PotD "Resistant" build

[aweigh0101]

What are the most dangerous situations you'll find yourself in during a PotD + TWM playthrough? Getting stunned, charmed/dominated, knocked prone or being paralyzed.

I was thinking that the best way to create a PC that could, at the very least, be grazed instead of hit/critted by these effects would be to pick the following:

http://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Towering_Physique

- coastal aumaua get +20 defense versus a stun or a prone effect, so there's your race.

- might 10 / con 16 / dexterity 10 / perception 16 / intellect 10 / resolve 16 = the reasoning for this is the bump to fortitude from CON (to resist stunning, being knocked prone and paralysis, which attack fortitude); a bump to PER (to resist reflex-attacking afflictions like Stuck, and AoE spells, combined with the boost to accuaracy); and a bump to resolve (to resist Will-attacking afflictions like charm, confusion and domination as well as Deflection-attacking afflictions like the Spore's charm-spit, or the Xaurip Skirmisher's paralyzing spear-thrust).

- take talents Body Control and Mental Fortress at your leisure; note that you'll start encountering enemies that stun/charm around character levels 6-8, basically beginning of Act 3, and you'll encounter enemies that paralyze in TWM and/or around character levels 10-14, so you can use that to plan ahead when to take them.

- Boots of stability which gives +20 defense versus prone and +15 versus being pushed. this stacks with the +20 versus prone from towering physique.

- Bramble ring which gives +15 against Hobbled, stuck and paralyzed, which stacks with the +10's from Body control for these afflictions.

- Murrica Arrest helm which gives +12 Will, for charm/confuse/domination defense, which stacks with the +10's from Mental Fortress for these afflictions.

- Aru-Brekr brigandine which gives +20 defense WHILE stunned or prone, as well as +10 versus standard ranged attacks.

- Belt of the Stelgaer which DECREASES duration of prone status by 34 %.

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you now have a PC that has:
+40 versus Prone
+30 versus Stun
+25 versus Paralyze
+15 versus Hobbled/Stuck

+12 reflex, +12 will, +12 fortitude. Most attacks that cause prone or stun target fort, stuck and paralyze and hobbled usually target reflex and charm/confuse/dominate target Will.

Make the PC a Paladin and develop faith and conviction to its maximum, plus the Deep Faith talent, and the Righteous Soul talent for a grand total of +37 to all 3 defenses, plus the aforementioned +12's. You can easily reach 120 on all three Defenses before even level 12.

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on top of the defenses, the Aru-Brekr armor provides +20 to ALL FOUR defenses if/when you get stunned or knocked prone, and your belt decreases the duration of the prone status by 34%.

Edited October 31, 2015 by aweigh0101

[KDubya]

If you changed the 16 con for 16 might you'd lose out on some endurance and health but gain a bunch in damage and in healing, especially after Sacred Immolation.. The Orlan racial ability that increases defenses after being attacked would be another option but the Coastal Aumaua is solid.

 

The worst afflictions to me are the stuns, especially from lightning storm and the ghost paralyze. Never really noticed a lot of prone attacks.

 

Its a good concept/build, would be hard for the enemies to hurt him

[Boeroer]

I also think that the paralyze/petrify afflictions from Banshees, Andragans and Lagufarts (what?) are the most dangerous things you can be affected with. So I would concentrate on defending that at first. Wild Orlan might be great because most of this afflictions target your will defense. Coastal Aumaua is also very solid. You could also think about a monk who has some nice abilities that boost defenses and halves the duration of afflictions while boosting defenses further. Paladin might be the most defensive option though. There is a solo monk build in this forum that addressed that banshee problem - it seemed to work well.

[mosspit]

Yeah I agree with the Wild Orlan. It reminded me of a build for pallys that is meant to face-tank Adra back in pre-2.0. Rationale is that the terrifying aura was a perpetual source for defence boost.

[Kaylon]

The most dangerous is the petrify affliction because it multiplies the damage you take by 4. It's also one of the hardest to defend against because it attacks your fortitude (very difficult to boost) and adragans have very high accuracy. Also talents like Body Control or Berath's Boon were bugged (don't know if they work correctly now) and were disabled after zoning. Also without food/rest buffs it's not possible to effectively reduce their attacks to grazes.

[aweigh0101]

yeah, monk would be a solid alternative to paladin. the paladin is able to reach higher saves on the 3 defenses without "contingencies" like having their Will targeted first, or needing to utilize a modal.

the most difficult encounters in the game (imo obviously) are, in no particular order:

- Ogres who spam DoT druid magic and knock prone their regular attacks. (mob type Wilder)
 

- Spirits that Stun with their regular attacks. (mob type Spirit...)

- Dragons that Terrify (fortitude-targeting affliction when it comes from Dragons, targets Will when it comes from a spell) and knock Prone with their regular attacks. (mob type Beast)

- Vithrack that confuse/charm/dominate and stun with their regular attacks. (mob type Wilder)

- TWM fish people from hell that paralyze with their ranged attacks, which target Deflection. Can't remember their mob type right now but i bet it's Wilder.

