Thanks! The secret is I've done nothing but think about dungeons and dragons for 20 years :P Party building guides coming soon! Probably next after this series
I really like on your videos that you don't dismiss anything, like in a lot of tierlists people will just go ''oh trickery domain bad, rp tier'' and not even talk about why its bad, or any merits it might have despite being worse than the others so it leaves people uninformed. IMO theorycrafting and optimizing are at their best when they're in service of making the stuff you want to use not suck even if they're wonky, and your videos do that splendidly
Trickery has a really good spellist unironically. Mirror Image on a Spirit Guardians build? Fear on a meele composition, or Dimensional Door on a support character? Its genuinly good, especially early to mid game.
@@benross9174 I think the issues it has is how its relatively weak early when compared with the other cleric sub-classes. The power it has is really good but often are specific use-cases or only compare with the other sub-classes' spells and passives when building a party around it. I think of it similarly to knowledge, war, and nature domain in the way that you have to WANT to use it to make it worthwhile whereas other sub-classes like life and tempest are quite plug and play and others like light although want a specific few builds to really utilise its power, are still really good by default and can equip any decent gear on them and will still be incredibly useful. The issue I have with trickery is always the thought that okay its cool but do I want to build around this to really make 90% of its abilities useful and its always a no after the first time doing it. Tbf I am a life cleric enjoyer because I find heal bombing every turn in boss fights to be very entertaining on a mega tank support
@@benross9174I wouldn’t call it really good, but it definitely has a surprisingly decent niche if you really try to build towards it. Definitely takes a while for it to come online tho, which is why it’s viewed as being so bad, since most Cleric subclasses are very front loaded with their power.
@@MayHugger Spirit guardians + mirror image is really strong in the early mid game. You can have that combo avaible in Act 1 around the time you fight Nere. I do agree it super falls off and gets bad in act 3 though. (Story wise theres a nice oppurtunity to change specs though with SH). And its kinda meh before level 5 thats true. But people treat it like its garbage while its pretty good/decent and has a good niche
I still did not watch this one because i'm looking at all the building character serie in order . But i just want to say as a guy that played some table top 20 years ago tapping again into D&D those days through BG3 , i'm so happy to have found your content . Your way to explain theorycrafting is indeed fascinating ! I'm very entertained sir. Deep thanks .
Thanks so much! One of my favorite things about BG3 is how many new and returning players it's brought to one of my favorite hobbies - it's awesome to see old hands picking the game back up
This series is super helpful and a real service to the player community. Thank you! I think its especially good for newer players but I have over more hours than I care to admit and it’s still good to hear your well thought out opinions!
Great video. One thing: Trickery clerics also get mirror image which is great for not losing concentration or having your cleric go down while spirit guardians is doing its work. Also, invoke duplicity is concentration in 5e.
I remember hearing that EK was such a bad class. But on my first play through I would have the cleric cast sanctuary and be a heal or buff bot. Then the EK would just spit out 3 or 4 attacks a turn. Maybe getting hit twice while fighting several elementals over several turns.
You complete ignored the fact that the Frenzy Throw bonus action also knocks things prone, a VERY powerful CC. Berzerker subclass Barb is S+ tier. It is THE carry subclass for ranged damaged.
Trickery Domain being super-ass is clearly designed to get you to respec Shadowheart and start her face turn. Clearly. (The fact Death domain, the other major canon Shar domain, was not added, still makes me sad.)
fighter is S or S+. a fighter is better than a swords bard. he can do 3\6\9\12 attacks, the bard can do 3\5\7 attacks. Flourish is not needed because there are special arrows. There are also other advantages
He said that damage is only one consideration in the tier list. How versatile, and how restricted to the class is to specific gear matters too. Fighter just hits things, and can't do much else. That's why it's not higher tier.
I'm find it amusing when people rave about Magical Secrets being the best feature. Because stealing from other classes *logically requires* the Bard spell list to be pretty ass or there would be no need. And so it is, as while not all their spells are terrible those that are multiclassers like Hold Person. Also almost devoid of actually killing anything. Worse Bards have to commit to their spells like Sorcs but don't get Sorcs power to do them objectively better with metamagic. So agonizing opportunity costs for a sub-par list. Basically unless you want to bend the game over your knee to spank it with [busted combo x] they quickly become the worst full casters.
@@Cephalopocalypse Magical Secrets is when Microsoft buys Google *loudly boasting* about how they now have the best search engine ever and how great this will be for the company. Get rekt Bing. The problem lies in how it gets hailed as Bard's S+++ feature. Imagine if people said the best reason to play Cleric was... casting Fireball. Sure out of class spells are a key accepted mark of a good Domain but even sticking with Light people rave more about the massive Channel AOE burst. At least for AoE. And of course, Clerics have their own standout and (outside sneaky bards who stealz the precious) pretty exclusive spells like Sanctuary or Guardian of Faith or some little-known trick like Spirit Guardians.
Eldritch Knight makes me so sad. I love gishes so War Magic is the exact kind of ability I want to play around but it is SO BAD. Even if we had the blade cantrips it is still just okay. I haven't tested to see if you could make two bonus action attacks with an extra bonus action though
In a game like BG3 which has so many level 3 and above spells that are fairly good if not outright busted, and then keeping a class like Eldritch Knight as a third caster with only up to level 2 spell slots, they're effectively handicapped by the level restriction. It's a shame because they're interesting mechanically but you just can't do enough with their spells because the ones they do get are weak and take a long time to get, meaning you're mediocre at half of what you're aiming to do. At least it works well with wizard and/or throw builds.
Not a critique so much as an addition to the discussion for light cleric warding flair and invoking disadvantage on attacks in general when compared to the Shield spell: While it doesn't give the same raw statistical bonus, disadvantage makes crits practically impossible and helps against effects which only proc on advantage. If your party already has ways to grant disadvantage to enemy attacks, it doesn't stack like AC bonuses do either though. But without context I rate them as equal, realizing it's going to come down to your party comp and the enemy you're facing.
The thing is it really doesn't take much for a cleric to be S tier - they do almost everything excellently already, and nature cleric fixes two of the only gaps clerics have in their kit: Shillelagh gives you consistent damage at levels 1-4, and Sleet Storm gives you a large aoe control spell. Those sound like small bonuses and in and of themselves they are, but in context they patch the class's only weaknesses.
Woops somehow this just appeared under the wrong comment?? Thanks youtube. Warding flare is I'd say about 85-90% of the shield spell when you take into account the reduction of crit chance - that's incredibly good, especially when you consider it can be cast on anyone, and ~on par with cutting words. Of course, all of those abilities stack incredibly well together, as well!
Your elocution needs a little work, as does your timing. It shouldn't be more pleasurable to listen to someone at 1.25 and even 1.5 speed because it feels like you get to the point sooner AND are still just as understandable because the dialogue STILL isn't too fast to understand.
@@Cephalopocalypse Yes. I am. And I'm not scared to give criticism either. All the more so when I think the information is good but the presentation needs improvement. But, above all, not only am I under no obligation to sugar-coat my thoughts, and you have no reasonable expectation to receive such treatment.
Sure! It seemed from your comment that you probably hadn't considered your words very carefully, but if you're making a deliberate choice, that's certainly one you're allowed to make! I'll caution you that if you apply this kind of attitude to more important interactions, it will almost certainly make things harder for your personally and professionally for very little benefit, but if that's a consequence you're choosing with your eyes open, I'm definitely not going to tell you otherwise.
@@Cephalopocalypse Yeesh. You're gonna give yourself an ulcer if you keep making such elaborate presumptions every time you have an interaction with someone and they don't speak or write in exactly the way his majesty finds precisely acceptable, man.
Trickery has quite a few merits actually. Still a cleric amd has some very interesting synergies. Is it as good as other subclasses ? Definetely not. Is it Bad ? Not at all.
@@cloudy978 I just don't understand why your body double aura can't move around like in TT. That alone got me so nettled I dipped out of trickery forever.
@@cloudy978 oh come on, wdym. Just let things be bad. If the worst subclass isn't bad I don't know what is, and it's not even like it has its niche which just doesn't come up often; it basically doesn't. Let things be bad again. Average is average, not good; above average is good, below is bad. If you think trickery is bad but it doesn't really matter because the game is easy enough, just say that.
You should have a tier on top just called "Swords Bard" and have it be separated by 3 other tiers above every other subclass in the game. Such a broken subclass.
@@JoshSweetvale It has to do with the flourishes, ESPECIALLY Sword Flourish. It's 2 attacks per action if you're using a ranged weapon, plus another 1-2 attacks if you're using hand crossbows and using bonus action to fire offhand (multi class into rogue for extra bonus action). Crazy good in a vacuum, incredibly broken considering bards are good and basically everything
Why? Just because it has more attacks than any martial, while being a full caster, have the best out of combat utility and being the best face with lots of skills and experise? Apart from these its nothing special… /s
Small note: Ranged flourishes do work in tabletop. 5E swords bard only requires "attack action" and "weapon attack" The real change was how Slashing flourish worked range. In tabletop it's more like a bouncing arrow that could only hit one extra person instead of a whole second attack.
Of the various list videos I've seen of yours, this is the one I agree with the most. And yeah, Champion Fighters get pretty boned. They could at least keep improving the crit threshold as they level up. The "improved critical" human fighter setup was a classic meta/twink build in older editions of D&D, and Champion seems like it's meant to represent that specifically, but it just doesn't scale like those builds did. It was extremely common in 3.5 especially - take Bastard Sword proficiency with improved critical on it at level 1, so you get that 1d10 one-handed weapon *and* a shield, then get a few improved crit feats as you level up until your crit range gets to something like 16-17 and you're doing 3x damage crits when they land, and along with Greater Cleave so you'd just mow through enemies like they were grass and you're a lawnmower with little other than basic attacks. Its appeal was its simplicity and its effectiveness, and Champion seems to be trying to do the same thing, but because it expands crit range generally and not specifically, but that doesn't grow in scale as you level up, it's just completely outclassed.
