Request: Build Ideas for a Full "Canon" Playthrough

[Lordbolt118]

Hey everyone! Long time lurker, but I've finally decided to post because I need some help with an upcoming project. I'm replaying the Pillars duology as part of a grand "Let's Play" that I've wanted to make for years but have only recently found the time to do. I'm really excited, but I've basically got myself in a bit of a whirl trying to plan a character that will work well across both games.

In general, I'm pretty great at character building in the first game, which I have much more experience with. I've completed the game on Path of the Damned difficulty twice now, so I have no real worries about that. I'm more nervous about Deadfire -- I've played Path of the Damned up 'til the Forgotten Sanctum before, but then I had to switch it off because the enemies were just too tough and my builds just weren't good enough. So I'm pretty fine with any build for Pillars 1, but for Deadfire, I want something that will, ngl, steamroll the late-game content with any group of supporting characters (I play with story companions and usually bring the ones with the most reactivity, so party composition can be a bit... wild).

I'm trying to make this feel as "canon" as possible, which obviously varies for everyone, so for me it's the following:

- Watcher is fundamentally good and tries to get the good endings for quests (no blood pool!).

- Usually side with traditionalist Crucible Knights and give the souls to Berath at the end.

- Watcher makes good use of Abydon's Hammer in the first game and ideally, Modwyr in the second (and if possible, Whispers of the Endless Paths because I just think it's neat).

- Ideally, Watcher gets a lot of dialogue options, which means reasonable Resolve in the first game and probably Diplomacy skill in the second game? Honestly, skills totally confuse me in the second game, so if anyone has any idea what the optimal way of spreading skills is, I'd love to know.

- Watcher doesn't "step on" or "obsolete" a companion e.g., no "Sagani-but-better" or "Rekke-but-with-better-subclasses".

Ideally, the class would be something martial and melee, but I'm very open to suggestions. One class should carry through both games, but I'm open to multiclassing in Deadfire. I'd like them to be able to wear really cool armor, but I don't want a character that's a total tank and doesn't contribute meaningfully to damage in combat.

Some thoughts I've had:

- Kind Wayfarer makes sense in terms of accepting every single quest you get given!

- Probably not a cipher as I feel like that class steps on the "Watcher" thing a bit and also steps over Grieving Mother/Serafen having cool mind-powers if you also have them!

- I usually make Eder a swashbuckler, so I'm avoiding swashbucklers. Likewise, I usually make Rekke a brawler, so I'm avoiding those. In fact, my preferred classes are: Eder [Swashbuckler], Xoti [Contemplative], Aloth [Wizard], Tekehu [Theurge], Maia [undecided], Pallegina [undecided], Rekke [Brawler], Mirke [Shadowdancer], Konstanten [Howler], Vatnir [Zealot], Ydwin [Mindstalker], Fassina [Sorcerer].

I know this is a wild request, so honestly any contribution is hugely appreciated, even just an idea or two would go a long way to making me feel a bit more comfortable with the Deadfire leg of the journey. If you can think of broke builds that would be awesome too, most of the ones I have seen rely on "naughty" subclasses like Blood Mage or Steel Garrote which IMO doesn't fit the character vision very well. I'm very open to suggestions so let me know what you think if you get a chance, and thanks again!

[yorname]

Spellblade is a fun class to try. Wizard gives you good AOE weapons (arguably better than any gear) to use the debuffing Rogue abilities. For example an AOE Confounding Blind is very powerful and quite hard to find an alternative from other classes. The only downside is it doesn't need a lot of optimizing, so Aloth as spellblade is almost as good as the watcher.

Barbarian for PoE and a barbarian multiclass for Deadfire makes sense in terms of both consistency and metagaming. In PoE you get a barbarian really late, yet it's a very strong class, so playing as one yourself is ideal. Barbarian in Deadfire can use some optimizations, so playing as the watcher, who you have total control and can potentially get much higher stats is much better than a companion barbarian. Single class barbarian is kind of meh until lv19, so I recommend multiclass. But if you don't mind the power curve, single class barbarian is still a solid choice.

For single class barbarian, Furyshaper is the "base barbarian plus", Blood Ward is very useful.

For multiclass, choose either base class or Berserker. The two wards Furyshaper get doesn't scale very well into late game. Corpse-Eater and Mage Slayer are basically downgrades if you don't use mods.

Since in Deadfire Carnage doesn't synergize with many things, a monk who can massively improve your action speed, MIG and INT is one of the better multiclass options. Check @Boeroer's guide here. If you feel it's too risky, you can replace either side, or even both, with base classes, and it still works very well.

