omgFIREBALLS

I nearly always play mass shieldbearers and I don't recall that I couldn't solve this without going aggressive, but it may be playstyle differences that cause me to always be able to pass with skill/rep checks. Usually, if I want to kill someone (like Cotta) but picking a fight through dialogue results in aggressive disposition, I just manually attack them without talking first. Which, obviously, is not aggressive behavior.

The Gunpowder Bathhouse would never rip honest chanters and ciphers off like this.

Y'all just going to let Boeroer get away with rounding pi to 3.144? How does 3.1416 round to 3.144, hmm? I can no longer see his beard as being mythic.

Hahaha, barrels

Gellarde! Watching you whack away was quite a sight. What is Shroud of the Phantom?

Nemnok is a comedy villain and should not be thought of as a serious power figure in the Deadfire. He could certainly have an ending slide, but it would have to be in the spirit of entertaining megalomania, not killing people or whatever (which besieging Neketaka rather implies). Left to his own devices, Nemnok at long last learned to both read and spell his own name. The Drowned Barrows echoed with his manic laughter for weeks.

Uhh... this has never "worked" for me, and it's my understanding that all you can get are the two buffs you mentioned (given the right choices in PoE1). I just loaded a few post-Hasongo saves in playthroughs where I chose the Benevolent Soul background and no watcher has any Hylea's Boon. Got her food of course, but no buff in Hasongo.

Oh, I thought 0.5 rounds meant it would expire at a certain point during the round (after everyone within a certain threshold of initiative had acted). 30 int sounds right if it rounds.

As someone who plays troubadour every single time, I should know these mechanics for sure, but AFAIK the troubadour linger bonus is not affected by int (in RTWP anyway). So that means you have to amplify the base linger bonus by a whole round, which should require fifty int. If I haven't been fooling myself since release it takes 20 int to keep 2 phrases up in RTWP and it'd take 60 to keep up 3. In other words, you might be happy you can get the same jobs done in TB with 10 less int, even if 50 int is out of reach anyway ^^

It's not as bad as in PoE1. Also, it's much easier to pump stats in Deadfire, so if you really want to pass a resolve check despite having dumped it, you can stack buffs for it without the (Suppressed) spam of Pillars 1. Long ago I saw someone post a guide for how to (temporarily, of course) go from 3 to 15 resolve to pass a certain check. It might be possible to go even higher, but 3 is the lowest you can have and 15 is what the check required, so they might have just stopped at +12 ^^

Before psion was introduced, I was actually fond of base ciphers, though I enjoyed soul blade too. I use my cipher(s) as support characters and psion is just awesome because your ability to support isn't dictated by your ability to do damage. It's not hard to avoid taking damage, just throw on defensive gear and stay at range and you will not be an attractive target. Since I play defensive, outlasting setups I'm extremely fond of Ancestor's Memory as that allows my cipher to replenish everyone else's resources, which means I can keep going and going and going. Being a PL7 ability, that is available to multiclasses too. However, Driving Echoes (PL9) is by no means a weak ability. If you have insufficient penetration in Deadfire (1 or more less penetration than the target has armor), you do 70% less damage. While you certainly might "graduate out" of the need for the spell as you gain game knowledge, +8 pen is a mighty tool to have at your disposal. I like to multi anything at all with a paladin, and it's extra fun as a cipher, especially since I'm so fond of stacking defenses. Ciphers have their own +15 will talent. Paladins have access to the generic +10 will talent. Paladins can also get +15 all defenses through Faith and Conviction + Deep Faith and getting the right dispositions. On top of all this, as a cipher, you probably want to pump your int too, so even more +will from there. You could put on The One Ring and walk all the way to Mordor and it would just quietly whimper the entire journey. P.S. I play RTWP, never turn-based.

I've never noticed anything that suggests otherwise.

Something we could add to the list is Sansa's mapping quests. While you can't complete the whole series with zero combat, you can avoid a lot of it. To name an island, you only have to enter and leave its dungeon. You do not have to clear it. Sometimes however there is combat on the way to the dungeon.

Can't really "farm" experience anywhere, but if it's your first playthrough there's bound to be quests you haven't found. You could post a screenshot of your quest log. (Maybe I misunderstood you and you meant you're just deliberately avoiding DLC's for the first time rather than playing Deadfire for the first time...)

It'd be a whole new game, really. Any piercing/slashing weapon should cause bleeding, and furthermore, that bleeding shouldn't just wear off within half a minute, but rather force the victim to either win fast or run away and nurse the wound. Unless they have access to magical healing, I suppose. Is the fact that this doesn't bother me much what's called suspension of disbelief?

