I do find it a bit funny Orrik won't dig up a grave, but is perfectly content to walk up to multiple humanoid skeletons, grab the most pristine and finest looking single bone, and pocket it. But just a single femur or humerus, not the whole skeleton. And sometimes entire ribcages and skulls too, but only cus those ones arnt associated with complete skeletal remains.
Oh, there is a trick I found, in case you find a merchant that you consider unaliving in the future. Give the merchant an empty container. Sell, barter, doesnt matter, you have a billion boxes. Once the merchant has it, go to the barter window, and drag the empty container to their side of the barter. From there, you can open the container, and put everything from their stock into it. The value of the things in the container will add up. You can then close the barter window. Normally, when you kill a merchant, it only drops its standard NPC loot, and the 3 most expensive things from its stock as a merchant. I find that immersion breaking, so I do not consider this method of getting their entire stock neither a bug, nor exploit or cheating.
2:01 I have no evidence to support this but vibes but I feel like people are more cognizant about “scenery” they can interact with. You’re more likely to think about a room full of skeletons if you can look at their pockets even if they’re empty. It’s possibly a difference between the mediums of video games and tabletop. Like for example the yellow paint video game design philosophy can’t exactly be replicated 1:1 on Tabletop. It’d have to be a DM specific quirk and not a tabletop design philosophy.
20:13 Cool thing with Devil's Sight is it includes *magical* darkness so the Darkness spell you could be inside it and be unaffected by being blinded, which also includes Hunger of Hadar not as useful though since you're a backline caster instead of melee. Also it gives Orrik darkvision which the rest of his current party have but he doesn't, now in game it really doesn't matter it's easy to see what's going on the screen and you have easy access to torches and light spells. I can't remember off the top of my head if Fiendish Vigor stacks with other forms of temp HP but I think it doesn't. Edit: Yep it doesn't instead of stacking with the previous three temp HP it replaces it.
Yeah, temp-HP get a little weird. Main reason I've avoided picking up Armor of Agathis is because it gets really weird interacting with other sources of temp-HP. The big pro for going Fiendish Vigor is that, although it cycles less frequently than the headband, it provides a deeper reserve and frees up the head slot for other potential items. But I can definitely see the appeal for going Darkvision instead.
The gloves and knife are a must from the quartermaster. The longsword is also one of the only other finesse longswords in the game so it might come in handy for SH. Bear in mind you are most likely headed towards a conflict with the Gith... and traders occasionally drop loot for free (not the gloves though).
Oh, shoot, I didn't even notice the longsword was listed as a finesse weapon instead of a standard Strength-based. Though, sadly, SH isn't proficient with Martial. With traders, my understanding (as of maybe a patch ago) is that vendors you kill drop the three most valuable items in their inventory at time of death.
@@RetconRaider merchants drop their 3 most expensive items from the buying window, but there is a trick I will write in a separate comment. Or I can write it here as well if you prefer.
@@RetconRaider Oh cool I didn't realise it was the top 3 items by value. That would explain why I haven't got the gloves the last couple of times - I only got the high end items back I had previously sold the quartermaster.
Hey Retcon, not sure if you know this, but if the PC has level up and others don't you can go to camp and dismiss them, then bring them back into party and they get your xp. I assume that is as Larian intended, I don't think its an exploit. The xp bonus from inspiration can be a little annoying otherwise.
Good to know, though I'm also hesitant to ever pull my party out of a location entirely during any event or quest that might be time sensitive. (Not that it made a difference in this case, but it's always a general concern given the weird way some events work.)
"That wouldn't turn out the way you seem to think it would" This is often a problem I have in many of these sort of games. I know me and my crew, and sometimes just me, can kill everyone in this base without much effort. The threat that these hyper competent ultra brutal killers is supposed to have is just nothing to me. So when they start trying to intimidate me I'm more likely to just take the nuclear option on them.
I don't mind more nuance with the Githyanki even if it might contradict their established lore. 5E in general has taken more effort to have races that were previously thought of as evil not be and even before 5E you'd occasionally get a character that went against the grain like the super popular Drizzt or Deekin from NWN.
The funny thing in both those cases being that Drizzt and Deekin basically inspiring numerous copycat characters in the years after. So less outliers, and more trendsetters. :)
I used the Knife of the Undermountain King on my Great Old One Sorlock in Honor mode to great effect. You can stack a bunch of crit reduction items + Spell Sniper and get down to like 16-20 crit range with max Charisma. TONS of crits that you can pair with Reverb gear to knock dorks on their butts and then make them incapable of standing back up on top of TONS of damage. It's super fun.
