Colby! Set your reactions to "ask" on Divine Smite and you can choose when and who you smite. So like when you used slashing flourish and it smote the first guy hit instead of the one you wanted to, it would have asked you and you could have declined the first one. It also lets you wait to use your smites on crits. in general, it's worth it to have ask on. Period.
They can be so funny. I see your Gith Yankee and raise you the Resto (-ration) Druid that I've seen be both a Restaurant Druid and an Arrested Druid in the same video : ) Figured I'd throw that in for a laugh
Some people think thats a bug and won’t use it on themselves. Maybe Colby has that House Rule. But on a solo build that would be really hard to stick to.
I know something I've never seen anybody talk about... consuming the noblestalk mushroom restores your health completely for just the cost of one action. You can stock up on these in act three by buying them from the same lady from the underdark in act two inside her shop near Sorcerer's Sundries. Also, whenever a companion levels up, her inventory restocks. Very useful for the final fight.
I’m a complete newb to DnD. I actually never liked RPGs before, but BG3 has been phenomenal, and you sir have been a life saver for me trying to figure this game out. One thing I think you should do, which I haven’t seen anyone else do on YT, is show us newbs how to fight with the builds you create.
100% agree re: Camp Casting! It actually makes sense from a role play perspective too. Even "IRL", no expeditionary team, military unit, etc. would operate without having a support staff on the back lines to prepare meals (Heroes Feast), run a first Aid station, etc. so that the front line unit can focus on their role. Don't understand those that insist this is somehow "cheating." :) Good vid!
Fun Fact the way BG3 coded Vow of Emity. you can cast it on yourself and the game sees it as a buff and thus gives you advantage on ALL your attacks no matter on who you do them for that min.
Hey! I found this channel while looking for BG3 builds and have been working through your library of 5e builds for the last few months now so I just wanna take a sec to say thanks for putting out so much regular and high quality content! I love your stuff! One item I found that might help this build a bit is the Band of the Mystic Scoundrel. Let's you essentially quicken an illusion or enchantment spell (like Command that you mentioned having only fringe uses or Hold Person). Granted, you burn spell slots faster like that, but a free crit (in Hold Person's case) might be worth it to set up that juicy 5th level smite.
As a fan of the channel, how dare you not try and minmax your mental health by watching Colby's outro every single week AND going to therapy. It's what he'd want as a minmaxer, you totally gotta do it to be a true fan by minmaxing the shniz out of your mental health. (Try not to collect the mental illnesses though, those are apparently debuffs so you wanna build to avoid those as best you can)
ive noticed youtubers say lots of words with new pronunciations. Often they put the emphasis on the “wrong” syllable. im nearly 60 so it may just be the normal evolution of language or a problem that people discuss literature less in school. I doubt there is a really a “right” way to say anything but i think there is more drift lately.
Should be Shamshir. A shamshir (Persian: شمشیر) is a type of Persian/Iranian sword with a radical curve. The name is derived from the Persian word shamshīr, which is made of two words sham(fang) and shir(lion)". The curved "scimitar" sword family includes the shamshir, kilij, talwar, pulwar, and nimcha.
I too took a two level paladin dip on my main Tav. Swords bard 6/theif rogue 4/oathbreaker paladin 2. Took the dual weilder feat to dual wield with phalar aluve. The paladin levels made the damage go crazy while boosting my ac and giving me on demand advantage for sneak attacks
Nice Build! Another one is Open Hand Monk Tavern Brawler with Strength Elixirs (a lot of people talk about this build I know 😅). Can run along side your build and use the Monk specific gear along with being unarmed, so you don’t have to share any end game weapons. Perfect companion if you’re good-aligned, choose Karlach (for EZ approval points). Soul Coins give extra fire damage to her hits. If evil, choose Astarion because I believe his Ascended form gets extra necrotic damage to hits. The potions from Ethel can be bought every time you rest/level up in the Grove so stockpile on those so you can dump STR completely. You got yourself a new subscriber sir! 🤓 ❤
As a person who has been watching BG3 speed runs for like 3 years (literally people started doing them in the beta test to see how fast they could clear act one and what builds were the most messed up) I've found Sin Tee to be probably the best channel overall for BG3 builds that are incredibly strong. But ive been watching your D&D content since like the 10th build you did and you're definitely giving him a run for his money :P
Congratulations. You just inspired me to take up BG3. I bought it thinking it would be a blast and promptly got lost (while trying to stream blind). Now if I get lost again, at least I'll have a fun character to stroll around until I (hopefully) figure out where I'm going.
Thanks as always. This helps all the wood burning on my brain...to go to smoldering and simmering the game. Very much thank you. My brain skips ever since deployment to Afghanistan. TBI. Been trying to work this out since day of BG3! You're awesome!
This build is better then you think. You can cast the vengeance vow on yourself and YOU get advantage against ALL enemies for the duration. Its a recent buff from update 6
Don't really need to pass them though. Just use your shovel as soon as you see the failed check and you can dig up the chest anyway as long as you are anywhere close to where it's at.
