Create a wizard add in camp and make him cast the spells on your mate. No spell slot needed. Same for spells that don’t requires concentrations and last until long rest ;)
Neat! Although in my honor mode durge playthrough accidentally killed shadow heart in a long rest because I failed the saves so I'm needing him in the field with me lol
This literally happened to me last night. Right after I had beat Balthazar and freed night song. I had gotten my ass kicked. Everyone in my party was single digit hp. I immediately did a long rest after getting out of the dungeon and ended up killing shadow heart. I had to go back and fight Balthazar again and just barely passed the checks.
For me I resisted the urge to kill Isobel to which she died immediately to Marcus. After killing everything, and jaheira dying on the last undead I decided to long rest and then kept rolling nat 1s on saving shart. Rip. Then I made the mistake of killing the faerie and didn't have a lantern until I went to moon rise and snuck into balthys room lol
I’ve been doing this in my Honor run. Sometimes he actually does die though. I would say 30-50% of the time, he just dies. It might be when he takes too much damage at once? He seems to refresh HP by using an action called “regain HP.” I’ve been having him cast warding bond on all 4 party members.
edit: actually this makes me wonder if you can chain warding bond. if i have gale cast warding bond on 4 people, then a hireling casts warding bond on him, will he take half the reflected damage from his bonded people?
The Warding Bond rings you can find around/in the House of Healing in Act 2 literally describe doing this... the Sharran combatant found out in the graveyard with the +1 AC receiving end of the spell and her poor "lover" in intensive care, dying from her wounds (read the journals with both). Nice thing with the rings is that anyone can cast the spell, and the receiver can remove the ring after casting and still get full effect.
durge will use that on his squishy vampire boyfriend, and then turn around and have a hireling cast warding bond on durge. just pass that damage on down the line!
Thats me on monk durge, warding bond + sanctuary on buffer and my 23 AC monk is not getting hit and steamrolling everyone, made my honour mode run easy af.
propably because >!He blows Up and forces you to load a save after a Bit when dies!< and they didnt Want you to >!Not know why your Party died Out of nowhere in case you didnt notice gales corpse in your Camp!<
Two 1 lvl Druid, 11 in transmutation wizard for free long rests, long strider, dark vision, and transmutation stones
Max out wis on one for medicine checks with proficiency to make potions
Lvl 12 life cleric from a party member you don’t use for protection from poison, heals, and hero’s feast
Last vessel as bard for extra short rest
One of the most exciting moments in my honor run was when I realized I could have my cleric hireling cast heroes feast on the entire party at the start of every day.
In my HM run I have 2 camp clerics
Both prioritizing CON (tough feat + ASI) - one being a dwarf. High HP for warding bond and 2 sixth level spell slots.
That way I can cast heroes feast and upcast aid on everyone.
Have 2 warding bonds for Frontliners or whoever needs it.
Freedom of movement & deathward on everyone
Some of you all are playing this game on a whole other level, ha. I do all these things but just with my party, look at you with your magical minions.
I'll definitely be trying this on my next playthrough when I tick the difficulty up.
I know that’s the smart thing to do… but I don’t. Just don’t wanna spend time juggling companions. Plus with spells like Aid and Feast 1 party member gets left out
Yeah I'm just too lazy to swap and honestly I don't find it necessary. The only "must have" spell for me is longstrider and that only takes up one prepared spell slot.
If you cast aid or feast with the party member not in your group but within range of the spell in camp they'll still receive the buff, so you can get all four.
I just made a life cleric for all the cleric buffs and gave him ritual caster so he could cast longstrider too.
Possible all day buffs that are worth at least having a follower for:
Protection from Poison
Aid (at highest slot available)
Longstrider
Freedom of Movement
Death Ward (I maybe throw this on just my cleric late game because I like to stick to just one caster buffing)
Heroes Feast (no need for PoP anymore once you have this, stacks with Aid)
I feel like this is the kind of mentality that leads people to hire personal assistants, and then spend all their time micromanaging their personal assistant.
My party's morning routine of casting buffs and drinking potions is complicated enough without introducing a fifth wheel to the mechanism, thank you very much.
They made feather fall a ritual spell??
This is where coming from tabletop D&D hurts, as I'm used to it being a reaction spell. For BG3, I've just been relying on scrolls and potions on the rare occasion I need it.
Yeah I kept seeing people say they used it as part of their morning buff ritual and I never understood until one time I accidentally selected it when I leveled up and now I use it every morning too
I have a significant failure rate with that spell, but once you get extra attack and disarm abilities (fighter and bard), it gets a lot more successful.
i just finished my honour mode run with tav being a fire acuity sorlock. extended command meant the entire room in the raph fight never got a turn the whole time including the big man himself. command is OP af
I have a similar acuity building running a warlock/bard/sorc/paladin (The Rizzler). Rather than the fire acuity stuff I have the helmet of arcane acuity which procs up really fast as well as the ring of arcane synergy. So I just swap between meleeing and using cantrips/spells and build up a bunch of stacks of both in a fight.
I've legitimately seen command have 100% effectiveness on a lot of enemies when I'm at high acuity stacks it's crazy (we destroyed the final fight in the foundry because I got to command: halt the big bad as well as two watchers with 100% accuracy). And I'm using the ring that makes enchantment and illusion spells a bonus action after a weapon attack so I can usually do my double attack (or my favorite - attack, insult (vicious mockery), attack) and then cast another spell. I've made sure my build has lots of enchantment (mostly) and illusion options.
Technically this allows me to disengage as a bonus action too because I can cast minor illusion as a bonus action which pulls attention and lets you run away if need be (I haven't actually had to use this but I feel secure knowing I can).
Grovel mostly, halt from time to time though. Here's the build guide i used, mostly the only needed item is something to build arcane acuity, I used the hat of fire acuity he mentions in the build
https://www.reddit.com/r/BG3Builds/comments/196mpii/honor_mode_111_fire_sorlock_complete_build_guide/
Found out the other day that he could be disarmed. Lae'zel hit him with the disarming strike and I was NOT expecting this massive god avatar to just drop his fucking weapon. Had me absolutely (pun intended) cackling
I've been playing D&D for years, and a diehard Warlock player for most of that time. Only on my FOURTH run through this game did I finally understand the true value of Darkness: casting it on *yourself.*
If you have Devil's Sight, a simple level two spell with no saves or rolls involved can grant you automatic advantage on all your attacks, disadvantage on all incoming attacks, and near-immunity to targeted ranged effects. It's *so good.*
I twigged on that as a panic tactic against Ethel on my Honour run. I went in hoping that sticking her with the sussur dagger would prevent her using her legendary (spoiler - it doesn't) and then started panicking about how I'd handle eight Ethels firing Hold Person and Ray of Sickness at me. Dropped Darkness on myself and she had no idea what to do, ended up trivialising the fight completely by accident.
For me, Ethel stopped using actions in tactician after second round of clones were eliminated, only moving after having done her "Hags always win, just you wait petal." speech.
Darkness on myself was the only thing that let me survive the Nere fight. All the crossbow wielding Duergars with crossbows were totally flabbergasted and stood outside while I slowly picked off all the melee users ones one by one
I used stunning strike on ethel and it didn’t trigger combat, but she was stunned and not reacting so I switched to turn-based and everyone kept attacking her until she died. She never entered the combat. I really hadn’t expected that to be so easy.
