Ivanfyodorovich

The buffs from the familiar persist when the familiar is replaced by casting a new summoning spell (I just reconfirmed this). It functions more like a self-buff this way. In fact, it's best to summon something else, because the familiar disappears, and is therefore no longer at risk of being killed.

This is a cool idea, but actually not needed. The conjurer's familiar bonus remains even if you summon other things after it. It lasts for all of combat, and you can summon as many other things as you like.

Echoing what @Boeroersaid. Bloody Links > Magnera’s Chain works great for him. Both have pirate flavor, and he starts in mail, so it fits thematically. Daze is also a huge survivability boost for him, so Mind Plague or leap can help. (Or have another party member lay it down).

Agia, Deadfire, Act II: Neketaka to Hasongo, Part 1 The strategy for me at this stage was the gain experience, gold, and unique items without much combat. In Queens Berth, we picked up the quest from Zamar, turned in the bounty for Meryl and picked up the next, recruited Konstanten for ship battles, and picked up the quest from Kahn. We subbed out Eder for Xoti and take her to do her quest in The Sacred Stair. I have her give the souls to the animancers (which is currently bugged, so the quest finishes, but does not actually complete). Back in Queens Berth, we sort out the contract with Luca so that I can recruit him to be my Boatswain. There's a secret benevolent point in the dialogue choices (it doesn't show when you choose the option, but happens in the replies from the quest giver). Skaen is angry with me. C'est la vie. I pick up the mapping quests from Sansa and start the Bardatto/Valera questline. After my last NR game tanked at the negotiation table, I'm playing this one very carefully. I talk with Zili and Cotta (peaceful resolution with Cotta - intimidate him). Then I go buy the 4 cannons from Zamar for cheap. I head to Perkiki's Overlook and repair Whispers of Yenwood for Serafen. I pick up the Satchel quest from Degnos and snag that inside the bathouse, recruit the imp outside Arkemyr's Manor, and head to the palace. The team hits level 6 at the palace. Back at Periki's overlook, we head to the Cupboard and loot the place (Spine of Thicket Green goes to Severa). We head to watershapers and recruit Tekehu for ship battles (Druid SC). We snag the Muhai quest from Serpent's Crown and head to Sacred Stair for Eder's quest and Muhai's. We use stealth to toss in the body and snag a cruel response while we're at it. Next up is the Gullet, where we talk to Biha and head down the lift to talk with the soul of her lover. We fight the Rotghast and Gul group here and things go smoothly. To be Continued . . .

Do you know how many injuries you had? Some boss abilities add an injury without knocking you out. If you had 3 already and it hit with one more - poof.

It does seem a little overtuned to me, and it feels off when the strongest choice for a melee martial class is to spam a mobility ability to deal the best damage. That said, AT9 shouts have always been very high damage dealing, arguable higher than Heart of Fury, certainly in terms of resource cost ratio. Dragon Leap Community Patch added "Fire" keyword to Dragon Leap. (opened up +5 PL w/ items) - This feels like a bug fix in terms of designer intent, so much so that the Community Patch changed it. These abilities deal fire DMG so they should scale w/ + Fire PL. I would rather tune the ability around the keywords for the sake of design consistency. In terms of how powerful the ability becomes when using those items, it also has the opportunity cost of not using those items on another character with similar DMG potential. Essentially, you have to choose where to add +5 PL, with many great options. It should be considered when tuning, but I don't think it actually matters as much as the Barbarian specific changes. Balance Polishing Mod adjusted PL to scale from Leap (+3 PL base) - This seems more like a bug fix. These abilities have the same resource cost as regular leap and there is no situation where you wouldn't use the upgraded ability (except may the edge case where the fire DMG might heal an enemy). The ability should be tuned around this change, since it's a base feature now. Balance Polishing Mod increased Daze effect to Stun. - This one is probably one step too far. Hard CC in an AoE is very strong, and even with Vanilla PL scaling would be too much for 2 Rage. If the ability feels too weak for an AT8 ability point w/ just adding fire DMG, perhaps there's another option like extending the duration of the Daze effect, adding an additional debuff (-PEN that doesn't stack but get's around MIG resistance, 2 sec Stun + Daze for 6 sec, etc.), or making the DMG dual type (fire/crush). Instruments of Boundless Rage Balance Polishing Mod added "Fire" keyword (opened up +5 PL w/ items) - Same as above, I don't think this is really an issue given the opportunity cost, and even less for a AT9 ability. This really should compete with similar abilities at this tier, and fire PL scaling isn't OP. Balance Polishing Mod reduced rage cost from 3 to 2. - @Elric Galadhas written a lot about his philosophy behind martial ability costs at higher tiers. I think it's probably fine either way. There's so much competing with it at AT9 for a Barbarian, and I don't think a 2 resource super fireball is too much. Corpse Eater Food Upgrades - These could be tweaked. +2PL (universal) is the base that anyone can get from Potion of Ascension (which lasts the whole battle regardless of Alchemy), so making an alternate +2PL (Barbarian only) is not strong enough. There has to be some benefit to balance the resource cost increase in addition to the very situational Flesh Communion. Maybe tune it down to +3PL (barbarian) across all of the foods and improve the other benefits, or make it +3PL universal to open up more interesting multi-class options. As it stands, Corpse Eater is really only worth it as a single class choice (though very strong at endgame). All of that to say, I think you could retune Dragon Leap pretty well by reducing the base DMG a little and replacing 6 sec Stun w/ a less powerful effect. IoBR feels fine as is for an AT9 ability, maybe reduce the fire DMG slightly to adjust for better keyword scaling. Corpse Eater food could be changed to +2/+3 universal PL w/ same secondary effects, or +3/+4 PL (barbarian only) w/ better secondary effects. Thoughts?