The monk's modal gives +8 to the 3 defenses, and has a contingency ability that boosts affliction-defenses after being afflicted, not targeted, so it doesn't activate if the affliction misses (although on PotD... lol yeah right).

The Paladin is just ridiculous tho: +13 to deflection and +27 to the 3 defenses from Faith and Conviction + Deep Faith, plus a further +10 to the 3 defenses from Righteous Soul that doesn't require a contingency. +37 to the 3 defenses from 1 talent pick (Faith and Conviction doesn't count as it's built-in) is incredible, paired with an Body Control (paralyzed / petrified / stunned / weakened / sickened) and Mental Fortress (charmed, confused, dominated, frightened, terrified) amounts to 3 talents, which isn't really that much.

Unstoppable talent isn't worth it in my opinion.

the tricky part is that a lot of these afflictions target different things depending on what the enemy is doing, so it's better to pick the affliction-resistance talents versus the fort/ref/will-boosting talents as some afflictions target Deflection instead, and these instances are covered by the affliction-resistant talent but not by the the saving-throw boosting one.

There is a breastplate from a tier 3 bounty that grants +5 fort, +20 versus prone and +15 versus push, but it won't stack with the (same bonuses) from the boots of stability. Better to wear the boots, and use the brigandine that gives +20 to prone/stunned defenses while the unit is afflicted.

there are boots that give +7 versus hobbled, stuck and paralyzed (fenwalker boots) but 1) doesn't stack with the +15 to these same afflictions the orlan bramble ring gives, and 2) is a random drop, versus the bramble ring which is a guaranteed unique loot in the caliban ring map.

the only change I might make would maybe be to change the Murrica Arret helm (+12 will) for a helm that gives +2 Perception (the Darkseid helm, which is a random drop, while the Murrica Arret can be bought in Copperlane) and then wear a +9 to the 3 defenses Protection ring, but that would mean both ring slots are occupied (prot. ring + bramble ring) and I prefer to sport the +9 ring of deflection instead of the prot. ring. You can give the unit a Cape of Protection which can be bought in Copperlane instead for a +9 to fort and Ref but its +9 to will won't stack with the Murrica Arret (another reason to change up the helm in favor of an INT-boosting one for Will, or a PER boosting one for Ref).

an honorable mention goes out to the Breakout Scale Mail sold in Copperlane that gives +9 to Will but it's overshadowed by the +9 ring of prot. or the +9 cape of prot. since they won't stack.

EDIT: i apologize, Righteous Soul gives +15 versus frightened / terrified / charmed / confused / dominated and decreases their duration by -5 seconds.

this is even BETTER than the +10 to the 3 defenses I thought it gave!

as kaylon says that leaves Petrify as the most difficult affliction to succesfully guard against, with no class or race gaining a specific advantage against it; however this is mitigated by the fact that it's the least common affliction utilized by the enemy by a very large margin, whereas Frightened/Terrify/Prone/Stun are the most common.

as a footnote, a lot of people forget the Chanters' level 1 phrase that gives +10 to Fort AND +10 to Will, so there is also that. I don't like having chanters in my party though due to the bug of their summons clogging up the MobileObjects.save file and potentially bloating load times. It's too bad really because I think they're the most unique class in the game, but loading times are long enough already.

Edited October 31, 2015 by aweigh0101

[Oralaina]

I'd have to say.... well, I wouldn't want a PC paladin.  I like the less tanky sorts - rangers mostly.  Rogues maybe, though I started a playthrough with one, and dropped it only a few game days in, just didn't like her very well (could be my own fault for not constructing her properly *shrug*).  I used to (in PnP days) always PC a half-elven mage - but that's not really possible in this game - so rangers work for me so far.

 

Now, I *might* think about this build for a "hireling pally".  Because the resistance issues do plague me....

[aweigh0101]

one thing to keep in mind is that on PotD the best you can hope for is to have afflictions graze instead of hit. this is still unbelieably helpful though, as the difference between being knocked prone or being stunned for 10 seconds (which is a LOOOONG time) is worlds away from being knocked prone or being stunned for 3 seconds.

The game rounds numbers down, so a 50% increase/decrease actually benefits the player on a graze or crit

on normal/hard this coastal aumaua will basically shrug his shoulders at any affliction tho. on easy i imagine he/she would reflect it back heh.

[KDubya]

The paladin aura Zealous Endurance helps as well with its hit>graze property, as would Durgan enhanced shields.

[mosspit]

one thing to keep in mind is that on PotD the best you can hope for is to have afflictions graze instead of hit. this is still unbelieably helpful though, as the difference between being knocked prone or being stunned for 10 seconds (which is a LOOOONG time) is worlds away from being knocked prone or being stunned for 3 seconds.

 

The game rounds numbers down, so a 50% increase/decrease actually benefits the player on a graze or crit

 

on normal/hard this coastal aumaua will basically shrug his shoulders at any affliction tho. on easy i imagine he/she would reflect it back heh.

Yeah grazes do help. Reminded me of my last playthrough against Thaos. That playthrough I wanted to avoid taking Mental Fortress on everyone for a change. Well, my party ate a Confusion from Thaos and 2 of my party members got crit'ed for 25+ secs of confusion. I was genuinely impressed