Character Creation Guide - Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire
The first step before adventuring in Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire involves creating a new hero through the game's character creation process.
There's a whole lot to see and do in Obsidian Entertainment's newest RPG release Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire, but before players can take to the open world and start swinging their weapons at passersby, they'll have to first go through the character creation process. It's within that the player can craft a warrior of their own design, making use of a number of different menus that control everything from race, cultural origin, job, and weapon proficiency.
Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Character Creation Process
The character creation tool in Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire works a lot like any other: over a series of steps, players will choose everything from their sex and race to their character's background and weapon proficiency.
Before diving into those details, however, players will first be tasked with speaking with The Pallid Knight known as Berath and choosing their given legacy. These different histories represent major decisions made in the previous Pillars of Eternity game, and the choice will affect some of the dialog options and plot developments in Deadfire. Though players can make any choice they want, or even load their previous Pillars of Eternity save file, beginners might want to stick with either Fair and Balanced or Benevolent Soul.
With that choice out of the way, players will soon be dropped into the proper character creation interface. After selecting the character's sex, the game will offer up a choice between six different races, each with their own inherent bonuses and penalties to base attributes and defenses. All races will have subraces, and some subraces even have access to their own companions. To learn more about this choice, check out our guide to races, subraces, and attribute bonuses.
At this point, the player will have to choose between a single class or multiclass character. It's recommended that new players go with a single class player, but those familiar with computer role playing games or the previous Pillars of Eternity release can create a multiclass character now, if they so choose. For the purposes of this guide, we'll stick to single class characters.
From there, the hero can be molded to fit into a number of different classes and subclasses, each of which offering distinct bonuses to both passive and active skills. It's here that players can also preview the class' ability tree if they so choose. Select any class that looks fun and click Next to see any relevant subclasses. Again, some subclasses will provide bonuses or perhaps penalties to different skills.
Once the class choice has been made, players will be directed to choose their different class Abilities. For some classes like the Ranger, this window is also where players will be able to select their given Animal Companion and give it a name.
After that, players will need to make some important decisions regarding their character's base attributes. The game will provide 15 different points that the player can spread across Might, Constitution, Dexterity, Perception, Intellect, and Resolve. To learn more about what these statistics control, check out our full guide on attributes and defenses.
The next step in the process involves choosing the character's Culture, which ties into their geographical origins, and their respective Background, which ties into their unique upbringing. Both of these choices affect skills, so learn more about them by heading to our guides concerning cultures and origin locations as well as jobs and backgrounds.
After clicking the Next button, players will have to choose their preferred weapon type and proficiency. There are a lot of weapons on offer, all of them having different strengths and weaknesses. Smart gamers will want to consider all of the different options, as their two proficiency choices tie directly into available modal abilities. Learn more about these in our guide to weapons types, modal abilities, and proficiencies.
The last step of the process is the fun bit — here players will be able to choose from a selection of different player avatars, then customize their character's appearance to their liking.
There are a lot of different options for dress, hair, and skin colors, and different faces and hair types can also be chosen in the later menus. Players will also be tasked with choosing a suitable voice and pose for their character. When that's done, the final step is giving the hero a name, and after a final look over the character's summary page, players will be dropped right back into the game proper.
The elaborate character creation process is but a glimpse into the depth of Obsidian Entertainment's latest offering. To learn more about the game, be sure to head over to our Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire guide and walkthrough, where we go into detail concerning game quests, companions, achievements, and more.
