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Any tips for the act 3 (Shadowheart quest) battle with Viconia (Shadowheart's ex-boss underground) with the massive army who can block healing and cause blind way too easily? Starting the fight before the dialogue, I got them down to a handful using Cloud Of Daggers in a choke point on the stairs, but they eventually beat me through attrition. I swear Sunlight spell refuses to work, but it might be because I get too mired in darkness by then, and just need to set it up beforehand, I guess it's supposed to be on a weapon? But a character can't even cast it on themselves in darkness?
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Jan 16, 2024 14:18
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VagueRant posted:Any tips for the act 3 (Shadowheart quest) battle with Viconia (Shadowheart's ex-boss underground) with the massive army who can block healing and cause blind way too easily? I was just posting this on the last page: 1. Counterspell all the Darkness and bullshit spells they’re throwing at you if you can 2. Choke point is good, but Cloud of Daggers is level 2. Use Cloudkill and Chain Lightning and big boy spells. Crack scrolls if you got em. I used Black Hole to group them up at a choke. 3. Controlling the paladins with fear/charm/CC is huge because they hit really loving hard and have almost 200HP 4. This is the fight where Elixir of Necrotic Resistance goes hard 5. Do not use any Radiant damage on Viconia 6. You can use wind effects to remove Darkness - the Nyrulna spear, scrolls, spells. 7. There’s a ring that lets you see through Darkness if you have it squirreled away. I did so I put it on 8. Like most fights the damage in this one is very front loaded and all the adds start loving you up on Round 1. If you can show up with summons, use them as meat shields. Spiritual weapon, planar ally, elementals, dryad, etc… These can also help a lot with positioning for crowd control/AoE as enemies will group up around them.
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Jan 16, 2024 14:34
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VagueRant posted:Any tips for the act 3 (Shadowheart quest) battle with Viconia (Shadowheart's ex-boss underground) with the massive army who can block healing and cause blind way too easily? The chokepoint is a good strat, you just need to stack more effects. By now you should have stuff like hunger of hadar, cloudkill, wall of fire, spikes, sleet storm, grease etc. and some of them are available as scrolls so you don't even necesserally need to modify your party. Hadar is especially good because it blinds them too so they can't attack you while they're in it. Shadowheart also gets that glyph spell that you can set down and it has a version with a force explosion. Throw that down on the top of the stairs and watch the first guy to make it through get punted right back in.
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Jan 16, 2024 14:43
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Gotta love Act 3 for making some of the best gear also look the dumbest. Larian knew what they were doing.
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Jan 16, 2024 14:48
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Dragonwagon posted:Hadar is especially good because it blinds them too so they can't attack you while they're in it. Part of the reason that they use Darkness and Hunger of Hadar so freely against you in that fight is that a lot of them can see in magical darkness. Out of all the fights in the game, this is probably the one that most justifies breaking out all those scrolls and high level AOE spells. It doesn't matter how many of them there are when you're standing behind a choke point with Insect Plague + Blade Barrier + Wall of Fire and somebody to keep Black Hole-ing them back into it.
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Jan 16, 2024 15:01
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VagueRant posted:Any tips for the act 3 (Shadowheart quest) battle with Viconia (Shadowheart's ex-boss underground) with the massive army who can block healing and cause blind way too easily? Take the boss out first. Have someone in the party who can counter spell. Chain lightning is your friend because it will hit 4 enemies even if they’re quite spread out. A sorcerer can do 3 chain lightnings in round 1; or 4 with haste. A powerful archer is also great, because again, enemies are spread out.
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Jan 16, 2024 15:04
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House of grief is the fight you’ve been saving all those consumables for
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Jan 16, 2024 15:06
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VagueRant posted:Any tips for the act 3 (Shadowheart quest) battle with Viconia (Shadowheart's ex-boss underground) with the massive army who can block healing and cause blind way too easily? just kite them and have a couple of characters with blind immunity+ranged attacks, alternatively put down hunger of halgar+ wall of fire on the choke point
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Jan 16, 2024 15:15
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exquisite tea posted:Gotta love Act 3 for making some of the best gear also look the dumbest. Larian knew what they were doing. 
