I will say, it was pretty damn satisfying the one time Gale was able to take out 4 fishmen in one lightning bolt because they'd just jumped out of the water and we're all in a line along the dock/coast.
lightning bolt is my hero tbh bc i have honestly found it not too hard to have enemies grouped up or align myself in a way where i can hit a ton of guys and then dump some water on them and then disintegrate like half the enemies at once it’s kinda beautiful
i am only on act 2 tho and it’s my first playthrough so maybe that will go away soon lol, but it was my savior for that “defending the portal” quest thing for halsin when so many waves kept appearing and they were all kinda bunched together
Warden of Vitality is the core spell for basically the only viable combat healing build in my opinion. Multiclassing lore bard, life cleric and thief and picking up the items that make heals give temporary hit points, extra heals, bless and blade ward lets you cast a 2d6 + 10 healing spell(17 average) that blesses and blade wards the target !twice! each turn for 10 turns only using your bonus actions and still allows you to use your main action AND keep up a concentration spell (since warden doesn't take up your concentration) alongside it. All for the cost of 1 level 3 spell slot. Basically if you're playing a supportive lore bard this build can actually be really powerful. Way better than mass healing word imo.
Agreed, for the same reason Mass Healing Word was bumped up, Warden of Vitality should be too. And the fact that it isn't concentration means it doesn't limit anything else you're doing
Thank you! Been using Warden on my Lore Bard, had it since before I even left Act 1, and my whole party agrees it’s been a GODSEND. Took Spirit Guardians with it, went 1 level in Life Cleric. Now, I’m a front line healer, that murders enemies with holy light just by getting near them (radiation orb build too), and as my bonus action I can heal for free for basically the whole combat 2d6+5. It’s such a good spell and it deserves more respect!
Hunger of Hadar is one of my absolute favorite spells because it is just SO powerful. Damage may be ok at best, but getting to blind enemies and apply difficult terrain to a huge area is CRAZY. Especially since it doesn't count as magical darkness so all the dark vision races can get damage in without any debuff. And repelling blast with it should genuinely be illegal as enchantment magic, that combo is EVIL and I LOVE IT
I like keeping my martials at the edge of the Hunger of Hadar acting as a wall so that even if enemies get to the edge they can't get out. Plus I have a thrower that just yeets enemies back in if they do get out.
@@IlCoppe Sit your martials right at the edge of the sphere, especially if you block a hallway-esque area so enemies have to walk to them. They can get the advantage on the enemies still in the blinded radius, and can even shove them back into the bubble. Use them like a wall of defense instead of an aggressive offense Edit: Also, definitely give them some amount of ranged damage like throwing, just in case an enemy isn't close enough to the edge to attack. Polearm master also works really well with this strategy since the extra reach weapons already make this easier to use, and you get those opportunity attacks!
The dream support turn. Use your action to Remove Curse and dispel the Hex on your ally, preventing much damage. Use your bonus action to cast Mass Healing Word, healing the 1 wounded ally who is downed inside distant fog and thus untargetable by regular Healing Word. Free action to end the turn with a poor performance of The Power on your flute.
The shar gauntlet one in particular is extra funny because more just keep spawning in and the enemy turn just devolves into a whole minute of rats dying
"You will rarely hit 3 or more target with lightning bolt" -- in my experience, that's not true at all. I rarely hit fewer than 3 ennemies with it, with a bit of clever placement.
In Honor Mode, I feel like one of the best targets for Haste (or Potions of Speed, or Elixirs of Bloodlust) is a character that has access to Eldritch Blast + Agonizing Blast (so either a pure Warlock or a Charisma caster with a 2 level Warlock dip), since Eldritch Blast does get 2 beams per cast (or 3 at 10th level). So while a Hasted 11th level fighter will "only" be making 4 attacks (or 7 if they use their action surge on one of their hasted turns), a 10th level character with Eldritch Blast will be getting 6 beams while Hasted (since the beams come in "batches" of 3 per cast).
I finished my run with 2 The Old one Warlock, 10 draconic sorcerer. In act 3 everyone were frightened due to crit on 15 rolls and above, plus prone due to reverberation. And my stupid friend locked me out of Potent Robe, while playing Dark urge. Under elixir of bloodlust it's basically 4 charges of Eldritch blast, plus chain lightning on staff.
It makes total sense that enemies don't jump out out of Hunger of Hadar, cause they are blinded. They could jump right into a chasm, or break their ankles not sticking the landing. Adding 'prone' to a blind jump would have been a nice little detail though!
I find that with an evocation wizard (eg Gale) casting lightning bolt so I don’t have to worry about hitting allies, I can usually hit at LEAST two, and usually three or more enemies. Plus the wet effect, and maybe even wrath of the storm from a tempest cleric dip, it can do huge, reliable damage
Same! THe second gale got lightning bold he became sooo useful! The best use cases are when you have enemies coming towards you, especially (though def doesn't have to be) in a corridor/hall type area. It was SUPER useful for Halsin's portal protection fight. Since we had waves of enemies coming towards us, if I moved gale around a bit, he could hit anywhere from 3 to like 6 or 7 enemies at once! Super helpful.
If you ever readress this tier list I think there's a lot to consider with haste. Haste can be granted to your whole party by throwing a potion or grenade of speed and there's several items that grant it. Also there is an illithid power that grants haste. The only real thing that you get from preparing the spell is a longer effect duration.
Cephalopocalypse, I love your videos. Would you consider a video dedicated to your overall strategic considerations? Action economy, resources, minimizing randomness, etc? I’ve shared some of your insights with my D&D party and would love a one-stop source to send them!
Thanks! I definitely have thought about this - the trick is framing it in a useful way. Just needs a little more prep than some of my other videos but I will definitely do something like that eventually!
I feel like B tier is reasonable for slow, but I think its closer to A than C tier. My reasoning is that it fills an important role compared to the other high tier control spells. One, because its not a ground or area effect, it deals with combat arenas with a lot of irregular terrain better than the others. Two, there's no risk of limiting the effectiveness of your martial characters. Also, it stacks with difficult terrain, and is really nice against characters with especially high armour class. There's such a critical mass of unique characteristics and situations where it works really well that I have been pleasantly surprised by it.
Warden of vitality - Famously, this is one of the big lore bard pick for the first magic secrets. They get access to this at about level 6 instead of Paladin at level 9. So, pretty early in act 2 a lore bard set up for healing can drop this in combat. MOST players aren’t beating all combats in 1-2 rounds (50% still haven’t made it to act 2). With the helm that gives 1D6 to the caster for healing another, both rings, the boots …. Every round for 10 turns you can heal (plus temp hp) 3D6+2+ 3 temp and give two targets blade ward, and bless. And it costs one 3rd level spell slot and bonus actions.
I'm not sure I can support you calling Haste an S Tier spell. It is absolutely an S Tier effect, but the abundance of Haste potions being available lowers the value of the spell because the effect can be achieved with a shorter duration and without the cost of using your concentration.
My fav combo, especially on choke points, is an upscaled whirling blades and then drop hunger of hadar on it. But if you have any area of effect (even grease or webbed) and put hunger of hadar on it is just brutal. Especially when you have a warlock waiting and as they get to the edge, you blast them back into the whirling blades...very satisfying.
Not sure if you will see this, but I believe the blind status makes it so that creatures can't jump. Which is why they wont jump out of hunger of hadar
Ngl, I always wait for your videos lol. Also, completely agree with you sleet storm valuation. It is not powerful as those S tier spells, but it is probably the best A tier spell. Also, that portal fight in act 2, with sleet storm it is much much better.
