So you are making your player character in Pillars of Eternity. What class should you make?
The following is a guide and some advice. It's not from a hardcore theorycrafter, it's from someone who has been trying to figure out the answer to that question for himself. It's also more from a beginner perspective. No Chanter Riposte tanks or other high end gimmicky weirdness. If you are ready for that you are way past anything this guide will help with.
There might be slight slight spoilers along the lines of "You get a pre-generated companion of class ________ fairly early". If you can't deal with that then why are you reading about a game you are interested in?
So let's get started!
First you make a choice.
Choice 1) Do you want to play a specific class? Then play it. Have fun. Totally viable.
Choice 2) If choice one isn't enough for you, then you want a class that can play an effective role in any group, as your player character will always be active. They are also a character you have open from the very beginning, without having to find or create someone to fill a need. They also will be responsible for all conversation checks, and can be used for non-combat utility abilities.
Let's look at a brief description of the classes, combat roles, and non-combat utility.
Classes:
Barbarian:
Very good melee aoe, good melee damage, pretty fragile when built for damage. Excellent 2nd line damage dealer. Note that there is no pre-generated Barbarian class to find in the game so if you do want to play with one it is either your PC or a created one.
Should I start with this class? Probably not. Having to always be in melee range to do damage might not be something you want to force on your group. Make a non player Barbarian if you want to play around with it.
Chanter:
Incredibly versatile caster with fairly significant ramp up time due to their song mechanic. Force multiplier with friendly buffs and enemy debuffs, plus lots of summoning abilities. Heal over time aura. Can be medium range aoe damage dealer or can be a tank/offtank. Can do just about anything.
Should I start with this class? It's a really strong choice. You can build it to pretty much any role you want, it's a force multiplier for your other classes. Honestly the only drawback is that the pre-gen chanter shark dude is pretty cool. Even then though you can run two chanters in a group by altering the pattern of their song parts, as detailed in a post here on their forums: https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/74915-what-do-i-need-to-know-to-plan-a-chanter/?p=1626945
Cipher:
Excellent ranged damage dealer. Uses ranged or melee attacks to generate a resource called Focus that is expended when they use their abilities. Need to maintain a balance of attacking and casting. This means they can use abilities as many times per encounter as they have the focus to do so. There's some interactions with this and certain weapons (hint: multiple hit weapons, double hint: blunderbuss) that let them just pump out tons of damage.
Should I start with this class? For sure. Long range damage doesn't become less useful, and the Cipher can crank it out with the best of them. Also the basis of the class fits in fairly well with what happens to your character, and the pre-gen cipher really irritates a lot of people.
Druid:
Tons of AOE, heal over time abilities, damage over time abilities, can change into a freakin Lycanthrope! Well, spiritshift into a Wolfman, Bearman, Boarman, Stagman or Catman. Very powerful caster.
Should I start with this class? It's a good option. They are versatile in the early game which is nice when you have fewer companions. They can melee or maybe even tank a bit. Later on though you'll want them to to be a back line caster. They can do some of the best aoe in the game with the proper setup. You're definitely going to want to chase talents that increase the number of casts per rest you get. It's a while before you run into the pre-gen Druid as well.
Fighter:
Great tank or consistent reliable damage. Some middle ground to play around with. Look, it's the fighter.
Should I start with this class? Strong but simple choice. Your party will need a tank. You'll probably be that tank. You do get a pre-gen fighter pretty early, so if you want him to tank while you go nuts with a 2H you can. He's also one of the better pre-gen builds.
Monk:
Aysh. I want to love the monk. I always do. Pummeling enemies with fists of raaaaage! It's also an interesting play style, where your resource to use abilities - Wounds - is gained by being hit. Sort of the inverse cipher. There's a couple problems though. For an offensive Monk it's hard to walk the knife's edge of getting hit but not getting killed. For a tank Monk, building for avoidance (the superior tanking method in this game) really cuts down on how much you get hit, and slows your Wounds generation. Then the bare fist thing: You can't enchant bare fists, meaning that in the later game you are gimping yourself if you don't go with weapons. Come on Obsidian, let us enchant like... fist wraps or bracers or something we can use to still pummel things AND drain endurance! Hell, let us enchant and equip tattoos that snake up our arms and look totally rad and stuff. Monks deserve tattoos! They can do decent damage, although you would probably take a rogue or barb over them, they can tank or off-tank, but why would you use them over a fighter or pally or something? There are no pre-gen Monks so if you do want one you'll have to make your own.
Should I start with this class? Probably shouldn't. Probably better to just make one at the inn to mess around with. Sigh. Use a Moon Godlike for some nice healing synergy.
Paladin:
Bad damage. Good tank. Strong group buffing ability. Decent heals. Tank paladins are powerful, but lack some of the tools to grab the enemies attention that Fighters have. This makes them a bit more difficult to use. You kind of have to charge enemy groups with the pally directly for them to pay attention to him. If you can set up encounters properly it's probably a better thank than the fighter. If. Very good group buffing abilities though. Zealous Focus, mmmmmm....
