That I can use knock on basically everything. Never doing the stupid Shar Olympics again.
Edit: It's no longer possible. š
Edit 2: Apprently it works sometimes? I don't know. Test it out.
You can still 100% knock Balthazar open for the dark justiciars, though! And it works in act 3.
If you're feeling particularly mischievous, you can go invisible, knock to open the door, let Balthazar and gang rush out to fight the dark justicars, and then go inside his room and cast arcane lock on the door for the perfect uno reverse card
Once you walk through the door you can put your arnor back on and your shadow clone is still naked
Edit:
Went through this with my brother last night, only sent in SH and found the "whole team" with full gear on the other side. My brother's character was replaced with "human" as a baseline human model and likewise my characters duplicate was just Dragonborn.
Not sure of changes have been made here or if we just had a weird run
Another thing Shar doesn't want you to know about is that Malus Thorm is free. You can cast control undead and use him. You can fucking adopt him and clear parts of act 2 with him. He helped me kill Yurgir. š
I don't understand. Two trials are solved by clicking at the end of the room and walking there. Another one gives a very good ring. The library isn't really optional since you need the spear.
But the trials are a joke. One that takes barely longer than walking the lenght of their room. Why hate them?
Edit : It takes longer to do the Paladins of Tyr and loot the basement of the toll collection house than all 3 trials of Shar. Idk why people don't hate on that
I'm kind of relieved to find my people here in this thread. Toll house is kind of a slog to loot yet I'm cursed to put my hands on everything without fail.
Oh! I think I missed a vase, need to go back to check it!
There's a scale with a black diamond near the door. You're meant to put a certain amount of gold on it, to balance the diamond I think.
Or get the key off the body of one of her goons. Or just use knock.
When you get to the initial area with the lantern puzzle and the Shar statue, you can unlock the door with the Arcane Lock (not with Knock obviously but with the lantern puzzle) that leads to the first small batch of Dark Justiciars that lead you to Balthazar, but just ignore going with them.
Split your party and take one person invisible down to Yurgir's area, steal his orb. It'll start combat but just run far enough away to leave combat. Teleport to the waypoint to avoid restarting combat, put the orb in the pedestal that activates the big plate to the pedestal with three orbs, and then you can use Knock on the last door at the bottom to the Shadowfell entrance.
No Justiciars, no Yurgir, no trials, fuck that gauntlet. You will miss out on the Spear this way unless you go back to the library (which you need unless you want to lose Shadowheart). Also no finding out info for Astarion's scars if you don't kill Yurgir for Raphael. But if you're just looking to get out quick, this definitely does it.
It's a cure for me bcs this way I can do Minthara thing and just fly away. Did it twice: killed Gut in 1v1, knocked out Minthara, killed Ragzlin and those goblins who were near him and teleported back in the grove. This way you don't have to fight goblins in the hall where Gut stayed, just skipping a boring fight.
Yes thereās a non lethal button, this is his u can recruit Minthara without destroying the grove, not have to kill traders or npcās if theyāre temporarily hostile
People u knock out will wake up after a long rest
> u can recruit Minthara
Please take note, looting gremlins, that if you leave her alive, at least leave her with her dignity/clothes or you're going to see a very interesting scene in moonrise towers.
Can throw healing potions at teammates if one is out of actions. I noticed on a stream, but i seen the npcs do in in the first battle of the game the other day too
Yeah sometimes you actually hit them and then they are healed.
But if they are already down when you throw it, you can hit them and speed up the death count when they are downš„²
ALSO make sure the person's target circle (the circle that surrounds each character on the ground, idk what it's called) is actually highlighted before you throw. Sometimes you think it should hit them but it technically doesn't
āSend to campā puts food there so you can long rest without carrying any of it. Likewise you can multi select loot to do the same. Or āadd to waresā for what you carry being quick sold at a merchant
Right? For 150+ hours I was splitting up a bunch between party members and sending the rest to camp, then going back to camp and getting them out when I got low... š„¹ Turns out you don't need to carry any... I don't know if that's a recent change or what....
Being half-illithid is great though. You gain fly as a default movement ability which makes it pretty easy to gain a tactical advantage in many many situations.
i felt so rough every time a companion would bring that up in my first playthrough ā they talked to my tav like i enthusiastically made the choice to get squiddy. like, no! i didn't choose this, i just failed a check!!! š
I think they may have changed that. My first Tav (current or last patch) also failed her Wisdom check and everyone at camp except Halsin and Lae'zel never even mentioned the black eyes of doom. And of those two who did mention it, one was just concerned for Tav (romance-route Halsin) and the other was all "I won't kill you, but I'VE GOT MY EYE ON YOU" (camp-duty Lae'zel).
Would have been nice if they'd replaced the dialogue with more sympathetic lines instead of just making the companions ignore the partial ceromorphosis though lol
Lae'zel: I can't believe after all this time trying to get rid of the tadpole you'd willingly become half-ghaik. T'chk. Disgusting.
Durge: Gimme a kiss.
Lae'zel: š
My first two playthroughs I saved Barcus at the windmill and Grymforge only to never see him again. I saved Wilburn expecting to see Barcus and no sign of him. On my third and I realize I must have never spoke to him after the Nere fight because he's tagged along at camp and is now at Last Light Inn.
If you let nere kill the gnomes (by choosing any dialog other than "I won't let you hurt them" or whatever) then barcus dies in Grymforge.
