Gromnir

lee is not richelieu in the the musketeers movie. charlton heston is the cardinal. lee played rochefort. that said, is no mention in the dumas novels o' a rochefort eye patch, though he does have a noticeable facial scar. another quirk, dumas hired teams o' writers to author his novels, so is perhaps no surprise rochefort's description in dumas' works changes a bit. at one point rochefort is described as a swarthy man. later he is identified as pale. as an aside, am thinking heston did a fantastic job as richelieu and is a bit o' an outlier for chuck as he ain't indulging his frequent shattneresque excess. HA! Good Fun!

two observations: 1) people who visit these kinda boards tend to be completionists 2) the skeleton merchant is an exception to your observation if you go through wotr w/o doing every quest, looting every barrel and stripping every corpse of every piece o' junk and copper ring, then is a fair chance you won't be rich and an equal good chance you won't find a decent weapon to fit your character concept. we mentioned to @Gorth how is literal only two endgame greatswords, and both is available via vendors... and one o' the vendors is only a possibility if you do a quest a certain way. a not completionist is gonna have far less gold and is also more likely to need buy at least a couple pieces o' equipment to have a viable endgame build. us board frequenters forget many wotr players is gonna be casual players and is ez to ignore just how different the game plays for sane people unwilling to spend many dozens o' hours on a crpg. also, the skeleton merchant has a few items which is best-in-slot. unfortunate, am having had a run during which he literal never appeared in act v, and another where he only appeared once. given how much bigger is the map in act v compared to act iii, am s'posing it should come as no shock that you never happen to be in the same place as the hidden merchant, particular as much o' your travel is likely gonna happen via teleportation circles as 'posed to overland travel, but still feels wrong. HA! Good Fun!

a few items we have already mentioned previous, but at least one has been patched and works different as 'o 9/7/2022 the stuff we mention isn't necessarily the objective best items, but they are powerful and their usefulness is ez overlooked. keep in mind, am not mentioning the act v relics... and a few o' those is kinda over-the-top on the power scale, but most is not subtle or having particular hidden benefits. HA! Good Fun!

creating overpowered weapons and gear. ... am not kidding. is possible that the main purpose o' diplomacy in wotr = weapon manufacture is some kinda too-subtle-for-Gromnir russian joke we ain't getting, but there you go. diplomacy crusade relic restoration events will include the following SPOILER list we did not check for accuracy: is a large number o' possibilities, and is ez to miss a few game-changers. if @InsaneCommander and @Gorthis interested in Gromnir's opinion as to what is a few o' the most silly overpowered items, we will highlight a few. if you would rather go with rule o' kewl, free o' taint o' some self appointed know-it-all and his thumbs up v. down or scale-from-one-to-ten silliness, that works too. regardless, and unless has changed recent, it will not be difficult to max your diplomacy crusade stat quicker than any o' the others. again, am not sure if such a clear difference 'tween diplomacy and the other stats is one o' those russian jokes Gromnir is incapable o' groking. HA! Good Fun!

1.5 months in the spring, and 1.5 months in the fall is pleasant. amusing, but in spite o' the grousing 'bout the sacramento heat, this has been the most comfortable summer in the past +5 years-- the usual ca wildfires is too far north or south to impact us direct this season. being able to open windows at night makes a huge difference. feels like a forgotten luxury to have fresh air and delta breezes on summer nights. able to go outdoors and breathe w/o it being hazardous to your health is atypical for recent mid-july through mid-september. have been riding our bike every AM, which we ain't been able to do regular during the summer for more than a few some years. this week in the valley is gonna average highs o' 110 and 'ccording to weather channel, our current location as o' 3:28 PM is 116 degrees F... and will probable go up a couple more degrees by 4:30. should start to get better saturday. even so, has been a relative nice summer, all thing considered. HA! Good Fun!

