Elric Galad

Finally removed the Stun and simply added an Interrupt on Graze which is consitent with Vertical Launch mechanics. It's still a 3.5s Hard CC which covers the whole screen. I guess it is not as good as Maelstorm, but at least this version has situationnal use. Probably fun for Ship battles, or as an Alpha move / pulling effect due to crazy range and AoE. Well, I've finally discovered that this spell has an incorrect display of 7 PEN while it is actually 9 PEN. That makes quite a difference TBH. I still don't like the redundancy of this spell with Venombloom (and Poison based effect, even if not displayed correcly) but it's hard to say it's a bad spell. I should avoid modding stuff just because I don't like abilities, so I'm not going to change it (except for the PEN display that I corrected on the way).

I agree on that. I would prefer RTwP too, but people answering here are the ones that bought the game. I guess Obsidian should be more concerned about people who didn't. If it's a condition to get an Eora Based game (with at least same classes), then I'll go with TB. However, it would require a far better balancing than what they did with current TB. TB is currently an extra for a game whose mechanics were adjusted for RTwP so it's okay. if it's not perfect.

I'm game-mechanics-sensitive. This mechanic is not pure. It will ruin my playthrough.

Go with the Broom instead. Too much a headache to use this shield even if I agree there's niche build that can work with them as Boeroer says. But you're constantly under the threat of underperformong f you don't micromanage

One important thing to note about Bash Shield is that they are BAD (except Tuotilo's Palm). The reasons are that : - they don't benefit from weapon quality enchant, so their damages, accuracy and PEN are ultimately very bad as endgame weapons. - Since 1/2 of your attack are made with the bashing shield, it will actually lower your DPS even with the speed increase from Dual Wielding ! Tuotilo's Palm is the exception because it benefits from Transcendant Suffering or Monastic Unarmed Training. Weapon + Tuotilo's Palm DPS is around half way between Sword and Board style and Dual Wielding. That's the only bashing option to consider with the unmodded game. Magran's Blessing and Best Defense are not worth considering IMHO. Shameless plug to your Shameless plug : yesterday, I've tweaked Magran's Blessing and Best Defense so their DPS would be around the same as Tutotilo's Palm. For Best Defense, I've added +16 Accuray to its roll, and attack is now 11-15 base damages with 11 PEN. +16 Acc ad 11 PEN are because it's supposed to be a legendary item. To calculate "11-15" damages, I've taken the damage of a medium attack speed 1-handed, I've applied the same damage reduction factor as Tutotilo's Palm compared to Monk Fist (x 0.55) Then to compensate for the absence of +60% damages bonus from a legendary weapon, I've multiplied the result by 1.5 (not 1.6 because base damage increase are better than additive % damages). For Magran's Shield, I've added +8Accuray to its roll, and attack is now 11-15 base damages with 9PEN because it's supposed to be only exceptionnal. Since you can't upgrade it, I've let the same damage as legendary Best Defense. I've also added Fire Keyword to the attack so it can benefit from Scion of Flame and Ring of focused flame. That's a way to compensate the absence of upgradable quality. But Maybe you can do something cleaner since you have better knowledge than me about Items. Have a look at the files if you want. Also I've tweaked Magran's Blessing Passive shield to +10 Accuracy and 10 PEN since it's a passive and contrary to Flame Shield abilities, it does not scale with level and was stuck at 7 PEN. That's the only magical items I've modded because I think the way Bash Shield works is bad and tweaking it increases build possibilities. gn.items.magran_blessing.gamedatabundle gn.items.best_defense.gamedatabundle

Minor update to Summon Rebalance package : I've found a bug that caused Fire Stag's final explosion to have mediocre PEN (undue effect of changing it to a passive abilty) The Stag is on Fire !

