Boeroer

"Beguiler You know say daddy me snow me I'll go blame A licky boom boom down Dunryd Row man said daddy snow I stabbed someone down the lane A licky boom boom down" Sounds totally roguish to me.

I agree.

Difficult to define "best" - just highest healing output or great healing but also good at other stuff...? As always: depends. For the same reasons @theleementioned I wouldn't put everything into healing and forget about the rest. So I would say Kind Wayfarer/Troubadour. Not only because of the passive healing auras (which require zero resources so with a tanky party you can go on forever) but also because of the good active healing capabilities (Lay on Hands, Two Fingers, White Flames etc.) as well as the two sources of revive (if we count that as healing, too). And on top of the healing you will also have some good support as well as sturdyness and good damage output with the right invocations but also weapon dmg (Eternal Devotion + Mith Fyr is good). One endless resource pool is also very nice to have. Lifegiver/Psion might also be a good candidate for my taste. Here you'll have good healing (Rejuvenation spells obviously but also Pain Block), one endless resource pool again but at the same time a ton of other utility. Too bad Essential Phantom got changed from controllable summon into AI summon. You could use all the active abilites from gear once (for a short amount of time between patches) which included Healing Hands, Gaun's Pledge etc. And the per-rest healings turned into per-encounter that way. You could be a Wizard and still heal your party somewhat with your phantom.

But he's alternating focus gaining auto attacks + Assassinate + Backstab which do rel. high damage and uses the gained focus for Soul Annihilation then. The result is a rel. high damage output with every attack - as long as you have Guile for Shadowing Beyond. Since it's very expensive you'll only get a few uses - unless you have a source of Brilliant (e.g. a fellow Cipher).

Yes

Today I finished my wardrobe cupboard I was talking about a few days earlier: It's made from plywood (18mm birch), primer and paint (Farrow & Ball: De Nimes). The knobs are knurled controls from an old stereo. It's on castors because behind it (in the wall) is the ugly heating circuit distributor for the underfloor heating system.

I like tricks like Spark the Souls (Priest) + Beckoner's Ancient Brittle Bones. And of course the completely OP Berserker/Beckoner with Ancient Brittle Bones and Many Lives Pass by wielding Grave Falling/Chilling Grave. I don't use summons that often though because they are just too impactful in general. Like with scrolls and other consumables I mostly avoid them. Nice summons trick by the way: play a Chanter/Streetfighter, summon whisps and let them shoot you (preferable also wear Deltro's Cage Helmet). Use the Red Hand with Sure Handed Ila. You'll get reload time bonuses: -50%, -20% and -20%. Fun!

Besides that: the general statement of "highest dps in the game" is hyperbole and also misleading because first of all that's highly dependent on the situation you are in, then it's not very sustainable (it's just high dmg output for a rel. small amount of time/turns), it's single target damage and last but not least there's a lot of high level stuff that does extremely high damage that dwarfs Soul Annihilation (which is still great and very useful because see below). The combination of Assassin/Soulblade is great because you start with the good stuff right away and don't have to wait for some level for your character concept to finally come together: it just works right from the start. It's positively frontloaded. Also it is one of the contenders for potential highest single target damage per attack and those numbers can be really fun to watch. And useful to take out very dangerous enemies very quickly which can be a big tactical advantage. You know how bad it is if your healer goes down right at the start of battle. If you can get focus reliably it's also great against all sorts of high-AR foes which can be so annoying. In the early-ish to mid game it makes fighting Iron- and Steelclads so much easier for example (see the Katrenn bounty or Arkemyr's mansion). And once you get a weapon like Animancer's Blade or even Eccea's Arcane Blaster then absurdly high DR and several immunities I the late game are no issue at all either. Neriscyrlas cast Llengrath's Safeguard with a frickin' +5 AR? Well I don't care! So yeah: if you want to play an Assassin then Soulblade is a nice combination. Turn Based combat takes away the potentially annoying micromanagement that this combo has in RTwP.

