My PotD Solo Monk/Paladin Build:

[Sharp]

As of today I have finished solo PotD twice (not yet with level scaling yet though, will try that next) and thought I would share the build I used to do it. I am by no means a pillars expert and nor do I pretend to have a strong understanding of the games mechanics, so there is a fair chance I messed something up and it could be done more optimally. However, this build worked for me. 1 thing that makes this unique is it is playing monk as a Helwalker and is not consuming wounds, rather it is using them for the extra damage increase. It is a monk/paladin hybrid and is as follows:

 

Advantages of this build:

• Incredibly tanky (despite being a Helwalker).
• Easy early game (Having Lay on Hands makes the early game for a monk quite easy).
• Decent enough Single Target (it isn't quite as good as a pure monk due to not having Inner Death, but Flames of Devotion is quite nice regardless).
• No need to go weapon hunting (your fists will be your primary weapon throughout the entire game).

Disadvantages of this build:

• No real Area of Effect outside of consumables (Sacred Immolation is quite lackluster).
• Forced dialogue choices (to maximize your paladin's Deep Faith Bonus).
• Forced Passive Skill allocation (to maximize the bonus from The Giftbearer's Cloth).
• Repetitive Combat. This build doesn't gain any new offensive powers from 1 through 20 with the exception of Flaggelant's Path, making the tactics you use for almost every fight identical with no real need to improvise.
• You lose out on the top tier monk powers, which are really really strong

Character Creation:

• Race: Pale Elf (Optional Moon Godlike).
• Class: Monk (Helwalker), Paladin (I went with Darcozzi, however, Bleak Walkers would be the stronger choice, I just hate making Cruel choices).
• Might: 8 (I went 18, but I have updated with some theorycraft).
• Constitution: 18 (I went with 17, but would rectify this).
• Dexterity: 12 (I had 11).
• Perception: 18.
• Intellect: 3.
• Resolve: 18.
• Origin: Rauatai
• Job: Scholar (I went with Hunter for mechanics, however, Scholar would be stronger).

Weapon Proficiency:

 

• Small Shield (for the Tuotilo's Palm variant).

 

Level ups:

 

I allocated my skill points as follows from level 1 through 20, the brackets indicates in which class the skill should be allocated:

 

1. Swift Strikes (Monk), Lay on Hands (Paladin), Flames of Devotion (Paladin).
2. Deep Faith (Paladin).
3. Fast Runner (Paladin).
4. Zealous Aura (Paladin) - I play with Focus as active, Two Weapon Style (Monk).
5. Long Stride (Monk).
6. Retribution (Paladin).
7. Greater Lay on Hands (Paladin), Swift Flurry (Monk).
8. Soul Mirror (Monk).
9. Eternal Devotion (Paladin).
10. Exalted Focus (Paladin), Duality of Mortal Presence (Monk) - I play with Mind as active.
11. Crucible of Suffering (Monk).
12. Bull's Will (Either).
13. Uncanny Luck (Paladin), Enervating Blows (Monk).
14. Tough (Either).
15. Weapon and Shield Style (Either). - Only take this if you intend to make use of Tuotilo's Palm shield, otherwise, take Snake's Reflexes.
16. Virtuous Triumph (Paladin), Turning Wheel (Monk).
17. Flagellant's Path (Monk).
18. Improved Critical (Either).
19. Stoic Steel (Paladin), Heartbeat Drumming (Monk).
20. Spell Resistance or Snake's Reflexes (Either).

Some notes on passives which I have not taken and why I have not taken them:

• Lesser Wounds - As this build does not consume wounds in the first place, gaining them is not an issue especially as a Helwalker has some to begin with.
• Rooting Pain - When you are always at maximum wounds, this isn't really going to do anything.
• Parting Sorrow - Same as above.
• Anything related to empower - most of the time you will not be empowering abilities with this build and if you do use empower, it will be to gain additional charges of Greater Lay on Hands/Swift Flurry/Exalted Devotion.
• Torment's Reach is not included because in the early game before you get Turning Wheel, with 3 int it has very low AoE and is unlikely to hit more than 1 enemy, making it feel quite lackluster as a single target ability and most of the time you are better off using Flames of Devotion or just basic attacking. In the mid game, it isn't really necessary as for any fight with a small group of enemies you can normally 1 hit everything down with Flames of Devotion and for large groups of enemies you have the Obsidian Lamp. Then in late game, with 15 Arcana you can just kill everything with scrolls anyhow if you so desire to, but by then the build is so strong you won't have any issues regardless.

