I was playing with my friend when the game first released blind. When it came to the puzzle to get the blood of Lathlander we didn't roll too well, so we couldn't turn the statues. Bummer. But then my friend, who isn't a roleplayer had this idea to grease up the statues to make it easier to turn them. Turns out it works and you can turn them even if you fail the strength test!
There is a note in the temple where an experienced custodian tells a new hire npt to oil the statures, so that they dont slip, thats why I threw oil bottles at them
something i truly love about BG3s itemization is just how much you can get in the early game that still will keep value for long after act 1. its something almost no other rpgs really allow due to the overreliance of damage numbers instead bespoke abilities and utility items
Just a quick note on Lathander's Blood: If you fail the strength check to rotate the statue, you can hit it with a weapon attack and then rotate it without requiring any checks.
Spellsparkler with the magic missle amulet (also in act 1) which gives you a free spell AND adds 1 missile to every cast. So basically a free +1 upcast. Using those together is awesome. What’s even better is having someone using the offensive shriek on Phalar Aluve. Bro it’s absolutely insane the amount of damage you can do in act 1 with that setup :D
@pedropierre9594 plus Cull the Weak, which creates a small AOE of psychic damage on any enemy who's HP you bring down below the number of Illithid points you have invested. Everything goes kaboom
Callous glow ring for some reason procs on every one of those damages rolls, for an extra 30 something damage at level 3 depending on lightning charges
@@Bertoleyus they all have Versatility, which allows you to use them in 1 or 2 hands. There's only 2 with Finesse, that lets them scale with DEX instead of STR
Blood of lathander: Remember the part of the creche where you are trying to break into it? Remember how you kept finding ceremonial weapons (kobold looter, eagle nest, spirit guardian, 1 already in the right spot). Put them on the correct stone slab based on the stained glass in the middle of the room. This opens up a secret that gives you a seal. When you later get the actual blood item you can progress through the security area. Once you are about to pull the mace out... Stop... and look for a small interactable box just below the mace. Put the seal you got from earlier and you get to pull out the lathander for free with no check and no doomsday weapon activation.
A little combo I used is blood of lathander + diadem of arcane synergy (upon inflicting a condition let’s you add spellcasting ability modifier to weapon damage). The blinding counts as inflicting a condition so you don’t have to spend any action economy to proc that. Really good on a war cleric build or other non gwm hybrid.
Worth noting too that warding flare and improved warding flare count as conditions so using them procs the diadem also, makes it great on light clerics.
Also, for titanstring you can just equip the club of giant strength as a stat stick and get +4 damage and fantastic jump range, which is really good for archery builds.
And since the giant strength club is light, you can dual wield, for example the knife of the undermountain king for improved critical (from the creche merchant)
Titanstring bow + club of hill giant strength has turned my hunter ranger into an absolute monster at level 6. Especially with the club now giving 19 strength.
And the good thing is you can either get gloves to boost to 23 or elixirs to boost to 21/27 as the game goes on,so titanstring bow scales damage into act 3. Arguably better than the legendary bow or proficiency bow as with sharpshooter you shoot for insane damage if built a specific way. 1d8 + 6(dex 22) + 8(str 27 elixir) + 10 (sharpshooter) +1 weapon bonus for an average damage of 29.5 damage per shot. Add in bonus damage from rings, gloves etc and it gets really goofy.
I feel pike tye returning pike deserves an honorable mention too. Strength based throwing builds are just so strong and throwing counts for extra attack, and with the returning pike you don't have to actually worry about running out of weapons to throw.
That weapon can be strong but it's really janky as well. Sometimes the weapon doesn't return after throwing, especially if you start the fight by throwing it. Also you don't get xp if the "gravity damage" kills an enemy which can sjck, I failed to get the xp from the adamantine forge guardian and had to reload rhe fight. Still really strong weapon though
The problem is this weapon doesn't return reliably, and there's also a rare bug which can cause the weapon to disappear forever after a throw. But either way there are enough javelins everywhere in the game that you'll rarely run out during a fight.
I think Spellsparkler is incredible with Magic Missile and the amulet that adds a missile to every magic missile you cast. Magic Missile never misses and also scales well into the late game. It is just way more consistent since it can't miss
@@FreedomIII Yeah but imagine an upcasted Magic Missiles, when it can be even more hits. It's insane. I know that missiles are not necessarily worthy of high level spell slots, but with enough on-hit buffs (i.e sparkler) it's just enough to finish off multiple stragglers at the same time.
Something to think about with Phalar Aluve: Bane is a 1st level spell and its a Charisma saving throw. Drop shriek, then drop Bane, then go nuts with Hold Person/Hypnotic Pattern/Slow, and your martials will have a cakewalk of a fight ahead of them + that nice little 1d4 thunder damage on all attacks
Dude your knowledge, research, testing, and presentation are top notch. I really appreciate your work. Especially here because you can make quality builds all day but you still need the equipment synergy. This game has taken over my life recently and it seems we have the same min max approach to rpgs. Cheers!
thank you for this awesome guide - I'm still wrapping my head around some of the theorycrafting/etc of the game and working out what actually is strong and the possibilities of some these items. your explainations and logic between why things are valuable was incredibly helpful for me and opened up some real ideas (i.e the greatsword with lae'zel, I never would have understood it's full value until you explained how it can really swing entire fights around initiative and it's powerful stun move).
Titan String bow - this pairs EXTREMELY well with another act 1 item you find in the underdark, club of hill giant strength. your strength is then set at 19 while you carry it in your offhand, and you're basically adding +4 damage on all your shots from as early as level 5/6, and this can cary you all the way through early act 3 easiy :)
there is actually a way to get the legendary gith "silver sword of the astral plane" from the dragon rider if you use command:drop or ranged disarming attack, but you might have to save scum it bc it has a low chance to make him actually fail his saving throw, but it's worth it. it's basically the soulbreaker greatsword but better.
Very true that it's an incredibly powerful weapon, to the point where I felt kinda bad for cheesing the game after having already used it on one run. Something further to note- in honor mode, you are very unlikely to get this as there's no savescumming, so soulbreaker may just have to suffice.
A spectator is an extraplanar beholderkin with four eye stalks. *Beholderkin* is a subcategory of aberrant beholders comprising a very large number of beholder-like creatures. As opposed to the Death Tyrant, Elder Orb, Hive Mother and Orbus described later, which are just variants, these are actually different species to true beholders. Beholderkin have a very wide range of appearances and abilities. Beholders are some of my favorite villians in all of D&D
I’ve been using Mourning Frost on my Druid build and having a ranged damage cantrip (if you don’t play high elf variants that get fire bolt) is so nice. Plus the boost of damage on it, paired with the necklace of elemental augmentation means that I’m consistently dealing like 20-30 cold damage with the cantrip. It’s a great staff Also, on the Blood of Lathander strength check.. if you hit the statue and give it a slight bit of damage, it’ll turn even if you’ve failed the check already
I only just learned you can get it without doing the puzzle. I got into the Monastery through the roof so I found all the ceremonial weapons naturally while exploring. By the time I got down to the basement I already had the crest.
@EnjoiSweatshopMoney Yeah, but solving the puzzle gives you a +1d4 radiant damage until long rest, so it's worth it if you've got an upcoming battle where you can take advantage of it.
Im sure someone else has already mentioned this but for the blood of lathander strength check you can cast grease over the statues and that lets them move without any check.
@@Aestus_RPG my Bard’s not a drow, but I’ve got everything else going on! Big fun; my first character, but she’s stuck in Act 2 because I keep wanting to try out other characters!
I agree 100% percent about equipment that you can find early and ride with for the entire playthrough. Feels like >90% of the builds on reddit and youtube so far have come online at 12th level and rely mainly on Act 3 gear. It takes like 80-100 hours to get to that point though, so what exactly is the point?
Modes like tactician and honour, would be the answer to your question! Having an insanely min/maxed build is almost mandatory if you're not a positioning/exploit genius😂
The 1 lightning damage from spellsparkler is currently counted as a separate hit of eldritch blast, so it also adds charisma force damage from agonizing blast. This is probably a bug.
Even without that, on a sorlock, you can go with draconic (blue/ bronze) and add your cha modifier to every beam again. Currently, it is ridiculous, but even without bugs, you can deal 9*(1d10+5+1d6+1+5+5+2+5) ~ 288 with lightning charges, the potent robe and the ring of absolute force + amulet of elemental augmentation, and haste and quicken. So for the cost of 3 sorcery points per round.
you also can add charisma dam from gregarious caster which is on some magic items to both the lightning dam and the eldritch blast ray itself, and if you multiclass blue dragon sorcerer, at sorcerer lvl 6, you can add your charisma again to each instance of the lightning dam. very very good.
