Five years after completing PoE1 I have decided to finally get around to Deadfire. As I still have my save game (I knew about importing saves so I kept it around) I would like to continue exactly the same character I had in PoE1. The only question is how to build it?

In PoE1 I had a Moon Godlike Priest of Berath focused on buffing and acting as extra melee with a great sword. And healing.

I've been looking around how viable this character would be and am in two minds. On one hand, people say that to be a strong buffer stay a SC Priest, and on the other hand that an SC Priest won't really be able to fight in melee so I need to MC. Do I need to?

What are people's thoughs on an SC buffer/melee/healer Priest of Berath? the thing I am okay to sacrifice is spell-based damage. Is such a character viable or should I choose and go SC buffer or MC cleric?

A single class Priest can absolutely fight in melee. It's just so that his damage output with a weapon would be better if he multiclassed with a class which added some melee prowess.

But in general you can stand in the front line and swing a great sword. I place Xoit as SC Priest at the front line all the time - often with a Morning Star - and it works fine. Will she be tanking many enemies? No - but that's not her role. But she can stand her ground against an enemy or two for long enough.

In Deadfire, a Priest of Berath can summon a spiritual great sword for himself which has a nice corrosive lash that grows if your reputation matches your god's dispositions. It can become quite powerful. That way even a single class Priest can contribute with weapon damage.

If you are okay with giving up the highest tier spells you can multiclass with not much regret. I personally love to multiclass a Priest with the Helwalker Monk because this has two main kinds of synergies:

1. better melee output: with stuff such as Lightning Strikes + Turning Wheel and some attack abilities such as Force of Anguish or Torment's Reach you can do some serious damage, especially when paired with the spiritual great sword (resulting in a shocking lash, a burning lash and a corrosive lash on the sword). Also the high MIG of the Helwalker leads to more weapon damage.

2. the Helwalker can offer +15 MIG (+1 MIG per wound and +5 from Thunderous Blows) and +10 INT (Turning Wheel) which are both fantastic buffs for casting: INT enlargens the AoEs and prolongs all durations, MIG raises damage and healing power(!). Spells like Shining Beacon profit a lot from +15 MIG (higher dmg per tick) and +10 INT (a lot more ticks) and so does healing over time such as Consecrated Ground.

Aso you can be a bit faster (Lightning Strikes add +5 DEX and +15% action speed) and get some other goodies. The Monk is a great multiclass choice for a lot of classes, Priest is no exception.

Thanks for the exhaustive reply! I see what you mean with the Helwalker MC. It is very tempting but it seems much more melee focused than I'd like. Does this MC not take too much away from the priest I want being first and foremost a buffer, and melee only second? The INT buff you mention requires the character the character to be in the front line first.

8 hours ago, havoc242 said:

The INT buff you mention requires the character the character to be in the front line first.

Not if you use (Enduring) Dance of Death.

But if you want your Priest to mainly buff and only occasionally fight then I'd pick single class Priest.