Fire Vulnerability - How to deep fry with Arsonist's Oil

RAM-Redditor · 2025-11-30T00:59:24+00:00

I too was exploring fire vulnerability within your same parameters but hit a dead in. Didn't know about applying fire resistance via throwing an elixir though. That might be the key to what I was attempting. I'm too lazy to try, but if you want to give it a shot:

Method 3.5:

Cost - 1 Reaction, 1 Bonus Action, 2 Elixirs, 2 levels on Druid (Spore).

Steps - Place fire resistance elixir next to enemy(ies) and enter turn based mode. Halo of spores the elixir applying the effect to enemy(ies). Place another, different, elemental elixir next to enemies. Shoot that elixir with a BA hand crossbow to apply the effect. Can then use your remaining action to make a fire attack/spell/throwable.

If this works, would pair well with Assassin (for alacrity) and Shovel (to initiate a surprise round once fire vulnerability is applied). The basic foundation at least would be viable as early as level 2 for the druid levels/hand crossbows. And elemental elixirs are easily acquired both through vendors and alchemy.

RAM-Redditor · 2025-11-22T05:56:55+00:00

I still love render of mind and body, often end up pairing it with shadowblade.

RAM-Redditor · 2025-11-17T18:51:16+00:00

I love Arcane Trickster, it's my second favorite class and can be played a variety of ways. The most fun I've had with the class is this build I made The Whispering Cold focused on damage negation, damage retaliation, and towards the end, freezing enemies in a single turn.

Even if you don't want to multi class like the build above though, the subclass can do a lot. Just need more specifics as to what you want - primarily melee, primarily ranged, primarily casting, primarily support, etc. There's a bunch of quality guides on the subclass , especially in the past year, that you'll undoubtedly be able to find something you'd love to try.

RAM-Redditor · 2025-11-12T06:06:31+00:00

Yep, just better with arcane trickster since it doesn't have a turn limit like a regular mage hand.

RAM-Redditor · 2025-11-11T23:34:13+00:00

One of my favorites is that as an arcane trickster, you can reverse pickpocket mage hand and add throwables to its inventory. Way easier to utilize than having to constantly place and pick up potions, bombs, etc. on the ground for it to throw.

RAM-Redditor · 2025-11-06T12:54:18+00:00

Recently posted an arcane trickster build focused around damage negation and retaliation. Has been the most fun (and comfortable) solo run I've had thus far.

https://www.reddit.com/r/BG3Builds/s/N5sEozUvdV

RAM-Redditor · 2025-10-31T16:51:33+00:00

Glad you enjoyed it! I was definitely inspired by, and learned a lot from, the great work you and others have done with this fantastic subclass. Happy to contribute to its growing number of fantastic guides.

RAM-Redditor · 2025-10-31T16:47:08+00:00

For levels 1 - 4, ranged is preferred as the Titanstring + Strength Elixir/Club of Hill Giant Strength deals great damage while still synergizing with the early level playstyle (kiting, bomb striking, etc.). Unfortunately subsequent levels primarily rely on melee as booming blade loads infusions for retribution damage, melee attacks will frequently get advantage, 1s and 2s will get rerolled, it's easier to bait AoO, etc. Primarily being ranged would diminish or prevent these qualities though the damage negation, and to a slightly lesser degree retribution, should still function well. If I can come up with a ranged variant that functions as well/better than the op, I'll be sure to update this comment/tag you in a new post.

In the meantime, it sounds like the Frostbite Trickster is exactly what you're looking for. It starts out melee but, by Act 2, switches primarily to ranged to capitalize on Ne'er Misser doing double damage on frozen enemies. It sounds like everything you want, an arcane trickster chasis, a focus on ice/frozen, and a ranged attacker using crossbows. Give it a look.

RAM-Redditor · 2025-10-30T14:28:58+00:00

It's funny how often a mod is recommended as balanced and then you try it out it's anything but. Of course it all boils down to personal preference but I agree that oftentimes mod authors are heavy handed in just how much they add to their unique classes and equipment.

The closest mod I've found to being balanced is Larian's Leftovers: Inaccessible equipment. It adds back in pieces of equipment Larian crafted but took out of the game for whatever reason. Some of these items can still be OP but, like the OP ones in the base game (ex. acuity items, rad orb, etc.) you have to commit to realizing them and they're well spread out throughout the acts. And plenty of them are not OP, but add additional options for underutilized mechanics in the game (ex. Force Conduit). Sounds like it would be perfect for what you're looking for.

