Not So Clever Hound

Of note, you can also get this particular effect in a potion if you want to use another half class. To be clear I agree that Trickster has a lot to bring to the table, but this powerful spell in particular comes in bottle format if you want to go with a more durable setup AND have a repulsive visage . You probably won't spam it as often - but should be synergistic in all kinds of ways with Steel Garrote and Morningstar modal.

The Willbreaker + Modal is a great weapon for any class that likes to land FORT and WILL targeting spells. Not an insane amount of damage but you don't have to keep the modal forever. Can be nice if paired with Enervating Blows + Hearbeat Drumming etc, Brute Force + Leap... and of course the occasional Shred spell which you get at a discount.

Glad to hear! OK got it, spammable so that also excludes Soul Annihilation. And per hit so Assassin/Arcane Archer Imbue Skill won't work either . Neither will Amra + Clear out because it's also technically 2 hits. In my opinion that leaves those big Assassin/Cipher hits with Dragon Dowry and Devastating Blows or the same with SC Assassin and Gambit, both from stealth you can pass the 300 DMG mark but not super consistently. But I reckon you can open with Gambit from stealth, get an enemy to low health, re-stealth and finish them with Devastating Blow for a combined potential of 600+ DMG. Rinse and repeat. If you're not doing Solo (I know you mentioned Solo but just for the sake of argument), you could use beforehand the Paladin and/or the Ranger skill that increase enemy damage taken for a duration (Takedown Combo, Inspired Beacon - maybe they stack). Though that is not very practical.

This has been discussed recently so I will reference two threads here for you to have a look. @thelee seems to be the expert . Long story short, if you want a martial Priest of Berath you'll probably be better off with a Fighter half vs. a Paladin half.

The Adra Dragon was immune to Shock and Burn, that's true. Eothas showed that he was impervious to Burn at Ashen's Maw. It is probably reasonable to assume he's impervious to Shock as well. That beer with the Doemenels will have to wait .

@Boeroer you're such a Shinobi of the keyboard today!

I assume you mean Faith and Conviction? Faith Attuned is the lash on Priest spiritual weapons AFIK. Regarding Faith and Conviction, the Wiki article is helpful, see link below. Essentially you want to max favored dispositions and minimize disfavored dispositions - this will help you get the highest All Defenses boost which is +15 I think. https://pillarsofeternity.fandom.com/wiki/Faith_And_Conviction_(Deadfire) For Bleak Walker specifically, if you wanted to stack no-rest bonuses you would need to hold off on Aggressive talk until you can go to Tikawara and the Toaku Biwha Trail to eat the 'shroom that gives the Nature's Resolve bonus (+10 ACC, +2 RES - one of the best bonuses in the game, clears on rest) because you won't get it with any Aggressive trait.

I have reached 450+ DMG per hit with Assassin/Cipher and Mythic Kitchen Stove (Thunderous Report) from invisibility on mob that were primed for Deathblows, and without Deltro's Cage Helm Lash. (with Deltro's lash this toon reached 90,000 DMG but that is besides the point ). With this build:

Boeroer, always the

I haven't played it much in either RTwP or TB but you got me curious could you possibly elaborate a bit on this?

I like the idea of a Spamming Surge but that sounds more like a Soulblade ability

Yes that's fair. I've actually done my share of complete playthroughs with no or minimal cheese. I just came very late to the party in terms of all the exploits that the community discovered over time - and my jaw quite literally dropped with some of those. But I've recovered now . I know when I want to play builds "in a serious way" as you say, and I when I want to have fun discovering how much the game lets us get away with.

With 90k DMG per hit you can probably one shot Eothas before he wreaks havoc on Caed Nua . Then you can just relax and go to Brackenbury have a beer with the Doemenels.

So I've been tinkering around this nice damage loop with Deltro's Cage Helm + Strand of Favor. Ping-ponging between two Assassins, one using Chain Lightning scrolls and the other one using a Mythic Kitchen Stove with Thunderous Report to pass on the lash to get fast to crazy high damage numbers. In just 3 ping-pong I got to this lash. Sorry, the picture quality sucks, I can get a better one or simply state that the lash was +26566%. And then, it did this, i.e over 90k of damage. Is it interesting? I don't know. Is it useful? I don't know either. Does it exist? Yes it does!

