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Greetings,

im rly no beginner to DnD games, since i played baldurs gate 1+2 (+ addons), icewind dales e.g. back in the days.

But unfortunately i have rly big problems with pathfinder. I understand that tanks have no such aggro abilitys like in modern games like dragon age or so, but its rly ridiculous how squishy my tanks /chars at all are feeling in this game.

So i will ask rly +basic+ questions:

1. As tanks cannot hold aggro properly if a fight is starting i click at my Party and click H = do not move anymore. And only let my tank = Valerie engage 1. so the monsters focus her at the start.
After that i send my MC = Sword Saint and Cleric (with shield and weapon) and Aerie =barb at the enemies or at 1 caster/ range dps. Is that wrong in this game?

2. I understand that the AC is important but not everything here. A tank like valerie could have 100 AC but if she has other bad stats like reflex /other saving throws she can be charmed /sent so sleep e.g. easily. So i try to build give her cloaks/other stuff so she get better saving throws at all.
But still at some fights she is dead within a few hits....what i am doing wrong here ?

3. The LUCK FACTOR is rly too big in this game. Some fights are going well, other fights i need to reload asap and im not doing anything else in the same fight. In older games sometimes i feel atleast a bit save vs some basic enemies, but here its still like im lvl 1 or 2. And im lvl 7 now.

4.With my sword saint. I have 2 abilites which i can press and have 4 charges at all atm.
1 is called arcane accuracy and i can use 1 charge to give me an insight bonus equal to my int to all attack rolls.
Nr 2 is called arcane weapon which gives me for 1 charge an enhancement bonus for 1min.

Now i got 2 other abilitys named perfect strike and perfect crit. hit. Each are using 1 charge permanently so im rly quick out of charges.

Which ability should i use now? If i kept the last 2 active i will have no charges after 1 fight anymore. Thats a bit confusing.

5. My cleric have a lot of spell failures. Which attribut should i focus on him so he will not fail so much?

Thanks in advance and sry @ bad english.
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Cartesii: 1. As tanks cannot hold aggro properly if a fight is starting i click at my Party and click H = do not move anymore. And only let my tank = Valerie engage 1. so the monsters focus her at the start.
After that i send my MC = Sword Saint and Cleric (with shield and weapon) and Aerie =barb at the enemies or at 1 caster/ range dps. Is that wrong in this game?
What holds aggro is good AB/Damage. If the enemy will be chunked - he won't move. And them not being able to hit. There are enough invis spells and items in the game to make do with the archers that do love targeting backline. Also, just giving someone a shield won't magically make em a tank. You have to stack quite a bit more. Moderate amounts of AC does jack all. If you are not hit on 20's only your tank is not a tank and should not be anywhere near melee. And it's preferable that you don't be always hit on 20's either.
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Cartesii: 2. I understand that the AC is important but not everything here. A tank like valerie could have 100 AC but if she has other bad stats like reflex /other saving throws she can be charmed /sent so sleep e.g. easily. So i try to build give her cloaks/other stuff so she get better saving throws at all.
But still at some fights she is dead within a few hits....what i am doing wrong here ?
AC is more or less everything here. You need 70AC/50tAC to be the ultimate tank(for unfair that is) and you need improved invis and mirror image on top of that to reduce the chance to be hit from 5% to 1.25% which is almost 4 times better as one can see. Saves don't matter as much as one might think. There are loads of protective spells that grant outright immunity to CC effects. Save or die spells are the only ones that are somewhat a problem.
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Cartesii: 3. The LUCK FACTOR is rly too big in this game. Some fights are going well, other fights i need to reload asap and im not doing anything else in the same fight. In older games sometimes i feel atleast a bit save vs some basic enemies, but here its still like im lvl 1 or 2. And im lvl 7 now.
If you have to rely on luck you are doing it wrong. Use better spells better. Only thing that depends on luck is how long the fight will be.
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Cartesii: 4.With my sword saint. I have 2 abilites which i can press and have 4 charges at all atm.
1 is called arcane accuracy and i can use 1 charge to give me an insight bonus equal to my int to all attack rolls.
Nr 2 is called arcane weapon which gives me for 1 charge an enhancement bonus for 1min.

Now i got 2 other abilitys named perfect strike and perfect crit. hit. Each are using 1 charge permanently so im rly quick out of charges.

