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After you successfully break Linsella's charm over them through dialogue and a Wisdom check, you can either persuade them or fight them. Linsella drops a Mind Flayer Parasite, so it's always worth breaking her charm over them. If you fail the persuasion on them, they are a very easy fight. If you are Dark Urge, they recognize you and you do not need to persuade them.

@QuiteDisquietly I always kill her one way or another for the worm, but I didn't realise they would join you if you wander over there in the fight. As far as im aware they don't aggro by default when you start that fight from the stairs. Good to know. Has been a fun playthough to watch. I've been playing around with the idea of a crit focused melee bard. I was thinking if you use glyth of warding, hold person, helm of arcane accuity, band of mystic, and some of the free crit items you could run the dolor set up. I was thinking bard 6 ranger 3 theif 3. The free hit off the ranger is another 2 to spell save and the free bonus actions are nice. That being said you might be better off to take 10 bard 2 pali for the smites and bardic secrets. Naturally assassin would give you the opening round of crits then you could use w.e for the follow up round. But we already know the assassin gloom is busted. The bard levels also add a lot of utility. If I want rogue bard tho it's difficult as the bardic inspiration gets upgraded at 10, you get expertise, and bardic secrets so you don't really want to stop at 9. Thoughts or input?

@@logan9042 It may be a tad spread out to go for both a Critical Hit build whilst also focusing on spells or utility. You would almost certainly be better off using one or the other. If you were doing a Bard / Assassin build, it could work, but I tried it before, and it was a bit lackluster. The opportunities where you get to use Melee Slashing Flourish are few and far between. The problem with an Assassin Bard build that wants to use control spells, is that you do not really get a great opportunity to do so, at least for solo, it would still work with in a party however. You almost always want to reserve your Bonus Action to Dash or Hide, so in most situations using Band of the Mystic Scoundrel would be nigh useless. If you are playing solo, it is definitely safer to reserve your Bonus Action and not count on it for CC, you'd also be sacrificing your headwear. Assassin also bursts enemies down so fast that it's usually not worth worrying about CC. If you do use a Critical Hit Assassin build with Bard, the most optimal equipment to use would be Crimson Mischief for Main Hand, Dolor Amarus Off Hand, Vicious Short Bow for Ranged along with using Craterflesh Gloves. Crimson Mischief for Main Hand is better than using dual Dolor Amarus. You could also do a build for sustained Critical Hits if you wanted to dump Assassin and play differently, but the most optimal version again would not let you get 10 levels into Bard. I use a similar build for melee for the Netherbrain, just not with Bard. Using Knife of the Undermountain King for Main Hand, Bloodthirst for Off Hand, The Dead Shot for Ranged and Sarevok's Horned Helmet for Headwear would allow you to get a Critical Hit 25% of the time, and if you went at least 3 into Champion Fighter it would be 30%. You could do 6 Bard, 3 Champion, 3 Thief for an extra Bonus Action and some utility, but you would only have 1 Feat or 6 Champion, 3 Bard, 3 Thief for 2 Feats and extra Bonus Action. If you dump Rogue you could get 3 Feats and spread it how you like between Fighter and Bard. You may not always win Initiative in a few encounters that way though, but you could sacrifice 1 Critical Hit to be able to use Helmet of Arcane Acuity and Band of the Mystic Scoundrel. I am at Myrkul right now on a Bard run, but I am playing dual Hand Crossbows. I plan on not using Assassin this time round unless there's a certain encounter where I feel like I may need to, probably would be Ansur if anything.

