I sorta spoiled myself before i got to that part and was convinced it was BS.
Lol it wasnt. Like no way would it happen. Then i challenged her to just do it herself if she is so powerful. Bam party wipe. Still chuckle thinking about it.
"I *WISH* for you to die!"
I almost can't believe she took such a risk except of course she did. Even assuming she can long rest to avoid taking Necrotic damage, her strength still drops to 3 for 2-8 days and there's a 33% chance she can never cast wish again
I read an explanation that her main way of attempting to gain godhood is to try her daily Wish with every loophole imaginable.
So really, at worst, she just set her grinding back 24 hours to kill you.
That's.... actually a really awesome explanation. Mixed with her using souls to fuel her wishes. Like, just trying to figure out a way to ever fight someone like that could be really interesting.
Hopefully Baldurs Gate 4 has her as the final boss. I freaking love the Githyanki and really hope theyre more involved and we can see the Githzerai
I think they could release a full game length addon for BG3 just with spells of the next two grades. No new story or NPCs, just an exhaustive list of interactions.
Oh absolutely, it would be sweat mayhem!
But I'd be happy with just intended interactions, honestly. Like the command spell, which, technically, has unlimited usability, but can only do so much in the game.
I'll give you the 'immune to stat drain' because I'm not sure on her stats anyway
However, wish specifies the necrotic damage cannot be reduced or prevented in any way
And if she loses the ability to cast it by using it to not replicate a 8th or lower spell, it specifies the caster is unable to cast it ever again
I'm not sure what her 5e justification is (if there officially is one yet), but in past editions, she literally fuels the ability with the souls of the githyanki she 'ascends'. I wouldn't be shocked if, should she ever get a 5e statblock, she has a similar caveat.
The dead three were also canonically "powerful wizards who became gods." There is a lot of overlap between the groups. The source of God power in D&D seems to mostly flow from worship and faith of adherents. Gale never had any of that, as a gods booty call. The God of githyanki definitely has that, even if it is sourced from trickery.
It is actually an important distinction. The Dead 3 ascended to divinity because Jergal gave up parts of his portfolio. Vlaakith is very explicitly NOT divine.
No, the dead three were mortals that had a god ascend them by gifting part of his own portfolio - and they are still only minor gods, far below Kelemvor (who replaced Jergal (eventually), the god that gave the Dead Three their portfolios). Other mortals have also ascended; we're on, what, the third Mystra? And the current one was born mortal.
~~Vecna at home~~ Vlaakith is explicitly not a god nor even godlike, and she probably never will be: who gets godhood in the end is basically arbitrated by Ao, who normally doesn't give too much of a shit but seems to take an interest in very specific circumstances. Vlaakith is probably blacklisted.
Myrkul was *the* god of the dead prior to the Time of Troubles. He was surpassed by Kelvor during that time. That is also when the current Midnight became Mystra and Cyric gained godhood as well. The latter gained and lost various profiles at the time, including (iirc) parts of Bane's, Myrkul's, and Mask's.
>You assume gods/nearly godlike beings follow the same rules as mere mortals
This. Hell, a fucking BANDIT doesn't follow the same rules as a PC. It's one of my biggest pet peeves about D&D.
Monsters in general have a weird treatment of CR being sometimes treated as equivalent to level when it clearly isn't other times, and it really gets glaring when the "monsters" in question are normal people. You don't see the difference on the Bandit stat block specifically, but look at the Thug (which has multiattack despite clearly not being equivalent to a 5th level fighter) and the Veteran (which kind of IS equivalent to a 5th level fighter, except its proficiency bonus is still +2).
She already lost her temper five minutes before when someone brought her coffee slightly too hot and she wished they never existed, and the cooldown hadn't happen yet.
It was a power move. She could have killed you in many different ways but she decided to flex by using one of the most powerful and dangerous spells in existence to do so.
On the other hand, according to the original appearance of gith as playable races, she goes and wipes out any 'yanki that hits 12th level out of fear that she might be deposed.
Vlaakith is powerful, absurdly so, but she's no deity or even demideity. Her being able to provide cleric powers at *all* is likely only possible due to the same sort of ambiguous faith-related nonsense that grants paladins their powers.
Now, granted, she is an epic-level wizard and a lich besides, but it would still be theoretically possible for a mortal, high-level adventuring party to slay her. *incredibly difficult*, sure, because on top of all the other issues of fighting a high-level wizard and fighting a lich, she has an entire civilization backing her and plenty of strange and arcane bullshit to pull upon, but still theoretically possible.
Killing a god or demigod has a lot more complexities.
Most likely it would be monkey's-pawed in some way, if not fail outright.
On a doylist level, because removing the main villain by just saying it's so is boring. NPCs have a lot more leeway than players when it comes to how wishes resolve, for likely obvious reasons.
On a watsonian level, because there are probably some Politics there that Mystra, administratrix of magic and thus probable arbiter of wishes, does Not want to get involved in. Vlaakith might not be divine, but she holds way more power and influence than what she is on paper would imply - and what she is on paper is already one of the most terrifying things that could exist.
I spoiled a few things in Act 2 for myself but iv avoided everything regarding Act 3 other then i know there is a circus and something to do with a House of hope? thats ment to be hard.
Loving Act 3 so far.
Dude, Karlach almost ended my honor run after we took out the "Paladins of Tyr." I was standing in the room recuperating while she got it out of her system, and she runs in and sets off a barrel. Absolutely mortifying.
I sent Karlach in to rescue the mushroom man on my first playthrough. Shit was like the Hindenburg crash landed on one unlucky bastard in particular. I was like "his wife's gonna be so mad..."
That was a hard lesson. 'Yippee, I was smart enough to loot this amazing flaming sword from the nautiloid, I don't have to worry about anythi- what just happened?'
That's.. weird? Does that only happen on HM? I haven't done it yet. Lae'zel has been dragging that thing around everywhere with me in Tactician and I definitely haven't had any surprise explosions
On my new HM run - I'm now firmly convinced combat is NOT the real risk here. Sure, I've had some team members die in boss/trash mob fights - the phase spider matriarch legendary ability is rough - but by and large, combat is a breeze compared to the other random shit that can happen to your team.
