The 5 WORST TOOLTIPS in Baldur's Gate 3 - And What They Actually Do

Sometimes the game lies - it helps to know what actually happens!
The 5 worst tooltips in baldur's Gate 3 are misleading, confusing, or outright wrong. Let's figure out the truth!
0:00 Intro
1:58 Gloomstalker Ranger
3:50 Staff of Arcane Blessing
7:26 Heavily Obscured / Darkness / Fog Cloud
14:16 Confusion / Destructive Wrath
20:43 Tiger Heart Barbarian
25:29 Counterspell

[@gregoberski5897]

Thank you for diving into Fog Cloud vs Darkness a little bit. Basically there is a complex interaction between these two spells, various Darkvisions, and the Hide mechanic. I would love to see an even more granular breakdown. This is an area of the game that I continue to be confused with lol. There is a ton of misinformation online based on older patches and assumed mechanics and DND editions. So if I understand, - both Fog Cloud and Darkness create a zone which is completely *unlit* and Blinds creatures within. -this means only creatures with Darkvision can see into these zones, provided they are within range of their type of Darkvision (normal vs Superior) - Hiding in these zones against enemies without Darkvision does not trigger Stealth checks, because the enemies vision cones do not penetrate the zone and so act as though they are facing away from you - Attacking non-DV enemies from these zones gives you the "Attacking from shadows" buff which gives Advantage on attack rolls - Attacking DV enemies from these zones while outside their Darkvision radius gives "Attacking from shadows" - Even though Darkness is Magical, enemies with regular Darkvision will force you to make stealth checks if you are within their Darkvision range (??? seriously ???) - Darkness blocks *Line of Sight*, meaning enemies cannot shoot into or out of it (unless they have Devil's Sight). - Fog Cloud does *not* block Line of Sight; you can shoot into it and out of it (but Devil's Sight *does not work* with Fog Cloud when *INSIDE* it; you will be Blinded) The best shorthand I've seen for how to use these spells is that Fog Cloud is best used offensively against enemies by casting it on them, as an AOE Blind. Darkness is best used defensively by Devil's Sight Warlocks, who receive no debuffs from it but get Attack from Shadows.

[@Cephalopocalypse]

Yep exactly. And just to add onto that: - enemies with normal darkvision still prevent the "Attacking from Shadows" buff even if you're attacking from magical darkness (provided you're in range of their darkvision) - some enemies have Secret Unlisted Darkvision (seen here with Mizora) - this darkvision is 60ft range, and can exist ALONGSIDE normal 40ft darkvision, so even if you're out of range of the darkvision the game says they have, some enemies will still be able to see you. I don't know if the full list of creatures with this ability is available anywhere - the wiki is usually good for this kind of thing but doesn't list it for Mizora. I pinned this comment because it's a really useful summary!

[@Garresh1]

@@Cephalopocalypse Honestly, this video helped so much, but also solidified my view that Fog Cloud is one of the worst spells in BG3 and the most nerfed spell from tabletop. As a big Druid fan no spell gave me such a headache trying to make sense of it as Fog Cloud. Plus it completely ignores the Z axis in a game with lots of verticality, although a LOT of AoE spells suffer from that...

[@lenam317]

Thank for the fog cloud/darkness thing. Larian did both spell dirty and especially darkness when normal darkvision can seen throught it.

[@Garresh1]

@lenam317 Yeah it's atrocious how Fog especially is handled. At least Darkness blocks projectiles but that's completely idiotic even if it's at least useful.

[@doloresabernathy9809]

hi Ceph Thanks for this! you used the term “attacking from (with) shadows buff” which is not a term i’ve found in the wiki or elsewhere online. I assume you mean the mechanic that if you attack an enemy while they cannot see you then you get advantage as if you are Hiding or Invisible. So far as I can tell there is nothing in writing about that buff. Is there something in game about that? Or am i missing something online?

[@michaelnadler596]

The tooltip in dialogue for Detect Thoughts shows the effect of your Wisdom Modifier... it uses Intelligence.

[@paragonca9736]

This one has caught me out a number of times bc I just never remember

[@Cephalopocalypse]

I forgot about this one! Yep that's one of the real bad ones

[@temperspace]

And its a concentration spell (so it will cancel hex, hunters mark, etc) BUT wont proc the strange conduit ring which would give you extra psyche dmg when concentrating

[@apostatecactus5355]

​@@temperspace I'm pretty sure it does... At least the amulet version. I often used an amulet that casts detect thoughts, equip the conduit ring, then remove the amulet. Even when it's removed, the concentration stays, and I get the extra psychic damage. I can't speak for the spell version as I've never used it, especially since the amulet gives it for free, anyone can use it, and you don't even need to keep it on.

[@temperspace]

@@apostatecactus5355 oh interesting, ill have to try that

[@jomalii679]

I think it's fitting that confusion is one of the most confusing spells in the game

[@DarkHentaiDragon]

Came here to say this. Confusion is actually meta. It confuses the player in real time. It's actually the best coded ability in the game

[@GayLPer]

@@DarkHentaiDragon Now I'm picturing a player's character getting hit with Confusion and the player keeps hitting Space for no reason to skip their turn, or mis-clicking off into random directions, or the colors of allies and enemies keeps swapping.

[@shinkamui]

tav casts confusion the player fails the save

[@Zero_Zone.]

I felt so betrayed when the Staff of Arcane Blessing wasn't working like the tooltip described it.

[@adelaideharper9201]

Right? The description makes it out to be the best staff in the game and it wouldn't even be close...

