Onuist

It stacks for me. You must have the double click to equip armor bug. I have 24 freeze DT from pale elf + secrets of rime + scale armor.

Secrets of Rime works for me. It took me ~3 dozen tests, but I finally got Winter Wind to exceed its maximum damage on a regular hit. Also the bonus is multiplicative with Might, not additive, so you get a little bonus damage. Winter Wind did 72 Freeze damage on a normal hit vs. a naked companion, with maximum base damage 50 and a 21% Might bonus. Maximum damage would be 61 per its tooltip if the talent were broken (1.21 * 50 = 60.5), 71 if damage were additive (1.21 + 1.2 = 1.41 * 50 = 70.5), and 73 if damage were multiplicative (1.21 * 1.2 = 1.45 * 50 = 72.5).

Has anyone else found Expert detracts from immersion by hiding spell templates? I wish it added minor randomization to arc and area, instead. It makes me sad that I have to disable immersion mode if I want to share my character's understanding of his own magic. Arcs and areas are abstractions that probably never cross his mind, but I need a visual representation of those to have some idea of what he's experiencing - things like how wind feels forming in his hands, how hard/far/wide he thinks he can direct it and if he intends to make it blow away from him in a cone or fall from the sky in a pillar. Unless I've used a spell in another playthrough with templates on, I'm randomly hoping Winter Wind hits more than one wolf and cursing Vile Thorns for reaching less than halfway to the nearest troll. I know I could click through each spell I'm considering, read the area and extrapolate who it might include, but that level of scholarly pursuit is way more disruptive to my immersion than quickly seeing the shape my character expects his spell to take. I'm trying to have the most immersive experience possible. Expert, Path of Iron, Hard. But I had to turn Expert off because spells kept surprising me (often with the character creation screen). I appreciate that casters are manipulating inherently imprecise effects in the heat of frantic combat, so aiming every spell with perfect precision is unrealistic, but randomly hoping a spell has vaguely applicable dimensions disconnects me a lot more than lining up a template.