Marigoldran

Ciphers are pretty useful in the early and mid game, too. Monks not so much, but that's why you don't use them until the late game. Mind blades and Echoplastic Echo on an Ascendant does INSANE DPS in early to mid game. Only problem is that it draws aggro like crazy (hence the heralds and summon spam). Later you have Disintegrate. Forgotten Horrors, Mental Binding, and Domination are also excellent FOE-ONLY debuffs (better than most of the Wizard debuffs). Your passives are useful. +1 penetration to weapons and cipher spells, etc. As a single class, ciphers are useful for the entire game. I'm seriously wondering about how good multiclassing actually is compared to single classing.

Party Comp: Single Class Ascendant Cipher. Monk no class. Heralds. Ascend as cipher. Give Driving Echoes and Reaping Knives to your 2 monks. Monks use Whispers of the Wind. Heralds keep everyone alive. Win. And that's it! It's great. You can also debuff as the cipher. Only downside is you're kiinda squishy. Honestly I'm starting to wonder if there's a point to multiclassing anything other than a Paladin or a Fighter.

For DPS, a single class monk is more reliable in the late game with Whispers of the Wind and Resonant Touch.

I was planning on using Eder/Pallegina on the front line. Wearing medium/heavy armor and using borrowed instinct later in the game. Too squishy? He'll consume most of the parties' healing resources, which is a problem for the longer DLC fights.

As a tank similar to the herald? You don't have access to Lay of Hands or Paladin defenses, but you'll have +3 armor and +10 Con from Iron Wheel. Spam summons and when you're not, CC enemies. In which case I don't advise Helwalker.

The more important question is: but how do you stay alive?

Cuz I've tried front line monks built for offense and they die, without Iron Wheel. Or they consume so much healing that your paladins run out of spells. Single class monks get Duality at level 10, and Iron Wheel at 13 or 14, so it's not that late. I hate glass cannon strikers. EVERYONE should be tank. When shi- hits the fan, and the backline gets swamped, tanks are the best.

Why not just a normal monk? They generate wounds faster than Shattered Pillar and has a higher wound threshold. Shattered pillar is, I think, a downgrade to the normal class. The easiest way to play a monk is to build it as a tank with max Perception. As tanks they automatically get +10 Con and +3 armor (Iron Wheel), which means they can take more hits than a Paladin (though Paladin defenses are better and can self-heal). Monks really start to shine with Resonant Touch and Whispers, at which point they are a tank... .that does massive amounts of damage. But before getting those abilities just send them off to the front lines in heavy armor and large shield, preferably next to a Herald tank that can heal your monk. Set the AI to spend your wounds punching enemies into the ground. It's simple and effective and requires 0 micro. Once you've leveled enough to get Whispers of the Wind, Inner Death, and Resonant Touch, you've won the game. The rest is easy mode.

The problem is that in longer fights you run out of shift.

Brand Enemy for PERMANENT damage over time (albeit it takes a long time). Troubador, UNLESS you're planning to use Grave Caller and kill your own skellies to summon imps. In which case: Beckoner as Boeroer suggests, so your skellies have less hp and you can manually one or two shot them. .

Single class monks and heralds are great. They synergize well in a team as the monks are tanky enough to benefit from the regen and the healing, and provide the damage the heralds lack.

Right. Heralds and Monks. The ultimate combo.

Heralds and skellies and 1 Rogue with Gouging Strike and plink away. Just remember not to use Brand Enemy as it would heal him.

They stealthpatched herald out. ;-) Noooooooooooooo.

Pal/Wiz, obviously. Right? Cadhu, Skrim, Llengrath's Safeguard, and Arcane Veil. Human, max Res.

Then I heard wrong.

Shi-. Death Ring is Foe only, too. I heard there was a patch today. Did it fix the PL bug for Arcane Archer?

Armor has nothing to do with getting critted. What it does do instead is to mitigate crits.

Lay of Hands with Robust provides consistent healing over time to mitigate incoming damage after bloodied. Remember, all my parties have at least 2 heralds. Also, regen from chants and summons to distract. Starting at Int and switching to Con is fine, but its too much micro for me

Pull of Eora, Chill fog, Llengath's Safeguard (for survivability) and fireballs or Tentacles if you're backline. Pull of Eora the enemies into a clump. Dump a chill fog onto them. And then drop fireballs on them. Use tentacles if your allies are in the way. Give your tank Revku's scorched cloak (fire damage heals him). Consider carrying Magran's Favor and Sun and Moon for +4 PL to fire spells. With firethrower glvoes, that's +6 PL to your fireballs and meteor storms. Max Int for longer Pull of Eora duration. Keep might at 10. If you're willing to multiclass, consider a monk for Iron and Turning Wheel, which provide +10 int or +10 con respectively, both of which are useful for a bloodmage. You won't be able to spam meteor storm, but delayed fireballs are still pretty good and you're tankier and have more health, too. The other option is to go all martial (multiclass and use the various wizard spells to buff yourself- Llengath's Safeguard, Citzal's various powers. Again, a monk would work best as Iron Wheel provides +10 Con and +3 armor in combination with Llengath's which provides another +5 armor for a whopping total of +8 armor. Spend your wounds on tenacious blows, Dichotomous Soul, and Raised Torment, providing summons and +5 Might and +2 Pen. You'll need a herald nearby to heal you, though.

