a) This still requires spending 2 feats and 1 mythic feat on a character who is hungry for feats anyway.
Sosiel has a lot of much better choices. With the impossible domain alone you will get many more bonuses.
b) About 90% of the dangerous enemies in this game are demons, which tend to have quite a high SR.
c) In the game you actually have a lot of items for SP, the problem is that you have other characters that need them more.
d) So to make the character not useless for most of the game you have to practically remake it from scratch?
e) Oracle is better for what you want to do. Practically from the 1st act you have access to items that give you free spells.
You can easily get both red salamander and stormlord resolve which give you tons of good evocation spells.
Oh for fuck sake.
a) Yeah, that's why I typically don't take them up front or at all depending. Moot now since I've just respecced him to get them in place of the weak Feats he starts with, and I've got Piercing Rods for Prayer. The Mythic doesn't do much until later on anyway so it makes more sense to hold off on it to get there with late game nukes in vanilla.
b) Again with the abstractions pulled out of your ass. The things I use Sound Burst on are often not even Demons. Cultists and Votaries are a threat he's well-placed to take out. That's his role until endgame nukes come in. And yeah Archon's bypasses all that Demon SR and sets them up for Nenio AoE enemies only control.
c) They get more plentiful as the game goes on. Sos has two other good action econs until then (one Full/Standard, the other Swift), but Archon's doesn't use any econ at all, Prayer buffs my team regardless (and is no Save so even getting thru half the SR is fine) and Sound Burst as we've been over is for Human casters or other things with low SR anyway.
d) If your Sos is useless that's a you problem. Vanilla he focuses on attacking (with self-buffs), buffing, Archon's debuff, domain, and controlling casters until Spell Pen comes in later. That's... alot. Main reason for respec is simply that this team already has two Heavy wearers and no Medium so just wanted a conventional Cleric. Prayer goes from meh to good, Arrow of Law turns on, and Burst gets more targets. Marginal improvement but nothing like what
FreeKaner is describing. He's not there to Dismiss bosses.
e) You have no idea what you're talking about. Sos already *has* good Evo spells in this setting. That Ring is anything but free and three's a lot of items I want to buy (especially modded with Piercing Rods and the like). This is the same issue with EK and Impossible Domain. You guys stack five parallel action economies* on one character instead of making any one of them good and think you're doing something. That's the same mistake I came to the Codex to make and
Daidre rightly pwned me for it.
* - Archon's is so good because it takes no Action Econ at all.
In the game you have a 6 characters. so you don't need everyone to do dmg, especially if one character can make the others much more effective.
Recently I showed how very useful community domain is especially for enemies that cast CC like blasphemy.
Domains are extremely powerful, but you usually have very limited choices. There's a reason why Erasil is the strongest possible picks in Kingsmaker.
I'll keep saying this, but Guarded Heart doesn't change anything in the action economy because you mainly use it BEFORE the fight.
Enemies like normal cultists cease to be a serious threat from the end of act 1.
The only typical human enemies I know are the minimally problematic barbarians in Wintersun.
Votary is a bit of a different matter. They appear quite late in the game, while in Drezen they are deadly dangerous, unless you go to the ivory sanctum early, they are not very dangerous after that.
They still have pretty good saves though.
Gargoyles in act 2 that are actually pretty weak against sonic burst, but I don't know if there is anything else.
Really good spells come quite late and require spell penetration.
I don't count blade barrier because it's still extremely buggy.
Dearan has pretty much the same spells as Sosiel (1 level later), plus of course those spells he gets for items.
Sigh. Game isn’t played in vague abstractions. Lets look at particulars.
Of course Guarded Hearth is good. Here’s the four questions you have to answer:
(1) Do you need it? Outside of Unfair don’t need the AB. On Unfair other than some optional fights there it depends on rest of party, but optional fights aren’t really optional. It’s good there in a way that isn’t easily replaced but if I’ve got a Bard/Skald still might not need it since bonus is now Competence.
Hearth is a spiking ability, but Sos already has abilities like Touch of Good and Divine Fortune which (along with his self buffs) let him spike effectively and help the team to do so.
Saves tho no question are great if you can make the tactics (Full Action default) work. Which leads to next question.
