My first run - A strong Priest...but how?

[Slack83er]

Hi all, and first and foremost, thanks to all the people that supported me on my last very nooobish thread.

Now, as soon as this night of work ends, I'm about to start my campaign as a Priest. I know roughly what it should look like, and I've been advised that Eothas and Magran are the best role-playable deities. What do I need now? I need your best personal advices on all the rest of customizable options... such as race, background... homeland...etc. and possibly the reasons behind them. What I'm sure of is:

 

- I don't want to die easily, can't play squishy characters such as robed mages.

- I value roleplay a lot...the more dialog/play options I have, the better.

- I want to be very useful to my party.

- I want my toon to be "coherent".. I don't want to be an elven brute with 19 vigor... for example.. or be an elf with very low dex....

- That said I also like some "twists" to stereotypes. I don't necessarily need to be a cleric with mace and shield...

- I don't want any min-max. I'll play easy or normal, I don't revel in testing my mouse prowess, I value story and role.

 

Please, I wouldn't want any of you to feel like you're being "exploited" and do the job in my place... I'm just trying to gather your experiences, because I come from completely different rpgs, and I'm afraid I can lose something in the game experience, and I don't want to play the game 3 o 4 times just to try different paths....

 

A whole bunch of thank you for your patience from a nooooob.

[Blades of Vanatar]

Moon Godlike healing gives you extra staying power. Sword wielding Priest of Magran with shield will make you less squishy. Early game sword with Con bonus will help. Or Flail wielding Priest of Eothas with shield. Early game Flail with Endurance siphon will help with staying power. I prefer Might and Int on my Priest but it depends if you are soloing? What's your plan? Party or Solo?

[Slack83er]

Party, normal party game. When you say endurance syphon, you mean a weapon with that enchantment on it?

P.s. I reckon the godlike's ability is really strong for a priest... but can you confirm it can justify the absence of a headguard?

Edited August 8, 2016 by Slack83er

[Boeroer]

Yes, the flail has the "draining" enchantment. It is a nice weapon for a priest of eothas because it has a relation to that god. It's good in the early game but not that much later. But that's OK because later on a priest will cast more and more spells and will use his weapon only seldomly. That's also the reason why I don't use those god related talents which boost weapon accuracy a lot - only if I plan a priest who will still use his weapons a lot after the early game.

Edited August 8, 2016 by Boeroer

[Boeroer]

Moon Godlike's racial ability is really strong - especially with high MIG and INT - which I recommend for a priest anyway.

But it only triggers if you loose endurance. So for a priest in the back row it might be suboptimal. If you plan to go into melee it can be one of the best racial abilities. You can combine this with Shod-in-Faith boots which you can get in Defiance Bay. Those will also add a lot of party wide healing power to a priest who's going melee and has high MIG and INT.

 

There are few helmets or other headgear which can compete with Silver Tide. And since you have a full party I doubt that you can find 6 helmets/hats that are of equal power.

 

BUT: Moon Godlikes are somehow connected to Ondra, not to Eothas. So from a roleplaying perspective it's a little odd. Not that it's impossible or so, just a little weird. But I'm sure one can come up with an explanation which explains this. There's no rule or lore of which I know that a godlike has to be devoted to the god who "touched" him.

 

Another approach for a priest as main character is taking a priest of magran, a race with high MIG (dwarf or aumaua), Living Lands AS cultural backgr. and max MIG, PER and INT and aim for max MIG with items and spells. With late game gear you can get +4 MIG from a helm and +4 from a weapon (that weapon is connected to Abydon, who is connected to Magran). You can add +10 with Champion's Boon and 2 more with Aggrandizing Radiance (only lowers your own healing you receive from Holy Radiance, not the party's like it says in the description). Aggrandizing Radiance stacks with everything (I also add Inspiring Radiance to the mix). At the start of the encounter I will cast Champion's Boon (or any other +MIG spell I have until I can have Champion's Boon), then Aggr. Radiance. This means +12 MIG. With those items I mentioned you will have +20 MIG. Add the 21feom race and You can also add resting bonuses +3 and food (+2 cheap, +3 expensive). So... with about 40 to 45 MIG imagine the healing power, the increased damage of your damaging spells and also the damage your Holy Radiance does to vessels. You can one shot most vessels with your radiance later on. It profits from your answers in dialogue checks and it scales with level. It's healig power and especially it's vessel killing power becomes so awesome that vessels become a joke for you. Your spells like Shining Beacon will be super powerful. If you combine this with Triumph of the Crusaders you can become a walking Nightmare for your foes.

