dreamrider

I can see that. I mean, god forged & god borne & all that. Rather echoes of Mjolnir, there. (Now me, I would hope that somewhere there is a bow called something like Galawain's Touch.)

I'm just beginning to study the drug effects more. Then I may do a brief guide to using / stacking those as well. Trickier though, since there is almost always a penalty attribute. Some attribute penalties are far worse than others, however, especially in the initial hot battle you took the drug for in the first place. Interestingly, I have already discovered that the drug crash effects, after 10 minutes of significant benefit (to include the creation of significant running / kiting room) are often quite tolerable, for a long time. And of course you can always dope up again if you really need to. I've already decided that a ready pouch of Goldrot Chew is the adventurer's as well as the farmer's friend

Thanks for the pat-on-back, Mangamina. I would like to reiterate from that earlier post of mine: It cannot be overstated how much easier it becomes to use food smoothly if you know that you can just drag from Inventory over to the character picture.

Wonder if ... Previous result of spirits disappearing after dialogue was always a unintended, an now fixe, or... Obsidian change it to increase the challenge once the tactic exploit was well known, or... Spirits stuck around for me because a single phantom was already visible by the time I did the dialogue with the Steward? Tell me, when you have used the run past / meet Steward tactic in the past, has it also cleared the spirits from the Library? If it did, then I take my encounter with another serious bunch of spirits in the Library as prima facie evidence that Obsidian changed this deliberately to make this rite of passage tougher. Well, it was tough enough that I ain't goin' back to try it agin' right now. I may experiment with trying to get in the dialogue with Steward before any spirits return to visible circle on some later day. I think I have preserved the pre-entry save state. Does anyone else have any recent experience with this tactic, in v.3.07+ ? -------------------------------------------------------------------- FWIW, generally speaking my equal attributes Range Monk, based somewhat off the Witch Doctor is going well. Mostly I am running her in this nice Dyrwoodan frock w/ a little neckline braid, a couple feathers for accent. For the Action Speed, y'know. Occasionally swapping to a Fine Brigantine, when punishment is predictable, inevitable, and unavoidable. I have thought about enchanting her standard clothing a bit, but held off so far. Obviously eventually I'd like to put her in Gwis Glas (Sp?), but I also wonder how heavy an armor I can eventually wear while maintaining a 0 Recovery, with judicious item selection.

OK, cleared Great Hall (and library - how come no one ever mentions the library!), with the aid of animat summons, several fan of flames, Whispers of Yenwood + Larder door and several reloads. I'm not actually sure that being able to skirt past and speak to the Steward is any particular gain over just doing the spirit clean up back at the vestibule. You seem to end up using about the same resources / kill techniques. The one thing you gain is access to lower levels, and it is in some ways easier to clean out the dungeon and part of the looter level, gaining alternate access to the outside via the Hand - but then you still have to come back an clear the Great Hall to make use of the Stronghold. You could level in the meantime, I guess.

OK, it is still possible to run past, wait out the combat, then speak to Steward. I am playing v.3.07.0.1318, latest GOG distribution. You have to go to the FRONT of the Steward, on the steps, to trigger her dialogue. But... what is supposed to happen then? Because all of the spirits still seem to be in the Great Hall...and now I am in the possibly 'wrong' end. Going own to the ungeon an back oes not help...still there. Well, I've cleared the spiders, so I could rest up in the dungeon I guess, and get my summons back. I have established that at least I can kite the two deepest Phantoms without attracting the others, so with the animat tanking, I may be able to eventually clear them. I think perhaps I also nee to clear the way to the Statue head scaffold first, though, so I have another way out. I only have one camping supply pack, so I can only do the animat tank / kiting thing once, unless the spirits deeper in the Hall will turn back before following to the down stairway. In previous versions, did the spirits go away once you spoke to the Steward?

Do you think I need to come around to the FRONT of the throne to trigger dialogue? Easy enough to check, I guess.

Having trouble with the " Distract, Run Past, Wait for Combat to End " tactic. I can suck in all the spirits, I can get past. (Actually, with Long Stride, Survival move bonus, and Goldrot Chew, I could run past an Olympic track team.) 1) I can't get 'behind' the throne. Too narrow, all prohibited space. However, I assume that part of the action sequence description really means "on the left of the throne, against the wall". 2) After a couple of tries, I have been able to set the animat distraction far enough own the hall that there IS a brief combat stop. However, I never get a speaking icon over the steward before the spirits return far enough up hall to see the MC and start the music & dance again. What am I missing? Do I need to manipulate the distraction combat even further down hall so the music-off return interval is longer? Other?

Does that make any material difference? To loot perhaps? I seem to get loot anyway, but that may be only on creatures like spirits, that leave 'residue'.

Well, I knew several guys in school that this would happen to, especially if they were eating other people's party cookies...but then, I was a drama major, and it was the 70s.

