Gromnir

huh. haven't tried, but this looks kinda brilliant if it works and am having little reason to doubt atk. would love to be able to cook a steak in a non-stick pan. sure, we got the infrared broiler on our viking, but am genuine curious 'bout the cold sear and am especially looking forward to testing with salmon. probable would be applicable to thick burgers. HA! Good Fun!

the hand does more than set up a nice camp. he will act as a literal unseen guardian angel if you face near-death, but more important, when he heals you he also restores all per day uses o' spells and abilities. we kinda played with the mechanic and never saw a limit to the number o' times he would free heal/restore you. is potential for exploitation as time does not pass when the hand heals. HA! Good Fun! ps (edit) am mentioning 'cause the result o' the hand's heal is unintuitive. is quite possible you don't realize how the mechanic functions until you spend considerable time in the abyss and then finally ask the hand to heal you instead o' camping.

check to see if you got a logistics decree which has been overlooked, otherwise, build stuff and upgrade outposts. dunno. as long as you add structures and have completed crinukh's letters as well as similar crusade projects, gaining logistics should not be stalled. HA! Good Fun! ps am recalling you were delaying ivory sanctum, but am thinking you got a post sanctum decree which you need to advance logistics.

pnp hellfire rays is far less op, as long as you got a sane gm who ain't gonna engage in purposeful obtuse and pretend as if hellfire rays do damage other than hellfire. hellfire does 50% o' its damage via mundane fire and 50% by means o' unholy energy. the original description for hellfire in the book of the damned splat book observes a protection from evil spell negates all the unholy damage. furthermore, unholy damage does zippo to evil beings. so, hellfire rays, which curious enough do not have the fire descriptor and thus do not benefit from any fire enhancing spells/powhaz/abilities, only do half damage if you had forethought to cast protection from evil, a level 1 cleric spell... again, assuming hellfire rays use hellfire. please note flame strike, and a few other spells, damage enemies via 1/2 elemental and 1/2 divine. unlike unholy, divine is one o' those rare untyped damages. is no good reason to assume hellfire rays does 1/2 damage via divine. converse, ordinary critical and construction has us reading hellfire and hellfire ray as doing same damages particular in the absence o' clear evidence to the contrary. brief aside, 'cause am not particular interested and am thinking is no need for a right answer, but virtual all pathfinder spells which target souls fail against constructs, undead, elementals and outsiders. however, true resurrection is an exception. is a singular exception and even trap the soul, a level eight spell, fails when targeting outsiders. hellfire rays is a level six spell, so... ... am such a nerd to remember this nonsense; am so embarrassed. nevertheless, while is not how wotr hellfire rays is implemented, according to the diabolist prestige class entry, when a diabloist converts elemental spells to hellfire, the rays gain the evil and lawful descriptor. would at least explain why you may target demons with hellfires and they do not shrug off the unholy portion o' the damage. *groan* can't believe we once again engaged full nerd mode. HA! Good Fun! ps with a level o' sorc, and perhaps one-to-three of loremaster, ember may be useful as something other than a spammer o' hellfire rays. "enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat." that said, ember is extreme useful as a blaster and is not difficult to build her as such. after all, wotr is a game. obviously wotr ain't pro football, but is still a game.

haven't specific used geniekind as yet, but am able to confirm elemental weapon damage is no procing elemental barrage. HA! good Fun!

am gonna guess it will be smaller than his ego and his need for attention demands. so a smidge short o' the pharaoh bender benchmark? HA! Good Fun!

can't speak for others. the only way am doing the entire shield maze on unfair is at gunpoint. we do boss battles unfair, just to say we did so, but am not seeing the fun in an entire unfair run. make sure you got a leopard companion, 'cause is the only critter capable of tanking the water elemental at that level, even with camellia spamming protective luck. fighting defensive, your leopard may have as high as +30 ac ad you got a blur potion as well. add as many animal companions as possible. you do need to get lucky with attacks, but the chances o' even the unfair elemental hitting a fully buffed leopard is poor and with camellia doing nothing but spamming protective luck chances are you win if you can do enough damage before blur, shield of faith prayer and other buffs wear off. also, do anything possible to boost ab... which is obvious but much more difficult to pull off in practice. charging is good but only characters with reach weapons may charge multiple times 'cause you don't wanna provide the water elemental with attacks of opportunity. and yeah, reloads happen with hosilla and the water elemental. is an unfun way to play the game from our pov, but there is a "cheevo" so some folks will suffer through the slog which is a full unfair run. is likely others ways to take out the unfair water elemental, but for us leopard tanking is key. have also done a very improbable kite thing, but were more luck than anything else which had us survive. HA! Good Fun!

