pedrorq: I take it this would be for MC point buy. How would you pick the stats for merc 20 point buy?

InEffect: Sylvan Sorcerer

Role: Control/Support/Damage Dealer

Race: Halfling
Alignment: Any

Stats*:
Str: 5
Dex: 19
Con: 15
Int: 10
Wis: 7
Cha: 19 > 24
*If you have Varn DLC. 5/18/14/12/9/19 if not.

Final Build:
Sorcerer(Silvan) 18/Alchemist(Vivisectionist) 2

Animal Companion: Leopard*
*Medium size, so won't be so annoying to deal with

Main skills: Persuasion(max)
Suggested secondary skills: Stealth

Detailed leveling breakdown:
Lvl 1: Sorcerer - Spell Focus: Conjuration, Greater Spell Focus: Conjuration
Lvl 2: Sorcerer
Lvl 3: Sorcerer - Spell Focus: Evocation
Lvl 4: Sorcerer
Lvl 5: Sorcerer - Spell Specialization
Lvl 6: Sorcerer
Lvl 7: Sorcerer - Point-Blank Shot // Precise Shot
Lvl 8: Sorcerer
Lvl 9: Sorcerer - Heighten Spell
Lvl 10: Sorcerer
Lvl 11: Sorcerer - Weapon Focus: Ray
Lvl 12: Sorcerer
Lvl 13: Sorcerer - Dazzling Display // Improved Initiative
Lvl 14: Sorcerer
Lvl 15: Sorcerer - Greater Spell Focus: Evocation
Lvl 16: Sorcerer
Lvl 17: Sorcerer - Elemental Focus: Electricity
Lvl 18: Sorcerer
Lvl 19: Alchemist - Greater Elemental Focus: Electricity
Lvl 20: Alchemist - Cognatogen

Spell Specialization:
5-8 Magic Missile
9 Stinking Cloud
10-11 Acidic Spray
12-17 Chain Lightning
16+ Stormbolts

Spells by level in order of importance:
Lvl 1: Mage Armor, Grease, Magic Missile, Reduce Person, True Strike
Lvl 2: Glitterdust, Mirror Image, Sense Vitals, Scorching Ray, Pernicious Poison
Lvl 3: Stinking Cloud, Haste, Spiked Pit, Resist Energy(Communal)
Lvl 4: Animate Dead, Greater Invisibility, Dimension Door, Protection From Energy(Communal)
Lvl 5: Acidic Spray, Cloudkill, Vinetrap*, Angelic Aspect, Echolocation
Lvl 6: Chain Lighting, Heroism(Greater)**, Chains of Light***, Dispell Magic(Greater)*
Lvl 7: Legendary Proportions, Waves of Exahaustion, Firebrand, Changestaff*
Lvl 8: Stormbolts, Mindblank, Summon Nature's Ally VIII
Lvl 9: Tsunami
*You will get this as a Bloodline spell, don’t have to pick it.
**Or sirocco/hellfire ray if you don't have too many phys attackers, so your bard can cover.
***Can be skipped too. Will targeting spells are not the most important.

Alchemist Spells: True Strike

Gear: +Cha Helmet, +Stat items, Ring of Circumstances(Cha, Dex, DC, Skills), Amulet of dying wisdom, Rod Of Flaming Vengeance, Grandmaster Rod, Quicken Rod, other rods.

Your controller with some damage attached for late-game. Has a pet to carry his stuff.

Can be human to fit in Skill focus: Persuaion at the cost of effectively 2 AB.

Dazzling is taken so he doesn't just stand there after initial control spells are fired. It's useful, especially with maxed out charisma

Animate dead and bloodline spells will do fine as fodder summons.

40 Cha endgame + 2 fom bokken elixir = 42Cha, 10+9+16+2+1 = 38 Conjuration DC 10+9+16+2+(2)+1=38/40 Evocation DC before rods.

Has CC effects for every save, Attack the lowest. Pit/grease/vinetrap for reflex, Stinking Cloud for Fortitude, Chains of Light for Will.

Heighten all your CC spells. And damage spells too if you need something on the level.

Delay Poison Communal from a friendly cleric or alchemist will go a long way. Easiest CC combo in the game as it forces loads of saves.

mhek: Hey, I'm new to the game and plan to follow this build for my MC. What's the reason for the two levels of Vivisectionist? They are taken at lvl 19 and 20 - is there a reason for taking them so late? I thought that taking one level of Vivisectionist at 2nd lvl would grant a little sneak attack to cantrips, which would make the early game easier? Or do I miss something?

InEffect: If you want more up to date sylvan build take a merc build from undair guide and just add a bit more dex. Vivi is for cognatogen, mainly.

mhek: Thank you very much for the reply!

What's the deal with cognaten? I can boost my AC and an attribute (CH) for 20 minutes once a day? Why is it worth to loose two sorcerer levels for this?

InEffect: Sorc levels are just a bit of extra spells mostly and DC to everything is nice to have on unfair. You can go straight sylvan 20 or sylvan19/SF1 if you so desire.

InEffect: Unfair Kineticist.

Race: Human

Alignment: Any

Stats:
Str: 7
Dex: 19 > 24
Con: 16
Int: 7
Wis: 10
Cha: 16

Main skills: Persuasion(Max)
Suggested secondary skills: Trickery if you want to abuse not sharing exp for skill checks. Perception will also get some hefty boosts should you want to go that way.

