Boeroer

She will be less effective than a custom made Paladin/Troubadour but still totally viable.

Dual wielding, fists and some other backup weapon set (like sabres), stuff like that? You can build a good monk in many ways. There are some good ones in the build list.

True with the boots - but if you auto-pause on "enemy spotted" (I believe) you'll be able to restealth right in front of the enemy. Which is even better in my opinion. I was able to pull this off all the time with my last solo Assassin/Bleak Walker. A DoT like Arterial Strike (very fast ticks) does prevent combat end while it doesn't make you visible. By the way: as an Assassin wouldn't you want to use Gambit after Vanishing Strikes instead of auto-attacks?

If it comes to ciphers and wizards I'd say most builds with Beguiler and Blood Mage are pretty great without the need to be a master mechanics connaisseur. Ascendant and Soul Blade can also be great if you know what you're doing. I like Beguiler in particular because he doesn't rely on damage to get back focus but can fill his focus to max while casting CC spells (and hit with them). While it's difficult at PL 1 to spam CC powers all the time already at PL 2 (or spell tier 2 if you will) you'll get some spells that can refill your whole focus if you only hit enough enemies with them. Works from stealth as well: lure enemies to a spot, open encounter with Phantom Foes or Mental Binding (debuffing enemies) and having full focus afterwards is nice. You can combine with lots of other classes, for example Assassin for a +25 accuracy buff from stealth (works right from the start). Or Monk for +10 INT via Duality of Mortal Presence which works nicely with Lingering Echoes. Stuff like that. Blood Mage + good healing sources (party members and/or regeneration items and/or self healing) is just good. You can cast over and over. THis is extremely helpful in the early game where you won't have many spell tiers to pick from and hence the spell uses per encounter would otherwise be very scarce. But if you combine a healer (e.g. see Herald down below) with a Blood Mage you can cast a lot more which makes lots of encounters notably easier. Paladin subclass doesn't matter that much in my book since their subclass abilites aren't as defining as for example Beguiler's focus refund mechanic or Blood Mage's Blood Sacrifice. Depends a bit on what you like and your party I guess. If you want to focus even more on healing take Kind Wayfarer, if you want more engagement to bind more enemies take Shieldbearer and so on. Paladin/Troubadour is so effective because he combines rel. high defenses, very high armor rating (very impactful in Deadfire), good direct healing via Lay on Hands, two sources for revives, great passive and unlimited healing auras (which stack), can call summons (very helpful since figurines are charged items in Deadfire and can't fully substitute summoning abilities anymore), do good CC via invocations, support the party with dual lashes, deal damage via invocations... Bag of thousand tricks those Heralds. You didn't ask for it but a thing that can let you win even encounters that are too tough for most other parties is a Rogue (SC or Multiclass) with Gouging Strike who uses an AoE weapon. You sneak in, lure the enemies to a spot (e.g. a Trickster with Dazzling Lights or Assassin with Sparkcrackers or whatever) and then use a rod + Blast to apply the neverending DoT onto them all, then go invisible and run away. From a certain distance whatch them all die. Doesn't work every time, but makes lots of encounters encredible easy that would otherwise be very hard. Feels cheesy though...

