Відео

So, it can sometimes be complicated, it depends on a lot of factors, like whether you are playing certain origin characters or which characters you care about surviving. Firstly, I usually ignore Gale at the start of the game. I do not interact with him at all in the portal. He will be missing from the rest of the game thereafter, and Elminster will not force a long rest. You do not have to do this, but it makes it simpler and since I only play solo, I have no use for Gale anyways. Secondly, I usually let Shadowheart kill Lae'zel, this prevents two separate instances of being forced into a long rest, including as you mentioned, the Voss cutscene. You do not have to do this either, you can kill Lae'zel yourself before going into the Créche and resurrect her in Act 3 if you wish. If you are Lae'zel, which makes everything much more complicated, I had trouble triggering the Voss cutscene for some reason for instance on my origin playthrough with her (it seems you have to manually enter Act 2 to trigger it, I could not get it to trigger from teleporting back and forth between Act 1 and Act 2), you obviously have to do Créche though before getting the buffs if you are Lae'zel. If you let Shadowheart kill Lae'zel, she cannot be resurrected. If you kill her yourself though, she can be. I do save Lae'zel at the start, as you get experience for it. It is best to not enter the Astral Plane for Vlaakith. This may block the Voss cutscene as is, I'm not certain. It did for my Lae'zel origin playthrough though, I was trying to force that scene and couldn't. I had to do Créche before getting Bliss Spores in that playthrough to be safe. Thirdly, after you get Wyll and Karlach, make sure you force cutscenes from camping until Mizora appears. You do not have to force her Act 2 cutscene of her asking you to free her from the Mind Flayer Colony, she will appear on the bridge to Moonrise Towers and ask you anyways. Also, be sure to get all of the camping scenes from the Dream Guardian, obviously, though some are not necessary (the ones that only start appearing in Act 1.5/2). Fourthly, the only things you have to do in Act 1 before entering Act 2 to get anything you would need there are the Goblin/Grove situation. That means if you want Ring of Protection, you'd have to do Harpies and Kagha thing before the Goblin situation. I tend to do the Goblin situation soon as I can, after getting Ring of Protection. I almost always manually kill the Goblin camp and bosses, but you do not have to, I only do that for fun. It's much easier just doing the raid one way or the other. Finally, do not enter Grymforge until you are ready to complete it. Now, I usually wait until I get some things from Act 2 and Bliss Spores before doing it. If you are in Grymforge and go between acts or rest, it can kill Nere. I'm not sure what happens if that happens, it may not even matter other than not being able to kill him yourself. You can do everything in Act 2 up to dealing with the Nightsong situation before doing Grymforge or the Créche. The one requirement for doing all of this is that you have to have the Spider's Lyre, either from Minthara or Nere. When you get into Act 2, you must play the Spider's Lyre to summon Kar'niss where his fanatics are. It's best to kill them before summoning Kar'niss. Do NOT speak to Kar'niss unless you plan to have him kill himself. I am not certain if it is always the case, or if it is a bug, but I have had an issue before of going to Last Light Inn without summoning Kar'niss, and multiple NPCs at Last Light Inn were missing, as if I had done the raid on the Grove, except for Alfira still being there for some reason. There was no dialogue or any explanation as to what happened, and there were no corpses either, I am thinking it was a bug. To make things simple, there's no penalty to enter Act 2 soon as you get to Trielta Crags (Act 1.5). Entering Act 2 does not lock you out of anything that wouldn't already be locked out from entering Trielta Crags. Basically, with any character, I go into Act 2, kill the fanatics, summon Kar'niss, leave him there and make my way to Last Light Inn (avoiding the Harper ambush, that is very important), buy stuff at Last Light Inn, then (unless you have Lae'zel alive) you'll know you are more or less safe to get Bliss Spores and whatnot. Then I will either go back and do Act 1 stuff or kill Kar'niss and get the Dark Lady Buffs and gear from Moonrise Towers. Of course, before getting the buffs I rest a time or two to see if any scenes will play, I do that anyways to reset the vendors in the Myconid Colony to check for Haste Spores on the vendors. Hopefully I didn't leave anything out. Basically though, don't get Gale, kill Lae'zel, do Grove/Goblins, don't enter Astral Prism or Grymforge, kill Minthara and summon Kar'niss but do not speak to him, force any rest scenes, go to Last Light Inn and back and forth (manually again through Trielta Crags to be sure) and you should be good.

