Elric Galad

Come on, all class base traits are far from equal. If you consider Fighter vs Rogue for example : at start Rogue trades Constant Recovery, 2hp/lvl, health and 15 Deflection against sneak attack ! It's pretty obvious that Sneak Attack is far superior to Constant Recovery ! Base traits like Sneak Attack (or Carnage) should never been compared to abilities, some base traits just don't play in the same league. Compare it to 2h style : same bonus, both are conditional. 2h bonus works as soon as you take a 2h, sneak attack works also with ranged weapons or even missile spell (yes Pallegina, it works). I think it's balanced.

There's just 1 single battle in act I that is significantly harder that all that you can find at Caed Nua. Not sure it is wise to advise doing it.

Mmmm, sneak attack works on missile spells ? Of course, I should have think in it. It's quite logical. (And deathblows work on every kind of spell...) 25% sneak attack would be OP IMHO. It's hard to find 15% damages on a talent, conditional or not (except for cipher biting but that's just a scaling of his base trait). Endgame, it's pretty much always active. I just avoid it early game.

There's difficulty and there's tediousness of Caed Nua for a new player. It's not the most relevent point of the difficulty curve.

Do you realize that the 4 changes you name are almost a carbon copy of your proposal on another thread ? I've only changed the AoE of One Stand Alone and Dragon Leap Prone duration you proposed. You Pseudonym is quoted on the original thread on Character build Subforum, sorry not to have done the same here.

I've never completed the WM companions, but strictly all of other companion stories are inferior to BG II's quests. They are too short with not a lot of additional content. Sagani or Hiravias are not too bad, Durance and GM very well written but are not exactly quests. That's all. The content is rather good but there is just too few content. Discussing with companions is nice but is so so far from Planescape's level. Basically I assume companions was not Obsidian's main target for PoE 1.

No, most Bg spells affected party members. Some didn't, as it is the case in PoE. Do you play PoE with Expert mode ? If not, there should be an area indicator showing the affected zone. Red zone = friendly fire. Yellow zone (due to intelligence AoE buff) = no friendly fire. You'll get used to it. My own spells rarely harm my party. Once your frontline is locked by your tanks, and characters stop moving, you should have no pb to aim anymore.

Maybe, but that's not very smart because Transcendent suffering is nice but is certainly not the main (powergaming) why you want a monk. I'm not even sure it worths a talent. Magic weapon are so good (Durgan, lash, draining, stunning...), even when compared to unarmed monks crazy damage. You take a monk because of some of their wound spender (Torment's reach, force of anguish, swift strike, dichotomous soul) or accumulator (Iron or Turning Wheel). And also excellent base stats.

Or it will create a time paradox that would result in the destruction of the whole Eora. Nothing would surprise me anymore about the way attack speed is managed.

Final advice : once you're done with Maerwall, the game will suddenly become far more easy, except for a few endgame battles. Just don't leave the main road once you enter the countryside area after Caed Nua. You'll soon reach a big town, with a lot of quests, so in case one give you some trouble, leave it for later. I have a horrible memory of my first time at Caed Nua in Normal mode. Now I beat the game in PotD. So don't worry, you'll learn, there's hope. Also before Caed Nua, the Hold final battle is very challenging. You may skip it and leave it for later. You may even switch to Hard once you feel comfortable.

Recurring problem in all RPG : how to balance unarmed attacks ? They eventually balanced them quite well for monks themselves (unarmed does extremely high damage that no weapon can imitate, even if thet lack specials). It's a minor pity the cross class talent is totally crappy. But it's still a pity.

By the way, do anyone know what is the attack speed and recovery mechanic for full attack ?

Mmm more DR than a full plate ? By the way my calculation was only about uber-optimization, so you can still use speed weapon, they will help for most fights. Devil can drink potions from what I read. And she can also cast DAoM from twin stings.

Weapon and shield enchantements do stack with everything. Armor enchantments don't stack with other item effects. This is a general rule, but it is true also for Durgan refinement.

So basically, with Durganized Plate, Dual Wield, Vulnerable attack, you will have 105 recovery with Dual wielding weapons. That is exactly compensated by Durgan Weapon, and DAOM. I guess Devil's too heavy armor is now too light... So 1 hander with Speed mod are now suboptimal for dual wield.

Honnestly, how much time in the game do you meet more than 1 trap/lock with 13+ level ?

"Hey dude, what do you hunt dragon for ? - Meat !"

Anyway, just a few buffs to some of these abilities would make these classes ok. Basically, Riposte and the strikes for the Rogue (Feign Death would be nice too) and barbaric shouts and ultimate abilities would be ok, maybe thick-skinned too... These changes are rather easy to implement, I guess. One Stands Alone seems to be praised too but I suppose it would require a bit deeper rework. There is currently an item that boost you when you don't have allies around. This one could be a basis for a rework and would fit the theme too. Currently, I have trouble to pick 8 abilities that I'm happy to choose...

I cannot say more but... You don't have to slay dragons to get these bog dragon scales.

There is no reason not to consider it as a bug IMHO.

I wish I could test it myself. Unfortunately I can play only about 1 day out of 4, that's why I asking a lot of stuff to other players. Sorry for the unconvenience. By the way, this is not 100% related but I noticed Devil of Caroc got +1 Mig and +1 Con in 3.02 (patch notes say she got +2 attributes point, but not which one). Which special attacks ? Blinding strike & Cie ?

Does Backstab work on missile spells ?

But you can get bog dragon scales which are even better.

Alpine isn't immune to everything. Yesterday, my wizard used gaze of the adragan against him, he got petrified, then Pallegina used Wrath of the five sun and he took about 250 damages (the dragon crappy fire DR helped). Petrify is Alpine's Kryptonite.

So Rogue are by far the best scroll/items users. Dirty fighting and deep wounds also apply to spell by the way and their starting accuracy is among the highest. Surely "someone" can create a build from this idea. Mmm missile barrage +penetrating shots, ryona's, team support and +100% damages...