(I posted this days ago but it didn't actually post, but I was able to recover the post by refreshing and it was saved)
Yeah, there doesn't seem to be much role-playing reason a martial would want super high intelligence and not care about might as much. The game is really not very intuitive sometimes. In POE1 (and POE2 to lesser extent) for barbarians, by far the most important stat was intelligence because it increased the size of the carnage field and extended duration of crit effects in that carnage field. But it made no sense thematically to be rolling these illiterate barbarians with 19 or 20 intelligence.
Bug, unintended behavior, not really sure. Once you recognize it it isn't that big a deal, on enemies you just have to wait for unbending trunk to run out or else use arcane dampener or similar ability.
Hmm, I dunno, I feel like @Boeroeris the guy to ask about that. I can partly address this.
One off the top of my head is Red Flag Flying on the Mahora Tanga spear, it has some crazy interactions with high crit builds when carrying other on-crit equipment like Gatecrashers gloves or especially dual-wielding something (like sungrazer's on-crit stun), it will proc dozens of times and potentially crash the game so I don't mess with it.
Another is the Pain Link ability, it reads that 25% of damage applied to the caster is redirected as raw damage to the attacker, but Pain Link is kinda bugged (in a bad way), it only procs on the first hit of an attack. Like an enemy casts a fireball, it hits someone else in your party and then hits your pain linked guy, it won't proc. Also won't proc if it kills whatever it's cast on.
Oh, forbidden fist attack sounds like a weapon attack but it's treated as an ability, so it doesn't get bonuses from weapon abilities like two-weapon-style and using it doesn't proc focus gain for cipher multiclasses. This is fixed with the community patch.
Some of the descriptions are slightly misleading but most of the abilities work how you'd think. I actually can't think of anything else that serious but my knowledge is far from encyclopedic.
I mean there are various exploits, most well-known is probably Strand of Favor and Cabalist's Gambeson Arcane Extension, which says gives +10% benefiical effect duration, but what it doesn't say is this applies to CURRENT EFFECTS as well as new ones, so if you proc a nice effect, like the healing from Darkest Before Dawn or the Conduit damage from Deltro's Cage Helm, you can rapidly unequip/re-equip Strand of Favor and/or Cabalist's Cambeson and extend the effects to infinite durations.
Also Blade Cascade from Scordeo's Edge eliminates recovery from EVERYTHING, and can be extended infinitely.
I have a list of these types of exploits that I've used in an ultimate run, near the bottom of the build guide link below. It isn't exhaustive but it's most of the good ones, you can also check the Community Patch at nexus mods which is a really nice mod, it may list some corrections, and the Balance Polishing Mod (BPM) addresses mostly exploits but it does fix a number of things that don't work how they should like Unbending and certain summons not getting their weapons scaling correctly. Also a great mod, though I think overall it increases the difficulty quite a bit if you install the whole thing (nerfs+buffs). I wouldn't advocate using these exploits below unless you're trying to do something particularly difficult like soling upscaled POTD or magran's fire challenges. They can be a lot of fun but reduce challenge dramatically
https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/131345-build-guide-the-soul-devourer-multiclass-blood-mage-soul-blade-optimal-for-potd-solo/
Yeah WOTEP sounds and looks cool but unfortunately the base damage is way lower than any other sword, I guess because of the cone. It is good in some situations but monks get huge bonuses on fists from transcendent suffering. But I mean if you're not playing solo upscaled POTD you don't need to pick things optimally, you can mostly pick things how you want as long as you don't make huge mistakes in the build. And you're making me feel old, I was in college when WOW came out.
My youth nostalgia is from Baldur's gate (and even older games). As it should be
I don't know much about the blunderbuss weapons, never used that one Serafen gives you because I don't think I've ever completed his quest. But if Boeroer says it's good it is probably good. For me the main thing about SC monk is they get massive, massive accuracy, damage, and penetration scaling from Transcendent Suffering (the fist skill). Unlike weapons it scales with their power level, so multiclass monk's fists aren't quite as good (though still pretty dang good). Also the razer's edge can get them +10 accuracy, resonant touch is really, really good, and imagined pain generates tons of wounds. Dichotomous Soul is a great summon and The Long Pain gives ranged fist attacks. And the crown of SC monk is whispers on the wind combined with Ajamuut's Stalking Cloak, you can zip around stunning the battlefield with that combo.
It is particularly nuts when combined with a flail called Keeper of the Flame and Eder's armor upgraded with Veteran's Maneuver. The flail has a fire AOE attack that targets friend and foe, but it targets reflex, and veteran's maneuver makes you immune to reflex (until hit a few times anyway), so with this combination every whisper on the wind procs imagined pain repeatedly and you can keep spamming the ability.
Forbidden fist monks are particularly good for martials, especially with the community patch, but they require a pretty detailed stat spread to keep the curse from building up. Basically you want max resolve, intelligence no higher than 13, and dexterity 2 or 3. And you have to wear certain items like ring of the solitary wanderer and anything that pumps resolve. If the curse builds up you die, usually, but with the right stat spread you can just spam forbidden fist attack which is stupid strong and HEALS you.
I've never played a furyshaper but assuming they play similarly to other barbarians that should be pretty fun.
You're welcome. I too usually like paladins in RPGs but to me they feel like one of the weaker classes in Deadfire, at least single-classed. There are some very good multiclass combinations (votary for one, arcanist for another), and the Balance Polishing Mod I mentioned before improves them quite a bit and Elric is working on improving them further soon.
Hard to go wrong with monks in Deadfire, probably the strongest class in the game overall. Blood mage is arguably stronger but a lot more technical in how to play them effectively. Chanters and ciphers also are quite strong, particularly certain multiclasses like psion/troubadour if you want to be a summoning god. The thing that keeps me coming back for more with Deadfire is the staggering number of multiclass and subclass combinations. Adds a ton of replayability.