Ophiuchus

Traps could definitely use some love and Rogue or Ranger would be the ideal trap master. I head-designed a similar Rogue Bounty Hunter subclass but with per-PL trap "spells" and bonuses to Explosives; penalties were maluses (like lower defense or accuracy) when fighting non-kith foes. A shame I can't get beyond the basics of modding or I'd make it a reality.

*casts Minoletta's Ameliorating Missiles*

I can't vouch for TB either, and I agree with Kaylon. Trickster/Soulblade is one of the most satisfying "magical fencer" types you can get in Deadfire for the reasons he mentioned. A lot of forum regulars don't like using Cipher powers with the kit but I find slotting a few (cheap and early) game changers makes it more engaging: Mind Blades for triggering Combusting Wounds, Whisper of Treason, Secret Horrors, and such.

On AoE effects being borked: Maybe I'm just shooting into the wind here, but the component StatusEffectComponent.InclusionConditions was added to v4.1.0.0023. Curiously, it's not listed in the Game Data Formats Documentation or in the gamedatabundles.

I hadn't seen this one before:

YEP, I just skip it now after the first time because the fps is so bad. It's an issue throughout the game (I guess I play on a potato?) but especially bad in the SSS arena. That and the annoying backtracking for offerings makes SSS a slog on subsequent playthroughs.

Refresh my memory: will the -10 to all defenses from the Ben Fidel upgrade stack with those Fortitude debuffs? I want to try a cheese-free Howler soon.

I like to RP my Warlock as a Patrick Bateman type.

My main Watcher is a Pale Elf Seer who pledged to Galawain in PoE:1 so BoW and SSS spoiled me too much. FS is fun but I wish the dungeon had been a map screen longer - something about it feels "missing" in an MGS:V sort of way.

I want to believe in Everett's many-worlds interpretation. There's a dimension where bajillionaire Ophiuchus and Obsidian (developers of Fallout 3 and Fallout 4: New Vegas) made Arcanum 2 a reality.

I'm nearing 730 hours in Deadfire and still haven't fought the Guardian of Ukaizo because I always feel bad for the guy and free him. Maybe one day. They acnowledge the presence of the animal quite frequently which I appreciate: helps in bringing the animal into the story and ties it to the main character. @Ophiuchus Looking at your pets name I make a guess that you too made an attept to name it to fit White that Wends background. ha! I constantly struggle to remember how my rangers name is pronaunced. Sort of. I've been using "Volkhavaar" as a pet wolf name in RPGs since my UO days. I found it through an RP name list in an AOL message board ages ago. brb...need to go drink my Ensure.

Ranger has a lot of great dialogue throughout the game.

I'm hopping into BG:EE since I never played the original. It's going to be a fun ride since Deadfire's mechanics have spoiled me.

I played around with your Skald mod, and had a blast with a Harbinger Trickster. Good work, Stardusk.

I could not get this thing to work for me! Shame because I’d really like to. Anyone have a helpful guide on how to use? It hasn't been officially updated in a while but there's a fix, which still works with the current version: https://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/7112276-unity-console-for-poe2-30-bugs/ Make sure to save before using UC. It's been having issues "storing" progression tables since 4.0. For example, I changed Aloth into a Blood Mage/Sharpshooter and respeced him several levels later. The respec defaulted him to a single class Conjurer with no starting abilities so I had to use UC a second time to fix it. Edit: I should also mention UC can be a resource hog at times. I often disable it by removing the pillars.py file.

Could you also use Helm of White Void on Bleak walker for even more acc, since I think FOD applies an affliction (Sickened)? You're correct. Helm of the White Void is insanely good on a variety of classes.

Art theft is the best way to make money early on. With enough STR (I think that's the right stat - it's been a while) you can pick up and store oil and water barrels - useful for setting up ambushes. You can use the same feature to store locked chests in case you can't immediately open them.

Not gonna lie: I read that as a motivational speech you'd find in an anime.

AoE weapons still won't apply afflictions - curiously, the effects of Stalking Cloak and Ring of Clenched Muscle work, though.

Favorite for RP: Pale Elf since I never got over that "long white hair is cool" phase of the late '90s/early 2000s. Favorites for stats/bonuses: Hearth Orlan and Nature Godlike.