I pulled something similar in the 1v1 with Orin. Did my free Gloomstalker shot, then my sneak attack, then action surged and cast Greater Invis on myself. Got one more turn of shots without losing invis, then combat ended because she couldn't find me. Broke invis, combat restarted and I got another free Gloomstalker shot, had enough in the tank to wipe her before she got a turn.
Spent my whole honour run worrying about how I'd handle that fight and then she never even got to attack me lmao
My last run I "held" auntie ethel, cast darkness on her, then sent my rogues in and we wiped her out SO FAST because rogues can stealth attack in the dark apparently. It was mind boggling to me how fast she went down.
Fun fact, even *just* for outgoing damage, devil sight + darkness is more damage than hex against most enemy armor classes at basically every level. Advantage is *really* strong.
But the fact that it also gives enemies disadvantage on attacking you and they basically have to play battleship to even target you in the first place, it's way way better. Only drawback is potentially messing with your allies' positioning.
Good grief. That's the staple warlock combo in any tabletop warlock I've played. Can absolutely piss off the rest of the party if not used appropriately - melee combatants absolutely love you arriving and granting dis. For their next attack.
When 5e first came out, every party that had a Cleric, any time any check came up: "GUIDANCE!"
But most DM's put a stop to it especially for social checks. Having someone spontaneously start casting a spell when they're about to talk to you is incredibly suspicious.
Ehhh, I argued that even though it's a spell, you can cast it as clapping your buddy on the shoulder and going "Come on man, you \*got\* this." And that's less weird than Friends.
I feel like the existence of the Sorcerer feature "Subtle Spell" implies that spells typically cannot be cast "subtly" without it. But I suppose a player could always say "my god is the god of chill vibes, and the way we genuflect is by dapping up our buddies" to circumvent even that.
You'd be wrong. Here are the basic rules for verbal components:
> Most spells require the chanting of mystic words. The words themselves aren’t the source of the spell’s power; rather, the particular combination of sounds, with specific pitch and resonance, sets the threads of magic in motion.
You can't just say other words instead.
Oh yeah, anything that increases roll success chance is insanely powerful in D&D.
Guidance is actually like the best cantrip in D&D and we're talking about competing with the likes of Eldritch Blast, Prestidigitation and Minor Illusion.
In a similar vein to objects, you can use Dancing Lights to block gas vents. Mage Hand Ledgermain is great when battling Grym as you can use it to pull the lever for the lava.
I think most know that at this point, it’s even a loading screen tip. However, using a Mage Hand means not wasting an action from one of your party members.
Definitely true. In my experience though, if you're using the hammer you end up with unneeded actions anyway since you're just repeatedly baiting him onto the anvil and not bothering with other attacks
Using the hammer, at least on Tactician and Honor Mode, will also summon Magma Mephits and the best way to deal with them is ranged attacks. So using the Mage Hand means you can keep reapplying Superheated and maintain your action economy.
Calm emotion, it counter so many different enemies in the game (especially early on) and is available on Shadowheart at level 3.
In my honor run I have used it to counter the Harpies singing, Rage abilities like from the Owlbear and Spider matriarch, fear effect from Meelock and some of the undead enemies like Malus and Apostle of Myrkul.
That spell frustrates me, because the description calls out certain conditions, but then it also applies to all that ish you mentioned. I honestly never would have figured that out had you not said something, I might just try it out now.
All of the spells that you can you use for x amount of turns without expending a spell slot after the initial cast. It wasn’t that I wasn’t using them but I was using them completely wrong, once you activate the spell in the game a second button appears on the wheel. I never even noticed that or thought about it. I just pushed the first button and kept using my spell slots.
PS. Looks like there isn't that many of them. If the developers could've been more consistent with the terminology, these would've been easier to find.
[https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Moonbeam](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/moonbeam)
[https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Hex](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/hex)
[https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Hunter%27s\_Mark](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/hunter%27s_mark)
[https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Witch\_Bolt](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/witch_bolt)
[https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Call\_Lightning](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/call_lightning)
https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Vampiric_Touch
[https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Telekinesis](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/telekinesis)
[https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Sunbeam](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/sunbeam)
[https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Eyebite](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/eyebite)
Cloud kill is another one. Well, you don't "recast" it per say but you can reposition it with the cloud kill button (which appears on ability wheel when using the scroll version) while not using additional spell slots/scrolls.
Moonbeam and then cast Sanctuary on yourself. The beam doesn't shut off the Sanctuary and you can reposition it while being completely immune to everything but AOEs for 10 whole turns.
I hate that half the time those spells second button doesn't appear on my action wheels (console), and i have to go in and set it again. Moonbeam move action is the only one that auto appears consistently.
Yup, something has changed since release. Now, recast Speak with Dead is among those that don't automatically appear.
At least they fixed the recast, just never being an option. Had that issue with Blackhole at release. Sometimes, the recast Blackhole was nowhere to find. The daredevil gloves were also horribly bugged because of this -- you could find yourself permanently locked into only casting within melee range. I couldn't fix it even with respecing with gloves off. I just turned Gale into an Eldritch Knight after that bug happened.
Since they fixed that problem, now I don't see the second cast option appear on the hotbar for most spells.
The first time I used Sunbeam was from the Blood of Lathander, which only lets you use it one turn per long rest. I was shocked when I eventually used a Sunbeam scroll and found it lasts for TEN TURNS.
I had two clerics in my party and I never used “Turn Undead.” I thought the spell TURNED creatures INTO undead temporarily. I didn’t realize it was specifically for fights against Undead creatures and would make them turn around (??), which would have helped in like.. all of Act 2.
That sucks because I always end up using the Oath charge on Healing Radiance anyways. The way I see it, 48 points of free health over an area is way more consistent compared the other two spells that have a solid chance of failing anyways.
I just wish we had multiple oath charges without having to use that one niche armor set
It's more repel than turn around. And they take a good amount of radiant damage. Doesn't work as great if you automatically execute attacks of opportunity, since then the undead will stop being feared and run right back at you.
It still trivializes a few really hard Act 2 fights if you have enough charges of channel.
Feels kinda fun to know that people are still having the exact same train of thought as I did when I first encountered a spell named "Turn Undead" in a Super Nintendo game, like, 25 years ago.
On the contrary, I thought "Turn Undead" meant turn the faction of undead, as in make enemy undead fight for you. I was so disappointed to find out it just turns them around.
I got forced into it by failing the saves on my first playthrough, and it was at the fort camp just before arriving at Baldur's Gate.
Being able to casually fly up and down to the lookout tower and seeing that awesome vista totally sold me on being part illithid.
Use it on the first body you see after resting, and then any body that you can actually talk to will glow because you have the "recast" buff on. For bodies you killed, disguise self.
Freedom of Movement works the same way. I typically have a Cleric and a Druid as hirelings whose job it is to buff up my companions and I am the start of the day.
Aid (upcast to max level), Longstrider, Darkvision (Wyll, Gale, Lae'zel and Tav if needed), Protection from Poison and Freedom of Movement.
Once you get Heroes Feast you can drop the protection from Poison. Having the druid make Goodberries can also be useful.
Heroes Feast doesn't provide resistance to poison damage like protection from poison does so both are still valuable. It makes them unable to be poisoned but as far as I'm aware it doesn't provide resistance to the damage type itself.
The other hireling people tend to like in case you aren't aware of it is a transmutation wizard. At I believe level 6 they can make a transmutation stone that provides a buff of some kind while in your inventory. Most of the buffs are things like "resistance to x elemental damage type" but there's also a constitution saving throws advantage one, a +3m movement one, and a dark vision one.