@@QuiteDisquietly whoa many thanks for your detailed answer. You should add those tips in a steam or wiki section it’s really a useful shared experience. As you’re run inspired me I’m trying to reproduce it so I’m playing solo with astarion at the moment. I killed laezel and shadowheart and didn’t interact with gale or wyll. I’m losing exp but as you explained it I should be good. Thanks again

I will make a build video someday, probably, but I don't know when. In the meantime, I can give you at least a somewhat detailed response. I cannot say much on the matter of Ability Scores, because that is dependent on several factors, but you obviously want Dexterity high as possible, then it's your choice whether you focus more into Wisdom (Wisdom will be your spellcasting modifier) or Constitution, but you want both of those as secondary choices. You can dump Strength and Intelligence for the most part. Always choose Ranger last when multiclassing throughout, as this will choose Wisdom for your spellcasting ability on scrolls and items, and that is what you want. Wisdom is the best spellcasting modifier to have, as it is also the most valuable Saving Throw. The other classes you choose (Fighter and Rogue) will use Intelligence, so you want to take those classes first when you respec. To start off the game, start Rogue, it makes everything much easier. I'll break down what my build looks like by level, I do not worry about getting a Feat until level 8 (I do same even with Assassin/Gloom Stalker Archery build). Levels 1-3: Rogue 3 - Assassin Subclass @ 3 Level 4: Assassin Rogue 3 / Fighter 1 (for Two-Weapon Fighting Style and Armour Proficiency; allows you to use Hide Armour +2) Level 5: This can go two ways, either 3 Assassin Rogue; 2 Fighter (for Action Surge) or 3 Assassin Rogue; 2 Ranger (For Longstrider, Ranger get Fighting Style @ 2 so it's okay to dump Fighter for now) Level 6: 3 Assassin Rogue / 3 Gloom Stalker Ranger Level 7: 3 Assassin Rogue / 4 Gloom Stalker Ranger or 3 Assassin Rogue / 3 Gloom Stalker Ranger / 1 Fighter Level 8: 3 Assassin Rogue / 5 Gloom Stalker Ranger (Feat I get here for melee is Dexterity +2, but you can get whatever) Level 9: 1 Fighter / 3 Assassin Rogue / 5 Gloom Stalker Ranger OR 4 Assassin Rogue / 5 Gloom Stalker Ranger, depending whether or not you want to respec again at 10 and if you prefer a Feat over another Fighting Style (Defence) Level 10: 2 Fighter / 3 Assassin Rogue / 5 Gloom Stalker Ranger (I prefer this, for Action Surge) OR 4 Assassin Rogue / 6 Gloom Stalker Ranger Level 11: 3 Champion Fighter / 3 Assassin Rogue / 5 Gloom Stalker Ranger Level 12: Now, by time you are level 12, you can do 2 different things, either go 6 Champion Fighter / 3 Assassin Rogue / 3 Gloom Stalker Ranger for slightly more HP and simplicity OR 4 Champion Fighter / 3 Assassin Rogue / 5 Gloom Stalker Ranger to keep Spike Growth (Though Spike Growth isn't that useful in Act 3 for this particular spec) The spells I get with Ranger are Longstrider and Enhanced Leap for Act 1 and Act 2. Then Hunter's Mark (which you will hardly have the chance to use unless you reset combat) or Fog Cloud. Then Spike Growth. Spike Growth can be great in some situations, but for melee, it's not so useful. It can really help in Act 2 though with things like the Needle Blights that deal damage to you when they die. Longstrider is the main thing you always need. I don't really use much else after getting to Act 3, you could use "Pass Without Trace" though. You could go Eldritch Knight or something instead of Champion as well near endgame, mostly for "Shield" spell reaction, but you shouldn't allow yourself to be hit anyways, though it can help with some bosses, though those same bosses are the ones you want the extra critical chance from Champion for. If you want to know about equipment usage, let me know, I'm not sure what you know already though. This would be especially important for Act 3 if you are unfamiliar, as it drastically changes your capabilities. Feel free to ask any specific questions, I'll try to answer it. I could probably be more detailed or explain why I make certain choices.

