Boeroer

A reason might be that Desciplined Barrage supresses Blessing and Zealous Focus (but stacks with Devotions and Inspiring Radiance and -Exhortation). And on any difficulty below PotD that much accuracy can be overkill. However I personally would always take it as a fighter. There are no other instant +20 ACC buffs in the game that guarantee a successful CC action right at the start of the encounter. Or if you got terrified/blinded etc. and your priest or paladin or chanter is down. I find it much more useful than Vigorous Defense for example. But I never play passive fighter tanks who can't do anything but taking hits, so...

If you want to use invocations a lot (for buffing, charming etc.) you want high DEX and low armor penalty. Invocations usually have not too short recovery phrases and low DEX and thick armor make them even longer. You also don't chant during an invocation's recovery phase. And if you don't chant then also Ancient Memory and Beloved Spirits won't get applied. The weapon of choice doesn't matter, you can even still use a shield, but keep in mind that mid- and large shields lower your accuracy (also for chants and invocations). Some invocations and chants get the +12 accuracy bonus from one handed weapon usage (but not the hit to crit conversion if one handed style). Among those are White Worms, Dragon Thrashed and Soft Winds of Death. So this can be an option. Good buffing phrases right from the start are "Blessed was Wengrith" and "At the Sight of their Comrades". I would only switch to Mercy and Kindness in the later game, maybe also "Her Courage thick as Steel" and stay with this two starters for a long time. I'd pick my other phrases for certain situations - for example against Banshees, Drakes and Dragons "One Dozen Stood Against the Power of the Saint" is very nice. Just prepare some chants for special situations in your book and else stick to Wengrith and Comrades. If you're using more than two ranged damage dealers in you party you want to use Sure Handed Ila, combined with Wengrith all the time. Mith Fyr is also a good support chant, but remember: the longer the phrases the less often you can use invocations like "I am yours" to charm enemies. For good healing effects you'd need Ancient Memory and Beloved Spirits, two Fingers of Daylight and also decent MIG. Look at the Chillfog chanters build in the pinned list in order to know how passive healing can be tweaked a lot. High INT is a must for nearly every Chanter. In order to hit with the charming reliably you need decent PER as well. And as said above high DEX helps with recovery. What you actually don't need - and that's a bit weird for a Chanter - is RES. In case he's in the backline he also doesn't need a whole lot of CON. For items I would use Munacra Arret (see PoE wiki) and later Ring of Changing Hearts and Spirit Spiral to get even more charming options. I'd also think about Enigma's Charm as talent. For further healing you could consider Acolyte's Radiance, but it's rather weak, so I'd skip it. If you don't use a priest or paladin with Zealous Focus then Gallant's Focus is an option, too. The two invocations that raise stats by +5 (Bridesmen and whatever) can be uphold 100% of time with high INT, and DEX and low armor penalty if you're at mid level. Their duration is so long that you can keep up both buffs after the initial "load up" phase - if you don't get interrupted by CC or knockout. That means +5 to all stats on all party members. But this seldomly happens in actual encounters. The charming invocation "I am yours" has no accuracy bonus and tends to miss a lot in the early game. You can counter that by using "Lo, their endless Host" to frighten enemies first. Frightened enemies have lower will defense and can be charmed more easily. One of the best invocations is "Killers froze Stiff" by the way. When there's further interest I would post a more concrete build idea.

In Deadfire your other party members can get bumped aside (not away from the target, just to the side if possible) when a teammate wants to close in as well. When this happens they will not trigger disengagement attacks. Only if you move them actively.

Nope. Never knew why you would want a delay in your spells.

In beta3 terrified/frightened enemies no longer suffer disengagement attacks when they flee. I guess this was changed because the Unbroken/Wizard combo was too strong.

Calculations and theorycrafting aside: I think everybody who plays this mod sees that the situation for casters is better than before while they are still not as powerful as melee characters (at least the multiclass ones). So this should be a step into the right direction. Of course the beta only covers lvls 6-9, so the situation may change from lvl 9 on - but I doubt it.

Great. Thanks for the prompt reaction to my PM.

Sie hat Aloths Vater den Arm an drei Stellen gebrochen, als der seinen Sohn schlagen wollte.

You are basically right. However, there are a few other "tricks": The Blast combo is pretty neat if you use Kalakoth's Minor Blights or the Golden Gaze with Interrupting Blows. Since you are generating a lot of hits per shot there will be lots of interrupt rolls and with Interrupting Blows the chance that you interrupt all enemies that get hit by the Blast rises. Golden Gaze causes longer interrupts and can attack faster than Minor Blights. Also Mourning Gloves' interrupt boost stacks with Interrupting Blows. This is not really damaging (as demanded in the thread title), it does nothing for your damage. But it's a nice "soft" CC as sideeffect. Speaking of damage: Minor Blights + Blast is very powerful in combination with Combusting Wounds. The deflection combo can be brought to ridiculous defense values if you use hatchet + shield as well. If you also use Ryngrim's Repulsive Visage you an make it so that your deflection with Weapon & Shield Style + Wizard's Double is so high that enemies can only graze you (which doesn't remove Wizard's Double). Also Arcane Veil and Wizard's Double stack. This can be very, very good in the early game. Also see here: https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/94936-an-exercise-in-tankiness-an-untested-class-build-ish-topic/ Also Mourning Gloves stack

