Enoch

IIRC, it is possible to break the grub nests from stealth without aggro'ing the big 'un. But, aside from those, I think mama does have a "call more helpers" ability. Also, given its susceptibility to INT afflictions, a solo player may be able to Charm the big one such that it eliminates the extra grubs for you, before plinking it down from range. (Perhaps a Confusion scroll?)

I'd say that Assassin is a good choice in the linked build less because you're building around the bonus and more because the drawback doesn't hurt you much. You're really in Rogue for Sneak Attack, Deathblows, and cheap Full Attack abilities. Without making any special efforts, Assassin will benefit you often enough to be better than a base-class Rogue. And, if you aren't interested in taking on micromanagement and risk associated with the Streetfighter playstyle that Jayd describes above, that's probably more than the other Rogue subclasses offer. (That said, a Trickster giving up a little SA damage for debuffing utility is a nice tradeoff. Being ranged, you won't get much out of the PL 2-4 abilities, but the rest can be fun.) IMO, Helwalker is too natural a fit. Makes good use of the feedback damage, the MIG bonus helps a lot, and the disadvantage is substantially mitigated by a ranged build. I'd consider that a lock for half a mulitclass. If you don't want the other half to be a Rogue, you're probably giving up some overall damage, but what you get in return can make up for it. Ranger gets you Driving Flight, a pet, and a suite of ACC-enhancers. A Ghost Heart make a neat thematic pairing with a Helwalker, too. (Although note that the Ghostheart pet isn't compatible with Dichotomous Soul, due to the summons cap.) Devoted adds even more PEN, easy access to Intuitive, and a damage boost on Crit. Not sure how useful extra PEN is at that point-- between Desctructive Channeling, Thunderous Blows, Scepters being dual-damage, and the Ring of the Marksman, I suspect you'll be pretty solidly in the PEN-but-not-OverPEN category for Hits and at or near Overpen on Crits, even without the Devoted boost. (Aside: does the Scepter modal stack with Tenacious?) There is a cheap full attack (Penetrating Strike), but it's not as good as the Rogue options. Paladin lacks great DAM ACC or PEN boosts, but but it does have an excellent spammable Full Attack, and contributes lots more party-support utility than the other options.

Paladins in this setting are abnormally devoted to... something. But there are a number of options, and I'm not aware that any of the orders in the game have the kind of commitment to chastity that one might associate with the class in other settings. The wiki has brief rundowns of the lore associated with each of the orders, and they're all viable options, gameplay-wise.

I've long suspected that Josh chose to insert his likeness as that particular character because it's the role where the voice actor most obviously botched the con-lang. (He pronounces "Vailians" as "villains".)

Troubadour or Beckoner are generally the way to go for a ranged-and-summons Chanter. Skald and Bellower aren't ideal summoners and really lend themselves to melee (which you probably don't want for Ascendant due to interrupt risk), and the use case for a base class Chanter over a Troubadour is really narrow.

The best solution to being annoyed by Xoti is to turn her to the dark side. Evil Xoti is a slasher flick villain: campy-psychotic fun.

If you're set on multiclassing, the Swashy will very likely come out ahead on raw damage, all else being equal. But if raw damage is your only criteria, both options would be better if you dropped the Fighter part and just went with a single-classed Barb or Rogue. (Single-classed Barbarian, in particular, is a step up from a Brute, because lots of the good Barb abilities come online late, and the tier VIII and IX stuff is dynamite.)

Personally, I'd add a Stalker/Bloodmage melee Geomancer. But if "low magic" is a requirement, yeah, you can't go wrong with a single-classed Monk. I'm also fond of an off-tank morningstar Barbarian with Brute Force and the Barbaric Roar and Spirit Frenzy upgrade lines, but if your playstyle made the Brute ineffective, a pure Barb might not do much better.

Definitely upgrade Thrice-- the bounce is a worthwhile boost to damage, and it makes the AoE a little more forgiving, as the bounces can tag enemies outside the original cone. Thunder Rolled is useful more for the Stun than the damage, but having a Stun that targets REF can be great against some opponents. (It's a way to use a weak REF defense to debuff FORT.) Seven Nights is situationally OK, although it can be a tactical challenge to get the most out of it-- it's best when you're surrounded. Haven't experimented with Boil Their Flesh much. The Phrase cap (and thus the number of "free" phrases you start combat with) is equal to whatever your most expensive invocation costs. Invocation cost = [(Ability Level)/2] +2, rounded up, after which subclass-based adjustments are made (e.g., a Skald's -1 to Offensive and +1 to Non-Offensive). Ability level is the base-ability's level-- upgrading doesn't increase the cost. So, if you want to be spamming low-level invocations (like a Skald's 2-cost Thrice, Hel Hyraf, Thunder, and Killers) you still need to invest in an invocation at the top tier. As for single v. dual weapons, it depends somewhat on what other sources you may have for ACC and hit-to-crit. With a multiclass and/or some party buffs, I think dual weapons is a stronger path-- faster attacks means more rolls that can crit, even if your chance of critting on any one is lower. Plus, the damage you produce will be stronger even if the crits aren't coming. I haven't tried Myrtillo's Bellower idea, but it sounds like it would be effective to me. I wasn't a fan of the subclass when they introduced it, but if I were to run one, it would probably be along those lines. I suspect that the levels before you get Eld Nary would be a bit of a chore, though.

