DreamWayfarer

However if souls can travel throught those planes before reincarnating at the regular plane, and the only things a lost soul can do are to wander in the ethereal side of this plane or enter adra to try to reincarnate, then the other planes are linked to adra and are only different aspects of Eora, and probably share its gods. EDIT: To make my own class suggestion, based not on pen and paper, but my own ideas, I'd like to present the Soulshifter, a shapeshifter that attunes their soul to different aspects of reality to take a number of exotic forms, either animal, spirit or elemental based. The soulshifter is based on the idea of a shapeshifter that changes forms wildly as the combat goes, and can acess more alien forms as the fight goes while getting weaker in the cooldown humanoid periods. And may explode in raw soul energy sometimes. This class uses strain points as a resource, representing the power accumulated in the shifter's soul as they attune to different to different energies. As the soul acvumulates energy, it gets moved further away from matter, making it harder to take more mundane forms. The only way to remove said strain is to discharge the energy on the envirorment. Each form would have not only unique strenghts and weaknesses, but an unique backlash debuff after it is abandoned that lasts until the shifter takes a new form or uses the discharge skill. When entering a form, the soulshifter gains x strain points, and the buffs and debuffs of both form and backlash scale with the number of strain points. One can only leave a form after a minimum amount of time, after which there is an optional linger period, and there is a short cooldown between leaving a form and being able to shift again. Each form adds a especific amount of strain, and there is a lower and a highter strain threshold for entering each form. The only way to eliminate strain points during combat is by using the discharge skill, that deals to the soulshifter and all in a small radius an amount raw damage proportional to the soulshifter's strain. The discharge skill is automatically used after combat. This class could have an interesting behavior in longer fights, getting more gamechanging strenghts and more crippling weaknesses as it uses its powers, and having to damage itself and potentialy its allies or foes to reset its state.

Melee has inherently highter base weapon DPS, allowing for more focus than ranged.

Agreed, many traditional fantasy concepts, like True Names or demon summoning don't work very well with the estabilished metaphysics of Eora, while others like casting from endurance or some limited shapeshifting work well with the way souls work. I myself would like to see the implications of different planes and "travelled souls", since those are mentioned briefly in the codex and seem to go beyond the more mundane aspects of the world into the more alien. Maybe those are just other aspects of Eora that only some souls interact with, instead of other universes, considering that the Wheel is adra-bond.

Maybe to restrict AoE sneak attacking immortals, the sneak attack and carnage could be divided into master, greater and lesser versions, so you would have to use more talents to get to maximum power.

The rogue and barbarian may be currently underpowered, but dumping them would remove two interesting classes, so unless you wish to merge them into the fighter somehow... As for new classes, I think we need a proper shapeshifting especialist with multiple forms that give unique buffs and debuffs, unlike the druid who is primarily a caster with a very lacking shapeshifting side.

While Island Aumana aren't my favorite race, I like them as Kind Wayfarer Paladins. Easier to kill steal with two guns, and with Arms Bearer I can also fit a one-handed and a shield for when I need more sturdiness. Death Godlikes are nice and all, but the roleplayer in me just can't see them as very sucessful glorified travel guides with semi-holy powers.

Well it depends how we define main theme of class. Manipulatin pure soul is a cipher thing. So Animaniac would be manipulation of soul and flesh. As far as we noticed in game Animaniac are proficient in: Binding souls to flesh golems, and flesh golems are not just ordinary corpses. Binding souls to armour knights. turning themselves in the throne statues. Keeping themselves alive even then the time pass. If Animaniac could form a various form of golems of many shapes then they new how to manipulate flesh. So doing for themselves what they do for constructs is not so far. The problem is that such flesh constructs are mostly mindless, and while animancers may be able to manipulate their own souls, we only have seem it done in a permanent way that would require a careful procedure or have many unfortunate side effects.

I wouldn't say Minoletta's is useless, as crush and corrode aren't strongly resisted and sometimes you may want a fast, long range, fire and forget spell. It has fast speed, right? Has been some weeks since I last played.

Now I just don't understand what you are saying. I feared they would ignore the beard issue before it was confirmed it would be fixed. There was no prediction.

He is good enough if you have a full party, the problem is his horrible spell selection. I generaly hire two adventurers at the beggining, one stays in my party forever and one is a wizard whose spells are given to Aloth and is eventualy substituded by a story NPC.

Good to know it is going to be fixed. Despite the good record Obsidian has set, I still feared the issue would be forgotten because of its lack of impact on the gameplay itself. Iterative software deployments typically have a build list that is reviewed before a release; I doubt that Obsidian is making updates purely on undocumented memorization. When I said "forget", I meant "ignore".

You get a little more XP, but it just isn't worth it. If I were you, the first thing I would do would be to avoid any combat until Gilded Vale, recruit Aloth, hire an adventurer at the inn either as damage dealer or front-liner depending on my main's class, sleep and recruit Eder. Then do the quests. For the Paladin, mid to high Might and high Int for his healing and support skills.Raising Con is good as well, since with a few exceptions, like a Kind Wayfarer with the AoE heal on kill talent, paladins are mostly tanks. Put some points into Resolve, but you don't need too much. The stat you can afford the most to lower is Dextery. Leave Per at ten if you want some damage, but are not a Kind Wayfarer. If you dump it most enemies will just ignore your Paladin. If you want an offensive Paladin, the Kind wayfarers have a talent that gives a solid AoE heal after they kill a foe, so invest into Might, Int and Per for them, leaving either Res or Con at base and not lowering Dex too much. For skills, just remember that Flames of Devotion is less useful at highter levels, but Lay on Hands is always amazing, and you can only have one Aura at once. As for talents, weapon and shield style can mitigate the low Reflex if you do a low Dex tank.