But you're tellig the story as if the event of "it was impossible to heal an invisible party member" would occur often - which it does not. Maybe you're even the only one who had that experience at all, given that invisibility as side effect is very rare and then on a party member that had a DoT on him ( why else would he die when invisible where he should be safe usually). Also you are saying that the positive outcomes let you win a fight sooner. But that's not the only thing that can happen. It can also happen that you are only winning the fight because a positve side effect occured (e.g. getting a +5 PL boost that made it possible to land an important debuff or whatever). Or because you did a Miscast while you were standing in the midst of enemies and they got wiped immediately instead of killing you - winning the fight. Also a negative side effect doesn't necessarily mean you will lose the fight, it can also mean you win later. As the effects are pretty balanced it can't be that your loss:win ratio would get bigger. It should stay the same roughly compared to a vanilla cipher. Hence no trap choice. And I would insist that calling it a garbage subclass is a selective memory issue. I'd say if you experienced a "can't heal invisible mate" situation others might have experienced a "oh cool my rushed squishy can't get overwhelmed because he turned invisible" situation. That's a nice thing but you won't remember it for long. It's not a good subclass compared to some other "unblanced" classes, sure - but so is plain cipher and maybe even Psion (if you - like with Wild Mind - don't try to intensively circumvent the penalties). You may have to reload more often because of the randomness and you will remember that - but it's hard to keep track of how often you didn't have to reload because you won thanks to a positive side effect. Still - if you want to use an official companion and a cipher you can totally use Serafen and mustn't be afraid that it's a trap choice. It's just a bit more juggling around with his subclass "features". I actually find this interesting. Others do not. That's ok. But calling it a garbage subclass or trap choice is just overexxageration. It's not as good as a custom Beguiler or Ascendant - sure. But those are not official companions. So if you want the official companion and are not superfocused on powergaming Serafan is no problem. I played him twice as Cipher (Witch & SC Cipher) and it wasn't bad at all. Actually as SC Cipher with his mortars, fat armor, Heaven's Cacophony and Shared Nightmare, running into melee range but bombarding around, hoping for miscasts (also work with Shared Nightmare) and all was lots of fun.

I'm so happy I never played that game.

I meant that only the combo of phrase PL bonus + Empower PL bonus pushes the "execution time" of Eld Nary's jumps over the duration of the Bellower buff. But as I said I may remember it incorrectly. It's been some time since I tested that and I can't remember if I only tried out Eld Nary + Bellower Buff + Empower only. I didn't know/notice that the bellower buff starts with casting. That's weird. And good to know. So I guess Furyshaper/Bellower is the way to go, eh? Get that cast off asap! Maybe you can make Eld Nary jump faster with Wengridh, hehe. But then again a multiclass Bellower can't even get Eld Nary's Curse. Ouf...

I don't know why we need to overcomplicate this with comparisons to BG2 and missiles removing whatever mirror stuff. It may also be influenced on how you play, but in my book the average effect of Wild Mind is slightly positive (especially when using Miscasts in your favor). Obsidian seems to think the same - given their balaced subclass approach and all and their refusal to buff him. I know - sometimes they don't get their own mechanics right. But still the whole "trap build" stuff ist totally overexaggerated. I say it's slightly positive - you say it's negative. Whatever. Is it really that bad? No. It's just random stuff going on and most players seem to hate that. Those effects will occur 20% of times. Sometimes it's bad, sometimes it's good. Let's make that a 10% chance per cast that something mildly bad happens ("Oh gods the Fampyr is Brilliant for some time - we're all gonna die... ") . You can play around or even use Miscasts to your advantage. Maybe you even want to use Deltro's Cage Helmet. This all does't make Serafen as Cipher a trap choice. On average he performs just as fine as a vanilla cipher. Actually you can even cheese: there's no problem reloading a tough encounter when something bad happened - but the good things that might happen can help you win a difficult fight that a vanilla cipher would have lost. I think the biggest problem is that people tend to remember the bad things but not the good things that happen to them (or to a lesser extend). Would you remember the unexpected double cast of Amplified Wave that helped you kill those enemies or that unexpected invisiblity on the enemy wizard that screwed your tactic? The other problem might be that several other subclasses are just too good. Ascendant, Soul Blade, Beguiler... jeez Beguiler. Wild Mind stinks compared to that. But so does vanilla Cipher. But that doesn't make it a trap choice nor does this make Serafen a particularly bad Cipher. Besides that he comes with some pretty nice items if you bring him along. See it as a recompensation for enduring his miscasts.

It was me who said that. I was answering your (or MaxQuest's?) question that was along the lines of "Why does the Bellower buff have a duration in the first place". And I said that it was because some invocation take longer than instant to be applied so it needs a duration. And so on... But isn't that dropoff only an issue once you stack Bellower bonus + Empower? Maybe I remember it wrongly though.

