Elric Galad

It's a bit off-topic but how would you feel about increasing Kapana Taga base PEN from 5 to 6 (+3 for Superb) ? 5 PEN is really low, even with dual damage type so I would tend to think it should be increased to be in line with other dual types (swords, Kahua Hozi, etc...)

I'm not sure about the reason of the added Pull ? Is it because you need targets to be close for the bounce effect ?

Either the number of additional attacks is wrong in the Gamedata and it would be easy to change. Or it is a hardcode bug and it would be impossible. In this case, I think the base damages could be raised a bit.

His Heart did fill is a bit mehish in my experience compared to the usual Cipher's Ancestor's Memory. Skipping the Dragon AND the upgraded Ancient Weapons (and all summons !) as a SC Troubadour feels like a sin. Also missing Eld Nary. Sip of the Marrow is also bugged : the secondary damages cones are launched from the caster instead of the exploding body ; and since they are shorter than the main one, you won't affect many targets ; the healing AoE from the upgrade works fine though. One thing to understand about Single Classes is that, apart Monk/Priest/Wiz/Druid, the natural advantage of SC compared to Multi is narrow. Which means you have to rely on specific abilities to make it work. Even if you want to focus on healing, I wouldn't skip Eld Nary and both Tier IX Summon. Secondary problem is that Chanters are really meh as main healers. Two fingers isn't very convenient to use and the Chants won't be enough. Mercy and Kindness is super great... especially with other healer in the party. All in all, I'm not convinced at all that the build can hold the role you want (unless you rely on scrolls + Mercy and Kindness). That said, SC Troubadour has good feats and is easily the most versatile of chanter subclasses, so I would agree it worths playing (over SC Skald which only purpose would be to spam Eld Nary).

N'allons pas en faire un fromage !

It could be used to make a good educational video about exponential. "Hey kids, do you think +10% is a lot or not ?"

I love how the oozes tried to run away

Why not Livegiver/Wayfarer Multiclass ? And 2 part time healer are better than 1 I would say, so you can also use both. Wayfarer is nice as part of a tank build (preferably Multiclass) and single class druids are very good DPS, even Lifegivers. Not sure of what you consider a standard team. A single character can fulfill multiple purposes. Cipher is the only class that can truly gives ressources back to other in a satisfying way.

That said there might be a couple of remaining cases where inspiration and afflictions comes from a passive (flanked through position only count as a passive origin... So Deflection and AR debuff from Normal Flanking should work. Per Afflictions or Phantom Foes should not work). I think these ones do stack which may generate a bit of confusion. Persistent Distraction is one of them. Maybe I should check if Enervating Blows could stack with other Constitution debuff... The thing is I don't think there are "Pure Constitution" debuff. I'm not sure there are other cases. Maybe statuses from items ?

Afflictions and Inspirations don't stack with similar effects.

https://www.nexusmods.com/pillarsofeternity2/mods/438 Version 1.4.2 has just been released. Fresh stuff such as Specialist Wizard rework, Drug Crash vs Arcane Dampener less dumb, Potion of Enlightenment by @Noqn (also exists as a standalone mod), Psychic backlash limited to once per 60s instead of per encounter, various improvements The changes are easy to spot thanks to the <Version 1.4.2> tag in the mod description.

For Balance : Firebrand isn't viable as an ultimate weapon as it is. It is good but not enough. The spell is perfectly fine as a Tier 2 utility spell to get a weapon that deals elemental damages (very important Vs certain foes). That's why I won't change it. Parasitic Staff isn't as strong as ultimate Weapons, but its unique enchant makes it suitable for certain builds. Such as Bloodmage indeed. But that's why I think it doesn't need a buff. For Wizards, it is fine to use it sometimes but switch to other Conjured 2 handers such as Citzal Lance or Warding Staff if necessary. Power Level scaling is a tempting idea but I'm conservative about Keeping the char level instead since it is way easier to balance (PL stacking and differences between Multiclass and Single Class would be a pain).

Leaving apart the balancing consideration, to answer on the technical side. First check the modding basics on the various tutorials to get an idea about the structure of Gamedata files. Then on the specific topic : Weapons are listed in the Items Gamedata file. Weapons have several attributes but the most important to know are Attack ID and Item Mod ID. To change the base attack, you have to change the Attack Gamedata file where you can find with the object with corresponding Attack ID. There are 2 cases : - either the weapon has its own attack, which is likely to be the case for Firebrand since it has specific damage type. Then you can directly change the min - max damages. - or the weapon shares its attack attribute with similar weapon which is likely to be the case for Parasitic staff (it should have the same attack as other staves). Then you have to duplicate the attack object, customize it, give it a new ID and change the Attack ID attribute within the Item Item Gamedata file. The Item Mod ID is used to describe the Enchants and also scaling properties. It points within an Item Mod object within the Item file. The Item Mod Objects have status ID attributes that point to the Status Gamedata file. Just follow the ID to get an idea about how it is structured. There are several Statuses for scaling weapons (Acc, damages bonus, PEN) within the status file. You have to customize their scaling attributes so PL is taken into account instead of Level. Then of course you will have to duplicate the whole path from the weapon attributes to the status so you don't impact other scaling weapons. Modding isn't that hard once you have figured the basics. I suggest to start by customizing Firebrand, then Parasitic Staff, then the Power Level scaling which is a bit trickier to do.

