Oloorin

Pretty much any build can handle Normal and Hard difficulty in a party Again I'd just stress that you can modify them for more damage, as all those defence talents should be unnecessary. Or if you really want - make a build that maximises the stats most used in dialogue by having good Perception, Intellect, and Resolve. At least 16 in those three stats should give plenty of dialogue options.

Huh? What does the 50% endurance have to do with it? Also, regarding build advice - wait for Boerer to weigh in here haha, but I've been taking this and modifying it for less defence. I mean, the build is meant to tackle POTD difficulty SOLO, so if you're playing at a lower difficulty in a party, you can get away with a lot more. It's the same for a lot of the 'up close and personal' wizard builds, they are all POTD solo ready, so all three builds always have talents like Bear's Fortitude Veteran's Recovery Body Control But if you're playing lower diff and aren't solo, those talents are less important and you can replace them with things like Apprentice Sneak Attack, Two-Handed Style if you're using the summon weapons or Abydon's Hammer.

What sort of spells can a wizard stack to keep increasing deflection? I noticed recently (after taking like a year break) that quite a few just won't stack, and I'm only getting the +25 deflection from Llengrath's displaced image, but the +20 to all defences from Llengrath's Safeguard doesn't stack with it

My melee wizard can handle around 4-5 tough fights before needing to rest, just due to the spell slots you're using. You can handle easy fights just using the per encounter abilities of Delerious Alacrity of Motion, Ironskin, Eldritch Aim, and Merciless Game. But tough fights need slots, using them for the following: 3rd level - Llengrath's displaced image 4th level - Ironskin 5th level - Llengrath's Safeguard, Citzal's Spirit Lance (if you need AOE damage in melee) 6th level - Citzal's Martial Power

Perfect description of all the strategies and overview of the topic - as always Boeroer

Only years later that I'm posting this, but figure it's better asking for clarification on your direct post than making an entirely new thread to ask about this. I'm still finishing my playthrough and think it's on Normal diff but I play like it's on PoTD in terms of buff > debuff > nuke cycle. Just wanted to ask - what do you mean by running straight into an encounter versus preparing? Does preparation involve sending a forward scout to aggro, and the rest of the party buffing before the enemy even reach the frontline?

I just pick one of the builds in the build list and off I go. I run Eder as lady of pain tank, Grieving Mother as a melee cipher (shattered mind build) who uses Firebrand from the gloves and belt, Kana as a chillfog chanter, Durance as the support priest build, Aloth as a focused controller wearing Raiment of Wael's eyes + soulbound scepter +gauntlets of swift action + Lilith's shawl

I've been using this thread as a reference -

In my party I built out grieving mother and use her like the build suggests. However I put belt of the royal deadfire cannonneer on her (best belt in the game I reckon) which you can get fairly early on with free Deadfire DLC. In another thread Boeroer has pointed out that two handed weapons for ciphers works quite well, so I have her do big hits with a summoned firebrand greatsword that she casts using that belt. She paralyses, goes in and does big hits, and then can either CC the enemy, charm them, or do damage with cipher abilities like antipathetic field and ectopsychic echo.

I'm going to pay attention to the cipher as it's the class I know more about. And likely there's going to be a super knowledgeable player that comes in next and tells me how wrong I am, which is fine I just want to preface this by saying if you're going to play on normal mode, you do not need to worry about optimal stat distribution. Your RES is fine at 10, but having your RES greater than your Con for a frontline melee cipher is not going work as well as boosting your con up. Each class has a base deflection, with cipher being somewhere in the middle with 20 starting deflection. RES is so often dumped as a stat because it doesn't increase deflection that much for the attribute investment, and deflection boosts can be gained from other sources. CON and providing +% max HP is always useful on any class that you expect to be regularly taking damage. I'd bring up CON to at least 12. A starting intellect of 18 for a cipher - see, I don't think such a high starting INT is all that necessary. There are items in the game that will boost your INT anyway, and you're sacrificing having better perception, might, and con. For the purposes of scripted interactions, an intelligence of 16 will handle almost all those unique dialogue options. A cipher isn't as reliant on AOE size or duration as something like a wizard or priest, so starting at 18 is overkill. The rest of the stats look fine to me. Note that final scores I'm talking about are after background and racial boosts. Personally I'd just give this build a read and call it a day, start playing! There is a danger of overpreparing and overplanning.