@QuiteDisquietly so some context. I was planning on using this for a 4 player game we are starting tomorrow. So naturally it won't be solo. I really enjoy the assassin playstyle but I imagine my companions won't care to watch me one shot every encounter. With that in mind I'm trying to come up with something that has both some utility but also the ability to turn around fights if they aren't going well. The party will be a mix of experience levels. But as you know honor mode fights can snowball against you if you stumble. I could play assassin and just be gimpy some fights. I had considered the monk route as well but starting 6 levels of monk sounds like watching paint dry. In addition, you can't really even use the darkness till act 2. I have been torn between going duergar for the invisibility, allowing me to steal relatively unmolested as well as consistently position and enter fights that I undoubtedly will get dragged into. Otherwise asterian would get the bonuses to hit and spells from happy and the late game damage boosts. By act 3 I don't know that I need the damage but I wouldn't turn it down either. The thought process for bard was I could more or less hold person or put people to sleep and still get crits off. Or some fights just sit back and let the gang run amuck. So the build doesn't have to be optimal. But I might need to optimize. It's a problem. But I'm not forced to stick to one build either. I could always change it as I go. Additional notes for bad if you group ppl with minor illusion you would probably get more use out of the flourishes. It sounds like the crew is planing on being a cleric, warlock/pali and either a druid or a barbarian. As far as gear goes I'm aware crimson mischief gets a ton of bonuses but they don't apply to the offhand and craterflesh gloves as far as im aware. Is it worse for crits but better overall, or how does that work?

@@logan9042 With that said, and if you're playing with a party, I wouldn't worry so much about critical or Assassin. You may as well play Bard like a Bard and use Helmet of Arcane Acuity and Band of the Mystic Scoundrel. As for Crimson Mischief, it is 1d6 + 1d4 Necrotic + 7 Piercing with Advantage and another +1d4 at 50% enemy HP or less. The bonus does not apply to offhand or Craterflesh Gloves, but in testing, I was doing more damage with it than Dolor Amarus, which is 1d4 +7 only on Criticals (Craterflesh Gloves though of course). That could be a fluke or just randomness, but it's going to especially be better than Dolor Amarus if you are with a party and encounters are going past the opening round. That's with initiating combat yourself, as in hitting first with Crimson Mischief which is much better than Dolor Amarus before Surprise. If someone else in the party can Surprise the enemy first, Dolor Amarus may come out ahead. Without Assassin you may need to use Risky Ring to guarantee the +7 Piercing damage from Crimson Mischief, but having Advantage is easier than getting a critical hit past the opening round, and if there is another melee in your party, you'll have Advantage anyways. Either way, you'll have 2 Dolor Amarus beforehand though. I have not played with a party in a very long time, but there may be an Action economy issue with using Hold Person et cetera and then planning to attack yourself. You'd have to attack for Arcane Acuity, then CC, then attack again. In most situations that is going to take at least 2 rounds, or you'd only be able to get off one attack, and that is with being Hasted. The enemy probably would be decimated by then anyways, but it sure would help the team. Like you said though, you can always switch styles depending on what would be needed for the encounter. By the party make-up you've said, it seems like most of the equipment you would want to use would be available without competition. Personally, for melee I like to play Wood Half-Elf, the extra movement is nice, and you get proficiency in Stealth along with Dark Vision and Fey Ancestry.

I cannot quite remember all of the details, as this was from maybe two months ago. I do know I was a pure level 6 Great Old One Warlock here. I think the equipment I was using was as follows: Head: Haste Helm Back: Cloak of Protection Chest: Potent Robe Hands: Gloves of Dexterity Feet: Boots of Speed Neck: Spineshudder Amulet Main Hand: The Spellsparkler Off Hand: It probably was Safeguard Shield Ranged: Bow of Awareness Rings: Not sure, but one was Coruscation Ring. The other was Ring of Protection or Crusher's Ring. I did some Act 2 before this, so some of the equipment was from Act 2. I also had Dark Lady's buffs on from Sharran Sanctuary in Reithwin Town. My only Feat would have been an Ability Improvement.

It could, but it is not safe. I close the door so that they cannot cast on me or Shadow Step to me. Most of the enemies here cannot be Blinded and hence they are able to see through Darkness / Hunger of Hadar. You could also do it by outranging them, but that is risky as many of them are able to Shadow Step.

Thank you.

