Videogames - Baldur's Gate 3 (2024)

So I reached the level cap of 12, the limit in the game. I don't really need to level up, I feel I reached peak performance at level 6-8. Anything that lets me have Thief (3 levels) and defining class abilities in another main class are enough.

For Naeblys it was one level dip in Sorcerer for Friends, one level dip in Fighter for the Two-Weapon fighting style and everything else in Rogue.

For Shadowheart it was the 6 level of Monk for Shadow Step that plays really well with her infinite Darkness cast.

For Jaheira it was the two levels of Warlock for Eldritch Blast.

Basically, as long as I can have a spell that I can cast at will (Invisibility, Darkness, EB) I can build something around it with the right feats and loot. Next playthrough I'll try to embrace the chaos of playing a Wild Sorcerer and making use of every potion, scroll and throwable I find.

I'm going with one more Rogue level, to get access to a feat (and take +1 CHA bonus). I could have gone with Fighter for the Action Surge, but I'd rather have something consistent.

I gave Jaheira on more Rogue level, to get to 4 and get a feat. She took Spell Sniper for more critical chances and complete her collection of cantrips.

For Shadowheart, Stillness of Mind is great. Having her charmed or Frightened is one the way her combat prowess can be diminshed.

But Uncanny Dodge from the Rogue to take only half damage looks great.

So much Karen energy

Well, I grabbed her and threw her to her death below but SOMEHOW the guards didn't like that and started the alarm. Tssk. I shadow stepped twice and ran away.

Doesn't seem like there is any way to get inside the Foundry now. Too bad, this will be content for my next playthrough I assume.

Oh, those are the guys that tasked me into stealing a Githianki egg (which I did), and I then stole if back from them. Let's see what they say now.

I need to find this Havkelaag. I wonder if the game would have registered the quest as complete because I gave the egg, or because I bring one more.

Hmm, so I can give him the egg.

Very interesting moral choice here. He's doing experiment on a child to prove that Gith are not inherently evil (which was what he assumed). I'll just keep playing the Dark Urge and give him the egg.

Oh, I wanted to steal it back from him but it's not in his inventory. Too bad.

I'm killing every Flaming Fist I encounter. And realized that if I can attack them from far enough, they don't initiate combat and I can just kill them.

I teleported through the frame into the basem*nt of the society of Radiance, but Shadowheart got herself stuck behind the wine.

I really like this house. I think that I would like to make it my own.

There seem to have some levels below the Lodge, but I think they are just for scatter, not to actually visit.

Please wait here while I go on killing two Fist officers.

I killed one, the other didn't react, nor the Steel Watcher.

Oh, this time I was close enough that they tried to bring me to prison. The Steel Watcher is also part of the initiative order, but has a yellow circle.

Killing the Fist ended the combat. I wonder what the Steel Watcher would have done. Maybe killing Gortash without disabling the Steel Watch made them Neutral. I wonder how they would react to other threats.

I'm back in the sewers, with the Headless Ghost following me.

Somewhere with many Bhaal people.

I fired an Arrow of Many Targets on the Bhaal creature with Unstoppable: 2 (which make it impervious to the first two source of damage).

This seems to be implemented as a Damage-like resistance, like Sturdy, that requires exactly one more damage than I deal.

I wonder if it registered as two sources of damage because my crossbow adds fire damage, or because of the arrow.

Anyway, I forgot to activate turn-based mode and while I was typing that, the Darkness in which I was hidden ended, so now the whole room is in initiative order.

"Some manner of furred rodent". I'm getting closer to Minsc.

"Seems to be stuck". I had solved that in the past with some grease. Hmm didn't work. I assume it's because the door is completely broken.

Seems like the Ghost disapproved.

Seems like I arrived close to some Bhaal people, but this time I can talk to them.

Found a trapped chest. Gonna keep it with me and open in a better zone.

Actually, many of them are trapped. Let's do some testing. Does the trap trigger when trying to open it, even if locked, or when actually opening it? Does it trigger several times? Does it trigger if opened from the inventory?

