Boeroer

Hehe, that guy's so funny. Together with Hiravias he put several smiles on my face.

Another approach is running through hazard fields like Chillfog or Malignant Cloud that your wizard casted. You'll reach debuffed enemies and also get wounds. It's friendly fire, but monks like pain, don't they?

Yes, you need hits from enemies if you want to unlock you full potential. The good thing with a staff is that you can run behind your front line once things get too hefty for you and then you can still spend the wounds from the second row. That, or you take the talent that can give you wounds OR you lets your friends shoot you in the back. You can also take some abilities like stunning blows that work without wounds. You can then open the fight from the second row and then come forth and engage when you need wounds.

There are also special options which can be unlocked if you have a certain background - clergyman for example, or if you are a preist of a certain god. Those are few, but they are there. But what I mean is not that you unlock special answers, but that choosing the right answers that match with your god's or order's dispositions will give you bonuses. For a priest of berath this means: if you choose a lot of stoic an rational answers and avoid cruel and passionate ones, your holy radiance becomes more powerful. With paladins it's their defensive buff via Faith and Conviction. Other classes couldn't care less for dispositions. Their values don't get influenced by their reputation.

Erm... theme? Don't know. Nature Godlike just fits the Greenstone Staff aesthetically. But anything that is green would, I can think of a monk that is also part druid. You could use Aspirant's Mark which is great anyways. It will ad a little bit of druidic feel. Instead of using Nature Godlike you could also use a stag helmet with any other race. For example wild orlans look nice with all those "rugged" items like hide armor. Put on Blaidh Golan from the Sanatorium, later maybe Wayfarer's Hide from the WM Ogre's Cave. You'll look like a druid and have some of his powers, but you will also be a monk. With the Greenstained Boots you will also get a spell holding called "Nature's Trek" - adds more druidic stuff. Get a belt of Nature's Embrace - it gives you Woodskin when you receive a critical hit. Put your focus on disabling rather than dealing a ton of AoE damage. This can also be lots of fun. Use Force of Anguish all the other diabling abilites and also The Long Stride so that you can zip around the battlefield with high speed in order to take out dangerous foes like casters quickly. Use Flagellanth's Path to get back to your team members. You could then add some scrolls like Moonwell - it's nice for monks. Sounds quite nice now that I read it again. Funnily i did it the other way round in my current playthrough: I made a druid who's also part monk. With fists...

Monk's abilities all work with melee weapons, too (besides The Long Pain which summons.. well... fists ). So it's totally viable to use any kind of melee weapon. There's even a soulbound staff that binds to monks - but I don't like it too much because of the looks. But combined with Torment's Reach it can be pretty good. And it will look awesome on a Nature Godlike monk I'd say. The first good staff is Durance's. It has a burning lash which is great that early in the game and it has crush/burn damage which is very handy if you meet crush resistant enemies. I always keep it as a backup staff beause of this. Then there's a speed enchanted quarterstaff named "Llawran's Stick" in lvl 3 of the endless paths. It's good enough to carry it through the whole game. The staffs that follow are not as great in my opinon. But some might be nice for special build ideas - like Taluntain's Staff which gives you 3 Fireball uses per rest. So yes, it will work. You'll miss out the Full Attack of Torment's Reach - but besides that, it's all cool. You can even use Torment's Reach from the second row that way.

Or you just don't know how the mechanics work... yet. It's even possible (and not too hard) to kill all the dragons in this game while being solo on PoTD difficulty. Did it myself multiple times. It can be challenging, but it's not insanely difficult. You just have to know this game. Killing Firkraag in BG II also was difficult. But once you knew the tricks it was kind of easy. For example: I always used the unkillable wizard's eye for distraction. There are similar things you can do in PoE. Using confusion scrolls for example...

I find a lot of high quality stuff at deviantart.com. Sometimes I even find a nice picture and then build a char around it.

I mostly do builds and thest them. When they seem to be good I do a playthrough. I can't count how many playthroughs I did. And I had a lot of time because I took parental leave for my three little daughters - and they always slept a LOT when they were tiny. Even now two of them sleep for two to three hours every day - and 12 in the night. I also worked but not full time. And I don't sleep that much, too. 5 to 6 hours is enough. One of the few advantages if you are an old geezer. Now that time is over and I work a lot more than before. That's the reason that number didn't increase a lot during the last 6 months.

Now that I think of it - maybe one could make a screenshot and use an online tool (if there is any) fir the "draw" effect.

I could add that. Do you have a picture of a bow and/or quiver?

