Boeroer

At the same time players complained that "mundane" classes in BG/BG2 had not much to do besides auto-attacking and felt less interesting than mages etc. Which is true. On the other hand that means a hell lot more micromanagemet if everybody in the party can use impactful active abilites - this can make the game more complicated and might push more casual gamers away.

So, I still had a savegame with him. Only of the testing session on Port Maje though - the savegame of the run I did I seem to have deleted. But I guess the test dummy is good enough because I don't remember that I changed a lot of stuff (besides adapting to encounters during the run of course). The gist of it is that you use Willbreaker and turn your Animal Companion (AC) and an Essential Phantom into your main damage dealers - while you drop down the defenses of the enemy - and then also deal damage. The Essential Phantom inherits your items. If you are currently equipped with Concelhaut's Draining Touch (CDT) then the Phantom will have it as well - and it will not lose it on hit. Instead it will keep it until the Phantom is killed or expires. CDT targets Will instead of Deflection and also has high base damage - so on crits it does substancial damage even with the non-optimized phantom. It also drains health which lets the phantom last a lot longer. It weakens on hit - that lowers enemies' fortitude and health. All in all a formidable weapon. So what we want to do is to throw enemies' will defense on the ground - so that the phantom (or us when while are using CDT) will crit nearly every time. Dazzling Lights + Miasma + Willbreaker will drop enemies will defense really fast and reliably (-50 and beyond if you also use terrifiy effects). Your phantom will crit the heck out of such will-debuffed enemies. Club would be even better, but here's the other part of the build that calls for a Morning Star: The Animal Companion, besides his normal attacks + passives, has Takedown Combo (TDC) which makes the next attack on target get +100% dmg. This can be used with the phantom for a really hefty CDT smash or for your spells (like Necrotic Lance or Killing Bolt). Unfortunately TDC targets fortitude. That's why we will use a Morning Star + modal to lower enemies fortitude by 25 via Body Blows. This makes it way easier for the AC to land its TDC. The Phantom with CDT also helps (-10 fortitude). Besides TDC also a lot of spells profit from the lowered fortitude. So the Willbreaker is the ideal weapon for this combo since it lowers fortitude AND will. It's important that we really hit the enemy with our initial debuffs before the phantom and AC can go to work, Hence we need lots of ACC. At the same time we are also tanking a bit for our compagneros who are not supersturdy - so we want to have very high AR. Stalker, spells, armor and items help. If you want to also attack with the CDT once your enemies are set up correctly and you seek to clean up more quickly you can use the "keep CDT for the whole encounter" trick: only cast it from a grimoire (don't learn it). Once it's there, before hitting anything with it, change the grimoire to one that doesn't have CDT: voilá - it will not disappear after a successful hit and you can use it like a regular weapon - very effective in combo with club + modal in a dual wield setup to drop enemies will even further and without the need to recast Miasma etc. all the time. I'd only do that when enemies' fortitude is low anyways and the enemies are not supertough. In boss encounters the Morning Star is always better in my opinion because several impactful spells need to overcome fortitude (e.g. Combusting Wounds vs. Lich Dragon which really helps to bring it down a lot faster). Besides that you also want to interrupt the enemy once its about to do something that would really mess you your strategy. That's why Concussive Shot/Transquilizer is so good. That's also why I don't keep hitting the target mindlessly with my morning star but ionstead watch what it does, let the AC/Phantom do the hitting and stay ready to interrupt or debuff the enemy. Nothing's more frustrating when you see the enemy starting a nasty ability but you can't interrupt because you are in the middle of a recovery phase. Since our recovery is rather long due to armor we want to fight smart, not hard. The dmagae dealing is done by our guys anyway. ---------------------- Race: Mountain Dwarf (not that important, Coastal Aumaua, Wild Orlan are also nice - resistances in general are good since neitehr Ranger nor Wizard have passives for that. Pale Elf is also good) Background: Old Vailia - Hunter (background doesn't really matter but I want the +1 INT) Classes: Stalker/Wizard (was pre Bloodmage - I would consider Bloodmage nowadays. The combo of Concelhaut's Corrosiphe Siphon and regeneration gear + Blood Sacrifice is hard to pass. Although an empowered spell + Takedown Combo can save the day, too) MIG: 10 CON: 11 DEX: 17 PER: 18 INT: 19 RES: 03 Skills: Athletics 20, Survival 20 (you'll have to retrain for certain events, this was used during the fight with Neriscyrlas - I didn't need the Survival though. I guess a leftover from some skill check before) Abilites (I fiddled around with the console with this test char, so maybe there's too few or to many abilities here, I didn't double check) Ranger: Actives: Wolf Companion: highest damage per hit. But I would consider Boar or Bear for better staying power due to endless regeneration/higher AR. Marked Prey --> Mark of the Hunt: We want the bonus ACC mainly for the tough-to-hit bosses in order to debuff for our allies (Phantom & Animal