KDubya

It depends. If your ranged guy is using a very slow arbalest or arquebus, it would probably be better to swap to an accurate weapon and shield, like a spear or club. Maybe even try for a damage type other than what your ranged damage is in case you meet an immune. There is no penalty for using ranged weapons in melee range, its just that they tend to be slower than melee for the same damage. Also the swapping to a weapon and shield is more about getting more deflection to survive the attack rather than an attempt to kill the attacker. For my wizards I like the Grimoire Slam that is usable once per encounter. It always hits and always knocks back such that I can run away or re-acquire the enemy with someone sturdier than the wizard.

I have one game going with two Paladins, Eder, Sagani. Kana and Aloth. So four melee and a pet. All supported with melee type chants and two aura - the accuracy and the DR booster. Haven't really had cases where the frontline folds except when I tried the Ogres in the endless path when I was too low. Worst case someone does a bonehead move and runs after something shiny and eats a few disengagements, but the rest can cover. Also once I get four chants in the ten second petrify cone usually seals the deal. Double paladins are just sick. For grins I should make a party with three Paladins and run all the auras.

The main reason I dump intellect is to get the thug type dialogue options that need a high resolve. Not needed and many will say that it is not a good idea anyway

What I've done for testing auto attacks with different weapons and builds is to set up a fight between test mercs at an inn. Spec identical Rangers with vicious aim and penetrating shot. Have one activate the talent and have them shoot each other and watch the results. If I remember from before when I ran this I found that war bows did best with vicious aim and penetrating shot compared to swift aim or compared to vicious without the penetrating shot. The methodology works well for seeing if more might is better than more dex and other stat type tests. There are some quirks in that it is considered out of combat so endurance regens constantly but health loss will show who is getting the worst of the fight. This only works for auto attacks. Be careful testing Rogues as every attack will be a sneak attack. I remember at least for the melee battles that if both were in plate then the armor penetrating talent was always better even with two handers and even with estocs.

I like to dump intellect and add to resolve for the following reasons: 1.) My will save stays the same with 3 intellect and 17 resolve as with 10 and 10 2.) Dialogue for high resolve is better for a bad ass rogue. I'm more of a thug then a quick witted dashing swashbuckler type. 3.) Concentration and deflection are always useful 4.) A Rogue does not have any AoE so nothing lost here. 5.) A Rogue has a few duration based abilities but there loss is acceptable. I take crippling strike for the two full attacks at +25% not for a longer hobble. Deep Wounds has the timer reset each time you hit so a short duration makes no difference as long as you keep hitting the same target. Maybe a ranged rogue gets use out of shooting everyone once to let the poison do its thing but as a melee rogue I attack and kill them one after another. 6. My skills will be mechanics, stealth, athletics and whatever left in lore. I'll need to avoid using scrolls with durations but that is easily accomplished. My one concern is that the prone on crit effect from Tall Grass might be too small. In that case I'll just have to pick a different weapon Fighters can also benefit from trading intellect for resolve. With the new duration on their passive regen I at first thought that dumping intellect would be terrible but after further analysis I think it is still a fine way to build a fighter. The passive regen would last 58 seconds instead of 90 seconds. This won't really make a difference as the effect is so weak anyway you won't be able to tell. Knockdown goes from 5 seconds to 3.5 seconds, which is not great but it is worth it for +21 concentration and +7 deflection. The best defensive talent is vigorous defense which lasts 9.8 seconds instead of 15 seconds. Again not great but I'd rather have +7 deflection all the time and -13 deflection for 5.2 seconds per fight.

All of them would work, pick one that you like. If it were me I'd avoid any of the races that get bonus abilities when you get damaged or when your endurance drops below 50%. My reasoning is that if your Rogue is doing its job its not going to be taking damage, if you start taking damage you'll probably get KO'd soon there after. That narrows it down to the more offensive ones. Death Godlike, Boreal Dwarf, Heath Orlan (the one with the hit>crit), Island Amaumau. I have an Island Amaumau Rogue PotD, using pikes, arbalest and a war hammer & shield on switch. Dumped intellect at a 1:1 into Resolve, 15 Might, 15 perception and 17 dex, 3 int and 18 resolve (put the extra point for dialogue instead of dex), 10 con. Standing in the second row he usually never takes damage. He can't set up his own flanking but he also doesn't get splatted when someone turns around to hit him when he is behind the enemy lines. Once I acquire Tall Grass it will totally rock.

