The BEST EVIL PARTY In BG3 - Honour Mode Darkness Party Build Guide
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 6 ก.ค. 2024
- Four great builds and they all work great together! Annihilate enemies with the power of DARKNESS - they'll never know what hit them!
Making sure all characters have great synergy, don't compete for items, and cover every possible scenario is hard. Luckily, I've got you covered!
For full video guides to the individual builds:
Great Old One Blade Warlock / Oath of the Ancients Paladin: • BREAK THE LOCK(ADIN) -...
Storm Sorcerer / Fiend Tome Warlock: • The WILD COFFEELOCK - ...
Beastmaster Ranger: • The ULTIMATE BEASTMAST...
Nature Cleric: • NATURE CLERIC does EVE...
Full detailed level guide from 1-12, including stats, feats, items, and abilities!
0:00 Intro and Build Goals
3:20 Lockadin
17:26 Sorlock
37:18 Beastmaster Ranger
56:27 Nature Cleric - เกม
![The BEST RANGER in Baldur's Gate 3 - [Updated] Minsc Honour Build Guide](/img/n.gif)
What a super rad concept for a party. Love it ! Your builds are super cool and very intuitive to understand 🎉
Oat of Ancients evil Lockadin without breaking oath? Better save money to payoff the Oathbreaker Knight
If the Oath-keeper isn’t the party face or isn’t making the decision themselves, will that keep the Oath from breaking? If so, I would likely play the Sorlock so your Cha is still your primary stat, and theoretically your Paladin’s Oath would break significantly less; but probably still semi-frequently.
"Oat of ancients" is a fantastic oatmeal brand.
@@Bodehi_The_Archivist Oaths still break whether they are the player's main character or a party companion.
@@gregoberski5897 That might depend on what it is you did to break it... For example, I remember that killing the hollyphant to become an assassin of Bhaal broke my paladin shadowheart's oath, but when I reloaded and had a different party member land the killing blow, it was fine.
@@Bodehi_The_Archivist as far as I’ve seen the paladin needs to have been the one to actually do the deed (usually the game deciding some cultist of an evil god attacking you was actually innocent bc they have low hp), but if u keep them back it should be fine
Could you please post a Truly OP Party build where each of the four members center their playstyle around True Strike?
That would be so broken. the game would be too easy. He probably wont make a video on that
I really enjoy your party videos. Thinking up parties makes all the mental gears turn in a very enjoyable way. Thanks!
Perfect. I am almost done w/ my current honour mode playthrough and was wanting to do an evil sorc build. Your timing is always impeccable.
E: Oh even better a beast master. I've been wanting to try one.
Whoa... I'm about to start my honor mode run with another set of your character build videos (Best Party Honor Mode), but this made me question that decision entirely!! Fantastic as usual, but more than usual here!!!
Been binging some of your videos as I come back to the game to trophy hunt. Love the content, pacing and communication. Keep it up.
Broooooo, perfect timing!! Just started my 3rd play through (first DUrge) going full evil party with Lockadin as main last night! Timing could not have been better 😘
I asked yesterday and you delivered. Amazing
I would love to see some of these parties you create in game play scenarios with your commentary, showing how these builds come into fruition would be super cool. Great work!
Love the Beast Ranger idea. I've been theorycrafting a Darkness-based party around Shadow Monk, so I'll be adding that one to the list.
You are really the best at doing BG3 guides and builds ! I learn so much thanks to you, and I enjoy particularly your party builds. Also the fact that we don't need specific late game stuff to be able to enjoy the build you make are really nice. Please keep doing this amazing job if you can !
I'm specially happy to see this party build, because I have started a game with a similar flavor, I will say, but didn't work really well, specially in early game, so I just stop playing with that save (Im doing honor mod now so, it's fine), but I do want to come back to then, because I have the best idea on the RP side for this play through, and I will be using this builds to make this fun to play ! So thanks so much !
Thanks very much! I appreciate the kind words :D
@@Cephalopocalypse For real. One of the things I appreciate most is that you stay away from "breaking" the game. I've checked out some builds from other YT channels and so many of them rely on exploiting stuff like permanent flame blade, etc. Also the more free-form itemization. So many builds out there have super strict itemization needs to make the builds work. Unrelated, but I'm still mad that the Potent Robe means you can't do evil stuff for a good portion of the game, dammit Larian.
Yeeessssss these are the most fun builds, and I've been waiting for your take on this party comp. I'll probably still go with your oathbreaker Minthara build if I'm doing an evil run just to save the hassle of constantly breaking the oath. I'm sure that's still plenty effective.
Something that would be super appreciated (not sure if there’s audience for it but there’s at least one) would be a brief rundown of an order to tackle things in act 1. Doesn’t need to be super detailed every fight breakdown just kind of a general flow as to not stumble into crazy hard fights without expecting it.
That is actually rather easy in Act 1. With some minor difference between Good/Evil run I recommend:
1) Recruit SH, Astarion, Gale, Lae'zel as party members at crash site. Don't approach the Grove yet, rather head to Dank Crypt to get Withers for respeccing.
2) Then do the Druid Grove stuff. Lots of talking.
*) Recruit Wyll.
*) Talk to Auntie Ethel to start the quest to visit her at the Swamp.
*) Save Sazza or not. If you release her she will help you peacefully infiltrate the Goblin camp later. To do that you will need to lead her out through the Underground Passage that is basically next to the cage she is held in.
*) Play with Alfira to complete her song.
*) Rescue Mirkon from the Harpies. The harpies can be a bit annoying because of their charm spell.
*) Then inside the Emerald Grove save Arabella or not.
* Find the Secret note of Kagha in the druid's quarters.
* Talk to Nettie to find out Halsin is gone and trapped the Goblin Camp.
