Urocyon

I have to agree with the Aldris Blade of Captain Crow. Looks like someone left a knife in a chicken carcass

I'd like them to lean hard into the soul bound weapons and make all but the most trivial items soulbound. At the moment, there really isn't anything separating magic items from soulbound items. It only feels half realized to me. I would also like more subclasses that push the creativity envelope. To beat a dead horse, the wizard subclasses are kind of uninspired; it's seem cut and paste from D&D. Finally, I want more lore. When I create characters, I try to fit them into world with a backstop that makes sense. We have a little bit but I want more hooks.

I thought about doing the same thing. With a Ghost Heart, you can run your pet to an optimal location for Dimensional Shift without worrying about disengagements. Unfortunately, it takes a little while to get to the level to use that parlor trick heh

I wish all the Wizard subclasses were rolled into one subclass called something like "Specialist". With this subclass, you pick a specialist school that gets a significant buff but the other schools get some kind of negative. That way you can still specialize but weren't completely hamstrung by banned schools. That would have freed up slots for other kinds of interesting Wizard subclasses like maybe "Elementalist - kind of like Specialist but you get bonuses to an elemental spells but negatives to non-elemental spells); Artificer - (gets Deep Pockets at creation as well as bonuses to consumables but spells have higher casting time); and something else maybe.

I always thought Dimensional Shift with a Ghost Heart ranger pet could be fun. Since the pet doesn't trigger disengagement, you can run it out to an optimal location to catch the most enemies without getting whacked by every enemy along the way.

Providing access to more of the abilities would have gone a long way to help balance and flesh out the classes. They wouldn't even necessarily have to spoil any content. It could have just been a series of encounters for which you could run some builds through to see how powers interact. This testing area could have even been kept for release and accessed through the start menu so that folks trying to figure out what they want to play could fire it up, make a character of a specific level, and beat on an encounter in a neutral environment without having to do the Berathian walk of shame a dozen times. I also think narrowing focus of the project scope so more time could be spent on fine tuning things like encounters, quest depth, and item diversity would have helped alleviate some of the complaints I have seen. For example, sidekicks are neat and all but maybe the effort to make them could have been used to provide more substantial companion quests or a larger variety of soulbound items.

Have you tried taking them out back and hacking on them until they die? That may work. In case you don't know, you can hit party members by clicking on the sword icon and targeting them.

Might also be interesting on a Kind Wayfarer Paladin

How about a Druid (Fury)/ Chanter? Druids have passives that help the penetration of the elemental damage of some of the Chanter abilities and there's a soul bound weapon that greatly buffs the power level of some Druid spells.

Here's a link ti the Sneak Attack definition from the wiki (see below). If you attack or use your Deception abilities versus opponents that meet these criteria, you should be ok. The most time efficient way to do this, I think, is to have another character prep battlefield with something that debuffs, like a grenade or another spell, before laying in with your Beguiler because your recovery speed and cast time is going to eat into the duration of whatever is causing the opponent to be affected by Sneak Attack. https://pillarsofeternity2.wiki.fextralife.com/Sneak+Attack

There is a unique war bow in this game that, I think, will get you very close to this type of character. I won't spoil it for others that might wander on here but if you are interested, take a look at the unique war bows here (it's the named bow in the upper right corner under "S" https://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Category:Pillars_of_Eternity_II:_Deadfire_war_bows As for Black Jacket gun spam, it's really effective but kind of a one trick pony. If you didn't like ranger because it was clunky, you might not be too enthusiastic about how Black Jackets are typically used. If that bow doesn't look interesting (or maybe even if it does), you might try a Kind Wayfarer Paladin. Their version of Flames of Devotion heal nearby allies. You can mix paladins with pretty much anything.

I went a similar route but with Darcozzi Paladin/Streetfighter. I was also vexed by having two characters with similar classes right off the bat.

D) Conceptually, I like Darcozzi Paladin/Streetfighter: wastrel aristocratic knight who spends his free time mixing it up in the back alleys. Troubadour/Ghost Heart: pistol packing wanderer with a story to tell and a song to sing

I think those classes would work well together if you want to go the buffer/debuffer route. Priest has good pary-wide buffs, wizard has great debuffs. That kind of character could get your party through tougher encounters eariler, I think.

