This guide was originally written during the Pillars of Eternity public beta. It's not particularly original with me, but represented the general consensus of what experienced players were doing with ranged cipher builds at the time. Since that time, the game's changed a great deal, so I've kept this guide updated and revised as the game has changed. What you see here is the final version now that the game is finalized and no more patches are expected.
As it stands now, this is a general guide on building a ranged Cipher character for play with a party on Path of the Damned difficulty. I'll go over recommended stat spread, talents, and skills, and explain why I make those choices and why you might want to make different ones, depending. I'll also go over Power choices and explain which ones I've found useful and which ones I haven't and why. I will talk about some specific items you'll want to consider grabbing for this build -- mostly weapons and armor -- but this isn't a walkthrough, and figuring out the details of particular quests is something I'll leave you to do on your own.
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I see lots of people talking about how powerful Ciphers can be and they're generally correct. I realize most people will be aware of most of this and it's just general basic knowledge for vet players but I didn't see a writeup on this forum and i did see some bad advice getting tossed around like it was gospel (i.e., people advising two handed style).
This guide is designed to help you put together an effective ranged support cipher for crowd control and damage. The advice herein is based on too-many-hundreds of hours of gameplay, from the backer beta on, along with a fair bit of reading and forums research.
The single lesson to learn is that Ciphers are a "tempo" class -- first you build focus, then you spend it, then you build it again. More than any other class, with a cipher it pays to think about what you're doing and, very importantly, when you're doing it.
Race: really any choice is good here but you want a race with bonuses to Perception, Intelligence, Might, and/or Dexterity. Wood Elf has the best racial bonus since you'll be at range a lot of the time, and the Wood Elf racial bonus helps your accuracy, which is very important if you use guns, as they have an inherent accuracy penalty. Island Aumaua is a good choice also if you take Quick Switch talent and carry several guns at once. Human's a decent choice also but not optimal. Hearth Orlans get a lot of good conversation options and their critical hit bonus is always useful. (If you plan on carrying this character over into Deadfire, I'd recommend Hearth Orlan over Wood Elf, as the Wood Elf bonus changes in Deadfire).
Stats: This is the first big character choice you make. Overall:
For an inexperienced player attempting PotD for the first time, I would recommend something like :
14 Might /8 Con /14 Dex /19 Per /19 Int /4 Resolve.
For someone playing on Hard or lower difficulty, I'd go 16/7/16/17/19/3 ; this is also a good layout if you want to make sure you can meet as many stat checks as possible, as with items you'll be able to meet every Might, Dex, Per, and Int dialogue check in the game. (If you want to meet Resolve checks too, try 14 / 6 / 14 / 15 / 17 / 12).
(You might need to skip a screen ahead to "background" and set your character to "Old Vailian" in order to reach that 19 intelligence).
Here's my reasoning, in approximate order of priority for each stat:
Perception: Because you rely on 1st doing damage, then casting powers, you're effectively rolling two to-hit rolls for every Power you use; first to build the focus, and then again to hit with the spell. If you miss at either stage, you fall behind, and have effectively "lost a turn". On the upside, higher Perception means you'll also get critical hits more often, including with your Powers, which will lengthen their durations and increase their damage considerably. Accuracy therefore really matters for the Cipher, more than for any other class. This is especially true on PotD difficulty, where all monsters get defensive bonuses that mean you are quite likely to miss frequently unless you stack buffs. Perception has diminishing returns, though: once you've stopped missing, you've stopped missing. That means it's less important in the later game (when you have more buffs) and on lower difficulties. It's still important - more critical hits are always nice - but if you aren't playing Path of the Damned, it drops in importance significantly.
Intelligence: This extends your power durations and power Area of Effect. Almost all Cipher powers have either durations or areas of effect or both, so this is a big deal no matter your approach, and a proportionally bigger deal the more you emphasize crowd control or buffing powers. The longer your durations, the greater your ability to keep enemies stun-locked or charm-locked, and many of your powers have big areas of effect that benefit hugely from increased intelligence. (The benefit to AoE is especially powerful because the percentage boost applies to power *radius*, not power *area*). With a very high dex you could use fast re-casting to get away with shaving a few points off of Intelligence, but the more points you have in intelligence, the easier that work will be.
