Boeroer

Depends: Torment's Reach = lots of micromanagement, very high dps Turning wheel + Lightning Strikes = less micro, good dps I did both! ) Boring fights with lots of mobs: Turning Wheel autoattacker Challenging fights: Use Torment's reach and Force of Anguish here and there There are a lot of different builds for monks out there. I like the one with high int, long stride (or flagellant's path) and Force of Anguish plus Enervating Blows. With a crit you prone the enemies for over 20 seconds plus they are weakened - making it easy prey for your deathblow-rogue or barb with brute force/threatening presence. Or finish them off by yourself, especially if you also have Apprentice's Sneak Attack. It's a lot of micro, but very powerful an long lasting CC plus good damage.

Maybe it works - thanks a lot for testing - but I wasn't really happy with the results when I tried last time.

What can I say? I'm a powergamer - and I'm proud of it. I can only play when my two little kids (and my wife) are sleeping or they are all gone to the zoo or something like that. So I need to be as effective a possible. On normal you can try a lot of things without being punished. Maybe you don't even need to retrain. But the weekend is nearly over...

So, for your cipher, do this: - Retrain your cipher at an inn or in your stronghold (if you have already rebuilt the Brighthollow mansion) - Decide if you want to play a melee oriented cipher (a lot micromanagement, more risk, probably more DPS and focus, play like a rogue) or a ranged cipher (less micro, less risk, more tactical flexibility, play like a ranger). -Anyways, distribute your stat points like so: PER>DEX>INT=MIG>CON=RES Perception should be high so that your CC spells and your focus building attacks hit. For abilities/talents: Biting Whip, Draining Whip, Weapon Focus, Apprentice's Sneak Attack For melee: Vuln. Attack, Two Handed or Two Weapon Fighting. Ranges: Penetr. Shot, Runner's Wounding Shot, Marksman Powers: Mind Wave, Mental Binding, Phantom Foes if you took Appr. Sneak Attack or have a rogue in the team, Ectopsychic Echo, Tactical Meld & Borrowed Instinct, Amplified Wave. If melee also Antisomethin Field and Spirit Lance are good. Gear: Melee: Dual wielding sabres (Bittercut/Resolution/Purgatory) or two handed weapons: Greatswords (Hours of St. Rumbalt or Tidefall), Pikes (Tall Grass), Estocs (White Spire, Blade of the Endless Paths) Ranged: War Bows (Borresaine, Sabra Marie) or Hunting Bows (Stormcaller) or Arbalests (Hold Wall or Aedrin's Wrecker). The bows provide a consistent stream of focus and the two war bows both cause afflictions on critical hits. If you like arbalests instead, take also the gunner talent or consider taking quick switch to produce a lot of focus at the beginning of the fight since your rate of fire will be slow otherwise. Start with Aedrin's Wrecker, fire, quickswitch to Hold Wall, fire, cast Powers and keep firing with Hold Wall. Arbalests always cause prone on crit.

My Sacred Immolation pally tank had 8 con and it worked without any problems. Where's the problem? If you don't get hit, you don't need superhigh endurance. And every point of DR is more valuable than 10 of endurance. High con on a light armored monk or low defl. barb - that's where you need it.

I tried a wiz build in 2.01 and the minor blights aoe hits did not trigger blasts. So that was either a bug (as there was a trillion in 2.01) or they nerfed it. In White March the blights itself were also quite stupid because there are a lot of enemies that are immune (or have very high DR) to certain elemental damage. And the blights just switch from fire to ice and so on. You have no control what kind of element will be used and so a lot of shots just end up in an "immune" message. I retrained the wiz to use Tall Grass and an arbalest and to summon a spirit lance when fights got tough. That was way more powerful.

Had a tanky fire godlike paladin with min dex and only 8 con. Per, res and int maxed like above. Rest went into mig. Was my main tank in a PotD run and it worked fine.

The Paladin is a nice class for your desired stats. There are also some dialogue options for paladins. A priest would also be good - special dialogue options as well (especially Skaen or Magran or Eothas). Barbarian is also ok with that stats - especially if you use a stunning or overbearing weapon. If possible, take laborer or clergyman as background, that will also give extra dialogue choices. Dex doesn't need to be high if you choose paladin or priest, same for con. Might should be a little higher for better healing and damage. Race doesn't really matter. For a more tanky build, you can take wild orlan. That will also give some bonuses on res and per and will open up a special dialogue option in the crucible keep, but it's not very important.

I did it with 6 rogues. One lvl 4, the rest still lvl 3. That doesn't say anything about ZF or ZE. But I agree that it is easier to survive fights if you are more sturdy. You can't loose if you don't go unconscious - you just need one or two chars that can really hurt someone. You can't win if the enemy doesn't go down either. So maybe it depends in your party composition if ZE or ZF is better for your game.

