[PotD] Party composition ?

[Arkhandar]

First of all, sorry for my english ^^

After playing ~10h, I found the Hard difficulty too easy and I wanna try PotD, i've seen different guides (mostly those from Nerdcommando) and I want to make a party like this :

 

- Main Tank (Fighter or Paladin)

- Offtank DPS (Paladin)

- Rogue dual saber

- Cypher Bow/Gun

- Priest

- Sorcerer

 

I can't decide me for the MT, I think having a Paladin is great for the buff, but I want an OT who can make some damage... not a barbarian interrupt

Can a 2H weapon (love greatword !) be use for a OT ?

 

Thanks for the answers

[Fromatic]

Im actually curious about this too. Just started playing again from a long absence, playing on PotD myself just arrived in the first town.

 

The Builds in the Sticky are mostly all outdated with all the updates that have happened.

[DreamWayfarer]

I think your main tank should be a paladin, and your offtank DPS a fighter. Paladins can have some nice burst, but can't really be built for DPS, while fighters are pratically made to be tanky damage dealers.

 

A two-handed weapon is perfect for a offtank, and greatswords are awesome. On your secondary slot, you can fit an arquebus for alpha-strike or a pike when you are on the wrong side of a chokepoint.

 

Also, you would do good by checking sone of the more recent builds in this forum. The guide by nerdcommando, while good and detailed, is somewhat misleading and overestimates the power of minmaxing.

[Razorchain]

Barbarians can tank just fine, Monks as well.  I played through Potd with a Paladin, Barbarian, Monk frontline.  Heck if you want to you can even skip the Paladin and just go all offensive.

[Boeroer]

If you love greatswords then I would recommend a barbarian dps offtank with Tidefall and Shod-in-Faith boots with max MIG and INT and good PER and DEX, low RES. Before you get Tidefall/Shod-in-Faith he will go down quickly, but after that he's very sturdy and will heal for big amounts of endurance in a huge AoE while dealing good damage in a huge carnage area and apply wounding DoT via carnage. It's a low micro build that is fun. You can also put on all items that do something when you get a crit or hit. This will trigger a lot.

You can even make him a moon godlike. He will do a lot of healing when he gets focused so maybe your paladin and priest will have more time for casting buffs and stuff.

 

And most important for you: he's no interrupt barb.

 

Another great offtank dps guy: Riptide

Still works in 3.01

Edited February 29, 2016 by Boeroer

[Arkhandar]

That Barbarian build sounds good ! Thanks

For the stats, do you thinks 10 CON & 03 RES will too penalizing for the PotD or it will be ok ? When we respec hirelings, will the stats are also respec ?

The Moon Godlike racial will be very good with that spec, but what for the no-helmet malus ? I've heard they're pretty nice DPS helmets in WM2...

 

And again, thanks for the advice !

[MaxQuest]

I can't decide me for the MT, I think having a Paladin is great for the buff, but I want an OT who can make some damage... not a barbarian interrupt

Can a 2H weapon (love greatword !) be use for a OT ?

A 2H dps frontliner (that engages after your tanks, and occasionally is offtanking a single enemy) is fine. And I mean 2H paladin, barb, monk, wizard or rogue.

But if you want a 2H dps'er that would continuously offtank, the one which will be hitted by more than one enemy at a time, you are basically limited to a sturdy 2H fighter as your best option.

 

P.S. Usually you have to decide what do you want: to offtank well, or to deal real, substantial damage. And on PotD, in any non-trash fight, expect three of your characters to be always subject to melee attacks.

Edited February 29, 2016 by MaxQuest

[Arkhandar]

The kind of Boeroer's barbarian sound nice to me, also a fighter with the retaliate spec (main 2H but sometime with 1H/shield) could be great with the lot of ennemis who will break combat to go at the back line...

But the idea is a second tank who can do some damage and not a second tank with a full support role and no damage...

[Boeroer]

That Barbarian build sounds good ! Thanks

For the stats, do you thinks 10 CON & 03 RES will too penalizing for the PotD or it will be ok ? When we respec hirelings, will the stats are also respec ?

The Moon Godlike racial will be very good with that spec, but what for the no-helmet malus ? I've heard they're pretty nice DPS helmets in WM2...

 

And again, thanks for the advice !