The tip I have is to decide what is important for the chant in a particular battle and stick to that. If you're in melee have the chant be the one that frightens the enemy for -10 accuracy, maybe add in the -10% slash damage one but don't throw the running speed and the will booster chants in there as well, it'd only delay the parts of the chant that you need then. If you have multiple gun users just sing the one gun speed chant as that is what is important. Have one chant be only the shortest ones in situations where you want to get to your invocations or summons in the shortest time frame. Sometimes you can suicide scout with summons at the end of the battle. Cast your summon as far away as you can and have them go look for more enemies. As long as they get into combat before the main combat ends or the time expires they will continue to be around. Sometimes the first group will still be alive when you can summon another group to back them up.

Another thing to be careful of is the new AI doing something stupid. I've had my frontline melee run after one enemy who dis-engaged causing the other three or four enemies to hit with three critical disengagement attacks and drop my idiot melee in a matter of seconds. I wish that they'd never willingly take a disengagement attack. Running away can still be fine as long as you can draw the enemy far enough away so that if combat ends and your KO'd guys stand back up, they have enough time to fully regen. It's not as if you have a choice on Trial of iron any way Better a chance of escape and having the KO'd get back up then to not run and have to re-start.

Go with a nice balanced build, there are less good reasons to do extreme min maxing, especially for a Paladin who benefits from everything. I'd keep everything at 10, choose three to be at 15 and have 3 left over to add to whatever picks your fancy. I like 15 Might, 13 con, 10 dex, 10 per, 15 intellect and 15 resolve for a defensive minded Paladin. For race pick whatever appeals to you as a role-player. The stat bonuses only come into play if you try for a maximum. The racial abilities are all useful in one way or another. I like Pale Elves for the extra DR versus fire and frost, Boreal Dwarves for the bonus versus two common enemy types (and for being Dwarves), Amaumau get extra defenses or another weapon slot, humans get stronger when damaged, even both types of Orlans have abilities that'd be useful. The same for starting culture - pick what sounds good as a role-player. Or grab the one that starts with the Brigandine heavy armor. Getting 10 DR at the start makes a big difference and will carry you until you can get plate. The stat bonus only makes a difference if you are going for a maximum. For the Paladin Order definitely take what ever one appeals to your sense of role-play as defined by their preferred personality traits and their negative. If you can't be cruel and aggressive don't be a Bleak Walker, if you need to get the most personal power at any cost and will commit atrocities to get it don't pick an Order that dislikes cruel. The talents available are not game changing and add a little flavor. I'd also recommend going without the dialogue help on so that you need to pick the response that you like instead of clicking on the "right" choice.

Pellegrina - Paladins are naturally better suited to be durable in melee and her balanced stats will work adequately whichever way you spec her. Eder - with a sabre and a shield his high con and might make him a good melee combatant. Kana - his usefulness depends more on his just surviving to sing and invoke/summon. This frees up his talents to be able to take the more defensive ones and his high might is not bad for hitting with some authority. Give him heavy armor, large shield, weapon and shield style and cautious attack and he can get a fairly decent deflection. I set him up repeating the -10% slash chant with the frighten the enemy for -10 accuracy to further help the team defend. Later you can give him the fire weapon enchant to boost damage on the team. Durance - has really high resolve for naturally higher deflection. I always have him in the back casting but you could give him heavy armor and a shield and I suppose he can serve well at the front. The heavy armor will slow his spell casting which is his main job. Zahua (the new Monk) - I haven't started the expansion yet so I don't know his stats, but assuming that none of his stats are dumped below 10 he'd be able to frontline melee. Give him heavy armor, equip a fist & shield on one weapon set, take Duality of Mortal Presence for the +8 deflection, take weapon and shield style if you want to go further down the tanky route. You can even waste one talent by taking both dual weapon style and weapon and shield style so that what ever he is fighting with he does it better and gives you more flexibility.

