Boeroer

Tekēhu is good if you get past the initial phase. You should do the Gullet with him - it gives him more depth and shows him being more serious, benevolent and caring. He is a good boy. And as I said his subclasses are good, especially the druid one is one of the best. I my opinion the best of all companions' subclasses. If you generally loathe flamboyance or are even anti LGBT then I guess you will never like him though. Serafen's Wild Mind subclass is very unpredictable and that is something that most RPG players don't like. Most of his negative sideffects when casting powers are not too bad and are easily balanced out (and more) by the potential good side effects. But "Miscast" can actually wipe your whole group. It deals 3x actual focus as shock damage in a pretty big AoE around Serafen. At level 20 this can mean over 750 shock damage per attack roll. Of course this rarely happens. But when it happens to players they usually are so annoyed that they declare the subclass as "useless" (forgetting all the times Serafen got a +5 PL boost while casting ;)). But... actually you can use Miscast to your advantage (although it's fiddly). If you just give Serafen a lot of Will defense (Miscast targets Will) and AR (especially shock AR - a druid might help - Mantle of the Seven Bolts also helps) and place him near enemies and not near your party members he can sometimes wipe the whole enemy mob with a miscast and survive. So for example you could try to tank with him as a Witch (Barb/Wild Mind) and use the barb yell for +engagement and dazing while casting powers in the hope of a Miscast. With Deltro's Cage + Helmet you can benefit from the Miscast in two ways: either turn on Shock Shield in order to get healed by the shock damage instead of getting toasted - or getting toasted and receiving a huge shocking lash for your next attack rolls from the Helmet. Or it simply misses because of your high WIll defense. Note that a Witch can get +15 Will from the cipher passive "Iron Will" AND +10 from "Bull's Will" (generic from barb). They do stack. Add some items with Will or +all defenses. Maybe eat fitting food. Raise RES and INT... Even if he goes down from that Miscast - several enemies will do so as well. Give him an item with Second Chance or revive him: easy. Just accept that he might die from time to time while killing everything around him. It's not a bad thing then. Several items can add more AoE dmg when he goes down (Skaen Robe, Mantle of the Seven Bolts, Effort Great Sword etc.). You can play with this. It can be fun. So... "useless" is - as always in these forums- a lot of hyperbole.

Under Want a tankier version? down below at the end of the post there's another spoiler tag which contains alternative stats ("stats" as a more brad term - not "attributes" like MIG, INT, RES and so on). I think that is the "stat array" he meant. In there is a different set of items, including Argwe's Adra plate armor and the fitting Helmet which gives you +3 RES. If you want even more RES just raise RES to 18 instead of 15 and drop three other attributes further (like DEX, PER and CON for example).

direct link without the fancy preview 'cause that sucks Click on "Reveal Hidden Content" tag to open up the stat scores unter the caption Attribute scores

Oh, I forgot: another good weapon for SA (but not for Backstabs and Assassinate) is Sun & Moon. Since it has two flail heads the first one will hit and apply the raw dmg of SA, but the second flail head will hit right after and already regenerate focus for you. With some levels behind the belt (esp. Draining Whip - so that one flail head at least generates 10+ focus) you can spam SA without pause. Make sure targes have afflictions though because SA's raw damage profits from Sneak Attack and Deathblows as well. As I said Sun & Moon ist not the ideal backstabbing weapon though: since its two flail heads have reduced base damage (to balance out the two attack rolls) the bonus you get from Backstab and Assassinate is quite whimpy. The second flail head will already lack the bonus because stealth/insisibility will break right after the first flail head hitting.

I have the mod installed (and Enhanced UI mod). This might also be the source of my findings. But I don't think so. Will try again later...

I think it's intentional. Instead they get a 25% additive dmg bonus (Mule Kick) which works well with the following PL bonus to come or get added damage in the first place (Leaps).

Yeah I meant the red numbers. Disintegrate was giving me 62 per tick with the char without Takedown Combo and 62 with it. This is strange. Maybe my wild consoling did break something. I tested a ton of stuff in that session and changed class and abilities a lot.

You mean solo? No. In a party: of course. Best weapon for Backstabs and Assassinate are the ones with high base dmg: Arquebus, Great Sword and so on. Also weapons with a lash. Best single target melee weapon in my opinion: Chromoprismatic Staff (with the Blights enchantment that adds lashes). The best melee weapon for SA against multiple targets is by far Whispers of the Endless Paths since it applies SA's raw damage to all targets it hits (high INT for a big AoE size is crucial though). Run Through (enchantment) is devastating with Backstab+Assassinate as an opener because it has very high base damage. Note that Backstab and Assassinate will increase the raw dmg of SA. So it might be better in some cases (against single targets) to do SA from stealth or invisibility (if you have enough focus).