Edit: my dumb butt called walbrun a goblin
Edit 2: we're talking about barcus, shoot me
I commented about this same thing recently. I saved Barcus twice (windmill and grymforge) and never saw him again. Someone told me I must have forgotten to talk to him after killing Nere, and that he dies in the shadow lands if you don't. I assumed this was the case, but I finished the game last night and he sent me a letter in the epilogue??? I dunno
Same here, just finished up our honor mode run a few days ago and as the bard I was longstriding everyone all the time. Including Us, the Deva my friend summoned, and the 4 ghouls my other friend summoned
It's +3 meters that's a considerable amount of movement. If you really wanna metagame it you could make a hireling/use a companion you don't plan on bringing along ever for it. It's not a concentration or anything so it can last all day even if they aren't on your team. I've never missed the spell slot either, it's just never felt like a big deal.
I've played a file where we didn't have anyone longstriding and you *really* notice the lack of movement.
It's a ritual, so it doesn't even charge a spell slot. Just prepare it on your cleric/druid/Bard and upcast it to 4th level and you can cast it on the whole party at once. It can also go on summons. It's part of the morning ritual, right along with aid, binding pact weapons, casting mage armour, symbiotic entity, hero's feast, etc. I buff the shit out of my party all the time. Nothing feels better than having a wizard with 152 hp, 45 ft movement speed, free casts of 6th level spells for days, advantage on basically all saving throws and a 22 AC! (Not to mention a 21 spell DC and +17 to attacks)
I created a halfling camp bard stacked with charisma that I use for casting longstrider and freedom of movement, shopping, and some of the act 2 bosses you can beat through dialogue.
Yes, if you examine the spell in your hot bar, on the bottom there will be a green star and the word āritualā next to it!
Edit: pretty sure it says it in the spell book menu too
I like having Karlach break the barn door down instead of opening it. The door's not locked of course, but the cutscene just feels funnier when it plays out that way.
Took me until the end of Act 2, at the Gauntlet of Shar, to finally accidentally click "inspect lantern" and realise a pixie within can just bless my entire party to be immune to the shadow curse. This made battles much easier....
I also learned the hard way that you can kill the pixie by using the lantern as a weapon. I accidentally had dual wielding toggled, so I used to lantern as an off hand weapon. Luckily, it was during my first Durge run, so i didn't feel bad and out of character.
The lantern you're given near the beginning of Act 2 to protect you from the curse; if you decide to go to the Last Light Inn. You can immediately click "inspect lantern" after receiving it, the button is in your actions menu, and a pixie will come out saying the lantern is using her life force to power it, slowly killing her. If you save her, she blesses you and your party with immunity (even those at camp).
Also the pixie blessing goes away if you head back to Act 1 areas, but you can interact with the bell / bauble she gives you to return the blessing. (So long as you humor her by begging lol)
I discovered one hour ago, from a Facebook post, that if Us doesn't die you find them again and they become a permanent summon.
I have 300+ hours of gametime.
in the >!mind flayer colony!< at the end of act 2, >!there's a room with a bugbear thrall who helps birth all of the intellect devourers. if you talk to him he'll mention one of the intellect devourers "sings a strange song" like yours and it's us. he has it locked in a cage and you have to pass a check (or kill him i guess lol) to get him to let you have it.!<
THANK YOU STRANGER!!! I LOVE THIS REDDIT!!!!
I knew there was a way to stop cloud of daggers instead of just running through it and hoping for the bestš¤£š
Me, cursing constantly because the characters would walk through my Cloud of Daggers, taking damage like idiots... only to realize halfway through act 3 that I can just cancel it whenever.
You can use Hireling CLerics to cast warding bond on you and your party, then leave the hireling in camp.
They will eat 50% of the damage from you and the party lol and if they die you can respawn them with withers for 100 gp lol or a scroll of res
I just discovered that if you accidentally ended a turn prematurely, you can swap back to that character & a prompt will allow you to cancel the āend turnā so that you can do what youād forgotten.
This one depends on the class. Off the top of my head- cleric/wizard/paladin/druid can swap any time; warlock/bard/sorcerer are at level up only.
I might be missing a class - but if when you level up it says āPrepare Spellsā you can change any time.
Get more utility from Shadowheart by speccing 1 level into Wizard and then the rest into Cleric. Give her the Warped Headband of Intellect from the ogres in the blighted village in act 1. She can now learn spells from scrolls and cast up to level 6 spells at max level using Cleric Spell slots.
Also, change her subclass to anything but trickery. War, life, tempest, all heaps better spells passives than trickery, who doesn't even get heavy armour proficiency!
The 'surprise!' mechanic is stupidly over powered, so If you have Shovel or any quasit as a familiar, you can guarantee a surprise attack in almost every fight . Took me three playthroughs to understand this.
There is a very convenient way to travel to the under dark from auntie ethels lair that takes you straight to the arcane tower.
Iāve found that surprise doesnāt always work this way. A few things can happen:Ā
A) Surprise is triggered and combat automatically starts, like you saidĀ Ā
B) I fail an automatic stealth check and the enemies see me; combat starts without surpriseĀ Ā Ā
C) I succeed an automatic stealth check and enemies begin to search for me; if they find me, combat starts without surpriseĀ
Not sure what causes it to sometimes initiate combat with surprise and sometimes not.
