Boeroer

Generally speaking a Harbinger (Chanter/Rogue) has greater effect if you are using reloading weapons (except Pistols). That is if you run Sure Handed Ila (if not forget what I'm saying). Reason is that Sure Handed Ila grants -20% ranged recovery bonus and -20% reloading bonus. One would think the recovery bonus applies to bows and rods/wands/scepters and the reloading bonus applies to crossbows/arbalests/firearms - but for whatever reason reloading weapons get both(!) bonuses. So with any reloading weapon you'll get -20% twice. Pistols + Rushed Reload (modal from weapon proficiency) won't stack with it. Also Hunting Bow's modal doesn't stack. Both will suppress Sure Handed Ila. So best to use something else (be it another chant or another weapon). If you had a Streetfighter (?) then I would highly recommend dual blunderbusses/hand mortars + modal. They would keep you distracted (which entails flanked) which would trigger the Streetfighter passive "Heating Up" at all times, granting you a stacking -50% recover bonus which also applies to reloading. That would stack with dual wielding, two weapon style and Sure Handed Ila, giving you insane reload speeds. Also two weapons are better for all the Rogue's "strikes" which are nearly all Full Attacks, meaning both weapons will be used. With any other Rogue subclass you could use arbalest or arquebus to great effect (rod as backup). The Red Hand arquebus is one of the best ranged weapons in the game when it comes to single target dmg output (because ii is double barreled an only has to reload after every second shot). If you skill Arcana then Spearcaster (arbalest) is also a great pick. Both can be obtained rel. early. A good rod is Watershaper's Focus for pierce immune enemies. What else you might want: If you pick arbalest or arquebus look at Maia's Padded Armor (Sharpshooter's Garb). It has an enchantment named Gunnery which gives another stacking -20% reloading bonus. Just take Maia into your party and unequip the armor. You could also kill her to get it... Ring of the Marksman you also want to have. A good pet would be Harley (dog). You can buy it in Serpent's Crown in the upper left corner from a vendor. Cutthroat Cosmo also isn't bad (should be in your stash from the start). For amulet etc. I would prefer +INT stuff (Charm of Bones for example). As Chanter you can never have enough INT imo. Boots of Speed would be my pick. Always good to be able to outrun melee enemies.

ROFL

You said dual melee weapons, hm... How about a "Huana Mataru" Unbroken/Wizard with a spear (Stalker's Patience) and a club (Kapana Taga) plus Reckless Brigandine plus Whitch Mask (later Champion's Helmet)? Sounds weird? Let me explain: Unbroken have a nice passive that grants them a big bonus with Engagement/Disengagement Attacks: +1 Engagement and +10 PEN on diseng. attacks. Paid for with -10% Stride (nobody cares once DAoM is active) and -15 Reflex (counter with a self buff like Llengrath's Displaced Image if you must). Kapana Taga has the will reducing modal (-25 Will), dual damage (crush/slash) and neat enchantments - one that gives you +2 engagement. You are at 3 engagement slots. Stalker's Patience has a modal that gives you +1 engagement at the cost of lesser stride (again: DAoM), it does awesome damage due to the wounding enchantment and you can skip recovery on crit 20% of times (cool, especially with disengagement attack which have high ACC bonuses, also with Overbearing Guard). You are at 4 engagement slots. Reckless Brigandine gives you more dmg, AR and action speed based on health and/or on how many enemies you engage. That stacks with Mob Stance(!). You are at 5 engagement slots. If you take Hold the Line you'll get 6 engagement slots (not really needed but maybe good to gap the bridge until you get all the items). With Reckless Brigandine, Armored Grace, the Pet Abraham, dual wielding, Two Weapon Style, DAoM and Mob Stance you will be pretty fast, especially once you engage a lot of enemies. Now... White Witch Mask, why? It gives you +1 to all Illusions (and looks good with Kapana Taga/Reckless Brigandine and thus completes the "Hauna Mataru" look quite well). Illusions include stuff like Dazzling Lights, Miasma of Dull-Mindedness and the two terrifying Ryngrim spells. Now the Unbroken and Wizard parts come together: You gather enemies around you and engage them. You hit them a bit with the club+modal (-25 Will). You cast Miasma of Dull Mindedness onto the enemies (-40 Will -> now at -65 Will). You cast Ryngrim's Repulsive Visage. Now the enemies get terrified and try to disengage. Often they trigger hefty disengagement attacks which will be executed with Stalker's Patience (chance of skipping recovery). If they die you will get an additional Full Attack from Mob Stance. And so on... Disciplined Strikes + Merciless Gaze lead to a good amount of crit conversion. You can really mess up enemies that way, do CC and damage at the same time. And against fear immune enemies? Well you are still a proper Battlemage so you'll think of something. The most fun part imo is that if you summon an Essential Phantom it will also have +3 engagement from the Brigandine and the club. So you can both deliver disengement attacks. It won't have your modals and passives but it's still a nice addition. If you want you can even summon Concelhaut's Draining Touch and use it als main weapon instead of the spear - but in order to keep it you need to use a game glitch. But even if you don't want to use that glitch: on a phantom the Draining Touch weapon stays after hits and will not dissolve like if would on your own character. And the neat thing is that it has not only huge base damage but it targets Will instead of Deflection (and you reduced enemies' Will substancially before). Icing on the cake is Zandethu's Draconic Fury (spell from a unique Grimoire) at Power Level 7. It lets you terrify on hit and getting hit (and adds two potent lashes). Too bad it's on the same tier as Wall of Draining - so I'd recommend Bloodmage in order to gain that spell use back so you can cast both spells in one encounter. I didn't play this for a whole playthrough though so I can't say if it's fun all the way. I only verified the concept with a hireling during a normal playhtough and with the console + some random encounters. But I always wanted to play that concept.

