Stasis_Sword

What would the ability list/order look like for Pallegina. Haven't done much with Paladins.

Thanks AndreaColombo that was exactly what I was looking for. Would you switch the weapon to sword so Durance could use Holy Flame? I'm assuming most people use Sagani ranged with storm caller. Any must have ranged ranger talents?

Does anyone have a priest build for Durance (since he isn't a Skaen Priest)? Also any ranger builds for Sagani?

You could alternately have Rydia be a druid. Elemental attack spells, a little healing, and you can pretend your fire blight is Ifrit

ottffsse first thanks for posting the build. My goal for the character is very similar to your description above. I'm not trying to create a self buffing melee grunt. I wanted to create a fully functional wizard with CC and damage spells who could as the situation dictates throw a buff or two on and enter melee. For certain circumstances it might make sense to use spirit lance and martial powers (and I would like to do good damage when I do), but I don't want to be melee only and dependent on resting every two battles. You bring up an interesting point about spell tongue and buff duration. Are there any other weapons that synergize particularly well with a melee wizard?

I hadn't realized retrain would allow me to reset my attributes as well. That actually addresses a lot of my concerns.

How about? M15 C10 D10 P15 I18 R10 Would something like this make more sense. No penalties and bonuses to might (damage), perception (accuracy especially spells) and intelligence (duration/area)? I saw a post about dumping Res and using Spirit Shield to make up for it, but not having to rely on it every fight would be nice.

I've been looking around for a melee/spell hybrid wizard for a while and I found this build: The Royal Court Battlemage Which is really close to what I want, but I have a few questions. I'm not sure I like the flat dex and lowered con in the battlemage build. Would something like this make sense? M15 C10 D15 P14 I18 R6 Does it make sense to have Intelligence as the 18 or should I lower it to 15 and max something else (like Dexterity or Perception)? I'm also thinking about weapon style. The guide suggest two weapon style, but I can also see synergy between two-handed style and the summoned weapons. Any thoughts on which style to go with and/or which (non-summoned) weapons to seek out?

Can I ask what your stats would look like on this theoretical build? Also I'm assuming when not summoning a weapon the wizard would still wield a 2h weapon? Talents something like: Arcane Veil, Two-Handed Fighting, Weapon Focus Soldier, Apprentice Sneak Attack, Hardened Veil then some attack/defense talents?

From a party perspective any of the three would work. When trying to do a theme character I think of trying to map their defining characteristics from one world/system to another. In my opinion Crono was definitely a swordsman, but he also had light/lightning magic and that was core to his character. In PoE I would want him to have a sword (which anyone can) and have some lightning magic. I think druid fits the best because he has numerous spells that cause lightning storms, and the ability to electrify himself/his attacks. The image of a druid fighting with an electrified saber with lightning storms going off all around him feels very Crono to me. Melee wizard could definitely work and has a few lightning spells. The hard part would be balancing his needs for buffs, trying to cast the lightning spells and eventually getting to melee. Fighter makes the most sense for the combat abilities but has none of the innate lightning abilities. You could try to supplement with a high lore skill and some scrolls, but that wouldn't be an every encounter sort of thing.

Less bad choice fits my feelings and made me 3 front liners should be plenty. If you want to make Magus a melee wizard with a pike/spear you can, but don't feel like you need to for a 4th front liner.

I've seen some forums organize the outdated builds under a legacy section. Even if a build is outdated it might be an interesting starting point for a new a build (or just need some tweaks).

One other thing to think about would be indicating release version/DLC expansions. One of my biggest issues looking through old forum posts is trying to reverse engineer what version the author was on when they wrote the build.

Your ability to rattle that information off is both impressive and a little scary

KDubya thanks for that informative post. I wasn't planning to get all the conversation options. My two main questions were: 1). Are certain numbers significantly better for checks (like 15 compared to 14)? Which seems to be somewhat true 2). Are there any stats that are super hard/easy to raise (to prioritize/dump)? Answer to this one seems to be they're fairly equal.

I agree with DreamWayfarer on party layout. Also Ayla shouldn't be unarmored. She should be wearing hide armor (try some on to see what I mean).

Curse you Ymarsakar. Now I feel the need to replay Planescape and check that the different dialog options really match up to the different incarnations. I'm supposed to be finishing this game...

