Conversation PC and party for PotD 3.0+

[Echopixel]

I've recently taken up wanting to play PoE again after many major patches.  Before I had a file where I was a pale elf shieldbearer paladin, now I'm thinking of restarting with all the changes since 1.0...  I also wanted to use the npcs for story.

 

My current idea for a party was something like this

 

Chanter tank

Pallagina tank

Sagani

Aloth

GM

Durance

 

I'm not sure what kind of build would make me feel like my pc is useful and fun while also giving me the conversation options I want (if that's even possible?)  I'm assuming I need maxed PER/RES/INT, so what would be a fun build to go along with?  I've looked at some guides and nothing really stood out to me, maybe you guys could help.  I wanted to help in dealing damage, but I feel like that would be hard to do with this build.

[MaxQuest]

So you want a chanter PC, and none of the pinned builds appeals to you? Well, ugh..

You could try a cc-chanter. Something like 2/15/3/20/20/18 wild orlan. A build focused on non-dps chants (like sure-handed and aefillath) and cc-invocations (specifically thunder-rolled, froze-stiff and lover-cried). And you get maxed Per and RES with INT.

Edited June 30, 2016 by MaxQuest

[Echopixel]

Yeah, the two builds in that post sounded fun, but neither have high numbers for all three of the conversation stats... that's where the tough decision for me comes from...  Lose out of more fun build and get less conversation or get more conversation options and wish my chanter was more fun to play the whole game.

 

:S  Is there no good middle ground if I wanted to do PotD?  Because I was having fun playing that difficulty before, but the paladin was a bit boring.

[Kaylon]

You don't need 18 base PER/INT/RES for the best conversation options. I would lower dex to 3 and let eveything else at 15. As the game advances you'll have items and other bonuses to pass any check you want. Maybe you can even lower your CON  and increase INT when you're comfortable with your summons tanking. And of course, until you get Pallegina, you'll have to pick Eder to help you with the tanking.

Edited June 30, 2016 by Kaylon

[Boeroer]

I agree. 15 is enough for nearly all conversations. You'll get rings, belts, amulets and other items which can boost those to 17, later even 18 or 19. And there's restnig bonuses from Caed Nua, too (+3). However, I like my chanters with max INT, because their chant AoE base (and also some cone-invocations' AoE) is so big that every point of INT is visible. You don't need 15 CON either when you're not tanking alone (which I wouldn't reccomend - like Kaylon said). In my experience a chanter with Veteran's Recovery and Ancient Memory can tank alone, but you'll need more CON then because low health might become an issue in the early game.

 

If you want a chanter who uses invocations a lot I wouldn't dump DEX, because the recovery phase after an invocation will be very long then. You can't even chant in that phase. So, chain-paralyzing with "Killers froze stiff" is not possible with 3 DEX. However, it's totally ok to dump DEX if you want to use damaging chants most of the time (like The Dragon Thrashed).

 

I want to point out that the invocation "White Worms" on lvl 1 can be superpowerful if you turn off the "gib" option in the game options so that bodies don't explode (I think that option is stupid anyways). It helps enormously in the early game. You just have to use chokepoints and lure every enemy of a map to that chokepoint (you can also use multiple ones if it becomes too tedious to lure them all through the whole map). Once there are more than 5 bodies piled up it really gets easy to clear a whole map with this. Just lure them all onto that pile of bodies. Once they are there, your phrase couter has reached 3 and you can use White Worms. As long as you don't reload the damage will increase and oncrease until it's very easy to one-shot Raedric and his whole bunch of friends. One of the easiest ways to clear the castle at an early level and take all that loot.

Edited July 1, 2016 by Boeroer

[Echopixel]

This is good information! Thanks for all the suggestions, I'll try these out.  And I should be okay with Pallegina and myself as the tanks in PotD?  Do I need the talents to increase engagement slots?  I heard it's a lot less useful with the AI changes, but not sure since I won't be taking a fighter who would normally have the +2 engagement thing.

Edited July 3, 2016 by Echopixel

[Boeroer]

I never pay any attention to engagement and I'd say I'm doing fine.

[Raven Darkholme]

I never pay any attention to engagement and I'd say I'm doing fine.

Hahahaha. (Sorry for spam :D)

[Boeroer]

 

I mean maybe it can be useful to have a lot of engagement slots when you are a fighter and use Overbearing Guard or something like that. But I never had a lot of success with that special build. For the rest of all chars I think it's save to totally ignore your engagement slots. Maybe there are players with other experiences.

[Raven Darkholme]

Nah, engagement is ****.

[Echopixel]

I never pay any attention to engagement and I'd say I'm doing fine.

 

Sounds about the consensus I got from yours and others' build posts as well as other opinion threads... off I go!  Thanks a lot, everyone.

[Matroska]

Can I just hop in and steal OP's question but with the twist that I'd want a rogue PC? What stats would you suggest there?

Edited July 7, 2016 by Matroska

[mosspit]

I am currently using a rogue as a MC but leveraging heavily on Riposte. As such, she is in an off-tank position with high RES and PER. The byproduct of this build is that she can pass quite a number of dialogue checks which is quite nice.