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This build was created for a collaboration with @Aestus who runs the Youtube channel Aestus_RPG. Here's the video where we talk about this and other builds. This is build 4 of 5 from that collaboration. ----------------------------------------- This build is mainly meant for inspiration. You don't need to follow it in detail to have fun. If you understand the key features - the basic idea what makes this build special - you can usually deviate from my non-core attribute-, skill-, gear- and ability selection and form the build to your own likings and ideas. I do not try to produce the most powerful uberbuilds (often those are the most boring to play in he long run) but to focus on having fun while playing. Usually that means the build is powerful - but it's not the main focus. If you like to read about my personal requirements for "fun to play" builds, you can jump to a list below this post ----------------------------------------- ahira of the Opalescent Dais (or just "Pod" for friends) hails from the vast Ixamitl Plains, where the endless savanna meets the sky, the winds carry both whispers of the past and the promise of the future and the goats drop... droppings. Raised among the Nalpazca monks, Pahira was drawn to their unconventional practices: their mastery of body, mind and corny jokes through the use of rare herbs and potent elixirs. Where others saw addiction, Pahira saw clarity. Her years in the Nalpazca order taught her to harness the latent power within her body and soul, but she sought more than simple balance. Combining ancient martial techniques with alchemical enhancement and explosive ordnance, Zahira became a deadly force. Her training with blunderbusses and hand mortars allowed her to rain destruction across the battlefield with thunderous precision, stopping enemies in their tracks. With these abilities she moves like the wind, delivering stunning and detonating shots to entire groups of foes before they can even comprehend her presence. Now a wanderer, Pahira follows the call of adventure, seeking new knowledge, better flintlocks, ancient secrets and the perfect substance to push her abilities even further. "Boom! Here comes the Boom! Ready or not, here comes the girl from the plains Boom! Here comes the Boom! How you like your scattered brains?" - Pod hovering cross-legged in the air while tuning in for the... boom - =================================== The Mortar Monk =================================== Difficulty: PotD -------------------------------------------------------------- Solo: untested -------------------------------------------------------------- Class: Nalpazca (or vanilla, Helwalker)* -------------------------------------------------------------- Race: Human (or any) -------------------------------------------------------------- Background: Ixamitl Plains (or any) - Scholar (or any) -------------------------------------------------------------- Stats (w/o Berath's Blessings, ★=recommendation): MIG: 15 (14 +1 Human) CON: 08 DEX: 15 PER: 17 ★ INT: 18 ★★ RES: 05 (3 +1 Human +1 Ixamitl Plains) -------------------------------------------------------------- * with usage of the blunderbuss modal "Powder Burns" even a Forbidden Fist variant would be viable the unique icons for all passive abilities are part of the Community Patch mod Abilities | Skills | Proficiencies - (!=important, r=recommended) 01. Swift Strikes (r) | Blunderbuss (!) + Scepter 02. Arms Bearer | +1 Alchemy (->3), +1 Insight (->3) 03. Dance of Death (r) + Two-Weapon Style (!) | +1 Alchemy (->4), +1 Survival (->1) 04. Long Stride | +1 Alchemy (->5), +1 Survival (->2) | Pistol 05. Stunning Blow (!) + Lightning Strikes (r) | +1 Alchemy (->6), +1 Survival (->3) 06. Combat Focus | +1 Alchemy (->7), +1 Metaphysics (->4) 07. Duality of Mortal Presence (! INT) + Enduring Dance (r) | +1 Alchemy (->8), +1 Insight (->4) 08. Thunderous Blows | +1 Alchemy (->9), +1 Survival (->4) | Whatever 09. Stunning Surge (!) + The Long Pain (r) | +1 Alchemy (->10 ), +1 Metaphysics (->5) 10. Uncanny Luck | +1 Alchemy (->11), +1 Insight (->5) 11. Turning Wheel (r) + Improved Critical | +1 Alchemy (->12), +1 Survival (->5) 12. Rooting Pain | +1 Alchemy (-> 13), +1 Metaphyics (->6) | Whatever 13. The Dichotomous Soul (r) + Accurate Empower | +1 Alchemy (->14), +1 Insight (->6) 14. Penetrating Empower | +1 Alchemy (->15), +1 Survival (->6) 15. The Pain Persists | +1 Alchemy (->16), +1 Metaphysics (->7) 16. Resonant Touch (!) + The Razor's Edge (r) | +1 Alchemy (->17), +1 Insight (->7) | Whatever 17. Great Soul | +1 Alchemy (->18), +1 Survival (->7) 18. Lasting Empower | +1 Alchemy (->19), +1 Metaphysics (->8) 19. Whispers of the Wind (!) + Prestige (r) | +1 Alchemy (->20), +1 Insight (->8) 20. Empowered Strikes | +1 Alchemy (->21), +1 Survival (->8) | Whatever --------------------------------------------------------------- Items (!=important, r=recommended) Weapon Set 1: Hand Mortar (! - +Blinding Smoke, +Legendary) + Fire in the Hole (! - +Chain Shot, +Legendary) Weapon Set 2: Kitchen Stove (r - +Thunderous Report, +Frantic Reload) + Xefa's Empirical Explication (r - +Inexplicable Mass, Open Choke*) *Open Choke's reduces range doesn't matter if you use the blunderbuss in the offhand and use Full Attacks like Stunning Surge: only the range of the main hand matters then. It also doesn't matter for Whispers of the Wind Head: Heaven's Cacophony (r - more INT = bigger AoE) Back: Ajamuut's Stalking Cloak (! - stuns all enemies during Whisper of the Wind) Neck: Charm of Bones (r + mopre INT = bigger AoE Armor: Aloth's Armor (! +Legendary - 15% bigger AoE size) Waist: The Amazing and Truly Incredible Instant Potion Belt (profit from free potions + extremely high Alchemy) Hands: Mortification Bindings (r - more Mortification points for Lightning Strikes and Dance of Death) Rings: Ring of the Marksman (r), Ring of Overseeing (r - 10% bigger AoE) Boots: Boots of Speed Pet: Loki (r - 15% bigger AoE size) --------------------------------------------------------------- What is this build about: combine the high INT-bonus (+AoE size, +durations) of the Monk with the AoE of Hand Mortar and Fire in the Hole (Serafen’s blunderbusses), giving you huge coverage. You want the biggest AoE possible (within reason - also include items like Aloth’s armor and Ring of Overseeing and Loki as pet which will stack on top of the INT-induced AoE improvement) mortars are blunderbusses which can use Powder Burns: add another AoE attack Stunning Surge refunds your Mortification cost (and gives 2 wounds, too!