Multi-Levelup Marketing: Baldur's Gate 3, the Nine Hells Challenge

[@revisitedgrunt3706]

Just wanted to say that I'm really enjoying this series. Thanks.

[@Melth]

Thank you, I appreciate that!

[@hi2u670]

"you hid the fact that you're a walking WMD from us? that's fine buddy, but you still can't join the party because you've committed the one unforgivable sin - you're a human in baldur's gate 3."

[@Melth]

At least he's not a dragonborn. I killed the last one of *that* terrible race that tried to hang out with us as an example to the others.

[@RebelsAreWe]

I genuinely hope to see a non-restricted honor mode playthrough from you after this. The idea of seeing you play unchained feels incredible. You do so much with so little.

[@thelioness3956]

Agreed. He has so much knowledge around DnD, I’d love to see him roleplay according to the motivations of a character he creates

[@Melth]

An interesting idea! These restrictions, though, are partly to make things fun for me. WIthout them, I find the game too easy and I start to just play sloppily and brute force things. I might do a different honor mode run after this with perhaps different restrictions or some mods or something though

[@unwise6518]

@@Melth if you have the patience for the setup, there are some fun difficulty mods out there. My friends and I are using Tactician Plus for our playthrough, which gives us control over the precise boosts enemies get over normal mode. We have the health boost for tactician/honour set to 4x normal mode (as opposed to the usual 1.2-1.5x).

[@Melth]

@@unwise6518 hm, maybe! Hit point sponge enemies aren't always much fun or very interesting to watch me fight against though I certainly think the slooooow combat against enemies taking 1/4 damage was one reason my Skyrim legendary difficulty series was my least successful 😅 One thing I really like about honor mode is that the main difficulty changes are giving enemies new abilities which can be strategized around. THAT's the kind of difficulty I like best!

[@nevrast-1]

@@Melth while I agree that hit sponges aren't fun the idea that enemies will make a turn for once is fun though, gives them a chance to kill you :D Love the playthrough and I hope you will finish it

[@murderycatdoll1380]

"The Shopping Mol" 😅😂 BADUMS xD

[@Melth]

Now I just need to remember I've already used that pun and not repeat it 50 episodes later in act 3 or something!

[@wekashipo7507]

I'm actually a big fan of the fact that you don't cut out "boring" parts like shopping. For a run like this where every seemingly small decision can make a big difference down the line, it's nice to know the strategic rationale behind said decisions. I do somewhat question dropping Hunter's Mark, but I'd have to see the math on how much damage it does over the course of a combat compared to an offhand crossbow shot (on average).

[@Melth]

Thanks for the feedback about the shopping! I'm not surprised there are different opinions about it, with some people wanting me to cut it out entirely. I do feel that it's an important piece of strategy, so I've tried to trim down to just the parts of shopping that matter, but not skip those. As for Hunter's Mark, I'm happy to discuss that. The trouble with it really is that it's very inflexible, and it only starts to add good damage if you make numerous attacks against a single target But in the entire run so far, perhaps no enemy except the spider matriarch has required enough hits for that to be viable. As my damage per shot improves, Hunter's Mark gets worse and worse (but it does get better as my number of shots increases) My offhand crossbow shot currently does about 1d6 +1 (magic) +10 (sharpshoot) + 2 (acid) +2 (gloves) = 18.5 damage. Hunter's Mark does 3.5 damage per hit, meaning I would need SIX shots against a single target for it to catch up! There are almost no enemies in the whole game that can even survive that many shots considering that my main hand and my gloomstalker shot do more than my offhand anyway. Even if an enemy could survive that many hits from just Astarion alone, it's worth bearing in mind that the rest of the party will probably be joining in on killing that big target before he can reap much benefit. As a last point, I think it's worth considering that Bloodlust Elixirs give me a huge reward for spreading my damage out a little and killing multiple targets, rather than just chipping down one target but not killing it

[@wekashipo7507]

@@Melth That makes a lot of sense. I guess Hunter's Mark would only really be good (for Astarion) against a boss, and even then, it only gets better the longer the combat goes on (which you'd prefer to avoid in this run).

