ILLITHID POWERS Tier List - It's TADPOLE TIME - BG3 Honour Mode Guide - Part 1
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 12 ก.ค. 2024
- Rating every Illithid Power in Baldur's Gate 3! These incredibly powerful abilities take your character from good to great with the press of a button (and an uncomfortable wriggling sensation). Learn which are worth taking, and which to leave home!
Detailed analysis and guide to illithid powers and their uses!
0:00 Intro
3:18 The Zaith'isk
4:30 Illithid Persuasion
5:34 Psionic Overload
8:47 Favourable Beginnings
11:55 Force Tunnel
14:32 Concentrated Blast
17:49 Transfuse Health
19:41 Stage Fright
23:32 Ability Drain
27:15 Luck of the Far Realms
29:41 Charm
32:15 Displace
34:05 Repulsor
36:17 Psionic Backlash
38:46 Cull the Weak
42:33 Shield of Thralls
45:08 Perilous Stakes
48:01 Summary and Outro - เกม
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If I recall correctly, psionic backlash can trigger Cull the Weak. Meaning it can effectively kill act 3 spell casters in the 25-30 HP range instantly.
Yes, it triggers cull the weak, and this is REALLY good, the amount of kills i could get using this interactions is insane
Yup. It also activates before they cast their* spell, effectively acting as a counterspell.
Cull the Weak also procs on the enemies caught in a dying enemy popping, I believe. It's phenomenally powerful under the right circumstances.
@@joeyflat1452 Significantly better than counterspell. These casters won't cast a spell ever again ....
😆
@@joeyflat1452wait, then you can’t use it for breaking concentration?
Ability Drain counts as a condition, so you can use it to activate "something happens if you inflict a condition" items, especially arcane synergy for Sword Bards and Paladins
He says that in the Ability Drain explanation!
Yep, exactly - I talk about this in the video :D
Psionic Backlash was done absolutely dirty, the amount of times that thing manages to proc Cull of the Weak or break concentrations is amazing
About Psionic Overload: If you have a Helldusk armor or other ways to reduce more than 2 damage and psychic resistance, for example Silver Sword of the Astral Plane or an elixir, you can reduce the incoming damage into 0 and have no fear of breaking any concentration or invisibility. And due to circumstances, you can have both of these items as well as the Psionic Overload on act1.
True! Even without that I tend to think it's just incredible overall though
I use concentrated blast almost exclusively for after they move out of my cloud of daggers or any other immovable concentration area of effect. If I’m fairly sure they won’t run back through that area, might as well get the extra damage for ending the spell with a bonus action concentrated blast rather than gaining nothing when the spell ends when I cast another concentration spell.
Transfuse Heath can be useful on objects , which can’t be healed- like Halsins gate, or Spirit Guardian. Also one additional use is to heal a character who is using Gloves of the Automaton. I think it’s “B” tier - situationally , for specific builds, it’s very good.
That's kinda neat, the AI seems to focus really hard on Halsin's gate and barely attack the party, so that would make Transfuse Health a pretty nice tool to have on hand for that fight.
My favorite strat is using it on togerheart barbarians. You are raging -> take half damage, and with the sword of chaos and cleave twice per action, and the periapt of wound closure, you can heal a ridiculous amount of Hp every turn. Honestly tje best healing build in the game if you get awakened, since it does not cost any resources
Halsin’s damn portal I swear to god
Its also just a long range help action to get people up. I woulda said its A - S tier honestly, especially as a bonus action
Just use darkness on the portal and no one will attack it
I feel like concentration blast is undervalued. You get it so early that it deals a huge percentage of enemy health and doesn't cost a spell slot. That alone is massive. Than becoming a bonus action and triggering cull? A lot of classes could do way worse for a bonus action.
