is overkill.  

[DeeKayNL]

thats quite a lot! thanks I will try you comp next time, its quite different from melee oriented, i should give it a try.

Regarding MC , I am currently making a Trancendent and a Witch.

- The trancendent (Soulblade/no sub monk) is a Moon godlike but i am not sure how to equip het regarding weapons, I chose Two handed weapons (Fextralife guide) but would prefer dual wielding something.

- The Witch i am not sure about. I would like to make a Souldblade/Berserker but im worried about the confussion part , especially early game. Could I make a Soulblade/no sub barb? And what weapons would be great for dual wield and are available troughout the game? One handed swords?

 

I Just started a few levels with the Witch, battle axe oriented. Seems fun but Eder already gold me multiple Times het is on my team. I was still on full ai. Gonna disable ai l, think that would solve it.

Alsof gonna do a few levels with the transcendend tot see what its like

 

Edited January 3, 2021 by DeeKayNL

[DeeKayNL]

On 1/3/2021 at 5:59 PM, Boeroer said:

My personal favorite party composition with official companions is:

• Edér as Swashbuckler (main tank, engagement)
• Xoti as SC Harvester of Gaun (buffing, damage, healing)
• Aloth as SC Wizard (CC, debuffing, damage)
• Tekehu as SC Watershaper (healing, damage, CC)
• MC

Mostly because PL 8/9 spells of Priest, Wizard and Druid are lots of fun.

But obviously there's tons of other nice compositions. It depends a lot on how you want to play. E.g. if I want to use AoEs a lot then the above composition is great - but I have to make sure to cramp enemies together in a spot (with the tank, pulling, luring etc). If I want to go for strong single target action instead then the above composition is not that good. 
 

I am currently finishing my run with the previous party , my MC was a Witch. I am finishing Forgotten Sanctum and all the DLC's are done.

I am thinking about this party, but wanted to ask what MC would fill out this party?

And are there some other companions I could replace Tekehu with?

[dgray62]

On 1/3/2021 at 10:29 AM, DeeKayNL said:

Regarding MC , I am currently making a Trancendent and a Witch.

- The trancendent (Soulblade/no sub monk) is a Moon godlike but i am not sure how to equip het regarding weapons, I chose Two handed weapons (Fextralife guide) but would prefer dual wielding something.

- The Witch i am not sure about. I would like to make a Souldblade/Berserker but im worried about the confussion part , especially early game. Could I make a Soulblade/no sub barb? And what weapons would be great for dual wield and are available troughout the game? One handed swords?

If you are going with a transcendent, I would recommend an Ascendant/Forbidden Fist if you are using the Community Patch mod (which turns the forbidden fist attack into a weapon attack, so you can build focus with it), or a Beguiler/Forbidden Fist if you are playing the vanilla game, since a beguiler can gain focus just through using cipher powers on sneak attack vulnerable foes. The synergy of the Forbidden Fist subclass with a cipher subclass is tremendous. The forbidden fist attack enfeebles foes, which is a tremendous affliction which prevents healing and extends the time of all other afflictions. It is enhanced by Lingering Echoes, and it will also extend the duration of disintegration. It is also a very sturdy build; a forbidden fist monk with high resolve (to minimize the length of the forbidden fist curse) has strong defenses, and as a cipher you can further bolster it with psychovampiric Shield.

For a witch, you might consider a furyshaper/beguiler, which gives you so many ways to debilitate a foe. Here you'd want to go the two-handed style route, using Lord Darryn's Voulge (for lightning mayhem) and ultimately Willbreaker, which, with the modal on, can simultaneously debuff fortitude and will, the two key stats cipher powers need to overcome, and with Brute Force means lots of crits as well. Your defenses will be lower, but if you keep the enemies sufficiently debuffed this won't matter much, especially if you have Xoti and Tekehu healing you.

[mjo2138]

6 hours ago, DeeKayNL said:

I am currently finishing my run with the previous party , my MC was a Witch. I am finishing Forgotten Sanctum and all the DLC's are done.

I am thinking about this party, but wanted to ask what MC would fill out this party?

And are there some other companions I could replace Tekehu with?

 

I would replace Tekehu or Xoti with a Hearld (Pallegina does the trick). Hearlds can heal, tank, and CC with summons. 

 

I think then you need to add a character who can quickly get to the backlines (mages, archers are the really problems in this game) and take them down. The best offense is a good defense! I'd suggest a monk, rogue, barbarian, or whatever you fancy. A large number of sidekicks can fill this role. The MC could play this role as well.  Anything that can stun or paralyze is a boon. If you haven't yet, i'd try a SC monk. They are a lot of fun. 

I try to avoid having more than 2 'squishies' in my parties on POTD, since enemy AI will target low armor characters (this, however, can be negated by having high AR on them, which results in more recovery time). 

 

[Haplok]

Monk is really great at this: he can stun a lot with Stunning Surge and, perhaps more importantly, the dangerous robe-wearers tend to have lowish Deflection -> lots of crits -> lots of bonus attacks from Swift Flurry / Heartbeat Drumming procs.

This can be a monk multiclass too!

Often the enemy casters would instantly "explode" when my monk reached them. Even nicer when he gets Flagellant's Path, as often the initial full attack from the ability + SF/HBD procs from it were enough to kill enemy ranged chars. So you end up zig-zaging trough the battlefield, leaving corpses behind.

