Boeroer

The maps will be really crowded.

Actually - draining isn't affected by healing bonuses. But Wound Binding is as well as Infuse with Vital Essence. With all that healing buffs Wound Binding will give back all your health. You can get ~30 CON with a dwarf by the way. That's about 500 endurance and 3000 health if I'm not mistaken. With Wound Binding that's nearly 6000. My dual wielding HoF solo barb was a "Healasaurus Rex". Nice name by the way.

Ah - maybe skeleton wizards are not real wizards and the lance is an ability and not a spell for them. They also don't drop grimoires - so that must be the reason. Maybe that spells from spell binding items also don't get reflected.

If you trigger it with multiple hits it's totally OP. Take for example blunderbusses, Spark the Souls of the Righteous on a whole party, Wall of Flames/Force or Missile Barrage. Or cast it on enemies who stand in multiple Chillfogs. You will generate a ton of parallel combusting wounds. Those get buffed by MIG and INT by the way. Even if only MIN damage gets through, foes will melt. It's especially good against tough foes. I'm currently writing down my blunderbuss wizard build. Her single target damage because of Combusting Wounds is awesome.

You can easily clear whole maps with it. Until Dragon Thrashed it's my main damage tool. It requires a lot of pulling though. No idea why you don't even get an animation or sound effect. That sounds wrong.

The multi-retaliation trick together with Pain Link + Combusting Wounds still works very well. "Only" the focus generation from retaliation is lacking. So - I would still use the Supper Plate I guess.

Normally a tick is 3 seconds. If you hit multiple times all those DoTs have their own ticks - I don't know if they get synchronized.

You can always use scrolls with a bit more lore - with high PER and INT they should work fairly well. And with Munacra Arret you can charm one of them three times (one is immune). It gets fairly easy then. I soloed them with a dual wielding barb and it worked.

He's not. With a large shield, barbaric yell and thick armor he's not too squishy at the beginning, even with 3 CON. I would also take Veteran's Recovery as the first talent. It's better than Constant Recovery (without Rapid Rec.) and adds a lot of endurance. I also pump survival to 8 in order to get +40% healing received. Since the deflection with a large shield and maxed RES is good you mostly catch grazes if you get hit at all. Thick armor will catch most of that damage and what remains as MIN damage will get healed by Veteran's Recovery. No, not squishy. Once you get Weapon and Shield Style (next talent I'd pick) you can easily take the role of the main tank. You can start with higher CON of course and retrain later. Because later you def. don't need CON at all. Remember: with 3 CON a barb has quite the same endurance as a fighter with 10 CON. And a fighter with 10 CON and a shield is not squishy. But I encountered no problem with 3 CON right from the start. Alse keep in mind that this was not a solo run. When soloing I would use more CON - mostly because of fortitude.

It's all written in the build description. I know: it's an awful lot of text. tl;dr: It not only works with the FoD arquebus shots, but also with Whisper of Treaon and Dominate as Ben No.3 said. It even works with enemies in range of your Sacred Immolation because your radius is bigger than 4 meters. And it also gives you deflection and reflex against distant enemies. edit: eh, NinjaKruger!

For me, the somewhat stupid thing is that if the chanter is wearing a single one handed weapon, the +12 ACC also applies to the chant, which lets it crit a lot, melting stuff even faster. Once you get attacked you can switch to a shield setup and be safe immediately (defense bonus is not affected by recovery) and if you are not attacked you can immediately switch to +12 ACC modus. It's a lot of cheese on top of a very strong ability.

Or if bash would cause daze on crit or something like that, maybe even prone... everybody would use it.

Chanter gets the Dragon Thrashed at lvl 9. Sacred Immolation comes at lvl 13. Not really the same time (if it's those abilites that you're talking about).

That's right. Bash doesn't give you +50% speed bonus like a second weapon in the offhand would give you. So your hits will alternate between weapon - bash - weapon - bash with the normal attack speed. Although bash has a short recovery phase, it still means that it takes away dps from your autoattacking because bash's damage is very low.