Exactly - personally, I preferred the old style of critical threat ranges and damage differing by weapon, since that gave weapons that are just inferior in 5e their own real niches and made critical hit builds much more spectacular. 5e just doesn't have anything that compares to the feeling of finally landing that scythe critical!
Imo, eldritch knight is also pretty good as a controller with the same swords bard combo, arcane acuity + mystic scoundrel, even full class with the level 10 eldritch feature giving disadvantage, very reliable control
It makes me happy to see Eldritch Knight ranked highly because it's been one of my favorite subclasses and I have felt that it's underrated. After my first playthrough with Laezel as a companion I've never played her as anything else. A really fun combo I found is learning the Expeditious Retreat spell, equipping the Strange Conduit ring and the Speedy Lightfeet boots, so she's always concentrating on a spell for psychic dmg and is able to use her bonus action to dash and add extra lightning damage to her attacks. I'm entering Act 3 now and plan to get the helmet of balduran to combine with the broodmother's revenge necklace. I play tactician and I never even have to use mirror image or blur because she just downs every enemy she hits and if she can't down them she stuns them the Soulbreaker greatsword. Also, not surprised to see swords bard as S+. My only previous experience with Bards was from BG1&2, so when I made a dark urge Swords Bard I chose to play on balanced thinking it was going to be underpowered LOL.
I don't disagree with the wild magic barbarian's placement at all, but I think it's worth noting the d4 you get from bolstering magic stacks with guidance, so if you're okay with pickpocketing on honour mode, it can make it much easier.
Small note, tavern brawler is currently bug as of hotfix 20 on moon druids, it applies on the attack rolls but not on the dmg, another sad day for moon druids in bg3. And btw the Spreading Spores from lvl 10 spore druid uses a bonus action, not an action, and you can cast it as many times as you want in a combat, and it doesnt harm allies, so you can use a fighter to trap enemies on it while keep casting on that same area without hurting your melees.
Spore Druid is probably the *single* best user of the Cull the Weak Illithid power. It's niche but being able to act offensively with an AoE spell as an action, an AoE lingering cloud as a bonus action, *and* poke someone as a Reaction because why not, you can touch a number of targets in a turn that only a Sorcerer double-casting with with something like quicken and Magic Missile or Fireball can keep up with, and a Sorcerer will burn through resources significantly more quickly to do so. Combine that with the summons and it's probably the best zone-control caster.
I disagree with the core playstyle of Druid hinging on managing concentrations in Wild Shape, that belongs almost exclusively to Circle of the Moon. I think the core playstyle of Druid is that you're a full caster and thus you play like a full caster; throw down your control spells and pick off enemies that approach. Unless you're a Tavern Brawler Circle of the Moon, no Wild Shape is outperforming a dedicated martial anyways. Wild Shape has some utility out of combat for map access and the extra HP can save you in a pinch, but it should not even be a consideration in combat for Land and Spores Druids because it prevents them from casting and you would rather be casting. I also think the extra damage features of Spore Druid are a trap; once again, it's a full caster with an improved spell list, especially between Bone Chill and Animate Dead. Why be a bad martial when you can be a Druid with more spells? Pick up your extra damage from Halo of Spores when you're in range, but otherwise just be a Druid with infinite temp HP and an entourage of summons. I would put Circle of the Land and Spores in S and Moon in A. As full casters Land and Spores miss out on very little from being mono class, just Sorc 1 for CON Saving Throws and Shield spell. Moon likewise isn't missing out on much except Fighter 2 for Action Surge and CON Throws. I rate Moon lower because it's a Tavern Brawler martial that doesn't get as much gear thrown at it as Thrower Barb or Monk do. (Edit: I forgot to mention, thank you for the content! I got too absorbed in arguing the points I wanted to make for Druid that I neglected to say your content is always thoughtful and interesting. It's very much appreciated.)
Shocking Grasp would be pretty sweet on the Eldritch Knight. Disables the enemy reaction so no more Ready to Parry from the annoying Githyanki, lol. I didn't know that on my first playthrough tho so my EK Lae'zel just brute forcing thru those guys
I want to multiclass as Rogue 3 (Theif) and Sword Bard 9, would this be a downgrade from full Sword Bard and if so how much? I've googled this but there's not a lot on this build and even less consensus 😅
I did a playthrough where I took 1 wizard level and 11 tempest cleric levels and yeah it was hella fun. I used my one wizard level to learn the conjure elemental spell from a scroll and freecast to get two of the water myrmidons to just spray water everywhere so I could spam call lighting. It was awesome. The moments where an enemy would walk over electrified water and get thrown back off a cliff was hilarious as well. 10/10 would recommend.
I love Champion as long as you can stack all the reduced critical items (bloodthirst, undermountain knife, sarevok's helmet, dead shot, elixir of viciousness, vivacious cloak) eventually you only need to roll a 14 to crit, or 13 if you're hidden
Its pretty interesting to see how you feel about wild magic barb compared to wild magic sorcerer. Also been playing around with a stealth druid halfling playstyle with land druid for greater invisibility to fall out of turn order and use your strong concentrationless spells like plant growth, gust of wind ledge kills, the buffed grasping vine, woodland being, ice storm, ect. Lot of fun "spirit of nature" kind of build that can cap off your greater invis by casting another super strong concentration spell if you need to join combat yourself. Druid also give you shields for gloomshields +stealth coincidentally
The coolest use for Trickery cleric that I saw was someone using invoke Duplicity as a secondary target for twin-cast Hail of Thorns to get a double overlapping aura of Piercing damage with the Bhaalist Armor aura and an automatic crit that actually redoubled the AOE damage dice. It's apparently a glitch, so I'm eager to see Larian nerf Trickery cleric's Invoke Duplicity 😁
Another big negative to Wild Magic Barbarian, a lot (or all?) of their beneficial effects will ALSO apply to nearby enemies. I don't know if they've fixed this, surely it's a bug. Dancing Lights (+1AC to all allies within 10ft) will also give +1 AC to every enemy in that range.
The only thing that felt a bit biased was when you were talking about Battlemaster Superiority Dice being scarce. BM has up to 5 superiority dice (not counting items,) which come back on a short rest, and many but not all of its uses only eat the die on a hit. Bardic inspiration for Swords Bard flourishes are mostly the same, but you were praising how you could use them so often. Bard => many times per day. Fighter => run out in one round of combat. I get that the bard has amazing damage potential and lots of versatility, but just the way you approached the resources I couldn't understand.
What cracks me up about your opinion woth Eldritch Knight, is in my in person game i wanted to be one, Dex based, who threw at forst was going to be handaxes before i realized they were Str based. So i switched to throwing daggers. Now im a lvl5 eldritch knight/lvl 3 inquisitive rogue, that throws most of the time.
small correction, while talking about battlemaster, i think you swapped the icons for Eldritch knight and Battlemaster edit saw u fixed it in p2 beginning! nvm
1:06:10 I do think that an eldritch knight/Pact of the blade warlock multiclass can be better at dealing damage with war magic than straight up attacking. With 7 fighter/5 warlock you can have both agonising blast and repelling blast, your weapon scales with CHA thanks to bind pact weapon so you can basically max it instead of strength and Eldritch Blast of course combines great with War Magic. I think a fully upgraded eldritch blast + weapon attack can go toe to toe with Improved Extra attack the eldritch knight would get at higher levels but it's so versatile being able to target so many different enemies in a single turn and also attack in the same turn
I don't remember there being any really difficult fights in the Underdark though 🤷🏻♂️ In fact the most difficult fight was that boulette and it wasn't really difficult, I then raised it with the mushroom guy :-)) Although I don't play honor, so I might be completely off the mark here, idk
I played a circle of the land Druid and I would ABSOLUTELY NOT recommend taking the haste bonus spell (from arctic/grassland) for a simple reason : druids have SO MANY concentration spells already if you take Haste you won't be able to use 90% of your spells because that would break your concentration on haste and fucked up whoever was targeted by it haste on a druid is overrated
I don't even use Haste on anyone, I just use the Haste Potions if needed, or the haste bombs you get in act 1 and later, Haste Spore from spore druid armor. (it's actually twice per short rest, as it's 1 per use of your wildshape).
8:40 I was gonna say; like, combine those strength elixir farming exploits, tavern brawler (for thrown attacks), great weapon master (for melee attacks), and bless from either a paladin or cleric, and well, yeah, W00000000000t!
Battle master is more powerful than you give it credit for. You get 6 ( with BM feat) and have the riposte ability which uses your reaction ( something you don’t have much use for) for an extra attack. This means you are doing 4 hits per round for 6 rounds per short rest. Run this guy with a warlock and bard and you are the king of short rests. 1:09:38 once you get Nyrula you don’t need enchanted weapon and BM becomes the better way to throw weapons as well. Precision strike is not something you want to spend a dice for, given you can use any weapon your fighter should have an enchanted weapon that has a good bonus (eg plus 2 or 3). Your extra feat means 20 Str or Dex is very doable (if not more with items). Utility spells are better on a dedicated spell caster bc they don’t have to worry about multiple attributes (int and str) and have good spell save DC. I’d only take EK early and once you get a throwing weapon it is outclassed by battle master
I find it weird how you rate the subclasses from the same class against each other. Valor bard is S+ tier in terms of power. Yes Swords bard is stronger than Valor bard but Valor bard is still a full caster with extra attack. How is Lore bard in S tier according to this power ranking when Valor bard is bottom tier? Lore bard gets 2 extra magic secret spells, cutting words, and 1 extra expertise. Swords bard gets an extra attack and absolutely busted flourishes. For consistency if Lore bard is S tier than Valor bard should also be S tier. Having Lore bard in S tier and then Valor bard in bottom tier is just goofy. That being said I love your content and I also love bards.
The placement of the Outclassed tier is misleading. It's visibly at the bottom but is not necessarily bottom tier. A mediocre bard is still better as part of a party overall versus something like a rogue. Valor Bard at worst could still be considered an A-tier class, but if you had to look at both Sword and Valor bard and rank them objectively, it's not hard to see the one that is better in this case is so much better it's not even a competition.