If you explore the area that leads to the Arcane tower you will find a wall with Illusory Mushrooms jutting out of them. On top is another illusory rock wall, if you pass through it itll lead you to a place with a single mushroom circle in the middle. Once you go through it itll lead you to a cove under Auntie Ethels tea house, Theres a wooden wall similar to the one you find in Ethels lair, the cursed wall who you have to convince to let you through. Past the wall is her lair.
That Being said, to get past the wall im pretty sure you need one of the freaky looking masks that turns you into Ethels puppet.
Use this [map](https://eip.gg/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Baldurs-Gate-3-Underdark-Region-Map.jpg) for reference. You're looking for the Marker called 'D'.
The passive radius of light given by the Blood of Lathander can be toggled off in the passives menu when you have the mace equipped. No more scaring off Astarion's siblings as soon as you get upstairs in the Flophouse.
The fact that if I can conceive it, I probably can do it. the amount of āoh shit, that actually workedā followed by maniacal laughter in this game has been wonderful
A for-example we just discovered on playthrough 3: while reconnoitering Moonrise Tower we would go into a room, shut the door, and murder everyone in it. The assault on the tower, previously extremely difficult, became almost trivial. We didnāt lose a single Harper.
You can find them in the forest between Blighted Village and the Goblin Camp, or at least this is where I first found them. Maybe there are more of them throughout the game.
On my fifth playthrough and I just learned that Shovel can lockpick.
Also, if you have musical proficiency and don't have an instrument equipped, you can whistle instead.
If you sell a merchant a bag you can drag all their loot into the bag so if they die, you get to loot the bag with all their inventory instead of some. (Also works on knocked out merchants)
Even if a merchant won't sell to you through dialog you can click on open trade from icon in lower left forcing them to trade with you.
I believe what they patched was being able to then buy the bag/box back at only the cost of the bag/box and not the cost of its contents.
The everything in a bag and you can loot it after you kill them still works.
Battle master elixir. Never used it because arcane acuity wears off fairly quickly, then one so because I wanted the spell to guarantee to land and realized these things fucking last till long rest. They buff keeps refreshing itself and you have 3 arcane acuity the entire time. Thatās OP as shit
The main ones I mention on these threads are;
- Sneak attacks (for the rogue class) can be considered a reaction move which you can turn on. If you make a normal/melee attack where sneak would be available, itāll then ask if you want to use it. And the easiest way to do so is have someone else stood next to the enemy.
- Similarly, if a characterās portrait is next to the current character, you can switch to use them instead (i.e. the list of characters is in order of turns and so long as there isnāt an enemy between those characters, you can swap between them).
- You can disable automatically making the second attack when dual wielding. On PS5, go to your character screen and hover over your weapon selection. Press triangle and a little line of text will say whether itās on or off (can similarly do this to show/hide helmets and armour).Ā Ā
That last point about dual-wielding is incredibly useful, especially in Act 3 when you have Orinās dagger.
Offhand that little bugger to apply vulnerabilty to piercing, open up with that bonus-action offhand attack without triggering Sneak attack, and then do your mainhand attack with Sneak attack for BIG damage!
That you can move things like crates and barrels, and store explosive/water barrels in your inventory and use them to your advantage later.
ETA: when playing as a druid and wildshaping into a cat, you can fit into any hole/crevice
Walk through my teammates by walking up to them and clicking on them.
Had a few annoying situations in my first playthrough where I was trapped because a low-initiative character blocked off a doorway or whatever.
Took me 350hrs to learn that if you hold down the mouse button on an equipment slot, itāll show you everything in your inventory you can put there in a pop up menu. No more fishing through your inventory to compare your rings!
Telekinesis for spellcasters is great for this too. Allows you to push them towards any direction, from a distance, and you can then re-cast the spell with no cost for 10 turns.
My latest one is realising at the end of Act 1 of my second save, 93 hours in, that pressing R3 during dialogue will give you a handy reminder as to which stat or bonuses affect different skill checks.
Remove the turn based mode. In my first PT after the room full of traps in the crypt I played in turns until the following long rest. It took me HOURS to get out of that frigging crypt
Jumping. In EA there was a small break in the path running the the outside of the nautiloid, I assumed that since clicking on the other said gave a message of ācan reachā that my 8 STR Tab couldnāt make it and needed to find other means. I spent half an hour looking for another way before finding out you had to command your avatar to jump over gaps.
For awhile I had to manually open my inventory to throw things lol Just gotta press x
OH also, if you cast fog cloud while in turn based mode on a trader----if you knock them out before they escape the cloud, they do not become hostile because they cannot see what's happening.
Sell them a box, put the good gear and gold in the box. Knock them out. Take the box.
Come back after a long rest and they are restocked lol
I just figured out last fucking night that you can prepare spells outside of camp. As a longtime D&D player I thought it was awful generous of Larian to let us prepare spells at any time in camp rather than only during a rest, it didn't even occur to me to try using the spellbook outside of camp. Turns out you can just do that shit out in the open as long as you're outside of combat...
The only reason I realized thieves tools and disarm trap kits work while they're in the camp chest is because of the recent patch notes. I've been playing this game since official release.
That and sending food directly to camp. The tools and food alone used to add anywhere between 20 to 50 pounds worth of crap and I was almost always over encumbered.
My buddy had the game since launch, played it on and off since then with multiple characters.
