Videogames - Baldur's Gate 3

And with that, I leveled up to 6.

Astarion has started to dip into Warlock. Not sure it's a good idea, but I wanted to test a Sorlock at higher level.

Naeblys is still a Rogue Sorcerer. The Sorcerer dip was to get Friends and Minor Illusion as Cantrips, as well as Shield and Sleep as spells. I also got other cantrips because Sorcerer have a lot of them, but if I were to respec I could probably pick any other spellcasting class and have similar advantages.

And I respeced Shadowheart so she can have one level in Fighter to get proficiency in martial weapons, so she can now wield two hand crossbows.

The verticality of this area is pretty enjoyable to explore.

My first mimic!

With a potion of Haste, Shadowheart almost killed one in one round.

Oh fuck me. I cast Gaseous Form on myself to try if I could go through the rubble, but this triggered a wild magic surge that turned everyone into cats of dogs...

haha, we have backpacks still.

Seems like it only turned the gnomes hostile. I wanted to save one of them but... We'll see.

Oh fuck. I turned EVERYONE hostile.

Well, they're considered Temporarily Hostile, so maybe I can just put them out of combat.

And because Astarion has Armor of Agathys, whenever he is hit, it deals damage to the gnomes around him.

I managed to put all gnomes and the scrying eye to sleep.

I managed to turn invisible and go far enough away so the Duergars stopped attacking me. But the Gnomes are still hostile, and asleep.

I attacked them to knock them down, but it did turn the Duergars back hostile.

And they re-became neutral. Ok, so they won't interfere much, I can just knock out all gnomes.

Ok, so they are all KO, and I still got the XP for them. Does it mean I can take a long rest for them to wake up and re-KO them for more XP?

Wut. They re-turned hostile!

And they killed Shadowheart. Ok, at first I wanted to knock them out and flee, but now I'm just going to kill them.

I managed to move the two survivors upstairs. They are going to throw explosive down, and then resurrect Shadowheart

I put some explosives in a barrel.

I resurrected Shadowheart and put the barrel next to me.

And thanks to Dimension Door, we moved all the way on the other side of the battlefield.

And you Astarion, are going to cast a Flaming Sphere right next to the trapped barrel.

Ahem, it didn't explode right away, but the barrel is burning. I don't know when it will explode.

They are attacking the flaming sphere. Ok, why not. AC16, 40HP, that could be a good bait.

Shadowheart is down again.

Wait, they turned green. Are they allies now?

Shit, they became allies and this flaming sphere will make the barrel explode soon!

Well, they may be green but they are marked as Temporarily Hostile, so I'm not gonna trust that color.

Astarion has been mind controlled and has been running toward the duergars.

I'll be saving Shadowheart with a thrown healing potion, and then turn her invisible with a thrown potion of invisibility. Then I will turn myself invisible as well. Good thing I'm still hasted.

What, they destroyed the barrel before it could explode!

No, get away from Astarion!

I cast Darkness next to Astarion so he would be shot, and it didn't even break my Invisibility \o/

Whaaaaat? He could see him. Or Duergars see in magical darkness?

I'm going to fire an arrow in what is left of my trapped barrel.

Seems like it helped. And because I'm under blood lust, I even gain another action. I don't need to use it as everyone is either dead or invisible and they just backed away.

Uh, looks like I also kinda lost Lae'zel in the camp because she wanted to kill Shadowheart. Tssk.

Whoopsie, the long rest seem to have killed Nere.

So I'm back in the Duergar fortress and kind of at a loss as to what to do here. All the Duergars disappeared, but I can see there are still areas to explore and quests to finish, so I'm going to go through it all with no-one to interfere, and loot what I find.

I killed an animated armor so quickly with a critical hit sneak attack (thanks Luck!) that it just buggued.

I saw a Lava Elemental below and decided to attack him with frost spells from above ground.

And I died? Not because of the Lava Elemental but because the pathfinding algorithm made me walk in lava?

Well, Astarion did quick work of him. Quickened spell allowed me to cast two Ray of Frost per round, and one of them crit, so he went down quickly.

Now, how am I going to loot it, it's a story for another time.

I found a laughing amulet. I like being able to talk to items, especially when they're funny, but having to succeed on a saving throw before using it, well, it's too much, I might keep that for another run.

Pathfinding algo is really weird. I just casually walked into the lava.

Got then attacked by Mephits.

I put two to sleep but the wild magic created a cloud everywhere. Wild Magic is pretty funny, I'll love dealing with those consequences in my next playthrough.

I envision a team of magic misfits. Gale as a Wild Magic Sorcerer, Karlach as a Wild Magic Barbarian and someone else as a crazy bard, maybe Wyll.

I love how she is doing a lot of damage with each strike, and she can attack twice, and one more with her bonus action.

I killed them with no problem, except at the end of the fight, Shadowheart ran to regroup and died by stepping in lava...

Seriously the pathfinding here is terrible, I kept dying just by asking my characters to move around.

Well especially considering you're trapped below it.

I made the big construct appear, put Shadowheart at the center, cast silence, and Naeblys did a wild magic cloud. Seems like it made Grym not attack me anymore.

Casting Silence in the middle, and having two Mage Hand to active the elements really helped. Sleep spells to put the mephit out of the game quickly as well.

I went back to the Myconid colony, delivered Nere head, got the reward. Then killed the previous leader and got Glut to reward me. Then I waited for Glut to resurrect all myconids, and new I'll kill him as well.

I finally moved to Act II, and with that a new map, a new vendor to pickpocket and some new great items. There are a few weapon synergies I want to try, but for that I need real monsters to test it against. I think what I need is a hub of creatures not yet hostile, but that could become hostile. Like I had with the Duergars.

