I'm looking into how buffs work in regards to Animal Companions. Namely do they get resting bonuses, either from survival or inns? Does Apprentice's Sneak Attack stack with Merciless Companion ON the companion? (+IE 30% (MC) +15% (ASA). I'm asking these questions because I'm trying to go through POTD only using a party of animal companions without the rangers doing any damage and only being allowed to use marked prey / defensive and buffing scrolls, and for Caed Nua and Raderics Hold, I'll need all the help I can get to finish Act 1.

Additionally, is marked prey supposed to interrupt? I've never noticed it doing so before. Currently on the latest beta build.

The Animal Companion is a separate "character" so to speak. You pick stuff for them (such as Merciless or Vicious Companion) via the Ranger's level-up GUI - but in reality the ability is added to the Animal Companion and not the Ranger.

Because of this, talents and abilities you pick for the Ranger do not apply to the Animal Companion (unless it is designed to be added in some shape or form to the Animal Companions and sometimes the Ranger, too - like Marked Prey or Stalker's Link).

Talents and Abilities that aren't tied to the Ranger class and don't explicitly mention the Animal Companion (like Apprentice's Sneak Attack) only apply to the Ranger, never to the Animal Companion. So no: Apprentice's Sneak Attack and Merciless Companion cannot stack.

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I actually don't remember if resting bonuses from inns apply to the Animal Companion. I don't think so.

Bonuses from survival do not apply to the Animal Companion. They only apply to the Ranger.

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Animal Companion's base damage scales very well with level. This means that all sorts of additive damage bonus (Merciless and Vicious Companion, but also Predator's Sense) work very well here. Predator's Sense is especially good because it's a 50% damage bonus. To unlock Predator's Sense you need to apply some sort of DoT on the enemies. This is impossible if your Rangers are not allowed to deal any damage.

Besides Wounding Shot or a wounding weapon (Persistence, Tidefall, Drawn in Spring, Acuan Giamas) spell boning gear like Rotfinger Gloves (have a huge foe only Touch of Rot spell) is extremely convenient for this. Scrolls of Insect Plague/Plague of Insects are also great.

So, by not allowing your Rangers to use any DoT you are directly gimping the offensive performance of the Animal Companions - because Predator's Sense won't work. Something to keep in mind.

Maybe applying DoTs can be taken out of the restrictions the Rangers face in your challenge? Otherwise you need to accept that the Animal Companions won't be able to use Predator's Sense.

It could be that you can circumvent this a little bit by using traps. If an enemy gets hit by a trap that does a DoT, the Animal Companions could gang up on that enemy with +50% dmg each.

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Another thing you will not be able to use (and which is very good) is Stalker's Link. Since you won't allow your Rangers to attack an enemy (like, command an attack action) you cannot fulfill the requirement of Stalker's Link which is that Ranger and Animal Companion have to attack the same target. In theory it is enough to just command the attack, you don't have to actually execute it. So you could command a melee attack from farther away (so the Ranger would have to get there first) at the same time as you command the Animal Companion to strike - and then cancel the attack again so the Ranger doesn't actually strike. But this means extreme micromanagent and likely be no fun at all.

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Another drawback by not letting your Rangers attack is that you cannot support your Animals Companions with Marking weapons. A weapon such as Spectacular Spetum or Blade of the Endless Paths or Shame or Glory can give your Animal Companions +10 accuracy if they attack the same enemy as the Ranger with the marking weapon. It would stacks with Stalker's Link and Marked Prey.

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Also, by forbidding your Rangers from attacking you obviously will have to skip one of the best passives of the Ranger class: stunning shots (which also work with melee weapons despite the name).

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I'm not saying you should ditch your challenge's rules. It's just stuff you should know before entering an all-Ranger PotD run I think.

How would you feel to allow your rangers to use their fists (even without taking Novice's Suffering)? The damage would be incredibly low so it shouldn't have any impact by itself - but that would allow them to apply DoTs with Wounding Shot for Predator's Sense, use Stalker's Link, Stunning Shots and so on for the Animal Companions. Or maybe only use torches? They also do very low damage.

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Marked Prey always played a hit reaction afair. That's different than an interrupt. A mere hit reaction stalls the receiver a tiny bit but doesn't prolong recovery like a proper interrupt would - although the difference between a hit reaction and an interrupt from a light weapon (only 0.35 sec) aren't that big and noticable. It's more obvious when you compare a mere hit reaction with an interrupt from a morning star or so (1 sec interrupt/+recovery time).

I don't think this has changed with the recent updates.

Cheers and good luck with your rowdy rangers' rumble. :)

Edited 1 hour ago1 hr by Boeroer