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Yes accuracy is very important in this game it'll let you hit and crit which makes priest very important. (priest can buff accuracy even before fight begins) Cipher you might want to take instead of wizard or a druid. Ciphers are really strong because you can keep casting while as a wizard especially on hard difficulties you'll just auto attack most of the time. Go either Druid/Cipher or Druid/Wizard http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/73658-barbarianmonkpriest-overpowered-combo/ Here's my guide to a kick-ass party. Add in 2 casters of your choice to this. You do not need 2 tanks but you may need one off-tank crowd controller, which is Monk. Monk also has a huge dps potentional if you follow my guide.

I believe wizard can be fixed with a change to bonus spell talents. Why not make a talent that gives 1 bonus spell on all levels instead of all those useless +1 bonus level 1 spell nonsense. Maybe not on level 6, because that petrify spell is op as hell :D I also think the aoe damage on wand attacks should be buffed too. It's a static crush damage, it'll suck on late game even more than early game. Make it percentage based and i'm happy.

I believe you can do sneak attacks during first few seconds in a fight. It's not much but you can take down one target really fast.

Yeah i know you pay for them, i meant it like you don't need to spend your spell selections on level up. Let me correct it.

Hi everyone, i think this will be useful for many people. When selecting spells you need to consider two things. Damage Spells If it's elemental damage kind of spell you need to check the damage type. Corrode is the best damage type because VERY few creatures have corrode damage reduction. Second best is fire because it's effective against some of the really toughest creatures in the game and fire generally has more damage. Debuff Spells If it's a debuff you need to check the status effect it applies. The best effects are petrify, paralyze , confused, stun, blind, prone, sickened and in that order. You can get blind in spell levels 1 and 2, paralyze in level 2 and petrify in level 6. Sickened lowers fortitude, which makes the enemy weak against stuns such as fighter's and monk's. The effects that decrease will are mostly useful for your spells to hit. Decrease will and then cast a spell that attacks will. Simple. It might be good for let's say a dragon because higher level creatures will have large defences and your spells will graze or miss most of the time, unless you debuff their defences. That being said you need to have as many spells in your grimoire as possible because for example a freeze spell can be more effective on a fire based creature. For that you need to copy spells from another wizard's grimoire, and they are easy to find. The spells that you find on grimoires early on Once you have the grimoire, copying a spell only requires gold. I believe you get your first one in black meadow(or Magran's Fork, either one of them i cant recall) to the south east of the map. It contains: fan of flames, ghost blades, chill fog, minelotta's minor missiles, fetid caress, necrotic lance so dont take them on level up. Second grimoire i got (in Caed Nua) has fireball, concelhaut's corrosive siphon, bulwark against the enemies, thrust of tattered veils, spirit shield, chill fog, fan of flames. Recommended Spells My recommendations for all six levels are as follows: Level 1: Chill Fog: Really overpowered spell even later in the game. Blinds and does damage for a long period. Fan of Flames: It is good because it kills shades, shadows and phantoms, toughest creatures early on in the game. Slicken: Nice prone effect, duration aoe. Level 2: Curse of blackened sight: Similar to chill fog but it attacks Will, which is huge because you'll want to blind melee attackers and they have lower will! Rolling Flame: It can hit two times because it bounces off of walls! A little situational though. Necrotic Lance: Corrode damage. Fetid Caress: Paralyze on one enemy and sickened debuff in aoe. Level 3: Fireball: Good aoe fire damage. Noxious Burst: Corrode damage & sicken effect. Expose Vulnerabilities: Reduce DR and deflection. Useful for taking out big and tough creatures that have high defenses, for them DR and deflection are the only things that stand in your way. Level 4: Wall of Flame: If you can make a target stuck in a place you can kill him easily with this spell. For example you can block a whole enemy group with your tank on a doorway and just cast it on them. Same tactics apply to all the aoe spells with long durations. Such as level 1 spell chill fog. Confusion: It makes the enemy attack each other or just stand still. Useful on tough melee enemies because it attacks will and they have high fortitude and low will. Minoletta's Concussive Missiles: Sometimes you'll want to focus on one target, and this spell will do just that. 5 missiles that do crush damage in a very small aoe. Level 5: Malignant Cloud: One of the best aoe spells because it deals raw damage and lasts long. Make sure the enemy stays in the aoe and use it on enemies with high DR that you can't kill. Ninagauth's Bitter Mooring: A beam that does freeze damage on target and also between you and the target. Applies stuck effect. They cannot move for a while so you can cast it after malignant cloud or some other aoe. Wall of Force: Crush damage and does not hurt allies so it might be really useful in some fights where you just can't hit the enemy without hitting your allies. Level 6: Gaze of the adragan: Possibly the best spell in the game because it petrifies aoe and attacks fortitude, which means it'll work well on casters with low fortitude and high will, probably most dangerous enemies. Death Ring: Corrode damage and a chance to kill instantly. Arkemyr's Capricious Hex: It has a chance to paralyze (almost same thing as petrify) but it attacks will. So use it on tough melee creatures with low will. Chain Lightning: High electricity damage that jumps. I think it doesn't hit allies but i'm not sure.