[@Melth]

@@wekashipo7507 that's a good summary, yeah. Now there ARE a few exceptions. One is that there's a hat in act 3 that gives you some accuracy boosts if you hunter's mark the target. That of course makes the spell a lot better, but it's deep in act 3, so the game is almost over. (And even then, there are better hats available). Another is that there are some items which grant you a bonus as long as you are concentrating on something. Hunter's Mark qualifies and you could just cast hunter's mark at the start of the day, concentrate on it all day without actually applying it to anyone, and reap the benefits that way. This CAN work! But you'd probably be better off concentrating on an all day spell that actually does something like Protection From Good and Evil (great in act 2 where 90% of enemies are undead!) or Shield of Faith

[@MortalCosta]

I am always awe struck at your game knowledge, I very much brute forced my way through tactician, and act 3 I would get stuck on fights for days. My builds were awful, equipment and all could have been better, but that was the point of going in blind. Super excited to start my honor mode run, but I will be resting lol

[@Melth]

Thanks! Nice job getting through tactician, rests or not. I hope some of these tips help with honor difficulty

[@unwise6518]

I like the new title! Hopefully will play better with the youtube algorithm

[@Melth]

Hopefully! I'll be trying a few other changes over the next few episodes too

[@jayrobitaille2402]

38:00 Just some trivia: apparently Gygax/Arneson got the idea of magic having to be used within limitations from the fantasy/sci-fi writings of Jack Vance. Jack Vance died in his late 90s about 10 years ago, just to give you an idea of how old this writer and his books are. The funny thing about Gygax is he liked every fantasy IP except LOTR, when for most normies it is the reverse.

[@Melth]

Yes, Jack Vance also inspired a fantasy/horror children's writer I liked a lot as a kid named John Bellairs. Vance's system that a wizard has to have prepared a specific spell is also sooooort of similar to a lot of influential sword and sorcery stories like many of the Conan ones. Most wizard villains in those have vague powers, but always seem to need to have prepared specific magical items or components in order to do one specific magical effect one time I myself would say I dislike LotR the books, though I've read them many times. But the film adaptations are great in my opinion

[@Ed.07]

Man, I sure love these videos! Keep it up! This is a nice way to start a Sunday afternoon, haha.

[@Melth]

Glad to hear it!

[@GeneralAllenby4Aqaba]

“Shopping Mol” …I see what you did there!

[@LOSTINTHESMOG]

hey melth. i just wanted to drop a comment and appreciate this series. its one of the only long form series ive stuck with for such a long time and i usually watch each episode the day it comes out! Your expertise and passion for this style of game is great, youre very knowledgeable about it both mechanically and lore-wise. its nice to just see someone demonstrate something they're very skilled at, with some solid editing to boot. Keep up the great work, i hope the algorithm blesses your channel with many more subscribers

[@Melth]

Thank you very much! I'm always happy to hear from people who enjoy my videos. I make them to share my enthusiasm for these games, and strategy in general, afterall!

[@darthimperious1594]

I do like how you've made every character into a very useful member of your team, though I'm not sure I could do it, at least on a roleplay run. I mean, Lae'zel with high intelligence? Inconceivable...

[@Noctua07]

This was a treat. Just got to watch a bunch of new episodes of this in a row since I was offline for around 4 weeks. :D Still just amazing watching you play through this.

[@Melth]

Thank you! I'm glad you're enjoying the series. I've been trying to work on new episodes in batches, so in a way that's sort of a similar experience as I record several in a row, watch them and take notes on info to add/correct in a row, etc.

[@Noctua07]

@@Melth Definitely enjoying it. Cannot play myself for a while now since I'll be traveling for a longer time. So this keeps mit in touch with BG3 :D And I can fantasize about what to play when I'm back.

[@Greatmaw-72]

Thanks for upload looking forward to next 😊

[@Melth]

Glad to hear it!

[@TYR1139]

It still feels weird seeing a new video more often than once or twice a year

[@Melth]

Now now, haven't I been sticking consistently with a weekly schedule for a couple years running? Admittedly being TWICE a week is unusual for me and the last time I did that was with the early AW2 campaign.

[@MrBlitzballer]

If you want to clean up merchant's inventories in the future you can just toggle between barter and trade window and it will clean it for you. Also a slightly unrelated note but I remember seeing you do it in past videos, when trying to swap to another party member after casting a spell there is a delay when trying to click their portrait but using the F1-F4 keys will select them without the delay. (Useful if you ever need to get a couple of short duration buffs up relatively quickly.)

