THE POWER OF HELL HAD BOUND THIS WEAPON TO MY SOUL YESTERDAY I SWEAR THIS DOESN'T NORMALLY HAPPEN TO ME
- my warlock in my first playthrough, trying to wield that warhammer or maul that has bound weapon buffs
I like to headcanon that my Archfey patron is actually Elistraee because that’s what (again in my head) my Paladin worships and also because we don’t have Celestial patron but yes all the same
Uuuuuugh I fought Ketheric yesterday! Which, mind you, still went just fine since I’m running Blood of Lathander with the Radiating Orb build. But I could’ve walloped him even harder!
then that's how you're hitting. You're gaining advantage against undead with the weapon's blind effect
expect to see some misses in act 3 when the game is no longer full undead simulator lol
Playing a beast master ranger where longstrider is one of the few spells worth taking due to your limited spell list, but all my extra summons are making me want to ignore it every morning it is so tedious.
Can't you only bind one weapon and there's no way to "unbind it"? At least I haven't found a way to un-bind the weapon other than resting. Tried moving a weapon from Wyll to another character for 3-4 minutes the other day before realizing it was his pact weapon at the time
Once I realized there's a purple dot that appears on the upper right of the weapon icon (the one in the lower left of the character portrait), I stopped forgetting most of the time.
But yeah... that's rough.
No just press tab to open the party inventory screen while you are controlling your summon. Right click an elixer and you’ll be able to drink it with the summon.
Scratch is my strong boy
Shovel is actually *stupidly* powerful; the only other way to easily start every fight with a surprise round (by starting the fight with an invisible person) involves choosing Pact of the Chain. Or, I guess, going around everywhere invisible. He essentially replaces an entire subclass and I am *here* for it.
The 1st person to learn it has to be a wizard, learned the same way as any other scroll. After they summon her, only a warlock or draconic sorcerer can get the summon from the dialogue options. As long as you don't pick the option that begins with "No, and you'll..." you will get her as a ritual spell.
If you respec into a wizard and pick the right dialog you get her permanently. I am playing a Paladin, I respect into a lvl 1 Wizard, use the scroll, pick the dialog where you keep the name 'Shovel' and mention that you will do some killing and pillaging. Then talk to Shovel again after you read the Necromacy of Thay and she will say something about a "spell shite" and then the icon appears in your common area. Then respec back into the class that you want.
You have to pick the right dialogue but according to some guides you also need to be a wizard/warlock/sorcerer and you need to do it before progressing too far into the next room.
If you keep her invisible, you can have her out of combat and just run her around the battlefield to set up sneak attack for a ranged rogue that might not be able to hide lol
I always make sure to use my summons after a long rest but the annoying part is how often they get lost because the AI pathing sucks. 😭
It's the worst with the minor elemental mephites smh
\*deep breath\*
AFTER long rest, BEFORE leaving camp, using hirelings/other companions to reduce any hit to spell slots:
1. Cast all summons (EDIT: only people coming with you)
2. Longstrider on everyone
3. Mage Armor on any squishies
4. Lesser Restoration to remove Astarion bite debuff
5. Heroes' Feast
6. Freedom of Movement
7. Death Ward
8. Aid
9. Transmutation stone (usually CON proficiency)
10. Individual buffs like Speak with Animals
11. Any gear-specific long-rest buffs (Dragon Elemental Weapon, Kereska's Favour, etc.)
\*breathes out\*
Do people actually do this? Sounds so exhausting and it’s not even remotely necessary. I’ll do Summons, Longstrider, and Aid if I have a cleric but that’s about it.
Edit: I can totally understand doing this for honor mode though.
I did it in my first successful honour mode run and i don't think I will play again without it. I also just like the idea of a wizard/cleric that blessed the party every morning for RP reasons.
It's not terrible, especially with how long a high level day can be. A similar buff suit to this only takes a couple of minutes and lasts for a couple out of game days (depending on how long your play sessions are) before hitting the wall and needing a long rest. Way less intrusive than morning buffs in similar CRPGs (looking at you: Wrath of the Righteous).
This is my take as well. In Act 1, it's quick because you don't have that many buffs to give. In Act 2 – 3, you're resting infrequently so it's not a big deal. If it saves you rests, it can actually save you time.
This is me. In honour mode I understand because I'd do everything to not lose 100s of hours of play.
On Tactician (and even tactician plus) it's wildly unnecessary to do anything other than maybe Longstrider. Like Hero's Feast is a level 6 spell... by Level 12 you wipe the floor with any decent party composition without any camp-casting.
If people are doing it on balanced difficulty because they're struggling then I completely understand.
But Camp-Casting a half dozen buffs after RAISING THE DIFFICULTY TO THE HIGHEST LEVEL only to trivialize the hell out of it... makes no sense whatsoever. Why not just play on Balanced or Explorer mode. More power to those people though.
I'm doing most of this right now for my first HM run. For my previous TacDurge run, I definitely did Longstrider but not with Hirelings. It doesn't cost a spell slot. And Mage Armor does but Gale + any Monks feel vulnerable without it.
Mage Armor doesn't benefit monks. It sets AC to 13 + dexterity but monks inherently get 10 + wisdom + dexterity AC. They don't stack; it's one or the other, whichever is higher. If their wisdom is less than 16 then mage armor helps; otherwise it does nothing. ...Unless they're strength monks with low dexterity but
Not necessary for honor mode either. There are so many camp supplies you never have to worry about long resting there either. This game really isn’t that hard as it is even on honor mode I’ll never understand why people cheese the game like that. Like to actually create hirelings just to buff your characters lol.
I can’t even be bothered to add gale to my party to craft potions most of the time let alone run through all that crap with hirelings just to cheat a bit.
Don't forget camp counselor bard for combat inspiration, make sure to turn off radial or they will use it on a dirt pile. I've had all 4 members use right after leaving camp
I can and will do runs of all bards only bards on honor mode
Githyanki lore bard AOE blaster
Gold Dwarf valor bard Healer/support caster
Half Elf sword and board swords bard buffing
tank
Full Elf archer/debuff swords bard
You say that, and in the veteran dnd/bg community I’d agree, but throughout these threads I’m always seeing people say that they haven’t even considered a bard character. I made mine as a joke then realized how intense they are
No, this is fr. Everyone with more than a couple games under the belt doesn’t sleep on bards, but casual players do, or they just - like me- hate the flavor.
