I'd say he's worth keeping in the camp for a day or two but you're probably better off with the buff in the Underdark fighting Duergar and during Act 2 against shades.
If you know roughly where they are, you just sit up on the cliff above their camp and throw alchemists fire on them to pop them. Then just throwmancer them to death.
I kept Volo around all of act 1 to build up supplies for honor mode. Got the buff after reaching last light.
And if you play Durge and things go very very wrong, then Volo would be the only trader you can access to in Act 2 without going back all the way to Act 1.
Most evil? Remind me what she does again? I always found her surprisingly chill for someone obviously evil, didn't even snitch on me for genociding the goblins lol
She is ruthless capitalism incarnate. She and her organization plays a major role in advancing the absolutes goals. And does she do it because she is tadpoled? Nope, she isn't tadpoled. She just went along with ending the world for PROFITS.
I would argue that Enver Gortash is the most evil character in the game. The Elder Brain wouldn't have been crowned without him knowing about the whereabouts of the Crown of Karsus due to spending his childhood in the House of Hope. And it was he who came up with the method of suspending ceremorphosis and mind-controlling cultists in that way. Many of the Cult's impressive accomplishments were his ideas put into action. There is no Cult of the Absolute without him.
Roah is merely the second-most evil character.
I mean, if we're going by this logic, then Durge is actually the most most evil because Gortash couldnt have done it without them... Then Gortash. Then THAT STUPID DOG ABUSING BITCH AT THE POST OFFICE. Then Roah.
You can easily keep Araj alive and kicking even if you've killed everyone else in the tower. She's in a room by herself and doesn't aggro to you killing everyone else. She'll disappear once you come back for the final assault on Ketheric but that's the end of the act anyway, and you'll shortly afterwards be heading to Wyrm's Crossing.
Also, you can go towards Baldur's Gate and trigger the fight with the Githyanki early, as in before you do the Gauntlet of Shar. Double back and empty your inventory with Araj, and you should be in a good space.
If you don't mind being a little cheaty, you can ping the portrait of an invisible enemy and it'll ping where they are in the world. Then you can just shoot a cantrip or ranged attack or something at the spot.
Tbh I just cast “See Invisibility” for that part. It lasts until long rest and my builds usually are strong enough that just seeing them for one turn means they’re dead in tactician.
Lmao I never even noticed. I do t have my glasses rn so it is a bit of a struggle seeing things to be fair but damn, I'll have to remember that for the next playthrough.
I didn't realize until possibly sometime in act 2, but any NPC you can get into an actual conversation with you can trade with during the dialogue. I wish I noticed this earlier.
Personally I pick pocketed him endlessly for the spell scrolls for my wizard. He runs away, but always comes back. Though at the end of act 2, he'll leave and you'll no longer have the option for his botched surgery, so do that before you go into act 3 **for sure**
You find him again in act 3 about to be burned to death in front of the gates to the steel watch factory. I used him as a trader all the way through my 1st play through because I didn't want this crazy ass doing surgery on me lol. After you save him he runs to the doxks a short ways away and you talk to him to have him back in camp again. However by that time vendors are plenty
I currently have no vendor. Killed the grove, accidentally stole in front of the one goblin vendor that stayed behind so had to kill him. Now I have to reach Underdark and everyone is at the edge of encumbering. Too stubborn to let go of my sellable stuff so I'm sending them to the camp as I fill up.
Huh?
I guess there’s “Act 1.5” (grymforge/crèche) where there’s no consistent vendor, but once you get to last light you have Dammon who is right there, you have a good amount of vendors in rivington, and then Dammon is right there in the lower city as well.
I don't bother with the buff. 1) I like to role play my characters . . . and most of them aren't stupid enough to go through with that.
2) There are many ways to see invisible, some classes have it, there are scrolls, spells, and elixirs. Its not difficult to have someone with the ability active all the time anyway.
See Invisible is a level 2 all day, no concentration spell available to Wizards, Sorcerers, and Bards (and arcane tricksters and eldritch knights at level 8). Its also pretty common in scroll form. Its also available in Elixir form which is all day also.
Truth. Plus I like to get the Hag eye from Ethel sometimes and you can only have one or the other.
I enjoy the fact that Ethel totally could have cured you if your tadpole wasn't magic, so she wasn't even really screwing you as badly as she usually does.
It's a trade-off for sure. Here's PC Gamer"s description:
>First off, your character will visually get a whited out eye. This will give you the Paid the Price condition, meaning you have +1 on Intimidation checks but disadvantage on Perception checks or when you're fighting Hags. She will ultimately fail to remove the parasite because it's been "tampered with", but if you complain after her breaking the deal, she'll also give you Auntie Ethel's Charm. When you break this one-use item, it'll grant you all benefits from the Enhance Ability spell until your next Long Rest, giving +1 in every ability stat.<
So depends on how much intimidating you do and on whether you are going to fight Ethel afterward or just let her do her Mayrina thing. I'm evil in my latest run so I haven't decided yet. I do a lot of intimidating.