[@Melth]

Both good tips! I'll give those a try sometime

[@ВладиславБулаев-л3э]

Finally, Bhaalista level up time! Been waiting for this for quite some time, and so have you, I am sure. Love this series. I, on the other hand, am going to start my second playthrough (this very moment) to catch up with content I have missed and earn some trophies 😄 Oh, and I am also going for (in other words, wooing) Lae boing Zel this time around, so wish me luck 😉 P.S. I'll probably spend hours in character creation with all that knowledge I've obtained since release date 😂

[@Melth]

Have fun! This run will be my second playthrough of act 2 and 3 when I get there, though I've certainly done most of act 1 a few times before In truth, I think the initial character creation and then the first few hours of getting the party together and unlocking the ability to respec and customize them has become a little frustrating to me, and has made it less fun to start other runs. Everything after that is still great

[@MCN3WB13]

Wanted to mention my own reaction to series with episode numbers on the episode since I noticed some previous commenters on other videos talking about them. This is anecdotal though, and I am not a KZbinr, so don’t put much (if any) weight on my own observations Usually when I see series like “Vaguely interesting subject, part XX”, I go and check two things personally: The series isn’t abandoned: either completed or still being updated. The series doesn’t have missing parts in it, from something like copyright strikes or something. Don’t really like watching series that have missing episodes personally. Afterwards, I usually watch the videos (as best I can) from start to finish. I think this might be visible on your co-op Baldur’s Gate run: since the start and end of the series both have inflated view counts compared to the rest of the series. The end is from people checking that the series had ended as opposed to being abandoned, and the start was from people watching starting from the beginning Because of this, I don’t know if the numbered videos getting less views is because algorithm directs them elsewhere, or if it is from people noticing it’s in a series, and then watching the first video. At least to me it’s possible that some viewers who’re interested in the series and see it in their recommendations are just watching the first video instead of watching the portion of the series that is first shown to them, and perhaps losing interest before they reach the middle or end bits (like from finding the series has a poor start or having their own interest change by then). It’s possible the algorithm has picked up on this sort of thing and perhaps the optimal way to title your videos is inconsistently: title parts 1, 2, and 3, and afterwards stop titling the video, so it recommends parts 1, 2, and 3 as the beginnings of a series, and doesn’t make you lose algorithm boost because people aren’t likely to watch episode XX for your later videos. Again, not KZbinr, not liable to financial compensation if my completely anecdotal advice taken wholeheartedly brings economic ruin.

[@Melth]

Thank you for your thoughts about that! In this case, because I can see that the 'impressions click through rate' for the recent videos is as high as or higher than those of the early videos, but the impressions count is much lower, it does seem likely to me that KZbin just isn't showing them to as many people.

[@kelllly_]

You might be planning on this already, but I think you will have to do the owlbear fight soon if you want to do it at all. Once you kill the goblin camp leaders and have the party with the tieflings at your camp, the owlbear will turn out to be killed by the goblins and you won't get to fight it.

[@Melth]

Hm, I thought the owl bear only gets killed by the goblins if you rest after going into its cave or maybe sending the cultists into the cave

[@kelllly_]

@@Melth If you haven't gone in the cave, maybe you're good. I had always gone into the cave before the goblin camp.

[@eriiicj.1558]

You probably know this, but Roah also gives a little discount if you visit the Zhents near Waukeen. Idk if it’s only if you visit them before her, though-might be. I also don’t know if it stacks with what you got already but if so, that would be more gold saved, which is everything in honor mode.

[@Melth]

I hadn't actually heard about that. A useful cost saving in theory! I pretty much never have Roah still around by the time I go to the Waukeen Zhentarim. She'll leave here once I kill off the last goblins, and I won't have an in-character reason to go to those Zhentarim for a while.

[@eriiicj.1558]

@@Melth I’ve rushed to the Underdark to get Phalar Aluve in my last few runs, and the Zhent hideout is the easiest way to get there for me. I stumbled upon that little fact randomly because of that. I otherwise would’ve never known about the discount. Larian’s good at sneaking in interactions that make sense in hindsight lol.

[@Melth]

@@eriiicj.1558 yeah, it's a good interaction to have! (And I agree, the Zhentarim hideout is a very good way to safely and easily get to the underdark at a low level)

[@SimonGrandell]

My argument for Titanstring on characters without sharpshooter(most of the time spellshites) Kaarlach 2 Handxbow Main hand attack 3,5 dice + 3dex + 0-1 weapon quality Off hand attack 3,5 Dice + 0-1 Weapon quality crit dmg 7*0,05=0,35 for 10,35-12,35 Depending on hand xbow quality Cost action + bonus action Titanstring + potion of hill/cloud giant strength Main hand attack 4,5 Dice + 3dex + 5/8str + 1weapon quality Crit dmg 4,5*0,05=0,225 For 13,725/16,725 Cost action+Elixir slot So i think the titanstring has more damage than 2 hand xbows on kaarlach. And it frees up her bonus action. It has one downside which is not having access to a bonus action ranged attack when you're using your action for spells.

