AndreaColombo

I liked the suggestion to make RES affect the duration of Afflictions better, to be honest. Oh well.

This runs counter Josh's muscle Wizard concept, which he said multiple times he holds dear. Color me surprised. RES is now a must-pump stat for offsensive casters in the same way as STR (I preferred the term MIG) remains a must-pump stat for melee characters. I don't think moving Healing to RES is a good idea, since it's already getting Deflection and Spell Damage. Tangentially it's a massive nerf for my Lady of Pain build

Hey Caleb, Re everybody’s hair turning white on level up, in my experience everybody takes on the hair color of the character who occupies the 5th slot when that particular character is leveled up. Might be worth checking

Just run a quick test—maxing out Alchemy can make this potion pretty crazy (of course the price you pay is no Stealth or Athletics.) However, the character record does not indicate the magnitude of the bonus to potion/drug effects from Alchemy. Could you file a feature request to add it (in the same way as Mechanics shows in your character record what level of traps you can disarm, etc.)? I don't know about Arcana—I haven't tested—but if it does not display what level of scrolls you can use with your current score, it probably should

Looks like the model for female elf body type wearing exceptional plate armor didn't make the cut for the backer beta

Did you use Mule Kick on them?

I don't see how cyan circles would clash with the colorblind mode? Normal mode would have green for allies, cyan for neutrals; colorblind mode would have blue for everyone as it already does. Thing is, cyan circles would be a nice throwback to I.E. nostalgia as well as make it possible to tell allies from neutrals at a glance. Colorblind mode is not about nostalgic throwbacks; it's about enabling colorblind people to tell allies from enemies, which is pretty fundamental. We don't have to implement an aesthetic change to it if it detracts from its main purpose, but I don't think it would be a lot of work to get cyan circles for neutrals in normal mode.

Technically, I suppose we could. I would question, however, how much sense it would make. Let's assume Weapon Focus as it currently is becomes a general talent that everyone can take. +6 Accuracy at the cost 1 talent point would already be a pretty good deal; at the cost of 1 proficiency, it is a total no-brainer. Everyone who needs to hit their enemies (e.g. every non-support character who doesn't rely on spells to cause damage) would take it; not doing so would be willfully gimping oneself, which most players won't do (only veterans in search of a challenge via self-imposed rules would, in fact.) At that point, we have two scenarios: Everything stays the same (i.e. monsters are not rebalanced around the assumptions that most characters would have Weapon Focus.) This preserves the essence of the Weapon Focus talent, which is to give you an edge in combat versus the "normality" (which is not having a +6 Accuracy bonus on every attack.) However, everybody and their neighbor would take Weapon Focus because it's up for grabs at what amounts to no cost, and gives a very good advantage. Suddenly the game is too easy—and certainly easier than intended by the developer at any rate. Everything is rebalanced around the assumption that most characters have Weapon Focus in order to retain the challenge. This makes Weapon Focus a de facto must pick or you would be factually gimping yourself, since monsters' stats are such that you are expected to have it. Weapon Focus goes from being a talent you choose to gain an advantage to a talent you must pick to not be at a disadvantage. I'd say both scenarios are equally undesirable. Josh mentioned in one of the Q&A streams that for Deadfire they tried to limit the amount of things that could increase Accuracy specifically because it is such an important stat. Everyone would jump at the opportunity to increase their Accuracy, and it becomes harder for designers to balance the game and provide a challenge without being unfair to players. Now, let's assume you'd still give Barbarians an exclusive talent called Superior Weapon Focus that gives, say, +8 Accuracy instead. I see at least two problems: The game would still need to be balanced around the assumption that most characters would get a +6 Accuracy bonus, so my point about Weapon Focus becoming a must to avoid a disadvantage still stands. Barbarians would have a ridiculously high +14 Accuracy bonus from taking both, which would make them far superior to most other melee classes, if not all. The solution would be not to make the two stack; Barbarians would still get a +8 Accuracy for 1 talent point deal, which is a bit too good. Perhaps we could make Weapon Focus +4 and Superior Weapon Focus +6, mutually exclusive, to ameliorate the issue—but it would be too much work for too little benefit, imo, as the previous point would still be a problem. I definitely advocate for Weapon Focus to stay where it is now. It's OK as a Barbarian talent. Weapon Styles can become general if Fighters get something unique in their talent tree in exchange. Similarly, Bull's Will, Snake's Reflexes, and Bear's Fortitude should probably be general and replaced by something different in the classes that get them; and by all means, let's bring back the elemental talents for the general talent pool—they were flavorful and interesting, and it's a pity not to have them in Deadfire.

