Myrtillo

I didn't know about that mod, I will look into it, there probably will be some useful stuff. For now I think I cannot set the "marked prey/sworn ennemy" as a condition, only as a targeting priority. About the opening volley, my character does not start reloading if there is a swap weapon condition so it actually works decently well. The setup I have for now is, at the very top of my : If Only Ranged weapons> Autoattack (cooldown 10s) If Only Ranged weapons> Autoattack (cooldown 10s) Always True>Swap to weapon set 1 (the melee one) The behaviour is the one I wanted: My character fires the two guns then instantly swaps to melee weapon set and goes on with the rest of the Tactics for the rest of the battle. The tedious part is that I have to think about manually swapping to the ranged set before the next battle. And I constantly forget Might be just a habit to catch. Resources available unfortunately won't work because of the limitation in possible numbers (Ie for rogue the only options are at least 2 guile, 3 guile or 5 guile). Tie it to ennemy HP is very insufficient because even after the opening volley there will inevitably be ennemies that are full hp. That being said, that gave me a decent idea: I should try to set a moderate cooldown (like 60seconds), and a LOT of conditions that only happen at the very beginning of the battle (self health >90%, AC health>90%, not engaging anyone, no afflictions, ennemy health >75%, high ressource pool, etc.) Thanks for guiding me on the right path.

I like to keep my micro low, and I actually enjoy setting quite advanced tactics for my characters, but I always fail when it comes to setting a "once per encounter" action. As an example, I would love my ranger to cast Marked for the Hunt once every encounter, and not after that. Or have a sequence of Autoattack>Autoattack>swap weapons to do an opening volley with dual pistol etc. So far the best I found is setting a cooldown that is longer than the encounter duration, but it is very suboptimal because if I finish the encounter fast, and go to the next one, the cooldown appears to be still running. Any way around that ?

I know that for a long time int was detrimental to dots. Is that still the case ? Is there a consistent rule now ?

The AI programming you can do is quite satisfying. Much better than doa or FF12. It's very extensive and if you take a bit of time with it it can drastically reduce your micro (to the point of non-existence if you wish so in normal difficulty) You have a lot of ways in game to mitigate the penalties from Berserk, so if that's what you want to go for don't worry too much. Is your character going to use weapons or his fists ? If fists you might want to consider single class monk. Just as a general comment you seem to put a lot of emphasis on multiclass, and multiclassed characters are indeed in general stronger (with a few exceptions). That being said for a first playthrough I would recommend that you go with mostly single class characters so that you can use all the abilities in the game instead of being limited to power lvl7 abilities.

Priests perform way better as supports. Chanters will have limited casts so I wouldn't say they qualify as pure nukers (although an empowered Eld Nary can wipe clean entire encounters at normal difficulty). Both wizard and druid (fury) can qualify as nukers and dish out spectacular spell damage with their high PL spells. Ancient Druid can also be considered a great caster dps, but with stacking a lot of dots rather than direct damage.

That would make even less sense. But no, it doesn't work: if you reverse it obviously does the primary attack... with the primary melee weapon

Not in my game. Tried it with any combination of Fire in the Hole/Kitchen Stove in main hand and Magran's Shield/Modwyr in offhand. In 100% of the cases clear out hit with the offhand melee weapon or shield.

Then they have patched it, which makes a lot of sense. This interaction was kind of ridiculous.

I didn't play SSS with this character (yet, I actually just finished the first fight), but will give contender armor a try when I get it. However, I like having the +5 accuracy with spells for party pet, as I tend to play with a spellcaster heavy party (wiz/contemplative/theurge + my psyblade, the 5th slot varying) and found it very valuable. It will be tough to part from it However, a 0 recov medium armor looks great on paper, even if I never felt the need for more armor than light in the beginning and none past mid levels. Didn't test WotEP, as I stated I only played with 1 handed and (small) shield, but my guess is: very good for CC (cone stun), meh for damage (low base damage of WotEP do not benefit that well from +200%). But don't quote me on that it is just speculation. About clear out, I am partial. I don't think it works the way you describe. With a blunderbuss in main hand, the swipe attack is executed with the offhand weapon/striking shield. It can still be a good ability if you are using a strong debuffing weapon to apply it in a wide arc, but I see very few situations where it is better than using Mule Kick which has +10 acc and +25% damage on a single target. The character can already interrupt reliably in a crazy wide aoe with amplified wave. Also, it uses one of your precious PL6 ability points. Finally as a general note I tend to not rely too much on high level food, as it is a quite rare ressource (unless you are willing to cheese the merchants with the wait button, which is not the way I play). I definitely used up all my shark soups for Belangra, though

It is a viable option (especially with access to armored grace), and it does look awesome, but I tend to avoid including items that are locked to specific reputations/story choices. Not everyone wants to be an enemy of the Principi Also, the immunity to dex afflictions from Spidersilk Robes is a saving grace in a lot of the toughest fights. By mid game, being flanked is a really rare occurence.