That's why I did the base classes in the previous video as well as the subclasses in this one - it's hard otherwise to convey "this subclass doesn't give you much, but the base class is so strong it doesn't matter."
Invoke Duplicity is even worse than I thought. I tried casting Darkness on my party to protect us from ranged attacks and it broke Shadowheart's concentration on her Invoke Duplicity. Turns out you need to be able to see your illusion copy or it breaks your concentration. It doesn't say that in the spell description but I found it out during my honour mode run, woohoo!
lvl 10 evocation wizard + lvl 2 warlock. Eblast away baby. Another fun sub build I like is powerful hand crossbow build. lvl 6 rouge/thief and lvl 6 sward bard.
I get your argument about life cleric, but being able to more consistently apply an aoe bless and blade ward makes the healing so good. I guess it depends on how often you’re resting. I try to get through the acts with as few rests as possible, so it just depends. Light cleric and tempest cleric can be a primary aoe damage dealer and debuffer, whereas life cleric is a buffer and healer.
I think wolf heart barbarian is one of the best unique support styles in the game. Advantage is a big deal, ongoing permanent easy access movable advatage just for existing? Incredible, as long as your party leans melee but also summons will benefit greatly. Wolf heart rage is an "I win" button. Also Wild Magic's +proficiency save aura is great for boss fights especially if you have a party that likes to stay tight (Paladin, etc)
I'm sorry but I have to disagree on Eldritch Knight being an S tier sub class. The fact that the core features of Eldritch Knight being War Caster and Eldritch Strike never get utilized because of how weak your spells are compared to melee attacks makes the whole sub class failure. If you're gonna make an Eldritch Knight just so you can throw a weapon more times than a Barbarian then it's better to just go Battlemaster and use a weapon that returns to you when thrown and even then, a Barbarian is still better at it in terms of damage per throw.
I'll be honest, I'm not a fan of takes like "Life cleric isn't that comparatively good, but I'm still giving it an A because Cleric is such a good class." Why does what every Cleric get a factor of how good a subclass is at all? Shouldn't this video rating sub classes based purely on the differences between said subclasses and disregarding common denominators?
Tier lists like this aren't just comparing different Cleric subclasses to each other, but to other classes and subclasses. A subclassless Cleric for example probably contributes far more than even an optimized Thief, hence why Life Domain finds itself in A tier when other Domains are usually just better choices.
I think you have messed your ranking up since you don't have any subclass in B tier: - The Barbarian class is in B tier and yet there is not a subclass in that same tier - Both Druid and Fighter are in A tier, which is adjacent to B tier, and yet not a single subclass is in B tier This to me indicates a problem in either the class ranking or the subclass ranking, since I see no consistent view. OTT, logic is well presented when you look at classes/subclasses individually and I like your videos.
I dont know how good Evoke Duplicity even is. Every time i make Shadowheart waste her turn to cast it, the very next thing that happens is an enemy hits it and destroys it. Every singke time.
I love how Barbarian and Rouge are the worst single class characters, yet when multiclassed with each other with TB are probably a top 5 build in the game lol.
I'd assume Way of the Open Hand. The sheer amount of damage they can do with relatively little preparation (gloves of your choice, vest of soul rejuvenation, strength elixir, tavern brawler, maybe Alert, and Kushigo boots) is disgusting, and not in a bad way. And they're made even better by something like Swords Bard just controlling everything on the field and granting either advantage against them, or paralyzing them and guaranteeing criticals outright.
@@r.s.819ya i think way of the open hand is the most consistent damage you can get every single turn of combat for several several combat encounters. With very little resource/item investment you can get them to do like 300 damage in one turn on average just by themselves. Of course there are ways to get much higher damage with other classes but most cant do it by themselves or they can only do it for a single turn before needing to short/long rest
Hi I really like your analysis but I have some remarks regarding the way you do math in the analysis. Mostly comparing absolute vs relative and at witch point thouse matters. For instance you say the thw champion critical hit improvements is going to proc 1/20 of the time therefore it is a 5% damage increase. I beg to differ. Because that would be assuming that every attack hit for base damage. In reality we can assume that 50% of the attack fail when targeting boss. Wich means that the champion crit hit improvement turn 9 regular hit and a crit into 8 regular hit and 2 crits. Witch is roughly a 10% increase in damage. Not speaking about advantage that tweak the math a lot in favor of more crits: - (1 - (19/20 x 19/20)) = 9.75% chance of crit on a 20 - (1 - (18/20 x 18/20)) = 19% chance to crit on a 19 - (1 - (17/20 x 17/20)) = 27.8% chance of crit with one +1 crit threahold item/elixir and the champion. - (1 - (16/20) x (16/20)) = 36% chance to crit with the champion, the right sword and elixir. Assuming you are targeting a 60% chance to hit in the firt place with gw master that will actually increase your damage output by more than 50%. Same thing when saying a +2 ac is a 10% damage reduction. That is entirely dependent on what the enemy target to hit you is. If the enemy hit you on a 10+ that is more like 20% damage reduction since they hit 40% of the time instead of 50% (50% - 40% / 50% =20%)
Sure! That's all correct, and I could of course specify that I'm saying "adds x% of your base damage to the final calculated value after considering hit chance, which will be a greater than x% increase to that value" but to be honest that's not really necessary and takes up a lot of time. Look for instance at how many examples you had to give to communicate the concept and then imagine doing that in a video!
@@Cephalopocalypse The things IMO is that it can truly matter when you analysis the potential of builds (classes + item). Because bonus staking is a thing and some small +1 can ended up with huge consequences down the line. For instance when you say defensive flourish is situational. Sure if you just see it as a 20% damage reduction against attack that roll to hit (witch is most of what you encounter) is sounds not great. Now if you present it as a 50% damage reduction from those same attacks because it can turn your ac from 19 to 23 in act 1making it so that most enemy will hit you on a 17+ instead of a13+ that's all of a sudden not the same proposition. not even going in depth with the fact that some build can let you reach 25+ ac easily in act 2 (up to 30 if you get shield in some ways) making it so that suddenly only crits will ever touch you. And that is just one example. Some effect have a geometric progression, break point and/or relative increase that are way more important that the absolute increase is. And they can look very underwhelming if you don't take into account those details. In this particular video the champion to crit improvement being seen as just a 5% damage increase is making you say that this is underwhelming compared to battle master when in reality if you compare to battle master +4.5 average damage from manoeuvre make the comparison not fair. Because you are comparing a relative increase (+4.5 when you hit) to a global increase (+5% between when you it and when you don't hit). This is comparing two things that are not to be compared together. If you do the math correctly champion is actually way closer to battle master in term of damage output than you think (and can even get better against the toughest opponent).
Everything else aside, I can confirm that a throwing build on an Eldritch Knight is, in fact, quite fun. I’ve got an evil run paused somewhere in Act 3 because I’m waiting on Patch7. But that one’s an Eldritch Knight, and I’ve just been tossing The Baneful at people, and it’s just been the best.
I wanted to know which single classes/subclasses/multi-classes are strongest in early game, mid-game, and/or late game. Level 1-4 is early game. Level 5-8 is mid game. Level 9-12 is late game. Also, I wanted to know how you approach honor mode in terms of which quests/combats/areas you face first in early game based on the classes you play? Which quests/combats/areas do you face first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, & etc…
Great video, but one small point I disagree with: when it comes to the math and champion, I think 5% chance to crit is way better than 1 extra damage per turn for 2 reasons: the first is it has greater synergy, with half-orc's extra crit dice and great weapon master's extra attack, and secondly because it feeds into the action economy better because you're much more likely to kill something you otherwise wouldn't that would then go on to take actions against you and rewrite actions, and potentially awkward/inefficient uses of other party members' actions to prevent. For example, an enemy from killing one of your party members or a friendly npc, healing, summoning etc. So really it's better to think of it either as 5% chance to kill something that you otherwise wouldn't, or 5% to crit AND an extra damage dice AND an extra attack, which certainly lacks the flexibility and utility of the other fighter subclasses but isn't terrible, either. I also think champion's biggest strength is also its biggest weakness: its simplicity. A lot of players might find the sheer number of options overwhelming, especially if they're new to RPGs so having a class which is really simple to learn can be great for them. But it might feel basic and boring to others. IMO to "fix" champion, I'd give it some radiant buff/debuff effects similar to paladin auras. After all, a champion is supposed to be an inspiring figure who gives his fellow fighters hope and strikes fear into the enemy by their presence alone.
Yo guys, maybe a bit off-topic, but how do summons work ? Like I know you cannot have multiple undead summoned, even as a necromancer, you are limited to max. 4 zombies/ghouls, some summons cancel each other out (Scratch x Shovel, Ghouls x Zombies, etc.). So I was wondering, how to get the best out of it. For example, the summons I use : 4 flying ghouls, 2 ice mephits, Us and Shovel. What are some better summon-comps ? I'm asking, because I'm playing necromancer with my friend as Oathbreaker paladin on honour run, we have reached Act III, but I still don't really know how to get the best out of it. 😭
You can get bonus action attack on barbarian without frenzy - through great weapon mastery feat. In late game, when you can proc that reliably, berserker value really falls off.
Yep - not to mention that martials just have great uses for their bonus action by default anyways: jumping and pushing are almost always good, but conflict with the berserker's playstyle.
@@Cephalopocalypse exactly! My "barbarians" typically end up with only 2 barbarian levels for reckless attack cause it feels taxing to even activate rage.
I don't like taking many long rests in my playthroughs but the requires a certain amount of long rests for story cutscenes to appear, a little but annoying. Not to mention, on honour mode, I wanna be more conservative with my resource.
