Boeroer

There is an awesome spear called "Stalker's Patience" which would be the spear I would be aiming for if I wanted to do a spear & shield build. Does it have to be a single class rogue or are multiclasses (like Rogue/Ranger, Rogue/Monk and so on) also ok? Or even multiclasses that seem roguish bit actually contain no rogue class (like a Ranger/Monk and so on)? Because Stalker's Patience has an enchantment that gives the spear che chance to omit recovery on crit. Combined with Monk's Swift Flurry and Heartbeat Drumming (which can lead to a cascading flurry of crits) this enchantment can trigger quite often especially on lower difficulties then Path of the Damned. It can be a ton of fun. I would advise to use small shields then to avoid any ACC malus. Another good direction - but on the tanky side - is an Unbroken/Trickster with spear and shield. Spears have a fitting modal that helps with the engagement. Trickster delivers damage but also a deflection boot.

As OP you can edit the title.

Ha, it works if you unselect all and select all. I can't manually select the charmed character (via mouseclick) - but select all works.

Squid's Grasp + Hand Mortar (+Powder Burns+Blinding Smoke) on a Tactician/Debonaire sounds pretty fun though. Will test... Ah thanks. Will try that.

PS: this episode also taught me that I can cast Brand Enemy on a Berserker/Paladin which is hilarious in combination with Rekvu's Scorched Cloak.

As a side note: if you charm/dominate an enemy and then cast Disintegrate on them they won't flip back. It avoids that the enemies still attack you while they are dying from the DoT. Also works with Soul Ignition. Whisper of Treason almost costs nothing for a Beguiler. The only thing is that I don't know how charmed/dominated enemies interact with Brilliant Tactician. It may well be that they screw it up.

I tried it on a solo Berserker/Debonaire with Squid's Grasp. In theory it all works out: the character gains several inspirations from Rapier and Roguish Charm as planned, but the downside is you can't steer the charmed char anymore (so no switching to Modwyr like I also planned to do). You can't reselect as solo char because there's nobody else to select. Maybe there's some key to unselect all? And besides not being able to steer him he also doesn't do anything - because he lacks the AI I guess (didn't try to make a custom AI and switch it on). Maybe max RES and -x% hostile effects stuff could make this usable, but I don't think so. So I suspect it's best to not put the Rapier and the Roguish Charm on the same character...? Should try if a good AI setting takes over once I charm myself. If so this could be a way out and make this "one man selfcharming army" useful - for a party setup at least. If I can get the AI to switch to Modwyr that would be super good. The inspirations last quite a long time.

Nope. Hostiles can't be party members. Not even allies. Ally and party member are not the same by the way. The first can include summons (I think all friendly summons are considered allies), the second one only actual party members (those five guys you steer around). So it shouldn't even work if a summon gets charmed. But it may be that the description isn't accurate. Worth testing I think...

ROFL - nice one. I never tried to dominate myself. I never eve suspected that one might be able to cast a mind control on oneself at all (even when confused). Berseker/Debonaire charming themselves sounds like a hilarious dissociative-identity-disorder-character-concept. So if the wielder of Squid's Grasp and the Berserker/Debonaire would be the same person - would you get up to three Body Inspirations from Roguish Charm AND Swift + Intuitive from the rapier (Swift will override one of the charm bonuses at some point but stil...)?

Then maybe it would be a waste of ability points. Having the stances with no upgrade can be reasonable, too. Cleaving Stance is pretty neat by itself.

I don't understand. You can never have 0% recovery (only when having Blade Cascade or similar effects). Maybe you mean you'll have 0% recovery penalty from armor? That only means that you have no penalty from armor. That penalty prolongs your normal recovery time. But Mob Stance will not reduce that armor penalty (only Armored Grace and some pets do that) - it directly shortens your recovery time no matter the armor. Even if you are butt-naked a Great Sword still has 4 secs of recovery (at 10 DEX). Mob Stance would directly shorten that recovery time. Contender Armor does the same: it lowers recovery time directly, it does NOT lower the penalty. So even if you reach a recovery bonus that balances out the pentalty you can still stack more bonus because then you are actually faster than naked. Same is true for Miscrean't Leather and Devil of Caroc Breastplate. They reduce recovery time directly, NOT the recovery penalty. It may still be the case that you don't need Mob Stance - but maybe not for the reasons you thought. It's effect is quite limited if you are not fighting a lot of enemies at once. It is noticable if you are surrounded though. Generally speaking you can't have too many recovery time reducers or action speed buffs. THey have linear returns so more is always better. What you mean might happen if you take Armored Grace and an armor-penalty-reducing pet while wearing a very light armor or robes: once you are at 0% recovery penalty it makes no sense to stack more. But that's not the case with Mob Stance, Contender's Armor and so on. Everything that says -x% recovery time or +x% action speed is good to have and will benefit you. You just have to decide if it's worth the cost.

