Party composition

[Madscientist]

It is only one month until I can finally play and so I already had lots of time to think about how to play.

My party will have only companions ( no soulless mercenaries) and look like this ( if there are companions with these classes, no spoilers please):

- fighter tank (all defense, engage as many enemies as possible)

- paladin and chanter as melee fighters

- mage and cipher (main char) as casters

- priest as healer

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I watched some videos and saw:

-Most chars were naked and went for max damage. Does it make sense to have a tank in the party?

- All parameters that affect damage are multiplicators (might gives +X%, high quality weapons and crits give x1.5, . . . ). It looks like the game favours weapons with a big base damage. (A small number multiplied with something is still small, a big number multiplied with something gets very big.) In DnD games, strengh, feats and most enchantments added a flat number and only crit was a multiplicator)

[Abel]

Didn't tried the beta, but it seems weird to me to have the chanter as a "melee fighter"

 

Since i want to play with minimum rests (once per day if possible), the tank is very important for me. They really can take many damage without suffering to much from them, engaging opponents and protecting casters and archers on the backline. I may even want to have 2 pure fighters, and 2 priests to help them survive all the fight long, even when strongly outnumbered. It's the better way i see to avoid the "one fight/one rest" problem which i really don't like. The purpose of the fighters are to engage ennemies and protec distance damage dealers here.

[Havelok]

I'm conflicted as to whether I'd want to build Eder as a Tank because his character concept was originally a rogue, which is all damage. It might go against his backstory/personality. However, we shall see. 

 

And yes, the penalties for wearing heavy armor in this game seem pretty steep, but again I'll probably try my best to ignore them for roleplaying purposes. 

 

Keep in mind that you probably won't know which characters you want to play with until you meet them. If you care about the "soul" of a companion, there will probably be certain companions you will like over others regardless of class. 

 

I am personally going to try and keep three characters in the front line and three in the back, but who knows if that will work out. 

[Valmy]

no soulless mercenaries

 

My mercenaries will be loaded with souls!

 

I do wonder if one must have a priest.

Edited February 24, 2015 by Valmy

[Leferd]

I'm conflicted as to whether I'd want to build Eder as a Tank because his character concept was originally a rogue, which is all damage. It might go against his backstory/personality. However, we shall see.

Not a big deal but actually, his original concept was a fighter. It was converted to rogue mid-project and then reverted back to fighter again.

[Valmy]

The main reason you traditionally wanted a rogue was for scouting and traps/locks.  But it looks like a chanter could handle the traps/locks fine and Rogues are more damage dealers now.  I guess they are no longer an essential part of a party.

[White Phoenix]

I agree rouge is unnecessary now, when we have Mechanic skill available for everyone. My party:

 

- Me (a priest)

- fighter

- chanter (ancient memory makes you 'immortal'!)

- paladin (good support for fighter, high defenses and can do much harm)

- druid (must have! many status effects and AOE!)

- wizard (classic)/maybe cipher

Edited February 24, 2015 by White Phoenix

[LadyCrimson]

I do wonder if one must have a priest.

I've been wondering the same thing. Some rpg's it feels mandatory to actually have the "priest" class in party, some it doesn't.

[Havelok]

 

I do wonder if one must have a priest.

I've been wondering the same thing. Some rpg's it feels mandatory to actually have the "priest" class in party, some it doesn't.

 

 

There is a lot less emphasis on healing in PoE due to the lore, so I don't think it will feel necessary. The priest in the BB is mostly a strong Buffer/Debuffer with some offensive spells thrown in. Definitely some endurance regen but it doesn't seem to be the focus. 

[White Phoenix]

 

I do wonder if one must have a priest.

I've been wondering the same thing. Some rpg's it feels mandatory to actually have the "priest" class in party, some it doesn't.

 

I think it's must have. Only priest can heal your party (many AOE spells) and has good buffs. You can try with chanter too, but I prefer priest-chanter combo. Chanter invocations are like priest spell (so good), but they are limited by chants Their only superior thing is Ancient memory with Beloved Spirits talent (it is better than Holy Radiance). Priest has also spells against status effects, very useful in hard encounters and so on. Priest is really hard to replace.

[Valmy]

Ok then my party will probably be:

Main (Merewen "Merry") Chanter

Other Main (Soulless Mercenary Eothric "Rick") Priest

Companion Fighter

Companion Cipher (or maybe the Druid)

Companion Paladin

Companion Wizard

 

That should work fine.

[Mannock]

 

 

I do wonder if one must have a priest.

I've been wondering the same thing. Some rpg's it feels mandatory to actually have the "priest" class in party, some it doesn't.

