Leaderboard

Hey! I haven't had the opportunity to go through the last DLCs for Deadfire, so I started a new playthrough. I was feeling nostalgic for some Pillars. I decided to start a new playthrough using adventurers based on my former Obsidian co-workers. I have Berath's god challenge on, so if one of them dies, then I'll need to go and create a new dev. Josh is obviously the party leader.

It's not humor, but Larian's brand of humor in particular I'd venture.

no. we woulda' agreed with you at the time o' the election, but the past two years has proven us wrong. the mueller report is far worse than gd believes. am recalling your but for kinda statements regarding those in trump's orbit protecting him from obstruction, but that ain't the law. trump attempts to obstruct justice were crimes and failure o' subordinates to carry out orders only impacted evidentiary strength rather than existence o' criminal activity. mueller also described a systematic pattern o' lies and misrepresentation which we is surprised the media outlets never bothered to compare direct to Nixon, 'cause trump administration lies were far more numerous and arguable worse. trump has attempted to politicize the military and he has used pardon power to help more than one bad actor. numerous senior cabinet member has described trump as stoopid, and a few has pointed out how they necessarily had to step in to prevent him from doing overt illegal. mattis and kelly… why did they leave the administration? knowing what you know o' these military men, do you see such persons leaving the administration over disagreement on issues? is hard to imagine these folks leaving over differences in policy. conscience. similar, mcmaster were effective fired 'cause he insisted on doing his job and advising the President honest. short after all three men left, honorable men who served best possible in jobs trump made difficult, the President criticized all three for either lack o' intelligence or character. admiral mcraven said trump's attacks on the press is the greatest threat to democracy in his lifetime. no President has so active attacked the legitimacy o' the press. why? 'cause the press has been mean to him. clinton, who no doubt woulda' received bad press, mighta' attacked individual reporters and stories, but am not able to imagine her using "enemy of the people" language. evar. is the kinda stuff we previous thought were reserverved for autocrats and internet hoaxers. alternative facts and outright lies. claim sound from windmills cause cancer and when confronted with abject stoopidity o' such statements he doubles-down on such. crowd size. mit global warming studies. payoffs to porn stars. authorship o' press releases. could spend tens o' pages discussing trump admin lies... and when he is caught in an obvious lie, he tends to make lie bigger rather than retracting. ignores the unanimous advice o' intelligence chiefs in favor o' tucker carlson and sean hannity? why? 'cause the fox guys says what trump wants to hear. attacks on McCain even after the senator's death, and why? 'cause mccain, who were in favor o' obamacare repeal, were having too much integrity to go along with the slapped together replacement plan which were forced through committee w/o debate. (can ff to ~7:00-9:45ish if just wanna hear reasons for voting 'gainst obamacare repeal.) faked medical condition to avoid military service while ridiculing mccain's efforts in service to his country. lies. pettiness. willful stoopidity. oh, and as bad as were hillary emails and the potential damage such coulda' done to US intelligence and diplomatic efforts, within month o' being in office trump spilled israeli secrets to the russians in the oval office and he forced security clearances to be given to family members he were told were in danger o' being compromised. clinton woulda' been bad, but trump daily lies and character breaches has made gd and others numb to how terrible he is. we honest could not imagine how terrible trump character as President has been. had assumed pu$$y grab before being elected woulda' been low water mark, but have been proven wrong almost daily. your gas station guy is perpetual safe from making good on offer, eh? oh, and mexico tariffs? HA! Good Fun!

I just compared Warlock with Tempest. I like Warlock a lot because of the synergies you describe above (spells triggering Blood Thirst etc.). But actually a Tempest is even better. I thought (and maybe that was the case earlier) that DoTs don't work with Blood Thirst. But now they do. DoTs will indeed trigger Bloodthirst and usually the DoTs and Pulsing spells of a Druid are a) foe only and b) sometimes have a ridiculously big AoE - like Plague of Insects. And because of Spiritshift you can stay at 0 recovery penalty while having great AR without having to cast any self buff. This means it's a lot faster and easier to target nearly all enemies with some DoTs - while your friends will not get harmed. This ensures you get a lot more "accidential" kills via big DoTs while you can attack them at the same time. You can even steal kills from your party members if a DoT finishes off an enemy whom your Rogue buddy was hammering at. And that means Blood Thirst triggers and triggers and triggers...

I am very critical when it comes to writing. I know this, so I try to allow for my inner editor, my demanding nature, and give people a chance. But I am not ever buying another Larian game. There comes a point when we need to stop finding fault with ourselves and accept the fact that some people should not be doing certain jobs. Larian should keep to coding, to making nice graphics, to making music. They should not have any input on the writing. They are worse than what Bioware devolved into in the Dragon Age series (whiny dialogue in a fantasy dating sim located in plot-hole central). Ironically enough, Dragon Commander was the one game were their writing mostly worked. It also was their one game were the gameplay didn't.

have had similar conversations, but it were admitted metaphorical for when we gotta go home and visit family. HA! Good Fun!

Leaving tomorrow morning for Johnson's Shut-Ins State Park in MO for five days of camping and fishing and watching Sunny & Bella's high jinks. See y'all when I get back!

