PotD Rogue + Druidshift: Lessons Applied for Fun and One-Shot Kills

[Gilmoy]

I start a parallel PotD run as my 1st-ever Rogue! and a parallel thread for it
As I peck at my 2 saves in alternating fashion, their thread bumps will also leapfrog.

The recent Druid shifter thread reminds me that I've never played Druid yet.
So that's my 1 hireling for a full party of 6.
I choose Druid werebear + Corrosive, to fully test the concept.

Early run. We were only L3/L2 for most of the fighting below.
Talky quest-ends in Gilded Vale just leveled us up to L4/L3, for next post.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Thematic #0: Logging From the Start
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[_] Cipher: log from start of game to Maerwald in Od Nua 1
[x] Cipher: log from Od Nua 1 through White March 1

This new run gives me a chance to fix a loose end.
[x] Rogue: log from start of game
[x] Rogue: log party XP, total coppers, per-rest spells per fight

I log map contents in Sheets on a 2nd monitor: monsters, quests, craftings, etc.
But in my Cipher run, my log starts just after Maerwald, and omits all before that.

So in this Rogue run, I log from the opening screen's Encampment.
Caravan Master Odema is the 1st entry

Logs aren't identical, because most loot drops are randomized.
But monster encounters, plants, and cache contents are scripted, and thus the same.

I also learned more about my own logging method.
It dawned on me that I could actually track my exact copper expenses.
Hence my 'ct' = "Coppers, Total" column, which is a simple SUM from top to bottom, always, at every moment, exactly matches my Inventory, Currency figure.

I already did log all loot income, vendor buys, inn rests, and craftings.
The only expenses I omitted were:

+ mundane sells (= of 30+ non-enchanted weapons, armors, hides per batch)
+ Aloth paying to learn spells from grimoires

Adding both sufficed. Similarly, I already logged total XP per quest steps only, but not:

+ XP per Bestiary entry (for first-k monster kills of each new monster type)
+ precise XP for all 1-6 party members
+ small-party XP bonuses

I add 6 columns for 6 party slots, and now I track all 6 members' XP precisely.
This revealed the small-party XP bonuses. (I could look on the wiki, but I avoid it.)

As a fringe benefit, my Rogue's current XP doubles as a clock
I don't log PoE1 dates. (Egad.) To annotate a non-sequential log entry, her XP suffices.
After Caed Nua, I (shall) log turn numbers, but they dovetail with quest completions.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Class is Strong, or Player Got Better?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Thematic #1 is to play a full party of 6. It's not hard, once you know they're there.
Finish talky-parts in Gilded Vale to L3, get L3 Edér and L3 Aloth.
Hire L2 Druid as werebear + Corrosive.
South to Magran's Fork, L3 Durance.
East through Black Meadow to Caed Nua, L3 Kana.

West to Black Meadow, clear it(!).
At L3/L2, we "easily" kill 6 Forest Trolls + 2 Forest Lurker.
I use my newly-learned mobile warfare skills from the Cipher run, and it works.
Set trap line far enough. Lure, snipe + run, use their tether radii to subdivide.
We have no action-stopper, so the 1 troll fights back, but at L3 its stats are oddly blah.

Similarly, the Smith's Shipment bandit fight was not too bad. (= I died only twice )
Bandit Leader was a Barbarian, and self-nerfed with Frenzy.
My Druid was already Maimed = 1 Health, so she set up far back as a pure archer.
Her first shot reveals her, and Barbarian AI fixates on her as the "easiest kill".
We couldn't stop Barbarian from running right through our line -- so we killed him.
Barbarian Poorly Used is a crit-sponge, AI Barbarian can't stop player crits either

The moderate lesson throughout PoE1 is: Use low-Deflection classes wisely.
Don't rush into melee as 1st line-stopper, you will get crit-locked and die.
This applies to Barbarian, Rogue, Druidshifter, and even Cipher, Chanter, and the casters.

The emergent solution is: Join as 2nd sacker.
Let Somebody Elsér ;-) set a 1st Line and (af)fix monsters' melee attention.
Pause, then commit your high-DPS low-Deflection guys to flank and overwhelm.
The best way to negate your low (early) Deflection is to never be attacked at all.

Weirdly Hilarious #1: The NW corner of Black Meadow has 4 Forest Trolls.
Before the Smith Shipment fight, I scouted 1 Outlaw (sword + shield ~ Fighter?).
During the fight, he reached his tether radius and turned away.
After the fight, he wasn't at the campfire! Where did he go?

He walked all the way west to the edge of the map, and stood amongst the 4 Trolls!
They aggro each other! As I snuck into view, they all wake up and fight each other!

An AI L3 Fighter is amazingly durable (but also, "L3" Forest Trolls are weirdly crappy).
Fighting 1-v-4, he lived for ~2.0 real minutes, enough time for my 6 shooters
to reload repeatedly and kill all 4 Trolls with ranged fire. We finally kill him ourselves.

West to Magran's Fork. A Goldpact Paladin will also fixate on a Maimed Druid
She chased her a half-loop around the north of the ruined silo, as my other 5 ran west.

South to Anslög's Compass, rest (to unmaim Druid), clear it.
My L5/L4 Cipher team had enormous trouble with the full Xaurip and Gul swarms.
But my L3/L2 Rogue team grinded them down without much incident.

I think it's partly from Rogue + Druid bear, but mostly because of me, the player.
I'm simply better at fight prep. Briefly, I didn't get swarmed, because I knew not to.
Set up far enough away, Nimbly Run Away, let half of them walk away.

Then it's an easy 6-v-1, or a manageable 9-v-4 with no enemy ranged/cast threat.
With numerical advantage, commit the 2nd sackers, and enjoy the show.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Rogue's Gimmick is the -100% Health Debuff
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Cipher's gimmicks are Charm and Paralysis. You can build a team around that.
Rogue's gimmick seems to be to kill things dead ASAP.

Rogue as 2nd flanker always gets Sneak Attack bonus damage.
+50% doesn't sound huge, but in practice it's magnified to almost Gimmick-class.
PoE1's (your Damage - their DR) mechanic can be a small difference of large numbers.
A mundane 1H weapon might Graze for (8 - 8) = one-digit MIN, or Hit for (16 - 8) = 8.