I tried to open it, and it fired something.

Seem to have been a Force Blast, but I haven't been hit. And that disarmed the trap.

Dropping chests in stairs has weird consequences.

Ok, they all had a Force Blast trap, one-use. Seem that it only did shove me a little backward. I forgot to test what would have happened if I had open it from the inventory.

I wanted to throw a bomb at the wall but it seem to go through.

Haha. I moved a corpse I had in my backpack to send it to camp. Somehow, the headless ghost following me didn't approve.

Hmm, she triggers each time I move it.

Anyway, throwing the bomb didn't do anything.

I know those things. I had seen some, broken, in the ruins of the Foundry.

The minimap is telling I should explore this area, but I don't know what I'm supposed to see here.

That might explain it but... What is the Iron Throne? What hostages murdered is he talking about? What hostages?

So maybe me killing Gortash before entering the lower city kinda break this quest line. I'll go back to the sewers.

Act 3 is a walk in the park so far, looks more like an epilogue with my current power level.

Wasn't I supposed to kill that one?

Yep, was on my list. Seems like I don't have much left to kill.

I killed Chef Roveer and Nesha Leesha. The others I found already dead, or their tombstones.

One more ribcage \o/

Oh, an Absolute hideout.

Irenicus ✓

I wanted to do some tests with the chest of the mundane, again. I put gold in my Act 3 chest, and it just turned any gold amount (> 21) to 21 gold. I assumed this was because my chest wasn't glitched anymore.

So I put a bunch of containers in it, clicked the "Take All" buttons a few times, did it again, and sure enough I started to have buggy inventory again. Empty slots, items wrongly displayed, items I couldn't remove, etc. But still no gold duplication.

I loaded an act 2 save, when I had the chest work as a money printing machine, and it still worked. So this isn't something a patch fixed. Maybe it's me moving to act 3 that reverted the chest mechanics.

So I loaded a game in act 1 to see what is suppposed to be the original behavior of the chest in regard to gold. I couldn't replicate the glitch at that point. It was something I did in Act 2 that glitched the chest. I'm happy that I printed that much money.

I was surprised to see a NPC with 72 HP, so I had a look at her inventory. Gonna help myself to that.

I stole a barrel. Got caught. Dropped it. And here I am...

I'm gonna test most of the coatings I have and never really tried.

First, the Arsonist's Oil, that seems one of the more complex. Seems to transform a fire resistance (half damage) to fire vulnerability (double damage). Hmm, I need a target with fire resistance, and I don't see any around.

Let's move to the Basic Poison. CON save, or becoming Poisoned (DIS on attacks). I want to know what the DC is, and how long it lasts.

Oops, I attacked the Fist, but forgot to apply the poison first... F8

So, it lasts for 10 turns.

Throwing it on the floor creates a Poison Cloud. I can't dip in it, but it should affect everyone in the area.

I tried attacking someone, that succeeded with a DC11. That's not very good. Seems also to be static and not influenced by any of my gear or stats.

Also, he got Inoculated, that makes him immune?

For 2 turns.

Let's try the next one. The Drow Poison. Should be a CON save, or becoming Poisoned and falling Asleep. Seems like a better version of the Basic Poison that was only Poisoned.

Ah sh*t, I forgot to disable the Dual Wielding and killed my target too quickly.

In the meantime, I discovered more information about the Shadow-Blinding.

It's a CON 14 save. It's not game changer, but still pretty good.

The log is hard to read. He succeeded, then failed, then failed again. I'll have to try again on a still living target, with only one attack.

The good thing is that Steel Watchers are part of the initiative order, but don't do anything.

The Fist is dangerous.

I made Shadowheart attack, but what the f*ck happened here? She rolled a -3? +3 is coming from her enchanted spear, +4 proficiency, +4 Favourable Beginnings (this power is very powerful) and +8 from STR. So what is this -3 on the roll?

Also, this helmet is supposed to add 2 Necrotic damage to each hit but...

