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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 discuss 5 builds for Deadfire. This is build 3 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 ----------------------------------------- orn aboard the creaking decks of a ship, Roberto Dilani was raised in the cutthroat world of the Deadfire Archipelago’s biggest pirate faction, the Principi sen Patrina. His mother, a ruthless weather mage with aspirations of command, and his father, a famed marksman who wielded an arbalest with deadly precision, instilled in him the cunning of a pirate, curiosity for the arcane and the artistry of ranged combat. Roberto grew up with a mind as sharp as his aim, constantly honing his ability to strike from afar with unerring accuracy. Early in his youth, Roberto saved a little piglet from the ship's cook and named him "Tartufo" and the two became close friends despite Tartufo's pretty overwhelming odor. Roberto also discovered his talents as an Arcane Archer, able to weave magic into the very bolts he fired from his heirloom arbalest passed down from his father. The weapon was renowned for its ability to break enemy lines with crushing force, and in Roberto's hands, it became even more dangerous, as his magical prowess allowed him to overwhelm foes with staggering shots of power and precision. Loving the songs and shanties that were sung on deck he also grew into a skilled Troubadour, learning to use his voice and lyrics not only to inspire his crew but also to further enchant his shots. His ability to suppress and take out helmsmen or even captains on enemy ships earned him the nickname "Pindown Poet". Roberto acted with cunning and strategy, using his arbalest to pin down dangerous foes while his crew took control of the seas. Though loyal to the Principi, Roberto's ambitions reached beyond petty plunder. He dreamed of exploring the world beyond the archipelago, using his deadly mix of arcane powers, song, and steel to carve a legacy that will be spoken of in taverns for generations. He believes that with an arbalest in hand and the legends of old as his guide, he can shape not only his own future but the fate of the Principi itself. "Hey, Mr. Arbalest Man, sing a song for us We're not sleepy and there is no place we're going to Hey, Mr. mouthy Helmsman, I'll sing a song for you and the spear I cast will put you on your arse." - Roberto while spanning his arbalest during a boarding fight - =================================== The Pindown Poet =================================== Difficulty: PotD -------------------------------------------------------------- Solo: untested -------------------------------------------------------------- Class: Wildrhymer - Arcane Archer/Troubadour -------------------------------------------------------------- Race: Wood Elf (or any non-godlike, e.g. Boreal Dwarf) -------------------------------------------------------------- Background: Old Vailia (or any, e.g. White that Wends) - Mercenary (or any, e.g. Mystic bc. +Arcana) -------------------------------------------------------------- Stats (w/o Berath's Blessings. ★=recommendation) MIG: 11 CON: 08 DEX: 18 (17 + 1 Elf) ★★ PER: 18 (17 +1 Elf) ★ INT: 19 (18 + 1 Old Vailia) ★★ RES: 04 -------------------------------------------------------------- the unique icons for all passive abilities are part of the Community Patch mod Abilities | Skills | Proficiencies - (!=important, r=recommended) 00. Brisk Recitation (a) 01. Not Felled By the Axe + Dull the Edge + Imbue: Missiles (a) + Marked Prey (r) | Arbalest (!) + Rod (r) 02. Fast Runner | +1 Arcana(!) (->2), +1 Survival (->2) 03. Arms Bearer (r) (Shattered Vengeance for Coordinated Escape) | +1 Arcana(!) (->3), +1 Survival (->3) 04. Two-Handed Style +Gunner (!) | +1 Arcana(!) (->4), +1 Survival (->4) | Large Shield 05. Marksman (r) | +1 Arcana(!) (->5), +1 Survival (->5) 06. Protective Companion (r) | +1 Arcana(!) (->6), +1 Survival (->6) 07. Sure-Handed Ila (!) + Imbue: Web (a) + Evasive Roll (r) | +1 Arcana(!) (->7), +1 Survival (->7) 08. Marked for the Hunt | +1 Arcana(!) (->8), +1 Survival (->8) | Arquebus 09. Resilient Companion | +1 Arcana(!) (->9), +1 Survival (->9) 10. Aefyllath Ues Myth Fir (r) + Stalker's Link (r) | +1 Arcana(!) (->10), +1 Survival (->10) 11. Rise Again, Rise Again (r) | +1 Arcana(!) (->11), +1 Survival (->11) 12. Nor Flame, Nor Thrusted Blade | +1 Arcana(!) (->12), +1 Survival (->12) | Club 13. The Lover Cried Out (r) + Imbue: Fireball (a) + Driving Flight (!) | +1 Arcana(!) (->13), +1 Survival (->13) 14. Master's Call | +1 Arcana(!) (->14), +1 Survival (->14) 15. Spell Shaping | +1 Arcana(!) (->15), +1 Survival (->15) 16. And Face your Foes + Survival of the Fittest (r) | +1 Arcana(!) (->16), +1 Survival (->16) | Dagger 17. The Bride Caught | +1 Arcana(!) (->17), +1 Survival (->17) 18. Tough | +1 Arcana(!) (->18), +1 Survival (->18) 19. Called to His Bidding (r) + Imbue: Eora (a) + Furious Call | +1 Arcana(!) (->19), +1 Survival (->19) 20. Set to their Purpose | +1 Arcana(!) (->20), +1 Survival (->20) | Pistol --------------------------------------------------------------- Items (!