I find lightning bolt to be way better than fireball. Since the spell hits anyone next to the caster as well as in the line, its pretty easy to hit 3+ enemies with it in every fight (that has enough enemies), and very often a lot more
I use this healing words interactions with itens and change the game for me. I usually don't heal so much ain battle and I didn't know how to use Shadowheart effectively my first run. Now with these combinations she is essencial to my party.
Did you put Crusaders Mantle in D tier in your other video? OHHH my friend you don't understand. I will agree in a vacuum it is weak, but it's designed to buff yourself and minions. ALL minions get the benefit too. Got a necromancer wizard in your party who just spawned 3 skeletons? YUP, they EACH get +1d4 radiant! So does Scratch, and that Raven, and that Djinn, and... you name it!
Love most of what you’ve got here, but something I have to call umbrage with - the absolute best Bard Magic Secrets spell is Command. Between the Band of Mystic Scoundrel and all the ways a bard can build up acuity, it becomes a 100% chance to hit exchanging one bonus action for several actions. No bard should be without it.
I find Sleet Storm to be up in the S-tier level of spell. The AOE is so massive that you can usually get every enemy in it, and the effect is debilitating. Between the huge area, the difficult terrain, making them prone on your turn when the ice reapplies (forcing them to use movement on their turn to get up), and applying the prone effect on their turn when they try to move (and I find a save can be forced twice on an enemy’s turn if they try to move far enough), the enemies are basically just completely out of luck if they ever want to fight in melee. I find it wastes more turns than any other spell. And it’ll shut down enemy concentration spells (though that comes up less). The only thing it doesn’t reliably do is shut down ranged attacks, but they’ll often try to move before making a ranged attack and go prone and end their turn anyways. And you can just combine Sleet Storm with a Fog Cloud and suddenly you’ve shut down every option because they’re blinded and can’t make ranged attacks (while your party can still shoot into the Fog Cloud). I’ve used Sleet Storm + Fog Cloud to completely trivialize most of the difficult fights in the game (on Tactician & Honor Mode), to the point where my entire party typically won’t even take 20 total damage even in major fights that people list as among the most difficult in the game. And it’s not because my group is doing massive damage-it’s largely just because Sleet Storm + Fog Cloud makes enemies unable to ever do anything.
I agree sleet storm is slept on. It completely trivializes some fights, like when defending Halsin's portal. Most of the enemies can't do anything, and the few that can are easily picked off. One of my favourite crowd control spells in the game.
I honestly think that even ignoring the wet condition lightning bolt deserves A tier, at the very least it's better than fireball. I can almost always hit more enemies with lightning bolt that with fireball with some careful positioning, at worst the same amount. With the wet condition, especially if you're using cleric to maximize the damage it could honestly be S tier with how much damage it does and how many enemies it can hit.
I'd argue that potions of speed are better than haste (which is why I don't use this spell). Fights rarely last more than 3 turns, and you can spend one attack to buff multiple characters in a party. But that's just how I prefer to do it.
Generally the use case for slow is that your enemies and allies are grouped up and you can't land a more powerful control effect without friendly fire. It fills a solid role as a backup option in that way.
This list is perfect IMO. I was going to comment on the last video about Mass Healing Word, but you already moved it to A which is where I think it belongs.
I think another thing about glyph of warding is that you can use it before combat, so it doesn’t necessarily use an action in combat, and since the ai often moves multiple enemies at once you can still catch multiple of them in it. It’s also non concentration cc at level 3.
While I approve where you placed warden of vitality I think you could have mentioned some more of how good it is to build around which you did with mass healing word. It can be acquired at lvl 6 as a lore bard and if used with healing items you now have an effective way of keeping blade ward and bless up on 2 party members constantly along with some healing using bonus actions. 3 in thief(which you did mention) means you can now keep blade ward and bless up on your entire party for 11-12 turns combined + some healing using your bonus actions. Throw in 2 lvls in sorcerer and that can now be extended to 21-22 turns of blade ward and bless. When you compare this to a singular round of mass healing word the 2 just cannot be compared to each other. Sure it is a build that does not come fully active til lvl 11 which is 6 lvls later than mass healing word but the item requirement is the same which is also what you based mass healing word around. This also just so happens to be a build that allows the bard to twin cast Haste, making for a pretty ridiculous support build.
as far as out of combat healing goes, form a square and have your cleric throw healing potions in the center of it which quadruples the healing from one potion and it also procs the magic item healing buffs that the cleric has--it is similar to the prevalence of revivification scrolls--there is just no need to carry around and use a spell which accomplishes the same goal that the very common and much more useful healing potion does
Hey there, I think you may have missed 2 strengths of Slow. I dont know if it pushes it up a tier but it is why I consider it a mainstay. 1st it is the strongest multi target aoe control spell that isnt positioning dependent. This gives it enormous flexibility when you dont at all know what your next encounter might be making it a lot stronger for new players. 2nd and this is the big one, unlike the other cc options it has no reliance on a compliant party (and almost no potential to hinder your parties options) making it very excellent for casual multiplayer where planning out a fight goes by the wayside.
daylight for me is up the top, cast on mele weapon of main fighter, not as sphere it blinds 1/2 of enemies in the game (advantage), act 2 is non issue looting and exploring is also easier, it doesn't require concentration when i want to hide and steal, i change main weapon of mele character 'F' and its DARK again
Haste is incredibly strong. In the fight against the winged dude in act 2 the sourcerer casted haste on me, then I raged, used the greataxe preparation and almost killed him by myself in 1 turn
I think Warden of Vitality should at least be on par with mass healing word for the same reasons. A bard can use the same healing items as a ceric and gets warden at lvl6. Applying 2 turns of bless and blade ward for a bonus action is super strong, especially since because of the resistance the hitpoints are worth twice as much. And bards often don't have much to with their bonus action besides inspiring or shooting a hand-crossbow and concentrating on bless at lvl6 or higher is hard to justify.
I would argue about the Haste spell though. Yes it's powerful, but so many battles, so many solo runs ended in an unexpected lethargy state! In my honor mode playthrough, I didn't even take Haste on my sorcerer, it's just not needed for 10 turns, and if necessary, you can always use a potion of Haste or mushroom mist.
For solo runs it's rough but ideally you'd have a caster with Shield apply haste, that way you're likely to get 2 - 3 game turns and that should be enough to get into a winnable position even if the concentration gets broken. But it is tough to balance because then that caster can't use concentration which means your AoE and damage options with that character are more limited
Hunger of Hadar caused a party wipe for me in the moonrise tower fight. My party and the harpers got caught in the doorway, lost initiative, and then took a HoH and a bunch of arrows to the face. Killed all the harpers instantly and left the party in shambles in one turn.
B b b b b but... BUT! You could at one point in the past use feign death on a merchant you donated copious amounts of money to to make them your ally, force them to sleep and then steal their entire inventory! And you can use it on yourself to avoid being interrogated after committing a crime! S tier right there!
Cant remember if you covered this last video, but Glyph of Warding also appears to allow a free action for the caster before entering combat... every time Shadowheart casts from hidden she gets her action back..!! Could be a bug, but that's how it seems to be working.