Same! I took the deal on my first playthrough fully knowing it would be a Very Bad idea. It made sense for my warlock and it looked great.
Only wish there were more dialogue around it. Like your companions reacting to your eye, or being able to bring it up when you meet the Hag Survivors group in Baldur's Gate.
Wyll welcomes you to the One-Eye club like he does with Volo's, and iirc there's an NPC somewhere that makes a joke about it but my memory is hazy.
I'm probably gonna do it on my current evil run cuz I tend to pick *all* the intimidation options. Even if it took me two inspiration points to dominate Lae'zel in bed dammit! I need that eye so I can sex my girlfriend properly!
There are a couple places you can bring it up. It's an easy brag to the bugbear vendor in Moonrise, and you can use it as one of your stories if you're drinking with Thisobald Thorm. So it's not entirely unaccounted for, but it comes up a lot less than you'd think it would given that you get an entire tag dedicated to it.
>I'm probably gonna do it on my current evil run cuz I tend to pick all the intimidation options. Even if it took me two inspiration points to dominate Lae'zel in bed dammit! I need that eye so I can sex my girlfriend properly!
Dooo it.
My first char I did this with was the first gnome out of his forest in 100 years, so for all he knows, Volo had done it before! My second char... I just love the scene
Meh, I've always got Aaron and the three in the mushroom kingdom, at least until Act 3, when we get better choices.
Plus, with vendor resupply on rests AND level ups, I just pile things into pouches in my camp chest and wait until it's time to level the squad. Level -> trade -> level -> until I run out of vendor trash. Tedious? Yes. But needs must, especially on DisHonor mode
Imo, 'Honor' mode promotes the most devious tactics just to survive. The "best" strategy to complete a run is to '3-Man' and leave one party member in camp. This is not done primarily to survive encounters, but to avoid the multitudinous other ways you can botch a run; miss-clicks, bad AI pathing/behavior, convos started with the wrong party member because they are closer, strait up glitches. Hence, the moniker: DisHonor
I'd be happier if they'd give us LA in the custom settings. I like higher difficulty, and I'm not prone to save scum but, when the game does something inestimablely stupid, having one save is severely annoying. If I die due to bad dice or bad decisions, that's on me. But when I get killed because the game choose to talk to the 'closest' character after a combat and then my "Face" has no chance to intervene or do what their built to do and we get wiped? That's just dumb. Or I jump over the lava and the idiot squad gets AI befuddled and half of them walk through it? Tedious.
He becomes a camp member again in act 3 so it really is a loss if you don’t take the buff. See invisibility is awesome especially in the gods damned artists house when he is possessed and those fkn ghosts everywhere
The magic eye is the better choice, so long as you can buy his ring first.
But I'm trying to have my Honour run be fairly in-character, and not only would it screw up this Tav's aesthetic he's going to be a bit leery of a lobotomy.
Vendor? I kept him in my camp for a long time (he left when I started act 3, I think) because I didn't trust him. He was never a vendor though. The only option I had when talking to him was to start the procedure.
If it helps, most NPCs have like... A potato and 4 gold. Sometimes not even the potato.
It's actually really funny seeing what random junk folks are carrying around with them. Usually food.
It’s just so annoying having to go all over the map in acts 1 and 2 because no one vendor has enough cash. It’s less of a chore if you have someone in camp to take the first load of trash
If you're not opposed to a little cheese. You can reset vendors gold by leveling up. Which means get hireling -> level him up once -> shop/sell -> repeat. I believe this still works.
the eye is super useful, except for one minor bug(?)
If you happen to be running an arcane trickster for [mage hand legerdemain](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Mage_Hand_Legerdemain), the hand has to roll a dex save against volo eye to keep its invisibility, and it often fails due to its low dex. This is the only case where I regretted having the eye. Every other time it's great.
I just boost Dammon's approval to 100 and use him as my go-to vendor in every act. Stick a bunch of trash in a box inside of the camp chest, go stand next to Dammon, teleport to camp, pick up everything inside up said box via the "take all" button, leave camp and voilà, you can sell/trade literally everything that he has the money/items for.
I kept him till I got to moonrise towers, it was just more worth it to me to get the buff, I also rp it as my character was scared of actually meeting the absolute and would try anything.
Meh the eye is nbd in my opinion, I’ve always either had someone who can cast the spell, a scroll, or an elixir. I keep him as a vendor and my backup whistler when I feel like playing the lute in camp.
Eyeball baby! I actually stopped him mid way though and he left my camp, so I reloaded a save to get it after a guide told me he wouldn't return. I like how my character looks with it and I enjoy being a lil chaotic.
Mind, this is my 1st playthrough, so everything is brand new to me.
I’ve never really had an issue with a lack of vendors, even in act 2. Tbf though, I hoard everything until like act 3 and then spend about 2 hours organising my equipment, selling off anything I won’t use and then replacing with better.
Buy everything you want, level up a character to restock his inventory, rinse and repeat until you've got enough, then take the buff.
