Boeroer

Keep in mind that the invocation with the highest cost will also determine your max phrase count (or in other words: the size of your resource pool). As a Skald that means: if you pick up "Called to His Bidding" (6+1 phrases) you will have a max phrase count of 7, if you instead pick up "Her Tears Fell Like Rain" (5-1) your max phrase count will be 4 (assuming you haven't picked up any other costly invocations before). So "Called to His Bidding" may be very expensive compared to "Her Tears" - but at the same time it can function as a "resource pool expansion" while still being a good invocation to have (even if expensive). Yet... "Her Tears" is still useful in certain circumstances so maybe plan to pick up both? It depends on your playstyle though. If you find yourself surrounded a lot then "Her Tears" is good. If you mainly shout at groups in front of you I very much prefer "Her Revenge" though (the cost-benefit ration is better I believe - with cost I not only mean the phrases you pay but also the ability points you spend).

Yes, but in order to get the Strand of Favor from Sugaan without killing him it's not a bad idea to talk to Yanass first (the "ghost 'left' from the kitchen") and bring her soul along to Sugaan.

Non-Megabisses like Dragons etc. are fine without any Brilliant/Wall of Draining/Salvation of Time stuff imo. Even with class combos that aren't that obvious. As you said somewhere else the Megabosses create a problem though. Maybe it's possible to do Megabosses without any cheese - but I wouldn't want to try it. I hope people realize me claiming to do a "single class Mage Slayer Ultimate run" is just a joke. Also some DLC stuff in SSS and FS will be very hard if you want to fight it all and not use some unintended mechanical "favors". By the way: DoTs can be fine with Megabosses. But you have to take the endless ones. Which is kind of broken again... Elton John: It's the ciiircle of cheese

It will get prolonged and the ticks will increase (as if it had longer duration from the start). So yes, it will keep escalating upwards. Keep in mind though that Toxic Strike is a poison ability and several enemies - including some bosses - are immune.

I don't plan to play BG3 since I didn't like both D:OS games - but that doesn't mean they are "really bad". Obviously plenty of people liked them since both games were huge successes. BG3's early access version has an approval rate of 88%. What you said above is not a fact, It's just your opinion based on your personal taste.

They scale with alchemy (+1 PL with every point of Alchemy) so they can become quite good if you invest in them. For example if you play a Nalpasca and raise Alchemy anyway you might as well use some potions (that don't affect the same stats as the drugs you are using).

Never used it (although the crystal spiders' poison can be annoying in the early game and I was tempted to use it once...). But I don't use any other potions either so I'm not the right person to give a lecture about the usefulness of antidote potions I guess.

Both actually.

Yes, soloing the digsite is very difficult and I would argue impossible for beginners. But in general: if you know what you are doing you can level up very quickly solo (3 times faster than a full party) and then collect hirelings or companions at high (the highest) level. That's no fun for me but maybe for others.

Yeah, during beta access I was a bit confused and annoyed as well: "why did they change so much compared to the first game whichg I loved?" But after some time I came to appreciate the changes. It's less complicated and convoluted (still not easy to grasp or free of confusing stuff but way better).

Deadfire has no Hours of Saint Rumbalt, no. But it has a nice collection of Great Sword so I guess you will find something nice. It surely has a great armor that is totally fitting for your combo. Berath/Goldpact is a viable combo but nothing that screams "synergies!" right into your face. Maybe that's what you are feeling. It doesn't do too much for your melee prowess (like a Streetfighter/Berath or Devoted/Berath would do) nor is your spellcasting much improved (something like Helwalker/Berath could do that). At least not on first glance. Same with the Goldpact Knight: there are some combos that works really well and are obvious - like Goldpact/Spiritshift Bear (druid) which has incredible armor rating and good damage output with 0 armor penalty. Goldpact/Berth doesn't seem to do that much for the Goldpact part either. With this combo you might have to look more closely. For example you can't know yet that the lash that Eternal Devotion will give you (10%) works with ALL direct damage attacks you do - including spells. Berath has some nice damaging spells. So that's not bad! Also the Spiritual Great Sword you can summon will scale its lash with your Berathian dispositions! Meaning it will get stronger if you behave according your the order's rules. This stacks nicely with Flames of Devotion/Eternal Devotion. Big lashes on your Flames of Devotion attacks. Get the Ring of Focused Flames and you will ahve very high accuracy with Flames of Devotion. This will feel a lot better in melee. Whispers of the Endless Paths can be a great weapon with the right setup - but I don't think it's particularly good with your combo. So maybe you just need some more "secret knowlege" about the Berath/Goldpact combos to have more fun with it (and to see stuff you might enjoy looking fowared to get going). Maybe @theleewants to chime in. Afaik he played some more Berath Priest and may have more insight. My personal experience with this combo is a bit limited.