Might: This is your damage with your weapon and with your powers. Ciphers benefit slightly less from this than other classes do because a lot of their powers are more about crowd control than about pumping out big damage numbers, but doing damage is still a critical part of the class, and the bonus damage from Might can be essential, especially against heavily armored opponents where you have to do a lot of damage with each hit to punch through their resistance. The damage boost from Might is also *front-loaded*; you see it right with your first attack at the start of combat. A high Might score lets you hit hard first, and that matters -- with a Might of 17 or 18, you can often kill soft enemy targets with a single attack, and gibbing is the ultimate crowd control.
Dexterity: Point for point, the attack speed bonus from dexterity gives you the most overall damage increase of any of the stats -- more than a point of Might, over time. It also helps you cast your powers faster, and importantly, cast them first, before the enemy casters have a chance to act. The cipher is a tempo class, and the higher your Dex, the faster your tempo. There are two problems with relying on Dex over Might, though: 1) against high-armor targets, you're effectively multiplying enemy armor, and 2) the damage boost from dex comes over time, and the outcome of battles in PoE is often determined in the first few moments; damage later is less tactically valuable than damage first.
Constitution: As a ranged character you want to be in the back, avoiding damage, so you really shouldn't need that much Con. Still, you want enough health to make sure you don't get one-shotted, or to survive long enough to get away if something nasty engages you. So you can shave some points off this, but not too many. A minimum of 8 points is usually enough to make sure you survive even on PotD unless you make a mistake, and you can go even lower on lower difficulties; having more than that doesn't help you in any significant way.
Resolve: This is the least important stat for you. If you need this stat, you've probably made a mistake. That said, mistakes happen sometimes, and the AI is smart enough to seek out very vulnerable characters, so it isn't entirely crazy to leave a point or two here instead of taking it all the way to minimum (but I take it all the way to minimum personally). The one area Resolve does come up is in dialogue checks -- it's probably the single stat most frequently checked in dialogue -- so you can keep it at 10-12 or so if you want to make as many checks as possible (you'll still need to buff up and use items); that won't be optimal for combat, but you may be able to swing it anyway.
All that said, the stat spreads above are just suggestions, not hard rules; so long as you know what you're doing, feel free to shift things around. A more control-oriented cipher might want to deprecate Might and take Dexterity and Intelligence to maximum, for example, while a more weapons-oriented cipher might emphasize Might and Dex over Intelligence. Pretty much anything *can* work, so long as you understand the choices you're making.
Region of Origin:
You probably want Old Vailian "culture" for the Intelligence bonus and slightly better starting gear, but you might want to consider White that Wends for Perception, or Living Lands or Deadfire for Might or Dex. Deadfire will unlock the most conversation options if you carry this build over into the second game.
Background Profession:
These are almost wholly a roleplay choice. They give some slight game benefits, but not enough to make a big difference either way. Pick what role you feel like playing. Some are only available for specific regions (i.e., only Vailians can be Artists).
Older guides will tell you not to take Greater Focus, but changes in the last few patches (primarily, the higher cost of Cipher powers and lower base focus) mean that the extra ten starting focus this gives you is a huge deal, and a bigger deal the earlier you take it, proportionally, as it will let you hit with a more powerful opener. Grab this at level 2.
After that, you want to get Draining Whip at 4 and then Biting Whip at 6 (you can swap these two if you want) and then probably Apprentice's Sneak Attack at level 8 (so many of your powers will be disabling that it's functionally a flat damage bonus).
Past that it depends on your weapon choice, which should depend in turn on your stats. Generally speaking, take talents that boost the weapon types you plan on using (Marksman for ranged weapons, Gunner for guns, etc.), prioritizing damage boosts, because for you, damage boosts are also focus boosts. Bloody Slaughter may also be a good choice if you tend to focus on picking off weak targets.
Psychic Backlash and Brutal Backlash deserve a mention; they don't help that often, but they do help especially in some of the tougher fights in the game (dragon battles, etc) . If you find you have spare talent slots, they aren't a bad pick, but for me they're low priority.