10 CON & 03 RES will work fine if you don't send him right into the center of the mob. You can play around with DR to see how much you need for your playstyle. I always used to put this one in plate. That lowers dps a bit but I don't have to babysit him a lot then.

 

There are nice helmets in WMII or with the new Stronghold Quest. But I still don't know a helmet that is as good as Silver Tide. Especially with high MIG and INT.

 

p.s.: If you plan to bring a priest, a cipher and a barb I recommend Threatening Presence + Brute Force + Painful Interdiction. Threatening Presence (Sickened) + Painful Interdiction (Weakened) stacks and lowers fortitude (more than 40) and will defenses (more than 30) in a big AoE (of course only if the enemy is not immune). And one is passive and the other is 1/encounter. That's a big debuff for such little investment. Your Brute Force will produce a lot of crits (if it's not Ogres and stuff you're after) and the low will is great for lots of the cipher's powers like all mind control spells and stuff. 

[Arkhandar]

Oh ! I've forget that Silver Tide will be boost by the stats ! So yes, it's a win-win ! Thanks !

[Ymarsakar]

Fighter is better as off tank dps with greatsword or some kind of dps weapon. Main tank would be paladin with weapon/shield for that +5 bonus or better deflection.

 

Of course, these days, I love the Chanter main tank, all defense talents. That death chant is awesome for drawing aggro and forcing people to pay attention to the chanter, even without engagement. It's like when wizards or druids do AOE and everyone swarms them. 4 death chants, 1 dragon slash, works great for the longer fights. Then summon down some ogres for dps/meat shields. I like that kind of gameflow.

 

The chanter is like a dps tank to me. It doesn't need talents for to do dps, the death chant bypasses DR (or hits so often it looks like it does) and the dragon slash is aoe and quite a good chunk of damage. 

 

Sort of like a monk, the more damage they absorb, the more damage they can still dish out. Assuming the chanter has a shield and good deflection, like 100+.

 

Monks are also good for the front line, with more dps than a paladin. Slightly squishier until they get iron wheel DR.

 

Clarifying some terms. Main tank for me is mostly anyone with very high deflection and DR, able to take on 3+ enemies at a time without dying in 30s. Off tank and secondaries, have more utility or dps, and tend to only need to engage 1-2 enemies at a time.

Edited February 29, 2016 by Ymarsakar

[Jac]

I have a similar question, but I'm playing on normal and not hard so I can get some of the characters I bypassed the first time. My main is a melee Chanter and I was thinking of picking up GM, Pallegina, Hiravias, Eder, and Aloth. I'm also eventually going to grab Zahua I think. I thought about Sagani because of her banter with Eder but I'm not sure. Suggestions? Thanks.

[Ymarsakar]

I have a similar question, but I'm playing on normal and not hard so I can get some of the characters I bypassed the first time. My main is a melee Chanter and I was thinking of picking up GM, Pallegina, Hiravias, Eder, and Aloth. I'm also eventually going to grab Zahua I think. I thought about Sagani because of her banter with Eder but I'm not sure. Suggestions? Thanks.

 

For my personal preference in personalities Hiravias > Aloth > Sagani > Pallegina > Eder > GM

 

In terms of how easy their classes are to use (the builds can affect that as well):

Eder > Pallegina> Sagani > Hiravias > GM > Aloth.

 

Easiest to hardest class to micro and learn.

 

For hiravias, a fun combo in the early game before level 5 or 4 is to use outlander frenzy at the beginning of each encounter, spiritshift, flank an enemy, and then tear them apart with those claws. 

 

GM is "caul illusion cloaked" to the other party members. So they don't actually banter with her, but GM's interjections tend to feel more relevant to the main plot.

 

These days, I hybridize almost all the classes. They aren't specialized for melee or range, they're kind of both now. Talent wise, they still resemble certain builds, but weapons wise, I make them to be versatile. They can shoot at range or tank enemies in melee.

 

I would recommend against having too many micro intense classes in the same party. So I would avoid Aloth + Cipher + Druid + Priest combos. Of course, if you like these classes and want to micro/pause a lot, ciphers and traditional caster types are great for that.

Edited March 2, 2016 by Ymarsakar

[Odd Hermit]

PC: Moon Godlike Chanter, Off tank/support. Max Per/Int/Resolve for dialogue and obviously these are good Chanter stats which is why I choose them for my PC. Dump dex, you can leave Might/Con or dump Might for more Con if you prefer.

