Ye Olde Party Builds Thread

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High time we had one, I suppose.

My current party (which is tons of fun now at around level 7/8):

PC Cipher Wood Elf
Eder - Pikes, pokes
Kana - Chantering
Durance - Priesting

I'm also using two created NPCs based on an experiment I wanted to do, which revealed a pretty badass tanking strategy.

Haedron - Male Paladin (Shieldbearer), Moon Godlke
Sibella - Female Paladin (Wayfarer), Mood Godlike

Why two moon godlikes? Primarily due to their racial ability. When they hit 75, 50, or 25% health, they radiate a healing aura. Since they're the two soaking up the damage, that's two healing auras being activated regularly. That combined with their stats and emphasizing DR in their gear make them pretty damn hard to kill.

For RP fun, I posited that they were brother and sister, both becoming paladins but differing on philosophies, and ascending through two separate orders. After years apart, they met again on the road by chance (Kind Wayfarers being the 'travel the world offering help' types) and decided to travel together for a time. That's when they ended up in the Gilded Vale tavern.

The format is – the two sword-and-shield, heavily armored Pallys tank in the front line, Eder stands behind them with pikes doing damage, and my PC, Durance, and Kana hang in the back row casting spells and auras, all firing guns (two improved Arquebuses and a pistol for my PC). I will pick up a blunderbus at some point for the improved rate of fire, but I keep finding sweet pistols, so I'm sticking with those for now.

Highly recommended party composition.

I've personally found the wizard to be of limited use, since you have to make camp a lot due to their spells needing to recharge. Haven't found much drive to make Druids either for the same reason, though I hear they're the spellcasting powerhouses. I've found that per-encounter abilities are my bread and butter generally, and the Cipher really shines in this regard.

You're up, buttercup!

 

My current party is:

-PC - Rogue - Two weapon fighting with fast weapons, and a hunting bow for ranged combat. He is a DPS king.
-Eder - Fighter - Longsword and shield, an extremely effective tank. Crossbow is secondary weapon. I really do like how fighters can tank so much better than other classes in PoE. In the IE games it was too easy to substitute a fighter with another class.
-Pallegina - Paladin - a good secondary tank who wields a greatsword. A few buffs and heals for good measure. Arbalest is ranged weapon.
-Kana - Chanter - buffs/debuffs and a bit of crowd control. He stays back about half of the time with his arquebus. When more melee power is needed, he wades in with his flail and shield and is a competent front liner.
-Aloth - Wizard - he is pretty much focused on nuke spells, and like wizards in DnD, is becoming a monster as he levels. He usually uses wand/scepters from a safe distance, but also has scimitar/shield for emergencies. A lot of enemies love to target your wizards in melee.
-Durance - Priest - Heals, buffs and debuffs, and big gun when the aforementioned activities aren't happening.

It's proven quite an effective party. This is the group I wanted to use prior to starting the game, and I feel that all of my bases are well covered. If only I had more time to play....

 

I'm more interested in testing stuff out atm.
My current party is:

PC Orlan Chanter - light armor/dual wielder, utility/nuker/summoner/DPS. He's 2nd or 3rd highest damage done atm, he'd probably be 1st or 2nd if you count the damage the summoned specter does. The idea behind this character is that he's a light armor chanter (faster phrases, faster invocations - recovery from affects the speed phrases are uttered). I'm very happy that he also does well as a melee DPSer. Orlan is perfect for the crits. The specter is also a great offtank.

Eder - Tank feated/geared for deflect/saves. Knockdown is great against casters and he does OK damage overall.

Aloth - Debuffer/nuker. The blind, daze and paralyze spells have been invaluable so far against particularly powerful monsters or dangerous enemy groups. I had him learn that disengage class feat and it has been very useful since I reposition him a lot for maximum spell effect. Uses heavy ranged weapons since he doesn't actually stand still often.

Durance - Quarterstaff and Heavy armor (for reach - I want him tanky but he's not an offtank). Support/DPS/light nukes. I mostly use his Sanctuary + Endurance regen 1st level spell (mostly on Eder to let him regen while the specter is out) and the 2nd level prone/regen spells.

Kana - Pike/Heavy ranged weapons and heavy armor. DPS/utility. I was very worried at first that Kana would end up being redundant since I already had a chanter, but he's doing very well so far as a nuke-centric chanter. His phrases are slower but that's fine, it usually takes a while for me to set up enemy positions anyway. He mostly uses the corpse explosion invocation, and I just had him learn different phrases.