That way I could attack them (knocking them down), and have them come back neutral after each long rest, so I could test my attacks against them.

Let's explore and see if I find such a place.

My new armor is incredible. I lose a bit of AC, but the +2 DEX almost compensate it (I actually lose 1AC). But I have Cat's Grace, ADV on any DEX-based test, like Sleight of Hand. This was basically what Astarion lvl 2 spell slot was for.

I'm using Scratch as a deminer dog.

Another waypoint already? Ok, good.

There seem to be an hidden entrance all the way down. Let's try it thanks to Feather Fall.

And why not dig a coffin up, heh?

But there is no body...

I found 3 out of 4 of the weapons.

A room full of Kobolds. They barely have 10HP, they are no real threat. And they are drunk.

Wow, I love Gremishkas. I want one as a familiar next game!

What the. I had knocked out all Eagles on purpose (I let it call for reinforcement for more XP) and the tiny Blue Jay came and killed the 5 eagles. What a bully.

Such a nice answer.

The monsters! They grilled Boo!

While I was sneakily exploring the creche, I cast Misty Step to move across a room and it triggered a wild surge that turned the guard smaller.

So, I can disarm while staying invisible.

I can cast Minor Illusion and stay invisible.

I can get hit by a repulsion trap and stay invisible.

I can open the pickpocket menu and stay invisible. I can put stuff in it, but removing one breaks invisibility.

I can send stuff to other team members (even if they are on another part of the map).

Casting Mage hand breaks invisibility.

Oh. I tried to pick the egg with a mage hand and it got teleported in a cage. Hmm, this is a devious trap.

Oh ok, I see it now. I might be able to avoid it by jumping.

Anytime I touched the egg, even with everyone looking the other way, and me being invisible, it triggered a cutscene. Not sure how I can get it.

Hey, I managed to get it. I cast and arrow of Darkness to no longer be in view of anyone, then threw it on the side. I opened a pouch, and dragged it into it. Any other Steal interaction actually triggered a cutscene, but this seem to work.

That's something I never had thought about before.

I like seeing maps ingame.

I stole the thing that seem to act as a key. Can I open this right now?

That worked, and did not even break the invisibility. I'm going to venture forth, but the rest of my group didn't even enter the creche yet...

The Duergar ability to turn invisible at will outside of combat, or once per fight is incredibly powerful. I'm glad I picked that race.

I found some nice gloves. Whenever I do Thunder, Lightning or Radiant damage, the target takes 2 turns of Reverberation. Once they got to 4 turns, they take some more Thunder Damage, and can fall prone (also -1 to STR, DEX and CON saves per turn they have)

In itself it's not that good, but if I can find a reliable way to inflict Thunder/Lightning/Radiant damage twice per round, it builds to 4 charges, which can turn the target prone. I would need a spell like Eldricth Blast or Magic Missile, but those are Force damage.

Fuck. Am I the weapon they have been looking for?

I could steal a potion of Long Rest on the inquisitor. That's a good one.

Oh, this is good. The could be nice for Shadowheart as she is already doing all kind of different damages. She would need to concentrate on something, but that shouldn't be too hard to find. Scrolls of Blur and such could maybe help. Or for Naeblys, as he's often concentrating on Invisibility (yeah, but it breaks on first attack).

Wow wow wow wow. This is very powerful. Whenever I cast a Cantrip that deals Acid, Cold, Fire, Lightning or Thunder, I can add my spellcasting modifier to the damage. It's like the enhanced Eldritch Blast from the Warlock, and I think it's also similar to one of the Sorcerer Draconic subclasses feats. Once again, if I can somehow find a way to add an elemental damage to an Eldritch Blast, it might trigger this.

I must say I enjoyed looting all the stuff here before even engaging with the fight.

I got detected while pickpocketing the potion from him the first time, which turned him hostile. I managed to pickpocket the potion the second time, but they are still hostile. Now I'm going to test fighting them and see if I can solo this room with my rogue.

Well, considering I can one-shot the simple guards with a Sneak Attack from invisibility, which make them surprised, and that I can then turn invisible, they just abandon the fight, and I can start again.

Oh fuck, he seem to have also put his mind with teh others from the previous room...

I managed to solo them all, and finished Therezynn with a combo of acid arrow, followed by fire arrow.

Maybe now would be a good time to try this thing.

Arf, didn't work. I'll have to go back and try it again in the first areas then.

So, I managed to kill everyone, except the boss. I'll wait until I bring the rest of my team here and we'll then make short work of him I think.

Anyway, about this item. Does it mean if I put a beneficial condition on a friend, does that mean that I can add its spellcasting modifier to my damage? Does it work on myself?

Oh shit, my little solo endeavour turned all the Gith hostile. Hmm, I do care a bit, I would have liked to talk to them all first.

Ahem, someone put the brazier upside down.

Lockpicking a door does not break invisibility.

Moving an item breaks invisibility. Dropping items and picking them also breaks invis. Throwing also does, and drag and dropping into a container as well.

There are so many synergies in my new stuff I want to test, see if this thing procs when used against myself, if that one and that one would work together, etc. Next session I'll need to talk to people in the creche, and then potentially go to the armory or another room and do a bunch of saves to test various item combos.

Part of me want to test them to understand, other part want to move forward with the story because there will always be more items to discover.

Anyway, that's it for tonight, the only thing I'll be doing is giving the egg to the other lady.

I went to the weird machine.

Oh, so my dream visitor could be a representation of the tadpole?

Oh, more power?

Seems like my Illithid powers are on Bonus Actions now. As I have two of them each round, this is going to be fun.