I hope you enjoy BG3. I personally couldn't get into it. There's a lot of novelty at first, but after a while, it plays like divinity original sin 2 with a watered down paint job of 5th edition. The constant toggling through characters becomes exhausting. Perhaps i was spoiled with Pathfinder, which offers more on every level. Have fun!
Nothing wrong with that. BG3 is definitely a pretty polarizing game when it comes to CRPGs. Some people love Larian's style, others not so much. I'm generally on the fence myself overall, but try to focus on the elements I do particularly enjoy such as the exploration and puzzle-like bits of lore.
@RetconRaider I agree with you there. I love Larian Studios' writing. Combat is fun as well with how interactive the environment is. But much like DOS2, a lot of it can be resolved with an explosive barrel. It was somewhat funny how npcs are suspicious of anyone sneaking around, but strategically placing explosive barrels in the epicenter of people doesn't raise any concern.
13:09 Its a shame Paladins don't have any reactivity with a specific god. There's multiple references to Paladins serving specific gods like Clerics in the game and in the greater lore yet that is unavailable to the player, should've been an optional option.
Early dev chatter did seem to indicate they intended for there to be at least some unique content for worshippers of each deity, but I'm guessing it ultimately fell by the wayside. The setting has a pretty goofy number of gods. :P
As for the skeletons not being highlighted (highlit?), its even worse than that. There are unique pieces of magic items in unlit skeletons. 1 near the Risen Road in act 1, and one 1 the spider cave in act 1. I think there may be a mod that highlights everything, but I dont know how nice it plays with exsisting save files. Still, might spare your sanity.
As RR correctly noted, the description of Gith in the game does not match the visual narrative. The description says that this is a totalitarian society of disciplined, cruel fanatics who are ready to sacrifice everything to destroy the illithids. Visually, we see a gang of aliens wearing the most varied hairstyles, tattoos, drinking alcohol, and engaging in useless sadism. It turns out that they are not much different from goblins, they seem to be also villains but a little less idiotic. This dissonance takes a toll on immersion. Regarding the strange balance of spells, I thought for a long time why, over more than several decades of the existence of DnD, the spells were never balanced in an ideal way, namely, they were not all situational, to one degree or another. As a result, we have super-useful spells that are applicable in more than 90% of situations and a bunch of rarely used or downright weak spells. In my opinion the answer is simple. DnD game designers just needed to create a visible difference between strong and weak spells.They simply treat their customers as not very smart people. A D&D player, examining the game balance, quickly finds the most powerful spells and uses them in more than 90% of situations. He is very glad that he found such powerful spells on his own and now he is an experienced player who plays DnD very well.He was a noob who didn’t know how to play, now he’s an experienced player (the scheme is the same as with raising character levels, but more secretive). The game designers simply threw in a bunch of garbage and powerful spells initially so that he could come to this conclusion. Nothing personal, just business. :D And I completely agree with RR, it would be better if the Larians didn’t make every skeleton or vase lootable. This is simply a blatant form of stretching out the game's time, which is already found in all modern AAA titles. :(((( The situation is complicated by the system of random loot in some containers, with some luck, you can actually get some good items from random, high-level containers, this forces you to rummage through everything. Nothing personal, just business. :((((
Re Beguiling Influence: Did the BG3 developers not include the default 5E rule where if you gain proficiency in a skill you already have it in, you can pick another skill instead?
I'll have to double-check it, but as I recall they just got kind of weird in general when it comes to a lot of the abilities that are supposed to grant spells or proficiencies. But it's possible things changed over the past couple of big patches.
The guy at 13 minutes suffered a massive sanity break. Goth yanki society is pretty decadent and wasteful outside of their military efforts. Being aggressive, xenophobic, and to a certain extent self centered are virtues for gith yanki. In one of xanthars guides I think, piles of refuse and trash from thrown away novelties are described as being a common feature for any Raider household.
@@RetconRaider Patience. You're thorough enough that you should find how the Lance is activated. Also thorough enough that you should be able to avoid the TPK that can result. :)
55:12 "So who am I to turn down that kind of gith hospitality?"
You know what they say, "Never look a gith horse in the mouth.".
I do find it a bit funny Orrik won't dig up a grave, but is perfectly content to walk up to multiple humanoid skeletons, grab the most pristine and finest looking single bone, and pocket it.
But just a single femur or humerus, not the whole skeleton.
And sometimes entire ribcages and skulls too, but only cus those ones arnt associated with complete skeletal remains.
Well sure, he's operating under standard Raise Dead principles. It doesn't count as desecrating a body if there's less than 50% of it left! :D
Oh, there is a trick I found, in case you find a merchant that you consider unaliving in the future.
Give the merchant an empty container. Sell, barter, doesnt matter, you have a billion boxes.