You can get paralyzing critical as a champion fighter, and if you stack gear and potions you will lower the threshold of critical strike quite a bit, you take potion of viciousness and you get it to 18-20 and there was a item you could get that lowered it even more I like the class myself the jump helps strengthen the fighters weak point of being out of position, but yes there is not a lot of flavor to the class you can crit and jump that's pretty much it
Ease of play is such a big deal not often mentioned. I'm approaching the end of my first honor mode so in anticipation of some big fights I'm not going to switch now, but my run would have been a good bit comfier if I, say, took a pure ek thrower rather than a berserker/thief/ek thrower. The problem with the latter ofc being not knowing when to frenzy. Frenzying only to find most enemies dead by the 2nd round feels really bad, perhaps only comparable to not doing so only for the fight to turned out much harder than anticipated and having to frenzy after other members already wasted resources. Doing 3 throws round 1 and 4 every subsequent round also matters very little vs consistent 3 every round when most fights, even harder/boss fight if all your members blow resources, are over in 2-3 rounds. Long resting also becomes more and more of an annoyance as you develop a buffing ritual. Do you need to twin draconic weapon but your caster and 2 recipients are on opposite sides of camp? Have fun herding them together. Do you have a hireling cast hero's feat + aid, and maybe also freedom of movement and warding bond? Better keep dragging your party members back. Do you have summons, better yet ones that require corpses? Got to remember to do that before the ritual etc. For the same reason thou, I really didn't feel the 5 die limit on battlemaster to be that big a deal. If you don't know what you are doing, and I don't, just baseline power level of 3 attacks is quite good for those minor encounters, and 1 turn of big burst on boss fights has typically been enough to make up for not having a subclass for the other 2 turns. I also didn't find light cleric particularly good. Warding flare would be nice if if you were mitigating one of a few big hits, but the big ones are often going to hit even if you flare. I also found that the party has more than enough damage between a 10/2 sorlock and the aforementioned 12bm and 5/4/3 frenzied eldritch quick hand thrower, and if it didn't, glyph is not far from fireball/flamestrike, and scorching ray feels bad anways when spellmight/markoheshkir are taken and you aren't even a draco sorc/involc wizard. Currently she is respec-ed to life, wears orb/reverb gear, and casts spirit guardian then struggles to reach anybody most round. Straying away from single class, she does have 1 wizard dip for typically an air myrmidon to go with the cambion from rapier as well as artistry of war and dethrone. If things go south she can heal everybody's almost full health bar over 2 turns or cast insect swarm (or blade barrier if she was pure) if we run away to defend a choke, which happened like twice ever and would be avoided if I knew the fight beforehand and prepped properly, but is still something.
Swords bard is just so much fukn fun to play, please I beg you stop saying it’s too op and shouldn’t have been included in the game the way it is, I’m actually terrified you might give Larian the idea to nerf it 😂
I'd encourage you to consider "How much player interaction is required to get the most out of this class" and "how much knowledge is required?" Part of why I like open hand monk is just how straight forward it is. . . My first 3 serious starts in BG3 were a swords bard (enjoyable enough but I don't really like the class all that much) Open hand monk (I balanced the build around giant elixirs and warped headband) and Durge Oathbreaker necromancer (With the explicit goals of saving Alfira who is one of my favorite NPCs) Monk is most enjoyable by far because combats finish FAR quicker, with less micro needed. If there were a way to set summons to autoplay I'd probably have enjoyed my necromancer, but by the time it takes to go through the massive army of summons was making the game tedious. Powerful, sure, but soooooo much micro. Also don't forget to drop things into "Outclassed" if a single easy to acquire item makes their premier ability moot. One I'm specifically thinking of here is the Shadow Monk's pass without trace ability is replicated by the ring you can get in act 2. I'd also encourage you to note if one of the Origins particularly excels at a class. Like, oh, Mama K getting an extra 2d4 unarmed damage when you pop a coin in her slot, no rage needed.
Swords bards are actually fucking insane and I can't believe they exist in this game's balancing. In addition to them being the best martial and one of the best casters, they get to use some of the most broken equipment (arcane acuity gear, mystic scoundrel ring, reverb/radiant orb gear) among the most efficiently, which only exacerbates the problem. I think if swords bards had to be well balanced, they'd have to have the following nerfs: 1. No medium armor proficiency 2. Slashing flourish must pick different targets (like twinned spell does), to make other flourishes situationally optimal 3. Flourishes can only be used once/turn (less burst damage potential). 4. Option to pick archery fighting style (mainly to make the archer version of the swords bard without having to rely on dips into fighter/ranger for the fighting style). In addition to this, other nerfs to mechanics should include: 1. Arcane acuity only stacks to a max of 5 2. Radiant Orb only stacks to a max of 6 and enemies lose two turns every round instead of 1. 3. Initiative is rolled on a D10-D12 (to make Alert less busted while not devaluing it's bonus relative to gear which gives initiative or increases to dexterity)
2 paladin 10 war cleric is one of my favorite dwarves I've made. Flamestrike plus smites is awesome. Also 2 pally and 10 light cleric or 9 land druid 1 war cleric
Unless Honored mode changed it, Berserker Wild Magic has no negative effects. It's always a positive one, so it's generally easy to plan around it. Just pop rage like normal and enjoy the proverbial mystery box that is wild magic.
10 Lore Bard + 2 Divination Wizard Halfling, Now you control all the ability checks and dice rolls. Also called the Elminster Volo build, in the forgotten Realms.
I find the mono-class part of this guide to be like kind of arbitrary and limiting when as far as I can tell basically no one is talking about strict mono class builds for all but a very few cases. Maybe t he answer is just wait for the multi class build but in both these two videos it seemed like you were talking about a lot of builds that just aren't in the HM meta. Maybe I'm just like overrating the number of people who use videos and reddit posts and stuff but I just don't see a lot of content around like level 12 except for a small number of classes and think it would be more clear to put like 12 sorcerer and cleric on a list with other builds that are on the meta and not have them hang separately.
So not to take away from sword bards as being basicly the most broken class in the game, but an important factor is that you cannot use consumable arrows with ranged flourish. For example a fighter could with action surge shoot 6x slaying arrows in a single round for the equivalent of 12 attacks of damage while the bard has "only" done their 4. Also another fun option is if you can get the enemies grouped, you can apply combustion oil to your bow and use many target arrows to spread it out and then a fire arrow to blow them up. Ofcourse a sword bard can still use these arrows it just falls behind the fighters 3rd extra attack.
IDK, maybe I didn't have issues because my main was Lore Bard so I had the extra Short Rest, but I ran my first Honour Mode with two pure BM fighters and a third ranged BM dip, and it felt pretty S tier to me. With so many attacks & extra actions & action surges, Alert Feat, etc. you pretty much end fights before anything gets a turn. Sure it's not the most original concept, but it's straightforward & noob friendly.
Why doesn’t anyone understand how good the war clerics are, from the second lvl you have a very high chance of dazing any enemy with high dex for a bonus action!!! or use Heartstopper, this turns fights with strong enemies into a joke. From the sixth level you can apply this effect to allies. Why do I need fireball or radiance of the dawn if I have spirit guardians? Why do I need warding flare if all the enemies are dead or can't do anything?
Great descriptive video as always! I have to say as much as I enjoy Baldar's Gate 3, I hate how the developers just seemed to throw balance out the window with some of these classes choosing to make things that were balanced ridiculously overpowered. I could understand some things being broken on release, balance is difficult to uh... balance before knowing how strong the classes actually are. But months out from the game, they really have no excuse for not having nerfed some of these classes that need it
Playing a non-throwing EK currently in one of my honor runs, I already beat it so I'm just playing classes I haven't before / sub optimally. Having ray of frost as a fighter is great when my cleric casts sleet storm and my warlock casts hunger of hadar, it's just hilarious.. Enemies take one step and end turn and if they get out the EK still is a fighter and just beats them up lol. I know I could do more damage throwing but the RP of a spellcasting fighter is too fun. Enhanced jump with 18 strength is also hilarious, who needs misty step when you can leap twice the distance lol.
how do you pump out so much quality content so fast??
Would love a party building guide sometime!
Thanks! The secret is I've done nothing but think about dungeons and dragons for 20 years :P
Party building guides coming soon! Probably next after this series
I really like on your videos that you don't dismiss anything, like in a lot of tierlists people will just go ''oh trickery domain bad, rp tier'' and not even talk about why its bad, or any merits it might have despite being worse than the others so it leaves people uninformed. IMO theorycrafting and optimizing are at their best when they're in service of making the stuff you want to use not suck even if they're wonky, and your videos do that splendidly
Trickery has a really good spellist unironically. Mirror Image on a Spirit Guardians build? Fear on a meele composition, or Dimensional Door on a support character? Its genuinly good, especially early to mid game.
Trickery domain can be good for the buff if you're stacking stealth in order to abuse improved invisibility.
@@benross9174 I think the issues it has is how its relatively weak early when compared with the other cleric sub-classes. The power it has is really good but often are specific use-cases or only compare with the other sub-classes' spells and passives when building a party around it. I think of it similarly to knowledge, war, and nature domain in the way that you have to WANT to use it to make it worthwhile whereas other sub-classes like life and tempest are quite plug and play and others like light although want a specific few builds to really utilise its power, are still really good by default and can equip any decent gear on them and will still be incredibly useful. The issue I have with trickery is always the thought that okay its cool but do I want to build around this to really make 90% of its abilities useful and its always a no after the first time doing it. Tbf I am a life cleric enjoyer because I find heal bombing every turn in boss fights to be very entertaining on a mega tank support
@@benross9174I wouldn’t call it really good, but it definitely has a surprisingly decent niche if you really try to build towards it. Definitely takes a while for it to come online tho, which is why it’s viewed as being so bad, since most Cleric subclasses are very front loaded with their power.
@@MayHugger Spirit guardians + mirror image is really strong in the early mid game. You can have that combo avaible in Act 1 around the time you fight Nere. I do agree it super falls off and gets bad in act 3 though. (Story wise theres a nice oppurtunity to change specs though with SH). And its kinda meh before level 5 thats true. But people treat it like its garbage while its pretty good/decent and has a good niche
I still did not watch this one because i'm looking at all the building character serie in order . But i just want to say as a guy that played some table top 20 years ago tapping again into D&D those days through BG3 , i'm so happy to have found your content . Your way to explain theorycrafting is indeed fascinating ! I'm very entertained sir. Deep thanks .
