Hulk'O'Saurus

If you're willing to give it a stretch, a sadistic Cypher may do the trick. Corpse Eater/Soul Blade for some Heavy Metal action. I mean eat bits from your fallen enemies.

I've always been wondering whether Hot Razor Skewers would be better instead of the Flesh Pie in this scenario. No Potion of Ascention? Does it not stack with the Pie?

Yeah, not arguing. You know, when I do chicken, I roast a whole one in an oven bag, then debone it and keep it like that in the fridge. Just a tip, if you like it.

I am sure it's really good, but I am not a fan of all the pan frying x)... you can cut down a lot of work if you just use more oven shenanigans.

I am not sure about Carnage procing off a single target. I don't know how it works. My Barbarian is rather weak. If you do get a Carnage proc on main target, then yeah, I suppose you can chip away happily till the end x). I am not sure about that working, though.

How's that clever?

ADHD kicking in... 100 % weapon Base damage.

Just spam yourself with stuff out of combat. Elemental minor injuries usually aren't that big of a deal.

Then that leaves you only with Fractured Casque. Using regular Lay on Hands and Gilded Enmity should be enough to keep you going through the whole thing. Does Uninterruptible prevent interrupts from the Vaporous Wizardry?

My crit rate also went down when I became lazy and used more scrolls xD. I was at a solid 50 % crit rate when I was chaining my Wizard spells proper and targeting mostly Reflex. Add in the occasional Nature's Mark or Pillar of Fire and you can do a lot. Also 25 % extra crit conversion from Shadowflame and occasional swing from Sun and Moon for more.

Well... here's an idea. You can try the Vaporous Wizardry and Rekvu's Fractured Casque. I don't know how they interact together, but it may just do the trick. I don't find the selection of spells in that Grimoire to be that great, but it'll do. 2nd idea for boss fights is to try the uninterruptible buff from the Lay on Hands. 2 zeal might be too much, but you may end up getting enough time to actually finish the fight.

Go for it, mate. I never tried it, though it was there. It does look fun, albeit more situational than just killing things withing 20s. Hey, if you can make it work, you're my hero. PS:What's your highest single dmg?

Casters don't have it easy with boss fights here in Deadfire. The bosses are much more bullet spongy compared to PoE, and scrolls, whatever people say about them, are the equalizer. It's not going to be easy to make the combination of an Arcane Knight more self-sufficient than what it is. But that applies mostly to bosses. For the large part of the game you will be able to use your bread and butter skills and make it. Again, I can't stress how important Llengrath's Safeguard is here. Since you already expressed worry over self-sufficiency, I just want to say that by choosing to get Merciless gaze over Combusting Wounds you do drop quite a bit of damage. Again, I'd do that because I like it. Just want you to know that it's not always the best choice. I already said that I value Concentration greatly. You don't have to use the Upright's Belt if you don't feel like it . Personally, I think Effect Duration is a better option here as it will affect both buffs and nukes. For race, you can always try Human as it will get the Fighting Spirit once Llengrath's procs and that's a very good buff. Once Llengrath's is on, managing hp is easier. Having any resistance is never bad, though a bit more situational, but you do have the most important resistance in Paladin kit--Perception Afflictions, so I think it's alright.

Back when Wizards were more op...

Oh, man. Sorry to say, but no. None of my characters clicked with me in that way :c. My experience of Deadfire is way more in the stat fest. I really can't remember anything that stood out.

Don't really know what to think here. Guess a case could be made for good/bad. I lean more towards Microsoft should stay out x).

In that case I'm the dummy.

