Gromnir

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!

am knowing this is all wrapped up in legal jargon, but am curiously shocked. we didn't believe cannon would so overt show bias for trump after the smackdown she received from the 11th circuit court o' appeals. boy were Gromnir wrong. now admitted the main issue o' the doj being able to investigate and hold onto classified, secret and top secret documents is beyond her reach, but am hard pressed to recall a federal judge so obvious showing bias for a plaintiff in a civil action. cannon granted trump a sought for delay as well as allowing trump to functional tell judge dearie, the special master, to go screw himself on all o' the judge' requests thus far. ... again, we don't have any legal explanation for this ruling (same as her previous effort) so our only practical explanation involves political bias where judge cannon recognizes she literal cannot rule against trump interests if she ever wishes for a future gop appointment to either ag position or appellate bench. no democrat administration were ever gonna pick her for anything anyways, so she needs the good will o' gop leadership if she wishes to ascend politically, but this is so not the way it is s'posed to work and have never seen such blatant preferential treatment from a fed judge, particular following the chastisement she already suffered at the hands o' a unanimous 11th circuit. this is genuine unchartered territory for us. hic sunt dracones. *shrug*

"The final image, taken some 4 miles away from the asteroid and just one second before impact, is noticeably incomplete, with much of the screen blacked out. NASA says DART's impact occurred during the time when that image was being transmitted to Earth, resulting in a partial picture." now for some perspective, to get even the most vague sense o' galactic scale proportions, the speed of light is 186,000 miles per second. other than the sun, the nearest star in our galaxy to earth is more than four light years distant. is literal impossible for Gromnir to meaningful imagine such distances. we can solve for 10 to the nth power, but we got no foundation for grappling with the distances involved. HA! Good Fun!

at the risk o' failing the dreaded double-post faux pas, am gonna observe how after @Gorthmentioned his travails, we went back and played a considerable portion o' blackwater with a level 13 party on hard difficulty as well as core. maybe difficult to believe, but blackwater foes has been nerfed since the initial release. you may probable imagine how furious were fans with the imposi-hard blackwater at release. even so, on core, the sr and ac for blackwater foes is current a significant increase compared to any other similar placed act iii content. virtual every door opened in blackwater results in the equivalent o' a quasi boss encounter. one BIG suggestion we forgot to add earlier were the spamming glitterdust. the conjuration spell is second level, ignores sr and requires a will save. results in the blinded debuff on a failed save. blackwater foes have terrible will saves and blinded diminishes ac by 2, reveals the frequent invisible foes and robs enemies o' their dex bonus to ac. can be a huge difference maker for a cheap spell which may be heightened. keep in mind other lower level conjuration and druid transmutation spells which ignore sr such as web and entangle. such spells is best if modified with the selective metamagic feat, but even w/o select, if you are careful you should be able to make use o' those sorta spells. nenio's phantasmal web will be impacted by sr, but she should be able to overcome most sr with gear and both o' the spell penetration feats. is another fantastic crowd control spell. regardless, do not overlook glitterdust. ... and one other consideration: you do not need to fight the demons in the circular lava room in the circular lava room. what we mean is that you may lure 'em back through the doors you spent so much effort opening. fight 'em at a doorway is often a decent alternative. HA! Good Fun! ps am not certain how you built your court poet, but azata bards is extreme viable as enchantment casters. best jokes power combined with the azata spells which boost mind effects dc and the gear we mentioned earlier is another way to virtual sleepwalk your way through blackwater.

so now you wanna be a peacemaker? okie dokie... 'cause your suggestion that o' all people Gromnir is passive aggressive were meant in a positive and constructive manner? *chuckle* but yeah, if you wanna take your funny to pm, knock yourself out 'cause has clear gone so far off-topic that a mod would typical put a stop to such... (and no doubt will momentarily) save that as usual when Gromnir gets into one o' these kerfuffle with a mod there is a different standard applied. go figure. heck, the only reason for you not sending us your most recent plea via pm following or suggestion is for some reason *snort* you wanted to do your response on the boards. fine. now that we are all square with the public posturing we can make an end o' it, yes? everybody got their chance have one last stab at the dead horse? passive aggressive indeed. @majestic the animal companion thing has been (kinda) that way for a considerable period o' time, though there were a one level hiccup... and is still a little weird. our aeon, which we started many months previous, at level 20 had a level 18 dog... which were weird 'cause we were a sanctified slayer 16 (animal domain,) 3 demonslayer, 1 monk. as o' today the dog is level 17. no biggie. when trip were added to stuff such as boar, we did respec to 16 sanctified slayer, 2 gendarme, 1 monk, 1 demonslayer. the boar companion is level 20 as o' today. ... whatever. still haven't experimented to see if elk and leopard attack numbers were fixed. am suspecting this post is pruned, so we will repost the animal companion observations if need be. HA! Good Fun! ps edit: in case it were not obvious, with both o' the inquisitor animal companion builds we mentioned in this post we took the boon companion feat

am embarrassed to admit, but whenever we think o' kissinger post venture brothers, it is dr. henry killinger and his magical murder bag which first comes to mind. HA! Good Fun!

