seek advice for a paladin

[Madscientist]

I think about what char I want to have when I play PoE1 again and then continue with this char in PoE2.

I was not sure between paladin and chanter, but because I want Kana in my party, I take a paladin.

I play on hard with a full party (not PotD).

This is a bit about role playing, so I know it is not the best possible char from a power gamer point of view.

 

Race and background:

I want a male aumaua explorer from the deadfire archipelago. The idea is that he went away to seek adventures and then he returns home in the second game. Wiki says that island aumaua come from there, not sure what is better gameplay wise (stunn/prone resistance or 3rd weapon slot).

 

class:

kind wayfarer paladin. I will try to be nice and avoid violence if possible. This means no gift from the machine and no sacrificing of party members. I will try to get the best possible ending for PoE1.

 

stats:

mig: 16

con: 10

dex:10

per: 10

int: 16

res: 16

Might and int is for game mechanics, res (also int to some degree) ist mostly for role playing when talking to others. I dislike dumping stats.

I want mostly a damage dealer, but he should also be able to take a hit and support other party members. I want to give him a greatsword and heavy armor and he should become the classic paladin from DnD, like Keldorn from BG2.

Is this OK or do you have better ideas for a DD paladin who can talk his way out of things?

 

skills:

I want to split them evenly between lore and survival. I think those are used most in dialogue and you de not need extremely high values for talking.

 

abilities:

Now I might need some help. With 16 levels I get 8 abilities. Its primary a DD, but it would be nice if the party benefits from him too.

lv1: flames of devotion (its a DD)

lv3: zealous focus (more accurence is always nice)

lv5: sworn enemy

lv7: aegis of loyalty (in combination with sacred immolation when fighting undead or other "charming" enemies.

lv9: rightous soul (defense agains status effects is nice, not sure if something else might be better)

lv11: healing chain (or is the normal lay on hands better, or something completely different?)

lv13: sacred immolation (no brainer)

lv 15: abjuration? (not sure here)

I am not sure how good the buffs are. For heals I have my priest and druid with me. Not sure how often you may need deprive the unworthy.

 

talents:

Now comes the part where I have most problems to decide. I write down everything I might consider useful in the order it appears in the wiki.

 

strange mercy: It would be nice to have at least some order specific stuff and healing the party by the way means that casters can save their

                         spells for other stuff.

sword and shepard: since FoD is a good alpha strike, this is mostly useless

critical focus: not sure how good it is

apprentice sneak attack: more damage for most attacks sounds nice

outlanders frenzy: not sure about that

weapon focus soldier: +6 accurancy

two hand style: +15% damage all the time

savage attack: +20%damage but acc penalty

vulnerable attack: +5DR bypass, -20% attack speed

bloody slaughter: finishing enemies faster sounds nice in combination with strange mercy

scion of flames: for FoD, sacred immolation and fire lash

 

Regarding quest related rewards:

"At the mercy of the Tribes" its clearly the crit multiplier.

In defiance bay, I am unsure between "mob justice" and "mercyless hand"

 

Do you have any idea wich talents should be taken in which order? (including talents not on this list)

 

gameplay:

I want to have a full party with:

Eder: dual wielding sabres in heavy armor, second DD and off tank together with me

Kana: never took him so I take min now. Not sure what weapons are the best.

Aloth, durance, hiravias: never had a party with all vacian casters, so I do it now

 

the others:

Pellagina: I am a paladin so she is out

GM, Zahua, Sagani: I always used them so they stays at home

DoC: might be a replacement for Eder as dual wielder, but I like Eder more (as a person, not sure gameplay wise)

Manhea: sorry, not this time

 

Equipment:

weapon: St. Rumbalt, Tidefall or the redeemer (against vessels, It also a good substitution for the holy avanger astypical paladin weapon)

maybe the gloves that give firebrand in hard fights.

I am not an expert for items in the game so I do not know about the rest.

 

fighting:

Adra dragon (have beaten him last time) and llengrath can be avoided. I also managed all bounties last time.

So the only real challenge is the alpine dragon. His damage is huge and there are tons of adds. I could never beat him (on hard with full party).

 

bonus question: does crit bonus from anihilating weapon and bloody slaugter (and maybe other sources) stack?

[Caeyrii]

I'm a fan of Coordinated Attacks. Coupled with a Cladhaliath(please let us still have it in derpfriar) with Marking/Coordinating, it's a beast.