So, to answer the important thing first, I had played Karlach as an Eldritch Knight until this point, as I couldn't long rest due to wanting to keep buffs. The "Weapon Bond" from Eldritch Knight stays on through re-spec, that is how I was able to have it. I do have to warn you though, it did not happen this playthrough, but during my Lae'zel playthrough I had a near game breaking bug happen because of this, I could not trade or drop any item because of it, and I did not see a bug fix for it during Patch 7 (this was patch 6). Maybe there was a way to correct that, but I tried and could not figure it out. For the Fear bit, Berserker Barbarian's Rage at level 6 (Mindless Rage) makes you immune to Fear. If you do end up using Eldritch Knight or something else instead, outside of Barbarian here, you can use "Protection from Evil and Good" to be fear immune. It takes your concentration, but it is worth it. It also helps with avoiding damage from the Necromites, as it gives them Disadvantage on their attacks, which can end your run here. If you are on Honour Mode, make sure you are throwing bludgeoning weapons, there aren't any great ones at this point, but they are much better than the alternatives due to resistance.

It is in a "mysterious hole", just outside the Northern wall of the Blighted Village. It is near the windmill that Barcus is tied to.

Oh, he is not the worst, technically speaking at least. That'd be Shadowheart, but yeah. I had loads more fun than I thought I would have with Wyll. He is so annoying if not playing him as an origin. He is always crying about something and constantly needs to speak with you, but this way, it's pretty rad. Oddly enough, I surprised myself with how much I loved playing origin Wyll. He talks too much, but other than that, he's great.

Being racist over a game is wild child work lol.

@@QuiteDisquietly every time I used him in my party he would fail his melee attacks drove me crazy

Just one Ability Improvement. I don't know what I had here precisely, whether it was split between Wisdom or what, I cannot remember, but Dark Lady is +5, so that would have been 19 beforehand and I know I had Auntie Ethel's Hair +1, so I'd guess that I had 16 base Charisma and one ASI for +2 Charisma.

@@QuiteDisquietly oh, I thought dark ladys gives +2 now it makes sense. Thanks!

@@hazeless4398 what is dark lady?

@@D3rkable you can see 3 dark Lady's buffs at the start of the video. You can get them at the centre of the map in act 2 after a fight and after solving a small puzzle and getting into sharran sanctuary (x-152;y-30).

You can do this, or better probably. Don't discount yourself, I've had a lot of practice, and I mean a lot! There's always room for improvement, believe it. I look back on these things and think about how dumb I was for not doing this or that. You can do better, trust me.

@@QuiteDisquietly Yo thanks! I just beat it earlier today as a Human Bard in Balanced mode, took a while in the second stage under the tower, but act 3 is gonna be fire.

Because I want to do the fight.

For this playthrough, I used mostly Light for Act 2 and used mostly Tempest for Act 3. I had to multiclass and go 4 Sorcerer 8 Tempest for the Netherbrain so that I could have Sorcery Points, just in case. In Act 2, some of the bosses are a little easier with Tempest due to Sleet Storm. I just recently completed another solo Cleric playthrough with Origin Shadowheart and used mostly Tempest for Act 2, built around not Long Resting and having the Dark Lady buffs for the entirity. I used a strange spec for Shadowheart for Act 2 that is like my new favourite thing, but it's only viable during the time when you can have the Dark Lady's buffs on so that you can have decent Charisma with high Wisdom. Pure Tempest Cleric with 1 Feat being Magic Initiate: Sorcerer for Ray of Frost and Shocking Grasp and Shield as the spell, using a lot of Sorcerer equipment (Potent Robe, Necklace of Elemental Augmentation). I wouldn't recommend doing that though for the first attempt solo in Act 2, but it's better overall and was really fun. Although I did successfully complete this run solo as Cleric, I look back on it and see how poorly I did things in comparison to my latest run with Shadowheart. I leaned too much into using Thunder in Act 3 instead of just doing a Wet combo with Lightning like I should have.

I was using both attacks to start combat, just not every time, due to laziness or forgetfulness. I would have if I noticed I didn't have it enabled. Are you speaking about Assassin specifically though? I was using an Assassin build, so it refreshes your Actions upon combat, if that is what you're speaking of, but I'm fairly certain you know that. As for not using my Actions, do you mean I am not clicking the buttons? If so, I have my Main Hand and Off Hand Attacks set on custom keys for Mouse 4 and Mouse 5 and R to switch between dual wield and single.

