Boeroer

Hehe - thanks.

It also helps a lot to prevent rushing. I currently have it on Blast-Aloth as Spell Mastery and since he uses it in every battle he never gets rushed (also uses Iron Skin).

Or look at the Last Tower (large shield). It will give you +1 move speed which stacks with everything since it's on a weapon. Just for the sake of stacking absurd move speed bonuses. Also look at Dimensional Shift - maybe it's cool with beams? You knpw: stun in a beam shaped AoE + beams vs. reflex and so on. Could be devastating with a fighter + Charge. First the fighter charges to the other end of the battlefield, you cast beams on the nearest enemy and pull the figher back with Dimensional Shift, stunning those the fighter charged and dragging the beams across them all. Then the fighter can charge again... should be ouch.

Last time I did test this you could cast different beam spells on the same target. You need high casting speed though in order to stack them. Alacrity and low armor penalty help a lot. Funnily enough INT doesn't do anything for the beams (range and duration are fixed) so you could dump INT completey if you'd only want to use beams (which I doubt, but theoretically). As a side node you can only use one wall spell at a time. Combusting Wounds does get triggered by the beams' "pulses", yes. As MasterCipher said: the range is only the casting range. If you stack lots of move speed bonuses you can cover a huge area with those beams. Things like Boots of Speed, Fast Runner and Alacrity stack, so you could end up with +6 move speed without a lot of hassle - which is superfast. Also, running away lets enemies follow you in a straight line - very useful, too. You'll need high MIG to raise the dmg, high PER to ensure more crits and also interrupts and I would also use high DEX in order to cast faster. If I remember correctly either Vulnerable Attack or Penetrating Shot and also Ryona's Vambraces work with beams - but I may be mistaken here.

Oopsala. Must have missed the "for free" part. Even better.

Every style has its bonus and no penalties. Single handed weapon use gives you +12 ACC and the style a 15% hit to crit conversion. Weapon & shield gives you higher deflection and the style raises his even higher and also gives you more reflex. Dual wielding removes the melee attack speed penalty (equivalent of a 50% speed boost) and the style adds another 20%. Two Handers have higher base damage and the style gives you additional +15% damage. None of them has penalties and I think it's good to keep things consistent and don't make too many exceptions.

They didn't say that it's for free though.

The text says that everybody who owns PoE will be able to download the Deadfire Pack DLC (which has new items and portraits).

New items for PoE, eh? Dammit! I thought this was my last playthrough. Will this never end...?

All three races are fine. Pick what you like best visually. I would never build a fighter for ranged combat (I tried several times and it sucks in my opinion). Their innate sturdyness is wasted and their best abilites are for melee combat only. Nearly every other class besides barb is better in ranged combat than a fighter. You can build Edér as a dual wielding fighter (I like dual war hammers) or as a pike user (tall grass), having max regeneration and using Take the Hit to reduce damage on the whole front line - it works wonderfully (but only if you don't use mind control abilites - because it's a bugged combo). I would def. pick Aloth because you are terribly short of CC options atm. 12 MIG doesn't matter that much. Wizards have awesome spells. If you focus on CC then MIG doesn't matter at all. And CC is one of the keys for a good playthrough (besides accuracy). Or try him as melee wizard from 2. row with Concelhaut's Staff and later Citzel's Spirit Lance - powerful throughout the whole game. If you want to use mostly official companions I would skip the barb and take Kana instead for the front line - with weapon & shield. From lvl 9 on he will start to take over the lead as best damage dealer with The Dragon Thrashed chant (sadly not on the char sheet because the game fails to log the damage of Dragon Thrashed) and fullfills the same role as a barb (killing mobs) but with less hassle. But he also works with a pike or a quarterstaff from 2. row. Another way would be to give him a ranged weapon and use Sure Handed Ila. It stacks with everything and also lets your other ranged chars shoot faster. But honestly nothing beats Dragon Thrashed. In the early game the Phantom is very strong, as is White Worms (if you deactivate gib effects in the game options menu): bodies can be used over and over again and if you pile enough of them at a chokepoint you can one-shot whole groups with it.

