Elric Galad

For Active Skills only. Arcane is certainly the skill with the highest potential because it turns any character into a caster... for a cost. That being said catsers are the ones that need it the least because... well they are alredy casters. Main character has skill check to do on its own, so I tend to specialize them less than others. My "rules" : - a couple of Athletic (needed for some check and helps in general) and Stealth (helps positionning) for anybody - 1 specialist for each skill except Sleight of Hand : mechanics (the most important, but only 1 character needs it), arcane, alchemy, stealth, athletic, explosives (by approximate order of priority). Yes, you have 5 members for 6 skills, so one of them has to pick 2 skill speciality. I tend to give 2 speciality to main character since they have to do some checks by themselves and main characters ultimately get +1 to all skills. - a couple of Sleight of Hand points to the Stealth Specialist - spare points can be put into Arcane (the most powerful, and 3 points give access to Tier 3 Scrolls) or Alchemy (healing potions) - try to use starting skill point to your advantage, but only Explosives, Mechanics and Sleight of Hand points tend to be lost since arcane, alchemy, stealth, athletic are at least a bit useful to everyone. Finally, there are no utterly bad choices, and you can respec later. For Mechanics, I would give it to either Eder if Rogue or the "mysterious 4th party member" from Port Maje.

Probably going to discard this one. Item abilities might be different from spells sometimes. "Iridescent" scales may hint toward any Blight type rather than ice one. That being said BPM summoned blight scaling should work normally.

Theoretically yes, but the dragon hp is so high that I doubt anything can kill the dragon before the end of its duration.

All Dorudugan fire based attacks can be avoided, including Magnetic Overdrive with the right equipment. That's why I'm specifically asking about Cleave because it's not avoidable if one goes melee.

Is Cleave considered as a melee attack ?

Hi everybody, I released a new version 2.4.1 yesterday Deadfire Balance Polishing Mod at Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Nexus - Mods and Community (nexusmods.com) Some minor changes mostly, included some previously buffed abilities that has been tuned down. To give a global picture about Enfeebled Affliction with this version : - Forbidden Fist : no changes from vanilla. Still the best way to inflict Enfeebled for a Multiclas. - Perishing Strike : Closer from the original than in Version 2.4. But now, Weakened is replaced by Enfeebled either when Weakened ellapses OR WHEN HEALTH DROPS BELOW 50% (immediately for target already below 50%). So contrary to before your target will get Enfeebled at some point before dying Still not ideal way to play around Hostile Effects extension, but at least systematically useful. - Writ of Mending : added in 2.4.1 a hard -100% healing received so it affects target even if resistant to CON Affliction, in a similar fashion as other Woedica Writs. I thought it was justified as a Tier 9. Probably the easiest way to apply Enfeebled in an AoE, but accessible only to Single Class from a specific Subclass. - Heart Seeker : BPM set its Enfeebled to Infinite Duration for a while as a way to promote SC Ranger as justify its 4 Bonds cost. Note that this is an Auto-Hit attack and has no synergy with AoE Weapons. - Corrosive Skin : BPM upgraded Weakened to Enfeebled for a while, based on people suggestion. Still locked behind the (anyway very powerful) Tier IX Wizard Slot. Contrary to the 2 previous ones, only applies to 1 target, so does not feel overwhelmingly powerful as a way to apply Enfeebled (but is good as a spell as a whole) Fractured Volition does not apply Enfeebled anymore in 2.4.1, but Duration is very long (30s) and recovery very low (3s). This is a similar change as Tenuous Grasp 2s recovery. I think it would be especially adapted to play as a "Mindstalker Death Mark". This way, Enfeebled remain a rare and powerful effect (but you can still pick Fractured Volition from older version, I don't think it would break the game anyway).

OK, I will do it within a couple of weeks (let's not be too ambitious ) You should probably add all basic food (such as egg and pork) if you haven't. For the sake of completeness. But honnestly, it isn't a big issue. SSS rooms are also quite decent.

Indeed, that is what I was thinking. This kind of stuff is "obvious" afterward.