I look at the weapon groups, especially if it is for a Fighter who'll be taking focus, spec and mastery. I like ones that give me flexibility with good melee and ranged options. I'm also starting to really like Island Aaumau for the tactical flexibility of an extra free weapon slot. 1.) Soldier - probably the best one. You get a reach two hander- pike- a dual type two hander - great sword - , a dual type single - warhammer - and two strong alpha striking ranged - arbalest and arquebus. 2.) Adventurer - Estocs are the most damaging two handers, flails are good with the graze>hit but I wish they were normal speed, and war bows are a solid ranged weapon when you want to shoot more than once. 3.) Ruffian - Sabres, stillettos, pistols and blunderbuss are all good. Only downside is that there are not any two handers in the group. 4.) Peasant - the reaching quarterstaff and the accurate spear are the standouts here. 5.) Knight - crossbow is not a bad ranged weapon, not as strong for the alpha strike as the soldier group but better than war bow. Morning stars have the strongest interrupt and axes and swords do well as onehanders. 6.) The rest - maces seem great but are grouped with terrible ranged weapons - rods or something like that and no two handers. With the new immunities the dual type weapons have gained in importance. You don't want to be caught with the same damage type in both slots when you find something immune.

With the Ogres in the Endless Path I had a case where everyone was dropped except Sagani who was running from the last Ogre Druid to maintain distance while stopping to shoot. The Ogre gave up the chase and walked back which ended the combat and the five KO'd stood up and where seen by the returning Ogre who proceeded to splat them all again since they only had a few endurance. The five were KO'd again before Sagani was able to re-engage so combat once again stopped. The five, some now maimed, stood up which then started the combat again with the Druid but this time they got killed instead of KO'd. I ended up reloading an earlier save. On Ironman this would have ended up with a real lack of story companions and even a restart if the MC was among the dead.

Does it work with crossbows or arbalests? People say it works with bows and not guns but I've not seen anything about crossbows.

Neither is weak, both are fun but their playstyle are very different. The Cipher gets great damage buffs of +40% which they use to fuel their focus which powers their spells. Everything is per encounter, as long as you can do damage you can cast until everything is dead. They can engage safely from range with bows or guns, from the second row with a staff or pike, or even run into melee range. This can all change with a simple weapon switch. Very versatile. Their spells do good damage and have some of the best crowd control available. With re-spec you can try out different spells and see what you like for a small cost in gold. Rangers do great single target damage from range and get a pet that is much more useful now. You can take talents and abilities to make your pet better or you can treat him as the fire and forget cruise missile that he is. I figure the pet will die and in fact that is his job. Now the pet survives longer, does better damage and with a Lay on Hands can last much longer. This lets you take more talents and abilities that make you a better sniper. When the pet dies you get -10 accuracy, with the new Perception you probably have +8-10 accuracy so you are about as accurate after the pet is dead as you were before with the pet alive. Give the Ranger the Hold the Wall Arbalest from Guilded Vale with the now functioning +20% speed enchant, upgrade as needed to fine>exceptional, maybe slap on a lash and you have a good weapon for the game. Grab the swift Aim modal, and anything that increases your accuracy or firing/reload rate. It hits hard enough that you won't need the damage penetrating modal that bow users need to get past DR.

If you had two second row reach weapon users, a Rogue and a Barb, what weapons would you give them? I was thinking of Tall Grass for the Rogue since his accuracy will be +13 higher due to base plus Reckless and will have some hit>crit as well. The Rogue will get more crits which will cause more prones and more sneak attacks. For the Barb I was thinking of the pike that causes defense debuff on hit. But I can't remember any other good reach weapons. I remember a staff with attack speed but I think that was in the act III city and did not have any on hit effects. I'll have successfully downloaded the White March by then so weapons from there are available as well.

Drats!!!!! If it wasn't for those darn kids we would have gotten away with it! You got us, only god mode will make us happy. We should be thankful that Critical Defense doesn't make us get hit more (like Defender) instead of only being equivalent to 3 points of deflection.

