Boeroer

Yes - the Skald can only gain 1 phrase from any melee offensive action - no matter how often you actually crit within it. So 10 crits in a row with the help of Swift Flurry/Heartbeat Drumming will not give you up to 10 phrases but only 1. But of course the chance to get that 1 is a lot higher than 50% then. Skald/Trickster also works well if you use the Whispers of the Endless Paths with Offensive Parry. The parry counts as separate melee attack which can give you 1 phrase if it crits. Iirc Riposte does not provide crits for whatever reason, but it doesn't get supressed by Offensive Parry either - so you can deliver two "Ripostes" every time the enemy misses you in melee. You need high melee deflection in order to pull this off - luckily the Trickster has some tools for that.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but are attacks from StSotR not counted as attacks from the character who benefits from it (who emits the sparks)? That would mean Shadowed Hunters would get canceled with the first spark - and Blood Frenzy on the Priest wouldn't actually do anything? Or does StSotR not work like that in Deadfire (it did in PoE and although I used it in Deadfire I never did test its behaviour a lot).

Ha! He's back at it again! 😄 👍

That should work well enough. I see no problem with that combination. Trickster isn't a tank class by any means, but it's way sturdier than a regular rogue. It is worth to take a shield imo. Defenses have increasing returns - and if you use defensive buffs like Mirrored Images etc. in oder to be more sturdy you might as well double down on the defense and pick up a shield. Works also in favor for Riposte. A nice weapon for a Skald/Trickster is Sun & Moon - mainly because it has two chances to crit per attack (two flail heads which each do a separate attack roll per swing) which gives a lot higher chance to get a phrase. Also you get two chances to apply Rogue's Strike afflictions. I personally would pair it with Tuotilo's Palm - because the bash would be another chance to land a crit and it works with Rogues' Full Attacks, meaning that Crippling Strike etc. will do three attack rolls (2 flail heads + 1 shield bash). But stuff like Rapier (see Rännig's Wrath) or so would also work.

Yes, generally I like Port Maje, too. But just doing the initial cave over and over again makes you appreciate +16 ACC (and the rest that comes with +4 lvl and fine gear) a lot more. I could skip a lot - but I'm just not the person for that. I always do everything... 🤷‍♂️ I have a ton of Berath Blessing points though - so the "competition" of the individual blessings is a lot less that it used to be (when those points were more scarce). lvl 4 costs 12 points which is expensive. Fine gear only costs 5 points though - and you can sell it for good money afterwards. If I had to pick my top 5 blessings I'd say bonus attributes, 50K, "Can I pet him anyway?", Unique Item Vendor and Legendary Crew/Start at Level 4. Depending on the build sometimes Bonus Skill is important to me, too.

Some of the ones you deem pointless are very useful for me, because they speed the early game up considerably. +4 lvl means +12 ACC. Combined with fine weapons you will have +16 ACC which lets me breeze over Maje Island. Which is cool if you start a lot of new runs...

Hey, that is a very good point. I didn't have that specific problem of ability pick during char creation in mind... and just assumed one would take "if their bones still slept" during the first few regular level-ups (which will come pretty early - and since I often pick the Berath Blessing that lets you start at lvl 4 - just to be able to speed over Maje Islad more quickly - I'm so used to be able to have several ability picks before the game even starts... oops). So I, too strongly suggest to not take any summoning invication at character creation but do it at the next regular level up. 👍 But then I personally would strongly suggest skeletons for a "Death Knight" kind of char instead of the phantom. And later Instruments of Death. I mean if summons fir into your theme in the first place of course. But imo skeletons do. Also the phrase "Many Lives Pass By" is very good imo and the summons there "stack" with all other summons you might call.

Skeletons (like all summons, but especially because they are numerous and have engagement) - are very useful in the early game because they provide a strong crowd control effect without the need for accuracy and overcoming enemies' defenses. Hence calling them forth just always works and is never in vain like a CC spell might be if you miss the roll or the enemy is resistant or immune. There is no defense, resistance or immunty when it's about getting engaged by a summons or being boxed out/blocked by them. Drop some at the start of fight and most enemies will be under control - because first of all they tend to target the skeletons (because they have weak defenses and low HP) and as I said even enemies who wanted to ignore them and rush to your party will be stopped (if the skeletons are placed somewhat correctly and you actively attack enemies with them which will trigger the engagement which then stops movement). Note that you can individually control each skeleton directly (not the additional ones that come from Ancient Brittle Bones though), those are steered by game AI). A similarly useful lvl-1-summoning spell are the Sporelings of the Ancient Druid. Also very potent in the early game. The phantom isn't bad - but it takes noteably longer to cast (and so to appear), has no engagement and is alone. The individual creature is better than those of "If their bones still slept" though. The wurms (PL 2) are a good offensive tool for some time if you don't need skeletons for CC. They also scale poorly and will have to be replaced eventually (and an upgrade is not worth it, unlike with Ancient Brittle Bones) - but for some time they really help to overwhelm enemies pretty quickly, especially if you focus fire on a single enemy. If you reach a point where better summons become available (for example Ogres or Ancient Instruments of Death or whatever) you can simply retrain the character and skip the lower tier summons then.

