Haplok

How much does the Silver Tide heal at higher levels? Does it scale well?

Well I wanted to try living dangerously and rolled a Berserker/Helwaker. He sure earns his wounds quickly. To mitigate the risk somewhat, I maxed his Con and made him a Moon Godlike. Of course with Confusion, he also heals enemies. But it's not so bad and eventually I should be able to counter confusion. Something else concerns me though. Does Moon Godlike's Silver Tide scale at all? At level 4 and power level 2 it still heals the same amount (10 boosted to 16 by might bonus). It's ok for now, but would become pretty useless later on. Was going Moon Godlike a mistake?

Well, enemy Ciphers are definitely not limited to once per encounter. Staying anywhere near one perma-stuns my Threatening Presence Barb.

Well, it never had friendly fire for me. And its not particularly difficult to set up. Particularly if you cast it on an ally who can flank enemies, like, say, a chanter. Was my main spell at mid-levels. Later on I would use the faster Lance more (which frequently crits for over 100 damage).

You forgot Chanters. And, to a lesser degree, Paladins. So it's more then 3. But I find it perfect. Well, maybe except Chanter invokations taking longer to evoke on higher level/longer phrases. Variety is the spice of life! And the beauty of this game... Don't you dare take it away, steamlining stuff!

Well, not only their. Only the Clergymen feels about right in the spell progression. Still the seals are kinda strong. Cipher has some spikes (Charm at level 1, paralysis at level 2), but overall not too bad... till you reach level 5 spells and its GG. Although Mind Lance at spell level 4 is pretty nuts as well (frequently crits for 100+ damage on multiple enemies). Many low level Wizard and Druid spells feel way too powerfull. Fan of Flames doing 50+ damage in a huge cone at level 1? Sunbeam and Talon Strike are damn powerfull as well (and the former blinds). Maybe that's to keep them attractive troughout the game, also when they become 4/encounter, but if you start so high, just how ridiculous can it get? Burning Hands did a fraction of that damage at a fraction of its range. Sleep only affected enemies up to 5 HD. Magic Missile did a maximum of 5 d4+1 damage (single target, 13,5 damage on average at level 9, with maximum Missile count). If theprogression wasn't so wonky and spells didn't become so powerfull almost right off the bat, spells like Wall of Fire or Wall of Force would be actually perfectly balanced. Sadly it's the other spells that need balancing, not these two. As it is, casters start really strong and by the time you reach spell level 5, the spell effects get just crazy.

Dual stilletos for the win! Plays like an Arcane Trickster, only much stronger offense-wise. Shreds everything. And with greater mobility and more micro-management, can put these mighty telepathic link feedback spells to good use. Additional bonus is that WF:Ruffian covers the Blunderbuss as well, so you have a good backup option when the situation calls for it, like you need to silence the soft squishy in the back or it's too risky to go all offense.

Melee Cipher is great, but on hard difficulty and above is also quite squishy. So requires quite a bit of micro-management and carefull positioning. You don't need to sacrifice anything. Well maybe a bit of recovery speed, as you should wear the heaviest armor you can get, IMVHO. This should allow you to survive a hit or 2. When **** hits the fan, you've got a fast Paralyse power, which is very effective versus most enemies. And you can debuff the enemy accuracy to hell and back. Actually you sacrifice quite a bit by hanging in the back, as some of the more potent powers work best when highly mobile. Like these telepathic links that do 40-50 damage per tick to each enemy between you and your chosen ally. It makes short work of any enemy and if you position your Cipher (or the ally) well, you can keep whipping several enemies with that. Just make sure you are aware of your positioning and avoid enemy zones of control. Or paralyze/dominate/debuff the enemies you need to pass and the ones trying to engage you. Dual wielding is the superior choice in my opinion. Draining Blast has great synergy with that (+2 Focus per each quick strike). As does Blunderbuss, which will be usefull as an opener, to attack squishy targets hanging back, when you can't reach them or when you can't quite handle the heat. You should wait for the enemy chargers to engage your tank anyway. Though it is not a bad idea to charm/dominate/debuff them before going into the fray. Still take Biting Blast for extra damage + Focus as well. A pair of Stilletos works great, they are fast, have innate DR penetration, you can get two awesome ones very early... and both Stilletos and Blunderbass share the same Weapon Focus: Ruffian.

I really liked the rest shrines solution from DDO for resting. They were one-shot and placed strategically trought dungeons. It's a neat solution that both allows the developers to control how many resources the players have at their disposal between the shrines and place the encounters approprietly not to be easy and forced the players to think strategically in order to make it to the next rest opportunity. It works extremly well, I'd say. Of course these don't have to be shrines... can be campfires or whatever.

Rogue wasn't very powerfull in PS:T, but if you managed to get the jump on a big baddie, you could do some crazy damage. It was very fulfiling. Well, maybe not on the Celestial Host, Missile of Patience or Mechanus' Cannon scale of awesome, but still. A Fighter was pretty boring by comparision, but not necessarily weak... wouldn't say it was a disadvantage as such.

Well, I'm a bit torn about this. I did love the deep, flexible customization options DnD 3 / 3.5 systems provided in regard to picking classes. And I love the unique specializations/Prestige Classes/Kits. Prestige Classes could/should have some story/faction requirements, I guess. Building a character in such a rich, robust system can be as much fun, as playing the game itself. Sometimes even more Then again I find systems that strongly tie your class to game plot and factions very immersive. Like in PS:T you needed to find a teacher to become a mage or a rogue. Only deeper.... way deeper. Gothic 2 would be a prime example, where your class and faction options were strictly tied. You joined the Mages, you became a novice rune mage. You joined the town militia, you could eventually become a Paladin. You joined the mercenaries and you could eventually become a Dragon Slayer. And the gameplay was significantly different for each class and faction. Well, either would work for me I guess. Anything but a generic, stiff 4 class system with no class customization options (or 7 class, whatever).

You have my full support! Same stats, skills, talents and spells for NPCs and PCs (well, except some special abilities for monsters, like tail swipe, disease carrier, poison fangs, flight, firebreath, wing buffet, petrifying gaze, aura of despair and such - where their physiology permits). DA2 was truely ridiculous with the gap of damage PCs were making vs NPCs... or health bars of PC vs NPCs... and boss enemies... that was just ridiculous. And quit with the new MMO fashion of making armor rating % damage reduction against enemy of X level. That's just annoying! Or X armor being Y% reduction period. This is silly as well. Armor should have the capacity to absorb X damage, while enemies deal variable damage - some agile opponents deal less, but hit more often, some tougher enemies hit like a truck... Skyrim also got the armor system wrong. But the assymetrical spellcasting was even worse. Some of the best, most memorable fights in crpgs ever were the party versus party encounters... in BG games... and in some NWN2 mods. Where both parties were evenly matched and on the same playing field. Please Obsidian, bring those back!

That's an interesting concept. Could be interesting in a game where you had control of your PC only. I'm not sure it would work that well for a party-based game though, where you have to make these kind of choices all the time for each party member. Could become a bit tedious.