[Boeroer]

Hi, sounds nice so far. As for abilites and talents I would choose a different setup - mostly due to the decision that you want be a (sturdy) damage dealer. Kind Wayfarer damage dealer with Strange Mercy and Sword and Shepherd is nice and fun.

 

Abilities:

• lv1: Flames of Devotion (helps a lot with dps)
• lv3: Zealous Focus (same)
• lv5: Sworn Enemy (same)
• lv7: Lay on Hands (it is one of the best heals in the game - dps or not. Especially with high MIG and INT. It also will help you to survive and make you sturdier)
• lv9: Inspiring Triumph (you will kill enemies anyway, so why not stack some more on-kill effects?)
• lv11a: Coordinated Attacks (works really well with the Blade of the Endless Paths, see below) OR
• lv11b: Healing Chain (you will be no. 1 healer anyway)
• lv13: Sacred Immolation (no brainer indeed)
• lv 15: Abjuration (kinda cool and adds easy kills in cetain encounters )

Durance can totally focus on buffs, not heals. Same with Hiravias - can focus on CC and damage.

You can do automatic "passive" healing through FoD and killing (scales, it's a lot of healing already) as well as with Lay on Hands and eventually Healing Chain. 

You can skip Deprive the Unworthy. You will have a priest spell for that. 

Same with Righteous Soul and also Aegis of Loyality: you will have Durance's prayers for immunity, so why "waste" two ability points? The synergy between Aegis and SA is cool, but if you don't need it it's not worth it in my opinion.

 

Talents (no particular order):

• Strange Mercy (obviously)
• Sword and Sheperd (not useless - it's healing stacks with others and you don't need to use FoD as alpha strike. Just wait a few seconds. Use Runner's Wounding Shot instead. And not every FoD hit will be a kill. Not even close)
• Weapon Focus Adventurer (if Blade of the Endless Paths) OR
• Weapon Focus Soldier (if Great Sword + maybe arquebus)
• Runners Wounding Shot (it does 80% if your overall damage as raw damage - crit + burning lash + Scion of Flame included. It is very strong and helps with the killing. Can also be used as alpha strike without wasting the healing of FoD's sword & sheperd)
• Two Handed Style (+15% all the time is good)
• Intense Flames (adds more power to FoD - also works with Scion of Flame. Together with a burning lash, FoD + Intense Flames * 1.2 from Scion your FoD strikes will be devastating)
• Scion of Flame (for FoD + Intense Flames + lash and also SA)
• Savage Attack (better than Appr. Sneak in this case I'd say - if you take Hours of St. Rumbalt I'd say Apprentice Sneak instead)

Things like Vulnerable Attack I would not take. It's not very good with two handers. 

Bloody Slaughter is total crap. The only thing it does is causing overkilling. It only works when the enemy has less than 10% endurace. Maybe it has some use when you are using fast weapons and fight against dragons, but in 95% of the game it's total nonsense in my opinion. If it would trigger at 25% - which it doesn't - it would be another story.

 

If you choose to take the Blade of the Endless Paths instead of a Great Sword I would recommend taking Coordinated Attacks as well. That way you can give +20 ACC to somebody who attacks the same enemy as you (really helpful against dragons for example). I would recommend Edér to be your flanking buddy against dragons: Durance wil give you both Devotion (+20), Edèr will have +20 from Discipl. Barrage, you will give him +20 from Coord. Attacks and the Blade which has the Marking enchantment. It's easy for Edér now to prone the dragon with Knockdown. You can still use the Redeemer because it has an universal weapon focus.

 

If you like Great Swords better I would not choose Coordinatd Attacks and skip the marking part altogether. I would choose Hours of St. Rumbalt over Tidefall because it's lore fits so well and also because with FoD and Sworn Enemy as well as Durance's buffs you will score a ton of crits. Hours will then cause prone AND will deal double crit damage because of Annihilating. THis fits perfectly well with Merciless Hand from Doemenels. When you score a crit with FoD and all that crit power it will be a very hefty strike - most likely a killing blow. 

Tidefall is great, but it works best on characters with lower INT. You can use Tidefall against high defense, high DR tagets though because it's better than Rumbalt in that case. But my no1 weapon would be Rumbalt if I'd go for Great Swords.

 

For race I would pick Coastal Aumaua because the locals of Deadfire (Huana) are Coastals.

[Madscientist]

Thanks Boeroer, you are the greatest.

 

I will take St. Rumbalt, redeemer against vessels.

The wiki shows no numbers for firebrand, might be a good idea in some fights.

