Boeroer

I guess on could argue that some Barbarian abilities are a bit more expensive compared to Rangers' because Barbarians can regain some Rage with Blood Surge - while Rangers have no refund mechanic at all. Bu then strong Barb stuff like Driving Roar or Dazing Shout only cost 1 while Heartseeker costs 4.

For anybody not wanting to use consumables or per-rest-abilites to get Avenging Storm: Blightheart can be bound to a Chanter - and Tekehu's Stormspeaker subclass has access to Avenging Storm. With Sure-Handed Ila this is quite the fun combo that doesn't require a lot of fiddling and is something fresh for Tekehu after all that Hemorrhaging, puffing Blinding Smokes and stuff. Edit: By the way - shooting you own Many-Lives skeletons will work as well. Easy way to get Corrupting Beauty up right at the start of the battle.

The Battle Axe modal is so good that you should keep it on and not deactivate. Especially once you got Blood Thirst and Barbaric Retaliation. The best subclass for SC Barbarian is Furyshaper imo. The Blood Ward works with all kinds of damage you deal, including the DoT from Bleeding Cuts - but also Barbaric Retaliation, Dazing Shout and so on. It helps a lot with survivability and works for everybody in the aura range. The best damage tool of a SC Barb is either Driving Roar or Dazing Shout. They are both better than HoF - but they won't apply Bleeding Cuts of course (Barbaric Retaliation will though).

Lol wat?

Possible "dark" classes without too much stretching (imo): Paladins Bleak Walkers Steel Garrote Goldpact Knights Rangers all Fighters all Druids Ancient Fury Animist Shifter Barbarians all Monks all but esp. Shattered Pillar Forbidden Fist Priests of Skaen Woedica Rymrgand Magran Wael Wizards all Rogues all Ciphers all Chanter all The only real dark companion for me is Xoti on the reaping path. Every other compaion or sidekick (with enough talks and banter to be sure) seems to have at least some good or benevolent streaks no matter what you do. I would have loved some cruel and deceptive, drake-worshipping Xaurip Companion.

Generally speaking it's fine. The only problem might be that a 4-melee setup will have problems in tight spaces. Meaning they will have issues with movement/reaching the enemies because they might block each other/stand on each other's feet. This an be solved with one or two melee reach weapons (quarterstaff or pike). Either as alternative weapon set which to can switch to or as main weapon choice. Another thought: Priests are extremly valuable in PoE because they have very, very good and impactful party buffs (see Devotions for the Faithful - that spell alone is worth bringing a Priest) and also immunity spells against the most nasty afflictions (called "Prayer against <x>"). So my advice for the first run would be to include a Priest. They are not the best melee warriors - but they can be decent if build right, especially from the second row with a reach weapon. As a ranged character you can totally do that. Enemy shooters might target you a lot more often though if your endurance/HP, deflection AND armor is low though. So it's a good idea to stay stealthed until the enemies have focused fire on your tanks. A war bow is one of the best weapon picks for a ranged cipher. The best war bow for a cipher is The Rain of Godagh Field, but it comes late-ish. Before that you can use any war bow that you come across. Hunting Bows also work. There's an early one (Massuk Hunting Bow) that does a little less damage than the normal Hunting Bows but not only deals pierce damage but also crush damage (if the enemies' armor is more vulnerable to crush than pierce damage). That's a good backup-bow for when you meet very pierce-resistant or outright -immune foes. So, war bow or hunting bow is both fine - and the dps will be better than with any firearm. Firearms have hogher dmagae per hit but lower spd due to their slow reloading speed. They are great to use with special limited attacks like Rogues or Paladins have - because then you'll get the most out of those limited attacks . Cipher's don't have such special attacks so they work best with high dps weapons (like bows). PS: I forgot - welcome to the forum and congrats to the first post.

