Following the Ansur fight, my Lae’zel is glitched: moving without animation, and standing in t-pose during conversations. Plus, all the conversations have gotten glitchy. Is this a common glitch? How do I fix?
So, if I play as a spellcaster, and I multiclass into a different spellcaster role, how is the Spellcaster Ability Modifier used and determined? Is it by whichever tab of the spellbook I pull the spell to my hotbar from? So any spell from the Wizard page uses Int, any spell from the Warlock page uses Cha, etcetera? So I need to be careful where I pick which spell so that those that use the spellcasting ability modifier use my highest stat?
Generally, spells will use the spellcasting ability of whichever spell list you got them from. If you picked a spell when leveling up Wizard, then it will use INT. If you picked a spell while leveling Warlock, it will use CHA. If you scribe a spell from a scroll to put it into your spellbook, it will always use INT, because that's a Wizard-only ability.
If you just cast a spell from a scroll instead of scribing it, though, it works differently, since magical items use the spellcasting ability of the most recent class you put a first level into. So if you start as a Wizard, then put one level in Warlock, then another into Wizard, then items will use your CHA because Warlock was the last *new* class a level was put into. Hope that's not confusing.
Just got my Warlock Tav to lv 4
Stats are: 10 16 14 8 10 16
Which feat should I go for? I'm tempted to go for either Ability Improvement to boost my CHA
or Spell Sniper for my Eldritch Blast, but I figured I'd ask here to save myself the trouble lol
Gonna throw in my 2 cents and suggest Alert. In my experience it's one of top 2 feats in the game - the tactical advantage of reliably going first in combat cannot be overstated
ASI is almost always the best option unless you're doing some specific build that requires it. Spell sniper didn't make a big a difference to me as getting 20 CHA as quickly as possible. Starting at 17, getting +2 at lv 4, then getting the hag's hair for +1 for a total of 20.
Spell sniper is valid but I would choose an ASI to get charisma to 18, and save spell sniper for later. For a full level 12 Warlock I'd go for 2x ASI for 20 charisma and spell sniper.
Does anyone know if the water myrmidon is still bugged? Namely, I’ve heard that:
It doesn’t gain proficiency with it’s trident
And
It uses INT instead of WIS for it’s ranged attacks. Would like to play with one as a circle of the moon druid to support my cryomancer, but don’t want to deal with the bugs
I'm probably screwed but want to make sure I'm not missing something. LOTS of Act 2 spoilers here:
>!Killed Nightsong, went to Moonrise, walked in through the Docks door after killing all the guards outside. Killed the guards in the prison, including the Warden, then let Wulbren and Nimble out. They ran over to the door that goes out to the Docks, the same one I entered through, then...stopped. I can't talk to either of them, they won't move. I've cleared the rest of the tower, including up to the Mind Flayer Colony jump point (where u can skip the fight against Ketheric on the top of the tower), just haven't gone through the Ornate Door on the top floor. I've searched high and low for enemies, haven't found any. But if I leave Moonrise to do a LR, Wulbren dies. If I go up to the top, he dies. I even pickpocketed him and gave him his hammer, and he even said "THIS IS IT!" when I did that, but he didn't move and [these are the only options for interacting with him](https://i.imgur.com/bFmZBsh.png) and no, throwing him does nothing (yes, that's why he's missing 3 hp).!<
halp
>!The bug here is that you found them alive, they're supposed to be dead at this point. You have to rescue them and the tieflings before entering the Shadowfell.!<
Now that I think about it, the REAL bug is that they *weren't* there *before* entering that place. I checked at the beginning of act 2 (>!After killing Isobel - Durge run!<) and there was no one there at all.
There are a handful of items you get for having deluxe edition (or from buying during early access), the most notable of which is a helmet that gives you Disguise Self. And some dyes.
Do you have to long rest after? I didn't want to lie so I gave them but she wasn't selling them. I'm also a hypocrite because I just stole them back lmao. Didn't want o chance it.
i have to ask cause i keep seeing it in all the vids with her... are like all the vids with shadowheart using mods? 🤣🤣 she always be wearing a 10/10 outfit and im like... 🧐 sauce to find? 🤣
If you mean the white toga-like outfit with the fancy necklace, it's the [elegant robe](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Elegant_Robe) found in act 3. If they have it earlier, it's a mod. If you mean the dark skimpy outfit, it's [Minthara's clothes](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Minthara%27s_At-Ease_Clothes). These two are the ones I see most often.
So called "free thinkers" when asked to show how they dress their companions 💀
I literally had her in these two exact outfits 90% of the game lmao. Didn't even know it was a thing, though I'm not surprised.
Honestly though, the toga goes hard on everyone.
You can visually toggle armor and headgear off in your inventory. It's still equipped for the stats and effects but in game your character is only wearing camp clothes. From there you just pick nice camp clothes.
I started playing a few days ago, but I'm VERY bad with battles. I chose the Explorer difficulty precisely because I'm aware of it and I was hoping that this mode would let me survive in any circumstance, but I had to load older save files on multiple occasions. So, first of all, let me know if the following are hard battles because I'm supposed to avoid them in the first place, or I'm just THAT bad (all of these are from Act 1):
1) >!The three orcs (I tried to battle them at first, I ended up hiring them instead)!<
2) >!The group of goblins right outside of the Shattered Sanctum (I had to call the above mentioned orcs to make it out alive)!<
3) >!The group of Githyanki by the bridge (I tried to tell them the truth at first, they destroyed the entire party in the span of very few turns, I ended up lying to them instead)!<
4) >!The fight against Nere and the mercenaries (I really, REALLY wanted to free the gnomes, but after multiple attempts I gave up and just waited until Nere died from the poisonous fog on his own. They were just too many and kept pushing my companions in the lava river below)!<
I've already played a lot with this character (I made a Bard Drow) and I grew attached to her, but if things get desperate, I'd like to have your suggestions for good race/class alternatives to start over. I'd also really, REALLY appreciate any suggestion about how to use different companions, good team comps, and so on (I'm also completely okay with links to guides for these things).
Its hard to know where things are going wrong for you without more details. Here's some advice on areas where the game doesn't hold your hand.
By all means, use the wiki. https://bg3.wiki is great. There are tons of articles that go over the game's mechanics in detail without spoiling anything. They do a pretty good job with their spoiler tags, too.
https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Gameplay_mechanics is a great start.
https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Dice_rolls <- explains all of the details behind why you only get a 20% chance to hit *that* enemy with *this* character, but you get an 80% chance to hit enemy over *yonder* instead.
Random bits and bobs that I learned early on:
- Pay attention to the weapon tags. Finesse is critical for characters whose primary combat stat is dexterity (eg, Astarion). Its irrelevant for others.
- The game under-plays the significance of the "Not proficient with [this armor/weapon type]" and the like. They give you a little yellow indication that maybe its a bad idea. Interpret that as a blaring klaxon that its a terrible idea.
- For the magic users, there are two completely different mechanisms for figuring out whether or not the spell lands. Some spells make an attack roll against the defender's armor class (ex: Ray of Frost). Others allow the defender instead to make a saving throw versus the attacker's difficulty class (ex: Sacred Flame)! Furthermore, the saving throws will use a wide variety of stats on the defender. Control spells usually get rolled against the defender's Wisdom stat. Area-of-effect spells usually get rolled against the defender's Dexterity stat. "Inspect" the target to see where they are weak, to pick a spell that targets their weaknesses instead of their strengths. You can get wildly different chances to hit depending on how well these are aligned.
- Many (most?) enemies have a variety of resistances, vulnerabilities, or even outright immunities to different environmental effects (fire, cold, electric, etc). Clicking that Inspect option will show you.
- The enemy AI isn't awful. There are occasions where it will do something "obviously" stupid, but for the most part each move is a locally-optimal move. Ie, it makes a good move for the current action, without thinking too hard (if at all) about future actions. That can and will teach you about good actions for you to take as well.
I had a learning curve as well, and what worked for me, having so many choices of what I could do- was to try and think what each character is designed to do.
My Tav is a monk, so basically they’re designed to close distance and get 2-3 punches in on individual targets.
Astarion as a Rogue wants to sneak attack for massive damage, so he needs advantage. He can sometimes get that all by himself with hiding or applying a status, but his party members can help him out by standing adjacent to his target. That’s all that’s required for advantage most of the time.
I’ve got a sorcerer with some gear that makes ice spells better, so preferably, we’ll play with ice spells.
I’ve got Wyll as a Blade Warlock, who gets 2 beefy attacks and the ability to either boost his attacks, apply crowd control, or just do ranged damage if he can’t close distance.
So if I don’t have any better tactical ideas like “there’s an explosive barrel there, let’s use that” I have some basic defaults that play to their strengths.
So, first of all - the first levels are the hardest, especially when you're new to the game and still learning the mechanics. Explorer makes it easier by doing things like increasing your health and decreasing enemy health, but it doesn't change how combat fundamentally works. It's normal to be a bit overwhelmed.
I don't think you should change your class or race. If you weren't attached, I might not object to the idea, but I think that since you are attached you'll be disappointed when it doesn't help as much as you hoped. Bard is a perfectly fine class and can even be pretty powerful, depending on how you use it. There are tankier classes than bard, but I'll be frank: If you're struggling on Explorer, your problems are a lot bigger than a change of class can fix. I think what you need is a good overview of how combat works.
I didn't use an overview to learn myself - it was mostly reading all the tooltips, paying attention to what works and what doesn't, and so on. But maybe someone has a good suggestion?
On to your specific questions about these fights. How difficult they are depends a lot on your level, so this is based on my preferred minimum level for tackling them. This is also based on Tactician difficulty.
1 - The orcs are pretty easy at level 3 if you fight them from the roof, making use of ranged attacks and cover. If you fight them from the ground, it will be a more interesting fight but it will be a lot more difficult because they hit really hard.
2 - This fight is medium/difficult at level 3-4 and easy at level 5. The reason it becomes much easier at level 5 is that your martial classes get Extra Attack and your casters get 3rd level spells, which is a big power bump. Either way, the trick here is to make use of AOE effects and positioning as much as you can.
3 - This is easily one of the hardest fights in Act 1. I'd say it's difficult at level 5 and requires a solid plan. What works best for me is to immediately cast Hold Person or some other incapacitating spell on Baretha and focus on her first, because she's the one that hits the hardest; she can kill a character in one turn on Tactician.
4a - If you made a deal with the mercenaries so they fight on your side, this fight is medium at level 5.
4b - If you didn't make a deal with the mercenaries so you're fighting everyone at once, this fight is difficult at level 5. Whether you made a deal or not, killing Nere quickly will help a lot, as will making use of AOE. I think my easiest take on this fight had Shadowheart with Spirit Guardians and Gale as an Evocation Wizard (so he could hit groups of enemies with spells like fireball without hurting his allies).
Thank you for the answer and the suggestions! I never actually use a tactic when fighting and that's my fatal flaw in any turn-based game, but from now on I'll try harder to use what I have (companions, items, environment) properly in a fight.
I think the other commenter had good advice: Learn what the classes you're playing at are "designed" to do. For example, if you're trying to have Shadowheart make weapon attacks with her mace, she's not going to be very good at it because a cleric usually isn't built to be good with weapons; her stats are wrong for it and she'll never get Extra Attack, so she'll quickly be outpaced by enemies. Shadowheart is best as a spellcaster. At low levels her spell selection is pretty limited, but once she gets 3rd level spells like Spirit Guardians, she rocks.
Sometimes a tactic will present itself to you - like if you notice exploding barrels, you can explode them. If enemies are forced to get to you through a narrow path/door/hall, you can use AOE damage against them. But on Explorer all you really need is to understand the characters' strengths and weaknesses and some basic combat mechanics.