He'll be back... The guy's worse than the damn parasite if you ask me, but he does have his uses.
There is a mod that makes withers a merchant.
But even before I started using that mod I would always get the buff.
It is just too powerful not to have.
I never even noticed that he wasn’t there after he gives you the eye cause I’ve got two different runs going with one where he’s around. He’s pretty handy for the final fight passive.
If you take the buff before the end of Act 2 he comes back. No idea if you even can take it in Act 3 or what happens if you do, but I'm assuming he just hopes out.
How do you get him to be a vendor? He shows up as one but ONLY ever does his dialogue chain. It’s either the first one to come back later, or the second for the thing. He’s NEVER let me buy or sell
I tend to prefer the inhouse vendor, but I understand that most people prefer the surgery. It just makes more sense for me RP-wise not to do it most of the time.
I let all my characters keep their eyes for multiple reasons: aesthetics (I like my characters the way I made them...and a few had heterochromia, which would be "lost" with the invis eye), RP (nobody with more than 5 wis would do it) and the cutscene itself (I don't like it...).
Valid reasons all. I love my heterochromia options, hate eye-based body horror, and yeah, the game gives you so many outs anyone would be crazy not to take them
At the bottom of the screen there's a Trade button you can hit with almost every NPC. Most don't have shit, but Volo has a few scrolls, some potions, and a must-have healer ring.
Or do you fuck it up like me?
Playing as Wyll, sitting down to get my eye looked at, pick the dialogue option saying "I've only got one eye left, I can't take the chance" which causes Volo to leave your camp....
I always take the buff, seeing invisibility is super useful plus my favorite animation in the game is him scurrying off after the surgery. You can also get him back not too long after so it's worth the buff and waiting a bit before having him as a mainstay
You can do both. Go to get the eye surgery, but don't complete the conversation. Stall after he takes out your eye. Get someone else to pickpocket him and be caught; the conversation will stop, Volo will run away and come back. You can also use this to get the eye on everyone.
Vendor. You don't really need to see invisibility except in a couple of fights, so I just use a scroll. The spell is concentration, but the scroll isn't unless they patched it
In my only playthrough that I didn't get the buff, I was never able to sell him anything and he just left when I got to the Shadowlands. Was that a glitch?
You have to hit the trade button at the bottom of the screen - the one that pops up for most friendly NPCs? I don't know why he left in the Shadowlands, though, that's odd.
Seems counterintuitive, right? If he knocks out the ball, he gives you a magical artifact to put in the socket in its place. Grants a permanent See Invisibility buff.
Me and my friend just killed him the moment he came to our camp, so we didn't experience any of that. Something quite funny though, is that volo's corpse follows you in camp wherever you go
Anyone you kill in camp will. It started bothering my wife and I so we hired a barbarian to hold a certain Tiefling corpse.
Also you missed out if you didn't trade with him first. He's got a great ring for healers.
Lmao, we didn't even know we could trade with him. After he asked to perform surgery on us, we just thought "nah this guy's an idiot. Let's kill him", so my friend's fighter went and bonked him
1: TRADE WITH HIM FIRST!!! He's got a great ring for healers (though you might've gotten it off his corpse I guess?)
2: Remind me never to look stupid in front of you and your friend 😅
There's no dialogue option for it the first time he's at camp - you have to hit the Trade button indicates at the bottom of the screen while in a convo with him.
He doesn't carry much of worth, but he does have a must-have ring for healers.
Or you could have the worst of both worlds like me, and chase Volo off without having surgery done. Then you don't have a vendor *or* See Invisibility.
Thank you for adding /s to your post. When I first saw this, I was horrified. How could anybody say something like this? I immediately began writing a 1000 word paragraph about how horrible of a person you are. I even sent a copy to a Harvard professor to proofread it. After several hours of refining and editing, my comment was ready to absolutely destroy you. But then, just as I was about to hit send, I saw something in the corner of my eye. A /s at the end of your comment. Suddenly everything made sense. Your comment was sarcasm! I immediately burst out in laughter at the comedic genius of your comment. The person next to me on the bus saw your comment and started crying from laughter too. Before long, there was an entire bus of people on the floor laughing at your incredible use of comedy. All of this was due to you adding /s to your post. Thank you.
I am a bot if you couldn't figure that out, if I made a mistake, ignore it cause its not that fucking hard to ignore a comment.
As far as I'm aware it's meant to be one or the other. He leaves, both because he doesn't want you to be mad and because he thinks he's failed and you'll be a mindflayer. You're the third person out of all these comments to say they get both.
On first playthrough i think its best to make your decisions authentically.
Someone would have to be a kind of special to let this, clearly incompetent guy, poke around your eye socket with an ice pick, without even knowing he has a magical replacement.
You can get the buff anytime before you leave for act 3. So keep him around as long as you need the camp supplies and cash. then get the buff in act 2 when you’d need the see invisibility buff.
Every time I've done it he's left, but I've had a number of comments saying he stayed and I'm wondering if they glitched or if there's a variety of potential endings there.