The higher Resolve the shorter the curse: at 35 Resolve that's -75% hostile effect duration The lower Intellect the shorter the curse: at 1 INT (achievable with the Ring of Mule's Wit) it would be -45% - I don't recommend to dump INT though, because as you said it als has negative effects on AoE size and the duration of benefical effects. Also Resistances don't work well with Forbidden Fist - and the Ring grants some. Besides that there are several items, abilities and consumables that can reduce the duration for a FF without drawbacks. Items will stack their effects, Consumables will not stack their effects. The bold ones are the most important imo: Abilities Clarity of Agony (as you mentioned, -5sec right away and then -50% hostile effect duration) Items Ring of the Solitary Wanderer (-35% hostile effect duration) Strand of Favor (-10%) Cabalist's Gambeson (-10%) Outworn Buckler (-5% or -10% if he bearer is a Darcozzi Paladin - works in an AoE) Burden (up tp -20%) Food/Drink Khapa Leaf (-15%) Khapa Tea (-25%) Mohora Wraps (-30%) Drugs Svef (-25% - don't recommend bc. of added Resistances) Potions Potion of Cleansing Purge (-25%) Potion of Major Recovery (-10sec) Maybe I missed something, but that's about it I guess. Clarity of Agony costs 2 wounds so it's always a tradeoff and you have to consider if using it is worth it. If you want to spam FF ability it often is worth it imo. The Ring is a no-brainer. Best food is obv. Mohora Wraps and I use it as soon as it's sustainable. But Khapa Leaf is always a good and cheap alternative. I wouldn't use Khapa Tea against enemies who do actually use weak poison or disease (see Coral Naga) because the tea makes you immune and thus you won't get wounds from the poison effect - which is not desirable. The effect of the Outworn Buckler seems low and when going solo it doesn't even profit a party, BUT it always gets applied as soon as you switch to it. This stacks with itself, so if you have a hostile effect of 10 secs it will get reduced by 5% to 9.5. If you switch to it again (use a copy of the shield in a second setup) it will reduce the 9.5 secs by 5% and so on and so forth. This even works when the game is paused. You can switch weapon sets during pause so it's possible to reduce all hostile effects to nothing just by switching the shield back and forth. It only costs the switching recovery (one time). A Black Jacket/FF could even circumvent that recovery.

Solo is an official game mode that you have to choose from the game menu before starting a playthrough. It prevents you from adding somebody to the party but you can still meet Edér and talk to him. Once you both land on the beaches of Maje Island you can kill him and he will drop his gear, including the Saint's Armor. No need to do it before then. If you kill him during the ship fight he will be gone but drop no loot. I never tried to kill him right after waking up on he ship - but as I said you don't need to. if you don't activate the solo mode you can still play solo of course (by not adding somebody to your party or just removing them manually) - but it's not "officially" recognized as a solo run (for the sake of achievements for example). If you want to kill a party member you have to knock them out four times to they get more than 3 injuries. This will kill them permenently. But in order to ge the gear you can simply take it from them in the inventory screen and then remove them from the party roster the normal way. No need for killing then. In solo mode the is no alternative to killing Edér (or get him killed by luring several boars to him maybe?) in order to get the Saint's War Armor.

It did a pretty good job on the Percy Gang. Should be useful for generating more portraits for certain PoE-exclusive races maybe (like Aumaua, Orlan, Godlikes)?

Lol sorry, I read the quote and thought it was from @SilverArrowsMPwho just started with a Forbidden Fist, but the quote was from @Waski.

I don't get it. If it's a Forbidden Fist how do the tick damage of Hylea's Talons or the self dmg of scepters like Current's Rush matter?

16 is a suitable level imo.

Hey, there were some nice ones in attempts 8 to 13.

See PM.

You can always use a dagger + modal to increase your deflection against melee attackers (doesn't stack with active deflection buffs though), Griffin's Blade can give a little bit of a damage bonus to offensive spells, Magran's Favor and Sun and Moon can give you power levels for fire spells (or freeze in case of Sun & Moon), Kapana Taga or Squid's Grasp can make you immune to flanking (Rapier + Buckler is a nice combo for a Darcozzi anyway)... there are some more weapons which can make sense to just hold in your main hand while casting.

Paladin/Shifter can be pretty tanky in bear form because of the bonus AR from the several paladin passives and the very good AR of the bear's natural armor. At the same time the damage output is pretty good, too because Ring of Focused Flames + Flames of Devotion leads to good ACC, and FoD/Eternal Devotion lash and Wildstrike lash do stack - and you won't have any recovery penalty from armor. Add Scion of Flame for +1 PEN for FoD attacks. Add Exalted Endurance for more AR and passive healing. Goldpact is cool because the +4 AR from Gilded Enmity goes on top (except Elated Endurance, that +1 AR gets suppressed). A Bleak Walker/Shifter can even add Spirit of Decay to push FoD's PEN to +2. No particularly good idea about Darcozzi/Shifter - but all that FoD+Wildstrike and AR bonus+natural armor stuff also apply to this combo of course. The Fire Shield of Darcozzi's Lay on Hands lasts a long time. It also gives bonus freeze AR which complements Woodskin or Form of the Delemgan which can help you and your party in several encounters.

