Boeroer

Dumped Resolve also means that hostile effects on you will last longer. If you are no frontliner that's not a big downside though.

Also: if you apply effects with durations on enemies like Many Nights or Soft Winds etc. - and only then switch to Brisk Recitation, the effect on the enemy gets refreshed to the original duration with every new hit (the game the doesn't remove the linger time when the effect is already applied) and thus won't run out. So it can be very benefical to first apply effects without Brisk Recitation and then switch it on as soon as enough enemies are affected. It's micro-intense so it's only really worth in long fights with durable enemies imo, but then it's pretty cool.

You can wear items/consumables that raise MIG to at least 10 points and then some that give increased spell damage. For example Blightheart, Harley (pet - it works with spells, too), Griffin's Blade and so on. 6 is quite low. I wouldn't want to drive MIG to 20 as a Bloodmage, but in Deadfire a malus (-x%) is calculated multiplicatively in most cases (that's why grazes and underpenetration will hurt your dmg output so much) - therefore I wouldn't go beneath 10 MIG (or 8 if you use Breath Blessing points for raised attributes).

Furyshaper's Blood Ward is awesome and worth going SC imo. What's also awesome is Driving Roar as damage/CC tool or Dazing Shout as defense/dmg tool. I personally prefer Driving Roar The good thing about it is that even the tier before that comes fairly early (Barbaric Roar) is alredy very useful since it's cheap but already knocks down foes and interrupts. The Fear Ward (which si also very good) also comes rel. early when you are a single class Barb.

No, added lashes don't change how an attack is tagged. Either the weapon itself or the ability you are using need to have that keyword. An enchantment usually doesn't add a keyword to the weapon - at least I don't know any enchantment that does. So Elemental Bolts will not negate the malus of an Arcane Archer. I don't think Arcane Bolts is very strong. It doesn't scale like normal Minor Missiles does. Normal Minor Missiles adds projectiles instead of dmg with Power Level. And then some PEN of course. The Missiles of Spearcaster don't gain projectiles. They will profit from weapon quality (+dmg,+PEN and +ACC) though. To me Arcane Bolts is better because 4 added mini-lashes are more reliable than a 15% chance to proc missiles - and lashes are also multiplicative dmg bonuses which will most likely result in higher additional dps than missiles every 6th or 7th shot which only do 5 base dmg each. So for me it's always Arcane Bolts. But I didn't use or test the Missiles excessively so maybe there's some combination with an ability or so where it's cool. I haven't discovered one yet. If you are not dismissive of per-rest abilities then it's not an easy choice. In the right situation Skewer is actually pretty good and it scales well. The good thing about x/rest abilities is that you can "spam" them in hard encounters. Two Skewers fired into a crowd in one encouter can make a serious difference. Pinning is a good pick if you don't like per-rest abilities much or tend to spare them up until it's too late and then rest without ever using them. Pinning is also not bad with Driving Flight. But - if you use Imbue:Web a lot (as I do with Spearcaster) then Pinning might be a bit redundant. It's still my favorite pick because it is quite good in very long fights which will become more common in the DLCs. Nope! If you decide then it's fixed and you can't get rid of it. However, without using the console you can export a character with the (uncenchanted) item from another savegame, import that chat with the item into your current game and enchant it anew. Will be expensive but possible. You would then have two of those items, each with a different enchantment path.

That's Eviee. Following that logic you also shouldn't have ever seen a point of having a Coastal Aumaua, Wood Elf or Mountain Dwarf Watcher. Sometimes it just fits. 🤷‍♂️ Besides that - players usually don't like to swap pets or items around a lot and there are way better pets for a ranged character than Eviee. If covering resistances is one of the goals I mean. For a backline character I don't focus on that to be honest. With this character in particular it's pretty unlikely that you get hit by terrify often. And frighten or shaken isn't much of a problem since modal effects + autoattacks still work just fine when frightened. Also a Troubadour could easily remove all afflictions just by running the appropriate resistance chant with Brisk Recitation. So maybe Wild Orlan wouldn't be my first pick in this case. For a melee guy it would be higher up my list though. I'd prefer mountain dwarf or ocean folk for this arbalest char I think. Just because of the vibes. Racial abilities don't matter much here.

You are welcome. Race: anything that can wear a helmet would be fine imo. Since Acina's Tricorn is a... well, Tricorn I like to use Ocean Folk from Vailia. If I wanted to use the Helm of the White Void + High Harbinger's Robe I would pick a Boreal Dwarf I guess.

