Hello all,

Now that the definitive edition is out I figured I'd run through the game once more. but I keep quitting the game on the character generation screen, because I cannot see any build or party of builds that appeal to me.

Here is my dilemma. I like playing as an undead. It seems that my party is pretty much shoehorned by this.
Pick undead. What can you spec for undead. Geo for poison. Okay, so I get geo. What does that mean? Pyro. That's right, Geo and Pyro are symbiotic. What can I pair geo/pyro with? Geo/pyro. So that means that I have to go with geo/pyro mages.
Why not aero/hydro? Because geo/pyro decreases the damage of aero/hydro, so having both of them actually reduces damage potential.

Okay, fine. What else?

I'd like to do something roguelike. What does that mean? Warfare maxed, 3 points in rogue for almost all abilities, and 3 points in metamorph for the fantastic support. Why not something hybrid with magic? Because splitting points between warfare and pyro/geo/aero/hydro means damage sucks, and splitting points between int and dex means damage sucks. Damage can only ever come from one attribute if it is to be worthwhile. I can add some minor cc/support from ancillary skills, or rock the house with necro support, but that's way too OP to entice me.

Go warfare? Same. max warfare/str, get a few points in metamorph and necro. Yay, the same as a rogue, except different base skills.

Hunter? Actually the best class in terms of flexibility, but the same problem.

Why not combo summoning with all of them? because summoning is boring, and makes combat that much slower since there will be up to 4 additional npcs on the field.


What would I like?
I'd like to play undead, and I'd like to have geo / not-pyro combos that don't make me feel like I'm gimping myself. I'd like a rogue hybrid that doesn't deal shit for damage. I'd like an aero/hydro mage that doesn't buttblast my other mage outputs. And I'd like a hunter that actually *should* benefot from using additional abilities instead of just massive damage archery.

Does anyone have any builds where these would be possible?

The fact that you're locked into Str OR Int OR Fin for damage types is a bummer, but it is what it is. If you're dealing physical damage you max warfare, and if you're dealing magic damage you max polymorph into Int. Weird and kind of a bummer, agreed.

If you're planning to play a hybrid party I'm not sure what to suggest for the physical folks. The obvious answer is having a 2-hander melee and a huntsman, but (like me) you've probably done that once or twice already... because it's really effective.

On the magic side, though, have you considered having two spellcasters who aren't individually synergistic, but who synergize with each other? As an example, have one be hydro/pyro, and have the other be aero/geo. If you'd rather have one be more support-focused and the other more damage focused, you could go hydro/geo and aero/pyro and make sure that hydro/geo has higher initiative. The idea is that on any given turn you have one mage setting up with oil or poison or water, and the other mage follows up by igniting or electrifying it. Individually the mages are suboptimal, but as a pair they're a murder machine. You choose what you're actually going to do in each battle based on the resistances of the enemies and your need to either CC them or just shove raw damage at them. Eventually both mages probably dabble in all the elements, but they have those focuses. A benefit from this flexibility is that you give your huntsman a lot of opportunities to do badass non-damaging things. Your undead archer can choose between dealing a bunch of physical damage or shooting a mediocre water arrow that just happens to freeze or stun a chilled enemy that would otherwise have cast Restoration on your undead party. The versatility of huntsmen is nuts.

I'm not sure if any of this is actually helpful. A thing I have to keep telling myself is that I don't have to have optimal builds. Even on tactician you don't need to be perfect all the time. It's okay to do something that's worse but that's interesting.