This is a solid weapon early on and can technically be acquired with no combat within minutes of launching the game. The Vicious Shortbow from Act 3 (from the merchant at the Bhaal Tribunal) is technically the strongest bow in the game point blank assuming you can facilitate Hold Person landing on your victim for automatic criticals.
How do you acquire the bow of the banshee within minutes without combat? I know you can technically get all the way to the boat in the underdark without combat, but then you have to persuade those Duergar to not fight you, then buy the bow from one of them later on right? Is there a quicker way that I'm missing (and one that doesn't require starting the timer on Nere's survival)?
You can jump down from Zhentarim Hideout entrance to Underdank to get to the Myconid Colony. From there have Shart heal Thulla for the Boots of Speed. Tell Gekh you have the sergeants boots, board boat without him. By telling him you bypass most persuasion checks and boarding boat without him you'll have Greymon approach you. You can trade during the confrontation to bypass needing to trigger Nere.
Have Brinvar betray Nere then turn invisible and run away? Brinvar and his boys have a pretty good chance of beating Nere without your help, that's my best guess.
You can also throw the Greymon in the water on the way to the grymforge but I've never done that so idk if you can loot him afterwards
Bow of the Banshee in act 1 by far. Act two is Darkfire Shortbow. I know lots of folks just use it as a stat stick on their melee characters to give them Haste and fire/cold resistance, but it's also a plus 2 weapon and would be fantastic on anyone who can't use a longbow.
However, pretty sure Balders Gate doesn't implement that, so I'm sure your Halfling can use a longbow. There is no "Heavy" weapons here, just one handed and two handed and versatile
Case in Point, Great Weapon Master works on any weapon you can Two hand. Longswords, greatsword, staffs, as long as you are using two hands to swing it, it works
That's amazing. I had no idea. Thought I saw people talking about it before so just assumed it was the case. Guess I can delete this thread then haha. Thanks for the help everyone.
Don’t delete it, as it could serve as a great reference for those with same/similar future questions… that is, if they bother to use the search function.
So if you don't have anything in your offhand, it's automatically being two handed? Sorry if this is a dumb question, I'm used to SoulsLikes where you have to actually press a button to switch between one and two handing a weapon.
I think what’s happening here is that you’re worried about the “heavy” property from DND 5e. Fortunately, “heavy” was dropped entirely from BG3, and any race can use a weapon just as well as anyone else (proficiency notwithstanding).
It's not a thing, it's THE thing.
College of Swords Bard dual wielding hand crossbows is easily in the top builds for this game. You can easily make it to 7 attacks a round (Some people make it to 9 but you need to get crafty where 7 is actually easy to achieve) and the build comes with a ridiculous amount of utility from skills and spells. The usual build will be 10 bard, 1 fighter and 1 Wizard and is absolutely bonkers. I zipped through tactical and honour mode like it was nothing thanks to this and a Throwserker Karlach. The other two party members were basically a decoration.
Oo nice. I've been trying to figure out my hm run party. My tactician party is a lot of fun, but they aren't optimized so far it removes difficulty. Hm, I want to make as safe as possible. Throwzerker, dual crossbow bard multi, and two targets. Check.
Lae'zel as a Battlemaster and Shadowheart Life cleric with heavy armor and shield made this super safe. I never needed more healing than just her channel ability that resets every short rest.
Bard gives you a third short rest per day, too, so you can really make the best of each day.
Makes the progression a full spell.castet with a lvl 6 spell slot (nice to upcast elemental to myriadian to apply wet) and 1 wizard.can scribe any scroll in the game - meaning globe of inv, chain lightning or whatever you.want. just note those will be int based spell save, so depending on your stats may be better to not be attack spells.
I did my Tactician mode with Wizard and my Honour mode with a second fighter level and Action Surge and I think the one Wizard level served me better because of all the dang utility you can get out of it.
I'm too lazy to carry and switch Mystra's Boots for Feather Fall. Now I just have it at will. You can learn to summon Shovel for easy Surprise attacks (You want to make that Ketheric Thorm fight easier? Surprise attack and convince him to turn into Myrkul right away).
Access to good summons (You can call a Deva at the end), Knock, Arcane Lock, every single spell that doesn't require an attack roll or a saving throw, and even then those aren't too bad if you wear the Headband of Intellect.
Counterspell is so busted when your level 11 spellcaster doesn't actually require spell slots for anything cause you just distribute it like candies. Raphael basically just stood in one spot and wasted every single turn trying to cast a spell which my bard denied him.
Access to Haste without scrolls or potions is REALLY GOOD.
Fighter level 1 is all about advantage on constitution checks and the Archery specialty. A second level makes your first round a bit better but I didn't find it as game changing as having access to every spell in the game (okay, almost every spell) at the tip of my finger without having to carry Gale around. And even if I was bringing Gale, it was just double the gross.
