Lamppost in Winter

Baldur's Gate III's equipment has a lot of good examples. I like in particular the items that specifically interact with class features, e.g., Blazer of Benevolence granting temporary HP to the bard when they use Bardic Inspiration, and the items that grant a status effect that several other items can synergise with, e.g., all the various items that grant Lightning Charges or a bonus/effect based on Lightning Charges. The main thing I think is missing from Deadfire is cool features for support casters - offensive characters get to choose from all kinds of bonuses that activate upon hitting things, but support characters don't really get anything like that. Something like receiving/granting a bonus upon applying an Inspiration or healing, or adding effects to specific support abilities like a paladin's Lay on Hands. For example, a mod I made a while ago added an aura to the Priest of Eothas subclass that granted increased healing and resistance to Resolve Afflictions to nearby allies when they had a Protection keyword effect on or an Inspiration, respectively. Some love for underused keywords would also be nice, e.g., Protection, Echo, Decay.

Per your guide the pen bug is just the AoE and not the direct hit, so that might be what the combat log is showing?

I've been wondering if blunderbusses are ever viable as a primary, damage dealing weapon. Not hand mortars, not special abilities like Thunderous Report or using Powder Burns to trigger Streetfighter; just using regular old blunderbusses to shoot guys. I've tried it once or twice, mainly on Maia (and then mainly for Concussive Tranquiliser), but I feel like they're always at a severe deficit in penetration and base damage.

Some fights can definitely take quite a while, though not as bad as I feared. I was considering using the half health mod but I decided against it because I wanted to see how a mostly vanilla game felt in the turn-based mode, and I heard it introduces some real balance problems, like self-damage becoming much more severe or all healing becoming much more powerful. If I ever get around to doing another playthrough I might make a 75% health mod and get rid of the Veteran/POTD health modifiers. Making crowd control effects more severe could also help, e.g., bringing Paralyse's hit-to-crit back up to 50% or adding a Deflection penalty to it (which it should really have anyway).

Started my first proper go at playing the game in turn-based mode (had one previous attempt but it was kind of a gimmick run and I didn't get very far) and have some thoughts on it. For context I'm playing on Veteran with the Community Patch Bugfixes and Keywords packages, as well as one file from the Extras package to buff Wrath of the Five Suns. Only god challenge enabled is Rymrgand's. Right now I'm at level 15 and just defeated Concelhaut and the first encounter with Neriscyrlas. Overall, enjoying it very much. Even as a RTWP defender and someone who already likes Deadfire's combat a lot, I feel like it would be hard for me to go back to the RTWP mode now. Combat feels way less fiddly, it's much easier to pay attention to certain mechanics when everything is happening one turn at a time, and there are some fun strategies that are much harder to pull off in RTWP. The only reason I could see going back to RTWP mode now is if I wanted to use a speed-based build like a Streetfighter. It's also highlighting how much of an improvement Deadfire made in encounter design - I never get the PoE1 feeling where I'm slogging through samey combats every few minutes. Instead, it feels more like Divinity Original Sin II where fights are less frequent and more of an event each time. I'm playing on Veteran since I wasn't sure I'd be able to tackle POTD in this new game mode, and that fights would take way too long, and it seems to have been a good choice. I am finding that most fights are quite easy - seriously challenging encounters outside of big boss fights are not very frequent, but happen just often enough for my taste. I am wondering if the relative easiness is due to the expanded Graze range meaning most attacks land reliably, the AI and enemies being built for RTWP, or if it's just me already being familiar with the combat - which isn't really that different from the regular combat, just in a different format. I reckon shrinking the Graze range back some (maybe 15-49) while reducing all health by 25% might bring back some of the vanilla balance without making fights take too long. One thing I am finding I differ on from the consensus is the value of speed. I am definitely valuing speed effects less and mostly leaving weapon modals that add recovery time switched on, but I find that having my casters wear light armour and having decent Dex scores is still very valuable. Tekehu usually goes first in every fight and can paralyse a ton of enemies right off the bat, which is just a free round, and if the rest of the party can take their turns before the enemies' that means they can make better use of that paralysis. My fight with Neriscyrlas also relied a lot on Xoti, Aloth and Ydwin going first so Ydwin could buff Xoti and Aloth with Brilliant, which Xoti could then extend indefinitely so that Aloth could spam Gaze of the Adragan on Neriscyrlas, which meant she almost never got to take a turn. That all would've been much more difficult if she ever got to act before my party did. Build-wise, I'm rolling an offense-focused Priest of Berath/Ghost Heart Ranger (17 MIG, 15 CON, 15 DEX, 14 INT, 10 PER, 7 RES, from memory). Far from a meta build, but I've found it fun and effective, and the flavour of Ghost Heart goes great with the Priest of Berath. I mainly use the Ranger side of things to get accuracy bonuses for spells and all the damage/defence bonuses for the ghost bear, but now I'm also enjoying the combination of Rot Skulls and Driving Flight - being able to chuck exploding skulls that bounce to an additional target while also spreading DoTs everywhere for the bear to exploit is great fun.

