Suxamethonium

I buff my cipher all the time. Body attunement and borrowed instinct at the time I hit ascended before I let fly with a series of shred spells, with borrowed instinct helping me score hits to rebuild focus once out.

Either of the two builds I am running with at the moment. I have an ascendant cipher who uses guns to build focus and then opens open with spells and a Priest of Margran / Bleakwalker Paladin who uses dual firearms using spells to crowd control and add extra damage. Either are a lot of fun. Cant decide which I like more.

I agree it feels like Priests copped it hard in this system and balancing them for multiclass seemed to take precidence over single class viability. My PoE 1 priest was a versatile spell caster who could dish damage reasonably and buff efficiently. He was the linchpin of the party which felt right as the watcher. I brought him into PoE 2 and found there was not a role that he wasn't supplanted in. Druids can be better healers, the buffs are not as vital and they can't deal substantial damage with spells. Then I rerolled and multiclassed with a Bleakwalker paladin and started wrecking things. If they made the buffs more significant, went back to full spell lists and perhaps implemented more casts per level for single class characters then the priest would be back. As it stands outside of RP elements I don't see any reason to have a priest as my main character.

I wasn't aware mugging was a capital offense now. Prison overcrowding is a big problem in Deadfire.

After rolling (and hating) a single class Priest, and playing for a while with a Cipher Ascendant which was fine, just a bit bland, I just re-rolled with a Templar (Bleakwalker/Magran) and so far am having a blast. Not only from a useful synergy of abilities (even early game which is nice), but I like the role-play aspect (a hotheaded man of faith and conviction that has yet to see a problem he couldn't shoot, burn or slice through). I worry how viable it will be from a dialogue point of view as things go on but so far really liking it (including leaving the village on the first island in tatters and leaderless after their leader decided that me killing her daughter after threatening me was a capital offence).

Your boat will still be fixed. Did that on my latest playthrough as a Bleakwalker/Margran Templar. Led to some interesting dialogue. I like not being the kindly hero (this is tyranny???)

I have tried a DPS fire priest (Magran). It always felt a bit meh, the spells felt lacklustre compared to wizard spells and the numbers of casts and lack of flexibility to use buffs when required if you spend your abilities on direct damage spells. A wizard you have better spells, more flexibility using grimoires and can attack at longer range to allow for added squishiness. Will be interested to see how others make it work though as from a role play point of view I prefer priests to wizards.

Played a few hours last night. Overall very nice, graphics are a good step up from the first, spell effects are excellent. Plot too early to tell. On the flip side I dislike the new spell system for wizards and for druids/priests. For me both classes have lost their innate flexibility. Wizards were flexible for the breadth of spells they could know, just had to plan what they would know at any time, while priests and druids knew less spells but having access to the whole repertoire made up for it. It may in the end be psychological, in reality I don’t think I often changed my grimoire in poe (nor in the infinity engine games) once I had it set, equally I use a handful of priest spells frequently. For me the priest was always good that you could pull out that spell you rarely used in a situation where it happened to be the right move, but no longer! I also must say I liked having to ration my spells, made spell use feel more deliberate. Overall I think there is an attempt to broaden the audience, but I think that has come with sacrifices to those who came with pre-existing nostalgia.

If the first is anything to go by then yes it will stop you getting achievements in that saved game. You could go back to before you used the command or start a new game.

I also wonder if it is worth considering that a mutliclass like a Cleric might be stronger if you aren't taking a priest and a fighter in your party, otherwise the priest will be better at buffing, and the fighter better at fighting.

I will probably be going as my Moon Goodlike Cipher which I will sublcass as an Ascendant that I first complete PoE with. Alternatively I might go as my close to being evil as I can get within the confines of the game Human Priest of Magran (again single class... some of the higher level abilities will I hope be worth the cost).

If I could buff up an elf that would be great.

Hmm... Well I hope to. Am trying to finish my playthrough of the original with the expansions before then. Have 2 characters close to that point, just can't decide which one I care about more to take through.

I like the talking sword, takes me back to Ultima 7 (and yes, get off my lawn!)

The only thing to add is that having played the original of late on my 15" 2017 MBP it gets frightfully hot. Doesn't seem to run into throttling or have any other adverse impact.