Colby I absolutely have the best time watching your videos, you have a great sense of humour and a way of talking that is so natural. I mean you almost make it that your friendship is a given and you treat every one of us as a gaming buddy! Wish I could join up with you guys one day in a game or two, it would be a riot I'm sure! Always a pleasure, keep up with the videos :)
Spoiler for Act 3: Not sure if anyone else mentioned it but at the Mirror of Loss in Act III it is possible to get an additional +1 Charisma increase from the Patriar's memory if you do this before praying to the mirror to get the the +2 bonus on one of your abilities. This means a Charisma focused character can get a total of +3 to Charisma (although this does require quite a bit of reloading).
Minor Spoilers, but in normal mode Auntie Ethel in the emerald grove sells 3 elixirs of hill giant strength at a time. You can always do a partial rest to reset her, not sure if it works or how tight funds in honor mode would be for it though.
I played a dual handcrossbow/ swords bard for my Honor run, and a real game changer for me was picking up the Duellist's Prerogative from saving Vanra, getting two reactions and knowing counterspell was just amazing. I feel like I wasn't really optimizing it to its fullest. have you found any novel ways to make use of it?
Dancing Breeze is a totally solid two handed weapon option that would allow you to continue to focus on Dex for everything. Which could allow you to dump dex and use the Dex gloves to pump even more into Con and Cha. Plus a free whirlwind attack once per round. If you want it to have a better bonus and more damage, you can always hit it with Drakethroat Glaive at the start of the day.
Forgive the lack of knowledge here but which stat should I sacrifice or min to achieve the 16/16/14 combination? I can't reach it otherwise. Also, for perception/traps detection and lock pick disarm traps, is that something i have to sort out in skills immediately on character creation? or can it be fixed later if I make a mistake? Is there a maybe generic build guide I should watch that covers these topics already so that the more precise build guides can get to the core points of the build faster?
@@davidking8043 on this build I’d probably dump Str and Int. For skills, you’ll want sleight of hand to help with lock picking etc but yes, you’ll eventually be able to respec your character if you want to change things up :)
@@DnDDeepDive Thank you so much for replying. I wasn't sure if the stats were maybe designed to include a certain early game stat increase item or not. Thanks again.
I'm not sure if you've mentioned this in previous build videos, but a quick, mostly unimportant note for people multiclassing-- make sure that NEWEST CASTER CLASS you take a level in is using the right casting stat. It doesn't really make a big difference for 90% of players, but unlike in DND where magic items/scrolls use a flat attack bonus/spell save DC, items in BG3 use the casting stat of the last unique level in a caster you took. Things get a little weirder when you're a pure martial using a scroll that requires a save/roll. For example, a scroll of Scorching Ray in DND always has a +5 to hit, but a pure Wizard scroll-casting Scorching Ray in BG3 has a Proficiency + INT mod bonus as if he cast it himself. In this case, for people following along, take Wizard 1 *before* you take Bard 1 (since you're starting Paladin 1 for the proficiencies) when respeccing or your scrolls will be cast using INT instead of CHA.
Colby, we're you aware that the titan string bow adds the strength mod to all damage sources per shot? I used a special arrow and had it added 4 times from various sources. Super fun to use that with a strength bump item on a ranger
I brewed a very similar build a few months back to take advantage of arcane acuity. I was getting 100% success rates on my hard control spells. So fun.
One small note; it’s nice to start as a Bard as well because they get a hand crossbow as starting equipment. I found it a little annoying (early) to find TWO, but finding one is just a little easier.
Fun fact: If you want to go elixirs of giant strength, use the Halfling hireling, respec them into a rogue 1/transmutation wizard 2+/ cleric 1, max out wisdom, give them proficiency and expertise in medicine, have them cast guidance on themselves, and you're practically guaranteed to make double the elixirs and potions you would brew otherwise
This is a great build for the titan string bow that you get from the zhentarim in act 1. Also, you can get cloud giant fingers from Blurg and Derith in the myconid colony if you are level 6. Lastly, vow of enmity can be applied on yourself for advantage against all enemies for 10 turns.
great build, i agree smite gish of some flavor is probably tied with acuity fire blast command sorc for best build in game. especially when gish is paired with helm of arcane acuity and ring of the mystic scoundral so as a bonus action you can cast control spells with a dc 30+ after beating them to a pulp so whatever is left is cced. TB throwzerker w/ piercing vuln aura is a somewhat distant third due to lack of spells all togather, although easily the most OP build in the game for act 1 and most of 2, it starts to fall off late imo TB monk has durability issues and a lack of cc that keep it in fourth. And stealth archers genrally suck when they dont have stealth, which some fights just dont allow.
There is a build someone made that uses an item that lets you cast illusion magic on a bonus action and makes it so each melee hit increases your chance to hit with spells. It uses just two items and you have a 95% chance to hit on hold person and so forth. So upcasting that or any other control spell, just makes it so no one can do anything to you. Perfect bard/paladin combo.
An interesting interaction with vow of enmity if you cast it on yourself you get advantage on all attacks for the duration, might be a bug but it’s really strong.
I have a LaeZel as a dual welding, Dex Fighter Champion with a 2 level dip in Paladin. I have her frequently be hasted and drink those arcane recovery potions between fights. I have a bunch of those, and I never need them on my Gale build. With so many attacks and an improved crit range, I smite a lot.
One amazing (okay… broken) aspect to Vow of Enmity in BG3- you can actually just cast it on *yourself* and it works to give you advantage against *all* enemies for 10 turns. It got me through my honor mode run and I will continue to shamelessly exploit it.
