Boeroer

Forbidden Fist wants maxed Resolve. Might doesn't need to be high. INT can also be rel. mediocre. High Perception is benefical. High DEX as well. I wouldn't drop CON below 10. A multiclass Forbidden Fist gets wounds from up to four sources: hostile effects that end. So high RES helps to keep all hostile effects short, including the curse your own Forbidde Fist ability puts on you. With a lot of RES it will be very short. You can combine that with Clarity of Agony and some items to shorten hostile effects even further. Also hostile effects that run out will heal you. Mortification of the Soul. Also works fpr Forbidden Fist Monks. (Enduring) Dance of Death. It works - but for a Monk who's going melee all the time it's not that useful because it ends if you get hit (7 times) Parting Sorrow: if an enemy disengages you get a wound. This also happens when the enemy you engaged dies (the game seems to count dying as unwillingly disengaging ) Most important is 1. The most common way to work with this is using the Forbidden Fist attack a lot but keep the curse supershort. High Resolve also leads to high deflection. That stacks with the defense buffs of Tuotilo's Palm and stuff from Fighter like Vigorous Defenses and makes you hard to kill. Yes. And the small shield modal as well as Devoted's Disciplined Strikes (+5 PER, 25% hits to crits conversion) can also help with that.

Maybe Devoted/Forbidden Fist would be an alternative then. Rapier as Devoted weapon, fists/Forbidden Fist as alternative crush damage without any downside. Rännig's Wrath + Tuotilo's Palm, Fair Favor (from Serafen), Devil of Caroc Breastplate with Armored Grace and Abraham as pet (decent armor with almost no recovery penalty), high defenses, high ACC and crit conversion...?

I personally like him better as Fighter/Rogue with a Cadhu Scalth and Kapana Taga. Because later on he can "passively" apply distracted to all engaged enemies (and you can engage a lot with Guardian Stance + Persisantent Distraction + Chadhu Sclath and Kapana Taga: up to 7 engaged enemies) and more importantly he becomes almost impervious to AoE damaging attacks with the combo of large shield modal, Cadhu Scalth enchantment and Adept Evasion (turn 100% grazes to misses for reflex-based rolls). And also Slippery Mind has its uses. Also important: Escape can be used to move around quickly and it allows Edér to move around even if the large shield modal is active (which makes you stuck and doesn't allow walking). Riposte is a nice addition for a high-deflection character, too. I also use the club modal - so if I can lower enemies' Will by 25 just by doing a Riposte that's cool and requires no action.

I guess you are looking for that typical vailian/italian renaissance vibe? Ever thought about a Troubadour/Psion? Imo it's a fun combo to play and very effective, too (it even won an Ultimate achievement). It also fits well into Vailian background I guess. It's not melee of course... Psions don't like melee. But it could be cool & fitting with a Beguiler instead - who can go melee no problem and will generate focus from weapon attacks and also from casting deception spells. Not that much mobility though. Then... what about Trickster/Soulblade? Best would be with the fail Sun & Moon + the buckler Tuotilo's Palm, but a Rapier + modal is also great for Soul Annihilation since you won't miss much - and later using the Spider's Fang rapier is extremely good as a cipher. But it contains a Rogue... If it's about mobility then a Ranger isn't bad. Evasive Roll is a pretty great mobility skill. As melee Stalker you don't want to get seperated from the AC too much, but there's that handy ability Master's/Furious Call which only cost 1 Bond and results in the AC coming back to you while knocking over and doing a primary attacks to all enemies on the way. So you zip away and then call the AC. I think it's cool. You could combine it with a Cipher for two reasons: first of all zipping behind enemy lines is very nice when you have cast a beam spell to a near enemy or ally before to maximize the number of enemies cought in the beam (this would also work with a Wizard who uses beams of course). Secondly, the ability "Takedown Combo" does +100% dmg to the next attack an enemy receives. Then it gets removed. Funnily enough it doesn't get removed when you hit the enemy with Soul Ignition or Disintegration. It then stays thee for the whole duration and gives every tick of he DoT +100% damage! Very cool combo. Since both Takedown Combo as well as both DoTs target fortitude it's benefical if there's a Morning Star + modal involved (character themselves or in the party). I sometimes use a melee Wizard with a club + modal & Miasma to lower Will defenses into the ground and then summon Draining Touch & an Essential Phantom so that it attacks my enemies with the draining superfist that targets Will instead of deflection. One can combine with any martial class - I liked Unbroken because the low Will could also be used to trigger disengagement attacks via Ryngrim's spells - which really hurts when you are an Unbroken + an Essential Phantom with glowing fist. Perfectly fine to tank and/or offtank and still do respectable melee damage. And of course be able to cast a bunch of useful spells, too. Mobility comes with Deletrious Alacrity of Motion makes you superfast and immune to engagement. Hm, what else comes to mind that could have a vailian vibe? Darcozzi of course. Should get along with Pallegina just fine. Arkane Knight maybe? Always a good combo. And Darcozzi's flame shield stacks with Wizard's Flame shield. Or Darcozzi/Forbidden Fist? Swift Flurry with Rännig's Wrath + modal + Tuotilo's Plam+modal + Flames of Devotion + Ring of Focused Flames? Slow attacks but very high ACC on FoD so Swift FLurry/Hearbeat Drumming Procs may occur often. At the same time pretty great defenses and self heal via Lay on Hands to counter Forbidden Fist ability which is a perfect crush backup for your piercing Rapier. Now I'm out of ideas...

