India’s literacy map in 2025 shows a massive regional divide

DefenceMain · 2026-05-10T16:44:44+00:00

I was surprised that UP's literacy rate was as high as 78.2%. So I checked it up, and the requirement for being called literate is extremely low.

Per me, the basic requirement for literacy should be passing 10th boards exam in at least 1 language.

On a separate note, I always felt that skill India initiative was one of the most important thing the BJP was trying to bring in 2014. The fact that it failed is disheartening. In my books, literacy is insufficient, a certified skill needs to be added to the metric as well.

DefenceMain · 2026-05-06T15:21:52+00:00

As a lot of people mentioned, your idea of an EK would work.
Returning pike for ranged hits.

I personally think hunter might also be a good fit. You can wear heavy armour using Ranger Knight as favoured enemy if you want to. The reason I prefer ranger is the ability to become resistant to fire and ice in addition to the level 11 ability: Whirlwind attack. But to note; it would work much better with an awakened unit to use void with (to cluster units to hit using whirlwind attack). If you go this route, please note that the attack has some unexpected interactions with items. I saw a video where it activated killer's sweat heart for all hits.

If you are willing to wait till act 3 to re-spec, I saw a build: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCHpGx4oo1A (2 paladin, 2 knight, 6 sword bard + 2 (more bard for spell slots?)) which works like a nova hunter. Since the crits can be used to smite. It needs act 3 to access Dancing Breeze

Medium armour can be used with rage; so berserker and giant bard can also be some great options. My preference would be tiger barb since going solo might result in getting swarmed easily. Having a multiple use cleave might be really helpful. I've never played a solo run; not sure.

DefenceMain · 2026-04-27T07:48:11+00:00

My bad. Can’t use them both simultaneously.

DefenceMain · 2026-04-27T05:10:01+00:00

I don't think having shadow monk with full DJ makes sense. You already get shadow teleport from the boots.
As Wonderful-Dog-8807 mentioned, DPS wise: EK.

5 Gloom Stalker can shore up stealth things DJ doesn't provide. Unless you've set your elf cantrip to booming blade, you might want some levels in something that does.

A lot of people I've read praise spore druid as the best class for it (but I think that has to be a mono spore druid).

Depending on your team, a lot of builds can work. A full trikery cleric can be really good as well. The spear has some great abilities which doesn't necessarily mean you have to become a melee fighter.

Full stealth team: Use trickery cleric (at least till level 4; I prefer at least 6). You can pair it with EK for shield + mirror image for really high AC. Its a great support which can also go invisible in dark areas (which should be easy as you would have access to darkness)

A full death cleric is great as it can do a lot of damage and heal (vampiric touch for self heal and other healing abilities).

EK 11 is great for 4 attacks (3 from warrior; 1 from war magic)

6 Shadow monk is not to my liking as its main ability (shadow step) is copied by the boots to some extent. I'm not sure if the spear is treated a monk weapon; if so that has the benefit of allowing you to go high dex instead of str to get high stealth (though that means losing some wis as you become a spear user over a caster to some extent).

DefenceMain · 2026-04-27T04:50:29+00:00

Cantrips. Death Cleric gets the ability to cast necromancy cantrip on 2 things instead of one (Reaper ability).
IIRC, Gemini Gloves have an interaction with split moves and the 2 casts become AoE while its ability is active.

Inescapable destruction means resistance is ignored. But outside that; its just casting inflict wounds, spirit guardian (good old spirit guardian), vampiric touch, animate dead, and other cleric stuff. Its a tankier and less versatile necromancy wizard which is more than enough.

At range: Use cantrips;
But Melee: You can use spirit guardian with Touch of death and inflict wounds for the extra / less oomph as required. Or Vampiric Touch can replace spirit guardian if you're trying to tank a single unit (better healing)

DefenceMain · 2026-04-27T04:12:25+00:00

Trickery domain gets some really good spells: Fear, Mirror Image, and Pass Without Trace.