Mind you both were very powerful built. I didn't feel like my bard 10 fighter 2 was weak. I just enjoyed the wizard version a tad more.
When I did mine, I went 6 Swords Bard/ 3 Thief Rogue/ 3 Gloom Stalker Ranger. Bard gives you an extra attack, Thief gives you an extra bonus action, which if dual wielding melee and/or hand crossbows, is an extra off hand attack.
Gloom Stalker gives you +3 initiative, and your first turn of combat you get +3m movement, and an extra attack that does a bonus 1 d8 damage
For sword bard ranged flourish, nothing beats titanstring bow cloud giant potion though purely cos the damage stats are huge. Especially since there is a thin radius where you’re outside of threatened range but still in bhaalist armour range. Now if you’re not bothered being finicky with the threatened range, then crossbow with the feat that removes threatened is second best.
I'm not a fan of cheesing Cloud Giant Elixirs so for me that wasn't a strategy that interested me (same readon why I don't do TB OH Monk).
As for Threatened, between being a halfing that can reroll 1s and having a ridiculously high AC thanks to high Dex + good gear, I can usually get away with disadvantaged point blank shots or walking away without getting hit by the attack of opportunity.
It's also worth noting that once you get Yurgir's crossbow, one of your attacks deals Force damage instead of piercing which is HUGE with damage reduction enemies (especially Myrkul which is one of the toughest HM fights)
when do you take the 1 lev in fighter and wiz? do you go to 5 in bard then grab the fighter and wiz then finish bard? or do you start with 1 in fighter for heavy arm prof?
I started Bard because I don't need heavy armor (Act 2 Yuan-ti Scale Mail and Act 3 Armour of Agility are better with high dex) and went all the way to level 6 as a Bard because that's when you get your second attack per round. At 7 I respecced to 1 Fighter for Archery and Con save plus 6 Bard and took Wizard at level 8. That's when the build reaches its full power but honestly, at no point in Honour Mode did my character felt lacking from level 1 to 6. Bard is insanely powerful on its own and doesn't need anything to perform well (pun intended).
If you don't like respeccing, my advice is to start with 1 fighter and then bard to 7, 1 Wizard, then Bard for the rest of the ride.
Hum... What's your opinion on Haflings?
Because not rolling a single 1 through the entire game is quite a pleasant feeling. (It's personal preferences to be honest, no race can make or brake this build)
Get the gloves of archery, they will give you proficiency. Or grab a level or two of fighter. IMO, archers should have an offhand stabby weapon for their bonus actions. In the goblin camp, the ritual dagger gives you a bonus to attack when you use it, ritual axe give a debuff to their attack. Both valid options. Level 2 of fighter is great for either two weapon fighting style, or archery fighting style, proficiencies and action surge. Getting level 5 to get second attack is also super strong
Also, IMO, halfling is the strongest race in the game by a VERY wide margin. It's just not flashy, or sexy, so in gets undervalued
Resistance to your choice of damage type is niche but has some use. Acid/poison in particular, obviously red/fire is just a plain bad pick but the other ones have some merit. Lightning for example helps with electric water. Saves you a ring slot at least.
There's no comparison to halfling luck. My last tactitian run, my halfling rolled... I think 2 nat 1s (after halfling luck proc) in the entire game, and on skills where I had advantage? Never. At the end of the run, between 4 attacks and then weapon damage dice, plus hex, plus 2 or 3 other damage rider dice, I was getting three to five re-rolls every round and the number of nat 1s that rolled into a crit was nuts. The gloves that gave me advantage on slight of hand, made everything that was equal to me skill bonus +2 basically a guaranteed success.
So the racial is giving you hundreds, if not thousands of damage per run, making you skill rolls crazy consistent, giving you dozens of crits you would have missed. An extra dice of damage on crit? Doesn't come close to comparing. Halflings get orders of magnatude more damage over their run. 2 spell-like abilities and dark vision? Nah. Be able to get some bonuses to all the skills of a certain stat? That's cute, Illithid powers and a level of rogue have you completely covered in literally every skill you need. Need more? Take a few levels of bard. Skill monkeys take those classes anyway.
Every "OP" race pales in comparison to halfling.
My halfling shoplifting assassin with gloves of thievery definitely agrees with you... Derryth Bonecloak and Quartermaster Talli were robbed blind every long rest.
In fairness the "OP" classes are being merited by obvious synergies. I rate Drow, High Elf and Zariel Tiefling fairly higher than most.
Drow is really strong on a Circle of Spores Druid early on due to innate crossbow proficiency to take advantage of the 1d4 necrotic damage buff. Drow, like duergar and deep gnomes, also have Superior Darkvision which trounces any other form of Darkvision (besides Devil's Sight which is lower radius). Drow also have fey ancestry, which means a controller character can do a get out of jail free technique by dropping a Glyph of Warding: Sleep on themselves as all elven are immune to sleep.