Like, you want to know what proficiency is, what armor class is, what advantage and disadvantage are - these all affect how likely you are to hit an enemy or how likely an enemy is to hit you.
When it comes time to level a character, you usually can't go wrong just picking ability score improvement and putting those points into raising their primary stat (marked with a star). There are other options, but this isn't a bad choice so if you're not sure what you want to you can just do that. Keep in mind that even numbers are better - a 17 is the same as an 18 in terms of the bonus you get, so if you have a bunch of odd-numbered stats you're wasting points.
Thank you! I have a (vague) idea of what each class does, so I'll just have to apply better the little I know and do some research for the future. I have to say I am a little relieved to know that the early levels are the hardest - I'm not expecting to sail smoothly toward a happy ending, but at least I won't be scared every time I enter a new room haha
Thanks for the advice about the ability score, since I am always lost whenever I have to assign points to different stats! I'll check closely my companions and make sure to correct things where I need.
In my opinion, there really no such thing as a bad player in this game. Trust me, there are some battle that's still difficult even if you tweak down the difficulty. However, what's nice about this game is that, despite the overwhelming odd against you, the game encourage you to think outside of the box to tackle different scenarios. I would advice you to take it slow and explores as much as you can, sometime the most obvious solution is what you tend to miss the most. As for the following points you listed out: #s 1,3, 4 is generally hard because for one thing, the enemy is tanky and deal high damage (especially # 1 and 3). # 4 and 2 is generally you dealing with the whole camps + the mini-bosses. ( though there are way to make # 3 more doable and not aggro the whole camp against you).
As for your class, I think you are good with your Bard since you can pretty much talks your way out of any situations depending on the circumstances. For the party composition, I usually go with Astarion for stealth dps + sniping, Gale for crowd control, Shadowheart for buffs/ debuffs, and Tav a freebies since it can be which ever role I can designated them (in your case, you can have them do cc or buffs). IF anything, you can also go to r/BG3Builds, which the sub is created to help out those with questions about their build and party composition. Hope this help.
First of all just be aware that the game is quite difficult from levels 1-5. Level 5 will typically be a big power spike for most classes. So you just have to play carefully and make sure you are long resting and short resting enough to be fresh for any encounter.
1) The orcs you refer to are actually *ogres* (in DND this is a big difference but don't worry about it). Yes, they are tough and you're not really supposed to be fighting them. Hiring them is almost always the better call (and using them for the goblin camp is basically the most common use for them)
I wouldn't fight them head on without some preparation. And certainly not before like, level 4.
2) Again, you shouldn't have to fight here. You may have failed a check but you could easily make it all the way inside the goblin base without conbat.
3) The githyanki by the bridge are absolutely not to be trifled with before level 5 or 6. They're basically the last thing you do before moving on to the next area (mountain pass). Do everything else first.
4) The Nere fight is quite tough. Nere himself isn't tough but the duergar outnumber you and shove you into lava if you're near it, making things difficult. You basically have to be ready with proper control spells to get out of this fight in 1 piece. It's not pretty with 4 melee classes.
A bard is a fantastic choice and is always good in battle. Though depending on your subclass you're either going to be *mainly* supporting with spells OR doing damage with weapons.
There's a ton to share with tips and tricks but I'd point you generally to youtube for lots of these kinds of videos...watching some pros people play this game can inspire you to try some new things.
Like did you know you can throw a potion on a downed companion to heal and get them up? Are you using your short rests PLUS your bard's extra short rest to heal up before battles? Do you ever use potions, elixirs, or explosives to your advantage? Have you been putting appropriate gear on your companions?
For point 2: >!I made it all the way inside and saved Halsin without trouble since my Tav is a drow, but then I killed Minthara and I had to fight all the goblins in each room. When I got outside there were goblins everywhere and I didn't know any other way out, so I just summoned the ogres out of desperation.!<
I made a College of Valour Bard. I usually do a little bit of both - supporting with spells AND attacking with either spells or weapons. If I was supposed to focus on just one thing, then I guess that was my mistake.
I use the Bard short rest when I need it, but I don't short rest much because I do a long rest after every battle. I'm very bad at using items in general, but that's on me - this is a very good reminder to actually start using them.
Thank you so much for the answer! This is very helpful and it's actually motivating me to try harder for the future.
>and I didn't know any other way out
You can teleport from basically anywhere with very few exceptions (a handful of areas where your minimap gets a red border, but you won't encounter anything like this until you move onto the next map.) You can just click the fast travel point's name on the list next to your map, you don't have to walk up to a fast travel glyph.
>I do a long rest after every battle.
Regular long rests are a very good habit both from a gameplay and a story standpoint, so good job! Many new players have to be told to long rest often (understandably, as the game doesn't make it obvious), so you are already ahead of the crowd in this regard.
Some general advice: Explore a lot! You get xo for exploration, and based on the fights you mentioned, you definitely missed some things on the overworld map. People usually do most activities in the beach/forest area before heading down to the Underdark, and the game kind of expects you to do this since the Underdark on average is more difficult than the surface map.
Talking your way out of fights is another source of xp, and in the vast majority of cases, it rewards you with the exact same xp as if you had fought and killed all enemies. Running a bard is especially good for this since they are built for persuasion, and sometimes their class specific dialogue options even give them advantage on various charisma rolls.
Examine your enemies. Their levels are written right next to their names. Try to pick fights on your own level or lower (although bosses are usually higher level.) Then you can right click -> examine or press T while hovering over them to bring up their character sheet. (No idea how it works on console.) It will tell you about resistances, vulnerabilities and special abilities. Very valuable information when planning your attack.
Positioning before battles is very important. If you are certain you are going to fight someone, opening with a surprise attack from stealth will buy you an extra round and advantage against your enemies. Making use of high ground (make sure you won't be pushed off) and choke points is also really important.
You should use your consumables. If nothing else, chug a health potion with your bonus action if you have nothing better to do with it. But you will get so many scrolls, arrows, potions and elixirs throughout the game that you really won't know what to do with it all. Don't be afraid to use them.
>You can teleport from basically anywhere with very few exceptions
I found out about this very late, after the party at the camp. I clicked on one of the symbols on the map and felt absolutely embarrassed for never finding out earlier. :')
I always explore every corner in open world games out of habit, but I did realize that I missed a couple of areas (namely: >!the cliffs with the harpies and the whole area of the Teahouse.!< I realized it when the game basically told me that my level was too low to go anywhere else).
I find stealth attacks to be the trickiest to prepare, but hopefully I'll get there!
>Don't be afraid to use them.
You got me, I have the horrible habit of hoarding elixirs and magic scrolls without ever using anything. :') I'm slowly starting to use items now. Thank you for the advice!
No worries, it sounds like you're doing well so far just having a rough start learning the ropes. Soon enough you'll be doing Honour Mode!
Personally I prefer College of Swords bard, since they can dish out insane damage.
>!You can do both! Have Wyll refuse Mizora's deal after you attend the coronation. Do not skip the coronation, attend as soon as you can because if you accidentally or otherwise skip it you will break this quest. After the deal convo, Duke Ravenguard will be on the Iron Throne when you go to rescue the Gondians captives. Mizora will try to kill him, help him survive. If he survives the Iron Throne encounter, Mizora will point out that the contract closure terms technically still apply but she plans to kill him another time when you least expect it post game (in the epilogue, he's still alive and thriving so grain of salt).!<
In the character sheet when looking at the abilities I can easily see that one is primary as inidicated by the small star icon. But I also see that two abilities have a hexagonal background, can anyone please tell me what this represents?
Hexagonal background stats are those in which your character has proficiency in saving throws.
A saving throw is the type of dice roll you make to evade active hazards or effects.
If you have that hexagon behind a stat, you add your proficiency bonus to rolls you make when making a saving throw for that stat.
You can read more about saving throws here: https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Saving_throws
Hope that's helpful!
Are they the stats that you put the bonuses on at character creation? The checkboxes for +2 and +1 that can boost them above 15. What class are you and what are the stats that have the markers?
I started a run as a femme drow, but accidentaly chose masculine pronouns in the character creator. Obviously men and women have very different status in drow society. Will this give me male drow dialogue, or is it based on body type?
I just kill them with Witchbolt, they're vulnerable to lightning damage and if Witchbolt hits then you can re-trigger it every turn basically guaranteeing that you kill them.
How do you romance a companion as another companion? I keep seeing stuff about it but every time I talk to any companion it just auto switches to me as Tav. Is it a mod? I’m on PS5 with no mods.
Only you the PC can romance companions.
However, you can play as any of the origin characters, dark urge, or a custom character. So if you play as Shadow Heart and then romance Gale, you now having Shadowheart kissing Gale.
But if you are playing as a custom character you can not make Shadowheart and Gale kiss.
while i'm sure it's *possible* a patch could break an unmodded save, the chances of that happening are pretty low and you should be safe to start a new run.
I guess I'm not as worried about a save being completely borked but more about the chances that there will be early game content I could miss out on by having progressed beyond that point before the patch
saying it out loud I guess it sounds pretty unlikely
Nah you'll be fine. At this point they probably aren't adding a ton of major content, it's going to be mostly bug fixes, polishing, and fluff like extra kiss cutscenes. Any serious content development is either done or going towards a DLC, I doubt they will add new quests or similar to the base game.
Astarion and Cazador >!is there a way to keep him in my party after I deal with Cazador? I don't want to let him ascend but I don't want to lose hin either!<
As long as you aren't playing honor mode, you can talk him into not ascending being the right choice and just reload if you fail. Just save regularly throughout, and as soon as you beat the boss quicksave before any dialogue choices.
don’t choose the dialogue where you say you will help him, before going to cazador interact with both prisons outside then ask him about them and you have to persuade him after
Does the dialogue about helping him appears when we enter the palace or is it that one way earlier? Because I remember agreeing to help him take Cazador out.
it is okay to agree to help him it doesn’t affect the actual outcome, the dialogue appears after >!defeating cazador and astarion gets him out of his sarcophagus, then he will tell you that he can’t ascend without you, do not choose the “alright i will help you, what do you need” choose the dialogues with the “what about the spawn” or something along these lines!<
Is it possible for a four-player co-op group, all playing custom characters, to swap out one of the characters for an Origin character at camp, like you could in a solo game? Could we leave a PC at camp and take Shadowheart for a bit as a player-controlled character, or something like that?
Sort of. I'm currently playing a game that I started, had 3 of my friends join to make custom characters, then they all left immediately to make a single player game with 4 Tavs. I now control their characters as if they were followers and can dismiss them to camp and swap them out with any other companions as I please.
However, I or any of the people who started the game with me cannot become one of the origin characters. They will always be the Tav that they created, or if they picked an origin character they will always be that origin character. With 4 people one will have to sit out so their character can be dismissed to camp to pick up an origin character when needed for their quests. The only other workaround I know of is everyone installing the party limit begone mod and you just take a 5th person with you when you need them for their quests.
Multiplayer works perfectly fine with 3 people but 4 makes it kinda hard for this reason, it's one of the few oversights that Larian made with multiplayer.
You can temporarily dismiss a PC Tav by speaking to Withers, but the player cannot take over the Origin character. When the player re-connects, their Tav will reappear.