(2) Can you get it somewhere else? Yes. Pure ZA Lann is a great source of pure damage (and can spike himself with Perfect Strike and Ki Attack), but as you note that may not be something you need. Sosiel himself can fulfill some of that function without giving up his Swift Domain action econ by using Cleric self-buffs and Divine Fortune to make him a good fighter. And of course for most people MC is a good source of damage as well.
That frees up Lann to pick up a Domain thru something like Sacred Huntmaster which then lets him make Hearth Swift with Zealot since he didn’t have to blow a Mythic getting the Domain in the first place, solving the Full Action problem.
Of course easiest place to get it is on MC where you can design a whole build around it. I don't think Reg gets Impossible (?) but would also be a good home since he doesn't need Abundant or Spell Focus/Pen Mythics.
(3) What does it cost Sosiel to get it? This is the main factor. If you're taking Impossible at M1 you're not getting Abundant (12 spell slots! plus delaying Improved Abundant) or Domain Zealot which turns off half your action econ. If you take those two at M1 and M2 then Impossible Community at 3 you're not getting Improved Abundant and have missed out on Hearth for 4 levels where it would really come in handy (Unfair is hardest earliest) and you miss out on Improved Abundant which is eight (very good!) slots and 12 at lvl 11. That doesn't even get into Mythic Evo and eventually Spell Pen. He has the most crowded set of Mythics he really wants compared to the other options that for some reason you keep ignoring.
(4) How does it affect Sosiel's Action Economy? This is more a question for Madness which you want to use a lot. But even on Hearth putting down a Hearth and pulling really isn't a viable approach on some of the hardest fights where it's better to take the fight to the enemy. Taking Impossible before Zealot makes you better for one fight but significantly worse for the rest. Combining Hearth and Zealot (at high cost) can work ok but again you can't look at the Hearth benefit in a vacuum but have to compare it to the Touch of Good/Luck that would otherwise be taking that Swift. That's often enough if you put it on your best attacker.
Recently I showed how very useful community domain is especially for enemies that cast CC like blasphemy.
Lol on your MC with +9 Bestow Grace. C'mon man it will make you less vulnerable there but hardly a full solution, especially Unfair. You're going to need Immunity or tactics to be safe even with Hearth. Later on it will be great to get you into crit miss only range granted.
Domains are extremely powerful, but you usually have very limited choices. There's a reason why Erasil is the strongest possible picks in Kingsmaker.
Not the case, and Community doesn't even give Cleric any new spells. Game's not one-dimensional, all depends on what you need. Harrim's two Domains ended up being great in P:K even though they looked bad at first glance.
Enemies like normal cultists cease to be a serious threat from the end of act 1.
The only typical human enemies I know are the minimally problematic barbarians in Wintersun.
Votary is a bit of a different matter. They appear quite late in the game, while in Drezen they are deadly dangerous, unless you go to the ivory sanctum early, they are not very dangerous after that.
They still have pretty good saves though.
Kabriri Cultists in Lost Chapel, Shadow Votaries in Drezen, Druid/Ranger at Wintersun, Cultists in Ivory Sanctum. If it can cast it's a threat, and sometimes if it can shoot. Fort is typically weakest save and saves can be debuffed. The extra +4 DC makes a big difference. When Demons start being a bigger threat is the same time the Spell Pen kicks in (and you get Evo Cloak from Sanctum).
Gargoyles in act 2 that are actually pretty weak against sonic burst, but I don't know if there is anything else.
Really good spells come quite late and require spell penetration.
I don't count blade barrier because it's still extremely buggy.
Dearan has pretty much the same spells as Sosiel (1 level later), plus of course those spells he gets for items.
Most Gargs have high enough SR that Burst is unreliable against them, plus Sos is good so vulnerable vs Smite Good. Gargs section of ch2 might be a good time to give him a blow.
Smite/Wrath is good vs Demons once you have the Spell Pen since it gets full damage plus debuff/mez. Hellfire, Arbitrament, Stormbolts etc...
Daeran only has the same spells as Sos if he picks them at level up though he gets more casts since Spontaneous so more Mythic options. He's a *much* worse fighter though and doesn't get the Swift Domain buffs. They're doing vastly different things. Nuke rings are ok but raw nukes need Meta to really be good and starting fight Staggered is massive nonbo with Full Action spells. You can just pick the good Divine nukes anyway. I do use Electric Bracers with Unholy Max Rod on him sometimes tho.
