Boeroer

I'm hoping for a Transmuter/barbarian - or let's say ogre/barbarian.

Don't drop Charge! It's the best, really best ability an offensive fighter can have. Zipping twice over the whole battlefield, dealing BIG amounts of crush damage and finishing with a Full Attack at the target is very good. I can't emphasize enough how good it is. I think I'd drop Unbroken. In my parties the fighter goes down so seldomly and if he does I did something very wrong. I would even drop Triggered Immunity I guess. It's not that useful if you are knocking down your foes left and right anyways and dragons have different damage types with their attacks, too. I generally think it's overrated but maybe that's just me and because how I play. I'd use Sundering Blow instead because the huge DR reduction can be very helpful for all your party members (also stacks with Stormcaller's DR reduction).

I'd say go the regeneration route. That means Moon Godlike and boar form, survival 8 (skill till 6 and use a +2 item when camping to pick +40% healing bonus, the rest you might need for mechanics), Veteran's Recovery. Spells like Nature's Balm and Moonwell and also Form of the Delemgan help staying alive, as do Returning and Relentless Storm. Stats would be high MIG and CON, ok DEX and PER and INT, low RES. Use Potions of Spirit Shield before shifting when interrupts become an issue. Use Wildstrike + Greater Wildstrike Shock, Two Weapon Style and all the other stuff that's recommended in other shifter builds. Maybe when soloing Wound Binding would make sense? Drinking potions of Infuse with Vital Essence once health is down is not possible while shifted.

A ranged monk with The Long Pain was very powerful in PoE (why? See "Witch Doctor" build in the PoE class build subforum where it's explained in detail). If this works in Deadfire only a bit like in PoE then Shattered Pillar + The Long Pain will be superbadass. Maybe even better with a rogue or cipher multiclass, since Long Pain had very high base damage and thus profits a lot from high dmg bonuses like Sneak Attack/Soul Whip++ and crits. As a shattered pillar/cipher with Long Pain you might get total resource overflow, spamming powers and abilities left and right.

Cool. I used Purgatory on a monk (Monksterlasher - with all those lashes of course) but never noticed. Does Blood Testament's raw lash also count? It's not DoT but direct damage.

It's easy: They get exactly the same amount of stats points as any other race and culture. Thus they have no advantage over the other races. Problem solved. Eotheezus, I am a geeniuz!

Eh, actually I had a typo with the stats. It's all 15 (PER too) except RES which is 3. Sorry! If you enchant Tidefall or Rumbalt with a freezing or shocking lash it doesn't look so bad. Burning and corrosive lash are more eye-catching visual effects. Just don't put a slayer enchantment on it. Those VFX are ugly. Also Savage Attack will let your weapon glow. Usually the VFX of that will disappear if you save & reload with Savage Attack activated. So no big deal. Same with Vulnerable Attack.

Tidefall or Hours of St. Rumbalt look like normal great swords. Don't know what you mean. Sanguine Plate looks like a red plate armor. If you don't like that: there are plenty of other plate armors. If only looks matter: I like the fine plate armor best.

