Baldur's Gate 3 by Larian Games

Cinge said:

Damn really? I have been using astarion as the ranger with a bow spec. Mainly to just have another ranged. Keeping my melee to just one so they don't have to clump up and then get hit with all the AEs. Maybe I really should just roll the dude into a bard, be the debuffer/buffer and can just keep with double cross bows. Or just respect to a melee rogue.

Since atm I have Fighter, Cleric, Me(storm sorc/tempest cleric) and him.

Click to expand...

All the custom arrows are around but not enough it seems to use them consistently. Ranged rogue are really strong try that.

Cinge said:

Damn really? I have been using astarion as the ranger with a bow spec. Mainly to just have another ranged. Keeping my melee to just one so they don't have to clump up and then get hit with all the AEs. Maybe I really should just roll the dude into a bard, be the debuffer/buffer and can just keep with double cross bows. Or just respect to a melee rogue.

Since atm I have Fighter, Cleric, Me(storm sorc/tempest cleric) and him.

Click to expand...

You could try him as a thief-rogue with the same bow. Gets an extra bonus action so he can hide & dash to get into position to sneak attack a backline enemy or use dual daggers and get an extra offhand hit. Or go dual hand crossbows to do that at range. Not to mention scout ahead, and unlock/disarm stuff. Throw stuff, drink potions ect

Thief is pretty busted.

Yeah atm he just stays hidden and using ambush attacks, or surprise ranged attacks. And he is my disarm/picklock/pickpocket bot.

Using the 2h crossbow from the vampire hunter.

I did make a sussar dagger, so a melee rogue could be fun and the silence on hit. He can hunt casters in groups. I was really bummed I couldn't make a sussar bow.

Springbok said:

Gloomstalker/Assassin is S tier and one of the best if not the best Dps classes in the game

Click to expand...

Ive been watching Strippin play a drow gloom/assassin with dual wielding crossbows during his play through on Twitch and it puts out disgusting damage and crits like a machine at times. Like this one tough NPC with like 200 Hp showed up and he deleted it in a single turn and this was still in act 1 I think

Quick question about Shadowheart/Shar/Nightsong resolution:

When making max damage builds, don't forget that the extra attack from warlock Deepened Pact stacks with Extra Attack from any other class. So you can do pretty ridiculous things with Warlock 5 combined with level 5 Paladin, Ranger, Barb, Monk, or Fighter (wouldn't recommend this, just take Fighter to 11 and get their second extra attack, then splash a level of barbarian for Rage). Swords/Valour Bard works too, but somewhat less effectively since the rest can also splash two levels of Fighter for Action Surge to make their opening salvo even more insane. Bard doesn't get their Extra Attack ability until 6 so they're better off skipping Fighter and taking a level of Wizard to abuse a whole different unintended(?) mechanic with how learning spells from scrolls works. You won't get the absolute best damage out of the bard version but you do get probably the best utility dps you can.

Also, crit-based characters (like, say, a half-orc Champion or Devotion paladin) aren't as bad as they seem. It's not about increasing your sustained damage in a long fight, it's about dropping a nuclear bomb on a boss on turn 1 by using everything you have available. Specificially the Illithid power that automatically turns a normal attack into a crit. Combine that with buffs, potions, smites and/or whatever else your class(es) have available and the fight is over immediately.

Springbok said:

Gloomstalker assassin is the only class in my testing that can take down 200+ hp bosses solo in one turn.

Click to expand...

Sin tee (the D:OS2 build guy) has some videos for a Devotion Paladin that are pretty nuts even at just level 5. Not sure how he built it out from there, but I would assume that following it up with 5 levels of warlock and then 2 levels of fighter is the strongest way.

Springbok said:

I think it will actually get tuned at some point.

Click to expand...

Larian has never been terribly concerned with balance. They might fix actual bugs, but I doubt they'll do anything about just combining a bunch of items and intended mechanics in a way that breaks the game. It's kind of a refreshing attitude when so many other devs (*cough* Gunfire Games *cough*) have kneejerk reactions to nerf everything into the ground whether it's actually OP or simply popular.

His videos are fun to watch. I assume it helps when you do it all solo. The one I watched for a bit from sorc, he abused the hell out of invisibility potions and what not.

So since volo's eye wasnt there for the +1cha and I killed the hag. I assume there are other ways to get CHA? Or should I basically plan on taking a attribute feat + finding a +1 item somewhere? Or can gear give me 3 pts?

My Party is level 6 and I am in the Moonrise Tower Area.