should still be 10. make 'em sooper durable as well as extreme cheap and capable o' high damage would be more than a little unfair. champions are relative cheap and they have the crit strike ability, but they are indeed glass cannons. is ez to purchase enough o' them in act iii to one-hit pretty much anything and you may acquire so many that is near impossible to wipe out their unit-- just heal 'em before combat ends. if you are concerned 'bout numbers, then irabeth reinforcements is a solution. for 7k gold, irabeth will bolster units which become champions and marksman... the clerics remain clerics, but hoping they show up random as mercs makes early purchase a sensible move. your cavalry move fastest o' the melee units (other than assassins) so hellknights is your best early tanks. tactics to make champions useful is no different than any other game with melee glass cannons. get behind the tank and then explode stuff from relative safety. in act v champions become a non factor, but so too does army management in general... at least if you got a bunch o' ranged units and a mage general. HA! Good Fun!

we got multiple saves from immediate preceding the mythic path choice near the end o' act ii. we don't even genuine need toybox or the like 'cause ordinary respec means after am done with act ii, am able to customize our character howsoever we wish, recognizing in-game respec won't change our mythic path, so we gotta play the bit o' drezen post mythic to get to respec w/o toybox. ... nevertheless, have played act i and act ii complete, multiple times, for no particular good reason. sure, a few things broken in the early releases were fixed and we wanted to see such changes, but the literal many hours o' gameplay invested to see such minor changes is unreasonable. when the enhanced edition is released, is unlikely we use our immediate pre-mythic saves and am near certain we begin act i, scene 1. unnecessarily replay act i and ii o' a game demanding dozens o' hours to complete is perhaps a bit less kewl than frank miller's leonidas and we can't even claim our stoopid is part o' some larger strategy. got nothing. HA! Good Fun!

HA! Good Fun!

disagree.... and kinda reversed as to importance. your act v kingdom management is much easier if you got all the premium buildings already constructed in drezen. if you build archery ranges and stables in every available outpost/bastion, that is gonna help too. no spoilers, but a player is gonna be more than a little disappointed if they build a sooper army in act iii. a single well-balanced level 10 army is more than enough to beat all comers. as noted, buildings allow for greater recruits numbers, but they also enhance units making 'em units more powerful, as well as increasing infirmary size and other army management factors. a particular building will even increase unit initiative through morale boosts, which is huge. develop one o' the mage generals. also, ranged is devastating, so make sure to recruit ranged and build archery ranges. marksmen were nerfed but they nevertheless remain mighty powerful. the three recruitable types we near invariably use is marksmen, hedge knights and champions... and the truth is champions become unnecessary later in the game, but early game is when army stuff may be more difficult. assassins is an upgradable unit and they is quite useful, but am finding we don't genuine need 'em by the time we got large numbers o' archers and cavalry, but assassins count as spell casters, so don't skimp on spellcaster lodges if you want assassins. for mercs, am finding hell knights is worth recruiting and so too is clerics. sorcerers is also a good choice. regardless, immediate discontinue investing in recruits and mercs once you have a strongish level 10 army. instead construct buildings and stockpile resources. following includes minor spoilers: @InsaneCommander is going azata, yes? unless has been nerfed, you eventual get access to a crusade spell which heals your army and damages foes at the end o' a turn. with a decent mage, this power will wipe screens o' foes. further rando advice: build a teleportation circle in drezen asap. alchemist laboratories may be built multiple times and if you go with a mage general, he/she will be doing great individual damage and healing. the general needs energy to do so... also look for crusade projects which potential increase general power. energy allows your general to cast spells and take actions more often. increase power boosts the damage o' your offensive abilities as well as making your heals more effective. in act iii you are gonna need master of maneuver I and II at the very least. don't skip on those general abilities when they become available. don't skimp when there is options to increase combat morale. your army morale caps, but combat morale may push beyond the cap and you may boost rather significant if you acquire all such options. high combat morale means your units have an increasing chance to attack 2x, up to 100% which is indeed possible. if crusade projects or choices become available which provide a bonus to combat morale, is a good idea to take 'em. is other stuff for army management, but is nowhere near as fragile and breakable as kingmaker kingdom management, which were frustration-level terrible and had hidden clocks running behind the scenes. HA! Good Fun!