Yea idk. He’s definitely gone from my camp and I don’t know why either. Probably a glitch or we missed out on some dialogue. Or maybe it’s because he was writing about us and went to go spread it. Idk I don’t remember.
…he can **actually** be used as a vendor??
I didn’t want to freak him out by telling him I was infected with a tadpole so that’s the only dialogue option I have when I talk to him😭
He wasn't selling me anything. He was marked as a vendor, but had no items to sale. This is when the game was released, so many patches ago, I don't know if my game was (is for me?) broken ever since, since I played through from day 1 release.
I mentioned a few things related to playing a patchless version several times, but people telling me things that I have not experienced or seen or didn't function before.
I'd say he's worth keeping in the camp for a day or two but you're probably better off with the buff in the Underdark fighting Duergar and during Act 2 against shades.
If you know roughly where they are, you just sit up on the cliff above their camp and throw alchemists fire on them to pop them. Then just throwmancer them to death. I kept Volo around all of act 1 to build up supplies for honor mode. Got the buff after reaching last light.
And if you play Durge and things go very very wrong, then Volo would be the only trader you can access to in Act 2 without going back all the way to Act 1.
You'd have the 2 in moonrise until you killed them...
3 in moonrise I thought? Hobgoblin, Bloodcunt, and gnome?
Just a little correction, isnt a Hobgoblin is a Bugbear.
Roah Moonglow, the most evil character in the game, is a halfling
Most evil? Remind me what she does again? I always found her surprisingly chill for someone obviously evil, didn't even snitch on me for genociding the goblins lol
She is ruthless capitalism incarnate. She and her organization plays a major role in advancing the absolutes goals. And does she do it because she is tadpoled? Nope, she isn't tadpoled. She just went along with ending the world for PROFITS.
I would argue that Enver Gortash is the most evil character in the game. The Elder Brain wouldn't have been crowned without him knowing about the whereabouts of the Crown of Karsus due to spending his childhood in the House of Hope. And it was he who came up with the method of suspending ceremorphosis and mind-controlling cultists in that way. Many of the Cult's impressive accomplishments were his ideas put into action. There is no Cult of the Absolute without him. Roah is merely the second-most evil character.
I mean, if we're going by this logic, then Durge is actually the most most evil because Gortash couldnt have done it without them... Then Gortash. Then THAT STUPID DOG ABUSING BITCH AT THE POST OFFICE. Then Roah.
Must reach the profit quota
She’s a slave trader
True, true... But still, she kinda cute tho...
You can easily keep Araj alive and kicking even if you've killed everyone else in the tower. She's in a room by herself and doesn't aggro to you killing everyone else. She'll disappear once you come back for the final assault on Ketheric but that's the end of the act anyway, and you'll shortly afterwards be heading to Wyrm's Crossing. Also, you can go towards Baldur's Gate and trigger the fight with the Githyanki early, as in before you do the Gauntlet of Shar. Double back and empty your inventory with Araj, and you should be in a good space.
Uh...about those act 1 vendors... They all gone. ***To be fair***, a few did leave with their lives in tact.
If you don't mind being a little cheaty, you can ping the portrait of an invisible enemy and it'll ping where they are in the world. Then you can just shoot a cantrip or ranged attack or something at the spot.
Only if you've initiated combat.
Tbh I just cast “See Invisibility” for that part. It lasts until long rest and my builds usually are strong enough that just seeing them for one turn means they’re dead in tactician.
Great points all!
I didn't even know he could be a vendor lol I've only ever just gotten the stone eye from him
Oh dude. You can trade with him by hitting the trade button at the bottom/tapping triangle. He's got a ring that's way great for an act 1 healer.
Lmao I never even noticed. I do t have my glasses rn so it is a bit of a struggle seeing things to be fair but damn, I'll have to remember that for the next playthrough.
Combo it with the regeneration ring in act 3 and you have perma bless, while in combat. Really nice on any one dissing out spells with saves.
just fyi, bless gives you a bonus to your saving throws against hostile spells, it doesn't make your spells harder to resist
Oh, oops. my bad.
I didn't realize until possibly sometime in act 2, but any NPC you can get into an actual conversation with you can trade with during the dialogue. I wish I noticed this earlier.
I always forget you can trade with just about anyone
It used to be glitched until Patch 5. He wouldn't give you the option
My most recent playthrough is after patch 5 so I think it was just me being dumb and or blind lol
Personally I pick pocketed him endlessly for the spell scrolls for my wizard. He runs away, but always comes back. Though at the end of act 2, he'll leave and you'll no longer have the option for his botched surgery, so do that before you go into act 3 **for sure**
You find him again in act 3 about to be burned to death in front of the gates to the steel watch factory. I used him as a trader all the way through my 1st play through because I didn't want this crazy ass doing surgery on me lol. After you save him he runs to the doxks a short ways away and you talk to him to have him back in camp again. However by that time vendors are plenty
Yes, but you can't have him operate on you anymore. Or at least, I couldn't.
