Eternity Pillars of Eternity + The White March Expansion Thread

[Tigranes]

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]

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]

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]

You don't get anything relevant or cool by passing Resolve checks, so don't sweat it.

 

[JDR13]

You don't get anything relevant or cool by passing Resolve checks, so don't sweat it.

Does Resolve have much use in combat?

 

[chuft]

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.

 

[Mr. Magniloquent]

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]

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]

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]

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]

You can increase it by lowering enemy accuracy. Devotions of the Faithful is stupidly good at that. So is Cheatfog.

 

[Jimmious]

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

 

[Haplo]

Deadfire lacks "prone on crit" weps sadly...

Indeed... although loosing Carnage transferring on hit/crit weapon effects (other then LD Voulge Static Charges) was an even bigger hit...

 

[Grunker]

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]

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]

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

 

[Grunker]

My current character for 1 and 2 has 3 RES and is a monster.

 

[chuft]

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]

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]

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.

 

[Tigranes]

Engagement is not really such a big deal, especially not after various patches. But sure.

 

[GentlemanCthulhu]

Engagement is not really such a big deal, especially not after various patches. But sure.

In contrast i found engagement to be one of the highlights of the combat system. It really allows you to control the battlefield if you know what you are doing.

 

[GentlemanCthulhu]

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.

Huh. Didn't know. I fed her to Skaen.

 

[FreeKaner]

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.

Pallegina also has special ability on her flames of devotion, which gives AS bonus to everyone around her when she uses it, very useful.

 

[Daedalos]

Does this have turn-based mod yet?