3) Afterwards head out to the Forest & Owlbear Nest for the cub; then get Scratch on the outside above the owlbear nest.
4) Go to Blighted Village kill all the goblins or not (depends on race; for example Drow can pass easily without even a check)
*) Save Barcus Wroot from the Windmill or not. If you save him you will meet him at the Grymforge next.
*) Recruit the Ogres to fight for you or not. ^^
Now there is a choice either to complete the stuff in the Blighted Village, to go North or South of the Blighted Village. I would recommend doing it so:
5) Go to Risen Road in the North and to the most south eastern part of the Risen Road to get Karlach. Make sure Wyll is in the party so they can talk things out immediately. Kill the Paladin's of Tyr guys at the tollhouse with Karlach.
*) Alternatively if you are a bad guy you can pick up on the Paladin's offer first and kill Karlach because she will leave your party anyway after raiding the Grove.
6) Then go South of the Blighted Village to the Swamp to the Druid sanctuary and fight the guys there and find the evidence against Kagha. Then head back to the Druid Grove and face Kagha with it. That will stop the most important "ticking timer" in whole Act 1 because you have only 10 long rests to do that once you first visited the Druid Grove; or otherwise the Druid grove closes forever.
After that you are basically "free" to do stuff in whichever order you want. You have all companions you can immediately get in Act 1 so you can start ramping up approval and the Grove stays open. However usually this the order I do things in then:
*) I usually steal the Idol of Silvanus immediately after resolving the Kagha issue because the Druids won't be circled around the idol. Gives nice buff to your party if you keep it in the inventory. At least I never give it to Mol even if he requests it. That annoying little shit can get wrecked. xD
7) Apothecary Cellar for the Necromany of Thay. Just don't open the caskets in the area before the magic mirror, rather shoot them to not get surprised by the zombies and take them out one by one.
8) Go down to Whispering Depths
*) Find the Blacksmith stuff so you can start the Masterwork quest.
*) If you are brave you can immediately fight the Spider Matriach to unlock the Necromancy of Thay. The fight can be tough but extremely rewarding because you can cast Speak with Dead anytime afterwards which unlocks lots of story stuff. Before taking on the Matriach try taking out all of the spider eggs in the area while in stealth, that will make the fight much easier.
9) Head back to Swamp and find Auntie Ethel. After the initial talking find her underground lair behind the fireplace and then take the fight to her to get Auntie Ethel's Hair. Bring some caskets or other stuff you can place on the poisonous vents when going down her lair otherwise it will be really annoying to get past that shit. They are the most annoying traps in whole Act 1. During the fight with Ethel if she's low on Health and you have turns left DON'T kill her, she will stand down and propose a deal herself. You can save Mayrina with it too.
10) Head back to Risen road and in the northest parts help Rugan and Olly against the Gnolls for the Missing Shipment. Whether you take the shipment from them or not will determine how the guys will treat you at the Zhentarim Hideout. ^^
11) Waukeen's Rest, save at least Florrick from the inferno; maybe the other trapped guy but he is not as important. Do it the same day as you go there otherwise they will definitely die in the Inferno.
12) Find the Zhentarim Hideout in the back of the barn of Waukeen's Rest. Depending on how you handled the Missing Shipment they may welcome you or not. On a good guy run they will likely be hostile, on a bad guy run they will likely be your friends and ask you to kill Rugan anyway. And in the end if you are evil you end up killing the whole hideout anyway just because you are looting bastard. ^^
Next choice is whether you want to proceed with the Goblin Camp or go to the Underdark/Grymforge. It depends a little on whether you are good/evil and whether you freed Sazza or not. If you free'd Sazza you may go to the Goblin Camp first (which I describe further down).
But asssuming you didn't free Sazza I would do it the way I describe next.
I usually go to the Underdark/Grymforge before the Goblin Camp because without Sazza you need to pass some checks at the Goblin camp and if you fail them you could easily end up turning the whole camp against you and depending on how well you are doing it might not be easy; so better go there once you are more prepared/higher level.
13) So go to the Underdark either from the Zhentarim outpost with the Elevator or from Auntie Ethel's Lair but Ethel's route requires some tricky jumping. Optionally you could do it from the Spider Lair, but you will need feather fall or you will die from the jump.
14) If you used the Zhentarim elevator you will be pretty much next to the Myconoid colony, which is optimal.
*) Talk to Spaw and say you will avenge them by bringing Nere's head. That will get the Grimforge quests started.
*) Talk to Thulla (poisoned gnome) and heal her (you likely have enough antitodes at that point to do it immediately). This is also a timed quest. If you wait 2 long rests she will be dead or something. Anyway after healing her she will want you to save the Gnomes that are still slaves at the Grymforge.
*)Talk to Blurg the trader to get Omeluum to look at your tadpole; he will task you to get some mushrooms, which are found at the Wizard's Tower in the south of the Underdark.
*) Talk to Derryth the trader to find her husband is gone while picking Mushrooms.
You have a choice what you want to do first. However avoid to talk to Glut yet.
15) I recommend finding Derryth's husband first. He is a bit west but still north of the Myconoid colony. He will be surrounded by those nasty mushrooms that explode with poison gas if you get close. But enhance leap/fly will get you to him easily. If you toy around you can get the Noblestalk too. You have the choice of giving it to Derryth (she will give 3 back in Act 3 if you can wait) or you can keep it, but then she will dislike you. ^^
16) Head further north west in the Underdark to the Sussur Tree. Fight the Hook horrors and get the Bark required for the Masterwork forge Quest.
17) Then head south of the Myconoid colony towards the Selûnite outpost. You can get inside there with some enhance leap or flight, or using a small hole if you have the right spells. Then shut down the barrier by shooting the Moonstone.
