Boeroer

Right... unless somebody would do a big survey just to find out - which sounds unlikely to me.

Yet again this fails to wholesomely explain Deadfire's low sales numbers because: 1. Once players experience issues with the release version they already bought the game. 2. If many players would have had massive issues with the release version it would be reflected in the user reviews (which were fine). 3. If players were disappointed by PoE and thus wouldn't want to buy Deadfire it would find its way into user reviews (which are fine) 4. If players, based on their experience with PoE, waited until purchase until all DLCs and patches are out, Deadfire sales should have surged after Patch 5.0 was out. Which didn't happen. --- Whileyour story is 100% understandable and I can relate - it fails to explain what happened on a big scale. You can't just assume that your personal experience is like a blueprint for millions of other potential players: because that would have resulted in certain observable signs like mediocre user reviews, bad critics or whatever. Or it would have lead to increased sales once the product was truly finished. As of today Obsidian still has no def. clue what went wrong - it's a bit of a mystery even with tools like telemetry etc. It seems more like a lot of potential cRPG players just didn't care (or maybe didn't know?) about Deadfire for whatever reason.

It's one of the easiest to steal items in the game. I guess because it's very helpful to have it on Motare o Kōzi and devs didn't want the player to make it too unlikely to have it by then.

Hang me by the thumbs! "At your service" he says.

It says so I guess you're good. The subclasses in that build are Bleak Walker/Soulblade - which is nice generally - but you said you want to play a good guy so I suggest to pick anotehr paladin subclass like Kind Wayfarer for example.

Keep in mind that several Cipher spells can't be cast on themselves though.

You would want high perception and intellect. Might is not that important but you wouldn't want to lower it too much either. I'd say the two most important invocations are the Lightning Cone and Killers Froze Stiff. Ben Fidel's Neck is also very good because the defense debuff stacks with almost everything. White Worms is a very powerful invocation, too (if you understand how it works). One important thing about Chanters: their phrase pool size is determined by the most costly invocation they have. Meaning if your most expensive invocation costs 6 phrases your max phrase count will be 6. No if a Skald only picks offensive invocations (which he gets a discount on) he will have a rel. small phrase pool. You want to pick an expensive (yet useful) invocation at some point to get a bigger pool. As multiclass Skald a great condadate for such an inv. is for example the Animated Weapons which will give you a phrase pool of 7 ( 6 and the Skald's increased cost of +1 because it's a non-offensive invocation). Maybe take another costly summoning invocation on the way to max level to enjoy the benefits of a bigger phrase pool before the end game. At the start of each encounter you'll have a phrase boost and can cast even your most costly invocation right away. Summons are very impactful early in the fight. Or use a buffing cone. Those are also quite good because long-lasting.

Yes, at least all strike abilities of the Rogue class. Flames of Devotion, too. If you don't want three Rogues then you can play rel. similar with a Paladin/Soulblade and have more spell variety but a bit less weapon dmg. Paladin/Skald as well. Flames of Devotion + Ring of Focused Flames means +20 Accuracy which leads to a lot of crits, giving the Skald phrases. You can use Killers Froze Stiff for CC and the Lightning invocation is pretty strong, especially if fueled with a lash from Eternal Devotion. Even a Paladin/Monk with that setup can be lots of fun.

Did you just call people "sh!ts"?

ROFL... I just tried a Trickster/Shattered Pillar with Offensive Parry and Riposte + Swift Flurry/Heartbead Drumming. Riposte and Offensive Parry can trigger Swift Flurry/HBD. While Offensive Parry is a single target attack the Rogue's Riposte does the whole cone attack (!) - and all attack rolls in the cone can trigger SF/HBD, too. Just annihilated 10 tigers in seconds. Also Blinding Strike is cool because it not only lowers enemies' ACC (=more misses) bus also their deflection (because flanked) which means more crits for SF/HBD. Offensive Parry is giving wounds obviously. If you use Avenging Storm from Heaven's Cacophony it gets really ridiculous. What a fun test that is. Maybe I'll do an animated gif. Edit: I'm getting way too many Ripostes. Like nearly on every miss. Maybe Offensive Parry somehow confuses Riposte or something?

If Edér is engaging a lot of enemies then there will be less of them attacking you in melee, that's right. But you can still flank them and attack them with the cone AoE. Like hitting them all with Arterial Strike and Gouging Strike, later even Toxic Strike. And should they turn around and attack you you'll have those parries. Paladin/Soulblade with WotEP is also very nice: you generate focus with (Eternal) Flames of Devotion and then dump the focus again with Soul Annihilation (which also works well with the cone AoE).