Sleet storm trivializes any multi-enemy fight. Useless against a big bad single entity but otherwise it just shuts down an entire screen of baddies. Sure they can sometimes save but because it covers such a massive area and even if they save they have to walk half their speed out of it and pass further checks or often their jump range isnt good enough to get out of it + every time when its your turn you put them on the ground again / destroy any new concetration spells attempted within the area.. in my playthrough it acted as S. Sure, not applicable to 100% of the fights but when its usecase comes up (very often) it is just broken (without needing gimmicky builds crutching on specific items from act3 or multi-multiclassing, this thing is broken out of the box) Not sure if heightened spell works on the subsequent save throws though, that would make it even more lulzy. Also good for revealing invis enemies. If you notice an ambush set up or see assasin type enemies going invis, just cast this in their general direction and disregard them. If your party has other characters capable of dealing elemental dmg or scrolls/cantrips/special arrows, your party can melt the ice and abuse it for extra lightning damage and on your turn it becomes ice again, baddies drop back on the ground, any attempts on concentration get canceled etc. Melting the ice between your turns by somebody else can also be beneficial because enemies dont avoid water that much, so you while you risk some enemies walking out of it, some might just stay in the area/walk into it because its not ice and they get rekt for free as soon as its your turn again. One of the best demonstrations for this spell is the Balthazar Nightsong prison fight where he summons a fuckton of skellies but as soon as you cast this in the middle its gg. We fought him on tactician, underleveled, underequipped nonoptimal builds and even despite his legendary status he was on the ground fairly often because how often you have to roll against this spell. Some of the ranged skellies on the cliff were fine but hopping back on of the rocks you come from puts them out of useful range and then you're just shooting fish in the barrel which is the whole arena infront of you.
Without all the random torches plant growth is an A tier imo and if it straight up couldn’t be set on fire it might honestly be S tier - combine it with hunger of hadar and it’s DEVASTATING
lightningbolt can be S teir if you want to cheese. Kite the encounters into a funnel, lock the door, gg. It sucks for most normal playthroughs but its as good if not better than all dmg spells if you play around it for 50% of encounters. sucks against bosses so yeah. good for short/long rest if youre limiting that and willing to cheese.
I think you are undervaluing slow a lot here. I use Slow all the time, it's pretty clutch. Better than Haste. It reduces the mobility of the enemy. For example I just used slow on Grym, and I won the fight without getting hit once. Whereas without it, he just crosses the entire map and multi-attacks you with punches that one-hit your party members. Plus it's "select aoe", I don't know how to call it. In any case I always ruin it by casting ... a another concentration spell.🤦
I think you might have less confusion about B / C tier if you re-labeled the tiers "Universally Strong / Often Strong / Niche Uses / Highly Niche Uses / Almost Never What you Want" (or some variation). I think folks are confused because the "weak" tier is "bad in general" and S is "good in general" - even though the middle tiers don't break down that way. Edit: another downside of revivify is that you generally have the option of paying Withers and then pocket-picking back the gold you gave him.
To be honest, I don't really think there's a way around it. People are so heavily conditioned to see anything less than a max score as garbage, and tier lists are a really emotional subject for people, so any placement below maximum for a spell they have a connection to upsets folks.
Aren’t spells like fireball and lightning bolt technically better in tavletop? I was flipping through the monster manual the other day, and I noticed that an ancient red dragon, a cr 24 creature, has 546 hp, whereas the red dragon the party fights at level 12 has a full 400. I kind of understand this difference-bigger hp pools means more time spent rolling dice, which isn’t a problem in a video game where everything is happening instantly in the background. But it does mean that damaging spells fall off a lot faster than they would in tabletop, because they just can’t keep pace with enemy healthbars.
Well here we are again, I did already comment on the first part 1 (on my other account), but time for the second part 1! As always, if I don't comment I have nothing to say on a placement, and I do believe there should be an F tier for some spells. Haste deserves it's own S+ tier. It's even more ridiculous when actually used properly. Even in honor mode where it's less useful on a martial character (paladins still benefit an insane amount), spellcasters just shatter the balance of the game. Beyond that, it has a bunch of tricks in BG3 that make it even sillier. A good example of this is, in some situations, you can cancel concentration manually at the end of the hasted character's turn to skip the lethargic condition. Haste with no downside? Yep, that's right. S+ easily. Hunger of Hadar, while it is amazing, is not deserving of S tier. It's the epitome of a B-tier spell that is elevated by BG3's game design. A tier, sure, but not S. It's held back by the fact that some fights it will be useless or incredibly unhelpful, especially if you have ranged characters. But in some fights, it can win the fight on it's own. Lightning arrow has some use for a lore bard. D tier I agree with, but I have a theoretical F tier to put even worse things in. Lightning bolt definitely deserves A tier. We may disagree on damage types generally, but 8d6*2 on 3 targets is insane. It's not difficult to resposition with misty step to prepare hitting at least 3, if not more targets in some fights. It's not S tier due to the terrain issues, but the bolt averages 56 damage to a wet target. At level 5, that's "one shot an encounter" level. Amazing. (boots of aid and comfort are the healing boots); MHW is a C, maybe B tier spell because it has great usage on a life cleric and with items, but building around it is not worthwhile as you will get stuck in the "do not replace" mindset for those items, even when objectively better stuff comes along, and MHW falls off. Revivify is F tier, Withers is free if you have the downtime and the hundreds of scrolls exist. Sleet Storm is just Grease with concentration in a third level slot. Yes, it's a bigger zone, but it's just grease. B tier for it's range. Slow is C tier; while it has a lot of targets, just use hold person for 2 targets for an even stronger effect if the same number of fails happen. speak with dead is F tier simply because it lasts all day and is duplicated by so many items and you get god damn hundreds of the scrolls. Vampiric Touch is C tier because there are some builds that make it work with gish-style setups. It's biggest downside is that it is necrotic damage, if it was any other damage type sans poison, it would be quite good. Warden of Vitality is D tier (not F in my list) because it doesn't take concentration. That makes it have some usage here and there but it's really not great. even if you hard spec into it. Prayer of healing and/or short rest is better out of combat healing. Lots of disagreement and notes on this one eh? That's how it goes sometimes, opinions and playstyles always vary. See ya next time!
I have a hard time getting more than one or two enemies in Fear or Hypnotic Patterns AOE without friendly fire. Slow had an enormous AOE and the fact that you don't risk friendly fire makes it very useful. I also find most fights when I consider a debuff, tbe enemies are immune to almost every condition besides slow. Definitely see all the points in this video. I just don't see the C arguement....Solid B, almost A consideration imho.
Great tier list few disagreements tho. Lightning bolt should be A or S tier. The aoe is actually pretty good and I've had no problem hitting 3 or more enemies with one casting so I don't understand your statement on it hiting two enemies at most. Plus it just does so much damage especially if applying wet. Call lightning is actually the spell with a really small aoe and it costs concentration. Hypnotic pattern should prob be S tier over fear and glyph of warding. Fear is annoying if you're trying to set up melee characters for nova rounds and glyph of warding targets the less effective dex. Stacking dc and landing hypnotic patter will end a fight before it even starts.