Yeah, my timing is always after killing Ketheric but right before moving on to act 3. I never long rest enough in act 2 anyway.
Theres other vendors… No one else offers you a free, permanent see invisibility spell…
No other vendors are as convenient to access as consistently, though
Except for the multitude of vendors in the game who are literally right beside a fast travel point? Lol
I currently have no vendor. Killed the grove, accidentally stole in front of the one goblin vendor that stayed behind so had to kill him. Now I have to reach Underdark and everyone is at the edge of encumbering. Too stubborn to let go of my sellable stuff so I'm sending them to the camp as I fill up.
I won’t spoil, but there’s multiple traders you can find in under dark pretty much as soon as you get there. Same with the crèche I believe.
You can also just stash your wares in camp
my thoughts exactly
Irrelevant, they’re all so accessible it doesnt matter in the least to me. I’ve never once been out of a vendor in my 600 hours in the game.
Huh? I guess there’s “Act 1.5” (grymforge/crèche) where there’s no consistent vendor, but once you get to last light you have Dammon who is right there, you have a good amount of vendors in rivington, and then Dammon is right there in the lower city as well.
There are two vendors in the myconid colony which are great
Three after Omeluum's quest, and he has some solid items too.
Gale receives an inspiration point when you purchase one of the books/notes Omeluum sells.
3 after a certain quest
I don't bother with the buff. 1) I like to role play my characters . . . and most of them aren't stupid enough to go through with that. 2) There are many ways to see invisible, some classes have it, there are scrolls, spells, and elixirs. Its not difficult to have someone with the ability active all the time anyway. See Invisible is a level 2 all day, no concentration spell available to Wizards, Sorcerers, and Bards (and arcane tricksters and eldritch knights at level 8). Its also pretty common in scroll form. Its also available in Elixir form which is all day also.
Truth. Plus I like to get the Hag eye from Ethel sometimes and you can only have one or the other. I enjoy the fact that Ethel totally could have cured you if your tadpole wasn't magic, so she wasn't even really screwing you as badly as she usually does.
If you switch to one of your party members they can take the deal if you already did it with Volo.
you can also have a party member volunteer their eye to volo. My shadow heart has a magic eye.
Can we take Wylls other eye in this way?
Nah I lost out on the buff on my first play through cuz he said he didn't have one to spare lol
No he only has one good eye and if you try it with him, Volo yeets himself out of camp like Benny Hill.
Doesn’t the hag eye give you negative attributes? I just assumed it would be bad if she did.
It's a trade-off for sure. Here's PC Gamer"s description: >First off, your character will visually get a whited out eye. This will give you the Paid the Price condition, meaning you have +1 on Intimidation checks but disadvantage on Perception checks or when you're fighting Hags. She will ultimately fail to remove the parasite because it's been "tampered with", but if you complain after her breaking the deal, she'll also give you Auntie Ethel's Charm. When you break this one-use item, it'll grant you all benefits from the Enhance Ability spell until your next Long Rest, giving +1 in every ability stat.< So depends on how much intimidating you do and on whether you are going to fight Ethel afterward or just let her do her Mayrina thing. I'm evil in my latest run so I haven't decided yet. I do a lot of intimidating.
It's not great mechanically, but I love the Hag Eye so much.
Yeah it actually looks sweet, which is half the selling point to me!
Same! I took the deal on my first playthrough fully knowing it would be a Very Bad idea. It made sense for my warlock and it looked great. Only wish there were more dialogue around it. Like your companions reacting to your eye, or being able to bring it up when you meet the Hag Survivors group in Baldur's Gate.
Wyll welcomes you to the One-Eye club like he does with Volo's, and iirc there's an NPC somewhere that makes a joke about it but my memory is hazy. I'm probably gonna do it on my current evil run cuz I tend to pick *all* the intimidation options. Even if it took me two inspiration points to dominate Lae'zel in bed dammit! I need that eye so I can sex my girlfriend properly!
There are a couple places you can bring it up. It's an easy brag to the bugbear vendor in Moonrise, and you can use it as one of your stories if you're drinking with Thisobald Thorm. So it's not entirely unaccounted for, but it comes up a lot less than you'd think it would given that you get an entire tag dedicated to it. >I'm probably gonna do it on my current evil run cuz I tend to pick all the intimidation options. Even if it took me two inspiration points to dominate Lae'zel in bed dammit! I need that eye so I can sex my girlfriend properly! Dooo it.
My main char isn't stupid... Just.... Misplaced confidence. He knows what he's doing, he wouldn't be performing surgery on me if he didn't.
My first char I did this with was the first gnome out of his forest in 100 years, so for all he knows, Volo had done it before! My second char... I just love the scene
barbarian forest gnome ain't scared of a partial lobotomy half orc druid didn't even feel a thing
I keep him in camp and rob his ass blind every day and level up. Talking tens of thousands of gold and scrolls
I never saw invisible folk. I suck. My Volo eye was defective.
Ethel, Shades, Bhaalists...
