Raven Darkholme

4-head? As in the meme? Seriously tho, the companions are not that bad, since you can level them yourself if you disable auto level. I'm rocking pc paladin + Kana and GM, but you can also use pc cipher, Eder, Pallegina and Aloth as you wish. I personally find bigger parties unnecessary micromanagement and anythingabove solo gets very powerful with level, even two man/grills. The expansions give you more levels and awesome items, without it parts of the original game will be harder but still doable.

The waiting is the reason I never use stasis, I once used it myself by mistake, I wanted Time Parasite. Turns out you can't run out of sight and let the debuff expire either, so a lone simple Lagufaeth kept me waiting for the whole duration of it. The only dragon that can't be charmed is one of the bog dragons I think.

Haha even tho that's the most awesome use of Stasis Shell I ever heard of, if you have to roll with a will attack why not charm it staright away? As to mindweb a priest is not needed at all, just hav a paladin or chanter with maxed defenses and the godmode is real. I have a 3 man party right now with pala, Kana and GM, pala provides defence, Kana chants for reflex, will, fort and ofc dragon slashed (in dragon fights also beast slaying), and GM does arquebus shot into mindweb and then goes ham with dual bittercut.. I only had slight focus trouble at start of adra dragon fight since I couldn't build focus vs. the dragon herself. I then distracted her with the pala built focus off a xaurip and went into my usual combo of mindweb, focusbuild (now on the dragon herself Kana also provided with protection from fear), time parasite, more autoattack, borrowed instinct, i then went into scalebreaker and disintegrate but realised that on cast she was already near death. That 175 accuracy crit still looked good especially since I didn't use acc potions or scroll of valor.

I also would rather see deathblows working on 1 affliction, since you can almost always flank a target without too much fuzz.

I just confirmed your post that Ravenwing is one-handed so I'm not sure if I understand your last post. All war hammers are one handed.

Ravenwing is not two handed but it's only good early game. If you absolutely don't want to dual bittercut cuz rp, then I would take war hammers like Godansthunyr or Strike Hard.

Frenzy is very good and not at all suicidal. A difference of 10 deflection and hp will never matter but +4 CON will probably give you more survivability than you lose. Can't help you with yell vs shout but I personally would probably keep per encounter since I hate to spam rest. Blooded is very good on a barbarian since you can myx your endurance so below 50% will still be more than your other chars (unless you ahve a monk). Savage Defiance is quite good but not a must take, depends whether you are confident in healing with potions since they are kinda bugged. Bloodlust and Bloodthirst are awesome on barb as are all on kill effects since you do area damage. I wouldn't take thick skin DR is pretty ****ty in this game and you only get +2 and only on physical damage. Eye of the storm seems a waste to me since you can simply disengage. Echoing shout seems like something I can't judge without having tried it, which I haven't but it seems a waste to me.

Perception = accuraccy.

Deathblows is nice, but for my personal playstyle having to set up 2 afflictions, even tho easily acomplished is still inferior to just straight attacking. Bear in mind I haven't played with a full party after my very first pt. One thing to be said about deathblows is its compatibility with spells. As Boroer mentioned direballs are quite awesomesauce.

Yes rogues hit hard, but ciphers hit harder is what I'm trying to say. 40% bonus damage through soul whip and 1st talent. A rogue gets 50% but only on Sneak attacks, for cipher I can pick the Apprentice's sneak attack and I'm at 65% on sneak attacks and 40% on all other attacks. Powers are only additional and you can do a lot of damae with them too and also buff your attack speed like crazy with time parasite.

You can achieve Level 1 via normal respec at an inn. Respeccing attributes only works with IE Mod, but you could manually set your attributes via console (plus or minus attribute)

I don't think a cipher shines less on hard. Because of lower enemy deflection their lower accuraccy will matter less. Their damage is higher than rogues without needing afflictions. On top they can have the crossclass talents for 15% extra damage on sneak attacks. They have powers which will also be easier to crit with on hard instead of potd.

If you go no priest just go chanter with scrolls. You can cast scrolls while the chants still automatically work. Most scrolls are priest spells.

I have not quite understood yet, what makes the rogue good. A cipher does better weapon damage and the lower accuracy can be easily compensated by perception and early accuracy gloves from raedrics. On top of that cipher has it's powers. Rogue and ranger are the only classes I would rebalance, that being said rangers are way better than rogues.

Beloved Spirit and Sure handed are awesome, the chanter is the strongest class in this game and doesn't need buffs.

If we talk dps not only through weapon damage but also spells, abilities and the like, paladin level 13 upward (maxed MI high IN) and cipher are also up there but I gotta agree with boroer, monk all over the game and barbarian highest overall.

For longer fights on high level cipher I cast: Heavy ranged shot for focus - Defensive mindweb - switch to melee for focus (dual bittercut) - time parasite - more focus gain - borrowed Instinct - if theres a dragon or similar disintegrate it, if not reaping knives. From that point focus built is more than you can spend, cast whatever. Only mentioned this since nobody posted about long fights in high level as far as I can see, otherwise I can recommend the other posts above.

Yeah apart from my first pt I never got petrified ever again either, but since you can avoid that in PoE also...

Weren't the Basilisks deadly primarily because of they stoned the Bhaalspawn it was instant game over. I don't remember your characters being prone to taking more damage when stoned (though I might be wrong). If they get killed while in stone they permanently die, can't be raised.

Mainly enemy stats, sadly not on all enemies like Alpine Dragon. It's also supposed to add enemies but idk about that, the broodmother on Russetwood map felt kinda strange to me, is it always there? Other than that I mainly felt it to be important that broodmothers have higher stats so you don't kill them to quickly the same goes for most enemies I guess.

I would always start WM on 9 because only then you can upscale it. Level 13 broodmothers are quite awesome foes even tho I killed Alpine and upscaled Sky dragon they still show up as most powerful enemy killed.

Well in DnD terms stone has always been deadly, oh Basilisks and Irenicus in BG.

Didn't know about that cloak. Dual bittercut is jsut awesome, my cipher is rocking it and it hurts real bad and the focus gain is massive.

You can buy the resources and you also get plants and creature parts from your stongholds Botanic Garden and Curio Shop.

I didn't say early game when I mentioned charge, I said it is a unique ability. Torments Reach requires a wound so it's not an off the bat use in a battle. Depending on the circumstance knockdown is much more useful than Torments Reach. It's an extra damaging cc ability that allows you to hit an enemy that cannot fight back and has lowered deflection. Torments Reach requires someone to hurt you and then you just have a bit of extra damage to fight back. I'm not saying it's bad or isn't useful, it's just not the same thing. For me, Knockdown is a much more useful skill than Torments Reach. The initial post of you about the monk said the monk was weaker early and stronger late, which is absolutely untrue. Yes you didn't repeat that when you mentioned charge but you quoted my answer to your first post. Whatever, both monk and fighter can be quite good I personally like the monk others fighter it's a question of personal preference.