Climhazzard

Even a tank can do some damage with the right weapon, I usually give Eder the Resolution saber, on my current playthrough his best normal crit with it is 51 and most of his normal hits are in the 10-20 range. He doesn't crit to much though since he's using a large shield and it's a PotD run. Pretty much any 2 hander will crit in the 30-40 range quite often, a cipher with an arbalest will hit in the 50+ range all the time, rogues too. Later in the game you'll have higher quality weapons which helps quite a bit.

Recently discovered this awesome tactic, my cipher and monk might fall in love with each other, works even better with fast runner on the monk (or long stride). Finally got around to doing a run on PotD, nearly done now, so far it's been a lot easier than I was expecting, few comments based on my PotD run... My monk is still tearing **** up per usual, only noticed the change in difficulty level in the early levels (shades and phantoms). Eder is still pretty much unkillable, which I wasn't really expecting because I've read in this thread that his defenses don't cut it in PotD (they clearly do). Kana still doesn't usually have enough time to use his invocations, which is disappointing, invocations are like a rare novelty in this game. He's performing just fine as an offtank though even though it's PotD. Aloth has come into his own due to Eldritch aim. I still don't like the grimoire mechanic, and certain spell tiers feel pretty lacking compared to others. Grieving mother is still great as always, though now I often have to wait for inspiring radiance or other accuracy buffs before I use mental binding. Durance, with his accuracy buffs and other utilities, seems even more necessary than before. My monk thanks Hiravias for his sacrifice to the blood pool....

I get usually get the resolution saber ASAP, the persistence hunting bow, and the quarterstaff hidden on level 3, then turn back and return later. So basically I go down to level 4 as soon as I'm able then come back later when the party is stronger. On my PotD playthrough I waited a bit longer to start though because the Defiance bay xp is a lot easier.

Both rings (of Wizardry) are to my knowledge not random drops. One can be bought in Copperlane market and the other, as mentioned above, is in Pearlwood Bluff in cave. There is also the priest ring in Copperlane Price of that ring went up so much in the latest version..

I'm sure there's a ring in Pearlwood bluff that adds wizard spells and is there every run, pretty sure...

With a that party composition you're definitely going to want Durance.

I just wish I had some better portraits for Moon Godlike, female in particular. I've found a lot of good portraits but none for Moon Godlike. I guess it's okay that I don't have any though because I get the feeling that Moon Godlike would make the game to easy when you aren't soloing.

This is extremely easy to duplicate and is being caused by the "deprive the unworthy" ability used by the Paladins in the Noonfrost area.

If Aloth gets charmed try not to get him caught in your Ectopsychic echo, he drops like a rock...

If it's my monk with a crappy hunting bow equipped she always seems to switch to it, so I ignore her. For the most party my parties often have crappy ranged weapons that they will use so I ignore them, but if it's someone who does have a strong range weapon spec then I try to CC them either with paralyze or re charm/dominate.

I like boar, the regen is nice even if you're not fighting someone in melee.

He hit himself with Pillar of Holy Fire? lol

Explanations and suggestions incoming. Beginning with the tactic used to win, then suggestions for each character. Basically, I ran the whole party out the door as soon as the battle began, then stacked up 2 chill fogs (spread out to cover a large area), followed by chucking fireballs into the room until everything died. Grieving mother did literally nothing, Kana did literally nothing, Durance cast inspiring radiance, circle of protection, one iconic projection, and maybe one consecrated field. Character suggestions Eder- Well, as previously mentioned, defender wasn't activated which is a big deal for your tank so get that turned on. Bonuses from items don't stack, so that extra ring of protection is pretty useless, same with the gloves (they won't stack with the cloak). Plate is superior to Brigandine hands down, so you'll want to pick some up (you have more than enough materials to enchant some plate to fine), it didn't matter to much though, Eder hardly even took any damage. The Guan's Share flail isn't bad, but it's not Ruffian spec so it isn't your best option even if you want endurance drain, there is a stilleto in the same area that you fought Maerwald that also has endurance drain, I recommend you get it if you haven't sold it off already, it's on the big spider. Kana- Your party has 4 squishies, I recommend you give Kana a shield and some tanking talents if you're going to use him, weapon/shield spec, superior deflection, hold the line, cautions attack, etc. For his phrases, I recommend using "Lo, their endless host, the harbingers doom" (it's one of his default phrases), it frightens your opponents which reduces their accuracy. The gun reload phrase is pretty good but your party may not take the best advantage of it. You actually had him set to using his default phrase combination which sucks. For his invocations, the only decent tier one invocation is the phantasm, there are a couple of good options from the tier 2 invocations, the 3 worm summon and the huge aoe paralyze. Durance- You can't really go wrong with priests, though you're using heavier armor than I usually do, that's alright if it's your preference. As for spells to use for most battles, a few to keep in mind. Tier 1- Armor of Faith, whole team takes less damage. Blessing, whole team has better accuracy (doesn't stack with inspiring radiance). Withdraw, can save team members from certain doom, or when combined with consecrated ground can turn your priest into an invincible healing battery. Tier 2- Consecrated ground, the best healing spell, heals everyone around the priest for a long period of time. Iconic projection, another great healing spell, can heal your whole team from a good distance away. Divine mark, powerful deflection debuff + damage over time. Repulsing seal, semi decent crowd control you can use against enemies around your tank in a pinch. Grieving mother- I recommend marksman, gunner, an arbalest, and the soldier weapon focus. But marksman, your preferred ranged weapon, and the weapon focus it falls into will also work fine. Mental binding is really a really great CC spell, you need to get it as soon as you can. I tried to use her puppet mastery for your battle but it never went off properly, target died or something... Your wizards- Wizard spells are partly preference, I do enjoy using slicken which is missing from your tier 1 spells, and eldritch aim is great against high defense opponents which was also missing from your tier 1 spells. Fan of flames + the scion of flame talent deep fries opponents at any point during the game, I noticed it wasn't equipped either. There are lots of good spells with plenty of tactical uses, read them all and experiment!