Add Rogue's +50%, and it's big compared to that small difference.
(24 - 8) = 16 becomes chunk damage, which rapidly scores kills (vs. L3/L2 fodder).
L3 Edér's job is to not-die and hit for 4, 5, 5, 7, ... etc.
L3 Rogue's job is to chunk for 18, 19 and a kill, 16, 22 and a kill, 15, ...
It puts her on a different tier of efficacy. And that actually is the gimmick.
It does seem to work at least as well as, or even faster than, Ranged Cipher.

At L2, I pay 1 talent point for Rogue Backstab for massive alpha-strike in Stealth.
At L2, a Rogue can sneak up adjacent to any 1 Young <Beast> without winding to red.
Then a Sneak Attack Backstab with a Crossbow routinely hits for 75(!).
That's a one-shot kill vs. Young Wolf, Young Boar, Young Bear, and early Bandits.

It doesn't work vs. adult Beasts, Troll-class, and casters because they see you too fast.
[_] I suspect I could do around-the-corner Stealth ambushes in dungeons with corners.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Druidshifter as 2nd Sacker
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
L2 Druid has only 3 L1 per-rest casts, so that's not my offense regardless.
I went all-in on shifting, to test the concept.

+ (core) Spiritshift Bear, INT 16 for +24% ~= 18.7 seconds (enough for 4-5 attacks)
+ L2 Wildstrike Corrode +30% (other talent choices at L2 are kind of meh)

The +30% vaults her into the same tier as Rogue's Sneak Attack.
Both of them average chunk damage of 20-25 per Hit.
That swiftly kills Troll-class, and one-shots fodder like Xaurips.

She functions very well in the 2nd sacker role.
Bow alpha-shot, then use the recovery time to choose whether-to-shift.
+ Sometimes she steps back and shoots again, etc.
+ Sometimes she steps forward and clicks modal Shift. On next tick, she joins melee.

This cadence naturally gives Edér time to step forward first and affix 1-4 enemy melee.
Exemplar: the xaurip camp swarm in Anslög's Compass.
- Lure Xaurip Skirmisher, Sneak Attack snipe and run
- alpha-volley vs. Xaurip Skirmisher (kill), all run backward
+ all xaurips tether-turn and walk away, snipe Champion in back
+ 1 Champion + 4 Xaurips re-engage, Priest + 1 Champion don't

Now it's 6-v-5, and they have no ranged threat, and not much melee threat.
Aloth goofs off with L1 Fan of Flames, solely because I want to.
He won't ever have that fun in a real fight later on.

Druid bear one-shots 4 Xaurip in 4 swings, ending the fight.
She had enough timer left to attack a 5th time, if needed.

This is admittedly an ideal case. Not even I expect it to scale up to later fights.
But it's more fun than a sad Bowbarian or Bow-only Druid.

I didn't fully grasp what Druid's Health = (4 * Endurance) "Very Low" means.
Briefly, it means that Endurance attrition swiftly leeches her Health down.
4 bad fights suffice, even if she never gets knocked out. That's a low bar.

4 bad fights might take 1/2 or less of 1 map.
Then you must clear that map + 2 more with her Maimed or really-dead
I did that once, and learned it. Druid doesn't have Barbarian health.
Druid('s human player) must put on a wiser hat.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Next: Temple, then (Maerwald or Raedric)?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We are newly L4/L3, with a full team of 6.
We have cleared Valewood, Magran's Fork, Black Meadow, and Anslög's Compass,
and all of their quests.

No uniques yet (except Larder Door from the smith).
No Fine-tier weapons yet, nothing worth enchanting.

Insufficient coppers to buy the Ivory Wurm Figurine, or Ponamu's soulbound weapons.
IIRC, I must (acquire and) sell Raedric's armor to buy toys.

I'll finish the Temple of Eothas in town.
It's tough with only 3, in noob playthroughs where you don't know to leave town early.
I've never done it with a full team of 6. It'll be fun!

[Gilmoy]

Weird bug, seen only this once.
Anslög's Compass, The Dial, routine fight vs. 2 Gul.

At end of fight, it didn't end! It kept going, and going, and going!
Kana chanted nine phrases!
There were zero hostiles anywhere on the map!

Finally I ordered all to move, and it ended.
Wait, Durance took damage! From whom? He was uninjured at end of fight.

I screenshotted the log. It's a weird read!

~~~~
Giglietta (my Rogue) killed Gul. (the last enemy combatant)
Kana chants 1 phrase
Durance grazes Durance for 16

Kana chants 3 phrases
Durance misses Durance

Kana chants 1 phrase, summons 3 Skeletons
Durance hits Durance for 36

Kana chants 3 phrases
Durance misses Durance

Kana chants 1 phrase
Durance moves
~~~~

Somehow, Durance mis-targeted himself :o
And that was the sole "hostile" keeping the entire combat going.
Hence, randomly doing a Select All and arbitrary move order was the correct instinct.

I feel privileged to have witnessed this bug live in the wild

[Gilmoy]

Graze for 70 and ippon. That's not a Crit, it's a Graze!
Only L3, with a mundane Crossbow.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2930876449

[Gilmoy]

Earning his nickname "No-End" Durance:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2930876438

[D'amarr from Darshiva]

Originally posted by Gilmoy:

Graze for 70 and ippon. That's not a Crit, it's a Graze!
Only L3, with a mundane Crossbow.

What did the combat log tell when hovering over the line in the log?
It's a Graze, sure, but +150% for Backstab and +50% for Sneak Attack - and how much Might?

[Gilmoy]

I didn't think to hover over that line. I guess we could deduce it:

