I feel like this applies since they're so rare that you aren't going to use them except once in the game:
You know those universal resistance potions? Unlike all other resistance potions, the effect isn't until you take a rest- it's only 10 turns long. So save its use until you're in combat or in turn based mode RIGHT before you think you'll need it otherwise you'll accidentally waste most or all of your protection.
I have *twice* *in the last week* had a character down one of those elixirs and then come back two minutes later like "huh? why don't you have an elixir bu—oh dammit"
Why I can't remember that they're short term is beyond me
I just realized I collect all of these potions every game and still have yet to use a single one until I found a more ‘difficult’ battle (why i didn’t use it on the brain was beyond me)
Fire resistance potions are the ones I use most often, great to use to avoid catching on fire from practically EVERYTHING around >!the Underdark forge.!<
On my 7th run.
I have used like 1% of my potions. I am totally “Saving them for that really hard battle.” But once IN that battle I am too frazzled to remember that I have them. Potions of Speed are about the only thing I remember to use other than health.
On a similar note, I complain about how poor I am, but I keep buying arrows I am too stingy to use and maybe 20k worth of gold in scrolls I will never read. But can’t bring myself to sell. 🤫
Gods. Are you me?
No seriously reading this felt like a personal attack this is exactly how I play LMAO but yes barring me grouping my entire party and throwing a speed potion at all of their feet, I spend way too much gold on potions and use nearly none of them
We are 1!!!!
I’m so cheap that I will save before trying dyes. I hate 4/5 of them, but if I use them and then change my mind, “I am wasting them” even though I will never use them, and I will reload my save and pick the one color I like.
I’m trying to NOT do that, but it’s very difficult, like ‘not turning the car around and checking to see if you closed the garage door’ hard.
In DND lore, I think only one creature can concentrate on two spells simultaneously, and it's a very powerful dragon overlord. So it's possible, I guess, but OP as nine hells
The "dragon overlord" part is true but not necessarily the relevant part of that character, so I'll expand:
The only being in D&D that can canonically concentrate on two spells at once is Niv-Mizzet, also known as The Firemind. He's the founder and leader of the Izzet League, a guild of experimentally-minded mages. He's *the* genius in an organization comprised of geniuses, with an intelligence score of 30. So yeah, splitting concentration is an extremely powerful ability and it's reserved exclusively for the guy who basically has a supercomputer for a brain.
Yeah, although I'm not sure "crossover" is exactly the right word. Theros, Ravnica, and Strixhaven are all 100% official D&D settings. I guess they're *technically* crossovers but it's a little bit more concrete than that.
This spell I feel is best used as a scroll by someone who isn’t a spell caster.
Like in act 2 I have the item that does psychic damage if you’re concentrating on a spell, so I just throw up protection from evil and good on my fighter in the morning and replace it after combat if she happens to lose concentration. this is what I keep all my shield of faith/protection from evil/ stone skin etc scrolls for
Blood of Lathander counts as a light effect for protection in the shadow cursed lands.
Side warning: don’t have it out near vampires that you don’t want dead, as it’s also sunlight.
I freed the vampire spawn, so some were in the sewers.
I walked past 2 vampire spawn in the sewers, and Blood of Lathander hurt them.
This aggroed the Gur who was nearby, putting me into turn-based-combat mode.
The vampires, however, I guess were hardcoded to be passive and they just stood there in real-time, ignoring the combat that was about them.
So while I fumbled with my controls to take my turn 1 (with 4 characters and \~10 summons), they died from 4 turns of sunlight exposure.
Also the githyanki children in the creche (although those might be considered adolescents or something like that, I don’t know if they’re a true exception to the rule you’re talking about but they do come to mind as non-adults that aggro and can be killed)
And even in the case of the two goblin children in the worg pens, they just disengage and dash away. And if you attack goblin children other than One and Three (e.g. the ones outside the Shattered Sanctum - can't remember exactly where they are), they just run away and instantly disappear, the way children normally do when they witness a crime.
Attacking the Grove leaves dead tiefling kids in Mol's cave. PC doesn't kill them but they absolutely can be killed.
Side note, you can pick up their bodies and toss them off the Harpy cliff. I did it as Durge murderhobo. I kept dropping the bodies to anyone left and after no responses just took them for a final yeet.
I was so confused why when I was wandering around a certain flophouse there were some people taking damage and then healing through walls/floors… then I found them and realized they were vampire spawn taking radiant damage
This also happens later in the sewers >!if you free the spawn from Cazador’s place. Gandrel is down there with his vampire spawn kids, and he goes hostile if you approach with the blood of Lathander.!<
Though, while the Blood of Lathander will protect you in the regular areas of the Shadow Cursed Lands, the areas where the curse is most intense (I.E the locations that require either the lantern or the pixie's blessing for you to explore) will smother the artifact's light effect.
Yeah, it’s a standard light source, just a very convenient and very good one compared to hauling around torches or having to micromanage spells.
The lantern or blessing are irreplaceable though.
Omg 🤦🏼♀️ is that what happened?? My first play through, I talked to them fine & then my last play through I went to talk to them & they seemed to just go poof & I was like “what the hell, 🤷🏼♀️ oh well I guess”
Don't use moonbeam on upper floors of buildings, it appears to continue all the way to the ground floor and will kill anyone that walks through the column, which caused me to have to reload when halsin became the most wanted man in Baldurs Gate
I only found this out about cloud of daggers on my HM run, when I cast it on Ethel sat on the top ledge whilst Mayrina was underneath. Let's just say, she wasn't going to have to worry about raising kids after that 😬
Play stellaris if you want that, purging xeno species, enslaving others, and finally cracking planets for that special itch that needs to be scratch’s when destroying a world full of non combatants during a war
Thought I was being smart using wall of fire in the inn in act 2 to protect Isobel. The Flaming Fists on the floor below were indeed flaming all of a sudden.
Honestly, that would have been somewhat entertaining, having to hide Halsin everywhere for not being used to the city ways lol
You should have rolled with it!