Staff of Arcane Blessing is slept on heavily. I honestly feel it's better than that flail. The thing is, the extra bonus bless it gives doesn't take concentration, and is a *massive* buff to GWM or Sharpshooter party members. That means you can either keep concentration and give your physical people 2d4 and magical people 3d4 (which is practically going to keep you at 95% hit chance *always*), or you can break concentration to do something else while still giving 1d4 or 2d4 respectively. Bless is already considered basically one of the best 1st level spells that stays relevant all throughout a playthrough. And now you're either making it 2x-3x as good depending on which character, or you can just drop concentration. Plus the staff itself comes with its own free casting of bless once per day. Legitimately a weapon that I kept on Shadowheart the entire game and never once thought that I wished they were using something else.
It doesn't give physical attackers 2d4. It seems like it does from the description, but it doesn't. All it gives is an extra 1d4 (2d4 total) to spell attack rolls. Other than that it's a normal bless.
The spellsparkler is actually insane in a magic missile build. Evocation wizard adds his int modifier to spell damage, so to EACH magic missile, and spellsparkler also stacks from EACH missile, plus there is a necklace for free magic missile cast and adds +1 to the amount of missiles summoned each time you cast them. It's a damn annihilation ray with a minimum of 8 damage on each missile (1d4+1+5 force and 1 lightning), also frequently procking that 1d8 lightning damage.
I fell in love with phalar aluve really quickly. My shadowheart is basically a spell dps and healing build, with buffing for rolls/saving throws. Giving her this sword with a half decent shield to bump her AC, she mostly "stands" around the rest of my frontliners, so being able to use Aid+Sing/Shriek+guiding bolts is absolutely amazing, very notable power increase in combat, immediately
For honorable mentions you should include the Returning Pike, which is a weapon that makes certain Barbarian builds extremely potent well into the late game.
mystras blessing from staff of arcane blessing is a seperate buff that gets added when casting the bless spell. whats so good about this is that it doesnt get removed when concentration on bless is broken. the 1d4 to spell attack rolls will always stay on buffed targets for the full duration.
But while both are active it effectively gives 2d4 to both attack rolls and saving throws AND 2d4 to spell attack rolls, since the 1d4 is applied twice via Bless and staff bonus
I think the unseen menace deserves a mention. It's a +1 pike that attacks with advantage and has extended critical range. It's my go-to weapon ever since I found out about it
I've been playing as a Monk coming up to the mountain pass, and so far I haven't found anything that tops my Corellon's Grace ^^ +1 to all my Unarmed Strikes, and I get +2 to all my Saving Throws as long as I'm not wearing armour. And since I currently have Stunning Strikes, and later Ki Resonation punches, I don't even need to attack with the weapon, I can just use it as a stat stick to further buff me. Also been using the Hunting Shortbow as a nice ranged option that gives all my attacks advantage on Monstrosities, as well as Hunter's Mark for extra damage
I see that you have the Soulbreaker Greatsword as your first weapon here, and would like to note something: If you're REALLY lucky, you can use Command: Drop on Kith'rak Voss in order to get the Silver Sword of the Astral Plane (A weapon you normally only get at the tail end of Act 3) in Act 1.
I was able to get it to drop after only 1 reload and wow... I'm in Act 2 with Laezel doing over 150 damage with crits in one turn, due to my build around the Silver Sword and all of her extra attacks. Insane. I have the ring that grants her advantage on attacks when surrounded by two or more enemies.
Honorable mention. club of hill giant strength, because loot and jump distance annoyance. Coupled with offhand knife of the underdark or vice versa, and titanstring bow becomes very strong on anyone.
One other weapon that has a very good, but situational combo is the Light of Creation Halberd, which deals an extra 1d6 Lightning, but can stun you unless you use the ability from the Gloves of the Automaton, which makes you a construct and gives you advantage on all weapon attack rolls and resistance to Lightning damage. Being a construct does make you immune to conditions like Gaping Wounds and Bleed, but also means you can't be healed, which is a rather big drawback.
One thing for Phalar Aluve, NPCs try and avoid your shriek like its the plague so you can often use it just to create breathing room. during the ambush to take a certain special character early on in Act 2 I just stood next to them with the sword shrieking and nobody approached after that
I am a big fan of running the titanstring bow on a strength character also running the Gloves of Dexterity. Especially combined with some good medium armor.
After a second playthrough, I think the sorrow glaive also deserves an honorable mention for a midline sentinel/priority target pursuer build, mainly because I think it's a very interesting way to build your character. It's a +1 glaive which doesn't seem very impressive at first (and tbh, the damage isn't anything to write home about, although that's easily improved via items like the helldusk gloves and drakethroat glaive). The main feature of this glaive that imo makes it pretty neat is that it gets a special class action called sorrowful lash, which is kind of like thorn whip except it does slightly less damage (1d4 + spellcasting modifier that doesn't improve with levels). This class action is classified as a cantrip, and more importantly uses a bonus action instead of an action. This means that items like the ring of arcane synergy pair excellently with this, since you can pull a target in towards you/ away from a squishier party member with your bonus action and boost your weapon damage at the same time. Pair this with spells like spirit guardians which leave a damage aura around you and slow down enemies and the sentinel feat means that you can lock down high priority targets pretty consistently. If you're using this on a gish, it also means that later in the game enemies will counterspell this, which leaves your action free to cast more powerful damage dealing or cc spells, since the cantrip doesn't compete with your action for spellcasting unlike every other cantrip and most damage/cc spells in the game (minus shenanigans with band of the mystic scoundrel).
Using sorrow on my tempest cleric shadow heart and honestly between the buffs and debuffs the cleric can offer, and weapon with extra reach AND a bonus action attack that pulls the enemy in closer. This weapon is at very least an A+ tier. That's just my opinion though. This is my first crpg and d&d style game and my wife and I are loving it.
One of the best thing about Phalar Aluve on Rogue builds is that on the turn you activate Shriek you can still get sneak attack using Pommel Strike. Along with the high initiative Rogues get makes it way better than using it on a supporting Character who would waste a whole action. Also one of the few weapons that lets you create a dex based Great Weapon Master build.
Staff of Arcane Blessing stacks with Phalar Aluve. So turn 1 if the Sorlock casts twinned haste on themselves and cleric, and cleric has dual weild feat (So you can wield both with Arcane blessing in your off hand). So you cast Mystra blessing (Level 2), and Sing. Now you get 3d4 to your spell attack rolls thanks to Phalar Aluve + Staff of Arcane blessing (Eldrich blast is going to get 95% hit chance with 18 Charisma on most if not all enemies), and 2d4 to your attack rolls (Negating GWM). If you have a Sorcadin Paladin then you can twin Level 4 Magic Weapon for +2 on yourself and another fighter. Now with all those buffs, you can just hit anything without missing even with GWM. All you need to do in this case is keep within 6 meters of the cleric to get the extra 1d4 buff. Oh and 2d4 on your Saving throws and the Paladin aura +3 from your Paladin Sorclock (16 Charsmina) on your mental saves. Is just nuts. Your party can just shrug off any effects easily. My Paladin just sat there and watched enemies do nothing to him.
Another one I like I forget the name but you get it in the Secret room in druids grove which is a Glaive that give you a thorn whip as a bonus action, which is nice for finishing off weak enemies!
I think the best (and by FAR) weapons in act 1 is the Returning pike. Two hander that can be throw and return automatically to your hand. You are hitting like A TRUCK with it. Just play with the feat that add strengh modifier to your throw, play barbarian for the sweet bonus damage and the enrage throw and enjoy.
Good point! That is a great one. Not better than Phalar Aluve or Soulbreaker Greatsword, but it probably could have made the list. Just didn't think of it
This ONLY applies if you have Tavern Brawler as a feat. Otherwise it doesn't hit that hard, nor is it remotely as accurate unless you have 20+ Str, but even then, TB doubles those bonuses on Thrown so...
@@davidcrawford5324 yes i talk about it in my initial post, couldn't remember the correct name ahah. Usually if you choose to play a weapon into a build, you will build around it. Like not playing sharpshooter at some point on a dual crossbow character would be strange. But i really think returning pike is unique AND powerful by itself. even more when you account the wanky gravity damage when you throw it from way above.
@@charliebarlet551 Very true. But regarding the Sharpshooter feat and dual crossbows...originally you weren't getting the -5 to hit penalty like GWM gives you due to a bug, but they fixed that problem in the new patch they put out, so now it's not brokenly OP like it used to be. Gotta stack those ability bonuses now like Bless and such to offset that. The extra damage on thrown from above is so good, but I'm pretty sure that's a bug also, but it most likely won't get fixed, or they'll make all the people who wildshape as an Owlbear and do kamikaze diving attacks from above to do massive damage mad lol.
@@davidcrawford5324 I know but i was talking even without the bug. later in the game the minus penalty is not even a problem. And early you just need someone in your party to make it less of a problem With the elevation, sneak, etc, you wont have any downgrade at all. And yeah, it's still broken ahah
Another thing to add about Mourning Frost. I noticed that the way the game handles applied vulnerability is that it overrides existing resistances and immunities for that damage type -- or at least, that's how it works with Perilous Stakes. If the Chilled condition works the same way, it has the added bonus of getting around enemies with annoying resistances
Don't forget with skinbuster, if you're a barbarian and enraged, it reduces damage calculated after rage resistances. I used skinburster on my barbarian through act 2 combined with the damage reduction from the adamantine scale mail and was getting hit for literally 0 on most attacks on my barbarian. It is crazy good. There are also armor pieces you can get in act 3 that give more ways to add force conduit charges on top of skinburster hits. You can make a very busted build with it.