When selecting spells you need to consider two things. Damage Spells If it's elemental damage kind of spell you need to check the damage type. Corrode is the best damage type because VERY few creatures have corrode damage reduction. Second best is fire because it's effective against some of the really toughest creatures in the game and fire generally has more damage. Debuff Spells If it's a debuff you need to check the status effect it applies. The best effects are petrify, paralyze , confused, stun, blind, prone, sickened and in that order. You can get blind in spell levels 1 and 2, paralyze in level 2 and petrify in level 6. Sickened lowers fortitude, which makes the enemy weak against stuns such as fighter's and monk's. The effects that decrease will are only useful for your spells to hit. Decrease will and then cast a spell that attacks will. Simple. It might be good for let's say a dragon because higher level creatures will have large defences and your spells will graze or miss most of the time, unless you debuff their defences. That being said you need to have as many spells in your grimoire as possible because for example a freeze spell hurts a fire based creature. For that you need to copy spells from another wizard's grimoire, and they are easy to find. The Spells That You Get For Free Early On I believe you get your first one in black meadow to the south east of the map. It contains: fan of flames, ghost blades, chill fog, minelotta's minor missiles, fetid caress, necrotic lance so dont take them on level up. Second grimoire i got (in Caed Nua) has fireball, concelhaut's corrosive siphon, bulwark against the enemies, thrust of tattered veils, spirit shield, chill fog, fan of flames. My recommendations for first four levels are as follows: Level 1: Chill Fog: Really overpowered spell even later in the game. Fan of Flames: It is good because it kills shades, shadows and phantoms, toughest creatures early on in the game. Slicken: Nice prone effect. Level 2: Curse of blackened sight: Similar to chill fog but it attacks Will, which is huge because you'll want to blind melee attackers and they have lower will! Rolling Flame: It can hit two times because it bounces off of walls! Very tactical though. Necrotic Lance: Corrode damage. Fetid Caress: Paralyze on one enemy and sickened debuff in aoe. Level 3: Fireball: Good aoe fire damage. Noxious Burst: Corrode damage & sicken effect. Expose Vulnerabilities: Reduce DR and deflection. Useful for taking out big and tough creatures that have high defenses, for them DR and deflection are the only things that stand in your way. Level 4: Wall of Flame: If you can make a target stuck in a place you can kill him easily with this spell. For example you can block a whole enemy group with your tank on a doorway and just cast it on them. Same tactics apply to all the aoe spells with long durations. Such as level 1 spell chill fog. Confusion: It makes the enemy attack each other or just stand still. Useful on tough melee enemies because it attacks will and they have high fortitude and low will. Minoletta's Concussive Missiles: Sometimes you'll want to focus on one target, and this spell will do just that. 5 missiles that do crush damage. Level 5: Malignant Cloud: One of the best aoe spells because it deals raw damage and lasts long. Make sure the enemy stays in the aoe and use it on enemies with high DR that you can't kill. Ninagauth's Bitter Mooring: A beam that does freeze damage on target and also between you and the target. Applies stuck effect. They cannot move for a while so you can cast it after malignant cloud or some other aoe. Wall of Force: Crush damage and does not hurt allies so it might be really useful in some fights where you just can't hit the enemy without hitting your allies. Level 6: Gaze of the adragan: Possibly the best spell in the game because it petrifies aoe and attacks fortitude, which means it'll work well on casters with low fortitude and high will, probably most dangerous enemies. Death Ring: Corrode damage and a chance to kill instantly. Arkemyr's Capricious Hex: It has a chance to paralyze (almost same thing as petrify) but it attacks will. So use it on tough melee creatures with low will. Chain Lightning: High electricity damage that jumps. I think it doesn't hit allies but i'm not sure.