 

Active Skills:

• Mechanics 7 first. If you are a hunter, that is 7 including the hunter bonus. You will then take Elias Zelen's Training (can be found in Dunnage) to get to 8. For all locks of Difficulty 10/11 use the Burglar's Gloves which can be purchased from the merchant in Periki's Overlook. Any locks of difficulty 12/13 can be lockpicked using Thief's Putty in addition to these, which can be found in Delver's Row, in The Gullet. There are 2 or 3 level 15 locks and 1 level 18 lock which you will not be able to pick, however, these are doors which are, with the exception of 1 of them, able to be passed with some form of key.
• Arcana 14. If you are a Scholar, that is 14 including the Scholar Bonus. Geirvard's Training will get you to Arcana 15.
• Any other skills can be placed wherever you like, they won't impact your gameplay too much.

 

Passive Skills:

• History, every single point. This is to take advantage of the Giftbearer's Cloth cape.

 

Gear:

 

For the most part, the gear choices for this build are not that important. The helm slot especially, is difficult to find an amazing helm for and I only found 1 that I really liked after I had killed everything in the game. When I can remember where I found something, I listed the item location next to the item name.

• Helmet: Not important, I used Helm of the Falcon for most of the game including the final "fight".
• Neck: Token of Faith.
• Body Armor: Fleshmender (Ikorno's Bounty). A good early game chest can be found from killing Benweth in Fort Deadlight.
• Ring 1: Minor Ring of Protection (never found a suitable replacement).
• Ring 2: Ring of the Solitary Wanderer.
• Boots: Boots of Stone, can be found in Dunnage. A good early game pair would be the Shorewalker's Sandals (cannot remember where you find them, but they are an early on item).
• Cloak: The Giftbearer's Cloth (Fampyr's Crypt, Northwest section of the map).
• Gloves: Greater Gauntlets of Reliability.
• Belt: The Undying Burden (Delver's Row).
• Pet: Eviee (I think you find her in the Adra Sawmill in Queen's Berth, but I may be wrong).
• Shield: Tuotilo's Palm. This is an optional Shield that can be purchased from the armorer in Periki's Overlook. It is not required for the build, but makes the build even safer to play (keeping in mind it is already very safe) and almost completely nullifies any death due to mistakes, at the cost of a large amount of damage. Thanks to KentDA for pointing out it exists!

Useful Quick Slot items:

These are items I find useful to have on the quick slots.

• Obsidian Lamp Figurine - Really strong early on and through the mid game, can be found in Delver's Row (1 of the shops sells it).
• Scroll of Meteor Shower - Good in the late game for dealing with Fampyrs.

As far as I can remember I never used a health potion nor a scroll to restore health, I did not find it necessary with Lay on Hands.

 

A note on respeccing:

Respeccing is currently bugged and will cause you to lose 1 of your initial powers for a multiclassed monk/paladin in addition to losing both of the plot related powers and losing all trainings. Due to this, if you attempt to respec an existing character to this build you will have less ratings available than the number I have illustrated here.

 

Some Theorycraft:

Due to the whole Perception vs Might argument, I created a spreadsheet comparing Perception and Might based on my general observations of how both stats behave, which I will list here:

• Accuracy is additive with your defensive statistics.
• Critical Strike damage is additive with other damage bonuses.
• Grazes are additive with other damage bonuses in some really weird format, found this thread which explains it: https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/98616-game-mechanics/
• Might is additive with some damage bonuses.
• Lashes are multiplicative with Might and additive with each other - left out of this as a result as they have 0 effect on the net result.