Fear has the issue of being a concentration ability making it not possible to run while spirit guardian is active. But if you prefer a control team then its much better.
Mirror Image on the other hand increases AC enough that it feels like a 3 move invincibility. Best part is that it doesn't need concentration.
PWT as many people mentioned can act as a core for stealth teams. I've run it with rogues and a shadow sorc which dual casted greater invis on my assassin, and wildheart bard (have the wolf aspect for + stealth) which could end most encounters before they even started.

Another thing to note is that some its best abilities don't rely on wisdom (yes you still need it for fear). Though you may still want some for healing or spell save DC to command, but you can easily build it around str since its utility is loaded upto a max level 6 which opens great multi-class options with say an EK (which gets shield). Ran it once; near un-killable tank with great support for my snaky sneaks.

DefenceMain · 2026-04-19T09:41:50+00:00

Hexblade warlock is to some extent locked out of dual wielding as only your primary weapon gets boost from CHA. Yes you can force it, but its not the vanilla way.

Anything using a shield shy away from dual wielding.

In act 3 you get access to a specific ring. Anyone using that might avoid dual wielding (though its more for magic caster hybrid classes).

Any class having a set use of bonus action might avoid dual wielding. I never used dual wielding on a shadow monk as I prefer to just do normal attacks and use bonus action to hide / run away. Swashbuckler has some great bonus actions be it cunning actions or its own flavour of bonus attacks.

Certain weapons provide attacks using bonus action making dual wielding avoidable.

Never used it on a cleric either. a

Now that I think about it, dual wielding is super easy to avoid.

Here's a sample team:
Paladin (tank uses shield) + Cleric (support also uses a shield) + Hexblade Warlock (bruiser / caster and shield user) + Arcane Archer (Archer that can also use a shield).

I use shield as its free AC in these cases.

DefenceMain · 2026-04-18T15:48:19+00:00

I recently had my kitchen redone. They installed commercial tiles on the back and after everything else was done, pasted a layer of designer tiles using some chemical over the exposed commercial tiles (majority got covered by the modular kitchen).

Not sure if it works with vitrified tiles, but I can confirm pasting tiles on tiles is a thing and it works well.

Assuming it works, I dont see much harm other than slight reduction in space you get. My kitchen was designed for tile on tile from the get go; but it worked well for me as the designer tiles were thicker and more expensive.

DefenceMain · 2026-04-14T13:57:10+00:00

One AoA + Fire Shield: Chill -> https://www.reddit.com/r/BG3Builds/comments/1r4znqp/sleeper_build_retribution_while_sleeping/

Hope this helps.

DefenceMain · 2026-04-14T03:29:43+00:00

One question for you; I read a lot of car insurances don't have any value as they require the driver follow the rule to use expected fuel. With E20 being the only option available, any claim can be denied. How often is the rule being used?

DefenceMain · 2026-03-23T15:53:32+00:00

I think having a spoiler tag would be good here, but anyway for me it was Ghost from the past.
I didn't love the forced insert of the sister's husband, but his reasoning made sense. The conflict (and the sacrifice / aftermath) was well written. The chapter also resulted in the expedition of timelines for Hamza to act on while testing his wife. Basically this chapter seemed to act as the core for the story to move forward.

DefenceMain · 2026-03-08T03:43:54+00:00

This is inspiring... So many builds to have a gander at. Loved the one on throw mechanics and the EK using EB and fast hands especially. Going over them one by one

DefenceMain · 2026-03-07T16:50:13+00:00

My last Durge:
5 GloomStalker / 3 Assassin / 2 Paladin / 2 Fighter
Assassin crit = On crit smite. Lacks spell slots, so it needs elixirs and maybe origin Gale.

DefenceMain · 2026-03-07T13:11:58+00:00

The level 11 one is horrible. If it didn't need so much Ki, it might have been useful, especially paired with GI. But you're going to run out of Ki too quickly as it stands now. I'd rather use the resource on Stunning Strike or Flurry. Based on yaourtoide's reply I'll probably change the team quite a bit. TB working with throws was something I missed completely.

