Baldur's Gate 3 — Walkthrough

Cheat Codes:
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Submitted by: David K.

How to Solve Finish the Masterwork Weapon Quest

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Written by FlaskkYT

-=Guide to Finish the Masterwork Weapon Quest=-
Finish the Masterwork Weapon is a side quest you can pick up in the underground 
section of the map inside the blighted village.

Breaking this wall will give you access to the area the quest can be picked up in.

You could collect the large amount of weapons (note that the masterwork weapon 
will require a sythe, greatsword, or dagger so you could leave one of those there 
for later).

After picking up the quest from the chest and realizing you need susser bark, the
 bark can only be found in the underdark and is protected by several level 4 hook 
horrors which can be devestated to an unprepared team.

The hook horrors can be more easily managed by bringing them up onto this ledge 
here and after taking a swing you can push them off the ledge for some heavy fall 
damage, they will then waste their next turn getting back up onto the ledge.

Defeating them you can now loot the tree of it's bark.

Heading back to the forge and using the bark on the fire will turn the flames
 blue.

Now use either a greatsword, scythe, or dagger on the forge to finish the 
masterwork weapon.

Enjoy your new Sussur weapon!

How to Obtain Sorrow Legendary Weapon

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Written by FlaskkYT    

How to obtain the legendary weapon, Sorrow. Sorrow is a unique 2-hander with a 
powerful ability.

The glaive can be obtained once you have access to the Druids’ Chambers. 
A book can be found stating that "Rath" has a mysterious rune.

You are able to obtain this rune by pickpocketing or killing him, I preferred 
to play the campaign murder free but this doesn’t mean I was against sticky 
fingers at times.

A successful pickpocket will yield the room and navigating back to the statue 
surrounded by runes and placing your own newly commandeered rune will open the 
secret passageway.

The legendary weapon is now available to be obtained and is sitting on the table.

While looting all the other goodies you will also obtain the Robe of Summer, 
granting a resistance to cold damage.

Sorrow is a rare 2 handed weapon which deals 1d10+1 slashing damage and has the 
spell, ensnaring strike which deals 1d12+3 slashing damage, and entangles your 
target. The downside to this weapon is that each successful attack the weapon 
deals 1 psychic damage to it’s wielder.

I don’t see this as a huge downside and still feel that it’s an extremely 
effective weapon that will provide an instant boost to your party.

Useful Tips and Tricks

-----------------------
Written by Crunchie

Just a collection of stuff that is not immediately obvious when playing the game. 
Also some ideas for characters and stuff.

Top tip: Avoid teleporting spiders.

*Magic items are dope.

*The higher charisma your character has the better they are at bartering, so maybe 
let the warlock do it, 'ey.

*Finesse weapons allow you to add your dex to your melee attack rolls rather than 
your strength. Very important for high dex characters.

*Do not attack an entire camp of enemies when you are in the middle of their camp. 
Seriously, is not a good idea.

*You can fast travel from almost anywhere, good for escaping places you don't want 
to be in anymore.

*The purple runes on the stones are fast travel points. Keep an eye out for them.

*The pie is a lie (I like pies).

*Your companions will like or dislike your actions. Play your cards right and you 
can have some fun. Or turn down everyone like the socially awkward person you are 
and realize why you are still single IRL too.

*Friend? or Food?

*Eldritch blast is a warlock spell that uses no spell slots so you can use it + your 
hex to deal consistent ranged damage. Or you can just punch them in the face and feel 
like a badass for 0.0012 seconds before the wizard next to him turns you into crispy 
bacon.

*Warlocks have a Sugar Daddy, or Mommy. Not sure which. Not judging, just thought 
you should know that the spells and stuff are on loan. Hence only two spell slots.

*Speaking of Hex. The type of ability score you hex will determine the affect of the 
hex. So, if it's a big strong dude who hits really hard in melee, hex strength so he 
can't hit you. Hex the dexterity of the archer, so they also can't hit you. Or combine 
and hex to wisdom and a spell from another caster to give that spell a better chance of 
working. Sleepy sleepy trolls.

*Wizards are kinda cool, they can do immense damage, but are also so squishy. 