I believe Shieldbearers do when you have a shield equipped

How about mixed with Paladin/? You get Sworn Enemy and Mark Prey for increased damage and accuracy (with upgrades to make them more resource efficient); these abilities can both be popped nearly instantaneously as soon as combat starts. Sworn Enemy is just a hair less of a damage boost than basic rogue but it is applicable without having to flank or debuff. Plus you get auras and whatnot to help keep your pet (and rest of the party) alive and be more effective while freeing up some abilities in the ranger tree if you want.

Paladin + Ranger is pretty fun too. It might not be the end all be all of dps classes, but I find it more engaging than many classes. Furthermore, I find it's damage more consistent without jumping through hoops and as a Ghost Heart ranger, I'm less worried about Bonded Grief. Marked Prey and Sworn Enemy boost accuracy and damage (only slightly less than a regular rogue at +20% dmg and you get it all the time without flanking or applying afflictions) out the gate. When you upgrade both abilities, you can get that Zeal back and Marked Prey jumps to another enemy so they are resource efficient abilities in drawn out fights. Additionally, Flames of Devotion and Wounding Shot gives you two Full Attacks that allow for more two fisted action. Additionally, I don't have to worry about defensive pet abilities in the ranger tree because my paladin abilities help with that. Finally, you get the ranger passives that reduce reload speed and ranged recovery so you'll be quicker with pumping out the damage. Like I said, not crazy goofy dps but consistent, steady, and has abilities that effect the whole party.

Ok I just did some testing. It looks like the shock damage in "Thrice Was She Wronged..." and the frost damage in "Seven Nights She Waited..." get additional penetration from Heart of the Storm and Secrets of Rime, respectively. However, near as I can tell, Scion of Flame does not appear to add penetration to "The Dragon Thrashed..." or "Aefyllath Ues...". Seems like it should considering Paladins get Scion of Flame to buff their abilities and Flames of Devotion is similar to Aefyllath. Could be user error on my part. Regardless, it does show some additional with casters when using those abilities and passives.

Do the Wizard passives that add penetration to elemental effects (e.g. Heart of the Storm, Scion of Flame, etc) apply to the Chanter phrases and invocations that do elemental damage (e.g., Dragon Thrashed, Thrice She Was Wronged, etc)? It seems like they would, but there is keyword inconsistency between the two classes in that Wizard has electricity keywords while Chanter refers to shock damage.

How about a Helwalker monk/Street Fighter rogue? The Helwalker class ability will shore up the lower Might. Street Fighter will start off a little slower until they get flanked or bloodied but taking more damage as a Helwalker and abilities like Mortification of the Soul will help you get bloodied quicker. Monks have some of the flashier melee abilities with kicking and punching folks all over the place. Rogue abilities will help with the cc and while you won't be teleporting all over, you are pretty mobile, especially with the monk's ability Flagellants Path. If you want more cc or tactical abilities, maybe look into explosives or scrolls. Also, you don't necessarily have to go unarmed and can use some of the interesting weapons you find along the way. Here's a video showing a Shadowdancer with Helwalker/Street Fighter

Ok I had some time to test it out. Destructive Channeling and Mortification of the Soul doesn't seem to trigger Retribution either. That's a shame. Could have opened some interesting avenues to explore

Well high perception is going to help with crits so maybe a class that will get the most from more frequent crits. Something multiclassed with a Skald might work for you since crits help you get phrases more quickly (50% chance to get +1 phrase on crit). From there, maybe add a close/mid range dps because the offensive invocations have shorter range, maybe a barbarian (aoe attacks = more chance to crit). I think a barbarian/skald (howler) could be pretty interesting if that's your kind of character.

If you hold shift and click on the damage value in the combat log, it will tell you how the damage was calculated.

So Paladins get a passive called Retribution that increases the damage of your next attack after you have taken damage. Can you trigger this ability yourself if you injure yourself with abilities like Deleterious Alacrity of Motion or the scepter modal? If so, it might be interesting to use this with a more backline positioned paladin.

I just started so I don't have many answers but Sworn Enemy (at least at the base levels) just gives a 20% damage bonus now; no accuracy bonus