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Jan 16, 2024 15:16
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exquisite tea posted:Gotta love Act 3 for making some of the best gear also look the dumbest. Larian knew what they were doing. Now I want full-on Cowboyheart
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Jan 16, 2024 15:17
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I feel like I’m missing something because Hunger of Hadar is an AOE darkness / cold cloud and they can see in magical darkness
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Jan 16, 2024 15:17
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Black Noise posted:I feel like I’m missing something because Hunger of Hadar is an AOE darkness / cold cloud and they can see in magical darkness none of them have ranged non-magical attacks, hadar silences them so they can't cast ranged spells on you. It gives them a huge slow so they can't run up at you very easily to melee you either. it's like yeah they can't be blinded but they dont' have an attack they can use on you anyway meanwhile your wall of fire is burning them alive inside the hadar AoE
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Jan 16, 2024 15:22
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That hat looks especially dumb with Wyll's horns going through it. How do you all build out your teams? I feel like I need a support, mage, ranged single target, and melee single target maybe? But I end up doing a light cleric every run and I want to find an alternative for level 6 Aid/Meal of Heroes or whatever it is. It's just that light domain gives you a bunch of fire AoEs which help with making them a secondary mage for damage since healing in combat is best handled with thrown potions most of the time outside of a full heal build like Hope is. When you can chuck a supreme healing potion for 40-60 HP and have it count as one of your attacks, healing 20-40 with a full action isn't very appealing. The only heal I use is Healing Word so I can get someone up as a bonus action and then they can do actual healing on themselves. My current group is 2-handed fighter, dual crossbow gloomstalker/assassin/fighter, full evoker Gale with magic missile gimmick for when a fireball isn't needed, and paladin/warlock Wyll but Wyll seems like he's not really doing much for me since in order to get him up to 20 charisma I had to hamstring his damage per hit when he runs out of smites, which happens fast when he has three swings per action. Maybe I should swap Wyll to a support-focused bard so I still have someone with high charisma? IDK what options there are for bards.
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Jan 16, 2024 15:24
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I'm on Normal and party composition doesn't matter. So many potions! Second wind! An amulet that has a bonus action Aid! Basically infinite scrolls! It's pretty cool, really. This is more or less the case on tabletop 5E too, you no longer really need a dedicated healer even though some oldheads will have a conniption.
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Jan 16, 2024 15:27
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My current HM group is... 1. Evocation Magic Missile Wizard 2. 2 Tempest / 10 Storm Sorc Shadowheart 3. 3 Thief / 9 Monk Karlach 4. Pure Battlemaster Lae'zel And it's by a significant margin the most OP combination I've ever taken through the campaign. Turns out you don't need to heal too much when everything is already prone, electrocuted and dead on Turn 1! I've got Shadowheart dual wielding with Phalar Aluve so that MM can get the Shriek bonus on every hit. Still wearing Boots of Stormy Clamor and the Ring of Absolute Force from Act 1 on my Wizard. It all comes together incredibly well.
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Jan 16, 2024 15:33
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I'm playing local split screen - my partner is playing as Shart but if I do a check I can't use their Guidance, and they can't use any of my abilities unless the character is assigned to them. Also the inventory isn't shared. Any way to change that as a setting or mod?
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Jan 16, 2024 15:33
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The Lord Bude posted:Take the boss out first. I actually did the opposite of this and came in with a strategy to snipe out all the mages who spam Darkness, leaving the ridiculously tanky boss for last, and it worked alright. In either case I would say "have a strategy for killing every one of those mages as rapidly as possible" is good advice. That fight is gonna be a complete shitstorm no matter what, but if you've got good initiative scores, a lot of damage output, and a sound strategy for accessing and obliterating one or more casters in a single turn, you can make it a little more manageable. You absolutely have to seize control of the fight from word one - if you let them put you on the back foot, you're going to stay there. If all else fails, just bring a bunch of strong AoE spells that don't care about line of sight (including all those scrolls you've been hoarding) and abuse Haste/Potions of Speed to just carpet-bomb the entire room to poo poo. The worst thing you can do in House of Grief is to wade in preparing for an endurance battle. Half of your party is taking ongoing damage at any given time, nobody can loving heal worth a drat, and the action economy is stacked against you. When the initiative rolls come out, you need to go from zero to "Yosemite Sam with two rocket launchers" in a loving heartbeat. Unload all your stockpiled ordnance, thin out the chaff to even the odds a little, and especially make sure to murder those goddamn annoying mages.
