I'm doing a bit of a fan "lore" heavy build and wanted to know anyones input on which is the more fun and interesting class between the two. Im starting pillars 2 but throughout all of pillars of eternity 1 I ran a wizard who mostly was melee based with magic shields and summoned weapons. I had a ton of fun with that but i also liked the playstyle of grieving mother so I was curious about the Cipher class.

Lorewise, I want my Watcher to lose most of his magical archmage level power in the beginning dying to Eothas so he has to adapt by using magic differently, to a lesser degree. So he turns to Illusion and deception.

Between these two classes does anyone have an opinion on which they prefer? Or any other class or build that might match that style?

I'm trying to plan out the spells / abilities in my party so that I can handle the toughest encounters on PotD. I think I more or less understand the stacking rules but I'm not 100% on everything. Right side of the skill tree and item effects always stack (I think?) so that part is easy enough, but for active effects I'm not entirely clear on what counts as the same type of buff/debuff.

Stacking accuracy boosts (actives): There's only +accuracy and +perception, right? I don't think perception inspirations stack with abilities that directly boost perception. I guess miss>graze, graze>hit, and hit>crit conversions kind of fill the same role.

Stacking defenses (actives): Bonuses to one specific defense, bonuses to all defenses, and bonuses via increasing attributes all stack. Are there any other active ways to increase deflection, will, reflex, or fortitude?

Armor rating: I don't think any +armor effects stack? Global +armor, +armor vs a specific damage type, and robust inspiration will just use the highest value, right? Any other source of active bonus armor that would stack?

And then debuffs I think use the same rules as buff stacking. So enemy accuracy can be directly debuffed via -accuracy, -perception, and crit>hit, hit>graze, and graze>miss conversion. Defense debuffs can stack a debuff to a specific defense with a debuff to all defenses (does that exist?) and with stat reductions.

Just want to make sure I'm not totally forgetting about a category I can lean on for these buffs/debuffs since stacking to overcome enemy defenses seems like a big part of handling PotD bosses. Thanks!

^{alt title: two mushy Aedyre Sceltrfolc nerds who finally kissed after five years}

(also a sequel to this illustration)

Dolls added (updated 20-Oct-2026)

• Abydoll (Abydonian Golem)
• Bombshell (Magranite Automata)
• Breadceras (Eothasian Pastry Doll)
• Cornhead (Skaenite Corn Husk Doll)
• Dollface (Dyrwoodan Folk Doll)
• Firebird (Hylean Rag Doll)
• Gŵlen (Berathian Spectral Doll)
• Kittyhawk (Galawainite Totem)
• Miss Entropy (Entropic Demon Core)
• Moonchild (Ondran Ivory Doll)
• Pompette the Poppet (Vailian Festive Doll)
• Woedican Doll (Titters at night, not currently refundable)

And quite a few others here. Alternate download link here.

Wael's doll is missing, as is their prerogative. Look out for a cluster of googly eyes stuck to the back of a milk carton...

...and some sketches for the curious. Anyways-

Have a great week people, do enjoy yourselves. ;) 🎃🎎❤️🗡️

On the plus side, the world is gorgeous and combat is fun.

On the other side, the writing is so-so. The main quest is okay, but the surrounding political subquests are rather primitive. Turning Steel garrote into moustache twirling villains with no strategy, no allegiance to the empire and not even the foresight of subjugating cities rather than burning them was disappointing.

The whole division of oppressor vs oppressed is so cliche, so beaten to death and so unimaginative, constantly prodding the protagonist to "confront the colonizers, be the one good Aedyran". It's hard to believe that the same team wrote Deadfire which was full of nuance and shades of grey.

Companions were decently written and voiced with Kai being the absolute chad and Marius not far behind, but I think they overdid it with constant apologies and asking about people's feelings every three seconds.

The wokeness did not play well either, but I'd be willing to overlook that if the rest of the storytelling was on par (heck BG3 is woke as hell, but it's a veritable masterpiece. This one ain't no BG3).

Oh, and Lodwyn succumbing to harsh language in the final confrontation made me lol.

The game is overall good and I don't regret buying it, but it could have been a lot better.

As the title says, do you know anyone that tried to make mods for further adventures in the world of Eora, and were these mods any good?

i don't like this city no more i saved an innocent girl from a rapist.

It's probably the most chaotic encounter in the whole series because too much of everything is going on all at once. An ungodly amount of AOE spells and dexterity afflictions don't help either. I don't even know if it even makes sense to deal with adds or it's better to ignore them while pummeling the boss into oblivion. The worst part is it's the only place where the game constantly crashes and I can do nothing about it.