*That means that don't have much health. But it's more fun to say squishy. 
"squishy" hehehehehe

*Wizards should get more AoE spells (big blasty spells) later on but I haven't seen 
them so far in Early Access.

*Read the description of items before equipping them. Otherwise you may find that 
gloves of blasting blow *you* up!

*Some items give you spells. Movement, attack and healing spells are the most valuable 
in my opinion. But you do you.

*Dex adds to your AC, making you harder to hit. This is more important for people in 
the front with light armor. * cough * rogues * cough *

*Key ability scores for each class will change. This should be your highest score. 
In general though this is str for fighter, dex for rogue, int for wizard, wis for 
cleric, and wis or dex for ranger.

*This will change on how you specialize your class though, so if you decide to run a 
melee ranger (why? tho?) then str and con will be more important because a) you want 
to hit & b) you want to not die.

*Speaking of, dying is not the end. It is merely another path. Which all your 
characters must take.

*Seriously tho if you all die just reload a save, quick save is your friend. If only 
one or two die, it'll be fine. . . I think.

*Enemies are more intelligent and less forgiving than your average combat encounter 
run by your friendly dungeon master. So expect to get flanked, put to sleep, have a 
single character focussed down, and all the things your DM could do to you IRL but 
doesn't because he wants you to come back and play with him next week.

*Save before you go to go to camp / long rest. A lot can happen, personal drama, 
cinematics, new friends, and it's very easy to put a foot wrong when you you were 
just trying to be funny. Just like real life. So save, it's not save scumming if it 
was unintentional !

*Size matters. The bigger the die being rolled for your weapon damage, the more 
damage it will do, however, more die, of a smaller number, offer more consistent 
damage (If you want to know the nerdy math behind it, 2d6 cannot roll lower than a 
2, but have a lower chance of rolling two 6's. Where as a d12 can roll a 1, but has 
a 1/12 chance of rolling a 12. Overall, the affect is debatable but more die tend to 
feel more consistent than larger, but fewer die).


-=Combat=-
*Press ctrl to change the direction your characters are facing. This matters because 
Backstab is a thing (basically you get a bonus to your attack roll if attacking from 
behind) this applies to all enemies and your characters too.

*Better armor is rare, only the outfit (or chest piece) actually changes AC (shields 
also add to it) otherwise, boots, gloves, head pieces and jewelry apply bonuses. 
Such as +1 to dex save or (in the case of a rare magic item) intelligence set to 18.

*Start the fight whenever you can, getting the jump on the enemy is the difference 
between life and death. Preferably from stealth. With a rogue. This give you a 
surprise round (A surprise round is a full round where the enemy does not get to 
act) (note that when trying this method, often your other characters, if sneaking 
or out of range, will not immediately join the fight, you have to make them join 
manually)

*Crowd control is the biggest deal in this game. Anything that can stun, terrify 
or put to sleep the enemy. Basically, make the enemy have fewer turns & actions 
than you makes it a lot easier to win.

*The two most powerful spells I have found in the game so far are bless & healing 
word. They aren't fancy or flashy but boy howdy are they effective. Cleric FTW.

-=Race & Class=-
*Rogues do sneak attack damage when they attack from stealth. As you level up you 
can use a bonus action to hide again as a rogue. However, you need to make sure you 
are out of line of sight of the enemy to do this.

*Ranged Rogue is kind of a thing. It is more effective to be a dual-wield melee rogue. 
As you get to attack again with your off hand as a bonus action. Letting you get as 
much as four (!) attacks off per round, compared to a ranged rogue's single attack.

*Your race matters. . . like, elf and stuff. Uh, to clarify, I mean that, for 
example, if building a rogue, you want darkvision, you may also want the proficiency 
with shortbows + longbows that a Wood Elf gives you or any other racial bonuses.

*Humies are boring. Get horns (It's an RPG, stop playing human fighters, ugh).

*The rogue is... wait... where is the rogue?

*The cleric is pretty essential to any party. Healing word is a bonus action that 
lets you pick up allies from a distance. There is no reason to ever not have healing 
word. Keep healing word in your spell list!

*Bless is also kinda dope. Bane (anti-bless) is more situational but more useful 
in those situations.