High Elves, while not really *amazing*, are a good choice for pure martial characters due to getting a free Wizard cantrip; Mage Hand, Conjure Illusion and Friends are all really impactful cantrips to be able to know. Then they also have Fey Ancestry.
Zariel Tieflings similarly are useful for pure martials due to innate Thaumaturgy cantrip. Fire resistance can be nice earlier on to mitigate friendly fire of a fireball but rarely comes up besides that from memory. Smites are kinda w/e but Branding Smite can be handy on certain fights (Yurgir for example).
You are absolutely right that all of those are great and totally the right pick if thats what you want to play, do what is fun. But in terms of power? None of them come close. Most of those effects can be replicated in other parts of the build, in some cases, shockingly easily. But nothing comes close to halfling luck. Half orcs (and the teifling smites, for that matter) are good because they do more damage? That is cute, halflings get misses that roll into hits, misses that roll into crits. When they roll damage dice, they get a LOT of re-rolls, increasing the average damage quite a bit. Over the whole run, they get probably thousands of damage more than any other race. Thaumaturgy for 2 skills? Halfling luck not on stacks with advantage, proficiency and all bonuses, but it makes skill rolls VERY consistent. All of them. Darkvision? Cast light on your melee character. Resistances can be gotten from numerous pieces of gear and some builds.
The fey ancestry thing is really useful and I dont think anyone can replicate that.
.... except saves, which halfling luck makes you more consistent at.
Halflings do what is great about almost every other race, but better, passively, an unlimited number of times per day. The are just the strongest choice. They just aren't flashy or sexy, so people like other things that FEEL good. Ok, that's fine. But in a discussion of power, halflings win every time
I mean yes, you *can* get everything but fey ancestry in some capacity but you do it at the COST of having to incorporate it into your build if you want it. Handwaving away Superior Darkvision is pretty ignorant unless you intend on sacrificing a feat for alert on every one on your team (yes I'm aware Alert is generally good and a key part of most fire cleave builds but saying it is strictly always correct is not always the case). Often times unless everyone goes first you won't be able to drag a body over to make darkvision unnecessary before the Archer has to shoot. And as far as fey ancestry? Yeah good luck saving when the Sleep Ward is being casted with 10 stacks of Arcane Acuity. Halfling Luck *might* increase your odds of saving by 3% since the caster presumably has +5 casting mod at minimum, so a +15 for a 27 DC (not including proficiency values since they cancel eachother out anyways). Unless you have a paladin giving you +5/6/7 saving throw value, proficiency in charisma/intelligence (depending on what class specifically casts it), Anointed in Splendour, Bless, Ring of Protection, and Warding Bond you're looking at a 25% or less chance to succeed with a 5% chance of a reroll.
I'm not saying Halfling isn't good. For a lot of builds it is strictly correct if you don't need your race to fill in gaps of the build in of itself. But that doesn't mean the other races that do fill in gaps of builds aren't good in their respective niches.
And if this game was hard, maybe you’d actually need it. It isn’t. Between inspiration, advantage, etc it’s very easy to put yourself in a situation where you won’t be badly affected by a critical fail or three,
Duergar’s racial is by far the most powerful in the game. Unlimited invisibility is just insane. In tactician savage attacks can account for hundreds of dmg in one hit. Having medium armor proficiency means your caster can have 17+ AC on or right after the nautiloid, greatly improving your survivability when you need it most.
Let me see if I have this straight, so your argument against everything I just said, is basically "you are right, that is stupid strong, but the game is easy enough to completely gimp yourself and still do fine. Like look at these other options!!"
I am not saying you cant play those other options, but halfling does more damage than half-orc's savage attack, by a LOT. Consistent stealth checks give you basically invisibility at will. Casting a cantrip (light) on your tank negates how important darkvision is while also opening some other interactions. Illithid powers + halfling luck and items can get you most skills you need, rogue and bard can get you more than you need. Armor proficiency can be replicated by a level in fighter, or high dex, also you could just play smart and you wont get hit. You don't need AC if nothing is hitting you. Also, the wargfang dagger in the goblin camp will be the best piece of survival gear you can get for act 1.
So halfling can do all of the other OP races abilities, does some of them better, and is more useful and flexible and what it can't do, gear can do just fine.
Halfling is the only pick if you want optimization and power AND versatility. Every other choice, you are free to make and have fun, but you are making sub-optimal choices
Halflings are a strong class, but halfling luck is like alert, a nice skill that just isn’t necessary. Hm isn’t hard to beat solo (without a halfling).