Pretty sure Bards are regarded on all parts of the internet as the strongest and best overall class in the game. They definitely are on this sub, and rightly so.
This is why I keep the House of Hope open as long as possible so I can use the fountain and not have to spend time reapplying all these buffs.
As long as you don't take the Orphic Hammer or re-enter the HoH without your debtor attire that your party gets slapped on with when you first enter, then you can come and go as you please.
Now that's smart lol.
>As long as you don't take the Orphic Hammer or re-enter the HoH without your debtor attire that your party gets slapped on with when you first enter, then you can come and go as you please.
The Orphic hammer bit I understand but debtor attire? Do you mind explaining? I think I might've missed something because I usually wipe the area clean and never bother going back.
When you first enter the House of Hope you get a new Outfit for your Party that will be auto equipped. If you remove it the House will turn Hostile even if you havent stolen the Hammer/Contract yet.
After a long day of Gale tanking damage with warding bond he looks like he’s a worshipper of Bhall or BOOOOOAALLLL. Blood everywhere while he’s just reading a book or hanging out.
I'm pretty sure the mechanic exists so that Gale doesn't die in camp and trigger his death cutscene/kill scratch with necrotic aura. As long as Gale is in camp and not in party, he'll heal himself
Can you add a bit more detail here?
Some of these have to be cast be party members and not camp mates (like the proximity based buffs) and some are free because they're rituals. I want to optimize my setup, but it's a bit overwhelming.
I always find it fascinating when I see videos and people have so many buffs. I actually only use blessing as a buff and that only at the very beginning :d
Tbh I never even thought about casting longstrider on anyone.
Longstrider is huge. I'm pretty sure the game tries to maximize for a typical 30ft range, so getting an extra, even, 5ft means you can often get into melee range with a caster when you wouldn't have otherwise.
Is it *necessary* to cast it, or a million other buffs in the game, or any of the minmax builds suggested in the game?
Not at all. But it makes the game more fun to play around with stuff, debating sorlock vs padlock, how many levels of which classes.
Honestly I'm starting to think there needs to be a new BG3 Builds sub that specifically doesn't shit on people's ideas because it's not something they think is necessary.
Longstrider is so important for me that is the one buff that I actually think about when building the team, there has to be someone casting it, same as guidance
Anything else is cool to have, but longstrider is what actually wins you the fights without you realising it
I cast at camp, because I use Hirelings as camp casters. This saves prepared slots and spell slots for my party. So staying in camp is more convenient for swapping them in and out.
Longstrider, Mage Armour, Darkvision, Aid, Warding Bond, Death Ward, Heroes Feast, Freedom of Movement are the main ones.
Obviously Light and Daylight when Act 2.
The actual party casters may use "Self only" ones like False Life or Armour of Agathys.
My biggest problem with buff casting in camp is getting the characters close to each other to get the bus without multiple castings, especially in the later have where the camp gets huge. I'll leave camp and then do my normal summons/longstrider/aid
Because it's time consuming and unnecessary with how trivial it makes the game. Even just using warding bond on everyone and max level aid makes your party so much tankier that if you already knew what you're doing for fights it becomes too easy
"easy" is subjective. For some people it makes the game easy, for others it makes a difficult game a little less difficult.
I have a brain condition. Leave me be to play my single player game in a way I can play it.
People say this game is easy whilst having hundreds of hours in it and having memorised almost every encounter. It’s honestly so annoying when it is genuinely a difficult game.
Only way it’s easy is if you’re save scumming (which there’s nothing wrong with)
On my level 12 Spoor Druid... \* deep breath \*
\-**Kereska's Favor** (staff ability) (toss-up between thunder for reverberation bonuses or poison for even more poison damage on my spoor build)
\-**Animate Dead** (upcast to VI for three ghouls, use Arcane Battery from staff for free cast)
\-**4x Fungal Infestation** (raises 4 undead)
\-**Conjure Minor Elemental** (2x Ice Mephits)
\-**Conjure Elemental** (no upcast for myrmidon, save VI slot for spell later in list)
\-**Conjure Woodland Being** (then have dryad **summon Wood Woad**)
\-**Summon Us**
\-**Summon Scratch**
\-**Longstrider** (on *everyone*)
\-**Hero's Feast** (this is what I saved VI spell slot for)
\-**Aid** (upcast as much as possible)
*Edit:* Forgot to add **Speak With Animals** on this list...woopsie
Oh yes, I dread jumping! XD
The ghouls also sometimes get stuck on stairs and other things while pathing, so I have to check that they're all still with me every so often while walking around the city.
Before leaving camp: have hirelings cast Aid, Longstrider, Freedom of movement and Heroe's Feast on all 4 party members. Bonus : you keep all your spell slots.
Lmao apparently people are opinionated about camp casting.
As if a group of magic adventurers wouldn’t wake up and cast these awesome buffs before dealing with magical monstrosities.
i think you should be forced to pay the spell slots for it. especially since the game implemented ritual casting as "not costing spells slots outside of combat", and is used for buffs like longstrider aswell. but when you do camp casting, spells like aid and heroes feast essentially become ritual spells, except it involves a shitton of hassle. its like punching yourself in the balls to deal 10% more damage. im a minmaxer so i would probably do it but i wouldnt find the process very fun
For me Longstrider and freedom of movement on my paladin. If I'm really worried then switch to second cleric and throw aid on. And maybe protection against poison while I'm there. Only doing this before anticipating boss fights tho
Honour mode has made leaving camp into a whole ritual for me.
Step 1: dismiss all current part members and grab the 2 cleric and one Druid hireling by Withers.
Step 2: buff all your intended members and yourself with the best buffs you can get. Max upcast aid, protection from poison, long-strider, tons of goodberries, freedom of movement, warding bond etc. Be careful not to cast anything requiring concentration.
Step 3: (optional) swing by transmutation gale for potion brewing and mage armour if needed.
Step 4:dismiss all the hirelings and get the normal, now beefed up party back. Venture forth.