When it comes to the Assassin subclass I just try to keep in mind that an Assassin without any stealth or invisibility is still like a regular Rogue - but only a tiny bit more squishy (it's really not that much). So there's really no need to feverishly focus on strikes from stealth or invisibilty - if this gets screwed up the character is still a full Rogue. Of course it can be especially effective and fun to pull off some impactful actions from invisibility/stealth - but also sometimes it gets repetitive and then I just skip that stuff - like in easier encounters - and spare the invisibility for emergencies or so. By the way: why I prefer to use the Assassin as an ACC-boost to CC/debuff-spellcasting instead of alpha-strike-weapon-damage-dealer™ is that later in the game the health pools are so bloated that a weapon attack with +50% crit damage doesn't have that much impact anmore compared to just a regular weapon attack - but a reliably applied disable or even mind control will still be very impactful. In the early game however those hefty weapon attacks from stealth and invisibility do really have their merits.

Yes, what @dgray62said. I think @Jrllo you mixed up Corrosive Siphon with Draining Touch. An alternative to Corrosive Siphon could be Concelhaut's Draining Missiles I guess? I didn't use that a lot though so I can't be sure. At least it's one of the few spells of the wizard that heals. C's Draining Touch with Grimoire switching is an option for the approach @Kaylon mentioned. The other would be C's Parasitic Staff. It's also not a terrible idea to stack some regeneration gear like Rings of Greater Regeneration, Three Trolls Stiched, Fleshmender and/or Trollhide Belt. Since you can get target by party members' heals while invisible, healing up yourself "passively" while casting spells does help.

I also find Concelhaut's Corrosive Siphon pretty useful for an Assassin/Blooldmage as a way to come out of invisibility which a high ACC spell that ofen heals you up while you use Blood Sacrifice.

Yes, that's right. It's more useful on a longer-lasting summon like the Phantoms.

Nope, they will have their frost/fire fists - but those are nice as well. They will have the spiritshift armor though which is pretty great, especially if you summon them when in bear form (+2 AR). Then they have 0 recovery penalty (like in all forms) but very high armor with no weakness (universal value against all dmg types). One of the best armors in the game imo. I looked into that a bit more a while ago because I played a Bear Druid/Wizard during some testng sessions and what I really liked was that my Essential Phantom was pretty awesome with high AR but 0 recovery penalty, Draining Touch in the main hand and a bear claw in the offhand. Didn't go down easily and dealt great damage (for a summon). Dichotomous Soul cast from Bear form seldomly died before their (rel. short) summoning duration was over but caused enough ruckus offensively.