https://www.nexusmods.com/pillarsofeternity2/mods/364 Made a little tweak to Berath's Challenge. Thought it was a bit harsh on the lower levels when you don't have any way of reviving, and there's almost no way you can finish a combat in 3 rounds. Killing enemies will now refresh the timer before the party member is permanently killed.

https://www.nexusmods.com/pillarsofeternity2/mods/363/ Did some cleanup and refinement of my existing caster keyword/subclass mod and rolled my new Priest subclass mod mod together. Description from the mod page: Other ideas I may toy with in future: Add Priest keywords to appropriate Cipher and Druid abilities - the mechanical benefit here may outweigh the flavour dissonance. Rework the Trickster subclass - right now, while powerful, it feels like just a Rogue who can cast spells and only offset by a mildly nerfed Sneak Attack. May use the Wael bonus from the Priest mod as a starting point to set it apart more from the vanilla Rogue (or Spellblade). Rework Blood Mage - the defense penalty for it is very arbitrary, so I definitely want to find a replacement for that. Other things I might explore are removing the random nature of Blood Sacrifice and allowing it to restore spells in other classes. Rework Wizard subclasses - I feel like they could use more active bonuses to set them apart from each other. Problem is that most don't really map well onto a specific playstyle. See if I can apply the Cipher keywords to more spells or passives as they're very underused.

Mod is very close to being release now; just need to do a proper balance pass, clean up the files a bit and try to add text to the new abilities. Updates: Added Priest keywords (Protection, Restoration, Inspiration, Punishment, Condemnation) to Paladin and Chanter abilities. Keywords fit very naturally onto Paladin abilities, so that was a no-brainer. Punishment and Condemnation didn't fit quite as well to Chanters, but added them anyway as Inspiration and Protection fit nicely to them. For now, I'm not adding Priest keywords to Druids, Wizards and Ciphers as apart from a few exceptions, their abilities seem a bit too "neutral" for the morally-charged Priest keywords. Nerfed Eothas a bit; reduced the aura to 5 meters (Chanter radii are 4 meters for comparison), and separated the heal bonus and the Resolve Affliction Resistance. The heal bonus is now dependent having a Protection effect, while the Resolve Affliction Resistance is dependent on having an Inspiration effect. Did this mainly because there's no way to distinguish the source of effects, and now that I've implemented those keywords for Paladins and Chanters, there'll be a lot of them flying around. Rymrgand's bonus will now also trigger on Poison attacks. Removed the Hit-to-Crit effect on Berath and Gaun. Their bonus will now also trigger when a character (whether friendly or hostile) is knocked out. Nerfed Wael's beneficial effects bonus to a 30% chance to add 5 seconds to beneficial effects on being missed. Gaun's speed + PL bonus now also applies to Inspiration, since this effect was under-represented in the bonuses. Buffed Skaen's bleed damage to 50% of damage dealt over 10 seconds. Removed Illusion keywords from Illusion-self buff attacks (still is on the abilitydata) so Wael doesn't interrupt themself when buffing up. Made a workaround on Woedica's effect so the debuff wouldn't be immediately triggered and removed when hitting with a spell that does damage. Still open to feedback on these, but as it stands I'm pretty happy with them, bar some tinkering for balance. Also cheers to MaxQuest and Phenomenum for allowing me the use of the Community Patch keyword files/definitions.

Cheers! Haven't had a chance to do real balance testing myself, so good to know. I'll try out your suggestion. Might have to test how well it works in turn-based as well. Was also thinking of tuning it down to 5 seconds and having it be a % chance to proc. Quick updates as well; found a workaround for the Wael, Rym and Woedica bonuses not applying properly, added the bonuses to NPC and enemy priests, and currently working on adding the proper keywords to everything.

Thank you. Hopefully soon, though I will be quite busy in the coming weeks. The big thing left to do is add keywords to a bunch of abilities and status effects, which will take a while. I've attached the work in progress if you're interested in checking it out. Recommend using the Community Patch Keywords mod. All of them should be working except for Eothas; I need to add keywords to all the statuseffects first for that one. Keep in mind the Rymrgand, Wael and Woedica mods don't like to work with existing characters; use fresh characters for those (or before you recruit Vatnir for the Rymrgand one). Enemy and NPC priests will also not have the bonuses right now. WIP priest mod.zip