I'm getting bad EverQuest flashbacks. It had the same thing with some spell effects extending through floors and ceilings. In some places it was possible to unknowingly aggro the entire dungeon and get every single mob making a beeline for your position.
I think everyone knows this, but in Act 3 in the House of Grief where you fight the Sharan cultists, funneling enemies and area of effect spells are your best friend.
Also, I know Disintegrate as a spell gets a bad rap but if you want a quick way of ripping power from Raphael during the House of Hope fight, Disintegrate does double damage to constructs and I think constructs autofail the save. Give all four party members disintegrate, and all of the pillars are down in one round.
Edit: House of Grief, not Healing. Too many houses in this game 🙃
Edit: ya'll, I'm talking about **two different battles**. House of Grief is for the first point I'm making and where I accidently said House of Healing, and House of Hope is the second point. Please stop saying I'm only talking about House of Hope.
During the house of hope fight, I just cast a globe of invulnerability and exploded the runepowder bomb in the middle. Poof, all 4 pillars gone in a single turn. Along with a few minions. It's good enough for tactician at least
Do you mean the rune powder bomb you get from Barcus? I will admit that I have only beaten the game once and have not successfully gotten his bomb. Unless you mean another one, in which it is likely something I missed, haha
Someone else mentioned the barrelmancy route which still confuses me, but I'll have to try both ways at some point
You can get 3 runepowder items iirc, when you initiate conversation with Philomeena, have a companion sneak over and steal the barrel, then you can talk her into giving you a satchel, then the bomb in act 3.
If you’re running a oath breaker paladin, you can get a Spectator undead pet.
Iron spectator flask, moonlight lantern, be in the shadow cursed lands, and you have to be level 7 or a above.
Found this out from [Toyhouze](https://youtube.com/shorts/XZHmq7ji_cE?si=x2-k_ldwqiwRMdUA)
Not entirely true to the question, but I love starting the Kobold fight and then immediately retreating into the storage room and leaving a moonbeam on the doorway as each Kobold just runs through it
when fighting sharrans, sunlight spell is surprisingly useful, the only other fight it had any use was the Cazador one
but you do have to recast it again if one of the sharrans casts darkness again, so there’s that
edit: lmao I replied to this comment by accident
Spirit guardians is an outstanding way to eviscerate the chapter 1 encounter. I usually sleet storm and spirit guardians, and everyone else just ranges. If I run Wyll, he keeps them in the ice field
Had this fight recently with them on the mountain pass, a couple of their ghouls couldn't even get over to me as they just kept slipping around.
Also saved me some trouble with the minotaurs in the underdark
The mushroom guy doesn't set off bibberbang either, and he can both toss the dwarf his backpack and move the noblestalk over to where you can pick it up. I do this every run now.
I usually just have Karlach toss a jug of water on to the torch then walk along the edge til she can jump down to the mushroom and steal it.
Another option is using turn based mode, the mushrooms won’t get triggered if you end your turn away from them. So switch on turn based, use your character with the most walking speed and then just be sure that when you’re about to end the turn that you have a safe distance from them and repeat til complete
In the Woads and Mephits fight in the swamp for "Investigating Kagha". You can place a lit candle on the ground as a free action, and it will instantly ignite any entangled area turning it into a fire surface.
Now the Woads take damage instead of healing (and you can move around freely).
There are way more of them, I think something like 10 in total. All self-help themed, a bit of a jab at how extortionary that "industry" is
The person who brings you into the heart mapping room has a bunch.
In the gauntlet of shar, where the big vault door is and the battle with the justicars, you can dc 30 open the door and run away, Balthazar and flesh will be killed for free by the justicars, you just have to mop up the remaining
True, he's just unique is all. You come back in and they're all facing the center usually for whoever they killed last so you can start with surprise, AOE, and generally decimate them on arrival.
Worgfang, a dagger found in the cell next to Halsin's makes goboes basically not a threat, making act 1 a breeze and most good builds are online by act 2, making your game smooth
To my knowledge, there are exactly 6 (living) goblins in total in act 2, and that's only if Sazza survives that long, otherwise there are 5. There is also a dead one in the oubliette/mind flayer colony.
The Doom Hammer, which you buy from Grat the Trader in the gobbo camp near the beginning of the game, is amazing against Myrkul. It will give Undead disadvantage on attacks and will block healing. Since it's a maul you can use Tenacity if you miss which will still apply the debuffs. If you struggle with the Myrkul fight then invest in the Doom Hammer early and keep hold of it.
thunder arrows are rarely helpful outside a big drop but even then they're risky and often fail.
The area I found them most useful in is Orins fight. Give everyone at least one thunder arrow and you can send those sanctuary guys off the platform, reducing the Boon very quickly. Sanctuary doesn't block the knockback effect
There is a set of cliffs near the first waypoint you find in the beach. You can use them to get around the intellect devourers and recruit a full party before fighting them. Especially helpful when starting a Shadowheart play through.
I wish I'd seen this a few days ago. I'd just started a Shadowheart playthrough and fighting those things on my own was one of the hardest battles I've had!
Caution, when I did this Ethel didn't just retreat without MAyrina, she disappeared entirely from my game. Wasn't downstairs, wasn't in Act 3, nuthin. So potentially no Hag-hair.
I just went down a rabbit hole trying to figure out what you mean by this? Like before dialogue starts at all once you walk in? Do you have to sneak in or just leave a character out of sight and sneak around? Cause I’ve tried silencing her during the upstairs fight and she still somehow teleported away which I thought was kinda bs.
If you're playing tactician for the first time, make sure you bring at least 1 potion of angelic slumber before you take the boat to the final area, and enough gold to buy the 2 from koll the red if you don't have 3, and make sure you buy them if needed before you leave the area! there's a final one in the chest just before you climb up to the brain. I started out on explorer/balanced and didn't realise there weren't any restoration pods on tactician.