Now I head to the Golden Temple to face my greatest enemy. An enemy so hard I couldn't finish the game. I finally did it! I was able to open the god damned door!

some photos i tried watercoloring edward kenway ragnar lothbrok Corvo some random dude

Doesn't Microsoft have the Shadowrun IP? Would love a Shadowrun game from Obsidian.

When I was but a tween, addicted to the original Neverwinter Nights on our crappy family computer that could hardly run it, I refused to play anything but the Shifter prestige class. The idea of shapeshifting into different creatures to face my enemies was too exciting to even consider abandoning. Now that I’m much older and only very slightly less single-minded (sadly my computer can run Deadfire only slightly better than the old junker could run NWN), I’ve imported my love of shapeshifting to this game, resolving from the beginning to make the most of the Shifter Druid subclass. At this time, I believe I have some insights that are worth sharing for others who may be interested in this subclass. This post will be a bit long and unusual, because I will provide a brief analysis of the strengths of Shifters in general as well as my favourite class build to illustrate my points (it’s a Tempest build, so Barbarian fans, stick around). I hope that the post encourages others to give the Shifter subclass a shot, whether in the form of my Tempest build or otherwise. Let’s jump in. First Principles The biggest pitfall one may succumb to when planning a Shifter build is to think of the Shifter as an entirely martial subclass. Spiritshift has the benefit of two strong single-handed weapons in combination with armour as strong as superb Heavy Armor (when fully scaled) without any recovery penalty, and with no vulnerabilities (i.e. the armour has the same rating for all damage types unlike regular armours, which have weaknesses). This is a solid foundation to build on, but it is not equivalent to the martial benefits of an entire martial subclass like Fighter or Rogue. Shifters are still Druids, and Druids are spellcasters. Now let’s take a step back and ask what makes Druids special. What is their niche? I would provide two answers to this: healing and versatility. If there is one single thing a Druid can do better than any other class, it’s keeping a team healed. But that’s far from the whole story. Druids can also do significant damage, valuable crowd control, have some good summons, and a few very useful party buffs. And, of course, they have bursts of martial power from Spiritshift. No other class packs such diverse value in a single team slot, even though other classes will be better at most specific aspects. Druid subclasses leverage this versatility by offering specialization in one of the dimensions of the Druid kit, usually compromising another. This might lead one to think that a Druid subclass should be built to focus on that one specialist dimension and no other, but this is simply the general form of the pitfall that I mentioned at the beginning of this section. Versatility remains a core strength of the Druid class in each of its subclasses. The subclasses emphasize a dimension of the class – they do not invalidate all others. Your Lifegiver can still drop strong damage spells. Your Fury can still summon and do plant/beast DPS. Forgoing such versatility will always just make your Druid worse than they could be. This class is not supposed to just do one thing. Our first principle of building a Shifter follows easily: spellcasting must be respected as a core part of the character. Shifters are Druids, not furry warriors. And because Shifters lose their spellcasting when they shift, each battle must be divided between casting and martial phases if we want to benefit from all the character’s strengths. These are the parameters within which we will be thinking in what follows. Single Class vs. Multiclass I admit that I’ve never played a SC Shifter (I’ve had 3 Shifter playthroughs; a man only has so much time) but theorycrafting it is pretty straightforward. It would be decent. The main Shifter-specific benefits from SC would be Avenging Storm and Wildstrike Frenzy. Shifters will have good melee attack speed (especially cat form) and relatively low deflection, so AS is liable to put in some decent work (though nothing at the level of what can be metagamed with hand mortars, blunderbusses, Frostseeker, etc.). The Wildstrike Frenzy passives ought to be the #1 draw, but they are unfortunately lacklustre. Their effects only proc on kill with a shifted animal-weapon attack, not on spell kills (thanks to Boeroer for testing this). As we established in our first principle, good Shifter will be doing a lot of damage with spells, and Shifters will emphasize spells that do continuous damage while they are transformed. This means Wildstrike Frenzy will do nothing when the final blow comes from Avenging Storm, Nature’s Terror, Plague of Insects, Relentless Storm, or several other DPS spells you may have cast. Now, ‘on kill’ is an inherently weak trigger condition: the goal of combat is to kill enemies, therefore on-kill effects reward you for having already been successful and can’t help when you are struggling to get kills. On kill effects can still be very good for momentum (see the build below), but they need to be reliable with a trigger with such an inherent drawback. SC Shifters will be doing most of their damage from spells since they lack martial passives to help with melee, get higher level spells, and benefit from high power level (shifting doesn’t benefit from PL). That Frenzy doesn’t work with spell kills is therefore a major disappointment. A great thing about SC Shifter is that Shifters don’t lose access to any Druid spells (before they shift), meaning that you can enjoy the complete Druid spell list with the added benefit of sustained martial abilities. I would recommend SC Shifter to a player who primarily wants to play a caster but likes the idea of having a respectable melee presence without much fuss (i.e. no relying on buff chains or specific gear). Multiclassing is where we can get a bit more creative in drawing out a Shifter’s strengths, most obviously by giving our Shifter access to martial passives that will help their melee power. But if there is one thing you take from this post, let it be this: try to pick a second class that synergizes with the Shifter’s spellcasting as well as its melee ability. You’re going to be spending a significant amount of time casting spells and