Thanks so much! One of my favorite things about BG3 is how many new and returning players it's brought to one of my favorite hobbies - it's awesome to see old hands picking the game back up
This series is super helpful and a real service to the player community. Thank you! I think its especially good for newer players but I have over more hours than I care to admit and it’s still good to hear your well thought out opinions!
No nonsense. No sponsored content before you even begin. I like that.
Great video. One thing: Trickery clerics also get mirror image which is great for not losing concentration or having your cleric go down while spirit guardians is doing its work. Also, invoke duplicity is concentration in 5e.
In BG3 cutting words can cut saving throws just like Eloquence Bard in Table top, which makes it even more top-tier imo.
There are act 3 gloves that give advantage on battle maneuvers, so there is a way to gain advantage on fighters, just not champion
How do I put together a party? What should I consider?
Full party building guides are probably next after this series!
@@CephalopocalypseAlright! I am really enjoying your content
I remember hearing that EK was such a bad class. But on my first play through I would have the cleric cast sanctuary and be a heal or buff bot. Then the EK would just spit out 3 or 4 attacks a turn. Maybe getting hit twice while fighting several elementals over several turns.
You complete ignored the fact that the Frenzy Throw bonus action also knocks things prone, a VERY powerful CC. Berzerker subclass Barb is S+ tier. It is THE carry subclass for ranged damaged.
Not only did I not ignore that, I addressed it extensively and specifically :)
Trickery Domain being super-ass is clearly designed to get you to respec Shadowheart and start her face turn. Clearly.
(The fact Death domain, the other major canon Shar domain, was not added, still makes me sad.)
Agreed. A death domain Shadownheart would be so much fun to roleplay.
I thought TB didn’t work properly in honor mode for wild shape
Thanks!
Thanks very much! I appreciate the support :D
fighter is S or S+.
a fighter is better than a swords bard. he can do 3\6\9\12 attacks, the bard can do 3\5\7 attacks. Flourish is not needed because there are special arrows. There are also other advantages
He said that damage is only one consideration in the tier list. How versatile, and how restricted to the class is to specific gear matters too. Fighter just hits things, and can't do much else. That's why it's not higher tier.
I'm find it amusing when people rave about Magical Secrets being the best feature.
Because stealing from other classes *logically requires* the Bard spell list to be pretty ass or there would be no need.
And so it is, as while not all their spells are terrible those that are multiclassers like Hold Person. Also almost devoid of actually killing anything.
Worse Bards have to commit to their spells like Sorcs but don't get Sorcs power to do them objectively better with metamagic. So agonizing opportunity costs for a sub-par list.
Basically unless you want to bend the game over your knee to spank it with [busted combo x] they quickly become the worst full casters.
You are making a very weird leap of logic. If Google bought Microsoft, would that logically require that all Google's holdings were worthless?
@@Cephalopocalypse Magical Secrets is when Microsoft buys Google *loudly boasting* about how they now have the best search engine ever and how great this will be for the company.
Get rekt Bing.
The problem lies in how it gets hailed as Bard's S+++ feature. Imagine if people said the best reason to play Cleric was... casting Fireball. Sure out of class spells are a key accepted mark of a good Domain but even sticking with Light people rave more about the massive Channel AOE burst. At least for AoE.
And of course, Clerics have their own standout and (outside sneaky bards who stealz the precious) pretty exclusive spells like Sanctuary or Guardian of Faith or some little-known trick like Spirit Guardians.
Eldritch Knight makes me so sad. I love gishes so War Magic is the exact kind of ability I want to play around but it is SO BAD. Even if we had the blade cantrips it is still just okay. I haven't tested to see if you could make two bonus action attacks with an extra bonus action though
In a game like BG3 which has so many level 3 and above spells that are fairly good if not outright busted, and then keeping a class like Eldritch Knight as a third caster with only up to level 2 spell slots, they're effectively handicapped by the level restriction. It's a shame because they're interesting mechanically but you just can't do enough with their spells because the ones they do get are weak and take a long time to get, meaning you're mediocre at half of what you're aiming to do.
At least it works well with wizard and/or throw builds.
Not a critique so much as an addition to the discussion for light cleric warding flair and invoking disadvantage on attacks in general when compared to the Shield spell:
While it doesn't give the same raw statistical bonus, disadvantage makes crits practically impossible and helps against effects which only proc on advantage.
If your party already has ways to grant disadvantage to enemy attacks, it doesn't stack like AC bonuses do either though.
But without context I rate them as equal, realizing it's going to come down to your party comp and the enemy you're facing.
The thing is it really doesn't take much for a cleric to be S tier - they do almost everything excellently already, and nature cleric fixes two of the only gaps clerics have in their kit: Shillelagh gives you consistent damage at levels 1-4, and Sleet Storm gives you a large aoe control spell. Those sound like small bonuses and in and of themselves they are, but in context they patch the class's only weaknesses.
Woops somehow this just appeared under the wrong comment?? Thanks youtube.
Warding flare is I'd say about 85-90% of the shield spell when you take into account the reduction of crit chance - that's incredibly good, especially when you consider it can be cast on anyone, and ~on par with cutting words. Of course, all of those abilities stack incredibly well together, as well!
Your elocution needs a little work, as does your timing.
It shouldn't be more pleasurable to listen to someone at 1.25 and even 1.5 speed because it feels like you get to the point sooner AND are still just as understandable because the dialogue STILL isn't too fast to understand.
Genuine question: are you happy with this being how people see you behaving in public?
@@Cephalopocalypse Yes. I am. And I'm not scared to give criticism either. All the more so when I think the information is good but the presentation needs improvement.
But, above all, not only am I under no obligation to sugar-coat my thoughts, and you have no reasonable expectation to receive such treatment.
Sure! It seemed from your comment that you probably hadn't considered your words very carefully, but if you're making a deliberate choice, that's certainly one you're allowed to make! I'll caution you that if you apply this kind of attitude to more important interactions, it will almost certainly make things harder for your personally and professionally for very little benefit, but if that's a consequence you're choosing with your eyes open, I'm definitely not going to tell you otherwise.
@@Cephalopocalypse Yeesh. You're gonna give yourself an ulcer if you keep making such elaborate presumptions every time you have an interaction with someone and they don't speak or write in exactly the way his majesty finds precisely acceptable, man.
Oh, are we not doing blunt criticism anymore? My bad, I thought you weren't afraid of a little critique.
So… Trickery domain tricks you into thinking it has good subclass abilities
Trickery has quite a few merits actually. Still a cleric amd has some very interesting synergies. Is it as good as other subclasses ? Definetely not. Is it Bad ? Not at all.
@@cloudy978 I just don't understand why your body double aura can't move around like in TT. That alone got me so nettled I dipped out of trickery forever.
The good T is Twilight
@@CiaphasKirbyI was disappointed by that, too.
@@cloudy978 oh come on, wdym. Just let things be bad. If the worst subclass isn't bad I don't know what is, and it's not even like it has its niche which just doesn't come up often; it basically doesn't.
Let things be bad again. Average is average, not good; above average is good, below is bad. If you think trickery is bad but it doesn't really matter because the game is easy enough, just say that.
Finally, someone puts Moon Druid in S tier. I appreciate you
Small correction: Channel divinity recovers on short rests, so it can be used 3/6 times a day.
That's right - good catch!
You should have a tier on top just called "Swords Bard" and have it be separated by 3 other tiers above every other subclass in the game. Such a broken subclass.
Howso?
I want to play a bard. Does it have to do with bonus actions?
@@JoshSweetvale It has to do with the flourishes, ESPECIALLY Sword Flourish. It's 2 attacks per action if you're using a ranged weapon, plus another 1-2 attacks if you're using hand crossbows and using bonus action to fire offhand (multi class into rogue for extra bonus action). Crazy good in a vacuum, incredibly broken considering bards are good and basically everything
Why? Just because it has more attacks than any martial, while being a full caster, have the best out of combat utility and being the best face with lots of skills and experise? Apart from these its nothing special… /s
Small note: Ranged flourishes do work in tabletop. 5E swords bard only requires "attack action" and "weapon attack"
The real change was how Slashing flourish worked range. In tabletop it's more like a bouncing arrow that could only hit one extra person instead of a whole second attack.
Of the various list videos I've seen of yours, this is the one I agree with the most. And yeah, Champion Fighters get pretty boned. They could at least keep improving the crit threshold as they level up.
The "improved critical" human fighter setup was a classic meta/twink build in older editions of D&D, and Champion seems like it's meant to represent that specifically, but it just doesn't scale like those builds did. It was extremely common in 3.5 especially - take Bastard Sword proficiency with improved critical on it at level 1, so you get that 1d10 one-handed weapon *and* a shield, then get a few improved crit feats as you level up until your crit range gets to something like 16-17 and you're doing 3x damage crits when they land, and along with Greater Cleave so you'd just mow through enemies like they were grass and you're a lawnmower with little other than basic attacks.
Its appeal was its simplicity and its effectiveness, and Champion seems to be trying to do the same thing, but because it expands crit range generally and not specifically, but that doesn't grow in scale as you level up, it's just completely outclassed.
Exactly - personally, I preferred the old style of critical threat ranges and damage differing by weapon, since that gave weapons that are just inferior in 5e their own real niches and made critical hit builds much more spectacular. 5e just doesn't have anything that compares to the feeling of finally landing that scythe critical!