Ah right. Too bad. Well - I didn't think about Pain Link on summons at all before so it's still a gain for me. Maybe I didn't think about it because in most cases cipher spells which need an allied anchor don't work with summons (like Amplified Wave and so on).

Hey you know what? I played Troubadour/Psion and really liked it - but I didn't think about using summons with Pain Link. That's a fun idea! Now I'm thinking about a Wizard/Psion who uses retaliation gear like Ragged Cloak, Magran's Blessing etc. and Pain Link on an Essential Phantom... 🤔

Don't confuse dps (damage per second) with damage per hit. Dps in Turn Based isn't really working. Maybe something like dpt (damage per turn) would work. The damage per Soul-Annihilation in combination with Assassinate, Sneak Attack, Deathblows and Backstab is very high thoug, that is true. Also fun to watch. Backstab isn't a Primary Attack - it's a passive that gets applied to all attack roll you make during stealth or invisibility. But since a sucessful hit from stealth or invisibility usually lifts those you are right that the offhand attack will neither profit from Assasinate nor Backstab. On the other hand: when you are using stuff like Finishing Blow or Blinding Strike in order to load up focus then dual wielding will still be good: first hit will apply Assassinate and Backstab and also the affliction (or in case of Finishing Blow: just deal initial damage) and the offhand hit will then already profit from Sneak Attack and possibly Deathblows (and in case of Finishing Blow: from the yet lower health-->more dmg bonus). So it's not correct that you don't get anything from dual wielding as an Assassin/Soulblade.

Spearcaster is good with an Arcane Archer because its ACC bonus via the Arcana skill stacks with the one the Arcane Archer gets for his Imbue shots. If you have 20 Arcana then an Imbue shot with Spearkcaster will have 25+25 = 50 ACC. I also think Arcane Archer and Spearcaster fits very well thematically. For non Imbue/non-elemental shots the Arcane Archer gets a -5 ACC penalty which is easily outbalanced by the +25 ACC bonus from Spearcaster then. Even with 0 Arcana Spearcaster already has +5 ACC so it gets actually balanced out right from the start. I played an Arcane Archer/Bleak Walker with Spearcaster once because a) Flames of Devotion counts as elemental attack so the Arcane Archer gets no -5 ACC penalty on it b) Eternal Devotion's 10% lash works with all direct damage abilities, including the effects of imbue shots (e.g. Fireball) c) Ring of Focused Flame gives FoD-shots +20 ACC (instead of +10) which stacks with Spearcaster's ACC bonus from Arcana (+45 ACC for FoD shots) d) Zealous Focus stacks with the Ranger's other ACC passives like Marksman, Stalker's Link, Survival of the Fittest etc. So I got a superaccurate sniper who did great dmg on hit, could heal himself, Party Members and his Animal Companion a lot (Lay on Hands) and also do support. The Missile enchantment does not scale with PL like the original spell would - but it gets bonus PEN and damage from the weapon quality (exceptional-->superb-->legendary) and also counts as weapoon attack itself - so it would also profit from stuff like Sneak Attack. For example if you played a Scout. It procs more often with Driving Flight of course. Still I think the lash enchantment is superior and more reliable. With an arbalest pay attention to the modal: hits will always interrupt. While a Ranger has Concussive Tranquilizer to reliably interrupt this modal can also be used to interrupt enemies without any resource cost. For example to prevent certain Oozes from merging back together of prevent a certain Dragon to cast Llengrath's Safeguard. As nice class combos I can imagine Arcane Archer/Assassin, Arcane Archer/Bleak Walker, Assassin/Bleak Walker and maybe Arcane Archer/Helwalker Maia is better off with the Red Hand imo. Her Gunhawk passive brings Red Hand's shorter range back up. Also Gunhawk's passive interrupt-chance is good. Both effects don't work for Arbalests, so...

