Boeroer

Yes, Destructive Channeling will kill you if you don't stop to use it - or heal. A Wizard who wants to use bloodied with scepters can multiclass to a Warlock. You'll have higher action speed right away with Frenzy, you could either cause a raw DoT or the Staggered affliction via Blood Frenzy/Spirit Frenzy - they also work with your spells. The Blooded dmg bonus works with spells, too. You'll still have the problem with surviving though - like with the Streetfighter. Barbs get Savage Defiance at some point and that might help, but Frenzy lowers deflection so you will be even more exposed. The Fear Ward of the Furyshaper could help, but it also comes quite late. Casting damaging spells as a Warlock becomes a lot of fun once you reach Blood Thirst imo. The only other thing that might help a low health Wizard with scepters (I can think of right now)* is the Death Godlike's "Pallid Fate": +3 Power Level when near death (<25% health). +3 PL is a great bonus for a caster. It would stack with all other PL bonuses. If you plan to use a fellow Priest with Barring Death's Door it might be rel. safe, too. )* besides the High Harbinger's Robe

A Chanter can summon upgraded Wisps who will have a distracting attack which does very little shock damage. You can use them as your own "Heating Up Generator" and even combine that with Deltro's Cage Helmet to gain a shocking lash for all your attacks in the process. Makes you go to bloodied even faster, too - in combo with Destructive Channeling. And you can then switch to Ancient Memory to stay at 50% even while still using Destructive Channeling/getting hit by the Wisps. Also a Streetfighter/Chanter can achieve even higher shooting speed because Sure Handed Ila and the Streetfighter passive do stack. Combine with Aefyllath Ues Mith Fyr and you'll also have a nice burning lash (and your party, too). Upgraded Wisps take some levels to unlock though.

Eh - I have no idea why my text is in the spoiler tags, too. Sorry - I can't get it out. Oh well... Edit: removed the spoiler tags. Man those are really messed up...

Wat? Here comes the Mortar Monk (vid) : Stunning Surge with blunderbusses - especially Serafen's mortars - is one of the best (ranged) abilities. Very high chance for Mortification refunds and hjust absurdely strong CC. Add +10 INT for the mortar AoE and longer durations for "Heating Up" and stuff like Stunning Surge and Arterial Strike etc. as well as longer distracted durations from Hand Mortars "Blinding Smoke" which unlocks Deathblows automatically. Suddenly a Monk/Streetfighter seems like a really good idea (and it is). If going with destructive channeling first you would also gain wounds very quickly in combination with Dance of Death (later Enduring Dance). Self damage such as destr. channeling doesn't end Dance of Death. There is no source of healing though nor a reliable way to raise defenses once bloodied so a party member would have to provide that. On the other hand you have two summons (Dichotomous Soul) that are superuseful to prevent harm from you. Other goodies for such a bloodied ranged Streetfighter char from the top of my head: Barbarian: Blooded, +25% dmg Barbarian: Unflinching, grants resistance to all Body afflcitions when over 50% health and NOT when bloodied. However, you can use this mechanic to completely remove any affliction. As soon as you heal over 50% the resistance kicks in, removing one tier of affliction (e.g. paralyzed to immobilzed). Then you drop below 50% again (no resistance) and back over 50% (resistance again) and the immobilized gets downgraded to hobbled... and so on. Wizard: Llengrath's Safeguard, +defenses and +5(!)AR High Harbinger's Robes, the lower your health the higher the action speed buff The Magnificent Escape Cape, grants an escape-like ability when bloodied that gives +50 deflection, stacks with all wizard buffs (not with Rogue's Escape!) and can be prolonged with Wall of Draining As Elric pointed out a Bloodmage is a very convenient way to reach bloodied and then being able to maintain the bloodied state rel. safely. You don't even need scepters for that. Also with mortars the Infuse with Vital Essence spell comes in handy because the +5 INT will enlarge the AoE. THe Streetfighter/Monk (e.g. Helwalker) is a lot more impactful offensively though.

It was a SC Monk in my current playthrough. I added the multiclass with the console for testing purposes. That lowers the Power Level autimatically but doesn't remove any abilites.

