Boeroer

The Counselor build is very helpful for a party and imo a good candidate for a main char who wants to enjoy the dialogue options. Since it's not a damage-dealer but a support & tanking character (and later also good occasional CC) this character doesn't need a lot of DEX. 8 is sufficient if you can tolerate that he will not be the fastest striker. You can totally switch the race and it will still be fine. You could also focus even more on the accuracy support and pick Darcozzi Paladini (with Inspiring Liberation - another +10 ACC buff that stacks with everything) over Shieldbearer for example. Unfortunately some of the cornerstones of the Ploi Paladin (Coordinated Attacks and a weapon with the Marking enchantment) don't exist in that form in Deadfire anymore. However, a little variation that I tried that uses a special unique (and early) Estoc (instead of a marking weapon + shield) and is a Paladin/Ranger multiclass. It fulfills a similar role when it comes to ACC support. If the mind control aspect of the Ploi build (see different items' spellbinds) was more interesting then Paladin/Cipher with the same weapon choice would be a better pick. The Estoc I'm refering to is the Blade of the Endless Paths. It's implemented differently in Deadfire than in PoE but it still allows to improve the hitchances against enemies. In PoE it was done with Marking (ACC bonus), in Deafire it's done with lowering the enemies' deflection. The Ploi build would also work fine with the Blade of the Endless Paths by the way. Less tanky but better weapon damage. Until one reaches the Blade of the Endless Paths (comes pretty late in PoE) one can use an early Pollaxe named "Spectacular Spetum" which also hasthe Marking enchantment. Pollaxes use the same weapon focus as Estocs so it's a perfect backup weapon as well once you get the Estoc. So if you are looking for a smooth character build transition from PoE to Deadfire you should probably make a Ploi-inspired Paladin but instead of Sword & Board with Estoc/Pollaxe. Of course a Shieldbearer without a shield would be weird. In that case another Paladin subclass might be better I think. In that case I would chance the attributes a bit and give a little more DEX (because Estoc with lowish DEX and fat/slow armor bc. of no shield is not that much fun).

For Raedric's Castle I nearly always make sure to bring a Chanter with White Worms (usually that's Kana). As long as you don't reload the map and turn off the "gib" option in the game menu you can "reuse" the corpses of fallen enemies over and over again which is very effective at chokepoints where you can pile them in a small area. So what I will do is to lure enemies to a doorway, kill them there, then lure more enemies to that chokepoint, kill them with White Worms, lure more and so on. At some point whole groups will get one-shot by White Worms' multiple corpse explosions. It's the easiest way I know to clear the whole castle whithout wasting too many resources. I like to loot all the rel. expensive plate armor and other gear (which grants a lot of money so early in the game). I didn't actually try that with a solo Chanter - but I don't see why this wouldn't work solo, too.

Yeah - it's true that PER isn't that important in the long run. After all is done it might turn out to have been the least important attribute (out of the trio DEX, MIG and PER) when it comes to dealing damage. But I still recommend to put points into PER - especially for beginners who want to play offensive characters - because the first impression of your character is very important to how you perceive your char's performance, if you enjoy it or not. In the early game the options to raise your accuracy - and thus to improve your odds of delivering a hit (let alone a crit) - are very limited. At the same time the enemies have relatively high defenses (and also sometimes rel. thick armor compared to your damage per hit). It's one reason why the early game feels so tough for low ACC starters such as Barbs and also a reason why using a single one handed weapon is effective in the early game: it gives you +12 accuracy. If you miss a lot it's superannoyig of course - but also grazes' damage malus have a bigger negative impact on your overall damage than later in the game (where the additive damage malus of grazing gets countered by a variety of damage bonuses) so you barely scratch enemies with somewhat decent armor if you only graze them. This becomes very apparent in Raedric's Castle (lots of armored foes with good defenses). So especially in the early game you can feel a big difference between a character who has like ~10 ACC or even more over the others (be it from single one handed weapon and/or lots of PER and/or flanking the enemies before actually striking). So, basically it's a recommendation that makes it more likely that you won't get frustrated by your (otherwise fine) char's weapon performance in the early game - which will increase the odds that you stick with it and don't drop it prematurely. This is also the main reason why I recommend to take Inspiring Radiance asap with a fellow Priest. It's a short-lived +10ACC bonus - but it stacks with everything (good for the later game) and makes the early game a lot easier. If you know what you are doing you can totally drop PER and be fine. Later in the game there's so many options to compensate for lower PER and a few additional points of accuracy will only get you decreasing returns. But for somebody who's still "stumbling" through the mechanics a bit I'd say it's an easy way to make your har more enjoyable. In that regard I also value DEX over MIG a lot - it's more frustrating to play a very sluggish char than it is to play one who hits a bit less harder imo. But all in all, as was said: attributes matter, but they don't matter too much.