Which ability should i use now? If i kept the last 2 active i will have no charges after 1 fight anymore. Thats a bit confusing.
Perfect strike is almost never worth it, unless you are doing GVS bastard sword shennanigans. Perfect critical is good once you ramp up the flat damage. Arcane accuracy is really good at most any stage of the game and so is arcane weapon
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Cartesii: 5. My cleric have a lot of spell failures. Which attribut should i focus on him so he will not fail so much?
Move him out of melee. Toss him a longspear or something. You are failing concentration for defensive casting.
Concentration is con and level-based. You can grab combat casting if you really want to, but really - just move the cleric out of combat and you will be fine. They aint going to be good fighters anyways.
Post edited October 23, 2019 by InEffect
Thank you InEffect but most problems seems to occur if you are tooo lowlvl for some fights.

For example the troll boss down in the fortress. Some guys told me lvl 6 would be enough but i had no chance before 7. With 7 it was kinda easy. Maybe i will next time train a bit and come back then.
I try to use all spells to make it easier but some fights are rly tough.

Thank you for quick response as always. I have deactivated perfect strike now and its better :)
I usually enter the fortress at level 9, but then I play on unfair, so I kinda have to optimize exp gains a bit. Generally, some decent form of control is welcome for a smooth ride. I usually hire sylvan sorc merc for that very reason the moment I get to olegs. Octavia is not terrible either, but A)I hate her guts and B) She is a transmuter, which is not exactly good for the cRPG environment. C) She's constantly tired and moaning. There are ways to deal with it, but my favorite one is to park her in the city along with her useless boyfriend. Oh, and she's not even evil so she can't use the staff from varn DLC on an int class. FeelsBadMan.
Post edited October 23, 2019 by InEffect
avatar
Cartesii: Greetings,

im rly no beginner to DnD games, since i played baldurs gate 1+2 (+ addons), icewind dales e.g. back in the days.

But unfortunately i have rly big problems with pathfinder. I understand that tanks have no such aggro abilitys like in modern games like dragon age or so, but its rly ridiculous how squishy my tanks /chars at all are feeling in this game.

So i will ask rly +basic+ questions:

1. As tanks cannot hold aggro properly if a fight is starting i click at my Party and click H = do not move anymore. And only let my tank = Valerie engage 1. so the monsters focus her at the start.
After that i send my MC = Sword Saint and Cleric (with shield and weapon) and Aerie =barb at the enemies or at 1 caster/ range dps. Is that wrong in this game?

2. I understand that the AC is important but not everything here. A tank like valerie could have 100 AC but if she has other bad stats like reflex /other saving throws she can be charmed /sent so sleep e.g. easily. So i try to build give her cloaks/other stuff so she get better saving throws at all.
But still at some fights she is dead within a few hits....what i am doing wrong here ?

3. The LUCK FACTOR is rly too big in this game. Some fights are going well, other fights i need to reload asap and im not doing anything else in the same fight. In older games sometimes i feel atleast a bit save vs some basic enemies, but here its still like im lvl 1 or 2. And im lvl 7 now.

4.With my sword saint. I have 2 abilites which i can press and have 4 charges at all atm.
1 is called arcane accuracy and i can use 1 charge to give me an insight bonus equal to my int to all attack rolls.
Nr 2 is called arcane weapon which gives me for 1 charge an enhancement bonus for 1min.

Now i got 2 other abilitys named perfect strike and perfect crit. hit. Each are using 1 charge permanently so im rly quick out of charges.

Which ability should i use now? If i kept the last 2 active i will have no charges after 1 fight anymore. Thats a bit confusing.

5. My cleric have a lot of spell failures. Which attribut should i focus on him so he will not fail so much?

Thanks in advance and sry @ bad english.
1. Since there is no "taunt" abilities and like, it's only natural that "tanks" cant (and arent meant to) keep "aggro". However, dont worry, later in the game casters are actually tankier that "real" tanks (due to insane buffs).
2. AC is EXTREMELY important, but saving throws are important too (VS spells and other nasty effects). Some nasty things can be countered with corresponding spells. For example, poison or elemental damage. And yes, Valerie has a weak build (just like all other companions. If you want companions with really good builds, better hire a mercenary. For example, properly-built Monk can have the same AC as Valerie, but also much higher saving throws, immunity to various crap like poison/disease, spell resist and a good damage on top of that. Monk-Sensei can even buff all your party with loads of great buffs while still retaining most of his melee power.
3. Yes, luck factor is quite big, it applies to ALL games using D&D rules.
4. About Sword Saint - you are NOT meant to spam those abilities all the time (except Arcane weapon). They're meant to be used only in dire fight to turn tables in your favor.
Later you can (and should) learn an ability to make Arcane Weapon last longer - 1 min per level. So you wont waste charges on it all the time.
Other 3 abilities (extra AR, extra damage, extra crit damage) should be saved for dire fights only. Extra crit damage is probably the best among them, extra AR is good VS enemies with VERY high AC you cant hit otherwise, and extra damage is good VS crit-immune enemies (elementals, etc).
Post edited April 23, 2020 by MortalKombat33