HA! is just one reason why we never take you serious. take a look in the mirror with the passive aggressive silliness... is nothing passive 'bout us, but you take to cartoon levels o' silly at times when you feel offended. and keep in mind you are the one who got on her high horse and started throwing around the personal attacks. so, feel free to go back to photo modding every other game evar while simultaneous pretending surprise and indignation when @majesticsuggests you like photo mode features. *insert eye roll* wanna do personal in the future? take to private. sheesh. ... am feeling sheeepish mentioning, but the prone condition, while providing a penalty to the ac o' the victim insofar as melee attacks, gains a bonus to ranged. HA! Good Fun! ps (edit) @Gorth we did reload a level 13 party (aeon dual wielding inquisitor) and the mind fog + greater command: halt works exceeding well in blackwater. the one hurdle is sr of foes. you should have spell penetration and greater spell penetration on your main spell casters, but is possible you went more melee for sosiel. if so, be sure to use his luck domain powha if you are not cheesing the fortune hex exploit as the extra rolls to overcome sr will be a big help. on the positive side, selective and heightened grease is gonna ignore sr regardless, but then obvious you are not able to take advantage o' the sucky will save aspects o' foes. maybe if you take shadow conjuration as one o' your level 7 spells for nenio... if you went full illusionist for her, you should beat reflex saves o' the tougher blackwater enemies. the dc for her shadow conjuration: grease is gonna be based on nenio's illusion school dcs and is possible to have better than 30 dc for level seven illusion spells at level 13.

level 13? try dropping a mind fog on the augments and then have sosiel cast greater command: halt. should effective render most/all foes in the room ineffective for thirteen rounds. kill the baddies one at a time with finnean + an adamantine weapon. HA! Good Fun! ps if you killed blightmaw, it dropped a ring which boosts enchantment spell dc by +2. the jeweler in drezen sells the amulet of clarity which boosts the dc o' mind affecting spells by +2. dazzling display, even w/o a thug to cause fear, will result in shaken debuff which further lowers will saves by -2. pps @Gorth am recalling you already completed the ivory sanctum, so you shoulda' picked up one o' the best items in wotr: the quarter staff of the war mage. grants +4 for caster level to overcome sr and adds +2 to the dc o' spells cast.

ah, so @majesticwere wrong 'cause he didn't account for the fact lc is a true auteur o' photo mode. for a connoisseur o' in-game image captcha, wotr is so obvious inferior raw material and it is borderline insulting to suggest lc would be intrigued by a wotr-specific photo mode feature. ... works better as a joke as 'posed to serious. we noticed the leopard were also suffering busted # of attacks similar but not same as does the elk. am suspecting any critter which gains trip and has multiple different types o' attacks is suffering a bug. elk has hooves and gore, but only a single gore attack registers regardless o' level. we created a leopard and it only benefitted from a single bite attack no matter the level, but it also gained two claws... so not exact same as elk. in spite o' the lack o' new features, am suspecting is gonna be a bunch o' new stuff busted in wotr tomorrow. as an aside, am aware from the interweb the new dlc may be accessed in act iii, but neither @InsaneCommanderor @Gorthhas mentioned, so am s'posing is only available late act iii. am only wondering 'cause in spite o' Gromnir tendency to start a new game with each iteration o' fresh content, it don't appear as if much material has been added previous to act v, with the exception o' the dlc. am kinda thinking our next wotr happens with a pre existing character somewhere in act iii. as for blackwater tips 1) enemies is vulnerable to electricity. electricity not only does considerable damage but it interferes with augment's regeneration... or at least it should. 2) blackwater enemies, for the most part, have poor will saves. unfortunately they have good fortitude saves so phantasmal killer is less likely to work. however, if you got sosiel in the party, do not hesitate to use greater command frequent, preferable with mind fog active. 3) finnean is a hot knife v. butter for blackwater. finnean is gonna ignore most o' the augment's armour. give finnean to your heaviest hitter and he will destroy blackwater foes. 4) adamantine weapons interfere with augment's regeneration and bypasses dr. greybor's hand axe and soul shear is adamantine. as for the not obvious buff spells for bab (prayer, heroism, divine power, etc.) other than "use finnean," most tips we got will be useable beyond blackwater. selective spell o' grease (heightened is preferred) and scirocco is gonna be huge benefits, 'cause prone foes not only cannot attack you while prone, but they take a significant ac penalty as well as presenting you with attack of opportunity... opportunities? animal companions with trip is also winners. if you are having problems, the fortune hex exploit is a serious benefit. ember or camellia with fortune and cackle means you may have all your combatants benefit from two d20 rolls for each attack. what level are you currently? edit: am asking 'bout level 'cause it sucks to get advice which is one or two levels away from being useful. HA! Good Fun! ps --possible obvious, but maybe not, size bonuses to strength or dex stack with enhancements, so reduce person will improve archer or finesse wielder chances to hit, but unfortunately it will reduce damage of weapons used. make characters and animal companions larger will add a size bonus to strength... and big weapons do more damage too. --also, the madness domain is an option, particular when facing foes who deal pure physical damage from weapons or natural attacks. --try and cast bless weapon on as many weapon havers as possible. bless weapon is a low level spell but it guarantees a successful crit check. -- don't forget animal companions may coup de grâce