There have been issues with stacking non-stackable buffs when saving/loading a savegame (so some status of the corr. game object is def. altered) and also with items/stolen spells persisting when they shouldn't if you switch the underlying grimoire with the corr. spell. Maybe your persisting weapon effects/abilities have something to do with the quirks that cause those "problems", too.

Oh, convenient! Great job @ whoever build that website.

Wild Strike only affects his weapon damage (so his Spiritshift natural weapons) by adding a lash. It doesn't improve spells etc. I cannot say much about Tekehu's Spiritshift form. I almost never used it besides the early game (without any investment in abilities) because he was so busy casting his spells and his shark form doesn't help much with casting (besides giving decent armor with 0 recovery) but removes bonuses he might get from armor and/or weapon (for example Lance of the Midwood Stag, Spine of Thicket Green, Watershaper's Focus or Lord Darryn's Voulge).

This is really wild - and I never encountered this, despite having played this game for a really long time. So unfortunately I don't have any idea how to fix this.

Sure, you can do that and that is totally viable. Killing dragons will take a high level party though. They are very tough. Fortunately the attributes (MIG, CON etc.) don't have such a big impact as they had in BG or other D&D games. It's more about the right ability and talent choice and so on. Dwarf Fighter with dual war hammers for example can be effective. But not only with 20 MIG and 16 CON but also with 10 MIG and 18 INT. Because every attribute does something useful your character will not be gimped if you allocate attributes in a different way. He will just be better at certain things (for example delivering longer debuffs with higher INT) than in others (less damage per hit with lower MIG). By the way: High INT Fighters can have really great use: Fighters have great accuracy, way better than spellcasters. And they also have a great self buff that raises accuracy further. Because of that they are very good with items that grant spell effects (look for items with "spellbind" enchantments). For example there's an armor that lets you cast Sunbeam 3/rest and an amulat that lets you cast Sunbeam 2/rest on top. A fighter can cast those sunbeams with very high accuracy which makes them very effective casts. So you can essentialy play a sort of Fighter/Mage just by collecting those items (and having decent INT). Add one of the "cross class" talents such as Aspirant's Mark to emphasize the fighter/caster hybrid build further. A lot of fun builds are possible in this game. The classes are not as restricted as in BG. But that also means you have more creative freedom - and more stuff to think about.

just like that --- By the way: the focus generation of reaping knives is not tied to the knives themselves (for example an essential phantom with Reaping Knives who got the weapons from its wizard master generates no focus for the cipher). Instead it's a seperate "buff" on the character you cast the reaping knives on. But that also means that if you replace Reaping Knives with let's say Concelhaut's Draining Touch or Spirit Lance or whatever summones weapon, you still get +5 focus per hit. Or better: per attack. The AoE hits of the lance don't produce any focus unfortunately. Don't know if that's exploitable - I just found out. Edit: heh - Forbidden Fist attack also works for focus generation if you had Reaping Knives cast onto you (at least with Community Patch).

I tried now: doesn't work.

Psion/Troubadour is one of the most versatile builds there is and great for a party. At the same time it's also one of the best solo builds: as the record shows it's viable for the Ultimate challenge (without too much cheese that other combos will need). You can combine summons (chanter side) with constant mind control (Whispers of Treason, Puppet Master, Ring Leader) which means that you can turn almost every encounter into a "many vs. one" scenario easily while not receiving a scratch. While you summon with an invocation your focus fills up. While you cast a mind control power your focus fills up, too. If you run around your focu fills up. Should you get disabled, your focus... you get the idea. ;). I almost never had a situation where I couldn't cast anything bc. of scarce resources. There's always either enough phrases or focus (if you don't try to spam the highest tier stuff nonstop). But you can also go another, less "minion-y" route and spam Killers Froze Stiff (or in cases of immunity Ben Fidel's Neck) and for example Soul Shock all the time at lower levels. It's a nonstop chain of debuff/CC and damage. Jut use Blightheart (bound to chanter) and even get additional phrases if you kill enemies (doesn't matter how). If you add Many Lives later as chant you can even add "passive" summons to the mix. Almost no downtime, great action economy, big impact. Btw.: Death of 1000 Cuts is more effective in combination with Antipathetic Echo than with Mind Blades - if you can use another enemy as anchor. But mobs are common in boss fights. Very cheap and procs an instance of shred 1/sec over 10 secs. It's easy to spam it without downtime. Another cool feature of SC Psion would be Shared Nightmare you can watch your AoE grow by the second. If you have a really fast dual wielder in the party (I tried a Streetfighter/Barb with daggers) then Reaping Knives is absolutely great for a Psion, too. The knives don't actually give focus based on the damage they case but instead a flat +5 focus with every hit(!). If you hit very quickly you'll produce a lot of additional focus for the Psion so that he even can spam high tier powers. I didn't try if a Monk's Swift Flurry/Heartbeat Drumming attacks also produce that +5 focus. If so then that could be used against weak enemies in order to create great focus bursts.

