masterty66

@thelee points this out in his gamefaqs guide but in general action economy is a big reason why if you are going to multiclass a character you should make sure the synergies are worth the sacrifice of doing two classes. For instance I ran a Ranger/Priest recently. It was fun but I would not call it optimal. The extra accuracy helped my spells a bit and the pet added some dps but I don't feel like the benefits there were worth losing PL 8/9 spells. On the other hand, in the past I ran a Berathian/Helwalker multiclass that focused on melee and some offensive magic and that was a lot of fun and felt synergistic. The key there was doing what @Boeroer mentioned above and bringing another Priest along. If I had to use my Berath/Helwalker character to do all the buffing then I wouldn't have been meleeing or casting offensive spells as much as I would like to. So instead, I brought Xoti or Vatnir along frequently to do that. That freed me up to play that character more like a gish and get in there and melee and occasionally toss a nice offensive spell out. And that was fun and effective and felt worth the tradeoff of losing spells. I also think it's important to not get too habit driven when doing combat in this game. It's easy (for me at least) to fall into a trap where I approach every fight by casting certain buffs and then attacking. Sometimes it's actually more efficient to skip the buffs if I don't need the extra accuracy or if I need to CC or otherwise attack certain enemies in a hurry. One example of that is the fight against those burning enemies in Beast of Winter in Eothas' realm where you get ambushed after speaking to Waidwen. I like to get onto those archers and CC or get in their face ASAP because when they spam confounding blind on my party and snipe me I feel like party members go down rapidly. So if I spent some time just sitting there grouped up buffing I feel like my party would die. Instead, I get on the enemies asap to disrupt what they're doing to me. Yet on a lot of other fights I might just unstealth Eder and keep the rest of my party stealthed while I get buffs up. So it depends. And of course, sometimes you don't even need those buffs either if it's a trash encounter or what not. It can be more efficient/fast then to just get to bashing immediately instead of wasting time buffing.

I'd echo @Boeroer's stance on Spellblade being a fine pick. I've played Aloth that way before and had him use Nanassin's and he's been fairly effective with it. Against enemies resistant to poison I often had Aloth use Kalakoth's Minor Blights which are fantastic for a Spellblade as you can apply things like Gouging Strike in an aoe.

I've honestly never really thought about it. I feel like (since I work for all the factions typically and do all the bounties) that I often reach a point mid game where I've out leveled almost everything I do, and that even upscaling doesn't really keep up with it. You may have a similar experience depending on how much of the content you choose to do. For me, the difficulty curve of Deadfire (even with scaling and usually some god challenges as well) goes like this: 1) Port Maje: Brutally hard lol. Gorreci Street and Digsite are no joke two of the hardest areas in the game. 2) Then I hit Neketaka and do all the non combat xp quests and buy stuff and generally have a relatively easy time with most quests up until I hit the DLCs where suddenly the game becomes hard again. Maybe this would change if I didn't do all of the quests in the game but I tend to work for every faction and do every bounty and do all side quests that I can, so I end up outleveling content pretty quick, for better or worse. The DLCs even the playing field in a big way though. Those are always a big step up in challenge unless I'm playing a god tier OP build. YMMV depending on how much content you do is I guess the long and short of it. And the DLCs will always even the playing field regardless of whether you find the mid game (non DLC) content too easy even with scaling.

