craig.rittenhouse
I am currently running around in episode 3 with the exact same characters and I think somewhere in the last 5 pages is a detailed version of my 4 characters aswell. I am well aware that there are a lot of ways to build the team, however I am also of the opinion that some talents are so good that maxing them out asap is generally the "best" thing to do.
Anyway this is what I would do:
Vraes
I would make sure his next 4 attribute points hit Str. It improves the chances to hit (important) it also improves the minimum damage dealt (icing on the cake as it is not that great). I see that other points went to Con, solid choise aswell but seeing as you made a sword and shield style Vraes he should not rely on his hitpoints yet, at this point 95% of all melee attacks should be parried by him and the remainder of his life should be enough to deal with ranged attacks that come through.
Skillwise I think you made the best choise possible Blades to 16 and after that I would personally alternate between lore and leadership to increase the duration of your buffs. Vraes does not have huge amounts of SP and especially wih expensive buffs it is hugely beneficial to have buffs last longer. Which of the 2 scores you increase depends on which buff skills you have chosen.
Talentwise I think that there is room for improvement, burst of speed 1 is obviously a good choise, seeing as you get 1mp and dodge for 1 talent point but in general I think being able to have mp+2 is the sweet spot. However I think the difference is rather small and can be neglectible at this point. I do feel that the current 2 points in Juggernaut are a bit of a waste, it might be because I am biased towards that skill. It gets useable @ rank 7 imo, however for a full explanation on how juggernaut works you can take a look at:
startradersrpg.proboards.com/thread/13267/vraes-juggernaut-rules . Natural mastery is also a pick, although I feel this is more of a filler talent. It will be taken after all the good things are @ rank 10.
However those things can't easily be changed so what I would do is increase phalanx shield to rank 10, especially with a Str Vraes ranged attacks are a huge pain, avoiding/blocking them is huge. If you just use Vraes for sword and shield tanking give dexterity a thought, on previous pages the opinions are widely spread but it migth give you some ideas and I respecced Vreas to dex and for the 1st time in a long long long time I can honestly say that the only thing that is hitting him consistently (atm) is spell attacks.
Kjartan
I see that you use mainly use him to debuff opponents, in that case I would deffo get intelligence to 16. If you play on nightmare or you are attempting an ironman run I would go for alternating between int/con, otherwise I would max out int and then go for con/kno. (depending on if he also needs to hit stuff)
Skillwise I personally feel there is to much points in conjuring, unless your goal is to have him do NOTHING else then debuff all day every day. Reason why I say this is because that with conjuring 9 you have reached a high enough conjuring to cover a 3x3 square with his choking ash and that battles where your CA or MS runs out will be very rare. I would have gone for Conj 9 and then sorcery dump so if you ever do decide to make him use offensive spells he can actually hit stuff.
Talentwise I think you are on the right track, the rank 3 pureflame seems like an iffy choise to me. Personally I would not go for MS but that is a matter of choise, since MS will benefit your tank(s) not getting hit so I am just nitpicking there. Thing is that I would deffo have maxed out Choking Ash before doing anything else with Kjartan. Choking Ash is most likely his best talent and the benefits are HUGE. -armor, -dodge and -parry. Eveything you need to make sure ranged attacks and melee attacks hit and get through armor. So I would get that to rank 10 asap. Seeing as you use Kjartan purely for debuffs there might be times where he skips a round, not using his AP to the fullest. If that happens often you might want to reconsider some things. Thing is though without Kjartan adding to the damage in the party (no Burning blades) and no offesive magic that can reliable hit you have to make sure that your other 3 characters can really dish out a pack of whooping.
Kyera
I see that you use her as offtank so then I think going hybrid with con and intelligence is the right choise.
Skillwise going hammers and conuring also the right option, although make sure that you have enough conjuring to make sure you can debuff upto 5 people with EA.
Talentwise I feel that the talents are all over the place. I would not have invested in smiting blow regardless of she being an (off)tank. If you have kyera getting EA upto 6 is huge +. Especially since you kjarten also uses MS. Cursing for -2ap should be the main goal, and the -acc and -dodge is icing on the cake and it works great when combined with Kjartans CA and MS. So my advice would certainly be to get that one upto 6. There will be battle where you really want to make sure that ap3/4 enemies can only do 1 thing. And in those occasion ToS might not be enough. If you go for sacrifice, then I suggest rank 2. Warder's shield deffo a great pick
. Not sure if I would have gone for purifying rank 1... if you really want to up it more then maybe... but if you took it to cancel curses then I think it is kinda "wasted". You will have enough resources and items that removes curses anyway, using it only costs 1 ap and you will use them rarely anyway. Myshana's tears 5 I think is also overdoing it a bit at this point in the game, if you feel that you really need to heal big chunks of health then I would check your characters again for defense items etc. As at this point rank 3 should be enough and later in episode 2 I personally wanted that I would have had rank 4, but nothing that a healing potion can't fix.