I initially read this as a way to gain some HP for people that are far from the frontline, but I could actually do that on a target I'm planning on sneak attack, as this would double the damage.

Would this one be added to Eldritch Blasts and Magic Missiles? If so, that would be tempting.

So much happened in a short amount of time. My Dark Urge prevented me from saving the poor gith, but because I had non-lethal damage enabled, he isn't really dead. And they have a magical device (hand-barrow?) to transport him away.

What a welcome. I'm stealing this sentence.

I saw something through a wall. I can't move the statue, but maybe I can clip through?

I attacked a vase, and did 0 Psychic Damage because it's immune to it, but where is this coming from?

This game is incredible. The mechanism was blocked, and I couldn't force it with Athletics, but using a barrel of oil on it allowed me to move it. I tried Grease before but it didn't work (but I learned that casting Grease on an open flame triggered an explosion)

I went on and grabbed the Blood of Lathander.

But it turned the Gith hostile. I don't really know why. Argh I don't like that. I wanted to keep them neutral so I could use them as target dummies for testing my gear.

Tss I'll have to reload and grab the Blood of Lathander later then, fine!

I'll first do all the dialogue with them, and after I'll test the stuff.

Well, I did try to speak to him, but it didn't produce much info, and just another fight again.

So first thing I want to test is the additional effect on this weapon: Break The Unbroken. It appears as one more line in the combat log, of 1d8 damage when hitting a target that has all their hit points. As it's not added damage, but another line, I want to see if it triggers additional damages.

For example, the +2 Acid of Malefic Excretion, or the +1d4 Psychic of Strange Conduit. Would they be added to my initial damage roll, or also to the Break the Unbroken. Let's try.

I also have Morninglord Radiance active, I'll see if it is also added to Break the Unbroken.

Hmm, seems it doesn't take any of the additional damage. Piercing is base, Acid is Malefic Excretion, Psychic is Strange Conduit and Radiant is Morninglord Radiance.

It's actually written in the tooltip. Weirdly all those additional damage are added as part of the attack, but the tooltip let me know where it's coming from. While for Break the Unbroken it's its own line.

I killed the target, and I turned invisible. And there was a mention of me "Succeeding on a saving throw against The Shadow Itself". Which seem to mean that I can sometimes fail this save and not turn invisible?

My attack roll (31) is displayed, as well as my AC. And a DC of 11 and my saving throw (1d20) and -1 because of Bane? I don't get it. I'm the one that is doing the saving throw, but my target is the one with Bane. Roll of 18 against DC11 is a success, so it seems it's me. But why do I have Bane?

I had dual wielding enabled, so he attacked a second time, and the Acid, Psychic and Radiant damage was added again. Those adds on damage really add up with Bonus Actions attacks.

I turned invisible and attacked the other one. Same result, Break the Unbroken doesn't benefit from my additional damage, but is still displayed differently than the other. I assume this is because the main attack is standard, and Break the Unbroken is conditional. It's an added damage, but on specific conditions.

There is something interesting here. I turned off Dual Wielding, so Naeblys won't be wasting a Bonus Action attacking when he could be doing something else. But by disabling it, when I attack someone from the shadows out of combat, it drop me directly into combat right after the main attack. While when I have it enabled, it allow me to attack quickly with the offhand before dropping me into combat.

This means it's more interesting to have Dual Wielding on for the first attack out of combat, then turn it off to better use it in combat mode.

My Gith target dummy also had this crossbow. For 1 round every short rest my range weapon attack deal 1d4 Force damage. Considering that it's a bonus action to cast, and an action to swap weapons it means that it will only ever apply to this weapon.

With a Haste on though, I could technically cast it with a BA, swap weapon with an action, and fire with another action, which should allow me to add 1d4 Force damage to any range weapon. That's a lot of actions, but maybe, just maybe, this could be useful if I ever need a specific weapon to do Force damage. I'll need to test that as well, though.

First, I'm going to test my Dual Wielding theory again. I activated Dual Wielding. I'm concentrating on Invisibility, so I should be doing the initial attack, +2 Acid, +1d4 Radiant and +1d4 Psychic with the main hand. A potential Sneak Attack (only 3d6) if I activate it. And an offhand with all added bonus, before dropping into combat.

I got it all on the initial attack (now pending on the Reaction prompt). I realize that I lose Invisibility concentration at that point, so I'll probably not have the addition Psychic damage on the offhand.

I still have this saving throw thing. Here I failed it. DC11, I rolled a 3, and I still have Bane. But I still received the Invisible condition. While before I had succeeded and also got it. I'm not sure what is going on here. But as long as I get the Invisibility, I'm fine.

If I continue the log, I can see the offhand attack (without the Psychic, as I thought) is dealt before entering combat. So conclusion is, I need to enable Dual Wield when opening combat, and then turn it off when in turn based mode.

And I can re-do a Sneak Attack at the first round of combat. My attack round (where I killed it from outside of combat), and this first round are considered two different rounds.

So I can also specifically make an attack as a Sneak Attack by using the appropriate button. This will include the 3d6 as part of the initial piercing damage instead as two separate lines. This can be useful when fighting Gith that can Parry, because they seem to be deducing 10 damage from every hit on a single attack, and having twice Piercing damage inflicted will make them cancel everything.

So, I should use the Sneak Attack button rather than wait for the reaction if I want to go with big damage. But having it as a Reaction is nice if I don't want to use it if my initial attempt will kill the target already. I think that if I use the Sneak Attack to kill a target but the 3d6 damage is just wasted, I still have used my one-per-turn Sneak Attack.

So, I need both.

