"For fun" playthrough ideas

[MadDemiurg]

Ok, so having done 1 PotD playthrough with a custom party and 1.5 solo PotD playthroughs I'm looking for some "for fun" playthrough ideas.

 

One idea that I currently have is to create a barbarian tribe kind of party (all human, suboptimal stats), consisting of 2 barbs (no OSA ofc, and it might even get fixed when I start it anyway), 2 rangers with bears, a druid (bear form) and I'm not sure about #6. However that seems a bit dull in terms of micro.

 

Please share your ideas for thematic/fun playthroughs if you have any.

[AncientToaster]

That actually sounds pretty cool to be honest. 

[mazeltov]

Yeah it's about time to start brainstorming novelty playthroughs, though I hesitate to fully commit to any until at least the 1.05 balance patch.

 

--

 

The Interrupters, AKA the "Imma Let You Finish" build: Several characters with very high Perception, one or more ways to decrease enemy Concentration, and ideally, ways to deliver steady AoE attacks to cause mass Interrupts. Mine has a core of three Blast Wizards.

 

Tanky Flank: Six tanks at the same time, man. Three Fighters with weapon & buckler, for adequate protection while still delivering steady damage and tanking. Three Paladins, each of a different order, in plate with 2H'ers, each with a different Aura running, flanking the Fighters and gibbing enemies to activate on-kill Pally support abilities.

 

Elven Warband: Typical "six of one race" playthrough. Rather balanced party, green/brown color palette, elven themed classes. Mix of Wood Elves, Pale Elves. Good for roleplaying. Maybe they were sent to investigate Waidwen's Legacy.

 

And of course, all playthroughs on PotD using up to seventeen voluntary restrictions intended to tone down the inherent poor balance and cheesability that PoE is rife with.

 

 

[AncientToaster]

I think a Fighter would work. Not all tribesman are Barbarian's. I think if you made sure they were all wearing Hide Armor that would work out.

 

Fighter - Club or Axe w/ Shield 

Barbarian - Two Hander like a Pike or something

Barbarian - Dual wield axes or Clubs

Ranger - Bear

Druid - Bear Form

Druid - Stag

[Kaigen42]

Bridging off the Interrupt Build thread. I had an idea for a "Mosquitoes of Eir Glanfath" party composed of Wood Elves and Orlans devoted to interrupting as much as possible. Barbarian, Chanter, Druid, Wizard, Ranger, and Priest. Barbarian, Wizard, and Ranger all have ways to hit multiple enemies with auto-attacks to spread interrupts around. Druid, Chanter, Wizard, and Barbarian can all debuff enemy Concentration. And the Priest can buff the party's Perception and Accuracy (since interrupts are more likely to occur on hits than grazes and on crits than hits). If I can confirm that the unique weapons with superior interrupt ratings for their type actually work, I'll have to distribute those amongst the party.

 

Of course, I have to wait for them to fix Interrupting Blows first if I want to really push this concept.

Edited April 20, 2015 by Kaigen42

[MadDemiurg]

Yeah it's about time to start brainstorming novelty playthroughs, though I hesitate to fully commit to any until at least the 1.05 balance patch.

 

--

 

The Interrupters, AKA the "Imma Let You Finish" build: Several characters with very high Perception, one or more ways to decrease enemy Concentration, and ideally, ways to deliver steady AoE attacks to cause mass Interrupts. Mine has a core of three Blast Wizards.

 

Tanky Flank: Six tanks at the same time, man. Three Fighters with weapon & buckler, for adequate protection while still delivering steady damage and tanking. Three Paladins, each of a different order, in plate with 2H'ers, each with a different Aura running, flanking the Fighters and gibbing enemies to activate on-kill Pally support abilities.

 

Elven Warband: Typical "six of one race" playthrough. Rather balanced party, green/brown color palette, elven themed classes. Mix of Wood Elves, Pale Elves. Good for roleplaying. Maybe they were sent to investigate Waidwen's Legacy.

 

And of course, all playthroughs on PotD using up to seventeen voluntary restrictions intended to tone down the inherent poor balance and cheesability that PoE is rife with.

Interrupt-based party can be interesting to try out, yes.

 

6 tank sounds cool conceptually, but will be bit boring in terms of micro. Maybe no pausing restriction would make it more fun?

 

All elves would work pretty well, given how wood elves are the best ranged race and pale elves are one of the best tank races. I've been thinking about going "all ranged" elven party though. 1 Paladin with Zealous charge (or more like Zealous run away), 1 Chanter with frost steps, maybe a 2nd Chanter with speed chant (does it stacks with zealous?) and the rest - some mix of casters/ranged dps.

 

 

I think a Fighter would work. Not all tribesman are Barbarian's. I think if you made sure they were all wearing Hide Armor that would work out.

 

Fighter - Club or Axe w/ Shield 

Barbarian - Two Hander like a Pike or something

Barbarian - Dual wield axes or Clubs

Ranger - Bear

Druid - Bear Form

Druid - Stag

 

Yeah, Fighter can work, but I also kinda want someone with non zero mechanics I think, otherwise can be too tedious to max. Rogue is the best in this regard, but doesn't fit well thematically. Wizard is even worse. I suppose i can pull of a chanter as some sort of tribal singer instead of one of the barbs or druids.

Edited April 20, 2015 by MadDemiurg

[knownastherat]

My idea of fun is definitely not full party as  Its redundant and overpowered.

[MadDemiurg]

I've done solo already, and tbh a suboptimal full/semi full party can be reasonably challenging as well if you just charge into combat without preparing for it, using terrain/consumables and avoiding certain classes/abilities/spells.

