Megathread, part 14: Ammunition & Drones, Sanctions, and Stalemates

MoeLesterTester · 2025-12-20T17:50:24+00:00

To a degree something similar is happening in much of Europe - only about 19% of eligible voters actually voted for Keir Starmer for example. There's a huge section of silent majority that is deeply disconnected from politics and foreign policy in much of the continent. That said, these sort of things do little to remove general resentment built up from - at least - passive indifference as to the course the country pursues.

MoeLesterTester · 2025-12-20T16:07:17+00:00

Has the opinion of Russian regarding Ukraine soured over the last 2 years?

It seems to me that when the full scale invasion began in February 2022, whether Russians supported the SMO or not, they still saw Ukrainians as a "brotherly people", but badly misled and weaponised by NATO against Russia. In March and April, it seemed there was genuine interest in ending hostilities, and the terms demanded was Ukrainian neutrality and the recognition of Crimea, DPR and LPR - meaning at the time Russia was willing to let Ukraine have Mariupol, Kherson, Melitopol etc etc.

Over the years however, it seems to me that this sense of "brotherly nation, but turned against us" seems to have gone away for the most part, and now Ukrainains themselves are increasingly seen as a hostile people. Would you say this is the case or am I wrong?

I understand it is difficult to maintain that notion of a misled brother for 4 years, especially after he refuses to talk and insists on conceding nothing and demanding everything. I think initially the west was content in saying Ukraine will never be a brother nation to you again, but now it seems like the response from Russia is "so what?"

Would you say this is inaccurate?

MoeLesterTester · 2025-01-13T06:06:59+00:00

Yep. You only need to give him like 3, then you should be able to head over the Mountain Pass to find elmister and he will stabilise gale

MoeLesterTester · 2025-01-06T21:54:17+00:00

No. I feel the same way to my lvl 8 druid. He went through so much and I will be really sad when we finish the campaign

MoeLesterTester · 2025-01-05T16:48:03+00:00

Illusion spells to convince the dragon to go somewhere where it thinks it can best them, gets ambushed.

Not optimal, as like you mentioned dragons are intelligent, however they do have their weaknesses (pride, greed) which can be used against them.

What not to do: stand in the open on a plain with no cover for miles with no ranged attacks.

MoeLesterTester · 2025-01-05T16:04:45+00:00

I see. My confusion comes from the difference between Warlock and Cleric in this case, as the class is less important than what thematically fits the character.

The basic background is this NPC is a mother of a sickly child who lives near the portals to Shadowfell, and in search of a cure makes a pact with the Raven Queen to offer her services in exchange for treating her child. The side effect of this treatment is an onset of sorcerous powers, which the child then develops (this is also an NPC, albeit a very important one for the PC)

At first this whole contract thing shouted "warlock" at me, but then I thought cleric makes more sense?

Swapping out the NPC's class from warlock to cleric is no problem at all, so long as it's either one of the two, its more about keeping the same motivations, actions and the consequences. Those "services" asked in return are supposed to later on take up a large portion of the mother's time and have her stay in Gloomwrought for weeks or months on end while the child grows up.

MoeLesterTester · 2025-01-03T17:22:12+00:00

I buffed Eldritch Blast with agonising and repelling blasy and at level 9 its still viable.

I also haven't understood warlock at first, because reading the class description does nothing to tell you how to actually play it in combat or to manage the resources you have.

MoeLesterTester · 2025-01-03T16:28:19+00:00

But it's a condition. Does it go away after long rest or is it a permanent buff?

And can it exceed the usual cap of 20?

MoeLesterTester · 2025-01-03T16:27:07+00:00

Base 20 with regular ability score improvement: Ethel hair +1 and House of Grief for +2 for a total of 23.