For spell sparklers can use psychic spark amulet with adds 1 more bolt to magic missles and let's you cast a level 1 magic missle for free. So as a level 1 spell already getting 4 hits so it adds up quickly
That Soulbreaker Greatsword combined with the armour you can loot off one of the Githyanki at the end of Act 2 is a winning combination. She's never downed in combat after that. Also Astarion dual wielding the Knife of the Undermountain King with the life stealing sword you can buy in Act 2 from Dammon is just unbelievably good. He can take out high hit point targets in one turn, especially if he is in the thief subclass with the extra bonus action.
Shriek works so well with spell sparkler + magic missile in act 1. You can find more items that add to the damage later on. Plenty of videos about it as well! Dual wielder is a great feat to get btw, almost better than wearing shields in some cases as you can dual wield a staff + phalar aluve.
As soon as I found Phalar Aluve, I started a new character as a Rogue just to go get it. Oh, and I always give Karlach the Shattered Flail and Titanstring Bow. They're perfect.
I hope you also do one of these videos for Act 2 weapons, because now that I have picked them up I would be interested in your thoughts on their potential.
@@Aestus_RPG For one, the Halberd of Vigilance; does it combo well with the Sentinel feat, or is there some other way of making good use of it? Also, the Punch-Drunk B***ard; is there a reliable way of being drunk to get its effects to work? Finally, Wyll's quest sword, Infernal Rapier, which doesn't seem to double with Pact of the Blade, but because of the Cambion summon I would still like to use it, so is there another class it could work well with?
@@Bayonet1809 On the Halberd of Vigilance: Its good, not great. It does work well with Sentinel + Polearm Masster build, which is also a good not great strategy. On Punch-Drunk Bastard: Very interesting weapon! I haven't used it yet though, so I can't say anything about it sadly. On Infernal Rapier: Its a stack stick for casters, not actually a good attacking weapon. That said, I am interested in combining it with a wisdom caster and the Ability Drain tadpole power to rapidly debuff wisdom saving throws. It seems a little to niche to be effective, but its a cool idea!
You can throw grease bottle or cast grease on the statue if you fail the Strength check and you can move the statue after that, so you dont get locked out.
Alright. You've convinced me. Heavy Armor Master, Warcaster, Adamantine Splint Armor, Skinburster, and Heroism. All on an Oathbreaker Paladin. Or really any divine caster class w/ heavy armor. You will not break.
This is good info. I recommend for any ody here that is just looking for a way to stop getting their ass kicked: lower the difficulty l. This game is turn based, it lets you save scum, it's not a souls game. There's hardly any acclaim to becoming so good you can solo tactician. There's probably a dozen builds that can solo tactician. Those are builds. Your player skill comes in to play very minimally in a game like this. Just lower the difficulty and enjoy the game for what it is. My first playthrough was an oath breaker, so I played comfortably on tactician never came in to danger of losing a fight. If I wanted to RP a bars/druid I would just lower the difficulty instead of wracking my brain for hours trying to make the stupid build work on highest difficulty. If you think that's really fun and can enjoy yourself doing that, obviously ignore my advice.
A fun one you can get really early for a tavern brawler monk is the Returning pike. Just use half wood elf to get the proficiency for it. There's several items in act 1 that boost throwing damage too. You can get the pike pretty cheap from the goblin camp vendor, and a ring of flinging from the vendor at druids grove. There are also some gloves that boost throwing damage, but I prefer "The sparkle hands" because the lightning charges apply to thrown weapons for some reason, so they boost both the pike when you throw it, as well as flurry of blows. I think you can get them from the mephits nearby the hags tea house. You basically just use step of the wind to get to great places to throw the pike from, then spear things with it. If anything gets close you can blast them away with flurry of blows, or stagger them so you can retreat. Though getting to 20 strength might be the best, I'm debating picking up polearm master and sentinel to spear anything that gets close to me. Since you can always use potions to get over 20 strength if you want a bit more of a boost.
@@Aestus_RPG You can also throw a bottle of grease at the statue to move it. Thought about it after reading a book/note ingame about people needing to grease stuff in the monastery. Also, surprised you didn't mention the Unseen Menace pike from the Crèche. Always having advantage is pretty big imo
I see nobody talking about the spear Vision of the Absolute. It gives 2 turns of blindness on hit. It's actually pretty huge. I gave that to my battlemaster fighter. You get so much control and your team gets advantage for free on important targets. You can use a shield so you can jump in there and tank everything, make everyone blind by doing one tap on each enemy. It's kinda crazy. For act2 you can swap that for Blood of Lathander since almost everything is undead. But you get that spear super early in act1 and the utility it gives is awesome. I've been sleeping on that weapon for way too long.
Regarding the titanstring bow, there is a club in the underdark that sets your str to 19, if you are a pure ranged character you're not using that slot anyway
@@Mr_Smith618 it's the club of hill giant strength, gotten on the top floor of the arcane tower in the underdark by smashing the chair of hill giant strength
nice list! definitely slept on the shattered flail. another weapon i feel many people sleep on is the very heavy greataxe. simple weapon, it has decent damage, nothing too fancy, but the weapon action gargantuan cleave is one of my favourites: basically the normal axe cleave but deals normal weapon damage instead of half damage PLUS 1d6. i believe it also has no limitation of only three targets, unlike the normal cleave. combine that with its weapon action "prepare" to deal even more damage and this becomes an even better AoE attack. you do get off balanced from this attack, but i found it to be inconsequential on my barb run. rarely failed the strength check, and even then my char was tanky and agile enough to not really care about it. used this axe well into act 2.
I combined the Spellsparkler with: The protecty sparkswall robe with gives +1 to spell save DC, +1 bonus to AC and Saving Throws when I have lightning charges. The Watersparkers which electrifies water if I’m standing on it, and grants 3 lightning charges if I start a turn on water The Sparkswall ring which grants resistance to lightning damage and I can’t be electrocuted Gloves of belligerent skies which grants reverb on lightning damage And Necklace of elemental augmentation which adds my spellcasting modifier to lightning damage (acid, cold, fire, and thunder too) I’m a storm sorcerer who focuses mostly on lightning and thunder as his theme
Im just amazed with how long act 1 really is. If you dont take the mountain pass and risk the curse you have the entire underdark, the grymforge, and much more
Want a powerful early Act 1 weapon thats good until about level 3? Cast Shillelagh on a Torch. If your spell casting ability is a 16 or 17 from your character build, your Shillelagh Torch is doing 1D8+3 + 1D4 Fire damage. How does 5-15 damage sound (more if weak to fire) for a level 1-3 character?
You can get Blood Of Lathander without the strenght check. You just have to do the initial puzzle, where you find all the ceremonial weapons, place them on their respective alters, get the pendant, and use that to open the pedistal that Blood Of Lathander is in.
Also the Staff of Arcane blessing can be extremely potent when you pair the it with the ring that gives bless on heal, mass cure wounds just turns into a gigabuff.
It doesn't work. Idk if its a bug or what, but it just does not work sadly. It is what i tried to do cause both items are amazing, but whenever i healed there never was a buff from the staff present. I did not check if bless itself is powered up, but the spell buff part was definitely not present on anyone. Ring itself is sick on its own though
What is the name of this cloak, I can not find one with the effect you state? I can only find Deadly Derivation: "When you Poison a foe, heal yourself for 1d4 hit points." Is this what you were thinking of? If so then it wouldn't work with Shattered flail. Or are you thinking of the amulet Broodmother's Revenge: "Whenever the wearer is healed, their weapon becomes coated in magic and deals an additional 1~6 Poison Damage."? Which being an amulet, can not be used at the same time as the Periapt of Wound Closure.
I've only had the time to get through Act 1 so I'm not sure how far they'd take me beyond that, but two of the weapons that carried me the most so far are Dragon's Grasp and the Hunting Shortbow. Dragon's Grasp is a throwable handaxe with a fairly easy condition to get an extra 1d4 (just hit things that are burned) and pairs nicely with Eldritch Knight via weapon bond. So you have an early game ranged option for a tank build that scales off of strength rather than dex because you can cycle throw actions (whereas with most melee weapons that can be thrown you'd have to retrieve them before throwing again). The Hunting Shortbow has advantage over monstrosities which is nice, but far more importantly it lets anyone just equipping it use hunters mark - one of the biggest up sides to choosing to invest in ranger enough to get the hunter subclass because the latter half of base rangers offerings are kind of mid (though I'm still playing one to 6 because I guess I like to RP with the whole ranger knight thing being kind of neat). Hunters mark is kind of the thing you splash before any attack and even after the target is gone you can bonus action to "reapply hunters mark" which is important because the bonus action doesn't cost a spell slot. So you can add an extra bit of damage throughout an entire encounter and treat each level 1 spellslot in terms of fights per long rest. That's allot of extra damage and it's the least invested way to get the spell.
