First playthrough: help for building my team (which companions ?)

[SenSx]

Hi,


I am going to play the game for the very first time !

But I would like some advice on the companions I am going to choose.
I like to plan stuff like that, because I hate to screw up my teams in RPG.
I know I spoiled myself with the playable characters, but I did not read anything about the story, or the characters' personnalities.
I know it will probably feels strange for you, but doing those researches and think of it before playing the game, is really something I like to do for my RPG.
But I am asking you the questions and advices, because I really don't want to go deep into the fighting mechanics before playing the game, I want to discover the gameplay myself.



So my favorite classes in RPG are thieves, rangers and monks.
So my main character might be one of these classes, and I absolutely want the 2 others in my team as well.


- Devil of caroc (rogue).
I love the fact that she is a construct, but she still seems to be a "she" and I would have prefered to have a male for the thief class.
Besides I red she plays more like a "heavy" rogue with plate armors, and else, and I really don't like the idea.
I was the typical light weigh assassin with double daggers.
It seems you can't give armors to the Devil of Caroc which really seems to suck ><

- Sagani (ranger).
Here again, I would have prefered to have a male for that class.
My main problem with her is that she seems to be stuck with the artic fox as a pet, and probably won't be able to choose an other one ><

- Zahua (monk).
He looks great, so I'll probably stick with him.


Given those informations, I'll probably make my main character a rogue, since Devil of Caroc seems to have more flaws than Sagani.
It is a shame, because I really love the strange non human characters in RPG.

This is what my team should look like:

- Main character: rogue

- Sagani : ranger

- Zahua : Monk

- Aloth : wizard (I need a mage and I love elves)

- Hiravias : Druid (seems to be a badass beastman)

I don't know what to chose for my last character.

I'll probably need a strong fighter for the front line, maybe a tank.
And I would have liked a female for that role.
So I hesitate between Pellegina (paladin) and Maneha (barbarian).
But maybe Devil of Caroc can be a good fighter since she is a heavy rogue ? Would it be going to far to say she could make a descent tank ?
Which one do you think would fit and help my team the most ?

Do you think my team will be good enough for the game ?
I like challenge in RPG, so I might choose a high enough difficulty.

My criterias for choosing my compagnions are: less human like possible (I like creatures and freaks), male or female for specific classes, and of course efficiency.
Characters stories and personnalities might make me change my choices, but I want to discover that in the game :)

I know It will take time to find them all, and I'll probably have to recrute other companions in the meantime, but it does not matter.


Thx for any help, and no story spoiler please.

[D'amarr from Darshiva]

My advise here, don't read too much before playing the game. It fills your head with plans that won't make the playthrough more enjoyable for you. Since early last year, there are some really strange guides out there, who cover the original game that has been changed since then.

Instead, spend more time during character generation. Read all the information that is displayed there for attributes, skills and talents and also check out the popup details.

You cannot lose any companion unless you kill them or get them killed on higher difficult settings. Dropped companions will be available to you at every inn and at your stronghold. They can even gain experience points if not in your party, doing their own small adventures.

If you want to avoid humans, avoid Eder, who is one of the very first NPCs you will meet. He's nice, though, and his banter is worthwhile. Instead, simply hire an adventurer in the first inn as soon as possible and make him a capable and dangerous frontliner. With four slots left in the party, there is enough room for NPC companions, which you can switch out and back in as you like to advance with their personal quests. But to survive at higher difficulty levels, a good frontliner will be a plus.

[Grim]

You don't meet rogue and monk until far into the game. If you want those classes, create them at the inn asap and drop your customs when you get devil and zahua.

[sonntam]

You can always switch out companions. So it's probably best to recruit them all up front and then just play around with party combinations.

You would get Pallegina only once you reach the capital (just go straight to Valian Embassy in Ondra's Gift), but Eder is available right away in the very first quest hub. So probably run with him for a while, later on you can switch him out for Pallegina.

Later (at level six at minimum) you can go to White March and collect Maneha. I'm not sure how good she would be at tanking, so you can try to spec her for tanking and if she does not work out, you will still have Pallegina as a back-up plan.

[SenSx]

ok thx.

Don't worry, I'm not going to play any team optimization guide, I just want to make sure I'm not screwing my main character.
And I prefer to play with premade characters, even if they are unoptimized.
I want their stories, dialogues and banters, even if they are humans.

In fact can you only play with premade characters ?
Or are you forced to create some yourselves to be sure to have 6 companions immediatly ?
Or there are only 2 or 3 companions out there at the start can I still play with 3 or 4 characters without any difficulties ?

I would have liked to know your thoughts on Devil of Caroc as a rogue.

[D'amarr from Darshiva]

You meet four companions in the areas you can visit early. You cannot reach more maps without advancing the main quest, but once you can, you can reach three other companions on the next maps. Another one a bit later. Three in the White March.

[SenSx]

Originally posted by D'amarr from Darshiva:

You meet four companions in the areas you can visit early. You cannot reach more maps without advancing the main quest, but once you can, you can reach three other companions on the next maps. Another one a bit later. Three in the White March.