One special feature of the Assassin/Wizard (or Bloodmage to be more specific) is the spell "Arkemyr's Brilliant Departure" (found in two unique grimoires) which makes you invisible for quite a long time (compared to other invisibility effects). And a Bloodmage can cast this over and over again bc. of the build-in spell replenishment that is Blood Sacrifice. But even more importatantly: Arkemy'r Brilliant Departure doesn't break as long as you don't deal damage! Assassins get +25 ACC when invisible - so casting CC from invisibility with +25 ACC while being untargetable is pretty awesome. At the same time Wall of Draining will prolong the invisibility just fine. So in theory you can stay invisible during most fights and debuff and disable enemies like crazy before deciding to drop a nuke on them if you wish. Add some cool items that debuff enemies passively like Cap of the Laughingstock (-10 deflection aura) and Effigy's Husk (prevent healing aura when bloodied - easy to achieve by using Blood Sacrifice) or Blackened Plate (-1 AR) or Ngati's Tusk (Hunter of Hunters lowers enemies defenses) from absolute safety. Combine with Helm of the White Void to give all your afflicition based spells +10 ACC and so on... I like being a human because when bloodied you get even more accuracy. I just use Blood Sacrifice to lower myself to bloodied while a party member buffs me with additional stuff, then cast Wall of Draining and then do the invisibility-debuff thing with monstrous accuracy. It's a very impactful character right away, too because the +25 ACC from stealth, combined with a powerful CC spell can decide combat right away in the early game. And if you want to go totally crazy you can try to use the Great Sword Effort with the enchantment "Hemorrhaging". This enchantment doesn't deal damage (see Arkemy'r Brilliant Departure) but hobbles or sickens - but it counts as weapon attack and procs off of ALL your crits, spells included. Combine with some pulsing spell like Binding Web and wear Ajamuut's Stalking Cloak. It stuns on weapon attacks from invisibility. You cast Binding Web from invisibility, it will do some crits which will proc Hemorrhaging, those will proc the stun from the cloak, that might crit and proc Hemorhhaging again - and so on and so forth. Often this combo will produce endless stun-cycles on enemies. You can also use weapons and ABD and deal big strikes from invisibility - but I always found it more impactful and rewarding to actually skip the damaging part and use the ACC for debuffing and disables. The guy can still deal great weapon damage if needed - it's a Rogue after all.

Monk and Druid are good picks in my opinion. Both classes have powerful and - more importantly for me - fun-to-play aspects.

Which ones come to mind? Imo PL8/9 for Ciphers isn't super spectacular when it comes to spamming spells as an Ascendant. Good thing about the Arc.Archer-Ascendant combo is that he doesn't even have to cast spells while ascended. Since his soul whip dmg bonus doesn't turn off he can also just keep shooting and continue to do great weapon DPS - if he wants. Or spam stuff like Amplified Wave or whatever fits in the situation.

Yes, Pain Block helps a lot. Good point. I think for offtanking it's pretty fine. You don't want to send you animal companion into the field to set up Stalker's Link or so - where you shower everything with friendly-fire imbue shots.

No, not really. They die quickly without support. They are still great as distraction, setting up flankings, increasing accuracy and so on - but they don't last long if you use them like a tank. I almost never have more than one tank with lots of engagement slots (usually Swashbuckler Edér) and I'm doing totally fine. I just make sure he's presenting himself first to the enemy. But I also seldomly use supersquishy glasscannons that fall over after one or two hits. If every party member can survive a few strikes (like mine usually can) then a few rushers/jumpers/escapers (like enemy Barbs or Rogues) into the backline aren't a big problem most of times. One can also use the Animal Companion for intercepting such annoyances. Offtanking if you will. That is if you don't plan to use the animal offensively a lot. Not building superglassy chars also helps with the dread of all squishy backlines: enemy shooters. No tank can help your squishies if they catch Finishing Blow arquebus shots with their faces. If you have a caster it's often not a bad idea to give them a small shield and weapon and shield style. Doesn't hamper your accuracy or casting speed but makes getting shot at and die instantly less likely. It's of course a matter of taste and preference, too. Sometime I like the challenge of keeping a glasscannon alive. Also: the more reliably you can CC/debuff/disable or even turn enemies (see stuff like Chillfog, Killers Froze Stiff, Miasma but also Whisper of Treason and Puppet Master) the less tankishness you need. Summons do the same. They are basically walking CC effects that shift the attention of enemies away from you. Charmed and dominated enemies are even better because they work like summons but at the same time you also take an enemy off the field. A potent mind controller (e.g. Cipher) with a potent summoner (e.g. Chanter) can make tanks almost obsolete on most fights. Good tank is still very useful for prolonged fights against tough single enemies though.

