Really lost with getting my party to...well...work

[ShadowsBringFall]

I'm running a Druid and right now I only have the base 4 party members from around Gilded Vale. And though combat is going fairly smoothly I feel like my party is basically garbage. Aside from the fact that I see no health heals, only endurance, my priest seems to lack any good heals so far save his AoE but he dies if he goes anywhere near melee, so I can't use that well. Everything that seems good on my Wizard and Druid hit allies as well so when I rarely use my per rest spells, I usually can't use them well (but I save them until absolutely needed since I don't want to blow all my camping gear after every encounter).

 

Beyond that I have absolutely no idea how to equip anyone or even remotely what I'm doing in the picking/using spells department. And while I want to switch the fighter for the paladin when I get her the Tank seems much better at holding aggro from what I've seen.

Ultimately I was planning for: Pali up front, with Chanter slightly behind and then Druid/Priest in mid with Ranger and Cipher in the back.

 

Bonus question: If I make a mistake leveling someone up, am I stuck with that mistake for good?

[draego]

You are not stuck. You can retrain at any Inn

[ShadowsBringFall]

You are not stuck. You can retrain at any Inn

I don't recall having seen an option for that in the Gilded Vale tavern. Also, what exactly can you retrain? Talents, skills, spell choices?

[Gromnir]

pause frequent.  use auto-pause for spells cast.  then pause s'more.  success in encounters depends on careful positioning o' your resources and use o' geography to determine the course o' battle.  can't be flanked if there is a wall behind you, eh?  pause.

 

if you are having difficulty with spells which damage friend and foe alike, it is likely due to poor party placement, but there are foe-only spells.  read all spell descriptions, but for example, wizard's blindness is a powerful level 2 spell which targets only your enemies.  

 

give your priest a hatchet and shield for one o' his weapon slots.  unless you built durance to be competent with swords, there is little reason for you to be entering melee combat save to defend self.  stick to ranged and position party so durance will not be swarmed by on-rushing mobs... but give him a shield and hatchet as well. (edit: don't have durance wielding shield and hatchett all the time, but if he does become the target o' multiple melee attackers, switch to shield and hatchet from whatever ranged weapon you had him using.)

 

power/ability synergy is also invaluable. if you feel as if your spells ain't hitting anything, then learn how spells work to enhance the effects o' other spells.  trolls is vulnerable to fire and typical have unimpressive resolve.  psychovampiric shield is a low-level power which targets will and lowers resolve by 10.  it also boosts your cipher's deflection by 25. so you hit a troll with psychovampiric shield and sudden your cipher has deflection similar to your tank and the troll's will has been reduced to basement levels.  well then, seems like an ideal time to have durance cast divine mark.  divine mark is a paltry level 2 spell which does 40-50 burn damage and lowers the enemy's deflection by 25.  perhaps you had aloth cast miasma o' dull-mindedness on the group o' trolls, which is gonna have further lowered will saves to possible negative numbers. when durance casts divine mark, there is a good chance you will have scored a critical hit. even if the troll don't explode into fiery chunks, it is gonna have taken serious burn damage and the divine mark will have reduced the troll's deflection by 25 such that even your least competent ranged and melee combatants is likely to score hits. 

 

HA! Good Fun!

Edited January 19, 2017 by Gromnir

[ShadowsBringFall]

pause frequent.  use auto-pause for spells cast.  then pause s'more.  success in encounters depends on careful positioning o' your resources and use o' geography to determine the course o' battle.  can't be flanked if there is a wall behind you, eh?  pause.

 

if you are having difficulty with spells which damage friend and foe alike, it is likely due to poor party placement, but there are foe-only spells.  read all spell descriptions, but for example, wizard's blindness is a powerful level 2 spell which targets only your enemies.  

 

give your priest a hatchet and shield for one o' his weapon slots.  unless you built durance to be competent with swords, there is little reason for you to be entering melee combat save to defend self.  stick to ranged and position party so durance will not be swarmed by on-rushing mobs... but give him a shield and hatchet as well.

 

power/ability synergy is also invaluable. if you feel as if your spells ain't hitting anything, then learn how spells work to enhance the effects o' other spells.  trolls is vulnerable to fire and typical have unimpressive resolve.  psychovampiric shield is a low-level power which targets will and lowers resolve by 10.  it also boosts your cipher's deflection by 25. so you hit a troll with psychovampiric shield and sudden your cipher has deflection similar to your tank and the troll's will has been reduced to basement levels.  well then, seems like an ideal time to have durance cast divine mark.  divine mark is a paltry level 2 spell which does 40-50 burn damage and lowers the enemy's deflection by 25.  perhaps you had aloth cast miasma o' dull-mindedness on the group o' trolls, which is gonna have further lowered will saves to possible negative numbers. when durance casts divine mark, there is a good chance you will have scored a critical hit. even if the troll don't explode into fiery chunks, it is gonna have taken serious burn damage and the divine mark will have reduced the troll's deflection by 25 such that even your least competent ranged and melee combatants is likely to score hits. 

 

HA! Good Fun!