at some point am gonna do a lich --> gold dragon for the redemption route, 'cause am uninterested in finishing our previous lich and am curious how the redemption thing works. haven't spoiled self. am not a fan o' trickster. is arguably the most op o' the mythics, though all o' the mythics is potential op with the right build. got far enough into a trickster run to know am unlikely to finish trickster. am considering playing a few o' our past characters from act v... and maybe even act iii. aeon and azata is most likely getting second looks. we did make a new ee dirge bard like we mentioned a few posts earlier. am not a fan o' bards in wotr as am thinking skalds is superior, which ironic is precise why am going with dirge bard. wanna convince self a class we don't ordinarily approve can be fun and capable. no animal companion though. HA! Good Fun!

if The People, through democratic process, decide in 2022 that lindbergh's support o' fascism and eugenics were a bridge too far, then why shouldn't statues glorifying him be removed? is just freaking statues. we don't have government Holy Symbols in this country which must exist into perpetuity, so if you think democracy is how americans is s'posed to decide issues, then after enlightened debate over lindbergh contributions to stuff such as aviation and biomechanics, if the people decide that statues is inappropriate, then what possible rationale is there for forcing the people to endure the continued public display o' statues erected by folks dead and buried? is no first amendment issue. if bob wants to put a statue o' lindbergh on his property then nobody is gonna stop him from doing so, just so long as it doesn't create some kinda unrelated safety hazard. if bob's statue is 100' tall and is a nuisance not 'cause o' it being a statue o' lindbergh but 'cause it is enormous, then chances are the staue may be removed by the government, but even then the government has a higher burden to overcome 'cause is bob's speech being limited. alternative, force The People to suffer statues they don't want no more is the kinda democracy hating nonsense most americans were in the habit o' objecting to in the recent past. heresy. @Pidesco the onion amicus brief isn't so much a brief as an article, and the audience ain't lawyers but real people as the brief is written in easily understood english as 'posed to formulaic legal jargon. the submission is humorous and insightful. is also clear a competent lawyer crafted the "brief." am not recognizing "STEPHEN J. VAN STEMPVOORT," but am gonna assume he is legit and he knows his craft as well as the subject matter. applause deserved. thanks for sharing. HA! Good Fun!

the thing to recall 'bout finnean is that at your current upgrade stage, he is a +3 brilliant energy, heartseeker weapon, yes? is swell unless you attack an enemy which has no heart. attack incorporeal or golems and get a message that the weapon passes through harmlessly is gonna be disconcerting if you are unaware o' the limited handicap o' brilliant energy. HA! Good Fun! ps brilliant energy is not s'posed to harm any undead but it were at one point. am not sure if has been fixed. am recalling finnean were worthless 'gainst sinful sinew but he could hit a few other undead. playful darkness is a deathsnatcher which is technical a monstrous humanoid, so curiously both pillars of life and finnean is effective 'gainst it.

keep in mind a major advantage o' pillars is you may cast them outside of combat. keep in mind a major disadvantage o' pillars is if you cast 'em outside o' combat, you need to find a way to make certain your undead and/or sunshine vulnerable foes enter your pillars. can get kinda silly with pillars if you have heightened spell or other metamagic. cast a s-ton previous to combat and then once combat starts sosiel may continue casting via the rod o' devouring lust... 'cause the rod won't work on the pillars cast pre combat. others will observe the safest route to defeating playful is to set up a meat shield o' summons and animal companions and then cast creeping dooms with daeran or camellia (and even nenio if you used loremaster to add creeping doom to her spell list) while making certain you got a mark of justice from seelah on playful. those others who recommend creeping doom is correct. the reason why am personal using fear and pillars is 'cause we loathe camellia and chances are we don't have daeran in a party. sosiel has domains, so daeran don't get much attention in our wotr runs though is plenty o' good reasons to have both daeran and sosiel simultaneous in a party. our refusal to work with camellia is a real shame as she is easily one o' the most useful companions in wotr, particular once you provide her with the metal curse. HA! Good Fun!

