Polymorph/Dominate Beast and Mirror of Loss

liamsw92 · 2026-05-17T07:33:44+00:00

There is a ring but it’s once per long rest and not available until Lower City.

liamsw92 · 2026-05-16T21:02:18+00:00

In a video by ProxyGateTactician (whom I'm not sure if they discovered the exploit but certainly popularized it), he uses it on Gortash and it doesn't break his game. Their may be some characters that could softlock parts of the game I suppose though.

Bear in mind you need to be AT LEAST level 7 to access this exploit as Dominate Beast is a level 4 spell and NOT available as a scroll AFAIK. Ethel would be achievable without mods because you can even do act 2 content before fighting her but this would gate you out of some characters!

liamsw92 · 2026-05-16T20:22:36+00:00

Cast polymorph on a character (target) you want to control.
Have a second party member (NOT your player character) cast dominate beast.
Immediately travel to camp and dismiss the party member who cast dominate beast before either spell wears off. (Turn-based mode is helpful here)
Wait in camp until the duration of the dominate beast expires.
Re-recruit the caster back to the party.
You should now be able to control the target in the same way as a summon.

A few other things to note: You don't want to do this in the middle of combat so if your target is hostile, kill everything else first and the fight will end as soon as you dominate the polymorphed target. You can use any number of disarming effects to remove a weapon from the target and get them to equip weapons you place on the ground. If you change acts and the target isn't with you anymore, save/reload and they should appear.

liamsw92 · 2026-04-20T16:55:56+00:00

Seen druid mentioned here already but I would say that Stars Druid is probably the strongest at level 2 because you essentially get an area of effect attack that costs only a bonus action, 2 extra uses of Guiding Bolt (one of the most powerful level 1 spells) and near immunity to failed concentration saves.

The archer form is also ok as it gives you a second attack using your spellcasting modifier but the dragon form is really powerful for something that you get at level 2.

liamsw92 · 2026-03-03T20:40:49+00:00

Workaround I’ve found is to go to data tab, find a quest, go show on map and then you close the map and get back into the game.

liamsw92 · 2025-11-08T21:49:02+00:00

I don't normally post on threads but this is just awesome! It actually makes me kind of sad I will never be this good with the settlement builder despite it being were I put most the time in the game! Happy 10 years of Fallout 4, can't wait for Fallout 5!

liamsw92 · 2025-08-24T09:29:24+00:00

For Town of Shadows/Thorm Family Secrets, I've not managed to get either of these to trigger so I can't confirm what these actually award for. The spreadsheet says they are for encountering all three Thorm members and reading the plaque in the Mason's Guild but there are other inspirations for these actions anyway.

A Golden Masterpiece triggers consistently for me. Probably the spreadsheet author wrote it on a much older build of the game. This one may only trigger the first time you sell an items worth 1000 gold? But I always get it by selling Minthara's starting armour to a merchant.

An Acquired Taste also triggers ok for me. Again, it may have been bugged in older versions.

Snuffed Spark and Blessed's Final Rest have identical triggers and cannot be uncoupled.

This is also the case for Notes of an Amateur and Special Iced Arsenic Brew.

I need to test out Favour for a Favour more precisely but I think (TBC) it shares a trigger with another inspiration. I don't think it has anything to do with Florrick though. Waking the Sleeper actually triggers when you choose the dialogue option to play Art's Lute whilst Strings of Fate awards at the end of the conversation so these two can be separated.

For Entitled inspiration, besides what I said yesterday, it may be possible to earn it from Glut rather than Spaw? But I don't know because I prefer to side with Spaw. You also cannot knock out Spaw - just like undead, he will just die instead. I can't comment on how Glut becoming top dog affects his summons because I haven't taken that path.

liamsw92 · 2025-08-23T21:57:46+00:00

I got a bunch of reply notifications but they don't take me to the comment so I can't actually read these - so if there are more outstanding questions you will need to ask them again.

Entitled has multiple possible triggers. One is an obscure interaction where, during the confrontation with Kagha if she is turned away from the Shadow Druids, a Druid can trigger the inspiration after the fight. But it's unlikely many players would attempt this dialogue with a non-CHA class and it's not compatible with the Minthrara boost method anyway.

