Videogames - Baldur's Gate 3

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 basement 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 shit, 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 fuck 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 shitty 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).

It's a CON 13 DC to be Poisoned and Paralysed. There is no duration on the Debuff, so I don't know when it will stop.

I managed to Paralyze two Fists, then flew to the beach, where I get back to a Sahuagin Champion I had made dance with Jaheira at the start of my fight with them. He still has 2 turns going on his Concentration.

The weird thing is that Jaheira is out of combat, but he is, so the spell still counts as a concentration, for an infinite duration as long as it's my turn with Naeblys. I don't see a way to exploit that yet, but one can have a time-limited buff/debuff last forever as long as a character is in a fight and has time stopped.

Oh ok, like the Sleep Poison, there is no Duration, but they can save again each turn. The advantage of that one is that hitting them won't remove the Paralyzation effect.

Hmm, I attacked one that was Stricken with Crawler Mucus, and I didn't auto-crit with my 13. That might be a bug, I'll have to try again.

Hmm, my second attack did crit on a 3. I think I know why. On the first one, I have been asked if I wanted to use my Luck of the Far Realm to turn the attack into a Critical, I declined, and the attack registered as a regular hit. This time I haven't been asked, but it registered as one.

The Paralysing critical from my amulet also suggested I could Paralyze it. But it's already paralized.

Along with the ring, it seems like I can build up a combo of kill => next attack is critical => if critical, can paralyze => build more critical hits.

Nod to Ashererak and Tomb of Annihilation.

Some nice gear on this fellow. Especially the Hood of the Weave. And very cheap as well. And has been worn by Tenser.

There's a Charisma check I can do, but somehow Intimidation doesn't have the Favourable Beginning bonus.

I think I got it.

Such a good story.

I didn't mean to give the Mummy Lord his heart, but somehow this is what I did in the dialogue. Now I'll have to fight him I guess.

First, I'll block the way.

I tried to break the jars by throwing them, but they are immune to Bludgeoning Damage and actually dealt me 2 damage.

I fired on them, didn't expect them to actually explode. They all exploded and broke my nice wall of chest. That would have been thematically interesting to put them at Mystic Carrion feet and make it explode that way...

I'm now trying the arrow of many targets, coated with the Paralysing Coating.

Wow, it seem to have ricochetted to all ttargets, along with the Crawler Mucus.

Hmm, once again, I didn't critical against a target that was supposed to be Paralyzed. Maybe it was because of the Reaction prompt about Luck of the Far Realm. Next time I'll use the Luck and see if the Critical Hit is more consistent.

I used an Illithid Mind Blast power to stun 5 of them, and killed one close to me with a critical hit. I can't move nor take actions, so I'm stuck here.

Wow, what. I did a Critical Hit against Mystic Carrion with an arrow of many targets, and it did a critical on all of them?

That's the default hit. 20 is a critical, Critical Damage is 2d6 plus my modifiers.

And those are the three other targets hit. There is an attack roll on the first one, but not on the others. The attack roll itself doesn't seem to be actually used as it was marked as a critical but was only a 10 to hit. The damage does include the critical though.

2d6 + 2 (weapon) + 5 (DEX). Halved because of their resistance to piercing, but the Arcane Synergy is added flat on top, and not halved. 9 Damage as a Critical Hit is sad though.

Another one, Stricken by Crawler Mucus, that I attacked, on which I didn't get a Critical, even if I don't have Luck of the Far Realm anymore. So, is Crawler Mucus buggy? I can apply the condition no problem, but I don't have critical against them. Or maybe it's only in melee?

Haha, I cast Ray of Frost at the Mummy Lord and he fell on the ground. I had forgotten that she inflicts Icy surface whenever she deals Cold damage.

I plan on killing all the servants and then let the Mummy Lord roam free in the city. Or maybe I should also let the servants free? Yep, let's do that.

Also, something interesting I discovered with the movement speed. I have a base of 11 (9 as a Dwarf and more with the Mobile feat).

Dash says it doubles my movement, but it seems it only adds my base movement again.

Cunning Action: Dash is similar, but it only takes a Bonus Action.

Click Heels though actually really double it.

That's totally enough to just feel any fight.

Now my two other thieves, with one Dash and two Cunning Action: Dash can go up to 36m, which is also enough to get away from almost anyone.