@Gorth aside: if you are thinking o' switching weapons from greatsword to something else, we would recommend other higher crit range weapons, particular as you decided 'pon the trickster mythic, yes? the wintersun sword is a viable endgame weapon, but your other greatsword options is near non-existent. if you don't wanna go the exotic weapon route, falchion is a good choice as there is a few extreme useful falchion's in the game. wilcer garms (sp?) sells jinx, a +2 cold iron falchion with an excellent secondary property which involves a damage increase if the target is under the effect o' a hex. underrated weapon. there is also a holy weapon falchion potential available in act iii. you will find a few nice bardiche and glaives in the game as well. exotics? munchkin builds gravitate to fauchards and there is multiple options which is ez to find, including a drezen merchant selling one o' the two best fauchard's. there is powerful wotr scythes, but am admitting we can't bring our self to go the scythe route 'cause is such an utter impractical weapon. great axes? there are a few greataxes and earthbreakers which make it worth considering 'em in spite o' the typical craptacular crit range. in fact, there is a greataxe available in act iii which provides a crit range o' 18-20, so your trickster barbarian should have no complaints. all our suggestions is 2h weapons. but again, once you acquire the wintersun greatsword, is only one more option in the base game which maybe deserves a second glance other than finnean. HA! Good Fun! ps greybor is essential for an act iii quest which we believe is impossible to miss. the title o' the companion quest makes obvious why he is in your party even if you forget the details. talk to the dwarf in the half measure tavern soonish. btw, slayer is a great base class and greybor only has one or two headscratcher feats in his ten levels o' progression, so am calling that a win from our pov. dwarven war axes suck in wotr. personal recommendation: switch to some other dual wield weapon and go full slayer progression w/o any multi-class dips. is just too late to pick up an animal companion, so am thinking greybor is not in your party much save essential quests as he is preternatural slow with his dwarven legs and medium armour. nevertheless, is relative ez to build a useful greybor for those quests you need him.

the greatswords in wotr are not... not great that is, at least not for the most part. is two available to you at this point in the game worth considering, beyond the talking weapon, which does have the capacity to be upgraded and is arguable one o' the better weapons in the game, particular against a number o' foes which rely on high armour. chances are finnean is a solid late game weapon for at least one member o' your party regardless o' what your main character decides to use. other greatswords: there is an overland map called the ruins of ashberry hamlet, or something similar. we won't spoil but there is an alright greatsword reward. technically the encounter were available pre drezen assault, or at least it were. is a noteworthy difficult encounter. the wintersun location will also yield a greatsword... maybe. depending on how you complete wintersun, you should be able to access a vendor who will then sell you arguably one o' the best not-finnean greatswords in the base game. is possible to miss the wintersun greatsword, which is a shame if you is a greatsword haver and you don't wanna indulge spoilers. there is another act iii greatsword which is... odd. has variable bonuses, some o' which is kinda unique and for specific builds it could be the best greatsword in the game, particular if you are doing a gish (fighter/mage) kinda build. more unsolicited advice, 'cause is ez to overlook and failure to do so may bork your act iii crusade endeavors, HA! Good Fun!

am actual a david lynch fan, but is our opinion that none of his movies or tv shows is all that fantastic. is some ok lynch stuff we enjoyed, but nothing which is gonna make a top 25 or 50... or even 100. dune is a hot mess at best, but that is ok. elephant man is the most conventional lynch and is likely what we would describe as his best effort though counter-intuitive it is not our favorite lynch work. is david lynch who is quirky and kinda kewl, but even his best stuff is tending to be big on concept and kinda hit-or-miss on execution. from our pov, is nothing particular groundbreaking 'bout lynch films, but the guy is a different cat and am ordinarily willing to watch his movies and shows 'cause even if being different don't equal being good, the uniqueness makes the time we spent on the viewing worth the indulgence. am now gonna listen to some everly brothers. HA! Good Fun! ps our favorite lynch is mulholland drive, but we got more than a few criticisms o' the film and am thinking the second half o' the film undermines much o' what were done well in the first half.