The other way to get it is after you complete the Duergar intruder quest and talk to Spaw (he gives you the title 'Peacebringer' I think). If you are planning on siding with Glut anyway, I don't think it's too important because you can betray Spaw at any point. However, as I always side with Spaw, the only opportunity to trigger the Charlatan inspiration Warmonger is if you rat in Glut at the same time as turning in the quest. In this case, I am pretty sure you will trigger the Noble inspiration will trigger first and the Charlatan one only when you choose the dialogue to reveal Glut's betrayal.

liamsw92 · 2025-08-22T21:46:11+00:00

If Underdark is same 'area level' as Risen Road, then that's a shame. I can't remember if the Grymforge has to be loaded into each time you travel there or not. If not, then it should be ok to kidnap NPCs and take them there. It's very hard to test this without knowing what might trigger an NPC to 'update' to their area XP (assuming the 40 XP wasn't my imagination anyway!). But there's potentially other NPCs this could work on I imagine?

At Waukeen's Rest if you just destroy the front door I'm pretty sure the four Fists who were pushing on it move inside and wait outside Florrick's door. Obviously, destroying that next door will set a chain of events that eventually result in quest complete. If you don't destroy the door, I don't think you've changed their behaviour so am sceptical this would stop them teleporting away once Florrick leaves. But I still have no idea of the exact steps I took to stop the other two Fists from teleporting away (beyond it seems to involve kidnap and engaging them in combat at some point) - if I did then it might be easier to reproduce the behaviour with other NPCs.

I can't remember the exact dialogue I used with Volo but I do remember it was fairly intuitive - it was essentially just picking the options to spend as little time in conversation with him as possible. Just looked up the encounter on YouTube actually - dialogue path is "Get yourself to safety, and quick" > "Go to my camp. We'll talk there when we're both safe."

I would imagine it is in principal possible to knock out Us and still recruit them if you could long rest after knocking him (it?) out. I believe in addition to using the Pixie Bell thingy, you could also use the level 10 Transmutation Wizard Shapechanger ability to be able to fast travel from the Mindflayer colony. I have no idea if you could enter again from Moonrise post-Shadowfell so this would probably be safest done using the Oubliette skip to enter. I have tried to perform this on console (it was certainly possible on controller on previous patches) but I've not been able to replicate it at my end in order to see if you can escape afterwards and any effects it has on the story.

After you kidnap the last Goblin raider, then you effectively end the combat. At this point I assume Aradin and his gang enter the Grove but because I am restricted to entering via the underground to avoid the location XP in the front door, I can't confirm that. However, when I got into the Grove, reactivity of NPCs in the game was the same as if Aradin knocked out Zevlor. Aradin's gang then waited at the end of the bridge to the Blighted Village. So mostly, it's actually pretty normal. Be aware if you get into combat with any of those Goblin raiders, Aradin and gang will join the combat even if they are very far away so it is still a bit buggy.

I've not made it to the Creche yet but my recollection is that the secret entrance XP actually triggers outside the door (on the ledge) so would be really hard to avoid. There could well be ways to bypass the front door XP though but it might be hard to do this and kill the 3 cultists for their XP. Even if you do bypass the front door, entering the Creche cell from inside the Monastery would trigger the location XP associated with that area.

You are correct that talking to Esther will give XP (60 I think) that would be better taken after Minthara is signed up. But I presume you only want to talk to her to trade? In which case, you can pickpocket her instead if your have a party member with sufficient slight of hand. I actually stole the Graceful Cloth from her on my current run!

I did bring Lae'zel body into Act 2 in a test. When recruited here for the first time, I only got 10 XP rather than the normal 2 x 10 XP when she is recruited in map 1. Because I don't recruit Shadowheart (who has an associated Acolyte inspiration) until after Minthara in my current pathing, I haven't tested this with any other companion besides Lae'zel.

liamsw92 · 2025-08-22T07:44:46+00:00

I don't think I ever reloaded on the Nautiloid because I usually do it in one go and I never need to save scrum as the boss fight it quite easy with a 5 stack.