Wow, and I thought you only knew everything about D&D. Nice to see you doing BG3. Is there anything you don't know? Handsome and Smart. What a combo. :)
Staff of the Emperor seems like it would be a really good act 3 weapon for this build. Whenever you succeed on a saving throw, the enemy that caused it has to succeed on an intelligence save or be stunned. Given how much you'll be succeeding on saving throws, that will be happening a LOT. Another good combo for the build would be Helm of Balduran with Whispering Promise, giving you permanent Bless and further trivializing most saving throws. As far as other gear goes, I agree with the person suggesting Mystic Scoundrel for BA Hold Person. Boots don't actively do much for the build but none of them are bad choices, I'd say Helldusk Boots or Persistence Boots are the best though.
Im new to your channel, but i wanted to make sure to tell you so far youre great! I like your explanations, i like your voice, and i love your vibe. Keep it up!!!
To push this over the top, the bhaalist armor coupled with shar's spear is disgusting damage. Helmet of arcane acuity and ring of mystic scoundrel make sure your spells never miss and lets you cast them on a short rest
I don’t remember the build I used but I had a pretty nasty karlach build that used two hand crossbows and then a greatsword. It did amazing for both range and melee. I think I used the fire hand crossbow and then the hand crossbow you get from Raphael’s old enemy in act 2 and then the baldurian greatsword from act 3.
Another thing worth mentioning is that song of rest is giga good if you have a bunch of short rest builds. Tavern Brawler monk Ki Warlock spell slots (hexblade smites?) Cleric channel divinity (destructive wrath)
It might be worth mentioning the wonderous gloves in the items section its an extra bardic inspiration and a +1 ac they can be found in grymforge at the mimic fight
At the start of act 3, there is Band of the Mystic Scoundrel that lets you cast an enchantment or illusion spell as a bonus action. Command is an enchantment spell, along with vicious mockery. For some fun, you can have those added to your build. The ring and vicious mockery has been a staple for my damage pally/bard builds. Walk up with a great weapon and smite, smite, then add insult to injury.
The Mirror of Loss can give you the "patriars memory" which gives a +1 to charisma aswell. Just need to roll for this memory to come up. There is an rng factor to it. without save scumming it isn't entirely reliable.
I've picked up your Honour Mode group and improved upon it. First a pally/bard nuke with 2H weapon, the frost mage with armor of agathys, summons and whatnot, instead of the barb thrower I went wotoh monk+ thief for so many attacks I fought and killed gortash and Orin on the same long rest and still had resources left at the end of the day. And the last one was the light cleric mixed up with the knight radiant. If the monk is using one of orin's weapons you can give the pally a piercing DMG weapon to attack that target with piercing vulnerability etc.
Titanstring bow maxing dex and str wearing graceful cloth. Then there are like a ton of other additions you can make to mold the character to your liking. no race/class requirements.
Unless I missed it, you might talk to Boney in the circus and get a statute made. You get Sweet Stone Features, a 1d4 bonus to Attack Rolls and Saving Throws. It's just expensive is all.
Interesting to see both Sharpshooter and Great weapon master together. I found a pretty sweet synergy that’s more of a unique interaction than a build but level 11 Ranger/Hunters get Whirlwind and Hail of Arrows which make incredible use of those feats. It’s been a while since I tried it so Idk if it still works this way but it always felt like I couldn’t miss when I used those abilities instead of attacking. Nice bonus in addition to the area of effect.
The other option if you wanted to be purely melee lategame would probably be Savage Attacker. It'd be less bursty than action surge but adds more, consistent damage.
Too many comments to read through! So apologies if this has been already covered. Do you know what makes a bard/paladin go crazy? Items of arcane acuity plus the ring of the mystic scoundrel. You hit something in melee which increases your spell attack and spell save dc, so you then cast hold monster as a bonus action. Paralyzing it and making the rest of your attacks this round and usually more rounds to follow, automictic crits. Arcane acuity stacks really quickly, it seems easy to get +11 to your spell save dc inside one round. There are more combinations but I thought you would like that one.
I have a fighter Archer that knockback and disarm are my favorite things. I always do rangers but wanted a straight up bow no pet character and haven’t looked back
I am playing a solo Swords Bard now. Still in Act 1. One tip for anyone doing this: pick minor illusion as your very first cantrip. It will help you reposition enemies. Playing as a halfling might be better than gith. Not getting a nat 1 vs a hold person is nice.
Some alternatives that might be good in honor: -Go Halflng to save you from bad luck critical miss. -Go Paladin 6/College of Lore Bard 6 to still have Haste (unfortunately no shield 🫠) without the cheese and get cutting words (at the cost of flourishes) -keep dual wielding hand crossbows. Then you always can make an attack with off-hand bonus action
-Wood Elf also nice for extra movement. -Cast glyph of warding sleep to get crowd control + auto-crits without concentration. If you are an elf, you can include yourself in the area.
Great build. I'd probably make 2 changes though. For race, I'd use halfling to reroll all critical failures on honour mode. Also, I would think savage attacker is better than taking sharpshooter for the 2nd feat, you get 2 dice for all melee dmg and take the highest, it applies to smite dmg and any dmg dice applied by items. Granted, it reduces your ranged dmg, but you probably won't us3 range much with this build regardless.
not sure if you do this but if you swap back to melee weapon before ending the turn, then you can also AoO people. A ranged weapon doesn't let you do that.
