Phazael
Confirmed Beta Shitlord, Fat Bastard
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Wanted to add that the tadpole access is mostly what separates the mediocre characters from the powerhouses on the roster. Cull the weak, free dispell, Stage Fright, Repulsor, and the extra social bonuses are all amazing. But the real kicker is the permanent fly without concentration. That alone trivializes so many of the fights later on. The non-tadpole NPCs are stuck using spell slots or once per rest items to maintain mobility. But a whole party of Peter Pan Mindflayers can just zip around to optimized spots (even bypassing the entire fight just before the final battle) and ignore any sort of ground hazards continuously. This is massive in any Larian game as it is. And there are a bunch of action economy manipulation abilities in the tadpole tree that I am not even touching on.
The lack of that access puts the two druid NPCs and Minsc at a disadvantage, right from the get go. And yeah with enough good social tests you can force most of the main cast into using the tadpole ascension, but it burns rep with nearly all of them and Asterion goes into basically a permanent state of butthurd over it. Minithara has zero qualms about it and is already probably one of the strongest characters in the game due to being Drow. Asterion gets a lot of vamp shit that synergizes incredibly well with Monk and dual wield setups (especially with Raphael's gauntlets) so he can do fine without it. But basically you wind up having to skunk one or two reps with your party if you want to have the all flying smackdown team at the end.
If I ever trusted the bugs enough to do the Honor mode try again, I think my party would be a Druid main, Lockadin Minthara, Monk Asterion, and Bardlock Shadowfart. Lyzell is great as an arcane warrior thanks to her racials, but they just shower Mary Sue Shadowhart with too many goodies for her to close the gap. And most of the souped up boss shit in Honor mode are stacked resistances and immunities, plus more damage. A wizard just can't survive that shit reliably with the HP gap and is useless for half the fights. And anyone who cannot stack immunities, especially critical hit and frighten, is completely fucked. The computer cheats on the dice rolls with critical hits even worse in Tactician and Honor Mode if you can believe it. And without fear immunities, weapon bonds, and shape shifting, you end up spending half your time with your thumb up your ass trying to pick up and re-equip your weapons. The L6 Cleric/Druid superfood spell fixes fear, but you don't get that until way late.
The lack of that access puts the two druid NPCs and Minsc at a disadvantage, right from the get go. And yeah with enough good social tests you can force most of the main cast into using the tadpole ascension, but it burns rep with nearly all of them and Asterion goes into basically a permanent state of butthurd over it. Minithara has zero qualms about it and is already probably one of the strongest characters in the game due to being Drow. Asterion gets a lot of vamp shit that synergizes incredibly well with Monk and dual wield setups (especially with Raphael's gauntlets) so he can do fine without it. But basically you wind up having to skunk one or two reps with your party if you want to have the all flying smackdown team at the end.
If I ever trusted the bugs enough to do the Honor mode try again, I think my party would be a Druid main, Lockadin Minthara, Monk Asterion, and Bardlock Shadowfart. Lyzell is great as an arcane warrior thanks to her racials, but they just shower Mary Sue Shadowhart with too many goodies for her to close the gap. And most of the souped up boss shit in Honor mode are stacked resistances and immunities, plus more damage. A wizard just can't survive that shit reliably with the HP gap and is useless for half the fights. And anyone who cannot stack immunities, especially critical hit and frighten, is completely fucked. The computer cheats on the dice rolls with critical hits even worse in Tactician and Honor Mode if you can believe it. And without fear immunities, weapon bonds, and shape shifting, you end up spending half your time with your thumb up your ass trying to pick up and re-equip your weapons. The L6 Cleric/Druid superfood spell fixes fear, but you don't get that until way late.
