Need advice on team synergy. (Co-ordinated maneuvers)

[The.Spaz.]

So just hit level 3 and an inquisitor (Jaethal) forces me to pick a team related feat. This got me thinking about synergy. I was experimenting with the different feats and putting them to test again a Warg in Old Sycamore (recently defeated Tartuccio). I could use some advice on what is worth focusing on.

Its my first time with this series/game and so I am mainly trying to work with what I have been given so far. As such my party has two fighters (Valerie, my avatar), cleric (Harrim), Inquisitor (Jaethal), barbarian (Amiri) and a Bard (Linzi).

Co-ordinated defense: This has likely been the most effective taking down the Worg so far. Although it required all six members to waste their feat picking this skill.

Shield Wall: Have yet to put this to the test but having two heavy shield bearers (Valerie, Harrim) this could prove useful in making both of them survive as well as crowd control.

Co-ordinated Maneuvers: Another one I plan on experimenting. This is something my Dual Wielding fighter can benefit as I am trying to eventually turn him into an agile offensive character in battle and having the extra edge might help but also feel it might better to have my character be more capable on his own. Playing the good guy, I feel eventually I will lose Harrim and Jaethal due to alignment issues.

Other feat based questions:

What is a good single handed weapon to focus with for dual wielding? I would like him to be as damage dealing as possible. He started out with a decent bonus on str/Dex/Cons (17,15,14) but I am still undecided as to what to invest in.

Any suggestions on what defensive feats I should focus for my fighter to keep agile in combat? Evasion is his defense for the lack of a shield and often enough he at right at front during conversations before battle. This requires him to be very reflexive and agile.

[Kornstalx]

Single handed weapons wielded with an empty off-hand, are treated as two-handed. This allows you 100% of STR mod for damage, when normally one-handers only do 50%. You can see this in the damage calculation on the paperdoll if you equip a shield (also visually with some one-handers, like the dueling sword).

I run Coordinated Defense on my team but I do it differently. Instead of everyone wasting a feat, take a few levels of Vanguard (Slayer subclass). Vanguard has an AoE ability (30ft) that lets you share one of YOUR teamwork feats with every single ally for a few rounds.

If I get swarmed by a bunch of mobs suddenly, I'll pop it for my whole team.
Same with Outflank, etc.

[Kaerius]

You'll find a better cleric soon(Tristian, who's NG).

As for teamwork feats, the best ones are outflank and seize the moment.

Dual wielding is usually subpar as a strategy(compared to two-handed), but if you're intent on it, you should probably go with scimitars. Don't forget to pick up improved critical. (PS: this will also make seize the moment go bananas).

Defensive feat wise, the best are the crane fighting style feats, which means you need dodge, and improved unarmed strike as prerequisites, and then crane fighting style, crane wing, and crane riposte.

[The.Spaz.]

Originally posted by Kornstalx:

Single handed weapons wielded with an empty off-hand, are treated as two-handed. This allows you 100% of STR mod for damage, when normally one-handers only do 50%. You can see this in the damage calculation on the paperdoll if you equip a shield (also visually with some one-handers, like the dueling sword).

I run Coordinated Defense on my team but I do it differently. Instead of everyone wasting a feat, take a few levels of Vanguard (Slayer subclass). Vanguard has an AoE ability (30ft) that lets you share one of YOUR teamwork feats with every single ally for a few rounds.

If I get swarmed by a bunch of mobs suddenly, I'll pop it for my whole team.
Same with Outflank, etc.

Not so much in to the min/maxing for DPS as much as I want to role play. Besides I already have Amiri as a dedicated two hander of the group and she is very effective. I am not yet comfortable with multi classing as of yet but I might consider it at a later date. Eitherway I managed to actually beat the Warg without having to invest beyond shield wall for my two shieldbearers. Its actually fairly competent to keep the wolves busy as a decoy while my character manages to slip away with a vanishing potion and then effectively take down the lesser wolves and then round back to help Amiri and the rest take down the warg.

[The.Spaz.]

Originally posted by Kaerius:

You'll find a better cleric soon(Tristian, who's NG).

As for teamwork feats, the best ones are outflank and seize the moment.

Dual wielding is usually subpar as a strategy(compared to two-handed), but if you're intent on it, you should probably go with scimitars. Don't forget to pick up improved critical. (PS: this will also make seize the moment go bananas).

Defensive feat wise, the best are the crane fighting style feats, which means you need dodge, and improved unarmed strike as prerequisites, and then crane fighting style, crane wing, and crane riposte.