@Andres Arigon For every party member missing you'll get -10% overall "Party XP". But since there are less party members every single one of them will get a higher number of XP. Like sharing a slightly smaller cake - but it's less mouth to feed. With other words: your party members will get more XP per person if your party is smaller. But the group XP will be lower. Let's say you get 500XP for a quest with a full party. THen every party member will get 500/5 = 100 XP. If you go with a party of four the overall XP will be 450, but every party member will get 450/4 = 112,5 XP. And so on. With a party of two: 350/2 = 175 XP. That's 75% more XP per person for a two men party compared to a full party. That means faster leveling. Going solo will level you up the fastest obviously. You can "abuse" that and level up as solo char very quickly (if you can handle the game solo in the first place) and only then hire adventurers or take in official companions who will adapt to your (then very high) level.

Ah thanks. I didn't know that Monastic Unarmed Training also influenced Outward Spikes. It's of course a no-brainer enchantment for non-Monks anyway. WotEP's advantage is that Offensive Parry triggers on 100% of melee misses instead of only 20% and does generate focus + dazes. Soul Annihilation doesn't care about the weapon's base damage so that's not a hinderance. But even without SA: WotEP may have low base dmg due to the cone attack - but it also comes with a lash and +1 PEN which makes up for lower base dmg - at least a bit. Also it has reach (between normal melee weapons as pikes/quarterstaff) which sometimes helps to attack foes whom you wouldn't be able to reach with a normal melee weapon. The cone of WotEP does apply raw dmg to all enemies it hits with Soul Annihilation. It's not an equal number of raw damage though: the numbers will vary. The first enemy will get the usual raw dmg - but after that it's low and will climb up again with every attack roll. That is weird but quite good - espially if you can hit a lot of targets. It's true that this is not too easy: you need high INT or let's say a big cone to make good use of this, but if you get there then the combination of Offensive Parry (free focus generation on 100% of misses) and multiple target hit with raw damage is great. Paladin/Cipher can reach very good deflection due to the stacking of RES inspiration + Paladin passives + Borrowed Instincts so Offensive Parry works quite well imo. Especially with Steel Garrote/Soulblade. Sun & Moon is also very good though. I don't disagree. A nice thing of it is that it's very unlickely to completely miss with SA and waste all your focus for nothing - even if you're only attacking one single enemy; WotEP needs at least two enemies in the cone to have the same advantage. I would say WotEP needs more setup and supporting items (deflection gear, INT stuff, AoE-size+ stuff) to be really fun. The setup with Sun & Moon is def. more hassle-free. But still I would prefer WotEP with a Steel Garrote/Soulblade bc. of the 100% riposte + daze thing. With a Kind Wayfarer I would opt for Sun & Moon + offhand weapon or bashing shield. Alternative for Tuotilo's Palm maybe: Magran's Blessing has that fire shield going on - it counts as melee weapon attack and thus also generates focus. Unfortunately it doesn't increase its PEN of 7 with shield quality. Scion of Flame and Hammering Thoughts add 2 PEN but that's still only 9 then (crits help but that's not too reliabe). Still adds a bit of focus when it hits and still is a bashing shield so good for attack speed and Kind Wayfarer's White Flames - but it would of course be better if it scaled properly. Speaking of Magran's Blessing (not related to Paladin/Cipher specifiacally) : the Fire Shield counts as weapon attack as I said and that also means it triggers Interrupting Blows, Stunning Shots, Swift FLurry, Heartbeat Drumming, Enervating Blows and stuff like that. For your next round of brainstorming build ideas...

Cheers! Deadfire uses the same wiki as PoE, so there should be some kind of information there about Fortitude and what targets it. If nothing else you can open the specific list of class abilities and check which ones target fortitude (it's usually mentioned in that list which defense is targeted). You can use ctrl+f to search for "fortitude" on the site which will quickly give you the spells that target it. Example for Wizard spells: https://pillarsofeternity.fandom.com/wiki/Wizard_abilities_(Deadfire) --- Deadfire has a system of inspirations and afflictions. It's correct that one dispels the other. It can be bad for you because - as you described - an inspiration you got from a lengthy spell can get removed by the fitting affliction. But it can also be good for you because you can remove nasty afflictions on you with the same method. Not all buffs are inspirations though and those cannot be removed by afflictions. But there's stuff like Arcane Dampener, Concussive Tranquilizer and Arcane Cleanse which will suppress or remove any beneficial effect on you. If you want to keep your inspirations and buffs you have to prevent the enemy from using those those countermeasures. Interrupts for example are much more important and impactful than in PoE. They not only delay the ability use bit actually remove its use. So the enemy will not only get his action delayed - also his sol use/resource points will be gone! This makes interrupts very useful and mich more desirable to use than in PoE. Check out Slicken (it now periodically pulses with a knockdown which is in interrupt) or Thrust of Tattered Veils (auto-hit interrupt with very fast cast time) or some weapon effects and weapon modals (see Crossbow proficiency or the one for Arbalest). Also most classes have some kind of interrupting abilites. Another way is to use certain CC/disabling effects that block the enemies' offensive actions (stun, paralyze, charm, dominate terrify, frighten etc.). Then you can use summons to distract the enemy and let them cast their stuff on the summons and not you. Deadfire has much more clean and systemic mechanics than PoE and the affliction vs. inspiration is a part of it. But that also means it plays a bit differently. Since interrupts are more important and spell effects tend to be very impactful (especially now with per-encounter use instead of per-rest) and Deadfire plays more slowly than PoE (due to player complaint that PoE's combat was too chaotic) spells take often longer to cast than in PoE. It's a design decision. But the same it true for weapon attacks and speed in general. In PoE it was rel. easy to achieve 0 recovery time. In Deadfire that's not possible (except with certain items at abilites for a short time). It's just a bit different and tries to be a bit more "tactical" I assume. Imo those changes work very well once one accepts them. You might have to adapt a bit. But objectively the combat mechanics of Deadfire are much improved over PoE's - but of course it's also a matter of taste, so... Have fun!