I swear when I tested it yesterday with Soul Ignition and Disintegration the damage didn't change at all. Hmmm...

Cool - since I'm not crying I don't have to watch that. ... Huh... what should I do with all that spare time now...?

If you like Maia then pick Maia. She doesn't get along very well with Tekēhu and Pallegina since all three represent different factions (Serafen does as well but is more cool about it). Serafen's Wild Mind subclass is still as unpredictable as it used to be. But you can also play him as Barbarian.

Bring Edér, Serafen and Tekēhu (with Xoti if you like her - she is easy to romance). Those are the companions who talk the most. And most of it is funny and/or entertaining. Also those are the companions you can get very early. Besides Aloth who becomes accessible right after Edér. Tekēhu's Druid subclass is very good actually and can substitute a Wizard and can be a good healer at the same time.

Funny! Maybe Modwyr and some other uniques are special in this regard...? I only used a plain normal sword. Or maybe the setting with dwarves is is especially "small" - also when you look at orlans in comparison (which are even smaller than dwarves). Maybe this sizing can be modded. I know of several weapons that you can add with the console (e.g. ogre weapons) that don't scale at all when you equip them with your chars. They are ridiculously oversized then. Maybe there already is a toggle (or scaling number) in the gamedata files...?

If the DoT spell has no initial direct damage (like Necrotic Lance or Autum's Decay have) then nothing happens: Takedown Combo remains untouched (tested 5 min. ago after reading your post - just to be 100% sure). Only direct damage works (the damage receives a +100% boost and the status effect disappears). That makes stuff like Chillfog and Minor Missiles bad with it but single instances of high direct damage good (Sunlance for example). Very nice Interactions with Disintegrate: Debonaire/Cipher: charm with Whisper of Treason and then cast Disintegrate (yes, it's possible): 100% hit-to crit conversion --> +50% duration of Disintegrate Forbidden Fist/Cipher: Forbidden Fist to enfeeble and then Disintegrate: +50% duration for Disintegrate. Even better if you crit (Enduring Dance, Morning Star - Enfeebled itself lowers fortitude). My last tests with this were today. So I know that Disintegrate does do more damage overall with longer duration. But I'm using the Community Patch which fixed some weird DoT behavior - maybe Disint. was one of them. But iirc it was also patched by Obsidian...?

I took a screenshot from a dwarf holding a sword, took the sword and cut it out, gave it a bright color and then put it into the screenshots of a human (average size), an orlan (smallest size) and aumaua (biggest size): As you can see the sword doesn't get sized down a lot if we use the human as "normal" size. It doesn't look like a child's toy at all. The only significant sizing that happens: on aumauas the weapon gets scaled up quite a bit (most likely because it would look quite ridiculous if it didn't). So if you compare a weapon on a aumaua and then give it to an orlan or dwarf the difference might be way more obvious. On this second screenshot I took the measurement of the orlan sword (left) and copied it besides the human sword (right): Here it's a little more visible. The orlan sword is a tiny bit shorter. I say tiny because it's not really that much - esp. compared to the size difference of their bodies. Since armor also gets scaled (would be unusable as soon as it wouldn't fit your race otherwise) I reckon that weapon scaling is ok, too. I am pretty sure that the development team did some tests and decided that this (rather conservative) weapon scaling looks best (or better than leaving the weapon size unchanged). To be honest I never even noticed that there was weapon scaling before you opened this thread... A toggle option is always nice though. Why not?

Sure, why not? Best synergies are all the ACC bonuses from Ranger which stack with Borrowed Instincts. Takedown Combo (+100% dmg) works very well with Soul Annihilation. You can use the AC as ally for all the cipher powers which need one. Stuff like Soul Ignition will trigger Predator's Sense on the AC and so on. Compared to Stalker/Soul Blade: not much difference to be honest. But with Ghost Heart you can use Screaming Horrors on your Animal Companion (since it's a spirit). It might die in the process but at least you can use this ability and deal AoE damage even when there are no enemy vessels or spirits around. Because the "scream" that the hit AC will emit does damage to all enemies, not just vessels/spirits. You just need a spirit/vessel to cast the spell onto. If I'm not mistaken you can even cast Detonate on your AC. That would be not so great with a normal AC, but with a summoned one which is about to die you can at least make sure you get some AoE damage out of it withoug suffering Bonded Grief. It's not soo much to be honest. Stalker would be the more obvious and "synergetic" pick.