The PoE fighter is actually way better as a dps character than a tank. People who say that a fighter is bad at dealing damage doesn't know the game properly. Because he comes with good defensive qualities from the start and also has some decent dps abilities you can build him exactly like you wanted: offensive + heavy armor + two hander. He will not be able to tank all incoming enemies, but that doesn't work anyway. However he's sturdy enough to survive for a long long time in the front line. To make him more sturdy you can focus on thick armor and self healing rather than deflection. Here is a quick rundown how to skill this fighter: MIG: 15 CON: 15 DEX: 15 PER: 15 INT: 15 RES: 03 Survival 12 (pick Healing Bonus most of the time when camping) Talents: Rapid Recovery Weapon Focus Soldier Bonus Knockdown Two Handed Style Apprentice's Sneak Attack Weapon Mastery Soldier Savage Attack Runner's Wounding Shot Abilities: Disciplined Barrage Knockdown Confident Aim Weapon Spec Soldier Armored Grace Clear Out Charge Sundering Blow Story talents: Merciless Hand and Dungeon Delver Weapon & armor and other items: I'd use a great sword and aim for Tidefall or Hours of St. Rumbalt. As armor I'd use Sanguine Plate. It not only procs Frenzy which will give you more MIG and CON and speed, but also gives you +2 survival which is nice in order to get to 14 survival which will give you +60% healing from Constant Recovery (+Rapid Recovery + Consecrated Ground + Cloak, see down below). For the hands I'd search for Gauntlets of Swift Action or Mourning Gloves or Celebrant's Gloves, the belt could be a Belt of Bountiful Healing. The neck slot can be used for The Cloak of the Tireless Defender (improves regeneration) and the ring slots may be used for a Ring of Protection and whatever you like else. Boots should be Shod-in-Faith (procs Consecrated Ground when getting a crit). The helm might be a Tempered Helm (not only a good helm but also looks good and knightly with the armor). If you have a priest then cast Holy Meditation if you're not using the Celebrant's Gloves to nullify the disadvantage of low RES (=low Concentration) or use potions of Spirit Shield. This fighter is potent and fun to play. He's also very good against dragons, too if you pair him with a priest (Inspiring Radiance + Devotions of the Faihtful) and a paladin who uses Coordinated Attacks and a marking weapon like Blade of the Endless Paths (estoc, late) or Spectacular Spetum (pollaxe, early - both work with the same weapon focus).

Except parts of the fighter I wouldn't change something I guess. Seems to be thought through very well. Now the fighter (nice idea to stack all those "hater" bonuses): 3 INT on that fighter wouldn't be my choice. I guess you took it because of Tidefall's wounding, but honestly 3 INT or 10 INT don't make much of a dps difference with Tidefall, but a big difference with all duration-based things like Constant Recovery, Disciplined Barrage, Outlander's Frenzy, Triggered Immunity and also Unbroken and Firebrand. I would at least swap INT with RES. With high regeneration you don't need a lot of deflection and 5 points are not that much anyways. Concentration is not a big issue if you don't want to tank mobs with him. Most tough single targets hit slowly. I like the switching aspect, but instead of Quick Switch I'd put on the Coil of Resourcefulness which will spare you one talent point. Or I'd just live with the longer switching time. How often do you need to switch your weapon during a fight when you focus on the tough ones? I'd pick Runner's Wounding Shot instead. It's a nice addition for a two handed build - especially if your INT is low (works like wounding in regard to high MIG and low INT). I'd also skip Outlander's Frenzy (seldomly the rather long buffing animation time justifies the short speed gain with low INT - and because you also want to cast Disciplined Barrage at the start of combat) and take Knockdown instead. It can be very good in combination with the paladin's ACC buffs against dragons even though those get +20 resistance and even with lowish INT because if you crit the duration is still decent. With your high ACC against dragons plus paladin's help it will land most of the time. You could think about Bonus Knockdown and a Girdle of the Driving Wave, too. 4 Knockdowns per encounter against a dragon are very useful - also against other enemies of course. That's it from me. Try a scroll of Twin Stones on the ranger with Driving Flight some time. It's fun, too.

Spell Binding and/or scrolls is an approach, but you can also build a two handed rogue who specializes in Backstab (VERY powerful in the early to mid game) and try to stack invisibility uses. Too bad that Backstab favors the heavy hitting weapons... Or a max CON rogue with 1 INT and high move speed, using Tidefall (sturdy and very damaging), hunting casters behind enemy lines. Or a tanky Pale Elf who uses Adept Evasion + Cape of the Cheat + shield + retaliation + shield + Riposte + Battle Forged and Deep Wounds to do good damage via retaliation and Riposte nearly nullify the chance to get hit by a reflex based AoE spell and use him as a tank who gets targeted by your wizard/druid with AoE spells like Slicken, Sunbeam, Tanglefoot, Fireball and so on. A Quick Switching Island Amaua arquebus rogue is also good when it comes to taking out high priority targets asap. But all those are quite specialized and somewhat tricky and/or micro intensive.

