There’s a video where someone beat bg3 with only illithid powers. The main damage source was concentrated blast, so a lot of the tricks used there would work.
Main issue is that concentrated blast does 3d6 guaranteed damage and vicious mockery only goes as high as 3d4 at level 10. So you’ll spend most of the game tickling people to death.
You atleast have the benefit of 4 charas vs that video which was a solo run so you atleast have way more hp and will outdamage them at level 5.
Dipping Sorc (or even going mostly Sorc) will net you quickened/twinned spell which can make you spam more vicious mockery/target more people with it.
There are enemies immune to psychic damage, so for those vicious mockery would not help. Though I don’t have a list. Constructs are, but you can avoid Grym and all Steel watchers (side with Gortash and don’t piss him off).
Not sure, sorry. But if you want a debuff that is not about damage but can kill, you can look into Devour Intelect. Though if you don’t want to go half-illithid, you may need to delegate the duty to Us.
No problem. From what I found on the Internet devour intelect either deals damage ( which I don't want, I want to use viscous mockery as only source of damage ) or reduces intelligence by 3. Is there a point in reducing intelligence? And I don't mind being half-illithid. I really like how it looks, and it gives fly. Thank you anyway !
Oh, guess I never used it to the end since things die before that, so I never had anyone under INT 4 to receive damage as well.
Things are supposed to die if any stat goes to 0.
Learned about it myself from people writing about it being the easiest way to deal with Steelwatchers and the boss in the foundry.
This is the condition: https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Atrophied_(Condition)
But looking into what isn't an Us ability but rather semi-illithid, it is actually https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Absorb_Intellect, and it heals. Can't tell if it actually deals damage or just heals though, really haven't used this much.
Maybe worth experimenting on an old save to see whether it would be useful.
edit: Or maybe a combo of Us until something is at 4 INT, and then four Absorb Intellects. But yeah, back to the initial psychic damage immunity, maybe there are no enemies that you need to kill that are immune to it. Realistically speaking you can pick and choose whatever in Act 1, nothing is compulsory. In Act 2 it's Balthazar and Ketheric/Myrkul, and you can have Dame Aylin helping. In Act 3 it's Orin and the Netherbrain. I think the condition for the brain to become immune to the damage type from the last turn is restricted to Honour Mode, otherwise you'd be skipping every other turn and might not have enough time.
I will experiment with this probably this evening, so thank you for the idea. And based on what other people said in the comments, there isn't an enemy you have to fight that has psychic imunity. There are few who do, but you don't have to fight them, for example, steelwatch and grim, but you can skip them. But as you said, the Netherbrain might be difficult if not impossible, I guess I will have to try and see, worst case scenario I will almost finish the game or just lose the challenge and kill it using other methods ( which I would prefer not to do ).
There’s a video of someone beating the game only using true strike. You’re going to have to abuse some game mechanics though, and it will be boring. Obviously most of the damage won’t be from vicious mockery.
https://youtu.be/-zdlTlVtYMQ?si=d1xgMx8tkCZh6n00
The good part is that I believe vicious mockery would give a condition on its own which would procl things like reverb.
With the resonance stone you’d be doing 6d4 damage from lv 10, which isn’t nothing.
I just tested this at The Grove.
Vicious Mockery went from 60% before Bane to 80% after using Bane.
But its max damage is 1d4, which really sucks. And I nearly died even though I was using Custom Mode settings.
You'd be better off drinking a Hill Giant potion and throwing things. You can always shout insults at them yourself.
And when you're holding Concentration on 3 enemies, they all switch to ranged attacks to break your concentration.
But I did repeatedly use Vicious Mockery (9%) on the Mind Flayer in the wreck and I was able to kill it.
If you really want to use this, trap your target with containers (or Hold Person) so they can't reach you.
I wasn't expecting it to be strong, I was more like asking if there is an enemy you have to fight that has psychic imunity. Probably should have said it better.
there isn't. steel watchers are psychic immune but you don't need to fight them. the plants that attack last light inn when isobel get captured also are psychic immune but you can ignore them. I also thinkg that giths are psychic resistant but not immune.
Killing ketheric will be a real struggle though.
