dgray62

I think that the only penalty is -3 diplomacy, which applies to anyone who eats it.

Thanks for the clarification. I misread your response. Truly, +5 PL unrestricted would be über OP.

Wow, that's great. I recommended FF just for the +4 RES. But +5 PL on top would be fantastic. But didn't the food description say "+5 Corpse Eater PL"? As a result, I assumed it was for barb abilities only.

For thematic reasons only, I always wanted to play a Corpse eater/shifter, a werewolf that consumes the corpses of its victims. This patch makes the build worthwhile. On the other hand, Forbidden Pie would be great for a corpse eater/forbidden fist build.

Both a Psyblade and Battlemage are a lot of fun to play. However, if you want to go with Tactician, Battlemage is superior IMO b/c wizards benefit much more from Brilliant.

Doesn't cipher get MUT too? I could have sworn that they get this.

I've never tried a Tactician/Fury, but I have played solo with a Tactician/Bloodmage. It's one of the classic solo builds; it plays much better solo than in a party, in fact.

Yes, I wouldn't recommend a shifter/caster MC. Given the inability to cast spells while shifted, the martial MCs are best, since you can use their passives and abilities while shifted. As for spells, when I play shifter, I usually cast a HoT spell and a few DoT spells, like Relecntless Storm, Plague of Insects and Infestation of Maggots, and then shift. The nice thing about the Tempest MC is that when your DoT spells kill a target, Bloodlust and Bloodthirst boost your attack speed. As for missing out on nice weapons and armor, I share your regret. But the animal claw attacks are fast and powerful, and the spiritshift armor is great, with no recovery. So it's not a bad tradeoff.

Another option is quarterstaves. The quarterstaff modal is nice for a caster, and you could use the lvl 1 summoned quarterstaff, with the ultimate goal of getting the Chromoprismatic Staff. It has great upgrades for both the wizard and fighter sides. So many great choices! But for solo, I'd probably go with tactician/bloodmage. You wouldn't have to make the choice with this build, and could select the best weapon for the situation, as you acquire them. I think you'll find, at least if you play martial/caster multiclasses in the way that do, that as the game progresses, that you'll rely more and more on spells, and less and less on melee to inflict damage, making the nice devoted bonuses ultimately unnecessary. Brilliant from tactician, however, is always nice, and it creates a nice tactical challenge to proc it in every battle, which helps keep the game interesting.

I had fun playing an assassin bellower using the blightheart arquebus. You attack from stealth with the gun, then go invisible with smoke veil, and then attack from stealth with an invocation such as Her Revenge. Between the assassinate bonuses and the bellower's increased PLs your attacks will melt most enemies. And with blightheart, you get a phrase back for each kill, so you can just repeat the above until everyone's dead. It's great fun if you like the solo sneaky approach to the game. However, if you try this, don't upgrade Blightheart to level 3 (by killing 10 enemies with empowered attacks). This is because corrupting beauty breaks stealth, and makes the weapon unusable for this toon.

If I recall correctly, this thread discussed getting a huge AOE with watershaper's focus using a SC soul blade with shared nightmare, with a huge amount of focus, achieved by extending the soul blade's increased focus after melee kills using the strand of favor.

Shifter is great multi-ed with a martial class. Shifter-rogue is very good. You might consider shifter-trickster for better defences, or shifter-streetfighter for better offense. The former option seems to be pretty popular; a lot has been written on it online. As for shifter/barbarian, Jayd wrote a nice build for that. He recommends shifter/furyshaper, but shifter/berserker is viable too, as is discussed on that thread. The nice druid HoT spells, cast before shifting, can help keep you alive. Shifter/paladin would also be nice for better defences and an even higher AR. If you go this route, you might consider going with Bleak Walker for multiple lashes, or steel garrote, for even better healing, if you don't mind the "evil" dialogue options. You might consider shifter/forbidden fist monk as well.

In my experience FF/SB is a great multiclass. You get two fantastic abilities starting at lvl 1, the forbidden fist attack and soul annihilation, and, if you have Community Patch installed, you can alternate between them with sufficiently high RES to minimize the curse duration. The subclasses harmonize very well, since the cipher can maximize the length of enfeebled and other afflictions you inflict, while the cipher can boost your RES, which is great for the monk. You can destroy single enemies quickly, and when you want, you can cast cipher powers for CC and damage to multiple foes. It's a great pick if you want to play a melee oriented transcendent.