Bloodmage has its use vs Megaboss due to versatility. Spamming certain spells does help a lot : - Arcane Dampener vs Auranic - Thrust of Tattered Veil vs Hauni - Deleterious Alacrity / Fleet Feet vs Dorudugan for hit & run maybe ? - Summons for tanking in general The "new" Enchanter will have a good perk vs Belranga (I've set Free Action to provide Immunity to Dex Affliction when under the effect of a Dex Inspiration...)

4 important changes for the upcoming next version of Balance Polishing Mod : - Brilliant unerfed to some extant, will restore up to Tier 3/6/9 within 18s cycles. Each tick of Brilliant is basically worth 1 cast of Blood Sacrifice (except it's not random but cycled) - Added Potion of Enlightenment new item (developped by Noqn) as a mean of making Brilliant less necessary. It is a very expensive consumable that restore 1 ressource every 30s for the duration of the fight. It is meant to make Megaboss battle more manageable without Brilliant. 1 ressource /30s isn't much, starts to matter more with a full party taking it (which is equivalent to a single party member under Brilliant effect). - Removed Dorudugan nerf. (I will create an archive package for such discarded changes, in case some people still want to use them) - Big rework on specialist wiz bar Evoker. My opinion is that Bloodmage is still be very good, but is meant to rely on an insane versatility. Need to spam Thrust of Tattered Veil ? You can. Need to rely on a specific summoned weapon ? You will never run out. Etc... I'm still hunting various cheese (Strand of Favor is on my list) which might have an impact on Solo play. BPM isn't mean to be balanced for Solo play. Its intention is to help making more or less every party viable. There are probably new combination because of the buffed abilities though. Just be warned that I hadn't Solo in mind.

The ability to restore a Tier IX spell with 100% of chance with a 3s action would be OP, even with the nerf. I think the best use of Blood Sacrifice is to spam Tier 6+ spells, which gives 2/3 chances of getting back a spell of a fairly high level. Restoring low level self buffs has its use too. That said, I think @Noqn managed to achieve what you suggest about selecting Minor, Medium, Major Blood Sacrifice. Maybe he has some file to share. (but I won't include it in my mod)

Or I could limit AoE to 1,5m, except for the +15 Def effect from the upgrade which I would leave at 2,5m radius (but keep the 12s duration for Blindness, bonus damages and deflection buff). Tell me if you have any preference or some other idea.

Yup, I am not that much at ease with it either. I wanted to keep Paladin Point blank effects with insta cast time and 2,5m AoE (to align with Light of Pure Zeal and Immolation, and create a sort of class theme). That said, 12s instacast Blind + secondary effect might be too much. I could put everything at 8s. Maybe I shouldn't be too affraid to have the unupgraded version a bit underpowered. Instacast Blind still have its use. Also, I'm not too sure about Enduring vs Inspired Beacons. The second one is arguably much stronger (at least if they have the same duration). I could go with 8s Blind, 8s damages increased and 12s +15 Def (while keeping AoE and cast time the same). I'm going to think a little bit about it. Edit : the reason for it is that I don't like to have 2 effects on foes with different durations.

Yup, the issue is that many issues you pointed are from the vanilla game (and maybe a couple come from Community Patch). I can theoritically change them but : - too much effort for the benefit - If I change them I would have to copy the changed ability to basically all languages but English. This is something you can't see as a native English player but since the mod is only avaiable in English (plus translation mod in Russian) when I mod a description, the text will afterwards appear in English whatever languages is chosen. So slightly correcting a description basically cost the translation. That's why I don't want to do it. However, I was able to take the following comments into account : done done Not sure about what went wrong with parenthesis. "Gaz" corrected. Sickens capital added. Not sure what went wrong with Blue, probably I should have use the word Sickened. Changed it. It can't be worse. done Changed it to an effect with 60s cooldown for next version. This should overwrite the problem. It was vanilla game which had wrong description. +1.5 focus per char level. There's a couple of effects like this that were tedious to change. The mod description is the reference for this couple of cases. Of course, I will add the special thanks to your review in my next version. Feel free to make further comments if you want but probably better to do it based on the modded files to be sure you comment the mod and not vanilla game misdeeds

I prefer a bit Druid because Frenzy does not stack entirely with deleterious alacrity of motion and Might inspiration is very good for healing.

Thanks it would be nice ! I'm not a native English speaker indeed but I'm pretty sure I could have made the same kind of mistakes in French too. I've completed a new package for delivery yesterday so I think I could include your remark in the release after this one.

It would be a Lifetaker then

Given that Lifegivers rely a lot on Heal over Time, their stats are going to be optimized for DoT and Pulsating spells too (bar accuracy). Various insects spells, Relentless Storms, Venombloom, decay spells are all going to be very strong with your high INT and MIG.

A possible workaround would be to have newly cast familiar remove other familiar type effects. 5 times out of 6 it would purge an infinite familiar buff remaining from a previous cast. It's not perfect since avoiding casting familiar spell would enable keeping the familiar effect forever, but preventing a conjurer from casting familiar is a drawback anyway, which kind of compensate the glitch. Since I plan to remove familiar from summon limit, it would also mitigate the benefit of summoning a horde of familiars through brilliant.

Maxquest, are you interested by the Cycling Brilliant (Tier 3/6/9) with no hard duration limit in my post above ? I plan to include it in the next release of BPM, unless you want to include it in community patch (or another version of cycling brilliant with no hard limit )