*) when it critically hits. Two mortar shots with huge AoE have a very high chance for a crit (if you hit enoug foes) - so you can use that ability very often without paying for it most of times. If you add Fire in the Hole's enchantment Chain Shot, which adds a projectile jump which includes tha AoE your chance will be even higher. It is an extremely potent disable/CC effect: AoE stun with a very long duration - because the base duration is also boosted by the Monk’s INT later you can combine the AoE of mortars with the (kind of) AoE of the Power-Level-9 ability "Whispers of the Wind": you will turn invisible, jump from enemy to enemy and fire three (five with Poweder Burns) AoE explosions at each of them (often jumping back to enemies multiple times depending on the amount of jumps you can do, which depends on your Power Level) combine that with Ajamuut’s Stalking Cloak: it stuns enemies if you are stealthed or invisible. Whispers of the Wind does make you invisible during its execution. All enemies that get hit will get stunned automatically add Resonant Touch to this already very potent mix: doing an 5*AoE*AoE attack multiple times (Hand Mortar AoE + Fire in the Hole AoE + jump AoE + 2* Powder Burns) leads to a very high number of weapon hits. On top of that the Hand Mortar has the enchantment "Blinding Smoke", a cone attack which causes a mild CC effect. But it counts as proper weapon attack and will cause Resonant Touch to add a raw damage stack. This means a TON of attack rolls will happen against each enemy which all can add a Resonant Touch. If your enemies are not yet dead from Whispers of the Wind, they will be after you use Resonant Touch to turn the stacks into raw damage. With enough enemies, usually nobody survives it’s fireworks and explosion all the time at that point - and it’s spectacular you can use vanilla Monk, Xoti (not ideal but works), Helwalker or Nalpazca. With Powder Burns even Forbidden Fist would work. I opted for Nalpazca because this is a ranged Monk and is not supposed to get attacked much - so it might lack wound generation. You do not wait long after a Whispers of the Wind attack to be able to trigger Resonant Touch so you need fast wound generation even while invisible. Nalpascas can add their drug-induced wound generation to Dance of Death’s wounds, making it easy to have enough wounds for WotW and Resonant Touch at most times. *thanks @Elric Galad for reminding me about that additonal awesomeness Issues: the mortars are not working well against singular tough foes. For those you need to switch to normal blunderbusses (which works great with Stunning Surge and Resonant Touch again). normal blunderbusses do pierce damage only - so you need another alternative against immune/resistant (single) foes. Luckily the Long Pain is a great alternative. Summon your ranged fists for single enemies who are resistant to pierce damage or even vulnerable to crush damage. rel. squishy for a Monk - have an escape plan to fell from melee enemies who cannot get stopped by a stun. you cannot make use of all the good melee stuff a Monk usually offers is best if you can amass a lot of enemies in one space. It’s not suited for parties who like to spread out and scatter all enemies. powder burns in combination with los RES leads to a long distracted debuff. If you don't want that don't use Powder Burns. Also best to turn off when allies are near sine Poweder Burns does friendly fire. Whispers of the Windand the mortars themselves do not. you have to use drug in fights, else your wound generation will be bad. Luckily drugs last a long time with high Alchemy and if you are a thorough collector you will have no problem finding and buying enough drugs for every encounter. If you are still unsure, pick Helwalker or vanilla Monk. Empower works not well with Whispers of the Wind: you will get additonal jumps bc. of the higher Power Level, but all the Empower passives, including Empowered Strikes, will not work for the actual jumps. So it's a bit wasted here. Instead I use Empower with its great passives (including Empowered Strikes) with Stunning Surge: very high duration of stun, guaranteed crits even against the most defensive enemies, overpenetration guaranteed. It's a great way to start a fight, giving you and the party plenty of time to set things up while the enemies are stunning for a long time. After taking Empowered Strikes one could retrain out of Penetrating and Accurate Empower and use some other abilities such as the defensive passives or whatever seems helpful. I believe Turnung Wheel doesn't add a burnung lash ro ranged weapons without using the Community Patch with the Community Patch Blinding Smoke will no longer trigger Avenging Storm. However, you can remove that nerf from the mod easily. with the Community Patch the number of stacks from Resonant Touch on an enemy is capped (I believe 25?). It's still plenty and o problem if you "relase" the stacks frequently enough (deal the raw damage). You can remove this nerf as easily as the one above. Why is it fun? it is impactful even early in the game. You will get Stunning Surge rel. early (the beauty of single class). You don’t need Whispers of the Wind to have fun and have a great impact - although Whispers of the Wind is the ultimate goal. it’s the most spectacular thing to unleash in battle - both visually and in terms of sound - especially if you combine it with Avenging Storm (see Heaven’s Cacophony helm) in tough encounters it’s outright OP once you get Whispers of the Wind - but it somehow doesn’t get old. if you pick the right voice you will hear a LOT of hysterical laughter - because you will cause countless crits. I had Konstanten with me and he also does laugh a lot. I had a constant smile on my face because of MC and Konstanten laughing so hard all the time profits a lot from teamwork: if the party can help to set up the enemies perfectly (lure with spells, pull together, good engagement tank) you can end many encounters with one or two uses of WotW and Resonant Touch. It’s a bit like a game inside the game: how do I lure/collect as many enemies as possible in a spot for WotW in order to explode them all in one go? A good tank who holds enemies is great, a Wizard with Pull of Eora is great, a Priest with Call of Rymrgand and so on. Works extremely well with an Arcane Archer’s Imbue:Eora and Web (see Pindown Poet build). it promotes great party teamwork and that is fun for me, too. Hope you enjoy! Cheers! --- PS: some gifs I made when testing this build initially: Whispers of the Wind: WotW + Avenging Storm: Empowered WotW: Another Avenging Storm/WotW test:

