Looking for help to choose main character

[Aginorh]

Hi guys,

 

I have recently bought the game (late comer yes !) and really like it.

 

My first try (normal difficulty) as main character was a wizard but I feel that my current team is not well balanced, and I would like to try something else. I did not like that my main character was too quickly useless at low lvl (lvl 5 currently) because without spells else he can't do much, so you have to rest a lot.

 

As a 2nd try I would like a character which can decently take down enemies ("trash mobs") and has good survivability.

 

So I thought of  playing a barbarian but I really need help on the build. Please consider non solo, normal difficulty level mode.

I know it "should be" a breeze but still it has been a long time since I played Baldur's Gate 2 !

 

Which abilities are good ones for an aoe build ? Should I use 2h weapon or dual wield ? heavy armor or light  ?

 

Thank you for your help.

And if you have other class suggestion it's welcome.

 

A.

 

 

[zeldagaiden]

Welcome to Pillars of Eternity

 

Barbarian has arguably the best passive for trash mobs (carnage) and is overall a decent hitter. He will not shine at lower levels however, as he needs items and lvls to start facerolling stuff (in comparisson with some other classes). Still, you're welcome to check this forum section 2nd pinned post by Andrea, which has several build sugestions you can look at and read on.

And remember, there is only one correct way to play this game: HAVE FUN!!!!

Other than that, go wild on what you want! Normal is a quite lenient game mode and will not punish you much for not being "perfect" (aka min maxed). You should harness from this game mode knowlege and experience for future (if you had fun :D) playthroughs ^^, which means making mistakes and kinda figuring out what works for you or not. Always remember that you can FULLY (... except race) reroll your main character AND hirelings, so you can experiment guilt free :D

 

Quick hint: barbarian wants the heaviest armor possible early game.

Edited January 18, 2017 by zeldagaiden

[QuiteGoneJin]

If you want to retry the wiz I have some tips;

 

Consider that respecs are cheap at the inn, at lower levels Perception > Dex for casters as you dont have to speed up casting when you only have a few spells. With high might, perception, and a decent int and con and the blast talent you become a great aoe ranged character and can still be a nuker against less "trashy" mobs. Some people also like taking classless magic missile ability, sorry I forget the name, it allows you to have 1 per encounter of a slightly lesser magic missle so with that and arcane assault and the blast talent youd have lots to do early game without worrying about burning through spells. I tell you all this because "with knowledge" of spells and builds the wizard is by far the most powerful class. 

 

That being said it really isn't the best first class as that knowledge comes with a few play-throughs.

 

Druids are pretty great at everything, melee in spiritshift form, some buffs and debuffs, and by lvl 5 some great aoe dmg. But they can be accidentally not built sturdy

 

But lets stop guessing, druids, barbarians, chanters, wizards, and ciphers all have some type of aoe ability that helps vs trash mobs, lets narrow down your playstyle.

--------------------------------------------

 

Druid- nature shapeshifting caster with some neat area of affects centered on caster (and ranged)

 

Cipher- better at ranged but totally viable melee, needs to do physical damage to power spells but doesnt need to rest, early game has great single target CC and damage

 

Wizard, the more you know about their spells the better, start paying attention to what defensive stat spells attack , Deflect, reflex, will, fort etc and cast versus them or weaken them first in combos. For example dont just pick all spells that do damage you might end up with only the ability to attack fortitude then run into a monster with super high fort and feel like your caster sucks, that was one of my rookie mistakes

 

Barbarian, low maintenance  aoe but late bloomer and really requires smart setup with weapon and starting stats

 

Chanter, slow constant damage with interesting bursts when he can use his powers, I dont play them much though.

 

Monk, actually can do almost everything but very micro intensive. They have a neat aoe kick for example, an attack speed buff, a pushback, but they need to take hits to power their abilities so if you dont make them sturdy or have lots of self healing you could gimp them

 

Not sure what else I am missing. Is RolePlay important? To be honest on normal you can make a character with almost any stats.

 

My current addiction is accuracy and attack speed on any class, If I dont have high dex and perception I dont like my main character regardless of how powerful he is. Thats just my self discovery about how i like to play this game however. 

Edited January 18, 2017 by QuiteGoneJin

[MaxQuest]

So I thought of  playing a barbarian but I really need help on the build. Please consider non solo, normal difficulty level mode.

I know it "should be" a breeze but still it has been a long time since I played Baldur's Gate 2 !