A fighter can take knockdown which gets two uses per encounter of a base 5 second prone. That's it. It is nice but it is only single target and only two uses per encounter. A monk can take stunning blows which gets two uses per encounter and a base 3 second stun. A wizard at level 9 can cast Slicken for an AoE knockdown at least four times per encounter. Clear out gets you a cone knockdown once per rest and is available I think at level 9. This is the extent of the super awesome fighter CC, a single target twice per encounter and a cone usable once per rest For damage a Fighter can take weapon specialty for +15% damage and weapon mastery for +10% damage. This applies only to weapons in the same group. This cost one ability and one talent. The Fighter can also take Confident Aim which gets you +20% minimum damage and 20% graze>hit both of which only apply to melee. This is approximately equal to +13.5 % damage when accuracy = deflection, at higher levels of deflection the effective damage increases. All in for damage a Fighter gets +38.5% damage to melee weapons in his preferred weapon group for a cost of two abilities and a talent. A Cipher starts with +20% damage buff to all weapons via Soul Whip, one talent takes this to +40%. A Rogue can take Reckless Assault for +8 Accuracy, +20% damage and -8 deflection. Together this is effectively +37.8% damage and costs one ability +8 accuracy is worth - 0-7 miss 8-42 graze 43-93 hit 93-100 crit Unit damage is 0.35*0.5+0.5*1+0.08*1.5 = 0.795 compared to base 0.675 is an increase of 17.8% damage when base accuracy = deflection A Monk can take swift strikes and lightning strikes getting him +25% attack speed and a +25% lightning lash. This cost one ability, one talent and one wound. All three can get higher damage with a smaller investment than a Fighter. The Fighter is much more durable than a Rogue or a Cipher so the comparison is not apples to apples. But if you compare a max offensive Fighter with a defensive Rogue with weapon and shield style (to counteract the Reckless Assault) the unbuffed deflection is similar while the health and endurance are in the Fighter's favor but his damage is much lower due to sneak attacks. A Fighter and a Monk are in the same league as far as durability and general tankiness, with the Monk pulling ahead with damage and CC. A Fighter will out damage a Paladin. No one is asking for a Fighter to be able to out tank a Paladin or out damage a Rogue. People are asking for some sort of buff to Defender in the form of better disengagement attacks or a knockdown effect on disengagement. Changing Clear Cut to be per encounter. Basically a few small changes would add flavor to a Fighter as well as functionality.

If your Paladin is standing in a doorway such that no one can physically get past him, then the only thing that matters is that the Paladin does not die. In this situation you do not need accuracy, damage, engagements, nothing needed except staying alive. In any sort of open area where enemies can run past your Paladin, many will do so if they calculate that the potential disengagement attack that your Paladin can muster is weak from a low damage or low accuracy. Usually a few will flank your Paladin and then the rest will go for the casters. Having additional melee will keep at least one additional enemy occupied in the front and allow room for any extra enemies to choose to stay and flank your melee instead of going after your casters. I've found that having 3 melee and a ranger pet gives me a sufficient melee front to absorb and contain pretty much all of the attention of the enemies. This allows my 3 ranged guys to do their thing in peace. For a Paladin priority I'd first decide what I want from him and then design to achieve that goal. If you want a durable frontline melee that adds an aura, some heals and other helpful exhortations, I'd go for balanced stats with a focus on intellect, resolve and constitution but not dropping anything below a 10. His attacks won't be rogue quality but he will be effective and discourage disengagements. If you are going with two Paladins, then you could have at least one focus more on damage and make up for their defensive shortcomings with the buffs from the other Paladin, many of which can only be used on someone else. Instead of weapon and shield you could go big two hander and get your deflection from the other Paladin's reinforcing exhortation while everyone benefits from two auras. This way you can be just as annoying as those groups of multiple Paladins are at Raedric's castle. For talents for tanking weapon and shield style is always good, or at least have a weapon and shield on switch. If you need more deflection Superior Deflection is nice at +5 with no malus. Cautious Attack gets you +8 but at the cost of -20% attack speed. Vigorous Defense is a nice defensive buff, Unbroken is good if you can't spare a second chance item. Into the Fray can let Eder pull annoying priests or mages into melee range without having to eat a disengagement attack to run after them. The other Fighter defensive abilities like Unyielding, and Critical Defense are not that good, actually Critical Defense is worse then just having one more point of constitution. I'd take Lay on Hands at level one, it is a really good ability. Two big heals that scale with level and are increased by both Might and Intellect. It is always good. Flames of Devotion gets you two attacks with a damage and accuracy buff, they could miss, they probably won't one shot anything besides a trash mob. Not a bad level 5 pick to use with an Arquebus alpha strike but Lay on Hands is just way better to start with. For armor I am a big fan of the heaviest available to be used on anyone who is expecting to get hit a lot. If you have a second line melee with a reach weapon you could go with lighter armor but that sometimes just attracts the attention of the archers. I like either plate, leather or padded. They all get useful extra DR against the more common attacks. I prefer padded instead of robes for this reason for my ranged guys. Leather is a nice compromise between speed and protection and has a big bonus against slashing which is fairly common.

