D&D General BG3 Massive Spoiler Thread

[Divine2021]

I finished my second run as a custom female githyanki ranger/rogue/fighter who was romancing Lae'zel. In our version, Prince Orpheus transformed into the mind flayer. After we defeated the Absolute he asked us to kill him but I passed a persuasion check and convinced him to live. He could see the fruits of his labor, even if he could not directly participate. He said he would exile himself to a remote corner of the galaxy. The game ended with Lae'zel and I hopping on red dragons and flying off to join the rebellion against Queen Vlaakith.

That’s so bad ass, super super cool. I want to romance her the second time around, she grew on me as the game progressed.

 

[MockingBird]

I think I just went mad with pushing power and pushed everyone into the lava in that fight. Man, what a great game.

I finally won that fight, it was tough but fun.

 

[Zardnaar]

Think I'm hooked on the charisma classes. Love bards, Warlocks and Sorcerers.

Restarting built a MC cleric/bard using one of the elf hirelings. Basically a fontrol and utility build.

Watched some YouTube builds stuff. Wife went in with light cleric before she watched anything. Surprise surprise it's OP.

Eldritch Knight 6/Wizard 2 ended up as a throwing weapon build.

New character is a Warlock2/Sorcerer 4. Going for lots of utility. Kicked the difficulty level up.

Twinned haste feels like God mode on a warlock. .

 

[Ulorian - Agent of Chaos]

I think I just went mad with pushing power and pushed everyone into the lava in that fight. Man, what a great game.

I went through that whole game without pushing anyone. FOMO?

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

I went through that whole game without pushing anyone. FOMO?

I had a Fear Of Missing Loot and only shoved when I needed to step back to avoid AoO, or when I could get to the body later (like out to the street below).

In the second run I had a good idea who had loot I might care about and shoved much more. I even shoved allies to get them into/out of attack positions!

 

[Ulorian - Agent of Chaos]

I had a Fear Of Missing Loot and only shoved when I needed to step back to avoid AoO, or when I could get to the body later (like out to the street below).

In the second run I had a good idea who had loot I might care about and shoved much more. I even shoved allies to get them into/out of attack positions!

I didn't do it mainly because it seemed like a lot of extra work in combat to calculate optimal times to shove a fool (don't lose the loot, is there a better use of my time, etc.). What's the payoff? Shorter combats? Easier to play some of the more challenging game modes? I was intrigued... just couldn't be bothered.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I didn't do it mainly because it seemed like a lot of extra work in combat to calculate optimal times to shove a fool (don't lose the loot, is there a better use of my time, etc.). What's the payoff? Shorter combats? Easier to play some of the more challenging game modes? I was intrigued... just couldn't be bothered.

Shoving is a Bonus Action in BG3, so there's no real need for "calculating optimal times" - there is very rarely a better use of a Bonus Action. If someone is near an edge and will take falling damage and be made prone, you can make any other melee attacks on them, then just shove them off the edge. It's also a great opener in any situation which isn't initially hostile where someone is standing near an edge. For example, in Act 1, there's a certain Wizard who likes to look out over a 60ft+ drop, you can just wait for them to do that, hit turn-based mode, Lae'zel or whoever comes up behind them and WHEEEEEEE < THUMP >. I've never seen them survive the fall. Sometimes they go so far before landing it doesn't even initiate combat with the people inside.

Asking "what's the payoff" is a bit like asking "Why melee attack anyone? Why not just use ranged and spells? That way you don't need to stand next to them!". You do huge damage and some CC for a Bonus Action, you waste their time, it's particularly nasty on enemies who only have melee options. More importantly - it's often incredibly funny in a slapstick kind of way, and BG3 is a very slapstick game, combat-wise.

