Elric Galad

Weird. It just changed duration and the fact the Interrupt applies on Graze. Were you confused or something ?

The ability works with your Spirit / Vessel summons. Noticeably Spirit Ally, Phantoms, Dichotomous Clones, Ancestral Weapons and Skellies from Chant. That's a lot to work with. It also procs Death of 1000 Cuts (should be one proc per Spirit / Vessel, which is better than most spells). But you indeed have to build around in order to use it as something else than a type specific spell. The ability doesn't jump, I can't see how to decrease damage per jump.

Hotfix for Persistent Distraction and a couple of minor changes. Deadfire Balance Polishing Mod at Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Nexus - Mods and Community (nexusmods.com) Mostly slight number tweaks. Among changes : - Reduced Screaming Souls AoE as it was a bit broken vs Vessel and Spirit groups. - Rusted Armor (Druid, Berath and scroll) targets Reflex now. It was barely possible to hit Fortitude on those targets requiring an armor debuff. - Uncanny Luck reworked from CP version : this version is 5% resistance, 5% Hit to Crit, 5% Graze to Hit, 5% Miss to Graze. I kind of agree that the base game required a small buff, but 10% Hit to Crit from CP basically made it a no-brainer talent IMHO. It overshadowed Rogue Hit to Crit talent, Cipher's high level 15% Hit to Crit talent (Limited to Cipher's Spell vs Will !) and Wizard 15% Hit to Crit spell. Of course, this component is in the nerf package and can be deleted.

It has a stacking limit (-32 Def with CP, -33 without it) Compared with Divine Mark -25 without the need to Hit several time. For constitency of rules, I've also decided that the Raw damages from Garrote should not be conditioned by the Paralysis (the prone part yes, would feel weird without).

The difference is that for Steel Garrote, you probably never want to spend 2 Zeals on it if you don't get the paralysis effect, and the prone would seem to come out of nowhere. Meanwhile Disoriented + Deflection debuff is steel good enough for 2 Guiles. Also from a balance standpoint, Confounding Blind comes as an alternative to the very very handy Gouging Strike. So if it doesn't even work vs all foes, it would be a very very mediocre alternative. As I said, it's literally said in the description, so you're right about it being probably intentional.

It's in the nerf mod cause it is not a buff.

OK, so after investigating : - The bug does not seem to be systematically reproducible. Knocking out the rogue won't systematically leave the Persistent Distraction debuff. Something weird happened in your case. - In the case it happens, the issue is that this new condition isn't purged after battle. I will change it in next version (I will release it quickly since it may happen to others), so it will be robust to bizarre persistence. - The known antidote in your case is annoying but doable : face another foe with Persistent Distraction, engage, disengage. The disengagement should purge the persisting status. In the worst case, console The Messenger again

Confouding Blind deflection malus is actually a sub effect of the blind condition. This means contrary to other Affliction + other effect attacks, it doesn't apply the deflection debuff vs PER resistant or Immune foes. EDIT : note that it is technically said in the description... Of course, I will change this for BPM (too annoying compared to alternative Gouging strike)

Strange. Maybe a base game bug cause I haven't changed this part. EDIT : nay, it works fine without the mod. EDIT EDIT : my bad, just realized it doesn't even stop after battle is over. I have to release an hotfix quickly. EDIT EDIT EDIT : Now that I'm thinking about it, the persisting effect should be purged when disengaged by any other foe with persistent Distraction. This isn't convenient at all, but I'm just pointing that it isn't hopeless. Next version will work when you kill a distracting target and I will also add a backup purge at the end of battle, just in case there would be another weird case.

Thanks. I don't think it will be more broken that in the unmodded game. You will just have more possibilities. But it won't work on pulsating spells or similar ones.

Since there are at least 2 pairs of bounding boots with 2 charges each, it's relatively easy to get a free bath to your whole party every day ^^

Well it says Melee, not Melee Weapons

These changes just occured (small version, limited to Backstab / Assassin rework and Red Hand nerf) : Deadfire Balance Polishing Mod at Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Nexus - Mods and Community (nexusmods.com)

Shadow Step has an interesting property : the paralysis part is applied on next weapon Hit (Miss and Graze don't count). As long as no attack Hits the Paralysis charge isn't spent and last forever. Also, the paralysis is applied without a roll. Basically, you're pretty much guaranteed to get something paralysed at some point (Ok, without mod, it's probably not worth it for 3 Guiles, but still...)

Now that I'm thinking about it, I think it would bit a bit too strong for the early game. Probably more reasonable to implement +50% +5%/PL beyond 1 for both damages bonuses.

Agreed. I can set the reload to 9s, which would preserve Red Hand unique spike damage ability. That's 30% more Attack + reload cycle. Getting a second shot for arquebus is not so easy. 15% of 6.8s reload is still 1.02s. 15% of 4s "normal weapon" Recovery is 0.6s. Add 0.7s for the attack itself and you're above 1s window. It is probably very hard to get a second attack from normal weapon and close from impossible from non red-hand arquebus (recovey speed bonus stacks in inverse fashion, so they won't help much - one need extreme attack speed bonus at the beginning of combat, that's achievable and not "broken" ; anyway it works once per combat). Fast 1h weapons have base 15% of 3s + 0.5s attack = 0.95s for the whole cycle. The can probably benefit from Backtstab windows from stealth even without full attack. I would say that's good. That leaves the problem of : - BPM Crushing Blow (instant recovery). But I would say that's a "good combo" (that costs 2+ Rages) - Red Hand indeed, but since the weapon as a whole will eat a significant nerf, I think enabling this combo wouldn't be too bad.

Usually I like the idea of indirect nerfs so unique weapons and abilities can keep what make them strong. But here we are are speaking about something that basically doubles DPS. It is way too much above the curve to be corrected by nerfing another trait IMHO.