[Boeroer]

Hi,

if I'd only read until 

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So I'm pretty fine with any build for Pillars 1, but for Deadfire, I want something that will, ngl, steamroll the late-game content with any group of supporting characters

I would have suggested Druid for PoE and Single Class Druid for Deadfire. Druids in PoE are just great (and can be great in melee fights, too) and my lastest playthrough in Deadfire was with a SC Fury using the great Sword Effort (extremely potent if you combine Avenging Storm and Effort's Hemorrhaging enchantment). Forgotten Sanctum was a breeze - I just brute-forced the Oracle into Oblivion with a thousand Avenging Storm procs on top of my Great Maelstrom.  

But then I read about the weapon requirements. While Abydon's Hammer can be great for a Druid (+4 MIG while casting) you won't use it in melee (but Spiritshift) - and Modwyr in Deadfire is of little use for a Druid of course.

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Kind Wayfarer is not such a bad choice I think. Don't know about Abydon's Hammer because Kind Wayfarer's FoD is best used with a two-weapon setup - but in Deadfire a Kind Wayfarer with Modwyr and maybe the Watcher's Blade can work well.

If you go single class you can use Divine Retribution at Power Level 9 and a fellow Chanter who summons skeletons to gain unlimited Zeal for endless spamming of Flames of Devotion/White Flames. This is very useful in difficult encounters because you deal damage with very high accuracy (FoD: +10 ACC, Ring of Focused Flames: +10 ACC) and heal your party (and yourself) at the same time. Then it's also no problem to use Sacred Immolation: the self damage gets easily healed by your own White Flames.

But you'd need one (or more) Chanters in the party who can constantly deliver weak summons (easiest way is chanting Many Lives Pass By). 

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Classes which usually make it easier to really steamroll the late game with a party are Monk, Bloodmage, Priest, certain kinds of Druids (see above, but also Bloodmage/Lifegiver), SC Beckoner is bonkers with 8(!) Animated Weapons as I recently experienced (used him to support a dual pistol SC Kind Wayfarer, Beckoner stole the show but the KW was very nice, too), Tactician has the potential to break the game as well. 

I don't see any pure melee guy with Modwyr really walzing through encounters in the late game. Their impact can be important, but it's usually too limited to single target damage most of times. That can be useful to take down priority targets, but it doesn't feel like steamrolling. The aforementioned Kind Wayfarer has the benefit that he heals (all the time) while dishing out weapon damage (and AoE damage). Wouldn't say he steamrolls anything - but he surely makes every party a whole lot sturdier.  

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I forgot that you could make a Berserker/Troubadour and use Grave Calling as main weapon. This is a game breaking setup (kill your own skeletons with Grave Calling which procs a Chillfog which kills your skeletons which procs more Chillfogs and so on) - but it's hard with a party (they usually cannot come close) and also kind of boring at some point. Also is hard on the graphics card...

 

Edited December 12 by Boeroer

[Chaospread]

15 hours ago, Boeroer said:

SC Fury using the great Sword Effort (extremely potent if you combine Avenging Storm and Effort's Hemorrhaging enchantment)

I'm sorry, I don't catch the point: would be better using a multi-hit weapon and/or two weapons setup with avenging storm (more proc per time)? I don't also see how the sickened or hobbled impact so much with avenging storm, can you elaborate please?

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Also is hard on the graphics card...

About the OP request: I think the best melee class to go both game also powerful in 1 as well in 2 and neat as single class in Deadfire is monk. Plenty of ways to build it with subclass in Deadfire, see previous suggestions.
Modwyr is good versus INT affliction and with a monk you can use well the speed enchantment, but I agree, there are many more effective weapons for monks. Abydon's hammer is great for caster, I agree, but could be also funny for a monk in some encounters.
With Berath ending a Paladin can fit well (RPG-wise), I'd like to multiclass him with a chanter in Deadfire - the King of auras But Berath and always good endings for quest... mmm, it can be, but hard I suppose.

[Lordbolt118]

Okay so wow, firstly, thanks everyone for your detailed contributions! I've definitely got a lot to think about...

I feel like I've narrowed my options down somewhat to the following:

- Spellblade. With Aloth as a pure wizard, playing as a spellblade seems like it could be really fun! I love the variety in wizard spells in Pillars of Eternity 1, so getting to experience lots of different spells would be great, and I think it would also show off a lot of cool stuff for the LP. I'm also considering battlemage, which feels to me like it could be an excellent combination too. Are there any gear recommendations for spellblades and battlemages that I should be aware of going in? Two-handed weapons? Dual wielding? This seems like a really fun option, and I feel Aloth as a single-class wizard would still put on a really good show and be differentiated well from the MC. Also I'm definitely gay romancing Aloth so wizard boyfriends would be a vibe.

- Barbarian single/multiclass I also think could be super fun. Maneha feels like she can do her own thing (I've actually used the Golden Dragon build for her before, love that build!) and I love the idea of smashing things with a giant hammer. In Deadfire, I wonder if two-weapon fighting is viable for a barbarian, or barb/monk multiclass? I love the Fountain of Woe build but honestly kinda hate the mace aesthetic!

