Boeroer

Yes, I would never skip Thunderous Blows unless I'd only do CC or summoning or so. As soon as you want to deal damage (be it with weapons or spells) the +2 Penetration will be very beneficial. It's not even about the +5 Might. Also in case of Thunderous Blows you are not combining "+dmg received" with "+Might" like with your Helwalker Wounds which boosts self damage twice, you "only" add more Might and you take away wounds in the process which isn't nearly as bad for self damage. Also your healing power goes up the same amount as your self damage goes up. If I didn't mention it before: a pet that adds "heal on kill" like the cat Cajux can be very helpful for a build that has lots of self damage (you can even combine this with a pet like Abraham on Edér. It adds a smaller heal-on-kill effect to all party members. This is only doable though if you have unlocked some Berath Blessing points and use them to give Edér a pet slot. You can also unlock Berath Blessing points with a little cheating/altering the file. Or you can just replace the file with one that has all the Berath Blessing Points unlocked..). Anyway: a Helwalker/Bloodmage can kill weak enemies pretty quickly and the heal-on-kill numbers scale with Might. That can spare you a lot of other healing options which might cost some resources (spell or ability use, potion etc.). Also if you have a Priest (highly recommended) then Triumph of the Crusaders is an excellent spell to put on an offensive Helwalker/Bloodmage like yours.

I wouldn't skip Stunning Surge because it's usually free in combination with the Spirit Lance and several enemies. You only need one crit roll and that will give you back the 2 Mortification.

Novice's Suffering is very special because the base damage stays very low (an that's what all the damage bonuses like crits and maluses like graze use as base) but it gets a big, flat damage bonus that isn't influenced by any damage bonus/malus except Might. This leads to very consistent damage with no real high or low rolls. Since this Barb doesn't use a lot of damage bonuses and has very high Might, Novice's Suffering is indeed a viable option. While it doesn't do much more damage with crits, it also doesn't suffer much from grazes which happen more often with a large shield. So actually a decent pick I'd say.

I said "early game" a lot, didn't I? 🥴

Hi. I wouldn't use any bashing shield before getting either Dragon's Maw or Badgradr's Barricade. Before that a non-bashing shield works better. Also in the early game the -8 accuracy of a large shield can lead to many misses. I would check if it works with a small or medium shield first and use the thickest armor in the early game. It won't be great in the early game though. Barbarians are notoriously unimpressive in the early game, and being slow and inaccurate doesn't help at that point. But it will get better quickly.

Hi, I have no experience with Turn Based Mode so I cannot say how the build performs there, sorry.

Just checked in game with the latest game version: still works. It didn't get patched.

If you learn the spell it doesn't work. You have to cast it from a grimoire without leaning it at level-up. I might check if it got fixed, but it would surprise me.

In Deadfire, firearms and crossbows/arbalests don't have a recovery phase. Instead, they only have a reloading phase. Bows - like all other weapons (besides firearms and crossbows/arbalests) - have a recovery phase. Reloading phases are usually longer than recovery, but unlike recovery you can always choose to stop the reloading and do something else - for example cast a healing spell. Afterwards you can resume the reloading. Running around also stops reloading. While you move you cannot reload. A recovery phase cannot be stopped. It always has to pass until you can do something else - except running around. Running around does not stop recovery, it only makes it last a bit longer. The advantage of reloading weapons is that you can react a lot quicker in combat. Imagine you're a Paladin with Lay on Hands and you just attacked an enemy. Suddenly your companion is near death and you want to cast Lay on Hands asap. If your attack was done with a weapon with recovery you will have to wait until the recovery is over until you can cast Lay on Hands - the companion might go down in that timespan. If your attack was done with a reloading weapon you can immediately after the shot cast Lay in Hands. For pure weapon dps characters this isn't an advantage, but for versatile characters with a variety of abilities (CC, healing, support...) it's really nice. Of course it's also possible o have very short recovery (like with light armor, dual daggers and two weapon style for example) which makes you almost as reactive as with a reloading weapon. But dual pistols also pack a good punch with Full Attacks (high damage per shot - for a one handed weapon).