That being said, out of the "harmonizing" part that I don't believe to be necessaery, I don't think Draconic Fury compare that much favorably with Minor Avatar from the same Tier. Draconic is an unique spell so should probably be a bit better. The Terrified part is less convenient than the Tier 3 Repulsive Visage and the lash part, albeit good because lashes are great, is not as good as the bunch of stats from minor avatar. Therefore, setting its cast/recovery to the same as Minor Avatar (4.5s/0s) is probably a good idea.

I'm still learning things about the game mechanics...

I see what you mean but there isn't an absolute rule about that. Most self buff are indeed without recovery but their casting time varies (Minor Avatar being a good example). So why not recovery too ? If the spell is very good anyway, I don't think it's necessary to change.

I think I wouldn't have realized it if I hadn't done so many "testing" on wild mare patrons.

So, since the mod has been released for a few days and no one has pointed any major issues, I think it could be nice to advertise for it on a couple of places, such as Steam Forum and Reddit. I can do it for you if you want, unless you don't want of course. Quite minor issue : Unless I'm mistaken, I can't find Kith Meat to buy (but Forbidden Pie and Corpse Loaf can be bought). Granted this is only a true issue with BPM since all 3 Kith food have quite different effects (and not just better version of Kith Meat).

Focus gain is a portion of actual damages inflicted. You can't inflict more than the target HP. So if your target has only 10 hp left and you deal 41 damages, your focus gain will be based on 10 damages done, not 41. It is quite similar to many drain life/drain mana effects from many various RPG.

Really a good complement for S4, ideally to be added as a link after this one has been released on Nexus.

I think the worst is the Corrode PEN talent that doesn't benefit ANY priest spell outside of Berath / Rymrgand special ones. That said it can be helpful for some Multiclassing such as Bleak Walkers that get an Acid tagged Flame of Devotion but don't have access to the Corrode PEN talent by themselves.

Well this thread is a about all possible so no problem to change current topic. This is technically possible, and I've thought about it in the past. The reason I've discarded it is that it would be a new scaling rule, which is already complex enough. The reason one would want it is that Shield is quite homologous to healing. The issue is that you won't get Might scaling anyway (adding Might scaling would be a tediousness nightmare) so the 2 will always diverge, adding a layer of confusion to what scale or not. Meanwhile there are several numerical effects that do not Scale at all (Such as pure attributes buff). So Shield can just be part of this category. Also I don't think there are Shield based abilities that are in need of a buff (and often their durations do scale). The absence of scaling is specially annoying for damaging attacks cause it gives them poor PEN and (to a lesser extant) poor accuracy that make them kind of obsolete in late game. Shielding does not have this issue, so a change isn't critical (in addition to be potentially confusing).

How surprising, right when I'm in holidays with no access to the game... Joke apart, Congratulations!

Okay, so I guess I might have gone too far about spreading Enfeebled. I will turn back Fractured Volition to the original effect, but rise it's Duration to 30s and decrease casting time to 0.5s/3s. The fast recovery is a good way to make it still relevant at high level when you may prefer doing something else of your time than a non damaging single target debuff. Also it would compare better to Secret Horrors and Puppet master on same tier. This would provide a convenient way to apply a CON debuff and Sneak Attack condition to a priority target. People wanting the old version of Fractured Volition could still use the file from a previous BPM Version. Perishing Strike too would be reverted to its vanilla effect but with a twist. The Weakened to Enfeebled transition will also happen at any time the affected target is bloodied. So at some point the target WILL be Enfeebled, which was the main issue (target could die before Enfeebled happens). Bosses will suffer an affliction for base 30s when above 50% health, which is handy. Enfeebled will be easier to apply than in vanilla but not that conveniently as a. On demand effect. The upgrade will have no effect on CON resistant target (since Downgraded Sickened does not carry the effect of Perishing Strike Weakened) but CON isn't the most resisted affliction and Toxic Strike on the other side is useless Vs Poison Immune anyway...