I wanted to concentrate on Guidance to double check that the 1d4 Psychic would also be applied to the offhand, but I was having trouble hiding. Here I can't because I'm threatened.

So I disengaged, moved outside of the cone of vision and still can't hide. Neither as an action or a bonus action. Why?

Here I'm starting my turn in their cone of vision and I can try to hide.

Oh, but I forgot it's not Solasta. I can't do a Sneak Attack with the offhand, it has to be a main action, damn. I'll still hit, it will still do some base, Acid, Psychic and Radiant damage.

Oh, it did prompt me, even on the off-hand attack! Nice. I can't specifically ask for a Sneak Attack on the offhand for high damage in one go, but if the target isn't dead, it will ask me if I want to. That's good to know.

Bane, from the Gloves of Power triggered, even on the offhand attack. Good to confirm it works.

I tried to Jump away from the creature, and it trigger an attack of opportunity. I cast Charm as a Reaction and charmed her. So Jump does trigger attack of opportunities. And even if the target has no Reaction and can't attack me (because of Charm), I'm still not authorized to hide.

Does Flourish benefit from my additional damage?

Piercing Strike has a tooltip that says yes, but not Flourish.

I will not know... I missed. I killed it with the Offhand, that does add the various sources of damage.

And this living target dummy had this loot. A way to force a creature to become Vulnerable to weapon damage. A good way to double damage on a specific target.

What I learned:

I need a dedicated Sneak Attack button, for when I need to make sure I have one big number damage instead of two smaller. For example against Parry.
I need to enable Dual Wielding when opening a combat from Stealth for additional damage. Attacking from Invisibility is safe, but concentrating on Guidance will do 1d4 additional damage.
I can Sneak Attack on the off-hand, it will just prompt me to do it.
I cannot hide if I start my turn threatened.
Break the Unbroken is just one more damage line, but does not have all the other bonus added to it.
It is displayed I can Fail or Succeed to turn myself invisible after having killed a target. The result doesn't seem to matter, I'm always invisible.

I reloaded and tried again and so much happened that I need to unpack it. I started with an attack from stealth, with Guidance up. I had turn-based mode enabled.

I did this first damage. Expected, everything adds up. Then I was prompted for a sneak attack, but before I could click, a cutscene played about me resorting to violence will turn the guards hostile.

When I came back to the game, I had been added into initiative order and an additional modal about Attack of Opportunity popped up.

I clicked the Sneak Attack one first, and I have been marked as Invisible before the damage got registered. Then I added 9 more damage, which killed it, which might explain why I'm invisible, but the combat log got confused.

Then, I did the opportunity attack, but I think it didn't do anything as my target was already dead. I assume it was him trying to run away. I lost the Elixir of Bloodlust maybe because I entered combat at that time. But then I hit an already dead target again with the offhand.

What's interesting is that it's a Critical (I have the Dagger of Undermountain that crits on 19-20 there). +2 because of the weapon enchantment, +3 Proficiency, +3 because of the Illithid Power Favourable Beginning (+3 Proficiency on the first attack roll) and +5 DEX modifier.

Favourable Beginning is interesting because it registered it as the first turn of combat. If I scroll back and check my first main hand attack roll, it also has it.

And I still have all my Actions and Bonus Actions. So Dual Wielding before combat allows me to hit twice, and have each considered as the first hit, and not use any action from the real fight.

But what's crazy is that the +1d4 Psychic damage actually turned to 2d4 because of the Critical! Every small dice added got doubled. As it was on the offhand, I couldn't test if it would also have applied to Break the Unbroken, but I assume it would.

What I don't understand though is if I scroll back to my initial attack, it seems the additional Psychic and Radiant Damage had benefited from a reroll to get the best of both dice, but my initial 1d6 Piercing didn't, neither did Break the Unbroken. Do I have something allowing me to take the best damage rolls for elemental damage?

While if I check the damage for the Critical off-hand, they all benefitted from a reroll, even the initial attack. Is it because it's the off-hand, or because it's a critical? It needs more testing

Going to try Flourish on the second one.

So, he parried which is why it didn't do any damage. Also, seems like Flourish doesn't add all the added elemental bonus.

I can also see the combat log being confused and displaying him being Off-Balance before telling he failed the check.

I can see in the detail of the attack that I still have Favourable Beginning because it does not had it on the first attack of a fight, but when it's the first time I'm attacking a creature (or is it if the creature has never been attacked first?).

I can also see that the damage roll has been rerolled (and I still rolled a 1). Where is this reroll coming from? He also parried for 10 Damage.

And Break the Unbroken doesn't have the reroll, but also have the parry in place.

Actually by double checking the reroll of Flourish I can see that it took the worst result (or did it take the second one?). Where is this coming from, is this a Gith ability?

I attacked again with the off-hand, and this time the parry didn't do anything has he had already used it on the other attack. If he had used it, would it have cancelled the elemental damage?

But Off-Balance means I have ADV (I can confirm in the combat log). Why didn't it prompt me for a Sneak Attack?

Well, actually the SA tooltip tells me I can only use it once per turn, but this turn I only used a BA for Flourish and one for off-hand attack. Last time I SA was before the turn start. Maybe it registered it as part of the first round.

I attacked with Gaping Wounds, and this time all elemental damage was added, as per the Tooltip.

The default damage got rerolled this time, and the best was taken. Well, or the second roll.

For Psychic Also, it was rerolled and second one was taken.

But for Radiant it was not rerolled. Maybe because it was already the max?

Break the Unbroken damage earlier was not the maximum and was not rerolled.

