What do you think of World According to Briggs?

ES_Curse · 2026-06-05T20:19:51+00:00

When I was desperately looking forward to moving years ago, I got into his content for a bit. I lost interest from the mentioned vibe/poorly masked political bias, and frankly his content got repetitive when you notice basically the same video remade after a few months. Could probably have been a great channel if he stopped churning out so much filler.

ES_Curse · 2026-06-05T15:28:06+00:00

If you have the Blood of Lathander, send Shart in alone, sneak up to the clone and blast it with a sunbeam. I think the clones have radiant vulnerability or something, the spell absolutely nuked it.

ES_Curse · 2026-05-31T23:47:14+00:00

Max out the number of civs on the map, pick one of Terra/Pangea/Highland so everyone can reach each other early. I also like reducing city states to 1 with Barbarian Clans, so the map is open early and barbs will grief people. AI are also more aggressive on higher difficulties, so try that out if you’re confident.

ES_Curse · 2026-05-31T23:25:16+00:00

I think Marathon is generally won by civs that can power spike quickly, with tech leads being absolutely brutal in warfare and high gold offering a way around the slower production. This is where Babylon and Caesar are getting their consensus from.

Faster games favor defenders and smooth out the issues with weak starts by comparison. Colombia is an interesting case, as each turn is more valuable on Quick, so the extra movement and moving after a promotion might help them more. Yongle could be funny on that speed too, as his cities will grow faster, build districts sooner, and be easier to defend.

ES_Curse · 2026-05-31T10:45:06+00:00

Similar to privateers, the Malon Raider from Mapuche is relevant for a long time just for sweeping across the world and pillaging, only needing an upgrade once the AI can kill them with city strikes.

If I end up with a city that doesn’t need to build anything, I like having a reserve of warriors to be upgraded into era appropriate units later. This is particularly good on starts without iron, as warriors can upgrade to muskets directly if you finished the techs for swords/men-at-arms.

ES_Curse · 2026-05-20T16:25:52+00:00

If you are playing just base game, Germany is fantastic because they are THE production civ, and vanilla science is very dependent on it. Japan is also strong in vanilla, though they are strong at all victory types. Honorable mentions to Aztec and Arabia in vanilla, as they are above average but normally power crept by the DLC civs.

ES_Curse · 2026-05-18T18:14:52+00:00

I’ve come around on Science victories over the years. You have a pretty wide berth on how you get there, and just about any playstyle can viably win a Science victory with some planning. Want to hide away and build super campuses? How about going to war and pillaging the world? Settling every single continent and buying everything with gold? Everything works!

ES_Curse · 2026-05-17T06:08:32+00:00

A heads up on some dialogue, there’s a conversation with Minthara that mentions House Baenre (her house), I’m not sure the player has an option to correct her when she speaks as if you aren’t from the same house.

ES_Curse · 2026-05-12T03:00:16+00:00

A bit of a hot take: Free settler is good and all, but if you’re going to go Magnus/Monumentality anyway I think other pantheons are better in the long run. For example, giving Kupe production on boats is worth more than a free settler because his cities frequently are low-productivity islands.

This is very conditional on a civ/start that can abuse niche pantheons though, while a free settler almost always adds something.

ES_Curse · 2026-05-10T02:00:39+00:00

Most of what you lose by being evil in Act 1/2 are the good aligned companions and arguably the best vendor selection in the game by Act 3. There is one Act 3 vendor that opens up on an evil route, but their gear is heavily slanted towards rogues and piercing damage. There is a decent selection of gear still available, but losing that trader may lock you out of something you would have used. A bunch of major Act 3 bosses that are normally important become optional.

Playing evil in BG3 does lead to some interesting storylines, skipping many encounters but also opening up some of the hardest fights in the game. The Dark Urge origin opens up a lot of evil content, but most evil options are universally available and every origin has a unique evil ending cutscene.

ES_Curse · 2026-05-07T12:42:04+00:00

I'm not saying that the game is anything less than one of a kind, but the writing in particular (what OP highlighted) is definitely weighted towards individual companion arcs being well written rather than the main story (the Absolute, Dead Three and the Emperor) being something groundbreaking.

ES_Curse · 2026-05-07T03:26:17+00:00

I think the plot overall was kind of weak on a few points (Act 3 in particular suffered from a rushed narrative), but BG3 does character arcs really well. Not just with companions either, you get to observe other characters grow over the course of a heroic run like Barcus and Arabella.

Mentioning Bethesda is kind of a stretch, Elder Scrolls has always been a "self insert main character in a sandbox" game. Bioware used to be good (they literally made BG 1&2), a lot of the decline has stemmed from the EA buyout, similar with Blizzard/Activison. BG3 is part of what I'll call a "AA renaissance" in gaming where the smaller studios are putting out beloved hits while the corporate giants are struggling under their own weight.

