Braven

For the gloves and hood, the endurance per kill is suppressed from the endurance regen of the Scars armor. Troll belt would probably do it too, or the mail armor in twin elms. Could be an option to avoid the negative effect, while still keeping the positive ones.

I have seen it range from 10 stat checks to 20. Generally, most are around 14-17. Higher numbers tend to be more impactful, but not always. Resolve seems to be the most important (sometimes using that stat is the only way to resolve a problem peacefully). That said, overall it makes little impact. There are always multiple solutions. You might just have to kill someone instead of resolve a problem peacefully, but that could be actually good (for loot). Or, if you are not against reloading a save game, you can use temporary stat boosters (food, items...) to get the number you need if you really want a specific conversation option.

I have mentioned this elsewhere, but if you want a quick cruel reputation, you can try slaughtering the whole caravan in the prologue. Not an easy thing to do, though. Particularly on POTD. But very satisfying.

3.0 also added a heal pet ability and revive pet for more healing. Also, an ability to makes a dead pet actually help the party (a vengeance-themed ability). That should further greatly help the viability problem. Great thing about having a pet tank some is that damage the pet takes does not count toward any health pool. For easier encounters, letting the pet take point can save on resting supplies. I think both ranged and melee work well for ranger. Ranged characters don't really need much con or resolve or heavy armor which allows more focus in offense stats. Stunning weapons is a great option or you can take the great soul bound bow. Also wounding weapons are particularly great with ranger. Melee can be very powerful, particularly if playing solo, but requires more careful positioning and care controlling who engages who. Disengagement defense can be good for that. I like having the ranger (or someone near the animal) wear "shod in faith" and have a pretty low resolve. This allows healing both the ranger and pet each battle. Moon godlike is also good for that, but sadly godlike cannot wear hats and there are so many good ones now. So I personally don't like them now. It would be neat if your pet could gain the healing multiplier from survival, but I don't think they do.

Even if endurance runs out, there is then other healing options like Unbroken. Boosts defenses as well as heals back to full instantly if endurance runs out; great with high Int and Might. I also now keep healing potions in a quick slot (didn't use any) in case I still haven't killed everything yet and I also have the "bind wounds" talent in case health runs low during a battle. There are other options, though I didn't use them, like unbending and shod-in-faith to increase endurance regeneration even more. When possible, it is best to "pace yourself" with abilities. Like, I don't want to use the knockdown, defense, and accuracy boosters until after triggered immunity is over (if I am expecting a long fight). Constant recovery lasts a long time, but those only last half as long.

How high was your Int, for your END reg to last that long? Also as I said the prone is not an issue at all, how did you deal with the scream and fire beam? My INT was 22. My might was 30. Dex was 23. I also had the +40% rest healing modifier from survival, cloak of the tireless defender, rapid recovery, and the +25 healing modifier belt. DEX was 25. See my "Glass Tsunami" build for more details. High intelligence and might is really key, which is why I think those are the two most important stats for a fighter. I think most people just assume fighters are supposed to be stupid and not give them intelligence.

My solo fighter had no issue with them. I put on some anti-prone armor and beat them up with zero-recovery double daggers (they are vulnerable to slash damage) and 9 DR bypass (vulnerable attack, effigy, gloves). Triggered Immunity prevented most of the damage early and later after it expired I knocked the remaining prone with barrage-accuracy-boosted knockdowns. Very high endurance regeneration stacking was able to keep pace with the big, but slow, enemy attacks. Granted, I was level 16 at that point. One annoying thing with the ambush attack is that you can't rest in the hut... so you might not have all your per-rest abilities and/or be low on health,right before the battle. Wasn't an issue for me, but I can see that being problematic.

Sounds like it could work well. Paladin has ways to get crits with sworn enemy and FOD. I recommend max might for the gun hits and for lay on hands and other healing, and immolation at level 13.

What happens when you run out of gun shots? Do you plan on kiting in and out of battle? Or alpha shot three times with FoD/wounding and then switch to traditional melee. In party, the battle is probably over by then, but not solo.

