JerekKruger

The Wizard's Essential and Substantial Phantoms were probably some of the best summons in the game. They might not have had as many summons as Chanters, but the made up for quantity with quality.

Agreed, and I hope it's addressed in Deadfire. I'm not asking for unique quests or anything but some more unique dialogue options and perhaps a recognition from Edér and Xoti (both Eothas worshippers) that you're a Priest of Eothas. This would probably give the Priest of Eothas the most unique dialogue options, but so long as other race/class/backgrounds don't have too few I don't see this as a problem.

Indeed, it simply lets you plan ahead more easily.

Yeah, swapping Eothas and Berath's penalty seems reasonable. Why would Berath protect his followers when that would stop their souls returning to The Wheel. As for the elemental spells, I suspect that it'll be a subset of them rather than all of them. The lightning and cold spells just don't fit with Eothas to my mind. We'll know soon enough. Yeah, it'll be interesting to see how that's balanced. In particular it seems to suggest that a Skaenite Priest will gain very little from multiclassing with a Rogue, which would otherwise seem the most natural class to pair with. Part of my problem with the Mage Slayer is it just doesn't really tempt me (the same was true of the Mage Slayer in Shadows of Amn) so I suspect that no matter how good it ends up being I'll never play it. It seems to pair well with a traditional Monk. A class with a fairly high Health pool who wants to get hurt. I am thinking about a Shattered Pillar/Assassin, although Shattered Pillar/Trickster also tempts. Do we know whether companions can take subclasses for both their multiclass options? I know that Xoti has special Monk and Priest subclasses, so is probably forced to take at least one of those and maybe both if you choose Priest/Monk, but I wonder about the others. Eder taking Ranger as a second class is a good idea. My own was making him a Figher/Priest of Eothas for roleplay reasons.

You could pretend you meant that your appetite was so high that you'd need a logarithmic scale to see it

No one other than Obsidian knows at this point. I'd guess direct damage powers but beyond that I have no idea.

Iron Wheel + Fire Godlike + multiclassed to Street Fighter seems like a potentially interesting combination.

Interesting thread, here are some of my thoughts on some of the subclasses as well: Corpse Eater - as you say, the description isn't particularly clear. What is the 'power' that the Corpse Eater gains, and given that Barbarian abilities didn't cost any resource in Pillars, what does it mean by 'powers cost more to use'. In any case I can't see myself using this class as I'm not tempted to play a character who eats his enemies' corpses on the battlefield (or elsewhere), but the idea is interesting at least. Berserker - I think this is a simple but reasonably interesting subclass concept. It's worth noting that you only do friendly fire whilst Frenzied, so you've got the option of forgoing Frenzy if friendly fire is unavoidable. Ascendent - an interesting idea, but too fiddly for my tastes. This subclass does suggest that, in Deadfire, Soul Whip won't deactivate at max focus (in Pillars it did). Soul Blade - this will probably be my go to Cipher, as I like melee Ciphers. It's a shame they didn't give them a self targetting Reaping Knives though, that would be cool. Fury - I like the concept and suspect it'll be a good subclass, though I hope they improve the model for Blights. Lifegiver - I don't think I've ever cast a Druid summon spell in Pillars, so on the face of it this looks to be a pure upgrade for me. Shifter - I'm disappointed that they didn't go with Spiritshifting being a modal that disabled spell casting for this. I hope they'll distinguish between animal forms more as well since in Pillars there's not all that much between them. Blackjacket - the ability to switch between damage types, or from high damage to high DR bypass, or simply rapidly cycle through a bunch of arquebuses for a huge alpha strike seems pretty good. The loss of constant recovery doesn't seem all that bad to me. Devoted - I like it and am considering a Monk/Fighter sword master class using it. Unbroken - not sure what Stride is. Helwalker - I like the idea, but +5% damage per Wound might be a pretty steep price to pay. Nalpazca - I was not at all tempted by this when it was first announced, but the preview of it in the update video shows that it gains Wounds whilst under the effect of drugs which is potentially pretty powerful (non-damage source of Wounds). Shattered Pillar - a nice choice for those who don't like taking damage. I am considering a Monk/Rogue using this subclass. Goldpact Knights - depending on how good Gilded Emnity, this might be the go to choice for super tanky Paladins. Losing auras is a huge shame though. Kind Wayfarers - I hope that the downside is when enemies are being Sneak Attacked (i.e. afflicted and there's a Rogue attacking them), not simply when they are potentially vulnerable to Sneak Attacks. In any case, if you don't plan to be a damage dealer this isn't so bad. Shield Bearers of St. Elcga - this seems to be the Paladin with the least downside. Just make sure you have potions and/or another healer and it's basically irrelevant. Priest - hard to comment without knowing what spells fall into which categories, though I don't like the loss of spell options. Eothas - the choice of disallowing Protection spells seems odd to me. Eothas is the god that stands up for the little guy, and his Symbol spell in Pillars was one hell of a Protection spell. Also, if he gets access to all Druid Elemental spells he'll have things like Relentless Storm, which seems odd (things like Burst of Summer Flame fit him better). Streetfighter - could work very well with Monks and Fire Godlikes, who both want to take damage. A Streetfighter/Helwalker might be an interesting multiclass. Trickster - depending on how this works I could see this being a very fun class. Wizard - the loss of two spell schools seems a steep price to pay, although the fact we'll have more limited spells might make this less important. The other bonuses vary.

