It's been a while! I was fairly active on the PoE forums back in the day, and backed Deadfire in the Fig campaign, but despite that I have hardly played it. Part of that was that I found the changes to the game mechanics from PoE jarring: I absolutely loved PoE's mechanics and I just didn't have the energy to learn to love Deadfire's. Perhaps a bigger part though was that Deadfire was released during the third year of my PhD and I just didn't have much time for gaming. Thankfully my PhD is now (successfully) behind me, it has been a long time since I played PoE, and Deadfire has matured a lot (I may have matured a little too). So when the itch to play a CRPG hit me recently, I thought I'd finally get round to playing through Deadfire.

After spending altogether too long reading various discussions on this forum and elsewhere I've settled on the core of a character idea. Specifically I want to play as an Old Vailian Ocean Folk Cipher using various "duelist" style weapons (roughly speaking this includes Rapiers, Sabres, Swords, Daggers, Stilettoes, Small Shields and Pistols), emphasizing a flamboyant character (I'll be choosing passionate and clever a fair amount). I took some inspiration from @Aestus's recent Serafen build in this regard.

Whilst I have the concept nailed down, I'm struggling to decide on the details, so I thought I'd ask here. First off, what subclass and multiclass to go with? My thoughts at the moment:

• Soulblade: this is an obvious choice if I'm going for a melee build. Soul Annihilation is a powerful ability, but I honestly think the Concentration on kill is a pretty nice bonus for a melee caster. There doesn't seem to be much downside compared to a generic Cipher.

• Beguiler: I really like Charm and Dominate (it's a large part of why I've decided to go with a Cipher), and the Beguiler kinda fits nicely with that. I say kinda because when it comes to casting Whispers of Treason or Puppet Master the bonuses aren't a that big (longer range, which is nice for WoT, and 5 Focus if they hit). However quite a lot of good Cipher spells are large Foe AoE Deception spells, and in those cases the Focus return can be quite big.

• Single class Cipher: the simplest choice. That said, Cipher has less exciting stuff going on at PL 8 and 9 than some classes. Time Parasite is great of course, and since I'm using the full Community Patch Defensive Mindweb could be pretty powerful. Driving Echoes is a big buff, but not particularly exciting. The passives are pretty good: A Soul's Echo makes your many Will targeting spells better and Shared Nightmares seems generically good, with a big synergy with Ascendants (+275% AoE with your free powers) and Soulblades using an AoE weapon like WotEP. I'm probably leaning away from this choice, but could be convinced otherwise.

• Cipher/Streetfighter: generally speaking I am not a fan of this sort of risk/reward class, but I have to say -50% Recovery is appealing (the other bonuses don't hurt either). What I don't know is (a) how bad the +20% Recovery penalty when not Heating Up or On The Edge is and (b) how easy it is to safely keep Heating Up active in important fights? I will add that from a role-playing point of view Streetfighter fits quite well: I can imagine my character being the kind of person who went out drinking in Old Vailia and getting into fights.

• Cipher/Trickster: the safer Cipher/Rogue choice since you get access to some pretty powerful defensive self-buffs. The basic question is (a) do the various Trickster powers add significant fun to the build and (b) do they overshadow Cipher powers? I want being a Cipher to be a core part of my character, so don't want to end up hardly using my Cipher powers because it's better to use Trickster powers. I do think this fits my archetype fairly well too.

• Cipher/Blackjacket: so I've already played through the prologue and a decent chunk of Neketaka with a Devoted/Soulblade using Greatswords. I decided not to carry on because I don't like being locked into a single weapon. When I look at the other Fighter subclasses the only one that stands out as an option is the Blackjacket, but it's a weird one. Generally multiclassing as a Fighter adds some welcome survivability to my build, particularly early on before powers like Borrowed Instincts become available. Blackjackets sacrifice some of that survivability (worse Constant Recovery) in exchange for more flexibility, and I'm struggling to judge whether it's worth it or not. It does mean I can start combat by quickly firing a bunch of pistols before switching to a melee weapon, which is nice, but I don't know if it's worth it beyond that. Maybe a generic Fighter is better, but somehow I don't like taking non-subclass characters (with the exception of Wizards). Thematically I think it's a decent fit, though less good than the two Rogue classes.