Fully agree on your list. Still using in act 3 Soulbreaker greatsword & titan string bow..:D Blood of latander is still good mostly due to its passive feature.
Joltshooter on a gloomstalker assassin with sharpshooter / archery fighting style is 10/10. Perhaps not better than Spell Sparkler, but I still find it very useful getting the extra to hit to cancel out sharpshooter and the extra lightning damage. Pair that with the dash boots that give you lightning for dashing and you can reposition with a BA from rogue to gain even more lightning stacks.
There's a +1 shortbow you can get from Corsair Greymon called Bow of the Banshee, procs the fear condition on targets and then has a +1d4 on attack and damage rolls. Recommend trying it out sometime because it's way better than most of this list.
I know its nothing too special but I really love the returning pike, especially with the sparkle hands, insane damage swings, and if you get tavern brawler and the ring that increases throw weapon damage
@@pencilbender The goblin shop keeper close to imprisoned Volo in the goblin camp sells it I believe. IMO you wont find a better throwing weapon until act 3
@@koreanbbq2376I can confirm I bought the returning pike from the goblin vendor. He has a few other interesting items, it's really worth exploring the goblin camp and Sanctum peacefully first.
Shattered Flail might also synergise really well with Kagha's Headwear, which gives you 1d6, I believe, poison or acid damage to every weapon attack, as long as you have been healed prior. With the weapon's self heal, this effect would be active permanently. And as you mentioned, there are many other items that synergise with healing, and receiving their bonusses by doing something as simple as just attacking, might be pretty good.🤔 One weapon I am missing in your list, is the Returning Pike, which really raises any throwing build to the next level, as not only is it stronger than any regular throwing weapon, but also does it return to your hand after being thrown, as the name suggests. The Halfling vendor in the grove, as well as the Dwarven vendor in the Myconid colony both sell items that synergise with throwing, adding even more damage instances to each throw, making throwing one of the best damage sources available at that point. Returning weapons are rare enough, that you will probably use the pike for quite some time, before you replace it with an adequate substitute.
What is Kagha's Headwear? Are you perhaps referring to Broodmother's Revenge, which has the effect you state, but is an amulet, so can not be combined with the Periapt of Wound Closure?
You don't "need" the strength check pass. For the elevator you can just go past it by going down a path downwards, take a couple jumps, watch out for bombs and you still arrive at the monastery. As for the statues, you can just hit them repeatedly until they start turning.
Shattered Flail early game on Karlach. She never dies. She will most likely end up at full health at the end of the fight. But, she will also kill your team if she cant hit an enemy...
My killer combo is currently for my Circle of Spores Druid. The best weapon is a torch. No seriously. Hear me out. Cantrip (I’m not going to spell it ) makes torch (a club) into a d8 weapon. Symbiotic adds d6 necrotic. Torch being lit adds d4 fire plus wisdom modifier. That totals to 6-21 damage at level TWO. Oh and you can dual wield torches for the off hand doing 3-14 then the spreading spores for 2-8 (but they can save for zero) as reaction. That’s 11-43 damage potential with three attacks at level TWO! Add the Hunters Bow and it’s Hunters Mark ability for an additional d6 at level three (the fight outside the gate should push your character to level 3) Add the Arcane Diadem after the Hag and that adds an additional flat 4 damage and the Caustic Ring for flat 2 acid
shout out to hunting bow from dammon for hunter's mark and feller of monsters (advantage many types of monsters) which will apply to melee weapons and spells too. I feel like lae'zel hard carries everyone's playthrough, fighter is disgustingly powerful with their extra attacks and feats
Talking about crit builds, i just finished the game on my thief rogue vengeance paladin character with the items that can lower your crit, give garaunteed crits, and can paralyze enemies on a crit with gale having hold monster. I would attack bosses and when I crit them, they just got deleted. 4 attacks a round, also super tanky with the agile armor and aura of protection. What a monster, love them.
The spellsparkler works also great with arcane missiles (including the 1+ Misslie necklace) (Blue Dagon Ancestory lvl6 cha modifier also works) BUT the damage calculation is bugged. Sometimes you roll arround 12 damage bur only get 3-5
Inn the Arcane tower you can find a strange stol you can destroy, to get the club of the hill giant, this in the main hand to get 19 strenght, coupled withe titan string bow on a ranged caracter for some extra dubbel dipping.
Spellsparkler works with each magic missile attack as well, making wizards really good with it as well. Whole magic missile builds exist and that staff is a core component.
Note that Titanstring bow doesn't display str modifier on character screen, but it is applied (you can check in combat log) However the whole point is moot since dual +1 xbows are better than any other bow sans act3 legendaries and considering that vendors refresh their stock on every level up and long rest with some due diligence you can have hand crossbows on all characters that can wield it, hell it even does more dmg on characters like gale which don't have the proficiency
Phalar Avule is great to build and bring with a Tempest Cleric and a Druid. Tempest Cleric at lv 6 has a perk that push back enemies if they suffer thunder of lightning damage caused by them. Druid can drop a Spike Growth and Create Water and the Cleric electrifies the water, and Cleric has Phalar Avule. So essentially every turn the enemies takes damage from Electrocute and get pushed back, this procs Phalar Avule and they also get pushed back, suffering damage from Spike Growth, Druid can throw a Plant Growth on top and someone can place Silence so nobody can warp out. If they try to avoid the water, Command Approach. Overly complicated and unnecessary? Yes. Fun? Doubly.
I was playing with my friend when the game first released blind. When it came to the puzzle to get the blood of Lathlander we didn't roll too well, so we couldn't turn the statues. Bummer. But then my friend, who isn't a roleplayer had this idea to grease up the statues to make it easier to turn them. Turns out it works and you can turn them even if you fail the strength test!
Dude never thought of this, ur friend is a genius 😂
Did you just use a bottle of grease? Or the grease spell?
There is a note in the temple where an experienced custodian tells a new hire npt to oil the statures, so that they dont slip, thats why I threw oil bottles at them
I think you can also hit the statue once to get it unstuck.
dude same! my low STR Arcane Trickster did just exactly that few days ago😂
the detail in this game is just so astonishing.
something i truly love about BG3s itemization is just how much you can get in the early game that still will keep value for long after act 1.
its something almost no other rpgs really allow due to the overreliance of damage numbers instead bespoke abilities and utility items
Just a quick note on Lathander's Blood: If you fail the strength check to rotate the statue, you can hit it with a weapon attack and then rotate it without requiring any checks.
grease works too
It's an athletics check. Lae'zel can give it a shot if your Tav fails
You can also throw grease at the ground to oil up the machinery.
I figured this out after failing with my whole party and smacked it out of frustration hahaha
Just throw grease at it
Spellsparkler with the magic missle amulet (also in act 1) which gives you a free spell AND adds 1 missile to every cast. So basically a free +1 upcast. Using those together is awesome. What’s even better is having someone using the offensive shriek on Phalar Aluve. Bro it’s absolutely insane the amount of damage you can do in act 1 with that setup :D
Add to it the illithid power that allows you to do psychic damage every time you do damage and you melt
Add the robes that give +1 ac when you have lightning charges too
@pedropierre9594 plus Cull the Weak, which creates a small AOE of psychic damage on any enemy who's HP you bring down below the number of Illithid points you have invested. Everything goes kaboom
Callous glow ring for some reason procs on every one of those damages rolls, for an extra 30 something damage at level 3 depending on lightning charges
Phalar Aluve isn't the only longsword with Finesse.
I've also found 1 at the Githyanky Creche called Larethian's Wrath
All longswords have finesse...
@@Bertoleyus they all have Versatility, which allows you to use them in 1 or 2 hands.
There's only 2 with Finesse, that lets them scale with DEX instead of STR
@@Bertoleyus you're thinking of shortswords or maybe rapiers
@snowvix8902 no, turns out the two longswords I keep are the two with finesse, so I assumed all had finesse.
Yeah I love dual wielding both on my champion thief. Gives him some good aoe when combined with a black hole to just pop a bunch of crits
Blood of lathander: Remember the part of the creche where you are trying to break into it? Remember how you kept finding ceremonial weapons (kobold looter, eagle nest, spirit guardian, 1 already in the right spot). Put them on the correct stone slab based on the stained glass in the middle of the room. This opens up a secret that gives you a seal. When you later get the actual blood item you can progress through the security area. Once you are about to pull the mace out... Stop... and look for a small interactable box just below the mace. Put the seal you got from earlier and you get to pull out the lathander for free with no check and no doomsday weapon activation.
I was wondering what the box was for
A little combo I used is blood of lathander + diadem of arcane synergy (upon inflicting a condition let’s you add spellcasting ability modifier to weapon damage). The blinding counts as inflicting a condition so you don’t have to spend any action economy to proc that. Really good on a war cleric build or other non gwm hybrid.