 

If any of the above are incorrect for a specific reason, this theorycraft will be incorrect, so feel free to look over it and tell me if I went wrong, but from my triple checking the maths looks correct. The way this spreadsheet works is as follows:

• Chance of missing * damage on miss+Chance of hitting*damage on hit+ Chance of grazing*damage on graze+Chance to crit*damage on crit.
• If there is a difference of 0 accuracy and deflection, the chance to hit is 50%, the chance to miss is 30%, the chance to graze is 20% and the chance to crit is 0%.
• The Defense Delta is the difference between the defensive statistic and accuracy, if you have a defense delta of -30 it means your accuracy is at least 30 less than the enemies defensive statistic.
• This spreadsheet does not take into account the extending of skill duration on crits, the reduction of skill duration on grazes or the extra penetration on crits, these 3 factors will modify the results in favour of perception however, given the results without them taken into account, it just further proves that perception almost always beats might.
• The higher the value for whichever column you are looking at, the better the result. By default I have set it to a damage bonus of 1 (which matches what you would have with my build with base might and 2 stacks of retribution) but you should modify it to whatever you should have for your circumstances.
• This does not take into miss to graze, graze to hit or hit to crit conversion. Nor does it take into account blunted criticals or armour.
• Link to spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Qzou9qoy-R7_oTOQ2nNyb12pm7VlH0kZ6jCd4f3hFGI/edit?usp=sharing

The tl;dr is perception is almost always better than might for the purposes of dealing damage.

Edited May 20, 2018 by Sharp

[Vastus]

Just curious but what does Giftbearer's Cloth do? Must be pretty strong if you build around it.

[Sharp]

Just curious but what does Giftbearer's Cloth do? Must be pretty strong if you build around it.

It gives +1 to all defenses except deflection per history, with an additional +5 on top of it. With 20 History, the cloak will give you +25 to all defenses except deflect.

[dudex]

ring of focus fire is good. it gives 10 acc to ur flame of devotion really big boost considering u can get it as soon as u get into nekata for free.

Edited May 15, 2018 by dudex

[Boeroer]

Do you want this to go into the build list?

Edited May 15, 2018 by Boeroer

[Sharp]

ring of focus fire is good. it gives 10 acc to ur flame of devotion really big boost considering u can get it as soon as u get into nekata for free.

Sounds nice, unfortunately I must have missed it

 

 

Do you want this to go into the build list?

That would be great yes! The multiclass subclass for monk/paladin is I think called Votary, if you need it.

[Boeroer]

Cool!

[Sharp]

Cool!

Ìf you need a name for the build, I guess go with "Eternal Devotion Votary" since that is what it is. Basically just spamming Eternal Devotion until everything is dead lol.

[Nefarious7]

Well done!

 

What abilities are you actively using on the monk side?  Why didn't you get torments reach?

 

What armor type is best until we can find the one you chose?  Light, medium, heavy?

 

Finally, if you were adding this to a full party as the front line tank (which I'm considering) on PoTD with full level scaling up when it's fixed, what changes would you make knowing you'll have companions?

Edited May 15, 2018 by Nefarious7

[Sharp]

Well done!

 

How would this build do as the main front line guy in a party?  Why didnt you get torments reach on the monk side?

I started out with Torment's Reach actually and found the damage to be quite lackluster against a single enemy and since this character has low int (3, 13 with max wound bonus) the AoE for it is not great and it is basically just a single target hit. As a result of this I specced out of it later on. For most overwhelming AoE fights, the specters from the figurine will do and for the later on fights, with the massive amounts of might you have from Helwalker you can basically full clear any mob group with a single cast of a meteor shower scroll (It was hitting every monster in the packs for 300+damage). Furthermore, with your high reflex you can quite confidently aim the scroll AoE over wherever you are standing and have no fear of hitting yourself. Using the scrolls is completely optional however and its just a case of saving time since the alternative is killing every enemy 1 at a time with Eternal Devotion (you get 1 zeal back every time you kill a monster and you will 1 hit most small critters). I did most fights without the scrolls, however, I did try them again with the scrolls and the difference in time effectiveness is massive, so if you like being time effective and not single targeting down a group of 20 monsters, I definitely recommend this route.

 

The actively used powers would be Swift Flurry and Flagellent's Path later on. Swift Flurry is really good in the early game to outpace enemies in combat. The big advantages you get from monk are mainly passive ones. You get +10 might (helwalker), +10 int and +burning damage (Turning wheel) plus a whole lot of other defensive bonuses like Soul Mirror etc, as well as the free unarmed bonuses for being a monk.