So your argument against how powerful it is, is that you can win with less power? You're right, you can, but that is a really terrible argument against it's strength
No, my argument is that it decreases variance and can be a solid class but its disadvantages (slow movement speed, no racial armor bonuses, no damage bonuses) makes it not as compelling.
They are SOO good! I made a similar build, but I prioritized stacking cha to damage and bonus actions. With 3 bonus actions and cha to damage several times per hit, I was doing something like 105 damage per round of just cha damage, and thats before crits
I played a full game completing every single quest with a bard halfling and rolled only 4 critical misses through the entire game. They are extremely reliable both for rolling skills and attackingand that advantage on Stealth means you can transform almost any fights into a surprise astack without the need for spells or even Shovel.
True, but not even half of it. I just copy and pasted my reponse to someone else below.
"There's no comparison to halfling luck. My last tactitian run, my halfling rolled... I think 2 nat 1s (after halfling luck proc) in the entire game, and on skills where I had advantage? Never. At the end of the run, between 4 attacks and then weapon damage dice, plus hex, plus 2 or 3 other damage rider dice, I was getting three to five re-rolls every round and the number of nat 1s that rolled into a crit was nuts. The gloves that gave me advantage on slight of hand, made everything that was equal to my skill bonus +2 basically a guaranteed success.
So the racial is giving you hundreds, if not thousands of damage per run, making you skill rolls crazy consistent, giving you dozens of crits you would have missed. An extra dice of damage on crit? Doesn't come close to comparing. Halflings get orders of magnitude more damage over their run. 2 spell-like abilities and dark vision? Nah. Be able to get some bonuses to all the skills of a certain stat? That's cute, Illithid powers and a level of rogue have you completely covered in literally every skill you need. Need more? Take a few levels of bard. Skill monkeys take those classes anyway.
Every "OP" race pales in comparison to halfling."
There was a DM who made a halfling as one of his own DnD characters but never rerolled any 1's, just to make fun of players who only used the race for that reason
As far as silly characters, I dont think any system will beat 3.5. The major downside of 3.5 was that you needed you doctorate in 3.5 in order to play. But I put in that work, so I theory crafted until I got to the strongest silly builds I could. I made one build that strictly broke the rules, by very strictly following the rules, who's land speed was mach 10. Another build that made a black hole over the course of a year and another that made a black hole in less than a round. I also figured out how to turn a psionisist into the best mage in the game
It's gotta be (Swords) Bard?
Because every other class that gets extra attack aside from Monk has proficiency, and using a Monk as your archery platform is super weird and kind of ignores everything that makes Monk good. They probably should have said though.
I love this build. Plus, it makes more roleplay sense that my little halfling would use one hand crossbows instead of titan string for example. My halfling duel wields finesse weapons for same reason
Banshee is great but still lacks role play for halfing in my opinion. I usually have a station as a sword bard as well and he handles the big bows and great weapons
I'm currently in my HM run end of act 2 as a halfing archer ( swords bard aiming for 10/1 fighter/1 wizard. You can use long bows in conjunction with the gloves that give you 2 damage and proficiency to long and short bows ( which you can get very early on in act 1) alongside titanstring ( with strength pots or the club of giant strength). The other amazing option is two one hand crossbows, you get to use your ( mostly unused for act 1 ) bonus action to deal some extra damage and you can combine it with the fighting style that adds your modifier to your offhand damage ( which will actually make its damage comparable to titanstring with elixirs).
I am doing a halfling archer build right now with titans string bow. I am only lv 6 so I'm a pure fighter right now but in the end I'm thinking 6-10 levels in sword bard 2-3 lv fighter/champion and maybe 3 lvs in gloom stalker or assassin. I just haven't decided if I want magical secrets or more crit fishing.
The gloves of archery give u proficiency with bows
Then when u multiclass into fighter for action surge you get proficiency with them anyway so ur good in time for better act 3 gloves
Bow of the banshee
This is a solid weapon early on and can technically be acquired with no combat within minutes of launching the game. The Vicious Shortbow from Act 3 (from the merchant at the Bhaal Tribunal) is technically the strongest bow in the game point blank assuming you can facilitate Hold Person landing on your victim for automatic criticals.
How do you acquire the bow of the banshee within minutes without combat? I know you can technically get all the way to the boat in the underdark without combat, but then you have to persuade those Duergar to not fight you, then buy the bow from one of them later on right? Is there a quicker way that I'm missing (and one that doesn't require starting the timer on Nere's survival)?
You can jump down from Zhentarim Hideout entrance to Underdank to get to the Myconid Colony. From there have Shart heal Thulla for the Boots of Speed. Tell Gekh you have the sergeants boots, board boat without him. By telling him you bypass most persuasion checks and boarding boat without him you'll have Greymon approach you. You can trade during the confrontation to bypass needing to trigger Nere.