The shot itself does, the following spell effects do not. Arcane Archers can have enormous ACC due to Arcana. If you pair that with Cipher's Borrowed Instincts and Frostseeker you'll have a crit beast that deals tremendous AoE Dps and also awesome CC (for example with highest-ACC Imbue:Web + Imbue:Eora, pulling enemies together, keeping them there while frost dmg rains on them). Essence Interrupter also profits from high ACC a lot (modal has reduced ACC, crits create summons). Both weapon have elemental attacks so the Arcane Archer never gets a malus with them.

I think it boils down a lot on how one like to play. I for once don't use Xoti as Monk, Pallegina or Aloth as Battlemage. I find those options suboptimal - for my favorite party compositions and mechanical synergies at least. I would argue that late game SC Priest Xoti, SC Wizard Aloth and SC Watershaper Tekehu are more impactful in most encounters than multiclasses of them. That's the case in my playthroughs anyway. Xoti as SC Monk doesn't generate wounds from killing with ranged weapons or spell-like abilities which I don't like. As many may know I love mortars on Monks - and Xoti is not good with mortars because of this. I also don't like that her wound cost is higher because it limits the usage of both Resonant Touch and WotW a lot compared to other Monk subclasses like Nalpasca or Helwalker or even vanilla Monk. You can get around that and use Keeper of the Flame + Saint's War Armor for endless spammage of WotW - but that's pretty engame-ish items. I usually prefer to bring another Monk (if I want a Monk in the party in the first place). Xoti as Priest/Monk is awful for me personally. Tried it and didn't like it at all. Mirke is "only" a vanilla Monk (still better than Sisters of the Reapong Moon imo) - but also a Streetfighter. This is a great combo imo with Mortars. Not 100% official companion and she doesn't even have DLC-based Dialoge which Konstanten, Fassina and Ydwen have, but still... nice options imo. Aloth as SC Wizard reaches important spells earlier and gets to PL 8/9 where he can use spells that eliminate whole groups of encounters alone. While Battlemage stuff like Unbending+Wall of Draining is nice, you don't need that when you can have any form of buffs & healing over time for him + Wall of Draining. And that kicks in way earlier as SC than as MC. Fractured Casque + Vaporous Wizardry and later Least Unstable Coil + empower. Any other SC Wizard could do it equally well of course - I just like Aloth. SC Watershaper Tekehu will reach Great Maelstrom which is not only deadly in itself but with the recent discovery of Effort's Hemorrhage effect is just mindblowingly strong in combination with Avenging Storm and pulsing spells. And his foe-only spells like Chillfog (which you will have access to a lot earlier as SC bc. it's a PL-3 spell for him) are so nice. Also brings good healing + buffs. Also works very well as SC Stormspeaker by the way, but not as brutal. Stormspeaker/Druid is the worst option to me. Maia as Scout is nice - but I found that I don't really need her. Monks or Rogues or Rangers in most combos, shapes or forms are capable of delivering reliable and sustainable single target damage - and I value reliable disables and debuffs over dmg and Maia isn't that great in that regard. But the Scout option is the best pick for her imo. I used Pallegina as Herald a few times - Heralds are good but they don't bring a lot of improvement to my parties in general. Must be the way I play. I see the benefits on paper and they are there, no doubt - but if I swap in Pallegine for somebody else it almost always feels like a net loss. Offensively she's not that great compared to what other OCs can so, initially she lacks engagement and thus cannot tank for my party well enough, she doesn't have enormous CC/debuff potential and I don't need the support she gives (because Xoti Priest + Tekehu Druid can deliver enough of that). But: I don't use (multi)summons a lot because they add a ton of micromanagement and I just tire of bringing them on a regular basis. I endure an Essential Phantoms bc. of its interesting mechanism with gear but that's all I can endure for the most part. Summons are super useful in general though - so maybe that's why I don't appreciate Herald Pallegina a lot. Also if you want to abuse Many Lives or Brittle Bones with a Grave Calling setup or use Sasha's Singing Scimitar for constant empowerment etc. or have a Berserker in the party she can be really nice, even for me. But... I just prefer to do that with somebody else I guess. :shrug Also I usually don't side with the Vaillians so that's a problem. The other class options for her are inferior. So that's my assessment for my usual apporach to the game. But there are party setups where I deviate from my usual routine (which is something like "buff up, round them up, debuff them, control them, destroy them"). For example when I try to build a group that doubles down on Mind Control... or fear effects... or debuffing everything into the ground with little effort while having no tank at all (like I do try atm) then of course all of a sudden other OCs and combos of them seem better than before. --- Anyway: what I will say once again about single classes: players seem to underestimate what a difference it makes when you can get access to certain abilities earlier in the game. Sure, reaching PL8/9 is also great in most cases, but it seems most players think it's only that - and on the way there SCs will be inferior to MCs. But imo they will not be (necessarily) because they can access certain abilities earlier which are so useful for the char and/or a party. Examples are Devotions ftF, Stunning Surge, Gouging Strike, Duality of Mortal Presence, Moonwell, Many Lives Pass By, Ring Leader, Ancient Memory and so on. Sure, MCs will get those, too - but they will only have access to them later... when they are fighting tougher enemies. This makes a noticable difference and I think you only really appreciate this if you've experienced both (maybe several times): for example when comparing Priest/Monk Xoti with Priest Xoti. Still: for most players MCs are more interesting still bc. of the self-contained synergies I think. And if it's more interesting you'll put more effort into it - and of you put more effort into it it's more effective.