[@CMiY0]

@@adelaideharper9201 I think save dc staves are better overall unless you’re looking for a support/bless build. I can’t see anything coming close to touching Markoheshkir but that’s like act 3 lower city so you won’t have it for most of a playthrough.

[@adelaideharper9201]

@@CMiY0 That's true, honestly. If you are optimizing for spellcasting nothing beats the best +DC gear and a free spell too? So good. :)

[@CMiY0]

@@adelaideharper9201 tell me about it if you pick the electric variant of Kereskas you get: a free level 6 spell every short rest AND a level 3 spell that can both target multiple enemies. Prof bonus+dmg on electric spells. 2 lightning charges per spell dmg and resistance… This isn’t even including arcane battery and the +1 to spell dc+atk roll. No idea what they were thinking with that staff.

[@Cephalopocalypse]

Yeah, no kidding (though that was coupled with a little relief that they hadn't completely botched game balance that badly) I think if it was working as the tooltip said it actually *would* be better than Markoheshkir - not to have equipped as an endgame item, but in terms of expected win% double bless for part of act 1 and all of act 2 seems more likely to make the difference for your run than the endgame power of extra chain lightnings.

[@ranmashiah1999]

Shoutout for Arcane Charge tooltip. It says that the user needs to be threatened but its actually the enemy that needs to be threatened for it to work.

[@retu999]

Most spells that say "creatures" I avoided on my first playthough, because I thought they hit everyone. I was mad when I learned some spells with this tooltip actually only hit enemies...

[@Quandry1]

If you go by the table top game that BG3 is based upon and which the tooltip is written straight from. it will hit everyone, your party included. so the issue is entirely from how they did things in BG3. So I can understand your frustration. your thinking is not incorrect and you had no reason to think that BG3 would be different.

[@retu999]

Yeah, exactly. I started playing D&D a bit over a year ago and I had studied the players handbook and it's wording pretty extensively for my tabletop sessions even before buying BG3. I knew some spells would be different from tabletop, but I assumed at least the wording would be changed, if the spell is different :D

[@DannyDog27]

Yeah that really messed me up for a bit when my Open Hand Monk got access to Ki Resonation. The Ki Resonation Blast tooltip says it just hits all creatures in range, which it doesn’t - it only hits enemies, and on top of that it neglects to tell you that it deals extra damage to other Ki-resonated enemies (although it is somewhat implied by the wording)

[@bingonight1504]

Yeah so many things are written inconsistently, you have to keep a textbook in your brain of what actions ACTUALLY do in BG3

[@lexistential]

it's also worth noting that evocation wizards (like Gale by default) have an ability that allows them to shape evocation AoE spells around allies, excluding them. This is true even in tabletop. so even in cases where it should hit them, it's still possible to avoid it

[@RoseLawliet]

>when the game lies to you >picture of one of the few people who doesn't lie to you

[@Cephalopocalypse]

Haha, true!

[@sunny3545]

When the thumbnail lies you on a video about lying 😔

[@bingonight1504]

the narrator lied about him being handsome

[@TheProblem2025]

@@bingonight1504right he doesn’t even have tentacles :s

[@doloresabernathy9809]

One advantage of Staff of Arcane Blessing is that the Bless and Mystra's Blessing condition remain even after the staff is unequipped. And the Mystra's Blessing condition does not require concentration, so even if you lose concentration on the Bless you will keep the Mystra's Blessing.

[@LittleDanny9899]

and i mean that to be fair is another thing where it acts different then it says it says Bless gets the bony so if bless drops the effect of mystras blessing should also drop (no matter if its equiped or not)

[@slaminjaminotter7286]

God the darkness thing irritates me so much. WHY CAN ENEMIES SEE THROUGH THE DARKNESS SPELL WITH REGULAR DARKVISION??? THAT DEFEATS THE WHOLE POINT!!!

[@Cephalopocalypse]

It took me so long to realize this was what was happening because I genuinely just couldn't believe it

[@LB-yg2br]

@@Cephalopocalypsehave you submitted a big report to Larian? Edit: bug report

[@gownerjones]

​@@LB-yg2br the biggest no doubt

[@LB-yg2br]

@@gownerjones thank you. Edited.

[@gownerjones]

@@LB-yg2br Hahah I was just poking fun, not trying to be pedantic :)

[@geftsu]

Confused makes affected creatures roll a d20 flat check (no modifiers) against a static DC of 11 every turn. If they fail that roll, they get the confused stupor, which is pretty much a stun. If they succeed, then the cryptic AiArchetypeOverride(madness,99) effect happens. Source: game files

[@CMiY0]

That’s a pretty clever way to code it to save time not gonna lie. Sadly madness is a shitty debuff so I’d hate having it 50% of the time.

[@Cephalopocalypse]

Interesting! It's funny that they went with "roll a save against a fixed DC" for that and wild magic rather than some other way of implementing random chance My experience is that enemies act normally and just attack my party *way* more than 1/5 of the time, which is what you'd expect from the tabletop rules, so my suspicion is that function is broken in some way (that we of course can't see)

[@meekrab9027]

@@Cephalopocalypse @geftsu The Madness archetype is defined in a file called, sensibly enough, madness.txt. It basically instructs the victim to value damaging/healing/debuffing enemies allies self and neutrals (yellow border) equally, and some thing like never pick up items, not prioritize killing a target, not care about AOEs or hit chance, and not care about breaking concentration. The only thing is does prioritize is to attack targets the creature can see. Since *most* enemies in the game are basically melee damage sponges the result is usually they'll just attack whatever's closest to them.

[@mitnehmerrippe]

Yeah, the tooltips that refer to “creatures” when they mean “enemies and neutral parties” have been my personal enemy ever since I started playing the game.