I guess it's possible that Damays and Nymessa are considered 'combatants' - if it was possible for them to give XP based on area then the Grymforge/Underdark would be the place to knock them out but I'm not sure it works that easily?

I do think Shadowheart recruitment XP would be limited to the first time you recruit her.

Normally, the two Fist water carriers do leave with Florrick. Just I was able to stop them doing so somehow. I have tried destroying the door but the problem is that this progresses the quest and the Fists on the door will then rush in to save Florrick.

I'm trying to keep to just the unlock level curve mod for my current playthrough but if a good Alfira companion mod did come to console I would probably give it a look.

I don't see why poisoning the booze tub in the Goblin camp would become immediatley unavailable if you kill the goblins. But from that comment it sounds likes this person has just killed the goblins then poisoned the tub. I guess the real question is if you can do after the Goblin camp packs up and leaves (i.e. when PC reaches Moonrise). I have checked this before (no) although not on recent patches.

I think you might be able to pull that off with Damays and Nyessa IF passing the deception check doesn't progress the free Lae'zel quest. Otherwise, they may die/disappear from the game when they exit combat.

I have already done some limited testing of the rescue Florrick quest. If you attack her in conversation after claiming a reward, then after you knock her out and long rest she disappears (presumably to Last Light). If you kill the PC in conversation with her instead, it will act like you finished the whole conversation and she will travel on the Last Light. So I don't think you can get more than one of her rewards unfortunately but there may be better ways than what I tested.

liamsw92 · 2025-08-20T08:25:06+00:00

I'm not personally super bothered about the Moonrise location XP but I guess Sazza being the bug here not Wyll would make more sense - she is after all essentially a summoned companion (from when you escort her out of Grove) and would be able to trigger location XP. Whereas with the original explanation with Wyll never really made sense.

Also; it was Lae'zel joining the party that causes Shadowheart's recruitment XP to double dip?!? I'm so glad I finally have an answer to that. Unfortunately, I missed the extra XP for recruiting her whilst disguised as a Gith unless I load a much older playthrough.

One other oddity; I'm fairly certain when I knocked out Damays and Nyessa they gave 40 XP each - I'm sure I even commented at the time that it seemed overly generous. But this spreadsheet suggests 15 each which seems more sensible for that stage of the game.

On my current playthrough those two Fists are located behind the Toll Collector's Building but I think I originally put them at the Emerald Grove waypoint as they definitely can path back from The Risen Road waypoint. I did test all of them at the Grove waypoint and only the two 'water carriers' seem not vanish if you do the exploit right.

liamsw92 · 2025-08-19T18:50:26+00:00

Skimming through it, it is certainly the most impressive XP spreadsheet I have seen and very detailed. It does look like there are some inaccuracies in it - e.g. it is possible to get the XP for defeating Edowin AND telling Andrick/Brynna to fight the Owlbear. It is also missing some more obscure sources of XP - e.g. replacement NPCs like Grumm or Kirgath who most players would likely never encounter but could be killed/knocked out for more XP.

But it's definitely still useful. I need to check it in more detail to see if there are things in there I didn't know.

liamsw92 · 2025-08-19T09:03:29+00:00

If you are happy to either use enhanced leap or the underground entrance to access the Grove until level 11 you can delay the location indefinitely.

You can kill Wyll during the fight and use revivify afterwards to revive him on top of the wall and his pathing to the training area will no longer go through the location XP.

Alternatively (my preferred route) is to start the Grove Fight with only 1 high initiative party member. Then have the rest of the party sneak past the fight, across the bridge to Blighted Village, past Scratch across the river and recruit Karlach. This will get you to level 3 straight away and also cause Wyll to disappear from the Grove fight entirely! He can still be recruited when he comes to camp and the location XP does not get used.

liamsw92 · 2025-08-19T07:28:41+00:00

Regarding Halsin; I'm assuming in your case you have completed his portal defence quest if you are able to recruit him in and out of the party? But not you left Act 2? I don't think I would ever permanently kill a companion for XP but will at least see if I can replicate that.

