Pillars of Eternity

Cipher is a popular recommendation for the main character due to them having the most unique dialogue and the Cipher companion both being relatively unpopular and coming in late. You can't really go wrong with anyone though, especially on difficulties below Path of the Damned.

Hiring a couple of "generic" party members at Gilded Vale can be a good idea; they're inexpensive, help fill out your party, and once you have a full roster of named characters you can use them to garrison your stronghold and run errands for you there.

The temple of Eothas dungeon in the same town is also much easier to tackle after you've picked up either some generic henchmen or the Priest and Chanter companions found in the nearby areas of Magran's Fork and Caed Nua, respectively.

The more enemies of a certain type (excluding people) you defeat, the more information you'll have about their strengths and weaknesses. Their detailed statistics and descriptions can be found in the Bestiary section of the Cyclopedia.

Entering "Scouting mode" (alt by default) not only puts your character in stealth mode but also automatically searches your surroundings for traps and hidden objects. Detecting things (and dealing with them in the case of traps and locks) is based solely on a character's Mechanics skill, so one character should focus heavily on it while the rest can spend their points elsewhere.

Don't neglect crafting and enchanting, both can be done from very early on and are easy to do as they require neither separate crafting stations or abilities. Even a simple accuracy or damage enchant helps a lot, and even powerful Unique items can be improved provided you don't try to apply an enchantment type already present on them.

Combat advice

You can assign hotkeys to abilities by pressing the key in question while hovering over the ability. This is extremely handy with frequently used abilities such as Fighters' Knock Down.

Especially on higher difficulties, Pillars is largely a game of finding enemies' weak points and focusing on them. For example an enemy with high Deflection but low Will is better dealt with Will-targeting attacks than physical ones. Weaknesses can (and should) also be created; For example the Priest spell "Divine Mark" targets Will and lowers the target's Deflection, making it easier for your physical attackers to deal with the aforementioned type of enemy.

Crowd control is king in combat. Using all your available tools to keep your enemies prone, stunned, paralyzed, charmed, stunned or otherwise incapable of acting (or preferably acting for you) is the most reliable way of making even the toughest fights go your way.

The difference between "AoE", "Friendly AoE", and "Foe AoE" is really important. Wizards tend to have the flashiest offensive spells, but Ciphers and Druids are also offensive powerhouses and have a much easier time not incinerating the rest of the party in the process. Higher Intellect increases the coverage of your area spells but not the part which can hit allies, making it purely beneficial.

Some fights, generally ones taking place after a scene, won't let you get into a proper formation beforehand. For this reason it can be a good idea to put your tank into the party leader position (click and hold down on their portrait) and from there sort your characters from toughest to squishiest to avoid having your backliners ending up at the front at the start of such fights.

Don't break engagement unless absolutely necessary. Your cursor will turn red if you try to move a character who's engaged in melee; breaking it without using an ability to avoid the disengage attack can lead to the character taking heavy damage.

Ciphers leech focus based on damage dealt, so a cipher with a slow but powerful weapon will get fewer attacks but generate more focus per attack.

The Cipher talent Greater Focus ("The Cipher has +10 maximum Focus") is far better than it sounds as it also provides +10 to their base Focus, enabling the use of higher level abilities earlier in each fight. Picking it up as soon as possible is highly recommended.

A Spiritshifted Druid is considered unarmed and using both hands (claws) to attack, meaning their attacks benefit from both the "Weapon Focus: Peasant" and "Two Weapon Style" talents.

For fresh Chanters, Reny Daret's Ghost is probably a more reliable Incantation than the Skeleton summon due to the fragile nature of the latter. The duration is quite a bit shorter though, so keep that in mind. Both are best used for summoning them behind enemy lines for the purposes of flanking or being a bother to ranged threats.