Boeroer

The paladin is really great for Alpha Strikes and his damage with FoD and stuff is huge. But if you consider all the rogues passive and active dmg mods, his damage on hit will be higher than the paladin's. Not only has he Sneak Attack and Deathblows, but he can add another 20% or 30% ( Sap) from one of his special attacks plus Deep Wounds. This all stacks with the 80% from Runner's Wounding Shot. He even could add Backstab to this as I said above, but that's very situational. If the circumstances are right, his damage per hit will be higher than the paladin's, even with Enduring Flames and the like. The rogue has to cause two afflictions before it gets that high. The paladin can just shoot and that's it (leaving Apprentice's Sneak Attack aside for now). That's a plus. And not only his damage is very high, but also his ACC with these shots because of the +20 bonus. But he only has two of these high damage shots per encounter - three if he manages to shoot from stealth before encounter officially starts. The rogue can shoot a limitless amount of high damage attacks as long as the target is debuffed (but only one Runner's Wounding Shot ). Another thing is that you need quite a number of abilities and talents for the paladin to get high damage per shot. While a rogue "is born" with Sneak Attack and only has to take one ability (Deathblows, plus one talent if he wants to use Runner's Wounding Shot) to make his damage go up significantly, a paladin has to buy one ability (FoD) and 3 talents (Intense Flames, Enduring Flames/Remember Rhakan Field and Apprentice's Sneak Attack). Of course the paladin has many other great features that make him good that are not part of his shooting. I think we agree that the paladin is a great class. Why I don't recommend a paladin is because the OP wanted to only use guns and doesn't want to go into melee fight. Although I love paladins with guns as openers (that's what my aforementioned build is all about ) I think that it's not the right class for this requirements - except some special builds like I said.

But didn't AndreaColombo report that a priest with no armor and very high deflection doesn't get targeted as often as as priest that has low deflection? I mean that's one major point of his priest support build. I think he wouldn't have posted that if it wasn't true - because he alsways does a lot of reserach and testing you know. Maybe there's kind of a prioritiy chain: DR>Deflection>???. So basically "Attack the guy with the lowest DR in reach - if they are all the same, go for the guy with the lowest deflection". Could that be the case? However - I noticed that your common glasscannons get rushed if they wear no armor at all - but if you put on armor value of 12 or higher this changes. Enemies don't try to rush them any more - or less than before.

I have three class recommendations for a gun based character: - rogue His damage per shot will be awesome since his dmg mods are the best in the game. If you reach level 11 and take deathblows it will be jawdropping. Overkilling might be an issue then. He needs not much micromanagement if you stick to one gun and take the Gunner talent. There are two very good pistols in the game that totally fit a rogue. If you want to invest some micromanagement I also would like to recommend Quick Switch. That way you can fire some shots at the exact time you desperately need a foe to die quickly. The rogue also has Deep Wounds which compensates a bit for the low firing rate: with high migh and intellect it can do like 15 raw damage over 5 seconds if you hit. This damage also ticks while you reload and you can't stack it. It's like a flat +15 raw dmg bonus on top of your shots. It also stacks with Runner's Wounding Shot. One of the few builds that can make good use of Backstabs also: you can open the fight by sneaking to a foe and fire a wounding shot. This will trigger Backstab plus Sneak Attack for a total damage of 330%. If you take Shadowing Beyond you can even use this to combine Deathblows, Backstab, Sneak Attack and Wounding Shot for a total damage of 430%. A hit from a pistol shot with 30 base damage will deal about 130 damage - and that's not even a crit. So long story short: damage per shot can be very, very high. Also the rogue class leaves a lot of room for your personal backstory. Anybody can be a rogue: merchants, soldiers, mercenaries and so on. - cipher His damage modifiers are great and a shot with a gun will give you lots of focus. The problem of the long reloading time can be overcome by quick switching if you need more focus quickly. Since a cipher needs more micromanagement anyway (as all casters do) quick switch will not add a lot of work to this char. Mainly you will cast your spells and if you run out of focus you switch to a loaded weapon and fire at the foe with the weakest armor and/or defenses to gain max focus. Blunderbusses are perfect because they work perfectly well with a certain drug that gives +4 focus per hit - and blunderbusses hit 6 times per shot. Plus: the cipher has a spell to reduce DR. That's good because blunderbusses suck at hurting high DR foes. But if you don't like blunderbusses the pistols I mentioned above will also be good for him. - ranger Rangers have the best ability for guns: Swift Aim. It reduces reloading time by 50%. If you take the Gunner talent that's another 20%. He will be the fastest gun shooter you can build. He lacks the huge dmg mods that cipher or rogue can get, but he has some nice talents that make up for this. Driving Flight let your bullets pierce through the initial target and hit another one standing behind. So you get two hits from one shot. Wounding Shots - like mentioned before - are best with high dmg weapons, namely guns. Stunning Shots are good. You can't stunlock enemies with it like you can with a bow, but it's still useful. And you will have an animal companion that can do A TON of damage if you give it the right abilities and talents - and it can stop foes that try to reach you. I wouldn't use Quick Switch on this ranger because the micromanagement will be more on the pet and less on you. I would use arquebuses with this guy. The flexibility of the three is cipher>ranger>rogue. Ciphers have spells - so you can do a lot of different stuff with them besides shooting. Rangers are two chars in one and therefore they can do things that others cannot - like helping out a friend with the pet while shooting another foe. Rogues are for killing single targets only - but they are best at it. Other classes also work - paladins and fighters for example - also priests. But to be honest it's either a bit of waste to not use their advantages in melee or their good defenses at all (fighter, paladin) - or you will be casting a lot and don't fire a lot of shots anyway (priest). That said: there are always special builds that will prove me wrong. Like the Darcozzi Commendatore for example. He uses a special pistol only and is a great supporter with it.

