The Guider Drider-icider. Baldur's Gate 3, Nine Hells Challenge

[@RevanLegend]

"Grove is getting dangerous so we need to go to Baldur's Gate. I know a shortcut through some curse touched lands, surely it can't be worse than these weird druids or occasional goblin ambushes" xD

[@Melth]

@@RevanLegend sure we might be damned for eternity as tortured shadow beings, but that's a risk I'm willing to take to avoid fighting some goblins or hanging out with these tree-huggers!

[@Cam.2.]

Hurray! Been waiting for this for a while

[@Melth]

Enjoy!

[@jpof05]

So glad this came out! This play through has been a godsend for my first honour mode run! You’re a great KZbinr and explain everything so well I’ve been recommending your channel! My first 2 runs were in explorer mode as I really didn’t plan to focus on the combat but after watching your episode I went straight to honour mode and I just beat myrkul! It’s been really easy so far with no scares and not a single of my characters downed! Been using a OH Monk, Swords Bard, Bardlock, and berserker thrower (sometimes swap the bardlock for a tempest cleric) and it’s been easy sailing so far! Can only thank your tactics!

[@Melth]

Nicely done! Congrats on getting so far on your honour run and good luck with act 3

[@jpof05]

@@Melth just lost the run to Raphael. Extremely poor planning by me and his first spell killed Hope whilst destroying my party because they were together and put me in a terrible position. Yurgir also ruined a few hypnotic patterns by attacking the cambions but what can you do

[@Melth]

@@jpof05 Ouch, sorry to hear that!

[@Zerocool6743]

@@jpof05I had that happen on my first HM run that got into act 3. Realized Raphael is almost a necessary globe of invulnerability fight due to the number of rays of fire the campions can cast. Also hold monster is too OP against Raphael’s low wisdom saving throw.

[@jpof05]

@@Zerocool6743 ye I’m an idiot for not using my scrolls

[@kayex6409]

I've been so excited for you to reach Act 2! really looking forward to this stretch.

[@Melth]

Glad to hear it! I've kind of been dreading the very beginning of the act when I need to talk to like 1000 NPCs to get various quests and respec/level up/shop since I don't think that'll make for exciting videos. But after that will be fun!

[@kayex6409]

@@Melth I always enjoy your commentary, so I'm sure even the "slower" parts will be entertaining!

[@Melth]

@@kayex6409 thank you!

[@lnsatiabie4364]

I was expecting the routing to take a bit, extremely excited to see this going again

[@Melth]

Yeah, I've been trying to think for a while about what order to do the early act stuff in. It's one reason I needed to make some side videos

[@jayrobitaille2402]

Oh yeah, I noticed Darkness/Blindness is a great counter to Honour Mode Legendary Actions. I think It also makes Dazed a far more useful condition than it is normally.

[@Melth]

Yeah, anything that blocks legendary actions is quite useful! I do think Dazed is quite solid to begin with though. Removing Dexterity to AC can be a massive boost against some creatures, and disadvantage on Wisdom saving throws means being vulnerable to almost all the best crowd control effects in the game

[@jayrobitaille2402]

@@Melth You know what? I do kind of underestimate Dazed, because I rarely line up the right circumstances to take advantage of it. I have to remember to use it on agile or med-light armour enemies. I made a Bardadin with a Channel Oath ability that adds Radiant damage to my basic attacks and has a chance to daze and that build has been working really well.

[@nevrast-1]

Lovely episode, looking forward to more!

[@Melth]

Thank you!

[@RoryDavidWatts]

Fantastic. I feel like Act 2 was the Act I missed the most in. Looking forward to this part of the series.

[@Melth]

Hopefully I'll learn some new things myself!

[@engrammi]

24:10 I'm not a D&D player so I was very surprised when I saw this note. The goddess Mielikki is just a straight up copy from the Finnish pantheon, and so is Loviatar btw.

[@samuelpetrunyak4989]

YAAY finally, i love this run so much! i always watch them!

[@Melth]

Thanks, that's very nice to hear!

[@Noctua07]

In regards to the Shadowcurse solutions, in my first play through I went via Underdark and ended up in Last Light first. I think it is a bit of a better story progression. Getting protected by the Selune then being able to go further easier, realizing you cannot go everywhere and then having to find out how the cultists manage to traverse freely which leads to fighting the Drider and company. Yeah it is somewhat cumbersome but gives a better feeling of progression throughout the act.

