Boeroer

Enemies like boars, panthers etc. do use weapons (tusks, claws, antlers...), same as a spiritshifted Druid or a Transmuter (Form of the Fearsome Brute) uses them. They have no 3D model and thus are invisible, but they are game objects that have instances and values and so on. So as long as such enemies are not using ranged attacks or spells/spell-like abilities the dagger modal will work.

Blood Ward drawing health from scroll dmg maybe?

I didn't use a lot of scrolls in Deadfire so I don't know a lot about their workings by heart tbh. But first of all: including at least one class that gets the highest Arcana bonus might be good? The Wizard gets +2 from the start and with Chamaeleon's Touch it's +3. But if Shared Nightmares works with scrolls I'd also say a SC Cipher (for me it would be a Psion) should be great. Also Time Parasite and Reaping Knives might be awesome with scrolls. I mean those synergies won't click until the latest char levels - but you'll have a great caster character right away. The Barb's appeal is stuff like Frenzy (Blood Frenzy's DoT on crit?), Bloodlust, Blood Thirst (and maybe even the +25% dmg from Blooded), right? Furyshaper to get even higher scroll speed with the Frenzy Ward and later health drain with the Blood Ward? How about a Druid with Cat form? Should be able to cast scrolls very quickly, too. Advantage would be that it wouldn't require any lengthy setup. Just shift and activate cat flurry which is both instant casts without recovery. Can Shifters cast scrolls while shifted? I never tried... Does the PL bonus of Ancients (for beast spells) or Furies (for elements spells) work with fitting scrolls (do the scrolls like Avenging Storm for example carry the "elements" keyword?). Paladins' Eternal Devotion adds its burning lash to spells etc., I suspect it also adds it to damaging scrolls (never tried)? If so this would be very good. Should the lash from Blightheart, soulbound to a Wizard, also add to scrolls and not only Wizard spells I think a Paladin/Wizard would be excellent: high Arcana bonus, double lash on scroll dmg... cannot test bc. I am on vacation in Latvia. Do the elemental PEN abilities (Scion of Flame etc.) work with scrolls? If so all classes who have access to these abilities might be worth considering. Are there scrolls that do piece, crush or slash dmg? Because that might trigger Deep Wounds of the Rogue maybe? Speaking of Rogue: what about the Debonaire's 100% crit conversion against charmed enemies? Does it apply to scrolls? That would be great. Debonaire/Beguiler or -Psion or Debonaire/Chanter could mass-charm and then drop a friendly fire scroll that mostly would crit I guess? Does the Assassin get anything out of scrolls when he casts them from visibility/stealth? Lots of questions and little answers from me, sorry.

Exploiting Combusting Wounds either takes a lot of time (if done by one character) or a specialized party (which then becomes a one-trick troupe - which is very boring to play). Even though I knew about its potential I rarely use it - because if you invest the time you need to set it up most efficiently into different nice actions, you can have similarly good, yet more entertaining outcomes imo. Where I use it regularly is in Beast of Winter, esp. against Neriscyrlas because that's where I get the feeling that the outcome actually warrants all the hassle with multi hit actions such as walls and beams etc. By the time I get CW to tick for considerable bonus damage that I would deem balance-breaking, the enemy is already beaten by other means. And I'd rather make sure the enemies are constantly debuffed and disabled and can be disposed off safely than trying to set up massive damage ticks with CW. Like... I can disable any enemy in the game except two or three mega bosses from start of the encounter to finish with just one arbalest + modal. That's kind of game breaking, especially when it's about power curves imo. Just needs a Ranger and a Chanter in the party and works without any setup during the fight. Where CW is really great and easy to exploit without bending the party around it is when you have a lot of pulsing or multihit spells anyway - like if you have a Chanter with Her Revenge + a Druid with Venombloom, Wicked Briars and so on + a Wizard with Chillfog and Walls and maybe a blunderbuss dude or so. Then it really starts to feel like you are nerfing yourself if you don't use CW.

The part of "forces the damage to resolve each time a stack is added" is similar to other self-stacking DoTs like Bleeding Cuts or Saru Sichr's enchantment "Poison Dipped". That's what makes them much more powerful than one would think just from reading the description. If you can achieve a lot of hits in a short amount of time (like with Swift Flurry or Barbaric Retaliation or such things) this becomes more obvious.