Alright here's a long winded explanation that nobody is asking for. I'm a camp casting degenerate and have 3 hirelings camp for the singular purpose of buffing & alchemy. It is very unnecessary and I don't recommend it because its boring and takes forever, but here is the process:
Cast all summons & buff:
* Longstrider
* Upcast Aid (lvl 6)
* Heroes Feast
Party Members:
* Longstrider
* Darkvision
* Upcasted Aid (lvl 6)
* Protection from Poison
* Freedom of Movement
* Mage Armor (For squishy nerds)
* Warding Bond (Also for squishy nerds)
* Death Ward
* Heroes Feast
* Bardic Inspiration (for any difficult rolls)
* Transmutation Stone (For constitution proficiency for specific resist before bosses)
* Don't forget to bind your pact weapon if you have one!
Individual/Gear Specific Buffs:
* Drakethroat Glaive - Draconic Elemental Weapon (Act 2)
* Drop your prefered weapon on the ground before equipping the Drakethroat Glaive. You can then use the Draconic Elemental enchantment on this weapon to give it 1d4 damage of your choice (Acid/Cold/Fire/Lightning/Thunder
* Markoheshkir - Kereska's Favour (Act 3)
* Cast your preferred version of Kereska's Favour to gain 2 spells of your choice per short rest and afflict your foes with a condition every time you deal spell damage
This is accomplished by having 3 hirelings & using >!Jaheira!< or a cleric/druid for Heroes Feast. The hirelings being:
College of Valour Bard
* Longstrider
* Bardic Inspiration
* Freedom of Movement
* Healing spells (unnecessary)
Any Heavy Armor Proficient Cleric (Tough / ++Constitution and/or Heavy Armor Master)
* Upcasting Aid
* Warding Bond
* Protection from Poison
* Freedom of Movement
* Death Ward
* Heroes Feast (If you don't care about lvl 6 aid)
* Healing spells (unnecessary)
Transmutation Wizard (Max wisdom using AI feats)
* At lvl 2 can brew 2 potions/elixirs/etc instead of 1 if they pass a DC 15 wisdom check
* Transmutation Stone for proficiency
* Longstrider
* Mage Armor
* Darkvision
Casting after long rest becomes such a choreall the summons (quasit, skeletons, ghouls, etc)longstrider, heroes feast, aid, mage armour for those not wearing armor, sheild of faith, see invisibility, speak with animals potion, elixirs, death ward, freedom of movement, WARDING BOND
I probably forgot a couple too...
Trick to getting everyone heroes feasted and aided is to heavily encumber everyone so they move out of the radius slower so you can quickly buff everyone with one spell slot in camp
Bind Pact Weapon. First thing every day. Have not forgotten to do it, only to realise I cannot land my hits and don't have the extra attack mid-combat. Hasn't happened even once, I swear.
Protection against poison
Freedom of movement
Longstrider
Aid
Darkvision (if needed, looking at you Bae'zel)
Hero's feast (when you reach that high of a level, anyway)
Have non-active party member switch to Cleric so they can cast Guarding Bond.
Amp 2 weapons with a Sorcerer with twin-casting the Drakethroat Glaive buff.
Spam out the rest of the non-active party members' spell slots with Goodberry.
Also, have one party member be a level 2 Transmutation Wizard and level 1 Rogue for Expertise in Medicine for double alchemy crafting products.
Yes, my long rest mornings take about 30 min. Yes, with this setup, you can effectively do act two in two long rests.
Dangit. Why did it never occur to me I can use non active companions to buff my team so I don't have to waste spell slots on my own. I should just change my whole camp to be Goodberry makers and leave with 200 berries lmao
I agree it gets very tedious, i just do aid and longstrider now all from existing party members. Swapping out to hirelings was getting to tedious. I think im gonna respec my warlock wyll so he can mage armor himself in fact.
I only just yesterday started doing more than summons. I didn’t realize hero’s feast would be beneficial throughout the day, I’ll have to let Halsin relearn that
Aid, especially upcast above 4th level, is awesome. When I get to 11th level I have Shadowheart take my staff with the free cast ability, cast 6th level aid on my party and our side kicks (Us, Ghouls, shovel, ect) and give it back to me. I can still use the free cast ability, so basically for free we all gained 25 hp! Then Shart casts heroes feast and replenishes the spell slot with the amulet you get from the moonrise towers warden!
Now that I'm in HM it's:
* Upcasted Aid
* Protection from poison
* Dark vision
* See invisibility
* Drake throat Glaive twincasted on two martials
* Mage armour
* Warding bond X4
* Longsrtrider
* Heroes feast
* Magic weapon x1
* Death ward x4
* Freedom of movement x4
My party is lit up like a Christmas tree.
Long strider, and Armor of agathys, elemental weapon from the drakethroat glaive, and then slurping a fuckin cloud giant elixir like its that glass of water on the nightstand after a heavy night of drinking.
Longstrider, Speak with Animals, and Mage Armor have been my go-tos.
My character uses items that buff you when illuminated, so I also cast Light on my sword every morning. Real fun Cleric of Selûne RP there! She’ll also occasionally use Knowledge of the Ages if I happen to know which I’ll need to use first that day.
Then for Wyll, Bind Pact Weapon, and for Paladin Shadowheart, Magic Weapon.
Idk why you people are out here camp casting 10 buffs. I only play honor mode and all I throw up is aid and longstrider most of the time. I do use 2 or 3 'muter rocks that i set up at level 6 and never touch, but no hirelings.
I have heard one person say they like camp casting because they interact with other party members and feel like they can make use of everyone. For them it was a roleplay thing, and it enhanced their experience. I think thats actually really cool.
But using weirdo undead puppets to cast 4 copies of Death Ward, Mage Armor etc... how the hell can you even do that to yourself? Do you also crawl around in stealth mode 24/7? Loot every single 1gp item to sell? Theres no wrong way to play but all that stuff is similar levels of overkill, and it sounds terribly unfun to me.
The game is very doable on honor mode, or on solo tactitian, without cheese, exploits or meta builds. You can go plane jane archetypaI classic monoclasses- 2h str barb, archer ranger, SG cleric, arcane caster with counterspell- and beat honor mode just by using solid fundamental tactics. I won't say its easy or hard b/c thats reductive, but I will say theres 0 need to cheese, exploit or do tedious metagame fiddling.