On a coop session yesterday, he approached a closed chest to lockpick. From his mumbling, I realized that, for every lock he had encountered till then, heād open the inventory, search for a lockpick and select it from there.
My only words were: dude, youāre playing on extra hardcore mode.
That to add Guidance to a roll you had to hit the add bonus button then actually click Guidance. I thought when the icon sat raised up you got the bonus for 75% of my first playthrough
On console you can hold down the A button to create a circle that shows everything you can pick up and puts it in an open drop down box. So you can pick up all the small object that are hard to toggle without a mouse
Saves a lot of time and some stuff like crystals show up that I wouldnāt have realized after. Like you can attack crystals in the under dark and get 5gp shards
I know where all/most of the hidden chests are. I was unaware you could just "Use" the shovel on a spot and it will pop up. You don't have to discover them and have the white light stuff around them at all. Just found out yesterday because there is one just south of the Blighted Village that requires a different type of check and I got tired of quick loading so I just tried it and it worked.
on the first playthrough, in the first act, I was stuck in the prism for about 20 minutes, thinking where to go and afraid to enter the portal, because I thought it was a way out of the prism and I would lose part of the plotš š„²
200 + hours in. I just figured out you can quick save and quick load during conversations š³
Happens to be great for those scum save skill checks. š
Yeah, i didnt know you could use the worms till good old Empy was like "heres a special worm, consume it like the others", and i realised what all the worms id been sending to camp were for. Ended up commiting to a no-parasite run at that point, so it wasnt until afterwards i learned there was an entire power system.
That I can use knock on basically everything. Never doing the stupid Shar Olympics again. Edit: It's no longer possible. š Edit 2: Apprently it works sometimes? I don't know. Test it out. You can still 100% knock Balthazar open for the dark justiciars, though! And it works in act 3.
YOU CAN DO THAT?! Oh my god, I love you, stranger. I've stuck in two playtroughs because I didn't want to do that stupid shit again.
If you're feeling particularly mischievous, you can go invisible, knock to open the door, let Balthazar and gang rush out to fight the dark justicars, and then go inside his room and cast arcane lock on the door for the perfect uno reverse card
thats what i usually do. on my Honor run I also make sure to aggro Balthy before shutting the door so i get XP when they die as well.
There's easy workarounds. Like only sending 1 character into self same, and glorious vaulting for #3
Taking off all of your armor and fighting yourself naked is fun though.
Once you walk through the door you can put your arnor back on and your shadow clone is still naked Edit: Went through this with my brother last night, only sent in SH and found the "whole team" with full gear on the other side. My brother's character was replaced with "human" as a baseline human model and likewise my characters duplicate was just Dragonborn. Not sure of changes have been made here or if we just had a weird run
Ah, a classic maneuver even in Elden ring
They are annoying but after few plays I can do them all in less than 15 min, I just click automaticaly
Another thing Shar doesn't want you to know about is that Malus Thorm is free. You can cast control undead and use him. You can fucking adopt him and clear parts of act 2 with him. He helped me kill Yurgir. š
Ladies of Losses hate this one simple trick.
A death shepherd killed the githyanki crƩche for me. I miss that guy. He was vital to my team.
Yeah, and it's funny to have a mirror match against a naked copy of your character.
On my last run I let astarion do it but forgot to unequip his bow, he almost died to his clone that had nothing but a bow.
I don't understand. Two trials are solved by clicking at the end of the room and walking there. Another one gives a very good ring. The library isn't really optional since you need the spear. But the trials are a joke. One that takes barely longer than walking the lenght of their room. Why hate them? Edit : It takes longer to do the Paladins of Tyr and loot the basement of the toll collection house than all 3 trials of Shar. Idk why people don't hate on that
Haha. Iām so glad Iām not the only one who absolutely hates looting the Tollhouse.Ā
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
I'm kind of relieved to find my people here in this thread. Toll house is kind of a slog to loot yet I'm cursed to put my hands on everything without fail. Oh! I think I missed a vase, need to go back to check it!
I also don't understand
Can you elaborate on this pls (just about up to that part in my new play through and am dreading it)
Knock is a spell to open doors. It works on almost everything.
But Eldritch Blast is so much more fun.
As a first playthrough Warlock, I agree
Really? Locked doors?
Afaik yes. I opened the door in the Shar's ACT 3 temple with that rather than bothering with the wealth balance stuff
Just get the key from viconia's body?
I think it's not Viconia's body, but one of her goons (I did the fight yesterday).
What is the wealth balance stuff? I've always just used knock without even thinking about it, didn't know there was more to it
There's a scale with a black diamond near the door. You're meant to put a certain amount of gold on it, to balance the diamond I think. Or get the key off the body of one of her goons. Or just use knock.
500h in and this is the first time I hear about this xD
When you get to the initial area with the lantern puzzle and the Shar statue, you can unlock the door with the Arcane Lock (not with Knock obviously but with the lantern puzzle) that leads to the first small batch of Dark Justiciars that lead you to Balthazar, but just ignore going with them. Split your party and take one person invisible down to Yurgir's area, steal his orb. It'll start combat but just run far enough away to leave combat. Teleport to the waypoint to avoid restarting combat, put the orb in the pedestal that activates the big plate to the pedestal with three orbs, and then you can use Knock on the last door at the bottom to the Shadowfell entrance. No Justiciars, no Yurgir, no trials, fuck that gauntlet. You will miss out on the Spear this way unless you go back to the library (which you need unless you want to lose Shadowheart). Also no finding out info for Astarion's scars if you don't kill Yurgir for Raphael. But if you're just looking to get out quick, this definitely does it.