It's not a comprehensive test, just one little setup to get an idea. Eccea's Arcane Blaster's performance in this case might be a little worse because the dummies have very low defenses, so crits are common. Also the AR is low. The Blaster doesn't do overpenetration (happens a lot with crits against dummies) so that might explain a good portion of it. I think against "proper" enemies the results would be different. The base rolls for Imbued Ammunition were more like 12-18. But the raw dm is pretty low. And it was very good with Twinned Shot - compared to the Red Hand (which I also tried with Twinned Shot). It then killed the enemies faster than the Red Hand and used less Bond resource for the kill. I guess because Fracured Bullet got triggered way more (which also get Imbued Ammunition for each fracture). Spearcaster was with 20 Arcana - so it had very high ACC. I also chose the enchantment for the multi-lash which helps, too. I had to put the enemy in front of a building though to prevent it from getting pushed back. When this happens it will cost you dps at some point because the enemy will get pushed out of range and you have to follow before you can shoot. Thundercrack has a good lash and it also paralyzes on crit (which leads to even more crits bc. of the added 25% crit conversion). crits that lead to overpenetration + multiplicative lash dmg bonus is a nasty combo. I guess that explains its good dmg performance in this case - also compared to Scordeo's Trophy that has more speed and higher crit dmg - but no lash (and less crit chance). Hunting Bows are indeed very good in this setup - but overall I think Frostseeker has the overall best outcompe here: great against single dummies, great against groups - just overall great. And it also needs very little enchantment ressources: the unique enchantmant isn't really necessary. You only need to bring up the quality and that's it.

With Wizard you could maybe use Binding Web and a Resistance to DEX afflictions so that you only get hobbled?

Just for y'all's info I did a few test shootings with some of the weapons for a quick in-game comparison. I shot at a cre_dummy in fast combat with auto-attacks (disadvantage for the Blaster bc of lacking PL bonuses?). For some weapons that rely on on-hit/crit effects and/or AoE I added some more dummies right behind the actual target. SC Ranger at lvl 20 with Marked Prey, Marksman, Gunner, Driving Flight, Prestige and Evasive Roll (for +5 DEX which increases recovery/reload) + Harley and Ring of the Marksman. All weapons legendary and with the supposedly best dps enchantments. The seconds are the time it took to take the initial target down. I averaged three tries each, so it's not very accurate but will still give some hints. The Red Hand: ~10 sec Eccea's Arcane Blaster (One Handed Style + modal + Imbued Ammunition): ~15 secs St. Omaku's Mercy: ~20 secs St. Omaku's Mercy (second dummy behind the target): ~11 secs Essence Interrupter (modal, Metaphysics 20): ~8 secs Aamiina's Legacy (): ~8 secs Scordeo's Trophy (modal) : ~14 secs Scordeo's Trophy (modal, second dummy behind the target) : ~12 secs Thundercrack (modal): ~13 secs Frostseeker: ~9 secs Frostseeker (second dummy behind the target): ~7 secs Frostseeker (third dummy behind the target): ~6 secs Frostseeker (four dummies behind the target): ~6 secs Dragon's Dowry: ~13 secs Watershaper's Focus: ~30 secs Watershaper's Focus (second dummy behind the target): ~22 secs Waterhaper's Focus (third dummy behind the target): ~20 secs Watershaper's Focus (four dummies behind the target, Blast modal) : ~6 secs Current's Rush: ~20 secs Current's Rush (second dummy behind the target): ~10 secs Current's Rush (third dummy behind the target): ~8 secs Current's Rush (four dummies behind the target): ~6 secs Spearcaster (Arcana 20): ~13 secs Fire in the Hole (modal): ~16 secs Fire in the Hole (modal, second dummy behind the target) : ~8 secs Fire in the Hole (modal, third dummy behind the target): ~6 secs Fire in the Hole (modal, four dummies behind the target): ~6 secs Xefa's Empirical Explication (modal): ~13 secs Kitchen Stove (modal, Frantic Relaod): ~9 secs Kitchen Stove (modal, Everything and Anything) : ~11 secs I guess I could push the reloading weapons a little bit more with something like Acina's Tricorn and Sure-Handed Ila and stuff but I wanted to keep it simple.