+030% = Might 20
+050% = Sneak Attack
+150% = Backstab
-050% = Graze
~~~~~~~~
+180% total

(70 / 2.8) = 25.0 base Pierce damage - 0 Pierce DR (Skuldr Whelp)
Crossbow[pillarsofeternity.fandom.com] does 18-26 base Pierce damage, so this was nearly the max roll, a 2 in 9 chance.

OTOH, Skuldr Whelp[pillarsofeternity.fandom.com] has only 44 Health.
So even the minimum roll of 18 damage * 2.8 = 50.4 would one-shot it.

It follows that any Sneak Backstab Graze with a Crossbow will one-shot anything up to
a combined 50 (Endurance + Pierce DR).
A Hit one-shots up to 59.
A Crit one-shots up to 68.

Arbalest does 22-32 Pierce, so it would one-shot up to 61 (Graze), 72 (Hit), or 83 (Crit).

Note the footprints on her icon :p she's running already

[Gilmoy]

Bestiary pays you normal XP for your own friendly summons that die from your own action.
So far, I've earned:

84 XP: Small Flame Blight (20%) from my Druid L2 Conjure Lesser Blight, in Chill Fog
24 XP: Human Skeleton (12%) from my Chanter L1 If Their Bones, in Chill Fog
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2930973949

You don't earn credit if the AI kills them, nor if they expire on time.

I conjecture that they would pay XP:
[_] if they're flipped-hostile or Confused:neutral (yellow ring) and you kill them in combat
[_] if they're still friendly, but you use an AoE that damages everybody indiscriminately

[D'amarr from Darshiva]

One-shot killing individual enemies is a widely common fighting style also during solo runs. Flames of Devotion is a popular ability to do that, for example.

Kana owns an arquebus by default, which does even higher base damage. It can be given to anyone, who benefits more from such a weapon - such as Durance with his Priest of Magran talent that grants an extra +10 Accuracy for Arquebus/Sword. Last but not least, even if not accepting Kana as a companion. Companion NPCs can be attacked and robbed - if that's in accordance with your role-playing goals.

[Gilmoy]

Actually, you can earn credit when a monster kills your friendly summons.
A hostile Black Ooze killed my Human Skeleton (from Kana), and we earned 24 XP for it.
I guess every death has some flat% chance to award XP, regardless of circumstances.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
One-More-Fight-itis Causes One-More-Map-itis
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I try to win each fight with 0 per-rests, 0 consumables, and 0 damage intake.
Then I iterate this for one more fight, repeatedly, until I must rest.
So I'm constantly looking for one more fight I can win. Scouting is crucial.

Generally, I can complete about 1 full map, or level of Od Nua, per rest.
Sometimes I complete 2-3 maps, sometimes less than 1.

Disclaimer: This is a non-(Trial of Iron) run. I don't care about reloading dozens of times.

Being too chary with your per-rests is a flaw of omission: you lose Health instead.
(Exemplar: bad Black Ooze fights, ugh)
Health attrition is a global clock that inevitably forces a rest, regardless.

I don't like to rest with per-rests unused
I (re)learn a more aggressive usage of per-rests, so that all of my clocks run out together.

This gets weird toward the end of each sortie, when Health and per-rests are both low.
I call this the I Really Should Rest Now phase.
But my motto is always: I can win that next fight, sure I can. This recurs

I extend my data logging to include, for all 6 current party members:
+ Health
+ number of per-rest spells
before and after each fight, rest, and level-up.

This far exceeds my original intent to log only persistent PoE1 map contents.
Now the map contents are hopelessly interwoven with a chronology of one party's run.
What a surprise! But it's relatively easy logging, and vastly informative.

In particular, it supports posts like this one ;)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Never Melee an Ogre (you both take Health damage, but the ogre enjoys it)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We are L5/L4. The -1 level is always the 1 hired follower, in this run my Druid bear.

I enter Od Nua 2 (xaurips) fully rested, and clear it.
I lose about 1/2 Health bars and spells, mostly from Wurms and ranged.
Already I'm in nagging Should Rest Soon mode. But first, I shall fight 2 Ogres.

I enter Od Nua 3 (vs. the ogres of Zolla) with 1 red (Druid), 4 yellow, 1 green (Kana).
That means sole tank Edér is yellow. I demote him to a pure shooter.
I know Ogre hits for 40 - 70 per swing, so my game plan is to Never Melee.

We become a party of 6 shooters, luring out 1-2 per fight and leapfrogging backward.
Briefly, it works. We tease out and whittle down:

+ 21 Ogre, they swung 0 times at us, we take 0 damage
+ 1 Ogre Matron Zolla, she buffs self but swung 0, we take 0
+ 6 Ogre Druid, we take 8 spell hits and 1 melee hit total, end with 4 red 2 yellow

Ogre has no ranged threat, and is a slow walker. (Don't get hit by its extra-long reach.)
Leapfrog backward, and you can shoot with impunity.

To prove my own words, I spent Kana's precious L5 +1 phrase on L2 Rime and Frost.
This gimmick works, too, and is quite hilarious.
A full party of 6 lays down six dotted lines of rime & frost traps as they run away.
The traps hit for minor 7-12 damage each, but they Hobble, can crit for 15, and Interrupt.
A hapless monster walking directly behind a trail can often trigger 3-8 traps in a row.

It might not be more total DPS than Sure-Handed Ila, but it's an enabler.
It converts your running-away behavior from purely-defensive to counter-offensive.
In certain cases, being able to Hobble pursuers is worth more than any damage.

