The "restless" party?

[ziphnor]

I recently started playing PoE with a glasscannon Cipher as main character. (Wood Elf Hunter) I am having a great time playing it (no surprise since BG2/ToB was my all time favorite game), however i am not a fan of the resting mechanism however (something i also disliked in BG1/2). Especially not considering that i need camping equipment, of which i can only have two ( because i am playing on Hard?). Resting does not really make the game harder, just more annoying as you can almost always run back to rest, even after every encounter if you wanted.

 

Anyway, in PoE i noticed that i tended to avoid using my per-rest abilities/spells. Therefore i was thinking about how to build a party (without using custom companions) that was less reliant on resting, but still had lots of abilities/spells to use during combat.

 

My first question is whether there are options to heal health without resting? 

 

My second questions is party structure. I recently recruited Grieving Mother, which made fights much more enjoyable (two Ciphers work *really* well). I also have Kana in my party, which also works ok, even if it takes a while for summons to be available, and i am unsure as to how effective all his chanting actually is

 

Right now my party is:

 

Eder (fairly boring in combat, but adds some sanity to the group, and is an effective tank)

Durance

Sagani (nice RP fit, and provides an (expendable fox to shore up the front lines) 

Grieving Mother

Kana (scary portrait, but otherwise ok)

 

My primary concern is Durance ( a bit too much crazy in the group for my liking , he provides his Holy Radiance per encounter effect, but apart from that he is not very effective. I need to use him in the front-line (Eder + Saganis Fox is hard pressed as the only tanks), but he is always getting knocked out Can he be replaced by the Paladin companion for example?

 

I also tried Aloth in place of Sagani earlier on, but he is so reliant on his per-rest abilities to be effective that i dropped him.

 

My first question is whether there are options to heal health without resting? 

 

[Laider]

The potion, restore vital essence, gives you a temporary boost to max health and endurance. If the combat ends before the duration of the potion, the boost remains, but because your max health is reset you are in effect healed.

A good reason to make this a mastered spell IMO.

A bit cheap, but the need to rest is more of an inconvenience, than a realistic game balance mechanic.

[JFutral]

Annoyingly, the one non-rest reliant method, potion of Infuse with Vital Essence, can only be used in combat mode. Why and how that makes sense is way beyond me. Similarly the Wizard spell of the same name.

 

There are the two skills/talents/whatever that silly delineation is, Wound binding and Field Triage which is rest dependent (as in one use per rest), but at least not combat mode reliant. It comes in handy to help you get a little further without needing a rest.

 

I can't remember what Lying on Hands heals—health or endurance. I don't run with Paladins, so I don't have it memorized. Gamepedia says endurance.

 

Joe

[Kaylon]

Yes, it's possible to build a party like that and there's even an achievement for it. At low/mid level you can use a combination of pets/summons to avoid taking damage and use potions of Infuse with Vital Essence from time to time. Once you reach lvl15 you can build your party around Defensive Harmony and become invincible...

[JFutral]

Yes, it's possible to build a party like that and there's even an achievement for it. At low/mid level you can use a combination of pets/summons to avoid taking damage and use potions of Infuse with Vital Essence from time to time. Once you reach lvl15 you can build your party around Defensive Harmony and become invincible...

I did a double take trying to find out info on Defensive Harmony. Did you mean Defensive Mindweb cipher ability? That's all I can find. I still don't grok ciphers, so I am sure I overlooked the value of this. My ciphers end up shooting arrows. I should learn better cipherisms.

 

Joe

[Piero]

For Edér you could build him with all the active abilities available, i did that to make him more fun.

You could tank with Kana instead of Durance, since chant speed doesn't goes slower with heavy armor and Durance cast speed does

You can use HealParty console command if doesn't break your immersion, and to avoid breaking the game just use the per rest abilities seeing them as a limited resource, maybe that ever solve your inconvenient with wizards

Play with the companion you want, but don't try to replace the exact role of one with another, when change your party composition build your party roles again, so one companion doesn't seem weaker than another

[Boeroer]

Yes, Kaylon meant Defensive Mindweb.

 

You need one very tanky char (in terms of defense values) and once you cast it you are in god mode.

Edited July 16, 2017 by Boeroer

[ziphnor]

For Edér you could build him with all the active abilities available, i did that to make him more fun.

You could tank with Kana instead of Durance, since chant speed doesn't goes slower with heavy armor and Durance cast speed does

You can use HealParty console command if doesn't break your immersion, and to avoid breaking the game just use the per rest abilities seeing them as a limited resource, maybe that ever solve your inconvenient with wizards

Play with the companion you want, but don't try to replace the exact role of one with another, when change your party composition build your party roles again, so one companion doesn't seem weaker than another

 

As to party composition, i did get Durance working somewhat bit better, he is now in a Full Plate, and has Inspired Flame wielding a Sword+Shield and an Arquebus. Interesting idea about tanking with Kana, i hadn't really thought about that, but i guess it makes a lot of sense.

 

I might dump Sagani (her talk about home is dull for Aloth, since the declining health usually forces me to rest not too long after i would have rested after running out of spells.

 

The reason i asked about the Paladin was that i thought she might supply more per-encounter buffs.

 

Yes, Kaylon meant Defensive Mindweb.

 

You need one very tanky char (in terms of defense values) and once you cast it you are in god mode.

 

Just looked up Defensive Mindweb. That is pretty crazy Looking forward to trying that out when i get far enough for Level 8 abilities.

[ziphnor]

In case anyone cares, i kept Durance, and swapped Sagani for Hiravias in much of the same role, but with more kick when needed. His per encounter spiritshift is quite convenient even when not using spells. It seems to me the Druid class is pretty powerful, at a glance more than Wizards?

[Boeroer]

No, but also powerful - like all vancian casters. Viable in trash mob fights becuse of their per-encounter stuff and devastating in boss fights because of spell spamming.

 

But why did you swap Hiravias in for Sagani when looking for a restless party? Especially the animal companion is perfect for a restless party because it doesn't have health. It doesn't matter if it takes a beating: as soon as the encounter is over it's as good as new. 

Edited July 25, 2017 by Boeroer

[ziphnor]

No, but also powerful - like all vancian casters. Viable in trash mob fights becuse of their per-encounter stuff and devastating in boss fights because of spell spamming.

 

But why did you swap Hiravias in for Sagani when looking for a restless party? Especially the animal companion is perfect for a restless party because it doesn't have health. It doesn't matter if it takes a beating: as soon as the encounter is over it's as good as new. 

 

It was okay with Sagani, but i swapped for the following reasons:

 

* Sagani lacked tactical options in tough fights

* Sagani gets sad when her fox gets knocked out

* Hiravias could provide decent ranged capability while also providing better melee when spirit-shifted (so better at saving my two ciphers if things started going wrong)

* Spells like firebrand, while not restless, drains very little per-rest resources, and also provides good melee attacks

* That storm spell is awesome

* Hiravias has a more interesting personality than Sagani