Boeroer

I think Death Ring is very powerful with 3 jumps. Not only is it foe only and has a big base AoE (5m radius) but also the destroy-on-near-death part happens a lot when you trigger three of them at once. Still... when I have to decide how to spend my Bond I almost always prefer Imbue:Eora since three long-lasting "implosion spheres" with very high ACC just do have more impact for me - at least if you can open the fight with them and trap all enemies in them. Since Imbue:Eora is obtainable as multiclass I think it's no a bad idea to multiclass Arcane Archers. I did AA/Helwalker with dual mortars, AA/Paladin with Spearcaster and SC Arcane Archer with Watershaper's Focus and they were all pretty great.

They also somewhat scale without mods, but one thing that doesn't scale is the penetration. Community Patch adds a fix that scales the imbue penetration with the Arcana Skill. So more Arcana not only leads to bonus ACC but also bonus PEN. Then that whole thing scales kind of like normal spells would.

Ah! I haven't tested this. But from my experience one of those two three things will happen: a) The chant's hit roll gets the bonus ACC and then the bonus effect gets removed. b) The chant doesn't profit but the bonus effect still gets removed c) The chant doesn't profit and the bonus effect remains untouched. I've seen all three behaviors with Lion's Sprint but never did I see: d) an ability (here: chant) profits from Lion's Sprint acc bonus but the effect doesn't get removed. But maybe it works like that - as I said I didn't test that specific setup (at least not that I can remember).

I don't understand. How can it be useful for a chant if that chant is not doing a hit roll (= being offensive)? Lion's Sprint es pretty borked imo. I didn't find a good rule of thumb in which cases the ACC bonus works and in which it doesn't. I just stopped using it because it seems to be implemented pretty weirdly... 🤷‍♂️ If it had more impact (or if Barb would have refreshing resources so that spending 1 Rage wasn't a big deal) I guess I might have investigated further, but as is it didn't seem worthwhile to me.

🤷‍♂️ we'll have to wait until @pasakorn's answering post gets approved by a mod.

But... the prolonged duration of a hostile effect shortens again once enfeebled runs out, doesn't it (unlike Strand of Favor stuff)? It may be that you can time it right so something is still left so that you can prolong it again, but afaik that's not really a worthwhile endeavor. On the other hand I didn't test this a lot so please feel free to correct me if that's not the case.

- I experienced the behaviour during a playthrough. - I read about this problem from several forum users. - We discussed it here and for example @Elric Galadincluded a fix in his Balance Polishing mod. - it should get included in the Community Patch mod as well (hello @MaxQuest). Maybe it already is in the newest draft? Besides that I think I don't exaggerate or brag if I say that the regulars here combined do know more about the game mechanics than the devs themselves nowadays. It takes some time to get answers but the subforum here is certainly a more reliable and also self correcting source of information than the in-game descriptions are. That's because over the many patch cycles abilities were tweaked (which is good) but faulty descriptions often weren't changed accordingly (which is not so good). Partially because pieces of description texts are auto-generated so maybe Obsidian thought that would update itself splendidly (it didn't always). As I said: expect not too precise or sometimes even wrong descriptions. It's a game with loads of content - and also some minor glitches were found after the final patch was released, so Obsidian couldn't change that anymore. Nobody here really knows whether Spirit Frenzy or Spirit Tornado work as intended. But one of them has a small "bug". I can only give you my personal assessment. Here's a small history of Blood Frenzy and Spirit Frenzy: 1. At release Blood Frenzy (and its upgrade Blood Storm) only worked with weapon crit rolls - Spirit Frenzy on the other hand worked with all hit rolls, but Spirit Tornado didn't (it worked like Blood Frenzy/Blood Storm: only with weapon hits/crits). I guess at that time Obsidian considered Spirit Frenzy to be the buggy ability (well not really bugged, but implemented with a different mechanic). 2. But most players said they really liked the effect of Spirit Frenzy; most didn't take Blood Frenzy because Spirit Frenzy was just better in most situation/for most builds, while not being overpowered. Just a nice source of synergy in most builds. 3. Blood Frenzy and Blood Storm got changed so that they worked with all crit rolls (like Spirit Frenzy but only crits, not hits+crits). So now players can use it with spells, chants etc. which is cool and balances it with Spirit Frenzy. Now it's really a tough decision which one to pick (which is good). But unfortunately Spirit Tornado didn't get that change... I suspect Obsidian just forgot - or didn't even realize - that Spirit Tornado didn't work like Spirit Frenzy. So they forgot to alter it like they altered Blood Frenzy/Storm. At least that's the most logical explanation for me personally. But it's not that I know what really happened and why. What you can do now if you really want to keep the stagger with all hit rolls: - not pick Spirit Tornado - install a mod that fixes Spirit Tornado The last one is not possible when playing on a console iirc. Have fun and don't hesitate to ask. It may take some time but you will get an answer from somebody here.