Companion) Wounding Shot --> Accurate Wounding Shot: same, also unlocks Predator's Sense as a bonus Takedown --> Takedown Combo: works with spells and also for the Phantom's attacks Hunter's Claw: wasn't present when I did this. I think I would take it now if I had enough metagaming knowledge - e.g. if I knew which enemies come next. You can really supercharge your ACC against bosses during some mob encouters before if you know whom to hit with it. Concussive Hot-->Tranquilizer: you really really want to use this gainst some bosses (e.g. to prevent Neriscyrlas from casting Llengrath's Safeguard) Passives: Vicious Companion Resilient Companion Merciless Companion Protective Companion --> Stalker's Link (more ACC) Predator's Sense Survival of the Fittest (more ACC) Wizard: Actives (important ones in bold; besides Concelhaut's Draining Touch it doesn't matter if from Grimoire or learned. Make it so that you don't put too many points into leanred spells but also have a collection of these without too much Grimoire swapping): Arkemyr's Dazzling Lights (lowers Will directly by 10 and dazes--> enemies' PEN -4 - which is important since our sturdyness comes from AR/underpenetration of enemies) Spirit Shield (Concentration + AR is golden) Miasma of Dull-Mindedness (massive -40 drop of Will defense which stacks with Dazzling Lights and -10 Deflection) Mirrored Image (prevents crits should we get targeted) Combusting Wounds (always good if you have multiple sources of attack rolls - like two allies) Necrotic Lance (nice as early single target spell in combo with Takedown Combo - but only the initial dmg will get the +100%, not the DoT) Concelhaut's Corrosive Siphon (source of healing) Infuse with Vital Essence (more INT = more duration) Essential Phantom (our super punchy ally) Llengrath's Displaced Image (see Mirrored Image) Ryngrim's Repulsive Visage (terrify targets Will and lowers Will at the same time and is very powerful alltogether) Concelhaut's Draining Touch (do NOT learn this but use it from a Grimoire - see "the gist" description above) Arkemyr's Wondrous Torment (like Miasma but longer range and lasts longer - backup if you have no uses left for Miasma) Llengrath's Safeguard (more AR when things go south) Ryngrim's Enervating Terror (moar terrify!) Iron Skin (everlasting +5 AR as long as you don't get hit - can have its uses) Citzal's Martial Power (+20 ACC for the times you really can't hit something) Substancial Phantom (should you run out of essential ones - this is actually worse in our case since it often starts to casts spells when we want it to smack things) Ninaguath's Killing Bolt (great with Takedown Combo's +100% dmg boost) Passives: Rapid Casting Martial Caster Quick Summoning Accurate Empower (if not Bloodmage obviously) Items (will change from encounter to encounter obviously - depends whom you are facing - but basically) : Head: Death's Maw (great early game source damage reduction that stacks with underpenetration) White Witch Mask (terrify when blooded is nice, the +1 PL for our Illusions/Will debuffs is as well) Back: Shroud of the Phantasm (Animal Companion also gets its Living Illusions: hilarious. Also I had my Living Illusions cast Essential Phantoms: even more hilarious). Three Trolls Stiched (in combo with other regenration items can be nice for a Bloodmage) Cloak of Greater Deflection (due to our low RES we can really use some more deflection) Neck: Cog of Cooh (Communal Carnage is not that important but nice - but the constant Aware inspiration from my dudes killig things sells it) Wahaki Tua (when you don't want to get terrified) Strand of Favor (generally useful especially for a 3-RES char) Precognition (the crit protection can be a live saver against arquebus gunners and such) Dragon Pendant (agaisnt slashing enemies it's great: +1 slash AR that stacks) Armor: Nomad's Brigandine (I didn't use anything esle once I got this. Tactical Withdraw: it's so useful for this char to cancel enemies' engagement entirely. With the Horde gives us +5 deflection all the time as AC and Phantom are always there, Head of the Column gives us another +5 deflection vs. melee weapons - stacks nicely with stuff like Mirrored Images) Hands: Gatecrashers (the knock down occurs from time to time because we crit frequetly due to our very high ACC + flanking, Reeling Blow is nice) Hylea's Talons (to keep up Predator's Sense most of the time) Corroded Vambraces (reduce enemies' PEN by -1 on 50% of crits: nice) The Left Hand of the Obscured (terrify chance on crit: nice) Engwithan Bracers (when you really don't want to get Paralyzed etc.) Bracers of Greater Deflection (see Cloak) Weapon: The Willbreaker (Battered Mind, Unavoidable Demise - will drop Fortitude by 25 points via Body Blows which we will never turn off. Will also lower Will per hit) Concelhaut's Draining Touch (pure destruction to targets with low Will and corrode AR) Rings: Ring of Greater Regeneration (especially Blood Mage) Ring of Regeneration Ring of Minor Protection Waist: Blunting Belt (most of times) The Maker's Own Power (when you are facing mostly crushing enemies and expect to get pommeled real hard) Undying Burden (best if your enemies are underpenetrating at -3 anyway - since its DR stacks with underpenetration - like Death's Maw) Upright Captain's Belt (when you face pushing enemies you really want this - else they push you away from your AC and you'll lose 1 AR which we don't want) Boots: Boots of Speed Boots of the Stone (resistance) Pet: Abraham (I used nothing else although Animancy Cat might be nice as well for the Phantom in situations where it has trouble penetrating)

