Straight, single class builds?

[Hebereke]

So I just started playing again, had to drop the game at lvl4 due to real life reasons.
Now I just leveled up and I'm thinking about making pure classes and just picking what may seem interesting since I don't want to follow guides, at least for this first playthrough.
It may seem kinda obvious for Valerie, Amiri, etc, but what about Jaethal? This is the first time I deal with Inquisitor class and I don't know much about it.

So I'm here wondering if the game isn't hard enough to punish me into oblivion for making simple pure classes

[ptirodaktill]

Amiri is okay as single class . Regongar, E-kun and Jubilost are better as single class. Obviously all casters and pseudo casters are better as single class unless you need Arcane trickster prestige. Jaethal is close to worst companion in the game.

[Hebereke]

Originally posted by ptirodaktill:

Amiri is okay as single class . Regongar, E-kun and Jubilost are better as single class. Obviously all casters and pseudo casters are better as single class unless you need Arcane trickster prestige. Jaethal is close to worst companion in the game.

wow
out of curiosity, who is considered to be the worst one?

[Zzyl_tsw]

i played the whole game (normal difficulty) with single class builds for everyone, "except" for Octavia where i switched to arcane trickster when she could, and back to wizard when it was maxed. But arcane trickster is a "not really" a multiclass, it is more a specialization (and Octavia is clearly designed for it)

I almost did not play with Jaethal.
My main was a "basic" magus and clearly not optimized

[Frostfeather]

There's nothing wrong with Jaethal, really. She pays the price of being a base Inquisitor, which is the worst Inquisitor option, but offsets that by being literally immortal with special immunities. Many people simply either don't know how to make her useful or refuse to put the effort into it. This is made worse by the perception of a "meta" of hyper-specialized builds only. Hybrid characters can work very well, but they're not as easy to use as they require a little more thought put into their actions in combat to suit the situation, and are naturally a bit Feat-starved.

Personally, I find Inquisitors to be useful in "trash" fights with their normal attacks and in more difficult fights by sprinkling in some spells. Litany of Eloquence is particularly good as it has no save. Blade Barrier wrecks almost anything as it does damage twice when you cast it. And you just take whatever other spells your group needs to take pressure off your other casters. They also help replace a Cleric, which is great since the companion Clerics are extremely meh in Kingmaker.

So you'll be fine with single class characters. Valerie will probably suffer the most without any multiclassing, but of course you can simply not use her. And a Sorcerer main character would definitely round out the companion list rather well.

[ptirodaktill]

I think inquisitor require way too much micro for what it does. They can`t replace a cleric cause they gain crucial spells too slow, lack of holy aura/holy sword late game is annoing and clerics are just better as supports, picking skill focuses and spamming domain powers.
For inquisitor you probably want luck domain for self-buffing and Fauchard or Scimitar to get the most out of it. Sacred huntsmaster is probably the best out of 4 vanila classes due to free pet . Sanctified slayer is quite good too if you don`t mind casting 5 short duration spells and micro your bane weapon super ability.

[Frostfeather]

I've played the game through *many* times without a Cleric and never once wished I had one when I did.

An Inquisitor is usually more than enough divine casting, though it will depend on your strategy and how well you're avoiding damage. Most groups will have a Bard/Alchemist/Paladin/Druid/Water Kineticist/etc that can help fill in the gaps on top of consumables anyway. There's no need to put all the divine spell & healing pressure onto one character... that's just that flawed "hyper-specialized meta" logic again putting imaginary and unnecessary restrictions on your characters and groups.

[Chan]

You can do all pure classes and beat the game easily.

[Chan]

Originally posted by Hebereke:

Originally posted by ptirodaktill:

Amiri is okay as single class . Regongar, E-kun and Jubilost are better as single class. Obviously all casters and pseudo casters are better as single class unless you need Arcane trickster prestige. Jaethal is close to worst companion in the game.

wow
out of curiosity, who is considered to be the worst one?

Harrim imo.

[Frostfeather]

Originally posted by Chan:

Originally posted by Hebereke:

wow
out of curiosity, who is considered to be the worst one?

Harrim imo.

If we're talking single class, I'd vote Valerie, but otherwise I'd vote Harrim too (but not by a large margin).

He's too slow for melee which basically invalidates his entire starting focus. Not a useless character by any means, but everyone else has more potential, earlier.

[Chan]

Originally posted by night4:

Originally posted by Chan:

Harrim imo.

If we're talking single class, I'd vote Valerie, but otherwise I'd vote Harrim too (but not by a large margin).

He's too slow for melee which basically invalidates his entire starting focus. Not a useless character by any means, but everyone else has more potential, earlier.

