4-head-party advisable?

[Huiu]

About a year ago I started playing Pillars of Eternity but had to abandon it till now. 

 

My main character shall be a cipher, but -- unsurprisingly -- I am not sure about the rest of my party. I do remember that I disliked Kana and Sagani very much. Furthermore, I heard that the companions are much weaker than building the characters on one's own -- but I guess I would miss a lot of interactions and quests, so I will go for the companions eventhough they are weaker. My question: Is it advisable to play a 4-head-party (for instance cipher, Eder, Pallegina, Aloth)?

 

And second: I have not bought the expansions yet, so does it make any difference to the original game not having them?

[Raven Darkholme]

4-head? As in the meme?

Seriously tho, the companions are not that bad, since you can level them yourself if you disable auto level.

I'm rocking pc paladin + Kana and GM, but you can also use pc cipher, Eder, Pallegina and Aloth as you wish.

I personally find bigger parties unnecessary micromanagement and anythingabove solo gets very powerful with level, even two man/grills.

The expansions give you more levels and awesome items, without it parts of the original game will be harder but still doable.

[Huiu]

I wasn't aware of this meme till now. It was a direct translation from German.  

 

Will I miss a lot of content if I don't have for instance Durance in my party? And exp-wise, is there a huge a huge difference between a 4 and 6 member party?

 

And can I start playing and install the expansions later, or will I have to start a new game?

[Raven Darkholme]

Oh another fellow German.

You don't miss a lot of content from the companion quests, Kanas for example is pretty ****ty and so is GM's.

Never used Durance for long he annoyed me too much. :D

Yes you can start playing without the expansion it just gets added to your save.

[JerekKruger]

Most companion quests simply serve to flesh out the companion's backstory, so if you don't like the companion you won't be missing out on much more than a small amount of experience (which you really don't need).

 

The exceptions that I can think of are Zahua and Maneha, both of whom get a permanent upgrade from completing their quest. Then again, if you don't plan to use them, you're not missing out on skipping their quests either.

 

One thing I will say though is that Durance's quest, which is essentially just a giant dialogue tree, is related to the main story quite closely. That said, I think you can simply leave him in Brighthollow (the inn in Caed Nua) and simply drop by every now and again to have a chat. I don't think you need to actually have him your party. 

[Raven Darkholme]

Most companion quests simply serve to flesh out the companion's backstory, so if you don't like the companion you won't be missing out on much more than a small amount of experience (which you really don't need).

 

The exceptions that I can think of are Zahua and Maneha, both of whom get a permanent upgrade from completing their quest. Then again, if you don't plan to use them, you're not missing out on skipping their quests either.

 

One thing I will say though is that Durance's quest, which is essentially just a giant dialogue tree, is related to the main story quite closely. That said, I think you can simply leave him in Brighthollow (the inn in Caed Nua) and simply drop by every now and again to have a chat. I don't think you need to actually have him your party. 

Yea I noticed that the other day too, when you talk to companions in Brighthollow their quest advances as far as pure dialogue goes, so if Durances doesn't require you to go anywhere you're totally fine with completing the quest that way.

And you also get to send him on stronghold quests, wouldn't want to miss that dual Bittercut.

[Huiu]

Thank you for all the input. I have read some cipher builds and am pretty sure that I will go for a blunderbuss one. The only thing I am worried now is that without a priest or druid I will miss the healing part -- is this so? Rogue seems not to be necessary since with mechanics one can find traps and open things: but, to which character (Eder, Aloth, Pallegina) should I give mechanics?

[Boeroer]

Paladins are better at healing than priests or druids in my opinion. Priests are more about buffing - and are really awesome at it. Druids have some healing spells, but you should cast them in advance since they are not made for the "oh crap" moment when you see that one of your chars is in trouble. Paladins are good at saving a friend from getting knocked out. You will have Pallegina - so you're good. And there's always potions - they work pretty well if you manage to gulp them down in time.

 

Generally said: if you combine a buffer with a debuffer (for example wizard, druid, cipher...) things get pretty easy. You don'r even need a dps character then. The whole game is about hitting the enemy - the more you hit the better. High damage is useless if you can't hit (or are k.o. all the time). So try to keep the difference between your ACC and the enemies' defenses as high as possible while doing it the other way round with the enemy.

 

I's always skip rogue - even in a party of six.

 

I would let Aloth do the mechanics. If he's in the back line he doesn't need tons of survival bonuses or athletics. Stealth is useless anyways. Go for 4 survival in order to get the +10 ACC bonus and the rest you can put into mechanics.

 

I also don't think that the companions are inferior to hirelings. At the beginning of the game they are one level above hirelings which is a tremendous advantage. And later on, when hirelings catch up with exp the game becomes so easy anyways that their non-min-maxing doesn't matter. In fact, some of their special abilites or talents are very nice and totally make up for a few "suboptimal" stats points here and there. For example Pallegina's Wrath of the Five Suns is so nice it's totally worth to build a whole character concept around it. 

Edited October 23, 2016 by Boeroer

[Huiu]

Since I always get so wonderfully precise answer I will try to continue with this run. :D 

 

From time to time, I would like to peek at a walkthrough to see whether I have missed something (like the Disappointer at the beginning). There are some walkthroughs, but some do e.g. not list "hidden" stuff like the Disappointer. Is there any walkthrough that is complete with all these "secret" locations and is otherwise complete in the sense of listing the effects of the different answers etc.?

[Raven Darkholme]

Since I always get so wonderfully precise answer I will try to continue with this run. :D 

 

From time to time, I would like to peek at a walkthrough to see whether I have missed something (like the Disappointer at the beginning). There are some walkthroughs, but some do e.g. not list "hidden" stuff like the Disappointer. Is there any walkthrough that is complete with all these "secret" locations and is otherwise complete in the sense of listing the effects of the different answers etc.?

Even tho it's self advertisement, you can watch my trio:

 

I do everything in the game, not quite finished with WM2 yet, but soon.

[Boeroer]

I don't know in this case, but normally GameBanshee's walkthroughs are pretty complete.

[Raven Darkholme]

Gamepressure is very good for maps if you are looking for hidden loot or quests, but the enemy info there is not for Potd (I would assume normal, since for example i states there are 2 drakes on Searing falls, whilst there are a lot more on Potd .:D

[Huiu]

Ah, I like this game -- just started again. ^^ 

 

What I did not find in the different guides is how many points in which skills is recommended. Aloth is going for mechanics, so I won't need this. I have spent some in lore. But I guess some in athletics and survival won't be bad.

[Raven Darkholme]

Athletics isn't that useful I always have it at 3, some scripted interactions need it higher but I get along without it.

Survival is very important and I always aim for a 12 at least on my tank.

[Huiu]

And for a ranged cipher? Otherwise I'll spend everything on lore.

 

For reasons unknown to me, quicksave is not working anymore. It went well until the point when it stopped working at all. I changed the control-button a few times to make sure, but whenever I press quicksave, nothing happens. Does this sound familiar?

[Raven Darkholme]

Even for a ranged cipher having 10 survival is not a bad thing because of accuraccy bonus 2, but if you want to use scrolls lore is fine, too.

 

Didn't encounter the problem with the quicksave yet, does quicksave work for you if you press the icon?