18) Somewhat West, directly next to the Selûnite outpost there is the fight with the Spectator that petrified the drows. In best case kill it before it can unleash the Drows on you. But not too annoying if you have to kill them as you can talk to them with Speak with Dead.
19) Head west to the Wizard Tower and solve its puzzles. If you want you can fight Bernard but you don't have to.
*) On the Way to the Wizard Tower there is a secret area with BOOOAL. You can either kill them all or resolve it peacefully. You can get the buff for all of your companions if you are tricky and manage to steal the Sickle from that one guy. That can bypass the requirement to sacrifice one of your companions. :P
20) Back at the Myconoid Colony talk to Glut. Pick him up on the offer to avenge his circle and then go down to the Beach and kill Gekh Coal and his band. Afterwards Glut will ask you to kill Spaw because he wants to take over his Circle.
*) If you refuse you will have to kill Glut. Usually the good guy approach.
*) If you are evil and pick up on Glut's offer it will have to wait; dismiss Glut temporarily because next you will be going to the Grymforge where he cannot accompany you.
21) Go to the Grymforge. But only go there if you are fully rested first.
*) Either fight the pirates on the way there or not. If you kill them you will have to pass a check upon arriving the Grymforge though.
22) In the Grymforge you have a time limit again. Trapped Nere will die if you take a long rest. So that is why you want to have most of your powers when you get there because it could get a bit rough.
23) If you are a good guy you can take up on Brithuar's offer where he wants to backstab Nere when he's freed. If you agree he will help you in a fight against Nere.
24) When talking to the people at the cave-in you will get multiple options on how to deal with the cave-in.
*) One of them involves finding Philomeen; she is located at the Northeast corner of the Grymforge map. Can be tricky because she will likely try to explode herself with the Runepowder.
*) Otherwise smokepowder bombs work just as well if you have picked some up. You may need 2 of them though to get through the rubble.
25) After Nere is free you have multiple choices to deal with the situation depending on whether you are evil or good.
*) Side with the rebellion and kill Nere. Probably the good guy solution.
*) Side with Nere and kill the rebels. Probably the bad guy solution.
*) Kill both. The most evil solution. BUT that will tougher because they will all gang up on you.
If you pick the latter I recommend playing them against each other, first picking a side during the fight. Because they will take each other down. After the first battle completed you will immediately be drawn into conversation again. During that you can decide to backstab the survivors as well while they are still injured. Makes it a cakewalk. xD Don't go out of conversation because if you do they will try to heal up and you would have to fight the survivors at full strength again.
Anyway after Nere situation is resolved you are free to do whatever again. In either case you likely want Nere dead to get his head for Spaw back in the Myconoid colony.
26) Then explore the Grymforge area. Collect all the Molds you need for the Forge later. Solve the puzzles at the top floor of the Grymforge to get behind the rubble to enter the Ancient Forge.
*) You could get the Sentient Amulet at the south west corner of the area for a quest from the lava pit, but it may be bit tricky to get there because of the lava blobs. To make the jumping easier you could kill the Elemental but it needs to be outside of lava or otherwise it will regain health.
*) You should collect the Mithral at the East edge of the map; but there will be Magma Mephits and they can be a pain in the ass because they will cover the whole area with fire and there will be like 8 or 9 of them.
27) After you have the Mithril and Molds... go to the Forge and place them inside and start the magma
*) Once the fight with Grym starts try to lure him below the hammer and smash him when he is there.
*) Alternatively place your party members each spread out to one of the 4 platforms and take him down the hard way.
Anyway make sure that Grym is always super-heated (he will be as long as he is in magma and remains such for 2 turns outside).
Be smart about using the turn order to your advantage. Every time it is your turn you want to hit Grym with the party members that are closest to Grym first and with the party members that are farthest the last. The idea is that the last member that hit him will pull aggro towards them; which is optimal when they are the farthest away, because then Grym can never get to them during his turn. That way you can get him to waddle back and forth in the middle of the arena, possibly smashing him with the hammer. Grym never gets to one of your guys and you can easily wear him down until he is dead. Easier bossfight than the Spider Matriach. ^^
After fighting Grym and crafting the weapons/armour you are done with the Grymforge. You can head back to the Myconoid colony.
28) There give Nere's head to Spaw and finish the quest and talk to Thulla who will reward you if you saved the Gnomes.
29) If you picked up on Glut's offer to kill Spaw get him into your party again and then kill Spaw.
* If you are an evil bastard like me you can then kill Glut after he took over from Spaw for the ultimate betrayal and kill the entire circle. xD
After that you are done with the Underdark; only thing left is the Goblin Camp and what route you want to take there.
30) Go to the goblin camp.
*) If you helped Sazza it will be easy to get inside. Otherwise persuade your way inside for a peaceful route.
*) Otherwise fight. You should be strong enough to take on the whole camp should it boil down to it. But you can be tactical about it if you can lure goblins out of the camp and pick them off one by one.
*) Whatever route you take you might find the Owlbear cub there and can persuade it to go to your camp. But it might not always be there depending on weird circumstances that I don't know. So don't depend on it.
31) After you cleared the surface area go inside the Shattered Sanctum.
*) If you are not peaceful your only option may be to fight and kill absolutely everyone here. But let's assume you are not hostile.
*) Get the Absolute's Brand from Priestess Gut. Then tell her to meet her at her private chambers. Follow her to her chambers in the western part and then assassinate her while you are alone with her.
*) Afterwards you might get the Absolute's Brand from one guy in the main hall on your other characters as well if you like; makes it easier to use some of the Absolute's gear on whomever you want.
*) Go to eastern part and torture/free Liam or not.