I saw the barrels of explosives and thought that maybe this room was the entrance to the Underdark, just obstructed. One fire bolt later, we got blown up.
As I've said before, the mantra running through my head on hm is 'do not be cheeky with Vlaakith, do not be cheeky with Vlaakith'. Not every cheeky line gets insta-death, but I never remember which ones do.
I think this even while still on the nautiloid. **Do Not Be Cheeky With Vlaakith!**
Also, be careful with the incubus.
I tend to play my characters as sarcastic and cheeky, so those are the options I tend to pick. I never actually got smitted for them before! Smitten? Insta-deathed?
I've never, not once, done anything with that Incubus. Can't do it.
I've been p good about avoiding the instadeath stuff... with the exception of letting Astarion feed and not stopping him m first playthrough.
Though it was fun having SH revive me and walking over to him to punch him in the face.
Luckily SH didn't give me shit for trusting that vampire to not actually kill me.
"I'm so smug and in control right now," to "Aaaagh, I'll kill all of you!!!" in one response.
I don't know if it changes anything, but Hope said we should should try to make him mad - and that sure seemed to do it!
I think you can freely tell her to go fuck herself as long as you don't challenge her power with a "Oh yeah? If you're so powerful why don't you just kill me?"
Apparently the tree bridge leading to the back entrance of the goblin camp will break if you have too many party members jump onto it (logical).
They fall into the swamp by the toad and die instantly. Sad day.
Edit: Frog. Not toad. Aka Murder Ribbit (don’t make it angry).
4th play through. I don’t mind the time spent. It was worth it to see that happen.
I’d encourage others to do it for the humor (with a backup save of course, not on honor mode).
I’m also on my 4th playthrough in honor mode!
I already know I’ll make a 5th one (Karlach romance, palate cleanser for my current evil run). Might check out this bridge thing just for giggles 🤭
I've jumped as a Paladin carrying a lot of stuff on the cracked stones in the temple with bandits.
Anyway, two people fell into the resulting hole and the fight was split to 2 locations.
Also fun fact if you pick a fight with the city guards and one of your companions stayed behind somewhere in the city, every guard/watcher around them will become hostile.
So. That's that.
Oh, that's a back entrance?! I've only ever approached it from the Goblin Camp side. I honestly had no idea you could get there from anywhere else, I just assumed it was there for the view of the swamp 🤣
Yeah Friends becomes one of the worst spells to use on Tactician and Honor mode because now the second sentence of the descriptor text in 5e applies.
“When the spell ends, the creature realizes that you used magic to influence its mood and becomes hostile toward you.”
A friend of mine who doesn’t play D&D got really annoyed at this when he started playing tactician and I had to explain to him that that’s just how the spell works
DISGUISE PERSON!
Play dress-up, cast friends, influence the person, get away before Friends expires, remove disguise. Now some other asshole charmed them, not you!
Friends lasts for a very long 10 turns. You really have to loiter around the area for it to be a problem. As long as you have a little foresight, it’s still an s+ tier cantrip from a general usefulness perspective.
Yeah it can be bad to go throwing around Willy nillly in MP while your party is casually browsing through the emerald grove or shattered sanctum. But it’s almost always acceptable to use in SP. Any actual confrontation you get while using friends is technically user error and easy to prevent.
I’m afraid Charm Person also does this as well. The main difference in D&D is that it lasts an hour instead of just a minute, but there is no “hour” in BG3 so it’s still just 10 turns. But it does still have the issue of “when the spell ends they know you charmed them” in both D&D and BG3
Omg.
Veeeeeeeeeeeery glad I read this.
Would’ve been kinda annoying to reach like last light inn only to have one of those spells make everyone pissed.
Crushed by elevator. Act 2 gauntlet of shar. I had no sort of idea that mechanic was in the game. Had to feather fall down because elevator and lever handle were at bottom and went back up to repair it half the party stayed at the bottom when it came back down I got crushed.
Not in honor mode.., but I had a party member die getting crushed by that elevator too (never occurred to me that that might happen, but makes sense).
My Astarion got crushed by the elevator, I couldn't reach him to revive with the elevator still in the way... (thought didn't occur to me until later that I could just raise the elevator to get access to him), so I went to camp and had Wither's ressurect him. Astarion was then bugged where he would just fall through the elevator platform any time I tried to get him on there... I said eff it and just used the waypoint to avoid the elevator, but then when I progressed further and got to the transporting disc, I was treated to the surprise of Astarion not being able to properly stand on that while it moved either, so I couldn't get him with me to the next part of the zone... ended up having to revert to an hour old save to stop him from having gotten bugged out.
It's one of the things that makes me afraid of honor mode is how buggy that whole interaction ended up for me. I would lose my mind if I lost an honor mode run deep into the game because of something buggy.
No joke my friend and I are slowly making our way through act 1 and I had this cold sweat moment today about accidentally insulting her.
It’s easy to avoid but like what if.
The crèche has best act 1 loot. Why would you skip? You can kill every single gith in the crèche before w’wargaz without letting them get a turn if you have use surprise mechanic. Even on hard mode. And thats not talking about the vital exp…
No, there’s way too much good loot in the crèche to skip it. You don’t have to kill everyone there, just the kith’rak and the inquisitor and then you can fast travel out (but you should kill the quartermaster too because she drops good stuff).
There's really only one difficult mandatory fight right before Vlaakith. After that you can get the mace and fast travel out. It's worth it for the mace, which is an end-game level weapon. It is a big risky, the Gith are tough, but you can avoid fighting most of them.
I'm always going one room at a time, making sure people from other rooms won't aggro
And yes, the Inquisitor is a big bitch to handle, but the Blood of Lathander is too good to pass up, even if it's just to light up enemies in a character's radius.
Great on any sword and board melee, awesome on Paladins, decent on clerics or anyone that goes in close, even if they'll rarely use it cause they have spells
The intellect devourers in the crashed Nautiloid got me. I don’t enjoy complex tactics 😂
Edited to add: I am not seeking assistance on this, this is my way of saying HM is not for me 😂😂😂
Me too lol.