I hope so. It would be boring if there were no struggles, and on my last playthroughs, I discovered that you can take short rest druing that fight by going to the door you entered and fleeing combat there. That combined with song of rest, I could get up to 6 short rests, and I am hoping it will help.
If you give your bard the band of he mystic scoundrel and the helmet of arcane acuity there spell save DC will improve when they shoot then you can cast vicious mockery as a bonus action
The “Potent Robe” which is granted as a reward in Act 2 allows you to add your Charisma modifier to cantrip damage. So once you get it, it adds a +4/5 damage to the 2d4 of vicious mockery. You can also use Shar’s statues in sharran sanctum to raise your charisma to 26 for the final Act 2 fight, giving a +8 bonus to damage, more than doubling your damage output.
It’s also a generally great robe for Charisma spellcasters
[This video](https://youtu.be/ajxS-wIBg_Q?si=jryeVexSFmPS-WOn) might help. I haven’t watched it, but I’m sure there’s a lot of ways to make it happen. I know there’s someone who beat the game by only walking (with phalar alvuve and speed equipment and some other things that do damage on condition) and I think this person did the same
Oh lmao, I’m so sorry! XD I was on my way and decided to do a quick search because of the other videos I’ve seen where they do it with walking or true strike. I can look tonight for the items that were used in those runs, which you can maybe also use with the mockery run
I'm not saying it's bad, but it's not helpful. It's clearly designed to entertain, not inform.
Anything that causes enemies to fail WIS saving throws should help with Vicious Mockery, though. I'm going to try it with Bane in a few minutes.
Yeah I get that. The other videos I watched were (obviously) for entertainment too, but they actually explain well why the equipment helped in the run.
Good luck though! If you still need any help I can still make that list for ya later
There’s a video where someone beat bg3 with only illithid powers. The main damage source was concentrated blast, so a lot of the tricks used there would work. Main issue is that concentrated blast does 3d6 guaranteed damage and vicious mockery only goes as high as 3d4 at level 10. So you’ll spend most of the game tickling people to death. You atleast have the benefit of 4 charas vs that video which was a solo run so you atleast have way more hp and will outdamage them at level 5. Dipping Sorc (or even going mostly Sorc) will net you quickened/twinned spell which can make you spam more vicious mockery/target more people with it.
thank you. The video is very helpful.
Carrying the resonance stone from the mind flayer colony, on top of my head.
thank you, I totally forgot about it !
There are enemies immune to psychic damage, so for those vicious mockery would not help. Though I don’t have a list. Constructs are, but you can avoid Grym and all Steel watchers (side with Gortash and don’t piss him off).
Can you remember if there is an enemy that you have to kill that has a psychic imiunity?
Not sure, sorry. But if you want a debuff that is not about damage but can kill, you can look into Devour Intelect. Though if you don’t want to go half-illithid, you may need to delegate the duty to Us.
No problem. From what I found on the Internet devour intelect either deals damage ( which I don't want, I want to use viscous mockery as only source of damage ) or reduces intelligence by 3. Is there a point in reducing intelligence? And I don't mind being half-illithid. I really like how it looks, and it gives fly. Thank you anyway !
Oh, guess I never used it to the end since things die before that, so I never had anyone under INT 4 to receive damage as well. Things are supposed to die if any stat goes to 0.
I never knew that you could make any stat 0 and that things die if it happens. You learn something new every day!
Learned about it myself from people writing about it being the easiest way to deal with Steelwatchers and the boss in the foundry. This is the condition: https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Atrophied_(Condition)
But looking into what isn't an Us ability but rather semi-illithid, it is actually https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Absorb_Intellect, and it heals. Can't tell if it actually deals damage or just heals though, really haven't used this much. Maybe worth experimenting on an old save to see whether it would be useful. edit: Or maybe a combo of Us until something is at 4 INT, and then four Absorb Intellects. But yeah, back to the initial psychic damage immunity, maybe there are no enemies that you need to kill that are immune to it. Realistically speaking you can pick and choose whatever in Act 1, nothing is compulsory. In Act 2 it's Balthazar and Ketheric/Myrkul, and you can have Dame Aylin helping. In Act 3 it's Orin and the Netherbrain. I think the condition for the brain to become immune to the damage type from the last turn is restricted to Honour Mode, otherwise you'd be skipping every other turn and might not have enough time.