The skeleton are numerous and they have engagement. So that alone will stop enemies right in their tracks (because movement stops when getting engaged). Their weapons don't scale with level so their damage will be absolutely pathetic at some point. But they count as allies and vessels which can be used to your advantage. For example: every killed skeleton in the party gives a single class Paladin with Devine Retribution 2 points of Zeal. And with Ancient Brittle Bones you can summon a lot of skeletons... You can also kill them yourself with the sabre Grave Calling and either create imps from them or produce a foe-only Chillfop (depending on the enchantment route).

Isn't that just the "export/import character" UI or something?

Totally normal. Other users are still telling me things about Deadfire here which I didn't know before.

You can either empower an ability with an empower point OR regain resources (like spell uses) with an empower point. Always - it's a build-in feature of the empowerment mechanic. You don't need anything for that. Just click on Empower and then on the portrait pic.

It's what unreflective people do. PS: You think the main story sucked.

As I said: I wouldn't - I would use Grimoire oVW and Empower if I needed more Wizard spells during an encounter. Psion has not much use for Brilliant anyway. A good debuffer/CC Wizard doesn't need to spam as many spells as a nuker. Mostly because the effect he causes last for some while and isn't instantly over (like direct damage is). So you won't run out of spells as quickly as a wizard who spams direct damage spells a lot.

Imo for an MC Illusionst/Psion my preferred spells would be Dazzling Lights (check out the -10 Will debuff which stacks with Misama), Miasma (because it's extremely valuable in combination with all Cipher powers that target the Will defense - which are a lot), Repulsive Visage, Confusion (it's more useful than one might think), Enervating Terror (jeez what a spell) and Gaze of the Adragan - not really damaging spells. And of course the self buffs because it's very good to not even getting targeted due to high defenses as a Psion. With a massive arsenal of Will debuffs and Resolve- and Intellect-based afflictions you can mess up almost any enemy group profoundly - and leave the damage-dealing part to some other party members. Like another SC Wizard: why not? But not mandatory imo. Once you opened up enemies' defenses with Miasma and then keep the afflictions going you won't need a ton of wizard spells. And you can use the Grimoire of Vaporous Wizardry + Empower to get more spells in a pinch.

Yes, but with Ondra's Challenge they only get +1 to rank (meh) and might sail faster (don't care). The rest stays the same. You don't need to decide quickly, cannons don't degrade as weapons do and so on. Monstercheese tactics aside: If I had to decide between a "real" fight with all the additional god challenges or a ship bounty fight in order to progress I would nearly always pick the ship fight (when properly prepared). Of course if you can avoid fights altogether and still progress: even better.

They are rel. risk-free at a certain point (even at lower levels bc. only the sailor/crew experience matters and not the character level), especially if you invested in some equipment and crew. Won ship fights will give you a lot of XP and loot.

Do you count ship fights (not boarding) as fights, too?

Still viable.

The beauty of Black Jacket in TB mode is that you can use an offensive weapon setup for offensive actions and then, with the free action, switch to a defensive setup before your turn ends.

Yes, Terraria.

Soul Annihilation gets applied to most enemies in the cone (the number of raw dmg varies though, the initial target gets all the normal raw dmg, the 2nd one nothing iirc, the 3rd one gets some, the 4th even more and so on). If you can expand the cone size a lot (items such as INT+, Ring of Overseeing and stuff like Smart via Minor Avatar or a Litany etc.) then it might be worthwhile to use a Soulblade. Also spamming the focus gained from Offensive Parry into Soul Annihilation is good. Soulblade gets +max focus for some time after killing an enemy. This can be prolonged with Salvation of Time, too. Don't know if it's worth it though.

Hands off the substances!

That's Eccea's Arcane Blaster. It's a great pistol and worth using it all the time imo, not only as backup weapon.