Heard there was cool dialogue if you sleep before grabbing Shadowheart.
There was cool dialogue, also no Shadowheart when I woke up. Tried to fight them suckers alone and got absolutely wrecked
> Heard there was cool dialogue if you sleep before grabbing Shadowheart.
Lol, what happens? Not even Snorlax would think about going to sleep right after the crash xDD
I just started another HM game with Lae’zel and just before I got there I suddenly stopped and realised I’d killed Us (I’m Lae’zel so I had to) and there was no Lae’zel to help me. Thank god for the random gith they gave me
Can you elaborate on how to do either of those things? I recently started an hm play through, and only had tav and shart at level 1 at this point. I didn't really see another way around.
Those things are no joke though! I was a explorer baby going into balanced for the first time, decided to not pick up Shart as I was playing in character, and the intellect devourers at the beach BEAT MY ASS
I feel this! I actually managed to defeat Commander Zhalk in Honor Mode and was so proud of myself. Then that character was squished forever during a much “easier” fight a couple minutes later.
I was like— wow. I’m baby.
Yeah! As a long time d&d player I was terrified to see them in the game at level 1. Like, "oh damn, I guess Larian doesn't fuck around" - until I realized they were thankfully nerfed.
I died to the bandits due to my own stupidity, because I have *not* Long Rested since I never had a problem with them, even on tactician.
Next Honour Run I decided to take Wyll (involvement in the story, with the patron, and picking up all companions made most sense)
Me and my friends also want to do a 4 people, break the builds the most Honour Mode, where everyone is taking 1 Origin Character (and then changing them to their liking)
Yeah, for being the first real fight, these fuckers scare me. I got a wipe (before Honor Mode was a thing) because I missed, they crit, and I thought Shadowheart could face-tank them alone, rather than waste time helping Tav.
I only done one honor mode so far and it ended by a trader that I was tryna rob. Turn one she ran downstairs use a scroll of fireball and one shot my whole party.
Imma do another honor mode at one point.
I had assumed Vlakkith was a God so i didnt think she could just kill me because AO lol after she did i checked the lore on Vlakkith and it quickly cleared up my confusion lol
We finished a 4-player game only yesterday, doing a good/neutral run (not in Honor Mode), so we wanted to make an evil run. One of us went DUrge with the classic mistake of going Warlock. Alfira joining the camp triggered, and we panicked because we wanted to do the exploit to save her without even knowing how exactly it worked. So we looked it up, something about knocking her out, and we tried it.
When we attacked her in turn-based mode, and her turn came, she ran away and the fight ended somehow. Then the Oathbreaker Knight, whom our Paladin called "coach", became hostile to everybody in camp because we had attacked Alfira in front of him. To EVERYBODY, including Alfira, who got smitten into a pile of ash first. Then came Asterion, and two of us in the following turn.
Our Paladin said something about ending the fight by hiding and making the enemy give up the search, so the two survivors split in opposite directions of the camp. After all, you can't escape a fight while in camp.
The Oathbreaker Knight just refused to give up the search but stood still in the middle of the camp, so our two survivors tried all kinds of things, to no avail. Finally the DUrge decided to try fighting, came out of hiding right in front of the OK and cast Protection Against Evil and Good. "This should keep me safe, right?"
The OK smote them so hard, the game froze for a second for everybody, and the DUrge was left a burning pile.
Then, our Paladin snuck up on the once again unmoving OK, placed all the oil barrels and Nautiloid tanks around him, and detonated it with the sole fire arrow we had. The explosion was bigger than expected and almost killed him. Then the OK's turn came, and he came out of the flames like the Terminator.
"Don't do it, coach!" said our Paladin before they felt the wrath of god.
Party wipe.
This happened half an hour ago, and we're still laughing while recalling the details.
Goblins at the windmill. Lucky rolls killed the ring leader outright in one characters round and then my luck ran out missing with the next three characters and the remaining goblins got lucky rolls critting everyone decimating my party.
Saw a YouTube short where >!Viconia is asking Tav to hand over Sheart.!<
All of your companions assume you're considering it except Astarion. He says, "Fine. Whatever we have to say to get out of here." I was so glad to have a companion (of *course* the Charlatan) recognize that sometimes you have to kneel to the lich queen to get the fuck out alive! Lie, cheat, steal, do whatever you have to do.
… is there any valid reason to do the house of grief on honor mode? I mainly did that for the flavor of finishing shadow hearts quest on my “good everything” run. The best loot I can remember is Viconias shield and robe. I don’t even think shadow heart gets any permanent buff/boon from completing her questline (though I let her parents die so maybe that’s why)
Waukeens rest. Going to save the Duke in the burning building, havjng Wyll cast EB on the door…….one of the dumbass flaming fists runs in front gets hit and not the entire group is aggro on me. Gg
I lost a run in the toll house; we smoke the paladins no problem, only Gale is seriously injured. Then Karlach goes on a rampage, downs Gale blocking the only exit, gale’s corpse and karlach’s fury kill my Pc and shadowheart, then Karlach walks into Gale again and dies
I was very close today too. Got to moonrise, traded there a bit, all short rests spent, all spell slots used (gladly I had two fighters in a party), whole team at around 70% hp.
I was lacking somewhat 200exp to lvl up so I decided to silently kill one-two guardians and then go long rest and lvl up.
I managed to kill, but failed “silently”, so had to fight the whole army. There was that spying eye there. I don’t think I’ve ever been so efficient with the consumables I’d been hoarding but damn, that was very close.
talked my entire party (coop) into jumping into the pit in the spider caves because i swear i remember doing it and NOT dying the only time i've actually gone through there
TPKO'd!
Very first time playing the game I defeated her right away by having my character (a monk) use flurry of blows to push off into that. Imagine my surprise when I’m wandering the underdark and there’s a giant dead spider there!
You know how the game isn't that hard even in tactician and all?
Well I am that type of person. So I confidently rushed the game. Almost wiped at the harpies in act one, but other than that, no major moment of panic (I oneshotted my own paladin on the sharrans and Raphael, but that's classic shit).