am suspecting you identified the purpose o' the augmented workers. the natural reaction o' most not psychotic gamers is to live and let live, 'cause you never know when random acts o' murder is gonna mess up a quest. at a basic and fundamental level, games is teaching tools, and crpgs have taught you to attack everything hostile and speak to every named npc, but to avoid wanton mayhem unless you know there is gonna be no negative repercussions. the non aggressive augmented workers will become background npcs you hardly pay any attention to, but then combat with demons and whatnot starts and you reflexive cast prayer, only to discover all those augmented workers at your back has sudden turned hostile and is attacking your casters and archers from the rear. and yeah, an azata with best joke and a decent enchantment dc should go through blackwater with a bit more ease than most builds. we had considered building a kindred half elf dirge bard or court poet to see just how effective a caster bard/skald could be 'cause it looks good on paper. in fact, there is a sword available in blackwater which is kinda integral to our bard or skald enchanter build 'cause much like the quarterstaff of the war mage it applies a +2 to the dc o' all spells cast by the wielder. build an azata bard to take advantage favorable magic and incredible might in addition to the spell buffs azata gets to attributes and mind affecting spells is something we ain't seen, but it looks more than viable if nowhere near best evar. the advantage o' bard is am able to take a couple level dips w/o sacrificing much whereas the skald capstone ability would be a major sacrifice. bard has more skills too. dunno. the skald capstone is really nice, and 'course the partywide intelligence and charisma boosts from a court poet is exceeding impressive if you got a caster party. HA! Good Fun!

there are a few tactics which help, but also keep in mind the battle is technical optional and you will be able to return at a later time, after a few levelups, to deliver some o' the pain playful is sharing. general stuff first-- make certain to use seelah's mark of justice. the paladin power is arguable the best boss encounter ability in the game, and if you use the creeping doom suggestion kp made, even the swarms will benefit from seelah's mark of justice. creeping dooms will do minimal damage to playful unless they is bolstered by mark of justice. similar, always drop a guarded hearth on the area you intend to fight (doesn't always work out as planned) when facing a tough boss battle. can't recall the last time we had a party w/o mark of justice and somebody who could cast guarded hearth. more specific, playful got a serious regeneration thing which you are gonna want to interrupt with heals, 'cause playful is a negative energy freak. pillars of life is a not common mentioned option for dealing with playful. sosiel may cast a bunch o' them (not including heightened, you likely can stack 8 of them in one spot) pre combat and that will kill not only the spawning shadows, but pillars of life damage has no saving throw and they ignore sr, unlike heal spells. channel positive energy will also harm playful. and as usual, playful is not immune to unholy damage, so have sosiel use devouring lust rod means potential 480 damage which playful cannot avoid... though might be 360 damage as owlcat did funny things with playful(s) type. not enough to kill, but it is serious guaranteed damage. finnean is again a potential lifesaver as much o' playful's ac will be zero'd out by finnean, but the problem is staying alive while in melee range o' playful. is worth considering switching finnean to your best archer and then forcing playful to wade through swarms and summons. playful is not immune to shaken or fear, but it has ridiculous high wil saves and sr so managing to have a fear spell (other than the frightful aspect effect) stick on playful at higher difficulties almost requires an azata caster with a few o' the mythic path specific buffs. regardless, playful is another situation where an a party member who is able to deliver an over-the-top intimidation check is a major benefit. if you got party wide shatter defenses, then adding the shaken or fear debuff makes a big difference in the fight. ... complete unrelated to playful, owlcat made sneaky changes to teamwork feats and there is at least one bug at work. seize the moment now works as per pnp, which means you only ever give it to an inquisitor with solo tactics. gonna get largely the same benefit from outflank, so is no great loss. also, at the very least, the shake it off teamwork feat, at the moment, is doing absolute nothing. for most parties we got a heavy dose o' outflank, seize the moment and shake it off and two o' those feats do nothing useful... but for solo tactics inquisitors, and who here save Gromnir plays inquisitors who benefit from solo tactics? HA! Good Fun!

am not sure if being "dirt poor" is essential. if you are able to save money and get a decent product, then am not seeing cause for loss o' dignity, but keep in mind that growing up we did indeed qualify as dirt poor and there were a particular bad winter when for almost a month-and-a-half our family subsisted on nothing save bone and ketchup soup and jiffy pop... and the soup were getting mighty thin after the first month. when preparing food for guests, we don't go cheap. additional, we don't mind spending premium to enjoy good ingredients and quality food, 'cause what is the point o' having more money than when we were dirt poor if we refuse to ever spend the money? converse, if am able to acquire quality fare on the cheap, am gonna take that option. why spend more? am also seeing added benefit o' preventing food from going to waste while potential helping out a local vendor during tough times by purchasing what woulda' previous been an unsellable product. everybody wins? where is the downside? am also gonna note that a few o' our favorite restaurants and meals is hardly the kinda thing you would expect at a michelin 3*, but so what? we eat meatloaf (and simillar) 'cause we like it and not so much 'cause am trying to save a buck. the food in your post looks fine. as long as the fare also tastes fine and is safe, then am saying, #@$% dignity... but Gromnir might not be the benchmark for dignity seeing as we has been posting gromspeak for better than two decades. heck, the vehicle we got most daily use outta for same decades has been a 97 chrysler t&c minivan, 'cause it were the best auto for our dogs. taupe. we drove a taupe pre 2000 minivan for decades? our sense o' dignity/vanity is questionable. HA! Good Fun!

