MaxQuest

You got me The thing is that such a character still takes a slot. A slot were we could take someone who would tank as good if not better, while also providing damage, crowd-control, healing and/or cleansing. An optimal party virtually has twice more niches/roles filled compared to the one consisting of "bad" builds)

There is one 3/18/18/18/3/18 cipher. No matter how you try, it not gonna work)

Agreed, fixing shaking popups would be most welcome... Fixing sudden uncharming and powder burns foe would be great as well.

Aha! So you can generate wounds or trigger vengeful defeat Also inb4 martyr buff.

I like to start with 1 point in athletics as 25 heal when you have 25-50 hp is nice. After that either leave it at 1 or suddenly increase it up to 4-5 after level 6 in order to pass a few checks without injuries; or save the points and rest instead. It can be ok with healing modifier from survival/chanter through. As for final skill distribution I would quite recommend: cipher: 10 surv, 6-8 lore, 1-5 athletics, rest in lore aloth: 1 athletics, 4 surv, max mechanics eder: 8 or 14 surv, 3-5 athletics, rest in lore maneha: 10 or 14 surv, 3-5 athletics, rest in lore zahua: same as maneha durance: 4 or 10 surv, 1-3 athletics, rest in lore P.S. No wonder I have 5 colonists and a scientist in party...

Yeap, estoc is a 2H weapon. For a melee-cc I had a 9/9/18/17/17/8 boreal dwarf with BotEP in mind.

There are minor pros here and there.For example melee dd has easier time in using detonate and antipathetic field. On the other hand ranged dd can quite often kill an enemy even before they have engaged; plus has higher DEX (as can get away with lower CON and RES) and feels a bit more responsive. But the main reason I will go for a melee-cc is that a few cipher powers (specifically WoT, Eyestrike, Mental Binding) have unusually short recovery duration (at the cost of longer cast duration), and thus a in-plate cipher can cast them almost as fast as a naked one. Plus such cipher doesnt need maxed might. The difference in 0.3 damage coefficient might be big when base damage coef is 1.0, but with superb weapon, 2handed style, soul and bitting whip this cipher would generate just 10-15% less focus at 10 MIG than he would if he had same stats but 20 MIG. So these points could be put in DEX; and focus gain improved via faster attacking; also it would make easier cc'ing enemies that already started casting and cc'ing them before their spell fires.

Rumbaldt heavily relies on crits and PER gets increased priority as a stat to invest into. While for BotEP the dps difference between hit and crit is less significant (partially because of no annihilation and overbearing; partially because DR bypass is not increased on crit), so you can spare a few stat points and put them into MIG and DEX instead. P.S. Sure acc is important, especially in boss fights, but there is always a sweet spot unique for your build and party composition.

Imo both are good. So far I MC'ed two dd ciphers: one ranged with warbow and another melee with dual sabres. Plus have tried GM and a warbow-cc hireling.DD ciphers can easily top the total damage dealt, and I enjoyed them a lot. But I would take them if the team will also have a dedicated cc'er. That's why I usually play with 2 ciphers in party. In next run I will definitely take a ranged-dd-bow and melee-cc-estoc ciphers. Regarding main-dd I would say it's a matter of personal preferrence. Would add through that it's nice to have 4 dd capable characters in party. Depending on what matchups you want to strenghen you can pick: trash clearing dd: barbarian, monk overall dd: cipher, blasting-wizard, druid boss/bounty/emergency dd: priest Regarding min-maxing, I folow the following points: - if the character has AoE DoTs and will be used for damage dealing: max MIG and INT - dont drop CON below 5 points on ranged and 8 points o melee characters - dont drop RES below 7 points on melee characters, unless I can increase their concentration

Regarding very early game of ranged cipher: you get Persistence asap (i.e. level 3-5) because it has damaging 3 enchant and thus ahead of the crafting curve. With talents Bitting Whip, Penetrating Shot and Draining Whip taken in that order; plus fire or corrode lash you will have the optimal rate of focus generation. Additionally you can start the fight with a shot from Kana's arquebuss (or any Blunderbuss yu find) and then quickly switch to Persistence. As for early armor: either go for Durance's robe, Rindl Finery or any hide armor if shades do attack your cipher more than you would want, because hide has the armor efficiency bonus for pierce and frost. P.S. Those 40% mean that you hit and crit 40% of the time. Since PotD adds a flat bonus, it's normal to not expect/rely on crits in early game. Still through, you can blind or weaken -> paralyze the enemies for a huge deflection malus. Not to mention that with high Might and Penetrating Shots even if grazes are a dps loss compared to hits, the loss is is no longer *that* big.

@OP, Set class behaviour to None. Chanter will still seek targets to auto-attack, but will not cast invocations.

Hmmm.... I must have missed that. Where was it stated? Does that mean that grimoires role has changed, or do they just free up mages hands so he can be more flexible? There you go: - source 1 - source 2

I don't use them. Still keep them just in case, but at the moment directly engaging in combat saves more time than setting the trap and luring enemies in it... Although petrify trap could be useful for a frontline (quick-switching) powder-burns ranger, who would use the animal companion to bring the enemies. Also they would help in a solo run. The annoying thing was getting injuries when one of your squshies was going unconscious from the explosion. At least until you tick the auto-pause on "Hidden object found".