Hot damn there is A LOT for me to learn still lol

 

I haven't been moving the party that much since basically every encounter almost has been pretty cramped. That and I have no idea where/how to move people. That and I injured myself so I'm playing with one arm, meaning A LOT of clicking pause on/off so I admit I tend to try to keep things fast and simple. But I'll try to keep that in mind.

 

Are there any good resources on spell combos like that? I'm assuming typing I just need to look more into in game with damage and element types (which I knew existed but haven't payed any attention to). This game has a serious learning curve TT_TT Which is also gonna be pretty great once I start to get a hang of things.

 

Unrelated question: money. I need more of it. Namely, for my keep. Suggestions?

[Boeroer]

If you are at an inn and open the dialogue for resting or shopping, you will also see a dice symbol. That's the one for retraining. Every inn has it.

 

You will retrain everything from lvl 1 on. A ranger can even pick a different animal companion.

 

For a wizard it's even better: You can fill some grimoires with all your spells before retraining and then, when retraining, pick different spells than those which are in your spell books. Then, after retraining, you'll relearn all your old spells from your books and you'll have the most aweseome variety of spells.

 

Health can only be healed via resting or with four other things:

- Potion of Infuse with Vital Essence

- Infuse with Vital Essence spell

- Wound Binding talent

- Field Triage talent

 

Since camping supplies are cheap or lie around for free and there are a lot of inns all over the place (and rooms are cheap, too) most people don't use the two talents.

 

Concerning your complaints: you just need to play a bit longer in order to get a feeling for it. The game mechanics are not supercomplicated, but there's little information about it in the game. You have to find most things out yourself (or ask in the forum). For starters: it's all about accuracy vs. defenses - buffing and debuffing. If you figure out how to do this the game's easy.

 

Don't waste your priest's spells and time for heals. Use him mainly to buff your party. After that, use wizard and druid to debuff (or even disable) the enemy. Anything that causes afflictions is good. Only then attack with all damaging thingies you have.

Edited January 19, 2017 by Boeroer

[Gromnir]

 

Unrelated question: money. I need more of it. Namely, for my keep. Suggestions?

 

well, money can be had if you raze raedric's hold. go with the bloody route and kill everybody and 1007 their corpses for armour and coin. kill all at raedric's will keep you supplied with coin for a long time.

 

am thinking there are a few spell combo threads.  for a wizard, early fantastic spells is eldritch aim, chill fog, fan of flames, slicken, combusting wounds (combine with chill fog and any number o' aoe damage spells,) curse of blackened sight, and miasma of dull mindedness. the aforementioned all get much use.  early druid spells is typical more 'bout damage than applying afflictions, though you can hobble many foes with tanglefoot which will then make'em more susceptible to attacks which target reflex. most likely you will use your priest to buff, your wizard to debuff and then hit foes with druid damage spells... in that order if possible.

 

http://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Wizard_spell

http://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Druid_spell

http://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Status_Effects

 

HA! Good Fun!

Edited January 20, 2017 by Gromnir

[Suen]

ShadowsBringFall, check the spells in the links posted by Gromnir.
Anything with FoE AoE and single target should be safe to use.
If a spell is ineffective look at the enemies stats and make sure you are not targeting the strongest attribute.
 

Edited January 20, 2017 by Suen

[the streaker]

Honestly you should probably just drop the druid. Druids aren't a good class for beginners. They're the weakest spellcaster (from priest, wizard, cipher), and since you rarely use your per-rest spells, they're going to be the worst class in the game. Poor defenses, poor accuracy, shapeshift can't just walk into the melee and expect to live for long.

 

I recommend you go with a cipher instead - simple, powerful spells (dominate or paralyze enemies, raw damage AoE), basic attacks do more damage than other classes, and no fancy builds required so you can increase your "dialogue" skills (per/int/res) for more story options. Or do a wizard with the massive +deflection boosting spells if you get in trouble. Their basic attacks are also good once you get the blast talent, and their spells are just better overall, plus you can summon powerful weapon spells that stick with you during the fight.

[Boeroer]

It's debatable if druids are the weakest spellcasting class. They have some of the best spells of the game. Besides that, they also have the best deflection of all casters and better ACC than priests and the same as wizards. Other defense values are always the same for everyone. So it's not true that they have poor defenses. Actually the deflection of a druid is pretty good for a caster even without buffs like Moonwell and so on.

 

However - if you don't ever use the spells because you want to spare them (don't do that) then you're always better of with another class - see the cipher like the streaker said.

 

Thing is: if you don't spare spells the game is way easier. The druid has some great low level spells, including summons (blights) which make most early encounters a lot easier. If you're lucky and the right blight forms that is immune to the damage the enemy does - for example a flame blight against xaurip spear wielders - you'll have an invincible summon.

 

Shapeshifting is very powerful, too. But you should take Wildstrike if you want to use it. Just don't rush into battle, you're still too flimsy. Cast spells from afar and shift if an enemy attacks you in melee.

 

So if you like druids in general you can definitely stick to him. If you tend to spare spells and don't like to rest then all casters who use per rest spells are wasted. You will have to rest because of low health anyway at some point - so why spare spells?

Edited January 22, 2017 by Boeroer