I've been bouncing around to the different companions and trying to get a better feel for what is strong. My impressions so far:

Best to Worst
1. Fighter, Battle Master: She can attack like 6 times in a round, if you blow some cool downs. She just straight up solo's the biggest bad on the field, or wipes out a horde.
2. Barbarian, Berserker: Great mobility with Jumps, good damage & damage resistance with Frenzy. Almost on the Battle Master's level, just can't attack quite as many times.
3. Druid, Moon: The shape shifting is super strong. Great damage and survivability.
4. Warlock, Old One: Decent, consist damage with Mind Blast. Decent Utility and crowd control. The ability to fling enemies around and knock them off ledges with Mind Blast is pretty useful.
5. Wizard: Only used the Gale variant. Probably has the highest ceiling in terms of power, but many of the abilities are also confusing and hard to use. It is going to take some time and practice to use at the full potential.
6. Cleric: Only used the Shadowheart variant. Seems ok, but the fact that you have to long rest to cast your heals is counter intuitive, because you have to long rest to heal anyways.
7. Rogue, Thief: I don't get it. I must be doing something wrong, because the Rogue feels so weak in fights compared to everyone else. Sure, you have incredible mobility, but if all that adds up to one 15 damage "sneak attack" well, big deal... He is basically my rez bitch, that goes around lifting party members that have fallen.

Admittedly, this game is deep and sometimes I feel like I am not using some of the classes fully/correctly. There is a learning curve here.

Still need to try Monk, Paladin, Bard, Ranger, & Sorcerer.

Cinge said:

His videos are fun to watch. I assume it helps when you do it all solo. The one I watched for a bit from sorc, he abused the hell out of invisibility potions and what not.

So since volo's eye wasnt there for the +1cha and I killed the hag. I assume there are other ways to get CHA? Or should I basically plan on taking a attribute feat + finding a +1 item somewhere? Or can gear give me 3 pts?

Click to expand...

It appears that Larian made a conscious decision to eliminate all +stat items except for the hag bonus. There's a few pieces of gear that set a stat to 17 or 18, that's it. If you want to hit 20 you need to spend an ASI feat and the hag hair, or two feats. ASI + stuff like Tavern Brawler or Resilient: Wis is particularly effective.

For str, it's not hard to amass a large stockpile of hill giant potions so that you can roll into a difficult fight with 21 str whenever you need to, like in the videos above. Not to mention that haste potions are super easy to get and are completely broken when you throw them at the ground to affect your entire party without any need for concentration checks. The way haste interacts with extra attacks is just nutty to begin with.

Vorph said:

It appears that Larian made a conscious decision to eliminate all +stat items except for the hag bonus. There's a few pieces of gear that set a stat to 17 or 18, that's it. If you want to hit 20 you need to spend an ASI feat and the hag hair, or two feats. ASI + stuff like Tavern Brawler or Resilient: Wis is particularly effective.

For str, it's not hard to amass a large stockpile of hill giant potions so that you can roll into a difficult fight with 21 str whenever you need to, like in the videos above. Not to mention that haste potions are super easy to get and are completely broken when you throw them at the ground to affect your entire party without any need for concentration checks. The way haste interacts with extra attacks is just nutty to begin with.

Click to expand...

Damn thats a shame. I made my char have 17 cha on purpose, since I figured I would get the eye really early to hit 18, then a feat to 20. I had no clue about the hag hair until after the fact, so I killed her.

And yeah i have seen the club that takes str to 15 or the hat the takes int to 17 etc.

Alright this is fairly spoiler free , so my ocd ass is almost done with everything in act 1 (atleast that I know of, I’ve not been trying to spoiler myself). This includes multiple reloads on a shitty slow pc because I have a mental illness and need to see all the outcomes from any decision point I reach (I literally spent 3 hours on nere just to test every outcome I could think of) (also why do save games take forever to load for this jfc).

so basically, what do you recommend I go to next, the mountain pass/ gith stuff, or the shadow area by grymforge? Maybe I’m wrong but seems like whichever I pick is going to take me down a very different gameplay path. My party just hit lvl 6 and is very karlach reliant (if there’s a shoving achievement I should be reaching it soon)

I just learned that the original release date from Larian was moved up to the beginning of this month because Starfield decided to release on the same day as this. Then, after the reviews came out for this - Starfield dev said to not let BG3 influence your perception of what the "standard" in the game industry for an RPG (paraphrased). Others parroted.

Well if that shit doesnt give me an a 5D view of what to expect from Starfield, or rather, how little I should expect from Starfield. Oof.

Word of warning: don't have multiple people with counterspell in your party. Having two counterspell reaction boxes pop up hard locks combat for me like 80% of the time and I have to reload a save.

That's what makes multiplayer so fun.