Aloth the Pin Cushion

[MightyUnclean]

I just had Aloth join my party, and man, he can't take a punch.  Sometimes he gets one-shotted, and this is on EASY mode.  Also, he seems to be an aggro magnet.  What am I doing wrong?  Is there a secret to keeping him alive, other than keeping him in the back of the line?

 

Thanks!

[Stun]

He's a wizard. He should be stationed at the very end of the "line" or whatever party formation you're using. And if he's not casting his spells from way out in left field somewhere, you should have him equipped with one of the various ranged weapons, like a rod or scepter or pistol etc..

 

Still, in those situations where the enemy manages to break your front line and get to your Wizard, there are a few things you can do. Look at the spells you have in your grimoire. If you have any that cause the various malady states (like prone, daze, stun etc.) use them, then get the hell away. if you don't then have your fighter rush to your wizard's side and activate a knockdown, then get the hell away. The various mirror image spells, or Arcane Veil (if you have it), are also sort of useful to cast if you need to protect yourself from an enemy who's engaging you.

 

Other than that...you can always just dump Aloth. You don't need a Wizard in this game. Druids, Chanters and Ciphers are all excellent 'spell' casters (better than wizards, IMO)

 

But the game gets easier as you level. You will eventually find yourself surviving far more easily when you get to around level 6 or 7.

Edited April 5, 2015 by Stun

[Caerdon]

A few ideas:

- keep him close to someone who can protect him but who's not the main tank of the party

- get either Arcane Veil or Grimoire Slam

- give him hatchet & shield (or two hatchets) as secondary weapon set

- Put on some heavier armor when facing Shadows (really, that's a perfectly OK thing to do)

[Dongom]

Put a knockdown ward on him if there are teleporting enemies.  Otherwise leave him in the back and he shouldn't get hit.

 

Use him to completely lock down the battlefield if things might reach him anyways.

[Akos]

Pillars of Eternity has an engagement system where enemies you who are within melee range of you will get a fairly powerful attack off on you if you try to move out of range of them. I know a mistake I made with Aloth early on is that I'd try to have him run out of melee range to try to position a spell or just get swords out of his face; this often turned out to be a mistake as he'd be quickly skewered when he tried to run. You can tell what enemies are engaged with whom by the red, arched line that travels from their combat circle to your own. Similarly, your characters have a green line that runs from them to the enemy they are engaged with.  

Eder has an ability called 'Defender' that increases his engagement allowance to three, effectively allowing him to keep three targets occupied and off the rest of your team. Beyond that, it's important to position your team so that Aloth is in the back while your melee fighters are in the front and able to keep enemies attention so that they can't get to your squishy mages. Naturally this becomes easier with more units in your party. 

Take advantage of your environment as well; walls, doorways, or anything you can use to keep enemies boxed in are good so that enemies can't physically move around your front line. Open fights with crowd control effects that make it difficult for enemies to maneuver. Move Aloth or other squishy characters early and try to intercept enemies running at him with any melee unit who isn't going to suffer a disengagement attack for moving away. I usually Disable Auto-Attack as well, as it's sometimes better to have a Wizard stand ready to launch off a spell than it is to occupy his cast bar with auto-attacks. 

[demeisen]

I'm playing a wizard main and yep, they are quite frail, especially near the beginning of the game.  1-2 hits and it's all over (assuming robes for armor).  Which I'm cool with - they are supposed to be frail.

 

For most outdoor fights without teleporting enemies, I just run Eder into the middle of things and he's pretty good about holding engagement.  Plus the enemy AI isn't the brightest (I think this could use improvement in future patches), so it becomes fairly safe to have my wizard saunter on over to the action and cast his short rage per-fight spells, then back away again and watch to see if he needs to get more involved.

 

Teleporting enemies that like to pick on the wizard are harder, but for those I sometimes just park him around a bend somewhere out of visibility, and finish the fight with the rest.  Honestly the only fights that aren't quite easy in "Hard" mode are boss fights, so for the others, I don't really need the wizard for anything, and the rest of the group can handle things with one hand tied behind their back.  PoD, I dunno, might be a different story.

 

There are also some spells and abilities that will help if your wizard accidentally gets aggro, like Veil.  Other classes can help too - e.g, priests get a spell that will temporarily freeze enemies and usually let the wizard get away without being hit.  Also they have one to temporarily protect a single character from damage, and you can use that time to have the rest of the group pound on whatever took a dislike to your wizard.

 

Use the terrain to your advantage too.  Often in dungeons tanks can block doorways and your wizard will be quite safe back there.

[luzarius]

1. scout the area in sneak mode

2. setup a custom formation and put him in the back

3. make sure tank is in front

4. while in sneak mode, if you see an enemy then stop immediately.

5. begin positioning your party and setup for the incoming fight.

6. when everyone is in position, go for a ranged stealth attack if possible

7. let the enemies come towards you, since aloth is in the back he can start attacking with his ranged sceptre attacks

8. the enemies should swarm your tank since he was in the front

9. have aloth launch his magic aoe attacks on the enemies that are on your tank

10. if aloth gets swarmed by an enemy, use his freeze ability to freeze the enemy, then disengage

Edited April 5, 2015 by luzarius

[Emptiness]

He was knocked out so frequently for me in the early part of the game that when he ended up dying I didn't even bother to reload.  I'm going to try to keep him alive next time...but no promises.

[ManifestedISO]

Aloth is rad, but his lot in life is to be unconscious. I'm only 6th Level, but I have fun with him anyway. This game is bonkers good. 

 

[ManifestedISO]

**Sorry, double post, forum is understandably strained. Game is still awesome. 

Edited April 5, 2015 by ManifestedISO

[Parsong]

Replace him with GM or the Harvy, until like level 10+ when Aloth gets that one or two decent Wizard spells that do long CC.

[EoniaBansbane]

Wizards/Mages are always kept in the back of the line, right behind the archer ranks.

Aloth will have it hard at first, since you're only two people, but you can get Edér to join in the same village, who's a decent Frontline Warrior.

He should pull the interests of the enemies away from Aloth more.

 

People already gave very good recomendations here.

Still, I like having Aloth with me rather than that weird Monk or Kana. Kana is somewhat annoying over the cause of playtime xD