Let me guess: you went to Crägholdt Bluffs first because you didn't read what your steward told you: that the Torn Bannermen who are attacking Concelhaut's Tower are supertough, way above your league and that you'll get your butt kicked pretty phenomenally? Crägholdt Bluffs is not part of the White March region (but it has a story- and questline that is connected to the WM, especially part II). However - you want to go to Stalwart first which is located in the White March. There's an icon on the world map in the upper right that opens a new regional map of the White March. That's content for lvl 8 upwards. Crägholdt Bluffs with Concelhaut and stuff is for lvl 12+. You can do it earlier, but then it's tough.

Gromnir suggested an export or save function for characters like Icewind Dale and so on had. Everybody liked the idea. But I guess Obsidian didn't notice or doesn't want to do this.

I dislike that you wrote Roderick's Hold. His name is Rodriguez. The Endless Paths were a stretch goal. And most of the time developers/designers don't seem to make plans for such things in advance but do it "on the fly" while finishing the rest of the game. One can see that this particular dungeon was not thought through and not fleshed out very well - although the backround story itself with Od Nua and his son, the Adra Titan, the Adra Dragon and stuff was very promising an had a lot of potential. But I guess they ran short of time or ideas when it came to level and encounter design. They had to fill 15 levels and every 3 or 4 levels they made an ok job - the rest was lame fillers. I don't blame them. During they crowdfunding campaign they had to come up with stretch goals all the time - and with the Endless Paths they simply bit of more than they could chew - or so it seems. Same with the whole stronghold stuff (that got improved a lot with patches).

You can also get burn based spell binding gear like Sun Touched Mail of Hyan Rath (3 Sunbeams per rest), Amulet of Summer Solstice (same), Flames of Fair Rhîan (3 Fireballs per rest), Taluntain's Staff (3 Fireballs per rest) and Curoc's Brand (1 Fireball per rest). This is better than taking bonus spells (which you can still do) because those spells from gear work with Citzal's Martial Power which will give them more oomph. You can even clone Flames of Faîr Rhîan, have 3 additional Fireballs and do a bit of dual wielding with Alacrity. Plenty of good fire spells without wasting even one talent or ability point. Spell bindings work with Scion of Flame etc., too. Citzal's MIG boost will give you +24% damage, the ACC boost will give you crits with +50% damage, even +90% with Merciless Hand and Dungeon Delver, Scion of Flame adds +20%. Lots of damage for a "small" Fireball or Sunbeam.

I agree that it can be an "Awww man!" moment when you find a cool weapon that nobody of your party is proficienct with (if it's a more impactful sort of proficiency). That's why I find retraining useful. On the other hand those things made me replay BG and Icewind Dale.

Yes, Hunter's Instincts apply. Moon Godlike would also be good, true, but Boreal is also ok.

High MIG, CON and INT. Only important item is the Wildstrike Belt (rush to Ondra's Gift asap and buy it from Cartugo in front of the Vaillan Trading Company). Talents: - Veteran's Recovery - Wildstrike Shock - Weapon Focus Peasant - Greater Wildstrike Shock - Two Weapon Style - Heart of the Storm - Savage Attack - Apprentice's Sneak Attack Most used spells: healing like Nature's Balm and stuff up to Moonwell, Returning/Relentless Storm, Form of the Delemgan and Avenging Storm Skills: survival 14 (an item with +2 to survival when camping helps a lot) in order to get +60% healing bonus - or alternatively the accuracy bonus Boar druids have wounding tusks and wounding scales with MIG. It's like having two Drawn in Spring Daggers - but with more base damage and higher lashes... Boar druids also have an additional regnerating effect while shifted that stacks with Veteran's Recovery and other healing sources. They have no per-rest ability like cats or stags etc. In kith form you can use dual hatchets if you want. I usually wait in the backline, casting my spells, waiting for enemies to rush to the backline in hope of taking out my squishies and then *poof* they suddenly get pulverized. Also works nice as rusher himself once you get Form of the Delemgan (includes higher move speed).

Wait! Where is the Black Isle Bastars faction on that picture?

I tried the BetaSpeedMod for a week now (I guess it was a week?) and it feels way better than the original beta. I did two playthroughs with several casters in the party and one with lots of melees to compare. Melee still felt better but not as much as before. And maybe my melees were better optimized than my casters, who knows? It's supereasy to "install" and doesn't make the game unstable or anything. Go check it out and report!