 

Which abilities are good ones for an aoe build ? Should I use 2h weapon or dual wield ? heavy armor or light  ?

Barbarian is an ok choice.

Your stats spread will depend on your party composition and especially the weapons you are going to use.

I'd advice one of the following:

 

- Frontline DPS | Great Sword (Tidefall) 20/10/18/10/15/5

- Frontline DPS | Estoc (Blade of the Endless Paths) 15/10/18/10/15/10

- Frontline DPS | Dual-wielding Sabres (Purgatory or Bittercut) 15/10/15/18/15/4

- Frontline CC  | Dual-wielding Stunning Spears (Cladhaliath) 15/8/15/18/15/7

- Midline CC | Pike (Tall Grass) 13/8/18/18/18/3

 

For armor: Plate;

For feet: Shod-in-Faith (if you choose a frontline variant)

For race: Human or Boreal Dwarf 

For party-members: Priest (with Painful interdiction), Paladin (for emergency Lay-on-Hands/Liberating Exhortation), and 1-3 of: Cipher, Druid or Wizard for stuns/paralyze (which will fix your survivability and also increase your dps, due to lower enemy deflection)

Edited January 18, 2017 by MaxQuest

[QuiteGoneJin]

 

So I thought of  playing a barbarian but I really need help on the build. Please consider non solo, normal difficulty level mode.

I know it "should be" a breeze but still it has been a long time since I played Baldur's Gate 2 !

 

Which abilities are good ones for an aoe build ? Should I use 2h weapon or dual wield ? heavy armor or light  ?

Barbarian is an ok choice.

Your stats spread will depends on your party composition and the weapons you are going to use.

I'd advice one of the following:

 

- Frontliner DPS | Great Sword (Tidefall) 20/10/18/10/15/5

- Frontliner DPS | Estoc (Blade of the Endless Paths) 15/10/18/10/15/10

- Frontliner DPS | Dual-wielding Sabres (Purgatory or Bittercut) 15/10/15/18/15/4

- Frontliner CC  | Dual-wielding Stunning Spears (Cladhaliath) 15/8/15/18/15/7

- Midline CC | Pike (Tall Grass) 13/8/18/18/18/3

 

For armor: Plate;

For feet: Shod-in-Faith (if you choose a high Mig/Int variant)

For party-members: Priest (with Painful interdiction), Paladin (for emergency Shod-in-Faith), and 1-3 of: Cipher, Druid or Wizard for stuns.

 

Succinct and accurate, listen to this guy. Just know the Barbarian will REALLY shine later.

[Aginorh]

Thank you all, great insights, advice noted

 

 

I think I'll try a dual wield frontline dps guy !

 

Also (slightly off topic) are you in favor of rolling your own party members ? Or do you keep the people you meet ? They do not seem very good, but of course they bring in their quests etc.

I was thinking to try a 4 members party so that my xp goes up fast.

[JFutral]

I don't know if you fell into the same trap I did when I played my first game. I came with traditional D&D style character thinking—from Baldur's Gate and NWN, type characters. A wizard here can actually be a fairly good weapon wielder. Not sure why but my wizards usually are my default choice for the Gyrd scepter. But the thing I couldn't shale through most of my first play through is there are no weapon restrictions. And the attribute preferences for class are a bit more non-specific. So you can equip wiz with any weapon that makes sense to you and wiz can do respectable damage. So low level wizards aren't as completely useless at combat as they are in other games. But then, even if you want to keep the focus on spells, it is easy enough to craft some scrolls to sling.

 

That said, there are a LOT of nuances to this game that I am still trying to figure out (the whole weapon speed vs recovery speed thing, and, I think, the whole unnecessary hit (pun intended) to accuracy issue using a shield can create. Not sure why this game has it in for one-handed weapons, used singly or dual-wielding). And only being able to use food to prebuff is an odd wrinkle.

 

If you are game, I would suggest a druid as your next character, if you like spell slingers. Druids here are actually pretty darn decent—a good selection of useful spells and can actually do damage with either weapons or shape-shifted.

 

But I did enjoy my barbarian, too, even though I didn't have a clue how to best use her. I used her as a tank, but it seems heavy armor starts to affect some of the barbarian specific talents. Others here can probably help with that unless I am just plain wrong.