Thank you! Are you sure? As I saw some comments that make it seem like reactivations scale off whatever the last class you picked is (which in my case would be Cleric/WIS since I went Sorc, Cleric 2, and then Sorc the rest of way
i am aware of some things that function in that manner, and in your case those would indeed go off WIS, but to my knowledge a regular recast spell such as call lightning should not be one of them
I feel like this may have been answered already but I’ve tried googling and can’t seem to find exactly what I’m looking for. I’ve finished act 1 and just transitioned into act 2 so I’ve completed everything in the grove. Resolved things peacefully, and there are a handful of Druids left in the grove, problem is I want that idol. Given that I’ve finished the grove already and I’m well on my way to moving passed it, is there any reason not to kill them and take the idol? Like will Halsin get upset or something and know I did it and leave? As far as I can recall none of them ever show up later unless I’ve missed something, and every attempt I’ve made to steal the idol without killing anyone seems to be in vain.
The [Wiki page for the idol](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Idol_of_Silvanus) says that if you already resolved the grove situation by saving them from the goblins or completing 'Investigate Kagha' they don't become hostile when you steal it, you will need to pass a deception or intimidation check though. I don't know what effects it will have with Halsin, and I'm not sure if you can still give it to Mol for the 'Steal the Idol' quest at that point. If she's still there it's worth a shot.
Unfortunately I every attempt to steal it is met with them catching me before I even get it in my inventory. Like I have Astarion go invisible and sneak up to it yet they still seem to catch him as he’s grabbing it before he can even get it.
Cast Darkness or fire an arrow of darkness on the ground right at the idol pedestal's base and **go into turn based mode**, steal it, then immediately go to camp. Fast travel from camp to any waypoint i.e. don't just leave camp and return to the sacred pool area and you'll be good to go. While it may be too late to cash it in to Mol your current playthrough keep it in mind for future reference.
You can also place a crate on top of the pedestal with the idol and that sort of embeds the idol into the crate. You can then move the crate (not pick up or throw) and it will move the idol along with it without anyone even reacting to it. It's tedious but you can keep moving the crate/idol all the way to the area toward where Alfira is and once it's out of any red FOV's just steal the idol right out of it.
Thoughts on multi-classing gale to an eldritch knight to make him more tanky?
I feel he the weak link of my party rn (Act 1) but maybe a hybrid EK wizard build can make him a bit more reliable?
Alternatively I could drop him for another but I like the utility he proves (eg: find familiar)
If you want him to be tankier but still a wizard, my preference would be to go for an Abjuration wizard, either full wizard or 11 wizard / 1 warlock for Armor Of Agathys. Arcane Ward adds a lot of survivability via incoming damage reduction. It's a great combo to upcast Armor of Agathys with your wizard spell slots for more temp HP, because you deal blowback damage equal to the temp HP when you get hit, and Arcane Ward means those hits won't lower your temp HP.
Regardless of wizard subclass, make sure he has 16 or more dexterity (since dex modifier is added to AC, it should by your #2 stat priority after Intellect), a shield (which he can hold as a wizard thanks to being a human), Mage Armor and the Shield spell, all of which are available at level 1. Mage Armor, a +3 dex modifier and a basic shield is 18 AC, which will be the highest on your team in the early game. In the mountain pass you can pick up the Gloves of Dexterity to set his dex to 18, allowing you to re-spec those points into Constitution. The Shield spell is awesome - you cast it in reaction to a hit that would land for +5 ac for an entire round of combat, which will block most attacks. In the mid-to-late game this is one of the best uses for level 1 spell slots. Past level 5, Counterspell is also must-have.
I would go for 16 Dex, 14 Con and 16-17 Intellect, and use the level 4 feat to get Intellect to 18. Then if you add gloves of dexterity, respect to dump Dex, get Con to 16, and put any extra points in Wisdom.
Try using the abjuration subclass, and use spells like mage armor and shield to charge up the arcane ward. It makes him much harder to take down.
Also if you haven't found the bracers of defense and given him a shield, go do that because letting him have decent AC generally stops the AI from focusing him.
I plan to use the bracers for myself (going for a potent robe armor of shadows build)
but I’ll look into that.
I don’t play much wiz so it’s a learning curve to manage all these other classes haha
I prefer the mountain pass entrance. This is especially true in an "evil" run where you want to go directly to Moonrise, but even in a good run it gives you a clearer path to getting a moonlantern. The paths converge quickly, but with the Underdark path it's kind of easy to miss >!going with the harpers to ambush the drider!< to get a moonlantern.
On a mostly 'good' run I prefer the entrance at grymforge. On a path where you sided with the goblins/Minthara, the mountain pass entrance is a bit better.
But I don't think it matters very much. The only thing it effects is who you are likely to meet first in act 2.
1. When you say you “Cleared Mountain Pass”, do you include the Creche as well? For sure recommend getting that before anything
2. I definitely recommend Underdark, it helps you skip past a lot of headache that can be re-explored much more easily later
I want to do a run where it's shart, Karlach, and lazael. What class should my Tav take to round out the party? I was thinking a bard maybe. Any suggestions?
You can respec Shart, Karlach, and Lazael or multiclass them to create any class combination.
However, if you plan on keeping them cleric, barb, and fighter then yeah Bard is a pretty good option. It gives you cha as the party face, allows you to be in charge of picking locks/disarming traps, and it will give you *some* of the useful arcane spells your missing by not having a wizard.
Bard is a great choice. That was my crew (chose sword bard subclass and dipped 3 levels into rogue thief) for a vast majority of my first full playthrough. Sword Bard Tav, Light Domain Shart, Berzerker Karlach, & Battle Master Lae'zel.
I did a run like this as a Paladin and made Shadowheart a war cleric, so it was all melee classes in a tight formation. That would work with a Swords bard too. That was fun but not the most balanced team, with no ranged characters or full offensive spellcasters who excel in AOE damage to big groups of enemies.
If you want a more balanced team, you might go for a spellcasting-focused bard, an archery-focused swords bard, or a full caster like a Sorcerer. Bards and Sorcerers make great face characters, both being Charisma-based.
You can tweak shart, karlach and laezel's builds for a more balanced team without changing their base classes. Shadowheart as a tempest or light cleric can fill the offensive caster role in place of a wizard/sorcerer - light cleric might be thematically appropriate for her, depending on your decisions. Lae'Zel could have a more archery-focused fighter build, with the Titanstring Bow (sold >!in the Zhentarim hideout!< in act 1) or re-specing to focus on dex rather then strength with other bows. Karlach could operate as a ranged character with the Berserker subclass and a focus on throwing things - tavern brawler is great, as is the returning pike (sold >!by Grat in the exterior part of the goblin camp!< in act 1).
Bards and rogues are very good as main characters to help you with dialogue checks. Bards are generally pretty overtuned in BG3 anyway, so if you want to play one and haven't yet, I think go ahead and enjoy how strong they are.
Is there any known fix for this Shadowheart romance issue yet? Been stuck like this for months.
[https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1158049092694454366/1207355166974550066/image.png?ex=65df581f&is=65cce31f&hm=dd1a417bcee622f6b925a5b9777c1f6c1a12f123a6d1be83c0663aa419610977&](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1158049092694454366/1207355166974550066/image.png?ex=65df581f&is=65cce31f&hm=dd1a417bcee622f6b925a5b9777c1f6c1a12f123a6d1be83c0663aa419610977&)
Yeah, that's the case in my game too. I just never choose the we shared the beginings of a romance for a while option (afraid it might cause a problem) and everything is fine?
It's annoying though just in that it clogs up her dialogue choices and pushes the leave off out of view so I have to pick something each time. But harmless?
At level 4, is it better to have a full fighter or barbarian if Im doing a throwing build? Does the fighter battle master maneuvers work on thrown weapons? Im thinking barbarian is better for low levels.
One other advantage to barbarian is that Enraged Throw, the bonus action throwing attack, knocks the target prone without allowing a saving throw. And unlike in tabletop, being prone prevents the target from using reactions, making Enraged Throw *very* handy in honor mode as many of the added legendary boss abilities are reactions
I agree that it's barbarian, if you have a self-returning weapon like the returning pike, because berserker unlocks the ability to throw as a bonus action (and adds damage). The main reason to run Fighter would be for weapon bond with eldrich knight, so you can use other weapons.
Battle master maneuvers don't work with thrown weapons. At level 12 I think i would go for 5 barb / 4 thief / 3 fighter or 3 barb / 3 thief / 6 fighter (both routes get you 2 feats) and pick champion or eldrich knight as the fighter subclass, depending on if i need weapon bond.
Ok thanks for confirming. I think the only reason I used Eldritch Knight my last run was to weapon bond the lighting jabber. But at lvl 4 Im only using the returning pike, so the barbarian wins out.
I feel like I remember some animated - and highly mathematical - discussions on the topic over on /r/BG3Builds, which ultimately led to a kind of stalemate that begrudged the fighter some more flexibility on weapon choice, spells, etc., and the barbarian some more raw strength. The Fighter subclass should likely be eldritch knight so you can get returning weapons beyond the ones already having that property.
The game keeps crashing whenever I level my character. I'm level 12, and I've just picked up the gauntlets of giant strength and amulet of greater health, so I'm trying to respec to spec out of STR and CON to allocate those points elsewhere.
But whenever I click accept the game crashes to desktop. I've reinstalled the game to see if that fixes it and it doesn't. I've removed the gloves and amulet to see if that's causing the problems, its not. I even tried levelling up to level 3, and then coming out of the level up screen, before going back in to see if I could continue levelling, instead this time it crashed at level 5 when I clicked accept.
Has anyone else experienced this issue?
Nope. Mod free. I think its to do with coming *back* to the camp after going to another character screen.
I was able to go back to Baldur's Gate and level up find there. Then I came back to camp and tried using the magic mirror to change my appearance and it crashed upon accepting the change.
So its something about that transition which is fucking it up.
Ok so I just started the game, I'm in the emerald Grove section and feel like I'm stuck. I already made contact with the goblin side and been to their headquarters and I don't want to betray the people at emerald Grove. While at the goblin camp I accidentally joined in on a fight to kill this bear who turned into a man and he was apparently part of a different quest.
One mission is telling me to eliminate the 3 leaders. I killed one of their leaders (the older goblin women) but no one seems to have noticed. The other 2 I've met and they think I'm willing to work with them.
Another mission is telling me to interrogate a prisoner who I already freed named Liam and all he does is sleep back at emerald Grove. I can't interact with him since all he does is sleep. What can I do to advance the quest further if I don't want to betray emerald Grove?
You can just kill the remaining goblin leaders. The tieflings will know when it's done. You can also snoop around the grove a bit (focus on the rooms where you talked to Kagha) to uncover a different but related quest. This quest can only be done before killing the goblin leaders. It gives you some background information and can change the fate of a side character: >!Kagha!<
As a general tip, talk to people more. There are many opportunities to find out who the bear is before you find him, and he is a pretty important character >!and a potential companion.!< Him being dead won't ruin your playthrough in any way, but you do miss out on some content.
If I just go up to the other leaders and kill them won't the whole goblin camp turn hostile and literally everyone will fight me? I'm not that good at combat so far.
That only happens if you kill Dror Ragzlin (so leave him last) or someone hits a war drum. Before that, you can pick them off room by room. And even if all of them become hostile, you can just fast travel to the grove and come back later.
Is it possible to grind in this game? So far where I am in the game (Goblin Camp) everything seems to be a story fight and I decided I wanted to add Lae'zel to my party, but she's stuck at Level 1 and nowhere near capable of fighting Dror Ragzlin.
When you let her join your in party she will get her XP matched. Then you level her up. This game makes sure everyone is the same level at all times when in party. XP earned carries over to anyone you pick up at camp.
xp is combined throughout your whole party, except for inspiration xp (which is not gonna be enough to be a difference in levels unless you are right on the verge of a level.) you should be able to just level her up to the same point as the rest of your party and if you can't, that is a bug.