Similarly, many guides will advise taking one of the weapon skill group talents (Ruffian, Noble, etc.) They aren't a bad pick if you are playing on PotD, but for ciphers, by the time you've taken all your class talents, they're a bit deprecated because (1) they don't buff your power accuracy, only your weapon, and (2) accuracy has a declining value the more you have of it, this guide already advises high perception (which does boost power and weapon accuracy, both) and at higher levels you should be benefitting from other accuracy buffs from your party members in every fight. Talent slots are a scarcer resource, and you can get accuracy buffs from elsewhere; that makes the weapon talents low priority.
Stealth: 1 Athletics: 1 Lore: 0 Mechanics: 12 Survival: 4
base point totals invested, not counting item bonuses or initial skill ranks from class, background, etc. Such a character would want to find items to boost Mechanics and Survival.
This build has a little bit of everything -- damage, crowd control, and buffs. Might and Dex will give you solid damage, while your Int will support your buffs and crowd control, which you'll need to keep yourself alive and to keep enemies at range, where they're safe. In short fights, lean towards damage or crowd control over buffs; most cipher buff/debuff powers work by draining enemies, and thus can be very potent on bosses, longer fights, or higher difficulties, but lack immediate stopping power.
If using buff/debuff powers, any buff you drain from an enemy will end early if they die and do not leave a corpse. So make sure to turn "gibs" off in your graphics settings, and try to prioritize draining buffs from enemies that leave corpses rather than ones that do not (e.g., shadows).
For each level, I'll put my preferred powers in bold, and list others worth thinking about; if I don't mention it, I probably don't think it's worth mentioning.
Level 1: There are five good level one powers. Soul Shock, Mind Wave, Eyestrike, Antipathetic Field, and Whisper of Treason. Pick 3 (2 at 1st level, 1 more and 2nd). Whisper of Treason is effective, costs minimal focus, and casts fast, making it a great tool to get melee hostiles to go away and leave you alone. Antipathetic Field takes a little positioning -- it can damage allies -- but can do a surprisingly large amount of damage (especially with high Might) and remains useful over the whole course of the game. Mind Wave casts fast and is a great opener for seizing control over the first few moments of a battle. Soul Shock can be your bread and butter for DPS for the first half of the game, and remains useful throughout. Eyestrike is a powerful AoE debuff.
All five of those powers are effective, cheap, and useful; you may want to consider coming back at a higher level and grabbing the two you missed here instead of more specialized high-level powers with less general utility. That said, I generally grab Mind Wave, Eyestrike, and Soul Shock, mostly for ease of play reasons, and then take Puppet Master at Tier 3 instead of Whisper.
Tenuous Grasp deserves an honorable mention as it can be used out of combat, so it can break groups and initiate combat in tricky ways if you want that, but the effect is very weak apart from that and overall I find it underwhelming.
level 2: Mental Binding is the must-pick and your Old Reliable: fast-casting, good-duration crowd control with a strong debuff element. Psychovampiric Shield is very useful, especially against high-deflection targets, but will be outmoded later by Borrowed Instinct; Recall Agony is good against bosses.
Past that, Mental Blades is a decent choice for slashing damage but situational (as most enemies have good armor vs. slashing). Phantom Foes is a very strong whole-battlefield enemy defense debuff, especially on Path of the Damned, and can be even stronger if you build around it, having your party members all take Apprentice's Sneak Attack and choose items and skills that give bonus damage against flanked enemies.
Level 3: Ectopsychic Echo is a powerful damage spell and very useful once you learn how to optimize your positioning. Pain Link is great to cast on your tank when he's surrounded by enemies, as it redistributes a quarter of the damage done to the target to *each* nearby enemy. [Both of those powers are especially effective in combination with a wizard's Combusting Wounds, which will proc off of each tick].
Puppet Master is a strong alternative to Whisper of Treason with a longer duration but a correspondingly higher cost. Secret Horrors is, like Phantom Foes, a good AoE defense debuff for higher difficulty settings. Fractured Volition seems to be in the "only worthwhile if you have a rogue in your party" category; Soul Ignition is a decent cast on boss enemies but you're better off spending that focus on Mental Binding against most targets.
