Please help me to choose a Main Character

[Morax]

Hey there, my name is Morax, i just bought Pillars of Eternity a few days ago and now, after reading the manual and searching for information about the copanions in this game, i would like to begin my journey to Eora.

 

I ´m quite familiar with games like this one ( finished Baldur´s Gate Saga about 30 times - for example), but i´m at no means a

powerplayer. I dont care for MINMAX attributes etc, but i don´t want to start over again and again because playing a certain class could become unpleasant for me after a couple of hours.

 

So thats the reason, why i came to this forum ! I would really appreaciate it, if someone could give me advice on choosing my main character !

 

I ´d like to play  on normal difficulty with a party that consists of 5 companions. From what i´ve read on the internet, i ´d definetly want to use the following companions, because they look most appealing to me:

 

Èder (perhaps as Main Tank ? )

Sagani (should be ranged DD of course)

Pallegina ( i´m unsure about her - could she be usefull as 2nd tank or can i give here a 2handed Weapon and build her as DD ? )

Aloth ( typical caster for CC and Damage)

The last slot is free for either Durance, the Chanter Guy or the Chipher NPC

 

In terms of strategy and general approach, i would like to play a class, that is rather active in battle ( multiple spells / abilities ),

but it should be no killing machine  or brainless slaughterer ! I´d rather prefer a more support orientated class, that helps my teammembers doing their tasks. Sounds quite oxymoronic to me, but perhaps someone experienced with this game could find a class and build that fits in this role ?

Generally speaking, i thought about either Priest ( Eothas ) or Chanter.

So what could be the best class for my main character if i´m playing with the companions above ?

 

The 3rd and last Idea of mine would be a Wild Orlan Fighter, build as Tank to protect my Partymembers.

But im unsure about this, because i´d definetly like to use Èder and Pallegina and i have no idea how to use them if not as tanks.

Any advice here ?

 

The last thing that concerns me is - of course - the coherence of my main character in terms of roleplay.

I´d like to play as wild orlan, therefore i would like to know what would be a fitting background and culture for this race !

(There is just to little information about this avaiable for me, as i have no clue about the Dialogues in the game so far)

 

 

PS: please don´t be concerned about my language skills - for english is not my mother tongue. If there is something that bothers you

about this text - just tell me and i will try to change it.

 

Many Thanks

 

Morax

Edited October 27, 2016 by Morax

[Ben No.3]

Chanter is a great class, very intuitive and easy to use, little micro, very powerful. So your main can be your tank alongside pallegina and Eder. If you want to use only one tank but want to keep both characters, have a look into the gunslinger build or use pallegina as a DD. Although I'd probably rather have my main and pallegina as a tank and Eder as a DD... Fighters are underwhelming tanks in comparison to paladin or chanter.

Priests are great classes lore wise, gameplay wise they may be even the stronges, but if you are not familiar with the mechanics their powers can seem quite underwhelming.

But I think chanter tanks are a great first class... Easy to use, very effective, and good mental stats (per, int, res).

Edited October 27, 2016 by Ben No.3

[Raven Darkholme]

I would go with Kana as companion and a cipher as main character.

Ciphers are very active, maybe the most active class in game.

You don't need to rest for their spells to repeatedly cast them, but you need to attack and gather focus.

Also kana is slightly more interesting than GM as a companion.

I don't like Durance personally.

A priest is also a very good mc, since roleplaying has a lot more impact on them, but very rest reliant.

[Slack83er]

Welcome first of all! From what you say, I guess your class should be priest. While not tanky as a paladin, he's versatile like no other, and the fact that he has a chosen divinity adds to the flavor of the roleplay. Chanters are very passive in combat, so I'd avoid them. Lore-wise, the Orlans have a high impact on the game. As to what concerns the dialogues, if you go couple pages back, in this forum, you'll find a thread I opened. A gentle fellow wrote a list of dialog options divided by class and race. Can't remember the title but it has to do with paladins and priests... give it a try!

[Blades of Vanatar]

Paladins fit this bill as well. They can be built as great support characters.

[Morax]

Okay thanks for the advice i got so far, all of you gave me some nice information about the classes !

 

After some thinking i came to the conclusion, that i probably want to use Durance as Priest for my Party, so this class is out for my main char.

 

I really think, that the Chanter could be a good choice for me, because this class seems to fit the support role really good, but i´m still unsure about the

"passiveness" of this class ( if i go tank, my character would just stand in front of my foes - singing and soaking dmg, but he won´t do anything else, right ? )

 

The cipher indeed sounds interesting too, altough it seems to be a quite agressive class, i guess it would be the top DD in my group ?

Nevertheless, i completely forgot, that Enemies give no XP in this Game, so i don´t have to kill everything in sight with the Cipher.