Tamilin
On point *pun intended but a very lame one* with the attributes, can't go wrong with Tam I think
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Skillwise I think you did a great job, much better then I did
where I went bow all the way and now am increasing thrown so she can be better in melee (seeing as she is my offtank).
Talentwise I feel that there is room for huge improvement, but it might also be that once again I am biased. Tamilin her Deadly intuition is completely overpowered imo. It increases her accuracy so when you go hybrid thrown/bow you will have a more reliable chance to hit with your bow while being able to invest points in thrown. Then there is that HUGE HUGE overpowering % of crit she gets... a whopping 27%. Deadly intuition 10 + %crit gear and she will be killer. Blacknight is good, but the sweet spots are rank 2 and 4 where you get the extra movepoints. Farsight is not something you want to invest in for playthroughs other then ironman or NM and even then it is questionable since it becomes good at rank 4.
ToS is a very strong aoe ability, however I feel that having a high rank DI and then low rank ToS (for the time being) does more reliable dmg due to %crit. But in general your points in ToS are not wasted at all
. With regards to Silent stalker, it is not a bad ability, however I feel that 1 rank is enough, especially in combination with %crit gear and DI 10. MY tamilin has a 56% crit and when I win the surprise round it is 78%. The way I see SS is a talent point purely invested to get an extra 22% in the opening round. Everything else is icing on the cake. And even then there are times where I just dont use SS due to enemies spawning to far away or because sending Tam to the front is not the best thing, or simply because going for ToS or ranged onlslaught is just better since I will aoe dmg instead of single target damage.
My advice for Tam, get ToS to rank 8 (seeing as it already rank 6) and then go for Deadly intuition) or if you have a respec I feel that it might be worth it to respec her but that is because my personal preference favors DI
. And with high amounts of crit, her ranged onslaught is also a great option. Firing on 3-4 opponents with 56% crit there are times she crits on all 3 doing 150-250 dmg per enemy. And ToS combined with high % crit and Kjartans rank 10 Choking Ash means you can fire 7 attacks at low armored opponents.
Final advice/conclusion: From what I see it does not look that your party has the ability to deal massive damage in quick succession to get rid of enemies. Kjartan seems to only be able to debuff. Vraes is a tank and his damage will probably be around 50 per attack with 2 ap weapons. Kyera's damage and Tam's damage are harder to estimate but I don't see Kyera doing more damage then Vraes. So basicly Tam is your only character that is able to dish out damage with her aoe ToS and even then due to low %crit there is not much burst. However this type of play probably leads to prolonged battles, lots of usage of healing spells/potions/spirit potions.
I would strongly recommend taking a look at how to improve damage output while maintaining group synergy. There will be moments in the game where a story battle tells you: "Enjoy these 16 enemies" and while you do have the tools to hold of enemies from 2-3 different sides it does not seem that you have the damage to quicly deal with 1-2 sides and push ahead.
When looking at Vraes as sword and shield I think his best talents are: phalanx shield, berserk rage (he needs to do some consistent damage eventually)
When looking at Kjartan I think that eventually it is important that he will be able to dish out damage consistently aswell even if it is just with a high rank firebolt. Kjartans best talent is by far Choking Ash, and after that there is multiple ways but ignoring burning blades is probably unwise. If you go hybrid with Kjartan and go for 1 buff 1 debuff 1 attackspell and then w/e Kjartan will have a strong benefit from the added +fire dmg from BB and the 6% crit is icing on the cake. However for Vraes a rank 10 BB is pure nuts seeing as it further enhances his crit to 39% and he will deal +d36 fire dmg. This means Vraes will deal consistent damage and even has consistent critical strikes that will deal over 200 damage easily. It will be the same story for Tamilin who also like the extra 6% crit and +d36 fire damage as her damage will be of the charts and seeing as Tamilin has torrent of steel she also lowers resistance so this means a lot of the extra elemental damage will come through. Seeing as you build Kyera as a melee character that means the added % crit and dmg are also reasonably helpful for her. As a caster she doesnt do that many attacks however in melee as cleanup she will be doing that and aiding in combat. It also make hammers with %crit a lot better for her. Basicly any damage that comes from kyera is icing on the cake.
So how I look at this is that with deadly intuition 10, Burning blades 10 and berserk rage 10 you will have 2 characters that will demolish the opposition and you have a kjartan that can also deal a good amount of damage seeing as the +d36 fire damage will benefit him the most seeing as he already does a lot of fire dgm and it becomes easier to get through the opponents resistance.
As usual my posts go way to long, but I hope it gives you some ideas.
With kind regards,
Rashar.
. Not sure if I would have gone for purifying rank 1... if you really want to up it more then maybe... but if you took it to cancel curses then I think it is kinda "wasted". You will have enough resources and items that removes curses anyway, using it only costs 1 ap and you will use them rarely anyway. Myshana's tears 5 I think is also overdoing it a bit at this point in the game, if you feel that you really need to heal big chunks of health then I would check your characters again for defense items etc. As at this point rank 3 should be enough and later in episode 2 I personally wanted that I would have had rank 4, but nothing that a healing potion can't fix.
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