Oh, maybe it's the Organ Rearranger, that allows me to reroll damage of 2 or less. Well, it seems to be an explanation. But it doesn't seem to always take the higher result though, I have an example above where it took the 1 after having rolled a 2.

But if it's the case, what's interesting is that it also apply to damage rolls made with the main hand while this Knife is in the offhand. Needs more testing!

What I learned

Flourish does not add any additional elemental damage
Still some weird stuff happening with the damage reroll. I think it's because of the Knife, but it seems to take the second result, not the best.
Also I can't seem to be able to use SA in the first round of combat, possibly because I already used it right before.

This time I took the Sussur Dagger in my off-hand and attacked from stealth. I forgot to cast Guidance, so no additional Psychic damage.

It starts with the regular Piercing, Acid, Radiant and Piercing again. No reroll of damage here, so it seem to really come from the Knife.

Still not sure why people receive and lose conditions. Possibly because we move from out of combat to in combat.

The off-hand attack is still added because Dual Wielding is enabled, before the fight actually start.

I don't know what the last line about succeeding on a save against "Main Hand Attack" is about though.

And I'm invisible (thanks to killing someone), have all my actions, but can't use Sneak Attack again. So I can confirm it's considered the first turn of combat. I assume I won't turn invisible either if I kill someone else.

Oh no, this is supposed to be once per turn. So no, I won't turn invisible if I kill it right now.

What I learned:

Opening a fight with a SA prevents me from using it again during the first round of combat.
The Knife is the thing that makes me reroll damage below 2. Particularly powerful as it also apply if wielded in the off-hand, and also applies to small adds like +1d4.

Now the Knife says I should have ADV against LIght or Heavily Obscured targets. My target seems to be lightly obscured according to the mouse pointer, but the attack tooltip doesn't mention ADV. Maybe because they are Gith and have Darkvision.

Can't easily test that against Gith I'm afraid. Can't test it on Shadowheart nor Astarion as they are elven.

Gaaaaaaaaaaaale, come here. It's for science!

Hmm, this is a lightly obscured area, and it doesn't seem like I have ADV. I tried also with Gale hiding, but still not ADV.

But I discovered that Gale dead exudes Necrotic energy. I might put him in a bag and use him as a bomb.

Before I forget, I need to test if the 19-20 critical also apply to main hand when I have it in offhand, and if the reroll damage also work when casting magic missiles.

Actually, I'm going to test it on Astarion right now.

Well, no. Doesn't seem to apply on Magic Missiles. Ah wait, it only rerolls if it's 2 or less.

Well, the last one did 1 (but the line has it marked as two). Doesn't seem to work, but I'll have to try again.

I did a few test of him firing magic missiles. On one hand there never was a mention of rerolls, on the other he never rolled a one. So I don't know if it happened or not. Anyway, I think this effect of rerolling damage lower than 2 is more powerful on those +1d4/+1d6 damage added to my attacks.

Also, it seems that the Critical on 19-20 also applies to main hand attacks when I have the Knife in the offhand.

Considering that the Shadow Blade element of having ADV when hitting a target obscured doesn't work, this seem a very good offhand weapon, and I can take something that does more damage in the main hand. This could also be a good off-hand weapon for other builds. Any build that adds plethora of small damages, or that fires a lot of attacks would benefit from it. I can see it useful on Astarion if I manage to turn his Eldritch Blast / Magic Missiles into more elemental damages.

Let's try some Hex now. It's suppoed to add 1d6 damage to each attack. Does it stack with Break the Unbroken, or with magic missiles?

This doesn't seem to stack with Magic Missile, but maybe because Magic Missile doesn't count as an attack, as it does not require an attack roll.

But it does work on Eldricth Blast. That's good.

Necrotic is not one of the triggers of Elemental Augmentation (only Acid, Cold, Fire, LIghtning and Thunder, basically everything except Necrotic, Psychic and Force damage), so it won't add my Spellcasting modifier. A correctly leveled up Warlock would add it anyway, but this Necklace might add it twice.

Morninglord Radiance didn't apply though, because it's specifically for weapon attacks.

I need to test if casting from melee with those gloves would make EB considered a weapon attack and trigger the Morninglord Radiance.

I got close to the target, got Daredevil Proximity. Then I cast Hex followed by an EB. I don't know if I lost Daredevil Proximity after the Hex, of if it's just a combat log shenanigan that removes it because the target is dead, but displays it before the attack rolls.

Anyway, I didn't get the Radiant bonus, so even with the gloves in melee, the EB is not registered as a weapon attack.

All it did is remove the DIS penalty of firing a range spell in melee. This is still pretty useful, allowing me to cast my cantrips from melee.

Similarly, the Acid damage is not added to EB as it's considered a spell attack. Better keep this, and Morninglord Radiance for actual fighters.

What I learned:

Hex is damage is added to each EB
Break the Unbroken does not have any additional damage added, as it is considered an additional damage itself.
Magic Missiles are not considered attacks.
Spell attacks, even done in melee, are not considered weapon attacks, but spell attacks.

So basically the definition of an attack is that it needs an attack roll. Spells with saves or that automatically hit are not considered attacks. You then have Spell and Weapon attacks. Each can then be split into Melee and Range, so you can have Melee Spell Attacks (Shocking Grasp), Range Spell Attacks (Eldritch Blast), Melee Weapon Attacks (Sword) and Range Weapon Attacks (Bow).

I tried another attack from Invisibility to open the combat. I did the initial damage and elemental damage, and was prompted for Sneak Attack, which I did. Then the offhand triggered, and this time the Gith managed to enable his Parry, probably because now he is aware of the attack.