Ok, I managed to flee. He's just standing here doing nothing. Interesting. I might want to bring him to another powerful NPC and have them fight each other.

Oh, shiny.

This is so good. I'm so gonna use that.

I've stuffed some fireworks in the pockets of those kids. I'll try to add more in the pockets of other people, see if they try to use it in combat.

I wanted to see what it would do to make a merchant friendly. So I gave him a bunch of money. Now he's green. Does it mean he'll help me if a fight happens here?

I cast Darkness and will now try to throw a potion of Sleep on the floor, see if it affects him.

Hmm, he saved. Maybe I can knock him unconscious?

Oh, he can be friendly to one character, and neutral to another. That is weird, as it was Jaheira that gave him 11k gold I think. Maybe it's because it was Naeblys initiating the conversation.

Hmm, I hit him with non-lethal damage. I managed to get him to half his hit points without him reacting. But when Shadowheart did attack, he triggered the full combat. I guess I'll now have to finish them all off. I'll try to stay them KO and see what it does.

At least it seems I can loot everything he had on himself, including my gold.

Items equipped are marked as such.

I made a wall of ice on the outside.

This actually put one of the guards on higher ground.

Two of them actually. No wall where there was doodads though. And the Steel Watcher does not care.

Having a guard on the Ice Wall created some weirdness where I could fire at them from inside the house.

There are some strange people in this house though. I might have stumbled upon worse that I anticipated.

Drows?

Fists of Bane?

I closed the door and am hidden in Darkness, and it seem to confuse them to no end. They just stopped moving.

This one is actually almost on the ceiling.

I had Jaheira and Naeblys flee through the hatch, using the good old BG1 tactic of changing zone. That way I could be out of combat, cast Invisibility and sneak back through them all.

I'll let Shadowheart deal with the first floor and I'll have Naeblys take care of the wizard.

Haha, Mystic Carrion is still downstairs, speaking to himself. I might throw some Fireworks at him at some point, just for fun.

Ok, Tomboldt the Pallid is dead. I hadn't had the chance to see what he could do.

Oh shit, the Wall of Ice ended because I had Jaheira out of the fight. Ok, time for her to come back I guess.

I had Naeblys flee the fight on the top floor and hide here, he'll go next round.

Hmm, I don't know how it works. I don't seem to be able to throw it, and clicking on it in the action bar doesn't do anything.

Oh. That's something you need to throw, but Jaheira is not strong enough.

Nevermind, I'll throw another Firework at him then. The range on this thing is impressive.

Oh shit she's in her own fight. I had forgotten she wasn't in the other initiative order.

Nevermind, I'll have her flee in the building.

Leaving the fight, then coming back had some weird side effects on the initiative order. Some of my characters could act while the enemies acted as well, some of my actions were grayed out, etc.

Oh, that was nice. I had Jaheira cast Hex on a guard, and he fell on the ground. That's because whenever I apply a condition, the target gets one turn of Reverberation, and after a certain amount of turn, they take Thunder damage and might fall prone. Doing damage with Hex is nice.

This time I hit in melee the one Paralyzed, and got a critical. So maybe the Paralyzation only gives Critical in melee, not range.

What teh fuck is happening. I was taking Acid Damage periodically while in turn based mode.

I think it has to do wth Noxious Fumes applied on a KO creature. I need to dig more. Seems like Noxious Fumes is kicking at regular interval on KO creatures.

yep, it's the KO guard, with the Noxious Fumes, that killed the Civilian. I got Noxious Fumes because I did acid damage, with my ring. So I should infect someone, then KO it, and see if it carries the aura.

I would never hire those as Bodyguards. They spend the entire fight hiding.

Ichorous Corrosion and Lightning Charges works really well together. They take Acid Damage each round, and for each one, they also add Lightning damage.

Can I remove the crates he's standing on?

Well, yes.

Goodbye

I'll also aggro Mystic Carrion, and flee the fight. See if he would aggro the thug.

Oh, apparently I was too far. He didn't register the attack and just healed himself.

I need to remember that initially, all I wanted to do was to rob this merchant...

After fleeing the fight, this gentleman I threw from the window is neutral again.

No, YOU are no supposed to be here.

Oops. I wanted to pickpocket him, but somehow speaking to him turned him hostile, and the default action was attack...

And the Steelwatch has been impassible this whole time.