Edited August 8, 2016 by Boeroer

[Slack83er]

I'd like to stay melee, and only sometimes go ranged. I want to be in the front line, as a leader of the group. I thought of dwarf, but dunno... I kinda dislike them in Poe... I liked elf for my priest... Or godlike...

[DreamWayfarer]

I'd like to stay melee, and only sometimes go ranged. I want to be in the front line, as a leader of the group. I thought of dwarf, but dunno... I kinda dislike them in Poe... I liked elf for my priest... Or godlike...

How about a Pale Elf Priest of Berath with a greatsword, going with the Pale Knight theme? The favored and disfavored dispositions tend to not be very restraining, the lore is very cool, and there are many cool greatswords, like Tidefall, which drains health from your foes.

 

Invest into Survival for the bonus healing received so you aren't so squishy, take the Inspiring and Agrandizing(sp?) Radiance Talents (as they stack with everything), as well as The Pallid Hand to compensate your lacking base stats and invest into MIG, INT and either PER, RES or DEX (choose ONE, as spreading you points too thin does little good), never dumping any stat below 8 (except maybe RES, because you have a spell that increases Concentration and lots of healing). For armors, anything between a breastplate and full plate can suit you, depending on your stats and playstyle.

Edited August 8, 2016 by DreamWayfarer

[Boeroer]

What Dream Wayfarer said does work well. You can also use Veteran's Recovery and buff your deflection as well as the other party members ones. As I said: as soon as you get Triumph of the Crusaders and kill things yourself you can be very good in the front line. I soloed high level content with such a priest (also with Tidefall - and Sanguine Plate and Shod-in-Faith) and it's great.

 

With high MIG and high INT Envenomed Strike becomes also very nice. Especially in the early game it helps a lot against tough foes.

 

A nice thing about Tidefall: it causes wounding which is a damage over time effect. Try to use Envenomed Strike with Tidefall, then cast Cleansing Flame and keep hitting. That spell doubles the tick count of DoT effects. Most enemies - even high level Ogres who have tons of endurance - are dead in seconds. Didn't test if the wounding also gets doubled (but I guess), but it adds to the poison of Envenomed Strike and that is so powerful that the enemies die anyways.

Edited August 8, 2016 by Boeroer

[DreamWayfarer]

Loren... Tyr? He(?) hasn't posted in this topic.

[Boeroer]

Ouh sorry, I meant you. Read something from him in another thread in another open tab. :-o

[Abel]

 

I'd like to stay melee, and only sometimes go ranged. I want to be in the front line, as a leader of the group. I thought of dwarf, but dunno... I kinda dislike them in Poe... I liked elf for my priest... Or godlike...

How about a Pale Elf Priest of Berath with a greatsword, going with the Pale Knight theme? The favored and disfavored dispositions tend to not be very restraining, the lore is very cool, and there are many cool greatswords, like Tidefall, which drains health from your foes.

 

Invest into Survival for the bonus healing received so you aren't so squishy, take the Inspiring and Agrandizing(sp?) Radiance Talents (as they stack with everything), as well as The Pallid Hand to compensate your lacking base stats and invest into MIG, INT and either PER, RES or DEX, never dumping any stat below 8 (except maybe RES, because you have a spell that increases Concentration and lots of healing). For armors, anything between a breastplate and full plate can suit you, depending on your stats and playstyle.

 

 

I like the idea of the Pale knight.

 

2 handers is certainly better for damages. And all what explains Boeroer seems to make sense. He's a real good specialist about many things in the game (way more than me). The only thing is that while it's true the survivability of the priest is good using Boeroer's tips, i guess that, probably, it's hard to clean a 3 lvl dungeon without resting, because the health pool will tend to be depleted before the end (priests have low health and endurance).

