I wish Shadowheart wasn't so ingrained in the act 2 deciding factors

[Reaptor]

Just a couple things I have a problem with in act 2.
>Shadowheart is far too baked into the main story. She is one of the main deciding factors for the outcome of the rest of the game.
>A 30 skill check. I mean, damn, a 30 and people get upset over save scumming.
Sorry, Im going to save scum that check. Im not letting a single bad roll decide the entire fate of my game. At least give us other options that don't involve someone leaving or dying.

[seeker1]

I think her Trickery domain is bollocks, personally.

Light or Tempest are much better domains for her. And BTW if you lead her along a certain route after Act 2 are a natural progression for her (though you could argue Selune's domains might better be Moon or Twilight; neither are in vanilla game).

That said, I respec her into one of those two domains as soon as I get her, RP/lore be damned. (at least I don't respec her into another class).

Life is the best domain for a pure healer, but I never use her as a pure healer. She's useful otherwise if she takes Light or Tempest.

[Quillithe]

Originally posted by RhodosGuard:

Originally posted by Quillithe:

Eh, buffing isn't as strong due to concentration and healing really isn't vital at all.

A cleric is useful, but the system is flexible enough (and she's bad enough at direct combat early on) that I don't think she's really the obviously best choice

Concentration isnt that limiting a factor.
Unless you carry around Lenores Staff, she's the only one with Bless until you get your statue in Act 3. Unless you optimize Potion use, it is handy to have a Healing Word on Hand, especially if you dont min-max and do occassionally suffer a character being downed, especially since throwing potions/improvised melee attack is an action.

I dunno. I'm just saying for people playing their first run, it seems quite the lucky coincidence that the only cleric is also the one featuring heavily in the Act 2 Storyline.

Oh yeah in that sense I'm assuming Larian knew the rules - people take clerics pretty often, people don't play clerics, and people tend to take early companions - so you get the two most plot-relevant ones who are a fighter and a cleric for a solid party backbone. Though Lae'zel is more likely to get dropped (in more ways than one lol)

[RhodosGuard]

Originally posted by seeker1:

I think her Trickery domain is bollocks, personally.

Light or Tempest are much better domains for her. And BTW if you lead her along a certain route after Act 2 are a natural progression for her (though you could argue Selune's domains might better be Moon or Twilight; neither are in vanilla game).

That said, I respec her into one of those two domains as soon as I get her, RP/lore be damned. (at least I don't respec her into another class).

Life is the best domain for a pure healer, but I never use her as a pure healer. She's useful otherwise if she takes Light or Tempest.

I dont like respeccing companions, I at most change some ability scores and multiclass later on, because it frees up option on my own character (wyll is a good replacement for astarion if you just move his Intelligence into Dex and multiclass into rogue or ranger)

I think in one of my first runs (which I never finished because Act 3 demotivates me a lot with not knowing which tasks are time sensitive and how much just getting cought doing certain things can rain down doom) I respecced her to war after Act 2.

Or you could multiclass her into Rogue with Weapon Master and give her the Shar Armor have her be the Astarion replacement.

At the end of Act 2, it would have been cool to be given a nudge towards being able to respecc her naturally away from trickery, the transition to Act 3 comes to mind, when the visual change happens, or at the very least after House of Grief, next Long rest she says something like "I feel like I want to change for the better" or something and you can switch her to Light or War.

Of course Tempest is best, because it's broken if you multiclass, but I dont like that kind of min-maxing either, but it surely is an option.

[RhodosGuard]

Originally posted by Quillithe:

Originally posted by RhodosGuard:

Concentration isnt that limiting a factor.
Unless you carry around Lenores Staff, she's the only one with Bless until you get your statue in Act 3. Unless you optimize Potion use, it is handy to have a Healing Word on Hand, especially if you dont min-max and do occassionally suffer a character being downed, especially since throwing potions/improvised melee attack is an action.

I dunno. I'm just saying for people playing their first run, it seems quite the lucky coincidence that the only cleric is also the one featuring heavily in the Act 2 Storyline.

Oh yeah in that sense I'm assuming Larian knew the rules - people take clerics pretty often, people don't play clerics, and people tend to take early companions - so you get the two most plot-relevant ones who are a fighter and a cleric for a solid party backbone. Though Lae'zel is more likely to get dropped (in more ways than one lol)

I used to kill Lae'zel early, then realized that it's way more optimistic and makes for a better story if you, metaphorically, let her walk into the sword and change her to become a freedom fighter for the Gith.

[seeker1]

Originally posted by RhodosGuard:

I dont like respeccing companions

Personally I don't touch their class. That just feels wrong to me. For one thing, their dialogue starts to sound bizarre and out of touch with the class you've given them.

It's weird, I am not a complete min/maxer or powergamer, I like to change things around and test them, but I won't do things that feel completely wrong to the nature of companions. Fortunately, you have hirelings to be your lab rats.

Respeccing them into other subclasses? Yeah, I do that often. That said, I think often the defaults are best. I keep Gale an Evocation wizard, or I did until I discovered Graviturgy.