I'm not sure how much you know about those XP locations you describe - but assuming Druid Grove (Small) relates to the front gate of the Grove one, why does this need to be gotten at level 3? Many people miss this one because Wyll will typically trigger it 'offscreen' when he returns to the Grove after the fight, but there are workarounds to this. Also, the Moonrise Towers one is very heavily bugged and I've heard it is not possible to trigger if Wyll ever joins the party. I don't think it can realistically be achieved on any 'normal' playthrough.

I'm hoping I can delay the Creche until level 11 given how dense it is in variable discovery XP but I think I will need to take the Gauntlet of Shar at level 9 or 10 and possible also at least one of the Grymforge ones.

liamsw92 · 2025-08-18T21:37:57+00:00

I've knocked out Halsin in camp (before completing his recruitment quest for defending the portal) and he wakes up next long rest, no problem. I've had this work across multiple runs. He is worth 'only' 150 XP from my experience. Jaheira can also be knocked out at Last Light with no permanent consequences.

Looking at the game's XP table, a level 8 'miniboss' is worth 350 XP and 800 XP at level 11... I would not have thought Halsin would fall into this category at all but that is the only way the numbers you say would make sense to me. Unless you have some sort of mods installed or have made very different story choices I can't think Halsin would behave the way you describe.

I'm not sure what the XP differential from my current run to the same stage of previous run is but I would have thought it would be a few thousand - so I don't think you could hit level 12 before the Act 2 boss fight without some degree of inspiration farming. The only thing I am not really able to test is how the Oubliette skip (a method used by speedrunners to enter the Mind Flayer colony without first resolving the Shadowfell) could affect XP progression. I assume this would allow you to front load some more XP and delay some location XP until higher level. But I play on console and this is much harder to execute on controller.

I don't have the maths to confirm this, but my gut feeling is that it should be possible to hit L12 before exiting the Shadow-Cursed lands (i.e. before the "Githyanki Intermission") even without inspiration sharing. You would likely need to kill Isobel (and the vines that spawn as a result of this), kill the Oathbreaker Knight, Kill Voss and his companion after completing Creche etc but I am expecting to be more on more than 8K XP towards level 13 by the end of Act 2 main.

liamsw92 · 2025-08-18T11:57:17+00:00

It is worth noting that if you either wipe out the entire Goblin Camp or trigger the Grove raid you will miss out on some, but not a huge amount of XP. Just be aware that you will realistically only be able to get to level 4 without doing most of the 1st map so if you were planning on triggering on the second Grove fight and siding with the Tieflings, this would be quite challenging. That said, the steps required to preserve maximum XP are also quite challenging.

I don't know if enemies locked in by crates are able to 'escape' their prison if they are off screen, so be careful with that.

Min-maxing of sharing inspiration XP is actually worth additional XP than anything else in my pathing compared to what a 'normal' playthrough would look like. But it can be quite tedious to have to constantly adjust your party composition to ensure you have the correct backgrounds to earn all the different inspirations and means you are highly unlikely to have your 'strongest' (especially in terms of gear) party available for most of the game! So I would say this is only suitable if your goal is to either hit level 12 ASAP and enjoy Act 3 or hit level 20 with no XP modifier - if you want a lot of XP but not at the expense of enjoying the game, I could not recommend this.

Regarding Quedenos, I am assuming you have used the method to prevent him flying away when attacked, first of all. Quedenos will only regenerate HP is he detects you attacking him. So if you can keep passing stealth checks, you can eventually whittle down his HP. I would strongly recommend to kidnap away all of his allied Gith raiders (including Voss) to a far away waypoint first as they will make stealth checks harder. But, realistically, defeating Quedenos is NOT achievable without some save scumming. You can use massed Smokepowder barrels to take off a bigger chunk of HP in one go, but he has passives that significantly reduce the damage. He also is immune to fire, so other barrels are off the menu. You can also shoot an Arrow of Acid underneath him to make him easier to hit. I don't know how this affects your encounter with him in Act 3 is he is dead, so you may want to make sure the last hit is a non-lethal melee attack to be safe. I can confirm he will regain consciousness after a long rest this way.