Affecting party members with Come Sweet Winds if Death isn't too bad though. You'll have more chances to hit which is mandatory for the healing effect and some party members might even profit from the little predictable damage they receive (e.g. Monks, Streetfighter, Barbarian...). The Phrase "Many Lives Pass By" doesn't care at all whether you're confused or not, so that would be safe. But in general it's best to get rid of confusion right away as @Not So Clever Houndsaid.

Miasma of Dull-Mindedness does not cause a "proper" affliction but direct attribute debuffs. Maybe try Arkemyr's Dazzling Lights (Dazed) or Curse of the Blackened Sight (Blind) or something like that.

I think I'd do Bloodmage (besides Berserker/Devoted which is great). There are really nice synergies with Fighter/Wizard later on. Chanter is also nice. Most invocations target will instead of fortitude but Willbreaker lowers will, too. But instead of Troubadour I would pick Skald. The -1 phrase cost is pretty great with offensive invocations and with Mule Kick or Clear Out + Body Blows and Disciplined Strikes you'll see phrases from crits frequently.

Does it have to be strictly melee? Because Streetfighter/Wizard with dual mortars (Serafen's blunderbusses with AoE effect) is very potent. The modal Powder Burns triggers the Streetfighter passive at all times (no need for bloodied or getting actively flanked). You'll have two damage types (mortars deal pierce/slash) and the AoE targets Reflex instead of Deflection (Wizard has lots of debuffs for that). Also Expose Vulnerabilities and Combusting Wounds is great with dual mortars. On top of that the mortars' AoE apply all effects from Rogue strikes - e.g. Arterial Strike's or Gouging Strike's raw dmg components. The recovery bonus is also great for casting spells faster. And the mortars - like all blunderbusses - are rel. short ranged so it's not a super-ranged build either. Summoning an Essential Phantom with your two mortars equipped can be fun, too.

The official gamepedia wiki has all ability icons, too: https://pillarsofeternity.fandom.com/wiki/Category:Pillars_of_Eternity_II:_Deadfire_images_-_Ability_icons Don't know if you can get them as a bunch of files somehow or if you'll have to download them one by one though.

