I am back on Deadfire and back on a Sage build with Helwalker and Bloodmage.

This time, my query is about specific spells.

I thing I'd roll the charachter focusing on evocation and citzal.

First unlock, the Parasitic Staff seems too good to pass on. But then what?

I'd like some build advices from someone that played this combo well enough to know how to plan it.

I wouldn't use too much MIG because you will get up to +15 from the Helwalker side (Helwalker passive + Thunderous Blows) and that, combined with the +5% damage received per wound, leads to Blood Sacrifice doing a lot of damage (scales with Might). Deleterious Alacrity of Motion, too.

Imo 10 MIG is enough. You will not get a damage malus (which would be multiplicative and that's bad) yet you somewhat control the self damage a bit.

CON on the higher side is not something I consider often, but here it makes sense. Monks have a big health pool and half of it goes into the multiclass, so the effect of CON leads to a fair increase of health in absolute numbers.

Imo high INT is a must for any AoE weapon such as Citzal's Spirit Lance.

For Race I would pick Human because of the Fighting Spirit passive. Due to Blood Sacrifice you will find yourself bloodied or near death fairly often and the increased accuracy and damage (also self damage though!) are nice to have then.

Everything that heals is nice, especially if it heals "on the fly" such as Devil of Caroc Breastplate (on crit) or a pet such as Abraham or even Cajux. Even better: using Cajux for yourself (20 healing on kill) and Abraham for Eder (effect for every party member: 10 health on kill) for a combined +30 health on kill (base value) when you kill an enemy.

Stunning Surge is extremely good with Spirit Lance - if you can hit multiple enemies. It's a free AoE stun attack then basically.

Zandethu's Draconic Fury (unique grimoire) is a great spell for a melee Sage.

Edited April 3Apr 3 by Boeroer

48 minutes ago, Boeroer said:

I wouldn't use too much MIG because you will get up to +15 from the Helwalker side (Helwalker passive + Thunderous Blows) and that, combined with the +5% damage received per wound, leads to Blood Sacrifice doing a lot of damage (scales with Might). Deleterious Alacrity of Motion, too.

Imo 10 MIG is enough. You will not get a damage malus (which would be multiplicative and that's bad) yet you somewhat control the self damage a bit.

CON on the higher side is not something I consider often, but here it makes sense. Monks have a big health pool and half of it goes into the multiclass, so the effect of CON leads to a fair increase of health in absolute numbers.

Imo high INT is a must for any AoE weapon such as Citzal's Spirit Lance.

For Race I would pick Human because of the Fighting Spirit passive. Due to Blood Sacrifice you will find yourself bloodied or near death fairly often and the increased accuracy and damage (also self damage though!) are nice to have then.

Everything that heals is nice, especially if it heals "on the fly" such as Devil of Caroc Breastplate (on crit) or a pet such as Abraham or even Cajux. Even better: using Cajux for yourself (20 healing on kill) and Abraham for Eder (effect for every party member: 10 health on kill) for a combined +30 health on kill (base value) when you kill an enemy.

Stunning Surge is extremely good with Spirit Lance - if you can hit multiple enemies. It's a free AoE stun attack then basically.

Zandethu's Draconic Fury (unique grimoire) is a great spell for a melee Sage.

Let's talk spells! Both unlockable and grimoires.

As fos stats, I have 16, 10, 20, 20, 18, 8. Tho that was a trial.

Self damage is gonna wreck me anyway, but I did try yesterday with these stats. The sweet spot for me is the most damage I can do without one shotting myself at 75% HP. Ir so I thought.

And yes, I may stand back and cast, or decide to go full melee, depending by the situation. I find that technical AND varied multiclasses keep me entertained the most.

I did try your Helwalker Berserk and I loved it.

Anyway, let's discuss spells!

Edits, cos I am on mobile ATM and make typos.