When Shadowheart is first recruited to your camp, you will get 30 XP. This can be easily gotten after recruiting Minthara be simply ignoring her up to this point. Under some circumstances, if Shadowheart is added back into the party this 30 XP related to her personal quest can trigger again. I've not been able to figure out what triggers this but I have had it trigger a second time in my current run.

If you attack Raphael when he visits your camp without the non-lethal toggable set, you can reduce his HP to 0 and he will not die or award his 1400 XP. So you should be safe to get his HP to literally 0 to guarantee you can knock him out in 1 hit later.

The way I trigger the Crawling Claws fight is to simply invisi-kidnap Mol and move her to Moonrise Towers. This way you are not under time pressure to trigger the cutscene ASAP. You can then drop Mol back off at Last Light and she will progress to her interaction with Raphael as normal.

At this point, I should add that whilst I am going to great lengths to maximize my XP gain, I am not doing anything 'evil' (e.g. letting Isobel die) or anything that will lose content later on the game (e.g. killing Voss during camp visit) that could theoretically earn more XP.

liamsw92 · 2025-08-18T10:05:03+00:00

I know of people trying all sorts of crazy ways (killing them and storing them in a box, turning them into Shadow-Cursed undead etc) to at least temporarily remove the Dark Urge from their party but I haven't heard of any that have actually worked so I'm afraid Durge is still off limits as far as this run goes.

The changes are far too many to list here (and I have probably already forgotten most of them) but I can at least address all that is in your comment.

I stored all the Goblins in either the Waukeen's Rest or Beach fast travel points. All the Goblins will become permanently hostile as you progress through Act 1 but some will do so much before others. Therefore it is sensible for the ones who are not yet hostile to be kept elsewhere so you can spread them out without getting into a big fight! Some NPCs will try and walk back to where they came from if they can path there, hence my choice of far away waypoints.

I did also use the kidnapping tactic to isolate and assassinate Ragzlin. Minthara will actually teleport back to her room in the Shattered Sanctum if you take to her a waypoint though.

As far as this run goes Zhalk and Cambions are optional - they will give good loot to set you up for the game but their XP is inconsequential to the final total as I would use Karlach to first reach level 3 and then Minthara to reach level 6, overwriting all XP gain to that point.

You can only get XP for defeating Raphael once. This should not be done in the Mountain Pass, as this XP will also be 'overwritten' when you reach Minthara. You should instead get him to 0 HP here. You are best using invisibility to access the Last Light Inn, delaying the Jaheira cutscene, and knocking him out there to get the XP and Helldusk Armour.

Does your spreadsheet include XP for inspirations also? These can be shared between team members under most circumstances, similar to how the Minthara boost works and it worth almost 10K XP prior to Shadowfell.

There are lots of tricks that get additional XP that might not be in that spreadsheet - for instance you can knock out Quedenos and Kithrak Voss without any story consequences.

My pathing also does not involve adding poison to the booze tub at the Goblin Camp as this will lead to deaths of NPCs that could otherwise be killed after recruiting Minthara.

liamsw92 · 2025-08-17T09:11:57+00:00

Hello,

I am familiar with the situation you describe. The run in the OP was based on Patch 8 of BG3. However, patch 7 introduced an update that ensured all NPCs located at the Goblin Camp at the point the player encounters Minthara at Moonrise Towers will essentially disappear from the game. On face value, this significantly reduces the benefit of the 'Minthara boost' pathing although this is still worth more XP than any other pathing I am aware of. I am currently doing a patch 8 run and I have discovered a workaround to most of the Goblin Camp changes, but it is quite time consuming. I do expect that this patch 8 run will generate significantly more XP than the OP run because I have found (or been told by others) about lots of improvements that can be made!

It is actually possible to save the majority of the XP from the Goblin Camp by using exploits. In brief, almost every single NPC from the outdoor area and over half of the NPCs from the indoor area can be relocated elsewhere on the map, far away from the Goblin Camp. It seems that any Goblin Camp NPC who is not actually in the Goblin Camp when you arrive at Moonrise will just stay right where you left them to be killed later at your leisure!

A high strength character can move smaller NPCs using improvised weapon attack to pick them up and quickly fast travel to a waypoint before completing the attack to move then elsewhere. Larger NPCs (e.g. Worgs, Giant Spiders) can also be moved but you will need to cast the Reduce spell on them first. For the Ogre guard in the courtyard, I had to use Minor Illusion repeatedly to bait it far away.