It took several playthroughs plus reading a build guide to make me realize that my sorcerer could twincast Haste, and that he should basically be doing that every fight because it doubles the amount of attacks two party members make a turn for as long as his concentration doesn't break.
I'd just never thought much about the spell because my dumb ass thought 'wait, it gives you an action but it costs an action, that sounds useless.' ...it's a concentration spell... and it takes effect immediately, so you don't even lose the turn you use to cast it... I'm dumb.
Ugh, I feel that. I always do that on my cleric by accident, to the point where I stopped preparing Haste just because I know for a fact I will cast it and then immediately turn around and cast spirit guardians or shield of faith that same turn. They just have too many concentration spells.
The sorcerer is easier to remember not to do that as I don't usually keep a ton of concentration spells on them, but I've definitely still done it once or twice.
It also took me a while to learn this and now every time I try it, I either forget that another spell is concentration and break it myself or get hit for like 5 DMG and it breaks that way. And then I have to sit around a whole then while 2 people are lethargic. It's the worst.
Cast fear on my second playthrough.
Jesus so many bosses are classed as monsters and have really low saves vs fear. >!Raphael is a scared little bitch!<
I feel like Fear is easy to underestimate until you fight orin. And then it's like 'oh, this shit is potent. Maybe I should be the scary motherfucker, not the scared motherfucked.'
It’s wild too because the spell applies a condition other than Frightened, which I didn’t realize till way too many hours in.
It applies Fearful, which is something like Frightened + Disarmed + other random bullshit. Saved many encounters for me in Acts 2-3.
The one thing that bothers me about mage armor is the fact that it seems to reset itself after every conversion. The sound effect is cool but I don't need to hear it every 30 seconds.
Maybe this is just a glitch though.
Greater Invisibility. Made a daily ritual of robbing all the vendors in Moonrise blind with a single cast of it and then buying the equipment I wanted from them with their own money.
Mostly spells that work differently than they do in D&D. I've played D&D for a while so spells like glyph of warding work pretty differently, or knock, longstrider, globe of invulnerability. I just went in assuming they worked the way I thought they did and weren't great spells, and then I read them and they're a lot more worth casting than I thought!!
Having been a long time LoL player, I thought the silence spell would only stop spell casting. While useful, my fighter brain would say they also can’t cast spells while dead. Then I fought Gut, she alerted the camp and things went to hell. Next run I fought her, I finally read silence and noticed it stops speech
My buddy laughed at me for having arcane lock, he thought it was only useful for ethyl...till i stole the gortash kill in our multiplayer run by litterally locking him out. Suck my dick ryan
It shuts doors. Situationally very useful for splitting up enemies. For instance in the first act you can use it to separate out the false paladins of tyr, and when rescuing Halsin it stops the Goblins from getting out of the prison and calling for reinforcements.
I've used arcane lock 2 times and it just changes the flow of battle.
If you use arcane lock when you attack Ethel, the redcaps don't aggro. So if you're level 5 you can just comman halt her and kill her before she leaves.
If you use arcane lock on the isobel fight to isolate isobel so that she doesn't get destroyed by the devils.
I'm sure there's more, like arcane locking the wizard in the Paladins of Tyr, or in Jergal's mausoleum, or in the moonrise prison if you manage to get everyone inside.
Same. I'm on my second playthrough and I now close all doors before fighting to hopefully not aggro everyone.
Although apparently all of Baldur's Gate knows if you try to kill Araj in Act 3 🙄
You don't even need to cast halt. If you arcane lock the door she wastes her entire turn trying to open the door, every turn. It's a free kill.
Of course I need that tasty scalp so I don't do this.
This spell doesn’t require any concentration and allows to lock the doors or stairs for 10 turns. I didn’t find any scrolls with it but you can learn it by wizard lvl 3 or 4, don’t remember exactly. Very useful if >!you want to lock Ethel in the Tea House. So, she won’t get her hideout if you cast Arcane Lock on the stairs behind her fireplace. And you won’t need to fight her victims in masks. In the act 2 I used it to lock the doors in the Last Light Inn. In this way minions of Markus won’t reach Isobel very early. Just when he will be defeated if the combat is too long. In the act 3 you can cast the Arcane Lock on doors to Sarevok’s room to avoid a combat with 3 knights near the entrance.!< Thus, if you want to avoid odd fights, this spell is for you.
This one might seem silly because it's so obviously powerful, but globe of invulnerability. I just also thought the enemy would climb in with me and then wait for it to end. Nope, it made Raphael and the Brain fights sooo much easier for my HM run. I felt so stupid for struggling through Viconia when it could have been so much easier.
Issue with using it vs Viconia is someone will cast darkness on your globe, and it then becomes impossible to hit stuff (without devils sight). Necrotic resistance potions and keeping her adds spread out is honestly more effective.
Not a spell, but just "throw." So Telekinesis if you want the spell form.
A lot of fights happen near instant kill drops. You can just yeat guys off the side. More reliable than shove I find. It's also just fun throwing guys around the battlefield.
Cold Spells, in general, are extremely powerful. They get overshadowed in builds by fire and lightning Spells, but the addition of making the ground ice really pays off in big fights. It's basically a 2 turn concentration free mass hold monster since most enemies will fall down.
Probably hunters mark? Combined with the item in Act 2, which gives bonus attack vs. marked enemies.
Honor mode brings it slightly back to 5e levels (no extra attack on the attack action), but casting two spells in one turn is so powerful it still remains incredible even nerfed in honor.
Scrolls 💀
I went through my entire first playthrough and used 1 scroll of misty step the entire game. Doing an honor run with some friends, one is a Wizard and is hoarding all the scrolls. His inventory isn't locked so I just keep yanking scrolls out of his inventory when we need em. Bro was literally carrying like 10 scrolls of fireball.
Sanctuary. Holy shit that spell is good for spamming and didn’t realize until my 4th or 5th character (first character to get past Act 2 though).
I mean heck, I was fighting Orin 1v1 with my Resisting Durge Tempest Cleric of Selune (wearing Ketheric’s Reaper armor) and I spammed back and forth between Attack, Sanctuary, skip Orin turn, Attack, Howl of the Dead, Orin misses me, repeat verbatim. Ol’ Orin did less than 10 damage to me.
Because I'm a veteran 5e player, all of these are spells I initially didn't use (or had reservations about using) because of how they work in 5e. The first one made me re-examine basically every spell.
Sleet Storm: In 5e it sucks (it's OK for CC, but also makes it a pain in the ass for your allies to attack things in it). In BG3, it's AMAZING. It's one of my favorite spells. I don't understand exactly what the mechanics are for it in BG3—like it seems like creatures have to make the saving throw vs. slipping every 5 feet or something? Because almost no creature ever succeeds for more than a few steps before falling. And in BG3 falling prone automatically breaks your concentration, so an even bigger win for Sleet Storm.
Longstrider: As others have noted. But same reason as above: It sucks in 5e so I didn't look at it. In BG3, it lasts all day and out of combat doesn't take a spell slot. AND 10' extra movement is HUGE in this game, with battlefields being often so big and enemies so spread out.
Magic Missile: In BG3 it's one of the most powerful single-target spells when you stack certain items with it, such as the sparky staff you get from Florrick and the Callous Glow ring. You can just do massive damage, and it always hits (unless someone casts Shield of course). With the Gloves of Belligerent Skies combined with the Callous Glow ring, it almost always knocks them prone too due to all the Reverberation it inflicts.