Right.

Borrowed Instinct and Vigorous Defense don't stack.

Crusader and Inquisitor are on par when it comes to deflection. Both have access to a +20 buff that stacke with the paladin's passive defense buffs. Inquisitor can apply afflictions that lower enemies' accuracy (like Eyestrike) on top of that.

No, +1 INT is fine.

I strongly favor Offensive Parry over Blade Form - but it's very dependent on the build (mainly deflection). If you don't want to put a lot of emphasis on deflection (like letting RES sit at 10 for example) and rather whack around as fast as possible then take Blade Form (and all the other speedups you can get like Devil of Caroc Breastplate + Helm of the Falcon and the right pet etc). If you want to switch weapons as seldomly as possible I would pick Run Through. It does quite a lot of damage (profits from all dmg bonuses normal attacks would also get and has very high base dmg) and can finish a single foe quickly. So instead of switching to a normal great sword in order to deal with a remaining annoying single foe you can just use Run Through instead. If you like to stand in the midst of it all and deliver a round swing then take Spinning Assault. Spinning Assault is also better for Ciphers since it generates a lot of focus when executed against a lot of attackers. By the way: WotEP has lower base damage than normal Great Swords; players often think this makes it terrible against single targets - but it also has a build-in crushing lash (which is a multiplicative dmg bonus) and +1 PEN compared to other Great Swords. This can mean that it actually does more dmg than a normal great sword against single enemies who have pretty thick pierce and slash AR. Nevertheless - make sure to bring a backup weapon (e.g. Effort or so) for tough single targets because usually WotEP is indeed better suited for mobs and not for singular foes. Pallegina is good as Herald. Aloth could play a Battlemage and use WotEP for Clear-Out-Magic. Wizard buffs (Mirrored Images etc.) and Vigorous Defense do stack their deflection. Also Infuse with Vital Essence does boost INT which is nice for the cone size. So Aloth could do Offensive Parries while casting some spells - and then also do AoE-Mule Kicks etc. There is a unique grimoire that has an awesome melee spell called Zandthu's Draconic Fury. I think it unlocks at PL 7. Also as Spellblade that's a nice combo because he can apply stuff like Arterial Strike within the whole cone. Also Riposte does stack with Offensive Parry. Also Riposte does a cone attack unlike Offensive Parry iirc. That would allow you to play an Inquisitor and still do all that WotEP stuff. For a two-handed Inquisitor I personally do recommend a Morning Star, more specifically the Willbreaker. Every party shouls have a Moring Star because of the very good modal it has. It makes landing Disintegrate and several other spells so much easier. Also the Willbreaker lowers Will which is good for any Cipher. It also as some special enchantments that work when enemies ave certan mind afflictions - and ciphers have an easy time applying these...

You'll get up tp +10 MIG from Helwalker. 15 is absolutely fine. MIG gives you "only" an additive dmg bonus while for example the higher attack/reload speed from DEX is a multiplicative one (for most attacks). And you want PER as high as possible because of Stunning Surge (crits do refund the ability cost which is important). Also very high PER on an MC is good because most companions don't have it that high - and one in the party needs high PER for finding all traps and secrets (unlike PoE where you needed high mechanics). I would say Devil of Caroc, Hiravias or Kana (not Aloth unless you don't want his armor, then Aloth is fine, too).