Race: I went with Pale Elf for extra defensive capabilities, but Hearth Orlan would also be a good choice. Stats: 15 might, 10 con, 15 dex, 20 + 1(white that wends), 14 intellect, 3 resolve Class: Stalker and Skald (I went with wolf pet for dps/style. If you want less fussiness with the pet, pick bear) Skills: Whatever you want really, but I'd recommend putting at least some points into athletics for an emergency heal as you can be a little squishy at times. I did basically an even split of alchemy/athletics, but arcane and/or explosives would also be pretty nice on this build. Build Marked Prey, Thrice Was She Wronged, And Thrice Justly Avenged, Come Come Soft Winds of Death Resilient Companion Vicious Companion Two Weapon Fighting, At The Sound Of His Voice, The Killers Froze Stiff Protective Companion Takedown Revive Companion, Her Revenge Swept Across The Land Ancient Memory Marked For The Hunt Stalker's Link, The Long Night's Drink Hunter's Claw Takedown Combo Faithful Companion, Seven Nights She Waited While The White Winds Wept Reny Garet's Ghost Ben Fidel's Neck Was Exposed They Shielded Their Gaze (optional if you dont mind swapping to Modwyr for fights with intellect afflictions), Hunter's Fang Tough Improved Critical Her Tears, Potent Empower Accurate Empower Weapon proficiencies: sabre, large shield Important Items: Obsidian Wurm (pet), Sasha's Singing Scimitar (with refreshing finale), Grave Calling (or Sun & Moon). Magnera's Chain. Backup slot = tower shield + Modwyr. Party support: You'll want a tank and healer support as this character is more of a striker/dps. How this build plays I like Chanters in Deadfire. They've got fun and powerful abilities, and with Sasha's Singing Scimitar they can hit pretty hard with invocations. So this character is essentially built to hit as hard and accurately as possible with invocations. Thrice Was She Wronged will be your bread and butter for much of the early game and it hits extremely hard (especially when empowered). You'll also find that many enemies aren't very resistant to lightning damage. It's an awesome damage type. For CC, you have The Killers Froze Stiff. This is a great invocation that paralyzes enemies and (importantly imo) targets a different defense from your other invocations. While her revenge and seven nights target reflex, this one targets will. It's handy for enemies that may have high reflex defenses or just enemies you need to CC. So what this character does is once it gets Sasha's Scimitar it opens a fight with an empowered invocation (one of the DPS ones if you don't need CC, otherwise you can use Killers Froze Stiff to buy your party time to position/get buffs up) and then it contributes melee dps until it has enough phrases to cast again. It's a fairly straightforward playing style. Use your pet plus hunter's mark and hunter's claw to get massive accuracy bonuses for your spells and melee attacks. You will crit quite often. Takedown combo plus an empowered Her Tears can do disgusting damage. I mainhanded Grave Calling which I think is a fine weapon for a crit based character. You could also choose to use Sun and Moon. I didn't use that one because I wanted to have another party member use it. (in my game, I had a Stalker/Fury Merc using Thelee's "Big Game Hunter" build, and so I let that build use Helm of White Void + Sun & Moon). There are other nice crit based mainhand weapons as well. The important thing is off handing Sasha's Singing Scimitar. Modwyr is a nice backup weapon to have for fights where enemies like to use intellect afflictions. Because this build dumps resolve those can be annoying to deal with. The dumped resolve doesn't matter that much in terms of your deflection because Stalker gives an inherent +5 deflection bonus as well as an AR bonus. Those make up somewhat for dumping resolve. I also took the chant "They Shielded" in case I wanted to approach those fights without weapon swapping. A tower shield is also recommended to have on hand as a backup slot for ship boarding fights or any fights where lots of range might hit you at once. You will need that survivability to not instantly go down from gunfire. Once they fire their volley you can swap back to main slot weapons. I didn't pump my int super high as I felt dex/per/might were a little more important. A Skald imo doesn't need super high int if you're using the invocations I did as most of these are just dps invocations. Higher int would help a bit for Killers Froze Stiff but what I had I felt like was enough. Overall, I enjoyed this build. There's nothing special about it in terms of new synergies or item discoveries. But I think it's a solid, effective, build that uses offensive invocations as well as melee attacks to dish out lots of damage. The fact that it can cc well and also lower enemy defenses (I rarely used Ben Fidels but in tough fights it can be handy if you need an accuracy boost) is just a bonus. For Chants I typically ran with The Long Nights Drink plus Ancient Memory. Long Nights Drink doesn't actually help land any of our spells, but it does help our party land attacks that debuff fort, and debuffing enemy might helps our survivability somewhat. I found that passively debuffing enemy fort defenses all the time was fantastic for my other party members who wanted to use abilities that target fort. Debuffing fort does also help us land takedown combo more reliably, so there is that too.

Necroing a bit here but just wanted to say I imported a Ranger into Deadfire and opted to go with this build and it has been pretty fun @thelee. Thanks for putting this together. Party I've been running is PC, Priest of Wael SC Merc (dual wielding Wael Scepter + Stalker's Patience), Aloth as Battlemage using summoned weapons, Eder Swashbuckler Kapana Taga/Cadlu Scalth tank, and the last slot is a rotating one depending on what quests I'm doing or what I feel like. Potd/upscaled. It's been going well. Being able to snipe enemies from across the map with Sunbeam is a lot of fun and quite useful for forcing them closer to my tank. I'm only midway through the game (level 14, haven't done DLCs yet) but I am liking this. Now that I've unlocked Relentless Storm I feel like the build has really come into its own.

I like to use Refreshing Defense on Eder. With that up and a healer supporting him I find he almost never goes down.