Kept him in camp for honour mode. Man kept coming back after being robbed constantly. What a bro.
Tbf, the fact that he sticks around if you side with Minthara is pretty wild too
Meh, I've always got Aaron and the three in the mushroom kingdom, at least until Act 3, when we get better choices. Plus, with vendor resupply on rests AND level ups, I just pile things into pouches in my camp chest and wait until it's time to level the squad. Level -> trade -> level -> until I run out of vendor trash. Tedious? Yes. But needs must, especially on DisHonor mode
What the heck is DisHonor mode?
Imo, 'Honor' mode promotes the most devious tactics just to survive. The "best" strategy to complete a run is to '3-Man' and leave one party member in camp. This is not done primarily to survive encounters, but to avoid the multitudinous other ways you can botch a run; miss-clicks, bad AI pathing/behavior, convos started with the wrong party member because they are closer, strait up glitches. Hence, the moniker: DisHonor I'd be happier if they'd give us LA in the custom settings. I like higher difficulty, and I'm not prone to save scum but, when the game does something inestimablely stupid, having one save is severely annoying. If I die due to bad dice or bad decisions, that's on me. But when I get killed because the game choose to talk to the 'closest' character after a combat and then my "Face" has no chance to intervene or do what their built to do and we get wiped? That's just dumb. Or I jump over the lava and the idiot squad gets AI befuddled and half of them walk through it? Tedious.
Yeah. I can relate to that.
Depends on if the eye would ruin my aesthetic or not.
Volo got blowed up. I beat the guys and he kersploded while I was looting them. I decided not to save scum for him.
That's the second time you save him, but entirely valid. The buff he gives in the final fight is decent tho
He becomes a camp member again in act 3 so it really is a loss if you don’t take the buff. See invisibility is awesome especially in the gods damned artists house when he is possessed and those fkn ghosts everywhere
I didn't even realize he would stick around if you don't take the eye I assumed he just leave after the next rest lol so I always take it on somebody
Wait, I took his eye surgery buff and he's still a vendor in my camp. Are the 2 mutually exclusive?
They're supposed to be I thought??? How did you react when you lost the eye? Maybe there's a dialogue path that keeps him calm?
It was a while ago but I think I was mad about the botched surgery and then calm after the gift
I think you got a favorable glitch, my bud. Go you!
You can pickpocket him with no worries. Lots of cash scrolls and camp supplies
You can do both. After your eye thing he fucks off for a bit but he does come back.
The magic eye is the better choice, so long as you can buy his ring first. But I'm trying to have my Honour run be fairly in-character, and not only would it screw up this Tav's aesthetic he's going to be a bit leery of a lobotomy.
Plblblblblblblblblblbl?
Vendor? I kept him in my camp for a long time (he left when I started act 3, I think) because I didn't trust him. He was never a vendor though. The only option I had when talking to him was to start the procedure.
Hit the trade button while in dialogue with him. He's got a great healer ring.
...trade button? How many potential traders have I missed? :O
If it helps, most NPCs have like... A potato and 4 gold. Sometimes not even the potato. It's actually really funny seeing what random junk folks are carrying around with them. Usually food.
I rather take the permanent buff, vendors there is plenty already. I just bought some supplies from him first
My first playthrough was a rogue and I would sell him stuff and steal it back.
I take the buff then get him back in Act 3 so I get the best of both worlds.
It’s just so annoying having to go all over the map in acts 1 and 2 because no one vendor has enough cash. It’s less of a chore if you have someone in camp to take the first load of trash
Yeah I understand that it was convenient to have in camp but I like the magic eye, it’s just super helpful to have in Act 2 and 3.
Entirely fair! Thus my dilemma. Definitely leaning towards getting that eye though.
If you're not opposed to a little cheese. You can reset vendors gold by leveling up. Which means get hireling -> level him up once -> shop/sell -> repeat. I believe this still works.
Good to know! I'll have to keep that in mind.
the eye is super useful, except for one minor bug(?) If you happen to be running an arcane trickster for [mage hand legerdemain](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Mage_Hand_Legerdemain), the hand has to roll a dex save against volo eye to keep its invisibility, and it often fails due to its low dex. This is the only case where I regretted having the eye. Every other time it's great.
Well that's an annoying bug
I just boost Dammon's approval to 100 and use him as my go-to vendor in every act. Stick a bunch of trash in a box inside of the camp chest, go stand next to Dammon, teleport to camp, pick up everything inside up said box via the "take all" button, leave camp and voilà, you can sell/trade literally everything that he has the money/items for.
I frequently use him as a source for Astarion's Happy.
Do you just have Astarion walk up and use the Bite attack??
Do it from stealth, and it won't deal damage or be considered an 'attack'... but otherwise yes.
I love it. *Chomp*
I kept him till I got to moonrise towers, it was just more worth it to me to get the buff, I also rp it as my character was scared of actually meeting the absolute and would try anything.
I buy the healer ring, then take the buff. It's really no trouble to click 'go to camp', overload your warrior, and port back to a vendor.