It's time for the Summon Rebalance Part of the mod ! After analyzing the current status of all summons in a separate Thread ( https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/114591-mechanics-the-summoners-tables/ ), I'm able to present a new version of my mod with a complete rebalance of many of the game summon spells. This would be included in a dedicated package of my balance mod. Weapon & Armor Scaling : The biggest change is now that all summons weapon and armor scale with level (as Animated Weapons, Summoned Weapons, Companion Pet's Weapons and a handful of other summons already do). They all follow the rules of the table in the link below (+1 PEN, +4 Acc, +15% damages for their weapons and +1AR at level 5, 9, 13 & 17) https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/pc/227477-pillars-of-eternity-ii-deadfire/faqs/76599/non-pl-scaling (Only exception are some of the Tier IX Summons because you get them after level 17. But most of them will have legendary quality weapons, or strong enough weapons anyway. ) Other Balance Changes : If a summon is too low on the power curve compared to the ressources it requires, il will seldom be used. This is true for every ability, but it is even more true for summons because you can only have one at a time. For each class, I've tried to adjust the respective powers of their summons. Sometimes, a summon has unique ablities, so its raw power is less important. But in many cases, I had to buff them so they compare more favorably to others. In some rare case, I've nerfed summons to they don't feel OP, especially after I've added the common scaling. Nerfs are indicated in red below. I think I did not makke OP changes, but feel free to tell me if you think they are. Wizard & Monk : Wizard's summons and Monk's Twin already had weapon scaling, and their level of power felt suitable for me. I've made no changes about them (in a previous version of the mod, I've set Conjurer's Familiar summonig to almost instant). Druid : Druid will have access to a huge variety of summons, even if the tanking potential of Call to the Primordials was tuned down a bit. Ondra's Whip, Watery Double, Lashing Vine : no changes. I think these abilities are balanced as they are (and they all scale at levels 5, 9, 13, 17 ).Summon Sporelings :Added Weapon & Armor scaling. These summons are very tanky for their spell Tier, with very good duration. They are subclass-specific so I feel it is legit if they are a bit stronger. All Blights Summons :Added Weapon & Armor scaling. I think these spells needed a bit of a buff, so Weapon & Armor sscaling felt suitable. Call to the Primordials :Added Weapon & Armor scaling. Reduced the number of oozes from 3 to 2. Reduced the duration from 30s to 20s. Bog Ooze removed from the list of potential summons, replaced by Lesser Bog Ooze (but with the added scaling, it's actually somewhat stronger).This spell already feels too strong so I want to seize the opportunity to make it more in line with other summons. It still benefits from Weapon Scaling, so penetrating with Ooze attacks will be easier.Fire Stag : (Weapons and armor already scaled) (minor) Change its fire shield so it procs on "damaged" as other fire shields, and not on Hit/Crit. Set Engagement limit to base 3, so it can be more focused on being a decoy. Adjust base damages to 13 - 19 with PEN 8 (equivalent of a sword with +2 PEN and fast attack rate), so it feels better for a summon of this Tier.Explosion is now triggered by death instead of ability activation. That means Barring Death Door will prevent it from exploding and doing any damages. But when Fire stag is killed by foe, it explodes as if the ability was triggered. Fire stag can still kill itself to trigger the explosion. Explosion has been set to foe-only.Aspect of Galawain :(Weapons and armor already scaled) Adjusted base damages to 13 - 19 with PEN 8 (equivalent of a sword with +2 PEN and fast attack rate), so it feels better for a summon of this Tier. (Wolf gets higher base damage, and Lion has bonus attack speed). Adjusted armor : - base 5 AR -> base 8 AR, - 25% recovery -> 0% recovery. Bear gets +2 AR on top of this. Added an Interrupt on Hit effect to its base attack so it feels like a living Concelhaut Crushing Doom (or Animated Pike and its plentiful Knockdowns). This is meant to be similar to pet's takedowns since the ability is already based on Ranger's pet. Priest : Priests aren't meant to be top tier summoners, but spiritual ally is a well-rounded summon. Incarnates have been mae more user-frinedly, even if the spell still give a PL penalty. These non-controlable summons are all really strong now, even if a bit unconvenient to use.Spirtual Ally :Added Weapon & Armor scaling (its armor scales up to