I am playing an Arcane Archer/Troubadour atm. Spearcaster is one of my weapons. Arcane Archer has some flaws without the Community Patch because the Imbue spells Missiles, Fireball and Death Ring don't scale their PEN in the unmodded game. But if you stick to web and pull of eora that doesn't matter. Keep in mind that a solo char often needs to divide his skill points (mechanics, stealth, whatever) so maybe you will not be able to put a ton lot of points into Arcana at all times. I have no idea about solo since my AA/Tr is the party's main CC guy. But high Arcana + Spearcaster means insane accuracy while Troubadour with Sure Handed Ila (applies its bonus twice: to recovery and also reload time) and Mith Fyr grants great reloading speed and good damage. And of course a lot of versatility bc. of invocations. For me the best part about arbalests is the modal. Combined with the reloading buffs and the high accuracy I can interrupt/prone a single enemy all the time. Arcane Archer/Troubadour can be an interrupt monster with Imbue:Web and Imbue:Eora in combination with The Champion invocation. All your crit rolls will interrupt the enemies. That includes pulses of web an eora. Those will have high ACC. This can lead to situations where enemies can't do anything at all because they are not only stuck and pulled around eventually but also interrupted all the time (great when there is enemy concentration, too). Maybe for a solo run with a ranged character you want to get Boots of Speed and immunity to engagement asap? You could try to rush the pet "Grog"...

Yes (also with Stone of Power) and yes. But if you only lack spell uses for one tier (e.g. PL4 spells) you'll get that one back. The dmg is random between three stages iirc.

Yes, something like that. With such high MIG maybe even Mith Fyr + Dragon Thrashed would be good. With enough INT they still should overlap I guess?

I'm not using him as damage dealer. Usually I summon Concelhaut's Draining Touch and then the Essential Phantom, then do cast Misama of Dull-Mindedness on the enemies (followed by other CC/debuff. most often Ryngrim's Enervating Terror because it's supereffective and targets Will which Misama just lowered by 40 points...). That way the Phantom can do some nice melee damage while Aloth casts his CC/debuff stuff. Especially the combo of Draining Touch (targets Will defense instead of Deflection) + Miasma is pretty satisfying. If I give Aloth some engagement gear (for example Kapana Taga for the offhand +2 and Reckless Brigandine +1) the Phantom will also have 3 engagement slots. If you then cast Ryngrim's Enervating Terror on the enemies they will not only be taken out temporarily due to the terrify effect, they will also suffer -50 Will (Misama + Terrify) which makes the Phantom crit a lot with Draining Touch AND they will disengage the Phantom often which leads to nasty disengagement attacks from the Phantom. Takes some casting time but can be very effective. Not against all enemies (there's enough with resistance to Resolve afflictions) - but a Wizard is so versatile you can do something else which is also good in those cases. Once Aloth gets Caedebald's Blackbow I nowadays retrain him as Blackbow user. He and his Phantom can wreak havoc on enemy groups with lowish Fortitude (Blackbow targets Fortitude instead of Deflection) because two Blackbows will hit up to 4 enemies with terrify (12 m jumping projectiles). Even on graze... Of course he will still cast other spells then - unless I feel like using Citzal's Martial Power with the Blackbow (e.g. against single strong targets).

When it's about caster/caster I really like to use a Psion. An Ultimate finisher used Troubadour/Psion but I have no doubt that you can absolutely solo with Bloodmage/Psion or whatever Wizard/Psion if you want to use Empower in every fight with Sasha's Singing Scimitar (the Psion side). Edit: what was I writing in the last sentence? I totally confused Troubadour with Psion, sorry. Forget that. 🥴

Maybe because Chanter doesn't have a lot of dmg bonuses which don't work well with Novice's Suffering/Sandals of the Forgotten Friar anyway (because fists have such low base damage, 3-8 iirc). But he has lashes and a MIG boost (Mith Fyr and Champion for example) which work well with it because the bonus dmg from Novice's Suffering scales with Might (and lashes are not calculated with base but overall dmg dealt). Only thing is: why Savage Attack and Apprentice's Sneak Attack then? They would add very little damage to your fists' attacks: 1.1 additional dmg per strike for Savage Attack, 0.83 dmg for Appr. Sneack Attack. So maybe those two talent points can be spend on something more useful? For example Outlander's Frenzy which could be used to gap the time between combat start and The Champion invocation?

With the help of the console (marks your savegame as cheated which doesn't let you gain achievements anymore). Or with the help of a mod.

You can also take a look at the Anvil Monk build. It uses Battle Forged, too.