Before anyone jumps right in my face. This is not an issue at all I don't mind monks being in the game. It is just an opinion and I wondered if anyone shares it. First of all they so don't fit into the world. I know they are part of dungeons and dragons but I always pretended they are not. Cool wizards and knights and all this stuff and then you have a shirtless dudes out of karate kid. What is this? They are also so not fun to play. Main reason - attacking with bare hands. In the world of magic weapons and cool armours and all this stuff. Meh.

A witch doctor is originally a type of healer who treated ailments believed to be caused by witchcraft. The term witch doctor is sometimes used to refer to healers, particularly in the region of Old Vailia, who use traditional healing rather than contemporary medicine. In monks' societies, "witch doctor" is sometimes used derisively to refer to a warrior who hates magic and witchcraft which is not done by kith. this monk absolutley loathes all forms of non kith casters like Pŵgras, Ogre Druids, Vithracks, Cean Gŵlas and so on and tries to purge them from the face of Eora as fast as possible. =================================== The Witch Doctor =================================== Difficulty: PotD v. 3.02 -------------------------------------------------------------- Class: Monk -------------------------------------------------------------- Race: Boreal Dwarf -------------------------------------------------------------- Background: The Living Lands - Explorer -------------------------------------------------------------- Stats: MIG: 21 CON: 10 DEX: 16 PER: 10 INT: 18 RES: 03 -------------------------------------------------------------- Skills: Stealth 4, Athl. 7, Lore 8, Mech. 0, Surv. 10 -------------------------------------------------------------- Talents (a=auto, r=recommended, !=important) Weapon Focus: Peasant Two Weapon Style Lightning Strikes ® Ghost Hunter ® Beast Slayer ® Wilder Hunter ® Primal Bane ® Apprentice's Sneak Attack Abilities Hunter's Instincts (a) Transcendent Suffering 4 (a) The Long Pain (!) Torment's Reach (!) Swift Strikes ® Force of Anguish (!) Skyward Kick ® Stunning Blow ® Second Whind (a) Knock Down (a - Girdle of the Driving Wave) Long Stride Flagellanth's Path or Resonant Touch --------------------------------------------------------------- Items (*=additional echantments by me; !=important, r=recommended): Weapon set 1: Fists/The Long Pain Weapon Set 2: Danulya & Irfarn Byrngar's Solace Boots: Echoing Misery Head: Maegfolc Skull Armor: Maneha's Armor (*Durgan Reinforced, INT+2, Slash-Proofed) Neck: Cloak of the Frozen Hunt Belt: Girdle of the Driving Wave Rings: Ring of Thorns, Bartender's Ring Hands: Gauntlets of Swift Action or Mourning Gloves or Blood Testment Quick slots: Scroll(s) of Tanglefoot, Binding Web, Plague of Insects, Prayer against Restraint ----------------------------------------------------------------- After "The Long Pain" was introduced to the game I thought that soon there would pop up some builds around that in this forum. But until today, I saw none specific build. Nerdcommando did a video about this, but it had some errors and didn't point out some of the most amazing features of The Long Pain. So I went out and did some testing to verify what works with this awesome abilitiy and what doesn't. Here are my results and the character I build around that. But first of all I have to explain an important fact: The Long Pain is considered a dual wielded ranged weapon - but for whatever reason it also works with most (not all) melee abilities. This allows for some crazy and relaly powerful combinations, have a look: What abilities, talents and items work/don't work with The Long Pain? Abilities: + Swift Strikes (makes flying fists hit faster) + Stunning Punch (stunning at a range of 12m without using wounds? Aweseome! Also: Full Attack!) + Skyward Kick (like above, but only Primary Attack - still good when you have no wounds left and want to take somebody out of the game fast) + Force of Anguish (pushing enemies away - but keep on hitting them at a distance. So much fun!) + Knock Down (from the Girdle of the Driving Wave; works like in melee but at 12m range. Only primary attack, but +20% damage!) + Torment's Reach (it's so easy to hit a lot of enemies when you stay in the back row, firing off Full Attacks(!) that do great AoE damage - this is the most powerful thing you can combine with The Long Pain - however, you need wounds) + Flagellanth's Path (like with fists - range 10m - but great to escape a mob - works even if you're stuck) - Enervating Blows (don't work with The Long Pain) - Turning Wheel (no fire damage gets added) Talents: + Lightning Strikes (+25% shock damage - since the base damage of The Long Pain is very high, this is awesome) + Two Weapon Style (The Long Pain is considered dual wielding - you get faster with this, tested and confirmed) + Weapon Focus Peasant (and I guess every other weapon focus, too, because The Long Pain is "universal" as all the other summoned weapons) + Marksman + Runner's Wounding Shot + Envenomed Strike + Apprentice's Sneak Attack + All the hater talents like Primal Bane and so on + Penetrating Shot (but I think with that high damage per hit speed is more important than 5 DR bypass) - Savage Attack (no damage added, no ACC malus) - Dangerous Implement (nope - but worth a try ) Items: + Blood Testament (will add raw damage per wound - but you will spend your wounds fast) + all items that spped you up like Gauntlets of Swift Action or Mourning Gloves + Bartender's Ring (20% more damage against vessels and spirits) + Archer's Gloves or Cloak of the Frozen Hunt (+10% damage) - Sandals of the Forgotten Friar (although titled unarmed, those sadly don't work with The Long Pain) Genereal thoughts: As usual a monk doesn't have many things that can boost ranged damage besides MIG, Archer's Gloves, Lightning Strikes and the hater talents. The Long Pain have enormous base damage and you want to add as many dmg modifiers as you can get to squeeze the most out of them. So maxed MIG sounds good. At the same time you want to have them as long as possible, so high INT is also good. High INT is also great for the cone of Torment's Reach and for all the disabling stuff you can have - like from Force of Anguish and Stunning Blows and so on. Because of this I took all the hater talents except Sanctifier - because you will also have St. Ydwen's Redeemer in your party and maybe also a priest. Those are great against vessels so we can skip Sanctifier. Talent points are scarce. And there's also the Bartender's Ring which gives us +20% against vessels anyway. I didn't take Marksman because most of the time I was not fighting at max range. In fact I was running around a lot and fought at melee or mid range most of the time. Standing right behind the front line, intercepting rushing enemies, catching some wounds or just running past some mobs in order to eat disengagement attacks for wounds before firing at the enemy spellcasters with the Long Pain. Also, with the camping bonuses I didn't feel the need for +5 ACC. The Long Pain also has a huge ACC bonus that seems to scale with level. At lvl 16 they have +20 ACC. I chose boreal dwarv as race because of the same reason: I wasn't doing ranged combat exclusively, so it felt like a waste to take wood elf. +15 ACC against two creature groups seemed to be better. I chose the second weapon setup because the shield, combined with the Ring of Thorns, gives you +100 to all defenses when you are prone or stunned. THis can be a lifesaver when you get cc'd and surrounded. Just switch to the second weapon set then and you get nearly untouchable. Once the cc effect wears off, use Force of Anguish to break free. Flagellanth's Path is also good for this. I didn't take it but I consider it a better choice than Resonant Touch actually. Damage, ACC and Speed: The Long Pain's base damage is 24-36 at lvl 16. I can add +10% from the Cloak of the Frozen Hunt (or Archer's Gloves) and also +42% from 24 MIG. The result is 37-55 crush damage against every enemy I meet. When I add the hater talents, it's another +25% against all enemies except kith and vessels. Now add the Bartender's Ring with +20% against spirits and vessels. Apprentice's Sneak Attack will add +15% from time to time. My ACC will get boosted by my racial ability (+15 against wilder and primordial), Weapon Focus (+6), the Long Pain itself (+20) and by resting bonuses (+15, not kith) as well as the cloak (+6 against beasts). So my damage and ACC bonuses would look like this: ------------------------------ Wilder: +77% (42-64), +92% with Appr. Sneak; +56 ACC Primordial: +77% (42-64), +92% with Appr. Sneak; +56 ACC Spirit: +97% (47-71), +112% with Appr. Sneak; +41 ACC Vessel: +72 (41-62), +87% with Appr. Sneak; +41 ACC Beast: +77% (42-64), +92% with Appr. Sneak; +47 ACC Kith: +52% (37-55), +67% with Appr. Sneak; +26 ACC (here you could use to use the bonus damage against flanked targets) On top of that, add +25% shock damage with Lightning Strikes... so much damage... ------------------------------ With Mourning Gloves or Gauntlets of Swift Action and Two Weapon Style, combined with Swift Strikes you can reach 0 recovery. So imagine very fast hits at 12 m range with more than 50 damage. It's like a gunshot from an arquebus, but with 0 recovery - you're basically a gatling gun. Now add the fact that you can do Full Attacks with Stunning Blows and Torment's Reach and it really gets ridiculous. If you have wounds and are at range - just use Torment's Reach - Full Attacks with a huge AoE at 0 recovery against a horde of enemies (also debuffing them) is pure fun. I never - really never - saw anything that powerful in my entire PoE "career". Too bad it only works as long you have some wounds left. But your auto-attacks are also pure destruction. CC: I also put together all the CC abilities a monk can have. Because the all work at range you now have a perfect disabler. Another reason is you just don't need all the other defensive stuff at all. You are not a pore front liner like most other monks - you just go in, get some wounds and retreat in order to summon the Long Pain and the start the gatling gun. So who need Crucible of Suffering and stuff? Some othjer things like Enervating Blows and Turning Wheel don't even work, so all is left are those CC things - and the synergy is perfect. Not only is this guy a dps monster when he has lots of sounds - he also can CC when he hasn't any: 2 Stunniung Blows, 2 Skyward Kicks, 1 Knockdown - all without wounds at range with The Long Pain - awesome! And it also triggers Apprentice's Sneak Attack. Theme: I wanted high MIG and the Skull is best for this. Unbending is also good because you want to get hit from time to time in order to get wounds (but you can also shoot this monk in the back to get them of course) and Unbening prevents a knockout when you get surrounded. Together with Maneha's Armor your char will look like a Witch Doctor from Diablo and so I chose this theme. The Mourning Gloves and Unbending work quite well togeher with the armor and high MIG by the way. You will get healed by ~27 points each time you kill an enemy - which was enough for my "non-frontliner" playstyle. Unbending will do more healing. And it all looks funny of course. I added some druidic scrolls which fit into the theme and are also great for CC - Binding Web for example stop the enemies from chasing you. This can happen if you're out of CC attacks for the moment. All in all this is a very powerful combination of DPS and CC. When you let per-rest spells aside, I think this is one of the most powerful dps/cc combinations you can build at the moment. Because you don't have to move at all while you send them all to the ground or hit them with mighty force. And this guy's also not too flimsy. Another good thing is that all the abilities and talents also work with your normal fists. So you're never helpless even if you didn't have time or wounds to summon your Long Pain. Thanks for your time! I'm looking forward to reading your comments. edit: Whoo! Tons of typos! Will fix that later... Added Pen. Shot to the list of talents.