So often I run into gear being useful on more than one character. All these builds have items that are called for by both so sometimes I'm at a loss for how to distribute them or what to use INSTEAD of optimal +4 stat boosting items. Durance is currently wearing the Raiment robe, Grieving Mother was gonna use Argwes Adra and currently wearing Wayfarer's Hide. Wizard is currently wearing Angio's Gambeson mainly for the 2 casts of DAOM but it would also be useful on Durance to actually get buffs out quickly. The auto cast of mirror image from Raiment seems nice, but I would think it'd become redundant when you get your second spell mastery and pick mirrored image instead of merciless gaze. Aloth's leather armour is currently being used by Aloth himself (party with two wizards!) as I figured he'd want the extra AOE instead of on a ring to make use of his debuffs and CCs he puts out. That leaves Blaidh Golan, but at this stage of the game I've already defeated all those ogres in WM1, so is there really that many enemies this would be helpful against?

I've built my wizard using the Frozen Lance build, but the armour recommendation is a bit hard to stomach. Considering best in slot according to that build is the Vengettia Rugia and literally at the final level of the endless paths, that seems like a pretty late if not FINAL thing in the game to acquire. Are there any close seconds or chest pieces to use in the meantime that work well for a melee wizard?

Sounds like a plan. CC enemies, charm them, anything to get them to stop hitting you. Are there many ways to increase DR apart from better armour than the trash I have her wearing at the moment?

Ah Boeroer, how I love you. Yeah, looking at Wayfarer's Hide looks like some great defense for a light armour, and nature's vigour looks good in keeping some regen going. Would the use of Shod in Faith also aid somewhat in making sure my GM behemoth doesn't drop? The use of whisper of treason has a slightly longer duration than the paralyse condition from mind binding. I just figured that the use of psychovampiric shield would provide a lot more defense and make her a bit more resilient to damage from a couple of enemies at once.

So I've given the cool crazy lady the standard suite of Talents for a 2 hander aimed at damage with some endurance. Currently at level 7. 1.Biting Whip 2. Veteran's Recovery 3. Draining Whip Abilities are: 1st level - Antipathetic Field, Mind Wave, Whisper of Treason 2nd level - Mental Binding, Phantom Foes, Psychovampiric Shield 3rd level - Ectopsychic Echo, Pain Link,Puppet Master 4th level - Body attunement, Pain Block And of course, she's got 6 uses of firebrand from her two lovely items, because that greatsword is bonkers. What's spurred this thread on is the result of the last fight against a group in White March. I used GM to flank around the side in stealth and engage their marksman+one melee. While my main tank Eder and off-tank Kana were holding very nicely and we were slaughtering the main group, poor Mother was taking a bit of a beating. I opened the fight with a mental binding, which didn't seem to hold very long and didn't let her get too much damage done on the melee she was engaged with. From the fight, I didn't use any 4th level spells of hers, as I kept worrying about stunning the enemies so she would stop getting beaten up so much. So I must have used about 2-3 mental bindings, a psychovampiric shield on the melee whacking me, and then a mind wave. And through all that, she just kept taking too much of a beating. You can see her deflection isn't that great, but I figured her ability use would keep her up, yet by the end of the fight she was missing over half her health. My gal is currently wearing the Night Runner Chest piece (as I figured the +15 defense while engaging would allow her to more easily be a flanker), but I can see now that she's also wearing the Cape of Withdrawal (+15 while disengaging) and so they're completely redundant. Does anybody have some recommendations of chest-pieces to use on her that would help with her survivability or just any 'dude, what the hell are you doing with your abilities?' At the moment, I think I'm missing the point of a solid rotation that lets her hard CC her enemies while she cuts them up with her Firebrand and she's taking way too much damage if she's actually a target of attacks - so any recommendations on ability rotation and usage, and general advice about what to garb her in would be really appreciated!