You could try the following straightforward "easy" builds that don't require a lot of actions once the combat starts (but can add more stuff if needed): Kind Wayfarer/Helwalker: dual wielding or weapon (includes fists but also other weapons) + bashing shield (spec. Tuotilo's Palm). Eternal Devotion, Turning Wheel, Lightning Strikes, Torment's Reach etc. Your Flames of Devotion not only heal you but also the party members (INT bonus from Turning Wheel gives you a very big AoE size, Helwalker's MIG bonus makes your healing more powerful) around you, you can get very high armor and defenses (see Paladin's passives and Helwalker's MIG bonus that raises fortitude, Crucible of Suffering gets triggered by Sacred Immolation's self damage wearing off and so on) - it's easy to play, has good damage output against single targets as well as in an AoE, is sturdy, can do terrific support with healing and other stuff. Goldpact Knight/Shifter Druid: pick all the armor passives of the Paladin and Sworn Rival, Wildstrike stuff from the Druid side (whatever element you like), Eternal Devotion etc. Sworn Rival + the Goldpacts special ability "Gilded Enmity" also works when shifted. When you shift into the Bear form + Gilded Enmity you will have very high AR while having null recovery penalty. You can dish out nice melee damage while being very durable (also Lay on Hands works while shifted). You can shift multiple times, so when your Bear Form wears off you can shift into a Boar and so on. The AR will be a bit less than with the Bear but still impressively high. Complement with Blunting Belt and so on. It works right off the bat with shifting, no spellcasting needed. However in tough encounters you can cast powerful (AoE) spells before/between shifts. You can also use Sacred Immolation while shifted and combine it with Nature's Terror for example (cast Nature's Terror, shift, cast Sacred Immolation, go to town... very good AoE damage with just one spellcast and two quick ability activations). Devoted/Streetfighter: large shield (like Bronlar's Phalanx), Gladiator's Sword (+1 PEN enchantment, +2 PEN from Devoted), deflection gear. Not really AoE, but capable of being the main tank while dishing out great melee damage at the same time. Not pure damage sponge but a great hybrid of good defense and good offense. Required almost no micromanagement after some levels. You'll have very high PEN for slash and pierce damage (sword) - should you need crush damage you can use your fist + Monastic Unarmed Training with no drawback from the Devoted side. Furyshaper/Unbroken: maxed MIG (at least 20 with gear, 25 would be optimal), Battle Axe "Amra", enchantment Riven Gore. Use Bleeding Cuts (the battle axe modal) and Frenzy, your Carnage AoE and the Axe's AoE on crit (with 25+ MIG, Riven Gore) will stack. Great synergy between Riven Gore, Blood Thirst + Cleaving/Mob Stance. Devastating against mobs. if you pick Furyshaper Barb: Use a Fear Ward summon to terrify enemies who will then leave your engagement, triggering disengagement attacks form you. The Unbroken fighter has great bonuses on disengagement attacks. When things get tough switch to a 1h-Battle Axe + shield. The Unbroken will then grant you +1 AR and make you extra sturdy. Also good with other Barb/Fighter subclasses, for example vanilla Barb/Fighter. Then without fear/disengagment stuff. Mage Slayer/Skald: use the unique Morning Star Saru Sichr. It has two attack rolls instead of one (one more chance to crit which makes the Skald gain phrases). Use Spirit Frenzy (staggers with chants as well) and sing the phrase "The Long Night's Drink". Use the Morning Star's modal "Body Blows" which lowers enemies' fortitude by 25 points. Spirit Frenzy will latch onto you chant and both will lower enemies' fortitude (Spirit Frenzy by 10, Long Night's Drink by 14). This is a great debuffing character which needs almost no action besides triggering Frenzy. You can then attack with the Morning Star. The second hit roll from it is a poison DoT which targets fortitude. Once the enemies' fortitude is so much debuffed (25 from Body Blows + 24 from Spirit Frenzy+chant) the second hit roll of the Morning Star will crit a lot, giving you phrases quickly. Once yout get Brute Force all attacks will target fortitude if it's lower than deflection. Crits en masse. Also the double roll of the Morning Star applies the Mage Slayer's casting debuff twice. So you only need to hit a caster twice and he/she cannot cast spells anymore (100% debuff). Cast nasty offensive invocations when you wish. They are supercheap for a Skald and get refilled quickly with crits. Choose good disables such as "Killers Froze Stiff", nice debuff such as "Ben Fidel's Neck" or pure damage such as "Her Revenge Swept Across". Stalker (Bear Companion)/Darcozzi Paladini: use Blade of the Endless Paths (with "Marking"), Ring of Focused Flames + Flames of Devotion and also Accurate Wounding Shot, Greater Lay on Hands, Reviving Exhortation, Zealous Focus, Marked for the Hunt, Stalker's Link, Resilient Companion... The goal is to crit a single enemy often. This is easy with FoD + Ring (+20 accuracy, same with Accurate Wounding Shot) + Stalker's Link and Marked Prey and the aura - and the Blade's help which gains accuracy every few seconds, too. A crit will put a debuff on the enemy, lowering their deflection up to -20, collapsing their deflection and making it easy at some point for you and all party members to hit/crit them. At the same time you can be very sturdy (Paladin passives + Stalker passive) and your Bear, too. It gains +1AR form the Stalker passive, +2 from Resilient Companion, +2 from being a Bear and also +2 from your Greater Lay on Hands. If it goes down you can use Reviving Exhortation or the Ranger's revive. For ehaling you can use Lay on Hands or the Ranger's heal. The deflection debuff doesn't need any setup. You just put out Mared Prey and attack with Flames of Devotion/Accurate Wound Shot and drop the enemies' defelction into the ground on the fly. AoE can get added with Sacred Immolation later. There's a lot more builds that are sturdy yet have decent damage output and can start into combat without much preparation quickly and easily. There are just a few that came to my mind while I was typing.