• Other: I'm open to other suggestions, as long as they fit with my character concept (I have no doubt that Arcane Archer/Ascendant or Ghost Heart/Ascendant are fun for example, but they don't fit my idea).

I'd also welcome any suggestions on attribute spreads, with the caveat that I don't like dumping stats below 8?

Finally, any other interesting info, combos etc. that might impact these builds would be welcome.

Thanks in advance 🙂

Hi!

I personally - in the scope of your ideas - would prefer Beguiler/Trickster:

thematically very fitting and also works well mechanically.

What I like about the Beguiler (and even more so about the Psion - but that subclass doesn't fit the play style you're aiming for) is that weapon damage is not the only way to generate focus.

In fact, as soon as you have Phantom Foes and Secret Horrors you will generate a lot of focus and often don't even need any weapon damage as long as you can reach enough enemies at once. And if it's against singular foes you can still rely on weapon damage as focus generator.

Also the synergy of Deception spells with the several Will-based passives is great.

The best thing about the Beguiler mechanic is that you don't need to afflict the enemies beforehand in order to generate focus with Phantom Foes or Secret Horrors: the afflictions they bring already count because first they get applied and only after that the game checks whether you generate focus with that same spell or not (which you do unless you missed). Which is hilariously good imo. Also those spells easily unlock Sneak Attack and Deathblows of course.

Since Guile (the resource of Rogues) is limited, the danger of Trickster powers overshadowing Cipher spells is non-existent imo. You also need guile for Rogue strikes, maybe the occasional Escape or Invisibility etc.

While multiclass Ciphers have a lot of charm/dominate potential, they don't have terrify - which the Trickster can provide.

Also the all-defenses bonus of Borrowed Instincts stacks with the deflection-only buff of Mirrored Images for example - which makes a Cipher/Trickster surprisingly sturdy.

Also makes sense to pick Riposte then. Even with a dual wilding setup, the combo of Mirrored Images and Borrowed Instincts make it worthwhile.

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Streetfighter is very strong once flanked/bloodied, but imo it's most fun on either blunderbuss users (who can automatically unlock the SF passives with Powder Burns) or if you play a main tank who still wants to dish out great damage despite tanking - because in that case you'll be flanked all the time anyway.

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For a Soulblade I personally like Assassin a lot. Just because it's so frustrating to miss with Soul Annihilation (all focus lost and all I got was this stupid "I miss you" t-shirt). Soul Annihilation profits from all weapon damage bonuses, so from invisibility you'd get the assassinate accuracy bonus (+25) as well as bonus PEN (doesn't matter for the raw damage but matters for the physical weapon damage) and also bonus crit damage (matters because with +25 accuracy from assassinate and maybe even a one-handed Rapier + modal which gives + +37 accuracy on top - all in all +62, jeez). Hard to miss with that one...

On top of that Sneak Attack and even Deathblows bonuses apply to the raw damage portion, too: deadly strike from invisibility indeed. Add Backstab (also applies to Soul Annihilation) and that's pretty hefty stuff for a single strike from invisibility or stealth.

Single handed Rapier (check out Rännig's Wrath) is perfect for this because of the modal and the inherent +5 accuracy bonus of Rapiers.

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The best late game weapon for a Cipher of your playstyle is Seeker's Fang, no matter the subclasses. Its raw damage is very strong and stacks with stuff like Deep Wounds and Gouging Strike/Ring the Bell/Toxic Strike.

It comes late though.

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My pick as I said would be Beguiler/Trickster though. It's more versatile with focus generation, sturdier and has more stuff it can do to impact combat in different ways. Imo that is more fun to play than a somewhat one dimensional build that focuses on a single thing too much (such as hefty strikes from invisibility - although depending on the player that can be a lot of fun, too). Soul Annihilation usually leads to a behaviour where you spend all your focus for the attack and almost none for spells. It sounds like that isn't what you want to do.

Edited 3 hours ago3 hr by Boeroer