NotDumbEnough

The problem, I think, is that you absolutely don't need consumables to go through most of the game unless you are a Nazpalca monk. In my current Arcane Archer/Skald playthrough I am literally killing megabosses and the first time I used a scroll was at Belranga, where I prepared a few Garden of Life scrolls for the ridiculous healing (obviously, with Arcane Archer you want to pump Arcana, so I had tons of scrolls lying around but never found any opportunity to use them). For the remaining 99% of the game I am just not going to blow cash on a Scroll of Great Maelstrom when I can just have Tekehu cast it the old-fashioned way.

Acina's Tricorn applies to pretty much any ranged attack that isn't AOE like fireballs, generally single target spells such as most cipher abilities.

Play Helwalker/Ranger or Helwalker/Rogue. Get Serafen's starting hand mortar and the one you receive from his personal quest. With high intellect and perception you can just endlessly spam Stunning Surge against a crowd of enemies for free (note that Stunning Surge also refunds wounds despite the tooltip). I personally didn't enjoy such a build though as it is ridiculously powerful and more or less trivializes most encounters.

I feel that finishing blow should instakill near death on crit or something, rather than a % chance for any connecting attacks, otherwise I feel that it makes abilities like Detonate, Boil their Flesh from Skin to Bone, etc. too redundant when you can just have a rogue dual wield blunderbusses. Edit: I also wonder if it would interact poorly with Pain Link (i.e. enemies shooting your party member with Pain Link) or Blood Ward/Chanter's Old Siec etc.

The best AOE melee would probably be Lord Darryn's Voulge with either SC barbarian or Barbarian/Fighter multiclass but soulbound to barbarian. You're basically getting +10 damage on every carnage hit with delayed effect.

Personally, I think the problem lies not in Finishing Blow, but in Crippling Strike, Finishing Blow and Gambit overlapping too much in function: they are simply weapon abilities that deal more damage. Maybe have Finishing Blow etc. deal a lengthy stun or terrify against Bloodied/Near Death targets?

So after 1000+ hours in this game and futilely trying to trigger Xoti/Maia romance by raising their relationship with one another across many, man runs... I finally made it happen. It is insanely unintuitive and difficult to pull off, and last I checked there is no explanation on the internet for how to do this. The steps are: 1. Get Maia and Xoti to mutually like each other (at least +1 relationship mutually) 2. Get Eder and Xoti to like each other 3. Xoti will initiate a conversation with you where she talks about romancing Eder. If you fulfill the first condition, you can now suggest that she romance Maia instead. Caution, this is hidden behind a dialogue option to suggest to Xoti to not romance Eder, and if you miss it, Xoti/Maia romance does not happen. One tricky part is to not get 3 to happen before 1 happens (and 3 happens quite quickly after you fulfill 2), and the other tricky part is to get 2 to happen at all. Basically Eder does not have a lot of lines tagged as jokes. I've found it absolutely necessary to bring Eder and Xoti on two occasions: 1. While speaking with Serafen before going to Fort Deadlight, propose a head on assault. Serafen will joke about it being suicide, and Eder will chip in with his own joke. 2. While visiting Fort Deadlight, have both Eder and Xoti in the party when talking with Syri the Siren with Serafen in tow. Comment that Serafen made his bed, and now has to lie in it, rather than lying on his behalf. Eder will chip in with another joke. AFAIK these are both mandatory for triggering step 2, otherwise it is near impossible to get Xoti to have +1 relationship with Eder. You then need to kick Eder out of the party ASAP (there are a few random conversations which will cause Xoti to hit the +1 threshold with Eder, and you don't want 3 triggering prematurely), go get Maia, and get Xoti and Maia to like each other. Careful where you bring Xoti, as she does not like Maia lying. Anyhow I've attached screenshots of the beginning of the romance and a conversation that seems to confirm it, as I've never seen it on any previous playthrough.

Try any ranger subclass (except Stalker) multiclassed with Skald. Chanters have a very powerful chant for ranged attacks at tier 3 (Sure-Handed...) so just keep that up with Aefyllath Ues Mith Fyr, and use your high accuracy to land offensive invocations.

