Not So Clever Hound

That would be awesome @Elric Galad

By the way, this can be really good against certain enemies e.g. the Infested Librarian Monks in FS that periodically get the Tier 3 MIG, DEX and CON inspirations!

I'm very late to the party but wanted to clarify something here: when a Wizard steals a Wizard spell, it will first appear in the special ability side of your abilities bar - as when you steal any other spell. However, upon save/reload or area transition, the stolen Wizard spell will migrate in its corresponding spot in your Wizard spell list in the middle of the abilities bar (e.g. Shadowflame will be in your AT4 section along other AT4 spells you know, or are in your grimoire, or those you have previously stolen). However, you will still have unlimited casts of this spell - as for any spell you've stolen. So this is actually better because you have unlimited casts but you're not cluttering your special abilities bar which ultimately gets too cluttered if you steal too many Druid or Priest spells.

I wonder where you could steal Restore as soon as you hit level 7, so that healing wouldn't be an issue anymore. Maybe a Xaurip priest or Dawnstar? Maybe one of the low level ships would have it but that is likely suicidal at this point.

I was wondering the same thing, but I don't know. I don't remember seeing this spell cast by anyone else, but as you say some enemies have more spells than what they should have and some that are not listed on the wiki or anywhere. Indeed, as far as I know that's the only grimoire accessible early that has it. Dumb question bu have you tried using Corrosive Siphon? e.g. in Deadlight some of those enemies don't have insanely high fortitude and when you can graze/hit a lot of enemies, Siphon heals you by a lot (provided also you don't underpen but few kith enemies have high corrode AR).

Ha no, I just put 2 and 2 together yesterday: I remembered Constentin had posted a thread about stealing unique spells from Rathun Flamecallers, and I remembered that Rathun Rimebound could cast Shadowflame... nothing crazy. I'm sure there's a number of other excellent unique stuff to spellsteal we haven't discovered yet. (I'm thinking probably in Forgotten Sanctum and maybe in some of the SSS encounters). Shadowflame has a 6s cast/2s recovery yeah, while Fireball is 3s/3s. On the other hand, less recovery is good if you're using Shadowing Beyond to zap around and be invisible.

I can't remember if it had been mentioned somewhere already, but even running 100% solo, one can steal the unique spell Ninagauth's Shadowflame from the Rimebound Rathuns in the Enclosures in Forgotten Sanctum. Unlimited Shadowflames with big freeze damage and permanent paralysis is pretty cool.

Just delete this dude right here, mate Great reading your POV around the spell tiers and probability of getting something back. Obviously this is more aimed at Elric, but wanted to share a couple thoughts. Agree Blood Sacrifice is a lot trickier, but: 1) in "normal" gaming, you can build around reliably using only Ability Tier 1-3 spells (a lot of which are fantastic) for replenishment for most fights and, when you want to go nova to finish a fight in apotheosis, use your AT 4-9 spells and work around less/no replenishment. 2) you can use the BPM Moon Godlike passive + Voidward to cut raw damage from BS by almost 50% (-25% + -25%). If you use BS a lot, it's like getting a truckload of free healing back. And also, if you invest in CON, you will get more uses of BS, since Elric buffed CON +% HP.

I deactivated all my mods (CP & BPM) and BS does not restores a spell all the time, at least not in my game. I only cast lvl 9 spells and I was only getting the spell back every 3-4 BS which is in line with the 33% probability.

If it's fully hardcoded, then it's totally legitimate and intended. Seriously though, while having unlimited spells across virtually any vancian caster (whatever the UI can handle) is cheesy as hell, you have to really get out of your way to use it and I think it's fun that it creates a game in the game with its own power curve progression, where you try and figure out which enemies have which spells, how you can steal those etc. Plus, I think it's fun if it leads to the first Ultimate-like run on BPM!

