masterty66

I agree, I don't think on balance it's a good subclass or anything. I've just seen a lot of people act like his subclass is unplayable and I've never personally felt that way. He is perhaps best suited as a pure Barbarian but he's fine as a Cipher or a Witch. But I guess it depends on what one's tolerance for variance is. He can definitely lose you fights, and for many that can be enough to never make him a Cipher or Witch.

People complain a lot about Wild Mind but I've used Serafen as a Cipher quite a bit and I feel like I haven't often noticed it and thought man this is screwing me over right now. I know it procs regularly and sometimes negatively but it's only rarely lost me fights.

HOF should maybe have a talent upgrade which lowers the rage cost by 1. I feel like that still wouldn't be overpowered considering how strong some of the other Barb abilities are like Barbaric Retaliation

I had a few quick questions on a couple of items. The Heart-Chime Amulet has 20% chance to give 20% of the damage in health for Fire key worded attacks for Fire Godlike. I'm currently playing a Fire Godlike Shifter/Paladin. Does that mean I could get 20% of the damage in health back off of my flames of devotion attacks? That seems like it would be decently large. Perhaps enough to be worth using. Second question was around Strand of Favor. This necklace gives -10% hostile effect duration. Does this stack with Outworn Buckler? That would mean theoretically -20% hostile effect duration if combined, which seems massive, especially with the trick @dgray1981pointed out to me about rapidly swapping between Buckler/Lethandria's devotion to quickly stack healing and negative duration. Debating what necklace to use and these are two I'm currently considering.

Yeah, I did know that you can do that. I just find it annoying when I pick up characters I haven't used yet and then get into a combat situation with them in the party. If I haven't accessed a safe area ahead of time, they aren't leveled. Glad I'm not the only one though. I was hoping I wasn't missing something lol

I wish there was a mod or something to be able to level up your party members from the boat without having to actually put them into your party and enter a zone. One of the reasons I find that annoying is it means you have to go out of your way to be in a safe spot if you're using an NPC for the first time. I'll give you a great example of this that I have encountered a bunch of times. When you leave Port Maje for the first time and pick up Serafen, he's obviously not leveled up yet. If you then decide to go to the Xaurip Island (which is typically my first stop for some quick xp etc) then you will encounter a few spots where you could potentially get immediately put into combat. Once you're put into combat, you can't level Serafen up, so he's level one until you beat that encounter. You could run into the same issue if your ship got boarded before you leveled him. My solution to this issue is usually to put him into my party and then re-enter port Maje to level him up before I leave, but I find that slightly annoying. All this to say, I wish you could level up party members from the overland map lol. Anyone else find that a little annoying, or is it just me? I know how to get around it after so many playthroughs now, but it's still annoying.

I would add that dark/evil doesn't necessarily mean you have to be a jerk to your companions. You could treat your companions or your favored faction relatively well and treat everyone else like they're subhuman. That to me is more fun and perhaps realistic than just being a psychopath to everyone. In that sense you could bring whoever along since your companions will probably be okay with you if you treat them ok.

I haven't beaten Deadfire as much as many on here have, but I have a decent amount of hours logged into it across different playthroughs and I do still find Potd difficult at times. I find it harder than Poe1's POTD mode which is much more easily broken by the overpowered vancian classes. Then again, maybe I'm just better at Poe1 than 2 . For me a lot of the difficulty comes early and then late. Early on things are tough before you get the powerful gear and spells. And then late game can be tough with some of the difficult encounters in SSS and Forgotten Sanctum. The middle of the game tends to be easiest for me because there comes a point where I've leveled up enough from doing side content that even with upscaling I feel strong enough to dominate a lot of encounters. The DLCs (notably the last two, and BOW to a bit less of an extent) even the score a bit in that regard since you stop being overleveled at that point and monsters catch up. Just my two cents on it.

I usually start Beast of Winter around level 16 or so. Once you're through with that you should have the levels/gear to tackle the other DLCs. You maybe could start Beast of Winter at the level you're at but it'd be pretty challenging.

Finally got this going. Character is performing well enough so far. Just finished the dig site. Spiritshift hits pretty hard and the tankiness is welcome. The free spells it gets are very nice as well. The digsite being what it is I had to spend a lot of time tossing heals on my other party members though. I think once I get a few levels under my belt this should really shine between the aoe dots and the heals. I mean any Druid is powerful I suppose, but this should be relatively sturdy too thanks to the Paladin half. The versatility should be such that as long as I have a tank in my party I should be able to fill out the rest of it with whatever. This character can fill a lot of roles. Probably not main tank though due to the lack of engagement. But Eder will probably fill that niche most times.