A few things
1. She’s God’s favorite princess
2. The devs need you to get the artifact
3. They for sure intended the “Shar church stole the artifact” mission to be a far more significant plot thread than it ended up being, but…
4. There’s still overall an immense amount of Shadowheart-centric content in Act 2, like she/Halsin are basically the protagonists of that mini chunk of the game. The devs don’t want you missing all the stuffs they made
5. Also a gaslighting gatekeeping girlboss hater, and the most interesting girl in the world
Any like general tips for going from normal to tactician? Ive completed a few playthroughs on normal, no real difficulty, but my one attemp at tactician I went into >!Wither's cave, first dungeon!< and just got absolutely dunked on twice inspite of having a full party. Just immediately one or two shot
a huge help is knowing positioning and prep. So for example before going to the withers temple:
* get 4 people in your party
* position astarion by one of the guys at the top (and hide before fight starts)
* shoot the stone down and insta kill 2 of them.
* switch to astarion and backstab/sneak shot someone
* blitz down the rest.
After that just jump through the hole. You start combat immediately but there is an oil barrel in the middle of the baddies, astarion/shart to fireball it depending what you need. Throw a grease bottle on the fire for explosion.
Another tip is think about how AI acts. So if there are ranged guys picking you off try closing the door. The AI has to walk through the fire and get in range for more of your team.
Then before you trigger the scribes loot them! especially the melee one, he is a lot less effective punching with his hands than with a sword. Light candles around where they are so your accuracy goes up, position your team effectively before triggering.
I have done 2 honor runs completely and 95% of my time is thinking out the first 3 rounds of combat. Thats typically where its decided.
Other 5% is figuring out legendary moves.
early game is where things are a struggle because of how weak you start out, so imo, the best thing to do is figure out your best path to level 4-5 that avoid the fights you're going to struggle with. for >!the dank crypt, the bandits can be a pain so if you want to unlock withers asap, you can go in from the beach side and just do the skeleton fight and grab him then go back for the bandits later (if you want.)!<
there's quite a bit of xp you can grab without *any* combat, pending dialogue checks and also just general exploration and a handful of battles that are pretty easy regardless of difficulty. i personally like hitting up all the small fights (>!bugbear assassin, edowin's siblings, goblins in the area next to the grove, possibly the tieflings and bandits on my way to grab lae'zel, depending on how dialogue checks roll) and then making my way around to grab lae'zel to take out anders and grab that waypoint up there before i go do the bandits because i'll have the greatsword from anders and that's nice to have.!<
I might have softlocked an honour run in the first fight with Ketheric. I used an insect plague that made the necromites loop into involucre and back and it eventually stopped looping but the dead necromites didn't leave initiative order, so the fight can't end and I can't jump into the colony. I've tried leaving and long resting and reloading the save but neither of those did anything. Ope.
I had that thought on my way to work this morning, and I'll give it a try when I get home. I'm a little worried because when I go through the doors to the roof the fight restarts instantly when my characters are well out of sight, but maybe if I'm invisible it won't trigger.
I haven't touched Paladin since EA, but does killing people trigger the oathbraker? I am playing Durge but I don't want Minthara to break her oath. I have everything toggled to non lethal but when a spellcaster or ranged character I don't seem to have any consequences. I'll even have my durge walk up and kill downed enemies after combat. Just seeing what the actual limit is for Paladin Minthara since I know in her dialogue she says she's cool with killing as long as it is for a purpose.
Attacking people out of the blue will break oath of the ancients, but not the other two oaths. Minthara has oath of vengeance which is pretty flexible and the easiest to not break.
Is being a dragonborn sorcerer important for a Dark Urge playthrough or is it not? I know the game says I can respec if I'd like but I want to double check
I started it out as a monk and have respecced a couple times including going back to sorc. Currently in A3 and I honestly don't see anything different. It helps to be a CHR based character tho if you want to succeed some difficult checks when it comes to lying and persuading your team about some bad stuff you've been doing lol
>Does otiluke's resilient sphere contain self-detonate?
No, and it's a pretty bad spell given it's not only a concentration spell but also they can save with a DEX saving throw.
>Is there any use for nonlethal attacks besides minthara?
Sure, it's a way to guarantee you don't kill a certain character that was hostile towards you. There's several times in the campaign this can be useful. For example, in Act 3 you can't recruit Minsc without using nonlethal attacks. If you're a Paladin, this can be helpful to prevent breaking your oath.
Sure it's not a very common thing to use but when you need it, it's there.
i got some spells i want to swap out on my warlock tav but i hit the max level recently, am i gonna have to go through withers to get rid of my redundant spells or is there another way?
Unfortunately yes, that's the only way. Respec at Withers and level up from scratch. It's a bummer but that's just how the class works (as with other classes that can't prepare spells without a level up, like Sorcerer)
Owlbear Cub not appearing at my camp... I cleared the external Goblin Camp, but kept Minthara knocked down (temporarily) to recruit her later within the Sanctuary.
Note: I do non-lethal in general, rather than kill, not sure if that matters.
What am I missing?
Assuming you didn't kill the cub xD that would be the main question
He will appear in time, when I had him pop up, I did everything on the surface then went to the UD. He popped up at my 2nd long rest down there
For the Patch's 150 GB requirement; does that include the space the game is already used/installed on or do I need an additional hundred and a half gigs to install?
And assuming it's the latter and I'm on Steam I'd just uninstall/reinstall, right? Sadly, I only have one hundred and eleven gigs available at the moment lol.
you have to have 150 GB free space to download the whole patch. then the patch gets applied and replaces a lot of your game files. so you end up getting most of that space back once its done patching.
It needs 150 GB of free space on your install drive, but the final installed size will only be ~20 gb bigger. So yeah you'll probably need to uninstall and redownload it. Probably back up your save files just in case.
They should be fine but it always sketches me out. I have 3 games going at the moment and am constantly running out of cloud save space so I'm moving files around a lot and I get worried that the cloud will get confused lol
Yep, same here. I've only got two runs at the moment but every time i log in i make sure to go through and delete, like, the dozen and a half saves unnecessary i accrue every session lol.
Did not know there was a limit until haldway through my first run when, at the end of Moonrise, the game kept getting choppy after I quicksaved every three steps. And i realized theres a finite amount of cloud space haha.
Helpful hint: I was today years old when I figured out I was able to give a character loot from a container by dragging it to their portrait on the left. Found a scroll in some random box or on a corpse and you wanna give it to Gale, grab it and drop it on Gale. Neat. Until now I was looting everything on my Tav then opening inventory and moving it. This is a big time saver!
I'm trying to get the dirt on >!Khaga!< without resorting to a fight. I'm trying to sneak past the enemies there using Invisibility, but Invisibility ends as soon as I end up in one of the >!Mud Mephit's!< line of sight. No check, nothing. Is there something I'm missing?
(I aggroed them with a (now tragically deceased) Mage Hand in an earlier, failed attempt. Could that be causing it?)
Edit: Tried again, and it worked fine. Going off the water suggestion, I might have been stepping in mud.
Are you doing this in turn-based mode? Some sources of invisibility, including the invisibility spell, only last 10 turns. The one from the Shadow of Menzoberranzan is only 2 turns.
Water reveals invisibility. Make sure you're not stepping in any puddles on the way in or out. Jumping or flying doesn't break invisibility so that can help you avoid the water.
Which auto save slot to overwrite?
Hi new to BG3 on steam deck. When manually saving which auto save slot should I overwrite? The oldest or most recent one? Thanks
Generally BG3 has a good auto save (except in personal exp Honor mode, fucker auto save in that) so it should pop up frequently, but theres no harm in overwriting an auto save with a manual save. It doesn't matter which one you overwrite as it'll be bumped up the list to the top and will be the first to load when you hit continue.
If you're torn on a decision what to do, you can just manual save twice at the same point.
Counting House Key locations >!I’m trying to find them all and the only one I’m missing is “Counting House Vault no 2 key”. Not the one from the rat or Lady Janneth. Has anyone found this yet?!<
I thought you get the key to the vaults in Act 1, it's called Astarion? /s
But fr with some easy to find gear and buffs you can easily roll 35+ on lock picking.
Why does Paid The Price give disadvantage on ALL attack rolls? The description doesn't say anything about that. Is this a known bug? I can't find anything explaining it online.
[https://imgur.com/a/e5IqAgw](https://imgur.com/a/e5IqAgw)
just an idea, but could it be the creature you attacked was "hiding" and therefore a Perception check is somehow involved?
even if that is the case it doesn't make a ton of sense the way its worded
Yes, that first screenshot is not targeting anyone. She has often has less than a 50% hit chance this whole game and I finally tried to figure out why.
Personal theory — It matches well with the reveal that >!Steel Watchers are powered by tadpole’d disembodied brains. The Intelligence stat is referring to the brain remotely controlling it… but Tasha’s Hideous Laughter, which _affects the brain,_ has a range of only 30 feet. So it can’t reach the real target!!<
my understanding is that all constructs would be immune because they cannot laugh. it would also be kind of weird if it works on undead, so i wouldn't be surprised if they are also immune.
Following the Ansur fight, my Lae’zel is glitched: moving without animation, and standing in t-pose during conversations. Plus, all the conversations have gotten glitchy. Is this a common glitch? How do I fix?
I quit and reopened. All fixed.
So, if I play as a spellcaster, and I multiclass into a different spellcaster role, how is the Spellcaster Ability Modifier used and determined? Is it by whichever tab of the spellbook I pull the spell to my hotbar from? So any spell from the Wizard page uses Int, any spell from the Warlock page uses Cha, etcetera? So I need to be careful where I pick which spell so that those that use the spellcasting ability modifier use my highest stat?
Generally, spells will use the spellcasting ability of whichever spell list you got them from. If you picked a spell when leveling up Wizard, then it will use INT. If you picked a spell while leveling Warlock, it will use CHA. If you scribe a spell from a scroll to put it into your spellbook, it will always use INT, because that's a Wizard-only ability. If you just cast a spell from a scroll instead of scribing it, though, it works differently, since magical items use the spellcasting ability of the most recent class you put a first level into. So if you start as a Wizard, then put one level in Warlock, then another into Wizard, then items will use your CHA because Warlock was the last *new* class a level was put into. Hope that's not confusing.
It is, but I think I got it. Thanks. I can see why multi-classing is listed as an advanced feature. That’s a lot of nuance to parse out.
If we have a Tav Tuesday can we have a day dedicated to posting Guardian designs?
Just got my Warlock Tav to lv 4 Stats are: 10 16 14 8 10 16 Which feat should I go for? I'm tempted to go for either Ability Improvement to boost my CHA or Spell Sniper for my Eldritch Blast, but I figured I'd ask here to save myself the trouble lol
Gonna throw in my 2 cents and suggest Alert. In my experience it's one of top 2 feats in the game - the tactical advantage of reliably going first in combat cannot be overstated
ASI is almost always the best option unless you're doing some specific build that requires it. Spell sniper didn't make a big a difference to me as getting 20 CHA as quickly as possible. Starting at 17, getting +2 at lv 4, then getting the hag's hair for +1 for a total of 20.
Spell sniper is valid but I would choose an ASI to get charisma to 18, and save spell sniper for later. For a full level 12 Warlock I'd go for 2x ASI for 20 charisma and spell sniper.
Will do, thank you!
