Boeroer

With deflection (as with any defense) you have increasing returns: every additional point has more impact than the one before. Because of that I would max RES and get all the deflection bonuses I could get. Soulblade/Trickster can stack Borrowed Instincts and Mirrored Images, but you should also try to debuff enemies' accuracy. Psychovampiric Shield: also good. MIG isn't that important because Trickster/Cipher already gets enough dmg bonuses. You could leave it at 10 imo. INT, RES and then PER and DEX would be my priorities.

Both Barbarian/Fighter as well as Barbarian/Paladin fit your needs. Besides Steel Garrote you can also pick Kind Wayfarer. The heal of White Flames also will affect you.

I don't understand what you mean with crits or crit numbers when you describe damage ticks. DoTs don't change hit quality after they got applied. The ticks' dmg will increase/decrease with power level and MIG etc. - but they will not turn from hit to crit or so. Pulsing spells (like Wicked Briars or Venombloom) can do that though.

Imo the pet is the strongest suit when going solo because you can "stack" it with summons. I played a solo Stalker/Bloodmage in heaviest armor with Willbreaker and Blightheart. Made use of Takedown Combo from Bear + Essential Phantom with one-handed Draining Touch. Didn't try Megabosses (too grindy), but enemies like Neriscyrlas were done easily. A Geomancer has nearly everything imo: interrupts, good defenses and AR, good ACC, summons + additional body. It lacks healing first but you can manage with Corrosive Siphon until you get Wall of Draining and prolong healing shots from Blightheart and Healing Hands (Minor Lay on Hands) or simply potions so you can't really die except by one-shots.

I would do it the other way round: soften them up with Soul Annihilation and then finish them off with Barbaric Smash. For keeping the Rage.

It's good to have fun. I'd say that's just discovering the Ancient though. The spore summons are very good in the early game and Wild Growth is great, too (has no/unlimited duration, so very long summon durations are great for tanking). I don't see any special synergy between Berath and Ancient that would explain any exceptional power growth. No speed bonuses, no spectacular ACC bonuses, not vastly increased MIG or INT for the DoTs without having to cast lengthy buffs first. You'll have multiple sources of certain spells like Touch of Rot etc. though. And thematically it's nice of course. I'd argue that something like Helwalker/Ancient (+MIG and +INT for your DoTs, longer summoning duration, more ACC) , Bellower/Ancient (Wild Growth on empowered beast and primordial chanter summons) or Stalker/Ancient (ACC++) would be even better? Even Barbarians/Ancient maybe (Blooded + Bloody Slaughter complementing the Death Godlike's passives and giving casting Speed and MIG and also an additional raw DoT on any crit with Blood Frenzy or lowering fortitude with Spirit Frenzy kind of passively). But maybe I'm missing something. Like "abusing" Barring Death's Door + Salvation of Time in order to stay at +3 PL at all times or so. That is of course very good. Especially when combined with Spine of Thicket Green's +3 PL for Beast DoTs like Plague of Insects etc.

Yes, there is. reddit server: "Project Eternity". The official Obsidian server: "Obsidian Entertainment".

Last time I used it with a Devoted/Bleak Walker while doing some dmg tests and the self damage was easily countered by Constant Recovery, the heal on kill Voidwheel provides and Abraham (pet).

Chromoprismatic Staff is one of the 2H weapons with the best single target dps if you are willing to invest in Metaphysics. Also has a potential AoE component. Comes rel. late though. The great sword "Effort" is also good. It's raw DoT lash doesn't stack but it's still quite powerful. Voidwheel: not bad as well. Citzal's Spirit Lance with Soul Annihilation?

Works well with melee weapon + Tuotilo's Palm. Why doesn't it work with a melee/ranged setup (never tried)?

I wouldn't take it. It does provide an instant wound and +3 ACC on activation but that doesn't warrant the 2 Mortification imo. You could retrain once you get Instruments of Pain though because that often leads to getting hit a lot less. But the ACC still wouldn't stack with Borrow. Instincts so I don't know...

Curse with maxed INT isn't a problem if you also max RES and focus on items and food with -x% hostile effects. Because maluses are far more impactful than bonuses in Deadfire the effects of 10 INT vs. 30 INT aren't that far off IF the maluses to hostile effect duration are big enough. Especially when combined with a high-INT Clarity of Agony. If you solo you can also use the Ring of the Lone Survivor which adds another big malus to hostile effect duration. High INT is only a "problem" in the early-ish game. But there you don't need to spam FF that much imo because less enemies.

Phew - that explains a lot.

Your passive "Faith and Conviction" will get worse. That means the defensive bonus it provides will go down. Not really dramatic if you want to play an offensive character. If you don't want to have that you can always pick stoic, rational and so on - as long as you don't pick benevolent or diplomatic dialogue choices you will at least get no malus. There are a lot of aggressive options that aren't "evil" so that's no problem. The cruel options are often cringy - but even there there are some that don't feel too bad.

