Shai Hulud

Might have been me but I can't remember... I just use some scripted weapon switches which is particularly effective if you're running a fighter / x with quick switch. Even more with a black jacket, where with quick switch you have zero delay. Slayer's Claw is the reason I always do path of the slayer even though it has some of the hardest fights for soloing. Also only path that doesn't force a rest. It's unfortunate you can't access SSS content until fairly late, though it's possible to leave most of the hard fights for after you get it and become an interrupt-machine.

I'd really recommend you have at least one character with maxed perception in general. Since NPC perception is not so great, I generally max PER for the MC. Would definitely max PER on a conjurer/wael MC. Also Effigy's Resentment: Sagani gives +1 PER, and is probably the best choice for non-tank builds. Can also use Cauldron Brew at Outcast's Respite for +1 PER, and alchemic guile is +2 PER, which while not permanent can be done for free and repeatedly. Savage cunning from Overgrowth quest (galawain's boon) gives +1 PER as well. Also prostitute bonuses from Aenalys (+2) or Konstanten (+1). If you REALLY need more PER can waste a rest in Dunnage King's Coffin (+3 PER). Short of all that yeah just take drugs and wear gear. Gear: Torc of the Falcon's Eyes (+2 amulet) Ajamuut's Stalking Cloak (+1 cloak) Blackblade's Hood / Horns of the Bleak Mother / Blackened Plate Helm / Cowl of Piercing Gaze / Serpent Crown (+1PER headgear) Maw of Ingimyrk (SSS item, +2 PER headgear) Kuaru's Ring (+1 PER ring) Various pets (+1PER) If you have the best of these items plus svef or ripple sponge that's +10 PER, before even going into the permanent bonuses, so even meh-PER chars should be able to detect everything. As for nemnok could be a number of reasons not penetrating. Lot of spells tend to have poor penetration which could be an issue, depending on your tactics. I don't recall his armor values and they aren't on the wiki unfortunately. Generally just check the combat log and adjust equipment, food, etc. as necessary. Can also debuff his armor with stuff like phantom foes or physically flanking, body attunement, expose vulnerabilities etc., though you only get one armor debuff plus flanked, so generally you can maximally debuff by 3 (4 with blackened plate). IIRC... I'd also keep in mind another reason for high PER and buffing accuracy in general is so you can hit/crit things. Your grazes and hits may or may not penetrate high level enemies, but your crits basically will always penetrate due to getting +50% PEN, in addition to the bonus damage. So even if your PEN sucks if your accuracy is buffed enough you can kill things.

There are a lot of problems with phantoms and duplicates in general, like some equipped item effects not working correctly on phantoms, different weapon penetration values, etc. I've tested them a lot before but am too lazy to find the post... Good but unsurprising findings about power level bonuses from weapon-spells...IIRC there are other stats that aren't reflected in item-spells, like accuracy? I think it's anything derived from a player stat, so also this would include duration. My 2k hours of Deadfire memories are fading rapidly, I'm afraid. Probably start playing again at some point. I think BG3 may have killed these forums at least for a while.

Sintee builds are still good for potd party runs. I used them back in the day... I'm unaware of like a meta "how to make builds" guide. That would be an interesting project but personally I'm too consumed by BG3 at the moment. Really it is kind of hard to mess up NPC builds unless you're trying like a trial of iron run or something. Aloth for example is good as a wizard, battlemage, or spellblade. They just fulfill different party roles. And speaking of party roles having them covered is more important than optimizing individual characters. Like you want at least 1 tank, 1+ healer/support, usually an offensive caster, and a couple DPS. Sometimes this adds to like 7 roles but multiclassing allows you to cover multiple roles with one character. Your party seems fine as far as covering roles. Much easier to mess up the main character like if you pick a weird multiclass and don't know how to make it work. But there are many good build guides on this forum for main characters. And heralds are always good.

Godlikes suck IMO. Only reason to take one is death godlike if you have a character that can stay near death with barring death's door or potions of final stand. But even then you're probably better off with a human. Moon godlikes are undoubtedly the worst. Nature godlike and fire godlike are "meh" but have rare use cases. They're all much better balanced with BPM. What is the idea behind ancient/helwalker? High damage druid spells I guess? The thing is the best druid spells are tier 8+. Avenging Storm and Great Maelstrom especially. Furies are the best damage dealers but Ancients are probably sufficiently good. I did a recent run with SC Fury in ultimate-like conditions, and IIRC my stats were MIG/CON/DEX/PER/INT/RES 18/9/11/19/18/3, or somethng like that. But druids have meh accuracy so you're better off taking a different race (humans are nice) and wearing helmet acina's tricorn IMO.