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Jan 16, 2024 15:40
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exquisite tea posted:My current HM group is... Yeah, that makes sense. I've been really missing my stuns/prones from my previous run's monk. I've been relying a lot more on having 2 or 3 people with Hold Person. Hold Monster basically got me through the House of Hope boss fight. Dropped it on the boss and then had my dual crossbows and greatsword go to town with the guaranteed crits. Got him from 550-600ish down to 0 in one round. Do you not miss Aid/Hero's Feast not running a cleric or druid? Having an extra 50-ish HP on all my guys was nice in my first balanced run, although I'm doing decently keeping my guys up. Gale keeps going down but I gave him the 21AC unique heavy armor just before the last fight so now he's at 23AC and I'm hoping to get enemies to focus him and his Shield reaction to get to 28AC while everyone else beats the poo poo out of the big dudes and he cleans up with fireball or magic missile swarms. I've also got the "you get blade ward and -3 damage after that" armor on my fighter, and took Heavily Armored because I wasn't sure what else to take at 12, so he now takes half damage from physical and then subtract 5 so a lot of enemies do nothing to him and he can run through my ranger's Spike Growth and take 0 damage.
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Jan 16, 2024 15:50
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I made Halsin a Hero’s Aid buff bot and he casts that on the party then stays in camp.
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Jan 16, 2024 15:53
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space uncle posted:I made Halsin a Hero’s Aid buff bot and he casts that on the party then stays in camp.  but gale being a longstrider bard and my alchemy nerd for more elixiers
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Jan 16, 2024 15:58
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My first time through Honor Mode I definitely did overprepare for the big fights, hireling Cleric for Heroes' Feast and all that. Now I'm being a bit more YOLO with it because I already have the achievement, but if you don't want to leave anything to chance then it certainly helps to have a high level Cleric.
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Jan 16, 2024 16:08
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I completely forgot that hirelings are a thing that exist, I've never used the feature.
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Jan 16, 2024 16:11
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22 Eargesplitten posted:I completely forgot that hirelings are a thing that exist, I've never used the feature. A bot that sits in camp to do all your alchemy and start of day buffing is super handy, if a bit tedious to get everyone to group up nicely.
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Jan 16, 2024 16:23
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exquisite tea posted:My first time through Honor Mode I definitely did overprepare for the big fights, hireling Cleric for Heroes' Feast and all that. Now I'm being a bit more YOLO with it because I already have the achievement, but if you don't want to leave anything to chance then it certainly helps to have a high level Cleric. honestly for honor mode just run parties with 1 person left in camp permanently so you never get party wiped You can solo most bosses 2 character should be enough to beat all of them, 3 should be more than enough to beat every encounter. When I had 4 people parties it always felt like 1 person wasn't doing anything. Might as well as leave them back at camp for insurance
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Jan 16, 2024 17:37
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I didn't do that because it felt lamer + slower than just bringing all my dudes there. And there are of course a few fights where doing so is impossible. If you don't want to risk it though then do whatever works for you and your family.
