Odd Hermit

I personally wouldn't take them, there's enough else to take. But they're not bad and occasionally you might want to cast a lot of a particular spell level in one fight.

I'm not sure. As I said, the game doesn't explain or display wounds very well. It certainly feels like they have some kind of extra mitigation though.

Wounds absorb a portion of all damage taken, converting it into wounds. There's a cap on wounds, so you do have to spend them/ not let them build up too quickly though otherwise you take full damage. But with high deflection I haven't found that to be a worry. Unfortunately the game doesn't explain wounds very well or in much detail though. Plus, as shown above, they get a pretty major bonus vs. ranged weapons. 50% chance of send missile back at the shooter. Lacking healing I don't see as a major problem, most parties will have other sources of healing for the tank(or wear a regen item or whatever). It surprised me to find they're up there with Paladin as a tank as well. I didn't think much of them until now.

Soul Mirror at work: "Stop hitting yourself" Also, not bad damage for a tank.

Monks aren't good as the no armor/weapon type character usually associated with the name. I found it best to equip mine like a battle cleric. Plate Armor(or whatever high DR armor you have that isn't too weak against common damage types), Mace, Shield. Wound Mechanic is a bit weird, but when you get used to it, it's an asset. The lack of control over the character's main resource put me off them as well originally.

So, I'm picking classes I wasn't fond of/have been neglecting for awhile and giving them a go. First up is monk. I had a period where I liked them, and then decided I disliked the wound mechanic. It seemed they ended up wound-starved if you built them defensively or as a DPS not getting attacked. I also didn't like how their attacks were cones, but you couldn't aim them like normal AoEs as they need a specific target. After trying them out I found: Monks are good for soaking up raw or high damage. Something other tanks lack relatively, other than regular old DR from armor and a few talents. Damage that bypasses deflection, monks are actually fueled by and are in substantially less danger from due to the wound mechanic. Unfortunately the game doesn't display exactly what's going on with it numerically anywhere I could find, so I can't say how much it's absorbing. I believe it's % based, making them great vs. high damage hits. They are best as tanks. I tried 2h and dual wield with and without weapons, and found them extremely underwhelming. They could maybe make a decent second tank, but you won't get much out of them as a DPS if you're not taking significant damage. They're arguably best in role as tanks. I was surprised how well they stay up. They may usurp Paladin in this role. Primarily because they're more durable against things that bypass deflection. They also do more damage while remaining very tanky. They're probably the best 1h+shield class choice if you actually want substantial damage while using a high deflect build. Especially since the class starts with high base accuracy. They have serious longevity. 6 * Stamina health pool lasts a long time. My final, optimized build that I was most happy with is this - Race: Any, but I chose Fire Godlike for thematic reasons, and it's not too bad combined with a Monk Tank's strengths. Attributes: Might 19 Con 8 Dex 7 Per 17 Int 10 Res 17 Talents: Weapon and Shield Style no brainer deflection Cautious Attack no brainer deflection Lesser Wounds hard to really tell what it does from in-game info, but more wounds faster is good so hopefully it's substantial. Might be able to skip it. I'd want to eventually fit Scion of Flames in. Abilities: Torment's Reach - It's this or swift strikes, and this gives AoE and lowers might so just felt better to me for a tank, and I like the bursty single use over the duration bonus. Situational/occasion use, I wish we had more/better options at this level. -6% damage taken from some enemies could be substantial against heavy hitters though. Turning Wheel - Allows you to do pretty decent damage with a good 1h weapon w/out an offensive modal, I chose Mace. Also makes sure unused wounds are doing something for you. Soul Mirror - Hilarious, archers will kill themselves passively for you. Rooting Pain - Passive and decent damage w/stacked might. Potential AoE interrupt. Works while you're CCed. Benefits from getting beat on by larger groups. And if you move and get disengagement attacked, it's just more damage for you. Needs high might though to get through DR, but great against low DR enemies. I didn't take Force of Anguish!?!? Yeah, you could fit it in, probably in place of Turning Wheel. It's good, but it costs 2 wounds and I chose a more passive route that benefits more from building wounds than spending them, and found it worked better for me.

Ah, I suspected that was the only outcome, I never completely stacked athletics to try and get a different result though. It seems just ~4 or so athletics + the grappling hook is fine then which is what I had. I believe you can deceive Medreth, there's an option to try anyway. It's failed for me but it might be attribute dependent. I just killed them all with hit/lure/run tactics 'cause I want their gear to sell.