Got idea of this type of character for PotD run. Based around idea of stacking as much burn as humanly possible. So wanted to run it down against more experienced people to actually check how viable is it(as I didn't found similar monk builds Race: Fire Godlike (i feel moon will be better but hell, they look cool + fit the theme) Class: monk Origin: Old Vailia - colonist Stats: 18-10-10-10-20-10 Abilities: Swift strike Turning wheel Stunning blow Duality of mortal precence[deflection] Crusible of suffering Flaggelant path Dichotomous soul Iron wheel Talents Veteran recovery Twohanded style Weapon focus: peasant Scion of flame Lesser wound Savage attack Runner's wounding shot Superior deflection For equipment main part of build is deadfire canonier belt so I can summon firebrand. Base idea: high base burn damage of firebran + burn from wounds + scion = ton of burn. And while collecting wound we also trigger Fire godlike aura. For other equipment I am thinking about Angio' Gambezon, Gauntlets of swift action, fenwalkers, ring of deflection, ring of searing flame(why not have more sources of burn?), cloak of comfort. For secondary weapon I am thinking about guildmaster stuff as a source of nonburn damage and ability to swing it from the backs of partymembers in tight coridors. Speed enchantment helps too. Thought about solder for pike, but I feel barbarian from WM1 will make better use of pikes So is it solid idea overall or I am missing some items/ideas?

Hello, I want to play solo as Monk. I found The Anvil build in the board list. But I don't know what to do before going Caed Nua. Also I saw the early-game gears but I couldn't find them. So my questions are; - What do I need to do before the Caed Nua? - Can anyone share a good build if The Anvil is not the best? - Any other suggestions? - And is there any solo monk playthrough on YouTube? I couldn't find. - Also I don't need The Ultimate achievement. Thanks.

Hey guys, Long time forum lurker and recent member here. I'm sorry if this was asked before but I couldn't find anything. I'm playing single class monk (again :D) in party with regular companions. What enchantments do you usually pick for Tuotilo's Palm shield? It seems in my last game i was bad and left it without any upgrades.

BLUF: Hung up on the decision to go Vaniila Wiz/Helwalker or Blood Mage/Helwalker and optimization choices (POTD, all DLC content, with a story companion party) I've looked at some of Cyrus_Blackfeather's and Whimper's builds on the list but they are somewhat dated so don't know if they are viable. I have also seen Waski's solo mega boss fights with a Sage (BM/HW) but don't know if that will work with a party or if it's better to just go vanilla wizard with a party. ***I understand the different playstyles and have messed around with them in some old saves.*** Context: I played through POE 1 a long time ago as a Cipher and recently revisited it as a Wizard. I am now looking to play through Deadfire on PoTD as a similar character with a full party of my team from POE1, plus extras (Eder, Pallegina, Xoti, and Ydwin) . I've played through on Veteran difficulty and PoTD with other classes to include Votary, Arcane Knight, SC Wizard, and Transcendent (with other party combinations), but never as a Sage. I found some of the Paladin multi-classes fun, but "safe" and I tend to like the higher risk/reward play-style better. I also am a big fan of versatility and typically gravitate to casters, but fast paced melee is also appealing. With that said, and after reading through many of the topics on these boards I am finding it difficult to decide between between blood mage or vanilla mage for the xxx/Helwalker as the optimal choice. From what I understand for Solo runs the Blood Mage is optimal but would it still be fun and viable with a party or would vanilla wiz end up more powerful with party support? Any other tips or advice regarding race, culture, etc are also welcome. Thanks in advance!

Hello Everyone, I know game is out for some time now, but i enjoy it enough to finish it a couple of times. I read forum pretty much and community seems still active here. Would like to share with you my build. In RPG games i always go for melee guys, as ranged and spellcasters always annoys me and so is this time. With this build I was able to end game on PoTD with 300k overall damage, where Manhea, as second damage dealer in party made like 80k. For Boeroer and many other guys who knows game well this wont be anything special, but might be good option for someone like me who always think spellcasters are .. meh Idea of build is to pick mages/rangers and other squishes and end with them as fast as possible. For monk melee guys are not a big trouble since we got pretty big health pool so we just skip from target to target. With Flagellant real fun kicks in. There is no things that we need from other characters. But things that are nice is Priest lvl 4 buff +20 Accuracy and i love combo with paralyze from Cipher lvl 2 power. Enemy get great debuff to deflection and we can kill lot of guys with up to 3 torment's. Also You may ask here what when i get dominated. I just dominate myself with my cipher :D Untill i run back from enemy rear rank, there is already cipher running to me with his dominate. I hate consumables so used only potion of accuracy for every dragon. ------------------------- Difiiculty: PoTD in party. Started with idea of solo, but game was boring without Eder's speeches Party: This guy as Watcher, Pellagina (Tank), Eder/Manhea (Second Off-tank with Estoc), Durance (Ranged, but he shoot maybe 5 times/encounter and he is blind anyway), Grieving Mother (Ranged DPS/CC because ciphers are damn interesting class gj Obsidian), Hirvas/Alot (Basically whoever you want) ------------------------- Race: Moon Godlike. Target was to be as much self efficient as possible but with focus on DPS Class: Monk Role: DPS/Offtank. Generally it's designed to target squishes and end with them asap, without that much micro like rouges. ------------------------- Might: 18 +1 Constitution: 15 Dexterity: 18 +1 Perception: 18 Intelligence: 3 +1 Resolve: 3 ------------------------- Talents and skills: Torment reach (For me cone of it is too small to cry on low INT and target is simple enemy anyway Swift strikes / Long stride (I took Swift strikes due to lack some speed early game) Turning wheel Duality of mortal presence (Always set for other defenses) Crucible of suffering (Man it's like flat buff) Flagellant's path (This is where it become way easier to get to mages) The Dichotomous Soul (Didn't use it too much as it take forever to cast it and with low Resolve it get interrupted like hell, but was useful in hard fights) Iron wheel Weapon Focus: Peasant (Around level 10 respec this only for ruffian as dual purgatory is cool as hell and I cant live without dual wielding) Two Weapon Style / Vulnerable Attack (If you are going for Raedric early go for Vulnerable Attack here) Vulnerable Attack / Two Weapon Style (Vulnerable always ON ) Bull's Will (This build lack will as... as... ... very much. Basically target was to be self efficient so from now i will stack defenses against Paralyze) Body Control (Again - Paralyze is our worst enemy) Mental Fortress / Sneak Attack (Charms are annoying too, but there are less enemies able to charm than paralyze imo) Superior Deflection / Sneak Attack (Won't hurt and I run out of ideas) About LVL 10 I respec WF: Peasant for Ruffian and we start using sabres instead of fists. Didn't do it, but lower CON and add to RES could take place, but I didn't feel i need it, Manhea or even tanky Pellagina need rest more often than I. ------------------------- I didn't stuck so much to items, as we can adjust them pretty much like Orlan's Bramble Ring/Fenwalkers/Wayfarer's Hide (all of them paralyze def) but I will post my equipment Armor: Early - Plate from Raedric hold Middle/End - Sanguine armor / Hand and Key is cool also but damn, it looks bad imo / Wayfarer's Hide (Paralyze def) / Blaidh Golan (Durgan always) Boots: Early - Take whatever you found :D We don't have that much choice Middle/End - Shod-in-faith / Fenwalker (Just remember to not suppress with Orlan Bramble Ring for example) Neck: Spellward Amulet all the time. Again Paralyze is what I hate, and it usually comes from spell. In case of these 4-handed Laufgsdghfdsdgfsf from White March we can change it for something else. I didn't. Hand: Early - Gauntlet that gives +2 DEX early on Middle/End - Gauntlet of swift action (These are usefull to get 0-recovery as we are interrupted a lot) Belt: It get nice when we get to Looped Rope. It's a must have to change all hits and criticals from paralyze, charms to grazes. Rings: Orlan's Bramble Ring / Ring of Protection / Ring of deflection / Ring of thorns Weapon: Early/Middle - Fists. These have superior damage and speed. Are cheap. And have superior damage. Not to mention their speed. Change with spears when needed. Middle/End - Dual Purgatory. With all upgrades. I think there is no need to comment. Could switch to Edge of Reason, but i love dual swords/sabres. This build gave me much fun and fulfilled my expectations with llike 330k overall dmg done and around 140 biggest single hit. With swift strikes ON we hit 0 recovery with Vulnerable Attack ON, yet it's not needed since we get Purgatory. If u got any suggestions, let's discuss