 

Joe

[QuiteGoneJin]

"Dual weilding frontline guy" (not main tank but backup) Works well for;

Barbarian (mid to late game aoe monster),

Fighter (great single target damage, very little micro, from start to end),

Cipher (sick single target CC and utility),

Monk (so many nice actives),

Ranger (riptide build is awesome, great damage and some cc, awesome for the extra body too)

Paladin (gets really tanky, some amazing alpha damage and some decent utility and healing, especially fun if you wanna be agressive and evil, check the Bleak                                        walker build), probably the easiest to play without dying.

 

On normal the npcs wont be too bad that you will need to roll new hires and to be honest they have so much to add to the story, I wouldn't even consider it until I've done a fwe playthroughs and started craving POTD etc.

 

GL HF!

Edited January 18, 2017 by QuiteGoneJin

[JFutral]

I liked the game provided party members. They added a nice ambience to the game, particularly their banter with each other. A couple of the quests are lame, but they also added nice flavor.

 

JMO,

Joe

[QuiteGoneJin]

Eder and anything furry is hilarious, just saying. 

[ArnoldRimmer]

I always take heavy armour but there is a good light armour in the sanatarium - I think.

 

I don't make mine very intelligent, just 12-14. I like perception for acuracy and interrpt and give him a  pike and put him on the second row behind my fighter and paladin. Lots of people recommend the grass pike but I prefer the one that reduces accuracy by 5 instead (I think in copperlane). This is  great on carnage attacks and unlike tall grass, it happens on hits, not just crits -  also monsters can have prone resistance makeing tall grass's prone even less useful. Once you have this pike take the interrupting talent. That is also great with carnage attacks.

Edited January 18, 2017 by ArnoldRimmer

[Boeroer]

A good way to make a barb who is not a late bloomer is to give him high might and intellect and then take Veteran's Recovery. This removes the most frustrating part of the barb in the early game: his squishyness. Add Savage Defiance and combine this self heal approach with Fulvano's Amulett or a Belt of Bountiful Healing and 8 points of survival for the +40% healing bonus. Suddenly you are even sturdier than a fighter while dishing out AoE damage. Normal to high CON will give you lots of health which is not too unimportant if you rely on regenerating your endurance.

 

Dual wielding is not mandatory, but surely fun with a barb. Heart of Fury (lvl 11 ability - great stuff) is best with two weapons.

 

I also like Great Swords a lot on a barb. With high accuracy (great if you have a priest) the "Hours of St. Rumbalt" is one of the best options for a barbarian in my opinion. Tidefall is really nice, too.

 

A very nice spear is the Vile Loner's Lance that you can buy in the Salty Mast in Copperlane. It causes -5 to enemies' defenses and has a 1 sec interrupt values which is twice as long as usual. With this spear you should choose high perception and take Interrupting Blows. You can of course use a one handed approach, a shield or another spear.

Edited January 18, 2017 by Boeroer

[Gromnir]

am gonna suggest a priest. only two classes benefit from being played as the main character: paladin and priest. with a large catalog o' buffs, the priest is a powerful force multiplier for a party, but the class also has offensive capabilities which have, 'til recent, been extreme underrated.  take scion o' flame and burn everything with your numerous fire-based spells. seal spells count as hazards, but they target as foe-only, so you can get silly kinda accuracy from a number o' powerful spells. take your deity's weapon focus talent and you can be effective with 1-2 weapons, and the soulbound opportunities late in the game make for curious additional options.  

 

we would recommend a two-priest party for anybody wanting to play a main character priest.  the party buffs for a priest are so efficacious, you will likely find yourself doing little other than buffing/healing.  buffing/healing can be boring.  two priests frees up one priest to do all those other things at which which priests excel other than buffs.

 

again, only two classes benefit from being played as a main character. priest is one o' those classes. priests are extreme powerful and  highly flexible. 

 

HA! Good Fun!

[Boeroer]

Priest = MC is indeed a rewarding choice.

 

In my opinion, priest is the most powerful and useful class at higher levels (lvl 9 and above).

 

The only thing at which they suck is the early game.

[rheingold]

Regarding the npc's, not sure if you have finished the game or not? If you haven't completed a play through with all the characters I'd finish one with them first then do another one later with custom characters. They are well worth taking along for their banter and quests. Of course, once you've finished the game with them you can probably ignore them for the next run.

[Aginorh]

Thank you all ! Very efficient ideas ! I'll get veteran's recovery since I have high Intel. I like the dual wielding style better than 2h, now I just need to get decent 1h weapons at my low level (4) . I'll try to level up a bit with Eder Aloth and Durance only.