I barely managed to get through the encounter by using potions of Last stand and potions of Miracluous healing, but there must be a better way. How do you deal with it in your playthroughs?

Getting back into this game after letting it gather dust for 8 years really struck a chord with my gamer nostalgia. I’d forgotten just how rich the lore was and how deep the game really is, and with a different (more mature??) gaming mindset, I dove back in for yet another playthrough, but this time stepping completely out of my old comfort zone.

Back in 2015, As a tryhard, I’d become obsessed with the mechanical challenges that the PotD presents and the flexibility offered by the Cipher. In my opinion, this class is a masterpiece—both in terms of flavor, its unique mechanics, and how its distinct identity adds depth to the protagonist’s role as a Watcher. I’ve played this class so much that I optimized it for the PoE1 Ultimate Challenge and even created a playable version for D&D 5.5e.

After watching some lore videos and seeing shared passion here, the torch was lit. I’m missing one achievement—beating the game with fewer than 175 kills—and that single missing challenge was enough to get me to start yet another playthrough (though my love for the Endless Path of Od Nua quickly sidetracked me from that goal).

I replayed the game this time as always with PotD with Divine Ranger and decided to slow down the pace and savor every dialogue and book to the fullest, to forget about the optimal party composition, and to choose party composition that offered unique dialogues and chimestry. In this playthrough Ive mostly choose peace over combat and more than often, the NPCs' dialogue was truly rooted in believable convictions. The writing in this game... they nailed it! Seriously ... What a game!!

Here's the path Ive choosed - Always choosing to upscale the difficulty when proposed

Act 1 - Defiant Bay - Endless Path of Od Nua until Sefyra - White March part 1 - Dyrford - Concelhault* - Sefyra* - Alpine Dragon* - Llengrath* - White March part 2 - Act 3 - Act 4

I'm missing:

- Super Murderer

- All Upgrades in Stronghold

- From the Clouds to the Depths (this one feels easy)

- Appease All of the Gods (Again, seems doable)

- Explorer

- Disposition

- The Storied Adventurer

- Among the Moss and Peat (I just don't want to fight my homie, Llen)

As a chanter mc, frontline, mostly using damage/debuff chants, and summon invocations, is 16-10-4-10-20-18 an alright stat setup? Only playing on normal.

I just finished a back to back run of PoE1 and Deadfire and just wanted to share some appreciation. I first played these games many years ago completely blind, fumbled around not understanding what in the world was going on and accidentally stepped into the final area, killed the final boss and unceremoniously saw the ending still confused (PoE1).

I recently decided to give this series another go making sure to read the text carefully. Something i enjoyed both times of playthrough is how unique and fleshed out the world felt. I find the writing a tad bit too heavy-handed, but if I just look past that and focus on the content rather than the manner of exposition, I could much better appreciate the game world and setting. And let me also say just how pretty Deadfire is. Absolutely love the presentation, especially the water flows which makes sense given the theme.

I unfortunately have a hard time getting into the battle mechanic of the series so I really appreciated the detailed battle code/gambit you can make for all the characters in Deadfire. I was able to mostly autopilot the battles so I could focus more and better aporeciate story this time.

All in all, I'm very satisfied with how the story closed with the ending of Deadfire. It was a nice hopeful touch to what started as a rather dark and dreary beginning of the series. And I appreciated how the games respect the intelligence of the players as they explore the core themes.

I have been playing Pillars Of Eternity 2 on Mac (M2 chip).

The game works pretty well in general (Medium settings), with no lags (except maybe during 'naval' battles when doing a lot of magics spells, so with a lot of particule effects). Overall it works great.

I absolutetly love the combat system. It's really neat and on-point.

However, the loading screens are really killing my enjoyment for the game.

To load a 'normal' map, I need to wait around 15 - 25 seconds.
To load a 'small' map (i.e. a house for example), it is close to 10 - 20 seconds.

So let's say I have a quest to talk to the queen (last floor) and want to immediatly leave the town after that.

I need to:

- Reach the port and teleport to the palace (10-20 seconds).
- Go to the first floor (10-20 seconds)
- Go to the roof (10 - 20 seconds)
- Talk to the queen
- Go back first floor (10-20 seconds)
- Go outside (15-25 seconds)
- Leave the map and go back to the boat (10-20 seconds).