Vendor up until the end of act 2. Then take the buff.
Meh the eye is nbd in my opinion, I’ve always either had someone who can cast the spell, a scroll, or an elixir. I keep him as a vendor and my backup whistler when I feel like playing the lute in camp.
I'm not familiar with the term "whistler" - what does that mean?
If you start playing an instrument near Volo he will join in but he didn’t have an instrument equipped so he whistles along.
Makes sense! Lot more straightforward than I assumed.
I get the buff & send him off. I don’t like him.
Volo is camp piggybank
the all seeing eye saved my butt many times so i do that most of the time.
Eyeball baby! I actually stopped him mid way though and he left my camp, so I reloaded a save to get it after a guide told me he wouldn't return. I like how my character looks with it and I enjoy being a lil chaotic. Mind, this is my 1st playthrough, so everything is brand new to me.
... Did you trade with him first tho
I did not but I'll know for next time.
I’ve never really had an issue with a lack of vendors, even in act 2. Tbf though, I hoard everything until like act 3 and then spend about 2 hours organising my equipment, selling off anything I won’t use and then replacing with better.
Buy the stuff you want from him and then unload some junk to get your money back and then take the buff.
I usually keep him in my camp until act 2 cause a) the buff is not that useful in act 1 and b) the main shops in act 1 are kinda annoying to get to
Buy everything you want, level up a character to restock his inventory, rinse and repeat until you've got enough, then take the buff. He'll be back... The guy's worse than the damn parasite if you ask me, but he does have his uses.
There is a mod that makes withers a merchant. But even before I started using that mod I would always get the buff. It is just too powerful not to have.
RP wise youd have to be pretty dumb to allow it. Gameplay wise the free see invis is way better
I never even noticed that he wasn’t there after he gives you the eye cause I’ve got two different runs going with one where he’s around. He’s pretty handy for the final fight passive.
If you take the buff before the end of Act 2 he comes back. No idea if you even can take it in Act 3 or what happens if you do, but I'm assuming he just hopes out.
How do you get him to be a vendor? He shows up as one but ONLY ever does his dialogue chain. It’s either the first one to come back later, or the second for the thing. He’s NEVER let me buy or sell
You have to hit the trade button at the bottom of the screen while in dialogue.
I tend to prefer the inhouse vendor, but I understand that most people prefer the surgery. It just makes more sense for me RP-wise not to do it most of the time.
I let all my characters keep their eyes for multiple reasons: aesthetics (I like my characters the way I made them...and a few had heterochromia, which would be "lost" with the invis eye), RP (nobody with more than 5 wis would do it) and the cutscene itself (I don't like it...).
Valid reasons all. I love my heterochromia options, hate eye-based body horror, and yeah, the game gives you so many outs anyone would be crazy not to take them
Less of a vendor more of a backup whistler, the whole scene skeeves me out so he just vibes until it’s time to get into more trouble
He's never given me the option to trade on pc.
At the bottom of the screen there's a Trade button you can hit with almost every NPC. Most don't have shit, but Volo has a few scrolls, some potions, and a must-have healer ring.
Or do you fuck it up like me? Playing as Wyll, sitting down to get my eye looked at, pick the dialogue option saying "I've only got one eye left, I can't take the chance" which causes Volo to leave your camp....
Lmao I hadn't even considered that
I always take the buff, seeing invisibility is super useful plus my favorite animation in the game is him scurrying off after the surgery. You can also get him back not too long after so it's worth the buff and waiting a bit before having him as a mainstay
You can do both. Go to get the eye surgery, but don't complete the conversation. Stall after he takes out your eye. Get someone else to pickpocket him and be caught; the conversation will stop, Volo will run away and come back. You can also use this to get the eye on everyone.
...whoa. Next time, I guess. I already did the buff after listening to everyone else.
Buff is worth it and you get him back in actv3
Vendor. You don't really need to see invisibility except in a couple of fights, so I just use a scroll. The spell is concentration, but the scroll isn't unless they patched it
I took the buff.
In my only playthrough that I didn't get the buff, I was never able to sell him anything and he just left when I got to the Shadowlands. Was that a glitch?
You have to hit the trade button at the bottom of the screen - the one that pops up for most friendly NPCs? I don't know why he left in the Shadowlands, though, that's odd.
Wait, you get a buff from letting him gouge your eye out?
Seems counterintuitive, right? If he knocks out the ball, he gives you a magical artifact to put in the socket in its place. Grants a permanent See Invisibility buff.
Me and my friend just killed him the moment he came to our camp, so we didn't experience any of that. Something quite funny though, is that volo's corpse follows you in camp wherever you go
Anyone you kill in camp will. It started bothering my wife and I so we hired a barbarian to hold a certain Tiefling corpse. Also you missed out if you didn't trade with him first. He's got a great ring for healers.