...it actually adds 1d4, which is even better as it can double on critical hits, and as I'm a savage attacker, I can reroll it. Combined with the gloves that also add 1d4 necrotic, that's +2d4 on each attack.

I had Shadowheart also use the Basic Poison, and the DC is the same, so it's a fixed one.

Verdict: Basic Poison is not very good.

I tried Oil of Bane, but I killed the target too quickly to understand what it would do.

Back to the Drow Poison, it's a CON 13 save. And in case of success, Inoculated for 2 turns.

Went back upstairs in the barracks and tried on another one for the Drow Poison. Succeeded again.

I had Jaheira use the Oil of Accuracy, that does +2 to attack rolls. This is really meh. I don't think I can even drop it as a puddle for dipping.

Oil of Bane is a CHA 11 save. Pretty easy to save. The effect lasts for 2 turns and give -1d4 to attacks and saves. Maybe this is something I can throw and make it exploded on the ground and buff my summons with?

I then tried Malice. It's a CON 15, which starts to be beefy.

So I had someone finally fail the CON13 of the Drow Poison. And she fell asleep with the Stricken with Drow Poison effect.

There is no timer, so she might stay asleep forever if I don't wake her up. Her Poison condition only is interesting for the DIS on saves then, because as she's asleep, she won't attack. I'll try to keep her away and see how long she'll stay sleepy.

Oh I see for the Drow Poison. They have to save every round to see if they can wake up by themselves.

Oil of Diminution applies a -1 enchantment to weapons. Can I do negative number of damage?

Also, attacking a sleeping creature makes all attacks criticals (here with a 7!). So Drow Poison is actually very very good. You can put targets out of the fight and/or finish them quickly. It's a CON 14 DC, so fair chances of failing. But if they succeed, they are immune for 2 turns. Better to have it on a range attacker that tries to infect as many targets as possible.

Next: I need to test with the arrow of many targets.

I also got the Executionner buff to trigger. I can have one attack being a Critical Hit, after my first kill. As I put the reaction on "Ask", I can actually keep the buff for as long as I want.

Removing the ring removes the buff though.

I got two Flaming Fists buggued when I killed them. They kept their living poses, but I can loot them.

Man, that's a sh*tty way of keeping your books.

Ah damn, I wanted to kill Cora Highberry, and use the wine tasting as a cover to poison her, but seems Dolor has been there before me.

He's good. He has been fleeing with spells, and throwing paralyzing potions at me.

That was an interesting fight, and I now have a specific NPC I want to get to. I'll be more careful this time.

I found a trapped chest. What happens if I try to open it without disarming it? Nothing. Let's first unlock it.

Just a Guiding Bolt, and I succeeded against it. One time use.

Why does a simple Shortsword +2 (we have better weapons by now) have such a unique icon while so many specific items share the same?

I saw a bunch of Sahuagins arrive from the water. What would happen if I flee the fight. Would they start to kill everyone in the vicinity? Can I bring them to the Thieve's Guild people?

I'm out of the fight. None of my characters are in the fight. But the Sahuagins attacked the Steel Watch haha.

I joined in the fight at the last minute to test my Crawler Mucus (well, actually Karabasan's Poison, but it's labelled the same).

Ring of Regeneration

So, no as good as I imagined. It does not trigger outside of combat, not in turn-based mode, so will only trigger in fight. I now need to test it with other healing gear to check the combos.

I added this ring, so every round I should get +1d4 to attack and saves (Bless)

I should also have my weapons coated with Poison.

I also coated my weapons with Arsonist oil, to see if the other coating would remove it.

So, I got healed for 3HP at the beginning of my turn, as expected. I also got Bless from the ring.

The "Dipped in Poison" didn't apply though because it was only for 3 rounds, and I already had Arsonist Oil for 7 rounds, so it didn't overwrite it. Still, the combo of Healing at the start of each round (which makes it very hard to die) and the auto Bless and Poison is a very good for survivability. Too bad we only get that ring at the end game, where other combos are more powerful.