And yet we are talking about sales numbers and low barriers to entry and accessibility. If you want people to grasp a ruleset quickly then a systemic approach is mandatory. Having to study and memorize a lot of exceptions is what will put off a significant amount of non-hardcore-players who don't want to get a Master's degree in that specific ruleset or to write a thesis about the unique spell effects of spell XY (I include PoE/Deadfire here as well). In the end it doesn't really matter how the spell effects goes through what attack resolution, if that's a unique mechanic or not . What matters is if it feels nice to cast it. For example Pull of Eora is a unique spell effect but it uses the same attack resolution. It's more interesting than Fireball which uses the same attack resolution but is fairly boring. So I would argue the uniqueness or joy of spells should come with their effects and impact on the game world and not how they are applied mechanically. The advantage of a universal attack resolution: nobody needs to look the hit mechanics up each time they want to cast a spell. I've played my fair share of P&P during school and university and I can only say that most players hated it if you had to reach for the rulebook all the time. A supernerd who could recite every rule was very welcome, even if he (usually a he) didn't contribute much else and fell asleep at some point because all the "role-playing" bored him... There always were some hardcore-nerds who loved to take a deep dive into the depths of exceptions and special rules - but most don't. Also those experts often really like the game to stay that way. They will usually argue that a more systemic (doesn't mean simplistic!) ruleset will "dumb down" the game or make it less interesting. I guess a part of that is that they invested a huge amount of time and brain schmalz to learn all that stuff. What's that worth if everybody suddenly can grasp or even decuct the rules quickly? Those players are gatekeeping. At the same time they only buy one copy like everybody else... D&D games most certainly don't sell well because the mechanics are so awesome, interesting or unique. Simulationisticly and also in terms of convenience they are bad. They manage to be complicated and at the same time don't really simulate anything very well. That's ok because they are a result of organic growth over long years with massive legacy problems (thanks to conservative and vocal hardcore-nerds) - and it doesn't matter much because the P&P audience is used to it and the whole other stuff around the rules is -whike at times a bit chaotic and silly - very rich and attractive and most players know it - they even grew up with it. Nostalgia, custom and popularity are more important than a slick, high quality ruleset when it comes to commercial success. A clear advantage of every D&D licensed game. Another thing: I read that Stardew Valley sold 10 Million times now. After release for PC only it sold 1 million copies (which is pretty awesome for such a game). Only after the game was ported to consoles and more importantly mobiles (iOS and Android) it surged again and went for the 10 million mark. Imagine a Deadfire version for mobiles... What changes would it have to go through in order to make it playable and fun on mobile devices? I mean if we look forward to a possible third installment? RTwP seems to be a pain on small screens I reckon?