A good thing to point about Enfeebled is that its power can't be adjusted by adjusting it's duration, since a big part of the effect (+50% duration to all previously applied hostile effect) happens instantly. There is even an argument that the shorter is the better since it allows reapplying the initial effect faster. What about Perishing Strike then ? Changing it to immediate Enfeebled for 15s might have been a debatable choice too. You only get it on Tier 6, it costs 2 guiles (harder to spam than 30 focus) and 2 ability point. What somewhat concerns me is the possibility to apply it in an AoE. Perishing Strike isn't easy to balance since it has to be a quite significant upgrade since Withering Strike is barely okayish on its own and Toxic Strike kind of potent. I could make Enfeebled conditional (as the original but in a more convenient and less antisynergetic way) but it would require an additional change to be worth it IMHO. Rogue has plenty good stuff to spend Guile.

I don't know, it is still a low tier spell after all, with a pseudo quadratic scaling with PL. It has good PEN, fast cast, and requires absolutely no conditions (except having more than 1 target) to get its max damages (which top at ~100 plus might and PL damages bonuses). Contrary to beams which require good positioning and don't do their damages instantly. The real question is why one would include a pure low level damages spell with no risk/no reward on a Cipher build, granted that they want to be auto attacking instead. It has good synergy with a Whale of a Wand, Death of 1000 cuts and a few other effects. It can act as a pseudo ranged attack for Soulblade since it is even cheaper for them.

Well, there are ways to turn Enfeebled i to an infinite CC, but they are somewhat tedious to do, and works marginally better than Just reapeating the same Hard CC. How many foes need 9 mental binding? Only for toughest foes it makes a true difference and these are often CON resistant so the combo isnt that reliable. That being said, I'm not sure I would redo the same change but People using BPM have get used to it so it could be frustrating to reverse the change. And apart for very specific combos, I don't think it is even that powerful Fractured Volition was kind of bad IMHO. Weakened is relatively common so dealing it single target and without any added damages really sounded bad. Such as tenuous grasp by the way. You have much better things to do with your action time. Fractured Volition needed something anyway.

Sometimes I even wonder if I haven't spread Enfeebled a bit too much. That being said, Ciphers do get something close through Psychovampiric Shield, since big Res debuff increase hostile effect duration. It does not apply to already active effects (so won't work with this particular topic) but does go through all kinds of Resistance and Immunity which is a plus. The duration extension isn't usually as big, but can actually be better in some extreme case of very high Resolve foes.

Agreed. Also the PL malus applies to the summon duration, which I'm not sure was super intended. Reducing the malus reduces the gap between display summon duration and actual one. Do go for -3 PL. Annoying but not too harsh. Also I plan to add a hard -100% healing received on Writ of Mending, to bypass affliction resistance as for other Writs. I've spread a bit too much Enfeebled Affliction so I think a Tier 9 spells should keep something unique.

Ok, so next proposed changes : Blessing of Wael : I might have been slightly too heavy handed with this one, resulting in a massive buff/debuff with great AoE and Duration. Currently plan to tune it down to +8 all defenses / -8 to INT/PER/RES at random on damaged. Incarnate : I turned SC priest into top tier summoner, which might not be fully appropriate. It is great that the Summon themselves feel great (they're God Incarnate after all) but the malus should have stayed so it does not render other Tier 9 useless. Currently it is a bit too incitative to keep your Tier 9 slot for Incarnate (especially since the only other Priest Summon is Spiritual Ally which is very nice but isn't in the same power league as Incarnates). I will add back the -5 PL for 35s as in vanilla (but I will keep it as a Hostile effect, so it can be reduced by high RES, so you can still build around). Death of 1000 Cuts : Simple suggestion to make it Target Deflection instead of Fortitude, so all Single Target Cipher DoT target a different defense (since I've set Soul Ignition to vs Will). I often feel that Disintigrate is sufficient (and you might want it anyway to get rid of that Megablob), so using a precious Tier 9 ability point to get a similar effect isn't very attractive. Granted that it might not need a buff but changing the defense it targets isn't a pure buff. Its main point is that it decreases its redundancy which is probably always a good idea.