Alchemist Class

[FlintlockJazz]

With the discovery that Alchemy is going to be a skill in Pillars 2 and that it will work with explosives, I have decided that I am going to do a Pillars 1 playthrough with a character that would use such skills (well actually I was already going to do it, this just confirmed it).  Naturally the Scientist background is a given, but what class?  A Cipher could work, they also got Lore and Mechanics (the two skills you get from Scientist), and fits well considering one of the choices for Scientist is that you used it to solve crimes (making you a detective), plus you got characters like Galvino who are similar in concept, though he's more animancer than alchemist.  Rogue, actually, works well too in concept, I can easily imagine the Rogue skillset fitting for scholarly sorts actually, and fits well again the detective side of things.  Chanter too, in a Kana-esque way.  Wizard and Druid of course works, though is perhaps a bit too obvious, a bit too stereotypical.  Ranger as a Witcher type maybe.  Paladin and Barbarian I don't see being a good fit conceptually.  Priest, Fighter and Monk could work but are kinda meh, feels more of a side thing for them.

 

I am currently leaning more to Cipher at the moment, though a large part of that is simply because I don't really play Ciphers much anyway and want to correct that.  What do YOU think the class of a crazy bomber type would be?

[Boeroer]

Definitely rogue. Or a priest(ess) of Magran of course. I mean "Godhammer Bomb"...

[FlintlockJazz]

Definitely rogue. Or a priest(ess) of Magran of course. I mean "Godhammer Bomb"...

Magran damn it you're right!  Got two character concepts I need to play through now!  And to think, I previously struggled to come up with a Magran Priestess idea I liked...

[MaxQuest]

What do YOU think the class of a crazy bomber type would be?

RP-wise, ofc rogue, cipher and as already mentioned priest of Magran

Also I see how alchemy could suit a druid or monk.

 

But power-gaming wise... it's to early to tell)

[Boeroer]

With the high base damage of arquebuses, the priest's MIG buffs are pretty neat. You can build a priest who easily reaches 40+ MIG in the late game. That's +90% base damage and more. Add Runner's Wounding Shot and that arquebus does hurt a lot. Envenomed Strike would also be good, but it doesn't quite fit Magran.

You could even use an Isand Aumaua + Arms Bearer + Quick Switch (or the Coil of Resourcefulness) in order to deliver 4 nasty shots whenever needed between castings. Then in PoE2, follow up with some grenades and manical laughter.

And all the fire spells of a priest fit well, too. Even the animations and FX of the pillar spells look like if a cruise missile crashed onto the enemies' heads.

Edited February 27, 2017 by Boeroer

[FlintlockJazz]

With the high base damage of arquebuses, the priest's MIG buffs are pretty neat. You can build a priest who easily reaches 40+ MIG in the late game. That's +90% base damage and more. Add Runner's Wounding Shot and that arquebus does hurt a lot. Envenomed Strike would also be good, but it doesn't quite fit Magran.

You could even use an Isand Aumaua + Arms Bearer + Quick Switch (or the Coil of Resourcefulness) in order to deliver 4 nasty shots whenever needed between castings. Then in PoE, follow up with some grenades and manical laughter.

And all the fire spells of a priest fit well, too. Even the animations and FX of the pillar spells look like if a cruise missile crashed onto the enemies' heads.

Totally not the character I had in mind but totally a character I am now going to have to try!

[Boeroer]

Hehe.

 

edit: Eh, I meant "then in PoE2, follow up with..." obviously. Sorry...

Edited February 27, 2017 by Boeroer

[Hynkel]

Regarding animancers, Galvino is a cipher, but Caedman Azo and the mind-controled animancer from WM2 are wizards.

 

I think it's a shame that animancers don't get their own class, they could be a lot of fun !

[MaxQuest]

Animancer class... hmm. ^ There is already a confusion between ciphers and watchers

 

It was told that only watchers can see the past of a soul.

Yet ciphers from Hadret House seemingly had no problems checking Penhelm's past life.

 

Although it was more of a miscommunication between writers.

Edited February 27, 2017 by MaxQuest

[Hynkel]

True. Animancers have no special psionic powers though.

 

What I do find confusing is the distinction between necromancers and animancers. After all, skeletons and golems share the same creature type.

[FlintlockJazz]

 

 

Hehe.

 

edit: Eh, I meant "then in PoE2, follow up with..." obviously. Sorry...

 

I didn't even notice that you hadn't even put the 2 there to be honest, as it was pretty clear what you meant.

Animancer class... hmm. ^ There is already a confusion between ciphers and watchers

 

It was told that only watchers can see the past of a soul.

Yet ciphers from Hadret House seemingly had no problems checking Penhelm's past life.

 

Although it was more of a miscommunication between writers.

