History YMMV / LoveOfMagic

** Rage builds in general. They add additional damage to any subsequent hands, including combinations that would normally inflict no damage such as shield, lightning or ''more'' rage. While it does inflict recoil damage to Owyn, even ''that'' drawback comes with the benefit of recharging companions' abilities even faster and can be mitigated with Dylan's regeneration, Emily's shield and/or Bella's passive damage reduction. To top it off, Bella can give you an optional Rage 9 to add 200 base rage ''plus'' 1% per point of intelligence. All this makes rage builds by far the most consistently performing playstyle, with two combinations in particular standing out:

*** At the end of Book I, Emily automatically gives you Shield 9, which grants a 2000 shield excluding the intelligence bonus. In Early Book II, this gem can be slotted in the Four of A Kind slot, a easily accessible hand through Molly, Chloe and/or Akane. At that point, both versions can safely be combined into Rage/Shield/Cluster to reliably keep Owyn alive while dishing out enraged clusters. If it weren't enough, Book II and Book III further make this build broken to a ludicrous degree with the introduction of three flawless gems: ''Clusterstrike'' inflicts five attacks of ''100 damage'' that gets nasty with a lot of rage; ''Berserker'' adds base 100 rage then ''doubles'' its current level; ''Divine Guard'' grants a whooping ''4000'' base shield. By the time you obtain all three gems, you have likely improved Owyn's stats enough to turn him into a near-unstoppable killing machine, and you can spam the companions' skills to remove the "near" part.

*** At the end of Book I, Emily automatically gives you Shield 9, which grants a 2000 shield excluding the intelligence bonus. In Early Book II, this gem can be slotted in the Four of A Kind slot, a easily accessible hand through Molly, Chloe and/or Akane. At that point, both versions can safely be combined into Rage/Shield/Cluster to reliably keep Owyn alive while dishing out enraged clusters. If it weren't enough, Book II and Book III further make this build broken to a ludicrous degree with the introduction of three flawless gems: Clusterstrike inflicts five attacks of ''100 damage'' that gets nasty with a lot of rage; Berserker adds base 100 rage then ''doubles'' its current level; DivineGuard grants a whooping ''4000'' base shield. By the time you obtain all three gems, Owyn has more than the time to make his stats high enough to turn himself into a near-unstoppable killing machine, and can spam his companions' skills to remove the "near" part.

** The Rage/Cluster combination makes for a relatively early one - rage boosts each attack, and cluster is three attacks in one. Snowdrop's quest line can get you a Rage 7 gem early, slotting into the Four of a Kind slot, and having Molly in your party can get you regular Four of a Kind hands. Hellions later use this same combination against you.
*** The more conservative versions, Rage/Shield and Rage/Shield/Cluster, are arguably even more overpowered in the mid-late game. On top of dealing damage thanks to rage's boost, shield absorbs its recoil and enemies' attacks, both of which recharge companions' and later on, Excalibur's abilities. Said abilities include the Barrier spell that can block any damage, even the normally unlockable poison for a turn. By the end of Book I, Bella and Emily respectively can/will give you a Rage 9/Shield 9 gem, which you can slot in the Four of A Kind slot early in Book II. The end result is turning Owyn into a near-unstoppable killing machine who can reliably spam his allies' skills to make himself even stronger or nullify any damage he takes.

** Later, once Emily learns Dragonslayer, she does a flat 1000 points of damage to anything, making Lightning/Emily a combination allowing Owyn to kill basically anything on the Paths without taking damage, and even moreso with a companion that can improve your plays like Molly, Chloe, or Akane. Decent lightning plays can easily freeze an enemy for three or four turns, letting Emily do 4000 or more points of damage. Book II lets Owyn and Bella have their own Dragonslayer-type attacks for over 3000 total damage per turn. However, this is ineffective against Cambions because they're immune to lightning.

** The Rage/Cluster combination makes for a relatively early one - rage boosts each attack, and cluster is three attacks in one. Snowdrop's quest line can get you a Rage 7 gem early, slotting into the Four of a Kind slot, and having Molly in your party can get you regular Four of a Kind hands.

** Later, once Emily learns Dragonslayer, she does a flat 1000 points of damage to anything, making Lightning/Emily a combination allowing MC to kill basically anything on the Paths without taking damage, and even moreso with a companion that can improve your plays like Molly, Chloe, or Akane. Decent lightning plays can easily freeze an enemy for three or four turns, letting Emily do 4000 or more points of damage. Book II lets MC and Bella have their own Dragonslayer-type attacks for over 3000 total damage per turn. However, this is ineffective against Cambions because they're immune to lightning.

** Later, once Emily learns Dragonslayer, she does a flat 1000 points of damage to anything, making Lightning/Emily a combination allowing MC to kill basically anything on the Paths without taking damage, and even moreso with a companion that can improve your plays like Molly, Chloe, or Akane. Decent lightning plays can easily freeze an enemy for three or four turns, letting Emily do 4000 or more points of damage. Book II lets MC and Bella have their own Dragonslayer-type attacks for over 3000 total damage per turn.

** Later, once Emily learns Dragonslayer, she does a flat 1000 points of damage to anything, making Lightning/Emily a combination allowing MC to kill basically anything on the Paths without taking damage, and even moreso with a companion that can improve your plays like Molly, Chloe, or Akane. Decent lightning plays can easily freeze an enemy for three or four turns, letting Emily do 4000 or more points of damage. Book II lets MC have a Dragonslayer-type attack with Excalibur as well.

* GameBreaker: The Rage/Cluster combination makes for a relatively early one - rage boosts each attack, and cluster is three attacks in one. Later, once Emily learns Dragonslayer, she does a flat 1000 points of damage to anything, making Lightning/Emily a combination allowing MC to kill basically anything without taking damage, and even moreso with a companion that can improve your plays like Molly, Chloe, or Akane. Book II lets MC have a Dragonslayer-type attack with Excalibur as well.