Boeroer

For the barb there's a late pollaxe that has Overbearing. If the wizard's using blast: take Envenomed Strike (I know, I repeat myself). For your rogue: there are slashing stilettos instead of the normal piercing ones. Lagufaeth drop them. They look like daggers. Great choice when you meet pierce resistant/immune enemies and don't like to use sabres or clubs. First charming item is Munacra Arret. You can also try Enigma's Charm - it's quite nice for a high ACC rogue. Next item is the Ring of Changing Heart from Darzir with 2 dominates per rest. For your fighter there's Waage's Hat of Leadership. I think it can be bought from Vincent Dwellier, but I'm not 100% sure. I guess I would like Edge of Reason best. Priest: The only thing that looks a bit like a sling with it's animation is an implement.

Wait a minute, are you saying that I can envonomed striked multiple enemies with only 1 charge because of the Blast aoe splash? If the answer is yes, can a priest do the same somehow? I want to abuse that + cleansing flames soooo hard now... The answer is yes. But as far as I know there's no way to do it with a priest. Only splash damage from implements (Rot Skulls counts as one) seems to do this.

When you take a wizard or druid who use implements: Take Envenomed Strike. With a wizard, take it as soon as you get Blast, because it works with Blast's AoE. It's great. If you want to play a druid and you want to use Rot Skulls, take it as soon you get that. Env. Strike works with the AoE of Rot Skulls. Both Variants are powerful and make certain encounters like bounties way easier, because you can cause about 100 raw damage per foe in an AoE - 3/rest.

Ok - so, what exactly do you do with those?

That's because Fearless and Overbearing Guard are lvl 7 abilities. GameBanshee: Fighter's abilities Pillar's "official" wiki says it's lvl 5, but it's often outdated and sometimes just wrong.

Go ahead an do it.

Moon and Fire can be worth it in my opinion. Moon starts strong but becomes a bit weak later on - but it stays to be good in a party. Fire is the opposite: starts weak but becomes very powerful with the right talents and abilities. I scales with level and it's the only godlike racial ability which you can directly influence with talents (Scion, Vulnerable Attack, Savage Attack...) and abilities (all universal damage buffs like Deathblows, One Stands Alone, Blooded and so on, melee lashes like Turning Wheel...).

No, but Deathblows do.

A barb with HoF 1/encounter is not very item dependent. Give him any 2 sabres and he will be great. I'm playing one solo (PotD) atm and he's very much endgame viable.

Ciphers also have Tactical Meld and the paladin could use a marking weapon + Coordinated Attacks, giving the cipher +40 ACC. Looks like a great combo. I made that mesmerizing chanter build once (Drake's Ambassador) with all those mind control items and also Enigma's Charm, paired with Fireballs and The Dragon Thrashed. When you think about it you can easily translate that to the paladin with Sacred Immolation. Maybe fits even better. This is great - you should evolve a build around it. I mean the paladin also has things like Righteous Soul and Aegis of Loyality which fit the theme pretty well. Put on Hand and Key as well!

I think it's a good thing that "best" not only depends on your party composition, character level (thereare certain levels which boost a class a lot, linke lvl 9 for chanters and barbs, lvl 13 for paladins) and difficulty (e.g. chanters are more useful in PotD) but also on your playstyle, your preferences and the tricks you know. It also depends a lot on the special build you are playing. For example I think that the Witch Doctor monk is one of the most powerful character I ever played - and that from lvl 7 on. The combination of very high AoE damage and CC (if you have a weapon with on-crit effect) with ranged attacks and blinding speed makes this so devastating. And it works in every party and well as solo (if you build it a bit more sturdy). Or look at a rogue whom you use as Deathblow spell caster with all the spell bindings and scrolls you can get. He's impressive as long as he has spells and still does his single target damage thing when he has not. So at least you'd have to make a sheet, seperated by difficulty, where you have all levels from 1 to 16 and determine which class could be best at that level. And a even more thorough approach would be to compare all the builds you know, not simply classes. Given that some classes can be build very differently.

Hm. Using Sworn Enemy to ease mind control spells is smart. Never thought about that. Now that Sworn Enemy is a per encounter ability this is really a nice trick. You can get Munacra Arret with 3 Whisper of Treasons per rest and +12 will relatively early and later you can pick up the Ring of Changing Heart with 2 dominates per rest which also gives you +3 RES. Cool twist on a shieldbearer, I like it. Munacra Arret looks really nice with Osric's Family armor by the way.

