Boeroer

No. Speed only applies to the recovery of the weapon which has the speed enchantment. You need two speed weapons in order to reduce the recovery of each of those weapons (to zero for example). Else you'll have one that has shorter recovery than the other. This can still be useful for Full Attacks (first weapon recovery gets skipped anyway, second weapon's recovery gets used - this should be the speedy weapon) but in order to get two similarly fast weapon recoveries both weapons must have speed. Also vicious only applies to the damage of the particular weapon that is enchanted with vicious. The +40% damage comment in that thread was nonsensical. You cannot take two weapons with +20% dmg bonus each and then conclude that this means a 40% damage increase overall. That's mathematically wrong. Two weapons with each +20% dmg still means it's +20% dmg. If one had 20% dmg bonus and the other one 10% this would mean an overall 15% dmg bonus, not 30%.

Add the Long Stride.

What makes builds fun for me? they are powerful/impactful (enough) - there's no fun if your character feels like a millstone around the party’s neck they don’t need late game gear to function - although getting late game gear to improve them can be a motivation. But having to wait forever in order to make your character click for the last hour of the game can be frustrating you don’t have to wait for late game abilities for them to be fun to play ad impactful (same as above) - although having the goal of reaching a great high lvl ability can add to the fun and motivation. Even at lvl 20 (if you have DLCs installed) there's still a good amount of game left to enjoy the highest lvl abilities they don’t need a lot of repetitive setups in every fight - that's not as much of a problem if that’s easy to script though (although I personally don't like to use the AI with my MC) but for example: if you need to manually switch several grimoires at the beginnig of the fight the fun will not last and you will stop doing that quickly. If your character's performance relies on that switching you most likely won't feel okay with this character No overpowered 1-trick ponies (at least not too early in the game). It’s okay if that happens in the late game, but it ruins the playthrough if you can win every fight with the same trick and the same character - while the rest of the party is only there to watch (looking at you, Grave-Calling Berserker/Beckoner) Good reactivity - it gets frustrating if the character plays like a slowpoke but would profit a lot from being more reactive. This can also mean using a reloading weapon is better than using a recovery weapon (reloading can be stopped for other actions, recovery cannot) fits the party - best if it fits a lot of party compositions and doesn't need a party build around it. But sometimes that can be fun, too. Anyway: it's no fun to use a build which mechanics don't blend into the others' not too much micromanagement - but also not too little. For companions low micro can be great - for my MC I like to (reasonably) micromanage and use active abilites manually. this leads to plenty (or even unlimited) resources. I personally like it if resources can be refilled somehow or costs can get refunded. Can also mean the resources are fixed but there are great abilities that aren't too expensive general versatility - being good at/useful for more than one single thing craftiness/creativity of the build (something to be proud of when a build idea does indeed work) out-of the ordinary/original (there's not much exitement when taking a well-trodden path) good character story (at least in my head) so it’s not a blank slate. An emotional connection does help a lot. And no - the silly stuff I write at the top of my build posts are not the stories I use. thematically coherent and somewhat believable stylish/cool/badass good/entertaining sound effects (surprisingly important!) good vfx (without crashing the game or destroying the performance)