With a bit of knowledge around Gimp or Photoshop you can make something nice from the existing ones. But to limit the options of character creation beause you have no portrait...? Come on, you can't be serious. That will only limit other players while it will not add anything to the game. If you feel better when character model and portrait match then just limit yourself and only choose the options that you can also see in a protrait, it's that simple I guess. They can't make a portrait for every combination. However - they could take the model you created during character creation, make a portrait shot and then put that through some filters in order to generate a custom protrait that looks kind of hand drawn. It will not have the quality of a original portrait done by an artist but it would be better than nothing I guess.

Ouh - d!ck-measuring contest... I'm in! I still love it. Every part of it, including WM I & II. Well... besides the bugs and some other stuff. So let's say: most parts of it.

As I said: Ravenwing in the Brackenbury Sanatorium is the best until you'll get and unlock Nightshroud (it's cool, but a fully enchanted Ravenwind will be better). Until then you'd have to use normal maces and enchant them yourself.

It's totally ok. With this approach I mentioned - being solo and more focused on damage - I (personally) wouldn't even take Interdiction despite the fact that I normally like it a lot... ...because you will run out of talent points. I'd take Inspiring Radiance as soon as possible (ACC bonus stacks with everything, even Paladin's Zealous Focus or the priest's other ACC buffs), then Pallid Hand (will give you the ACC of a fighter), then Aggrandizing Radiance, then Weapon Focus. If you feel that you don't go into melee too often then you can skip things like Runner's Wounding Shot and Envenomed Strike and take Interdiction and Painful Interdiction instead. In the late game you might get the impression that you're casting a lot and don't go into melee at all except in very hard encounters. YOu can easily retrain then and skip all the melee stuff and totally concentrate on casting damaging stuff with your sky high MIG. On solo you will always have to hit stuff with your weapon if you don't want to rest after every fight - but with a party you don't need to. Haha - thanks. But I think a lot of people know this stuff even better. Esp. the ones that solo a lot - or even exclusively. They are very good with all those neat little tricks and how to squeeze the most out of this game when it comes to numbers. I also do solo palythroughs, but not even 50/50 - more like 20 solo/80 party. I like party synergy too much - even if it makes the game way too easy even on PotD once you see how the wind blows.

All of the deities for priests are ok and get covered in some way. I think berath is the way to go if you want to be a vessel slayer. He really doesn't like cheating death. And he's the most important god in the dyrwood atm.

Just don't be disappointed because of the early game: the priest is squishy at first and can't hit things. You need to level a bit and be patient.

@rogue tank: What Jojobobo posted between spoiler tags works well. However: Fighter also works of course. They are really good with Disciplined Barrage + all kinds of spell bindings and scrolls - while their sturdyness is legend anyway. And once you get Clear Out and Charge (and combine that with Knockdown and maybe a diabling weapon like Cladhaliath, Godansthunyr or Starcaller or something like that) the whole gameplay gets a lot more interesting, too.

If you like Nightshroud: it's a soulbound weapon and therefore works with any weapon focus - it also profits from any of those priest's talents that give +10 ACC to two weapons. Like the Pallid Hand gives you +10 for mace and Great Swords, Hope Eternal gives you +10 to flails and morning stars. Nightshroud works with all of them. So you could play a good hearted but dedicated eoathasian vessel slayer and start with flails - there's a nice early flail in the ruins of the temple of Eothas in Gilded Vale named "Gaun's Share" which is connected to Eothas ("Gaun" is an alias of Eothas). And once you get Nightshroud you could use that. Or you could start with a priest of Berath and use maces right away. A really nice mace for mid game lies in the cellars of the Brackenbury Sanatarium, named "Ravenwing". It's appearence and the whole raven theme fits a priest of berath nicely I'd say. For a shield: if you pick a dwarf the best looks you will get with a large shield (there's Thy Clef with looks great with that mace, also dark colors) - but it will not only lower your melee but also your casting ACC. But of course you'd gain a lot of deflection and reflex. If you decide for this, you could consider to lower RES a bit and put more poits into PER. You would balance out the loss of ACC and deflection you would have enough anyway. Small shields are good, but look a bit funny with maces. A medium shield might be the best compromise, here "Refield" comes to my mind, which has the enchantment "harbinger" that decreases enemies' ACC a bit. It might fit a priest of berath well because church wardens of baerath are called "harbinger" as well as far as I know (see the church in Dyrfort). That shield comes quite late though. A nice substitute may be Ilfan Byrngar's Solace which you can find in the Endless Paths lvl 5. What about dual wielding maces?

Make use of all the charming or dominating items you can get. Like Munacra Arret and the Ring of Changing Heart. It makes soloing a lot easier because all the mobs will attack a charmed enemy and not you. THis is extremely helpful against enemies who come in great numbers and can disable - like Lagufaeth. It's like having additional summons. If Enigma's Charm was'nt so slow I would even recommend that. The build "Drakes Ambassador" combines said chanter with those items, although for soloing you might want to be a bit more defensive than he is. I mean he already is defensive, but maybe one can allocate the stats even better.

