BG3 Honour Mode: strategy & tactics (many spoilers)

[Black Elk]

We're Good, but not that Good... heheh

Just came up on 10 thousand gold in the Sewers! And we're keeping it all!!! Screw the Bank! lol

I was a little worried that we'd just lose that ready loot, cause Roah died way back at the Goblin camp, but thankfully there was another Zhent to take her place. Woot! We used like all the ice, spike growth, entangle type spells to trip her up with a golden gambit, and it totally worked! She definitely dirt napped. I never pulled this off in Tactician cause Roah somehow always made it to the ladder, but her stand-in had no such luck hehe. Yeah, I think we'll be keeping that bag. Battling assassins had us hit the final lvl 12 spike down here in the Sewers, so just trying to settle into stat blocks for the closer now. First, had to stop and grab a bite.

Here everything is sorta keying off the itemization and pushing ASI I guess. I'm not sure if certain feats would be stronger for my party than others, like for the combat mechanics, but there is something very satisfying about seeing the big numbers get bigger.

It's hard for me to justify a multiclass with anybody really, although I did have fun with a couple 1 lvl dips in the other runs, it just doesn't make as much sense here where I don't want to leave any feats on the table. 4/8 multiclass splits seem to fall well behind the power curve for what I'm trying to do, and 5/7 same deal. 2/10 means eating that last feat, which is rough. So sorta would only make sense for 2 lvl dip in fighter or something like that, but I don't know. When we're talking Globes and Chain Lightning seems kinda hard to justify any dips. Basically 12 lvls or bust probably. That's fine for me, since I don't really think of Sorcerers as needing any more flare - like he's already got enough of that coming from the Dragonborn stuff and the Draconic sorcerer bloodline, so we just kept it steady for the time being. I might reconsider later.

The game is a little curious in that you spend like half the campaign just trying to get to the lvl cap, and then the other half maintaining at that same level for the duration. I suppose EA was similar being capped at lvl 4 forever, but still, it's a little different when you know in advance where the ultimate ceiling is ending up. Anyhow, seems like once I get this far along, there's a pretty high incentive to respec for an equipment based build or to tweak the abilities to pad the numbers a bit, or just for more situational stuff like replacing unused low level spells that compete with new higher lvl spells and things of that sort.

Costs a little gold sure, but we got some of that now too, after spending most of the game just living off the land, eating goodberries, the broke life lol. Withers always seems to have his eye on our wallets somehow, even with like 4 clerics standing right next to him, he still gets us on the respec/re-level indecisiveness.

This is where I'm at with it right now...

Might rework ourselves again after the House of Grief, but that fight has me a little nervous, so I thought I'd advance the main plot first at the Rock. I don't mind the visualization or the sound for the Mother Superior, though it does grate on me that I can't recruit her or do anything much to tilt that encounter.

It's a much more challenging fight when Shadowheart is all platinum like this. If Shadowheart stays dark then it's nothing to write home about, cause she can sway the Cloister for divide and conquer, but going in all by the light of the moon, I know it's going to be tougher.

Sanctuaried enemies can be a challenge, but Shadowheart doing the thunder and lightning as a tempest Cleric will hopefully help with that a bit. I'll probably do some CC and icy surfaces and just bring as many summons as possible, cause I'm sure that'll be a tough one. After enemy mages doing counterspell, fighting a bunch of priests is always rough stuff. I figure the meta magics Distant spell and Heighten spell will start to challenge Twinned spell and Quickened Spell to become more important overall. Similar to the way Hold Monster and the Globe start to eclipse stuff like Twinned Haste (although Twinned Chained Lightning is still a contender for sure!!!)

Playing a Sorcerer feels a little complicated in that I need to burn some low level spells to generate enough sorcery points to use metamagic effectively with the higher level spells. This gives me some pause, cause I feel like every spellslot is pretty useful, though this where potions of cultivation that replace arcane spells can be very useful. I've been saving them up for the boss fights that have transitions, cause they're all pretty intense. Anyhow, if we get that Mace that boosts STR to 18, then we might try a different stat block for somebody, cause that's another big get. For now still kicking the can on House of Grief till a little later.

Even though we just got a literal ton of gold, I'm reluctant to burn too much cash too quickly, just in case we need to pony up for some key scrolls.

Sorcerers are sort of entertaining, cause they force me to use scrolls and consumables which otherwise I tend to just horde pointlessly, but also gives me a thematic excuse for that, so it doesn't feel quite as gamey. I never played as this class in BG2, just didn't do anything for me there, I'd rather play as a wizard, but the new take on Sorcerers has been pretty cool. My head canon is that Draconic Groundhog Day magic just imbues the whole party with the ability to use scrolls that have been touched by the charismatic claws, so that way it all fits and clicks together for my narrative conceits hehe.

I'm not really sure what to do with Minsc. He doesn't really fit my party comp, so I guess he can just be Jaheira's camp sidekick or something. Ranger has some cool attacks like that ranged one that just nails everyone with thorns, but then I gotta sub somebody out.

Again this is where the party limit at 4 annoys me, cause I'd rather have a larger active party, even if it meant fewer camp companions. Probably Minsc could be a Cleric/Ranger to hang with the Zombies I guess. I'd make him a standard Berzerker Barbarian or something to maybe use one of the stat boosting robes, but he's mostly just here for show I suppose.

Still trying to figure out how I want to spec Jaheira, I keep going back and forth between DEX and CON, or whether I want to drop her down to an 8 for a more min/max Harper, but still haven't decided.

We did manage to punk Dolor pretty hard at the Wine festival, so I might dust Misc off for the lead up to Orin, but we've got our eye on Gortash for the moment, so Minsc can just chill out for a while and try to regain his senses lol.

For my new Stat block I boosted CON a bit, cause once I do the dailies we're into triple digits with stuff like Aid or Rally and such. Getting all stuffed up there. Makes a difference when they're buffed to the hilts, compared to the standard, say when we're just waking up at camp, before the Zombies do their morning prayers. We're in the high 90s hovering right around 100 hp normally before the buff & stuff (except for Lae'zel cause she's just that sturdy!) but I thought it made sense to keep stacking hp there, so everyone else could catch up to her a bit.

Add to that the Displacer Beast form and Durge basically has like 200 hp to burn on average, which felt pretty rad for a Sorcerer!

Time to bring the pain to Bane!!! heheh

 

[Black Elk]

Needed every single Hit Point!

This was how close Bane came to handing me my ass... lol

It was very nearly a TPK - like down to the very last sliver of life. Probably the most death defying escape to date! Here's how it cracked off...

Our plan was to unleash Karlach and that was going well enough, until somehow she got blasted out the bubble and then savaged by the black hand. Lae'zel and Minthara managed to hold the room and bring him within striking distance, but then the bubble burst and everything went to hell with a quickness. I made a dash for the door and tried to fly down a level, but his curse had my movement seriously curtailed.

I had to use every action and bonus action to get to safety and almost got nailed again by the black hand, but death ward granted us the reprieve. When I got to camp practically everyone was dead, like all the Warding Bonds. Super bloody

Amusingly when I short rested at camp, Minthara re-upped on HP, cause she was downed but not dead, so she just went at Gortash again and drove him out of the room to the rooftop like a total fucking ace, before finally dying for real.

I regrouped with Shadowheart, burned some rez scrolls, and went at him again to seal the deal. Minthara was gunning for MVP on that one for sure!

When Karlach finally woke up, we just said "You got him Soldier!" and let it stand at that lol.

Afterwards I decided it was time for the House of Grief, which I felt like I couldn't put off any longer.

I thought Minthara would be too dangerous in that battle, since one misplaced smite might backfire with grievous wounds, given all the radiant retorts the Sharran's have going. Instead I went in with Lae'zel, Shadowheart and Jaheira for the double team, heavy with the full crew.

Plan was to ice out Viconia and hopefully just pick apart all her minions from the safety of the bubble with a gang of summons. This worked well enough.

I opened with an Ice Storm on the left, then an Ice Storm on the right - sent the Djinni up the middle to vortex.

Compared to the Gortash battle this went pretty smooth.

It was probably the longest fight of the game so far, but I felt like we were in control and setting the pace the whole time, so it played out on our terms. Huge relief there, cause I was pretty nervous for that one haha.