Fairly certain Freezing Pillar is not in the Iron-Clasped. Still, the philosophy here is kill quicker with AoE. You can use your Zeal for upgraded Gilded Enmity--it will have 0.2/0.3 casting with no recovery to mark 10 or so mobs, then AoE them, get the Zeal back. Ninagauth's in this case will make a short work in non-boss fights. I suppose the choice at level 2 will come down to Merciless Gaze versus Combusting Wounds. Most would tell you to pick the Wounds and you won't make a mistake with that. Personally, I just don't like the spell . But don't let that dissuade you. You can still use a modal for -25 Fortitude to make sure it lands proper against bosses. And once it's landed, you could just spam Meteor Showers. Your spells will generally become more useful with Crusted Swordfish on. Not having the immunities from Captain's Banquet is a bummer, but it will make a lot of difference with 'managing' Wizard resources. If you make room for some of the defensive talents like Bear's Fortitude and such, you can actually become fully immune to statuses regardless. Worst case scenario is you using Scroll of Circle of Protection, plus if you make a habit of proccing Llengrath's +20 all defenses you can just carry that from combat to combat. Also, if you have Cancelhaut's Skull, you can use that in one boss battle of choice when you do a solo no rest run, or every boss battle if you're ok with the loss. It will add a stack of Crushing Doom debuffs for you to follow on. If you're no resting, you can still empower to get spells back and in some boss fights that's reasonable as it may mean 3 Crushing Dooms. An extra stack of Concentration is huge for me, personally. If it's not your thing, then by all means. It does give 1 Con and the push and pull do protect you from some of the knockdown effects in the game. You do get more of those with Galawain's Challenge on.

That's hardly difficult. You actually have a very good gimmick right there. Did you do it by not honouring your pledge to Berath from the first game?

Train of Thought. Peruse at will: I'm not too keen on the Inspired Defences. It might look good, but in boss battles their strikes usually take a bit longer than 3 s for it to count. And during most of the rest of the game they'll be changing their attacks, regardless. You can pick Llengrath's Safeguard instead, which is missing from your base selection... and that's a bummer. Mental Fortress is not that important. You can switch for something else, possibly Merciless Gaze. Retribution is also kind of meh, considering you do more with spells. You can look into more Wizard gizmos, instead. Ryngrym's Enervating terror doesn't help you that much. At this point you're better off either nuking or stacking defenses. You can change for Freezing Pillar, or take Secrets of Rime. Two Weapon Fighting is kind of unnecessary as you do get quite a bit of damage off your bread and butter nukes. You do dual wield two weapons to buff elemental damage and your Flame attack will be strong enough, even if slightly slower. If you can fit potion of Perfect Aim there somewhere, that'll help you greatly. I think you can swap the Moonwells out. Kill quicker, heal less. Belt of the Upright Captain will give you an important immunity and another stack of Concentration, so you can consider that, too. For tough mobs look into Nerin's Ward with Modal and wield Sun and Moon for Modal -25 reflex. Or if you don't want to be changing all the weapons around, you can just take Kapana Taga for extra tank. The extra downgrades help immensely. For bosses just dual wield Magran's and Sun and Moon. You can do a Red Hand for the weapon buff damage, though I don't know whether it will work for your dual wield setup. You can look into Gerrari's Skin, Fleshmender or Blackened Plate. All of these items have great enchantments that fit the build. Caroc is alright, but it doesn't benefit you that much, you being a caster. Lastly, that comes from me liking games like Underrail, you can just put all points into Arcana and possibly even pick a profession for it, as well. It will boost damage, penetration and accuracy. Need I say what difference that will make, but I know where all the traps are so... For some min max you can take Arcanist Balms before combat.

Ties with the poor pacing which comes with the semi-open world the game pursues. If you want to pace the game in a different way, you have to have previous knowledge and skip most of Neketaka at first. Other than that, there's lots of fighting in there, as well.

That one is tied with bringing new bodies into combat. A lot of people can experience that issue as Deadfire is one hell of an unoptimized game.

Llengrath's protects against all hits-spells included. Personally, I'd use it with everything, unless I am trying to give myself an extra big lash with Deltro's, but don't let that dissuade you.

And if you weren't a Trickster for Riposte?

...which one do you think you'd use?