My problem with it is you can only use it as a bonus action if you already have a concentration spell going,
which in my experience if I have a con spell up I generally want it up or have use for my con
@cadeb5808 Or alternatively you could use a concentration cantrip just for the purpose of activating it, since it's legitimately one of the best damaging dealer a spellcaster can have in part one and it doesn't cost resources, so it's worth the action investment (and the extra bonus action isn't a big investment as spellcasters especially at low level don't use bonus actions all that much
I typically go either for two illithid powers or all of them. Luck of Far Realms is just so good, really hard to pass up, it's cheap, easy to get on all characters. Or I want to utilise Cull the Weak, so then I need all the powers anyway on one character that attacks a lot.
That, with Astarion on a Gloomstalker Ranger/Rogue is nasty.
I tend to put two points into beginnings and luck for my other 3 party members and then stack the rest on my character. It might make cull the weak slightly weaker but is major power spike for the team as a whole
Psionic backlash is vastly underestimated here. The fact it triggers Cull the weak is amazing. It's also worth noting that it could break the concentration of an enemy spell caster which is definitely valuable.
If we add the fact that most of your characters who are not melee usually don't have any opportunity to use reactions, I'd consider it definitely A tier if not even S tier possibly.
Illithid powered Durge build next 👀
I think Baldur's Gate 3 is a work of art...and your content helps me appreciate it even more. So thanks brudda.
Great job, I watch a lot of videos on bg3 and you always teach me multiple things I didn’t know, even after watching vids on the same topic elsewhere.
I gave Gale all the tadpoles, he seems like the one that would abandon humanity for power! :D
That's Astarian for me
@@sterd1149 Karlach too, it is kind of canon (only her and Tav can turn full ilithid), since she wants to escape her inevitable fate
w00t! Been waiting for this one from you! :)
I literally googled if you had made this video yesterday... and here it is!
This is cool! I didn’t know about the zaithisk effect and am looking forward to unlocking that next playthrough!
I recommend having someone with the resistance cantrip with you
@@seaurchinayano6140 and another with bless
Cant wait for part 2!
Wow this has definitely been a long time coming
Great video, keep up the great work.
Man you uploaded this just at the right time for me! Is what I would have said if you uploaded this two days ago. Instead I had to watch two other youtuber's illithid powers videos that weren't as good as this one.
One thing I like concentrated blast for is using decent AOE spells like cloud of daggers and then just using the blast once enemies move out of it 😅
I watch your videos regularly and keep thinking “man can i even learn any more about this game?” Well, I had no idea that force tunnel basically just works no matter what since there’s no saving throw. Thanks for teaching me!
FYI: Displace works pretty decent with the eldritch invocation repelling blast and also I like to put shield of thralls on my summons like my ravens :)
I would love to see you adding the best Illithid powers in future character build videos. For example, if you're buiding a Wizard, these x Illithid powers work best with this build.
I was searching for this video just yesterday
Awakened makes some powers so powerful, while other times they are useless. Definitely curious to see if I’m not using any of the great ones.
Mind Blast as a bonus action is so busted I love it
Thanks for this list. The only one I disagree with is Stage Fright. It's my favorite. Having multiple characters doing damage to themselves on their turns by missing against high AC tanks is S-tier in my book.
YAY Thank you @cephalopocalypse! Been waiting on this one
You finally did it, my prayers have been answered! Thanks Cephalo!🙏❤️
Most hardcore BG3 fans are wondering why he have not yet made one.
One thing about displace.
It also works on eldritch blast invocation "repelling" blast when enemy fails the save for being pushed!!!
So not bad. (it works even when enemy is unable to be pushed!)
Notably, Displace does apply a condition any time you move an opponent, which can be relevant for some items.
I am guilty with building around Concentrated Blast obsessively, precasting guidance just for that purpose
I'd love your thoughts on how to prioritize unlocking powers on multiple characters vs. just one.
Concentrated blast is great for characters who WANT to end concentration, for instance you can use it to get rid of hunger of hadar or sleet storm toward the end of a fight so you don’t accidentally hurt your own allies or friendly NPCs after the fight ends
You can end concentration on a spell at any time. If you look in the bottom left corner of the screen you will see a small (and I mean very small) image of the spell you are concentrating on with an X next to it. If you click on the X you will stop concentrating early.
