I'm level 2. One more cast per Short Rest and one more spell as well.
Armor of Agathys is not Concentration, and gives me some HP and cold damage when I'm hit. I don't expect to be hit often, though.
This one deals damage, even on a success saved. Frighten creatures can't move and have DIS on attack and saving throws. It also adds after the colon: will be easier to hit; which I don't think is true. They will more likely miss, but it won't give me ADV on them.
I don't understand the duration on this one. It gives me Dash as a bonus action Until Long Rest, and for one turn. Which is it?
I think I'll go with Hellish Rebuke. It isn't a Reaction like on pnp, but some kind of flame reaction ot hits whoever hit me. It's not Concentration.
I also have access to two Eldritch Invocations, and I'll definitely take this one, to add more damage to my Eldritch Blast.
This could be fun, but I don't know I want to use one invocation for that.
That is pretty interesting though in the RP I want for this character. I'm already proficient in Intimidation.
Or, I can be invisible if I don't move. That might be interesting, and I'd like to see how it works with spells that force me to move, or if it could get me out of trouble if I'm in a fight, like I cast an AoE effect that deals DoT damage and hide in shadow. Will it cancel the invisibility? Also, how many times can I cast it? It doesn't say.
Hmm, I don't think it will play well with what I want to do. I'm afraid it will just put creature away from me all the time. Or maybe that's good?
I'm going with One With Shadows to test it out. I think I can always respec later if I don't like it.
I can also replace a spell, but not Cantrips.
Levelling up Shadowheart also gives me Invoke Duplicity, which means anyone in 3m of the illusion has ADV on attacks, which means Sneak Attacks. It's a Concentration spell though.
I don't get new spells, but I can cast a bit more of them.
I now need to pick a School Specialisation for Gale. Abjuration "protects me from harm", but I wonder exactly what it does. It's a shame the tooltips aren't more specific than that. I assume it's to not overwhelm players with too many choices, because they still can respec if they want, but it makes it hard to make choices sometimes.
I checked on the wiki, so whenever I cast an Abjuration spell, I gain one charge. I deduct the number of charge from the damage I take, and lose one charge each time. This can create an interesting buffer, giving me more survivability.
Evocation means I can excluded friends from my fireballs or other AoE.
Necromancy makes me gain HP each time I kill a creature with a spell.
Conjuration gives me the ability to create rain at will. I like "at will" spells, but I haven't tried what Create Water does exactly yet.
Enchantment allows me to hypnotize a creature in melee so they cannot act at all. Considering it's melee, I'm not sure yet. Maybe at later level if I ever dual-class him into some kind of melee fighter, but at this stage, I'd rather have him far away.
Divination gives me two dices I can use for any Attack or Saving Throw each day. This might help in getting that Sneak Attack to land. Even better if I roll a 20, I have a Critical Hit in stock.
Illusion gives me a Cantrip Bonus Action that I can cast while invisible. This is so good. I don't know what it does, but considering it's at will, as a bonus action, and without being detected, I think I'll go with that one.
Transmutation makes me craft more.
I also need to pick two more spells. I thought spells would only come from Scrolls, but apparently I gain some on level up as well.
It makes me so happy to see that they re-used the same icons for most spells as in BG1. The Burning Hands, Charm Person, Chromatic Orb, Colour Spray, Find Familiar and Magic Missile are the same.
3d6 in a large cone, it's a good first level spell. But again, I don't think I'll be in melee.
This one I have on Shadowheart as well and haven't been able to test it yet, so I'll pass.
Does elemental damage and creates a surface on impact. I'm sure there is a lot of potential synergies with this one.
Blinding creatures, meaning more sneak attacks, but it's a melee cone, so not sure. Wait no, it seems to be HP total. Still, from a short range.
One action for 7HP. Meh.
That could be useful. But I will learn it from a spell later instead.
In BG1 and BG2 this had a ton of potential uses depending on the type of familiar. I might give this one a try as well.
Interesting missile + small AoE that always does the AoE.
This one I'm sure will be helpful for some exploits. I'll need to learn it soon.
This one as well. I'd like to see the impact on overworld travel. Out of combat, does it make me move faster?
But this is obviously the best at this stage.
This would force DIS on attack rolls on a creature. I'd rather blind them if I can.
This is another great spell. Much better than 7HP. It's a Reaction and it will potentially cancel much more than 7 damage.
Well, no big surprise, I went with the most valuable spells first. I will learn the others from scrolls. I don't want to waste my "free" spells on level up on stuff I just want to test. I'll test all spells for sure, but later.
Oh, back in camp it seems that Hellish Rebuke is actually a Reaction. It was never mentioned on the tooltip in the level up screen. Well, I'm fine with that, but I'll have to expect a few more surprises when selecting spells at level up next time. I should make sure to always save before levelling up in case a spell choice doesn't work as I expected.
Also, One with Shadows only works in Dim light or darkness. It wasn't only flavor text, it does require shadow to work.
Weirdly enough, me standing next to this torch is considered a shadowed area because it's under the tree...
