Haplok

That's certainly a valid approach. Although being dead is the ultimate form of CC And an Assassin/Wizard can pump A LOT of damage in a short period of time.

The best nuker would have to use the Deltro's Cage Helmet IMO. Being an Assassin for +25 Accuracy, +4 PEN and +50% crit damage from stealth wouldn't hurt either (although I guess the mentioned Berserker could work too - far less Accuracy and crit chance, though). In that context, the echo might sometimes be suicidal.

Note there is also a certain item that can negate all Interrupts.... That grimoire is a no-brainer for caster non-bloodmages IMO.

Rooting Pain is pretty great. As long as you're not sitting on max Wounds all the time, that is. If you are, try spending some (for example by Triggering Thundering Blows free action) for the Rooting Pain to trigger again (and again and again... and again...).

Estoc ...well, maybe less so on a Tactician.

Its a very good combo. Soul Blade is the "melee" type of Cipher and Trickster provides both good defensive buffs to survive in melee AND does very good damage to... well... be effective AND harvest Focus much faster (to spend on spells OR the Annihilation move). Also there's a very sweet rapier in the DLC (Seeker's Fang) that on crit inflicts enemies with a VERY nasty RAW DOT scaled off your Focus level (and also has an aoe cone 3-hit attack, once per encounter). Good news is that rapiers with modal are also among the best weapons for crits. Its one of my favorite weapons in Deadfire. Whether it fits your intended playstyle you need to answer for yourself.

And of course Scordeo's Edge saber is always the prime cheese weapon, particularly on monks, who can score entire crit chains from SF/HBD.

Imagined Pain is great for SC monks. But lets not forget Parting Sorrow - which also works when you kill an enemy, so you get plenty of Wounds from that (and its available to MC monks also).

Cool, I like this. Only issue I see is that when it comes online, you already have a lot of OP abilities and ways to kill enemies fast, that its competing with other toys, that can be available earlier.

I think any cipher combo starts to shine (more) when it gets Borrowed Instinct

Thing is, GH only boosts cipher power accuracy (and only indirectly - trough increased number of crits - Pen, damage and duration), while Helwalker offers huge boosts to regular damage, duration (also of Ascension time), aoe size, Penetration and offers spammable attack abilities too. But, well, I'm sure ranger is fine also (particularly as an effective puppet master) and the most important thing is you're enjoying it.

I will add that, in my experience, the disengagements from Terrify were not particularly reliable/frequent. An SC monk can additionally benefit from triggering Disengagement Attacks while having Immunity to such attacks, as with Imagined Pain he will gain a wound each time an enemy would try to use a Disengagement attack on him.

Well, its certainly not your typical hardcore hold the line, I have 5 engagement slots tank, but can be pretty damn effective if there are other offtanks in the party. The buffs he gets are strong - and include Repulsive Visage, that will often make near enemies unable to even attack him. And of course, he's also a damage monster.

Not quite as OP late game as a pure Whispers monk, but extremely good throughout and also more durable, would be a Shadowdancer - for example Forbidden Fist / Trickster with rapiers (with modal for +20 Accuracy -> crits galore -> free attack chains from Swift Flurry/Heartbeat Drumming). A very solid offtank and sick damage dealer. Great defensive buffs, including Repulsive Visage to scare nearby enemies, prevents ALL enemy healing trough Forbidden Fist Enfeeble (yes, even the annoying Unbending some enemy fighters have), can spam Stunning Surge all day to keep enemies stunlocked, has Persistant Distraction + Confounding Blind to easily crack even tough nuts and Toxic Strike is devastating on enemy bosses Enfeebled trough FF, can also Riposte enemies who try to attack him.

Try playing with the like of Grave Calling (preferably with a chanter i the party who can summon skeletons) and Kitchen Stove.... I call that "mid range".

For Helwalker I most liked the combo of offhand Kitchen Stove blunderbuss (instant Ascension with Thunderous Report special - plus huge cone damage AND Dazed CC) and main hand melee weapon (most often Grave Calling - vs Vessels but also to kill skellies summoned by Herald and create paralyzing Chillfogs that fuel Focus; later upgraded to Seekers Fang Rapier with its mini-Disintegrate on crits and another instant Ascension from Spider's Flurry - also 3 attacks per target in cone, so crits - and mini Disintegrates very likely).

You seem to already know the best picks. Transcendant is my favorite. Helwalker is great. But another interesting option is the Forbidden Fist (at least with the Community Patch). Huge debuff to the enemy, who cannot heal and will have hostile effects (like Disintegrate) extended by 50%.

