Not So Clever Hound

Interesting find @thelee! So the wiki description would seem to be partially incorrect then: "For clarification, the upgrade "Wrong Place, Wrong Time" applies the accuracy bonus regardless of the enemy ally count. Only the interrupt chance bonus is dependent on both there being 3 or more player allies within 2m of the wielder, as well as zero enemy allies within 2m of the target." Or maybe could your Devotions have possibly Crit? Since those Naga's don't have a high Will... I tried to test but didn't manage to replicate what you noticed.

So... I'm not necessarily trying to resurrect this (retrospectively very funny) thread. But, I wanted to say that I've just spent more time than I would want to admit playing with a SC Blood Mage with infinite casts of Skaen Priest's Shadowing Beyond and infinite Concelhaut's Crushing Doom. Zapping around the battlefield under near-constant invisibility to make every enemy being permacrushed by giant flying hammers is a very satisfying way to end an otherwise annoying workday. Infinite Shadowing Beyond is arguably a contender for strongest single spell that you can get with this trick, maybe before SoT/BDD... because it casts instantly without recovery - with a toon that already has low (or no) Recovery, it is close to permanent invisibility. I also have infinite Brilliant Departure for good measure.

In addition to those discussions and as @Haplok has illustrated several times, Assassin/Blood Mage wielding Engoliero do Espirs and tossing things Minoletta's Precisely Piercing Burst from stealth/invis can be very nasty and powerful. I particularly agree with you about Three Bells Through. On paper, the relatively vague description makes it a prime candidate for very strong metagaming but in practice, it's basically a low damage arquebus. The biggest letdown is that special attack effects don't carry over the additional targets.

Of course (facepalm) thanks for correcting me. Nice idea about the Zerker/Skald! The Furyshaper/Troubadour could team up with the Blood Mage/Troubadour. BM would bring Miasma to the table, plus the Ryngrim spells and several pulsing AoEs. Since we're there, they could also team up with the Druid/Troubadour for more pulsing AoEs... and everybody keeps chanting Thick Grew Their Tongue on Brisk Recitation, being like:

On top of what Boeroer just said, you might want to reference this thread: and this thread too:

That's a great point, and for a Chanter/Barb Interrupter, you could also sacrifice the Berserker goodies to go Furyshaper and cast the Fear Ward for more pulsing Interrupt chances right? Of course a Chanter/Zerker murdering their own skeletons on an industrial level with on-kill weapon effects is probably still a much stronger Howler... but that could be an interesting take on the Howler that is thematically strong (an insane screaming dude making so much noise that it constantly interrupts and terrifies enemies) and can work solo and in a party.

Just a note connected to Withdraw and playing solo, regenerating resources etc. As @thelee illustrated in his Ultimate run IIRC, Withdraw is not just useful to take Vela out of the fight, if you're playing a Tactician/Priest and Withdraw yourself, you will trigger Brilliant (!). So you will regenerate Resources and Health at the same time. Sweet for a "war of attrition" type of strategy (like a true Tactician?). As we found out in another thread, Withdraw can also be used offensively if the caster is Confused, in which case you can take enemies out of the fight in a pinch with a guaranteed hit. This opens up new tactics in particular against the dreaded Hauani O Whe. A Tactician/Priest can use Withdraw offensively if they are flanked which triggers Tactical Dilemma (Confused + Shaken). They can get flanked in a pinch with Powder Burns and clear it when needed with a PER inspiration. Of course, a Berserker/Priest or Berserker/Blood Mage who used Minor Grimoire Imprint to steal Withdraw permanently or any Berserker or Tactician using Withdraw scrolls can also do it. So yes I do agree that withdraw is a really great spell .

Thick Grew Their Tongue can crit thus proccing the Energized Interrupt. With a high ACC toon it will crit often since it targets Will.

Thanks @Exanos for the tip about Blightheart. Thanks @dgray62, indeed Energized with overlapping Chill Fogs and Freezing Pillars together with the repeating chant (and of course Eld Nary) would create so many interrupts that it would likely prevent anyone from doing anything will turning the area into a total killzone.