[@falsetitle6940]

It seems to me that the staff and darkness spell are not working as intended as opposed to them having misleading tooltips.

[@davwalsr]

My biggest gripe with a tooltip is the Goading attack one, especially if it’s used against me. I’m pretty sure the goading attack does basically exactly what it does in 5e, which is cause the affected entity to have disadvantage on any attack roll that isn’t the goading attacker. But in Baldur’s gate, it mind controls your party members, making them do the most insane things sometimes when it’s their turn. One time, my goaded Ranger decided on his turn to stop concentrating on Hunter’s Mark, throw an acid vial, and then pull out a circle of death scroll on a single Bhaal cultist. Goading attack is the single most broken ability in the game imo.

[@markopusic8258]

The one kind of tooltip I absolutely despise is the special effects attached to certain items like Arcane Synergy, Heat... because the item descriptions don't explain what those effects do half the time.

[@tropicalturtlez6988]

Noo I love those, if you press T over the effect it tells u what the effect does

[@frog1405]

​@tropicalturtlez6988 my favorite is when you have to press T on like, 3 or 4 effects in a row to figure out what it actually does

[@DaggerPrince]

@@tropicalturtlez6988 i use controller so. dont know if theres even anything i can do to see it.

[@tropicalturtlez6988]

@@DaggerPrince I don’t use a controller so I’m not sure, but I think hitting down on the D pad while hovering over what you want to inspect should work

[@DannyDog27]

@@DaggerPrince On PS5 you can press the touch pad to show item/spell tooltips. On Xbox I assume it’s the View button (left of the home button)

[@e.s.r5809]

The damage range in the tooltip on any weapon with conditional/elemental extra damage includes that conditional damage. Many seemingly OP weapons aren't as powerful as they look, except against specific enemies.

[@kingofgrim4761]

My first playthrough using the exterminator Axe for most of Act 1 and 2 lmfao

[@sephikong8323]

Best example is the Long Sword you loot from Kar'Niss with it's super specific extra damage (you need to be a Drow using it against an Ensnared enemy) which still shows up on the tooltip Even counting the special action the weapon gives you where it's a very specific combo to set up (for not much of a payoff), like this weapon is only really useful on a Melee Drow Ranger, which is very specific yet the damage shown would have you believe it's much stronger than it actually is

[@linkdude09]

My favorite misleading tooltips are the ones that list a set number without telling you that number is your characters ability modifier. I thought inquistors might from OoV Paladin was a set 3 damage bonus without realizing that 3 was coming from my Paladin's CHA mod.

[@Zafire063]

The improved Mage Hand on Arcane Trickster says it can loot and pick locks. It can't.

[@MW-my4gw]

I swear THAT'S the most frustrating misleading tooltip in this game.

[@JaelinBezel]

@@MW-my4gw For real, the ability to pick someone's pocket from 30 feet away without anyone noticing is practically the whole point of the Arcane Trickster's Mage Hand Legerdomain!

[@santosic]

The darkness thing sounds like a bug tbh. That's why Devil's Sight exists even in this game, doesn't it? For *magical* darkness? Otherwise you can just not blind yourself and get all the benefits and why waste an invocation for it? Darkvision in tabletop only works on normal darkness, and is a reason why Darkness spell is very good to use since Devil's Sight is a rarer ability, and makes taking the invocation an enticing option for certain builds. It should work the same in this game, too, but who knows, maybe they decided to nerf it? Either way the tooltip should be fixed to be more clear.

[@Emnms68]

The one that confuses me most is that see invisibility doesn’t mean you see invisibility? Every time I have a character with it active, things that were already invisible stay that way to them, and creatures that turn invisible disappear just like they normally would. Really the spell seems to do nothing.

[@elha7982]

They need to be in your line of sight I think

[@homebrewedthoughts2033]

The people have a chance to pass a dex save and remain hidden

[@cryamistellimek9184]

Produce Flame from the Asmodeus Tiefling uses wisdom instead of charisma. You can imagine how devastated I was to realize my decent damage cantrip wasn’t even worth it for my bard. Especially with the console UI issues with produce flame.

[@lenam317]

Produce flame should have two versions or if you cast it on enemies you can just by pass the hold one. Flame blade should have two version, one summon the weapon to offhand and one summon the weapon on main hands. Somehow these bugs make me think Larian put a more effort in making cutsence than actually coding the game.

[@johnadamsgaming]

Hey Ceph! Don't forget your favorite tooltip fail that you mention in almost all of your amazing build guides: Longstrider is a Ritual spell 😁

[@samson6121]

I think I speak for all of us when I say that we would devour videos of you doing an honor mode / challenge run of this game

[@scottholmes6080]

One of the biggest things I learned was to check the actual damage calculations in the dialogue box when testing gear effects. Much better than the inventory tooltip. Gloves of archery with hand crossbows drove me nuts for the longest time trying to figure out if it worked or not😂

[@Subarashii_Nem]

Yeah, checking the damage calc really helps! Saved me a lot of time figuring out what to give who rather than "This looks good" without knowing that damage modifiers + effects will change damage from an average of say 16 to 22. Make you gear properly rather than "trickle down" gear by getting what looks the best for one character then giving the second best to the next and so on.. Sometimes the "worse" looking gear actually performs a lot better for your build. It's a mistake I saw my friends do after I realised I should be checking the damage calcs to equip a character which adds such a fun element to the game. Pick up a few pieces of gear, go to long rest then before long resting, gear up with the testing is a nice way to end a game session for me!

