Hi everybody,

after long thoughts I decided to use the Chanter class as my (human) main character. As I've read, a chanter can fight in the first row while singing its songs. What stats should I give him? The game recommends constitution and intelligence - but how much to each is ok? And shouldn't I give points to strength and dexterity too if I plan to stand in the middle of the fights?
I don't want to mess my character up and be forced to restart after some hours, so if you can give me some advice, I would highly appreciate it. ;)

Thanks

I've got one, but I just rolled him up without doing any research to speak of. Resolve affects how far out his chant AoEs go. But then, I haven't decided if his chants are all that effective anyway. So far, they seem like rather minor buffs/debuffs. The invocations you cast after you have been chanting a while are quite powerful, I think. It takes forever in a melee to be able to do them, though.

I went for a missile shooting guy to stay back from the front line. But he still has to stand close enough for his chant auras to be effective.

I have a chanter, too. Not much to say about it, I'm still quite early in the game, just that I find the invocation that summons a phantom to be really helpful. The ones that deal AoE damage only to foes are precious, too - Wizard's spells are maybe more powerful, but they damage also allies.

Hi,
thanks for your answers.

I'm just wondering if there is a stat that's completely unneeded for the Chanter. I would like to give him at least 14 to Str/Con to make him a relatively able frontliner and Int 18. What I'm not sure is what to do with Dex - does it influence the Chanter's ability to sing his songs faster? So Res doesn't seem to be that imporant, if my guy will be in the middle of the action. With the other stats I'm also unsure what to do...

Oh yes, the phantom is extremely helpful. It tears the enemies apart like nothing. :)

If you're going to make your chanter a frontliner you may need to put some into resolve, because it affects the characters 'concentration'. And given that anybody's actions, including melee, can be interrupted; resolve might not be the 'dump stat' even for fighters or other standard frontliners in the game. But I'm also not fully sure of what precisely concentration helps your characters with beyond letting mages focus on spells.

I'm not very far yet but for what I see, my Chanter isn't made to be a Melee. I mean, he can if you choose to, but he really shines as a caster-summoner, so I'd focus my secondary stats on survavibility, not fighting abilities. So, yes, Int + Constit seems like a good advice. Then maybe resolve and perception for some defense. I'll keep my curent character, but if I had to restart, I'd lower my Might a lot and let the invocations do the damage - the hardes part is to stay alive long enough to cast them :p.

I do totally agree. Keep also in mind that Resolve is also quite useful outside combat. I am just arrived in the first big city, and I have already felt the need of a couple more points in Resolve, to have more opportunities to solve quests without fighting.
And I built my chanter to be a second tank, next to Eder. She does not deal much damage (barely anything at all) but most her invocations (apart from summons) require her to be in melee so there she goes.
If I could rebuild her, I'd give her a lower Might and a higher Resolve and Constitution.

Thank you for your advice! Ok, then I think I'll lower Might to around 10-12, set Con to 16, Int to 18, Dex/Res to at least 12. May I ask how your stats look like? (I've never had so much thoughts about how to skill my char ;) ).

My PC is a human chanter. I am playing at Normal, took an evocation spell (skeletons, they work quite well as a distraction) and weapon specialization (ruffian) talent: as a frontliner he is quite fragile, but does much more damage than Eder (who is always fighting defensively, mainly taking hits and throwing down the opponents).

I don't know how well he will perform against stronger enemies, though.

In my opinion, chanters shouldn't be at the frontline. The longer they're involved in combat, the harder it will become for enemies to hurt you. The little buffs the chanting grants are just the tip of it: invocations are the meat. Toss some skeletons or a phantom into the mix and they will greatly distract the opponents. If you put your chanter in the frontline, you risk losing him before he has a chance to do any invocations. You'd also need to spend skill points wider, which is the question asked here. I think by putting him in the back, it immediately eliminates the problem of how much exactly to put into might, dexterity, resolve and constitution and instead focus on mainly intellect.

I'm not saying this is the definite "right" way to do things, but it has worked for me. I keep Kana Rua (the Aumaua companion) in the back and let him chant there in peace while steadily firing an arquebus, until he's ready to cast three tank skeletons to screw the opponent with, which I immediately do once ready.

If you summon your skeletons, your phantom will disappear. I guess it's one summon per character. Yes, it's sad. I haven't tried with a summon of a different level but I guess it's the same.

That's a vital thing to know when you make your level-up choices. Man.