A dedicated undead slayer thread

[The Berathian]

Since the last post went over like a fart in church, I am thinking I asked too much in one thread. 

So, I've been thinking about a dedicated undead slayer build. The character in question is going to be imported from PoE1. Lots of folk died so that he might live. Not a lot of survivors. He's a dwarf. Wizard. He sort of took on a life of his own in PoE, as any roleplayed character should, and developed a downright mean hatred of the undead. He's devoted to Galawain, and that's how he finished out the game. Even though he's a wizard, he used guns, bows, crossbows, pretty much all-manner of ranged weapons, and used his spells to buff himself up for ranged combat and to make himself tanky. 

Which brings me to importing him into Deadfire. I could not help but notice the Furyshaper. A character who has endured trauma and who has a bonus to-hit against spirits. 

How effective would a Furyshaping Bloodmage be? And how to best shape the character to have the undead slayer Galawain loving theme? 

The dwarf, he's been touched by trauma alright. Most of his companions died. Eothas broke his castle and stepped on him. So a Furyshaper really does fit. It also goes well with his survival of the fittest mentality. So it seems like the built would fit him quite well. But customising the build and finding just the right weapons and gear, there's still a lot of theorycrafting to do. So any ideas would be greatly appreciated. 

Thanks in advance. 

[thelee]

23 hours ago, The Berathian said:

How effective would a Furyshaping Bloodmage be?

if you're focusing on the martial angle and primarily using wizard as a fast-cast buffer, i think that's fine. but you talk about ranged weapons, and you'd be missing out on some of the barbarian's big strengths by doing so.

there's a major action economy constraint on trying to martial and cast at the same time, so i wouldn't expect to fling fireballs around as well as smashing, but using the blood mage to cast stuff like mirror image, arcane veil, ironskin, infuse with vital essence and only occasionally casting slow spells (something like ryngrim's repulsive visage) would be a lot better.

 

if you want to summon weapons, all the wizard summoned staffs and pikes are decent for carnage-ing, though the ultimate synergy is probably willbreaker morningstar (morningstar can debuff enemy fort, barbarian has a passive that lets you target fort if it's lower, and willbreaker will also lower enemy will so you can land stuff like wizard illusions better).

edit: maybe thematically you should look at essential phantom spells for wizard - you create a spirit duplicate of yourself (with all your gear). not sure if that fits with an undead slaying theme, but sort of fits in with a general furyshaping theme.

Edited April 26, 2021 by thelee

[thelee]

just going to add for your consideration a priest. It's hard to say "undead slaying" without talking about priest, because Holy Radiance is a really useful nuke to have that simultaneously heals everyone but also harms all vessels (can outright one-hit KO the weak skeleton ones).

also possibly a ranger, if you want to stick with being part wizard as a caster. you can pick up the hunter's claw and focus on training it up just against vessels, while also equipping the red hand (which can be ugpraded to auto-kill vessels on a second hit). you'd basically be the person to call if anyone in the deadfire is having undead problems.

Edited April 26, 2021 by thelee

[The Berathian]

36 minutes ago, thelee said:

just going to add for your consideration a priest. It's hard to say "undead slaying" without talking about priest, because Holy Radiance is a really useful nuke to have that simultaneously heals everyone but also harms all vessels (can outright one-hit KO the weak skeleton ones).

There's no priest of Galawain though, which is why I didn't consider the priest class. I did think about a wizard / priest briefly, but couldn't think of a way to make the roleplaying angle work. 

 

39 minutes ago, thelee said:

if you're focusing on the martial angle and primarily using wizard as a fast-cast buffer, i think that's fine. but you talk about ranged weapons, and you'd be missing out on some of the barbarian's big strengths by doing so.

Could still go ranged and melee. Use guns for an alpha strike, like that one pistol with elemental damage, which can be buffed with electrical penetration skill, and the blaster. After the opening salvo, wouldn't be too hard to summon a weapon and cause carnage. It would be a very dwarf-like thing to do. An angry, pissed off dwarven wizard packing pistols who beats undead to death (?) with his staff. Occasionally, he turns one of the corpses into a totem to let the others know what fate awaits them. Sometimes, in his calmer moments, he casts spells. 

Edited April 26, 2021 by The Berathian
Typo spotted

[thelee]

1 minute ago, The Berathian said:

Could still go ranged and melee. Use guns for an alpha strike, like that one pistol with elemental damage, which can be buffed with electrical penetration skill, and the blaster. After the opening salvo, wouldn't be too hard to summon a weapon and cause carnage. It would be a very dwarf-like thing to do. An angry, pissed off dwarven wizard packing pistols who beats undead to death (?) with his staff. Occasionally, he turns one of the corpses into a totem to let the others know what fate awaits him. Sometimes, in his calmer moments, he casts spells. 

something you have to be concerned about is many undead are immune to pierce and most guns only do pierce damage.

 

I mentioned Red Hand because it's an arquebus that has the special enchant that it can auto-kill vessels on the second consecutive hit, even if you don't do any damage. (If you aren't aware, Red Hand can fire twice before reloading, so in fights with lots of undead, a fast party member with Red Hand will be VIP)

[The Berathian]

1 minute ago, thelee said:

something you have to be concerned about is many undead are immune to pierce and most guns only do pierce damage.

 

I mentioned Red Hand because it's an arquebus that has the special enchant that it can auto-kill vessels on the second consecutive hit, even if you don't do any damage. (If you aren't aware, Red Hand can fire twice before reloading, so in fights with lots of undead, a fast party member with Red Hand will be VIP)

I am aware. 

There's a pistol that does electrical damage, the Thundercrack Pistol, then there is the Arcane Blaster, which does raw damage, and both seem like good weapons for wizards. You can take the elemental passives that grant bonus penetration. Aside from the pistols, these will help with your spells, as most of the really good spells (imho) do lightning or corrode damage. The Red Hand will probably also be equipped, though it might go to a different character. That is if I follow through with this build idea. 

I once finished up a game with Blightheart as my main weapon, so I am no stranger to quirky builds using sub-optimal weapons. 

[Dalzar]

I have played blood mage/Furyshaper in a party as pure caster and fear ward is really helpful for letting you cast in peace. Frenzy ward is good too faster casting.

   Melee is also an option from time to time with self-buffs and draconic fury.  Way i play melee/wiz multiclasses is that I only take passives from wizard side and focus on melee class more and just collect grimoires.

Edited April 26, 2021 by Dalzar