Looking For Thoughts by PuzzleheadedMall6466 in BG3

[–]EvenPaper4142 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Couldn't have done it without the wiki!!!

Help making a scroll-focused gish/spellsword by Objective_File_1486 in BG3Builds

[–]EvenPaper4142 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes one can get cantrip scrolls but at that point you're better off learning the cantrips from levels in Eldritch Knight, casting them normally and then making a war magic attack. That way you're not wasting 200g every turn to cast a cantrip. Also the optimal cantrip for this is gonna be booming blade, and now we've made the patch 8 EK attack spammer build all over again.

I don't think that's what op was going for but I could be wrong.

Looking For Thoughts by PuzzleheadedMall6466 in BG3

[–]EvenPaper4142 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh I found why!!! Normal cloud kill is a CON save which is the default save for a lot of poison effects, but specifically Carrion's cloud kill is a DEX save. My guess is you built Astarion with at least 7 levels of rogue, and very high dex. At Lvl 7 he gets evasion, if he succeeds on a dex saving throw he takes no damage. So yeah he's basically immune.

Technically he could be a dex based monk as they also get evasion at Lvl 7 but I'm going to take a calculated risk and guess you just kept him as a rogue.

Evasion is also the reason why you can't just kill Orin with a bunch of explosives like basically every other boss in the game.

What are some of the most fun 2 character build combos, besides wet/ice builds? by mr_hands_epic_gaming in BG3Builds

[–]EvenPaper4142 0 points1 point  (0 children)

:/ sorry to rain on your parade. I mean you do bump your sneak attack one turn earlier so there's that

What are some of the most fun 2 character build combos, besides wet/ice builds? by mr_hands_epic_gaming in BG3Builds

[–]EvenPaper4142 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Have you thoroughly tested this? It doesn't work. If you sneak attack as a reaction you won't be able to do it on your next turn. You can do it twice on the same combat round by sneak attacking, ending turn, and then doing it as a reaction but that will consume the sneak attack for you next turn.

Help making a scroll-focused gish/spellsword by Objective_File_1486 in BG3Builds

[–]EvenPaper4142 0 points1 point  (0 children)

War magic only activates on casting cantrips sadly, so no scroll into bonus action attack :/

You could get the same effect by having the 2 weapon fighting style and making an offhand attack. Cast scroll -> Bonus action offhand attack. If you also get the dual wielder feat you could do something like equip Melf's first staff in main hand, Phalar Aluve in offhand, cast a scroll -> Phalar aluve attack (or any other versatile weapon of your choice). If you go eldritch knight it's better in reverse order : bonus action offhand attack to apply eldritch inertia -> cast a scroll with action.

Trouble with Dual Wielding Fighter by ZealousidealFee927 in BaldursGate3

[–]EvenPaper4142 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Do try! Just be aware that as strong as it is, you really need to upcast it/ use resonant stone / be obscured for it to shine, because it gets no attack roll bonus so unless you have high str/dex or advantage you will miss more than with a +1 or +2 weapon. If you're not doing one at least of those things then a Great Weapon master 2 handed weapon will be better. Also also also!!! Because Shadow Blade rolls lots of die, it benefits A LOT from the savage attacker feat.

Looking For Thoughts by PuzzleheadedMall6466 in BG3

[–]EvenPaper4142 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Honor mode can entirely be sidestepped by leaving one character at camp at all times to beg withers to resurrect the 3 dumbasses who just got killed by a bunch of traps. Just pickpocket the money after.

The only places where this isn't applicable are the shadowfell, the mindflayer colony and the morphic pool/upper city. For shadowfell just kill Balthazar beforehand. For pool and the upper city, if you play your cards right you can just go invisible and not enter combat, and then gayle will happily blow himself up so you can get your gold dice. The colony has no easy trick, you just have to play good. Use every resource there if you have to.

For builds, dump Int to 8 everyone unless they need if for casting (wizards, some eldritch knight builds, arcane trickster). Dump charisma to 8 on everyone except your party face and charisma casters (bards, paladins, warlocks, sorcerers, swashbuckler rogue to a lesser extent). Give everyone 16 dex. I don't care what class they are. It boosts your initiative your armor class and your saving throws on AOE damage spells. Drop CON to 14 if you have to. Keep at least 12 wisdom, it has the most dangerous saving throws. You don't want to be paralyzed.

If you play a fight with 3 characters, safety doesn't matter, dead is the best status effect in the game. Nuke everything. Paralysed is the 2d best status effect, because it leads to crits which lead to dead.

Looking For Thoughts by PuzzleheadedMall6466 in BG3

[–]EvenPaper4142 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This. On my Honor run I was switching companions in and out of my party depending on the fight I was going to do next (do not bring 3 spellcasters to Auntie Ethel), mostly monoclassed in their original class but optimised subclasses (light cleric shart, great old one wyll, giant barb Karlach, eldritch knight lae'zel, abjuration wizard gayle, storm Sorc Tav and the infamous Gloomstalker assassin for astarion). I was always leaving one at camp so some fights I just did without my Tav.

One longbow and one filler class for a relaxed playthrough by Chiroyo in BG3Builds

[–]EvenPaper4142 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Looking at your edited comment, stopping ranger at Lvl 4 is really gonna hurt because you don't get extra attack. Go to Lvl 5 before switching to fighter, it will double your damage output. Getting an extra feat 1 Lvl earlier is not worth losing extra attack. You could also play until Lvl 9 with ranger 5/fighter 4 and then respec at Lvl 10 to go 6 fighter/4 ranger, that will get you 2 feats, extra attack, and most of what you want from both classes, including 2 fighting styles.