~~~~~~~~~~~~
Melee by Proxy
~~~~~~~~~~~~

This party (Rogue, Druid not casting spells) has no early action-stopper.
We have no Figurines for per-rest summons, and anyways I'm not using a per-rest.
After ~17 seconds, Kana summons 3 free Skeletons as attention-sponges.

My instinct is to immediately commit 2, or all 3, Skeletons into melee to gain Flanked.
But any PotD Ogre-class will one-shot 3 Skeletons in 3 attacks, in ~10 seconds total.
Then Kana needs another 1.5 phrase-cycles to do it again.

I devise 2 variations to better utilize Skeletons' finite deadspans.

1. Commit 1 at a time, park 2 in reserve.
Stand the spares 2-3m behind the melee, between the Ogre and your arc of shooters.

We don't really need Flanked, as our DPS already suffices for each kill.
More importantly, a monster will stop to melee 1 Skeleton and cease chasing us.
Probably the AI's hardwired behavior to prefer the easiest kill backfires in this case.

Having 2 Skeletons as backstop tends to ensure that Ogre Druid, and casters in general,
will prefer to target one of them instead of any of your shooters farther away.

2. Manually walk 3rd Skeleton into a far corner as decoy, and to run out its clock.

Zolla chases it
Ideally, you avoid engagement and keep it alive until Kana has chanted 3 more phrases.
Then let it die fighting, as Kana is-already-casting the next If Their Bones.
A decoy Skeleton can also gain Rime and Frost, like any other friendly.

Another usage might be to suicide it by running into, and through, a hostile room,
while your party runs the other way to break off combat. I didn't need that here.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Skeleton Recursion
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As a special case of the above, sometimes you score the "last" kill and win a fight:
+ with 1-3 Skeletons having 10-20 seconds of deadspans remaining
+ or when Kana has 3 phrases chanted

You may choose:

A. to stand still, do nothing, and let combat end.
+ You replenish Health and per-encounters
+ You may renew Stealth status and Quick Slot items

B. to (summon and) run your Skeletons to initiate the next fight.
- You don't get the above bonuses.
+ You initiate combat with 1-3 Skeletons as fire-and-forget cannon fodder.
+ Some other classes retain in-combat bonuses, but not in this party.
+ Next enemy starts the continued-fight already attention-bound.

For some threats, that last benefit can be worth more than all of the others.

In Od Nua 3, Ogre Druid and Black Ooze are a real threat vs. #A.
They could always declare a spell or Spit vs. any visible foe.
At L5/L4, you can't fully kill either one with only your Stealth alpha-shots.
Hence, on average, every 1 Ogre Druid gets 1 offensive cast that hits 1 of us.
#B can force them to target their 1st spell on a disposable Skeleton instead.

This trick concatenates spatially-disjoint fights into a single extended sequence.
And it recurs, if you end the next fight with the same conditions.

Skeleton Recursion #1: I already isolated 1 Ogre Druid in the southeast deadend hallway.
1.a) Use #A to lure-and-kill 1 Ogre Druid, recur.

1.b) Use #B to run 2 Skeletons into Zolla's throne room.
This awakens Zolla's entire retinue as hostile.
Zolla barks (= words appear over her head), but there is no dialogue.
We target 1 Ogre, retreat to the bridge, it turns away (and escapes to fully heal).
We kill 1 other Ogre, recur.

1.c) Use #B and encounter Zolla on the left pier, she chases decoy, we kill her, end.
Kana didn't have 3 phrases, so that's a base case in the recursion.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Hare, The Tortoise, and The Black Ooze
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In Should Rest Soon mode, we finish all ogres, and the Desperate Measures Task.
This clears all of Od Nua 3 except the stairs-down room, with Oozes.
I actually only meant to test whether or not this party can kill the first 2 Ogres.
They can, and the algorithm scales up!

Our Health bars are 2 yellow (Aloth 212, Kana 166), 4 red (Edér 100, shall not melee).
Our per-rests are (using L1/L2/L3 notation): Druid 1/1, Aloth 3/0/1, Durance 2/1/1.
I already spent all of Aloth's L2 Bewildering vs. xaurips on Od Nua 2.

Now we're in Really Should Rest Now mode
The final threat is 6 Black Ooze, 3 Lesser Black Ooze. That's a lot of spits and hits.

One-more-fight-itis says: Sure, I can win that! Someday I shall rue this, e-he-he.
I plan to offer up Kana's 166 Health as spit-target, and have him melee in the doorway.
Everybody cast their AoEs, we collect some alpha-kills, run and break combat, repeat.

Alas, the AI uses Ooze-Recursion! It's like Skeleton Recursion, at the speed of an Ooze!
This happens:

2.a) Rogue lures-and-snipes 1 Lesser, runs east (ccw ==>) around the big loop.
2.b) Kana melees in doorway, Aloth L1 Chill Fog, Druid L2 Insect Swarm.
2.c) 3 other red bars shoot, run west (<== clockwise), reload.
2.d) AoEs + shots kill 2 Lesser, 1 Black Ooze, all 5 "break combat" and retreat <== west.

2.e) Combat doesn't end! 1 Black Ooze comes west, Skeleton recursion affixes it.
Rogue runs 3/4 lap and joins from the north, her shot kills it.

2.f) With same stack frame (= skeleton recursion, but it's the same 2), run south.
2.g) shoot at 2 Black Ooze, but 2 Skeletons die too fast from spits, all run north.

2.h) 1 Black Ooze comes south from above us! We're trapped between these 3!
It must have chased my Rogue east, and crawled 5/6 of a full lap!! Such persistence!

2.i) All 6 retreat to the dead-end west room.
We take 4 spits to Edér 55 Health, Rogue 52, Durance 46.
Skeleton recursion appears right into Aloth's 2nd Chill Fog (oops).
We shoot all 3 Black Ooze, don't feel like running through our own Chill Fog, end.

~~~~~~~~

That's 5 of 6 Black Ooze, leaving only 1. We swarm it and shrug off damage.
Od Nua 3 earns 1,350 XP each, 684 coppers, 29 Ogre Blood, and Rundl's Finery.
Our Health is now 2 yellow, 3 red, 1 dire (Durance 4 Health, he took a spit).
Our per-rests are: Druid 0/0, Aloth 0/0/0, Durance 0/1/1. Yaay! I used them!

Surely I'll rest now.
Surely I won't go down this staircase and earn +10 XP each from Od Nua 4's map.
Surely I can't explore one more room right now.

[Gilmoy]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Each Dungeon Staircase Costs 15 Minutes
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I did go down those stairs to Od 4, peeked into 2 rooms, and wisely walked away.
Cute timing: Brighthollow restoration was only "1 hour" from completion.
I don't like to rest for 8 hours and "lose" 7 hours with my restoration queue empty.

I tested Od 3's Master Staircase to Caed Nua, but its time cost was "2 hours".
I manually walked up the stairs to Od 2, Od 1, Dungeon, and Great Hall.
Brighthollow finished just as I entered Great Hall, so after 4 staircases up.

Ergo, I conjecture, with partial data:
[~] staircase in dungeon: 15 minutes

[_] staircase in Brighthollow: __
[_] staircase (or, generally, any transition from one zone to another) in Raedric's Hold
[_] other transitions

Exploit: To kill time in increments of 1/2 an hour, go up and down a staircase :steamcoffee:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Joined (Not Hired) Companion Starting XP
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I collect Sagani in Woodend Plains.
I shall park her in Party Management storage for stronghold missions.

But first, she helps clear Woodend Plains
L4 Druid rotates into storage.
L5 Sagani joins with 11.6k XP.

Companion starting XP seems to be "my" hero's XP - c_i, a constant.
+ L3 Edér joined at (my XP - 75)
+ L3 Aloth joined at (my XP - 75), hence they've always had identical XP
+ L3 Durance joined at (my XP - 86)
+ L3 Kana joined at (my XP - 114)
+ L5 Sagani joins at (my XP - 177)

Briefly, a joined companion is (almost always) the same level as your main hero.
I'll get data on the remaining companions as I find them.
Perhaps c_i is actually c(t), a function

A hired companion is set to the minimum XP for the level you paid for.
So the gap compared to your hero's XP can be as large as 1.99 levels' worth.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Skeleton Recursion in an Open Field
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Forest Lurker and Troll are Ogre-class, and equally easy.
Itumaak is a free attention-binder, and "disposable" as long as you win.