Yes, you can. You will be hitting quite slowly with your weapon then (and drinking potions and casting scrolls will take noticably longer), but a shieldbearer support paladin tank is not the best dps char anyway. Your Lay on Hands and Exhortations will be fast enough even with 3 DEX and your reflex defense (which will suffer) gets boosted by Weapon & Shield Style. If you want your healings to be stronger and last longer then put the points into MIG and INT. That's also good for the AoE of your auras, the damage per Flames of Devotion use and later Sacred Immolation. You could also put some points into PER if you like - especially if you plan to use Sacred Immolation later on (which I totally recommend). But my focus would be to further boost MIG and INT (especially when you're not playing at Path of the Damned difficulty). You don't have to dump DEX completely of course. 3 DEX is just an example and it works well.

Listen to Loren Tyr, for he knows the code. In short: yes, DEX can be important for casting. It lets you cast faster. Since some abilitiy usages can take a long time (aka "slow" casting speed, it's in the description of the ability/spell) high DEX can really make a differenc here. But a paladin's abilities (Lay on Hands, Exhortations and stuff) normally don't take very long to cast /use, so you don't gimp yourself with 10 DEX. Other stats are more important for a melee paladin (namely MIG, INT and also RES and PER).

Nobody knows if Boreal Dwarves are known for becoming paladins or not because the lore of this game is new an few, but why shouldn't there be a boreal dwarf who becomes a paladin. Can be totally plausible. For dialogue options you may want to raise RES a little bit. There are quite a bit dialogue options that can be chosen when RES is high (like 15 and even higher). I think I would go for 15 and take away 1 point from DEX and one from INT. With those stats and a shield you can easily use him as a frontliner, not only offtank. As the main character you will get nice bonuses on Faith and Conviction (raises your defenses) for your reputation. This will turn your paladin into a good tank with great support abilities. As you are a Shield Bearer you most likely want to wear a shield - and guys with shields should be in the front row. I strongly recommend the Outworn Buckler which you can buy at the first smithey in the game. It has a permanent defensive aura that supports your mates and you - it stacks with every other defensive buff and the size of that aura is influenced by your INT as well. It is also a paladin-only item and a strong one - especially so early in the game. Besides that it all sounds nice. If you want to support your team mates even further, look out for a one handed melee weapon with the "marking" enchantment (such a weapon, a sword, you can get from the Knights of the Crucible when you choose their side. I think for a diplomatic and honest character that's the only choice anyway). This sword and it's marking enchantment can be combined with the paladin's ability "Coordinated Attacks". Those two will stack and give a team member who attacks the same enemy as you +20 accuracy. That is really good. It does nothing for you but it's a nice and powerful support feature that costs you nothing except one ability but has a great effect. And it also stacks with other accuracy buffs.

Hm, why Borresaine? It has draining and stuns on crit (what stunning shots do on hit already).Those seem to be pretty useless enchantments for a ranger. The best bow dps wise should be Persistence - and it's especially good for a ranger's animal companion with Predator's Sense, too. The wounding enchantment not only triggers Predator's Sense, but also that raw damage lash gets calculated based on the damage you do before DR gets substracted. That's a huge thing. MIG also raises the wounding damage it does. And the best of it all: wounding stacks (you can only see that when you look at the red numbers popping out of a target's head). So I'd say there's nothing comparable to Persistence when it comes to single target damage with a bow. You can also enchant it a lot because the wounding and reliablity enchantments don't use up too many points. Stormcaller's best feature (besides triggering Returning Storm now and then) is it's -6 shock DR while dealing shock damage and the fact that Heart of the Storm works with it. Together with Penetrating Shot and Heart of the Storm you will hit with 11 DR bypass (while also helping your teammates who do shock damage) and +20% weapon damage and +20% Returning Storm damage. On top comes the fact that it has two damage types (shock/pierce) which makes it even more valuable. Heart of the Storm also raises the pierce damage by the way - don't ask me why. I don't know if this is better than a legendary Borresaine but you don't need any resources to get it up to superb and you can take those creature parts and enchant something else instead - which combined my be more powerful than enchanting another bow. The Unlabored Blade, when fully upgraded, is mythic (=even better than legendary), doesn't need any resources for that and is also speed enchanted. Even if Firebug doesn't proc at all it's still one of the best weapons in the game. Plus you get two spell bindings. You could argue that a fully enchanted Drawn in Spring is better - but if you like daggers anyway you can just dual wield them both with Flick of the Wrist and be very happy. Abydon's Hammer on a priest is truly great. Not only for melee, but also as a tool for raising the damage of Holy Radiance (as MC you can one-shot most vessels with it in a huge AoE and also severely damage Eyeless) and Shining Beacon. With Champion's Boon, Maegfolc Skull and Abydon's Hammer you will have +18 MIG. Add some food and resting bonus and you can have +24 MIG on top of your (hopefully maxed) MIG. So let's say dwarf or aumua priest with 21 MIG will be at 46. Then cast Shining Beacon plus Cleansing Flame and watch what happens.