I've actually been playing around with starting a playthrough with "Crono". Mine looked more like this a little less tanky and a little more lightning swordsman. Name: Crono Species: Human Class: Druid Stats: Mgt 15 Con 10 Dex 15 Per 10 Int 15 Res 13 Weapons: Saber and Shield Skills: Athletics, Survival 2T Weapon and Shield Style 4T Weapon Focus Ruffian 6T Hold the Line 8T Savage Attack 9D Spell Mastery: Sunbeam 10T Superior Deflection 11D Spell Master: Taste of the Hunt 12T Apprentice’s Sneak Attack 13D Spell Master: Returnning Storm 14T Snake’s Reflexes 15D Moonwell/Form of Delemgam 16T Bear’s Fortitude

I don't feel the need to necessarily pass every conversation stat check in the game, but this is confirming my initial assumption that there are certain "magic numbers". If it character creation you can have 14 in one stat and 11 in another or 15 in one stat and 10 in another, the 15 might be worth it to past certain dialog checks. Thanks for listing some of the numerous stat boosts. It sounds like you can significantly boost certain stats at key moments if you need to.

I'm curious about how stat checks play out in the game. I know this isn't Planescape where stat checks always give the best outcome, but if the difference between a 14 and 15 is opening up 20 dialog options I think that's worth knowing. Assumption 1: I'm assuming that there isn't some magic list of all the stat checks floating around (I haven't found it if it exists). Assumption 2: I'm assuming stat checks aren't evenly distributed (i.e. 12 can pass 10 checks, 13 can pass 10 more checks, 14 can pass 10 more checks) From my limited experience I'm guess the magic numbers go something like this (hopefully people with more experience can help check these): < 13: Not enough to pass any checks 13: Able to pass "low checks" 15: Able to pass "medium checks" 18: Able to pass "high"/almost all checks 21+: Pass all checks What stats are easy/hard to raise with equipment and abilities? For example in Planescape if you had a mage charisma was really easy to raise with the friends spell so the base value wasn't a huge deal, or in BG2 the gauntlets of dexterity allowed you to get one character to 18 dex easily.

In my opinion the top 3 choices would be: Wizard Pros: He plays exactly the way you describe. Lots of combat buffs, defensive spells and summonable weapons. Cons: He needs to rest for spells. Much of his melee prowess comes from spells, which means he needs casts for each encounter and time to buff. Druid Pros: Human form can be a descent tank, spiritshift can be great DPS. Has several cool buffs that give flaming swords, lightning auras. Spiritshift is per encounter so you always have an option. Cons: He needs to rest for spells. He has less direct combat buffs than the wizard. Cipher Pros: Has talents that boost his base DPS (and don't waste buff time). Powers use focus which you get during battle (no need for rest). Has less buffs, but many of them are combination debuff enemy/buff cipher effects. Cons: Powerful powers can't be used in succession (need to earn focus between casts). Many of the buffs have shorter durations so it's hard to have several buffs at once.

Agree with all of these except possible Crono. The challenge is he's a solid fighter with a combination of physical combat skills and wind/lightning elemental skills, which is difficult to reproduce in PoE. The other challenge is are you looking at the in game lore or mechanics? For instance I can see a sword wielding druid with lightning storms all around him feeling like Crono. However Crono isn't really a druid thematically.

The other very helpful power would be pain block for some extra DR/healing on the monk. Also remember not to build the cipher too squishy. Strategy would probably be amplified thrust/range attack -> reaping knives -> unlimited focus. I'm also surprised no one mentioned druid yet. Seems like healing, aoe damage and shapeshifting would help cover a lot of bases.

The only 2 I disagree with are the ciphers: Aerie - She always felt like more of a priest (personality wise). Now that priests have some offensive spells I think it could work. Jan - Agree on the Orlan with high mechanics, cross class sneak attack. I feel he needs to be wizard for the mirror images and closest thing to simulacrum. Also probably wielding a crossbow just because.

Assuming you aren't playing on PoTD and aren't trying to be the only tank with a bunch of ranged characters you should be fine. There are two things I would caution you on: 1). Your chanter can melee but he's not a melee DPS character. He'll do some melee damage with cool effects going off. 2). Your chanter can take some hits but isn't a full tank. Let the tanks engage first then attack. One chanter build that I think looks interesting is the drake's ambassador build. Obviously it's not two handed but you could use a pretty similar spec if that idea appeals to you.