 

I think it's must have. Only priest can heal your party (many AOE spells) and has good buffs. You can try with chanter too, but I prefer priest-chanter combo. Chanter invocations are like priest spell (so good), but they are limited by chants Their only superior thing is Ancient memory with Beloved Spirits talent (it is better than Holy Radiance). Priest has also spells against status effects, very useful in hard encounters and so on. Priest is really hard to replace.

 

 

I totally agree. Priest is a must in this game, in my opinion.

 

I'm actually thinking of making a priest PC, and therefor have two priests in my party.

[LadyCrimson]

I'm actually thinking of making a priest PC, and therefor have two priests in my party.

That would be my next question ... if a priest feels like a must, does that mean two priests is even better.

 

...in some games I'd do stuff like no-melee fighter parties just because I like unconventional parties. It's going to be interesting to see what one can get away with in PoE, from what tidbits I've been reading in the beta forums.

[Ark Evensong]

There is a priest companion, though. Even if it's not Cadegund.

Unless I'm mistaken, the only classes not covered by possible companions are Barbarian, Monk and Rogue.

 

Haven't played enough of the Beta to really be able to say whether or not a Priest is really 'needed'. (Mostly played on Easy difficulty, and then you can basically do whatever.) They're useful, certainly, but I think you can plug the hole with other classes.

 

The Health/Endurance system is basically there so you don't need a dedicated healer. If you can survive the fight, you don't need a healer to patch you back up afterwards.

 

EDIT: Welp, a little late with this reply. I'll trust the more experienced Beta testers.

Edited February 24, 2015 by Ark Evensong

[DarkWanderer]

Well few months ago having priest was a must, but now i'm not so sure. I've heard that the game isn't as deadly as it was before - either by correcting the bugs connected with interruptions and such or just by lowering the difficulty level (??) ... or both. I'm struggling with this choice (having priest in my party) myself - as i like to play dmg oriented party - so dmg dealers and buffers/debuffers/crowd controlers, but no healers and tanks - but sometimes, as said before, it's simply a MUST.

[ISC]

I havnt played the beta, but I've watched just about every video there is and I cant say I feel that the priest seem that necessary. For several reasons:

 

1. a good tank will soak up tons of damage and regenerates, meaning that it is really only when you screw up, or when a fight drags on for a long time, that priests are vital.

2. other than that, people regenerate their endurance between fights and the priest cant heal health anyway.

3. there are some really potent endurance potions in the game anyway, and even if they are nerfed it seems as if they can do much of what the priest does in terms of endurance-healing.

4. reaching zero endurance do not kill characters.

 

I get the feeling that poe is not like IE in the sense that you heal to sustain your front lines during just about any battle - or in between them - and is much more about outmaneuvering your opponents offensively. That said, priests still appear quite useful.

 

more OT: with the current game I'd prob build a party mostly around per-encounter/refundable abilities and try to fit in the new classes, so chanters and ciphers are def in, and perhaps the monk/barbarian/paladin. Wizards and druids do appear useful though...

[DarkWanderer]

I havnt played the beta, but I've watched just about every video there is and I cant say I feel that the priest seem that necessary. For several reasons:

 

1. a good tank will soak up tons of damage and regenerates, meaning that it is really only when you screw up, or when a fight drags on for a long time, that priests are vital.

2. other than that, people regenerate their endurance between fights and the priest cant heal health anyway.

3. there are some really potent endurance potions in the game anyway, and even if they are nerfed it seems as if they can do much of what the priest does in terms of endurance-healing.

4. reaching zero endurance do not kill characters.

 

I get the feeling that poe is not like IE in the sense that you heal to sustain your front lines during just about any battle - or in between them - and is much more about outmaneuvering your opponents offensively. That said, priests still appear quite useful.

 

more OT: with the current game I'd prob build a party mostly around per-encounter/refundable abilities and try to fit in the new classes, so chanters and ciphers are def in, and perhaps the monk/barbarian/paladin. Wizards and druids do appear useful though...

Yea, but we don't know how the entire games looks, and what kind of enemies awaits us. There can be bosses out there which may inflict crazy dmg or have plenty health - and the fight will last a long time - or there can be some spots with hordes of enemies, where one tank  wont save us without the help of the priest.

 

And as far as i remember, the potions are present in the game, but they are not that easy to obtain - are basically rare-ish.

 

So it would be nice to hear from some dev about it.

[Mannock]

 

I'm actually thinking of making a priest PC, and therefor have two priests in my party.

That would be my next question ... if a priest feels like a must, does that mean two priests is even better.

