Boeroer

Oopsy, I thought that was not so arcane knowledge. I knew this a long while now and even assumed I was one of the later persons to discover that.

Hi, sorry it took so long. First I was sick in bed (had a weird one-day fever that went very high and then just vanished ) and then the forum broke down for a bit. Anyway, what @thelee said basically. SC Fighter isn't very interesting in general because multiclasses with fighters fulfill most roles better due to nice synergies. And what makes some SC of other classes interesting is often some devastating damaging effect (Meteor Shower, Maelstrom, Whispers of the Wind and so on) which the Fighter doesn't have. That's not really a problem of the fighter alone: SC Rangers, Ciphers, Chanters and Paladins also don't have many fans. For me a SC Fighter looks appealing when I look at Clear Out and then either Clean Sweep or Clear the Path. And most often it's about debugging with a weapon modal (more me mostly morning Stars or clubs with the -25 fortitude or will debuff). For example I once played a hireling Black Jacket SC with high DRX and high INT who had a morning star setup, a mace, a club and a flail - so that he could debuff fortitude, armor, will and reflex with Clean Sweep in a wide area. This is very helpful for fellow AoE casters. I mean to drop a certain defense by 25 and do what Clean Sweep does at the same time is very nice. You could also do that with a multiclass and Clear Out. But it takes forever to get there and you will be confined to the cone - while the circular AoE covers so much more area. Yet... it's still pretty boring. I didn't even play the Tactician I mentioned above in a real playthrough. I merely tried out an idea I had and stumbled over the effect I mentioned above. But if you want to go SC Fighter I would focus on Clean Sweep or Clear the Path and try to combine an AoE weapon with it. This has a devastating AoE damage potential like a very powerful spell and also does good CC. With a Tactician something like Hand Mortar+Blinding Smoke would make a lot of sense because you can distract a lot of mobs (often all of them) and then not only get 1 discipline because you maybe interrupted an action but also because all enemies are flanked from Blinding Smoke. This might grant enough discipline to fuel Clean Sweep or Clear the Path a lot more times. Note that Clear Out and upgrades hit the first target twice. So even against single foes it's a good damage tool.

I think 20% raw lash is okay. I think for most ciphers who are not mainly into damage dealing, draining whip will always be the preferred choice - but on the other side of the spectrum: if you pick a Soulblade/Rogue or something like a Ranger/Ascendant with Frost seeker for highest acc and then pure bow damage (and don't even use the ascended stage for casting but just keep firing because your soul whip doesn't turn off but gives you extra dmg) Biting Whip is the correct choice. And then there's everything in between. 20% raw lash is a multiplicative damage bonus which works very well with all the other damage bonuses. So for a build with focus on weapon damage it seems like a must. But I don't think that making it even stronger would convince me to use it - because I personally almost never use (non-Soulblade) Ciphers as damage dealers primarily. Well, maybe I'm the wrong person to ask in the first place since I found myself first drawn to Beguilers and now Psions - subclasses for whom Biting Whip is not optimal (or not even available). So I'm clearly in favor of Draining Whip anyway - no matter how much damage Biting Whip did (exaggerating). So for me it would have to be so tempting that it would be objectively unbalanced.

I meant a fighter instead of the rogue - because you said that he's too squishy. Positioning is easier of course if you add weapons/abilities with more range - and be it only for backup, as an alternative option for these situations where you cannot reach enemies properly. For example give the Rogue a pike or quarterstaff - or a bow. Besides that there's not much you can do. You could use Escape from the Rogue to get behind enemy lines - but since he's squishy he won't survive that I guess. Fighting in the open is usually less effective than using choke points so that enemies don't reach your backline too easily. I'm afraid more range is the only viable option at the moment.

You can use the tab-key to autocomplete the commands. That helps preventing typos. Like: attri<tab> play<tab> mig<tab> 20 This should complete to: AttributeScore Player_<your player name> Might 20 You can press tab multiple times and the console will cycle through the options that match the first letters you typed. Hope that will help you.

Seems fine. If you want to retrain to 2handers later that is of course possible. Good classes for the early game to hire as adventurers are Fighters, Monks and Rangers because they have the highest starting stats. I'd say Fighter is the most solid choice. Doesn't go down easily and does good damage because of the high accuracy (doesn't miss much). At the same toime requires little micromanagement.