Wait, so Ciphers are NOT meant to be able to check the past lives of souls?  That means the whole soul pedigree thing isn't a thing?  The confusion between ciphers and watchers has been one of the things that put me off playing a cipher, since its kinda like "Wait, so which of this is or isn't typical cipher stuff?"

[Blades of Vanatar]

There was an alchemist Druid in the Shannara story lines. Friend of Walker Boh. Had that big mere cat pet.

[George_Truman]

You can play scrolls fighter with that sweet +20 accuracy.

[MaxQuest]

Wait, so Ciphers are NOT meant to be able to check the past lives of souls?  That means the whole soul pedigree thing isn't a thing?  The confusion between ciphers and watchers has been one of the things that put me off playing a cipher, since its kinda like "Wait, so which of this is or isn't typical cipher stuff?"

What we know precisely is that ciphers can interact only with housed souls, while watchers can see all of them.

Are ciphers able to see the past of a soul, is a bit unclear. I will quote two questions from the last two Q&A streams:

 

Stream #3 Transcript:

Q: What's the difference between a Watcher and a Cipher? In Pillars 1 a Watcher felt like a weaker and less versatile Cipher.

CP: So, this is something we've discussed a lot in the team as well. A Watcher is someone who can—a Watcher can do a lot things that literally no one else can do. I'm trying to stay out of things that are new to this game that we're not talking about yet. Watchers can see the histories of souls, and they can specifically see past lives.

Ciphers can still interact with housed souls, which would be like a soul in a person. They can not see a free-floating lost soul like the Watcher can. They can't see into the tween, which is... you have a...the body has perished and the soul is moving into the beyond. A Watcher can see that...a Cipher cannot. [the recording was garbled for the end of this question]

 

Stream #4 Transcript:

Q: In the third Twitch Q&A stream Carrie answered the question on the difference between Watchers and Ciphers by saying Watchers can see the histories of souls and they can specifically past lives, and ciphers cannot, presumably. But it's a plot point in Pillars 1 that the Dunryd Row Ciphers check the soul lineages of Crucible Knights.

JS: Just confusion among writers. Just an error. That was a reason why people were asking that question. People were like, "It doesn't seem clear which is which", and that's something in the beginning of Pillars 2 I said: okay, let's sit down and talk about exactly what people can and can't do, so that moving forward we don't confuse things.

[FlintlockJazz]

 

Wait, so Ciphers are NOT meant to be able to check the past lives of souls?  That means the whole soul pedigree thing isn't a thing?  The confusion between ciphers and watchers has been one of the things that put me off playing a cipher, since its kinda like "Wait, so which of this is or isn't typical cipher stuff?"

What we know precisely is that ciphers can interact only with housed souls, while watchers can see all of them.

Are ciphers able to see the past of a soul, is a bit unclear. I will quote two questions from the last two Q&A streams:

 

Stream #3 Transcript:

Q: What's the difference between a Watcher and a Cipher? In Pillars 1 a Watcher felt like a weaker and less versatile Cipher.

CP: So, this is something we've discussed a lot in the team as well. A Watcher is someone who can—a Watcher can do a lot things that literally no one else can do. I'm trying to stay out of things that are new to this game that we're not talking about yet. Watchers can see the histories of souls, and they can specifically see past lives.

Ciphers can still interact with housed souls, which would be like a soul in a person. They can not see a free-floating lost soul like the Watcher can. They can't see into the tween, which is... you have a...the body has perished and the soul is moving into the beyond. A Watcher can see that...a Cipher cannot. [the recording was garbled for the end of this question]

 

Stream #4 Transcript:

Q: In the third Twitch Q&A stream Carrie answered the question on the difference between Watchers and Ciphers by saying Watchers can see the histories of souls and they can specifically past lives, and ciphers cannot, presumably. But it's a plot point in Pillars 1 that the Dunryd Row Ciphers check the soul lineages of Crucible Knights.

JS: Just confusion among writers. Just an error. That was a reason why people were asking that question. People were like, "It doesn't seem clear which is which", and that's something in the beginning of Pillars 2 I said: okay, let's sit down and talk about exactly what people can and can't do, so that moving forward we don't confuse things.

 

Cheers for the info!  Going by that, it sounds like it could go either way: either they were not supposed to see past lives and the whole Dunryd Row thing was a ****-up and they can't see past lives, or they can see past lives and it was things like the previous transcript where they said they couldn't that Josh was referring to.  The main thing seems to be whether they are housed souls or not. 

 

I suppose Ciphers seeing the past lives of Housed Souls works, though I do like the idea that its restricted to Watchers and Animancers to make it rarer and harder to find out about people and the Dunryd Row plotline can be justified by saying that they have an Animancer or two on the payroll to do the actual past life investigating and that Kurren is just recalling the meeting with Penhelm.