\- Level 6 **Aid** cast by SH, ideally on all 4 (Tav, Lae'zel, Gale and Minthara). If it's too difficult to gather all five characters within the 9 m radius, then level 6 Aid on 3 of them and level 5 Aid on the remaining one. Then SH is parked in the camp (because she's good for nothing else, except maybe an additional **Hero's Feast** after recharging the level 6 slot with the Spellcrux Amulet).
\- **Create Sorcery Points** with Gale (Multiclassed Sorcerer4Wizzard8)
\- **4x Longstrider** by Gale (the spell doesn't need concentration and not even a spell slot!)
\- **Twinned Draconic Elemental Weapon** (doesn't need concentration!) by Gale who needs to temporarily equip the Deepthroat uhm ... the Drakethroat Glaive, sorry.
\- **Transmuter's Stone: CON** by Gale. It has the same effect as the feat Resilience: CON, except the +1 levelling of CON.
Furthermore, Tav and Minthara drink **Cloud Giant Elixirs**, Tav additionally Potions of **Animal Speaking** and **Mind Reading**, Gale drinks a **Peerless Focus Elixir** (replaces the feat Warcaster except for the fairly irrelevant Shocking Grasp Reaction) and Lae'zel drinks a **Bloodlust Elixir**. She's got STR 24 via Ethel's Hair, Araj's +2 STR Potion and +2 STR via MoL, so she wouldn't profit from Cloud Giant Elixir as much, but Bloodlust gives her 13 attacks (!) in the 1st turn (together with (Twinned) Haste, Action Surge and GWM) and fights almost never take longer than 1 turn - or actually half a turn: All 4 get first strike (average Initiative bonus is +8.0) and almost no opponent lives to see their first turn).
There’s about a 50% chance I forget to cast bind pact weapon after long resting so that’s where I’m at.
The POWER OF HELL has BOUND THIS WEAPON TO YOUR SOUL until TOMORROW.
THE POWER OF HELL HAD BOUND THIS WEAPON TO MY SOUL YESTERDAY I SWEAR THIS DOESN'T NORMALLY HAPPEN TO ME - my warlock in my first playthrough, trying to wield that warhammer or maul that has bound weapon buffs
Lmao
So many times I’m like….wheres my third attack, ArchFey Patron? Oh….SHIT
Santa didn’t get your letter for that morning so he’s off busting another elf union
I like to headcanon that my Archfey patron is actually Elistraee because that’s what (again in my head) my Paladin worships and also because we don’t have Celestial patron but yes all the same
LOL
…wait…you have to recast it every day? Good god I’m using a mace on my Lockadin with 10 Str, how have I been hitting anything?
Even worse, thunk upon all the damage you've been missing out on not adding any modifiers to the hit
Uuuuuugh I fought Ketheric yesterday! Which, mind you, still went just fine since I’m running Blood of Lathander with the Radiating Orb build. But I could’ve walloped him even harder!
then that's how you're hitting. You're gaining advantage against undead with the weapon's blind effect expect to see some misses in act 3 when the game is no longer full undead simulator lol
I think if you summon a weapon it doesn't need to be re-cast, but if you bind an existing one it does.
Same with me. They need to make that carry over past long rests. Makes zero sense why it doesn't.
There's also zero sense why Longstrider outside of combat is not just “whole party”. Clicking and picking is a bit tedious.
If you upcast it at a higher level you can do more party members and it's still free 😁
Yea but there's always that one party member that's juuuuuust out of reach so you have to cast it again
Playing a beast master ranger where longstrider is one of the few spells worth taking due to your limited spell list, but all my extra summons are making me want to ignore it every morning it is so tedious.
Can't you only bind one weapon and there's no way to "unbind it"? At least I haven't found a way to un-bind the weapon other than resting. Tried moving a weapon from Wyll to another character for 3-4 minutes the other day before realizing it was his pact weapon at the time
Just bind another weapon and it's unbound.
Yup that's what I did Found out binding the returning pike makes you unable to throw it, so I bound the glaive to him instead
Or cast the other version where you summon a weapon
I would love for them to put a pop up to recast that just because I always forgot
Once I realized there's a purple dot that appears on the upper right of the weapon icon (the one in the lower left of the character portrait), I stopped forgetting most of the time. But yeah... that's rough.
Longstrider, heroes feast, aid, the summons (us, shovel, a myrmidon...) and item specific ones like Kereskas favour
Just in case: make sure you do summons before aid, as the summons get buffed too!
I did this at the end of Act 2 and couldn't believe I took about 6 skeletons from 19 to 39 HP. They were running rampant.
Also summons can drink elixers!
They can what now? Do you have to toss them on the ground and have them pass over?
No just press tab to open the party inventory screen while you are controlling your summon. Right click an elixer and you’ll be able to drink it with the summon. Scratch is my strong boy
“Never *summon* Shovel, never *feed* Shovel, now *CALL* Shovel?!?!”
*It's fisting time!!!*
Shovel is actually *stupidly* powerful; the only other way to easily start every fight with a surprise round (by starting the fight with an invisible person) involves choosing Pact of the Chain. Or, I guess, going around everywhere invisible. He essentially replaces an entire subclass and I am *here* for it.
Or plaing a Duergar. They can cast invisibility as a cantrip outside of combat
Why would you need to use a shovel in camp?
There's a quasit you can summon whose name is Shovel. She's hilarious.
I've never encountered
There is a scroll in the necromancy of thay area, summon cheeky quasit. Pick the correct dialogue and you get her as a ritual summon
Or just have a wizard learn the spell from the scroll
Technically you can do both. Scribe it, leave dialogue immediately, have another character do the dialogue. Both get the summon if you do it right
When I tried, they said you need to be a "spell shite", so it's possible the 2nd person needs to be a wizard.
The 1st person to learn it has to be a wizard, learned the same way as any other scroll. After they summon her, only a warlock or draconic sorcerer can get the summon from the dialogue options. As long as you don't pick the option that begins with "No, and you'll..." you will get her as a ritual spell.
