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Hey all, I was thinking of doing a casual replay through the game with a caster group, basically the characters we usually use as support and back-line, but rather, build a few of them through the main character and hires (I don't care for the characters in the game that you can meet and get to join you) for a party of 5 to 6. The goal to play through Hard. POTN is not friendly to "casual playing" for me at this time. But Hard is fun, while being casual. I like hordes of enemies (except enemy Druids packs!). I'm looking at the Chanter, Wizard and Priest. The beauty is, all characters can be made into decent enough DPS dealers via ranged attacks (not so much with melee DPS I find, unless doing Rogue, Fighter, Paladin, Barbarian, etc). And while some characters are better at DPS than others (Cipher, Rogue...) at range, via ranged or magic, I'm looking to make a little more "rounded" support characters maybe, that are fun and have utility, but also can be indirect damage dealers. I was doing a few tests with some level 7 hires, to see what could be expected by then, which is later game. While my fighters with Defender (and supporting improvement talents), Weapon & Shield and Superior Deflection can get into the 120+ Deflection area with high Perception & Resolve, I'm finding that a Chanter, Wizard and Priest with a high PER & RES build, along with supporting talents, and using their spells or chants to increase (even if indirectly, forcing -10 or -20 accuracy to targets is quite similar to increasing your Deflection if I recall correctly?), are achieving starting Deflections in the mid-80's with equipment. So significantly less. Granted, the Wizard can bolster this significantly instantly but only for a short time. Chanters can be in the mid-90's and just over 100, with their songs and other abilities through dropping enemy accuracy. Priests just have so much utility with heals and buffs that the loss in Deflection can be made up, in a way, with a heal here and there. All of these characters, however, also have one thing in common and that's that while they can be built to be off-tanks (a wall of off-tanks), with a lot of defensive properties, they can all have offensive abilities that are AOE or summons. So an off-tank Chanter with Frighten & Rime & Frost, summoning Phantoms and/or Ogres and dropping Paralyzing cones. Alternatively, the Movement & Will & Fort songs with Paralyzing cones, because it gets to that invocation fast, and two of these doing massive paralyzing zones back to back is just super destructive and tanky (two Chanters doing this with alternating first phrase songs, with Paralyzing cones). Maybe an off-tank Wizard, with Chill Fog, Bewildering Spec, Blackened Sight, Slicken, Displaced Image, Confusion, and then a nice Fireball, Fan of Flames, Noxious Burst, etc. Nearly too many to name honestly. Condition off-tank, with AOE DPS. One of these maybe. And then a straight offensive Wizard too, built around DPS and not just the support stuff. Finally a Priest, with Armor of Faith, Divine Terror, Withdraw, Repulsing Seal, Instill Doubt, Pillar, CoP, with Pillar of Fire & Cleansing Flame. Also a condition off-tank, with AOE stuff, but also some heals and support stuff. Only one though. That's 5 characters if I do two chanters, two wizards (one off-tank, one AOE DPS), and one Priest. I'm thinking to round it out, either a Ciper with high Mechanics for locks & traps. Or just try to do a 5 man party. If I had to add one more character, it would be something DPS oriented. Anyone done something like this? I know it's low on overall average damage output. I'm curious if it will manage through normal/hard, casually playing, with a bunch of basically support characters. Just looking for another experience beyond a min/max tank + ranged DPS party that I've already done that just walks through the game in essentially auto-attack mode and wins each fight no problem. My main concern is late game and the end-game, where they will be hit with a lot of afflictions, conditions, and high damage attacks. I'm not sure how they will perform there. And of course, I'm not sure how it will fare against the last battle. Thoughts on making it work? Thoughts on why it won't work and I'm wasting my time? ********** Either that, or I'm considering a DPS Barbarian as Main character, along with 2 chanters & 3 wizards (chanters as off-tanks with support songs & summons; wizards with all DPS setup and a few condition spells to support if tanks are overwhelmed). ********** Very best,