Boeroer

He can use the speed chant and kite most enemies while destroying them with his Sweet Winds of Death. And don't forget: he has summons which can soak up a lot of damage. The phantom is crazy powerful early on. Imagine what 6 phantoms could do. And then imagine how you turn of "gib" in the options and kite all foes of a map to a chokepoint where you piled up all the corpses from previous fights and then cast 6 times "White Worms". I cleared Raedrics Castle that way with a solo chanter without resting once. Very powerful but a lot of positioning. By the way: ranger's animal companions also don't have health. So it might also be possible to use those in some way to prevent resting. If you can make it so that they get frequently healed without using per rest resources they are great tanks for such a run: no health loss! I'm thinking about chanters (Ancient Memory and so on), Ciphers (Pain Block) rangers themselves (per heal), priests with spell mastery Consecrated Ground, Druids with Spell Mastery Nature's Vigor and stuff. Maybe that also works nicely.

All builds that use not too many per rest resources might work. Also keep in mind that low health might force you to rest. So: no squishies with 3 CON. Chanters might be best because they can combine great dps with good defenses. Good defenses prevent health loss. One of the best tricks for late game is: - Priest with Spell Mastery Withdraw (stuns chanter but lets him keep chanting) - takny chanter with a preservation shield and another preservation item (=+100 to all defenses when stunned) - Cipher with Defensive Mindweb It's like a win-button: all party members get the insane defenses of the chanter while he's still able to chant The Dragon Thrashed. Also works with any other tanky character but chanter. But those will not have the advantage of doing something useful while being withdrawn. In addition to Wound Binding and Field Triage you can also use potions of Infuse with Vital Essence. All of them work with all the healing bonuses like high MIG, survival bonus and items (Belt of Bountiful Healing, Fulvano's Amulet). A chanter can also sing the late game phrase "Mercy and Kindness" as soon as the healing gets activated, which will give additional +100% healing - also for your health, not only endurance. COmbined with 14 survival, high MIG and those items you will be at ~+200% healing power (or healing times 3 in other words). Wound Binding for example heals ~120% of your health instead of 40% that way.

I didn't say you should do it. I only said it's possible without spending money.

Actually I did WM1 with such a barb (2DEX) and it wasn't too bad. Darzir was a bit hard, but I solved the problem with Blood Thirst + scrolls of Fan of Flames. after a few casts you can keep on casting with 0 recovery because every time a winter wolf and then later ogres die.

Well in PoE there are no catholic priests, so...

Gimp is free and it's powerful - it's def. potent enough for altering fantasy portraits.

Yeah, priest is hard in the early game - then it becomes a LOT easier. Barbarian is also kind of tough during the first few levels, then also gets a lot easier. After lvl 11 it's a joke with the right build (except dragon fights) because of HoF.

Right. Although a priest with Crowns and Inspiring Radiance and stuff might indeed be better than an additional chanter. It's like a pastor with his acolyte choir.

Who says you can't min-max in PoE?

And they have some nasty summons with nasty immunities. Look at the animated weapons. They can really annoy the sky dragon. With the Blackwarden's Breastplate and the best slaying chant (stacks) those summons are serious business for dragons. At level 16 you can even fit 2 Dragon Thrashed into the linger time of the beast chant - letting them hit very hard. And I have a special weapon, enchanted for dragons. Even my weapon attacks hurt them a lot. So, even great in most boss fights.

If you build your party with sturdy but at the same time dangerous characters you can easily have 4 melee guys and spread them across the battlefield. It's a lot easier than the usual "tanks in the front..." setup and is usually more fun because you don't have to babysit all the squishies all the time. Also, enemies' AoE spells are less likely to hit more than one party member. You can build a sturdy yet damaging char out of every class. The best setuo is of course 6 full tank chanters.

The aumaua with the mask is a fail: he has a beard, but you can't put a beard onto aumuas while creating your character.

Hi. I have a druid with Novice Suffering, going unarmed when not shifted. Now - when I cast Avenging Storm it won't work in my human form as long as I don't use a "proper" weapon. Once I switch to the spiritshift form it works. I guess the effect of Avenging Storm gets applied to the active weapon - and you don't have a weapon equipped when unarmed...

Cheatception!

Using "iroll20s" in the console disables achievements, yes.

What's the problem with the basic ruleset in the computer game? I mean the graze/hit/crit system and all. It's not too complicated and can easily be played with two D10.

Argh - damn it! But the ring of changing heart works.

Give your rogue Munacra Arret (as Jojobobo said) and charm them with your high ACC at the start of the encounter. It's a fast cast. They will use their CC against each other. It's the easiest solution if you don't have enough lore to use scrolls of confusion. You can also give it to Pallegina if she has Sworn Enemy. Its +15 ACC bonus also works with the charm (thanks to Jojobobo for that idea). Also, Aloth should have Confusion at lvl 9. By the way: the name's "Durance". If Sagani + Itumaak don't do damage at lvl 9, you're doing something wrong. Don't forget the fox! Give him Predator's Sense, Merciless Companion and Vicious Companion, take Stalker's Link and Swift Aim and use Persistence (Hunting Bow). The damage of the fox will go through the roof (high base damage +95% plus DR bypass). If the fox goes down a lot: use Durance's "Triumph of the Crusaders": whenever the fox kills an enemy, he will instantly get healed completely. Since he has no health pool, he will be as new. At the same time Sagani will do a lot of single target damage because of Persistence's wounding (it's the ranged weapon with the highest singel target dps in the game because of that).

Oh really? Good to know. Sorry for the misinformation. I thought it worked like Envenomed Strike or Deep Wounds. I didn't use it much to be honest. Then a Goldpact Knight with Tidefall or Drawn in Spring with max MIG and 3 INT (or even lower with appropriate items like the Ultimate Hat of Alluring Perfection from Stalwart, -2 INT/RES, +2 MIG/CON), Scion of Flame (for FoD and Intense Flames as well as for the burning lash on Tidefall) should be doing well. Could even take Fire Godlike: Battle Forged also doesn't care about INT and works with Scion of Flame. Too bad godlikes get a bonus on INT.

If you don't plan to use a Goldpact Knight and take his Enduring Flames, it's not very important for your own dps until you get Sacred Immolation, as you already pointed out. If you use weapons like Tidefall or Drawn in Spring, it's even better to have low INT. But some dps talents like Envenomend Strike will be bad with low INT. There are some abilites of the paladin that don't use INT and can influence dps (if not yours then that of allies), like Sworn Enemy, FoD and Coordinated Attacks. But some of the best are gimped (at least for your fellows) when using low INT, like obviously Lay on Hands and the Zealous Auras.

Right - because gloves don't work while shifted. Celebrant's Gloves are special because once Holy Meditation got triggered it carries over to the shifted form.

But who says that everybody has to win those fights? They are optional and some of the more difficult ones (albeit still easy enough if you know what to do). If the rest of the game is doable for you, why complain? It's like complaining that sporty people can jump over the fence while you have to take the gate. It's not necessarily the fence's fault.

So... you compared the survivability of a fighter in heavy armor with a monk's in light armor? That's a bit like complaining that a fighter in light armor is less sturdy than a fighter in heavy armor. By the way: one of the best plate armors in the game (He Carries Many Scars) is an armor that was made for a monk (see description). So in PoE lore it's not weird that monks wear heavy armor.

You mean while in orlan form?

You should have given Veteran's Recovery to the monk and give him an equal item setup. If you do this, he will have the same sturdyness while dishing out more damage and more CC. But I agree that playing a dps fighter with a two hander can be satisfying - I like Charge a lot, but sadly you need to level a lot to get it.