Just a possibility. Have you right-clicked on the little head profile icon above the character portrait in the lower left of the main screen, and set up each character's default combat AI rules? Sounds like maybe not.

I believe it means that you don't get the fractional accumulation until it rounds up to another point. At least if you watch something like Veteran's Recovery in action in combat, you only see awards of full integer amounts, never decimals.

Darkest Rauatai Cookies: I've been away from the game for awhile, & there have been several updates. Plus I have aged and learned a little. Time to add some points. First, Darkest Rauatai Cookies have been modified to give +2 CON / +1 PER / +5 HLH, instead of +2 DEX / +1 PER / +5 HLH. Not a huge change, since you are likely to opt for the 300s food for either CON or DEX...but wait. Cookies are one of the few commonly available foods that give a + to PER. So it might just be worth it to buff with Cookies instead of Pearlwood Chicken to get the +CON AND the +PER from one source. Carry some Cookies in a Quick Slot to rebuff after 150s, and don't even bother with Pearlwood Chicken in inventory. Further, there is that +5 HLH. I've one some experimenting. The +5 Health is added to BASE Health, before the multipliers for extra CON OR Class. So my Level 4 Monk w/ 13 CON, and buffed to 15 CON by the Cookies, ends up entering the next combat with +86 Health points over her unfed self. 48 of those points are from the +2 CON boost; 38 of them are from the Health boost. Those are 86 Health points that will be hit & reduced BEFORE she loses any of her "real" Health. Not as useless a snack as I use to think.

BTW, just a little terminology debate here. I would argue that dumping INT down to 3 early-on, for the sake of maxing CON, PER, & RES for early defensive benefits, with the intention of retraining at about 6th level for AoE & duration buffs when they are more meaningful... … is a very definitive example of Min-Max-ing.

Evan the Evan-Handed has done quite well up through Raedric's Keep. (Including all the wilderness areas necessary for the GV quests.) At 5th level now. Play really began to smooth out & feel "monkish" at ~4th Level, with 1) Swift Strikes, 2) Veteran's Recovery, 3) Long Stride, 4) Weapon Focus: Peasant, & 5) Torment's Reach Food is your friend. Nothing gluten-free. Suck down those pies.

The stacking general rules are: 1 bonus per Attribute / Skill / capability / characteristic from any equipment items other than a weapon. ANY NUMBER of bonuses, to anything, from weapons. ANY NUMBER of bonuses, to anything, from passive sources (passive abilities/talents, resting boons, er…"temporary paramour" boons.) 1 bonus per above types from active/modal sources (active or modal abilities, consumables - all sorts.) Also, gear can have more than one bonus impact (Example: = 10% Endurance, AND +1 Dexterity, AND +1 Accuracy.) Even if the +1 Dex of the preceding example were suppressed by some other piece of god-gear, the other bonuses could/would still be active. Finally, best gear for a particular character may not be a straight ability boost. For example, an item that boosts Action Speed directly might be better for a particular build than a boost to Dexterity, for most purposes. So, "best" is not necessarily as simple as what piece of non-weapon gear gives the biggest Ability boost to any particular Ability. Still, I wouldn't sneeze at that collection if I found it in a nondescript chest.

Wow! Maybe it was just that I have been practicing (of necessity) my potion timing, and it has gotten better, or... My experimental level-attribute monk got past the two Bears in the Valewood cave, at 2nd level, by the skin on their teeth. (A bear-ly there dose of bear humor there.) Based on something I picked up from an exchange of notes with Boeroer, I took Veteran's Recovery as my 2nd level Talent this time, instead of either Lightning Strikes or Fast Runner. That helped a bit, I think. Of course it also required all of Second Wind, both Gaun's Pledge blessings, 1 Minor Regeneration, and 3 Minor Endurances, Pearlwood Chiken, Duc's Meatloaf, and a Beer. And an immediate camp out afterwards. I tried earlier with a boost from some Skef I found in one of the randomized cashes, but I think the Resolve penalty dropping Deflection was hurting more than the drug speed up was helping. Through sheer chance, I didn't get all the ingredients for the early Potions of Wizard's Double (the Cilant Lis mini-team kept blowing the all the skulders to bloody shreds, so they didn't collect any ears), so I couldn't try that. I was timing the bear swipes pretty well, so I think I might have been able to make that work, as well. The bears don't miss much otherwise. I may run another pass to see how that helps.

As a pure theory-crafting exercise: It is possible, by distributing the 15 unassigned attribute points evenly, and manipulating the race/species and the culture choices, to create an MC with the Attributes: MIG 13 CON 13 DEX 13 PER 13 INT 13 RES 13 So, the essay questions for the day are: "Is such a build viable?", and "What is/are the best classes for this MC?" For my part, I think this initial start would make for a very interesting Monk. The first few areas and quests might be something of a challenge, until the character started to accumulate gear and external benefits, but after about level 5 I think it might make for a very nice build. Next?