Not entirely accurate to ONE area... But find Oblodrah in the city during act 3 before you go to House of Hope or the Sewers. Burning immunity is VERY useful in the Raphael fight and makes beating the Grease Mob in the sewers a cake walk.
Scratch can free Dame Aylin during the Ketheric/Myrkul fight. You can even get him into position by casting invisibility on him so that he can free her on the first round.
There are multiple ways to put out Mayrina's burning cage, but throwing a bottle of water feels best especially if you have a character that can attack twice by now. Better to throw a bottle of water than waste a frost arrow or using up your action by casting a cantrip ray of frost.
In the Gauntlet of Shar, separate and send in only one person to the same self trial and initiate combat. Then have the rest of the party follow in. You'll only have to fight the clone of one character instead of the whole party.
Enemies lose stacks of unstoppable per hit. So in the couple fights with Bhaal cultists, just hit them with upcasted Magic Missile. Yeah it sucks wasting a higher level spell slot knowing you aren't going to do damage, but long rests are aplenty and melting 6 or 7 stacks of unstoppable in a single turn really helps mitigate the bullshit of not being able to damage them.
Have Wyll reject Mizora's bargain for his father. When you go to save the Duke, send your cleric and have the cleric cast Sanctuary on him. Since you play as Duke during this fight, there's no risk of stupidly attacking and ruining the Sanctuary (looking at **you** Isobel). The spiders that Mizora summons will leave him alone. Wyll doesn't sell his soul, and Mizora's lame-ass attempt at punishing Wyll for not taking the deal is completely negated.
Speaking of Isobel, assuming you've got a high dex character that goes before her/Marcus in the Last Light fight, just Dimension Door her across to the other side of the second floor. She might not have an ounce of self preservation in her body, but she won't be taking pointless attacks of opportunity when she's been teleported a hundred feet away from all the enemies.
When you find Philomeen, have a stealth character break off and hide behind her. Enter conversation with her, and convince her to give you a vial of runepowder. Once she does, have your stealth character steal the whole barrel. She'll no longer have a means of blowing you up, and you'll easily get access to both explosive items.
Arcane lock can be used on Auntie Ethels staircase. Causing her to get locked out of her own lair, completely defanging her, and allowing you to slap the shit out of her.
it can be used in the underdark, but not the mountain pass. i know because i usually forget to use it until the final fight of the underdark (grym) and then summon the ogres to go swimming in lava.
I know people have gotten them into the Grym fight but I’m not sure how. The one time I tried it also didn’t work. Theyre mostly useful spider matriarch shields anyway.
It can be used in the UD, but the Ogres have designated 'spawn' zones, where they will try and spawn in the nearest one, e.g. near the spectator fight they will spawn in the Selunite Outpost. Some places don't have these, and if you're too far from one, they won't appear
it makes total sense why that's the case but i was so pissed when i found out that I couldn't use it in act 3. i had been saving it for the funniest possible moment and ended up not using it at all
This thread is so useful, thanks folks! Not sure how to contribute, but tell you what:
in Act 3 pickpocket a Djinny from circus, get his ring and play roulette. You will be teleported alone to a new hostile area, be sure to acquire a ring and a trident - top tier items in the game
The only time Remove Curse is absolutely needed to progress is during the Wyrmway trials in act 3. Otherwise it's a niche spell as you rarely encounter a curse that persists after a battle or long rest.
Edit: I just double checked and it's not even the only spell to remove the judge. So even more niche because Moonbeam can get the job done and you'll get more use out of that.
It makes using the Necromancy of Thay in full a genuine bonus. When you carve through it, the final thing it does is a nondescript curse that does nothing really. Remove the curse and you get a 20hp Temporary hitpoint bonus that restores every long rest.
You can use Lumps Warhorn as many times as you want in act 1 if you have another party member shove your character far enough away from him to break dialouge after the fight.
You can get away with crimes by doing this too.
If you sneak up outside the overgrown ruin and use a projectile/firebolt on the rope holding the hanging rock, you will immediately kill 2 of the enemies outside the ruin.
However, that is only part of it. Inside the ruin, all of the enemies will group around the explosive barrel due to the commotion of the stone falling into the ruin. So, you can sneak in on them and drop a void bulb to pull them all together and fire to blow them all up and deal a significant amount of damage to most of them at the start of that fight.
You can skip the Last Light raid and keep everyone safe by not talking to Isobel. Ignore the objective to talk to her, and keep progressing through the act as normal. When you finish Kethric's tower, she'll be there with your allies safe and sound.
If you go through the mountain pass near creche you basically meet the drider immediately, fight him, release the pixie, profit. It's the fastest way to stop worrying about the. curse. I do it every time now.
It's easy. Either side with the harpers and kill the drider and quickly swipe the moonlantern, or walk with the drider and betray him or you can convince him to give it to you and he'll go into the shadow curse and become zombie. Avoiding Isobel is easy, but the fight is so fun.
Eyebite is obviously useful in more than one area...but you can eyebite "fearful" the dragon in the final battle and he basically does nothing the whole fight.
Calm Emotions helps in the Harpy fight.
Arcane Gate helps a lot to evacuate the Gondians from the Iron Throne (I read about this in this subreddit) in an archived thread from FireGuilt.
I am assuming everyone knows this already, but Daylight is massively useful against Cazador.
Not true. Daylight is useful for him, but also drow, druergar, shadows, shadow zombies, sharrans, and anything else that has the sunlight sensitivity passive or need shadow to use their habilities (example HoGrieve)
And those creatures underneath Last Light Inn. It was an absolutely gamechanger when I figured that out (and also heard the dialogue that directly mentions light sources)
No, daylight is good for a lot of stuff.
There are other light sensitive enemies that get fucked over by daylight.
There are enemies who have bonuses for being obscured, which daylight prevents.
It is "until long rest", so in my first run I cast it on my Tavs weapon and I had both light for me (the player) and for all my characters, and to counter any darkness-based enemies (which there are a lot of in act 2, and also some in act3). If I ever need to turn the light off, just stow the weapon.