I do not have anything on paper (so to speak) - but it's not difficult. I would use high DEX, PER and INT. RES can be dumped. CON can be low, too. Rest into MIG. Max Arcana. You can also get the Firethrower's Gloves early. Later maybe even train Arcana at some teacher (don't recall which one does it). Every point of Arcana = +1 ACC with Spearcaster and +2 with an Imbue Shot with Spearcaster. And of course you get access to all the great scrolls. Pick Arcane Archer/Troubadour. Phrases which are good: Thick Grew Their Tongues, Sure Handed Ila, Aefyllath Ues Mith Fyr and later Many Lives Pass By. For invocations I would pick mainly summons and Their Champion. The best summons are the animated weapons, but early on the wyrms are very good, too, especially if you sing Sure Handed Ila. They don't scale well so you might want to retrain out of them at higher levels and pick something else. White Worms scales very well for example... Pick everything from the Ranger tree that gives accuracy and is suited for ranged weapons, Driving Flight, Concussive Tranquilizer and of course Gunner. The Anmal Companion is sidelined for this build because it's of not much use in the field when you are shooting imbues all around. It would only get stuck or pulled around. You can use it as your bodyguard though. I would pick a bear, give it Resilient Companion and keep it close. In theory it couls also interrupt with Takedown - but I found it's too tedious to try and keep it out of your own AoE shots. Weapon Proficiency Arbalest of course, a backup weapon for pierce-immune foes is not bad. Essence Interrupter + modal is perfect for this. But anthing that doesn't do pierce-only damage is fine (also see Eccea's Arcane Blaster or so). Maia's Sharpshooter's Garb is nice for this, especially if you pair it with a pet that reduces recovery penalties of armors - like Abraham or Cutthrouat Cosmo. A good alternative would be Miscrean't Leathers or High Harbinger's Robe. For the head it's either Acinas Tricorn or Helm of the White Void (if use this when I wear the High Harbinger's Robe because it just looks better and the helm is very nice, too). Don't forget the Ring of the Marksman. Some Boots of Speed or Bounding Boots and it's cool. You main tank (for example Edér) should get an items that makes them immune to push & pull effects (there's the rel. early Upright Captain's Belt) and also an item or passive that makes them resistant to DEX afflictions. That way Imbue:Web and Imbue:Eora will have zero effect on your tank while enemies will get screwed up every few secs. After imbue shots just wait and see what casters are doing. If any of them starts to cast something you don't want them to: shoot them once with the modal active. If the enemies don't have concentration you can switch away from Thick Grew THeir Tongues and use something like Mith Fyr for more damage or Many Lives Pass By for pouring out some skeletons. But always keep Sure Handed Ila going.

If you don't care about the lower damage output then of course it doesn't matter. For Full Attacks that have some special effect on hit or crit the additional bash is benefical - for example for Stunning Surge you'll have two chances to land a critical hit, for Crippling Strike you'll have two chances to apply the affliction and so on. But in general: if you can avoid auto attacks with a bashing shield then avoid them. You will have the same attack speed an recovery if you carry the bashing shield but use primary attacks only. For example a Nalpasca/Soulblade may be able to alternate between Force of Anguish and Soul Annihilation all the time (which are both primary attacks that only use the main weapon) but they will have the dual wielding speed nonetheless if you carry a bashing shield. It's just so that the shield bash won't get used but only the main weapon (with dual wielding speed). This is not superimportant or game changing - it's just a small piece of info that's good to know.

No, it was not. The bash is rel. weak - but it's a great shield nonetheless. At least the bash sclaes with Transcendent Suffering (or Monastic Unarmed Training). Still not as potent as a real weapon but not bad at all. You can profit from the increased speed and circumvent the shield bash if you use Primary Attacks (for example Force of Anguish) because those always only use the primary weapon instead of auto-attacks which will alternate between primary and off-hand weapon (in this case bashing shield). Use Sparkcrackers. Throw them left of the guard somewhere to lure him away and quickly grab all that is on the stand. Magran's Blessing has a rubbish bash because it doesn't scale at all - so here it's even more important to circumvent it's use if you are looking for damage output.

You need more manual-handling with melee characters, that's for sure. In mid-difficulty fights you just shoot stuff dead. Pretty simple... If you are set on melee then I would employ a Rogue/something. Escape is cheap, it comes at lvl 1 so you can use the same tactics right from the start of the game and some of the Rogue Strikes will interrupt on graze. If you pair with a Ghost Heart you could have two sources of cheap mobility and you will have Concussive Tranquilizer at some point. Or pair with Monk and use Force of Anguish to play squash with the casters or use Stunning Surge to stun them for a long time. If you use Sun & Moon flail you can not only enhance the crit chances per swing but also get a very high chance of triggering Swift Flurry's additional attacks. Nice mix of disruption and dps and high mobility, too. What you can also do in order to take out two casters right at the start of battle for a long time: Use a Berserker/Priest and cast Withdraw on those casters while frenzied. THe confusion of hte Berserker allows you to cast Withdraw on enemies. It has not hit roll so it will always hit - 100%.

I don't quite follow. A fast enough ranged character will always have it easier to address multiple threats - just because there's no movement involved. If you can interrupt with a simple shot of a ranged weapon without using any limited resourced you will be useful during the whole fight. And you can just wait and see what the casters are doing. If you see one preparing a nasty spell: boom - interrupt. Then the nest caster is about to release something nasty? Boom - interrupt. You cannot do that with a melee character without wasting tons of resources on mobility actions like Escape (Rogue), Evasive Roll (Ranger), Flagellant's Path (Monk) or Leap (Barb) etc. Those characters can be great for disrupting the backline an kill one caster quickly - but they will not be good at controlling a bunch of them. Also their mobility abilities are sometimes coming rather late (see Barb). If you use Effort+Hemorrhaging with a Mage Slayer you will have to rely on crits by the way. It's cool but doesn't work as well against tough foes with high defenses.

