Long time lurker here. For whatever reason still playing this game in current year - thankfully with some great mods like Elric's which dramatically improve the balance and experience of the game. I just got finished up with my latest run, using BPM + Community Patch and All Upscaling (Upwards only). Used the following party (Note that I used mods to change the character classes and attributes around so that I could effectively have a full custom party without missing dialogue)
Me: Crusader (Devoted / Bleakwalker)
Eder: Crusader (Devoted / Bleakwalker)
Xoti: SC Beguiler
Custom Char: SC Priest of Wael
Tekehu: SC Skald
The party was the most effective of any that I had ever done. The two crusaders used a Greatsword + Morningstar (Willbreaker w/ Modal always on) and were the primary front-liners. Once past the early game, they would have enough engagement slots and survivability to survive nearly anything. Triumph of the crusaders (Strong AOE for ~100+ seconds + full heal on kill) made it so the action economy of the priest was incredible. Almost zero reason to ever use healing spells other than in emergencies. The crusaders would use the Acc + Crit auras and the Heal/Armor ones. Because the Acc aura doesn't fully stack with the acc stance, I would make both of them use the upgraded cleaving stance. This would obliterate packs with FoD spam, hitting 200+ regularly on the greatsword character. The Skald would usually open with an empowered Eld Nary or summoned weapons w/ the unique sabre and then switch back to using a pike w/ the deflection reduction modal. The beguiler was incredibly strong and almost never needed to attack. The debuffs from the willbreaker (usually -10 or more Will + -25 fort), the Ngati Tusk w/ Hunter of Hunter, and nearly every affliction under the sun would debuff the enemies to the point where almost any skill would land and have a high crit rate. I think I killed the Magran Teeth dragon in under 20 seconds because the party just did so much damage (Eld Nary carrying big time). Maybe mortar monk does more damage, but this party has been the strongest in the 10+ variations of potd upscaled runs I had done. Haven't tried megabosses yet but I will soon
Not sure why I made this post, but just wanted to give a big shoutout to Boerer, Thelee, and Elric for all the useful posts, mod contributions, etc. After playing so many different CRPGs over the years I just really appreciate how good the systems and depth are in deadfire. Rogue Trader, BG3, DOS2, are all great games but none of them have had me constantly lurking forums like a madman quite like deadfire has.