[@Melth]

Yeah, it makes more narrative sense and makes the shadow curse feel like an actual obstacle rather than meaningless

[@sgt391]

I was waiting for this!

[@Melth]

Glad to be starting the new act!

[@XFizzlepop-Berrytwist]

This is cool to see. I never go this way, I always take the path through the underdark, as its supposed to be the more “good path.” Because you meet the Harpers early.

[@Melth]

@@XFizzlepop-Berrytwist another benefit of meeting the Harpers early is you get a lot of XP in that initial shadow fight! Unfortunately I missed out on that going this way

[@gregtrump8905]

I love this man please keep it up

[@Melth]

Glad you're enjoying it!

[@hi117117]

Yay, another installment of the series!

[@Melth]

Enjoy!

[@smdb5874]

Lets goo. I have been waiting for this.

[@Melth]

Yeah, glad to be starting act 2!

[@bycensus3628]

I am so glad you didn't quit this run.

[@Melth]

This run is going all the way! (Well, barring some kind of disaster that gets us killed)

[@jayrobitaille2402]

Okay, when I was playing this game blind, I hid in this area and let the drider pass. It turned out to be a very rough decision because I had to book it to Moonrise Towers with my health being sapped and needed Balthasar's moonlantern. I did not know about the one Gale could make because I was playing almost completely blind and I am not even sure I knew about that secret room.

[@Melth]

Yeah, killing the drider is by far the easiest way to tackle this act. It makes a world of difference to get that Pixie blessing

[@cannyvalley8522]

Gale can only make shadow lantern, not moon lantern. There is one spare working moon lantern in Balthazar's room if player missed Karniss. Shadow lantern that Gale crafts does not help against the curse, it allows you to summon Wraith when equipped :3

[@Melth]

@@cannyvalley8522 yeah, I love the shadow from the shadow lantern! I mean, it's pretty worthless and is hilariously unable to cross even the minorest physical obstacles despite being a floating incorporeal being, but I still love it.

[@jayrobitaille2402]

@@cannyvalley8522 I have never actually tried to use it as a moonlatern but just assumed because you use a pixie to make it, that it would also work. A second moonlantern could make co-op easier so it would make sense but the blessing would still be way better (alas, we are assuming you miss Karniss).

[@ChrisLane-k8x]

Mielikki is also one of those real world gods in the Forgotten Realms also, lifted from the Finnish pantheon, much to your annoyance I'm sure.

[@Melth]

Interesting, I hadn't known that! And I am indeed annoyed about it now

[@DiabeticNecromancer]

With the heat stuff I never really found a use for it other than being a tiefling mage who really wanted to spam fireballs in my co-op game of BG3. Oh if you also refuse to let Dolly out she'll curse you out and also stop rhyming inside the lantern, maybe its a cutesy fey defense mechanism against mortals.

[@Melth]

Dolly^3 does also require you to rhyme if you want her to reapply her blessing

[@brokenmeats5928]

I love ALL Melth videos!

[@Melth]

Thank you!

[@GianniCampanale]

sol invictus is not "unconquered" but rather "undefeated" sun, day of winter solstice, when light begins to shine more and more after dimming until then.

[@Melth]

The epithet 'Invictus' is used for numerous Roman gods, not just Sol, so the epithet invictus is not really based on anything to do with the solstice in particular.

[@GianniCampanale]

@@Melth sol Invictus Is exactly the ancient roman name of the Winter solstice

[@Melth]

@@GianniCampanale huh? No, as far as I'm aware they called the solstice Dies Natalis Solis Invicti once the religion of Sol became major. Meaning "The Birthday of the Unconquered Sun" Again, numerous gods had that Unconquered epithet. It is not at all specific to the sun god

[@GianniCampanale]

@@Melth you are totally right, the day was on 25 decembre and was considered the solstice, day of birth of the God sol, that mean sun in english. Victus is the root of victory but means "Who got winned" or defeated. In - victus then is un-defeated. "invicti" is the genitive form of "invictus" and mans "of the invictus"

[@Melth]

@@GianniCampanale one meaning of the word 'conquered' is 'defeated' Unconquered and undefeated are synonyms in this case, which is why translators often say "Unconquered Sun". It means the same thing as "undefeated sun"

[@blazingskrubs_]

What the hell these ravens are secretly OP. People are certainly sleeping on them.