I wasn't about to be the Dragon who ended Viconia, so we knocked her out non-lethal and took her Mace. I had to let her go. Lae'zel disproved, but I pulled rank on that one. Viconia is proper Legendary and my favorite BG1 character, so I was perfectly happy to see her make an escape. I entrusted Jaheira with the mace, since I figured she could make the best use of it.

Now that Shadowheart's main quest is resolved, I'll probably let her take a break with Karlach to recoup, least until we need to deal with the undead.

Till then, going to keep Jaheira up front.

With the bonus to STR Jaheira's stat block feels formidable again! Much more in keeping with my expectations for her. Now that the Robocops are all dead, I went back to the Circle of the Land. Just cause Myrmidon form can get a little stale after a while, and anyhow, now she's stacked, so I figured something more toe to toe battle caster would be fun there.

Thanks Shadowheart!

72 hrs - Keeping the spirit the alive! lol

 

[Urdnot_Wrex]

Wish you continuing good luck but I stopped reading because it's spoiler territory for me, haven't reached that far yet. Keep going, we're rooting for your team!

 

[Black Elk]

Thanks dude! And no worries hehe. It's good I think to get the full story experience first, for sure.

I've been very curious to hear what other peeps think of the returning BG1 characters that appear in BG3 as bosses. I mean I probably have a million things to say about Viconia in particular. Basically her depiction in BG3 follows Cameron's initial character sketch, and so she's a different sort Viconia than most of my memories, cause she was in basically every party and every run when I was playing BG1/2.

I was rather hoping there might be some dialog options that would acknowledge her BG2 archs, if the player wanted a more True Neutral-ish Viconia, as opposed to the straight up Neutral Evil version. I'd rather just have a recruitment option for Viconia the same way Jaheira & Minsc were handled. I don't really know about the story beats on this one, but a recruitable Character is always going to be different for me, because mechanically there's just a lot more places they can go. It's easy enough to handwave random banters or a couple cut scenes, if they're actually in the party, whereas when she's just a boss, well, she's just a boss.

Meeting her again reminded me of Faldorn in BG2, but really any cameo by the returning characters it was pretty similar in BG2. I'm hoping in the Definitive Release that there might be more recruitment options or additional companions. For my part, I struggle a little with the desire to be completionist in this mode. Like I'm not sure I need to see everything again in honour mode, though it would be nice to carry everyone over the finish line for their companion quests, so giving it the old college try. Mainly I thought it would be fun to go golden with Jaheira, though I could easily imagine myself doing the same for a Villainous run if Viconia was around for the curtail fall on that.

I'm fine with Shadowheart stealing her thunder, but I wish there was a way to get Viconia into the party somehow, cause that seems like a missed opportunity to me, just for party comp. You know like if she's under Shar's spell or some sort of outside influence like that. Similar to the way Minthara gave Halsin a helping hand in my current game. I mean I'm happy to invent my own explanations there and suspend disbelief, but for this one I definitely appreciated a non-lethal option.

I will probably go back to my safety plan of breaking off 1 active party member for the rear guard saves. That battle with Bane was too close for comfort haha.

Anyhow, speaking of Eternal Returns and old favorites, we just finished the Tribunal!

For that one, key was just to remember to close the door behind me, so those animated armor doorkeepers wouldn't dive in to cause me problems.

To take down the big guy I focused all our energy on the 3 minions standing behind his throne, cause they'll do stuff like cast Sanctuary, Haste and Freedom of movement, all of which makes Sarevok pretty tough. Once they're knocked off he becomes more straightforward, so I put the blast on them hard core.

For this one Jaheira doing the Owlbear stomp to knock him prone and the Air Myrmidon summon to try and stun him. I got him maneuvered into this corner, then had Minthara just wail on him with all the smites. I landed a Hold Monster, so I thought he was basically done at that point, but it prompted a Legendary action that had him suddenly all up in my business again. Displacer Beast form in a pinch, to keep the HP cushion going hehe.

Lae'zel smacked him down to within an inch of his life, and even Minthara was impressed! She's considering taking up great swords now too after seeing that glorious trouncing hehe

Then I used the Displace ability for the killshot on him, since the target takes damage when they're teleported to the new position...

Kitty coup de grace!

Living on the edge there. It was basically like a Janet Jackson song lol

 

[Black Elk]

Finally took Gale shopping!

I decided at this point that it was probably appropriate to hang up my Gold's Gym Venice Beach outfit for something with a bit more decorum for the next part. Even though it's fun to push STR and try to keep up with Lae'zel, we settled on big gains in toughness and our mental attributes instead, while still keeping a respectable 14 in Strength hehe.

I just figure we'll need the spellsaves coming up here, and these robes are pretty clutch!

I let Gale have Lorroakan's get up. Potent Robes are always in my wardrobe for when I re-level, just to keep the portrait pewter looking. The Mighty Cloth was fun for Olympian STR to bout with Sarevok. Bull's Strength is boss for sure, but now we're about to go up against some serious mind game type foes I had to think on it.

Big get from the Sundries was the staff, of course, which I failed the Arcana check for initially, hence the need to go grab Gale and Jaheira with her circlet. The whole thing had me rethinking the my stat block, predictably lol. Badass staff though! It allows me to cast the Globe of Invulnerability without expending a spellslot for that, so basically we can do a dome and then quickened lightning, or stuff like that in the same opener. Seemed pretty good to me! I think Gale can be happy just with Lorrokan's stuff, his book and that very powerful scroll we found, which I should probably let him write down, although I'm currently still admiring it hehe.

Also, these new kicks we recently acquired allow us to do hellish teleportation, so we traded up there from the misty steppers I'd been wearing. Big plus is that they make Durge immovable, so basically the same thing as having the absurd STR when it comes to staying inside the dome.

I figure I'd still have a decent shove shot with a 14 in STR, and with Lae'zel always being around to pick up my slack.

My plan for facing down the Bhaalists leans heavily on magic missile to break unstoppable. Like I'm not really sure what other approach there is to that, cause seems like it's pretty much down to magic missile, scorching ray, eldritch blast there, spells that have upcasts and lots of hits in rapid succession. Elementals with multi-attack came in handy too, but just seems like there's really no substitute for good old magic missile. Hold Monster is also pretty reliable I figure, but never hurts to pad it with the bonuses from the the threads.

Anyhow, made sense I think, to go more caster heavy for the home stretch. I like having misty step at the ready, but I also have a bunch of those scrolls, so hopefully we're good. Mostly just wanted to push INT a little. Like I just can't see walking into a showdown with Flayers with only an 8 INT. Couldn't decide whether it made more sense to take the 12 there or in WIS for perception and the saves, I settled on Wisdom for now cause we were bound to hit a temple first.

These gloves right here kinda perfect for endgame Jaheira I think. With the 22 in Charisma from my fancy hat I was able to swoop them for the bargain basement price of like 999 gp Xmas special. They give here the spell Revivify and then also casts deathward at the same time, when she heals it casts blade ward, so super useful there for her healing word. The chunky look sorta recalls to mind stacked Jaheira with like heavy armor from BG2, and having access to a clerical spell that can bring back the dead totally fit with her Harper vibe and my memories of earlier BG days.

Dyed up with the sage green, I know she'll have us covered hehe.

 

[Black Elk]

With our magic up to spec, we went after the Hag next, just to tie up loose ends.

I was able to take her down with the non-lethal, get Vanra out, and then survive a Hag resurrection when I failed to nail the final mushroom lol.

I botched the mask removal so we lost the captain, but the new owner of the Blushing Mermaid seems like a stand up character, so we'll call it a wash there. At least we saved the kid.

Take that Ethel!!! heheh

Then for my X mas surprise Lae'zel won me freedom from the Durk Urge at last!

The taint of Bhaal's lineage finally put to rest. I had never seen this one, cause this is my first time attempting a resist the dark urge run. Fun stuff!