[@scottholmes6080]

@@Subarashii_Nem Yeah, honestly if I had to ask for another small feature it would be to enable damage numbers on the target dummies at camp, I remember hitting it the first time to test out my characters magic missile damage with some items just for a bunch of zeros to pop up lol made me feel stupid

[@PunishedRouxpacDiamond-gu4pf]

Sometimes when I get a dialogue dice roll, it says "Wisdom" I go for it as a monk, but then I see it uses Intelligence, which my dumped stat so my dialogue is screwed

[@TheRavenofSin]

I believe the staff of arcane blessings had the effect it states in early access, and they didn't change the tooltip. It wouldn't be the only item.

[@Cephalopocalypse]

Yep, that's right

[@lukatastus99]

Oh my god for months I didn't understand why counterspell seemed to fail at random.......!

[@waterierStone]

The problem with confusion is that if they did use the d10 rules from 5e, then it ends up being a 40% chance that they still attack you if you're nearby. I think on one of the rat hoard fights in the game like under the tavern you could get a large enough sample size to see if it really is a 20% chance for them to attack the nearest creature. You'd be able to hit every single rat, and they would all fail the saving throw, then just count what they all do. I always thought that it was just a 1/4 for them to act as normal, and a 1/4 for everything else too.

[@donatodiniccolodibettobardi842]

It reallt doesn't make sense that any form of Darkvision can pierce through a fog cloud. Darkvision allows you to see in the dark as if it is dimly lit, a fog cloud is just a summon cloud of water particles, that are so dense you can't see through. Same with smoke. Same with any non-transparent object. Darkvision doesn't allow you to see through walls, right? In fact in one of the earlier editions there was a supernatural ability to see through that kind of thing: fog, smoke, etc. Another thing I didn't get is a certain areal spell interactions dispersing the darkness "cloud". Magical darkness is not a gas, not an object, it shouldn't interact with anything other than dispel magic or certain light spells.

[@eduardoserpa1682]

My favorite category of tooltip mistake is modifiers, and there's a wide variety of those everywhere in the game (specially on the level-up screen).

[@Cephalopocalypse]

The paladin aura of protection always saying it gives you a +0 bonus to saving throws is very funny

[@brendonfernandez]

The heavily obscured and darkness stuff is very confusing, and not at all intuitive. Thanks for explaining it so clearly!

[@umm0im0bad0at0names]

I always wondered why AOE melee attacks seemed to deal such high damage, but just reveled in the damage instead of checking why. Great information!

[@andyl7677]

The ideas for videos you come up with are amazing. You're creating content I didn't even know I wanted!

[@danileros3563]

There is literally no "magical darkness" in BG3 at all. Devs simply forget about Devil's Sight "magical darkness" aspect and implemented ONLY normal darkness. When they released that creatures inside a Darkness area shouldn't be able to shot until they have a Devil's Sight, they simply added a Blind effect to the Darkness and also have made Devil's Sight owners simply immune to that Blindness and to "not shot inside" restrictions. If you have a ring that grants Blindness immunity, you still can shot from inside a Darkness area even without Devil's Sight. It means, mage can equip this ring, cast a Darkness on himself and he would be immune to ranged attack from anyone but DS owner. And he would be harder to hit in a melee attack by anyone who have no DV. Truly great protection spell

[@Taybean]

I think another issue is with Lore Bards, I have only ever played D&D twice, many years ago and Baldur's Gate 3 is my first proper look into D&D and D&D type games, I love it and have put 750hrs into it but have never used Lore Bards as Cutting Words never seemed interesting, and that is only because the tooltip on leveling up just says "Use your wit to distract a creature and sap its confidence" which doesn't explain what it actually does in terms of the game and being helpful

[@GayLPer]

It rolls your bardic inspiration die, and it *reduces* the enemy's attack roll, ability check (i.e. Shove), or saving throw by that much. I think the description actually does include the following: "It receives a -1d6 penalty to Attack roll, Ability check, or Saving throw. "

[@LB-yg2br]

The game will prompt you when to use cutting words. Instead of buffing an ally, you subtract from an enemy’s roll. So like, if someone attacks karlach and they need a 15 and rolled a 16, you can use cutting words to subtract a d6 from the roll, possibly making them miss.

[@Taybean]

​@@LB-yg2br Thanks, any build video I have seen use Lore Bard never explain what it does just to take it and the level up tooltip as I put, is not very helpful so thanks for letting me know. Might have to try a Lore Bard now, never was interested before.

[@daemosblack]

if you came to this game looking for an accurate representation of how the tabletop game works - dont. the game is very VERY far off the mark with several base line mechanics - including how stealth checks work, how detecting traps works, etc.

[@Taybean]

@@daemosblack I think you may have misunderstood what I was saying. I'm not looking for an accurate game, I also wouldn't know if it was or not. Just saying this is my first DnD type or inspired (whatever you want to call it) game, and my comment was more to do with the lack of the game explaining Cutting Words. 👍

[@Viper3220]

10:20 lol They coded darkvision to let you see through smoke/fog? lol wow

[@mojosjojo2951]

Im pretty sure confusion does not work like in the ttrpg. After about two dozen casts, Ive determined that it actually rolls the dice to determine an action, then ignores the dice roll and does whatever is the least useful to you as the player, most often resulting in critical hits on your creatures.

[@rafaelhaag7263]

There's a spell (fright i think) that says "can't aproach the source and attack with disavantage". When you hit a enemy whit it, this is pretty much what happens, but when you are hit by it, you lose control of the character. >:|

[@Theonetruefinalboss]

This is why I don't use Confusion despite some folks swearing by it. I don't think it's ever done anything noticeable any time I've used it.