I’d argue that the abjuration wizard with armor of agathys is the best character to solo the game with. Granted, it’s not quite a do everything, but it has lower variance
Sorry if this is a "necro-bump" - just wanted to say for a divine smite centric build, Savage Attacker will usually be a more impactful increase to your damage over Great weapon Master, because of how the game calculates the dice rolls. As an example, in tabletop you would roll 2d6 twice and take higher -- first: 4, 6 second: 6, 2... in tabletop this would mean you would do 10 damage (4,6). But in BG3 it takes the higher of the first result and the higher of the second result. Meaning those two rolls would result in 12 damage (6(2nd roll),6(1st roll))👍
Instead of worrying about elixirs at the start of act 3 theres a finesse +2 glaive from the rivington general trader that could be used instead. Albeit there may be a loss in damage vs using baldurs sword but at least an option to save on elixirs
Could you make a guide on 'how to build a pickpocket character'? Usually for me it's been astarion who I pull out of camp. What buffs could you give him to have the greatest chance? What items would you give him? Is there a hireling race that would work better (halfling?). I would love to see your take on this.
I just beat honor mode easily with a throw barb fighter, ranger rogue fighter, orb light cleric and evo wizard. It was way easier than I thought. Honestly melee is the worst option because dealing a ton of damage from 60 feet away is just better at survivability. That and abusing scrolls is awesome. Even a throw barb can cast wall of fire or cloud kill with a scroll.
Another nice build that I need to try at some point! Do you think you'll ever do a Part 3 of "Optimizing Every Companion for Baldur's Gate 3" for the non-origin companions? I'd love to see your versions of Halsin and Jaheira (and, of course, Minthara & Minsc)
I did a Swords Oath of Nature Bardadin for my first character. I went Hill Dwarf for the extra HP, though I was a bit iffy on whether I wanted Resilient Constitution or Sharpshooter for my feat (I used the other one to max my Charisma).
I have been running a me,ee and ranged damage build in Bg3 since day 1. Sorlock Fighters with a two handed weapon makes this EASY!! I am chucking out 8 to 10 attacks a turn with upwards of 50 damage per hit at this point.
I have a build that is pretty nasty in terms of combat ability and sustainability (I.e. having as long of an adventuring day as possible). Starts off swords bard until level 10. After that, respec to swords bard 5, fighter 5 (battle master) so you still have the combat inspirations recharge on short rests, extra attack, and PYF combat maneuvers which also come back on a short rest. Finish out Fighter 6 (character still gets 3 feats total which is huge for me), bard 5, and last level can be whatever. Good options are Wizard for the spell selections, cleric gets a ton of front loaded abilities, warlock also synergizes well, or go fighter 7 for extra maneuvers.
You can turn on "ask" on the smite reaction, so they ask you if you want to do it instead. Can be annoying in a fight where you haven't planned to smite anything, but golden otherwise
Wait, what?!?!? Did Colby just make a BEST build video and not include Fighter 2 for Action Surge? ....is he okay? 😂
Haha 😂
Colby! Set your reactions to "ask" on Divine Smite and you can choose when and who you smite. So like when you used slashing flourish and it smote the first guy hit instead of the one you wanted to, it would have asked you and you could have declined the first one. It also lets you wait to use your smites on crits. in general, it's worth it to have ask on. Period.
As soon as I realized that was an option, I turned every single reaction to ask. Literally never had one not on ask the rest of the game.
I was just about to type this
WITH THE OLD INTRO TOO WHAT A THROWBACK
As a non-native speaker I always have (auto-generated) subtitles on and I love them!
Why? Well, the recommended race seems to be Gith Yankee 😂
That's hilarious 😂
They can be so funny. I see your Gith Yankee and raise you the Resto (-ration) Druid that I've seen be both a Restaurant Druid and an Arrested Druid in the same video : )
Figured I'd throw that in for a laugh
Casting Vow of Enmity on yourself gives you advantage on attacks against all targets.
Some people think thats a bug and won’t use it on themselves. Maybe Colby has that House Rule. But on a solo build that would be really hard to stick to.
Yea it seems like a bug based on the description, so I personally never use it that way
I thought it was a unintentional but unlike the lockadin 3rd attack vow of enmity works in HM
This ability has worked like this since BG3 came out. If they haven't patched it by now, working as intended?
I hate myself, therefore I can hit everything. Makes sense😂😂😂
I know something I've never seen anybody talk about... consuming the noblestalk mushroom restores your health completely for just the cost of one action. You can stock up on these in act three by buying them from the same lady from the underdark in act two inside her shop near Sorcerer's Sundries. Also, whenever a companion levels up, her inventory restocks. Very useful for the final fight.
I’m a complete newb to DnD. I actually never liked RPGs before, but BG3 has been phenomenal, and you sir have been a life saver for me trying to figure this game out. One thing I think you should do, which I haven’t seen anyone else do on YT, is show us newbs how to fight with the builds you create.
100% agree re: Camp Casting! It actually makes sense from a role play perspective too. Even "IRL", no expeditionary team, military unit, etc. would operate without having a support staff on the back lines to prepare meals (Heroes Feast), run a first Aid station, etc. so that the front line unit can focus on their role. Don't understand those that insist this is somehow "cheating." :) Good vid!