[Panda-Bishop]

Originally posted by seeker1:

I think her Trickery domain is bollocks, personally.

Light or Tempest are much better domains for her. And BTW if you lead her along a certain route after Act 2 are a natural progression for her (though you could argue Selune's domains might better be Moon or Twilight; neither are in vanilla game).

That said, I respec her into one of those two domains as soon as I get her, RP/lore be damned. (at least I don't respec her into another class).

Life is the best domain for a pure healer, but I never use her as a pure healer. She's useful otherwise if she takes Light or Tempest.

To be fair, in 5e Selune's domains are Life, Knowledge, and Twilight, so you can respec Shadowheart to a lore accurate domain if she makes the switch at the end of Act 2.

Funny thing about respeccing her is she always has "Shar" under her class name. Would've expected that to change along with her hair color.

[RhodosGuard]

Originally posted by seeker1:

Originally posted by RhodosGuard:

I dont like respeccing companions

Personally I don't touch their class. That just feels wrong to me. For one thing, their dialogue starts to sound bizarre and out of touch with the class you've given them.

It's weird, I am not a complete min/maxer or powergamer, I like to change things around and test them, but I won't do things that feel completely wrong to the nature of companions. Fortunately, you have hirelings to be your lab rats.

Respeccing them into other subclasses? Yeah, I do that often. That said, I think often the defaults are best. I keep Gale an Evocation wizard, or I did until I discovered Graviturgy.

Well apart from SH, Minthara and Wyll no Companion is locked to subclass, because you chose them as you level up. They are predetermined for some subclasses (Laezel not having Int for EK, Astarion having 13 Int to maybe set up Arcane Trickster) Wyll is just heavily set up to play Pact of Blade ("The Tome of Frontiers" just doesnt ring right)

I think when it comes to subclasses the ones I'd attribute to them are

Astarion (Thief) he doesnt seem like he'd use magic or be a trained assassin, if it was in the game maybe Mastermind?

Gale (Divination, Evocation) everything else feels out of line with him.

SH (Trickery pre Act 2, Light/War after Act 2)

Wyll (Fiend (because Mizora wont change)) if it existed he'd probably be a Hexblade but that's hard to do if you wanna stay in-lore

Lae'Zel (Battlemaster) because all Gith are Battlemaster or some Unique Gith WIzard Subclass

Karlach (Berserker) even though I mostly play her as Eagle Barbarian for the free Wrath you get from Bonus Action Dash and the funny interaction with Hamarhaft

Which should conclude the Origins.
Minthara should stay Vengeance, Halsin gives Circle of Land Energy, Jaheira gives Lunar Energy
Minsc gives Barbarian Energy, but since he is a ranger, he seems more like a Hunter, maybe BEastmaster, but he already has boo and we dont want to make Boo jealous by having another pet.

[Quillithe]

Originally posted by seeker1:

Originally posted by RhodosGuard:

I dont like respeccing companions

Personally I don't touch their class. That just feels wrong to me. For one thing, their dialogue starts to sound bizarre and out of touch with the class you've given them.

It's weird, I am not a complete min/maxer or powergamer, I like to change things around and test them, but I won't do things that feel completely wrong to the nature of companions. Fortunately, you have hirelings to be your lab rats.

Respeccing them into other subclasses? Yeah, I do that often. That said, I think often the defaults are best. I keep Gale an Evocation wizard, or I did until I discovered Graviturgy.

First time I wouldn't touch it, but it adds spice to later playthroughs and lets me try out some of the classes companions don't have a little faster.

[seeker1]

Yeah, I quickly discovered that the three classes that cannot possibly exist among your companions without respec (or multi'ing into them) are sorceror, bard, and monk. Your Tav can be one of those three, but then you're still missing the other two.

Guess what my first three hirelings were. Jacelyn the sorceror, Brianna the bard, and Sina'Zith the monk. My first Tav was a ranger because I wasn't sure how late I'd get Minsc, and yes, you do get him comparatively late. I quickly tested out Kerz the paladin later on, because I gradually became aware how hard Minthara was to get initially, and maybe even still now.

BTW, I too get berserker vibes from Minsc ... he comes as a Hunter, but Boo needs companionship so I make him a Beast Master, and often dip into some berserker.

Because Wyll has Mizora as his Patron he's sort of obviously a Fiend Warlock, but ... yes, Hexblade seems like such a natural fit for the Blade of Frontiers. By the way, the epilogue seems to suggest he makes his own "class change" if he breaks Mizora's Pact and loses his warlock powers, and becomes a ranger as the Blade of Avernus.

I often keep Jaheira a pure Circle of Land druid, or did until I discovered Circle of Stars and Stormchasers ... I tend to keep Halsin a Moon druid, but have him dip into Wildheart barbarian, where - natch - he gets some Aspect of the Bear. Basically, since I have two druids, I choose to make one the better spellcaster, and the other the better, hard hitting shapeshifter. I'm usually taking one or the other depending on the situation.