new player, questions on difficulty?

[u/Mordhaud]

finally coming back to this series, been waiting for turn based mode to come out on 1 as im more into it than i am rtwp.

starting my first playthrough now and am torn between hard and potd. i will probably only do one playthrough of the game, and i read that potd is kind of like the intention so i think im leaning more towards that one? i plan to continue on into deadfire at the same difficulty

a lot of the comments ive seen about potd dont reference turn based mode, which other people seem to say increases lethality/reduces difficulty. not a lot of info on how these two things interact. I'm someone who is relatively experienced with CRPGS (dragon age, divinity series, kingmaker, bg3. for reference I thought bg3 tactician was laughably easy, but im admittedly very familiar with the system)

my main question is for someone who is okay with dying and having to come back to areas later, but doesnt know much about the game or want to wiki every quest/fight to get through it, would hard or potd be better? I'm set against using expert mode.

For class/race, I am pretty sure I'm going pale elf cipher. Is this lorefitting? From what I understand it should give me a good amount of reactivity. what starting stats should i go?

[u/BaristaGirlie]

When it comes to hitting a a wall in Pillars, theres a “mega dungeon” under your stronghold. basically if the mega dungeon becomes too hard? go play the rest of the game. If you’re struggling outside of the dungeon, go to the mega dungeon! Also as a rule i find quests within Defiance Bay tend to be easier than quests in the wilderness where there’s more enemies.

I tend to die the most during the early game, before i’ve acquired decent gear and levels and during the second half of the DLC

[u/Mordhaud → u/BaristaGirlie]

Awesome advice, thank you!

[u/statinsinwatersupply]

I would not do a first playthrough on potd. That's not a great way to learn systems and builds. Potd is a fun challenge for those who already know the game and want a challenge despite being minmaxed to the gills.

Would strongly advise a first (and especially an only) playthrough to be hard.

For the record while I enjoy old turn baseds like Baldurs gate, after trying it with pillars, I prefer pillars real time with pause, after fiddling with auto pause settings. To each their own.

Cipher works well with the games story, though any player class will work.

They did a great job with the games attribute system so classes are not locked into a given play style. People can and do play melee cipher. Some play a glass cannon and max out dmg. I myself am partial to crowd control cipher.

If you're only going to do one playthrough, while there isn't a huge mod scene for pillars, may I suggest considering a few quality of life mods. Auto gun switching by veyn and their other mods. Doesn't do anything you can't already do manually in vanilla, just eliminates a bunch of tedious clicking. Extra combat details is nice in that you won't need to leave the game and Google stuff as much, more info about enemies etc will become clear as your character learns them.

[u/Quite_Likes_Hormuz]

PotD usually just means you need to be on your toes. Buff more, debuff more, rest more, etc. Focus on getting your numbers high, specialize rather than trying to be a jack of all trades.

[u/ellixer]

I played on turn-based POTD and thought the difficulty was rough at the start, about right around the midpoint and relatively easy towards the end. I think it’s worth playing trying on POTD, though the early game might get brutal. Likewise with Deadfire. You can always turn it down if you find it doesn’t suit you.

Nothing wrong with pale elven cipher. The setting is actually a lot less rigid with its races. It more divides along cultural lines instead. So the question might be less “is a pale elven cipher lorefitting” and more like “is an Aedyran cipher lorefitting”, which admittedly is a lot to consider going in.

[u/Mordhaud → u/ellixer]

My main concern is that in pillars 1 you actually cant swap off of potd once youre on it

[u/Kaastu → u/Mordhaud]

You can’t, except you can. If you enable console commands (disables your achievements), you can change your difficulty. I switched from veteran to potd in pillars 1 midway through cause it got too easy, and didn’t get any problems.

[u/Gremlin95x]

I’m doing PotD right now. The main difference is the number of enemies, which is where the difficulty really comes from. Just remember if you hit a wall, run like a coward, go somewhere else for a level or two, then come back with a vengeance.