Putting the 'role' back in role-playing games since 2002.
Donate to Codex
Good Old Games
  • Welcome to rpgcodex.net, a site dedicated to discussing computer based role-playing games in a free and open fashion. We're less strict than other forums, but please refer to the rules.

    "This message is awaiting moderator approval": All new users must pass through our moderation queue before they will be able to post normally. Until your account has "passed" your posts will only be visible to yourself (and moderators) until they are approved. Give us a week to get around to approving / deleting / ignoring your mundane opinion on crap before hassling us about it. Once you have passed the moderation period (think of it as a test), you will be able to post normally, just like all the other retards.

Eternity Pillars of Eternity + The White March Expansion Thread

Tigranes

Arcane
Joined
Jan 8, 2009
Messages
10,350
I needed some more challenge, but having a party member who spends most of the combat in knocked out state is pointles.

We know you're better than me since presumably you did not have as hard a time as me beating Llengrath, and since my barbarians never, ever "spend most of their combat time in knocked state", we can surmise that you are not just exaggerating here but misrepresenting the facts.
Honestly, I've never taken a barbarian for so long into the game. The one I made just kept dying in every combat during the first chapter, and I never continued. Meneha annoyed me too much with her writing and voiceacting.

In other words, you wouldn't really know. I don't know why you insist that barbs are useless dumbasses that just keel over ded so much, it's perfectly legit to just say you thought they were dumb.

People have said similar things about rogues and monks keeling over all the time, because they do, until you build and play them in a way suited for them (and a bit differently from traditional melee fighters). And rogues, for example, are patently not useless despite their fragility when exposed. Or perhaps there's a stronger expectation that barbs should hold their own? I'd agree that it can be initially strange that they're actually more on the glass cannon side.
 

Grunker

RPG Codex Ghost
Patron
Joined
Oct 19, 2009
Messages
27,385
Location
Copenhagen
Ok, so I'm definitely going Druid. Anything I should pay partiicular attention to during character creation?

Also, how would you guys rank the 5 skills in order of importance? I want my Druid to be decent in melee, so should I put points into Athletics to boost Second Wind?

For skills, make sure to have 1 character with maxed Mechanics. Beyond that, usually most people go for Survival flanking bonus on damage dealers, and a little bit of Stealth is useful on everyone (though I don't use it, because I dislike the playstyle).

Lore is the most OP since it allows you to break class restrictions and make everyone a glorious caster. Again, I don't use it since it reduces class diversity and makes the game significantly easier, but it is the optimal way to play.

In my mind, Athletics is not that great because the time it takes using it is usually better spent doing something else. If you go Athletics, it needs to be maxed.

I plan on keeping most of my party in traditional roles. I'm not going to have fighters and barbarians casting spells. Outside of using scrolls, am I correct in that Lore is basically useless for companions?
Skills in PoE 1 seem pretty straightforward. I'm guessing the choices are a lot tougher in Deadfire with the expanded skill syustem.

Attributes is what really has me agonizing over choices. None of the stats seem dumpable, and no one seems to agree what's more important for any given class.

All of the stats are useful in their own way, but minmaxed builds still dump some and max others. Worth knowing for a traditional first run is that Resolve is basically your Charisma score, so you'll need to max it if you want to specialize in dialogue.
 

chuft

Augur
Joined
Jun 7, 2008
Messages
496
Attributes is what really has me agonizing over choices. None of the stats seem dumpable, and no one seems to agree what's more important for any given class.

Keep in mind the way virtually everything works - including stats, weapons, and skills - has changed substantially over the course of the patches. You have to be very careful when reading posts about builds, to make sure they are not referring to a previous rules-set.

I don't remember when the 3.0 patch came out, but basically any discussion online before that date about builds of any kind is basically worthless, for example the "cipher using a blunderbuss for max Focus gain" one.
 

Lacrymas

Arcane
Joined
Sep 23, 2015
Messages
17,948
Pathfinder: Wrath
You don't get anything relevant or cool by passing Resolve checks, so don't sweat it.
 

chuft

Augur
Joined
Jun 7, 2008
Messages
496
It raises your Deflection (armor class against physical attacks) a bit, raises your Will (armor class against Will based attacks) by twice as much, and increases your Concentration (armor class against Interrupt effects). Being Interrupted means you stop what you are doing and "play a hit reaction" i.e. you will do a little ouch dance. Then you must manually cue up a new action. Spells interrupted this way are not lost, but must be cast again from the beginning.
 
Joined
May 31, 2018
Messages
2,509
Location
The Present
considering they make a beeline for casters, i doubt that tactics usefulness.

Hardly. Two ciphers can lock down a lot of enemies at the start of combat, hit someone with a poisoned firearm to recharge, then start running ectopsychic laps. Engagement makes it easier, because Eder and Pallegina can jump into the fray and engage eveyone. Mind you, I was playing when ciphers started with full focus.
 

