Boeroer

The only tips that I can give: If going SC Paladin you want at least one Chanter in the party who can summon very weak summons frequently. Optimal would be Beckoner with Ancient Brittle Bones+ Many Lives Pass By or a Troubadour with Brisk Recitation, Ancient Brittle Bones + Many Lives Pass By. But any Chanter who can do either works. Also an Ancient with Summon Sporelings works well. A Ranger with Animal Companion is also nice to have. The reason is the Paladin's ability "Divine Retribution" at Power Level 9. It's a late game passive of course, but it's very powerful: for every ally that goes down you get +2 Zeal points. With the weak summons of Chanters that basically means your Paladin will have endless Zeal at his disposal. Since his Exhortations and other stuff are fast (but expensive which usually limits the usage) this is very impactful. You can also spam Flame's of Devotion endlessly. With a Ranger's Animal Companion you can revive it "for free" unlimited times because you get 2 points when it goes down and it costs 2 points to revive it. If you use a Ghost Heart Ranger a downed animal companion just gets you 2 Zeal (and costs only 1 Bond to summon). In addition the usage of the Essence Interrupter Bow in the party is great: with the upgraded enchantment "Soul Diplomacy" every time you crit an enemy, when that enemy dies an ally summon will pop up in its place (with long duration). If that summon dies you get +2 Zeal. Also a Goldpact should use Sworn Rival. You will mark one enemy for +20% damage for 1 Zeal. You also get your +4 AR (against 7 hits). But if that enemy dies you get back the Zeal point, so basically it getting bonus damage and +4 AR for a time for free. Because this is very cost efficient you can to it all the time and this get away with lighter armor (which increases DPS). However, since I don't play Turn Based mode, I cannot say whether this is impactful or not. As far as I can tell action and recovery speed are not that crucial in the TB mode of Deadfire. Since Shared Flames is good but very short lived (and the AoE is kind of small) I usually prefer Eternal Devotion (both mutually exclusive upgrades of Flames of Devotion). However: as soon as you can spam Shared Flames mindlessly it becomes the superior upgrade for the party performance as a whole. I don't know how good it is in TB mode, but in RTwP an ability which is severely underrated for a Paladin is Zealous Charge. It adds a lot of movement speed to the party which directly translates to higher dps for all melee party members. And since Goldpact's Gilded Enmity (+4 AR) doesn't stack with Exalted Endurance's +1 AR (which is also very good in general) so you might want to try Zealous Charge in TB mode, too (although I don't know how movement speed works there tbh).

Sure, I'm not recommending Psion for a melee weapon user either (I mean if the intention is to actually attack with the melee weapon and not only use it as stat stick). Beguiler is perfect for this I think. Good luck and lots of joy with the character! A pleasure! 🤗

Yeah, because I dislike the "normal" Soul Whip mechanic and its shortcomings I favor Psions (and then Beguilers). It's a matter of taste I guess: does one like the spells/weapons hybrid playstyle or not.

Hi! I personally - in the scope of your ideas - would prefer Beguiler/Trickster: thematically very fitting and also works well mechanically. What I like about the Beguiler (and even more so about the Psion - but that subclass doesn't fit the play style you're aiming for) is that weapon damage is not the only way to generate focus. In fact, as soon as you have Phantom Foes and Secret Horrors you will generate a lot of focus and often don't even need any weapon damage as long as you can reach enough enemies at once. And if it's against singular foes you can still rely on weapon damage as focus generator. Also the synergy of Deception spells with the several Will-based passives is great. The best thing about the Beguiler mechanic is that you don't need to afflict the enemies beforehand in order to generate focus with Phantom Foes or Secret Horrors: the afflictions they bring already count because first they get applied and only after that the game checks whether you generate focus with that same spell or not (which you do unless you missed). Which is hilariously good imo. Also those spells easily unlock Sneak Attack and Deathblows of course. Since Guile (the resource of Rogues) is limited, the danger of Trickster powers overshadowing Cipher spells is non-existent imo. You also need guile for Rogue strikes, maybe the occasional Escape or Invisibility etc. While multiclass Ciphers have a lot of charm/dominate potential, they don't have terrify - which the Trickster can provide. Also the all-defenses bonus of Borrowed Instincts stacks with the deflection-only buff of Mirrored Images for example - which makes a Cipher/Trickster surprisingly sturdy. Also makes sense to pick Riposte then. Even with a dual wilding setup, the combo of Mirrored Images and Borrowed Instincts make it worthwhile. --- Streetfighter is very strong once flanked/bloodied, but imo it's most fun on either blunderbuss users (who can automatically unlock the SF passives with Powder Burns) or if you play a main tank who still wants to dish out great damage despite tanking - because in that case you'll be flanked all the time anyway. --- For a Soulblade I personally like Assassin a lot. Just because it's so frustrating to miss with Soul Annihilation (all focus lost and all I got was this stupid "I miss you" t-shirt). Soul Annihilation profits from all weapon damage bonuses, so from invisibility you'd get the assassinate accuracy bonus (+25) as well as bonus PEN (doesn't matter for the raw damage but matters for the physical weapon damage) and also bonus crit damage (matters because with +25 accuracy from assassinate and maybe even a one-handed Rapier + modal which gives + +37 accuracy on top - all in all +62, jeez). Hard to miss with that one... On top of that Sneak Attack and even Deathblows bonuses apply to the raw damage portion, too: deadly strike from invisibility indeed. Add Backstab (also applies to Soul Annihilation) and that's pretty hefty stuff for a single strike from invisibility or stealth. Single handed Rapier (check out Rännig's Wrath) is perfect for this because of the modal and the inherent +5 accuracy bonus of Rapiers. --- The best late game weapon for a Cipher of your playstyle is Seeker's Fang, no matter the subclasses. Its raw damage is very strong and stacks with stuff like Deep Wounds and Gouging Strike/Ring the Bell/Toxic Strike. It comes late though. --- My pick as I said would be Beguiler/Trickster though. It's more versatile with focus generation, sturdier and has more stuff it can do to impact combat in different ways. Imo that is more fun to play than a somewhat one dimensional build that focuses on a single thing too much (such as hefty strikes from invisibility - although depending on the player that can be a lot of fun, too). Soul Annihilation usually leads to a behaviour where you spend all your focus for the attack and almost none for spells. It sounds like that isn't what you want to do.