Thanks for the info and yes I am pretty much set on being a dual wielder. Besides Amiri is the main two hander of the group, I wouldn't want to steal her thunder. Always had a certain build in mind and I like to see how competently I can translate it over from game to game. If dual wielding wasn't a possibility outside of rogues I would have likely gone and stuck with the Aldori Swordlord path. Thanks to the The Witcher series I gained an appreciation for two handed agile build with single handed weapons (hopefully a possibility of coating poison). Anyway I ended up defeating the Warg again this time with just Shieldwall on both Valerie and Harrim. Made them just capable enough to keep the heat of my main character so he could find a better angle instead of mostly getting tripped and staying down for the rest of the fight while the others have to actually fight. Sort of a buffoon for a hero lol.

[The.Spaz.]

Wow level 3 made a hell of a difference to my party. I ended up going on a power trip moping up all quests and some random Trolls. by the time I got back I already hit level 4.

[The.Spaz.]

So I just hit level 4 and I didn't realize that I had actually picked the wrong feat for Jaethal at level 3 when I had initially made this post. Instead of Outflank she had Co-op Maneuver and now at Level 4, I am trying to decide if I should just get this feat for my character to reap some benefits or reload my save to right before I made my choices at level 3.

I Do plan on getting Outflank feat regardless since it actually seems quite beneficial but I am wondering if I might be sacrificing too many feats for other better options to have. Is it worth having both? I think have mostly gotten all the feats I consider crucial for my build so didn't have any real compelling alternative to pick from.

Reloading the save is a substantial setback on progress. I have taken out many opponents since then. Including a very long and tedious battle with a Viscount Smolder Burn. Is it worth the reload?

Update: I think I may have answered my own question. Turns out Outflank is not an option available to any character at level 3 and that is why I settled for the above mentioned. Thats real sigh of relief since I was not entertaining revisiting certain fights. So I guess I will stick with the choice I have made and get outflanked when its available.

[Kaerius]

I've been putting some thought into how to maximize team buffing/feat sharing.

Mods involved here, if something looks like it's not in the game, it's from a mod.

For teamwork feats there's drill sergeant fighter, tactical leader inquisitor, vanguard slayer, etc.
Skalds can share rage powers (and red tongue can also share a rogue talent, which may be a feat, I'd suggest a teamwork feat such as outflank).
Sensei monks have bardic performances and can also share ki powers.
Divine hunter paladins can share some ranged feats, but it's pretty limited.
There's a few others I think too.

I'm thinking a backbone of a vanguard/skald/sensei trio will be quite formidable. The Skald can even make them all get pounce while performing his raging song(with greater beast totem), by level 11(10 with retraining, not to be confused with respecing).

[-0[]0-]

Originally posted by The.Spaz.:

So just hit level 3 and an inquisitor (Jaethal) forces me to pick a team related feat. This got me thinking about synergy. I was experimenting with the different feats and putting them to test again a Warg in Old Sycamore (recently defeated Tartuccio). I could use some advice on what is worth focusing on.

Its my first time with this series/game and so I am mainly trying to work with what I have been given so far. As such my party has two fighters (Valerie, my avatar), cleric (Harrim), Inquisitor (Jaethal), barbarian (Amiri) and a Bard (Linzi).

Co-ordinated defense: This has likely been the most effective taking down the Worg so far. Although it required all six members to waste their feat picking this skill.

Shield Wall: Have yet to put this to the test but having two heavy shield bearers (Valerie, Harrim) this could prove useful in making both of them survive as well as crowd control.

Co-ordinated Maneuvers: Another one I plan on experimenting. This is something my Dual Wielding fighter can benefit as I am trying to eventually turn him into an agile offensive character in battle and having the extra edge might help but also feel it might better to have my character be more capable on his own. Playing the good guy, I feel eventually I will lose Harrim and Jaethal due to alignment issues.

Other feat based questions:

What is a good single handed weapon to focus with for dual wielding? I would like him to be as damage dealing as possible. He started out with a decent bonus on str/Dex/Cons (17,15,14) but I am still undecided as to what to invest in.

Any suggestions on what defensive feats I should focus for my fighter to keep agile in combat? Evasion is his defense for the lack of a shield and often enough he at right at front during conversations before battle. This requires him to be very reflexive and agile.

I built several teams using this as the core mechanic. I even gave Valerie some points in Slayer Vanguard so she could share more.

I find "Precise Strike" to be useful but I think the prereq. might be dexterity or something?

Also the "Shake it Off" is VERY useful.

For my casters there is one that improves Spell Penetration, that is huge.

In the next game in the series, they actually show you an icon on your status [in your portrait] when you are using/in range of one of those feats.