Stealth generalist build for new players and old ones alike (suggestions welcome

[A_Clever_Monocle]

So this is an evolution upon an earler thread and I can say so far I have managed to vet the build from before and make adjustments based on how useful the feats were overall.

It turns out that the trick to this was making it a crit build, with the changes to ambush this build is much more accessible.

I believe this will be a great build for new players who aren't too thrilled about role playing as a AR weilding tin can.


Without further ado the starting stats are

S:5 (or 6 defending on what shotguns you want access to)
D:7
A:4
C:3
P:10( goal of 13 for Scrutionous)
W:3
I:7-8 (goal of 10 later)

For feats I feel this build has a lot of mix and match potential as well as room for QOL feats. core feats will be denoted with a * and should be take that level.

1. Versatility*/Aimed Shot*
2. Marksman*
4. Point Shot* (P+1)
6. Premeditation*
8.Ambush*(I+1)
10. Psyco temporal acceleration*
12.High technicalities* (I+1)
14.Critical Power*
16. Blindsiding*  (Take stats of your choice from here out)
18.Bowyer*


From this point on the feats you take will mostly be quality of life. Below is an explanation on the feat combinations to give you a better Idea

Aimed Shot/Ambush/Critical Power/Blindsiding-This is where the bulk of our damadge comes from.

ambush in combination with critical power will allow you to do massive damadge with just about any ranged weapon.

Aimed shot gives you options for when ambush wont trigger.

And Blindsiding is a nice damadge buff simply because you will attack from stealth 9 times out of 10 and end combat within a turn or two.

Versatility/Marksman/Bowyer- this combination of feats allows you to use crossbows VERY effectively with only 15 points of skill investment.

you should only be using basic incendiary bolts. This is with the express purpose of lighting enimies on fire to trigger a light source for ambush.  ( this will only work on living enimies without antithermic gear).

Point Shot/High technicalities-
point shot with an electroshock pistol can and will trigger ambush. If there is enemy in a group that meets the conditions you can wipe out; or severely damadge the whole group.

 For. 15 ap without or 7 ap with the jkk tactful vest thats one hell of a bargain. (Did I mention that you can do this once every turn and twice every third turn)

High technicalities: with 10 int will give you a 40% damadge boost to energy pistols with high technicalities and simply expands upon your one shot potential.


Premeditation/Psyco temporal Acceleration-This combination basically gives you free adrenaline shots that don't fatigue you.  With psyco temporal contraction.

And  Premeditation is probably one of the best overall feats in the game.

Even after all thay you still have five feats to choose from.

You can chose whatever fits your playstyle but there are some you should consider taking and some that seem good but end up being potential traps for this build.

Do Consider taking

Power management: Possible to do without but sheilds will be your primary method of defense this feat can extend that by a third.

Escape Artist: Dumping Dodge and Evasion means getting stuck In place can be a death sentence good defensive feat.

Sure step: mandatory if you're using Caltrops

Grenader: decent feat for any build

Pack rathound: Good for any build (you will have lots of gear to carry)

Quick pockets: If you plan to take either grenader or sure step grab this as well.

Rapid Fire: solid pistol abilty but only works on firearm pistols.


DO NOT TAKE

Leading shot: If you ever pick up a shotgun for this build use it for groups of clustered enimies and pepper the whole group instead of getting one or two with overkill amounts of damadge. (In otherwords low accuracy is a good thing you will have other better weapons for single target damdge)

Steadfast Aim: complete waste of a feat if you are using ambush and proper gear

Practical Physicist:Circular wave amplifiers make this feat pointless

Future orientation: Do not take this feat this feat especially if you use limited temporal increment a lot. The aditional ap drain is not worth it

Psychosis: you use psi abilities for CC not damadge.


Meh feats that won't screw up your build


Opportunist/execute: Blindsiding effectivly replaces opportunist for our purposes and execute is superseded by crits.

Snipe: good on paper but with the critical power specialization it wont realistically exceed your critical damdge. It still synergizes well with Blindsiding

Special tactics- handy if you want to pop another special bolt out but Premeditation effectively replaces this feat


Skills

Guns (Max)
Throwing (120 effective skill)
Crosbows (15 base skill for marksman)

Dodge: (0)  (or get 30 for escape artist)
Evasion:  (good Later game dump stat)

Stealth (max)
Hacking (100 effective skill) (low priority early game but super useful for expedition)(Mid game dump stat)
Lockpicking (100 effective Skill) (raise this as an early game dump stat)
Pickpocketing (0)
Traps (0)

(NOTE crafting benches give an extra 15% to this skill group)
Mechanics: (150-160 effective Skill)
Electronics: (150-160 effective Skill)
Chemestry: (120 effective skill)
Biology: (130ish effective skill)
Tailoring (0 JKK and redacted can get you decent tabi boots)

Thought control: (0)
Psycokenisis (45) get 30 base ability before old junkyard for electrokenisis
Metathermics:(50) get 35 before old junkyard for cryostasis
Temoral manipulation (55) aim for 25 before junkyard for increment

Persuasion:(0)
Intimidation:(0)
Mercantile: (105 effective for secret shops) (get 20 effective at charicter creation for 2 early game mercantile checks)

Specializations
Critical power (10 levels)
Premeditation Cooldown (2 levels)
Last 3 are player choice

Psi abilities and when, where, and why to get them

First off are abilites from sgs teachers

Bison's Psycokenisis abilities

Telekenetic punch (Psycokenisis 0): very useful ability for the first 2 or 3 missions.