Both Pillars games are still listed on Geforce Now though. Was that a recent development?

Rauatai as a fictional culture was influenced by Japan and Prussia and the Huana by Polynesian culture afaik. I don't think any of the devs had Djibouti in mind. Don't want to say it's impossible but judging from what I heard/read about what influenced the depiction of the factions in Deadfire I have my doubts - even if the comparison somewhat works.

I personally dumped CON and RES. Since I really don't like getting terrified and also getting frightened against dragons and such is annoying I often pick Wild Orlan.

You can either use the Community Patch which moves the focus generation stop from gettig hit to getting crit or you make sure your Psion doesn't get attacked (a lot). For me it was surprisingly easy to do: if you play a ranged caster and put him/her into good armor and/or give a shield (don't need weapon anyways) you won't get targeted. It's always the more squishy party members left and right who will get shot. Then make sure most enemies are no able to attack you (Mind Control for example). I gave my Test-SC-Psion Deltro's Cage because I wanted to maximize the dmgoutput of Soul Shock and I also didn't want to cast too quickly. You can of course also cast high level powers. Then you'll have to wait a bit before having accumulated enough focus for the next big cast. The good thing about the low level stuff is that some of it scales really well with Power Level (e.g. Mind Blades and Soul Shock) but also that you can spam it really non-stop. Psions get +0.5 focus per second for every Power Level so make sure you stack as many as you can (Prestige + Stone of Power = 1 more focus per second). If you have a Druid in the party give the Lance of the Midwood Stag to the Psion and cast Woodskin or Form of the Delemgan on him: he gets another +1 focus per second because of "Lord of the Forest". And so on. It's not outlandish to get to 7 focus per second at the highest levels. That way you can spam tier-3-powers non-stop (with normal casting speed). You can cast Disintegration or Amplified Wave every 10 secs or so. I think that's pretty cool given the fact that you don't need to "harvest" focus. If you are casting stuff like Soul Shock or Whisper of Treason with a focus generation of 7 focus per second you actually don't need to wait for anything. You're generating focus so quickly that you'll reach max focus eventually despite spamming low level stuff. Last not least the Telekinetic Burst is an ability which is good in hard fights because you can spam it nonstop (because 10 focus) and it interrupts on graze vs. Will (?) which is great against annoying stuff like Neriscyrlas and her Lengrath's Safeguard and other caster stuff. Psion is not the fastest mob killer but it's great in those tough, long fights you will have later in the game with the DLCs, some bosses and also Megabosses. As I said: I had lots of fun with Psion/Troubadour right from lvl 1 on. SC Psion wouldn't be my favorite pick but it works well.

A Psion can be excellent as SC Cipher. Soul Mind scales with Power Level which means an SC Psion gains a lot more focus per second than a MC Psion at any time. You can spam low-level powers like Soul Shock non-stop (if you want) because your focus generation will be higher than your focus spending. With Shared Nightmare you will have very big AoEs for your powers. Your low level ones you can cast without actually losing net focus - so you are spamming those powers with ridiculously big AoE sizes at all times (after some warm-up-phase). And you don't have to do anything to gain that focus. Another nice synergy is Death of 1000 cuts + Antipathetic Field or Mind Blades. Those two are so cheap that you can spam them nonstop - and Do1000C will get prolonged with every shred hit so you don't have to recast it. That's really nice in fights against tough dudes. The damage of APField/Mind Blades doesn't even matter. As most people know I think Beguiler is great - but in boss fights the Beguiler will struggle to generate a high amount of focus like all other ciphers do - especially if the Beguiler wants to cast something else than Deceptions. Against mobs prone to deceptions he absolutely rules of course. But the Psion is way better against bosses and high defense targets imo. I also like that you can withdraw a Psion and he will emerge from it fully healed and loaded with focus. Another thing is Reaping Knives: Psions get 5 focus from every knife hit - like any other Cipher. At first I was very sceptical of the Psion - but now after really toying with him and playing one it's actually my favorite Cipher subclass on par with Beguiler. --- However! You are absolutely right that a Psion/caster multiclass is ALSO very good. I played Psion/Troubadour and it was great one of the most fun experiences for me (AFTER mortar Monk of course... of course... <Fat Thor vs. Starlord meme>). You will always have some resource (focus or phrase) to use and Killers Froze Stiff + Lingering Echoes, combined with for example Soul Shock is great. Paralyze - shock - paralyze - shock [...] paralyze - shock- win. 😄