You can use the Community Patch (Basic or all of it) right away. The changes it makes are reasonable, unobstrusive and improve the gameplay and balance. Also I nowadays would hate to level up without the unique icons for passive abilities from the CP - because I 'd have to mouseover every passive ability to check which one it actually is. Some few standard icons get reused for a lot in the vanilla game which is a bit annoying imo. I would also highly recommend the Enhanced UI mod (by Spherical), I wouldn't want to play the game without it. It just adds some additional UI bits for more info and tooltips which is really useful without messing with the game mechanics at all.

Hi, your Scout should work well. As backup weapon you can take a bow at first and then use one of Serafen's mortar blunderbusses or Eccea's Arcane Blaster. If you'd want more sustained damage potential instead of a few high accuracy hits from stealth/invisibility you could swap Assassin with Streetfighter and mainly use dual blunderbusses (AoE and regular) with the Powder Burns modal. This added cone damage also distracts you - but this unlocks the Streetfighter's passive which leads to -50% recovery/reloading times and +50% Sneak Attack damage which leads to pretty crazy DPS output.

Yeah, when people with no clue use AI for gathering "knowledge" about specialized and/or obscure stuff it can lead to absolutely bizarre outcomes. I guess arcane video game details, scattered all over forums etc. are pretty difficult to compose into something that's remotely decent info - and language barriers add another layer of potential weirdness. I like to use AI for generating graphs and diagrams from data - for publications and presentations and such. It's pretty good at that and spares me a LOT of time. But it's easy to spot when it screws up (which happens occasionally) because I know what it's supposed to do (because I could do it myself if I took the time). I also used AI to collect certain posts on social media which could contain disinformation from malign actors - because that's much faster and cheaper than letting a bunch of people do it (who also hate it). But it's just giving you alerts and the link to the content in question so that an expert can have a look and maybe act on it (which they like much better). I would never trust AI to do something I couldn't assess myself.

That's wild. Did they maybe mean advice for Pallegina as a shield user? Could also be they just mixed up the sublcasses. I cannot find any statements (AI or not) about an official Shieldbearer (of St. Elcga) companion either. Surprisingly, Gemini and ChatGPT even tell me that there's only an official companion from the Frermàs mes Canc Suolias when I ask them about an official companion of the Shieldbearer order. 🤷‍♂️