 

about Kana (I rarely played with chanters, so I take him now)

- Whats the best position for him? I thought about fighting from the second row (maybe with tall grass so he attacks the enemy and his chants and invocations can hit many enemies or many group members)

- He will sing dragon trashed and the chant with the fire buff for weapons. (No reason to make life harder, I do this for role playing, not for a bigger challenge)

Deos the weapon chant stack with fire lash or other fire related weapon stuff?

- Scion of flames does not give bonusses for those 2 chants, so its not so useful for chanters.

[Boeroer]

Firebrand works with Scion of Flame (+20% base damage) and can be great fun. It is very good in the early to mid game because it has awesomest base damage, damaging III (incliudes a bit of an ACC boost) and also Annihilation like Rumbalt. Because of it's big base damage, all damage mods like Savage Attack, crits and stuff work really well. It can't be enchanted, so later in the game an enchantable great sword like Hours of St. Rumbalt will clearly be better. But if you want to use it I would recommend to pick Scion of Flame and Intense Flames asap.

 

The Redeemer is fun against vessels - once you "destroy" a vessel it will count as a kill and trigger Strange Mercy + Insp. Triumph (if you took that).

 

Kana:

The best position is in the front line as a tank with a small shield (Little Savior) and plate - if you want to use Dragon Thrashed. I would not mix Dragon Thrashed with something else. It stacks and does tremendous damage. It doesn't work with Scion, but the burning lash chant does - but only for the lash that you get (20% instead of 25%), not those of others.

To make him very sturdy, you can take Ancient Memory, Beloved Spirits AND Veteran's Recovery. All those will stack. While the first two will also heal the others around you Veteran's will be only for you. If you add an item with healing bonus (Fulvano's Amulet or Belt of Bountiful Healing) you will have an awesome regeneration. You don't need to use things like Cautious Attack then. You can give him any weapon - preferably one which has some supportive feats like marking or a spell holding. You won't do a lot dps with it.

It's also the most passive setup you can imagine for him. This can be great (less micro) or bad (if you like him to be more active).

A front line position is also good if you want to use any of the damaging invocations.

 

I can see a formation like so with Kana as the main tank and the two sturdy dps frontliners as wingmen:

 

Eder - Kana - MC Pal

Aloth - Durance - Hiravias

 

Since you have enough sturdy frontliners you don't need a supertough tank. Kana will do great.

 

But of course you could also use him differently. 

Edited February 16, 2017 by Boeroer

[Madscientist]

Thanks again.

 

With all this fire related stuff I will give him red skin, so he looks almost like a fire godlike.

 

PS: In many RPGs I take some time to set the look of my char. Why ???

Half of the games are 1st person so you do not see yourself anyway (The Elder Scrolls, new Fallouts, . . .) and the the other half they are hidden in their armor and you see them from far away. So my MC is the one with the red armor and the big burning sword and Eder is the one with the white armor and dual wielding something.

[Boeroer]

I know - I put a lot of time into that stuff, too.

[mammasaura]

Hi, I have a pretty similar frontlane with Kana tank but having some trouble figuring out which talents to take because ancient memory + beloved spirits + veteran's recovery leave few slots left:

.weapon and shield (mandatory)
.ancient memory
.veteran's recovery    
.beloved spirits                         

Alternatives:
.superior deflection   
.bear's fortitude    
.snake's reflexes
.bull's will    
.bear's fortitude    
.body control
.weapon focus

Is really necessary stacking ancient memory + beloved spirits + veteran's ?

I have seen that the moment Kana is stunned/paralyzed/et simila is really hard keeping him alive so seems to me Bear's Fortitude + Body Control are nearly mandatory.

With all that healing maybe Snake's reflexes can be skipped and taking some damage is ok: Fulvano's Amulet and Belt of Bountiful Healing can be found pretty early in the game; Bull's will can help the lvl before Durance can access to the anti control spells.

Alternatively, can tanking with the paladin x/shield + Eder open a slot for a third offtank? I'm thinking about Maneha. I have never played the barbarian but I want to give a try. Pala tank with Cladhalíath + shield, Eder with the Hours of St. Rumbalt and the Blade of the Endless Paths to Maneha, geared with the endurance regen.

Thanks

Edited February 16, 2017 by jasminizer

[Boeroer]

Maneha is way better off with Tidefall in my opinion. Wounding and Draining with Carnage ist great. For the best experience from lvl11 - Heart of Fury - it's best to choose a dual wielding approach though.

