Boeroer

Is it? The new mechanic allows you to not pick any spell at level up but only take passives and/or foreign abilities (in case of multiclass) but with the right collection of grimoires still have a tremendously broad spell portfolio to cast from. The only downside is that you have to switch more often since you can't put all your favs into one grimoire. Priests and Druids don't have this very advantageous mechanic (especially powergamey for multiclass wizards) and yet you don't complain about those two but about grimoires. If grimoires were also customizeable this already borderline broken mechanic would become absurdly overpowered. Why pick a spell in the first place? You'd learn spells, write your favorite 2 or 3 grimoires, then retrain and pick no spells at all - while your perfectly composited grimoires would hold them all.

Unfortunately that's a known bug that happens very rarely - but it happens.

You will be fine.

Nope. That stretch goal was not reached during the crowdfunding campaign.

Shadowed Hunters: I wouldn't use an additive damage bonus. Like with Assassinate and Backstab this favours weapons with high base damage - and I don't think that this is a good approach for a stealth ability. Distraction Training: absolutely agree. Has anybody ever taken it? Who would want to spend a high PL ability point for something like this? Gaining 1 Bond per miss on AC would make it very potent. Maybe too much? Maybe have a chance like with Fighter's Toughened Fury?

You can solve that quest without any fights if you wish. As a Shieldbearer diplomacy should be your favorite thing anyway.

With cannoneers the difference between 4 and 3 stars is quite significant. Only master cannoneers cause special events on hit quite reliably. It makes ship fights a lot easier if the enemy captain has to send in crew to fix flooding or fetch crew that went over board instead of firing their cannons at you.

Correct. As I showed in my example above (with Kalakoth's Minor Blights) its impact can be very significant - but only if you are able to hit several enemies at once. That isn't difficult if you use chokepoint tactics or/and have a tank in the party.

@Scottlameany: You can apply the same basic principle (automatic wounding which will always unlock Predator's Sense) with the early hunting bow "Persistence". It has the same enchantment as Tidefall (wounding) which makes it one of the best single target ranged weapons right away and also helps to boost your Animal Companion's damage. It's also much easier to get than Tidefall (still some tricky fighting though, but more space to kite).

Doesn't work with ranged weapons in PoE (does in Deadfire). Weapon Focus: +6 stackable passive accuracy is always worth it. Apprentice Sneak Attack works exactly as the normal Rogue Sneak Attack. Just lower dmg bonus. It's good on a Cipher. Psychic Backlash: used to be limited per encounter but that got lifted in one of the latest patches. It now retaliates every time your Will gets attacked. It is absolutely devastating for any dragon because they attack your will every few seconds with their terrifying aura. If you add Brutal Backlash this can kill a dragon. Skills are things like mechanics, survival, athletics etc. I guess you mean talents?

So no Accuracy bonus - but graze to hit? I think that's redundant because a decently build Ranger at PL 9 doesn't graze much.

Iron Man, PotD, Expert Mode

Dude...

Take ass and kick names?

No idea - I certainly don't.

Eh, sorry - am obviously a bit confused atm due to slight fever. 😖 Winter should really stop now - that's the third cold I fetched this season.

Don't know why Twinned Shots couldn't stay a modal. Sure, one left it on anyways and that means it could also have been a passive ability - but making it an active ability was not the best move in my opinion. Since it's PL8 anyway it wouldn't have been a multiclass-synergy-problem as a modal.

Your level is too low. You can solve a lot of quests without any fighting. Gain more levels and come back later. Every level-up is a pretty significant step and can make a lot of difference in the early and mid game.