From a systemic point of view and also as a Pen&Paper ruleset D&D is just terrible - at least the ones I played (<4). D&D has a great atmosphere because of the huge lore and content it produced and because of all the nostalgia. What you like (e.g. different attack resolution for x and y) makes players stop playing and literally (P&P) and (figuratively - using Google) grabbing the rulebook all the time. Deadfire, while complex, tries to minimize this by being more systemic (stat effects, inspirations, afflictions, basic attack roll vs. defenses etc). It didn't go all the way (see things like Miasma and non-systemic stacking) and didn't explain things well though. People can't really argue that Deadfire's core rules are harder to understand and to memorize than D&D. Details and exceptions: yes (because obscured), but D&D has plenty of exceptions and band-aid rules as well. But the general ruleset: no way. Put somebody who doesn't know D&D in front of both and then decide. Doesn't mean you can't like it better nevertheless of course. I like PoE over Deadfire despite it being more messy and a lot less systemic. I would never say that PoE has the superior ruleset though.

Maybe I still have it as a savegame. Will look it up once I'm at the PC, stay tuned.

They use D100 though.

I generally agree. But on the other hand a deeper system can result in a better gaming experience like @omgFIREBALLS said. WhereP oE and Deadfire fail is explaining their rules in a decent and catchy way. I'm sure that part of the problem is that rules get changed even after release and thus it's very difficult to make a good tutorial that a) doesn't become obsolete after some patches and b) isn't too vague in order to circumvent a). I said this a couple of times already but a great tooltip system (for every mechanic in the game) that explains everything perfectly well is the one of Slay the Spire. Maybe a future RPG with new rules could adopt something similar. Also the Enhanced UI mod for Deadfire is very good and helps to understand mechanics with simple icons and mouseovers. If I were Obsidian I would have tried to incorporate that mod as soon as it was published. An example for an understandable yet rel. deep combat system is Battle Brothers. It's not for dummies but yet the rules are not hard to grasp. Ok, it's turn based - that means all the obscure attack speed calculations for RTwP don't need to happen...

You should compare Gorecci Street with the bear cave. Both Gorecci Street and bear cave are optional sidequests that are very hard if you do them in order of occurrence.

The more I look at resource pools and -cost the more I think the game should have used numbers like 10 (ability cost) and 100 (resource pool) instead of 1 and 10. That way you could easily fine-tune the cost of abilities without changing its mechanics at all. Now if you cut the cost in half from 2 to 1 you have to rebalance the whole ability even if it's basically working well. Of course higher numbers don't look as pretty and would not work with the current UI I guess. I agree that Greater Lay on Hands doesn't have twice the power of LoH. Except in situation where you desperately want to counter a CON affliction.

Mule Kick: what you said about PL is only true if the upgrade replaces the base ability afaik? Doesn't Mule Kick give you an additional ability and you keep Knockdown?

Why is the crit damage insane? It's +50% additive from weapon base damage. So in case of a sabre or sword for example that would be 8 slash damage on average. I mean it's nice - but insane? Let's compare: Crippling Strike: Power Level 1 costs 1 Guile bonus damage: +25% bonus penetration: 2 interrupts on hit applies Hobbled for 15 secs Barbaric Blow: Power Level 2 costs 2 Rage bonus damage: 20% bonus penetration: 2 +30% hit to crit conversion +50% Carnage area (not radius) +50% crit damage I don't know but doesn't seem to be too far of given that Crippling Strike also has the 1 PL advantage. 2 Rage is too expensive if you look at that. 1 may be a bit too cheap. Don't know...

Also on the DLCs they let some new guys take the rudder - and sometimes those are extra motivated, not crunched yet and full of ideas.

I was just thinking how a Monk/Barbarian can apply Carnage to the initial target with Force of Aguish - because it hits-->pushes enemy in Carnage AoE-->Carnage hits. What if Barbaric Blow did a mini-push (+interrupt) as well? Just enough to break engagement (nice side effect) and to shove the enemy into the Carnage area? That would fit the theme ("massive" blow the description says), it would give some freedom of movement and a bit CC because you could cancel engagement with the push and interrupt attacks and also some "hidden" bonus damage because of Carnage shenanigans.