*) Next get Loviatar's Love buff from Abdirak by letting him slap your butt. xD
*) Then free Volo and tell him to go to your camp. At camp he might offer to give you the Ersatz Eye that lets you see invisible enemies. If you are into that; albeit easy fix for the aesthetic is if you give your character eye colour "Blue 3" because that matches exactly with the eye. ^^
*) Then go down to the Worg Pen. Either save Halsin there to recruit him later in Act 2 or not. If you are evil it is pointless to save him because he will hate your guts after destroying the druid grove and will never join your party. ^^
32) Next will depend on whether you are a good guy or bad guy. If you saved Sazza, as mentioned, you could have gone to the Goblin camp earlier than the Underdark because you will bascially be guaranteed free entrance and not having to fight in the Goblin camp.
*) So if you entered the Sanctum on good terms with the Goblins you can go down the Defilled Temple, which entrance is found in Priestess Gut's private chamber.
*) If you enter the Defiled Temple you will need either to persuade the ogre Polma there or kill her.
*) After exploring the area you can solve the Stone Discs puzzle and open the passage to the Underdark which leads to the Selûnite Outpost. So this is the alternative route to get into the Underdark and easer way to get to the Wizard tower early on. That is usually how I enter the Underdark first because I usually save Sazza for the sole reason of getting to the right side of the Selûnite Outpost and disabling the Moonstone defense and shutting down the barrier.
Anyway even if you are on a good standing with the Goblins and even if you went to the Goblin camp just to enter the Underdark, don't talk to the leader of the Goblins Dror Ragzlin or Minthara before completing pretty much all of the quest & fights above. Because talking to Ragzlin or Mintharae will trigger basically trigger what I call the end of Act I.
There several reasons for it.
*) Dror Ragzlin might see through your ruse and turn hostile. If he does, the entire Goblin camp will turn hostile no matter if you were on good standing with them or not. So does killing him. So you cannot take him out unless you are prepared to fight the entire camp.
*) If you talk to Minthara she will want to start the Raid on the Grove after the next Long Rest.
So you see where I am getting at. Those 2 characters have a huuuge effect on how Act 1 would play out if you do them too early. So save them for last.
Anyway assuming you completed everything else:
33) Talk to Minthara first. Either pick up on her offer to raid the Grove or not.
*) If you don't want to raid the Grove you should at least knock her out if you want to recruit her in Act 2 and lead her to redemption.
*) Otherwise if you don't want to recruit her you might as well kill her right there.
*) If you want to be evil and raid the Grove be prepared to Raid the Grove the next day. Minthara will leave the area after that in preparation for the raid.
*) You can tell her you want to raid the Grove, but you are not obligated to uphold that because you can betray her during the Raid in front of the Druid Grove doors.
34) After that you can talk to Dror Ragzlin and kill him.
*) You can take him out safely now because at this point you probably cleared the whole goblin camp anyway and even if you are evil you can still kill everyone in the whole camp for XP. It will not matter. Not even if you agreed with Minthara to raid the Grove. She will not care or know that you slaughtered the Camp after she left the Goblin Camp. ^^
35) The final showdown at the Druid Grove. Well not much to say there.
*) Either you betray Minthara if you lured her there under false promises and defend the Grove and become the hero of the day.
*) Or you become the most double crossing bastard in history of Faerun by opening the Gates for Minthara and slaughter everyone inside. ^^
If you do the latter don't forget to tell Zevlor that at least he won't live long enough to see the children slaughtered for his priceless reaction. Poor bastard. :>
Afterwards there is nothing left to do in Act 1 except for heading to the Mountain pass.
@@medusalem9485 damn bro, much appreciated
@@seanz6274 No problem. I had written most of that for myself already some months ago because I struggled the same way during my first few runs. The amount of stuff that gets thrown at you and the non-linear way to do stuff can seem overwhelming unless you get some structure into it; so I tried to make it such that it can be generally applied for both good&evil run with minor differences.
I still struggle with some parts of Act 2 & 3 however.
Act 2 I am sometimes unsure whether to go to Moonrise Towers or to Last Light Inn first; because some of the encounters in both locations might change how the story is told.
Albeit I think the best approach probably depends on whether you play...
*) Good guy... Betray the Drider during the ambush & join the Harpers & go to Last Light first and get Isobel's Blessing, then infiltrate the Moonrise towers.
or
*) Evil guy... Go to Moonrise, rescue Minthara, then infiltrate Last Light Inn instead. (so pretty much the reverse)
Either way you could Betray the Drider, take his Moonlantern, or free the pixie inside and get the buff to roam free in the Shadow Cursed Lands.
Afterwards for Act II most of it is pretty straight forward and mostly just exploring the area in whatever order you want and fulfilling the quests in any order you want (with Rolan in the Dark being the only quest that I know of in Act 2 that is time-based and where you have to go immediately after him or he will be dead).
Some of the situation & quests will be set in stone anyway due to your actions in Act I; because if you raided the Grove, then all the Tieflings will be dead, and you will not have to rescue them from Moonrise prisons, same with the Gnomes from the Grymforge. And without Halsin you can never restore the Shadow Cursed Lands (Which on an evil run would not make much sense anyway, ontop of that I actually like the dark theme there).
The order does not matter up until the "end" of Act II when going to the Gauntlet of Shar (with a Point of No Return) where you have to make the hard decision what route to go for with Shadowheart's personal story, because well, her action with Nightsong either destroys Last Light Inn and kills everyone there (except for Jaheira) or not. That is unless you killed everyone there yourself already with the Isobel-Marcus sub-plot (which can be accidentially failed as well even on a good guy run so best just place Sanctuary on her if you want to keep Isobel alive at all costs) or because your Dark Urge told you so.