=important, r=recommended) Weapon Set 1: Spearcaster (! - +Legendary, Elemental Bolts, +Pinning) Weapon Set 2: Watershaper's Focus (r - best weapon for imbued shots, +Ondrath's Wrath, +Legendary) Weapon Set 3: Shattered Vengeance (r - +Coordinated Escape), Large Shield (any, +Superb) Head: Acina's Tricorn (r - +Acc and +reloading speed) Back: Ruata's Walking Cloak (skill Survival for ++stride) Neck: Necklace of the Harvest Moon (+reloading speed on crit) Armor: Sharpshooter's Garb (r, reloadin speed, +Legendary, +Low Profile, +Steel Threaded) Waist: Huana Charm Belt (+stride) or Spellkeeper (get a free scroll per rest: profit from high Arcana) Hands: Aegor's Swift Touch (+reloading speed) or Firethrower's Gloves (+reloading speed and +Arcana) Rings: Ring of the Marksman (r), Camaeleon's Touch (+1 PER, +1 INT to reach INT 20 for overlapping phrases) Boots: Boots of Speed (+stride, stacks with belt and cloak) Pet: Epsilon (-armor recovery, +stride) --------------------------------------------------------------- What is this build about: reaching very high accuracy and reducing your reloading time with arbalests so much that you can use the arbalest's modal "Overbearing Shots" to prone and interrupt single enemies (or two enemies with Driving Flight) every few seconds, essentially taking them out of the fight - depite the modal's -25% action speed. combine that with powerful AoE CC capabilities that have very high accuracy (mostly Imbue:Web + Imbue: Eora) High accuracy is achieved with Spearcaster + maxed Arcana skill + Ranger’s accuracy abilities and the Arcane Archer’s Imbue shots - which profit from Arcana, too very high reloading speed with no fuzz is achieved with Gunner (Ranger) and Sure-Handed Ila (Chanter) as well as high DEX and items (such as Maia’s Armor, Acina’s Tricorn, pet etc.) and cosumables (mostly food from resting). Sure-Handed Ila applies its -20% recovery time buff twice(!) to reloading weapons such as the arquebus. As long as you sing phrases you’ll always have three times -20% reloading time just from those two abilities (Gunner and Sure-Handed Ila). add Aefyllath Ues Myth Fir to give the party and yourself a burning lash for all weapon attacks. 19 INT +1 INT from items (like Chamaeleons Touch) makes sure your Troubadour phrases will have no gaps. You will not use Brisk Recitation most of times Spearcaster can cause “immobilized” on hit (in addition to prone enemies with the modal) - so you are combining the prone effect with being stuck. And all you have to do is just by using rapid auto-attack against mobs use Imbue:Web and later Imbue:Eora which together create a zone of incredibly powerful pulsing CC which immobilizes and then pulls enemy into the center. Most enemies cannot escape from this. Imbue effects get triggered with every projectile jump(!). This means Driving Flight adds another proc of Binding Web and Pull of Eora. If you can add another jump you'll get another proc. This is the reason why I'm using Watershaper's Focus ()it has an innate projectile jump that stacks with Driving Flight. If I use the rod's modal "Blast" I can add 3*AoE damage to the imbue shot and also I raise the chance to proc "Ondrath's Wrath" which is a high damage AoE water splash. Blast causes very long recovery. But if I fire the first imbue shot from stealth I'll have 80% recovery bonus which means the second imbue shot can follow quickly. After that I switch to Spearcaster and take out single dangerous enemies. it’s the perfect setup for allied casters and other AoE damage dealers who can now hit a lot of enemies at the same time give your main tank an item that grants immunity to push and pull effects (Upright Captain's Belt or Horns of the Aurochs) to negate the effect of Pull of Eora and give the tank immunity or resistance vs. DEX afflictions (Spider Silk robes, Shark Soup, Gwyn's Bridal Garter, Engwithan Bracers, Cipher's Shackle, Boots of the White...) or Reflex attacks (Edér's Saint's War Armor: Veteran's Maneuver) singular enemies like bosses can be taken out of the fight with prone&pin auto-attacks. Because of the fast reload and the burning lash (and the small lashes of the arbalest itself) you deal good damage - although your main focus is constant disabling/CC due to the fact that Animal Companions do not suffer injuries when they get knocked out - and the fact that Chanters can revive allies unlimited times (if no injury occurs) you don’t have to worry about a dead Animal Companion. Just revive! Since I am not using invocations all the time but