Ok soo.... a paladin of devotion gives an aoe charm immunity. That works against hypnotic pattern. So between that and the massive aoe you can pretty much just pick off enemies one at a time and there isn't really much they can do about it. ( or you know...just be an elf...that works too)
I find these videos most useful because you're always explaining what all of these spells do in detail, which often is more clear than the tooltips as well as being more complete, alongside examples. These videos are a top tier resource to learn about spells. Love it. I have a question about Hunger of Hadar though: I find it difficult to use in my playthrough currently as only my Warlock can see inside it, so the rest of my party is kinda just standing around if I cast this on enemies. I also can't stand in it myself to Blast enemies with advantage like I would with Darkness due to the damage. I currently only use it when fighting big groups of enemies to basically zone them away. Which is useful of course, but I find that I get way more utility of just casting Darkness on my entire party, stepping out, using spells, and stepping back in instead. Any tips of making better use of it?
Thanks very much! Try placing Hunger so enemies are in the edge of it, then use your martials to hem them in - that way they won't be able to leave without at least taking an attack of opportunity, and you'll still be able to attack from outside the cloud.
So what is the top 4 build for tactician. I really enjoy the build video. But i get enjoyment by just using broken build can you tell me the top 4. Right now i have throwing barbarian Haste sorcer Bard for control And open hand monk.
I think I'm missing something. You keep saying that all the various fire sources in arenas (or wherever) are going to make Spike Growth and Plant Growth hazardous to cast because they both produce flamable effects. Every playthrough of mine depended on a Rogue/Ranger to cast Spike Growth to slow the hordes and never once has one ignited from environmental stuff. In fact, there are only three cases that have made me lose Spike Growth: 1) Me ending the spell on purpose. 2) Turns ran out. 3) I stupidly forgot it was a concentration spell and then cast Hunter's Mark or something which destroyed the Spike Growth. But never lost to fire ever. And honestly I didn't even know that was a thing until a video or two or yours ago when you mentioned it. TL;DR - I'm going to keep using flamable "Growth" spells because the flamable part has never been a problem in my gameplay.
Vampiric touch being so bad makes me very sad. I love the thematics and it could make for a really cool drain tank build if the numbers were there. But they're not :(
i feel like sleet storm and hunger of hadar both highlight a major issue with how the ai works. so many times the ai could literally just... not walk before attacking, or jump out of an area, etc... but they don't. They almost always walk. It probably triples the value these spells get in most encounters, if I'm going to be completely honest.
Yup it's extremely true. The most egregious imo is with spike growth - even the dumbest enemy should probably not just wander around on pointy spikes. That seems painful! Greatly increases the value of these spells compared to tabletop, where your DM (probably) won't just have the enemy slash their feet to ribbons for your entertainment
I seem to be the only person who hates the fear condition as a CC, I pretty much always think of it as a waste of a level 3 spell cast. But I am also one of the only people who thinks haste as a spell is mid and conjure barrage is high B or low A tier. No idea about lightning arrow since colossus slayer is glitched on bows in Honor mode right now, and i have only ever played a ranger on honor mode. Haste as a nade or potion is almost always a better option IMO. I only ever use haste as a spell if I have a sorc to twin it which I rarely do since I find sorc kind of boring. also hate the action economy thought process. I get a lot of DnD players think like that, but I dislike the idea that all actions are equal. I hate how this game's community thinks of healing. The value of healing spells is so much higher than people like to think. Mass healing word, is probably one of the best spells in the game for a number of reasons but more for anything just actual healing. The value of healing word is much lower then people like to think IMO, because this game's AI loves to insta gib anyone you pick up with it unless you sanctuary them, on top of that larian decided not giving someone you pick up an action was a fun idea. I rarely if ever have any of my party go down because I use mass healing word and other heals liberally through out a fight. I have literally pulled an entire twelth level party from low health to near full in 1 turn with clerics casts. I would rather burn bonus actions through a fight to keep my party close to full health, then waste actions that have much higher value
Why did they make haste so obscenely powerful? Its not exactly a cool spell lorewise or leans into any particular power fantasy other than maybe some kinda nimble dual wield character. It doesnt feel great to cast at all, but its often by far the best thing to do. Id rather they had nerfed it and/or buffed something else, like the multitude of lacklustre direct damage spells
Worth mentioning that Hunger of Hadar does not scale. If you upcast it you don’t get a larger AoE or more damage. This is kind of annoying as a Warlock when simply existing at higher levels forces you to upcast it for no benefit. Still S tier though
The only two classes that can do it all well, are Druids and Bards. All the other classes are restricted to either melee combat, stealth or spellcasting.
It shouldn't! Though I suppose it's possible they've coded the difficult terrain differently from normal where it's actually reducing movespeed rather than costing double, so it's reducing jump distance that way? It's hard to tell with this game sometimes since things aren't really done in consistent ways :P
Haste at most loses you an action? Nah fam. First move of the Last Light's In fight i cast haste on an ally, ran to safety, slipped on ice and lost us both of our turns and a spell slot. You haven't begun to see my trash
"As you can imagine, two Karlachs plays just as well in game as it would on Tumblr."
😂
Tumblr? Is that the new OF now?
Every now and then this guy drops the funniest one liners and then moves on like it’s nothing
Mass healing word ends up basically being S tier with all the buffs you can apply as soon as a fight starts.
And items that give bonuses to healed targets, like bless
@@sherrydowns4052that's what they were referring to, yes
Mass healing word, at base, is just a good "oh no way too much of my party is down"
But the moment you get some gear some fun stuff begins
I think because of the fact that it relies in items to be good, it makes sense to penalize it to A tier.
I will say, it was pretty damn satisfying the one time Gale was able to take out 4 fishmen in one lightning bolt because they'd just jumped out of the water and we're all in a line along the dock/coast.
lightning bolt is my hero tbh bc i have honestly found it not too hard to have enemies grouped up or align myself in a way where i can hit a ton of guys and then dump some water on them and then disintegrate like half the enemies at once it’s kinda beautiful
i am only on act 2 tho and it’s my first playthrough so maybe that will go away soon lol, but it was my savior for that “defending the portal” quest thing for halsin when so many waves kept appearing and they were all kinda bunched together
Warden of Vitality is the core spell for basically the only viable combat healing build in my opinion. Multiclassing lore bard, life cleric and thief and picking up the items that make heals give temporary hit points, extra heals, bless and blade ward lets you cast a 2d6 + 10 healing spell(17 average) that blesses and blade wards the target !twice! each turn for 10 turns only using your bonus actions and still allows you to use your main action AND keep up a concentration spell (since warden doesn't take up your concentration) alongside it. All for the cost of 1 level 3 spell slot.
Basically if you're playing a supportive lore bard this build can actually be really powerful. Way better than mass healing word imo.
Agreed, for the same reason Mass Healing Word was bumped up, Warden of Vitality should be too. And the fact that it isn't concentration means it doesn't limit anything else you're doing
But later on, you just get devotee's mace and you heal proc all those on heal effect for your whole party by just being present...
Thank you! Been using Warden on my Lore Bard, had it since before I even left Act 1, and my whole party agrees it’s been a GODSEND. Took Spirit Guardians with it, went 1 level in Life Cleric. Now, I’m a front line healer, that murders enemies with holy light just by getting near them (radiation orb build too), and as my bonus action I can heal for free for basically the whole combat 2d6+5. It’s such a good spell and it deserves more respect!
Hunger of Hadar is one of my absolute favorite spells because it is just SO powerful. Damage may be ok at best, but getting to blind enemies and apply difficult terrain to a huge area is CRAZY. Especially since it doesn't count as magical darkness so all the dark vision races can get damage in without any debuff.