Huh? Maybe I mixed that up. I remember testing it after we talked about it. After that I didn't pay too much attention during the rest of my playthrough to be honest - I was already lvl 15 or so. And then it took me some time to sit down and write something. I will edit the post then... Thanks for letting me know!

Haha - don't worry - I forgot it myself.

That explains why I always got a ton of Taste of the Hunt/Thrust of Tattered Veils when I used those shields with HoF. Always more than I expected.

Well - Durance starts with some points in mechanics - so maybe use him instead? I think Aloth, too.

Because with his melee weapon he's only marking for a DPS or CC ally, that's more valuable than a bit more weapon damage - and that's only possible with either Cladhaliath or Shame & Glory. Both are no soldier weapons like the arquebus. Since his damage mainly comes from FoD shots and Sacred Immolation, taking WF knight or peasant won't do much for him. This build is not about melee dps.

I played this guy together with the barb tank "Golden Dragon", and the barb's defenses + ACC debuffs together with the paladin's defense buffs lead to an untouchable main tank and to a very sturdy party. Debuffing ACC and buffing defenses at the same time (also had a priest) is very effective. I later retrained the whole party to 3 CON.

Because it's one of the races which can have a golden skin tone, it gives you elemental endurances (which is not bad for a tank) and I wanted to achieve a bit of an asian look (Golden Dragon chinese restaurants everywhere )

You're most welcome.

Ah, ok. I just realized that maybe Gittering Gauntlets work with the splash?

And here comes the second collaborative class build: Counselor Ploi @AndreaC: can you do the same with this one? Thanks again!