Is it possible to build the Cipher torwards the more "talkative" Stats like INT and PER ?

What about Wild Orlan for the Cipher class ? Is this it really contraproductive or just mediocre ?

I´d like to ask a final question here, its about which Weapon the Cipher should use ! I ´d really like to use gunpowder weapons only for this class - would this be viable ?

Let´s assume i tend to go with Cipher, would the following Party Concept work ?

Tanks // Frontline : Èder and Pallegina (and the Pet perhaps)

Caster: Aloth and Durance

Ranged: MC and Sagani

[Raven Darkholme]

For chanter you can also up your Lore and cast Scrolls, but since anyone could do that it's not a chanter thing, just would make it less passive.

If you are set on taking Durance, the chanter might still be better tho, if you don't have kana, not having a chanter might be bad, his passive heal works real well with Eder since it stacks and also two very fast level 1 chants give you +10 on all saves except deflection and as 3rd chant you can either do damage with DoT chants (one you get at level 9 will turn your chanter into the best dd for quite some levels) or take another support chant, the high level ones are op again, 30 pt damage shield, accuracy and damage vs dragons, you name it.

 

The cipher does a lot of single target damage with weapons and also has some powers which do great AoE, but the cipher is also an awesome buff and debuff class.

[Morax]

Alright, so if i stay with the companions noted above, it would be the best option to go with the chanter ?

 

Which role would you suggest for the Frontline Partymembers then ?

 

Who should be Tank ? Eder, Pallegina or the Chanter ?

 

I´d also would like to know if i´ts possible to play a 2nd line Chanter ( perhaps with reach - weapons or gunpowder weapons)

 

Also would a stat distribution like 16/10/8/16/18/10 or 16/10/10/16/18/8 work ?

[Blades of Vanatar]

Pallegina as tank/burst damage. Eder as off-tank. Chanter as tank/do everything else guy.

[Ben No.3]

Don't forget you chant faster the higher your level. So, if you only use low level chants, you will quickly be able to cast, should make te chafer more active

[Morax]

Don't forget you chant faster the higher your level. So, if you only use low level chants, you will quickly be able to cast, should make te chafer more active

Any suggestions for stat distribution / talents etc ?

i think i´ll stick with chanter now, just would like to know what would be the best approach to use this class if i go for

pallegina and èder in the frontline too !

[Ben No.3]

 

 

Don't forget you chant faster the higher your level. So, if you only use low level chants, you will quickly be able to cast, should make te chafer more active

Any suggestions for stat distribution / talents etc ?

i think i´ll stick with chanter now, just would like to know what would be the best approach to use this class if i go for

pallegina and èder in the frontline too !

Have a look at the build guide, there are three great builds by some better people... Two melee tanks and one ranged gunner.

[Blades of Vanatar]

Dex is not a big need when chanting. It of course helps your speed when attacking with a weapon or using items/scrolls.

 

Int and Might should be prioritized. Then Perception. The rest do with what you will. I like a 16 in Might, Per and Int and the rest 10s. I'm sure other more experienced players will minmax more but I have found it is not necessary, even on PoTD. I don't power game but do enjoy the builds on this forum. The Drake's Ambassador is an excellent Chanter build, built with style! The pick alone is worth the build.

 

If you are perusing the builds keep in mind that many builds share some of the same items.... I'm staring hard at you Mr. Shod-in-Faith Boots!.... Boeroer seems to have an affinity for those boots. He must have a toe fungus!

[JerekKruger]

In terms of strategy and general approach, i would like to play a class, that is rather active in battle ( multiple spells / abilities ),

 

Given the above, a Chanter seems a poor pick. The majority of what Chanters do is entirely passive: chanting, Ancient Memory, auto-attacking. Their only active abilities are their Invocations and, whilst those are good, bear in mind that on normal difficulty you're unlikely to build enough Phrases to cast more than one Invocation, and there'll be quite a lot of fights where you don't even get to do that.

 

This isn't to say that Chanters are bad. They're a very good class and Kana almost always has a place in my main line up for this reason. I just wanted to draw your attention to the fact that they don't fit your desire for an active class.

 

Now I'd say that the classes which best fit your description (active supporters) are probably the Priest and, to a lesser extent, the Paladin. Cipher's are very active, but they're more focuses on damage dealing and controlling/debuffing enemies than supporting friends (although they do have arguably the single best party buff in the game). Monks are possibly my favourite class and are very active in battle, but once again they are not really a support class.

[Raven Darkholme]

Let's keep in mind he has a whole party to manage and in my personal opinion it doesn't really make a difference if you micro your mc a lot or a protagonist.

[JerekKruger]

Let's keep in mind he has a whole party to manage and in my personal opinion it doesn't really make a difference if you micro your mc a lot or a protagonist.

