Boeroer

The Frenzy on Amra (like the Frenzy of Lover's Embrace) stacks with other action speed bonuses, including the original Frenzy. Amra with 25+ MIG, Bleeding Cuts and Riven Gore is extremely good with a confused Berserker/Troubadour chanting Many Lives Pass By.

The good thing about Wael is that the Priests gets some of the self buffs Wizards get. If you use a Bloodmage/Priest you don't really need those imo. Still a good subclass. Priest of Woedica has the Writ spells which can be very useful. I think Crusader + Herald is totally fine. Crusader can be retrained towards damage output a bit more at higher levels and still be very tanky.

Skald can only get 1 phrase back from an action. Afaik the number of enemies hit isn't relevant. I know of no way to generate more than 1 phrase per action. However, it is more likely to get 1 phrase back because multiple crits will each have the 50% chance to do so. With Charge I think you get no phrase at all because it doesn't do weapon attack rolls. Skald only gets back phrases from melee weapon crits. Tactician might get back more than 1 discipline - afaik here the actual number of interrupted abilities determines the outcome. By the way: Tactician doesn't gain 1 discipline when he simply lands an interrupting attack on an enemy. The enemy has to execute an ability/spell by the time the interrupt attack lands so that the ability/spell is really interrupted and lost. If that happens you get 1 discipline.

I only mentioned WoEP because I think it's one of the most enjoyable weapons with a Steel Garrote which makes it worthwhile compared to a Kind Wayfarer with a dual wieding setup. If you count Estocs as well then there are several good two handed swords. Engoliero do Espirs is extremely powerful with Blade Feast because it procs on any kill (not just weapon kill). Voidwheel is very good in general, Twin Eels is great if you can kill-steal a lot (any kill works), Effort has Hemorrhaging which procs from any crit you do (not just weapon crits) which in turn counts as weapon attack (you can do some wild things with this), Blade of the Endless Paths is also very good. The modal of Great Swords is not so great compare to other modals - but it can be worthwhile when you fight enemies with low defenses and/or gain some extra ACC to compensate for the modal's loss. For example a Paladin using Flames of Devotion and Ring of Focused Flames gains +20 accuracy for the FoD strike - which more than offsets the modal and grants you +30% damage. That's nice in combination with the multiplicative lash damage of FoD.

I personally would multiclass with Monk. The INT bonus of Duality of Mortal Presence and the accuracy bonus from Enduring Dance are very good for a caster. Thunderous Blows, too. +10 MIG via Helwalker can be nice, too. But your main focus is to let him stay alive and cast, so maybe a Helwalker is not the best option (although you have plenty of healing on the party and +10 MIG also leads to +20 Fortitude and a lot more healing power besides the damage, which is good to have). Another plus in Megaboss fights is to have resources that will refresh. In tandem with endless healing (Herald for example) a Monk will have the potential for infinite wound generation. Keep in mind monks also have The Dichotomous Soul which is a nice summon an is paid in wounds. Like a Chanter a Monk can call forth summons over and over again without the use of Brilliant. Also stuff like Blade Turning + Salvation of Time is pretty useful. Another alternative - since you don't have a Wizard - might be to multiclass with Bloodmage. Wall of Draining + self buffs and healing over time + stuff like Mask of the Weyc + Magnificent Escape is very useful at the end of the game since you become untouchable by anything that targets deflection. A Bloodmage, like a Monk and Chanter, can call summons (tentacles, phantoms etc.) over and over again with the help of healing + Blood Sacrifice - which is very useful in all encounters. He can also turn invisible over and over again with Arkemyr's Brilliant Departure and buff the party from invisibility - and even CC spells without damage (and also Wall spells) will not break the invisibility. As long as you don't cause damage you can stay invisible for a long time with Wall of Draining and 1 use of A's Brilliant Departure. Use of Blood Sacrifice ends the invisibility though.

What (or who) is BW?

Yes, it's not super useful against very good singular foes on PotD. But it's great against mobs. The better choice than a Trickster is a Bloodmage imo - because you can later extend the effects of Mask of the Weyc and The Magnificent Escape Cape with Wall of Draining and stack up absurd deflection numbers (over 200 easily). On top of that you can also get endless healing from Lay on Hands + Wall of Draining erc. This allows for life drain with parries while casting spells and using Blood Sacrifice. At that point it's also good against bosses (if there are enough ads to make Wall of Draining work, you can create your own with Belt of Margran's Chosen). But with singular tough foes it's often best to just switch to another weapon - while Whispers of the Endless Paths is the most fun choice against the crowds in my opinion. --- Carnage does not work with Steel Garrote's life drain. It is not universal like Old Siec chant or Blood Ward but needs a melee weapon attack. Carnage (technically) is not a weapon attack but works like a spell so that doesn't work. Spirit Frenzy does work. It works on everything you do that does a hit roll (spells, chants, weapon attacks, whatever).