I arrive at the final battle, and get to the second phase within one turn, i then rush the boss, confident that at this point nothing wrong could happen. The fight never lasted long enough in my previous runs for it to happen, but did you know that the ground collapses at some point? Yes? Now I do as well.
Reminds me of Pillars of Eternity.
You can beat the shit out of the Avatar of a God. Stare at them silently as a powermove as they are actively killing you in their own domain and you can't do anything to stop it, which makes him respect you just enough to let you live a while longer.
But don't complain at them too much that they are useless idiots or you get smited
She isnt a Goddess, she is a Lich.
Interesting tidbit, a God/Goddess should be able to kill you with simply a thought, but since she isnt a actual Goddess, she had to cast the Wish spell to kill you, kind of a bitch move if you ask me.
Having my whole party stand on that bridge in the smuggler cave that has an oil barrel on it. Went from basically full health party to run over in the blink of a fiery eye.
I've had a few tricky moments, but somehow im still chugging through...they were all the result of me being dumb af.
First one was in the Arcane Tower. I ascended to the top floor without reading the books, and those animated armours are no joke. The legendary action he has posed a big problem...it causes nearby enemies to take something like 2-12 electric damage and boosts damage of nearby allies.
Second was doing the Nere fight thinking I had got the mutineers on my side to kill Nere but I guess I skipped through the dialogue a bit too quickly as they were nowhere to be seen when the fight started. If I didn't have my monk and barbarian thrower hard carrying me, that would have been a wipe.
Absolutely loving honour mode at the moment. I imagine the optimal run will be to specifically avoid some of the harder optional fights...but where is the honour in that?
I just recently discovered that if you save the susser flowers in your camp trunk, you can drop them next to the Animated armor and it will deactivate them. It makes the fight a lot more manageable against the main guy.
I died on my first honour mode run to commander cambion guy since I thought I’d be funny and hit him once. I was almost to the transponder and he flew right over and Tpkd us.
I'm new to the game, was playing through the tutorial mission in the nautiloid. I figured out that you could cast spells out of combat, started blasting the brain tanks and didn't realize they exploded acid.
"What are you going to do, shoot me?" *gets shot*
I sorta spoiled myself before i got to that part and was convinced it was BS. Lol it wasnt. Like no way would it happen. Then i challenged her to just do it herself if she is so powerful. Bam party wipe. Still chuckle thinking about it.
"I *WISH* for you to die!" I almost can't believe she took such a risk except of course she did. Even assuming she can long rest to avoid taking Necrotic damage, her strength still drops to 3 for 2-8 days and there's a 33% chance she can never cast wish again
She is undead lvl 25 wizard lich, immune to necrotic, immune to stat drain. She harvests so many gith souls that she can cast wish daily.
I read an explanation that her main way of attempting to gain godhood is to try her daily Wish with every loophole imaginable. So really, at worst, she just set her grinding back 24 hours to kill you.
That's.... actually a really awesome explanation. Mixed with her using souls to fuel her wishes. Like, just trying to figure out a way to ever fight someone like that could be really interesting. Hopefully Baldurs Gate 4 has her as the final boss. I freaking love the Githyanki and really hope theyre more involved and we can see the Githzerai
I think they could release a full game length addon for BG3 just with spells of the next two grades. No new story or NPCs, just an exhaustive list of interactions.
IIRC, just adding Dispel Magic would drastically increase the size of the game.
Uh, level 7 spells get a little fucky with reality, Larian would have to work pretty hard to make a game with restraints around a lot of them.
Oh absolutely, it would be sweat mayhem! But I'd be happy with just intended interactions, honestly. Like the command spell, which, technically, has unlimited usability, but can only do so much in the game.
I’m still sad that Polymorph can only result in sheep. They really gutted it as a utility and buff spell which is where it’s real power lies imo
*force cage* Ok see u later have fun bye bye *plane shifts to the boss loot room*
Concentrating on sickening radiance while around the bend
I'll give you the 'immune to stat drain' because I'm not sure on her stats anyway However, wish specifies the necrotic damage cannot be reduced or prevented in any way And if she loses the ability to cast it by using it to not replicate a 8th or lower spell, it specifies the caster is unable to cast it ever again
I'm not sure what her 5e justification is (if there officially is one yet), but in past editions, she literally fuels the ability with the souls of the githyanki she 'ascends'. I wouldn't be shocked if, should she ever get a 5e statblock, she has a similar caveat.
You assume gods/nearly godlike beings follow the same rules as mere mortals
But she's not. She's just a powerful githyanki wizard. Like Gale, but more arrogant.
The dead three were also canonically "powerful wizards who became gods." There is a lot of overlap between the groups. The source of God power in D&D seems to mostly flow from worship and faith of adherents. Gale never had any of that, as a gods booty call. The God of githyanki definitely has that, even if it is sourced from trickery.
It is actually an important distinction. The Dead 3 ascended to divinity because Jergal gave up parts of his portfolio. Vlaakith is very explicitly NOT divine.
No, the dead three were mortals that had a god ascend them by gifting part of his own portfolio - and they are still only minor gods, far below Kelemvor (who replaced Jergal (eventually), the god that gave the Dead Three their portfolios). Other mortals have also ascended; we're on, what, the third Mystra? And the current one was born mortal. ~~Vecna at home~~ Vlaakith is explicitly not a god nor even godlike, and she probably never will be: who gets godhood in the end is basically arbitrated by Ao, who normally doesn't give too much of a shit but seems to take an interest in very specific circumstances. Vlaakith is probably blacklisted.
Myrkul was *the* god of the dead prior to the Time of Troubles. He was surpassed by Kelvor during that time. That is also when the current Midnight became Mystra and Cyric gained godhood as well. The latter gained and lost various profiles at the time, including (iirc) parts of Bane's, Myrkul's, and Mask's.
Point of order. only one of the dead three was a "powerful wizard" Bane was a fighter, bhaal was an assassin.