 

With regards to the armour choice, light is the way to go for low recovery time.

 

As far as a front line in a party, it should work just fine. The character is incredibly tanky so it can quite easily act as a damage soaker for a group. In fact, you can probably send him forward to take monster aggression and then have mages drop nukes on his location to kill everything. Mages are completely harmless to this character and in a group of monsters they are the smallest threat to you, gunners and fampyrs are the only things that can really hurt you.

Edited May 15, 2018 by Sharp

[BijaT]

Woud not fire godlike be useful ? i have no idea what token of faith dose but fire godlike + heart-chime neckless give you 20% of damage as healing for skills with keyword fire, aka eternal devotion. I guess this coud maby at later lev give more healing then lay on hands even, heh.

[Sharp]

Woud not fire godlike be useful ? i have no idea what token of faith dose but fire godlike + heart-chime neckless give you 20% of damage as healing for skills with keyword fire, aka eternal devotion. I guess this coud maby at later lev give more healing then lay on hands even, heh.

That is a good choice and would definitely justify it. I was not aware of that option when creating the character lol. Token of Faith just gives +2 resolve, it isn't an amazing item or a requirement for the build. I have edited the OP to include that. As a matter of interest, where do I find that amulet?

Edited May 15, 2018 by Sharp

[BijaT]

 

Woud not fire godlike be useful ? i have no idea what token of faith dose but fire godlike + heart-chime neckless give you 20% of damage as healing for skills with keyword fire, aka eternal devotion. I guess this coud maby at later lev give more healing then lay on hands even, heh.

That is a good choice and would definitely justify it. I was not aware of that option when creating the character lol. Token of Faith just gives +2 resolve, it isn't an amazing item or a requirement for the build. I have edited the OP to include that. As a matter of interest, where do I find that amulet?

 

Its from the companion quest with Pallegina. Totaly forgot, maby not then? i meen you gotta keep her around abit to get the quest and then it´s not so mutch solo, or maby you can still get it from the same location ? (only house you can enter in Lifter´s Refuge (on the pirate island)).

[Sharp]

 

 

Woud not fire godlike be useful ? i have no idea what token of faith dose but fire godlike + heart-chime neckless give you 20% of damage as healing for skills with keyword fire, aka eternal devotion. I guess this coud maby at later lev give more healing then lay on hands even, heh.

That is a good choice and would definitely justify it. I was not aware of that option when creating the character lol. Token of Faith just gives +2 resolve, it isn't an amazing item or a requirement for the build. I have edited the OP to include that. As a matter of interest, where do I find that amulet?

 

Its from the companion quest with Pallegina. Totaly forgot, maby not then? i meen you gotta keep her around abit to get the quest and then it´s not so mutch solo, or maby you can still get it from the same location ? (only house you can enter in Lifter´s Refuge (on the pirate island)).

 

Ok, I will edit that out again then lol. That would explain why I never found it. I was planning to restart with the same build and try party play now that I have completed 2 solos though, so I will try this out in a party. It isn't like this build is party unfriendly in any way anyhow, since it doesn't deal any AoE damage and won't injure any allies.

Edited May 15, 2018 by Sharp

[Voltron]

Why no Torment Reach?? It's perfect AOE damage for this comboi as it lacks any sort of AOE.

[Sharp]

Why no Torment Reach?? It's perfect AOE damage for this comboi as it lacks any sort of AOE.

I addressed that in a response to someone else already. The tl;dr is with 3 int your chances of hitting more than 1 enemy is close to 0 in early game. In mid game when you have 13 int due to turning wheel it is not necessary due to obsidian lamp and in late game you can blow everything up with a single meteor storm scroll anyhow. I did actually take it when I started out and every time I did use it I felt like just basic attacking was more efficient (and I normally ended up stopping using it and using flames of devotion or basic attack), so I respecced out of it and never missed it at all. I have included the explanation in the OP now however.

Edited May 16, 2018 by Sharp

[Sheyde]

Very nice build! I was going down the path of the Shepherd (Dracozzi/Stalker) but this trumps it in damage!

 

I was going sword and shield, which is pretty survivable, but the fights take a little long, haha.