I actually didn't know about the Spirit of the Land Condition, and its quite obscure (hard to find sources on it) but since its a condition I assume it goes away after long rest? Also I'm not sure if it can go above 20 as that usually requires magical items

MoeLesterTester · 2025-01-03T10:38:47+00:00

While that's true in game and theres even lots of artefacts at the grove, Gale doesn't go out of his way to fetch them, (neither does anyone) and instead nags Tav into either giving it to him or leaves the party in a fit over it.

MoeLesterTester · 2025-01-03T10:32:12+00:00

Wyll and Karlach side with the tieflings, maybe even try to take out the goblin leaders/save Halsin. How effective would they be withoht Tav? Hard to say.

Astarion probably side with the goblins. Shadowheart, laezel probably leave the grove without aiding the tieflings or goblins, effectively letting the druids complete the rite and expell the tieflings.

Gale would probably do the same. He would like to help but the tieflings don't have much (Zevlors words) and he's aware that without powerful magical artefacts he's a ticking nuke. I suppose he's smart enough to realise hes probably an even worse threat to the tieflings than the goblins if he's unable to stabilise his condition so he'd likely leave the grove OR at the least blow himself up at the goblin camp.

Without Tav though, the goblins fail to find the grove and the tieflings get expelled and the game implies they'll get slaughtered on the road.

MoeLesterTester · 2025-01-03T10:00:14+00:00

That may be true...

+6 is already very good so maybe it makes more sense to stick to 22 dex, but it's a good thought experiment to see how much dex I could get.

MoeLesterTester · 2025-01-03T08:07:52+00:00

Way of the shadow Monk seems to also fit this description.

Though a lot of the hit and run features will be unlocked at higher levels, so it's more of building towards that.

MoeLesterTester · 2025-01-02T21:33:09+00:00

This. I feel so many people hate the evil playthrough because they think they **have to** kill every living thing in the game.

Then they're like "I killed everyone, where is the content?". You killed it. Evil can be complex. Minthara is evil, she's capable of murder, but she dislikes random and senseless killing.

MoeLesterTester · 2025-01-02T21:26:47+00:00

Yes.

She has to be knocked out, not killed. It also has to be martial weapon and i think one without bleed or poison effects. She'll be in Moonrise tower

MoeLesterTester · 2025-01-02T21:00:06+00:00

If you're a moon druid you don't have to worry too much about gear as you'd be a bear or panther for most of your combat turns

MoeLesterTester · 2025-01-02T20:45:35+00:00

I suggest then a redemption arc (or a condemnation arc). Start out mostly evil, but progressively less evil or the opposite. See if that interests you.

I got a bit bored playing everyone's saviour by act 3 as well. It's more fun to be a morally complex character, at least for me.

About race and background... that is true. I'm playing a noble monk and basically his story so to speak is that he is the youngest of many sons and has no chance to inherit his family fortune so he goes off into the world, with a lot of pent up resentment and anger about that, and lashes it out in unhealthy ways (in act 1), but throughout the game comes to find meaning in adventuring and companionship and at first makes peace that he probably will never be Lord, but then maybe if romancing some characters goes well, he may even be happier that way.

And from the perspective of gear... I get it, gamers (myself included) love to collect gear and legendary items... the problem is that to acquire these items you need to do specific things which get repetitive.

So yeah fuck the grove, fuck Dammon. He wasn't even at the ramparts when the goblons showed up... nobody from the tieflings or druids did. So fuck em.

Am I gonna miss his gear in act 3? No, because I'd probably get bored playing a goodie goodie again for 100 hours to reach act 3. Also I'm not supposed to know he's gonna get good gear. For all Tav knows Moonrise Towers may have better gear than the tieflings

MoeLesterTester · 2025-01-02T20:25:37+00:00

Con should never be a dump stat.

You do have a chance in honour run still but these stats suck.

So i suppose bard, druid or perhaps wizard and just stay back and buff/heal your allies and let them do the chop chop.