Imo, eldritch knight is also pretty good as a controller with the same swords bard combo, arcane acuity + mystic scoundrel, even full class with the level 10 eldritch feature giving disadvantage, very reliable control
It makes me happy to see Eldritch Knight ranked highly because it's been one of my favorite subclasses and I have felt that it's underrated. After my first playthrough with Laezel as a companion I've never played her as anything else. A really fun combo I found is learning the Expeditious Retreat spell, equipping the Strange Conduit ring and the Speedy Lightfeet boots, so she's always concentrating on a spell for psychic dmg and is able to use her bonus action to dash and add extra lightning damage to her attacks. I'm entering Act 3 now and plan to get the helmet of balduran to combine with the broodmother's revenge necklace. I play tactician and I never even have to use mirror image or blur because she just downs every enemy she hits and if she can't down them she stuns them the Soulbreaker greatsword.
Also, not surprised to see swords bard as S+. My only previous experience with Bards was from BG1&2, so when I made a dark urge Swords Bard I chose to play on balanced thinking it was going to be underpowered LOL.
Kinda weird how swords bard abilities work with ranged attacks.
I don't disagree with the wild magic barbarian's placement at all, but I think it's worth noting the d4 you get from bolstering magic stacks with guidance, so if you're okay with pickpocketing on honour mode, it can make it much easier.
Small note, tavern brawler is currently bug as of hotfix 20 on moon druids, it applies on the attack rolls but not on the dmg, another sad day for moon druids in bg3.
And btw the Spreading Spores from lvl 10 spore druid uses a bonus action, not an action, and you can cast it as many times as you want in a combat, and it doesnt harm allies, so you can use a fighter to trap enemies on it while keep casting on that same area without hurting your melees.
Spore Druid is probably the *single* best user of the Cull the Weak Illithid power. It's niche but being able to act offensively with an AoE spell as an action, an AoE lingering cloud as a bonus action, *and* poke someone as a Reaction because why not, you can touch a number of targets in a turn that only a Sorcerer double-casting with with something like quicken and Magic Missile or Fireball can keep up with, and a Sorcerer will burn through resources significantly more quickly to do so.
Combine that with the summons and it's probably the best zone-control caster.
You are my favorite BG3 tierlist guy.
Thanks very much!
I disagree with the core playstyle of Druid hinging on managing concentrations in Wild Shape, that belongs almost exclusively to Circle of the Moon. I think the core playstyle of Druid is that you're a full caster and thus you play like a full caster; throw down your control spells and pick off enemies that approach. Unless you're a Tavern Brawler Circle of the Moon, no Wild Shape is outperforming a dedicated martial anyways. Wild Shape has some utility out of combat for map access and the extra HP can save you in a pinch, but it should not even be a consideration in combat for Land and Spores Druids because it prevents them from casting and you would rather be casting.
I also think the extra damage features of Spore Druid are a trap; once again, it's a full caster with an improved spell list, especially between Bone Chill and Animate Dead. Why be a bad martial when you can be a Druid with more spells? Pick up your extra damage from Halo of Spores when you're in range, but otherwise just be a Druid with infinite temp HP and an entourage of summons.
I would put Circle of the Land and Spores in S and Moon in A. As full casters Land and Spores miss out on very little from being mono class, just Sorc 1 for CON Saving Throws and Shield spell. Moon likewise isn't missing out on much except Fighter 2 for Action Surge and CON Throws. I rate Moon lower because it's a Tavern Brawler martial that doesn't get as much gear thrown at it as Thrower Barb or Monk do.
(Edit: I forgot to mention, thank you for the content! I got too absorbed in arguing the points I wanted to make for Druid that I neglected to say your content is always thoughtful and interesting. It's very much appreciated.)
Shocking Grasp would be pretty sweet on the Eldritch Knight. Disables the enemy reaction so no more Ready to Parry from the annoying Githyanki, lol. I didn't know that on my first playthrough tho so my EK Lae'zel just brute forcing thru those guys
I want to multiclass as Rogue 3 (Theif) and Sword Bard 9, would this be a downgrade from full Sword Bard and if so how much? I've googled this but there's not a lot on this build and even less consensus 😅
Im gonna play valor bard dwarf purely because of the theme. And sword bard is disgusting.
Subclass video?! A man of culture and class. Thank you sir. Now for sick multiclass video
This is perfect timing as im working on planning my honor run as its the last achievement in my way
Nice - good luck!
I did a playthrough where I took 1 wizard level and 11 tempest cleric levels and yeah it was hella fun. I used my one wizard level to learn the conjure elemental spell from a scroll and freecast to get two of the water myrmidons to just spray water everywhere so I could spam call lighting. It was awesome. The moments where an enemy would walk over electrified water and get thrown back off a cliff was hilarious as well. 10/10 would recommend.
I love Champion as long as you can stack all the reduced critical items (bloodthirst, undermountain knife, sarevok's helmet, dead shot, elixir of viciousness, vivacious cloak) eventually you only need to roll a 14 to crit, or 13 if you're hidden
Its pretty interesting to see how you feel about wild magic barb compared to wild magic sorcerer. Also been playing around with a stealth druid halfling playstyle with land druid for greater invisibility to fall out of turn order and use your strong concentrationless spells like plant growth, gust of wind ledge kills, the buffed grasping vine, woodland being, ice storm, ect. Lot of fun "spirit of nature" kind of build that can cap off your greater invis by casting another super strong concentration spell if you need to join combat yourself. Druid also give you shields for gloomshields +stealth coincidentally
The coolest use for Trickery cleric that I saw was someone using invoke Duplicity as a secondary target for twin-cast Hail of Thorns to get a double overlapping aura of Piercing damage with the Bhaalist Armor aura and an automatic crit that actually redoubled the AOE damage dice. It's apparently a glitch, so I'm eager to see Larian nerf Trickery cleric's Invoke Duplicity 😁
I appreciate that this is basically We Rate Dogs for BG3 - 11/10 they’re good subclasses Brent 🖤
Exactly! They ARE good subclasses :D
Another big negative to Wild Magic Barbarian, a lot (or all?) of their beneficial effects will ALSO apply to nearby enemies. I don't know if they've fixed this, surely it's a bug. Dancing Lights (+1AC to all allies within 10ft) will also give +1 AC to every enemy in that range.
Your explanations are the most concise and easy to understand. Keep up the amazing content!!!
The only thing that felt a bit biased was when you were talking about Battlemaster Superiority Dice being scarce. BM has up to 5 superiority dice (not counting items,) which come back on a short rest, and many but not all of its uses only eat the die on a hit. Bardic inspiration for Swords Bard flourishes are mostly the same, but you were praising how you could use them so often. Bard => many times per day. Fighter => run out in one round of combat. I get that the bard has amazing damage potential and lots of versatility, but just the way you approached the resources I couldn't understand.
What cracks me up about your opinion woth Eldritch Knight, is in my in person game i wanted to be one, Dex based, who threw at forst was going to be handaxes before i realized they were Str based. So i switched to throwing daggers. Now im a lvl5 eldritch knight/lvl 3 inquisitive rogue, that throws most of the time.
Me like Monk because Monk punch alot
small correction, while talking about battlemaster, i think you swapped the icons for Eldritch knight and Battlemaster
edit saw u fixed it in p2 beginning! nvm
1:06:10 I do think that an eldritch knight/Pact of the blade warlock multiclass can be better at dealing damage with war magic than straight up attacking. With 7 fighter/5 warlock you can have both agonising blast and repelling blast, your weapon scales with CHA thanks to bind pact weapon so you can basically max it instead of strength and Eldritch Blast of course combines great with War Magic. I think a fully upgraded eldritch blast + weapon attack can go toe to toe with Improved Extra attack the eldritch knight would get at higher levels but it's so versatile being able to target so many different enemies in a single turn and also attack in the same turn
Something insane that you didn't mention about the Spore Warden that DESTROYS the Underdark is that you can raise the Bulette.
Is there a special dialogue option there? That's cool! I've always done it by having the mushroom guy raise it
@@Cephalopocalypse, I actually just checked. That's my bad, I think it was unintentional and got patched, since it's a monstrosity, not a beast.
I don't remember there being any really difficult fights in the Underdark though 🤷🏻♂️ In fact the most difficult fight was that boulette and it wasn't really difficult, I then raised it with the mushroom guy :-))
Although I don't play honor, so I might be completely off the mark here, idk
Honor mode gets hard at Myrkul and onwards, until then, it's not really know if you know what you are doing.@@alexmashkin863
I like the simplicity of the Champion sub-class. You only have to worry about hitting things.
I played a circle of the land Druid and I would ABSOLUTELY NOT recommend taking the haste bonus spell (from arctic/grassland)
for a simple reason : druids have SO MANY concentration spells already
if you take Haste you won't be able to use 90% of your spells
because that would break your concentration on haste and fucked up whoever was targeted by it
haste on a druid is overrated
I don't even use Haste on anyone, I just use the Haste Potions if needed, or the haste bombs you get in act 1 and later, Haste Spore from spore druid armor. (it's actually twice per short rest, as it's 1 per use of your wildshape).
Check out my guide "The owlbear flies" for one hilarious use of land druid haste
8:40 I was gonna say; like, combine those strength elixir farming exploits, tavern brawler (for thrown attacks), great weapon master (for melee attacks), and bless from either a paladin or cleric, and well, yeah, W00000000000t!
Battle master is more powerful than you give it credit for. You get 6 ( with BM feat) and have the riposte ability which uses your reaction ( something you don’t have much use for) for an extra attack. This means you are doing 4 hits per round for 6 rounds per short rest. Run this guy with a warlock and bard and you are the king of short rests.
1:09:38 once you get Nyrula you don’t need enchanted weapon and BM becomes the better way to throw weapons as well.
Precision strike is not something you want to spend a dice for, given you can use any weapon your fighter should have an enchanted weapon that has a good bonus (eg plus 2 or 3). Your extra feat means 20 Str or Dex is very doable (if not more with items). Utility spells are better on a dedicated spell caster bc they don’t have to worry about multiple attributes (int and str) and have good spell save DC.
I’d only take EK early and once you get a throwing weapon it is outclassed by battle master
I find it weird how you rate the subclasses from the same class against each other.
Valor bard is S+ tier in terms of power. Yes Swords bard is stronger than Valor bard but Valor bard is still a full caster with extra attack.