*Fighters are you standard, uh, fighty-person. I wonder what they do? Hm. Nice to 
have, but not necessary for survival.

*Do not make fun of their funny noses. Do not make fun of their noses. I just.. 
wana tweak it.

*Tieflings are kinda. . . horny.

*Elves are pretty awesome and quite strong as a choice. Everyone will think you are
probably stuck up because you think you're better than them. Which is quite unfair. 
You know you are better than them.

How to Get Your Own Owlbear Cub

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Written by Dr Nilsson

-=Owlbear Cub Quick Guide=-
If you killed all the goblins then I believe that you cannot get the owlbear cub. 
The only way I have figured out how to get it is by:

* Kill it's mother in the owlbear cave.
* Leave it alone to eat its mother.
* Leave the cave and end the day (long rest at your camp).
* Go to goblin camp and find the goblins playing "chicken chase" with the owlbear cub 
  (on the west side).
* Talk to the goblin running the game and get through the dialogue but end with 
  refusing to play the game because of cruelty.
* Talk to the owlbear cub (via speak with animals potion or other similar effect) 
  and tell it to come with you. It will want to but be afraid of leaving the goblins.
* Talk to the goblin again, but this time there is an option to say you want to 
  leave with the cub. Select this and intimidate/persuade/illithid tadpole your way 
  to success.
* The cub will run away. Now you just have to do other stuff/wait for it to show 
  up at your camp. It showed up at my camp after a few long rests.

Hints, tips, tricks, and secrets

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Easy Classes: Martial classes are the easiest to use —- any class that focuses on armor, 
strength, and lots of big weapons. They are not necessarily the most powerful, but they 
are simple and straightforward. The Warlock is the simplest class to understand if you 
are aiming for magic-users. If you want a little bit of both, the Cleric is a great 
martial class with healing magic.

Change Character Turn Order: In combat, it is possible to alternate the turn order for 
your characters —- but only if the turns are together. If you have three party members 
taking turns at the same time, then an enemy afterwards, you can swap your party member 
turn around however desired before the enemy turn. You can do the same if you just have 
two characters taking turns at the same time. This can be very useful.

Throw Potions For Quick Healing: Potions can be thrown at allies for quick healing. 
However, the breaking glass does cause damage -- so do not use this technique if your 
ally has almost no health. You can also throw potions on the ground to create a little 
pool of healing your party members can stand in.

[Right-click] to Inspect and Learn Secrets: [Right-click] to Inspect is useful for 
examining the world. If there is a weak wall, make sure to inspect it to see which type 
of damage needs to be applied. Force or Blunt damage will knock down walls, while 
piercing or slashing damage will not help at all.

Lure Enemies to Death: The Find Familiar spell summons a Familiar you can command and 
lure into advantageous combat areas. Summon a Familiar and lure enemies under a rooftop 
so you can easily snipe them. The distraction can be very useful.

Use the Environment to Your Advantage: Using the environment can be your best weapon. 
Pushing enemies off ledges, luring them into traps, or setting off explosive barrels 
are great strategies for tough fights. You can also throw a poison potion on the ground 
in a chokepoint and defend that position, poisoning incoming enemies as they try to 
reach you.

Note the Different Types of Spells: There are two types of spells in Baldur's Gate 3 
—- instantaneous and concentration. Instantaneous spells are cast immediately on use, 
but Concentration spells take some time. If you are attacked while trying to summon a 
Concentration spell, you will have to make a successful ability check or your spell 
will be interrupted.

Do Not Spam Spells –- Use Alternate Methods: Everything in Baldur's Gate 3 works off 
a cooldown that is quite long. You will have to take short rests to recover some 
abilities and spells, and others can only be recovered after a long rest at your 
camp. Try to save spells for situations where you are outnumbered or in a tough 
fight. Use alternate solutions for battles —- like kicking enemies off ledges.

Rogues Tricks: Rogues are normally good with bows-and-arrows, but they are also 
good in close-range. If you are in a fight, you can jump (Free Action) to avoid 
reaction attacks and retreat, or you can enter sneak on your turn and hug the back 
of an enemy for a sneak attack. It seems strange to activate mid-battle, but it 
can work. With bows, you can dip your arrows into fire to set them ablaze and burn 
enemies. Try taking the high-ground as well. You will get bonuses for accuracy and 
range. Additionally, if an ally is standing next to an enemy in combat, you will 
have a better chance of hitting that enemy. The same is the case for magic-users 
trying to sling spells.