Are you looking to play solo or in a party? Is your endgame to use the Chromoprismatic staff? Short story: everything you mentioned is viable in a party . If you're looking for synergy or for potential solo play, I would argue that Battlemage is potentially your best multiclass. Long story: The Chromoprismatic is available quite late on a typical playthrough but you can work around that. There arent really a lot of nice early/mid game Quarterstaves besides the PL1 spell Concelhaut Parasitic Staff which would be pretty nice with a Devoted (getting a secondary healing option on-hit to stay alive early). Then, the elemental PL bonuses from Chromoprismatic (when you get it) would also benefit your Wizard spells and then you could also have fun with Llengrath's Warding Staff. And Clear Out from Devoted can be fun with all of those! If you don't want to be a Wizard, know that your Devoted bonuses will also apply to your fists so hello, Transcendent Suffering or Monastic Unarmed Training with anyone else. Fists will arguably be your best weapon until you get Chromoprismatic unless you are a Wizard.

Yes that was poorly worded - what I meant was: 1) The combo competes with the other high level spells you can cast before the fight is effectively over. 2) The spell choice in itself competes with the other PL8 and PL9 spells and other abilities you can pick between lvl 16 and 20 (provided you don't use a grimoire with this spell in it - which is usually not my case). I find that a wizard is always somewhat starved for ability points.

Yes that's true I had forgotten about this combo. Awesome with the right build in a party. In solo play I do like the Blackbow but it competes with other PL8 & PL9 wizard spells that are bonkers. It feels a bit like "hey you can basically cause several nuclear strikes with all but a snap of your fingers but here is also an enchanted bow if you'd like ".

By the way, did you know that you can probably use your import character/ item stacking trick to recharge Call The Restless on two Charms of Bones? That would give potentially a new non-Chanter way to summon vessels for Grave Calling cheese. I haven't tried recharging with 2 Charms of Bones but I just tested Grave Calling and indeed the summons from Call the Restless generate a Chill Fog upon being killed by Grave Calling. Getting some zeal back on Paladin should also work. However... 1) you are limited to 10 charges per fight and 2) the summons are potentially very tanky, like Steelspine Warriors or Fampyrs (!!). Which by the way I didn't know Call the Restless could summon! Pretty cool.

Ryngrim's Repulsive Visage targets Fortitude so debuffing is welcome (e.g. The Willbreaker + modal). Terrorize effects that target Will are: Ryngrim's Enervating Terror, the Barbarian's Spirit Frenzy and Fear Wards. Also Nature's Terror and the roar from Spiritshift/ Bear if i recall correctly. There are probably several others. (Cipher has Frightening vs. Will with Secret Horrors) My recent take on trying to build the strongest Terrifying solo character is that outside of typical Sage, Warlock etc. powerhouses, it is hard to build something very effective. Even by stacking at the same time 3 terrorize effects, if I don't have other effective CC or high defenses, someone somewhere on the battlefield will manage to ruin my day My latest attempt was with a Fury Shaper / Trickster. Happy to hear if someone else had more success without using one of the leading multiclass combos!

OK got it then per @Elric Galad comment you should still have a lot of ways around those long and tough fights with Blood Mage and others with the polishing mod. And to your last question, in a party I would recommend SC for versatility and power because you can fulfill other key roles with your coterie. But of course all the aforementioned Multiclasses will still work well - not so much the Assassin Blood Mage though, his inherent deal is more Solo. And by the way to the great people behind the Community Patch, Polishing mod etc thanks for all the awesome work!

So at some point the valid question becomes: do you want to play a mod that nerfs certain abilities and then potentially compels you to use more side-cheese to be able to Solo well, or rather play the vanilla game with all the class' well-documented cheese? I'm not partial to one or the other - just saying that a lot of Solo viability relies upon some form of cheese anyway. Which makes sense for a party-focused game without a "lone wolf" built-in feature, yet that allows and even promote Solo experience.

First, sorry for some reason your post only appeared now although it is timestamped as from a few hours ago. No one was ignoring you . The notion of "viable" brings the question of what you want to do in the game (vanilla, Megabosses, DLCs full completion) and your lactose tolerance (how much cheese you want to use). In a nutshell and according to the parameters you mentioned I'd say SC Bloodmage is fully viable if you're ready to consider all the cheesy tools available to you in the game to compensate, given the nerfs, first and foremost Strand of Favor. If you're looking to play without exploits at all, I am personally skeptical that you can prevail against all the challenges that the main game + DLCs lay out before you. Sorry I'm rushing this, family duties.

This is a total Proc-fest. EDIT: haha "weak enemies". Where's your bar at for normal enemies? Dorudugan?

It doesn't stack with Arcane Veil but AFIK it does still stack with goodies for generic +Deflection and of course +All Defenses goodies.

Ah that's interesting. For example if you extend Vanishing Strike forever and after, decide to use Vanishing Strike, it will not override, in fact it won't do anything to the duration. Of course Vanishing Strike is not a weapon ability and as you say, a lot of things in the game behave a little funky