equivalent of legendary plate). Tune down duration to 25s because scaling weapons make him much better at high level and it was already a decent summon. In practice, Spiritual Ally seldom dies in battle so lower duration will makes it last less. It will poke much harder, but it will not change his non-weapon abilities (heal & corrode cone). Incarnates : Changed -5 PL for 35s into -1 PL (stacking if used multiple time) for 120s. This counts as a hostile effect and is decreased by Resolve and similar feat. This is supposed to make using Incarnate once not too bad, but using it several times in a row (especially thanks to Brilliant) more punishing. I could have made it last the whole battle, but I wanted to leave hope for Megaboss encounters, especially for a High Resolve build. Now for specific Incarnates : - Eothas : Equipment set to Legendary Quality. Replaced one of the priest incarnate by a copy of the first since it had an infinite recovery and could only act once. Duration reduced from 35s to 20s (triple summons would be too strong for 35s). Still arguably the best incarnate. - Berath : Equipment set to Legendary Quality Duration reduced from 35s to 25s (double summons would be too strong for 20s). - Magran : Weapon and shield set to Legendary Quality. Buffed to be a defensive juggernat : Set her CON to 25, RES to 25Armor changed to 14 AR without weakness apart Cold and its Recovery would be lowered from +67% to +34% (this value is the one from a Fighter with Armored Grace wearing a heavy armor. - Skaen : added +2 weapon PEN, +10 Acc, damages set from 14-20 to 18-25 (fast attack speed). +2 AR. (Basically similar to a scaling from Exceptionnal to Legendary.) - Wael : get scaling bonus (+4 PEN, + 16 Acc, +60% damages with weapons, +4 AR). Wael's Incarnate is basically a greater blight with better stats but without greater blight ultimate ability (it is limited to normal blight's ones), so it needed this. I also gave him +10 CON so its health pool is more in line with other Single Incarnate, albeit still the frailest. I also added +5 DEX, +5 PER : since Wael is basically only auto-attacking, let's make him good at it ! Feels like an auto-turret now... - Rymrgand : No changes to this monster. Chanter : One thing to keep in mind with Chanters is that all their summons share the exact same pool of ressources. So if each one has not a clear role, it will be completely useless (meanwhile a Druid may sometimes cast Lesser Blight only because it's his last Spell Tier with a Summon). That's why I tried to define a precise role for each one and balance the summon toward this role. Skeletons : Added Weapon & Armor scaling. They start as poor so they have "exceptionnal" weapons at level 20. Role : Skeletons are here for their numbers. They're fine at it (and have much combo potential). Note : "Many Lives..." phrase skeletons don't really scale anyway. Phantom : Added Weapon & Armor scaling. Phantom upgrade duration : 25s -> 60s. Role : with such a duration, Phantom will be design as "summon and forget" for those chanters that don't like summons but still want an extra body. He's cheap, he stays for long so I think it's a good niche for him. Wurms : Added Weapon & Armor scaling. Base Duration lowered from 25s to 18s. Upgrade cost : 4 phrases -> 3 phrases (I have already aligned all chanter upgraded invocations with the cost of their original ability ; I want to keep this principle : an upgrade should be a strict upgrade, as for all other abilities / classes) Role : Wurms are cheap ranged brute force. If you look at the table, they have pretty good attack strength for their phrase cost, especially when upgraded. That's why I believed I had to tune down their duration. Wisps : Added Weapon & Armor scaling. Role : Wisps are utility-based summons and I think they are in a good spot for Interrupting / Distracting. Full scaling won't do much for their lowish attack but will at least bring them to 11 PEN. Ogres : Added Weapon & Armor scaling. Set their active abilities to 1 per encounter. I didn't want them to be better than Drake at AoE or better than Wisp at Interrupting. Changed their "Down the Hatch" ability : it doesn't provide Tenacious and Robust anymore : this would have lead to too much AR and PEN if added with the scaling. Now "Down the Hatch" is renamed "Ogre Defiance" and only provides 10 health per 3s for 20s. Disoriented drawback has been removed. I added 2 PEN to their attack abilities to compensate for the loss of Tenacious. Role : Tanks with damage dealing potential. With a bit of armor scaling, they will become tougher than Animated Weapons. Oh, and they have this wonderful 3 base Engagements and self-heal, as well as some AoE attacks (the upgrade provides an Immobilizing effect). Drake : Added Weapon & Armor scaling. Duration 25s -> 35s. Added : Ground Immunity, Fear Aura and Dex Resistance that all other drakes have (Dragon Summon gets an improved version of Fear Aura). Knockdowns : - 2 per Encounter -> 3 per Encounter - Damages set to 15 - 25, base PEN set from 7 to 10. - Only affects Hostile Fire Breath : - 1 per Encounter -> 2 per Encounter - PEN set from 6 to 9 Role : Drake is on a weird spot : it is basically a lesser version of Dragon Summon, but is not that much cheaper. It comes alone (well till its death), but its barely OK stats don't really give him an edge over multiple summons (Ogres or Weapons for example). Its upgrade require it to die to be useful, which may not happen reliably. That's why I think it deserved a good buff. I added the classic resistances and fear aura of other Drakes. Even with this, I doubt that it matches the raw power of Ogres and Weapons, that's why I want to increase the number of uses of its AoE abilities, to give him an edge over them (especially Ogres who have a bit of AoE themselves). Even with all this, Drake remains a weaker dragon. That's why I wanted to emphasize its longer duration side since its the only logical edge he can get over a grown-up. Also, the Drake that the upgrade summons upon Death does not count as a Chanter Summon, so you can have another Summon Active alog the second drake. The result, I hope, is a well-rounded summon who can tank a bit, attack a bit, have some AoE and utility, has an average summoning cost and last for a decent duration (but less than hey phantom). Dank Spore : Added Weapon scaling. AR already scaled, but I aligned it with other summons progression. Duration 25s -> 35s. Foul Thing explosion on death : - added 40 - 55 raw poison damages - set Sickened affliction to Infinite duration as announced by the ability. - only affects Hostile - corrected a bug that prevented the Sickened affliction to be displayed. Role : Dank Spore is an utility summon, but still a bit weak since its charm ability has a long casting/recovery and its upgrade's explosion on death is tricky to use and only proc 20s Sickened. That's why I improved the Explosion on death : it's a Tier VIII upgrade, so it has to be a bit strong. Animated Weapons : Are currently already fully scaled. No change. Role : Summons so good I had to analyse all other summons to make sure they could be relevant in front of them. Great brute force with a bit of Prone attacks from Animated Pike. Dragon : Will receive the benefit of full weapon / armor scaling. In addition to scaling, I'm going to change Dragon stats because they currently don't make sense, with a bottomless pit of health but lower AR and attack than the drake ! - Armor 7->10(+4 from scaling) with resistance to Fire and Slash and vulnerability to pierce. (Based on the (scaled) version of the Drake, +1 AR) - Health 200 + 50/level -> 100 + 30/level - Attack : 16-22 CRU/PIER, 7 PEN, normal attack speed -> 20-26 CRU/PIER, 9 PEN, fast attack (+scaling) (this is based on the drake attack, but slightly improved) Role : the ultimate summon, but not the best at everything. Its defense will be good, and HP the best, but multiple summons could still have more total HP and AR is not significant vs everything in PotD upscaled. The Dragon is mostly about AoE. It is also good at tanking but it has a rather low duration (less benefit from PL). I don't think improving its auto-attack is that significant because the dragon should mostly use its special attacks. But a 7 PEN attack was not noble enough for this creature. Its fear Aura (causing Frightened) also brings a bit of utility. Miscellanous Other Changes : Fire Godlike Fire AR : 2 -> 4 (so they have as much as Pale Elves...) Martial Casting : 15% Action Speed -> 100% Action speed when casting summoned weapons. Since Summoned Weapon only require to be cast once every minute, the previous value was a bit unsignificant. They also only had 3s cast time without recovery, so 15% didn't help much. Halving their cast time saves around 1.5s per cast so this Talent would be an equivalent to Quickswitch for casters. Quick Summoning : 15% Action Speed -> 25% Action speed when summoning. Same as for Martial Casting, you can only have 1 summon active, so 15% Action speed didn't save much. But Summoning spells have higher casting time so Quick Summoning didn't require to be boosted as much. Updates from previous versions : - DoT added to Shadowed Hunter on first pet attack : 16s raw damages per 3s for 30s -> 20s raw damages per 3s for 30s (this is a Tier IX ability after all) - His Laughter Rang Through the Hall : Dazed for 8s -> previously 20s -> now 30s. BalancePolishingModBuffs.zip BalancePolishingModNerfs.zip BalancePolishingSummonRebalance.zip