For me I wouldn't have any paladin stat below a 10. plus I'm too lazy to buff much with food I've got a Kind Wayfarer on PotD, just finished clearing Raedrics and almost level 5. The heal on kill effect is OK at this point but soon 25 endurance heals are going to be pretty insignificant. But for role play he works fine and there is always re-spec. He is an island Amaumau so he can switch between Great Sword/Pike, warhammer and shield and arquebus. My plan is to have mine and Pellagrina handling the healing without a priest on the team. Four lay on Hands plus what ever on kill effects I get should do fine. If I was hiring a merc Paladin I'd go with the Shield bearer for their buffs and not worry about trying for an on kill effect, especially with four big damagers on the team. Or grab a Goldpact as they like to work for money and all. I'd just stick to the weapon and shield with a ranged weapon on switch. Stick with being tanky and supporting your damage guys on the team. If you try to do both you'll end up disappointed.

Do you also get weapon spec and weapon mastery applied?

No one, or at least I'm not, is saying that Fighters are broken, just that they don't have much of a niche. Also balance is just as important in a single player game as in multiplayer. Eder is going to be used, firstly because he is a great character and secondly because there are only two possible frontline melee story companions to take with you and Pellegrinas stats are a bit wonky while Eder's high might and con are pretty much were you'd choose them to be if you had the choice. In your party you have the main Monk and Eder on the front lines, maybe Kana in plate as another melee, Durance to keep everyone alive and Hirvias and Aloth to blast away from the back. Your Eder's job is to not die, hold the attention of the enemies and any damage done is just gravy, basically a better pet or summon. If there were no story companions would you choose a fighter, a paladin or another monk to be your second frontline melee? And what are in your opinion the amazing Fighter abilities that no one brings up? What is the sine qua non of the Fighter? Kana is currently hanging out in the back so I can make sure he stays alive to get the most invocations for extended fights. To answer your questions, I would probably do a classic party like I had in the Icewind Dale games, Fighter, Paladin (it was another Fighter in Icewind Dale because the Paladins were weak iirc, but the extra heal and auras in this game seem like they would be great to buff up my front-line) Cleric, Rogue, Mage, Cipher/Druid (it was a Ranger in Icewind Dale for more ranged DPS, but the extra crowd control would come in handy for Pillars). "And what are in your opinion the amazing Fighter abilities that no one brings up?" I believe Critical Defense, Unbending, Unbroken, and Vigorous Defense all make the fighter extremely difficult to bring down. The biggest problem is that they are very boring to use. I'd rather have a more glass-cannony party with a higher DPS fighter than have an unkillable tank, which my minmax brain tells me to build-up. What is the sine qua non of the Fighter? To fight in the front-lines without being ran over quickly I suppose. It really depends what your party needs though. Unbending at best heals you 50% of your total health over a 15 second period. At level 11 with a 12 con you have 201 endurance. Without Unbending you take 201 points of damage and get KO'd. With it you take 100 points of damage, sounds great but it is only a 100 point heal that is limited to 3 per rest. A Paladin's Lay on Hands heals more, over a shorter period of time, can be used twice per encounter and can be used on anyone. The Barbarians Savage Defiance at level 11 heals base 120 damage over 15 seconds and it scales with Might. Lay on Hands is worlds better and Savage Defiance is at least as good plus is available at level 5. Plus you need a decent intellect for the duration to not be laughable. Unbroken is better than Second Chance in that it gets you defensive buffs after activation but it cost you a level 11 ability instead of an equipment slot. Maybe it useful for Eder in case you want the ring and the two armor sets with second chance to go for other characters but your main character will have first dibs on equipment. Vigorous Defense at +20 to all once per encounter is good but only lasts 15 seconds if your intellect is 10. A Paladin's Reinforcing Exhortation buffs +25, can be used twice, and lasts longer and can't be used on yourself but two Paladins get buff each other and have two left over for others or in case the first wears off. Critical Defense - I always take it but lets run the math Case #1 accuracy = deflection 0-15 miss 16-50 graze 51-100 hit With nothing you take 0.15*0+0.35*0.5+0.50*1 = 0.675 unit damage With Critical Defense you get 20% crit>hit and 10% hit>graze 0-15 miss 16-55 graze 56-100 hit Damage taken is 0.15*0+0.40*.5+0.45*1 = 0.65 damage or 3.8% less damage ..... not real good but maybe it is better with a tougher enemy case #2 Accuracy is 50 points higher than your deflection 0-50 hit 51-100 crit With nothing you take 0.50*1+0.50*1.5 = 1.25 unit damage 0-5 graze 6-61 hit 61-100 crit damage taken is 0.05*0.5+0.55*1+0.40*1.5 = 0.025+0.55+0.6 = 1.175 unit damage or 6.38% less damage ... still not looking very good. After actually running the math I'd have to say that Critical Defense looks to be pretty damn poor, and here I was always taking it because I thought it made a difference. Superior Deflection at a mere +5 deflection is better Actually my thought now is that Vigorous Defense is the better of the defensive buffs but the duration is short enough that dumping intellect to place in resolve is a good course of action. You'd have +7 deflection all the time and would be -13 deflection for 5.2 seconds each fight which seems like a suitable trade off.