 

But i guess it's no problem if you don't mind your party resting once in a while. Otherwise, i guess that the shield is stil the best.

Edited August 8, 2016 by Abel

[DreamWayfarer]

But i guess it's no problem if you don't mind your party resting once in a while. Otherwise, i guess that the shield is stil the best.

If health depletation is the problem (which it shouldn't be until later in the game, unless you are playing solo), the Wound Binding talent is affected by MIG, INT and Healing Received multipliers, so you can completely refill your health with it. Still, it is not a talent that I would advice taking until at least level 8, because earlier you just can't self-heal yourself to the point of running out of health most of the time.

 

And on shields, while they may be useful it still makes sense to specialize in two-handers depending on your playstyle, since dead people are generally worse at killing you. Plus, you can have a shield+mace on your secondary weapon set.

[Abel]

 

But i guess it's no problem if you don't mind your party resting once in a while. Otherwise, i guess that the shield is stil the best.

If health depletation is the problem (which it shouldn't be until later in the game, unless you are playing solo), the Wound Binding talent is affected by MIG, INT and Healing Received multipliers, so you can completely refill your health with it. Still, it is not a talent that I would advice taking until at least level 8, because earlier you just can't self-heal yourself to the point of running out of health most of the time.

 

And on shields, while they may be useful it still makes sense to specialize in two-handers depending on your playstyle, since dead people are generally worse at killing you. Plus, you can have a shield+mace on your secondary weapon set.

 

 

LOL! It's right, dead people are pretty lame killers :D. Still i never tried a 2 handers priest. Considering their starting deflection and low health, i figured since the start that i should use a shield. But my inexperience in this matter is the reason why i will trust you when you say that he can fare well without his health depleting too fast. After all it's true that dead thugs are not much of a threat

 

I did not know about the INT and MIGHT and healing multipliers applying to Wound Binding. I guess it's the same with Field Triage. It's a really good thing to know. Thanks for the tip.

[DreamWayfarer]

actually, I think you are better with shield+mace before reaching Defiance Bay. At first, the low base stats hurt you a lot.

Edited August 8, 2016 by DreamWayfarer

[Boeroer]

That is also true for me. You'll find Tidefall after Defiance Bay anyway. Or you put the priest in plate as soon as possible. The Great Sword Justice you can get before Defiance Bay and is somewhat related to Berath and is also not too bad.

 

I think in a full party with normal difficulty (and 4 camping supplies) health will be no issue. You will run out of spells before health drops to critical values I guess...?

[Abel]

I think in a full party with normal difficulty (and 4 camping supplies) health will be no issue. You will run out of spells before health drops to critical values I guess...?

 

 Yep, i guess too. But i was careful because of his huge interest for roleplay. Probably that we all have our own roleplay tendencies. One of mine is that i won't rest just anywhere, which is why my party needs to completely clean a dungeon without resting. And in this case, the number of camping supplies you have is irrelevant. But if this kind of thing is of no concern for his own way to consider roleplay in Pillars, then, maybe he would be better off specializing in 2 handers and start off with a shield until he get sturdy enough to handle Tidefall.

[Slack83er]

What fantastic advices! Thank you all!! Pale elf-pale knight.... sounds rather creepy and unusual, as well as versatile enough! I'm very curious to play it! I'll go do it! What should I choos in your opinion as starting stats and/or bg?

[Abel]

What fantastic advices! Thank you all!! Pale elf-pale knight.... sounds rather creepy and unusual, as well as versatile enough! I'm very curious to play it! I'll go do it! What should I choos in your opinion as starting stats and/or bg?

 

I guess that if you play in normal, optimization to this point is not necessary. I guess that these are better for you to choose depending of the roleplay you planned. Is your character a traveler? An exiled aristocrat? Or a wanderer who made the oath to preach his God's virtues all over the world?

 

The game will react in dialogue to the background you chose. So, i guess that it may be better for you to choose them without worrying much about the bonuses, but more about your character's background.