Thinking about it more, I suspect that "Can learn Elemental spells from the druid list" (and the equivalent for other Priests) will actually be "Can learn some Elemental spells from the druid list". Purely speculation of course, but I'd guess that the Priest of Eothas will only get the Sun and Light type spells from the Druid's list, not things like Relentless Storm.

Not just Wizard and monk, the update contains a list of all subclasses along with brief descriptions.

Xoti's unique monk subclass is seen during the character creation portion of the video when they select the monk class. I'm on my mobile, so can't check the exact name, but it's called something like 'sister of the reaping moon'

Presumably because before you get it you'll be using a non-soulbound hunting bow (persistence), and after you only use soulbound weapons so it didn't matter which one you take.

You should train for TC by using friendly fire AoEs as much as possible in order to get used to their templates and hence become able to use them safely without seeing them.

Well Outworn Buckler and Little Saviour stack for +10 to all Defences, and if you use the Helwax Mold on one of them (Little Saviour obviously) they'd all stack for +15 to all Defences. A bit of both, although he'll never hit the crit rate that some melee characters can.

I'm finding the Priest of Eothas a little odd. I'm guessing Elemental Spells include things like Sunbeam, Burst of Summer Flame and Sunlance, all of which fit well with Eothas as the god of light and dawn, but it presumably also includes spells like Returning and Relentless Storm, which seems more Ondratic than Eothasian. What bothers me more though is that they lack access to Protection Spells. Given Eothas is often the god who looks out for the little guy, and generally speaking seems to be a benevolent god, it seems odd that he wouldn't provide his Priests with Protection Spells, and it seems even stranger given that the Symbol of Eothas from PoE was very protection orientated (+20 to all Defences to those in the AoE). The other Priests fit well I think: Magran has the most obviously fitting pros and cons; I'd agree that Decay would be more fitting for Rymrgand but it works reasonably well with Berath, and Berath's relatively distant nature fits with a lack of Condemnation; Skaen makes a lot of sense (you don't get inspired by a secretly plotting slave); and Illusion for Wael certainly fits, though it's hard to know whether lacking Punishment does.

I was wondering the same thing. I hope so, and it would be even cooler if each had further modified ability trees with unique variants of many powers.

Well, Bittercut isn't annihilating, so I wouldn't worry on that front. More generally, you'll crit more as you go up in level. I wouldn't make any decisions based on your experience at low levels.

Yeah, that combo (with a Kind Wayfarer at least) does sound not great.

Does this (somewhat) nerf the rogue class, if you multi-class priest/rogue? As written it severly nerfs the damage dealing capability of a King Wayfarer Paladin. It says "does less damage against enemies vulnerable to sneak attack", to my mind that means any enemy that has an affliction that enables Sneak Attacks, regardless of whether there is a Rogue to take advantage. I hope that it actually means "does less damage against enemies under attack from a Rogue benefiting from Sneak Attack". Assuming it only applies when an enemy is actually being Sneak Attacked, it shouldn't be too much of a problem. Have your Paladin attack someone else to your Rogue, and if there's only one enemy simply accept that your Paladin will do less damage (they're not meant to be big damage dealers anyway).

From an RP perspective the Ghost Heart might be a nice pick. Somehow a Spirit Animal summon seems fitting for a Seer archetype.

As it is presented at the moment I think that, unless you really want a high level ability that a multiclass character can't get, multiclassing seems the better option. Of course rebalancing old abilities may well change that.

Sounds like a build I've been mulling over for a while, which I call Berath's Reaper. Basically a Priest of Berath wielding Tidefall, wearing the Maegfolc Skull and having the RP motivation of hunting down vessels and spirits to return them to the Wheel. I like the fact you're thinking about how the revelations of Pillar's ending will affect your character's class in Deadfire. Cool concept. The Wizard I was planning was going to be your typical power hungry archmage early on in their career. Not an evil character per se, but they'd do evil things to further their own power. Their reasons for visiting the Dyrwood would be similar to yours: a search for knowledge about extending their life, either with animancy or magic. Violent visits to a pair of archmages in the region would also fit them.

Well at the very least there's no sign of the Play Dead icon on the Rogue skill tree, so fingers crossed that's gone.

You'll crit a lot more later into the game, although outside of Flames of Devotion Paladins aren't exactly crit monsters.

No, you'll miss out on it (unless you kill them after unlocking their merchant and buying it all of course).