Boeroer

Yes. Like the elemental talents (Scion of Flame etc.) those "hater" talents also work with spells. I made use of them in that "Witch Doctor" ranged Monk build. In that case there weren't many other dmg bonus talents that worked.

Yes. Unlike Berserker Frenzy (or Del. Alacrity) Sacred Immolation produces a separate "hostile effect" entry which manages the self damage. This gets shortened by RES (and similar stuff) while the benefical burn damage part is left untouched.

I tried to use it several times and it never triggered even once for me. I guess it's just broken. Reloading time has a bottom cap and maybe that prevents this echantment to work properly, no idea.

Savage Attack is so/so. If your accuracy is way above enemies defenses it's good. If you have trouble properly hitting enemies it's bad. Good thing that you can turn it on/off as you like. Vulnerable Attack is the same basically. It's not universally useful. But in certain circumstances it can be valuabe. If you can reach 0 recovery with Vulnerable Attacks activcated then it becomes universally useful of course. This is often the case with dual wielding setups. Not that DR bypass does nothing for lashes - so for certain classes/abilities it's not even that useful. Blunderbusses need Penetrating Shot. Vulnerable Attacks only works for melee weapons. Everything that does multiple attack rolls with one strike profits from Vulnerable Attacks a lot more than single attacks (see Heart of Fury). Apprentice's Sneak Attack is nice imo. It's not high but it has no drawbacks. It's easy to afflict enemies - if nothing else works you can always flank. While Bloody Slaughter is nice in Deadfire it's really bad in PoE imo. It only triggers at 10% remaining endurance. Who needs some crit conversion and a bit extra crit damage against enemies that only have 10% endurance left? I can see it making a little sense with a character who does fast but low dmg rolls. Like with a stiletto or something. But even then I still wouldn't spend a talent point for it. There's also Scion of Flame, Heart of the Storm, Secret of Rime and Spirit of Decay. Those not only work on fire/ice/etc spell but also on lashes. This means a Paladin who wants to max his Flames of Devotion damage should take Scion of Flame. It also raises the dmg of Sacred Immolation. If you wield Bittercut (with a corrosive lash) it makes a lot of sense to pick Spirit of Decay because it not only rases the lash from 25% to 30% but also grants a 20% dmg bonus to the physical dmg of Biuttercut because it's a weapon which primary dmg type is corrode. Same is true for Stormcaller + Heart of the Storm and Firebrand + Scion of Flame. If you want to use those weapons I would recommend picking those talents since they are like Savage Attack then without the drawback.

Iirc I posted that I did 170+ dmg crits with a great sword as Crusader (using Inspired Beacon etc.) - while being sturdy as an ox (for a two-handed guy anyway). But I think a Steel Garrote, Darcozzi or Goldpact would have suited you better maybe? For a solo run I think I would have tried Unbroken/Goldpact with Monastic uT and Tuotilo's Palm. Sworn Rival with Gilded Enmity is very cheap and it would stack with the Unbroken's +1 AR. +6 AR + Paladin's AR passives is awesome imo. With high RES, Ring of the Solitary Wanderer and Strand of Favor Sacred Immolation's self damage part becomes really short. I could get it down to two ticks often enough - which was no big deal. That makes Sacred Immolation much more useful imo but of course you have to pay for the high RES in other places.

Sure, that will also work. I combined Ranger with Troubadour because it does good autoattack dps with a single pistol and is very versatile. If there's already Sure Handed Ila + Mith Fyr on the field then that's even better of course. Berserker's crit conversion when frenzied doesn't work with ranged weapons. So you might as well take another Barbarian subclass (e.g. Furyshaper). PEN issues won't matter much as soon as you get Eccea's Arcane Blaster - and as non-Berserker you don't need to manage the self damage (although it can be useful to trigger Blooded - but still a pain in the butt imo). Barbaric Smash's and Bloody Slaughter's crit conversion will work though. I personally don't like to use single handed pistol with Barbaric Smash though because often you either lack a tiny bit of dmg to kill the enemy (not getting the refund which is annoying af) or you wait too long and then do a massive overkill with Barbaric Smash (which is also annoying). Imo a dual weapon setup is much better here because a kill with a decent reamining amount of health is a lot more likely with a Full Attack. Or at least an attack with more overall damage output than a single pistol shot. Also I don't like to not be able to utilize Blood Thirst - reloading weapons don't work with it. So if I decide to run a ranged Barb I usually pick a weapon with recovery - for example Watershaper's Focus, Essence Interrupter or St. Omaku's Mercy or something like that. My favorite with a Barb is Watershaper's Focus. The abysmal recovery penalty of Blast doesn't matter that much if manage to land the killing blows with up to three Blasts + Ondra's Wrath. I even sometimes use it on an SC Barb whom I want to build towards Driving Roar. If there's already a chanter in the party then my pistol guy would be a Ranger/Cipher I think. Ranger/Rogue would be too one-dimensional for my taste.