Woodend Plains has two moderate set pieces, the Pŵgras and the lion pride.
For the 2 Pŵgra 5 Forest Troll fight, I meant to snipe, run, and break combat.
But I was honor-bound to recur instead.

0.a) lure-and-snipe Forest Troll #a, it pursues, alpha-volley to 2 dots (badly injured)
0.b) Pŵgra #p runs faster than a Forest Troll, all dodge its spell threats, retarget ... kill it
0.c) Troll #a is-walking away, I don't want it to fully-heal, we chase and shoot it

1.a) 1st Skeletons vs. #a wake up #b, #c, and Pŵgra #q, and here we go (sigh)
1.b) Preparing full recursion, I run 2 Skeletons north as decoys to stall their full 20.0s.
They temporarily distract 2 of 4 Forest Trolls, dragging them far afield.

1.c) all shoot Pŵgra #q ... kill it. Rogue and Edér join melee, are never targeted, take 0.
1.d) melee with Forest Troll #b ... kill it. Skeletons expire, Kana has 3 chants, recur

2.a) we + 2nd Skeletons swarm #c, kill it.
2.b) all run north, find #d, kill it, recur

3.a) we + 3rd Skeletons swarm #e, kill it, end

My L5 Rogue party, using smarter tactics, wins in 1 long fight, taking 0 damage.
(Itumaak and Skeletons don't count.)
My L7/L6 Cipher party, with better gear, had far more trouble than this.

It helps that I now recognize most Druid spells by icon alone, and know how far to run.
I have all 11 classes' spell table wiki pages open as 11 tabs in my browser ;)
It somewhat exploits outside game knowledge, but that's what a wiki is for.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Party Management Logging: A Wide Sheet Gets Wider
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I thought 6 columns would suffice for 6 active party members' XP (and Health).
I planned to use column headers to denote the active 6. But it's too ugly.
A playthrough has a graph structure, which is lost in a sheet (or text file)'s linearization.

The cleanest solution is: 1 column per companion. That means 12-13 columns.
The full sheet is already 97 columns wide, what's another +7.
Then Hide Column for members in storage. That leverages the tool's display power.

I'm still not adding 2 full columns for Calisca and Heodan.
They can share Edér and Aloth's columns, like bunk beds on a submarine.

[Gilmoy]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Woedica Gambit: Copperlane Only for Early White March
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I meant to hire Sagani and come right back to Caed Nua. Quick in, quick out.
But a new thought occurred

- In every previous run, I've cleared everything "in sequence":
Caed/some of Od, Raedric's Hold, Madhmr Bridge, all of Defiance Bay, then White March 1.

+ I've never gone to White March "early". Therefore, I shall try that now!
It becomes a new Thematic Game Goal for this run.

"Early" means doing the minimal subset of Defiance Bay to unlock it.
Temple of Woedica suffices. That's Copperlane Catacombs "level 2".

In Copperlane, I park Sagani and retrieve Druid bear. We are L5*/L5, * very close to L6.
I avoid triggering almost all extended Defiance Bay quests.
I clear only Purnisc's House and Catacombs (for the Woedica Hood, which you need).

Since I haven't done Madhmr Bridge yet, Peregund is not yet a vendor in the Marketplace.
That's a valid state of the game, and mildly adorable.
Your actions do cause small state changes in the game world.

I finish Temple of Woedica, an all walk-y talk-y level.
On returning to Catacombs, I receive the letter for WM1 Durgan's Battery, as expected.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A Geometric Solution for Stronghold Attacks
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Briefly: On entering Great Hall, look due left. There's a dead-end niche in the wall.
By (dev's) clever construction, It's exactly 2 footdisks wide x 3 footdisks deep.
An entire party of 6 could fit into it like sardines
This exposes only 1 frontmost tank to Shade melee, and defeats Instant Teleport attacks.

I (ab)use this floor trick in every Great Hall fight:
+ 0th fight to clear Great Hall in the first place (you can set up 5 of 6 in the niche)
+ 1st attack vs. Skeletals
+ 2nd attack vs. Forest Lurkers
+ ...

For each stronghold attack event, you start in the center of the Hall, outnumbered.
Also, there's no auto-pause on loading of scripted attack scenario. Tap Space!

Everybody run backward. Don't get surrounded!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Od Nua 4 for Persistence and Resolution
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Persistence is the unique Hunting Bow with Damaging 3 (almost Superb-tier).
Resolution is the unique Sabre with Annihilation.
They're both worth getting now, because they're worth enchanting.

We are L6/L5, already in mild Should Rest Soon mode.
+ 3 green = my 3 casters (Kana, Aloth, Durance), who never get targeted
+ 2 yellow = my 2 melee (Rogue, Edér)
+ 1 red = Druid bear (she got KO'd recently, have not rested since)

Aloth has 0/0/3 per-rest spells remaining, so no Chill Fog or Bewildering.
His only L3 worth casting is Expose Vulnerabilities.
I don't like L3 direct damage, because it doesn't scale up.

I'm getting better at using skeleton recursion to link fights with advantage.
Every {} pair denotes 1 casting of If Their Bones Should Rest.

Long Fight #1:
+ archway 1 Troll
+ arch room { 1 Slime 1 Ooze }, { 2 Ooze }, { 1 Ooze;
+ south hallway left 1 Troll }
+ south hallway right { 2 Slime 1 Troll }, { 3 Ooze }
+ south staircase foot { 1 Slime 1 Troll }, { 1 Troll 1 Ooze }

That's 7 stack frames
I end with 2 green, 1 yellow (Kana), 2 red (both melee), 1 dire (Druid) at 9 Health(!).
That's not Endurance, it's Health. One hit and she dies.
Kana I deliberately used as Troll-stopper, to "spend down" his excess Health.

Clearing this fight wins Persistence on the ground, just west of the library room.

Long Fight #2:
+ SE walkway east of library: { 1 Troll 2 Slime }, { 1 Ooze }, { 2 Ooze }, { 1 Slime 4 Ooze }
Now 1 green, 2 yellow (Durance stopped a Troll), 1 red (Rogue), 2 dire (Edér 87 Health).