@@matthewbutner8696alternatively, hold Y/triangle on console
Ty guys
Cool combo grab the gloves of martial exertion that give you an action surge plus at the cost of taking some damage, combo that with shield of thralls. Basically get a free attack or spell and stun everything around you and both can be used on short rest really good on a caster.
Thanks, can’t wait for the next one.
I honestly had a lot of fun with Illithid power has a wizard and sorcerer and more recently Ive been playing with the Aberrant Mind Sorcerer mod and it pairs up fantastically with the tadpole powers
I didn’t realize how powerful stage fright was until this last run. My party is 2 rogues and 2 “tanks” but my tanks have ridiculously high dc.
So enemies are basically always missing attack rolls, which means I usually get a free attacks-worth of damage every time they try to hit me. It’s awesome
as a note about transfuse health, its absolutely absurd on an abjuration wizard because it lets them be the party healer and they dont get focused often because of arcane ward, so it lets you actually use that effective hp well during a fight
263 hours into my first play through and this is the first im hearing about there actually being a point to those unreasonably high checks lol
The best use of Transfuse Health is activating Helmet of Grit conveniently after a rest.
displace is underrated, sorlock eldritch blast build with repelling blast makes great use out of it, plus it also applies a condition for the reverb boots u can proc it a lot of time and the condition i think applies if you just hit them
Other have pointed it out, but I would really put up Psionic Backlash higher. You have the very obvious combo with cull the weak, and if you use it and it kills the opponent you also prevent the spell. In these situations it's straight up a better counterspell. It's especially great if you have it on multiple/all characters, because the damage stacks up really fast. Usually the 4th sometimes 3rd Illithid Power I unlock after Favorable Beginnings, Concentrated Blast and Cull the Weak.
Perilous Stakes triggers on repelling blast for some reason. Total blast on my CC warlock
Psionic Overload with Magic Missile + Psychic Spark + added damage buffs is insane.
Another great video! Keep up the good work. You could do a race/racial feature tier list if you haven’t already
I find Stage Fright really great. Specially playing solo honor without companions. Or when using builds like Radiant Orb, that makes the enemies get even -10 on their rolls.
Also, Perilous Stakes can be used on the enemy to make them vulnerable to all damage. The extra damage they will take is usually much higher than what they heal.
Sadly, perilous stakes can't be used on enemies in honour mode
You could add Survival Instinct to part 2, for completeness's sake.
Love repulsor for when there are a lot of undead fortitude enemies, ice storm repulsor usually ends combat
Tadpole time baybeeee
15:13 ITYM "Like True Strike" 😼
If you want Cull the Weak to be less broken, (not instant killing enemies immune to damage, counting as YOU killing them, not breaking invisibility) there's a mod that fixes it, Unofficial Bug Fixer. Also has a bunch of other really nice fixes for items that don't do what they say they do. I would definitely recommend it if you got this ability and are disappointed that it ended up trivializing your honour mode run. The nerf is made up for by a lot of other buffs. My personal favorite is that it fixes Great Weapon Master not applying the +10 damage to some attacks even though it applied -5 to the attack roll, like the pommel strike. Speaking of that interaction, it's pretty remarkable that Larian overlooked this bug for 3 years, it's not like it's some weird interaction, it's like the most basic thing you'd notice within minutes of playtesting a standard fighter at level 4 and somehow still isn't fixed. Now I can't even imagine playing without that mod. It also fixes some of the broken Sentinel/Polearm Master interactions, but I would personally add "Polearm Master Sentinel Fixes" and put it after Unofficial Bug Fixer in the load order since it fixes _all_ the broken interactions and makes it behave pretty much like 5e.
Psionic backlash is amazing when being used by a Cull the Weak build because it will effectively kill the caster and stop the cast. Even if it does 0 damage it will trigger Cull the Weak.
Psionic Backlash is great, because unlike Counterspell, it's free, just reaction, no spell slot used. So basically, if an enemy is casting a spell that you may not want to use Counterspell (because there are limited spell slots), giving damage is still a good thing. Since you can decide if you want to use Counterspell or Psionic Backlash, it's a great way to manage your spell resources. Also, unlike Counterspell, it can trigger in different situations, so there is only Psionic Backlash reaction, which shows, that it's just great to have as a free damage. Since it also triggers Cull the weak, I would say it's more like A or even S tier.
