MaxQuest

But mah Brilliant?) P.S. That moment when you miss multi-classing limit from NWN2.

What do you mean by "2 damage ticks"? For reference, in RTwP Ectopsychic Echo has 10s duration and ticks every 1s.

^ It is great, but the priest is there to keep Vela alive with withdraws and BDD.

A, you probably missed Boeroer's gif related to Blinding Smoke (from Hand Mortar) + Avenging Storm interaction. That disorienting effect is not a weapon attack, but AS 'thinks' it is, because it is "originating" from a weapon. With WotW or Clear Out the effect is devastating. Although, dunno, it might cross the line related to "spirit of the challenge". Btw, if tactician/scaen is under the effect of Brilliant Tactician, but does need to regenerate faith faster, he can flank himself and immediately remove it via Discipline Barrage or switching to Kapana Taga / Squid's Grasp. Once he unflanks himself he will get Brilliant Tactician back, and the first tick of it provides +1 discipline/faith immediately. This might be handy, provided that you can do it faster than once in 6s. Tactician/priest might also find useful Searing Seal and Spiritual Ally, for flanking purpose.

I think it's not as boring as just solo, because it's not like "I can do this, it just takes a helluva of time" but rather "is it even possible in practice?". In theory I suppose it is possible. But there is a hefty random factor to it. And Vela makes it so much harder. That's why I doubt there will be a completely legit Ultimate run, at least this year; were the player would start the whole run from the beginning in case of character's death, instead of just loading the save's copy. Because putting 100h+ and losing all progress is quite demotivating; more so if it happens several+ times.

^ Then it's strange.

^ Afaik vendor's item list is generated for the first time when you enter his scene. I guess Zamar's list was populated when you entered Queen's Berth.

Nice and here we go: Black Jacket: made me chuckle) - what would a Black Jacket icon would look like? - well_there_it_is.jpg . On serious note, I think it is taken too literally) Devoted: nice Tactician: good, and really suggestive Brilliant Tact, and Tact Dilemma: really fitting, given Tactician's icon above Berserker: doesn't reflect the enraged nature of berserker. Maybe need some drop of blood? Corpse Eater: cheshire smile? Well... it is better than cadaver I guess. Furyshapper: unexpected, but actually ok ^^ Mageslayer: crushing the pentagram? Hmm, ok Assassin: ok Debonaire: good Cowardice: great Streetfighter: good enough Trickster: good enough Forbidden Fist: good enough Helwalker: don't like it. Looks like walking on pins/caltrops. Btw, isn't Hel a second name for The Beyond? Nalpazka: ok Shattered Pillar: duh Ascendant: good enough. But could you apply here those "wings" from Soul Blade? Beguiler: superb Soul Blade: quite nice, but atm, SB looks more ascending than Ascendant himself. Psion: don't like it. Gives an impression that he is looking at something in a strange window. The meditative state of Ascendant icon could fit here. Priest: all 8 are great

Those 10s are a lie, afaik. Chant's duration is 6s base + 3s linger. Or just 3s (with Brisk Recitation). Note: INT and PL can increase only linger.

Just in case: Aloth still has only 2 dispositions that he approves, in v5.0. So: Aloth approves 2; disapproves 3 Eder approves 5; disapproves 3 Maia approves 5; disapproves 2 Pallegina approves 4; disapproves 3 Serafen approves 4; disapproves 2 Tekehu approves 6; disapproves 2 Xoti approves 4; disapproves 3 P.S. But there is a mod that adds 2 extra (and lore-friendly) dispositions for Aloth to approve: link

Try to restart steam. Opt out of beta. Restart steam. Edit: Wormerine u ninja)