Oh, man, I didn't rewatch this when I posted it, just skimmed through for time stamps and I forgot how frustrated I was that I couldn't hit Minthara from there.

I always use some sort of Cleric here, it's the best for doing this solo. A thrower turned out to be pretty good actually.

I do sometimes. Maybe even in most videos actually. I keep other equipment in the "Bewildering Adventurer's Pack", potions and other consumables in the Pouch, and scrolls in the "Curious Book". I have to open the Pouch and the Curious Book a lot, and you can see everything in the Bewildering Adventurer's Pack when I'm switching gear, I don't open it much because there's no need to. I'm not going to be silly and apologize for being organized. I basically carry at least one of just about anything I'd need, or anything I can think of that I may need, and nothing else. If you have any specific inquiry, let me know.

If you're playing with a party, then for Monk, Thief Rogue is going to be better than Assassin to multiclass with; not for the first round, but for sustained damage and control, it's great. Definitely better for party use than Assassin. It's also of course better in all of the encounters where you cannot get a Surprise round. If you are playing Way of the Open Hand, in Act 3 the gear set for Monk makes a huge difference in damage and capabilities. Monk gets so many improvements at the start of the Act. The only piece you need to really do anything for is the Gloves of Soul Catching from the House of Hope, which are best in slot for Monk. The Vest of Soul Rejuvenation can be bought and doesn't seem great at first, but it is, the Greater Kushigo Counter on it can be used offensively with forcing Opportunity Attacks. The Mask of Soul Perception you can get from a chest in the Devil's Fee without any combat and is good for all builds pretty much, so you may have another character competing to use it, but it's the best Monk headwear. And the Boots of Uninhibited Kushigo that you get at the start of Act 3 can also significantly increase damage depending on how you built your character. If you're playing Shadow, the problem is you probably are competing with yourself for equipment with another character.

@QuiteDisquietly I have been thinking about how to play way of shadow and I think it actually lines up fairly well. They can use morning stars and some of the various rapiers or daggers. I havent gotten to test if rhapsody effects reverb or stunning strike as of yet dc wise. I'm guessing no but one can hope. But the sacred star is an impressive beat stick that happens to do piercing damage. On top of that is has heart stopper and applies conditions. Atm my monk is running a beligerant ski, boots of stormy clam and ring of spiteful thunder combo. Both weapons proc. So we get a d7mb amount of reverb a turn. Now if we were to possible run the frost hat we could take the trident that applies wet as the offhand and freeze enemies every turn. It's still a work in progress. But that would make them vulnerable to blugening and thunder. In theory this would let us use a devote mace. Idk just bounding ideas around. But it more or less makes them an unstoppable cc machine. In which case we might perfer thief. So either use piercing weapons and hit things effected by the bhaal armor or go blugening and cc the world into submission. It also pairs really hard with enchantments as they are wisdom saves. Dazed and reverb tear that up. Also bleeding from the bhall amulet for disadvantage on conn saves to boot. I am aware how busted open hand monks are tho. Tbh I haven't played them a ton as it just seems overpowering. But such is the fate of min maxers. I really do need to start doing solo runs.

@@logan9042 Unfortunately, "Encrusted with Frost" doesn't Freeze enemies that are Wet, so the hat wouldn't work anyway, it only freezes after the proper number of stacks. "Chilled" is what you need. Mourning Frost and Cold Snap both inflict Chilled. Mourning Frost is an Act 1 Quarterstaff, which you probably already know, and Cold Snap is a dagger sold at the very beginning of Act 3. You can stack Encrusted with Frost on another character with Oil of Freezing (you have to buy the ingredients to make it with alchemy) and use the other various equipment for Encrusted with Frost too. I found that trying to Freeze enemies never worked out for me, most enemies die too fast as it usually takes more than one round to set up. It also turns out to not be so great to Freeze them anyway, you lose the double damage from Cold and Lightning when they are Frozen, as they are no longer Wet. You get double damage from other sources, Bludgeoning, Thunder and Force, but then you'd have to be using that as well. Mourning Frost is Bludgeoning damage though, so that is good.