[@Melth]

@@blazingskrubs_ yeah, Raven are wildly overpowered considering they're FREE. Get one on 3 party members if you can (Shovel on the 4th, can't have both) Especially in act 1, but they're still useful in act 3 They're arguably even better than Owls, which were the OP familiar in 5E.

[@TheCongaFury]

Hi Melth! Thanks a lot for your videos, they are very in-depth! Would say, with the experience you have now, that experience- and challenge-wise, would be better to exit from the Underdark rather than this way? Thanks!

[@Melth]

Hm. I think for maximizing XP, you can get 1-2 goblins worth of extra XP by going to the mountain pass entrance first, then taking a weird route to skip Last Light and walk toward the underdark entrance so you can meet the harpers battling shadows there. As for challenge, I guess it depends on how you look at it. I think getting the pixie blessing is a massive quality of life improvement compared to the frustrating tedium of manually walking people around in moon lantern range for hours. Theoretically having to manage light ranges and whatnot is 'harder', but it's not really strategically interesting and is mostly just boring and time consuming. I'd rather just free the pixie ASAP and then be able to move freely.

[@Tupadre97]

Dolly x3 must be a dark justiciar to just be handing out immunity to the shadow curse

[@Melth]

@@Tupadre97 I know, right? It's never really explained what in the world a pixie has to do with shadow curse protection

[@ghcodman]

It’s really late game but Rafael’s armor gives burn immunity. And the staff from sorcerers sundries gives free heat if you choose the fire buff.

[@Melth]

Interesting, I had thought that heat's damage to the user was a generic 1d4 fire damage rather than counting as the Burning status in particular. Thus I hadn't thought Raphael's armor would work on it. Since that armor is decent for mages anyway, that does sound like it could be solid on a character that really wants to do lots of fire spells. Very late game as you said, but still

[@ironbar2009]

LETS GOOOOOO ACT 2 HERE WE COME

[@Melth]

I'm excited to play act 2 again since I've only done it once, so it's pretty fresh to me

[@ironbar2009]

@@Melth oh interesting… did you end up playing through saves of act 3 more after or was it mostly act 1?

[@victor1756]

It is great to see you in Act2 sir. I've did shadow cursed land with 3 different curse protections : pixie, lantern (from Moonrise tower) and blessing form Isabel. Pixie is the best. Torch protection was fatal. Gale is the worst companion in shadow land, constantly gets effected by the curse. (it might get patched recently) .

[@Melth]

Hm. I've never seen Gale get affected by the curse differently from anyone else. As far as I know, Shadowheart is the only companion who is either advantaged or disadvantaged here. In any case, yes the pixie is undoubtedly the best.

[@deezste]

Hey, is there a chance that you tell us what your final builds are gonna look like? Im using some of your builds but im now level 8 and im not sure what to spend the next level ups on

[@Melth]

Yeah, I'm going to make a build video once I'm done with the initial setup/story scenes of act 2

[@kinggamereon653]

For this run what exactly counts as fight all the enemies the hardest way? I thought that would mean no ambushes for surprise rounds but it clearly doesn't. So to use Yurgir as an example are walking straight into his lair and starting the fight from low ground and surrounded and sneaking behind him and surprising his crew counted as the same? Technically both involve fighting every enemy there but it's a very different fight between those two options.

[@Melth]

No, as with most things the details are in the video description. It doesn't mean using deliberately bad tactics or deliberately walking into a bad position. It means I fight the entire enemy group at their maximum numbers. No splitting enemy groups up. No getting half of them to be allies. For example, when taking on the myconids town, I made sure to aggro the ENTIRE myconids town including the 6 or so guys who usually just stay off to one side and ignore the fight for some reason. And I didn't end the fight prematurely by killing Sovereign Spaw for an instant win. I saved him for the very last

[@kinggamereon653]

Alright, thanks for clearing that up. Makes sense.

[@dennislogan9821]

We’re back baby!

[@Melth]

Time for the act I know least about!