Brilliant!
bruh...
Genius! I'm trying that next time!
wow!
Worth noting too that warding flare and improved warding flare count as conditions so using them procs the diadem also, makes it great on light clerics.
Also, for titanstring you can just equip the club of giant strength as a stat stick and get +4 damage and fantastic jump range, which is really good for archery builds.
ah the funny stick of making astarion good at carrying weight, my beloved.
And since the giant strength club is light, you can dual wield, for example the knife of the undermountain king for improved critical (from the creche merchant)
Titanstring bow + club of hill giant strength has turned my hunter ranger into an absolute monster at level 6. Especially with the club now giving 19 strength.
Now equip Knife of the Undermountain on your offhand for more frequent crits with your Titanstring.
And the good thing is you can either get gloves to boost to 23 or elixirs to boost to 21/27 as the game goes on,so titanstring bow scales damage into act 3. Arguably better than the legendary bow or proficiency bow as with sharpshooter you shoot for insane damage if built a specific way. 1d8 + 6(dex 22) + 8(str 27 elixir) + 10 (sharpshooter) +1 weapon bonus for an average damage of 29.5 damage per shot. Add in bonus damage from rings, gloves etc and it gets really goofy.
@@joshholmes1372did you forget about archery fighting style?
The club scales from 15 to 19?
@@shiranuishogunsaga8451 it doesn't scale it just sets your str stat to 19
This is an outstanding video in a market flooded with bg bs. Concise, thoughtful and well rounded. I appreciate your passion too.
I feel pike tye returning pike deserves an honorable mention too. Strength based throwing builds are just so strong and throwing counts for extra attack, and with the returning pike you don't have to actually worry about running out of weapons to throw.
Returning pike is ridiculous! Works with the lightning charge gear too!
That's not so much a perfect weapon, but a perfect accompaniment to the perfect feat, Tavern Brawler Karlach is obscene!
I just wish it didnt equip it immediately after throwing it
That weapon can be strong but it's really janky as well. Sometimes the weapon doesn't return after throwing, especially if you start the fight by throwing it. Also you don't get xp if the "gravity damage" kills an enemy which can sjck, I failed to get the xp from the adamantine forge guardian and had to reload rhe fight.
Still really strong weapon though
The problem is this weapon doesn't return reliably, and there's also a rare bug which can cause the weapon to disappear forever after a throw. But either way there are enough javelins everywhere in the game that you'll rarely run out during a fight.
I think Spellsparkler is incredible with Magic Missile and the amulet that adds a missile to every magic missile you cast. Magic Missile never misses and also scales well into the late game. It is just way more consistent since it can't miss
It's also great for warlocks since eldritch blast goes to 2 hits pretty early on, and 3 by Act 3-ish (and it's a cantrip 😊)
@@FreedomIII Yeah but imagine an upcasted Magic Missiles, when it can be even more hits. It's insane. I know that missiles are not necessarily worthy of high level spell slots, but with enough on-hit buffs (i.e sparkler) it's just enough to finish off multiple stragglers at the same time.
In the late game you can also use Art of War. Not quite as many hits, but the extra damage is amazing
There is a book in rosymon that says that whenever the statues get stuck you just "grease" it.
Something to think about with Phalar Aluve: Bane is a 1st level spell and its a Charisma saving throw. Drop shriek, then drop Bane, then go nuts with Hold Person/Hypnotic Pattern/Slow, and your martials will have a cakewalk of a fight ahead of them + that nice little 1d4 thunder damage on all attacks
Dude your knowledge, research, testing, and presentation are top notch. I really appreciate your work. Especially here because you can make quality builds all day but you still need the equipment synergy. This game has taken over my life recently and it seems we have the same min max approach to rpgs. Cheers!
Thanks! I appreciate the kinds words, but I honestly think I can do better!
@@Aestus_RPG keep it up, and I have no doubt that you will!
thank you for this awesome guide - I'm still wrapping my head around some of the theorycrafting/etc of the game and working out what actually is strong and the possibilities of some these items. your explainations and logic between why things are valuable was incredibly helpful for me and opened up some real ideas (i.e the greatsword with lae'zel, I never would have understood it's full value until you explained how it can really swing entire fights around initiative and it's powerful stun move).
Titan String bow - this pairs EXTREMELY well with another act 1 item you find in the underdark, club of hill giant strength. your strength is then set at 19 while you carry it in your offhand, and you're basically adding +4 damage on all your shots from as early as level 5/6, and this can cary you all the way through early act 3 easiy :)
there is actually a way to get the legendary gith "silver sword of the astral plane" from the dragon rider if you use command:drop or ranged disarming attack, but you might have to save scum it bc it has a low chance to make him actually fail his saving throw, but it's worth it. it's basically the soulbreaker greatsword but better.
Yes, when I did it with Shadowheart she had a 9% chance of success.
I would hesitate calling it an act 1 weapon since you obviously aren't supposed to obtain it there
@@exantiuse497 Its in Act 1, you can get it using game mechanics. I would hesitate not calling it Act 1 weapon.
@@exantiuse497they could very easily make him immune to dropping his weapon and yet ….
Very true that it's an incredibly powerful weapon, to the point where I felt kinda bad for cheesing the game after having already used it on one run.
Something further to note- in honor mode, you are very unlikely to get this as there's no savescumming, so soulbreaker may just have to suffice.
A spectator is an extraplanar beholderkin with four eye stalks. *Beholderkin* is a subcategory of aberrant beholders comprising a very large number of beholder-like creatures. As opposed to the Death Tyrant, Elder Orb, Hive Mother and Orbus described later, which are just variants, these are actually different species to true beholders. Beholderkin have a very wide range of appearances and abilities. Beholders are some of my favorite villians in all of D&D
I’ve been using Mourning Frost on my Druid build and having a ranged damage cantrip (if you don’t play high elf variants that get fire bolt) is so nice. Plus the boost of damage on it, paired with the necklace of elemental augmentation means that I’m consistently dealing like 20-30 cold damage with the cantrip. It’s a great staff
Also, on the Blood of Lathander strength check.. if you hit the statue and give it a slight bit of damage, it’ll turn even if you’ve failed the check already
also, thanks for pointing out phalar aluve is a finesse weapon! I never realized that.
awesome video, keep it up!
I built my sword bard completely based off this weapon. It also works for great weapon mastery too!
There is a way to get The Blood of Lathander pretty easily doing a puzzle in the monastery above the githyanki
I only just learned you can get it without doing the puzzle. I got into the Monastery through the roof so I found all the ceremonial weapons naturally while exploring. By the time I got down to the basement I already had the crest.
@EnjoiSweatshopMoney Yeah, but solving the puzzle gives you a +1d4 radiant damage until long rest, so it's worth it if you've got an upcoming battle where you can take advantage of it.
Im sure someone else has already mentioned this but for the blood of lathander strength check you can cast grease over the statues and that lets them move without any check.
Thank you so much for this. Perfect and easy to understand. Timestamps are wonderful too
Loving Phalar Aluve on my Lore Bard (low strength). Seems very thematic for a Bard, as well!
Yep! I want to play a Drow Bard with Phalar Aluve + Hand Crossbows. Powerful and thematic!
@@Aestus_RPG my Bard’s not a drow, but I’ve got everything else going on! Big fun; my first character, but she’s stuck in Act 2 because I keep wanting to try out other characters!
I agree 100% percent about equipment that you can find early and ride with for the entire playthrough. Feels like >90% of the builds on reddit and youtube so far have come online at 12th level and rely mainly on Act 3 gear. It takes like 80-100 hours to get to that point though, so what exactly is the point?
All you need to solo the game easily on tactician is a level 4 berserker with returning pike and tavern brawler
@@Jacob-fz5hocan confirm throw beserker with tavern brawler is absolutely disgusting. Great consistent damage at range and melee
Modes like tactician and honour, would be the answer to your question!
Having an insanely min/maxed build is almost mandatory if you're not a positioning/exploit genius😂
The 1 lightning damage from spellsparkler is currently counted as a separate hit of eldritch blast, so it also adds charisma force damage from agonizing blast. This is probably a bug.
Even without that, on a sorlock, you can go with draconic (blue/ bronze) and add your cha modifier to every beam again.
Currently, it is ridiculous, but even without bugs, you can deal
9*(1d10+5+1d6+1+5+5+2+5) ~ 288
with lightning charges, the potent robe and the ring of absolute force + amulet of elemental augmentation, and haste and quicken. So for the cost of 3 sorcery points per round.
you also can add charisma dam from gregarious caster which is on some magic items to both the lightning dam and the eldritch blast ray itself, and if you multiclass blue dragon sorcerer, at sorcerer lvl 6, you can add your charisma again to each instance of the lightning dam. very very good.