[@Melth]

I appreciate your thought on this, but I think there are a couple of things you're overlooking. Firstly, the main thing my Karlach does with her main action is not shoot a crossbow but rather to throw a weapon. So that's 3.5 dice for a handaxe + 5 str +0-1 weapon quality, and the accuracy is superior to titanstring or crossbow since it uses Str to hit. Plus also there's sometimes fall damage. And THEN she can fire her offhand crossbow. So that beats the titanstring, while also giving her the flexibility to cast a more important spell while still doing a small amount of damage on turns where that is appropriate. Or starting at level 5 she can do Ray of Frost + an offhand shot for comparable damage plus the utility of a slow effect. Where the TItanstring *really* shines is on someone who uses Bloodlust, Haste, maybe Gloomstalker's bonus attack, maybe Swords Bard slashing flourish, etc. to make a huge number of main hand attacks per round.

[@SimonGrandell]

I forget about throwing weapons. It's not really good in tabletop most of the time. Must incorporate that into my game more.

[@ilkid9373]

Did you not want to give Lazel the intelligence headband? Love the vids btw, look forward to every upload!!

[@Melth]

Glad you're enjoying it so much! I definitely considered giving Lae'Zel the intelligence boost, but I think Karlach needs it more right now. She has a more powerful Int-based spell than Lae'Zel, and also has worse throw attacks (which makes Ray of Frost more attractive for her)

[@thomasbotond2152]

Loving this series and I think the video name change is a good idea! Do you ever plan on revisiting the DS1 series?

[@thomasbotond2152]

Also, I’m a little surprised you let go of hunter’s mark on Astarion. I paired it with a ring that does 1d4 psychic when concentrating (can’t remember the name) and it did wonders, since concentration on HM lasts all day. Paired with caustic band you’re averaging an extra 4.5 damage per attack which is definitely worth considering to me.

[@Melth]

@@thomasbotond2152 I do plan to revisit the dark souls series at some point, whenever I'm in a dark souls mood again. It kind of stopped being fun, but I'm sure that will change someday. All my series take me a long time to make, but I do stick with them even if there are some gaps and hiatuses

[@Melth]

@@thomasbotond2152 as for Hunter's Mark- I agree, later in the game there are certain items that can make it useful. Not to actually cast for damage, just to concentrate on and almost never use. Besides that ring, there's also a hat in act 3 that gives a very nice +1d4 to hit if you do cast hunter's mark on someone. But of course I don't HAVE any of those items now! What I do have is an item that lets me get +1d6 damage per shot if I eat a goodberry or something, so I think goodberry is more useful than hunter's mark for me right now

[@goombots-zb4xe]

Hey melth loving the content, question if it were me I’d grab the higher level scrolls now if I had the money for them that I wanted to buy to learn even if I can’t learn then so I know I have them locked up for later and they are cheaper, don’t remember if you said this but are you not just to save the gold?

[@Melth]

I generally agree- but the high level scrolls available this time were mostly not ones I wanted much. Also, money will be more plentiful in the future and prices will actually be cheaper for me in act 2, so it makes some sense to wait

[@goombots-zb4xe]

@@Melth I see I didn’t think about the counter balance of more money in act 2 swinging that heavy, also tiny request I’ve been meaning to ask for when you put text on the screen can you have last a tiny bit longer I usually watch on mobile or switch and I’m a slow reader

[@Melth]

@@goombots-zb4xe thanks for the feedback about the text! I guess my theory about text has been that if I have it run long, it blocks a big chunk of the screen for every viewer, whether they're interested or not. If I have it last just a short time, the people who want to read these extra details can pause it. Usually the balance I try to strike is to let the text last until it starts blocking something I think people will want to see.

[@bycensus3628]

That merchant never makes it to act three for me.

[@Greatmaw-72]

The halfling ? , spoilers*** She does turn up during the Minsc quest chain , she the one carrying the 15k gold and is meant to take it as a pay off the Zhentarim to kill nine fingers and rest of guild , but I’ve always killed her before she escapes and always sided with nine fingers and her crew rather than the Zhentarim

[@Melth]

Yeah, she just kind of slithers her way through every act, always siding with the cultists and helping them with their various atrocities and schemes. I think she has her peak of usefulness to the player in Act 2, where she sells some genuinely great stuff. I wouldn't blame anyone for killing her off in the attack on Moonrise or something though.