Penetration is usually not an issue if you are willing to use two weapon sets with different damage types and use the one your current enemy is more vulnerable to. Dual wielding is great for all builds that make use of Full Attacks - and especially the Full Attacks that can get a refund (Stunning Surge, Barbaric Smash, Gambit...) and it's also great for characters for whom attacking very fast (Skald for example). However, it's less good than it was in PoE1 (compared to the other weapon styles). No, they are great actually. A single pistol + modal has -50% reloading time (!) but only suffers -3 accuracy (+12 from one handed usage and -15 from the modal), with Single Weapon Style you can add a nice crit conversion on top. This is great for all ranged characters who don't use a lot of attack abilities (Cipher, Chanter...) but mostly do auto attacks. There are great unique pistols, too. Pistols, like all reloading weapons in Deadfire, have no recovery but only reloading times. Reloading can be canceled so you are a lot more reactive with a pistol than with an implement or bow. I played a single class Kind Wayfarer with dual pistols (no modal then, Flames of Devotion is a Full Attack and procs the White Flames healing twice) and it went very well.

I totally forgot: summoned weapons with an AoE effect (Kalakoth's Minor Blights and Citzal's Spirit Lance) are awesome with Stunning Surge: they turn this ability into an AoE stun that often doesn't cost anything (because you get a refund on crit - and it's easier to crit at least once if you manage to attack multiple enemies).

It's a good multiclass. It can be squishy, but the upside is that Blood Sacrifice not only lets you regain spell uses but also gives you a lot of wounds. I didn't see which race you used (maybe my eye skipped it): human should be one of the best choices because you can drop below 50% health willingly (and get something out of it). As a multiclass Wizard it's most efficient to not take a lot of spells at level up but mostly pick passives and active abilities of the second class (Monk in this case). The reason is that a Wizard can cast all spells directly from a Grimoire, even if he didn't learn them. So you can have a decent collection of a few grimoires with your favorite spells in the quick item slots and not having to pay for the spells with ability points. This also has some cheesy side effects with some spells, namely Concelhaut's Draining Touch and all the "spell stealing" spells. If you cast sich a spell from your grimoire and then switch to a Grimoire that doesn't have that spell, the part of game logic that governs the removal of those effects (Draining Touch summoned weapon or stolen spell) will be not active anymore, and thus you will keep the Draining Touch weapon until combat ends - and you will keep the stolen spells forever. 😲 But that's just a sidenote. However, persistent Draining Touch on a Monk/Wizard as mad fun imo. It not only heals via draining (which is useful for Blood Sacrifice) but it also does a ton of damage, especially with Swift Flurry/Heartbeat Drumming and Miasma of Dull-Mindedness+ a club + modal in the offhand. Draining Touch (the weapon) targets Will instead of Deflection, and Miasma + club+modal lower Will by 65(!) points. Crits are the norm then and Swift Flurry/Heartbeat Drumming will proc often. It's also fun that Draining Touch has the highest base damage of any one handed weapon in the game... Anyways - picking some spells (usually the ones you really, really want to have ready at all times) can still make sense though and also might be more convenient, but in general you should be hesitant to put too many ability points into spells as a Wizard. Cheers! PS.: using Blood Sacrifice at 10 wounds (when MIG gets +10 points, which raises your self damage AND damage received is at +50%) might be a death sentence no matter how high your CON is. Just watch your wound counter before using Blood Sacrifice and make sure you spend some before activating it. Stuff like Blade Turning is a nice way to spend wounds quickly but with meaning. You will get a lot of wounds back via Blood Sacrifice anyway.

You will meet the following official companions in that order most likely (default class|optional classes): Fighter|Rogue|Fighter/Rogue Priest|Monk|Priest/Monk Wizard|Wizard/Rogue|Wizard/Fighter Cipher|Barbarian|Cipher/Barbarian Paladin|Paladin/Fighter|Paladin/Chanter Ranger|Ranger/Rogue|Ranger/Wizard Druid|Chanter|Druid/Chanter Maybe that helps you to figure out which class you want to play as the main character.