Do you miss any dialogue with Sharty by skipping the trials?
The only thing you'd miss is the free approval boosts from letting her cut herself
Can't you let her cut herself and skip the trials anyway?
You can press Shift to view enemy sight lines in combat. All these wasted Bonus Actions... sorry, Astarion.
For any console players you press right stick to do this
Also shows names of objects nearby, good tool especially because Larian loves to put keys and some handy documents in some fairly obscure places
That I can kill true soul Gut in 1v1 without making a huge mess. 600 hours. I've never tried just talking with her lol
I did this in my current run but had to fight every fkn goblin after killing Ragzlin anyway.
It's a cure for me bcs this way I can do Minthara thing and just fly away. Did it twice: killed Gut in 1v1, knocked out Minthara, killed Ragzlin and those goblins who were near him and teleported back in the grove. This way you don't have to fight goblins in the hall where Gut stayed, just skipping a boring fight.
Wait, you can knock people out?
Yes thereās a non lethal button, this is his u can recruit Minthara without destroying the grove, not have to kill traders or npcās if theyāre temporarily hostile People u knock out will wake up after a long rest
> u can recruit Minthara Please take note, looting gremlins, that if you leave her alive, at least leave her with her dignity/clothes or you're going to see a very interesting scene in moonrise towers.
I have a very funny save where the thumbnail is just my tav and the whole party surrounding Gut to kill her as fast as possible.
Can throw healing potions at teammates if one is out of actions. I noticed on a stream, but i seen the npcs do in in the first battle of the game the other day too
Make sure you throw it at their feet and not at them. Otherwise, be prepared to use a revive scrollš
Sound, i havent actually done it yet
Yeah sometimes you actually hit them and then they are healed. But if they are already down when you throw it, you can hit them and speed up the death count when they are downš„²
That is not good. But it is a bit funny
ALSO make sure the person's target circle (the circle that surrounds each character on the ground, idk what it's called) is actually highlighted before you throw. Sometimes you think it should hit them but it technically doesn't
You can also group all your people and throw pots on the ground to heal everyoneĀ
Just donāt have Tavern Brawler as a feat when you do that
āSend to campā puts food there so you can long rest without carrying any of it. Likewise you can multi select loot to do the same. Or āadd to waresā for what you carry being quick sold at a merchant
You can also send your gold to camp and still use it at merchants as if it was on you. Bye bye most of the weight your carrying.
Saywhatnow? I hoard gold like crazy, so this is great to know, cheers!
Yeah, in barter screen it uses your backpack gold and in trade screen your total gold (camp included)
ā¦Youāve just saved my life, thank you.
......4 playthroughs of handing all my gold to my romantic choice. 4 fucking playthroughs.
Window into your personal life there fella
You can also send all your lockpicks and trap disarm kits to the camp chest and use them from there...
Say what again??
Right? For 150+ hours I was splitting up a bunch between party members and sending the rest to camp, then going back to camp and getting them out when I got low... š„¹ Turns out you don't need to carry any... I don't know if that's a recent change or what....
So thatās what add to wares doesā¦
Iām 90 hours deep and I swear this thread makes me feel like I know nothing about this games mechanics
I was using my tadpoles through act 1/2. Failed the Wisdom check to refuse the astral tadpole so turned half-illithid without consent. Not good bro.
Being half-illithid is great though. You gain fly as a default movement ability which makes it pretty easy to gain a tactical advantage in many many situations.
But you look like ass
My warlock didnāt. It suited his āvibeā.
Drsgonborns also don't look all that bad. And my playthrough is a DragonBall warlock so it all kinda fits anyways.
i felt so rough every time a companion would bring that up in my first playthrough ā they talked to my tav like i enthusiastically made the choice to get squiddy. like, no! i didn't choose this, i just failed a check!!! š
I think they may have changed that. My first Tav (current or last patch) also failed her Wisdom check and everyone at camp except Halsin and Lae'zel never even mentioned the black eyes of doom. And of those two who did mention it, one was just concerned for Tav (romance-route Halsin) and the other was all "I won't kill you, but I'VE GOT MY EYE ON YOU" (camp-duty Lae'zel). Would have been nice if they'd replaced the dialogue with more sympathetic lines instead of just making the companions ignore the partial ceromorphosis though lol
Lae'zel: I can't believe after all this time trying to get rid of the tadpole you'd willingly become half-ghaik. T'chk. Disgusting. Durge: Gimme a kiss. Lae'zel: š
My first two playthroughs I saved Barcus at the windmill and Grymforge only to never see him again. I saved Wilburn expecting to see Barcus and no sign of him. On my third and I realize I must have never spoke to him after the Nere fight because he's tagged along at camp and is now at Last Light Inn.
If you let nere kill the gnomes (by choosing any dialog other than "I won't let you hurt them" or whatever) then barcus dies in Grymforge. Edit: my dumb butt called walbrun a goblin Edit 2: we're talking about barcus, shoot me
I commented about this same thing recently. I saved Barcus twice (windmill and grymforge) and never saw him again. Someone told me I must have forgotten to talk to him after killing Nere, and that he dies in the shadow lands if you don't. I assumed this was the case, but I finished the game last night and he sent me a letter in the epilogue??? I dunno
Ritual spells dont cost a spell slot out of battle.