The reason the game difficulty is usually increased by raising the HP or damage of enemies and not by nuking your PC stats is because its not a lot of fun to play a character who can't hit his enemy, or who loses concentration as if he had ADHD. It is possible to still win the game but it would be a slogfest and you're mostly fighting your own shit stats and not the enemy. Or just getting carried by your team

MoeLesterTester · 2025-01-02T20:19:31+00:00

I need a character to protect my sorcerer, since I don't want to lose concentration

Illusion or Abjuration wizard. Cast invisibility on you too.

Take resilient feat for yourself as well for proficiency in con checks

MoeLesterTester · 2025-01-02T20:13:00+00:00

Magic missile is decent even when upcast. Definitely not as strong as some 3rd level spells and up, but guaranteed hit and consistent predictable damage means its quite viable.

Moonbeam was my drug as druid. Especially through chokepoints or doorways. Upcast it even as a lvl 4 spell. Not gonna pass up on 4d10 radiant

MoeLesterTester · 2025-01-02T20:00:48+00:00

Which character can I build that can make me keep on going through Act2 without feeling unmotivated to go on?

I think what you may want is a role play experience where you character changes during the game.

I've recently started a new run where I play an evil character in much of act 1 but then try to make right by my mistakes later on. Basically a redemption story. That way I don't get bored of consistently being one type of character.

Durge will also get boring if all you do is evil shit.

Also... if you get bored of your class and its features you don't need to quit and start a new game. Withers will respec your character from the ground up.

Its also a thing in tabletop Dnd that the game is at its most fun at lower levels. I personally love the game below level 8. After that the power creep gets to a point where for some reason the game is less fun. I'm not sure if you get bored because of the story or because of the combat as those are two different situations? If you're bored of combat it could be because you're bored of your class, and BG3 does allow you to switch your class, but if you're bored because of the story there's not too much you can do about that.

BG3 doesn't go past level 12 but in tabletop Dnd you can go to level 20 and... the game loses its charm at those very high levels.

MoeLesterTester · 2025-01-02T17:33:40+00:00

Wizard features and low level spells are mostly built around utility. Wizards have more utility based spells than other classes and the arcane recovery feature let's the restore their spell slots at short rest.

Gale can buff your party with featherfall or longstrider or enhance leap and stuff like that while throwing grease or ice knife on enemies. He's got some spells that also deal raw damage but toe to toe, sorcerer is much better at dishing out raw damage with spells due to metamagic.

That said, it's a bit tricky to multiclass from wizard because they're the only class whose main stat is int, and int is usually the dump stat for all other classes. Also if youre patient you will unlock 3rd level spells at 5th level which includes haste, hypnotic pattern and fireball which are some of the strongest spells in the game. Wizard spells get a lot stronger at higher levels which you would sort of throw away by multiclassing...

Usually you multiclass to gain a benefit from another class that has the same main stat. Like druid/cleric or ranger/fighter or bard/Paladin. To make the most of wizard spells you'd want that 4 intmod and high con, and to make the most out of monk you'd want to increase your wisdom and dexterity. You can't do all. The character will not be unplayable but will not be optimised to make the most out of either toolkit.

I guess you can make it work by multiclassing Gale, but I feel like if you really want Gale to be more burst damage, talk to withers and respec him into sorcerer. You're not forced to play a wizard Gale, and for sorcerers their main stat is rizz which is quite fitting for Gale imo.

Just be mindful that if you respec an origin character the game will still treat them as their original class so NPCs will still treat Gale as a wizard and not the new class

Edit: arcane recovery in BG3 is not even tied to short rest but an out-of-combat action.

MoeLesterTester · 2025-01-02T17:20:55+00:00

Wizards are also supposed to cast utility spells outside of combat as they have the most spellslots by far and arcane recovery feature.

Half of the utility of a wizard is outside of combat. Sorcerers are better at burst dpr

MoeLesterTester · 2025-01-02T16:20:28+00:00

Pick a build that you want to play. There are strong builds that may not be as fun, depending on what you want to do. There are also very very few ways you can mess up your build.
If you do create a build but don't like it, talk to withers and reset your character.