Maybe I missed some discussion in the thread, But... On a build that you say has to do some maneuvering, backing and forthing, to get enough Wounds to activate your MC's best stuff, why didn't you take Lesser Wounds? (Having read a lot of your stuff, I'm sure there was a chain of logic, and I am curious to hear it, especially since I am interested in [semi-] solo versions of this build.)

Do you mean, like, the combat AI settings? Or are you talking the full monte, total individualized custom Companion with situational scripts, responses, etc.

I'm having a hard time using potions, without getting whacked more than the potion is worth. (We will leave aside the question of just WHY you cannot buff with a potion until AFTER you have revealed yourself / started combat. You can have a quick bite, maybe shoot up a little, but you cannot wash it down with anything more potent than a Beer. However, I will graciously accept that that is Obsidian's illogical dictate. <whine, whine>) Is there a trick to getting in an essential quick gulp? Is it because I am solo (so far) and don't have pal(s) to distract while I buff. Is it purely a finicky timing thing? I think I could / would make great use of that one-time duplication (+40 deflection) juice, if only I could manage to chug one down BEFORE the first swipe interrupts me. Is it possibly because I have not so far been using the action-stacking feature, which I don't really understand? (Time to dig in the manual and the wiki.) Earlier question that got overlooked / didn't pull in a response/suggestion: - What armor do you like on a ranged (Long Pain oriented) Monk, in general and across the early play? (I find I rather like the padded armor outfit that comes with a Living Lands monk...but perhaps that is mostly the look of it <grin>. Don't know if the 4 DR [plus the look] is worth the action speed penalty on a character that relies on hitting faster than the opposition.)

My early ability/talents selections were 1) A - Swift Strikes 2) T - Lightning Strikes 3) A - Torment's Reach 4) T - Fast Runner I've about come to the conclusion that these 4 choices, and the sequence of them, are critical to soloing the early play. Since this is a ranged build that relies as much as possible on whittling down the opponent's before they can engage you (the ONLY way you are going to survive the Skulder King in the Temple of Eothas), I think I made at least one poor choice. Given that I started with Swift Strikes as the original ability, I'm thinking I should have deferred Torment's Reach to level 5 and taken The Long Stride at level 3. I had a hard time with critters I should have been able to avoid / shoot down catching me too soon. Then I might be able to defer Fast Runner, and take a damaging Talent like Weapon Focus: Peasant, or Two Weapon Style, or even Apprentice's Sneak Attack. Also, after seeing the actual radius of effect of Torment's Reach on this build (Intellect 15), I'm thinking I could easily pull one, or perhaps two points off of Intellect with little effect on the core capabilities of the character. Probably reassign a point to Perception, and if I carve out a 2nd point, to Resolve. I'm almost feeling like a restart with the aboves. Comments / Suggestions? Totally unrelated question: When you get a dialogue choice (suppressed) that begins "[Eothas] …", what is the requirement? Having a strong believer along doesn't cut it; I've tried bring Eder with me to the Candle Altar in the Temple, and he doesn't get the option either. Do you need to have a Priest of Eothas with you? (Boy, THAT would be an interesting MC playthrough !) Or do you need an actual avatar of Eothas with you? Which seems an impossible extreme for the Gilded Vale encounters where I have seen this choice.

My God, I had forgotten from 3 years back JUST how tough that darned Bear is for an early character !

I have not myself see the sort of recommendation you are speaking of, but I know that I hold off on quality enchantments as long as possible, and then go as high as possible. Because there are never enough 'anvils' on a basic weapon form to enchant is successively to each quality level as you slowly acquire the engredients. From that standpoint, with the potential decision to either do Superb sooner into your last anvil slots, or wait until really late game, if ever, with empty enchantment slots left on the weapon, waiting for those last few dragon toenails or whatever to be available, I think the choice is pretty clear... ...namely, get two of whatever your focus weapon is, enchant one to Superb as soon as humanly possible, then make a hobby out of collecting the stuff to take the other one to Legendary. I guess your Superb weapon can become your off-hand at that point. (I've done this in other games. I've got a hobby crossbow* in Torchlight that I have been striving to get to 25 layers of enchantment for literally years.) (*In the hands of a top level character, even the work-in-progress version would make Sgt Detritus proud.)

Boeroer, Unrelated to my own tangential mod build we've been discussing, I have a suggestion for your build presentation format. I think it would really help folks who are thinking of trying the build (or any of your builds, for that matter) if you listed (or numbered) the abilities / talents in the order you recommend taking them. (If it is somewhat optional, you could add an asterisk or something.) This may apply to some of the other progressive build decisions, as well, as in "Go here early, so you get this item early", or "build up your lore skill first".