Meeting the Emperor Baldur's Gate 3, Nine Hells Challenge

[@davidkouvchinov7871]

Aw, sad, was hoping for an hour long episode haha. Great run, super fun to watch.

[@Melth]

Thank you, I'm glad you like it! Generally, I find that longer videos become a lot harder for me to make and edit. Plus youtube says most people tend to only watch half an hour anyway when I have a longer one, so I've been tending toward the 30-40 minute range.

[@MSlocum669]

@@Melth Smart! Follow the metrics.

[@unwise6518]

still think you're underrating how good monks are in a playthrough that actually uses rests. the combination of more attacks than any other class, huge static modifiers on each attack, and an at will stun ability makes them an absolute wrecking ball.

[@MrBlitzballer]

I agree as soon as you hit level 4 monks are basically all gas no brakes and the only thing that can really compete with them for damage in act 1 and 2 is the archer build Astarion is making use of here. Karlach monk is especially noteworthy because she does an extra 2d4 fire damage on each of her unarmed attacks while she has a soul coin. Only real cons they have is being melee so you have to deal with the anti-melee mechanics and needing to be in range of your targets, needing to use a strength elixir instead of a bloodlust (unless you want to run club of hill giant in off hand) and a general lack of equipment that increases your damage until you get to act 3.

[@Melth]

Having used it a few times because it's fun, I disagree pretty firmly. Monk is easy to make decently powerful, but it has a low skill ceiling. The big advantage it has is just that it achieves 95% accuracy more easily than other classes. Drink elixir, take Tavern Brawler, done. But I think I demonstrated in this playthrough that with decent tactics, you can quickly get to 95% accuracy on any class. There are tons of accuracy boosters available in the early game! People just forget to actually use them. Being melee is a horrible drawback. A monk can be a mediocre thrower when it can't reach an enemy, but that's not good. Needing Tavern Brawler to function is bad because that makes your initiative bad for way too long. Especially because there are tons of initiative boosting items that you're just not allowed to wear or wield! Tons of items that are *supposed* to work for monks like the Corellon's Grace staff backfire and make you worse because they prevent you from using your unarmed strikes properly. Which really cripples your ability to use stat stick weapons. It has trash AC, which is really bad on a melee class. And it's horribly dependent on a huge number of stats. To function you need Str AND Dex AND Wis and to survive as a melee guy with bad AC you need some Con too. You can replace Str with an elixir, but then you lose out on your bloodlust action, which is bad on honour and absolutely unacceptable on tactician or below. Also, it doesn't really get more attacks than other classes if you're willing to use resources and rest, because multiple other classes get strong abilities to do tons of attacks every short rest.

[@MrBlitzballer]

@@Melth Don't forget about the utility of throw and shove it is extremely easy to get use out of in this game and if you already know what enemies drop loot worth caring about it can be very cathartic to just throw/shove loads of enemies into the abyss for insta kills. Also for honor mode the monk's ability to knock prone and stun enemies somewhat reliably is very valuable against bosses as they won't be able to use those legendary actions if you manage to inflict either of those conditions. Also keep in mind that we are still building a party here it isn't necessarily a solo run. Yes the archer build will always do more damage but it does really want to have a lot of items on it so the use of a monk that pretty much just needs gloves and an elixir is great for act 1 and most of act 2 even if you ignore that they will likely be doing the second most damage in your group. While being melee obviously brings with it limitations that ranged doesn't have those problems can often be mitigated through manipulation of the battlefield before hand. A big place where experience and knowledge of the game plays a big role is using things like minor illusion to move enemies closer or into better positions. (love getting enemies close to a ledge for a full round of throwing and shoving) Needing tavern brawler costing you the alert feat does suck but can be mitigated through stealth and surprise rounds which can be reliably created with shovel using a vigilance elixir and ideally some minor illusion grouping. Also utilizing gear with initiative boosts such as Bow of Awareness and Hide Armor+2 in act 1 and Soulbreaker Greatsword and Graceful Cloth in act 2 are more than enough to consistently beat enemies that don't have Alert. Gear is simultaneously a strength and weakness of the monk because they aren't competing with your other characters for gear but in act 2 especially they have very few items that provide them tangible benefit. AC really isn't a topic worth discussing if you are aiming to kill everything in a single round but even then their ac isn't noticeably bad in my experience act 1 I would use the Hide Armor+2 for the Initiative boost and the Ring of Protection which puts you at 17. Since you are already wearing armor you can also slap on a shield and even warding bond if you want to use camp casters and you'll be sitting at 20. Sure you will be missing out on your unarmored movement but with Crusher's Ring and Haste Helm you'll be fine. Dependant on a huge number of stats is a bit hyperbolic. They need 3 stats instead of the 2 that most other classes need and the elixir handles that. Yes not having the extra bloodlust action sucks but having a consistent +10 to hit and damage (+16 from level 7 onwards) as well as shove/throw utility while not competing with other party members for gear and/or consumables softens the blow considerably. While they will never be as strong as the archer builds because they just are absurd with so many items practically tailored to them and arrow of many targets making light of almost any group fights the monk makes for a fantastic second damage dealer as long as you can position them well and start fights on your terms instead of walking into every encounter blind.