kinda stretching to try and make this work, eh? as you note, bismuth dies easy, which when it happens (frequent) is gonna result in arue being prone for a round, and yeah, until you get the improved snapshot feats you do indeed need to be in melee to take advantage o' the the reflexive aoo. seeing as how long point blank master is delayed in the neoseeker build, if @Gorth thought arue was dying too frequent in his current normal run am having difficulty imagining what his reaction would be trying to make her snap shot effective. w/o trip on your beastie you are also sacrificing potential aoo chances, so bismuth is more o' a half-arsed desperation option to make complete not viable slight less so. and arue ab being similar but not quite as good until 19, at which point the vanilla ranger due to gear and improved quarry significant outstrips the neoseeker build is maybe not the best salesmanship o' a build, eh? to be snapshot effective is requiring a multiple feat investments to make a niche build viable, feats (improved initiative, improved precise shot, etc.,) which may arguably be spent better elsewhere. also, am thinking there remains a misunderstanding as well. to get the most outta arue's ranger's bond you need a significant number o' instant enemy casts. otherwise, you got a swell favoured enemy bonus worth sharing at 50% strength against demons of magic and pretty much nothing else. a mere +1 party bonus 'gainst demons o' slaughter, demons o' strength, humans and outsiders? so yeah, the loss o' five levels o' spell casting is deserving more than a hand wave. when kp and others moan about stat bloat, arue with an instant enemy bolstered ranger bond is yet another option for stacking ab, an ab boost which is in fact better than a pure bard's. btw, the first level the neoseeker arue build sees a single instant enemy cast is sixteen. oh well, not gonna agree on this. blur actual ain't terrible for potions as it has a three minute duration. be wary o' other potions as they may have exceeding short durations or limited efficacy. mage armour is another decent potion as the bonus is a flat +4 and the duration is hour/level. if you don't use barding, then a potion o' mage armour is a no brainer unless you have superior bracers of armour on your critter. shield of faith potions offer the absolute minimum protection possible for the spell, which is +2. have sosiel cast and the benefits will last longer and be more effective, rendering up to a +5 o' deflection. barkskin potions get a ten minute duration... am thinking is ten minutes. but again, you are seeing only a +2 boost to natural armour when you could benefiting from +5 if camellia or another caster o' at least level 12 applies the buff to your horse. am agreeing with @majesticthat your animal companions deserve to be buffed and geared with similar forethought as your primate party members. you don't need to spend a diamond to rez a horse, but as enemies is more likely to attack seelah's horse than seelah, there is a good reason to make the horse resilient. that said, if you are having fun doing as you are doing, then is good enough. no need to consider advice if you are progressing just fine already. however, at the end o' act iii there is a couple encounters which offer difficulty spikes similar (worse) to blackwater, and the downside is you are not gonna be able to respec w/o using a mod or by reloading a save which is temporal remote. won't be able to buy additional scrolls or potions either. you will be stuck with current resources and builds trying to get past hurdles more frustrating than other act iii content. HA! Good Fun!

