Elric Galad

An option to disable per encounter spells is in my opinion the wisest way to deal with this. Quite easy fix. No changes for casual players (or players who just don't want to bother with per rest spells). Everyone could play according to one's style. Make also the few per encounter abilities of casters more interesting (seriously, what the point of interdiction once you got per encounter spells ?), as well as bonus spell talents and god favored weapon talents.

I think the most deadly party would be 6 druids. Casting 6 relentless storm followed by 6 returning storm is an auto win. You don't even have to aim ^^ Except maybe against dragons, but you have 6 hold beast to manage this. And Spiritshift would probably help a lot at low level. Apart 6 wizards, I don't think 6 druids can be challenged. Sure wizards have better CC, but when all your party has CC, you have enough CC. Damages capabilities stack better than CC and druids are slightly superior for damages. I recently faced a party of 4 wild druids casting returning storm and they were absoluty deadly. On the fun side, turning all your party into bears would just look so good ^^ PS: sorry not use your template but quoting on a mobile phone is rather annoying.

Actually contrary to what you believe, the in-game bestiary provided an explanation that is the exact opposite, They threaten kith precisely because their reproduction rate is so low. It is kith that hunt them for researching their cipher abilities (hence their brain being an ingredient for enchantment) and they can't risk their young. If they were not as threatened due to low numbers, they probably will be more curious about meat-creatures. Don't know if this is relevant as well, but the Portia Spider is considered to be among the most intelligent invertebrates. They are capable of curiosity. One of their leaders even apologize to you. So they do in fact value meat-creature lives. Since it's a mental link they communicate to you with (and you being a watcher and all), they probably can't lie this way. They don't seem to be interested in conquering anything because they just don't understand concepts like property or greed. Hehe very interesting for Portia Spider. I'm actually very interested in this kind of subject ^^ Well, my post above may just have been about my own imagination after all ^^

I was worried about dragon and Thaos fights too, but if the problem is just a couple of fights, then priest can be replaced by scrolls (scroll of valor and fear resistance in your example). But I fear that devotion for the faithful is a gamechanger is most average to hard fights, so...

The fascinating thing about Xaurip is their bond to dragons. Kobolt were linked to dragons, but not to the same extend. They often serve dragons but they can have autonomous "societies". Their bond to dragons is mostly a pride issue : they are one of the weakest race, ans their only racial pride is their link to one of the strongest one. For Xaurips, it seems to be a mix of religion and biology. They are linked to dragons almost as drones to a queen bee. But they are sentient beings, so this biological devotion has been converted into a religion. This can be spotted by the number of priests and paladins in their ranks. This is a good twist in the usual recurring "hive mind" of so much fantasy and sci-fi universes. I will not be surprised if we discover that Xaurip, even if able to reproduce by themselves, depends on special dragon hormon for fertility. Their lore really seems to be about a symbiosis with dragon. Their biological bond is their fate, and this fate prevents them from being a Kith race, because in a certain way it kills their freedom of acting. Vithrack are also a good twist about the "dangerous alien". They have such a different mindset that they are barely able to recognize Kiths as intelligent beings. At the same time, they are so much more powerful than Kiths that they always frighten me. Their plot twist is that contrary to usual aliens, they can't reproduce quickly. This makes their background very sad. But what if they manage to find a way to reproduce quickly ? They may threaten all other sentient beings. They will enslave them, treat them as animals, or kill them. They will not hesitate too much before doing this because they don't have much empathy for Kiths and think they are animals. So my PC usually exterminates all Vithracks he meets. Too dangerous for the future of the Kiths. But at the same times, their story is so sad that he does this with regrets. And this ambiguous feeling is just so nice ^^ Ogres are quite similar to usual ogres. Unable to unite because they are too brutal. The difference comes from the fact they not stupid as usual ogres. They fate is their brutality that kills their freedom of acting like dragon bond kills it for Xaurips. They are unable to make a society because they just can't bear it. They are like primeval beings, slaves of primeval instincts, but intelligent enough to feel this limitation and express it. The lines from the Dryford ogre makes me feel he was almost jealous about weak humans whose society condamns him to live like a pariah, meanwhile he was absolutely unwilling to be a part of any society. PoE has so much good writing, even when depicting brutal humanoids (and I haven't met White March ogres yet).

The funny thing is that the solution seems obvious : chanters with a little rework could fit the role of alternative to priests. Not as equals, it is not the point, but well enough to make priest not a mandatory choice. Chanters have other advantages : they have great summons and they are also very good tanks. With a little help from paladins and druids (moonwell, nature's bounty...), they would perfectly fit the role. Chanters and priests are also versatile enough to avoid overlap if you take both of them. So basically, it is just another argument to rework chanter IMHO. Priest class itself doesn't really need a rework. It is more a problem of class role distribution.