This changes a lot. How can you tell which actions break stealth and which do? Is there a list? And do actions which break stealth not benefit (since their recovery won't actually be in stealth)? Purely defensive abilities (such as Form of the Delemgan and Moonwell) won't break Stealth; offensive abilities (Plague of Insects, Sunbeam, a plain attack) will. In both cases, they'll receive the 85 percent recovery reduction. Like Boeroer said, you can use this to quickly chain buffs.

The Tempest Lifeshaper Here’s a build I’ve been floating around the forums lately: a Furyshaper/Lifegiver that fits the RP and aesthetic of a Witch Doctor or Shaman. The Tempest Lifeshaper is meant to be used in a party setting, and can deliver powerful DoTs and HoTs, and support via speed and defensive buffs and Afflictions. As you can guess, this build is held together by The Spine of Thicket Green’s +3 to Beast and Plant PLs, Lifegiver’s +2 PL to Rejuvenation, and Nature Godlike’s Wellspring of Life for an additional level. Furyshaper was chosen for the totem aesthetic and bonus party speed via Shape Ward: Frenzy. Since Druid’s DoTs are mostly raw damage, and because this is a mid to backline character, this multi doesn’t benefit much from Berserker’s bonuses. The +10 accuracy versus spirits serves the RP. Lifegiver can’t cast Druid summons, which isn’t a problem since totems takes up the slot anyways. We’ll also want to keep the Spine of Thicket Green’s bonuses up and will refrain from shifting to avoid the PL penalty - +3PL to Rejuvenation works just fine. Mind that this isn’t one of those ultra-hardcore min-maxed to the marrow kind of builds. [Nalpazca]: “Those circles, man…” ------------------------------------------- Game version: 4.1 Difficulty: Veteran/PotD (upscaled) Tested: Veteran/Upscaled (about halfway through PoTD atm) Solo: That ain’t my bag, baby! ------------------------------------------- Race: Nature Godlike Class: Tempest (Furyshaper/Lifegiver) Culture: Deadfire Archipelago or The Living Lands Background: Whatever suits you. I’m fond of Clergy or Explorer. ------------------------------------------- Stats: (Note that I’m one of those weirdos who doesn’t like to min-max so adjust these to your liking. This multiclass suffers from penalties to Deflection and Will so dropping Resolve too much might not be the best idea.) Mig: 17 (+2 BB) Con: 8 (+2 BB) Dex: 11 (+1 Godlike, +2 BB) Per: 13 (+2 BB) Int: 17 (+1 Godlike, +2 BB) Res: 8 (+2 BB) ------------------------------------------- Skills: Active: Again, whatever suits you. Arcana offers some extra abilities via scrolls while Stealth is useful for early combat buffing. I like investing three points into Athletics for old times’ sake. Passive: Survival, Insight, and Intimidate fit the RP. ------------------------------------------- Abilities: Character Creation: (Furyshaper) Frenzy: Frenzy is the cornerstone of this build, providing Strong (+15% Damage and Healing, +10 Fortitude), Fit (+15% Health, +10 Fortitude), and a 25% bonus to Action Speed. Naturally, this will be your main trigger for Nature Godlike’s Wellspring of Life so you’ll want it on all the time – though remember it lowers Deflection by 10. (Furyshaper) Shape Ward: Frenzy: Shape Ward: Frenzy is why we decided to go for Furyshaper. While the +10% Action Speed bonus isn’t huge, it applies to a wide area and stacks with similar bonuses (including Frenzy), making it ideal for allied casters and archers/gunners. (I’m fond of stacking it with a Chanter using Sure-Handed Ila and Gersnic.) Positioning the totem can be a bit tricky and often depends on terrain and your party composition. I usually try to summon it in the midline and away from my party’s direct path: just enough for it to cover the team while keeping it out of enemy AoE. I also try to summon it from Stealth to lower the recovery time. Try to keep your totem from expiring (either through damage or time) because you will incur a universal -1 penalty to your PL. Enemies don’t target it often but it has weak defenses and will fall fast to splash damage. Note that your defensive and healing spells will affect it and summoning a new totem while the current is active will not trigger the penalty. (Lifegiver) Sunbeam or Charm Beasts: Sunbeam doesn’t fit the build as thematically well as others but it has a long range, offers Blind, and when used in conjunction with Spirit Frenzy (Staggered), is a nice way to apply two afflictions at once. Charm Beasts is situationally useful and pairs better with the core theme of this multiclass, though I find Hold Beasts’ Paralyze a bit better for the bonus chance to crit. Note: Tanglefoot is a fair choice since it’s keyworded to Plant and can be negated through Form of the Delemgan. However, our Spirit Frenzy will still apply Staggered. (Lifegiver) Nature’s Vigor (Free): It’s free but Frenzy already covers our Wellspring of Life. Save this one to counter Con afflictions. (Lifegiver) Spiritshift: Pick what you’d like. Since we want The Spine of Thicket Green glued to our hands, we won’t go into animal form often. ------------------------------------------- PL1: Fast Runner: Fast Runner is useful since some of your more powerful abilities (Nature’s Balm, Venombloom) are short range and you may need to re-position your totem during longer battles. (Lifegiver) Touch of Rot or Charm Beasts or Nature’s Mark: Touch of Rot scales well with PL but has problems reaching PEN on PoTD when multi-classed. Nature’s Mark is decent early on. ------------------------------------------- PL2: (Furyshaper) Thick Skinned: The extra engagement is marginal since we’re hugging the back/midline but +1 AR versus physical damage ain’t bad. (Furyshaper) Wilder Hunter: A situational +25% damage versus Wilder, which will translate to our DoTs. We’re picking this one since our passives are limited – the weapon passives won’t do much for us since Spine of Thicket Green is a stat stick. (Lifegiver) The Moon’s Light (Free), Insect Swarm, and Hold Beasts: At PL2 we finally get access to our first HoT with The Moon’s Light; and our first Beast DoT with Insect Swarm (which prevents enemy Concentration!). Hold Beasts is situational but has a hefty 20 second base duration and a long range at 15m. ------------------------------------------- PL3: (Furyshaper) Bloodlust: Bloodlust is a bit clunky as we rely on DoTs for damage but the effect will trigger enough against larger groups. More speed is always appreciated. Bull’s Will: A crucial defensive bonus since this multi has awful Will. (Lifegiver) Nature’s Balm (Free) and Infestation of Maggots: Garcon! More HoTs and DoTs, please! ------------------------------------------- PL4: (Furyshaper) Shape Ward: Fear (Free): Our second and last ward as a multi-classed Furyshaper. This one pulses Terrify versus Will every three seconds, and works well as a defensive tool but the pulse range seems bugged (it’s roughly half of the circle). Between it and Shape Ward: Fury, I prefer the latter since there’s other sources of Terrify and Venombloom procs Frightened. Also, passive bonuses won’t apply to it and PL only increases its duration, so it doesn’t mesh too well in PotD. (Furyshaper) Spirit Frenzy: Spirit Frenzy is another one of our core abilities, so pick this up as soon as you get to level 10. The Staggered proc combines well with all of your offensive spells, notably Plague of Insects and Venombloom to lower the enemy’s outgoing and incoming healing. Like I mentioned above, it also pairs well with Sunbeam for backline harassment. (Furyshaper) Unflinching: For one humble ability point, we gain Resistance to Mig, Con, and Dex afflictions so long as our Tempest’s health remains at 75 percent and above – not too shabby considering it prevents our Frenzy Inspirations from being stripped by Staggered and Sickened. (Lifegiver) Moonwell (Free) and Form of the Delemgan: Moonwell is another solid HoT that provides some fair (+10) defense though I think The Moon’s Light scales better with PL since it’s a lower-level spell. Form of the Delemgan deserves a slot for its swath of bonuses (+25% Stride, +20 Defense while disengaging, immunity to Dex afflictions, +6 AR versus Burn, Pierce, and Shock): handy versus archers, gunners, spiders, Rathun, and the like; and it couples well with Wizard’s Binding Web. ------------------------------------------- PL5: Note: I don’t like the Empower mechanic much, so we’ll be dipping into more PL5 passives to help solidify the build. (Furyshaper) Leap: Leap is useful as an escape or repositioning tool but use it sparingly since it’s costly. (Lifegiver) Cleansing Wind and Plague of Insects Cleansing Wind is meh since it’s not tagged as a Rejuvenation spell, and therefore won’t be affected by Lifegiver’s bonus. Plague of Insects is our most powerful friendly-fire DoT: combining damage, Sickness, and Concentration disabling; its wide area and superb range (15m!) lets you cast it from safety. Rapid Casting, Practiced Healer, Other Defensive Passives They do what they say on the tin. ------------------------------------------- PL6: (Furyshaper) Tough: We’re not going to be investing too much into Furyshaper’s abilities at this point so Tough can be reserved for this PL. (Lifegiver) Garden of Life (Free), Venombloom, *Rot Skulls: Admittedly, I haven’t used Garden of Life enough to vet it (the other HoTs do the job fine) but it seems alright so long as gibs are turned off. Venombloom is a powerful friendly-fire Plant DoT that also inflicts Weakness and Frightened (and Staggered!) – it has a short range and can be hard to see in the heat of battle so be wary. *Sometimes I like to use One-Handed Style and Rot Skulls against trash mobs and for fun/RP. Note that this will reduce the strength of your ongoing Beast and Plant DoTs since the skulls replace SoTG. (Lifegiver) Quick Summoning or Spell Resistance Totems are slow to cast/recover, and you have low Deflection and Will. ------------------------------------------- PL7: (Furyshaper): Blood Thirst Like Bloodlust, Blood Thirst will trigger sporadically but negating the recovery time on your next action has immense value. (Lifegiver): Nature’s Bounty This is a weird spell that’s a bit finicky to use but the +20% Action Speed is there for classes without those bonuses and the healing is decent. (Lifegiver): Rusted Armor or Weather the Storm Both are situational; note the Burn and Shock AR on Form of the Delemgan won’t stack with Weather the Storm. ------------------------------------------- Gear: The Furyshaper/Lifegiver is a character meant to support a party, and as such, as your gear choices will vary based on party composition. Generally, I go with: Weapon: The Spine of Thicket Green (duh) upgraded with Empowering Instinct and Purifying (it seems Poison/Disease threats are more common than Plant/Decay). The bonus accuracy and damage versus vessels applies to your DoTs! Armor: Fleshmender’s (relatively) higher AR may deter ranged enemies from targeting you. Aloth’s Leather Armor has some nice upgrades. Changeling’s Mantle would fit it well thematically but I haven’t tried it yet. Armor (Modded): Checoden’s Deadfire Tweaks mod makes Xoti’s vestments a proper enchantable armor suited for healing. Head (if not going Godlike): Helm of the White Void adds +10 Accuracy to abilities attached to Afflictions. (I wonder how Spirit Frenzy would work with this?). The Helm of Grotto’s Deep is nice for its +2 INT. Necklace: Charm of Bones for +2 Int and more accuracy versus Vessels. Cloak: Cloak of Greater Deflection/Protection by your preference. Cloak of the Theocrat is alright if you can find one. The Magnificent Escape Cape is good in a pinch. Hands: Gauntlets of Ogre Might (+2 Mig) or Woedica’s Strangling Grasp (+2 Mig, +2 Burn AR) Rings: Rings of Minor Protection, Unshackling, and Overseeing depending on the situation. Waist: Belt of the Upright Captain. One bad pull or push with wreck you fast. Boots: Footprints of Ahu Taka for +2 Dex and +10% Healing. Pet: Nalvi ------------------------------------------- Thanks for reading. Like I said, this build won’t let you solo Sissak on PoTD/upscaled while singing Aim Spirente in your shorts but it’s definitely fun.

Dynamic Priests + Deadfire Tweaks + TT1 Unique Items + Deadly Deadfire feels like the ultimate experience.

I get 60fps with all graphics (except lights) set to max. Exceptions dip to 30-35ish and have noticeable stuttering/tearing when moving the screen: Queen's Berth, Ft. Deadlight Exterior, the NW room in Hanging Sepulchres, The Crucible, and ship battles.

Ah, right. I forgot Energized is a guaranteed interrupt on Crit whereas Interrupting Blows is a 50 percent chance on melee crits. I still like having the passive since SSS is lategame stuff.