Took a long break from making this. As it turns out, making a unique bonuses for 8 subclasses is hard and I understand why they didn't do it! Decided to go back to basics; focus on keywords and no penalties (often ended up feeling arbitrary). Berath: +3 PL on the next Restoration/Rejuvenation ability cast on scoring a hit with a Decay attack. 50% Hit to Crit on Decay attacks against Bloodied or Near Death enemies. Eothas: While under an Inspiration or Protection effect, party members benefit from a 25% healing bonus and Resistance to Resolve Afflictions. Gaun: +3 PL and 50% Action Speed on the next Protection ability cast on scoring a hit with a Plant attack. 50% Hit to Crit on Plant attacks against Bloodied or Near Death enemies. Magran: On scoring a weapon Hit, +10 Accuracy to the next Fire/Punishment attack made, +3 AR and Concentration for 20 seconds. On scoring a Hit with a Fire attack, the party gains +15 accuracy and +2 Penetration on their next weapon attack. Rymrgand: +5 seconds hostile effect duration when scoring a Hit with Frost/Decay attacks. Additional -1 AR and -25% Action Speed for 15 seconds if the target has a Constitution Affliction. Skaen: +10 Accuracy with Condemnation/Punishment attacks against Sneak Attack targets. 30% damage of Punishment attacks applied as Raw DoT against Sneak Attack targets. Wael: Deception/Illusions/Mind attacks Interrupt against Sneak Attack targets. When missed by an enemy, gain +10 seconds to beneficial effects. Woedica: When scoring a Hit with Condemnation/Punishment attack, target is marked. On the next attack against them, marked targets suffer +25% damage and an Interrupt. Nearby allies have Intellect afflictions cleared when hitting with a Condemnation/Punishment attack. - So far much happier with these, pending some tuning. Not too married to Skaen and Rymrgand's right now; might change Rymrgand's back to the design I had before, though it is slightly annoying to implement. Also running into a strange problem where Rymrgand, Wael and Woedica's bonuses don't work when loading an existing save, or transitioning areas. Has nothing to do with the bonuses themselves; still happens if I just give them an existing effect like Sneak Attack. Will try with a clean override folder and possibly different saves, since I haven't run into this problem before when adding bonuses to them. Edit: And just found out NPC Priests don't have the subclass passive like I had assumed. I would have to add it manually to the progression tables so that they would also benefit from the passive. Annoying, but also a blessing; I was avoiding doing anything that would require me to append progressiontables so I wouldn't have to do it for the NPC progressiontables, but now that I have to anyway, I might as well explore other options.

Correct me if I am wrong, but I think the Powder Burns Distracted clears when you switch sets. I have Eder using this setup and I just have him with mortar + sabre. Cleaving Stance is also a lot of fun with this because you get a mortar shot on every nearby enemy when you get a kill.

If true, the only speech checks being Persuade/Lie/Intimidate is disappointing considering the wide range of checks in FNV and PoE. I did see a Perception check, though it didn't have a number next to it like the speech skills one did, so dunno what the distinction is there.

Yep; I got the spooky boat and went with the VTC.

Actually exactly what I did for Rym. "On being hit with a Restoration effect" doesn't appear to be supported, though, still seeing if there's a way I can do that. Rymrgand: Bonus: Scoring Hits or Crits with Decay, Frost or Condemnation spells reduces beneficial effects by 5 seconds. When any party member scores a kill, enemies around the victim receive +10 seconds to hostile effects. Penalty: Bonuses are suspended for 10 seconds when using a Restoration, Protection or Fire ability. When an ally is downed, nearby allies receive +10 seconds to hostile effects. Gaun: Made Gaun follow the same sort of model as the other gods that deal in death (Berath, Rym) Bonus: Party members gain +10 seconds to beneficial effects on scoring a kill. When any party member scores a kill, the next Plant, Protection or Inspiration effect the Priest of Gaun uses gains +3 Power Level. Penalty: On downing an ally, enemies gain +10 seconds to beneficial effects. Can't really think of another penalty for Gaun (at least one that wouldn't be super annoying to implement or play with), so I might see if the current bonuses need to be tuned at all and leave it at that. Also reworked Berath's bonus from +50% healing done on a party member scoring a kill to healing nearby party members when scoring a Hit or Crit with a Decay or Condemnation spell. Also reworked Magran a bit so that party members also gain benefits (ended up a little similar to what you had suggested, @KaineParker ) Magran: Bonus: On scoring a Hit or Crit with a Fire or Punishment attack, all allies gain bonus Accuracy (+15), Penetration (+2) and Damage (+20%) on their next weapon attack. On scoring a Hit or Crit with a weapon attack, the Priest of Magran gains +3 Amour Rating and Concentration. Penalty: Using a Restoration, Frost or Water ability clears these bonuses. Bonuses are considered Fire effects, so they can be extinguished by Water or Frost attacks. Good point about Wael's malus. I did consider their bonus to be a bit too powerful as well; think I'll completely rework Wael so that there's a party benefit, too. For Skaen I had planned a bonus for using Condemnation/Punishment spells against Sneak Attack targets and maybe a conditional party-wide Sneak Attack bonus, but haven't got around to doing it yet. Probably right about Eothas; it could use a real capital-P Penalty, but thinking if the bonus needs to be buffed as well (so far it's the most passive one). I don't want to penalise using Punishment/Condemnation too much for Eothas, though, since a lot of its subclass abilities in the Community Patch use those keywords (which I'm basing this mod on, since the keyword placement in the vanilla game isn't consistent enough to build around).