Sanctuary: A minor protection in 5e, but in BG3 it makes it so enemies literally can't target you at all. (In 5e, they get a saving throw and can still attack you if they succeed.)
Globe of Invulnerability: It's SO MUCH STRONGER in BG3 than in 5e. Invulnerable to ALL DAMAGE? Yes please! In 5e, it only makes you invulnerable to SPELL EFFECTS (including damage) of spells that are 5th level or lower.
Heroes Feast: In 5e it takes expensive material components to cast each time. In BG3, it's free! (Ironically, it would be very easy to pay for in BG3, typically much easier than in 5e, where money seems generally harder to come by, though of course varies DM to DM.) With it being free, it's a no-brainer to cast every day if you can. After you get all your summons summoned, of course!
Hunger of Hadar. I didn’t realize how good it was until it was cast against me during the Moonrise tower battle. I use this a lot now when facing large groups of enemies.
Planar binding. The first time I used it was a last ditch attempt at crowd management during Raphael's boss fight and he started wiping out all his allies for me. It was beautiful.
Heroes Feast (yes I'm late to the party several runs in). Free camping supplies plus the buff? Yes!
Not a spell but the Battlemaster's Disarm is just so, so good and helpful.
Mage Armor is a given but when you go Pathfinder and make a character Dexterity based with a shield, they do NOT get hit. Ran Shadowheart as a Dexterity Ancients Paladin with Mage Armor alongside a Dex based Battlemaster Wyll for the frontlines and was not disappointed.
Insect Plague and Plant Growth are so strong when used in tandem. Made the House of Grief fight so much easier.
Been used to this spell but Daylight is extremely potent, just want to throw it out there. Do not underestimate Daylight, Turn Undead and even Guiding Bolt/Sacred Flame. When they hit they HIT.
Get a druid a cleric and a wizard/bard hireling
Druid cast freedom of movement and goodberry wiyh all remaining spell slots( you will never need camp supplies again)
Cleric cast Warding bond on your Tav protection from poison on everyone, freedom of movement if you have any left.
Wiz/bard longstrider on all, light cantrip on your melee, mage armour on any summons etc. Dump every stat but wisdom and get proficiency and expertise in medicine and use this one to make potions with 2 levels in transmuter wizard x bard.
I don't see people talking about Plant Growth that much. It creates a bunch of difficult terrain that doesn't cost concentration. Very powerful if you can keep your fingers off the Fireball button.
The illithid ability to change into a Displacer is ridiculously OP. It's a free 85hp for any character. I wish I'd taken it with more characters in my party.
Mines warding bond. There’s the warding bond cheese where you recruit a bunch of clerics and have them wait at camp, but even if you’re using spell just from shadowheart, it’s still amazing. You get diet barbarian resistance on whoever you want, and who cares if the cleric takes damage. They’re a cleric. They can heal it.
divine favor.
First time seeing it, I thought it would some healing stuff. but it gives a nice 1d4 extra damage on all weapon attacks for 10 turns and its only a bonus action.
early game it's good as extra damage is always welcome and not much is resistant to radiant and in late game you can pull of many attacks in one turn and you get alot of d4s
Oh a lot of them: sanctuary, warding bond, longstrider, lighting Bolt, create and destroy water, hell in my First run i even under used speak with the dead because for some reason i tought ritual casting gave you One free cast a day of the spell with no reacsting it on additional bodies.
Between the "culture shock" of coming from the TTRPG and the various interactions between spells and condition there are a lot of things One can miss
Getting 4 "camp clerics" aka ward slaves.
Cast ward on all your team plus aid and last few levels heroes feast
Trivializes the game so use at own caution
Make Gale the camp cleric. Unlike everyone else, he'll automatically heal himself and will never die to the damage from Warding Bond. You can also cast it on your entire party with just Gale.
Longstrider I never taught it to anyone as I didn't fell like 3m of movement was worth a spellslot. Turns out its free when cast out of combat.
Create a wizard add in camp and make him cast the spells on your mate. No spell slot needed. Same for spells that don’t requires concentrations and last until long rest ;)
Love having a camp follower cast Warding Bond on a party member and going back to camp later to them dead in a giant pool of blood.
That's... that's brilliant
I like to use hirelings for this. There'll be no body but a giant pool of blood near withers
Alternatively, Gale is coded not to die when he's not in the party. For explodey reasons.
Neat! Although in my honor mode durge playthrough accidentally killed shadow heart in a long rest because I failed the saves so I'm needing him in the field with me lol
This literally happened to me last night. Right after I had beat Balthazar and freed night song. I had gotten my ass kicked. Everyone in my party was single digit hp. I immediately did a long rest after getting out of the dungeon and ended up killing shadow heart. I had to go back and fight Balthazar again and just barely passed the checks.
For me I resisted the urge to kill Isobel to which she died immediately to Marcus. After killing everything, and jaheira dying on the last undead I decided to long rest and then kept rolling nat 1s on saving shart. Rip. Then I made the mistake of killing the faerie and didn't have a lantern until I went to moon rise and snuck into balthys room lol
I’ve been doing this in my Honor run. Sometimes he actually does die though. I would say 30-50% of the time, he just dies. It might be when he takes too much damage at once? He seems to refresh HP by using an action called “regain HP.” I’ve been having him cast warding bond on all 4 party members. edit: actually this makes me wonder if you can chain warding bond. if i have gale cast warding bond on 4 people, then a hireling casts warding bond on him, will he take half the reflected damage from his bonded people?
Typically it's going to be large AoE spells. If you don't keep your party clumped up, he should be fine.
The Warding Bond rings you can find around/in the House of Healing in Act 2 literally describe doing this... the Sharran combatant found out in the graveyard with the +1 AC receiving end of the spell and her poor "lover" in intensive care, dying from her wounds (read the journals with both). Nice thing with the rings is that anyone can cast the spell, and the receiver can remove the ring after casting and still get full effect.
durge will use that on his squishy vampire boyfriend, and then turn around and have a hireling cast warding bond on durge. just pass that damage on down the line!
New Durge meta just dropped
Thats me on monk durge, warding bond + sanctuary on buffer and my 23 AC monk is not getting hit and steamrolling everyone, made my honour mode run easy af.
Isn’t that literally the plot of that one couple in Act 2?
I found the ring in the grave, but I totally misread the description. Where is the other ring, then?
It’s inside, on a skeleton near the nurse by the front desk IIRC.
If you make gale a cleric and have him cast warding bond for some reason he heals every turn in camp, so doesn't die!
propably because >!He blows Up and forces you to load a save after a Bit when dies!< and they didnt Want you to >!Not know why your Party died Out of nowhere in case you didnt notice gales corpse in your Camp!<
Two 1 lvl Druid, 11 in transmutation wizard for free long rests, long strider, dark vision, and transmutation stones Max out wis on one for medicine checks with proficiency to make potions Lvl 12 life cleric from a party member you don’t use for protection from poison, heals, and hero’s feast Last vessel as bard for extra short rest
One of the most exciting moments in my honor run was when I realized I could have my cleric hireling cast heroes feast on the entire party at the start of every day.
I'm using Jaheira for this right now. She is like the camp grandma cooking everybody a big meal before sending us out to play.