Hello guys, Remember the old Baldur's Gate days where your monk would gain Armor Class with levels ? Now you can do the very same here in Deadfire. Transcendent Suffering now provides +1 universal Armor Rating at level 1, with a further +1 bonus every 2 Power Levels hereafter. I have not modded the inability for Monks to wear armor, whether you want to play your monk naked à la Baldur's Gate or not is your decision. Mod over here : https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1677798476

Hello guys, I like Monks in POE and POE2. They have OK tankishness, good CC and shine in prolonged combat. While I can understand the balance issue at hand, I dislike Mortification, which prevents me from using an ability all throughout the fight. This mod makes Flagellant's Path, Shared Pain and Launching Kick cost Wounds instead of Mortification. The screenshot shows 3 Wounds, but I've tuned it up to 5 Wounds since. Mod over here : https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1677798476

Hello everyone, Tired of spending a non-renewable resource on your Swift Strikes ? Thanks to mortimermcmire's quick and efficient guide, I was able to make Swift Strikes, Lightning Strikes and Swift Flurry cost 1 Wound instead of 1 Mortification. I've only tested it for roughly 10 mins (because it's kinda 2AM here and I'm gonna have to work tomorrow at some point ) but it does seem to work just fine, and it doesn't appear to override changes brought by other mods such as Make Swift Flurry Great Again. Mod's over there, enjoy https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1675965527

Hello folks, I’d like to ask you some clarification on the multiclassing, I am a newbie and I feel quite confused. I am mostly attracted by the monk and the Paladin, so the idea of making a Votary seems quite appealing. If I understood correctly, with a multi class character you can only employ abilities up to level VII, right? The problem is, there are some level IX abilities of the monk that I would really like to use. So my questions are: 1) is it absolutely impossible to have a multi class character with level 8 or 9 abilities (even in one of the two classes) ? 2) Assuming i’ll Make a votary, which sub-class would you suggest?consider that i’d Like to use a pale elf or a moon godlike Thank you for your help, cheers

https://imgur.com/a/rHPbyMH https://imgur.com/a/xYrmyUj Is it bug or it always was 0,25 per wound?

Hi. Long time lurker and I appreciate the help this community gives and seems friendly. So I got the highly addictive case of restartitus and have been looking for a build (still haven't completed the story though putting quite a few hours in but still fairly new) playing on veteran I'm interested in the fate testarossa build but I would love to use dual guns. Then I came across the gypsy thunder build but when trying it got bored fairly quickly, which then gave me an idea. Would those 2 builds work together? Could I cause a thunder storm while shooting thunder at them? So this is where I am at also taking a few inspirations from sintee's gunfu monk. (awesome build but as my MC I don't want to be forced into decisions) Class: monk (helwalker) /druid (fury) Race:pale elf Stats: MIG: 18 CON: 10 DEX: 11 PER: 20 INT: 16 RES: 03 Adding berath blessing for +2 onto each Skills and abilities I'm currently not sure on those going to pick as I go. This is what I really need help with. Next problem is blunderbuss or pistol? If pistol I'm looking at going towards arcane blaster and thundercrack. If blunderbuss not a clue other than kitchen stove (maybe hand mortars) however have I made my build not as effective with blunder as my might is high? I'm thinking deltro cage might be the armour for that boast to lightening damage too. Don't know if the recovery time will be worth it though. Anyway thanks for reading and looking forward to your input. PS. Kind of imagining this char loosely based on storm from x-men

Hello, I have tried to modify the Shattered Pillar Monk so that he generates wounds with melee weapon and ability damage but can't seem to find the part I have to change for that. So help would be appreciated, and thank you in advance.

Hi, as title: when you pick the PL 9 ability Empowered Strikes on a Monk and use (empowered) Whispers of the Wind nothing special will happen. No +100 PEN and no +100 ACC. Nor on the first attack neither the following. If I use Stunning Surge (for example) it works. In addition, the other "Empower-Abilites" (+1 PEN, +10 ACC and so on) that you can take at PL 7 also do nothing with Whispers of the Wind. Find a Monk (MC) with those abilities here in my savegame and try it out: https://www.dropbox.com/s/tcwpf6g07ik0k5t/Hyleon%20%28f9c897b3-bd46-4c0e-9148-d236ebfea8c2%29%20%28LAX-123ABCDEFG%29%20quicksave.savegame?dl=0