Seriously? I probably had like 2 ranks. You've just given me reason to max out on Alchemy on my Watcher

^ Agreed. And cyan circles for neutral NPCs (I didn’t think we’d still get green circles for neutrals in the sequel.)

@dunehunter - everyone whose job on the team is to maim and kill enemies would take it. Of course support classes and classes that don’t rely on weapons to kill wouldn’t; enemies would still need rebalancing.

Here's an early draft of the Lady of Pain build for the Deadfire backer beta. Most things are subject to change as newer beta versions are rolled out with balance changes; more so once the game is out and we get to see whole ability trees and all unique items. These were the defining traits of the original build, which I'll pursue again with this one: Maxing out its MIG score. Packing as many damage bonuses as possible. Pumping Accuracy as much as possible. Reaching 0 recovery (or getting very close to it.) Turning its low Deflection into an asset. With this in mind, my Lady of Pain build for Beta 1.0820B is as follows: Race: Coastal Aumaua Aumaua gets +2 MIG bonus; Iit is crucial to go for the Coastal subrace in order to get Resistance to Might Afflictions, which makes us immune to Stun. Background: Any Attributes: MIG 20* CON 10 DEX 10 PER 18 INT 15 RES 05 * Can be 21 if you remove one point from another stat. I chose 20 to stick to an even number; I didn't want to dump CON (as you'll see, this Lady of Pain is quite the glass cannon compared to its PoE counterpart) and I wanted to allocate all points from RES to INT in order to make up for the Will defense penalty while profiting from a longer duration on all self-buffs. These attributes include the bonus point from your chosen provenance. It can be anywhere so long as you rearrange your stat points to look like the above. Class: Devoted/Helwalker In Deadfire, synergies between the Fighter and Monk classes abound and nothing screams Lady of Pain like this combination. A few highlights: Helwalker gets +1MIG per Wound up to +10. This is what turns low Deflection into an asset: Let them help you hit them harder. The bonus MIG from Wounds increases your Healing received, including Constant Recovery—this beautifully offsets the extra damage per Wound you take from the Helwalker. * Duality of Mortal Presence can be used to gain up to +10 CON (1 per Wound) in a build that already encourages you to hoard Wounds. Thunderous Blows gets you +5 MIG and +4 penetration; Lightning Strikes adds a whopping +50% lash and +35% attack speed. The Devoted adds +3 penetration and +25% critical hit damage off the bat, plus access to Weapon Specialization, Armored Grace, and fighting style talents. * as of the upcoming beta build, MIG will no longer affect healing, thus eliminating this synergy. Proficiency: Sword Here is another deviation from the original build, as Deadfire makes heavy armor + two-handers a rather impractical combination. Namely, heavy armor's recovery penalty was doubled from 50% to 100%. Based on the information we possess from the beta, it is not possible to reach 0 recovery in heavy armor unless you dual-wield—and even then, you must sip a Potion of Relentless Striking to achieve it. Additionally, the modal for Great Sword is rather underwhelming. Swords have a nice modal that gives +2 penetration in exchange from -20 Deflection—a good trade-off for the Lady of Pain, since its Deflection already sucks Granted, there will be fights where taking the Deflection hit will have you killed pretty fast, so we can't have the modal on all the time; however it's a nice-to-have and Swords have good base damage. Talents: Many good talents in the Fighter/Monk trees. Here are my picks for the beta in no particular order: Disciplined Barrage Two Weapon Style Disciplined Strikes Fighter Stances Knock Down OR Force of Anguish* Confident Aim OR Into the Fray OR Determination Rapid Recovery * Now that Prone no loner has a duration and merely counts as an interrupt, Knock Down is no longer as powerful as it used to be in the first game. The push back from Force of Anguish may prove useful if you're taking too much of a beating, as it shoves the enemy and gives you time to drink a potion. Mortification of the Soul Swift Strikes Lesser Wounds Lightning Strikes Clarity of Agony Bull's Will Note that I am not taking any active Monk abilities that may cost Wounds (we want to keep Wounds high in order to benefit from the extra MIG) or Mortification (we want to use it to pop Lightning Strikes back up when it expires.) Confident Aim is only really "necessary" in this first backer beta build, since Disciplined Strikes is granting Miss-to-Graze conversion