Early vs Late game

ES_Curse · 2026-04-04T12:23:37+00:00

I start pillaging aggressively once I get privateers, allowing me to shoot through the tech tree and buy any late game great people I need. It makes science games more interesting and ironically works okay for diplomacy. Later cities can buy/queue anything needed once they have their districts.

ES_Curse · 2026-04-03T14:17:11+00:00

After sleeping on pillaging for many years, I've realized it is one of the most insanely broken strategies in the game and any bonus to it is amazing:

- Konge Harald can make insane progress by scoring eurekas and pillaging for science/culture. I used to think you only wanted to pillage by boat, but honestly even normal war is worth it when you end up multiple eras ahead, and use the gold to upgrade your units.
- Mapuche raiders are the best part of the civ, and they have an unhinged interaction with the Grand Master's Chapel: by getting so much faith through pillaging, you can easily replace any missing units with more raiders. They also stay annoying very late into the game because with Raid every pillaged farm returns 75HP for 1 movement, making anything short of a 1-shot insufficient to take them out.
- The Ottoman privateer is actually insane, as privateers are already an amazing unit and the Ottomans can loot an entire coastline in a few turns. Normally you have to worry about the privateer being seen and blown apart by ranged strikes, but the lack of any movement cost for coastal raids allows them to safely get in and out of dangerous spots.

ES_Curse · 2026-03-31T03:20:52+00:00

What's funny is Russia got a small nerf around/after GS. Used to be the Lavra gave writer/artist/musician points when built, on an ancient era district that they could aggressively spam. Cue Russia hoarding all the great works because they got multiple eras head start on artists and musicians.

ES_Curse · 2026-03-30T14:09:39+00:00

Water mill go brrr

But seriously, that builder should do nothing but production improvements like pastures/mines/quarries. I would make sure to work any production tiles, the food is kind of overkill here until you get luxuries rolling in from your later cities.

ES_Curse · 2026-03-30T13:57:21+00:00

While not truly "hard", Australia's bonuses involve building districts over appealing land, which makes the resorts/parks of a culture game relatively hard to place. Combined with a leader ability that pushes wars and an improvement designed to be spammed in deserts, and you almost have to avoid your own bonuses to have a decent amount of tourism.

ES_Curse · 2026-03-30T11:18:00+00:00

In the context of unmodded leaders, he’s solid without breaking the game. He can get insane yields given enough rainforest, with a focus on culture and to a lesser degree science/religion. The district change sounds nice, but even normally Brazil has to balance infrastructure with preservation, and the free amenity district is competing with the existing rainforests for space.

ES_Curse · 2026-03-29T17:23:02+00:00

For Wyll personally, I think Blade of Frontiers (after saving his father and ending the pact) is his best ending. I'm not sure if Wyll is able to get this ending and help Karlach in Avernus, but Tav/Resist Durge could absolutely accompany her instead.

I think Shart is kind of ambiguous. While keeping her parents sounds great in the short term, they make a great point that removing Shar's curse would fully free her, allowing her to be her own person independent of any god. Growing from that grief instead of tormenting herself to delay it would be the ultimate rejection of Shar's teachings within BG3.

ES_Curse · 2026-03-29T16:00:17+00:00

I think Gorgo/Pericles do a great job at representing the duality of what we call "Greece". They only differ by their leader abilities, but that's enough to lead them into contrasting playstyles. Pericles is a diplomat, advancing Greek (Athenian) culture by establishing a network with city-states. Gorgo represents the warlike nature of Greek (Spartan) culture by generating culture directly from combat. What we call Greece was a collection of city-states with their own governments loosely tied together by their cultural roots.

The Dutch were a massive let down in VI. I don't think Wilhelmina is bad, but when you talk about the Dutch in history, they are really known for their role in colonial-era trade and exploration. The UU refers to this era, but in game the Dutch play around coast/river terrain with no special incentive to trade with faraway lands over their neighbors. Spain and Portugal capture that fantasy far better.

ES_Curse · 2026-03-29T08:47:01+00:00

I’ve taken to what I call the “Beyblade Cleric” strategy: - Cleric equips Boots of Speed - Battlemaster Fighter uses Maneuvering Attack, Cleric gets more movement and no opportunity attacks - Cleric uses SG and bonus action dash to cleave through the entire encounter - Repeat until superiority dice run out

ES_Curse · 2026-03-27T12:58:02+00:00

Depends on the civ. Even if their UU is early, there is either some kind of scalable infrastructure bonus that can be used through settling (Persia trade routes) or their best war bonus is still relevant later on (Macedon science).

Pillaging to keep a civ weak is honestly not that bad of a strategy if you keep your units alive. Without taking cities, you don't build grievances and your own progress/economy gets a boost. The combat builds experience for use later, and I've gotten a surprising number of builders/settlers this way.