Yes, very good. The shock damage also helps to circumvent a lot of PEN issues, too. Look at Iron/Steelclads. The modal + Enduring Dance to counter the acc loss is bonkers. Very viable setup. Also achievable so early. Once you get Borrowed Instincts you rarely need to turn the modal off even. Just go full speed all the time. Stuff like Kitchen Stove (Thunderous Report usually ascends you right away if you hit a few enemies with it) or mortars (AoE blunderbusses from Serafen) are also very good (dual damage, target reflex). Watershaper's Focus + Blast also great if you can hit multiple crowded enemies. The AoE jumps one time, too and Ondra's Wrath generates focus when it procs, ascending you at once. Rod + Bmast also usually suffers from PEN issues but Hammering Thoughts + Thunderous Blows do help a lot.

Maybe one also has to distinguish between quality of writing and quality of storytelling or pacing. The writing in Deadfire is as good as in PoE - if not better (the Beast of Winter is especially good). The main story is a bit short though and presented in a "hopplahopp there we are" way. Where PoE's story took too long to develop and suddenly rushed forward, Deadfire's main plot was over before you even realized it. Or you got overly distracted by side quests that let you wonder if the whole Eothas problem really is so urgent after all.

If you are talking about the English versions and really believe that then I can't take your criticism seriously when it comes to the quality of writing. Might turn out that WOTC has novel prize worthy writing now... I tried Kingmaker and the quality of writing and the non-funny goofyness were so bad that my toenails figuratively curled upwards. D:OS games are not that much better, but sti better. I cut the devs some slack because English is not their mother tongue and I assume the Russian version is much better. I mean the German version of Deadfire is pretty bad, too - so maybe comparing the English version of Kingmaker with the English version of Deadfire is a bit unfair - but still: I have to play them in English since my Russian is not good enough anymore - so I can only compare that. Same problem with Larian (also not native speakers and my French... you have to excuse it ;)). Yet PoE and Deadfire are like... leagues better in that regard. That doesn't mean that one has to like that kind of writing or that it makes it more popular or easy to consume - but in terms of quality its objectively better and there mustn't be a single genuine discussion. Of course that doesn't make PoE or Deadfire "better" games. D:OS 2 sold a ton more than Deadfire - and Kingmaker was also more successful. Which leads to the assumption that they did more things right for the average audience than the Obsidian games did. Unfortunately non-goofy writing and non-cartoony graphics are important to me. I don't like 3D in party RPGs. It always looks too cartoony and also generic to me. Maybe WOTC is better - I didn't look at it until now. I love the more gritty, artistic approach Obsidian did - even if it comes with huge downsides (loading times, performance issues...).

Ascendant/Helwalker is supergood imo. Tops SC Ascendant easily for me. Offensive phrases are great in combination with "The Champion" invocation because you can interrupt enemies via chants then. With Brisk Recitation that means interrupts in an AoE every 3 secs (on crit). Yet the best phrase to run all the times is Many Lives Pass By imo. It comes late though. I mainly used Killers Froze Stiff as invocation. Its duration can be so long on crits that you can perma-paralyze enemies. Because Cipher's Lingering Echoes (+20% affliction duration) also works with the invocations. Her Revenge is also very good at all times. Ben Fidel's Neck stacks with nearly all other debuffs so that's a good alternative when enemies are immune or resistant to Killers. The Charming invocation is also good. In the early game I could spam Killers + Soul Shock all the time nearly non-stop without enemies being able to do much - except die.

Nothing special. I used the ones of the Berserker/Skald who was the MC in that savegame and whom I turned into a Devoted/Bleak Walker with the console. But FoD gets massive PL bonuses at high levels (those are multiplicative) I already had 14 PEN on the staff without PL scaling and Scion of Flame, so 15 + PL scaling (I guess another +2). Then it was a crit and Devoted + Improved Critical + Overpenetration + Inspired Beacon + Sworn Enemy + Weapon Spec + Weapon Mastery + Two Handed Style + Chromo's dmg bonus via Metaphysics skill + FoD's double lash + the Chromo's lashes leads to such numbers. It's not even tricky to achieve: sneak to enemies and cast Inspired Beacon from stealth: no recovery because out of stealth. Then Sworn Enemy (no recovery anyway). Then Eternal Devotion which really profits from the PL scaling and the lahes, followed by Clear Out (it hits the initial target twice which leads to such high numbers, the individual rolls were about 100 each). It's not really micro-intense besides the Inspired Beacon part which could be left aside (but it's a nice setup for other party members). I didn't even use Retribution! But I had Infamous Captain which adds +5% - so that balances it out a bit I guess. Might was 17. So nothing wild.

By the way I just rolled a Devoted/Bleak Walker with the Chromoprismatic Staff and did a 170-dmg crit with FoD, followed by a 204-dmg Clear Out, nearly two-shotting the dummy I was attacking before I could even finish the 5 consecutive hits. The Helm of the White Void did not work on the FoD attack itself, but with Helm of the Falcon, Devil of Caroc and Abraham as well other shenanigans I get to a recovery time of only 2.5 secs (from 4) which is cool. FoD accuracy was 134 in my case. Clear Out had 114. That's better than I expected tbh. I use the community patch which moderately addresses some of the Paladin's and Fighter's subpar abilites though. So grain of salt and all that.