Your barb is doing low damage because at lvl 6 he's still grazing and missing a lot (he starts with mediocre accuracy and carnage has -10 accuracy at the beginning. At lvl 6 it's still -4). Also you will not have a lot of damage bonuses which means that the -34% damage malus from carnage stilll hurts - especially if you also graze (-50% damage). This would have been different with Novice's Suffering, but nobody listens to me anyways... A club is not the best option early in the game because of the same reasons (low base damage, paired with malus and few bonuses has trouble with DR, especially when grazing), although the +5 ACC helps a bit. A flail would be ok I guess because of the graze to hit conversion. Maybe try Gaun's Share because it also has draining which is cool with carnage. Try to get another hammer or (if you don't have a Weapon Focus yet) use sabre, spear or sword. Maces and stilettos are are also good in the early game for a dual wielding barb because of the DR bypass. Enchant those with a lash (and fine) asap. If you want to use light weapons (stilettos/clubs/flails/daggers/rapiers/hatchets) on in a regular basis then take Vulnerable Attack, yes. If you want to use Two Handers take Blood Thirst asap. Also try to attack mobs which are already debuffed by your wizard. Curse of the Blackened Sight (wizard) is a nice foe-only debuff, as is Nature's Mark (druid) that lasts long time and helps a barb a lot to improve his attack quality. If your barb is not in the fray you can cast a Sunbeam or Slicken first. This way your barb will hit better and deal more AoE damage. Also get your barb ACC bonuses soon. Weapon Focus and Accurate Carnage help a lot in the early to mid game. Against dragons a druid is very useful most of the time because of Hold Beast and petrify. If the dragon is immune to paralyze or petrify then there are other ways to beat him (prone via Calling the World's Maw, confuse, charm etc.). If you can disable him you can also hit him with damaging attacks and abilites. A single target specialist with high ACC helps, but it' also doable with your characters. Hiravias, shifted and attacking a disabled dragon also will do his part. Dragon Thrashed is helpful once the dragon is disabled and priest's Cleansing Flame + any DoT is harmful even for dragons (who are not immune to burn damage). I wouldn't be too scared.

Transcendent Suffering doesn't work with the "umarmed" natural spiritshift weapons and that's intended (once read the dev's comment about it). So I guess it also doesn't work in Deadfire. So the whole "unarmed" stuff (Transcendent Suffering/natural spiritshift weapons) can't be combined. But what might work is to stack the Wildstrike lashes with Turning Wheel and Lightning Strikes. Depends how it's all implemented (scaling or when you can get them) but this could be really powerful. If you took Scion of Flame and if we also have a Wildstrike Belt in Deadfire this would mean +48% burn +24% burn +25% shock +60% burn + 20% raw (boar). That's +177% multiplicative damage with every auto-attack minus DR. You could also add +50% crushing lash from Torment's Reach if you want, but that would lower the burning lash a bit.

Used to be more elaborate before.

You can do that. However it's not really needed because you can get 4 official companions even before going into Caed Nua: You'll get Aloth and Edér right when you are in Gilded Vale. You can then pick up Durance at Magran's Fork and go to Caed Nua (don't enter) and pick up Kana Rua. I then like to hire one adventurer. I will park this one once I get the fifth official companion. Just an example.

You don't need to change the stats of the official companions. They are good enough. More importantly: the official companions will have the same experience and level as you when you pick them up. Hirelings will be lvl-1. That is a bigger advantage than a few stat points. They early game is the most hardest part of PoTD - with official companions it's easier. Later hirelings can close the XP gap - but after the mid game the difficulty drops significantly and also here a few stats points don't matter much anymore.

No.

It's a rather long post. I need more time to read and write.