Staff of Arcane Blessing is slept on heavily. I honestly feel it's better than that flail. The thing is, the extra bonus bless it gives doesn't take concentration, and is a *massive* buff to GWM or Sharpshooter party members. That means you can either keep concentration and give your physical people 2d4 and magical people 3d4 (which is practically going to keep you at 95% hit chance *always*), or you can break concentration to do something else while still giving 1d4 or 2d4 respectively. Bless is already considered basically one of the best 1st level spells that stays relevant all throughout a playthrough. And now you're either making it 2x-3x as good depending on which character, or you can just drop concentration. Plus the staff itself comes with its own free casting of bless once per day. Legitimately a weapon that I kept on Shadowheart the entire game and never once thought that I wished they were using something else.
It doesn't give physical attackers 2d4. It seems like it does from the description, but it doesn't. All it gives is an extra 1d4 (2d4 total) to spell attack rolls. Other than that it's a normal bless.
The spellsparkler is actually insane in a magic missile build. Evocation wizard adds his int modifier to spell damage, so to EACH magic missile, and spellsparkler also stacks from EACH missile, plus there is a necklace for free magic missile cast and adds +1 to the amount of missiles summoned each time you cast them. It's a damn annihilation ray with a minimum of 8 damage on each missile (1d4+1+5 force and 1 lightning), also frequently procking that 1d8 lightning damage.
I killed the final boss on my Golden Dice run this way.
I fell in love with phalar aluve really quickly.
My shadowheart is basically a spell dps and healing build, with buffing for rolls/saving throws.
Giving her this sword with a half decent shield to bump her AC, she mostly "stands" around the rest of my frontliners, so being able to use Aid+Sing/Shriek+guiding bolts is absolutely amazing, very notable power increase in combat, immediately
For honorable mentions you should include the Returning Pike, which is a weapon that makes certain Barbarian builds extremely potent well into the late game.
mystras blessing from staff of arcane blessing is a seperate buff that gets added when casting the bless spell. whats so good about this is that it doesnt get removed when concentration on bless is broken. the 1d4 to spell attack rolls will always stay on buffed targets for the full duration.
But while both are active it effectively gives 2d4 to both attack rolls and saving throws AND 2d4 to spell attack rolls, since the 1d4 is applied twice via Bless and staff bonus
@@davidcrawford5324 mystras blessing only gives 1d4 to spell attack rolls, nothing else.
I think the unseen menace deserves a mention. It's a +1 pike that attacks with advantage and has extended critical range. It's my go-to weapon ever since I found out about it
where do u find ir bby girl
I've been playing as a Monk coming up to the mountain pass, and so far I haven't found anything that tops my Corellon's Grace ^^ +1 to all my Unarmed Strikes, and I get +2 to all my Saving Throws as long as I'm not wearing armour. And since I currently have Stunning Strikes, and later Ki Resonation punches, I don't even need to attack with the weapon, I can just use it as a stat stick to further buff me. Also been using the Hunting Shortbow as a nice ranged option that gives all my attacks advantage on Monstrosities, as well as Hunter's Mark for extra damage
I see that you have the Soulbreaker Greatsword as your first weapon here, and would like to note something: If you're REALLY lucky, you can use Command: Drop on Kith'rak Voss in order to get the Silver Sword of the Astral Plane (A weapon you normally only get at the tail end of Act 3) in Act 1.
I was able to get it to drop after only 1 reload and wow... I'm in Act 2 with Laezel doing over 150 damage with crits in one turn, due to my build around the Silver Sword and all of her extra attacks. Insane. I have the ring that grants her advantage on attacks when surrounded by two or more enemies.
You also don't have to only use Laezel, you can disguise self as a Githyanki & actually get all of the boosts. @@jramirez4310
Honorable mention. club of hill giant strength, because loot and jump distance annoyance. Coupled with offhand knife of the underdark or vice versa, and titanstring bow becomes very strong on anyone.
One other weapon that has a very good, but situational combo is the Light of Creation Halberd, which deals an extra 1d6 Lightning, but can stun you unless you use the ability from the Gloves of the Automaton, which makes you a construct and gives you advantage on all weapon attack rolls and resistance to Lightning damage. Being a construct does make you immune to conditions like Gaping Wounds and Bleed, but also means you can't be healed, which is a rather big drawback.
The way you're saying 1 die __ is killing my OCD 😂
I will never change.
It does me, too. But it just makes me laugh at myself.
One thing for Phalar Aluve, NPCs try and avoid your shriek like its the plague so you can often use it just to create breathing room. during the ambush to take a certain special character early on in Act 2 I just stood next to them with the sword shrieking and nobody approached after that
Really great build ideas - covered amazingly well, great job; would love to see more of these!
I am a big fan of running the titanstring bow on a strength character also running the Gloves of Dexterity. Especially combined with some good medium armor.
Your in depth explanations deserve respect
After a second playthrough, I think the sorrow glaive also deserves an honorable mention for a midline sentinel/priority target pursuer build, mainly because I think it's a very interesting way to build your character.
It's a +1 glaive which doesn't seem very impressive at first (and tbh, the damage isn't anything to write home about, although that's easily improved via items like the helldusk gloves and drakethroat glaive). The main feature of this glaive that imo makes it pretty neat is that it gets a special class action called sorrowful lash, which is kind of like thorn whip except it does slightly less damage (1d4 + spellcasting modifier that doesn't improve with levels). This class action is classified as a cantrip, and more importantly uses a bonus action instead of an action.
This means that items like the ring of arcane synergy pair excellently with this, since you can pull a target in towards you/ away from a squishier party member with your bonus action and boost your weapon damage at the same time. Pair this with spells like spirit guardians which leave a damage aura around you and slow down enemies and the sentinel feat means that you can lock down high priority targets pretty consistently. If you're using this on a gish, it also means that later in the game enemies will counterspell this, which leaves your action free to cast more powerful damage dealing or cc spells, since the cantrip doesn't compete with your action for spellcasting unlike every other cantrip and most damage/cc spells in the game (minus shenanigans with band of the mystic scoundrel).
Using sorrow on my tempest cleric shadow heart and honestly between the buffs and debuffs the cleric can offer, and weapon with extra reach AND a bonus action attack that pulls the enemy in closer. This weapon is at very least an A+ tier. That's just my opinion though. This is my first crpg and d&d style game and my wife and I are loving it.
One of the best thing about Phalar Aluve on Rogue builds is that on the turn you activate Shriek you can still get sneak attack using Pommel Strike. Along with the high initiative Rogues get makes it way better than using it on a supporting Character who would waste a whole action.
Also one of the few weapons that lets you create a dex based Great Weapon Master build.
Staff of Arcane Blessing stacks with Phalar Aluve. So turn 1 if the Sorlock casts twinned haste on themselves and cleric, and cleric has dual weild feat (So you can wield both with Arcane blessing in your off hand). So you cast Mystra blessing (Level 2), and Sing.
Now you get 3d4 to your spell attack rolls thanks to Phalar Aluve + Staff of Arcane blessing (Eldrich blast is going to get 95% hit chance with 18 Charisma on most if not all enemies), and 2d4 to your attack rolls (Negating GWM). If you have a Sorcadin Paladin then you can twin Level 4 Magic Weapon for +2 on yourself and another fighter. Now with all those buffs, you can just hit anything without missing even with GWM. All you need to do in this case is keep within 6 meters of the cleric to get the extra 1d4 buff. Oh and 2d4 on your Saving throws and the Paladin aura +3 from your Paladin Sorclock (16 Charsmina) on your mental saves. Is just nuts. Your party can just shrug off any effects easily. My Paladin just sat there and watched enemies do nothing to him.
Thank you for explaining initiative on bg3 vs D&D 5e.
Another one I like I forget the name but you get it in the Secret room in druids grove which is a Glaive that give you a thorn whip as a bonus action, which is nice for finishing off weak enemies!
The Phalar Aluve sneak attacks work fine if you use sneak attack as a reaction instead. Work around for anyone who wants to use it for a rogue.
I think the best (and by FAR) weapons in act 1 is the Returning pike. Two hander that can be throw and return automatically to your hand. You are hitting like A TRUCK with it. Just play with the feat that add strengh modifier to your throw, play barbarian for the sweet bonus damage and the enrage throw and enjoy.
Good point! That is a great one. Not better than Phalar Aluve or Soulbreaker Greatsword, but it probably could have made the list. Just didn't think of it
This ONLY applies if you have Tavern Brawler as a feat. Otherwise it doesn't hit that hard, nor is it remotely as accurate unless you have 20+ Str, but even then, TB doubles those bonuses on Thrown so...
@@davidcrawford5324 yes i talk about it in my initial post, couldn't remember the correct name ahah.
Usually if you choose to play a weapon into a build, you will build around it. Like not playing sharpshooter at some point on a dual crossbow character would be strange.
But i really think returning pike is unique AND powerful by itself. even more when you account the wanky gravity damage when you throw it from way above.