I tinkered with a Trickster-Soulblade the other day, but I didn't find the signature ability all that fun. It was my first try with the subclass, and it feels kind of at-odds with itself-- discounted Shred powers and Soul Annihilation compete for the same resources and don't seem to work together at all. Anyhow, I restarted the Mindstalker with Beguiler on the Cipher side, figuring I'll just dial the debuffing up to 11. That's proving to be more my style.

A multiclass Skald who takes 1 Tier VII non-offensive invocation to maximize the Phrase cap can spam the heck out of Thrice Was She Wronged. It's pretty neat. Particularly if you add in an Empower and the Singing Scimitar with the "Encore" enchantment. You'll just need to do some work at the outset to get the enemies clustered within the smallish AoE. So Singt Biting Winds is also a nice Chanter nuke. Use it while chanting Long Night's Drink to debuff FORT.

So long as the base-level for an area, scaling-wise, is lower than your level when you come back the second time, you're still going to see an effect. (E.g., area set to scale at level 8+, you enter at level 5, lock the scaling into 8, then come back at 12.) And that's almost certainly true for the areas in the first Mapping the Deadfire quest stage. Probably the second, too.

The only wrinkle here is that I'm pretty sure that, if you enable scaling, the enemies are set on a map when you first enter it. So, if you play with all areas scaled, stepping in briefly and coming back later will have you facing enemies scaled to your level when you first got there.

Could be worse-- it could include the Gorecci Street looters!

Could easily be a bug they found in their release candidate that isn't evident in 4.1.2.

At this point, they might as well wait for the release anniversary. (Which is next Wednesday.)

I finally finished the last Witcher 3 expansion, and I'm avoiding jumping back into Deadfire until some of the current issues are patched. So I picked up Sunless Skies. I'm only 3 captains in, and I haven't left the Reach yet. But I really do adore it. As with its predecessor, Sunless Sea, I'm guessing that the frustration associated with travel times, grind, and bad-luck (or fat fingers in combat) quasi-permadeath will eventually outweigh the delight of discovery of its locations, secrets, characters, etc. I'll probably never "beat" it (to the extent that is possible). But that doesn't mean that I don't find the time I spend with it quite enjoyable. I find that I'm enjoying the combat more than I did in Sea, even though it's twitchier. Also, Sea suffered from the fact that many of its ports were too front-loaded in their narrative content. You could "complete" them in your first go-- or complete all but some really-high-skill-check endgame-level challenge-- and just stop in for port reports every once in a while thereafter. I obviously haven't seen all (or even a majority) of the locations in Skies, but, so far, there appears to be more "mid-game" content, which should help with what was my biggest problem with Sea-- the fact that, after you've explored the map and done some early quests, you were faced with a period with little to do but grind skills until you could safely attempt the tough stuff. And I like the more character-driven level-up process. If I'm being honest with myself, I should probably give in and switch to the non-legacy mode where it lets you go back to a save point when your face gets eaten by space bees. But that just wouldn't be sporting.

I guess I'll be the optimist who suggests that the forum update is step 1 of "New Stuff from Obsidian!" week. (TTRPG; Deadfire update; console release date)

Tricksters add a little bit of everything to a melee build. You get the damage boost of a weak sneak attack, access to Rogue Full Attack abilities (mostly v. Deflection or Reflex), mobility from Escape, spammable Mirrored Image for defense, debuffs that attack Will (Dazz Lights, Confusion, Wondrous Torment), and disables that attack Fort (Repulsive Visage, Gaze of the Ad). A multiclass to get some ACC boosts would help-- it doesn't have any intrinsically. But if you can rely on a party Priest for that, just double-down on what you most want out of the character-- Monk, Barbarian, or Soulblade for a damager (maybe Stalker Ranger, too?); Fighter or Paladin for a tankier option. Monk might be my favorite of these, as Mirrored Image pairs well with Dance of Death (and the alternate wound-generation of a Nalpazca or Shattered Pillar), and you can utilize wounds-based abilities for offense, reserving your Guile-based stuff for your defense and debuffs.

As with most things, this is a far more interesting question if we're talking about evil-mode Xoti.

So, there's a rush on for something in the coming days. Seems reasonable to guess that they want to do all their announcements in one go-- the TTRPG rulebook, the final challenge mode, the big patch/update we've been waiting for, and maybe more info on the console release. Looks like Matt delivered on the TTRPG: https://twitter.com/jesawyer/status/1119063636322869248 Momma didn't raise no lair [sic] indeed.

Sawyer retweeted this from Art Director Matt Hansen: So, there's a rush on for something in the coming days. Seems reasonable to guess that they want to do all their announcements in one go-- the TTRPG rulebook, the final challenge mode, the big patch/update we've been waiting for, and maybe more info on the console release.

Thanks to all of you. This has been an informative thread-- it gave me some answers to questions that I'd previously wondered about, but never put the effort into testing or asking.

Personally, I suspect that I would have a lot more fun with 5 Trickster-Animist Pathfinders. That's much closer to a build to true "Jack of All Trades"-- they're tanky (Mirrored Image spam) stabby (Rogue abilities; spiritshift) debuffing (other Trickster spells) nuker-healer-summoners (Druid spells). All you're really missing are ACC buffs. Use Alchemy for that.