relying on spell damage so, ideally, you don’t want your second class to be irrelevant to that dynamic. A shifter has two major dimensions, two combat “phases” – you want to build for both. The class build below demonstrates what this looks like. Beast Tempest Shifter/Fury Shaper Dive into your enemies’ midst and thrash them to pieces with spells, claws, and teeth. Game version: 5.0 Difficulty: POTD (upscaled) Solo: Untested Overview: Perhaps most importantly from a synergistic point of view, Barbarians are most effective in melee when going after groups of weakened enemies. That’s because they get damage spikes against low-health enemies and massive action speed benefits on kill (see writeup on Blood Thirst below). This means that their damage per second increases significantly when they can crush multiple low-health enemies, back-to-back. Accordingly, compared to other possible martial multiclasses, you get significantly more value out of your Druid spell damage-over-time effects that you will have casted earlier in the fight. Making every enemy weaker before you start your melee phase therefore has a direct and noticeable effect on Barbarian power. This alleviates the inherent martial-caster action time tension whereby spell damage and melee damage compete with each other since time spent doing one is time not spent doing the other. With a Tempest, time spent casting damage feeds into your melee power directly. Note well that, unlike Wildstrike Frenzy, Barbarian on-kill buffs (Bloodlust and Blood Thirst) do indeed trigger on spell kills, so no need to worry about what gets the final blow (except for when a spell steals your Barbaric Smash kill and you lose resources), and you’ll find that when you have multiple spells going on against a large group of enemies, these buffs will pop up regularly when you didn’t even notice you got a kill. Finally, the action speed and Might benefits from Frenzy obviously help in your spellcasting phase. Furthermore, Barbarians have some tension in their design: with very low deflection, very high health, an armour passive, and more, they are meant to take hits. This screams, “get the highest armour value possible!” They also have multiple ways to increase action speed, so you want to build them them to swing fast. Unfortunately, heavy armour comes with a hefty recovery speed penalty, so if you try to maximize your armour, you action speed bonuses get eaten up compensating for it. You’ll recall, though, that Spiritshift armour has a high rating and no action speed penalty whatsoever. Therefore, while shifted you will fully leverage a Barbarian’s tankiness and action speed perhaps unlike any other context in the game. You can see that though Barbarian is traditionally a “martial” subclass, it benefits from the characteristically Druid form of spell casting (damage over time across a wide area) and it powers up spell casting as well. Add this to Spiritshift’s inherent speed and armour benefits and you’ve got yourself a beautiful set of synergies. I chose Fury Shaper because access to Fear Ward is worth the Will penalty, especially on a caster Barbarian because you can leverage Captain’s Banquet, which gives you immunity to most of the most dangerous stuff that targets Will. No subclass would work fine too, as the wards aren’t essential to the build. Mage Slayer is out because you’ll resist your own Druid stuff, and I find Corpse-Eaters looks pretty bad, but do your thing if you really want to be a man-eating werewolf. Berserker could do a lot of damage but Confused is particularly bad for a Druid with their dependence on Intellect and powerful foe-only AOEs, so you’ll have to constantly make sure you’re managing that. Also, this build uses high Might, which increases Berserker self-damage, making you significantly squishier. Attributes: I’m not going to give numbers because they depend on whether there are Berath’s Blessings, the player’s comfort with stat dumping, role-playing, and so on. Instead, I’ll give priorities. MGT: High DEX: Medium CON: Medium PER: High INT: High RES: Low Druids rely on a lot of damage and healing over time, so MGT is better than DEX for both (DEX helps you move through your casting phase faster, but it’s not going to make your spells tick faster; this is unlike burst damage/healing or buffs where getting a spell off a little faster can significantly change the flow of the fight). In addition, you’re getting a lot of action speed buffs as a Barb, so it’s better to give more weight to each swing than try to be the Flash. PER is a priority for anything that needs to hit enemies, and Barbarians have some nice on-crit benefits. INT is critical for all your many AOE radii and (de)buff durations (including Spiritshift). You want as much of this as possible. DEX and CON are good but should only be invested into when the priority three are maxed out. Having some RES can be nice so hostile effects don’t keep you down, and you don’t get crit against deflection to a ridiculous degree (crits give bonus penetration, potentially bypassing your high AR), but if you want to dump a stat this should be it (as per usual). Skills: I like a split between Athletics and Stealth. Athletics for some heals and Stealth so you can more reliably get a cast off while sneaking for the reduced recovery. Not super important. For non-active skills pick what you want. Abilities: I’m going to give brief writeups on key abilities so the reader can get a good sense of how this plays. The “no brainer” passives are Combat Focus, Blooded, Two Weapon Style, Wildstrike and upgrade, Thick Skinned, Unflinching, One Stands Alone, and Brute Force. Along with what is detailed below you will have a couple free points. Use them where you like. Frenzy: Blood or Spirit? – The Spirit line has great synergy here: spell hits cause Staggered as well as melee hits, and Might afflictions are valuable for lowering Fortitude, which synergizes with Brute Force and many strong spells. The AOE terrify can also be clutch in buying yourself casting time when surrounded. However, you may be using lots of Might Afflictions elsewhere on your team (I nearly always run Serafen spamming Dazing Shout) and find that you’re not getting much mileage out of Staggered, and would prefer the resource-saving Blood Storm over Spirit Tornado’s short terrify (especially if you’re packing Fear Ward anyway), in which case the Blood line works just fine. I personally find the Spirit line generally better because of the reliable Staggered, and