without also granting the ability to Graze. From the next update on, I suggest Determination to gain a +20 bonus against Charmed/Dominated effects which could prove ... hurtful, if they landed. Clarity of Agony is very good in case those Afflictions landed anyway, since it will make them last 50% shorter. Bull's Will is highly recommended to make up for the relatively low Will defense. Going into higher levels, make sure you pick the following: Armored Grace Weapon Specialization Body Control Unstoppable Fearless Duality of Mortal Presence Thunderous Blows Clarity of Mind Recapping: Damage Up to 35 MIG with no spell or item buffs (20 starting + 10 Helwalker + 5 Thunderous Blows); that's a multiplicative 75% damage bonus. 50% lash damage from Lightning Strikes. 15% damage bonus from Weapon Specialization. 25% crit damage bonus from the Devoted sublcass. You can get an extra 20% from the Potion of Relentless Striking, which becomes 40% with 10 ranks in Alchemy. Penetration +3 from the Devoted subclass. +4 from Thunderous Blows. +2 from Half-Sword (Sword modal.) That's +9 on top of the extra penetration from the Swords' enchantment; should be enough to guarantee over-penetration every time you land a critical hit. Accuracy +8 from Perception. +5 from Conqueror Stance. +5 from Disciplined Strikes. 50% hit-to-crit conversion from Disciplined Strikes. That's +18 Accuracy on top of that from the Swords' enchantment with no spell or item buffs. You can get +20 from Devotions for the Faithful, which also gets you another +4 MIG that I think stacks with everything else we've been using so far. You can also get +6 from a Potion of Deftness, which becomes +8 if you have 10 ranks in Alchemy (which I dearly endorse for the extra attack speed.) When you crit, you get extra damage and extra penetration; with over-penetration, everything gets a 30% multiplicative bonus, including your MIG which was already multiplicative. That's pretty massive. Recovery: -35% from Lightning Strikes (20% from the ability; 15% from the Dexterity boost.) -50% from dual-wielding. -20% from Two Weapon Style. -20% from Armored Grace (can't get it as a multi-class in the beta, but eventually you will in the game.) That's -125% recovery and some of those abilities also boost your attack speed. If wearing medium armor (e.g. Scale Armor, +50% recovery) you must get to 150% to have 0 recovery. Based on the above, a speed weapon would already get you to 5%; an item that gives +2 DEX would get you to 0 without using potions. If wearing heavy armor, that's another 50% penalty—you'll need the Potion of Relentless Striking to get to 0 recovery. Alternatively, a Potion of Deftness with 10 ranks in Alchemy gives you a 75% attack speed bonus, which is enough to reach 0 recovery in Plate armor with no speed weapons and no other boosts to DEX. It is not known how many potions of that kind we'll be able to hoard in the game, nor do we know whether speed weapons still exist and how they work. Hopefully there will be at least one end-game sword with that ability and the potions will be available in large supply. In the beta you can reach 0 recovery wearing medium armor and popping the potion (150% recovery - 155% recovery bonuses.) Defenses: Your Fortitude is unconquerable, especially once you get Duality of Mortal Presence (can't get it as a multiclass in the beta.) Your Reflexes are pretty good owing to the bonus from Perception (further increased by the PER bump from Disciplined Strikes and the DEX bump from Lightning Strikes.) Your Will is relatively weak, as it's only getting a bonus from Bull's Will. You may want to take the talent Determination for another +20 against Intellect Afflictions (that's +30 total against Confusion/Charmed/Dominated before any item bonuses, which is solid.) You are immune to Stun thanks to your racial; with Body Control, you are also immune to Dazed. You are immune to Paralyze thanks to Unstoppable and to Terrified thanks to Fearless. Your Deflection is poor. Granted, the Conqueror Stance makes up for the 5 points you lose on Resolve, but you're gaining no bonuses from anywhere. Popping a potion of Relentless Striking gets you -10 and using the Sword modal gets you another -20. You'll need to either boost it with spells and items, or watch out when you use those to avoid getting critted too much (enemies will over-penetrate your Armor Rating and hit you for a multiplicative 30% extra damage that also applies to the extra damage you take from the Helwalker ability.) You should wear Scale Armor at the very minimum—better Plate or Brigandine. With low Deflection, you want to boost your Armor Rating at every opportunity.