Tried to access the beta but there is none - am I correct that it is only accessible with the Windows version and not Linux? Edit: uninstalled - reinstalling it while forcing Proton, maybe that'll do it. Edit 2: nope - that won't let me start the game at all. Too bad - but I guess this will happen without me. Edit 3: funny - I reverted back to ye olde linux version and suddenly (once I opted into the beta branch) I got the new update. Jucheissa!

If you want pieces flying around on critcal deathblows you have to look into the game options menu. There's a "gib" select box that has to be checked. But iirc it is on by default. Since the companions start one level above custom hirelings (the ones which you can compose yourself) they are usually not just dying and useless. Imo the game is a lot better with them than without them, at the very least for the first complete playthrough. Builds from the build list usually work for the companions, too - unless there's a specific character race involved which the build is based on (like fire godlike or so). I would recommend to bring a Priest (official companion named Durance). Priests are the most impactful class for a party because their support abilities are so strong. Paladins or Fighters will never be the most potent DPS option (same as in the old BG games etc.) but they can be among the most solid and reliable ones because it is usually difficult to kill then even if they are not build to be tanks. When it comes to melee dps, generally speaking: in this game dual wielding will have an edge over two handed - and that will be better than single weapon. There are of course lots of exceptions, it depends on the type of enemy and build and unique weapon etc. and there's no truly crucial difference, but if one aims for maximal melee dps then dual wielding is the way to go for Paladin or Fighter. A Paladin who wishes to focus on damage dealing should invest into his flames of devotion ability to be able to deliver two impactful strikes during an encounter. Later the ability Sacred Immolation will provide a ton of damage. Fighter has the good Knockdown ability and later the very good Charge ability. Don't sleep on Charge, it can take out weak but dangerous enemies like casters in the back rows very quickly because it does a "hidden" full attack (meaning both weapons strike) at the target on top of its crushing damage that it officially does. The game rewards stacking attack speed bonuses. As dual wielder you can rel. easily reach low recovery time. This is very important for weapon dps. Dexterity gives you speed and so does dual wielding and some talents and abilities but also some items. Speed is not only important for DPS but also to avoid getting interrupted (that sucks) and also to be more responsive/reactive. It can be very frustrating if you cannot drink a healing potion and die because you have to recover from a swing for ages. Accuracy is one of the most, if not the most important stat to have for an offensive character. Besides bringing a Priest who can boost the party's accuracy you want to make sure your dps fighter or paladin has good (or even maxed out) accuracy. First and easiest thing to do is to have good Perception. Then weapon quality provides accuracy among other benefits. A weapon with bonus accuracy is better than one with bonus damage (weapon quality provides both, but there is stuff like "accurate I-III and "damaging I-III" on some weapons). Damage per hit is not as important as damage per second (and attack speed itself) - but it plays an important role when you are against heavily armored enemies. High damage per hit makes it easier to overcome thick armor (more dmg gets through). There's a point where very fast attacks with lower dmg per hit get mostly eaten up by armor and a slow but hefty strike wins the day. So don't neglect dmg per hit altogether. All damage bonuses like from weapon quality or from abilities and also the Might stat raise the dmg per hit. In theory the best weapon dps will come from maxed DEX, PER and MIG and then the fitting abilities and weapons of course while having as little recovery as possible. But of course putting all your points into those that will make you more squishy. And knocked out chars do no dps. So it's a balance. The easier the difficulty setting the more 'glass-cannonish" you guy can be. In general it's very difficult for a melee char to not get attacked. But if you can keep the number of enemies who are attacking you low (for example by flanking an already engaged enemy rather than running inti the fray) you can stay alive much longer. Having said that, Fighter and Paladin are reasonably sturdy compared to most other classes even when going full dps mode. Way easier to stay alive than with Barbarian and Rogue. Rangers by the way don't have to be passive and only shoot bows etc. In PoE they make viable melee combatants - who come with their animal companion which can also be a good melee damage dealer (especially the part of high "damage per hit" against though armor can be done very well by an animal companion, when leveled properly they hit slowly - but like trucks). Rangers don't have the most fancy melee special attacks, but they can be faster bc. of a modal they can pick (see the importance of speed) and they are most accurate - while they come in a pair rather than alone which is already an advantage. Unlike BG games they have no spells besides a lil' tanglefoot thing that you don't need to pick - but are mostly about striking. The best rangers still use bows I'd say, but melee is a viable and fun option, too. I did some build in the build list named "Riptide..." - it's a two-handed melee ranger that was fun to play (but too squishy for a beginner though I think).

