Constentin Lévine

By memory i had reach PL32 with a SC Bellower, but with many items and micro at the combat start. But more simply, reach the PL25 is not a big deal. I wrote here my steps and in comment there is a screen of the Old Nary invocation at PL32 (24 bounces). It is not possible to reach a same power with a troub, but versatility is also a kind of power.

Do you think if you deal a crit with Last Word (quieting) when he is preparing his abilities that can interrupt him?

Potentially modals can provide one inspiration per proc and the powder burns proc on each target on the AoE! maybe, with AoE weapons, other modals can also give a lot of inspirations, bur imbued spells by themself doesnt really work well for Least Unstable Coil, it is really depending of AoE / multihit ranged weapons (even if only one target per bounce ill trigger the spell). nice find however!

Of course, the status effect is a named effect, the effect is extended as intended even if upgraded or downgraded. In the Character windows, they appear as Energized at the Blood Storm effect for example

It is doable but the AI will target the character involved as a AoE center, with buffing spells, so it is not easy to get the party full buffed via AI script. You have to choose as condition Have a ... inspiration (and select NO) >> then use the spell ... Script like that until you choose the spell that give the inspiration (doale with the mod you installed), then script an attacking behaviour (and manually switch to manual instead of AI for example). I think you can have that you want like this, but i cant try it for you for the moment..

Actually the chant is also lowering might by 2, stackable with might affliction of course, so -4 fortitude on top!

And Engagement, as great CC effect, is more easy to manage than Disengagement. Of course you can make some really efficient builds about these attacks (especially about to take disengagement attacks) but it is not commun for enemies to break the engagement (excepted while under Swift insp). So they usually stay immobilized for free.

There is a nice way to be melee-caster without the impression to use only one of the two involved classes instead of both if you want : Multiclassed Chanter as frontliner use chants-invocations-melee skills in fully potential, and is fun to play (I think). Barbarian (Mage Slayer) + Chanter with Effort/Frostseeker ; Barbarian (Berserer) + Chanter (Beckoner or Troubadour) with Grave Calling + sellies ; Monk + Chanter with Her Revenge and potentially +15%+15%+20% lash in melee ; Rogue + Chanter as CC (fast and interrupting). I know you plan to play Herald but as support, it is not the same thing for Chanter. Excepted for the supporting chant At the Sight, at first level : +10 Fortitude is great even at end game in my concern (Might and Con are always my lower stats for my general party).

Windows key + PrtScn 🙂

Eventually you can invest in arcana with a SC assassin, and the shadow from Vanishing Strike can give you the assassinate bonus to a Storm of Holy Fire, or others. But, of course, it is available at the level 19 so.. Or for action economy! Most of the time I start the fights with a Pull of Eora while the party is stealthed, between them and the enemies, then i wait the spell is refreshed for my caster to break the stealth. Enemies come and are trapped, for "free".

Excepted if you equip the pistol in main hand and the sabre in off, with some abilities like swift flurry, Clear Out, the Barbarian riposte ect.. i dont see a way to force your character to use the firearm at melee while equiping a melee weapon at the same time too..

I'm agree for the squishy aspect of SC cipher, at less until you get some reliable stuff or party-assist abilities. So, quaterstaff as two handed weapon (modal +25 deflection at melee, long range) or dagger as one handed (modal +25 deflection at melee, +other weapon slot ) can be more efficient than a shield vs melee attacks. The cipher' subclasses are really well designed imo to concord with differents playstyles, and at melee the SoulBlade subclass take care of the Concentration problem when you constantly alternate between melee attack and spellcast : You gain Concentration on melee weapon kill (and max focus). Weapon's abilities like the per rest spells attached to the Amira's Wing rod or the Thunderous Report on the Kitchen Stove blunderbusse, generate focus and can be basically considered as an interruptor button to be ascended. Once, switching to another weapon slot more relevant for the situation (shield, dagger, whatever else) is nice since when ascended, spamming spells for free is more interresting than attacking with weapons.

