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

[@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

[@falsetitle6940]

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

[@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.

[@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.

[@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.

[@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.

[@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

[@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.

[@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

[@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)

[@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.

[@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

[@lukatastus99]

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

[@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

[@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.

[@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.

[@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.

[@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.

[@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.

[@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

[@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. >:|

[@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.

[@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!

[@brendonfernandez]

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

[@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

[@andyl7677]

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

[@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!

[@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.

[@Viper3220]

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

[@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.

[@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!

[@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.

[@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!

[@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

[@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.

[@headhunter4208]

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

[@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.

[@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 😂

[@azhule4041]

Biggest lie is calling Gotash young and handsome

[@srellison561]

Thanks! I figured some of that out, but i didn't know all of it. Another type of "lie" they do in the game is to have the narrator make you think there will be certain unavoidable consequences to certain actions or inactions, which kind of p*sses me off. You don't find out you're being misled until the warnings fail to happen, or your understanding of the situations circumvent the misleading warnings. If anyone has played the game through, they will probably know what I'm talking about. Some of them are potentially valid warnings, based on your relationship with different characters, but I still don't like it.

[@kkkk-uh1cu]

I find the theory that the song "down by the river" points towards the original bad ending, combined with evidence from EA (& etc) quite interesting. I would have liked a bad ending where engaging too much with the emperor and brainworms leads to you being trapped "down by the river". In your mind, a mere shadow and fragment of yourself, while your body is puppeteered essentially.

[@Viper3220]

@@kkkk-uh1cu - No consequences for using the parasite *really* takes the wind out of Laezel's warnings and makes her seem dumb lol

[@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)

[@joerundell8197]

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

[@Cephalopocalypse]

Thanks very much!

[@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

[@johndiddilyjoe6258]

I really like this game, but the fact that the bear sex scene is more polished than a lot of encounters and descriptions is just mind boggling.

[@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

[@0042dt]

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

[@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

[@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.

[@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.

[@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)

[@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

[@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 🤬

[@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

[@Tentacl]

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

[@skysamurai4649]

Also I really hate the battle with meerlocks as the characters tell you that you have to use light, but it doesn’t work at all, not to mention how ridiculously unbalanced this battle is.

[@steveharrison76]

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

[@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?

[@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.

[@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.

[@grantjohnson5499]

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

[@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.

[@aviendha1154]

So I what I’m hearing from this is that I was right to never seek out or read any tool tips because these ones are wrong. Good, good.

[@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.

[@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

[@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...

[@mateuszstacewicz6522]

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

[@JoHa1337]

another false tooltip is when shoving, ive had several times i go to shove an enemy and it will show a high % chance of success but when it fails and i check the log it says the shove DC was 0, there are other instances where the game will show a DC: 0 and still fail but i cant recall them at the momment also at 23:16 for those that are unaware of calculation orders in math because the damage shows "1d8+18/2" because there is no "( )" around the "1d8+18" part then the "/2" should only be applied to the "18" not the "1d8" part

[@Zoltria]

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

[@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!

[@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!

[@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)

[@thekingpin34]

There is a tooltip that opens itself

[@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

[@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.

[@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?

[@opalescent4694]

Wait, that means both Darkness and Fog Cloud don't work correctly as per their actual rules in 5th edition??? Like, Larian just... Didn't code these ones to do what they're intended to do!

[@commotus8319]

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

[@ahulse78]

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

[@shinkamui]

about the staff im sorta glad the tooltip is lying in a way it would be so op if it wasnt.. maybe too op still worse than the best case scenario which is the tooltip being right and the staff being balanced lol

[@doloresabernathy9809]

I hope people have submitted tooltip errors as bug reports. MAybe Larian will fix them in the September patch. it’s just text so should be wasy

[@ZZxxInTeRvEnTiOnXXzz]

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

[@micshaz]

confuse is actually pretty straight forward, it confuses.... the player

[@Dorumin]

Always wanted a video like this. BG3 is an excellent game, but it does a terrible job at its tooltips. There's hundreds of actions, yes, but that is a core part of the game, and a trivial fix. Nice

[@nidodson]

You could do a top 20 for this problem, easily. They have a lot of poor expectations in the tooltips.

[@Cephalopocalypse]

It's true - I might do a follow up with more at some point!

[@bananadane]

Heat. I don't know if it is a terrible tooltip or a terrible skill or both, but he is endlessly confusing

[@erin1569]

I'm gonna huff copium and pretend everything works as intended and isn't complicated at all

[@bobowon5450]

protection from good and evil constantly confuses me because i've never actually found anything it protects you from. I thought for sure it would work on the singing harpies just because of where you get the scrolls and what the scrolls say they protect you from. Turns out it does nothing?

[@Cephalopocalypse]

It is confusing! It only protects you from the effects of certain kinds of creatures (aberrations, celestials, elementals, fey, fiends, and undead). Harpies are monstrosities, so it won't work against them, but it will when you face those kinds of enemies. I agree it's not well explained at all though!

[@bobowon5450]

@@Cephalopocalypse does the game even have a single fey?

[@DragonologyStudent]

​@@bobowon5450 As far as I have seen. Only Ethel and redcaps

[@storyspren]

@@bobowon5450 Ethel, redcaps, and meenlocks, which I believe are all completely optional as combat encounters. There are plenty of aberrations, fiends, and undead though, especially in act 2, so it's not useless. But I will say, I keep hoarding scrolls and forgetting I have them, so you'll probably be just fine without it too.

[@quasarsword7479]

These are the lists I’m here for.

[@gregchezick7757]

When you were doing the tiger rage ability you were only level 3 so the +2 was correct.

[@Cephalopocalypse]

Nope, only the first time the tooltip is displayed - it still says +2 when we're level 12

[@zoefezius6615]

German tool tips are pretty unusable sometimes, especially on an early Ring - as if it has been AI translation. We have the same word for throw and roll - werfen. So every time a tooltip says you get a bonus on a "Wurf" (roll or throw) you actually don't know if it's helpful or not. I allways thought Ring of throwing (flinging?) was op, till i read it's a throwbarian item, and still don't really know what shapeshifter ring does (is there a form i can throw things?, can i throw as a bear?) Even translation of easy things as safe in wisdom safe went in a horrible unreadable direction - or Rettungswurf (saving throw) was too long as a word for them 😑 so they took Spielstand (game file, i think from saving file) but wisdom game file makes just no sense..

[@zoefezius6615]

Ah, got it. Ability checks. So in german when they talk of "wurf" You never know if they mean attack roll, ability check or throwing damage, probably attack damage too...

[@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.

[@EmperorZ19]

So... Devil's Sight doesn't do anything that regular darkvision doesn't?

[@Cephalopocalypse]

Devil's sight lets you shoot into and out of the Darkness spell and makes you immune to the blind effect of Darkness - Darkness has the additional effect of blocking ranged attacks (on top of the heavily obscured stuff), and Devil's Sight lets you avoid that. It's very powerful for warlocks because immunity to ranged attacks and blinding all melee enemies while suffering no drawbacks is super strong

[@mikedickens848]

Very helpful

[@lloydfromfar]

Confusion is so confusing! :O

[@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 :)