I like the belt. But losing that 25% heal multiplier from bountiful healing would reduce the regeneration. Maybe if the hide armor with healing multiplier is worn instead, but then DR is a lot worse. Maybe it works with some weapon speed configurations. Not sure. I have noticed that the scars armor suppresses the mourning glove's endurance per kill and the executioner's hood endurance per kill.

Yep, getting Fulvano's amulet is a big boost early. I noticed that Fulvano's gloves located at the very start of ACT1 on that cliff are much better now. I think they give +2 DEX. Great talents early are rapid recovery, vulnerable attack, two weapon fighting, and noble focus. I also found I liked the bonus knockdown talent a lot since it is so good with high INT and accuracy. I forgot to put it in the build, but I highly recommend getting it at some point. "Wound binding" is good if you find yourself running into health issues because of the low Con, or just want to rest less. I'm glad you are enjoying the character concept .

Congratulations! The game can indeed be beat by a level 1 solo character on POTD. Now no one can complain about the game being too hard. Did you ever wear armor, or just plain clothes in order to have the highest weapon recovery speed?

True, and the deflection nerf for paladin probably didn't help them out any here and I only ever tried on normal (which wasn't too hard; I don't think I even used a potion). Priests are pretty weak at level 1, so I imagine it would not be a pleasant experience. There are chokes where you can fight them one at a time. The only worthy opponents is the caravan leader and the rogue.

If you want to truly have an evil character, kill off the entire caravan in the prologue (I recommend killing off your fighter companion first while she is still in your party and fighting at a choke point) Some funny things happen. Also, it is a quick way to get a "Cruel" reputation bump.

Is there a hamster pet in the game? Doesn't even need to be an animal companion. There is a pet for nearly every other kind of creature in the game. It would be funny if someone modded the game to include BG companions instead, along with their own dialog, conversation interjections, side quests, and such. Would probably be quite the undertaking to do, though. In many ways the "watcher" is not that different from the MC's role in BG. Lot of plot similarities. Unexpected death in the beginning triggering the start of your adventure, slowly unlocking powers and discovering your previously unknown, rare and special powers. Running after an evil guy who knows all about who you are and responsible for said deaths. Different world, same story.

I think the idea is that characters with higher resolve are able to "shrug off" minor blows because of their superior determination. Think of it more like "tolerating" wounds than "blocking" wounds. Sort of like how people who are trained to be able to resist pain and torture if captured. It is not physical strength allowing this, but superior willpower.

it does work with ranged. At least it did in 2.03. I would often open with a big gun/arbalest shot using FoD to one-shot enemies. That is particularly good if you also use a one handed weapon since FoD is kind of wasted on those. Downside to only using ranged weapons is that you lose out on holding the paladin-only shield that buffs your party with +5 to all defenses. Also you are not really utilizing paladin's natural tankiness if hiding in the back.

All weapon setups require 2 Durgan. It is one Durgan per hand. So you spend the same with one or two handed weapons. That said, the benefits are best (for attack speed) if two one handed weapons are enchanted and equipped. It helps dual wielders by far the most because of how attack speed multiplies. (Attack speed bonuses of each weapon stacks and helps the speed of both weapons). +15% is really like +35% or more due to how the math works. But only for dual wielders.

I have soloed with a few classes. Wizards are good if you don't mind going nova every battle, spamming slicken/fireball, and resting a lot. For less micro management, the easiest, by far, was fighter. Paladin was also pretty good, though he didn't really peak until later after getting that level 13 immolation ability and accumulating crazy high defenses. He took forever to kill things but the stellar saving throws helped a lot with stun lock issues. This was before the paladin nerfs. The fighter was played on patch 3 and WM2 and has been great the entire game and can even handle dragons okay with a little planning, due to abilities like triggered immunity and unbroken (paired with high Intelligence). Most of the time just attacking head on works (along with figurine usage for tougher fights) which seems to be what you are going for. I used a very aggressive fighter build with max DEX, Might, and INT. The passive endurance regenerative is insane (over 20 per tick, and all key items available early in the game) and that helped a ton. I focused on the items that increase attack speed and healing (particularly healing multipliers and rapid recovery). Only thing to watch out for is stun/paralyze lock. Figurines help a lot for that and there are now some items that grant massive defensive boosts.