 

Tank: Paladin. Wild Orlan, Moon Godlike, Coastal Aumaua are all good race choices.

 

Priest: Wood Elf, Max Per/Int and leave everything else at 10 or drop some might for res if you like.

 

Cipher: Wood Elf. Max Per, Int, drop 2-3 from res/might and put into ~15 dex. You could only dump res instead, though I prefer a slightly more defense build.

 

Wizard: Same as above.

 

Last slot: Rogue, Ranger, Barb, Fighter, Druid, Monk or even a second Cipher are all reasonable choices. I lean toward Fighter myself, and away from Monk and Ranger just 'cause they're more micro heavy than I enjoy.

 

-- Alternatively to some of this advice, you can just stack "solo builds" for each class, that are all tanky(high res and decent con). Just having all casters go hatchet and shield with weapon and shield style talent can really improve their durability. Combat will be slower but safer. Might is actually not that great of a stat right now and can be dropped for defensive attributes easily. The on drawback to that though is item management, obviously solo builds rely a lot on stacking the best gear on one character.

[Jac]

Thanks Ym. I created a moonborn cleric because I really don't want to travel with Durance again, but I do miss his spells...This is my second time around, so I'm pretty familiar with how the different classes work. The last time I had a Pally (MC), Eder, Aloth, Durance, Sagani, and Kana. I'm going to skip Kana this time because I already have a Chanter (MC), but I wasn't sure about how the others would work. I may drop my cleric and go with GM depending on how the battles go. If I have to, I'll just trade Eder out for Pally, but I'd miss the guy...

[Cragen]

I've been doing POTD with my offensive Barb, Eder as main tank, Pallegina as off tank, and Aloth, Durance and Kana as range dps/support.

My Barb and Aloth are for the most part the heavy hitters. I'm sure if I didn't spec Eder pure tank he'd hit a lot harder, but so far its worked pretty well.

Running through Caed Nua now at level 7 at level 7 so will see how far I get before I need to keep leveling.

Sure there are far more optimized parties out there, but had everyone except Pallegina in my old playthrough that I didn't finish so want to run the game with them.
 

[Jac]

I've decided to go with a Priest, just haven't figured out which deity yet. That way I can pick up Eder, Aloth, Sagani, Pally, and Kana. I may drop Pally for the monk and Sagani for the Rogue in WM 1, but I'll see how I feel when I get there. I've already finished with Sag, so letting her go wouldn't be a big issue.

[Ymarsakar]

Thanks Ym. I created a moonborn cleric because I really don't want to travel with Durance again, but I do miss his spells...This is my second time around, so I'm pretty familiar with how the different classes work. The last time I had a Pally (MC), Eder, Aloth, Durance, Sagani, and Kana. I'm going to skip Kana this time because I already have a Chanter (MC), but I wasn't sure about how the others would work. I may drop my cleric and go with GM depending on how the battles go. If I have to, I'll just trade Eder out for Pally, but I'd miss the guy...

 

IE Mod will let you change classes of npcs via console. http://www.nexusmods.com/pillarsofeternity/mods/1/?

 

ChangeClass Companion_Pallegina(Clone)_5 Druid

 

Findcharacter Pallegina gives you which clone number they are in game.

 

IRoll20s in console to activate commands.

 

That's what some people did if they really liked a story companion, they just changed their class to fit with whatever mix they were going with. Of course, Sagani probably should be left alone at this time. The pet tends to do weird things.

 

Check under files for the most recent mod launcher + the beta mod file, and that should work with the latest 3.01 build, but there some crashes and bugs. 

 

I've also heard that paladin mains and priest mains tend to have more flavor dialogue unlocks for their profession. Although that couldn't be developed deeply since they would have to account for all the other classes left out of mention for the main plot.

 

Eder might make for a good priest tank, especially since that would be his other class in a different life. You'd have to add in his class talent yourself, though via console, since I don't think it allows selection of gods. Story NPC stats cannot be changed as of this time, it is impermanent. Resets after each load.

Edited March 3, 2016 by Ymarsakar

[Phyriel]

I use this composition atm:

 

Wizard Tank

Chanter wild orlan OT

Chanter wild orlan OT

Melee Rogue

Cipher ranged 

Priest

 

I'm thinking about throwing 1 chanter away tho, not that its bad but its kinda boring class for me, I'm quite used tho they are solid OTs that dont require any babysitting.