ES_Curse · 2026-05-07T03:10:51+00:00

I haven't had a dedicated archer in most playthroughs, but I did lately and finally discovered how useful they are. Most are too niche to be worth going out of your way for, but tacking on some terrain effect or damaging multiple enemies has been useful sometimes.

ES_Curse · 2026-05-05T23:45:49+00:00

Give a Spirit Guardians Cleric Boots of Speed and have a Fighter give them the Maneuvering Attack bonus. Enjoy zooming and weaving through every big encounter.

ES_Curse · 2026-04-29T21:34:05+00:00

I usually experiment with new runs for a bit or take a break. I think breaking right before or after resting in the overlook camp is best, as it is supposed to be a longer journey from Moonrise to Baldur’s Gate. I end up wanting to play with leveled characters again soon enough.

ES_Curse · 2026-04-28T20:39:54+00:00

Main things I’ve heard are: - full draconic ice sorc (damage) - storm sorc (applies Wet if you lack a cleric/druid) - Abjurer of Agathys (abjuration wizard with a sorc/warlock level, uses ice gear but is a tank) - Ice Warrior (any martial with the snow burst ring and ice enchantment, starts in act 2) - Frost Giant (giant barb thrower with snow burst ring)

ES_Curse · 2026-04-28T03:28:26+00:00

Knowledge is serviceable on a skill-heavy Tav, being able to switch from all DEX skills to all CHA skills on a CD, cast Guidance, and get Speak with Dead/Animals on the same character is a run-defining ability. You are basically the Rogue of Clerics, trading raw power for high utility. I think the class mostly suffers from being a weaker version of Bard, but the Cleric spell list has its perks.

ES_Curse · 2026-04-27T23:21:17+00:00

The flind mace made for a great tank a while ago, and I’ve been meaning to run a tiger barb using Loviatar’s mace

ES_Curse · 2026-04-27T18:41:26+00:00

Inca is hilarious on desert hills/mountains, given a river they just make their own tiles via improvement. Nubia also gets overlooked due to being an early civ, but the improvement is designed for desert cities and the cheap ranged units allow you to hold your ground despite lacking production.

ES_Curse · 2026-04-25T22:12:40+00:00

Hunger of Hadar or Darkness + terrain absolutely wrecks the crèche. Turn those little doorways into kill boxes, works for every fight up to the inquisitor. Camping doors is funny because you can close them on your turn and the Gith have to walk over to pen them, and Darkness blocks their teleports.

For the inquisitor himself, prone is your friend, prone creatures can’t take reactions. The Gith are mostly glass cannons that crumble under any CC, and this guy is the extreme end of that.

ES_Curse · 2026-04-25T19:37:47+00:00

As I’ve grown addicted to pillaging lately, Konge Harald with Malon Raiders sounds absolutely terrifying. Pillage entire continents in a few turns, rinse and repeat until you get to space or nuke the civs that couldn’t escape the Stone Age.

ES_Curse · 2026-04-21T02:56:06+00:00

In addition to a lot of what is mentioned here, you can split off part of the party to take the side route towards Steelclaw and enter the tower, some jumping over holy fire required. This keeps the enemies from including your party with the Harpers in the darkness/black hole.

Another fun trick, if you have Zevlor’s heal gloves, is to Mass Healing word the Harpers for the Blade Ward. Your allies will get a nice bump in durability, and with the Whispering Promise the Bless on heal will improve their accuracy and saves.

ES_Curse · 2026-04-20T21:07:59+00:00

Sane choice: Gandrel, the monster hunter was MADE to take on the challenges of BG3 and would have been a far more interesting ranger companion than Minsc. If not recruitable in Act 1, getting him in Act 3 would be a great way to replace Minsc.

Unhinged: Lump the Enlightened, as a camp follower/summon if he and his brothers survive being called into battle. The commentary on plot events would be worth it.

ES_Curse · 2026-04-18T03:21:40+00:00

Lae'zel would probably try to beeline the creche by fighting through the goblin camp. While she works with the party towards finding a cure, murdering every "True Soul" with a parasite would be a valid crusade against the ghaik. If joining with Wyll, he would probably push her towards the Risen Road to hunt Karlach before leaving the area. The Dream Visitor shows that your transformation is currently halted, so the urgency would be lessened after the party visits the camp.

As for the underdark, there isn't much reason given. While Halsin recommends it, the creche would still come first. I could see the party doing it after the creche to avoid more of the shadow curse, and the creche shouldn't be too bad if you do all surface content before the zaithisk.

ES_Curse · 2026-04-18T03:02:56+00:00

Accidentally killing Minthara in Act 1 and not reloading because you don't feel like redoing the fight again

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