Which leads me to another question (independently from the previous one) : Does the Red Hand need a nerf ? It has almost double the DPS compared to a normal Arquebus, at the minor cost of a bit less range. No other unique provides comparable multiplicative DPS. I would reduced its base damages by 20%. Still 160% base damages per double shot. That's still an enormous gain.

It's not so simple. This version is meant to combo with Full Attacks. You get 2 attacks instead of 1, so 2x10-14 = 24 damages on average for daggers, vs 23 damages for Arquebus (and Arquebus is the most extreme case). Of course, Full Attacks get a malus with Dual Wield. -35% damages negates 58% of damages bonus. The point is that this version of Backstab and Rogue in general get so many damages bonus that the damages loss isn't that big. What IS optimal with this version of Backstab would be DW Normal speed weapons. But that's pretty much the case with cost efficiency of most rogue special attacks anyway. Fast weapons are faster, which has other perks from cost efficiency per ability : Skald Multiclassing, Confounding Strike hits, specific unique properties, etc... In a nutshell, the gap is much smaller than with base game Backstab, although not as perfectly equal as CP Backstab (but solves othe issue such as giving backstab a proper niche). EDIT : But Redhand is indeed the exception since you can shot twice in 1s. I haven't thought about that. But that's only 1 weapon, and it makes sense that some uniques get some unique combos ^^

What would you think about following design (principles and numbers) for Backstab : +100% damages +100% damages against targets ABOVE 50% health (in addition to previous one) Applies when Invisible/Stealthed or fixed 1s after against target <2m The idea is to have Backstab COMBINE with Strikes instead of competing, and to be used as an alpha strike against a fresh target, useful when you switch targets with SHadowing Beyond or Smoke Veil. (Assassin passive would also applies when Invisible/Stealthed or fixed 1s after)

Well BPM 2.1 sets Persistent Distraction to -5 all defenses instead of Distracted. Enabling Deathblow was too easy and it made the other Rogue Distraction causing abilities redundant. But I see your point : without set-up, backstab can cause less damages than a normal rogue attack. I'm considering letting Backstab applies 1s after Breaking invisibility so at least the second attack of a Full Attack could get both effects.

Nope Usually yes, but there are some weapons with attacks that are tagged Fire, Frost, etc... If you pick one of them, no penalty.

I would include Ranger in the mix because Tranquilizing Shot. -30s to foe buff is really good to deal with Wizards and other melee classes don't get something comparable. Using a Multi-Hit weapon (Sun&Moon) cause multiple -30s de-buffs. Piling Acc modifier vs single target with Ranger is good anyway. I would go Rogue because damages AND all Rogue's Strikes interrupt on Hit (or sometimes Graze). Interrupting is neat to deal with casters. I don't feel Rogue very complicated to control ^^

I implemented the bonus damages from time spent invisible as auto-hit attacks triggered by stacking charges. But they were attacks from the Ranger, so the pet triggered bonus damages broke ranger's invisibility. There might be some other way to do, such as implentation as Bonus damages on attack but not actual attacks. I think this is the way CP Backstab and Captain Crow sabre work. That being said, I wanted to keep the initial effect of Shadowed Hunters (just adding the bonus damages), and this would have led the ability to have too many and too complicated effects, something that I'm reluctant to do. Also it was very slow and conditional for a precious Tier 9 ability slot. I'm quite satisfied with my current version of Shadowed Hunter (Modular Healing + Hostile Effect defense + Invisibility / Hostile Effect defense + Healing + Intuitive). BPM Ranger Tier 9 is very competitive with all my reworks and only 3 possible picks, so Shadowed Hunters need some raw power to compete. That's why the idea came back for backstab : Backstab is only about damages, so having "complex" rule about this is OK. And it's a Tier 1, so it can be about situational spicing.

Yes, BPM Lion's Sprint duration is fixed 1s, not extendable by any mean. I'm paranoid about Wall of Draining. I think the change above is enough for the Assassin subclass. I'm not set on other abilities + backstab for regular rogue. This should work pretty well as well, even though they are less specialized. Currently, I haven't set up my mind. I'm not even set about whether it requires a change. CP Backtstab variant has a big advantage : it is equally as good with 2HS, Fast DW, normal DW, 1HS/S&Bor whatever... Somehow Backstab should be good with 1HS Stiletto, so it makes sense. Current Asassin bonus is better with 2HS than with DW. 1s lasting Assassin bonus would be about equal with 2HS and DW (normal DW would be disfavored, but Full Attacks would be favored). Rogues do favor DW, but I don't want to overly force them into it. That's why the change for these 2 abilities should probably not be symmetric. Also I'm reluctant to tweak CP Backstab because the code isn't mine, and it would intertwine both mods even more. I admit I could also go with an entirely original design... Good to know ! That's indeed the point. Lion's Sprint had the same Jankiness issue. One-shot isn't strictly necessary but dealing significant damages from stealth is the point. CP Variant adds 20 raw damages from stealth +1/PL +% MIG modifier. That's fairly significant early on, but not really later on. Maybe it should scale more ? Brainstorming idea : Backstab could add damages for each second spent invisible (with some cap). Fun with initial strike from stealth ? BG Thief Vibe ? Using Smoke Veil before combat could allow keeping built up charges when getting close to foes from stealth is too difficult. I tried this for Shadowed Hunters but I had a Pet issue with implementation. Could work with Rogue who hasn't the same issue (or could work with my improved modding skills from then ). This is an idea to avoid Backstab being "only about DPS" : the build-up damages should be inferior to "expected DPS", but allow Spike damages, encourage maneuver time, etc... Assassin subclass would make the strike much more reliable. I could keep good base damages for 0s spent invisible so Vanishing Strike remains interesting.