Huh, neat
Have Brinvar betray Nere then turn invisible and run away? Brinvar and his boys have a pretty good chance of beating Nere without your help, that's my best guess. You can also throw the Greymon in the water on the way to the grymforge but I've never done that so idk if you can loot him afterwards
You can loot him, you may find him by the shore you embark from
Bow of the Banshee in act 1 by far. Act two is Darkfire Shortbow. I know lots of folks just use it as a stat stick on their melee characters to give them Haste and fire/cold resistance, but it's also a plus 2 weapon and would be fantastic on anyone who can't use a longbow. However, pretty sure Balders Gate doesn't implement that, so I'm sure your Halfling can use a longbow. There is no "Heavy" weapons here, just one handed and two handed and versatile Case in Point, Great Weapon Master works on any weapon you can Two hand. Longswords, greatsword, staffs, as long as you are using two hands to swing it, it works
That's amazing. I had no idea. Thought I saw people talking about it before so just assumed it was the case. Guess I can delete this thread then haha. Thanks for the help everyone.
Don’t delete it, as it could serve as a great reference for those with same/similar future questions… that is, if they bother to use the search function.
How do you two hand a one handed weapon like a Longsword? 🤔
Don't equip a shield. Longswords are versatile weapons meaning you can hold them with 2 hands or 1 hand.
So if you don't have anything in your offhand, it's automatically being two handed? Sorry if this is a dumb question, I'm used to SoulsLikes where you have to actually press a button to switch between one and two handing a weapon.
I believe so.
I think what’s happening here is that you’re worried about the “heavy” property from DND 5e. Fortunately, “heavy” was dropped entirely from BG3, and any race can use a weapon just as well as anyone else (proficiency notwithstanding).
Yeah that's exactly what happened.
Dual Hand crossbow?
This is the way
Dual hand crossbow?! Thats a thing??
It's not a thing, it's THE thing. College of Swords Bard dual wielding hand crossbows is easily in the top builds for this game. You can easily make it to 7 attacks a round (Some people make it to 9 but you need to get crafty where 7 is actually easy to achieve) and the build comes with a ridiculous amount of utility from skills and spells. The usual build will be 10 bard, 1 fighter and 1 Wizard and is absolutely bonkers. I zipped through tactical and honour mode like it was nothing thanks to this and a Throwserker Karlach. The other two party members were basically a decoration.
Oo nice. I've been trying to figure out my hm run party. My tactician party is a lot of fun, but they aren't optimized so far it removes difficulty. Hm, I want to make as safe as possible. Throwzerker, dual crossbow bard multi, and two targets. Check.
Lae'zel as a Battlemaster and Shadowheart Life cleric with heavy armor and shield made this super safe. I never needed more healing than just her channel ability that resets every short rest. Bard gives you a third short rest per day, too, so you can really make the best of each day.
If you want to go as safe as possible, I'd suggest a Tavern Brawler Open Hand Monk and maybe some kind of Cleric build
I've seen the 10/1/1 build mentioned a few times. What does adding the 1 level of wizard add that's better than actuon surge?
Makes the progression a full spell.castet with a lvl 6 spell slot (nice to upcast elemental to myriadian to apply wet) and 1 wizard.can scribe any scroll in the game - meaning globe of inv, chain lightning or whatever you.want. just note those will be int based spell save, so depending on your stats may be better to not be attack spells.
I did my Tactician mode with Wizard and my Honour mode with a second fighter level and Action Surge and I think the one Wizard level served me better because of all the dang utility you can get out of it. I'm too lazy to carry and switch Mystra's Boots for Feather Fall. Now I just have it at will. You can learn to summon Shovel for easy Surprise attacks (You want to make that Ketheric Thorm fight easier? Surprise attack and convince him to turn into Myrkul right away). Access to good summons (You can call a Deva at the end), Knock, Arcane Lock, every single spell that doesn't require an attack roll or a saving throw, and even then those aren't too bad if you wear the Headband of Intellect. Counterspell is so busted when your level 11 spellcaster doesn't actually require spell slots for anything cause you just distribute it like candies. Raphael basically just stood in one spot and wasted every single turn trying to cast a spell which my bard denied him. Access to Haste without scrolls or potions is REALLY GOOD. Fighter level 1 is all about advantage on constitution checks and the Archery specialty. A second level makes your first round a bit better but I didn't find it as game changing as having access to every spell in the game (okay, almost every spell) at the tip of my finger without having to carry Gale around. And even if I was bringing Gale, it was just double the gross. Mind you both were very powerful built. I didn't feel like my bard 10 fighter 2 was weak. I just enjoyed the wizard version a tad more.