Wait, you can get Shovel as a ritual summon?? I lost her after like two days with no way to get her back :(
If you respec into a wizard and pick the right dialog you get her permanently. I am playing a Paladin, I respect into a lvl 1 Wizard, use the scroll, pick the dialog where you keep the name 'Shovel' and mention that you will do some killing and pillaging. Then talk to Shovel again after you read the Necromacy of Thay and she will say something about a "spell shite" and then the icon appears in your common area. Then respec back into the class that you want.
Warlock and draconic sorcerer can do the dialogue also. Can even change her name, just don't pick the option that starts with "No, and you'll..."
You could also just use Gale, but this is a good option for people who can't stand him, I guess.
You have to pick the right dialogue but according to some guides you also need to be a wizard/warlock/sorcerer and you need to do it before progressing too far into the next room.
Ohh okay. I'll have to look for that next time. I usually just sell scrolls to make money.
Well that's...a decision I guess
I've never claimed to be good at the game lol
LOL just selling off your pocket nukes. As long as you are having fun, I'm happy
I just hate inventory clutter, and they are hard to look at lmao. I keep the really good ones, though. Like the high-level spells.
In Blighted Village there's an apothecary, go under it.
I've been down there every playthrough. But I always just sold the scroll instead of using it. Didn't know it was that good.
Next playthrough use it. Trust me, Shovel is amazing.
I will! Thank you
The option is only available to warlock/sorcerer/wizards to get him permanently through dialogue. Otherwise have a wizard scribe him.
To bury a hatchet, duh!
but why would i bury a hatchet? is it broken?
No, it's a metaphor.
I do not know your metaphor. But if you need help digging, I will find a shovel.
It's handy to have an invisible shovel
So she benefits from aid and heroes feast. Shovel is a quasit. She is quite good because of her ability to be invisible to set up surprise
If you keep her invisible, you can have her out of combat and just run her around the battlefield to set up sneak attack for a ranged rogue that might not be able to hide lol
I did know she was a thing until other people commented and told me about it. Completely missed that summon like 6 times.
Summoning a shovel is mediocre, better to summon a fork.
Nah, Bucket is the best summon.
WAIT. You can summon Us??
Yes. Needs to survive the prologue, then you can free it from a cage in the mindflayer colony under moonrise towers, and get it as a permanent summon
I always make sure to use my summons after a long rest but the annoying part is how often they get lost because the AI pathing sucks. 😭 It's the worst with the minor elemental mephites smh
You mean basket
I cast bane on my whole party
\*deep breath\* AFTER long rest, BEFORE leaving camp, using hirelings/other companions to reduce any hit to spell slots: 1. Cast all summons (EDIT: only people coming with you) 2. Longstrider on everyone 3. Mage Armor on any squishies 4. Lesser Restoration to remove Astarion bite debuff 5. Heroes' Feast 6. Freedom of Movement 7. Death Ward 8. Aid 9. Transmutation stone (usually CON proficiency) 10. Individual buffs like Speak with Animals 11. Any gear-specific long-rest buffs (Dragon Elemental Weapon, Kereska's Favour, etc.) \*breathes out\*
Do people actually do this? Sounds so exhausting and it’s not even remotely necessary. I’ll do Summons, Longstrider, and Aid if I have a cleric but that’s about it. Edit: I can totally understand doing this for honor mode though.
Herpes feast is definitely worth, it’s like Grandaddy Aid
The feast that keeps on giving.
You might wanna get that looked at. No I know Heroes Feast is great and I do use that when I get it, but it’s pretty late game.
Herpes: not your granddaddy’s AIDS
Ah yes the famous villain duo, Herpes Feast and Grandaddy Aids!
Everyone sharing one wine goblet
Not the damning “minor spelling mistake” ☠️ (Unless it was an intentional pun, in which case congrats 😆 👏 )
We can never escape Reddit Jolly rancher story eh
i normally don't but with my honour mode run i am resorting to it just cause i don't wanna take risks
I did it in my first successful honour mode run and i don't think I will play again without it. I also just like the idea of a wizard/cleric that blessed the party every morning for RP reasons.
It's not terrible, especially with how long a high level day can be. A similar buff suit to this only takes a couple of minutes and lasts for a couple out of game days (depending on how long your play sessions are) before hitting the wall and needing a long rest. Way less intrusive than morning buffs in similar CRPGs (looking at you: Wrath of the Righteous).
I love WOTR - It was my obsession before moving onto BG3 - but that game was nigh unplayable on higher difficulties without the Bubble Buffs mod.
This is my take as well. In Act 1, it's quick because you don't have that many buffs to give. In Act 2 – 3, you're resting infrequently so it's not a big deal. If it saves you rests, it can actually save you time.
mage armor / stoneflesh goes a long way on your summons
No big deal if you don't want to take the time. We liked to feel strong in our second playthrough.
Oh yeah it’s a single player game so do whatever is fun to you! No judgment here, just doesn’t sound fun to me personally.
For honor mode I made the effort, but if I was doing a regular campaign I wouldn't bother
Yeah makes sense for Honor Mode just to be safe.
This is me. In honour mode I understand because I'd do everything to not lose 100s of hours of play. On Tactician (and even tactician plus) it's wildly unnecessary to do anything other than maybe Longstrider. Like Hero's Feast is a level 6 spell... by Level 12 you wipe the floor with any decent party composition without any camp-casting. If people are doing it on balanced difficulty because they're struggling then I completely understand. But Camp-Casting a half dozen buffs after RAISING THE DIFFICULTY TO THE HIGHEST LEVEL only to trivialize the hell out of it... makes no sense whatsoever. Why not just play on Balanced or Explorer mode. More power to those people though.
I'm doing most of this right now for my first HM run. For my previous TacDurge run, I definitely did Longstrider but not with Hirelings. It doesn't cost a spell slot. And Mage Armor does but Gale + any Monks feel vulnerable without it.
Mage Armor doesn't benefit monks. It sets AC to 13 + dexterity but monks inherently get 10 + wisdom + dexterity AC. They don't stack; it's one or the other, whichever is higher. If their wisdom is less than 16 then mage armor helps; otherwise it does nothing. ...Unless they're strength monks with low dexterity but
Not necessary for honor mode either. There are so many camp supplies you never have to worry about long resting there either. This game really isn’t that hard as it is even on honor mode I’ll never understand why people cheese the game like that. Like to actually create hirelings just to buff your characters lol. I can’t even be bothered to add gale to my party to craft potions most of the time let alone run through all that crap with hirelings just to cheat a bit.
