Enoch

I'd go single-classed. Getting to tier 7 (incl. Storm of Holy Fire and Cleansing Flame) at level 13 instead of 19 is pretty huge. The trouble, of course, is dealing with stuff you can't burn. Vatnir is probably the best nuker-Priest, as he gets access to some good AoE Freeze and Corrode damage. If you decide that you're not troubled by this problem, Magan is the way to go. If you are, I'd say Berath is OK in that you can fall back on Rot Skulls, before the Tier 8-9 stuff opens up some other non-Burn options. Although, if you're mixing nukes with debuffs, Woedica offers too much neat stuff there to be ignored.

This amusing little error is still occurring, for what it's worth. (The in-game location is Howling Gorge.)

Alright, I can't figure out Thrice. A PL5 War Caller Skald using "Her Revenge Swept..." against a single foe (so no bounces) is getting 5 attack rolls. Doing so with a single foe within the AoE and a second foe within the Bounce range gets 5 rolls against the first enemy, and 2 against the second. I didn't screenshot that one, but I think all the first-enemy attacks hit or crit, in case that effects whether a Bounce happens or not. Empowering the invocation against a single foe gets... 5 attack rolls. I tried another iteration with 2 enemies in the AoE, and I just couldn't piece it together. Lots attack rolls and it's very hard to distinguish the initial Thrice from the "Her Revenge Swept" Bounce. That's about as much as I'm willing to concentrate on this on a Friday night.

Until that point, it should also be decent with upgraded Thrice Was She Wronged. I'm not sure if the basic 3 zaps count as projectiles for Power Level scaling (is the "Thrice" inherent in the spell, or is it "at least Thrice"?), but I'm fairly certain that the Bounce added by the upgrade gains bounces as the Caster power level grows above 3. The trick is that it's a rather small AoE, and the spell benefits greatly as the number of targets within it increases. So you've got to do some work to get your enemies clustered. Bring a Wizard-- Combusting Wounds magnifies the damage here considerably.

Do extra Adra Crates help? I know that they classify as quest items and disappear once you've completed "Goods and Services" (even if you have way more than Morena asks you for). Do you get a larger XP or cash reward from Morena based on how many you turn in?

Mind expanding on this? I thought Flagellant's just did Crush damage to enemies that the Monk passes, rather than anything based on what weapon(s) he/she is holding. Other than the full attack on the target, what is the interaction with the Mortars? Or is it just that it's a full attack ability that you can spam based on Wounds?

Barring Death's Door is an infinite heal.

Once added:

Yes, it's the "Final Say" enchantment that seems to be missing data.

Have you upgraded it? I noticed back in 4.0.0 (English language version) that the weapon as-looted looked and worked fine, but one of the upgrade options led to an error of some kind. I can try to check this evening to see if it's still problematic in the current build. (But if I don't get a chance tonight, it'll have to wait until next week.)

Gellarde! (What was it up against? Apart from this, I've been playing back-catalogue stuff this year. Haven't really kept up with new releases.)

I was able to separate the beasts at the dig site, but not any of the skeletons in the Training Grounds. Used to be able to at least get the one on the lower level into a 1-on-5 fight. (Instead I just snuck around them, grabbed the gauntlets from the chest, and left.)

I think we're all losing sight of the most important factor here. The Vailian Trading Company owns the only working toilet in the Deadfire. How are the other factions even an option?

Thanks for that. I always assumed that the 2nd-level doors to the Palace would be locked, given how you're forced into a "walking in" cutscene when you first enter. Good to know that you can get to Barati without first going through Onekaza. And I hadn't thought about this from the perspective of inactive companion XP, which is useful to consider. (Honestly, I don't recall specifically how that mechanic works, other than that folks hanging out at the ship seem to progress a little more slowly.) Edit: I guess the other sorta-quandry you'd have, besides Baltia, is whether it's worth doing the small Task at VTC HQ that frees up Luca for the Boatswain spot when you get your Dhow.