Yup, I think so. If he's still checking the forums, @Raven Darkholme was quite the expert of that strategy IIRC. Could give you thoughts. You can have only one active summon ability at a time, not counting your pet if non-Ghostheart Ranger or Familiar if Conjurer. Anything you'll summon on top will refresh or replace your active summon. If you want to dig deeper into summons, the thread below by @Elric Galad is super helpful, but also Elric improved quite a few summons in BPM but it mostly doesn't touch Wizard summons I think. https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/114591-mechanics-the-summoners-tables/#comment-2202629

Good to know there's a few options to find Skaenites! I'm betting Principi ships, Dunnage and the Mad Morena area should give additional options.

They all get their own stats, but they will copy your equipped weapons & shield and armor. I think Watery Double and the Living Illusions from the Shroud of the Phantasm behave the same. I think there was a trick where retaliation-on-death items worn by the caster (e.g. Mantle of the Seven Bolt) would carry over the effect on the clones upon their death, but not sure right now.

Thanks mate! Impressive, I knew I was reaching out to the expert . I was wondering about the Tangaloa Ruins cannibals - awesome that you already have the answer. That is likely the best shot for an Ultimate Run I guess per @Shai Hulud's question, as I'm assuming the save/reload in Fort Deadlight wouldn't work (?). Never tried The Ultimate and seldom use Magran's Fires. This got me all worked up to do a SC Blood Mage run to go steal all the spells... dammit.

I would say Soulblade + any Barb, maybe Furyshaper for extra synergy around Resolve afflictions. Berserker can be tough to keep alive. You will have lots of synergy around being able to debuff Fortitude into oblivion and target it with Brute Force, for a lot of nice Crits. You will also have great synergies with a certain Morningstar available early that shines with enemies affected by Resolve afflictions, and a cipher/barb excels at that - especially a Soulblade/Furyshapers in my opinion, which also give you a strong one-shot option. Beguiler could be nice too.

Oh boy, a morningstar-wielding barbarian... I know where this is going. it starts with Bo and ends with -er. Seriously though Barb/Cipher with a certain Morningstar is all-kinds of synergistic and fun to play.

That sucks. I'm still having tons of trouble too, just liking a post isn't possible sometimes. Personally I use both, also potion of enlightenment although I've yet to use it. Yes it's either a buff or a nerf (a burff?) depending on whether you're using the spell legitimately, stole the spell, or use the scroll version and what your INT or Arcana stat is. I can't remember why Elric made it fixed duration. Might have to do with the fact that when you are confused you can withdraw an enemy which can be very strong if you do so for like one minute at a time (e.g. Hauani when it splits). Other than for Magran Fires/Vela shenanigans, I'm not sad about this one because it's so annoying when enemies withdraw their buddies forever. Arguably, nothing is stopping you from going in the override folder and getting rid of that particular component. So the priests on slaver ships are Eothas (which doesn't make much sense either ).

Yes indeed I forgot about quick switch between Outworn Buckler and Lethandria. I don't usually use it but it also works in BPM. No worries, it's a good question. I seem to remember @dgray62 had found other Priests of Skaen to steal spells from, easier than Beina or the Fampyrs. Maybe in Fort Deadlight, or in Crookspur, or in a slaver ship maybe? Am I dreaming this dgray62? I also remembered in the meantime that my beloved Crushing Doom can be stolen from Iverra and from Katrenn, no need to go mess with FS. EDIT: In the meantime I realized there should be a Skaenite Priest relatively easy in the Wāpau Jungle interaction! EDIT2... of course not, it only works if you have companions in tow..