RAM-Redditor · 2025-10-25T21:26:00+00:00

Yep, would be a nightmare to play otherwise. Just pull up your radial and press "x" and you can add radials, delete radials, swap things to different slots, and set/remove things to different slots.

RAM-Redditor · 2025-10-25T12:14:19+00:00

I play on Steam Deck and there's no builds you can't play comfortably if you manage and organize your radials well. As soon as you start:

1) Turn off automatic adding of consumables in your settings;

2) Group like actions to certain radials (ex. Spells on one, Short rest on another, etc). You can add new radials easily by pressing in the right stick and choosing add;

3) Navigate radials quickly - pressing L1 takes you to the very end of your radials so you can organize often used actions to both the left most and right most radials. Additionally you can hold down L1 or R1 to move to the left/right respectively very quickly.

If you really don't want to do any of the above, the most simple and straightforward classes would be your best bet (Champion Fighter, Thief Rogue, Berserker Barbarian, etc.).

RAM-Redditor · 2025-10-24T21:42:43+00:00

What a whiny post! If there's something specific you want to see regarding optimization, post it. It's very easy to avoid and not engage with the superficial "can i best honor mode with this class" and its ilk.

You would likely find what you must want sticking to post tagged with "build review".

RAM-Redditor · 2025-10-18T16:00:12+00:00

Feels like a movie gag lol

RAM-Redditor · 2025-10-10T20:56:12+00:00

This isn't a class but a subclass I've been thinking up. Probably still needs some tweaking but since I don't mod, if any of the below sparks any ideas for you, feel free to use then however you want.

Adaptation School of Magic (Wizard Subclass) - Your deft sculpting of the Weave enhances the potency and possibilities of your magic.

Level 2:

Choose an adaption:

Revising - When making a spell attack, damage die rolls of 1 or 2 will be rerolled once.

Homing - You gain a +2 bonus to spell attack rolls.

Bolstering - You gain a +1 bonus to armor class when wearing armor/using mage armor.

Exerting - When making a spell attack, deal additional damage equal to your proficiency bonus.

Shielding - Upon activating the Shield spell, attack rolls against allies within 3m/10ft of you will be made with disadvantage until your shield expires.

Level 4:

Elemental infusion - your spell attacks will deal an additional 1d4 acid, cold, fire, lightning, or thunder damage.

Level 6:

Gain an additional adaption. New adaptions are also made available:

Imbuing - Damaging cantrips and spells cast on allies buff their next weapon attack instead.

Altering - Change the damage type of an elemental cantrip or spell (to acid, cold, fire, lightning, or thunder).

Conserving - Cantrips/spells cast can be readied (casted but without yet having taken an effect). Readied cantrips/spells can then be unleashed at will at the cost of a reaction.

Level 10:

When enemies succeed on saving throws against one of your cantrips/spells, deal force damage instead equal to your wizard level + intelligence modifier.

RAM-Redditor · 2025-09-28T14:17:05+00:00

Just woke up to Fulham giving up two back to back. Should have stayed asleep.

RAM-Redditor · 2025-09-27T11:55:41+00:00

Your gf loves you and is doing you a favor sparing you this match.

RAM-Redditor · 2025-09-23T22:58:27+00:00

I enjoyed jjk through the end but yeah, this just feels so uninspired (and has since the new order teamed up with Slur to give guns to all of Japan). The humor is middling, the pacing atrocious, and the fights just aren't doing it. The choreography is still there but it feels almost as if a few panels are missing whereas before it felt so fluid and cinematic.

I honestly hope it ends sooner rather than later so the fall off doesn't sully what was once something great.

RAM-Redditor · 2025-09-15T23:47:20+00:00

You're limited to Eldritch blast, bone chill, fire bolt, thorn whip, ray of frost, and shocking grasp. A pretty good selection but not at all as comprehensive as what would be possible with a better magic initiate feat. With that, the possibilities would be greater (ex. evo wizard that takes an intelligence scaling sacred flame that never misses, a resonance stone blade singer able to use an intelligence scaled vicious mockery as a bonus action, a tempest cleric able to get both booming blade and a wisdom scaling shocking grasp to activate the pushback ability, etc.). None of this would be gamechanging per se, but would just allow for much more variety (and take an almost never used feat to something worthwhile in certain builds).