You want every damage bonus you can get since they work so well with the very high base damage of Firebrand (25 instead of 17 that normal great swords have). That means high MIG, Biting Whip (and of course also Draining Whip for the focus), Scion of Flame (raises Firebrand's damage by 20%), Savage Attack (the ACC malus doesn't matter if you use Mental Binding or Eyestrike first), Two Handed Style, Apprentice's Sneak Attack, survival 12 for +20% flanking bonus (against kith) or accuracy bonus (against other enemies) and an item like Glanfathan Stalking Boots - together +30% dmg against flanked - use Phantom Foes to cause flanked when you chose this camping bonus. I also took Veteran's Recovery (first talent pick) because it's good with high MIG and INT and helps with the squishyness. Merciless Hand from the Doemenels and Dungeon Delver are obviously the best choices when it comes to story-talents since they stack with Annihilation from Firebrand meaning you get +140% damage on crit (or 60 bonus damage on average in other words). The average crit with all this would be around 115 burn damage. It's quite jawdropping. Other items except the belt and Forgemaster Gloves (for 6 uses of Firebrand per rest) are not so important. As you said you want stat boosts, but the belt itself already gives you three different stat bonuses. A bonus to survival is nice. Tempered Helm is great as a defensive tool. Executioner's Hood is also very nice - you kill, you heal. Talisman of the Unconquerable of course, I smply had a Ring of Prot. and a Ring of Deflection. But I guess anything goes.

When I look at the title of the thread, who opened it and remember what the intention was then I suddenly feel the urge to discuss per-encounter vs. per-rest and hardcore vs. casual elsewhere.

Rogue seems fine, fighter also works. You can either drop PER a bit because you have lots of ACC anyways or you build everything towards crits and pump PER. I'll assume rogue: Talents: - Veteran's Recovery - Weapon Focus Ruffian - Single Weapon Style - Vicious Fighting - Runner's Wounding Shot - Fast Runner - Bloody Slaughter - Marksman - Merciless Hand - Dungeon Delver Abilities: - Blinding Strike - Dirty Fighting - Reckless Assault - Deep Wounds - Crippling Strike - Deathblows - Sap - Withering Strike As weapon I would pick Resolution, later Purgatory for sabre and Dulcanale as pistol. Bittercut is also great, but then you should take Spirit of Decay instead of another talent.

Why not? mark the whole party, click on the sword icon left of the speed toggle and force the attack. Better way to use GM: cast Devotions + Inspiring Radiance on her, build a lot of focus on the xaurips, then cast Disintegration on the dragon, followed by Whisper of Treason. Disintegration will keep on working even though she is charmed. Also, the time while she's charmed is great for getting rid of the andragans and xaurips. If you have trouble hitting the dragon: Tactical Meld + Borrowed Instincts or Devotions + Inspiring Radiance + Zealous Focus stack to +56 accuracy. That should be enough. By the way: Tidefall is not the optimal choice for GM. Her MIG is too low and wounding doesn't generate focus. The soulbound arbalest from the Deadfie Pack is crap for a cipher (no lash). It gets slower instead of faster when leveling it up. Must be a bug. Better alternatives: Blade of the Endless Paths + lash, Drake's Bell + lash, Hours of St. Rumbalt + lash and any other arbalest or arquebus which you enchant with a lash. Lashes generate focus!

Oops - I missed the part where you said you wanted a heavy one hander and a shield. Dammit... Dwarven rogue with bashing shield and war hammer is quite nice. Endgear would be Godansthunyr + Badgradr's Barricade. It really rocks (for a rogue ). In the early game you an use Larder Door, mid game Scath Gwannek (if you can get it) and then later the Barricade. A typical strike ability like BLinding Strike will go like: bash -> apply blind -> Godansthunyr crit -> apply stun -> bash crit -> trigger Trhust of Tattered Veils with Deathblows -> enemy dead. It's a nice mixture of tankyness and offense. Also works very well on fighters with Knockdown and Disciplined Barrage and melee rangers with Stunning Shots + Driving Flight (Thrust of Tattered Veils will work with Driving Flight). The rogue however can also use Riposte and Adept Evasion and stand in the AoE area of your wizard's reflex based spells - he won't get hit or even grazed often...

Not really - but I don't oppose it either. I mean the Ghost Heart part. It doesn't add anything exciting to be honest (at least for me). Ranger + Blast (rod) in general is an interesting combo because of how Blast + Driving Flight works at the moment. Every AoE hit will be getting a second hit in the current beta. And since Wael's rod does +50% lash damage also with Blast, Ranger/Wael is pretty cool. Also because Wounding Shot + Blast is pretty awesome (if it stil works like this - it does with rogues' afflicitions so I guess it still works with Wounding Shot as well). My pick would be vanilla ranger or Sharpshooter because the extra PEN (or ACC) is pretty useful with rod and Blast and you'd have a permanent pet that doesn't need summoning (costs time and - even more importantly - bond points).

I first read "Amputations and Fractures". Where did that come from? Weird, since I never whatch splatter movies/war movies or even Dr. House or stuff like that. I didn't even break a bone in my whole life (only plenty or torn ligaments - curse you Basketball!). I have to agree that the picture looks really nice. I doesn't make a lot of sense for me (yet), especially with the party members all spread evenly across that disposition half-cirlce, but altogether it looks nice and interesting.