 

Great job though! I think I'll try this out tonight!

[KentDA]

I just discovered something to consider for your build.

 

There is a shield you can get in the main town.

 

Tuotilo's Palm. It's a Small Shield, so no Accuracy penalty.

 

It's BUILT for Monks (it has ways to GIVE you Wounds).

 

Now, here's the nasty thing about it. It is treated as both a Shield (Weapon & Shield Style) AND an Off Hand (so you can take Two Weapon Style). It does Crush damage.

 

Figured I'd mention it in case you hadn't discovered it.

 

Also, one of the upgrades on the Shield is called Pugilist (which improves Unarmed damage). Pugilist also improves the damage the Shield does. I haven't tested it on an actual Monk to see if the Pugilist applies to your main hand (if you're unarmed) as well.

 

Yes, its two slots dedicated to the Shield, but it may be worth considering. Especially since you can also use the Small Shield modal if need be.

[Sharp]

I just discovered something to consider for your build.

 

There is a shield you can get in the main town.

 

Tuotilo's Palm. It's a Small Shield, so no Accuracy penalty.

 

It's BUILT for Monks (it has ways to GIVE you Wounds).

 

Now, here's the nasty thing about it. It is treated as both a Shield (Weapon & Shield Style) AND an Off Hand (so you can take Two Weapon Style). It does Crush damage.

 

Figured I'd mention it in case you hadn't discovered it.

 

Also, one of the upgrades on the Shield is called Pugilist (which improves Unarmed damage). Pugilist also improves the damage the Shield does. I haven't tested it on an actual Monk to see if the Pugilist applies to your main hand (if you're unarmed) as well.

 

Yes, its two slots dedicated to the Shield, but it may be worth considering. Especially since you can also use the Small Shield modal if need be.

I had not discovered it, this is great! You got me so excited I respecced my character just to try it lol. I would say this is 100% an option for fights where you need to be a little bit tankier. You lose quite a lot of damage for doing this, but it almost completely nullifies all incoming damage, so I am including a build variant that uses it.

[KentDA]

Sharp, I knew the talents would be a damage loss, but dead character does no damage after all. It's also something you can get relatively early in the game (well if you have the money of course), and it comes from a store.

[giftmefood]

where do you get the ring of the solitary wanderer?

[Sharp]

Sharp, I knew the talents would be a damage loss, but dead character does no damage after all. It's also something you can get relatively early in the game (well if you have the money of course), and it comes from a store.

Oh, I wasn't saying it like it was a bad thing lol, of coarse I knew that already and I absolutely agree. It is still a great item to have for this character and for sure when I do a trial of iron attempt, I will use it. I think it is the type of item you use for hairy fights and take off for the easy stuff. I just reloaded a save before I tried a lot of the harder fights and redid them with a shield spec and the character is noticeably tankier with it, to the point where almost nothing can hit you (I had 133 deflection and close to 200 of the other defensive stats, most stuff struggled to hit me).

Edited May 17, 2018 by Sharp

[Sharp]

where do you get the ring of the solitary wanderer?

A drake bounty somewhere I think, I am afraid I cannot remember where :S

[Delekii]

I don't really understand the choice of Helwalker; it seems like an exceptionally bad trade-off for a character who's defenses do matter a little. 

 

Maybe I'm wrong and the defenses don't matter at all, but it seems like many enemies don't have a lot of additive damage to their rolls, which makes the helwalker multiplier exceptionally bad.

 

Might gives 3% damage and healing per point, additive with all other additive sources. Going from 18 to 28 might via helwalker takes you from +24% to +54, which is 20% more damage. That is best case, assuming you max might and have literally zero other sources of additive damage. 

 

On the other hand, each wound increases the damage you take by 5%, so at the same 10 wounds you take 50% more damage. This is additive with enemy additive (and subtractive) damage, but there generally isn't as many terms for enemies as there are for players. Usually its just their own might multiplier and a modifier for your armor rating difference. In any case where they lose damage vs. your armor, the helwalker damage bonus is actually increased in efficiency in terms of increasing their damage. 