Confirm. Yeah well, you can just take away from what I said that a Ranger with arbalest can be great. And the class combos I listed work very well. The subclasses don't matter that much. So if one of those combos speaks to you roleplaying-wise (like... are you comfortable with the idea of a Ranger/Chanter multiclass or does a Ranger/Paladin make sense to you etc.) then you can pick those and at least from a "powergamer's perspective" you will not be frustrated I guess. Just try the one that sounds most interesting to you.

For solo I prefer Stalker.

If you like crossbows and Ranger I can really recommend Spearcaster. You can get it early, it has superhigh accuracy with enough Arcana and the additional enchantments are great, too. The best thing about arbalests is the modal imo. It causes a knockdown on hit but lets you shoot more slowly. No big deal if you have a lot of reloading/recovery bonuses though. My current Arcane Archer/Troubadour reloads quickly enough with the modal on that enemies I focus on canot get anything done, they are effectively prone-locked (the get back on their feet but cannot finish anything before they get send down again). Single Class Ranger can be fun for different reasons (mostly special item-ability synergies) - but with an arbalest I prefer multiclassing for more shorter reloading/recovery time and/or more accuracy. Good arbalest rangers multiclasses I played: Arcane Archer/Bleak Walker: very high accuracy, good damage, quite sturdy, also good party support via healing and aura etc. Arcane Archer/Troubadour: very short reloading time (Sure Handed Ila applies its effect twice to realoading weapons), good damage bc of the lash from Mith Fyr, very versatile due to invocations Arcane Archer/Helwalker: short reloading time, very high accuracy, good dmg. This one is also very good with AoE weapons like Frostseeker or Watershaper's Focus. Yeah, I like Arcane Archers. Another good combination (that I didn't play) would be Ghost Heart/Cipher. Anything but Soulblade and Psion would be good. Damage would be nice, accuracy would be great and lots of versatility bc of cipher spells. This combination is especially good with the War Bow "Frostseeker" because the accuracy can be so high that crits are very common. Of course Ranger/Rogue is always an option if you are looking for a lot of dmg per hit. Ranger/Devoted also works very well - although I find it a bit sad that the only figher attack ability that works with ranged (two handed) weapons is Penetrating Strike. One thing though: you need a good backup weapon for enemies who are resistant or even immune to pierce damage. Any bow would do for example.

I killed Belranga with Ancient Weapons alone a few days ago (stealthed Troubadour) and did the same: chaining commands with shift. Takes some time and is not as convenient as AI but better than omitting the ability uses at all.

I thought about an Unbroken/Goldpact because of the added armor from the shield. +1 bc of Unbroken passive, +1 from the shield at lower health (e.g. when using Sacred Immolation), +4 from Gilded Enmity (doesn't stack with Zealous Endurance so you could take Zealous Focus instead to counter the large shield malus a bit), +1 from Stoic Steel and +1 occasionally from Inspired Defense. That's +8 armor without any additional equipment which would come on top. "Hello and welcome, my dear underpenetrating enemies!" Defenses would be great anyway bc of Refreshing Defense + Superior Deflection + Paladin passives. Gladiator Sword is not too bad bc of the +1 PEN enchantment.

Ah, okay. No idea then. 🤷‍♂️

You chose to ignore significant parts of my answer. The point was that I can share whatever I genuinely think is fun and readers can decide for themselves if they might like it or not. They don't need the "Maybe-the-devs-didn't-want-you-to-play-like-that-inquisituon" as long as there's no competition like the Ultimate Challenge involved. There's no harm in sharing any information about the game nor is it in any way worse or better that how you play or what information you share. It is, as you said - just our opinion. While it's totally fair to recommend stuff we like in the game no matter what it is - and even to say what we don't like about certain practices - it is pretty uncalled for to criticize forum users for using and/or sharing that info. A disclaimer for new board members is nice. But Manu22 already played Deadfire solo after numerous suggestions from this forums and thus isn't exactly a new board member whom you have to take by the hand for every step - or at least that's what I assumed:

Hit me! I'll write something down with my wife. Maybe there's some colleagues we know who are posted there right now - they could give more recent tipps and recommendations. There's also an internal annual report that I can access. Uzbekistan opened up a lot since we left and the old president died. I guess a lot has changed - for better I presume. To me it was awesome even back then - except the diarrhea. Man... really wash your hands and only eat cooked stuff in restaurants l. One gets used to the germs at some point but it takes months.

