Owlbear

Soulblade isn't just about Soul Annihilation, it still has the cipher damage passives along with various cipher abilities, if nothing else then at least the charm/domination spells like Whisper of Treason which is one of the best, if not the best, 1st level abilities and Ring Leader is almost as useful as having your own summons imo. I only used Pallegina as a Herald and it wasn't bad. I don't really have experience with chanters, so I don't really know anything else about them.

With Sworn Rival and Virtuous Triumph you just need a class that can make sure you get your kills more often than not. With the Soul Annihilation of Soulblade it's easy to secure kills, but then again fighter with charge and cleave is also great. I'd prefer the Cipher because it gives extra penetration and a raw burst against fire immune or heavily armored enemies. My only problem is that with full attacks the game pretty much tries to force you to dualwield weapons for better results. I'd rather build a paladin with a greatsword, sword and shield or even with a single weapon, but none of these come to close to the potential of the two weapon style.

I never tried monks to be honest, but it's really hard to make unplayable combinations, so if you think monks are your thing then give it a chance.

Paladin+Cipher and Paladin+Wizard are fun builds. Soulblade gives a much needed raw burst to the paladin, along with various utility abilities. Evoker gives a high empowered burst potential, even if it isn't as powerful as a pure wizard the evoker +1 Power Level along with the +2 Power Level gloves is more than enough to one hit devastate whole groups of enemies. Also while the paladin doesn't really need it, the wizard is full of instant defensive spells and it never hurts to have more defense. Fighter is a great class to have next to almost every single other class in the game. True it's mostly for the passive bonuses, the stances, the single best accuracy buff in the game and charge. With these your character will be a simple, but stronger paladin. Chanters are way too strong right now, so it's not hard to build anything game breaking with them.

It's harder to recruit the sidekicks than the companions. I already met them all, but I couldn't recruit Fassina so far. True I keep creating new characters, so at this pace I will never get the sidekicks achievement. :D

They're bisexual. Or at least Tekehu, Maia, Xoti and Serafen are all bisexual - don't know if Aloth ever expresses any interest in anyone other than the Watcher, so he could be playersexual. But everyone else is is explicitly attracted to both men and women and can mention this during the course of the game regardless of whether or not the Watcher romances them. I mean, I don't think making playersexual character is a sign of moral decline anyway, but that's not really what they did. Most of them would literally go after anything. It doesn't matter if you are the most hideous death godlike they'll ever know, because the only thing that matters to them is that you are the Watcher. It's just the laziest, cheapest way to introduce "romance" in a game and I honestly think that it would be better without this. Maybe, probably due to bugs in the relationship system or I don't know, these romances develop way too fast right now. I would prefer a game without these makeshift romances and more "true friendship forged in adversity".

Or just a quest where you teach her that ale is not breakfast.

Sure, a soulblade spends around the same time auto attacking, but thanks to the cipher passives it doesn't feel like wasted effort. The Berath's Blessing vendor has a great gloves for an evoker, so I'll probably give a battlemage or an arcane knight another chance, but on my previous tries it always felt more like a simple fighter with wizard buffs. That makes it a great tank, but I missed the satisfying burst damage of the soulblade. The cipher abilities just look more appealing for a hybrid melee character. I love that while Mind Blades looks like a weak spell it can jump back and forth on the same targets if used right, that I can use Recall Agony on a tough boss to make it drop like nothing, that I can use Body Attunement to weaken the enemy and reinforce my own character at the same time or simply that I can use Pain Link or Pain Block to save my companions. The wizard has some great spells, but I prefer to give the debuffing aoes to a dedicated wizard like Aloth, so I can deal damage however I want with my main character. I love the Minoletta's spell line or pretty much every single spell in the evocation category. The only thing I don't like in the cipher is that it could use better ability effects. Priests, druids and wizards are way ahead when it comes to showing off their magic.

A battlemage starts the battle with infuse with vital essence, spirit shield, mirrored image, llengrath's displaced image and that's already 4 spells that you didn't use on offense. Even if you pick an evoker you won't nuke nearly as good as a pure wizard, and you'll never reach the damage potential of a soulblade. Also most of your nukes are aoe spells with friendly fire. Sure the cipher trades defense for offense, but with positioning, fighter abilities and party support it's nowhere near a melee fighter that goes down easily. For a battlemage most of his real (burst) damage comes from his nukes, but for a psyblade it's mostly sa, which is way more consistent. I loved the mage multis in games like baldur's gate and the only thing I hated in those games is the self buffing part. Here it's really easy, but when I played with my arcane knight or my battlemage I mostly found myself autoattacking because I either used up my spell count or simply it wasn't the right time to use them. The difficulties in the game right now aren't exactly right, so my psyblade never had problems on potd. We will see what happens to him after they fix that.