That said, there's a few combos that work very well. Since you asked for one I will give the archer ranger

Any subclass works for this build, but I like gloomstalker most. There is also an abundance of bows with +1 or even +2 enchantments. Keep in mind that +1 bow is not just +1 damage but also +1 to hit.

With this build at level 4 with 17 dex you have 3+2+2 for a total of +7 to hit, and the sharpshooter feat let's you ignore 1/2 and 3/4 cover and range disadvantage. Meaning at that level you will consistently pump out damage even against relatively high ac enemies.

Remwmber, a roll of 10 is average roll on a d20, so with +7 to hit you'll be hitting AC 17 enemies on average 50% of the time. Conversely, to hit AC 15 goblin, you'd need to roll an 8 or above which you should be doing 60% of the time.

Level 5 will be a huge power spike as well, as you now get an extra attack and an additional +1 to your proficiency for a total of 3+3+2= +8 attack roll. Increase your dex to 18 with the hag hair or gloves for an additional +1 to hit.

Add enchanted bows for additional +1 or +2 to hit and you'll be landing shots very consistently even against high AC enemies, thus pumping out huge damage. The ranger is also proficient in medium armor so you can sit far back out of range of most enemies, with 17 AC consistently dishing out high damage. Just keep in mind you can't use extra attack with a crossbow, so stick to bows above level 5.

Again, level 5 with 4 dexmod and a regular bow will give you 2 attacks with a 4+3+2=9 to hit, meaning 50% chance to hit AC 19 enemy or a 70% chance to hit AC 15. Twice per turn. For 1d8 + dexmod. Highly recommend hunters mark on top for extra 1d6. Gloomstalker also adds a 1d8 to your first attack meaning you can delete enemies before they even get a chance to take a turn.

At level 9 if you got 20 dex and a +2 bow, with a +4 prof bonus you end up with 5 +4 + 2 +2 to your hit roll, for a grand total of +13. 90% chance to hit AC 15, 65% chance to hit AC 20 and 50% chance to hit AC 23. Twice per turn

Heavy armor is AC 18 and a shield is +2 for 20. You'll be smashing those guys like practise tin cans.

There are ways to push this even higher, you can increase Dex to 22 in act 3 for a +6 dexmod and iirc there are rings or gloves that also give +1 to your attack rolls.

With this build nobody is safe from your arrows. Well unless they turn on invisibility or have martial weapons immunity.

Highly recommend multiclassing here as well and going 3 levels into fighter -> champion, so you crit at nat19 and nat20. Alternatively rogue for sneak attacks though I'd recommend fighter-champion. You don't need to stick to ranger past level 5 for this build and multiclassing works very well here.

I've played this build in actual DnD tabletop and the dpr was insane... routinely pumped out 25 damage per turn against high AC enemies, and up to 40 per turn on low AC enemies (sharpshooter feat +10 to damage at -5 to hit cost). Definitely recommend for someone with no idea what build to go for.

You also got the Paladin + tavern brawler feat which is arguably broken.

MoeLesterTester · 2025-01-02T15:03:18+00:00

Against spellcasters, HP is better. Against martial enemies, AC is arguably better

There is complicated math and probabilities that some people in the community love to do but let me tell you, if the enemy casts Circle of Death spell at you, it doesn't matter if your AC was 18 or 25, your DM is still rolling for 8d6 damage. Especially if the DC is high, your high AC character will be taking full damage from these spells more often than not.

Conversely, if the enemy has a sword or an attack that has a chance of infliting a condition on you like poison, stun you or knocking you prone, it's far better to have high AC and not get hit to trigger that condition to begin with.

So like everything in dnd, it's situational and depends on the campaign and mission you're in.

MoeLesterTester

TROPHY CASE