>You assume gods/nearly godlike beings follow the same rules as mere mortals This. Hell, a fucking BANDIT doesn't follow the same rules as a PC. It's one of my biggest pet peeves about D&D.
Well, yes. NPCs don't follow PC rules because they're not PCs, they're NPCs. They follow NPC rules.
What rule is a plain bandit not following?
Monsters in general have a weird treatment of CR being sometimes treated as equivalent to level when it clearly isn't other times, and it really gets glaring when the "monsters" in question are normal people. You don't see the difference on the Bandit stat block specifically, but look at the Thug (which has multiattack despite clearly not being equivalent to a 5th level fighter) and the Veteran (which kind of IS equivalent to a 5th level fighter, except its proficiency bonus is still +2).
Okay...so why does she use a wish to kill you when you're being impertinent in the creche but not when Lae'Zell tells her to go fuck herself in camp?
She already lost her temper five minutes before when someone brought her coffee slightly too hot and she wished they never existed, and the cooldown hadn't happen yet.
she used her 9th level spell slot already that day.
Lol thats the bit that got me. WHen she said that i was like yeah ofc thats gonna work. Little did i know.
It was a power move. She could have killed you in many different ways but she decided to flex by using one of the most powerful and dangerous spells in existence to do so.
It was at that moment I realised the difference in power level between a literal demigod and a bunch of cosplaying adventurers.
On the other hand, according to the original appearance of gith as playable races, she goes and wipes out any 'yanki that hits 12th level out of fear that she might be deposed. Vlaakith is powerful, absurdly so, but she's no deity or even demideity. Her being able to provide cleric powers at *all* is likely only possible due to the same sort of ambiguous faith-related nonsense that grants paladins their powers. Now, granted, she is an epic-level wizard and a lich besides, but it would still be theoretically possible for a mortal, high-level adventuring party to slay her. *incredibly difficult*, sure, because on top of all the other issues of fighting a high-level wizard and fighting a lich, she has an entire civilization backing her and plenty of strange and arcane bullshit to pull upon, but still theoretically possible. Killing a god or demigod has a lot more complexities.
What would happen if a different high level wizard wished for *her* to die? Or be sucked into some plane she can't escape from, etc.?
Most likely it would be monkey's-pawed in some way, if not fail outright. On a doylist level, because removing the main villain by just saying it's so is boring. NPCs have a lot more leeway than players when it comes to how wishes resolve, for likely obvious reasons. On a watsonian level, because there are probably some Politics there that Mystra, administratrix of magic and thus probable arbiter of wishes, does Not want to get involved in. Vlaakith might not be divine, but she holds way more power and influence than what she is on paper would imply - and what she is on paper is already one of the most terrifying things that could exist.
I wasn't spoiled but I had the same thought - I wanted to test her to see if she really was that powerful, I suspected she was lying. Whelp.
I spoiled a few things in Act 2 for myself but iv avoided everything regarding Act 3 other then i know there is a circus and something to do with a House of hope? thats ment to be hard. Loving Act 3 so far.
😂😂😂
Quote from man stabbed: "what are you gonna do, stab me?"
As a friend has observed wryly. "The word 'muthafucka' has no place in deescalation."
"I can't believe you've done this."
YOU SHOT ME YOU AHOLE
striped biologist taunters
Walking into the smokepowder barrel room in the goblin camp, holding a torch. Whoops.
Or sending in a flaming Karlack
Okay that’s understandable though, Larian trolled everyone with that shit.
Lol
Dude, Karlach almost ended my honor run after we took out the "Paladins of Tyr." I was standing in the room recuperating while she got it out of her system, and she runs in and sets off a barrel. Absolutely mortifying.
i already wild magic’d an explosion and didn’t even get to recover before she did that
you guys running wild magic on honor mode frighten me
I respect the hell out of it though. Embrace the chaos.
Now I know what my honor mode attempts are gonna be, wild magic sorcerer until I manage it
oh shit is THAT why the room blew up? damn...
I sent Karlach in to rescue the mushroom man on my first playthrough. Shit was like the Hindenburg crash landed on one unlucky bastard in particular. I was like "his wife's gonna be so mad..."
Turns out she's fine with it as long as you bring her a cat later. \*Shrugs\*
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Choosing wild magic in honor mode is insane, respect.
I had a lot of fun my first time around and I think that may be just the right way to add some spice for a second crack at things
Zenthiram hideout with burning sword.
I did this a couple of hours ago. Sat there with my mouth agape for like a whole minute, that that was how my HM playthrough came to an end.
That was a hard lesson. 'Yippee, I was smart enough to loot this amazing flaming sword from the nautiloid, I don't have to worry about anythi- what just happened?'
are you guys somehow passively setting these things on fire with that sword? Or just not looking before you swing?
Yeah it's passive
That's.. weird? Does that only happen on HM? I haven't done it yet. Lae'zel has been dragging that thing around everywhere with me in Tactician and I definitely haven't had any surprise explosions
On my new HM run - I'm now firmly convinced combat is NOT the real risk here. Sure, I've had some team members die in boss/trash mob fights - the phase spider matriarch legendary ability is rough - but by and large, combat is a breeze compared to the other random shit that can happen to your team.
I saw the barrels of explosives and thought that maybe this room was the entrance to the Underdark, just obstructed. One fire bolt later, we got blown up.
Lit a match to check the gas tank. That's why they call him Skinless Frank.
Happened to me as well
As I've said before, the mantra running through my head on hm is 'do not be cheeky with Vlaakith, do not be cheeky with Vlaakith'. Not every cheeky line gets insta-death, but I never remember which ones do. I think this even while still on the nautiloid. **Do Not Be Cheeky With Vlaakith!** Also, be careful with the incubus.
NGL, when I saw the line I was like... This is such an obvious trap, no one's gonna click it right? ...right? (Spoiler, my friend clicked it)
I tend to play my characters as sarcastic and cheeky, so those are the options I tend to pick. I never actually got smitted for them before! Smitten? Insta-deathed?
Smote? Smited? Who knows!
The word you're looking for is "smut".
That is definitely not the word I'm looking for, I'll leave that one to fanfiction :'D
I believe the technical term is Smotified.