[@GayLPer]

I used it once, in the Knights of the Shield Hideout. It actually worked out pretty well, helped lock down one side while I dealt with the enemies on the other side.

[@WhiteIceHawk]

Throwing a weapon does not trigger the on hit effect. I wanted to have a sussur dagger ranged silence and it does not work...

[@ianwinter514]

why doesn't Jaheira have darkvision? the confusion spell is written that way to confuse you, just as it is meant to be

[@Cephalopocalypse]

Woops, Jaheira of course does have darkvision, I was just outside her 40ft range when demonstrating. My bad!

[@DarthCalliope]

This was incredibly well done! I love understanding how things work and this just made things so much easier for me. Thanks a bunch!

[@noamto]

Still not sure I understand the difference between Darkness and Fog Cloud. So the differences are that Fog Cloud blinds everyone in it, and also impedes movement, and Darkness only blinds those without magical darkvision, and doesn't impede movement? Or does Darkness also makes it easier for you to stealth, or you count as stealthed when attacking even if you're not?

[@lcf152]

Abilities that let you see in magical darkness let you make ranged attacks out of magical darkness

[@matthewbutner8696]

I too am now confused on what the difference between the two is.

[@manglemonster]

The key difference between darkness and fog cloud is that ranged attacks / effects (including non-attack spells) CANNOT target inside of a darkness spell AT ALL, whereas fog cloud simply imposes disadvantage on ranged attacks via heavily obscured. As demonstrated in the video, the two otherwise behave similarly wrt stealth, vision, and bonuses applied when attacking out of these effects.

[@e.s.r5809]

​@@manglemonster Thank you for clearing that up, I've wondered about that for ages lol. Strangely though... I've never had enemies fire into either a fog or darkness cloud. Their AI doesn't seem to let them. I wonder if that's a bug.

[@peterhstadt1081]

Very interesting! I didn't even read most tooltips that thoroughly... Talking about "Blinded" and "Darkness". The tooltip says that ranged attacks/spells have a reduced range of 10ft/3m, but that's just the circle shown when you're are trying to use such an ability. I was not yet able to execute a ranged spell/attack when "Blinded" within "Darkness". It always says "Path is interrupted!".

[@kingofgrim4761]

They have to be basically in melee range to use the spell. Found this out with the blind gondian, since he can only misty step/use spells as far as the circle is

[@peterhstadt1081]

@@kingofgrim4761 I think I did. When I re-tested, before making my comment, I was able to "Cure Wounds" but not cast "Healing Word".

[@kingofgrim4761]

@@peterhstadt1081 hmm, interesting. Maybe it is just completely bugged out then

[@erin1569]

Multiclassing spellcasters is a headache. Last time I checked, the tooltip said that all spells are cast with the modifier of the first class you picked. In the combat log it shows correctly that it uses the modifier of the class that gave you the spell. Also, having the section for all class spells called "Bard" when multiclassing is weird.

[@BingBangPoe]

I hope Larian sees this video and fixes it in a future patch. Great compilation!

[@Cephalopocalypse]

Thanks! Hopefully - I've reported these as bugs previously also, so that may help as well

[@sunbleachedangel]

My favourite is the variation if Misty Step that lists a WIS save for some reason, also some Misty Steps can be Twin Cast for no benefit whatsoever

[@daemosblack]

as a veteran DM of the Table top game... the fog cloud issue is even more annoying. as that functionality is completely incorrect from the viewpoint of the table top game... Darkvision shouldn't effect it at all. to quote the rules from the books "Darkne⁠ss creates a heavily obscured area. Characters face dar⁠kness outdoors at night (even most moonlit nights), within the confines of an unlit dungeon or a subterranean vault, or in an area of magical darkne⁠ss." "Dim light, also called shadows, creates a lightly obscured area." "Within a specified range, a creature with darkvi⁠sion can see in dim light as if it were bright light and in darkness as if it were dim light, so areas of darkness are only lightly obscured as far as that creature is concerned." "You create a 20-foot-radius sphere of fog centered on a point within range. The sph⁠ere spreads around corners, and its area is heavily obscured. It lasts for the duration or until a wind of moderate or greater speed (at least 10 miles per hour) disperses it." Fog Cloud's Heavy obscurement is not a darkness effect, it does not effect the light level of the area at all, and thus Darkvision should not have any effect on a creature's ability to see you within it. further, darkvision does not "see through" heavy obscurement, it reduces darkness to dim light in a radius, EFFECTIVELY seeing through the heavy obscurement of darkness by making it the light obscurement of dim light. but if an effect generate heavy obscurement by some other means, darkvision should have no effect on it

[@chowder130]

What the heck were they doing at Larian that day?

[@grantjohnson5499]

Vid is so kid friendly a Peppa pig episode came up as an ad

[@mateuszstacewicz6522]

So you're telling me that confusion has... confusing description?

[@headhunter4208]

Man I love your work. Those Guides are extremely accurate and I learn many new things about this game.

[@clutchedbyanangel]

The ACTUAL worst tooltip in the game is the accuracy prediction for spells that force saving throws. For example, if a cleric prepares to cast Sacred Flame, the tooltip and hit chance prediction will calculate using Dexterity as the *casting ability*, when the actual casting ability is of course Wisdom. Actually casting the spell will hit normally, as shown in the combat log, but the prediction will always be incorrect. This is consistent for every spell with a saving throw, the prediction will treat the save ability as the casting ability, for the prediction only.

[@acrab6527]

Tiger's Bloodlust is also not limited to three targets. There's a dozen build videos of people healing to full with the gnoll mace using that. The hard part is getting more than 3 guys in range at the same time.