Terrified lasts for about 10secs, which can save your skin and help you to cast in a pinch. I don’t think you’ll usually benefit that much from Blood Frenzy’s extra crit damage because melee targets don’t usually last long enough to experience all the DoT. Barbaric Roar: Your only command interrupt; always good to have. Especially nice as a quick-cast, foe-only, ranged attack. More valuable than the alternative upgrade – you’re not a main tank. Leap: Jump right in. Just do it, you'll be fine (usually). My playstyle usually involves tanks taking the initiative and diving at enemies to start combat, which effectively takes a lot of pressure away from the backline. This character isn't a main tank, but can and should certainly be right up in the thick of things with the tank. You want Leap to get around with no fuss and Daze enemies while you cast. You can take Wild Sprint as well as sometimes that's all you need and it's cheaper, but it's no replacement for Leap. Barbaric Smash + Bloody Slaughter: You can get some big damage numbers with these. A bunch of crit conversion, up to +100% crit damage, and increased base damage can save you a few attack resolutions (plus your animal form gives a little roar with each swing that sounds cool). Depending on the enemy, casting this around 40-30% usually reliably picks up the kill for no Rage cost, allowing you to continue your rampage. Don’t overlook the bonus penetration. Blood Thirst: better than I originally thought. Turns out not only does this cancel the recovery of your killing blow, but it also cancels the recovery of the next action you make within the buff’s duration. That means that after you kill an enemy, not only do you not have to recover, but your first attack against the next enemy doesn’t impose recovery either. I kept wondering why I seemed to be getting random Full Attacks in combat until I realized this. Remember, it triggers whenever spell damage gets a kill, too. Moonwell/Garden of Life: This character can be a primary healer. Insect Swarm/Plague of Insects/Infestation of Maggots: Core spell damage, and you get two for free! Stack these on enemies and watch them wither away. Do note that Plague does not affect Poison-immune enemies (and there are quite a few), but Swarm and Infestation do. Plague of Insects is absolute gold because apart from its good damage and stripping Concentration, the Sickened affliction increases your accuracy via Brute Force and lowers enemies’ max health (all the better for smashing). Nature’s Terror: A fantastic spell for this build. You want to be standing in the middle of enemies anyway. Having damage from this constantly wearing them away along with Carnage is great, and the Frightened affliction can block dangerous abilities and make them easier to hit (if you’re using Spirit Frenzy, it debuffs both Deflection and Fortitude). It’s friend-or-foe, so watch your step, but don’t let that make you afraid to use it. Having teammates with resolve affliction resistance can help (Wild Orlans like Serafen come with it, Fighters have a perk, etc.). This spell also seems bugged in that randomly it will sometimes do like 5 ticks of damage to a single enemy instantly. Not sure what causes it. Most important of all, the spell looks really cool (Tempest indeed). Relentless Storm: Of course. Depending on your needs for the fight you can and should cast any two of this, Plague, and Nature’s Terror. Cast all three if you get resources back. Venombloom: Must-have for any Druid, in my opinion. Does nothing against Poison-immune enemies but is devastating to anything else. And with Brute Force it will hit the lower of Deflection and Fortitude. Gear: Weapon: Spine of Thicket Green - unfortunately, your damage bonus on Beast/Plant spells will go away when you shift, but the duration and initial accuracy bonuses from power level are done deals at the time of casting. There's very little reason to use any other weapon. The crush damage and extra effectiveness against Vessels (who are often pierce immune or resistant and tend to be more vulnerable to crush damage) also means this is very occasionally worth using over shifting. Head: Helm of the White Void or Survivor’s Tusks – HotWV gives +10 to every attack roll involved in affliction-causing attacks (i.e. not just the roll for applying the affliction but also for dealing damage, etc.). For this build that means Barbaric Roar, Spirit Tornado, Plague of Insects, Nature’s Terror, Relentless Storm, and Venombloom (Fear Ward, being its own “creature” does not benefit). If you want to use this on another character, Survivor’s Tusks can give you survivability, though the Spiritshift upgrade is less valuable on this build because you will usually have Strong from Frenzy anyway. Neck: Strand of Favor – more INT and beneficial effect duration means longer shifts, etc. Armour: Garari Cuirass – any light armour can work here but I like this one because it gives you as much AR as light armour can so you can take hits before you shift. See also Miscreant’s Leather for the recovery bonus and Cabalist’s Gambeson for the extra effect durations, but remember your normal armour gets replaced when you shift. Feet: Rakhan Field Boots – always nice to dash around and get another interrupt. Footsteps of the Beast can be nice too since you tend to run around a bit. Cloak: Greater Protection Hands: Woedica’s Strangling Grasp – extra Might and AR Rings: Kuaru’s Prize + whatever you like Pet: Giftwrapper or Abraham – Abraham speeds your casting up but Giftwrapper gives you free AR when you get her. Both offer a bit of healing. Food: Captain’s Banquet – Immunity to half of the affliction types, including those which most often target your debuffed Will, is huge in itself. Extra spell damage is fantastic on top. Unfortunately, the action speed buff gets overridden by Frenzy, but with this you don’t need to cast Frenzy at the beginning of your casting phase just for the speed. Being able to wait without much drawback let’s you use Spirit Tornado when it’s most impactful. Closing comments: Embrace a Shifter’s versatility and you’ll be rewarded for it, in both power and fun. The build I’ve detailed has been my favourite to play in the game and is no slouch in power. I hope this post encourages more people to consider playing a Shifter and to play around with getting the most from the subclass. I can confirm that Ascetic builds are great, and I bet interesting things could be done with Wizard, Priest, or Paladin. Thanks for reading.

