Boeroer

Yes, it's pretty awesome for a caster. But I mean... if you want to really buff up your spell dmg then nothing beats Deltro's Cage Helmet on a Wizard. You can easily hit yourself with a Chain Lightning first (it jumps to the nearest enemy afterwards so it's not even 100% wasted just on you) and then you'll get a shocking lash equal to the shock dmg you received. So if you suffered 80 shock dmg you'll get a 80%(!) shocking lash on all dmg you cause, including spells. After (or before) casting that Chain Lightning I like to use Wall of Draining to prolong the lash's duration (or use a Priest with SoT). You can even stack it with Blightheart - or even better use Engoliero (which also gets the lash for all dmg it causes). It's a bit of a hassle to set it up (in RtwP at least) - but it's so powerful that it's totally worth it in harder fights. Of course it's also possible to use it with any other char if you have a reliable source of shock dmg (like a fellow wizard or Stormspeaker with Crackling Bolt/Chain Lightning or a shifted Fury or any guy with Essence Interrupter).

You want to seriously tell me that you are readig slower in your mind than a narrator who reads the text out loud? Full VO is completely overrated. There are plenty of indie games that don't have the slightest VO whatsoever but sold better than Deadfire. I personally would make the next game without localisation and VO but make it very mod-friendly so that fans can make their own localisation and VO if they want to. Maybe even build my own hub for such mods so that you can install them right from the game. The quality of most VOs will not be that great than if professionals did it, but the localisations will not be worse. This allows for a smaller team and less investment overall. That way the odds of a PoE3 happening would be higher.

The Girdle of Mortal Protection is good against very high dmg crits (dragon wingslams for example) but against lower dmg crits a blunting belt is better (if it matches the dmg type).

You can often pickpocket keys from merchants which spares you the lockpicking. Also you can reverse-pickpocket explosives and poison.

Well technically you can use the whole party to sneak up onto the victim, but you'll never know which party member will attempt to pickpocket then (presumably the dude with the highest pickpocket skill) - maybe it's that one party member who already screwed the stealth. Also the pathfinding is difficult with all party members. You want to take the shortest route to the victim and that's often impossible if the party is trampling on each other's feet. Way easier to mange if you are only steering one party member during the attempt. You can pickpocket as long as the circle isn't completely red. Generally speaking: if the circle is fully red you are screwed. If there's even a fraction of the circle not red you are good to go. If it's yellow: easy peasy. Hostile victims will already start looking for you and move towards the noise you make as soon as the cicle turns from yellow to red - so I guess pickpocketing them would be a real challenge (never tried I have to say). Neutral victims don't care if the circle becomes red - as long as it's not fully red. I think if bystanders detect you you are also "detected" and can't pickpocket. You can use spells on the ground to lure hostile npcs and guarding npcs (shield + eye symbol over their heads) towards a place and sneak up behind them. This doesn't work for most neutral npcs like merchants. You need Sparkcrackers for those. They will run towards the source of noice you can sneak up behind them. Running victims have a much smaller hearing circle than victims that stand still. So it's easier to pickpocket moving targets - if you can predict theor movement. Also read here:

Then you'll miss some of his sarcastic yet funny banter though. Or miss Edér making fun of him.

If your stealth value is not high enough you will be detected before you can reach them (circle completely fills red). Some people have better detection skills than others. Also they can use their hearing (circle indicator) and vision (cone). So better sneak up from behind. Start sneaking when your dotted circle is not filled at all (yellow or even red). Then take the shortest route to the target. Don't run zigzag or something. If you have Bounding Boots you might be able to jump right besides the target (out of combat, but pause right after jumping) and pickpocket. It worked in the past but maybe that got fixed. Usually it's not hard to do if you have a decent stealth skill. Unless you try to pickpocket overleveled or very perceptive people. Only use one guy to sneak up, not the whole party. Park them somewhere.

Once you unlock some of those BB points you can immediately use them in a new playthrough.

Lafda is no bounty when in Stalwart. You don't need to kill her. You can collect her bounty later in Ondra's Gift. In fact you need to let her live in "Regrets worth trading" or you can't get her bounty. Afaik she's not a mandatory bounty for the Ultimate because of that reason. But I'm not 100% sure. You can just take the bounty later and be on the safe side. Edit: wow, I used the word "bounty" a lot...

Yes, Second Chance works. You'll get back up after knockout without triggering game over. You'll have to switch armor according to the situation when going solo. I like Wayfarer's Hide against Laegufaeth and such, Blaidh Golan against Ogres, Hand and Key against Spores and so on... As non-wizard and without other speedups Angio's Gameson can also make a huge difference. Besides that and depending on your class armor like Ryona's Breastplate and Hunter's Mail is always pretty good.