The reason for your shorter DoT is in the post I wrote before (see bold part in the quote). Shifter gets unique Spiritshift forms (Spiritshift_Boar_Shifter instead of Spiritshift_Boar) - I guess because of the healing but I don't know for sure what lead to that decision. The Boar DoT is attached to the spiritshift ability, not the tusk weapons. Somehow Obsidian made an error (Copy & Paste Error? Forgot to give a duration in the first place so it inherits the partent ability's duration? I don't know) : instead of the original short duration it has the same as the whole Spiritshift.

Unmodded game with INT 28 (first FF and then Stunning Surge) :

Shifter or normal Druid? Of course enemies' RES will play a role, too. I achieved over a minute on dummies who don't have high RES.

Roleplaying, giving your char a unique face and mentally investing in the (back)story does indeed help a lot. Even if you're doing your umpteenth playthrough. Berserker/Paladin is indeed a nice combo. And there also is the Goldpact/Shifter who can achieve enormous AR with 0 recovery penatly which makes him sturdy af but at the same time a good damage dealer. Err... I guess I'm not helping... 😊

One can't mod new models into the game afaik. If the model of the Spiritshift forms are seperated (like - individual objects for head and body) it might be possible to assemble the shifted body with a godlike head - but it wouldn't look right I think. The models can be tinted iirc - so at least the colors could be brought to match...? But the portrait would be no problem of course (given you find someone who has the skill).

Right - I checked again yesterday because seem to have missed to uncheck one mod when I was doing the test. And I found out that FF works with Wildstrike in my game because of the Community Patch (which I somehow must have doubleclicked or misclicked when turning off mods). CP turns the FF ability into a "proper" melee weapon attack so it is able to generate focus, trigger Swift Flurry/Heartbeat Drumming and Enervating Blows etc. (and profits from other melee weapon passives in muliclass combos) which it didn't before and which was kind of a bummer, especially for FF/Ciphers. Because of this "little" change Wildstrike lashes will get applied to the FF ability attack. Boar DoT also gets applied bc of that reason (I guess, it's not tied to the tusk weapons in the first place but to the spiritshift modal). So indeed this interaction is NOT in the vanilla game (I suspect, didn't do an additional test yet) - but it works with the Community Patch. It's not gamebreakingly good - but def. very good. The very long Boar DoT I mentioned is not a product of the CP though but should also occur in the vanilla game: Enfeebled + Shifter Boar DoT (in vanilla game you might need two attack rolls for that: fist FF and then another "real" melee attack) will naturally lead to a very long DoT time because the Shifter Boar DoT has a quirk (vanilla game, too): it seems to have the base duration of the Spiritshift iirc - not the intended one which the non-shifter Boar DoT has. That's why Enfeebled + high INT from Monk leads to very long DoT times with a FF/Shifter.

If you have a Chanter in the party then Berserker/Shifter will be a lot better (in most encounters) because his confused Carnage will kill weak summons like the skeletons from "Many Lives Pass By" which will trigger Bloodlust and Blood Thirst as well as healing from a pet (there are some which heal on kill) which makes him attack and cast so quickly it's mind-blowing. Also prolongs Blood Storm. Confused Berserker using AoE healing and stuff like Relentless Storm is super tricky though! Prepare to use Svef to end confusion or use Devil of Caroc Breastplate or Modwyr to end the confusion when shifting back (or prevent confusion in the first place by casting Frenzy before shifting). Vid (spoiler tags to allow browsing the forum without having to load the vid every time):

You are focusing on the initial strike. Sure, that's nice, especially bc. of the higher accuracy. Gouging Strike is good against big bosses, no doubt (but you can always do the same with Lover's Embrace and Leap and a potion of invisibility). Also with a well-placed CC from stealth or invisibility you can have a big impact. But against mobs the Berserker/Shifter will have a clear "fun" advantage due to Carnage and attack speed - and at least once you get Blood Thirsty and combine it with a well placed Plague of Insects + Infestation of Maggots (or Nature's Terror + Relentless Storm to use the Tenacious PEN) before shifting you will see what I mean. It also depends on solo vs. party. Solo I would prefer Assassin no doubt.

"Überkäse"... we should establish that as an official term.

