Boeroer

I expected that but didn't test it.But you have to eat a lot of food every time to achieve a bonus to every stat - and you won't get +5. But it's right that it lowers the usefulness of those stats buffs to solo play. In a party the chanter could keep up the +5 to all stats for his fellow team members as well. Another thing is that the chanter has some nice chants/invocations against certain types of CC effects (like Cast of their Shackles for example). Although I seldomly used them I can imagine that this can be a plus in certain encounters. The 30pt damage shield stacks in a way (a suppressed shield replaces the first one once it received 30 PDS oft damage) . Maybe at lvl 16 you sing it fast enough to stack 3 of them? I never tested it in a solo game but in a party with more than one chanter it's pretty impressive together with high defenses in order to mainly receive grazes (or misses). I cleared whole Cräghold Bluffs with two chanters this way and nearly experienced zero health loss. From time to time you can also dish out Seven Nights or summon stuff.

I can't say what suppresses the stat buffs of a chanter. That potions don't stack was expected though. Cool that you can squeeze in Seven Nights. Means that there's also room for other experiments/ mixtures of chants/invocations while keeping up the +5 to all defenses.

Ah yes, sorry. You won't get +10 to all attributes but of course +20 to all defenses. Man, it was really late for me yesterday when I posted that.

Being the MC is actually the best thing for a paladin - as long as you choose the right answers in dialogues that match with your order's dispositions. For example a Bleak Walker should try to always choose aggressive or cruel answers, but never benevolent or diplomatic ones. Then his defenses will be better than that of a NPC paladin of the same level with the same skills.

Play another game I'd say...?

They both get suppressed by Twinned Arrows and Powder Burns. So they are only useful for imolements, crossbows and arbalests. Never ran any tests which is better on average throughout the game. Obviously it depends on the DR the target has - as you already said. I have the feeling that Vicious Aim might be better for pure dps if you don't use a weapon that has a spell chance like the golden gaze. But even then: I once tested The Golden Gaze on a ranger with Vicious Aim, Stalker's Torc and Stalker's Link and Dangerous Implement and the +30 ACC and the +45% damage (+60% with Appr. Sneak) work pretty well.

It's called Brisk Recitation. It was introduced in some patch some time ago after a lot of people complained that chanters' mechanics are too slow. It will shorten your chant durations (not the linger time) every four levels if I recall correctly. At lvl 16 you will have 50% of the original chanting time. So basically it halves all chant durations at lvl 16. You can find it on the character sheet as well.

By the way I was talking total crap in my previous post. Obviously you will have +5 to all stats and not +10. But that still means +20 to all defenses besides deflection. No idea when my brain stopped working... Edit: again number tweaking, +20 to defenses was correct, my my...

If you use the lvl 1 defensive chants for +10 to all defenses except deflection and then use the 2 invocations that give you +5 to all stats for 30 sec base (if both are cast) you can actually get +5 to all stats permanently which, besides being awesome, also raises all defenses except deflection by +20 (deflection by +5). A lvl1 chant only takes 2 sec at lvl 16 and you need 5 phrases to cast those self buffs. They last for 30 secs with 10 INT. Leaving aside that most chanters have higher INT and the fact that you will cast invocations with +5 INT. So you can easily keep up the +5 to all stats and even use longer chants - like the lvl 2frightening one which is the equivalent of another +10 to all defenses through fear (if enemies are not immune). I think you can even use The Dragon Thrashed at lvl 16 (takes 4 secs) and still keep up the permanent +5 to all stats. 4*5 = 20. That's too long for the base duration of 30 secs. But keep in mind that you might have >20 INT and +5 from the invocation itself. 25 INT will give you durations more than 50 per buff which is enough to compensate even the recovery after invocations. So at lvl 16 you can use The Dragon Thrashed and have +5 to all stats all the time which also means +20 to all defenses except deflection (+5). A paladin can get the Outworn Buckler very early though. Edit: corrected the numbers... again

Man, you must have hated Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, Neverwinter Nights, Dragon Age Origins, Wasteland and nearly any other party based rpg so far...

For me that seems to be correct. A hit should deal between 53 and 79,5 burn damage. Why do you ask? Did you get different results?

Good tactic by the way. But if you're solo the encounter will stop once you wuthdraw and the Storm of Holy Fire is wasted. With summons or in a party it will work perfectly well though.

Then play the game solo. It works perfectly well. It's more difficult of course, but not too difficult. You just need to acknowledge that you can't win every fight on every map you're on - and focus more on the quests.

Maybe you should have dived into the game head first instead of trying out all kinds of stuff.

Confirmed - it's like that from the day on WM was released...

Yeah - because of the mechanics of Novice's Suffering we discussed in the other thread (the differences between graze/hit/crit don't matter much, good damage without +x% dmg mods and very good ACC - +20 at lvl 16) I can imagine that is a fun thing for a barb. That plus the meaty punching sounds of course. Or Novice's Suffering with a fighter who carries a large shield and has 3 PER.

Yeah that's also fun and uses the same principle: skill for offense and balance things out with self heals. I did a complete barb solo run that way and it's good. But it's quite unspectacular to play. Mainly auto-attacks until you get HoF. Then it's HoF + Combusting Wounds all the time: trying to get as many enemies as possible into range and *pouf* - encounter is over.