[@FluffiestWalrus]

What was the reason for stealing the idol from Mol? I’ve wondered if the idols (that one, the Selune one from the owl bear cave) do anything

[@Melth]

The Silvanus one in particular grants an aura that gives everyone in it proficiency with Handle Animal and Knowledge Nature. Those are almost worthless skills, but two skills for free is... something. I also want to experiment with whether conferring that aura on someone counts as applying a 'condition' to them, for purpose of some items that grant bonuses when you apply a condition The Selune and Shar ones don't seem to do anything except give you Shadowheart dialogue options I think

[@ShayGamerD3]

None of the backgrounds make sense for lev. 1 companions, not only Gale: Karlach, Zariel's elite soldier, Astarion, 100+ years old vampire spawn, Wyll, aristocrat and warlock since he was a teenager, Shadowheart, trained in temple of Shar for around 40 years, etc. I guess Larian selected these backgrounds to make the game interesting, but they don't make sense in terms of levelling.

[@Melth]

Right. They all have an excuse that they got de-leveled somehow by the parasite, but it's pretty silly. Shadowheart and Lae'Zel might be ok since maybe they only have theoretical knowledge/training and not enough practice to be high level yet. But for the rest they all have epic backgrounds where they should be super high level

[@ShayGamerD3]

@@Melth Also Gale proceeds to restore the crown of Karsus, challenge Mystra, and acquire godhood having only lev. 12 max. . . That must be the lowest level character to acquire godhood in DnD history 😉

[@Melth]

@@ShayGamerD3 true, though (unless I missed something), doesn't he instantly lose and die if he tries to challenge Mystra? He can become a minor god, but he can't beat her or anything as far as I know. He does also have the arbitrary powers of an epic artifact of a human who tried to ascend to godhood as an excuse. Your own level might be mostly irrelevant if you're just casting the spell of a higher level person from a magic item

[@ShayGamerD3]

@@Melth They changed that a bit with the epilogue: generally he loses if he doesn't talk with Mystra in Act 3, and becomes a god if he talks with her (regardless what he says to her). Sorry, if I am spoiling that to you. But yeah, it is still implied he doesn't challenge her directly, nevertheless he still disobeys her and uses the crown against her wishes instead of giving the crown to her. Additionally, he can ascend Tav to godhood too, if Tav is romancing him (no idea how many "charges" of godhood he has, but at least two, for himself and Tav, which is a lot anyway). Cannot imagine Mystra would take lightly a mass production of gods through the crown of Karsus, and while two new gods is not that much, it's still more than in most cases (with an exception of Jergal making Dead Three, I guess). In another scene, as a god Gale is strong enough to dismiss Raphael and his contract with no effort whatsoever (if Tav promised the crown to Raphael). So while Gale might be a minor god, he is still incredibly powerful to overpower Raphael right away (I think either you or somebody else observed that Raphael cannot be a simple cambion, also, he is a son of Mephistopheles, so at least something akin to a demi-god in DnD).

[@Melth]

@@ShayGamerD3 yeah, I've seen some of those epilogue outcomes- I've also seen one though where newly ascended origin-Gale and Mystra are talking, and Gale has the option to try to either challenge her position as god of magic, or become god of ambition. If he tries to beat her, he just loses his godhood and dies and Withers makes fun of him for his stupid choices

[@nepereta3]

How do you ungroup pets ie scratch. I can't seem to stop pets from following their master.

[@Melth]

Between the image of the main character on the left side and the image of the pet is a separator button you can push. This works on all normal pets, but not on a few companions like Sovereign Glut

[@bycensus3628]

I wonder why the took out identify like they had in bg1,2, and nwn.

[@Melth]

Identify basically doesn't exist in 5E. It's technically still around, but it's almost never useful. Most items functionally get identified for free by just resting near them in 5E. Meanwhile casting identify gives you only a tiny bit more information at the (painful in the early game) price of 100 GP. Identify isn't even fast per se. Faster than resting, for sure, but it does still require a whole minute of casting so it's not something you'll want to use in the rare emergency situation where you can't wait till you rest to learn what your treasure does. Since the spell is vestigial in 5E, I'm not surprised they just removed it entirely in BG3. (Not to mention BG3 is full of tons of individually weak but mildly interesting items. Having to cast a spell to identify each weak item would be pretty tedious and costly).