INTRODUCTION An escaped slave from a Rautai saltpeter mine, The Effigy draws from a reservoir of pure hate for those that have harmed them. Tormented by the ghosts of their past, deaths they witnessed and those they caused, they lack the will to confront foes directly. Instead, they wait in silence, crafting bizarre and unnerving totems that resonate with power. When threatened they unleash a blood rage, surviving vicious wounds and lashing out in unbelievable speed against those who strike them. They reserve their most vicious attacks for those from the spirit world that have manifested among us. Their weak will makes them susceptible to all forms of mental manipulation and frequent changing alliances, though they resist the weakest forms of fear. When wounded, they become even more powerful - an unstoppable terror that shrugs off any assaults on their body and is fueled by torch and flame. When drunk they become immune to any attempts to stop them, short of pure physical violence. Truly a horrific creature to behold. Crowned in pure disdain Barely able to contain Now this will all end in blood Cleansing, lasting, murderous THE BUILD =================================== =================================== Difficulty: PotD v. 5.0 -------------------------------------------------------------- Game Mode: RTwP (Not ideal for Turn-based, given the reduced number of auto-attacks and the reduced value of recovery reduction/elimination) -------------------------------------------------------------- Solo: No -------------------------------------------------------------- Class: Barbarian (Fury Shaper) -------------------------------------------------------------- Race: Wild Orlan -------------------------------------------------------------- Background: Rauatai (CON) - Slave (Survival, Athletics, Streetwise) -------------------------------------------------------------- Attributes: MIG 10 CON 19 (+1 Rauatai) DEX 10 PER 20 (+2 Orlan) - Divine Power: Skean sees all mistreatment and abuse INT 15 RES 4 (+1 Orlan) - Divine Flaw: Skaen is haunted and a coward and is easily manipulated by the strong willed -------------------------------------------------------------- Abilities | Skills | Proficiencies (a=automatic) (I) 01. Frenzy + Shape Ward: Frenzy (a) + Carnage (a) + Furyshaper (a) | Flail, Sword 02. Barbaric Yell | +1 Athletics, +1 Streetwise (II) 03. Thick Skinned + Barbaric Blow | +1 Athletics, +1 Streetwise 04. Accurate Carnage| +1 Athletics, +1 Streetwise | Battle Axe (III) 05. One Stands Alone + Two Weapon Style| +1 Athletics, +1 Streetwise 06. Bloodlust | +1 Athletics, +1 Streetwise (IV) 07. Barbaric Shout + Blood Frenzy + Shape Ward: Fear (a) | +1 Athletics, +1 Streetwise 08. Savage Defiance | +1 Athletics, +1 Streetwise | Greatsword (V) 09. Barbaric Smash + Bloody Slaughter (III) | +1 Athletics, +1 Streetwise 10. Tough | +1 Athletics, +1 Streetwise (VI) 11. Brute Force + Bear’s Fortitude (III) | +1 Athletics, +1 Bluff 12. Blooded (I) | +1 Athletics, +1 Bluff | Stiletto (VII) 13. Blood Storm + Stalwart Defiance | +1 Athletics, +1 Bluff 14. Blood Thirst | +1 Athletics, +1 Bluff 15. Two-Handed Style (II) | +1 Athletics, +1 Bluff (VIII) 16. Heart of Fury + Vengeful Defeat + Shape Ward: Blood (a) | +1 Athletics, +1 Bluff | Club 17. Improved Critical | +1 Athletics, +1 Bluff 18. Threatening Presence or Uncanny Luck | +1 Athletics, +1 Bluff (IX) 19. Barbaric Retaliation + Blood Surge| +1 Athletics, +1 Bluff 20. Dazing Shout | +1 Athletics, +1 Bluff | Dagger -------------------------------------------------------------- Items (!)=important, (r)=recommended Weapon Set 1: (!) Whispers of Yenwood (Whetted, Unfaltering), (!) Ball and Chain (Indomitable, Subjugation) Extra DMG against Spirits is on brand here, along with the boost in Crit DMG and CON. Our WILL is already so low, that we don’t care if it drops even farther. The CON buff stays for the whole fight, even if we switch weapons. One we have Barbaric Retaliation, we will switch on the Sword Modal and leave it for increasing our chance to be crit by enemies. Ball and Chain is on brand as a weapon of liberation and violent revenge. 10% chance to recover immediately on Crit feeds our DMG engine nicely. Reduced Action speed and Knock Down when we Crit them is also helpful to slow down the incoming DMG a little bit. It also means we can shut down single targets if given a chance to focus them. Flail Modal plus Heart of Fury means we have softened the group for AoE fire spells. Weapon Set 2: ® Sanguine Greatsword (Prepare the Offering, Greater Blood Gift) Mostly a fun item with a cool path to acquire it. Fits our blood theme, and adds some healing to the mix. Greatsword Modal is a waste here, as we really want to Crit with this weapon. Consider swapping over for a Heart of Fury. Head: (!) Rekvu’s Fractured Casque (This way we can replace wards while being wailed on by enemies) Back: (!) Rekvu’s Scorched Cloak (For pairing with a fire DMG party member(s), ideally a priest), Ragged Cloak (more retaliation DMG on crit) Neck: Precognition (fits both sides for us - we are gonna be Crit and we are gonna Crit enemies), Claim and Refusal (extra DMG reduction) Armor: (!) Effigy’s Husk (Armor of Flesh, Skaen’s Hatred) and The Bloody Links (Crimson Steel) or Magnera’s Chain (Staunch, Padded Underlayer) or Crimson Panoply Effigy’s Husk gives us MIG immunity, which paired with our boots and gloves & Wael’s Wind or Captain’s Banquet makes us immune to all afflictions, as well as a nasty healing reduction aura that should affect CON immune enemies, and a nice burst of DMG when paired with Vengeful Defeat. You can switch to one of the heavier armors for fights where you need more survivability. Waist: (!) The Undying Burden (extra heal, CON, and much needed DMG reduction - flavor text fits) Hands: (!) Rekvu’s Stained Grips (CON Immunity - keeps us alive in the midst of the fray) Rings: Ring of Overseeing, Greater Ring of Regeneration, Whispers from the Depths, Drunkard’s Regret Boots: (!) Sandals of the Water Lily (we want that -10 to DEF, and with Affliction Immunity, we don’t care too much about the other defenses) Trinket: Betrayal (On brand, plus a way to buy a few seconds of time for healing) BUILD OVERVIEW This build takes big hits and dishes them right back out. You will lose health quickly, and can either stay alive with focused healing or death denying effects, or let things run their course and explode with two AoE explosions of DMG. The risk is highest at the start of a fight when there are the greatest number of enemies smashing you. Even at Near Death you will have around 200 HP, which is plenty to take a few hits. With Robust, Shape Ward: Blood, and Second Wind, you can stay alive long enough to take quite a few enemies with you. Any other sources of healing are needed (Old Siec, Lay on Hands, Healing Aura’s, etc.). A priest makes an ideal pair with The Effigy. Resurrection, Barring Death’s Door and Salvation of Time can keep the Effigy alive long enough to decimate the enemy. Additionally, once injured, they can unleash fire spells on top of The Effigy, healing it and maximizing foe damage. Storm of Holy Fire and Pillar of Holy Fire are great for this. Divine Mark is a great spell here. It targets WILL (which is crazy low for us). It’s another option for a heal post injury, and a great way to pick up the best injury for The Effigy, serious burn. It also fits our theme, as it’s one of a Skaen Priests’ auto learned spells. For Drugs, use Mouth Char or Deadeye. For Food use Wael’s Wind or Captain’s Banquet. Alternatively, use Forgetful Night, Arrack, or Daibō o Osa.