This build was created for a collaboration with @Aestus who runs the Youtube channel Aestus_RPG. Here's the video where we talk about this and other builds. This is build 2 of 5 from that collaboration. ----------------------------------------- This build is mainly meant for inspiration. You don't need to follow it in detail to have fun. If you understand the key features - the basic idea what makes this build special - you can usually deviate from my non-core attribute-, skill-, gear- and ability selection and form the build to your own likings and ideas. I do not try to produce the most powerful uberbuilds (often those are the most boring to play in he long run) but to focus on having fun while playing. Usually that means the build is powerful - but it's not the main focus. If you like to read about my personal requirements for "fun to play" builds, you can jump to a list below this post ----------------------------------------- orn a slave, Miccaela Shorsh grew up in the shadowed quarters of Ancenze in the Vaillian Republics, where art, politics, and wealth flourish - at least for the free. Her mother Borschtscha was cleaning the dog kennels for one of the wealthy families, and Miccaela seemed destined for the same life of subjugation and shἱt shoveling. However, even as a child and despite her little frame, her voice was unlike any other, an voluminous sound that could either stir hearts and calm tempers or incide discord and altercations. Unbeknownst to her, her gift was more than mere sound: Miccaela possessed a rare psionic talent, woven into her voice. Her abilities first manifested during a punishment because she refused to wash the stinky fur of the owners' favorite hound Beangobbler the Volatile. Terrified and in pain, Miccaela sang a phrase so powerful that it brought the overseer to his knees, clutching his pearls. Word of this strange power spread quickly through the household, and Miccaela was soon seen as dangerous, but also a potential tool. Her owners realized her voice could be used for their advantage in politics and business, so they forced the little Wild Orlan to perform at grand galas, her melodies subtly manipulating the minds of listeners. But the Wild Orlan's rebellious nature kicked in: at a big dinner event she planted a simple longing into all of the female guests: to stab their partners or patrons with a greasy shashlik skewer as soon as they started to talk obnoxiuos stuff. As a tumult erupted and people who looked like shashlik porcupine fell over each other, Miccaela managed to flee the scene - and the Vaillian Republics althoghether on a trading vessel which was headed for the Deadfire Archipelago. As Miccaela grew older (which happens pretty quickly with Orlans, min you), she learned to conceal her abilities behind the guise of mere performance. Although cleaning the kennels, Beangobbler the Volatile and the whole slavery shebang was behind her, she longed to fight for freedom for all sentient beings: every note she sang became a coded message of rebellion, a call to anyone who would be susceptible to the power of her voice. Now, Miccaela is no longer just a performer, but a covert agent of resistance, using her voice to bend minds, influence rulers and subtly shift the balance of power. In secret and with a philosophy similar to that of a Bleak Walker, she will use all means to free the oppressed and gather those who would help her tear down the chains of slavery, always with a song on her lips and her psionic power in her little yellow furry head. "I won't let you down I will not give you up Gotta have some faith in the sound It's the one good thing that I've got I won't let you down So please don't give me up Because I really, really don't want to wash that hound..." - Miccaela while freezing some killers stiff - =================================== The Ceaseless Siren =================================== Difficulty: PotD -------------------------------------------------------------- Solo: untested -------------------------------------------------------------- Class: Spiritualist - Psion/Troubadour -------------------------------------------------------------- Race: Wild Orlan (or any) -------------------------------------------------------------- Background: Old Vaillia (or any) - Slave (or any) -------------------------------------------------------------- Stats (w/o Berath's Blessings, ★=recommmendation) MIG: 10 (11, -1 Orlan) CON: 10 (do not dump) DEX: 12 PER: 15 (13, +2 Orlan) ★ INT: 19 (18, +1 Old Vailia) ★★ RES: 12 (11, +1 Orlan, do not dump) ★ -------------------------------------------------------------- the unique icons for all passive abilities are part of the Community Patch mod Abilities | Skills | Proficiencies - (!=important, r=recommended, a=automatic) 00. Brisk Recitation (! a) + Telekinetic Burst (a) 01. Whisper of Treason + If Their Bones Still Slept + Blessed was Wengridh | Dagger + Large Shield 02. Lingering Echoes | +1 Stealth (->1), +1 Intimidate (->1) 03. Soul Shock | +1 Stealth (->2), +1 Intimidate (->2) 04. At the Soud of his Voice + Mental Binding | +1 Stealth (->3), +1 Insight (->2) | Small Shield 05. Weapon and Shield Style (r) | +1 Stealth (->4), +1 Intimidate (->3) 06. Phantom Foes | +1 Stealth (->5), +1 Insight (->3) 07. Ancient Brittle Bones + Puppet Master | +1 Stealth (->6), +1 Bluff (->3) 08. Secret Horrors | +1 Stealh (->7), +1 Intimidate (->4) | Sabre 09. And Hel-Hyraf Crashed | +1 Slight of Hand (->3 ), +1 Insight (->4) 10. The Shield Cracks + Pain Block | +1 Stealth (->8), +1 Bluff (->4) 11. Spell Shaping | +1 Sleight of Hand (->4), +1 Intimidate (->4) 12. Penetrating Visions | +1 Sleight of Hand (->5), +1 Insight (->5) | Club 13. Rapid Casting + Borrowed Instinct | +1 Mecanics (->2), +1 Bluff (->5) 14. Keen Mind | +1 Mechanics (->3), +1 Intimidate (->6) 15. Farcasting (r) | +1 Mechanics (->4), +1 Insight (->6) 16. Quick Summoning + The Empty Soul | +1 Mechanics (->5), +1 Bluff (->6) | Scepter 17. Disintegration | +1 Mechanics (->6), +1 Intimidate (->7) 18. Greater Focus | +1 Arcana (->2), +1 Insight (->7) 19. Many Lives Pass By (r) + Ancestor's Memory | +1 Arcana (->3), +1 Bluff (->7) 20. Called to His Bidding | +1 Arcana (->4), +1 Intimidate (->8) | Pistol --------------------------------------------------------------- Items (!