I love, not only your knowledge, but how calmly you speak.
Fun Fact the way BG3 coded Vow of Emity. you can cast it on yourself and the game sees it as a buff and thus gives you advantage on ALL your attacks no matter on who you do them for that min.
I love how I’m checking out build videos in my free time asking man I want to melee and ranged then I hear this intro!
Thank you for continuing to make BG3 build videos. Love to see it.
love that you are still making (high quality!) BG3 content bro! keep it up.
“It’s the most glorious thing I’ve ever seen…in a video game.” This man has seen wonders.
I'm a simple man. I see a new Colby video, I click it
I'm a Colby fan. I see a simple video and I click it 🤣
I'm a clicker, simply. I Colby a see video new, fan I it.
on god
Colby is the man! 😁
Simplicity at its finest.
Hey! I found this channel while looking for BG3 builds and have been working through your library of 5e builds for the last few months now so I just wanna take a sec to say thanks for putting out so much regular and high quality content! I love your stuff!
One item I found that might help this build a bit is the Band of the Mystic Scoundrel. Let's you essentially quicken an illusion or enchantment spell (like Command that you mentioned having only fringe uses or Hold Person). Granted, you burn spell slots faster like that, but a free crit (in Hold Person's case) might be worth it to set up that juicy 5th level smite.
Welcome to the Optimisation rabbit hole, you might also like Chris of Treantmonk's Temple.
I don’t need therapy. I have Colby’s outro every single week.
I hear these buffs stack, just FYI.
As a fan of the channel, how dare you not try and minmax your mental health by watching Colby's outro every single week AND going to therapy.
It's what he'd want as a minmaxer, you totally gotta do it to be a true fan by minmaxing the shniz out of your mental health.
(Try not to collect the mental illnesses though, those are apparently debuffs so you wanna build to avoid those as best you can)
Colby channels his inner bard at the end of every video. Rolled a natural 20 on this performance.
I just love that Colby pronounces scimitar as "cimeter". IYKYK.
It kinda bugs me, but I won't hold it against him.
ive noticed youtubers say lots of words with new pronunciations. Often they put the emphasis on the “wrong” syllable. im nearly 60 so it may just be the normal evolution of language or a problem that people discuss literature less in school. I doubt there is a really a “right” way to say anything but i think there is more drift lately.
Maybe because of the french word « cimeterre » ? (I’m french)
Should be Shamshir.
A shamshir (Persian: شمشیر) is a type of Persian/Iranian sword with a radical curve. The name is derived from the Persian word shamshīr, which is made of two words sham(fang) and shir(lion)". The curved "scimitar" sword family includes the shamshir, kilij, talwar, pulwar, and nimcha.
Have you heard him say "shillelagh" yet!
Just when I thought I finally had a finished build for my playthrough, Colby threw a wrench at me again! Love it^^
I too took a two level paladin dip on my main Tav. Swords bard 6/theif rogue 4/oathbreaker paladin 2. Took the dual weilder feat to dual wield with phalar aluve. The paladin levels made the damage go crazy while boosting my ac and giving me on demand advantage for sneak attacks
Bold intro sir Colby 🎉😂
Nice Build! Another one is Open Hand Monk Tavern Brawler with Strength Elixirs (a lot of people talk about this build I know 😅). Can run along side your build and use the Monk specific gear along with being unarmed, so you don’t have to share any end game weapons. Perfect companion if you’re good-aligned, choose Karlach (for EZ approval points). Soul Coins give extra fire damage to her hits. If evil, choose Astarion because I believe his Ascended form gets extra necrotic damage to hits. The potions from Ethel can be bought every time you rest/level up in the Grove so stockpile on those so you can dump STR completely.
You got yourself a new subscriber sir! 🤓 ❤
Always set everything to ask. Solves those problems of smiting when you dont want to, shooting off hand xbow when you dont want to, etc
“Giggle filled destroyer of worlds.” Sir, you have named my quest to find the perfect build. This is it. Thank you ❤
As a person who has been watching BG3 speed runs for like 3 years (literally people started doing them in the beta test to see how fast they could clear act one and what builds were the most messed up) I've found Sin Tee to be probably the best channel overall for BG3 builds that are incredibly strong. But ive been watching your D&D content since like the 10th build you did and you're definitely giving him a run for his money :P
Came for the build, stayed for the singing and the fight with technological. Good stuff, Colby.
Congratulations. You just inspired me to take up BG3. I bought it thinking it would be a blast and promptly got lost (while trying to stream blind). Now if I get lost again, at least I'll have a fun character to stroll around until I (hopefully) figure out where I'm going.
You can cast Vow of Enmity on yourself to get advantage on all attacks for 10 turns
I’m a complicated man, see a Colby video I click it.
cool tip is you can use Vow of Enmity on yourself to get advantage on attacks on everyone, so a better way to use the ability
Thanks as always. This helps all the wood burning on my brain...to go to smoldering and simmering the game. Very much thank you. My brain skips ever since deployment to Afghanistan. TBI. Been trying to work this out since day of BG3! You're awesome!