Throw Teammates and Enemies: If your strength is high enough, you can throw 
teammates and enemies. You can pick up enemies and throw them over a ledge for 
a quick kill.

How to Get Owlbear

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Written by Dr Nilsson

A guide on how to get your own owlbear cub.

-=The guide=-
Thanks and credit to Call_Me_Gibletish on the BG3 reddit.

If you killed all the goblins then I believe that you cannot get the owlbear cub. 

The only way I have figured out how to get it is by:

1.Kill it's mother in the owlbear cave.
2.Leave it alone to eat its mother.
3.Leave the cave and end the day (long rest at your camp).
4.Go to goblin camp and find the goblins playing "chicken chase" with the owlbear 
  cub (on the west side).
5.Talk to the goblin running the game and get through the dialogue but end with 
  refusing to play the game because of cruelty.
6.Talk to the owlbear cub (via speak with animals potion or other similar effect) 
  and tell it to come with you. It will want to but be afraid of leaving the goblins.
7.Talk to the goblin again, but this time there is an option to say you want to leave 
  with the cub. Select this and intimidate/persuade/illithid tadpole your way to success.
8.The cub will run away. Now you just have to do other stuff/wait for it to show up 
  at your camp. It showed up at my camp after a few long rests.

Tips to Beat Phase Spider Matriarch

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* First of all be at least lvl 4.
* Next thing – wyvern poison. Sneak atack with Astarion with poisoned crossbow. 
  It can take over half it’s HP in a single atack.
* To finish it off, magic can also wreak it. Just hurl thunder chromatic orbs or 
  shoot fire rays at it with Gale.
* Better still if YOU are a sorcerer with Quicken Spell and speed potion in your 
  pocket. You will demolish the poor spider in a single turn.

Guide to Speak to Animals

--------------------------
* Druids can speak to animals if they are wildshaped.
* Bard, Druid and Ranger can have Speak With Animals spell (1st level).
* But there’s a lot of Speak With Animals potions in the game.
* Paladin Oath of the Ancients should get it at level 3 as well.

-=Final Note=-
Wizards can also gain Speak With Animals if they find a scroll (and you will). And, 
yes, there are items, too. But, if you want to play a spellcaster other than Druid 
and want to be guaranteed early access to it, go Warlock. It’s a good, fun class 
anyway, really.

Useful Tip

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We aren’t sure yet if the camping provisions automatically access your camp chest 
in the final build, but it didn’t in EA. So here is a handy tip that saved me tons 
of time and energy when dealing with long rests.

Keep a couple backpacks and sacks on you at all times. As you collect food items, 
fill up the bags with somewhere between 7-10 weight with food and then send the bag 
to camp. As you travel, try to keep one pack with at least the 40 food needed to 
rest, and just keep sending other packs full of food to camp.

Then if you ever hit a dry patch in food collection when you head to camp just grab 
one of your already full packs and pull out food from the pack rather than digging 
through your entire camp chest to find what you need. Not only does this save you 
time, it keeps your inventory from getting cluttered will rolls, wine, and the single 
kiwi in the game (WFT did it come from?).

Side note: This method also works well when you want to just sell a bunch of junk but 
don’t want to have an inventory cluttered with items you don’t care about. Just shove 
em in a bag and sell the bag full of junk rather than hunting down each item when you 
get to the shop.

Tank for the Team

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It’s not necessary but you would have to plan out how to compensate for the lack 
of damage sponge such as spells that increase your AC, making your characters super 
fast through handy spells like haste.

Honestly if you lack a tank adding in a buffer and debuffer can basically fulfill 
that role and act as a damage mitigator and making everyone as mobile as possible 
and long-range reduces how effective enemy melee can be. A buffer and debuff caster 
can also double as utility out of combat in ways a tank may not be able too. 
Downside is spell slot limitations of course.