The issue with the amulet that adds poison is that it will not be applied on my alpha strike, as it only proc on the first round of combat. Also considering I can have similar or better poison with no duration by throwing a toxin on the floor, I'll keep Paralyzing amulet. But the Regeneration ring definitely replaced the AC+1 in Darkness.

Harper Sacrestriker

Spiritual Weapon only stays for 10 turns. And they fixed any potential exploits. Unequipping the staff unsummons the weapon, and giving the weapon to another character doesn't allow them to cast another summon. It really seem to be one per long rest.

That might be a good item for a solo run, to have a summon handy, but otherwise I don't think it's too useful.

Flail of Ages

Apparently I made the Flail an Acid weapon. I wanted to test the Fire version. So it deals d4 Acid Damage, and should reduce target AC by 2. I don't know why there is twice the Weapon Enchantment +1 though.

I also have it coated in Toxin, so that's good. I don't think I can dip it in Fire, I already tested that and it would remove the Toxin.

So, target did take the Acid debuff for 2 rounds. Attacking again does not increase the duration, or stack the AC debuff. Attacking when the target only has one round left doesn't increase it. One has to wait for the full debuff to disappear before applying it again.

The Weapon Enchantment seems to stack. It was a regular +1 weapon, and casting the Elemental transformation on it made it a +2. That makes me wonder if other spells that stack weapon enchantment can stack.

Torch of Revocation

It has basic d4 Necrotic and d4 Fire, which in itself is pretty good. Other additional damages from my other sources of Necrotic damages are added, but not always displayed on the tooltip.

I can't dip it in toxin though. Shadowheart does the animation, but nothing is applied on the torch.

And it doesn't seem possible to manually coat it as it's not considered a weapon apparently.

I dipped in a candle and now the Burning is permanent? First time I see this condition.

As for damage, it does the usual twice the damage dice when in Darkness thanks to the offhand Spear.

1d4 Necrotic (Withering Armament) from the torch, d4 from the gloves and d4 from the helmet.

d4 fire from the torch

I tried some things with regular torches and lanterns. Here all my additional damage is correctly displayed.

On the Torch of Revocation the Necrotic damage is wrongly displayed. Seems like the additional damage from the Torch overwrite the other in the tooltip, but are actually correctly added in combat.

I can't dip them in poison nor manually coat them, but if I dip them in Fire, their burning become Permanent as well.

I throw one on the floor, and it's still burning.

People don't seem to take environmental damage from it.

I even found torches of different colors.

Putting them on the floor, even without the "Permanent" buff, keeps them on.

I don't understand why some have a little icon, some are burning, and other are burning permanently.

Ah ok, I got it. The one with the icon is the one I have in my Light source slot.

What happens if I throw a backpack with Grease, Fireworks and a burning torch?

Ahem? I throw it and a Civilian happened to be walking right there when it landed. Critical hit. Killed him, but didn't make the firework explode nor the bottle break.

At least I could throw a whole bunch of Fireworks at the same spot with one backpack, and THEN throw a Firebolt at it.

I tried to hit Mystic Carrion with my torches and he took no Bludgeoning damage? Why is that? He took a lot of such damage last time.

Hmm. Maybe that's why.

Hmm, attacking with the Torch of Retribution did inflict damages. But he's still marked as having immunity.

I dropped the Torch on the floor and I could damage it.

But he did flee, so maybe the torch cancels his immunities.

I managed to deal 8 Piercing damage from range, while he is supposed to be immune. So maybe it's because I am in the torch range?

Ok, so from there I didn't inflict damage.

While if I'm next to the torch I do.

Hmm weird. Far away here, I could also inflict damage with the crossbow. I thought being far from the radius would make it immune.

Hitting him with the torch does nothing. But with the spear it works...

Oh I know. His immunity are only against non-magical attacks. So my torch is considered non-magical, while my other weapons are magical. It has nothing to do with the radius of the Torch. But it also means the Torch is considered magical.

Hmm, I took a weapon in off-hand and applied a coating, this removed the Permanent buff.