the triggers for elemental barrage don't follow real world logic but rather programming logic. there is a 1st level druid/hunter/ranger spell called acid maw. cast the spell and your animal companion's bite attack does acid damage. the spell isn't ordinarily all that useful but the thing is, when the caster's animal companion bites while under the influence o' acid maw, it counts as a caster elemental attack and is gonna trigger elemental barrage. the firebrand spell works similar but is higher level. there is also a familiar/item/critter which may be equipped. the little beastie does random 1d4 elemental damage per round, but for the purposes o' a proc for elemental barrage, it ain't the mini-beastie doing the damage, but the character who is equipping it in an item slot. is a few such examples in the game and don't assume that such features need make sense for you to benefit from an elemental damage proc. HA! Good Fun!

well, feyspeaker appears to finally be working as designed. the archetype gets all the best illusion spells except weird... but with one level o' loremaster we add weird too. the shadow spells is now working with both ascendent element and the elemental bloodline: water which transforms all elemental damage spells into cold, and while there is more fire kinda gear in the game, a druid may wield the shield which boosts cold damage by 1 per die. so with cross blood and second bloodline mythic am getting the +4 per die bonus damage treatment, which is nice 'cause the shadow evocation hellfire rays hit hard... although there is not a good way to add arcane trickster for obscene sneak attack damage. animal companions is a class feature for druids and we have a fair amount o' skill points. feyspeaker is a charisma-based caster so am having fantastic persuasion. pickpocket is the obvious background for the initiative boost, so am also able to put points into stealth, trickery or both. don't need have daeran or camellia around to cast creeping doom if we wanna cheese playful darkness with that approach, though we prefer fear lock through intimidation. get high will and fort saves and decent ab. etc. that said, is by no means some kinda world wrecker build, but a high charisma gnome feyspeaker (likely azata) is one o' those good-at-many-things options which is appealing to us... and is also kinda ridiculous. the downside is we already played wotr as a blaster sorc, so the feyspeaker is maybe not different enough to be worth the effort. sure, am knowing from building nenio to exploit phantasmal killer and the like just how powerful is many wotr illusion spells, but am already able to add nenio to a party. is just not much from the feyspeaker which we ain't done similar already. regardless, our next full run will be post enhanced edition, so we got time to decide. HA! Good Fun!

1) if enemies are respawning, such is a new drezen feature. as long as you do not count rando overland maps as respawn, the number o' locations in the game where respawn happens is extreme limited and am not thinking drezen boasts any such areas. or at least such were not the case previous. 2) beware resting speaking o' the game not holding your hand, 'cause you rest different through camp supplies in drezen as 'posed to the overland map or your crusade camp, you will not be able to view your proximity-to-the-worldwound corruption metre following each rest while retaking the city. at some point, if you rest too frequent, you will receive the rather significant corruption penalties... and am unable to tell you how often is too often. or perhaps is a non-issue on lower difficulties. honest don't know, but at least on hard difficulty, we got a small surprise on our first run when we realized how resting following a sub-boss fight, while much o' functional drezen maps were ahead o' us, we were already taking corruption. rested maybe twice up until that point? is also possible this aspect has been addressed via a patch but we never saw mention. until you find the sword o' valor and are able to sanctify a rest area (behind the scenes we s'pose) you are probable gonna suffer corruption accumulation w/o any way to dissipate. good luck, crusader. HA! Good Fun!

am gonna admit the absence o' a small pool o' melted butter around the corn makes it look alien to us. HA! Good Fun!