 

I haven't played the build so I don't know how relevant incoming vs. outgoing damage is for it, you talk about having extremely high defenses so perhaps it doesn't matter. But the opportunity cost vs. the gain for helwalker is extremely bad for a character that is expecting to tank everything. It's a shame all of the other monk subclasses are based around wound mechanics which essentially mean nothing to this build, but I'm not sure I'd even pick Helwalker over no subclass in purely on-paper terms. If you do decide to go for helwalker, another potential choice is to drop your base might significantly in favor of dex or perception. Both dex and perception are functionally multiplicative with might, whereas might is additive with itself. Dex is additive with swift strikes so perhaps its just trading one inefficient damage add for another, but I feel like there are significantly less sources of action speed than additive damage in general. The caveat there is that neither dex nor perception increase efficiency of limited resource abilities (lay on hands, flames of devotion) where might does. 

 

Whether or not this is worth it really depends on how much of your damage comes from auto attacking vs. limited use abilities, but acting faster has use even there. Perception is the gift that keeps on giving, it is very underrated because people think its "just 5 accuracy" or whatever, but that too never loses value because of the way the system works. 

 

Anyway, just my two cents. 

Edited May 18, 2018 by Delekii

[Sharp]

I don't really understand the choice of Helwalker; it seems like an exceptionally bad trade-off for a character who's defenses do matter a little. 

 

Maybe I'm wrong and the defenses don't matter at all, but it seems like many enemies don't have a lot of additive damage to their rolls, which makes the helwalker multiplier exceptionally bad.

 

Might gives 3% damage and healing per point, additive with all other additive sources. Going from 18 to 28 might via helwalker takes you from +24% to +54, which is 20% more damage. That is best case, assuming you max might and have literally zero other sources of additive damage. 

 

On the other hand, each wound increases the damage you take by 5%, so at the same 10 wounds you take 50% more damage. This is additive with enemy additive (and subtractive) damage, but there generally isn't as many terms for enemies as there are for players. Usually its just their own might multiplier and a modifier for your armor rating difference. In any case where they lose damage vs. your armor, the helwalker damage bonus is actually increased in efficiency in terms of increasing their damage. 

 

I haven't played the build so I don't know how relevant incoming vs. outgoing damage is for it, you talk about having extremely high defenses so perhaps it doesn't matter. But the opportunity cost vs. the gain for helwalker is extremely bad for a character that is expecting to tank everything. It's a shame all of the other monk subclasses are based around wound mechanics which essentially mean nothing to this build, but I'm not sure I'd even pick Helwalker over no subclass in purely on-paper terms. If you do decide to go for helwalker, another potential choice is to drop your base might significantly in favor of dex or perception. Both dex and perception are functionally multiplicative with might, whereas might is additive with itself. Dex is additive with swift strikes so perhaps its just trading one inefficient damage add for another, but I feel like there are significantly less sources of action speed than additive damage in general. The caveat there is that neither dex nor perception increase efficiency of limited resource abilities (lay on hands, flames of devotion) where might does. 

 

Whether or not this is worth it really depends on how much of your damage comes from auto attacking vs. limited use abilities, but acting faster has use even there. Perception is the gift that keeps on giving, it is very underrated because people think its "just 5 accuracy" or whatever, but that too never loses value because of the way the system works. 

 

Anyway, just my two cents. 

I do understand the difference between additive and multiplicative damage sources and yes, I may have made a mistake between dex and perception vs might, however, in terms of helwalker vs no helwalker I feel like the benefits outweigh the costs. Having completed the game on potd with this character there are very few enemies that  can actually harm you with these kinds of defenses, the main culprit being fampyrs, but everything else is a complete breeze. In most fights, you can ignore every enemy except for the 1 enemy that actually has a chance to damage you and just beat them down. The advantage of might vs other attributes more comes in with lay on hands, however, I feel like there most of the time it overheals you and so dropping it would be good.

 

I think a better version of this build would be dropping might down to 8 and then using the helwalker bonus to fill the gap, then allocating those 10 extra points elsewhere. I will probably give it a go when I start my trial of iron playthrough with this character, I had started a party playthrough but I don't really like it, I have never been a fan of party gameplay. Either way, I haven't stopped enjoying playing this particular character yet despite having completed the game twice with it, so as I find ways to improve it I will update this thread.

Edited May 18, 2018 by Sharp