Pillars Of Eternity POTD race guide.

[Guest Nater]

In Pillars Of Eternity we can find different kinds of races, but but not all of them are playable. Each race has its unique characteristics and where it comes from. Remember, even though one race is better than the other, I still encourage you to first choose a race that you feel comfortable with and that suits you. It may sound strange now, but I personally believe that even on the highest difficulty level we can easily complete the game with our companions and, of course, our main character, whom we don't have to min-max. But here i'm to mybe help you decide which race to play for which class. I will focus on fighting aspect.

 

The game has six playable races and several races that are unique to our companions.

Before i start talking about races i just want to tell one thing. The initial stat bonuses are not without significance, but we will be guided more by the bonuses offered by subraces.

Humans offer bonues: +1 to might, +1 to resolve

Might is useful for most builds because we get dmg and healing also we get fortitude. There is no harm in receiving free resolve point but is used mainly for tanks then for any other close combat style characters.

We also gain passive skill fighting spirit which gives us bonuses +7 to accuracy, +15% to damage for 20 sec when our endurance reach 50% or lower. Also this effect can be active 1 time per encounter so we can't heal our character and then once again get buff when we reach again 50% endurance. Important is a fact that fighting spirit is affected by you duration bonus from intellect so if we got min int then this effect will last about 13 sec. 

All human subraces also offer the same thing so they are pure cosmetic and for role-play only.

I got a problem with a humans because on the one hand, their racial ability is strong, but on the other hand, it is difficult to use and is not constant. For tanks this skill seems to be good right? Wrong tanks rarely lose that much hp and even if, they dont need dmg and accuracy much. For rangers and casters dps it's even worse if your hp drop under 50% then you do are in bad place so you need to run and heal yourself. If you do that then you lose like 1/3 of effect. For vulnerable characters using this skill is a gambling so i would rather avoid the idea of forcing it for constant uses. Last group are melee dps for them this is not that bad idea to play human i mean there are better choises but atlest we can afford to use this quite often and it will be useful. This race is good overall but not the best for anyone if i would pick and play human i would go for class like monk,paladin,fighter,barbarian. Those classes can play with decent intellect and also they will not die easy. i'll give this race 5/10 rate.

 

Aumaua offer bonus: +2 to might

Might is one of the safest attribute choices and here we got free +2 points. This bonus works good with both subraces and mostly all of the classes.

Island Aumaua offer passive skill Armed to the teeth which give you + 1 weapon sets.

In short useles subrace but, bonus +1 weapon sets is only used in 1 build and this build is preloaded firearms and use a talent that allows us to change weapons with a smaller recovery time penalty and we take another +1 to weapon sets. Also this build doesn't use any specific class so we can use paladin with flame of devotion, ranger with wounding shot, rogue just for dmg or cipher for fast focus gain. And for those class i would consider this race unique build. Someone below also told that an additional weapon sets can be used to store more weapons with spells ye is it true i didn't consider that, still i think it doesn"t save this subrace. Think about it in battle if you need weapon with particular spell then you pick your normal weapon sets and then swap to another weapon and use your spells or vice versa. Is it even worth to bother when you mostly fight with weak enemy? Also how many spells with weapon are you planning to us in 1 battle because after every battle you can swap your used per encounter weapons and wear another one. As for this build i will tell 1 more thing the more action you need to do manually the more irritating it becomes. I saw there is a mod on nexus mod website for auto weapon swap after shot but i dont know if it still works or not. I'll give 1/10 rate for island aumaua.

Coastal Aumaua offer passive skill Towerimg Physique which give bonus +20 to defence against prone and stun.

bonus +20 to defence against stun and prone is great for everyone. Those afflictions are very powerful so i see no reason not to be more resistant to them. It also stack with any items bonuses so we can get huge amount of defence. The only minus is as for a casters and range characters aumaua is not the first choice to pick you will se below why. If i would pick this subrace i would go for class like fighter, paladin, monk, barbarian also priest and chanter seems not that bad and maybe druid. I'll give 7.5/10 rate for coastal aumaua.

 

Dwarf offer bonus +2 to might,+1 to constitution, -1 to dexterity.

I think their combination of attributes makes them perfect for being classes that want might and constitutions as high as possible also they dont care much about dexterity. The first what i can say is a tanks and barbarian, monk, fighter, chanter, priest. -1 to dexterity is bad thing only if you decide to max it but if you wanna set dexterity at 10 and maybe constitution at not maxed value then you basiccly got bonus +2 to might.

Mountain Dwarf offer passive skill Hale and Hardy which give you bonus +20 Defense against Poison and Disease. 

Bonus +20 to defense against poison and disease is huge it is true but those debuffs are not deadly and in most fight you will not even be worried about it. The only thing I can say about this subrace is that they are ordinary dwarves with a little plus. I'll give 2/10 rate for moutain dwarf.

Boreal Dwarf offer passive skill Hunter's Instincts which give bonus +15 to accuracy againts Primordials and Wilder.

Bonus +15 to accuracy against Primordials and Wilder is very good. In Pillars Of Eternity we will face them very often. I think primordials are quite tough and wilder live mostly in bigger pack. If we face them and we will, then we got significant bonus. I dont remember if i got any bigger problems fighting any bosses of those types. I personally prefer constant bonus that works every time. I'll give 6/10 rate for boreal dwarf.

 

Elf offer bonus +1 to dexterity, +1 to perception.

I think this combination af attrubites is pretty nice for everyone but i will not tell here what class is worth to go as elf. It depends mostly on what subrace you will pick.

Pale elf offer passive skill Elemental Endurance which give you bonus +10 to burn and freeze Damage reduction (DR). This is huge bonus is like wearing 2nd armor against those elemental damage type. This bonus stack with all other bonuses and also is buffed by armor type DR multiplier. This subrace is mostly good for tanks like paladin or fighter but if you pick it for any other purpose then you will not suffer also. I'll give 8/10 rate for pale elf.