The Mind Captain A party leader that jumps into the fray being an offtank (and main tank later) and inflicting a lot of debuffs and cc, as well as dishing out decent melee damage when needed. Cipher (Beguiler) / Fighter (Tactician) Difficulty: 5.0 PotD (level scaling up) Solo: not tested, most likely not possible in high difficulties Introduction: It has been a while (and a lot of different watchers) since I wrote a full character guide, but I had so much fun with this one that I wanted to share the experience. As always, I try to balance efficiency with fun and roleplaying. There will be no min-maxing here. That being said, the character is still very efficient. This build was all about finding synergies and solutions to undermine the weaknesses of classes. I wanted to play melee multiclass cipher, but soulblade never really attracted me (too straightforward), and I like my watcher to be able to hold his own in melee combat and be at least offtank. However, tanking as a Cipher is, in most cases, not the greatest idea, as the core feature of the class, aka focus generation, gets better the more damage you deal. The beguiler pick was obvious for the non-damage tied focus generation, and mind deception spells was a playstyle I wanted anyways. Fighter would provide some durability and nice passives. The tactician subclass can be very powerful, and it is known that cipher has, from the very beginning, efficient ways to enable flanked on a lot of ennemies (eyestrike and phantom foes). There are quite a lt of tactician psyblades guides out there, but they are mostly ranged, to avoid the pesky tactical dilemma debuff. I found it was not too hard to work around it. The character got fine tuned during the playthrough. Every new level brought more options and interesting synergies. I felt definitely starved in terms of ability points (as are most multiclass characters), respec came handy in keeping every level relevant. In the end (I take PotD Forgotten Sanctum as a reference), the character flawlessely achieved what I wanted in the premise: Sufficient survivability to tank late game, plenty of CC/debuffs, and decent melee damage when required. Race: Human was picked for RP preferences. Pick the one you enjoy the most. Origin: None of the stats are min-max. Pick what you like and adjust. Stats : 10 Might 10 Con 10 Dex 16 Per 18 Intelligence 14 Resolve (I got Blessing of Berath for M12 CON12 DEX12 PER18 INT20 RES16 but it is not critical). I like having high mental stats for roleplay purposes. He is a captain after all, so it is normal that his intelligence and resolve are high. Per is incredibly valuable to land cipher spells, and intelligence is a must to sustain the afflictions and nice self buffs. You don’t need more than 10 con for survivability thanks to decent resolve, party buffs, defensive passives, and the very long duration on your constant recovery. Might is additive so left at 10(12 with BoB), dex could benefit from being higher, but a lot of cipher spells are quick cast, and the character will have a low recovery anyways. Skills: I chose my passive skills for roleplay purposes: diplomacy/bluff/metaphysics, but get the ones you want, it has no impact on the build. Intimidation and Insight are good candidates. In terms of actives, I went for athletics and alchemy. Proficiency/Fighting style: Weapon and shield. You can consider other options if you are playing on normal/veteran, in which case I would recommend two-handed Gear: The most important for the gear in this build is to offset the tactical dilemma debuff. There are two ways to do it: - Getting immunity to flanked: This is the most straightforward, but locks your weapon options to Squid's Grasp and Kapana Taga (club modal debuffs will which can help us a lot). Although they are decent weapons (especially kapana, squid having the often resisted pierce damage), there are plethora of great weapons, and you might want to vary things a bit - Getting resistance to mind and intellect affliction: This is the alternative, instead of not triggering the effect, you cancel the consequences. You can get the fearless ability so that you do not have to worry about Shaken, and any mind immunity/resistance, via food, chanter, or Modwyr. DoC breastplate is an option as well, but I do not like the +35% recovery, even with armored grace (see below). This solution is less ideal, as you would still get the flanked debuff and therefore be unable to trigger Brilliant, but it has the advantage of opening the weapon slot to whatever you fancy, and protects from other sources of these afflictions as well. Note that later in the game, it matters much less as a lot of ennemies will have cc or debuffs preventing them from flanking you. Then you just have to worry about perception afflictions that will get you flanked (looking at you, persistent distraction principi rogues). Armor: As the levels increase, so does your survivability through debuff/cc and self buff. I started with a medium armor for the early parts of the game, then switched to Miscreant Leathers, which with armored grace actually deacreases recovery time. Later on, I switched to robes for the affliction immunities (Effigy's Husk and Spider Silk robe), respecing armored grace and saving me a precious ability point. 