Since you mentioned spear, another point could be raised here. A sidearm weapon such as a sword or a dagger looks far less threatening than any kind of polearm, because you can carry it around sheathed. The only practical way to carry a polearm around is in one of your hands, which is going to make people uneasy unless you're a guard or somesuch. A sheathed sidearm just signals you've got means to defend yourself, but it doesn't look threatening until you reach for it. So chances are you'd have a hard enough time getting into the tavern with a spear in hand. Paraphrasing a YouTube video. Polearms are superior weapons, sidearms are backups, but sidearms are more socially compatible

https://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Seeker's_Fang comes to mind =)

I can say that for 4, your tank is already a great healer. Exalted Endurance and Ancient Memory provide constant passive healing, whereas Lay on Hands is a powerful spot heal. Plus being a shieldbearer, it will give a few seconds of death immunity to the target, which is a very nice safety net to have.

So it has +5 penetration? Is it beard or densely packed barbed wire?

Oh yes, sorry, my silly mind thought legendary was the highest enchantment level when I posted that. Nothing is mythic by default IIRC.

Certainly! The staff is in the treasury of Nemnok, whose home is the Drowned Barrows. This is one of the three high level dungeons of the base Deadfire, and lies on an island to the northwest. The dungeon is a small mountain shaped like a skull, and after entering through the mouth and fighting the initial party, you can proceed directly forward to a room riddled with traps and two Sigils of Mortality (I think that's the name). If you can get through this room, you can get to Nemnok. It might be possible to simply destroy the sigils from a safe distance, but likely not with piercing or slashing damage (and you can't run in with your staff), so you'll need some magic tricks up your sleeve. If you try to run past the sigils, you will assuredly die, and I mean four-injuries-consigned-to-the-Wheel-deleted-from-the-party die. Read spoiler if simply destroying them doesn't work; it was getting too lengthy to talk this much about them, and I'm 90% sure they can be destroyed: When meeting Nemnok, you can avoid combat by saying the right things. I can't recall for sure, but I don't think you need to pass any skill check. Instead, this lets you work for him. He is a tough encounter, so you probably don't want to fight him if you intend to get the staff at as low a level as possible. Also, it's pretty entertaining to work for him. He'll ask you to get him three grimoires. For each grimoire you acquire for him, he will let you loot one chest in his treasury. You can choose between the staff, a bow and a shield. The grimoires are dropped by: * Bipara, in the Outcast's Respite, on the northwesternmost island of Deadfire and directly west of Nemnok's island * A lich (fighter/wizard) in a Flooded Cave, far east in the Deadfire * Menzzago, ruling the Splintered Reef (another high level dungeon) to the southeast in the Deadfire Menzzago's is probably going to be the toughest to get. The lich might be comparable to Bipara, might even be easier if you manage to take out his minions without aggroing him. Not sure that you don't need to pass some nasty skill checks to get to his cave though. Also, if you have a wizard in your party you might want to check out this grimoires in advance so you don't work on getting him one you'd rather keep for yourself. They are actual equippable grimoires, not inert quest items. You always have the option to "simply" kill him if you want his loot without getting him books. I don't play wizards so I cannot speak for how attractive these three are, but they're certainly not the only ones in the category "high level grimoires". Lastly I'd like to mention that in the northern Deadfire there's an island with a dungeon called Kohopa's Fang, incidentally where you can get Magran's Favor (mythic legendary battle axe). Elsewhere on this island is an encounter with some eoten. Aside from being a decent test for your party's combat ability, after defeating them you can loot a superb quarterstaff (Street Sweeper) which could be your weapon until you get the chromostaff. Just be aware that you (the player, not the Watcher, not the party :P) need to look for it in the sand to find it - just look for something broom-shaped. You can't return to the area, so if you don't loot it you never will.

At level 11 (PotD + scale all + upscale only, but no other twists) I killed Bipara, walked into the Drowned Barrows, killed the welcome party and went straight into Nemnok's lair. I already had a wardstone from the desert island with Dorudugan on it. Talked my way to the grimoire quest and ka-ching, staff be mine. It's possible I could have done it at an even lower level, however I won't contest that Magran's Favor probably wouldn't be easier to get.

A lot of it is in your list of active effects, simply listed as the effect's name and what it does. There's no summary of your counters to resolve afflictions, but if you have Divine Purpose (paladin, +20 saving throws) and Fearless (fighter, resistance), they will be listed there. Certainly that list can get very long though, so it wouldn't be bad if these stats were summarized more tidily.

Yeah, I figured as much, but considering the massive attack rate differences you can get outside TB, that sounds really harsh. High dexterity dagger user wearing light armor vs. a low dexterity tincan swinging a modaled war hammer, mace, sabre, battle axe or quarterstaff. One attack each! Spend it wisely, for example by not being the dagger user. Oh well, TB didn't interest me to begin with, but even less now ^^

Wait, really? Why would anyone take dexterity then? Reflex save and dialogue checks? ^^