Haplok

It is very reasonable, yes. In this case you'd likely want to use Tuotilos Palm bashing shield to get fast attack speed and very good defenses.

One solution is to dual wield the saber and a one handed firearm (pistol, blunderbuss). That way you have dual wielding attack speed but only attack with the melee weapon when in melee range. Not optimal for full attack abilities, though.

For a ranged weapon, you'd be better served with a Bleak Walker. And I mentioned Whispers for a two-handed soulblade for 2 reasons: 1. Attacks in a Cone, can affect multiple enemies at once, gather Focus by hitting multiple enemies with each swing - that multi-attack works also for the Soul Annihilation special move, although the results are a bit funky. 2. Has Offensive Parry enchant, allowing retaliations against enemies who miss you - additionally gathers Focus passively, by striking back at opponents. In general Ciphers are my favorite class in Real Time (Bloodmages too, I guess), but think they are rather ill suited for Turn Based. In a given Turn you can either Attack OR Cast (IF you have enough Focus), really excelling at neither. I recommended the Whispers as it could somewhat alleviate these issues sometimes, when lucky - by gathering Focus to cast passively when its the enemies' Turn and you get a chance to retaliate. Also Whisper's interaction with Soul Annihilation is pretty good (not as good as it used to). I don't think any other two-handed sword would work nearly as well. Dual wielding is also good, though. Particularly using Sun&Moon Flail (has 2 heads - strikes twice for lowered damage - but has less risk to miss a Soul Annihilation move AND instantly gathers some Focus with the 2nd head strike) and... maybe the bashing shield, Tuotilo's Palm to be safe. Or some mighty saber. Fighter/Cipher is a much safer choice. A Fighter becomes nearly unkillable when he gets Unbending (if you are reasonable, of course). But a Rogue/Cipher would pump way more damage (=> consequently also gain way more Focus) and, in case of Trickster, can be relatively sturdy also (can temporarily boost Deflection by 30, can get an aura that terrifies nearby enemies -> both are early, cheap buffs!).

Two-handed is a bit slow, but sure, its possible. And no, you don't need to use Stealth at all if its not your cup of tea (although an Assassin / Soulblade striking from the shadows is certainly possible). If you don't, recommend the Trickster subclass, his defensive buffs will be very helpful (particularly Mirror Image and Ryngrim's Repulsive Visage). Using the Whispers of the Endless Paths, you get 2 chances to retaliate on every enemy miss: from rogue's Riposte ability and from Whisper's own Offensive Parry (100%) enchantment. And earn extra Focus. For a Holy Slayer using Whispers two-hander, I'd guess that Steel Garrote might actually be the best choice.

Maybe some kind of Streetfighter with a Blunderbuss (Powder Burns modal activates his special)? +80% Sneak damage and -50% Recovery at level 1 is tough to beat. When he's Bloodied, he even gets another +100% Crit damage. Penetration can be an issue, though. Could mix him with a monk (Helwalker for living on the edge?), ranger or even a Devoted Fighter (helps with Pen). Too bad you can't get the aoe blunderbuss mortars before leaving Port Maje.

With Shadowing Beyond, entering stealth is instant (Free Action in Turn Based). Of course, its also costly Guile-wise (3 Guile per use). Its actually great for Turn Based - even moreso for caster Assassins, who usually don't spend Guile on direct attacks. Since Vigorous Defenses and Borrowed Instinct don't stack, perhaps a Paladin/Cipher would be a better choice? Like Steel Garrote to heal passively from afflicted enemies (and Offensive Parry Dazes on riposte hits). Of course, I'm a bigger fan of Rogue/Ciphers (like Trickster/Soulblade for melee) or Monk/Ciphers (like Helwalker/Ascendant for a mix of melee and ranged).

Two handers are not the best at gathering Focus. A Cipher is not the best at Turn Based action economy. A solution could be to use Whispers of the Endless Paths with the Offensive Parry upgrade to gather Focus passively, by retaliating to enemy attacks. But that'd mean you'd need to tank. And that won't be very easy with such a build, even moreso early game. My recommendation: play on a low difficulty setting, where you could still tank despite having less then stellar Deflection.