I have the same experience as @Boeroer. I use Eder as my main tank in the majority of my runs (built the same way as Boeroer builds him) and he performs quite well that way. I am on potd upscaled etc. Eder is almost always my main tank unless my PC is built to be one. With the setup that Boeroer described he can hold tons of engagements and defensively he is strong enough to take hits. As Boeroer mentioned it can take some levels and gear to get there. Early on before he has good armor or Cadlu Scalth he is a lot less beefy. Of course I typically take a strong main support character in my parties (Xoti or Tekehu if the PC isn't one...sometimes even both of them or one plus Herald Pallegina if I'm in fights that require endurance (some of the tough SSS fights for example). So I do bring along a character to keep Eder healthy and hale. But I imagine that regardless of what most people use as a tank they're typically doing the same as well...on potd at least.

I honestly feel like Maia is as simple as give her the Red Hand and pick whatever talents and she'll still be good lol. I mean obviously you can optimize her but her as any build + Red Hand = single target dps machine. Lately Geomancer Maia has grown on me a bit. Her + Phantom shooting things is good dps and all the other Wizard goodies are nice to have.

If you search the forums you can probably find builds for specific companions or at least ideas for how to do them. If you want general concepts, here's a few ideas I often use: 1) Eder: Fighter/Rogue. Give him Cadlu Scalth (shield) and Kapana Taga (club). Take Riposte, Persistent Distraction, Adept Evasion, and Guardian Stance. Give him heavy armor. Add anything that improves his deflection as high as possible (to help riposte) He's now a great tank that can engage lots of enemies and provide a bit of dps as well. 2) Aloth: Pure Wizard. Nothing special gear wise honestly. Early on, use spells like miasma, chill fog, and combusting wounds to add some damage and debuff enemies. At high levels pick up the spell Cadebald's Black Bow, cast it, and then cast Essential Phantom. You now have a Wizard plus a Phantom who will both shoot arrows at enemies that terrify and do solid auto attack dps. Great cc + solid damage. 3) Xoti: Pure Priest. Nothing special gear wise other than rings of overseeing or anything that improves aoe radius or intelligence. Key spells: Use Devotions for the Faithful and Dire Blessing to buff your party's accuracy. At high levels, you can use her more offensively by using the symbol spell she gets which is fantastic. When she has spare spell slots (after buffing) you can also use shining beacon, cleansing flame, and storm of holy fire to add great dps. 4) Tekehu: Pure Druid. Focus on heals (stacking Moonwell, The Moon's Light, and Nature's Balm can make your party very hard to kill). For offense, chillfog is fantastic and party friendly. Returning Storm is great. Infestation of Maggots is great. At high levels, Maelstrom can end fights quickly. If you can acquire the Great Sword Effort, the hemorrhage upgrade on that works with his pulsing spells as well which helps to debuff enemies further. If you bring him, bring a Priest (Xoti or PC) along to buff his accuracy so his spells land. His per is not great. For gear, things that improve aoe radius, int or per are all nice. 5) Serafen: I like Witches. A lot of people hate his Wild Mind class though, so you might prefer Barb. But since I play him most often as a Witch, here's how I do it: Morningstar (plus modal), Secret Horrors (fantastic debuff), and then use charm spells or his dps spells (disintegrate, soul ignition) to harm enemies. 6) Maia: Ranger/Rogue. Grab the Red Hand (Arquebus), and that's honestly about it. She's a great single target dpser. Gouging Strike, Arterial Strike, and other such abilities plus her gun dps will make her a fantastic single target dpser. Conc shot + Upgrade are also nice to help interrupt enemies or strip enemy buffs. That's a few quick outlines. If you want more info on any, I'm happy to elaborate.

Monk/Priest is very nice as well. I once played a Berath/Helwalker monk and it fit thematically and was quite strong as well. Helwalker bonuses helped make my castings more impactful so it was nice synergy. And when I was done casting I could smash heads with a big summoned greatsword. Better than pure Monk? I don't know. PL 8/9 Monk abilities are obviously quite impactful. It was fun though, and more interesting I think than spamming Wotw.

Ah that makes it even better. I wasn't sure - it's been so long since I tried a Ghost Heart. I may have to roll an Itinerant soon...I've played a lot of Priests and I do enjoy them a lot but never tried this combo.

Another Ghost Heart question...does Stalker's Link work with the Ghost Heart AC? I thought it required engagement and Ghost Heart animal companions don't engage? Maybe I ought to test it...

Does that work with Ghost Heart or does the pet take up the summon limit?

Wael/Stalker would be good I think, if not necessarily the most thematic combination. An armor bonus, buffs to keep yourself alive and in melee, and a pet to help your accuracy and boost your dps. General synergies I can think of for an Itinerant: - Barring Death's Door and Withdraw can keep your pet alive and prevent you from taking the pet death malus - Halt and Binding Roots can be used to CC many enemies on the battlefield - Takedown combo to boost the damage of your most powerful spells and melee attacks - Priest DOT spells to unlock Predator's Sense on your animal companion - BDD plus salvation of time on your pet and let it tank things - Champions Boon on the pet to boost engagement - Litany For the Body to boost the pets survivability

I've been doing alright with having everything automated but the phantom. Means one click in combat but I'm okay with it.

