Kaylon

Vatnir can become the strongest companion in the game. But using him as a SC priest is wasting his potential... Priest/Chanter (Bellower is ideal) is one of the strongest combos in the game - incredible support and offense. It has access to all tier 3 inspirations (through Least Unstable Coil) and all weyc's buffs every fight (thanks to Sasha's Scimitar). Basically you can spam Her Tears Fell Like Rain and Storm of Holy Fire over and over until all enemies are dead. With Blightheart equipped, Muse of Mistery from the robes and Brilliant you will be flooded with phrases. Of course if you're tired of annihilating everything you can also just buff/heal or CC enemies... Of course some key items are from the expansions and you have to play them ASAP if you want to enjoy his full potential long enough.

If you have the Ring of the Solitary Wanderer and Strand of Favor equipped I think it's enough to shorten the negative effect enough to gain a few seconds of invincibility. If that's not enough you can use Mohora Wraps bonus and a potion of Cleansing Purge on top. Once you're free, you kill the wizard instantly to end the fight and then prolong the untargetable effect with Strand of Favor... However, I think the hardest part would be to find a wizard willing to cast Temporal Cocoon on you.

Maybe there are high level wizards (Concelhaut, Arkemyr, Fyonlecg...) who could cast Temporal Cocoon on the PC, allowing all classes to become invincible.

Yes, but his devoted/street fighter will have some harsh penalties when using an arbalest and without Heating Up he might be also too slow to perma interrupt the oozes.

Yeah, in fact you should just intimidate them...

The best way to lower your reputation is to just farm factions ships before starting their quests.

Neriscyrlas is weak to crush/fire and her low defenses are deflection/reflex. Firebrand (from scrolls) + Ring of Focused Flame can hit her very hard. Melee fighters should use maces/flails/quarterstaffs/morning stars (Sungrazer upgrade lowers her crush AR permanently), while ranged should equip scepters. Veilpiercer bow can be used to purge her buffs once. Use food to increase penetration, the Blackened plate can also lower her AR, try also to flank her... Your herald should use Ancient Memory and Aefyllath if you lack damage or Old Siec if you need more healing. Summon the animated weapons to distract her and to help you flank her. Xoty with a quarterstaff and Instruments of Pain can deal great crush damage at range. Aloth + Fassina should use every fire/missile spell just to finish her because you don't have brilliant inspiration to restore your resources.

The procs are considered ranged because they're basically spells attached to weapons. However spells aren't affected by Driving Flight.

Haha! Killing them in their sleep - great find!

A very simple, powerful and fun build is assassin/bloodmage. Nuking from invisibility or backstabbing with Draining Touch never gets old.

I'm sure Insect Swarm/Plague of Insects were considered poisons at the launch and were even affected by alchemy (giving them huge duration and radius). The alchemy thing was patched, but I think they're still considered poisons (maybe other spells too).

It has two abilities - one passive and one active. The passive one gives +1Res to both "lovers" when close enough to each other (I suppose it works also for a trio). The active one gives intellect immunity to the "lovers" until the end of combat - the summons can't benefit too much, but if you can keep it yourself it's a nice option to have. The wiki doesn't say if it's /rest, but if it's the case then it has limited use, indeed.

Does the Ring of Reset work with the Dichotomous Soul? Also having Harmony equipped does trigger Lover's Bond between you/Dichotomous Soul?

As a herald there are many good helmets you can wear. My personal ranking is Champion's Helm > Horns of the Aurochs > Blackened Plate Helm > Heaven's Cacophony > Death's Maw. Usually the Horns should go to a damage dealer who can benefit more from it, while the Champion's Helm is more suitable for the main tank (your herald in your case).

Melees have better accuracy (Scordeo's Edge buff, no penalties) and more options to debuff deflection (Persistent Distraction + Cap of the Laughing Stock + Rust's Poignard/Sungrazer procs) which means easily 40-50acc advantage over a blunderbuss user. Melees also have better damage and hard CCs (prone, stun, freeze) which makes them superior in almost any situation.

Yes, you can prolong hostile effects multiple times, it works just like Strand of Favor with self buffs. It can be very useful if you want to avoid using modals 100% of the time or if you want to keep dots going forever. To give a strong boost you should apply Enfeebled first and, when it nearly expires, use the debuffs, then apply Enfeebled again right after the first expired. Anyway, you can use that first step with any kind of build without too much hassle. This trick can also allow to easily stack multiple dots like Poison-Dipped from Saru-Sichr or Bleeding Cuts from axes.

It works even better with a trickster/unbroken (Eder can fit that role well) because all disengagement attacks can get sneak attack/deathblows bonuses. One Dozen Stood, Magran's Favor and Magran's Blessings also work nicely with this build (the damage shield gets also sneak attack/deathblow bonuses) and you can get also free attacks from Riposte (especially with the medium shield modal activated).

Then a Forbidden Fist with low INT can prolong multiple times hostile effects.

I thought it was auto hit...

I wasn't aware about this combo and I'm not sure I understand... Energized interrupts only crits, how could "Thick Grew Their Tongue" interrupt when it can't event crit?

Alt-F4 is an external method used to stop the game and a well known trick used to avoid death during the Trial of Iron - thus it's obviously banned. Regarding bugs, the devs allowed basically any exploit to be used as being part of the game. By the same reasoning game breaking bugs are also part of the game and should also be avoided within the game.

Basically everything is allowed as long as it doesn't come from external sources. Probably the most OP build for the ultimate is a Bloodmage who steals the most powerful/useful priest/druid/wizard spells using the Grimoire Imprint trick... The assassin is probably the most powerful class you can build using SoF trick, but he will have more difficulties to keep Vela alive.

Playing Steel Garrote is useless for your setup since the drain applies only to melee weapons. Personally I wouldn't bother with anything else than Ghost Heart because without a real tank some pets will die sooner or later and it will add more problems. I would replace the wizard with an ascendant because he has great buffs (Brilliant, Robust,...) for the party, CC and accuracy. You need the paladin for healing and buffs - I would suggest a Kind Wayfarer or a Bleak Walker instead.

For a PC without infinite invisibility is not worthwhile, for NPCs under AI even less. Applying Gouging/Arterial Strike to multiple targets does more damage overall than striking from stealth a few times.

At first you should spend your focus on Phantom Foes and Mind Blades, later replace Mind Blades with Pain Block (keep it up on the entire party) and finally add Borrowed Instinct and Ancestor's Memory. You start the fight with Borrowed Instinct and Phantom Foes, while Pain Block/Ancestor's Memory can be scripted and left on AI.