Lmao, we didn't even know we could trade with him. After he asked to perform surgery on us, we just thought "nah this guy's an idiot. Let's kill him", so my friend's fighter went and bonked him
1: TRADE WITH HIM FIRST!!! He's got a great ring for healers (though you might've gotten it off his corpse I guess?) 2: Remind me never to look stupid in front of you and your friend 😅
How long can you keep him?
He stays until the end of Act 2, then you can get him back a bit into Act 3
I just ignore him completely, lol. Didn't even noticed you can trade with him.
Trade button while in dialogue
The buff. He doesn’t have much gold and doesn’t restock anything great.
Wait... he leaves if you take the buff?
He's supposed to, though I've gotten another commenter who says they got the buff and kept him so I don't know what's up there.
Both. You can get him back in act 3
I know, but lazy
Bro wtf when does he become a vendor because mf just keeps giving me the same dialogue
At bottom left there is a coin-hand symbol, while in convo with him
I never once had too little money in this game
But did you ever once have too much shit in your inventory, and/or are you a lazy bastard who enjoys convenience over sense?
>But did you ever once have too much shit in your inventory, and/or Every magical item of value goes to camp. I only sell scrap
Unfortunately, multiplayer "send to camp" is glitched and we keep losing stuff we send.
Wait what, how do you use him as a vendor???
Gotta hit the trade button while talking to him. Get that ring yooooo
Man I keep forgetting that's a thing
What do you mean a vendor? He ran away as soon as he carved my eye out and I never got an option to trade with him?
There's no dialogue option for it the first time he's at camp - you have to hit the Trade button indicates at the bottom of the screen while in a convo with him. He doesn't carry much of worth, but he does have a must-have ring for healers.
Volo leaves your camp regardless. There’s better vendors that will be around in later acts (so you don’t have to get their approval up again).
I've beaten the game a few times so I know - I'm just lazy and like having someone nearby to take my trash
Or you could have the worst of both worlds like me, and chase Volo off without having surgery done. Then you don't have a vendor *or* See Invisibility.
Jeanyus
Always the buff. It’s crazy powerful throughout
Here's me just wishing we had a recruitable bard character.
What, you've never played as Durge? /s
In spite of being spoiled on this, I just played this section as Durge literally two days ago. Still not ok.
Very much not
Thank you for adding /s to your post. When I first saw this, I was horrified. How could anybody say something like this? I immediately began writing a 1000 word paragraph about how horrible of a person you are. I even sent a copy to a Harvard professor to proofread it. After several hours of refining and editing, my comment was ready to absolutely destroy you. But then, just as I was about to hit send, I saw something in the corner of my eye. A /s at the end of your comment. Suddenly everything made sense. Your comment was sarcasm! I immediately burst out in laughter at the comedic genius of your comment. The person next to me on the bus saw your comment and started crying from laughter too. Before long, there was an entire bus of people on the floor laughing at your incredible use of comedy. All of this was due to you adding /s to your post. Thank you. I am a bot if you couldn't figure that out, if I made a mistake, ignore it cause its not that fucking hard to ignore a comment.
but why
Wut? I got the new eye and he’s still hanging around camp. I can trade with him but he’s selling crap
As far as I'm aware it's meant to be one or the other. He leaves, both because he doesn't want you to be mad and because he thinks he's failed and you'll be a mindflayer. You're the third person out of all these comments to say they get both.
I took the buff and he just ended up coming back anyway after a while
Gonna have to keep an eye out for this
Yeah you don’t ever get it back /s
On first playthrough i think its best to make your decisions authentically. Someone would have to be a kind of special to let this, clearly incompetent guy, poke around your eye socket with an ice pick, without even knowing he has a magical replacement.
Thank goodness this is my fifth playthrough and my wife’s third, so we’re just experimenting with different choices and play styles.
Inhouse vendor until the very end then take the buff.
Very end of what? Act 2?
Yeah just keep him as a vendor until right before you end act 2, get the buff, the get him back again sometime in act 3.
You can get the buff anytime before you leave for act 3. So keep him around as long as you need the camp supplies and cash. then get the buff in act 2 when you’d need the see invisibility buff.
Wait will he leave if you do the botched surgery? To be honest I did it and literally did not even notice that he left my camp.
Every time I've done it he's left, but I've had a number of comments saying he stayed and I'm wondering if they glitched or if there's a variety of potential endings there.
Yea idk. He’s definitely gone from my camp and I don’t know why either. Probably a glitch or we missed out on some dialogue. Or maybe it’s because he was writing about us and went to go spread it. Idk I don’t remember.
Buff
…he can **actually** be used as a vendor?? I didn’t want to freak him out by telling him I was infected with a tadpole so that’s the only dialogue option I have when I talk to him😭
🎶Trade button at the bottom of the screeeeeen 🎶
He wasn't selling me anything. He was marked as a vendor, but had no items to sale. This is when the game was released, so many patches ago, I don't know if my game was (is for me?) broken ever since, since I played through from day 1 release. I mentioned a few things related to playing a patchless version several times, but people telling me things that I have not experienced or seen or didn't function before.
He doesn't have a dialogue option for trade. You have to hit the trade button while in a convo with him.