Infares

Black Path is centered on the Paladin as well. For the build I'm using that's not much of an issue, because it has high Int, Mig, and Dex to empower the casting of damage/healing scroll spells, as well as go for fast, strong killing blows with weapons. High Int synergizes especially well because it will affect all of: activated buff duration passive last-hit effect(s) radius and duration aura radius scroll spell radius/cone/duration Black Path has a 7.5m radius when starting 18 Int. Massive by PoE radius standards. A position just behind the front line works best, in that both auras and last-hit procs will project toward either side of the battle, while the Paladin focuses on killing blows. My Bleaker will probably hover around the front line with an Estoc most of the time, and use reach/ranged/scrolls in trickier situations. I'm digging how the standardized attribute system enables these types of off-beat builds, which, if not optimal, are at least viable and fun. A semi-tanky Death Knight caster ganksman with a slew of freebie on-kill support effects? Yes! My own buffer/DPS paladin will likely segue into Estoc after he gets a few more levels of Benevolent/Passionate and can effectively offtank from Faith and Conviction alone without needing a shield. 2/2 or 3/3 will probably be best, here. But yeah, keeping a pike or quarterstaff on hand at all times is a given. I kinda wish they had enough reach to actually cleanly attack over the shoulders of tanks standing in a door, but sadly that's not really the case, so when choking I tend to have him switch to a bow and hang back a couple more feet so the pike chanter can still get his hits in. Although, I haven't really experimented with engaging enemies with my tanks and then moving the tanks in closer, because melee range might be farther than actual hit box contact, that might allow reachers to jab the front line of enemies over the shoulder even if both tanks and both reachers are standing in a narrow doorway.

Side note, I generally only see this phrase used in debates with Creationists/Theists, lmao

Dude, the solo RPG novels back in the '80s were the best **** ever.

I don't think we're talking about the same thing. The 'gold' background NPCs have a 'reach for soul' option that gives you a wall of flavor text (which is indeed well written), and nothing else. Unless you're attacking said NPCs, which is a different story. Depends on how you define "attack". It's more like a stern request for assistance to me.

Only the stats of the main character are used in conversations, though some of the NPC Companions you find in the world do alter the flow of conversations situationally.

I went with the following: Barbarian Retaliate Tank (Fire Godlike) Dump dex, max Might. I gave him some Perception and Resolve, though he doesn't have a shield. Idea is to keep him getting grazed but not critted. He rarely drops below 50% unless he's getting hammered and I don't begrudge his extra resilience, keeps him with fuller health) Currently wielding Azureith's Stiletto without a shield. He actually wrecks noobs for a tank. Chanter Tank (Wild Orlan) Maxed Perception, Intellect, and Resolve. Dex dump stat, dropped some Might to add filler points to Con) Druid (Aumaua) Max Might, Dex, Int. Reduce Con, Per, Res so all non-deflection defenses are the same. (Eyeball it) Priest of Magran (Wood Elf, Arquebus) See Druid for stat spread Wizard (Wood Elf again, Implements/Blast) Dumped Con and Resolve. Maxed Mig/Int/Dex, Filler points into Perception. High interrupt build. Spell loadout mostly debuffs with strong AoE damage. Cipher (Wood elf, PC) See druid for stat spread. War Bow.

Are the on-kill procs for Paladins' affected areas still centered around the Paladin or are they centered around the kill event that procced it? I was a little disappointed that The Sword And The Shepherd worked like that, made it hard to maintain 4m from the enemies (for Wood Elf Accuracy boost) and remain within range of my front line so they could benefit properly from the heal.

There are two other gold NPCs you can kill without any issue, the two guys standing by themselves at Madhmr Bridge. The two that are standing together give you negative rep, though.

Also, if you spare the Dwarf in the Tavern during the grain quest involving the windmill, you can go back and kill him and his two cronies without penalty once you hand the quest in and they have 3 matching shirts you can take.

Okay I was wrong, "Animat" is something you summon with the horn thingy, so it's probably just NPC armor.

That's Druid Spiritshift armor. You get it for a max of 12 seconds per encounter. I just checked, and it's actually just DR 10. Not sure how to get DR 12 out of it.

Keep in mind, you're not going to get the same performance out of FoA in a six monk party than you would with proper accuracy buffs and defense debuffs in a "real party™"

It also counts as a melee attack for purposes of proccing Draining and the barbarian ability, One Stands Alone, though I think these interactions may not be intended. The big problem is most likely OSA's flat 20 damage increase.