=important, r=recommended) Weapon Set 1: Sasha's Singing Scimitar (r, +Refreshing Finale, +Shocking Prelude), Shimmer Scale (+Warped Scales, +Thermal Ablation, +Legendary) Weapon Set 2: Lover's Embrace (use modal at all times), Shining Bulwark (+Rear Guard, +Legendary, use modal when shot at) Head: Pearlescent Rhomboid Helstone (or any other) Back: Cloak of Greater Deflection (r - helps to demotivate enemies from attacking you) Neck: Charm of Bones (r - for the added INT -> bigger AoE and durations) Armor: Casita Samelia's Legacy (+Legendary, +Ardent) or Nomad's Brigandine (+Tail of the Column, +Tactical Withdraw, +Legendary) or Gipon Prudensco (+Legendary, +Fight Another Day, +No Fool I) Waist: Girdle of Eoten Constitution Hands: Bracers of Greater Deflection (r - helps to demotivate enemies from attacking you) Rings: Chamaeleon's Touch (+1 INT & +1 PER) or Ring of Protection or Deflection, Kuaru's Prize Boots: Boots of Stability or Boots of Speed Pet: Loki (+15% AoE size) or Animancy Cat (when using summons a lot) or whatever suits your spell selection --------------------------------------------------------------- What is this build about: endless generation of resouces: you gain focus and phrases for your spells without having to do anything. That also means your resources fill up while you cast, run around etc. Using the Psion (focus gain per second, scales with Power Level) and the Troubadour (phrases elapse twice a fast with Brisk Recitation -> double the phrase point generation) gives you a caster who never runs out of spell resources and has almost no downtime: excellent action economy no need to actively use your weapon (which you are not good with anyways) immense versatility with all sorts of great spells: healing, reviving, disables, damage, buffing, mind control, summons - you can do it all. Pick what your party needs and you’ll be good at it. You can then also alter the gear to your needs. For example: if you wanted to play a Ceaseless Siren as a damage dealer who is spamming shock spells (Her Revenge + Soul Shock) nonstop you could pick up Deltro's Cage instead of the armor I listed above. If you want to take a support role (casting Pain Block and singing Ancient Memory or Mercy and Kindness etc.) you could use the Physikers Belt and a pet that does +15% healing and so on. The most potent combination might be to focus on mind control on the Psion side (Whisper of Treason, Puppet Master, Ringleader) and on summons on the Troubadour side (Animated Weapon + Many Lives Pass By), but constant CC spells are also very impactful: spamming Killers Froze Stiff + Mental Binding lets you completely disable and control whole groups of enemies pretty early in the game. independent from special unique items, this build can free up gear for other party members who might need it more. Sasha's Singing Scimitar is great, but even without it this caster is very effective. So if you want to include another chanter in the party who might make even better use of the weapon (for example a Bellower) it's not a problem. attributes can be allocated freely fitting your role. For example a damage dealer wants more MIG, a summoner or supporter/healer wouldn't need a lot of PER. one of the very few class combinations that beat the Ultimate challenge without the "endless duration of buffs" exploit - which shows how powerful it can be. I chose a mix of CC, damage, healing and summons so that there's always an answer to most situations. While playing you will quickly find out which spells you like to use the most - just can alter your choices of abilities and gear accordingly. Issues: when you get damaged (or critically hit when using the Community Patch mod which I recommend) your focus generation will stop for a short time. Unconditional focus generation is the Psion’s forte. While phrase generation stops briefly after an invocation the Psion’s focus never stops growing until damaged (or critically hit with the CP mod). Without this costant focus generation the Psion is bad. So you want to avoid getting attacked! You automatic ability Telikinetic Burst can help of course. But there's other ways to reduce the risks: stay stealthed at the beginning of combat. You want to load up on focus anyway - and when enemies have settled on your party members (like your tank) you are lot less likely to get attacked. having good deflection and/or immunity against disengagment attacks lets you get away without damage. you shouldn't build a glasscannon but have to invest into defenses. You can also use summons and mind control/disables to avoid damage to great effect - but more importantly (because it works without much effort and micromanagement) raise your deflection and armor and don’t dump your CON (health). There are lots of enemies out there that specifically look for weak party members in terms of low deflection, low armor and low health (like rangers, rogues and barbs do). Using a shield and putting on decent armor deters most of those enemies from picking you as their favorite target in the first place, giving you an easier time. sacrifice some offensive prowess for defense. It will help to let this character play a lot more smoothly than maxing your offensive potential. Unusual for a caster but it works. The best offensive stats mean nothing if you cannot cast because you lack focus. Another great way to prevent getting attacked (without having to actively do anything) in the later game is to sing Many Lives Pass By at all times - a weak skeleton that pops up every 3 seconds and forms a group of skeletons with its buddies quickly draws attention away from you and shields you from almost all attackers. Why is it fun: because of the endless and fast resource generation there’s always something to do, very little downtime. Opposite of low level Wizards, Priests or Druids who have very few spells in he early game. the spell selection is great always good impact, powerful right away bc. of summons, great CC and so on extremely versatile. There are Very little situations where you cannot contribute. The swiss army knife of casters because of the rel. good sturdyness (to avoid focus stop) little frustration from getting knocked out etc. which is great for inexperienced players. does not depend on items - this can help to attain a special look or theme/background a lot more easily without the feeling you have to sacrifice performance. Hope you enjoy! Cheers!