After Shadowheart's decision is made the only thing left will be to raid the Moonrise towers & deal with Ketheric anyway. ^^
Anyway don't let Balthazar inside the Shar temple annoy you. Kill that fat bastard the first chance you have while you still have all the advantages of long resting & fast travel; killing him is what it boils down to anyway; agreeing to his terms only delays the inevitable (even if you are on an evil run). At the latest kill him at the meeting with Nightsong. If you wait longer, then it will be harder, because once you are in the Mindflayer colony you cannot fast travel or long rest; and the fight in his Mindflayer lab with all the zombies can be brutal (it almost wiped my party out the last time even without Balthazar being there; it was actually harder for me than both Ketheric & Apostle of Myrkul).
Act 3... well damn... structure- wise Act III is a whole mess because Act I&II have so much influence about which characters & quests will be available and which won't because of all the characters that either hate your guts or are dead depending on what actions you took in Act 1&2. ^^
The easiest part still is Rivington, but after entering the Fortress and City it branches out horribly. You will be running so much back & forth it is ridiculous.
Albeit I suggest trying to complete the Companion quests first before dealing with Raphael, Gortash & Orin.
Best do it area by area, explore every corner and see whatever other minor quests you still might have available. The real annoying thing is that there are sooo many NPCs everywhere that have nothing to say and which are just for making the area feel "populated" that it is easy to miss someone (quest-wise) or something (item-wise) important because you hardly will ever talk to everyone in the area.
@@medusalem9485 act 3 doesn't really need a guide because you are so strong anyway you do it doesn't matter. I would recommend doing the tower first though, that shit is way too easy especially if you have a guy who can hold person effectively and a melee dmg dealer. Act 1 i think that siding with the goblins, even on an evil run is a miss. Besides the Minthara sex(which is fucking awesome especially on a Durge where you can decide her fate as well) or drunk shadowheart(cool the first time you see it, but its pretty heartbreaking tbh cause i love SH to death, she is such an adorable companion and she is definitely the safest and should be the most used companion in pretty much everybody playthrough simply cause of Guidance, bless and you get her first in act 1after the nautiloid). You can get the full Dammon set and then decide to branch out into evil or good run at the Gaunlet of Shar decision. You don't lose any companion and you get the free set of armor before him dying(don't forget to kill the ox too if you are a fire sorcerer and wants to min max your way in act 2, that helmet is probably best in slot, if its not party face). Remember to save Jaheira too. Never tried, but i believe as the Durge, you can also save nightsong THAN kill isobel at Last light inn. never tried that myself yet though
Man, I love your content!
Absolutely love this! Gonna definitely use it for my durge 😈
I was wondering what type of evil party I should make for this new patch, nice timing!!
Keep it up, great job!
The darkness has come! I’m so excited!
awww hell yeah, cephalopocalypse back at it again to help me plan my embrace durge run!!
Hey, could you make a build that plays around a Dark Urge Tav? Slayer form in particular :)
Definitely on the list!
@cephalopocalypse i cannot with you sometimes! this is the second time i have started an honor run and your vid is PERFECT for what i'm thinking to do! i just started a durge HM where for the first time i'm going to ***TRY*** to be evil. haha. amazing dude!
haha, awesome - good luck!
Great video, really dig the theme here! Any chance on a mono-class (non-throwing weapons) Eldritch Knight Fighter? After watching your mono-class Arcane Trickster Rouge I'm curious on how you'd tackle another subclass a lot of folks say is not as good. I'm also a huge Eldritch Knight fan, at least conceptually.
Hey man - since you say in your videos that you read every comment I hope you are reading this one:
I just wanted to let you know is that the videos you've produced on baldur's gate have gotten me through a rough spot in my life as I have struggled with depression. the funny thing is I barely even f****** play baldur's gate, but Ive played a lot of DnD, and something about the content you yave produced for this game has been so relatable and enjoyable that Ive looked forward to each one.
In lieu of my ability to support monetarily, I hope that you will take this feedback and gratitude as my thanks. ❤
Hey, thanks so much - glad they're helping! I know how tough that struggle can be, and I hope things start looking up for you soon
Ah, it's a darkness party (sad shadow monk noises)
I really wanted to include a shadow monk, but I was finding that a melee character that either has to skip getting early blind immunity or delay your damage by two levels felt pretty rough in practice. In the later game it would be excellent though, and you could easily replace the lockadin with one!
is it possible to do a followup video with these builds showcased in one combat situation? love this idea a lot!!
Be warned if you're gonna try these strategies/builds:
Hunger of Hadar still blinds you even if you have Warlock Devil's Sight or the Eversight Ring. You can't see through HoH no matter what which means you can't use ranged attacks or gain advantage from it. I think this is a bug but some people say it's intended to be a special kind of darkness that nobody can see through.
One of the main ways to become immune to blindness in act 3, the Helldusk Helmet, does not work as intended and won't let you use ranged attacks through a cloud of Darkness, even the basic lvl 2 Darkness. It still gives melee advantage though. This helmet is bugged.
Hi Cephalo, I tried to search for a tierlist/explanation video for the illithid powers but I couldn’t find one. In case you haven’t posted a video about it, are you planning to do so? Thanks for your amazing content, it’s helping me a lot throughout my first run
Different creator, but this is one I listened to th-cam.com/video/QGiyGRFPpco/w-d-xo.htmlsi=0fCwIwy78TqB4EtS
I'd love more thematic party builds. My mind immediately goes to a Reactions based party (Divination Wizard/Lore Bard/Light Cleric maybe even with the Lucky feat). I'd also love to see a Resonance Stone/Psychic damage themed party (Bard for Vicious Mockery, Shadow Monk, maybe a Shadow Blade Ring character).
Perhaps shadow monk is my favorite character in the game, and I want nothing more than to work a character with mostly shadow monk levels into this party. Is there a decent way to make that substitution in your opinion? I saw you mention in a reply to another comment subbing out the lockadin? What's the main problem with that route?
Completely separate question, have you ever done a build maximizing taking dual wielder on a caster for two staffs?