Works: If you get critically hit by a fire attck and you wear the Ring Ibis, the resulting debuff will trigger CoS when it wears off. This even works if you use Rekvu's Scroched Cloak which turns fire damage into healing (when injured). So you can blast yourself with friendly fire² spells, catch a critical hit but get healed ibnstead of damaged in the process - you will also get the Ibis' hostile effect. When it wears off you trigger CoS. Without the cloak you could use the self-induced fire damage for wound generation I guess. But it's risky with most spells (like Fireball) or it's very hard to crit with the non-risky one (Wall of Flame). It's not that easy to crit yourself with fire spells reliably though. You can pile up some ACC while raising your defenses no too much maybe. Don't know if this is worth it, most likely not - because why would you focus so much attention towards CoS and then lower your defenses on purpose just to get it? But maybe on top of something else - as a little tiny CoS bonus chance - the ring could be okay.

Works: With enough RES and Clarity of Agony (and not too much INT) there's Berserker's Confusion when you use Frenzy (the Confusion is managed seperately from the speed and self damage aspects) and Sacred Immolation's self damage (not tied to the fire damage part). They will be fairly short then. Sacred Immolation + Clarity of Agony + Crucible of Suffering is a nice combo imo. Removes the hefty self damage, so your Sacred Immolation has no drawbacks AND gives you bonus defenses on top. If you combine with Effort's Hemorrhaging (see below) the Sacred Immolation can also trigger Hylea's Talons' DoT on yourself and the enemy. If you use Enlightened Agony (smart) you can cancel out the Confusion directly (because smart couters confusion) and trigger Crucible oS instantly. A Priest or Paladin could also give the smart inspiration and remove the Confusion right away, triggering CoS. --- Does not work: Any character can get flanked, but when the flanking ends CoS will not trigger. A Tactician gets confused when getting flanked. You will get flanked (1. effect) and confused (2. effect) and both end if you disengage. This also doesn't trigger Crusible of Suffering Edit: as one might expect also Cowardice from Debonaire doesn't trigger CoS (like running away from allies to trigger Cowardice and then move back to cancel it). --- Does not work: Deletrious Alacrity of Motion's self damage is tied to the benefical effect and is not a separate hostile effect. Doesn't trigger CoS at all. --- Works: When you use Confusion (from Berserker or Tactician) and don't want to raise RES like crazy and use Clarity of Agony you can use Footsteps of the Beast and step into your own hobbling traps (usually foe only - with confusion it also hits you while walking). The hobble effect is very short. But you have to make sure it wears off properly (so stop walking around for a few secs). If you keep stepping into your own frost traps then the duration of the effect will get refreshed all the time and the effect will not wear off = no CoS. It's an old trick for Forbidden Fist/Berserkers to gain a lot of wounds+healing on the fly and it also keeps up Crucible of Suffering ifyou do it right. It's becomes more difficult to hit yourself with the hobbling traps if your defense is superhigh (like in general and then on top with Crucible oS). But every now and then it should still graze you because the traps drop so frequently (with every step you take - as fast as Arterial Strike causes dmg when you move). It can work out in a way that you don't even have to stop moving because most traps will miss - and if a new one grazes, the effect of a previous trap might have already worn off. But of course you can always stop moving to make sure. --- Works: Hylea's Talon can be triggered with spells if you use the great sword Effort with the enchantment Hmorrhaging. If you land a crit with anything you will trigger Hemorrhaging which counts as melee attack - which can then trigger Hylea's Talons' DoT on the enemy or yourself. --- Does not work: The Thundercrack trick doesn't trigger Crucible of Suffering. The pistol doesn't put the nagative effect on the wearer anyway - so it needs to be carried by a party member. But even that doesn't work. You will get the effect - and if your buddies switches weapons the effect goes away... but nothing happens for the Monk. --- That's all that comes to mind atm. Maybe I will remember more later.

Iirc that pause (or its length) is not influenced by anything. I'm not 100% confident though.

Yes, it's best to actually test these options in the game because theorycrafting and calculating is of limited use with such a complex game. It's great to get an idea - but there's so much to consider which is difficult to put into a formula.

Stalker is actually a great class to make a multiclass (off)tank and very good for certain melee builds (especially if it's about high accuracy because no other class has that many stackable accuracy vs. single targets). I played a solo Geomancer (Stalker/Bloodmage) and it was excellent at tanking - even without a shield setup. Of course the Wizard's self buffs helped a lot here. But I think players often just forget about the Animal Companion which can def. help a lot with offtanking. I mean you get two bodies for the price of one. A SC Stalker is a bit more tricky because it lacks the nice synergies of some multiclass combos - but I think offtanking is no problem. Thick armor and decent RES and CON would be my preference. You cannot heal yourself until Power Level 9 with Shadowed Hunter - but what are those other party members for anyway? You can however heal the animal companion. If you pick the Bear and are a stalker the near has great armor rating which makes it a lot sturdier compared to a non-Stalker non-bear. Antelope also works because of the higher defenses - but overall I think the bear is better for offtanking. If you have a Chanter in the party then off-tanking with the animal companion is even better: you can revive it unlimited times per encounter - because animal companions don't get injuries. If you don't have a chanter the ranger can revive the animal companion, too - but the Bond resource is limited.