How is Lore bard in S tier according to this power ranking when Valor bard is bottom tier? Lore bard gets 2 extra magic secret spells, cutting words, and 1 extra expertise. Swords bard gets an extra attack and absolutely busted flourishes.
For consistency if Lore bard is S tier than Valor bard should also be S tier.
Having Lore bard in S tier and then Valor bard in bottom tier is just goofy.
That being said I love your content and I also love bards.
The placement of the Outclassed tier is misleading. It's visibly at the bottom but is not necessarily bottom tier. A mediocre bard is still better as part of a party overall versus something like a rogue.
Valor Bard at worst could still be considered an A-tier class, but if you had to look at both Sword and Valor bard and rank them objectively, it's not hard to see the one that is better in this case is so much better it's not even a competition.
That's why I did the base classes in the previous video as well as the subclasses in this one - it's hard otherwise to convey "this subclass doesn't give you much, but the base class is so strong it doesn't matter."
You should do a lore accurate dark urge build 🗣️🔥
Why rate spore Druid this way but u have a present video how it’s an unkillable solo honour char w unlimited hp?
Invoke Duplicity is even worse than I thought. I tried casting Darkness on my party to protect us from ranged attacks and it broke Shadowheart's concentration on her Invoke Duplicity. Turns out you need to be able to see your illusion copy or it breaks your concentration. It doesn't say that in the spell description but I found it out during my honour mode run, woohoo!
lvl 10 evocation wizard + lvl 2 warlock. Eblast away baby.
Another fun sub build I like is powerful hand crossbow build. lvl 6 rouge/thief and lvl 6 sward bard.
Sword school bard can't used his specific martial skills many times because it uses bards points. It's so limited I'm not fan.
I was playing the game before i saw this video and im a swords bard, damn thats interesting tp see 😂😂😂 i got bg3 recently
I get your argument about life cleric, but being able to more consistently apply an aoe bless and blade ward makes the healing so good. I guess it depends on how often you’re resting. I try to get through the acts with as few rests as possible, so it just depends.
Light cleric and tempest cleric can be a primary aoe damage dealer and debuffer, whereas life cleric is a buffer and healer.
Eldritch Knight fighter is a prime candidate for headband of intellect if you want occasionally cast control spells like hold person.
I think wolf heart barbarian is one of the best unique support styles in the game. Advantage is a big deal, ongoing permanent easy access movable advatage just for existing? Incredible, as long as your party leans melee but also summons will benefit greatly. Wolf heart rage is an "I win" button. Also Wild Magic's +proficiency save aura is great for boss fights especially if you have a party that likes to stay tight (Paladin, etc)
Ah, S+, future home of the Throwing Barb/Tossing Eldritch and Swords Bard.
Yas yas yas yas
Would you consider doing a multiclass tier list specifically on how the builds you make videos on have aged?
u put in mythic knight warrior icon but you called it eldritch knight im confused ^^
I'm sorry but I have to disagree on Eldritch Knight being an S tier sub class. The fact that the core features of Eldritch Knight being War Caster and Eldritch Strike never get utilized because of how weak your spells are compared to melee attacks makes the whole sub class failure. If you're gonna make an Eldritch Knight just so you can throw a weapon more times than a Barbarian then it's better to just go Battlemaster and use a weapon that returns to you when thrown and even then, a Barbarian is still better at it in terms of damage per throw.
Absent multiclassing eldritch knight gets to throw more often especially with a third extra attack
Just started Act 3 honour mode with 3 rangers and fighter/warlock
I'll be honest, I'm not a fan of takes like "Life cleric isn't that comparatively good, but I'm still giving it an A because Cleric is such a good class."
Why does what every Cleric get a factor of how good a subclass is at all? Shouldn't this video rating sub classes based purely on the differences between said subclasses and disregarding common denominators?
Tier lists like this aren't just comparing different Cleric subclasses to each other, but to other classes and subclasses. A subclassless Cleric for example probably contributes far more than even an optimized Thief, hence why Life Domain finds itself in A tier when other Domains are usually just better choices.
I think you have messed your ranking up since you don't have any subclass in B tier:
- The Barbarian class is in B tier and yet there is not a subclass in that same tier
- Both Druid and Fighter are in A tier, which is adjacent to B tier, and yet not a single subclass is in B tier
This to me indicates a problem in either the class ranking or the subclass ranking, since I see no consistent view.
OTT, logic is well presented when you look at classes/subclasses individually and I like your videos.
I address this at the start of the next video!
I dont know how good Evoke Duplicity even is. Every time i make Shadowheart waste her turn to cast it, the very next thing that happens is an enemy hits it and destroys it. Every singke time.
I can answer that! In Bg3, it's very, very bad :P
I love how Barbarian and Rouge are the worst single class characters, yet when multiclassed with each other with TB are probably a top 5 build in the game lol.
I expect swords bard to be the only S+ subclass tbh. They're so insane.
Saw someone do 3x swords w/hand crossbows and cleric tank. It was very effective
I'd assume Way of the Open Hand. The sheer amount of damage they can do with relatively little preparation (gloves of your choice, vest of soul rejuvenation, strength elixir, tavern brawler, maybe Alert, and Kushigo boots) is disgusting, and not in a bad way. And they're made even better by something like Swords Bard just controlling everything on the field and granting either advantage against them, or paralyzing them and guaranteeing criticals outright.
@@r.s.819ya i think way of the open hand is the most consistent damage you can get every single turn of combat for several several combat encounters. With very little resource/item investment you can get them to do like 300 damage in one turn on average just by themselves. Of course there are ways to get much higher damage with other classes but most cant do it by themselves or they can only do it for a single turn before needing to short/long rest
Hi I really like your analysis but I have some remarks regarding the way you do math in the analysis.
Mostly comparing absolute vs relative and at witch point thouse matters.
For instance you say the thw champion critical hit improvements is going to proc 1/20 of the time therefore it is a 5% damage increase.
I beg to differ.
Because that would be assuming that every attack hit for base damage.
In reality we can assume that 50% of the attack fail when targeting boss. Wich means that the champion crit hit improvement turn 9 regular hit and a crit into 8 regular hit and 2 crits. Witch is roughly a 10% increase in damage.
Not speaking about advantage that tweak the math a lot in favor of more crits:
- (1 - (19/20 x 19/20)) = 9.75% chance of crit on a 20
- (1 - (18/20 x 18/20)) = 19% chance to crit on a 19
- (1 - (17/20 x 17/20)) = 27.8% chance of crit with one +1 crit threahold item/elixir and the champion.
- (1 - (16/20) x (16/20)) = 36% chance to crit with the champion, the right sword and elixir.
Assuming you are targeting a 60% chance to hit in the firt place with gw master that will actually increase your damage output by more than 50%.
Same thing when saying a +2 ac is a 10% damage reduction. That is entirely dependent on what the enemy target to hit you is.
If the enemy hit you on a 10+ that is more like 20% damage reduction since they hit 40% of the time instead of 50% (50% - 40% / 50% =20%)
Sure! That's all correct, and I could of course specify that I'm saying "adds x% of your base damage to the final calculated value after considering hit chance, which will be a greater than x% increase to that value" but to be honest that's not really necessary and takes up a lot of time. Look for instance at how many examples you had to give to communicate the concept and then imagine doing that in a video!
@@Cephalopocalypse The things IMO is that it can truly matter when you analysis the potential of builds (classes + item).
Because bonus staking is a thing and some small +1 can ended up with huge consequences down the line.
For instance when you say defensive flourish is situational. Sure if you just see it as a 20% damage reduction against attack that roll to hit (witch is most of what you encounter) is sounds not great. Now if you present it as a 50% damage reduction from those same attacks because it can turn your ac from 19 to 23 in act 1making it so that most enemy will hit you on a 17+ instead of a13+ that's all of a sudden not the same proposition.
not even going in depth with the fact that some build can let you reach 25+ ac easily in act 2 (up to 30 if you get shield in some ways) making it so that suddenly only crits will ever touch you.
And that is just one example.
Some effect have a geometric progression, break point and/or relative increase that are way more important that the absolute increase is. And they can look very underwhelming if you don't take into account those details.
In this particular video the champion to crit improvement being seen as just a 5% damage increase is making you say that this is underwhelming compared to battle master when in reality if you compare to battle master +4.5 average damage from manoeuvre make the comparison not fair. Because you are comparing a relative increase (+4.5 when you hit) to a global increase (+5% between when you it and when you don't hit).
This is comparing two things that are not to be compared together.
If you do the math correctly champion is actually way closer to battle master in term of damage output than you think (and can even get better against the toughest opponent).
I feel like you can get good magic damage for a Elditich Knight
Thanks for putting these videos out!
Everything else aside, I can confirm that a throwing build on an Eldritch Knight is, in fact, quite fun.
I’ve got an evil run paused somewhere in Act 3 because I’m waiting on Patch7. But that one’s an Eldritch Knight, and I’ve just been tossing The Baneful at people, and it’s just been the best.
I wanted to know which single classes/subclasses/multi-classes are strongest in early game, mid-game, and/or late game. Level 1-4 is early game. Level 5-8 is mid game. Level 9-12 is late game. Also, I wanted to know how you approach honor mode in terms of which quests/combats/areas you face first in early game based on the classes you play? Which quests/combats/areas do you face first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, & etc…
Great video, but one small point I disagree with: when it comes to the math and champion, I think 5% chance to crit is way better than 1 extra damage per turn for 2 reasons: the first is it has greater synergy, with half-orc's extra crit dice and great weapon master's extra attack, and secondly because it feeds into the action economy better because you're much more likely to kill something you otherwise wouldn't that would then go on to take actions against you and rewrite actions, and potentially awkward/inefficient uses of other party members' actions to prevent. For example, an enemy from killing one of your party members or a friendly npc, healing, summoning etc.
