Buff stacking

[Briggs]

I'm playing with a friend and we both like buffing. How do buffs stack? Would two buffers be overly redundant?

[Chaoslink]

Buffs don’t stack. If you can the same buff on someone with it already, it just overwrites the first. Otherwise you can stack as many as you like, but the AP cost starts to be too much to be worth it.

Typically speaking, I avoid buffing unless there’s a specific reason I need the buff. My rogue will haste my mage after setting up their elemental affinity because the 1AP being given to the mage from the rogue can be used to cast a 2AP spell with the affinity. Otherwise, I save that haste to clear status effects. Putting all the buffs on a character all the time isn’t really worth it if you ask me. Like the encourage humans get. It’s alright if you have an extra AP around, but not really important enough to keep up all the time.

[Briggs]

Originally posted by Chaoslink:

Buffs don’t stack. If you can the same buff on someone with it already, it just overwrites the first. Otherwise you can stack as many as you like, but the AP cost starts to be too much to be worth it.

Thanks! Does this include armor buffs like Fortify and Frost Armor?

[Chaoslink]

Yes it does. They won’t keep increasing your armor values. You can restore the lost armor using them, but you can’t just stack extra armor. It might even lower the amount given if the second cast is a weaker one (less Geo points)

[Chaoslink]

On that note, keep in mind that the increase to physical armor gains from each point in Geo doesn’t only affect the Geo armor spells. Bone cage from Necro gets a boost from it too. It applies to all physical armor benefits. Even potions I think.

[Briggs]

Yeah... that's one of the many design decisions Larian made that I'm not thrilled with. In general, I feel DOS:EE was mechanically superior. Maybe I'm just not deep enough into the game...

[Bomjus]

if you both like buff characters i'd both go summoning. with lone wolf you basically have "maxed" the potential of summons by level 5. so any levels past that can go into hydro for healing and armor, geo for armor and slows/cripple, pyro for clear mind and haste (clear mind gives wits which is huge for incarnates since it gives them much needed initiative), scoundrel for a teleport and adrenaline for turn 1 summoning, necromancer for blood rain/living on the edge etc. etc. another important factor is that if you wanna go ham with buffing, you're going to need a LOT of memory. summoning damage benefits from NO attributes. the only stat that would affect your actual summons in combat would be wits so you can summon them before the enemy's turn. this means you can dump points into memory without a problem.

when you're playing a more focused character (like a ranger for example) you go a couple points in huntsman > max warfare > max ranged > and then probably necromancy or something for lifesteal/survivability. and for attributes you'd want to go wits/finesse for damage/crit chance/initiative. it doesn't leave a lot of space for buffs.

with a summoner you'd also have 4 targets to use buffs on. the 2 incarnates and the 2 summoners.

[Seven of Nine]

Originally posted by Chaoslink:

Yes it does. They won’t keep increasing your armor values. You can restore the lost armor using them, but you can’t just stack extra armor. It might even lower the amount given if the second cast is a weaker one (less Geo points)

Or think about armour replenishing stuff like heals and temporary HP. I used these skill (Armour of Frost, Soothing Cold, Fortify, Mend Metal and alike) a lot.
Some of these actually stuck to a hilarious effect : Bone Cage + Fortify + Physical Armour Potion... Once I got to a solid 8-9k PA. You can imagine what happened to that blob standing near my warrior who also happened to use Deflective Barrier. Not a particularly easy thing to pull, and has the prep time of a Christmas Meal on a regular Monday, but if you want a good laugh go try it out yourself. Not sure to what level these stack, but AFAIK buffs with the same name don't stack. (That is Haste from Pyro, and haste from Tactical Retreat "side effect" won't stack, two source of Presence of Mind don't stack 2 sources of Fortify won't stack)

[Seven of Nine]

Originally posted by Bomjus1:

if you both like buff characters i'd both go summoning. with lone wolf you basically have "maxed" the potential of summons by level 5. so any levels past that can go into hydro for healing and armor, geo for armor and slows/cripple, pyro for clear mind and haste (clear mind gives wits which is huge for incarnates since it gives them much needed initiative), scoundrel for a teleport and adrenaline for turn 1 summoning, necromancer for blood rain/living on the edge etc. etc. another important factor is that if you wanna go ham with buffing, you're going to need a LOT of memory. summoning damage benefits from NO attributes. the only stat that would affect your actual summons in combat would be wits so you can summon them before the enemy's turn. this means you can dump points into memory without a problem.

when you're playing a more focused character (like a ranger for example) you go a couple points in huntsman > max warfare > max ranged > and then probably necromancy or something for lifesteal/survivability. and for attributes you'd want to go wits/finesse for damage/crit chance/initiative. it doesn't leave a lot of space for buffs.

with a summoner you'd also have 4 targets to use buffs on. the 2 incarnates and the 2 summoners.

Problem is that after you summon and have the totems constantly rolling you might end up doing better if you actually do damage. Buffing those already weak summons won't help the party that much.