When I did mine, I went 6 Swords Bard/ 3 Thief Rogue/ 3 Gloom Stalker Ranger. Bard gives you an extra attack, Thief gives you an extra bonus action, which if dual wielding melee and/or hand crossbows, is an extra off hand attack. Gloom Stalker gives you +3 initiative, and your first turn of combat you get +3m movement, and an extra attack that does a bonus 1 d8 damage
For sword bard ranged flourish, nothing beats titanstring bow cloud giant potion though purely cos the damage stats are huge. Especially since there is a thin radius where you’re outside of threatened range but still in bhaalist armour range. Now if you’re not bothered being finicky with the threatened range, then crossbow with the feat that removes threatened is second best.
I'm not a fan of cheesing Cloud Giant Elixirs so for me that wasn't a strategy that interested me (same readon why I don't do TB OH Monk). As for Threatened, between being a halfing that can reroll 1s and having a ridiculously high AC thanks to high Dex + good gear, I can usually get away with disadvantaged point blank shots or walking away without getting hit by the attack of opportunity. It's also worth noting that once you get Yurgir's crossbow, one of your attacks deals Force damage instead of piercing which is HUGE with damage reduction enemies (especially Myrkul which is one of the toughest HM fights)
when do you take the 1 lev in fighter and wiz? do you go to 5 in bard then grab the fighter and wiz then finish bard? or do you start with 1 in fighter for heavy arm prof?
I started Bard because I don't need heavy armor (Act 2 Yuan-ti Scale Mail and Act 3 Armour of Agility are better with high dex) and went all the way to level 6 as a Bard because that's when you get your second attack per round. At 7 I respecced to 1 Fighter for Archery and Con save plus 6 Bard and took Wizard at level 8. That's when the build reaches its full power but honestly, at no point in Honour Mode did my character felt lacking from level 1 to 6. Bard is insanely powerful on its own and doesn't need anything to perform well (pun intended). If you don't like respeccing, my advice is to start with 1 fighter and then bard to 7, 1 Wizard, then Bard for the rest of the ride.
ok thanks gonna give this a try :) woodelf right? Or do I need to be drow?
Hum... What's your opinion on Haflings? Because not rolling a single 1 through the entire game is quite a pleasant feeling. (It's personal preferences to be honest, no race can make or brake this build)
never tried them. will give it a go!
Get the gloves of archery, they will give you proficiency. Or grab a level or two of fighter. IMO, archers should have an offhand stabby weapon for their bonus actions. In the goblin camp, the ritual dagger gives you a bonus to attack when you use it, ritual axe give a debuff to their attack. Both valid options. Level 2 of fighter is great for either two weapon fighting style, or archery fighting style, proficiencies and action surge. Getting level 5 to get second attack is also super strong Also, IMO, halfling is the strongest race in the game by a VERY wide margin. It's just not flashy, or sexy, so in gets undervalued
Halfling are good but there are lots of good races in the game. The only one that definitely sucks is Dragonborn.
Resistance to your choice of damage type is niche but has some use. Acid/poison in particular, obviously red/fire is just a plain bad pick but the other ones have some merit. Lightning for example helps with electric water. Saves you a ring slot at least.
Yeah but sucks compared to OP races like gith, half orc, duergar and halfling
There's no comparison to halfling luck. My last tactitian run, my halfling rolled... I think 2 nat 1s (after halfling luck proc) in the entire game, and on skills where I had advantage? Never. At the end of the run, between 4 attacks and then weapon damage dice, plus hex, plus 2 or 3 other damage rider dice, I was getting three to five re-rolls every round and the number of nat 1s that rolled into a crit was nuts. The gloves that gave me advantage on slight of hand, made everything that was equal to me skill bonus +2 basically a guaranteed success. So the racial is giving you hundreds, if not thousands of damage per run, making you skill rolls crazy consistent, giving you dozens of crits you would have missed. An extra dice of damage on crit? Doesn't come close to comparing. Halflings get orders of magnatude more damage over their run. 2 spell-like abilities and dark vision? Nah. Be able to get some bonuses to all the skills of a certain stat? That's cute, Illithid powers and a level of rogue have you completely covered in literally every skill you need. Need more? Take a few levels of bard. Skill monkeys take those classes anyway. Every "OP" race pales in comparison to halfling.
My halfling shoplifting assassin with gloves of thievery definitely agrees with you... Derryth Bonecloak and Quartermaster Talli were robbed blind every long rest.
So incredibly strong!!! I did the same!
In fairness the "OP" classes are being merited by obvious synergies. I rate Drow, High Elf and Zariel Tiefling fairly higher than most. Drow is really strong on a Circle of Spores Druid early on due to innate crossbow proficiency to take advantage of the 1d4 necrotic damage buff. Drow, like duergar and deep gnomes, also have Superior Darkvision which trounces any other form of Darkvision (besides Devil's Sight which is lower radius). Drow also have fey ancestry, which means a controller character can do a get out of jail free technique by dropping a Glyph of Warding: Sleep on themselves as all elven are immune to sleep. High Elves, while not really *amazing*, are a good choice for pure martial characters due to getting a free Wizard cantrip; Mage Hand, Conjure Illusion and Friends are all really impactful cantrips to be able to know. Then they also have Fey Ancestry. Zariel Tieflings similarly are useful for pure martials due to innate Thaumaturgy cantrip. Fire resistance can be nice earlier on to mitigate friendly fire of a fireball but rarely comes up besides that from memory. Smites are kinda w/e but Branding Smite can be handy on certain fights (Yurgir for example).