This one did 0 damage, and also didn't do any secondary damage either, probably because secondary damages are only added if the main damage source is more than 0. But also of note, I have been prompted for a Sneak Attack on that off-hand attack as well, and it did work.

So if the target is not dead by the first hit, the second hit them and both can trigger a sneak attack. To note: I wasn't in Turn-Based mode this time, so I have to double check and confirm if I can reliably double sneak attack.

I'm absolutely confused about what happened here. I attacked and did the 9+2+3 damage that killed the target, but I am then prompted for a potential reroll on the attack because I apparently missed? Maybe the prompt is buggy and it's the Off-Hand Attack that should have been displayed, not the Main Hand Attack.

I accepted the reroll, and sure enough, it seem that it was for the off-hand.

What I learned:

If my initial attack does no damage (because of Parry or any form of damage reduction), none of the additional damage is added.
It seems I can double sneak-attack if I initiate combat with Dual Wielding on, and out of turn-based mode.

I reloaded the save and tried and can confirm. If I open the fight out of turn-based mode with Dual Wielding enabled, I can do my Sneak Attack on both the main attack and the off-hand in quick succession.

Somehow this time the Gith was surprised and didn't manage to Parry my off-hand. Not sure why.

He also died after the first attack + sneak attack + off-hand. I didn't get the ability to trigger a SA on the off-hand.

I tried again, starting the fight from turn-based mode and I could also trigger sneak attack on both main hand and off hand, but it did bug the display of the target. I should avoid this if possible, as it already crashed my game at some point. The target is actually blinking (can't be seen in the screenshot).

While I have the target dead, I also wanted to test my Arcane Ammunition gimmick.

With a bonus action I enable it. Will it transfer to another weapon if I swap weapons?

Nope, it won't transfer. Is it still on the initial one in my inventory?

Yes, it's still active on it. Can I give it to someone else and and have it transfer with it?

I could give it to Naeblys, and he could still activate it himself as well.

It doesn't seem to stack, even if I call it several times. I send the weapon to camp.

But in camp, it doesn't have the force poison applied.

But does that mean I could pass an item around and have several characters use it. The "once-per-rest" thing is only per character?

I learned that:

I can pass items around in my group while in the same turn and have them each use abilities.
I can reliably double-sneak attack with dual wielding, with or without turn-based mode, but doing it in turn based mode can bug or crash the game

Let's try if we can do multiple casting of the once-per-rest Misty Step. This is coming from the Amulet Of Misty Step.

Once done by Shadowheart, I can't do it again on her. What if I unequip and re-equip?

Still not usable, but I lost an action doing so.

If I send it to Naeblys, he can't do it either.

Same for Astarion. SO why did it work for the Crossbow. Is that only for weapon things?

The tooltip is very similar.

I managed to have Shadowheart fire it, then move to the next turn, and she can still enable it.

Then I moved it back to Naeblys, and he can't activate it until next short rest. But as it's the same turn, it's still equipped with poison.

Astarion on the other hand can enable it. So it seems that this crossbow is treated differently than the amulet, and I can pass it around and each character can have a go at its power.

I can confirm that I can pass the weapon around and each character can enable the Bonus Action Dip before the weapon requiring a Short Rest. And this does not work with the Amulet of Misty Step. So is this because it's a weapon?

I tried with other weapon special abilities, like Flourish, and it's consistently a once-per-rest-per-character, meaning the weapon can be passed around. This is not very interesting for simple weapon attack, but if I have weapon with specific powers (like invocation or long-time buffs), I might be able to duplicate them with this.

Hmm, that's not consistent. I tried with the Hunting Shortbow that gives Hunter's Mark, but as I had already expended it with Naeblys, even passing it to other team member didn't allow them to use it. Maybe it's because it's a Long Rest, or maybe because it's Concentration, or because Hunter's Mark has the ability to be recast for free?

I tried with the Ring of Colour Spray and it did trigger a Wild Surge. I didn't expect spells from items to trigger surges, but ok.

I could pass the Ring of Colour Spray to Shadowheart and it is still available. This one is "once-per-battle", so maybe it's different. Oh wait, it's because the "once-per-battle" (OPB) can be cast as cantrips while outside of combat as much as I want

Pearlescent Restoration can't be shared (OPLR)

Melf arrow from his staff can't be shared either, but also OPLR

MM is also OPLR and can't be shared. I'm starting to see a pattern.

I could make Phalar Aluve shriek with SH, then give the weapon to Naeblys and still have SH have the debuff centered on her, contrary to what the tooltip says (should stop if unequipped).

Naeblys can't use it though, even if it's OPSR. But it has one of two effects to choose so maybe it has an influence?

Ray of Sickness from Staff of Crones is OPSR, so it should work.

Except that it doesn't...

Bless is OPLR and doesn't work

Create water from the Rain Dancer does work

Searing Smite doesn't work. OPLR

I actually just realized the Blood Sacrifice from the Ritual Dagger can be used as much as I want and gives +1d4 to attack rolls and saves. I'm hoping to find an item or capacity later that triggers when I take damage, so I can trigger it on demand.

Hush You, from the Witchbreaker does work. Once again, it's a OPSR

Works, again a OPSR

I was testing this one on Naeblys.

But it pushed him so far away that he landed in an area I wasn't supposed to get to, and now he is stuck and can't move not act. Maybe there are some bugs and exploits to find with the push back from this weapon?

I completely bugged him out. Even leaving camp, he is still stuck, I can't move him, and all his actions are grayed out.

There might be some interesting (ie. fun) interaction between those two. Whenever I jump, I deal Thunder damage and 2 turns of Reverberation, which means -1 to DEX, STR and CON saves per turn. Coupled with a high STR character that pushes or throw people, I can see them jumping, around and dealing damage.