Hi, single class Shifter isn't super appealing imo because the PL 8 and 9 abilities for Spiritshift aren't that great. In my experience the Shifter is more enjoyable when multiclassed. Here there a a lot of options which all work well and are fun to play, usually it's a combo of Shifter+martial class because of the spellcasting restriction when shifted: Shifter/Goldpact Knight - great AR with zero recovery penalty because of Paladin passives + Gilded Enmity (which is kind of free if you combine with Sworn Rival) + natural armor (especially Bear form). Eternal Flames stacks with Wildstrike lashes, Ring of Focused Flames gives extra +10 acc, Sacred Immolation + Nature's Terror is fantastic late game AoE dmg while in melee. Also nice with Steel Garotte but needs afflictions on enemies then to unlock life drain. So cast some affliction stuff before going in (Relentless Storm or Tanglefoot etc.). Shifter/Helwalker - higher speed and shocking lash from Lightning Strikes, burning lash from Turning Wheel, both stack with Wildstrike, +10 INT prolongs Spiritshift, +15 MIG (Helwalker's passive + Thunderous Blows) boost dmg and self-heal (pets, inter-shift), +10 INT/+15 MIG are fantastic for the Boar form because the shifter variant of the board form has a Wounding DoT lash that has the base duration of the spiritshift, not the usual one. Also great for any spellcasting between/before shifts (Relentless Storm or Plague of Insects and especially Moonwell - or whatever). Stunning Surge is a great attack ability and so are Efficient Anguish or Torment's Reach. Shifter/Trickster or Streetfighter - simple synergies due to high dmg bonuses from Sneak Attack etc. combined with Wildstrike lashes, no e Full Attack strikes sich as Crippling Strike and so on and nice mobility bc. of Escape. Streetfighter has a lot of potential with dmg (but has to be flanked AND blooded to unlock fully, pick human race to profit even more), Trickster with defense. Shifter/Furyshaper or Berserker - fast attack speed, some melee dmg bonuses (Blooded, One Stands Alone), added engagement via Barbaric Shout, added DoT with Blood Frenzy or terrify with Spirit Tornado, AR bonus (Thick Skinned), nice finisher Full Attack (Barbaric Smash), awesome mobility with Wild Sprint and especially when Leap becomes available. Berserker has higher dmg potential but also self dmg (use human race and Blooded to profit) and Furyshaper has nasty CC (Fear Ward). Shifter/Stalker - very high accuracy, added defense and AR, Boar form unlocks Predator's Sense of the Animal Companion automatically, nice Full Attack abilities (Wounding Shot but also the Hunter's Claw stuff) and of course an additional body on the battlefield which you can use to always flank enemies and thus apply -10 deflection and -1 AR to them (as well as Stalker's Link). During or before shifts you can use the awesome single target dmg combo Takedown Combo (+100% dmg for the next attack) + Sunlance. Shifter/Bloodmage - despite the spell casting restriction this works nicely in the early and mid game where you cast lots of the fast self-buffs with the Wizard, then shift and do melee. Late in the game it's extremely good because you can combine Wall of Draining (prolongs Spiritshift and all buffs and benefical effects, including healing over time and stuff like damaging aura spells - so you don't have to pause shift ever) with Zandethu's Draconic Fury (use Blood Sacrifice to get back the highest tier spell uses) and Citzal's Martial Power at last (cannot cast while shifted anyway). For lulz you can also use the Transmuter subclass and trade a bit of power for an additional shift form: into an Ogre. :)

These days it might take some time I assume. Maybe we tag @SChin (hi Sam) for a quick nudge to know if the submission was received. Cheers!

Heartbeat Drumming used to work like Swift Flurry in the early days of the game. As soon as the community found out how easy it was to produce crit chains with both Swift Flurry and Heartbeat Drumming the devs patched it. I never bothered to look into the code, but it was noticeably harder to proc crazy chains afterwards, but still possible. Your post makes it clear why that is, thank you! 😃

Not if you use (Enduring) Dance of Death. But if you want your Priest to mainly buff and only occasionally fight then I'd pick single class Priest.

A single class Priest can absolutely fight in melee. It's just so that his damage output with a weapon would be better if he multiclassed with a class which added some melee prowess. But in general you can stand in the front line and swing a great sword. I place Xoit as SC Priest at the front line all the time - often with a Morning Star - and it works fine. Will she be tanking many enemies? No - but that's not her role. But she can stand her ground against an enemy or two for long enough. In Deadfire, a Priest of Berath can summon a spiritual great sword for himself which has a nice corrosive lash that grows if your reputation matches your god's dispositions. It can become quite powerful. That way even a single class Priest can contribute with weapon damage. If you are okay with giving up the highest tier spells you can multiclass with not much regret. I personally love to multiclass a Priest with the Helwalker Monk because this has two main kinds of synergies: better melee output: with stuff such as Lightning Strikes + Turning Wheel and some attack abilities such as Force of Anguish or Torment's Reach you can do some serious damage, especially when paired with the spiritual great sword (resulting in a shocking lash, a burning lash and a corrosive lash on the sword). Also the high MIG of the Helwalker leads to more weapon damage. the Helwalker can offer +15 MIG (+1 MIG per wound and +5 from Thunderous Blows) and +10 INT (Turning Wheel) which are both fantastic buffs for casting: INT enlargens the AoEs and prolongs all durations, MIG raises damage and healing power(!). Spells like Shining Beacon profit a lot from +15 MIG (higher dmg per tick) and +10 INT (a lot more ticks) and so does healing over time such as Consecrated Ground. Aso you can be a bit faster (Lightning Strikes add +5 DEX and +15% action speed) and get some other goodies. The Monk is a great multiclass choice for a lot of classes, Priest is no exception.

Enduring Dance gives you wounds per second and accuracy, too. If you stay hidden and only use Dichotomous Soul to send summons out from hiding it can last forever.

No, you'd have to kill him unfortunately.