Melee Tidefall priest in fatty fat armor (I like He Carries Many Scars) with max MIG, INT & PER who focuses on self heal (Veteran's Recovery, Consecrated Ground, Triumph of the Crusaders and also Wound Binding and potions of IwVE* - combined with max healing received bonuses) in order to stay alive rather than deflection (which he can buff by 50 points easily, too). I tried a shortened solo run with this and obviously it's a bit difficult at the beginning but really fun once you have gained some levels and thereby some sturdyness. I did all the bounties with this and it works nicely. With things like Champion's Boon or Minor Avatar the damage of the sword is awesome - especially the wounding part. Also Envenomed Stike with 40+ MIG and >20 INT is devastating. Why Tidefall? I wanted to try if the wounding gets doubled by Cleansing Flame (doubling the tick rate). I'm not sure if it does - because I also used Envenomed Strike with Tidefall and then cast Cleansing Flame a lot when I wanted to kill single strong enemies. I can only say that this combination is so powerful that I can't really say if wounding + Cleansing Flame does work properly but Envenomed Strike surely works, killing most foes in seconds. The draining and wounding of Tidefall just work very nicely together with pumped MIG. Of course a shining beacon with +40 MIG + Cleansing Flame also obliterates everything. Survivability is great because of self heals. Triumph of the Crusaders is great for an offensive preist who kills things a lot because it will heal you to full endurance every time you kill a foe. In the meantime Consecr. Ground and Veteran's Recovery will do their stuff. With St. Borragia'S Tears, a Belt of Bountiful Healing, 40+ MIg and +60% from camping bonuses your self healing power is so high that you can't be killed in normal ways besides getting one-shotted or if health runs out. To prevent this, use Wound Binding (also profits from MIG and healing bonuses, will heal your health completely - so don't use it too early) and potions of IwVE*. Those also profit from MIG and healing bonuses. If you get too many crits, buff your deflection - but most of the time there was no need. I didn't use Iconic Projection too much because I was solo - but i can imagine how aweseome this spell is in a full party with all that MIG. Spark the Souls of the Righteous? Awesome! Kills foes whil you hack at them with Tidefall while the Shining Beacon DoT also does it's job. Lots "drive by" kills which all trigger Triumph of the Crusaders = immediate full heal. Symbol of Berath (Magran.. and so on): same thing. Great for this priest. How do I reach 40+ MIG in nearly every fight without too much fuzz? + Aumaua or dwarf with max MIG from the Living Lands: 21 MIG base + Aggrandizing Radiance: +2 to MIG (and the other stats +2 move speed), stacks with everything (does only lower the healing for yourself, not the party despite the description - at least in my run) + Champion's Boon: +10 MIG (or Minor Avatar +8; together with Aggr. Radiance you'll have +10 to every stat) or more early Holy Power (+3) or Devotions (+4) or even Frenzy from Sanguine Plate (+4). Desperate Souls can use Outlander's Frenzy (+3) but I don't recommend wasting a talent point for this since it gets suppressed by all those spells. + Maegfolc Skull: +4 MIG (or Garodh's Chorus +3 - Retaliation with 40+ MIG is also not too bad) + Abydon's Hammer: +4 MIG (I use it only when I cast offensive stuff, not for melee. There I still use Tidefall) = 41 MIG = big success! Special campain talants like Gift from the Machine and Effigy's Resentment not even included! Until you get those high end items you can reach 40+ MIG easily with food, prostitutes and resting bonuses plus normal +MIG items, too. That also means that you can nearly reach 50 MIG when you combine all available buffs and talents. That's a BIG plus when engaging bounty heads or dragons. Envenomed Strike + Cleansing Flame + Shining Beacon + Spark the Souls + Triumph otC should do the job. Every job... A high level MC priest with 40 MIG and perfect disposition also one shots nearly all vessels (but the strongest) with his Holy Radiance. Fights against vessels become jokes with this priest. Even the berathian priest's Concelhaut's Siphon is good with healing bonuses and high MIG. That's the reason I chose Berath. And because it fits the Maegfolc Skull thematically (Death's Usher and whatnot). Very nice experience overall. Great melee/caster hybrid - totally offensive while sturdy via self healing. Difficult at the beginning - ridicilously easy at higher levels. )*Infuse with Vital Essence

Aggrandizing Radiance only lowers the healing the priest receives. The party members still gain the full healing despite the description. At least that was the case when I played my last priest on version 2.something. It also stacks with everything else, and that is a huge plus. So it's not too bad. Could last longer though. Ancient Memory scales with level and is pretty good after the latest buff for all the regenerating self heals like Constant and Veteran's Recovery. However it is bugged ATM: it stops after the first invocation is cast. I agree that Brilliant Radiance is lackluster. But simply adding more burn damage doesn't work either: it would also increase the already high burn damage HR does to vessels. HR can already one-shot most vessels when MIG is high and the dispositions are right. Instead, Brilliant Radiance should make it so that also other enemies than vessels get damaged by it. Maybe 50% of the vessel-only damage also works on all other enemies or so... Or let it blind all foes in range. That would be a great tandem together with Painful Interdiction. Weaken + blind in a big AoE is good and can set up Deathblows very quickly 1/encounter.

You always could use any paladin aura with any other modal (except another aura) as far as I know.

Yeah - why "rather"?

The Disappointer pistol can be enchanted with any quality enchantment (like Accurate I/II, Damaging I/II, Fine, Exceptional and so on) and thus looses it's disappointing "terrible" enchantment - it gets overwritten with the new quality. After any quality enchantment it will be like a normal pistol which you enchanted - but with a unique name. I recommend the Fine or Accurate I enchantments because pistols - like all guns - already have an ACC malus which makes it hard to hit with them in the early game. It's a way to get a working pistol really early. With FoD you might hit reliably. But honestly I always sell it to Heodan.

What's "CA"?

There are four trolls north-west from the bandits camp. Usually that's enough.

Normal wolves are very strong compared to young ones. It's a common thing to die when you get attacked by more than one in the early game. That's no flaw of your character. Also, by any means - try to avoid wild boars in Magran's Fork - they will obliterate you.