Monks are very good in Deadfire in general. Also because you can do lots of different stuff with them (see multiclassing) and it's all pretty great. Single Class Monks are also very good because they get really nice high level abilites.

Only speak for yourself.

That as well. Driving Echoes and Ancestor's Memory* mean +8 PEN and replenishing spells for a fellow caster for example. Which is crazy good. Another good example why you shouldn't go all dmg with a SC Cipher. They have some really good ones which don't all fit into the same category such like "damage" or "CC". Unfortunately Defensive Mindweb is but a shadow of its PoE version. *(Ancient Memory is the Chanter's healing phrase)

Clarity of Agony can help, yes. Especially at the start of fight in order to be able to spam Forbidden Fist more often. However it is not mandatory to use all the time after some point. Once you stacked up some RES and "-x% hostile effects" gear and food you don't need it to manage your Forbidden Fist Curses. Often the curse is below 2 secs then. It doesn't make sense to use the wounds for Clarity. Because its recovery is quite long it can get in the way sometimes and I just tend to skip it often then. But if you get hit by something nasty it can be really good to have: it not only frees you from the affliction but also gives you back wound(s) and a bit of healing then. Should you ever try a Nalpasca (there's plenty of drugs to find and to buy cheap - no reason to not use them all the time) : he has this main weakness where Arcane Dampener removes drug effects and gives him a drug crash. With a lot of Alchemy it's not too bad stats-wise but it prevents healing and degrades wounds. This can be annoying as heck. Some encounters love to spam Arcane Dampener at the start of fights, so...

I guess we suspected as much already. And Wael I presume...

A Witch with Morning Star, Secret Horrors and Spirit Frenzy (for example) has a lot easier time to apply stuff like Disintegration. Also Secret Horros make it easy to "unlock" the Willbreaker's echantments during battle. It also lowers Will which is good for many cipher spells. And of course the synergy of Blood Thirst and long recovery casts is quite nice once you get there. Make sure to wear the White Witch Mask. Just because of the name. It's also a great item for a Witch though if you want to use Bloodied. Once you get reduced to 50% health you will trigger Bloodied and Repulsing Image, giving you more damage but also makes the enemy stop attacking you. However, the issues with the Wild Mind subclass will still be there. If you find them particurly annoying then a Witch build will not change that. I read it as if you do not mind that too much though. So yeah - Witches can work very well. I played Serafan as SC Barb a few times. He's doing well enough at that as well. I once build him towards max AR and Barbaric Retaliation with Battle Axes + modal (works well) and also as Morning Star wielder who ended up using Driving Roar as combined CC/damaging ability nearly 100% of times. As SC Cipher I especially like the effects of Time Parasite + Shared Nightmare + mortars' AoE (really good AoE dps and focus gain - but of course that all comes rather late) and I actually like to play around Miscast. It can make things interesting, at least for me. I am not recommending a CC "centric" Serafen Cipher either. I'm just saying that it makes him not a better damage dealer to completely concentrate on damaging powers. Since powers are competing for focus anyway you only need two or three good damaging ones. Then there are a few really good CC spells. Why would you want to skip them? To have a somewhat "pure" damage dealer? It doesn't do much for your damage dealing capabilites to pile up too many different damaging cipher powers. Instead you can be a bit more flexible and also cast a decent CC power every now and then. For example: casting a rel. cheap Secret Horrors right at the start of battle can have a good impact since enemies can't use their offensive abilities and you'll lower enemies deflection and fortitude. It doesn't prolong the fight too much but makes it a lot safer. Or lure enemies to a spot with Aloth's Dazzling Lights from stealth (use like Sparkcrackers) and then cast a Miasma + Mental Binding on them with Serafen from stealth. If you then start to shoot your mortars you will not only hit a lot of enemies but also they'll have lower reflex and can't move. You'll get more focus, deal more damage and can cast a second damaging power on them while they are still clumped together. Stuff like that That's only one CC cast but it can make a difference. I don't understand why players often build their characters as "pure" this or that. Often it makes them extremely unflexible. A bit of diversity when it comes to abilities i often more benefical than sticking to a rather artificial construct like "damage dealer" or "healer" - especially for most official companions since they don't even have optimized stats for certain roles. Like... you can play a Druid as pure damage dealer - but it really doesn't hurt to also pick a healing spell that youcan use when your pur healer fails. Or take Xoti: you can of course use her as pure healer/support. But often there are fights then where it doesn't mak a whole lot of sense to unload all your healings or support spells. Then why not join the nuking with a Pillar of Holy Fire or a Shining Beacon. I mean except one simply likes to build such pure characters of course.