If you like Paladin/something with Great Swords I can recommend Whispers of the Endless Paths (which is a huge, massive blade) with its enchantment "Offensive Parry". Offensive Parry will give you a free riposte attack (instant, no animation, no recovery) every time an enemy does miss you. Offensive Parry attacks generate focus for ciphers (i like Paladin/Soulblade), wounds for Shattered Pillar Monks (not that high deflection but great dmg output) and can also be used by a Paladin/Skald to gain phrases (if they crit). You "only" need a lot of deflection. Luckily Paladins do have some deflection buffs. A good synergy of tankyness, melee dmg and some casting would be a Paladin/Trickster. Tricksters get Mirrored Image which stacks with the Paladin's passive deflection buffs, giving you high deflection. Combine with fitting items like Cloak of Greater deflection etc. Also Riposte (from Rogue) stacks with Offensive Parry. So enemy misses can result in two parallel retaliations. The Rogue's strikes all work with the WotEP's cone shaped AoE, for example Blinding Strike. And Tricksters can use some CC spells like Dazzling Lights, Ryngrim's Repulsive Visage and so on. It's a fun combo and a good frontliner. Against single targets you can bring another great sword because while WotEP is nice against mobs who attack you it's not that effective against remaining single targets.

Tekehu has some awesome foe-only offensive "watery" spells. I mostly don't cast anything else with him. And Great Maelstrom at PL9. Xoti's offensive arsenal is mostly fire. So she will cover that part. Druid's usually do CC and dmg and healing whilke Priests mostly buff and later deal fire dmg and also heal. Since you can't have too much healing capability there's no problem. Speaking of Tekehu: once you get to PL8 and can pick Avenging Storm you could try out how he does with Serafen's Hand Mortar + Fire in the Hole. It's pretty devastating... You could take the melee/caster hybrid route and do something like Bloodmage/Steel Garotte (although the favorite dispositions of Stell Garotte are not everybody's cup of tea) or any Arcane Knight really. They can be extremely tanky while being able to sling spells. Something sturdy with Skald is also nice - like Devoted/Skald. I'm playing a Helwalker/Skald atm and if I would use a phrase like Ancient Memory I would be rel. sturdy. A Paladin/Troubadour can be very, very sturdy, make the party more sturdy via Exalted Endurance + Ancient Memory and cast invocations (e.g. calling summons), too.

Ehhhhh... ...lol?

Like a game getting 10 years old?

There are a ton of options. I would say though that bringing a Priest for the buffs is always good (so Xoti in this case). If Edér is supposed to be a tank then I personally would pick another caster I guess. Something with Bloodmage or Troubadour or Beguiler or Psion. I had a lot of fun with Troubadour/Psion as CC/dmg hybrid lately since it's a non-stop caster (nearly always enough focus or phrases to cast stuff, endless resources). But it would help to narrow it down if you tell us what you'd like best. A lot of stuff is viable even on PotD.

...and Gomorrah!

Shimmer Scale can be enchanted so that you're immune to all gaze attacks which should include Gaze of the Adragan. You can also make your rogue blind - being blind makes you immune to gaze attacks as well. Against Form of the Helpless Beast you should use interrupts to be honest. THis is the most annoying spell in the Drowned Barrows. You can pile up some fortitude and put on Aloth's Armor with "Known Causality" (+10 defense against Transmutation) but it will still be a gamble. Better to put a Slicken under those Scrivener's feet or something like that.

Yep, that's it. Tried with a Helwalker and same thing: +2 wounds (and +2 mortification of course) on crit.

Yeah maybe. I will check.

Ah, good thinking! That may be. As it lloks now Stunning Surge ist a must-have for a Shattered Pillar. Sounds nice but has one disadvantage: besides Persistent Distraction there's no engagement. If you want to take advantage of terrify + disengagment you should pile up some engement slots. I compared Trickster to Unbroken and the damage on disengagement wasn't that much different (Overbearing Guard gives +50% and Unbroken +10 PEN) while the Unbroken could create lot more disengagement attacks in a given time due to his passive (+1), Guardian Stance (+3) and Hold the Line (+1). He lacks terrify though so you would need a party member to cause that. Furyshaper is nice because +3 enagement from Barbaric Shout, +1 from Thick Skinned, terrify galore - but no that much damage on disengagement. On the other hand Blood Thirst. I guess there are lots of nice combos.

Despite my 87% sureness Riposte does NOT generate wounds. :sadpandaface Offensive Parry DOES generate wounds. Okay, new list of wound generating stuff for Shattered Pillar: - auto attacks - Stunning Surge (2 per use - needs more testing) - Mortification of the Soul - Dance of Death - Parting Sorrow (nice in combination with Disengagement Attack) - Disengagement Attacks (nice in combination with terrify) - Offensive Parry - Imagined Pain (nice in combination with Offensive Parry) A Furyshaper/Shattered Pillar with Barbaric Shout (+3 engagement), Fear Ward and later Spirit Storm (both terrify) in combination with Parting Sorrow is harvesting wounds very quickly.

Cleaving Stance/Mob Stance do NOT generate wounds for Shattered Pillar.

Disengagement Attacks do generate wounds for Shattered Pillar. Nice in combo with Parting Sorrow and some terrify ability.