The Potion of Relentless Striking appears to show oddly inaccurate information in its tooltip next to the imbiber's portrait: Guess that should be, according to the item's description, +50% Action Speed*, +20% Melee Damage, -10 Deflection. * make sure you check the signage convention here. Bonuses should consistently carry a minus, since they're making stuff take less time.

Weapon Focus should definitely stay where it is. Weapon Styles I’d rather keep where they are, but if Fighters get cool, unique abilities to pick in their stead I could live with that (but enemies should then be rebalanced around the assumption that every character would have a weapon style talent from early on; the opposite would most likely be a rare exception.) There are other talents that I think would make sense as general. I understand the point about proficiency points being basically “free” but then again, I have no interest in several proficiencies that don’t necessarily suit my character concept, give me dubious advantages if any, and most likely I’ll never use. (This could be alleviated by making proficiency modals less extreme/situational.)

I’m not necessarily against moving weapon styles to a general talent tree, but what would the Fighter’s shtick be, if those were taken away? IIRC a recurring complaint about Fighters in the first game was that they were boring and non-denominational. Now they aren’t. If we give their perks to everyone, they’ll be boring and non-denominational again. There are talents I would like to have in a general talent tree, but I’m not sure I’d want weapon styles to be among them.

Because it's a different game. The first game didn't have subclasses or multiclassing either

Cleanest solution is to prevent the triggered extra attack from triggering further extra attacks, imo. For this ability in particular, I believe the issue is already on QA’s radar.

Subbing. EDIT: https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/94711-cat-flurry-inconsistent-signage-convention-in-speed-bonus/?do=findComment&comment=1954832 Cat Flurry affects both attack speed and recovery; shows up with a plus sign that should be minus.

^ and even then, by the time a max-DEX Elf Priest casts Devotions, my melee guys have already beaten Skulking Terror below half of his health bar. The Priest’s contribution is late and, at that point, very unimpactful. We’ll see how this changes when average speed weapons are given the appropriate recovery time. At present, casters are close to useless.

Devoted/Helwalker is my current frontrunner for a Deadfire Lady of Pain. The increased damage taken is offset by wearing heavy armor to curb enemy DPS and having Constant Recovery, which is boosted by your MIG score (great synergy with Helwalker.)

The ogre club doesn't have an icon, IIRC, so the Tansmuter's ability does lack art and is therefore fit for this thread.

^ the issue with that is that summoned weapons would likely incur the -10 Accuracy penalty from the Devoted unless they were universal (which Soulbound weapons, for example, no longer appear to be.)

Here's another one (human body type, if it's relevant): Staff clips through the left hand instead of resting in it.

Agreed—and indeed a regular Druid works very well for my Druid/Helwalker build. Now I've got all my guys lined up; my only gripe is taking a single-class Priest for the spells when I know it'll take him forever to cast them even with a maxed out DEX score. We really need those casting times to be made resonable (e.g. long cast from 6 to 4 seconds; medium from 3 to 1.5; cut recovery on fast-cast spells in half and make weapon summons fast cast.)

Looks like the Nature Godlike trick doesn't work great with a Shifter. The inability to cast while shifted means no Cat Flurry bonus to casting recovery, and recovery time on Nature's Balm is a whopping 5 seconds. It's a shame to let go of the longer-lasting Spiritshift, but my build is probably better served by a regular Druid at this point. I'm also trying a Devoted/Berserker with DEX instead of PER to speed up Frenzy, since he can make up for the loss of PER via Weapon Focus (or I could dump RES further, but I'm not a fan of going below 7 on any stat.)