Can't do it via gamedatabundles/json modding, because there is no field/checkbox for that. And can't do it via dll moding either, since it is unclear to me what prevents targeting a launched target. protected bool AllowIncomingThreat() { AIBehaviorType currentBehaviorType = this.GetCurrentBehaviorType(); return currentBehaviorType != AIBehaviorType.PushedBack && currentBehaviorType != AIBehaviorType.Dead && currentBehaviorType != AIBehaviorType.Unconscious && currentBehaviorType != AIBehaviorType.Grabbed; } protected bool AllowOutgoingThreat() { AIBehaviorType currentBehaviorType = this.GetCurrentBehaviorType(); if (currentBehaviorType == AIBehaviorType.Stunned || currentBehaviorType == AIBehaviorType.PushedBack || currentBehaviorType == AIBehaviorType.Paralyzed || currentBehaviorType == AIBehaviorType.Terrified || currentBehaviorType == AIBehaviorType.KnockedDown || currentBehaviorType == AIBehaviorType.Dead || currentBehaviorType == AIBehaviorType.Unconscious || currentBehaviorType == AIBehaviorType.Launched || currentBehaviorType == AIBehaviorType.Grabbed) { return false; } AIBehavior currentBehavior = this.BehaviorStack.CurrentBehavior; return currentBehaviorType != AIBehaviorType.UseObject || !(currentBehavior.CurrentState is InUseState); } AllowIncomingThreat doesn't even check for AIBehaviorType.Launched. P.S. But could substitute the Prone and 1.5s Launch effect, with a 2.5s Prone instead.

Fixing these is fairly easy. You need to find the typo in game's stringtables, and create an override entry in a new stringtable (inside of the mod, with the same name and file hierarchy location). I have found and fixed around 20 typos from the last 2 pages on this thread. You can try the attached mod. P.S. It seems that typos posted before 15th December have been already fixed. CommunityPatchTypos.zip

Hah) No, she's pretty unique in that she is the only one summon of "CombatPet" type. Familiars are of "Summoned" type. And the remaining 3 types are: "Pet", "AnimalCompanion" and "NotSummoned" (which is a funny type for a Summon). P.S. Unfortunately off.documentation doesn't provide much insight on the difference between these. Maybe there will be something in the code...

^ Leaving unprotected Vela amidst enemies, indeed sounds against the spirit. But if she is kept under Withdraw or BDD for the full duration, I suppose it's ok. P.S. Vela seems to be considered a summon (with indefinite duration) of CombatPet type, whatever that means

A bloodmage/priest with BDD, Salvation of Time and a load of barrels ?) Whoa.. Edit: So... Tactician of Scaen, can cast Withdraw on Vela, and use Shadowing Beyond to get 3 discipline / spell usages over 12s? And after that use Unbending Trunk and Salvation of Time?

^ Probably that's why they decided to give Unreal Engine a try, instead of Unity (used in Pillars series).

Yeah, I do this before starting a new playthrough. Although I haven't actually "played" since December, and have been mostly checking/testing stuff.

Excessive saves, ehh. I have 200+ at the moment, and definitely noticed a heavy degrade in save/load menu performance. But I need all of them Also it's good to know that this was the last ~balance related patch. Saddening a bit though)

Regarding Vela: I wonder if her wandering behaviour changes if you remove her cower effect (which is actually a Terrify she casts on herself in combat, if she is not already under it's effect) And by removing I mean: trying Cap of the Laughingstock; or using Writ of Sorcery + Res inspiration; stuff like that.

Yeah, Ascendant must be weaker in TB than in RTwP. Because durations there are discrete, and speed bonuses don't allow you cast more than 1 power per round anyway, even if you have a ton of them. Ascended state base duration is 15s, so it will last 2 rounds afaik. In order to get to 3 rounds - you need 14 INT, and for 4 rounds - 22 INT, right? And ascendant in RTwP should be able to cast more than 4 powers in 24s. I wouldn't dump CON below 5, as it increases the chance to be oneshot from focus fire. As for RES, it's usually a good idea to either dump it completely, or max it to the roof (because increasing deflection and decreasing hostile effects duration is subject to increasing returns; also some builds might want to have high will vs Arcane Dampener). Just be aware, that if you need Magistrate's Cudgel mace you will need to pass 15 resolve check; or use console.

Yeap, quite so. Dex also adds 4% to Stride since v4.1.2, in TB, and although that's a smaller bonus compared to +3% action speed in RTwP, it is here to stay, because:

^ It will likely will. But it's mostly a nuisance, since after ~20 minutes the player will probably stack enough of them. And if he survived 20 min, he can stack them for extra 10-15 minutes just to be sure.