Yosharian is right - I also like them a lot. The orlans are also very appreciated, thanks!

Was more about "barbs are crap" than politeness - you are obviously right.

One could think that brindle88 created a new account... Only speak for yourself - I like barbarians a lot. With the right items and fitting abilities/talents they can be awesome. Edit: Oh, the Wayfarer was quicker. They are absolutely viable for PotD. By the way.

I totally disagree. They just need a bit of creativity to make them decent. I admit that they are not the best choice for solo games.

Go for interrupts and CC and drop MIG.

If you want your DPS to really go through the roof at level 13 then you need MIG and INT for Sacred Immolation. But a DPS/tank hybrid with low INT also works. I did a build for that and it was lots of fun. But it's more about burst damage with guns and then switch to tank modus: The Dull Runner - caster clipper paladin tank

I see. Then shoot him from behind to get more ACC and damage! Tehe - you could even create a special char for that, "The Traitor" or "Brutus". Also useful for generating monk's wounds.

Man - weird. Who understands computers anyway?

Don't type "iroll20s additem...". Don't know if you did - but that doesn't work. I also tried this and it works in my game (2.03 Linux). Step by step: First you open the console. Hit enter. Then you type "iroll20s" -> enter. Then you open up the console again -> enter. Now you type "additem crossbow_wendgar 1" -> enter. The crossbow should now be somewhere in your inventory (not the stash). It will go into the stash if there's no place left in the inventory As AndreaC said, you will get messages if the command was executed successfully. They are green if an item was added to your inventory. Hope this works for you.

I once had issues with my trackpad. It accidentially was treated as a second display and messed everything up. So... It's just poking about in the fog - but maybe you could try to deactivate the trackpad (if you have a mouse) and try again? If this doesn't help I think we have to wait for the devs. Sorry for that.

But sounds solid. I seldomly use more than two casters (ciphers included) because I don't love all the micro that comes with them. And that was never a problem. Two CC guys are sufficient. What race do you use for your Commander? Wood Elf?

I know that Marking stacks with Coordinated Attacks. But does Marking stack with Marking? And Coordinated Attacks with Coordinated Attacks? That would be so powerful. I never tested that - and I really don't know why. Right, it's the Hazelhoff. Thanks for looking it up. I'm online with the phone... aaand still in bed.

Depends on difficulty. On PotD a bigger AoE is greatly appreciated. I like do max INT, using a +INT item and a Ring of Overseeing.

Good thing about carbage though: on hit/crit effects and spellchances on weapons work with it. Thinks like disorieting, prone, stun etc. all work as AoE with a barb. Torment's Reach doesn't do that (it's still a great ability).

Could work. I don't know if Marking and Coordinated Attacks can be stacked on one party member - that would be even better. Two "markers" left and right and a crit build (rogue, barb) in the middle who would receive +40 ACC. There's also a wand that has Marking by the way.

Nice idea with the pistol. I never used that. I'm always fond of builds that make good use of items that normally go by the board. What armor and other gear did you use? Boots of Zealous Command I guess? Ring of Overseeing? Archer's gloves could be nice for this guy. Just one question: Last time I tested the marking enchantment and Coordinated Attacks they only affected the nearest party member that targeted the same foe - and not all of them. So the +20 ACC buff only applied to one single ally. Was that changed? That would be great.

Thanks. Yes, it would make more sense in terms of powergaming. I even think that driving flight works with some of the missile spells (barrage and minor) - which would make it even more awesome. But the animal companion just doesn't fit in. And he has no sundering blow of course.

Now that I think of it I guess you're right. Even better that way.

Yes, the Blunderbusses really rock if you can take away all the DR and have all the +dmg mods. Arms Bearer + Armed to the Teeth + Quick Switch would be lots of burst damage. Or you skip Quick Switch and use the Coil of Resourcefulness instead. That would save you one talent point.

So you have three chars with healing capability - I would take the wolf then.

With lvl 5 it's doable I'd say. I would choose wolf or bear. The wolf does more damage (it's noticable) and the bear is more sturdy. It depends what other party members you have. If you have a healer or somebody who can buff the defenses or DR of your pet then I'd choose the wolf. If you don't have the possibility to protect your pet or if you don't want to watch after him all the time I'd choose bear. I used them both in one playthrough (one Persistence Ranger with bear, the other a Stormcaller Ranger with wolf) and they are both good. I personally like the wolf a little better - for no particular reason.

Wife and kids asleep before 12 pm, rain and the sounds of war in Berlin - what a lovely night. May the mule be with you in 2016!