Pillars of Eternity - Eat my Cipher!

[Fez]

I finally headed into the sealed district in Defiance Bay (Heritage Hill?). I think I waited too long though since I'm just destroying the enemies there.

[Altherion]

And will the ogre I recruited at Dyrford Crossing show up eventually?

You should be able to hire the character in question via the Stronghold interface (assuming that you've built the Barracks).

[Independent George]

So do you lot switch out your NPCs for the sake of quests, or do you just try to keep the band together based on your strategy? Up until now, it's been an easy choice - my character is a Priest, so I booted Durrance and had a full party of 6. Now, though...

I just finished the Dyrwood village quests, and now I'm trying to decide who belongs in my party. I did swap out Aloth for Grieving Mother, mostly to see what a Cipher is like, but now I'm trying to decide if the Druid is worth bringing in. If I drop Kana for the druid (I can't remember his name), all of my party would have NPC quests open in Twin Elms. Since this is my first playthrough, I'm very tempted to do that just for the experience, but Kana's a very useful character to have.

Also, what are your reputations? I hadn't really paid much attention to them besides aiming for Benevolent & Honest (because she's a Priest of Eothas), so I'm honestly not sure what triggers most of these:

Benevolent: 4

Clever: 1

Stoic: 2

Diplomatic: 3

Passionate: 2

Rational: 2

Honest: 3

[TheRevanchist]

So do you lot switch out your NPCs for the sake of quests, or do you just try to keep the band together based on your strategy? Up until now, it's been an easy choice - my character is a Priest, so I booted Durrance and had a full party of 6. Now, though...

I just finished the Dyrwood village quests, and now I'm trying to decide who belongs in my party. I did swap out Aloth for Grieving Mother, mostly to see what a Cipher is like, but now I'm trying to decide if the Druid is worth bringing in. If I drop Kana for the druid (I can't remember his name), all of my party would have NPC quests open in Twin Elms. Since this is my first playthrough, I'm very tempted to do that just for the experience, but Kana's a very useful character to have.

Also, what are your reputations? I hadn't really paid much attention to them besides aiming for Benevolent & Honest (because she's a Priest of Eothas), so I'm honestly not sure what triggers most of these:

Benevolent: 4

Clever: 1

Stoic: 2

Diplomatic: 3

Passionate: 2

Rational: 2

Honest: 3

My character is a fighter (terrible choice I know). And my part consists of Eden, Aloth, Hiverias, Grieving Mother and Durance.

Grieving Mother is insanely powerful (when you play against a lot of enemies) if you play ir right. She has a second level attack, which hits six enemies. And if you give her a weapon which does multiple hits (a type of shotgun) she can generate around 20 focus every time she uses it (enough to be able to cast that spell). Despite getting her only when I was level 5, she has done by far (more than twice than any other character) damage so far (level 9).

[Relic]

So do you lot switch out your NPCs for the sake of quests, or do you just try to keep the band together based on your strategy? Up until now, it's been an easy choice - my character is a Priest, so I booted Durrance and had a full party of 6. Now, though...

I just finished the Dyrwood village quests, and now I'm trying to decide who belongs in my party. I did swap out Aloth for Grieving Mother, mostly to see what a Cipher is like, but now I'm trying to decide if the Druid is worth bringing in. If I drop Kana for the druid (I can't remember his name), all of my party would have NPC quests open in Twin Elms. Since this is my first playthrough, I'm very tempted to do that just for the experience, but Kana's a very useful character to have.

Also, what are your reputations? I hadn't really paid much attention to them besides aiming for Benevolent & Honest (because she's a Priest of Eothas), so I'm honestly not sure what triggers most of these:

Benevolent: 4

Clever: 1

Stoic: 2

Diplomatic: 3

Passionate: 2

Rational: 2

Honest: 3

Grieving mother is a SHIT Cipher, imo. I made a generic Cipher with min/max stats and hand picked her spells and she was tons better than the GM i got stuck with (i got her around level 7 so a lot of her early game stuff was computer selected).

[MerenthaClone]

I will be shocked if Mental Binding and Amplified Wave aren't nerfed somewhat next patch.

I mostly run with Eder and Durance. Pallegina, Kana, and Sagani swap out for off-tank in that order depending on quests/flavor (kana comes on the endless paths for instance). I then pick two of the three for Aloth, Grieving Mother, or Hiravias, and that's a rough choice. As my cipher gets better at both CC and off-tanking I might drop one of the first three just so I can have more spell output. Hiravias is, so far, kind of the weakest. Firebug and his storm aoes are great and moonwell makes for decent healing if Durance bites it and nobody has a revive scroll, but once he's out of those I don't have much of a use for him, unlike Aloth or GM. Which is a shame because Firebug is really, really good and now that I'm in twin elms I like having him for flavor.