Now imagine solo with all god challenges activated. It's a lot easier if you know the "tricks" with each Megaboss. Also all kinds of cheese make it a lot easier obviously. Like: pausing and switching from Lethandria's Devotion to another weapon setup... and then back and forth and back and forth: you will heal from the Pale Light with every switch even during pause - so after several switches your party is healed up again. Costs nothing... Or using Strand of Favor (unequip/equpi/unequip etc.) to prolong stuff like Blade Cascade until the end of the world as we know it. Or using the good old Gouging Strike or Brand Enemy or Lover's Embrace. Using Salvation of Time + Barring Death's Door + Brilliant or Wall of Draining + Brilliant (or Blood Sacrifice). All that duration-bending stuff. If you want to do it "rightly" without too much cheese then refreshing resources that are not tied to anything like dealing/receiving damage are a BIG plus. For example Psion and Chanter do get resources just from waiting which is very good in those tough boss fights. Especially Psion with Ancient Memory is a great thing to have because he can turn others into resource refreshers, too. If you have passive healing (e.g. from a Herald with Exalted Endurance + Ancient Memory and some regeneration gear) then also a Bloodmage has kind of unlimited resources - as does a traditional Monk (I mean non-Shattered Pillar and -Forbidden Fist). A Paladin with Divine Retribution + a Chanter (preferably Beckoner or Troubadour) with summons (preferably Ancient Brittle Bones + Many Lives Pass by) will also have unlimited Zeal because Divine Retribution grants +2 Zeal for every killed summon - and those die really quickly against most megabosses. It's also all doable with the official companions though. It's just a real drag. Imo Megabosses are not worth the hassle at all.

K bye

Depends on your class. But in general sneaking past them should always work: Sparkcrackers or other noisy abilities that can be cast on the ground and out of stealth - like Dazzling Lights for example - to lure the enemies away from the path you wish to take and then sneak past them. If you imported items you can also use Bounding Boots to jump over their heads. If you pause in a clever way you can cancel the leap in mid-air. You will not daze od trigger any effect really but also you won't use up the charge of the boots - and make no noise - but still land at the target location. After finding Oderisi and conversing with Eothas you usually gain a level - that often makes a lot of difference in those early fights so maybe you can take them on on the way back.

Then it's quite tricky to lower enemies' fortitude with Body Blows and then cast a spell that targets fortitude so you profit from the lower defense yourself?

How long does stuff like Body Blows (modal from Morning Star) last in TB mode with decent INT?

Josh Sawyer answers that question here:

Indeed Speaking of Rymrgand, Berath etc.: It would have been a great Blessing of Berath if you could unlock unique companion subclasses such as Harvester of Gaun, Priest of Rymrgand etc. as playable class.

Light of Eothas and Symbol of Eothas are good imo. The +15 to all defenses of the Symbol stacks with individual active defense buffs like Mirrored Image and so on. And the Light has 0.5 casting time. Also the Eothasian Incarnate was quite good because it's 3 dawnstar summons with quite good stats who cast several priest spells, including PL8+ spells (for example Symbol of Eothas). Unfortunately one of the summons is always stuck at casting and never finishes - but it can move and soak damage. 🤷‍♂️ If Priest of Eothas had a Spiritual Morning Star instead of a flail it would be my no.1 pick.