And repelling blast with it should genuinely be illegal as enchantment magic, that combo is EVIL and I LOVE IT
How do you use it in party/while having martial characters in your comp? I'd like to give it a try but I don't really know to make it work
I like keeping my martials at the edge of the Hunger of Hadar acting as a wall so that even if enemies get to the edge they can't get out. Plus I have a thrower that just yeets enemies back in if they do get out.
@@IlCoppe Sit your martials right at the edge of the sphere, especially if you block a hallway-esque area so enemies have to walk to them. They can get the advantage on the enemies still in the blinded radius, and can even shove them back into the bubble. Use them like a wall of defense instead of an aggressive offense
Edit: Also, definitely give them some amount of ranged damage like throwing, just in case an enemy isn't close enough to the edge to attack. Polearm master also works really well with this strategy since the extra reach weapons already make this easier to use, and you get those opportunity attacks!
Very underrated tier lists you got, watched all of them. Very enjoyable explanations, listened to them like podcasts
YES! TWO PART ONES
WOOPS
The dream support turn. Use your action to Remove Curse and dispel the Hex on your ally, preventing much damage. Use your bonus action to cast Mass Healing Word, healing the 1 wounded ally who is downed inside distant fog and thus untargetable by regular Healing Word. Free action to end the turn with a poor performance of The Power on your flute.
The only issue with spirit guardians is the debilitating laughing fit you suffer when you enter one of the rat swarm bossfights.
The camera just quits trying to keep up and focuses somewhere away from the encounter 😅
The shar gauntlet one in particular is extra funny because more just keep spawning in and the enemy turn just devolves into a whole minute of rats dying
"You will rarely hit 3 or more target with lightning bolt" -- in my experience, that's not true at all. I rarely hit fewer than 3 ennemies with it, with a bit of clever placement.
In Honor Mode, I feel like one of the best targets for Haste (or Potions of Speed, or Elixirs of Bloodlust) is a character that has access to Eldritch Blast + Agonizing Blast (so either a pure Warlock or a Charisma caster with a 2 level Warlock dip), since Eldritch Blast does get 2 beams per cast (or 3 at 10th level).
So while a Hasted 11th level fighter will "only" be making 4 attacks (or 7 if they use their action surge on one of their hasted turns), a 10th level character with Eldritch Blast will be getting 6 beams while Hasted (since the beams come in "batches" of 3 per cast).
Absolutely! You don't lose anything on EB users and still get to make just as many attacks as you would on lower difficulties.
I finished my run with 2 The Old one Warlock, 10 draconic sorcerer. In act 3 everyone were frightened due to crit on 15 rolls and above, plus prone due to reverberation.
And my stupid friend locked me out of Potent Robe, while playing Dark urge.
Under elixir of bloodlust it's basically 4 charges of Eldritch blast, plus chain lightning on staff.
It makes total sense that enemies don't jump out out of Hunger of Hadar, cause they are blinded. They could jump right into a chasm, or break their ankles not sticking the landing. Adding 'prone' to a blind jump would have been a nice little detail though!
I find that with an evocation wizard (eg Gale) casting lightning bolt so I don’t have to worry about hitting allies, I can usually hit at LEAST two, and usually three or more enemies. Plus the wet effect, and maybe even wrath of the storm from a tempest cleric dip, it can do huge, reliable damage
Same! THe second gale got lightning bold he became sooo useful! The best use cases are when you have enemies coming towards you, especially (though def doesn't have to be) in a corridor/hall type area.
It was SUPER useful for Halsin's portal protection fight. Since we had waves of enemies coming towards us, if I moved gale around a bit, he could hit anywhere from 3 to like 6 or 7 enemies at once! Super helpful.
When the title is named Part 1 instead of Part 2.
So true, many people are saying this
Did a doubletake myself, mistitled but oh well.
the part so nice we did it twice
If you ever readress this tier list I think there's a lot to consider with haste. Haste can be granted to your whole party by throwing a potion or grenade of speed and there's several items that grant it. Also there is an illithid power that grants haste. The only real thing that you get from preparing the spell is a longer effect duration.
Part 1, so nice, he did it twice
lol my immediate thought when I started the video was that you’d underrated glyph of warding, so… so far so good
Disappointed by the lack of live HTML in this episode. Great series, looking forward to the next!
Cephalopocalypse, I love your videos. Would you consider a video dedicated to your overall strategic considerations? Action economy, resources, minimizing randomness, etc? I’ve shared some of your insights with my D&D party and would love a one-stop source to send them!
Thanks! I definitely have thought about this - the trick is framing it in a useful way. Just needs a little more prep than some of my other videos but I will definitely do something like that eventually!
I feel like B tier is reasonable for slow, but I think its closer to A than C tier. My reasoning is that it fills an important role compared to the other high tier control spells. One, because its not a ground or area effect, it deals with combat arenas with a lot of irregular terrain better than the others. Two, there's no risk of limiting the effectiveness of your martial characters. Also, it stacks with difficult terrain, and is really nice against characters with especially high armour class. There's such a critical mass of unique characteristics and situations where it works really well that I have been pleasantly surprised by it.
Warden of vitality -
Famously, this is one of the big lore bard pick for the first magic secrets. They get access to this at about level 6 instead of Paladin at level 9.
So, pretty early in act 2 a lore bard set up for healing can drop this in combat. MOST players aren’t beating all combats in 1-2 rounds (50% still haven’t made it to act 2).
With the helm that gives 1D6 to the caster for healing another, both rings, the boots ….
Every round for 10 turns you can heal (plus temp hp) 3D6+2+ 3 temp and give two targets blade ward, and bless. And it costs one 3rd level spell slot and bonus actions.
This is going to help so much with my next playthrough. AAA+++ information
I'm not sure I can support you calling Haste an S Tier spell.
It is absolutely an S Tier effect, but the abundance of Haste potions being available lowers the value of the spell because the effect can be achieved with a shorter duration and without the cost of using your concentration.
A Sorcerer casting Twinned Haste on Karlach and Lae'zel: Chop chop chop chop!
My fav combo, especially on choke points, is an upscaled whirling blades and then drop hunger of hadar on it. But if you have any area of effect (even grease or webbed) and put hunger of hadar on it is just brutal. Especially when you have a warlock waiting and as they get to the edge, you blast them back into the whirling blades...very satisfying.
Not sure if you will see this, but I believe the blind status makes it so that creatures can't jump. Which is why they wont jump out of hunger of hadar
Ngl, I always wait for your videos lol. Also, completely agree with you sleet storm valuation. It is not powerful as those S tier spells, but it is probably the best A tier spell.
Also, that portal fight in act 2, with sleet storm it is much much better.
I find lightning bolt to be way better than fireball. Since the spell hits anyone next to the caster as well as in the line, its pretty easy to hit 3+ enemies with it in every fight (that has enough enemies), and very often a lot more
I use this healing words interactions with itens and change the game for me. I usually don't heal so much ain battle and I didn't know how to use Shadowheart effectively my first run. Now with these combinations she is essencial to my party.
The any comment: smiting undead ravens while sparkling like a Christmas ornament is also plain adorable, the same goes for those poor rats. ^^
Did you put Crusaders Mantle in D tier in your other video? OHHH my friend you don't understand. I will agree in a vacuum it is weak, but it's designed to buff yourself and minions.
ALL minions get the benefit too. Got a necromancer wizard in your party who just spawned 3 skeletons? YUP, they EACH get +1d4 radiant! So does Scratch, and that Raven, and that Djinn, and... you name it!
Love most of what you’ve got here, but something I have to call umbrage with - the absolute best Bard Magic Secrets spell is Command.