A lot of sustained regen and occasional Lay of hands from nearby heralds. Also, Devil of Caroc has 11 armor. Add in Iron wheel for another +3 armor and the items that give +1-2 armor to nearby allies and that's 15-16 armor, which is enough even for crits. Also, summons to distract. Barring Deaths Door requires priests and doesn't work in long sustained fights. Spamming it also means that 1-2 of your other characters is doing nothing other than keeping the squishy character alive. Just keep Iron Wheel up at all times. There's no reason for the other as Int bonuses don't particularly matter for this character. With 600 health, it means that even if you're bloodied you still have 300 health, which is reasonable for a front line tank (in "heavy" armor [Caroc's with Iron Wheel bonus] albeit with low deflection). Max Con. Max Per. Dump Res. Keep Int at 10. Split remaining points in Might and Dex or put it all in Might. You've got a front liner that does good damage, and is reasonable tanky, too.

Really. Consider the Herald. The strongest extended-fight character in the game.

To summarize: Streetfighter bonuses are massive. 100% extra crit damage. -50% recovery time. +50% damage against afflicted targets. Only problem is that to get them you have to be flanked and bloodied, i.e. when you're about to die. So the idea here is: Max Constitution and Max Critical hit Chance. With 30+ Con, at level 20 you have 600 health, which means that even if you're bloodied you're still sitting at 200-300 health, which is more than most characters. So start with 17 Con, and get Iron Wheel, which provides another +10 Con from wounds and add in a belt of Eaton Constitution for another +3 Con. This means you have 30 Con. Heath Orlan (10% Hit to Crit conversion if targeting same target as ally. Max Per, dump Res. Go one handed for +20% Crit chance. Use Min's fortune for even more crit chance. Or Whispers of the Endless Path for more attacks against multiple enemies. Net result: +20% crit chance from one handed, +10% crit chance from Heath Orlan, +10% crit chance from Dirty Fighting, +5% chance from Crit Passive, +Stacking crit chance from Min's Fortune. This means you'll crit every 1/3 attacks. With Devil of Caroc's armor and Cosmo's cat (lower armor recovery malus) and Streetfighters bonus and Swift Flurry, that means you attack once every 2-3 seconds. Add in the +100% Crit damage and that's a lot of damage for auto attacks. Also, with your 30 Con and +3 armor from Iron Wheel, you're tanky, even when bloodied meaning that you can comfortably fight in the front lines. Unlike other builds, this one is very simple to use. Once you have the right equipment (Devil of Caroc, Min's Fortune, Whispers of the Endless Path), all of which are found in Neketaka, the strategy is to teleport your rogue into a pack of enemies, get him flanked and bloodied, and watch him whale away with crits from auto attacks. Spend your wounds on Tenacious Blows for more might and penetration. Have a herald or two in support with summons and healing and enjoy.

If you're confused, with minor arcane reflection, can you reflect fireballs back at yourself?

BloodMage/ Monk (Helwalker, Naz or no subclass) Items: Revku's Scorched Cloak (burn damage heals you instead of hurting you) Revku's Casque (helmet) so you can't be interrupted as long as you carry an affliction (give yourself the serious burn affliction) Magran's Favor (+2 Fire PL levels) Sun and Moon (+2 Fire PL Levels) (+2 Frost PL levels at night) Sungrazer (a good weapon for any fire build) Nomad's Brigandine (immune to disengagement attacks) Fire thrower gloves (+2 to Evocation Spells) Key bloodmage spells: Wall of Flame (for healing and more fire damage!) Llengath's Safeguard (+5 armor and +20 defenses when bloodied) Fireball (for damage and healing!) Essential Phantom for summons. Dichotomous Souls for more summons. Grimoire: Obviously the fire grimoire from Berath's Blessing. Ninguath's Teachings for fire immune enemies. Pet: +1 to Fire Levels Basic idea: Cast Wall of Flame on your position. Run down the wall of flame any time you need to heal. Thanks to Revku's scorched cloak, you heal when you take fire damage. Thanks to Nomad's Brigandine, enemies can't engage you. Chain cast fireballs on your position for more healing. Llengath's Safeguard for more armor and defenses. Iron wheel for Con and Armor. With +5 Fire Power Levels from weapons and pet , and +2 Evocation Level from glove your fireballs and walls of flame will do massive amounts of damage and heal you a lot, too. If you run into a fire immune, switch to ice based attacks (as a wizard you'll have plenty).