Level 4: Pain Block is probably your first choice here, as it's the Cipher's only real healing power, and can be a lifesaver for your primary tank. Silent Scream is a good AoE damage power with a decent debuff. Body Attunement can serve two useful roles: as a boss enemy debuff and as a self-buff if you find yourself in melee against something you can't paralyze or charm.
Mind Lance can be situationally powerful but can damage your own party if you aren't careful with it. Wild Leech is too random to really be useful. Going Between is a good buff in the right circumstances but those circumstances are very specific.
Level 5: Most of these are underwhelming. Overall, I like Borrowed Instinct and Tactical Meld the most at this level, mostly because they're useful against boss fights or high-deflection enemies where you need to buff up to have a decent chance to hit. Borrowed Instinct gives the more powerful buff effect by far, while also debuffing an enemy, but requires an attack roll, whereas Tactical Meld is a smaller straight self buff with no attack roll; you can use Tactical Meld to help you land Borrowed Instinct. That said, they're a bit duplicative of each other, so skipping Meld in favor of a lower-level power you missed isn't the worst idea.
Detonate is very powerful damage if your weapon isn't enough, but if your gun isn't enough, you probably won't have the focus to cast this anyway! Detonate is still preferable to Ringleader though; the final version of Ringleader has a very small Area of Effect and just isn't worth the focus (either it doesn't accomplish anything more than Puppet Master, or it does . . . and annoyingly ends the fight temporarily by charming all the enemies).
Level 6: Amplified Wave was the capstone power for the class at release, and will be your bread-and-butter offense in endgame. It has a great area of effect, combines damage and crowd control, and is the closest thing this class has to a win button, especially if you manage to chain-cast it. Disintegration, on the other hand, is one of the most powerful single-target damage effects in the game, so very much also worth grabbing. Mind Plague is situationally useful but generally isn't worth the focus cost (in effect, it's basically just a Confusion spell implemented weirdly).
Level 7: Time Parasite is the good choice at this level, but it isn't nearly as effective as it could be if the focus cost were lower; by the time you've worked up that much focus and cast it, most of the fight is likely over, and you've given up an attack and a cast that could've been spent elsewhere. In longer fights and boss fights, though, it will be essential. Note that the effect doesn't stack with Deleterious Alacrity of Motion. Due to the game's attack and reload speed mechanics, this will be more effective with bows and melee weapons, and less effective at boosting gun and crossbow attacks.
Stasis Shell is situationally useful but priests do the same thing with a level 1 Withdraw; this is a good time to go grab an earlier-level power instead.
Level 8: Defensive Mindweb and Reaping Knives are both extremely effective, but each of them requires a little party setup; the conundrum is always which to cast first, as Reaping Knives will generate an immense amount of focus, but Defensive Mindweb will keep everyone alive long enough to get things done.
For Defensive Mindweb, you want to optimize your party so that each member is really, really good at one specific defense -- i.e., Eder has high Deflection, Durance has high Will, Zahua has high Fortitude, etc., so that when the mindweb kicks in, everyone gets the maximum results.
For Reaping Knives, you want at least one party member specialized in fast two-weapon attacking -- Maneha and Zahua are great choices to build for this, Zahua because fists count as dual weapons, Maneha because the Carnage hits will also garner focus.
Initial trick:
You can get an effective pistol as early as Gilded Vale by putting a basic quality enchantment (accuracy 1 or damage 1) onto The Disappointer, which you can find in the very first map (hidden secret by the southern tents). The basic enchant wipes its Terrible enchant and thus makes it useable.
Once you're out of Act I, you can get the Forgiveness pistol by doing Pallegina's quest at the Old Valian Trading Company in Ondra's Gift. Instead, however, I would recommend rushing the pig farmer's quest in Dyrford for LeadSpitter, which can be your weapon for most of the game, possibly through to endgame.
Weapon Choice:
Guns and crossbows make more sense for high-Might builds, bows make a little more sense for high Dex builds, but you can use either with either and it's mostly a matter of taste and the particular bonuses from each weapon.
For most of the game, I tend to prefer the blunderbuss, because it has a very high "alpha strike" damage at the start of combat and also does consistent damage as each projectile rolls separately to hit. It's a good choice for a cipher because you can reliably count on being able to cast *something* after each attack with it (presuming your target is not immune to piercing).