What is nice is that I can have ADV on attacks from here. It means that a Warlock 2 Dip for this invocation for a rogue would be great, as it would allow them to... wait now, they can already do the same with their Bonus Action: Hide thing. Nevermind.
There is lonely sentinel here, I'm going to test the pickpocketing.
All she has is a potato.
The DC is displayed; interesting.
Hmm, I got caught. Not sure when nor how, I'll have to retry. I definitely was not in a cone when I did it. Maybe I should have fled quickly? I reloaded to test it out.
I forgot how long loading times were. Maybe if I reduce some graphical options it would be faster?
Hmm, so the NPC reacted a few seconds after I stole her. This gave me time to run. She then talked to the guards, who started looking for me. I wonder what would have happened if I would have run far away, or hide. Let's try this.
So this time I ran away after stealing, and came back later when the guards got back to their post, and they didn't tried to arrest me. So there might be some window where they will be looking for me, than cancel. Will they try to talk to other characters, or only the one stealing?
There's only one way to find out!
I stole 3gp, than ran away. They started to talk to my party friends.
Maybe if they catch someone else, they provide other suggestions. Or maybe it's because of the CHA bonus? Anyway I'll try to convince them that it wasn't me.
It worked. Now I need to see if not stealing, just looking is considered an offence, and if character with different Sleight of Hand / Perception can see different things.
Gale can't Pickpocket for example.
Actually no, I think it's because he wasn't in hiding.
The last guard has way more interesting items. Just looking didn't trigger anything.
I did cast Gale Minor Illusion Cat Cantrip, and turned Turn-Based mode, to see if I could more easily Pickpocket. The thing is, it attracted all three guards. The cat doesn't seem to be able to move, though.
I tried to pickpocket in Turn-Based mode but it wasn't available. Maybe because the target was moving?
It seems I cannot pickpocket in turn-based mode. I couldn't also pick pocket several items at once. But I could keep this screen open as long as I want; well as long as I keep hidden at least.
I stole the flaming arrow and ran away. Naeblys said he didn't steal anything; I didn't see any Deception check in the log, but maybe it happened. Then the guard moved a bit to search for Astarion, and got back to her post.
I surprised a Bugbear sneaking on someone. I managed to hide and sneak attack with Astarion, apply Hex, cast a few Cantrips and kill it before it could actually act. The Minor Illusion Cantrip from Gale seem to allow me to turn people around, and change their cone of view, and doesn't even register as a Cantrip, it's an addition action I can do.
And during a discussion with the NPC, I clicked the Trade button and it opened a new UI. Can I do that with every single NPC? Trading stuff?
She has a scroll of Feather Fall, for 88gp. I don't know if that's a lot or not, but that's a spell Gale doesn't know yet, so maybe I should get it.
I can either buy stuff, or exchange against other item I have. This might be where hoarding lots of useless stuff can come in handy, maybe. But I assume my highest CHA character should do the bartering, so it means Naeblys will need to hoard all kind of silly stuff?
Right Click => Open on containers doesn't seem to do anything.
I then tried to talk to her again, and the Trade option wasn't available anymore. I guess whenever I see this icon I should give it a try. The issue I have is that I cannot open containers in that trade/barter screen.
Actually, when opening the Pickpocket menu I can see she has pretty much the same thing. So I could have probably been able to steal the spell from her. At least I can steal my money back...
She saw it, but will she say something if I come back?
I tried to talk to a Squirrel and this happened. There is so much stuff going on here.
And it gave me an ingredient. Great.
Whaa, he is selling a lot of stuff. I'm gonna spend too long reading what it does.
Seems like I can cast spells with the staff?
This is a nice flavor, but only useful for characters having spells and using a bow. Oh wait, maybe Naeblys should use that. Arf no, not proficient.
More damage to burning targets, I can see how this fits into some combos.
I have to test throwing things a bit more to see if it's worth using.
There are some very interesting options here. Gaining a spell slot through a potion. I think, considering the amount of scrolls and potions I find, I need to take the habit of using them in fights before my inventory gets overwhelmed.
I sold a crate full of stuff to the vendor by mistake, and he is trying to sell it back to me for 365gp. Is that the price of the crate, or the crate and its content. If it's the crate and its content it's a good way to organize the inventory: put all junk in one crate and sell the crate.
Neither my Intellect Devourer nor my orange bags could be sold, at least there's that.
I wonder what eating a rotten mushroom does.
Ok, it makes me poisoned, that's it.
If I buy an arrow of fire it's 44. If I sell it it's 5. Same with high CHA character. My pickpocket was worth it if I need the item, not so much to get easy money.
I actually managed to open the Pickpocket window in Turn-Based mode. I used Gale minor illusion to move the vendor away, and then sneak behind him.
I managed to steal the Gloves of Missile Snaring. I then tried to also steal the staff, but I got caught. The DC, if I understand correctly, was 7, and I have +7 to my check, so I don't get how I got caught. Gonna reload and try to understand.