well...yeah...I mean if the player gets boarded then sure, then there could be an element of chaos I suppose. Even then it should take a while to get boarded I imagine, with the enemy ship getting closer and everybody should see it coming at that point. Honestly I don't know why the formation gets shuffled like that. am suspecting is a basic ship mechanics or dialogue issue. after ship dialogues with gods, your formation is changed. poe had a number o' similar encounters. skaven under-temple forced dialogue would alter party formation and at least one dragon encounter did similar. forced formation shift is literal the first thing we complained 'bout when ship boarding were implemented. no traction. in any event, ship-to-ship combat is actual a bit exploitive. you are able to engage in ship combat as soon as you leave port maje waters and neither the difficulty slider nor the enemy ship level limit your chances o' success. sub level ten player will be able to reduced named ship captain population o' deadfire waters to zero, resulting in much unique and superb gear becoming available for your lower level character, as well as providing much experience via ship bounties. do all ship bounties and start nekataka at level 10-11 and with superb gear... and have a nice bit o' money too. HA! Good Fun! I'll add a little nuance here, as I'm in the process of doing this now. "Start Neketaka" isn't quite right, as you need to do the initial circuit of the city first, before you do go after anything tougher than the first-tier bounty targets. Specifically, you need to enter the city (progressing Veins of Eora main quest), do the shipbuilder's task (to get your 10% discount before buying a new boat), hire any single-skill-having crewmembers (includes going to Periki's to get Worthless Idiot), and go meet the folks who hand out ship bounties for the 3 factions in Neketaka. Note that the Huana bounty-giver is in the Palace, so you'll have to progress the main plot past the first meeting with the Queen. You probably also want to do that first Valera task, for the free Sails upgrade. It's a good idea to recruit, level-up, and equip the Companions and Sidekicks who you can meet along the way, too, just in case the tactics of a particular ship battle lead towards a boarding fight being the best course. (IMO, melee-type characters are the most useful ones to have the AI driving in ship battles. So definitely grab Pallegina and Konstanten. Hold off on Fassina unless you intend to use her in the party-- she's fairly useless in a boarding fight. Maia is good, too, although only make her a Geomancer if you're going to use her in the active party. Tekehu & Ydwin are OK-- better than ship crew, but it might be best to not give the RNG the option of selecting them instead of 'Gina, Mirke, etc.) Once you're ready to go hunting for more than the first-tier Voyager bounties, it's also a good idea to stop in at Dunnage, Sayuka, and Tikawara, just to hire crew. Get your "permanent" folks who can level up to 4-stars in one job in there as early as possible. (Also, go get Rekke and Mirke for more boarding-battle beef.) All the while, of course, you're trying to pile up the funds for your ship upgrades, so you're grabbing the low-hanging fruit that pops up along the way. The investment priority I'm going by is (1) 4 Double Bronzers; (2) Dhow and 2 more Bronzers; (3) Hull upgrade. If you're building rep with Principi or RDC, note that the cannons might be cheaper at Dunnage or Sayuka (discount can get up to 15%). (This goes for supplies, too, but the Queen's Berth fishmonger is the only source of bottomless Cuttlefish, and Cuttlefish/Water is the cheapest Morale-neutral provision combination, once you exhaust your sources of free water/fruit.)

Haven't tried it in action yet, but Bellower still seems pretty lousy... until you get Eld Nary's Curse. Imagine using it with the Singing Scimitar: open with an Empowered Curse for an "Old-Skool Empower" +10 PL (Empower stacks with class-feature PL boosts, right?), then follow with immediately a second +5 PL Curse. (Along with chanting Long Night's Drink to debuff enemy FORT, of course.) That'll end a whole lot of fights right there.

Gromnir's the local expert on this one. As he notes, the abilities to take depend heavily on whether there will be another Priest in the party. I don't think I'd play it as purely ranged, but I haven't given it a go myself to test out theorycrafted tactics.

There are an assortment of both Watcher-only and party-assisted checks for just about all of the skills. At best, you'll only have 1 or 2 of the passive skills high enough to make the toughest checks in the game. But there are also plenty of low-threshold checks that you can make with just party assist, training, items, and resting bonuses. Party assist has diminishing returns-- see the table here. If Aloth has 20 ranks in Diplomacy, your Watcher is only getting a +6 bonus out of him. For skill-check purposes, the one passive skill that it makes sense to concentrate on one character is Survival. There are a number of gameworld interactions where you can pick a character to use that (e.g., to try to follow some tracks in the wild). I'm not aware of any opportunities for a partymember with a high social skill to shine-- the only benefit you'll get from that will be via the party assist mechanic. The exception is equipment: There are a number of items in the game that have bonuses scaling on ranks in a particular passive skill. Xoti's unique starting items are the most prominent example, but every skill has something. Most of that stuff is late-game, though, when the costs of a re-spec are easily absorbed. Absent building for special equipment, my advice is to pick 2 passives to build with your main character. Have one Companion specialize in Survival until rank 12 or so. Otherwise, build companion passives equally, but exclude ones that you know you're not going to use. (E.g., a Paladin who disfavors deception doesn't need anyone in the party with points in Bluff.)

Might want to check this again in 4.0. There's a line in the patch notes that could be addressing your issue:

Here's a thread from a week or so ago on Serafen as a Barbarian. Not a step-by-step build, but it discusses the main themes to aim for. Barbarians aren't that complicated. (If you were thinking Cipher, well, have fun with your party randomly exploding every once in a while.) I've never had the urge to build Eder single-classed.

Non-Josh Forgotten Sanctum tweet: A very big sword. (Also a neat robe.)

I'm pretty sure all skill-scaling items scale in a linear fashion. You'll frequently see builds recommending max History for the Giftbearers Cloth or max Metaphysics for the Chromoprismatic Quarterstaff (etc.). As to the second question, see thelee's excellent guide here and here. (In particular, high Arcana boosting the PL of scrolls can be very powerful.)

Interesting You don't go with a publisher who will let your studio keep the IP rights if you're not hoping that you can do something more with them.

You do realize that you can control what all the characters in your party do, right?

And they're not just damage spells-- they debuff other defenses, too.