[@ognyannedev5979]

you are going to be lacking salts for your potions

[@Melth]

Could be true; I've certainly noticed in the past that if I only buy good alchemy ingredients then I end up without any useless ones as second ingredients. However, I think I'm more likely to be short on Ashes, because several of my favorite potions/elixirs need ashes as their secondary ingredient

[@ognyannedev5979]

@@Melth I didn't think about the ashes. I just recently had the salts problem with potions of haste (and healing but you don't care about that)

[@Melth]

@@ognyannedev5979 speed potions certainly do take a lot of salts, yeah

[@Greenicegod]

"You are a true friend of Nature! Or perhaps a lunatic..." ¿Por qué no los dos?

[@Melth]

Certainly could be an inclusive Or!

[@paragonvice1128]

I find Gale to be absolutely fascinating. To be honest, I don't think he's actually matured. Sure, he acts like he's been humbled, but almost immediately he gets back on his bullshit so I really do think it's just an act. To be quite frank, Gale is very much a boyfriend that went against his girlfriend's boundaries so, naturally, she dumped him, and he started being all depressed about it, and he's very much at a crossroads -- and whether or not he'll double down on his terrible, entitled behaviour or actually learn and get better is up to us to influence. I don't think he's actually all that good of a person (talking normal standards. The genocidal pirate, the abusive vampire, and the anti-natalist cultist all sort of throw what the perspective of a 'good person' is into skew), but he could become one.

[@paragonvice1128]

Halsin is also one of my favourite companions. While everyone else sort of waffles he does immediately come up with a plan and accompanies you through to it. Not to mention he's just a compassionate, straightforward guy -- a breath of fresh air in a party full of secrets, sociopaths, and manipulators (and it helps that he's a hot bunch of pixels)

[@unwise6518]

I mean, he succeeds the second time around!

[@Melth]

I definitely also like Halsin, for being compassionate and smart/capable in a party without many people matching that description! Although I can understand this perspective on Gale, and I do think he sometimes comes off as a little oily and untrustworthy in how he talks about how he's changed for the better, I think it's a bit too harsh overall. He takes a lot of time and effort to try to prevent innocents from being killed in the case of his death, he's willing to sacrifice his own life to save others on multiple occasions, and he usually has to be talked into bad stuff. He also was in a really unequal and unfair relationship, which doesn't excuse his bad behavior, but makes me look askance at Mystra too. Even outside of this game, she's always been one of the most arrogant and overreaching gods, not so different from Gale. (This is one reason she's died so many times). And in this game she's just *awful*. I'd characterize her contribution to saving the world as less than worthless overall. She demands a stupid plan that will kill not only Gale but the entire rest of the party, won't take the basic minimum of action to prevent her own plan from inadvertently destroying the world if you DO follow it, forbids her ultra high level wizard champion from doing anything useful even though other gods' champions are already involved, and then in act 3 she mostly just tries to wheedle Gale into not becoming a god rather than actually assisting. Mystra prioritized her relationship drama over the fate of the world in this game! (Maybe she's not intentionally written that way, but it sure looks that way to me from a certain point of view)

[@paragonvice1128]

I agree that Mystra and Gale's relationship was so unfair in the balance of power that it was wildly irresponsible for Mystra to have even taken part in the relationship at all. That said, I feel like when you're courting divinity, you can't treat it like a normal relationship. When you are *all* magic, someone constantly asking, pouting, pleading, and trying to offer you gifts in exchange for them being allowed to probe your forbidden domains is... Eesh. I'm not sure being overreaching and overstepping ends up being deserving of that happening in turn. This is something Gale *should* understand and does talk about. His relationship with Mystra, when you can get him to open up about it, was an excessively high-concept thing that even now I struggle to wrap my mind about. The sort of high-concept relationship one can only have with divinity. So he and we both know that this isn't something where "the god is just a person". Gale does need to be convinced to do bad stuff, but the way he needs to be convinced is like... "You won't survive without me." For someone who speaks so much about self-sacrifice to save innocent lives, this *shouldn't* work, but it does. In addition to that, he seems to threaten to blow himself up over some pretty minor shit -- petty things like disagreeing with him, not giving him what he wants, breaking up with him. Yeah, Mystra didn't exactly contribute much to our saving the world. If you make Gale go nuclear in act 3, for some reason it actually works and no one needs to become Illithid, and she'll take him back by the hand -- don't know if I'd call it a good ending or not. That's... It. But that's also something. What did the rest of the pantheon do? Selune sent her daughter and gave a clerical blessing. In some twisted way, Shar was willing to contribute more than Tyr, Helm, Ilmater. If you yourself aren't a cleric of these gods, Loviatar does more for your party than they do with her blessing. I also don't exactly know what to make of Mystra preventing Gale from achieving godhood. I don't think that's actually the good or right thing for Gale to do -- whether or not Mystra has his best interests in mind when she says it, there's that. Everyone who cares about him talks about what an arrogant bastard he's become and mourns who he used to be. It feels like him quintupling down on his worst traits until it wraps back around to working out for him, much like Astarion becoming a Vampire Ascendant.