It was a tough fight for my initial hit squad. I went in first with Astarion to assassinate the assassin, and thought I had her dead to rights. I landed a paralyzing shot to open, but then she somehow transformed into the flayer form from that state. Still paralyzed, but with the big HP boost. Then some kind of weirdness, cause Minthara and Me didn't get pulled into initiative and all the bhaalists doing the ritual started running around firing off their stuff. Basically I lost the surprise round on that, then I just didn't have enough juice to knock her off unstoppable. Minthara knocked her down to within striking distance but then Bhaal would give her boon again, so we were just toast. Luckily I decided to hold Lae'zel back just in case the plan fell apart.

Went back in with Gale for the second wave time, we'd lost the element of surprise already, so we went after her minions and try to take her down a peg. Tried for the magic missile double team, but again, just couldn't hit quite hard enough with 3 to get through the unstoppable and then make the kill.

3rd time was the charm, I went back in with Lae'zel and Minthara, leaving Jaheira by the portal in case everything went to hell again. This time we got the drop on her! Or rather Lae'zel soul broke her into a puddle. Big inspiration for everyone on that. Minthara has now saved Halsin 3 times!!!

We recovered Lens and were going to hold vigil for her at the Elfsong tavern, but when Lae'zel placed her body on the bed she did a crazy spring-back-to-life and merge with the furniture move - like Josie in Twin Peaks!

Pretty sure that bed is haunted, like ever since the Woodland Being left all those magic vines there haha. Anyway, she's getting the inside scoop now, on everything that just went down. Pretty much the ghost of Christmas past right there, doing the Marley's chains. Everyone's got a new lease on the wonderful life heheh.

If all goes well, it'll be Dragons soon! I have like a dozen arrows saved up lol. Fingers Crossed!

Sol Invictus!

 

[Black Elk]

Dungeon Dragon!

Look out below! Almost 90 hrs now!

This battle was pretty intense, I gotta say. Even though I'm not sure I need to do everything single thing with full honors, I definitely needed to confront the Dragon, and it was worth it hehe.

Took some definite figuring out though. It was a puzzler, since I have the same draconic lineage and elemental affinity for thunder and lightning, I knew it would be a bit of a stalemate on damage there. I did a re-level so I could try using the Meta Magic ability "Extended Spell" on the Globe of Invulnerability, but not sure if that one actually worked. With the staff and the amulet to re-up on a spellslot lvl 6 spellslot, I figured I'd need to give us 2-3 reliable waves under the protection of the globe vs his crazy ass chain lightning super attacks after the crystals all shatter.

I brought Jaheira along again for moral support and to watch the door, but I knew it was going to come down to my big guns. Minthara using the Returning Pike and the Moonlight Glaive for extra reach, and Lae'zel slicing with the Silver Sword of the Astral.

I'd rather hoped we'd get a little more mileage out of the arrows of dragon slaying, but my base damage wasn't all that spectacular hehe. They were probably good for like 10 damage each, so maybe 100 hp there, but the rest was down to Smites and Battle Maneuvers from my heavy hitters.

Ansur has resistances to force damage which is tough. Means magic missile doesn't do any good. Gale might have gotten through it with the Art of War spell maybe, but I'd already sent him back to camp after the chess match. The dragon is undead, so necrotic is a bust too. Just hard to get a hit on him with anything other than standard damage or radiant. Cold was ok in a pinch, but it also sorta worked against me for the movement options, like to dodge his lightning specials, cause it creates those icy surfaces.

Everything almost went to hell when our final bubble burst early. I had to move off the lightning strike zone and somehow my Dragonborn Sorcerer still got zapped from the electric surfaces despite all my resistances, so I couldn't use my reactions. Then he did his undead dragon surprise which caught me totally off guard! We were almost toasted, so I had to go into Kitty form for the finisher!!!

Dragon vs Displacer Beast - for all the honor!

It was purrrfect lol

Total highlight right there!

Pretty solid for the X Mas finisher

Happy Boxing day!!! hehe

 

[Black Elk]

After the Dragon and some cruising around town, that just left a couple more things to do.

We busted Florrick out of the slammer, and she reminded us about that one time when the fires raged. Hearing that lit a spark, cause it sounded like a pretty good plan for dealing with Cazador. Just tried and true - burn out the undead!

My thinking on that one was that it made zero sense for my basically good Dragon to bring Astarion along to the Black Mass. Like to even risk letting an ascended vampire loose on the realms, just seemed like there were too many ways that could go terribly sidewise.

Instead we decided to eliminate the threat on Astarion's behalf with my main squad, again using Frog Brothers tactics from the Lost Boys. Lae'zel and Minthara on point. I fried 3 Flayers along the way, cause twinned chained lightning is ridiculous. Then we kicked in the doors to the Szarr palace and just lit the whole place on fire.

My plan for the final fight was Minthara going 12 ft tall with a giant smite from her new sword to kick things off. I twin hasted my heavy hitters, then had them cast greater invisibility on themselves from scrolls. Jaheira I held in the back to cast a daylight sphere and then lay down another firewall. We popped off 4 fire elementals to just rush Cazador before he could do much.

I put my sorcerer up front and burned a lvl 6 slot on the counterspell as well, just to make sure Cazador wouldn't get to do anything else of importance on his first turn. This worked very well, even when Minthara got tripped up by noxious fumes from his minions when he repositioned. The fire elementals alone, with their multi-attacks, were still enough to bring him down far enough for Lae'zel to take the killshot.

After that it was just mopping up the bats that didn't fly into Jaheira's fire wall, so like maybe a round to clean the house and burn out all the evil. Pretty solid

Only downside to this approach was that I missed out on the Astarion scenes, like for if he ascends or not, but I'd already seen those. This time I figured we'd take the staking to Cazador ourselves, and just get the job done for the overall safety of the realms. I used Woe to free the vampires and sent them underground though. This kept the Gur on board for the home stretch, since I remembered them being pretty decent for that.

Daylight worked well for an opener, but I heard it get go weird if you're trying to see the Astarion scenes. For me it blew out the contrast quite a bit, cause I had it on like all 4 weapons and in the field. My plan was to stash em and recast the orb afterwords just in case, but then I forgot about Lae'zel's longbow, so I think a couple of Astarion's cousins still got torched when we opened the coffin. Least it got the main job done. Just lite-brite smite! Pretty classic lol

Assassin Astarion was of course disappointed that he wasn't invited along for the killshot and to steal Cazador's powers, but we smoothed things over there and managed to talk it off with persuasion. Like it was the only real option. To my mind it makes sense. I figured I'd already done him a solid by not pressing the issue when he declined the Astral tadpole for evolution. I was thinking about giving that one to Minthara, but so far I've been taking all the hits for the team on the Illithid stuff.

There's still the House of Hope I could do, but I'm not sure I want to risk the battle with Raphael when I'm this close. With the Cazador battle I had a solid plan that I felt would work well, but I'm not so sure about the Devils. Worst case would be that we just leave our contract on the table, but we already got the Orphic hammer from Raphael on a bluff, so it would basically just mean dealing with all that aftermath in the Hells. Like at some point later on, after we get the job done with the Elder Brain, here on the material plane.

The emperor warned us off it as being too risky, and even though my plan is to double cross the Emperor and side with the Githyanki for Lae'zel, in this case I'm sort of inclined to agree with him. Probably better to just prep for the final bout.

I burned like another couple grand on those elemental scrolls to take no chances with Cazador, and then blew another couple grand to buy like all the fireworks, so hopefully we're good. Might just farm it around for a few, try to pad the gold a little and re-up on some scrolls before trying for the finale like bonne année heheh

We'll see! But fingers crossed!

 

[Black Elk]

Just about 99 Hrs now!

I thought about kicking the can on it for a good long while, but then decided that I simply had to finish off Raphael first and conclude that deal before gathering the Allies and trying for the brain. I did it mostly for Hope, and to impress Lae'zel with the cool gloves heheh. First we had to handle some odds and ends though.

Since I'm indecisive and perpetually cash strapped, we stopped off to Jaheira's house and did a few other random house keeping backtracks to raise some funds and stock up. Rivington is usually good for a couple nice potions, so we returned there. I've been trying to scoop up potions like Invisibility, Speed, and Giants Strength whenever I see them, since they're pretty inexpensive, but can make a huge difference in the boss fights.