@QuiteDisquietly it does appear that it's more work than it's worth. On another subject. On the assassin character. I'm 3 rogue 5 gloom atm. I plan on going pali until it I can get my bonus attack from palidin. Currently I'm running savage attacker. My understanding is it is about 30% more damage. I run a fair amount of additional damage die as well so I think it pays off. However I have also been led to believe that alert is pretty mandatory for solo or just assassin's in general. Will I be fine between 20 dex and glooms passive 3? If I go pali 6 rogue 3 gloom 3 I can get the aura of protection. Or I can got pali 5 gloom 4 and get two feats. On that subject if I go asi it will also boost my initiative. But not by 5. Thoughts?

​@@logan9042 It's funny that you mention it. One of the biggest areas of disagreement that I have with other people, especially people making build guides, is the usefulness of Alert. I personally almost never use Alert, I think it's one of the most overrated Feats in the game. I only use it situationally, and not at all with an Assassin build. I do use it in niche situations, depending on the build I am using and what I plan on doing. I used it the most ever actually on my Wyll playthrough that I completed a couple weeks ago, for most of Act 3 only, but that was because I went with a Critlock build in Act 3 where I couldn't use the usual equipment that I would use. Gloom Stalker / Assassin has enough Initiative for everything really in Act 1 and Act 2 without you ever having an enemy that can go before you. Yurgir is the only enemy that has high Initiative in those acts, and you can get around that quite easily. The Magma Mephits in Grymforge would be a problem if you don't know a way around it, but you can send a summoned creature or Mage Hand to trigger their spawn or like any other Surprise situation, use Elixir of Vigilance. There are easy ways to keep high Initiative, and I'm speaking mostly as if this is solo, because obviously you cannot get all of your characters this equipment. For one, I do not use Heavy Armour ever, for any reason, so I always try to have as high Dexterity as possible. Equipment to look out for that you can use on many classes are: Act 1 - Bow of Awareness and Hide Armour +2, both are +1 Initiative and sold at the Goblin camp. Also, Soulbreaker Greatsword from Captain's Quarters in the Creche is +2. Act 2 - Sentinel Shield is +3, Fistbreaker Helm is +1 and Halberd of Vigilance is +1 and are all sold in Moonrise Towers. Yuan-Ti Scale Mail is +1 and sold at Last Light Inn and the best Armour in Act 2. Act 3 - Mask of Soul Perception is best in slot for a lot of builds and is +2 and easy to get, Hellrider Longbow is sold by a trader in Rivington and is +3, Bhaalist Armour is sold at the Murder Tribunal if you become an Unholy Assassin and is +2 and also a best in slot piece. There are a few others, but they aren't worth sacrificing those pieces. Bow of Awareness and Hellrider Longbow should be used by more or less any build that is not archery based. Other than that, Gloves of Dexterity are oddly enough the best gloves for pretty much all casters even, as it lets you dump Dexterity and has +1 to Attack Rolls. So, even with dumped Dexterity you can get +4 to initiative from just using them. The main thing though, is that most things can be Surprised, and when it can't be, you can always use an Elixir, tweak gear, or respec. I don't think it's useful to waste an entire Feat keeping Alert on, unless you haven't played the game before or only once.

I was uploading videos just to show combat strategies, but I leave the cutscenes in after this playthrough due to several people asking, even though it is hell for me. I've seen them loads of times and UA-cam takes ages to process videos and check them for copyright, it drastically increases the amount of time it takes to upload a video. This was from 4 playthroughs ago, they are in after this though...

@@QuiteDisquietly hmm ok! I only played through bg3 once without watching videos and skipped this place as durge because I had already killed gortash and wyll and wylls father so all of this is new to me!!