I'm sure that could be done. Best solution would be to just lift that stupid editing restriction though.

Done! Would love to see that functionality come back for a host of other threads. If they don't change it, and we find a mod that's willing to help, would you be up for reposting periodically (if there are new builds), and having the mod unsticky the old and sticky the new?

I am not completely certain, but I don't think I got anything from that quest, either. I am on my first and only playthrough, and I keep noticing bugs in the game, too. I don't think any of them are going to be fixed anymore, but obviously I don't know and I would be happy to be wrong on this. I think you've got two choices: give it up, or continue. I've decided to continue, because for me the pros quite clearly outweigh the cons, but yeah, it's not as if this game looks very polished, even if it's been out for more than a year.

Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir One of the Greycloaks wields only a sword, the other only a shield. I can't guess why. Neverwinter at night. Only one district was open in the expansion, though. Zacarian defeated. Somehow the battle was much harder, than the final boss of the expansion. The dead companion is my paladin. Very glad that there was an infiltration mission, where I could use all abilities of my MC. The Herald of Zehir and the other yuan-ti (forgot his name) defeated. The warlock kept damaging himself for some reason after the battle ended. On an unrelated note, is the quality of the first two images different from the rest (uploaded to the forum vs imgur)?

So, if we are doing trinkets: what can I do? Write down exemplary trinkets as inspirations so we can run polls on them? Do some icons for trinkets? Writing descriptions? If somebody points me to where I can learn everything I need to know about Deadfire modding (fast) I would also be willing to implement them - if that makes any sense from a cost-benefit ratio perspective. I mean I am a software engineer - I just had no motivation to dive into Deadfire modding so far...

I would really like the option to edit posts indefinitely come back. The new functionality is something like 8 days only. There are some pinned posts that have tremendous community value, like the build lists. Being able to keep those updated not only supports the community’s ability to share builds more effectively, it also encourages continued interest and excitement for the game that can continue as long as we are able to post and edit that thread. Thanks!

Can confirm now that DoTs do reliably trigger Blood Thirst. Awesome!

Honestly I have an entire detailed document dedicated to self analysis. Trying to understand and be aware of both strengths and weaknesses and to accentuate the strengths ofcourse.