My character right now is a devoted/soulblade. Fighter (devoted with sword prof.) disciplined barrage > disciplined strike fighter stance vigorous defense > refreshing defense unbending charge (passives) confident aim determination one handed style unbreakable Cipher whisper of treason mind blades silent scream pain block ring leader disintegration or amplified wave (passives) iron will draining whip hammering thoughts I picked other abilities here and there, but these are the ones I never regretted picking. Disciplined strike is a no brainer and with confident aim/single handed style it's even better. Whisper of treason is a great opening move. Fighter stance with cleave is a great way to deal with groups and when I need to hit more than a single enemy who aren't exactly around you I can use mind blades or silent scream. Sometimes I just use them for fun tho because auto attacks and spamming sa are not the most interesting way to deal with your enemies, but it's still one of the most effective way to do things. Backlash is another interesting passive, I always take the +will passives with my companions as well because there's nothing more annoying than a charmed/dominated character against me.

Battlemage is a great combination, but not as a melee damage dealing character, it's way too defensive for that. I don't like the summoned weapons. Battlemage and Spellblade are great multis if you wanna play a caster with extra defenses/utility/accuracy. Most of the abilities you picked are defensive ones, that's a tank character with pretty much only autoattacks for damage. Even if you wanna nuke your enemies with another grimoire, you will just weaken your defense. That's why I decided to play cipher hybrids instead. It's still plenty tough as a fighter, but deals way better damage than the battlemage and even if you play a soulblade and just spam sa for the raw damage, with draining whip you will have almost unlimited focus to use various cipher abilities to support yourself, your party or just simply nuke your enemies.

In the last few days I tried to decide between various cipher builds again, like the mindstalker, psyblade and the witch and all of them are fun builds. I probably liked the Mindstalker the most , even tho sneaking around with my party and only depending on sneak attacks/backstabs, while you have a paper thin defense isn't really for me, so I don't think I'll play an assassin/soulblade anytime soon. I also prefer to play a character that can hold himself against a few hits, so I tried the trickster, but it was kinda a let down for a melee rogue, it makes more sense for a trickster/evoker spellblade imo where you only use the rogue resource for escape and defense, so you can focus on nuking with the wizard. Another idea was a "soul eater" build after the corpse eater/soulblade multi and it was an interesting one. With leap and sprint it's quite mobile and with frenzy, carnage and 2 weapon style it can destroy everything, when he manages to hit the target. :D The part I really liked was that you can eat your downed enemies to heal yourself and restock your rage so you don't have to hold back with the mobility skills. Psyblade is the safest bet, the middle ground. It's strong, sturdy and the most boring if you like to micromanage your character. Usually you only use disciplined strike, charge and cleave stance from the fighter side, and pretty much only SA from the soulblade side. That being said, my character right now is still a devoted/soulblade psyblade with a pair of boots that granted him the barbarian leap ability. That and charge is good enough for my mobility needs. :D

Edér is awesome as a swashbuckler. Also we are war buddies from the first game, so he has a place in my party no matter what. Xoti is fine as a priest, but I find her somewhat annoying. It's probably thanks to her childish behavior, like when she is throwing a tantrum whenever I don't agree with her about Eothas/Gaun. I use Aloth as a Spellblade, because of his undercover agent background it kinda makes sense, and using escape and cover rogue abilities with sneak passives are not that bad imo. As a character I don't really care about him, the usual Aloth is boring and easily forgettable, but with his inner sidekick it's a whole different story. I love their banters with Edér. I was kinda looking forward to recruit Pallegina and I still think she's great as a paladin/chanter, but as a character she is even more stuck up than I am, so there's no place in my party for another way too serious person. Serafen is a dirty little troublemaker, but I like him. Too bad the only useful thing he can really do well is to be a charm/dominate spamming midget. I hated Takehu since the moment I met him. Even tho he is definitely not bad as a druid/chanter, the only reason I kept him around was because of his benefactress, but even that couldn't make me suffer him for too long. Maia is a fine ranged dps as a ranger/rogue and I also like her as a character. My party desperately needed more ranged characters and with her pet bird and Edér they have fun banters, so she is also one of my full time party members. I didn't try the sidekicks so far.