Once the merchant has it, go to the barter window, and drag the empty container to their side of the barter. From there, you can open the container, and put everything from their stock into it. The value of the things in the container will add up. You can then close the barter window.
Normally, when you kill a merchant, it only drops its standard NPC loot, and the 3 most expensive things from its stock as a merchant. I find that immersion breaking, so I do not consider this method of getting their entire stock neither a bug, nor exploit or cheating.
Sometimes, ribcages have loot in them.
The reason freedom of movement doesn't need concentration is in the name: it's free.
After lae zel commented on the bedding.
Retcon: lar zel prefers things hard. ....... I expected him to follow up with "inappropriate"
Lazel had died from a bug in my game, so I just went in swinging at the creche. It's cool to see the diplomatic route.
You must be a professional announcer or reader. Your delivery is second to none! I really enjoy your style!
So Gith and imperium sending souls to their ruler's :)
With the gloves of dexterity you can visit Withers and retrain to dump dex completely. A bit cheesy, but can get you a lot of stats.
2:01 I have no evidence to support this but vibes but I feel like people are more cognizant about “scenery” they can interact with. You’re more likely to think about a room full of skeletons if you can look at their pockets even if they’re empty. It’s possibly a difference between the mediums of video games and tabletop.
Like for example the yellow paint video game design philosophy can’t exactly be replicated 1:1 on Tabletop. It’d have to be a DM specific quirk and not a tabletop design philosophy.
I'm just glad you didn't creche and burn
20:13 Cool thing with Devil's Sight is it includes *magical* darkness so the Darkness spell you could be inside it and be unaffected by being blinded, which also includes Hunger of Hadar not as useful though since you're a backline caster instead of melee. Also it gives Orrik darkvision which the rest of his current party have but he doesn't, now in game it really doesn't matter it's easy to see what's going on the screen and you have easy access to torches and light spells.
I can't remember off the top of my head if Fiendish Vigor stacks with other forms of temp HP but I think it doesn't. Edit: Yep it doesn't instead of stacking with the previous three temp HP it replaces it.
Yeah, temp-HP get a little weird. Main reason I've avoided picking up Armor of Agathis is because it gets really weird interacting with other sources of temp-HP.
The big pro for going Fiendish Vigor is that, although it cycles less frequently than the headband, it provides a deeper reserve and frees up the head slot for other potential items.
But I can definitely see the appeal for going Darkvision instead.
The gloves and knife are a must from the quartermaster. The longsword is also one of the only other finesse longswords in the game so it might come in handy for SH.
Bear in mind you are most likely headed towards a conflict with the Gith... and traders occasionally drop loot for free (not the gloves though).
Oh, shoot, I didn't even notice the longsword was listed as a finesse weapon instead of a standard Strength-based. Though, sadly, SH isn't proficient with Martial.
With traders, my understanding (as of maybe a patch ago) is that vendors you kill drop the three most valuable items in their inventory at time of death.
@@RetconRaider merchants drop their 3 most expensive items from the buying window, but there is a trick I will write in a separate comment. Or I can write it here as well if you prefer.
@@RetconRaider Oh cool I didn't realise it was the top 3 items by value. That would explain why I haven't got the gloves the last couple of times - I only got the high end items back I had previously sold the quartermaster.
Hey Retcon, not sure if you know this, but if the PC has level up and others don't you can go to camp and dismiss them, then bring them back into party and they get your xp. I assume that is as Larian intended, I don't think its an exploit. The xp bonus from inspiration can be a little annoying otherwise.
Good to know, though I'm also hesitant to ever pull my party out of a location entirely during any event or quest that might be time sensitive.
(Not that it made a difference in this case, but it's always a general concern given the weird way some events work.)
"That wouldn't turn out the way you seem to think it would"
This is often a problem I have in many of these sort of games. I know me and my crew, and sometimes just me, can kill everyone in this base without much effort. The threat that these hyper competent ultra brutal killers is supposed to have is just nothing to me. So when they start trying to intimidate me I'm more likely to just take the nuclear option on them.
Aria in Mass Effect hit me with this the hardest. "Don't fuck with Aria." lol, yeah ok.
That's why my Durge runs always end up a festival of murder-hoboery.
I don't mind more nuance with the Githyanki even if it might contradict their established lore. 5E in general has taken more effort to have races that were previously thought of as evil not be and even before 5E you'd occasionally get a character that went against the grain like the super popular Drizzt or Deekin from NWN.