Late game though, once you start stacking speed buffs like Gauntlets of Swift Action and Time Parasite and Durgan Steel, guns and crossbows start being less effective, because the "reload" animation time is not reduced by most of those speed buffs (apart from a few specialized ones like Sure-Handed Ila that specifically mention reload speed). So, proportionally, if you're using attack speed bonuses, you're better off using a bow or melee weapon, since they have no reload phase.
If you choose a Blunderbuss, you will want to get the Marksman, Gunner and possibly Ruffian Group talents, or take Quick Switch and Arms Bearer so that you can unload multiple guns in the first few moments of combat. Penetrating Shot talent is also worth grabbing, but only turn it on when facing enemies with high damage resistance; it's necessary in some fights but will slow you down if used when not needed.
If you choose a bow, get the appropriate weapon group talent (a soulbound bow will work with any weapon talent). Penetrating Shot may still be worthwhile, especially with high-dex builds, and Marksman remains a good choice, but Gunner talent won't be.
Some good choices:
Leadspitter Blunderbuss
You can get this at level 5 or so in Dyrford by running the Farmer's Plight quest. It's a blunderbuss with "rending" which increases the armor penetration of each projectile. If you keep this weapon upgraded it can carry you the entire game.
There are three other enchanted blunderbussi in the game, but none of them really compare to Leadspitter's simple punch.
Twin Sting Soulbound Crossbow
You can purchase this from a vendor at the start of WM 2. Since it's soulbound, you won't need to respec if you don't have crossbow talent. This has two things going for it: you don't have to spend as much time reloading it, and it gives you Deleterious Alacrity of Motion, the 2nd best buff in the game (after Time Parasite). This is great for single-shot big hits, but because there's only one projectile you'll sometimes miss completely.
Stormcaller Soulbound Hunting Bow
Available at the start of White March 1; It's a hunting bow, so fast, small hits. The big advantage of this weapon is it does both Pierce and Shock damage, so it has a good punch against Plate-wearing enemies and lets you remain effective even against Pierce-immune creatures without having to go into melee with your backup weapon set. The shock-resistance debuff has a nice synergy with anyone using lightning-lash weapons or powers. Only downsides are 1) it is even better in the hands of a Ranger, 2) since it's already fast, it benefits less from stacking speed enchantments than heavier-hitting, slower weapons do, and 3) as it's soulbound, you can't add additional enchantment upgrades.
If you go with this as your endgame bow, take the Heart of the Storm talent for bonus shock damage.
Cloudpiercer Warbow
Has the same "rending" buff found on Leadspitter. Fully upgraded this will probably give you the most raw focus gain of any endgame weapon. Not as good as it was in earlier patches (because the Spell Striking effect is now limited to 1/encounter), but it's still pretty dandy. Downside is it's only available if you side with the Dozens.
Rain of Godagh Field Warbow
This makes up for lack of Rending with a +20% inherent speed boost, so can put out an immense amount of damage against soft targets, especially with a high-dex character that stacks other speed bonuses.
Honorable Mention: Rods, Sceptres, Wands
These have the advantage of dual damage types also, but are always better used by the party Wizard due to the Blast talent tree. Still, Golden Gaze, Pretty Pretty's Rib, and Engwithan Scepter are all strong picks.
Honorable Mention: Llawran's Stick
If you want to try melee anyway, I'd suggest Llawran's Stick. It is available quite early, and as a two-hander with a Speed enchant, it is on par with the highest-damage weapons in game. It also does Crushing damage type, which is statistically the least-resisted damage type. On paper, therefore, it's the best-dps weapon in the game -- but the real draw is that as a quarterstaff it has Reach (allowing you to remain safely out of direct melee range). Probably the best overall choice for your melee backup weapon; an opening alpha strike from Leadspitter followed by a good old-fashioned beating with this guy can be extremely effective. Savage Attack and Two-Handed Style talents will really make this one *pop*.
You want to keep your armor as light as possible, especially early game, to maximize your casting speed. With that in mind, there are a few decent choices. Consider Angio's Gambeson from the Dyrford shop, because of the Deleterious Alacrity of Motion buff. Alternative good choices include the Jack of Wide Waters padded armor from the Lighthouse in Ondra's Gift, or Elryn's Jacket from White March 2. Vengiatta Rugia is also good, but if you have it, you're at endgame and don't need a guide.