Dergano Ploi was born in Aedyr - his parents are elven Aedyrean Ambassador Laxon Ploi and deceased human Aerdyrean fleet officer Lt. Leanna Andra Ploi. Although Dergano Ploi had little exposure to the military world of his mother, he attended the fleet academy as well as university and earned an advanced degree in "philosophy of mind". He then served as the captain's counselor aboard the Aedyrian flagship "Venture" before joining the Shieldbearers of St. Elcga and leaving active military service. He is also trained in diplomacy, beguiling, languages and linguistics, often making him a valued first contact team member. Again, it's his skills in interpersonal contact which can help to turn the tides in difficult encounters. He's also able to give valuabe advices which will protect his team members as well as using tactical positioning, confusing and marking the enemy so that his fellow team members can deliver the killing blow. Dessert is his favorite part of a meal, and one of his greatest favorites and weaknesses is cookies and cakes. Paraphrasing famous Aedyrian philosopher-humorist Wirt Hogas, he always says "I never met a pastry I didn't like" - Rauatai Sweet Pie is his very favorite. He also likes to trow the dices and once beat some cretin smug in a celler in Stalwart at "Dozens". "If you're looking for my professional opinion as counselor: he's nuts." - Dergan Troi to his comrades when meeting Lord Raedric - =================================== Counselor Ploi =================================== Difficulty: PotD v. 3.03 -------------------------------------------------------------- Class: Paladin (Shieldbearer) -------------------------------------------------------------- Race: Wood Elf (alternative: Island Aumaua) -------------------------------------------------------------- Background: Aedyr - Colonist -------------------------------------------------------------- Stats (char creation): MIG: 15 CON: 08 DEX: 08 PER: 15 INT: 17 RES: 15 -------------------------------------------------------------- Skills: Stealth 0, Athl. 2, Lore 6, Mech. 0, Surv. 14 -------------------------------------------------------------- Talents (a=auto, r=recommended, !=important) Intense Flames ® Shielding Flames (!) Scion of Flame ® Shielding Touch ® Weapon Focus: Soldier Weapon & Shield Style Deep Faith Arms Bearer (!) Abilities Flames of Devotion Coordinated Attacks(!) Distant Advantage (a) Faith and Conviction (a) Inspiring Triumph ® Lay on Hands ® Sacred Immolation ® Reinforcing Exhortation (or Aegis of Loyality if no priest) Sworn Enemy (!) Zealous Focus ® --------------------------------------------------------------- Items (*=additional echantments by me; !=important, r=recommended): Weapon set 1: Cladhaliath (*durgan refined, *marking, *coordinating, *burning lash) & Outworn Buckler (*legendary, *durgan reinforced) Weapon set 2: arquebus Weapon set 3: arquebus Boots: Boot of Zealous Command Head: Munacra Arret Armor: Osric's Family Breastplate, then Ryona's Breastplate Neck: Cloak of Protection Belt: Coil of Resourcefulness Rings: Ring of Changing Heart, Ring of Deflection Hands: Spirit Spiral Quick slots: scrolls & figurines ----------------------------------------------------------------- Hi! Another colaboration of Jojobobo and me. This time I evolved a char concept around Jojobobo's idea of having a Shieldbearer who is kind of a diplomat and using Sworn Enemy + Zealous Focus + charm to generate a lot of charm-crits (because Sworn Enemy's ACC bonus works with everything). With this a paladin could somewhat substitute a cipher (when it comes to mind control) and add even more usefulness to his class. Since it only takes two abilities (that you can always make use of with a paladin) I tried to spin this idea of a diplomat/supporter/mind controller further and make this paladin a jack of all trades when it comes to support besides the usual Lay on Hands and stuff. So I threw together some of the nice build ideas that are already out, namely the Darcozzi Forward Obrserver (buff ACC) by Torm51, Sh!t's on Fire (high FoD damage) by limaxophobiacq and the Rauatai Captain (buff deflection) by SImpleEnigma - kudos to the authors of those builds. Check out their stuff, too. Then I shook the whole thing and out came this whizkid: 1. Boosting party's deflection (and other defenses): 1.a. Shielding Touch (+12 single ally) The Shieldbearer can use several abilites and items to raise his comrades' deflection. First of all there's Shielding Touch. To my surprise, despit being a passive addition to Lay on Hands, it works like Reinforcing Exhortation - this means it doesn't stack with other non-passive deflection buffs like Cautious Attack, Shields for the Faithful and also not with Reinf. Exhortation. But it's still good because team members that need healing from Lay on Hands usually are under attack - and that deflection comes in handy then. It's also good that it works on yourself (Reinf. Exh. doesn't). 1.b. Shielding Flames (+10 AoE): This is even better. When using FoD you will provide +10 deflection for nearly all party members (with high INT the AoE is realy big). +10 doesn't sound like too much - but it stacks with everything, and that's great. 1.c. Outworn Buckler (+5 to all defenses AoE) Everybody knows it's one of the best shields in the game. The herald bonus stucks with everything - with high INT you'll cover the whole party - awesome 1.d. Inspiring Triumph (+7 to all defenses AoE) Another AoE deflection buff. On kill you will raise deflection by +7 in the same AoE as Shielding Flames and it also stacks with everything! So when you shoot somebody with intense FoD + Scion of Flame + Sworn Enemy and he dies the whole party will instantly get +17 deflection - nice. Later, with Sacred Immolation, it will be triggeres all the time. It's an awesome synergy. 