How is this initial set up - Starting party

[Reiko]

Vraes - Avoidance focused- Phalanx Shield, Natural Mastery & Burst of Speed 
Equipment - Pole Arms & Shields -

>Very much going to try and stick to the idea of the character with his artwork and maximize his potential to be on the frontlines. Experimented with just being a damage sponge and that wasn't going to work out in the end so I guess a mix of both was the way to go. Stone skin just didn't cut it, and the RNG with Phalanx was helpful in the ranged attack defense. At first I didn't realize the true potential of this and the initial danger of ranged attacks, it has taught me a nasty lesson and got down right brutal. 

Kjartan - Conjuring Focus  - Choking Ash & Pureflame Shield's been the main focus yet been unsure what to level with him.

> Choking Ash was ignored on my first run and now I revel in the glory that is this spell, a lot of the game felt like easy mode with him just throwing this spell at his foes. Pureflame has been ignored mostly, but still used at its lvl 1 for the slight boost to defense. Been hardpressed however to level with him unlike before with the pure damage focus and occassional buff. 

Fyona - 2H Hammers & Offtank - Zealous Strikes & Consecrated Defense with the occasional Blessed Aura

> Been wanting to try Fyona to aid on the frontlines alongside Mr. Outlander, so far she has been unable to hit anything that's not been Ashed by the mage and been taking *way* more damage than I'd like her to. But nonetheless with the occasional heal, she still stands firm and by golly she hits hard when it lands. 

Tamilin - Bow for finishing, Knives to harass - Blacknight, Torrent of Steel & Ranged Onslaught (Planned) 

>It's a tough choice, along side with Kjartan, of what I want to make her into. I feel her bow presence is rather lackluster at times, barely doing damage when her knives are doing more than adequate. I dpn't see a need to level her quintessential RPG rogue skills but I feel like she's only truly useful at the start of an encounter or finishing off targets that Vraes or Fyona fail to kill.


That's my party in a nutshell, I'm dead set on Vraes' set up and sort of keen on keeping Fyona with the whole 2H hammer approach as its on her artwork after all. Tamilin performs well, but feel like she falls short and I feel like Kjartan is just a one trick pony with Ash and the occasional buff. Looking for a small bit of advice on what may work primarily on this set up. 

[matrim]

Difficulty?

Vraes - Solid build, there is room to weave in Berkerkers Rage for damage however, especially if you decide to build some Cortias Shield with Fyona.
Kjartan - How active do you want him to be? Choking Ash can be lots of mana, consider Burning Blades if you want to remain back and passive. Immolation if you want to be more active, this is SP intensive realize. Both result in similar damage across the party. He can still do some damage with level 1 Firebolt on a CA target with 10 BB (typically 100 if you have the items).
Fyona - Decide if you want to tank or do damage with her. Building both of the buff attacks spreads her thin IMO. Especially with a 2H weapon. If you need to move at all you will not be able to buff some rounds which leaves your damage lacking or defense. As you may have read on here Strickening is an amazing skill that will dramatically increase damage on anything it is cast on. Alternatively, Cortias Shield can make any party member into an effective tank. Remember that with a +1 Move Point item you can move 1 space, hit 2 times and then move back 1 space. This should see her getting hit rarely.
Tamilin - I build her similarly and she is amazing. Torrent of Steel with Strickening is just downright unfair, the combo leaves mobs defenseless and with no AP. With Choking Ash cast on everything, she should not be using bows at all, her throwing knives will vastly outperform at 1 AP. Blacknight is fantastic on her, she needs to be moving around the battle field, the Move Points on it are invaluable.

I have this group at endgame and they perform well. With good items and planning they do massive damage (more than any other group I have taken through). Vraes can crit for 850ish with a 40ish % chance, Fyona (1H hammer, 2H will be even more devastating) hits for 650 crits with 30ish %. Kjartan is built Immolation, which makes everyone crit all the time. Tamilin is build TK, BN, RO and does about 1700 damage a round against 2 mobs (2600 against 3, 3000+ against more), she has enough SP drain to exclusively use ToS now and it is devastating to the denizen of the Underdeep. Nightmare difficulty.

[wascalwywabbit]

Consider raising ToS to max to improve party acc via stripping dodge, ap stripping and elemental dmg potential via res nerfing. A point in RO for bow AoE at range and then DI for better acc and dmg on both your bow and knives. BN as much as needed for mp, stealth lead and dodge.

I'd add BB and immolation to Kjartan's arsenal, choose one and go all in after Ash since you say Fyona needs the acc from ash.

CD for Fyona is good, but imo RF and SoC are better since they are for the whole party. ZS, Reckoning and strickening are her best offesinsive skills. ZS adds personal acc and holy dmg for the next couple turns, strickening makes everything easier to hit via dodge curse and makes enemies vulnerable to magical dmg. Reckoning hits AoE, improves melee acc by dropping enemy parry, and improves party defense by dropping enemy dmg and ap.

my 2cents

edit: was typing on my phone when matrim posted his thoughts, looks like we largely agree.

[Reiko]

This is on Hard Difficulty

I feel like Vraes is hard to mess up unless you go too defensive for him, he's been outperforming everyone on a good encounter and is just overly fantastic in that regard, but isn't Berseker's Rage a bit counter Intuitive if you have defensive Talents. Though I suppose the Shield buff would be wonderous on him too. Hmm.

Honestly the only problem I do have with him is exactly that, the SP intensive costs when I push later into the level, only had to use a Potion once for his reserves. But if I am reading this right, Burning Blades *increases* spell damage as well? Along with items? I've kept his Firebolt at level 1 since it hasn't proved that useful, but getting in a finishing blow was useful. Honestly I want him to feel useful other than just belching up smoke, that is useful in itself but hard to imagine him tossing ash in everyone's faces. My approach to games is a weird one, I like to try and match the intent of the character and such as his use of fire and sorcery (like the bridge scene).

With Fyona, part of my problem is probably with what you say, I'm spreading her thin and the movement is also an issue. I've been working around the latter by not advancing as far in my encounters and only closing the gap when there is a choke point or positioning is needed. My problem with that approach is the way I been using Tamilin is the exact opposite and been keeping her dangerously close to the front lines (though not far from our bare chested beast) and flinging those knives. The bow really has not been terribly useful yet (currently playing through just after Oskahold), does it ever have a chance to deal high damage for perhaps a crap top of AP? If so, I'd be happy with that.

Though wondering just how much Intelligence I should level on everyone, SP does get to be a problem here and there.

[matrim]

SP is going to be problematic till SP drain starts getting to 10%. With proper strategies and moderate resting however you should be able to potion your way through everything while doing all the damage you want (on nightmare I only rest to gain levels and subsist entirely off of potions, but I play this game too much...). You are at a stage where you should be almost filling out a single talent by now. Vraes should be high PS maybe 1 BoS, Fyona should be high ZS, Kjartan should be all CA, Tamilin I take to ToS 8 to get -2 AP then go BN. This group is high damage throughout the game but will be SP hungry at your stage (especially Vraes, he will be a potion addict by episode 2).