7 armor (9 with body attunement, 10 if you burnt a Mythic Adra Stone on it) will not mitigate any damage but will most of the time prevent overpen, and you get missed/grazed a lot, so I found it very sufficient. Main drawback is that robes look ugly, an issue that can be solved by mods (I modded Effigy's Husk and Spider Silk to look like the Valian Frock Coat ) Other equipement: Fair Favor if you are using a compatible weapon, otherwise any good helmet. Mask of the Weyc is nice, pearlescent rombstone etc. For the rest I swapped things around often, prioritizing survivability, per and int, as well as dialogue stats. Ability Choices: This is where the synergies really start to kick in. Cipher: Eyestrike Lvl 1 pick, usefull through the whole game. Blind is a great debuff in itself, and it triggers flanked which is amazing for tactician. Phantom Foes Eyestrike's only drawback is the small aoe. 1 cast of Phantom Foes with our high int is likely to flank the whole battlefield, triggering Brilliant, and generating tons of focus. Secret Horrors Fast debuff, decent aoe ususally refunds itself. Borrowed Instinct Excellent offensive and defensive self buff + debuff. Have it constantly on Body Attunement Situational but i like to have it handy for heavy armored ennemies Whispers of Treason>Ringleader Take whispers first, then respec when you get ringleader. Charm/Dominate is the most powerfull CC in the game, and ennemies have their will destroyed by all the previous spells, coupled with our sky high accuracy and various cipher passive bonus to will targeting spells to almost guarantee hits/crits. Honestly, Ringleader trivializes most of the encounters, no matter the difficulty. (Except mind/intellect immune obviously) Mind Plague Very valuable for us, as it lowers ennemies will (confused) preparing for more cipher spells, lowers their damage output by a lot (Dazed). And dazed ennemies cannot flank you, which is great for tactician. Also, mind plague is a great beguiler spell as it will still jump to already affected targets, generating more hits and therefore more focus as long as there are two ennemies left. (As opposed to aoe deception spells that can only hit once per ennemy). Any Cipher Damage Spell Get one you like (I recommend amplified thrust , but any can work. Ectopsychic Echo if you do not mind the micromanagement) until you get amplified wave, then respec it. Amplified Wave Get it and spam it. It will affect a huge aoe interrupt, multiplying our chances at getting some discipline back through tactician passive, even without brilliant. Damage is not too bad either on trash mobs. Passives: Are not a priority, but whenever you have spare points get: Draining Whip, Lingering Echoes, Empty Souls, Hammering Thoughts, The Complete Self, Rapid Casting, Psychic Backlash, and any you like. Fighter: Disciplined Strikes Acute is very strong with our cipher spells. Have it constantly on. Can also be recast to get rid of a per affliction (getting you flanked). Always useful Mule Kick/Penetrating strike Pick one. Mule Kick does more damage, accuracy and CC, refunds itself on interrupt and is a primary attack which is relatively better for 1 hand users, but costs 2 ability points. Penetrating strike is good against most bosses, but looses a lot of it's value as a full attack. I played most of the game with penetrating strike but would actually recommend mule kick now. Fighter Stances We want to be in conqueror stance for that +acc +def Unbending>Unbending Shield Improves survivability a lot, lasts long thanks to our high int, can be spammed thanks to brilliant, and gets you resolute, solutionning the problem of getting your cast interrupted (that you only have on mind plage and amplified wave, all the other abilities are quick casts). I would take this over more healing. Vigorous/Refreshing defense I didn't use it because I was starved for points and never felt the need for it (I have a very defensive party), but I see it being very good, combined with already high defenses and borrowed instinct being always on. It might be an even better defensive tool than unbending, I just really liked the perma Resolute. Power strike Expensive, especially as a multiclass when you cannot upgrade it to inspiring strike, But since you can proc Brilliant very easily by the time you get it, as well as multiple interrupts with amplified wave restoring your discipline, the cost is not that steep. Getting this is the reason why I prefer mule kick over penetrating strike now, Power Strike taking the role of that armor penetrating heavy melee attack. Passive Armored grace if you are not using robes, weapon and shield style, fearless if you have no other way of mitigating tactical dilemma Shaken (otherwise unbending Shield will take care of your resolve afflictions), Uncanny luck. Strategy and gameplay : Cast Disciplined Strike and Borrowed instinct (always have both on), run into melee, then cast debuffs/dominate. You should have all your ennemies afflicted by plethora of debuffs in no time, letting your party wreak them . When focus piles up from your deception spell casts, use amplified wave liberally. Use mule kick for quick damage (and focus regen)/interrupt. Have unbending shield on when you start taking a bit of damage. When you trigger brilliant, feel free to, use your discipline more offensively (Power Strike!). Conclusion: There it is, my fantasy of a watcher running in the fray, hacking and slashing, and messing up ennemies minds is finally fulfilled.