Quickspell Gloves

It adds a passive, that once enabled allows every Cantrip to be cast as a bonus action. This could be interested for a one-time use on a Warlock to cast two EB per turn. One more with Haste.

Actually using Mind Sanctuary to cast them as Bonus Actions as a thief would be even more powerful.

Let's see if Hail of Thorns will put Poison on all targets.

Seems like it didn't even apply it to initial target. Hail of Thorns looks like a spell, it's not using the range weapon stats at all.

Firing an Arrow of Many Targets on a neutral Fist didn't make it explode to other targets.

Once in combat though the Toxin seems to be applied to all targets it bounces to. In this example they all saved, but it seems to work.

I never realized boots have an action attached to them.

And why would this one have a specific effect on it?

Oh, apparently the action is simply to equip them.

Oh, nice to find her again in act 3.

Jaheira is rocking her new outfit.

She seem to have kept everything I sold her during act 1. That might an interesting way to smuggle items between acts.

First time I'm seeing that. What is it?

I throw it. Fire at it. Didn't do anything.

Same for the Fire Explosive. Doesn't do anything.

I think I found the diabolist house.

+2 to hit, Perception and Initiative. Not bad.

Ho, I'm interested on who is coming.

I got two Coins of Mammon and two Infernal Marble and no idea what it's for.

Oh ok, I got the riddle. I stole it from Helsik before ever speaking to her. Let's see how this conversation goes now.

Oh, speaking to her, she has much more content.

And now that I've opened that line of dialogue, I can pickpocket more.

I think it's time to go to Hell!

"I'll say it only once"

The mood of this portal room is amazing. Luskan. Athkatla. Waterdeep. Neverwinter. Menzoberranzan. Baldur's Gate. So many names from my memory.

The whole mood of House of Hope is amazing. The music, the description, the lighting. This is the first time in a video game I really feel like I'm in Hell.

I can steal the Key from Raphael's Safe from Harleep... interesting.

Oh sh*t, I did not see the trap on the safe, and it triggered a battle. And I wanted to be stealthy here... Guess I'll have to become a murderhobo once more.

Seems like I cannot use the Faucet while in combat.

The Imps casting Eldritch Blast were a nuisance, but Harleep was pretty easy.

Hmm. I wasn't the one dealing the killing blow.

All my attacks deal +1d6 Fire damage. That seems better than the +1d4 Necrotic. I also have some spell attack bonus and STR saves. Pretty good.

The Flail of Ages adds d4 Acid, and Acid condition (-2AC), which is good.

The Torch of Revocation adds Necrotic and Fire, but can't be dipped and prevents my enemies from being in darkness, so I lose another bonus. That's a lot of drawbacks, so not the best weapon for my build. Awesome on a Light oriented build, though.

Loviatar's Scourge deals d4 Necrotic and another d6 Necrotic around it. That's the most powerful, but can hurt allies. The Flail of Ages is the most straightforward, no cons, only pros.

I'll save here, because the faucets give me back all my spells as well, so that's an amazing room to test spell combos.

I'm not sure why, but I seem to have managed to inflict four times Purple Worm Toxin to a Spectator. I attacked from hiding, then did one attack and 2 off-hand attacks, and they have all applied a toxin.

Good to know I can solo one of those things easily.

That's a very good helmet. Ability to see in Magical Darkness and not be Blinded. Basically what everyone needs in this party. Immunity to Critical Hit is pretty good as well. I might give that to Shadowheart and have her wear another armor then.

Like, Raphael was already there during Netheril Fall?

Wow, pretty good. Except that I already have Shadowheart with an Elixir that gives 27 STR.

CON set to 23. That is a lot of HP. I gave it to Shadowheart so she could have 137HP and more chance to succeed on her Concentration checks. I gave the Periapt to Naeblys, so he would heal faster.

I got the Orpheus Hammer, and its icon is the old Dispel Magic icon.

I had Shadowheart and Jaheira ready in the Prison, next to the glowing crystals when I picked up the Hammer, so I could send the hammer to them. Gonna free Hope without having to move out of my room.

haha.

Wait, I can control Hope?