The rays are good, yes. Particularly Death Ray, which deals unblockable Raw damage. They are even better in Turn Based mode, where they deal same total damage, but compressed into 2 or 3 (Bitter Mooring) ticks. AND if you're an Assasin, they may even not break Stealth when cast (when outside enemy sight radiuses), for a repeated Assassinate bonus.

When mentioning Circle as low level spell, I didn't mean that I only use it at low levels It is one my my most used Priest buffs troughout the game.

The high level Priest spells are really good (Symbols, like Xoti's Eothas', as well as that Magran's repeating pillar of flame). The huge Vine is kinda cool also. Plus when I take a Priest along (which is often), I just can't delay and wait for Devotions and Salvation of Time. Out of low level spells, I find the Circle of Protection real good also - one of my top 3 low level Priest spells, along with Devotions (duh) and Dire Blessing.

Do you have Kitchen Stove blunderbuss with Thunderous Report enchant? It's particularly good for Ascendants, but should enable a quick, large injection of Focus 1/combat. Another really nice weapon for ciphers is the Seeker's Fang rapier from Seeker Slayer Survivor DLC. It also has a nice per-encounter aoe special (Spider's Flurry - stabs everyone 3 times - in a sadly much smaller cone) BUT also is devastating when you have a lot of Focus and good crit rate (it delivers a Disintegrate-like DoT on crit, no save - also works on Spider's Flurry crits and you get 3 opportunities per enemy in range to score one ). As for Wizards and Fireballs, I think such 1 off damage spells are only really practical for Evocation specialists and particularly Assassin/Mage multiclasses, who can boost the Accuracy and crit chance to ridiculous numbers, get another +50% crit damage on top, boost Pen by 4 to almost guarantee overpenetration on crit for another +30%. Even then it takes a lot of Fireballs to bring a bullet spongy enemy down. Even better when your mage is wearing the Deltro's Cage helm and can crit himself with an Assassinate Chain Lightning to gain a 140% multiplicative damage lash.... The helmet is actually possible on Aloth. Probably not 140 Lightning crits, though. Still, a 80% lash wouldn't be half bad either. Then again, as he's no Bloodmage, I always end up giving him the Grimoire of Vaporous Wizardry for way more casts per encounter and that nearly necessitates the Rekvu's Casque to negate interrupts on him.

Really nice build. For an offensive caster, its a pity he cannot use Deltro's Cage Helm. That'a another, potentially huge, multiplicative damage boost. Well, another party wizard could hit him with Jolting Touch / Chain Lightning maybe? But then he couldn't be a godlike...

There's also the option of a martial wizard multiclass wielding the summoned Citzal's Spirit Lance for aoe damage. Works particularly well with a Fighter's Clear Out (aoe x aoe). A Sage monk multiclass could be nice also.

Nope. But even for a beginner I'd assume either a Fighter or a Paladin should provide all the tankiness they would ever need. Even moreso if he plays below PotD difficulty. No reason to combine them both for tankiness overkill IMO. Huh, that's a nice combo. And can be fun indeed. Although some encounters like to throw a lot at you and it might feel a bit squishy then. Well, up to your playstyle I guess. I do think the various cipher multiclasses are among the most fun characters to play. Although an Assassin/Bloodmage is fun also (and more durable due to buffs and Corrosive Siphon aoe health drain, I think) Note Assassinate effects (+25 Accuracy, +4 PEN,+50% Critical damage) apply also to spells (but not multihit or slow moving ones - only the initial strike/burst/explosion). Then again, you'd be missing on those huge Assassinate Backstab Soul Annihiliations.

Personally I don't like Crusaders. Find them extreme defensive overkill with too little offense. I'd much rather take a Swashbucker or a Holy Slayer instead.