 

So far,
PC orlan rogue - single target DPS glass cannon
Eder - tank
Aloth - nuker
Durance - healer
Kana - support

 

Wizard PC - Wand, blast + DR. I took Grimoire Slam but it's a waste of a skill, it got broken eventually and I couldn't use it even if I wanted to. I wasted a lot of skills on per rest abilities when I shouldn't have.
Eder - Tank, initially I had him with a sword and shield but I ended up with the estoc from Od Nua, built him around engaging a bunch of enemies and high deflection.
Aloth - Rod, blast + DR. I gave him a similar core spell selection as my PC with some changes here and there.
Kana - Crossbow. I initially had him using the arquebus but with the inane reload time even with the skills to reduce it I switched him to a crossbow. Eventually I setup his chants so he would accumulate three verses for the paralysis ability and it worked out pretty well.
Sagani - War bow, I dumped everything into ranged skills and her companion and she turned out alright.
Hiravias - Quarterstaff

I wanted to get Pallegina but when my only save before the broken quest to get her was hours back I never bothered. I kept trying to use Durance but he didn't work out very well for me. All my build choices were haphazard at best but it ended up not mattering once I hit 5th and 6th level spells. I think I'm safe calling Gaze of the Adragan the most powerful spell in the game and Call to Slumber one of the best .

 

A good way to use the arquebus is to start the battle with it, then switch to a melee weapon. That way you start out with a heavy punch, and can quickly run in and keep doing damage. I'm occasionally using Kana that way currently.



ION, I'm trying to figure out what my perfect PotD party would consist of... for some future playthrough. I'm thinking it would have 2 tanky fighters, because tanky fighters are just too powerful to have only 1. A cipher since they can continue to cast without resting, and should be a little more resilient than a wizard. Probably a chanter, since they are pretty versatile, and their casting is also not dependent on resting. Pretty sure I'd want a rogue in there, since they do excellent DPS, and I like having a top notch lock picker/trap disarmer.

Priest seems like an obvious choice, but I'd like to have a druid as well, I think. Their shapeshift seems incredibly powerful, and they have versatile spells including good damage spells, as well as heals. 2 healers seems prudent, so maybe I would drop the chanter so I could have both a druid and priest. Hmm, not sure though. I'm going to have to keep thinking about this....

 

My rooster for my PoTD play through (using IE mod to alter NPC'S instead of making hirelings ):

Wild Orlan Paladin tank (Shieldbearer)
Fighter tank
Ranged Chanter singing reload chant
Ranged Rogue
Ranged Cipher
Ranged Priest

My Gunner backline all use slow heavy weapons with the Gunner talent.

 

1) PC - Monk, No armour just the clothes he wore when created. I did give him a torch in the left hand which decreases the damage done with that hand but increases perception and accuracy.
2) Eder - Fighter, powerful
3) Aloh - Wizard, needs a bit more buffing but does well with is weird personality (ies)
4) Durance - priest, gad fly, nemesis, sometimes I want to kick him but he is there for a reason.
5) Kan - Chanter, powerful, interesting
6) The dwarf ranger and her fox, can't spell her name. Nice person and very valuable.
7) Rogue I created. Orlan. A level below the others but good to have for those dungeon crawls. Also useful for crafting and enchanting.

I switch the ranger and rogue according to where I am going. When I pick up the other companions I will switch them around so everyone gets their turn.

 

My core party (playing on Hard difficulty):

1) Fighter (Edér) -- equipment and level-up choices uncompromisingly focused on tanking, even though that means he doesn't do much damage
2) Rogue (hired adventurer) -- melee and ranged heavy hitter; stealth expert
3) Cipher (PC) -- AOE crowd control and damage caster; mechanics expert
4) Wizard (Aloth) -- AOE damage caster (specializing in fire-based spells)

Aloth does the most damage closely followed by PC; Edér does the least damage (but that's okay). Still trying to optimize the Rogue better to make him do more damage per encounter, since it's kinda disappointing that he does less total damage than the Cipher who his busy with crowd control spells some of the time.

Currently I'm also taking along Durance (Priest; buffs and debuffs) and Sagani (Ranger; bow), but may switch them out depending on who I meet and where I go.

 

That's how I played him initially but I sunk too many skills into guns for him to be very effective in melee. Equipping everyone with guns and taking the quick switch ability would be a pretty effective opening to a fight though. Make sure you guys give athletics to everyone if you want to keep resting to a minimum and avoid injuries during the scripted events.

 

You mean like this?

 

At least two points in Athletics definitely helps (80% less fatigue gain from combat, maxes out at 90% so 2 points at 1 skill point cost each gives you the best value).

What really makes creating a good party interesting for me is that everyone can wear just about any type of weapon/armor. This opens up a lot of interesting possibilities since it guarantees that anyone can be an effective character with just the right gear, stats and buffs. My Aloth with Merciless Gaze buff/Gunner feat and Kana's ranged weapon buff, for example, is very easily outDPSing Kana and Durance normal attacks-wise. That's like Edwin outDPSing Anomen and Haer Dalis in melee/ranged combat. Lately I've also been equipping Durance with robes since he uses a reach weapon anyway. Without the extra ~50% recovery penalty he's actually become a better melee fighter, and the faster spellcasting has been great so far. It helps that priest spells are mostly defensive, so in a way the DR loss doesn't affect his survivability much. My own chanter only uses very light armor, just got level 3 invocations and its definitely worth it.

Class abilities only seem to affect how your group actually handles battles (tank and spank, all-out attack, nuking/positioning, crowd conrol spell spam, etc).

 

Definitely. And not just for combat - scripted interactions can cause big fatigue as well. For example, I was kinda bummed out when most of my party were fatigued after climbing up a wall even though I had rested not long before. Especially since being fatigued really hurts in this game, unlike BG2.
So every party member should try to get 2 or 3 Athletics as soon as possible.

