Godlike builds for POTD

[kronozord]

Hi.

I've finally beat the game and all its optional content in veteran and now i want to try out POTD but this time with a godlike.

Ive never used one not even in POE1, so what do you think are the best builds for each race? Are they even viable at this difficulty level?

I was thinking in using a ranger/cipher this time around but im open to other inputs.

Fire away.

[Hoo]

I honestly think most Godlikes are underwhelming comparing with the other races, especially without Mods like Community Patch and Deadfire Balance Polishing Mod.

There are several great Headgears, such as Fair Favor, Helm of the Falcon, Heaven's Cacophony, and Helm of the White Void, and the other races have its own passive abilities already. The penalty cannot wear a Headgear is quite serious imo.

Anyway, the best Godlike is probably Nature Godlike, because their innate ability is relatively easy to be achievable. I'm still, however, not sure the universal +1 PL is really comparable with the above great Headgear's effects + the other races' passive bonuses.

[Okkes]

Yeah best is Nature godlike by far, i really enjoyed a single class forbidden fist Nature godlike maybe you want to try?

[mjo2138]

Nature godlike: https://pillarsofeternity.fandom.com/wiki/Nature_godlike

You get +1 powerlevel for using body inspirations So, the idea here is you wanna build a character around stacking powerlevels. Weapon summons can really benefit from this. For example, priest of Woedica fists can, I think, be even stronger than an SC monks. So while the bonus is not small, it is a starting point

Death Godlike:   https://pillarsofeternity.fandom.com/wiki/Death_godlike

The idea here is to build a character who can stay near death for +3 PL this really needs Barring Death's Door and Salvation of Time from so you can stay in this sweet spot. One idea here is to get low HP, summon a weapon , and reap the benefits of +3 PL. Actually I am not sure if the summoned weapon changes based on players' PL level but I think it counts from the time of summon. I am sure others have ideas 

Fire Godlike :https://pillarsofeternity.fandom.com/wiki/Fire_godlike

Here, bloodied is easier to be at. So you can make a character with a large health pool (+boost con) and build equipment around that that reduced damage as you lose health. Honestly the bonuses here are not too great on paper. I haven't tried this one. The biggest benefit here is having natural fire AR. There are a lot of annoying fire enemies in Deadfire, esp. early game (I am looking at you, Wurms!) 

[Pharaoh]

Currently playing a SC ascendant on PotD

I picked nature godlike

I haven't found a truly OP helmet that makes me regret my choice and since I am ascendant I am already stacking power-levels

Can't trigger the bonus myself, I have Xoti casting litany of body on me at the start of the fight. Also she casts litany of spirit so that's +2 powerlevels on top of everything else.

I think nature godlike is only useful if you are playing pure casters and stacking PL

If you are playing multiclass I don't think it's worth since you already gave up on powerlevel stacking

And martials will benefit more from the helmets than powerlevels, they are only really useful for casters.

The rest of the godlikes seem underwhelming

[Elric Galad]

14 hours ago, mjo2138 said:

Nature godlike: https://pillarsofeternity.fandom.com/wiki/Nature_godlike

You get +1 powerlevel for using body inspirations So, the idea here is you wanna build a character around stacking powerlevels. Weapon summons can really benefit from this. For example, priest of Woedica fists can, I think, be even stronger than an SC monks. So while the bonus is not small, it is a starting point

Death Godlike:   https://pillarsofeternity.fandom.com/wiki/Death_godlike

The idea here is to build a character who can stay near death for +3 PL this really needs Barring Death's Door and Salvation of Time from so you can stay in this sweet spot. One idea here is to get low HP, summon a weapon , and reap the benefits of +3 PL. Actually I am not sure if the summoned weapon changes based on players' PL level but I think it counts from the time of summon. I am sure others have ideas 

Weapon summons do not benefit from added PL.

Monk fists (and unarmed Monastic training fists) do. Woedica fists do not.

 

A SC Monk with Prestige can benefit from every other PL. You'll get +2 from Potion of Ascension (best source for active, but does not stack with other active).

So even with Nature's Godlike +1 PL passive, you'll need another +1 PL. Hey, good luck then, because I do not know any other source of passive PL sor SC Monk fists.