Get mental binding for Grieving mother ASAP...

Thank you.

Where do the save files go? (Where are they located?)

Challenge accepted, I'll try in a little while.

"I have not even examined all the spells I have" Would probably help a lot if you started by examining them, the spells in this game give it tactical depth. Opening fights with crowd control on enemy spellcasters is a good idea. If the spells aren't sticking you aren't leveled up enough or you need to buff your accuracy first via blessing or inspiring radiance, inspiring radiance casts faster so start with that. You can cast inspiring radiance then a mental binding (fast cast speed) from Grieving mother before a priest can even cast a pillar spell (average cast speed), then follow up with enough ranged damage to down the enemy spellcaster before the paralysis wears off. Depending on your team composition there are a lot of options, like using withdraw on anyone you think might get knocked out, if you do it on someone in a doorway they'll block it until the spell wears off. A priest that casts consecrated ground followed by withdraw on himself is an invincible healing battery. Anyways, if you can't figure it out, just leave and come back when you're stronger, there's tons of easier fights and Xp in Defiance bay.

I kinda think that the Shod-In-Faith boots work quite well with any front line combatant, since they're the ones more likely to be taking the hits that trigger the boot's enchantment. That said, monk probably synergizes it the best. I have those boots on my monk, IIRC. Well, you have to be crit for them to activate, so they don't do much good on the feet of your tank, but they're great on any other frontline combatants. I have a different definition of tank than you do, I'm thinking. Maybe, mine usually has enough deflection stacked that he doesn't get crit, that's all I mean.

I kinda think that the Shod-In-Faith boots work quite well with any front line combatant, since they're the ones more likely to be taking the hits that trigger the boot's enchantment. That said, monk probably synergizes it the best. I have those boots on my monk, IIRC. Well, you have to be crit for them to activate, so they don't do much good on the feet of your tank, but they're great on any other frontline combatants.

My priests are always dead last in damage dealt for the team, lol. Not sure if there's any way to be a damage dealer.

If I understand how consecrated ground works, when it says 7.8 healed over 1.3 seconds, and lasts for 25 seconds, it's healing for 150 HP, i don't really know if that's the case but I think it is. "Shod in faith" work the same as far as I can tell, they're pretty amazing for monks.

Human actually works great on a monk when in a party, just drop a pain tolerance on them when they reach 50% and watch them destroy everything. Using the "shod in faith" boots works pretty great too. I can see moonlike being pretty amazing for monk, never played one though because I don't like how they look.

To answer the question in your title, level 7 or 8 is fine for everything in the Dyrford area.

Wyrmund is the guy in the Dyrford ruins? Honestly you should do that area after you've leveled up a bit, do the quests in Defiance bay first they're easier. I cleared the endless paths by level 9 once (except the boss), but it's not to easy. You can start around level 5 and just leave when it gets hard, there are master staircase exits that allow you to return to the surface when you find them (every other level or so). The furthest I made it starting with a level 4/5 party, on hard, was around floor 8. But starting at that level I honestly don't expect to make it further than floor 5 if that. The game isn't really unbalanced if you know what order to do things in, in fact it becomes too easy. First playthrough you'll encounter stuff that's to hard or easy, but that's just a downside to games that aren't a railroad (linear), find other areas and come back later. My recommendation is defiance bay and the first 4 or 5 levels of the endless paths.