Another thing that helps is having 1 character with as high as possible Mechanics, so you can open locked doors and chests without wasting huge amounts of lockpicks (or having to come back later).

 

Yes, it's not advisable to bring a bunch of out of shape old farts on your epic adventure.

 

After restarting like eleventy times, here's the party I'm using now and having the most fun with. While I don't min-max, I find that a modest three 10s and three 16s doesn't quite have the oomph I need, so I split the difference. My dump stats never go below a 7.

Laurana - Pale Elf Paladin, Shieldbearer (for the elemental resistences). Main tank.
Eder - Human Fighter. Second tank. Despite the suboptimal stats, he's a wall. And funny.
Ryd - Death Godlike Kind Wayfarer. Built to deal pike damage from the second row, steal kills and heal the team with Strange Mercy. A damn killing machine.
Durance - crabby-ass Cleric. Built around Arquebus use.
Kana - Chantering. Started with Arquebus, but I have him using the Hold Wall (Arbalast), which has a nice knockdown effect.
Grieving Mother - Ciphers are so damn useful, and though her stats aren't great, she's an MVP in fights and is great for the main story.

The trick here is the two paladins working together. Shieldbearer built for defense, Wayfarer built for high damage and healing. I'd considered having my PC be a Moon Godlike for the healing aura, but I've honestly had plenty of healing for the front line between Durance and the Kind Wayfarer's abilities. The Death Godlike's abilities make it easy to take down wounded prey (I may try a Hearth Orlan in this role next go-'round). I mostly only use Durance's heals to heal her, since the Kind Wayfarer's selfless nature heals everyone but themselves.

Other than their individual quests, the other joinable NPC's kick it in the castle. I might swap out GM for Aloth later in the game, when his level 1 and 2 spells switch to per encounter vs per day.

 

DR, I played GM all the way thru to the final battle, and she was excellent. That said, this was before the 1.05 patch, and I have no idea how seriously the changes to Ciphers will affect them over the long haul.

Pre-1.05, Ciphers were great because they didn't truly run out of "spells". OTOH, they could have their "gas tank" (i.e. their Focus) run dry for a while before you refilled it with physical attacks. That level 6 Cipher spell that you aim at a team mate and it blasts a big pile of enemies off their feet is NASTY!!! There's just about no one in the game that can't get blasted off their feet by that spell!

OTOH, in my first party, I had Aloth and didn't even realize that unlimited castings of low level spells thing existed, and I was just carefully parcelling out his spells as I would with any normal DnD wizard. (Ooops.) Still won the final battle even without knowing this.



I'm looking at your "NPC" second Pally, and it reminds me that I wish that Pallegina had been built from one of the playable four pally orders. I enjoy playing her in general, but part of me really does wish that she'd been one of the 4 playables so that a player using her could experience a playable pally order. Making her an unplayable pally order denied players this experience. Oh well.

 

Yeah, I agree. I don't think the Avian Godlike's innate ability (much like the Nature Godlike) is all that useful. I'll still build Pallegina up and use her once in a while, since I think she's a very interesting character. She mainly goes on my quest and escort missions.

 

Honestly, I don't particularly like the innate abilities of Nature or Fire GL's either. I don't particularly like abilities that trigger to make you stronger in some way only after you fall below 50%. I don't count the Moon GL's ability in this regard because it synergizes well with its triggers. Getting hurt? Generate a healing low. The Death GL's ability doesn't appear too bad though.

I find it difficult to want to play any of the GL's because they're so darned ugly, except perhaps the Moon GL, and Moon GL's are arguably OP. The Death and Fire GL's look downright demonic (and one wonders why the people of the Dyrwood don't see them that way). And the Nature GL's look like a cross between a human and a LOTR Ent.

I wish that GL's looked more like Pallegina. Mostly human (or whatever Kith race) with only a mild touch of the GL in their appearance.


EDIT: I enjoy having Pallegina in my party. Of course, I've always been partial to paladins, so I suppose that I'm a bit biased.

 

Meh, I've tried playing with her for a while (this past weekend - everyone is at level 11 now), but she keeps getting her ass kicked. It's frustrating. She's properly geared up and everything. Just sub-optimal build and I've never found her special ability useful (ranged enemies usually go for other people). She's no replacement for my Kind Wayfarer.

 

Oh, I won't disagree that Pallegina's build is very much sub-optimal. And her special racial ability is nothing special either. That said, I haven't had that much trouble when she's been in my parties. Of course, perhaps that's because I tend to play at the Normal difficulty level.

Regardless, I wish that her stats were a little better, if only to make up for her rather weak racial ability.

It's also a shame that she seems so weak because IMO she has one of the best voices of the 8 companions. She has a lot more character in her voice than, say, Sagani. While I have no problem with the character of Sagani, you'd think that a person from such an isolated island culture wouldn't have such an utterly bland non-accent. OTOH, Pallegina's accent is wonderful and you really feel that she's not local to the Dyrwood region because of it.