St. Omaku's Mercy with the enchantment that skips recovery on crit is great imo because it trades higher PEN for slightly slower recovery - which hasn't such a big impact bc. of the skipping. In combination with Driving Flight and Twinned Shot (=4 attack rolls) and all the accuracy the chance is very high to skip recovery. Imo there's no real delay - except the shooting animation of course. The most straightforward way for max single target with a Ranger usually is Essence Interrupter or Amiina's Legacy witj the modal on. That's not about crits so much - but the very high ACC helps to balance out the drawback of the modal. And the upside of the modal (-50% recovery) is just insane for DPS.

I mean it's less likely to drop from healthy or blooded right to death with one cast of wilting wind - so I expect Spirit Shield or Iron Skin to trigger. Yes, that's what I meant basically. Your dead before BDD gets cast. I also guess the other effects wouldn't trigger of you dropped from healthy or bloodied to death right away.

The cape only triggers BDD if you go under 25% health, right? So maybe if you blast your character from let's say 30% to 0 with a single cast it could be that he goes down before the cape has a chance to trigger the BDD effect?

Yes, that is a very good approach to SC Chanter Tekehu. Spamming Eld Nary's Curse would be my use of unlimited phrases. Imo Tornado is not so great. It's just that Great Maelstrom is so powerful that you often only need that one spell, hence the druid. And to the way there the druid can offer those foe-only variants of Chillfog and the other water/frost spells he gets which are really helpful at all times. Plus good healing, too. I think that's why most players prefer the druid path. You can amplify all offensive spells (including Great Maelstrom) with the great sword "Effort" and its enchantment "Hemorrhaging". This sicken/hobble debuff procs off of all(!) attack rolls (like spells, not just weapon's) and it counts as a proper weapon attack. Which makes it trigger Avenging Storm Bolts, too. If you add other attack rolls that proc off of weapon attacks (see Hylea's Talons for example or Ring of Molded Flesh) you can increase the number of attack rolls on the target(s) even further. You can then cast Avenging Storm, then Great Maelstrom (or other offensive spells , those who pulse like Chillfog, Venombloom etc. are best) and every crit of those spells will trigger Hemorrhaging - which will trigger an Avenging Storm bolt - which can itself trigger Hemorrhaging if it crits - which thrn triggers another bolt (and so on). It's absolutely devastating. The Effort trick using Avening Storm can also be used by the SC Chanter variant - and it's really good in combination with Her Revenge and it's multiple hit rolls against a group of enemies. But then you'll not have scimitar's effect of course.

Yes, it got patched at some point and turned from "per encounter" to "per rest" which turned it from "most sought after cape" into "what are those useless rags lol?" It is mentioned in the named enchantments' description that's it's per-rest. But you have to click on the names of the enchantments iirc.

Well, devs can't name it "Ectopsychic Echo" and then make it a shred spell, can they?

Barbarian in PoE starts of... weak I must say. The main reason is the relatively poor accuracy (especially for Carnage) and the bad deflection which makes him squishy. At lower levels the impact of his big endurance/health pool cannot realy be felt and he cannot really make up for it because he misses or grazes often with Carnage. Fortunately Carnage counts as an active ability und thus gains accuracy with every level - up to the point where your Carnage has better accuracy than your normal attacks. And with a few levels and more endurance and health he doesn' feel as squishy anymore, especially if you give him decent CON. So do not get discuraged if he feels a bit meh at first, it will get much better. In the beginning it can help to give him a single weapon (+12 ACC) - the impact of the added accuracy is highest in the early game. Later you don't need that anymore. If he feels too weak and gets knocked out a lot another alternative is to give him a pike or quarterstaff. The most fun I had with a Firebrand Barbarian (no need to go Fire Godlike, was mainly for the fire theme): All weapons which have an "on hit" or "on crit" effect are good though. Also ones with "speed" because they let you reach 0 recovery time fairly quickly in combination with Frenzy (and Bloodlust and maybe dual wielding + two handed style).

Right!