too be fair, and as we mentioned in our most recent post, there is nothing 'bout five levels of mutagen warrior for arue which requires you to take snapshot feats. snapshot is great for an archer riding a trip capable beast 'cause on the enemy suffering a trip from your dog/wolf/whatever, and then the attempted rise from prone, your archer gets attackS o' opportunity. eventual you get similar attacks o' opportunity when any nearby trip or critical hit from a party member occurs. such an archer build can be devastating and hilarious. the thing is, typical your archer is sitting back with ember and nenio, yes? part o' the point o' archers is you are able to, from range, w/o wasting a move action, hit with a full attack the enemy casters and archers who may be behind melee attackers, or spread out elsewhere 'cross the map. move into snapshot range is kinda a niche thing for an unmounted archer and is more difficult to routine pull off the trick than it might appear from a mere description o' feats and powhaz. however, if you like the initial boost mutagen provides, and you discover using instant enemy and ranger bond is unnecessarily cumbersome, then is no reason to abandon mutagen 'cause of a fear o' needing be a melee range archer. simple choose other feats. is plenty o' other valuable archer kinda feats. am genuine kinda mystified by the horse experience you suffer. horsies is ordinarily pretty capable tanks. maybe not as viable as a leopard or the complete unnecessary scaled fist/nature mystery sorc nonsense, but at least as good as camellia. what ac are you able to generate with her ambulatory bag o' alpo? aside, by now you got access to displacement, improved invisibility, and blur. don't underestimate the value o' such spells. sure, some higher level demons got true seeing, and that will be an increasingly common attribute, but many do not, particular the trash mobs. displacement results in a 50% miss chance. is no save involved or spell resistance check. if the enemy you face don't have true seeing, scent, echolocation or the like, their targeted attacks is gonna mis half the time. outta curiosity, what archetype is your seelah's horse using? both daredevil and bulwark are decent choices, though am admitting we rare use bulwark. HA Good Fun! ps(edit) is ez to overlook the big game gloves which @Gorthalready possesses but likely doesn't get too much use from, becomes ridiculous op once you get improved quarry. seriously, the free action aspect means every arue target is gonna have the quarry effect applied as well as the big game gloves debuff. is an additional -2 to foe ac plus sickened... no save

Jacques Pépin, at 86, finds a new way to express his love — of chicken This season, he is promoting “Jacques Pépin Art of the Chicken” on television, at talks and book fairs. “I’m very old. I’m going to be 97 in 10 years,” he says. ... am not gonna be purchasing the book, but for some reason am relieved to hear he is still alive and cooking wonderful pantry staple fare. his favorite ingredient is the egg, so we already lost shady. video included with story. am admitting we always chuckled at the chemistry 'tween julia and jacques... but is amazing how much julia snark he had to indulge. HA! Good Fun!

oh, well that's all? 'course you are also ignoring the five levels o' increased spell casting and part o' the point o' the video is explaining how important is instant enemy. you are suggesting sacrificing attack bonus for five points o' damage... and the plus five is only at mythic 10, so the last five minutes o' the game plus inevitable excess? is not a decent trade in most circumstances. wanna turn aru into a snapshot archer? is not as if we ain't seen the neoseeker build you reference, the one where seize the moment, point blank master and outflank come at levels 17 through 19 respective and is a build which looks much better on paper than in practice, 'cause if you have a party with animal companions, and @Gorthand most o' us do, then arue is gonna be spending at least a round simple getting into snapshot useful ranges as she is gonna be backline with the casters sans a mount while all the melee characters rush forward. wanna factor in the lost round o' damage? again, have seen and tested the neoseeker build and it works much better in theory than in practice. you can do all the snap shot and seize the moment stuff as a ranger, so that is not really on point anway. the only thing you genuine gain from mutagen warrior is the mutagen dex bonus which isn't the bonus it seems (+2 dex mod) and weapon specialization and on paper those lose to improved quarry, additional casts o' instant enemy and the final tier o' favored enemy, unless you are really attached to the extra five points of damage. personal we will take the improved party buffs and ab boosts. *shrug* regardless, is more than one way to build arue just as there is more than one way to build seelah. am finding arue is quite effective as a vanilla ranger but the problem is most folks just don't get how instant enemy works and the synergy it has with ranger's bond. no way am giving up five levels o' ranger spell casting and the final level o' favoured enemy for weapon specialization and the mythic specialization... 'cause improved quarry complete smokes mutagen and the delay o' favoured enemy increases is too costly. regardless, find a way to put arue on a dog, wolf or other trip animal companion with full or near full levels and am gonna be in complete agreement 'bout the viability o' a snap shot arue build. did that with an urban hunter lann and while it were taking effort to get right, it were indeed more than viable. HA! Good Fun! ps(edit) another highly underrated attribute and its related feats is initiative. our first character in wotr were an inquisitor archer who had improved initiative and mythic improved initiative. being able to act first is vast underrated. 'stead o' chasing weapon specialization for the minor addition to damage it provides, am gonna suggest improved initiative and mythic improved initiative is a superior goal.