Apart from that: what does "best" mean anyway? I think that is highly dependend on your preferences as a player and also dependend on you party composition. Best != highest (potential) dps. If you drop dead too soon your average dps drops rather significantly. If you can only hit single targets you won't keep up with somebody wo can hit several enemies at once and so on. It all depends. That's why I usually don't respond very quickly to such vague questions - because there is no definitive "best" of anything basic in Deadfire. Maybe when you solo (but even then it highly depends on the player), but surely not with a party. Once it is more clear what OP really wants it's much easier to give meaningful tips. Often enough there's a question like "what's the best X" and people start givig tips - but then OP comes around and says "Yeah cool cool cool cool - but I want my X to be a bit more Y you know because of Z" - and I'm like "why not mentioning that in the first place?"

sure - if you're not solo. First of all you don't need to be in the midst of anything as long as you don't pile up engagement slots like crazy. Usually you'll have 1 from Persistent Distraction and that's it. That means you can get flanked quite easily. Or stand where somebody else fires Powder Burns (using a Pale Elf usually leads to hefty underpenetration). edit: That doesn't work at all. Same Pale Elf can be build with a Perception resistance and dance in your Wizard's Chillfog for example. Your Cipher/Berseker buddy can cast Phantom Foes. You can use a Chanter's Whisps to shoot at you (auto-distract). And so on - there are quite a few ways to trigger "Heating Up" at will - if you have a party.

I would argue that Streetfighter/Priest of Berath hits like a truck on kerosine. However - unless we know what "no sneak attack builds" means we put this on hold... Other very potent 2H-builds include Citzal's Spirit Lance. Shadowdancer, Holy Slayer and Mindstalker are all candidates for very high to highest melee weapon dps - but once again: "no sneak attack builds". What does that mean? No sneaking around and attacking from stealth/doing backstabs? Or no use of Rogues in general because they come with the Sneak Attack passive? No rogue builds that can have very high melee dps are SC Soulblade (Time Siphon + Reaping Knives allows for non-stop spamming Soul Annihilation with minimal recovery), Ranger/Soulblade can be very good (if you emphasize on Takedown Combo - but very micro-heavy). If we are looking at high levels then I would say the non-rogue class with the highest melee dps potential will be single class Monk due to Resonant Touch. Use Keeper of the Flame + Sun & Moon and Swift Flurry. Generally what generates high dps is: a) high additive bonuses combined with b) high lashes (which are multiplicative) combined with c) high attack speed This usually means we are talking about Streetfighter (since he combines the highest additive dmg bonuses AND one of the best speedup modifiers in one class) with anything that can have a lash or works like one (multiplicative dmg bonus) which means Monk (Lightning Strikes/Swift Flurry + Turning Wheel), Paladin (FoD and Eternal Devotion), Druid (Wildstrike and Boar form), Chanter (Mith Fyr), even Wizard (Spirit Lance + Zandethu's Draconic Fury), Soul Blade (Soul Annihilation profits from additive dmg bonuses in a multiplicative way like a lash) and Priest with Spiritual Weapons.

I made up my mind for b). Implement non-subclass restrictive trinkets for Priests and Druids. Those will have some bonus spells (like Grimoires) that broaden your portfolio. This may include new spiritual weapons. AND/OR they add some other features (like PL bonus, Lesser Sneak or whatever) which fit the theme of the trinket and can give a twist. I already "brainstormed" that Shifter trinket that would turn Spiritshift into a modal for example. What do you think? Edit: oh, and I don't want to go for "Magran's x" and "Skean's Y" as trinket names by the way. This is just a minor detail, but I think it would be more interesting to use themes that are build around saints (like St. Rumbalt) and relics and stuff. So for example instead of Skean's Shard it could be "Slaves Worry Stone" and be themed around despair and oppression and give the according spells and feats. Instead of "Abydon's Armory" it would be "St. Durwell's Rivet" or something. Just to make things more interesting and lore-ish. There are several saints mentioned in books and items. Also one could pay tributes to certain chars from PoE this way. Imagine "Scorched Piece of Cloth" which is actually a part of Durance's Robe - which gives you some Punishment spells and a spiritual weapon "Durance's Staff". Or "the Apprentice's Honing Stone" which is from the girl in WM who build the Unlabored Blade. It would be themed around Abydon's and say some words about the girl in it's description. Stuff like that. Just brainstorming here...

Skaen's Sneak Attack in PoE only worked with weapons, but I get your point. I don't think 1) and 2) contradict each other by the way. We could totally combine both: give some additional spells that fit the theme of the trinket to expand the spell pool AND add some nice "special features" like you described. To use the example of Skaen's Shard: a) get a few Condemnation/Punishment spells and b) add Sneak Attack Bonus to spells. And as my examples show I'm totally for that. To make Priests and Druids more versatile and end the spell choice "railroading" at level up AND at the same time give some nice build options and twists. It may be right that making special trinkets for a subclass that have only upsides is the same as making no trinkets but just adding the upsides to the subclass. I think this idea rose up because I wanted to bring back the old PoE Priest weapons (Magran = Arquebus and so on). So we could do the following: a) make the alternative Spiritual Weapons native abilities - no trinket involved (@AndreaColombo suggested it already) - and develop trinkets like I said above. Ones that add spells that fit the trinket theme and adds another fitting "twist". You can also see those in the examples I quoted above. This has to be easy enough though else it's not moddable. b) make the trinkets with the spiritual weapons non subclass restrictive. That means every Priest could use Magran's Arquebus or Berath's Mace etc. Solution a) would be cleaner. Keep in mind that your dispositions influence the power of the spiritual weapon. So it's loosely tied to subclass dispositions anyway. However: solution b) opens up more options. For example you could use Magran's Arquebus without drawback as non-magranite Priest if you managed to not collect contradicting dispositions. AND it would allow for spiritual weapons of deities that are not in the game (hello Abydon's Spiritual Hammer...). Now we have to decide which route to go...