Wait, this is sick... I'm already playing a Dark Urge run with my usual main party having an ancients paladin durge, beastmaster ranger Minthara, and cleric Shadowheart, I can totally use this as inspiration to tweak my builds for more synergy. Nice!
Hey, have you ever made a build that focuses around using the tadpole powers? I thought of this bc of the mind flayer in the thumbnail.
Since the sorlock is the one mostly running haste, it's actually best to go sorcerer 5 for haste since the haste you got from warlock is only once per long rest.
I just finished an Honor Mode with a very similar theme (Beast Master Darkness TAV/ Minthara Darkness Paladin / Shar Shadowheart) and it was easily my most OP party build by Lvl12. I knew something was up when I was taking out bosses in one turn.
Just tried it out and it's such a fun build! Accidentally provoked a fight with an entire goblin camp and was able to dispatch it with a single cloud, no AOE and pretty bad gear. And yeah, if you play durge, you can consider your oath broken by default. Probably best not to pick paladin as your party face. Oathbreaker makes sense thematically, but not being able to respec kinda sucks. I'll probably try it again with your recommended setup :D
Can you make a party around the bards short rest? So maybe a party where all have access to song of rest and also different classes benefiting massively from short rests.
Truest of strikes for the truest of souls ^_^
Thanks!
Thanks so much for the support! I really appreciate it :D
As always thanks for the build guides. Regarding breaking oaths there is no way to respec after you have done so. I could be wrong about this. However, I have seen it on a couple of build guides where they wanted oath of the ancients
If you break your oath, you can buy it back from the oathbreaker knight and then after that you can respec as normal - it costs 1000 gold the first time and more every time though, so be careful!
Thanks for this very helpful because I have trouble using darkness to the best advantage. Coupla questions: sometimes ive noticed that even if a character is immune to blinded they cannot shoot or cast spells out of a darkness cloud. They have to leave the cloud to fire. You mentioned this on the Ranger. but im wondering if there is equipment besides Helldusk Helmet that avoids that problem?so if ithey cant see through darkness what is the benefit from Eversight ring ? - that you don’t get disadvantage from the darkness?
Second question: To get advantage in darkness do you have to be in the “hidden” condition - meaning do you have to click Hide? The wiki seems to require you be hiding to get advantage. Thats easy for rogue or gloomstalker but not for most other classes.
Thanks again!
There are definitely some bugs with darkness - I think the way the game draws line of sight is at issue here, since it sometimes seems to count the edge of the spell effect as being unable to be seen through even though that should always be visible - others have said the eversight ring works to shoot into darkness for them also, so I don't know what's going on there!
To get advantage in darkness you don't have to be hidden at all! You get the "attacking from shadows" modifier if the enemy can't see through the darkness - you can see that happen when I demo it with the ranger
@@Cephalopocalypse Great to know. thanks ceph!
Ceph, can you do a short rest party? Warlock, monk, battle master fighter and a bard, how about that?
legit just started my evil run the other day this video is perfectly timed
hey it's the only good Smash youtuber what the fuck
Nice - good luck!
Love this video.I think Im going to do a version of this. Are the four items for blind immunity the ring,spear , and two helmets?
Transmutation stone and a potion as well
@@talcooper7606 Those are for dark vision, no? Darkness actually inflicts blindness, I'm pretty sure dark vision isn't enough.
PS: The only ways to become immune to blindness / darkness spell are: Shar's Spear of Evening, Steelwatcher Helmet, Eversight Ring, Helldusk Helmet and Devil's Sight Eldritch Invocation.
I'd love if you did a summon party composition or maybe a a party of all one class.
I knew it at first sight: drow are not only the coolest and most badass looking race, they are also very powerful ☠️
Yep! Especially half drow who also get the human proficiencies
@@Cephalopocalypsehow do you get 4 Drow party members? TAV, Minthara and a hireling but who’s the 4th?
I started modding and there are tons of classes/subclasses. Ever think of doing mod content?
You seem to have missed that the Dire Raven can fly multiple times in a turn. It's not limited to creating a single area of darkness.
I like how when you released the lightning/cold party, I thought of this same concept for my Honour Mode Durge. But, since I didn't have this video to give me ideas, I ended up going with crit sorlock durge(with a 2 level dip in tempest cleric instead of fighter), minthara with your paladin assassin build, astarion as a shadowmonk/assassin/fighter and shadowheart as the classic gloomstalker assassin.
Yes, I realized I had a team with 3 assassins in it, only the durge being left out... Until i realized this was my Bhaalist run, so my Durge was also an assassin: The Unholy Assassin, Bhaal's Chosen XD
Tempest cleric sorlock sounds fun and interesting. What was the build trying to do?
That does sound awesome!
Any thoughts on going pure warlock instead of sorlock? Seems like there's a lot of benefit of getting those higher level spell slots for counterspell
Funnily enough, there aren't a lot of 5th level spells you really care about countering - if you can't get to 6th level slots (which warlock can't), you're usually fine staying at 4. The sorcerer levels for the incredible action economy boost are much valuable I find
@@Cephalopocalypse Thanks for the feedback! Am planning my first honor run through now, and just discovered your channel. Love the deeply informative style mixed with your sense of humor!
Me after the first half of this video being Pallock and Sorlock: 😐 Me when you rounded those out with the fucking Beastmaster Ranger and Nature Cleric spice 😍😍😍
I've been dying to do a Shadowheart x Minthara duo run, and this might be the perfect setup for that, with the other two party slots filled by hirelings. If this is how I go about approaching honor mode for the fitst time, I would be quite happy with that arrangement. Just will have to find another option for the fourth party member until act 2. Maybe Gale, he does great as a camp companion.