Since this was requested I will type up this build. It does require a mod from nexus to unlock Woedica Priest subclass - but if you play monk/priest you may as well go all out and play the Woedica priest because of the excellent spiritual weapon synergy on Woedica: +20% raw damage on "summoned fist" attacks that synergize with monk bonuses to fist attacks. Unmodded Skaen/Helwalker also works but is not quote-unquote absolutely optimized and "op". Note: Helwalker can be replaced by Nalpazca if you don't want to be super squishy although barring death's door kind of solves the squishiness later. This build does excellent single target and aoe damage and is very versatile. This is the general guide, for a more solo specific Contemplative playthrough check this excellent guide as it is more focused on solo play: https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/105553-build-servant-of-death/ Woedica is a more powerful priest subclass for monk combo than barath so this one is definately adabtable. Race: Human or Death Godlike - human if you want more accuracy on cc attacks and death godlike for more damage potential Stats: (no bonuses) Might 14 + 1 (Human) Constitution 7 Dex 15 Perc 18 Int 18 +1 (old Vaila) 3 +1 (Human) note this is strictly the stat distribution for party play if you are soloing you probably want to lower Might and Dex and not dump resolve or con so much - although this build can handle the low stats once you get barring death's door + salvation of time. And even in Party play going dex 10 / con 12 is not a bad idea if you want more room for error and be on the safe side of things. There are some variations in the ability selection involved ! = mandatory , r= highly recommended Leveling 1. Swift Strikes!/ Restore r default spell: Writ of Engagement 2. lesser wounds! 3. halt (early game) / later can be replaced by suppress affliction r or arms bearer or keep halt. Suppress Affliction is probably the best choice 4. Two-Weapon style! / Withdraw ! default spell: Summon Spiritual Weapon (Fists) 5. Dance of Death ! 6. Clarity of Agony or Weapon and shield style (solo), even The Long Stride is an option in strictly party play but you will probably go with either weapon+shield or Clarity of Agony in solo play or if you want to off-tank 7. Torment's Reach! / Dire Blessing! Default: Writ of Consumption 8. Lightning Strikes or Swift Flurry: choose one...Lightning Strikes probably is the more consistent dps choice, in a party setting, you may get more mileage out of Swift Flurry since the party can buff/debuff enough for you to land lots of crits. Overall Lightning Strikes is probably the more sound choice. 9. Stunning Blow r ...while optional and not a core ability to the build it is highly recommended, and the alternatives are pretty underwhelming (combat focus???? really) one of the Bulls/Snakes/Bears talents or the excellent Clarity of Agony if you haven't picked it up yet - but those are more options for solo play where some extra defensives are prioritized over offense. 10. Duality of Mortal Presence! / Scion of Flame! Default spell: Divine Terror note: here things get tricky on the priest side. Scion of Flame is the strongest selection for the end-build but you won't need it immediately so you may take Litany for the Body or Devotions for the Faithful. Out of the two I like Litany for the Body slightly more because it is a fast cast (and +2 ar on top of a good armor is very good) cast but given the aoe effect Devotion for the Faithfull is very good in a party setting. In party probably Devotions is better. Absoluely and in my opinion don't fall for the trap of taking Shining Beacon - yes it is an excellent spell, but one that can be more effectively cast from a scroll. Just keep in mind that for the end build Scion of Flame is the thing to take for the end build and all of your other tier 4 abilities will go into the monk tree. 11. Enduring Dance ! 12. Thunderous Blows 13. Raised Torment ! / Barring Death's Door ! Deafult spell: Writ of War 14. Rooting Pain r 15. Stunning Surge r 16. Turning Wheel !/ Salvation of Time ! default spell: Pillar of Holy Fire 17. Flagellant's Path r 18. Litany for the Spirit r - note: around this time it is a good idea to respec and take Scion of Flame at Priest lvl4 And take either Litany for the Spirit here (recommended) or Keep Devotions of the Faithful at level 4 Priest in addition to Scion of Flame 19. The Dichotomous Soul ! / Storm of Holy Fire ! default spell: writ of sorcery note: I now recommend Dichotomous Soul over Heartbeat Drumming as in patch 2.1 the soul summons will be buffed so in the end they will be more effective than Heartbeat Drumming. You can opt to take minor avatar instead of dichotomous soul though - it is a question if you want 2x very effective summons or if you want to boost your own stats a bit more - with the monk bonuses I personally do not think minor avatar is necessary. 20. Skyward Kick ! Alternative Variation: It is also interesting particularly when soloing, to go for a "kiting" approach: in that case you would stack stride via The Long Stride, Boots of speed etc and take The Long Pain (without upgrade) - that way you can run around and attack from range with your buffed fists. It is definitely an interesting approach. Also if solo play is the focus you should probably give up stunning surge in favor of 2 more defensive talents - definitely clarity of agony and upgrade. Overall assessment: This character is very strong from start and gets even more power to the endgame. As you see by the time you hit level 4 your damage engine is already in place: you have the Spiritual summoned fists on the Priest side and Swift strikes from the monk with generous healing abilities in withdraw, restoration and holy radiance, from there it progressively gets stronger. Another milestone is at level 13 with Barring Death's Door and finally the capper at level 19 with Storm of Holy Fire. It tested very favorably in terms of dps beating out a strong witch rdps meaning it should actually exceed aoe avenging storm blunderbuss scouts - but more importantly it does very high single target damage along with aoe damage and is efficient in doing that seamlessly especially at high levels: after casting storm of holy fire it is free to move in with high single target pressure thanks to skyward kick + stunning surge or further aoe pressure through pillar of holy fire and raised torment and flagellent's path. Further, and this is specific to the Woedica subclass of priest, not only does it get a bonus +20% raw damage to your fist attacks through the spiritual weapon, but you have access to nasty "writ" spells that can pretty much disable enemies: How does Writ of War (level 5) sound? Enemies cannot use active abilities (in a small aoe) for 20+ seconds (up to 30 seconds with high intelligence). Or Divine Terror terror (level 4) - frightened for up 40s with high intelligence. Or Finally Writ of Sorcery (level 6) - cannot cast spells for another 30 seconds. You can disable dangerous targets that way while you pummel them. Also even though I do not use ranged weapons, Acina's Trihorn hat is a very good headgear for this because it gives you +5 accuracy on such attacks. Typical play/ ai behaviour is such: (simplified) Always choose by list order First defensives: 1.) If health under 50%-> Second Wind, Holy Radiance, Restore 2.) If near death -> Bearing Death's Door, Withdraw Offensive list order Turning Wheel is active 3.) Lightning strikes 4.) Dance of Death/ Enduring Dance 5.) Storm of Holy Fire 6.) If attacking high armor target -> tenacious blows 7.) if engaging -> spiritual weapon, dire blessing 8.) If target is bloodied -> Stunning Surge 9.) If engaging/engaged by multiple enemies -> raised torment 10.)lowest fortitude -> Skyward kick 11.)weak to fire-> pillar of Holy fire If soloing you want to buff up first with barring death's door +salvation of time before going into attack mode and keep an eye on the buff bar and be ready to withdraw should you need it. Abilities like the writ abilities, summons, and others you can control by hand Recommended gear: Acina's Trihorn head if not choosing death godlike - boosts accuracy on lots of your spell attacks Armor: If you are soloing you want plate until you get death's door/ salvation of time otherwise I like High Harbinger Robes, Pale Hide, Bloody Links or Gipon Prodensco as well as Garari Cuiras. Pale Hide or Bloody Links is probably the best overall choice here. Rings: Ring of Focused Flame (especially later), after that it depends on situation, solitary wanderer if you are soloing and greater regeneration or Kuaru's Prize if you are in a party. Also Ring of Minor Protection is handy too. Neck: Strand of Favor Cloak: Greater Deflection , Frostfur are nice and of course Nemnok's Cloak if you pferer that Boots: there are boots that give you an extra second level priest cast, those are good Belt: I like The Maker's Own power here personally Bracers: Rekvu's are good when soloing because consitution afflictions are nasty, otherwise Accuracy bracers or Hylea's Talons are nice here going with the "fist" attack theme. Weapons: The beauty of summon spiritual weapon: fists is that it replaces any weapons you have equipped with summoned fists so you don't need an extra weapon slot for more versatility. Otherwise, as fire stat sticks you can't really beat Sun and Moon + Marux Amanth, though Magran's Favor + Marux Amanth may be more consistent Magistrate's Cudgel is great against kith and allows for some really nasty things like marked (+10 accuracy for 30 seconds) followed up by writ of war on the target with a very good chance to hit and poof! suddenly because of your ultra high intelligence thanks to monk they can't use active abilities for 35-40 serconds easy. Follow this up by switching to to something like Frostfall and killing things and the duration of writ of war gets extended on the target. Club (especially the modal) is crucial here to debuff enemy will save further if you want to land those nasty writ spells. And your dps bread and butter is the summoned fist attacks. With turning wheel active you get the following bonuses +10 might (if helwalker) +15% lightning strikes (non conditional), +20% fire damage (turning wheel - but average is closer to 10-15% because you won't be at max wounds all the time) , +20% raw (summoned weapon:fist), and of course there is tenacious from thunderous blows for another +2 penetration. In general to take advantage of the fire stat sticks you want to start a fight by doing storm of holy fire and pillar of fire and then transition into monk melee pummeler mode with summoned fists after buffing with dire blessing. Anyways this is a beautiful build and looks badass to play because of the vampiric summoned fists, enjoy and definitely try this one out, I think it is one of the more fun melee pummeler/offensive spell caster hybrid builds out there.

To find out that Shattered Pillar Monk is utter trash now. Went from super OP to (for me) unplayable. I played the game the first two weeks it came out a lot have changed since then... Time to reroll i guess. I got one question im planning to do either a Nalpazca paladin multiclass or a Helwalker Paladin multiclass. I prefered nalpazca because of the insane stat/accuracy/crit bonuses from pots and drugs. But im not sure when i read the patch nodes from 1.2 what those mean: "Alchemy Skill no longer affects "Poison" keyworded spells and abilities. (It still affects applied poison consumables)" From reports in the forum i read that Alchemy does not work anymore on increasing the stats that potion and drugs provide is that correct? In that case there is only one good monk subclass left and my decision is clear. I just want to be safe about how alchemy skill works in 1.2 - can anybody tell me maybe?