Religion * 0.25 + 2 = base burn dmg It may be late game, but other than Weapon Proficiency Flail and Religion you don't need to invest in anything you wouldn't with an ordinary melee monk. So that shouldn't be a problem at all (concerning fun before you get there). Inner Death is rather bad compared to WotW. Especially if you take Resonant Touch into account. Even if you don't take into account that you fight multiple foes most of times. First of all it's powered by Mortification and thus its use is limited, unlike WotW and Stunning Surge (in theory). Also because it's quite expensive. And to make it reliable you need Empowered Strikes which takes away another PL 9 pick. Then, like Forbidden Fist ability, it doesn't use weapons and doesn't seem to be properly tagged as melee weapon attack but as melee spell which prevents it from triggering Swift Flurry/HBD correctly. Also Turning Wheel doesn't get applied (Lightning Strikes do iirc). If you don't mind using Empower with it (and build around Empower) and have no problem with resting rather often then it's a good thing against single targets - but there's better stuff than that and I'd say that using Stunning Surge + Resonant Touch against single target will be equally good but doesn't need further investment. I can see it working nicely with Slippers of the Assassin maybe: go in, kill one guy, turn invisible and retreat from battle. Repeat. That's a completely different playstyle and may justify it's usage.

It makes you invisible during the execution.

Once you get WotW and can spam it Helwalker's increased dmg received doesn't really matter: you will be invisible most of times anyway - and the targets stunned.

You mean Avenging Storm? You can use Deltro's Cage. It has a 1/rest protection against shock. If you are immune to MIG afflictions you could also use Deltro's Cage Helmet to gain the shocking lash - only need to outheal the shock damage then. Only...

Right, was just doing wild brainstorming there without looking stuff up. Hitting yourself with KotF is great if you have Rekvu's Scorched Cloak...

Hahaha - good point. Myself? Than that misses again and *pooof* universe explodes.

I think that Engoliero procs its Blade Feast on non-weapon hits is an oversight - but a nice one nontheless. It's especially great on a Barb/caster due to Blood Thirst. Used it with a Warlock - ouch.

Same with Nalpasca and drugs + Dance of Death (and Hylea's Talons because they are great anyway ). But still: "abusing" Keeper of the Flame's friendly fire with Saint's War Armor and Imagined Pain is pretty smart. I wonder if Tuotilo's Palm would proc its retaliation effect if you get "missed" by KotF's burn AoE due to the armor? That would be kind of cool as well. Not that it does a ton of damage, but still nice, would generate Resonant Touches en masse I guess? Also it should trigger the small shield modal (which doesn't stack with Dance of Death, but still...)

Whispers of the Wind with Stalking Cloak and all sorts of AoE weapons is really strong (and that has been known for a while now), same with Scordeo's Edge being one of the most OP weapons, BUT your combo of Imagined Pain + Keeper of the Flame + Saint's War Armor is something new, clever and really neat. Never read about that here and also never thought about it myself. I think offensively the same setup but with Hand Mortar (+Blinding Smoke) + Fire in the Hole (+ Chain Shot) has more damage potential due to being able to use Poweder Burns and more importantly Avenging Storm (Blinding Smoke cones - which will trigger hundrets of extra hit rolls with enough enemies around - trigger Avenging Storm as well!) which you can't do with Keeper of the Flame (because for some reason it messes up Avenging Storm) and thus more Resonant Touches being generated: However: the constant wound generation from Imagined Pain + Saint's War armor should be very handy - especially vs. bosses. I also didn't take Swift Flurry into account - no idea if that makes a huge difference since it usually doesn't proc the AoE but only the discrete flail/crush attack roll...? You could also try Sungrazer + Keeper of the Flame. Sometimes the two (pretty hefty) burn AoEs of Sungrazer proc multiple times (especially when Swift Flurry procs) which then do craaazy dmg. Another nice candidate for WotW is Current's Rush (scepter). It's very potent if its "High Tide "procs - because High Tide seems to be able to proc off itself which can lead to a deadly chain reactions. High Tide also procs Avenging Storm. I also had good effects with Watershaper's Focus + Blast and Ondra's Wrath (+Avenging Storm). By the way: Keeper of the Flame + Scordeo's Edge is my most favorite combo for Ranger's Whirling Strikes. Really powerful. The only (albeit huge) disadvantage compared to Monk is that Ranger's can't get Bond back (besides Brilliant) - so no spamming against Megabosses unfortunately (all by yourself).

Generally I agree that some good spells are competing with each other on certain power levels while other power levels are a bit meh. But on the other hand: we would complain if every PL had a single "best" spell, too (because that would make the pick almost mandatory).

But... that's what I said right below the sentence you highlighted.

Yes, unfortunately that would count as a cheated game then and achievements would get disabled. You'd have to either use the Unity Console mod (instead of the build-in console) or obtain the item for the exported character the "proper" way.

There's also a Berath's Blessing (+2 to all attributes) which could be used to even out the DEX (from 2 to 14) while keeping the rest of the attributes the same. Or DEX 10 and giving MIG and CON +2 each or so.

He would be incredibly slow at first, especially in heavy armor. I'm testing a 3-DEX Furyshaper atm and it's a real slog. But with Alacrity (+5 DEX and speed bonus) as well as fast casting (casting speed bonus) it should be alright.

Normal Full Attacks usually also only use the melee weapon (if at melee range) afair. But there are exceptions like Clear Out, Heart of Fury and Whirling Strikes that use both. Also Riposte will use both and I think (?) Cleaving Stance as well. Barbaric Retaliation, too. Flagellant's Path may also work with both weapons but I'm not 100% sure. Streetfighter could use high deflection against Disengament Attacks with Riposte or trigger Riposte with out-of-reach misses I guess.