Boeroer

Essence Interrupter can be bought very early in the game. So I would focus on that. Classes that are front loaded in terms of ranged offense and work well in the early game (at least if paired with a fitting second class): Ranger (Marked Prey, Wounding Shot), all Rogues (Sneak Attack, Crippling Strike), Bleak Walker (Black Flames of Devotion), Helwalker (Helscar, MIG bonus, Mortification of the Soul). A Devoted/Bleak Walker is more suited for melee since both classes gain a lot of defensive capability (which would be kind of wasted) and most of their good offensive abilites work at close range/melee. Also the Fighter only has one active attack ability for ranged weapons (Penetrating Strike) as well as the Paladin (Flames of Devotion). I mean it will surely work and it would be a quite sturdy ranged char (so only few knockouts which can be very nice as well) but it's a bit limited (dare I say boring?) in terms of offense.

Single class? Little info: the imbued shots trigger their effect with every projectile jump (like from Driving Flight). So for example you shoot Imbue:Fireball and then you'll get a Fireball at the initial target and another Fireball at the enemy who's behind the first and gets hit by the Driving Flight arrow. If you use weapns that have a jump "build in" like Fire in the Hole or Watershaper's Focus you could trigger three Fireballs per shot (initial hit + Driving Flight + build in jump). Those are no bows - just for your information. Great bows for Arcane Archers are Frostseeker and Essence Interrupter - because they give no Accuracy penalty even if you don't use imbued shots. I would recommend Essence Interrupter. After the early game (with some Accuracy under the belt) you can use the modal of the Weapon Proficiency and fire the bow very rapidly (with less accuracy though). It's a great modal. Another nice weapon for an Arcane Archer is Spearcaster (its bonus from Arcana stacks with the imbue-bonus from Arcana) - but that's and Arbalest and not a bow. You should focus on DEX, PER and MIG, not too low INT and can have low RES and CON. Pick everything that gives Accuracy. Focus on only a few attack abilities. Imbue:missiles and Imbue:fireball sound tempting, but actually Imbue:web and Imbue:Eora are a lot better later in the game, especially with Driving Flight. With that combo you can immobilize and pull together a whole group of enemies for a long time and then shoot them undisturbed.

For a sustained Frostseeker build (which does awesome damage as long as you crit a lot) I would pick Helwalker/Sharpshooter (because you want Sharpshooter) but even better Helwalker/Arcane Archer. Ranger because high ACC and Driving Flight which gives you a lot more chances to trigger a crit. With an Arcane Archer you have no ACC penalty when using Frostseeker no matter the ability you use. And later you can use Imbue:Web + Imbue:Eora to pull enemies very tightly together whilw shooting at them and triggering as many frost AoEs as possible. But Sharpshooter is ok as well. Helwalker gives you more dmg via MIG, more speed and a shocking lash (Lightning Strikes) and a bigger AoE size via Duality:INT. Most importantly the Monk can use Stunning Surge nearly endlessly because the cost gets refunded on crit. And if you do a shot with Frostseeker+Driving Flight it means that you have 6 chances to crit with every shot you do. Besides that Monks get Enduring Dance which is awesome for a ranged char and also Thunderous Blows which helps with higher AR of enemies. If you are looking for another crit based bow: look at St. Omaku's Mercy or Veilpiercer. They have a 50% chance to set recovery to 0 on crit which works with Driving Flight. If you pick something like Devoted/Sharpshooter you can achieve a lot of shots without recovery which is very nice.

There is no general rule for that. It depends what your Arcane Archer wants to do. Which weapon(s) does he want to use for example? With AoE weapon like mortars you want high INT so that the AoE is big(ger). Will he focus on dealing damage (might want high MIG) or doing crowd control (no MIG needed, but high INT) and so on. A little more info is needed.

It's not that the savegame is corrupt or something. It just seems that sometimes the game doesn't get the activation of Turning Wheel right and the save/reload cycle just helps to somehow set the game object state correctly. No idea how or why honestly.

I'm pretty surprised that native speakers don't know what "Avowed" means. I mean didn't we have that Madonna hit "Take a Vow" in 1994?