Seemed like monk got some nice fixes to abilities like The Dichotomous Soul and it could use some discussion on a separate thread. Equipment abilities like Effigy's Husk's death aoe works when your clones die though they are kind of tanky. I've tried equipping the Necklace of Unlocked Possibilities, but the weapons spawned in the hands of the monks do not scale like their fists do so you can get a range of unique weapons going from exceptional to legendary that you can find out via combat log. One thing I like to note is that for some reason item party auras like the Curios necklace didn't seem to give the buff to my party members, but it gave it to my party's other summons. On the other hand some auras that also benefit self, were able to be copied with my clones. The Belt of Magran's Chosen got even better for a monk since now the clones can trigger the "on-hit" to summon a fire elemental. That means a pure monk can farm for an elemental proc to perform a mortar/frost seeker Whispers of the Wind to stack a ton of resonances via splash aoe then burst into raw damage then repeat again on all the fire elementals it may have spawned to stack even more. I haven't tried the other new weapons or checked if other weapons have been changed similarly so there might be some super cool synergies I'm too busy to test. Has anyone felt any differences in blade turning?

The Slayer (Updated for 2.0) Slayers are suicidal dwarves that go out into the world having sworn to die in battle to expunge some dishonor from their name. This slayer is constantly trying to die, but is just too good at killing to have succeeded at his goal yet. The build uses +damage the more you’re hurt synergies. This is more of a theme build rather than a min/max; but it did WAY better than I expected (this works really well in party w/ someone using willbreaker and Body Blows) Game Version: 2.0 Difficulty: PotD (+all Upscale, no mods) Solo: *No - You will need backup (Salvation of time and/or Barring death's door from others, the cloak can't always last long enough on boss fights) Race: Dwarf (mountain for the red hair) Class: Ravager [Helwalker/Berzerker] Home: The Living Lands Background: Laborer Stats: (not including blessings) Mig 16 Con: 10 Dex: 10 Per: 18 Int: 16 Res: 8 Skills: Active: Athletics Max (or split with alchemy, see consumables) Passive: your choice (I chose to pump survival for my backup weapon set) Abilities: (in order I selected them) Frenzy Swift Strikes Blooded Lesser wounds Thick skin Two handed style Barbaric Blow Accurate Carnage One stands alone Swift flurry Bloodlust Stunning blow Blood frenzy Duality Savage Defiance Bloody Slaughter Barbaric smash Enervating blows Interrupting Blows Stunning surge Brute force Turning wheel Tough Bull's will Bloodstorm Heartbeat Drumming Bloodthirst Equipment main weapon: Oathbreaker's End (early game I used duskfall+modwyr to get the wahai poraga then lord darynn's to go get oathbreaker's) Backup weapons: Magran's + Mohora Tanga Whitewitch Mask Protective Eothasian Charm Reckless Brigandine (into the breach) Ring of greater regen Voidward Boots of the stone Nemnok’s Cloak Boltcatchers The Undying Burden Pet: Nalvi Consumables Food: Mahora wraps (get that mig to 20 & nifty recovery speed) Coral snuff (more speed) Potion of Spirit shield Major heal pots (or moderate if you split between athletics and alchemy) This guy plays so much better than the first two iterations. Dots for everyone, and a giant axe finally!

Wander around in an alcohol and drug fueled stupor lulling your enemies into surrounding you then suddenly explode into motion. Dashes around smashing the enemy and stacks debuffs and start with the deathblows at as close to 0 recovery and attack as possible. Citation: This was inspired by Sin Tee’s Mirke build. Game Version: 1.2 Difficulty: PotD (+all Upscale, no mods) Solo: Untested Race: Human Class: Shadowdancer (Streetfighter/Nalpazca) Home: Deadfire Background: Hunter Stats: Mig 17 Con: 10 Dex: 19 Per: 18 Int: 10 Res: 4 Skills: Active: Alchemy Max Passive: your choice (no gear bonuses) Abilities (In suggested order of selection): Crippling Strike & Swift Strikes Escape Lesser Wounds Dirty Fighting & Two Weapon Style Blinding Strike Defensive roll (or fast runner) Debilitating Strike & Swift Flurry Confounding Blind Finishing Blow Snake Reflex & Thunderous Blows Duality of Mortal Presence Rooting Pain Deep Wounds & Uncanny Luck Devastating Blow Tough Improved Critical & Flagellant's Path Turning Wheel Enervating Blows Deathblows & Heartbeat Drumming Adept Evasion or Slippery Mind Gear: Pukestabber & Marux Amanth (unarmed for 2nd set) Fair Favor Precognition Miscreant's Leathers Chameleon's Touch Entonia Signet Ring Boots of Stone Girdle of Mortal Protection Gatecrashers Cloak of Greater Deflection: +7 Deflection Pet: Abraham (Dog): Reduce armor penalty for player (varies by type) & health on kill party effect. Or Nalvi (Dog): +1 resolve for player & Reduce recover Penalty for armor (varies by type) Party effect. Consumables: Vrer Chiora (Alcohol for Mad Drunk) Mouth Char Potion of Perfect Aim Potion of Ascension Potion of Spirit Shield Potion of Moderate Healing Edit: you could do the history + giftbearer's and change gatecrashers to bracers of deflection if you find yourself getting in trouble often, but the trick is to never stand still, get flanked then flagellants in and out of it while dumping 2 or 3 debilitating strikes at the speed of sound.

Hey guys, in response to the new update v1.20 which gives us access to a mod manager and makes the integration of custom classes easier than ever, I thought it would be a cool idea for the community to make a library of all the class and subclass ideas they have that could be integrated into the game. One of my favorite things about Neverwinter Nights 2 and other crpgs is the sheer amount of classes and subclasses available for us to choose. While Deadfire has added to the number it never hurts to go the extra mile with mods to tailor your experience. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ I would like to start off with the Priest of Abydon, a priest focused on defense and uses a variety of transmutation and earth like abilities. Description: Abydon is the god of duty, preservation, hope, progress, aspiration and industy. The patron of balcksmiths, laborers and the Crusible knights, the god inspires excellence in your chosen field and encourages honest work and tenacity. Abydon sacrificed himself to stop a cataclysmic event from wiping out the Entwithan civilization. He rebuilt himself from scraps of his essence and the help of Magran into the Golem, a being made of metal, however the geas that drove him towards preservation was lost. The watcher chose whether to remind him of it or let it remain forgotten. (Favored dispositions: honest and stoic, disfavored dispositions: deceptive and clever) The priest gains spells that correspond to Abydon when they reach a new power level. The Blessings of the white forge: +Deflection bonus when wearing heavy armor and if possible, can enchant normal equipment to highest level but not legendary and add lass to equipment (meant to help early game not replace unique equipment) Spells and Abilities gained: Fan of Flames: Bellows of the forge Firebrand: lose access to spiritual weapons or if these two options are in the realm of possibilities: 1. Spiritual weapon: Warhammer, crushing dmg and 2. Gift of the Forge: add burning lass to currently equiped weapon/s Twin stones: the hammer of Abydon could send shockwaves across the earth Ironskin: known as the god of constructs, Abydon rebuilt himself into a being made of metal Calling the World's Maw Embrace the Earth's Tallon Rusted Armor: Corrode poorly forged armor Unbreakable: Rebuild yourself as Abydon once did, if possible could include Symbol of Abydon: deals crushing damage and provides deflection bonus Citzal's enchanted armory: Fabricate weapons and a breastplate out of thin air, and Incarnate: Summon Steelclad Construct The Golem Reconstructed Edit: Decided to change the disposition to honest and stoic, fit better.

Putting aside practicality and whether it's actually worth it to do so, how ridiculous can we make the core monk ability? I'm curious. 9 + 1 Prestige + 3 Death's Usher gets us to a baseline of PL 13 with a death godlike monk while near death. We can get any of several boosts for elemental abilities via Lightning Strikes and Turning Wheel, but afaik those won't apply to Transcendent Strikes itself. What other PL increases are available?