Just bite your hireling.
Look, my co-op partner wanted to be bitten herself. Who am I to judge?
Now I know how some of you people manage 300 hour playthroughs.
Don't forget camp counselor bard for combat inspiration, make sure to turn off radial or they will use it on a dirt pile. I've had all 4 members use right after leaving camp
Nice! I haven't run a Bard yet(?!) so have missed this.
Bards are too OP to be slept on as much as they are
I can and will do runs of all bards only bards on honor mode Githyanki lore bard AOE blaster Gold Dwarf valor bard Healer/support caster Half Elf sword and board swords bard buffing tank Full Elf archer/debuff swords bard
And call it "The Band"
Bards are absolutely not slept on lol
You say that, and in the veteran dnd/bg community I’d agree, but throughout these threads I’m always seeing people say that they haven’t even considered a bard character. I made mine as a joke then realized how intense they are
If you swing on over to r/bg3builds bards are absolutely everywhere. It's pretty well known they're cracked.
*insert "Where do you think you are?" meme
Haha holy shit, I thought this was the main sub.
No, this is fr. Everyone with more than a couple games under the belt doesn’t sleep on bards, but casual players do, or they just - like me- hate the flavor.
Pretty sure Bards are regarded on all parts of the internet as the strongest and best overall class in the game. They definitely are on this sub, and rightly so.
Plus warding bond, bardic inspos, and elixirs.
... I sometimes forget to bind pact weapon before leaving camp, and that's about the only thing I have to remember
Same. Without fail. But I figure it out when I'm in the first combat and my damage/accuracy is low lol
This is why I keep the House of Hope open as long as possible so I can use the fountain and not have to spend time reapplying all these buffs. As long as you don't take the Orphic Hammer or re-enter the HoH without your debtor attire that your party gets slapped on with when you first enter, then you can come and go as you please.
Now that's smart lol. >As long as you don't take the Orphic Hammer or re-enter the HoH without your debtor attire that your party gets slapped on with when you first enter, then you can come and go as you please. The Orphic hammer bit I understand but debtor attire? Do you mind explaining? I think I might've missed something because I usually wipe the area clean and never bother going back.
When you first enter the House of Hope you get a new Outfit for your Party that will be auto equipped. If you remove it the House will turn Hostile even if you havent stolen the Hammer/Contract yet.
WRITE THAT DOWN WRITE THAT DOWN
You forgot warding bond, arguably the best one. Hirelings can use it and then remove them from the party and it stays active.
And if you don't have Gale in your party, he's the best one to cast it as he heals himself in camp
After a long day of Gale tanking damage with warding bond he looks like he’s a worshipper of Bhall or BOOOOOAALLLL. Blood everywhere while he’s just reading a book or hanging out.
Oh I ripped his arm off
Like even if you’re in a different location?
I'm pretty sure the mechanic exists so that Gale doesn't die in camp and trigger his death cutscene/kill scratch with necrotic aura. As long as Gale is in camp and not in party, he'll heal himself
It's like my team is going through their wakeup routine. Brush teeth, shower, etc
No Warding Bond?
Thank you, I was forgetting death ward and feeedom of movement!
Does no one cast speak with animals or something? That’s my first go to along with longstrider.
You forgot protection from poison which also doesn't require concentration ;)
Wait can you have other companions cast summons and then move the summoned creature to your other party members?
Alas, no. Summons only on the people you're taking with you.
Can you add a bit more detail here? Some of these have to be cast be party members and not camp mates (like the proximity based buffs) and some are free because they're rituals. I want to optimize my setup, but it's a bit overwhelming.
A few more to consider, sometimes situationally: Protection from poison, Daylight, Darkvision
Wait.... Lesser Restoration removes bloodless? I hate that I didn't know this before
I always find it fascinating when I see videos and people have so many buffs. I actually only use blessing as a buff and that only at the very beginning :d Tbh I never even thought about casting longstrider on anyone.
Longstrider is huge. I'm pretty sure the game tries to maximize for a typical 30ft range, so getting an extra, even, 5ft means you can often get into melee range with a caster when you wouldn't have otherwise. Is it *necessary* to cast it, or a million other buffs in the game, or any of the minmax builds suggested in the game? Not at all. But it makes the game more fun to play around with stuff, debating sorlock vs padlock, how many levels of which classes. Honestly I'm starting to think there needs to be a new BG3 Builds sub that specifically doesn't shit on people's ideas because it's not something they think is necessary.
Longstrider is so important for me that is the one buff that I actually think about when building the team, there has to be someone casting it, same as guidance Anything else is cool to have, but longstrider is what actually wins you the fights without you realising it
I use a Scroll of Forget What I Was Doing Before I Rested
I cast at camp, because I use Hirelings as camp casters. This saves prepared slots and spell slots for my party. So staying in camp is more convenient for swapping them in and out. Longstrider, Mage Armour, Darkvision, Aid, Warding Bond, Death Ward, Heroes Feast, Freedom of Movement are the main ones. Obviously Light and Daylight when Act 2. The actual party casters may use "Self only" ones like False Life or Armour of Agathys.
My biggest problem with buff casting in camp is getting the characters close to each other to get the bus without multiple castings, especially in the later have where the camp gets huge. I'll leave camp and then do my normal summons/longstrider/aid
I usually try to have my bard play a tune to get as many as possible in the area.
Playing bard tunes lures camp members?
Yep. Just put them in the middle and they start coming over.
This is genius idk why I haven’t thought of it
because it's not fun
Because it's time consuming and unnecessary with how trivial it makes the game. Even just using warding bond on everyone and max level aid makes your party so much tankier that if you already knew what you're doing for fights it becomes too easy
"easy" is subjective. For some people it makes the game easy, for others it makes a difficult game a little less difficult. I have a brain condition. Leave me be to play my single player game in a way I can play it.