Hi, without going into detail (on could write a book about this): you want to have a good mixture of single target abilites and AoE abilites - but the focus should be on AoE. That's because PotD has a lot more foes than the lower difficulties. You need good AoE capabilites to deal wioth them, preferably AoE disables. At the same time you need good single target actions for the tough buggers with very high defenses and/or with big damaging potential (think of dragons). You need very high accuracy and good single target damage for those. Very good if a class can combine this. The following suggestions are not "the best!" or whatever - there is no such thing, but they have proven to be solid. You also want to have a good mix of powerful per-rest spells (help a lot in tough fights) and good per-encounter or passive abilites (help to win the normal fights without loosing too much resources and health). - paladin supporter "tank" with Outworn Buckler but also focus on "alpha" strikes via Flames of Devotion. For inspiration look at Counselor Ploi. Ths one also has good mind control capabilites which can come in very handy. Skill survival to get to 8 at least (+40% healing bonus). Why this guy: great passive and active support and healing, good "alpha strikes", good sturdyness. Later on (lvl 13) great AoE damage. Alternative: defensive fighter with focus on self heals + Take the Hit, Hold the Line and Overbearing Guard as well as Knockdown, Into the Fray and Clear Out, wielding (bashing) shield + Shatterstar. Don't use Mind Crontrol on enemies when using Take the Hit (bugged)! Skill survival for healing. - chanter "tank" with weapon & shield, going full defense except that your MIG, and INT should be high. You will aim for "the Dragon Thrashed" in order to melt foes in a huge AoE by just standing around. Look at "the Drake's Ambassador" for inspiration. The main part is using Dragon Thrashed and nothing else. You'll note that this build also uses the mind control items that the paladin build uses. I would recommend to give them toi the paladin and just stick to the core concept of the chanter build, which is being defensive and dealing damage via Dragon Thrashed. Aim for the Little Savior shield. At the sme time pick Ancient Memory and Beloved Spirits in order to heal your comrades passively. Veteran's Recovery stacks with this so I recommend it as well. Skill survival to get to 8 at least (+40% healing bonus). Why this guy: tremendous AoE damage from lvl 9 on, very easy to handle, no micro, sturdy, good passive healing support. Alternative: a barbarian with a lot of CON and self healing via Veteran's Recovery and Savage Defiance, wielding Tidefall and using Frenzy, Blooded and Blood Thirst. Give him the Redeemer as well as backup weapon against vessels, skill survival. - monk offtank with the Long Pain. Look at the Witch Doctor build for inspiration. This one is a melee/ranged hybrid. The build behind the link is a bit glass cannony, so you might want to put more points into CON if you like to get a more sturdy version. Also Veteran's recovery is always nice on a monk to make hm more tanky. skill survival for healing and accuracy. Why this guy: combines single target and AoE abiliites: very good single target CC, very high melee and ranged single target damage, very good AoE damage once he has some wounds. Alternative: dps dual wield fighter with high INT, using spell binding gear to get some AoE spells and doing good single target CC and solid single target damage, skill lore for scrolls and survival for healing. Alternative 2: retaliation monk - look at the build list for monksterlasher or anvil and so on, skill survival. - Boar druid flanker/offtank. Use a boar druid, give him a lot of MIG and CON, dump RES. Pick Veteran's Recovery asap. Then max out wildstrike shock damage, also take Heart of the Storm. Once you get the Sanguine Plate use that as well to catch a crit and then shift while keeping the Frenzy buff. Again skill survival for better healing. Why this guy: good survivability for a caster, tremendous single target damage when shifted (better than any rogue), great crowd control an damage via spells, good support via spells. Alternative: melee wizard skilled for reach weapons, using self buffs and Concelhaut's Staff, later Citzal's Spirit Lance - priest. the build really doesn't matter that much. Don't make him too slow. A good way to prevent a priest from getting focused on by enemies is to wear a shield and have high deflection while armor is low to speed up casting. Look at the Support Priest build for inspiration. If you want a more offensive orientation (priests can do very good AoE damage at higher levels), look at the Fire Priest. If you don't use the chanter then let this guy carry Little Savior at some point. This guy could be your mechanics man. Why this guy: support spells of priests are unmatched. a priest makes a playthrough a LOT easier if you don't want to rely on heavy scroll use. Also great AoE damage if skilled accordingly. There is no alternative. - ranged cipher with a war bow (aim for The Rain of Godagh Field). Ciphers combine good single target damage with nice CC spells. I'd use low armor and try to disable (mental binding) and kill enemies who want to swarm this guy. Also Mind Control via Whisper of Treason is cheap and powerful. Skill survival for ACC bonus or mechanics if you have no other mechanics guy. Why this guy: great crowd control without the need to spend per-rest resources. Good single target weapon damage. Best single target damaging spell in the game (Disintegration). Alternative: Blaster Wizard with Golden Gaze (AoE damage and CC) or Ranger with Persistence and focus on pet damage (Predator's Sense, Vicious and Merciless Companion, Takedown., Brutal Takedown and so on - very good single target damage and ok single target CC - at lvl 11 great single target CC). You'll note that I don't say anything about a rogue. I think it's the class that brings the least usefulness to a PotD party if you stick to the usual build ideas - because it's mostly limited to single target damage while being quite squishy. There are just too many enemies on PoTD to kill them all one by one. You want to use a rogue to take out high priority targets on PoTD. But a druid, monk, cipher and fighter can fulfill the same role while having additional tools in the belt (additional CC, more sturdyness, AoE capability and so on). You can build nice rogues for PoTD that are fun and powerful - but this requires more detailed explanation.