Final Build: Kineticist 19 / Rogue(Thug) 1

Detailed leveling breakdown:
Lvl 1: Kineticist - Point-Blank Shot // Precise Shot // Fire / Extra Range
Lvl 2: Kineticist - Fire > Dazzling Display
Lvl 3: Rogue - Accomplished Sneak Attacker
Lvl 4: Kineticist - Fan of Flames
Lvl 5: Kineticist - Weapon Focus: Kinetic Blast // Fire > Dreadful Carnage
Lvl 6: Kineticist - Burning Infusion*
Lvl 7: Kineticist - Skill Focus: Persuasion // Fire’s Fury
Lvl 8: Kineticist - Earth
Lvl 9: Kineticist - Shatter Defences // Earth > Trip
Lvl 10: Kineticist - Bowling Infusion
Lvl 11: Kineticist - Fury’s Fall // Earth > Greater Trip
Lvl 12: Kineticist - Wall
Lvl 13: Kineticist - Agile Maneuvers // Enduring Earth
Lvl 14: Kineticist - Deadly Earth
Lvl 15: Kineticist - Persuasive // Elemental Whispers - Centipede**
Lvl 16: Kineticist - Water > Water
Lvl 17: Kineticist - Blind Fight // Expanded Defence > Flesh of Stone
Lvl 18: Kineticist - Fragmentation
Lvl 19: Kineticist - Toughness // Fire > Iron Will
Lvl 20: Kineticist - Cloud // Metakinesis: Empowered
*Doesn't matter much which infusion we take here. Dazzling that works once a blue moon or d6 DoT that doesn't really matter.
**Hare would be a valid alternative, but initiative doesn’t really matter for this one. If we get focused we will die flat-footed or not.

Gear: +Stat belts and hats. The rest hardly matters. Some Persuasion and/or CMD bonuses would be welcome.

Very abusive build. Deals tons of damage and controls everything from level 3 pretty much. Don’t be shy to use dazzling manually for control. That dreadful might not pop soon enough, but it’s there and will keep everything reasonably terrified of your existence. Primarily an unfair build where you can’t afford to wait for good things and AC doesn’t matter as much - you either have tons of it or none.

Use Gather Power to reduce the burn. Especially low one is a godsend(it’s not liek we plan to move much anyways)

That’s about it. Very simple and abusive build fit for unfair. No fun allowed. Thought I need to represent this one as the other kineticist is designed more for comfortable late-game play on hard than anything.

drunkprince: sup mate im back again
its really itching my hand to finally play the kine. I reached lamashtu womb but i dont really enjoy my class plus all the funny picks i wanted to do where locked behind chaotic and i did the lawful. i might restart the game and since i have a clue how to play rn, im thinking to play the unfair build in normal mode tho, but as an aasimar. how much the build will change and if its gonna be destroyed if i pick assimar..
once again tnx.

mhek: Thank you for putting all the guides here! Very inspirational!

Zerastrife: Hi InEffect!

It cannot be said enough but thanks for what you do for the community here. I've had the game for a year, hell I even backed the WOTR kickstarter and cannot wait for that but first I need to beat this. I'm fresh off a solo Path Of The Damned
Solo run (hardest difficulty, solo) in Pillars of Eternity 2 so I have some CRPG experience. I want to jump right into Kingmaker and beat I've read your builds through and through but have a question. Truth is I've put over 100 hours into this game and keep restarting (very similar to my experience in POE2 until it clicked for me) here's the scenario:

I'm looking to beat the game on unfair, solo as a Sorc but am having trouble picking my build. I'm either going to use your Sylvan Sorc, Sorc AT, or a Sage Int Sorc. That's where I'm running into trouble. I really am kind of lost on the stat distribution for a Sage as I know it's int based but is Charisma a dump stat due to that? I'm solo so I'm going to need all the persuasion I can get for checks, etc.

For Sylvan or AT I've got your guides to fall back on (also a bit confused as to which to use: The Unfair Merc build or your older V2 builds as there are a few differences) but the Sage is where I'm lost. I see you made a Sage build in the "build for you" thread but I couldn't tell if it was optimized for Solo / Unfair. It's the missing piece to my puzzle. In a recent post of yours you pointed someone else to your unfailr guide for a more up to date Sylvan Sorc build but I see that it's missing the spell specialization. Did you want to leave that up to the individual? I was just going to use the spell spec provided in your V2 guide. I guess I need help determining which of the 3 will be the best / less stressful experience, stat guidance for a Sage, and for the AT / Sylvan which of your builds to use V2 build or Unfair Merc. Can you please help? Any info you provide would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

InEffect: For solo unfair you want Sylvan8/V1/AT10/SF1 Start with conjuration and then add evocation. Spell-list would be very similar to AT sorc from unfair guide, except I'd probably pick something actually useful instead of QoL heroic at 9. That way you have a pet for the 1st half of the game to go with grease and in the 2nd part you can use it to drag enemies to you instead of risking yourself. For a pet I'd pick leopard for the sole reason of it just needing cat's grace for bot AC and damage, thus reducing the spells to learn.
Feyspeaker and kineticist can also do it with relative ease, but the tactics for both are so degenerate I wouldn't wish it on anyone.

citrixscu: I'm starting a new playthrough with the latest patch, going Sylvan Sorc. I'll be playing on normal, turn-based and wondered about the stat distribution. I have all the DLC and not necessarily looking to min-max or meta.

Race: Aasimar, musetouched

7/19/15/10/7/19
or
7/19/14/12/7/19

Alternatively, something more balanced?

InEffect: 8/15/15/12/8/17 if you absolutely have to have every stat above 7 human, assuming amulet of dying wisdom.
The more up to date build is on the merc from unfair guide.

citrixscu: Thanks for the reply. Out of curiosity, the unfair guide is for a human char. Why wouldn't one take aasimar/muse for MC and grab the +2 DEX and CHA at creation?