Should I start with this class? If you want a tank with group buffs and that requires a bit more tactical approach, sure. Pallys are very good if you want to have melee damage dealers in your group that will need their buffs. One interesting thing about making your PC a pally is there's some involved restrictions with how you are going to RP and the Order you choose for your pally. Making the "right" decisions according to your pally's order leads you to get buffs specific for that order. Could either help with flavor or get in the way of your choices, depending on how you look at it.
Priest:
Heals, buffs, damage spells of the aoe and single target variety. Some good cc spells. Pretty bland though, not a great variety of abilities. Strong addition to a party, but not necessarily the most fun. Has a nice accuracy buff they can cast once per encounter, and can cast before the encounter so you can start with it already rolling.
Should I start with this class? You really probably should not. Use the pre-gen (some people can't stand him) or make one at the inn, but you probably don't want to saddle yourself with them. You do align yourself with a particular diety much as the Paladins do with orders, and they can alter your play style. Evil priest doing a black magic rogue type thing with sneak attacks and daggers could be pretty fun if you are willing to RP evil I'd bet.
Ranger:
Alas, fair ranger. Ranger is mostly for doing ranged damage, but it's not as good at that as most other, especially the ranged rogue who basically is chomping hard on the ranger's shoot-things-with-weapons flavor. The Ranger relies on its pet a lot, and pets tend to get killed easily, severely limiting the ranger's capabilities. The truth of the matter is the best role for a ranger might be as an offtank with sword and shield. They have better survivability than rogues, which doesn't matter for ranged, and do better damage as tanks than many other tank classes, but that kind of doesn't matter for tanks. They are jacks of all trades and masters of none, and with a 6 person team they fall by the wayside.
Should I start with this class? Nope. No you shouldn't.
Rogue:
You should start with this class. Wait, no, let me back up. The rogue is a fragile single target damage dealer. The damage is fairly reliant on sneak attacks, which happen when the rogue attacks out of stealth, if they are behind the target, or if the target has various status effects on it. Ranged rogues do good damage but require more help in setting up enemies for sneak attacks with debuffs, melee rogues have better crits but require more positioning and micromanagment/care. There are no pre-gen rogues so if you want one you'll have to make your own.
Should I start with this class? It's an excellent choice. It's also my personal favorite. Why? Well, the rogue (especially ranged rogue) is very capable in combat, but it's not about what the rogue does IN combat. It's about what the rogue lets you do OUT of combat. Rogues get bonuses to stealth and mechanics. These are incredible abilities. Mechanics lets you lock-pick, disarm traps, and use traps. More mechanics makes you better at all three of those, including increasing trap damage. Stealth is good in that it lets you get closer to mobs when you open up on them, but is obviously more important for if you open with melee, which you probably shouldn't do. Open with a slow ranged weapon out of stealth to pull mobs back to your party. It's great for scouting though, and there's a long history of Infinity Engine games and scouting out ahead with a stealthed rogue, pillaging whatever you can, and dictating the terms of an engagement with enemies that you are already aware of. I'm a big fan of starting with rogues. Pair them with a cipher to generate sneak attach chances, open out of stealth with a hard hitting slow weapon, switch to a fast ranged weapon if you build towards passives or a slow ranged weapon if you go with actives. Really nice utility player for all group combinations.
One important Rogue note! Don't be this class if you only want to be a Baldur's Gate/Icewind Dale style rogue! Backstabs are really impeded by this game's stealth mechanics, it's about getting sneak attacks thanks to positioning and debuffs. If you hope to be popping in and out of stealth a ton you will not be happy. Stealth is about opening attacks and escaping when things go poorly. Some people are pretty bummed about this, but I love the utility regardless. Just a word of warning.
Wizard:
You cast spells from a book. That's really pretty much it. You can learn new spells on level up and from books you find. You can have multiple books with different spell loadouts that you can swap in combat if you want, but it will lock you out of casting for a few seconds. In a fight just after a rest they can unload like crazy, without pre-planning a druid will pretty much outclass them. The wizard is a wizard.
Should I start with this class? Look, you pretty much already know if you have the soul of a Wizard. I personally think there are better options.
So, that's a breakdown of the classes and my take on how well they work as the PC.
One more note about out of combat utility: Your player character's stats dictate a lot of conversation opportunities. Opportunities are unlocked with 14 in a stat. You can either goose your stats so that you get 14 in the kind of answers you like too get, or min/max to your character's strengths and just lean into the flavor of that with your answers. If you want to give smart answers though you might want to figure out a class making use of high int, or that you can at least easily tweak into to 14 with. Of the stats, constitution gets used the least in conversations. It is rarely used though for some interactions, such as withstanding pain or some such.
Enjoy the game!
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