Tyranny is too dominated by magic. Make a mage MC. I used this build to great effect, with some minor adjustments. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=814845354 All that really matters is collecting sigils and boosting lore to high levels with skycap (and other means) so you can craft stupidly powerful spells. The game becomes pretty easy once you get your lore high enough, and saving trainer points can be used to get lore well over 200. Barik sucks. The best companions are magic users. Lantry is probably the best, then I'd take Eb and Syrin. Syrin makes the best tank. I do find fights kind of degenerate as all you need to do is have enough spells and sigils to blast off all your ice/fire spells like with frostfire sigil, and if you have enough spell slots and lore (cyclical energy sigils) you can just cast nonstop. @thelee I do miss farsight + wizard eye + spell immunity + mislead/project image. Also BG is one of the only games I've played that actually had good thief classes (I particularly enjoy bounty hunter maze traps). And I didn't learn about the limited wish quest until my third or fourth playthrough which was awesome. Also the optional but insanely hard fights like the twisted rune, kangaxx, etc... I'm thinking of playing it again. I always have to start with BG1 and play the whole series so I have all the tomes and whatnot so it takes a while though. I know you can use shadowkeeper to just edit the tome stats in and items but it doesn't feel the same. The amazing megadungeons like Durlag's Tower and Watcher's Keep seem lacking in any recent video games including Deadfire. POE1 did have Endless Paths, wish Deadfire had something like that.

FF/Steel garrote is extremely powerful indeed, and more appropriate for woedica since steel garrote is woedica's group. Another good choice for evil runs is a blood mage / soul blade, particularly if you use cheese to extend your max focus buff. You're greatly encouraged to murder everything in sight so you have insane amounts of focus and can blow up groups with soul annihilation + citzal's spirit lance. I think of it as collecting souls to make you grow more powerful.

Multiclass ascendants are more "self-reliant" you might say. Also if you are going for specific things like sky high accuracy so you always crit then the accuracy bonuses from ranger are useful. Hierophant blood mage / ascendant become pretty powerful once they get wall of draining. You do miss good cipher spells but can extend the ascended state with wall of draining indefinitely. Though as you've discovered a priest can do this as well. Just depends what you want. For party support SC ciphers are extremely good because of time parasite, reaping knives, defensive mindweb, and shared nightmare. Multiclass is definitely better playing solo because SC ciphers are too squishy.

Sorry, been busy this week. I don't have a full build guide for these but would use the stat distributions as suggested in the previous post. I assume by pure monk you mean monk/blood mage. For helwalker/blood mage you could do something like MIG/CON/DEX/PER/INT/RES - 8/13/15/19/18/3, and for a regular monk you'd just increase MIG a bit at the expense of some other stats but you don't need as much CON because regular monks don't take more damage based on wounds like helwalkers, so something like MIG/CON/DEX/PER/INT/RES - 10/10/7/14/18/18. The high resolve version will help make the monk more sturdy. I go low resolve with helwalkers and just keep them off the front lines unless you are buffed to the max with wizard spells or potions of final stand (not relevant until high level). You could also do a pure monk with dumped resolve, something like 12/11/13/19/18/3, it just depends how you want to use the character. For tanks you generally want max resolve, if not a tank you can usually just dump it. But even with dumped resolve you can have decent defenses since wizards have so many ways to buff deflection. And keep in mind once at L10 you can take turning wheel or iron wheel (or both) but only one active at a time, which gives +1 INT per wound and a fire damage lash, or +1 CON per wound and some armor. Armor doesn't stack with llengrath's safeguard though, which you'd want active basically always. The main difference for helwalkers is they get +1 MIG per wound and +5% damage per wound, so at 10 wounds you have +10 MIG that stacks with other sources like Thunderous Blows, but you also take +50% damage. So they are tremendous damage dealers with the bonus might, but getting hit hurts a lot more. Citzal's spirit lance works well with both, you just do more damage per hit with a helwalker, and possibly attack faster if you dumped resolve for dex, and you generate wounds more quickly so you can spam wound-based monk abilities more. Once you get wall of draining at L19 the helwalker will be considerably more powerful since you can negate the damage malus by drinking potions of final stand. These give brief invulnerability, which can be extended indefinitely with wall of draining spell. So as long as you cast wall of draining every roughly 30 seconds, and use blood sacrifice enough to get back wall of draining to recast, you can maintain invulnerability while doing tremendous damage and spamming monk abilities. Basically the helwalker/blood mage is more powerful but squishier and requires more care so he doesn't die. Vanilla monk/blood mage are plenty powerful though if you don't want to risk the increased damage.