Yeah, afaik there is no protection vs making a copy of ToI save, and swaping that one in, in case of fail. Also it would make sense if the save included the hashsum of gamedatabundles. Because a player can edit enemy crit chance, AI behaviours, increase their cd times and other stuff like that; which will hardly be noticeable in a video. And here helps the "in a manner contrary to the spirit of the challenge" which kinda covers the concerns above, plus stuff like: - 2nd party software (everyone usually mentions only 3rd party one ^^) - existing in-game bugs, like making more than 20 stacks with Beast's Claw (e.g. what will Belranga do, if you have 200+ extra acc/deflection vs beasts). Or I remember being discussed that it was possible to stack all existing food bonuses. - existing "exploits", although I don't really know how we gonna figure out what is intended, and what is not, e.g: stacking 700+ Resonating Touch instances on Dorudugan in order to insta-kill him and bypass the spells which his AI starts casting at 50% and 25% hp, doesn't really seem intended, no? or how about abusing enemy targeting behaviour? like getting out of range before his melee attack hits, or using a summon which the enemy will be chasing in a circle? there was a video of stacking Brilliant duration, via using Wall of Draining on barrels. also, can players use ApplyOverTime effects? These are currently affected by INT (last tested in v4.1.2). And it can potentially bring stuff like Unbending Trunk to the former glory. Think for example of tactician/rogue with Unbending and Pernicious Cloud (which will be able to clear 99% of content relatively safely; although yeah, dunno what he will do vs Dorudugan's mind immunity and thus lack of flanking). also, can players use recursive shenanigans with Mortars/Rods?

1. Can't tell. I've tried TB briefly in 4.1.2. But the poor translation of action speed bonuses into actual benefit, felt underwhelming for me. On the other hand if you are ok with dumping DEX on all party members, it's not a problem at all. You can try a few combats in both modes, and see what suits you best. 2. It depends on the fight, and the amount of different, yet suiting spells that you will use in actual combat. For example streetfighter/ascendant is definitely strong, but gets too repetitive after awhile. Default soulblade is also boring (you just use the same 1-3 martial abilities to generate focus and SA). Beguiler, Trickster, Bloodmage might be more fun from this point of view. But still, it's a subjective topic. 3. Depends on what do you want from your cipher. If you want an overall damage dealer, than going for an MC ascendant or soublade multiclassed with some martial class (especially fighter, rogue, or barb) is a good idea, since such multi-classing will result in the quickest focus generation. For a cc cipher, you might want to go for sc-beguiler, or beguiler/trickster or beguiler/assassin. And for a jack-of-all-trades cipher, I'd say go for sc-beguiler or sc-ascendant (if you are ok with switching firearms). These are good if you need those Driving Echoes and Death of 1000 Cuts for the boss fights. As for non-boss fights, single-class cipher's points forte are: Time Parasite + Shared Nightmare. A beguiler would be able to apply all his cc effects in a really large AoE; while ascendant would be able to spam Amplified Waves one after another. Generally I would advice taking two ciphers: one multi-classed (specialized on maximing his "total damage"), and a single-classed beguiler or ascendant (that usually cc or support, but are able to assist with Driving Echoes and Death of 1000 Cuts later on) 4. Ascendant/Streetfighter ,Tactician/Ascendant or Tactician/Soulblade for damage dealing (from lvl 1 to lvl 20). Mindstalker will have higher burst early on. While psyblade is sturdier and has access to a really amazing Clear Out (and tactician is there, just so you can use more of those). Otherwise you can give up on Tactician and Clear Out and go for Devout and use mainly Penetrating Strike instead (with sabres, mortars, battle axes or swords). Personally I am thinking about trying Tactician/Soublade with Eager Blade as main damage dealer (with Clear Out, Mob Stance and Bounding Strikes), and a jack-of-all-trades single-class Ascendant (quick-switching firearms), who would make sure that all enemies are flanked (Phantom Foes), and will later assist with Reaping Knives on the psyblade, Driving Echoes on my battlemage, Death of 1000 Cuts on bosses (note: both ciphers will be able to use Antipathetic Field for extra 'cuts'), and ofc with quick spamming of Amplified Waves (while ascended + quickened via Time Parasite + 200% AoE from Shared Nightmare)