I find it quite problematic, yes. Not only because of lesser Turning Wheel or Iron Wheel bonus but also because you can't spam Whispers of the Wind then or follow Whispers with Resonant Touch like other Monk classes can. WotW already costs 5 wounds... The Shattered Pillar got nerfed so that only non-ability attack generate wounds. Yet his wound max wasn't raised then. For me it's the weakest Monk class currently. I personally like Forbidden Fist a lot - but you need to build it rather special in order to be great (max RES, stack reduction of hostile effects). Helwalker and Nalpascas are safe picks. Nalpasca with Hylea's Talons, a drug and Enduring Dance can spam Whispers of the Wind with nearly no pause. Helwalker does more damage but is more risky. With some regeneration gear it's not too bad though.

Eh? Improve PL by 5 vs decrease by 3. Echo Spell cast (cool in most cases, great on others) vs. Turn enemies invisible (depends, but not too bad. AI doesn't know what to do with that so it actually doesn't matter much in most cases). Set Focus to full (good) vs. push 2m away from target (who cares much). Rest is balanced 1:1. But I would argue that the player makes better use of a tier3-affliction on a target than most targets know what to do when receiving a tier-3-inspiration. That's positive on average in my book. And then there's the Miscast which is separate. It seems really bad but when you play around it it can actually by used in your favor as a potent but random damaging tool. Especially if you start to cast a lot once you get Time Siphon and maybe have some buddy get you more focus with Reaping Knives. If you give yourself Iron Will and stack some shock DR (it has only 7 PEN) you often only get grazed and then the dmg underpenetrates you while it may wipe enemies. It's a major thing but it can also be fun to play with/around it. Also concerning SC Ciphers and their damage dealing potential: besides Borrowed Instict there's Time Parasite which is the (potentially) most potent attack speed buff after Blade Cascade + SoT or Wall of Draining cheese - because it stacks its effect when it jumps. A cool dmg spell for cipher is actually Mind Lance. Not because I find it superdamaging in itself but because it works nicely with those passives like Empty Soul and stuff which boost all kinds of Will-based spells (ACC, crit conversion and focus refund). Mind Lance is the a Cipher spell that targets Will and deals damage. Silent Scream also does this but its cast time is longer iirc. A great boss killer combo (if you bring enough fort bebuffing tools) can be Death of 1000 cuts + Antipathetic Field. Every beam tick will trigger Death otC. Still I wouldn't play a Cipher 100% damage oriented (unless Soul Blade maybe). Some of the CC powers are just too good to be skipped. Also because of Lingering Echoes which I find quite nice as well.

As I said twice already the Wild Mind effects are (slightly) positive on average. And none of his negative effects makes him miss more. The only real problem that can occur (seldomly - 1.8% chance per cast) is a Miscast - and that can be build around. If you pile up shock AR and raise Will it's no thread to Serafen but can be used to kill enemies even. The rest of his negative effects can be a bit annoying but aren't too bad either. The positive ones are actually really good: Positive: Increase Power Level of spell by 5 Echo Spell Cast Set Focus to Full Apply Random Affliction Blinded, Dominated, Enfeebled, Paralyzed, Stunned, Terrified Add Empower Point Negative: Decrease Power Level of spell by 3 Set Enemy Invisible for 15 seconds Push everything away from target Apply Random Inspiration Brilliant, Courageous, Energized, Intuitive, Robust, Swift Remove Empower Point Miscast Self-centered AOE dealing 3x accrued Focus as shock, 2.5m radius, Penetration 7 vs Will 12 PER is no problem with Xoti + Blessing and later Borrowed Instincts (+20 ACC). He should miss less often than a Wizard like Aloth (who has no access to a +20 ACC boost). Then mortars target reflex which is easily debuffed. Use Aloth with Miasma, Chillfog and Binding Web and they should be already at -40. Also as I said: try Heaven's Cacophony with Avenging Storm with Blinding Smoke and Chain Shot and be amazed. Graphics Card might get grilled though...