I am looking to build a party with a Shadowdancer or Votary. So far most builds I see are for solo play, so their synergy in the class combo is based on, well, solo play. I am trying to do a classic party. Serafen - Witch (Bar/Cyp) - Striker/Debuffer *Using Sin Tee Witch King build as it makes him a fast and reliable striker https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1399216139 Pallegina - Crusader (Pld/Fgt)- Striker/Tank *Using modified version, also, from Sin Tee Valkyrie https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1400804034 Xoti - Priest - Healer/Buffer *As she is primarily healer buffer, only taking abilities that will work towards that goal, as I don't want to use resources on attacks on her. 1. Tekehu - Theurge (Drd/Cht) - Buffer/Debuffer/Healer (Modified Sin Tee Deep Sea King Build) https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1394145549 or 2. Maia (for full martial party) - Scout (Rng/Rog)- Striker (Modified Sin Tee Reaper's Build) https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1396597008 So this leaves me, either Shadowdancer (Mnk/Rog)(fast attacks with good defense, I feel that as a Watcher I am most often than not targeted) or a Votary (Pld/Mnk). Role: This is going for an "Tanky" Striker, but I want to avoid if possible getting hit Subclass: Paladin (Wayfarer or Bleakwaker) Monk (Helwalker or no subclass) Rogue (Trickster) Reasoning: Streetfighter I don't want streetfighter rogue as I am not going to position myself to try to get the hits and I am going to be low on health (see below on stats) so 50% bloodied will be very dangerous position to be in. Nalpazca: I already had a really bad experience as nalpazca, with drug management, I ran out of drugs on PoTD Nemnok area and having that 100% healing debuff on each Arcane Dampener is not something I crave to experience again. Shattered Pillar: You only gain wounds thru Auto-Attacks, and only a max of 5 wounds total, which are enough to do most abilities, but you will not be using them often. And I feel that AI code for enemies target the Watcher a lot on different skills, unsure if its something I am doing wrong. Hence I will be able to generate wounds but getting hit, since I will be getting hit it seems. Assassin: This is a niche subclass with the mindset that you will be doing attacks from invisible and stealth; which I feel is more suitable for solo play. *Paladin's subclass all are good with little drawbacks, but as stated above, I feel I get targeted a lot by enemy attacks, so having this burst heal while doing damage is amazing. Stats: (With Berath's Blessing) MIG: 15 (17) CON: 8 (10) DEX: 15 (17) PER: 16 (18) INT: 12 (14) RES: 12 (14) Low CON, as you are trying to avoid getting hit, not soak the damage. Both builds below will function in the same way, although the Paladin has Lay on Hands and if Kind Wayfarer is chosen as its subclass each Flames of Devotion will heal you. I don't like min/max builds as I feel they have, well high strong points and also really weak ones; but you could dump CON more if you want to increase PER or DEX or even raise RES higher, but if you as choosing Rogue Trickster subclass you get so many Illusion spells that increase your Deflection that 1-3 extra points in Deflection will not make that much difference in the end. Race: Wood Elf (Dexterity Affliction resistance is nice to have, as that means my Quick from Swift Strikes or Swift Flurry will not get cancel) Skills: Alchemy, Athletics (4) As I am going to simulate Nalpazca drug abuse, but without the drug crash negatives. At level 20 you should have over 300s Drug time use. If: Going for Stalker's Patience you might want to put a better spread of points between Alchemy and Stealth (as weapon skill scale of stealth) Passive: Survival and Streetwise (they are used in many checks) Background: Deadfire & Hunter Equipment: Head: Fair Favor Chest: Miscreant's Leather or Devil of Caroc Neck: Precognition Hands: Ogre Gloves (+2 Might) Ring1: Chameleon's Touch Ring2: Entonia Signet Ring Belt: Girdle of Mortal Protection or The Amazing and Truly Incredible Instant Potion Belt Back: Cloak of Greater Deflection Boots: Boots of the Stone Weapons: Low level (1-10) Unarmed + Tuotilo as it creates great synergy with unarmed strikes and most of your attacks from monk are Primary only attacks. After level 11+ Votary: Stalker's Patience orMagram's Favor + Sungracer or Sun and Moon Shadowdancer: Stalker's Patience + Pukestabber or Rust's Poignard or Marux Amath Stalker's Patience was added because of @grasida: "Stalker’s patience works very well with the monk crit abilities, since it can be enchanted with a 20% chance to recover immediately on crit. That can proc itself and can proc off of or from swift flurry and heartbeat drumming. The 1/3, 1/4 and 1/5 attack to immediately attack again whenever you crit feed off of each other and lead to some really fearsome crit chains." and @gkathellar: Persistent Distraction means every enemy you have engaged is Flanked all the time, on account of Distracted adding Flanked. This works wonders in combination with Stalker's Patience. Shadowdancer Votary

I have a problem with this kind of games, where there are many choices and I can't stick with one. So help me out here.. I am trying to start the game in POTD... 1. Votary (PLD/MNK) (BleakWalker/Shattered Pillars or Nalpazca) 2. Inquisitor (PLD/CYP) (BW/Soul Blade) 3. Shadowdancer (MNK/ROG) (???/Streetfighter [unsure of subclass as well]) On all 3 builds I plan to use Two-Weapon Fighting. Also so far I do not want to be a tank, maybe offtank but not main tank in any way. For Race either Godlike Nature or Frost Elf or Human. Since I haven't reached end game yet, I have no idea of possible good helmets or if the elf or human bonus are actually good compared to the power level from Nature Godlike. For weapons I was thinking of either Battle Axes, Swords, and/or Flails. For Armor Light armor or Medium (depends if using MNK because of Swift Strikes) For Low levels I am so confused, because I feel that no matter which class combo I choose I miss a lot even with the 18 perception. MNK/ROG (Shadowdancer) Rogue Subclass: Street Fighter (This will make you very adopt a high risk fighting style, which you want to have more than 1 enemy always engaged and then squeeze into them.) But in the end I went no subclass, as no penalties are better than some for situational benefits. Monk Subclass: Nelzpaca (Constant wounds generation while drugged, and +10 P.Level to drugs Stats (Edited after a comment from AeosnLegends, I had copy pasted from a dps build the stats) (Also you can include +2 to all stats with Berath's Blessing) M:15 C:14 D:10 P:14 I:10 R:14 Traits Athletics until 5 Alchemy (after you get Athletics) (Passive not sure, use survival and others for RPG checks) Active and Passive Skills lv1: Crippling Strike & Swift Strikes lv2: Force of Anguish (retrain into backstab later on, but use this to dump wounds early game) lv3: Lesser Wounds lv4: Blinding Strike & Two Weapon Style lv5: Dirty Fighting lv6: Long Stride lv7: Riposte & Torment's Reach lv8: Swift Flurry lv9: Stunning Blow lv10: Persistent Distraction & Thunderous Blows lv11: Duality of Mortal Presence lv12: Rooting Pain lv13: Deep Wounds & Raise Torment lv14: Uncanny Luck (again this is to trigger Riposte as there is a higher chance to miss [haven't tested if Riposte triggers from this "miss"]) lv15: Stunning Surge lv16: Slippery Mind & Turning Wheel (Upgrade from Duality of Mortal Presence) lv17: Improved Critical lv18: Flagellant's Path lv19: Deathblows & Heartbeat Drumming lv20: The Dichotomous Soul Equipment: Weapon (offhand only as bare hand monk damage is superior to any and recovery speed is in par with daggers 3.0 base): Modwyr or Duskfall (which both can be acquire early in game.) Head: Fair Favor (acquired with level 2 or 3 with Serafen) Armor: Miscreant’s Leather (I enjoy the speed recovery bonus, which means hits more often and acquired without a single fight) Neck: Precognition Cape: Cloak of Greater Deflection (+7 Deflection, yes please!) Hands: Gauntlets of Ogre Might Ring1: Chameleons Touch Ring2: Entonia Signet Ring (again this is to increase deflection, Riposte, anyone?) Feet: Boots of the Stone Waist: Instant Potion Belt (you will have high Alchemy, so benefits from a potion on each encounter are great) Will be working on a Votary one next, but also build towards high dps with high survivavility