You'd only have to fire them, not build them. Debonaire/Beguiler with single handed pistol (+modal) is not bad. Scordeo's Trophy with Opening Barrage and Critial Shot, Eccea's Arcane Blaster for backup. Charm enemies and get 100% crit conversion against them (also for Disintegrate). If you shoot charmed enemies you won't get focus, but the crit dmg from Scordeo's is usually very nice. It's also very nice to later use Ringleader ad shoot some of the charmed enemies while the dominated one attacks them afterwards. Rogue/Sharpshooter with Red Hand. Assassin/Bleak Walker with Dragon's Dowry, Ring of Focused Flames and Ring of the Marksman. Ascendant or Ascendant/Helwalker with Kitchen Stove's (Thunderous Report). Usually instant ascension after Thunderous Report. Shared Nightmare also embiggens the cone of Thunderous Report - as does Healker's Duality of Mortal Presence (INT) Bloodmage/Bleak Walker with Blightheart. Eternal Devotion and the Blightheart corrosion lash not only stack on gunshopts but also on spells which is awesome. All buffs includng heals can be prolonged (endlessly as long as enemies are there) via Wall of Draining. Bloodmage/Black Jacket with 4 weapon sets full of blunderbusses. Cast Combusting Wounds and then unload all blunderbusses on enemies.

Nomad's Briganine has an enchantment that gives you immunity to disengagement attacks. But it's not an immunity to engagement - it's an immunity to the attacks you receive once you disengage. It's implemented in a way that those attacks will still get executed when you leave - but they all get converted to misses - a 100% of them. In combination with Offensive Parry that means that as soon as you disengage and the disengagement attack fires it will miss and trigger an Offensive Parry automatically. So it not only gives you the ability to walk around without havuing to fear disengagment attacks - it also gives you a lot of free attacks. It's like turning the disengagment attacks of foes against them. Cleaving Stance can trigger off of Offensive-Parry-kills by the way.

Using Offensive Parry with 10 RES and without Bracers and Cape of Great Deflection is sacrilege for me. I'd also use Nomad's Brigandine (immunity to disengagement attacks) to leave potitial flanking situations and at the same time provoke 100% Offensive Parries (which generate focus) as soon as I break disengagement. I could roam the battlefield freely and gain focus just from Offensive Parries and casting lots of Deceptions - no need to actually attack with WotEP (if I didn't want to). If I were a Fighter handling WotEP I would def. prefer Clear Out over Power Strike. It's cheaper, it procs a cone attack from every attack roll of the AoE (multihits follow) and it interrupts as well so lots of discipline regain should follow. Power Strike doesn't do this. Maybe the higher costs isn't a big issue with a Brillant Tactician though. You decide...