E: GM is a shit cipher and those two spells are so good and so spammable that she's still a solid contender for great party members.

[TheRevanchist]

Grieving mother is a SHIT Cipher, imo. I made a generic Cipher with min/max stats and hand picked her spells and she was tons better than the GM i got stuck with (i got her around level 7 so a lot of her early game stuff was computer selected).

This can be said for all of the companios. It is just that companions are far more interesting than hirelings, despite not being as strong.

I personally prefer companions, it is RPG after all.

[Relic]

This can be said for all of the companios. It is just that companions are far more interesting than hirelings, despite not being as strong.

I personally prefer companions, it is RPG after all.

I hear ya that's why she's in my party as well. My hireling cipher led my party in damage and kills before i took on GM however. They are THAT powerful. Next game im rolling a Cipher.

[Independent George]

Yes, if you do all of the side quests, you will out-level much of the content. Level 9 is a high step up: all 1st level spells of Druids, Priests and Wizards become per-encounter rather than per-rest and some of them are actually quite decent.

Is that documented anywhere in the game? If you hadn't written that, I don't know that I would have even noticed for a while. I just reached level 11, and had to cast a test spell in combat to confirm that it now applies to level 2. I assume it's written somewhere when you level up, but I didn't notice it.

Anyway, I just got my butt well-kicked by the 'Master Below'. Time to get back to the main quest and pick up a few levels. Aloth's DR-reducing spell seems like a must.

[Relic]

Fuck my game has bugged out for some reason. Every chest I loot has unlimited amounts whatever was inside. This started happening right after the meeting with the Duc towards the end of act 2. Anyone have a similar issue?

[Werthead]

Wandered into Searing Falls after hearing it's pretty tough. Instead nailed it on the second go. I cheesed it by provoking the dragon with my main character whilst everyone else was packed into the bottleneck slope near the entrance to the cave. I ran back and then we fought in the bottleneck, with Durance healing and buffing, the mage landing some good magic hits in, Kana blazing away with his gun etc. I also kept summoning wurms, which made mincemeat of the xaurips and then constantly blasted the dragon whilst it was stuck at the back of the group waiting for the drakes to die so it could close to battle. The damage the wurms did was tiny, but it took so long to clear the passage that they'd taken the dragon down two pips single-handedly by the time he got into the fight.

It was still a tough battle and I literally won with only Sagani standing with 3 hit points left. The killer blow came from her wolf companion, I think. The closest fight in the game to date.

[TheRevanchist]

Wandered into Searing Falls after hearing it's pretty tough. Instead nailed it on the second go. I cheesed it by provoking the dragon with my main character whilst everyone else was packed into the bottleneck slope near the entrance to the cave. I ran back and then we fought in the bottleneck, with Durance healing and buffing, the mage landing some good magic hits in, Kana blazing away with his gun etc. I also kept summoning wurms, which made mincemeat of the xaurips and then constantly blasted the dragon whilst it was stuck at the back of the group waiting for the drakes to die so it could close to battle. The damage the wurms did was tiny, but it took so long to clear the passage that they'd taken the dragon down two pips single-handedly by the time he got into the fight.

It was still a tough battle and I literally won with only Sagani standing with 3 hit points left. The killer blow came from her wolf companion, I think. The closest fight in the game to date.

What level you were? At 10th level, I defeated him quite easily.

On the other side, The Master Below was impossible for me (even at 12th level). He literally killed my entire party within 5 seconds. So, I did a quest for her to finish that quest :drool:

[Werthead]

5th level.

[Independent George]

On the other side, The Master Below was impossible for me (even at 12th level). He literally killed my entire party within 5 seconds. So, I did a quest for her to finish that quest :drool:

After about 10 reloads, I finally defeated the Master Below at 12th level.

It came down to:

1. Keep your priest alive to heal/revive anybody that gets knocked unconscious, and buff your attacks.

2. Keep spamming summons. I had Kana, and he summoned two sets of ogres (requiring 5 chants each), and was nearly to a third, when the battle finally ended.

3. Eder in a defensive stance had a Deflection score of over 100; that let him survive in melee longer than anyone. Anybody else who got hurt would retreat and get healed by my priest.

4. Keep casting the DR reducing spells. Only about 1/3 will ever work due to the Master's resistances, but just once or twice with Alonth's spell is enough to turn the tide.

5. Luck. The dragon's tail and wing attacks can knock out half of your attackers in a single round. If you have enough summons, and your priest is still alive, you can revive them, but one bad round will wipe you out.

6. If you negotiate with the dragon, then betray it, the hunter teaches you a special attack that reduces the DR by 6. It only lasts a short while, though, so it's best to do it after your attackers are buffed and more likely to hit. It's better still to wait until Alonth's DR spell succeeds and let them stack, but you might not have the luxury.