Priest class seems fine. There is currently an ongoing thread about per encounter spell of casters being OP, but apart for this, no one really complains about priest. But when one tries to create a more or less powerful party, including a priest seems almost mandatory, because no other class can come even close for buffs. Priest can do other stuff, including healing, damages and even crowd control (repulsive seal is just so good...). But other classes can do that too, so even if their abilities are powerful, they don't make priest a "mandatory" party member. But buffs... They have always been force multipliers, so I believe their level of power is not a real problem. All optimized party should have a buffer, it's classic in this kind of games. Buffs are a part of the game. But as there are no shamans. Wizards have only single target buffs. Druids are mostly damage dealer. Paladins does not have many party buffs. And chanter only sings 1,5 song at a time... So I feel it is incredibly hard to replace a priest. There are in my opionion 7 great priest party buffs. Armor of faith (Paladin can replace) Blessing (Paladin or galant focus can mostly replace) Circle of protection (moonwell can mostly replace) Dire blessing (I don't think another spell can do that) Devotion for the faithful (probably the most critical and hardest to replace) Shield for the faithful (paladins have a baby per encounter version of it) Crown of the faithful (incredibly strong and impossible to replace) (Probably some can also be replaced by scrolls or potions.) If you manage to cast all the above, the fight is almost over. (For example, it is a total of +65 deflection.) I don't count holy power because it is itself replaced by priest abilities. Specific protection (charm, paralysis) and suppress afflictions are also very hard to replace. So, in your opinion, is it possible to play without priest without feeling (a bit) gimped ? Would you run PotD without one ? Don't you think it is annoying that one of the classes is so hard to replace ?

It was predictable that chanters would get abandonned by most players who are interested in discussing builds for White March. You can check the thread called "the state of the chanter". 10s chants to build 6 phrases is just an improper scaling. I didn't even looked for the information because their abilities simply couldn't be good enough to match their flawed progression : in White March you will simply never cast any invocation. You are basically limited to use 1 and a half ability (due to linger). It's pity because their principles are so good and fresh, and their low levels so much balanced... just the way their ressources scale is a failure. Much have been said about fighters in 2.0 / White March, but I believe that chanters just suffered a silent death. Ok, this might be a bit exagerated, but it is probably not far from truth.

By the way, Vithrack are more or less natural cipher. If Grieving Mother can appear as a peasant, a Vithrack NPC could appear as an innocent elvish maiden. May the force be with you.

Currently Novice suffering is +5 damages at lvl 1 and +4 accuracy/+2 damages per 3 lvl beyond first (4, 7, 10...). Transcent suffering is +2 damages at level 1 with apparently same scaling. So Novice suffering is exactly 3 more damage than monk's, which is really weird. Is it really intended ? I have also read rumours stating that novice continues scaling at lvl 13, but not monk's suffering. But for this I cannot confirm.

Priest hazard are something like +40 accuracy or even more. It does not seem to scale much with level so the rule behind it seems obscure for me.

Yes, it's the name of the spell, but I have not reached lvl 13 with a druid for now. I've just read about the 20% haste of the potion. It could help if someone had the detailed effect of the potion, especially duration. I would like to know too if it is possible to cast it out of combat, and if potion lasts after combat.

It even works with spells )

Don't you have a save with level 10+ characters without trial of iron ? Then you can go to an inn, recruit henchmen/respec and try ^^

They should. Ilya is a chant so it should stack with other activated abilities.

I think I will follow your advice about Righteous soul, because my shatter-starred paladin is meant to hold the line and Dr Strangelove is indeed a good movie ^^ And a guy called Torm probably knows what he is talking about when it comes to Pallyhoodness. I like zealous endurance because it is a time saver for priest while being actually better that its priest equivalent. But I think some abilities like reinforcing exhortation or hastening exhortation would be more appealing if they had a distinct "unique snowflake" advantage. Take the example of LoH : this ability might not be as good as ultimate healing BUT it is by far better for single target healing. For me LoH is THE perfectly designed paladin ability. A way to do this could be to make exhortations low duration crazy buff. Like 6s +100% speed or 5s +100 deflection or 8s total status immunity. Side effects would be less stacking issues and more interesting micro. I would also feel it fluff-wise more inspired : sounds more like a command and less like a blessing IMHO. Deprive the unworthy seems to be the equivalent of "the ultimate weapons meant to breach antagonist defense and save the world" in PoE world. It's Thaos kryptonite and nothing more. It is indeed very powerful, 100% reliable and reminds me the Inquisitor dispell. But it is far less useful than its BG2 counterpart due to the absence of spell sequencers and similar abilities that made wizard so annoying to kill in BG.

You may be right (especially about spamming slicken) but I'm a powergamer who wants to avoid resting in a way that would break immersion. Resting all the time is contrary to my own bushido ^^ Moreover, all class abilities and not only spells are balanced according to their number of uses, and per rest or per encounter seems to have been taken into account for this purpose. So I believe "my own bushido" is in some way the principle that the dev had in mind when balancing abilities. Having class (or abilities) specialized in either limited or renewable ressource (like cipher vs wizards) is IMHO an interesting part of gameplay. So I think it does matter in practice.

