[SPOILER] Thread for random tips, tricks and secrets

[DarkHarlequin]

I thought a thread like this would make sense since we are just starting to discover the secrets of the island and there are no guides around

I would start right away with a trick I came across by chance. Normally you lose the items from the ship. However, if you put the items on Roland, he keeps the items when you meet him again. I was able to verify it with armor, helmet, bow and lantern.

What tricks/secrets did you come across?

[Rufert]

Let's see.

You're the only one that need a shield for Phalanx to work.

Weapons have a two handed equivalent and taking both the two handed weapon skills and the type stacks bonus' from both trees.

Motivate and forage are the only worthwhile camping skills.

Sometimes a skillcheck is a hard check and you don't get to roll you just have to have above a specific amount.

Stealing expensive stuff from merchants is extremely easy.

The food system is somewhat irritating as crafted food confers no better bonus' and often have annoying uneven numbers where you usually have to waste a bunch overshooting the target.

Sneaking into combat let's you start right on top of the enemies, if they're asleep that means free backstabs for your thief.

Panicked enemies will always be backstabbed.

You don't have to use light blades to be able to backstab.

[DarkHarlequin]

Thank you, friend. Very informative!

[burningironbutterfly]

Is there a good way to deal non-physical damage outside of spells? The creatures resistance to physical damage are my bane right now.

[andersonm]

There's fire arrows for sale sometimes. But I'd say you need at least one mage. You can hire one as a mercenary and replace them if you get a mage story character.

[DarkHarlequin]

As people keep asking about spell list, i did it for tier 1 cleric spells. Maybe someone can help and add some of the remaining?


Spirit Tier 1

Blessing Touch (5 att, cascade 9): adds Blessed (+1 MtH,+1 RtH,+1 dodge,+1 willpower,+1 toughness) to adjacent ally until end of combat.

Mark of Heroism (3 att, cascade 12): adds Heroic Inspiration (+2 melee damage) to adjacent ally until end of combat.

Hammer of Light (8 att, cascade 10): deals 4-8 dmg (blunt, magical, sublime) to adjacent enemy.

Holy Light (2 att, cascade 8) adds illuminated and inspired (+2 MtH,+2 RtH) to adjacent ally or enemy.

Touch of condemnation (8 att, cascade 12) adds condemned (-2 dodge,-2 willpower,-2 toughness) to adjacent enemy, save roll each turn will vs 15.


Mind Tier 1

Aura of Fear (8 att, cascade 10) adds fearfull (- 2 MtH, -2 willpower, save roll each turn will vs 10) and disrupted ( -3 dodge, -1 MtH, -1 RtH. -1 movement) to aura target area.

Clear Senses (10 att, cascade 8) removes blindness, deftness and silenced from adjacent ally, adds clarity of mind (+2 intelelct +2 presence) until end of combat.

Fortify Awareness (6 att, cascade 12) adds +4 awareness and +2 initiative to allies in aura target area until end of combat.

Fortify Will (6 att, cascade 10) adds +2 willpower to allies in aura target area until end of combat.

Instill Courage (10 att, cascade 12) removes fearfull and panicked from allies in aura target area, adds inspired (+2 MtH,+2 RtH) until end of combat.

Sublime Projection (8 att, cascade 12) deals 2-4 + magical aptitude dmg (magical, sublime) to an enemy anywhere on the battlefield.


Body Tier 1

Bear's Strength (8 att, cascade 12) adds +2 Strength to adjacent ally until end of combat.

Cure moderate poison (5 att, cascade 10) removes weak or moderate poison from adjacent ally.

Minor lay on Hands (3 att, cascade 10) removes bleeding from adjacent ally and heals 3-6 + magical aptitude vitality.

Serpent's Grace (5 att, cascade 12) adds +2 Agility to adjacent ally until end of combat.

[Undare]

One strategy I have been running for money :
(Asuming Diplomacy improves prices)
-I make my Crafting specialist to craft many "Cure diesese" potions (X2 if he pass the check)
-Then my Diplomacy character sells them at high price (Some vendors buy them for more money, like the traveling merchants at 32g+)
-Then my thief with high steal rate, steal those back (In case there isn't a more expensive item)
-Then I resell them with the Diplomacy guy (To the same merchant XD ) and make hight profits.

With that strategy I managed to afford 3 Custom made Mercenaries at 300 + 400 and 500 gold. for a total of 1200g

(That has worked for me for at least the first 5 hours of the game on Normal)

[andersonm]

Probably the one most important tip:

Strength buff is a MUST HAVE for melee characters, and agility buff for ranged. The spells are in both the Nature (Ranger?) and Body (Cleric/Hierophant) spell trees. +2 to hit, +2 damage.

Note that you can cast it OUT OF COMBAT. And it lasts until the end of the first combat you enter.

So:
1. Rest fully
2. Cast strength and agility buff on melee and ranged
3. Walk around with strength and agility buff forever until you fight a combat
4. After combat, recast buffs and see if you are in good enough shape for one more fight or need to rest

[andersonm]

Early game, make sure to get gloves, shoes and helm for your party members. They add armor.