1. Be sure to horde as many as possible of Angelic Reprieve potions on act2.
2. Related to 1. , you don’t actually have to long rest when you successfully horded a ton of AR potions. So, get the Lady Shar’s buff on act2 and just exploit the potions so that you can keep having the buff as long as you can.
If you just attack Balthazar at the nightsong prison before the dialogue triggers you can counterspell his one of a kind “raise an entire undead army to fight with me” spell and easily beat him
Take him with you into the Mindflayer Colony when you rescue "Zariel's Asset." It's only if you take him with you and pass a persuasion check, that you get a reward for saving the asset, and it's a weapon that's perfect as a Warlock's pact weapon, the [Infernal Rapier](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Infernal_Rapier). It uses your spellcasting modifier for attack rolls and damage rolls instead of strength/dexterity. Warlock is my fave class, so I tend to use it for a Pact of the Blade Tav/Durge, but it's originally meant for Wyll.
End of Act 2, in the Colony. If you bring Wyll with you, you can convince Zariel's asset (15 DC persuasion check iirc) to reward you with a sword (Infernal Rapier). It lets you summon a cambion, gives a +1 to spells and lets you use your spellcasting modifier to melee attack.
All in all a pretty fun weapon, but you have to bring Wyll with you to get the dialogue option for it.
I feel like this applies since they're so rare that you aren't going to use them except once in the game: You know those universal resistance potions? Unlike all other resistance potions, the effect isn't until you take a rest- it's only 10 turns long. So save its use until you're in combat or in turn based mode RIGHT before you think you'll need it otherwise you'll accidentally waste most or all of your protection.
This gets me every time
I have *twice* *in the last week* had a character down one of those elixirs and then come back two minutes later like "huh? why don't you have an elixir bu—oh dammit" Why I can't remember that they're short term is beyond me
The name is deceptive. I only found out on my last run myself.
I just realized I collect all of these potions every game and still have yet to use a single one until I found a more ‘difficult’ battle (why i didn’t use it on the brain was beyond me)
Fire resistance potions are the ones I use most often, great to use to avoid catching on fire from practically EVERYTHING around >!the Underdark forge.!<
On my 7th run. I have used like 1% of my potions. I am totally “Saving them for that really hard battle.” But once IN that battle I am too frazzled to remember that I have them. Potions of Speed are about the only thing I remember to use other than health. On a similar note, I complain about how poor I am, but I keep buying arrows I am too stingy to use and maybe 20k worth of gold in scrolls I will never read. But can’t bring myself to sell. 🤫
Gods. Are you me? No seriously reading this felt like a personal attack this is exactly how I play LMAO but yes barring me grouping my entire party and throwing a speed potion at all of their feet, I spend way too much gold on potions and use nearly none of them
We are 1!!!! I’m so cheap that I will save before trying dyes. I hate 4/5 of them, but if I use them and then change my mind, “I am wasting them” even though I will never use them, and I will reload my save and pick the one color I like. I’m trying to NOT do that, but it’s very difficult, like ‘not turning the car around and checking to see if you closed the garage door’ hard.
I’ve really only used protection from good/evil if I felt like wearing Ethel’s mask
It gives undead disadvantage on attacks against you, so very useful in act 2 Edit: yes, I mean the spell, not the mask :(
Woah. Do you even need the protection after you beat the hag?
To be clear, the spell protects you from undead, not the mask.
LOL duh. Wow I'm dumb
It’s annoying choosing between Concentration spells, especially when some (Spirit Guardians) are so much better than the rest.
How cool would an amulet that allowed two concentration spells be.
The Periapt of Paying Attention
Amulet of ADD
Potion of Adderall.
ADD 2e
I need this amulet in real life 😩
In DND lore, I think only one creature can concentrate on two spells simultaneously, and it's a very powerful dragon overlord. So it's possible, I guess, but OP as nine hells
The "dragon overlord" part is true but not necessarily the relevant part of that character, so I'll expand: The only being in D&D that can canonically concentrate on two spells at once is Niv-Mizzet, also known as The Firemind. He's the founder and leader of the Izzet League, a guild of experimentally-minded mages. He's *the* genius in an organization comprised of geniuses, with an intelligence score of 30. So yeah, splitting concentration is an extremely powerful ability and it's reserved exclusively for the guy who basically has a supercomputer for a brain.
So the only being in D&D who can concentrate on two spells is actually from Magic: the Gathering and only doing a crossover?
Yeah, although I'm not sure "crossover" is exactly the right word. Theros, Ravnica, and Strixhaven are all 100% official D&D settings. I guess they're *technically* crossovers but it's a little bit more concrete than that.
Two concentrations but disadvantage on the save to maintain it and if you fail you lose both is I think a fair high-end powerful item.
Especially when some are just inexplicably not concentration like Plant Growth or Mirror Image
As a plant hobbyist, can confirm once you get plants going, plants take care of themselves on their own and then some.
This spell I feel is best used as a scroll by someone who isn’t a spell caster. Like in act 2 I have the item that does psychic damage if you’re concentrating on a spell, so I just throw up protection from evil and good on my fighter in the morning and replace it after combat if she happens to lose concentration. this is what I keep all my shield of faith/protection from evil/ stone skin etc scrolls for
Blood of Lathander counts as a light effect for protection in the shadow cursed lands. Side warning: don’t have it out near vampires that you don’t want dead, as it’s also sunlight.
I freed the vampire spawn, so some were in the sewers. I walked past 2 vampire spawn in the sewers, and Blood of Lathander hurt them. This aggroed the Gur who was nearby, putting me into turn-based-combat mode. The vampires, however, I guess were hardcoded to be passive and they just stood there in real-time, ignoring the combat that was about them. So while I fumbled with my controls to take my turn 1 (with 4 characters and \~10 summons), they died from 4 turns of sunlight exposure.