Colby: " 'are you crazy?' well yeah, i kinda am"
me: "you are and i love you for it"
This build is better then you think. You can cast the vengeance vow on yourself and YOU get advantage against ALL enemies for the duration. Its a recent buff from update 6
Dirt mounds are survival checks not perception…
Don't really need to pass them though. Just use your shovel as soon as you see the failed check and you can dig up the chest anyway as long as you are anywhere close to where it's at.
Colby I absolutely have the best time watching your videos, you have a great sense of humour and a way of talking that is so natural. I mean you almost make it that your friendship is a given and you treat every one of us as a gaming buddy! Wish I could join up with you guys one day in a game or two, it would be a riot I'm sure! Always a pleasure, keep up with the videos :)
Spoiler for Act 3:
Not sure if anyone else mentioned it but at the Mirror of Loss in Act III it is possible to get an additional +1 Charisma increase from the Patriar's memory if you do this before praying to the mirror to get the the +2 bonus on one of your abilities. This means a Charisma focused character can get a total of +3 to Charisma (although this does require quite a bit of reloading).
This is a pretty honest (though powerful) build. If you're really cheesing solo, though, Stealth Archer really trivializes things.
Minor Spoilers, but in normal mode Auntie Ethel in the emerald grove sells 3 elixirs of hill giant strength at a time. You can always do a partial rest to reset her, not sure if it works or how tight funds in honor mode would be for it though.
I played a dual handcrossbow/ swords bard for my Honor run, and a real game changer for me was picking up the Duellist's Prerogative from saving Vanra, getting two reactions and knowing counterspell was just amazing. I feel like I wasn't really optimizing it to its fullest. have you found any novel ways to make use of it?
Dancing Breeze is a totally solid two handed weapon option that would allow you to continue to focus on Dex for everything. Which could allow you to dump dex and use the Dex gloves to pump even more into Con and Cha. Plus a free whirlwind attack once per round. If you want it to have a better bonus and more damage, you can always hit it with Drakethroat Glaive at the start of the day.
Forgive the lack of knowledge here but which stat should I sacrifice or min to achieve the 16/16/14 combination? I can't reach it otherwise. Also, for perception/traps detection and lock pick disarm traps, is that something i have to sort out in skills immediately on character creation? or can it be fixed later if I make a mistake? Is there a maybe generic build guide I should watch that covers these topics already so that the more precise build guides can get to the core points of the build faster?
@@davidking8043 on this build I’d probably dump Str and Int. For skills, you’ll want sleight of hand to help with lock picking etc but yes, you’ll eventually be able to respec your character if you want to change things up :)
@@DnDDeepDive Thank you so much for replying.
I wasn't sure if the stats were maybe designed to include a certain early game stat increase item or not.
Thanks again.
I'm not sure if you've mentioned this in previous build videos, but a quick, mostly unimportant note for people multiclassing-- make sure that NEWEST CASTER CLASS you take a level in is using the right casting stat. It doesn't really make a big difference for 90% of players, but unlike in DND where magic items/scrolls use a flat attack bonus/spell save DC, items in BG3 use the casting stat of the last unique level in a caster you took. Things get a little weirder when you're a pure martial using a scroll that requires a save/roll.
For example, a scroll of Scorching Ray in DND always has a +5 to hit, but a pure Wizard scroll-casting Scorching Ray in BG3 has a Proficiency + INT mod bonus as if he cast it himself.
In this case, for people following along, take Wizard 1 *before* you take Bard 1 (since you're starting Paladin 1 for the proficiencies) when respeccing or your scrolls will be cast using INT instead of CHA.
Colby that was an awesome extro. Love watching your videos, hearing your voice, and loved the song.
Colby, we're you aware that the titan string bow adds the strength mod to all damage sources per shot? I used a special arrow and had it added 4 times from various sources. Super fun to use that with a strength bump item on a ranger
I brewed a very similar build a few months back to take advantage of arcane acuity. I was getting 100% success rates on my hard control spells. So fun.
Idk if it’s mentioned from the point I am writing this, but Vow of Enmity can be cast on yourself, to receive advantage on anything you attack
One small note; it’s nice to start as a Bard as well because they get a hand crossbow as starting equipment. I found it a little annoying (early) to find TWO, but finding one is just a little easier.
Came for the min-max build, stayed for Colby's singing *chef's kiss*
Fun fact: If you want to go elixirs of giant strength, use the Halfling hireling, respec them into a rogue 1/transmutation wizard 2+/ cleric 1, max out wisdom, give them proficiency and expertise in medicine, have them cast guidance on themselves, and you're practically guaranteed to make double the elixirs and potions you would brew otherwise
This is a great build for the titan string bow that you get from the zhentarim in act 1. Also, you can get cloud giant fingers from Blurg and Derith in the myconid colony if you are level 6. Lastly, vow of enmity can be applied on yourself for advantage against all enemies for 10 turns.
great build, i agree smite gish of some flavor is probably tied with acuity fire blast command sorc for best build in game. especially when gish is paired with helm of arcane acuity and ring of the mystic scoundral so as a bonus action you can cast control spells with a dc 30+ after beating them to a pulp so whatever is left is cced. TB throwzerker w/ piercing vuln aura is a somewhat distant third due to lack of spells all togather, although easily the most OP build in the game for act 1 and most of 2, it starts to fall off late
imo TB monk has durability issues and a lack of cc that keep it in fourth. And stealth archers genrally suck when they dont have stealth, which some fights just dont allow.