No, I meant he has 2,5 casters (wizard=1, cipher=1 and chanter = 1/2 caster for me ). I had two paladins, a chanter, a cipher and two rangers back then.

But it has strong competitors like the soulbound sceptre (which you get early) which dominates with blast and does raw damage as well as Kalakoth's Minor Blights. But I like the GOlden Gaze, too. To be honest you can easily outfit two or three blast wizards with very good implements and still don't run out of great options for a fourth one. As I said in another thread about ciphers a day ago, I would take an island aumaua plus Arms Bearer + Quick Switch (and/or Coil of Resourcefulness) and 4 guns or 3 guns & a bow for a pure ranged cipher (and 3 guns and weapon + shield for a melee one). In the early game you can quickly get a free fine arbalest in Anslög's Compass and can buy one at the Blacksmith. Those will do the job fine until you get your guns. This will give you so much focus when you need it that you will hardly run out of it in a party playthrough until late game, where the cipher powers become very expensive. Another not too bad weapon as alternative to switching guns and/or using war bows is using a crossbow with high DEX and Gunner, yes! That's because Good Friend, an early unique crossbow from the Endless Paths which has the Coordinating enchantment. It gives you +4 ACC and +25% damage when you attack the same enemy as a team member. Also, crossbows have normal crit damage compared to guns and arbalests. Combine this weapon and Tactical Meld (cipher power) with your paladin who uses a marking weapon and Coordinated Attacks plus your Phantom Foes which I talked about in a former post and you will have the following: +54 ACC (+10 Marking and +10 Coordinated Attacks from paladin, +20 Tactical Meld, +4 Coordinating enchantment, -10 deflection from flanked) +160% damage per shot with Good Friend (+50% crit - nearly guaranteed with +54 ACC, +25% Coordinating, +30% from bous damage against flanked, +15% Apprentice's Sneak,+40% Soul Whip) Of course, the only difference between Good Friend and a war bow here is the +4 ACC and the +25% damage, but still. The +25% damage with the relatively high base damage of crossbows leads to a noticable increase in focus gain per hit. And it gives you the spell Holy Power, which is not too bad. Also, reloading crossbows doesn't take nearly as long as reloading guns. It's maybe not as good as War Bows in the late game, but in the mid game it is surely fun, it works and it's something different than the usual (and somewhat boring) war bow or gun cipher. And it fits the whole "mark the target/coorinated attacks" them and also adds to the whole flanking bonus stuff I talked about before.

In my first PoTD run I didn't have priest and it was fine. OP has Lay on Hands + support, chanter aura + support and 2,5 casters. should be fine as it is. A priest would most likely make it easier, that might be true, but I don't think it's mandatory. Well... you said recommended, I can agree to that. But you can totally play like this if you like this party better or don't want to have priests.