Either a howler or witch with Willbreaker would be great, since the weapon would debuff both fortitude and will, making foes more vulnerable to many of your chants/invocations or cipher powers. If you go with howler and install the balance polishing mod and chose the Fox from the Farmer chant, you'll be a walking universal debuffer, since that chant also debuffs reflex in the BPM.

Evasive Roll is a great ability. Escaping without triggering disengagement attacks is essential for a ranged build, and the quick inspiration lasts as long as the monk's swift flurry, 10 seconds base, and potentially much longer with INT and PL boosts.

This is the biggest downside to SC ranger in my opinion. You really need a cipher pal to cast brilliant on you. I've never tried playing a solo SC ranger for this reason.

I'd second the Berserker/skald suggestion. There's great synergy in this combo. In addition to those Boeroer mentioned, the Berserker's hit to crit conversion also helps. The Old Siec chant will also help keep you alive late game when the raw damage from frenzy gets heftier.

The nice thing about spiritshifting for this build is the lifegiver boost to healing as well as the cat flurry speed boost. When you really need this is for tough fights later in the game, prolonged with wall of draining. Before you get that spell, you can stay in kith form using whatever weapons and armor you wish. Not So Clever Hound's weapon and armor suggestions were for items that give you a boost at the very start of the game and which persist even when shifted, and which can be extended with WoD. So his build is based on the assumption that you will shift in pretty much every battle.

Perhaps you might consider a brute multiclass, perhaps Berserker/devoted. The reason for this is the Brute Force passive barbarian ability that allows you to target fortitude rather than will. Since the morningstar modal debuffs will, this means tons of crits for barbs wielding a morning star. Willbreaker is a classic barb weapon, and since it can debuff both fortitude and will, it makes the barb a great companion for spellcasters. But if you want to do devoted and a spellcaster MC using willbreaker, I'd recommend bloodmage or soul blade, since both wizards and ciphers have lots of spells that target will and fortitude.

Maybe try a steel garrote/berserker fanatic. The healing through melee attacks against afflicted foes will help mitigate the down sides of sacred immolation and berserker frenzy. You'd also want the voidward ring for sure. You might also consider using Lord Darryn's Voulge, for the AOE lightning explosions. You'll crit a lot with berserker frenzy and flames of devotion, especially if you also wear the ring of focused flame.

I'm very fond of all three of these MCs. A soul blade/vanilla wizard (or BM) is a lot of fun. But loremaster is great too; through chanter you can get energized, allowing all of your chants that roll against defenses (like Come, Come, The Fox from the Farmer & Long Night) as well as pulsing wizard spells to interrupt on crits. And spiritualist is also fun. Troubador/psion is great for constant renewable resources. You can just alternate between casting invocations and cipher powers. The only question is whether multiclassing is worth it with casters. With wizards, I really miss the tier 8 & 9 spells. But I do not really miss the tier 8 and 9 chanter and cipher abilities, which is another point in the column of spiritualist, IMO.

IMO, Tactician/Fury pales in comparison to Tactician/Wizard. My reasons for saying this are the following: 1. Wizards have far more versatile spell selection. You can also rely on grimoires for spells, which saves you from having to use ability points for spells. You can thus invest more points in passives and fighter abilities. 2. Chillfog is a much better spell than Sunbeam, and hence can be used far more reliably to proc brilliant. This is because its blind lasts a long time, and procs repeatedly, so if you miss on the first pulse you'll likely get them later without having to recast. Also, fewer enemies are immune to cold. With the fury, you'll be in trouble when you face foes that are healed by fire damage. 3. Later in the game, using Clear Out with Citzal's lance is a lot fun, when you feel like getting in some melee action. 4. Wizards can take advantage of a number of exploits, like Wall of Draining, to keep their buffs up. WoD with unbending trunk means virtual immortality. You don't have to use these exploits, but they're available if you need them.

For solo, a wildrhymer would be great. You could summon beasties to fight along with your animal companion and boost them with your chants and invocations. Also, Boeroer has a nice solo geomancer build. You can read about it here.

Well, no need to restart. I think that the stats you picked look fine!

Arcane Knights are classic and a lot of fun to play. The stats you picked look fine. You could drop RES a bit so as to further boost STR, but this isn't necessary.