My opinion is that it was a good idea but it is currently scaling too fast. Lvl 15, devotion of the faithfull, confusion and calling the world maw (the super slicken) will become per encounter. I think 1 additional per encounter spell level every 4 levels instead of 2 would be ok. Lvl 3 spells per encounter at lvl 17 seems powerful but not broken.

By the way, hastening exhortation seems meh now that druid can cast a party-wide 20% speed buff at lvl 13 (nature's bounty). But you don't have a druid in your party, so... I am actually torn between righteous soul and healing chain for my lvl 11 fire godlike pally. I feel righteous soul to be a bit circonstancial because it requires charm to target your paladin to be useful. And for hard battle with a lot of mind spells like Raedric return and Vithraak bounty, priest will cast protection spell anyway. Healing chain seems like a per encounter lvl 5 priest spell, which is ok but a bit redundant. I'm not sure how bounce actually works : it seems to be able to bounce several times on the same target. Can someone explain me ? It's a recurring problem with paladin abilities : They are good but priests can do better, they can do it party-wide AND don't stack with Paladin's abilities. Of course there are exceptions like LoH...

Stupid question : does Sacred Immolation has an interrupt value ? If yes, as you're going to have godly perception, it might worth also taking Interrupting blow talent.

Hi, Here is the build I plan for my ranger 2.0. She is now level 6 and she is wonderful. Wolf pet with Resilient talent is a decent offtank in PotD, especially because of infinite health, and deals good damage. In 2.0, Pets were indeed greatly buffed. Ranger herself is an excellent sniper with Wounding Shots and an arbalest. I plan to switch to bows later. Race : Wood Elf. This build is also quite compatible with Sagani, in spite of less optimized stats and less universal racial bonus. Stat (not fully min maxed) : Mig 19 Con 8 Dex 19 Per 16 Int 10 Res 6 Pet : Wolf. It does 14% more damage than other pets due to better base damages. This might not be so impressive, but keep in mind that base damages are multiplicative modifier, not additive. (Antelope seems nice too for its +7 all defense.) Level 1 : Wounding Shot (for damages and to trigger Predator's Sense and Merciless Companion pet bonus.) Level 2 : Resilient Companion. Good enough to have your pet as an off-tank in PotD. Level 3 : Predator's Sense. Crazy if you can apply a DoT. My plan is to have a melee character with Tidefall, and wounding shots or druid's swarm as backups. Level 4 : Vicious companion. Good damage now with 3DR Bypass added by 2.0 ! Level 5 : Stalker's Link. 10 accuracy is always nice. Level 6 : Marksman. 5 accuracy is always nice. Weapon focus is better, but I want to keep using my arbalest for now and specialize in bows later. I want to try to avoid respec. This is the tested part of the build. Now my future (and untested ^^ ) picks : Level 7 : Driving Flight. Baby carnage. Also good for per-hit effects like disorienting. Level 8 : Merciless Companions. Now your party start to have enough debuff to turn your pet in a baby rogue. Level 9 : Binding roots. I think it is the longest crowd control of the game (30s), basically take a melee out of combat. And even Thaos has melee guards ^^. Fast cast is also nice for action economy. Level 10 : Penetrating Shot. Time to switch to bows. Or maybe blunderbuss just for 1 level ? Level 11 : Stunning Shots. Time to switch to bows. Even better with Twinned Arrows and hunting bow. Level 12 : Weapon focus peasant. For Lenas Er. And the backup hatchet ^^. Or maybe Adventurer. Level 13 : Twinned Arrows. A bit less than x2 damages. Also almost x2 chances to stun. Level 14 : Apprentice's sneak attack. For even more DPS. Armor : Light one. Maybe with a bit of DR and good unique effect like Gwisk Glas, or just Berathian Robes. Weapon of choice : Probably Lenas Er. Good attack speed which synergizes well with Stunning shots, DR Bypass and disorienting effect. Disorienting seems nice for debuff and synergize well with Driving Flight. Does anyone know if disorienting stacks with itself on multiple hit or stack with spells ? I will also build the soulbound bow too. It certainly has some good per rest abilities to unlock, even if I think Lenas Er has more consistent bonus, especially because it can be buffed by * some special material *. But you don't need to choose your weapon focus for Soulbound Weapons, so I'll pick Peasant anyway. I think I managed to plan all the DPS abilities / talents I wanted and still having enough available for Crowd Control and Resilient Pet. That was my idea and I hope it will work very well ! If someone has any suggestions, they are welcome. I will update when it will be fully tested.

Or maybe Survival could work on potions. Or maybe bonus from Survival could make food bonus last REALLY longer.

The wiki is incomplete. Sometimes it is also false.

Woodend plains is a very difficult map. For example, you can run into groups of something like 5 Pwgra and 4 Brimsurfers. That's a very difficult fight because Brimsurfers, even if they don't have a lot of abilities, keep regenerating for the whole battle. Sometimes it is better to just avoid messing with them.

The funny thing is I discovered it while fighting a party of 4 druids that were casting it repeatedly and destroying my party meanwhile my own druid stayed idle. Not fair ^^