Hi! edit: the follwing is about Deadfire: I personally prefer Barbarian/Monk, especially Berserker/Helwalker. The self damage of the Berserker's Frenzy directly fuels the wounds of the Monk which makes this a very enjoyable combination: you always have wounds to spend. There are other nice synergies like the higher crit chance combined with Swift Flurry and Heartbeat Drumming of the Monk (causing crit chains) or that Rootig Pain fires off all the time (get rid of the Berserker's Confusion though because you will hit yourself if not). However: it's very risky because the self damage of the Berserker scales very steeply. It will kill the character if it's not countered with healing or damage resistance (or both). A really big health pool helps, too. I enjoy it immensely - but instead of a two weapon etup I would very much recommend to use a Morning Star (in Deadfire at least): Both classes profit a lot from the modal which the Morning Star's weapon proficiency offers: it reduces the fortitude defense of enemies a lot. Monks and Barbarians have abilities to target fortitude instead of deflection (look at Force of Anguish and later Brute Force). You can then see which defense is lower and attack the weaker one which is very helpful. Also there's an early unique Morning Star in Deadfire that is perfect for this character combo (Saru Sichr). It works extremely well with those crit chains I mentioned above because it rolls two attacks per swing (because it has a separate poison attack roll). Anyway: it can lead to a lot of "oh my god what just happened?" moments. The build requires attention but is a lot of fun imo. For me it's okay if the main character needs more attention than the rest of the party and I enjoy the challenge to keep him alive as long as he's so much fun on the offensive side. Watch out: Nalpazca cannot heal when on drug crash - so using Frenzy when not on drugs = certain death. Helwalker suffers increased damage with every wound - so Frenzy hurts even more (also means more wounds but also quick death if not healed). Both have incredible wound generation as one might suspect. They all have pretty brutish vibe imo. --- Monk/Streetfighter is a very good damage dealer (and can also be an extremly good dps and crowd control character using two "mortar" blunderbusses which deal AoE damage - so basically a medium ranged Shadowdancer... just look at the Monk's ability "Stunning Surge" and imagine the implications when it's used in an AoE) but it can be fragile. The benefit of using blunderbusses is that they allow the use of "Poweder Burns" which immediately unlocks the Streetfighters passive which makes him superfast - without actually getting flanked by enemies or bloodied. I'd say mortar Shadowdancer is the best option but of course melee also works very well. Trickster/Forbidden Fist is an excellent tank/damage hybrid using a weapon + a great early bashing shield made for monks. Maybe not main tank material but a great frontliner who's holding his own while dealing a lot of damage. Ah... note that one companion in Deadfire can be a Monk/Streetfighter (a so called sidekick though, not a full-fledged companion). That may be a reason to not pick that combo as main character? Shadowdancers don't feel as brutish as Ravagers to me. --- Berserker/Streetfighter (for example with a certain set of daggers) has insane attack speed and dps output and in the early game can dominate fights with a hunting bow (+modal), too (makes some tough fights in Deadfire so much easier). But is also very squishy as one can imagine. Like the Berserker/Monk I mentioned above. It's also very good with two battle axes. I haven't much experience with other Barb/Rogues. Another plus is that Barb/Rogues can be the best lockpicks in the game. The reason is that you can use the ability "Leap" outside of battle whenever you want. You can stealth in a drak corner, then leap across the room/area right beside a chest, pause and pick the lock and grabbing stuff without anybody noticing you. Same goes for doing stealth/invisible attacks - so maybe a Barb/Assassin could be fun, too. There's a great early assassin dagger in the game which does great things when used from stealth. And assasin's boots that make you invisible if you kill somebody (1/encounter). Maybe even a Mageslayer/Assassin build would be fun as a thematic build - getting rid of casters from stealth and as soon as possible. Never tried, but sounds fun. --- In PoE I enjoyed barbarians a lot more than rogues. Because Carnage procs all weapon effects in a AoE you can do a lot of fun stuff with a Barbarian. This doesn't work in Deadfire anymore, but they have other cool stuff there. Examples are a draining weapon with a Barb (drain from all enemies in the Carnage area), weapons that cause prone or stun on crit (in an AoE bc. Carnage), weapons that just do a lot of base damage per hit (like the summoned Great Sword Firebrand) in combination with Blood Thirst, weapons that leech buff durations from enemies and so on.