Hi everyone, So I'm definitely very late to the party on this and I'm ready to own it - just wanted to share some fun if that can give anyone ideas . After many contributors here mentioned how much they love the Chanter's "Thick Grew Their Tongue" Chant coupled with "Their Champion" Invocation to get a straight-forward, outstanding AoE perma-Interrupt toon, I wanted to tinker with it on a solo SC Troubadour. My idea was simple and built upon some know synergies: Wield Sacha's Scimitar, later dual wield with The Weyc's Wand Just literally sing one chant: "Thick Grew Their D... errr, Tongue" with Brisk Recitation On Cast Empowered "Far From Defeated" (the upgrade from "Their Champion") at the beginning of the encounter Now, we're removing Concentration and Interrupting everyone with Energized in a huge AoE every 3 sec AND... Between Sacha's Scimitar "Refreshing Finale" and the "Far From Defeated" perks, we get 6 phrases back instantly So we follow up immediately with "They Did Sing a Song" or "Eld Nary's Curse" or "Her Tears Felt Like Rain" or the good ol' "Her Revenge" x2 depending on the situation If we are dual-wielding The Weyc's Wand, with "Attuned Channel" everything we're doing at this point is at +3PL This works really well, more or less from level 11 on (!), but requires a bit more work and art in Solo Upscaled PotD to be something that I want to continue on a full solo playthrough. However, oh boy... in a party this is outstanding. The "Interrupt everyone every 3s" loop is a bit too tight Solo to guarantee invulnerability against big, tough crowds. But when you have a team to spread out incoming attacks, it is very good. And after that, you have all the usual Chanter awesomeness and versatility on top. Happy to hear if you have other thoughts. Cheers!

Yes, Smoke Veil is the bread and butter for most solo MC rogue builds, and indeed it loses some of its potency in late game where you can't reset encounters. Then you have to resort to Arcana to survive certain fights. SC Assassin can do it without and is arguably the most powerful solo Rogue (and arguably one of the very top solo classes in the game, with SC Bloodmage, SC Monk and a number of Multiclasses). In my opinion, putting aside The Ultimate which is a very specific challenge requiring a "very specific set of skills" and putting aside abusing bugs like Strand of Favor god mode.... the big discriminators between classes in their solo-ability will be: can they solo the critical path on Upscaled PotD at all, can they solo the critical path without abusing Arcana all the time (the list becomes much smaller), can they solo ALL optional tough areas including ALL Megabosses (there it boils down to a few classes)... also several classes without renewable resources will only open up to solo if you do the god dialog choices in order to get tier 3 Wit of Death's Herald after Ashen Maw, which gives you a per-rest, on-demand Brilliant. As to whether Solo play in Deadfire is fun or not, it's really up to personal preferences. Personally I think it is fun - which is fortunate because I've played that way for a 1,000+ hours . It's a different way to enjoy the game, both the storyline and the combat. I find it personally simpler than party play. It just has a very useful mix automatically learnt spells, especially for The Ultimate. Wael is also quite universally useful. You can't reset encounters in The Ultimate. I'm partial to SC Bloodmage, I've loved most of the multiclass Bloodmage variants, SC Assassin is great if you like stealthy play. I've had a ton of fun with Mindstalker, currently I'm having fun with SC Fury Druid. It would be easier to ask what to avoid like a solo naked SC Mage Slayer for example!

To each their own . Just in the spirit of being thorough, I think that you could also get the extra +2 MIG points from the Guardian's Plate last enchantment, Plagued Strength (+1 Health Restored per 6.0 sec, +2 Might, Constitution, Dexterity while Afflicted). But that is a lot of work . Go through BoW, do the soulbound upgrade quests, then you'd need to get an Affliction every time to trigger the buff... and voilà, your last +2 MIG.

Have you checked if this is still true when you save/reload after having rested? Reloading *might* permanently turn the food bonus from an active to a passive buff and thus allow to stack with Frenzy. You seem to already have a solution thanks to Boeroer but maybe this will work without having to use iroll20s .

Thanks! It's the top tier room available at the King's Coffin, providing +3 PER and +1 Empower Point.

Hey @crdvis16 don't know if it's intended (and if so, why ) but you're writing black on black, it's very hard to read. Might want to edit your text to a lighter color.