Your party looks good. Like Sfzrx said, 3 RES and 3 CON is the way to go for minmaxing. I personally would max MIG and PER and INT and put the rest into DEX, but that's neglectible. The higher the MIG, the easier it is to overcome DR later on. And that can be important to also get focus from high DR targets. But as I said it doesn't really matter. WIth more DEX you can cast a bit faster. Keep in mind that your cipher will go down very quickly if he gets attacked, so try to prevent that. Fast Runner can be a life saver if you can squeeze it in. In early game the chanter's speed chant can also help. The "0 recovery with weapon" thing is hard to achieve with a ranged weapon. With Time Parasite (lvl 6 cipher power), a speed enchanted bow and Durgan Steel you can get it, but that will come really late and you shouldn't focus your whole build around it. About skills: - Mechanics can be done by your chanter, he has a starting bonus. 10 max should be enough. With scrolls, resting bonuses and eventually gloves you can do every trap/lock in the game. - Survival: is useful for every party member nowadays. The ACC buff against certain monsters is a great help as well as the healing bonus for front liners and so on. The Lay on Hands or chanter's Ancient Memory will heal a lot more if the target has a healing bonus. Now what you can do with a cipher (and what pays off in terms of focus generation) is to pump survival to 12 (or 10 and put on an item with +2 survival before camping) and choose the bonus flanking damage. You will get +20% damage against flanked targets. Then put on an item with the same bonus, like Glanfathan Stalking Boots for example, that's another +10%. Also take Apprentice Sneak Attack, that's +15% and also works for flanked targets. So in total you can have +45% against flanked targets which is comparable to Sneak Attacks from rogues and stacks with the +40% damage from Soul Whip (+ Biting Whip). So, when it's all set up, you will do +85% damage against flanked targets. Flanking is supereasy for a cipher: cast Phantom Foes and a lot of enemies will suffer the flanked status in an AoE. It's also good for everyone else who has Apprentice's Sneak Attack and also for the animal companion if it has the Merciless Companion talent. THis allows to deal tremendous damage with your normal weapon attacks and also hurt high DR foes big time. For your wizard I can tell you that Envenomed Strike (offensive talent) works with Blast for implements. Don't remember the Skeletor and if he used Blast, but this combination, if taken early, is very powerful. See it as an additional spell with 3 uses per rest. With high MIG and INT you can deal nearly 100 raw damage to each in blast radius which is insane in the early game and will stay to be good throughout the whole game. Way better talent option than bonus spellsfor example. In fact, on of the best talents for a wizard who uses blast with high MIG and INT. With a tanky Dragon-Thrashed-chanter, a priest and a cipher you can have a very neat late game trick: Give the chanter the medium Solace Shield (early, lvl 5 Drake Endless Paths) or Little Saviour (late, from the Adra Dragon) and another item with the "preservation" enchantment (e.g. Blaidh Golan hide armor from the sanitarium, rel. early), then position him where he can reach all enemies with his chant and then cast Withdraw on him with a priest. The chanter will get stunned, untouchable and gain +100 to all defenses, but will not stop chanting (= still contributes to the party with chant). Then the cipher casts Defensive Mindweb. All party members will have the immense defensive values of the chanter now (like around 200 in every defense) which makes them invincible even if they were total glass cannons before. May be that this also works with Statis Shell (cipher) instead of Withdraw, but I didn't test. Then you don't need a priest (which you don't have atm, but it's ok). Don't use Bloody Slaughter - it triggers at 10% of the enemies' endurance and only helps with overkilling. The ony thing where it couldbe useful is against dragons and other enemies with a ton of hit points. It's quite useless as it is. 25% would be good, but it's 10%. Nobody knows why this hasn't been fixed yet.

Yes, sad - but you can still use it for your normal attacks and switch to your second weapon set for HoF.

Kaylon posted earlier (maybe in another thread) that with HoF those things only proc once per HoF - for whatever reason. So - no multiple Firebugs when using HoF

Yeah - I was thinking about pairing it with a more heavy hitter like a sabre or mace (or even Drawn in Spring - if you want to stay in the same weapon group). A lot of times (in not so hard encounters) my second swing of the full attack gets cancelled anyway because the initial target dies - with Spelltongue there's a bigger chance that most enemies survive the first attack and then get finished by the second. It surely isn't as powerful as dual sabres but maybe fun and good enough. For people who want to play that distinguished barb from Old Vailia.

That's right. It's a pity that some of those awesome buffs like Pain Block and Going Between can't be cast on the cipher himself. That would make him a better tank option and improve soloing with a cipher a lot. They are a bit like reversed wizards who have a lot of self buffs which you can't cast on others. But there are a lot of potions or scrolls which do the same thing as wizards's self buffs, so that's kind of a workaround. A class talent or ability for a cipher that lets him use those buffs on himself would have been great. Then you could decide if you want to play a ranged glasscannon and don't need it or if you want to stand in the front row.

I don't think so. The most limited are fighters in my opinion. Tanky ciphers can be good - also because they can make better use of some of those friendly fire powers like Antipathetic Field and Mind Lance and some other short ranged things like Detonation and so on. And Psychovampiric Shield is pretty good for the early game. But ciphers can also be played like rogues or rangers, melee or ranged. Their +40% damage boost without any prerequisite (other than spending a talent point) lets them be good enough in terms of weapon damage even when wearing a shield. A fighter for example has to invest 2 points for getting +35% and will be restricted to a certain weapon group.