I would rather see some mundane effects on headgear. I can accept that hats do nothing if they are not enchanted - but helmets? They should provide some protection (crit2hit conversion or +DR) while lowering some stats (-per or -res or +recovery time) because they are actually a kind of armor. In BG they gave immunity to crits if I recall correctly.

Chanter as a tank is great! Scout fourth using move speed and frost trap chant, shoot an alpha at the enemy, run back to your party so all enemies get hobbled and then let the rogues finish them off. A Chanter tank with the aoe fire/slash hazard is also nice together with a Paladin that uses Sacred Immolation. They kill all the mobs really fast by just standing around. But you're right: the invocations I rarely use.

On PotD I surely would take Zealous Focus, not Endurance. It stacks with Inspiring Radiance and all hit2crit bonuses and that helps a lot. With all the blunting belts, hiro's mantle, orlan's bramble ring and so on there's a bunch of +DR items in the game. I never had the feeling I need more DR, but more ACC. Especially when you think of all the weapons that cause afflictions on crit, which is very powerful if you crit often. Even +5% hit2crit is OK then.

Take another Priest! I like that idea. Since you are lvl 13 (?) you can spam Repulsing Seal and Iconic Projektion like crazy. If only one seal hits the fight is basically over since you can place two more under the prone dragon and when he gets up there's very little chance he won't Fall back over... and over... Meanwhile your Iconic Projections kill all the mobs. And with Aggradizing Radiance and Minor Avatar and so in your damage spells will hit superhard and your healing will be very potent. Did I mention Iconic Projection?

I never spend more than 4 athletics on anyone - frontliner or not. I seldomly trigger traps and only one time on the Endless Paths a trap knocked out a character. But I never run long distances. It's mostly stop and go for me (4 or 5 meter steps) if the area is still unexplored. That's because I don't trust the autopause feature when you neet enemies - although it never failed.

Yes - or fortitude if you have Brute Force.

Durance: Inspiring Radiance then Repulsing Seal on Maerwald. Aloth: Slicken, Chill Fog, Slicken. Eder in heavy armor. All besides Aloth (who casts Slicken, remember) and Durance (Radiance and Seal) start the fight with an alpha strike from a heavy hitting gun/arbalest that targets Maerwald. Rogue uses blinding or crippling strike for this. After the seal, Durance casts Iconic Projection through friends and foes. Maerwald should be dead by now. If not, he's prone. Eder goes melee with a shield, trying to tank them all. Rogue switches to faster weapon. Durance shoots his heavy hitter. If Maerwald isn't dead by now, your game is broken somehow. Funny though: I never ever had problems with him. Because I read lots of horror stories about him I always shoot him right in the face at the beginning of the fight and he's always exploding. I think you just have to interrupt him - or be quicker than his spells.

You were right: I just did a quick test with an old savegame in Sun in Shadows. I switched from Little Saviour to Old Gerun's Wall during fight. Sacred Immolation's ACC wit Little Saviour (-0 ACC): ACC 67. With Old Gerun's Wall (-8 ACC): ACC 59. So your best choice for shields (if you want to use Sacred Immolation) would be Little Saviour or a fully upgraded Outworn Buckler since you won't have any ACC malus and still have very high deflection while buffing your buddies. Nice - I learned something new today. Now back to my 6 rogues party...

Argh! So sorry - you're obviously right. So maybe I will just load the old save and switch the the Saviour for Old Gerun's Wall or something - then we know for sure.

So: I know for sure that monk's Swift Strikes and Fenzy don't stack - one supresses the other and it's visible when you open the char sheet during combat. That's because they are two similar buffs from the same source pool (here: abilities). BUT: normally all weapon enchantments stack with bonuses from other sources, since weapons are a different pool. E.g. Spelltongue's speed bonus applies when you're frenzied and so should other speed enchantments. So basically my opinion is: yes, weapon speed enchantments stack with frenzy.

Really? I had Little Saviour when I started to use Immolation and I can't say it did influence the spell ACC. But on the other hand: 2.01 was so bugged...

Right - that's a very important point. Boots of Speed + high stealth = guaranteed backstab. And you can run away afterwards. It also helps a lot when you try to steal things right in front of npcs.

I think the damage output with twin arrows and driving flight might be better. Does wounding shot work in melee? Because Runner's Wounding Shot does not.

Yupp - it's like a dice roll. Graze/hit/crit don't influence that roll since they're modifying the damage anyway.

Yes - go to stalwart first and see if you can win the first encounters there without too much hassle. But I think lvl 9 is OK. Cräghold is superhard at lvl 9. You would have to pull every enemy on its own to fight him 6 vs. one to stand a chance.

If you do White March and Crägholt before returning to the hearings you will most likely be lvl 13. Act III will be a joke for you - including the Master Below and Thaos. I did it this way because you get some nice equipment with the expansion and I wanted to have it as soon as possible to complete my " built ideas". You also get durgan steel which will boost your weapoms and armor even further. So if you want to lvl quickly before going to act III, go to stalwart first and do some quests. If it gets too hard you can always return later.