Throne of Bhaal was an expansion.Mask of the Betrayer was an expansion. See, I've played games too! Disclaimer: I'm completely fine with White March being like TotSC and not ToB. An expansion adds new areas. A sequel continues the adventure. Not sure what point you are trying to make..... That's pretty much just an arbitrary distinction. While Throne of Bhaal and Mask of the Betrayer do continue the adventure, they're not sequels - they aren't Baldur's Gate 3 or Neverwinter Nights 3, they're still (or were still) advertised, listed and sold as expansions because that's what they are. A more accurate way to define them is that an expansion is additional content for an existing game, while a sequel is a new game entirely. Throne of Bhaal was an expansion.Mask of the Betrayer was an expansion. See, I've played games too! Disclaimer: I'm completely fine with White March being like TotSC and not ToB. An expansion adds new areas. A sequel continues the adventure. Not sure what point you are trying to make..... That's pretty much just an arbitrary distinction. While Throne of Bhaal and Mask of the Betrayer do continue the adventure, they're not sequels - they aren't Baldur's Gate 3 or Neverwinter Nights 3, they're still (or were still) advertised, listed and sold as expansions because that's what they are. A more accurate way to define them is that an expansion is additional content for an existing game, while a sequel is a new game entirely. By the way, you're wrong about the last DLC for Fallout 3, it takes place after the main ending. Might want to do some research before you end up posting like a goofhead. Learn to read there tough guy. I said Fallout New Vegas not Fallout 3 Well don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.