I did a playthrough with an offensive-minded Goldpact Knight who used the summoned flaming Great Sword "Firebrand" a lot. It's pretty good for a Paladin who invests in his "Flames of Devotion" ability. You can get two items (a pair gloves and a belt) rel. early that allow you to summon that Greats Sword which is made of flames 6 times per rest. as backup weapon you can pick any two handed weapon and also pick the fitting weapon focus for that backup weapon type. Firebrand is universal, meaning it works with any weapon focus. Another very good approach is to go Darcozzi Paladini and pick Inspiring Liberation, use Zealous Focus and Coordinated Attacks and then first use the Spectacular Spetum (early pollaxe) which has the property "marking". And later add the Blade of the Endless Paths to your arsenal (estoc, also has marking). Marking makes it so that a party member who is closest to you and attacks the same target as you gets +10 accuracy. This stacks with Coordinated Attacks which does the same - already +20 accuracy for your buddy. Add Inspiring Liberation which stacks with everything, too and your firend already has 30 bonus accuracy which is huge and extremely useful against tough enemies such as bosses (like dragons for example). Add the bonus accuracy from Zealous Focus and it will be very hard for your party member to miss at all. This is very impactful if you pair your paladin with your best damage-dealer or disabler. Your paladin himself won't be the best (but decent) damage dealer, a good offtank and amazing support.

With Berath's Blessing +2 to all attributes that's fine I think. Entonia Signet Ring (but it only works if enemies engage you, not the other way round) is a good ring for defense if you go into melee - and yeah, Boots of the Stone.

Solo Priest is a challenge in the early battles, similar to a solo Wizard but even more difficult - even though the Priest gets a little more deflection. The low level spells of a Priest are not as fitting and impactful for a solo playstyle as some of the Wizard are (thinking about Chillfog, Parasitic Staff etc.). Solo bear cave with a Priest is suicide at low levels, no matter the build idea or attributes. As @Chaospread said one should avoid battles at that stage and come back later.

Flanked causes "only" -10 deflection, -1 AR

I you plan to use a Berserker/Streetfighter at range then of course a more squishy build is easier to maintain because it doesn't get attacked so much. I was thinking about melee. I must say that while a Berserker/Streefighter with Essence Interrupter is very good in the early game it tends to become a bit boring later on. Melee is more interesting in this case (imo). SO I think retraining would be good later. But you cannot retrain attributes so I personally would still invest in CON - although you won't need that with a ranged early game and it will actually prevent you from becoming blooded from one Frenzy cast (because in the early game the self damage is low but the health would be quite high). Once you pick "Blooded" on the Berserker you can always see once you hit <50% health which is a rel. convenient indicator. Also your Streetfighter passive will change from "Looking for a Fight" to "Heating Up" as soon as you get bloodied. And then later there are items that activate when you get near death which would add another indicator for your health even though it's concealed. So while it's not possible to see the actual health number it's still possible to (roughly) know how much health there's left. Sure - I recommend Morning Stars: great synergy with the Morning Star modal "Body Blows" and the Berserker's Brute Force, also the 2 (cood) unique morning stars in the game don't come late. Pollaxe would also be cool. There's a nice soulbound pollaxe with a lightning/storm theme that's obtainable early and works well with Barbarians. Both Morning Star and Pollaxe have the advantage of dual damage types and good penetration.

Berath/Rogue with Spiritual Great Sword is cool imo. Also I once made a PoE Priest build with Tidefall - so for me that's a nice fusion with a dash of nostalgia. Spiritual Great Sword - fully buffed through peak disposition scaling (= picking the right dialogue options to boost stoic and rational) gains a potent lash (multiplicative damage bonus) which works very well with the Rogue's additive damage bonuses (sneak attack and so on). For a melee Rogue Streetfighter is always nice. But if you want to initially cast and then go into melee you have to keep in mind that the Streetfighter is slower (=has longer recovery) than a regular Rogue as long as he's not flanked or blooded. Both is usually not the case at the beginning of a fight. So your recovery time will be longer which will make your casting slower. Assassin sneaky dude + Berath doesn't really fit thematically imo. Although mechanically the +25 accuracy from stealth and invisibility works pretty well with some offensive Priest spells. Trickster also doesn't seem to be a great fit thematically because Berath being stoic and rational while being a "Trickster" implies all sorts of non-seriousness. But mechanically it's a good combo. The illusion spells of the Trickster help a lot with being more sturdy, the Ryngrim spell fits Berath imo - and the downside (slightly lower Sneak Attack damage) is barely noticable, especially after a few (Power) levels. Debonaire: eh no vanilla Rogue: why not? No upside but also no downside. And the nearest to a PoE1 Rogue. I personally would pick the Trickster I think - and then "justify" the weird subclass combo with some internal explanation as to why this Trickster is a rational and stoic one.