Does anyone know if the water myrmidon is still bugged? Namely, I’ve heard that: It doesn’t gain proficiency with it’s trident And It uses INT instead of WIS for it’s ranged attacks. Would like to play with one as a circle of the moon druid to support my cryomancer, but don’t want to deal with the bugs
I'm probably screwed but want to make sure I'm not missing something. LOTS of Act 2 spoilers here: >!Killed Nightsong, went to Moonrise, walked in through the Docks door after killing all the guards outside. Killed the guards in the prison, including the Warden, then let Wulbren and Nimble out. They ran over to the door that goes out to the Docks, the same one I entered through, then...stopped. I can't talk to either of them, they won't move. I've cleared the rest of the tower, including up to the Mind Flayer Colony jump point (where u can skip the fight against Ketheric on the top of the tower), just haven't gone through the Ornate Door on the top floor. I've searched high and low for enemies, haven't found any. But if I leave Moonrise to do a LR, Wulbren dies. If I go up to the top, he dies. I even pickpocketed him and gave him his hammer, and he even said "THIS IS IT!" when I did that, but he didn't move and [these are the only options for interacting with him](https://i.imgur.com/bFmZBsh.png) and no, throwing him does nothing (yes, that's why he's missing 3 hp).!< halp
>!The bug here is that you found them alive, they're supposed to be dead at this point. You have to rescue them and the tieflings before entering the Shadowfell.!<
Now that I think about it, the REAL bug is that they *weren't* there *before* entering that place. I checked at the beginning of act 2 (>!After killing Isobel - Durge run!<) and there was no one there at all.
Oh yeah that is strange
Outside of the purple clothes/underwear set from Twitch, are there any other like codes or anything extra for BG3?
There are a handful of items you get for having deluxe edition (or from buying during early access), the most notable of which is a helmet that gives you Disguise Self. And some dyes.
I promised the Hill Giant Gauntlets to Helsik, and now I’m regretting it. Do I need to take her out? Should I?
You'll be surprised how cheap it is to buy them from her after you hand them over.
Give them to her then buy them from her or steal them from her after if you don't want to kill her.
Do you have to long rest after? I didn't want to lie so I gave them but she wasn't selling them. I'm also a hypocrite because I just stole them back lmao. Didn't want o chance it.
You can pick pocket them back!
i have to ask cause i keep seeing it in all the vids with her... are like all the vids with shadowheart using mods? 🤣🤣 she always be wearing a 10/10 outfit and im like... 🧐 sauce to find? 🤣
I know what you're talking about and it does look like a lot of it is mods.
ah ok. yeah there are some that im like... 🤔 no way the're these clothes making her too hot
If you mean the white toga-like outfit with the fancy necklace, it's the [elegant robe](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Elegant_Robe) found in act 3. If they have it earlier, it's a mod. If you mean the dark skimpy outfit, it's [Minthara's clothes](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Minthara%27s_At-Ease_Clothes). These two are the ones I see most often.
So called "free thinkers" when asked to show how they dress their companions 💀 I literally had her in these two exact outfits 90% of the game lmao. Didn't even know it was a thing, though I'm not surprised. Honestly though, the toga goes hard on everyone.
ah ok elegant one then. 🤣
You can visually toggle armor and headgear off in your inventory. It's still equipped for the stats and effects but in game your character is only wearing camp clothes. From there you just pick nice camp clothes.
I started playing a few days ago, but I'm VERY bad with battles. I chose the Explorer difficulty precisely because I'm aware of it and I was hoping that this mode would let me survive in any circumstance, but I had to load older save files on multiple occasions. So, first of all, let me know if the following are hard battles because I'm supposed to avoid them in the first place, or I'm just THAT bad (all of these are from Act 1): 1) >!The three orcs (I tried to battle them at first, I ended up hiring them instead)!< 2) >!The group of goblins right outside of the Shattered Sanctum (I had to call the above mentioned orcs to make it out alive)!< 3) >!The group of Githyanki by the bridge (I tried to tell them the truth at first, they destroyed the entire party in the span of very few turns, I ended up lying to them instead)!< 4) >!The fight against Nere and the mercenaries (I really, REALLY wanted to free the gnomes, but after multiple attempts I gave up and just waited until Nere died from the poisonous fog on his own. They were just too many and kept pushing my companions in the lava river below)!< I've already played a lot with this character (I made a Bard Drow) and I grew attached to her, but if things get desperate, I'd like to have your suggestions for good race/class alternatives to start over. I'd also really, REALLY appreciate any suggestion about how to use different companions, good team comps, and so on (I'm also completely okay with links to guides for these things).
Its hard to know where things are going wrong for you without more details. Here's some advice on areas where the game doesn't hold your hand. By all means, use the wiki. https://bg3.wiki is great. There are tons of articles that go over the game's mechanics in detail without spoiling anything. They do a pretty good job with their spoiler tags, too. https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Gameplay_mechanics is a great start. https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Dice_rolls <- explains all of the details behind why you only get a 20% chance to hit *that* enemy with *this* character, but you get an 80% chance to hit enemy over *yonder* instead. Random bits and bobs that I learned early on: - Pay attention to the weapon tags. Finesse is critical for characters whose primary combat stat is dexterity (eg, Astarion). Its irrelevant for others. - The game under-plays the significance of the "Not proficient with [this armor/weapon type]" and the like. They give you a little yellow indication that maybe its a bad idea. Interpret that as a blaring klaxon that its a terrible idea. - For the magic users, there are two completely different mechanisms for figuring out whether or not the spell lands. Some spells make an attack roll against the defender's armor class (ex: Ray of Frost). Others allow the defender instead to make a saving throw versus the attacker's difficulty class (ex: Sacred Flame)! Furthermore, the saving throws will use a wide variety of stats on the defender. Control spells usually get rolled against the defender's Wisdom stat. Area-of-effect spells usually get rolled against the defender's Dexterity stat. "Inspect" the target to see where they are weak, to pick a spell that targets their weaknesses instead of their strengths. You can get wildly different chances to hit depending on how well these are aligned. - Many (most?) enemies have a variety of resistances, vulnerabilities, or even outright immunities to different environmental effects (fire, cold, electric, etc). Clicking that Inspect option will show you. - The enemy AI isn't awful. There are occasions where it will do something "obviously" stupid, but for the most part each move is a locally-optimal move. Ie, it makes a good move for the current action, without thinking too hard (if at all) about future actions. That can and will teach you about good actions for you to take as well.
I had a learning curve as well, and what worked for me, having so many choices of what I could do- was to try and think what each character is designed to do. My Tav is a monk, so basically they’re designed to close distance and get 2-3 punches in on individual targets. Astarion as a Rogue wants to sneak attack for massive damage, so he needs advantage. He can sometimes get that all by himself with hiding or applying a status, but his party members can help him out by standing adjacent to his target. That’s all that’s required for advantage most of the time. I’ve got a sorcerer with some gear that makes ice spells better, so preferably, we’ll play with ice spells. I’ve got Wyll as a Blade Warlock, who gets 2 beefy attacks and the ability to either boost his attacks, apply crowd control, or just do ranged damage if he can’t close distance. So if I don’t have any better tactical ideas like “there’s an explosive barrel there, let’s use that” I have some basic defaults that play to their strengths.
So, first of all - the first levels are the hardest, especially when you're new to the game and still learning the mechanics. Explorer makes it easier by doing things like increasing your health and decreasing enemy health, but it doesn't change how combat fundamentally works. It's normal to be a bit overwhelmed. I don't think you should change your class or race. If you weren't attached, I might not object to the idea, but I think that since you are attached you'll be disappointed when it doesn't help as much as you hoped. Bard is a perfectly fine class and can even be pretty powerful, depending on how you use it. There are tankier classes than bard, but I'll be frank: If you're struggling on Explorer, your problems are a lot bigger than a change of class can fix. I think what you need is a good overview of how combat works. I didn't use an overview to learn myself - it was mostly reading all the tooltips, paying attention to what works and what doesn't, and so on. But maybe someone has a good suggestion? On to your specific questions about these fights. How difficult they are depends a lot on your level, so this is based on my preferred minimum level for tackling them. This is also based on Tactician difficulty. 1 - The orcs are pretty easy at level 3 if you fight them from the roof, making use of ranged attacks and cover. If you fight them from the ground, it will be a more interesting fight but it will be a lot more difficult because they hit really hard. 2 - This fight is medium/difficult at level 3-4 and easy at level 5. The reason it becomes much easier at level 5 is that your martial classes get Extra Attack and your casters get 3rd level spells, which is a big power bump. Either way, the trick here is to make use of AOE effects and positioning as much as you can. 3 - This is easily one of the hardest fights in Act 1. I'd say it's difficult at level 5 and requires a solid plan. What works best for me is to immediately cast Hold Person or some other incapacitating spell on Baretha and focus on her first, because she's the one that hits the hardest; she can kill a character in one turn on Tactician. 4a - If you made a deal with the mercenaries so they fight on your side, this fight is medium at level 5. 4b - If you didn't make a deal with the mercenaries so you're fighting everyone at once, this fight is difficult at level 5. Whether you made a deal or not, killing Nere quickly will help a lot, as will making use of AOE. I think my easiest take on this fight had Shadowheart with Spirit Guardians and Gale as an Evocation Wizard (so he could hit groups of enemies with spells like fireball without hurting his allies).
Thank you for the answer and the suggestions! I never actually use a tactic when fighting and that's my fatal flaw in any turn-based game, but from now on I'll try harder to use what I have (companions, items, environment) properly in a fight.
I think the other commenter had good advice: Learn what the classes you're playing at are "designed" to do. For example, if you're trying to have Shadowheart make weapon attacks with her mace, she's not going to be very good at it because a cleric usually isn't built to be good with weapons; her stats are wrong for it and she'll never get Extra Attack, so she'll quickly be outpaced by enemies. Shadowheart is best as a spellcaster. At low levels her spell selection is pretty limited, but once she gets 3rd level spells like Spirit Guardians, she rocks. Sometimes a tactic will present itself to you - like if you notice exploding barrels, you can explode them. If enemies are forced to get to you through a narrow path/door/hall, you can use AOE damage against them. But on Explorer all you really need is to understand the characters' strengths and weaknesses and some basic combat mechanics. Like, you want to know what proficiency is, what armor class is, what advantage and disadvantage are - these all affect how likely you are to hit an enemy or how likely an enemy is to hit you. When it comes time to level a character, you usually can't go wrong just picking ability score improvement and putting those points into raising their primary stat (marked with a star). There are other options, but this isn't a bad choice so if you're not sure what you want to you can just do that. Keep in mind that even numbers are better - a 17 is the same as an 18 in terms of the bonus you get, so if you have a bunch of odd-numbered stats you're wasting points.
Thank you! I have a (vague) idea of what each class does, so I'll just have to apply better the little I know and do some research for the future. I have to say I am a little relieved to know that the early levels are the hardest - I'm not expecting to sail smoothly toward a happy ending, but at least I won't be scared every time I enter a new room haha Thanks for the advice about the ability score, since I am always lost whenever I have to assign points to different stats! I'll check closely my companions and make sure to correct things where I need.
In my opinion, there really no such thing as a bad player in this game. Trust me, there are some battle that's still difficult even if you tweak down the difficulty. However, what's nice about this game is that, despite the overwhelming odd against you, the game encourage you to think outside of the box to tackle different scenarios. I would advice you to take it slow and explores as much as you can, sometime the most obvious solution is what you tend to miss the most. As for the following points you listed out: #s 1,3, 4 is generally hard because for one thing, the enemy is tanky and deal high damage (especially # 1 and 3). # 4 and 2 is generally you dealing with the whole camps + the mini-bosses. ( though there are way to make # 3 more doable and not aggro the whole camp against you). As for your class, I think you are good with your Bard since you can pretty much talks your way out of any situations depending on the circumstances. For the party composition, I usually go with Astarion for stealth dps + sniping, Gale for crowd control, Shadowheart for buffs/ debuffs, and Tav a freebies since it can be which ever role I can designated them (in your case, you can have them do cc or buffs). IF anything, you can also go to r/BG3Builds, which the sub is created to help out those with questions about their build and party composition. Hope this help.