BUT: in the early game such a 2h priest is harder to play than most other builds. Until he gets his nice buffs he's squishy and can't hit stuff with his Great Sword. After taking Weapon Focus and The Pallid Hand (Berath) it gets a lot better. At that time you will also have buffs that are good enough. Until then you'd have to be very careful. Soloing with Triumph of the Crusaders is very effective: You will be the only one who kills - so all the heal-on-kill will go to you. With all that MIG you wil get insta-healed every time you kill a foe. I also took Wound Binding at some point because health was an issue, not endurance. You can skip that if you're resting a lot anyway. This approach combines a lot of staying power (because of self healing an defense buffs) with great damage. But you have to be carefull and don't gt interrupted while buffing or positioning - that makes it fun I guess. And it's very satisfying to see all the approaching vessels die from the radiance alone. It's like snuffing out candles, esp. when you meet a lot vessels that are way below your level - like it happened to me in the Endless Paths, lvl 6.

21 starting MIG, +2 from Aggrandizing Radiance (amongst other stat buffs), +10 from Champion's Boon (or +8 from Minor Avatar), +4 from Abydon's Hammer, +4 from Maegfolc Skull, +1 from Gift from the Machine, +1 from Effigy's Resentment, +1 Galawain's Boon, +3 resting Bonus, +2 prostitute = 49 MIG - I think food bonuses don't stack with Champion's Boon. If you want Gift from the Machine and Effigiy's Resentment you shouldn't pick Eothas or Berath though, because they both don't like cruelty. So your max would be 47. Of course that's a lot of fuzz and partly late game. I normally don't care too much about resting bonuses an prostitutes, meaning I don't travel just to get it, I only take it if I'm there anyway. But the rest you can have rel early and use easily in every fight and get around 35 to 40 MIG: Before I can use Champion's Boon I usually use Holy Might (also nice for RES), then later the Sanguine Plate and then CHampions's Boon or even Mnor Avatar - because it adds more stats and affects the same stats as Aggrandizing Radiance which stacks with everything. This will give me +2 move speed for initial positioning and +10 to all attributes. Those stat buffs, combined with Inspiring Radiance give me +20 ACC (I could then buff more with Devotions for +40 alltogether, survival bonuses aside) and a ton of interrupt power and around 40 MIG, also a lot of DEX for quick casting. My defenses will be buffed by +20 which stacks with every other buff like Circle of Defense and makes it easy to survive the first impacts when I enter encounters. Then I cast Shining Beacon, followed by Cleansing Flame on the toughest foe. If anyone still lives I go and hit them with Tidefall, because it's Wounding Damage is insane with so much MIG and it also works with Cleansing Flame as I said. Same is true for Runner's Wounding Shot and Envenomed Strike which also get really powerful with a lot of MIG. When I hit any foe with Tidefall + Envenomed Strike, followed by Cleansing Flame, usually that's a death sentence. Later on I mainly use Abydon's Hammer because I'm too lazy for switching and I like the +4 MIG too much for casting and self heals, even if Tidefall still may be the better weapon for dps. And as I said the Holy Radiance then kills most vessels on touch (and heals a lot). But that's also the result of the correct dialogue choices which enhance the damage a lot which then get's amplified by MIG. If I remember correctly it did more than 300 burn damage over time last time I checked. Ouch... Aggrandizing and Inspiring Radiance already buff the ACC and the damage of the radiance's burn damage, which is cool.

St. Ydwen's (=St. Waidwen's) Redeemer is connected to Eothas, Berath doesn't like it when souls don't return to the wheel. Both are fitting I guess. The most effective way to be a great slayer of vessels is to be the main char, have very high MIG (using buffs), picking sanctifier, using the bartender's ring and pick the right dialogue choices. That way you can severely damage vessels with your Holy Radiance. All the minor trash mob vessels will die from it. At higher levels even darguls and later also fampyrs drop dead. Very convenient.

After countless playthroughs with a lot of different builds I now have a melee priest of berath with Tidefall as main weapon, focused on dealing damage and buffing. It's a lot of fun. My approach is to stack as much MIG as possible - I'm also aiming for the Maegfolc Skull and Abydon's Hammer as "casting" weapon. Shining Beacon with nearly 50 MIG is devastating... And Tidefall's wounding gets enhanced by MIG, so great melee damage, too. Especially if you combine Envenomed Strike or Runner's Wounding Shot with Tidefall and Cleansing Flame. Kills even tough foes quickly. Also - with Triumph of the Crusaders - able to solo the game. Another thing is that this priest with high MIG and the right dialogue choices one-shots most vessels with his holy radiance.

Ha! Oh I know what you're talking about. Where did I laugh about anybody's ideas? Would have been the first time. I laughed about the demand that the build ideas we were asked to present should be realistic.