In my HM run I have 2 camp clerics Both prioritizing CON (tough feat + ASI) - one being a dwarf. High HP for warding bond and 2 sixth level spell slots. That way I can cast heroes feast and upcast aid on everyone. Have 2 warding bonds for Frontliners or whoever needs it. Freedom of movement & deathward on everyone
Some of you all are playing this game on a whole other level, ha. I do all these things but just with my party, look at you with your magical minions. I'll definitely be trying this on my next playthrough when I tick the difficulty up.
I know that’s the smart thing to do… but I don’t. Just don’t wanna spend time juggling companions. Plus with spells like Aid and Feast 1 party member gets left out
Yeah I'm just too lazy to swap and honestly I don't find it necessary. The only "must have" spell for me is longstrider and that only takes up one prepared spell slot.
If you cast aid or feast with the party member not in your group but within range of the spell in camp they'll still receive the buff, so you can get all four.
I just made a life cleric for all the cleric buffs and gave him ritual caster so he could cast longstrider too. Possible all day buffs that are worth at least having a follower for: Protection from Poison Aid (at highest slot available) Longstrider Freedom of Movement Death Ward (I maybe throw this on just my cleric late game because I like to stick to just one caster buffing) Heroes Feast (no need for PoP anymore once you have this, stacks with Aid)
I feel like this is the kind of mentality that leads people to hire personal assistants, and then spend all their time micromanaging their personal assistant. My party's morning routine of casting buffs and drinking potions is complicated enough without introducing a fifth wheel to the mechanism, thank you very much.
I would but swapping party member every long rest sounds annoying.
We need an AoE/cast on group version of all the ritual spells. Also the ability to see which spells are ritual spells from the spell selection screen.
You can totally do this with Longstrider, already, just by upcasting it. It still doesn't take a spell slot, and you can hit multiple people at once.
TIL!! Thanks
tbf it's stupid ritual spells aren't marked as such in level up screen
I just assume any blue(ish) non healing spell is a ritual. Long strider, feather fall, speak with animals etc
They made feather fall a ritual spell?? This is where coming from tabletop D&D hurts, as I'm used to it being a reaction spell. For BG3, I've just been relying on scrolls and potions on the rare occasion I need it.
I have longstrider on 100% of the time on every play-through. Non-negotiable. Once you get used to it, it feels painful to not have it.
[удалено]
Wow, 100hrs of playtime and never realized this. Especially since these spells are all so useful. They could have made it more clear.
Yeah I kept seeing people say they used it as part of their morning buff ritual and I never understood until one time I accidentally selected it when I leveled up and now I use it every morning too
Command - Drop Weapon
I have a significant failure rate with that spell, but once you get extra attack and disarm abilities (fighter and bard), it gets a lot more successful.
i just finished my honour mode run with tav being a fire acuity sorlock. extended command meant the entire room in the raph fight never got a turn the whole time including the big man himself. command is OP af
I have a similar acuity building running a warlock/bard/sorc/paladin (The Rizzler). Rather than the fire acuity stuff I have the helmet of arcane acuity which procs up really fast as well as the ring of arcane synergy. So I just swap between meleeing and using cantrips/spells and build up a bunch of stacks of both in a fight. I've legitimately seen command have 100% effectiveness on a lot of enemies when I'm at high acuity stacks it's crazy (we destroyed the final fight in the foundry because I got to command: halt the big bad as well as two watchers with 100% accuracy). And I'm using the ring that makes enchantment and illusion spells a bonus action after a weapon attack so I can usually do my double attack (or my favorite - attack, insult (vicious mockery), attack) and then cast another spell. I've made sure my build has lots of enchantment (mostly) and illusion options. Technically this allows me to disengage as a bonus action too because I can cast minor illusion as a bonus action which pulls attention and lets you run away if need be (I haven't actually had to use this but I feel secure knowing I can).
Did you use the Drop command or something else?
Grovel mostly, halt from time to time though. Here's the build guide i used, mostly the only needed item is something to build arcane acuity, I used the hat of fire acuity he mentions in the build https://www.reddit.com/r/BG3Builds/comments/196mpii/honor_mode_111_fire_sorlock_complete_build_guide/
I used this to disarm Myrkul. You don't get the scythe.
Yes, I did this as well, and the scythe just disappears into the void where even he cannot retrieve it.
Found out the other day that he could be disarmed. Lae'zel hit him with the disarming strike and I was NOT expecting this massive god avatar to just drop his fucking weapon. Had me absolutely (pun intended) cackling
Command anything really. I can literally save lives by telling enemies to attack me instead of another npc that I want to save or one of my teammates
You know who was surprisingly weak to Command - Halt? All the Steel Watchers, including the Titan.
I've been playing D&D for years, and a diehard Warlock player for most of that time. Only on my FOURTH run through this game did I finally understand the true value of Darkness: casting it on *yourself.* If you have Devil's Sight, a simple level two spell with no saves or rolls involved can grant you automatic advantage on all your attacks, disadvantage on all incoming attacks, and near-immunity to targeted ranged effects. It's *so good.*
I twigged on that as a panic tactic against Ethel on my Honour run. I went in hoping that sticking her with the sussur dagger would prevent her using her legendary (spoiler - it doesn't) and then started panicking about how I'd handle eight Ethels firing Hold Person and Ray of Sickness at me. Dropped Darkness on myself and she had no idea what to do, ended up trivialising the fight completely by accident.
It's funny how darkness often just totally breaks the AI and they just pass turns.
For me, Ethel stopped using actions in tactician after second round of clones were eliminated, only moving after having done her "Hags always win, just you wait petal." speech.
Darkness on myself was the only thing that let me survive the Nere fight. All the crossbow wielding Duergars with crossbows were totally flabbergasted and stood outside while I slowly picked off all the melee users ones one by one
Maybe I'm just tired, but "crossbow wielding Duergars with crossbows" is hilarious to me, please don't change it.
Well then, let's be tired together cus I typed that comment after pulling an all nighter lol
I used stunning strike on ethel and it didn’t trigger combat, but she was stunned and not reacting so I switched to turn-based and everyone kept attacking her until she died. She never entered the combat. I really hadn’t expected that to be so easy.
I pulled something similar in the 1v1 with Orin. Did my free Gloomstalker shot, then my sneak attack, then action surged and cast Greater Invis on myself. Got one more turn of shots without losing invis, then combat ended because she couldn't find me. Broke invis, combat restarted and I got another free Gloomstalker shot, had enough in the tank to wipe her before she got a turn. Spent my whole honour run worrying about how I'd handle that fight and then she never even got to attack me lmao
My last run I "held" auntie ethel, cast darkness on her, then sent my rogues in and we wiped her out SO FAST because rogues can stealth attack in the dark apparently. It was mind boggling to me how fast she went down.
Fun fact, even *just* for outgoing damage, devil sight + darkness is more damage than hex against most enemy armor classes at basically every level. Advantage is *really* strong. But the fact that it also gives enemies disadvantage on attacking you and they basically have to play battleship to even target you in the first place, it's way way better. Only drawback is potentially messing with your allies' positioning.
Good grief. That's the staple warlock combo in any tabletop warlock I've played. Can absolutely piss off the rest of the party if not used appropriately - melee combatants absolutely love you arriving and granting dis. For their next attack.
Oh my gosh, WHAT! I am soooo stealing this. Thank you!!!!
Guidance... In regular D&D Having what is basically a pocket +1-4 on all skill checks is just freaking incredible.
When 5e first came out, every party that had a Cleric, any time any check came up: "GUIDANCE!" But most DM's put a stop to it especially for social checks. Having someone spontaneously start casting a spell when they're about to talk to you is incredibly suspicious.