I was actually having a hard time extending duration with spelltongue, even with max attack speed and two of them. Maybe it depends on enemy type or if they have buffs? I think they might have changed how it works in 3.0. It helps some, but it is certainly not infinite like it used to be. Maybe a barbarian would have better luck. I also noticed that it would sometimes keep extending duration between battles until I saved and reloaded. I guess more bugs. In the end, it was just too buggy for my taste. I changed weapons in WM2 to the new soulbound dagger (the firebug is really powerful when it procs) and the rapier with speed and DR-bypass in my offhand. Somehow that combination resulted in no recovery bar despite plate armor, vulnerable attack, and cautious attack (I retrained just to see if cautious attack would harm speed at all; it did not as far as I could tell) and I had no buffs either (frenzy, etc). How that math works makes no sense to me, so maybe something about it is bugged. Another bug I noticed is that whenever triggered immunity expired, I would regain all my health to full. Also I noticed a DoT (damage over time) spell would trigger my Triggered Immunity based on the overall damage. It also completely blocks the damage that triggers it, effectively nullifying the spell completely. Early on, the Prone from knockdown worked well to reduce damage and constant recovery kept my endurance up without issue. The high INT means long prone durations and constant recovery. Barrage at level 4 provides makes long durations more reliable by adding +20 accuracy for the knock downs accuracy. Knockdown is also a full attack with +20%, which is quite damaging early on before you get stacking speed boosts for your weapons. I recommend rapid recovery for the first talent. It is much better than it used to be. Very early (like level 2) you can pick up an amulet of +25% healing multiplier. You will have no problem keeping up with damage with all the endurance regeneration combined with a high might and resting bonus adding another 20% multiplier. Also, even with bad resolve, you still have an okay deflection thanks to fighters starting with a whopping 30 now. Only thing to watch out for is the stunning mushrooms and phantoms. Your low con means stun lock is very possible. I suggest avoiding or sniping them with ranged weapons in ACT 1, or try to get the figurine ASAP to tank them.

I am playing a fighter now with latest patch. He does indeed benefit from INT. I think Eder has 10 INT, so it might look like INT plays no role for him. Speaking of INT, does anyone know if it affects on-crit weapon stun duration? For clear out, I probably saw the per/rest and immediately dismissed it as I don’t like rest limited powers. I like unleashing my full power every battle and only rest due to low health.

I think one of the monks drops them in a WM1 bounty quest.

Most people consider it a "bug" that Amplified Thrust generates focus, even though it has been that way for a very long time and has never been "fixed". What makes it more interesting now in 3.0 is that they buffed the damage and reduced the focus cost. Because of those changes, it now usually generates as much (or more if you land a critical) focus each time you use it. You can basically just cast it over and over and over again and kill everything near your other character. The new Reeping Knives also generates more focus than it costs to cast, over time, though that ability is clearly designed to work that way and isn't available until late game.

Have you tried out the newer fray, aoe cone prone, and overbearing abilities? Fighter doesn't have any AOE prone abilities (just knockdown and that disengagement one). Since I have only played Fighter recently as a solo build, I have not used Into-The-Fray or the disengagement one; they work better within a party. Fighter has so many good abilities that I can't fit them all into a build. This is particularly true with high INT fighters who benefit from all of them. My favorite from the new expansion is Charge. It is AOE, does tons of damage, and is twice per encounter. Also gets you right next to the nasty enemy casters before they can unload any spells so you can kill them or knock them prone.

I agree with the Cipher issue of, 'they all draw from same source, so only use best'. I dunno if a system where each power tier had it's own bar that got filled up as you did damage, and once it was full, could cast a power from that tier. Something like that so it's not just 'spam lvl 1 charm/level 2 para' or 'lol mindweb' A nice solution, that should also be pretty easy to implement, is to limit the number of times you cast a "specific" spell or power per encounter. This could apply to all casters too, not just cipher. You are only allowed to cast any given spell once. That will force people to actually vary up their spells which would be more fun, and it would reduce the power level of casters. No more unloading 6 fireballs in a row. No more slicken, fireball, slicken, repeat. No more endless amplified thrust.