What makes builds fun for me? they are powerful/impactful (enough) - there's no fun if your character feels like a millstone around the party’s neck they don’t need late game gear to function - although getting late game gear to improve them can be a motivation. But having to wait forever in order to make your character click for the last hour of the game can be frustrating you don’t have to wait for late game abilities for them to be fun to play ad impactful (same as above) - although having the goal of reaching a great high lvl ability can add to the fun and motivation. Even at lvl 20 (if you have DLCs installed) there's still a good amount of game left to enjoy the highest lvl abilities they don’t need a lot of repetitive setups in every fight - that's not as much of a problem if that’s easy to script though (although I personally don't like to use the AI with my MC) but for example: if you need to manually switch several grimoires at the beginnig of the fight the fun will not last and you will stop doing that quickly. If your character's performance relies on that switching you most likely won't feel okay with this character No overpowered 1-trick ponies (at least not too early in the game). It’s okay if that happens in the late game, but it ruins the playthrough if you can win every fight with the same trick and the same character - while the rest of the party is only there to watch (looking at you, Grave-Calling Berserker/Beckoner) Good reactivity - it gets frustrating if the character plays like a slowpoke but would profit a lot from being more reactive. This can also mean using a reloading weapon is better than using a recovery weapon (reloading can be stopped for other actions, recovery cannot) fits the party - best if it fits a lot of party compositions and doesn't need a party build around it. But sometimes that can be fun, too. Anyway: it's no fun to use a build which mechanics don't blend into the others' not too much micromanagement - but also not too little. For companions low micro can be great - for my MC I like to (reasonably) micromanage and use active abilites manually. this leads to plenty (or even unlimited) resources. I personally like it if resources can be refilled somehow or costs can get refunded. Can also mean the resources are fixed but there are great abilities that aren't too expensive general versatility - being good at/useful for more than one single thing craftiness/creativity of the build (something to be proud of when a build idea does indeed work) out-of the ordinary/original (there's not much exitement when taking a well-trodden path) good character story (at least in my head) so it’s not a blank slate. An emotional connection does help a lot. And no - the silly stuff I write at the top of my build posts are not the stories I use. thematically coherent and somewhat believable stylish/cool/badass good/entertaining sound effects (surprisingly important!) good vfx (without crashing the game or destroying the performance)