yeah, sohei able to get spirited charge w/o prerequisites. is one reason am frequent using the monk archetype as a one level dip... just mentioned spirited charge but am doubting kp reads our posts so is good you identified. HA! Good Fun! ps owlcat doesn't mention all the fixes in their patches. a couple o' our animal companions sudden had free level-ups following the most recent hotfix, but is nevertheless inexplicable why many combinations o' classes with domain granted animal companions and level-one animal companion grant classes is nevertheless behaving different based on what should be identical resolutions.

am knowing you don't see the upside to fauchard, and is gonna work almost as well with a bardiche, but a fauchard wielding 11/9 sohei/demonslayer with a skald merc in party is getting ridiculous # of attacks, does massive spirited charge damage (particular as a demon) and generates silly attacks of opportunity while benefiting from party generated attacks of opportunity thanks to seize the moment and a high crit range reach weapon. is largely how our legend is designed... although we got an additional sixteen levels of vivisectionist, 'cause why not? am also having eight levels o' order of the ****atrice gendarme for both the mighty charge ability plus the steal the glory which improbable stacks with seize the moment. so 2x each attack of opportunity. longspear is gonna result in the eye-popping damage totals, particular with a level 20 gendarme, but a high crit reach weapon is where the bonuses from ever ready, seize the moment and steal the glory pay off extreme dividends. ever ready, btw, is one o' those overlooked attack bonus factors when persons consider improbable late game boss bloat. with all the attacks per round a late game party manages, it is likely there will be at least one crit achieved per round and with ever ready and seize the moment those crits result in attacks of opportunity which have an attack and damage bonus, likely leading to additional crits and additional seize the moment part-wide damage opportunities. am able to generate +90 ab for a vanilla paladin and lateish game seelah even w/o stuff such as touch of good or true strike, but on an attack o' opportunity she is gonna get an additional +8 to +10 depending on mythic level and if she is wielding finnean, chances are she needs a whole lot less to hit anyways. edit: am gonna mention once again how we actual dislike the aforementioned nonsense 'cause the ability to generate functional late game boss killing insta kills if you manage to have even one o' your animal companions or melee party members land a crit is exact why owlcat resorted to bloat to maintain at least some semblance o' a challenge. is no reason why @Gorthand others playing on core and normal should need have to suffer from the trickle down bloat effect o' owlcat not making any efforts to balance wotr. exploitive nonsense being part of wotr and embraced by the developers is exact why normal and core is having such relative punishing boss battles. however, am gonna once again recognize wotr sales has been good, so the motivation for owlcat to change the current balance scheme is unlikely to be strong. wotr is a game meant for the hardcore and am s'posing there is nothing wrong with that, though am personal seeing as lazy and unnecessarily punishing for players who don't wanna learn every nuance o' pathfinder. HA! Good Fun!

am so not seeing the upside to bard. again, the party bonuses from an aru with 5 bard levels results in +6 total for the party, and +2 is gonna be competence which is likely not to stack with other common competence bonuses. aru as a vanilla ranger provides +5 to the entire party through bond and she don't need suffer the bard level cost o' -2 personal ab due to bard levels. going bard also means the loss o' improved quarry, arguably one o' her best possible abilities, not to mention forgoing the personal benefits o' the final favoured enemy tier-- +8 v. +10 which 'cause o' instant enemy is applied to any foe. kinda already did. the levels of mutation result in missing out on improved quarry, so the +4 alchemical boost to dex results in a net gain o' zero to ab plus the loss o' your final favored enemy, which 'cause o' favoured enemy + instant enemy results in another +2 attack bonus sacrifice. by taking mutation warrior levels, you do effective get a bonus you cannot match with favoured enemy +instant enemy... but functionally your ab is only better for two rounds as you are gimping your favoured enemy + instant enemy benefits while sacrificing casts o' instant enemy not to mention making it impossible to get improved quarry, which is one o' arue's best abilities. all too often the level dips don't provide the upside one imagines. HA! Good Fun! ps (edit) our 2021 suggestion for seelah were 11/8/1 paladin, court poet, demonslayer, and am thinking such works better than sohei as o' at least the past few months once boon companion were adjusted closer to pnp. one level o' sohei and eleven levels o' paladin with boon companion woulda' resulted in a level twelve horse. pretty much gotta skip the animal companion if you are building new and not getting advantages o' old and busted builds... at least until the next time owlcat messes with animal companions. is genuine tough to discern what is s'posed to be animal companion levels in wotr 'cause is definite not pnp, but am not certain what owlcat were aiming for neither.

