KDubya

You have to do that manually. There is no penalty to staying with ranged weapons while in melee combat so no reason to switch. It would be annoying if the game switched automatically.

All Rimecutter has going for it is speed. Unlabored Blade has a whole list of goodness that comes with it. I'd rather have Strike Hard warhammer with its speed and disorienting plus the dual damage type than Rimecutter. My favorite Rogue weapon is Starcaller Flail - fast speed, speed enchant, missile spell proc on crit and stun on crit. Rogues crit a lot. You will stun lock your foe. Add in the bash spell proc tattered veils shield and you will be a stun locking spell procing dynamo with a really good deflection.

Instead of Cautious Attack (which I think is a terrible talent - Superior Deflection gets you +5 deflection with no malus, Cautious Attack gets you another +3 deflection but at -20% attack speed and is a modal which has weird stacking rules), I'd look at the following: A.) Gallant Focus - not as good as the Zealous Focus but would let you run Zealous Endurance at the same time B.) Druid cross class Aspirants mark or whatever its called - deflection de-buff in a big area that lasts a long time C.) One of the +10 defense talents like Bulls Will D.) Weapon Focus - always good, a little limiting in what weapons you use but a solid choice. E.) Deep Pockets - use more quick slots F.) The health heal usable on allies - depending on you rest habits it can be useful G.) Vulnerable Attack - DR penetration is always good

It really depends on your team. If you roll with Priests and rest a lot than nothing else compares. If you roll without a Priest then a Chanter becomes mush more useful. My current team on PotD is a four man squad - Juggernaut 3.0 Monk, Pellaginna (Strike hard hammer and Outworn Buckler), Devil (starcaller flail and balgrdr shield) and Kana (weapon and shield). The whole team is durable so time in combat is not a problem. The two endurance regen auras keep everyone topped off on endurance, LoH is hardly used. Chanters have a lot of flexibility in picking their talents so they can grab a few cross class ones like Gallant's Focus and the Druid deflection debuff. They also have time at the start of combat to cast. For chants I use the +25% fire lash weaved in with the frighten, Dragon Thrash and the damage shield. This keeps the fire lash up 90%+ of the time. This greatly increases the damage output of the Juggernaut and the Devil, works well with Pellaginna as well with Scion of Flame. For invocations the level two paralyze lasts a really long time in a good sized area. Another great thing is the invocations are all foe only so you can blast away without concern. It really comes down to playstyle.

Retaliation no longer gets you focus. Might might not have as big of an effect on your weapon damage due to your +40% from whips but it is still the only way to up the damage on your spells. If you will be using spells for damage you'll want more Might. If you will primarily be doing CC, buffs and debuffs then Might can be kept at base 10.

Maybe use "The Plagiarizer" as he uses what others have written and passes it off as his own.

I run melee only parties with the AI and never really have these types of problems. I have them set to Aggressive auto attacks, no per rest and slow mode in combat. The Monk AI even uses his wounds fairly well on Torment spam. The only micro intensive part is if I start with ranged and then swap to melee after the first volley. Doorways sometimes get jammed up a little but is not bad, you just need to either wait back from the door and let a few enemies onto your side or rush into the room.

For that set up I'd go with: Kana - Knight focus - sword and shield. Stormbringer in one slot, swords and axes. I like the marking one from the Crucible Knights, have multiple slaying types that you swap to based on enemies. Steadfast can be good for the defensive buffs. His job is to stay alive and add a fire lash to everyone, occasionally let loose with a Dragon Thrash and drop some invocations in longer fights. Grab the two endurance regen auras, Gallant's Focus, and the druid cross class Zahua - Juggernaut fist monk. Only needs Durgan steel for his armor, plate works well PC Kind Wayfarer - Two handed with Estocs are nice, Blade of the Endless Paths is great, the Drakes Bell that you get from one of the early bounties is nice for early game. Or you can dual wield sabres. If Maneha is not using Tidefall that makes an excellent weapon. Maneha - If two handed go with Tidefall and St whatever's Redeemer for vessels. Superb quality, wounding, endurance drain and a lash all with Carnage. Or Unlabored Blade and Dragon Maw shield for more tanky Aloth - Whatever implement you like if you are going with blaster build Durance - I'd replace him with someone else. If you use to full effect the game is trivialized, the team is strong enough. Replace with Pelaginna.