Wood elf offer passive skill wily step which give you bonus +5 to accuracy/deflection/reflex but only against enemies 4m or more away from you. Accuracy offer offense. Reflex and deflection offer a little defense. I will not lie by telling you that this sub race is desired for any ranged characters. Mages, ciphers, rangers, rogues, druids, priests, chanters, paladins every class here is good but they need to keep 4m distance. In my opinion Wood elf is one on the most broken class hardly outmached by any other race of course if we are talking about ranged characters. I'll give 10/10 rate for wood elf.

Orlan offer bonus -1 to might, +2 to perception, +1 to resolve.

This combination of attributes is very unique i will tell about best classes in subraces.

Hearth orlan offer passive skill Minor Threat which give bonus +10% hits converted to crits if we are attacking the same enemy as an ally.

I think that the condition for activating this bonus is easy to meet if we are fighting against lesser number of enemies. Ofc our summoned creatures and ranger's animal companion also count as an ally. We can active this skill in close combat and at a distance. Crit conversion is very powerful because we deal additional 50% dmg + cdit mult and our cc attack/spell will last longer by 50% of duration. But if we want to cast a spell/skill on a big group then will not proc our passive skill on most enemies. For fighting against "bosses" then this skill is very good. I think we need to think about this skill more like o hey let's focus fire on the most dangerous opponent and weakling will die from crossfire. Over all this is a very powerful passive skill that we will active pretty often if we combine it with +2 to perception bonus we will crit very often with proper build and gear. If i would play this subrace then i would pick classes like fighter, rogue, ranger, mages, chanters, ciphers, druids. I'll give 9/10 rate for hearth orlan.

Godlike offer bonus +1 to dexterity, +1 to intellect

For me intellect is better the mire points you get so if you are playing class int focused then i would consider this race even before looking at the subraces bonus.

If you choose to play godlike race you will not be able to use helmet slot. So keep that in mind before picking this race !!!.

as ibsaid you will not be able to use helmet slot but in pillars of eternity we can create or pick up to 5 companions + you so we will have 6 people in party. As i remember even if we can get good helmets in the early game i would not say that we can dress up all the character. In my opinion pillars of eternity is not hard game but i think the most problems players can have early on, so even if we lose helmet slot we get powerful bonuses from subraces. Idk if this is important but from a plot reason i dont like this race i dont want to spoiler to much but if you want to know why i dont like them then read on wiki their origin. But if you are ok with it then i admit they look cool.

Death godlike offer passive Death's Usher which give bonus + 20% damage against low endurance enemies (i dont know if this value is 25%, 20%,15%,10% if you know pls link info).

Even if i dont know exact value of low endurance i can say this is passive mostly for kill steal effect. So if you want to do something after killing enemy then this subrace is not even that good. I think on kill effects are not that important in pillars of eternity but even if you want to your specific character to kill enemy then this 20% bonus dmg is not big enough to justify losing helmet slot. I would choose other subrace or race. I'll give 2/10 rate for death godlike.

Nature godlike offer passive Wellspring of Life which give bonus +3 to might,constitution,dexterity when your endurance is 50% or lower.

I think this passive is similar to human racial passive but we dont get any bonus from intellect but also if we heal back to full hp and then we got hurt again to 50% end or lower then we will have this passive back. I can say this bonuses to attributes give us tons of fortitiude and some reflex and action speed some dmg some endurance it doesnt look bad the only problem i got that you need to be constant at 50% hp or lower. For character with high constitution and lower deflection this should not be problem. You will lose hp easy and you will not die that fast so you can rly use this buff. I give 6/10 rate for nature godlike.

Fire godlike offer passive Battle-Forged which give bonus to Damage reduction and also when attacker hit us we will hit back them with a little fire damage.

Here we got a very unique passive, damage reduction scale with our armor type and also stack with any other bonus. If i'm right we get bonus to RO +4 at all level. For early gare this number is huge so if we want to play a little lighter armor high constitution character then this bonus will help a lot. In the late game +4 RO is not gonna change anything. As for the lash fire damage it scale with level scale with our might and scale with any other damage or fire damage type bonuses. I will tell my opinion this burn damage is not high tanks will not use it much because they will not lose hp to 50% or lower. Tbh only monk and barbarian invest enough points into constitution and might to make this passive valuable. I will say this again i dont like skills that work if we are under 50% hp and we need to stay at that endurance threshold. I'll give 5/10 rate for fire godlike.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 26 by Nater

[Chaospread]

4 hours ago, Nater said:

bonus +1 weapon sets is only used in 1 build and this build is preloaded firearms and use a talent that allows us to change weapons with a smaller recovery time penalty and we take another +1 to weapon sets. Also this build doesn't use any specific class so we can use paladin with flame of devotion, ranger with wounding shot, rogue just for dmg or cipher for fast focus gain. And for those class i would consider this race unique build. As for this build i will tell 1 more thing the more action you need to do manually the more irritating it becomes. I saw there is a mod on nexus mod website for auto weapon swap after shot but i dont know if it still works or not. I'll give 5/10 rate for island aumaua

+1 weapon sets is an underrated ability. It is not only useful for "firearms builds" but one more set means one or two more weapons (or shields) which have more abilities the pg can use, i.e. a fighter could have 3 fireballs with "The Flames of Fair Rhîan" and 2 suppress afflictions with "Forgotten Tear of the Beloved" (and 1 Prayer Against Treachery on top), so it can be used well in some situations.
There is a talent that give you one more weapon set, but if you pick island aumaua you can get 2 more chances of expand your ability or you can save one talent for other purpose.

I appreciate it.