There is no such thing as a last playthrough with Deadfire.

It is a bug. It occurs very seldomly but it's still there. It is not 100% confirmed but to prevent it from happening again you need to uncheck the "gib" option in the game options menu (I am not joking). If your gib option is already deactivated... 🤷‍♂️ I never had this bug during a lot (lot) of playing hours - and I'm playing without gibs. No proof but maybe another hint. You can get back the original helmet by reloading to a state before that happened (obviously), by using the console to give you the helmet again (will deactivate achievements) or by hiring an exported character as adventurer in a tavern to whom you gave the helmet in another playthrough. So if you have another savegame (can be the same run from before) with that helmet you can export a character with nothing on but that helmet, reload your actual game and hire that character at lvl 1 with items. It will cost a bit of money but you'll have your helm back without "official cheating".

Haha - dat stoopid mod!

Today!

Yeah, there is a reason for this:

I didn't meticuloulsy compare the durations of high RES vs. low RES enemies but remembering my test from yesterday vs. different targets (not Huani though), RES doesn't seem to matter at all. I tried it against cre_dummies (low RES) and against Neriscyrlas (high RES) and iirc the duration felt the same (in hindsight - didn't even think about it to be honest - but I guess I would have noticed if it had lasted much shorter). I think it doesn't matter because it's supposed to be a benefical effect - and those don't have to get through RES normally...?

He purges himself regularly from Aefyllath Mith Fyr. The passive doesn't distinguish between benefical or hostile fire effects it seems.

Clarity of Agony is great, Dance of Death is not worth the investment when going solo imo - unless you make heavy use of the Monk summons at some point and use Instruments of Pain - and/or use Xoti's Lantern for Mortification refunds.

There is one special fun combo (imo) with Trickster/Soulblade which I really like: go max deflection (high RES, Mirrored Images + Borrowed Instincts + Psyvhovampiric Shield sometimes + gear) and use Whispers of the Endless Paths with the enchantment "Offensive Parry". Those parries will generate focus! In addition to that the raw damage of Soul Annihilation will get applied to all enemies in the cone AoE (the amout of damage to each enemy varies, the initial target gets the normal raw dmg, the next only a bit, the next more and so on). It's not for man tanking - but you can stand sourrounded by melee enemies for quite a long time and gain focus "passively" be just parrying and then take out the enemies with Soul Annihilation. Riposte stacks with Offensive Parry (meanikng you can "riposte" twice from one single miss)! Riposte itself doesn't generate focus but it's an additional source of damage. Offensive Parry is not an AoE attack (oly hits the enemy who missed) but Riposte does the whole cone attack. Against tough single enemies you can switch to another weapon with better single target dmg.

Huh, I always thought it's kind of a waste that Monk/Druids can't use Transcendent Suffering in any form for their spiritshift attacks (could have been a weakened version of TS or whatever) - but I never thought about the Forbidden Fist ability in combination with Spiritshift. Just slept on that combo. Does the ability get Wildstrike bonus in the vanilla game, too? I reckon Shifter Boar's DoT with Enfeebled + Turning Wheel might be insane on its own...? Edit: jeez, FF ability indeed gets the bonus of TS and all the Wildstrike goodies in the vanilla game, too - including Boar's wounding DoT. That's awesome! ...Lol - the Boar DoT lasts for nearly a minute then. 🤣 What a beast... I also love about the FF/Druid that you can walk in your own Tanglefoot and get <1 sec afflictions all the time (=plenty of wounds).

The critical path is indeed short (partly due to criticism that PoE1's was too long - which it was imo). But if you do all sidequests and explore the whole map and on top do the three DLCs (?) it's huuuuge. I don't understand how you can do everything in Neketaka and not much else - there are a lot of quests there that require you do sail elsewhere...? I can't say how many % are left. That also depends what you mean by "all of Neketaka", how you resolve some quests, which faction you want to attach yourself to, if you have the DLCs etc. I can level my party up to level 20 and still have nearly 50% of the content left (if we speak about hours of game time - with DLCs). For example in my current playthrough I reached lvl 20 before some last stuff that was originated in Neketaka , , Beast of Winter, Seeker, Slayer, Survivor and Forgotten Sanctum.