By the way there are some passives that do indeed influence other abilites without creating a seperate copy for every ability they work with. For example "Lingering Echoes" of the Cipher works for all outgoing afflictions no matter if it's a cipher power or a wizard spell and so on. I think this is due to the already implemented mechanics around afflictions/inspirations which already provide means of influencing durations via crits/INT/Resolve etc. So it was easy to implment Lingering Echos as a similar effect. Also see Ring of Overseeing or Aloth's Armor: same mechanic basically but with AoE size. But whenever there is an upgrade or effect that doesn't fit into the "generic" mechanics it usually is a hard copy of an ability.

Err... that was not the point.

You also have to rest in the wilderness (camp) in order to proceed the quest if I'm not mistaken. Might be worth a try...?

Accurate Carnage just replaces the original Carnage Ability with a new one (that has the same stats but +5 ACC). It's not that Accurate Carnage is a passive that just "docks" onto your base Carnage or something. Unfortunately... That's the case with all upgrades of abilites: they are actual completely seperate abilites. Think of copy & paste of the original - then add a few improvements. In most cases the orginal ability will be removed from your character and the new one will take its place (there are some exceptions like Lay on Hands/Greater Lay on Hands where you keep the original). Because of this "Copy & Paste" programming/code design choice (non-modular) you'd need a seperate "Accurate Stag Carnage" ability. that would replace the normal one You would need to either a) pick it seperately at level-up OR b) you would need to change Accurate Carnage so that it secretly adds Accurate Stag Carnage as well - IF you had Stag Carnage in the first place (this sounds rather complicated). The first solution a) would be a lot easy(er) to mod. This is the same with all upgrades o passives that "sound" like they could work for different abilities. But if Obsidian didn't create those manually they won't be tehre even if it would make sense. Another example: Beckoner's passive only works for Chanter summons. Only his skeletons/wurms/whisps etc. will be double the number and weaker. Because Obsidia made "Ancient_Brittle_Bones" for the other Chanter subclasses but a specific "Ancient_Brittle_Bones_Beckoner" for the Beckoner subclass. If you now multiclass with Ancient those summons (like the Sporelings) will not be affected. That's because there is no ability "Summon_Sporelings_Beckoner". This can eve be a "problem" inside a single class: most Paladins get "Flames_of_Devotion", Bleak Walkers get "Flames_of_Devotion_Bleak_Walker". Now... if you'd just made one upgrade "Eternal_Devotion" and replace the PL-1 FoD with it the Bleak Walker would lose his spcial corrosive/sickerning lash. So he needs a "Eternal_Devotion_Bleak_Walker". Same with Kind Wayfarer. The upside is: it's straightforward to develop. The downside is that it introduces redundancy and is prone to oversight once you start changing abilities (e.g. when patching for balance): let's say you want to nerf the FoD lash from 30% to 20% - you need not only to change the original ability but ALL the upgrade copies now. THis is also done when e.g. Priests get "cross class" abilities like Preist of Eothas gets Sunbeam (original Druid): this is not the same ability. It is a copy which name is "Sunbeam_Eothas" (or something like that, don't remember 100%). So if you as a designer want to change Sunbeam because it's too bad or good you don't need to forget that tehre are several SUnbeams you'd have to edit. It happens often that something is forgotten. For example Shadowing_Beyond and Shadowing_Beyond_Skaen started out as the same code (copy). But over the course of the patching cycle those two have become different. I guaratee that Shadowing Beyond got some mechanical tinkering while Shadowing_Beyond_Skaen was either forgotten or intentionally left alone.

You mean getting one's focus generation interrupted by receiving damage?

Uhh nice explanation.

Swift Flurry (and Heartbeat Drumming) only works with melee weapons unfortunately.

It wasn't. And no idea how and why I typed that. "Ö" isn't nowhere near the "A" on a QWERTZ layout.

You mean Disciplined Strikes (Intuitive). Tactical Barrage gives you Acute + Aware. My take would be Helwalker/Ranger. Not only does he get the MIG bonus and the speed and lösh from Lightning Strikes, but also +2 PEN and +5 MIG from Thunderous Blows and +12 ACC from Enduring Dance. Also the Scepter's modal will give you wounds while firing but will not break Enduring Dance. With Stunning Surge you wil make sure deflction drops even further (-10 Deflection equals +10 ACC) and with such many crits you can use it a lot of times since the cost gets refunded. Of course you can't use Backstab/Assassinate then. But the Stalking Cloak would be cool enough I think...? From a roleplaying perspective an Illusionist or Illusionist/Assassin makes most sense. The best part of the Eye of Wael is the Power Level bonus. If you'd be an Illusionist and have two of them and the mask you'd have +7 Power Level with illusions. Try them with Kalakoth's Freezing Rake...