That's a neat trick. I'll have to try that out when I pick up the wand.

Is there a good caster one hander to pair with Outworn Buckler? I figured Spine of Thicket Green was the item I'd want to use with this build to boost casting but looking the Outworn Buckler the bonuses on there do seem pretty nice and being a bit tankier in caster form is probably welcome. Maybe that would be better than having a little bit of a PL boost to my offensive spells? Or perhaps I should bring both along situationally

Yeah some of the other Paladin kits would definitely give a bit more synergy I think. But since I'm importing this guy I want to stick with his order for roleplaying purposes. That said I think it should still be a pretty solid combo even if the Paladin order I chose isn't the most optimal. The bonus freeze AR could be pretty useful in some areas at least. Gear gives bonuses in Shapeshift form except for armor and weapons, right? So I'd want to focus on armor and weapons that are useful in caster form and rings/boots/etc that are useful in shifter form?

Yeah I figure this character should be able to adapt to a situation pretty well. If I need survivability, I can do that. If I need more dps, I can do that. If I need to spend more time casting, I can do that too. The diversity seems fun to me even if it might not be individually the very best at any of those things. But I think embracing the versatility is key.

Just about finished with a Poe1 run. I was initially thinking about making my Paladin into a multiclass Soulblade, but I was thinking of other combinations and kinda switched gears on that. Paladin/Druid sounds fun to me, and specifically Paladin/Shifter. Any special considerations for that? I am playing a Darcozzi and so won't be changing that. I know it's probably the weakest Paladin kit in Deadfire but it is what it is I guess. Figure the basic strat would be cast a hot, cast a dot or two, shift--->melee. Spine of Thicket Green is I guess the best caster weapon to use for my initial casts. Anything else I'm missing or synergies/gear/etc? I figure this combo should be a solid mix of offense/defense/tankability. Bit of a jack of all trades I suppose.

Psion could safely generate focus under this potion in theory. Maybe combine that with some sort of aura gear that effects nearby enemies while the Psion sits there safely generating focus.

Yeah I do feel like Paladin is versatile in that it can combo well with a lot of classes since it's kit is frontloaded and you don't miss much by multiclassing it.

I only wish the concept worked in Deadfire :). But I am planning on turning my Paladin into a Darcozzi/Soulblade there which should be a pretty fun build I hope. Should still fit the feel of reasonable off tank with some dps/utility I hope.

Honestly ever since I figured out you could do this I haven't fought through the Manor since then. Those Steelclads are a pain in the ass and it's easier to avoid fighting there.

Thanks! Been playing a marking Paladin (Darcozzi) with Spectacular Spetum and was trying to figure out how exactly the marking worked. So you can kinda micromanage the marking bonus then to make sure it applies to the ally you want. For example if I really want to land a CC with Eder, I should make it so he's the closest to me. Or, if I want Aloth to land a CC spell, maybe I want my other allies to attack something else and just have my Paladin attack the monster so that Aloth gets the bonus to his attack even if he's not the closest. Above all I really wanna make sure I'm not giving the marking bonus to Kana lol. Not so useful for him I suppose (unless it applies to his chants?). Probably most useful for Eder to land Knockdown or Tall Grass attacks or casters landing their spells, etc.

So it gives + accuracy to an ally attacking the same target. How does this work exactly? I assume it's the nearest ally, but what if for example my Paladin attacks something and then Sagani with her bow is the only other ally attacking the target my Paladin is on. Would she get an accuracy bonus even though she could be far away? Conversely, if I'm attacking something and Eder and Kana are both meleeing right next to me as well, who gets the bonus? Is it just whoever is closest?

That makes sense. Wotep for big trash mobs, Sun and Moon if I'm being pressed by a single tough enemy. Not sure what party I'll go with. I usually rotate my party but with 1 or 2 npcs that tend to be more constant members of the party. So pc + 2 constant npcs + 2 rotating slots to use everyone else.

Do you have a preference on which style works better?

Soul Blade sounds kinda fun. What's a good weapon for that build?

Playing through one in Poe1 right now and trying to figure out where to take it in Poe2. Chanter/Troubadour seems like an obvious synergy. I guess Rogue might also work well, or Fighter.