It adds a burning lash to all your weapon attacks (fists also count as weapons). The lash is 5% per wound you carry. That means it's 0% (no wounds) to 50% (10 wounds). Most likely the reason you don't see it on the animat is the mechanic of lashes: Lashes are multiplicative dmg bonuses which are based on your weapon damage roll (which is great) but there is a hurdle: any (non-raw) lash has to overcome the respective armor's damage reduction - or DR - of the target separately. Here it's the burn DR of the animat. Not the whole DR though but only 25% (or 1/4th). Again: all lashes (except raw) must overcome 1/4 of the enemy's DR. Animats usually have very high DR. If you roll 20 crush dmg to the animat and you have 5 wounds: the burning lash of Turning Wheel would be 25% (5*5%) of 20 which is 5 burn damage. That 5 burn damage has to overcome 1/4th of the animat's burn DR. If the animat's burn DR is 20 or higher... Unlike direct damage which has a MIN value (some damage always gets through even if DR is higher than the dmg roll) lashes work not that way: they can get completely eliminated by DR. So if 1/4th of the animat's burn DR is roughly about the same as the burn damage you would cause with your lash... it will get eaten up completely - gone. In the example above: if the burn DR of the ainmat is 20 or higher you get nothing from the lash. This is less likely to happen with Lightning Strikes (same mechanics) because animats are usually more vulnerable to shock damage (have low shock DR). Of course this is even more likely to happen if you have less wounds (smaller lash) and less likely if you have more wounds (lash is bigger). Also the direct crush damage you do can help: if you deal more crush damage then the lash dmg is higher (because it's based on the weapon dmg roll). The higher the dmg you roll with the weapon the easier it is for the lash to be higher than enemies' 1/4DR. You can also pick Scion of Flame (talent): it gives your Turning Wheel lash a 25% bonus. Meaning it would rise from 5% per wound to 6.25% per wound. So at 10 wounds instead of a 50% lash you would have a 75% one - which is very good. BUT! There's also a small glitch that sometimes happens when you activate Turning Wheel during a session: it doesn't really apply. Best is to save with Turning Wheel active and then reload. That should fix it. Same with Blood Testament gloves (2% raw dmg lash per wound) by the way. They are very good but suffer from the same occasional glitch. To;dr: most likely your lash was too small for the animat's high burn DR. To be safe try another target and save/reload with Turning Wheel activated.

I guess you could make the case that enchanting and upgrading are crafting mechanics.

Avowed is an awesome name. It's short, phonetically pleasing and hints what the game's storyline is about (Woedica stuff) but is still mysterious. And it starts with an "A" which makes sure it always is among the first in the list - once that's sorted alphabetically. For example when people look up "list of Skyrim clones" on Wikipedia. Having no "Pillars" in it also makes sure there's not too much confusion whether the game is connected to PoE & Deadfire with more than the IP. "Pillars of Creation" on the other hand sounds like the name of a homebrew D&D campaign or a self-pulished novel on Kindle. But it's not corny enough... yet. "Pillars of Creation: Oathbinder" - now that would give the perfect would-be huckster vibes. Nothing beats the pregnant colon.

I like to use the Mask of the Grotto Deep and Garari Cuirass with Cobra Strike - full reptile mode.

Generally no. Carnage was nerfed in comparison to PoE. It doesn't work as melee secondary attack that transports weapon effects anymore but instead works like a separate AoE raw dmg spell with center on the initial target. But there are exceptions: - Lord Darryn's Voulge's "Static Thunder" also applies to Carnage-hits. - Spirit Frenzy also staggers foes who are hit by Carnage (Blood Frenzy doesn't because Carnage can never crit, only miss/graze/hit). - Force of Anguish pushes the target into the Carnage AoE before the Carnage attack gets rolled. So the target receives the initial dmg from Force of Anguish, gets pushed back and gets hit by Carnage, too. It doesn't apply the push a second time but I find it quite nice that you can do Carnage+Force of Anguish damage to the same target with one single attack. - Iirc Eternal Devotion (Paladin) puts a 10% burning lash on Carnage hits - iirc Deltro's Cage Helmet add its shocking lash to Carnage...? - Iirc Blood Ward (Furyshaper) also drains life from Carnage hits, maybe Old Siec (Chanter), too - maybe there's more that I don't remember right now...

It's actually a ranged weapon with rather short range (it works with Driving Flight for example), but it is indeed very powerful.