I've scripted Aloth to do Infuse With Vital Essence-->Spirit Shield--->Deletrious Alacrity--->Blackbow and that works pretty well. After he summons the bow I manually have him cast phantom and then I can pretty much ignore him unless I need to reposition him or unless I want to cast other spells. With my scripts he won't cast any of those spells unless he's missing concentration or the relevant inspirations (or is missing a summoned weapon) so it works out well enough.

Do one with two! I've run Fassina/Aloth together a few times and it's hilarious watching two of them and two phantoms just shooting everything.

Makes sense. And yeah I have Aloth with the helm. It's insane what a power boost it is for him once he gets pl 8 plus that

I'm sure I don't know who you mean ;). But yes I thought if anyone might know it'd be him lol

I'm trying to set up a script for Aloth to cast Blackbow and then summon a phantom, but I can't think of a good way to do it. The Blackbow part is easy. if he doesn't have a summoned weapon, he casts that. But the phantom part I can't think of a good conditional for. It's not a huge deal really. Most of his buffs are automated so having to cast the phantom myself isn't that bad, but curious if anyone has set up a script for him to do this. I know I'm not the only one who loves the Blackbow + Phantom Aloth combo

I've had this problem too. When I hit reply sometimes my post disappears. However, if I open up reply again the post I just typed is still there and hitting submit reply again posts it just fine. Your point about Ngati's Tusk is a good one. I see a lot of builds and stuff using The Weyc's Wand plus Least Unstable Coil and while it's cool to see the interactions with those two items it's also a situation where you will have likely completed 99% of the game by the time you get those items. So for me doing a build that is built around Weyc's Wand or even the coil is not super appealing. If it's a build where those things are cherries on top then that is cool, but for me I want a character that is functional (or even good) for the meat of the game. That is also why I think people often underestimate single classes too, because getting PL4 as a Priest (devotions) or Mage (Ninagauths, Pull of Eora, etc) is pretty impactful early on, and arguably more so than what a multi class gives. Multiclass is of course quite fun and I often do it, but I think sometimes people underestimate the power of getting the good stuff earlier. I wish Obsidian had done one more DLC because I'd love to have more time to play with Weyc's wand but every time I get it I'm about done with the game . I guess you can vary the order you do the DLC in as well and do Forgotten Sanctum before the other DLCs but I've never done that and I imagine it would be a pretty stiff challenge since FS is the hardest dlc. But maybe doable? I'm rambling now. Merry Christmas all.

That's exactly it. It procs more than you'd think because as you fight big groups of enemies it's common for many to go down to 100 health or less after a while. And the amulet is a good finisher in that case. When it procs it's like a free death ring or something.

Writ of Engagement even seems useful in and of itself because being immune to engagement is a big survivability boost for your non tank characters letting them move in and out as needed. I could also see pairing it with something like Footsteps of the Beast + Heart Chime Amulet (Death Godlike). I am using that combo in my current run with a Berathian Helwalker/Priest and if I'm not mistaken the Heart Chime Amulet has a chance to proc every time the boots proc hobble on enemies. So that 5% can proc a lot when you are hobbling enemies all over the battlefield. I think @Constentin Lévinediscovered that particular interaction. Combine that with Writ of Engagement and you could basically run around the battlefield hobbling enemies and potentially proccing Heart Chime Amulet and all without worrying about engagement. So that's kinda cool.

Woedica's actually quite a strong kit. It might not be clear from the spell descriptions, but if I'm not mistaken (haven't used the kit in a bit) the Writs do their effect on top of providing whatever disabling they do. So for example, Writ of War (AT5) shuts down all non spell usage, but it also provides a shaken affliction. So these writs are actually quite powerful ways to shut down enemy abilities and usually provide a useful affliction as well. Writ Of Mending (AT 9) provides Enfeeblement which as we all know is one of the most powerful afflictions in the game. Writ of Sorcery and Writ of War are both extremely useful ways to shut down annoying enemy abilities. Imagine dropping a Writ of War on those Burning Archers in Beast of Winter, for example. Then they can no longer spam confounding blind on your squishies. Pretty nice eh?

I feel like Xoti's subclass shines a lot early in the game when bursting down a few enemies quickly can make a big difference. Later when enemies have a lot of hp it's less impactful like Thelee said. I've definitely been saved more than once on Gorreci street by Xoti landing a clutch Blessed Harvest