I've tried this with a shadowdancer (so considerably more damage per hit, I suppose), but it also worked great with a Helwalker/Ascendant Transcendent, particularly after getting Seeker's Fang rapier. Even if the initial onslaught didn't kill an enemy, he was typically affected with a fatal Raw DOT, that'd kill him few seconds later - and my char was free to move to the next target.

 

An alternative to that is to have a strong ranged single-target eliminator on your own. Maia Scout with the Red Hand would be very good for this.

Edited January 20, 2021 by Haplok

[DeeKayNL]

Thank you all for your advice.

I did some reading in to the monk class (never played one, not even in other games), how does a SC monk Shattered Pillar sound?

Stil thinking about replacement for Tekehu. My main reason not to take him is that I had him in my last playthrough. But he does fit perfectly in the SC party. But then again Eder is Multi so...

Pallegina was a Herald in my previous game. I'd like to avoid doing the same thing again.

Difficult choice.

 

EDIT: I just read that Shattered Pillar was nerfed. Is this still a good subclass to choose?

 

Edited January 20, 2021 by DeeKayNL

[Boeroer]

Shattered Pillar is good if you install the Community Patch (it simply removes the max wound counter of 5 and sets it back up to 10 - like all other Monk subclasses). If you don't do that it's the weakest monk subclass imo. 

Edited January 20, 2021 by Boeroer

[DeeKayNL]

22 minutes ago, Boeroer said:

Shattered Pillar is good if you install the Community Patch (it simply removes the max wound counter of 5 and sets it back up to 10 - like all other Monk subclasses). If you don't do that it's the weakest monk subclass imo. 

Thank you, just read the notes and installed the mod. I created my character before and after the mod install en saw a difference already if i saw it right.

 

I just started a new game and have Eder and Xoti in my party and following @Boeroer's example and going for Xoti and Aloth SC and Eder as a swashbuckler.

Last partymember still on debate   Is Tekehu not a little bit of the same with Xoti and Aloth as SC's ?

[Boeroer]

Druids are good healers and Tekehu is not an exception - but more importantly: the bonus spells he gets as Watershaper are always foe-only. That means foe-only Chillfog etc. - which is very good.

At high levels not much beats Great Maelstrom - especially if you pimp your Power Levels with stuff like Deltro's Cage (+2), Lord Darryn's Voulge (+3) or Sun & Moon + Magran's Favor (+4) or Chromoprismatic Staff (+3) or Watershaper's Focus (+2), Otto Starcat (+1), Prestige (+1) and so on and so forth. If you use Fassina you will not have access to Missile Salvo, Meteor Shower, Freezng Rake or Wilting Wind. So at PL 8/9 you won't have a good AoE nuke. Tekehu can fill that gap easily. 

You can also go and use dual mortars with him an then cast Avenging Storm at PL8 which is great fun (zap-zap-zap). This route works even better if you make him a SC Stormspeaker (because he gets Avenging Storm then as well but also Sure handed Ila which is nice with mortars since all reloading weapons profit twice from the -20% recovery time bonus). One thing though: Mith Fyr gets quenched on Tekehu because of his racial ability (all fire effects get removed). It will work on all party members but not on him. Found out the hard - or moist - way.  

I like Druids because of their great versatility. They can heal, buff, debuff, CC, summon and deal damage. Often two of those (CC+dmg or healing+buff) with one and the same spell.

Edited January 20, 2021 by Boeroer

[DeeKayNL]

23 minutes ago, Boeroer said:

Druids are good healers and Tekehu is not an exception - but more importantly: the bonus spells he gets as Watershaper are always foe-only. That means foe-only Chillfog etc. - which is very good.

At high levels not much beats Great Maelstrom - especially if you pimp your Power Levels with stuff like Deltro's Cage (+2), Lord Darryn's Voulge (+3) or Sun & Moon + Magran's Favor (+4) or Chromoprismatic Staff (+3) or Watershaper's Focus (+2), Otto Starcat (+1), Prestige (+1) and so on and so forth. If you use Fassina you will not have access to Missile Salvo, Meteor Shower, Freezng Rake or Wilting Wind. So at PL 8/9 you won't have a good AoE nuke. Tekehu can fill that gap easily. 

You can also go and use dual mortars with him an then cast Avenging Storm at PL8 which is great fun (zap-zap-zap). This route works even better if you make him a SC Stormspeaker (because he gets Avenging Storm then as well but also Sure handed Ila which is nice with mortars since all reloading weapons profit twice from the -20% recovery time bonus).

I like Druids because of their great versatility. They can heal, buff, debuff, CC, summon and deal damage. Often two of those (CC+dmg or healing+buff) with one and the same spell.

Thanks for your comment, I think i'll take Tekehu and see how it goes. I normally use light armors on Tekehu. Deltro's cage seems a heavy armor, doesnt that mean that his recovery is way longer?

[Boeroer]

Yes, correct. But you'll get more damage, ACC and PEN out of Great Maelstrom and your other shock spells - and you'll only have very limit casts of that. And besides that you'll have good protection.

Doesn't make much sense if you are always in the back row and don't use shock spell much of course. 
 

  

Edited January 20, 2021 by Boeroer

[DeeKayNL]

I'll give it a try, because it would also be a nice change from my last run. Any advice on the build except pick shock spells?

I just started  and made a Shattered Pillar Monk (stats are maybe a bit too powergaming).

Pale Elf - White that Wends - Laborer

Might 18

Constitution 10 Left this as is (dont know if this is gonna bite me in the *** later on.)

Dexterity 19

Perception 21

Intellect 6

Resolve 5