I highly recommend 18 int instead of dex for a Pistoleer. Dex gives very little benefit for firearms. Int will increase the duration of your Blinding and Crippling Strikes, which will allow for more sneak attacks plus just reduce the ability of enemies to deal damage to you/your party for longer.

One handed definitely needs serious buffing. It's my favorite style aesthetically but it just isn't good at anything right now, you don't deal better damage or take less, and it offers no unique utilities. Having a free hand in combat should come with more substantial and interesting benefits. However, dual wielding w/out vulnerable attack and two weapon style will still do substantially less damage against most targets than un-talented for it, and jack-of-all trades builds aren't much good right now. You want to focus characters on achieving their best possible damage output, buff and debuff duration and AoE. Then you just have a few more durable ones and/or maybe one super-tanky character.

Vague mechanics and imbalances usually make me more likely to dig into the numbers aspect of a game, not less, personally. The less information they give the more I just end up spending time trying to figure out what exactly I'm getting when I take X talent or Y spell. A game where everything is spelled out clearly ends up more immersive because you don't have to dig around trying to find out what something really does. The numbers then just fade into the background.

I've taken a screenshot of the distance away from a 20 int paladin(18 w/a +2 enchant) you can be and receive the aura bonus: http://i.imgur.com/fB1xqpJ.jpg As you can see it's still quite short. So I'd factor that into whether or not you'd choose +Accuracy(best for group) over +DR(best for tank). If you have a melee heavy party I'd go for accuracy, but if you've got more ranged that're spread out to avoid AoE and whatnot it might not be worth micro-ing them to maintain aura benefit to you. Personally I think it's too small, but maybe they don't want it to conveniently affect your whole party. But with 20 int you'd think you'd get a little more distance than that. Fighter IMO. You can't use them in the same way as a purely defensive built tank though, have to support more with other characters and be on top of crowd control. And/or have more melee to split up the damage on the front line.

It's just a bonus. It's not something you'd aim for or try to make active use of, but you already want high perception and resolve for deflection. Occasionally interrupting stuff does reduce damage taken as well. I wouldn't take interrupting blows though.

I used an Orlan, got 21 perception(white that wends background) and 19 resolve. Perception and resolve give deflection and that's mainly what you need to reduce damage taken, on top of DR. Paladins have good base defenses as well. And they can get a DR modal, although you may prefer the accuracy one for buffing the rest of your party. Stack mainly deflection stuff. Biggest early gain is from Weapon and Shield style. I used a Hatchet as a weapon for another +5, even though it does pitiful damage. I wore plate enchanted with Resolve and Perception for more deflection. Perception also gives interrupt, which is a free bonus w/your deflection, but interrupts aren't a big deal anymore so don't worry about it. The next best attribute is Intellect, to have your modal affect your party at decent range, particularly if you chose the accuracy buff. It also improves a few Paladin specific abilities. You'll have to decide just how much you want to forgo damage output from there. You can comfortably drop might to 2 and be fine 'cause you're not going to deal great damage no matter what, and just dump your excess into constitution. For skills, it doesn't matter that much. With lore you can use scrolls and I'd bet it will make a good PC skill for dialogue. Survival improves your consumable durations, which could be handy too. Some stealth is nice on all characters IMO, and some athletics. The beta isn't very demanding on skills though and it's hard to judge best skill spreads yet. - Fighter built in a similar way can also make a good tank. Chanters can work too but you're a little more spread out there for attribute needs. I personally don't care for Monk for a number of reasons, but some people like them as well.

There are different damage types. The basic DR of an armor reduces damage taken by that much. The other values are for the exceptions. So if you've got DR 12, Pierce 15, Crush 6, Burn 2 The armor is better against piercing, worse against crushing and burning. Plate for example, IIRC, is better against Piercing than Brigandine, but weaker against Shock.

Yeah Leadsplitter I feel has to be borked in some way or IDK why they'd nerf the Arquebus and not Blunderbuss(even regular Blunderbuss is pretty strong). Edit: Actually Arquebus still pretty powerful, although I'm @ 26 might w/food buffs now. The problem is, you miss and it's all for naught, the Blunderbuss's damage is more reliable - you'll almost always hit/graze a decent number. Damage doesn't display in combat log usually, although I had one odd occasion where it did, at least partially - Also, just got Wymund down - http://i.imgur.com/sEAGVwS.jpg Fight was a bit of a pain 'cause it keeps you in combat arbitrarily until every one of the enemies is down. I had the Trollskin Belt that gave me regen though so I wasn't whittled down.