It's rather a dual class system. You pick two classes and then advance in both of them at the same pace. The progression through power levels (= the ability tiers) is a bit slower than with a single class character and you cannot reach the two highest power levels (8 and 9) which are reserved for single classes. But you will have access to the resource pools and ability uses of two classes instead of just one. You are rel. free when it comes to which abilities you pick at level-up. You can mainly pick abilities of the first class and only a few of the second class - or the other way round - or balance them out. Multiclass characters are not generally better or worse than single classes. It depends on a lot of things: build, synergies, class abilities (of a class has very good abilities at power level 8 and 9 it make a single class build more desirable than if a class only has okay-ish abilities at Power Level 8/9). Imo, Rangers are better when "multiclassed" because I find their abilities of Power Level 8 and 9 a bit lame - but their lower level stuff is pretty nice. Ranger/Rogue is very straightforward and also impactful. It combines very high accuracy (Ranger) with very high weapon damage per hit (Rogue). Druids (focused on spellcasting) are great as single class. The highest spell level tiers are very powerful (see Great Maelstrom). They also work well as multiclass though. Some special multiclasses (for example Bloodmage/Lifegiver or Helwalker/Ancient) are very good but take a bit longer to fully "unlock". Barbarian is both good as multiclass (for example Barbarian/Paladin is nice, Barbarian/Fighter, too) but also as single class (look at Driving Roar in general or Furyshaper's Blood Ward). I think I would recommend playing with a single class for the first try and use one or more multiclasses with the companions to try that out and learn a bit.

Imo the most fun combination is Wizard/Monk and especially Bloodmage/Helwalker (or Nalpaszca or vanilla) because there's lots of synergies and the active abilities are most fun to use imo. Turning Wheel (+10 INT and burning lash) is great with an AoE weapon such as Spirit Lance since the AoE size grows a lot with wounds. Stunning Surge is awesome with Spirit Lance and also Kalakoth's Minor Blights. Blood Sacrifice is not only trading spell casts for health but also results in instant wound generation. Force of Anguish is hilarious with Spirit Lance (send enemies flying into all directions). Blade Turning with Wall of Draining is bonkers. You can just ignore melee attackers (they will kill themselves) while you calmly cast some spells. Paralyzing spells such as Ninagauth's Shadowflame work well in combination with Merciless Gaze + Swift Flurry & Heartbeat Drumming because of the stacked crit conversions. And so on and so forth. Wizard/Soulblade is good but imo it's too one-dimensional. Wizard/Fighter is also good (Wall of Draining + Unbending is bonkers and so is Clear Out + Spirit Lance) but imo it's less entertaining than Monk. Wizard/Druid can actually be a good melee combo of you like spiritshift. It's not that great early but had tremendous potential later in the game. Something like Bloodmage/Lifegiver (Cat form), combined with Wall of Draining, numerous self buffs and Zandethu's Draconic Fury does good melee dmg, casts very fast and is almost impossible to kill even if Blood Sacrifice is used a lot because the Restorations can be stacked and are so strong when shifted. For Wizard/Paladin I made a build that was very fun to play (Bloodmage/Steel Garrotes) - search for a "Bloody Parry" class build in this forum if you are interested. But it's less about melee damage and more about using a special melee weapon to combine passive healing with defense and constant spellcasting. I like Wizard/Rogue with AoE weapons (Blights or Lance or even a rod + Blast in the beginning) and Arterial Strike + spells that slows enemies movement down further (Arduous Delay, Chillfog etc.). They will run slowly but still get the raw dmg from Arterial Strike per 0.1 sec (the game doesn't count actual steps but just applies the raw dmg every 0.1 secs as long as enemies move). Assassin/Bloodmage can cast such a spell from stealth and immediately follow with an AoE Crippling Strike (stealth has a -80% recovery time bonus). If you then follow up with a Pull of Eora most enemy groups are usually done. Or you combine Gouging Strike + Arterial Strike at the start of combat for more raw ticks. That's also fun imo.