At this point I'm slowly parting with the equipment I'm pretty sure won't get used, and burning the cash we raise on stuff that I know will get used. I'm always reluctant to sell special enchanted weapons, cause I feel like they're pretty undervalued by all the merchants. Like there are some pretty badass weapons in my backpack, but they barely sell for 100 gp, so mostly its down to deciding which suits of armor to sell, since those still fetch a pretty penny.

Elixir of Universal Resistance is another nice scoop. Also the potions of Angelic snoozing. I had a couple saved for the long rest naps, and a couple short naps for Lae'zel, just to see us through the finale.

Another thing I keep an eye out for are scrolls of Elemental summoning. I always buy those, just cause their warp is so powerful for mobility. I can also choose the damage type there, which gives those scrolls tons of flexibility. They're non concentration summons and they kick it all day, so that's always good. Plus they can be heroes feasted to amp them up even further! Summon Undead scrolls are also fun, but they need some corpses, so a bit more work. I feel like a solid spread would be something like, everyone with an Elemental, a pair of minor elementals, then a skeleton or two. Jaheira popping off the Woodland being and the Woodwoad. So basically like dozen turns just from the summoning scrolls without needing to expend spellslots.

I had something like a dozen barrels of smoke powder too, that Lae'zel had nabbed from the robocop foundry area and the spot where we freed Volo, plus a couple acid and firewine jugs from our storming of the Rock. I had managed to keep a couple in the camp chest from Act 1, but used pretty all the early stuff to keep Halsin alive and to lift the Shadowcurse.

Plan here was just to try for a detonation vs the Devil with all the force stuff, since I think this is maybe the last chance to use em all. For the brain I was going to use the fireworks and fireworks boxes. They all weigh a ton though, so good to have couple Giant Strength potions for that.

The Raphel fight itself can either be one of the hardest battles in the whole game, or relatively straightforward depending on the party comp and how much you like to indulge in the cheese basket. The fun part is that this is one of those battles that allows time to preposition and try to get an ambush going. This is because Raphael will always spawn in the same location, and we have access to the room in advance. So we have the option to do stuff with walls or barrels, and in this case some fireworks just for color, even though they don't do all that much vs the fire resistant fiends heheh.

Raphael has a very high initiative, so popping an Elixir of Vigilance seemed like a good idea, since it's still possible to get the drop on him that way, either to go BOOM right off the bat, or to set up a Globe of Invulnerability and stuff of that sort. I tried to make sure I had at least one backup Globe scroll just in case.

I've tried a couple ways to handle the fight in the other difficulty modes. The first approach was to deal with the pillars initially and then focus on the fiends. To drop the pillars we can use force or bludgeoning damage pretty effectively. This worked well for the other difficulty modes, but Raphael also gets a lot of crazy buffs in this one that make him progressively more challenging the longer he's around. He has a more powerful form that he'll adopt after the pillars start falling and stuff like that, so this can be a pretty tough if we draw it out too long.

The other approach is to just dog pile him with a quickness and knock him off before he can heal or use the powerful spell abilities from the pillars. That's what I went with this time for the Honour run.

If I can blow him up or whack him down, and then use spells like bonechill or arrows of ilmater, then he won't be able to use the pillars to restore his health, even if he gets off a couple empowered spells from them.

Still, he's got 666 hp, so it's a lot to cut through. Even nailing him with a dozen barrels in the opener only chipped off like half his health. Probably would have been nice to have the runepowder bomb for that, but we'd used it to defeat all the robocops.

He also has a Beguiling spell that makes it so it's hard to keep attacking him with the same character, unless you can some AoE type attack maneuvers. The stuff with indirect Force damage is pretty solid, but there's a big range there. For those smoke barrels Raphael might take 5 damage, or he might take 50 hard to know, and a lot kinda depends where the first blast knocks him. He's resistant or immune to most damage types and has very high AC and spellsaves, so to beat our way through that, stuff like Heightened spell for disabling or debuffs to make sure they land. Or Quickened spell, or Haste/speed and stuff that gets more actions per turns.

Having a couple Earth Elementals is nice, because their standard attack also knocks enemies prone and they can warp into position. Downside is they're pretty large, so sometimes they get in the way, but just being able to knock him down peg is very handy. Incapacitating spells only work for a round on this Devil. I ended up dropping the Globe to caste a Heightened Hold Monster anyway cause we had him in striking distance, but I can imagine it going sideways pretty easily. Hence the backup scrolls and taking all the extra precautions, even though it's tedious.

Yurgir is a wildcard here, cause he can be an Ally, but I wasn't sure how that check would go. For some reason my peeps seem less inspired lately so we only had a couple reruns on that. We ended up persuading him, but then he instantly got merc'd along with Korilla in the blastwave. Probably could have tried saving him with blink maybe or repositioning him so he wouldn't get nailed as hard, but I was prioritizing just keeping hope alive, so no biggie. Maybe next time.

Just getting to the battle can be kinda dicy. Basically you gotta jack the hammer/contract then haul ass to fight a pair of Spectators and a bunch of imps with shifty blasts. The you got the big balls of rolling hellfire, and a bunch of pretty rough enemies that need to be handled at range. Gotta nab the contract or the hammer before the other stuff, otherwise the whole spot goes Hostile and you can't pull up the dialog to say the secret words until the room is cleared. I tried to take the Spectators with 3 and had my Harper loot the artifacts, trying to breakneck it back to the main room in TB from both sides. Jaheira got stuck facing down a sphere though which was a pain. Had to use call lightning to get rid of it, took forever lcause it's resistant lol.

Once Hope's in the mix though, she has a pretty nice Divine Intervention that makes it so that party gets the equivalent of a long rest, so I used that just to re-up. There are fountains with Harleep that do the same, but like the pods, it's a one off in Honour mode. So I guess just depends how much you need to burn to clear those rooms. Otherwise using the Angelic Slumber potions. The time to pop those is when you're outside of combat, so the turns don't get interrupted, but basically something to refresh before the organs start playing for his curtain call hehe.

Anyhow, that was how I went at it. There's probably a smoother method, but it got the job done. Amusingly I spent so much time thinking about how to set up and buff, that I forgot to equip the Gauntels and the Amulet before the big fight lol. Good thing we had some contingencies!

Aftewards went back to the Circus to decompress and count our Monty Haul in preparation for the finale. Good times!

Happy almost New Year!!!

 

[Black Elk]

ps. This is Lae'zel the Wise

I pushed her ASI as far as I could with every single feat. She now has a stat block to rival Vlaakith's!!!

Straight through the roof and out into the Astral. In the spirit of highest Xenia, Jaheira gave Lae'zel the Circlet of Intellect to help her guide the Githyanki people to a new dawn.

Jaheira is also going to give her Belm, as a special surprise and a thank you, for that time Lae'zel totally saved Minsc.

Now Bae'zel rocks it to the ceiling with this spread...

23 in STR from the Gauntlets
20 in DEX from ASI
23 in CON from the Amulet
17 in INT from the Circlet
20 in WIS from ASI
16 in CHA from ASI

The Elder Brain fears her most of all!

I have her stacked so that even if somehow she got jacked of her gloves, she could still rock the house with her 20 Dex attacks using Belm, and it seemed to fit, cause she had that one image in the loadscreen forever wielding a Scimitar hehe. If she ever got robbed of her amulet she might be a bit squishy, and taking off the circlet might be a good way to focus in combat or relax, but now she can outwit most with the 20 in WIS and she's picked up some definite charm along the way! hehe

 

[Black Elk]

Decided to rock the bells and ring in the New Year right, by going Golden hehe

Foehammer before night's end!

Wasn't sure if I could pull it off, but decided to ride the lightning all morning. It was a most gratifying finale.

True to form, Lae'zel took us all the way!!!

When the time came for big decisions I sided with Orpheus, of course, and allowed him to fulfill his destiny. Last time on Tactician I did the self sacrifice thing, so I'd seen that already. This time though I decided to give Lae'zel the ending she deserved, as the new Comet. We weren't sure what would happen, but she took up the charge and carried it home.

Per the usual, I spent a lot of time kicking about and trying to prepare. I visited Rolan like 5 times to try and nab a few more elemental summoning scrolls, and more elixirs than I'd probably be able to drink. Plan was to take the fight to the Netherbrain as best I could, but leaving off with a bang by using the Chronos trick... hella Fireworks for the ball dropper!