For spell casters, there are no great powers, aside general ones that are great for all (beginnings and luck). Reactions are fun thou.
What about survival instinct? I know it’s not unlocked in the normal interface, but it follows all of the other rules of the powers and I find it very useful
Perilious stakes might be a good pairing with sanctuary user life cleric
Blackhole OP! 11 lock (temp HP one as you get access to fireball and fire wall), 1 wizard for circle of death and summon angel and another of your choice. You can summon the angel then remove the skill, and it will stay summoned.
Make sure to get Dance Macabre from ancestors of Thay.
Pop haste scroll, black hole, summon ghouls, fireball, mind blast. You will shit on everything. 😂
With legendary staff, u get free level 6 spell on after a kill(circle of death). You want to make sure to pick up Mummy at level 11, as the class version of this skill can only be used once per long rest. Be sure to get circle of death with Wiz.
You rock
Once again I learned something that somehow i missed in several run throughs. I never knew what the zathisk could give you and I always use it and don’t know if I ever got the bonus but I suspect I did sometimes but didnt notice the difference. Im eager to check and see what my characters got.
Question: what about the astral tadpole powers? they seem to be missing? or is that a Part 2.
That will be part 2 (coming tomorrow)!
@@Cephalopocalypse excellent, thanks!
Do you think fighter/warlock would work trying to make a dark knight build that isn’t just warlock/paladin
Perilous stakes = Boss die button
not anymore
Not in Honor it isn't.
@@AC-iq4gb in any mode unfortunately
A part of these powers kind of feels like a sort of unintended (or not) moral choice system, of do you sacrifice your humanity to gain power to help you defeat the Big Bad.
Day 3 of pitching my favorite BG3 creator a new series idea: building a viable honor mode party where all characters have the same Base Class
You can do a lot with not only restricting yourself by you trying to use every subclass at least once (except for wizards and clerics lol), but also maybe even having an interesting thematic element for example your four bars could be fitting into the Beatles archetype, and you have to challenge yourself by using a Valor bard when either of the subclasses would probably do better
This would also give you an awesome opportunity to talk about what strengths and weaknesses each class brings and how for example some subclasses might be great do better / worse whenever surrounded by other similar team members, finally at the end maybe at the end of each video or after you finish a series you could do a tier list ranking which of them would be the most viable in which of them would be the least viable
Thanks for taking the time put of your day to read this, you're a wonderful resource to a lot of people, and I hope you consider this idea as it's one id be super interested in seeing you tackle
There are some classes, for example, a party of barbarians can beat the game as a challenge, but it's very far from optimisation
I usually don't spend any tadpoles until after I get the astral, since it gives you the entire 1st tier for free, then I can spend more tadpoles on the stronger abilities!
You get refunded
Shortchanged Displace bad. It kicks ass on an EK Thrower, since displace triggers on every thrown attack.
I really love psionic backlash, I'd probably have put it in A tier but I guess it doesn't slot into every build.
I don't know if this has been patched, I haven't tested it in a while, but throwing damage used to trigger Displace bonus damage if you threw it from high ground, because the extra damage from height counts as falling damage (which makes sense since the item is falling...). If that still works I would use it on a throwing character
You don't take damage from Transfuse health under globe of invulnerability (and maybe otilukes?) which transforms it to be a massive heal for basically no cost. Although if you have globe up you probably don't need the heal anyway
Psionic Backlash should be way higher because of how low cost it is in action economy and for how well it combos with Cull the Weak. The number of enemies I've destroyed off-turn using a reaction is bonkers. It's a great alternative to Counterspell on lower HP casters too because when they die it stops the spell they were trying to cast.
One weird thing I’ve noticed about Displace is that it procs for me on thrown items a lot of the time. I’m not sure if this is exactly intended, since I can’t tell exactly what it’s doing in those situations.