Kind Wayfarer + Forbidden Fist sounds like a good synergy because of the healing from White Flames and Lay on Hands and Exalted Endurance that can support your health while under the curse. And Eternal Devotion's lash will stack with Turning Wheel's, too. Slap on the Ring of Focused Flame and your White Flames will have great accuracy, too. Pick Scion of Flame and the PEN will be great, too. Only thing that feels not so nice to me is that White Flames (the KW's Flames of Devotion) is best with dual wielding because the healing procs twice then. This is a huge advantage imo. Forbidden Fist attck is not a full attack so shield setups make a lot of sense. BUT: once you pick up Tuotilo's Palm you'll have the best of both: weapon & shield AND dual wielding AND great enchantments for the Monk's side of the build. On top of that - since Forbidden Fist profits so much from maxed RES - they also fit very nicely thematically. Paladins with high RES make a lot of sense, too. All in all you can become very, very tanky while also having great offensive capabilities. And let's not forget that White Flames also heals your allies in range (and that range is increased by +10 INT from the Monk's side of course). Just don't pick the resistance passives of the Paladin! Sacred Immolation's self damage is a separate effect from the offensive part - its duration gets shortened by high RES and stuff like Clarity of Agony. So using Sacred Immolation (which is a great damage boost) isn't as risky as it usually is with "normal" paladins. Paladin/Monk is like it's made for Sacred Immolation (or the other way round). The self damage will wear off pretty quickly and even grant you a wound when it's ending. The burning part will still carry on. Like with the curse though the hostile part will get prolonged with higher INT. I think all in all it's a great combo - it's not very "gishy" though? --- Street Fighter (I'll get to your question below) has an enormous potential for weapon damage. And with the Forbidden Fist it's quite easy to lower your health to 50% willingly in order to trigger the Streetfighter's passive without getting flanked. Combine with Human to also profit from Fighting Spirit at 50% health. But since operating at 50% health is risky one might - in this case - use Iron Wheel and a lot of CON + Tough and maybe even an Amulet of Greater Health in order to make the 50% of health still be a lot of health. Streetfighters don't profit a ton from high INT as they usually don't use a lot of AoE or duration-based stuff (except maybe Toxic Strike) - and while the loss of a multiplicative burning lash in combination with such high damage bonuses does hurt your dps, I think the convenience of a much bigger health pool and thus the more reliable approach to "keep me under 50% health for massive dps gains" is just better. Getting knocked out all the time is no fun after all. I made the same experience with a Helwalker/Berserker: very potent but dropping dead all the time. As soon as I rampoed up the health pool to the max it became much more enjoyable and performed actually way better even though on paper it had less dps potential. But it's only potential. What is that worth if you cannot make it happen? Using a pet that does high "heal on kill" makes a lot of sense here. If you have Eder you can make sure he picks one that does a weaker version of that effect for the party, too. You will kill quickly so you will heal a lot, too, giving you access to even more "risk free" FF attacks. By the way: Trickster/FF is an even better combo overall imo because you can lean into the defensive side more, become very tanky and still have great damage output. Also seems to be more on the gish side with the spells the Trickster gets. --- What about FF/Berserker? You can shorten the duration of the confusing part of Frenzy a lot so that you only become confused for a very short time - and the nyou'll get a wound + healing when it stops. The duration of Frenzy will not suffer. The self damage part of Berserker Frenzy cannot be shortend (it's directly tied to the frenzy duration) but iirc it will also give you wound + healing once Frenzy ends. With such a character you'd also need a lot of Health and a pet with heal on kill is very benefical here, too. --- With all those I would recommend using Tuotilo's Palm and a weapon that does other damage than only crush (so no clubs and maces). For Skald Sasha's Singing Scimitar seems like the obvious choice. With Swift Flurry: Stalker's Patience (with Mercy Strike!) as well as Mohora Tanga (super high chance for crit chains because Red Flag Flying can proc itself!) are excellent choices. Watch out: Mohora Tanga can crash the game if your accuracy is much higher than your enemies' defenses (beause an endless loop of crits can occur that will shut the game down immediately without warning). If you don't overdo it with the accuracy/debuffing enememies defenses you should be fine though. --- Best use would be both of serafen's mortars. hybrid use (1 melee + one ranged weapon) if often just worse than 1 dedicated melee set + 1 pure ranged weapon set. You can def. keep up the distraction if you don't use Clarity of Agony too often - because you will be shooting/reloading superfast with Swift Strikes + Streetfighter's passive. And Mortar's AoE + INT + Stunning Surge is an excellent, excellent combo. High INT also makes sure the distraction lasts long enough even if your RES is very high. On the otehr hand using a ranged setup is a bit detrimental to the FF attack. I suppose one can use it as a great way to dispose of enemies who come near you though. You don't even need to switch weapon sets in order to deal melee damage then. Blunderbuss + melee weapon can make sense with FIghters (Clear Out can use the Blunderbuss if it's in the main had when a melee weapon is in the offhand), Rangers (Whirling Strike) works the same, Barbarians (Heart of Fury works with ranged and melee weapons, both will execute no matter what). If you count Blunderbus + bashing shield a ranged + melee setup it can make good sense for a lot of characters because you get the defensive bonus AND the dual wielding bonus that also speeds up the reloading. But usually I think pure ranged or pure melee beats hybrid in most cases.

