Oli

Oli is a Human Hero character encountered in The Banner Saga 2.

Background
A Raven mercenary who excels at three things: drinking, swearing, and throwing axes. Between food and mead, he chooses mead; though flashy with his throwing axes, he’s usually rather quiet, saying, “I keep myself to myself.”

Active Ability: Axe Storm
The Axe Thrower lobs an axe at a target up to 4 tiles away, dealing normal Strength damage if the hit is successful. The Axe Thrower continues to throw until an axe is deflected or the target is dead.

The first throw has a base chance to-hit, independent of the target's Armor, and each successive throw to-hit chance is reduced by 10%, but will never go below 20%. Take heed, Axe Storm's to-hit chance cannot be modified by any Item or Talent.

Rank 1: Base to-hit chance is 70%

Rank 2: Base to-hit chance is 80%

Rank 3: Base to-hit chance is 90%

Second Active Ability: Choice
In the second part of The Banner Saga, when Oli reaches Rank 6, he can choose a second active ability between:


 * Stonewall_icon.png Stone Wall (Raidmaster), like Valgard, Egil or Gudmundr
 * Bloodyflail_icon.png Bloody Flail (Thrasher), like Hogun & Mogun
 * Runthrough_icon.png Run Through (Backbiter), like Onef

Passive Ability: Shield Wall
By standing next to an ally, the raider creates a Shield Wall, raising the Armor of both himself and his ally by 1. This bonus remains until the Raider is no longer adjacent to the ally.

When multiple Raiders stand next to each other this effect is magnified as they grant each other their own bonus. Four Raiders standing in a square formation will each gain an additional 4 armor.

Joining the Party
Oli is met fighting off some Dredge all by himself, shortly after the start of Chapter 9. He always joins Bolverk's caravan. He is a member of Iver's party in The Banner Saga 3 from the start of Chapter 17.

Possible Deaths or Departures

 * Saga 2:
 * In Chapter 13, Oli rushes forward to fight dredge emerging from a crevice. Just sending fighters with him results in his apparent death however he'll trudge back into Old Ford with a few fighters revealing he survived. If Ekkill is in your Roster, it is him who charges forward and his fate is unknown (does not re-unite with the Ravens).
 * If Oli is allowed to depart while his lucky flask is equipped, Oli will come back depressed, telling Bolverk he broke it (his flask "dies".)


 * Saga 3:
 * Oli and the other Ravens will be killed in Chapter 21 if you lose the final battle against Bolverk.

Playstyle

 * Oli's hybrid ranged/melee attack range makes him extremely versatile, despite his low Strength and Break cap.
 * The average damage done by Axe Storm, assuming that DMG is the base damage, can be calculated as:
 * Rank 1: DMG*( 0.7 + 0.7*0.6 + 0.7*0.6*0.5 + 0.7*0.6*0.5*0.4 + ... ) ~ DMG * 1.4
 * Rank 2: DMG*( 0.8 + 0.8*0.7 + 0.8*0.7*0.8 + 0.8*0.7*0.6*0.5 + ... ) ~ DMG * 2.0
 * Rank 3: DMG*( 0.9 + 0.9*0.8 + 0.9*0.8*0.7 + 0.9*0.8*0.7*0.6 + ... ) ~ DMG * 2.5
 * Employ Axe Storm with caution: Having that first throw Deflect at 10% after spending 3WIL happens more often than you care to remember! When the Armor of the target is low, consider going for a regular WIL-loaded attack that will maim the enemy, instead of going for a kill hoping that 2 or 3 consecutive hits land. From the previous analysis, it can be inferred that if regular damage is 2 or less (with 100% to-hit), you are on average better off spending your WIL on an Exerted attack rather than on Axe Storm.
 * Note that Critical probability apply on each throw. This can lead to a high-damage phenomenon with high Critical (~50%). When Exerted attack and Axe storm damages compete (regular damage equals 2), Axe storm tends to have a lesser Standard deviation than Exerted attack.


 * Axe storm can be very useful as a second ability for other characters (Egil...) as it gives them the opportunity to use a range weapon. Even with 70% success rate, it can be more useful than a turn spoiled by doing nothing when no enemy can be reached.

Trivia

 * Unbeknownst to him, he uses spellweaving to see where his axe will hit and his drinking allows him to focus on it more.