Between the Band of Mystic Scoundrel and all the ways a bard can build up acuity, it becomes a 100% chance to hit exchanging one bonus action for several actions.
No bard should be without it.
I was here before the title change xD
Edit: Let's go Glyph lovers ♥️
Fyi for plant growth if you knock enemies prone in it they just loose a turn standing up lol
I find Sleet Storm to be up in the S-tier level of spell. The AOE is so massive that you can usually get every enemy in it, and the effect is debilitating. Between the huge area, the difficult terrain, making them prone on your turn when the ice reapplies (forcing them to use movement on their turn to get up), and applying the prone effect on their turn when they try to move (and I find a save can be forced twice on an enemy’s turn if they try to move far enough), the enemies are basically just completely out of luck if they ever want to fight in melee. I find it wastes more turns than any other spell. And it’ll shut down enemy concentration spells (though that comes up less). The only thing it doesn’t reliably do is shut down ranged attacks, but they’ll often try to move before making a ranged attack and go prone and end their turn anyways. And you can just combine Sleet Storm with a Fog Cloud and suddenly you’ve shut down every option because they’re blinded and can’t make ranged attacks (while your party can still shoot into the Fog Cloud). I’ve used Sleet Storm + Fog Cloud to completely trivialize most of the difficult fights in the game (on Tactician & Honor Mode), to the point where my entire party typically won’t even take 20 total damage even in major fights that people list as among the most difficult in the game. And it’s not because my group is doing massive damage-it’s largely just because Sleet Storm + Fog Cloud makes enemies unable to ever do anything.
I agree sleet storm is slept on. It completely trivializes some fights, like when defending Halsin's portal. Most of the enemies can't do anything, and the few that can are easily picked off. One of my favourite crowd control spells in the game.
I honestly think that even ignoring the wet condition lightning bolt deserves A tier, at the very least it's better than fireball. I can almost always hit more enemies with lightning bolt that with fireball with some careful positioning, at worst the same amount. With the wet condition, especially if you're using cleric to maximize the damage it could honestly be S tier with how much damage it does and how many enemies it can hit.
I'd argue that potions of speed are better than haste (which is why I don't use this spell). Fights rarely last more than 3 turns, and you can spend one attack to buff multiple characters in a party. But that's just how I prefer to do it.
Speed potions are often better, but a lot of people don't like to use potions, except for healing.
Spirit Guardians is no-doubt an S-Tier spell.
Generally the use case for slow is that your enemies and allies are grouped up and you can't land a more powerful control effect without friendly fire. It fills a solid role as a backup option in that way.
Outside of cheese and lightning/wet damage, ice surfaces are the single most op thing in the game.
I've also found exactly 4 pairs of boots that give immunity to prone or icy surfaces too
Mass healing word can target allies too. There are multiple fights in-game where you can buff a dozen people at once, like the Moonrise Tower.
It's true! The spell should hit a max of 6 targets, but I don't think they actually implemented that in BG3 - though I haven't tested it recently.
This list is perfect IMO.
I was going to comment on the last video about Mass Healing Word, but you already moved it to A which is where I think it belongs.
I think another thing about glyph of warding is that you can use it before combat, so it doesn’t necessarily use an action in combat, and since the ai often moves multiple enemies at once you can still catch multiple of them in it. It’s also non concentration cc at level 3.
While I approve where you placed warden of vitality I think you could have mentioned some more of how good it is to build around which you did with mass healing word. It can be acquired at lvl 6 as a lore bard and if used with healing items you now have an effective way of keeping blade ward and bless up on 2 party members constantly along with some healing using bonus actions. 3 in thief(which you did mention) means you can now keep blade ward and bless up on your entire party for 11-12 turns combined + some healing using your bonus actions. Throw in 2 lvls in sorcerer and that can now be extended to 21-22 turns of blade ward and bless. When you compare this to a singular round of mass healing word the 2 just cannot be compared to each other. Sure it is a build that does not come fully active til lvl 11 which is 6 lvls later than mass healing word but the item requirement is the same which is also what you based mass healing word around.
This also just so happens to be a build that allows the bard to twin cast Haste, making for a pretty ridiculous support build.
as far as out of combat healing goes, form a square and have your cleric throw healing potions in the center of it which quadruples the healing from one potion and it also procs the magic item healing buffs that the cleric has--it is similar to the prevalence of revivification scrolls--there is just no need to carry around and use a spell which accomplishes the same goal that the very common and much more useful healing potion does
Sorcerers can twin haste and give it to 2 members with one spell
Great video! I'm wandering, though, will you also make a tier list for illithid powers after you're done with spells?
A few people have suggested this, so probably!
Hey there, I think you may have missed 2 strengths of Slow. I dont know if it pushes it up a tier but it is why I consider it a mainstay.
1st it is the strongest multi target aoe control spell that isnt positioning dependent. This gives it enormous flexibility when you dont at all know what your next encounter might be making it a lot stronger for new players.
2nd and this is the big one, unlike the other cc options it has no reliance on a compliant party (and almost no potential to hinder your parties options) making it very excellent for casual multiplayer where planning out a fight goes by the wayside.
It's true that aoe spells get worse if your party moves around randomly - that can certainly change evaluations for coop runs!
Even more reason to put Revivify in D tier: You can get Withers to revive an ally, and, consequence free, pickpocket the money back...
True!
daylight for me is up the top, cast on mele weapon of main fighter, not as sphere
it blinds 1/2 of enemies in the game (advantage), act 2 is non issue
looting and exploring is also easier, it doesn't require concentration
when i want to hide and steal, i change main weapon of mele character 'F' and its DARK again
Haste is incredibly strong. In the fight against the winged dude in act 2 the sourcerer casted haste on me, then I raged, used the greataxe preparation and almost killed him by myself in 1 turn
I think Warden of Vitality should at least be on par with mass healing word for the same reasons. A bard can use the same healing items as a ceric and gets warden at lvl6. Applying 2 turns of bless and blade ward for a bonus action is super strong, especially since because of the resistance the hitpoints are worth twice as much. And bards often don't have much to with their bonus action besides inspiring or shooting a hand-crossbow and concentrating on bless at lvl6 or higher is hard to justify.
Mass healing word is an aoe bless and blade ward applicator for me lol
I would argue about the Haste spell though. Yes it's powerful, but so many battles, so many solo runs ended in an unexpected lethargy state! In my honor mode playthrough, I didn't even take Haste on my sorcerer, it's just not needed for 10 turns, and if necessary, you can always use a potion of Haste or mushroom mist.
You can use draconic sorcerer as a start class and pick war caster. Move caster away with a flight ability on illithid powers and you're good.
For solo runs it's rough but ideally you'd have a caster with Shield apply haste, that way you're likely to get 2 - 3 game turns and that should be enough to get into a winnable position even if the concentration gets broken. But it is tough to balance because then that caster can't use concentration which means your AoE and damage options with that character are more limited
At least you know your fan base is paying CLOSE attention.
Almost skipped this because of the title. Thought I watched it yesterday. Great job on everything else, though.
Yup my bad! Especially bad because copy pasting things correctly was my actual job for like a decade.
Hunger of Hadar caused a party wipe for me in the moonrise tower fight. My party and the harpers got caught in the doorway, lost initiative, and then took a HoH and a bunch of arrows to the face. Killed all the harpers instantly and left the party in shambles in one turn.