Another build you can make for wizard (and definately for cipher) is 10 might 20 int 19 dex. This will allow you to cast debuffs really fast and with a HUGE aoe, and in my opinion debuff spells wizard has are actually better than damage spells especially in the hardest fights in the game where the enemy has large DR reductions. Check the 'paralyze', 'petrify', and even blind (an overpowered low level debuff effect, also availeble on wizard level 1 and 2 spells) effects on the cyclopedia and you'll see what i mean. This build is especially viable if some other class covers elemental damage such as druids or chanters.

I've been testing a lot of combinations lately and i gotta say... this combo ends the fight in a few secs even in hard mode. Here are the reasons and a detailed guide: Class Overview Priests Priests give melee characters huge buffs. I'm not even going to talk about the spells here, as you probably noticed priest has the best buff spells in the game. Especially one buff i noticed is.. the accuracy bonus talent on holy radiance (1/encounter) The funny thing with this ability is you can cast it outside the combat and start the fight with an accuracy bonus for 15+seconds and cast it once more during the combat. As far as i know you cannot cast other buff spells outside the combat! This alone will give you +5 accuracy on all your party for pretty much the whole fight, and accuracy is probably the most important thing in this game: it lets you hit the opponents and crit if you roll high. Monks Monks have huge dps with swift strikes ability + two weapon talent +weapon focus talent + high dexterity. But another reason why monk is op is you can send the dangerous targets away and knock em down with 'force of anguish' ability. The target will stay out of combat for 10+ seconds! He's basically dead. This is not only effective but it's insanely fun. The most fun class i've played in the game so far. Later they also get stunning hits, which also adds more to the crowd control potential of the class, which is why i prefer monks over let's say... rogues. All the crowd control abilities will reduce the enemies' overall damage output and keep your frontline safe and sound. Barbarians Barbarians currently have the best total melee dps output in the game. Here are the reasons why: First: Frenzy. It gives you a very large attack speed bonus, might(more percentage based damage bonus) and constitution (+6 on each when upgraded, 6 might means %18 more damage.) Let's say you have a barbarian with 18 starting might, you'll have 24 might once you activate the frenzy, without any other buffs or gear, this gives you %42 damage bonus in total. Your attacks will easily bypass the DR of the enemy. Second: Brute Force/threatening presence passive ability combo. As you might have noticed, barbarians start the game with average accuracy. (-10 less accuracy than the best value) But wait till you hear these: This combo increases your accuracy against most enemies in the game, since they often have a weaker fortitude than deflection. ( you can check the bestiary, especially all sorts of casters, shades, phantoms - really annoying creatures- creatures that are similar to rogues with high reflexes and generally physically weak built enemies have lower fortitude ) Also threatening presence lowers their fortitude by 20. That is 20 more accuracy in most cases guys... OP. Also keep in mind that fortitude debuff will allow your monk to disable opponents properly, since monk ability checks are made against fortitude. Third: Blooded passive ability. It increases your damage by a HUGE amount once your hp is below %50. There's no bigger increase to damage in this game. Once you go below %50 hp, the fight will probably end. Fourth: Carnage. This gives you a PERCENTAGE based aoe damage on your attacks. You might want to focus on that percentage part, because this means damage is not static (the information in prima guide is wrong). You can test it if you want, most of the time it deals about %60 percent of the primary attack. Which means it'll also bypass damage reduction of the enemy in most cases. Increase your int a little bit (something between 12-14 works best) to gain more advantage from the aoe. Fifth: Barbaric Blow. It depends on chance but this ability may sometimes crit(%30 hits are converted into crits), and it is a full attack (means if you are dual wielding, you hit with both weapons), it has both a +crit damage multiplier and +damage bonus. It'll kill most enemies if it crits. What makes this worth picking is that it is a talent (will not interfere with your ability progression) and it is per encounter! All these points mentioned above makes barbarian a better dps than rogues, as rogues need to backstab/sneak attack to increase their damage output, and a simple difference is rogues can't deal aoe damage with their hits. Tactics First of all, you'll need a tank for this to work. Either paladins or fighters work well, but you might want to pick a +engagement bonus talent for paladin. I prefer fighters since they get defender and endurance regen for free. Send him to engage first with defender mode (+2 engagement limit, many defensive bonuses when upgraded including the awesome +15 deflection bonus). Then send in your monk and try to tank one enemy with him for wounds. You can also get the talent 'mortification of the soul' to get