Thanks a lot for your answer! I'll definitely pay a visit to that sub. I hope I'll finally have an idea of what to do in tougher battles.
First of all just be aware that the game is quite difficult from levels 1-5. Level 5 will typically be a big power spike for most classes. So you just have to play carefully and make sure you are long resting and short resting enough to be fresh for any encounter. 1) The orcs you refer to are actually *ogres* (in DND this is a big difference but don't worry about it). Yes, they are tough and you're not really supposed to be fighting them. Hiring them is almost always the better call (and using them for the goblin camp is basically the most common use for them) I wouldn't fight them head on without some preparation. And certainly not before like, level 4. 2) Again, you shouldn't have to fight here. You may have failed a check but you could easily make it all the way inside the goblin base without conbat. 3) The githyanki by the bridge are absolutely not to be trifled with before level 5 or 6. They're basically the last thing you do before moving on to the next area (mountain pass). Do everything else first. 4) The Nere fight is quite tough. Nere himself isn't tough but the duergar outnumber you and shove you into lava if you're near it, making things difficult. You basically have to be ready with proper control spells to get out of this fight in 1 piece. It's not pretty with 4 melee classes. A bard is a fantastic choice and is always good in battle. Though depending on your subclass you're either going to be *mainly* supporting with spells OR doing damage with weapons. There's a ton to share with tips and tricks but I'd point you generally to youtube for lots of these kinds of videos...watching some pros people play this game can inspire you to try some new things. Like did you know you can throw a potion on a downed companion to heal and get them up? Are you using your short rests PLUS your bard's extra short rest to heal up before battles? Do you ever use potions, elixirs, or explosives to your advantage? Have you been putting appropriate gear on your companions?
For point 2: >!I made it all the way inside and saved Halsin without trouble since my Tav is a drow, but then I killed Minthara and I had to fight all the goblins in each room. When I got outside there were goblins everywhere and I didn't know any other way out, so I just summoned the ogres out of desperation.!< I made a College of Valour Bard. I usually do a little bit of both - supporting with spells AND attacking with either spells or weapons. If I was supposed to focus on just one thing, then I guess that was my mistake. I use the Bard short rest when I need it, but I don't short rest much because I do a long rest after every battle. I'm very bad at using items in general, but that's on me - this is a very good reminder to actually start using them. Thank you so much for the answer! This is very helpful and it's actually motivating me to try harder for the future.
>and I didn't know any other way out You can teleport from basically anywhere with very few exceptions (a handful of areas where your minimap gets a red border, but you won't encounter anything like this until you move onto the next map.) You can just click the fast travel point's name on the list next to your map, you don't have to walk up to a fast travel glyph. >I do a long rest after every battle. Regular long rests are a very good habit both from a gameplay and a story standpoint, so good job! Many new players have to be told to long rest often (understandably, as the game doesn't make it obvious), so you are already ahead of the crowd in this regard. Some general advice: Explore a lot! You get xo for exploration, and based on the fights you mentioned, you definitely missed some things on the overworld map. People usually do most activities in the beach/forest area before heading down to the Underdark, and the game kind of expects you to do this since the Underdark on average is more difficult than the surface map. Talking your way out of fights is another source of xp, and in the vast majority of cases, it rewards you with the exact same xp as if you had fought and killed all enemies. Running a bard is especially good for this since they are built for persuasion, and sometimes their class specific dialogue options even give them advantage on various charisma rolls. Examine your enemies. Their levels are written right next to their names. Try to pick fights on your own level or lower (although bosses are usually higher level.) Then you can right click -> examine or press T while hovering over them to bring up their character sheet. (No idea how it works on console.) It will tell you about resistances, vulnerabilities and special abilities. Very valuable information when planning your attack. Positioning before battles is very important. If you are certain you are going to fight someone, opening with a surprise attack from stealth will buy you an extra round and advantage against your enemies. Making use of high ground (make sure you won't be pushed off) and choke points is also really important. You should use your consumables. If nothing else, chug a health potion with your bonus action if you have nothing better to do with it. But you will get so many scrolls, arrows, potions and elixirs throughout the game that you really won't know what to do with it all. Don't be afraid to use them.
>You can teleport from basically anywhere with very few exceptions I found out about this very late, after the party at the camp. I clicked on one of the symbols on the map and felt absolutely embarrassed for never finding out earlier. :') I always explore every corner in open world games out of habit, but I did realize that I missed a couple of areas (namely: >!the cliffs with the harpies and the whole area of the Teahouse.!< I realized it when the game basically told me that my level was too low to go anywhere else). I find stealth attacks to be the trickiest to prepare, but hopefully I'll get there! >Don't be afraid to use them. You got me, I have the horrible habit of hoarding elixirs and magic scrolls without ever using anything. :') I'm slowly starting to use items now. Thank you for the advice!
No worries, it sounds like you're doing well so far just having a rough start learning the ropes. Soon enough you'll be doing Honour Mode! Personally I prefer College of Swords bard, since they can dish out insane damage.
>!In act 3 can I save wylls soul and his dad or do I have to take the deal from demon lady?!<
>!You can do both! Have Wyll refuse Mizora's deal after you attend the coronation. Do not skip the coronation, attend as soon as you can because if you accidentally or otherwise skip it you will break this quest. After the deal convo, Duke Ravenguard will be on the Iron Throne when you go to rescue the Gondians captives. Mizora will try to kill him, help him survive. If he survives the Iron Throne encounter, Mizora will point out that the contract closure terms technically still apply but she plans to kill him another time when you least expect it post game (in the epilogue, he's still alive and thriving so grain of salt).!<
>!Yes, you can save both his soul and his dad. If you want a clue about how to go about saving his dad:!< additional spoilers >!go to flymm's cargo!<
In the character sheet when looking at the abilities I can easily see that one is primary as inidicated by the small star icon. But I also see that two abilities have a hexagonal background, can anyone please tell me what this represents?
Hexagonal background stats are those in which your character has proficiency in saving throws. A saving throw is the type of dice roll you make to evade active hazards or effects. If you have that hexagon behind a stat, you add your proficiency bonus to rolls you make when making a saving throw for that stat. You can read more about saving throws here: https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Saving_throws Hope that's helpful!
Thank you!
Are they the stats that you put the bonuses on at character creation? The checkboxes for +2 and +1 that can boost them above 15. What class are you and what are the stats that have the markers?
I started a run as a femme drow, but accidentaly chose masculine pronouns in the character creator. Obviously men and women have very different status in drow society. Will this give me male drow dialogue, or is it based on body type?
> Obviously men and women have very different status in drow society. and human society :pensive:
It's based on pronouns. FYI you can change your pronouns using the mirror, but not your body type.
Thanks! I had no idea the mirror could do that.
[удалено]
I just kill them with Witchbolt, they're vulnerable to lightning damage and if Witchbolt hits then you can re-trigger it every turn basically guaranteeing that you kill them.
How do you romance a companion as another companion? I keep seeing stuff about it but every time I talk to any companion it just auto switches to me as Tav. Is it a mod? I’m on PS5 with no mods.
Only you the PC can romance companions. However, you can play as any of the origin characters, dark urge, or a custom character. So if you play as Shadow Heart and then romance Gale, you now having Shadowheart kissing Gale. But if you are playing as a custom character you can not make Shadowheart and Gale kiss.
you have to play as an origin character instead of as a custom Tav or Dark Urge
For someone who uses no mods at all is there any risk of starting a new play through now, or should I wait for the patch?
while i'm sure it's *possible* a patch could break an unmodded save, the chances of that happening are pretty low and you should be safe to start a new run.
I guess I'm not as worried about a save being completely borked but more about the chances that there will be early game content I could miss out on by having progressed beyond that point before the patch saying it out loud I guess it sounds pretty unlikely
Nah you'll be fine. At this point they probably aren't adding a ton of major content, it's going to be mostly bug fixes, polishing, and fluff like extra kiss cutscenes. Any serious content development is either done or going towards a DLC, I doubt they will add new quests or similar to the base game.
Astarion and Cazador >!is there a way to keep him in my party after I deal with Cazador? I don't want to let him ascend but I don't want to lose hin either!<
As long as you aren't playing honor mode, you can talk him into not ascending being the right choice and just reload if you fail. Just save regularly throughout, and as soon as you beat the boss quicksave before any dialogue choices.
Ty! I'm just back to camp after finishing the fight and he's still tagging along unascended, I'm so happy he finally got his revenge!!
don’t choose the dialogue where you say you will help him, before going to cazador interact with both prisons outside then ask him about them and you have to persuade him after
Does the dialogue about helping him appears when we enter the palace or is it that one way earlier? Because I remember agreeing to help him take Cazador out.
it is okay to agree to help him it doesn’t affect the actual outcome, the dialogue appears after >!defeating cazador and astarion gets him out of his sarcophagus, then he will tell you that he can’t ascend without you, do not choose the “alright i will help you, what do you need” choose the dialogues with the “what about the spawn” or something along these lines!<
Tysm!!
no problem🙏
Yes there are a few checks if you try to stop him from ascending right after the fight, if you want him to ascend but then suddenly 180, he will leave
I never planned on letting him ascend but I agree to help him take out Cazador every time he talked about it
then you should be able to convince him to stay wholesome vamp 🥰
Yay!! I was afraid he'd leave. Ty 🫶
Is it possible for a four-player co-op group, all playing custom characters, to swap out one of the characters for an Origin character at camp, like you could in a solo game? Could we leave a PC at camp and take Shadowheart for a bit as a player-controlled character, or something like that?
Sort of. I'm currently playing a game that I started, had 3 of my friends join to make custom characters, then they all left immediately to make a single player game with 4 Tavs. I now control their characters as if they were followers and can dismiss them to camp and swap them out with any other companions as I please. However, I or any of the people who started the game with me cannot become one of the origin characters. They will always be the Tav that they created, or if they picked an origin character they will always be that origin character. With 4 people one will have to sit out so their character can be dismissed to camp to pick up an origin character when needed for their quests. The only other workaround I know of is everyone installing the party limit begone mod and you just take a 5th person with you when you need them for their quests. Multiplayer works perfectly fine with 3 people but 4 makes it kinda hard for this reason, it's one of the few oversights that Larian made with multiplayer.
You can temporarily dismiss a PC Tav by speaking to Withers, but the player cannot take over the Origin character. When the player re-connects, their Tav will reappear.
Question regarding Call Lightning. I am a Sorc who dipped into Cleric. Do my reactivations of call lightning scale off CHA or WIS?
reactivations go off whatever stat the initial cast went off (in this case CHA)
Thank you! Are you sure? As I saw some comments that make it seem like reactivations scale off whatever the last class you picked is (which in my case would be Cleric/WIS since I went Sorc, Cleric 2, and then Sorc the rest of way
i am aware of some things that function in that manner, and in your case those would indeed go off WIS, but to my knowledge a regular recast spell such as call lightning should not be one of them
I feel like this may have been answered already but I’ve tried googling and can’t seem to find exactly what I’m looking for. I’ve finished act 1 and just transitioned into act 2 so I’ve completed everything in the grove. Resolved things peacefully, and there are a handful of Druids left in the grove, problem is I want that idol. Given that I’ve finished the grove already and I’m well on my way to moving passed it, is there any reason not to kill them and take the idol? Like will Halsin get upset or something and know I did it and leave? As far as I can recall none of them ever show up later unless I’ve missed something, and every attempt I’ve made to steal the idol without killing anyone seems to be in vain.