Of course even better than Shoving in a lot of ways, you can bodily pick up and Throw an awful lot of smaller enemies with high STR characters - it uses up one Attack - you can throw them off cliffs, into other enemies (they both take damage), off cliffs on to other enemies (particularly hilarious). I should note Act 2 contains far fewer opportunities for throwing and shoving shenanigans with both than Act 1 or Act 3 for whatever reason.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Shoving is a Bonus Action in BG3, so there's no real need for "calculating optimal times" - there is very rarely a better use of a Bonus Action. If someone is near an edge and will take falling damage and be made prone, you can make any other melee attacks on them, then just shove them off the edge. It's also a great opener in any situation which isn't initially hostile where someone is standing near an edge. For example, in Act 1, there's a certain Wizard who likes to look out over a 60ft+ drop, you can just wait for them to do that, hit turn-based mode, Lae'zel or whoever comes up behind them and WHEEEEEEE < THUMP >. I've never seen them survive the fall. Sometimes they go so far before landing it doesn't even initiate combat with the people inside.

Asking "what's the payoff" is a bit like asking "Why melee attack anyone? Why not just use ranged and spells? That way you don't need to stand next to them!". You do huge damage and some CC for a Bonus Action, you waste their time, it's particularly nasty on enemies who only have melee options. More importantly - it's often incredibly funny in a slapstick kind of way, and BG3 is a very slapstick game, combat-wise.

Of course even better than Shoving in a lot of ways, you can bodily pick up and Throw an awful lot of smaller enemies with high STR characters - it uses up one Attack - you can throw them off cliffs, into other enemies (they both take damage), off cliffs on to other enemies (particularly hilarious). I should note Act 2 contains far fewer opportunities for throwing and shoving shenanigans with both than Act 1 or Act 3 for whatever reason.

Well, I guess I know how I'm going to start finally clearing the blighted village, now that I've scooped up all the Act I companions other than the missing druid. Invisible imp is about to earn its keep!

 

[Ulorian - Agent of Chaos]

Shoving is a Bonus Action in BG3, so there's no real need for "calculating optimal times" - there is very rarely a better use of a Bonus Action. If someone is near an edge and will take falling damage and be made prone, you can make any other melee attacks on them, then just shove them off the edge. It's also a great opener in any situation which isn't initially hostile where someone is standing near an edge. For example, in Act 1, there's a certain Wizard who likes to look out over a 60ft+ drop, you can just wait for them to do that, hit turn-based mode, Lae'zel or whoever comes up behind them and WHEEEEEEE < THUMP >. I've never seen them survive the fall. Sometimes they go so far before landing it doesn't even initiate combat with the people inside.

Asking "what's the payoff" is a bit like asking "Why melee attack anyone? Why not just use ranged and spells? That way you don't need to stand next to them!". You do huge damage and some CC for a Bonus Action, you waste their time, it's particularly nasty on enemies who only have melee options. More importantly - it's often incredibly funny in a slapstick kind of way, and BG3 is a very slapstick game, combat-wise.

Of course even better than Shoving in a lot of ways, you can bodily pick up and Throw an awful lot of smaller enemies with high STR characters - it uses up one Attack - you can throw them off cliffs, into other enemies (they both take damage), off cliffs on to other enemies (particularly hilarious). I should note Act 2 contains far fewer opportunities for throwing and shoving shenanigans with both than Act 1 or Act 3 for whatever reason.

What I said still applies, but that's an intriguing description of the payoff...

Calculating optimal times in the sense of 'I am spending real time playing this game and expending extra seconds on tedious minuscule tasks better be worth it!'

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

Another reason I started shoving in the second run was that I had enough cognitive load already, adding shoves and weapon dipping and controlling reaction asking and alchemy brewing… on top of handling 6-9 characters and each new thing they got with leveling … I only had mental room for so much.

In the second playthrough I stepped up to tactician and took on trying out more available options. But in tactician I started experiencing the enemies pushing my characters for more often. I observed how much it screwed my turns! So it was like a demonstration how it could add some edge to tactics.