only in special situations and because I can always cancel reloading the reactivity is superb. if Animal Companion is revived it even gets a defense boost. In addition I get the usefulness of Chanter invocations in general. You could add more summons like wurms to your offensive arsenal in the early game or use the White Worms invocation fropm afar - you could use the resitance chants instead of Myth Fir and so on. Almost always able to retreat from melee attackers safely (see below). A non-Arcane Archer variant that might want to focus on single targets more could also look at crossbows instead of arbalests. They interrupt but don't get the prone effect, but the 10% crit conversion on crossbows is actually universal, meaning it applies to all your attack rolls (including spells). They are also a bit faster of course. Fleetbreaker is an excellent crossbow (if you want to support Cpt. Furrante that is, otherwise it's not accessible) an the late game crossbow Scourge of Bezello is like it's made for a Ranger/Chanter character with its overall theme and especially with its 3 projectiles: each of them can interrupt with the crossbow modal, making it supereasy to strip a target of all concentration and interrupting it very reliably. Thanks to @Elric Galad for pointing this out. Issues: like your party members your Animal Companion should not enter the zone of absolute CC - so you can often only use it as your bodyguard. Because of Stalker's Link and Marked Prey it’s still very useful against bosses etc. when you usually don't use imbued CC shots a lot. If you use a tank (which I recommend) you should add immunity to push&pull effects on that tank as well as resistance or even immunity to dexterity afflictions as I said above. Else your tank will be stuck and tossed around as well. the Trouabdour side is mostly there for the chants, not the invocations (no Brisk Recitation). If you use an invocation your chanting will stop briefly, robbing your of the reloading bonus of Sure-Handed Ila. although it’s quite versatile for a ranged weapon build: it completely lacks melee capabilities (except with the Animal Companion). Usually you have to bolt if you get attacked. Your defenses will not be great and your health rel. low, too. To be able to retreat safely you cannot get hit by disengagement attacks. I do three different things when I get attacked by melee enemies: if it's only one I will just shoot him down (prone/stuck) until dead if it's more than one attacker I will try to charm at least one of them with an emergeny invocation. If I hit all of them I can run away safely with high stride (from boots, cloak, Fast Runner and so on). if one or more enemies cannot be charmed (but at least one is) I switch to my third weapon set (Shattered Vegeance + large shield). With my Animal Companion at my side and a at least one enemy charmed I get "Coordinated Escape" which makes me immune to engagement (if I'n near 2 or more allies, animal companions and charmed enemies count), letting me run away safely. if I cannot charm enough enemies and/or my animal companion is not near I use Evasive Roll if I get shot or cast at and cannot disable the attacker myself I will switch to large shield + modal (greatly reduces AoE and ranged dmg) and use Evasive Roll to get out of the situation. it is true that you can achieve the same with any Trouabdour in the party and another Arcane-Archer-multiclass (for example Cipher/Arcane Archer, Rogue/Arcane Archer, Monk/Arcane Archer or Paladin/Arcane Archer). This build however is the best "self-contained" version that doesn't require taking in a separate Trouabdour. Why is it fun? it’s easy to play because it doesn’t require a lot of setup: you just start combat and everything you need is right there. Shoot and immediate result - the enemy’s down. Blast and the mob is conentrated and controlled the swirling field of utter CC is so impactful and makes you feel quite powerful. It happens in an instant - unlike usual spellcasting which take a rather long time to complete it’s great against mobs AND single foes at the same time. It never feels useless seeing enemies getting pushed over all the time - right when they get up again - is fun it doesn’t need a lot of levels to become impactful: you can prone almost every enemy right away (albeit much slower at the beginning due to the lack of reload bonuses) and you can get Spearcaster and most of the other gear pretty early in the game you can maneuver yourself out of a pinch easily. Usually you will sit on phrases because the focus is on the chants - but if you need an invocation asap you have the full amount of phrases and can react immediately. It helps that with reloading weapons you can just cancel the reloading (unlike recovery) so you can react very quickly. Having great reactiveness is fun Hope you enjoy! Cheers!