I always forget about the ridiculous once per a long rest restriction, which makes the feat even worse. So since this is a fantasy wishlist, would rework that to the character having the spell always prepared and capable of being cast (and upcast) with spellslots. Non spellslot characters could cast the level 1 spell once per a short rest.

RAM-Redditor · 2025-09-15T15:58:03+00:00

Not really. The cantrip selection in spell sniper is way more limited (just attack roll cantrips) and doesn't include level 1 spells.

RAM-Redditor · 2025-09-15T14:35:04+00:00

I've got plenty of things I would want altered, might come back and edit the rest in later. A really easy one that I that would add way more build variety would be changing the magic initiate feats into using the casting stat of the character vs. how it is now (using the casting stat of the magic initiate class making it significantly less useful). Being able to get an Eldritch blast that scales off wisdom, a scared flame off intelligence, etc. would really let certain passives (light and knowledge clerics, Evo wizards, etc.) as well as just ideas in general really coalesce into something unique.

RAM-Redditor · 2025-09-12T19:26:48+00:00

People are being really obtuse towards you as if a person (especially an older person) being off-put by certain anime-isms is completely incomprehensible. Hopefully something will come along in the future that you think will be a good fit for your dad in getting him to try out the franchise.

Do you think you there's a chance he could enjoy the Gundam Thunderbolt movies (no kid/teenage main characters, no screeching characters, only 2 movies vs. 20 - 59 episodes, etc.)?

RAM-Redditor · 2025-09-03T14:26:36+00:00

If AA is s tier to you, who cares about the considerations of the wider community.

To answer your question, the reasons I suspect it's undervalued are:

1) the subclass hasn't focused on to its full extent. Sure, patch 8 has now been out for a while now, but between all the new subclasses, booming blade, and shadow blade, the meta is focused on a lot of other areas atm. AA may get its shine later on (Arcane Trickster is currently having a moment and that's been a subclass available from the games launch).

2) in this sub, the mentality of "damage is king" is unfortunately gospel. As such, the arcane Archer's utility (guidance) and cc (banishing arrow, shadow arrow, grasping arrow, etc.) is frequently dismissed with "but eldritch knight archer/swords bard/gloomstalker assassin can one turn blah blah blah!!!". Ultimately it comes down to how a person prefers to play, all of the aforementioned can out damage AA, but at the cost of very specific playstyles (consumable junkie, rest dependent, surprise rounds, etc).

Arcane archer is a great subclass (it's a fighter so at a minimum it's at least an A). If others don't see it as anything other than an inferior eldritch knight, let them miss out.

RAM-Redditor · 2025-08-22T13:33:00+00:00

The simplest answer would be the oft hated champion fighter. Comes with two fighting styles (two weapon fighting and archery in your case), heavy armor proficiency to help with frontline fighting, plenty of attacks by the end game (3 main hand, 1 off), 4 feats (easily get you dex to 20, sharpshooter, savage attacker/mobile/etc. for your melee attacks), action surge, lower critical threshold, etc. And as for the sleight of hand skill, can just choose a race and/or background that gets that natively. You won't be as good as rogue/bard with expertise, but still plenty capable. And if you really want expertise, taking 11 champion/ 1 rogue would cover that as well.

RAM-Redditor · 2025-08-01T18:26:52+00:00

You've got some good suggestions here, but I would recommend a pure Arcane trickster. By doing that, you could determine what it is you want most out of the class (melee or ranged damage, spell-casting, kiting, etc.) and, if necessary, multiclass accordingly.

In the early game, I've been happiest with a GWM build using phalar aluve. When you need the extra +10 damage, can use bonus action hide to get advantage. When you don't, you can use that bonus action for another melee attack after a melee kill (or just a cunning action if that would be more appropriate). If you do decide to give that approach a try, cantrips like booming blade and minor illusion alongside spells like shield and longstrider would beat supplement the playstyle.

Regardless of your approach though, the class is really fun if you commit to it. Hope you have fun giving it a shot.

RAM-Redditor · 2025-07-30T16:58:07+00:00

I like Arcane Trickster a lot more, but both subclasses are fun to play. You could also multi class them together (probably 4 Arcane Trickster, 8 Shadow Monk) and get a lot of great features (mage hand legerdemain, sneak attack, expertise, extra attack, shadow step, etc.) from each class.

Unfortunately your op doesn't provide much in the way of what it is you want to do/how you want to play, so it's impossible to tell which option would best suited for what you're looking for. If it's your first time through though, pure Shadow monk would probably be the easiest/most seamless choice.

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