wounds and start swift strike and disabling right away. Then send your barbarian in, activate rage and start slaughtering. Try to take down the most dangerous enemy first, for example if an enemy has blind spell (creatures like shadows) it'll mess up your frontline. Take him down fast. Always cast holy radiance with your priest before the fight, as mentioned above. Then start buffing your party, especially your front line. Most of the time in hard difficulty you won't even need the buffs, just use them for tough fights. Cast holy radiance once more if the fight lasts long. Stats Abilities, talents and gear are more important in this game than stats but there's no reason to go for a high defensive stat on a melee dps. Therefore, arrange the stats on both your monk and barbarian towards an offensive play. That is high might and dexterity, medium constitution and intelligence, low perception and resolve. Intelligence will give you bonuses on the duration of your abilities, constitution will keep you alive. Trust me on this they do not need to be tanky, since a single tank works well in this game and we'll increase the defensive stats of monk and barbarian with equipment. In %100 of time if your monk and barbarian keeps dies it's due to a positioning mistake and not because of their stats. That being said, you might want to make your monk just a little bit more defensive than the barbarian (+1 or +2 on perception and/or resolve), because he needs wounds to use his abilities and also barbarians have a little more hp/endurance. Skills It's kind of obvious if you know about the fatigue mechanics but, have at least 2 points on athletics on all your melee characters, and even on the casters too. Trust me you do not want to have the fatigue debuff. Take mechanic skill either on your main character or someone else. These two skills are the most important ones in the game. Gear Tank Armor: Obviously, have your tank wear all the defensive items and increase his defenses as much as you can. Always wear a shield and enchant it if you can. It is really important that he stays alive for first few rounds, which is not that difficult. Monk Armor: Give your monk a light or no armor. There are really good light armors that only have %15 recovery debuff. (check the armor 'Vengiatta Rugia on prima guide for example, wow!) Enchant his armor. Enchanting the armor on your monk should be your first priority. You can also wear plain clothes (no attack speed penalty at all!) and still enchant it for DR and stat bonuses. Isn't that sweet? Weapon: Go for two weapon fighting. Use your fists early game but you might want to switch later on to a weapon of your choice, because you can enchant weapons but not fists. Get the weapon focus peasant for an accuracy bonus(hatchet, spear, quarter staff, hunting bow, unarmed) or something else if you don't care about unarmed. Hatchets give deflection bonus and staves have reach bonus so you can use the doorway tactic with staves. (attacking from behind while your tank blocks all the enemies in a doorway, or a narrow corridor). Accuracy is important, keep that in mind. Barbarian Armor: Give him either light or medium armor and enchant it. (an example: check 'saint's war' in prima guide, it gives you second chance, perfectly synergizes with barbarian class) Weapon: Use two weapons or a two handed weapon. Get the talent that suits your choice. Two weapons will probably have better dps overall since you get interrupted with slow attacks a lot, but two handed weapons deal more damage per hit, making your aoe attacks more effective against enemies with damage reduction. Estocs might be a good choice for two handed, since they give DR penetration, really important for hard fights. Two handed swords will also work. Take the weapon focus for your desired weapons, again, accuracy is really important. Here's an important note: If you are a good tactician and you can have your barbarian attack without getting interrupted by the enemy, GO FOR TWO HANDED WEAPONS! You'll bypass the enemy DR more effectively and it is the only thing that keeps them alive! Yes you can penetrate that huge dragon's thick scales too! LOL Supporting Spells I will not go into detail in this section, but spells that augment the fortitude, deflection and accuracy are really helpful. For example the blind spell in this game is really overpowered because it lowers both deflection and accuracy of the targets by a large amount, making them vulnerable to your attacks and it keeps your party alive due to the accuracy debuff. There are two blind spells on wizard in levels 1 and 2. The level one spell attacks fortitude and level 2 spell attacks will, so it won't miss if you cast the right one. (tough melee creatures have low will while weaker ones such as casters have low fortitude). Also spells that debuff the enemy's damage reduction are huge. The only thing that keeps the monsters alive are defenses and damage reduction, and once you get passed those the fight ends in a blink. Another good debuff is 'sickened' or anything that lowers fortitude. It'll allow your barbarian to hit and crit easily since he attacks the enemy's fortitude if it's lower (considering you have the talent 'Brute Force', I really suggest getting it on your barbarian!). Lowering fortitude will also allow those great disable abilities on your monk and fighter to work properly.