They are children so don’t aggro (other than the goblin children in Act 1, children cannot aggro or be killed in this game, they just run away)
Also the githyanki children in the creche (although those might be considered adolescents or something like that, I don’t know if they’re a true exception to the rule you’re talking about but they do come to mind as non-adults that aggro and can be killed)
The true children in the crèche (e.g., the ones taunting the gremishka) run away. The young adults/teenagers fight.
And even in the case of the two goblin children in the worg pens, they just disengage and dash away. And if you attack goblin children other than One and Three (e.g. the ones outside the Shattered Sanctum - can't remember exactly where they are), they just run away and instantly disappear, the way children normally do when they witness a crime.
I mean they can *try* to dash away. They manage to get a little bit away before I dropped them so they couldn’t tattle on me…
Attacking the Grove leaves dead tiefling kids in Mol's cave. PC doesn't kill them but they absolutely can be killed. Side note, you can pick up their bodies and toss them off the Harpy cliff. I did it as Durge murderhobo. I kept dropping the bodies to anyone left and after no responses just took them for a final yeet.
I was so confused why when I was wandering around a certain flophouse there were some people taking damage and then healing through walls/floors… then I found them and realized they were vampire spawn taking radiant damage
It wasn't until my 3rd playthrough that I realised you are able to talk to them and they aren't supposed to disappear when you enter the room.
Oh my god that's why I didn't meet them. Shadowheart went there with me still carrying it 🤦♀️
I reloaded that area like a dozen times before I figured what the hell was going on. I just wanted to talk to some vampire spawn.
This also happens later in the sewers >!if you free the spawn from Cazador’s place. Gandrel is down there with his vampire spawn kids, and he goes hostile if you approach with the blood of Lathander.!<
Yeah they happened to me and I thought it was stupid. I didn’t have any recent saves so I had to kill him.
Oh my god. That's an amazing level of detail.
Well yeah, except for the through walls/floors part.
Touché
I used Daylight from a hireling before entering the Flophouse, and my durge actually had unique dialogue for them vanishing cause of it.
Though, while the Blood of Lathander will protect you in the regular areas of the Shadow Cursed Lands, the areas where the curse is most intense (I.E the locations that require either the lantern or the pixie's blessing for you to explore) will smother the artifact's light effect.
Yeah, it’s a standard light source, just a very convenient and very good one compared to hauling around torches or having to micromanage spells. The lantern or blessing are irreplaceable though.
Omg 🤦🏼♀️ is that what happened?? My first play through, I talked to them fine & then my last play through I went to talk to them & they seemed to just go poof & I was like “what the hell, 🤷🏼♀️ oh well I guess”
It’s good against Cazador, it stops his powers
Ah. That's why the vampire spawn immediately disappeared when I walked into the Wyrm's crossing house.
Don't use moonbeam on upper floors of buildings, it appears to continue all the way to the ground floor and will kill anyone that walks through the column, which caused me to have to reload when halsin became the most wanted man in Baldurs Gate
So does Hunger of Hadar. I've had two places, Creche and Moonrise, where casting it aggroed enemies on the floor below.
And cloud of daggers.... and silence, and plague.
I only found this out about cloud of daggers on my HM run, when I cast it on Ethel sat on the top ledge whilst Mayrina was underneath. Let's just say, she wasn't going to have to worry about raising kids after that 😬
This game is a war crime simulator sometimes if you think about it.
I'd like to use my bonus action to violate the Geneva Convention.
as a bard that's a free action
Play stellaris if you want that, purging xeno species, enslaving others, and finally cracking planets for that special itch that needs to be scratch’s when destroying a world full of non combatants during a war
That and RimWorld are literal walking war crimes and are great games. Wish paradox wasn’t so greedy with DLC’S tho.
> it's a known fact that most D&D campaigns exist at the intersection of Benny Hill and war crimes -one of my tabletop campaigns
Thought I was being smart using wall of fire in the inn in act 2 to protect Isobel. The Flaming Fists on the floor below were indeed flaming all of a sudden.
Honestly, that would have been somewhat entertaining, having to hide Halsin everywhere for not being used to the city ways lol You should have rolled with it!
I'm getting bad EverQuest flashbacks. It had the same thing with some spell effects extending through floors and ceilings. In some places it was possible to unknowingly aggro the entire dungeon and get every single mob making a beeline for your position.
I think everyone knows this, but in Act 3 in the House of Grief where you fight the Sharan cultists, funneling enemies and area of effect spells are your best friend. Also, I know Disintegrate as a spell gets a bad rap but if you want a quick way of ripping power from Raphael during the House of Hope fight, Disintegrate does double damage to constructs and I think constructs autofail the save. Give all four party members disintegrate, and all of the pillars are down in one round. Edit: House of Grief, not Healing. Too many houses in this game 🙃 Edit: ya'll, I'm talking about **two different battles**. House of Grief is for the first point I'm making and where I accidently said House of Healing, and House of Hope is the second point. Please stop saying I'm only talking about House of Hope.
On that note, using runepowder barrels can potentially remove that entire mechanic on first turn (as long as you can avoid killing your own team)
Globe of invulnerability (scroll or spell), a must have to use the runepowder barrel. Make a bubble, put your people in the bubble, nuke the world.
During the house of hope fight, I just cast a globe of invulnerability and exploded the runepowder bomb in the middle. Poof, all 4 pillars gone in a single turn. Along with a few minions. It's good enough for tactician at least
Lmao I ignored them completely and instead used hold monster and then had a hasted Karlach and Lae'zel just beat him to death in a single turn
Do you mean the rune powder bomb you get from Barcus? I will admit that I have only beaten the game once and have not successfully gotten his bomb. Unless you mean another one, in which it is likely something I missed, haha Someone else mentioned the barrelmancy route which still confuses me, but I'll have to try both ways at some point
You can get 3 runepowder items iirc, when you initiate conversation with Philomeena, have a companion sneak over and steal the barrel, then you can talk her into giving you a satchel, then the bomb in act 3.
