Scoundrel+Witchcraft?

[[82DK] Iregi]

I have yet to complete a full run of the game as my alt ADD gets the best of me more often than not.

That being said I was wondering if anyone has had any luck with a scoundrel+witchcraft build. I can see where alot of the lower cost witch spells could be great for a scoundrel but I think about late(r) game scaling with int/dex split and I can almost feel the lack of use comng from one set or the other. Has anyone tried this set up?

[Dorok]

Nope, I have been tempted by this character build too but choose the more classical Scoundrel/Marksman.

Yes the relative weakness seems be one is dex based and the other int based. You'll have to put point on dex, int and cons. You could use 2 talents to get 2 more int points. Seems there's few books to exchange perception (mainly initiative for this char) with int. So overal it should be an interesting build.

[Revolucas]

I have a Shadowblade. I don't recomend only Witchcraft + Scoundrel. Dip into the other magic skills. You don't really need a high Int, maybe base 8. Mine has leech and Become Air which makes the character have a high survivability. It has a lot of utility but I like my pure Rogue better. It does much more damage. You don't want your damage dealer to be wasting AP on self-buffs, have another character do it. In the end it's probably better to have a mage/wizard since most of the time I barely use my Shadowblade to melee since I spend the first few turns debuffing/buffing. Still pretty fun though since it's basically a caster who can stealth/invis.

[lordfiSh]

Witchcraft + Scoundrel is fine :D
Buff + Daggers Drawn kills everything

[[82DK] Iregi]

I'm not talking about for self buffing. Enfeebling touch+Vampiric touch+ backstab. After oath of desecration buff from a caster.... that sounds like it could be downright deadly to groups of lesser mob groups. Also YES you can easily use all 3 in a turn. The feather sumthinorother(the air mage teleport friendly skill) can get you into position on turn 2 after you're all buffed up and AP'd up and then you crush an enemy group.

But that's just a theory I was thinking about alt rolling once I get to silverglen... again...

[UR|Dialetheia]

Scoundrel+Witchcraft is a perfectly viable build, especially on Lone Wolves, even more so - if you abuse Keeper Of Secrets' stat boosting books. Do also note that there's nothing stopping you from adding Expert Marksman to mix, for Quickdraw(that currently works on melee weapons as well as on ranged), and some usefull skills that don't require a bow. All in all the build is capable of ridiculous amounts of control AND single target damage. Consider - close to 13 level you will have:
1. Two personal combat teleportation skills(Tactical Retreat and Cloak&Dagger)
2. Two subterfuge spells(Rapture and Charming Touch), and that's not counting the possiblity to use Charming Arrows
3. Two methods to Blind opponents(Blind from Witchcraft and Eye Gouge from Scoundrel), note that high Int will lower the cooldown of "Blind" to just 1 turn
4. Three methods to remove harmfull status effects from yourself or allies.

And it only gets better after that.

[[82DK] Iregi]

Honestly that's what I was thinking. I curently have an archer with scoundrel for rapture charming touch CC and Cloak n Dagger + Tactical Retreat. But hes absolutely built around range more than anything. I usually invis into a fight charm touch a caster to start combat then rapture something else and save my teleports for if/when something goes wrong.

I was just thinking that maybe having a melee centric build would allow me to hang around inside enemy packs and cause all sorts of discomfort. Honestly the more I think about it the more I want to do it.

Here's my biggest issue though. Skillbooks, thy seem almost criminally random. I don't mind having to explore or find hidden stashes etc etc. but when my run without a ranger had arrow spray and barrage available at vendor and then my run with a ranger just had the same 2 ranger skills over and over and over.... it feels like Larian is trolling >.> Is there any place that is guaranteed to drop skill boox (X)?

[protobob]

Yes, in fact there are skill books placed by the desingers in particular spots, but I don't have a list.

[Cincada]

Originally posted by Ofiach:

Honestly that's what I was thinking. I curently have an archer with scoundrel for rapture charming touch CC and Cloak n Dagger + Tactical Retreat. But hes absolutely built around range more than anything. I usually invis into a fight charm touch a caster to start combat then rapture something else and save my teleports for if/when something goes wrong.

I was just thinking that maybe having a melee centric build would allow me to hang around inside enemy packs and cause all sorts of discomfort. Honestly the more I think about it the more I want to do it.

Here's my biggest issue though. Skillbooks, thy seem almost criminally random. I don't mind having to explore or find hidden stashes etc etc. but when my run without a ranger had arrow spray and barrage available at vendor and then my run with a ranger just had the same 2 ranger skills over and over and over.... it feels like Larian is trolling >.> Is there any place that is guaranteed to drop skill boox (X)?

skillbook farming made simple

1.) Level up.
2.) visit a skillbook vendor but don't talk to him/her
3.) quicksave (f5)
4.) talk to them, if they don't have the book you want, quickload (f8)
5.) they will have a new set of items now, repeat untill you have the things you need.

Happy save-abusing. =D (This is not a flaw, the game ENCOURAGES you to do this by making many saves. It's only random until you can control it dang it!)

[Dorok]

I suppose my load is too slow because for me it's unhappy abusing and I don't even consider abusing because with the random you can have series of shop and total crap.

But you pinpoint the element important, after a level up and don't speak to merchant before to save.

[UR|Dialetheia]

1. There are multiple ways in which the randomness of skillbooks can be offset(though, sadly, not completely eliminated). You can save/load abuse vendor inventories each level-up, you can save pixie dust and mass craft, at least, elemental skillbooks, or, you can simply make rounds visiting each appropriate vendor.

2. Melee Witchcraft Scoundrels are not, in my opinion, suited for "hanging around" amidst packs of enemies. All the discomfort you can cause - you cause it from a distance. With melee - you get in, avoiding all attacks of opportunity on your way to your chosen target, absolutely devastate aformentioned target to sad bloodied bits of despair and failure, and then get out - return to your position to mark and execute another target.

3. And yes, there are places that contain predetermined skill books. Air Elemental in your Homestead will always sell "walk in shadows", Barrage will always be in Evelyn's Lab, Summon Wolf will always be in the cave under White Witch' house and some others.

[eidolon232]

I typically just scip the debuffing part, since my chars have such a high damage output that you can kill everything right away. That being said, if the Scoundrel is your char with the highest initiative, you can make good use of Oath of Destruction (+50% damage for 3 turns at the cost of 3 AP. It has a 100% success rate and a cooldown of 8 turns with int 8.) Oh and there is Bloodletting for people that want to use Leech.