Also, have sneak on always to add some potential bonus extra long-range damage 
combat before combat. So a dex heavy and low armoured party would work well for 
that. Also have positioning in mind too to plan where your party is difficult for 
your enemies to reach you.

How to Get the Jack of All Trades Achievement

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Written by Aldremnahkip

-=Preparation=-
First off, You need to get to level 12 on your party, as experience is shared among 
everyone, even Followers in your camp that you don’t Use. You likely can see where 
this is going. You should get to level 12 Late into Act 3 (But not before the Finale) 
Provided you do plenty of exploring.

-=Execution=-
If you have already leveled all the origin characters into the same class more than 
once, there is still another way, Wither’s Hirelings also count for this Achievement, 
and Don’t count as a class reset upon Hiring, So hire a Hireling and Put one level 
into each class. The Hireling should immediately be able to level to level 12 Upon 
putting them in your party if your party is already level 12. If not, Just gather a 
little bit more experience if possible and you should be good.

How to Recruit Minthara Without Killing

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Written by Sacuraisy

Minthara, the Dark Elf who’s pledged her allegiance to Absolute, has proven one of 
Baldur’s Gate 3‘s more popular NPCs, and if you play your cards right, she can become 
a romanceable companion. But you need to get your hands dirty if you want her to 
join up… or do you?

-=Foreword=-
Typically, you get this badass Drow on your side by completing a quest she gives you 
to slaughter pretty much everyone in the Emerald Grove. So, with a little assistance 
from Minthara’s goblin troops, you’ll end up knee deep in Tiefling and Druid corpses. 
Then, you’ll have earned her favour. There is a little more to it than that, but the 
general wisdom has been that you can’t recruit her without a bit of carnage.

-=How-To=-
* Speak to the Tiefling children (Mol’s gang) about stealing the Druid idol.
* Steal the idol to stop the ritual, using stealth.
* This will start a fight between Tieflings and Druids so run or sneak out.
* Report the grove’s location to Minthara and when she and you go back you’ll find 
  all the defenders dead. You’ll then be able to recruit her later in the game.



Tank Companion Tips:
--------------------
Barbarian with Wildheart subclass and Bear Heart takes half damage on everything 
(other than psychic, IIRC?) when raging and has the highest basic hit point pool 
in the game.

A Fighter with heavy armour, a shield and right fighting style will reach way higher 
AC, however, making them harder to hit.

Then there are some Feats you might look into, such as Sentinel or Polearm Master 
that can help with preventing enemies from running past you.

But as a curveball choice you could even consider tanking as a Circle of the Moon 
Druid, whose wildshapes have their own hit point pools, and your "main form" doesn’t 
take damage until the wild shape is out of hit points.

Wouldn’t necessarily recommend that last option, however, because they will get hit 
so so much.



Inventory Management Tips:
--------------------------
There is a inventory management, that isn’t explained in the help section.

Left Click on item in your inventory, Shift left click another item and all items 
in between will be selected. Then all items can be drag-dropped.

Unbelievable how many single item drag and drop I have done until now. Why isn’t 
this simple inventory management trick explained anywhere in the game.

You can also Ctrl-click to select different items which aren’t next to each other.

Another good tip is to pick up pouches/sacks/backpacks, load things like potions 
and arrows into them, and then drag the bag onto your hotbar (you might need to 
unlock it with the little lock symbol). Clicking them from the hotbar opens the bag.

On gamepad, Right Trigger adds the current item to the selection (like Ctrl+Click), 
so you can use any menu choice on a whole bunch of things at once.



How to Rob Shopkeepers (Fast Way):
----------------------------------
* Gift a merchant so much of stuff/gold until their attitude grow to be allied 
  to you, making you see them as green instead of yellow on minimap.
* Cast feign death on them which works only on allies.
* If needed cast fog/darkness on the merchant to obscure the area.
* Rob everything back, all the good, whatever you want from the comateous 
  "allied" merchant.
* Escape safely while they are still comateous.



If You Stuck at the Shar Temple:
--------------------------------
Here’s how I solved it.

The elevator wasn’t there for me. I had a singular traversal gem, and what I 
thought was 3 Umbra Orbs (really I had 5!), and the altar with two interactables.