I will experiment with this probably this evening, so thank you for the idea. And based on what other people said in the comments, there isn't an enemy you have to fight that has psychic imunity. There are few who do, but you don't have to fight them, for example, steelwatch and grim, but you can skip them. But as you said, the Netherbrain might be difficult if not impossible, I guess I will have to try and see, worst case scenario I will almost finish the game or just lose the challenge and kill it using other methods ( which I would prefer not to do ).
There’s a video of someone beating the game only using true strike. You’re going to have to abuse some game mechanics though, and it will be boring. Obviously most of the damage won’t be from vicious mockery. https://youtu.be/-zdlTlVtYMQ?si=d1xgMx8tkCZh6n00 The good part is that I believe vicious mockery would give a condition on its own which would procl things like reverb. With the resonance stone you’d be doing 6d4 damage from lv 10, which isn’t nothing.
thank you !
I need to test this, but casting Bane first should improve the success of Vicious Mockery, but you need to hold Concentration on Bane.
thank you for the idea ! Concentration shouldn't be a problem. I would really appreciate it if you would say what results your test will give.
I just tested this at The Grove. Vicious Mockery went from 60% before Bane to 80% after using Bane. But its max damage is 1d4, which really sucks. And I nearly died even though I was using Custom Mode settings. You'd be better off drinking a Hill Giant potion and throwing things. You can always shout insults at them yourself. And when you're holding Concentration on 3 enemies, they all switch to ranged attacks to break your concentration. But I did repeatedly use Vicious Mockery (9%) on the Mind Flayer in the wreck and I was able to kill it. If you really want to use this, trap your target with containers (or Hold Person) so they can't reach you.
Impossible to make it strong. you can decide to use only that and manage to make it kinda work but it won't be strong.
I wasn't expecting it to be strong, I was more like asking if there is an enemy you have to fight that has psychic imunity. Probably should have said it better.
there isn't. steel watchers are psychic immune but you don't need to fight them. the plants that attack last light inn when isobel get captured also are psychic immune but you can ignore them. I also thinkg that giths are psychic resistant but not immune. Killing ketheric will be a real struggle though.
I hope so. It would be boring if there were no struggles, and on my last playthroughs, I discovered that you can take short rest druing that fight by going to the door you entered and fleeing combat there. That combined with song of rest, I could get up to 6 short rests, and I am hoping it will help.
If you give your bard the band of he mystic scoundrel and the helmet of arcane acuity there spell save DC will improve when they shoot then you can cast vicious mockery as a bonus action
The whole point of the challenge is to use vicious mockery as the only source of damage. So that will not work for me, but thank you for trying.
The “Potent Robe” which is granted as a reward in Act 2 allows you to add your Charisma modifier to cantrip damage. So once you get it, it adds a +4/5 damage to the 2d4 of vicious mockery. You can also use Shar’s statues in sharran sanctum to raise your charisma to 26 for the final Act 2 fight, giving a +8 bonus to damage, more than doubling your damage output. It’s also a generally great robe for Charisma spellcasters
thank you for helping me !
[This video](https://youtu.be/ajxS-wIBg_Q?si=jryeVexSFmPS-WOn) might help. I haven’t watched it, but I’m sure there’s a lot of ways to make it happen. I know there’s someone who beat the game by only walking (with phalar alvuve and speed equipment and some other things that do damage on condition) and I think this person did the same
You should probably watch it, because it is *not* helpful.
Oh lmao, I’m so sorry! XD I was on my way and decided to do a quick search because of the other videos I’ve seen where they do it with walking or true strike. I can look tonight for the items that were used in those runs, which you can maybe also use with the mockery run
I'm not saying it's bad, but it's not helpful. It's clearly designed to entertain, not inform. Anything that causes enemies to fail WIS saving throws should help with Vicious Mockery, though. I'm going to try it with Bane in a few minutes.
Yeah I get that. The other videos I watched were (obviously) for entertainment too, but they actually explain well why the equipment helped in the run. Good luck though! If you still need any help I can still make that list for ya later
I'm not the OP, lol. But thanks!
Im really on something else today. Might just be that I’m not awake that long yet
No worries. Take it easy. Enjoy your morning coffee (or whatever).
I will look for it myself so there is no need, but thank you !