[@jakobandersen3210]

ACT2 HYPE!!!

[@Melth]

I'm glad to be getting into Act 2 too!

[@dinospfc]

Honestly there's not many secrets in Act 2 that I can think of as being that impactful, but I've also only gone through it fully about 2x. I imagine you know all the fairly obvious secret rooms. Off the top of my head I can only think of the Shar day long buffs (which admittedly would be quite OP in this type of run) and the Eversight ring, which you're not building for anyway. I guess there's also Lann Tarv's secret stash and Araj Oblodra's day long elixirs and her involvement in Act 3. LMK if any of that sound not familiar lol

[@Melth]

The eversight one sounds unfamiliar! The rest I do know about though, yeah

[@dinospfc]

@@Melth it's the ring that basically gives devil's sight, found in the house of healing morgue area

[@Melth]

@@dinospfc interesting, I remember the morgue but not that item. It could be useful if shooting arrows of darkness, which I do like doing!

[@cannyvalley8522]

Poor birds) I assume you won't need them since shadows and cursed plants are unaffected by rend vision?

[@Melth]

Well, I do plan to resummon them. I can do that once every short rest afterall, and I haven't even used my summon for this short rest, so I just get them back

[@cannyvalley8522]

You are right, if you fight Karniss immediately that building will be empty, no ambush. Poor harpers tho, I assume killing them has no consequence whatsoever?

[@Melth]

I *assume* that's right, though I'm not 100% sure since I don't have much experience with act 2

[@Jules_Diplopia]

That throwaway comment that Ketheric was careless with his curse, seems a little unfair. Was the curse from Ketheric, or just a result of the battles. It is more of a Shar sort of thing, Ketheric used to follow Selune, then switched to Shar, then to Mrykul and the Absolute, and he himself suggested that he had followed many gods, so there were probably others too. I always saw it more of a temper tantrum from Shar after he defected from her. But I guess that you know the lore better than me?

[@Melth]

I think a couple of people indicate Ketheric himself invoked the curse. Not to mention the curse can't be broken until he dies, even though he doesn't worship Shar anymore. So that suggests it's something he's maintaining to some extent. But even if he hadn't done so, I'd still say he's shockingly bad about telling his troops even the basics about it! He was a major Shar worshipper leading a huge Shar cult. He surely at least understands the basics of how shadows work! But instead we see him send henchmen after henchmen out to scout the lands he should know like the back of his hand, and then die. And he doesn't seem to take the basic precaution of equipping them with things that are good against shadows!

[@Jules_Diplopia]

@@Melth True. I suppose that like many a dictator, he doesn't care much for his underlings. Just his own glory.

[@ishwaranandgiri6836]

There is a Russian Novel of Viktor Pelevin, who is an esoteric fantasy writer that delves into very deep psychic-spiritual things... sometimes too surrealistic. But anyway, there is a novel about that roman emperor called "Unconquered sun". Very interesting actually. Not his best work though.

[@rotoninja]

Really enjoying this series. Have you ever played Battle Brothers? You seem to have a knack for turned based TRPGs. 😊

[@Melth]

Thank you! I haven't actually heard of that game

[@takahashi2852]

Wouldn't it have been harder if you angered both the Drider and the Druids at the same time? can you even turn this into a 1 vs 1 vs 1 instead of a 2 vs 1? I haven't tried it myself

[@Melth]

Probably not harder since you usually need to attack 'allies' in a fight multiple times to turn them into enemies. So by the time I got both sides to hate me, I'd probably have gotten a lot of free hits on my former allies. Not to mention they would still fight each other instead of me. In any case, my challenge isn't to pull multiple entirely different groups of creatures together and fight them all at once. I could use Minor Illusion to pull monsters from all over the map together into one big pile to fight 40 things at once or something, but that would be silly. The goal is to try to do every available combat encounter with the hardest grouping of intended enemies, rather than to combine multiple separate encounters in weird ways

[@takahashi2852]

@@Melth Does AOE on multiple enemies still require multiple attacks?

[@Zerocool6743]

Surprised you didn’t level up before fighting drider

[@Melth]

I want to level up as part of a build video since people have been asking for one. Plus since long rests (which I can't do except for purely story purposes) and level ups are the main way to reset merchant inventories, I only level up when I can go to merchants