Aaah that's why probably I didn't get the slavers sometimes. Thanks! I think you're definitely onto something and yeah, I think SC Blood Mage would be solid, though tedious to get fully set-up. If you managed to steal Concelhaut's Crushing Doom (besides Concie, I think some of the Librarians or Vithrak or some other enemies in Forgotten Sanctum have it in their spellbook, I got pummeled with it the other day ) then you could shut down and kill bosses and even some groups of enemies easily. I had tried that a while back just for fun. You could just endlessly use Shadowing Beyond, Withdraw on Vela and Crushing Doom on enemies. And because of the stacking effects every time the hammer hits, your strength or the enemie's resolve etc would quickly become irrelevant re. damage and interrupt (though of course some enemies would be immune to interrupts). I agree there is some irony there about Blood Mage being the king of BPM. If I recall correctly, Elric had mentioned that trying to fix the spell stealing trick would be incredibly hard, if at all possible. EDIT: not really relevant to the Ultimate idea, but SC Blood Mage can Enfeeble with Concelhaut's Corrosive Skin under BPM and that is really nice. Also re. you stat spread, if I had only one life and no ability to cast Power Word: Reload, I might shoot for 35 Resolve with all the buffs to make sure any odd attack that connects while I'm not invisible does not end my run. I have grown to be a huge fan of that tremendous % hostile effect reduction, it is such a lifesaver. It also of course has the benefit to boost your Will, AND your Deflection to huge levels.

You must use the Bleakrock shrine on Crookspur Island, not the one on Poko Kohara. You might need to save/reload a couple time but at some point while trying to pray there you will get interrupted, then you can pass a check and leave - getting the +2 RES without triggering a rest. It's in the wiki: https://pillarsofeternity.fandom.com/wiki/Bleakrock_Shrine

I think you're right about that, maybe not using Greater Grimoire Imprints to steal every useful spell in the game but that would be so hard/tedious in a proper Ultimate run. Thanks! Well by the way, one thing I really like about your Soul Devourer is how lore-friendly it is. Watcher used to be a regular Cipher or Mage, learned some new tricks while chilling with his buddies in Caed Nua, then Eothas messed him up, came back as a blood mage & cipher hungry for souls and went around to feed his hunger and get more powerful and deadly with every kill, using a sweet necklace with (ahem) unique properties.

Ha, that's true. Well to be fair it's not a goody-two-shoes paladin but a goldpact, so basically a lawful neutral mercenary. The fighting style at least is very aligned to what a goldpact arcane knight should be pragmatic, immobile, ruthless.

Ah maybe you're right. I remember a thread about this but can't find it. Doesn't matter much anyway as in either cases you get the unique loot. I'm just saying max Arcana is a way late game to circumvent the resources problem in bullet-sponge fights, loading up on high damaging spells. Meteor Shower, Maelstrom, the Insect DoT scrolls... Tornado got a big buff in BPM. And of course Rusted Armor in certain cases. I added the first Oracle fight in the post above as I had just redone it to check on something. I don't think I still have a save close to the second Messenger fight but I can redo the first encounter later.

No, you actually get the unique loot + slightly more generic loot if you sink the ship than if you board it. But granted, sinking ships is harder or nigh impossible with certain Magran's Fires on. Generically speaking, I didn't make this build with Magran's Fires or The Ultimate in mind. Yes, you got what I meant with inversions/reductions with diminishing returns. I wasn't very clear. I agree with what you say about the grindy combat with certain late game enemies, not even Megabosses. The Messenger has >6k HP, the Porokoa has almost 4K, the Oracle 3K... And while the Messenger has an obvious weakness to Fire, Armor Ratings are generally very high. The Oracle has 16 base elemental AR and its Hindsight ability works like Inspired Defenses, which is annoying. It tends to push you into a grindfest and removes from the equation certain builds that could be otherwise very cool, or pushes you to use cheese or abuse Arcana. But at the same time, I keep coming back to it so there must be something nice about it . Here is a video about the grindfest on the first Wael fight, video probably needs to load a bit more to be in HD. Beware, it's painful to watch. I wasn't using the full AI on this one because just my passive defenses and spamming blood sacrifice and draining missiles is enough. Just one point I healed because for some reason enemies got a couple lucky hits. Otherwise as you can see, it's slightly boring and quite indestructible.

BPM makes Fire Godlike +2 AR while Bloodied, +4 Burn AR and the tiny retaliation works all the time so it's slightly better than in Vanilla and getting 24 AR is nice on Upscaled to be foolproof in most fights (e.g. in case you get shortly debuffed with Sunder Armor or Rusted Armor, which wouldn't last long anyway).