I only tested Assassin/Soulblade during a session with the console. I did not really use any Assassin/Cipher in a playthrough. However: I did play a Debonaire/Beguiler (because Whisper of Treason or Ring Leader give you 100% crit conversion for your Disintegrate - and Disintegrate doesn't flip charmed enemies back). I guess the playstyle was almost the same as Assassin/Beguiler would have been...? Assassin/Soulblade would be more focused on delivering Soul Annihilation from stealth/invisibility with Sneak Attack, Deathblows, Assassinate and Backstab bonuses I guess.

I think it's a road to nowhere to try to replicate all things you can do in a tabletop game (and which might be very nice to do there) in a video game. It's a way less reactive and less fluid environment. Player homes, strongholds, open world, tons of possible reaction, "meaningful choices", consequences, relationships and so on: stuff that is fine during a tabletop campaign might be tedious to implement and even to play in a video game - even if you put a ton of work, good will and money into it. Stuff like inventory management, trading, buying a donkey+cart, riding a horse, getting an old ruin and rebuilding it: easy to do during tabletop sessions because the DM can always improvise, make things up and most of all: communicate a lot until it's nice. Video games cannot do that. I would like if CRPGs concentrated more on what they can do best: presenting nice visuals, fitting sound and music, atmosphere, telling a great story (most professional writers do that way better than DMs), presenting satisfying challenges, good game mechanics (combat, sneaking and other ways to overcome obstacles like picking locks, charming, bribing, talking, you name it). Open world, "realistic" companion reaction and relationship, reputation, managed inventory, crafting and all that: it can be nice but those usually end up as huge expensive systems that only work so/so and don't really add much value to the game. There are exceptions of course. For example it can be very nice to craft anything (items, food even spells) if you can actually play a craftsman/researching wizard/chef... IF the system is easy yet deep enough. The chance to nail that: pretty low.

Fireballs etc. do work well with Assassinate in RTwP - just not with Shadowing Beyond. From stealth I never had issues with all direct/instant damage AoE spells + Assassinate. Spirit Lance doesn't work though and also the other AoE weapons don't. Their secondary AoE seems to have long of a delay to get the bonus.

DoTs also break Arkemyr's Brilliant Departure. At least I can't cast Disintegrate or Gouging Strike or use N.'s Cobra Strike and then use ABD -> leads to instant "revisibility". That only leaves Smoke Veil and Assassin's Slippers (and I'm not sure about the last one) which are so short that it doesn't matter much for DoTs damage - since only a few ticks will get covered. But they can be very useful for applying a DoT and then walking away unseen, waiting in the shadows until the target is dead. Assassinate can help with DoTs since it's a lot easier to land them from stealth/invisibility in the first place. When I play an Assassin/Bleak Walker with an Arquebus+modal I usually open from stealth with an Arterial Strike, then immediately (stealth removes 80% recovery/reload) a Gouging Strike and then immediately (reload is cancelable) use Smoke Veil and walk away until the enemy is dead. For example. But if the enemy is very hard to hit I start with the Gouging Strike to get the 25 ACC for that one and the try the Arterial. One can do the same with Brand Enemy instead of Gouging Strike by the way. It will always hit - so you don't even need Assassinate for it. So you could do Gouging+Arterial+Brand+Smoke Veil with nearly 0 recovery. That's not a move for Assassin/Wizard obviously but just an example how DoTs and Assassinate can work together even if the DoTs don't get a huge PEN or dmg bump.

DoTs do get the ACC bonus. But the following ticks will not get a PEN or dmg bonus because those are calculated in real time and you won't be invisible anymore. Also most DoT ticks break invisibility except Vanishing Strikes. On of the best synergies for an Assassin/Bloodmage is that Arkemyr's Brilliant Departure creates an invisibility that will not break as long as you don't damage the target(s). All CC spells without damage can be cast from invisibility without breaking it. You can completely disable opponents with dozens of debuffs before using the final nuke. Also Wall spells don't break it (no even the damaging ones). So you can stay invisible forever with Wall of Draining + Brilliant Departure for example. Fireball usually gets the Assassinate bonus by the way. At least from stealth. It depends a bit on the ability you are using for invisibility and on the spell you use for dealing damage (how it applies its AoE without much delay). For example Shadowing Beyond is fiddly while Smoke Veil is much more forgiving. Stealth is better, too. Also Arkemyr's Brilliant Departure is better.