[@lukesandadordoceu4835]

The monks have evasion, I think that’s why that lightning bolt in the beginning didn’t hurt the githyanki

[@Melth]

True!

[@dennislogan9821]

Wake up babe, new Melth video!

[@Melth]

I'm glad you like them!

[@DiabeticNecromancer]

Hmmm turn into a level 12 illithid or continue on to become a level 20 adventurer / god...

[@thomasrosendahl2783]

Only with mods, can you get to level 20. It makes multiclassing more interesting, but also the games becomes too easy without the Tactician enhanced mod.

[@Melth]

@@DiabeticNecromancer tough choice, tough choice! Of course, in the old days a mindflayer could also be a playable adventurer and have class levels and so forth. Indeed the 3.5 rules even encouraged that, stating that mind flayers regularly form parties of illithids with different roles and classes to go learn things or accomplish missions

[@Melth]

@@thomasrosendahl2783 that's true, but what I *think* the other commenter meant was that mindflayers in this edition (and this game) are a fairly mediocre creature and can't grow and become as powerful as we're going to if we kept adventuring after this. So the emperor telling us that we have to become mindflayers to win sounds silly when mindflayers are weak compared to us

[@DiabeticNecromancer]

@@Melth Didn't know about them being actual playable characters in ye olde days

[@MSlocum669]

Forgive me Mr Melth, I have had 2 beers and I am feeling compelled to rant about the removal of alignment in D&D. I miss the days of casting detect evil and being completely morally justified in killing or destroying anything that radiates evil. What brought this on? There is no way any of the players I came up with would tolerate an aliance with a mindflair for an instant. Emps would have died during the reveil. I would have detected undead and evil when I met Astarian. He never would have made it off of the beach! Someone in the party would have passed a religion check and shadowheart never would have made it off of the beach either! I have moral ambiguity in my real life with real people. I just want to be the good guy In my games and I feel like things are moving towards the bad guys just being misunderstood good guys. I hope this was at leat mildly entertaining to read. /endrant. Thanks for another banger video.

[@Melth]

I'm glad you like the video! I also wish alignment was still properly in the game instead of being... sorta half there but not properly implemented. They weren't brave enough to just throw it out because 5E tries way too hard to be fanservicey and traditional. However, I tend to run and enjoy games where morality remains complex even in the presence of an alignment system. Games where the party and the players have to grapple with and argue about doing the right thing vs the profitable thing, or other such dilemmas.

[@cannyvalley8522]

I've got used to seeing my tav's disfugured face eventually. It was funny no one in the city paid any attention to it. Only Astarion trash talked me for being ugly.

[@Melth]

@@cannyvalley8522 the walking corpse is one to talk!

[@atlas3104]

Ah yes, ''Evasion'' The Battle lmao

[@Melth]

Yeah! I suppose this is the first time we fought a ton of monk like enemies, and is pretty much the last time

[@Rontti_]

I'm loving the editing on these newer episodes, and I see you're doing a lot more now compared to vids in act 2! Did you get more motivated to do it or is there just more reason for it now? I'm genuinely interested because I do editing as well

[@Melth]

Hm, I'm not immediately sure what you mean. I think I've always had more or less editing per video depending on the needs of that particular video. Some of my most editing intensive videos are from years ago, or from act 1 of this game. Did you have some examples?

[@Rontti_]

@@Melthwell I started watching only at the start of act 2 (unfortunately) so I don’t know much of act 1. But I mean like general fast-forwarding, adding notes, the elevator music which I saw many others comment on as well. To me it seemed like you’ve been doing it a lot more recently. Or perhaps I’ve just started noticing it, hard to say 😂 but either way I respect the effort and consistency you have for the series!

[@Melth]

@@Rontti_ ah, I see! Well joke edits like the elevator music pop up wherever I think of a joke. I wouldn't say those are more common recently. Fast forwarding is definitely more common here toward the end of act 2. But that's partly because I now have hordes of summons in most fights which I want to skim over, and also partly because I've already walked through a lot of places and don't need to repeat showing them

[@cannyvalley8522]

So, Gortash sent the Emperor to retrieve the Astral Prism and Emperor "was the first to find it". Was it before or after Viconia sent her sharran strike team to retrieve the Prism? I'm confused about the timeline

[@benji2495]

Before, because the emperor was already in the prism by the time shadowheart got ahold of it

[@Melth]

It's confusing and honestly there are timeline problems and hard to explain things with either interpretation

[@timkvernen4852]

I'm not sure if it pains you to read it, but you absolutely get increased watch time from me as I wait for you to shout-out 'Micc n' Balls'. :D