Aloth or Kana can do the mechanics. Aloth might be better since kana is great at scroll reading due to a higher Might and Intellect. Only downside is keeping Aloth up near the front to find the traps. Some stealth, 1 or 2 is good for everyone to have. I used to get it to 6 or 7 back when Survival and Athletics were not so good. Now I tend to keep both it and Athletics at 1 or 2. Survival is really nice now. If in doubt take survival, at level 14 you can get +60% healing which is great. The on kill heal from Kind Wayfarer is AoE, scales with Might and level, and heals like 2/3rds of a LoH. You don't need to get every kill to make it useful, just one or two per encounter will make a big difference. Boreal dwarves get a huge +15 accuracy against Primordials and Wilders. Lots of enemies, lots of tough enemies fall under this. It is especially powerful at low levels making it easier to handle trolls, xaurips, forest lurkers, ogres, those woodsy druid things, mushrooms and the stunning fish people. There are lots of great headgear now which makes Godlikes less attractive. At low levels the Moon Godlike heal is especially powerful. I just really dislike the godlikes in general and tend to not use any of them. Resolve is great for the tough guy dialogue options but with some items, Caed Nua resting and even food you can buff a base 10 up to whatever is needed. I would not drop below a 10 for any melee. Deflection is easy enough to raise without investing in Resolve. It is better to pump Might and use a shield than to pump Resolve and dual wield or two hander if you want better deflection.

One of your guys needs to get to 13 or higher mechanics. You can find gloves that give you +2, resting at Caed Nua can get you +2 but that gets to be a pain plus you miss out on better bonuses. With your team Aloth and Kana both start with 1 level of Mechanics. You'll need 66 skill points to get there without the gloves. Your PC Paladin can be the mechanic expert with the right starting culture you'll start with one level of mechanics. You can also get in game reward ability for another skill level which will leave you needing 55 skill points. A perk of being your own mechanic is that you can freely swap out team members instead of needing to always bring the one expert. For Order I'd pick one that you can roleplay and stay in character. Pay attention to whatever their disfavored dispositions are. I like Kind Wayfarers the best but all are good. For Race I really like boreal Dwarves and really dislike Moon Godlike. Pale Elves are a solid choice and Island Aumaua are great with the extra weapon slot, with immunities you need to have more than one weapon type. Might and Intellect are both important for a Paladin, everything else is up to you. I'd avoid dumping anything below 10.

All of the hit to crit abilities stack.

Your plan sounds fine. It'd be nice to fit a Monk in there as well. I'd keep the two Chanters if you like them, two regen auras will be sweet as well as two Dragon Chants and the fire lash Retaliation is not as good as it once was, but a sword and board rogue still does a bunch of damage but is much more survivable. If you want the NPC's they do a pretty good job even without min maxing them. Devil of Caroc is pretty tanky, Eder does fine as a Fighter, Kana makes a fine Chanter, Pellagina has some unique abilities that make her very good and unique, Zahua makes a good Monk and even Maneha has pretty good stats for a Barbarian.

Try it with the Dragon maw soulbound shield. It has a 25% chance to proc taste of the hunt on hit or crit. It does raw damage and heals you.