This build was created for a collaboration with @Aestus who runs the Youtube channel Aestus_RPG. Here's the video where we talk about this and other builds. This is build 1 of 5 from that collaboration. ----------------------------------------- This build is mainly meant for inspiration. You don't need to follow it in detail to have fun. If you understand the key features - the basic idea what makes this build special - you can usually deviate from my non-core attribute-, skill-, gear- and ability selection and form the build to your own likings and ideas. I do not try to produce the most powerful uberbuilds (often those are the most boring to play in he long run) but to focus on having fun while playing. Usually that means the build is powerful - but it's not the main focus. If you like to read about my personal requirements for "fun to play" builds, you can jump to a list below this post ----------------------------------------- rancfre Ghostoo Cullywoot was born in Rauatai to human parents: a Berserker mom named Clawsine and a Helwalker Monk dad named Auamensh - who didn't really have the most healthy relationship as you can imagine... she losing her temper all the time while he enjoyed blows tis body and all that kerfuffle. But they tried for the kid's sake and somehow managed to raise Wrancfre. He learned the way of the Berserker as well as the path of the Helwalkers. Is parents drummed it into him (with swift flurries often) that one never couldn't cross those streams. At the age of 16 Wranfcfe still hadn't decided whose footsteps to follow. Everybody and their pets, animal companions and even conjured familiars told him he could not do both - because it is known that this foolishness would mean instant suicide. So he crossed the streams... "The power of pain So hard to sustain Cleaning my soul Frenzy on, very noisin' Love with spikes of pois'n Purge the soul Make wounds your gooooal!" - Wrancfre while bodyblowing some c0cky wizards - =================================== The Fountain of Woe =================================== Difficulty: PotD -------------------------------------------------------------- Solo: untested -------------------------------------------------------------- Class: Ravager - Berserker/Helwalker -------------------------------------------------------------- Race: Human (any subrace) -------------------------------------------------------------- Background: Rauatai (or any) - Laborer (or any) -------------------------------------------------------------- Stats (w/o Berath's Blessings, ★=recommendation) MIG: 10 (do not go higher - so with +2 from BB and +1 from Human pick 7 base) CON: 19 (18 + 1 Rauatai) ★★ DEX: 14 PER: 18 ★ INT: 14 RES: 04 (3 + 1 Human) -------------------------------------------------------------- the unique icons for all passive abilities are part of the Community Patch mod Abilities | Skills | Proficiencies - (!=important, r=recommended) 01. Frenzy (!) + Force of Anguish (!) | Morning Star (!) + Pollaxe 02. Swift Strikes (!) | +1 Athletics (->4), +1 Intimidate (->2) 03. Blooded | +1 Athletics (->5), +1 Survival (->3) 04. Thick Skinned + Two-Handed Style | +1 Athletics (->6), +1 Intimidate (->3) | Pike 05. Barbaric Blow (r) | +1 Athletics (->7), +1 Insight (->2) 06. Long Stride | +1 Athletics (->8), +1 Insight (->3) 07. Bloodlust + Swift Flurry (!) | +1 Athletics (->9), +1 Intimidate (->4) 08. Efficient Anguish | +1 Athletics (->10), +1 Survival (->4) | Battle Axe 09. One Stands Alone | +1 Athletics (->11 ), +1 Bluff (->1) 10. Spirit Frenzy (!) + Duality of Mortal Presence (r) | +1 Athletics (->12), +1 Bluff (->2) 11. Bloody Slaughter | +1 Athletics (->13), +1 Bluff (->3) 12. Rooting Pain | +1 Athletics (-> 14), +1 Intimidate (->5) | Rod 13. Tough + Enervating Blows (!) | +1 Athletics (->15), +1 Survival (->5) 14. Leap | +1 Athletics (->16), +1 Insight (->4) 15. Barbaric Smash (r) | +1 Athletics (->17), +1 Bluff (->4) 16. Brute Force (!) + Turning Wheel (r) | +1 Athletics (->18), +1 Intimidate (->6) | Quarterstaff 17. Savage Defiance | +1 Athletics (->19), +1 Intimidate (->7) 18. Interrupting Blows | +1 Athletics (->20), +1 Survival (->6) 19. Blood Thirst (!) + Heartbeat Drumming (!) | +1 Athletics (->21), +1 Intimidate (->8) 20. Stalwart Defiance | +1 Athletics (->22), +1 Survival (->7) | Estoc --------------------------------------------------------------- Items (!=important, r=recommended) Weapon Set 1: Saru Sichr (! - +Paralytic, +Legendary) Weapon Set 2: Lord Darryn's Voulge Head: Death's Maw (r - for self-damage resistance) Back: Cloak of Greater Protection Neck: Amulet of Greater Health (r - or a +1 CON amulet like Cipher's Shackles) Armor: Devil of Caroc Breastplate (! +Legendary (a), +Devil's Due (r) - regaining health on crit, +Mechnical Mind (!) - remove Berserker Confusion) Waist: The Undying Burden (r - for self- damage resistance and more CON->health) Hands: Gauntlets of Greater Reliability (r - helps to graze enemies with very high defenses with Body Blows) Rings: Voidward (! - greater self-damage resistance), Ring of Prosperity's Fortune (helps with crits when rich) or Chamaeleon's Touch (+1 CON & +1 DEX) Boots: Boots of the Stone Pet: Abraham (not only speed but also +10 health on kill) or Socrates (+20 health on kill - recommended if Edér uses Abraham -> +30 health on kill) --------------------------------------------------------------- What is this build about: gaining wounds incredibly fast from Frenzy‘s self damage, paired with the Helwalker‘s rising MIG bonus (+1 per Wound) and the increased damage to self (+5% per Wound). together with the self damage you're not only gaining wounds faster than you can spend them but you also profit from Blooded (+25% dmg) as well as Fighting Spirit (humans’ passive ability, +7 ACC, +15% dmg) lowering enemies‘ fortitude defense a LOT on the fly with: Morning Star‘s modal „Body Blows“: -25 Spirit Frenzy (staggers): -10 (-5 MIG) Enervating Blows (weakens): -10 (-5 CON) targeting enemies' lowered Fortitude: first with special abilites like Force of Anguish/Efficient Anguish later