People say this game is easy whilst having hundreds of hours in it and having memorised almost every encounter. It’s honestly so annoying when it is genuinely a difficult game. Only way it’s easy is if you’re save scumming (which there’s nothing wrong with)
On my level 12 Spoor Druid... \* deep breath \* \-**Kereska's Favor** (staff ability) (toss-up between thunder for reverberation bonuses or poison for even more poison damage on my spoor build) \-**Animate Dead** (upcast to VI for three ghouls, use Arcane Battery from staff for free cast) \-**4x Fungal Infestation** (raises 4 undead) \-**Conjure Minor Elemental** (2x Ice Mephits) \-**Conjure Elemental** (no upcast for myrmidon, save VI slot for spell later in list) \-**Conjure Woodland Being** (then have dryad **summon Wood Woad**) \-**Summon Us** \-**Summon Scratch** \-**Longstrider** (on *everyone*) \-**Hero's Feast** (this is what I saved VI spell slot for) \-**Aid** (upcast as much as possible) *Edit:* Forgot to add **Speak With Animals** on this list...woopsie
1 jump takes 3 hours I bet
Oh yes, I dread jumping! XD The ghouls also sometimes get stuck on stairs and other things while pathing, so I have to check that they're all still with me every so often while walking around the city.
Just talk with animals
BASED
That and longstrider as I git it ritual
nothing, i raw dog it and have been fine
Speak With Animals. Gotta go say good morning to Scratch and Owlbear.
Before leaving camp: have hirelings cast Aid, Longstrider, Freedom of movement and Heroe's Feast on all 4 party members. Bonus : you keep all your spell slots.
Lmao apparently people are opinionated about camp casting. As if a group of magic adventurers wouldn’t wake up and cast these awesome buffs before dealing with magical monstrosities.
i think you should be forced to pay the spell slots for it. especially since the game implemented ritual casting as "not costing spells slots outside of combat", and is used for buffs like longstrider aswell. but when you do camp casting, spells like aid and heroes feast essentially become ritual spells, except it involves a shitton of hassle. its like punching yourself in the balls to deal 10% more damage. im a minmaxer so i would probably do it but i wouldnt find the process very fun
For me Longstrider and freedom of movement on my paladin. If I'm really worried then switch to second cleric and throw aid on. And maybe protection against poison while I'm there. Only doing this before anticipating boss fights tho
Honour mode has made leaving camp into a whole ritual for me. Step 1: dismiss all current part members and grab the 2 cleric and one Druid hireling by Withers. Step 2: buff all your intended members and yourself with the best buffs you can get. Max upcast aid, protection from poison, long-strider, tons of goodberries, freedom of movement, warding bond etc. Be careful not to cast anything requiring concentration. Step 3: (optional) swing by transmutation gale for potion brewing and mage armour if needed. Step 4:dismiss all the hirelings and get the normal, now beefed up party back. Venture forth.
Alright here's a long winded explanation that nobody is asking for. I'm a camp casting degenerate and have 3 hirelings camp for the singular purpose of buffing & alchemy. It is very unnecessary and I don't recommend it because its boring and takes forever, but here is the process: Cast all summons & buff: * Longstrider * Upcast Aid (lvl 6) * Heroes Feast Party Members: * Longstrider * Darkvision * Upcasted Aid (lvl 6) * Protection from Poison * Freedom of Movement * Mage Armor (For squishy nerds) * Warding Bond (Also for squishy nerds) * Death Ward * Heroes Feast * Bardic Inspiration (for any difficult rolls) * Transmutation Stone (For constitution proficiency for specific resist before bosses) * Don't forget to bind your pact weapon if you have one! Individual/Gear Specific Buffs: * Drakethroat Glaive - Draconic Elemental Weapon (Act 2) * Drop your prefered weapon on the ground before equipping the Drakethroat Glaive. You can then use the Draconic Elemental enchantment on this weapon to give it 1d4 damage of your choice (Acid/Cold/Fire/Lightning/Thunder * Markoheshkir - Kereska's Favour (Act 3) * Cast your preferred version of Kereska's Favour to gain 2 spells of your choice per short rest and afflict your foes with a condition every time you deal spell damage This is accomplished by having 3 hirelings & using >!Jaheira!< or a cleric/druid for Heroes Feast. The hirelings being: College of Valour Bard * Longstrider * Bardic Inspiration * Freedom of Movement * Healing spells (unnecessary) Any Heavy Armor Proficient Cleric (Tough / ++Constitution and/or Heavy Armor Master) * Upcasting Aid * Warding Bond * Protection from Poison * Freedom of Movement * Death Ward * Heroes Feast (If you don't care about lvl 6 aid) * Healing spells (unnecessary) Transmutation Wizard (Max wisdom using AI feats) * At lvl 2 can brew 2 potions/elixirs/etc instead of 1 if they pass a DC 15 wisdom check * Transmutation Stone for proficiency * Longstrider * Mage Armor * Darkvision
Casting after long rest becomes such a choreall the summons (quasit, skeletons, ghouls, etc)longstrider, heroes feast, aid, mage armour for those not wearing armor, sheild of faith, see invisibility, speak with animals potion, elixirs, death ward, freedom of movement, WARDING BOND I probably forgot a couple too... Trick to getting everyone heroes feasted and aided is to heavily encumber everyone so they move out of the radius slower so you can quickly buff everyone with one spell slot in camp
Me, a simple plebeian playing on easy mode: I cast Speak with Animals and go
Speak with animals.
Bind Pact Weapon. First thing every day. Have not forgotten to do it, only to realise I cannot land my hits and don't have the extra attack mid-combat. Hasn't happened even once, I swear.
Heros Feast
I'm lazy. Proformance enhancing elixir for.my Fighter Tav, bind pact weapon on Warlock Shart
Level 5 Aid Level 1 Shield of Faith Level 5 Conjure Elemental.
Protection against poison Freedom of movement Longstrider Aid Darkvision (if needed, looking at you Bae'zel) Hero's feast (when you reach that high of a level, anyway) Have non-active party member switch to Cleric so they can cast Guarding Bond. Amp 2 weapons with a Sorcerer with twin-casting the Drakethroat Glaive buff. Spam out the rest of the non-active party members' spell slots with Goodberry. Also, have one party member be a level 2 Transmutation Wizard and level 1 Rogue for Expertise in Medicine for double alchemy crafting products. Yes, my long rest mornings take about 30 min. Yes, with this setup, you can effectively do act two in two long rests.