Maybe not so much "too much defenses" as "more then necessary" - given use of CC, presence of offtanks, decent killing speed - and opportunity losses on not taking a more aggressive class instead. Been critted and taken a lot of damage myself. The only instances I've felt my chars unkillable/immortal (when fighting level appropriate challenges) were when using Unbending - preferably extended in some way.

Yeah, personally I prefer Swashbuckler tanks. Besides doing more damage per hit, they can also trigger a lot of passive Riposte attacks. My Eder with Tuotilo's Palm was sometimes doing Riposte crits in the range of 200 total damage from both hands and weapon and shield specials triggering (PLUS applying Bleeding Cuts with Magran's Favor). I did also use Pallegina herald as support and offtank, though (with Willbreaker).

Some great wizard tactics from Boeroer here. One classic combo spell that most folks take for granted I guess, but you didn't list is Combusting Wounds. It might seem humble and is often not that easy to land due to targeting Fortitude (Chanter debuffs and a morningstar user with Body Blows modal would go a long way here), but is a great force multiplier against enemies not resistant to fire. As each damage instance will provide a stacking damage trigger on each enemy afflicted by the Combusting Wounds. Wall spells, like Wall of Fire are particularly nice with this, as they tick every second. Same deal with ray spells (from wizard or cipher). And if someone fires a blunderbuss at that enemy, that's 4 damage ticks right there (or 8 if dual wielding and using a Full Attack ability). Or shoots Frostseeker: 3 ticks (plus potential aoe for 4th).

Well, my personal compass would be: if caster or monk, consider carefully whether going SC or MC (however who am I kidding, I still went with MC always). If martial: MC right away and never look back (the only martial I COULD see myself playing as SC is monk; incidentally, ranger might be the 3rd/4th best pick for martial SC, but... meh).

No, spells will not work to trigger Grave Calling Chilling Grave. It has been nerfed/corrected so that the killing blow must be done with the scimitar for the effect to trigger. And sure, an auto-attack is a possibility to trigger ONE Chilling Fog at a time. A Confused Berserker (and not regular Barbarian) is a very interesting (albeit risky) option here, as the Chillfogs he creates will NOT be party friendly. And as the Chillfogs come from Grave Calling and are considered weapon attacks, they will rapidly damage and kill other skeletons, creating 6 instances of Paralyzing (with Grave Bound) Chillfogs (and soon possibly more with more skellies summoned). Albeit risky, the risk can be controlled rather easily, as when you don't want the cascade effect, you can simply clear the Confused effect from the Berserker (for example equip Modwyr sword, use a buff or consumable). To take advantage of this mechanic, I'd recommend you to "upgrade" your RED to a Berserker. Although do note that stacking multiple persistent effects can have an adverse effect on your frame rate. Also, its quite exploitative and will likely trivialize a lot of the content.

Yes, it was me. And you can think me a hypocrite if you wish. As I wrote, I like OP combos possibly as much as you do, maybe more. However for me there is a very clear difference between an exploit of game mechanics, however OP they might be - and sometimes possibly different from devs intentions (but we do not know that exactly), and manually glitching the game to work in ways CLEARLY unintended - such as "don't learn this spell, equip grimoire, cast and quickly remove the grimoire, so that the equipped spell effect will get stuck". Well that or "equip-unequip an item a hundred times to stack all active effects into practical infinity". Again, everyone's free to play how they want. But recommending new board members such behavior without a big-ass glitch/exploit disclaimer is wrong IMO.

I'd say that a berserker is never a good solo material. It probably can be done. But there are certainly a lot safer and a lot more versatile classes.

Just a word, if I may. Personally I wouldn't use a clear exploit like grimoire swap to keep a single-use spell permanently equipped and used as a "normal" weapon - and would hesitate to suggest it so often to others. I wouldn't mind casting it and then summoning a phantom, who would have it equipped, though. Of course, its a single player game and everyone can have the fun however they wish. But you're the most knowledgeable and helpful of all of us, Boeroer and it kinda saddens me when I see you recommend a clear mechanical glitch as a default playstyle to new players, who I'd prefer to have experienced a "normal" game and not an exploit-party. I like OP combos possibly as much as you do. But I do try to stay away from glitches, such as blocking spells by grimoire swaps, unequipping/re-equipping items to stack their benefits (and maybe make them permanent), or also from stacking multiple one off / rest-type bonuses.