with Brute Force: target Fortitude with all attacks that would target deflection instead (if Fortitude is lower) because of this, extreme accuracy is not required to deliver lots of critical hits (but of course it would still help, so please send buffs ) Force of Aguish pushes enemies into your Carnage AoE. Usually the initial target of your hits doesn't get affected by Carnage. With Force of Anguish it does! You push the enemy into Carnage Area before Carnage dmg get rolled - so Carnage treats the enemy like any other who's in the AoE: raw dmg. This means that Force of Anguish with Carnage does extra raw damage to single targets which is great. using a multihit weapon and pair it with Swift Flurry and Heartbeat Drumming. A weapon such as the Morning Star Saru Sichr: it has 2 attack rolls, the normal physical pierce/crush roll and "Poison-Dipped", a DoT effect that rolls against Fortitude (what a nice coincidende). They both count as „proper“ melee attacks and they can both trigger Swift Flurry and HBD when they critically hit! The great thing about such multihit weapons (there are others such as the flail Sun & Moon or the Pike Wicked Beast) is: no matter which attack roll crits and triggers SF or HBD, those additional attacks roll twice again: the physical and the additonal one. Those can crit again and trigger another SF/HBD attacks and so on and so forth, creating a loop. This is a huge advantage over single hit weapons and raises the chance to cause a deadly loop of crits that can kill an enemy on the spot. Works best against low fortitude foes obviously. in addition to the Swift Flurry stuff the DoT of Saru Sichr is very powerful: the DoT stacks with itself - and every time you reapply the DoT you trigger a tick immediately which leads to a significant increase of dps (same as with Bleeding Cuts from Battle Axes or Deep Wounds). it also interrupts very reliably with not only Force of Anguish, but also Rooting Pain. Since you gain wounds so frequently you also trigger Rooting Pain frequently which interrupts bystanders (and damages them a bit) pair all that with Blood Thirst at the latest levels… essentially it is a debuffing+CC+damage-dealing build, best used for hunting down squishy but dangerous enemies. But is also very helpful against bosses due to the fast and reliable debuffing of Fortitude, which helps most party members to land spells a lot more easily etc. Issues: the self damage which gives you a lot of wounds also kills you quickly the self damage of Berserker’s Frenzy scales steeply with Power Level (unusual +2 per PL base dmg). This base damage gets boosted by MIG, the Helwalker’s increased self dmg percentage (remember +5% per wound), Blooded (+25%) and effects of items (such as Baubles of the Fin or a pet like Harley etc.). That's the main resaon to not raise your base MIG over 10. You will gain +15 MIG already from Frenzy and the Helwalker passive - you don't need more and you don't want more because it makes you go down more quickly. to avoid killing yourself you should def. raise CON, pick up items with CON and/or health bonuses. In addition pick “Tough” and wear an amulet of Greater Health. This makes the build surprisingly sturdy at the early levels bc. the self dmg is still low. also use items that give you resitance to damage (Undying Burden, Death's Maw, Voidward!) - they work very well to soften the self damage and make it manageable. This, together with the high health, balaces out the self damage at higher levels very well. unintuitively picking Iron Wheel is not a good solution. Even though it raises CON and AR and sounds lie a good idea: it doesn’t stack with Berserker’s Hardy (+5 CON and +2 AR) - so a lot of its effects would be wasted. Better to pick Turniung Wheel for more dmg and longer duration of buffs (such as Swift Flurry). get items that heal you up: Abraham (+10 health per kill) or Socrates (+20 health per kill) and the Devil of Caroc Breastplate (healing over time on crit - also useful against Confusion) This build profits a lot from a good healer in the party obviously. But raising Athletics like there's nothing else also helps. It heals you a great deal at 20+. Savage Defiance is better than going down in a pinch, too. Berserker’s Confusion is annoying and cannot be exploited with this build - so you want to get rid of it asap. You could do that with Enlightened Agony - but that’s wasting 2 ability points. Better to get Devil of Caroc Breastplate and enchant it. Or use food like Luminous Lobster. But since the Breastplate also heals on crit it’s the best pick imo. as long as you have to deal with Confusion do NOT pick Rooting Pain! It will interrupt yourself. Only pick Rooting Pain when you have enchanted the Breastplate properly (or got rid of Confusion otherwise) the DoT "Poison Dipped" of Saru-Sichr which produces that double-hit effect for SF/HBD does not work against poison-immune foes. Why is it fun? always wounds to spend and buff you up - alsmost never has to use auto-attacks right from the start. hits very well right away: Body Blows + Force of Enguish alone carry the build through early game alone - because Boy Blows is a "free" and big defense debuff/ACC buff right away. good weapon damage even without exploiting critical hits nice CC early on - especially satisfying when using it against casters an other annoying enemies later becomes even stronger with Spirit Frenzy and Enervating Blows, debuffing Fortitude even more with the introduction of SF and then Brute Force it makes another leap finalizing the fun ability collection with Heartbeat Drumming and Blood Thirst, who doesn't like crit chains + Blood Thirst, right? so it’s just works well from start to finish - which makes it enjoyable when a crit loop happens (and that's often if you focus on the right enemies) it’s just jawdropping I personally enjoy the challenge to keep it alive lots of crits, paired with the right voice (noble for me) results in lots of contagious laughter during battle - which is just so fun and is lightening my mood Hope you enjoy! Cheers!