Some feedback for Hunter's Claw and upgrades: right now it doesn't feel too good. The problem is that it ramps up too slowly, I think. The ability is not much better than an autoattack other than interrupting on crit and having minor PL scaling. The end result is that it is much better to spam Accurate Wounding Shot instead for damage over time, up-front +20 accuracy, and PL scaling, rather than having to use Hunter's Claw 5 times first to achieve a similar effect (and on top of that, you have to try again if you miss, and it does not stack with other accuracy bonuses that your party may already have). It is just not worth it unless you are fighting a megaboss. Otherwise spending 5+ bond and the first ~20 seconds of the fight getting the bonus is not as good as just having a priest use Devotions for the Faithful.

Just throwing this out here, I noticed that Fury's weapon bounce has -20% penalty rather than the -50% penalty of Driving Flight. Maybe different penalties lead to incompatible attacks for bouncing.

Maybe have it refund cost on kill like old Barbarian's ability?

I suspect Rynhaedr was originally intended to fight Neriscyrlas in more than just a cutscene. She has a unique ability if you attack her:

It seems that Time Parasite duration does not benefit from PL, maybe worth changing for the sake of consistency.

All of these permakill, which is why you need to be very careful using Circle of Death... I have had to reload saves before because the caster got confused, or one of my party members got charmed.

That would be very annoying to play against since a LOT of enemies have Finishing Blow. I believe destroy on death means permakill since Barring Death's Door no longer prevents death. Maybe just give it an accuracy modifier instead, e.g. +15 or +20 so that it is more reliable.

After some further play I am wondering whether it would be possible for Imbue: Eora and Imbue: Death to switch places. I feel that Imbue: Eora is vastly more powerful than Imbue: Death (which is really not too different from a slightly better Imbue: Fireball), so it should only be available to single classes.

Reaping Knives Animancer's Blade Silent Scream Death of 1000 cuts, initial damage portion Mind Wave Screaming Souls Detonate Venombloom Boil their Flesh from Skin to Bone That is all I can think of for class abilities. Definitely a lot more from item abilities that I can't remember

A proposal: give raw damage abilities and weapons a penetration value of not 0. Since lashes inherit the penetration of the base attack, they are very bad with raw damage abilities and weapons. e.g. Flames of Devotion with Reaping Knives is very bad due to the burn lash having 0 base penetration.

After playing with Arcane Archer I think it is hilariously powerful with cost reduction for Imbue: Eora. There are very few enemies that can fight while standing in 5 or 6 copies of Pull of Eora at the same time, while you can make your party members immune with certain items. Fun fact: the ragdoll effect from multiple Pull of Eoras will get queued up if they proc at the same time. So even after the hazard effect ends enemies continue to fly around helplessly for a long time. Probably needs a nerf.

Alternatively if you can't be bothered to fight anything you can just have Eder take his invisibility ability from the rogue tree and just sneak your way to the adra pillar. Only Eder needs to reach the pillar to finish the quest.

There is a truly incredible amount of jank with how Spearcaster works. As you can see from the screenshots I'm getting Daze and Immobilize procs on enemies that I haven't actually damaged, nor shot projectiles at (including Driving Flight bounces). It may have to do with my Arcane Archer abilities, but really I haven't been able to find out why this happens.

The Prisoners Turned on Their Captors does not affect the chanter himself, unlike all other invocations that buff allies, including the unupgraded version. Should probably change for the sake of consistency.

Approach the drake from the ramp to the upper right with one of your characters. Once combat starts, backpedal up and to the left where the tent is. Have Eder block the choke point while everyone else switches to ranged weapons. Take care to fight during the day, as I remember the panthers receive combat bonuses at night. Resting with food helps too, in the tavern you can steal several servings of Mariners' Porridge in a container next to the fire.

It's your first play through so keep it simple with a main character who doesn't need a ton of micromanagement. I would recommend a single class Chanter of your preferred subclass, with summons providing single target damage and the offensive invocations providing AOE damage.

The problem with Touch of Rot is that it has very low penetration and is therefore really weak against anything that isn't a low level trash enemy in PotD. For tier 1 spells you are better off with Sunbeam or Tanglefoot.