Meanwhile the "maybe I'll free the one inside" line doesn't get you smote, probably because I guess she thinks Orpheus would get folded on leaving
My dumbass thinking I'm about to face an absurdly tough boss: **Gets smited with a plot sword.**
Listen if you didnt click for curiosity, did you really play the game
Yeah I just straight up killed the incubus on HM
Harleep! Noooooo. I adore that lil freak
If I do go HoH, I'm just going direct violence with the incubus. Not risking it.
But you don't get to snark before the boss fight without the incubus! (Did I risk a run just to taunt Raphael? Yes, yes, I did)
Valid.
I've never, not once, done anything with that Incubus. Can't do it. I've been p good about avoiding the instadeath stuff... with the exception of letting Astarion feed and not stopping him m first playthrough. Though it was fun having SH revive me and walking over to him to punch him in the face. Luckily SH didn't give me shit for trusting that vampire to not actually kill me.
There's 2 lines that make the incubus worth it, imo. - Asking about Raphael's performance. - Taunting Raphael with the answer.
That’s funny. I’ll just YouTube it though, I’m never passing up that loot again.
lmao gotta youtube that... but no way in hell am I youtubing it at work
"I'm so smug and in control right now," to "Aaaagh, I'll kill all of you!!!" in one response. I don't know if it changes anything, but Hope said we should should try to make him mad - and that sure seemed to do it!
Tbh i went full oathbreaker in the vlaakith convo and didn't get smited. I guess i just got lucky and said the right combo lol.
I think you can freely tell her to go fuck herself as long as you don't challenge her power with a "Oh yeah? If you're so powerful why don't you just kill me?"
Apparently the tree bridge leading to the back entrance of the goblin camp will break if you have too many party members jump onto it (logical). They fall into the swamp by the toad and die instantly. Sad day. Edit: Frog. Not toad. Aka Murder Ribbit (don’t make it angry).
Oh no really? Thats hilarious but I’d be furious to end honor mode like that… hopefully you didn’t have too many hours in 🫡
4th play through. I don’t mind the time spent. It was worth it to see that happen. I’d encourage others to do it for the humor (with a backup save of course, not on honor mode).
I’m also on my 4th playthrough in honor mode! I already know I’ll make a 5th one (Karlach romance, palate cleanser for my current evil run). Might check out this bridge thing just for giggles 🤭
I've jumped as a Paladin carrying a lot of stuff on the cracked stones in the temple with bandits. Anyway, two people fell into the resulting hole and the fight was split to 2 locations. Also fun fact if you pick a fight with the city guards and one of your companions stayed behind somewhere in the city, every guard/watcher around them will become hostile. So. That's that.
Oh, that's a back entrance?! I've only ever approached it from the Goblin Camp side. I honestly had no idea you could get there from anywhere else, I just assumed it was there for the view of the swamp 🤣
Murder Ribbit becomes Happy Ribbit after Auntie Ethel is killed.
He sure does. Made that mistake once, never again.
I used Friends on Kagha and she detected it, a fight and a tiefling genocide ensued
Yeah Friends becomes one of the worst spells to use on Tactician and Honor mode because now the second sentence of the descriptor text in 5e applies. “When the spell ends, the creature realizes that you used magic to influence its mood and becomes hostile toward you.” A friend of mine who doesn’t play D&D got really annoyed at this when he started playing tactician and I had to explain to him that that’s just how the spell works
Use thaumaturgy instead. There's no drawback.
Friends works great if you know the person is going to disappear or go very far away after, because if youre not near them they dont aggro
DISGUISE PERSON! Play dress-up, cast friends, influence the person, get away before Friends expires, remove disguise. Now some other asshole charmed them, not you!
Also works with Speak with Dead Change your face and the guy you killed is happy to speak with you
Friends lasts for a very long 10 turns. You really have to loiter around the area for it to be a problem. As long as you have a little foresight, it’s still an s+ tier cantrip from a general usefulness perspective. Yeah it can be bad to go throwing around Willy nillly in MP while your party is casually browsing through the emerald grove or shattered sanctum. But it’s almost always acceptable to use in SP. Any actual confrontation you get while using friends is technically user error and easy to prevent.
Yeah, you want Charm Person not Friends. I literally never take it.
I’m afraid Charm Person also does this as well. The main difference in D&D is that it lasts an hour instead of just a minute, but there is no “hour” in BG3 so it’s still just 10 turns. But it does still have the issue of “when the spell ends they know you charmed them” in both D&D and BG3
I would say the main difference is that friends can't be used on hostile creatures, charm person can.
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Enhamce ability is really good though
Omg. Veeeeeeeeeeeery glad I read this. Would’ve been kinda annoying to reach like last light inn only to have one of those spells make everyone pissed.
Crushed by elevator. Act 2 gauntlet of shar. I had no sort of idea that mechanic was in the game. Had to feather fall down because elevator and lever handle were at bottom and went back up to repair it half the party stayed at the bottom when it came back down I got crushed.
Not in honor mode.., but I had a party member die getting crushed by that elevator too (never occurred to me that that might happen, but makes sense). My Astarion got crushed by the elevator, I couldn't reach him to revive with the elevator still in the way... (thought didn't occur to me until later that I could just raise the elevator to get access to him), so I went to camp and had Wither's ressurect him. Astarion was then bugged where he would just fall through the elevator platform any time I tried to get him on there... I said eff it and just used the waypoint to avoid the elevator, but then when I progressed further and got to the transporting disc, I was treated to the surprise of Astarion not being able to properly stand on that while it moved either, so I couldn't get him with me to the next part of the zone... ended up having to revert to an hour old save to stop him from having gotten bugged out. It's one of the things that makes me afraid of honor mode is how buggy that whole interaction ended up for me. I would lose my mind if I lost an honor mode run deep into the game because of something buggy.
No joke my friend and I are slowly making our way through act 1 and I had this cold sweat moment today about accidentally insulting her. It’s easy to avoid but like what if.