[Aginorh]

I don't know if you fell into the same trap I did when I played my first game. I came with traditional D&D style character thinking—from Baldur's Gate and NWN, type characters. A wizard here can actually be a fairly good weapon wielder. Not sure why but my wizards usually are my default choice for the Gyrd scepter. But the thing I couldn't shale through most of my first play through is there are no weapon restrictions. And the attribute preferences for class are a bit more non-specific. So you can equip wiz with any weapon that makes sense to you and wiz can do respectable damage. So low level wizards aren't as completely useless at combat as they are in other games. But then, even if you want to keep the focus on spells, it is easy enough to craft some scrolls to sling.

 

That said, there are a LOT of nuances to this game that I am still trying to figure out (the whole weapon speed vs recovery speed thing, and, I think, the whole unnecessary hit (pun intended) to accuracy issue using a shield can create. Not sure why this game has it in for one-handed weapons, used singly or dual-wielding). And only being able to use food to prebuff is an odd wrinkle.

 

If you are game, I would suggest a druid as your next character, if you like spell slingers. Druids here are actually pretty darn decent—a good selection of useful spells and can actually do damage with either weapons or shape-shifted.

 

But I did enjoy my barbarian, too, even though I didn't have a clue how to best use her. I used her as a tank, but it seems heavy armor starts to affect some of the barbarian specific talents. Others here can probably help with that unless I am just plain wrong.

 

Joe

 

Yeah druid maybe next time, seems a lot of fun ! To come back on your point that anyone can use any weapon, would you rather then for a wizard use a good bow instead of the basic bourdon / wand / scepter ? The magic weapons are fast but low damage it seems. Thank you.

[rheingold]

You can get some great weapons early on from Defiance Bay... The gentlemans club has a variety of exceptional weapons for sale - pretty much the earliest you can get them. Plus there are some good unique weapons there. I like the wicked looking warhammers and the one axe personally.

[Boeroer]

If you want you can also take Novice's Suffering and skip weapons altogether. Jojobobo of this forum tried that and was very pleased. It's because the damage of grazes, hits and crits don't differ that much with fists - it's a weird game mechanics thing. Since barb's carnage already has reduced accuracy and tends to graze more often, this is a good synergy. Also works well with high might.

 

I think Jojobobo hasn't posted his build yet. I think he did a solo PotD run with the unarmed barb.

Edited January 19, 2017 by Boeroer

[Dr <3]

The build is in the "provisional builds" thread. I did Also a similar run, worked out pretty well.

[Aginorh]

^{So, just to tell you my party is really ok now  thanks to your advice.}

 

^{I got my barb as main, doing lot of aoe dmg, and usually not having issues}

 

^{Eder, as main tank, pretty straightforward}

^{Aloth built on magic weapons spec (blast etc), so that he can be useful without spells}

^{Durance with Scion of fire, he is the only one a bit squishy, was wondering if I should give him some heavy armor instead of his robe}

^{Sagani, with a heavy pet build, very fun to see this fox deal a ton of dmg when going out of stealth}

 

^{I intend to stay at 5 ppl to level faster.}

 

^{Thanks again all !}

[Boeroer]

It's absolutely your decision how many party memners you want - but there's no noticable difference between 5 or 6 party members when it comes to experience gain and leveling. If you want to grab an official companion later then it's all OK. If you want to use an hireling it's not too wise to wait for too long because the xp-gap between you and a newly hired adventurer will become bigger and bigger the more you level before hiring.

Edited January 20, 2017 by Boeroer

[QuiteGoneJin]

Yes, replace that crappy robe, I also like to give durance a slow ranged weapon (crossbow usually as his accuracy cant handle guns and the arbalest is too slow) and talent him for it too as he has nice might and put a shield and hatchet is his other weapon set. 

Edited January 20, 2017 by QuiteGoneJin

[Boeroer]

He has decent RES. Giving him a hatchet and a small shield is a good idea if you mainly use his spells. Small shield only because other shields will give him a malus to ACC - also with spells. Having good deflection and not too low DR will prevent that annoying rushers want to attack him first all the time.

 

I you want to attack with him then you can give him the magran talent and Weapon Focus Soldier/Knight. Then he's good enough with an arquebus/sword. Don't forget that he has awesome ACC buffs for the party that all work on himself, too. The lowish PER doesn't matter much.

 

I also think that's the main reason the devs game him low PER - because he can easily compensate it with spells.

[QuiteGoneJin]

I just can't stand his dex, once you play a priest with high dex and see the difference, omg. But his story is worth experiencing so....