Yeah monk fists have good penetration and damage so you'll be fine going unarmed. Also crush is the least resisted physical damage type. Best thing about the lance is it will distribute monk abilities like stunning surge, skyward kick, force of anguish, whatever. So if you have decent accuracy you can spam stunning surge. You'll stun everyone in the AOE (if you make the roll) and if you crit even one you get back the mortification. I believe you can actually get back more than 2 mortification if you crit multiple enemies but I haven't tested this recently. Helwalker will do the most damage but is a bit squishy. Still, with the pike you can attack from behind your tank, and wizards have tons of defenses so helwalker / blood mage is my favorite sage combo (blood mage for replenishable spells but also to get wounds). With helwalker you can dump MIG a bit so personally I'd do a stat spread something like this MIG/CON/DEX/PER/INT/RES - 8/13/15/19/18/3 You could lower DEX if you want more MIG or CON. Take Turning Wheel for max stun duration and lance AOE. If you want a tanky sage though I probably wouldn't take helwalker at all so the stats would be pretty different. Can take nalpazca or generic monk, nalpazca is better but takes a lot of micromanagement to feed him drugs. In either case I'd do something like MIG/CON/DEX/PER/INT/RES - 10/10/7/14/18/18, and probably take iron wheel Should be noted iron wheel armor bonus doesn't stack with llengrath's safeguard, but it does protect you until you're bloodied so you might want it anyway If you want to focus on unarmed entirely then forbidden fist / blood mage is the best and you'd just stick with forbidden fist attacks, using distro something like 18/3/9/18/10/19 with iron wheel, wear helm of the white void when you get it

Definitely bear. Does almost as much damage as wolf but has much better armor. Ghost heart summon has a long duration and you can't heal companion so you want your meat shield to last longer to conserve resources. I'd probably use a bow or just go melee but it really depends on your party, you can make that work I'm sure. But you'd build focus faster with frostseeker or essence interrupter. For melee I like stalker's patience. And check out this post for some ghost heart scripting. I haven't made a complete seer script but this tries to keep your companion active and that you're attacking the same enemy, also a block for targeting the pet with ectopsychic echo (can duplicate it and adjust to target with pain block or whatever). Can also script to cast psychovampiric shield on whatever your animal companion is attacking.

Okay now you're saying the herald doesn't need the ability you previously said makes it the second best tank. If we're going down that line of thinking, FF/SG does not need armor at all. And I never made the argument heralds aren't good in parties. Very early? Not really. Maybe if you could pickpocket the maps but I'm pretty sure you can't (checked with Torkar, can't). But it's a pretty hard series of fights for lower level groups. Also requires bad pathing which may or may not be an issue. I did say bloody links assuming you fight bloodied... but even not it isn't as if the bonuses are irrelevant. Your armor at low health is more relevant than armor at high health, provided you can't be one-shot. Say you get penetrated at 20 armor, so you're tanking and taking a bit of damage, once blood price + crimson chain kicks in that may be enough you no longer lose health faster than you can gain it. There are other abilities and items that benefit from being bloodied, particularly relevant for tanks is Akola's Apex Ward which gives +10 accuracy for blood rage (and +1 armor, +3 deflection always), and for arcane knights llengrath's safeguard (plus blood sacrificing to bloodied replenishes spells). There's also fire godlike, death godlike bonuses, etc. Devil of Caroc BP is great for a lot of builds but not all of them. Patinated Plate is fine if you don't care about the recovery time malus. I just think you're really simplifying things saying X armor is superior, the end. Why do bloody links become obsolete in your opinion? Assume this is on a character that fights bloodied so bonuses are active. Well for a tank I don't think getting that much engagement is much of an issue, especially for solo builds, but even in parties usually not a problem unless you have multiple tanks. There are exceptions of course like v Dorudugan, but you can switch armor for specific fights, not like you're married to it. Disagree about Nomad's Brigandine in general, though for builds that want immunity to disengagement it's obviously good. But it doesn't give +10 deflection, as I'm sure you know...If you're near allies, you get +5 deflection (with the horde) and you can pick +5 deflection vs melee or +5 deflection vs ranged (head/tail of the column), but this is not the same as +10 deflection. It's a conditional +5 deflection and a limited +5 deflection. My point is that best armor is build specific, and all I did to prompt all this was answer a question regarding highest attainable armor for two builds.