1.e. Reinforcing Exhortation It seems to be better than Shielding Touch since both don't stack, but seriously you can't have enough deflections boosts because they don't last forever. Once a shielding touch expires or if you want to give deflection only without healing, this is good. If you feel it's too much redundance with Shielding Toch, use Aegis of Loyality instead - it beautifully fits the theme and is very useful if you don't have a priest (which I had). All in all you can pile up +47 deflection on a single target, +22 in a big AoE and +12 to all other defenses in the same AoE. This guy turns even squishy party members into (tiny) tanks. 2. Providing ACC for an ally 2.a. Coordinated Attacks (+10 single ally) It's like marking - if you attack an enemy and one of your party members does this as well, he will get +10 ACC which will stack with everything else. 2.b. Marking Weapon (+10 single ally) Like above. It's like Coordinated Attacks on a weapon. Stacks with everything 2.c. Zealous Focus (+6 AoE) What can I say - you know it. You will boost the ACC of a single ally by 26 points if you attack thge same target. If you flank, you will provide the equivalent of 36 points of ACC. This is extremely helpful against tough enemies which are difficult ot hit or to disable. With this guy, annoying dragons and such with affliction like prone, stun etc. is easy. 3.: Crit-charming or -dominating 3.a. Whisper of Treason With Munacra Arret you can get an early item with 3 uses per rest which has fast cast. It also has +10 ACC which is nice. I took Enigma's Charm first but retrained because it has this annoying 5 sec delay and is an average cast. I seldomly used it, so I took something else instead. Later you can buy Spirit SPiral which will give you 3 more per rest. 3.b. Sworn Enemy +15 ACC for your charms, fast cast, no hit roll, lasts for the whole encounter, has an awesome range and also will give you +20% damage when the time comes that your charms wear off - nice! 3.c. Zealous Focus: +6 ACC for your charms 3.d. Ring of Changing Heart: the dominate effect has no ACC bonus and it's only 2/rest, BUT it can be cast outside of combat, and that can be a big plus. 3.e. Distant Advantage: the main reason (besides the background) I took Wood Elf. +5 ACC for your charms. SInce Sworn Enemy has such a long range, most of the time the enemy you want to charm is far away so this works. And what most people forget: it also works with the edges of your Sacred Immolation if the AoE is big enough and also gives you +5 deflection and reflex against distant enemies. This is good against spells and arrows as well as wing slams or breath attacks. You can pile up +36 ACC for your Whispers and +26 for your Dominations. It nearly always crits. A crit with Whisper oT with high INT leads to a charm that lasts longer than 20 sec. By the way I insta-crit-charmed all dragons (which were not immune) right at the start of the encounter which makes those fights a lot easier. 4.: Killing Stuff 4.a. Distant Advantage: with your arquebus shots you will have +5 ACC as well as for enemies which are at the edges of your Sacred Immolation. 4.b. Zealous Focus +6 ACC for everything, including FoD and Sacred Immolation. 4.c. FoD +50% burning lash and +20 ACC with that two arquebuseses. 4.d. Intense Flames +25% lash for your FoD arquebuses 4.e. Burning lashes on all your weapons 4.f. Scion of Flame Boosts the cumulated burning lashes from 100% to 120% - most of the time your additional burn damage will be higher than the original damage from the arquebus. With this, killing a weak foe and triggering Shielding Flames as well as Inp. Triumph is easy. It also boosts yout Immolation of course. 4.g. Coordinating on your Cladhaliath Since you always want to attack a foes that another team member attacks in order to trigger marking and stuff (see above), coordinating is one of the best enchantaments for you. Sure, your spear is not a dps tool and you are fairly slow without any big dmg mods, but the high ACC and the +25% bonus damage are nice nonetheless. 4.h. Mob Justice or The Mercyless Hand or Second Skin (optional) Mob Justice not only adds to the ACC of spear and coordinating, but also lets you get Cladhaliath a lot earlier. Tkis also counts if the paladin is not the MC. The Merciless Hand can balance out the lower crit damage of arquebuses. Since your high ACC with FoD often leads to crits, this talent would be a good pick. Second Skin is not so superuseful here, but if you don't want to use Cladhaliath (or want if for a different char) then Shame & Glory is your only single handed melee alternative. This also works of course if the paladin is not the MC, like with Mob Justice/Dozens. 4.i. Runner's Wounding Shot (optional) When using an Island Aumua, you can take Runner's Wounding Shot and an additional arquebus. Skip Deep Faith then. This will deal similar damage than an FoD shot - instead of 90% burniung lash you will have 80% raw DoT. With the Coil of Resourcefulness your switching works well without any talent. 5.: Tanking Defenses are great (as always with paladins). With Ryona's Breastplate and Outworn Buckler as well as Weapon & Shield Style you can take over the role of the main tank or a second tank or play an offtank role, it doesn't matter much. Your defenses are good enough to tank dragons for a short time (until the charms or the disabling works). Alltogether you will have a very sturdy frontliner who can - boost deflection/all defenses up to +47(single), +27/+12 (AoE) - raise the ACC up to 36 (flank+single) and +16 (flank+AoE) - charm up to 6 times per rest and dominate 2 times rest - most of them crits - tank & kill Enjoy!