 

As for the stats... if it's a 2 hander build... Might, because might increases the base damage of your weapon by a pecentage. and 10% of 20 is way better than 10% of 10 (which is the base damage of a flail). Furthermore, priests have several powerful damaging spells, like the seals (sorts of traps) and spells like Shining beacon and Cleansing Flames. Might will boost these damages too, and make your Holy Radiance and healings more powerful. INT may be a good idea too, at an average level, in order to have good spell duration and better AoE. But i guess that 14 should be enough in most cases. I like dexterity, because a priest like this will have to hit in melee and find some time to cast some spells. DEX increases your action speed. And i like perception, too, because it allows you to improve your accuracy which is important for melee and damaging spells. CON is not the most important to me, once more because it's a bonus percentage, and because priests have low health. CON is better used with a high health class like barbarians. But i would not drop it. Resolve is important for intimidation in conversation, you would usually need 13/17 in most cases, and that incrases your deflection a bit too.

 

I'm no good at min maxing. And i can't come up with optimal attributes. But if your character is a male, i would go with 18 MIG, 10 CON, 13 DEX, 12 PER, 14 INT, 11 RES. Or something along these lines. Boeroer should have better ideas though.

 

EDIT: though, in conversation, where only your character can talk, PER, INT and RES are the most usefull. MIG, CONS and DEX are better used in scripted interactions. But in these interactions, any character can do the job, which is not the case in conversations.

Edited August 8, 2016 by Abel

[Slack83er]

Thanks Abel, Boeroer are you ok with this? If so, then I start playing!

[Climhazzard]

You guys should consider that finding Tidefall on a first playthrough is sort of hit or miss.  If you didn't level mechanics on your MC but Aloth/Kana/Grieving mother instead, odds are pretty good that you won't find it by the time you do that fight.

 

On my last playthrough I had the gloves of manipulation on Aloth and I still had to use a scroll to boost his mechanics up enough to find Tidefall after the fight.

 

Anyhow I'd like to suggest using a reach weapon like a pike or quarterstaff if you're set against sword n board, at least until you find a really nice two hander like Tidefall.  I don't even give Durance a ranged weapon these days, just let him keep his quarterstaff in one slot and a mace/shield in the other.  With a quarterstaff spells like consecrated ground will be in range of all the melee, and if he gets engaged he can swap to mace(or sword, etc)/shield for more staying power.

 

Give him Eder's armor and level it up as you play through the game, with second chance if your priest gets overrun because he got engaged by to many enemies, he can get right back up minus the attention that caused him to go down then heal back up and keep fighting.

Edited August 8, 2016 by Climhazzard

[Boeroer]

Sounds good. I would take 18 MIG, 10 CON, 10 DEX, 8 RES, 14 PER annd INT 18.

 

Eh - I forgot! Didn't you want to have good dialogue options? Then 8 RES is not good of course.

 

For a lot of dialogue options it should look more like 15 MIG, 09 CON, 09 DEX, 15 PER, 15 INT and 15 RES or so...

[Boeroer]

To find Tidefall you simply need a mechanics value of 10 on any of your characters. If you meet a guy named "Cail the Silent" then you should search his place in stealth mode.

Edited August 8, 2016 by Boeroer

[Slack83er]

For a lot of dialogue options it should look more like 15 MIG, 09 CON, 09 DEX, 15 PER, 15 INT and 15 RES or so...

 

This would be good but I think it would hamper my gameplay... the already weak endurance and speed would be destroyed enough...I don't think I can handle it...

[Slack83er]

Eh - I forgot! Didn't you want to have good dialogue options? Then 8 RES is not good of course. 

 

What am I missing without res? I don't want to be harsh in conversation anyway.. but deflection is lowered this way..

[Boeroer]

To be honest with you: all those dialogue options you can unlock with high RES, PER and so on don't matter for the storyline at all. They are just options for a more "cool" or clever or resolute approach im conversations. You normally don't gain extra infos or so. Some checks are necessary to get a certain item without a fight or to prevent fights to solve a quest. But if you're willing to fight you don't loose anything I can think of.

 

What does matter are your dialogue choices concerning [Rational], [stoic] and so in if you are a priest or paladin. If they don't line up with your god's or order's dispositions you loose potential.