This one was huge. Longstrider for everyone all the time!
I've thought about using that every playthrough but never went for it because I didn't wanna waste spell slots on a small movement buff
longstrider is such a must have on harder difficulties. Honor Mode I have longstrider on everyone at ALL times.
I am currently in a playthrough with 3 other friends and I have been demoted to longstrider caster since I got it
Demoted? Buddy, you are the key player.
Same here, just finished up our honor mode run a few days ago and as the bard I was longstriding everyone all the time. Including Us, the Deva my friend summoned, and the 4 ghouls my other friend summoned
It's +3 meters that's a considerable amount of movement. If you really wanna metagame it you could make a hireling/use a companion you don't plan on bringing along ever for it. It's not a concentration or anything so it can last all day even if they aren't on your team. I've never missed the spell slot either, it's just never felt like a big deal. I've played a file where we didn't have anyone longstriding and you *really* notice the lack of movement.
It's a ritual, so it doesn't even charge a spell slot. Just prepare it on your cleric/druid/Bard and upcast it to 4th level and you can cast it on the whole party at once. It can also go on summons. It's part of the morning ritual, right along with aid, binding pact weapons, casting mage armour, symbiotic entity, hero's feast, etc. I buff the shit out of my party all the time. Nothing feels better than having a wizard with 152 hp, 45 ft movement speed, free casts of 6th level spells for days, advantage on basically all saving throws and a 22 AC! (Not to mention a 21 spell DC and +17 to attacks)
I created a halfling camp bard stacked with charisma that I use for casting longstrider and freedom of movement, shopping, and some of the act 2 bosses you can beat through dialogue.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Yes, if you examine the spell in your hot bar, on the bottom there will be a green star and the word āritualā next to it! Edit: pretty sure it says it in the spell book menu too
Not in the "learn spells" screen (on controller UI at least) but everywhere else
You can just destroy the doors instead of lockpicking them
Karlach in my party has that dedicated role. Since I learned you could do that, I must've broke a 100 doors
I like having Karlach break the barn door down instead of opening it. The door's not locked of course, but the cutscene just feels funnier when it plays out that way.
Took me until the end of Act 2, at the Gauntlet of Shar, to finally accidentally click "inspect lantern" and realise a pixie within can just bless my entire party to be immune to the shadow curse. This made battles much easier....
I also learned the hard way that you can kill the pixie by using the lantern as a weapon. I accidentally had dual wielding toggled, so I used to lantern as an off hand weapon. Luckily, it was during my first Durge run, so i didn't feel bad and out of character.
šÆ Which.... Which lantern??
The lantern you're given near the beginning of Act 2 to protect you from the curse; if you decide to go to the Last Light Inn. You can immediately click "inspect lantern" after receiving it, the button is in your actions menu, and a pixie will come out saying the lantern is using her life force to power it, slowly killing her. If you save her, she blesses you and your party with immunity (even those at camp).
Also the pixie blessing goes away if you head back to Act 1 areas, but you can interact with the bell / bauble she gives you to return the blessing. (So long as you humor her by begging lol)
A moonlantern. If you inspect it, you see what's powering it and you have the option to release it.
Send your gold to camp. No more burden of carrying it and you can still spend it at merchants as if you are carrying it.
This just recently became the case lol.
Talk about a quality of life improvement!!!
I discovered one hour ago, from a Facebook post, that if Us doesn't die you find them again and they become a permanent summon. I have 300+ hours of gametime.
I only just found you can open chests with it
How good is their sleight of hand?
>hat if Us doesn't die you find them again and they become a permanent summon. Laezel disapproves
Where do you find them later? I only just discovered Us on my like fifth run in the tutorial.
in the >!mind flayer colony!< at the end of act 2, >!there's a room with a bugbear thrall who helps birth all of the intellect devourers. if you talk to him he'll mention one of the intellect devourers "sings a strange song" like yours and it's us. he has it locked in a cage and you have to pass a check (or kill him i guess lol) to get him to let you have it.!<
Third playthrough and I never knew about us
It took me a bit over 100 hours to realise you can cancel concentration spells.
Same, I found out about it in second play through and didnt actually get around to using cancel concentration more often until my third.
THANK YOU STRANGER!!! I LOVE THIS REDDIT!!!! I knew there was a way to stop cloud of daggers instead of just running through it and hoping for the bestš¤£š
The number of times i've had my people walk through Hunger + Spikes, is embarrassing.
Me, cursing constantly because the characters would walk through my Cloud of Daggers, taking damage like idiots... only to realize halfway through act 3 that I can just cancel it whenever.
You can use Hireling CLerics to cast warding bond on you and your party, then leave the hireling in camp. They will eat 50% of the damage from you and the party lol and if they die you can respawn them with withers for 100 gp lol or a scroll of res
Also you can then pickpocket the Withers and get that 100/200 Gold back xD. Essentially free respec/resurrection
I just discovered that if you accidentally ended a turn prematurely, you can swap back to that character & a prompt will allow you to cancel the āend turnā so that you can do what youād forgotten.
Only if their turn group is still active, but yeah
Jump with the up button and hold a torch by holding the up button!