I found that having Orpheus turn into the flayer was just all around way more enjoyable for me as an endgame. I didn't have the added challenge switching out all the abilities I'd been practicing for most of the game in exchange for the Illithid stuff. Also I figured this way it'd be easier to cover the crown stuff for the final, since I wouldn't have to break concentration for the Karsus control with my main. Plus it puts Lae'zel clearly in position to succeed him as leader of the Orphic faction vs Vlaakith in the new era.

We came out gunning hard with a mini army of summons. I burned as many scrolls as I could for the first leg of the run, and saved most of the Allies for the final confrontation. We almost got tripped up with a couple stuns trying to dodge nautiloid bombardments, but eventually everybody made it to the roof. Popped all our Angelic slumber potions at that point, rebuffed and mini feasted, then made ready to race towards the prize. I used a combination of Greater Invisibility and the Globe to get in range.

Kept to the railings on the outside. Tried our best to knock off the Dragon and came pretty close, but I thought better of it at the last second. Didn't want to risk it all for pride. Figured I'd leave that on the table since I still never grabbed that achievement, so something for the next run. Instead we opened the portal as quickly as possible and I sent Lae'zel to light it up like 1812 V for Vendetta, rockets glaring red. The Netherbrain didn't stand a chance vs that honorable display! We fully detonated with flying colors!!! heheh

I was very pleased with the after action Epilogue.

Really had me feeling we made the right Dragon decisions there, with an eye on Lae'zel's best outcome. It was pretty great! All wrapped up with a nice red ribbon after the final countdown. Shadowheart cracked me up at the end. I went Jah Din the whole way for Bae'zel, and said Nah Din to Shadowbae, but next time who knows! haha

For this one though the Githyank stole our heart. Now they see us rollin' - just in time lol

Have out blast out there gang! Catch you in 24!

 

[Antimatter]

I haven't checked the last few posts as they contain spoilers for me (still haven't come back to BG3 unfortunately), but pretty huuuuuuge congrats to you, @Black Elk. That's the spirit and determination that you've shown. And this thread will contain a lot of knowledge and advice for others willing to take on a similar challenge. But you didn't only play the game nicely, you also shared exceptional screenshots showing excellent art taste and included lots of humour bits where I laughed out or just chuckled honestly. Big !

 

[Black Elk]

Thanks dude!

I will say, I know I'm playing a Baldur's Gate game when I can spend 100+ hours on a playthrough in the tough, finish it, then immediately start another campaign to try again - with an ever so slightly different concept lol.

I'm now 20 hrs into my second crack at honour. Nah Din is doing most of the same stuff that Jah Din did, except he took a lvl in War Cleric of Tiamat at lvl 2, and his Draconic lineage is way more acidic hehe. Like watch me get just so awkward trying to do this with every single Draconic sorcerer type. Eyes of every color!

I'll have to invent my own achievement for this, cause it doesn't exist, but we're going for the Orbs of Dragonkind!

My meta is all based on this little guy - his name is Din...

He's one of my very first Parthas. Still trying to earn our wings in BG3, but you know like for the horns and the black-ish pewter patina and whatnot. Keeping it classic muhahah...

Shining with the black light of Villainy! Looks fair, feels foul, worst Acid trip ever, that sort of angle. I liked very much the idea of going real deal Evil for this one, but the sort of villain who decides to save the tiefs anyway, and who metes out the death and destruction more selectively, like to suit our purposes hehe. As always it all comes back to the Zaithisk for me...

We just rescued Minthara again, but this time she's swinging a big ass axe! Fun stuff! I'd blow it out with a thousand more screens, cause it's fun and also helps me with the cursory glance and to remember what was going down. I figure I'd just blast hard with images then ramble in subsequent posts, cause it'll probably knock onto the 3rd page here pretty soon anyway, with so many attachments. One thing I appreciate about these boards hehe. Sometimes a bunch of stills help with the puzzle pieces. I found it helped me to break it up, since the UI is pretty busy and very colorful with a hundred things all lit up in combat, so the CinemaScope is kinda cool for those pauses and intermissions.

Mechanically the most helpful thing for me was just to remember that I'm playing a BG game, and so of course the single most important thing tactically is just kiting.

Running away and trying to draw out the enemy, invariably the best plan like half the time. There's more than a few fights that became a lot easier once I remembered, like 'oh yeah, I should be facing all these Goblins and Ogres on ground of my own choosing!' So then the whole Goblin camp dies to a cloud of daggers now, and the Inquisitor probably gets yeeted off the bridge with an arrow of roaring thunder etc. but it's all very BG in that way for me. Like once I got a path and a plan of attack.

The biggies for honour were mostly down to camp management stuff with the dailies to prep and the ungroup thing mentioned in the opener. It's tedious, but then in the other modes I would typically just ignore anything I found tedious, even if it was very useful, just cause I didn't want to click the Goodberry a dozen times, or because it's annoying to rotate camp characters for warding bond. Or because I just wasn't into perma vfx, but honour kinda forces me here. Now I got it down to where it only takes me a couple minutes.

I find the most important is just having at least 1 camp follower who can cast longstrider, and at least 1 cleric who can cast warding bond and revivify at lvl 5. Some camps are better than others for running a zombie around, but it makes a huge difference in all the set piece fights.

Since I like playing spellcasters, I find that I always need some extra supplies right around the Gyrmforge interlude, to help take pressure off the long rest, but otherwise Clerics for warding bond, or situationally stuff like Daylight (if you can handle what it does to the contrast haha) or protection from poison to deal with jumbo spiders and the like.

For my mains, choosing spells can be tough, because all the concentration spells compete with each other. Usually my hardest decision playing some version of a sorcerer is choosing which spell to replace on level up. Some stuff like invisibility or enlarge/reduce can be a lot of fun, like when we faced our arch enemy the acid resistant Bulette and hit it with a Honey I Shrunk the Kids ray lol. That was rad! Situationally I find I'm way more likely to use those sorts of spells if they're prepared rather than from a scroll or a potion. But then at the end of the day I also want stuff that I know I'm going to use all the time and which can't be easily acquired from other sources, so gotta ditch that one for something that just does direct damage non concentration. I brushed up on my spells by watching the Aestus vids and then trying to riff from there, but I kinda lean more RP and flavor for some stuff.

Nah Din is a greedy dragon horder, but he always tips Dammon. By saving all the bones and random silverware, tossing it all in a bag and then bartering it over to establish a repport. None of the other merchants really matter, but Dammon is in all 3 acts, so hopefully he comes in handy towards the endgame. This is the main meta reason not to off the Tiefs at the Grove, and go for Minthara knock out rather than raid, mainly so we can get a 3 act presentation with better Villainy options later on. I donated some mushrooms to the cause as well this time, cause Derryth comes back for the finale too, and she has a few potions and scrolls on offer. The temptation was to unload all the junk on Arron, but he dips and never returns. He also gets eclipsed by all the Act II peeps like Quartermaster Talli, Blurg and Araj etc who tend to have better stuff. Roah comes back as well for various cameo trades, but she's sorta unreliable. The Society of Brilliance can still get bent, so Ester almost always dies instantly, though we do tolerate Omeluum cause he's got that great amulet for pretty cheap. Jeera unfortunately didn't catch the pommel end of things at the Creche this time, cause Lae'zel was seeing red that day, which pretty much leaves Dammon as the go to for hot trades. Tipping is always good policy, in BG3 as in life, but also pretty self interested in this case, cause we know that before the curtain falls we'll need to scrounge up cash for scrolls and such haha. Playing the long game there, but early on it's tough to rely overmuch on the scrolls, cause they're more expensive in relative terms. Also I'm trying to save up and snap some lvl 1 scrolls that are hard to find later, like magic missile, so a fair bit of competing demands there on the wallet, but every bit helps.

And like of course I'll need at least one awkward Acid spell, even if it's not the most compelling damage type lol. I'm trying to make a point to have everyone shoot Acid arrows when they can, but a lot of times I'll choose a nerf that I'm comfortable with like that, then min max the hell out of everything else, to help justify the early nerf. It's all in good fun!

