Boeroer

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.

With cloak of the Master Mystic Backstab becomes quite OK.

Don't be sad - soulbound weapons are not the best anyway. You can't enchant thema and that's a big big disadvantage. If you do White March you can enchant weapons with Durgan Steel which costs no volume points and is superpowerful. Tall Grass is already one of the best weapons in the game - especially for rogues and barbarians - and the durgan enchantment adds even more awesomeness.

With cipher you are right. It may be an OK weapon for a melee cipher - or for a wizard until lvl 9 who wants to go melee with the parasitic staff but doesn't want to Rest too often. It's not that this staff itself is bad (that you get it so early is actually good) - but the weapon group itself lacks a real winner like Tall Grass and so on. The real gold ones have two special enchants that you can't put in yourself and that are very powerful. Great Swords for example have two real stars (H. of St. Rumb. and Tidefall).

Works. Everything with spell binding that is not a weapon works. Forgemaster gloves also work. You can summon Firebrand for your two duplicates that way - but maybe that their fist are better. Spell binding I don't know. Gold question. I also had that robe that casts Mirrored Image when you get critted and never saw that in the duplicates. Things like Ryona's Vembraces (3 DR bypass to every form of attack) also work.

I also think that the ranger is a better ranged damage dealer than the rogue at the moment. But if somebody says that his rogue is not working than I would say somebody doesn't know how to use him properly. That's not a problem though. He/she will find out.