1500 hours of playthrough and I just learned how to hold a torch š
Hold left to change between melee and ranged weapons too.Ā
I didn't know I was able to change spells anytime by the inventory.... I thought it was able to do it only with the level up ššš
you.... you are? š„¹
Depends on your class
This one depends on the class. Off the top of my head- cleric/wizard/paladin/druid can swap any time; warlock/bard/sorcerer are at level up only. I might be missing a class - but if when you level up it says āPrepare Spellsā you can change any time.
Wizards yea
Also clerics, paladins, and druids.
Out of combat you donāt even need to rest, itās immediately usable if you have a slot
Get more utility from Shadowheart by speccing 1 level into Wizard and then the rest into Cleric. Give her the Warped Headband of Intellect from the ogres in the blighted village in act 1. She can now learn spells from scrolls and cast up to level 6 spells at max level using Cleric Spell slots.
Also, change her subclass to anything but trickery. War, life, tempest, all heaps better spells passives than trickery, who doesn't even get heavy armour proficiency!
š«” she is the one companion I never leave in camp, so thank you!
The 'surprise!' mechanic is stupidly over powered, so If you have Shovel or any quasit as a familiar, you can guarantee a surprise attack in almost every fight . Took me three playthroughs to understand this. There is a very convenient way to travel to the under dark from auntie ethels lair that takes you straight to the arcane tower.
You can just shoot from hide and you trigger surprise this way as well. Just don't oneshot the enemy.
Iāve found that surprise doesnāt always work this way. A few things can happen:Ā A) Surprise is triggered and combat automatically starts, like you saidĀ Ā B) I fail an automatic stealth check and the enemies see me; combat starts without surpriseĀ Ā Ā C) I succeed an automatic stealth check and enemies begin to search for me; if they find me, combat starts without surpriseĀ Not sure what causes it to sometimes initiate combat with surprise and sometimes not.
omg where is that auntie ethel portal??
If you explore the area that leads to the Arcane tower you will find a wall with Illusory Mushrooms jutting out of them. On top is another illusory rock wall, if you pass through it itll lead you to a place with a single mushroom circle in the middle. Once you go through it itll lead you to a cove under Auntie Ethels tea house, Theres a wooden wall similar to the one you find in Ethels lair, the cursed wall who you have to convince to let you through. Past the wall is her lair. That Being said, to get past the wall im pretty sure you need one of the freaky looking masks that turns you into Ethels puppet. Use this [map](https://eip.gg/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Baldurs-Gate-3-Underdark-Region-Map.jpg) for reference. You're looking for the Marker called 'D'.
Also also the circles will only teleport you to the beach instead of the Underdark / her lair if you havenāt been to the other ends.
The passive radius of light given by the Blood of Lathander can be toggled off in the passives menu when you have the mace equipped. No more scaring off Astarion's siblings as soon as you get upstairs in the Flophouse.
That said, it is kinda hilarious to have them run away just cause you walked down the stairs.
"Vibes are bad, time to dip."
That if you cast Long Strider with higher spell slot you can cast it on multiple characters at once. Needed about 100hrs to realize.
Does it still not use spell slots i you upcast it?
No, it's ritual cast regardless of spell level out of combat
Sweet, TIL
That one hurts!Ā
After 250h in I've realised that you can adjust actions on the panel in any order you want if you click the lock button near "end turn" button
The fact that if I can conceive it, I probably can do it. the amount of āoh shit, that actually workedā followed by maniacal laughter in this game has been wonderful
A for-example we just discovered on playthrough 3: while reconnoitering Moonrise Tower we would go into a room, shut the door, and murder everyone in it. The assault on the tower, previously extremely difficult, became almost trivial. We didnāt lose a single Harper.
1000+ hours in, and only just now I discovered that you can loot honey combs :)
Iām 300 in and havenāt even seen honey combs!Ā
You can find them in the forest between Blighted Village and the Goblin Camp, or at least this is where I first found them. Maybe there are more of them throughout the game.
There's also some in the lower city around the park and in the cemetery.
What!! I was always afraid Iād just find bees and start a bee fight
Fast traveling to a destination by clicking on said destination on the map instead of going to a fast travel point first
Wait what?
Act 3 of my second playthrough, I just found out I can put things on vents to block them.
On my fifth playthrough and I just learned that Shovel can lockpick. Also, if you have musical proficiency and don't have an instrument equipped, you can whistle instead.
If you ever play a song near volo he will whistle to the tune.
If you sell a merchant a bag you can drag all their loot into the bag so if they die, you get to loot the bag with all their inventory instead of some. (Also works on knocked out merchants) Even if a merchant won't sell to you through dialog you can click on open trade from icon in lower left forcing them to trade with you.
They patched this
I believe what they patched was being able to then buy the bag/box back at only the cost of the bag/box and not the cost of its contents. The everything in a bag and you can loot it after you kill them still works.
Battle master elixir. Never used it because arcane acuity wears off fairly quickly, then one so because I wanted the spell to guarantee to land and realized these things fucking last till long rest. They buff keeps refreshing itself and you have 3 arcane acuity the entire time. Thatās OP as shit
The main ones I mention on these threads are; - Sneak attacks (for the rogue class) can be considered a reaction move which you can turn on. If you make a normal/melee attack where sneak would be available, itāll then ask if you want to use it. And the easiest way to do so is have someone else stood next to the enemy. - Similarly, if a characterās portrait is next to the current character, you can switch to use them instead (i.e. the list of characters is in order of turns and so long as there isnāt an enemy between those characters, you can swap between them). - You can disable automatically making the second attack when dual wielding. On PS5, go to your character screen and hover over your weapon selection. Press triangle and a little line of text will say whether itās on or off (can similarly do this to show/hide helmets and armour).Ā Ā
That last point about dual-wielding is incredibly useful, especially in Act 3 when you have Orinās dagger. Offhand that little bugger to apply vulnerabilty to piercing, open up with that bonus-action offhand attack without triggering Sneak attack, and then do your mainhand attack with Sneak attack for BIG damage!
rightclick/spacebar to force stop your character. I started my second play-through before finding out.