[@Viper3220]

Void Bulb: "My time has finally come"

[@acornheart465]

Wait it’s not limited to 3???? I just never had enough people in range to know that but I love tiger’s bloodlust lol

[@Synthia17]

A little off topic but that demonstration of dread ambusher makes me want some kind of quest that involves everyone in your party, even as npc's with the builds you've made for them. Final stretch from upper city right up to the brain would be something fun!

[@Washburne21]

As a player, one of the things I wish was better explained in tooltips is how different effects that raise ability scores interact. I had a character that by my count, should have had a Wisdom of at least 21 and possibly as much as 23 but instead had 19. Very confusing.

[@joerundell8197]

Thanks again for all your hard work. Always look forward to your next video.

[@Cephalopocalypse]

Thanks very much!

[@CMiY0]

Aw I was hoping to see the messed up save dc tooltips very briefly touched on here with counterspell. It’s so annoying that spells that target a specific saving throw will show the spell save dc for that particular attribute, which is wrong. Like for instance if I’m running a Sorcerer my spell dc will calculate with CHA but for some reason when I check the save dc for hypnotic pattern it isn’t giving me an accurate save dc because it’ll show what my dc would be if I was using WIS. Whereas banishment will show an accurate save dc because it is targeting CHA saves. This honestly really messed up my perception of what attributes I should be putting points into in a bunch of my runs because I always thought that it’d be beneficial to bump up WIS higher than I would otherwise just to eek out an extra +1 to the save DC. Also I hate confusion. It’s recommended by a lot of people on threads and online as being a top tier control spell and while it’s certainly not bad I think it’s vastly outclassed by hypnotic pattern (specially when casted with careful metamagic) and slow. Both those spells use up a lower level slot and give you useful debuffs and you know what will happen. Confusion honestly feels like the enemies act normally a solid 65% of the time. Hypnotic pattern has always been the best value control spell so comparing it to confusion may not be fair but slow is so underrated in BG3. Slow works on almost everything, has a targeting mechanic up to 6 which ensures you won’t debuff your teammates and has like 6 different debuffs which are very useful when they all effect the same enemies together.

[@EpifanesEuergetes]

Finally some Slow love! All the content creators just dismiss it and it always makes me doubt their other assessments. What's not to love about a bunch of debuffs that stack with disadvantage?

[@CMiY0]

@@EpifanesEuergetes yep which is why I didn’t use it for the longest time. However after a bunch of play throughs I finally learned how useful it is lol. Imo the top 5 control spells are: 1.) Hypnotic Pattern 2.) Command 3.) Slow 4.) Banishment 5.) Hold Monster The list takes into consideration the value from the spell slot used etc. This isn’t including area changing effects like Hunger of Hadar or Spike Growth.

[@kingofgrim4761]

@@EpifanesEuergetestrue, the only caveat is most other spells at the same level can completely end turns rather than severely limit turns. I like to use slow since it’s so much more specific, but a lot of the time I don’t have it in my arsenal because I’d rather use Command, fear, pattern, or just kill the enemies. It’s amazing against serevok and co though

[@CMiY0]

@@kingofgrim4761 agreed Slow isn’t nearly as much of a lockdown as all the other spells you mentioned but I think it makes up for it with the ability to target 6 people specifically and ability to affect most enemies. I wanna try Fear more but honestly I hate the thought of having enemies near my caster (Fear is probably top tier choice for something like a Paladin though).

[@kingofgrim4761]

@@CMiY0 is slow an illusion spell? I don’t know off the top of my head but if it isn’t then it’s also losing bc it can’t be paired with Band of Mystic Scoundrel

[@just8354]

Something I noticed in the German translation, Saving throws (saves) are translated as Spielstand (save slot as in game save) which always confused me and a couple of my friends

[@ZZxxInTeRvEnTiOnXXzz]

So if im a sorcerer using Counterspell with my 8 Intelligence I'll get a -1 to the check even with 20 Charisma....

[@scalpingsnake]

I appreciate you ending on praising larian. I always used to say to new players with DOS2 how the game gives you so much information, you can hover over so many effectives, buffs and debuffs to see what they do. Sure some may have fallen through the cracks but overall they have done a great job. Great video dude, keep it up :)

[@fumokaze]

the darkness and fog cloud thing made me realize how deadly a smokebomb assassin type character can be if played properly, might do that sometime (even though I'm a heavy armor knight kinda guy)

[@user-xr6cs6xb8m]

I believe the problem with the Staff of Arcane Blessing isn't related to the staff and its description itself The spell Bless, as well as tons of other spells, was constructed in such a way that it's impossible to stack them, meaning you can't Bless someone, heal them with The Whispering Promise equipped, and enjoy a double blessing That's why the fact that the staff creates two different blessings is extremely important. The normal blessing acts as a base that has its effects overwritten by the Mystra's Blessing, and it serves two purposes. First of all, it's to prevent one of the other party members from applying a basic Bless on top of Mystra's Blessing, which would result in +2d4 to ARs and STs and +3d4 to spell ARs, which would have been too much. On the other hand, it prevents Mystra's Blessing from being overwritten itself, so if someone else blesses you again, it updates the remaining time of the normal blessing, but doesn't remove the +2d4 spell ARs effect Even though the wording is still unquestionably poor, and it should be said that it doesn't add to the blessing, but changes its effects, it has to be executed in this roundabout way to work properly and prevent exploits And they can't make the effect of the normal blessing invisible in the effects tab because of the ability to reapply the basic blessing anyway, and then it would be weird for it to appear out of nowhere when Mystra's Blessing ran out, which is a whole other rabbit hole

[@Cephalopocalypse]

Yeah it's fine that they're applied as two different buffs, it's just that the description is so incorrect about what the effects will actually be (it used to be 2d4 2d4 3d4 in beta, but was nerfed - they just forgot to update the tooltip)

[@ElliottDent]

I was so confused when I read the Destructive Wrath tooltip that I never actually cast it on the only character I've ever had learn it. Especially as they were a Phalar Aluve build so usually weren't too far from all of their allies, I didn't fancy blowing up all my allies 😂

[@serenadotbat]

Honestly the tooltip I've found the most annoying is Eyebite. All it says is it allows you to cast Eyebite, but when you hover over Eyebite it just says the same EXACT thing. Can just loop opening tool tips with it and never get an explanation of what the spell actually does.

