NPC Choices - Advice Needed

[Baptor]

Greetings community!

 

I've been playing Pillars on and off since release. I know, it's been quite some time now and I'm still on my first playthrough!

 

My party is level 10 and I've gotten to the Pit, though I have not gone in. I also did some of the White March quests but I've hit a level wall there.

 

Anyways, my current part is as follows.

 

Charmain (Wizard)

Eder

Sagini

Kana

Grieving Mother

Aloth

 

I've done all the NPCs quests, I think up to this point. I was pretty set on this party going until the end, but one thing I always wanted was a priest. I don't use walkthroughs or anything so I just now bumped into Durance doing a bounty. Now I'm in dilemma.

 

Priests can heal and have other valuable defensive powers. I feel this is lacking in my group and this is why I'm unable to progress in certain areas, but I'm not sure. I've read around and some people say a priest is invaluable and a must-have and others say priests are unnecessary in this game.

 

So my question to the community is this. Should I take Durance? Would a priest really help this group out? If so, who should I leave at the keep when I take him?

[Melusina]

Take druid companion.

[FlintlockJazz]

If you were happy with how the party plays and was not suffering from any problems then don't feel obligated with taking a priest.  Most of my parties don't have one, or they have Durance temporarily.  Paladins are also good healers in this game, and assuming you taken the right talents for Kana he should be healing you passively anyway.  Consider saving Durance for a second playthrough if you do them.

Edited August 29, 2017 by FlintlockJazz

[Boeroer]

Priests do make the game easier. But not because of heals, but because of the awesome party and single buffs they can provide. So, taking Durance will def. make a playthrough easier if you know how to use them. Below are the most useful abilites/spells of a priest:

 

- Blessing: accuracy and damage buff. ACC is important here. THis will be overwritee nby most other powerful ACC buffs, except Inspiring adiance and Devotions for the Faithful (see doiwn below).

- Inspiring Radiance: gives your party +10 accuracy which stacks with any other accuracy buff

- Consecrated Ground: funnily this is a healing spell. Cast it prior to any damage you get. Jusat cast in in advance and put yourself in the middle of the party.

- all prayer spells: invaluable! Priest is the only class that can grant immunities against afflictions.

- Devotions for the Faithful: combined buff/debuff. Most importantly the ACC buff also stacks with most other ACC buffs.

- Shining Beacon: very good damage tool, especially in combo with Cleansing Flame

- Crowns for the Faithful: insane attribute buff. This results in +6 ACC (stacks) and +25 deflection (stacks with other deflection buffs) and +75 concentration.

 

But you don't necessarily need a priest to have a good playthrough.

Edited August 29, 2017 by Boeroer

[Baptor]

Priests do make the game easier. But not because of heals, but because of the awesome party and single buffs they can provide. So, taking Durance will def. make a playthrough easier if you know how to use them. Below are the most useful abilites/spells of a priest:

 

- Blessing: accuracy and damage buff. ACC is important here. THis will be overwritee nby most other powerful ACC buffs, except Inspiring adiance and Devotions for the Faithful (see doiwn below).

- Inspiring Radiance: gives your party +10 accuracy which stacks with any other accuracy buff

- Consecrated Ground: funnily this is a healing spell. Cast it prior to any damage you get. Jusat cast in in advance and put yourself in the middle of the party.

- all prayer spells: invaluable! Priest is the only class that can grant immunities against afflictions.

- Devotions for the Faithful: combined buff/debuff. Most importantly the ACC buff also stacks with most other ACC buffs.

- Shining Beacon: very good damage tool, especially in combo with Cleansing Flame

- Crowns for the Faithful: insane attribute buff. This results in +6 ACC (stacks) and +25 deflection (stacks with other deflection buffs) and +75 concentration.

 

But you don't necessarily need a priest to have a good playthrough.

 

Do you think priests and their buffs are better than Chanters?

 

Kana seems like a great boost but I feel like he's not really contributing as much as I hoped he was. Plus he's the least interesting of all my characters to me.

[Boeroer]

If you let him chant "The Dragon Thrashed [...]" (and nothing else - it stacks with itself) you can witness one of the best AoE damage tools in the game. It even gets +12 accuracy once you give Kana a single one handed weapon (small bug I guess).

 

He's not comparable to a priest though, although he can give a bit of support. Durance could boost Kana's accuracy, intelligence and might and improve Kana's chanting performance with "Dragon Thrashed" a lot. That's the power of the priest - and no other class can do that (for the whole party). There are crtain paladin builds that can also support party members with a huge amount of accuracy and healing and other support, but that's mostly single ally, not party wide.

[Soaren]

Priests can heal and have other valuable defensive powers. I feel this is lacking in my group and this is why I'm unable to progress in certain areas, but I'm not sure. I've read around and some people say a priest is invaluable and a must-have and others say priests are unnecessary in this game.

 

So my question to the community is this. Should I take Durance? Would a priest really help this group out? If so, who should I leave at the keep when I take him?

 

There is no arguing with the power of a priest in a full party, but nothing is a must-have and absolutely necessary to progress in this game (at least not when you are not trying to meet the mark for solo runs or other peculiar requirements on the highest difficulty). If you are truly struggling with some encounters in certain areas, then it's a fair sign that you might have a lot of potential improvements to be gained through polishing your choices of equipment, talents, abilities, and perhaps the most importantly: picking correct strategies against whatever you are facing. 

There might also be more easy experience points for you to find through missed quests/places on the map/enemies not yet fully marked in the cyclopedia, if stumbling onto Durance only now is anything to go by. Which can help on its own. 

 

So while you should be able to find ways to move forward even without Durance, you might still find it worthwhile to test his usefulness and see if that results in an easier time. Could be instead of Aloth (since you already have one other wizard) or Sagani if you like your casters so much. Eder is another option down the line, depending on the amount of melee/semi-tanky characters you keep. Kana less so if you are after raw party power, as the conventional forums wisdom holds chanters as very powerful (if not borderline overpowered) at the levels you are playing at. You will want to keep GM for similar reasons i.e. the potency of a cipher. 

Edited August 30, 2017 by Soaren