I agree that Barbs are in a good place generally. I just think that 2 rage for Barbaric Blow is a tad expensive when compared with other classes' low level(ish) bread-and-butter attacks. But it's correct that you have to watch out so you not overpower it. The problem I have with refund on kill is that you then tend to only use it on near death enemies which automatically means a lot of wasted dmg due to overkill. And if you don't kill it's quite the waste of Rage to pummel a near death enemy. Refund on crit is like Stunning Surge (which also has a build-in higher critchance with Full Attacks if the first one stuns which leads to -10 deflection). So maybe that's not too powerful if one doesn't change the base ability or even brings the crit chance down a bit? Maybe bringing it down to 1 Rage is too good as well. Maybe it just needs something else. Something small yet interesting that justifies the double resource cost (compared to Flames of Devotion, Knockdown etc.). Higher crit chance could be it but it's kind of... same same (by the way there's the Debonaire who has 100% crit chance on charmed enemies)? That dmg non-stacking needs a fix, I agree. I totally dig the term "vocal cannon".

Haha, you sly old fox. I'd argue that Arterial Strike + AoE is nicer. At least in party play. I can see where a prone could be the better option than raw dmg in a solo playthrough. Still it doesn't justify 5 PLs in my opinion. Also: classic edge case. How many rogues will multiclass with wizard, pick Spirit Lance and then discover that Sap does prone? How many rogues will max out INT for WotEP? I'll give you that: if I would make a CC-based rogue/something with a rod+blast I would take Sap over Crippling Strike. Maybe... Sacrilege! It's not impressive on a normal-INT single target rogue. But it is very impressive with higher INT and the possibility to bring it into stellar heights with enfeeblement and crits - in a AoE. Sap can never have such an impact and thus loses the (general) competition by a big margin in my book. Afaik the cost was brought down to 2 because of the base ability "Withering Strike" which is way too expensive for a mere weakening ability. Toxic Strike just inherits the guile cost then. I guess you could bring up the cost of Toxic Strike back up to 3. On the other hand I think it doesn't work on poison-immune foes which are numerous, so...? I agree that there are even worse abilites. But that doesn't make Sap any better. As I said: totally fine as a low level ability - but not at PL6 (in its current form). It would need a little buff - for example a Guile refund mechanic. Or maybe a draining effect. It's called "Sap" after all - so what are you sapping there? Barbaric Blow is just too expensive. It has twice the cost of Crippling Strike or Flames of Devotion or Knockdown - is it really twice as strong? No Sir Nopington. If the upgrade would refund on crit instead of kill it would be really good (see Stunning Surge which is awesome). The other upgrade (no recovery in kill) makes no sense for me since it clashes with Blood Thirst (they don't synergize): why would I spend an ability point to skip recovery with a special attack - if I can have the same effect with every kill (including DoTs) as a passive? If this was on crit it would be too good I guess? Especially if combined with Blood Thirst... That could be some Action-RPG stuff I reckon. But if I think more about it: it costs 2 non-refundable Rage then. Maybe it wouldn't be too powerful after all. I guess I would still prefer the refund-version (if it were on-crit). What do you think?

This is why most people will not take your opinion seriously. You might have adressed some weaknesses - but you bury your potentially valid points under exaggeration and puerile rants which will put off most readers who are not with you already. So either you never learned how to successfully reason with others - or you are not interested in a productive discussion but only want to sow seeds of discord. Both is difficult to work with in a forum.