You can lure enemies into the basement with spirit guardian and kill the one by one.
B b b b b but... BUT! You could at one point in the past use feign death on a merchant you donated copious amounts of money to to make them your ally, force them to sleep and then steal their entire inventory! And you can use it on yourself to avoid being interrogated after committing a crime! S tier right there!
Cant remember if you covered this last video, but Glyph of Warding also appears to allow a free action for the caster before entering combat... every time Shadowheart casts from hidden she gets her action back..!! Could be a bug, but that's how it seems to be working.
Huh interesting - I haven't seen that personally but I should definitely test that! It would definitely be a bug but would be good to know about
Sleet storm trivializes any multi-enemy fight. Useless against a big bad single entity but otherwise it just shuts down an entire screen of baddies. Sure they can sometimes save but because it covers such a massive area and even if they save they have to walk half their speed out of it and pass further checks or often their jump range isnt good enough to get out of it + every time when its your turn you put them on the ground again / destroy any new concetration spells attempted within the area.. in my playthrough it acted as S. Sure, not applicable to 100% of the fights but when its usecase comes up (very often) it is just broken (without needing gimmicky builds crutching on specific items from act3 or multi-multiclassing, this thing is broken out of the box) Not sure if heightened spell works on the subsequent save throws though, that would make it even more lulzy.
Also good for revealing invis enemies. If you notice an ambush set up or see assasin type enemies going invis, just cast this in their general direction and disregard them.
If your party has other characters capable of dealing elemental dmg or scrolls/cantrips/special arrows, your party can melt the ice and abuse it for extra lightning damage and on your turn it becomes ice again, baddies drop back on the ground, any attempts on concentration get canceled etc. Melting the ice between your turns by somebody else can also be beneficial because enemies dont avoid water that much, so you while you risk some enemies walking out of it, some might just stay in the area/walk into it because its not ice and they get rekt for free as soon as its your turn again.
One of the best demonstrations for this spell is the Balthazar Nightsong prison fight where he summons a fuckton of skellies but as soon as you cast this in the middle its gg. We fought him on tactician, underleveled, underequipped nonoptimal builds and even despite his legendary status he was on the ground fairly often because how often you have to roll against this spell. Some of the ranged skellies on the cliff were fine but hopping back on of the rocks you come from puts them out of useful range and then you're just shooting fish in the barrel which is the whole arena infront of you.
Without all the random torches plant growth is an A tier imo and if it straight up couldn’t be set on fire it might honestly be S tier - combine it with hunger of hadar and it’s DEVASTATING
lightningbolt can be S teir if you want to cheese. Kite the encounters into a funnel, lock the door, gg. It sucks for most normal playthroughs but its as good if not better than all dmg spells if you play around it for 50% of encounters. sucks against bosses so yeah. good for short/long rest if youre limiting that and willing to cheese.
Thank you!
I think you are undervaluing slow a lot here. I use Slow all the time, it's pretty clutch. Better than Haste. It reduces the mobility of the enemy. For example I just used slow on Grym, and I won the fight without getting hit once. Whereas without it, he just crosses the entire map and multi-attacks you with punches that one-hit your party members. Plus it's "select aoe", I don't know how to call it.
In any case I always ruin it by casting ... a another concentration spell.🤦
I snorted my iced tea at the Tumblr reference.
Hehe same, but with coffee! 😂
I think you might have less confusion about B / C tier if you re-labeled the tiers "Universally Strong / Often Strong / Niche Uses / Highly Niche Uses / Almost Never What you Want" (or some variation). I think folks are confused because the "weak" tier is "bad in general" and S is "good in general" - even though the middle tiers don't break down that way.
Edit: another downside of revivify is that you generally have the option of paying Withers and then pocket-picking back the gold you gave him.
To be honest, I don't really think there's a way around it. People are so heavily conditioned to see anything less than a max score as garbage, and tier lists are a really emotional subject for people, so any placement below maximum for a spell they have a connection to upsets folks.
Aren’t spells like fireball and lightning bolt technically better in tavletop? I was flipping through the monster manual the other day, and I noticed that an ancient red dragon, a cr 24 creature, has 546 hp, whereas the red dragon the party fights at level 12 has a full 400. I kind of understand this difference-bigger hp pools means more time spent rolling dice, which isn’t a problem in a video game where everything is happening instantly in the background. But it does mean that damaging spells fall off a lot faster than they would in tabletop, because they just can’t keep pace with enemy healthbars.
Well here we are again, I did already comment on the first part 1 (on my other account), but time for the second part 1!
As always, if I don't comment I have nothing to say on a placement, and I do believe there should be an F tier for some spells.
Haste deserves it's own S+ tier. It's even more ridiculous when actually used properly. Even in honor mode where it's less useful on a martial character (paladins still benefit an insane amount), spellcasters just shatter the balance of the game. Beyond that, it has a bunch of tricks in BG3 that make it even sillier. A good example of this is, in some situations, you can cancel concentration manually at the end of the hasted character's turn to skip the lethargic condition. Haste with no downside? Yep, that's right. S+ easily.
Hunger of Hadar, while it is amazing, is not deserving of S tier. It's the epitome of a B-tier spell that is elevated by BG3's game design. A tier, sure, but not S. It's held back by the fact that some fights it will be useless or incredibly unhelpful, especially if you have ranged characters. But in some fights, it can win the fight on it's own.
Lightning arrow has some use for a lore bard. D tier I agree with, but I have a theoretical F tier to put even worse things in.
Lightning bolt definitely deserves A tier. We may disagree on damage types generally, but 8d6*2 on 3 targets is insane. It's not difficult to resposition with misty step to prepare hitting at least 3, if not more targets in some fights. It's not S tier due to the terrain issues, but the bolt averages 56 damage to a wet target. At level 5, that's "one shot an encounter" level. Amazing.
(boots of aid and comfort are the healing boots); MHW is a C, maybe B tier spell because it has great usage on a life cleric and with items, but building around it is not worthwhile as you will get stuck in the "do not replace" mindset for those items, even when objectively better stuff comes along, and MHW falls off.
Revivify is F tier, Withers is free if you have the downtime and the hundreds of scrolls exist.
Sleet Storm is just Grease with concentration in a third level slot. Yes, it's a bigger zone, but it's just grease. B tier for it's range.
Slow is C tier; while it has a lot of targets, just use hold person for 2 targets for an even stronger effect if the same number of fails happen.
speak with dead is F tier simply because it lasts all day and is duplicated by so many items and you get god damn hundreds of the scrolls.
Vampiric Touch is C tier because there are some builds that make it work with gish-style setups. It's biggest downside is that it is necrotic damage, if it was any other damage type sans poison, it would be quite good.
Warden of Vitality is D tier (not F in my list) because it doesn't take concentration. That makes it have some usage here and there but it's really not great. even if you hard spec into it. Prayer of healing and/or short rest is better out of combat healing.
Lots of disagreement and notes on this one eh? That's how it goes sometimes, opinions and playstyles always vary. See ya next time!
I have a hard time getting more than one or two enemies in Fear or Hypnotic Patterns AOE without friendly fire. Slow had an enormous AOE and the fact that you don't risk friendly fire makes it very useful. I also find most fights when I consider a debuff, tbe enemies are immune to almost every condition besides slow. Definitely see all the points in this video. I just don't see the C arguement....Solid B, almost A consideration imho.