Only the first. regular blunderbusses are crap with Imbue shots. The best weapons for Imbue shots are Fire in the Hole and Waterhaper's Focus becvause they have a build-in jump that stacks with Driving Flight. Thus both would proc three imbue spells per shot because hit+jump+jump. But Fire in the Hole has a short reach and Watershaper's Focus has low base damage. But when it's about triggering the imbue spells like Pull of Eora as much as possible (3 parallel Pulls with one shot are very impactful) those are great. Every regular shot that is not done with an elemental keyword. But in my case that doesn't matter much. The penatly is only -5. But if you use Spearcaster you will get +1 ACC for every point of Arcana. So at 5 Arcana all your regular shots with Spearcaster won't have any acc penatly compared to other weapons - and moving forward with Arcana you will only gain accuracy. Also, as I said: Imbue shots gain ACC via Arcana as well - so with Spearcaster doing an imbue shot you will have an ACC bonus of 2*Arcana skill.

Bloody Slaughter works with everything iirc.

If I want a character that can shut down casters reliably (and kill them rel. quickly) and also be useful against bosses (and maybe shut them down, too) I build an arbalest or a crossbow shooter. The modal of both will interrupt reliably (on hit) which cancels the caster's ability and takes away the spell use. Since enemies' concentration prevents interrupts I like to use a build that contains a Troubadour. The Troubadour can run "Thick Grew Their Tongues" and "Sure-Handed Ila" simulateously which is important. The first one removes all Concentration from enemies and the second speeds up reloading weapons twice: once the recovery bonus of 20% gets applied and then also the reloading bonus of the chant will get applied. So as an arbalest user you get 20% speedup two times. This is needed because the modal of arbalests prolings the already long reloading phase. Sure-Handed Ila counters this nicely. As second class I like to use the Arcane Archer. First of all it's a Ranger - so it has a lot going for it when it comes to ranged weapons and high accurcy through passives and active abilities. It also got Gunner which stacks with Sure-Handed Ila and speeds your reloading up further. However, the Arcane Archer has two more amazing tools in his belt for messing enemies' actions up: Imbue:Web and Imbue:Eora. Both proc an instance of the spell with every projectile + jump. They also get bonus accuracy with Arcana - nice synergy with Spearcaster which already gets such a bonus - they stack. So every imbue shot with Spearcaster+Driving Flight will produce two high accuracy instances of the spell (here Binding Web or/and Pull or Eora). Pull of Eora alone is devastating for enemy casters because it cancels their actions and whirls them around periodically every 3 secs. Binding Web also pulses every 3 secs but it "only" stucks enemies. Well, that changes as soon as you get access to the invocation "Their Champion" which turns every crit roll (including those from Binding Web or Pull or Eora) into an interrupt. Remember that you remove concentration with Thick Grew Their Tongues so every crit from you, no matter the source, will interrupt. This will not only shut down one single caster but everyone in the AoE who gets crit every few seconds. The attack rolls of "Thick Grew Their Tongues" count, too. Then you will have access to summons - later game the Animated Weapons will be very good at shutting down casters, too. One of the weapons does kockdown attacks which work like interrupts - so you'll have a summon that can interrupt casters by themselves. The other two weapons will help to kill off that caster. And you also have access to invocations that can shut down casters on their own, for example the stunning wave or Ben Fidel (frighten prevents offensive spellcasting). Imo this build has it all besides healing: sufficient survivability (just pick a Bear companion to guard you), unlimited access to interrupts, crowd control, single target and AoE damage and fantastic accuracy. It also works well with crossbows. Scourge of Bezello is an excellent weapon for interrupting casters because it has three bolts which will each interrupt - but it somes superlate while Spearcaster cames very early. So for me it's Spearcaster. --- There are other altenatives of course - for example a Mage Slayer Barbarian with fast weapons. Or anything that can reliably hard-CC enemy casters (stun, paralyze, charm/dominate, terrify). I perfer the ranged approach though because you don't have to move a lot which spares time and doesn't put you in harm's way.

Indeed The effect of high Resolve, paired with Clarity of Agony, is much more potent than high INT. So it's no problem to take Turning Wheel. Especially if you only took mediocre INT from the start. You are right. I was still in the Paladin/Forbidden Fist bubble and forgot that Devoted can't have both modals. Well - small shield also works fine without the modal and thae bash counts as unarmed attack (it scales with Transcendent Suffering) so it should't get the Devoted penalty.

Fair Favor is a fancy feathered hat that looks cool and fits a shwashbuckling Edér mechanically as well as thematically (if he wants to have that vailian vibes, too).

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.