Why? I would do the exact opposite: Weapon Mastery (and perhaps even Bonus Knock Down) from talents to abilities. The reason is that most Fighter abilities are defensive or not particularly useful, to the point that I can basically pick the last one or two in my build at random, safe in the knowledge they'll make no difference. Talents, on the other hand, still have a bunch fighting for the last slot when I play Fighters (which is always, pretty much): Bonus Knock Down, Interrupting Blows, Quick Switch, Marksman, Penetrating Shot, Weapon Mastery, any of the defensive ones like Unstoppable etc., or even the the one that improves recovery. The reason that I would move weapon specialization to a talent would be to free up a choice to take something else like confident aim, vigorous defense, or into the fray. The fact that most of the abilities are not very useful is a big part of the problem. Edit - I agree that Knock down would be missed. Armored Grace is something I always take but math wise it is approximately equal to +11% action speed. Nice but not game changing. The weapon spec and mastery get you +15% and +10% damage. Again I always take them but they don't do anything special and the increases are not large. They don't change how you play or build your character, you just take them for the increased damage. In comparison a Barbarian can take the Blooded? (the one that increases attack speed after you get two kills) ability and actively look for the kill shot, or take One Stands Alone and actively try and be surrounded to get the boost. You change your behavior based on what you pick. Fighters before let you stand in the front and whoop ass. Not as fast or as flashy as others but you could grab a big two hander and still have enough defense to take on the world. Now the requirements to be able to survive at the front precludes a lot of your capacity to dispense damage. I can understand why changes were made but it leaves Fighters in a purgatory between tanking or damaging. Since it won't go back to the way it was give the Fighter the role of disrupter, have him be tactical in his use of knockdowns, pulls (Into the Fray) and dis-engagement attacks (Defender).

No one, or at least I'm not, is saying that Fighters are broken, just that they don't have much of a niche. Also balance is just as important in a single player game as in multiplayer. Eder is going to be used, firstly because he is a great character and secondly because there are only two possible frontline melee story companions to take with you and Pellegrinas stats are a bit wonky while Eder's high might and con are pretty much were you'd choose them to be if you had the choice. In your party you have the main Monk and Eder on the front lines, maybe Kana in plate as another melee, Durance to keep everyone alive and Hirvias and Aloth to blast away from the back. Your Eder's job is to not die, hold the attention of the enemies and any damage done is just gravy, basically a better pet or summon. If there were no story companions would you choose a fighter, a paladin or another monk to be your second frontline melee? And what are in your opinion the amazing Fighter abilities that no one brings up? What is the sine qua non of the Fighter?

Pretty much all the posters saying Fighters are fine as they currently are, are playing on Hard level. Not trying to be insulting or anything but I'd like to hear from PotD vets who say that Fighters are fine as is. My first play through was on hard with a two handed estoc wielding Fighter who took all the damage dealing talents and abilities. I had Eder with shield and sabre and even had another fighter dual wielding flails with Defender. My three fighter frontline face tanked everything, no buffing, no food, hell I didn't even scout. Enter the room and see what happens. If things went bad the three fighters could all self rez and get back at it. Based on my experiences on Hard I thought Fighters were the cat's meow. Onto PotD with a rogue main and a hired merc fighter with Eder. The fighter dumped his intellect into his resolve, pumped might and perception and the rest into dex. Wielding estocs with Defender he could tank good enough for long enough while putting out big damage hits consistently. All my Fighter experience and theories were coming together just as envisioned. The Fighter was no simple meatsack with a hatchet but a durable hard hitting Sherman Tank. Now with the overall, and needed, deflection downgrade and the over-reaching changes to Defender, a Fighter can't stand on the frontline without a shield and put the wood to the enemy as he could before. With a good enchanted shield he is as good defensively as he was before with a two hander or dual wielding but his offensive output is much smaller. This is where the issue lies. If you need to be super defensive a Paladin is clearly better. If you need to be a durable frontline combatant the Monk is clearly better, he's as or more durable with a fist and a shield and has more offense when swapping to dual fists. Having different choices to achieve similar goals is a good thing for class balance and design. Both Rogues and Rangers are viable ranged damage dealers who achieve their mission via different paths. One with sneak attacks, one with modals and a pet. Fighter's need something to set them apart from the rest. They're not broken unplayable, they just come up short when compared to others. My suggestions are: 1.) Have the passive regen scale with level. 2.) Add a bonus to accuracy and/or damage to disengagement attacks when running Defender. 3.) Change Clear Cut, the cone knockdown, from per rest to per encounter. 4.) Move weapon specialty from an ability to a talent 5.) Increase weapon mastery from +10% to having an accuracy buff as well, graze>hit, more damage or something. 6.) Add something to Wary Defender like reduced duration debuffs/status effects or something. As is its just not that good. 7.) (Not sure on how this would balance but) Have some Fighter abilities be available automatically at certain levels. At level 4 they get vigorous defense, at level 8 they get armored grace, at level 12 they get unbroked. In DnD Fighters got bonus feats so maybe something similar here would be good.