Tht is not correct. Offensive Parry only executes a single target attack. Nevertheless, the dazing and the fact that it triggers 100& on enemy melee misses makes it quite awesome... ...IF you can raise your deflection high enough. I wouldn't try to build around that with only 10 RES though. Deflection (like all defense stats) has increasing returns: the higher the value the mor impact every additional point has. If you want to reach really good deflection you should max out RES. +10 deflection (20 RES instead of 10) is a bid deal if your deflection is already high (e.g. from Paladin passives + Vigorous Defense and items). Wouldn't say nothing. Clear Out (Fighter ability) still procs all weapon effects in an AoE and is accesible for multiclass characters. All other abilites that do that (Heart of Fury/Barb, Whispers of the Wind/Monk, Whiring Strikes/Ranger) are PL8 or 9 and requite a single class character. Clear Out + Whispers of the Endless Paths is a pretty killer combo because all AoE attack rolls of Clear Out do proc an AoE cone of WotEP which results in a ton of hits once enemiey stand close together (e.g. when you are in a doorway and enemies trying to reach you). WotEP also has reach (1.2 meters) which means you can attack an execute Clear Out from behind a tank or so. Yes, besides them having higher base damage (unlike PoE where heavy one handers had the same base damage as all tow handers) they also have +1 PEN compared to their one handed counterparts (compare Sword to Great Sword, one handed Battle Axe to two handed Battle Axe and so on). PEN is one of the most important offensive stats in the game. Underpenetrating means a big loss of damage. The Full Attack dmg malus of dual wielding is pretty substancial, too. Note that dmg maluses are not additive like in PoE but work a bit differently (they pass through something called double inversion which is pretty severy if you have any dmg bonuses - and most chars have). If you are underpenetrating and at the same time get the Full Attack malus then your damage will be pretty crappy. This was done to take away the huge advantage of dual wielding over two handers when it comes to Full Attacks - and it works quite well an achieved that. If you use some items with damage reduction (see Voidward and food like Rice etc.) and use Lay on Hands on yourself you can manage. If you add some regeneration items (Greater Ring of Regeneration etc.) and Exalted Endurance then even more so. Also Constant Recovery and Unbending will help immensely. If I'm not mistaken then high RES also shortens the duration of tha harmful self damage part, but I'm not 100% sure about that. Sacred Immolation has quite high PEN and thus is often very useful againt everything that's not immune to fire damage. It def. boosts your dps potential if you can manage to stay alive (which is not that hard but needs some care as you can see). Troubadour can stack two phrases in parallel very easily without enormous INT and thus can stack Ancient Memory (great passoive healing for everybody which stacks with Exalted Endurance) and another phrase like Mith Fyr (nice multiplicative dps boost for everybody, stacks with Flames of Devotion and Shared Flames of Paladin) or Her Courage (damage shield for everybody) or whatever. Which turns the Kind Wayfarer/Troubadour into an awesome passive healer/support. And from time to time you can dish out an Invocation, too. If you use Sasha's Singing Scimitar (awesome for Chanters) you can even empower an invocation 1/encounter "for free" (no need to rest). Paladin/Cipher work well together. Here it's especially nice to use Whispers of the Endless Paths because the Offensive Parry will generate focus while you are doing something else. You just have to provoke misses from enemies. You can do that by stacking paladin defenses, high RES and Psychovampiric Shield as well as Borrowed Instincts - and also by debuffing enemies' ACC. Also Pain Block is an awesome support spell for party members. Ancestor's Memory is super-impactful if you have casters in your ranks. In general Ciphers have some good support abilities. WotEP is especially good with Soul Blades because Soul Annihilation (works with Eternal Devotion by the way) applies raw damage to ALL enemies int the AoE cone of WotEP which is pretty great. All other attacks beside Soul Annihilation will also generate focus with the AoE cone. Crusader is an uncomplicated combo. It's very straightforward and "solid": hard to bring down, sustained good damage (not breathtaking damage but not shabby either and very reliable) until Sacred Immolation arrives (which makes things more complicated but surely raises your dmg output). The highih-level stuff of Fighter can bring more damage to the table (Clear Out for example). Also Fighters can get several "passive" speed boosts that cost no resources which translates directly to more dps: Armored Grace (great if combined with Devil of Caroc Breastplate, Helm of the Falcon - great visual combo, too - and a pet that reduces armor recovery penalty like Abraham or Cutthrout Cosmo) & Mob Stance. --- PS: One additional thing with WotEP: It's the only reason why I would pick Glorious Beacon-->Inspired Beacon. Because the blind leads to less ACC on the enemy which leads to more misses which leads to your Offensive Parry getting +40% dmg output which is nice. A nice Great Sword alternative that is obtainable rel. early (if you don't mind making a beelin to a certain island and come back later for quests) is Krabörü. It's very cool with Clear Out (Fighter) als well as focus generation of ciphers (the AoE on crit generates focus). The Twin Eels - which you can get later in the game - may be a great weapon for a Kind Wayfarer who also has offensive abitions. Another good one is Effort (Maiming is strong).

Stats are fine. A Kind Wayfarer/Fighter can def. be a damage dealer/support hybrid and be very tough at the same time. Fighter has some nice passives and active abilities that can substitute that playstyle. Look at Armored Grace, Cleaving Stance, Disciplined Strikes or Tactical Barrage and so on. The healing of White Flames scales with Power Level. So it always stays viable. You must decide if 2* healing via Flames of Devotion is enough for you to give up two handers or if it's ok to only heal once per FoD use. Paladins have other sources of healing as well: Exalted Endurance, Lay on Hands and so on. If you decide on dual wielding and pick Devoted as fighter subclass: choose a weapon that has good uniques and has two damage types. For example swords (pierce/slash damage). If you take Monastic Unarmed Training then you will always have fists a crushing backup. Devoted have one weapon proficiency and also they always have fist proficiency - so you can cause three types of damage (what fits best at any given time) without running into the "Devoted-gets huge malus" problem. If you plan to use a lot of different weapons (which is more effective but a lot of players don't like to switch weapons according to the enemies' weaknesses) then I would pick Black Jacket as Subclass. Another good multiclass for damage/support with a Wayfarer is Kind Wayfarer/Trickster by the way. Can be very tanky (due to Mirrored Images etc.) and can heal as well as deal good damage and even dish out CC. Whispers of the Endless Paths is an awesome weapon still. But you have to know how to use it properly. For example it has the enchantment Offensive Parry which is extremely good if you have very high deflection. It's also very good if you have high INT and can dish out afflictions (for example Crippling Strike) since special attack effects apply to all enemies in the cone. It's not the best weapon in 1:1 fights though.