@@charliebarlet551 Very true. But regarding the Sharpshooter feat and dual crossbows...originally you weren't getting the -5 to hit penalty like GWM gives you due to a bug, but they fixed that problem in the new patch they put out, so now it's not brokenly OP like it used to be. Gotta stack those ability bonuses now like Bless and such to offset that.
The extra damage on thrown from above is so good, but I'm pretty sure that's a bug also, but it most likely won't get fixed, or they'll make all the people who wildshape as an Owlbear and do kamikaze diving attacks from above to do massive damage mad lol.
@@davidcrawford5324
I know but i was talking even without the bug. later in the game the minus penalty is not even a problem. And early you just need someone in your party to make it less of a problem
With the elevation, sneak, etc, you wont have any downgrade at all. And yeah, it's still broken ahah
Another thing to add about Mourning Frost. I noticed that the way the game handles applied vulnerability is that it overrides existing resistances and immunities for that damage type -- or at least, that's how it works with Perilous Stakes. If the Chilled condition works the same way, it has the added bonus of getting around enemies with annoying resistances
Wow! I never noticed that. Awesome!
Don't forget with skinbuster, if you're a barbarian and enraged, it reduces damage calculated after rage resistances. I used skinburster on my barbarian through act 2 combined with the damage reduction from the adamantine scale mail and was getting hit for literally 0 on most attacks on my barbarian. It is crazy good. There are also armor pieces you can get in act 3 that give more ways to add force conduit charges on top of skinburster hits. You can make a very busted build with it.
For spell sparklers can use psychic spark amulet with adds 1 more bolt to magic missles and let's you cast a level 1 magic missle for free. So as a level 1 spell already getting 4 hits so it adds up quickly
Someone already commented this my b
That Soulbreaker Greatsword combined with the armour you can loot off one of the Githyanki at the end of Act 2 is a winning combination. She's never downed in combat after that. Also Astarion dual wielding the Knife of the Undermountain King with the life stealing sword you can buy in Act 2 from Dammon is just unbelievably good. He can take out high hit point targets in one turn, especially if he is in the thief subclass with the extra bonus action.
Shriek works so well with spell sparkler + magic missile in act 1. You can find more items that add to the damage later on. Plenty of videos about it as well! Dual wielder is a great feat to get btw, almost better than wearing shields in some cases as you can dual wield a staff + phalar aluve.
As soon as I found Phalar Aluve, I started a new character as a Rogue just to go get it.
Oh, and I always give Karlach the Shattered Flail and Titanstring Bow. They're perfect.
The layout of this video is top tier good job.
Im here to complain!
I hope you also do one of these videos for Act 2 weapons, because now that I have picked them up I would be interested in your thoughts on their potential.
Which weapon do you want my opinion on?
@@Aestus_RPG For one, the Halberd of Vigilance; does it combo well with the Sentinel feat, or is there some other way of making good use of it? Also, the Punch-Drunk B***ard; is there a reliable way of being drunk to get its effects to work? Finally, Wyll's quest sword, Infernal Rapier, which doesn't seem to double with Pact of the Blade, but because of the Cambion summon I would still like to use it, so is there another class it could work well with?
@@Bayonet1809 On the Halberd of Vigilance: Its good, not great. It does work well with Sentinel + Polearm Masster build, which is also a good not great strategy.
On Punch-Drunk Bastard: Very interesting weapon! I haven't used it yet though, so I can't say anything about it sadly.
On Infernal Rapier: Its a stack stick for casters, not actually a good attacking weapon. That said, I am interested in combining it with a wisdom caster and the Ability Drain tadpole power to rapidly debuff wisdom saving throws. It seems a little to niche to be effective, but its a cool idea!
@@Aestus_RPG Thanks for the advice and suggestions!
You can throw grease bottle or cast grease on the statue if you fail the Strength check and you can move the statue after that, so you dont get locked out.
Alright. You've convinced me. Heavy Armor Master, Warcaster, Adamantine Splint Armor, Skinburster, and Heroism. All on an Oathbreaker Paladin. Or really any divine caster class w/ heavy armor. You will not break.
This is good info.
I recommend for any ody here that is just looking for a way to stop getting their ass kicked: lower the difficulty l. This game is turn based, it lets you save scum, it's not a souls game. There's hardly any acclaim to becoming so good you can solo tactician. There's probably a dozen builds that can solo tactician.
Those are builds. Your player skill comes in to play very minimally in a game like this.
Just lower the difficulty and enjoy the game for what it is. My first playthrough was an oath breaker, so I played comfortably on tactician never came in to danger of losing a fight.
If I wanted to RP a bars/druid I would just lower the difficulty instead of wracking my brain for hours trying to make the stupid build work on highest difficulty.
If you think that's really fun and can enjoy yourself doing that, obviously ignore my advice.
A fun one you can get really early for a tavern brawler monk is the Returning pike. Just use half wood elf to get the proficiency for it. There's several items in act 1 that boost throwing damage too. You can get the pike pretty cheap from the goblin camp vendor, and a ring of flinging from the vendor at druids grove. There are also some gloves that boost throwing damage, but I prefer "The sparkle hands" because the lightning charges apply to thrown weapons for some reason, so they boost both the pike when you throw it, as well as flurry of blows. I think you can get them from the mephits nearby the hags tea house.
You basically just use step of the wind to get to great places to throw the pike from, then spear things with it. If anything gets close you can blast them away with flurry of blows, or stagger them so you can retreat. Though getting to 20 strength might be the best, I'm debating picking up polearm master and sentinel to spear anything that gets close to me. Since you can always use potions to get over 20 strength if you want a bit more of a boost.
Great video, very informative to new-ish players like myself.
In regards to the strength check for the Blood of Lathander, you can actually just attack the statue and then you can move it freely.
Nice! I didn't know that, thanks for the tip!
@@Aestus_RPG You can also throw a bottle of grease at the statue to move it. Thought about it after reading a book/note ingame about people needing to grease stuff in the monastery.
Also, surprised you didn't mention the Unseen Menace pike from the Crèche. Always having advantage is pretty big imo
You can also throw grease on it.
@@luKa-tr4xr Is it always? Doesn't the invisibility wear off? I've used it before of course, but I can't remember exactly.
@@Aestus_RPG It wears off for two turns only if you miss (which doesnt happen often with advantage+bless). It also crits on 19!
As far as the statue with the blood, you can use a bottle of grease on the ground to turn it. And there's a bottle in the room too.
I see nobody talking about the spear Vision of the Absolute. It gives 2 turns of blindness on hit. It's actually pretty huge. I gave that to my battlemaster fighter. You get so much control and your team gets advantage for free on important targets. You can use a shield so you can jump in there and tank everything, make everyone blind by doing one tap on each enemy. It's kinda crazy. For act2 you can swap that for Blood of Lathander since almost everything is undead. But you get that spear super early in act1 and the utility it gives is awesome. I've been sleeping on that weapon for way too long.
great vid, shows your knowledge, and also well edited. TY
Regarding the titanstring bow, there is a club in the underdark that sets your str to 19, if you are a pure ranged character you're not using that slot anyway
Do you have the name of it? I only just found Viconias mace which sets it to 18
@@Mr_Smith618 it's the club of hill giant strength, gotten on the top floor of the arcane tower in the underdark by smashing the chair of hill giant strength
@@robertheimbach419 Thanks for the info, had no idea you could smash a chair and get that. Guess I'll get it next run!
nice list! definitely slept on the shattered flail. another weapon i feel many people sleep on is the very heavy greataxe.
simple weapon, it has decent damage, nothing too fancy, but the weapon action gargantuan cleave is one of my favourites: basically the normal axe cleave but deals normal weapon damage instead of half damage PLUS 1d6. i believe it also has no limitation of only three targets, unlike the normal cleave. combine that with its weapon action "prepare" to deal even more damage and this becomes an even better AoE attack.
you do get off balanced from this attack, but i found it to be inconsequential on my barb run. rarely failed the strength check, and even then my char was tanky and agile enough to not really care about it. used this axe well into act 2.
just stumbled upon this beautiful build using the shattered flail. ok, thats just kinda broken. ua-cam.com/video/Ro6pithBYBU/v-deo.html
I combined the Spellsparkler with:
The protecty sparkswall robe with gives +1 to spell save DC, +1 bonus to AC and Saving Throws when I have lightning charges.
The Watersparkers which electrifies water if I’m standing on it, and grants 3 lightning charges if I start a turn on water
The Sparkswall ring which grants resistance to lightning damage and I can’t be electrocuted
Gloves of belligerent skies which grants reverb on lightning damage
And
Necklace of elemental augmentation which adds my spellcasting modifier to lightning damage (acid, cold, fire, and thunder too)
I’m a storm sorcerer who focuses mostly on lightning and thunder as his theme
Im just amazed with how long act 1 really is. If you dont take the mountain pass and risk the curse you have the entire underdark, the grymforge, and much more
you risk the curse either way. Also you can finish underdark, then instead of heading to act to take a 180 and do mountain pass to get lathander.
This is Amazing. TY! This is like an instant +3 to my whole play through!