No idea. It can't be a problem with the Community Patch because I use it and never had problems with (Enduring) Dance of Death. Once you activate it you should get a wound and +3 ACC immediately - and then +1 wound and +3 ACC with every tick. You won't get wounds if your wound counter is already full of course. And ACC will not climb over +12. Maybe you could try to load the mods in a different order. Sometimes they can interfere oddly.

Yes, it looks pretty solid. Two small things: 1. You cannot take Improved Critical twice 2. Spirit Frenzy is great because it will apply staggered with all attack rolls you do, be it melee, ranged, invocations and even chants like The Long Night's Drink. This will also periodically remove all MIG inspirations from enemies. But once you upgrade to Spirit Tornado that feature will be gone and the stagger will only get applied to weapon hits. So I would spare the ability point for Spirit Tornado and not upgrade Spirit Frenzy. Further opinions: Imo you should always pick Blood Thirst - for example instead of Barbaric Shout. You already have a fear ability with Ben Fidel. If you don't really need the bonus engagement of the Shout I would leave it out and take Blood Thirst. Since you already picked "I'll catch you, Ben Fidel" I would suggest to pick the upgrade "Ben Fidel's Neck", too - because the defense debuff it comes with will stack with all singular defense debuffs (something that lowers just one or two defense, for example Nature's Mark or so), making you very good at debuff stacking. There's also no immunity to this effect which sometimes is very handy against certain enemies.

What do you mean?

You cannot pick Monastic Unarmed Training when you have a Monk multiclass. The MuT ability gets removed from the ability tree because you will already have Transcendent Suffering and the game doesn't want you to stack them. You could add it with the console or a mod. In that case the two abilities will stack completely (PEN-, ACC- and damage bonus). Yup

Right. That first part also leads to: enfeeblement prolongs its own duration right away (by the way).

That's right. Fists with Transcendent Suffering/Monastic Unarmed Training scale with power level. But Monastic Unarmed Training uses the PL-progression of single class (maybe oversight) even if you are multiclassed - so even there Single Class vs. Multiclass doesn't matter. With a monk it does matter though. By the way: Ranger's Animal Companion also scales with char level, not Power Level.

Summons scale with character level, not Power Level. So summons of any kind (weapons, creatures) are no problem with multiclassing.

Yes, Phantom is one of the easiest ways because its AoE is so huge. Battlemage can also use Chillfog.

Cool. I haven't checked everything but just flew over it - but it looks good. Two things I noticed that aren't quite correct: Gipon Prudensco and Nomand's Brigandine don't give immunity to engagement but instead give immunity to disengagement attacks. This sounds like the same but it isn't: While immunity to engagement prevents enemies from engaging you entirely, immunity to disengagement attacks lets enemies still engage you (and thus you might still profit from stuff like Entonia Signet Ring) and they will also do disengagement attacks if you break engagement - but all those attacks will be turned into misses. This opens up some synergy with abilites like Imagined Pain, Riposte and so on but also with item enchantments or modals like Offensive Parry (Whispers of the Endless Paths) or the small shield modal for example. I could't find Edér's armor in the list (maybe I missed it). It provides immunity vs. Reflex attacks via the enchantment Veteran's Maneuver. This can be used with stuff like Keeper of the Flame + Whispers of the Wind + Imagined Pain (Imagined Pain gives 1 wound per miss against you, the flame AoE of the flail will also hit you but targets reflex so it gets turned into a miss -> +1 wound). --- The pet's name is Ooblit, not Ooblist. I couldn't find Harley (the dog pet). It raises ranged damage by 10% - but actually works with all sorts of damage that's not melee, including spells. Several pets give increased AoE size as secondary, party-wide effect (like Loki does as primary, but to everybody and weaker - I think 5% or so). As I said I just flew over it...

