Kaylon

Not really, the advantage of the chanter is the big AoE with very little investment, but the dps is just average even at lv16 with 30int/mig compared to what a barb can achieve. The dps of a barbarian with Tidefall, Firebrand or Reaping Knives is 2-3 times higher.

I wasn't very excited by the story either and I had a hard time to go into the game because I found the rules not very intuitive/clear. I didn't like either the fact that my character felt weak - with average stats/items - while some monsters had unfair advantages and used cheap tactics even at low levels (stun/blind on hit, very high armor and damage, etc...). Over the time, once I started too understand the rules, I discovered it was possible to build some epic characters with the right build/items. And when you are more familiar with the lore/game you become also more invested/attached to your character.

Yes, but you don't get her scales...

Yes, merchants restock every day. Also, since WM2 every ingredient is sold by at least a merchant (save the dragon/kraken parts).

Champion's boon looks good on paper, but in actual game play you won't see it very often. Assuming you have to land the killing blow on 4 enemies on average before seeing it proc you have to think if it's worth the effort for the enemies left... The best proc for Steadfast is Sunlance - with 20mig It deals 100dmg every 7hits (on average) which compensates better the lack of lash/durgan enchantment.

Use summons/figurines to distract the sirens while you're dealing with the others.

The difficulty of the act3 was adjusted with WM2 - probably they forgot to update the bestiary.

Nothing comes close to the story of Planescape:Torment. And it's also the only game where I actually cared about my companions.

Check which weapon does the carnage hits. If it's Spelltongue then you should steal enough time. If the carnage hits are done with the other weapon then it steals nothing. Landed 18 hits with a HoF just now (I checked and all carnage hit were with spelltongue,) and got about 4 seconds to my durations, and then 23 Spelltongue hits for 6 or so on another. So about 0.2-0.25 to durations per hit. Does that sound about right? I don't know if it's right or not, but if all hits were done using Spelltongue then this is the best you can get. If you hit buffed enemies the duration will increase much more.

No, it's a bug. Both hands attacks use the same weapon for carnage hits - not sure how the game picks which weapon is used.

Check which weapon does the carnage hits. If it's Spelltongue then you should steal enough time. If the carnage hits are done with the other weapon then it steals nothing.

Bash attacks have 50% less recovery than normal attacks. Until you get Sacred Immolation you should build your paladin for burst damage - you can improve Flames of Devotion (especially if you're Goldpact/Bleak Walker) and use high damage weapons (Firebrand/arquebus/arbalest) to 1-2shot an enemy at the beginning of a fight.

First you should buff/equip Eder to be able to tank them - if you don't have Rymrgrand mantle (rng loot) then you should be able to craft a potion of Bulwark against the elements to reduce their cold damage to MIN. Once all enemies are clustered together (try to find a spot where they can't surround Eder), buff the accuracy of Aloth (Eldritch Aim) and cast a few Fan of Flames which will kill most of them.

Drawn in Spring works like it should, however it's not the best weapon for HoF. Drawn in Spring strength comes from a combination of damage and speed and for HoF the speed is irrelevant. For HoF you should pick the weapons with the highest damage per hit and the sabers are the best right now. The next patch however I'm expecting dual Drawn in Spring and dual Bittercuts or a combination of them to be the new top options.

It's possible, of course, and there are 3 possible approaches (and you can also combine them): - build him like a tank (heavy armor+shield and defensive abilities) - use a firearm to open the fight and finish the enemy at melee (splitting enemies, figurines and using choke points is essential) - build him like a sniper (a damage dealer using hit&run) - you can switch firearms for heavy damage and finish the target with a bow (outrunning enemies is essential here, confusion scrolls/figurines can help if running isn't a solution) - build him to avoid fights (high stealth, figurines, speed and escaping abilities) - most quest can be finished using diplomacy or without fighting yourself (you can free the cook by pulling the bandits into the wolves, if you pick the hidden passage you can let the pillagers kill Maerwald, etc...) and deal with the other encounters when you feel strong enough

The ranged weapons were pretty balanced before WM (the arbalest was even the best ranged weapon at some point) for a few reasons: - the speed enchantments weren't working and the main ways to increase the attack speed were the dex (which affected everything), Swift Aim & Sure Handed Ila (were reducing both recovery/reload times) - Deleterious Alacrity and other speed buffs which reduced only recovery were less common (limited ingredients, no spell mastery...) - Swift Aim, Gunner and Sure Handed Ila all stacked, reducing the reload times by over 50% WM1 introduced changes/fixes that swinged drastically the balance in favor of bows because: - speed enchantments on items were fixed, durgan enchantment was introduced and all were stacking multiplicatively - Twinned Arrows greatly favors bows - Swift Aim and Sure Handed Ila reload buffs don't stack anymore - it's impossible to reduce the reload times by more than 45% - no soulbound firearms - speed buffs reducing the recovery times are very common making 0% recovery easily achievable

A simple solution would be to make all the speed buffs affect also the reload times (like Swift Aim does).

Potions of infusion with vital essence is all you need to recover your health. When you respec and when you level up you also get healed. At the beginning a combination of rangers/chanters is probably the most effective team (you have the pets who can hold the aggro until the chanters can use their summons, while the rangers can easily take out dangerous foes). For a party it shouldn't be much more difficult to beat the entire game with a single rest in PotD. It should be also possible solo if you adopt a pacifist play style until you become strong enough to deal with any encounter...

That's not the way the DOT damage is calculated. The total damage is divided in ticks and each tick is reduced by the DR/4 of the target.

Actually Enduring Flames benefits from the lowest INT possible. Because its total damage is fixed the INT just spreads it over more ticks which, unlike the raw damage, are reduced each time by the DR of the target. If you're not bothered about the range of your auras or you don't use exhortations you can safely dump completely your INT until you reach lv13.

While the chanter has great AoE damage potential when he stacks his damage chant, he does it at the expense of his defenses which are just average. The chanter shines vs trash mobs however the only way he has to beat the hard encounters is to abuse summons/kite.

Yes, I find the buffs working only on allies being a bad design because they become useless while soloing. The same applies to the stronghold quests.

During ch.1 it's best to start the encounters with an arquebus and then switch to a war bow for the rest of the fight. In ch.2 you can replace the war bow with the engwithan scepter (lash, exceptional, durgan enchanted). In ch.3 the engwithan scepter can be replaced with the rain of godagh field war bow (lash, durgan enchanted) which is the ranged weapon with the highest dps for a cipher.

From a RP point of view and lore wise I agree that ciphers are the class of choice. Based on actual gameplay I consider the paladin the best class overall.

Nice, do you know if there's a limit to that?