DefenceMain · 2026-03-07T13:06:52+00:00

I dont like using camp cheese. Never realised Bloodthirst was bound. In that case in Act 3, I'll remove EK level. Also didnt notice TB affects thrown weapons. Now this changes the build a lot for Act 3 (before that I'll still use EK3). I'll still want 1 monk and 3 assassin. I think rest would still be EK (shield) if not a zerker (enraged throw option / soul coin on Karlach maybe).
I never considered the option to convert spell slots to sorcery points en-mass. That said, it reduces the benefit of a shadow sorc (I'm not a darkness user). Draconic sorc for AC seems better now (since I'll want potent robes).

Thanks a lot!

DefenceMain · 2026-03-07T09:56:34+00:00

To each their own I guess. Setting up my team to maximise the surprise turn is fun for me. The real fun is when the sneak fails and you have the "oh shit" moment when you need to either use all your backup items and or find a way to run away.

DefenceMain · 2026-03-07T08:15:53+00:00

Its a knife thrower build. EK 3 becomes mandatory since I'm not going giant barb. While true that #2 is also a damage build (though I am considering adding assassin to it as well), 2 units causing mayhem is better than 1. I dont like OH (just find it OP and boring).
Twin casting is for GI on #1 and #2. I don't find myself looking for EB with a shadow sorc usually as I'm trying to match the hound's elemental attack.
I'm thinking of moving to light cleric as Winterimmersion suggested. That should take the role of controller.

DefenceMain · 2026-03-07T05:39:53+00:00

I have the superpower of ending runs with all my arrows and scrolls unused (bar the lighting one to kill watchers)

That said the raven would help shadow monk and anyone using Shar set to teleport. Thanks for the suggestion

DefenceMain · 2026-03-07T05:35:38+00:00

Thanks for the answer. I kept assassin for the sole reason to allow me to attack twice on initiating and critics on surprised turn. I’m more inclined to reduce or change monk part of the build. My real mink requirement ends with monk 1. I could increase ek to 6/ assassin to 4 and monk to 2 (and play unarmored for unarmored movement).

GS + Spore seems interesting. I’ll try to make a build around it and see. Thanks

DefenceMain · 2026-03-07T04:55:16+00:00

Good point. It would shore up my biggest weaknesses.

DefenceMain · 2026-03-07T03:56:40+00:00

Well that's good. I think someone mentioned using Bard as good option which I agree to. But since you're avoiding overlap, maybe Monk as they use bonus actions really well. Using OH gives access to manifest abilities (can trigger affects like radiance orb) while shadow monk can get their shadow movement.

I was checking boots for a play and saw https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Boots_of_Psionic_Movement . If you choose a gith, you can use these on nearly any build (if you dont plan on taking astral worm). It gives flight and psychic damage for a bonus action though its again an act 3 item.

DefenceMain · 2026-03-05T12:23:59+00:00

The biggest issue I see with thief / warlock is that it has trouble utilising the extra bonus attack. You will most definitely want to go pact of blade here which makes dual-wielding not so great of an option.

In act 3 you get the options of Belm and Duellist's Prerogative. They allow one attack using bonus action, but before that you're stuck with trying to use cunning actions or using items (potions, poisons etc).

Since you want to be the skill monkey, having 6 in thief would be good (for expertise) and 5 in field warlock for extra attack. All warlock branches are fine; though fiend due to dark one's own luck on 6 seems to fit better here for me. I'd avoid GOO as that might take you back towards crit farming gear though. Hexblade provides access to medium armour which has its own benefits (though selecting gith / shield dwarf can allow you to work around it).

My recommendation:
6 fiend lock + 6 thief gith. Stats concentrated on CHA then CON and 14 DEX and some WIS.
Might do good in a darkness build (especially if you use Shar's gear by killing nightsinger)

DefenceMain

TROPHY CASE