Whoa, I totally forgot aboput Crucible of Suffering. This is truly useful in dragon fights and will stack nicely with Defiant Resolve as well. Sorry about that. I never take it because I never feel the need with a monk. I knew that Faith and Conviction got nerfed, but when I looked it up in the wiki I didn't double check (because the wiki says it got nerfed - but didn't update the numbers - bummer). I know you can't trust the wiki, but I can't always fir up PoE when I want to check the numbers. Maybe I should. So yes, deflection is 30 (paladin) compared to 33 (monk) if the monk chooses to use Duality for deflection or 30 compared to 25. I would still consider the Outworn Buckler part of every paladin tank which gives the paladin the edge when it comes to passive defenses until the monk grabs Little Savior. I don't say that paladins are the better tanks, I was just confused by the "only 2 points off". Another nice thing for a paladin tank is Liberating Exhortation which can be cast on self. Sadly, Reinforcng Exhortation can't. I would say yes if you plan to mainly lower DEX. With a lot of MIG and INT you do better healing with Lay on Hands and Veteran's Recovery, your Sacred Immolation will be a lot more effective, too (if you don't lower PER too much). Fortitude is more important than reflex in my opinion (the most nasty disables like paralyze, stun and petrify target fortitude most of the time) plus you can boost reflex with Weapon & Shield Style. Also, when using Sacred Immolation it's cool if you don't get mind controlled. High will helps to only catch grazes and Righteous Sould will then make sure that the alliance flip is canceled immediately or is very short. There are some situations where it's very cool to have very high reflex - like when your wizard wants to nuke the whole place with an AoE spell but your paladin is standing right in the center. But generally I'd say it's more useful the other way round.

Yes, those points are valid. I think in certain situations a defensive monk is more effective than a defensive paladin, too - but the numbers weren't correct by a wide margin. Concerning Cautious Attack: what keeps a paladin to take Cautious Attack as well? Stacks with Faith and Conviction just fine. He then has +13 deflection compared to the monk who also uses it and +24 to other defenses compared to the monk (if Outworn Buckler is in). Also, paladins can use Zealous Endurance to get 15% hit to graze conversion - which works against every attack and stacks with durgan steel on shield and armor. When it comes to plain passive defense numbers, there's nothing better than a paladin. Doesn't mean that he's the most effective tanker though. Also depends what you want a tank to do.

What do you mean with "only 2 off" and that the monk gets higher potential deflection? The monk gets +8 to fortitude/reflex/will OR deflection (base 25) from Duality. The paladin can get +27 to fortitude/reflex/will with Faith and Conviction + Deep Faith and +13 deflection (base 20). Now the monk has to decide which part to boost (deflection OR the other defenses), but that aside both end up at 33 deflection - while the paladin gets his other defenses buffed a lot higher than the monk. It's not 2 but 19 points of difference unless I missed something (it's 2 points if you only look at the starting bonus of Faith at Conviction which is +5/+10 at lvl 1 without dispositions). Now add the Outworn Buckler that you can get very, very early in the game for rel. little money and that can only be worn by a paladin and you'll have +18/+32.

Actually a high CON monk or even barb work better for me in that regard. They just can't be killed with one attack and can be healed a lot before health runs out. Monk is especially nice because of Duality, Crucible and the summons who are surprisingly sturdy. But overall the MC paladin is unmatched.

What you all seem to forget is that Time Parasite is a debuff (without immunities or resistances), too.

Actually English has a bigger word pool than most other languages I believe. But most of those words don't see much use in everyday conversations.