Want a powerful early Act 1 weapon thats good until about level 3? Cast Shillelagh on a Torch. If your spell casting ability is a 16 or 17 from your character build, your Shillelagh Torch is doing 1D8+3 + 1D4 Fire damage. How does 5-15 damage sound (more if weak to fire) for a level 1-3 character?
You can get Blood Of Lathander without the strenght check. You just have to do the initial puzzle, where you find all the ceremonial weapons, place them on their respective alters, get the pendant, and use that to open the pedistal that Blood Of Lathander is in.
I love Phalar Aluve on my pure support bard, I never swapped it out.
I use it on my support druid, no regret
Also the Staff of Arcane blessing can be extremely potent when you pair the it with the ring that gives bless on heal, mass cure wounds just turns into a gigabuff.
It doesn't work. Idk if its a bug or what, but it just does not work sadly. It is what i tried to do cause both items are amazing, but whenever i healed there never was a buff from the staff present. I did not check if bless itself is powered up, but the spell buff part was definitely not present on anyone. Ring itself is sick on its own though
There’s actually another finesse longsword sold by the merchant in the Githyanki Crèche (Mountain pass / monastery area, Act 1.5)
I know there are at least 3, there’s a list on the community wiki
"You get to inflict all the best conditions when stunned, which is death."
I loled so hard.
Shattered flail is also great with the cloak that adds a D6 poison damage to attacks when you are healed.
What is the name of this cloak, I can not find one with the effect you state? I can only find Deadly Derivation: "When you Poison a foe, heal yourself for 1d4 hit points." Is this what you were thinking of? If so then it wouldn't work with Shattered flail.
Or are you thinking of the amulet Broodmother's Revenge: "Whenever the wearer is healed, their weapon becomes coated in magic and deals an additional 1~6 Poison Damage."? Which being an amulet, can not be used at the same time as the Periapt of Wound Closure.
I've only had the time to get through Act 1 so I'm not sure how far they'd take me beyond that, but two of the weapons that carried me the most so far are Dragon's Grasp and the Hunting Shortbow. Dragon's Grasp is a throwable handaxe with a fairly easy condition to get an extra 1d4 (just hit things that are burned) and pairs nicely with Eldritch Knight via weapon bond. So you have an early game ranged option for a tank build that scales off of strength rather than dex because you can cycle throw actions (whereas with most melee weapons that can be thrown you'd have to retrieve them before throwing again). The Hunting Shortbow has advantage over monstrosities which is nice, but far more importantly it lets anyone just equipping it use hunters mark - one of the biggest up sides to choosing to invest in ranger enough to get the hunter subclass because the latter half of base rangers offerings are kind of mid (though I'm still playing one to 6 because I guess I like to RP with the whole ranger knight thing being kind of neat). Hunters mark is kind of the thing you splash before any attack and even after the target is gone you can bonus action to "reapply hunters mark" which is important because the bonus action doesn't cost a spell slot. So you can add an extra bit of damage throughout an entire encounter and treat each level 1 spellslot in terms of fights per long rest. That's allot of extra damage and it's the least invested way to get the spell.
Fully agree on your list. Still using in act 3 Soulbreaker greatsword & titan string bow..:D Blood of latander is still good mostly due to its passive feature.
Joltshooter on a gloomstalker assassin with sharpshooter / archery fighting style is 10/10. Perhaps not better than Spell Sparkler, but I still find it very useful getting the extra to hit to cancel out sharpshooter and the extra lightning damage. Pair that with the dash boots that give you lightning for dashing and you can reposition with a BA from rogue to gain even more lightning stacks.
There's a +1 shortbow you can get from Corsair Greymon called Bow of the Banshee, procs the fear condition on targets and then has a +1d4 on attack and damage rolls. Recommend trying it out sometime because it's way better than most of this list.
I know its nothing too special but I really love the returning pike, especially with the sparkle hands, insane damage swings, and if you get tavern brawler and the ring that increases throw weapon damage
Cant for the life of me find that spear. I mightve fed it to gale lmao
@@pencilbender The goblin shop keeper close to imprisoned Volo in the goblin camp sells it I believe. IMO you wont find a better throwing weapon until act 3
@@koreanbbq2376I can confirm I bought the returning pike from the goblin vendor. He has a few other interesting items, it's really worth exploring the goblin camp and Sanctum peacefully first.
Great vid - although having a lot of fun with the Hamarhraft as a Paladin in a current run!
Shattered Flail might also synergise really well with Kagha's Headwear, which gives you 1d6, I believe, poison or acid damage to every weapon attack, as long as you have been healed prior. With the weapon's self heal, this effect would be active permanently. And as you mentioned, there are many other items that synergise with healing, and receiving their bonusses by doing something as simple as just attacking, might be pretty good.🤔
One weapon I am missing in your list, is the Returning Pike, which really raises any throwing build to the next level, as not only is it stronger than any regular throwing weapon, but also does it return to your hand after being thrown, as the name suggests. The Halfling vendor in the grove, as well as the Dwarven vendor in the Myconid colony both sell items that synergise with throwing, adding even more damage instances to each throw, making throwing one of the best damage sources available at that point. Returning weapons are rare enough, that you will probably use the pike for quite some time, before you replace it with an adequate substitute.
What is Kagha's Headwear? Are you perhaps referring to Broodmother's Revenge, which has the effect you state, but is an amulet, so can not be combined with the Periapt of Wound Closure?
Theres a better returning spear somewhere
@@pencilbender In Act 3
You don't "need" the strength check pass. For the elevator you can just go past it by going down a path downwards, take a couple jumps, watch out for bombs and you still arrive at the monastery. As for the statues, you can just hit them repeatedly until they start turning.
Shattered Flail early game on Karlach. She never dies. She will most likely end up at full health at the end of the fight. But, she will also kill your team if she cant hit an enemy...
My killer combo is currently for my Circle of Spores Druid. The best weapon is a torch. No seriously. Hear me out. Cantrip (I’m not going to spell it ) makes torch (a club) into a d8 weapon. Symbiotic adds d6 necrotic. Torch being lit adds d4 fire plus wisdom modifier. That totals to 6-21 damage at level TWO. Oh and you can dual wield torches for the off hand doing 3-14 then the spreading spores for 2-8 (but they can save for zero) as reaction. That’s 11-43 damage potential with three attacks at level TWO!
Add the Hunters Bow and it’s Hunters Mark ability for an additional d6 at level three (the fight outside the gate should push your character to level 3)
Add the Arcane Diadem after the Hag and that adds an additional flat 4 damage and the Caustic Ring for flat 2 acid
It is hinted that the statue in the monastery need some greasing. If you use a grease spell on it there is no need for a strength check.
shout out to hunting bow from dammon for hunter's mark and feller of monsters (advantage many types of monsters) which will apply to melee weapons and spells too.
I feel like lae'zel hard carries everyone's playthrough, fighter is disgustingly powerful with their extra attacks and feats
Talking about crit builds, i just finished the game on my thief rogue vengeance paladin character with the items that can lower your crit, give garaunteed crits, and can paralyze enemies on a crit with gale having hold monster. I would attack bosses and when I crit them, they just got deleted. 4 attacks a round, also super tanky with the agile armor and aura of protection. What a monster, love them.
The spellsparkler works also great with arcane missiles (including the 1+ Misslie necklace) (Blue Dagon Ancestory lvl6 cha modifier also works) BUT the damage calculation is bugged. Sometimes you roll arround 12 damage bur only get 3-5
Inn the Arcane tower you can find a strange stol you can destroy, to get the club of the hill giant, this in the main hand to get 19 strenght, coupled withe titan string bow on a ranged caracter for some extra dubbel dipping.
It was still 15 strength when I made this list.
Spellsparkler works with each magic missile attack as well, making wizards really good with it as well. Whole magic missile builds exist and that staff is a core component.
Yeah, they are good builds.
Note that Titanstring bow doesn't display str modifier on character screen, but it is applied (you can check in combat log)
However the whole point is moot since dual +1 xbows are better than any other bow sans act3 legendaries and considering that vendors refresh their stock on every level up and long rest with some due diligence you can have hand crossbows on all characters that can wield it, hell it even does more dmg on characters like gale which don't have the proficiency
Cheers, hope you do one for act 2 and 3 as well!
Phalar Avule is great to build and bring with a Tempest Cleric and a Druid. Tempest Cleric at lv 6 has a perk that push back enemies if they suffer thunder of lightning damage caused by them. Druid can drop a Spike Growth and Create Water and the Cleric electrifies the water, and Cleric has Phalar Avule. So essentially every turn the enemies takes damage from Electrocute and get pushed back, this procs Phalar Avule and they also get pushed back, suffering damage from Spike Growth, Druid can throw a Plant Growth on top and someone can place Silence so nobody can warp out. If they try to avoid the water, Command Approach. Overly complicated and unnecessary? Yes. Fun? Doubly.
Love these videos Aestus keep them coming
Good vid! Hope you do a 10 best for act 2 and 3