I suggest wearing at least one item that gives a bonus to disengagement, as you'll often be trying to escape melee range; that means either the Cape of Withdrawal (random loot) or the Echoing Misery boots from Galvino's Workshop in WM1. The Night-Runner's Leathers from Dyrford are also a good choice, but come at the price of a 10% greater delay than padded gear.
Late game, with speed buffs and Durgan Steel, you may be able to wear heavier armors and still attack quickly; Deleterious Alacrity will also be less important once you have Time Parasite. ( For more on this subject, see this calculator [naijaro.github.io] ).
You will need to upgrade all the non-soulbound weapons and armor listed above using the enchanting system, which is beyond the scope of this guide. Most weapons want a damage lash and then quality upgrades. Corrosive and Fire damage types are generally the least-resisted over the course of the game.
Generally, wear whatever accessories you have that give you the best stat increases. The "Talisman of the Unconquerable" from White March will be your neck slot item till endgame. Make sure your weapon sets cover alternate damage types, in case you run into enemies with Immunity; a shield can also be useful for additional Deflection while disengaging.
Late Edit: This section doesn't cover the Deadfire Pack items [pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com] , because they were added in a final patch and I haven't examined them much.
Tactics & StrategyThe idea with this build is that you're pumping and dumping your focus as fast as possible. Hit hard with a physical attack, then cast, alternating powers with physical attacks depending on what's needed and what's available.
Shoot at the enemy's softest target first (usually a caster) as that will help you build focus fastest. If there are no soft enemy targets, and especially on PotD, you and the rest of your party may need to open with debuffs and status effects (knockdown, paralyze, etc.) in order to make it easier to land your attacks. Mental Binding is especially useful for this, as the Paralyze effect will will lower your targets' Deflection, giving you a nice soft target to hit/crit against.
Avoid getting into melee combat if possible because you'll drop like a rock if engaged, but that's what Mental Binding and Whisper of Treason are for. If you can't get out of melee, don't be afraid to switch away from the blunderbuss to your melee set, you will gain a lot of focus that way and do a lot of damage but you can't tank at all so don't try unless you have no other choice.
Party Composition
This is a ranged character so you'll need a good party structure to keep you supported. I generally like to have one tank character (Eder), one "off tank" front line damage dealer (Pallegina, Maneha, Zahua, sometimes Hiravias), one Priest midrank support (Durance), one support caster midrank (Hiravias or Kana with reach weapons), one other DPS rear-rank "artillery" (Aloth or Sagani), and this character as rear-line damage and CC.
Two party formations to consider:
FIrst is the standard two-column setup, tank and offtank in front in plate, midrank support casters in chain or scale or similar, back rank in cloth/padded/robes. In the screenshot below, I have Eder as primary tank, Maneha as offtank, Durance and Zahua (using a weird Long Pain build) as midrange, and Aloth and Cipher PC as back-rank.
Second option is a little more complicated and requires a custom formation. Put your primary tank two spaces out front, then arrange the rest of your party in a "plus sign" formation, offtank in front, midranks on either side, soft targets in back and center, like so:
Other setups are worth considering (three-wide, 2 deep can be useful sometimes, for example, and you can vary by terrain) but those will get you started.
PotD Tips & Tricks
The early part of the game is fairly straightforward, but the expansions and later game can get fairly challenging. A few tips and tricks for the party generally:
I hope all that helped you out. This isn't the "best" way to play a Cipher, it's just a way that works reasonably well even on high difficulties, and that I've found fun and satisfying. I hope you have as much fun with it as I did. Good luck!
If you want to check out the original thread for this build over on the official Obsidian forums, go here:
Transferring to DeadfireA few final notes on rolling forward to Deadfire:
There are a LOT of other builds that *can* work well in Deadfire, and some that are dramatically more effective than this by the numbers, but if you just want to roll a single class, alpha-striking ranged blunderbuss Cipher forward into the next game without thinking about it too hard, that's a good place to start, and is strong enough to beat the game and all DLC content on the hardest difficulty (although I can't attest to the megabosses as I never had the patience for them).