Here's the game data for CHA_CRE_Dragon_Magma abilities: "Passive (EASY): Starting Concentration 1", "Passive (NORMAL, HARD, PATH): Starting Concentration 3", "Passive (NORMAL, HARD, PATH): Deathblows", "Passive (HARD, PATH): Deep Wounds", "Passive (NORMAL, HARD, PATH): Persistent Distraction", "Passive (NOT STORY): Survival of the Fittest", "Passive (HARD, PATH): Engagement Strike", "Passive (NOT STORY): Concentration Buffer - used to prevent Battle Roar from being used immediately after Concentration", "Fiery Breath (ALL)", "Tail Swipe (ALL)", "Sulfur Stone (NOT STORY)", "Battle Roar (NOT STORY)", "Stone and Flame (STORY, EASY)"," Stone and Flame (NORMAL, HARD)", "Stone and Flame (PATH)", "Stone Shell (NORMAL, HARD, PATH)", "Fiery Maw (EASY)", "Fiery Maw (NORMAL, HARD, PATH)", "Volcanic Roar (STORY)", "Volcanic Roar (EASY)", "Volcanic Roar (NORMAL)", "Volcanic Roar (HARD)", "Volcanic Roar (PATH)", "Dragon Scales", "Passive: Galawain's Wrath (Pillars 1 Reactivity)", "Passive: Galawain's Favor (Pillars 1 Reactivity)"] Looks like Galawain's Wrath might be weakening the Dragon, while Galawain's Favor is probably if you botch things with Galawain somehow.

Sawyer gave a talk about reputation systems that's on Youtube where he distinguishes between games with simulationist design w/r/t reputation and games that aren't that way. He specifically mentions the "no one got away" issue. It's a conscious choice to have a system here that is less simulationist, from what I gather from that talk.

I found this out by accident using the ItemDebug console command while testing builds, as it gave me each version of the ring. FYI, that command gives you every item in the game all at once, so very handy for testing (some wierdness will happen with quest items, so beware). I was trying to create a build that used all of the BoW items. I think there's one for every slot, including trinket.

While Maelstrom is being discussed, im wondering if folks know that Tekehu or someone wearing the oilskin cloak is immune to the freeze/crush half, which makes it fun for Builds that want to be hit by shock or burn damage. The cloak is weird, b/c it’s not listed as such.

I like this solution!

Not there at character creation for hired adventurer.

I'll test. Class descriptions where? In the glossary? Character creation?

It's tough to think of something that can replace such a simple intended functionality as increased duration of effects. What if you go about it through another mechanical means - +10 second beneficial effect duration on friendly targets (if it can include the current ability), +25% Hostile Effect duration on enemy targets. It's a broader application since it affects every other buff/debuff involved, so you could tune it in accordance with that, but it achieves similar effect and would be worth picking up.