While I like the battlemage it isn't anything like that thb. As a multiclass wizard you don't have the resources to "spam attack spells" and still use those defensive spells. It's more like you can start with a single rolling flame or a fireball and then hack down the rest.

I didn't even try to romance Xoti, but suddenly she approached me on my ship to confess her burning love for my watcher... Out of curiosity I gave in, but damn, I can't even remember the last time I cringed this hard. "Oh great watcher, thank you for choosing me... blahblah" It felt forced and almost made me throw her off the ship.

Cipher has some really nasty debuffs, but the only ones you need are the charm/domination ones.

Some of those actually make sense. Good idea.

5+ points on athletics looks like a must have, I just tried to climb up on a fortress wall and one of my companions failed with 4 points so ended up with 2 wounds after the fall. :D

I picked single sword because of the devoted extra crit and the style bonus to crit, but I'm still drawn towards dual wield because of the full attacks and the recovery bonus. 2h just feels way too slow so I wouldn't pick it for a melee-caster multi. Also, the game is full of awesome single handed weapons, mostly swords, like this one. Psyblade is one of the simplest and strongest combination in the game, I would like to cast stuff every now and then. Wizard multis have great defense and various ways to cast spells, so while it's weaker, I kinda enjoyed my battlemage more than my psyblade

I felt the same with the psyblade, it's a really effective combination, but kinda boring. It's a fighter with a special raw damage attack. When it gets stronger it generates more source, but it will more often use it on SA than other cipher abilities. Now I started a battlemage instead with devoted/evoker subclasses and it was great fun at the beginning with various spells and abilities. Devoted and single handed style goes hand in hand, but it still feels a little bit underwhelming, so now I'm thinking of starting a streetfighter spellblade with a sword/dagger dual style. True without fighter accuracy could be a problem. I built Edér that way with fighter/rogue and he's a beast with his unique sabre and dagger. My main problem with multiclasses is that you can't store level up points so mostly early on your are forced to take something even tho you already got what you wanted from that tier. :/

Hmm, now that I think about it, an evoker battlemage sounds like a fun character. Depends on that echo bonus they have along with that increased power level. They lose transmutation and conjuration spells, so mostly aoe debuffs, but they can still cast enchanting and illusion spells to buff themselves (also the increased recovery time doesn't really matter here because for most of these spells it's 0. I still think the Psyblade is stronger as a hybrid and ciphers are basically treated better by the game, but maybe my next character will be a battlemage or an arcane knight because both of these would give a more varied gameplay.

I also tried to figure out which one to pick from Battlemage, Psyblade and Arcane Knight. I ended up with a psyblade mostly because cipher gives a special flavor to the story with the mind tricks, also it has great passives for a melee character, and great charm and buff/debuff abilities (Psychovampiric Shield, Body Attunement, Borrowed Instinct). The Battlemage sounds great, but it mostly has defensive spells that are good for a gish. Ofc, you can cast damage spells, but as a multiclassed wizard that's just not it's forte. Edit: also when it comes to companions there's Aloth for a wizard, but there are no great cipher companions. I know, maybe that's just me.

Yeah, that's what I thought. Fighter builds are more straightforward and forgiving. Now if only I could pick wizard instead of cipher, but Soulblade is way too tempting for a melee character.

At first I started a Trickster/Soulblade main character, but I don't really like the trickster so now I'm thinking of starting a Devoted/Soulblade or an Assassin/Soulblade. Which one would make more sense to partner up with a swashbuckler (fighter/rogue) Edér if I'll focus on one handed style with swords and medium armor? Assassin/Soulblade and Fighter/Rogue has multiple ways to Flank enemies with smokes, blinding attacks and cipher debuffs, but a Devoted/Soulblade generally looks more viable with Disciplined B., Confident Aim and Cleaving Stance. Basically my planned attributes for both would be Might15, Con10, Dex16, Per15, Int10, Res12

Sadly I can't really answer those, but I'm also planning to start a trickster character... true I'm not sure if I like the idea of casting illusion spells with rogue resource. :/ Still a trickster/soulblade looks like a fun build.