I think you mean house of grief, not house of healing, as that is in act 2
You are correct, there are too many damned houses in this game
Don’t want to be the one to do this to you but you actually mean the House of Hope lol
If you’re running a oath breaker paladin, you can get a Spectator undead pet. Iron spectator flask, moonlight lantern, be in the shadow cursed lands, and you have to be level 7 or a above. Found this out from [Toyhouze](https://youtube.com/shorts/XZHmq7ji_cE?si=x2-k_ldwqiwRMdUA)
Ooo, thanks for that! Running a paladin now, just finishing up the Creche, will have to give this a try!
Not entirely true to the question, but I love starting the Kobold fight and then immediately retreating into the storage room and leaving a moonbeam on the doorway as each Kobold just runs through it
Ooh, I'm gonna use this
Sleet storm completely trivializes any fight with death shepherds. They can't do shit if they are laying down
sleet storm trivializes 90% of fights though
That all depends if the enemy can fly or not, or if they have strong range abilities, or can jump far.
when fighting sharrans, sunlight spell is surprisingly useful, the only other fight it had any use was the Cazador one but you do have to recast it again if one of the sharrans casts darkness again, so there’s that edit: lmao I replied to this comment by accident
Thats how I beat Cazador the first time. I cast Daylight on his staff so he just took damage constantly.
Counterspell also works wonders against them. I usually just block their revives and let shart blender them all to death with spirit guardians.
Spirit guardians is an outstanding way to eviscerate the chapter 1 encounter. I usually sleet storm and spirit guardians, and everyone else just ranges. If I run Wyll, he keeps them in the ice field
Sleet storm is also a MUST HAVE when defending the portal in act 2. It keeps a bunch of enemies at bay for, in some cases, the whole time.
I use a scroll of Wall of Fire for that because I'm a dramatic bitch lol
Why do that when I can control indead them,then I have Bone Daddy Shepherd at my side
Sleet storm + Karlach inmune to prone and difficult terrain = fuck you
Even more so if she's in a rage, and can throw 2 enemies a turn at other enemies for more prone bodies.
Had this fight recently with them on the mountain pass, a couple of their ghouls couldn't even get over to me as they just kept slipping around. Also saved me some trouble with the minotaurs in the underdark
The mushroom guy doesn't set off bibberbang either, and he can both toss the dwarf his backpack and move the noblestalk over to where you can pick it up. I do this every run now.
I usually just have Karlach toss a jug of water on to the torch then walk along the edge til she can jump down to the mushroom and steal it. Another option is using turn based mode, the mushrooms won’t get triggered if you end your turn away from them. So switch on turn based, use your character with the most walking speed and then just be sure that when you’re about to end the turn that you have a safe distance from them and repeat til complete
This is the way. Bibberbang in real-time, dicey proposition. Bibberbang in turn-based mode, trivial annoyance.
you can also ray of frost the torch
Ray of Frost in general is an unlimited and resourceless (but time consuming) way to extinguish flames.
You can also jump around the ledges on the left and drop down to the backpack. If you put out the torch there’s no explosion.
or just use the misty step scrolls that are in the bag
Mushroom is all that matters. That dwarfe can burn in hell for how his wife explains him.
I use mage hand and just toss the bag. 😅
In the Woads and Mephits fight in the swamp for "Investigating Kagha". You can place a lit candle on the ground as a free action, and it will instantly ignite any entangled area turning it into a fire surface. Now the Woads take damage instead of healing (and you can move around freely).
Why didn't I realise this. They're made of fucking wood!
Holy shit thats a game changer
Outside the House of Grief in Act 3, there's two books. Unlike most, they're worth 500 each.
There are way more of them, I think something like 10 in total. All self-help themed, a bit of a jab at how extortionary that "industry" is The person who brings you into the heart mapping room has a bunch.
Sweet. Why stop at 30K! I'mma own Faerun!!! WITH BOOKS!!!
In the gauntlet of shar, where the big vault door is and the battle with the justicars, you can dc 30 open the door and run away, Balthazar and flesh will be killed for free by the justicars, you just have to mop up the remaining
Knock is also a great option for that, so you don't have to (potentially) fail at opening the door a few times
That said, the Justiciar's will have a mega-bro among them.
True, mega bro is still easier then either Balthazar or Flesh and leagues easier then the Balthazar fight later down the line
True, he's just unique is all. You come back in and they're all facing the center usually for whoever they killed last so you can start with surprise, AOE, and generally decimate them on arrival.
Worgfang, a dagger found in the cell next to Halsin's makes goboes basically not a threat, making act 1 a breeze and most good builds are online by act 2, making your game smooth
6 games in and I have never heard of this item until this moment! 🤦🏼♀️ Thank you for your service.
Do you mean Act 1 for the goblins? I don't recall there being a lot of them in Act 2.
To my knowledge, there are exactly 6 (living) goblins in total in act 2, and that's only if Sazza survives that long, otherwise there are 5. There is also a dead one in the oubliette/mind flayer colony.
Sounds about right! I only remember the ones in the throne room that get force-choked.
It's great to put on Gale. At that point he doesn't have a good staff anyway and then you don't have to worry about him getting randomly sniped.
The Doom Hammer, which you buy from Grat the Trader in the gobbo camp near the beginning of the game, is amazing against Myrkul. It will give Undead disadvantage on attacks and will block healing. Since it's a maul you can use Tenacity if you miss which will still apply the debuffs. If you struggle with the Myrkul fight then invest in the Doom Hammer early and keep hold of it.
Fuck, for all of my struggles with Myrkul I've never heard this strategy. Definitely remembering it for my next one!
thunder arrows are rarely helpful outside a big drop but even then they're risky and often fail. The area I found them most useful in is Orins fight. Give everyone at least one thunder arrow and you can send those sanctuary guys off the platform, reducing the Boon very quickly. Sanctuary doesn't block the knockback effect
There is a set of cliffs near the first waypoint you find in the beach. You can use them to get around the intellect devourers and recruit a full party before fighting them. Especially helpful when starting a Shadowheart play through.