I don't know. But at some point, after stacking many -% recovery/reloading time bonuses, there was no noticable difference anymore - and when I switched on the modal (+50% reloading time) the reloading time went up less than it should have. So I assumed I must have hit the cap before. Edit: or maybe it was with a somewhat similar party setup but on a Streetfighter/Arc.Ar. and a Troubadour as party member where I had that experience. I tested a lot of arbalest+modal characters that day and finally settled on AA/Troubadour. But yes: I guess unless you use DW pistols you won't "accidentally" hit the cap.

That limit is annoying (also prevents the Blaster's enchantment that skips reloading from working). What I do when I hit that limit: I put on thicker armor to deter ranged enemies from targeting that character or do something else which would otherwise slow me down but is benefical. Like using Harley instead of Cutthroat Cosmo or something like that. I hit it with a Arcane Archer/Troubadour with Spearcaster because I was combining so many reloading buffs (Sure-Handed-Ila which applies twice, Gunner, Tricorn, Maia's Armor+Abraham and so on). I then decided to just leave the modal on at all times (+50% reloading time) and of course this was a bit slower but still fast enough. The upside (interrupt+prone on hit) though was so incredibly useful that it's totally worth the slightly less fast reloading. So thanks for the reloading limit I guess.

That was fixed with a patch. I haven't had that problem in years.

That's right. Wizard's Double doesn't get removed by grazes, but hits (and crits) from any attack roll (even ones that don't target deflection) will remove it.

Frostseeker. It's both good against single enemies and mobs alike and its AoE generates focus. Use Borrowed Instinct (more crits), Time Parasite and pick the Shared Nightmare passive. Frostseeker's AoE on crit will grow with Shared Nightmare, so Shared Nightmares makes the AoE bigger with more focus - which generates more focus because you reach more enemies - which makes the AoE bigger... and so on. Serafen's mortars are good against mobs as well and will profit from Shared Nightmare, but less good against single enemies. Kitchen Stove is very good because of Tunderous Report (high dmg AoE cone 1/encounter). It generates a ton of focus if used against numerous foes and is great to fill your focus up asap 1/encounter. After that it's just a regular blunderbuss though with its rel. low PEN pierce-only damage. Waterhaper's Focus (enchanted with Ondra' Wrath) is very good against mobs - but really bad against single enemies. Hunting Bow + modal is a good option. Essence Interrupter and Aamiina's Legacy are both great. Only useable against single targets though. That's why all in all I'd pick Frostseeker.