The Beguiler has excellent focus generation which is not dependent on weapon damage (but can still have that, too) and is great with Mind Control - while the Soulblade is the better melee Cipher. So if it's about melee dmg I would pick the Soulblade.

Bashing shields like Tuotilo's Palm, Magran's Blessing or The Best Defense profit from both abilities: "Two Weapon Style" and "Weapon and Shield Style". This is unlike PoE where only weapon & shield style worked with bashing shields. So what happens is that you get faster recovery and also defensive bonuses which is neat of course. Especially Tuotilo's Palm synergizes very well with this because it can give more ACC or dmg AND higher defenses based on wounds. So it's boosting both offense and defense - just like Two Weapon Style + Weapon & Shield Style do.

Monk/Ascendant is a good combo because Monks get +5 DEX and +15% Action speed via Swift Strikes, +10 INT via Duality of Mortal Presence, up to +12 ACC and wounds via Enduring Dance and +2 PEN and +5 MIG via Thunderous Blows - besides two summons. The increased INT and higher speed are the main reasons why they are great for Ascension because you want to squeeze as many spell casts into the ascension phase as possible. More INT means longer ascension and more DEX and action speed means more spells in a given time. Besides that the higher INT means bigger AoEs and longer hostile effects duration (stacks with Lingering Echoes). All Monk subclasses work well with an Ascendant if you have CP installed bc. of the reasons above - and melee isn't such a big problem imo... however I think Nalpasca or Helwalker are the best picks. But Forbidden Fist can do some cool things with Enfeebled + high INT + Lingering Echoes. For the same reasons some players like Barbarian/Ascendant: because of Frenzy, Bloodlust and especially Blood Thirst an Ascendant can squeeze a hell lot of spells into the ascension time. Same is true for a Streetfigher if he's heating up or even on the edge (e.g. Streetfighter/Ascendant with blunderbusses+modal). But as Kaylon said: Ascendant wants to spam spells when asdended. I actually like other Cipher subclasses with Forbidden Fist more than Ascendant. Forbidden Fist/Beguiler for example is a nicer combo in my book. No need to do the "collect focus then spam spam spam spells" cycle but instead focus on manipulating single strong enemies. For example Enfeebled + Lingerung Echoes +10 INT and then casting Puppet Master for cheap is a hell lot of fun. You will turn a lot of tough enemies into long-lasting allies, you will have enough focus most of times (cast some Phantom Foes and Secret Horrors at the start of the battle, then go in an generate focus with FF attacks which usually is enough to pay for Puppet Master or Whisper of Treason). I played a Shattered Pillar/Soul Blade (also CP installed) because I liked the idea of filling up both resource pools with the same action - and it worked well. You will just be less effective in fights against single tough foes and very effective in fights with lots of weaker foes. Soulblade/Trickster is a very effective combo if you want to focus on Soul Annihilation and not cast spells so much. Use Sun & Moon in order to be able to spam Soul Annihilation non-stop and use a bashing shield to double down at the defensiveness of Mirrored Images, use Riposte and also get the speed of dual wielding without actually using the shield bash (because Soul Annihilation is a primary attack only that doesn't use the shield bash ever - ans since you can spam it with Sun & Moon you seldomly have to do auto-attacks). Also works with Monks to a certain extend, but they lack the defensive buffs. For a build that uses Soul Annihilation mostly Trickster is better imo.