Food gets +1 PL, but is usually considered as active unless the save/load random bug cause it to become passive.

[Okkes]

Nevermind i can't read appereantly.

Edited June 22, 2023 by Okkes
edit

[mjo2138]

1 hour ago, Elric Galad said:

Weapon summons do not benefit from added PL.

Monk fists (and unarmed Monastic training fists) do. Woedica fists do not.

 

A SC Monk with Prestige can benefit from every other PL. You'll get +2 from Potion of Ascension (best source for active, but does not stack with other active).

So even with Nature's Godlike +1 PL passive, you'll need another +1 PL. Hey, good luck then, because I do not know any other source of passive PL sor SC Monk fists.

Food gets +1 PL, but is usually considered as active unless the save/load random bug cause it to become passive.

Thanks! That is interesting about fists- I coulda sworn I read on the forums that Woedica fists can get a +PL, but I guess not. So then monk fists (and monastic) scales with player's level AND power level? I thought monastic training scaled with player's level, so even an MC character gets the quality compared to an SC character with that ability.

So then an SC monk with prestige (passive effect) can reach the highest power level of fists it seems, when you add in the +active effect of Potion of Ascension (+2 PL) as compared to Nature Godlike's active passive of (+1 PL)

numbers aside, you are already so strong at level 20 , especially against enemies whose crush armor is less than your PEN. 

I am gonna try to categorize all enemies stats into a list one day so there is data to demonstrate how, for example, a lot of enemies are NOT slash resistant in deadfire, while many and immune to pierce. 

[Pharaoh]

3 hours ago, Elric Galad said:

Weapon summons do not benefit from added PL.

Monk fists (and unarmed Monastic training fists) do. Woedica fists do not.

 

A SC Monk with Prestige can benefit from every other PL. You'll get +2 from Potion of Ascension (best source for active, but does not stack with other active).

So even with Nature's Godlike +1 PL passive, you'll need another +1 PL. Hey, good luck then, because I do not know any other source of passive PL sor SC Monk fists.

Food gets +1 PL, but is usually considered as active unless the save/load random bug cause it to become passive.

Damn I've been using potion and acute inspiration together.

Never realized they didn't stack.

[Boeroer]

1 hour ago, mjo2138 said:

So then monk fists (and monastic) scales with player's level AND power level? I thought monastic training scaled with player's level, so even an MC character gets the quality compared to an SC character with that ability.

No, both scale with Power Level. But for whatever reason the Monastic UT fists always scale with the Single Class Power Level progression - even if you have a Multiclass.  Which is nice for multiclass chars of course:

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/pc/227477-pillars-of-eternity-ii-deadfire/faqs/76599/monastic-unarmed-training

And yes, universal Power Level buffs like Wellspring of Life (Nature Godlike) can increase both fist types (every 2 PLs with Monk, every 3 PLs with Monastic UT). 

 

3 hours ago, Elric Galad said:

Hey, good luck then, because I do not know any other source of passive PL sor SC Monk fists.

Food gets +1 PL, but is usually considered as active unless the save/load random bug cause it to become passive.

A Forbidden Fist can use Lord of the Forest (from the Lace of the Midwood Stag) for +2 stackable PL and use his Forbidden Fist attack  (it scales like Transcendent Suffering). That's one more scaling step. I usually use Wellspring of Life with Stone of Power for another easy scaling step. 

I think if you gain Acute or Brilliant from an item (like Least Unstable Coil) it's also stackable? 

[mjo2138]

47 minutes ago, Boeroer said:

No, both scale with Power Level. But for whatever reason the Monastic UT fists always scale with the Single Class Power Level progression - even if you have a Multiclass.  Which is nice for multiclass chars of course:

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/pc/227477-pillars-of-eternity-ii-deadfire/faqs/76599/monastic-unarmed-training

And yes, universal Power Level buffs like Wellspring of Life (Nature Godlike) can increase both fist types (every 2 PLs with Monk, every 3 PLs with Monastic UT). 

 

A Forbidden Fist can use Lord of the Forest (from the Lace of the Midwood Stag) for +2 stackable PL and use his Forbidden Fist attack  (it scales like Transcendent Suffering). That's one more scaling step. I usually use Wellspring of Life with Stone of Power for another easy scaling step. 

