Boeroer

I don't. That would be the same as usual (in fantasy CRPGs) and feels a bit like an appeal to everybody's secret delusions of grandeur. That was cool when it happened with Ultima IX or Throne of Bhaal or something back then. I was much younger and liked that "I'm so special" treatment. But I don't read the kinds of books nowadays that I read back then. I don't watch the same kinds of movies anymore. I grew old. I actually found it kind of refreshing to have a somewhat surprising yet anticlimactic ending and not the typical "you're important and you get it all" stuff. I mean if it would have been one of many possible outcomes: fine with me. But as the most probable "default" ending? Nah... I suspect Josh Sawyer (who is about my age) felt the same and that's why we have that unusual ending. Maybe it's just not satisfying for younger audiences in general - or audiences who still feel young and/or like nostalgia and being reminded of games they played a long time ago - no idea. But on the other hand: the ending is a massive cliffhanger. PoE3 could easily lead to an outcome that you hoped for. One can see that it's just an opener for a thick metaphysical and political plot for another sequel. Unfortunately Deadfire sold so poorly at release and in the first year that a PoE3 was off the table for the longest time. But yesterday I learned from Josh (on Twitter) that Deadfire makes a profit since last year (and continues to do so - it's on sale with a bundle currently, 75% off). So maybe... maybe you might get your "ascension" to godhood, who knows?

Fast attacks and lots of crits sounds like a Berserker/Streetfighter with dual daggers. Or at least anything else with Streetfigher, not necessarily Trickster. Played one with Marux Amanth + Pukestabber and all the speed goodies (Alkohol, Devil of Caroc + Abraham, Two Weapon Style, Frenzy, Bloodlust, Heating Up, Blackblade's Hood and so on) and all the dmg goodies (One Sands Alone, Blooded, Barbaric Smash, Bloody Slaughter, Sneak Attack, Deathblows, Blood Storm, Deep Wounds etc.). It's incredibly fast once you get flanked and has very high crit damage bonuses with Barbaric Smash, especially against near death enemies and when bloodied. You need to watch out for the seld damage though. The AR is quite good but you still are vulnerable when flanked. DoC Breastplate can be used to heal you on crit and you can wear Voidward & Ring of Greater Regeneration + use Stalwrd Defiance, but still good to wathc him closely. Monk/Streetfighter is also nice. Devoted/Streetfigher is sturdier while still great offensively. "Classic" rogue like that would be a single class Streetfighter, no? Gambit with DoC Breastplate and the right tavern bonus can bring you over 10 Guile rel. early. That means 100% hit to crit with Gambit which lets you spam it nonstop (until you roll a miss or graze, then you'll lose Guile). Also the dmg of Gambit raises with high Guile and leads to great numbers.

I guess "POD" is Might? Imo the problem with low CON isn't mainly the lowish endurance but the low health. Wizards don't really start with good health to begin with and the level-ups aren't great either (in that regard). Unlike a party Wizard one might consider taking Infuse with Vital Essence as spell mastery when going solo. It will offer you actual health gains which even persist after combat, scales with healing bonuses (such as from camping/survival and of course MIG) and can somewhat counter that problem. It can make stuff like Wound Binding obsolete. Of course you can always rest and just get to 100% health right away. But that can also be very inconvenient at times due to the limit to camping supplies on PotD. Also in some (long) fights it's not the low endurance that kills you (if you have enough sources of normal healing) but the low health. For endurance I found that Veteran's Recovery isn't the worst pick for a melee or solo Wizard, at least for the early to mid game. I found Munacra Arret to be a very useful item when soloing, no matter which class. I also never use tables/spreadsheets etc. I just take what's in the box. I also try to avoid consumables. But that's just me.

Why/how is that?

There are several combos that can boost summons. But actually - since the buffing/support for summons doesn't have to be done by the one summoning - it's better to use party synergy instead of multiclass-synergy because the action economy is much better compared to doing all stuff by yourself - imo. That means I would recommend a SC Beckoner and supporting his summons with another party member. Also because the upgrade of Animated Weapons with a Beckoner is very good (8 weapons). The Beckoner himself can already support with phrases (e.g. Mith Fyr + The Arrow Sings ) and Animancy Cat etc. Also Edér with the pet slot can be considered. You can have two pets then which both can be used to support summons (e.g. Animancy Cat + Harley). You could then use a SC Priest with Spark the Souls of the Righteous (very good with multiple summons like 8 animated weapons or lots of skeletons for example) and of course the usual priest support stuff, Paladin can provide an Shared Flames, an Aura, Inspired Beacon and Exhortations, a Cipher can provide Pain Block etc. Ancient can cast Wild Growth on your beast or primordial summons (hello 2 supertanky dragons) and so on... If a multiclass is more interesting to you: I would pick either Darcozzi (Flame Shield on summons), Kind Wayfarer (healing summons and giving them a lash with Shared FLames at the same time) or Shielbearer (BDD on summons), all Priests (general support like all Priests do), Psion (Pain Link, Valorous Echoes, Tactical Meld etc.) or Ancient (general support + Wild Growth on primordial and beast summons). If it's not only "passive" support you are looking for with buffs but want to actively help with debuffs, CC and so on then of course a whole lot of combos come to mind. Like Monk with AoE Stunning Surge, Wizard most prominently I think with all the CC spells, Druid again... But in this case you's have to spread your attributes more. If you focus on the summoning and support via buffs you could easily drop PER for example since you'd never try to hit an enemy.