Watery double is great. The whole subclass is great imo despite the loss of (the other) summons. One thing about Thekehu: he will periodically cancel/clear all fire effects on him. While that's cool in most cases it also means that he clears beneficial fire effects on him - such as Mith Fyr from a fellow chanter.

Best beginner classes are Paladin, Fighter, Ranger and Monk. All of them have good starting values, are front loaded and aren't squishy. I personally like the Monk class best but it has the most "complicated" mechanics of those four. The easiest to start with might be the fighter. Barbarian is another favorite of mine but it's incredibly squishy in the early game due to the abysmal deflection defense - while hitting a barn door at best. It needs some levels to get going (and become lots of fun) and thus isn't great for beginners imo.

Guess it's time to pick it up again and finally get to those 6k hours...

Eh what?

She couldn't get the Paladin's defensive passives as high as a main player Paladin - and there was the health + endurance mechanic: health was finite and mostly unhealable - and endurance was tied to health (couldn't have more endurance than remaining health), so you couldn't outheal damage endlessly as you can in Deadfire. In Deadfire you can be tanky as hell as long as you can heal the incoming damage.

Yes, better than Orges. The Dragon Thrashed is not as good as it was in PoE. In Deadfire it's pretty weak on its own - compared to other chants of somewhat similar tiers. One can still make use of it if you can stack it in the party with several other sources of long lasting (AoE) damage over time effects (like for example Barbarian's Blood Storm or Druid's damage over time spells or so).

It should. Immunity to a melee attack usually is implemented as a 100%-to-miss conversion which can trigger riposte. I didn't test it with the armor though. But Riposte only triggers on a lowish percentage of misses (20% iirc) and the enchantment only gives a 5% chance. So overall it's 1/5th of 1 out of 20 attacks (or 1%). So I think this feature combo is absolutely negligible.

He's carrying a unique leather armor named Miscreant's Leather which is not bad - but it's not one of the items I put on my party in most runs (at least not for long).

Make Pallegina a Herald with Zealous Endurance + Ancient Memory as aura+chant, aim for the Blackened Plate and enchant it with the healing aura, get Lethandria's Devotion as shield and enchant it with Sheltering Light and maybe use Bardatto's Luxury as main weapon or a spear for more engagement if you need it and you'll have a sturdy tank who can passively heal herself and the party and also support actively with invocations, exortations and Lay on Hands. Later even dealing noticable damage becomes an option with Sacred Immolation (watch out for the self damage).

Single class or Bellower/Helwalker I guess. Some high level stuff like Eld Nary's Curse is very potent with a lot of bonus Power Levels. Also single class can take more of the empower passives which work pretty well with the 1/encounter Empower that Sasha's Singing Scimitar provides. Helwalker adds MIG, INT, cheap PEN (Thunderous Blows) and ACC ((Enduring) Dance of Death) and also has a theoretically unless unlimited supply of resources (wounds). It's a great multiclass addition for any caster imo. Also Monk/Chanter can be pretty good in melee bc. of Turning Wheel + Myth Fir + Lightning Strikes giving lots of lashes for little investment. Adds versatility...

This is why my dual pistol SC Kind Wayfarer with two weapon style AND rushed reload was so useful despite the ACC drop: crazy good responsiveness because the reloading was already very fast - but if even that was not fast enough I could just cancel the reloading process and react instantly. That and the party healing was done on the fly via White Flames while shooting...

It depends on your party. If you have (or planing to have) party members who use a lot of summons (like a Beckoner with Ancient Brittle Bones, Troubadour with the phrase Many Lives Pass By or an Ancient with Sporelings for example) then going Single Class Paladin can be very potent. The reason is that the ability "Divine Retribution" will give +2 Zeal on a summon's death, too. The best case is a Troubadour with Many Lives Pass By, sung with Brisk Recitation. Those skeletons pop out every 3 secs and die as quickly (because weak as wet tissue paper) so you'll basically get +2 Zeal every 3 seconds if the fight is rough and the skeletons die quickly. So you can provide exortations and Lay on Hands and whatnot all the time. If that's not the case then Herald. It has great "self-contained" synergy and is both very tanky and very supportive - not only actively but also passively (with chants + zealous auras combined) and also has summons, which are a very powerful in general.