So really it's better to think of it either as 5% chance to kill something that you otherwise wouldn't, or 5% to crit AND an extra damage dice AND an extra attack, which certainly lacks the flexibility and utility of the other fighter subclasses but isn't terrible, either.
I also think champion's biggest strength is also its biggest weakness: its simplicity. A lot of players might find the sheer number of options overwhelming, especially if they're new to RPGs so having a class which is really simple to learn can be great for them. But it might feel basic and boring to others.
IMO to "fix" champion, I'd give it some radiant buff/debuff effects similar to paladin auras. After all, a champion is supposed to be an inspiring figure who gives his fellow fighters hope and strikes fear into the enemy by their presence alone.
Yo guys, maybe a bit off-topic, but how do summons work ? Like I know you cannot have multiple undead summoned, even as a necromancer, you are limited to max. 4 zombies/ghouls, some summons cancel each other out (Scratch x Shovel, Ghouls x Zombies, etc.). So I was wondering, how to get the best out of it. For example, the summons I use : 4 flying ghouls, 2 ice mephits, Us and Shovel. What are some better summon-comps ? I'm asking, because I'm playing necromancer with my friend as Oathbreaker paladin on honour run, we have reached Act III, but I still don't really know how to get the best out of it. 😭
You can get bonus action attack on barbarian without frenzy - through great weapon mastery feat. In late game, when you can proc that reliably, berserker value really falls off.
Yep - not to mention that martials just have great uses for their bonus action by default anyways: jumping and pushing are almost always good, but conflict with the berserker's playstyle.
@@Cephalopocalypse exactly! My "barbarians" typically end up with only 2 barbarian levels for reckless attack cause it feels taxing to even activate rage.
52:14 heh bear with me....✨moon druid puns✨
I don't like taking many long rests in my playthroughs but the requires a certain amount of long rests for story cutscenes to appear, a little but annoying. Not to mention, on honour mode, I wanna be more conservative with my resource.
You can get paralyzing critical as a champion fighter, and if you stack gear and potions you will lower the threshold of critical strike quite a bit, you take potion of viciousness and you get it to 18-20 and there was a item you could get that lowered it even more I like the class myself the jump helps strengthen the fighters weak point of being out of position, but yes there is not a lot of flavor to the class you can crit and jump that's pretty much it
Ease of play is such a big deal not often mentioned. I'm approaching the end of my first honor mode so in anticipation of some big fights I'm not going to switch now, but my run would have been a good bit comfier if I, say, took a pure ek thrower rather than a berserker/thief/ek thrower. The problem with the latter ofc being not knowing when to frenzy. Frenzying only to find most enemies dead by the 2nd round feels really bad, perhaps only comparable to not doing so only for the fight to turned out much harder than anticipated and having to frenzy after other members already wasted resources. Doing 3 throws round 1 and 4 every subsequent round also matters very little vs consistent 3 every round when most fights, even harder/boss fight if all your members blow resources, are over in 2-3 rounds.
Long resting also becomes more and more of an annoyance as you develop a buffing ritual. Do you need to twin draconic weapon but your caster and 2 recipients are on opposite sides of camp? Have fun herding them together. Do you have a hireling cast hero's feat + aid, and maybe also freedom of movement and warding bond? Better keep dragging your party members back. Do you have summons, better yet ones that require corpses? Got to remember to do that before the ritual etc.
For the same reason thou, I really didn't feel the 5 die limit on battlemaster to be that big a deal. If you don't know what you are doing, and I don't, just baseline power level of 3 attacks is quite good for those minor encounters, and 1 turn of big burst on boss fights has typically been enough to make up for not having a subclass for the other 2 turns.
I also didn't find light cleric particularly good. Warding flare would be nice if if you were mitigating one of a few big hits, but the big ones are often going to hit even if you flare. I also found that the party has more than enough damage between a 10/2 sorlock and the aforementioned 12bm and 5/4/3 frenzied eldritch quick hand thrower, and if it didn't, glyph is not far from fireball/flamestrike, and scorching ray feels bad anways when spellmight/markoheshkir are taken and you aren't even a draco sorc/involc wizard.
Currently she is respec-ed to life, wears orb/reverb gear, and casts spirit guardian then struggles to reach anybody most round. Straying away from single class, she does have 1 wizard dip for typically an air myrmidon to go with the cambion from rapier as well as artistry of war and dethrone.
If things go south she can heal everybody's almost full health bar over 2 turns or cast insect swarm (or blade barrier if she was pure) if we run away to defend a choke, which happened like twice ever and would be avoided if I knew the fight beforehand and prepped properly, but is still something.
Swords bard is just so much fukn fun to play, please I beg you stop saying it’s too op and shouldn’t have been included in the game the way it is, I’m actually terrified you might give Larian the idea to nerf it 😂
I'd encourage you to consider "How much player interaction is required to get the most out of this class" and "how much knowledge is required?" Part of why I like open hand monk is just how straight forward it is. . . My first 3 serious starts in BG3 were a swords bard (enjoyable enough but I don't really like the class all that much) Open hand monk (I balanced the build around giant elixirs and warped headband) and Durge Oathbreaker necromancer (With the explicit goals of saving Alfira who is one of my favorite NPCs) Monk is most enjoyable by far because combats finish FAR quicker, with less micro needed. If there were a way to set summons to autoplay I'd probably have enjoyed my necromancer, but by the time it takes to go through the massive army of summons was making the game tedious. Powerful, sure, but soooooo much micro.
Also don't forget to drop things into "Outclassed" if a single easy to acquire item makes their premier ability moot. One I'm specifically thinking of here is the Shadow Monk's pass without trace ability is replicated by the ring you can get in act 2.
I'd also encourage you to note if one of the Origins particularly excels at a class. Like, oh, Mama K getting an extra 2d4 unarmed damage when you pop a coin in her slot, no rage needed.
Swords bards are actually fucking insane and I can't believe they exist in this game's balancing. In addition to them being the best martial and one of the best casters, they get to use some of the most broken equipment (arcane acuity gear, mystic scoundrel ring, reverb/radiant orb gear) among the most efficiently, which only exacerbates the problem. I think if swords bards had to be well balanced, they'd have to have the following nerfs:
1. No medium armor proficiency
2. Slashing flourish must pick different targets (like twinned spell does), to make other flourishes situationally optimal
3. Flourishes can only be used once/turn (less burst damage potential).
4. Option to pick archery fighting style (mainly to make the archer version of the swords bard without having to rely on dips into fighter/ranger for the fighting style).
In addition to this, other nerfs to mechanics should include:
1. Arcane acuity only stacks to a max of 5
2. Radiant Orb only stacks to a max of 6 and enemies lose two turns every round instead of 1.
3. Initiative is rolled on a D10-D12 (to make Alert less busted while not devaluing it's bonus relative to gear which gives initiative or increases to dexterity)
You earned my sub and like, señor, saludos desde Monterrey NL, great content.
Thanks very much - welcome!
2 paladin 10 war cleric is one of my favorite dwarves I've made. Flamestrike plus smites is awesome. Also 2 pally and 10 light cleric or 9 land druid 1 war cleric
Unless Honored mode changed it, Berserker Wild Magic has no negative effects. It's always a positive one, so it's generally easy to plan around it. Just pop rage like normal and enjoy the proverbial mystery box that is wild magic.
10 Lore Bard + 2 Divination Wizard Halfling, Now you control all the ability checks and dice rolls. Also called the Elminster Volo build, in the forgotten Realms.
I find the mono-class part of this guide to be like kind of arbitrary and limiting when as far as I can tell basically no one is talking about strict mono class builds for all but a very few cases. Maybe t he answer is just wait for the multi class build but in both these two videos it seemed like you were talking about a lot of builds that just aren't in the HM meta.
Maybe I'm just like overrating the number of people who use videos and reddit posts and stuff but I just don't see a lot of content around like level 12 except for a small number of classes and think it would be more clear to put like 12 sorcerer and cleric on a list with other builds that are on the meta and not have them hang separately.
So not to take away from sword bards as being basicly the most broken class in the game, but an important factor is that you cannot use consumable arrows with ranged flourish. For example a fighter could with action surge shoot 6x slaying arrows in a single round for the equivalent of 12 attacks of damage while the bard has "only" done their 4. Also another fun option is if you can get the enemies grouped, you can apply combustion oil to your bow and use many target arrows to spread it out and then a fire arrow to blow them up. Ofcourse a sword bard can still use these arrows it just falls behind the fighters 3rd extra attack.
IDK, maybe I didn't have issues because my main was Lore Bard so I had the extra Short Rest, but I ran my first Honour Mode with two pure BM fighters and a third ranged BM dip, and it felt pretty S tier to me. With so many attacks & extra actions & action surges, Alert Feat, etc. you pretty much end fights before anything gets a turn. Sure it's not the most original concept, but it's straightforward & noob friendly.
Why doesn’t anyone understand how good the war clerics are, from the second lvl you have a very high chance of dazing any enemy with high dex for a bonus action!!! or use Heartstopper, this turns fights with strong enemies into a joke. From the sixth level you can apply this effect to allies. Why do I need fireball or radiance of the dawn if I have spirit guardians? Why do I need warding flare if all the enemies are dead or can't do anything?
Great descriptive video as always! I have to say as much as I enjoy Baldar's Gate 3, I hate how the developers just seemed to throw balance out the window with some of these classes choosing to make things that were balanced ridiculously overpowered. I could understand some things being broken on release, balance is difficult to uh... balance before knowing how strong the classes actually are. But months out from the game, they really have no excuse for not having nerfed some of these classes that need it
Playing a non-throwing EK currently in one of my honor runs, I already beat it so I'm just playing classes I haven't before / sub optimally.
Having ray of frost as a fighter is great when my cleric casts sleet storm and my warlock casts hunger of hadar, it's just hilarious..
Enemies take one step and end turn and if they get out the EK still is a fighter and just beats them up lol. I know I could do more damage throwing but the RP of a spellcasting fighter is too fun.
Enhanced jump with 18 strength is also hilarious, who needs misty step when you can leap twice the distance lol.