For most of the playthrough I used a bit of a different build, but at this particular moment it was 8 Way of the Open Hand Monk / 4 Thief Rogue. My feats here were Tavern Brawler (I could not use the +1 from Tavern Brawler) and Ability Improvement: Wisdom +2 twice. My base stats were: Strength - 8 (27 from Elixir of Cloud Giant Strength, but 10 natural with +2 from the Act 2 potion, I used Strength elixir entire playthrough) Dexterity - 17 (18 with the +1 from Hag's Hair) Constitution - 8 (23 with Amulet of Greater Health) Intelligence - 12 (there were points left over and nothing else would have been useful, would have been 8 if not) Wisdom - 16 (22 with +2 from Mirror of Loss and taking the Ability Improvement +2 Feat twice for +4 total) Charisma - 13 (14 with +1 from Mirror of Loss) That isn't how you'd want to start out or anything. I also mostly played a rarer build of Assassin Rogue instead of Thief for most of the playthrough. If you have any questions, let me know.

The first mistake was that I should have slightly tweaked my build. The next happen at the very beginning, when freeing the prisoners from the Western Sector. I used my Actions and Bonus Actions incorrectly, and was counting on but unlucky in not being able to get Elixir of Bloodlust to proc. I needed Bloodlust to proc off of that Chain Lightning or I knew I wouldn't have enough Actions to free Omeluum the first round, if I had just used regular attack on those first 2, I would have had 2 chances for it to proc and the action economy would be the same. Then going to the Eastern Sector and the whole freeing Ravengard bit went horribly bad, I actually got nervous. Again, I used Actions and Bonus actions incorrectly. I should have used Bonus Actions to kill the enemy and saved my Actions for Dimension Door. I already was in a deficit due to the previous round. Also again, I failed to proc any Bloodlust. I am usually able to save all prisoners in the Western and Southern Sectors and Omeluum on the first round; and able to save the remaining prisoners and Ravengard on the second, with having doors sealed as well. The following is a video of how it should have gone, had I not made the mistakes that I did or had been as unlucky. I saved everyone on the second round. ua-cam.com/video/kFBlTmJaISk/v-deo.html

It is way easier to tell where they are by looking at the map, they are actually marked on it.

Prolly disguise self for Shapeshifter's Boon.

It is the Illithid Power: Shield of Thralls. It gives 10 temporary hit points and has the possibility of stunning surrounding enemies when it breaks.

The helmet is Haste Helm, it's from a chest in the middle of the Blighted Village, it gives 3 stacks of Momentum at the start of combat. The gloves are the Flawed Helldusk Gloves, you get them from Dammon in Act 2 when you give him the Infernal Alloy that you can get by way of dialogue or purchase from Stonemason Kith in Grymforge; they do extra damage on attacks with weapons or unarmed and with unarmed they also have the chance to make the target Bleed. The boots are Boots of Speed, you get them from Thulla in the Myconid Colony, they have the ability of Click Heels, which is a better version of Dash that is used on a Bonus Action.

So, Monk has a feature, Unarmoured Defence, which lets you add your Wisdom Modifier to your AC. You must not be wearing any armour or using a shield for it to work. Using the "Clothing" class of Armour is fine. All classes add their Dexterity Modifier to their AC as is, so long as they are not wearing armour or wearing Light Armour (shield doesn't matter for the Dexterity bit). My Dexterity was 18 here, so that is +4 to AC from Dexterity. My Wisdom was 22, so that is +6 to AC from Wisdom. Vest of Soul Rejuvenation has +2 AC on it. The base AC is 10. Using a shield would lower my AC by 4 (or 3 if it is Viconia's Walking Fortress). Monk also has the feature Unarmoured Movement, which also does not allow the use of a shield for it to work. I used strength elixirs to be able to dump Strength, and my Ability Improvements went to Wisdom and Dexterity. Wisdom also helps Way of the Open Hand Monk with damage to a degree mid and late game. I also used Mirror Image here later, and had Haste from Haste Spores on at times, which also increase your AC.

@@QuiteDisquietly thank you for such a detailed answer :)

@@ArieRedhead Anytime.

It's much more difficult the first time! It was more difficult for me on my first Balanced playthrough with a party than it ever has been for me solo on Honour Mode. I came up with this basic strategy / order long ago and have done it many times. This was a mediocre use of it, I had some things go wrong here.