[mazeltov]

Maybe no pausing restriction would make it more fun?

 

Why don't I go ahead and have the stroke now? 

 

Players would really have to step up their game with no pausing. Seems acceptable, since I'm not doing Trial of Iron on these playthroughs.

[LadyCrimson]

With all the fancy hats and capes, I keep wanting to make The Three Musketeers.

[knownastherat]

Pausing is core of IE games combat. Tip on loading screen confirms it. This is what the developers had in mind .. ouch eh?

 

Reducing number of party members is first and logical step to increasing difficulty, instead of imposing other artificial restrictions like restriction on resting... that is not what the developers had in mind.

 

3 wo/men party sounds about right. There is good number of combinations for 3 from existing pool of characters/classes.

Edited April 20, 2015 by knownastherat

[MadDemiurg]

With all the fancy hats and capes, I keep wanting to make The Three Musketeers.

Unfortunately rapiers and arquebuses are in different weapon groups. What were they thinking, eh? I suppose pistols + sabers is the closest you can get without going for 2 focus talents, but it's more like highwayman style. Maybe just go without focus at all :/. I suppose that would be fighers/paladins with fairly balanced offense and defense.

 

 

Pausing is core of IE games combat. Tip on loading screen confirms it. This is what the developers had in mind .. ouch eh?

 

Reducing number of party members is first and logical step to increasing difficulty, instead of imposing other artificial restrictions like restriction on resting... that is not what the developers had in mind.

 

3 wo/men party sounds about right. There is good number of combinations for 3 from existing pool of characters/classes.

 

No one's disputing that the combat is designed with pausing in mind. However, with all tank comp no pausing seems like a good self restriction to artificially increase micromanagement (pretend you're playing an RTS). 3 is a good middle ground, I agree.

Edited April 20, 2015 by MadDemiurg

[b0rsuk]

You can make a whole melee party without repeating a class!

 

Melee Fighter

Melee Barbarian

Melee Rogue

Melee Paladin

Melee Monk

Melee Chanter

Melee Ranger

 

One too many. You could remove Ranger, but not all abilities he has require ranged weapons. Vicious Aim requires ranged weapon, Swift Aim doesn't. Wounding Shot works with melee. Best to test with a hired adventurer first.

 

Primary mission objective: kill the Adra Dragon !

Edited April 20, 2015 by b0rsuk

[knownastherat]

Its all about what you/we consider as fun. For me problem solving is fun. For example, Druid, Ranger and Priest. Can they keep their summons up? While I do not dispute 6 melee can be fun, what is there to solve?

[Psychevore]

Currently doing an all Godlike run on PotD.

 

Nang Fah - Angel

Prasart - Castle

Leephai - (to) Shelter

Tamlairang - Destroyer

Phuphitak - Protector

Konrak-Tammachart - Nature lover (literally 'Person who loves nature')

 

Screens are taken directly after I made the last one. Didn't leave Gilded Vale yet then, squeezed out all the cash I could from the place and the first wilderness area on the way to Gilded Vale

 

Will not recruit any of the normal companions, except Pallegina. Because, you know, Avian Godlike.

 

edit: this is not to increase difficulty btw, obviously. Full min-max party. I already beat the game using the normal companions on PotD. Will not solo the game. Will not do Trial of Iron. This will most likely be my final run.

Edited April 20, 2015 by Psychevore

[knownastherat]

Finally Nature Godlike Druid. Doing her right now

[Psychevore]

Finally Nature Godlike Druid. Doing her right now

She is REALLY strong btw. I use her spritishift form every single battle and she downright destroys everything.

 

Though I for the life of me cannot remember which form I actually took *gasp*. Can't check either cause I'm on my laptop. Will do later.

[CriticalFailure]

The barbarian tribe could be:

 

- Barbarian (duh).

- Caster druid (shaman).

- Melee druid in bear form, no spells (maybe use a mod to extend the shift duration?).

- Chanter (skald/warchanter/whatever).

- Ranger.

- ... I don't know. Maybe a free spot for default companions' sidequests, if you're interested in that. Or just go with 5 and consider the ranger pet the 6th member, or repeat some class, or maybe a rogue.

Edited April 20, 2015 by CriticalFailure

[Stokes]

My next playthrough is going to be 5 Priests each with a different Diety, led by a Paladin.  Also I know someone that is doing an all Ranger w/ bear companion game with some pretty fun results.

[iKrivetko]

Six Barbarians

[mazeltov]

Re: no pausing tank playthrough. Can I do it on slow mode? I could probably do it on slow mode! 

[mousestalker]

The herding housecat party.

 

All Hearth Orlans. All ciphers.

[Evani]

5 chanters and a paladin. Rime and frost + dragon thrashed dragon wailed galore while running around like lunatics.

[Nadrac]

Party of 6 randomized guys with random class, if one dies you get another random, with least the ie mod you can get infinite adventurers, or possibly have a higher pool of them like 10 tops, so you stand a better chance of making the party work.

 

If that's too easy you can keep randomizing them at levelups.

 

Of course play with main off, trial of iron is up to you, not reloading adds to the game but it's a long game and it's sometimes cheaty. If disengaging and running away was more possible i would recommend it, but like this i just recommend playing with the mindset, it's mostly pointless anyway if you know exactly where to be careful and exactly how strong you need to be.

 

Beating the mobs where you find them is also more fun than in a chokepoint, and increases the need for survivability. Goes without saying never kite them.

[Climhazzard]

I'm thinking about a playthrough where I use neither armor nor shields, haven't decided on the classes I'll use yet.