Best companions for a Cipher?

[sethosayher]

Hey guys, I'm playing through PoE and hit 5th level on easy mode. The hardest thing for me now so far is deciding between all the companions available to me. They all seem so interesting! This is my current line up:

 

Me (a Cipher), Aloth, Sagini, Kana, Eder and Durance. It's a solid party so far, especially because I'm playing on easy, but I wanted to know if I should explore other companions. I'm wondering if playing on easy means I can basically have any party combination I want without really suffering heavy penalties. Also, what companions, in your subjective view, have the most interesting quests / personality?

 

Finally, can I recruit and dismiss and re-recruit companions easily?

[Luma Akasha]

Yes, you should explore all the companions. Hey all have different personalities and quirks.

 

Eder is cool, laid back and funny. His quest could have gone somewhere interesting but didn't.

 

Aloth is alternatively uptight or funny. His quest could have gone somewhere interesting but didn't.

 

Durance is a jaded, old annoying ass and not in a funny way. His quest is tediously boring but semi-significant.

 

Kana is like a giant, upbeat kid who sees the wonder in everything. Lots of people find his combat chanting annoying, but I kinda liked it. His going into stealth sound made me want to smack him. Another quest that could have been good but goes nowhere.

 

Sagani is my favorite. She's interesting, her culture upends normal stereotypes and I found her voice to be the most pleasant along with Eder. I think she had the best quest. On the other hand, some people found her the least interesting and disliked her voice.

 

Hiravias has an annoying voice, but less so han Durance. He's a bit of a savage and a pervert, but I like him nonetheless. His quest is better than most.

 

Pallegenia is aristocratic, but not obnoxious about it. She's a consumate soldier. Her quest is slightly interesting from a moral quandry perspective.

 

Grieving Mother had so much potential, but fell flat.

 

You can change around companions any time at Caed Nua.

[MunoValente]

You can also switch companions at any Inn, in addition to your stronghold.  Switching them in and out is easy.  I usually use all of them at least a little, plus some ones I create myself.

Edited September 30, 2015 by MunoValente

[AndreaColombo]

In answer to the OP's question about difficulty: Yes, on Easy it doesn't really matter what your party composition is; nor does it matter on Normal or Hard. Path of the Damned is less forgiving of tactical/strategical mistakes and may prove more challenging with a sub-optimal party composition, but there are people who can solo on that mode so there's no reason any party composition could or should be unable to beat the game on PotD.

 

My favorite characters are Edér, Aloth, and Hiravias.

 

Edér is the most popular here on the boards because he's got the bro attitude.

 

Hiravias is, as Luma mentioned, a coarse and perverted character but that kind of humor always gets me so I like him a bunch. His quest is also good.

 

Durance and Grieving Mother, a.k.a. MCA's characters, are commonly regarded as the best-written characters in the game. Their story is good but it takes a long time to unfold. Other than that, Durance is annoying and hates everything; GM is self-righteous and tries hard to pass for the infallible moral compass that she isn't.

 

Kana will be as quiet as a calm sea. Which is not very quiet. /ducks to avoid Luma's incoming smack

Edited September 30, 2015 by AndreaColombo

[Ymarsakar]

Easy is like story mode, you will face less enemies and the ones you do face, you can just walk through them. Boss fights and mini bounties might still be an issue, since their difficulties are designed to be a spike up from normal run enemies.

 

http://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Hiravias

 

Hiravias is the out of whack joker in the party, so instead of being a short person people make fun of, he's like the life of the party instead for being weird.

 

Eder is very personable but his later quest stuff and comments doesn't make him stand out as much. He doesn't comment on things as it relates to his backstory, so he doesn't role play it as much as Pallegina or Grieving Mother would.

 

Patel's companions, Sagani and Aloth I thought were the most interesting, with Durance and Grieving Mother having been written by Chris, to be the more darker, surreal companion stories.

 

Unfortunately the ranger class was pretty broken in 1.0 Pillars build, and was easily the worst of all classes. Now it's one of the better top tier dps classes, with a mini tank too. That just means I didn't have a chance to go through much of Sagani's story when I first played the game.

 

Role playing wise, Eder's dialogue offers the most backstory on the Saint's War and is pretty much the face of Dyrwood's Eothasian counter parts. Whereas Durance is the other side of the story, the purges and the inquisition in the Dyrwood. He's not your normal healing and kindly priest archetype. The fact that they don't conflict much... is probably due to their writers having written them in isolation before game mechanics had been flattened. The cross banter has a little bit of it, but Durance is nasty to most everyone.

 

Lore wise, Sagani and Aloth presents more views of other cultures besides the Dyrwood and Hiravias was written to be the face of the Dyrwood's elven and Glanfathan barbarian cultures. Hiravias is very "in character". Aloth doesn't exactly have a character he portrays, because of his other issue. Sagani is like the outsider looking in on Dyrwood, sort of like the main actually.

 

Grieving Mother is the human tie in and face for the birth deficiencies. 

 

Basically if you like certain parts of the story and world Obsidian built, you might want to get the companion that ties you in more personally to it. Although much of it is available in the lore books at the wiki (reading them is easier than reading the small text in game).

 

I preferred Planescape  Torment's companion development. In there, the quest givers or villains you were facing, weren't merely people outside your party... they were your party in some cases. So because there wasn't a lot of choice for party, people usually stuck to the same mix, minus 1 or 2 change ups. In Obsidian's case, Josh Sawyer tells people to write quests assuming the player killed everyone like a psycho, including the companions. Were as in Planescape Torment, the companions really felt like companions, in war, and in peace. In health and in agony. Their combat and game mechanics were designed to be special, to make them stand out, and to make them easily recognizable as "that character". Nobody overlapped Morte or Fall from Grace in terms of their class or special abilities.

 

Obsidian chose the right route by cutting down on the companions to choose from, vs NW2. But they are still rather "conservative" in this sense, of not trying to give too direct and linear a critical story. Accommodating a solo play through story wise, does tend to have detrimental effects on companion mechanics. Sacrifices have to be made.

Edited October 1, 2015 by Ymarsakar

[Elric Galad]

Go Sagani.

Spam echopsychic echo on Ituumak, which is basically a damaging leash. Send it behind the lines.

 

It's called the dog walker cipher build.

 

 

Plus : did you ever played with a mother of 5 children in your party ? Yeah giving birth is pretty epic.

Edited October 1, 2015 by Elric Galad

[Ymarsakar]

Dog Whisperer vs Whispers of Treason

[Nobear]

As seems to be the case with most players, I didn't like Durance at first. He's a grumpy and opinionated religious zealot who's quick to blame others for passing judgment, but is among the worst offenders of passing judgment himself. However, I find some of his banter, especially with Aloth, to be pretty dang funny, because you can feel the other companions feeling super awkward, and occasionally fighting back and making a retort he totally deserves right back at him.

[Ymarsakar]

Nobear, he's got role playing material.

Edited October 5, 2015 by Ymarsakar

[Remix]

Chanters make a great addition to ciphers. Make a ranged cipher with high might and a chanter that can run around quickly with lots of bonuses to disengagement and the frost trap chant. Cast ectopsychic echo on the chanter and have your chanter run all over the battlefield, leaving frost trails and damaging any enemies in between them and the cipher. Use any cc to keep your enemies stationary and you will decimate huge crowds in no time.

Edited October 9, 2015 by Remix