Cool, I downloaded and installed it.

Hm, I can't think of anything at the moment. Maybe: if you dump CON because you don't plan to get attacked lot you might as well completely commit to the way of the glascannon and dump RES, too.

Cool, I downloaded and installed it.

I think a crazy minmaxing approach would not be fitting when it comes to attributes. What's really frustrating with Soul Annihilation is that if you miss the attack all your focus will be consumed anyway. That's not a problem later in the game with all the buffs and gear improvement etc. - but at the begining it can hamper your experience with a Soulblade. So I suggest not to drop PER too much - or use a single weapon for the first levels. I also wouldn't drop DEX too low as you said. Being super sluggish (especially with thicker armor and no class abilities to really speed you up) isn't much fun as well. MIG doesn't need to be superhigh imo. RES gives increasing returns for your deflection (and of course also shortens hostile effects' duration on you) - and if you want to emphasize the Offensive Parry and make it a central part of the build you need every point of melee deflection you can get. That includes RES and abilities but also items such as Cape, Bracers, rings and also armor. There are some armors that grand deflection bonuses, like Casita Samelia's Legacy (requires to max the Intimidate skill which fits a Steel Garrote imo), Gipon Prudensco (also can add an immunity to getting flanked iirc which is like a +10 deflection /+1 AR advantage against mobs) and Nomad's Brigandine (like Gipon Prudensco can also have an immunity vs. disengagement attacks which can be used to force melee misses when disengaging which leads to Offensive Parties). I wouldn't drop CON because you will still be hit by ranged attacks, spells and the occasional lucky roll - and also your fortitude defense shouldn't be too low. But it doesn't need to be high either. INT is of course important for aura range, durations and cipher powers. Also for the size of the WotEP cone. If it's too small it's not as much fun in combination with Soul Annihilation. So all in all a quite balanced distribution of attribute points I would say.

See above. If you go for high CON and have a decent healer it is manageable. Do not drop CON and max MIG though. This will make you extremely squishy at higher levels. the Berserker's self dmaage scales rather steeply and it also gets influenced by your own MIG. Streetfighter/Berserker gets lots of damage bonuses, high MIG isn't even noticable with weapon damage - so you might es well leave it at 10 (will get +5 from Frenzy anyway). High CON sounds suboptimal - but it really helps in this case. Barbs have a bigger health pool from the beginning so that works well with the bonus from CON. Last time I ideed maxed CON on a Berserker/Helwalker (same problems as Berserker/Streetfighter, maybe even more so) and also used Tough (the passive ability) and a Greater Amulet of Health. It made a hell of a difference (related to babysitting) compared to low CON/high MIG. I know raising CON isn't popular (I also usually don't) but in this case I recommend it. Of course Barring Death's Door and lots of constant healing also works. Then you can make that guy a complete glascannon. But that's a lot more micromanagement.

I think the Great Sword "Effort" will be the closest thing to Tidefall in Deadfire. I will bring a pretty weird combo just for the sake of variety: Streetfighter/Skald with Deltro's Cage and Deltro's Helmet. The goal is to summon two (upgraded) Wisps (The Lights Dacned Across the Moor) and let them fire at you (it doesn't cause much damage). This will distract you but also give you a shocking lash for your attacks (from the helmet) as well as it will unlock your Streetfigher passive (-50% recovery time, way higher Sneak Attack). Apart from that little synergy you will be very versatile. The main chant would be Aefyllath Ues Mith Fyr for more damage or Ancient Memory for more sturdyness. Of course very low INT wouldn't be optimal for this because the summons' duration on the field would be short and your invocations' AoE will be small - but it also doesn't cry for high INT like most chanter builds usually do. Funnily enough also low RES will be kind of benefical here - because you want the wisps' distraction to last a long time when they hit you - and low RES prolongs negative effects on you. Before getting to the wisps the character wouldn't be especially fast though and would have to make do with other sources of flanked/distracted (like getting properly flanked by enemies). Would also work with Troubadour or Bellower I think. --- When going Streetfigher/any Barbarian note that the Barbarian ability "One Stands Alone" is an anti-synergy with the Streetfighter passive if you rely on getting flanked by enemies. You will suddenly need one more flanking enemy to unlock your Streetfigher passive.