At the nearby waygate, I dropped the three orbs I had and a fourth one in another 
character’s inventory on the ground. Only three showed on the ground.

I went to interact with the altar and got the prompts to talk to Shadowheart and 
leave examine the altar.

I went to click the traversal gem and nothing happened. Again, the elevator 
isn’t even there. There is no right gem like people are claiming.

On my way back toward the altar I interacted with it again and got the insert 
prompt I was looking for. I exited out and went to go pick up the orbs, but only 
three showed on the ground. I picked those three up.

I inserted one into the altar and I called the elevator over with the SINGLE 
TRAVERSAL gem I had an option to see. The altar now visibly showed two gems in 
it. I checked my inventory and I had three orbs. Two in my inventory and one in 
Shadowheart’s. I know, if you’re following my directions there should only be 
two orbs here, but I had three in my inventory anyways, hence the bug.

I was then able to use the right traversal button everyone is mentioning and 
finish the puzzle.



Guide to Win House of Grief Battle:
-----------------------------------
* Don’t deal any radiant damage.
* The knight enemies (Dark Justiciars) are the real threat in that battle (90% 
  of the enemy damage per turn). If you can, lock them down with some kind of 
  CC or take them out early.
* There’s a ring you should have recieved as a reward for playing hide and seek
  in Act 2 that makes you immune to being blinded, use it on a spell caster.
* This is a good fight for AoEs (lots of low hp enemies that like to swarm): 
  haste a caster, give them a bloodlust elixir and drop 3 AoEs on them a turn.

-=How-To=-
Probably the hardest battle of the game. If you aren’t level 12, you probably 
will want to go do other things to get leveled up.

I ultimately ended up kiting the enemies and back tracking away from where this 
battle is located. Was able to keep enough distance so that my team stayed alive, 
and there are a lot of choke point opportunties. I had Minsc, and made very 
generous use of that spell that makes thorns cover the ground, so that the 
enemies had to walk through it to fight us. It was chipping their HP down 
significantly before they even got close enough to attack.

I thought that by kiting the enemies you encounter first backwards and out of 
that building, that I would be able to at least turn one battle into two — so 
I could rest between them. But all enemies do end up chasing you as far back 
as possible.

But with the AoE spells whittling them down, it became a fairly easy battle.



Useful Tips for Defeating Gnolls:
---------------------------------
The easiest time I had with this fight was getting into the cave near the leader 
and funneling them into the mouth of the cave and tossing out Spike Growth, Cloud 
of daggers, and a Fog spell.

If that’s not an option, try to have them gather on the small paths and AoE them 
down with things like Alchemist’s Fire or grease and fire bolts.

Enter the cave from an alternate route, use tadpole to force leader to fight the 
other gnolls. Perfectly doable at level 1.

Even if you don’t want to enter the cave, there are other routes that have you 
outside the cave but at a height advantage on the Gnolls. Explore the map a little.

Heck I haven’t tried this tactic, but I’m pretty sure it would work to solo the 
fight by casting sanctuary on yourself, initiate combat, and do absolutely nothing 
while the leader slaughters its friends since I’m pretty sure the flail it carries 
forces it to attack allies if it can’t hit an enemy.



How to Deal with Minthara and Ragzlin and Gut:
----------------------------------------------
Ask Gut for a little privacy. Stick three of your party members in Gut’s room in
stealth while your main character asks for the audience.

While talking to Gut switch characters to one of your companions and try to kill 
Gut with impunity. If you can’t one shot her then try hold person or silence on her 
so she can’t call for help.

You can kill all of the various loose goblin groups outside of Ragzlin and Minthara’s 
area without alerting anyone. You can also destroy the war drums that get played when 
you start combat and call allies.

Then go and kill Minthara. You can do the same thing with one character starting a 
conversation with her to make a sneak attack easier to position for. She also has a 
war drum in her room, so make sure to destroy it immediately.

Ragzlin’s a little harder, and when he goes down all of the goblins will turn on you. 
The easiest way to beat him in my opinion is to cast crown of madness on him so he 
destroys his buddies while you take out the rest of his group.

Then finish him off. You can put archers and mages in the rafters to give them height 
advantage and keep them out of harm’s way if necessary.