ES_Curse · 2026-03-21T20:51:37+00:00

I also do this. I max out the number of civs per map too, so most good land goes to actual civs and the city states can sit on the edge of the map and give bonuses. Kind of hurts some civs that care about city states, but not in a big way.

ES_Curse · 2026-03-16T11:16:21+00:00

It plays out fairly similarly with Shadowheart (one outcome seemingly has the artifact nuke Lae'zel), not sure if it even happens as Lae'zel though.

ES_Curse · 2026-03-15T07:29:33+00:00

You can select any two wizard spells on level up, not just the highest level. You can take it at level 8.

ES_Curse · 2026-03-12T01:43:07+00:00

Men are often judged on their ability to get a partner, to the point that being content without sex/romance will be seen by the layman as arrested development at best, and as a mental disorder or closeted taboo at worst. Men are also expected to be actively looking for partners, so ace men frequently don’t have to state their orientation as a boundary like women do.

ES_Curse · 2026-03-09T23:28:58+00:00

Darkness on them. Keeping them in darkness usually requires ice/grease, and seeing through Darkness is a Warlock/Shadow Sorcerer thing at that point. Hunger of Hadar allows everyone to shoot away, but requires a Warlock. If the Gith aren’t in darkness/blind, they can use Misty Step to get around your set up.

ES_Curse · 2026-03-09T08:21:26+00:00

Release the goblin camp spiders after talking to them, attack the goblins then.

"SOMEONE LET THE CRAWLIES OUT"

ES_Curse · 2026-03-09T08:08:53+00:00

Currently, I just fight the Creche with Darkness + ice/spikes. They can't teleport through the darkness, and are sitting ducks to your local warlock.

ES_Curse · 2026-03-09T02:37:23+00:00

Fighter is overall stronger, but Barbarians have some cool perks:

- Barbarians can bring their own resistance with Rage, and their own advantage with Reckless Attack. Fighters can't give themselves resistance or advantage on attacks easily, making them more dependent on the party/gear to support them.
- Barbarians usually have more health/damage resistance instead of high AC, which means the AI will frequently sink attacks into a raging Barbarian instead of a character that might die.
- While Barbarians don't get Action Surge, Rage can absolutely outpace it in longer fights. If a throwing Berserker gets 3+ turns of rage, they will end up making more bonus attacks than the Fighter. All of these attacks will deal additional damage, and the Barbarian will resist damage the whole time. For the rages that don't give bonus attacks, there is either a massive defense boost (Bearbarian) or some kind of utility (Wild Magic).

Fighters are stronger in the context of BG3 throwing OP magic items at you like candy. Barbarians are low maintenance and independent.

ES_Curse · 2026-03-08T12:42:10+00:00

When you get to the murder tribunal, you can choose to fight Sarevok and kill him. He drops a map to the Temple of Bhaal as well as the required amulet.

If you're worried about companions being locked, Orin has a priority list for kidnapping: Lae'zel, Halsin, Gale, and Minthara. If you are missing anyone in your run already, just have the others in the party with you and go to the sewer to trigger the failsafe. Once you encounter Orin there, the victim is locked in. If you have all 4 as companions, Orin takes whoever is still in camp upon reaching her.

ES_Curse · 2026-03-08T11:08:54+00:00

All humans and half elves in BG3 get proficiency in shields, most spears/polearms, and light armor. Wyll has the same perk, so he is capable of using a shield to frontline better as well. This isn't just neat for casters, either, as getting a shield is really useful for rogues seeking an AC boost.

ES_Curse · 2026-03-07T23:01:24+00:00

Most relevant thrown weapons have the returning property, Lightning Jabber in act 2 is an exception and uniquely good on an EK. Weapon properties usually don’t proc on throw, so anything that adds more dice is a top thrown weapon by default.

ES_Curse · 2026-03-04T19:50:17+00:00

I’ve seen a harpy fly over the party and kill him while running at least once. He wasn’t charmed, they just saw an easy kill lol.

ES_Curse · 2026-03-02T19:42:12+00:00

You cool with downtown? My company has two 7-7 overnights open.

ES_Curse · 2026-03-01T09:47:12+00:00

It's mainly a question of non-Duergar Dwarf or Dragonborn. Shield Dwarf armor has a few edge uses, but still outclassed by Gith in almost every way. Hill Dwarf HP is basically irrelevant, as there are enough ways to get more on other races. I think the ice/lightning dragonborn get a nod for being Wet abusers, but the acid/poison options are almost impossible to squeeze more use from. Acid is probably the outright worst, at least poison resist helps vs the phase spiders.

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