I understand that the DC is 6, and I have +3 from DEX and +4 from Sleight of Hand. Or maybe it means that the DC is 13, and so I need to roll a 6 or higher? From what I understand here, apart from a Critical Fail, it should work, right?
I failed, and then I said I wanted to attack, to be able to read the combat log. Seems like the DC was actually 16. I got my +3 DEX, +4 Sleight of Hand, and +1 Sleight of Hand bonus for a total of 8, and 3 on the roll, which is 12, less than the DC16. Never it was displayed DC16 in the UI, only "Target 6".
Even if 6 was what I should have rolled, it would still have been 6+3+4+1=14, not even the DC16. I don't get this part at all.
I reloaded, and it takes about 1mn. I'll test if with lower settings it takes less.
I talked to the vendor after stealing one of his items, and it doesn't seem to have an impact.
I can even sell it back to him, it doesn't seem to be marked as stolen.
I really don't understand the UI here. It's telling me the target is 4, but I roll a 3 and it worked. The DC was actually 12.
I got myself some interesting loot at this first merchant.
The Staff Create Water is once per Short Rest.
I also learned Chromatic Orb, but it seems that I need to learn each variant, and I somehow picked that one by mistake; I got confused by the UI.
Ramazith! The WIzard Tower of Baldur's Gate!
I cast a minor illusion and even the Ox moved.
Ah shit, I hide through the C shortcut while I should have used the Bonus Action one.
The farmer had a key. Might come in useful.
I like the explanation that we can share stuff when it's moving the plot forward.
But all that for 4gp?
This game just keeps on giving. I'll just buy all those fancy rings.
So there are guards here. Can I have them look away long enough to pickpocket them?
There is Volo. I definitely need to steal that guy.
I have been playing with Gale infinite Minor Illusion, and by playing Turn-Based, I can move one specific NPC away from a group.
Volo has stuff!
I wonder if I can go on a Pickpocket spree with that.
I lowered the quality settings to see if it has an impact on load times.
The map is so big. There is a whole cavern inside of the Emerald Grove, and even more branching ways everywhere. I feel lost already. I don't know if I should retrace my steps back to explore other areas, or continue this way. I guess I'll just continue exploring, speaking with everyone, and seeing what comes up.
Low quality settings seems to make me gain ~15s in loading time. This isn't much, and I'd rather play on Ultra with the 15s added.
Oh, and I decided to follow a right-hand pattern motion when exploring an area.
Even if the pathfinding doesn't allow me to cross, I can jump here to get accross.
Found a chest \o/
There is someone singing by the water. I've seen enough fantasy to be wary of Sirens.
Not a Siren, a Harpy!
3 of them. I cast Invoke Duplicity to add a double, next to Astarion to help him with his Sneak Attacks.
I used Brace with Astarion, coming from his new bow. It's some kind of advantage on damage roll, but it seems to be a specific action and not usable with Sneak Attack.
I throwed a weird Illithid ball that bring enemies closer. That was fun because it could have ended the harpy concentration spell.
Oh shit, I'm dying. Ok, I might not be equipped well enough against this harpy group yet. They one shot my frail team of level 2. And I forgot that I also was out of spells... So better go exploring somewhere else first.
Instead, I went back into the first door I had seen while exploring, and opened the DC20 door.
Reading some disturbing text.
Haha, those most often resurect are the most wealthy, useless and boring people.
The book and the symbol on the walls make me think I'm not in the crypt of the funniest person ever.
Opened the door by lighting the candles.
I managed to distinguish someone one the other side of the door, but managed to stay hidden before I could close the door. Now, time to open and kill them.
Not sure how it happened, but a battle started with the rest of the group, but not Astarion. That's good, he'll be able to stay hidden.
I killed the guard, but as I heard other people speaking, I prepared a trap for them.
I'm wondering what makes Astarion glow like this. Either it's a stylistic effect to simulate his Darkvision, or one of my gear that does light.
Famous last words.
My trap didn't prevent the door from opening, apparently.
Astarion did his first 1:1 kill of a guard with 16 HP.
I then did a misclick by clicking on the Shadow Interface and opened a door and aggroed 5 bandits that one shot Astarion. I then throw some Grease, put a barrel on fire, and almost killed Astarion again.
Astarion died, oopsie.
He is a rough shape.
I ended up putting a chest in front of the bandit that got itself in a corner. I hope she won't be able to move.
I got again some crazy slow ping.
She managed to jump, so not such a good idea.
This statue can be targeted, but not the other.
Memories, memories.
The free Minor llusion from Gale is so good, I can turn people around so I can Bonus Action: Hide and Sneak Attack. I'll have to check if Arcane Trickster got access to that.
I love how random books found on random bandits are linked to the bandit they were found on.
This guy looks a lot of fun.
Oops, I wanted to switch character mid-sneak attack, and I attack Gale. Sorry, mate.
Ooooh, The Amulet of Lost Voices.
Friendly Lich, hello.
Shadowheart got in conversation with them, but seems like I can free Lae'zel from here.