Farslayer of Bhaal Tips:
------------------------
Here are few tips for Farslayer of Bhaal.

* Use invisible potions or have your wizard learn a scroll of invisible.
* If you have a druid turn into a panther and get behind him.
* Use force tunnel and shoot him into the abyss.
* You can use any other summon to start the fight (preferably something with
  fire resistance).



How to Beat Marcus and Save Isobel:
-----------------------------------
This fight is extremely difficult to win first time blind unless:

A.You are an expert player, and also
B.You are sufficiently lucky with your initiative rolls

It is more than possible for Marcus and his adds to take down Isobel against any 
defence if the initiative rolls go against you.

There are a number of strategies expert players can use to save Isobel playing 
this encounter "straight". However if you’ve already lost your first attempt, and 
given it is seriously disadvantageous to allow Marcus to abduct Isobel, then I 
would recommend using 20/20 hindsight to make this fight easy.

Unless that is you want to spend some time to use this fight to study expert tactics.

Again there are several ways to do that but the simplest by far is to block the doors 
to Isobel’s room before you speak to her. That way you just have to deal with Marcus 
himself and the two gargoyles that come down through a hole in the roof.

Once you’ve dealt with those three Isobel with be safe and dealing with the remaining 
gargoyles is a simple matter.



Tips and Hints:
---------------
Initiative is ‘Easy Mode’. If you can get your whole party to have 5+ initiative 
then they all get to go first each turn. You can apply buffs/debuffs with your 
casters and then destroy all enemies with your melee characters before the enemies 
get one hit in. Use the Alert feat, high dex, and items to raise initiative.

Haste over-powers all your characters. The sweet spot is to have a high initiative 
sorcerer use Twinned-Spell to cast Haste on your two melee characters as the first 
thing when a fight starts. The melee characters can then slaughter everything, with 
your two casters mopping up.

Multi-classing is a must to make any character much, much more effective. One of 
the best dips is into a level of War Cleric, which gives you all armours, shields, 
buffs to rolls and saving throws, and War Priest. Sorcery’s Metamagic (particularly 
Quickened and Twinned spells) can double your casters’ power.

A very effective party is two melee characters (e.g. gith straight fighter and 
paladin/fighter) and two casters (e.g. sorcerer/cleric and cleric/sorcerer).

Respec the characters in your party as soon as you can. The Abilities of the stock 
characters are sub-optimal, and you should also plan early for multiclassing.

Use Ilithid powers to the max. There is no downside to this. Particularly good are 
the reaction spells that counter attacks etc. The moment you hit Act 3, you want 
all your party to take the enhanced Illithid abilities to get Fly for free for all 
your party. This is the second ‘Easy Mode’.

Make getting and exploiting the items that max out an Ability a priority and then 
respec a character accordingly. Throughout the game you can be scrambling to get 
one or two extra ability points, but in comparison a pair of gloves that, say, 
give 18 dex is really powerful. You can respec your abilities to min that ability 
and put all the ability points into something else, for instance to support a 
multi-class.

Make use of the vendors in Moonrise Towers. Both the vendors in the entrance hall 
sell some key stuff, and another NPC gives a +2 permanent str buff. Some people 
only use the (also key) vendors at the Last Light Inn.

Pickup and sell everything – except good magic items, as you never know when you’ll 
need them. If you hit Act 2 and then Act 3 with 10-20K in your pocket then you can 
go on shopping spree at the new vendors for buffed gear that will help tackle the 
tougher enemies. Volo is your friend in fencing your purloined items. Rescue him 
both times so that he’s always in your camp to sell your junk to and to buy from, 
but you can lose him for a long time if you progress the dialogue with him to try 
to extract your tadpole, so I prefer not to do that.

Don’t be afraid to back off and escape from a tough fight. You only need to get 
one of your party out alive, whilst the rest of your party covers their escape. 
House of Grief and the dragon fight spring to mind here. Even if the area map is 
red, you can retreat outside the area, go to camp, restore, and then go back at 
full strength for another go.


Tips to Beat Act 3 Honor Mode:
------------------------------
Written by ABulletTooFar

If you just take your time, build a well rounded and well geared party, and make 
sure you’re prepared at all times (i.e. don’t walk around unknown areas with few 
spell sluts or heavily damaged, always have plenty potions on you, etc.) you should 
be fine.