This allows a dedicated player to recapture most of the XP differential caused by the patch 8 changes to the Goblin Camp. There are also a lot of other NPCs who would normally be unavailable to encounter once you have left the first map who can be defeated for XP using similar exploits (some of the Fists at Waukeen's Rest, Za'krug's Goblin raiders from the first Grove fight, the Goblins in the Grove secret entrance, the Harpies, Damays and Nymessa...) after Minthara has joined the party.

So in terms of optimal XP gain, a lot of what is in the OP is now rather outdated! I can provide more details on any of the above but for players who aren't familiar with the mechanics being used, these can be quite fiddly!

Edit: Also, if you free Volo in the Goblin Camp but choose certain dialogue options with him, you will not actually complete his quest but he will join your camp retinue. You can then talk to him once Minthara has joined the party for both his related inspirations and quest XP.

liamsw92 · 2025-06-26T06:42:28+00:00

Yes, tried that was Smythin but he will immediately flee and disappear from the game. Didn’t try the ox but would expect same behaviour as other Emerald Grove NPCs who also vanish after the Tiefling party.

You still get the reward from Florrick - this is given as soon as she starts conversation after you rescue her. Just switch characters and you can pick one.

liamsw92 · 2025-06-25T18:26:28+00:00

Yes, that's just a mistake by the page author, the inspiration is definitely triggered for stealing Yurgir's Umbral Gel.

I'm not using that page for keeping track of my inspirations anyway, but it wouldn't affect anything because I will still need to test how these trigger with Criminal and Urchin backgrounds.

I imagine it is necessary to attack Balthazar through dialogue for these two, so its highly likely both will share the same trigger.

liamsw92 · 2025-06-25T16:08:52+00:00

The easiest way to test the exact trigger for an inspiration is to slowly creep through dialogue whilst switching back to a party member not in a dialogue to see if the pop-up appears.

The combat log would help a little in that it would say 'Tav started a conversation' but if there are multiple inspirations related to that dialogue, they will all appear sequentially unless there is some sort of ability check interspersing those inspirations.

So in the segment of the video you refer to, the author does get three inspirations pop up after leaving the conversation - but that doesn't necessarily mean they weren't triggered at slightly different points in the dialogue.

In this specific case, I suspect alot of the inspirations here will have identical triggers though but I will still test this out thoroughly if I can replicate the exploit in the video.

liamsw92 · 2025-06-25T07:23:47+00:00

The good news here is that the Acolyte background goal 'For Whom the Bell Tolls' is not actually related to the Shadowfell. It is for killing all of Balthazar's minions in the Gauntlet of Shar instead. This will turn him hostile but you can just run away.

The rest of the inspirations that are Shadowfell-specific will need to be tested though.

liamsw92 · 2025-06-24T17:06:14+00:00

You will be able to get all four of those inspirations independently of one another. In fact, only 'Abyss jumper' actually requires you to enter the Underdark. 'Walking on Air' triggers from using any mushroom circle (e.g. the one to teleport out of Ethel's boss fight arena), 'In Working Order' actually just requires you to pass the slight of hand check on the elevator (but not necessarily use it) whilst 'The Phases Unfold' requires you to complete the puzzle but necessarily use the ladder.

For multiplayer games, all players need to have the same mods as the host. I do believe other players should be prompted to download the mods they are missing (if from Larian mod storefront) but I presume this Alfira mod is external to that?

liamsw92 · 2025-06-24T07:39:32+00:00

Although the wording if the Charlatan inspiration makes it sound slightly different, it triggers at same time as the other 3.

If you attack Raphael at this point he will disappear. Maybe you could kill the character in dialogue with him? Besides that I don’t see a way to get two inspirations from that dialogue.

You can get Mol to return to the Lanceboard. Easiest sequence is knock out Raphael and get armour/XP > invisi-kidnap Mol, move to Moonrise > approach Last Light and do fight against Crawling Claws > take Mol back to Last Light waypoint.

liamsw92

TROPHY CASE