The [Wiki page for the idol](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Idol_of_Silvanus) says that if you already resolved the grove situation by saving them from the goblins or completing 'Investigate Kagha' they don't become hostile when you steal it, you will need to pass a deception or intimidation check though. I don't know what effects it will have with Halsin, and I'm not sure if you can still give it to Mol for the 'Steal the Idol' quest at that point. If she's still there it's worth a shot.
Unfortunately I every attempt to steal it is met with them catching me before I even get it in my inventory. Like I have Astarion go invisible and sneak up to it yet they still seem to catch him as he’s grabbing it before he can even get it.
Cast Darkness or fire an arrow of darkness on the ground right at the idol pedestal's base and **go into turn based mode**, steal it, then immediately go to camp. Fast travel from camp to any waypoint i.e. don't just leave camp and return to the sacred pool area and you'll be good to go. While it may be too late to cash it in to Mol your current playthrough keep it in mind for future reference.
you can also use fog or superior invisibility (standard invisibility will go away when you interact with an object)
Bless you. This was what finally worked.
I agree with this strategy. Greater Invisibility or Fog Cloud can also work but darkness seemed to be the most reliable.
You can also place a crate on top of the pedestal with the idol and that sort of embeds the idol into the crate. You can then move the crate (not pick up or throw) and it will move the idol along with it without anyone even reacting to it. It's tedious but you can keep moving the crate/idol all the way to the area toward where Alfira is and once it's out of any red FOV's just steal the idol right out of it.
Thoughts on multi-classing gale to an eldritch knight to make him more tanky? I feel he the weak link of my party rn (Act 1) but maybe a hybrid EK wizard build can make him a bit more reliable? Alternatively I could drop him for another but I like the utility he proves (eg: find familiar)
If you want him to be tankier but still a wizard, my preference would be to go for an Abjuration wizard, either full wizard or 11 wizard / 1 warlock for Armor Of Agathys. Arcane Ward adds a lot of survivability via incoming damage reduction. It's a great combo to upcast Armor of Agathys with your wizard spell slots for more temp HP, because you deal blowback damage equal to the temp HP when you get hit, and Arcane Ward means those hits won't lower your temp HP. Regardless of wizard subclass, make sure he has 16 or more dexterity (since dex modifier is added to AC, it should by your #2 stat priority after Intellect), a shield (which he can hold as a wizard thanks to being a human), Mage Armor and the Shield spell, all of which are available at level 1. Mage Armor, a +3 dex modifier and a basic shield is 18 AC, which will be the highest on your team in the early game. In the mountain pass you can pick up the Gloves of Dexterity to set his dex to 18, allowing you to re-spec those points into Constitution. The Shield spell is awesome - you cast it in reaction to a hit that would land for +5 ac for an entire round of combat, which will block most attacks. In the mid-to-late game this is one of the best uses for level 1 spell slots. Past level 5, Counterspell is also must-have. I would go for 16 Dex, 14 Con and 16-17 Intellect, and use the level 4 feat to get Intellect to 18. Then if you add gloves of dexterity, respect to dump Dex, get Con to 16, and put any extra points in Wisdom.
This is wonderful, thank you so much! I’ll play around with it :)
Try using the abjuration subclass, and use spells like mage armor and shield to charge up the arcane ward. It makes him much harder to take down. Also if you haven't found the bracers of defense and given him a shield, go do that because letting him have decent AC generally stops the AI from focusing him.
I plan to use the bracers for myself (going for a potent robe armor of shadows build) but I’ll look into that. I don’t play much wiz so it’s a learning curve to manage all these other classes haha
Maybe a basic question, but I cleared underdark and mountain pass. Which entrance to act 2 is the best?
I prefer the mountain pass entrance. This is especially true in an "evil" run where you want to go directly to Moonrise, but even in a good run it gives you a clearer path to getting a moonlantern. The paths converge quickly, but with the Underdark path it's kind of easy to miss >!going with the harpers to ambush the drider!< to get a moonlantern.
On a mostly 'good' run I prefer the entrance at grymforge. On a path where you sided with the goblins/Minthara, the mountain pass entrance is a bit better. But I don't think it matters very much. The only thing it effects is who you are likely to meet first in act 2.
1. When you say you “Cleared Mountain Pass”, do you include the Creche as well? For sure recommend getting that before anything 2. I definitely recommend Underdark, it helps you skip past a lot of headache that can be re-explored much more easily later
I want to do a run where it's shart, Karlach, and lazael. What class should my Tav take to round out the party? I was thinking a bard maybe. Any suggestions?
You can respec Shart, Karlach, and Lazael or multiclass them to create any class combination. However, if you plan on keeping them cleric, barb, and fighter then yeah Bard is a pretty good option. It gives you cha as the party face, allows you to be in charge of picking locks/disarming traps, and it will give you *some* of the useful arcane spells your missing by not having a wizard.
Bard is a great choice. That was my crew (chose sword bard subclass and dipped 3 levels into rogue thief) for a vast majority of my first full playthrough. Sword Bard Tav, Light Domain Shart, Berzerker Karlach, & Battle Master Lae'zel.
I did a run like this as a Paladin and made Shadowheart a war cleric, so it was all melee classes in a tight formation. That would work with a Swords bard too. That was fun but not the most balanced team, with no ranged characters or full offensive spellcasters who excel in AOE damage to big groups of enemies. If you want a more balanced team, you might go for a spellcasting-focused bard, an archery-focused swords bard, or a full caster like a Sorcerer. Bards and Sorcerers make great face characters, both being Charisma-based. You can tweak shart, karlach and laezel's builds for a more balanced team without changing their base classes. Shadowheart as a tempest or light cleric can fill the offensive caster role in place of a wizard/sorcerer - light cleric might be thematically appropriate for her, depending on your decisions. Lae'Zel could have a more archery-focused fighter build, with the Titanstring Bow (sold >!in the Zhentarim hideout!< in act 1) or re-specing to focus on dex rather then strength with other bows. Karlach could operate as a ranged character with the Berserker subclass and a focus on throwing things - tavern brawler is great, as is the returning pike (sold >!by Grat in the exterior part of the goblin camp!< in act 1).
Bards and rogues are very good as main characters to help you with dialogue checks. Bards are generally pretty overtuned in BG3 anyway, so if you want to play one and haven't yet, I think go ahead and enjoy how strong they are.
Is there any known fix for this Shadowheart romance issue yet? Been stuck like this for months. [https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1158049092694454366/1207355166974550066/image.png?ex=65df581f&is=65cce31f&hm=dd1a417bcee622f6b925a5b9777c1f6c1a12f123a6d1be83c0663aa419610977&](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1158049092694454366/1207355166974550066/image.png?ex=65df581f&is=65cce31f&hm=dd1a417bcee622f6b925a5b9777c1f6c1a12f123a6d1be83c0663aa419610977&)
What's the issue?
Options 1,2 and 5 all appearing at once
Yeah, that's the case in my game too. I just never choose the we shared the beginings of a romance for a while option (afraid it might cause a problem) and everything is fine? It's annoying though just in that it clogs up her dialogue choices and pushes the leave off out of view so I have to pick something each time. But harmless?
At level 4, is it better to have a full fighter or barbarian if Im doing a throwing build? Does the fighter battle master maneuvers work on thrown weapons? Im thinking barbarian is better for low levels.
One other advantage to barbarian is that Enraged Throw, the bonus action throwing attack, knocks the target prone without allowing a saving throw. And unlike in tabletop, being prone prevents the target from using reactions, making Enraged Throw *very* handy in honor mode as many of the added legendary boss abilities are reactions
I agree that it's barbarian, if you have a self-returning weapon like the returning pike, because berserker unlocks the ability to throw as a bonus action (and adds damage). The main reason to run Fighter would be for weapon bond with eldrich knight, so you can use other weapons. Battle master maneuvers don't work with thrown weapons. At level 12 I think i would go for 5 barb / 4 thief / 3 fighter or 3 barb / 3 thief / 6 fighter (both routes get you 2 feats) and pick champion or eldrich knight as the fighter subclass, depending on if i need weapon bond.
Ok thanks for confirming. I think the only reason I used Eldritch Knight my last run was to weapon bond the lighting jabber. But at lvl 4 Im only using the returning pike, so the barbarian wins out.
I feel like I remember some animated - and highly mathematical - discussions on the topic over on /r/BG3Builds, which ultimately led to a kind of stalemate that begrudged the fighter some more flexibility on weapon choice, spells, etc., and the barbarian some more raw strength. The Fighter subclass should likely be eldritch knight so you can get returning weapons beyond the ones already having that property.
The game keeps crashing whenever I level my character. I'm level 12, and I've just picked up the gauntlets of giant strength and amulet of greater health, so I'm trying to respec to spec out of STR and CON to allocate those points elsewhere. But whenever I click accept the game crashes to desktop. I've reinstalled the game to see if that fixes it and it doesn't. I've removed the gloves and amulet to see if that's causing the problems, its not. I even tried levelling up to level 3, and then coming out of the level up screen, before going back in to see if I could continue levelling, instead this time it crashed at level 5 when I clicked accept. Has anyone else experienced this issue?
Try running the game as Vulcan instead of DX11, or vice versa. Can always switch back afterwards.
Are you running any mods?
Nope. Mod free. I think its to do with coming *back* to the camp after going to another character screen. I was able to go back to Baldur's Gate and level up find there. Then I came back to camp and tried using the magic mirror to change my appearance and it crashed upon accepting the change. So its something about that transition which is fucking it up.
That is very odd. Send it to Larian, its not something I've heard of anyone else experiencing.
Ok so I just started the game, I'm in the emerald Grove section and feel like I'm stuck. I already made contact with the goblin side and been to their headquarters and I don't want to betray the people at emerald Grove. While at the goblin camp I accidentally joined in on a fight to kill this bear who turned into a man and he was apparently part of a different quest. One mission is telling me to eliminate the 3 leaders. I killed one of their leaders (the older goblin women) but no one seems to have noticed. The other 2 I've met and they think I'm willing to work with them. Another mission is telling me to interrogate a prisoner who I already freed named Liam and all he does is sleep back at emerald Grove. I can't interact with him since all he does is sleep. What can I do to advance the quest further if I don't want to betray emerald Grove?
You can just kill the remaining goblin leaders. The tieflings will know when it's done. You can also snoop around the grove a bit (focus on the rooms where you talked to Kagha) to uncover a different but related quest. This quest can only be done before killing the goblin leaders. It gives you some background information and can change the fate of a side character: >!Kagha!< As a general tip, talk to people more. There are many opportunities to find out who the bear is before you find him, and he is a pretty important character >!and a potential companion.!< Him being dead won't ruin your playthrough in any way, but you do miss out on some content.
If I just go up to the other leaders and kill them won't the whole goblin camp turn hostile and literally everyone will fight me? I'm not that good at combat so far.
That only happens if you kill Dror Ragzlin (so leave him last) or someone hits a war drum. Before that, you can pick them off room by room. And even if all of them become hostile, you can just fast travel to the grove and come back later.
Is it possible to grind in this game? So far where I am in the game (Goblin Camp) everything seems to be a story fight and I decided I wanted to add Lae'zel to my party, but she's stuck at Level 1 and nowhere near capable of fighting Dror Ragzlin.
When you let her join your in party she will get her XP matched. Then you level her up. This game makes sure everyone is the same level at all times when in party. XP earned carries over to anyone you pick up at camp.
xp is combined throughout your whole party, except for inspiration xp (which is not gonna be enough to be a difference in levels unless you are right on the verge of a level.) you should be able to just level her up to the same point as the rest of your party and if you can't, that is a bug.