Combat is comparable to X-COM, square grid, cover mechanics and move/act action points. It is enjoyable enough but not the highlight of the game.

If the total hours played and number of playthroughs is the primary indicator, then for me the number one is NWN2, closely followed by Deadfire. I played and loved a lot of the others cRPG mentionned here (Dragonfall being a highlight), I think that what makes the difference for me is the voice acting of companions. I always get more attached to the party than to my own character.

Stats are something like 12 str 10 con 10dex 14per 18int 14res Takedown combo does not proc on dot tics However, the added damage never felt game changing. Unless I decide to use my Wit of the Death Herald to have brilliant for 50 seconds and I start spamming takedown combos and Sunlances. This ramps up the damage like crazy (150+ every cast without considering the bear damage) but it is more related to 50 sec brilliant being quite op on spellcasters. Quick and cheap interrupt is very handy, though. My current gear to achieve that perfect forest knight look (Mythic) Griffin's blade Cadhu Scath Mantle of the Changeling The Maw of Ingimyrk

So far it has been working really well. (lvl 13 now), and with a bit of effort in setting the ai the micromanagement is negligible. How the character plays out: - Cast Marked for the Hunt twice (I have it on ai tactics to target lowest and highest deflection). - Run into melee - again on tactics: if ennemy in melee range not >0, basic attack, prioritize by attacked by my animal companion. This causes the watcher to run into melee distance and engage, but not to do the actual attack (thus not wasting casting time) since the condition is not fulfilled anymore when you arrive in melee range. - Casts of Insect swarm and infestation of maggots (if target is hurt or below), prioritize by most ennemies affected. I am getting plague of insects at the next level. The character still has the option to cast Charm Beasts when needed (made Engwithan digsite fight trivial), and mark of nature is always nice to have. Other than that, the remaining bonds are mostly well placed takedown combos or concussive shot (handy cheap interrupts on graze). The bear has gone down 3-4 times tops. The watcher never. (wearing garari cuirass, and using lethandra's devotion and Griffin's blade for spell damage). Overall the dot's damage really adds up, he is tied in the party for highest damage inflicted, and I think that does not factor in the bear damage which is significant. And this is while being the main tank. Watcher+ bear together have high defenses, a lot of engagement and a giant cumulated health pool. Feel free to shift for fun when tanking is less needed at the end of the fight (and your casts are depleted) PS: Anyone has answers to my initial questions ? Especially the ones on animal companion ai tactics.