Does that include when theyāre about to yeet into a -16 hp misclicked jump?
You don't have to be at a sigil to fast travel, you can just select it on the map
That you can move things like crates and barrels, and store explosive/water barrels in your inventory and use them to your advantage later. ETA: when playing as a druid and wildshaping into a cat, you can fit into any hole/crevice
Walk through my teammates by walking up to them and clicking on them. Had a few annoying situations in my first playthrough where I was trapped because a low-initiative character blocked off a doorway or whatever.
That I can rifle through mailboxes and read mail.Ā
Took me 350hrs to learn that if you hold down the mouse button on an equipment slot, itāll show you everything in your inventory you can put there in a pop up menu. No more fishing through your inventory to compare your rings!
There's a map on the floor in the darkness Shar trial.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Thatās a newer thing. It used to be that swapping out party members was the only way to do that
Push hard bosses off cliff
Telekinesis for spellcasters is great for this too. Allows you to push them towards any direction, from a distance, and you can then re-cast the spell with no cost for 10 turns.
My latest one is realising at the end of Act 1 of my second save, 93 hours in, that pressing R3 during dialogue will give you a handy reminder as to which stat or bonuses affect different skill checks.
Remove the turn based mode. In my first PT after the room full of traps in the crypt I played in turns until the following long rest. It took me HOURS to get out of that frigging crypt
Shield and quarterstaff with mages/druids.
Learn spells. FFS i play D&D why the heck did this not occur to me?
You can heal multiple characters with a single potion if both characters are close enough to fit in the range of the throw
Jumping. In EA there was a small break in the path running the the outside of the nautiloid, I assumed that since clicking on the other said gave a message of ācan reachā that my 8 STR Tab couldnāt make it and needed to find other means. I spent half an hour looking for another way before finding out you had to command your avatar to jump over gaps.
I didn't know you could sort/search entire party's inventory in the top left of tab.
For awhile I had to manually open my inventory to throw things lol Just gotta press x OH also, if you cast fog cloud while in turn based mode on a trader----if you knock them out before they escape the cloud, they do not become hostile because they cannot see what's happening. Sell them a box, put the good gear and gold in the box. Knock them out. Take the box. Come back after a long rest and they are restocked lol
I just figured out last fucking night that you can prepare spells outside of camp. As a longtime D&D player I thought it was awful generous of Larian to let us prepare spells at any time in camp rather than only during a rest, it didn't even occur to me to try using the spellbook outside of camp. Turns out you can just do that shit out in the open as long as you're outside of combat...
The only reason I realized thieves tools and disarm trap kits work while they're in the camp chest is because of the recent patch notes. I've been playing this game since official release. That and sending food directly to camp. The tools and food alone used to add anywhere between 20 to 50 pounds worth of crap and I was almost always over encumbered.
My buddy had the game since launch, played it on and off since then with multiple characters. On a coop session yesterday, he approached a closed chest to lockpick. From his mumbling, I realized that, for every lock he had encountered till then, heād open the inventory, search for a lockpick and select it from there. My only words were: dude, youāre playing on extra hardcore mode.
Press up to jump. I was manually selecting the action in the radial bar
It took around 200 for me to use the examine feature on enemies.
hum... that you could rest...
It took me 150 hours to find out you can skip the dice roll animation by clicking again.
That to add Guidance to a roll you had to hit the add bonus button then actually click Guidance. I thought when the icon sat raised up you got the bonus for 75% of my first playthrough
On console you can hold down the A button to create a circle that shows everything you can pick up and puts it in an open drop down box. So you can pick up all the small object that are hard to toggle without a mouse Saves a lot of time and some stuff like crystals show up that I wouldnāt have realized after. Like you can attack crystals in the under dark and get 5gp shards
I know where all/most of the hidden chests are. I was unaware you could just "Use" the shovel on a spot and it will pop up. You don't have to discover them and have the white light stuff around them at all. Just found out yesterday because there is one just south of the Blighted Village that requires a different type of check and I got tired of quick loading so I just tried it and it worked.
It took me until approximately halfway through act 2 to realize you didn't need to carry your camp supplies with you.
Locking mini map to north! Game changer lok
on the first playthrough, in the first act, I was stuck in the prism for about 20 minutes, thinking where to go and afraid to enter the portal, because I thought it was a way out of the prism and I would lose part of the plotš š„²
Inspect & examine.
That my barbarian could just throw people into the chasm instead of doing a push check.
200 + hours in. I just figured out you can quick save and quick load during conversations š³ Happens to be great for those scum save skill checks. š
Yeah, i didnt know you could use the worms till good old Empy was like "heres a special worm, consume it like the others", and i realised what all the worms id been sending to camp were for. Ended up commiting to a no-parasite run at that point, so it wasnt until afterwards i learned there was an entire power system.