Wait, can't the monk jump any number of times?

Ok, that's a fucking working combo. Dealing damage each time I jump, and Monk being able to jump as long as they have movement, means I can stomp people to death without them being able to react at all.

It's not a large number of damage, but it adds up.

I tried to solo the three Gith just by jumping on them.

It's fun and does a bit of damage, but is mostly a gimmick. On a character whose whole thing is to jump, it's a nice added benefit, but it's not game breaking in itself. Maybe if I can stack more damage than just the 1d4 Thunder damage it could work.

Sword of Justice can cast Tyr's Protection, which is +2AC to a creature until the weapon is unequipped. Well, contrary to Phalar Aluve, this one correctly removed the buff when removing the weapon. And it can't be shared.

I tried Luminous Armor, because I'm under a buff that gives me +1d4 Radiant each time I hit, so it always triggers. Radiant Shockwave puts light on everything around me and -1 to attack roll per turn of the debuff. Each hit adds 2 turns to the debuff, so it basically is the same as having +4AC (in melee) as I can hit twice per round.

I did a bit more tests on that and it seem that it applies on the first attack for opening the fight, both on the main hand and off hand. I killed the first Gith with it applied. Then I attacked the second Gith, and it wasn't applied.

What I learned:

Spells from items will also trigger Wild Surges
Some item capacity "once-per-rest" can be cast several times by using different characters. Not all of them, though. Those that can are:
- Arcane Ammunition from the Crossbow of Arcane Force
- Create Water from the Raindancer
- Hush You from the Witchbreaker
- Razor Gale from Larethian's Wrath
My Colour Spray can be cast as many times as I want outside of battle.
Shockwave (From Hamarhraft), along with Thunderous Conversion and Step of the Wind: Dash allows to jump around and deal Thunder Damage and inflict malus to STR/DEX/CON saving throws. It's easy to make it down to -10 or so, so can be part of a combo that relies on such a save afterwards. Let's call that one Thunder Pounding.
It might be worth equipping Shadowheart with Helmet, Shield, Gloves and Armor for a combo, as it can bring her AC the same as what she would have in cloth. I would lose her movement speed though.
Favourable Beginning seem to only work on the first attack of a fight. It does not apply on every first hit of every creature, only the very first of all attacks (but is applied to both main and off hand with Dual Wielding enabled).

I can just spam Color Spray from my ring while outside of combat to brute force a Wild Magic Surge. That's good. I was just using it against a rock face and it did transformed me into a cat.

I only lasts for 2 turns though.

I have been spamming it, but the Wild Magic Check doesn't seem to be triggered each time.

New surge, I can do telekinesis.

It's saying it only lasts 1 turn in the Surge, but 10 Turns in the tooltip. Which is it?

Hmm, I cast Telekinesis and used it to throw Astarion (which took 1 damage, lost concentration and end up prone), but this also turned the Gith hostile?

After a lot of tries, I also created some fog.

Let's call this, The Eventually Wild Spray, for when I need to spam Colour Spray to eventually trigger a surge.

I could stack Arcane Ammunition with a weapon coating. I then tried to dip the weapon in Fire, but it didn't do anything.

I could dip my melee weapons in fire, but not the range one. At least, there was no effect dipping in Fire if I already had poison on. I could wait for the poison to run out, dip in fire (3 rounds) and then apply poison on top (10 rounds). I some more testing, and sure, once the poison had only 3 round to last, I could replace it with fire dipping.

Seems like I can only have one source of dip (poison or fire), and the one with the longest duration override the other. Arcane Ammunition being considered differently.

Using Venomous Revenge, to get +1d6 Poison damage when healed is considered a Dip, but is applied on all equipped weapons. As it's only for 3 rounds, I can then dip in fire to replace it.

So, a weapon can only have one Dip at a time, and one with a longer duration replaces one with a shorter one. Some abilities seem to stack though, but are still represented as a purple dot on the weapon (like the Arcane one added). I think it requires further testing to see which Dip can stack.

I tried all weapon coating I had, and none stack. Even the Venomous Revenge triggered from the Broodmother's Revenge won't be applied if another coating has a longer duration left (even a Simple Toxin, that doesn't even do damage, if the duration is longer, it won't be overwritten).

I can dip in the embers created by a fire arrow.

I can't dip in an Icy Surface.

I can't dip in the Acid of the Acid arrow.

I can't dip in the electrified water.

I can't dip into a Greased area either.

So basically, I can only dip in Fire?

Well, this time I managed to dip in Water. But nothing was added on my weapons.

But Dipping a candle seem to only work in turn-based mode.

So, to recap:

Only one kind of Dip/Poison can be applied at a time on any given weapon.
- There seem to be an exception for the Arcane Crossbow, so maybe there are more exceptions
A Dip/Poison effect with a longer duration will overwrite an existing one
Some surfaces can be dipped, as a bonus action
- Fire from a Candle can be dipped, but only in turn-based mode
- Water on the floor can be dipped, but doesn't seem to have any effect

Now I did some more testing on the Gith Parry ability. It can reduce the incoming damage of one given attack by 10. If it reduces the damage to 0 or less, then none of the additional damages (Radiant, etc) will trigger.

If they do trigger for any other reason (like Break the Unbroken that is its own special line), or if removing 10 damage still isn't enough, then Parry will also be applied to each additional damage.

But Parry only last for one attack, so when doing a Dual Wielding, it only applies on the first main hand attack, and the off-hand can't be parried.

Now, for the Organ Rearranger. It does reroll damage rolls of 1 or 2, but it does not keep the best result, it keeps the second result, even if it's worse.

