Thanks for the reply mate. I should clarify though: I'm not trying to minmax on my first normal walkthrough. Just wanted to start off with something I liked the idea of and learn the mechanics as I go before I attempt harder difficulties. Do you happen to have any DEX/INT or rather sword saint builds lying around that work with a Tiefling by any chance? Or give me some rough pointers?

I can make you one that would be comfortable to play in the topic next door. Just come up with what you want of a character. Most anything is possible for challenging, unless you try to pack in too many things at once.

If you fail a perception check to discover hidden object, when could you make next attempt: on character level up, on the Perception increase or on the Perception rank increase?
How does hunting checks during rest work? Funny thing, now you cannot become a DD if you are sage/sylvan/empyreal sorcerer and draconic scion (not that this would make any sense from a practical standpoint).

Same as everything else. Once per character per level. Guidance is pretty decent to know when/where you failed.

d20+skill vs DC, same as everything else. Really what you want to know is that you should always hunt, but with "use supplies" box checked. Because that way you do hunt, but don't spend extra time for it.

There would be some good sense. Like abyssal scion15/M1/dd4 that is not longer possible.

After trying out Animate dead for the first time I'm blown away. This spell is crazy good and fun.

Is it possible to make strong build around it or does it's efficiency falter in late game?

There is a staff that buffs those. No feats affect them. So yeah they can carry you in a pinch early and are an awesome fodder late, because there are so many of them spawning and they are naturally immune to poison.

Makes me wish that a Necromancer build was possible. As in more and higher raise dead spells.

I have one more question regarding Saint Vivisector. I hit lvl 7 now and defeated the Stag Lord wooho. [It was probably the easiest and most fun Build I played by far.] But how do I manage spells slot early better? I only have 4 level 1 slots and only 1 level 2 slot right now. Should I wear an Int headpiece instead of charisma?

Yes, +2 int does the same for you as cha does, aka +1AC. and adds more arcane weapon uses, which is not bad either.
As to slot management... 2 shield spells to last as long as mutagen does, 1 mirror image(because the thing is OP), that leaves 2 level 1 slots to use. Shocking grasp is ok for then you need a bit of a damage ramp. Alchemist slots are used for true strikes, although if I know that location is not too scary I slot heal wounds there for better heal economy. I don't run dedicated healer, after all and just make do with pots, leftover bard spells, a few slots on jaethal and two wands you get. 1 moderate healing wand in A1(hell if I remember where, but it's there) and heal lesser wounds with like 40 chargers in lone hut A2. After all, not taking damage is the best healing spell.

I think it's in the reworked berry cave on a dead adventurer.

I'm currently exploring the Frog cave to clean up A1. Animate Dead is a life safer for me. I wish I had more slots.

If I were to be perfectly honest. I haven't been further than the beginning of Act 2 and now I'm a bit scared after seeing what I had to do to survive in A1. I required a lot of meta gaming knowledge and your help of course. Maybe I should've done a normal playthrough on a lower difficulty first. I hope I won't mess up the next act.

Edit: Uh oh...

My sylvan sorc dinged 6 bit after sycamore, so I did that with stinking clouds. Was super-easy. As to the difficulty... the farther it goes - the easier it becomes as you get more tools to deal with whatever. After trolls it's all sunshine and roses up to the endgame where wild hunt settles some fear of god back into you. Not that much fear, though as they are perfectly susceptible to stinking clouds as well. And you'll have jubi for choking bombs too.

Thanks!

And what is DC for this check? How does additional time calculated?
Also a question on time — do I really need to save it? For now I've only finished second chapter, and haven't noticed any meaningful time constraints. Carrying weight however is kinda an issue for the party I run, so I always hunt without using rations.

My point was that's even if a Sylvan/Sage/Epyreal Sorcerer cannot become DD even if he is a Draconic bloodline Scion, so I meant it makes no sense to take both Scion and Sylvan/Sage/Epyreal Sorc levels. Since than however I've checked PnP rules, and it's RAW that only Sorc bloodline is affected by DD, not a Bloodrager/Scion.

Another issue is that if you first take standard Sorcerer level and select bloodline, and then take first scion level you cannot chose bloodline, your Scion bloodline is determined by your Sorc bloodline. However after that you bloodline progress become completely broken. It seems, you don't progress on your bloodline by advancing your sorc levels, and while level up screen show that you do so while taking Magus levels, it seems, it has no effect (I've checked that there is no magus bonus spells and no dragon resistances increase on level 9). You also cannot become DD as there is no Blood of Dragons ability available for selection.

From what I see you roll like in PnP: against DC that depends on the location you are in. Pretty sure amount of food depends on degrees of success, but there is no way to know.

and as to multiple bloodlines... There are limitations even in pnp. What you are looking for would be cross-blooded sorc. You can do it with eldritch arcana mod if you really want to. Only problem with EA is it offers a bunch of things that the game is not balanced around, so if you use things from it game kinda breaks a bit(or a lot). Cross-blooded sorc is kinda balanced, though.

First of all let me thank you for your great guide, InEffect. Super well done. Thank you so much.

Would like to ask you a couple of questions, for when you have the time and patience (apologies for so many questions):
- how would you weave 1 lvl of Sworlord into a DEX Swordsaint? ASAP as possible? Or later?
- would you dip 1 lvl of Swordlord into your Aldori Duelist build?
- if following your Aldori Dueslist build, with Cha instead of Wis, how much would I loose from dipping into Palading instead of Bard?
- and finally, how about a Saint 9, Scaled 2, Paladin 2, Duelist 7? You say that Dueslist can be replace by something better - what would it be in this case?

Thanks in advance for any help and your time.

With Beneath the Stolen Lands released, is it possible to reach 20th level in the main campaign without maximizing skill check experience on PC or reducing party size?

I'd take it asap, as I would be skipping slashing grace for it. That also means early levels will be bit of a suffer(or a lot of it, depending on the difficulty).

Sure. I need to redo that one sometime with Cha and shatter

2 pal levels are fine for a low-maintenance character like that. Although I did kick out pally levels from most of my builds by now as it's simply not needed. If you want cha saves on LG character in a pinch - ask your local cleric for bestow grace. Realistically, there are not that many saves your have to make over the course of the game. And murdering things fast enough usually solves all problems.

Scaled 2 is not needed for sure. Damage is not spooky, so evasion is kinda meh. Duelist is good for challenging, but kinda falls off later on. Also dropping saint below 15 is not beneficial. You drop a lot of arcane weapon uses and bane weapon and gain nothing for it. My current saint build is str-based and still can reach 70AC with buffs, which is all you need to tank unfair endgame(well, that and displacement+mirror images). For a dex saint I'd probably be looking at saint17/M1/V1/SL1 or saint15/M1/V3/SL1 for longer mutagen at the cost of 1 enchant. eitehr way core builds is M1/V1/Saint15+whatever else you deem better.
Should be, although I am moving through my unfair run atm and abusing exp gain systems is very much beneficial still. Level 8.5 now and I haven't done trolls yet. How much exp the dungeon gives remains to be seen, as I'm not there yet.