Wanted to Respec my party at level 5 after not playing for awhile

[KDubya]

 

Another thing to consider is food and items. Casita Casserole gets you +2 intellect and is readily available for a few coppers. Items can easily get you another +2. Without any Inn or Stronghold resting bonuses you can easily get and keep +4 in effect. With that you could go with a 15 Intellect and perma buff it to 19 and save three stat points for something else.

 

Perma buff? Is there such a thing? Or do you just mean a buff you can maintain perpetually with food/equipment/rest?

 

Or perma like the +1 stat tomes from the original Baldur's Gate?

 

I meant perma buff in that it is easy to keep it in effect forever, not like a stat bonus or something.

 

Finding, buying or crafting a +2 Intellect item is easy. Buying the ingredients for the casita casserole, or even the finished product is only a handful of coppers and lasts for 300 seconds or so.

 

Additional bonuses can be obtained from specific Inns, Stronghold buildings and prostitutes. These require more effort on your part to keep in effect, but wearing a good helmet and eating a cheap food is no effort at all.

 

I also differentiate between the cheap food that costs 20 coppers and the dragon dishes that cost 4000 coppers.

[Boeroer]

You don't need to minmax your stats. If you want some good dialogue options you can always go with 15 or 16. There are so many items that give +2 or +3 to stats so that even in the few dialogues where you need 18 you can have it without resting bonus and the like. Then you have some more points for the other stats.

 

That's why I used the ">" and "=". You don't need exactly that one special value for this and that attribute. Not even in PotD. It's more like a priority list for me.

[Ymarsakar]

So Cipher should have 18 in INT, DEX and PER and 10 in all of the stats and 3 in Res?

 

 

I would try to get 15 might and 15 per or split the difference.

 

Cipher needs might to regain focus, otherwise you end up without focus to cast spells in a row. The offensive stats are might, dex, per. Defense or utility are con, int, resolve.

 

Generally a few points in a stat won't make a noticeable difference, but 5+ points will make a difference for most builds. So with 3 resolve, generally your cipher is doing the ranged cipher build.

 

On normal, it's not really the build of the class that matters so much as whether you know how to use the class abilities and armors/weapons well.

Edited October 5, 2015 by Ymarsakar

[Oralaina]

 

After starting a new game today, with high Resolve.... I can say with perfect truth that if you DON'T have high Resolve, you're probably going to miss half the better convo ops in the game.  Personally, I think that's kind of sucky....

 

That is a good point. Here is a recent thread started by another recently-returning player, but focused on dialogue options rather than combat. It depends what's more important to you. In the first response on that thread, Boeroer mentions that paladin support/tanks tend to be optimal as mains, since the same stats that are good for conversations will also be good for their combat performance. In addition, a paladin can gain up to +6 Deflection and +12 Fort/Reflex/Will by lining up the conversation choices you make with the dispositions important to your chosen order, but this mechanic only works if it's your main.

 

So if you wanted a paladin in your party at all, there'd be a gameplay advantage to making it your main, and having the cipher role taken by the cipher companion you can find, or by a hired adventurer. However, you've already started, time constraints and all, and the fact that you're (probably) not playing on PoTD, means it's probably not worth it to you to start over for that. Besides, some people have a special attachment to their main, and that's as valid a reason as any for the choices you make in a fantasy game.

 

Lastly, I'd say that the conversation options are never that crucial to the game. Their importance is largely personal and subjective. With dumped Res, you'll miss out on some opportunities to get your way, to make people believe you, etc. In practice, from a gameplay perspective, this will amount to a grand total of a few quests where you can't get the best possible outcome. Like you might be able to squeeze some more money out of a quest giver with higher Res, and there's at least one item I'm pretty sure you can't get without decent Res, but I can't think of any "must-have" awesome items you'd be missing, or any significant ways it would gimp you in the end. Also note that you wouldn't have any more convo options open to you at 10 Res than at 3 — checks are all from 11 to 20. You could get a few points more with an item and buffs, but your score still wouldn't be high enough to justify 7 points invested that would take away from other stats IMHO.

 

 

All good points.  What I'm finding as I replay is that I much PREFER not to kill my way through the story.  Of course, you're not going to peacefully clear Raedric's Keep, the Endless Paths or the Battery or Crägholdt.  But if I can peacefully resolve (hmmm.... no pun intended) most of the rest of the quests then that's how I want to do it.

 

My rant about games which have no understanding of any way to gain xp other than killing belongs elsewhere - and PoE isn't at all a "main offender" in any case.

Edited October 5, 2015 by Oralaina

[Remix]

I don't know if anyone posted this link yet but this guide was very helpful for building my current party.

 

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=416939844

 

The guide includes many useful builds and explanations as to why and how to use them.

[Ymarsakar]

Fighters, paladins, monks, rangers, and chanters are pretty easy to use classes.

 

I think for people without a lot of time, they might want to focus more on those classes and less on the more complicated setups.

 

IE Mod allows class changes.

Edited October 6, 2015 by Ymarsakar

[Oralaina]

Fighters, paladins, monks, rangers, and chanters are pretty easy to use classes.

 

I think for people without a lot of time, they might want to focus more on those classes and less on the more complicated setups.

 

IE Mod allows class changes.

 

Very true, I must agree.