It really depends on your party. I don't bring Priests and usually don't have any casters. I don't have the entire enemy field crowd controlled all the time. For me, with my team set up and house rules distraction is a great ability. With it I can send my Rogue around the flank of the melee scrum and roll them up setting up my own deathblows just by flanking. I also give my Rogue, usually Devil, a shield to help her survive in melee. For accuracy buffs I'm limited to Gallant's aura, weapon spec, the Druid cross class marking, Reckless Assault, enemy debuffs from chants and flanking. With my set up an additional +8 from Perception is noticeable especially for the first eight levels. I also avoid re-speccing a major change like 18 Perception to start and then 10 Perception later. My Rogue will roll with Starcaller and chain stun with a fast weapon. Now that weapon stun effects are true stuns they are the go to weapon of choice for me. Prone is really inferior to stun. Mabec's Morningstar, Cladhaliath, Borreasine and Starcaller are weapons to build around now instead of We Toki and Tall Grass.

The only high level abilities I like are Sap and Feign Death can have use if you have backstab and also have the cloak that casts invisible when crit. Reckless Assault is a great ability, +8 accuracy is worth a talent on its own. This lets you use a large shield for free or better yet use the medium shield with the bashing and the spell proc for Tattered veils and still have +4 accuracy. All the damage is additive so you are correct that Rogues have the easiest time leaving Might at a base 10 without really changing their damage output. I like to dump Intellect on Rogues and add it to Resolve. With the new distracted when flanking ability you can set up your own deathblows just by positioning, no need for depending on any self induced afflictions or caring about their duration. Deep Wounds resets with every hit so Intellect only helps if you are trying to affect multiple people at once. My Rogues tend to go with something like this: Boreal Dwarf or Heath Orlan (the one with the crits) Might 12 Con 10 Dex 18 Per 18 Int 3 (4 if I'll be using Tall Grass as you need a minimum of a buffed 8 (easy to get with food and one item) Intellect to chain prone with a two hander) Using a fast flail with stun (starcaller) lets you get by with a 3. Res 17 Using the bash shield with the spell proc and Starcaller he gets a lot of crits which will stun lock and kill a single target pretty fast

Check out Boereor's Riptide melee ranger build for some good discussion and ideas. Pet's can take an ability that gets a big +50% damage boost against targets under the effect of a DoT. There are a two melee weapons that have a DoT effect, a two handed weapon and a one handed weapon. With these you can go two handed, weapon and shield or dual wield. Using a shield will make you much more tanky, the other two styles will do more damage. Stunning shots work with melee and the duration is affected by your intellect. With the goal of being able to chain stun the target, you'd want a 10+ Intellect if you are using a two handed weapon, but a fast one hander would let you get by with a much lower Intellect like a 3. This would free up a lot of stat points for other uses, but since you want at least a normal Will defense the points you drop from intellect would be put into Resolve. A 10/10 Intellect/Resolve is the same Will as a 3/17 Intellect/Resolve. The 3/17 would get you some good dialogue, good concentration and better deflection but would have greatly reduced durations so you'd want to avoid those types of abilities. Rangers have the highest base accuracy so you could leave Perception at 10. Or you could max it out to get more crits and a high interrupt chance. The high interrupt can mitigate incoming damage but if you are chain stunning a target you can't be attacked anyway. Dexterity is always good for action speed and faster attacks. Even with zero recovery a high dexterity will attack faster. Might is always useful for more damage. Rangers have a lower base endurance and health so Constitution has less of an effect but you still would not want to drop below 10.

In my opinion the only dialogue worth investing in Dragon meat is the Alpine Dragon. I think you need a 19 so a base 10 + dragon meat + ring + resting = 19 This comes in handy if you are low level and want the vambraces with the DR penetration but can't kill the dragon yet. I frequently choose standard dialogue responses instead of a special attribute response if it fits more in character. Going out of your way to achieve lots of dialogue choices is just not needed.

I'd stay away from dumping constitution. Your high deflection will not help against spells or CC. Getting proned or stunned due to a low Fortitude will get you killed. Also many attacks do raw damage which will quickly drop you with your low endurance. Triggered immunity only works against one damage type. If you are being beat on with Great Swords (slash/pierce) it'd do nothing. Same if you were being hit by multiple sources. Better in my opinion to not tank your con, maybe even add a few points and use Unbending (the one that gives you a 50% heal over time) when you really need to tank something. I have not tried it but I thought of a build using quarterstaffs for the reach. Get the one with the extra engagement, add in hold the line or defender for 3-5 engagements. The extra reach would allow you to engage farther away. If they move your prone attack would get them. I'd keep Resolve at base 10 as deflection is easy to raise, maybe move the points into Perception to really max out on accuracy and go heavy for interrupts.