Animal Companions don't disturb your stealth and even if you put zero points into the Animal Companion abilities you still can have an additional body + summons in the field - while you cannot have AC and chanter summons at the same time as a Ghost Heart/Chanter (except when using Many Lives or a replacement summon such as Ancient Brittle Bones). The biggest drawback for me would be that I would not be able to use Stalker's Link against bosses if I also wanted to use summons. Good point about items that require you to be truly alone - but most summons will cancel those beneficial effects, too, wouldn't they? The rest of the points: fair enough. There's no argument when it comes to taste and what you enjoy (or don't enjoy).

I don't understand that choice either - also because with any Ranger/Chanter combo you can revive the animal companion potentially unlimited times (they don't get injured on knockout).

I played an Assassin/Bleak Walker pretty soon after the game came out. The value of big arquebus crits with Assassinate+Flames of Devotion is fairly limited after the early game. Enemies' health pools just become too big. Only if you can become invisible lots of times during an encounter an arquebus with Assassinate makes sense. So I combined Assassin with Priest of Skaen for more invisibility uses per encounter (that was before Arkemyr's Brilliant Departure). If I wanted to maximize invisibility uses for an Assassin I would pair it with a Bloodmage I guess who can cast Brilliant Departure lots of times and also has the benefit of an Essential Phantom which also can make good use of an arquebus setup.

Yes, scripting the switching at the start of battle (or with another initial trigger for that behavior) would be doable.

Uh... for some reason I got it backwards in my trail of thought.

Dps-wise and speaking about "self-contained builds" I guess there's not much that comes close to the described Streetfighter/Troubadour with wisps, but it doesn't have great accuracy. So I'd say Ranger/Troubadour with Marked for the Hunt, Marksman, Driving Flight, Gunner and so on and Sure-Handed Ila + Aefyllath Ues Mith Fyr, using the Red Hand. Great reloading speed, great accuracy, good versatility (due to invocations, esp. summons), good dmg per shot (burning lash at all times). But it's true that you only need a chanter in the party for that. If there is one then including the rogue class is great. For example: If you don't enchant the Red Hand with Double Tap but the Knockdown effect instead, a Rogue/Ranger can be very good - if Arterial Strike is used a lot. I mean it's great anyway bc. of all the dmg bonuses paired with high ACC. But I mean it's even better imo if you can knock enemies away from allies with Arterial Strike and they will suffer greatly if they want to re-engage (they usually want that). With Driving Flights it's two enemies with one shot who will hobble around, bleeding out. It's very useful and does a lot of damage per shot, too. It's not as fast with reloading but good enough imo. You lose the double tap against vessels but I think it's worth it in this case. If you have a chanter in the party you can still use the wisp trick and pick a streetfighter for the rogue/ranger. For a solo arquebus user I think not much comes close to @Kaylon's Assassin/Tactician. It's posted here as a build somewhere with the mechanics explained. Mechanically I'm not a big fan of the Devoted with an arquebus because he's at a disadvantage when he meets pierce resistant or immune enemies - or ones with an Arcane Veil (which are pretty frequent, esp. among the vessel and spirit categories). Black Jacket is okay. I personally don't see a huge advantage when using 0-recovery weapon-set switching though because of the Red Hand arquebus. You buy up to 3 quick extra shots with increased micromanagement - I mean on paper it's worth it, but I find that one stops to care after a few encounters because the switching gets annoying. Especially when the fights last longer and longer it's not worth my time. Conquerer Stance is very nice though. And with the Community Patch Weapon Mastery is nice, too. Thematically a Sharpshooter/Devoted would make a lot of sense - and as long as you don't meet too many pierce immune foes (or just make your character sturdy enough to be able to punch those with Monastic Unarmed Training) it would also perform well. +3 PEN at closer range is pretty good - +6 when using Penetrating Strike: a lot of overpenetration I guess?

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.