This character is not meant for solo. The dumped RES on a melee solo character would be a major pain alone. You would get interrupted all the time. Wichts would be your worst nightmare. The whole game isn't meant for solo play by the way. You can do it but the early game is particularly hard and you have to sneak and cheese often - especially if you have no deep understanding how most mechanics work and what a solo character needs to be successful (like not having a Resolve of 3). Level 3 is very low for anything, even with a party. Raedrics' guards are hard to beat. However, you can sneak through the sewer gate without having to fight anyone. You can't kill Cail the Silent early (depends on the definition of "early" but certainly never at lvl 3) with a solo character on PotD - at least not without superb expertise, tons of consumables, the right build and cheesy tactics like wild kiting. And also you'd need 10 mechanics to find Tidefall in the first place - and most solo chars don't put all their skill points into mechanics right away (you could come back after a retrain though). This build was used as an off-tank and melee damage dealer in a party and it fit that role quite nicely. Mostly because combined Animal Companion's damage + Tidefall damage are pretty great against single targets and the AC takes off some heat of the ranger.

Yes, it gives them higher attack speed (or to be more precise: shorter recovery). You can try it out here. Pick a wand and chose 10 DEX. Then switch on/off Sure Handed Ila (bottom right corner). The chant works with all ranged weapons, it reduces either reloading time (guns and crossbows) or recovery (bows & implements). Attack speed bonuses usually stack with increasing returns (if they stack at all). In this case if you'd use the Engwithan Scepter (has 20% speed) and use the spell Deleterious Alacrity of Motion (50% speed) and switch on Sure Handed Ila (20%) you'll already have no recovery and fire like a medieval machine gun.

Some nerfs were absolutely necessary. Like Carnage or Dragon Thrashed. They "railroaded" the class into an optimal build direction or were just too dominant. Both got a bit overnerfed in my opinion though. Nobody takes Dragon Thrashed aymore and not many players even think about Carnage (except in combo with Spirit Frenzy maybe).

Afair the change of phantoms from controllable to non-controllable came shortly after they made it possible that phantoms carried clones of all items of the wizard. So if you gave the wizard a necklace of fireballs or a per-rest item like a figurine (they were not charged back then) the phantom could use all those attached abilites of the cloned item during its summoning duration, effectively removig the charged/per-rest restriction that the (uncloned) item usually has. So for example a wizard could have put on the Shroud of the Phantasm (wasn't there back then, but so you have a gamebreaking example) and summon a phantom. Phantom would then summon 6 Living Illusions every time (which themselves summoned Phantoms which...). So I think this was one big reason to change the phantoms. You can't trigger those abilites if you can't control the phantom. Was also the easiest solution I guess. I don't know why the rest of the other summons got changed though (can't recall which ones really changed or were uncontrollable right away). -5 PL is hefty, but as @thelee sad: infinite Robust from the Spiritual Ally can be pretty great to have. The summon itself is not breathtaking, but those "unlimited" stuff can often be used to great effect. You only have to know about it (description etc. don't mention it). What I don't get is the Druid's Aspect of Galawain. It's great fun with an Ancient + Wild Growth (I mean visually mostly) but still: it's way too meh. Or did it ever receive a buff I know nothing about? What is so bad about Wael's Incarnate? I never used it...

Rogues are not as squishy in Deadfire as they were in PoE by the way. Mindstalkers are pretty fun. One of my most beloved things with a Mindstalker is Debonaire/Beguiler who can charm enemies and then get a 100% crit conversion when casting Disintegrate on them without flipping them back to hostile mode. Kind of special class combo though. But the Charm/Disintegrate trick works with any Cipher - without the crit conversion then of course. Throw in an occasional Psychovampiric Shield to lower strong enemies' Resolve (prolongs Charm & Disintegrate a lot). Rogue/Soulblade with high deflection and some ACC debuffs on enemies with Whispers of the Endless Paths (for high AoE raw damage and a combo of Offensive Parry + Riposte which both generate focus) or Sun & Moon (first flail head dumps raw damage, second head already regains focus) works very well, too. And Ascendant/Streetfighter with blunderbuss (especially hand mortars) is powerful due to Powder Burns (Blunderbuss modal) triggering the Streetfighter's "Heating Up" passive all the time. I guess Assassin/Cipher could profit a lot from the enormous ACC buff from stealth/invisibility which would help to apply spells more reliably or to get more focus right at the start of combat (or both). But I never played that combo.

Several summons got changed from controllable to non-controllable. I believe Wizard's phantoms were also among them. Some didn't get changed though (see Chanter's summons).