Ok thx, great :)

[Sloul Des Tucs]

Youll also be able to respec your characters if you think you srewed something.
Although it is costly.
On a lvl 16 character (max. level) the price is 3725 or 3275, something like that.
It is not something that you want to spam, but if you think you made a mistake and ends up frustrated, this is a good solution.

[D'amarr from Darshiva]

Oh, and http://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Devil_of_Caroc to draw your own conclusions. Surely one can give a Rogue very different attributes, but there are many items and enchantments to compensate less than ideal attributes. And Pillars of Eternity can be finished with lots of different parties anyway. Even at hardest difficulty one doesn't need to use consumables often.

[scottk]

Don't stress over it or overthink it. The game presents you with companions in a good sequence. There's a nice guide here that can get you to a party of 5 very fast. You can sit with that number until you run into the others. If you want to experience more content you'll be switching out companions to get their stories and sometimes side quests.

I've tried both making my own companions and using the premade ones and found the premades more fun. Their banter between them is great. They can be rude, insensitive, and naive.

[SenSx]

Ok thx all.

Don't worry I'm not doing this because of stress, i'm doing not to screw up, but also for pleasure, preparing a bit my platrough is also my thing.

- Can the companions die ?
- When you meet companions, will they scale to your level ? or do you have to find them as soon as possible to max the xp they can have ?
- If you swich companions, will the ones not in your party gain xp too ?


Thx

[McCloud]

They can die. But if you're not playing Ironman you can just reload.

They'll scale to 'alomst' your experience.

The Story Companions will level but slower then in group BUT you can send them on Side Quests while they're not in your group. It makes up for the slower progression.

[SenSx]

You can send them on side quests ?
This is pretty weird...will they finish quests you could ahve done yourself ?

If they scale to "almost"your level, then it emans it is better to get them as soon as possible I guess.

[McCloud]

Only those you leave at your keep can do these special side quests.

No, they scale so close to the amount of your EXP it doesn't matter. Trust me, don't worry about it. <-- only Story Companions though.

[Gregorovitch]

Originally posted by SenSx:

Hi,



- Main character: rogue

- Sagani : ranger

- Zahua : Monk

- Aloth : wizard (I need a mage and I love elves)

- Hiravias : Druid (seems to be a badass beastman)

Few things spring to mind particularly if you embark on a PotD run first time out:

You most definitely want t priest, the buffs, debuffs and pareticularly the protection spells are indispensible, in my view anyway, not just the heals. Aslo the story NPC priest, Durance may not be the most likable companion but he is very central to the story, shaeds a great deal of light on events lateer game and is extremely well written probably the best written charatcer in the game. Recommeded automatic pick IMO.

Specialist front line melee (fighter, palladin, monk, barbarian) is much more important in PoE than most other RPGs. The monster AI is programmed to go for your squishies if at all possible and without at least two (and on PotD preferrably three) you can't really stop them. Now with 3.0 the engagement-breaking rules have been beefed up for figthters so that they will knock prone any enemy breaking engagement with them but even so. You can recruit a good tamk very early game and are advised to do so, but you won't find another for some time. This is why I often advise first time players to consider one of those four classes to play as PC, it makes for a more balanced, playable party out of the box.

Rogue is great fun to play, insane DPS, vulnerable to flanking, keep you on your toes etc. If you play one as PC then you will want to recruit a temporary front line melee custom adventurer asap to tide you over until you get Pallegina early- mid-game, esepcially on PotD. A rogue will get destroyed on the front line, they are hit-and-run strike DPS or ranged.

Playing a monk PC would be fine, You can recruit a good story NPC tank fighter very early to partner him/her on the front line.

Don't underestimate or worry about Sagani's fox, Itumaak, It has a *very* nasty bite when given the Vicious Companion and particualry the Merciless Companion abilities. It is a strike DPS anmimal though, it can't tank, but then none of the ranger companion options, even the bears etc, can tank when it comes down to it.

When you recruit Aloth make sure you take the L1 Slicken spell immediately. All the other spells you will find easily in looted grimoires, but that one is hard to find and extremely useful.

My recommendation for the core of your party is:

Figher ------------- A.N Other melee specialist

Wizard ------------- Priest

Everyone else has to compete for the two remaining places and there are a lot of options.

FYI the PotD party I setteld on as the best balanced and survivable in the end was:

Barbarian PC
Fighter
Palladin
Ranger
Wizard
Priest

All the last five are story NPC characters.

[SenSx]

Thx a lot for your advices Gregorovitch, but I still want to play with the specific party members I talked about.
So if my team is not good enough for PotD, I will restart in hard mode instead.

But I've been thinking a bit, and I might not use Sagani at all.

So my team will be like this:



- Main character: rogue

- Zahua : Monk

- Aloth : wizard (I need a mage and I love elves)

- Hiravias : Druid (seems to be a badass beastman)


+2 characters I reallly don't know which to pick.

Probably a front row character, so either Pellegina (paladin) or Maneha (Barbarian), or maybe both.

And an other one if I only take pellegina or Maneha but not both, like Durance the priest.
But only if the character is to my likening.
Or maybe Devil of Caroc ? Can she be a front row fighter even though she is a rogue ?
Because I red she was considered as a "heavy" rogue.