There certainly is a threshold with every defense where nothing can hit you anymore (except autohits like Minor Missiles or so). But I don't know them.

A Troubadour with Sure Handed Ila + Mith Fyr adds quite some dps. But not only to himself but the whole party. Also for a crit build crit conversion is great. And Killers Froze Stiff paralyzes enemies. Attack rolls against paralyzed enemies have an additional 25% hit-to-crit conversion (often forgotten). One Handed Style: 20%, Sharpshooter: 15%, Paralyzed: 25%. And that's not all conversions you can get of course. Overall crit conversion just from those three: 49% of hits get converted to crits. That's not bad at all.

Since pistol is best used with One Handed Style and thus Full Attacks would be a waste I would focus more on auto-attacks. A pistol build with auto-attacks will do good conistent dps but not great spike damage. Thus it's great to have some other tools in the belt - like spells for example. Being able to combine the good (but not jawdropping) consistent dmg output with some otehr versatile useful stuff is key imo. So I would go for Sharpshooter/Troubadour (great speed, very versatile) or some Ranger/Cipher combo (tons of ACC and also versatile): no need no mircomanage auto-attacks. All the micro can go into using your spells in a clever way.

Flames of Devotion is good with arquebus, not so much with blunderbuss (except against targets with low DR, then it's great). Main reason is that lashes (like the burning one from Flames of Devotion) don't profit from DR bypass at all and also don't deal a MIN damage value like your physical dmg does (normally 20% of damage rolled will get applied - even if the DR would have prevented more dmg - not with lashed though) - so most of that additional burn damage gets eaten up by DR when used with a blunderbuss. You can work around a bit with DR-reducing stuff (Chanter invocation Hel Hyraf or Wizard's Expose Vulnerabilities etc.) but it's quite limited what you can achieve. Arquebuses deal the highest dmg per shot of all weapons - so generally speaking it's the best ranged weapon for Flames of Devotion. --- Chanter in early levels: the invocation "White Worms" can be used on the same corpses over an over again. They won't get consumed. But there has to be corpses in the first place. So best to disable the "gib" option in the game menu because gibbed enemies (killed with a critical hit) don't leave corpses behind. Then you can lure enemies to an existing pile of corpses and then use White Worms. All corpses will trigger an explosion, killing enemies. The pile will grow, you lure more enemies there and repeat. At some point the pile of corpses will kill everything with one cast, even Raedric and his gang. You can clear the entirety of the Castle very easily that way (because lots of kith and kith leave corpses). Tons of loot will be the consequence. Only reloading the map will remove the corpses (loading a savegame or leaving the map/floor and coming back). This approach can be used even in the later game with big maps and lots of enemies (White March's Russetwood for example or Longwatch Falls and so on. And excellent late game strategy with a Chanter, Priest and Cipher is to give the Chanter a shield with Preservation (Ilfan Byrngar's Solace for example) and another item with Preservation (e.g. Blaidh Golan armor or some helmet). Those will stack (because weapon/shield effects stack with everything). This means if you get stunned you will get +100 (!) to all defenses. Now cast Defensive Mindweb (Cipher) and then Withdraw on the Chanter (Priest). Withdraw is a stun effect. The Chanter gets +100 to all defenses. Defensive Mindweb will give those absurd defenses to all other part members. And the best part: Chanters keep singing their phrase when withdrawn. So your Dragon Thrashed chant will still deal damage all the time while you're untouchable. It's a killer combo...

Flagellant's Path can be used with dual ranged weapons. It will fire both once you arrive at the target but will not play the reload animation afterwards but use its own recovery (because FP's recovery "overrides" the recovery or reload of the weapons it's used with - same as Whispers of the Wind, Heart of Fury or Whirling Strikes do). Thus it's a cool ability for a gun user. Just a bit expensive. You can use Xoti's Lantern to get back Mortification if enemies are about to die (it doesn't matter how you kill them). So when firing an imbue:Fireball for example you can do that with Fire in the Hole + Lantern (it's a primary attack anyway), get back some Mortification (and wounds, too) and then switch back to the dual mortar setup for some more Flagellant's Path. Wound generation isn't a problem imo because Enduring Dance is giving you +1 every 3 secs - and you should mainly use Stunning Surge (or Flagellant's Path now) which don't cost wounds. I used wounds for Thunderous Blows mostly. And summons sometimes (another great plus: two summons + animal companion). The other wound-based attacks don't work with ranged weapons anyway.