If you played when the game came out the AI of the prissoners also made it a lot harder, they eventually fixed that tho.

No, it is Mask of Soul Perception. You can get it at the beginning of Act 3 from lockpicking a small chest found in Helsik's room on the upper floor of "The Devil's Fee".

it’s the mask of soul perception 🫰🏾

@@fizzymulk6749 Oh, thanks for the info the mask looks dope.

To get there, you have to go to Flymm Cargo, which is near the Counting House in Act 3, down by the docks there. There's a "secret" hatch that leads to the basement area where there is a submersible that can take you to here, The Iron Throne.

Many hours. Almost 1,500 hours. Currently, it takes me anywhere from about 32 to 48 hours to complete a solo run on Honour Mode, that's with doing all encounters though.🤐

@@QuiteDisquietly woah and you're still going! that shows how good of a game it is :D i just hit 60 hours heh

it's so strong, cull the weak is the strongest ability in that thing too if you max the tadpole out, since it lets you instakill anything that drops below 17 hp (I think), using multi hit or AOE spells you can sometimes get a stupid amount of kills per turn if you're a caster

@@davidoscas2 There are a lot of really strong Illithid Powers, my favourite is Black Hole, I believe it's the strongest Illithid Power on many builds that have synergy with it. You need to successfully complete the Zaith'isk and become Awakened though, or its uses would be extremely limited.

For this bit of the game here, it was just a pure Way of the Open Hand Monk. I was level 7, so my only Feat was Tavern Brawler.

On almost all builds (where it is possible), I use Snowburst Ring, it's great for control, and since I only play solo, I always need to have backup plans for escape. Having an enemy go Prone can allow me to go another round against them without having to worry about wasting an Action on Disengage and it can prevent other Reactions as well. Keep in mind though, that for the Snowburst Ring to work, your weapon must be enchanted with Cold Damage from the Drakethroat Glaive, or have it from another source somehow. The other ring that I was using here in the beginning was the Ring of Free Action, I used it so that if I had to run across my own ice, I wouldn't be slowed down and so that I could not be restrained. I almost never use it, but situationally it is useful here. The Disintegrating Night Walkers only prevent you from not slipping on ice, they do not help with negating the movement speed loss from Difficult Terrain. I changed rings for the Shadow-Cursed Shambling Mound because most of the damage was coming from riders. I did this encounter a very dangerous way, on purpose. It would obviously have been much more optimal to not hurt myself using melee against the Needle Blights.

The book is in a "Mysterious Hole" just outside the Northern Wall of the Blighted Village, close to the windmill that Barcus is tied to.

@QuiteDisquietly wild how I keep finding new things in this game. Well it's going to be super handy to have around. Thanks!

I considered it in the past, but I cannot think of any real benefit to using Way of the Shadow as opposed to other dual wielding builds. There's too much overlap with better choices, namely Assassin Rogue and Gloomstalker Ranger. The benefits of Assassin and Gloomstalker are just so much better. One of my favourite builds is Assassin/Gloomstalker melee, and the playstyle is very similar to Shadow Monk, if not identical. There's also a few bugs with using Darkness, with that changed it possibly could be better.

@QuiteDisquietly so a couple benefits to shadow monk. Any weapons become 1d6 unless better. So of you are duel wielding dolor dagger for example they get upgraded damage die. Stunning strike is actually a lot stronger then I think it gets credit for. Otherwise the invisibility and shaddow step. The issues I have with the above is once you get fly it's more or less shaddow step but with a free use per turn, invisibility can be from duergar, potions, or scrolls. The damage die is also only two damage per hit average with bhaalist armor. I have also considered going 8 fighter 4 rogue or 6 fighter 3 rogue 3 gloomstalker. This would be a more optimal assassin opener but it lacks some of the utility of the monk. The 8 fighter varrient get 4 feats allowing you to run shars spear of evening for the bonus 1d6 damage on all hits, advantage on mental saves, and darkness on command. However it's not a dex weapon unless you're a monk so you have to run strength elixars. The 6/3/3 varrient gives you addional movement/initiative and the opening attack. It is of course lacking in the sharp shooter category. Do you have a playthough of the assassin varrient? I also go back and forth on if a orc or asterian would be optimal for the above builds. Bhaalist armor gives double piercing damage for savage attacks. But if you don't reset combat each round you would be better off taking the necrotic damage and hit chance. That being said most combat doesn't got more then a few rounds. Similar thoughts on rhapsody vs dolor dagger. Dot or initial damage. Do you have any thoughts on the matter?