endgame desolating gallu stormcallers are frustration-level tough. however, in spite of having wings, they is inexplicable subject to being knocked or rendered prone. is a number o' tactics which should not work 'gainst threshold gallu which nevertheless do. am recalling first time at threshold using battering blast and being surprised at the gallu falling prone after being hit. able to prone 'em makes a huge difference for us. our recollection is their reflex saves is their worst defense, so... HA! Good Fun!

kinda amusing 'cause am recalling we thought his american accent were pretty good when we first saw him on umbrella academy after having seen him play billy bones on black sails. first impressions and all that, eh? HA! Good Fun!

seeming godly indifference to demon and cultist perversions in the areas surrounding the worldwound incursion is addressed at one point in the game. could miss if you race-click through stuff, but is near start o' act v, and is an impossible dialogue to miss. HA! Good Fun!

intimidator sosiel + selective siroccos put a serious cramp in the rogue cultist's style. have intimidator sosiel spam thug-enhanced dazzling displays and since you no doubt already know exact where the cultists are having had to suffer enigma previous, is simple a matter o' how much boredom you are willing to endure to clear a room o' the cultists as when they run away from sosiel. the cultists may avoid the sirocco or similar spell as they run in terror, but they eventual find their way back and are likely prone'd by the spell but most assured affeared... 'cause intimidation actual scales very nice on unfair. admitted, we use a bit o' additional cheese and put an icey body velociraptor (umd makes so we may cast on the raptor) out front as kinda a staked goat to lure out the nogoodniks. the raptor, under the influence o' icey body, is immune to crits but if it were to die it is auto resurrected on raised from dead on rest. one o' the utility scrolls we always have a couple extras o' is icey body 'cause o' the immunity to stuns it provides. facing the mythic carnivorous crystal and the like becomes less frustrating with a few party members immune to the stun aoes. ... 'course if we have sosiel take one level o' crossblood sorc, then it means we need have another companion or our player character do the intimidation thing. HA! Good Fun! ps we will say unfair is a punishing slog, which is why we have never done a complete unfair run and am expecting we never complete such a game. have fought most bosses unfair... admitted not the foes only available to demon or trickster, and we has completed a number o' the more annoying encounters on unfair, but an entire game?

we rare give lann anything other than a raptor animal companion, but that is in part 'cause we don't care 'bout mounted combat for lann. in our opinion, there is too many feats required for lann to be a snapshot archer, so we keep him at ranged distances and embiggen him as much as possible. as a zenn archer using wisdom for ab, the dex penalties for a few enlargement spells don't handicap him in a meaningful way, so we don't need a mountable animal companion in the mongrel's case. raptor is a particularly good choice for hunter's divine hunter archetype, but leopard is also a good choice. leopard is also nice 'cause if you provide it with the mobility skill, and you should, your party is unlikely to fail mobility skill checks... though dialogue skill checks has previous ignored animal companions. with the new patch, am serious contemplating choosing elk instead o' dog/wolf for characters such as sosiel and seelah. unless you wanna sacrifice a level into sorc (sylvan,) oracle (nature mystery,) sacred huntsmaster or the like, seelah gets the horse as a paladin, which is meh for much o' the game and doesn't benefit from trips, but it has a unique model which allows it to be enlarged with legendary proportions so that an embiggen'd seelah may ride her pony into battle. that said, trip is an extreme powerful attribute for an animal companion and if animal companions ever may reliable take the tandem trip teamwork feat, a party full o' trip capable critters is devastating. HA! Good Fun!