Oh, nice one. I actually needed to test the Noxious Fume + KO combo.

WHAT? Thrumbo walked to Mystic Carrion and attacked him?

Anyway, I tried to attack a KO target, and she took no damage, which didn't trigger any effect. I don't think I can really KO someone with Noxious Fumes as the fumes will just kill them slowly.

I'll keep those people KO here and come back after a long rest to see if they woke up.

Interesting note as well, the Ability Drain does not seem to have a duration. So I might be able to stack it.

Now the question is. What happens when it gets to 0?

Zero. Negative?

Hmm nope, seems to be capped at 0.

Seems I can only stack it once per turn. Even if I attack twice, it only increases by one.

Ok, that was fun. I'll stop there for now. Baldur's Gate City is such an helpful playground to test game mechanics.

Tonight I want to do a bit more tests with the elemental surfaces and effects. I had so much fun with Gale necrotic aura, I want to see if I have a way to replicate a similar dot effect through other means.

Like the Noxious Fumes. Why did it trigger so many times on a KO victim? Can I heal KO victims and re-apply it to them?

What about lightning surfaces. Would people take damage when standing in it?

What about other effects held through Concentration? Can I have them last forever if I have the caster stuck in turn-based mode?

I will also have to do more extended testing of the Torch of Revocation, because it seem to have a lot of added damage. The 1d4 Necrotic seems to be coming from the torch itself, not even from my bracers. Strangely, adding the bracers do not add another d4 in the tooltip. It requires some testing.

Using it means I would use the Icy Surface effect though.

I'm going to try the torch in the main hand.

It should do some nice damage. I want to see if there is twice the Necrotic d4.

And I know just the right target. Big bag of HP, can't do much because I put a Sussur flower in its pocket and I can reset the fight if I run far enough away.

Even better. I forgot the d4 Psychic because I'm concentrating.

So it does twice the necrotic d4. Once for the torch, and one for the bracers, as any other attack. So it makes the torch interesting because it adds d4 Necrotic and d4 Fire. I lose the d4+1 Ice, but gain 2d4. That's a win.

I need to be careful because if I hit him too much he will just die and I don't want that.

That's some rainbow attacks here.

So I think overall the Torch is a better weapon that the staff of cold for Shadowheart. I lose the icy prone surface effect that was nice, but can potentially open the way to other combos because I have a free slot for boots and a ring now.

I'll be testing Noxious Fumes with those. They deal Poison, not Acid by default, but still I want to check if the tooltip reflects the reality.

Those are the two other parts of the combo. Each hit inflicts Noxious Fumes. I need to test it on someone that I can KO.

Those fists will do well.

The Poison damage is really a fixed 3 damage.

Oh I forgot that I also add 1d4 Necrotic if I'm not full health. So with the torch and gloves that would be 3d4 addition necrotic, nice. I think I have a mace that does 1d6 Necrotic in an area as well. This might also be a good one if the additional damage is added to each in the blast radius.

That's the one. I need to test that.

Oh, interesting trick. I can do one attack, switch weapons, then do another attack. Even if switching weapons is a full action, it doesn't consume my pending attack. So it opens up combos of doing two main attacks with two different weapons. Nice.

My target also got three rounds of Noxious Fumes. And they also got Poisoned. I don't see a saving throw in the log for poison, so maybe it's automatic. Auto DIS on attacks against me is pretty good. I think I had an item that does specific thing to Poisoned targets.

The one I hit got Noxious Fumes on them, and everyone around (including me), will get Noxious Fumes Damage, taking 1d4 Acid damage. I want to see if it's a pure d4 damage or if it has some modifiers.

The other fist received then lost the Debuff. She is right at the threshold of the zone, so that might be why.

Hitting with my Necrotic Mace didn't add the d4 Necrotic from the mace. Only the d4 from the helm. Maybe it's because I just switched weapons. I'll have to keep investgating.

It did blast my target again with the Necrotic explosion. I was also impacted but with my armor and resistance, it will hardly matter.

Blast Radius are small. Neither the Noxious Fumes, nor the Necrotic Blast touches anyone else.

I hit the other one with my off-hand. It didn't get poisoned, so there must have been a DC or a randomness on the first hit, it's not automatic. Hitting everyone a little bit will multiply the Noxious Fumes. I'm gonna hit the last one now.