The funny thing in both those cases being that Drizzt and Deekin basically inspiring numerous copycat characters in the years after. So less outliers, and more trendsetters. :)
I used the Knife of the Undermountain King on my Great Old One Sorlock in Honor mode to great effect. You can stack a bunch of crit reduction items + Spell Sniper and get down to like 16-20 crit range with max Charisma. TONS of crits that you can pair with Reverb gear to knock dorks on their butts and then make them incapable of standing back up on top of TONS of damage. It's super fun.
Oh, wow, it didn't even occur to me that the dagger's crit effect might apply to non-dagger attacks.
I hope you enjoy BG3. I personally couldn't get into it. There's a lot of novelty at first, but after a while, it plays like divinity original sin 2 with a watered down paint job of 5th edition. The constant toggling through characters becomes exhausting. Perhaps i was spoiled with Pathfinder, which offers more on every level. Have fun!
Nothing wrong with that. BG3 is definitely a pretty polarizing game when it comes to CRPGs. Some people love Larian's style, others not so much.
I'm generally on the fence myself overall, but try to focus on the elements I do particularly enjoy such as the exploration and puzzle-like bits of lore.
@RetconRaider I agree with you there. I love Larian Studios' writing. Combat is fun as well with how interactive the environment is. But much like DOS2, a lot of it can be resolved with an explosive barrel. It was somewhat funny how npcs are suspicious of anyone sneaking around, but strategically placing explosive barrels in the epicenter of people doesn't raise any concern.
Karlach is a devil-tiefling. Not a demon-tiefling.
13:09 Its a shame Paladins don't have any reactivity with a specific god. There's multiple references to Paladins serving specific gods like Clerics in the game and in the greater lore yet that is unavailable to the player, should've been an optional option.
Early dev chatter did seem to indicate they intended for there to be at least some unique content for worshippers of each deity, but I'm guessing it ultimately fell by the wayside.
The setting has a pretty goofy number of gods. :P
As for the skeletons not being highlighted (highlit?), its even worse than that. There are unique pieces of magic items in unlit skeletons. 1 near the Risen Road in act 1, and one 1 the spider cave in act 1.
I think there may be a mod that highlights everything, but I dont know how nice it plays with exsisting save files. Still, might spare your sanity.
As RR correctly noted, the description of Gith in the game does not match the visual narrative. The description says that this is a totalitarian society of disciplined, cruel fanatics who are ready to sacrifice everything to destroy the illithids. Visually, we see a gang of aliens wearing the most varied hairstyles, tattoos, drinking alcohol, and engaging in useless sadism. It turns out that they are not much different from goblins, they seem to be also villains but a little less idiotic. This dissonance takes a toll on immersion.
Regarding the strange balance of spells, I thought for a long time why, over more than several decades of the existence of DnD, the spells were never balanced in an ideal way, namely, they were not all situational, to one degree or another. As a result, we have super-useful spells that are applicable in more than 90% of situations and a bunch of rarely used or downright weak spells.
In my opinion the answer is simple. DnD game designers just needed to create a visible difference between strong and weak spells.They simply treat their customers as not very smart people. A D&D player, examining the game balance, quickly finds the most powerful spells and uses them in more than 90% of situations. He is very glad that he found such powerful spells on his own and now he is an experienced player who plays DnD very well.He was a noob who didn’t know how to play, now he’s an experienced player (the scheme is the same as with raising character levels, but more secretive). The game designers simply threw in a bunch of garbage and powerful spells initially so that he could come to this conclusion.
Nothing personal, just business. :D
And I completely agree with RR, it would be better if the Larians didn’t make every skeleton or vase lootable. This is simply a blatant form of stretching out the game's time, which is already found in all modern AAA titles. :((((
The situation is complicated by the system of random loot in some containers, with some luck, you can actually get some good items from random, high-level containers, this forces you to rummage through everything.
Nothing personal, just business. :((((
Re Beguiling Influence: Did the BG3 developers not include the default 5E rule where if you gain proficiency in a skill you already have it in, you can pick another skill instead?
I'll have to double-check it, but as I recall they just got kind of weird in general when it comes to a lot of the abilities that are supposed to grant spells or proficiencies.
But it's possible things changed over the past couple of big patches.
The guy at 13 minutes suffered a massive sanity break. Goth yanki society is pretty decadent and wasteful outside of their military efforts. Being aggressive, xenophobic, and to a certain extent self centered are virtues for gith yanki.
In one of xanthars guides I think, piles of refuse and trash from thrown away novelties are described as being a common feature for any Raider household.
Could it be that the Lance can only be activated at dawn?
Possibly, though I don't think we have the ability to actually control what time of day it is.
@@RetconRaider Patience. You're thorough enough that you should find how the Lance is activated. Also thorough enough that you should be able to avoid the TPK that can result. :)
this section feels completely unfinished...
the placeholder books, looping dialogue, etc...