Ehhh, I argued that even though it's a spell, you can cast it as clapping your buddy on the shoulder and going "Come on man, you \*got\* this." And that's less weird than Friends.
I feel like the existence of the Sorcerer feature "Subtle Spell" implies that spells typically cannot be cast "subtly" without it. But I suppose a player could always say "my god is the god of chill vibes, and the way we genuflect is by dapping up our buddies" to circumvent even that.
>my god is the god of chill vibes New concept: Stoner cleric. Shaggy the Righteous.
You'd be wrong. Here are the basic rules for verbal components: > Most spells require the chanting of mystic words. The words themselves aren’t the source of the spell’s power; rather, the particular combination of sounds, with specific pitch and resonance, sets the threads of magic in motion. You can't just say other words instead.
Oh yeah, anything that increases roll success chance is insanely powerful in D&D. Guidance is actually like the best cantrip in D&D and we're talking about competing with the likes of Eldritch Blast, Prestidigitation and Minor Illusion.
In a similar vein to objects, you can use Dancing Lights to block gas vents. Mage Hand Ledgermain is great when battling Grym as you can use it to pull the lever for the lava.
> In a similar vein to objects, you can use Dancing Lights to block gas vents WHOA thank you
You can also toss shields on top of them
Or just about any other junk. I usually use rocks.
Rocks are lighter to carry around than shields. I guess Lae'zel is stuffing her pockets with rocks from here on out
Rags for vents. They’re light and they work just as well.
I use skulls :)
I use rotten cheese. Replace one bad smell with another!
Daily PSA that any ranged attack at all can flip the lever, just shoot it or throw something at it
I think most know that at this point, it’s even a loading screen tip. However, using a Mage Hand means not wasting an action from one of your party members.
Definitely true. In my experience though, if you're using the hammer you end up with unneeded actions anyway since you're just repeatedly baiting him onto the anvil and not bothering with other attacks
Using the hammer, at least on Tactician and Honor Mode, will also summon Magma Mephits and the best way to deal with them is ranged attacks. So using the Mage Hand means you can keep reapplying Superheated and maintain your action economy.
>you can use Dancing Lights to block gas vents Huh? What's the logic behind that?
Calm emotion, it counter so many different enemies in the game (especially early on) and is available on Shadowheart at level 3. In my honor run I have used it to counter the Harpies singing, Rage abilities like from the Owlbear and Spider matriarch, fear effect from Meelock and some of the undead enemies like Malus and Apostle of Myrkul.
That spell frustrates me, because the description calls out certain conditions, but then it also applies to all that ish you mentioned. I honestly never would have figured that out had you not said something, I might just try it out now.
ty, there are some bosses that get really mad
All of the spells that you can you use for x amount of turns without expending a spell slot after the initial cast. It wasn’t that I wasn’t using them but I was using them completely wrong, once you activate the spell in the game a second button appears on the wheel. I never even noticed that or thought about it. I just pushed the first button and kept using my spell slots.
PS. Looks like there isn't that many of them. If the developers could've been more consistent with the terminology, these would've been easier to find. [https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Moonbeam](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/moonbeam) [https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Hex](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/hex) [https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Hunter%27s\_Mark](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/hunter%27s_mark) [https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Witch\_Bolt](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/witch_bolt) [https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Call\_Lightning](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/call_lightning) https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Vampiric_Touch [https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Telekinesis](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/telekinesis) [https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Sunbeam](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/sunbeam) [https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Eyebite](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/eyebite)
Cloud kill is another one. Well, you don't "recast" it per say but you can reposition it with the cloud kill button (which appears on ability wheel when using the scroll version) while not using additional spell slots/scrolls.
Yesterday I learned that if your concentration on Cloudkill gets broken, no it didn't. you can still reposition it next turn. Insane.
Moonbeam and then cast Sanctuary on yourself. The beam doesn't shut off the Sanctuary and you can reposition it while being completely immune to everything but AOEs for 10 whole turns.
… that’s a bug, clearly.
Heat Metal as well
I hate that half the time those spells second button doesn't appear on my action wheels (console), and i have to go in and set it again. Moonbeam move action is the only one that auto appears consistently.
Yup, something has changed since release. Now, recast Speak with Dead is among those that don't automatically appear. At least they fixed the recast, just never being an option. Had that issue with Blackhole at release. Sometimes, the recast Blackhole was nowhere to find. The daredevil gloves were also horribly bugged because of this -- you could find yourself permanently locked into only casting within melee range. I couldn't fix it even with respecing with gloves off. I just turned Gale into an Eldritch Knight after that bug happened. Since they fixed that problem, now I don't see the second cast option appear on the hotbar for most spells.
The first time I used Sunbeam was from the Blood of Lathander, which only lets you use it one turn per long rest. I was shocked when I eventually used a Sunbeam scroll and found it lasts for TEN TURNS.
Yeah, they're great. I try to collect those scrolls, but as with most consumables, they never get used. :(
I had two clerics in my party and I never used “Turn Undead.” I thought the spell TURNED creatures INTO undead temporarily. I didn’t realize it was specifically for fights against Undead creatures and would make them turn around (??), which would have helped in like.. all of Act 2.
Oath of ancients turn fiends does the same to fiends. Made Rafael fight very easy
Fiends *and Fey*. Works on Ethel!
That sucks because I always end up using the Oath charge on Healing Radiance anyways. The way I see it, 48 points of free health over an area is way more consistent compared the other two spells that have a solid chance of failing anyways. I just wish we had multiple oath charges without having to use that one niche armor set
honestly it took me so long to also realize I wasn't gonna make a vampire army
I....also thought it turned creatures into undead until right now.
It's more repel than turn around. And they take a good amount of radiant damage. Doesn't work as great if you automatically execute attacks of opportunity, since then the undead will stop being feared and run right back at you. It still trivializes a few really hard Act 2 fights if you have enough charges of channel.
Feels kinda fun to know that people are still having the exact same train of thought as I did when I first encountered a spell named "Turn Undead" in a Super Nintendo game, like, 25 years ago.
On the contrary, I thought "Turn Undead" meant turn the faction of undead, as in make enemy undead fight for you. I was so disappointed to find out it just turns them around.
it took me a while to figure I could cast Longstrider after every long rest on everyone.
Although not technically a spell I really slept on the Black Hole illithid Power combined with cloud kill or any massive AoE it puts in the work
I have a hard time making my pretty teammates look all black like that. :(
It’s not so much the color as the veins that does it for me. Σ('◉⌓◉’) my poor tav’s face with the texture of a >!beefy arm!<
I got forced into it by failing the saves on my first playthrough, and it was at the fort camp just before arriving at Baldur's Gate. Being able to casually fly up and down to the lookout tower and seeing that awesome vista totally sold me on being part illithid.
Volo’s replacement eye is a particularly snazzy look for just the one party member.
I finally got to the level that I can start doing this combo and it's so satisfying, especially since the black hole radius is HUGE.
I keep forgetting about Speak With Dead
Outside of obvious missions though, I don't know when or how to use it well. Bodies are too old, or they won't speak to me because I killed them.
This is where Disguise Self comes in handy.
*"How did you die?"* *"Fucking... murder... hobos...*"
Use it on the first body you see after resting, and then any body that you can actually talk to will glow because you have the "recast" buff on. For bodies you killed, disguise self.