There is a build someone made that uses an item that lets you cast illusion magic on a bonus action and makes it so each melee hit increases your chance to hit with spells. It uses just two items and you have a 95% chance to hit on hold person and so forth. So upcasting that or any other control spell, just makes it so no one can do anything to you. Perfect bard/paladin combo.
An interesting interaction with vow of enmity if you cast it on yourself you get advantage on all attacks for the duration, might be a bug but it’s really strong.
I have a LaeZel as a dual welding, Dex Fighter Champion with a 2 level dip in Paladin. I have her frequently be hasted and drink those arcane recovery potions between fights. I have a bunch of those, and I never need them on my Gale build. With so many attacks and an improved crit range, I smite a lot.
One amazing (okay… broken) aspect to Vow of Enmity in BG3- you can actually just cast it on *yourself* and it works to give you advantage against *all* enemies for 10 turns. It got me through my honor mode run and I will continue to shamelessly exploit it.
There’s also dancing breeze in rivington that is a finesse glaive. Also has a sick aoe weapon action
Wow, and I thought you only knew everything about D&D. Nice to see you doing BG3. Is there anything you don't know? Handsome and Smart. What a combo. :)
Staff of the Emperor seems like it would be a really good act 3 weapon for this build. Whenever you succeed on a saving throw, the enemy that caused it has to succeed on an intelligence save or be stunned. Given how much you'll be succeeding on saving throws, that will be happening a LOT.
Another good combo for the build would be Helm of Balduran with Whispering Promise, giving you permanent Bless and further trivializing most saving throws.
As far as other gear goes, I agree with the person suggesting Mystic Scoundrel for BA Hold Person. Boots don't actively do much for the build but none of them are bad choices, I'd say Helldusk Boots or Persistence Boots are the best though.
Im new to your channel, but i wanted to make sure to tell you so far youre great! I like your explanations, i like your voice, and i love your vibe. Keep it up!!!
What in your opinion would be the "Best Damn Build" in BG3 without respecting?
Hm... tough call but I'd probably go with this build, simply starting Bard to 6, then Pally 4, Fighter 2.
To push this over the top, the bhaalist armor coupled with shar's spear is disgusting damage. Helmet of arcane acuity and ring of mystic scoundrel make sure your spells never miss and lets you cast them on a short rest
I don’t remember the build I used but I had a pretty nasty karlach build that used two hand crossbows and then a greatsword. It did amazing for both range and melee. I think I used the fire hand crossbow and then the hand crossbow you get from Raphael’s old enemy in act 2 and then the baldurian greatsword from act 3.
Another thing worth mentioning is that song of rest is giga good if you have a bunch of short rest builds.
Tavern Brawler monk Ki
Warlock spell slots (hexblade smites?)
Cleric channel divinity (destructive wrath)
It might be worth mentioning the wonderous gloves in the items section its an extra bardic inspiration and a +1 ac they can be found in grymforge at the mimic fight
At the start of act 3, there is Band of the Mystic Scoundrel that lets you cast an enchantment or illusion spell as a bonus action. Command is an enchantment spell, along with vicious mockery. For some fun, you can have those added to your build.
The ring and vicious mockery has been a staple for my damage pally/bard builds. Walk up with a great weapon and smite, smite, then add insult to injury.
The Mirror of Loss can give you the "patriars memory" which gives a +1 to charisma aswell. Just need to roll for this memory to come up. There is an rng factor to it. without save scumming it isn't entirely reliable.
Such a great gish build. I always love playing gish guilds and this is just perfect for bg3.
I've picked up your Honour Mode group and improved upon it. First a pally/bard nuke with 2H weapon, the frost mage with armor of agathys, summons and whatnot, instead of the barb thrower I went wotoh monk+ thief for so many attacks I fought and killed gortash and Orin on the same long rest and still had resources left at the end of the day. And the last one was the light cleric mixed up with the knight radiant.
If the monk is using one of orin's weapons you can give the pally a piercing DMG weapon to attack that target with piercing vulnerability etc.
Titanstring bow maxing dex and str wearing graceful cloth. Then there are like a ton of other additions you can make to mold the character to your liking. no race/class requirements.
I'm a simple man: I hear the old intro, I like
Unless I missed it, you might talk to Boney in the circus and get a statute made. You get Sweet Stone Features, a 1d4 bonus to Attack Rolls and Saving Throws. It's just expensive is all.
Interesting to see both Sharpshooter and Great weapon master together. I found a pretty sweet synergy that’s more of a unique interaction than a build but level 11 Ranger/Hunters get Whirlwind and Hail of Arrows which make incredible use of those feats. It’s been a while since I tried it so Idk if it still works this way but it always felt like I couldn’t miss when I used those abilities instead of attacking. Nice bonus in addition to the area of effect.
The other option if you wanted to be purely melee lategame would probably be Savage Attacker. It'd be less bursty than action surge but adds more, consistent damage.
Too many comments to read through! So apologies if this has been already covered. Do you know what makes a bard/paladin go crazy? Items of arcane acuity plus the ring of the mystic scoundrel. You hit something in melee which increases your spell attack and spell save dc, so you then cast hold monster as a bonus action. Paralyzing it and making the rest of your attacks this round and usually more rounds to follow, automictic crits. Arcane acuity stacks really quickly, it seems easy to get +11 to your spell save dc inside one round. There are more combinations but I thought you would like that one.