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Jan 16, 2024 17:44
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Just make a backup of your save file like a normal person
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Jan 16, 2024 17:48
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if y'all don't want to actually play honor mode just mod in the golden dice, no one will know
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Jan 16, 2024 17:48
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Jay Rust posted:Just make a backup of your save file like a normal person
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Jan 16, 2024 17:52
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22 Eargesplitten posted:That hat looks especially dumb with Wyll's horns going through it. I find the value of a cleric drops off a cliff in act 3. Early game that channel divinity AoE that a light cleric gets is insane; act 2 they have Guardian spirits, which coupled with the lathander mace is pretty drat good; but by the time you hit act 3 you really shouldn’t need to be casting heals often and there are far stronger things you can do with your team A paladin warlock should be using charisma for damage - you bind the weapon to you and then it uses your charisma instead of strength. You can also still cast eldritch blasts as required. That being said a paladin/warlock is never going to be as good as a Bard/paladin. My main team in act 3 consists of: Tav; Swords Bard 8/Paladin 2/ Fighter 2. Dex is 22; Cha is 16. Second feat is savage attacker. This is an insanely strong melee build because you have 5 Flourishes per short rest that can stack with your smites (you end up with 3x level 4 slots and 1x level 5 slot). A flourish can either give you +4 AC for a round, or it can let you attack 2 targets at once. Both options do an extra 1d8 damage, then you pile your smite on top; so if enemies are grouped well you can do 9 smites in one turn (using your action surge from the fighter dip; and your one offhand attack). Plus if you don’t end up having enough enemies within melee range you can do the ranged versions of the flourishes as well; or use a bonus action to cast a spell. It’s also a great build right from the beginning of the game unlike some - you get flourishes and 2 weapon fighting style at 3, extra attack at 6; then you take your 2 paladin levels for smites, then fighter levels for action surge, then finish out your bard levels for more spell slots and your last feat. Or do bard at 9-10 and finish with fighter if you prefer. Jaheira; Swords Bard 6/Spore Druid 2/Fighter 4. Dex is 20; cha is 16. Feats are ASI and sharpshooter. Weapon is The Dead shot. I’ve broken this down at length in a previous post but this is pretty much the best ranged weapon build in the game. Ranged flourishes are even better than melee ones, because the attack that lets you hit 2 enemies with one attack lets you target the same enemy twice, so you are basically doubling all the damage you do, from your attacks, sharpshooter, damage riders (spore druids do an extra 1d8 damage on top of the extra damage that flourishes do, not to mention equipment). Plus a nice armor you can get as soon as you reach baldur’s gate will let you give your entire party haste with one bonus action. Minsc; Open Hand Tavern Brawler Monk 9/ Thief rogue 3. I’m sure you know the drill here; the insanity of this build has been discussed at length by many, many people. Pretty much the highest damage output of any melee attacker; and huge mobility, and the damage is split into a bunch of seperate attacks so you can usually kill several enemies. Astarion; Wizard 1/Tempest Cleric 2/Sorcerer 9. Even a plain level 12 sorcerer is going to be miles ahead of a wizard - metamagic lets you twincast and quick cast a spell, so you can for eg cast 2x chain lightnings with one action, and then cast a third using a bonus action. Wizard level lets you multiclass and still scribe all the spells you need; tempest cleric lets you do max damage on your chain lightning twice. (the twincast counts as 1 though, so you really get 3 max damage chain lightnings) with this team, you pretty much measure fights by how many of your team get to have a go before everyone dies, not how many rounds the fight lasts, because they almost never last more than 1 - House of Healing has been my only 2 round fight since reaching Baldur’s gate. Other party members I’ve used during my playthrough: Lae’zel; level 12 battlemaster fighter, 2 handed sword. Also an insanely strong build in the end, ends up third for melee behind bard/paladin and tavern monk (possibly second? it’s pretty drat close). I used Lae’zel a lot in my first playthrough so this time I only used her when it made sense for the narrative. Main issue with this build is it really only comes into it’s own when you get to baldur’s gate. There’s a lack of good 2h weapons for most of the game, so you need Balduran’s Giantslayer and the extra attack from level 11 to really keep up with some of the other builds. It’s also pretty good in the early game though - being able to attack with a 2h sword with advantage from level 3 is a strong effect. It just kinda has a midgame lull. Shadowheart; level 12 light cleric - as discussed, very good early on but gets less useful as the game progresses. Many great builds get a pretty substantial power spike in the last couple of levels either through gear or abilities or both and clerics just kinda don’t; they peak at level 5 and then taper off. Karlach: Throwing Barbarian. Beserker 5/Thief 3/Champion 4. This is a really great build that is strong from the get go - you can get the returning pike pretty fast, even when you don’t have it; beserkers are very strong in the early game. Lots of act 1 enemies are small enough to be thrown with 18 str. The build remains super powerful throughout the game, and the only reason Karlach has been on the bench in Act 3 is because I discovered how great the bard/druid/fighter build was.