Not really. The retaliation Monk can use the same stuff as any other Monk. Retaliation just comes on top. You can make a high DEX Monk and still give him retaliation - there's no rule to drop DEX. Retaliation can just be a way to deal good damage with a Monk who is build for tankyness. Dropping DEX is just less impactful if you use Full Attacks most of times and in between can retaliate without any animation time or recovery that might mess up your action economy. And since Battle Forged only kicks in after getting to 50% endurance high CON isn't a bad idea. So something's gotta give and DEX seems to be the natural choice - but it's not mandatory to drop DEX if you want to use retaliation. Battle Forged scales it base damage to absurd heights - and it works with several of the Monk's lashes. It has no recovery and just adds to all the "active" damage you do. The retaliation can be seen as a nice addon. You can build around it and deal good damage despite your sluggish tankyness - or you just build a nimble damage dealer and just carry it along as a nice little bonus or "last resort". But its presence doesn't make your monk perform worse when it comes to dealing damage. The Monksterlasher perfomed extremely well in the damage department though despite the low DEX. I never played a Monk that had higher dmg output in a melee scuffle. Just because those 100+ dmg retaliations add a lot of additional oomph once you get pummeled too hard.

Helwalker easily for me. With Fire in the Hole + Hand Mortar. Imbue:Web + Imbue:Eora, then Stunning Surge. Multiple projectile jumps will trigger imbue effects multiple (3) times, Helwalker MIG adds damage to all attacks, Helwalker INT raises durations of Web and Pull of Eora as well as Stunning Surge. Mortification refund is extremely likely due to multihits. Thunderous Blows gives +2PEN. Arcane Archer/Barb is fun with Watershaper's Focus. Two jumps (3 AoEs) make triggering Ondra's Wrath an easy task - especially if you pulled and CC'd the enemies before with Imbue:Web and Imbue:Eora. Frenzy + Bloodlust (+ Frenzy Ward) counter the sluggish recovery - and once Blood Thirst kicks in the recovery is no issue anymore. Blood Storm makes it easy to uphold Frenzy all the time. Berserker is good because rods and their Blast have pretty pathetic PEN. Self damage can be countered with Stalwart Defiance. Bloody Slaughter is a nice ability if you use Barbaric Smash as finisher. Arcane Archer/Troubadour is also nice because Sure Handed Ila has this little quirk with reloading weapons where both the -20% recovery bonus as well as the -20% reload bonus will get applied. In combination with Gunner and dual wielding + Two Handed Style you'll achieve very fast reload times. Would still pick the Helwalker though. The whole package is just too good. Speaking of multiple instances of Web/Eora: If you give your tank resistance to DEX afflictions (Wood Elf or several items or food) or even immunity to DEX afflictions (Form of the Delemgan, Sandals of the Water Lilly) as well as immunity to push/pull effects (Upright Captain's Belt or Horns of the Aurochs) he/she can walk the CC field of death totally unscathed. If it's a Forbidden Fist I would only use a resistance to DEX afflictions (no immunity) because the three instances of Web will apply a ton of hobbles all the time which can get shrugged off with Clarity of Agony/high RES etc. in no time, giving the FF a constant stream of wounds and healing while he wades between the CC'd enemies. It's nice to use an unstealthed tank while the rest of the party is still hidden to gather the enemies around him first. This makes hitting them all with web & eora a lot easier.

It's very effective against numerous "normal" enemies. To some players it might be boring if something works so well in a lot of cases. Against resistant foes (resistant to DEX and/or MIG afflictions) and/or ones with high defenses it's less impressive. But as an Arcane Archer/Helwalker you can always switch to another single target weapon once you meet such foes and still be very effective.

That's right.

No. Blade Turning prevents melee attack rolls against you altogether. The attacks will get redirected to another enemy. Your defenses will not get tested and there will be no grazes/misses on your side. Thus you will never see a Riposte (and/or Offensive Parry) while Blade Turning is active. Stuff like on Miscreant's Leather (5% chance of resisting an attack -> turning it into a miss) does work with Riposte (and Offensive Parry) if I remember correctly.

Yes, if you don't like to roflstomp certain areas it's best to pick the upsacling option.

Arcane Archer with Fire in the Hole + Hand Mortar (Serafen's blunderbusses) specifically. Arcane Archer's Imbue shots trigger their effects per projectile jump (or bounce). Fire in the Hole has a build-in bounce called Chain Shot which stacks with Driving Flights. So you'll get three instances of the imbued spell. For example 3 fireballs from one shot of Imbue:Fireball instead of just one. Normal blunderbusses are bad with an Arcane Archer's Imbue shots because the first projectile will trigger the effect (e.g. Fireball) but then the rest of the projectiles will get canceled. Also mortars are great in combo with Helwalker because the +10 INT from Duality of Mortal Presence will increase the AoE of the mortars a lot. That will lead to more hit rolls on enemies. And that will lead to an easy time collecting crits for Stunning Surge. Best approach imo is to fire an Imbue:web from stealth, followed by an immediate Imbue:eora and then shower the clump of enemies with Stunning Surge until dead. It's the absolute CC zone of death. I would max INT on such a dude. But 15 is also ok.

