Boeroer

Yes, marking, Coordinated Attacks and also Minor Threat work with the animal companion. It works like a regular character except it has no health but only endurance - which is a big advantage. What can also be a good combo: Goldpact's Enduring Flames leaves a burning DoT effect when the paladin uses FoD. This will trigger Predator's Sense of the pet. This can also be done by Wounding Shot, Envenomed Strike (which I recommend for the char with the highest MIG and INT) as well as by Persistence (hunting bow), Drawn in Spring (dagger) and Tidefall (great sword). And scolls like Insect Swarm also work. Other than that your party has no DoT effect that can trigger Predator's Sense, but I think that can be enough for most fights.

Great, thanks a lot. So my "All fire paladin" with Firebrand is still viable. The last part I knew. Kaylon did a few tests some time ago and also discovered this "glitch". It's a pity though. Durance's Staff would be so much more appealing if it did burn/crush instead of crush/burn.

Just a few ideas: They can cast Reinforcing Exhortations on each other (doesn't work on self). If you get the small shield Little Savior then also use it. It stacks with Outworn Buckler for a nice +10 bonus to all defenses. If you take two marking weapons (like Shame & Glory sword and a custom made Cladhaliath spear) and take Coordinated Attacks they can both buff a teammate's ACC by +20 just by attacking the same target as the teammate does. Of course both should use Sacred Immolation later on. It not only damages the pally a bit but also heals teammates - which means that the raw self damaging part of one Sacred Immolation is healed by the other Sacred Immolation. A Kind Wayfarer can heal when using FoD and killing stuff. When a Wayfarer takes Inspiring Triumph he can even give additional defenses (+7) on top of the healing. If you make him a Moon Godlike he can even heal the party when he gets hurt. I can't say if those deflection buffs stack if you have 2 paladins. A Shieldbearer can raise deflection by using Lay on Hands and FoD. When also using Inspiring Triumph then +7 comes on top when killing things with FoD. Again I don't know if the deflection bonuses of two Shieldbearers do stack. Another nice combination can be a Shieldbearer + a Bleak Walker: The Shieldbearer raises deflection while the Bleak Walker kills stuff and frightens enemies after every kill and uses Insp. Triumph. This is like having an additional +17 to all defenses because fear reduces enemies' ACC by 10 and Insp. Triumph will give a +7 bonus. Sworn Enemy + Coordinatied Attacks + Marking Weapon + 2 times Darcozzi Paladini's Inspiring Liberation can give your two paladins +45 ACC against a certain target (and +30 for your ranger and pet). This works extremely well with Mind Control (Enigma's Charm, Munacra Arret headgear, Ring of Chaneging Heart and so on). Most of those spells have +10 ACC anyway, letting you crit with your charm or dominate spell. Other things that are great with this is FoD (+20 ACC on top for a +65 ACC attack) or any other spell (from scrolls or items). Both should take Scion of Flame for Sacred Immolation as well as for FoD and Intense Flames. Raises FoD damage a lot. That's all that comes to my mind right now.

If the stun effect from attacks is the same as from Withdraw, then you can. When withdrawn you keep on chanting (nice trick for solo chanters with Black Sanctuary: cast Withdraw on yourself and switch to the Solace shield). When prone you also do. If it doesn't work when stunned "normally" then we'd have to look how the proportion of prone/stun is. If prone is a lot more common than stun in difficult encounters I'd still say Wild Orlan is better than Coastal Aumaua with this setup. Since you can't get hit a lot with +100 (or +70 to some because of stun) to all defenses it's no problem if you get stunned at all - even if you don't chant at that time. It only extends the fight a bit. By the way: does anybody know if chanting breaks invisibility? If not that would also be great: turning invisible with the Cape of the Master Mystic and then just run around. But I guess it does because you can't chant when stealthed...

Hm, if it doesn't apply why do those talents work for Bittercut and Stormcaller? Is it because it's a summined weapon? Then Kalakoth's Minor Blights and Cadebald's Blackbow also wouldn't work. Or was the damage type changed from burn to slash/burn or something? Maybe Loren Tyr could shed some light on it with a look into the code. The bonus from the elemental talents never showed on the character sheet (where weapon damage is listed) by the way.

Are you asking me? As I said: switch on The Dragon Thrashed and put on the Solace shield + any other preservation item and pray for prone or stunned. Your defenses will be +100, making you untouchable, and you're still doing damage. So for me: no no Coastal Aumaua.

With the instruments I'm not entirely sure. One advantage of the ogres is that they take up a lot of space since they have bigger "base plates" than the weapons. They can block a way more easily than the weapons. But the weapons have a lot of CC immunities - also not bad. It depends on the enemies I guess.

Those two are important. At higher levels you can easily perma-paralyze the whole mob and grind them to death with Come Sweet Winds of Death (which are also swift with Brisk Recitation ). Just don't dump DEX because then the recovery after The Killers Froze Stiff will be very long, making it more likely that some mobs' paralyze will wear off before you can recast. The second one is really stupid design, but it's like that and you are forced to pick at least one invocation of the hightest level or you count'er won't go up to the max.

Or you take the Solace shield and another preservation item with a chanter who chants The Dragon Thrashed - and giggle like Peppa Pig every time you are prone or stunned.

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.