Think I’d put remove curse on useful - tharchiate vigour and mirror of loss buffs depend on it
Great tier list few disagreements tho. Lightning bolt should be A or S tier. The aoe is actually pretty good and I've had no problem hitting 3 or more enemies with one casting so I don't understand your statement on it hiting two enemies at most. Plus it just does so much damage especially if applying wet. Call lightning is actually the spell with a really small aoe and it costs concentration.
Hypnotic pattern should prob be S tier over fear and glyph of warding. Fear is annoying if you're trying to set up melee characters for nova rounds and glyph of warding targets the less effective dex. Stacking dc and landing hypnotic patter will end a fight before it even starts.
Protection from Energy came in clutch against Ansurs lightning breath attack in honour mode
Ok soo.... a paladin of devotion gives an aoe charm immunity. That works against hypnotic pattern. So between that and the massive aoe you can pretty much just pick off enemies one at a time and there isn't really much they can do about it. ( or you know...just be an elf...that works too)
And for some reason you seem to be able to even cast this while silenced.
I find these videos most useful because you're always explaining what all of these spells do in detail, which often is more clear than the tooltips as well as being more complete, alongside examples. These videos are a top tier resource to learn about spells. Love it.
I have a question about Hunger of Hadar though: I find it difficult to use in my playthrough currently as only my Warlock can see inside it, so the rest of my party is kinda just standing around if I cast this on enemies. I also can't stand in it myself to Blast enemies with advantage like I would with Darkness due to the damage. I currently only use it when fighting big groups of enemies to basically zone them away. Which is useful of course, but I find that I get way more utility of just casting Darkness on my entire party, stepping out, using spells, and stepping back in instead. Any tips of making better use of it?
Thanks very much! Try placing Hunger so enemies are in the edge of it, then use your martials to hem them in - that way they won't be able to leave without at least taking an attack of opportunity, and you'll still be able to attack from outside the cloud.
So what is the top 4 build for tactician. I really enjoy the build video. But i get enjoyment by just using broken build can you tell me the top 4.
Right now i have throwing barbarian
Haste sorcer
Bard for control
And open hand monk.
20:11 boots of aid and comfort heal more there is also a crown you get from saving the druid village similar effect and they stack
I think I'm missing something.
You keep saying that all the various fire sources in arenas (or wherever) are going to make Spike Growth and Plant Growth hazardous to cast because they both produce flamable effects.
Every playthrough of mine depended on a Rogue/Ranger to cast Spike Growth to slow the hordes and never once has one ignited from environmental stuff. In fact, there are only three cases that have made me lose Spike Growth:
1) Me ending the spell on purpose.
2) Turns ran out.
3) I stupidly forgot it was a concentration spell and then cast Hunter's Mark or something which destroyed the Spike Growth.
But never lost to fire ever. And honestly I didn't even know that was a thing until a video or two or yours ago when you mentioned it.
TL;DR - I'm going to keep using flamable "Growth" spells because the flamable part has never been a problem in my gameplay.
nope I was missing something: Plant Growth is flammable, but Spike Growth isn't - you only have to be careful with plant growth!
Vampiric touch being so bad makes me very sad. I love the thematics and it could make for a really cool drain tank build if the numbers were there. But they're not :(
Most of the paladin/ranger spells can be picked by lore bards.
i feel like sleet storm and hunger of hadar both highlight a major issue with how the ai works. so many times the ai could literally just... not walk before attacking, or jump out of an area, etc... but they don't. They almost always walk. It probably triples the value these spells get in most encounters, if I'm going to be completely honest.
Yup it's extremely true. The most egregious imo is with spike growth - even the dumbest enemy should probably not just wander around on pointy spikes. That seems painful!
Greatly increases the value of these spells compared to tabletop, where your DM (probably) won't just have the enemy slash their feet to ribbons for your entertainment
Are you going to be doing a video on the scroll-exclusive spells? Like summon shovel and the like.
I seem to be the only person who hates the fear condition as a CC, I pretty much always think of it as a waste of a level 3 spell cast.
But I am also one of the only people who thinks haste as a spell is mid and conjure barrage is high B or low A tier. No idea about lightning arrow since colossus slayer is glitched on bows in Honor mode right now, and i have only ever played a ranger on honor mode.
Haste as a nade or potion is almost always a better option IMO. I only ever use haste as a spell if I have a sorc to twin it which I rarely do since I find sorc kind of boring.
also hate the action economy thought process. I get a lot of DnD players think like that, but I dislike the idea that all actions are equal.
I hate how this game's community thinks of healing. The value of healing spells is so much higher than people like to think.
Mass healing word, is probably one of the best spells in the game for a number of reasons but more for anything just actual healing.
The value of healing word is much lower then people like to think IMO, because this game's AI loves to insta gib anyone you pick up with it unless you sanctuary them, on top of that larian decided not giving someone you pick up an action was a fun idea.
I rarely if ever have any of my party go down because I use mass healing word and other heals liberally through out a fight.
I have literally pulled an entire twelth level party from low health to near full in 1 turn with clerics casts.
I would rather burn bonus actions through a fight to keep my party close to full health, then waste actions that have much higher value
Why did they make haste so obscenely powerful? Its not exactly a cool spell lorewise or leans into any particular power fantasy other than maybe some kinda nimble dual wield character. It doesnt feel great to cast at all, but its often by far the best thing to do. Id rather they had nerfed it and/or buffed something else, like the multitude of lacklustre direct damage spells
Revivify is also more useless since you have Withers from the start.
Worth mentioning that Hunger of Hadar does not scale. If you upcast it you don’t get a larger AoE or more damage. This is kind of annoying as a Warlock when simply existing at higher levels forces you to upcast it for no benefit. Still S tier though
sorcerer twin haste = win game
The only two classes that can do it all well, are Druids and Bards. All the other classes are restricted to either melee combat, stealth or spellcasting.
Druids can cast a few spells and Wildshape.
Bards can cast a (good) few spells, inspire, and be half a thief.
twin spelled haste wins the game with monks or fighters or barbs on your team. counterspell stops anything else. fin
Give haste to a college of lore bard and then turn invisible the next turn and let my fighter main kill everyone
Sleet Storm is C tier imo. There are very few situations in which you'd want to use it over Call Lightning. Other than that, great tier list.
Now im upset. Why cast Call LIghtning on a storm sorc when you can dual cast Haste?
Any thoughts on the Haste alternatives like Speed potion, Spore Grenade, Mind Sanctuary?
I like to twinspell Haste with my sorcerer.
Justice for Glyph of Warding
You got your wish in the next video!
feign death can save your butt (save) in honor mode
I like to think that you lose your whole turn when falling prone because you hit your head
My theory is that the air is just really thin in baldur's gate, that's why you can't fly or talk while lying down - there's just not enough oxygen
Nice
Thanks!
Does Hunger of Hadar reduce jump range? That could be an alternate explanation for AI behavior different from the AI just being confused.
It shouldn't! Though I suppose it's possible they've coded the difficult terrain differently from normal where it's actually reducing movespeed rather than costing double, so it's reducing jump distance that way? It's hard to tell with this game sometimes since things aren't really done in consistent ways :P
@@Cephalopocalypse
They can't see outside of the spell to select the jump destination.
Haste at most loses you an action? Nah fam. First move of the Last Light's In fight i cast haste on an ally, ran to safety, slipped on ice and lost us both of our turns and a spell slot.
You haven't begun to see my trash
Haha true, I've definitely done that (or hasted myself and then immediately cast another concentration spell)