[andersonm]

Oh, anything that inflicts "stun" is great. Pretty much no enemy, including boss enemies, are immune to stun. Stun spells always hit.

[Rufert]

Originally posted by Undare:

One strategy I have been running for money :
(Asuming Diplomacy improves prices)
-I make my Crafting specialist to craft many "Cure diesese" potions (X2 if he pass the check)
-Then my Diplomacy character sells them at high price (Some vendors buy them for more money, like the traveling merchants at 32g+)
-Then my thief with high steal rate, steal those back (In case there isn't a more expensive item)
-Then I resell them with the Diplomacy guy (To the same merchant XD ) and make hight profits.

With that strategy I managed to afford 3 Custom made Mercenaries at 300 + 400 and 500 gold. for a total of 1200g

(That has worked for me for at least the first 5 hours of the game on Normal)

I'm pretty sure the suspicion also raises prices and lowers selling prices with said merchant. At least I've been avoiding stealing from people I'd ever plan on selling/buying from.

[Neo007]

Posted this elsewhere with spoiler tags so I'll just leave it here as is:

There is a camp of sailors to the western side of the map you can travel to after leaving the starting area where the wreck of your ship is, in the camp inside the northern most house is a mercenary, there is also another mercenary in a cave that was accessible after speaking to a pirate at the refugee camp. Of course there is a mercenary in the barn where you speak to the chamberlain in the refugee camp. That is three mercenaries available early on. They also seem to go up in price in increments of 100 based on their location not the order you higher them in so some are cheaper.

Additionally, the AI is easy enough to cheese if you can cast regen and just wait a distance away and some mobs wont attack so you can keep waiting while your vitality regens to full for the minimal cost of the regen spell (body tier 2).

Cleave is really powerful even more useful than multiattack for early mobs. I've cleaved through 5-6 enemies in one go with my two hander champion.

Some shops also reset when you save/reload. So you can get a two hander early for those builds that benefit from it. Two handers are among the best dpr (damage per round) in the game, tho backstab can be much more ridiculous. Melee can also crit, I don't think spells can crit haven't seen that at least.

[etalian]

Pro tip: Hit the crabs in their weak spot for massive damage

[Neo007]

Also there are a lot of posts about multi attacks for armsmaster classes but the cascade mechanic is pretty fun and powerful too (if it procs) been using a battlemagos and been getting them fairly regularly, last combat got 3 in a row (3 spell casts) plus extra attack from fire warrior spell.

The problem is low vitality on the magos and running out of attunement or having to rest either every battle or second battle.

Needs more management for less output compared to warriors since outright killing enemies before they can really hurt you is king. The debuff and stun spells aren't as useful as straight melee damage which is easier to build and less resource intensive. armsmasters also get a minimum but scaleable and free heal they can spam every round as a move action for sustain while a magos gets spell burn a none-scaleable (except for self damage) mostly useless move that should function as attunement recovery without needing an immediate rest or potion use but only makes you need to rest or use other resources faster.

Now, on the upside you can counter this lackluster mechanic with high crafting and spamming double yield potions and food, and selling the excess with a high diplomacy char for pretty decent gold.

Would rather a better tuned battle magos though...with higher hp per level, slightly lower att cost for melee range spells and at least one melee spell for each tier 1 element type to maximize weaknesses (this would be in line with the melee mage theme the dev seems to be going for). Would be nice if lore also helped you figure out enemy resistances too to compliment such a build. A Battle Magos exclusive feat that reduced spell cost at higher levels would be a balanced option that rewards good build planning.

[andersonm]

These are the spells I found most useful:
* Poison orb - air 3? : Area stun and poison at range (can this be boosted with the ring of +aura?)
* Thunderclap - air 4: Stun and damage every enemy
* Summon Ooze (Earth 2?) and Summon magmite (Fire2?) - summons a melee resistant mob that can tie up enemies for many turns
* Swarm of gnats - Earth 2 - super cheap 3 mana attack spell that reduces dodge (much better than magic missile it seems)
* Arcane shockwave - Earth2? - 3 range stun spell
* Distort mass - Earth 4 - Deals 15-30 damage + aptitute (late game about 10) to one enemy
* Diamond form - Earth 4 - +7 soak and immunity to acid, cold, electric, fire (few enemies use these though), critical hits and a number of status effects
* Strength and agility buffs (body and nature tier 2, so not mages) - fantastic, cast it after you rest, remains up until next combat

Fire tree seems to suck at high tiers. So battlemagos seems like the worst of both worlds - not good melee for melee, not great spells.

Mana burn (the self damage for mana) seems like it sucks. Costs too much points.

You do have to rest between every 1-2 battles.

[DarkHarlequin]

Originally posted by andersonm:

Early game, make sure to get gloves, shoes and helm for your party members. They add armor.

But also think about the fact you gear lowers your skills (armor affects athletics, headgear affects awareness and gloves affect thievery) so put it off before using skill.