Each head of Sun and Moon can crit, with the one handed style for each. To melee knockdown effect, you can have better result with Ball and Chain (Subugation) in main hand and Mohora Tanga (Red Flag) (or Sun and moon eventually) in off hand, with Monk. I think the topic is more about to find some way to profit with push effects, but the game is not designed vertically.. With a wizard, ou can steal and spam Winter Wind, and as SC wizard, you can focus on that your character maybe : Winter Wind and Pull of Eora stealed, Llengrath's Wardind Staff, Minoletta's Piercing Sigil eventually.. To spam Pull of Eora is like spamming Ryngrim's Repulsive Visage, it is very funny and very efficient! And you can push other enemies in the PoEora web with Winter Wind..

I tried, when I would find a good strategy in combinason with Arterial Strike, a monk with Instrument of Pain using Efficient Anguish (IoP for the +500% melee range). The red hand (Twin Slugs, 4m push on hit) is really an equivalent but with auto-attack. In other hand, Efficient Anguish can be used with AoE weapon to push many targets. Also, Clean attacks from fighter, with in main hand Xefa's Empirical Explications (Matter Repulsion) or Eccea's Arcane Blaster (Force). Paired with Ranger (for Driving Flight) that was a pushing wave. Matter Repulsion bounce, on top of the Xefa's attack itself. (with Avenging Storm, it is easy to see the incredible area of the Xefa's clear out wave) It is great but expensive however. SC ranger with Whirling Strikes (with the same weapons) have the same problem, but also give some DoT. Driving Roar + Blood Storm is a really strong and cheap equivalent! It is like an Hard CC killing stuff, since enemies are constantly pushed and cant play with us.

For Magran's flavor perspective, I guess you want to pick the fire elementals druid's spells, lie Firebug or Sunbeam. I suggest to you to also choose some elemental and neutral spells, like Calling the World's Maw, Embrace the Earth Talon, and Form of the Demelgan. There is a lot of fire immune enemies in the game, but with a party, and some versality on your character, that is not a big deal! Since your stats are saying your magran character is not designed to stay at the frontline, you can easily have two weapon sets, the first to auto-attack at range , and the second (and third?) to boost your magical skills. Sun and Moon, later Magran's Favor, increase your fire PL by 2 ; Lord Darryn's Voulge the tempest KW by 3. Some pets like Otto (sold at Neketaka) increase fire KW by 1, and the Firethrover's gloves give you +1PL to evocation KW. Some of your Magran's spells are tagged as Evocation in the base game (unmodded). These gloves give you also +1arcana, and invest to this skill can be nice to get some ( fire) spells on top. Scion of Flame give you +1pen to fire spells, so +2pen for Firebug and the other druid's fire spells. I think the Necklace of Fireball (with 8 charges) can be recharged when getting the same item on the first position in the inventory. This item is pretty common.

For the SC soulblade, there is a lot of weapons that can help a lot to refill your focus, with Shared Nighmare. Amra, Keeper of the Flame, Sungrazer, Karaboru, Eager Blade, Acolyte's Frostbite, Grave Calling etc, with some AoE damaging effects that work well with the melee / focus side. Frostfall is a very good weapon for melee (or ranged, but attacking ith weapons) cipher , the enchantment Dispersed Suffering work on any weapon kill (even from another weapon equipped in the other hand) and because some Cipher buffs depend to the linked enemy debuff ( Borrowed Instincts, Time Parasite, Body Attunement ect), this weapon can increase your melee potential. To get some focus easily you can also cast Reaping Knives on another caster , giving you back 5 focus per spell launched (I mean not depending of the number of enemies but if the spell launch some "copy" of it per interval, you can eventually have a "Psion passive") Screaming Souls dont work on the base game but this spell is corrected by some mods. As shred spell, with skellies and Death of 1000 Cuts, that can be a little crazy too. For MultiClass purpose, the +20 all defenses from Borrowed Instincts dont stack with same type bonuses (+% all defenses) but with specified ones (+% deflection, +% reflex etc). Trickster with these wizard spells work fine. Fighter, with this +20all defenses ability, dont, but you are planning to down enemies with weapons and fighter can be very potent with Mob Stance + Clear Out. They are naturally sturdy on top. Barbarians have also some nice stuffs for melee, it is just too bad the Carnage attack dont fill back focus.. (The Amra 's Carnage work in other hand).

https://pillarsofeternity.fandom.com/wiki/Whispers_from_the_Depths In the same spirit of most of bonuses from items, you dont have to be in fight to proc them. That mean you can prolonge the effects with Strand of Favor out of fight.