For Steel Garrote the most fun weapon to experience the draining is Whispers of the Endless Paths with Offensive Parry in my opinion. Offensive Parry applies dazed (affliction) and the damage it does will drain life. Since it has no recovery and triggers on 100% of misses it can be great fun to stand in an enemy mob and dish out parries that also heal you while the enemies miss you. And the entirety of the cone attack will draw life, too.

Sun & Moon does not proc White Flames Healing twice. Dual wielding does (each weapon strikes, doing one heal each), but not Sun & Moon alone despite its two attack rolls. You can test this when using Sun & Moon one-handed and execute White Flames: only one heal. It seems that the attack action/animation triggers the heal, not the attack rolls themselves.

Frostseeker only procs one healing from White Flames. Multiprojectile/attack roll weapons like Blunderbuss, Frostseeker or Sun & Moon for example don't provide additional procs. Driving Flight does not provide an additonal healing proc. The only way I know of from the top of my head to get more than one proc of White Flames' healing is to dual wield and execute a Full Attack (both weapon strike = two procs of healing). There was a thread once that explored the possibilities - and maybe there was some obsucure way to proc more heals... but if there was I forgot about it. Anyway: Frostseeker + Driving Flight procs just one healing. I tested it ingame right now just to be sure. No. That's because Spirit Frenzy adds a second attack roll for the staggering which piggybacks on your auto-attack. The auto-attack itself is unchanged und thus doesn't profit - but the attack roll of Spirit Frenzy which staggers does profit. In order for the auto-attacks to profit from the Helm your original weapon attack itself must come with an affliction or affliction roll. For example a weapon like Concelhaut' Draining Touch or Caedebald's Blackbow will profit from the Helm. Iirc a Forbidden Fist attack also does. DoTs only provide a single attack roll at the beginning at most (in case of self damage ther is none), the rest are ticks with no rolls. Refreshing Defense needs hit rolls to get triggered. Pulsing spells like Chillfog or Wall spells etc. which repeat an attack roll every few seconds will work, DoT effects won't (besides the initial hit roll if there is any). The best way to use Rfreshing Defene is to get grazed with -3 underpenetration a lot. So basically high but not too high defense and as high of AR as you can get. No. Carnage can be seen as a spell effect. The only things that come to mind that work with Carnage are effects on enemy that trigger on hit (see Combusting Wounds or Recall Agony and such) and also Spirit Frenzy (applies staggered to Carnage hits) and stacks of Lord Darryn's Voulge's Static Thunder. What also works is some universal draining effects like the Old Siec chant and Blood Ward (Furyshaper). Carnage cannot crit, so effects that happen on crit (see Blood Frenzy) are out in the first place.

Imo useful flexibility beats specialized powerplay most of times.

It does, bit it doesn't properly scale with level in the unmodified game iirc - so it becomes a bit moot after some levels.

Yeah: cool weapon choice. 😀 The dagger modal doesn't stack with other active deflection buffs, but it's basically cost-free. Combined with Crucible of Suffering and spamming FF you will have truly awesome defenses by not hampering your offense at all.

Tuotilo's Palm is also a very good item. Its enchantments for unarmed attacks also apply to Forbidden Fist attacks. It works with Two Weapon Style and gives up to +10 to Deflection and Reflex - which is huge. Yet - if you are spamming FF attacks you won't be executing the rel. weak shield bash (which is nice).

I'd prefer an Ancient because the early to mid game is so much easier with those Sporelings. Tough, long lasting and lvl1. Once you get Great Maelstrom and combine with with Effort + Avenging Storm that 1 PEN isn't such a big issue imo since you need crits to get the chain reaction going anyway - and crits get x1.5 PEN. And the added PL for pulsing plant stuff such as Wicked Briars, Venombloom and Tanglefoot etc. is also benefical because their crits trigger Avenging Storm via Effort's Hemorrhaging. And of course there's (plant based) healing. Even at PL9 with Pollen Patch: great spell if you know how it works. It rules imo if you are moving fast and are immune to engagement.