...After third in row journey to Neketaka and instantly leaving I suddenly got the book. WHAT KIND OF SORCERY IS IT?!

There were a lot builds in 1.0/2.0, but much less in 3.0/4.0, reason? Because players afraid their builds get nerfed to unfun as these already dead ones were.

Plus if you follow this guide but stay silent for some of the options then you don't get what the guide lists

Don't kill my dreams I think Obs could vastly improve on some aspects of the HBS games and I love the HBS games. I'm worried they might mess up the combat but I'd love a more branching narrative and greater roleplaying options.

Trump still thinks countries pay tariffs. How much did daddy pay to get him through Wharton?

Microsoft makes a promise to release their games at launch on steam: https://www.pcgamer.com/microsoft-games-on-steam-announced/ Really happy about that as they purchased multiple studios I am interested in. There is also this bit: Let’s hope that means we might see Obsidian and inXile stuff on GOG. Either way good news.

Seriously, you're crazy man, in good therms

@Phenomenum: Wait, before I vote: I thought the duration that SoT adds is not affected by neither INT nor Power Level? Has that changed? I don't think so... If not: why nerf it in the first place? The SoT+Brilliant cheese is not caused by SoT, it's caused by Brilliant. Next you'd have to nerf Wall of Draining... If you want to nerf something it's Brilliant. Just make it a bit slower for spell replenishment (12 secs instead of 6) so that you can't chain SoT anymore. Remember that Brilliant replenishes only 1 resource (like Discipline) per 6 seconds but 1 spell use for ALL spell levels. This is not fair at all AND is the problem that causes the SoT/WoD/Brilliant cheese.

Leave her on the ship. Out of sight out of mind.

grabbed finally Tyrany, i was keeping eye on it of some time now

Soloed Hauani in 1 min. Weird that if Hauani merged once, it won't split anymore... A bit annoying to solo this in 5.0 because blade turning no longer last if u moved, so need to be careful to recast blade turning + salvation if u moved accidentally. Redo this and use static field on it when it try to merge, easy as usual.

Guild Wars 2 My Charr warrior wielding his giant chainsword... gettting ready for action. The eye next to him attracted some undead friends outside the camera view One of those insanely long (and tall!) jumping puzzles. I eventually made it all the way up there New map ("Dragonfall") and dailies and events and masteries and mounts added with the latest living world installment "War Eternal". People are all the world map these days, scrambling for the bits and pieces to get the new flying mount Dragonfall has 3 main areas, which is something the Elder Dragon tore out of the mist when plummeting back to the "real" world again. Each domain themed around one of The Six (Grenth - god of the Dead, Balthazar - god of Fire and War and Melandru - goddess of Nature)

Never thought a couple of dudes could rock pencil skirts so well, those are like the power suits of kilts.

Not tonight you werewolf cuck!

Lara's first tomb For the glory of Set! That was one badly timed sandstorm, had to scramble to get the mask on without getting chomped to death... Still working on Murloc Castle... (that's also about the furthest I can go away before draw distance starts kicking in) Reducing their HP doesn't necessarily make bosses any less nasty, one mistake too many and, well, let's just say that's not an NPC corpse there...

That looks sickening! I looks very similar to a khepresh the crown of war.

I finally hit lev 50 and crafted Stygian soldier armor: Normally, I'd use the helmet hider station from a mod I'm using to make the helmet invisible, but the helmet on this gear is just too badass to not show off. I'm not yet sure if I'm going to mess with the color scheme. This will be my desert and jungle gear going forward, while my Hykarian raider armor will remain my cold weather gear.

tried experimenting with corvo

Yes and preach!

Archer Protocol please and thank you

Well, given that MS also owns inExile, and that they will soon release Wasteland 3 as a turn-based isometric RPG (like the last one), I'm feeling confident that Obsidian will be able to release a Pillars of Eternity 3 as we know and love, but better if they wish to.

Need to trigger brilliant through Shroud of the Phantom before combat tho. BDD + Salvation + Tons of mage buff, once trigger Blade Cascade, then switch to 2H axe, main dps source is DoT of bleeding cut, since u are at 0 recovery, each attack trigger DoT and thus u literally ignore enemy armor. Finish with Worthy sacrifice. Edit: luckily I triggered blade cascade one first hit, otherwise it will be a bit slower, around 2:30 min, but I also paused a bit, so it's kinda of compensate Edit 2: Might be able to reduce the time to <1 min with Monk/Priest because of Heartbeat Drumming + Swift Flurry, but this a concept so it doesn't matter. New videa as Contemplative, 40 secs killed Dorugudan.