Trygil downed, I'm amused how easy it is to run around in circles and avoid and AoEs the AI uses because they aim them where you were not where you're at. Seems to be the secret to not getting burn-spelled to death by his sealy stuff. He was still tough and took me a couple tries though. You definitely need Leadsplitter and Penetrating Shot to gib the other dude right off the bat. I should've used healing potions actually, but I didn't which meant a couple reloads.

Yes, you can call it cheesing lol. It's taking advantage of every little **** in the game's armor mechanically. Just because it's a more difficult/different process than going through with a full party doesn't mean it's not using cheese. It's just that kind of need to cheese as you're at a big disadvantage. Anyway, just got the Leadsplitter. It's a good thing you get 2x shadowing beyond 'cause the spiders in that are a bit random. I had one follow me while I was in shadowing beyond running back to the entrance. O_o

I've been trying a different tactic and it's been working so far albeit it's super cheesy: Island Aumaua 20 Strength 6 Con 8 Dex 8 Per 19 Int 17 Res @ Level 5: 2 stealth and will add more 2 Athletics and IDK how many I need for the egg if I have the hook but I can buy the shirt that gives +2 9 mechanics 1 Lore for level 1 scrolls Crippling Strike Blinding Strike Fast Runner Reckless Assault Using Crossbow to open and then Tall Grass to wreck stuff in melee (sold stuff to grab it early). He is pretty damned brutal in melee. Soloed Medreth's group by luring them away and stabbing them to death 1 by 1. Using plate enchanted w/might and int. Long duration blinding strike is amazing. Will eventually grab multiple ranged weapons to try 1/2 shots on enemies by weapon switching guns. Talent selection is going to difficult though, I'll probably have to skip dirty/vicious fighting. Using Traps + Scrolls used as needed, probably going to have a rough time of the spiders still though. Hit and run + luring enemies away 1 by 1 and soloing them in a duel, use traps/scrolls for tough enemies. It's slow going but you can actually kill most things if you cheese it and it's less RNG dependent than crossing my fingers w/shadowing beyond. Edit: Eff you spiders! http://i.imgur.com/6PIT7vT.jpg

There's a +Dex and Athletics helm in the BB. Presumably there'll be a variety of stat bonuses similar to that, I would imagine intellect included.

I see them as the only way to make all attributes valuable for all classes. The current values are hopeless. Granted, I don't think it needs to be the case that all attributes have similar value for all classes, but it seems to be a thing for them. And right now, there's no argument for some attributes on some classes. If each had some substantial talents linked to them, there'd at least be some case for taking a higher perception caster character or whatever. I can understand that if you're building a character and you check the talent lists and see you want X and Y and thus need Z at least attribute score it can feel pigeonhole-y, but right now I feel it's in a worse state where you simply maximize the obviously most beneficial attributes. Building characters in 3.5e in NWN2 for example felt more nuanced, and they had enough variety that it increased build diversity more than it limited it.

What reason?

Island Aumaua is one of the best for gun collectors. It's a bit niche but one of the most substantial ones for the builds it is good for. I used an Island Aumaua Rogue with 3 Blunderbusses(I got lucky and found an extra from random loot), being able to quickly use Blinding and 2 Crippling strikes w/Penetrating Shots from Blunderbuss is hilarious. Especially with 21 Might, haha. Coastal is good too, for melee, since prone attacks are quite common on other melee enemies.

Nice. I tried a solo rogue and gave up myself. It was the damned spiders that I couldn't get past, but I didn't get high enough int for shadowing beyond for it I guess.

Mechanics seems to be the "finding hidden stuff" thing. I'm sure perception might get some scripted checks here and there, but containers and such seemed to check mechanics. The skeleton outside the Ogre's cave for example, was not spotted by my 21 perception Orlan but showed up when I came back with my rather low perception but high mechanics rogue. Int increases duration on their Blind and Hobble attacks. How much you value that, IDK, but it's nice to have some extra seconds on them IMO. Perception is ~okay~ for a dual wielder build, but not as great if you're using a ranged rogue with a slower weapon like the blunderbuss - which gibs most things it hits anyway. Interrupts just aren't that great anymore though so I'm not a fan of it for any of my builds. Dex doesn't do much for guns/crossbows, but is great for dual wield and decent for 2h. I would go for Str/Dex personally unless you focus entirely on Blunderbussing and gibbing things which is totally valid still.