Overall, it's still a positive outcome. On d6 and more, the probability to reroll a higher damage is high, while on a d4 it's low, but still better than not rerolling, so I can keep it.

I wanted to test if the Critical Hit on a 19 also applied for spells when wearing the Knife, so I have been blasting Eldritch Blasts at Naeblys for 5mn but didn't roll a 19 yet. But all damage is halved because of Uncanny Dodge. I'm surprise I can do it on every single hit.

Well, it seem to do just that. Halving all damage? That's too powerful. Maybe it triggers on each EB because I'm not really in a fight situation, otherwise it might be only once per fight.

Actually no, after I killed Naeblys and brought him back, no Uncanny Dodge is no longer active on damage he receives.

And now it's applied again each time. There seem to be a link with having to Help him when down.

So finally, I got a 19. So the Critical Hit chance is applied to every attack, no matter if I'm using the weapon or not. Now, will it still apply if I have my range weapon equipped?

Yes, it does still apply, as long as I have the Knife on me, even if I don't have it in hand. So this Knife is one of the best weapon I have found so far, it could even be used by Spellcasters. It double my Critical Hit chance, it allows me to reroll 1-2 on damage.

The thing about having ADV when in shadow doesn't work though. It's even a Light so I can have it in the off-hand easily.

And it seems that I can confirm that Uncanny Dodge is either always on or always off, depending on if I have been downed or not. If I kill Naeblys, and then help him up and heal him, he then seem to have Uncanny Dodge halving all damage until he's downed again.

Currently Uncanny Dodge is not applied. I'm going to put him down and back up and try again.

Hmm, no even putting him back up didn't bring Uncanny Dodge up.

Hmm, the Critical didn't have Uncanny Dodge active, but the second EB had it trigger. They were part of the same spell.

And all subsequent EB have Uncanny Dodge applied to them. What is even weirder is that I don't have the reroll from the Knife. Actually, I'm checking the log and it seems the reroll isn't applied on spells, only on melee attack rolls? This Knife is very buggy.

Something is fishy with Uncanny Dodge, and it needs more testing. If I bring it to my bar, it seems I can toggle it on and off, and when on it just reduces damage by half. I really don't think that's intended behavior.

Oh, I know what happened. It's because I wasn't in a real fight. I then tried with a real fight, and when Uncanny Dodge is enabled, it automatically half the first damage I receive, then it recharges at the next turn of the creature that did the damage to me.

Now, back to the Knife, and what it really do:

Critical Hit on 19-20: Just having it equipped, not even the active weapon enables it. Works for weapon attacks and spell attacks.
Rerolling 1-2 damage: Only applies to weapon attacks, not spells attacks. Doesn't keep the best result, only the second result, even if worse.
Shadow Blade: Doesn't work at all.

Let's test those two together. I would expect to heal 6 HP on each hit. Let's put this to the test.

Ok, so on first try I did heal 6, but maybe it was luck.

I also put Reverberation on my target because I do Radiant damage with each strike currently because of a buff. Reverberation seem to never trigger the Thunder Damage and Prone part, but does debuff the saves.

I'm also going to test if the Sword of Screams can have 2d4 Psychic when I'm concentrating on a spell.

Seems so.

I gain 6 again. So this seems a reliable way to gain 6 HP per round, or even 12 with my double attack.

The thing is that the auto poison dip when healed is also an amulet, just like the periapt so I can't use both.

Back to Psychic damage, the two sources are grouped into one 2d4 damage.

I then went to attack another target, and I still had Favourable Beginnings. So is it active during the first round of combat, or is it on each first strike on a creature?

So:

Periapt of Wound Closure and Flail of Yeenoghu work. I can reliably gain +6HP per hit with that.
Additional damage from different sources stack, as long as they have the same type

Now let's test Blood Sacrifice from the Ritual Dagger. Can I use it to prevent being Mad because of Yeenoghu?

I also want to further test this amulet with Yeenoghu's healing.

I also just realized that Dual Wielders add their DEX modifier to the damage in the off-hand. I'll def need to respec Naeblys to trade Luck for Dual Wielder.

I don't get why I received Blood Sacrifice and lose it right after. This isn't even the name of the buff on hit.

Oh, I think I get it, it's because it was starting a real fight, so it might have removed debuff from the non-combat attack.

So dealing damage to myself through the Ritual Dagger doesn't work as hitting an enemy, so I turned mad.

Also, healing through the Flail does not trigger the weapon dip. And just attacking a target is not enough to not turn mad, I need to inflict some damage for it to work. So overall, this is not interesting for now, but if I find items with cool effects whenever I heal (that are not amulets) that could become an interesting base for a combo.

Same is true for the Ritual Dagger, if I can find items/spells that trigger something whenever I take damage, this can be useful.

This time I want to test this Mace. The tooltip is confusing. Willing Whip indicates a Necrotic damage resistance, but the passive as well. Does it Grant Necrotic Resistance to the target?

Wait, I hit the Gith once, and she got Knock Down for 1 round but she still has 17HP. What happened?

Oh, I guess it's because I destroyed the chair she was sitting on. The blast radius of Necrotic damage on hit might be interesting when fighting several creatures.

I then tried to atttack the other Gith, I missed both my main attack and my off-hand and now only my Bonus Action is used, and I still have an action. Why?

And this action is a real attack x2 action. I don't get why it used a Bonus for my double attack initially.

So, Loviatar's Scourge is nice when you need to go into melee with a lot of creatures, but I need to be the only one in melee because of the friendly fire of the Necrotic explosion.

Oh, I can't Sneak Attack with anything, it needs to be a Finesse weapon. Good to know.