Honestly after the first playthrough I quit halfway through I stopped using the companions. I don't really like any of them and can make much stronger parties with mercs. The companions aren't horrible, but they mostly annoy me besides Jubi, linzi and Nok Nok.

[Frostfeather]

Originally posted by Chan:

Honestly after the first playthrough I quit halfway through I stopped using the companions. I don't really like any of them and can make much stronger parties with mercs. The companions aren't horrible, but they mostly annoy me besides Jubi, linzi and Nok Nok.

Yeah I truly believe the companions are one of the worst things about the game, especially for newer players. The starting lineup is terrible and doesn't give the player many options in how to play. The result tends to be new players running into melee in every fight even if that means the risk of death is dangerously high. There needs to be a bomber, a Negative Energy Channeler, a ranged martial, or a Sorcerer or... something in there.

And the entire lineup has too many holes, with too few interesting archetypes. Why on earth make a game with dozens of fantastic archetypes then make companions that are mostly bland as cardboard?

[grognardgary]

Originally posted by night4:

Originally posted by Chan:

Honestly after the first playthrough I quit halfway through I stopped using the companions. I don't really like any of them and can make much stronger parties with mercs. The companions aren't horrible, but they mostly annoy me besides Jubi, linzi and Nok Nok.

Yeah I truly believe the companions are one of the worst things about the game, especially for newer players. The starting lineup is terrible and doesn't give the player many options in how to play. The result tends to be new players mindlessly running into melee in every fight even if that means the risk of death is dangerously high. There needs to be a bomber, a Negative Energy Channeler, a ranged martial, or a Sorcerer or... something in there.

And the entire lineup has too many holes, with too few interesting archetypes. Why on earth make a game with dozens of fantastic archetypes then make companions that are mostly bland as cardboard?

Now that one of those things I've never understood. Why do so many people thing you have to get into melee asap It only matters if the other side has powerful ranged units and at least in chapter one your party should be as good at ranges as the other guys and probably better. Hell everyone except The dwarf has a decent enough dex to hit most of the stuff you are going to meet in chapter 1 an archer main is op in chapter one given the proper feats.

[ptirodaktill]

Eldrich archer is kinda okay in act 1, rest suck cause you can`t hit anything till lvl 4 at least on unfair. But once you get devourer of metal, oh , boy, that when archers shine . =)
Harrim suck cause he whine so much on top beign a faulty cleric and a 20 base speed dwarf on top of it. You can multiclass him intro druid just for the pet, but it don`t make him any better at combat.

[Orion Pax]

Originally posted by night4:

Originally posted by Chan:

Honestly after the first playthrough I quit halfway through I stopped using the companions. I don't really like any of them and can make much stronger parties with mercs. The companions aren't horrible, but they mostly annoy me besides Jubi, linzi and Nok Nok.

Yeah I truly believe the companions are one of the worst things about the game, especially for newer players. The starting lineup is terrible and doesn't give the player many options in how to play. The result tends to be new players running into melee in every fight even if that means the risk of death is dangerously high. There needs to be a bomber, a Negative Energy Channeler, a ranged martial, or a Sorcerer or... something in there.

And the entire lineup has too many holes, with too few interesting archetypes. Why on earth make a game with dozens of fantastic archetypes then make companions that are mostly bland as cardboard?

This right here. The main strength of this game is all the possibilities in character creation. And the early game offerings shortchange this horribly. You are limited in quality and quantity, severely. I think it’s a big cause of new players’ frustrations.

I always go full respec + mercs now (mod) on Unfair, just to take full advantage of the character crafting. I keep much of the themes: Linzi Bard, Valerie tank, etc.

To the OP, many companions can work as single class, but you could still use respec (either the mod or with normal method with Anoriel) to shake out better stats and feats.

Companions I think most easily single class are:
Linzi, Jubilost, Ekundayo, both Clerics.

The melees can too, but to me those benefit from multiclassing more.

For main character single classes, I’d say spell casters, Kineticists, and Maguses probably.

[grognardgary]

Originally posted by ptirodaktill:

Eldrich archer is kinda okay in act 1, rest suck cause you can`t hit anything till lvl 4 at least on unfair. But once you get devourer of metal, oh , boy, that when archers shine . =)
Harrim suck cause he whine so much on top beign a faulty cleric and a 20 base speed dwarf on top of it. You can multiclass him intro druid just for the pet, but it don`t make him any better at combat.

That why linzi sings and Harrim casts bless for the really tough early fights. And it might be worth eldritch archer cross over later but my archer all start fighter having 2 attacks at first level is just too good. And then at second level taking weapon focus longbow And having that +1 from master work longbow You're like +9 to hit at 2nd level. And not a whole lot in chapter in is much more than ac 16. +10 once you get that dex belt off one of the bodies in the northeast. That gives you a 50/50 shot against ac20.