7. When the Xautrips show up, I knock them down with repulsing seal or slicken, then leave them for Grieving Mother to recharge with her blunderbus.

8. The funniest thing to happen was when one of my confusion spells managed to work on the dragon. It gave me a brief reprieve, but my foe-only damage spells stopped working.

[TheRevanchist]

After about 10 reloads, I finally defeated the Master Below at 12th level.

It came down to:

1. Keep your priest alive to heal/revive anybody that gets knocked unconscious, and buff your attacks.

2. Keep spamming summons. I had Kana, and he summoned two sets of ogres (requiring 5 chants each), and was nearly to a third, when the battle finally ended.

3. Eder in a defensive stance had a Deflection score of over 100; that let him survive in melee longer than anyone. Anybody else who got hurt would retreat and get healed by my priest.

4. Keep casting the DR reducing spells. Only about 1/3 will ever work due to the Master's resistances, but just once or twice with Alonth's spell is enough to turn the tide.

5. Luck. The dragon's tail and wing attacks can knock out half of your attackers in a single round. If you have enough summons, and your priest is still alive, you can revive them, but one bad round will wipe you out.

6. If you negotiate with the dragon, then betray it, the hunter teaches you a special attack that reduces the DR by 6. It only lasts a short while, though, so it's best to do it after your attackers are buffed and more likely to hit. It's better still to wait until Alonth's DR spell succeeds and let them stack, but you might not have the luxury.

7. When the Xautrips show up, I knock them down with repulsing seal or slicken, then leave them for Grieving Mother to recharge with her blunderbus.

8. The funniest thing to happen was when one of my confusion spells managed to work on the dragon. It gave me a brief reprieve, but my foe-only damage spells stopped working.

Nice.

I couldn't do it so went the cheap way and did his quest. Actually, that is quite ok with my character considering that my character had a high rationality. Better to have a strong dragon as an ally, rather than a pointless dragon hunter whom I could easily defeat.

[Fez]

I'm hitting a bit of a wall with this game. I'm not stuck or anything, but 35 hours in and I'm just feeling ready for it to be over. However, I know that I'm very far from the end game, I haven't even finished Act II yet or gone back to the endless paths since my initial entry. I could just put it aside for a while, but I hate doing that in narrative-heavy games since I end up losing track of so much whenever I pick it up again.

[Independent George]

Well, I finally beat the game last night instead of watching the GOT premiere. I think I ended at 55-60 hours, but that included a lot of pause time while I went and did other stuff. I'll have some spoilered observations later, once I have access to my computer. But overall, this was an outstanding game. The story and writing isn't quite up there with Torment, but the gameplay is worlds better. I do have some questions regarding the revelations, but that will have to wait until I can spoiler it and write a long missive without my thumbs aching.

I can say that the Master Below was an infinitely tougher battle than the final boss.

I think I'm going to try a rogue for my next build, but I'm also curious about the Barbarian and Monk; has anyone here played as one of them yet? I'm also going to try to get to Dyrwood with as little experience as possible so that I can optimize Eder's build a little bit - he should be the damage dealer and Pallegina the tank, but because of how their weapon proficiencies were set up, I had it flipped. Eder with the Blade of the Endless, strength mods, weapon specialization: adventurer, and two-handed weapon style should be a sight to behold.

I know ciphers are a bit overpowered because of the way they can keep blasting, but the single most useful spell in the game is Alonth's level 3 DR reducing spell. I couldn't have beaten the master below without it, and it would have made the final boss fight even easier if I had it on me. The next mose useful spells for me were my level 2 priest spells, Repulsing Seal and Consecrated Ground; once they become 'per encounter' at level 11, life got easy. That one level six Cipher spell that knocks everybody down, though, has got to get nerfed in the next patch. The AoE is way too big, and the duration is way too long, for something that can get cast in every encounter.

[MerenthaClone]

And it deals fair DR-piercing crush damage to boot!

e: vvv Twin Elms is kinda where you start seeing the endgame really come into a goal, if that makes sense.

[Jon AS]

Haven't really advanced in the game at all since getting to Twin Elms. Neither the plot nor the characters are compelling enough to motivate me to press on. I think I need to force my way through this, otherwise I might end up never finishing, as happened with Wasteland 2, though in that case I was much less impressed with the game in general, whereas PoE definitely has a lot of potential.

[Werthead]

Wasteland 2 is excellent, but the narrative is kind of all over the place. I took a long break at exactly the halfway point (just before going to Los Angeles) and that really helped. The LA locations, factions and characters are all vastly more interesting and compelling than the opening half of the game and I do recommend getting back to it, even if it's not a patch on PoE.