It would be invisible support (supportive invocations, Mith Fyr, Animancy Cat etc.) and doing debuffs/CC (Shield Cracks, Killers, Ben Fidel's Neck etc.) for your summons. Arkemyr's Brillant Departure only breaks when you deal damage yourself. Summons and Walls do not count as "yourself". "Normal" self damage like Alacrity or Berserker Frenzy also won't end it, but unfortunately Blood Sacrifice counts (there seems to be a hidden attack roll involved thatr determined whether you get low, medium or high self dmg), so it will end the invisibility. So in the end it has to be Wall of Draining + Arkemyr's Brilliant Departure to sustain invisibilty for long. That's very late. Our you could use Blood Sacrife only to get back the cast for ABD once it's about to run out. With Grimoire of Vaporous Wizardry and invocations you should have plenty of options anyway. I guess a Bellower is not the best subclass though because of the reduced chant AoE. Troubadour (again)?

You are missing one point. I guess from the cultural background? 5 INT would be a no-go for me personally. I would do 10 MIG and 10 DEX I think. You'll have +5 MIG from Thunderous Blows and +5 DEX from Swift Strikes at some point. When going for Swift Flurry I would go high PER, with Lightning Strikes I would go a bit lower.

Yes. The Chanter's initial phrase boost only kicks in after combat started. He will have 0 out of combat iirc (also a chanter will not chant when stealthed). In a party that's no problem because somebody else can trigger combat. Using Smoke Veil: offensive phrases will break invisibility? You can just use non-offensive ones of course (those which do no attack rolls). I never tried but I think a Bloodmage/Bellower (or any other chanter) could use Arkemyr's Brilliant Departure + summons like Animated Weapons (deal damage) + offensive chats (that don't deal dmg) + cc invocations like Killers Frozen Stiff without ever breaking invisibility?

Say hello again to my FF/Trickster who does absolutely nothing but is just standing there - yet kills enemies faster than some chars who actively attack.

Right. Maxing out stealth or sleight of hand doesn't make a lot of sense (unless you want to increase flanking damage of Stalker's Patience or something lika that).

Why Fury? The passive of the Fury only works with Druid spells that have the "Elements" keyword. Also Lord Darryn's Voulge (+3 PL to storms) doesn't work with Thrice Was She Wronged (afaik). For Heart of the Storm? Imo it would be better to use a SC Bellower (+3 PL compared to multiclass bec. SC reach 9 and can pick Prestige) or some class combo that provides additional spell dmg and/or PEN. Like for example Helwalker (+15 MIG, +2 PEN via passive + Thunderous Blows).

Yes, that's a lot of PLs with very little effort and maybe the most usable way. Fire is one of the more resisted dmg types though. But you'll have plenty of non-fire PL bonuses, too. For lots of more versatile PL bonuses one might want to pick a Bellower I guess. Even if the Bellower can't profit from that many fire PLs one can get up to +7 PLs from the phrase counter alone. Nature Godlike + Stone of Power and you are at 9 power levels that are not tied to a certain type of damage. Add Empower once per encounter with Sasha's Singing Scimitar and the Weyc's Wand and you'll have a +14 PL spell once and will have +3PL for some time afterwards.

I agree. Unless you face imps in the early game I don't know how Valorous Echoes may be more impactful than Whisper of Treason. And iirc there's no encounter in the early game with only imps. Strong and Insightful are nice to have, but if you are in a party anyway Valorous Echoes is inferior to casting Holy Power + Blessing: lasts as long/longer and can cover the whole party. And since early game encounters aren't long the big advantage of a Cipher (that he could recast Valorous Echoes over and over again) does not make an impact. Whisper of Treason on the other hand turns most encounters from hard into easy for me. If you manage to charm one or more gorecci str. thugs there's so much less heat on your own characters. Charm the drake at the digsite: enemies fall apart. It's like taking away an enemy from the battlefield and replacing it with a summon. If you have a guy with a club modal in the party (as I do when I plan to use Whisper of Treason) it's easy to not miss with it, too. If you even have a Wizard with Miasma who hits after the club: usually you'll crit with WoT then - even the tough nuts (not imps though). Lingering Echoes + crit = a very long charm duration for the early game. You can charm several enemies before the first one flips back again. Finally if you're a Beguiler it's very cheap (5 instead for 10 focus - only if you don't miss with it though). I don't say that Valorous Echoes can't be good. But what was said above may explain why few players talk about it. I personally would even pick Soul Shock over Valorous Echoes. It's very helpful against certain enemies with high AR against slash/crush/pierce. I also would pick Soul Shock over Amplified Thrust most of times I think. If you hit two enemies it's already better dmg and I like shock dmg a lot more than pirece dmg. The short casting time + push effect are very nice to remove engaging enemies from party members though. Other echo spells are very popular: Ectopsychic Echo, Pain Block, Amplified Wave and Ancestor's Memory get mentioned a lot. So if you wanted to do an "echo only build" (no idea why because there's no specialization like with Wizards and also no synergistic mechanics with echo spells) you could totally create a viable character. But I can't agree to the statement "Echo skills might be the cipher's most powerful and most useful abilities". Because for me that's a cipher's mind control abilites. Not that echo spells can't be awesome of course.