Don't cling to builds. You can easily adjust stats - important thing is the core concept of the build and most of the time a few stat points don't change that. With the Golden Dragon the concept is to be an "active" tank: to be able to stack effects on the enemies which lower their accuracy (daze, frighten and so on) while at the same time raising your own defenses. This way you make your whole party sturdier (enemies hit less often) and you can "tank" quite well while at the same time you'll do some decent AoE damage. Also works with 15 MIG or 15 CON or whatever. The high MIG in the build is good for raising the self healing and the damage of Heart of Fury - but this all also works with less MIG. 3 CON is very hard for a low level barb and nothing for beginners.

Don't put foolish wishes into my mind.

Yes, they do. I already tested a chanter retaliation build with Battle Forged and Mith Fyr, but it wasn't terribly effective because of chanter's lowish health pool. Needs tons of potions or Wound Binding (which is only good with a lot of healing bonuses). And it's also difficult to keep him under 50% endurance if you use Ancient Memory/Veteran's Recovery/Beloved Spirits. It also seems to be a bit quirky to get to 50% endurance, then hit with a good amount of Battle Forged retaliation, draining good endurance from all the burn damage and hop over the 50% hurdle, loosing Battle Forged in the process. Maybe a good way to lose a lot of health without using Battle Forged too much. With multiretaliation (retaliation on helm or armor + Supper Plate + Flame Shield) and DR bypass and reduction (Vulnerable Attack, Ryona's Vambraces, Devil in the Pool, Hel Hyraf) it's cool. Or hot... You'd just have to look at the retaliation not as damaging tool but healing tool. One could also try to NOT use all that regeneration and only rely on draining to heal - you'll have more control over the healing/draining for Battle Forged and spare three talents. Hmhmhm... maybe I have to test. I will def. try out the Bleak Walker with the Rose to see if it's fun to play. Always Tidefall/Rumbalt/BotEP is kind of boring...

And like Swift Aim and Marked Prey and Wounding Shot and Stalker's Link for example? There are only three abilities that don't work in melee if I remember correctly: Twinned Arrows (which is bound to bows), Vicious Aim and Powder Burns (which is bound to guns). That is way better in terms of melee/ranged flexibility than a fighter or a barbarian I would think. There is no dedicated melee-only ability though. Maybe the Stalker gets some.

I think there's a reason why they are called "Chanters" and not "Wayfaring Concert Pianists".

Oh my. Now I have to build Zahua into a draining machine when I pick him up. I suppose a paladin with FoD would also drain decent endurance from the big lashes? I still want to find a way to make good use of the Rose of Salthollow. It looks so nice... Maybe a draining Bleak Walker would be ok? And I never tried a chanter with a draining weapon plus Mith Fyr and Old Siec. Since I alsways thought Old Siec is weak. But since both Old Siec and Mith Fyr also work with spells and invocations...

Will have to test, but I believe not. Borrowed Instincts + Devotions also doesn't stack - and it's the same kind of buff (+20 ACC to melee & +20 ACC to ranged, rather than +x to universal ACC - that's why Devotions stacks with universal ACC buffs like Zealous Focus).

Hi! As you might know, Inspiring Radiance (+10 ACC) stacks with every other ACC buff in the game which makes it very useful. But... actually I never tried if Inspiring Radiance stacks with itself (from different priests). I also never read about this (why is that?). Well, If you asked yourself the same thing then I can inform you that it does: First time using two priests in one party atm (MC priest of Eothas + Durance) - and while retraining Durance I thought "ach to hell why not?" and gave him Inspiring Radiance, too. I thought at least he could follow up with a second +10 ACC buff once the first Radiance from my main expires. Imagine my surprise when I cast it simultaniously and discovered that it completely stacks.

"He Carries Many Scars" (don't want to sound schoolmasterly - just in case you wonder why you can't find it in the wiki or the object folder). I think that's one of the best looking plates in the game, too.

By the way low INT is not only bad for AoE spells but also for all duration based buffs/heals like Veteran's Recovery (the longer it lasts the better) and so on. Also INT has a multiplicative effect on the damage of most DoT spells (like Plague of Insects for example).

Yes, he will have great endurance regenearation. But watch out for your health. Druids don't have the biggest health pools so make sure you either drink a potion of Infuse with Vital Essence before shifting and/or pick Wound Binding. Few things are more frustrating than dying of low health while you heal like a bo(ar)ss - theoretically. That's why I like this druid with high CON. Also helps against the most nasty disables. Please note that the Wildstrike Belt has a fixed duration that is not altered by INT or Spiritshift duration. That means although you will be shifted as long as you want your wildstrike bonus from the belt will run out after 15 secs (unless this also got modded).

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.