Yeap. Almost all (or indeed all?) soulbound weapons in this game have a 'support' and 'situational' vibe around them. Without ability of being lashed and durganized they are usually not good enough from dps point-of-view. Unlabored Blade had potential to become one of dps weapons. And the calculations showed that it could be a beast in the hands of high MIG/DEX barbarian. Heh, first, I could not use it, because I had no barbarian in party/run. Then it wasn't proccing in 3.04. And then it was nerfed )) Tbh, this dagger was a bit over-nerfed. 3% proc rate instantly make it useless to anyone except barbarian. While barb himself (if dps, not interrupt oriented) wants slower and harder-hitting weapons because of Barbaric Blow and HoF. Plus 3% is just unreliable. What's the point in petrifying the enemy group as a setup for Firebug volley if it might not even proc in this fight at all

Perhaps you are right. It would make sense to use real names through (we already had 7 disclosed) in order to avoid confusion. Agreed. I find balance to be super important to me. I always try to optimize stuff, and often end up picking mostly optimal options. This means there are less options to chose from if something proves to be not viable enough. And this limits replayability. P.S. As for DA:I, even through I wanted to have Varric in the party, he just never was near the power level of Sera. Which was either OP with Thousand Cuts, or a liability. In the end I used the same party in all 3 runs: Blackwall + Casandra + Solar + Knight-Enchanter/Tempest/Rift-Mage.

The first time I've seen it mentioned, was via MortyTheGobbo's link to this tumblr post. Although now, that I am re-reading it, "Sorcerer" term was used by the questioner, not Josh himself. P.S. Stumbled upon his article on balancing. Interesting read, especially about player feedback.

So it is: Wizard: 1. Illusionist 2. Evoker 3. Sorcerer (?) (edit: probably just used as example by the questioner) Cipher: 1. Soul Blade 2. Ascendant 3. ? (should be something cc-oriented) I would expect something like: - Ascendant - being focused on attributes manipulation, specifically siphoning stats/defenses and increasing his own, via Psychovampiric Shield, Borrowed Instinct and the like. - Illusionist - master of confusion, distraction, and creator of mental phantasms / decoy phantoms. - Evoker - if Sorcerer is about high elemental damage; Evoker probably would be more about summoning weapons and barriers (e.g. Llengrath and Flame shields); also missiles, kalakoth's rake, stuff like that.

Vs 0 DR and assuming that all attacks were resolved as HIT, yes, your auto-attack dps will be 15/200 damage-per-frame, or 450/200 damage-per-second. Vs higher DR (that is not covered by DR penetration) it's more complicated, as at least 20% of (non-lash) damage will always go through. For example you hit an enemy with 10DR: 10 -> 2 11 -> 2.2 12 -> 2.4 13 -> 3 14 -> 4 15 -> 5 16 -> 6 17 -> 7 18 -> 8 19 -> 9 20 -> 10 58.6/11 = 5.327 So your average 15 vs 0 DR, becomes 5.327 vs 10 DR. That's for HITs. And it becomes more complicated if we start taking misses, grazes and crits into account, their damage modifiers, and also attack quality conversions: graze-to-hit, hit-to-crit and so on. For the main game, there is this table. For expansions through, there is no list I am aware of. Although you can take a look into in-game bestiary; and unlock the entries if need be via console (iroll20s -> UnlockBestiary).

I have a feeling that hazards do not store information about characters that made/casted them. And in a way it makes sense. A trap, or a seal when are going off are "on their own". I am interested if this was intended through, as tooltips do not specify this.

^ Definitely going to use it in my next run. If anyone needs here's the older moon godlike portrait (by Amegani): - Less grumpy version - Default - Smirking attempt P.S. Looking for a portrait matching boreal dwarf cipher in plate armor; male or female; bald or with iroquois; maybe someone have seen something suiting

Yeap, it is considered a hazard. Have checked now: - Wall of Thorns - Warding Seal Trap - Searing Seal Trap All of these hazards ignore caster's perception/interrupt value. This makes periodic hazards pretty useless for interruption purpose. They can still be used for triggering Combusting Wounds through.

Tbh plate is such a great armor type... Not only it gives extra 2DR over the curve (i.e. base 12 instead of 10 like brigantine has), but also provides an extra bonus to 2 out of 3 damage types where DR is most effective. (these 3 in my opinion are: slash, pierce, freeze}. Xaurips, vithracks, spiders, beetles come in large groups, and their low auto-attack damage is greatly reduced by the DR. Similar thing with shades' freeze damage. While enemies that deal crush, corrode or fire damage usually inflict it in big chunks, and a still sensible amount goes through reduction. Also these are not usually that numerous, so they can be just hard-cc'ed. P.S. If only Durance' robe have provided freeze or pierce DR instead of fire... imho it would be one of the best armors in the game.

It can't weaken my decision

And no one can interdict me! Muahahah

Problem: wizard's Wall of Flame spell, doesn't use caster's interruption value. It is always a static -25 (if graze), 0 (if hit), +25 (if crit). Expected behavior: wizard's perception should affect spell interruption value. Version: 3.05