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Jan 16, 2024 17:52
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exquisite tea posted:I didn't do that because it felt lamer + slower than just bringing all my dudes there. And there are of course a few fights where doing so is impossible. If you don't want to risk it though then do whatever works for you and your family. that's fair, it's just that I think 4 people are overkill for almost every single fight once you are level 5
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Jan 16, 2024 17:53
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22 Eargesplitten posted:That hat looks especially dumb with Wyll's horns going through it. for my honor playthrough: Durge: Sword bard 10/fighter 2 Shart: light cleric Laz: figher 12 Karlach: tavern brawler monk 9/thief 3 Lone wolf run: Durge: Sword bard 6/fighter 2/assassin 3/wizard 1 Str: 8 (19 by perma using that item) Dex: 20 (got +2 from you know where) Con: 8 (23 with item) Wis: 15 (jfc not high enough) Char: 16 primary weapon: titanstring bow Typo fucked around with this message at 18:00 on Jan 16, 2024 |
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Jan 16, 2024 17:54
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Typo posted:the game mark your entire save's UUID as not-honor if you get party wiped, so backing up doesn't work That's why you kill the process via the task manager before the wipe Clearly you've never played Crusader Kings
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Jan 16, 2024 17:54
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VagueRant posted:Any tips for the act 3 (Shadowheart quest) battle with Viconia (Shadowheart's ex-boss underground) with the massive army who can block healing and cause blind way too easily? honestly, one shot the boss with a sword bard and a monk
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Jan 16, 2024 18:01
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Potato Salad posted:honestly, one shot the boss with a sword bard and a monk doesn't she start with sanc on her?
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Jan 16, 2024 18:01
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Saraiguma posted:doesn't she start with sanc on her? Sanc won’t do poo poo against AoE damage. Save your monk and your sword bard for the trash and AoE her down.
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Jan 16, 2024 18:11
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ChronoReverse posted:You need to do enough damage all at once (10+) to get past sturdy. If you have the Ring of Flinging, the extra 1d4 damage hits even if you don't meet the threshold to damage sturdy objects. Haven't tried that out with other bonus damages 
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Jan 16, 2024 18:19
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space uncle posted:2. Choke point is good, but Cloud of Daggers is level 2. Use Cloudkill and Chain Lightning and big boy spells. Crack scrolls if you got em. I used Black Hole to group them up at a choke. I swear, black hole is the most OP ability in the game. You can loot the void bulbs from the Nautilus and get a mini-version right off the hop.
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Jan 16, 2024 18:23
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I wish wish they would create some new fights/arenas with the current skill system just being able to explore fun builds in some new playgrounds would make for a good game on its own
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Jan 16, 2024 18:32
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VagueRant posted:Any tips for the act 3 (Shadowheart quest) battle with Viconia (Shadowheart's ex-boss underground) with the massive army who can block healing and cause blind way too easily? Last run, I started the dialogue with Viconia with Shovel (while the team waited upstairs and on the other side of the door), who got wasted immediately, but I kept summoning Connor(you can resummon him immediately on death, unlimited times, his life must be horrible) on the stairs to chokepoint them up the stairs and thru the door, and casting Cloudkill/Insect Swarm/Blackhole over the same area. This is while Karlach is sending her barrage of love thru thrown weapons every round. The arc of her throw from the top of the stairs is perfect for getting even the bottom of the stair folks. Very few of them actually got to the top, although I accidently killed Viconia cause of the cloudkill, instead of knocking her out for the final confrontation with Shart.
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Jan 16, 2024 18:34
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You can have Shovel talk to NPCs??
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Jan 16, 2024 18:36
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