Well, maybe I'm a victim of seasonality as Fall is already upon us, but I'm having a lot of Shark Soup. I also use the Captain's Cabin bonus which is nice to stack with other +Empower points bonuses when regularly empowering Greater Maelstrom like there's no tomorrow. I'm happy to be back to the Deadfire grind after a long trip to the US (from France) with my wife and son. Flying and driving across the East Coast and Midwest for 3+ weeks to introduce our toddler to his family Stateside, all while avoiding pandemics and travel bans... glad to be back home! Also, really grateful for the "Mark Forum as Read" button otherwise I'd still be scrolling through dozens of amazing and marginally less amazing threads .

Absolutely, also because I have to pick something and Arms Bearer isn’t going to do me any good.

I’m not sure honestly but I think it’s more like “hey all you masochistic hardcore gamers who are going to find a million ways to break the game left and right, show us what you can do against impossible odds”. After all, they created The Ultimate! So it’s like they keep raising the bar, and gamers keep finding new, smart, cheesy or less cheesy ways to pass it. Anyway I think you should seriously look at SC Monk if you haven’t already, maybe SC FF or SC Nalpazca. Or SC Helwalker if you like to suffer. Maybe it will fit your requirements! Or maybe you also find those late game Monk abilities cheesy… they are a bit indeed. But hey on another thread you mentioned IWD. I’m curious: for example there how do you consider a Solo Dragon Disciple bathing in their own Incendiary Clouds? OK cheesy or too much? Because there are only so many ways you can solo IWD at high difficulty and this is one of the few possibilities.

Interesting question, but it would be helpful to understand what you consider as cheesy, abusive or exploitative. I fear it’s going to be rough to find a strong contender without some kind of feature that some would consider cheesy one way or another. Also, in late game DLCs there are lots of encounters you can’t just sneak out of and reset. Encounters go on as long as enemies live, and you have little space to maneuver. And by then, everybody hit like absolute trucks on PotD, with thousands of health points. I do love Shifter/Assassin solo but in my very humble opinion based on a fair amount of solo runs with other builds I don’t think it’s triple crown solo material. Even using a ton of arcana, alchemy etc. it would be subject to a ton of RNG. IMO the game is balanced so that late-stage PotD is meant for a decently optimized lvl20 party. You will hardly be able to solo against those odds without some kind of Uber-synergy or unexpected mechanic (i.e. cheesy to some) to balance things out .

Whenura Cleft: high Athletics skill check that can kill you.

Nope, emergency healing is just via Second Wind (Undying Burden gives another one per rest) and I keep potions of healing around. I also keep potions of invisibility ready too.

What I did at the beginning was attack and aggro normally, get all your spells going on the enemy (Hold Beast, Touch of Rot, Insect Swarm and Returning Storm) also cast Storm's Rage for good measure, then use Shifting Storm to bolt away and turn around a corner to deaggro. Rinse and repeat. It is indeed absolutely perfect for the Dig Site if you make your stand up the stairs between the training grounds upper entrance and the ladder: get the enemy to gather up there, pummel them, then you can use Shifting Storm DIRECTLY up on the platform above and run away to reset the fight! Enemies won't chase you. Works probably with any Escape ability too.

You hit them, continue to cast spells that can hit them from afar (which includes PoI for example, which DoT will keep you in combat). Once you've cast everything you have and DoT have been cleared, combat will end. Your spells will be replenished and you can start again faster than enemies can regain health out of combat. So in one or two more cycles you will have destroyed even tanky groups. Target healers first of course - the only encounter that was a bit annoying (still totally doable) was Beina with all the healers. To make it easier you could cast a DoT from afar, spiritshift, hit yourself with Storm's Rage with Deltro's Helm on, then cast 2x Sunlance + Shock Lash on those pesky priests. Here are all the spells that you may safely use with a range of 21 or more (18 for the Insect spells but it still works with precise positioning/targeting to avoid aggro): Dancing Bolt, Burst of Summer Flame, Blizzard, Insect Swarm, Hail Storm, Embrace of the Earth Talon, Plague of Insect, Sunlance. As you can see, quite a few casts that can together really obliterate a group of regular enemies (knowing that you have really good PEN/ACC with many of those from Fury + passive abilities + PL & ACC stacking from items). Against non-poison resistant enemies, PoI is amazing and it doesn't matter that it targets FORT, since if it doesn't land, nothing happens and you get your spell back.

Skullcrusher's Fracture: the Injury proc doesn't spread with AoE attacks. Tried with Clear Out and Heart of Fury.