Maybe not no one, but def. not many. Monk subclasses offer substancial upsides while the downsides can be avoided/worked with. Shattered Pillar is cool for a party imo but not too great solo, especially against single tough foes (see Dragons, Megabosses etc.). It is easier to combine healing + wound generation from getting damaged, getting missed (Imagined Pain) using Enduring Dance (while using Dichotomous Soul to take most of the enemies' hits) or hostile effect expirtion (Forbidden Fist) than dealing enough damage against those foes in order to keep the wounds flowing. It's certainly doable, but in my experience a Shattered Pillar is nicer to play if he can focus on damage-dealing in a party while others tank the enemies. Forbidden Fist, Nalpasca and Helwalker are all well suited for solo. Nalpasca is nice because it has great wound generation even without being hit - but you have to watch out for enemies' Arcane Dampener: it also stops the effect of drugs and sends you into a crash (which is bad). There's enough drugs in the game so you don't need to be super economical, also a single drug will usually last for a whole fight (unless Arcane Dampener hits you). Helwalker is also nice. Not because the higher MIG will give you more damage and healing power (also good, but not superimportant when going solo) but because +10 all-stackable MIG means +20 fortitude. It's very nice to have +20 fortitude in a solo game. Most late-ish game afflictions that can disable you (=doom) will target your fortitude defense. A Helwalker with 10 wounds and Duality of Mortal Presence:CON will gain +40 to fortitude (and of course more health, damage and healing) which can be very useful. Forbidden Fist wants as high Resolve as possible in order to keep all the hostile effects on him super short. He feeds off their expiration so the shorter the better. He doesn't want resistances or immunies (messes with his wound generation). This mechanic pairs well with a solo game - because RES also raises deflection. Thus, a Forbidden Fist naturally tends to be more tanky than the usual monk - you can push that further with a shield + dagger (+modal) setup. For example Tuotilo's Palm allows you to gain extra deflection & reflex based on wounds (interesting for any monk subclass really) while also allowing to use the dual wieldig bonus and two-weapon style. The dagger will raise deflection even further. The Forbidden Fist attack ignores the main weapon and is a primary attack only, meaning yout will not attack with the shield bash either but still retain the fast recovery of your dual weapon setup. The Forbidden Fist attack is pretty strong and useful (enfeebling the enemies means no healing for them for example) and it will put a hostile effect aka "curse" on you (which is very short if you have maxed RES and use some fitting items - such as the "Ring of the Solitary Wanderer" which is perfect for a solo Forbidden Fist) which will give you a wound and healing when the curse expires. It helps to not have too high INT so the curse is even shorter (higher INT = longer curse). Because of all this, a Forbidden Fist usually is quite the defensive character - but at the same time pretty great at offense, too. It is only more difficult to grasp mechanically which repels most unexperienced players (unexperienced with the Forbidden Fist at least). I think most of the more experienced players here would prefer a Forbidden Fist. Its special features are a bit like the devs made this subclass for solo runs. Don't think that's the intention but it feels like it. Stats for a solo Forbidden Fist (rough suggestion, detailed values and a few points here an there don't mean much): MIG: o CON: o / - PER: ++ DEX: ++ INT: o / - RES: +++ You could dump CON and use mediocre INT and later pick Tough and Iron Wheel instead of Turning Wheel in order to boost CON and health. Or you can use mediocre CON and low INT and later pick Turning Wheel to keep INT somewhat mediocre. If you like higher MIG or max PER and/or DEX you can do that, too. A little variation to your liking and enjoyment is more important than some blueprint stats. Little changes are not super impactful. Race doesn't matter too much, but Nature Godlike isn't bad because Wellspring of Life can help you with the Power Level scaling of the Forbidden Fist attack (pushing it over the edge of the next quality tier) and other stuff - and it's on a lot because of Swift Strikes (or upgrades) as you already said - and/or Thunderous Blows. I would avoid a race with natural resistances (Coastal Aumaua, Wild Orlan, Mountain Dwarf, Wood Elf...). Unfortunately a downgraded affliction (via Resistance) causes problems with the wound generation of the Forbidden Fist. Human is good, too. The added ACC can help if things get dire. For other subclasses these stats might look different. For example usually Monks like high INT, combined with Turning Wheel for even more INT.