Nah Din's biggest branch decision so far was the choice to romance Shadowheart and do pretty much everything she suggests.

We've had a lot of really great conversations about how cool Dark Justiciars are. Or just how rad it is to be all super chosen by our evil deities, and keeping things shady like that. Hard to see what could possibly go wrong there lol

 

[alice_ashpool]

View attachment 6784

nice!

 

[Urdnot_Wrex]

I scrolled quickly over everything because spoilers but I definitely know I saw a golden D20!

Congrats, first Honor mode conqueror of the Tavern, someone should make you a "Golden Elk" trophy!

I'm looking forward to reading your posts fully as soon as I have finished the game.

 

[Black Elk]

Oh I'm having a great time! That's for sure hehe

So I had this whole big plan, like how I was going to go super Villainous for the climax, but then we ran into Jaheira again and somehow all that just flew out the window.

This was amusing as I usually have no difficulty whatsoever leaning evil, which is my preferred axis of alignment in D&D, but for some reason Jaheira shows up and I go weak at the knees. Like I just couldn't bring myself to leave all that on the table. She got me good!!!

heheh

At the very last second, in a total about face, we decided to forego our dark urges! Jaheira pulled us towards some kinda last light, no doubt.

It daisy-chained into a whole procession of goodly actions, almost like I couldn't help myself.

We bit our tongue when Shadowheart decided to betray Shar, even after all those conversations we'd had! Somehow the Moonmaiden won her over. Then I told her a little white lie about how much I really loved her new hair, even though we secretly preferred her raven look to match the portrait. Decided to exercise some discretion on that one, and keep it hush.

I did think about trying to off Isobel anyway and become the Slayer, or to have Lae'zel become the chosen of Vlaakith, but we'd already gone over the edge.

Like I took one look at goofy Mirkon, who didn't die to the harpies this time and we had a big change of heart.

I'd already accidentally done a number of good deeds, even a few we'd missed last time, like remembering to find Arabella's parents and whatnot. I mean we still turned Xeph into a zombie, cause she looked like she still had some fight left in her, so not totally, but yeah, just slowly drifting towards Good like that hehe.

My best laid plans, undone by Harper charms! She appears for 2 seconds, and I'm instantly on board! lol

I guess I know who my definitive love interest would really be, if only we had the option! I don't think she's ever looked better, honestly.

Pretty much though haha

Anyhow, that's how that went down. Even saying Nah to many things, we couldn't quite say Nah to Jaheira - go figure!

Minthara still rescued Halsin, along with all the Tiefs for Alfira. Still taking the killshot on every other boss, and totally pulling her weight! I gave her the caustic acid ring I spent way too much money on, so she could wail on Ketheric even harder with her Halberd.

Lae'zel got all misty eye'd again too, and I was feeling it. Every time I told her to stay at camp, and she'd confirm, I just knew I'd miss her smile too much. Even though we're still Shadowbae all day and fully committed there, samurai Slay'zel still got her some rapture, and destiny's call for her personal questline. Scratch approves!

I guess it was Tiamat who was bound to be disappointed this time around, cause we're totally ditching her for Kereska in our wisen-ed older age hehe. We'll still blast a robocop though! Like swords clipping through capes - Some things never change!

Ps. I went Light Domain for Shadowheart this time, which was pretty hot! She converted from Trickery to Life after meeting Withers, and then from Life to Light when she decided to save Dame Aylin. She got tired of ig-missing with all those firebolts, so goodness gracious - it's all on fire now! Lol

 

[Black Elk]

I think Tiamat may have had other plans for us, cause things got pretty hectic like right after that hehe

Somehow it was down to Mizora to save the day and all our asses, with a last minute reprieve.

Like just when all our hopes were nearly dashed by Bane again, she really pulled through in the clutch! Might be my favorite bit character now - hands down hehe.

It all started when I decided to punk that first trio of Robocops at the crossing. In my other runs this usually went according to plan so I wasn't thinking on it overmuch, but then that one guard managed to sound his horn with like 1 hp left!

The acid slap to the robocops escalated to ridiculous proportions. It agro'd the entire fortress all the way to the upper levels! lol

We mopped up outside so I figured we were good. We broke into the prison via the back entrance to free Florrick. Nailed all those flaming fists. They were insta hostile, so probably should have known something was up. I thought maybe it was just the approach there, coming in via the out door. I already had the papers from the Hollyphant for the invite, so I figured it was whatever, but when we finally broke into the Fortress proper things went immediately off the rails.

The whole spot lit up red! They must have heard the horn and prepared, cause Gortash and Ravengard ran downstairs with a whole gang of goons ready to just completely merc us!

I had to kite back and forth several times to try and separate them to either end of the big hallway, just so Ravengard wouldn't die to random AoE, then we tried to make a dash for the city side to attempt our escape.

Managed to kite Gortash all the way to that point, on the far side of the bridge, where we saw Mizora just chilling right outside of harms way. With an eagle eye you can spot Gortash standing right under that Archway, just totally hawking on the area transition. I couldn't start a convo or use the entrance to the lower city, so I had to double back with a combination of invisibility, sanctuary and an arrow of teleportation. Dodged a couple of the rooftop Robocops who were trying to hop down to the ground level.

Thought I might have broke the game, cause the Duke was going nuts in and out of initiative near where Minthara had taken her dirt nap. I quaffed another invisibility potion and just dove past the stutters. Feather falling back towards Rivington so we could flee.

Regrouped there and used the portal to get back into the main room. All roads lead through that hallway, so I knew somehow we'd have to bust by. We did a sneak move past Ravengard. I had the thought like I could totally take Gortash right then and there, cause he was isolated and away from all his minions and his panic room with all the traps, but then I was nervous that if I went after him that Ravengard might get pulled into initiative again.

Instead I crossed over into Baldur's Gate, since I could use the portal at last, and I figured it might be my only chance to make a clean transition there. My hope was that returning would then reset the Wyrms rock forces to non-hostile.

At Mizora's repeated suggestion we went back upstairs to see the Coronation. Instead it was full of Bane's black hand priests. Had to kill them too and escape again this time dodging a bunch of other robocops who decided to jump down from the roof on the other side. We were still trying to hit our lvl 11 spike just battling through Wyrms rock. I think somehow the wicked gods were paying us back for our goodly turn in Act II, cause there's nobody left at Wyrms Rock now, except a few robots and Gortash hiding in his room upstairs lol

That totally upended my plan to deal with Gortash, cause I wasn't sure if I'd just borked the run. I got none of the normal Wyrm's Rock convo's at camp. I don't think anyone other than me recognized Ravengard behind his flameshield and all the chaos, so I guess maybe it makes sense. But anyhow, I felt like I definitely had to find Orin so I could try to get the main quest progressing again. I thought Ravengard might just be whisked away to the underwater prison, but wasn't sure cause usually that quest comes from Mizora after the Coronation. Whatever, went to smack Dolor down a peg to see if we could just brute force it. I went immediately to Umberlee and got it rolling, but then Lae'zel got kidnapped!!!

I knew something was up, cause she was wearing her helmet, like she almost never does, and I nearly got the kid killed. Somehow I'd never actually seen this scene play out, cause Lae'zel had just always been a fixture, but now Orin has her! So had to go back to plan A of just screwing Gortash somehow.

I took the ship to the Underwater prison and dashed like mad, but the Duke was already dead in his cell. Wyll was bummed, and then so fucking pissed! I could tell he was seeing red. Minthara was dead, face down on the beach, but also inspired!

We were ready to just go stomp the hell out of Gortash and the 3 remaining Robocops, but then Mizora snapped to, and I was finally able to advance the convo with her after Ravengard took his seaquest dirt nap! Gloriously she arrives at camp to raise the dead on spec!

Morale totally saved!

But yeah, damn, that was pretty intense! Now I'm totally going to give Wyll Gortash's jacket and Sceleritas' hat, so he'll be able to roll through Avernus without raising too many eyebrows. I think he might actually be able to pull off that look, like Serpent Under the Rainbow, full on.

If I was worried the run was starting to feel a little too similar, that certainly shook things up, but I was happy there was a course correct when I just kept hammering away at it. I surely would have reloaded in another mode, but here I didn't have the option. Just to battle from one side of that Rock to the other was pretty damn epic though. Wouldn't trade it, even for the near heart attack I almost had, again. Fucking Gortash! We'll show him what's what!