Agia, Deadfire, Act I: Port Maje I thought I'd talk a little bit more about Port Maje, and how I like to do it. Agia will be a new experience, because of the Skaen dispositions I'm avoiding and seeking. I let Chitupec die this time and get the Killer's Gloves in the supplies cache on the beach. More valuable in it is a Thief's Putty and Oil of Allure. I remember to make Eder a Swashbuckler so someone has mechanics before I bring on the hired adventurers. Disarming the traps around Beodul gives more XP, and will be our main source of cash to purchase our 2 hired adventurers. I immediately head in to Port Maje with Eder and pick up Xoti. I have her as a Single Class Monk. That fits a little bit better our eventual team composition, and Agia has priest stuff covered (Serafen and Mirke will replace her and Eder eventually). With her and Eder in tow, we go back to the beach and complete the quest to find our crew members. Along the way I talk to every ghost and send them to her lantern whenever possible, choosing every cruel or shady option. Between the beach, Gorecci street, and the digsite, we can advance her quest to the next stage. When we find Beodul we hit level 2. Back to Port Maje to recruit our custom adventurers. I try to recruit them as soon as I can to minimize the XP gap they will suffer. I don't actually know the formula for how much XP they start with relative to the Watcher, but this method covers all the possibilities. Severa, Theurge (Troubadour / Ancient) Agilus, Mindstalker (Beguiler / Trickster) We clear out the room upstairs with the cruel option, stabbing our drunken captain friend. I also take a moment to steal from Norgund's chest. After talking with Clario, our hired adventurers hit level 2. We scoop up all the quests in town, stealing everything possible, and head to Sātahuzi. We convince Mokeha to give us the purse and we immediately open it for a cool 2,000 copper, plus the 300 from selling the earring. We also steal everything we can here - with the biggest haul coming inside the two houses. In some playthroughs I'd buy the Shorewalker Sandals here, but I'm saving funds for Shattered Vengeance. Agia & companions hit level 3. From here I go back and clear out the cave on the Beach. We enter Gorecci street from the south (you must exist the city on foot and re-enter) so that we can stealth past the looters. One day I'll build out a NR that fights Gorecci street and the whole digsite, but this is not that run. As I mentioned, talking to all the ghosts here helps advance Xoti's quest. From there we turn in to the guard captain and save our 300 copper by blowing Rum-dum Riggere free from the outside. I talk to Rinco, but the only options here are Benevolent or Aggressive, so I just leave. Thankfully, the quest completed when I took the money from his pouch. From there we clear the rest of the island, except for the Dawnstars at Ilonet's Fork; I want to steal from them and can't afford the fight at this level if I mess up the check (which is poorly documented on the wiki). I always fight Stone-Tooth for the Pyrite he drops. We get a Nature's Embrace in the Burial Site and put it on Eder, and a fine padded armor > Agilus. At the Digsite, we loot everything possible and fight the first pack on the steps. Eder takes quite a bit of DMG right out the gate from focus fire wurms & the adult boar. Holy Radiance is enough to bring him back, and the Charm Beast lands on all 3 boars, who engage and tank the wurms while we focs them down from range. I hadn't equipped a ranged weapon on Agia yet (oops). I had a club/stiletto set up, but I'm realizing it's silly to keep that equipped since I get so much more dmg out of Spiritual Weapon if I'm going to engage in melee. We equip a single handed pistol after this fight. My notes aren't clear, but I think Severa and Agilus hit level 3 here. We steal around to the other side of the arena, and after grabbing the medallion from the upstairs room, sneak down past the big fight in the center, and enter the lower levels. With Charm Beast and Hold Beast, I could absolutely handle the fight in the middle (I think there's no Drake on Veteran), but why take the risk when it's just as easy to sneak by? Inside, we snag the Gladiator's Sword > Eder, and fight the minimum number of fights to get to the Adra Pillar. Both of them work well for choke points in the doorway, and on Veteran, the number of enemies is manageable. Pistols help tremendously on the spirits in the second fight. We chose the heal ability for Agia by searching for the lost souls when talking to Eothas. We will have easy access to DEX afflictions via Agilus and Severa, and the RES inspiration isn't as helpful for Agia. Again, not sure, but I think Agia hits level 4. We clear the rest of the lower level for items/money and a little bit of XP. If you approach the fight with the imps from the north, there's an explosive barrel that can kill most of them in one blast if you shoot it with a firearm. On the way out we pick up Aloth as a Wizard. We snag Shattered Vengeance on the way out and pick up Serafen as a Barbarian to replace Xoti. Severa and Agilus also hit 4. Snag a few sailors, supplies, and off into the wild! I like to kill Meryl the Mad, just west of Port Maje, on the way to Neketaka. The fight happens in a narrow choke point stair case, and all the enemies, but Meryl, are vessels, susceptible to Holy Radiance. We search the Giftbearer ship to get the imp cameo and more gold. Beggar Winfruth finds us, and we win our first sea battle. This one is far less deadly as a cannon exchange. Beggar has only 1 cannon and weak sail and hull health. We snagged a third cannon from a shipwreck near Maje Island, and have little trouble taking her out. We also stop over at the island with the swimming race to pick up some extra coin and buy supplies from the town. Next stop, Neketaka!