Interesting discovery : Ancient Brittle Bones and Yet its Mate are 2 Chanter summon upgrades that will cause your summons to Spawn another summon(s) upon death. However, I just discovered that the new Summon is technically not summoned by the chanter but by the summon itself. Which means : 1) The Summon Intellect is used to determine the duration of the Summon. Skeletons have 10 INT and Drake has 8 INT, so its not a good news. 2) Since the Summon is not technically summoned by the Chanter, it does not count for the 1 Summoned group limit. This is HUGE for the Drake because when you get the second Enraged Drake, if you can cast another summon, you will still keep the drake. Skeletons have such a low duration that it isn't that useful. 3) The new Summon is not a "Beckoner Summon" even if the original one was. It has full life and duration. You can summon 2 weak Drakes, they get killed easily, and now you have 2 Full Drakes that don't count for summon limit. I haven't actually tested it for the Skeletons, but I guess it works the same (but it matters less). That makes Drake Summon noticeably better than one might think, especially for Beckoner. They aren't still great IMHO, but I'm still working on Summon balance, so unique features are more important for me than raw power.

Ah, then it's ok. -6 or -7 seem fine.

5 x -6/-7 would be fine. It's a power increase, sure, but I would not consider it especially OP. if - all defenses is used, it becomes something like -5x6 all defense plus -10 deflection for a total of -30 to all defenses and -40 to deflection. That sounds potentially a bit too much. - all defense worths about twice more than - deflection. I think something like -20 all defenses cap would be enough (-2 x 10 for example) and even a bit strong.

There are some dead code in the GamData files, such as the "CanGraze" parameter which is always false but means nothing since all abilities can graze. So StackingRuleOverride should be set to Never for Flanked, and probably setting Confounding Blind to -12 to -34 as I said will finally make it as planned in CP. That's the 2 changes I would keep in mind, I think for my own modding.

Cipher/Corpse Eater/Watcher : I will feed upon your soul, then I'll eat your flesh, then I'll converse with your ghost.

Well, I wouldn't go that far. Flanked did stack with everything in PoE1 for some reasons (it was the only status to do so), but I think it's may be complicated to do for PoE2. Flanked should either always stack or never stack IMHO. I don't really care about which one. Yes, I know, but is there any other Passive Ability that apply Flanked ? Or is an "actual Flanking" is considered as a passive source of flanking ? If Persistent Distraction is the only exception, I would tend to remove flanking from it to clarify the rules. I guess it might not be what you want. There are plenty of case of "different causes" that do not stack.

Cipher/Corpse Eater : I will feed upon your soul, then I'll eat your flesh.