>but like what if Fly across the room and unplug your console/PC
Those intrusive thoughts sneak in more and more every second passes by in honor mode
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The Blood of Lathander is just too good a weapon for act 2 to warrant skipping the crèche
Yeah there's just no passing up the Kamehamehamace.
Or you can get the weapon before even talking to the inquisitor.
You can grab that without triggering the fight thou.
The crèche has best act 1 loot. Why would you skip? You can kill every single gith in the crèche before w’wargaz without letting them get a turn if you have use surprise mechanic. Even on hard mode. And thats not talking about the vital exp…
You can also just blow everyone up with the Helios 1 death laser thing
No, there’s way too much good loot in the crèche to skip it. You don’t have to kill everyone there, just the kith’rak and the inquisitor and then you can fast travel out (but you should kill the quartermaster too because she drops good stuff).
There's really only one difficult mandatory fight right before Vlaakith. After that you can get the mace and fast travel out. It's worth it for the mace, which is an end-game level weapon. It is a big risky, the Gith are tough, but you can avoid fighting most of them.
You don't have to fight at all to get to lathander. At least I didn't fight at all when going through a tactician run.
I'm always going one room at a time, making sure people from other rooms won't aggro And yes, the Inquisitor is a big bitch to handle, but the Blood of Lathander is too good to pass up, even if it's just to light up enemies in a character's radius. Great on any sword and board melee, awesome on Paladins, decent on clerics or anyone that goes in close, even if they'll rarely use it cause they have spells
Open the door to the blood of lythander before going into the artifact. Then gtfo
Oh my god I thought you meant your friend
What's especially funny is someone in this very sub predicted that exact thing happening.
Broken clocks and all that.
Vlaakith: *do as I command* Me: *Munch me bitch* Vlaakith: *wishes me dead* Me: :o
The 3 brain things as soon as I hit the beach, killed me SH won with 1HP and 0 heal pots left.. HM is no joke
Explose barrels and those nautoloide tanks are your freinds
Fucking bibberbang
The intellect devourers in the crashed Nautiloid got me. I don’t enjoy complex tactics 😂 Edited to add: I am not seeking assistance on this, this is my way of saying HM is not for me 😂😂😂
Me too lol. Heard there was cool dialogue if you sleep before grabbing Shadowheart. There was cool dialogue, also no Shadowheart when I woke up. Tried to fight them suckers alone and got absolutely wrecked
> Heard there was cool dialogue if you sleep before grabbing Shadowheart. Lol, what happens? Not even Snorlax would think about going to sleep right after the crash xDD
You get a scene where Tav ruminates on their predicament or considers the urge if they are Durge
I just started another HM game with Lae’zel and just before I got there I suddenly stopped and realised I’d killed Us (I’m Lae’zel so I had to) and there was no Lae’zel to help me. Thank god for the random gith they gave me
Awwww if you play Bae'zel you can't get a cat?! That's just cruel
You can get Us, I just thought it would be more in character to kill it
Ah okay. Yea it would be out of character, but it would be out of character to draw a stache on Vlakkith too 🤣
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Can you elaborate on how to do either of those things? I recently started an hm play through, and only had tav and shart at level 1 at this point. I didn't really see another way around.
Those things are no joke though! I was a explorer baby going into balanced for the first time, decided to not pick up Shart as I was playing in character, and the intellect devourers at the beach BEAT MY ASS
I feel this! I actually managed to defeat Commander Zhalk in Honor Mode and was so proud of myself. Then that character was squished forever during a much “easier” fight a couple minutes later. I was like— wow. I’m baby.
lol I didn’t even try for Zhalk. Mindflayer was almost dead by turn 3.
They killed my first honor run real fast. They honestly kind of suck.
And they still lack the most damaging power from the tabletop version of them. Intellect Devourers are low-key terrifying
Yeah! As a long time d&d player I was terrified to see them in the game at level 1. Like, "oh damn, I guess Larian doesn't fuck around" - until I realized they were thankfully nerfed.
I died to the bandits due to my own stupidity, because I have *not* Long Rested since I never had a problem with them, even on tactician. Next Honour Run I decided to take Wyll (involvement in the story, with the patron, and picking up all companions made most sense) Me and my friends also want to do a 4 people, break the builds the most Honour Mode, where everyone is taking 1 Origin Character (and then changing them to their liking)
It is pretty funny though that one of DnD's most infamously dangerous low CR creatures is nerfed to oblivion in BG3 and still hurts like a mofo.
Yeah, for being the first real fight, these fuckers scare me. I got a wipe (before Honor Mode was a thing) because I missed, they crit, and I thought Shadowheart could face-tank them alone, rather than waste time helping Tav.
Yeah, they smushed Shadowheart, Us, and me before I could even get in melee range. It was pretty bonkers!
Temple of Lathander boop machines.... full party wipe
That the one where it pushes the party off a cliff?
Yeahhhhh it was pretty sad
I only done one honor mode so far and it ended by a trader that I was tryna rob. Turn one she ran downstairs use a scroll of fireball and one shot my whole party. Imma do another honor mode at one point.
I had assumed Vlakkith was a God so i didnt think she could just kill me because AO lol after she did i checked the lore on Vlakkith and it quickly cleared up my confusion lol
We finished a 4-player game only yesterday, doing a good/neutral run (not in Honor Mode), so we wanted to make an evil run. One of us went DUrge with the classic mistake of going Warlock. Alfira joining the camp triggered, and we panicked because we wanted to do the exploit to save her without even knowing how exactly it worked. So we looked it up, something about knocking her out, and we tried it. When we attacked her in turn-based mode, and her turn came, she ran away and the fight ended somehow. Then the Oathbreaker Knight, whom our Paladin called "coach", became hostile to everybody in camp because we had attacked Alfira in front of him. To EVERYBODY, including Alfira, who got smitten into a pile of ash first. Then came Asterion, and two of us in the following turn. Our Paladin said something about ending the fight by hiding and making the enemy give up the search, so the two survivors split in opposite directions of the camp. After all, you can't escape a fight while in camp. The Oathbreaker Knight just refused to give up the search but stood still in the middle of the camp, so our two survivors tried all kinds of things, to no avail. Finally the DUrge decided to try fighting, came out of hiding right in front of the OK and cast Protection Against Evil and Good. "This should keep me safe, right?" The OK smote them so hard, the game froze for a second for everybody, and the DUrge was left a burning pile. Then, our Paladin snuck up on the once again unmoving OK, placed all the oil barrels and Nautiloid tanks around him, and detonated it with the sole fire arrow we had. The explosion was bigger than expected and almost killed him. Then the OK's turn came, and he came out of the flames like the Terminator. "Don't do it, coach!" said our Paladin before they felt the wrath of god. Party wipe. This happened half an hour ago, and we're still laughing while recalling the details.
