Phrases are glitched as Spiritualist (Psion/Skald)

[anergyboy]

So there are two parts to this issue, but one or both of them might be simply due to my misunderstanding of game mechanics.

The first part: As a Skald, I picked up Gernsic Slew the Beast because the Skald passive makes it cost 6 phrases instead of 5 and thus I should start the battle with 6 phrases, right? However, I only start with 5 phrases.

The second part: If I use abilities so that I'm left with 1 phrase (generally two 2 cost invocations), I will never gain another phrase for whatever reason. 

Is this a bug? If so, how do I fix it?

[thelee]

21 minutes ago, anergyboy said:

The first part: As a Skald, I picked up Gernsic Slew the Beast because the Skald passive makes it cost 6 phrases instead of 5 and thus I should start the battle with 6 phrases, right? However, I only start with 5 phrases.

iirc, you start with the maximum chants you can sing ignoring any subclass-specific boosts. (edit: but you're still limited by subclass-specific penalties)

 

21 minutes ago, anergyboy said:

The second part: If I use abilities so that I'm left with 1 phrase (generally two 2 cost invocations), I will never gain another phrase for whatever reason. 

that is definitely a bug. does this happen 100%? with any invocation? i've definitely gotten into a situation where i don't appear to be generating any phrases, but i feel like if it was as simple as this, i would've run into it a lot more.

Edited May 11, 2023 by thelee

[dgray62]

I've played skalds a lot and I have never encountered this bug. Do you not even get phrases from melee crits? Also, I was wondering, why psion/skald? It seems like a counter-intuitive combo since psion generally wants to avoid combat, while skalds are designed for it. Soulblade/skald would have a better fit IMO if you want to go melee, while a poison/troubadour caster is fantastic.

[anergyboy]

5 hours ago, thelee said:

iirc, you start with the maximum chants you can sing ignoring any subclass-specific boosts. (edit: but you're still limited by subclass-specific penalties)

That’s strange, since I also took the three wyrm invocation at earlier levels so I could have 4 phrases and that functioned as expected. 

2 hours ago, dgray62 said:

I've played skalds a lot and I have never encountered this bug. Do you not even get phrases from melee crits? Also, I was wondering, why psion/skald? It seems like a counter-intuitive combo since psion generally wants to avoid combat, while skalds are designed for it. Soulblade/skald would have a better fit IMO if you want to go melee, while a poison/troubadour caster is fantastic.

Both the Skald and Troubadour subs fit neatly into the ‘infinite spellcasting’ archetype of the Psion multiclass, I’ve found, with the difference being that one increases the amount of resource you have available by making things cost less while the other does it by simply giving you double the amount; two sides of the same coin. Additionally, since skald can only get one phrase per action regardless of how many crits you get with said action (or so I’ve read here) it made sense to me to use Blightheart, which also gives you a phrase per action as long as you’re killing enemies outright or finishing them off and doesn’t rely on multiple layers of RNG.

EDIT: I can still get phrases from melee crits, though.

Edited May 12, 2023 by anergyboy

[Boeroer]

The first bug occurs from time to time. Maybe it's tied to the specific invocation. You will usually still be able to gain the extended phrase number during battle and it's "only" the start of combat. Still sucks ofc.

The second I never experienced myself. And I - funnily enough - also played and tested a Skald with Blightheart for quite some time. With Berserker as a second class though, not Psion. No idea where this could come from...

[thelee]

it might be useful to track what the invocations are that you use that lead to the never-generate-phrases bug. i wonder if it's related somehow to whether or not you get bonus phrase at start of combat or not.

 

either way, i'm not discounting that it's happening to you, but it definitely is not a common occurence, i've run lots of chanters, and definitely a decent number of skalds (incl konstanten).

[anergyboy]

10 hours ago, Boeroer said:

The second I never experienced myself. And I - funnily enough - also played and tested a Skald with Blightheart for quite some time. With Berserker as a second class though, not Psion. No idea where this could come from...

Yeah, the idea for the character came from ideas you and @Shai Hulud espoused.

Well, I got rid of Gernsic's Beast (the 'bonus phrase' invocation) and it seems to have fixed the problem, so maybe it was related to that.

[Shai Hulud]

2 hours ago, anergyboy said:

Yeah, the idea for the character came from ideas you and @Shai Hulud espoused.

Well, I got rid of Gernsic's Beast (the 'bonus phrase' invocation) and it seems to have fixed the problem, so maybe it was related to that.

I actually tried to post that I thought it was an odd class combo, except for one obscure build relying on spamming Her Revenge and Antipathetic Field / Mind Blades etc. If you're using scrolls of avenging storm you can proc a ridiculous amount of bolts doing this, with Effort 

Blightheart comes in mainly for the corrupting beauty pulse and SSS interaction