First though, just people watching on a park bench and taking the time hehe

Have a great week all!

 

[Black Elk]

Still taking the scenic route hehe

So I've been kicking around with a couple popular builds for Jaheira to see which combination I enjoy most, and I've been having a lot of fun with her as a lvl 2 fighter/10 moon druid brawler.

I'm not sure if it would be very entertaining multiclassing her prior to hitting the lvl cap at 12, but once she's there it starts to make more sense for her kit. Main reason is that the feat Tavern Brawler now allows her unarmed strikes while Wildshaped to scale on top of her already badass Wild Strike, and then stack double damage. This is so powerful that it means I can basically forego a feat that might otherwise get spent boosting abilities, cause in-form she's pretty much set. Ceph clued me into that one. It's a rad build for honorable claws out! So far so good

The other factor is that Druids get their big endgame spike at lvl 10, when they get to summon greater elementals and as a Moon druid to shapechange into Myrmidon form. At lvl 11 they can upcast the Elemental to get a Myrmidon instead, but otherwise their spells at that peak level are sorta lackluster. Wall of Thorns is situationally very useful, but it's also a concentration spell and competes with Wall of Fire, which has somewhat more flexible targeting.

All the Wall spells have the same issue in that they are very good when the environment is open and easily divided by a straight line, but rough when there are obstructions, which is often the case.

Most of the wall spells kinda key off somebody having the Black Hole ability or telekensis type stuff, so you can just ruin the enemies that way by repositioning them directly onto the wall. Definitely fun, but I think the Wall of Fire can work just as well for that, and at only a lvl 4 spellslot. Heroes Feast is also very useful, but I already have clerics who can cast that spell, so it wasn't really necessary to have Jaheira on that one too. Mostly it's down to the summons and the forms, with the other stuff kinda just for show I guess.

As an example, comparing the Air Myrmidon summon that I can get with a lvl 11/12 Druid (upcasting their Elemental spellslot) to the regular Air Elemental summon at lvl 10 Druid, I think it's probably a wash.

Clearly the Air Myrmidon is objectively superior in melee with better stats, more hitpoints and a stunning attack, but the Air Elemental also has a multi-attack and critically a Ranged thunder attack, which the Air Myrmidon lacks, so that's another consideration.

Both versions can elemental Warp, both can go Invisible and buff dailies till long rest, so really I'm not sure you lose out on all that much leaving off at lvl 10 in Druid and just rolling with the regular Air Elemental that can also snipe. I mean Jaheira can still pretty much summon a whole support army for it right haha. That gives her 2 Class levels left over before reaching the cap for the multi-class flavor.

Fighter seemed thematic, even if Fighter/Druids feel a bit awkward generally compared to the 2e powerhouses, it sorta works here because if you take Fighter as the initial class then you get to pick a fighting style, as well as gaining access to heavy armor and martial weapons along with second wind and Action Surge. Having a second action is pretty huge since I can use it for spellcasting or extra attacks, movement and all the rest. Her presentation suggests dual wielding the scimitars, but I think sword and board is probably better, since there are many shields and her AC can go nutso. Same as the first impression I had there I think, just BG1 mode hehe.

Otherwise though there is that armor of Agility which stacks Dexterity at the full modifier, so with the Gloves of DEX on she can rep a pretty boss AC, like with whatever weapons loadout.

The existence of potions that can raise STR to 21 for like 60 gp or STR to 27 for like 200 gp, makes it mechanically way less necessary to push 20 in STR for the multi-class fighter. With Tavern brawler and the Dex gloves I can push STR and CON both to 16 and get a bit more bang for the buck. This is because Jaheira has her amulate from Khalid that allows her to hit her 20 in Wisdom comfortably, so she can push the secondary stats a bit harder just from that. Similar to the Hags hair pretty much, but it's locked on the Wisdom. Could raise her to WIS 21, but I'm not sure if that's really necessary, this way she can bring the big guns under pretty much any scenario, even if dropping out of Myrmidon form.

The Returning Pike might also be a cool weapon for her, besides the swords, since often, if I'm knocked out of Wildshape and trying to use weapons instead of spells, it's probably some awkward elevation angle on a ranged attack, and sometimes throwing gives the better arc for that. Also sorta reminded me of BG1 Jaheira, with her staff/spear in that first portrait. Since the Returning Pike can also be a thrown weapon the Tavern Brawler thing stacks, and combined with the various rings of flinging and such, Jaheira can deal reliable damage at range just from the flying pike. Gotta equip it first so it'll return or she'll hurl it end over end and it can get lost, but might be cool for a two handed weapon. She can also use that Pike the same way even without the dip into Fighter, so I was actually repping it for the lvl 12 Moon Druid pure class for a while, but she can do the same with the 2/10 split in Fighter - just twice with the action surge! So kinda cool

Otherwise I think she could dip out of Druid into basically any class for the 2 levels, and not be leaving a whole lot on the table. That's kinda novel, since most classes get a nice spike at lvl 2. Like maybe something similar with War Cleric could be fun for her, cause you get the second attack and also the +10 to hit at level 2 with the domain perks. Might try that actually.

I think the 4/8 multiclass is maybe decent, since you still get a summon with the Woodland Being and a pretty powerful shape with no cost to the feats, but then I'm still 1 lvl off the powerspike for fighter. A 6/6 split gets the fighter into heavy action and I could pick up the extra feat that way, but lose out on the empowered forms and summons. For that one I guess Land druid and then just trying to swoop into the spells that druids wouldn't otherwise get access to from the various circles, like to give her some flare, but somehow just felt not quite powerful enough.

2/10 she's like right in that sweet spot where she can use pretty much all the key high level Druid abilities, but still with the look like a Fighter.

Anyhow that was the thinking on all that.

Mostly Nah Din's just been running around giving the bad guys the dragon treatment hehe

We got the usual suspects back in the rotation. I brought everyone off the bench for a few. Wyll unfortunately has a permanent exclamation mark above his head, must have been whatever that went down making the whole of Wyrm's rock go agro. Anyhow, thought maybe brining him along would sort that but so far no such luck. Mostly I keep to my mains. Somehow I never want to tell Shadowheart to remain at camp, so I guess that's sorta the only self imposed restriction I have going on. Otherwise just trying to take it all the way again!

Good times!

 

[Black Elk]

Ok now I'm definitely coming around to this idea of the 2/10 split with Jaheira as a Multiclass Cleric of Selune/Moon Druid Brawler.

This seems to fit very well with her archetype from BG1, but also in the new framework, and since it explains some of her spells in the old games, which were always sorta handwaved as Harper specials.

The dip into Cleric gets her all the same perks there that my Draconic Sorcerer is drawing on, with sanctuary and such, but also gets to take the dip one level further so she can turn undead and gain the boon from her Domain choice. I'm not sure which Domain is coolest for her, since they all seem to offer something interesting, but probably Life, Tempest or War.

War Domain fits very well with the whole Soldier background, and there she gets the extra attack and bonus to hit. The perks from the lvl 2 Domain are basically the boost to hit, since the concentration spells compete with better stuff in the druid list, but just for the extra whack it's pretty fun. With that kit out she's not picking up the second Scimitar I don't think, but still hitting pretty heavy.

Tempest gives the boost to the Lightning and Thunder damage. I like this cause it synergizes so well with call lightning which she'll pick up anyway from the 10 levels in Druid, plus matches the Myrmidon and Air elemental with a whole Thunderous theme. I figure she'd probably learned some tricks from Branwen ya know.

Life Cleric makes healing worthwhile, and still gets the Heavy armor. I lose out on the Martial weapons though doing that. Healing in this game is sorta borked, cause unless it can be cast as a bonus action, it's almost never worth it to heal. Outside of Healing Word to keep the allies on their feet, or unless there's some other kind of buff like Blade Ward from the gauntlets or things of that sort, better off using the action for damage. Otherwise, if it's really necessary, it's almost always better mechanically to throw a potion than to use a spell, since the potions have more powerful healing and the potential to AoE that heal. Only weird thing is that I think tavern brawler might add damage to the yeeted potion before applying the heal, or I'm not quite sure there. But I think you can potentially down an ally like that. Life domain takes care of that issue by just making all those potion throwing dynamics kinda pointless, since healing top-offs are more viable with the Life Domain.