yeah, am guessing the lack o' boyband protags and high-heeled bewb maidens with oversized weapons were too much o' a hurdle after all... the wotr aesthetic is the problem as 'posed to the feature itself. it is the "fugly" quality o' wotr which doth offend. that said, image #3 is most certain what many want. if today were in fact the late seventies or early eighties, those weird additions to image #3 would be puffy stickers affixed to a denim 3-ring binder or a trapper keeper. but in the 80s it were mostly junior high kids indulging in this kinda need to share a favorite image... and then affix decals. am not sure if photo mode is progress, but nobody is getting hurt, so no biggie, eh? in any event, based on past experience and the lack o' new features forthcoming for the enhanced edition, am highly recommending that if you and @Gorthhave any plans to respec characters, do it now before the enhanced edition update. large updates tend to interfere with respec and they most certain cripple mods if you are using such. whatever is your build situation today could be your builds for the near future. then again, maybe this time respec is unaffected... but am always erring on the side o' caution. HA! Good Fun!

personally, am thinking you called this one correct. even in the absence o' boyband refugee protagonists and high-heeled bewb maidens wielding two-meter swords, the wotr photo mode is exact the kinda thing lc would indulge. HA! Good Fun! ps we got nothing against photo mode. is obvious a portion o' fans who like this sorta thing and if owlcat is able to give fans what they want, so much the better. that said, other than sketchy details 'bout more mythic path interactivity (albeit only in act v) for mythic paths excepting gold dragon is one o' the only announced enhancements from the enhanced edition am even kinda curious regarding, and am expecting there will be only minor mythic improvements given the current gold dragon were deemed good enough and not requiring additional content. is a handful o' quality o' life upgrades which don't look all that significant. hopeful the patch addresses a few lingering bugs o' note, and if the combat log works as designed it will be a welcome addition, but is looking more like an enhanced edition from our pov 'cause unlike lc and those many fans like her, a photo mode feature has little personal appeal.

shield, force armour, force punch, blade barrier, battering blast and magic missile is off the top o' our head, but is an admitted short list. pathfinder has knockoffs o' the bigby hand spells which would be nice additions, and telekinetic storm would provide a nice aoe "spell" although am thinking that one is psychic only. am suspecting force immunity for bosses is resulting from blade barrier exploits utilized ad nauseum in kingmaker. just a guess. HA! Good Fun! ps insofar as general rays/missiles/bolts, pathfinder doesn't boast a huge list beyond what is already in wotr. dreadbolt? gloomblind bolt? spear of purity? am doubting most people anguish over the absence o' the aforementioned. that said, it does kinda suck that if you are focused on rays in particular and you got moral questions 'bout spamming hellfire rays. spend feats on weapon focus and crit and for what? your options is extreme limited. scorching and polar? frost, enfeeblement, enervation, exhaustion? is all 'bout hellfire and would be nice if there were less infernal spells capable o' filling out your list a bit.

look on the bright side. even if such spells had been added, owlcat woulda' made most o' the bosses immune to 'em anyway. edit: alchemists and their force bombs is devastating in wotr, but the developers went outta their way make certain that in most boss battles your force spells would be ineffectual. HA! Good Fun!

part o' the problem owlcat has is that pathfinder is built so as to favour the armourless at higher levels. worse, owlcat added stuff such as archmage armour and their own wonky interpretation o' various pnp rules to make armour even less necessary... and then they implemented mounted combat in such a way that armour became even less essential for even classes ordinarily relying on heavy armour. anybody else think it is unlikely owlcat has had an epiphany 'bout balance which has 'em sudden embracing josh sawyer as their new guiding light for design philosophy? owlcat will do what they always does, and what their fans want: they will add more sooper powers. doing so will result in new exploits and a handful o' ultrapowerful armoured builds, but am suspecting fans will be largely satisfied. HA! Good Fun!