I have a fighter Archer that knockback and disarm are my favorite things. I always do rangers but wanted a straight up bow no pet character and haven’t looked back
I am playing a solo Swords Bard now. Still in Act 1. One tip for anyone doing this: pick minor illusion as your very first cantrip. It will help you reposition enemies. Playing as a halfling might be better than gith. Not getting a nat 1 vs a hold person is nice.
Corey, I will never stop doing this bit and I find too much enjoyment in doing so. That being said, thanks for the vids 👍
Some alternatives that might be good in honor:
-Go Halflng to save you from bad luck critical miss.
-Go Paladin 6/College of Lore Bard 6 to still have Haste (unfortunately no shield 🫠) without the cheese and get cutting words (at the cost of flourishes)
-keep dual wielding hand crossbows. Then you always can make an attack with off-hand bonus action
-Wood Elf also nice for extra movement.
-Cast glyph of warding sleep to get crowd control + auto-crits without concentration. If you are an elf, you can include yourself in the area.
Great build. I'd probably make 2 changes though. For race, I'd use halfling to reroll all critical failures on honour mode. Also, I would think savage attacker is better than taking sharpshooter for the 2nd feat, you get 2 dice for all melee dmg and take the highest, it applies to smite dmg and any dmg dice applied by items. Granted, it reduces your ranged dmg, but you probably won't us3 range much with this build regardless.
LETS GO NEW BALDURS GATE VIDEO
Seeing the "dirt mounts" is actually based on the survival skill, not perception. Other than that, interesting video!
not sure if you do this but if you swap back to melee weapon before ending the turn, then you can also AoO people. A ranged weapon doesn't let you do that.
I’d argue that the abjuration wizard with armor of agathys is the best character to solo the game with. Granted, it’s not quite a do everything, but it has lower variance
Sorry if this is a "necro-bump" - just wanted to say for a divine smite centric build, Savage Attacker will usually be a more impactful increase to your damage over Great weapon Master, because of how the game calculates the dice rolls. As an example, in tabletop you would roll 2d6 twice and take higher -- first: 4, 6 second: 6, 2... in tabletop this would mean you would do 10 damage (4,6). But in BG3 it takes the higher of the first result and the higher of the second result. Meaning those two rolls would result in 12 damage (6(2nd roll),6(1st roll))👍
clarity: and this applies to all dice associated with the damage, including smite
There’s also the dancing breeze in act 3 for a dex/finesse glaive that could be utilized
Instead of worrying about elixirs at the start of act 3 theres a finesse +2 glaive from the rivington general trader that could be used instead. Albeit there may be a loss in damage vs using baldurs sword but at least an option to save on elixirs
If you don't mind save scumming you can get an additional +1 to Charisma from the mirror by getting Patriar's Memory.
Could you make a guide on 'how to build a pickpocket character'? Usually for me it's been astarion who I pull out of camp. What buffs could you give him to have the greatest chance? What items would you give him? Is there a hireling race that would work better (halfling?). I would love to see your take on this.
What I think is on par with this build is Bladesinger pally with 1 level monk for extra defense. But you do need to DL the subclass.
Still looking for the Blue Collar Druid build: all the spells manipulating elements that would replicate modern construction worker...
As always, thanks for all of the great content Colby. (I miss Slidin into my DM's btw... Great stuff!😁)
Thanks. Hanging in there.
I just beat honor mode easily with a throw barb fighter, ranger rogue fighter, orb light cleric and evo wizard. It was way easier than I thought. Honestly melee is the worst option because dealing a ton of damage from 60 feet away is just better at survivability. That and abusing scrolls is awesome. Even a throw barb can cast wall of fire or cloud kill with a scroll.
Another nice build that I need to try at some point!
Do you think you'll ever do a Part 3 of "Optimizing Every Companion for Baldur's Gate 3" for the non-origin companions? I'd love to see your versions of Halsin and Jaheira (and, of course, Minthara & Minsc)
I did a Swords Oath of Nature Bardadin for my first character. I went Hill Dwarf for the extra HP, though I was a bit iffy on whether I wanted Resilient Constitution or Sharpshooter for my feat (I used the other one to max my Charisma).
The vow of enmity cast on yourself gives you advantage on all your attacks to anyone
I've even taken 2 levels of paladin on a Rouge build just for advantage lol
I have been running a me,ee and ranged damage build in Bg3 since day 1. Sorlock Fighters with a two handed weapon makes this EASY!! I am chucking out 8 to 10 attacks a turn with upwards of 50 damage per hit at this point.
I have a build that is pretty nasty in terms of combat ability and sustainability (I.e. having as long of an adventuring day as possible). Starts off swords bard until level 10. After that, respec to swords bard 5, fighter 5 (battle master) so you still have the combat inspirations recharge on short rests, extra attack, and PYF combat maneuvers which also come back on a short rest. Finish out Fighter 6 (character still gets 3 feats total which is huge for me), bard 5, and last level can be whatever. Good options are Wizard for the spell selections, cleric gets a ton of front loaded abilities, warlock also synergizes well, or go fighter 7 for extra maneuvers.
You can turn on "ask" on the smite reaction, so they ask you if you want to do it instead. Can be annoying in a fight where you haven't planned to smite anything, but golden otherwise