With the Ring "Drunkard's Regret" you can circumvent the penalties of hangovers and this also means Pukestabber will have no downside. First of all you onle get a hangover if you stop resting with alkohol. If you keep using any alcoholic drink as "resting food" there will be no hangover. If you use something else when resting - that's when you will wakre up with a hangover effect and this triggers Pukestabber's vomiting etc. So if you plan to use something else than alcolhol you can put on Drunkard's Regret right before resting. You can remove it after the rest, you don't have to wear it all the time - only when resting.

Sword of Daenysis + March Steel Dagger are nice for reaching 0 recovery a lot sooner. But Frenzy doesn't stack with Swift Strikes - and I think a few points DR aren't very impactful after the early game. For the same reason I almost never took Resilient Companion. AR is really important in Deadfire, but DR isn't that much in PoE imo. Brutal Takedown and Takedown in general are fun - but I could do without them. I could also do without Savage Attack though... On the other hand Rapier and Dagger have +5 ACC which would help to counter Savage Attack's ACC malus... hm...

INT doesn't need to be that high because you will get Duality of Mortal Presence (+10) or Enlightened Agony (+5). MIG doesn't need to be that high because you get Frenzy (+5). CON doesn't need to be high because you get Frenzy (+5). High PER isn't mandatory either (but not bad as player character). Besides maxed RES I think a rel. balanced attribute spread would work just fine. It's a pretty suicidal combo bc. of Frenzy self dmg + Forbidden Fist self damage AND you don't even profit from self dmg like vanilla Monk/Helwalker/Nalpasca would - until you get Footsteps of the Beast. Berserker/Chanter is cool as well. Skald profits a bit from the increased crit rating of the Berserker and the low-cost offensive invocations, Troubadour is better later, once you get Many Lives Pass By and can combine confusion with skelly-kills for Blood Thirst and Dispersed Suffering (from Frostfall) etc.

Click on the sword symbol in the action bar, then on the skeleton.

Facetanking dragons is hard. I've had some main tank chanters in the past but they didn't tank a dragon all on their own. I guess if Kana went with defensive and healing phrases and used summons a lot and combined it with defensive gear and consumables it could work. @Raven Darkholmedid a solo Chanter run against dragons iirc. So if that's possible without kiting it should be no problem in a party. Just don't know any particular builds for that.

I almost never use the vanilla Devastating Blow because it's a waste of Guile when you can have 2 Crippling Strikes for the same amount of Guile. In an AoE - like with mortars - Arterial Strike is fantastic. Interrupts, has high PEN, bleeds out moving enemies. I wouldn't even think about using vanilla Devastating Blow with mortars. Adding a prone effect feels weird somehow, but it wouldn't make it too powerful imo. Edit: 2 ideas instead of prone: refund on kill (see Barbaric Smash for reference). Rogue suffers from having no refund mechanic besides Gambit. Would make the high initial cost bearable if you use it as true finisher and would make overkilling less costly (or even free). short-lived but hefty bleeding that's higher the less health the enemy has (see Infestation of Maggots for reference). Would help to truly "finish" an enemy if the initial direct damage couldn't do it. This would encourage to use it on enemies with lowish but not superlow health (where it most often leads to overkilling). Just because I don't picture Devastating Blow as a brute-force attack that would topple even healthy enemies over - but an attack that's aimed at the most vulnerable spots of an already struggling target.