@@logan9042 So this playlist here is a bit old, but it's from my 6 Champion Fighter / 3 Assassin Rogue / 3 Gloomstalker Ranger build (Alternate build would be 5 Ranger / 4 Fighter / 3 Rogue) for endgame. ua-cam.com/play/PLzMZjRQEHrpn5jMV22yOXRVmsD1-6GGxD.html That was from a melee only playthrough, more or less. I avoided using archery as much as possible. The actual race was Half-Orc, I was using Gnome illusion. I've done this same playthrough with actually being a Gnome, an Orc and Astarion. The differences to damage were minimal, I thought it would be greatly different, but it wasn't. You already do so much damage. I rarely ever let a combat get past the first round, and if I did, I reset usually. If that's not possible, I would use a slightly different spec. I cannot take the chance of getting hit, so sustained combat is not a wise choice anyways. As for weapons, the best in slot weapons for that build are Crimson Mischief in Main hand (already is 1d6) and Dolor Amarus Off Hand, with Vicious Shortbow for Ranged. The last 2 videos of that playlist, of the Netherbrain and High Hall use a different build and equipment, because Assassin builds are not useful for those encounters. I never use Rhapsody. The other equipment for endgame would be Bhaalist Armour and Craterflesh Gloves.

@QuiteDisquietly I will take a look at the playthough. Tbh I have found myself tearing my hair out on multiple occasions wondering why am I trying to force monk into this. The one caviot I will say is I was looking to do a playthrough with friends and I planned to utilize ilithid powers. So the rhapsody might lower damage a bit but having the additional spell dc might be nice on that front. Or if I go monk for the stunning strike. In addition to that it's nice to have options outside of the endgame gear. Not that any of this is really pre act 3. But that being said I'm hoping to balance people not wanting to watch me solo entire fights with having decent performance outside of the first round. But I'll look to the longer fight videos you mentioned.

Yes, you can use a bow. Not sure if the monk gets proficiency with longbows, I don't think he does

Monk has proficiency with only Light Crossbows and Shortbows. Astarion, however, has proficiency with Longbows due to being High Elf.

@@QuiteDisquietly thx

So, it's possible with origin Astarion to do this encounter? I did not know. I didn't want to risk it. I did an origin Astarion playthrough before, but I did it the same way as this more or less. I usually would research things to hell about it, but I could only find information that was contradictive and possibly outdated.

@@QuiteDisquietly No, it's completely possible. I played it myself, also you can find videos on YT with origin Astarion doing this encounter.

@@QuiteDisquietly Frankly, I'm happy to be of help :-) You already have helped me tremendously via your videos and replies! So you're very much welcome 🤗

Yes, there was a reason, I did it on purpose. The reason being is that when you attack an enemy after already opening, Viconia uses "Sanctuary of Loss" on the enemy which you have attacked, which then allows you to use "Psionic Backlash" on Viconia. When you do this, it hits her with Radiant damage from the ring and her Radiant Retort hits you back, removing her own Sanctuary, so then you are able to attack her. You cannot target her with attacks until then. Afterwards, I forgot to remove the ring right away, but then remembered.

@@QuiteDisquietly Interesting, I always thought that to break Sanctuary they have to perform a hostile action. Turns out any of their passive abilities damaging you breaks it, or is this just specific to Viconia?

@@alexmashkin863 Anything that damages you. Well, perhaps not anything, but any direct damage.

I am new to the game as well. Joining public multi-player honor mode games and you can actually learn alot from how veterans clear the game. I have no clue what they were even doing when they constantly respec their multiclass every encounter so they have different methods of cheesing honor mode

@@Banana-cc5rxIf it makes you feel better, I have over 600 hours and this made me realize I don’t know how to play the game either