Does anyone know what dye he has on the potent robe? It looks amazing and I can’t figure out which one it is
I think it's the Drake General dye, but I don't remember 100%
If there even is a viable build, could you please make a cold sorcerer build? Thanks, and love your videos!
I'm centering my part around darkness this playthrough.
3/4 members dip warlock for devil sight. The last member puts on the sight ring.
Sor-lock: 8 Sorceror / 3 Warlock, machine gun blows eldritch blasts and is the primary spellcaster.
Bard-lock: Bard 7 / Warlock 5, hunger of hazar user with pack of the blade and ring of mystic scoundrel to hold person bonus action and massive save DC bonuses.
Pal-lock: Paladin 7 / Warlock 5, abused warlock spell slots regenerating on short rest and maxing at level 3 for 5 level dip (same as 6 level 3 paladin slots, more than they get with a pure build). Eldritch blast to cover for paladin's lack of ranged and pact of blade to be able to dump strength entirely.
Last class is a full light cleric. It has anti synergy with darkness with their AoE channel divinity but the warding flare is a great cleric tool. The standard radiating orb build means popping spirit guardians and/or guardian of faith inside a darkness cloud melts and further lowers enemy hit chance.
Next challenge: a party where each member has to have at least 3 classes each. Can you still make a bad ass team? No single level dips.
Hey, not sure if you will see this but I wanted to ask --- I thought Lock/Paladin was very much nerfed in Honor mode. Is it just still very good post-nerf anyway? I figured it would only be good in lower difficulties at this point
It's still great! The nerf was just that you don't get a 3rd attack from stacking Pact of the Blade with Extra Attack anymore - so you're stuck with "only" two attacks each of which does some of the highest damage in the game. It just means other builds can still be competitive with its lategame damage rather than it leaving everything else in the dust, but it's still a top-tier build
@@Cephalopocalypse thank you for the reply! im using a combination from a couple of your videos to do an evil//darkness type of playthrough. doing minthrara bladelock, shar as like a dark war cleric using spear, Tav as a BM ranger, and 4th im stuck between laezel warrior or a gloomstalker astarion
i just started a honour mode campaign and was planning to just run 4 sorlocks but after seeing this vid im gonna do this setup instead lol
Nice, good luck!
I think a dex based shadow monk with Shar's spear will be a good complement to this build. I know it's item dependent but in act 1 and 2, using the ring that gives immunity to blind will work
hell yeah
I ran a full darkness team for my evil run too. Just darkness everywhere and all my champs could see in it. I didn't cheese though with stealth.
I have a very similar party and for some reason the Helldusk Helmet is not working as I think it should. The eversight rings only text is you cannot be blinded and you can shoot in and out of darkness just fine. The helldusk helmet specifies being able to see in magical and ordinary darkness before saying you cannot be blinded, yet for some reason cannot shoot arrows through darkness with it. The steel watch helmet has similar text without specifying magical darkness and that works just fine. Anyone else having this issue? (Test was 6m away so 12m limit is not the problem)
I didn't really go into it in the video but the eversight ring is extremely buggy, and the other darkness immunity items have some issues as well - the ring actually doesn't exist in the accessible game files, unlike every other item in the game!
Yes it's bugged and doesn't allow you to use ranged attacks through the darkness. You can still get melee advantage though.
Hunger of Hadar also seems to be bugged because it blinds you even if you have Devil's Sight and/or the Eversight Ring. This whole strategy is kinda screwed up by these issues and these bugs have existed for way too long.
🔥🔥🔥
any tips on who to turn into a lockadin for act 1 if you don't have minthara as a party member?
Baezel with the silver sword
@@talcooper7606 oh ty! good idea
Can someone help me understand how these darkness builds are supposed to be played? It would be helpful in these build videos if you showed a sample combat so we could see how the build is actually played. Especially for these party builds where we're focusing on subtle interactions between different player characters. Anyway, am I supposed to be casting darkness at the enemies so they can't see out of the darkness? Or am I supposed to be casting darkness around my ranged characters' feet so that enemies can't ranged target them and have disadvantage on melee attacks? Or is it both? Because like you said, you need the Helldusk Helmet to shoot into darkness, which seems to make that first strategy completely useless until Act 3. If I'm casting it around my ranged characters' feet, then why would I need so many separate casts of darkness? Couldn't I just have one character cast it and all the ranged characters just hang out around it? How many combats really run longer than 10 rounds? Conversely, if I'm casting darkness multiple times to hit multiple pockets of enemies, 1) how am I supposed to shoot into them before Act 3? and 2) can't the enemies just... walk out of the darkness? It's not that wide of an AOE. And most of the spells that could stop enemies from moving out of the darkness are also concentration spells. Many reasons why it would really help to see this build in action, not just see the character builds on paper but actually see how it works in practice and how it's supposed to be played. Thanks.
Both! The more darkness the better, just put it everywhere
@@Cephalopocalypse Thank you!
What an intriguing title, never clicked so fast
Ok I haven't watched this video, in case of potential spoilers, but I'm guessing you've included the Vampire Ascendant. Good or evil run, I would have this version of Astarion any day! Give this version the Crimson Mischief, he can do an insane amount of damage in one turn, with the Bhaalist Armour equipped for the evilest overpowered combination. Him ascending doesn't even affect the game's main story, as it would for Shadowheart killing Nightsong (which I haven't seen yet in my own game, but I read up on what happens if you kill Nightsong). Astarion doesn't even get upset if you choose not to rule over the Absolute. Maybe he was content with domineering the romance instead... (LOL). But it's nothing to feel guilty about in terms of the good fight against the Absolute.
Some of a Ranger's Criminal background goals are pretty evil. I mean, stealing the boots from Thulla...
Playing Elden Ring has probably desensitised me, because certain innocent/friendly NPCs drop the best gear in the game if you kill them prematurely/out of cold blood.