'course this kinda thing also makes obvious how kp wailing 'bout broken bosses on an unfair run is nonsense. if you know the exploits, every boss fight ends in a couple rounds o' anti-climax 'cause you got a party o' well-prepared sooper characters with ideal gear and buffs. is also noteworthy how is possible to build sooper builds for all o' the mythics, and the gold dragon is unlikely to represent the most exploitive as is relative straightforward compared to the other broken arse mythics. can build azata casters with dcs in the +60 range and demon cavaliers doing +40k in a round. owlcat made no effort to balance and the exploits is just plain stoopid, but you shouldn't need play that way on core and normal. @xzar_montythe gargoyle cave is one o' the more annoying encounters am recalling from our initial beta runs... before we knew every loophole and had seen that particular battle a few times so we were aware we had to position our party kinda backwards and what spells the gargoyle clerics would cast and who they would target. were a serious "wtf" kinda battle. sure, the tavern defense were a slog, but we were not the least bit prepared for just how many waves o' foes we weould need to face in the gargoyle cave. were other frustrating battles. am recalling the single succubus and her enthralled minions in kenabres were also unpleasant... and the lone shadow demon in the basement which were unnecessarily difficult 'cause it were bugged and immune to a whole lotta damage to which it shoulda been vulnerable. playful darkness were providing unnecessary shock value. post act iii, the game became much easier, but for us the main reason for that is 'cause we had played the beta to death and we already knew what powers and abilities were well nigh essential. wotr is designed to appeal to hardcore players and to punish everybody else. am not sure how that works, but sales have been good, so... HA! Good Fun!

one o' the more easily overlooked army campaign spells is good hope. is something wonky 'bout the math but am receiving more combat morale benefit than we should from good hope. wasn't until recent you could view your unit morale, so were difficult to gauge the impact o' combat morale, but being able to have units act 2x is a huge advantage. build monuments everywhere and cast good hope will, in act v, result in guaranteed double actions by your units. take a few o' those crusade enhancements such as the one you mention and good hope becomes unnecessary. HA! Good Fun!

it is not at all busted in owlcat's wotr which includes every bit of cheese no living gamemaster would allow including owlcat mythic paths which is nothing like pathfinder. compare to pnp is not reasonable, particular when is ez to achieve +130 ac for your characters as well as +115 ab. is particular not busted as you were playing unfair. is right in the freaking name. again, the problem is how owlcat scales down. 115 bare deserves a shrug from Gromnir as long as we can prepare a level 20 party, but for somebody who did not literal spend hundreds o' hours on the beta and maybe only picked up wotr 'cause they kinda like crpgs, a normal or core run is gonna be unforgiving. on core, inevitable darkness has more than 90 ac. 115 doesn't shock or surprise us and poses no real problems as inevitable, much like playful, is a straight up melee combatant. in fact, inevitable is easier than playful darkness 'cause you fight inevitable at level 20 and mythic level 10. as such, inevitable is not broken at all 'cause it bare results in a meaningful challenge for a prepared player who knows every exploit. you don't have access to creeping doom? well, too bad for you. playful is much more difficult encounter 'cause is fewer options for overcoming such an obstacle at level 14ish and mythic rank 4. swarms are annoying, but there is a ring which makes things a whole lot easier... keep in mind for later. bane of spirit don't likely sound as if it is a swarm killer item, but your barbarian's weapon damage would affect swarms while the ring is activated. as such it is possible and not the least bit intuitive to make short work o' the swarms with a weapon-haver. also, while demonic swarms is immune to a whole lotta physical damage, those swarms are curious weak to unholy damage, so those six-per-day uses o' the devouring lust rod is a playing field leveler. cast your aoe elemental spells with the rod and watch swarms evaporate. HA! Good Fun! ps the secret of secrets encounter is unlikely to be stumbled on by accident but may be completed in act iii spoiler (am serious, this is a spoiler, so am suggesting not viewing until you finish act iii): is not an ez encounter if you have difficulty dealing with swarms.

had the original shorty long version on 45 'cause am old. HA! Good Fun!