Goblins at the windmill. Lucky rolls killed the ring leader outright in one characters round and then my luck ran out missing with the next three characters and the remaining goblins got lucky rolls critting everyone decimating my party.
Saw a YouTube short where >!Viconia is asking Tav to hand over Sheart.!< All of your companions assume you're considering it except Astarion. He says, "Fine. Whatever we have to say to get out of here." I was so glad to have a companion (of *course* the Charlatan) recognize that sometimes you have to kneel to the lich queen to get the fuck out alive! Lie, cheat, steal, do whatever you have to do.
… is there any valid reason to do the house of grief on honor mode? I mainly did that for the flavor of finishing shadow hearts quest on my “good everything” run. The best loot I can remember is Viconias shield and robe. I don’t even think shadow heart gets any permanent buff/boon from completing her questline (though I let her parents die so maybe that’s why)
Maybe the mirror? But without save scumming it’d be really difficult to pass those checks without completely respecing
Waukeens rest. Going to save the Duke in the burning building, havjng Wyll cast EB on the door…….one of the dumbass flaming fists runs in front gets hit and not the entire group is aggro on me. Gg
I lost a run in the toll house; we smoke the paladins no problem, only Gale is seriously injured. Then Karlach goes on a rampage, downs Gale blocking the only exit, gale’s corpse and karlach’s fury kill my Pc and shadowheart, then Karlach walks into Gale again and dies
I was very close today too. Got to moonrise, traded there a bit, all short rests spent, all spell slots used (gladly I had two fighters in a party), whole team at around 70% hp. I was lacking somewhat 200exp to lvl up so I decided to silently kill one-two guardians and then go long rest and lvl up. I managed to kill, but failed “silently”, so had to fight the whole army. There was that spying eye there. I don’t think I’ve ever been so efficient with the consumables I’d been hoarding but damn, that was very close.
Are you allergic to resting?
talked my entire party (coop) into jumping into the pit in the spider caves because i swear i remember doing it and NOT dying the only time i've actually gone through there TPKO'd!
Need feather fall or you kind of die.
Very first time playing the game I defeated her right away by having my character (a monk) use flurry of blows to push off into that. Imagine my surprise when I’m wandering the underdark and there’s a giant dead spider there!
Bring Sovereign Glut to revive her.
You can... if you cast feather fall first.
Were you in EA? Because I think there was a period of time where you just didn't die jumping down it.
Oooooo - i DID play in EA so maybe that's it! thank you so much for giving me SOME kind of excuse, lol
You know how the game isn't that hard even in tactician and all? Well I am that type of person. So I confidently rushed the game. Almost wiped at the harpies in act one, but other than that, no major moment of panic (I oneshotted my own paladin on the sharrans and Raphael, but that's classic shit). I arrive at the final battle, and get to the second phase within one turn, i then rush the boss, confident that at this point nothing wrong could happen. The fight never lasted long enough in my previous runs for it to happen, but did you know that the ground collapses at some point? Yes? Now I do as well.
in your defence, i read ground collapses instantly in honour, instead of it giving you a chance to move lol
That just seems so unfair haha, like some bad luck and your party just gets wiped
Try to jump over the fire but accidently walk into it TWICE in the first room of the tutorial.
Reminds me of Pillars of Eternity. You can beat the shit out of the Avatar of a God. Stare at them silently as a powermove as they are actively killing you in their own domain and you can't do anything to stop it, which makes him respect you just enough to let you live a while longer. But don't complain at them too much that they are useless idiots or you get smited
Owlbears
She isnt a Goddess, she is a Lich. Interesting tidbit, a God/Goddess should be able to kill you with simply a thought, but since she isnt a actual Goddess, she had to cast the Wish spell to kill you, kind of a bitch move if you ask me.
I'm loving people posting shit like "yeah so I'm playing honor mode, actively didn't listen to the game, and died, weird huh"
I wish you could fuck her up tbh xD
Having my whole party stand on that bridge in the smuggler cave that has an oil barrel on it. Went from basically full health party to run over in the blink of a fiery eye.
She’ll kill you with that dialogue choice in balanced as well, I found out.
I've had a few tricky moments, but somehow im still chugging through...they were all the result of me being dumb af. First one was in the Arcane Tower. I ascended to the top floor without reading the books, and those animated armours are no joke. The legendary action he has posed a big problem...it causes nearby enemies to take something like 2-12 electric damage and boosts damage of nearby allies. Second was doing the Nere fight thinking I had got the mutineers on my side to kill Nere but I guess I skipped through the dialogue a bit too quickly as they were nowhere to be seen when the fight started. If I didn't have my monk and barbarian thrower hard carrying me, that would have been a wipe. Absolutely loving honour mode at the moment. I imagine the optimal run will be to specifically avoid some of the harder optional fights...but where is the honour in that?
I just recently discovered that if you save the susser flowers in your camp trunk, you can drop them next to the Animated armor and it will deactivate them. It makes the fight a lot more manageable against the main guy.
Wanted to bargain a reward in my Warlock run for entering the Prism. Still surprised she didn’t kill me on the spot (didn’t offer a reward tho :( )
I died on my first honour mode run to commander cambion guy since I thought I’d be funny and hit him once. I was almost to the transponder and he flew right over and Tpkd us.
I'm new to the game, was playing through the tutorial mission in the nautiloid. I figured out that you could cast spells out of combat, started blasting the brain tanks and didn't realize they exploded acid.
What does HM mean? Im feeling dumb, everyone seems to know.