- Druid... doesn't seem like such a bad idea. I'd love to do a melee druid with a more off-the-wall build and make Hiravias into a support/spiritshift character, so that could be super fun. Also, ngl, steamrolling the Forgotten Sanctum sounds very cathartic. How would you build such a druid - I'm not super experienced with them so not 100% on the best spells/combos/etc.

- Paladin. I've never done a pure-class paladin in Deadfire; what do they gain and lose compared to multiclass? In my head, they were always better multiclassed, but I'm not very good at Deadfire builds so I'm probably mistaken!

 

Thanks again everyone for all your help, it's massively appreciated. One last question is -- is there any companion or sidekick who would do well with the Whispers of the Endless Paths?
Thanks!!

[Boeroer]

5 hours ago, Chaospread said:

I'm sorry, I don't catch the point: would be better using a multi-hit weapon and/or two weapons setup with avenging storm (more proc per time)? I don't also see how the sickened or hobbled impact so much with avenging storm, can you elaborate please?

You must have been sleeping  

Hemorrhaging is universal, meaning it procs off of ALL crits - spells, weapon attacks, attack rolls from other items (Boltcatchers, Hylea's Talons, Ajamuut's Stalking Cloak, Ring of Clenched Muscle...) anything that can roll crit will trigger Hemorrhaging. So far, so good - but waht good does repeated appliance of hobble or sicken do (besides prolonging the duration of the hobble or sicken effect)?

Since Homorrhaging itself is a weapon enchantment it counts as a weapon attack! This means it will trigger Avenging Storm bolts. And what do Avenging Storm bolts trigger if they crit? Right: Hemorrhaging! And what does Hemorrhaging trigger? That's right again: Avenging Storm... You can see where this is going. It helps that Hylea's Talons and Ring of Clenched Musle also get triggered by Hemorrhaging and themselves can trigger Avenging Storm (and Hemorrhaging again). 

Any attack roll you can produce raises the chance that a crit occurs - which has the chance to proc Hemorrhaging which in turn procs Avenging Storm and so on.

Spells that do pulsing attack rolls (or even better, do multiple attack rolls per pulse) are awesome in order to trigger constant crits: Tanglefoot, Relentless Storm, Wicked Briars, Venombloom (multiple rolls per pulse) and so on. Great Maelstrom, too. 

There is no better weapon for a Fury (or any Druid who uses Avenging Storm). It also works for a Stormspeaker (Tekehu), the chants can trigger Avenging Storm from the invocation.
And for a little bit of melee fun: Taste of the Hunt + Effort's raw DoT is also not bad for the occasional strike with the blade (can also trigger an avalanche of Avenging Storm/Hemorrage of course).

@Constentin Lévine was the one who originally discovered this neat synergy. All props to him!

Maybe I'll do a little animated gif for showcasing at some point. Would spare me a lot of explanation I guess.

Edited December 13 by Boeroer

[Boeroer]

Ah well, I did make a short gif. Check it out:

first I cast Tanglefoot on the dummies and then Avenging Storm. Without doing anything else the Avenging Storms kill the dummies. Add more pulsing spells and especially Great Meastrom and they will die in seconds:

[Chaospread]

Wow! You explained it very good as usual, but videos is so impressive!
I didn't connect Effort enchantment with this insane chain of events!

Smells like cheese however Anyway, who cares?

[Boeroer]

10 minutes ago, Chaospread said:

Wow! You explained it very good as usual, but videos is so impressive!
I didn't connect Effort enchantment with this insane chain of events!

Nobody did until Constentine came along.

11 minutes ago, Chaospread said:

Smells like cheese however Anyway, who cares?

It's def. not intended and pretty cheesy, yes. But the fun kind! 

[thelee]

even though it's extremely cheesy, there's something very satisfying about seeing a chain of lightning bolts get triggered off a proc, especially if your crit rate isn't maximized so it doesn't always go crazy. it's like playing a slot machine.

 

if you add in an energized inspiration (very easy with least unstable coil, synergizes with avenging storm, as if avenging storm + effort needed any more help) you also stunlock the enemies as you bolt them to nothingness.

Edited December 13 by thelee

[Constentin Lévine]

Effort & Avenging Storm is devastating and SC druid is insane with this trick -- but also Mage Slayer / chanter (troubadour with Brisk Recitation) since chant apply the bolt from Avenging Storm ((from the Cacophony of Heaven or the Scroll) and also Spell Disruption, from Mage Slayer weapon's hit (only with Effort). Carnage cant crit, then cant apply the Hemorrhaging loop, but an interesting thing about Avenging Storm is you can stack 2 kinds of them : item enchantment stack with spell from scroll or druid. 

Edited December 13 by Constentin Lévine