Soloists are of zero concern in any balance discussion. Either the solo achievements were a joke by the devs, or, my own pet theory, Josh's way to bait out the cheesers so he can find the cheese and quash it in future patches. Given how clever I believe Josh to be, it's probably the latter. And yes, it's brilliant bait for just that purpose. Thing is, they seem to support the idea of "clever use of game mechanics" such as high-int Warriors and the like. Retaliation proccing One Stands Alone, generating Focus, and proccing Draining are problematic, as well as OSA's implementation, and I think stuff like THAT is the real cannon fodder for the TCS achievement.

Sure enough. If they'd renamed it "The Champion" or something like that, it still has a Paladin-esque vibe without setting up massive preconceptions.

Not true. You can flip Grimoires using your quick slots, so you effectively can have 12-16 spells per level rather than just 4, pending a short cooldown (which Quick Switch significantly alleviates). Hell, if you also take the talent that gives you another two quick slots you effectively have access to 24 spells/level, and I don't think there even are that many.

I've found paladins to be more useful as midline buffers and healers due to Kind Wayfarer abilities.

Not sure if they had the full gamut of Coup de Grace rules in the IE games before 3rd and 3.5/PF came out, but actually any form of paralysis really was a save or die situation.

Yeah, accuracy is paramount. I also have my monks take WF: Peasant and have them equip spears in their offhands for massive accuracy buffs, although that somewhat kills your auto-attack DPS, since you only attack with the spear when auto attacking, but you get the +12 to accuracy on both hands in addition to the +5 on the spear, and whenever using a Full Attack ability you still hit with the fist.

You can use it twice! Once right before the fight, which you immediately regain! Pre-1.03, this was true. Not any more, however. You can no longer use Holy Radiance outside of combat.

Those are mostly to create niches. Aside from certain class-specific talents and spells, spellcasters will have "Very High" equivalent accuracy most of the time when using their spells rather than using weapons. This is to diversify classes and niches for certain builds. Hilariously, 6 chanters all using "Come, Come, Soft Winds of Death" at the same time within range of the clump of enemies will actually shred them pretty fast, not to mention 6-18 summons 18 seconds later. It's actually pretty funny to watch. CCSWOD has pretty low range though, so I usually have each chanter cast some other kind of buff or debuff first and then do CCSWOD for their second and third chants just to get all the enemies clumped properly. The biggest enemy of parties like this is pathing, although if you throw up 12 skeletons and 2 Phantoms and send them around to engage mobs and keep combat running, I'd hardly say that matters in the long run.

It's primarily used to set up sneak attacks for rogues. In cases where a monk offtank or main tank is taking heavy power, they can spam it repeatedly and assuming they have decent intellect, you can actually squeeze like 14 seconds of CC out of it, making the enemies really vulnerable to ranged and melee attacks. It also gets big toughies out of the fight so you can take out adds and whatnot. It's very, very useful, though somewhat situational and context dependent. If you know how to milk it, it's very strong. You can also somewhat control what direction the enemy gets knocked in. It's kinda fun to send your monk against a lone badass and knock it back into your party where you basically put the boots to them. Satisfying.

Priests, Druids, and Wizards all have their 1st level spells become per encounter at level 9, and their 2nd level spells do so at level 11. This is intended.

I've found that you can kill them in groups as long as non-yellow NPCs aren't within Fog of War distance of them. And yeah, it would behoove you to read each one's story through once even if only to enjoy some of the stories (which are usually actually pretty cool). Otherwise they're just window dressing and free equipment. One of them is unfactioned though, the Moon Godlike in the heavy armor near the Temple of Eothas, you can kill him and get some unenchanted Plate mail early in the game. The only NPC around is a small child and apparently he doesn't count against faction loss when he witnesses the murder. Maybe he's racist against Moonies.

The aura's do not stack with priest buffs and heavy fights are spaced far between each other, you'll only miss out something like +6 accuracy on fights against minor minions that die without any effort. Later in the game when heavy fights start to follow each other up, not only do other buffing classes get even better spells that provide additional damage and defenses, but their first and second spell levels become per encounter (which cover the entire small spectrum of Paladin buffs and much, much more) instead of per rest. Leaving the Paladin, far, far behind them. Damn. I'd say then that the on-kill skills are primarily what you'd use a paladin for, then, and the only real guaranteed way to proc those is if you're doing that cheese-ass retaliation build and make the Paladin a Moon Godlike. Granted, if you give them Strange Mercy they'd be basically immortal, lol.