[Class Build] Chronicle - Seeker for the Lost (Selfish buffhoarding support Chanter)

[Cirein]

With Pillars coming to the end of its development cycle, I want this to be my "canon" playthrough when I sit down to go through with it start to finish. I will not, however, do this until Obsidian fixes the bug with Ancient Memory. You can fix it yourself, as some people on the forums have,  but I'd rather have an "official" fix and sincerely hope we get it in 3.04. I have tested this a fair bit with hired characters at various levels, however, and I think the concept is strong. I thought it was interesting and worth sharing.

I'll come right out and say this isn't optimal. I don't play that way. I tend to make things that are "mechanically interesting" and "good fluff" and push the system until it works for me. I'll try to make notes of ways I know that the build can be improved when I've made a sub-optimal choice willfully. Such as the race, for example. So I have a concept, and a dream. Let's roll.

 

 

==THE FLUFF==
Chronicle remembers.
Born a scion of Ondra, the boy was 'blessed' with a mind like a sieve, holding only what he needed to get by and letting go of anything difficult or painful. He was raised comfortably, in one of the great cities of the Valian Republics. He does not remember his family, and only vaguely remembers his childhood, especially the later years of it. Resentful of Ondra for 'stealing' his memories of his parents, he chose a career path antithetical to his patron deity, the way of the Chanter. Through memory tricks and mnemonics and sheer willpower he has begun to master his mind, which he now turns to seeking information on his parents. Having uncovered records that they had business dealings in Defiance Bay, he sets out with a caravan at the first opportunity.

==STATS==
--POTD--Only Story Companions

Race: Moon Godlike (Though plenty of things would work well, Humans have good synergy, but I like the RP of the moon godlike for this)
Class: Chanter
Background: Old Vailia - Colonist

Skills: Prioritize Survival and Lore. They are best for conversations and synergize best with the build. Carry scrolls with duration effects, particularly buffs.

Attributes:
I do not like to min-max, so instead I will list by priority, adjust to suit your preferred level of min-max. I personally don't think this works well with dump stats, particularly since dumping dex results in your chanter standing around like a derp for a thousand years after dropping a high level invocation. You don't need much, just don't dump it. Might seems like a good fit with all the healing effects, but you can make up for that with later invocations that will last most of the fight if you are doing things properly. Items go a long way too, and you get +healing bonuses from various sources.

MIG:  *
CON: * *
DEX:  * 
PER:  * *
INT:    * * *
RES:  * *

Talents: Take them in whatever order suits you. Can't go too terribly wrong. I find extra accuracy is very good early in POTD, so grab it if you're struggling.
 

-Ancient Memory
-Beloved Spirits
-Veteran's Recovery
-Two Weapon Style

-Weapon Focus: Noble
-Interrupting Blows
-Vulnerable Attack

The basics are covered at this point, so do what you like. I find that he's a good candidate for Gallant Focus if you don't have it on someone already, due to the high INT. Improved Deflection isn't a bad pick. If you find that you are struggling to keep up your buffs, try outlanders frenzy, the extra attack speed helps out spelltongue a lot.

Chants: Duration Buffs. Everywhere we can take them.
1.

- Blessed Was Wengridh, Quickest of His Tribe - Quick Buffs for building Phrases
- At the Sight of their Comrades, their Hearts Grew Bold - Quick Buffs for building Phrases
- Thick Grew Their Tongues, Stumbling O'er Words - Good Synergy with the build's secondary weapon set.

2

- Rime and Frost Followed the Footfalls of Karth: Helpful in a lot of scripted interactions in White March.

- One Dozen Stood Against the Power of the Saint: Good Situational Buff

3
- Aefyllath Ues Mith Fyr: Stupid powerful, good synergy. Takes a long time, though, so I don't often use it. We need lots of phrases hella quick.

- Seven Men, Onto the Deck They Went: Wins certain fights basically on its own. Situational. Don't want to use Dragon Thrashed. It's OP.

4

- Old Siec Would Not Rest 'til His Hunger Was Sated: Great Synergy. Good to switch to once the buffs are running.

5

- Mercy and Kindness: Really powerful Combined with Old Siec.

Invocations: Duration Buffs, wherever we can take them!
1

- But Reny Daret's Ghost, He would not Rest: Powerful in the early game. Remember that it has sneak attack.

- And Hel-Hyraf Crashed upon the Shield: Your weapons do **** damage. This helps.

- Not Felled by Axe, Nor Broken by Storm: Build Synergy, seems fluffy too.

2

- Shatter their Shackles, Cast off their Chains!: Build Synergy, powerful when it's useful.

- Rejoice, My Comrades! Two Fingers of Daylight!: Slight Synergy, fits the healing theme.

3

- The Bride Caught their Ruse and Set to Make them Pay: This is where we start to see it come together. Cast this one first, makes the others last longer.
- The Brideman Slew Thirty 'Fore they Crossed Half the Hall: Good candidate to cast second. Powerful.