I would try to decrease the duration of the curse from the Forbidden Fist ability and to find a way to produce wounds besides using the Forbidden Fist ability (so basically get short-lived hostile effects or prevent being attacked a lot so you can use Enduring Dance of Death). Generally one also you has to watch out for "does xy on melee weapon crit or hit" or so, because in the unmodded game the Forbidden Fist ability works like a melee spell and is not registered as a weapon attack. That means that for example a Skald will not generate phrases if he crits with the Forbidden Fist attack. But since you use the Community Patch mod this is not a problem because the Forbidden Fist attack is registered as melee weapon attack there (as it should be). Thirdly you have to forego resistances against afflictions - if you want to get wounds from said afflictions. For unknown reasons the Forbidden Fist's wound mechanic will not generate a wound if you downgrade an affliction with a resistance and that affliction then ends. For example: you get hit by an attack that would weaken you for 10 secs - but you have a resistance against CON afflictions and so you only get sickened for 10 secs. Not the sicken effect expires and you get... nothing. So it's better to not gain any resistance but instead make sure that all hostile effects only last very shortly. Which means maxed Resolve, special items and abilities. Also countering an affliction with an inspiration works: the affliction and the inspiration cancel each other out and you get 1 wound and some health. Based on those requirements: Pros: Swift Flurry + Heartbeat Drumming can make it more likely to generate a phrase point (you cannot gai more than 1 per action, but the chance to get one increases with more crit rolls per action) Turning Wheel is great for invocation and chant AoEs (bc. +10 INT) - something like Her Revenge is a lot better with a big AoE, same as Killers Froze Stiff etc. Turning Wheel prolongs the duration of debuffs/CC you can do with invocations. For example the paralysis of Killers Froze Stiff lasts a lot longer. the burning lash of Turning Wheel stacks with the Aefyllath Ues Mith Fyr lash, giving great multipilcative dmg bonuses to your weapon attacks (also Lightning Strikes if this us used instead of Swift Flurry) Ancient Memory and Mery and Kindness help with the FF-curse's self damage, Mercy and Kindness boosts the healing when a hostile effect expires Inspiration invocations work for the caster, too and can counter afflictions - and thus create wounds endless resources (wounds and phrases) Cons: Forbidden Fist attack cannot produce phrases Resistance chants (which are usually very good against certain enemies) will hurt your wound generation no real martial synergies Pros: lots of inspirations to counter afflictions and thus gain wounds healing to counter curse damage Triumph of he Crusaders is nice in combination with Forbidden Fist attack/curse. FF attacks can kill quickly and you can heal a lot from fast kills. Turning Wheel's INT bonus is great for AoE size and (buff) durations Salvation of Time Barring Death's Door (+Salvation of Time) + Turning Wheel + FF's curse can let you reach absurd dmg bonuses with the FF attack while the absurd self damage has no consequence Spiritual Weapons' lash stacks with Turning Wheel (and Lightning Strikes) for nice multiplcative damage bonuses for your weapon's attack. Cons: Action economy: Priests usually buff/support (the party) a lot. This takes away from fighting etc. no martial synergies besides Spiritual weapon limited amounts of spells Pros: Turning Wheel + spells like above healing o counter curse damage Druids have many DoT spells which profit a lot from higher INT Druids don't have accuracy buffs so the Dance of Death can help with hitting with ranged Druid spells some spells work with Instruments of Pain (for whatever reason) and gain *6 range. One of them is Sunlance which gains a range of 120m... Taste of the Hunt is a nice alternative to Forbidden Fist attack Druids can generate a lot of wounds and high defense with friendly-fire combos such as Tanglefoot + high RES + Clarity of Agony + Crucible of Suffering. You will get hobbled by your own Tangelfoot - but the duration of pulses will be very short and you will get a wound as soon as a pulse spires Wildstrike lash stacks with Turning Wheel and Lightning Strikes Spiritshift Armor stacks with Iron Wheel'a AR bonus - while having 0 recovery penalty Cons: Action economy like with Priests when buffing or healing a lot no martial synergies besides maybe Taste of the Hunt, Wildstrike lashes and natural armor limited amounts of spells Pros: lots of self buffs which are superfast like with the other casters: +10 INT is excellent for all sorts of spells (AoE and duration) Deleterious Alacrity's self damage counts as hostile effect. When it expires you get a wound. Citzal's Spirit Lance works with Turning Wheel (AoE size, lash) and Stunning Surge which makes this an excellent combo Wall of Draining helps to prolong positive effects. See Crucibe of Suffering and all other (self) buffs as well as Healing over time You can - like the druid - generate wounds from friendly fire effects such as Chillfog (blind) or Binding Web (stuck) but those effects a more inconvenient than the Druid's hobble - and remember: no resistances with the Concelhaut's Draining Touch trick and a club+modal in the offhand + Miasma of Dull-Mindedness you can lower enemies Will defense a ton - which makes them easy to crit with terrify effects and expecially with the Draining Touch weapon (it targets Will). This makes triggering crits chains with Swift Flurry and Heartbeat Drumming a lot more likely and deals a ton of damage. But the trick is a bit cheesy and not intended behavior. potentially ulimited resources/spells Cons: no real martial synergies besides the access to Spirit Lance and Draining Touch, but both are very potent, so... squishier bec. of the Bloodmage's drawback against bloodied enemies and bc. of the added self damage of Blood Sacrifice --- sorry, no time to address the rest, have to go. Maybe later, bye!