Shadenuat

Arcane
Joined
Dec 9, 2011
Messages
11,955
Location
Russia
People have said similar things about rogues and monks keeling over all the time
Monks are just ass to micromanage compared to other classes unless you just run a monk in heavy armor with passives, pump resolve and just stun everything by fisting.

Rogues idk, if they get ded just take a pistol or something and do your finishing strike with that. I would understand butthurt over IE rogues who required invis pots and boots of speed to function, but PoE ones?
 

JDR13

Arcane
Joined
Nov 2, 2006
Messages
3,930
Location
The Swamp
It raises your Deflection (armor class against physical attacks) a bit, raises your Will (armor class against Will based attacks) by twice as much, and increases your Concentration (armor class against Interrupt effects). Being Interrupted means you stop what you are doing and "play a hit reaction" i.e. you will do a little ouch dance. Then you must manually cue up a new action. Spells interrupted this way are not lost, but must be cast again from the beginning.

I'm not too worried about Will since I plan on going high Int. As far as Deflection though, can low Resolve and/or Constitution be easily compensated for with the right gear?

Also, can temporary buffs be used for stats checks in dialogue?
 

chuft

Augur
Joined
Jun 7, 2008
Messages
496
I am no expert in min-maxing the system, but Deflection is hard to increase. Shields and Resolve increase it. Armor does not, it reduces damage.
 

Shadenuat

Arcane
Joined
Dec 9, 2011
Messages
11,955
Location
Russia
You can increase it by lowering enemy accuracy. Devotions of the Faithful is stupidly good at that. So is Cheatfog.
 

Jimmious

Arcane
Patron
Joined
May 18, 2015
Messages
5,132
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
By the way this discussion triggered me enough to start a new play-through with a Rogue main, in PotD.
And , to admit my own stupidity/stubbornness, only now do I realize how smoother everything is if you have a second tank, or "off-tank".
I don't know why, but I always wanted to have someone with a two-handed weapon in the front line and in the end only Eder, the tank, was able to soak up damage.
Having a secondary tank helps a lot
 
Last edited:

Grunker

RPG Codex Ghost
Patron
Joined
Oct 19, 2009
Messages
27,385
Location
Copenhagen
By the way this discussion triggered me enough to start a new play-through with a Rogue main, in PotD.
And , to admit my own stupidity/stubbornness, only now do I realize how smoother everything is if you have a second tank, or "off-tank".
I don't know why, but I always wanted to have someone with a two-handed weapon in the front line and in the end only Eder, the tank, was able to soak up damage.
Having a secondary tank helps a lot

Well... part of this is actually that having characters outfitted for melee is just much easier in general. Easily my easiest playthrough on PotD was my last game with a full melee party. Yes, some trash can be more difficult at first since you can't do the ol' choke point strat (but since I never used that anyway I don't really care). Not having a backline in the hardest fights means not having "oh fuck" reloads when something drops on them.
 

Tigranes

Arcane
Joined
Jan 8, 2009
Messages
10,350
I've tried playing with no 'tank' parties, where everybody is built for mobility and offence (e.g. monk, rogue, barb) - and it's possible, but obviously a lot fiddlier and requiring careful battlefield management. The 'orthodox' intended way of course is to use Eder as the solid rock for your rogue to pair off.

3 RES characters can do fine, again it's about understanding the many different options for mitigating that vulnerability: disabling opposition, debuffing their accuracy, or even taking advantage of how easily you're going to be hit by normal attacks. E.g. monks might benefit from getting hit all the time to get wounds, and use Moon Godlike or other abilities to not die from it. Barbs could do something similar
 

Jimmious

Arcane
Patron
Joined
May 18, 2015
Messages
5,132
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
I'm using Kana as an off-tank but I want to switch to Pallegina soon... Does anyone have a build suggestion for her as an off-tank?
Also thinking about going with Grieving Mother instead of Sagani, even though she's pretty high in DPS and Accuracy
 

chuft

Augur
Joined
Jun 7, 2008
Messages
496
Pallegina has access to a special ability no one else does. If you take Sworn Enemy (a normal paladin power) then later she can take Wrath of Five Suns which is devastating.
 

Jimmious

Arcane
Patron
Joined
May 18, 2015
Messages
5,132
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Pallegina has access to a special ability no one else does. If you take Sworn Enemy (a normal paladin power) then later she can take Wrath of Five Suns which is devastating.
Holy shit, it really is devastating. Thanks.
 

chuft

Augur
Joined
Jun 7, 2008
Messages
496
So I installed the IE mod and started a new game.

If I turn off Engagement, all the fighter talents/powers/whatever that relate to Engagement are now worthless and monsters will ignore the fighter's engagement limit, right?

Suddenly leveling up Eder looks a lot more interesting. Although it seems I will definitely need two fighters in the front line at all times.
 

As an Amazon Associate, rpgcodex.net earns from qualifying purchases.
Back
Top Bottom