Hi! A class that complements a Kind Wayfarer very well is a Chanter, more specifically a Troubadour. Of the classes you were considering (and with Whispers of the Endless Paths in mind) I'd pick Fighter. Crusaders are very tough and are a good pick for first-time Deadfire players. If you want to stick to Great Sword at all times I would use the Devoted Subclass. Note that White Flames (the Flames of Devotion from Kind Wayfarers that heals allies) triggers twice when you are dual-wielding weapons. So Kind Wayfarers with two weapons (or weapon + bashing shield) will do twice the healing compared to a Great Sword (or any other two-hander or a single one hander).

Min CON and RES, max DEX, PER and INT and rest to MIG. However, this will make your character quite prone to getting one-shotted by arquebus and arbalest shots in situations where you can't control the initiation of combat (e.g. boarding fights). Especially in case of running with Helwalker. For those cases a large shield (+modal!) is very useful. You can then easily withstand a few gunshots or AoE spells at the beginning of a fight and then switch to dual guns again. Also the amulet "Precognition" is very useful. You also need to initiate combat with tanks/frontliners first and keep the Monk in stealth until most enemies settled on one of your tanks to attack. Once you get Stunning Surge this becomes less of an issue because you can stunlock so many enemies at once for a long time.

SC Mortar Monk is rel. straightforward: since you don't want top pick melee stuff a lot of abilites already fall aside. I picked a Coastal Aumaua (but race doesn't matter much) and a Helwalker (because as ranged char you don't get attacked that much and the bonus MIG is neat). Nalpasca would have a more steady wound income but suffers from hostile Arcane Dampener (removes drug effects and sends him into a drug crash). Both are totally fine. Stats should focus on MIG, PER, DEX and especially INT since you want the AoE of the mortars to be as large as possible. I personally then like to wear Aloth's leather armor (because it gives you bonus AoE size), the Ring of the Marksman and a Ring of Overseeing (same, stacks) and INT gear like Heaven's Cacophony (+2 INT and the sweet Avenging Storm 2/rest). Ajamuut's Stalking Cloak causes stun from WotW (because invisible). Used the Charm of Bones for another +2 INT or Stone of Power (for more Power Levels - if you have two you can stack them in the stash after each fight which resets the per-rest charge). Mortification Bindings for the hands - Gountles of Greater Reliability are also ver nice. Bounding Boots can be cheesed: if you cancel the ability while your guy's still in the air but the green circle is already at the target location then the char will land there but no per-rest use is substracted. Later Rhakan Field Boots are best. I used the Upright Captain's Belt for some concentration because hte worst thing is getting interrupted while casting Wispers of the Wind. My favorite pet was Loki (another 15% AoE size) but pets like Harley or Cutthroat Cosmo are also nice. Recommended abilities: Swift Strikes, Dance of Death, Mortification of the Soul, Two Weapon Style, Long Stride, Lightning Strikes, Stunning Blow, Duality of Mortal Presence (use INT), Thunderous Blows, Enduring Dance, The Long Pain (good alternative against tough single foes where mortars don't shine, also good backup weapon for enemies who are vulnerable to crush damage), Stunning Surge, NOT Turning Wheel (doesn't work with ranged weapons unless you install the Community Patch mod), Flagellant's Path, Resonant Touch, Razor's Edge, Whispers of the Wind, Prestige - rest as you like (if there's any rest, didn't 100% corss-check witgh available ability points). One important thing is to squeeze as many foes as possible in a tight space. You can do that with a tank (so that enemies gather aound her/him) or use a chokepoint - or you lure them with sparkcrackers or a spall like Arkemy's Dazzling Lights from stealth or you use Binding Web + Pull of Eora - whatever works. This will make sure your monk can hit as many enemies as possible with one (or two) shot. If enemies are spread out it's better to either switch to a normal blunderbuss (works well with Resonant Touch, too) or use the Long Pain (it's very strong against single targets).