Edited April 3Apr 3 by Hariwulf

I guess as soon as you get Ninagauth's Shadowflame you won't use other Evocations that much. Especially with full Enduring Dance bonus and 10 Wounds + Thunderous Blows when it covers a fairly big area and the paralyze effect lasts for a while.

Shadowflame + Merciless Gaze + Citzal's Spirit Lance + Stunning Surge is a very nice combo because accuracy and crit conversions will be high, defenses debuffed and you can even convert from graze to crit with an Aware buff from a Priest or so. The AoE of the lance will be big bc. of Turning Wheel so you will crit with most strikes. Very cool for Swift Flurry and Heartbeat Drumming, too.

I find Pull of Eora super useful to pull as many enemies together as possible and be able to catch a lot of them with a following Shadowflame or such.

Stealth offers -80% recovery time - so its possible to open with Pull of Eora and immediately after cast a Shadowflame. That's why I would put some points into stealth. You don't need many in order to stay hidden long enough at the start of battle.

Of course for a Bloodmage Concelhaut's Corrosive Siphon is very useful. The only healing spell of the Sage.

Essential Phantom will inherit your Spirit Lance (or Concelhaut's Draining Touch without dispelling it on hit) which is pretty cool. It does not inherit Monk fists so it's better to summon it when you carry a weapon.

A very potent spell, Concelhaut's Draining Touch, if you are willing to exploit it. If you don't learn it but instead cast it from a grimoire and then immediately switch to a grimoire that doesn't have the spell, the Draining Touch weapon will not get dispelled after a successful hit. It has tremendous base damage and drains health, targets Will instead of Deflection and weakens on hit. Combined with a club+modal in the offhand (-25 Will on hit) and Miasma of Dull-Mindedness (-40 Will) you will crit a ton with Draining Touch and have lots of chances to trigger Swift Flurry/Heartbeat Drumming. But it is an exploit...

All sorts of pulsing damaging spells (Chillfog for example) and DoT spells (Necrotic Lance and such) scale very well with the increased accuracy, MIG and INT.

What else (besides all the nice self buffs)? Hm, I find Fan of Flames is overlooked and actually is pretty dope - IF you can make it so that you don't hit your allies all the time. It scales well with Power Levels with its pretty high base damage, it profits a lot from the added MIG, INT and also the PEN of Thunderous Blows. The only thing that sucks is the friendly fire tbh. It's also easy to buff its power levels further with a pet (Otto Starcat, +1 fire power levels), Magran's Favor and Sun and Moon as stat sticks (+4 fire Power Levels) and Evocation bonuses (Firethrower Gloves).

PS: I usually like Deleterious Alacrity of Motion a lot because the +100% movement speed + immunity to engagement is crazy (besides the action speed bonus) and the self damage grants constant wounds but is low enough to be manageable.

Fan of Flames has been a staple on my Spellblade (assassin). Cheap and well performing.

Agree on Deleterious. It is a friendlier wound generator, and good to melee with. The cool thing if Sage is that these 2 classes really mesh well.

This should be plenty to get me started.

BTW, dis you calculate how much might do you need to self incapacitate? Say, from lvl 5 or so.

1 hour ago, Hariwulf said:

BTW, dis you calculate how much might do you need to self incapacitate? Say, from lvl 5 or so.

No, I would just try it out with the help of the console. It also depends on the amount of your CON and if you have stuff like Tough, an Amulet of Greater Health, damage resistance from items like Death's Maw, Voidward and food (Rice for example) etc.

On 4/3/2026 at 3:20 PM, Hariwulf said:

First unlock, the Parasitic Staff seems too good to pass on. But then what?

I'd said Fleet fleet, but since you'll go for DAoM, Eldritch Aim should be a good replacement, good and cheap buff also at late levels. Or you can go for Chill Fog, one of the best debuff and AoE damage spell (or Fan of Flames as you said, could be great versus fire-sensitive foes).
I'd said also Thrust Of Tattered Veils for interrupts, but you can get interrupt abilities as well easily at late levels.