Instead of correcting this little typo my mind immediately imagined a lance with an AoE effect that arranges the enemies in a specific order... 🥴

Both. You can start with Deadfire, it's not mandatory to play Pillars of Eternity first. But it is better to start with the first one - because Deadfire is a continuation of your main character's story that begins in Pillars of Eternity.

Save often! And then there's a few things many players complain(ed) about (besides bugs and difficulty and stuff like that) or just missed: 1. Locking yourself out of a faction: It is possible to lock yourself out of a faction (in the big citiy) you actually want to join. There are three factions and every one of them has one entry quest (it gives some good reputation with that faction and unlocks the faction's shop - this may be important to your because of the unique items they sell). This entry quest is of no consequence regarding the other factions, so you can do them all. However, as soon as you pick up the second faction quest (not completing it but just picking it up!) you will lock yourself out of the other factions' second quest. So you have to choose in advance which faction you want to align yourself with more deeply. Every faction gives you a talent, reputation, a unique items and/or money as well a a special hireling for yout stronghold as reward. The talents/items are (without spoiling too much I hope): one "knightly" faction gives you +2 DR which stacks with everything and a unique sword which can be nice for certain builds (and a fine plate armor with an alternative look to normal ones but otherwise not special) the "rogueish" faction gives you +30% dmg for all critical hits (including spells etc.) and either a big bunch of money or a unique stiletto (which is meh imo) the "mob" faction gives +5 accuracy if you attack an enemy who's also attacked by an ally and a unique war bow (which is nice) and also a unique spear whose enchantments can be picked by you, which is pretty cool imo (although this spear can also be crafted up later in the game if you choose to align with another faction, so you are not locking yoursefl out of that one, just delaying it a bit) So be careful when you pick up the second quest for a faction and think about which reward might suit your main character best. There are little warning sings in the dialogue that the other factions might be p!ssed off if you take up that second faction quest, but tbh it's easy to miss and then you might be surprised. In any case you can still buy at the factions' shops not matter how you decide (unless you turn a faction outright hostile by attacking them). 2. Jumping into a certain pit near the end of the game and there's no way back: There is a point in the game where you have to make a jump - a leap of faith so to speak - into a pit. It's not a Xaurip pit in the Endless Paths that I'm talking about... Anyway, if you take the jump you cannot go back and the (rel. short) endgame starts. So before jumping in you want to complete everything (I mean everything you want to complete, it's not mandatory of course). Side quests, DLCs, buying that one item you always wanted, retraining your characters and so on. There are warnings before jumping but you'd be amazed about how many players didn't get it. So watch out. 3. Missing Edér: Edér is one of the very first (permanent) companions you can recruit. You cannot really talk to him before you do a certain quest-related thing. Afterwards he will talk to you, but not forcefully open the dialogue screen but simply say a line in your general direction that you can hear. At that point, when you click on him, you can finally enter proper dialogue with him. A lot of players tried to speak to him first, they couldn't because that one quest wasn't advanced enough, and after the quest progression which unlocks Edér's dialogue - when he spoke his line to them - they just didn't notice or ignored that and moved on, never realizing that they could've picked him up. Please don't miss my boy Edér. ;) 4. Starting the DLCs too late: Thw DLCs White March I and II are meant to expand the main game. They are not meant to be played after the main game (which isn't possible anyway because of the pit of no return). Many players get the in-game invitation to the DLCs' area (occurs mid-game) but think it's for later and are then surprised and frustrated that the DLCs are so freaking easy. You can go to the DLC area as soon as you get the invitation. However, the initial fight is pretty tough so I wouldn't go there pre lvl 8 as a new player. But then you can go there and even go back an forth. Look at it as if the DLCs just added a bunch of new maps and sidequests to the game (which they did). There are lots of unique items in those DLCs which you might want to pick up relatively early so you can use them in the main game, too. 5. Going to Crägholt Bluffs too early: With the DLCs there comes a map that doesn't have anything to do with the rest of the DLCs' areas. It's called Crägholt Bluffs and it's just another (small) set of maps and sidequest. You will get a warning that this area - although unlocked together with the rest of the DLCs - is tough and for high levels only. But it's easy to miss that warning. Crägholt Bluffs is very hard and I wouldn't touch it (as a new player) before level 10 at least, better to wait even longer. You can always go there and try it out though and then abort and come back later if it's still too hard - just save before trying! That's it I guess.