 

Once you have a priest you shouldn't need a lot of defenses against afflictions. But of course Bear's Fortitude + Body Control is always nice. Maybe also add Unstoppable. Another great thing against those afflictions are Fenwalkers (boots). They not only give you a defense bonus but also shorten the duration of the afflictions - which is powerful. This leads to zero durations most of the time when enemies only graze you with afflictions.

Other nice items with defense bonuses against paralyze & co. are the Tempered Helmet and the Wayfarer's Hide.

Superior Deflection is also good since it stacks with everything. 

Edited February 16, 2017 by Boeroer

[Madscientist]

Some more questions about my paladin:

 

1.) I make this as a role playing char.

If you want an optimized char for PotD, what would you make different?

- Less Res and more mig and per? Accurancy is always nice.

- Race: After some thinking I came to hearth orlan. You have an anihilating weapon with prone on crit, so more crit is nice. Are 3 more points mig (from aumaua or dwarf) that useful?

 

2.) I have been thinking about a name for him. Deadfire has been inspired by polynesia, thats the area from Hawai (north) to new zealand (south) to easter island (west).

Does anybody know a name from a polynesian fighter or king that sounds useful for this char? I am not sure if they had a concept similar to the european paladin (noble knight who saves the woman and beats the bad guys in the name of god), but they defenitely had some fanatic warriors.

Edited February 18, 2017 by Madscientist

[Boeroer]

1) Yes - would indeed use a lower RES score then and put it to PER and DEX.

 

Hearth Orlan is OK if you flank a lot. If you like to engage by your own it does nothing for you. +3 points of MIG is +15% damage all the time. And don't forget that it also means more healing. The defense bonus against prone and stun is also very nice.

Actually my pick for a dps paladin would be boreal dwarf. +15 ACC is huge and some really nasty enemies are wilder and primordial (Lagufaeth, Ogres, Adragans, Delemgans and so on). Stacks with the survival bonuses, too.

Wood Elf is not as bad as some think: Sacred Immolation works with it. All the enemies which get touched by it but stand a bit away will be hit with more ACC.

 

Polynesian names: http://www.behindthename.com/submit/names/usage/polynesian

Edited February 19, 2017 by Boeroer

[Caeyrii]

Boerer, does the Vent Pick apply modifiers to FoD? Like, say, Goldpact Knights' fire damage over time addition? And does Scion of Flame affect it(the FoD modifier, Enduring Flames)?

[Boeroer]

It's a simple FoD that doesn't use the paladin's special talents like Enduring Flames or Remember Rhakan Field or whatever. Intense Flames also does not work. But I don't know about Scion of Flame for sure. Maybe that works.

 

Same with Frenzy from Sanguine Plate and Greater Frenzy (barb).

 

Scion of Flame (and the other elemental boosters) don't work with DoT abilities and DoT spells at all. Thus, Scion of Flame doesn't work with Enduring Flames. In no case. Same with Scion of Flames + Dragon Thrashed and so on. That's a reason why Spirit of Decay is not a good pick for a druid for example.

Edited February 19, 2017 by Boeroer

[Niclole]

It really is a shame those Scion talents don't work with DoTs.  Pillars Talents in general disappoint me, but Id say "feats" and "talents" tend to be disappointing in most games. +6 accuracy, yaye. 

[Madscientist]

1) Yes - would indeed use a lower RES score then and put it to PER and DEX.

 

Hearth Orlan is OK if you flank a lot. If you like to engage by your own it does nothing for you. +3 points of MIG is +15% damage all the time. And don't forget that it also means more healing. The defense bonus against prone and stun is also very nice.

Actually my pick for a dps paladin would be boreal dwarf. +15 ACC is huge and some really nasty enemies are wilder and primordial (Lagufaeth, Ogres, Adragans, Delemgans and so on). Stacks with the survival bonuses, too.

Wood Elf is not as bad as some think: Sacred Immolation works with it. All the enemies which get touched by it but stand a bit away will be hit with more ACC.

 

Polynesian names: http://www.behindthename.com/submit/names/usage/polynesian

 

Thanks for the list. There are tons of names about ocean, sky, sailing and warrior. Those who play a pirate will have lots of choice. But there was nothing about fire and only one name means "the red", even though there are lots of vulcanoes on these islands. So I found no "holy warrior of fire" or something similar.

 

Kind wayfarers are nice, so I chose:

KOAMALU   m   Hawaiian

This name means "brave strength" from koa meaning "brave, bold, fearless, valiant" and malu meaning "shelter, protection, peace, control, strength."

[Boeroer]

Google Translator can translate from English to Hawaiian. So you might be able to put in things like "fire", "storm" and so on and see how that looks.