agree on vital strike, but again, we posted for favoured enemies and instant enemy. keep in mind, five levels of bard gets you a suspect +1 benefit compared to the ranger bond + instant enemy bonus, and the bard's boost is a competence bonus which won't stack with everything. the bard levels result in the cost o' a -2 ab loss for aru as well as diminished casts of instant enemy. the way instant enemy and ranger's bond works is you transmit half your favoured enemy bonus to all party mates. so by going from 15 to 20 with ranger, you increase aru's ranger's bond party bonus from +4 to +5. edit: oh, and improved quarry for aru at 19 is tough to overlook. quarry becomes a free action at level 19, which is huge. the additional +2 for improved quarry is swell, but again, the free action aspect is what makes it difficult to sacrifice. with improved quarry, aru is enjoying an additional +2 v. all enemies via a free action, so that move to bard is resulting in what amounts to another -2 penalty to attack bonus. switch to mutagen gets you little 'cause the +2 resulting from mutagen is a wash compared to improved quarry but you will lose the final party buff from ranger's bond, additional casts o' instant enemy and while is a minor thing given how cheap is the bless weapon spell, aru's crits are always confirmed via improved quarry. however, the negative for quarry is it is insight v. alchemical. @Gorth (edit) your seelah observations is almost alien to us. horses may be buffed to have impressive ac even w/o shield bonuses. do not ignore spells such as shield of faith, magic vestment (if you use barding as the bug allowing use on naked critters and characters were nerfed,) barkskin and mage armour until you get better than +4 bracers. animal growth provides a size bonus to strength but it also boosts natural ac by +2. is also worth considering the mythic beast mythic ability. seelah is a paladin, a full bab class which also has holy smite, mark of justice and eventual access to the eagle soul spell. am ordinarily equipping her sword and board but am not gonna deny that if you want the most offensive damage benefit from her you likely equip her with a two-handed weapon. *shrug* have only once gone the 2-h route and am not over concerned by the reduced damage output. there is a particular fantastic heavy shield available at the end o' act iv which we kinda want equipped on somebody and seelah is the obvious choice. more meta nonsense, eh? regardless, our seelah is never our best damage dealer, but she hits reliably which is why we feel good about giving her the leading strike mythic ability. am recalling you took reckless stance and inspire ferocity, which is good choices, but they do result in an ac penalty, so turn off the acceptance o' rage for at least the horse or other party tanks. HA! Good Fun! ps am suspicious o' the need for improved abundant casting but am getting the rationale from nerd. you definite wanna take heighten metamagic to fill aru's level 4 slots with instant enemy and abundant casting is only gonna double your casts o' up to level 3 spells. you wanna double level 4 casts o' heightened instant enemy? well then, you need improved abundant. kinda depends on your party and needs. we typical don't need aru's ranger bond bonuses for trash mobs. is boss battles and the few more difficult fights which matter. doubling level 3 slots is good enough, but the thing is, there ain't too many other mythic abilities we need for aru anyway. sure, she benefits much from mythic feats, but cleave and distracting are the must-have powers for aru and after that it is kinda a fight 'tween expose vulnerability, ranging shots, the bigger they are and the aforementioned casting abilities.

hmmm. arue chooses an additional "favoured" enemy every fifth level, which is why her two favoured enemies at level 9 is demons of magic (vrock, succubi, nabbasu, lilitu, as well as the wotr ultimate bad guy and others,) and humans. am having no idea what were your level 10 choice, but demons o' strength is what we would choose, and then at level 15 we would add demons o' slaughter. level 20 doesn't much matter, but at every fifth level you gotta decide which previous favoured enemy you wanna designate as deserving an additional +2 fave enemy bonus... and you should always choose to focus on demons o' magic 'cause o' the spell we mentioned earlier (instant enemy) which applies your highest fave enemy bonus to any target. by level 20 arue should have +10 against demons of magic, but she will also have four additional (less) favoured enemies each o' which is subject to +2 bonuses. regardless, the instant enemy spell means arue will have +10 v. __________. (edit: video added) this guy is a h007. the thing is, he had a few fantastic pillars of eternity observations which were quite perceptive. many o' his wotr builds don't appeal to us and more than a few o' his wotr suggestions has been invalidated by updates (for instance, mythic weapon finesse no longer applies to ranged weapons and loremaster no longer provides trickster mythic feats.) am posting nevertheless 'cause nerd commando does a fair job o' explaining the usefulness o' rangers bond as well as the opness o' the instant enemy spell. as an aside, specialization is virtual required in pathfinder and legacy d&d games. is a few ways to make viable jack of all trades builds, but as often as not you end up with a character mediocre at everything, and given wotr bloat for boss battles, mediocre is rare the right choice. HA! Good Fun!