Nope. I only tried out the TB mode for a couple of days while it was in its beta phase.

Correct, and I consider the "occasionality" (had to look up if that words actually exists, hehe) of Defiant Resolve to be very okay. Having a +10 to all defenses buff that stacks with everything in fights with plenty of fear abilites and auras (Drakes, Dragons, Banshees etc.) and which procs off of many annoying spells from Ciphers, Priests, Chanters and Wizards is a very nice thing to have imo. Especially since defenses have increasing returns. It makes makes all dragon fights easier, the Banshee stuff in the Endless Paths, bounties, Crägholt Bluffs and so on.

My favorite party composition is: Edér Aloth Durance Kana Rua Hiravias Kana Rua is very useful on some maps in the early game because he has access to the "White Worms" invocation. As long as you don't reload a map (leaving/coming back or reloading as save) all corpses will stay on the map. Every corpse works with White Worms over and over again (they don't get consumed). So on a map like Raedric's Castly you can pile up corpse over corpse in some doorways and use Kanas White Worms invocation for massive AoE damage. Also in longer encounters the summoed Phantom is extremely good in the early game. It can win fights for you (as long as Kana doesn't go down). From level 9 on I give him "The Dragon Thrashed" as only phrase for his chant and give him a single one handed weapon (because the +12 accuracy bonus translates to offensive chants for some overlooked reason) which decimates all mobs in range automatically. It's very powerful. Hiravias as a caster is very good in general but also his Spiritshift ability is very potent. I give him Wildstrike + Greater Wildstrike + Weapon FOcus Peasant + Two Weapon Style and Outlander's Frenzy. Very important to give him a Wildstrike Belt asap (can be bought for very cheap in Ondra's Gift). He then shreds through single enemies who want to mess with him in melee like no other class (not even Rogues). I give him the soulbound scepter because then he can regain his 1 spiritshift use per encounter, making it possible for him to spiritshift twice. Durance as a Priest is kind of a must if you don't want to gimp the party. Priests' buffs are just so strong. Pick Inspiring Radiance asap. It gives you +10 accuracy for the party in every encounter and stacks with everything. Makes the early game a lot easier. Aloth for CC is also my preffered way of playing him. Try Blast + Penetrating Blast + Weapon Focus + Dangerous Implements + Marksman and then summon Kalakoth's Minor Blights. It's a very good (small) AoE dmg combo and only needs one spell cast (for figts where you not necessarly need a lot of CC). Later something like the Rod of Pale Shades is very cool like that, too because Blast works with weapon procs (in this case Stunning + Disorienting) Although not in my favorite party setup, Pallegina can be very useful if you give her a Marking Weapon (there are several, my preference for her is a weapon set set of Spectacular Spetum pollaxe asap + Blade of the Endless Paths estoc later, pollaxe I keep as backup against pierce immue enemies) - and in additon pick Coordinated Attacks. This means she can give the nearest ally who's atacking the same target as her +10 stackable accuracy. This makes it a lot easier to overcome single tough foes (bosses and the like). And it's all passive so it doesn't cost resources or action time. And on top she can do all the other Paladin stuff of course.