Long Fight #3:
+ east terrace with adra head { 1 Slime 1 Beetle 1 Ooze }, { 3 Ooze* }, { 1 Beetle;
+ east tunnel toward stairs down: 1 Troll }

1 green 2 yellow 3 dire (Rogue 64 Health, Edér 69, Druid 9). I cannot risk melee now.
Beating the Greater Black Ooze* earns Resolution.

Long Fight #4:
+ east terrace Beetles { 1 Adra }, { 1 Stone }, { 1 Adra 2 Wood }
This surely took 5+ castings. It takes longer than 20.0s to kill an Adra Beetle with ranged.
Now 3 yellow (Aloth took minor Spits).

Long Fight #5:
+ east terrace { 1 Stone }, { 1 Slime 1 Stone 1 Ooze }, 0 damage

Long Fight #6:
+ east tunnel towards stairs down { 2 Ooze }, { 1 Troll }, { 1 Pudding 1 Ooze }

Long Fight #7:
+ east tunnel towards stairs down { 1 Troll 1 Ooze }, { 1 Pudding }, { 2 Slime }, { 1 Ooze }

I clear Od Nua 4 with 3 yellow, 3 dire. Druid has 1/0/0 spells, Aloth 0/0/1, Durance 2/1/1.
Od Nua 4 earns 958 XP (all from Bestiary), 3,027 coppers, and the 2 uniques.

I enter Od Nua 5 solely to enchant Resolution thereat, just to say I did it there.
Return and rest in Brighthollow, no bonus.

Really Should Rest Now mode gets weird this way.
Play as nimble shooter, and you can grind down certain threats with almost 0 damage.
I doubt it scales up to Od Nua 5's Xaurip Priest/Champion swarms, so enough of that.

[Gilmoy]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Raedric's Hold at L6/L5: On Slaughtering the Sanctuary
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Climb up the NW vines, go up the half-stairs, enter Temple Storage, don Berathian Robes.
The patrolling Temple Guardian asks, And just where are you going?

Resolve 14: Requirement not met (13)
Intellect 12: Requirement not met (10) -- because I'm a Rogue with MIG 20
[Attack]: yes, this is your only option, chump

Whoops! Now, one could throw sock at wall, reload, swap gear or eat a fish, etc.

I took another path. I do consider the hostile Sanctuary to be a valid game mode.
Many "new" runs that didn't know to add points in RES or INT will get here naturally.

In my L5/L4 Cipher run, I killed all of Raedric's Hold except Cletlan/Nudwin and Sanctuary.
Why not kill Sanctuary, too? I came here to kill everything else, it fits the mood.
So I promptly make that a Thematic Game Goal.

We are L6/L5.
Skeleton recursion works just as well vs. Paladin/Priestess/Acolyte of Berath.
My threat scale is calibrated to Troll and Adra Beetle.
Paladin of Berath is a small blip on that scale.

Long Fight #1:
+ lounge 1 Priestess 1 Priest 1 Acolyte, { 1 Priest;
+ main hall 1 Priestess 1 Acolyte 1 Paladin }
+ Temple Chantry { 1 Guardian 2 Paladin 1 Priest 1 Priestess 3 Acolyte }

3 pristine 3 green. Rogue took -33, Edér took -49, we cast 3 spells, that's it.
I think this scales up to all of Sanctuary, Hold, and Dungeon without resting.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Raedric's Hold Vines: Athletics or Minor Fatigue
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This small detail is cleverly integrated into the dialogue script.
The vines dialogue tells you it's a long, wearying physical task.
It explicitly names 1 follower: only Edér is able to maintain a steady pace.
It's because he has Athletics 5, and the others don't.
I give everybody else Athletics 1 to enable Second Wind, but not Athletics 2.

At top of climb, you may notice:
+ all members with Athletics k ~ 2+ were named, and are fine
- all members with Athletics < k have Minor Fatigue debuff

Minor Fatigue gives -10 Accuracy, -10% Max Endurance.
That wipes out your Weapon Specialization + Fine bonus
It's not terrible, you can fight normally and still win. But it's a nagging irritant.

So that's the "price" of entering by climbing the vines. It isn't completely free.
And it provides a small reward for those who did take Athletics 2 (or 3?).
If you remember this across 2+ playthroughs, it could motivate you to prioritize Athletics.

Now, even knowing this, I still wouldn't pay precious skill points on Athletics 2.
Tolerate the debuff and win the fights anyways.

[Gilmoy]

It seems to be working. We are "only" L6/L5 with decent stuff.

Raedric's Hold:
[x] Upper Ramparts (NW)
[x] Siege Platform
[x] Lower Ramparts (SE) -- 1 Captain 4 Sellsword 1 Guard 1 Archer, and nowhere to hide
[_] Lower Ramparts (NW)
[_] Courtyard

Raedric's Hold Sanctuary:
[x] slaughtered everything except Nedmar

Raedric's Hold Dungeons:
[x] slaughtered everything

Raedric's Keep:
[x] Study, Bedroom -- via Osrya's secret staircase
[x] Kitchen

[_] Barracks fight
[_] map room fight
[_] ballroom dance fight
[_] front hall fight
[_] throne room door fight

3 yellow (melee), 3 green (ranged), about 2/3 of my per-rests remaining.
We have not rested yet, so 5 of 6 still have the Minor Fatigue debuff.
I'll kill Courtyard and Keep except throne room, then rest in Nedmar's room, then finish it.

My ulterior motive for the entire Raedric's Hold 1-Day Op is to earn chunk coppers.
I want the figurine in Gilded Vale, and some of Ponamu's soulbounds, before WM1.

[Gilmoy]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Rime and Frost Appear Under Karth's Friends Who Stand Still
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Rime and frost traps have non-zero radius of 1.0m, like any other trap.
That's wider than your 0.5m footdisk! In fact, it reaches your melee foe's footdisk!

When a Chanter begins chanting Rime and Frost Followed the Footfalls of Karth,
all friendlies within his chant aura (4.0m) who are locked in stationary melee duels
can promptly trigger rime and frost traps on each of their opponents, without even moving.
And traps renew every 3.0 seconds, so you could hit your melee foe with 3-4 traps in 1 chant.

The damage is minor, but traps can Interrupt!
Also, Hobbled gives -24 total Reflex, -6% Attack Speed, and enables Sneak Attack.