"orang-utan with ears of a lynx" should do the trick.

A PCGamesN article about Pentiment's UI and UX (it's very positive): https://www.pcgamesn.com/pentiment/obsidian-rpg-game-ux

Imo the skeletons aren't such a waste of an ability point because they have engagement. That means they will always stop enemies' movement, which can be a useful "CC effect" in all stages of the game - even if their weapons don't scale at all and thus they will provide 0 offense at some point (worms, too by the way). Also there are numerous tricks the party can use if you have skeleton summons available (see Grave Calling's Chilling Grave enchantment or a confused Berserker with Blood Thirst who's attacking the same target as the skeleton, killing some with Carnage - or even a single class Paladin with Devine Retribution who gets 2 Zeal for every skeleton that dies). But the objectively best Chanter summons are indeed the Ancient Instruments of Death, especially the upgraded ones (because more). Note that a Beckoner does not get (2*3)+1 = 7 weapons with the upgraded invocation but indeed 2*(3+1) = 8. They have less health and don't last as long, but the offensive output of 8 animated weapons is quite overwhelming.

Afaik lashes do not influence SA's damage. Only direkt additive damage modifiers (Sneak Attack, MIG-bonus, Deathblows, Takedown Combo, Shattered Vengeance's Curse, Inspired Beacon and so on) do. That's why Rogue/Soulblade delivers such nice SA strikes. Especially Streetfigther (heated up and on the edge) and Assassin (stealthed or invisible on crit). Speaking of Assassin: unmodded Backstab bonus should also work.

When fights are difficult you can start them with a trap and then summon from stealth. Not in the fight against "Eamund the Fox" in that Dunnage alley though.

I'm not particularly invested in this matter tbh. If Caedebald's Blackbow gets pierce/corrode that's fine. My main concern is to make the mechanics consistent, sensible and predictable. That's why I found that keyword/immunity issue so annoying. If that's been solved the details on how to design the weapon dmage in order to make it work are cool with me if it helps solving the problem.

Hm, I have no idea if this works. The game object must be there (with your game) - the savegame would only reference it. But maybe the pre-order-items are already in the g ame files but not unlocked. No idea.

I played both SC Psion and Psion/Troubadour. The slower focus gain (it's not THAT much slower though) gets balanced out by the fact that the Troubadour generates 1 phrase very 3 secs. You can alternate invocation and cipher spell with almost no waiting time for new resources. Also the combination of multiple summons (and in case of Many Lives Pass By they don't even need any action time or recovery) with charm and dominate is incredibly powerful. Often there's only one enemy left who's not controlled - and that single enemy faces an army of summons and turned foes that make short work of him. The most notable advantage of the SC Psion was (for me) that he reached Puppet Master a lot earlier. Casters are good picks. I'd say Bloodmage would be nice because unlimited spells. I can also see a nice synergy with Monk (Helwalker or Nalpasca). Monks have a good summoning ability, Duality of Mortal Presence:INT works very well for Cipher spells and so does Thunderous Blows. Dance of Death (and drugs for a Nalpasca) let you gain resources without doing anything (just avoiding getting hit - like with Soul Mind). If you use Xoti's Lantern you can gain 1 wound and 1 mortification from killing an enemy (or ally - like a dominated enemy), too. Mortification can be used for Enduring Dance of Death and Swift Strikes, wounds for summons, Thundering Blows and Duality. Psion/Ancient could be nice, too. Again good summons. As @abotsaid: Psion/Priest would work. You can even gain focus while withdrawn. I didn't play it, but Furyshaper/Psion might be a nice fit. Terrifying wards in combination with Secret Horrors, Mind Control and so on sound fun. A Ranger/Psion could gain great accuracy for single target CC (charm/dominate) and stuff like Disintegrate. Disintegrate works beautifully with Takedown Combo (all ticks get +100% dmg while Takedown Combo lasts - if you don't remove it by hitting the victim with an actual attack).