Hello and welcome! I was about to say "Soublade/Trickster" because that would be my favoire combination of the mentioned classes. Imo Paladin/Soulblade can be much more versatile than Paladin/Trickster and it has potentially unlimited resources (focus). But it takes more time to develop, the Trickster is a little bit more front-loaded - and Riposte + Offensive Parry stack which can be cool. If you ignore the rest of the Cipher powers (besides Borrowed Insticts) and only use Soul Annihilation it also might become a bit boring, too. I personally would pick the Soulblade I think. Paladin subclasses: for tanking purposes I like Goldpact Knight who can can sort-of unlimited +4 AR because Sword Rival gives you back the Zeal you paid for the Golden Enmity as soon as the Rival is killed. I also like Steel Garrote because Offensive Parry does an automatic daze and that unlocks the health-draining passive of the Steel Garrote. It's even better with Trickster+Persistent Distraction: every Riposte/Offensive Parry and other melee attacks will drain health which stacks with stuff like Exalted Endurance and so on. But most players have a problem with playing a not so kind Paladin subclass. Goldpact at least has no problem with being nice - as long as he keeps a cool head. From a role-playing perspective I think Darcozzi + Trickster fits very well. Also the Darcozzi Fireshield isn't bad for off-tanking. --- If you are open to other multiclass pairings for this Whispers of the Endless Paths Paladin I can recommend Steel Garrote/Bloodmage (Arcane Knight) which has some great tricks up its sleeves in combination with that weapon and some other items. Forbidden Fist as second class to a Goldpact or Steel Garrote with WotEP/Offensive Parry can also work well. With the Community Patch mod I'd also recommend Shattered Pillar instead of Forbidden Fist.

Frostseeker ist absolutely great with Cipher/Rager like Kaylon suggested. It also works well with a Cipher/CHanter but honestly I personally prefer reloading weapons for this class combination - just because the phrase "Sure-Handed Ila" works so well with them (speed bonus applies twice for realoading weapons instead of only once for bows and implements). So dual pistols can indeed be an option. In terms of abilities you don't need many from the Chanter's side. My phrases would be Sure-Handed Ila + Aefyllath Ues Myth Fir and not much else (because you plan to have other chanters in the party who can pick other useful phrases like Ancient Memory and whatnot). As a ranged character you cannot use short-ranged invocation much anyway, so maybe a good summon spell would be my first pick. Wurms are good at first but they don't scale well. Unfortunaltely a lot of summon spells don't scale well so you will have to retrain at some point for optimal results. The best summon later are the animated weapons. And then it depends on what you want to do most. For CC Killers Froze Stiff is good (the range is long enough to be used from the back row with decent INT) and also Hel-Hyraf and Ben Fidel's Neck (defense debuff stacks with almost everything) have similar cone length and are useful. For Ciphers I always take mind control abilities besides the passives for better focus (Draining Whip) and PEN. I personally will use Puppet Master a lot if I can. The combination of summons (chanter) + mind control (cipher) is very impactful in most encounters. I'll always take Borrowed Instincts because it's so good. And then there's a lot of room for other stuff I guess. Oh: Two-handed Style if dual pistol.

Not just you. I noticed that, too.

That explains why that works for me. Should've looked that up myself, but spontaneous lazyness got in my way. Thanks!

Maybe, but still it does have the frost keyword in my screenshot (see below) and yet the enchantment of the shield doesn't apply.

Did you also install the keyword part of the CP mod? It's weird that we both have the same mod but for me Call of Rymrgand will face the +15 defense biff from the shield - but for you it doesn't. Wild...

Uhh, maybe I'm the one with the mod that is tampering with the keywords. I know in the Community Patch (that I use) @Phenomenum added priest related keywords to certain priest spells where they were missing or faulty. Maybe he also fixed Call of Rymrgand and added the frost keyword? Maybe...