[@0042dt]

Ceph, you’re a big brain genius. Love this topic!

[@ahulse78]

Did you see the video about Rat Bat? It adds 1d8 piercing, but its not in the tool tip.

[@burritogod59]

You cant hit your allies with confusion but I certainly hit myself with it after reading that tool tip

[@tohafi]

I always thought the Bless staff was mandatory, because it is sooo OP 😓and was quite annoyed that one char would always have their concentration slot taken for the entire game... My support char can now finally use other spells! Yay 🥳 I spent hundreds of hours with a nerfed party...Yay 🤬

[@minervaafernik9601]

Also, another niche fact about Dread Ambusher from Gloomstalker. If you, by any chance, happen to attack something which doesn't have a health bar (example, you missclick and hit the floor) the attack resets and you can make it again, it isn't wasted

[@Viper3220]

Aka the checking for invisible creatures exploit

[@iagomarques5998]

I'm just commenting for the algorithm and to ask something Can you make a thematic build for Minthara (dual wielding with paladin levels)? I tried to create one by my own and i'm struggling a lot lol

[@stevenape377]

Excellent video, thanks! I feel that the technical part of the tooltip text should have been auto-generated from the actual game data that describes the ability/weapon/whatever, so that this kind of thing is impossible. Maybe there is a technical reason why that wasn't possible, but... I can't really see why if this had been an integral part of the game design from the start.

[@user-xr6cs6xb8m]

Also, a minor thing, you can cast Darkness on top of a Fog Cloud, merging them together, so they fog turns into darkness, and what's stranger, you cancel both spells by ending your concentration, but the person who created the Fog Cloud will continue to concentrate on the spell that has no effect You could probably do the same thing in the opposite order, turning Darkness to Fog and cancelling your opponent's spell and letting them continue concentrating on a useless spell

[@razxephon4873]

i was so mad that i skipped out on using Destructive Wave for almost the whole run. only worked out how it works when i cast it on an ally by accident

[@Dan-px8gk]

Here is a detailed breakdown of how Confusion (and all crowd control spells) works: All targeted enemies will succeed on their saving throws even though your save DC is 20. Should one of them somehow fail this initial save (I have heard rumors of this occurring but never witnessed it myself), the enemy then immediately gets to make the save again on the start of their turn, ending the effect. In theory, should you be the luckiest person in the universe, it is conceptually possible that they will fail both of these saving throws. If this is the case, the enemy then proceeds to act normally anyways because screw you. Note that, on Tactician and Honor difficulties, enemies who fail this saving throw twice (a one in a trillion chance), then simply decide to succeed on it instead. As such, the most accurate tooltip for the Confusion spell would read: "Expend a 4th level spell slot to skip your action this turn."

[@Tentacl]

Oh cmon, saw this video and now I feel like playing AGAIN. I was waiting for the mod support to do so xD

[@ProxyGateTactician]

I find it funny I had no idea some of these are wrong because I just played and observed them rather than read them even once 😂 Good list thanks for sharing.

[@Cephalopocalypse]

Thanks very much! I really enjoy your work by the way - and your posts on the newtubers subreddit were extremely helpful when I was starting this channel back up!

[@HereAndThere-o4j]

Gloomstalker is also the closest you can get to god levels of saves like blackguatds used to have in 3.5. Iron Mind gives you proficiency in int and wisdom, ranger dex and strength. Resilient charisma self explanatory, and then transmuter's stone constitution. Coupled with halfling wearing the fey semblance amulet (gnome cunning basically), and saving throw bonus stacking you get a chsracter that can pass any saving throw repeatedly.

[@ch1r0n]

Dunno if it would count, but you cant have guardian spirits active and cast Sanctuary. It ends the spirits but doesnt give a notice that it will end it.

[@BraghDaMan]

The legendary rapier called "Duelist's Prerogative," I think it is, is another that needs covered. The tool tip for its extra bonus action attack is a straight-up lie. Nothing in it anywhere states that you can't use said attack while using a shield, and yet it turns off anyway when using a shield. This is especially annoying when you consider the duelling fighting style has the same wording and does work when using a shield. For that matter, the duelling fighting style also allows a versatile weapon to be used with a shield and still work, despite the description stating that it excludes the versatile keyword.

[@orpheusofthrace2304]

Hello, you've mentioned that there was a bug with Counterspell not using your caster's spellcasting ability at around 26:36 , using instead only INT no matter their last chosen class. Is this still in the current build?

[@violetembers330]

They haven’t done an update on the game in a few months. I’d assume since this video isn’t that old that this issue still occurs. Here’s to hoping they fix it in September!

[@PatrickStahlitrm]

The Bless from the Staff of Arcane Blessing doesn’t just allow any character to cast Bless? Isn’t that how several of the magic weapons work?

[@EmperorZ19]

On the subject of Mystra's Blessing, does it apply to all blesses cast by the wielder, or just to the one granted by the staff?