Only for the bash afaik, not for the counterattack. Besides the PEN the damage itself also isn't very high iirc. But I didn't even know it's good for focus generation so maybe I slept on this.

Yes, as I said: you will need different weapon sets. WotEP is fun against melee mobs that are not too crazy but very numerous. In other fights you might want to use something else. For example a large shield with modal is so good against dangerous ranged attackers and also a lot of AoE spells. The immobility is a bit annoying if you don't have mobility abilities like Escape - but when going solo there are sometimes fights happening where you start unstealthed and immediately get fired at - it's good to have "the Wall" then imo. After the first onslaught you can deactivate the Wall or switch to another weapon set and do whatever.

I also never take the Killers upgrade but will often pick Ben Fidel's Neck because its debuff stacks with all single defense debuffs. Which is great against some tough nuts. Also there's some enemies with immunity/resistance against DEX affliction - then Ben Fidel's Neck is a nice alternative because there is no resistance/immunity against it.

Which Riposte do you mean? From Tuotilo's Palm? Doesn't that have a major PEN issue?

Sun & Moon has quite some impact on a Skald because you get two chances to crit (the weapon has two flail heads and does two attack rolls per strike). Generally speaking a Skald profits a lot from high ACC, crit conversion but also high attack speed. So stuff like fast weapons (flails, daggers etc.), Two Weapon Style, Frenzy, Streetfighter's passive and so on increase the phrase generation a lot. For example: If you play a Streetfighter/Skald Sun & Moon + Pukestabber, Miscreant's Leather, Abraham pet, Blackbalde's Hood, some booze and get flanked your will be generating phrases VERY quickly. Same with Berserker/Skald. Thematically I find Berserker/Skald pretty nice. Both subclasses' names are of norse origin so it fits imo.

Arcane Knight is a solid pick. I would suggest Steel Garrote/Bloodmage if you don't mind that order's dispositions. Didn't try it with a complete solo run but this combo is great with Whispers of the Endless Path/Offensive Parry - because you can drain life from melee attackers (because Offensive Parry dazes which automatically unlocks Steel Garrote's life draining) while casting Wizard spells/doing Blood Sacrifice/casting Inspired Beacon and so on. Also the dazing helps a lot to mitigate incoming damage that might otherwise penetrate your armor. Obviously for soloing you need more than one weapon setup anyway. But I find WotEP with high deflection and Offensive Parry very fun as soon as you get attacked by a lot of melee enemies (e.g. in the Hanging Sepulchres etc.).

OP said "not using broken stuff". I find Wall of Draining + Unbending or Blade Cascade etc. pretty broken.

WotEP also has the neat side effect that "Offensive Parry" generates focus which you can spend right away for Soul Annihilation. Paladin/Cipher can reach pretty high deflection due to Borrowed Instinct + Paladin's stuff.

"Most powerful" is always tricky. I don't think there's a definitive (objective) answer for that since it also depends on how you play. I would say the most foolproof combo is the Paladin/Troubadour. Really hard to kill and yet plenty of offensive options. Go for high defenses (shield) and AR and stack Ancient Memory with Soft Winds of Death or Their Courage and Exalted Endurance and include some regeneration gear, get some good defensive armor (like Nomad's Brigandine, Magnera's Chain and so on). You don't need Berath's Challenge for Gouging Strike. Combat will not end until the enemy withg Gouging Strike is dead. But note that Shadowing Beyond and Arkemyr's Brilliat Departure will break oin DoT ticks. Smoke Veil however will not break. When it's about "most easy" solo experience I would always vote for Paladadin/Assassin with Lover's Embrace + Brand Enemy + Gouging Strike. But it's not on the list above and it feels cheesy (although it doesn't use loopholes). It's ridiculous how early you can kill almost everything - if you are patient.

The game object "boar tusk" is only a scaling pierce weapon. No raw lash and also no wildstrike lash. It all seems to be applied as passives as soon as you shift. Edit: just checked in game with SHifter Boar + Wildstrike: the description of the tusks (once you shift) doesn't change at all. There's no word about raw lash or elemental lash. So it's def. passives that get added with the shift.

The cat claws have the same base dmg as the boar tusks and come with 3 sec recovery instead of 4. While the boar's raw lash doesn't seem to be part of the tusk weapon the shorter recovery of the cat form directly comes from the weapons. So I guess I would hire a cat adventurer now to get the claws.