Enchanting would be fine. But it doesn't need to be the character who does it. I also like if you can bring some stuff to a proper craftsman (armorer, fletcher, weapon smith and so on) who then does the crafting for you. Only a few things, not a full-fledged crafting system with rules and ingredients and recepies and whatnot.

Opps sorry, I thought this was a request programme. Didn't realize one has to justify their preferences. I would argue that you can't dumb down a game if you remove dumb things. Not implemeting stuff that I don't like leaves more resources for the stuff that I do like. Especially if it's resource-hungry quicksand like homes/strongholds and the pale imitation of interpersonal romantic and/or sexual relationships which usually need a ton of good writing to be somewhat non-cringeworthy. PoE and Deadfire have an unlimited stash by the way. If an unlimited stash is enough to turn a game into a shallow action shooter then PoE and Deadfire are shallow action shooters.

I'd like crafting and player homes to be as absent as loading times. Unlimited stash. No romances at all. Thank you!

Fighter's Unbending ability provides a small instance of an healing-over-time effect (also called Unbending in the combat tooltips under active effects) every time the char receives damage. With Wall of Draining every such instance of Unbending gets prolonged. They all stack and thiscan lead to up to thousands of HP regenerated every 3 secs (in extreme cases). The Battlemage becomes unkillable (unless he gets one-shotted which isn't very likely). However, Unbending and Wall of Draining are not really early abilites. Luckily Vigorous Defense stacks with all of the Wizard's deflection buffs (except with Llengrath's Safeguard - the AR bonus stacks though, just not the defense ones). So a Battlemage can be plenty sturdy as slong as he's not hit by an Arcane Dampener. That is the advantage of the Paladin: his passive defense bonuses can't get dispelled.

Raw dmg from Soul Annihilation will get delivered to all enemies in the AoE, yes. But the mechanics are a little wonky. It seems the first target gets the normal raw damage, focus drops to 0 - the next one (in the AoE) gets no raw dmg (since focus is at 0) but generates focus again, the next after that gets a bit raw damage from the newly acquired focus and even generates more focus (it doesn't drop to 0 again but keeps filling), the next target refills focus even more and gets even more raw dmg and so on. The more enemies the better. It's not likely that this is the intended behavior, but it works very well. Also focus generation vs. mobs is absolutely excellent as one might guess (since the AoE hits generate focus).

Hi again. Just my personal preferences/opinion 1. Single class Bloodmage (if you don't like Empower) or non-subclass Wizard 2. Helwalker/Bloodmage (dangerous but fun) or Assassin/Bloodmage (Arkemyr's Brilliant Departure induced shenanigans). 3. Psion/Wizard 4. Arcane Knight or Battlemage 5. totally depends on your imagination 6. Arcane Knight

Carnage only gets triggered by the initial attack roll of the Lance. So it only gets triggered once per attack, no crazyness. If you are looking for some AoE*AoE power you need to combine the Lance with Clear Out (Fighter). Swift Flurry didn't work with the AoE hits of the Lance, then it did... don't know the current status 100%. It's worth testing again. But note that Swift Flurry will never redo a whole AoE attack but will only repeat that singular hit roll that it triggered off. So it's not supercrazy but might be nice nevertheless. Great stuff with the Lance are all attacks that do something special with the enemy, such as Mule Kick, Clear Out (the crazier the more enemies), Force of Anguish, Stunning Surge (high chance of refund, too), Crippling Strike and so on. That all works in an AoE then.

Speaking of wizard multiclasses: Arcane Knight is a very forgiving combo. Bloodmage/Steel Garrote with Whispers of the Endless Paths is still my current favorite Arcane Knight. Sage can be a lot of fun. Especially when using Citzal's Spirit Lance. Helwalker/Bloodmage would be my pick. I personally really like a melee Geomancer with the Willbreaker (Morning Star). Stalker/Wizard. I use Concelhaut's Draining Touch for my Essential Phantom and the Morning Star (+modal) to lower fortitude for my animal companion's Takedown Combo. Warlock can be very nice to play because that combo can reach very fast casting speed, especially once Blood Thirst is available. Berserker/Wizard for the nice PEN boost. Battlemage with Citzal's Spirit Lance is also fun. Once you get Clear Out mobs are flying like puppets.