Grieving Mother: How to level her?

[Neon Lotus]

Hi, could someone give me tips on how to level/equip the grieving mother (I forgot her name).

I left her with her default armour and crossbow, but gave her dual daggers.

She kinda seems like a rogue with more magic.

Any advice?

Thanks

[Cutlass Jack]

Grieving Mother is her name. Well as much of a name as she gets. ;)

Popular gear choice for her, and other cyphers, is the Blunderbuss. The multiple shots is extremely good for focus generation. You can get Lead Splitter from a quest on the very map you recruit her on. Great blunderbuss choice if you dont have another gunner.

Personally I like using her for crowd control abilities. Especially ones that add states that allow rogue sneak attack bonuses. Phantom Foes in particular is really great for this. I usually take apprentice sneak attack for her (and a few other non-rogues) to take the most advantage of it.

[Neon Lotus]

If I give her a blunderbus, what armour is recommend?

[Armanz]

Naked is the way to go, otherwise something with not more than 15%

[Neon Lotus]

Naked? Really? That seems counter intuitive...

[Armanz]

Most of the times your cipher will be unharmed so giving her the lightest armor possible or even just regular clothing is a really good way to go for ranged ciphers.
Ofc you should equip her with armor for particular fights where she can't possibly stay out of harms way but adaptation is a regular factor in this game anyways.

[Crom]

Originally posted by Glass Wizzard:

Any advice?

Mother is nice character.

The problem is, it is very depending on micromanaging.

Lets skip now micromanaging, which is sign of failed design of game mechanic, and lets look at Mother.

Well, she is some kind of charging character. She charges self, and the more charges she got, the more powerfull ability she can execute.

Anyway, she is total crazy killer with dual daggers or rappiers.

Or you can build her as fronline fighter character.

But you must choose, how you wish to play her. Both is not posible.

Ranged is not good, but you dont need micromanage her, if shes ranged. But ranged version is weak.

For blunderbuss, is great to start fight with 1 shot from blunderbuss, and then switch to dual daggers. Its crazy combination.

Or make her frontline haevy fighter, she got few really good self buff up spells, its up to you :))

[Cutlass Jack]

Originally posted by Glass Wizzard:

If I give her a blunderbus, what armour is recommend?

My usual standby for her is one of the bloody robes you get from the cult you run into while doing quests in the area you pick her up at. Its suitably creepy and fitting for her.

But with the Deadfire DLC I'd reccomend one of the pirate outfits from the new vendor instead. She looks great in it, and its got crazy deflection while still essentially being padded armor.

[Neon Lotus]

Nice, thanks for that advice guys. Can I get your opinions on this:

"So the logic is simple - with duals and guns, you really want to stick to your plate armor. With everything else, it's as little armor as possible and, also, as much attack speed as possible. It even works in a somewhat exponential manner and the more attack speed you have, the more DPS you gain out of each next increase. So, while for duals the 100% attack speed bonus means double the damage output, for one-handers, bows and two-handers it actually triples it. "

It's from one of the guides I just want to see if you guys agree with all of that.

Edit; While I'm here, I might as well ask for some similar advice about Palegina, I may be remembering her name wrong, she's the black god head playable character.

I gave her heavy armour and a two handed sword. Was that a good idea for her?

[Crom]

No, two handed sword... no.. unless you want her to stand in front and protect your spellcasters.

[Armanz]

Regarding Pallegina, yeah that's a good idea.
And what the guide says seems pretty logical to me.

The new Deadfire DLCs outfits kind of break the game a bit though, I would advise against buying them on your first run except if you are having a tough time.
The merchant sells a couple of interesting and strong new items, among them 3 imho very op armor pieces perfectly suited for squishy/ranged characters. They're op because they give you huge boosts to Deflection and additionally to that either Fortitude, Reflex or Will boosts that are just as huge while only giving a 15% penalty. You do miss out on Damage Reduction, but still a huge boost.

[Neon Lotus]

Don't those armours sound like they shouldn't really be used? They sound game breaking (and I never even saw that merchant, although I bought the DLC's after I started the game. How are those armour for playing on PotD difficulty? Are they always OP?

I have noticed Pallegina takes a lot of damage on the front lines, and that quote from the guide says to use as little armour as possible for speed in most cases. I don't get it. I think I may experiment with my chars. My main character is a pure tank paladin, sword and shield and heavy armour. I'm gonna give him lighter armour and pay close attention, maybe Eder too. I might learn something

[Cutlass Jack]

The best thing from that merchant for Pallegina isn't the armors. Its the Belt of the Royal Deadfire Cannoneer. She gets access to a unique paladin talent called 'Wrath of the Five Suns' that modifies the sworn enemy power to shoot five balls of fire at the target too. This does great damage and usually instantly blows up any caster I use it on.

Take that ability and Scion of Flame. Then she can use the belt to summon up Firebrand, which is a greatsword that does all Fire damage. There's the Forgemaster gloves you can get in Defiance Bay that gives the same power to double the times you can use it per rest.

Just learned about this setup on my last playthrough. Didn't know about Wrath of the Five suns because it only appears as an option if you take Sworn Enemy, on her. Combined with Scion and the other stuff listed, her damage went through the roof for me. And burned the rest of the house down as well. Went from a 'meh' companion to me to one of the best.

Armorwise I just kept her in the suit she comes in, just upgrading it whenever its eligible, and she's fine. I like using her zealous aura that provides DR to help the rest of the front line out defensively. My main was a light armored Dual wield DPS so that helped them both out.

[D'amarr from Darshiva]

Originally posted by Cutlass Jack:

She gets access to a unique paladin talent called 'Wrath of the Five Suns' that modifies the sworn enemy power to shoot five balls of fire at the target too.

It's two unique talents for her subclass. In case you've ever wondered about what talents she gains for her Paladin order:

https://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Frerm%C3%A0s_mes_Canc_Suolias
https://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Wrath_of_Five_Suns
https://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Vielo_Vid%C3%B2rio

[Hasefrexx]

Originally posted by Cutlass Jack:

The best thing from that merchant for Pallegina isn't the armors. Its the Belt of the Royal Deadfire Cannoneer. She gets access to a unique paladin talent called 'Wrath of the Five Suns' that modifies the sworn enemy power to shoot five balls of fire at the target too. This does great damage and usually instantly blows up any caster I use it on.

Take that ability and Scion of Flame. Then she can use the belt to summon up Firebrand, which is a greatsword that does all Fire damage. There's the Forgemaster gloves you can get in Defiance Bay that gives the same power to double the times you can use it per rest.

Just learned about this setup on my last playthrough. Didn't know about Wrath of the Five suns because it only appears as an option if you take Sworn Enemy, on her. Combined with Scion and the other stuff listed, her damage went through the roof for me. And burned the rest of the house down as well. Went from a 'meh' companion to me to one of the best.

Armorwise I just kept her in the suit she comes in, just upgrading it whenever its eligible, and she's fine. I like using her zealous aura that provides DR to help the rest of the front line out defensively. My main was a light armored Dual wield DPS so that helped them both out.

You don't need the belt to do that. I got the talent when leveling her up and indeed picked extra fire damage talent as that looked like the way to go. Almost any ennemy is instantly killed, completely overpowered. I also went with 2 handed because it couples nicely with sworn ennemy and wrath of the five suns, I use her to quickly get rid of most troublesome ennemies while Eder is used as mob magnet.

[Cutlass Jack]

The belt is for more Firebrand usage and even more fire abilities to take full advantage of Scion. Between the belt and the gloves she can use Firebrand almost every fight if you wanted.