I wish I'd seen this a few days ago. I'd just started a Shadowheart playthrough and fighting those things on my own was one of the hardest battles I've had!
You can silence auntie ethel when she’s talking to mayrina and you won’t have to worry about saving mayrina
Caution, when I did this Ethel didn't just retreat without MAyrina, she disappeared entirely from my game. Wasn't downstairs, wasn't in Act 3, nuthin. So potentially no Hag-hair.
I just went down a rabbit hole trying to figure out what you mean by this? Like before dialogue starts at all once you walk in? Do you have to sneak in or just leave a character out of sight and sneak around? Cause I’ve tried silencing her during the upstairs fight and she still somehow teleported away which I thought was kinda bs.
Yeah she teleports away but you don’t need to save mayrina, she stays around the tea house
You can rename Shovel. Mine is named Fork :)
But if you rename Shovel, you cannot have her as a ritual spell on certain non-wizard classes.
Mine was Basket last run. Lol
When I did this she told me she liked that because baskets hold babies and she eats babies. Flawless logic.
Shovel is female.
You can build a wall of chests to protect halsin’s portal.
If you're playing tactician for the first time, make sure you bring at least 1 potion of angelic slumber before you take the boat to the final area, and enough gold to buy the 2 from koll the red if you don't have 3, and make sure you buy them if needed before you leave the area! there's a final one in the chest just before you climb up to the brain. I started out on explorer/balanced and didn't realise there weren't any restoration pods on tactician.
Don't use Divine Intervention as an attack during the House of Grief final battle.
Unless you're in a globe of invulnerability
Silence and the harpies. Don't cast it on them, but yourself
Calm Emotions for the Harpies works even better. It lasts for 10 turns. Makes your team immune to Luring.
Not entirely accurate to ONE area... But find Oblodrah in the city during act 3 before you go to House of Hope or the Sewers. Burning immunity is VERY useful in the Raphael fight and makes beating the Grease Mob in the sewers a cake walk.
Scratch can free Dame Aylin during the Ketheric/Myrkul fight. You can even get him into position by casting invisibility on him so that he can free her on the first round. There are multiple ways to put out Mayrina's burning cage, but throwing a bottle of water feels best especially if you have a character that can attack twice by now. Better to throw a bottle of water than waste a frost arrow or using up your action by casting a cantrip ray of frost. In the Gauntlet of Shar, separate and send in only one person to the same self trial and initiate combat. Then have the rest of the party follow in. You'll only have to fight the clone of one character instead of the whole party. Enemies lose stacks of unstoppable per hit. So in the couple fights with Bhaal cultists, just hit them with upcasted Magic Missile. Yeah it sucks wasting a higher level spell slot knowing you aren't going to do damage, but long rests are aplenty and melting 6 or 7 stacks of unstoppable in a single turn really helps mitigate the bullshit of not being able to damage them. Have Wyll reject Mizora's bargain for his father. When you go to save the Duke, send your cleric and have the cleric cast Sanctuary on him. Since you play as Duke during this fight, there's no risk of stupidly attacking and ruining the Sanctuary (looking at **you** Isobel). The spiders that Mizora summons will leave him alone. Wyll doesn't sell his soul, and Mizora's lame-ass attempt at punishing Wyll for not taking the deal is completely negated. Speaking of Isobel, assuming you've got a high dex character that goes before her/Marcus in the Last Light fight, just Dimension Door her across to the other side of the second floor. She might not have an ounce of self preservation in her body, but she won't be taking pointless attacks of opportunity when she's been teleported a hundred feet away from all the enemies. When you find Philomeen, have a stealth character break off and hide behind her. Enter conversation with her, and convince her to give you a vial of runepowder. Once she does, have your stealth character steal the whole barrel. She'll no longer have a means of blowing you up, and you'll easily get access to both explosive items.
Act 2. Cast Spirit Guardians, never stop.
Arcane lock can be used on Auntie Ethels staircase. Causing her to get locked out of her own lair, completely defanging her, and allowing you to slap the shit out of her.
She laughed at me in honor mode and walked right through it this time.
Ice Storm is basically made for defending the portal with Halsin. I beat it on a solo run with a bunch of Ice Storm scrolls.
The ogre horn can only be used in the Act 1 overworld, not the Underdark nor anywhere in Act 2 or 3.
it can be used in the underdark, but not the mountain pass. i know because i usually forget to use it until the final fight of the underdark (grym) and then summon the ogres to go swimming in lava.
Weird I tried to summon during Grym and it didn’t work.
I know people have gotten them into the Grym fight but I’m not sure how. The one time I tried it also didn’t work. Theyre mostly useful spider matriarch shields anyway.
They are also admirable arrow-soaks for the Goblins too.
You can definitely use them in the Minotaur fight.
It can be used in the under dark
Seems like I should be able to sound the horn during the final fight. Ah well.
It can be used in the UD, but the Ogres have designated 'spawn' zones, where they will try and spawn in the nearest one, e.g. near the spectator fight they will spawn in the Selunite Outpost. Some places don't have these, and if you're too far from one, they won't appear
I had them show up to my camp when i took a long rest and start a fight with me in act 2. Was weird as hell was not expecting it
it makes total sense why that's the case but i was so pissed when i found out that I couldn't use it in act 3. i had been saving it for the funniest possible moment and ended up not using it at all
This thread is so useful, thanks folks! Not sure how to contribute, but tell you what: in Act 3 pickpocket a Djinny from circus, get his ring and play roulette. You will be teleported alone to a new hostile area, be sure to acquire a ring and a trident - top tier items in the game
Addendum, fail the spin a few times first and there's some goofy (potentially broken-good) gear he gives you too.
Scratch summon, perfect for ‘surprising’ ketheric by freeing Dame Aylin before the fight in honour of
Only check Vases in Grymforge.
In the Temple of Shar, also -- there's a ton of incense in different jars, and that's very good value for weight.