2. 10 is the general value of the armor. If it has no separate values for certain dmg types it's just all 10. Actually it's not really 2 because there's some MIN-dmg mechanic that makes sure that you do at least 20% of the rolled damage even if enemies' DR is higher or nearly as high as your dmg: https://pillarsofeternity.fandom.com/wiki/Damage_Reduction But for the sake of the argument let's assume it's 2. I mean... I love Barbs... I personally would run a Barb and a Monk. But I know many players have issues with the Barb... A Monk is best used (imo) with a dual fast weapon (or dual fist) setup with high INT, spamming Torment's Reach as often as possible. Or play a ranged/melee hybrid Monk which was one of the most entertaining ways to play a Monk for me: But Monks can be played in a lot of ways because they can do severl things well: CC, damage, tanking (after some levels)... Powerwise I think a Cipher trumps a Monk. Good weapon damage AND good spells (especially Mind Control) is quite hard to beat.

Forbidden Fist/Cipher can be very good. Enfeebled does stack with Lingering Echoes and combined with the +10 INT from Duality of Mortal Presence and Psychovampiric Shield you can get absurd durations for all effects you put on enemies (e.g. Dominate or Disintegrate).

Nope. The only two styles that can stack ares Weapon & Shield Style + Two Weapon Style - when you are using a bashing shield.

That looks very nice. I didn't see any mistakes. Funny version of Linkin Park's "Numb" by the way.

I guess you played Pillars of Eternity before - just not on PotD difficulty. I wouldn't put the backline in cloth right from the start. You can do that later once you have a bit more health. In the beginning DR has quite some impact on your survivability, later it will not. Certain enemies (especially ranged ones) will look for soft targets: low endurance/health, low defenses and low DR. If you build four squishy backliners and also put them in cloth they will get targeted a lot more as if the same characters had a somewhat decent DR value. A fast caster is of no use if he's knocked out. As I said you can gradually lower DR the more you level up. Besides that the classes don't matter much. If you have some experience with PoE then every class is viable for PotD. Chanters make rel. poor tanks early in the game (but can be great later on in that role). Mostly due to their low starting values. So they often need a bit help with the tanking. Thus your idea to add a second sturdy frontliner isn't bad. I personally would add a sturdy Monk. Also not the best tanker early on but Monks develop so well (I'd say they are the most potent martial class) and can become so meaty yet offensively effective that it's worth the first few levels to have a little harder experience: Fighters are the other way round: they start really strong due to their good starting values - but imo their "power curve" is quite flat. Paladin would be a safe pick. Even when build offensively (to keep it interesting) they are quite sturdy. Also Paladins can be great at support, especially raising a single ally's accuracy: Blunderbuss isn't bad per se. It's just very good against low DR targets and quite bad against high DR targets. So either you lower the enemies' DR with abilities/spells etc. and get some DR bypass or you switch to a different weapon when meeting high DR foes. You don't need a ton of INT on ranger (unless you want to use some AoE effects): I personally like to take the wolf instead of the bear. The added DR is good at first but not really impactful later on. The wolf has higher base damage and does very high dmg per hit - especially if you use the bow Persistance which unlocks Predator's Sense for your Animal Companion. In combination with Merciless Companion and so on it can deliver furious bites. It's not attacking fast, but it cracks even high DR foes because of its high dmg per attack. Animal Companion's base damage scales per level.

You simply move with the Animal Companion. If you don't zip around that's no problem. But even if you tend to use Evansive Roll a lot (and thus get separated from the Animal Companion) then Master's Call/Furious Call is actually a great ability to have. You zip somewhere and attack an enemy and at the same time call your AC to your side who will attack all enemies in line and knock them prone - for only 1 Bond. I like it - but it comes a bit late-ish.

You can use Marksman with a Stalker as well. Marksman gives you an accuracy bonus against enemies that are further away than 4 meters (from you). It doesn't matter whether you are a Stalker or some other Ranger. If you want to mix pistols with blunderbusses I would fire some rounds with Scordeo's Trophy first in ortder to stack some reload bonuses and then switch to blunderbusses. The reload bonus is timed and will not go away when you switch weapons iirc. One handed pistol is very good if you want an auto-attacker. Such a character can run on AI very effectively with minimal setup. If you want to use a lot of abilities, especially Full Attacks and extra-especially Stunning Surge then two blunderbusses (and mortars) are better. Just because the multiple hit rolls make a refund much more likely than a single pistol shot (even with Driving Flight).