apologies for double post, but for @Gorth in particular, we previous posted recommendations on building a raptor animal companion which is gonna be equal applicable to a not-celestial variety IF you go the azata route, then you may possible skip a couple o' the teamwork feats mentioned 'cause your main character will get 'em free and then apply to all party members, including animal companions. we recommend take outflank for virtual all party members regardless o' epic path 'cause you do not wanna delay outflank as is functional most useful at lower levels-- you want to have outflank before you could acquire through lifebonding friendship, but am recognizing such might not be the best feat economy. two more functional free feats makes the recent mentioned dazzling display + shattered defenses a viable addition. 'course you are unlikely to be using dazzling display for the raptor, but shattered defenses rendering foes flat-footed is tough to ignore. also, daredevil is a better critter archetype than aggressor if you want more tanky. ... more unsolicited recommendations. feel free to ignore or modify. HA! Good Fun! ps even w/o celestial, is worth at least considering umd for a raptor. the benefits o' being able to cast personal protection spells should not be undervalued. need only equip a charisma boosting headpiece for a moment to likely attain necessary umd numbers to add stuff such as winds of vengeance, frightful aspect, icey/fiery body, sacred nimbus, divine power, lead blades, foresight, transformation, aspect of the wolf, etc.

was planning on selling our rental properties in may, but things got complicated (understatement) and am now kinda committed to keep the extra houses at least another year and possibly up to three. with the depreciation break we get every year, am effective not paying any taxes, and as the real estate sales market has cooled substantial already, it don't make sense to unload properties today. worse, am knowing if we do have any kinda even moderate recession, am gonna be itching to buy more property when values inevitable drop a bit. gonna need suppress such greed-based urges. literally never even had to advertise before we had multiple requests/applications for our remaining rental property. am honest sympathizing with prospective renters as rents are insane and getting worse. 'cause we weren't asking for crazy money, we had people offering us near-rumpelstiltskin kinda deals. on the bright side, one o' our new tenants is a plumber/hvac guy who comes highly recommended by a few o' the local real estate agents who use his services. plumber and hvac? serious? our tenant (technical not taking possession 'til next week) did a job for us today and we saved more than ~$3000 compared to next best bid for a not particular big job. not a particular huge job. $1100 v. $4250? 'course we figure we got a sooper special price on the work 'cause the tenant were trying to convince us to rent to him, so is not as if every future job we send his way will be so inexpensive, but am nevertheless pleased... maybe even feeling a bit smug... which 'course means the universe will now need punish us in some gothic/poetic manner. HA! Good Fun!

agree. shattered defense is one o' those combat feats we like for every combatant to have, but dazzling display itself becomes kinda useless and the mythic shortening o' dazzling display becomes nigh meaningless 'cause o' the inevitability o' frightful aspect which is gonna be active w/o a combat action required to trigger... unless you go the next step and build a thug intimidator. am admitted having an outlook the opposite o' @InsaneCommander'cause for us, our entire party build philosophy is boss fight dependent. is hundreds and perhaps thousands o' viable approaches to rollstomping mobs, but is the bosses which requires the stoopid investiture o' strategies to overcome dc, ac or sr thresholds which represents the kinda chokepoints for useful builds, particularly as difficulty increases. is disappointing, but as game difficulty increases, the more likely @majestic's party is gonna have similarities to Gromnir's, particular if am using same epic path for a main character. as an aside, inquisitors and dirge bards make for over-the-top intimidator main characters. we keep telling self how one o' these days am gonna do a full dirge bard run, but the problem for us is the overlap of bards with skald and as 'tween having a bard or a skald in our party, am far more likely to choose skald. when building a skald it is difficult to not do a full 20 levels 'cause o' one o' the better capstone abilities in wotr is the skald's. so, every time we initial consider a dirge bard intimidator, we end up thinking how much more useful is a skald and so maybe a legend skald... which is decided not a dirge bard. annoying. HA! Good Fun!

HA! Good Fun! ps we keep mentioning how not a biden fan is Gromnir. however, is few things any recent President has said with which we agreed so unequivocal... and yet is more than passing curious how in 2022 a US President had to answer such a question the way he did not the mention the heretofore improbable pushback biden receives for making such observations. water is wet. not controversial. hardly praiseworthy. brave new world territory.