There are a lot of Infernal Debtors everywhere, but as I'm invisible, they haven't seen me.

Hmm, looks like I can leave the place?

Hmm ok, slightly more difficult. But with some invisibility potion it should be doable.

Throwing one on the floor, and here we go.

Oh. One cannot leave that easily.

So, Raphael still has the Sussur plant I gave him a while back. But he has all his HP, not the 0/666 last time I left him.

There is a bunch of Cambions, Korilla and Yurgir. I am not really prepared. We'll see how we fare...

Oh but, I'm not even in the fight yet, as my whole party is actually invisible. Well, I guess we'll put ourselves in position, and strike first.

666 is a lot of HP. I still have Twist of Fortune but I'm afraid it will just one-shot him. Maybe I should try to kill his minions and the Soul Pillars? Or focus on him? I don't think I can bring him to 0HP in one turn with that many HP.

I'll focus on Yurgir that will be a nuisance, I had a hard time killing him last time.

I had everyone drink a potion of speed first.

I opened with attacking Yurgir, which was surprised, as well as Korilla, but all the Cambions were not and attacked me.

Raphael itself got surprised, though.

Oh sh*t, I lost Invisibility because of the AoE of Shadowheart mace. Hmm, didn't think of that.

The initial attack by Shadowheart, followed by two attacks and one off-hand by Naeblys killed Yurgir.

And my second off-hand killed Korilla. Now, only Raphael, the Cambions and the pillars left.

The cambions can be blinded by the Darkness, so I'll use it to my advantage. They are pretty resistant though, and it takes almost one full round for Shadowheart to kill one.

I'm going to try Hope Divine Intervention. It's one per game ability, so let's try it.

Hmm. I would love to try that, but I wouldn't know how to get the weapon afterward... My curiosity might make me want to try that.

This is what she got. 1d8 additional radiant is good (too bad Hope isn't even proficient with it) and a +3 weapon.

Both Naeblys and Shadowheart got Lethargic from their potion on the same turn, but Jaheira killed two Cambions with her Hex + 3 Eldritch Blast.

Hope has a lot of spells that deal Radiant damage, but it will be reflected x2 as Fire damage to me.

The Sussur flower works wonder. Raphael only gets power from the pillars, but cannot use it. I'll just ignore him for now.

Ok, so the fight is going pretty well. I only have Raphael left, and he's not doing anything.

Nice new form. But you still can't cast spells, and you miss most of your attacks so...

I really like seeing all those colors.

I just need to imagine Raphael, in ultra demonic form, that can't stop dancing.

Who will do the finishing blow?

Critical Hit by Jaheira!

Hope gave me some VERY good gloves for a monk. Too bad I'm not using unarmed strikes.

Getting back my Sussur bloom from Raphael. I still have one on Vlaakith haha.

And some really nice armor. Anyone can wear it, and set the AC to 21. Reduces damage by 3 as well.

Now, let's explore the Sorcerous Vault.

Interesting spell. Seems unique.

Another interesting one.

A two handed Maul that ignores Bludgeoning Resistance. I wonder if it also ignore Bludgeoning Immunity.

That one seems more promising. So if I do Fire damage with a levelled spell, I can gain an additional bonus action. What happens if I'm in the sphere that allows to swap actions and bonus actions. Can I cast and cast and cast fire spells?

Haha.

What? There is floating platform next to the top of Ramazith tower. There even is a lever on it.

I somehow managed to throw a chest over there.

Too far to fly to there. Seems like crates (as opposed to chests) stack better. I might need to collect more of them.

I tried to stack crates and crates to get there, but couldn't reach it.

I can't really say I have mastered the stacking of crates.

Found this (oh, and I killed Loroakan, he really wasn't hard).

The effect is very good. It lasts until next Long rest, gives access to two new spells, resistance against a specific type, can add proficiency bonus to spells of that type, and also add an effect on each hit.

I was a bit bored in Baldur's Gate, everything is too easy and the city is still pretty big to explore, so I decided to attack the Counting House upfront.