This is a small but non-zero benefit of taking Rime and Frost, and keeping it active.
It does pay off even when you're not running away.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Raedric Wields Justice
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We clear all of Raedric's Hold and Keep in a single day.
We end with 2 dire (Rogue, Edér), 3 yellow (Kana, Durance), 1 green (Aloth).
Per-rests: Rogue 0 of 3 (Watcher), Druid -/0/0/0, Aloth -/0/0/0, Durance (0 of 2)/1/1/1.
The 0th entry is new, for non-spell per-rests from Watcher, talents, and figurines.
Finally we rest for free in Nedmar's room.

We take Raedric's deal, then travel to Magran's Fork and take Kolsc's deal.
Everything in Esternwood + all of Raedric's Hold, minus the throne room, amounts to:

1,184 XP -- we are now L6.4 / L5.8
20,703 coppers -- 6.8k loot, 7.96k mundane, 3.9k finery
4 days 6 hours -- Esternwood, Raedric's, Gilded Vale sell, Anslög's buy, Magran's Fork

I estimate it will take 6.0 days total, Caed Nua to Caed Nua, for the full Raedric's Hold op.
20k loot does buy a nice set of 3-5 toys:

5.0k Bronze Horn Figurine (currently Aloth)
1.3k Outworn Buckler (Pallegina, for later)
6.2k One-Eyed Molina's Gold-Fingered Spike-Flinger (bound to Kana)
8.2k Belt of the Royal Deadfire Cannoneer (Maneha, for later)

Also, Raedric wields Justice (unique Great Sword), and you kill him to take it.
That's an incentive to finish Lord of a Barren Land before Maneha in White March 2.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Bear Companion Knockout Recursion: The Fight That Goes On and On
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
On re-entering Magran's Fork, I find 2 new encounters that have spawned since!

0. (old) 4 Wolf 2 Young Wolf, north of Magran's Shrine
1. (new) Gramrfel the Wayfarer, at Magran's Shrine crossroads
2. (new) 1 Delemgan 2 Bear, south of Magran's Shrine

Gramrfel is a "friendly" dialogue, but he goes hostile and attacks. That's his lifestyle!
3 ranged + 2 casters vaporize your talker before you can run.
Laugh, nod, reload. This is oddly a bounty-level fight with no bounty quest.

First, a bit of fun. I drag #0 and #2 into Gramrfel's minions, and they fight each other.
Gramrfel's goons win both and fully heal, so it made 0 progress.

I dismantle Gramrfel in a single very long fight. I meant to do it in several short fights!
But a Game Rule said no, the Ranger's heart will go on and on , you shall not save.

I cast If Their Bones twelve(!!) times solely to drain Kana's chant-counter down.
Normally, skeleton recursion entails sprinting the last skeletons toward the next fight.
This case was the opposite: I let Kana's chants nearly overflow to 5, fight does not end,
might as well cast anything or I'll waste 1 full chant-cycle.

I annotate the fight with the index of If Their Bones castings, from 0 to 12:

z. Set up 5 in the south cliff trail chokepoint. (It's hackneyed because it keeps working.)

0. Bear Companion (knocked out)

1. dwarf? Mercenary Crossbowman (Rogue) #1 of 2, orlan? Mercenary Tracker (Barbarian)
Tracker has typical Barbarian stats: high ~233 Health, 76 Accuracy, low-ish 50 Deflection.

2. Combat does not end, I cast #2 and go searching.

I learn (conjectured) Unwritten Game Rule #R-1:
When an AI Ranger's companion animal is knocked out, but while the Ranger remains alive anywhere on the map, the fight does not end.

Exploit #R-1b: In any fight vs. an AI Ranger, isolate and KO the companion animal first.

3. lure some into chasing, but we can't isolate, and can't get shots
4. 1 Phantom -- from Gramrfel's But Reny Daret's Ghost, He Would not Rest

5. lure into chasing -- I aggressively advance north and seek salvos
6. 1 salvo vs. human Chanter Gramrfel -- he walks away, fully heals, so 0 progress

7. 1 Phantom + lure others far astray
8. 2 elf? Mercenary (Fighter) = 76 Deflection, ~130 Health, 17.5 DR (Pierce, Slash)
Fine Plate Armor (egad), Fine Medium (Heater) Shield, Fine Battle Axe

I isolate the 2 Mercenary, but Gramrfel joins and reloads pistol. I commit my full stack:
+ Edér melees both Mercenary
+ Rogue backstabs 1 with Measured Restraint
+ Durance casts Divine Mark on a Mercenary
+ Druid goes melee toward Gramrfel, clicks Bear shift

Mercenary's 67 Accuracy can't hit Edér's 89 Deflection, he's fine 1v2, we grind them down.

9. 1 Phantom (Gramrfel), it expires on time
10. Gramrfel the Wayfarer, and his 3 Human Skeleton

Funny/sad: 2 skeletons from #10 died in Gramrfel's Rime and Frost Traps. He does it, too!

11. aumaua? Gunner (Ranger), elf? Mercenary Soulreaver (Cipher),
dwarf? Mercenary Crossbowman (Rogue) #2 of 2

12. elf? Wayward Priest
With Gunner (Ranger) now dead and his Bear Companion knocked out, this is the only true recursion that extends the fight.

~5.0 minutes total combat time, ~3.5 hours real time (including logging all loot).
12 castings of If Their Bones runs 240 seconds = 4.0 minutes total.
I deliberately left gaps between some castings to invite end-of-combat, but it ended not.

0 XP (because they're kith), "only" 172 coppers, but 21 Fine-tier armor/weapons/shields.
Total cost is mild: 6 still green, we cast 4 of 31 per-rest spells.
I think we're fine to proceed directly to Raedric's throne room fight.

Kana's Spike-Flinger still has 0/10 Prone (from a subset of crits).
His Accuracy isn't high, so his crit chance is 0% or low. Well, that's why I bought it early.

[Gilmoy]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Od Nua 6 Tactics: Three-Wide in the Hallway
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The 1st hallway opens onto a large central excavation with a huge swarm of skeletals.
This is a shock the 1st time you ever see it

- nowhere to retreat, nowhere to hide
- 3-wide hallway refutes 1-tank doorway/chokepoint tactics

Out of curiosity, I did 2 solo suicide runs (+reload) to map out their starting placements.
You cannot recover this data after a win because your 1st action aggros multiple groups,
they all rush you from beyond visual range, and thereafter their origins are lost in fog.