Could go from -12 to -34 then. It would be closer from CP intention. Just require replacing -2 per -12 as base value. The ability would be a bit better vs Perception immune, but that's a good mitigation I think. It doesn't solve the issue of Persistent Distraction stacking. Cleanest way would be to replace it by a clean Deflection malus, as it is done for Distracting Training. Sounds like a nerf but situationally better since stacking effects are precious. And Persistent Distraction is extremely strong passive anyway. I think it's the only passive with an attribute affliction, apart Enervating Blows. But I guess Healing Reduced is rare and so is Enfeebled, so it is less a problem.

Do you mean that CP changes make confounding blind cap at -24 all included ? or do you mean the -24 penalty satcks with Flanked but not with other deflection maluses ?

I'm thinking about a semi random generator of NPC. For example, this tool would generate a random subclass, class, race, background, and maybe a couple attributes. You can choose a multiclass (or not) and the rest of attributes. It would be like half way between Companions and 100% free hirelings. For example, what are you going to do with an Ilusionist with 16 Resolve and 8 Intellect ?

There's plenty of utility to consider when going blackjacket, and you don't have to use all of your slots to support your Skald side. 1 handed style isn't usually the best style, but to reliably get your target prone with clear out, it's the best of the 3 offensive styles. (2H, 1H, DW) It is also possible to attack with an offensive style and switch to Sword & Board during recovery. This might be annoying to do for every Attack, but if you are in defensive mode, it's nice to be able to use an offensive set just for a special Attack. You might also switch freely to your caster's sticks (A whale, sasha's, etc...) just for casting and come back to yoru regular weapon. Club & Morningstar are also options for modals. Finally if you have a Priest with Champion's Boon in your party, Slayer's Claw can be nice to upgrade Tenacious to Energized. Energized + Skald makes your crits feel great. Granted you usually get it late. I would always consider this when going Black Jacket, its anti-buff properties are extremely useful especially vs BoW boss or Fighters in general (bye bye unbending) : https://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Street_Sweeper

Thank you for your testing ! I was trying to tease someone's curiosity. The fix is extremely easy but require to cut some content (replace second priest by a copy of the first : they were supposed to have different abilities). Still very annoying that such a bug made it to 5.0. Some abilities get so few love that people don't even complain about them ! Wael's Incarnate is technically a Greater Storm Blight (armor and weapon) with Medium Storm Blight Abilities and a bit inflated attributes. Its defenses aren't much inflated though. And Storm Blight summons aren't specially great as Tier IV- VI druid abilities. And you can't even control it ! And indeed PL malus. For my modding, I applied the same treatment as Blights (scaling weapon and armor), I added a fair amount of CON (still the frailest Incarnate, but a bit less) and added even more PER and DEX (reflex defense is extremely high now). PL malus has been flattened for all incarnate (only -1PL but lasts longer, also get duration reduced as an Hostile Effect). I feel it is a satisfying auto-turret now, although probably worse than other Incarnate.

Well, anyway, I'm going to mod this and replace the non-working Priest Incarnate by a working one. At least it will correct the problem in my version, although I see no reason for this bug to exist only with my version of the game. I guess if people didn't notice the bug, they won't notice the replacement either.

So for this one, my proposal would be : - AoE set to 10m radius. I really wanted something a bit silly because it is a freakin Tier IX spell. I would also allow to avoid any friendly target quite easily. Thematically, it would fit the destructive nature of druids. - Range set to 20m (a bit necessary because of the increased AoE) - Add a 6s Stun. Far from OP but probably quite nice with the stupid AoE. - Casting Time tuned from 6s/2s to 4.5s/3s Not much change but slightly more convenient for an alpha move.

Next weapon : a 2 handed battle chain with flail proficiency and very high engagement radius.

I know. I stayed away from it too. Big malus plus vague description about what you summon (which is a common feature of CRPG) lead people to stay away. But now that I have the actual numbers... Wow, this is arguably the most powerful summon spell of the game. I think one of the Priest used a Symbol in mt testing. And you get 3 characters for the Price of 1 spell. I mean... If it is not bugged.

What did they use for CP's Confounding Blind ?

The more I test summons, the more I think that the devs are the same as you. Not to mention Perplexing Sap.