I settled on Tempest Domain for now, just to give some variety in my super Priest heavy party comp.

Full time lvl 12 Light Cleric in Shadowheart
1-11 War Cleric/Sorcerer for my main
2-10 Tempest Cleric/Druid for Jaheira
Then Minthara just being her standard lvl 12 Paladin with the big ass sword.

I tried to sub in Minsc for a while, but I just don't know what to do with the guy. Tried the Jack of all Trades initially, since somehow I'd still never done that achievement, then re-worked him afterwards. I gave him the Flawed Helldusk armor and Justice, but made him an Archer, just cause it amused me to think of him wailing like a Banshee and going "Boo" with that tiny ass short bow lol.

Rangers seem to just be way better at doing Ranged type stuff with Volley, but he's awkward cause he's gotta have some Strength right, and the ability to pack steel. But then I just rolled around with him for maybe an hour before sending him back to camp again.

Minthara is just so good that it's hard to slot over to Minsc this late in the game. They're both working the same safety color right now, so basically he just borrows whatever equipment Minthara doesn't really need and chills by the mirror.

I wish I could switch their spots at camp so he'd go hang out with Halsin in the corner, just so it would be easier to cast the dailies on Minthara lol.

I think I'm going to evolve her this time, but can't quite decide, cause she gets a lot of camp interactions. She doesn't have any summons, so she usually has to wait while the Zombies do their thing. I enjoy hearing her tell me how I'm always making a mistake, cause she definitely is our most valuable asset hehe.

But still, just not sure I need to see her eyes with the veins for all that, and anyway my Acid dragon has been training and preparing for this one. So I'm pretty sure one brain going Illithid will be enough black holes for this campaign.

I honestly think the game needs a camp creator or a way to pitch camp in world. The main thing I feel that's missing from the Third Act is the camp variety and camp interactions, which are much stronger in the first 2 acts.

The sense of repetition I feel in Act III comes mainly from the fact that there is only really one camp, the Elfsong Tavern. This contrasts with Act 1 and Act 2 pretty markedly, where there are just different camps all over the place. But then in Act III, even if you go underground or into the Sewers, if you can camp, you just end up back at the suite in the Elfong Tavern.

It's super claustrophobic there with everyone just standing by their beds. Like I'd way rather be on the roof hanging out with Alfira. Maybe a couple alleyways to explore at night, something along those lines. Not sure, but I kinda wish we could check out of the Inn and check into another one ya know. But the choices are basically Elfsong or that barn in Rivington, whereas Act III could potentially be the place where you get the most variety in camps. Or even better, a stronghold like a cabin or maybe a manor house or a mage's tower. Like I'd way rather shack up at Rolan's or rent a room at the Blushing Mermaid. Or just a creepy camp near the Cemetery? Like really anywhere else.

I'd rather crash on Jaheira's couch.

I only just realized in this run that Jaheira's spot in the City is totally right next door to the House of Grief. Like either Viconia has been watching her the whole time, or vice versa, but I still can't quite get over how we came this close to seeing Viconia in the party again for BG3, but then fell just short. Shadowheart and Minthara are great, don't get me wrong, and basically they give me something rather similar split across those 2 characters, but I think I could easily spend as much time puzzling out builds for Viconia and trying to go all Classic and nostalgic there, like same deal as Jaheira. I wish they'd have figured a way to make that happen.

Instead this time the game kinda glitched when I tried to knock her out non-lethal. She was just stuck dazed on the floor, so I wasn't able to initiate that dialog to spare her for Jaheira's approval. No biggie, cause I was still able to advance Shadowheart's questline with Shar to wrap things up. We took Viconia's mace and shield - left her with 5 hitpoints from Jaheira's healing word. Then ate a cinnamon roll, and sold Nocturne pretty much everything else that we looted hehe.

Need to make some change and break the bank, so we can finally go rescue Lae'zel. I was going to bring Minsc, but somehow I still don't trust him to get the job done there. Better to let him rest his head and keep Boo out of harm's way.

Besides we can't bench Minthara for that one, she'd never forgive us! lol

ps. just noticed that with Jaheira as a Tempest Cleric/Moon Druid I can still upcast the Elemental summon to Myrmidon with a lvl 6 slot. It must key of the Character lvl for that I guess rather than the class level. Not sure really, now I'm wondering if it was just that way all along with those summons and I didn't notice, or if it's cause I did the multiclass into another spellcasting priest. In that case I'd probably just go Myrmidon all day, cause there aren't all that many situations where they couldn't fly over to make an attack in melee and then warp out of harms way with the bonus action, like back to the bubble. Might be a couple fights where it's nice to have the thunder balls at range, but that whack with the electro flail is hard to argue with. I feel like a muddy Myrmidon might be more on theme for an Acid dragon, but invisibility is nice and the lightning damage with the stun makes me just lean Air most times, like I tend to go with Djinn for the planar summon, or skeletons, mostly cause I like the visualizations hehe.

 

[Black Elk]

Shadowheart just had her whole world turned upside down and inside out at the House of Grief, so we took a little pause afterwards to regroup.

Also for Minthara to sell some letters and fine art to Nansi hehe. There was an interesting Shadowheart tidbit in Viconia's journal that gives some insight into her mission as the party "healer" and that had me feeling pretty good about keeping her as a priest, although I guess pretty much any class with a healing spell and she could probably be respec'd into that role. Light Cleric served us well vs the Mother Superior though.

I had to leave Minthara at home for that one, causes she was just way too Radiant hehe, but Shadowheart picked up the slack using mostly Fire spells from her Light Domain kit. Scorching ray certainly came in handy!

What will become of Viconia, who could say? Left her in the dark and just kept on walking... After all that and a couple days under the weather, we paid a brief visit to the "Society of Brilliance" which we promptly took over to use as our new base of operations in the city!

Hatched a scheme to finally go rescue Lae'zel from Orin. This time we went in full force. We prepped like D-Day to make sure the Woodland Being and the Djinni and the gang would all be on the same page.

Orin did manage to get off a couple pretty furious tail swipes and came really close to knocking Shadowheart into a chasm, luckily Minthara was able to break through the unstoppable like 3 times, cause that's what it took. I had the Djinni and the Myrmidons doing all sorts raging votexes to try and keep her tied up. Landed a Hold Monster, then got zapped into a daze by one of her priests. Popped up a globe, got dazed again, but Minthara came clutch with a pommel strike to ice it. A black hole and a couple lighthearted fireballs helped clear the rest of the room. Sceleritas went down for the final dirtnap when all was said and done. His hat looks pretty good Wyll. He's got his Dr. Facilier vibe going now, like Serpent Under the Rainbow, for when he's gotta eventually go do whatever in the Hells. Least this way when the various fiends see him coming they'll now to watch out!

Anyhow, got Lae'zel back where she belongs! FInally! Settling in for the home stretch now.

Second attempt at Honour in the Third Act definitely felt a bit smoother than the first time around, even though hotfix 16 was a little buggy for me. Now that I have the gold dice I find myself getting a little reckless with it, diving in headlong sometimes, or just going for broke with 4 instead of the 3 party comp. I also find myself less inclined to rotate party members or go all ham with the zombies buffing unless it's a big do or die battle. Still pretty fun though!

I figure I'll just keep practicing with this one till they eventually come out with a Black D20 or whatever, for the ultimate difficulty nightmare. I think for this one though it's definitely much more challenging to hit the early spikes. Like the distance from lvl 1 to lvl 5 feels a lot wider and a fair bit more challenging, than say anything after hitting the lvl 12 cap. For this reason I'm sure returning to the early game will always be sorta fun, and the ending a bit of a slog by comparison. But the companion interactions do keep me going, so that's a plus, just having a few around for the endurance.

Glad I brought Jaheira along this time for the showdown with Slaughterkin, cause she had a small army at our back! Also that crazed glint in her eye - just like the old days! Returning to Bhaal's temple must have sparked something in her, cause she seemed inspired pretty much the whole time haha