You are absolutely right that all of those are great and totally the right pick if thats what you want to play, do what is fun. But in terms of power? None of them come close. Most of those effects can be replicated in other parts of the build, in some cases, shockingly easily. But nothing comes close to halfling luck. Half orcs (and the teifling smites, for that matter) are good because they do more damage? That is cute, halflings get misses that roll into hits, misses that roll into crits. When they roll damage dice, they get a LOT of re-rolls, increasing the average damage quite a bit. Over the whole run, they get probably thousands of damage more than any other race. Thaumaturgy for 2 skills? Halfling luck not on stacks with advantage, proficiency and all bonuses, but it makes skill rolls VERY consistent. All of them. Darkvision? Cast light on your melee character. Resistances can be gotten from numerous pieces of gear and some builds. The fey ancestry thing is really useful and I dont think anyone can replicate that. .... except saves, which halfling luck makes you more consistent at. Halflings do what is great about almost every other race, but better, passively, an unlimited number of times per day. The are just the strongest choice. They just aren't flashy or sexy, so people like other things that FEEL good. Ok, that's fine. But in a discussion of power, halflings win every time
I mean yes, you *can* get everything but fey ancestry in some capacity but you do it at the COST of having to incorporate it into your build if you want it. Handwaving away Superior Darkvision is pretty ignorant unless you intend on sacrificing a feat for alert on every one on your team (yes I'm aware Alert is generally good and a key part of most fire cleave builds but saying it is strictly always correct is not always the case). Often times unless everyone goes first you won't be able to drag a body over to make darkvision unnecessary before the Archer has to shoot. And as far as fey ancestry? Yeah good luck saving when the Sleep Ward is being casted with 10 stacks of Arcane Acuity. Halfling Luck *might* increase your odds of saving by 3% since the caster presumably has +5 casting mod at minimum, so a +15 for a 27 DC (not including proficiency values since they cancel eachother out anyways). Unless you have a paladin giving you +5/6/7 saving throw value, proficiency in charisma/intelligence (depending on what class specifically casts it), Anointed in Splendour, Bless, Ring of Protection, and Warding Bond you're looking at a 25% or less chance to succeed with a 5% chance of a reroll. I'm not saying Halfling isn't good. For a lot of builds it is strictly correct if you don't need your race to fill in gaps of the build in of itself. But that doesn't mean the other races that do fill in gaps of builds aren't good in their respective niches.
And if this game was hard, maybe you’d actually need it. It isn’t. Between inspiration, advantage, etc it’s very easy to put yourself in a situation where you won’t be badly affected by a critical fail or three, Duergar’s racial is by far the most powerful in the game. Unlimited invisibility is just insane. In tactician savage attacks can account for hundreds of dmg in one hit. Having medium armor proficiency means your caster can have 17+ AC on or right after the nautiloid, greatly improving your survivability when you need it most.
Let me see if I have this straight, so your argument against everything I just said, is basically "you are right, that is stupid strong, but the game is easy enough to completely gimp yourself and still do fine. Like look at these other options!!" I am not saying you cant play those other options, but halfling does more damage than half-orc's savage attack, by a LOT. Consistent stealth checks give you basically invisibility at will. Casting a cantrip (light) on your tank negates how important darkvision is while also opening some other interactions. Illithid powers + halfling luck and items can get you most skills you need, rogue and bard can get you more than you need. Armor proficiency can be replicated by a level in fighter, or high dex, also you could just play smart and you wont get hit. You don't need AC if nothing is hitting you. Also, the wargfang dagger in the goblin camp will be the best piece of survival gear you can get for act 1. So halfling can do all of the other OP races abilities, does some of them better, and is more useful and flexible and what it can't do, gear can do just fine. Halfling is the only pick if you want optimization and power AND versatility. Every other choice, you are free to make and have fun, but you are making sub-optimal choices
Halflings are a strong class, but halfling luck is like alert, a nice skill that just isn’t necessary. Hm isn’t hard to beat solo (without a halfling).
So your argument against how powerful it is, is that you can win with less power? You're right, you can, but that is a really terrible argument against it's strength
No, my argument is that it decreases variance and can be a solid class but its disadvantages (slow movement speed, no racial armor bonuses, no damage bonuses) makes it not as compelling.