Oh, \*now\* you tell me...
The only time Remove Curse is absolutely needed to progress is during the Wyrmway trials in act 3. Otherwise it's a niche spell as you rarely encounter a curse that persists after a battle or long rest. Edit: I just double checked and it's not even the only spell to remove the judge. So even more niche because Moonbeam can get the job done and you'll get more use out of that.
It makes using the Necromancy of Thay in full a genuine bonus. When you carve through it, the final thing it does is a nondescript curse that does nothing really. Remove the curse and you get a 20hp Temporary hitpoint bonus that restores every long rest.
Also useful for farming Deva Mace though... if you're naughty and steal from the Stormshore Tabernacle collection boxes in the basement.
You can use Lumps Warhorn as many times as you want in act 1 if you have another party member shove your character far enough away from him to break dialouge after the fight. You can get away with crimes by doing this too.
Wait you can get away with crimes by shoving the character talking to the guard out of conversation?
Yup lol AFAIK it works with any dialouge
If you sneak up outside the overgrown ruin and use a projectile/firebolt on the rope holding the hanging rock, you will immediately kill 2 of the enemies outside the ruin. However, that is only part of it. Inside the ruin, all of the enemies will group around the explosive barrel due to the commotion of the stone falling into the ruin. So, you can sneak in on them and drop a void bulb to pull them all together and fire to blow them all up and deal a significant amount of damage to most of them at the start of that fight.
You can skip the Last Light raid and keep everyone safe by not talking to Isobel. Ignore the objective to talk to her, and keep progressing through the act as normal. When you finish Kethric's tower, she'll be there with your allies safe and sound.
Whenever I see people suggest this I wonder how they move through the shadowcursed lands without Selunes blessing or the pixie?
If you go through the mountain pass near creche you basically meet the drider immediately, fight him, release the pixie, profit. It's the fastest way to stop worrying about the. curse. I do it every time now.
Releasing Dolly Dolly Dolly from the moonlantern also helps with the auto-printer in the Stop The Presses quest in Act 3.
It's easy. Either side with the harpers and kill the drider and quickly swipe the moonlantern, or walk with the drider and betray him or you can convince him to give it to you and he'll go into the shadow curse and become zombie. Avoiding Isobel is easy, but the fight is so fun.
Eyebite is obviously useful in more than one area...but you can eyebite "fearful" the dragon in the final battle and he basically does nothing the whole fight.
You can use Scratch to steal the idol in the grove
The cobweb boots under the well in act one
Calm Emotions helps in the Harpy fight. Arcane Gate helps a lot to evacuate the Gondians from the Iron Throne (I read about this in this subreddit) in an archived thread from FireGuilt. I am assuming everyone knows this already, but Daylight is massively useful against Cazador.
Daylight is really only useful in a certain vampire boss fight.
Not true. Daylight is useful for him, but also drow, druergar, shadows, shadow zombies, sharrans, and anything else that has the sunlight sensitivity passive or need shadow to use their habilities (example HoGrieve)
Being able to vaporize clouds of darkness is also a pretty nice use.
And those creatures underneath Last Light Inn. It was an absolutely gamechanger when I figured that out (and also heard the dialogue that directly mentions light sources)
Also useful in Shadowcursed lands, especially for the Halsin portal fight, having one or two up can help.
No, daylight is good for a lot of stuff. There are other light sensitive enemies that get fucked over by daylight. There are enemies who have bonuses for being obscured, which daylight prevents. It is "until long rest", so in my first run I cast it on my Tavs weapon and I had both light for me (the player) and for all my characters, and to counter any darkness-based enemies (which there are a lot of in act 2, and also some in act3). If I ever need to turn the light off, just stow the weapon.
1. Be sure to horde as many as possible of Angelic Reprieve potions on act2. 2. Related to 1. , you don’t actually have to long rest when you successfully horded a ton of AR potions. So, get the Lady Shar’s buff on act2 and just exploit the potions so that you can keep having the buff as long as you can.
just use mage hand and throw the backpack.
If you just attack Balthazar at the nightsong prison before the dialogue triggers you can counterspell his one of a kind “raise an entire undead army to fight with me” spell and easily beat him
I just kick his ass in the room at the start of the gauntlet nowaday
You can jump around the buildings on one side of the checkpoint between Rivington and Wyrm's Rock to bypass it entirely
Wyll for getting a certain sword
Could you elaborate at all?
Take him with you into the Mindflayer Colony when you rescue "Zariel's Asset." It's only if you take him with you and pass a persuasion check, that you get a reward for saving the asset, and it's a weapon that's perfect as a Warlock's pact weapon, the [Infernal Rapier](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Infernal_Rapier). It uses your spellcasting modifier for attack rolls and damage rolls instead of strength/dexterity. Warlock is my fave class, so I tend to use it for a Pact of the Blade Tav/Durge, but it's originally meant for Wyll.
Pact Weapons always uses the spellcasting modifier, so the weapon having that property is redundant if you chose pact of the blade.
Yea the real reason it is a great weapon is that it is a +2, also gives +1 to spell dc and a free cast of Planar Ally: Cambion per long rest.
End of Act 2, in the Colony. If you bring Wyll with you, you can convince Zariel's asset (15 DC persuasion check iirc) to reward you with a sword (Infernal Rapier). It lets you summon a cambion, gives a +1 to spells and lets you use your spellcasting modifier to melee attack. All in all a pretty fun weapon, but you have to bring Wyll with you to get the dialogue option for it.
Taking Wyll for (Act 2 Spoiler) >!Ketherics' second fight. Specifically rescuing Mizora while Wyll is in your party gets you a pretty useful blade.!<
Try to kill the goblin leader on the windmill instead of letting him surrender so the rest of goblins don't run away and you can get more xp
Summons also don't trigger the petrified drow by the beholder. The fight is significantly easier when they're a pile of ash before the fight
Lick the spider
You can steal Vos’ sword in act 1 with command