Well, that's true for default monks and 2 subclasses. But then there are 2 which don't need to be damaged to operate: Shattered Pillar (a bit gimped due to low Wound limit - unless using the Community Patch) and the Forbidden Fist, who generally wants high Res to reduce forbidden Curse duration, hence makes good monk tank material. Granted the FF needs to be a little more stingy with his Wound management initially, but his FF special is free and quite potent, can also rely on Stunning Surge cost refunds. Then Parting Sorrow helps a lot (think it also triggers whenever you kill an enemy you've been engaging... and as a monk you're killing a lot) and Imagined Pain can be even better, I hear. So there are very potent monk options that don't need/want to get hit

Foe only. Unless the wielder is Confused (for example Berserker). Confused wielder along with some Chanter (Beckoner?) summons can quickly escalate to mass murder death zones.

Another fun fact : if you're a cipher, the Grave Calling Chill Fogs, as weapon attacks, also fill your Focus. I've played most of my Transcendant playtrough with Grave Calling / Kitchen Stove combo.

A Forbidden Fist doesn't need to go Unarmed. When you use his special, he'll do a fist attack regardless of what he's equipped with. To me Unarmed doesn't seem like the best choice for a MC monk. The Fist progression is better when you're a SC monk. Frankly, even for a Ravager I'd probably draw inspiration from Frykas' Shadowdrugon build. A Barb greatly benefits from crits and a monk also (Swift Flurry procs! - eventually also Heartbeat Drumming). So for a large part of the game I'd mostly use a rapier offhand (Ranning's Wrath with modal active is +29 Accuracy! - with modal its still similar in speed to normal weapons which have more base damage) and for main hand Scordeo's Edge when it becomes available (+20 Accuracy buff after a few hits? yes, please... not to mention the carnage when Blade Cascade procs). That would maximize the crit chance and Swift Flurry procs. Swift Flurry always triggers main hand attacks btw. (even when caused by offhand). Until you can get Scordeo's Edge, interesting alternatives include Tarn's Respite (particularly good vs bosses due to the Deflection debuff, up to -10 - also helps with crits), Aldris Blade of Captain Crow, Grave Calling (particularly vs Vessels due to +15 Accuracy vs them), Modwyr, Magran's Favor axe (high damage per hit and Bleeding Cuts modal). Don't have Heartbeat Drumming yet and its a Shadowdancer, so damage per hit would be a bit higher due to Sneak attacks, but procs like this are pretty sweet:

Well, not entirely worthless. If you're a caster, its still rather good to finish your cast before 10+ enemies attack and potentially interrupt/CC you.

Then there is Kitchen Stove blunderbuss Thunderous Report per encounter power, that deals HUGE damage in a large cone aoe (even bigger with large Intellect - like on a monk with Duality of Mortal Presence - can be like half the screen size), knock-backs AND Dazes enemies for a long time (was something like 20-30 seconds in my case). Barbarian Leap can be upgraded to Daze, I believe. Also high level Barbarians also have access to Dazing Shouts. A monk's Stunning Blows / Surge inflicts an even stronger affliction then Dazed (Might Tier 2) - Stun (Might Tier 3). It can possibly be distributed in aoe with mortar blunderbusses or in a cone with Whispers of the Endless Paths. Best deal is that Surge cost is refunded if it crits. Speaking of Whispers of the Endless Paths, this greatsword has an Offensive Parry upgrade that Ripostes after an enemy miss (100%) AND also inflicts Dazed on enemy.

I don't know about this mod, but in my game Focus is at max when Ascended.

For Turn Based I'd recommend a spellcaster build - their spells tend to be more impactful then weapon attacks (and action speed hardly matters in TB). Also riposte builds can be real good. A bit passive though.

Toxic Strike is really sexy against mountains of HP with FF Enfeeble It's really nice for your Wizard's Combusting Wounds also - if he can land it on a nasty enemy, that is.

Rogue/Ranger I guess. For blunderbusses particularly Streetfighter/Sharpshooter I guess. Get dual aoe mortar blunderbusses from Serafen (he starts with one, finishing his easy personal quest yields you another). Get bouncing upgrade on the 2nd and I guess the Blinding Smoke on 1st. Get the extra bounce ability from ranger. Get damaging/debuffing/DOT abilities from Rogue. Most should work in aoe, but avoid the Strike/Pierce the Bell line.