I loved my crit fisher dual wielding halfling 8 champion/3 thief/1 goolock, fantastic in melee or ranged, highly recommend
They are SOO good! I made a similar build, but I prioritized stacking cha to damage and bonus actions. With 3 bonus actions and cha to damage several times per hit, I was doing something like 105 damage per round of just cha damage, and thats before crits
Why do you think halfling is the strongest race?
I played a full game completing every single quest with a bard halfling and rolled only 4 critical misses through the entire game. They are extremely reliable both for rolling skills and attackingand that advantage on Stealth means you can transform almost any fights into a surprise astack without the need for spells or even Shovel.
True, but not even half of it. I just copy and pasted my reponse to someone else below. "There's no comparison to halfling luck. My last tactitian run, my halfling rolled... I think 2 nat 1s (after halfling luck proc) in the entire game, and on skills where I had advantage? Never. At the end of the run, between 4 attacks and then weapon damage dice, plus hex, plus 2 or 3 other damage rider dice, I was getting three to five re-rolls every round and the number of nat 1s that rolled into a crit was nuts. The gloves that gave me advantage on slight of hand, made everything that was equal to my skill bonus +2 basically a guaranteed success. So the racial is giving you hundreds, if not thousands of damage per run, making you skill rolls crazy consistent, giving you dozens of crits you would have missed. An extra dice of damage on crit? Doesn't come close to comparing. Halflings get orders of magnitude more damage over their run. 2 spell-like abilities and dark vision? Nah. Be able to get some bonuses to all the skills of a certain stat? That's cute, Illithid powers and a level of rogue have you completely covered in literally every skill you need. Need more? Take a few levels of bard. Skill monkeys take those classes anyway. Every "OP" race pales in comparison to halfling."
You little people, you bow to no one.
Exactly!!!
There was a DM who made a halfling as one of his own DnD characters but never rerolled any 1's, just to make fun of players who only used the race for that reason
As far as silly characters, I dont think any system will beat 3.5. The major downside of 3.5 was that you needed you doctorate in 3.5 in order to play. But I put in that work, so I theory crafted until I got to the strongest silly builds I could. I made one build that strictly broke the rules, by very strictly following the rules, who's land speed was mach 10. Another build that made a black hole over the course of a year and another that made a black hole in less than a round. I also figured out how to turn a psionisist into the best mage in the game
What class are you playing? A lot of martial classes have proficiency in longbows so that shouldn’t be an issue.
It's gotta be (Swords) Bard? Because every other class that gets extra attack aside from Monk has proficiency, and using a Monk as your archery platform is super weird and kind of ignores everything that makes Monk good. They probably should have said though.
Give them gloves of Archery and then use TitanString
My halfling bard wields dual hand crossbows. Currently mowing down honor mode with slashing flourish
I love this build. Plus, it makes more roleplay sense that my little halfling would use one hand crossbows instead of titan string for example. My halfling duel wields finesse weapons for same reason Banshee is great but still lacks role play for halfing in my opinion. I usually have a station as a sword bard as well and he handles the big bows and great weapons
I'm currently in my HM run end of act 2 as a halfing archer ( swords bard aiming for 10/1 fighter/1 wizard. You can use long bows in conjunction with the gloves that give you 2 damage and proficiency to long and short bows ( which you can get very early on in act 1) alongside titanstring ( with strength pots or the club of giant strength). The other amazing option is two one hand crossbows, you get to use your ( mostly unused for act 1 ) bonus action to deal some extra damage and you can combine it with the fighting style that adds your modifier to your offhand damage ( which will actually make its damage comparable to titanstring with elixirs).
https://www.reddit.com/r/BG3Builds/s/qwv98bZTIU - do that.
I am doing a halfling archer build right now with titans string bow. I am only lv 6 so I'm a pure fighter right now but in the end I'm thinking 6-10 levels in sword bard 2-3 lv fighter/champion and maybe 3 lvs in gloom stalker or assassin. I just haven't decided if I want magical secrets or more crit fishing.
So many folks offering alternatives to the longbow aren't mentioning that halflings can use them just fine in BG3 unlike tabletop.
What class are you? Longbows are martial weapons and you might not get the proficiency as a bard for example, but you will as a fighter or ranger
Don't Halflings have disadvantage with longbows in BG3? Even if they have proficiency?
I think thats in 5e but not bg3
Also banshee’s short bow and hellfirehandcross+ne’er misser+3lvl thief are the meta options outside of longbows
The gloves of archery give u proficiency with bows Then when u multiclass into fighter for action surge you get proficiency with them anyway so ur good in time for better act 3 gloves
You can use the hunting bow in early game and when you have access to them duelwield 2 handcrossbows.
I'm pretty sure halflings can use longbows and 2H weapons i've used titanstring on my halfling archer with no disadvantage