[@Melth]

@@paragonvice1128 I've never actually had a conversation where Gale threatened to blow himself up over anything minor, so perhaps I just haven't experienced that side of his character. In all my interactions with him at least, he's seemed to be a good but flawed person. Consistently approving of good deeds and disapproving of vicious ones, willing to sacrifice himself for the greater good, but tempted by forbidden knowledge. Certainly more moral than the vast majority of the party, arguably including Wyll who made a literal deal with a devil under conditions that seem rather suspicious. As for Mystra, I stand by emphasizing her gross irresponsibility in having a relationship with Gale at all (especially since I got the impression it started when he was quite young and impressionable) simply because he was good at magic. It's also just... universal for skilled wizards to want to unlock higher level spells, rather than being some particular flaw of Gale. Every wizard knows that higher level spells used to be possible in the past, but are now arbitrarily denied. Indeed, Mystra denying all such spells in order to prevent rivals from emerging is the good/neutral equivalent of Vlaakith's evil method of just eating the souls of any high level githyanki. (Any argument that it's a matter of humans not being ready for the responsibility fails because Mystra and the gods are completely irresponsible too, and 9th level spells already include world-altering control over time and space which no normal person should be trusted with anyway). The game writing treats this as some personal boundary of Mystra which Gale was overstepping in their relationship in order to present him as being kind of gross, but it's an impersonal and self-serving limitation which Mystra forcibly imposed on every non-god in the universe regardless of whether they have any relationship with her. I generally agree with your point that all the other gods are useless in saving the world (Except Helm. Helm almost certainly strong-armed Withers into helping us, and Withers is probably the greatest asset the party has). But Mystra is the only one who is confirmed to be aware of what is going on, actively involved, and yet choosing to be useless or even demanding an outright counterproductive and self-destructive plan that will doom the world. The other gods might not have champions in the area or might be unaware until it's too late or something. (Or are just weaker than Mystra and Shar)

[@kenneth-benjamingardner4208]

By the way, I've been meaning to say this for a while but... doesn't rule 1 imply rule 9? There's no save scumming in honor mode, no?

[@Melth]

There are at least 2 ways one could save scum in honor mode: backing up files, or using ctrl alt delete to exit the game. Given how many bugs there are in this game, I think everyone should back up their files anyway. I think I've already mentioned a few things in this run that didn't cause problems this time, but DID cause run-ruining bugs for me in the past. (Also, I originally came up with the challenge and wrote up the rules before Honour mode existed. In the original version it was Tactician)

[@Chronische]

Illusions always stink in crpgs because the alternative would be even more gamebreaking than other forms of magic! They could never really emulate the fullness of tabletop options, illusions making that even more nuts. Shame, but that's the eternal benefit of real GMs and real tables.

[@Melth]

Definitely. Illusions have always been really strong for creative players, though that's partly because of how seldom enemies even get saving throws against them.

[@Chronische]

@@Melth They are also very strong in the hands of GMs. Indeed, many spells would have very little use outside of intrigue games or building your own dungeons (high level play) such as Illusory Wall or Illusory Script. Illusory Wall, at least, with how 'belief' worked with illusions before, could be a good makeshift wall of stone that doesn't hinder you or your allies, at least! More relevant is simple practical stuff like setting traps, digging pits filled with venom-coated stakes, or the like which are very hard to put into a game reasonably in a way that isn't silly. Knocking trees onto people, shoving a boulder onto a giants head, that kind of thing only exists as a custom-set thing you can trigger in crpgs because to do otherwise would be madness! That said, Larian is pretty good with environmental effects in it's pre-set battlegrounds, so it's closer than the alternatives.

[@KDillon-gj2uf]

Is there a difference in throwing daggers vs javelins vs axes?