I think if you gain Acute or Brilliant from an item (like Least Unstable Coil) it's also stackable? 

Interesting! So,  any SC Nature Godlike can utilize Wellspring of Life  & Prestige to achieve the highest level of PLs. I thought Stone of Power and Wellspring of Life would both count as active effects, but I guess they don't if Stone of Power is 'equipment' based which for some reason is considered passive . That is cool. I will also have to try out the Lord of the Forest trick. 

Honestly I haven't used Least Unstable Coil before but I am going to in my current run which is an SC Priest of Woedica. I choose Woedica for the fists but an SC priest cannot do much , so next run might be an Woedica/Martial class. 

[Boeroer]

Wellspring of Life works like a passive. It stacks with everything.

[kronozord]

So the only decent godlike is the nature godlike for pure casters.

Thats a disappointment

[Tomucci]

If youre trying to optimize then godlike is niche, only two worth looking at are nature and death imo

Nature's PL buff can be useful for a couple of classes, most obvious is monk, and if you multiclass with fighter you get an option to scale up your fists without having to use items, so nature godlike brawler is pretty good imo

Another application I liked was psion, the increased PL makes them generate focus faster, I'm sure there's a few others too

Death is more niche, its for classes that get bonuses from being kept at low health, streetfighter and barbarian are two that come to mind, ideally multiclassed (or supported by a party member) who can ensure they won't die at that lower health

The PL bonus can be useful in the same sorts of ways as nature as well, could do multis like monk/priest or even fighter/priest (with monastic unarmed) to scale up fists

 

[Boeroer]

14 hours ago, kronozord said:

So the only decent godlike is the nature godlike for pure casters.

Thats a disappointment

I wouldn't say that.
Fire Godlike is also not bad imo there's no helmets with bonus AR iirc. Stacking AR can be a very good tactic - and +1 all-stackable AR can make a lot of difference.
Death Godlike is very good with certain setups (mainly with Barring Death's Door and Wall of Draining or Salvation of Time).
Moon Godlike grants some occasional minor healing - but that's a racial ability that's is indeed pretty lame imo.

  

[kronozord]

I was thinking in using an ancient druid or ancient druid/hellwalker monk, im not really sure, with the following stats:

Mig10/ Con 10/ Dex14/ Per 19/ Int15/ Res 10

What do you guys think?

[Shai Hulud]

Godlikes suck IMO. Only reason to take one is death godlike if you have a character that can stay near death with barring death's door or potions of final stand. But even then you're probably better off with a human. Moon godlikes are undoubtedly the worst. Nature godlike and fire godlike are "meh" but have rare use cases. They're all much better balanced with BPM. 

5 hours ago, kronozord said:

I was thinking in using an ancient druid or ancient druid/hellwalker monk, im not really sure, with the following stats:

Mig10/ Con 10/ Dex14/ Per 19/ Int15/ Res 10

What do you guys think?

What is the idea behind ancient/helwalker? High damage druid spells I guess? The thing is the best druid spells are tier 8+. Avenging Storm and Great Maelstrom especially. Furies are the best damage dealers but Ancients are probably sufficiently good. I did a recent run with SC Fury in ultimate-like conditions, and IIRC my stats were MIG/CON/DEX/PER/INT/RES 18/9/11/19/18/3, or somethng like that. 

But druids have meh accuracy so you're better off taking a different race (humans are nice) and wearing helmet acina's tricorn IMO.

Edited June 24, 2023 by Shai Hulud

[kronozord]

@Shai Hulud I want to improve my party in Port Maje to help me go through Gorecci Street and the Dig site.

I actually made my MC a orlan seer build based on the your post on One-Eyed Jack. I have Eder as Swashbuckler and Xoti as priest and i want to have a complete party ASAP.

The reasoning behind the druid was to help me fight the beasts in the digsite so a nature godlike ancient seemed the best choice.

And i want to hire another godlike to summon, chanter or herald to fill the battlefield with summons.

The bonuses to Dex and Int looks interesting in both cases.

Edited June 24, 2023 by kronozord