Depends on the definition of "true" dragon. But there is no general one because they are fictitious. Thus the lore of the game world defines what a dragon is. For example the Guardian of Ukaizo is actually three dragons merged into one Draco-Animat or "Mecha-Dragon": Deadfire therefore has 5 dragon encounters: Jadaferlas (Magma Dragon in Ashen Maw, base game) Scyorielaphas (Sea Dragon in the Watershaper's Guild, base game) Neriscyrlas as "Messenger" (Lich Dragon in Harbinger's Watch, Beast of Winter DLC) Neriscyrlas (Lich Dragon on the Shattered Passage in the White Void, Beast of Winter DLC) Guardian of Ukaizo (Animat Dragon, Ukaizo Harbor, base game) PoE had 4 dragon encounters: no-name (Sky Dragon in the Temple of Hylea, base game) Sefyra (Adra Dragon on lvl 15 of the Endless Paths of Od Nua, base game) no-name (Alpine Dragon, Longwatch Falls, White March I DLC) Turisulfus & Gafonercos (Bog Dragons, Mowrghek Îen, White March II DLC). If we want to include Cail the Silent (Red Drake in Searing Falls) because he is cool, guards Tidefall, may have been at the brink of adulthood and has a name and (short) dialogue then we would be at 5 dragon encounters. So your initial statement in comparison to Deafire is simply not correct. If you wanted to be nitpicky and count the individual dragons it's 4 (Deadfire) vs. 5 (PoE) which is not such a big difference that you could say that PoE had dragons "out the ass" while Deadfire had not enough. Especially if you look at both base games where it's 3 (Deadfire) to 2 (PoE). I guess you like the more "traditional" or conservative fantasy approach with dragons - like they are depicted in D&D lore? Where the evil ones mostly have elemental properties and are colored - and then the good ones are gold and silver and bronze and such (obviously...). I also guess that you would have liked to see more of those conservative takes on dragons in Deadfire? Because PoE's dragons fit into that pattern better - while Deadfire deviates from it with an undead dragon and construct dragon instead of more elemental ones like a storm dragon (we already had a Sky Dragon who did shocking things - there are only so much elements you can draw inspirations from...). At least that would somewhat explain your initial statement. For you those more conservative takes on dragons are what makes them "true" dragons? Yet Deadfire's dragons are tailored exactly to the themes they are connected to: Neriscyrlas chose the lich form in order to cheat her end. She resists death and the final annihililation of her soul through the White Void - which is the domain of Rymrgand, the God of Endings. Actually Neriscyrlas looks like Vatnir in dragon form... The Guardian of Ukaizo is a product of animancy - and was made by the Engwithans who invented animancy and created the gods with its help. Betrayed by the woul-be gods like they betrayed the Huana (who themselves betrayed the Sea Draon). I think those themes are beautifuly connected with its dragons and lead to a less cliché-ridden depiction. PS: Alpine Dragon already had rogue abilities (like Sneak Attack and Deathblows) so like with the Sky Dragon I think the devs won't want to repeat themselves too much. Hence the more "esotheric" approaches to dragons in PoE I would presume.

No, you can take them all. There are some listed that are automatic (e.g. from race) or story-talents that you can get during a playthrough (e.g. Flick of the Wrist) so it may seem like it's too many. I didn't put them in order though.

I never had severe bugs. I think the game once crashed and exited and that was the worst thing that ever happened - during an awful (really awful) lot of hours played. Some minor bugs with mechanics: yes. But nothing severe. Exactly. Also: I can't count how often I saw the word "useless" getting used when forum users described the result of a nerf. It never described the situation correctly. Not once. "They nerfed the endless zeal combo of Heralds. Heralds are now completely useless!" Note how "useless" can be combined with "completely" to emphasize one's infuration. Sprinkle "everything" and "always" on top! Still my favorite "useless" statement: "Wizards in PoE are completely useless" - and that was before they nerfed the obscenely powerful spell mastery mechanics...

Yeah that post didn't make a whole lot of sense. Same number of dragons (if you count the Guardian of Ukaizo - which used to be a living dragon before it became a vessel). Some might even consider the Porokoa a kind of dragon. I mean it's a giant reptile - and if you call a Komodo Dragon a dragon...

Dudes! Sap is bad! Perplexing Sap is not only bad, it's a joke. But Sap alone is not good to begin with. It costs 1 Guile - ok kind of cheap. But for 1 Guile you can also use a Crippling Strike which has 25% bonus damage, interrupts on hit, +2 PEN(!), is a Full Attack and has a 5 Power Level advantage over Sap - even if you upgrade it. Sap adds Confused to Hobbled, has 10 bonus ACC, interrupts on graze but is only a primary attack. I mean as low level ability: ok. But as PL 6 ability, competing with Toxic Strike? So why spend an ability point for something that's hardly an improvement over Crippling Strike? Here again the disadvantage of non-replenishable resource pools unstealthes: active abilites compete for the resource points and thus you tend to pick only a few. PoE's per-encounter system was less flexible but it also meant that every active ability you took gave you more uses of abilities per encounter. So in order to make higher level actives worthwhile you need to make them appealing (meaning more powerful or cheaper or just more insteresting) than the low level stuff. Sap is none of that.