looks brutal but at least you survived, and you didn't even use guarded hearth. is not much am able to divine from the screenie, but am recognizing deadly aim for arue as well as power attack for seelah is active. those modes may be toggled off if you so desire, and given attack penalties involved, if you are already experiencing difficulty hitting foes, you might consider disabling deadly aim, rapid shot, power attack and the like at least until you discover a combination of buffs and debuffs which allows you to proceed. if you open spellbooks for your casters you may see what is the difficulty class for each spell as well as the spell penetration for each level o' spells. those numbers is vital important for casters who is doing anything other than party buffs. spell resistance is an initial line o' defense, so even if your enemy has a literal negative will saving throw, if you cannot beat her spell resistance, your spell will be ineffective... unless it is a spell which ignores spell resistance. dc determines how high the number foes need roll to make a successful saving throw. spell resist check = 1d20 + caster level + spell penetration dc of a spell = 10 + spell level + ability modifier is ways to boost spell penetration, but unless you already know the methods to improve spell pen, wotr will punish your ignorance 'cause it does a sh!te job o' teaching. is items which aid in overcoming sr and well nigh essential feats which also improve spell penetration. dc is particular tough to boost w/o involved pathfinder/wotr knowledge. the most obvious way to buff dc o' spells is to increase the modifier o' your character's main casting attribute. sosiel, for example, relies on wisdom to generate dc. more wisdom (but only at even numbers *eye roll*) results in better dc values for spells cast. but how to increase an attribute such as wisdom is not so straightforward. is spells and items which enhance your attributes and the stacking rules for wotr makes it frustrating to figure out why two pieces o' gear or different alloy o' spells effective boost an attribute while other combinations fail. bloodlines for sorcerer, such as fey, often provide dc boosts. there is a feat which provides a dc boost for elves casting enchantment school spells. is a few classes and archetypes with features (overwhelming mage's overwhelming spell, arcanist potent magic, etc.) azata, in particular, has multiple mythic spells which boost both attributes and dc direct. aeons have a gaze which increases spell dc o' all party members. a court poet is able to buff party member intelligence and charisma scores with a bonus which will stack with almost every item linked attribute enhancement. etc. spell focus feats is functional essential for increasing spell dcs o' a caster, but that means that chances are you is only gonna have impressive spell dcs for one or two schools worth o' spells. we got a 19/1 cleric/crossblood sorcerer build which for sosiel and we choose evocation as his school for focusing and boosting dc's, but is not the right way to build sosiel as is other schools which make just as much sense for sosiel 'course if you use sosiel for his rather impressive late game combat prowess, domain powers and party buffs, then spell dc boosts is kinda immaterial. ... pathfinder is not intuitive and a few areas and boss battles is scaled poor... scaled not poor on unfair for players who know all exploits, but scaled poor for core and normal where folks who may not benefit from extensive pathfinder and wotr is likely to be playing the game. worse, folks who don't have intimate pathfinder knowledge is gonna be at a loss to ask the right questions, 'cause to the pathfinder novice, viewing the combat logs is providing few useful insights. is a couple areas in blackwater with combat challenges at least as difficult as what you just dealt with, so... let us know what you did which does and doesn't seem to be working and chances are we will make many not helpful observations... but maybe we get lucky. wouldn't be the first time we blundered our way into offering useful advice. HA! Good Fun!

even six months ago Gromnir woulda' waved off the possibility o' an overt biased district judge angling for a scotus appointment, but it is a brave new world. admitted the more likely scenario for judge cannon is that she takes a high paying fox news gig, but am getting tired of being wrong 'bout what is implausible... and keep in mind Gromnir is the guy constant chastising folks for pretending as if trump couldn't or wouldn't do the previously unimaginable. am recognizing how there is always gonna be a marjorie taylor greene or mark meadows... or worse. even so, the only positive we saw from the post 2020 election meltdown were that while traditions and norms meant nothing to elected officials and ordinary americans, federal judges were uniform and lock-step opposed to overt efforts to overthrow democracy, with the possible and noteworthy exception o' clarence thomas. regardless, we warned people time and time again that trump would set the republic on fire if he thought it were to his advantage, or if he believed he could get away with doing so while exacting vengeance 'pon those he deemed disloyal. we berated the naivety o' those who saw january 6 as some kinda proof american democracy had an would always stand firm and resolute. ... wake up knowing am daniel plainview, only to discover am eli sunday. fudge. HA! Good Fun!