Raw damage type ignores DR. I know some dot effects use raw damage but i'm not sure if they all use it.

It is possible but it'll have weaker dps depending on how tanky you want him to be. You can wear a medium armor and still be tanky enough since high tier medium armors can offer pretty good defensive stats. Also there are some nice defensive class talents for barbarian such as barbaric shouts. Stats need to be balanced i think, so you should not min max for half tank/half dps. Might be like this : 10 might 10 dex 18 constitution 16 perception 10 int 16 resolve. (You can take from cons or might and put it to others)

Yes i think its definately a trap choice unless the fight lasts long and there is at least one effective late game low level spell in that spell level. I think it needs a balance fix. My suggestion is : talent 1 : +1 bonus spell for spell levels 1 and 6 Talent 2 : +1 bonus spell for spell levels 2 and 5 Talent 3 : +1 bonus spell for spell levels 3 and 4 This will make them roughly equal in power.

I think it's a lot harder to solo this game than other infinity engine games simply because there's an interrupt system and also you can't increase your accuracy or defensive stats as easy as in those games. (that kensai/mage build... just lol) But i think it's totally doable on easy mode with a rogue or even a well built monk(probably the fastest attacking class right now).

I see your point AncientToaster, it will indeed be troubling to play such builds especially early in the game. But once you reach mid and late game i believe you can make it work with good gear(there are some reaaally good light armors in the game that have %15- %20 recovery rate that won't mess with your dps), supporting spells from your casters and good positioning/tactics in combat. I think such builds are for people that really want to risk it and get a good challenge, and it will be quite satisfying to see the big damage numbers later on in the game. That being said, be warned, that these min-max dps builds might not work at all on the highest difficulty, but i play on hard so it'll be fine i think. :D

As far as i know most dialogue options require high perception/intelligence/resolve. With that in mind: Currently i believe a melee chanter tank/summoner would be a really good choice since you need to put most of your points on int resolve and perception. It is a fun build and works quite well. Stat choices should be similar to this : 8 Might 10 Cons. 8 Dex 18 Per. 16 Int 18 Res. Also a tanky wizard can be a good option, but i haven't tested it yet. You'll probably want lots of buff and debuff spells since you'll have low might (e.g level 6 spells gaze of the adragan that petrifies the enemy (the best debuff effect in the game along with paralyze), and citzal's martial power that makes you a really strong fighter for 20+ seconds) Lastly a melee tanky priest with similar stats to that chanter above will work great imo. But again you'll want to use buffs and debuffs only, since you'll probably sacrifice your might stat to gain high int/resolve/perception.

I think that's a good combo, you might also consider getting a defensive monk (can be built to have lots of crowd control and tankiness) or chanter tank/summoner (for even more tankiness with summons) instead of paladin or rogue. That being said, I appreciate the rogue pick because it requires good tactics and once you make it work rogue can take down a big threat really fast. I definately suggest making the rogue a melee dual wielder, but you can start the fight with a ranged attack. Also keep in mind that some druid spells help rogue get backstabs. (e.g flanked effect in a spell i can't remember right now). You'll want to support your rogue with casters if you want him/her to be main damage dealer. I think priests, wizards and druids are really good for higher difficulties since you can just unleash all your spells and win a really tough fight then just rest and move on. Priest is also a good couple with cipher imo, since a priest will make your party last longer with healing and buffs and cipher will be able to cast a lot of spells during a long fight.