I played him several times and cannot see why he should miss more often than any other caster. Also mortars target reflex which is extremely easy to debuff, especially with a CC Wizard in the Party. Very few fights are boss fights. And for them you should always bring a Morning Star, a CON and an MIG affliction and then Psychovampiric Shield + Disintegration. Very nice against most bosses.

If you give him the proper spells he can. Also with his mortars. But he will also have access to some really fine CC/debuffing spells that I wouldn't skip (Secret Horrors for example). Ciphers get Borrowed Instinct which stacks with PER inspirations. So he won't miss much. Miscasts are extremely rare. If you look at the actual effects of his WIld Mind subclass you can see that it's balanced towards the positive effects. A Miscast can a lso be used as offensive tool by the way. If you have it while sourrounded by enemies you will wipe them and not your party.

Stat spread is good. Unarmed combat is good, especially for single class monks. That's because Tanscendent Suffering scales with Power Level - and single classes can reach higher Power Levels and also reach them sooner. Nature Godlike is also good: your assuption is correct and also you gain scaling for your fists (since they scale with Power Level as I said). All active abilites scale with Power Level as well. Most notably all damaging abilites gain 5% base damage per Power Level. Usually you don't want to pick all the different attack abilites since they will be competitors for your resource - but twith a Monk it's not that much of an issue since wounds are replenishable. Still - my recommendations would be Force of Anguish-->Efficient Anguish because it targets fortitude and can be very handy when you meet enemies with low fortitude but high deflection (some spirits and stuff). It's also very cheap and scales well with Power Level (because it's a level-1 ability it will have gained +45% multipl. damage at Power Level 10 for example). If you take Envervating Blows and use Stunning Surge you can even lower enemies' fortitude by 20 points and then use Force of Anguish for great effect. The two most impactful abilites by far (for a SC Monk) are Resonant Touch and Whispers of the Wind. Other good ones are Stunning Surge and - as in PoE - Torment's Reach, especially Raised Torment. Although it's a bit expensive it's still no problem since healing is very potent in Deadfire and wounds are easy to come by. But to be honest: once you gained Whispers of the Wind you can as well retrain and only take other non-attack abilites because you will only use that from that point on. Or mostly. That and Resonant Touch.

As I like to point out from time to time: Dead can Dance - but they can't deal damage.

45%? Which class/culture combo allows for 25 MIG? And 33% additive damage (at absolute best with a starting value of 21 compared to 10) is indeed marginal if you instead raise your PEN and DEX. Both will also increase your damage dealt - be it via better accuracy and thus hit quality or by increasing the casting speed. Since the Blood Mage doesn't need to squeeze as much dmg as possible into one cast (because he has unlimitd ones in theory) DEX is a multiplicative dps stat for him. It's not that you take the 11 points of MIG (at most) and throw them away... And even if you want to put them into CON that's not too bad. You trade 30% of damage for +50% health - which can make your Bloodmage a lot sturdier and prevents one-shots which can happen if you use Blood Sacrifice and then get attacked. If you like that approach better it's no big deal.

But the damage you lose is pretty marginal, given that it's just a 3% additive bonus per point, especially if you are putting the points into DEX or PER instead. Or it's safer if you put it into CON (may prevent a one-shot right after using Blood Sacrifice). I mean I like the risky approach, but maybe others do not. You will also not start with all that regen gear.

10 MIG is not dumped. It's neutral. Bonus dmg of MIG will multiply with the bonus dmg from Power Level. And if you rely on third party heals as well and not entirely on self healing it can be benefical to not raise MIG.