omgFIREBALLS

Nope, didn't work.

The debuff shows up among her active effects, giving the standard penalties. I don't know when or where I got it. Removing all her equipment does not remove it. Applying a perception inspiration does not remove it. Resting does fix it, but I'm playing no rest. Is there a console command for this? Or any other tricks?

I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried gellarde and ekera at the same time.

This isn't quite what you asked for, but if you're looking to play a "time is on my side" setup... I used to be playing mass tank parties that outlasted opponents forever if need be, while permanent DoT's killed them off. The damage dealer was paladin (Brand Enemy) / rogue (Gouging Strike). Brand Enemy cannot miss, and Gouging Strike is easy to land with arquebus modal. Once the DoT's are up, switch to a defensive weapon set and put on your best "u mad?" trollface while your opponents futilely try to kill your tanky-healy setup before they bleed out. Specifically, the party would be something like, five paladins (shieldbearers), two multid to chanter (troubadour), one to fighter (unbroken), one to rogue (can't remember kit anymore) and one to cipher (vanilla cipher before psion existed, then psion). Three passive healing auras (Exalted Endurance, Ancient Memory, Pale Light), and tons of Lay on Hands with built-in cheat death.

Iron Man: Some form of Barbarian/Monk? Barbarian for leaps (fake flight), monk for punches.

I mean spam stopping the merges with a ranged instant AoE interrupt 😛 Also, no focus problems there.

Yes, there can. Also, I think this might be my favorite megaboss. The psion unique ability finally got to shine for me, and boy did it shine here.

Pretty much as soon as you get to Port Maje, with whatever gold you have, if memory serves. Especially if you use the gold blessing.

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 =)