So average just to talk to the queen I need to wait 55-125 seconds of waiting time doing absolutely nothing.
This is just un-bereable and I think I will just drop completly the game just because of those loading screens.
It makes me not want to go to town and explore anymore ...

Am I missing something, or is that experience the same for everyone?

I'm level 9 just finished the city , and been wondering if you'll get too strong if you play dlc because from what i see the dlc doesn't take place after the game so you suppoded to play it during the game but I'm already really strong right now cuz i did all quest got lot of xp i don't want to mess with the balance.

As the title suggests. I have playing for a while with this acursed flail and I wonder if there is a way to fix this issue. I do not want to back to an older save. And before anybody asks: No recasting the spell does not fixes this.

Recently an idea popped into my head: what if I deliberately chose to play the evil route first with an RPG I've never played? I've played through most choice-heavy mainstream RPGs like Witcher 3, BG3, Dragon Age Origins, Cyberpunk etc., and Pillars of Eternity 2 is pretty much the only one I haven't played. I tried Pillars 1 but it just did not click with me, and the same goes for all the older classics like Baldur's Gate 1&2 and Planescape Torment.

The reason I'm asking is that evil playthroughs often end up being a lot more shallow than intended paths and I'm completely cool with that. But in some cases they are also just an option for the sake of having an option with no real thought behind them. I'm not necessarily looking for BG3 levels of depth and flexibility, I just want to get an idea of how much Pillars 2 supports this kind of thing before I go investing my time into it.

Thanks in advance!

legit didn't understand anything how he and i related? i thought i was reading his soul not mine... i'm confused.

So the Alpine Dragon has been too tough for me, but that seems a level thing. But I am trying to fight the Adra dragon and keep getting wiped before I even get a chance to move, let alone actually do anything. The breath weapon seems to have about a 180 degree range, not to mention the ridiculousness of wing slam (pro-tip: hitting things with wings is very bad for your wings. Though tbf it might be different if they're covered in adra crystals). All the advice I can find is dated and relies heavily on Petrify, which she is now immune to.

General or specific dragon fighting tips for modern PoE?

Hey,

I had completely forgotten that there are firearms in this game.

Which class offers the best bonuses if I want to play using firearms?

And does Backstab works with ...i don´t know for ones Argument just lets say a Blunderbuss?

I was about to start a rant that you can't put out a fire, but apparently, it's completely harmless, so I guess, I can live with that.

I like Pillars of Eternity 1 and 2 and also Outer Worlds. I haven´t got around yet to finish Awowwwed nor Outer Worlds 2.

But while i enjoyed those games i always felt like it didnt 100% sit right with me. Cause at the end of the day the Pillars Settings is basically DnD with Depression (even if got lighter with PoE2). Heck we even got the Mindflayer Bugman people.

And Outer Worlds ... is what i wake up in the morning to. I kinda think both settings would have been neat around the 2000s. But nowadays kinda fall flat.

Maybe it´s also because the writing at least for some later parts weren´t up to the same standards we always held Obsidian up to (with some design issues here and there).

Only exception here i would say was "the survival game" where people always complained about thats it´s just cut-sey and doesnt live up to the grit of a Fallout because duuuh ... the setting is more Grounded : D

Does anyone have a similar feeling in that direction? Or am i the only one "objectively wrong" here?

Anyway i still cherish our best boi Eder :c

For a long time I have wanted to play the game with custom companions for one simple reason: many companions have mediocre or outright bad stats. Zahua, Kana and Maneha stand out for having near-optimal stats, but Aloth, Grieving Mother and arguably Sagani have mediocre stats that make me want to roll my own companion for that class.

Is there much to be gained from making companions with better stats and races?

Hi,

After a long time, I’ve decided to finally play through "Pillars of Eternity I."

However, I’m not very familiar with the classes, so I could use some help choosing my main character (MC).

For the party composition, I’m thinking of including Aloth, Eder, Pallegina, and Durance. I’m not sure yet who should take the sixth spot.

In terms of playstyle, I generally enjoy playing a "brawler" type—someone who can take a hit while also dishing out solid damage. It seems to me that a Fighter, Paladin, or Barbarian would fit this role. Or am I overlooking another option?

I would really appreciate any suggestions!

Playing deadfire and just enjoying roaming around the sea in search of level appropriate content. Did fort deadlight so far. I'm not sure if I should keep roaming around in order to get stronger or just head to the nekataka City.

Playing with upscaling all.

I know from previous runs that I already completed some quest without having the quest in the log. Does the game handle these things properly or will I lose content if I keep roaming around the map?