I assume everybody who posts here is old and sane enough to make their own decisions when it comes to playing the game. I'm describing what I like and what works well for me. I would never force my recommendations onto anybody though. Your distinction between glitch and proper or "normal" mechanics is subjective and it's a bit silly to try and force that distinction onto other forum readers, and I'll explain why. What really matters for players is whether an action improves their experience with the game - or not. A small glitch may not break the game but even increase the joy of playing it - while an intended mechanic can be used in ways where it utterly breaks the game balance, takes away all challenge and kills the joy. Yet you advocate to skip the first but use the latter (more in that below). What's a "normal" game? Playing solo on PotD is very far from a normal Deadfire game to begin with. Most if not all solo PotD players will take advantage of certain mechanics that grant them more power, intended or unintended ones. The decision to not play a normal game was already made when starting a solo PotD run. Keeping both points in mind I'll give you an example that shows how your approach suffers from hypocrisy: Using Draining Touch with grimoire swapping (so it doesn't get removed after a successful hit) as a solo character on PotD hasn't a game breaking impact. It's good no doubt - but it's not even the best one handed weapon you can get - AND you have to spend a spell use for it + invest grimoire switching time. In fact this action has way less impact than "non-glitched" stuff like Scordeo's Edge + Blade Cascade + WoD (proper mechanics), Grave Calling + Chilling Grave + vessel summons (proper mechanics) or Engoliero do Espirs + Blade Feast + spell kills (proper mechanics...?). With Engoliero do Espirs we could argue that the proc of Blade Feast wasn't even meant to occur on any kill but just on weapon kills. I'd say that's a glitch. You see that not even the clear distinction is problematic when it comes to having fun with the gane in itself - but even the "official" lines between glitchy and normal behavior are blurry. You'll be okay with a Phantom wearing Draining Touch (which won't disappear)... but this is the same underlying effect. It's a glitch. Now, while you condemn the use of Draining Touch + grimoire swapping you like to play and recommend stuff like Assassin/Bloodmage who uses Deltro's Cage, casts Chain Lightning on himself and then prolongs that effect with Wall of Draining while triggering Blade Feast from spell-kills (which will be super potent with the shocking lash of the Helmet and then procs itself over an over). At least iirc that was you, right? You recommended that a lot in the past - although it breaks the game balance a lot more than using Draining Touch does. I personally consider this a gamebreaking cheesy af combination that takes away fun - but you didn't hear me saying that your recommendation saddens me? Did I judge you in any form for doing this although I personally don't like it? No... This shows that your personal distinction between glitch and "normal" or "pure" or "clean" is very subjective. I thought this discussion ended somewhat fruitfully after your debate with @Raven Darkholmeover "Strand of Favor cheese" a few months back - but I guess it did not. What is enjoyable is in the eye of the Beholder (or in this case: player). Whatever tricks and tipps forum members will share: it's the player's choice to decide if they might like that or not. A "purist" approach might fit your needs - but that doesn't have to be the case for everybody. Being a self declared purist doesn't give anybody the right to frown upon or look down on players who recommend and/or play whatever you don't consider to be "normal". There is no moral high ground playing a single player computer game. The artificial and subjective separation between bad and good ways to play, between glitch, cheese and normal is hypocritical. There is no Evangelion "How thou must have fun with Deadfire". It's not a religion where we as forum high priests have to divine the will of our Obsidian dev gods - to tell other players how the holy game has to be played. You can submit to that perceived authority no problem, I won't criticize you or be sad about it or whatever. If this approach gives you the most joy and makes you happy, I'm happy. Just don't try to judge how I (or we as a group) try to share what I like or don't like about the game. Or to recommend what I found enjoyable. I try to make it very clear in every post where I share "special mechanics" that what I recommend is just my opinion - and I try to explain why I think it might be fun. If somebody declares upfront that they don't want to use any cheesy tactics(be it glitch or intended mechanic) I will respect that and not recommend such things of course. And that has to be good enough, seriously.