 

Oh I totally agree, I just wanted to make sure he was aware that a Chanter won't fit the requirement he gave. If he's okay with that then I whole heatedly endorse a Chanter too.

[K Galen B]

I don't think a Chanter, however powerful, is a good fit here. It is the opposite of "active in battle," particularly on normal difficulty. Some folks - including me - just like to spend more time microing their mc because he's the mc.

[Blades of Vanatar]

Chanter can easily be active in melee. He chants while fighting or shooting. You only need to check to see when his invocations are ready to fire off. I used a Drakes Ambassador variant with the Unforgiven Flail and Little Savior, tanking away. Once my priests buffs started stacking up she was doing nice damage. Plus some of the invocations are better from the front lines as they are cone AoEs.

[JerekKruger]

Chanter can easily be active in melee. He chants while fighting or shooting. You only need to check to see when his invocations are ready to fire off. I used a Drakes Ambassador variant with the Unforgiven Flail and Little Savior, tanking away. Once my priests buffs started stacking up she was doing nice damage. Plus some of the invocations are better from the front lines as they are cone AoEs.

 

I don't think that's what active means in the context of the original post "multiple spells / abilities". I mean, it's possible that the OP is happy with multiple passive abilities and the occasional spell, but my instinct is he meant multiple active spells/abilities.

[Morax]

Good to see so many different approaches, ideas and thoughts to help me solve my character creation problem =), thank you very much !

 

From what i´ve read so far about Chanters still appeal to my idea of playstile, since i can build this class as a sturdy, buff - providing Wild Orlan.

But what still bothers me is the fact, that the chanter won´t be able to cast that much spells/abilities per Encounter.

 

That´s what i thought of at the beginning of this thread - with the term "active role" : Able to cast different spells/abilities (buffs etc) per fight while still able to attack with weapons.

 

Indeed, i also came to the conclusion, that the Paladin could be quite a nice class for me.

So i have to decide between Paladin and Chanter now ( no more ciphers)

Perhaps i could swap  Pallegine for Kana Rua or a selfmade chanter and consider making a paladin myself.

 

Let´s assume i would like to build a Paladin.

What would be a lore - correct Order for an Wild Orlan from - Edyr Empire or from Ixamitl Plains ? ( my 1st thought would be either the shieldbearers or the wayfarers )

If i´d like to build the Paladin as a Offtank / DD - what would be a decent stat spread ?

Any suggestions for talents / weapons etc as well ?

[AeonsLegend]

So Ciphers are the most active class and Chanters, Paladins and Monks probably the least so. Monks will become activated during battle, but not at the start. Fighters and Barbarians are somewhere in the middle, but are good as well if you don't want to go for a squishy class like the Cipher. I tried a Chanter main character and found it boring as hell. They have no activatable abilties other than spells that they get to use late into the battle. They are strong, but useless for trash mobs, which will be what you will face the most. Fighters are pretty strong as well and Barbarians get an AoE hit on all their basic attacks.

 

Some tips if you want to go with the current party setup.

 

Front

Eder full tank/off tank

Palagina Off tank/full tank

 

Middle

You (if you choose cipher) go with either melee (stronger) or ranged build

Durance/Kana, but a priest is probably better. Great party buffs and healing

 

Back

Aloth

Sagani/Hiravias (I'd opt for a druid. Not so good early game, monstrous late game) If you choose to go with Sagani, you may want to switch out Durance above for Hiravias. A druid has healing and some buffs, but is outclassed in buffing by both a priest and a chanter.

[Raven Darkholme]

That's why I said cipher, but he's taking durance and it wouldn't be the best idea to miss out on chanter.

Let's keep in mind. both Aloth and Durance are extremely micro intensive.

 

I personally mainly need my MC to be irreplacable, I usually have paladins, chanters or ciphers and the paladin isn't the most active class either.

But without a tank that could easily solo the game I personally couldn't play the game.

If I went mc rogue and the rogue died every other battle I would feel bad about my mc.

[AeonsLegend]

You could always build a Cipher tanky and still be crazy melee damage. I have one right now and it's kicking ass as a tank.

[Raven Darkholme]

Yea ofc, my point was not about the cipher but missing out on having a chanter.

A cipher is less essential to a pary than a chanter.

Ofc both are super strong classes, but then again all classes except rogues bring something unique to your party.

Edited October 27, 2016 by Raven Darkholme

[JerekKruger]

Yea ofc, my point was not about the cipher but missing out on having a chanter.

A cipher is less essential to a pary than a chanter.

 

One thing to note is that the OP plans to play on normal, so neither class is at all essential.

 

Out of interest what makes a Chanter so essential in your view? I really like them but I've never had the feeling that they are essential.