Conjurer and Transmuter is a big subclass dilemma in my concern : With their familiar, conjurer is a very attractive classe, since you can get all the passives +3 stats and +10% effects, with a generic +1PL (of course only on combat and with Brilliant to cast many times Familiar). This last make your conjurer PL to +3 (without other PL from Prestige or whatever else) and Transmutation KW to +1 too. Multiclassed conjurer as caster is very potent and nice to play as versatile Blue-Black-White magic sorcerer. However I'm agree with you, at higher PL as SC wizard, you loose a lot as conjurer or transmuter. Other think about Necrotic Lance from Voidwheel that can help is this spell is a ranged attack, and bounce with Driving Flight ; items and passives that increase ranged attack also impact them.

As active PL bonus, acute and his +1PL dont stack with other active bonuses, like the potion (+2) or the food (+1 ). But acute from the ring stack with the potion or the food, and also the Stone of Power (+1). So without Trinkets or the Weyc Wand , you can reach +7PL with your setup (and the stone of power), +8PL for the Ancient side of your build! Of course for most of the fight with a party, you dont really need these extra PL, but for nasty enemies that can make a little difference!

You can see the carnage AoE with this mod if that can help you to keep your party safe https://www.nexusmods.com/pillarsofeternity2/mods/448 Otherwise, if Berserker are tricky, it is more for the self-damages from their Frenzy than the Confused part. Also, their health is hidden while frenzy, so that can be difficult to stay at near death/bloodied (to get the streetfighter bonus). You dont plan to play any priest to keep him alive so my advice will be to choose Trickster as rogue part!

You can also use some resting bonus (Captain's Cabin at Dunnage for +3per) and Inspiration from equipment : the Cog of Cohh give the aware insp to the wearer when an ally kill someone (or something, like a barel) and can be prolonged out of fight. Certain Mutiny from Squid Grasp can also work, as long one of your character is charmed (but it is tedious to get)

I did some tests today, about some good acc characters to use. And if we talked about debonaire and the 100% crit conversion vs charmed (while confused), I forgot at this time that Charmed work for the red flag weapon attack (calculated before the initial roll) exactely like Entropy, sleeping and Invisibility. That mean an Assassin get a +25acc passive bonus on Assassinate attack for every Red Flag rolls, and of course SF rolls. Also, a nice option is to paire a Monk with a Wizard who stole and use Barbs of Condemnation and Divine Mark (for -35 deflection) before casting Citzal's Martrial Power (+20acc). With a party, these two spells stolen greatly increase the Red Flag potential, and so give a good taste for all MC monk , and other specialized characters by the way (since Red Flag proc itself a Red Flag attack on crit, and proc Avenging Storm). Another fun stuff (but only for trying) is to use a Confused Monk with Mohora Taga, SF and Blade Turning VS a level 20 SC barbarian with low defl., Baring Death Door and Barbaric Reliatation. The crit chain, as melee attacks chain, cause a reliatation chain against the monk, who redirect these attacks to nearby people around him. Of course, my computer is not very powerful and I just speculate on this, because red flag chain by itself can already crash him and my two Barbaric Reliatation Tempest build also crash him sometimes.

I agree with your point, SC chanter as pure spellcaster is tedious, excepted with some equipments (at less for the Tekehu subclass*). Multiclassed, chanter are really nice to play with some martial classes (mage slayer - chanter with Effort ; Trickster -chanter for defensive spells et high dps etc, between spell casting) and with a full party, very versatile and potent character. I have a FF monk - chanter as main in several save. * of course, with some late game contents..

Do you think the corpses can be used with chanter' white worms spell? ps : nice to see you guys!

I remember when I tried this weapon with a monk, and my guess was the SF HbD chain only proc on the main target (the AoE is not melee) but Im not sure anymore about what happen for nearby enemies (if the main attack in chain also proc the AoE each time). What I know for sure is the AoE attack is threated as Weapon in the files, in opposite to the others AoE from weapons (effects). So that can explain most of these interractions! This is a very nice find , any synergy with Rogue?