So, I picked up Pillars of Eternity this past week and I haven't really played past the first village yet. After discovering you can pick up roleplay NPC's to travel with you, I wanted to see what class I should play that will complement the ones I can pick up. I am not about rushing through the game or squeezing every ounce of efficiency out of a character. I enjoy the story and am looking for a class that is fun to play as a frontline character with a full party of companions.

 

 

Bob 

Hi Bob,

 

the base the game has 8 companions, each belonging to one of the following classes:

 

Fighter (Edér)

Wizard (Aloth)

Priest (Durance)

Chanter (Kana)

Ranger (Sagani)

Paladin (Pallegina)

Druid (Hiravias)

Cipher (Grieving Mother)

 

The White March pt. I adds two companions to the mix:

 

Monk (Zahua)

Rogue (Devil of Caroc)

 

 

These cover all classes available at character creation except the Barbarian, which will be covered by Menhea in The White March pt. II.

 

Hence, you can have any combination of classes in your party, as all of them are represented within the pool of story companions (with the exception of the Barbarian which, as mentioned, will become available next month.) Depending on those you plan on recruiting, you can tailor your main—and even then, nothing says you can't have a main of the same class as one of the companions you hire.

Edited January 17, 201610 yr by AndreaColombo

One thing to note, is that the companion paladin Pallegina, doesn't have all "features" a PC paladin has.

I'm pretty sure the same goes for the priest Durance.

Those 2 classes have an ability which gets better if your decisions ingame fit your chosen subclass.

Great, thanks for the good info. I started with a paladin but I am interested in a monk as well. I think I will roll one up and see how I like it.

 

Bob

Great, thanks for the good info. I started with a paladin but I am interested in a monk as well. I think I will roll one up and see how I like it.

 

Bob

Monks are a lot of fun.

I will second that Monks are a blast. They wreck stuff really well. I kind of felt like the Hulk playing my Monk, and the creatures and people of Eora kept making him angry. They didn't like him when he was angry.

 

Paladins are a great class to start with. I am playing one now, and he is a solid presence on the battlefield. He is never top damage, but he is a solid fulcrum for a group to be built around. He can, and does, put some hurt down when it's needed, though. They are also good at maintaining the frontline with buffs, heals, and the like. Basically a support class that can do a bit of damage. It's fun.

Having multiple paladins in a group is also not a bad thing, so you can still pick up the paladin companion and not feel bad for it.  You can have one paladin with one Zealous aura and the other with a different one.  Then again, most of the classes can be built in different ways so you can pretty much play any class and still pick up the companion with the same class and still feel that they are different.  Just MHO of course, others may feel differently.

Monks are really cool. I tried a monk with 20 CON the other day - just for fun. Dumped RES to 3 in order to get lots of wounds, max DEX, high MIG and so on. Put on a simple monk's outfit, Shod-in-Faith boots and a Girdle of Eotun Constitution. He was sooo good.

Monks are really cool. I tried a monk with 20 CON the other day - just for fun. Dumped RES to 3 in order to get lots of wounds, max DEX, high MIG and so on. Put on a simple monk's outfit, Shod-in-Faith boots and a Girdle of Eotun Constitution. He was sooo good.

All you need to add to that is some kind of rod/wand/sceptre for emergency missile flinging (EG whilst the druids AOE does its stuff) and the forgemasters' gloves - excellent for those difficult situations when something is immune to crushing.

That works - but I would use two weapons from the peasant's weapon group (Vile Loner's Lance + a stunning & vicious Cladhalíath is a nice setup) or two hatchets or a mix of that. This way I would retain the +6 ACC and the speed bonus of Two Weapon Style. I wouldn't want to give up the gloves' slot for the forgemaster gloves because there's Blood Testament and before that there's also Ryona's Vambraces and so on. Forgemaster Gloves are really nice on a Rogue that's build for Two Handed Style and crits though (like for Hours of St. Rumbalt or Tall Grass) - never saw crits with such high numbers.

 

What I also really like about the monk is that you can build him in so many ways - to fulfill so many different roles. He can do tanking, reflecting spells and shots like a boss, do great single target damage, AoE damage, long lasting CC, stacking afflictions that qualify for Sneak Attack/Deathblows (prone, stunned, weakened) and so on. Maybe that's the main reason why I love monks so much. You can do lots of monk builds and they can all be powerful and fun to play.

 

But paladin is also one of my favourites nowadays. He is such a nice supporter without too much fuzz - he does considerable burst damage and is very sturdy. I even find that two paladins in the party are better than one.