Superimposing a chessboard over the rectangular central pit, and using chess notation,
we have roughly:

Aggro #1 {
Group f2 (entrance): 1 Dargul 2 Fighter
Group f4: 1 Wizard 1 Ranger
Group h3 (bridge): 3 Fighter 1 Ranger 1 Rogue
Group c4 (engaged): 1 Fighter 1 Wizard 1 Ranger 1 Rogue
}

Aggro #2 {
Group c4 (walked away): 1 Dargul 1 Fighter
Group a1: 2 Dargul 2 Fighter
Group c8 (north doorway): 1 Fighter
}

With low Stealth 1-2, you can't sneak past the first Dargul in group f2.
Shooting, or being seen by, that Dargul aggros all 4 groups, and they all rush the hallway.
In fact, they'll fill the hallway so full that the rearmost few might turn and walk away.

I must have beaten this 2+ years ago (on Hard), because I remember Od Nua 7 and 8.
But I utterly forgot about this fight. Maybe on Hard, it's not memorable.

On PotD, it's a brutal shock.
My Cipher party barely won, with 4 of 6 KO'd. It was epic
My set-up and tactics were all wrong, but it takes hindsight to realize that.

I now think this level is a brilliantly scripted trap, and it's meant to be a severe hurdle.
The game's prologue, from L1 to L5-L7, lulls a new player into an expectation of tactics.
This fight undermines those tactics.

We learn new tactics I explored some variations:

A. lure Dargul by shooting it
B. lure Dargul by being seen

Results seem identical: all 4 groups in Aggro #1 wake up regardless.
Prefer #A for a minutely faster win.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
C. sardine set-up (c.f. Great Hall) to avoid casters/ranged
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
With your backs against the staircase-up, the left niche is 2x4.
You could pack 6-7 characters here, and cramp the angle for enemy ranged. Flaws:

- Some of you are still exposed to ranged and AoE.
- You don't have line-of-sight to their ranged, either.
- You can be encircled from behind. A defensive line might be 4-wide across your back.

Ultimately, I dislike the passiveness.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
D. three-wide set-up, focus fire on caster(s), ignore ranged
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The hallway is 3-wide, hence 2 characters suffice to jam it.
Only 3-4 of Dargul and Skeletal Fighter can engage at once, the rest stand idle.

We have high DR from heavy armor, so they Graze for 1-digit taps, we win that trade.
We burn per-rest spells aggressively for AoE DoT, and win the melee duel.
That means we kill the 1st Wizard in Group f4, and all melee in Groups f2, h3, c4.
I finally see Druid + L2 Firebrand in action, and wow, is it fun.
We boldly sprint through our own Chill Fog, melee the ranged, and win that.

I use skeleton recursion 4 times to engage Aggro #2, 1 group at a time.
Druid fights a stupid 1v2 with Group c4, they Crit her for 25-30 chunk damage, KO her.
Her Deflection is too low. This is why she isn't a line-fighter. I blame pilot error.

Rogue is beaten down to 50 Health (not Endurance), reverts to pure shooter.
We wisely all-run back into the hallway, set up another 2-wide with Kana, and win that.
It lasts 8 chants, Kana casts At the Sound of His Voice, the Killers Froze Stiff twice.

We win the long fight in oddly decent condition.
+ 2 green, 2 yellow, 2 dire
+ 221 XP each (all Bestiary entries, YMMV), Druid levels up to L6, Wrenched Knee
+ 0 coppers, 0 grimoires (because skeletals :steamgrr:)
+ per-rests nearly all spent: Aloth 1/0/1/0, Durance 0/1/0/2, Druid 2/1/0/1
+ Rogue's soulbound Company Captain's Hat has 250/300 damage toward L2

Funny/sad: She had exactly 300 Health (of 384) when she first donned the Hat.
This party has no Field Triage talent (because I choose Kana's level-ups manually).
So she can't do it in 0 rests. She would die first.

We will surely rest now.
We will surely not explore a few more rooms

[Gilmoy]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Long Tactical Fights Take ~1.0 Game Hour Each
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Many skeletons ago, I wrote:

Originally posted by Gilmoy:

I don't log PoE1 dates. (Egad.)

Out of curiosity, I added 8 columns for date/hour logging.
I update it on new maps, long fights, and for transactions, rests, and stronghold events.

The in-game book entry is a key resource:
https://pillarsofeternity.fandom.com/wiki/The_Iroccian_Calendar

AFAIK, calendar days are not significant in PoE1, except for stronghold-related things.
- stronghold daily upkeep for hirelings
- stronghold deadlines for visitors and events
- stronghold upgrades (until you finish them all)

The wiki says that fatigue no longer accrues over realtime, so only from scripted events.
https://pillarsofeternity.fandom.com/wiki/Status_effects#Fatigue
Currently, I often go 5-10 days in a row without rest or camp, and get no fatigue debuffs.

Still, it amuses me to track the passage of days and hours.
I learn a few oddities.

0. It's a 26-hour planet. Hours are 1-origin, not 0-origin.
Each day goes from Hour 1 to Hour 26 (not Hour 24).

334 days * 26 hours = 8,684 hours = 99.1% of an Earth year:
365 days * 24 hours = 8,760 hours (disregarding the leap-1/4-day)

1. A new game begins on 18 Majprima, at hour 21.
Run two steps to talk to Calisca, and it's hour 22 already. So it must start at "21:59".

2. The "Day" counter begins at hour 20, not hour 1 (nor hour 0).
"Day 1" runs from 18 Mp Hour 22 to 19 Mp Hour 19.
"Day 2" begins on 19 Mp Hour 20.
This pattern holds for the rest of the game. Hour 20 is midnight

3. In-combat time runs much faster than realtime, about 10-20x.
As a rule of thumb, exploring 1 area + winning 1 big fight advances time by 1 hour.
This generally holds throughout Od Nua 6 - 8.
I didn't log dates during Raedric's Hold or Od 1-5, but 1 hour per fight fits my time sense.

Od Nua 6 took only 9 hours total. That's amazingly short for the fight threat.

3 Tarprima Day 26 Hour 24: enter Od Nua 6
4 Tarprima Day 26 Hour 06: enter Od Nua 7 (yes, it's still Day 26)
5 Tarprima Day 27 Hour 10: enter Od Nua 8

Od Nua 7 (blights) takes 30 hours, fighting non-stop. Subdivide into many small fights.
Od Nua 8 (fampyrs) has-taken 16 hours + 3 fights left, so ~20 hours projected.