Great
Warlocks with Repelling Blast can make good use of Displace ! But yeah, still kinda underwhelming compared to the other powers.
Maybe I am missing something, but isn't Psionic Overload basically just the dip bonus action? That also adds 1d4 fire/ poison damage on each attack (or by using a weapon coating, you could even add more)
Partially correct, and it comes with drawbacks, but it does last the whole turn and doesn’t require a specific surface to dip/set up with.
Plus psychic damage can be doubled with the act 2 resonance stone
Well, it is on top of dip / coating for very little extra cost (if you have it as a bonus action).
Also works with spell attacks (mostly interesting for eldrich blast & scorching ray).
Also you can completely mitigate the self damage if you have one of the "reduce incoming damage -2" armours and psychic resistance (e.g. from the "Silver Sword of the Astral Plane").
Perilous stakes is actually super crazy good. Dont use it on your teammates, use it on a enemy to make em take double damage from everything.
Sadly, perilous stakes can't be used on enemies in honour mode (I discuss this in the video)
I’m in a glass case of emotion
By the way, does anyone know what the requirements are for avoiding the saving throw you normally have to make to refuse the "awakening" at the end of act II? I remember in my first playthrough I had the option to say no and ever since then I have been presented with and failed the save every time
Not using a single tadpole ability if I remember properly.
Favourable beginnings is great but it's extremely bugged. In dialogues when for example you have 2 options, like deception and intimidation, it applies the bonus to one and not the other
Concentrated Blast has a special relationship with Drow/Half-Drow, as they receive the Dancing Lights cantrip (concentration) at level 1 with unlimited casts.
Are there other concentration cantrips? Noob asking
@@gregoryjones9926Guidance, resistance, true strike
@@gregoryjones9926 Resistance and Guidance as well which Clerics and Druids get
@@gregoberski5897 so what's special about dancing light
@@gregoryjones9926 Drow and Half-Drow get it as a *racial* ability, meaning even non-spellcaster classes can use it. So a Drow Battlemaster Fighter could concentrate on Dancing Lights.
The strongest illithid power is Survival Instinct due to the same broken mechanics as Blood of Lathander and cleric's death ward.
I need a good sorcerer/paladin build please
Instead of casting a concentration spell and then concentrated blast in the same turn it makes much more sense to use concentrated blast first and then re-cast the concentration spell.
Combines quite nicely with bladeward for example.
I feel ability drain is overvalued here. The -1 coming into play is very situational and only really useful on martial characters. Any charisma full spell caster isn't really gonna be able to take advantage of this, such as warlocks with their Eldritch blast
Eyyyyy
Flying...
The End.
There is not a lot of larva for a full party, so I dont think -1 from Ability drain is worth it.
You play Dota? Nice.
Comment to appease the algorithm gods
Spoilers Act I: Underdark
I think, you’re missing the Survival Instinct skill gained from drinking Omnelum’s potion in the Underdark
Discussed in part 2!
Cull the weak is S+
Imagine using more than one character in this game lmao
Weapons/Equipment tier list or we riot lol. Put a spoiler warning in the title for people who want to organically discover them.
If you're looking up a TH-cam video for this game after all this time focused on min/maxing and on this channel and you're worried about spoiler warnings, you might be delusional. All of these guides assume you've played the game at least once.
@@christophergonzales5182 I agree but he's used that as a reason for not discussing items too much in detail during his build guides
🍿
I never use these as i feel they make the game too easy
This guy really put psionic backlash on B smh
0/10 didn’t use true strike
Charmed I'm sure
Where is black hole? It's the best one!
Probably the next video, this was just the basic powers.
Insert comment here.
Ya they're strong, but the 3rd ring make your character look like shit😢
True. Too bad it is at the end of the game, otherwise, it would be worth having. Final fights are way easier as Ilithid, but that's optional if you side with Emperor, so you don't have to become Ilithid.
I agree that psionic backlash is just B tier, but I really enjoy having and using it.
perlious stake should be STier because it doubles the damage an enemy recieves
Not on Honour mode