 

...in some games I'd do stuff like no-melee fighter parties just because I like unconventional parties. It's going to be interesting to see what one can get away with in PoE, from what tidbits I've been reading in the beta forums.

 

 

Two priests are better than none at any rate.

[White Phoenix]

I agree game is easier it was before (normal feels like former easy for me now), but I always got hard beating from Wymund and his band in beta. And they are only priests With some really annoying support chanter, cipher and so on. This fight is maybe too overpowered. And potions are hard to use (I have problems with them) because of recovery. Healing from priest is faster than that, until you wears brigantine (it terribly slows casting).

[Dr. Hieronymous Alloy]

After playing the beta for a bit, my plan is Fighter, Paladin, Chanter, Priest, Cipher, Wizard.

 

Healing is important but at least on Hard difficulty characters take damage and get healed very quickly and just due to reaction and casting time issues it's better to have passive than active healing, but the priest can provide passive heals.

 

The bigger issue is buffing and debuffing. Since buffs generally aren't going to stack with themselves you want a wide variety of abilities; two spells buffing your party's damage resistance won't stack with each other, but a spell buffing party DR and a spell debuffing enemy damage will. So a priest and a chanter is going to be more useful than two priests or two chanters (though you could make an all priest or all chanter party work if you really wanted).

[Lephys]

As far as the "Priest is necessary" thing, that's not entirely true. Sure, in certain fights, the healz will be very, very useful. While, in others, they'll be almost completely unnecessary. Also depends on how you play, and what your party composition is. And maybe on higher difficulty settings, sure. It's quite possible.

 

Also, as far as having to heal up after every fight, I just played a bit on Easy last night, and I got through 4 or 5 fights in a row without resting at all. Everyone still had plenty of spells/abilities (mostly used per-encounter ones), and more than 75% Health left. That's more than I can say for any D&D-based game. "Did my Wizard with 7 HP get hit at all during this fight? He did? Well, let's all rest, then."

 

Granted, that's on Easy. But, I don't really know what I'm doing (I don't have familiarity with all the abilities and such, so I'm basically a complete nub at playing the game.). If I knew what I was doing, I'd imagine Normal, and maybe even Hard, would still be not too terrible (although, I'd expect that by Hard difficulty, it shouldn't really have its name if it doesn't start making you REALLY master the game to still have plenty of Health after a bunch of consecutive fights.)

[mychal26]

I would say the only thing that is necessary, at least on harder difficulties, is ensuring that the group has attack abilites that can penetrate all defense types (Def, For, Ref, and Will). Nothing is worse than hacking at a single enemy with huge Def and Ref and not being able to touch them since your characters attack can't bypass those defenses (which I would imagine would be a problem for an all same class party - moreso for melee).

[Bazy]

Priests are not necessary. The healing output was never that high and got nerfed pretty hard. 

 

Scrolls, Potions, and food all provide massive buffs and healing currently. They are the only thing that feels "mandatory."

[LadyCrimson]

I seem to recall early on that there was an intent that if you wanted to use a party of six of one class, you could, it would just be difficult. Saw the PCWorld interview  from 5 days ago where Sawyer says pretty much the same thing, so seems to me that whether you want a priest in your party (or a "typical" party makeup) is up to you....and one's preferred playstyle. So...I think I'm going to assume a priest is not "necessary" and my first party will attempt to not have any. 

 

We did design the game so you don't have to have a nuclear party. You don't need to have a fighter, a rogue, a wizard and a priest if you don't want to. You can make gimmick parties, you can make a party that's all paladins or all rogues and wizards. Whatever you want. It is designed so the game will be viable and completable no matter how you built your party.

 

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2886976/pillars-of-eternity-josh-sawyer-talks-mods-pc-first-focus-big-head-mode-and-more.html

[Chilloutman]

I seem to recall early on that there was an intent that if you wanted to use a party of six of one class, you could, it would just be difficult. Saw the PCWorld interview  from 5 days ago where Sawyer says pretty much the same thing, so seems to me that whether you want a priest in your party (or a "typical" party makeup) is up to you....and one's preferred playstyle. So...I think I'm going to assume a priest is not "necessary" and my first party will attempt to not have any. 

 

We did design the game so you don't have to have a nuclear party. You don't need to have a fighter, a rogue, a wizard and a priest if you don't want to. You can make gimmick parties, you can make a party that's all paladins or all rogues and wizards. Whatever you want. It is designed so the game will be viable and completable no matter how you built your party.

 

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2886976/pillars-of-eternity-josh-sawyer-talks-mods-pc-first-focus-big-head-mode-and-more.html

 

Well, its not necessary to equip weapons but most of us will do so