No, it doesn't properly stack it seems. I guess the longer push from Force of Anguish overrides the shorter one from the staff, no idea. At least nothing noteworthy happened when I tested it. Also Clear Out + Ll's Staff doesn't do multi-push it seems. One weird effect I noticed: if you use knock-ups with the staff ( for example Skyward Kick) there will be no knock-up animation: the target will stay targetable, but the knockup "CC" effect will still get applied to the enemy for a few secs (is hard-cc'd then as if prone but really isn't). I guess the push animation overrides the knockup animation. This can prevent the usual problems where allies try to attack the enemy but will miss because it gets knocked up (and becomes untouchable while in the air). I also tried a Rogue with Arterial Strike and pushed the melee enemies away from me. Most of them are stupid enough to try to reach me again... and again.

PS: if you summon an Essential Phantom after you sumoned the staff you can play tennis with the enemies as your ball. 😄

Please report how it went. Funny side effect: if you use the Helm of the White Void then every attack you do with the staff gets +10 accuracy (Rymrgand's Influence) - because the staff causes a hobble effect with every strike. That's a really nice bonus to have.

Hm... not such bad idea imo. That way focus generation (and spell spamming) will stop, but in a different way it's still useful to be a "tanky" Psion in melee then. Stackable bonus defenses are hard to come by and have increasing returns, so they are valuabe. A the same time you can't make full use of your defining ability (to cast cipher powers). I like it!

Called to His Bidding, the Ancient Instrumen of Death

Jut checked the wiki - which also doesn't mention the healing - then checked in the game and it is exactly as you said, @thelee. Maybe the healing was added with a patch, no idea. Anyway - updating the wiki now... https://pillarsofeternity.fandom.com/wiki/Nature's_Bounty_(Deadfire_item)

Huh? Really? I haven't used it for ages and thought it only did said buffing. Good to know it also heals (that's better than I thought).

In this case that "only" means longer duration. The effects (+action speed, +2 MIG and PER) do not scale. Edit: that was partially wrong, it also does +20 health (base) which gets boosted by Alchemy. Thanks @thelee

I compiled such a list of games: Yes, everybody is entitled to their own opinion. Nobody said differently. But it's another thing to assume that just because I feel a certain way a lot of people should share that sentiment. Color me interested. How many? In this forum, on Twitter and on Discord I didn't even read once about this problem. There were many complaints, some occured frequently (loading times, performance, main story arc, nerfs etc.) and some very esoteric ("not enough women smiling" wasn't even the weirdest, we had one guy who wanted a refund because there are naked butts in the game...) - but not one complaint about reused parts of the environment. But maybe I just missed other sources where this was discussed. 🤷‍♂️ For example I don't use Reddit or RPGCodex... My personal pet peeve with reusing stuff is that the late introduction of FullVO lead to a lot of voice actors getting "reused" for different characters in the game. Although they tried to alter their voices as best as they could I can tell all VAs who are doing multiple parts because I have good ears and excellent voice recognition. When speaking to Udine after talking to Mad Morena I just cringe, but alas... The only VA who fooled me for some time (from PoE until the Engwithan Digsite in Deadfire) was Matthew Mercer who's doing Aloth AND Edér... But since I didn't read about this "problem" anywhere else I just guessed that I'm pretty alone with that. So I didn't assume that reusing voice actors for multiple chars was a huge problem in general and therefore I didn't assume that many players didn't buy Deadfire - or won't buy upcoming games - because several chars were voiced by he same person (and I can hear it and it bugs me a bit). If reusing parts of the environment or portraits is such an offputting thing that transcends specific groups of players there should be plenty of sources for that, shouldn't it? I went through the thread again and so far it was a respectful and rather carefully worded discussion - especially when considering it's an internet forum with anonymous users. It's not aggression if your claims get challenged - it's just objections. The only (passive-)aggressive part so far was that^ - since it suggests that the participants in this discussion started to behave like fanboys without any objectivity or arguments - which was not the case.