If you don't play on the highest difficulty setting (Path of the Damned) you carry around up to 4 camping supplies. So resting is not an issue. Don't hold back your spells too much or you will end up resting because of low health but not because you used all your spells. Players tend to hold on to spells "just in case a big fight comes" - but if you save the game regularly (and it also does auto saves for you) you can reload of you got into a big fight totally unprepared and rest before that fight. Having said that: melee Wizards can contribute in many fights without casting too many spells. Their Arcane Assault (2/encounter) and a single weapon summon spell go a pretty long way.

Yes, the two handed summoned weapons are a lot better than what you can buy/find at those times and a Wizard with weapon + shield isn't a very good setup. That is: unless you just want the protection of a shield and don't care about your weapon damage - in that case hatchet + small shield is a good option because they provide decent deflection and some reflex that stacks with your self buffs. But your weapon damage will be pretty atrocious compared to the summoned weapons. Medium and large shields will negatively impact your casting accuracy (-4 for medium shields and -8 for large ones) so I wouldn't recommend them. Wizards' base accuracy is already weak enough... ;) You can also take a look at a melee Cipher: that class combines weapon damage with spellcasting. In fact you need to deal weapon damage in order to cast spells.

PS: What you can also do is to play a Fighter with high INT and use Lore for scrolls (potentially very powerful) and so-called spellbinding gear. Those are items that contain per-rest spells of Wizards, Druids and Priests (and sometimes even Ciphers) and can be used by anybody. A Fighter is a good candidate because the spells work especially well with the high accuracy the Fighter class has. For examle there's Bots that contain Jolting Touch 3/rest, a sabre that contains Fireball 3/rest, an Amulet and an armor which both contain Sunburst 3/rest each (so in total 6 casts of Sunburst per rest), an Estoc that has Blizzard 3/rest and so on. You can then add some talents such as Aspirant's Mark, Prestidigitator's Missiles, Enigma's Charm... (all 1/encounter). That way you can build a very accurate Fighter who's good with weapon (because... Fighter) and has some nice spells from items, talents and scrolls, too.