Yeah IDK boeroer. I was comparing FF/SG with a herald. With FF/SG I literally do nothing but spam FF, and once it hits 10 wounds it stays there. Even scripting to maintain Enlightened Agony and/or Thunderous Blows, which usually isn't necessary, I can attack fast enough to stay at 8 to 10, so iron wheel only costs resources in the since I can't use abilities I haven't taken and don't want to use anyway. Whereas using phrases costs you 6*phrases (or 3*phrases plus linger) seconds for the invocation, and chanters usually have lots of other invocations they'd like to use as well so it's a more serious blow having to maintain one for the armor, which also doesn't cover crush/corrode. I mean I do agree with you that IF maintaining 10 wounds was preventing me from using abilities I wanted to use, then it's costing resources, but that's just not how I run a FF/SG. Ha. The power of skeptical thinking bears fruit. Just watched it and read some articles. Looks Skyrim-esque and Living Lands setting is cool. Apparently won't be as large as Skyrim despite initial claims of being larger, which Obsidian is spinning as a positive so the game can focus more on stories or something. I'll almost certainly play it whenever it comes out, though I'm skeptical (crosses fingers) the game will be awesome. Oh and I've thought about buying Stellaris at times but there's so many DLC IDK. I usually want all the DLC for a game but in this case the "ultimate" bundle on steam is $230 on sale. This the kind of game where you need/want the DLC or it's more like extra content?

FF/SG is a great offtank with good defenses and decent damage, can solo the game. Straight FF also works. If you want a soul blade FF/SB is extremely good. Not quite as tanky as FF/SG but tanky enough not to die and does good DPS with high damage FF spamming plus soul annihilation. I've soloed with magran's challenges with FF/SB. If you want a streetfighter FF/SF can be pretty good but is kind of hard to script. I've been messing with it and it does tons of DPS and can tank, but it's tricky to balance equipment so heating-up and looking-for-a-fight both balance with spamming FF without stacking forbidden curse. I'll post a build when I figure out the scripting. BM/SB is extremely strong from level 13. Won't carry team before then. I don't think trickster/SB would either, though you can stack deflection decently high. Right? I didn't read the whole series, lost interest in book 5, but I've read the first three IDK how many times.

I don't think it's that simple to say Magnera's Chain is the best armor, and you're overstating its advantages. Assuming we fight bloodied (as indicated in the build I linked), reckless Brigandine pierce is more like 11 to 12 since the armor value increases as you lose health, and there are other benefits to reckless brigandine like +action speed and +engagement and +damage. And enemies do variable damage types so the maximum value does at least sometimes matter. The Bloody Links are also competitive armor (better even) compared to Magnera's Chain given crimson steel gives +2 armor and blood price +5 all defenses. I do like Magnera's Chain for riveted links, padded underlayer and magnera's commitment, but it's typically acquired quite a bit later given the prerequisite bounties and map collecting, so for most of the game I'd use one of these two I mentioned, and sometimes not switch. So bloody links (when bloodied) gives +2 all armor, +5 all defenses, whereas magnera's chain gives always +2 pierce/crush and +10 fort/will, which overall is just less bonus but could be preferable for builds with low fortitude and will, or ones that don't fight bloodied. You can also cover pierce with lance of the midwood stag's woodskin + wall of draining. For arcane knights anyway. And "nor flame" is a cone AOE, so you don't really need your tank casting it. Also I'm not convinced +4 slash/pierce/shock/burn that requires spent resources is better than iron wheel which does not, particularly since an FF/SG can heal itself so rapidly, but I agree heralds make good tanks.