I suggest using the right weapon and armor type, for example if your opponent uses slashing attacks, some of the lighter armors can be even more effective against it than some heavier armors(e.g leather armors with high slash dr). I also suggest using buffs from foods and potions, you can craft them really easy. It's amazing to see what you can do with the right tactics in this game. For example i was able to kill those two bears at start (you'll notice it's really hard to solo with a melee class on hard difficulty) with my level 2 monk alone with the help of a food buff(chicken), a healing potion used at the right time, and starting the fight with a crossbow attack then running away and switching to melee. Btw here's a good tip regarding potions: if you order an attack right after you used the potion (pause the moment you get the healing) your character starts attacking right away. If you don't click the character waits for about 2 seconds.

Yeah Mlatimudan, you may also want to lower constitution and add it to something else, but i thought it would synergize well with barbarian's very high endurance/health bonus since constitution gives a percentage bonus to health/endurance. Yes Jarlhen you do not need a high intelligence it's just not worth it imo... that is why i put 12 points to it. Now that i think about it, if carnage deals a percentage based damage and not a static one (like 1-6 dmg as it says in prima guide? hope its wrong), it might be more effective with two handed weapons. The reason being that the aoe damage of carnage is already low and it will deal very little damage against opponents with damage reduction and since two handed weapons do a large amount of damage per single hit it'll do more damage to them.

Keep in mind that there are really good light armors in the game that give only %15 or %20 attack speed reduction, so you can actually make your melee dps (rogue, barbarian, monk etc.) a bit tanky aswell.

You can do a good min max build but be careful about your positioning in combat. The thing with the rogue is sneak attack and backstab is really important and you might also want other party members to support your rogue. For example there is a druid spell that gives the enemy ''flanked'' debuff allowing you to sneak attack.

Aloth has such poor stats that it makes me want to build a wizard main character lol.

If you'll be ranged then i would take some points out of deflection stats, and put em on might and dexterity. But you need a good tank and position your cipher well.

So this is my barbarian build, i think many people might want to have a barbarian since there's no barbarian companion in the game. It's focused on high melee dps and it'll outdo most other classes in terms of dps when you're below %50 HP. Race: Human Meadow Folk (extra dps when your health is low, aumaua or dwarf are also good choices if you want different stats) Stats: 18 Might 18 constitution 16 dexterity 7 perception 12 intellect 7 resolve You may want to increase offensive stats even more, but it'll cost you deflection, so go ahead and increase them if you have a good tank in your party with high engagement limit and/or you're a good tactician when it comes to positioning. Culture: Doesn't matter since you can adjust the stats no matter which culture you choose, but if you want a score like 19 or even 20 pick accordingly. Background: Slave (we need athletics and survival skills) Gear: A good light or medium armor and two weapons, an item that gives you immunity to critical hits, as your deflection will be low. You will have high endurance and hp so no worries if you position yourself well. Two handed weapons if you don't care about Carnage as Carnage works better when you have fast attacks. Abilities (in order): Frenzy: A must have for dps, when upgraded it gives you +6 might and constitution and %33 attack speed bonus. Blooded: Double damage when your endurance is below %50, this is huge. Brute Force: Your attacks can target the enemy's fortitude if it is lower, giving you a great accuracy bonus when synergized with Threatening Presence. Threatening Presence: Makes the enemies near you sick. It's mainly a large fortitude debuff, synergises really well with Brute Force talent. With these two talents you make up for Barbarian's low starting accuracy, increasing your damage output by a large amount. Vengeful Defeat: You attack everyone around you when going down. Those hits will have all the bonuses that you get when you have -%50 endurance. Ouch. If some healer gets you up and you go down again it will trigger once more. Fun times... Heart of Fury: 1/rest you attack everyone around you with a large bonus damage. Another fun and effective ability, but you might take another one if you don't like that 1/rest part. Talents: Greater Frenzy: Upgrades your Frenzy ability. Two Weapon Style (%20 attack speed bonus, making your already high attack speed even higher) Barbaric Blow: An aoe attack with high damage, high crit chance and extra crit damage. 1/encounter. Yes please. The other talents are up to you, I just listed the really good class talents.