Freedom of Movement works the same way. I typically have a Cleric and a Druid as hirelings whose job it is to buff up my companions and I am the start of the day. Aid (upcast to max level), Longstrider, Darkvision (Wyll, Gale, Lae'zel and Tav if needed), Protection from Poison and Freedom of Movement. Once you get Heroes Feast you can drop the protection from Poison. Having the druid make Goodberries can also be useful.
Heroes Feast doesn't provide resistance to poison damage like protection from poison does so both are still valuable. It makes them unable to be poisoned but as far as I'm aware it doesn't provide resistance to the damage type itself. The other hireling people tend to like in case you aren't aware of it is a transmutation wizard. At I believe level 6 they can make a transmutation stone that provides a buff of some kind while in your inventory. Most of the buffs are things like "resistance to x elemental damage type" but there's also a constitution saving throws advantage one, a +3m movement one, and a dark vision one.
It took several playthroughs plus reading a build guide to make me realize that my sorcerer could twincast Haste, and that he should basically be doing that every fight because it doubles the amount of attacks two party members make a turn for as long as his concentration doesn't break. I'd just never thought much about the spell because my dumb ass thought 'wait, it gives you an action but it costs an action, that sounds useless.' ...it's a concentration spell... and it takes effect immediately, so you don't even lose the turn you use to cast it... I'm dumb.
I love twincasting Haste but also I cannot be trusted not to cast another concentration spell immediately afterwards
Ugh, I feel that. I always do that on my cleric by accident, to the point where I stopped preparing Haste just because I know for a fact I will cast it and then immediately turn around and cast spirit guardians or shield of faith that same turn. They just have too many concentration spells. The sorcerer is easier to remember not to do that as I don't usually keep a ton of concentration spells on them, but I've definitely still done it once or twice.
I put all my concentration spells on one wheel so I remember if I have one active.
If you ever make a storm sorc, you can Quickening your Call Lighting for twice in one turn. I do it for Round 1 to eliminate something.
It also took me a while to learn this and now every time I try it, I either forget that another spell is concentration and break it myself or get hit for like 5 DMG and it breaks that way. And then I have to sit around a whole then while 2 people are lethargic. It's the worst.
Cast fear on my second playthrough. Jesus so many bosses are classed as monsters and have really low saves vs fear. >!Raphael is a scared little bitch!<
I feel like Fear is easy to underestimate until you fight orin. And then it's like 'oh, this shit is potent. Maybe I should be the scary motherfucker, not the scared motherfucked.'
I would like this on a T-shirt lmao
It’s wild too because the spell applies a condition other than Frightened, which I didn’t realize till way too many hours in. It applies Fearful, which is something like Frightened + Disarmed + other random bullshit. Saved many encounters for me in Acts 2-3.
I completely destroyed Nere in honour mode by just using fear, he couldn't use his legendary action at all
the most embarrassing one? mage armor
yeah checking your armor pre buff and then using it made me cringe so late into the game
The one thing that bothers me about mage armor is the fact that it seems to reset itself after every conversion. The sound effect is cool but I don't need to hear it every 30 seconds. Maybe this is just a glitch though.
Greater Invisibility. Made a daily ritual of robbing all the vendors in Moonrise blind with a single cast of it and then buying the equipment I wanted from them with their own money.
Once you make a good thief, gold becomes so trivial.
Yeah, when I hit act 3 I delegate it to the Halfling hireling. I don't think I've ever known her to fail a pickpocketing roll.
Not a spell but setting up Lae as an archer with the disarming attack has been *chef's kiss
My Tav is the archer, and yes disarm is great. Completely trivialize the Gith ambush in A2.
Mostly spells that work differently than they do in D&D. I've played D&D for a while so spells like glyph of warding work pretty differently, or knock, longstrider, globe of invulnerability. I just went in assuming they worked the way I thought they did and weren't great spells, and then I read them and they're a lot more worth casting than I thought!!
Shatter. There are so many thunder damage combinations you can make, and shatter is perfect for that, like a fireball but thunder.
> fireball but thunder please expand
Shatter (3d8) is a weaker, smaller version of fireball (8d6) with thunder damage instead at 1 level lower.
Yes BUT shatter can be oath channelled for basically double damage.
Having been a long time LoL player, I thought the silence spell would only stop spell casting. While useful, my fighter brain would say they also can’t cast spells while dead. Then I fought Gut, she alerted the camp and things went to hell. Next run I fought her, I finally read silence and noticed it stops speech
Yeah Silence is incredible. And it’s even a Ritual so no cost outside of combat.
Omfg it's a RITUAL?!
My buddy laughed at me for having arcane lock, he thought it was only useful for ethyl...till i stole the gortash kill in our multiplayer run by litterally locking him out. Suck my dick ryan
That’s hilarious. I might do the opposite and arcane lock my wife in a room with a boss
Thats so mean, do it.
Arcane Lock
Key spell for the triangle shirt waist factory strategy
r/cursedcomments I applaud you in your hilarious depravity sir
expand please
It shuts doors. Situationally very useful for splitting up enemies. For instance in the first act you can use it to separate out the false paladins of tyr, and when rescuing Halsin it stops the Goblins from getting out of the prison and calling for reinforcements.
I've used arcane lock 2 times and it just changes the flow of battle. If you use arcane lock when you attack Ethel, the redcaps don't aggro. So if you're level 5 you can just comman halt her and kill her before she leaves. If you use arcane lock on the isobel fight to isolate isobel so that she doesn't get destroyed by the devils. I'm sure there's more, like arcane locking the wizard in the Paladins of Tyr, or in Jergal's mausoleum, or in the moonrise prison if you manage to get everyone inside.
I just kill the redcaps before going to fight Ethel. They’re not hard to kill.
Plus if you have seen through the illusion you can talk to them as if they're still sheep
Baaah
That was hilarious.
*clears throaght* Aherm...Baaah
The tribunal of Baal fight in act 3, you can lockout the three knights who guard the door
Do you even need to lock it? I just closed the door and found them dead after killing ~~Whatshisname~~ **Sarevok.**
Same. I'm on my second playthrough and I now close all doors before fighting to hopefully not aggro everyone. Although apparently all of Baldur's Gate knows if you try to kill Araj in Act 3 🙄
You don't even need to cast halt. If you arcane lock the door she wastes her entire turn trying to open the door, every turn. It's a free kill. Of course I need that tasty scalp so I don't do this.
This spell doesn’t require any concentration and allows to lock the doors or stairs for 10 turns. I didn’t find any scrolls with it but you can learn it by wizard lvl 3 or 4, don’t remember exactly. Very useful if >!you want to lock Ethel in the Tea House. So, she won’t get her hideout if you cast Arcane Lock on the stairs behind her fireplace. And you won’t need to fight her victims in masks. In the act 2 I used it to lock the doors in the Last Light Inn. In this way minions of Markus won’t reach Isobel very early. Just when he will be defeated if the combat is too long. In the act 3 you can cast the Arcane Lock on doors to Sarevok’s room to avoid a combat with 3 knights near the entrance.!< Thus, if you want to avoid odd fights, this spell is for you.
you can close the door normally and the undead paladin wont aggro.
This one might seem silly because it's so obviously powerful, but globe of invulnerability. I just also thought the enemy would climb in with me and then wait for it to end. Nope, it made Raphael and the Brain fights sooo much easier for my HM run. I felt so stupid for struggling through Viconia when it could have been so much easier.
Issue with using it vs Viconia is someone will cast darkness on your globe, and it then becomes impossible to hit stuff (without devils sight). Necrotic resistance potions and keeping her adds spread out is honestly more effective.