Maybe, but the initial dmg part will get PL bunuses from fire and shock keywords, the pulsing part will get bonuses from freeze/water keywords and they all should get bonuses from storm and wind keywords afaik. There is no other spell that combines as many PL bonuses in theory. If you pick a Nature Godlike Fury that spells should combine the most PL and PEN bonuses of all abilities think. At least I don't recall any other ability that has that many keywords which overlap with that many PL buffs from items.

Right. But iirc the fampyrs & darguls in Russetwood will fight beetles for example. Maybe being rational makes a difference? Also the fampyrs start neutral and only turn hostile after dialogue. That might play a role, too. 🤷‍♂️

Watershaper's Focus Stone of Power Otto Starcat I think the spell which profits most from stacked PLs is Great Maelstrom because it comes with multiple elemental keywords.

Yes. But it sounded as if @Griffonheartwanted to pickpocket unique armor and weapons from the two Vaillian families. And that's not possible.

Because other cipher powers are better.

You cannot pickpocket weapons or armor.

Sleight of Hand doesn't need to be very high. Also stealth hasn't to be very high in order to pickpocket most NPCs (you can't pickpocket enemies anyway). Stealth can also be buffed by items like pet, boots etc - or you can use Leap to jump right next to an NPC and pickpocket them with almost no stealth (because you will be there in an instant instead of slowly sneaking towards them). If you pause when executing Leap (from boots or as a Barb) and then unpause/pause quickly you can time it so that the target cirlce appears near the NPC but your char is still in the air. If you cancel the action then you will land besides the NPC, still in full stealth and no effect will get triggered and resource will get used. In general I would say stealth:sleight of hand can be 2:1. Don't know if that's the best. There was a table floating around here that listed the highest skill checks in the game. That would be helpful to determine the exact ratio now...

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It may be that the one invocation (Rejoice) is botched somehow. Please try this if you are on PC (do not save the game afterwards!) : Open the console. Type "IRoll20s" and hit enter. Open the console again. Type "SetClassLevel player" and then hit the tab key. Your player character's name will get auto-completed. finish with "Chanter 20 false". It should looke like this: "SetClassLevel player_<your_character_name> Chanter 20 false" Hit enter. Open the console again. Type "AddAbility player" and then hit the tab key. Your player character's name will get auto-completed. Then finish the command with "Their_Champ" and hit tab again. The ability name will get auto-completed as well. The line should look something like this: "AddAbility player_<your_character_name> Their_Champion_Braved_The" Hit enter. You will be at lvl 20 and have a new invocation that should cost 6 phrases. Now open the console again, place your mouse cursor somwhere near your character and type: "SpawnPrefabAtMouse cre_dummy" and hit enter. A dummy Rotghast will get spawned, combat will start. It will no almost no damage. You can just move away a bit and look if your phrase count goes up to 6 (like it should) or if it's still botched. If it's fised then most likely your next level up will also fix your problem. If not then something is severely broken and I have no idea how to fix that (other than maybe writing a small mod that adresses this specific problem). Do not save the game afterwards obviously but reload instead. If you are on a gaming console you can't do all this.

I don't know specifics but usually kith enemies will battle beats/wilder/primordial enemies as long as if they are not in the same group. You can nearly always lead trolls, boars etc. to an enemy kith group and they will fight. But it also works with vessels vs. beasts and so on (don't know if always, but often enough). I suspect there's some parameter which determines which enemies react hostile to each other. But I didn't look into it.

Beguiler's mechanic is a bit weird (in a benefical way) : first the affliction gets placed and then it checks if you hit an afflicted enemy to determine whether you get back focus or not. This is funny because you will always get back the focus if you don't miss with the deception spell. That means even from stealth you will gain focus - as long as you cast a Deception spell that puts an affliction on the enemy, even if the enemies are not afflicted before. I would prefer to open with Phantom Foes because a) its AoE is huge compared to Eyestrike (=potentially a lot more enemies get hit) and b) it targets Will instead of Fortitude. Also when casting from stealth the longer recovery (4 secs compared to 2 secs) doesn't matter because of the -85% recovery bonus of stealth. Secret Horrors then: 0.5 secs cast time only (Eyestrike has 3 secs), also targets Will and it shuts down all offensive abilites of the enemies - which I find more useful than blinding them. So in a very short time you can dish out those two spells. You will have a lot of focus and can then also cast Eyestrike.

Indeed. Here the wiki page: https://pillarsofeternity.fandom.com/wiki/Monk#Forbidden_Fist The FF curse is a hostile effect, too.