4

- Their Champion Braved the Horde Alone: Very powerful. Also fits the secondary weapon set very well, by enabling ludicrously high interrupt ratings. Takes a lot, though. Good to finish off a tough fight.

5

- Doesn't much matter. You'll never use them.

 

Items: 

 

Weapon set 1: Spelltongue / Unlabored Blade (This is really what makes the build go-round. The duration extentions on spelltongue actually apply to both phrases and any invocations with duration effects. Get in there and start swinging. You can, with high intelligence, get your stuff to last a stupid-long time. You can actually extend the buffs from chants to forever overlap on you, despite there being a gap for the rest of the party. Pay attention to your current intelligence and your brisk recitation reductions and such. If you are not careful you can overdo it a lot. Go ahead and slot in another phrase if you need it. Durganize spelltongue. Unlabored blade makes good use of the Flick of the Wrist talent and the fact that it has +speed mitigates the disadvantage of using an off-weapon with spelltongue due to the way dual weapons with speed stack in Pillars. You could duplicate and dual spelltongue, but I am not certain that works as advertised, and I can't bring myself to dual rapiers...it looks really silly. Plus, if the main character is going to get +acc with daggers, I am damned well going to use a dagger.
 

Weapon Set 2: Mosquito / dagger of your choice (I like drawn in spring, but it comes late. March steel is arguably better anyway to hit more with the main hand due to speed stacking): Mosquito fits really well here. It has absurd synergy with the interrupt chant and Champion Braved the Horde due to its high interrupt duration. (not advertised as a magic thing, but it's true if you read the base stats of the thing) and also synergizes well with old siec + mercy and kindness which enables a very solid option to switch when being attacked by a strong enemy. You will interrupt them and heal up pretty quickly. Durganize if you want, not super important. Not a damage loadout.

Early Game Weapons: Sword of Dianysis is a good early option if you want damage. Not really this build's jam, but it still gets work done. You can get mosquito about as early if you want to head over to dyrford and grab it. With the interrupt chant it's quite strong, even early. March steel dagger is fantastic as an offhand option right up until unlabored blade.

 

As for the other slots, it's open to taste. I personally like to stack up stats like crazy on my mains, so I end up with all of the +3/4 stuff slotted. This build makes good use of all stats, so you can't go terribly wrong that way. If you arn't as greedy as I am, you can sub in overseeing gear and voice of the mountaintop. If you are being all optimal and chose human over moon godlike, though, use the maegfolc skull. Adds another duration buff to extend with our int and spelltongue.

Armor, though, really only one ideal choice:

 

Armor: Ryona's Breastplate has crazy good synergy because it gives +3 int AND provides several duration buffs to extend via spelltongue.

 

==GAMEPLAY AND CORE CONCEPTS==

I wanted a different chanter. I was somewhat inspired by the Chillfog build by Boeroer which got me onto the notion of using regeneration to offset some problems with tankiness. However, instead of going the whole-hog on that concept with high might, I got it in my head to include a modest regen "package" while creating a toolbox chanter using all of the weird situational stuff nobody ever bothers with. With the +5 might invocation and the survival healing bonus, you come off just fine on the regen, and the ability of spelltongue to extend veteran's recovery is pretty great. Note, again, that Ancient Memory is currently broken -ESPECIALLY FOR THIS BUILD- because we rely on fast invocations. If you are impatient and don't want to wait, you can fix it yourself, instructions are in the tech support thread.

Set up the early game buff chants as your primary set. Once your brisk recitation starts to get to the point where they overlap, slot the interrupt chant between them. (and at the end) to prevent overlap on the other party members. Remember: We want stuff to overlap on you, but it's kinda a waste if its overlapping on everyone. The idea is for spelltongue to cause the overlap, not brisk recitation and intelligence stacking.

Keep your other chants situational until the late game. Once you have old siec and mercy and kindess, set those as your defensive option when you or the party are badly hurt.

This build embraced the idea that a chanter should get more powerful as the fight progresses. With spelltongue improving durations and the stupidly high intelligence you can achieve with Ryonas Breastplate + the int. invocation, you can actually get an ungodly suite of buffs hoarded up on yourself while simultaneously providing a lot of heavy supporting buffs and moderate heals to the party. You are meanwhile a competent, and in some ways impressive, combatant. Provided you target the enemies that target you, you can put them well off their footing with interrupts, which mitigates a lot more damage than you might think. I've been able to completely interrupt-lock enemies with champion braved the horde active.

 

[bigwillystyle]

 

 

The duration extentions on spelltongue actually apply to both phrases and any invocations with duration effects.

 

Oh that is awesome.  Never thought of that before.  That is just great.  

 

I also never considered the impact of Spelltongue on Ryona's Breastplate.