@QuiteDisquietly yes I am aware of the assassin action point refresh. So in the first minute for example you attack the guard. You get your supprise round and free action refresh. Then you attack again killing That guard. Your blood lust procs giving you a second action but your action points don't decrease. It happens again with the second set of guards. It happens again around 4 mins. I'm assuming you have the extra attack still ready to go from your opening attack so it is not consuming any actions. However I haven't been able to consistently get that to happen when I open combat. I'm just trying to figure out if there is a trick to that or it only happens when you go first in the initiative older. From your confusion I'm assuming there is not infact a trick.

@@logan9042 Yeah, I get what you mean now. I've been wondering about it myself for a long time now, and you are assuming the same as me. Sometimes it happens never and sometimes a decent bit. I have similar but different things happen on other builds without Assassin as well, so I am almost certain it is not Assassin dependent, just happens more often with it. I don't know of any way to consistently make it happen, though I've never really tried to sort it out, it seems random and must be a bug. This isn't what you are speaking of, but the only trick I do know concerning whether to use dual wield or not is that, if you kill an enemy in a single blow, you will not get a Surprise round on the other enemies, but if that single blow is followed by an overkill with the Bonus Action, you do.

@QuiteDisquietly it sure would be conventional if we could consistently proc it. As far as the killing, someone you are 100% right. Even if they are standing next to each other it seems the person being attacked needs to see you and survive to proc the supprise round. If you have pass without a trace or use one of the weapons that doesn't break stealth/sneak attack they will look for you and then once they see you it will start combat with no supprise round. Rather annoying tbh but I assume it has something to do with how they coded the supprise round mechanic. In other news I've explore a few more weapons monks varrients and have conclusively decided that monks just shouldn't use weapons. You could possibly make an argument for level 12 but it's basically just swapping the fighter for the monk levels. But until you get full build unarmored attacks are better. And if you go assassin you want the free attack off gloom. If you were going thief you could possibly make an argument. But ranger has an absurd amount of utility in spells and armor options and assassin is almost mandatory to deal with some of the raid bosses before they turn on. Have been doing my first totally solo run using more or less your build as inspiration and it's been a refreshingly new experience after rolling the game with a team.

@@logan9042 Yeah, unfortunately it is the case that there's always a better build to use than one that incorporates Monk into it if you are going to use weapons, at least for solo play. I'm looking for something new to do myself. I finished my series of solo origin characters yesterday and I've already done all classes except Paladin, which I probably won't ever do as it's boring and just smite spam. I've done Bard before, but I am thinking that, it's been like 6 months.

I ended up changing to a Critlock build for Act 3 once I had the proper equipment for it. It was 4 Champion Fighter / 4 Assassin Rogue / 4 Warlock in that order when I wanted 3 Feats or 4 Champion Fighter / 3 Assassin Rogue / 5 Warlock. I used Ability Improvement Charisma and Spell Sniper for the Feats, and the third Feat I switched around depending on the situation. I used Sarevok's Horned Helmet, Knife of the Undermountain King, Bloodthirst, and The Dead Shot for Crit.

It was just a pure Great Old One Warlock. The only Feat was Ability Improvement: Charisma. I had the Dark Lady's buffs on from the Sharran Sanctuary in Act 2. The equipment is as follows: Head: Haste Helm Back: Cloak of Protection Chest: Potent Robe Hands: Gloves of Dexterity Feet: Boots of Speed Neck: Spineshudder Amulet Rings: Coruscation Ring; Callous Glow Ring (Alternates would be Crusher's Ring; Ring of Protection) Main Hand: The Spellsparkler Off Hand: Sentinel Shield Ranged: Bow of Awareness

I used a Potion of Speed directly before speaking with Isobel and the third Action is from the proc on Elixir of Bloodlust after killing Marcus.

@@QuiteDisquietly God bless you, kind soul.

I started with 16 base Dexterity and used an Ability Improvement for Dexterity; I was able to dump Constitution due to using Amulet of Greater Health. The other Feats were Ability Improvement: Wisdom and most likely Mobile as well for this encounter. I changed my build a lot and this was from many playthroughs ago for me. I am currently here on another solo Cleric playthrough again as Origin Shadowheart and I will not use the same build or equipment, I have since changed my mind on some things.

@@QuiteDisquietly excited to see the new gameplay! tyty

I don't use any mods at all. What are you speaking of?

Thanks!