[@Melth]

Four differences, as I understand it: 1) Daggers are finesse weapons, and thus if you have good Dex but bad Str, they'll be more accurate. Also they should be eligible for sneak attack if you're a Rogue, though I've heard conflicting things about when that actually works with thrown daggers. 2) Heavier weapons are more likely to deal additional damage when falling from a high place. Daggers are quite light compared to javelins and handaxes. Spears are heavier yet, and the Returning Pike is the heaviest of all the available early game throwables. I find fall damage to be VERY inconsistent though. Sometimes a heavy weapon does nothing when falling from a high place. Sometimes a light one does fall damage when falling just a few feet. 3) Slightly different projectile arcs. This matters sometimes if an obstacle is in your way. It's possible that the slightly different arc of one weapon type might be able to get around the obstacle, while other weapons can't. 4) Once in a while damage type matters. If an enemy resists pierce and is weak to slashing, you want to throw a slashing like a handaxe. (Light Hammers are throwable bludgeoning weapons)

[@FluffiestWalrus]

Do you not typically use any sorts of containers to organize your inventory?

[@Melth]

Not typically, no. I do sometimes put magic arrows in one, scrolls in a second one, etc. But I often find this to be more cumbersome rather than less because I need to manually put things into the correct bag. If there was a way to automatically sort them, I'd use them more.

[@byebye806]

Why tempest wizard over tempest/storm sorcerer?

[@unwise6518]

Lets you learn spells from scrolls

[@Melth]

Although it would sound thematic to be a tempest cleric/storm sorcerer, there's almost no synergy there at all and it would take until character level 7 to even be able to cast a max damage lightning bolt *once* per short rest. With the wizard version, the build is online now at level 5, and will be shooting 2 lightning bolts per short rest by character level 7. Plus I can maintain almost full cleric casting. And also I can get find familiar, which sorcerers don't have access to. Wizards being able to learn high level spells from scrolls is the key to making this work, really

[@byebye806]

@@Melth and does the fact that the scribed scrolls use int as your casting mod change anything? Tempest sorc doesn't really use cleric spells so everything is CHA based, but going main cleric with your big damage rolling with INT feels weird. Also twinned thunder chromatic orb comes online at level 4, but maybe the restricted rests makes that not so strong.

[@Melth]

@@byebye806 fundamentally, it's almost irrelevant which stat I use for my spells on this build. As long as I make some effort to invest in the stat, it'll barely change the save DC against my lightning bolts. With items + elixirs + my lore bard helping to force enemies to fail saves, I can make enemies fail pretty routinely. And even on a success, enemies still take a brutal and often fatal 48 damage if they're wet. What matters most is getting to use as many max damage lightning bolts as possible over the course of the campaign. Going wizard unlocks these ultra bolts at level 5, and staying mostly cleric lets me use TWO ultra bolts per short rest by level 7. Without rests, sorcerer can't even come close to competing with that. On the subject of Cha vs Int, it's not any easier to pump up Cha than Intelligence at this point in the game. And in fact, given that I have another character who really wants high Cha and thus would be in competition for all the Cha boosts later in the game, it would probably be harder to give my tempest Cleric good Cha than good Int. Either way, it's also worth bearing in mind that most of the best cleric spells don't even care about Wisdom so I probably don't need more than 16 or so. Bless and other buffs don't care about Wisdom. Summons don't care about Wisdom. Remove curse and restoration type stuff doesn't care about Wisdom. Spirit Guardians kind of cares a bit, but dealing half damage even on a successful save means it can still get the job done in the small number of fights vs hordes of fragile enemies where I want it

[@arturb5152]

I's starne You have lost of magical builds but You yousing a range weapons to save magical slots .....

[@RebelsAreWe]

Hello again, everyMelth, Micah here.

[@Melth]

Have a great day, everyMicah!

[@takahashi2852]

During your shopping sprees, please cut out the unimportant parts where you don't even speak or fast-forward them You could also just do the shopping off camera, put them in a bag then do a summary of everything you bought I'm personally more interested in combat and story than shopping The levelup was fine though

[@Melth]

I'll keep that in mind. I already cut the shopping time down by a lot, cutting out merchants who had nothing worth getting or speeding through most points when I stopped to think. I suppose there's a bit more that can be cut. However, if I only show the final shopping bag, that skips the important strategy consideration of the stuff I couldn't buy but *don't* choose to buy. Talking about which items aren't worthwhile for my party, or might be good later but not yet, is a strategy topic in its own right.