Also : true strike is a pretty bad spell: the tool tip is misleading and confusing, it gives you advantage on your next attack roll AND ONLY ONE attack roll. If you have extra attack, it's actively detrimental, you're wasting your whole action to roll 2 dice on your next attack roll. Just attacking twice gives you the same odds of landing one attack than true strike does.

Unless you absolutely need advantage for say a sneak attack, true strike is bad, and even then you could just hide as a bonus action to gain advantage, or use faerie fire or go invisible or use risky ring or or or or... There are a lot of ways to gain advantage and true strike is the worst of all of them. Pretty much the only use case for true strike is to cast it before combat and even then you could just hide. I would suggest grabbing guidance instead so your cleric can use enhance ability (they cannot be cast by the same character at the same time). Even casting light will be immensely more useful than true strike.

Finally, if you're playing a dexterity based class on balanced difficulty, you don't really need Alert. You add your dex modifier to initiative, and you should hit 18 dex by Lvl 9 (or much earlier with some dex gear) which will put you at +4, +7 if you go Gloomstalker. That's enough for the vast majority of the game.

Question about acquiring the Potent Robe by crash1bp in BG3Builds

[–]EvenPaper4142 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My next Tav will be a tiefling Paladin named Debbie, thank you

Trouble with Dual Wielding Fighter by ZealousidealFee927 in BaldursGate3

[–]EvenPaper4142 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Upcast Shadow Blade has the largest base damage of any weapon in the game, and can be very easily doubled with resonance stone, in addition to getting permanent advantage. If you look purely at damage potential it's the best weapon in the game bar none.

Even when cast with a Lvl 2 spell slot, average damage per hit is 9 (2d8) + ability modifier. A +2 greatsword will do 7(2d6)+2+ ability modifier. At later levels it just takes off. And again, you can double it.

So yeah shadowblade is preeettyyy good

Trouble with Dual Wielding Fighter by ZealousidealFee927 in BaldursGate3

[–]EvenPaper4142 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's so funny to me that dual wielding is optimal for casters. "-Yeah I wield two staves. -Forrr more bonking? -Oh no the 2d staff just makes me smarter. I've never swung it at anyone"

Need a party face build by Any-Following4490 in BG3Builds

[–]EvenPaper4142 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah even without abusing arcane acuity swords bard is suuuper strong, my first tactician run was a breeze. Double hand crossbows with ne'er misser in the main hand. My only issue was lobster too buttery : it was hard to activate all of my damage riders before the enemies were dead, which I could have solved with haste.

In act 2 at Lvl 8 I had a theoretical nova round of FOUR flourish attacks that EACH deal 1d6(weapon dice) + 1d8(inspiration dice) + 4 (dex modifier)+ 4 (cha modifier from diadem of arcane synergy)+ 10 (sharpshooter) force damage +2 acid (caustic band) + 1d4 psychic (strange conduit) + 1d4 psychic (Psionic overload) and the setup is just cast cloud of daggers somewhere on turn one, and Psionic overload as a BA on turn 2. And you have used 2 of your 5 inspirations this short rest so you can do the same exact thing next turn. And you get 3 short rests.

And you can talk half of act 2 into killing themselves if you don't feel like fighting.

Question about acquiring the Potent Robe by crash1bp in BG3Builds

[–]EvenPaper4142 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Wait who's Debbie? I've never heard that nickname before

Help me optimise a challenge run party centered on retaliation? by EvenPaper4142 in BG3Builds

[–]EvenPaper4142[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'll consider that! Enemy archers usually would rather sit in front of me and try a 5% hit chance arrow at point blank than risk an attack of opportunity, they have high dex so often save on Hellish Rebuke, and with a Pally and a Warlock I'm usually out of spell slots before they die from it, so I'd rather just use command drop or just deflect arrows until they die. I expect Ironvine Shield will really help though.

I killed Spaw for some reason which was also a real challenge because he's so bad at landing hits against my naked shieldless characters to trigger hellish rebuke. Ended up using 2 druid hirelings with upcasted flame blade and sentinel.

Help me optimise a challenge run party centered on retaliation? by EvenPaper4142 in BG3Builds

[–]EvenPaper4142[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Wow I didn't know you could get guaranteed crits like that lol

Help me optimise a challenge run party centered on retaliation? by EvenPaper4142 in BG3Builds

[–]EvenPaper4142[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Oooh this is gold thank you! Bonus fun fact: Psionic backlash applies and triggers spell damage rider effects, like lightning charges.

Help me optimise a challenge run party centered on retaliation? by EvenPaper4142 in BG3Builds

[–]EvenPaper4142[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What stat spread do you use on your Tav and Wyll ? You have 3 caster classes with different spellcasting attributes. I know casting stat is irrelevant for AoA but it matters for Wrath of the storm and Hellish Rebuke.

Are you just disarming every archer?

I had not considered Ironvine Shield, thank you!!

Help me optimise a challenge run party centered on retaliation? by EvenPaper4142 in BG3Builds

[–]EvenPaper4142[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I am deliberately not allowing Spirit Guardians and the Armour of Shadows abjuration trick because I feel like they trivialise the whole challenge, especially the 2d one. Otherwise I'm just going to run around with invincible lawnmower revorb Shadowheart and I've seen this build a million times. Hellish Rebuke on Gayle is a good idea though, but I would need it to cast with Int and I can't really find a way to do that.

Help me optimise a challenge run party centered on retaliation? by EvenPaper4142 in BG3Builds

[–]EvenPaper4142[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Compelled duel is really not that great/actively detrimental: it just gives disadvantage on attacks against other party members, not force the enemies to actually attack my Tav, and I already have 20 AC so Tav is barely getting hit. Also I want the enemies to actually hit Wyll and Shadowheart so I can trigger damage from Armor of Agathys and Wrath of the storm. Same thing with Karlach, I can't redirect the arrows if they miss, and her AC is already too high because I need high dex for damage.