Hi, first of all: the early game is pretty hard - noticably harder than what comes afterwards until the late game. It is most likely not your Priest build's fault that you feel that way but a combination of: Picking a class that is not very strong at the beginning of the game. Although the Priest will become your most impactful party member soon amd is considered the most powerful class overall, it starts rather slow. Classes like Fighter, Ranger or Monk start a lot stronger because they have higher base stats and don't rely on per-rest spells (which are scarce so early in the game). They will not become as powerful as a Priest (or Wizard or Druid for example) but the early game is easier with them. Not knowing the mechanics well (yet) - this will solve itself over time The early game being quite hard as I said - nothing you can do about that except: accepting that you don't have to fight every enemy in sight. Sneaking around and avoiding fights (alltogether or come back later after more level-ups) are valid options. The game doesn't give much XP rewards for fighting. Instead, exploring and quests are the main source of XP. using some sneaky tactics like: kiting/pulling/separating enemies, using chokepoints or even lure certain enemies towards other enemies (example: lure wolves to a bandit camp in Valewood, lure some trolls to a bandit camp in Black Meadow or luring the Sly Cyrdel bounty group towards the group of Gramrfel the Wayfarer in Magran's Fork a bit later in the game) Anyway, my understanding is that you want to play a melee Wizard. This is a good choice if you keep a few things in mind: The best weapon options for a melee Wizard are always his summoned weapons. They are vasty more powerful than any other weapon the wiuard can use, especially at level 1. At level 1 you pick Concelhaut's Parasitic Staff. It has a lot more base damage than a normal two handed weapon (20-30), has exceptional quality (which is awesome that early in the game and balances out the bad base accuracy of the Wizard) and drains endurance for you with every successful attack. Later use Citzal's Spirit Lance which has the same high base damage but also AoE capabilites and speed. If you feel that that's not enough summoned weapons and that you burn through them to quickly you can also pick up the Belt of the Royal Deadfire Cannoneer and Forgemaster Gloves during the early(ish) game. That will give you 6 casts of Firebrand per rest, a summoned fire great sword that also has the same high base damage. Try to not be in the front line too much in the early game. The Staff and the Lance are reach weapons so you can stand in the second line and still hit enemies who attack your front line. Infuse with Vital Essence is a great spell to regain lost health. Endurance can be healed during the encounter, but health usually only gets healed during a rest. Infuse with Vital Essence however will give you "temporary" bonus health. The thing is though that it's not really temporary but just stays there as if you had healed. It works even better if you use some items that give you incresed healing, for example the early amulet of Fulvano (or Fulvano's Amulet) which increses all healing you receive by 25% and a survival/camping bonus for increased healing. High Might also increases the effect. Use the Survical skill and put it to 4 points asap. This gives you access to a neat accuracy bonus based on the kind of enemy you face. If you can bring it up to 10 asap (this takes time). This can also be done by skilling it to 8 only and then use an item that grants +2 survival (there are several) and put it on before camping/resting in the wilds. You don't need to wear it all the time. This will give you an even bigger accuracy bonus gainst certain enemies. You need to scout ahead a bit an check out the tyoes of enemies which are awaiting you (if you don't know already) but this bonus reall helps. If you will face kith enemies: there's no survival bonus for them so go for increased healing instead (tier II grants +40% healing). It stacks with the amulet's effects (25%+40% = 65% more healing received ). If you feel too squishy pick Veteran's Recovery. It heals very well if combined with the bonus healing options I mentioned above and will keep you alive without you having to cast Corrosive Siphon or a party member needing to use a healing spell on you. Use Concelhaut's Corrosive Siphon to heal even more if necessary. Talents which are great for a melee Wizard: Veteran's Recovery as I said above if you feel too squishy Weapon Focus for whatever your backup weapon is. Summoned weapons can use any weapon focus, they are universal in that regard. So if you want a backup weapon (I suggest Durance's Staff) you pick Weapon Focus Peasant and this will apply to the quarterstaff and the Spirit Lance as well. Aspirant's Mark: this is a -8 delfection and reflex spel that is 1/encounter which is awesome. You can cast this in every fight right at the start - best is after the Priest hit you with an Inspiring Radiance (+10 accuracy). This doesn't have to be done by your wizard and could be used by any of your party members (it's especially good on a Fighter with Disciplied Barrage). Two Handed Style: since the summoned wepaons have high base damage, all damage bonuses you can get have a visible impact Arcane Veil: great to have in a pinch when you get damaged too much. Also great to demotivate enemy rushers to pick you as target in the first place Savage Attack: only later in the game where accuracy isn't an issue anymore (because of Priest buffs, good debuffs on enemies and so on) Apprentice's Sneak Attack: as I said: bonus dmg works well with summoned weapons Good spells to use as a melee Wizard (I mean there are tons but these ones I cast more frequently than others as a melee Wizard): Chillfog: one of the best spells and especially early on. Just don't step into its AoE yourself Concelhaut's Parasitic Staff Deleterious Alarity of Motion: raises your melee dps a ton because your recover twice as fast, especially great with the speed of the Spirit Lance all defensive self-buffs, especially Llengrath's Safeguard which stacks with all deflection-only-buffs such as Arcane Veil Infuse with Vital Essence as I described above Concelhaut's Corrosive Siphon Pull of Eora: very good in combination with Spirit Lance in order to pull enemies into tight fomations where your lance AOE can hit them all Citzal's Martial Power once you are done with buffing/summoning stuff Eldritch Aim is great as Spell Mastery imo (at level 9 you can pick a spell you already know which turns from per rest into 1/encounter) Attributes: above average MIG since it boosts not only damage but also healing you do (to yourself). It's also one of the few things that boosts spell damage. But it doesn't need to be maxed or anything. I'd say ~12. mediocre CON is enough (~10) decent DEX and PER (~14) high INT (~18) mediocre RES (~10) shifting a few points here and there doesn't make a difference. Tthe attributes are not crazy impactful like in other games