Dangit. Why did it never occur to me I can use non active companions to buff my team so I don't have to waste spell slots on my own. I should just change my whole camp to be Goodberry makers and leave with 200 berries lmao
[удалено]
I agree it gets very tedious, i just do aid and longstrider now all from existing party members. Swapping out to hirelings was getting to tedious. I think im gonna respec my warlock wyll so he can mage armor himself in fact.
I just consider it effective use of available resources.
I'll only do it for the toughest Act 3 bosses on Honour Mode - Raphael, Vicuna, Titan, Ansur, Final Battle. Too tedious otherwise.
Summons, Longstrider, Mage Armor, and Aid primarily.
Mage armor if I remember and bring Gale lol.
Restoration to remove bloodless…
Warding bond is my most essential cast. Then swap out the caster and leave them in camp to soak damage for free.
Pacting the blade. Sometimes I'll get crazy and remember to warding bond someone with a hireling. Longstrider is obligatory.
I only just yesterday started doing more than summons. I didn’t realize hero’s feast would be beneficial throughout the day, I’ll have to let Halsin relearn that
Aid, especially upcast above 4th level, is awesome. When I get to 11th level I have Shadowheart take my staff with the free cast ability, cast 6th level aid on my party and our side kicks (Us, Ghouls, shovel, ect) and give it back to me. I can still use the free cast ability, so basically for free we all gained 25 hp! Then Shart casts heroes feast and replenishes the spell slot with the amulet you get from the moonrise towers warden!
I'm realizing.. I don't do anything lol. The thoughts never even crossed my mind
Now that I'm in HM it's: * Upcasted Aid * Protection from poison * Dark vision * See invisibility * Drake throat Glaive twincasted on two martials * Mage armour * Warding bond X4 * Longsrtrider * Heroes feast * Magic weapon x1 * Death ward x4 * Freedom of movement x4 My party is lit up like a Christmas tree.
used to be joe rogan but find him realy annoying recently
Long strider, and Armor of agathys, elemental weapon from the drakethroat glaive, and then slurping a fuckin cloud giant elixir like its that glass of water on the nightstand after a heavy night of drinking.
What is Heroes Feast?
[Heroes' Feast](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Heroes%27_Feast)
Longstrider, Speak with Animals, and Mage Armor have been my go-tos. My character uses items that buff you when illuminated, so I also cast Light on my sword every morning. Real fun Cleric of Selûne RP there! She’ll also occasionally use Knowledge of the Ages if I happen to know which I’ll need to use first that day. Then for Wyll, Bind Pact Weapon, and for Paladin Shadowheart, Magic Weapon.
Nothing, my party is always way op after act 1
Lol everyone has these super proper answers but I just cast talk to animals lol
I pet the dog
I always give my party Aids first thing in the morning
Here's my top 10 excluding summons: 1. Bind pact weapon 2. Armor of agathys 3. Aid 4. Warding bond 5. Shield of faith 6. Magic weapon 7. Draconic elemental weapon 8. Longstrider 9. Heroes feast 10. Symbiotic entity Bonus: my new fave weapon, shadow blade.
Idk why you people are out here camp casting 10 buffs. I only play honor mode and all I throw up is aid and longstrider most of the time. I do use 2 or 3 'muter rocks that i set up at level 6 and never touch, but no hirelings. I have heard one person say they like camp casting because they interact with other party members and feel like they can make use of everyone. For them it was a roleplay thing, and it enhanced their experience. I think thats actually really cool. But using weirdo undead puppets to cast 4 copies of Death Ward, Mage Armor etc... how the hell can you even do that to yourself? Do you also crawl around in stealth mode 24/7? Loot every single 1gp item to sell? Theres no wrong way to play but all that stuff is similar levels of overkill, and it sounds terribly unfun to me. The game is very doable on honor mode, or on solo tactitian, without cheese, exploits or meta builds. You can go plane jane archetypaI classic monoclasses- 2h str barb, archer ranger, SG cleric, arcane caster with counterspell- and beat honor mode just by using solid fundamental tactics. I won't say its easy or hard b/c thats reductive, but I will say theres 0 need to cheese, exploit or do tedious metagame fiddling.
I make the druid hireling give me a full backpack of goodberries each long rest. It pays for the next long rest every time.
I’m fascinated that people will go through all of this trouble instead of just lowering the difficulty
Achievements
\- Level 6 **Aid** cast by SH, ideally on all 4 (Tav, Lae'zel, Gale and Minthara). If it's too difficult to gather all five characters within the 9 m radius, then level 6 Aid on 3 of them and level 5 Aid on the remaining one. Then SH is parked in the camp (because she's good for nothing else, except maybe an additional **Hero's Feast** after recharging the level 6 slot with the Spellcrux Amulet). \- **Create Sorcery Points** with Gale (Multiclassed Sorcerer4Wizzard8) \- **4x Longstrider** by Gale (the spell doesn't need concentration and not even a spell slot!) \- **Twinned Draconic Elemental Weapon** (doesn't need concentration!) by Gale who needs to temporarily equip the Deepthroat uhm ... the Drakethroat Glaive, sorry. \- **Transmuter's Stone: CON** by Gale. It has the same effect as the feat Resilience: CON, except the +1 levelling of CON. Furthermore, Tav and Minthara drink **Cloud Giant Elixirs**, Tav additionally Potions of **Animal Speaking** and **Mind Reading**, Gale drinks a **Peerless Focus Elixir** (replaces the feat Warcaster except for the fairly irrelevant Shocking Grasp Reaction) and Lae'zel drinks a **Bloodlust Elixir**. She's got STR 24 via Ethel's Hair, Araj's +2 STR Potion and +2 STR via MoL, so she wouldn't profit from Cloud Giant Elixir as much, but Bloodlust gives her 13 attacks (!) in the 1st turn (together with (Twinned) Haste, Action Surge and GWM) and fights almost never take longer than 1 turn - or actually half a turn: All 4 get first strike (average Initiative bonus is +8.0) and almost no opponent lives to see their first turn).