You should call this party “Shar’s Angels”
Hasn't Darkness been nerfed to the ground? On Honour mode, enemies can shoot into it and spell casters can cast the single-target spells into it as well. I just had a fight in Crech Y'llek where gith archers can just shoot normal arrows into darkness. The funny thing is the description and BG3 wiki don't mention anything change about that.
"Contractually obligated" ha ha ha ha I bet that made some people really angry
Just lost my honour run to owlbear :-) I'm not using this party though, I'm stubborn and will try again with my all paladin gang :-))
I feel like I’m going to take the happiest happy happy characters and make a darkness party. Halsin sorry pal, you’re now a ranger not a Druid. Karlack, you can pull off paladin hybrid, Gale you’re aggressive fake happy most of the time, you can sorc it. Tav you pick up the last slot…weeeeeee!! So much happy….so much darkness.
I made a drow darkness party like that instead : Main drow - gloom 5 assassin 4 fighter 3, Astarion (perma disguise drow ) Shadowmonk 6 Thief 4 Goolock2, Minthara Vengeance Pal 2 Bard 10, Drow mercenary - Storm Cleric 2 Goolock 2 white Drake Sorc 8.
It was insanely easy in honor mode moded with more encounters and better IA
Can we have a fire themed party... Ice themed party.... All melee party... All dexterity based party?
Cool party. Not my thing though because playing around and with darkness just feels too restricted and spending actions on it rather than smashing enemies or controlling feels weird.
Welp, started out, spent 40 minutes in char gen, got crit by imps repeatedly, and died on nautiloid. Good start.
Just beat Honor for the first time today using a Darkness abusing party.
I HIGHLY recommend switching the Lockadin for a 10/2 Swords Bardadin using Shars Spear and helmet of arcane acuity. Casting irresistible upcasted Command:Approach prevents you from having to leave the Darkness to do what you want to do and it is absolutely invaluable. Ring of Mystic Scoundrel lets you build up acuity stacks with slashing flourishes and casting control spells on bonus action. It is the most powerful build I've ever played.
I also used an OH Monk 6 / Warlock 2 / Thief 4 to kill stuff that really, absolutely needs to die on turn 1. Monk can comfortably afford to dip Warlock for Devils Sight if you're willing to chug strength elixirs all game.
Beastmaster Ranger 11 for the Raven is what makes this all work. Free Darkness setup is insane but the Raven gets so much movement and even gets the Help action. Saving downed characters that got demolished by a legendary action or just bad rolls is so important.
It is worth noting that the Dire Raven can fly (& thus use darkness) multiple times per turn.
A minimum amount of movement speed is used each time so it is not unlimited but it can cover a LARGE area each turn this way.
But... there are no backgrounds that give the perception skill. Lol
All those AoE spells and how it could work sounds nice, but in reality, enemies are scattered in much wider area and single AoE usually targets 2-3 enemies at best. Secondly, enemies are on various hights, so oftentimes you won't be able to place the AoE on the same level. Thirdly, enemies are incredibly mobile, they jump, teleport, so the chance that you lock a bigger group of enemies into one or more AoEs, and they don't react to avoid it at the same time is slim. There are only few fights where that can be done and that is highly satisfying, but more often then not, it's hard to target and use those AoEs so easily.
Because of that, one of the most famous AoEs like fireball was incredibly nerfed and is mostly useless in the game, and that is why I avoid it. Every time I had that spell, it was extremely hard to target more than 2 enemies, which felt like a waste of a spell slot, so I chose a different spell or action, in the end result, I never used fireball. Hunger of Hadar is way, way better, because the area is so much bigger, but even then, it's hard to target more enemies, so again, for a concentration spell, it's a waste of spell slot and a concentration. I had it and I used it rarely. However, when I did, it was highly satisfying. Darkness is a very small area, so I wonder, if we can spam darkness enough, so the enemies can't avoid it easily? Hmmm...
I want to believe it works like you described, but I have doubts. Still, such a team will be very capable. Or maybe I should reconsider the tactics. Maybe the party should run or lure enemies into the right places?
If you're starting these kinds of themed party guides I can give you a great Assassin's Creed party with four AC themed characters that are all different from each other. Could net you a new crowd, Assassin's Creed has a big fanbase. I can also give you a party that has four actual main protagonists from the games.
Initiative works off of a D4, please never create any character without 16 Dex if you're doing honor mode. Con is nice but you shouldn't be getting hit.
When you need to concentrate on spells CON save is more important than DEX. Alert and Lucky feats are great in Honour mode btw.
@@itsJPherewhat are you concentrating on? I beat honor mode with most encounters lasting at the most two rounds
@@Dyne191 Spells like Hypnotic Pattern, Haste or Spirit Guardians are superb spells to concentrate on. Losing concentration means you've wasted a spell slot and now need to deal with more enemies at a time. That means you have to long rest sooner. It's annoying and in some circumstances more dangerous. So why not make sure you can keep them up more often? I think it worth it because why cast such spells at all if you lose them the moment you are hit? Just go with Fireball then.
@@itsJPhere enemies going first is more dangerous to me
@@Dyne191 Yes. That's why the Alert feat is better than ability improvement.
Darkness is a game breaking ability for sure, it should not be so effective at shutting down the AI. Larian should do something about it.
No gameplay like act 1 - act 3?
Paladin is a terrible class for evil play because Withers doesn't like oathbreakers respeccing every time Cephalopocalypse drops a new build. Literally unplayable.
I tried robbing the Oathbreaker knight like withers but it is pretty much impossible.
If the paladin isn’t the party face you don’t break oath
@@prodigyj3jessejohnson988well then idk if my game just glitched or what but I’ve broken my party member’s oath twice before.
Hope you are mentally doing well , bro!
Thanks!
Thank you so much for the support! It means a lot and I really appreciate it :D