In TB a Black Jacket can switch weapon sets as a free action - which means he can attack with the most offensive weapon setup and then afterwards freely switch to the most defensive one to await the attacks of enemies.

I was more addressing the "terrible idea" in your post, not that other class combos can do more dps (at least until they get knocked over, hehe). I don't think Crusader is a terrible at all. It may not be very exciting in most cases but def. not terrible. Especially not for beginners. I think Crusader is a good pick for a beginner if you really want to roll a Devoted multiclass. Somehow Devoted is very popular among new players (while Black Jacket es extremely unpolular). I guess most players initially dislike the idea of switching weapons but rather like to "marry" themselves to a certain weapon. Fantasy tropes and all that. On the other hand Devoted isn't that impactful on the lower difficulties anyway (which would be difficulties a beginner might choose)... eh I've run into an argumentative dilemma...

Not really worth it if you want it to be your main weapon and if you wish to do melee dmg mostly (no matter if Devoted or not) imo. As backup weapon it's great if you use the scroll I guess. But I don't like using scrolls so I'm not an expert on that matter.

I wrote above why Devoted/Paladin specifically can have a good dmg output. The point still stands. But I can go into more detail to make the point more clear: A Fighter can deal good - and more importantly reliable - dmg. Paladin with FoD + Ring of Focused Flames, too. You can combine both. Once you get Clear Out the martial damage ouput of the Fighter side will be great: it's rel. cheap, has a big AoE component and hits the initial target twice(!) which makes it even good against single targets. It's good with Chromopr. Staff, too - because you only need three attacks to trigger the AoE (instead of 5). Also: Eternal Devotion adds 10% lash on top. Nice. At the same time a Fighter/Paladin can survive their own Sacred Immolation quite easily which adds significant damage output. Should he go down there's multiple ways to get back up again - even stronger. Turning the "meat" into dmg. The combined +10 ACC from Disciplined Barrage and Zealous Focus (+5 PER and +5 ACC) and the +20 ACC from FoD translates to damage output that you won't always see in the indiviual hit numbers. The multiple graze-to-hit conversions do the same. Those are more like "hidden" damage bonuses because they don't lead to high numbers but consistently above-average numbers. Armored Grace and Mob Stance add have a significant influence on attack speed which directly translates to dmg output. So on average the dmg output will not be that far off from other martial combos - because your hit quality, attack speed and PEN will be great. If you picked a Bleak Walker you could even wear the Helm of the WHite Void and do your FoDs with +40 ACC I guess. That's great accuracy for a 1-Zeal attack. And you can get back zeal by killing enemies, too. At the same time you will be hard to kill even if you put most ability points into offensive abilities. And if you don't: you can achieve great defenses and encompassing resistances to every affliction with very few ability points. Dead or disabled characters don't deal damage. As a party you also spare action time that you would otherwise have to use for CC, countering afflictions and healing to babysit your more potent but more squishy damage dealer. This can also translate to more dmg outpout - if not from the Paladin/Fighter himself then from the party. It's not that easy to evaluate the offensive impact of a class. It's not like you could watch at the bare dmg bonuses and conclude this character will lead your party to more dmg output. As always it depends. Paladin/Devoted can be build into a good offensive character. Maybe he will take a bit more time to kill stuff - but he will finish the job very reliably and can also crack the really tough nuts. Maybe he's not rushing from squishy-kill to squishy-kill like a Monk/Rogue would do but often that's only cool but not necessary ("winning more"). Besides that one of the highest (non-cheese) weapon dmg output you can do is with Cipher/Ranger + Frostseeker - so I dare to question your simplified assement of which classes will boost martial output the most and which won't (sorry ). In TB mode you might have some more points. But as OP said it's a RTwP build. So it's not all about dmg bonuses, it's also about PEN, speed and hit quality. And also a bit about not going down too soon. I'll give you that Paladin/Fighters can be quite boring to play though - at least until you reach the higher levels. So myabe some won't like that for MCs. On the other hand for AI-controlled party members this can be a blessing. I have to say that Paladin/Fighter is not really a preferred class combo of mine. I'm mostly playing devil's advocat here to give a more fair review of Paladin/Fighter as offensive option.

That is indeed nice. Iirc this only works with summons that are not on auto-AI right? So for example normal skeletons will work, but skeletons from Many Lives Pass By (great phrase with Brisk Recitation for a Psion/Troubadour by the way: enemies will not come at you because you're throwing skeletons at them without even blinking) cannot be targeted. By the way: combining mass-charm with multi-summmons (e.g. Ancient Weapons + Many Lives Pass By) lets you create an army of flipped + summoned allies that can gang up on few remaining hostile enemies - which can be extremely powerful. And right before the charmed ones flip back you shower them with an AoE from the Debonaire/Wizard. Perfect synergy: an SC Paladin with Divine Retribution who then gets +2 Zeal for every summon that gets killed (by enemies or your own spells).