Hi guys, I recently started a new playthrough, I had a urge to play some kind of "forest knight", so a non-shifting melee druid multiclass using sword and shield. At first I wanted to go for a warden, but I played a lot of fighter, and I figured he would not need the extra survivability, so I went with beastmaster to fully embrace the theme, figured the ac could take some of the heat off, and the myriad of accuracy bonuses would more than make up for druid accuracy and the medium shields I plan to use. I went for Shifter/Stalker with bear AC. Shifter doesn't matter as I will only shift in a complete pinch for the heal or when I am getting bored and want something new, i picked it because it has a selection of spells I want, saving precious much needed ability points.) Ancient would have been second best but those penalties to tankiness seemed too much for a tanky frontliner. Stalker is very obvious for a melee ranger of any kind, the bear with stalker passive+resilient companion being sturdy enough to not be a liability and actually do some decent tanking. So far I am having a blast (in veteran upscaled, lvl 9~ish). On to the questions: -I want to use a takedown combo>nuke (most likely sunlance but if there is something better I am very open to suggestions), but does the takedown +100% procs on ongoing dot's ? That would be quite disappointing as my char pops swarm+maggots early in every fights, turning 1 tick of raw damage from 10 to 20 for a bond. Bleh. -I love tinkering with AI tactics, is there a way to influence the animal tactics ? I'd like my bear to prioritise ennemies marked for the hunt (my watcher could then in turn prioritise ennemies attacked by animal companion which is straightforward to "program" but would ensure max accuracy). Also by extension, is it possible to include "takedown" in AI tactics ? It seems like it is not available in the list and I want to micro as little as possible. - Aside from marked for the hunt and takedown combo, what do you think is a good way to spend bond ? Hunter's claw feels gimmicky and very subpar with single handed, and (accurate) wounding shot redundant (I have a lot of ways to apply dots through druid spells to trigger. - Any other suggestions/fun ideas I may have missed ?

Vision quest ? Is there a different questline than the Remaro one ?

I had reputation 2 with Serafen for a while now, his quest is completed (with knowledge of the Sorcerer slaving), but the dialogue where he gifts us Fair Favor hasn't triggered. Anything I could be missing ? I want my fancy hat on my current watcher

I am not really a build specialist, as I have a tendancy to pick the stats I like for RP purposes and make the build work with it, but I'd say Per++ Int++ Might+ Dex+ Con= Res- Active abilities pick whatever you feel like, it will not affect the build (except alchemy that gives you better consumables). Dual wielding will give you more damage overall, but it will not make or break the build. Try both during the first couple of levels and you can decide what you like best. And you can always respec I invite you to read the great answers I got from forum regulars when I was myself trying to figure out what to do with my bellower Have fun! https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/109064-a-few-chanter-bellower-related-questions/

I wouldn't call a +PL a waste of a phrase, especially on the ones that have bounces. In the case of Thrice it is very ok to hoard phrases a bit and wait for a more favorable timing with 2 or 3 more phrases than the minimum required for that +6PL. It is true however that you loose some flexibility. That's the premise of Bellower, you will cast less but much more powerful invocations, and can auto-attack and chant in the downtime. I would argue that Skald has an indirect side effect chant penalty though. Since you end up casting more of your cheap offensive invocations (and even more due to crit generated phrases), you spend (much) more time in invocation recovery, and therefore not chanting. Bellower diminushed radius is really not that punishing, especially when you go melee.

Not a chore per say, you can just spam Thrice... whenever you get the phrases for it. It is not as encounter-wiping as Eld Nary, but it is definitely on par with the damage output of the rest of the party at that level. Especially if you account that chanter has the only non-conditionally regenerating ressource, which is a huge deal early game. And you still have the chants that are, due to their mostly non-scaling nature, relatively better early game.

As others have stated, in veteran pretty much anything (that isn't completely stupid) can work decently well. From the playstyle you describe, I would suggest a single class bellower and gear him/her for melee. Being melee, the smaller chant radius is less punishing. Your invocations will be doing heavy damage (due to the huge increase in power level from bellower), and you have long lasting powerful self buff. Cast Far From Defeated, just do (Energized) auto-attacks for 12 seconds to have 5 phrases, cast (empowered) Eld Nary. This will wipe 2/3 of encounters in Veteran. Then you can use your (still Energized) autoattacks on whatever ennemy is still standing while you replenish phrases for a final heavy nuke (can be thrice/boil their felsh for variety etc.) In short, you constantly alternate between autoattacks in Energized state (so +5 might+2pen, interrupts on crit), and extremely strong invocations (+PL from bellower and energized).

Hmmm I think I had none at 21 damage, but I may have been mistaken.

So after playing with the character, I can confirm that swift flurry doesn't generate wounds, and that it takes more than 20 damage dealt to generate a wound, even with lesser wounds (My guess is 25 but it's hard to know for sure). Disappointing I will still give the character a go and see if it feels balanced, I am still low lvl (6)

Wiki says 20 damage and 16 with lesser wounds, but it might be outdated ?