I'm not sure the Noxious Fume Damage stacks if they are in several zones at once. It only increase their chance of being in a radius, and make the zone larger, but they won't take the damage several times.

When it was their turn to play, they took the Acid damage twice. Once with Ichorous Corrosion written at the end of their turn, and once without anything written, just acid damage at the beginning of their turn.

I hit one fist with the Necrotic mace, damage was reduced to KO them, but the Willing Whip AOE killed it still.

I somehow aggroed a Steelwatcher. But that allowed me to confirm that the Necrotic radius doesn't add any acid damage nor Noxious Fumes. I wonder if I prefer d4 Necrotic to all attacks with the gloves, or 3 turns of Noxious Fumes with Gloves + Ring. I'll have to dig into my other rings for that.

There is a lot more I want to test. All those gloves add damage to my "unarmed strikes". Does it work on all attacks because I'm a Monk?

I ignore effects of difficult terrain, does it mean I ignore falling prone and being enwebbed or simply I can move my full speed?

I cast Darkness and I'm going to attack the Fist. Let's just recap what it will do:

d6 base, and d6 because I'm in darkness
+2 Acid because of the ring
d4 Necrotic because of the torch, another d4 necrotic because I'm not full health
d4 fire because the torch is lit
d4 psychic because I'm concentrating
Maybe another d4 Thunder because of my gloves.

I forgot to disable Dual-Wielding, and I did a critical hit and one-shot him.

That's pretty much what I expected. No thunder damage, so the gloves don't work.

The Necrotic damage from the torch is included as WIthering Armament.

Same, the "unarmed" didn't work with other weapons. I tested them all on wandering fists, and none work even if I'm a monk.

Erf, she got mad because I couldn't make her attack while holding the flail and so she decided to kill a wandering cat...

Poor Malta.

What?

Why is the fist flying?

Oh, I get it, there is a platform, but the camera angle made it disappear.

Oh come on, as she's made, she's attacking everyone. I should really try to drop the cursed flail on the floor and see if an NPCs takes it and become mad.

Flail of the Ages! Nod to Nalia.

Oops. I think Shadowheart killed an important merchant... Too bad.

I gave her a lot of money to make her green. Cast Darkness, then Sleep. And now I'll pickpocket her.

I even stole my 8k gold back and were pretty lucky.

The flail no longer has multiple heads, each doing their own damage type. You can now switch between Acid, Cold of Fire, each doing d4 additional damage and the associated condition.

It's really only once per Long Rest and count as a coating apparently.

Ah nope, I can have it and dip a toxin as well.

Don't stay there citizen!

Told you so...

Maybe the Fire Flail is worth it actually. It will do +d4 Fire damage, and add the Burning Condition that will do additional Fire damage each turn. I'll have to test it out.

So far I made mine an Acid weapon, so I'll also have to test it.

Yeah, behold and stuff!

Ramazith and the Nymph. Like he was in BG1.

Looks like a puzzle instruction. I saw a similar one about Elminster downstairs.

The other note

I love this.

I can buy this by the way. Only once per Short Rest is not worth the Glove slot. Still, mechanically I wonder how it works. Do I need to activate it and all my Cantrips become Bonus Action. Does it use the charge when I cast the spell or before? What if I have two Bonus Actions? I'll need to test it.

WAT. This is extremely powerful. No way. Auto-heal? With the Periapt it's 4HP every round, that's incredible for a solo run. No need for potions anymore. With gears that also buff me when I heal that might be a way to have permanent buffs.

+2 AC, and can use a reaction to Riposte. That's also very powerful on a monk.

"...spent so long from people that she forgot to miss them". The writing of this game is stellar.

Birthright is very good on any CHA spellcaster. It can go over the 20 limit, this is the first carac boosting item I see that can do that. On Naeblys I'd rather keep the Diadem of Arcane Synergy that adds my CHA to my damage (and procs all the time).

A staff to can Spiritual Weapon. Maybe I can pass it around and have everyone carry their own Spiritual Weapon? I don't know if they have a duration. Need to test.

I stole all the items, but failed a check when stealing a scroll. Still, he couldn't see me, and I could skip turn and try again.

Whenever it fails, I just have to skip turn and try again.

Ok, I think I got all I needed. Well, I don't actually need it, but now that I have all those spells, I'll definitely give them to Jaheira to cast every fight, to test them out.

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 shit, 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 shit, 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.