I caught the Madonna song reference first thing, thought it was pretty clever. Always thought she looked her best in that video before she got all skinny and weird/political in her later years. I must be too old as well I'd think a Fire Godlike would do well with the frequently low endurance and the AoE fire damage to add to the fun. You'd be like a birthday cake candle that stays lit.

When I think of "manipulative" I think high Intellect not high Resolve. The Intellect dialogue gets you the loophole type of situations, Resolve gets you the steadfast high conviction type. For me I'd go high Intellect and not both high Intellect and Resolve. With that you'd have the stat points for a high Might stat which will help your spell damage considerably while a few points of deflection from Resolve are easily found elsewhere. Using a shield will get you a huge amount of deflection and reflex, which will make up for your average or even dumped dexterity With your original plan: Might - 10 or 16 Con - 10 Dex - 10 or 4 Per - 16 Int - 16 Res - 16 I'd go with Might 16 Con - 10 Dex -10 Per -16 Int - 16 Res - 10 Either would work fine, I try to avoid dumping stats if I can Using AoE damage chants like Dragon Thrash will help keep the enemy focused on you. A high Might will make a big difference as that is pretty much the only damage add that affects your Dragon Thrash. Having a low dex will adversely affect your weapon damage but won't change your chant or invocation damage so it depends on how you plan on damaging things. Look at Boereor's Drake Ambassador build in the sticky, it has a lot of good ideas in it for Chanters.

Confuse scrolls are always a great opening move. Summon three figurines and throw three Confuse scrolls into the pack. Should cause enough confusion in their ranks to let you start to snipe the priests. This will also get them before their buffs are up. A Stormcaller Ranger would definitely help. I found Kana to be a great help with either the level two paralyze or charm to be really useful. They were quick enough to use often and I'd use whichever had a better chance of landing. If you can paralyze their soldiers they are a lot easier to hit.

Barbarians and Carnage do really well with the soulbound weapons. Give Unlaboured Blade and the Dragon Maw shield to Maneha and enjoy the show. Twin Sting is a nice crossbow, good for two quick shots before going into melee or save for getting a kill and get Merciless Gaze for the duration. Steadfast is nice for the Terrify immunity and the attack Will Stormcaller is broken good on a Ranger Ryona's breastplate is also a great item. I just wish that more were open to other classes, I'd love Dragon Maw on a Paladin, Rogue or a Captain America Monk. Twin Sting would be nice for many as well.

As others have stated getting Threatening Presence is good to debuff the enemies so that the stunning weapon you are using can more easily pass the check. Once they are stunned the massive -30 defelection debuff will let you keep critting them. Brute Force is not needed, it only works well when stacked with Painful Interdiction when you are not using a stunning weapon but why would you do that?

At high level you want to have level thirteen mechanics. Even then you will not be able to disarm all traps, you need fourteen for that. Without finding the gloves it'll take a lot of skill points and only Rogues can realistically get to level fourteen mechanics. A Rogue can start with level three mechanics at creation which drops the investment to 66 skill points, if its your MC you can get a quest talent that will drop it by 10 points to 55. This lets you take lots of other skills. With starting level two mechanics MC you need 78 skill points, 66 with the quest talent With starting level one mechanics you need 91 skill points, 78 with the quest talent. At level 16 you have 90 skill points.

I found starting off summoning every figurine I had in between them and us gave the enemy a target for all of their alpha strikes. After that is was just a slugging match where I tried to kill the priests and druids. On PotD upscaled, level 16 with Kind Wayfarer, Pellaginna, Zahua, Maneha, Kana and Devil. No casters no priests.