Just one encapsulated module. No need to alter the base game. PvP would only work in the special PvP map. Unity has a build-in Network Manager: https://gamedevacademy.org/how-to-create-a-multiplayer-game-in-unity/

I really never had those issues. At least not with weapon users. It is normal that casters miss a lot of their spells in the early game on PotD if you are not buffing/debuffing meticulously. Especially if they target Fortitude which is usually the highest defense for beasts (which are quite common on the first island). I don't even use Empower at all in the early game except for refilling class resources. Do you make sure the enemy's flanked before you start to hit him? That's important since it costs nothing but has a big impact. It's -10 deflection (and -1 AR) which is a considerable deflection debuff that early in the game. Together with Disciplined Barrage or Blessing that's the equivalent of +15 ACC. Use a single handed accurate weapon (dagger, spear, rapier or club) for Edér's Knockdowns and he's at an equivalent of +32 ACC. With a non-accurate weapon it's still +27. 3 points of PER which would mean +3 ACC like in your examples don't matter that much. Not even in the early game where it would have the highest impact. There would be no huge difference. Later on - after some levels - there's hardly any difference from 3 points of PER. So that points may be better spend for otehr stuff like INT or DEX or RES or whatever fits the character. And after all that's what companions' stats should do: reflect the character. However - I would like a Companion or Sidekick with high PER right from the start as well but for other reasons: at the moment you need to have high PER yourself in order to find certain traps and secrets and that's a bit annoying. Once I start a playthrough with an unabservant character I kind of regret it because I have to manually search and disable traps on the ground (if I even remember that there are any). It must be even worse for new players who don't know about this.

Oh I forgot the most awesome thing with DoTs like Disintegrate: Animal COmpanions' Takedown Combo (+100% dmg for next hit) will NOT get removed if you cast a Disintegrate (or other pure DoT) on the target. That means the ticks of Disintegrate will have +100% damage, actually doubling the whole base damage. So Cipher/Ranger is also a nice thing for DoTs. Or havig a Forbidden Fist/Cipher/Ranger in the party (in whatever char/class combo). I guess with those three classes combined you can create the highest Disintegrate dmg possible. Also works with Lion's Sprint (Barb) by the way: the +15 ACC for the next attack will not get removed by a pure DoT. The DoT roll will profit but the bonus will stay active.

If you use Spearcaster against single targets you want to put everything into Arcana. Your ACC, especially with imbue shots, will be enormous. Shadowstep and Sap are crap (sorry - but it rhymes). Finishing Blow is mediocre. As a Ranger I would always pick Takedown Combo. Its +100% dmg bonus stacks with Backstab, Sneak Attack, Deathblows etc. It also raises DoT dmage and will not get removed by pure DoTs (e.g. Disintegrate). What is really good is Toxic Strike with Watershaper's Focus + Driving Flight. You'll create 3 AoE projectiles which will apply Toxic Strike in a huge area, hitting every enemy more than once. Same is true for Arterial Strike as an opener from Stealth. Also works well with Fire in the Hole+Hand Mortar. In case of Watershaper's Focus you can often expect Ondra's Wrath to proc (which is devastating as a Rogue because it profits from the weapon enchantaments like superb etc. and also from Sneak Attack and Deathblows etc.). I had a Trickster/Sharpshooter and did this build with it (scroll down to see some animated gifs of the char in action) : Ondra's Wrath got nerfed after I posted that. But I tried this build again and it still rocks. Trickster is supernice because you can lure enemies to a spot with Arkemy's Dazzling Light (as if throwing Sparkcrackers). Then, when they all stand tehre in a tight group looking around like idiots you go *boooom* It was a lot of fun. Also note that Arcane Archer's imbue effects will proc with every jump. So an imbue Fireball will proc 3 times from one shot if you use Watershaper's Focus or Fire in the Hole + Driving Flight. Even 4 times if you use Kitchen Stove with Wild Barrage (but that's per rest). Also note that Arcance Archer's imbue effects will not scale properly with Power Level. E.g. the PEN of Fireball and Missiles will not rise which makes them rather bad at some point. This was acknowledged by the devs but never got fixed. You can fix that with the Community Patch (see my signature) which lets the PEN of imbue effects scale with Arcana (it was the easiest solution and works fairly well).