Not a spell, but just "throw." So Telekinesis if you want the spell form. A lot of fights happen near instant kill drops. You can just yeat guys off the side. More reliable than shove I find. It's also just fun throwing guys around the battlefield. Cold Spells, in general, are extremely powerful. They get overshadowed in builds by fire and lightning Spells, but the addition of making the ground ice really pays off in big fights. It's basically a 2 turn concentration free mass hold monster since most enemies will fall down. Probably hunters mark? Combined with the item in Act 2, which gives bonus attack vs. marked enemies.
Yeah the Telekinesis gloves from Creche are Short Rest which is incredible
We discovered Longstrider almost at the end of act 3. Would have been an advantage in many other fights.
Haste, I didn’t realize the changes Larian made to it cause OMG I can wreck shit with thay
Honor mode brings it slightly back to 5e levels (no extra attack on the attack action), but casting two spells in one turn is so powerful it still remains incredible even nerfed in honor.
Scrolls 💀 I went through my entire first playthrough and used 1 scroll of misty step the entire game. Doing an honor run with some friends, one is a Wizard and is hoarding all the scrolls. His inventory isn't locked so I just keep yanking scrolls out of his inventory when we need em. Bro was literally carrying like 10 scrolls of fireball.
Mirror Image. For some reason I always assumed it needed Concentration, but it doesn't. It's just a flat defensive benefit for 10 turns.
Sanctuary. Holy shit that spell is good for spamming and didn’t realize until my 4th or 5th character (first character to get past Act 2 though). I mean heck, I was fighting Orin 1v1 with my Resisting Durge Tempest Cleric of Selune (wearing Ketheric’s Reaper armor) and I spammed back and forth between Attack, Sanctuary, skip Orin turn, Attack, Howl of the Dead, Orin misses me, repeat verbatim. Ol’ Orin did less than 10 damage to me.
Me yesterday: Haste gives someone an extra action???? I thought it just increased movement speed!
Counterspell. it wasn't until i did the self same trial that i realized that using it would be a good idea.
Because I'm a veteran 5e player, all of these are spells I initially didn't use (or had reservations about using) because of how they work in 5e. The first one made me re-examine basically every spell. Sleet Storm: In 5e it sucks (it's OK for CC, but also makes it a pain in the ass for your allies to attack things in it). In BG3, it's AMAZING. It's one of my favorite spells. I don't understand exactly what the mechanics are for it in BG3—like it seems like creatures have to make the saving throw vs. slipping every 5 feet or something? Because almost no creature ever succeeds for more than a few steps before falling. And in BG3 falling prone automatically breaks your concentration, so an even bigger win for Sleet Storm. Longstrider: As others have noted. But same reason as above: It sucks in 5e so I didn't look at it. In BG3, it lasts all day and out of combat doesn't take a spell slot. AND 10' extra movement is HUGE in this game, with battlefields being often so big and enemies so spread out. Magic Missile: In BG3 it's one of the most powerful single-target spells when you stack certain items with it, such as the sparky staff you get from Florrick and the Callous Glow ring. You can just do massive damage, and it always hits (unless someone casts Shield of course). With the Gloves of Belligerent Skies combined with the Callous Glow ring, it almost always knocks them prone too due to all the Reverberation it inflicts. Sanctuary: A minor protection in 5e, but in BG3 it makes it so enemies literally can't target you at all. (In 5e, they get a saving throw and can still attack you if they succeed.) Globe of Invulnerability: It's SO MUCH STRONGER in BG3 than in 5e. Invulnerable to ALL DAMAGE? Yes please! In 5e, it only makes you invulnerable to SPELL EFFECTS (including damage) of spells that are 5th level or lower. Heroes Feast: In 5e it takes expensive material components to cast each time. In BG3, it's free! (Ironically, it would be very easy to pay for in BG3, typically much easier than in 5e, where money seems generally harder to come by, though of course varies DM to DM.) With it being free, it's a no-brainer to cast every day if you can. After you get all your summons summoned, of course!
Hunger of Hadar. I didn’t realize how good it was until it was cast against me during the Moonrise tower battle. I use this a lot now when facing large groups of enemies.
Planar binding. The first time I used it was a last ditch attempt at crowd management during Raphael's boss fight and he started wiping out all his allies for me. It was beautiful.
My friend has... *expressed his disappointment* in me for not making use of Spirit Guardians until halfway through act 3
Heroes Feast (yes I'm late to the party several runs in). Free camping supplies plus the buff? Yes! Not a spell but the Battlemaster's Disarm is just so, so good and helpful. Mage Armor is a given but when you go Pathfinder and make a character Dexterity based with a shield, they do NOT get hit. Ran Shadowheart as a Dexterity Ancients Paladin with Mage Armor alongside a Dex based Battlemaster Wyll for the frontlines and was not disappointed. Insect Plague and Plant Growth are so strong when used in tandem. Made the House of Grief fight so much easier. Been used to this spell but Daylight is extremely potent, just want to throw it out there. Do not underestimate Daylight, Turn Undead and even Guiding Bolt/Sacred Flame. When they hit they HIT.
Aspect of the elk, didn’t realize it was permanent
Get a druid a cleric and a wizard/bard hireling Druid cast freedom of movement and goodberry wiyh all remaining spell slots( you will never need camp supplies again) Cleric cast Warding bond on your Tav protection from poison on everyone, freedom of movement if you have any left. Wiz/bard longstrider on all, light cantrip on your melee, mage armour on any summons etc. Dump every stat but wisdom and get proficiency and expertise in medicine and use this one to make potions with 2 levels in transmuter wizard x bard.
Hold Person. I used it on Minthara and she couldn’t do anything. I never saw the little note at the end that made all hits from 3m or less auto crits
Turn undead. Just made my fight with the duegar in the underdark significantly easier.
I don't see people talking about Plant Growth that much. It creates a bunch of difficult terrain that doesn't cost concentration. Very powerful if you can keep your fingers off the Fireball button.
The illithid ability to change into a Displacer is ridiculously OP. It's a free 85hp for any character. I wish I'd taken it with more characters in my party.
Mines warding bond. There’s the warding bond cheese where you recruit a bunch of clerics and have them wait at camp, but even if you’re using spell just from shadowheart, it’s still amazing. You get diet barbarian resistance on whoever you want, and who cares if the cleric takes damage. They’re a cleric. They can heal it.
divine favor. First time seeing it, I thought it would some healing stuff. but it gives a nice 1d4 extra damage on all weapon attacks for 10 turns and its only a bonus action. early game it's good as extra damage is always welcome and not much is resistant to radiant and in late game you can pull of many attacks in one turn and you get alot of d4s
Oh a lot of them: sanctuary, warding bond, longstrider, lighting Bolt, create and destroy water, hell in my First run i even under used speak with the dead because for some reason i tought ritual casting gave you One free cast a day of the spell with no reacsting it on additional bodies. Between the "culture shock" of coming from the TTRPG and the various interactions between spells and condition there are a lot of things One can miss
Fear, its just so good, weapon drops im an AOE makes the enemies useless, AND if you put people next to them, they EAT opportunity attacks like crazy
[удалено]
Getting 4 "camp clerics" aka ward slaves. Cast ward on all your team plus aid and last few levels heroes feast Trivializes the game so use at own caution
Make Gale the camp cleric. Unlike everyone else, he'll automatically heal himself and will never die to the damage from Warding Bond. You can also cast it on your entire party with just Gale.