[@Cephalopocalypse]

All of them!

[@violetembers330]

Where does the Staff of Arcane Blessing come from? It seems vaguely familiar so I must’ve gotten it at some point but don’t remember using it lol

[@elha7982]

It's in the Underdark Mage Tower in the basement

[@Bath0rius]

I think you may have gotten destructive wrath (the subclass abilities for the tempest cleric) mixed-up up with destructive wave (the 5th level spell for tempest and light domain)

[@Elgall42]

Another irritating/confusing tooltip is goading attack against the PC, had it happen to my traction mode, I didn't have disadvantage on my attacks, I couldn't control my characters if they failed the save against the attack. I don't know if this has been covered by you or not. But it annoyed the ever-loving life out of me. Edit: Found more info on it, but its further down a chain of conditions.

[@Cyb3rM1nd]

Staff of Arcane Blessing, you're showing the percentages but that doesn't mean much - what you should do to demonstrate is make attacks and show the Combat Logs - which will see how many d4s are being rolled.

[@paulcoffey1837]

I've played through the game twice and I've never had my camp be inside of an inn(?). How'd you get to do that, and how did I miss it?

[@Cephalopocalypse]

Talk to the innkeeper at the elfsong tavern!

[@redneck1st555]

fog cloud and darkness are two spell where you can be seen as if you are out in the open Example The druid grove when you go to steal the idol. You used to be able to use either one and steal the idol not since Patch 6 came out. Your caught every time.

[@tuberobsessor]

It's not really a bad tooltip problem, but you're also unable to use the Great Weapon Master feat along with the Polearm Master feat. The "blunt end" attack doesn't get the -5 to hit for +10 damage, even though RAW, it's possible in the tabletop version.

[@sabrinatk3353]

I have a druid that uses wisdom to cast spells. When doing conversations checks, and I wanted to use detect thoughts options, they marked my wisdom modifier as an addition to my rolls. When I selected the option, it changed to an intelligence check, using my intelligence modifier which is not the same. This had me thinking why this happened and I still can't figure out why. I don't have any magical objects that cast it. I think the spell comes from the circle of the spores subclass of druid, but if that were the case the modifier should still be wisdom. Help please

[@yo_greasy6745]

Your illithid powers let u use detect thoughts naturally. The DC change, however, I have no idea how to explain

[@NoForksGiven]

Amazing how much the Placebo Effect applies to games. Video games are so massive in size and code that I doubt any ability ever does what it says. This is especially true in Borderlands 2, a game from 10 years ago. If games were struggling to work properly then, imagine a modern release like BG3

[@lolmanmagee2785]

imo the only thing here thats actually a issue is staff of arcane blessing. that description is egregious and miss leading, where as the others are either self correcting given time or a minor math error. also, old counter spell also was obviously bad from how you described it, but that musta been REALLY old because when i played my first campaign a few months back it was not a thing.

[@skysamurai4649]

So, basically, the only target the confusion works on perfectly, is the player😂 I was so confused with this spell, as I remember precisely how it works in Pathfinder and when Dror Ragzlin failed his save, I was expecting that he will either attack the nearest creature (goblins) or do nothing, but instead, he just walked to hit Astarion. In PF there is also 25% chamce that the creature will act normally though, but BG3 is really poor at telling the player which effect this spell has.

[@Raganui]

The +2 on Tiger attack thing, is well, Rage. Raging gives a flat 'here's a small bonus to damage'

[@Cephalopocalypse]

Yeah, I realize that later in the video (and how that tooltip is also wrong)

[@steveharrison76]

I feel like the “heavily obscured” thing is just bad punctuation. If you remove the full stop, it makes sense.

[@commotus8319]

Surprised the concentrated blast illithid power wasn't included, says 3d6 does 30 max damage lol

[@Zoltria]

I think confusion tool tip dont matter too much since its pretty easy to figure out by trying to use the spell

[@sunbleachedangel]

The staff seems more bugged than misleading tbh

[@kittydaddy2023]

Gale casts Jump Are you sure Confusion doesn't target allies?

[@OniGanon]

Wait, so... is standing in Darkness pointless against enemies with Darkvision? They can see through magical darkness just fine, no Devil's Sight needed?

[@obee08]

I'm not sure if Devil's Sight is even properly working at the moment. I had a recent scenario happen where Wyll (with Devil's sight) was in range but could not target an enemy in a small cloud of darkness. This was in the House of Grief, where those little darkness patches appear on death, so maybe they function differently? But that also seems like a bug then, because why would those patches work any different? It's weird lol

[@johnadamsgaming]

I'm interested in this, too. My 2nd run, my Sorlock would stand in Darkness, picking off enemies and was untargetable (Tactician). However, my last run (Honour Mode) my Lockadin would stand in Darkness and nearly all ranged attackers could attack into Darkness. This made no sense to me. I (assumed) it was an Honour Mode rule.

[@1stimemoments996]

So I don't have to up cast counter spell or I do have to up cast counter spell

[@Cephalopocalypse]

You want to counter a spell using a slot of equal level or higher than the spell you're trying to counter. That counters it 100% - so if you want to counter a Wall of Fire, use a level 4 slot. If you use a lower level slot, there's still a chance of countering it based on the check, but it's inconsistent so it's better to always try to use the right spell slot and make it a guarantee.

[@1stimemoments996]

Thanks

[@DragonologyStudent]

​@@Cephalopocalypse you also better check if your opponent had upcast their spell by seeing if there is an upwards arrow next to their spell. If they upcast, better use the highest slot you got, because annoyingly the game doesn't tell you how much they upcast their spell