Forcefeild (Psycokenisis 25): get this ASAP this is our single best defensive ability for the early game it can be used to deploy an impassible and indestructible 3x3 wall anywhere (including doorways and chokepoints.

Electrokenisis (Psycokenisis 30): better stun ability that basically replaces telekenetic punch.

Quinton's metamantics abilities

Note: take the quest for a to learn a free ability and use mercantile to get a second freebie before accepting the quest. Accepting the quest also nets you a free crossbow so I reccomend choosing a pistol as your weapon in the armory.

Cryokenisis (metamantics 0): okay damadge but the main draw is that it allows you to freeze someone for longer when you follow up using cryostasis. (I recommend buying this one and getting the next two as freebies)

Pyrokenisis (metamantics 25): its just a fireball but it can be very useful early game as it is an aoe attack comarable to a small grenade.

Cryostasis (Metamantics 35): possibly the best single target CC ability in the game as unlike fear or stun freeze has no immunity period following its use. Alternate between this and stun effects to keep strong enimise permenantly locked down. (This is also the only CC ability thay will work on wyatt).

Ethan's Temporal Manipulation abilities

Limited Temporal Increment (Temporal Manipulation 25): reduces all cooldowns by one.

Psyco temporal dilation(Temporal Manipulation 45): Basically a slow ability that reduce ap and mp very useful when you are waiting for stun immunity to wear off.

From here out all of our psi abilities come from mentors

Electokenetic Imprint(Psycokenisis 45): Amazing ability Psi equivalent of quick tinkering with a bear trap place this in a doorway to stack enemies up. Also great for crawlers and lurkers.
-random loot I think it can show up in (redacted) shop if you have mercantile for the special merchandise check

Psyco Temporal contraction (Temporal Manipulation 55): This is the best psi ability in the game for hybrid builds with the relevant feat it gives you 20 ap and 30mp for 3 turns with no drawbacks.
-buy from doctor at rail crossing

Thermodynamic Destabilization (Metathermics 50): This psi ability more or less replaces the need for damaging grenades.
-doctor at foundry


GEAR

your gear ahould consist of the following by end game

Amplified Smart Electroshock Pistol- nearly silent and almost a guaranteed group kill with a critical hit or aimed shot.


Pneumatic AA cyclon crossbow and bolt quiver- 14 ap for a 50%  chance to light an enemy on fire for ambush good range for picking off more distant targets. Don't bother with notmal bolts.


Any tactical non combat shotgun with Hoppershot (shotguns are just useful against large numbers of weak enimies)


Rapid Smart AA Sniper of your choice. (This is what you pull out for super long range fights or damadge resistant enimies)

Seeker night vision goggles: massive boost to crit chance makes ambush more reliable

High quality Ninja tabi boots (aquired from JKK or redacted shops) (stealth, dodge, evasion, and movement bonuses with no crafting investment)

Jkk Tactful Jacket (makes point shot almost a free action costing only 25% of a weapons ap cost instead of 50% and a lovely 2% crit chance boost)

I will upload a strategy for junkyard after the holiday ends but feel free to coment on the build below

[A_Clever_Monocle]

An update

Unless you really Like energy pistols you might want to dump percerption down to 6 (for feats) and int down to 7 or 8

High technicalities isint worth it when your crit damadge is so high anyway.

Another note is that this build can easily be adjusted to fit Daggers (and machetes but I do not reccomend)

The reason you would do this would be to give your pistols and crossbows a swort of roundabout scaling from dexterity

More importantly energy pustols are considered light weapons and we will be using versatility anyhow. If we max dex with versatility we can acheive damadge comparable to a high perception charicter (and crossbows share that benefit so two birds one stone)

Your starting stat spread would look like this

S:6 (use all shotguns, snipers, and machetes)
D:10 (and take it every 4 levels)
A:4 (temporal contraction will keep you mobile)
C:3
P:6 (minimum requirement for some feats)
W:3 (you can also dump 1 point from Int/Str)
I:8 (requires 7 for feats the extra point bc this build is crafting heavy.)

The outline from here out would be the same as above

Minimum guns skill with this change would be 25 points for point shot.

Note early game this charicter will feel absolutely starved for points until you hit level 14 or so

at that time you should have reached all of the benchmarks for all of your psi skills, as well lockpicking and possibly mercantile.

Crafting will also be nearing the maximum worthwhile investment after a few point dumps before you reach 20

In the 20s you will be able to pick up hacking, tailoring or maybe persuasion as a dump stat. Depending on what you find to be worthwhile (note that hacking is Very useful in expedition)

Still you will probably feel the squeeze through all of depot A


The sweet spot for the guns skill is 25 where you get acess to a slew of pistol related perks.

If you decide you really like firearm pistols consider using your extra points to get guns to 50 and taking rapid fire

Also for specializations prioritize versatility, then critical power and or Premeditation cooldown.

[A_Clever_Monocle]

With that I intend to stop edditing the build post.

I have to say that versatility is a really interesting feat to play around with but the builds I plan with it in mind always end up suboptimal when I actually get into practice with them and find out that I made some sort of decision that holds it back.

Only by playing it through (and finding out how absurd critical power is on energy pistols) did I come to my present conclusions.

In an earlier build I allocated my feats poorly and in this build I was forded to look at the benifits each stat brings to the build (turns out dex is arguably the best stat due to our feat requirements and their overlap with melee)

Anyway feel free to comment below