Yes, Strand of Favor (or Cabalist's Gambeson) + Soulblade will get you the biggest AoE possible (with Shared Nightmare). No Priest involved. Only hefty cheese.

Most of times when an ability says poison or disease in the description you can assume that it's keyworded accordingly. There are some exceptions but not too many. Unfortunately those keywords themselves don't get displayed in the tooltips. But when you see something that says that "Antidote" will counter it then you are safe that Righteous Soul also would. When a hostile attack is poison or disease then it won't hit you. If this attack also carries a CON affliction then you are right: resistance won't matter because the attack won't hit you in the first place. But there are a lot of attack rolls that carry a CON affliction but are not labeled poison (see Ryngrim's spells or some Concelhaut spells for example) - here Iron Gut will help. On the other hand it's rel. easy to get a CON resistance via items - and they don't stack. But then on your third hand (huh? ;)) you might want to give those items to party members who cannot get a resistance any other way... 🤷‍♂️

I might add that the whole Effort+Avenging Storm thing doesn't work too well against megabosses themselves most of the time because their defenses are usually high enough to prevent frequent crits from a Druid. But it wipes ads like not much else - which is convenient - and is especially awesome once you get Great Maelstrom, too. Then it's unbelievable AoE dmg for the Druid on top of all the other nice stuff he can do. Least Unstable Coil works beautifully with Avenging Storm as well as Great Maelstrom, so such a Druid can become Brilliant on his own rel. easily with the help of an Empower point. Also an empowered Avenging Storm + contant SoT (so it won't ever stop) with repeated Maelstroms is cool as hell imo.

Effort + Avenging Storm + all sorts of pulsing spells (especially Venombloom) in combination with Hylea's Talons and Ring of Clenched Muscle is pretty deranged.

you summon a Flame Blight "by accident" a lot when using Frostseeker's multiprojectile attacks + AoE proc in combo with Driving Flight. when you carry an injury with Rekvu's Scorched Cloak you will be immune to fire damage but instead heal from it (20% iirc) Flame Blights hit you but will heal you still, every hit will unlock the 10% freezing lash from Horns of the Aurochs So basically you get some healing and a practically permanent freezing lash on your attacks - and of course the buring lash from the belt without any drawback (other than the minor injury that makes the Scorched Cloak work).

That interaction is cool. I tried several combos with Current's Rush, but not with Frostfall. A SC Ranger with Twinned Shot + Driving Flight can also proc a High Tide chain on a group of enemies pretty reliably. Also works with Whirling Strikes. Of course: smaller AoE A Monk with Enduring Dance and Razor's Edge + Duality:INT should also be a good candidate. Shooting with the scepter's modal even gives wounds. A Wizard can use both weapons' effect with their Phantom, too. So any combination of Ranger, Monk or Wizard could also be nice. Aloth's Armor provides more AoE size (+15%) and stacks with Ring of Overseeing (+10%) by the way. Also a pet like Loki (+15%) will help. There are even pets who have the party effect of embiggen AoEs a bit - something for Edér then?

Yes, if you have a melee weapon in the offhand it can trigger Swift Flurry and HBD as know. Special is that both of those abilities don't execute the additional attacks with the offhand weapon but always with the main hand weapon - it doesn't matter wether it's a ranged one or not. However, the crit chains that can normally happen with SF/HDB can't happen that way because the ranged weapon in the main hand cannot proc SF/HBD themselves. So it's: offhand melee attack -> triggers SF/HBD -> procs main hand ranged attack -> stop instead of: offhand melee attack -> triggers SF/HBD -> procs main hand melee attack -> triggers SF/HBD -> procs main hand melee attack and so on At least that's what I figured out from previous tests.

For what it's worth: -50% recovery from "Heating Up" and the +50% recovery from disoriented don't cancel each other out. You will still be faster than normal. Due to the mathematical operations done when calculating attack speed the -50% is a lot more impactful than the +50%. For more info see: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/pc/227477-pillars-of-eternity-ii-deadfire/faqs/76599/inversions So your idea with Chill Fog is still viable, especially because the enemies will suffer the full effect of blindness (including +50% recovery) while you will be faster than normal even when disoriented.

I personally wouldn't really dump any attribute on a FF/SG (down to 3 I mean). I think it's one of those multiclasses where a rel. balanced attribute spread works well. I would always max RES with a FF though.