The pet is a fragile damage dealer at best. Using it to tank a bear is a waste, especialy considering how it debuffs you when it falls. And why do you want to face the bear before getting some party members or levels?

Good to know it is going to be fixed. Despite the good record Obsidian has set, I still feared the issue would be forgotten because of its lack of impact on the gameplay itself.

? For the three PER, many patches ago it gave deflection instead of accuracy. Not sure on the CON, maybe you saw a melee ranger build? Many of their abilities actualy work at melee. On barbarians: reach weapons don't have greater carnage range, only INT affects that. And don't expect barbarians to be good tanks, or even great damage dealers by themselves. Most barbarian builds are based on either powerful sinergies with supporting party members or using unique items to apply aflictions/extra-long interrupts over large areas. EDIT: On rangers, I'd recomend investing into the pet. If you see it as a fragile damage dealer instead of a expendable bait, it can be like a mini 2handed rogue that buffs your ranger's accuracy.

And did it in the way that limited player choices. Disapointing.

Yes, what is the point of that change?Well guys they are elves. Have you ever seen an elf with facial hair in any lore of any elf fantasy thing ever? I think the original elves of scandinavian myth could have beards. Plus, "lacking beards" is not one of the great defining characteristics of elves. That would be their long lifes and attunement to the magical. And some settings have elves tgat are not more nagical than humans. Plus, nothing says an author can't make elves have beards in his setting.

I don't think anyone implied you thought so. Most people here just spoke against the "tank&spank" strategy, but if I understand it right, your two frontliners setup is not about tanks that may as well be mobile walls.If two guys are enough for you to hold the line and you think having 4+ melee characters is not worth the micromanagement, that is fully OK.

Yes, what is the point of that change?

Yes, perhaps you could also create some stationary destructible blights that caused AoE damage and debuffs. The whole class could be built to focus on either short-lived blights and instant constructs or powerful vessels it could buff and modify with other spells. Althought I don't think self-fleshbending fits an animancer class, and shapeshifting is a ample enough power to merit its own class. See my soulshifter suggestion above.

True, that is the main weakness of a heavy melee setup: chokepoints become your enemy. However it isn't too hard to build a melee DPS char that can do good, if suboptimal, damage at range. It is matter of preference. I myself like heavy melee setups because I feel they make better use of balanced, non min-maxy stats.

How much damage are your melee chars dealing? If your frontline is able to deal half-decent damage conpared to your backline, the mobs won't disengage half as much as against zero-damage tanks. I also noticed that building every char in a way they can stand against at least a single foe in melee does not decrease DPS by much, but does wonders to your suvival rate. What spells and talents did you give to Aloth? A parasitic staff and some buffs can make any wizard into an emergencial melee powerhouse. Last of all, have you considered a melee heavy party instead of a traditional strategy? I've found that most classes can be sufficiently resilient without losing much damage if built well, and the highter base speed and/or damage of melee weapons allows for more balanced attribute spreads. A meele DPSer forced into ranged may deal less damage, but a ranged DPSer forced into melee dies. Edit: have you tried hiring an adventurer to close your frontline? Generaly the first thing I do after entering the first inn is hiring one or two party menbers, generaly a melee off-tank and a wizard so I can give Aloth better spells. And I noticed you gave Durance a pike. Pikes are for more vulnerable melee DPSers. If you want Durance to deal damage, give him a gun and take the Inspired Flame talent, if you want him to help hold the line give him a sword and a shield. But beware: it will lower the accuracy of his offensive spells and debuffs.

That sounds more like a class of its own, like my soulshifter suggestion. I like this. Like the druid and beasts? Sounds good, as long as the class is not just a vessel slayer.

Giving single target buffs to party members that drain their endurance while active, to simulate the animancer somehow putting their souls on overclock? EDIT: Adding to my soulshifter idea, each form would have not only unique strenghts and weaknesses, but an unique backlash debuff after it is abandoned that lasts until the shifter takes a new form or uses the discharge skill. When entering a form, the soulshifter gains x strain points, and the buffs and debuffs of both form and backlash scale with the number of strain points. One can only leave a form after a minimum amount of time, after which there is an optional linger period, and there is a short cooldown between leaving a form and being able to shift again. Each form adds a especific amount of strain, and there is a lower and a highter strain threshold for entering each form. The only way to eliminate strain points during combat is by using the discharge skill, that deals to the soulshifter and all in a small radius an amount raw damage proportional to the soulshifter's strain. This class could have an interesting behavior in longer fights, getting more gamechanging strenghts and more crippling weaknesses as it uses its powers, and having to damage itself and potentialy its allies or foes to reset its state.

Wizards do channel their spells from the writing in their grimmories, so you could justify a class that uses runes to cast custom spells, althought the component hunting does not feel fitting or easily explained. As for classes, it would be interesting if there was a class which altered the nature of its own soul, gaining powerful temporary buffs, but after they expired suffered a backlash of sorts as their soul violently returned to its normal state. Perhaps it could acumulate strain points over time that made the backlash debuffs worse as the fight went on but also gave some sort of damage or defense bonus. I also think we need a class based on shapeshifting into multiple forms, since the druid shapeshift is not enough in my opinion. Maybe both could be the same class, changing the soul to change the body? Ps: +one for combat animancer.