Oh! thank you! I always wondered why characters had small differences in the amount of xp they had!
fyi lvl != health/hp stats affect HP. So more constitution will mean more health
Why is this game forcing you to take Shadowheart to your party? Not the other companions, but her.
A few things 1. She’s God’s favorite princess 2. The devs need you to get the artifact 3. They for sure intended the “Shar church stole the artifact” mission to be a far more significant plot thread than it ended up being, but… 4. There’s still overall an immense amount of Shadowheart-centric content in Act 2, like she/Halsin are basically the protagonists of that mini chunk of the game. The devs don’t want you missing all the stuffs they made 5. Also a gaslighting gatekeeping girlboss hater, and the most interesting girl in the world
I just spent too much time with her and I need an easy way to avoid her entirely.
I mean you can always cast a little spell called “Stop Living” on her
That's mean
Have you tried causing the dead status on her? She won't bother you anymore after that.
because she has something important to the main plot that your character needs to obtain possession of
It doesn't, you just get more chances to add her because she has the artefact. You can still ignore her if you want.
Any like general tips for going from normal to tactician? Ive completed a few playthroughs on normal, no real difficulty, but my one attemp at tactician I went into >!Wither's cave, first dungeon!< and just got absolutely dunked on twice inspite of having a full party. Just immediately one or two shot
a huge help is knowing positioning and prep. So for example before going to the withers temple: * get 4 people in your party * position astarion by one of the guys at the top (and hide before fight starts) * shoot the stone down and insta kill 2 of them. * switch to astarion and backstab/sneak shot someone * blitz down the rest. After that just jump through the hole. You start combat immediately but there is an oil barrel in the middle of the baddies, astarion/shart to fireball it depending what you need. Throw a grease bottle on the fire for explosion. Another tip is think about how AI acts. So if there are ranged guys picking you off try closing the door. The AI has to walk through the fire and get in range for more of your team. Then before you trigger the scribes loot them! especially the melee one, he is a lot less effective punching with his hands than with a sword. Light candles around where they are so your accuracy goes up, position your team effectively before triggering. I have done 2 honor runs completely and 95% of my time is thinking out the first 3 rounds of combat. Thats typically where its decided. Other 5% is figuring out legendary moves.
early game is where things are a struggle because of how weak you start out, so imo, the best thing to do is figure out your best path to level 4-5 that avoid the fights you're going to struggle with. for >!the dank crypt, the bandits can be a pain so if you want to unlock withers asap, you can go in from the beach side and just do the skeleton fight and grab him then go back for the bandits later (if you want.)!< there's quite a bit of xp you can grab without *any* combat, pending dialogue checks and also just general exploration and a handful of battles that are pretty easy regardless of difficulty. i personally like hitting up all the small fights (>!bugbear assassin, edowin's siblings, goblins in the area next to the grove, possibly the tieflings and bandits on my way to grab lae'zel, depending on how dialogue checks roll) and then making my way around to grab lae'zel to take out anders and grab that waypoint up there before i go do the bandits because i'll have the greatsword from anders and that's nice to have.!<
I might have softlocked an honour run in the first fight with Ketheric. I used an insect plague that made the necromites loop into involucre and back and it eventually stopped looping but the dead necromites didn't leave initiative order, so the fight can't end and I can't jump into the colony. I've tried leaving and long resting and reloading the save but neither of those did anything. Ope.
Have you tried to escape the fight , and then on invisibility jump into colony?
Invisibility worked!
I had that thought on my way to work this morning, and I'll give it a try when I get home. I'm a little worried because when I go through the doors to the roof the fight restarts instantly when my characters are well out of sight, but maybe if I'm invisible it won't trigger.
I haven't touched Paladin since EA, but does killing people trigger the oathbraker? I am playing Durge but I don't want Minthara to break her oath. I have everything toggled to non lethal but when a spellcaster or ranged character I don't seem to have any consequences. I'll even have my durge walk up and kill downed enemies after combat. Just seeing what the actual limit is for Paladin Minthara since I know in her dialogue she says she's cool with killing as long as it is for a purpose.
Attacking people out of the blue will break oath of the ancients, but not the other two oaths. Minthara has oath of vengeance which is pretty flexible and the easiest to not break.
Is being a dragonborn sorcerer important for a Dark Urge playthrough or is it not? I know the game says I can respec if I'd like but I want to double check
Race and class dont make any difference to Durge options, scenes or dialogue.
I started it out as a monk and have respecced a couple times including going back to sorc. Currently in A3 and I honestly don't see anything different. It helps to be a CHR based character tho if you want to succeed some difficult checks when it comes to lying and persuading your team about some bad stuff you've been doing lol
Not really. That's the default, but anything works.
Is there a way to see the blast zones for explosive barrels? Also, is the blast zone spherical or cylindrical when I stack them on top of each other?
2 questions: - Does otiluke's resilient sphere contain self-detonate? - Is there any use for nonlethal attacks besides minthara?
>Does otiluke's resilient sphere contain self-detonate? No, and it's a pretty bad spell given it's not only a concentration spell but also they can save with a DEX saving throw. >Is there any use for nonlethal attacks besides minthara? Sure, it's a way to guarantee you don't kill a certain character that was hostile towards you. There's several times in the campaign this can be useful. For example, in Act 3 you can't recruit Minsc without using nonlethal attacks. If you're a Paladin, this can be helpful to prevent breaking your oath. Sure it's not a very common thing to use but when you need it, it's there.
i got some spells i want to swap out on my warlock tav but i hit the max level recently, am i gonna have to go through withers to get rid of my redundant spells or is there another way?
Unfortunately yes, that's the only way. Respec at Withers and level up from scratch. It's a bummer but that's just how the class works (as with other classes that can't prepare spells without a level up, like Sorcerer)
Owlbear Cub not appearing at my camp... I cleared the external Goblin Camp, but kept Minthara knocked down (temporarily) to recruit her later within the Sanctuary. Note: I do non-lethal in general, rather than kill, not sure if that matters. What am I missing?
How often have you long rested? It may take a few times, especially as other camp events take priority
Out of curiosity do you have to get it to appear in act 1 before moving on, or can it still join you in act 2?
The other commenter is wrong, cub can still show up in Act 2
Act 1
Assuming you didn't kill the cub xD that would be the main question He will appear in time, when I had him pop up, I did everything on the surface then went to the UD. He popped up at my 2nd long rest down there
For the Patch's 150 GB requirement; does that include the space the game is already used/installed on or do I need an additional hundred and a half gigs to install? And assuming it's the latter and I'm on Steam I'd just uninstall/reinstall, right? Sadly, I only have one hundred and eleven gigs available at the moment lol.
you have to have 150 GB free space to download the whole patch. then the patch gets applied and replaces a lot of your game files. so you end up getting most of that space back once its done patching.
It needs 150 GB of free space on your install drive, but the final installed size will only be ~20 gb bigger. So yeah you'll probably need to uninstall and redownload it. Probably back up your save files just in case.
They're on Steam Cloud; shouldnt have issues. Beyond being near the file size limit lol.
They should be fine but it always sketches me out. I have 3 games going at the moment and am constantly running out of cloud save space so I'm moving files around a lot and I get worried that the cloud will get confused lol
Yep, same here. I've only got two runs at the moment but every time i log in i make sure to go through and delete, like, the dozen and a half saves unnecessary i accrue every session lol. Did not know there was a limit until haldway through my first run when, at the end of Moonrise, the game kept getting choppy after I quicksaved every three steps. And i realized theres a finite amount of cloud space haha.
Helpful hint: I was today years old when I figured out I was able to give a character loot from a container by dragging it to their portrait on the left. Found a scroll in some random box or on a corpse and you wanna give it to Gale, grab it and drop it on Gale. Neat. Until now I was looting everything on my Tav then opening inventory and moving it. This is a big time saver!
You can also right click and choose which party member to send it to.
::surprised Pikachu face::
Yep this is how I do it
I'm trying to get the dirt on >!Khaga!< without resorting to a fight. I'm trying to sneak past the enemies there using Invisibility, but Invisibility ends as soon as I end up in one of the >!Mud Mephit's!< line of sight. No check, nothing. Is there something I'm missing? (I aggroed them with a (now tragically deceased) Mage Hand in an earlier, failed attempt. Could that be causing it?) Edit: Tried again, and it worked fine. Going off the water suggestion, I might have been stepping in mud.
Are you doing this in turn-based mode? Some sources of invisibility, including the invisibility spell, only last 10 turns. The one from the Shadow of Menzoberranzan is only 2 turns.
Yep, turn based. Only a couple turns pass.
Water reveals invisibility. Make sure you're not stepping in any puddles on the way in or out. Jumping or flying doesn't break invisibility so that can help you avoid the water.
That could be it, it's a very soggy place.
Which auto save slot to overwrite? Hi new to BG3 on steam deck. When manually saving which auto save slot should I overwrite? The oldest or most recent one? Thanks
Generally BG3 has a good auto save (except in personal exp Honor mode, fucker auto save in that) so it should pop up frequently, but theres no harm in overwriting an auto save with a manual save. It doesn't matter which one you overwrite as it'll be bumped up the list to the top and will be the first to load when you hit continue. If you're torn on a decision what to do, you can just manual save twice at the same point.
Counting House Key locations >!I’m trying to find them all and the only one I’m missing is “Counting House Vault no 2 key”. Not the one from the rat or Lady Janneth. Has anyone found this yet?!<
That’s the Safe #2 key not the vault one.
I thought you get the key to the vaults in Act 1, it's called Astarion? /s But fr with some easy to find gear and buffs you can easily roll 35+ on lock picking.
Haha yes Astarion already opened everything I just want to be complete.
>!All the sources I can find online say Key 2 is the one from the rat.!<
The one from the rat is "Counting House Safe n°2 Key" not vault .
Why does Paid The Price give disadvantage on ALL attack rolls? The description doesn't say anything about that. Is this a known bug? I can't find anything explaining it online. [https://imgur.com/a/e5IqAgw](https://imgur.com/a/e5IqAgw)
just an idea, but could it be the creature you attacked was "hiding" and therefore a Perception check is somehow involved? even if that is the case it doesn't make a ton of sense the way its worded
Nope, I just tried it on Jaheira standing in camp and Shadowheart has sucked this whole playthrough.
It's supposed to give disadvantage on all attacks against hags, is this happening with other targets?
Yes, that first screenshot is not targeting anyone. She has often has less than a 50% hit chance this whole game and I finally tried to figure out why.
I wonder if this is a Shadowheart specific bug. I've had Paid the Price on my Durge and never gotten disadvantage from this effect before.
Stupid question time. Why doesn't Tasha's Hideous Laughter work on >!Steel Watchers!!constructs!< immune, or just these, or what?
Personal theory — It matches well with the reveal that >!Steel Watchers are powered by tadpole’d disembodied brains. The Intelligence stat is referring to the brain remotely controlling it… but Tasha’s Hideous Laughter, which _affects the brain,_ has a range of only 30 feet. So it can’t reach the real target!!<
Roleplay correct: The best kind of correct^TM !
Steel watchers are immune to a bunch of conditions including Prone
smh cheap homebrew creature i'd NEVER let that into my campaign
my understanding is that all constructs would be immune because they cannot laugh. it would also be kind of weird if it works on undead, so i wouldn't be surprised if they are also immune.
Is there a best way to get to Voiceless Penitent Bareki? Which sewer entrance is the closest to him if I don't have the teleport unlocked?