Other than some more health and a couple of abilities that don’t even trigger if 
you focus them down in one or two rounds, bosses aren’t that much harder than 
Tactician. As long as you aren’t Leeroy Jenkins’ing it you should be fine.

The path of the least resistance depends on your main build as the best action is 
to do the encounters that gives you the best items for your build . Also the vendors 
have some top level items so may try look at their inventories as a priority to buff 
your builds.

Rivington is light on combat, and what combat there is isn’t especially dangerous, 
if you’ve picked through AoM in Honor Mode. I would suggest that you avoid causing a 
ruckus in the vicinity of the Duke of Baldur’s Gate however, as that can get out of 
hand quickly.

Once you’re in lower city, stick to the main streets, and don’t wander into any 
building unless it’s clearly marked as a shop of some kind, to get access to some of 
the better equipment straight away. Stormshore Tabarnacle, Sorcerous Sundries 1st 
floor, The Street Smithies near Lower City Wall, The Demon’s Forge, are all decent 
options.

There are some very notable encounters inside Lower City, and they might be a handful, 
but most of the ‘street level’ encounters should be alright. I personally like to hit 
up the graveyard.



Regain most expended spell slots and class features without taking a long rest:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you pay 100 gold to withers to re spec your character, you will be reduced to 
level 1 and have the EXP to level up to your previous level. When you do you will
regain all expended spell slots and class features except those you have at first 
level. This is an easy way to regain your features without long resting.


How to Build a Throwbarian:
---------------------------
Written by Fogno

YEET your enemies into each other and into chasms, laughing hysterically as a raging 
Throwbarian! You will be throwing your weapon for every attack, never using it
"properly" as your main damage comes from Tavern Brawler.

This build genuinely brings me so much joy to play.

The build dishes out BIG damage early, scales surprisingly well, and is generally 
hilarious to play. Throw a low HP enemy into another enemy to take them both out at 
once. The Returning Pike will be your best friend all the way through act 2 and 
remain surprisingly effective.

Disclaimer: Changes to DRS (Damage Riders as Source) in Honor Mode make this build 
slightly less powerful in that gamemode but is still viable. As of Patch 5, those 
changes are not present in Tactician and lower, making it considerably stronger.

-=Level Order=-
For levels 4-7, this build requires Elixirs of Hill Giant Strength to be used every 
morning to maintain 21 STR.

A minimum of 20 STR is required to pick up creatures that weigh 150lbs / 75kg, which 
is most medium sized creatures. At level 8, we get 20 STR permanently and Cloud Giant 
Elixirs can be used to boost before large fights instead.

-- 9 Berserker Barbarian + 3 Champion Fighter
* Level 1: Barbarian
* Level 2: Barbarian
* Level 3: Barbarian, Berserker subclass
* Level 4: Barbarian, Tavern Brawler Feat adding +1 to STR
* Level 5: Barbarian
* Level 6: Barbarian
* Level 7: Barbarian
* Level 8: Barbarian, Ability Score Improvement to 20 STR. 
  You no longer require Hill Giant Elixirs.
* Level 9: Fighter, Defense Fighting Style
* Level 10: Fighter
* Level 11: Fighter, Champion subclass
* Level 12: Barbarian (for Brutal Critical) OR Fighter for a feat of your choice 
  (whatever looks fun)

--Respecs Required
* No.

--Subclass(es)
* Berserker Barbarian: Grants Enraged Throw as a bonus action so you can make an 
  additional throw attack on subsequent turns.
* Champion Fighter: We dip into fighter for Action Surge and take it to level 3 
  because Intimidating Presence from 10 Barbarian doesn’t do anything for our build. 
  Your action is more effective being used to throw more things! The increased crit 
  chance from Champion is more generally useful and synergizes with Brutal Critical.

We don’t go Battlemaster because we’re throwing something at every opportunity, and 
never using our weapon "properly" to make use of the maneuvers.

-=Starting Stats=-
* 17 / 14 / 14 / 8 / 10 / 8

For a Tav build, you can move some points from CON to CHA. You are going to be at 
ranged and raging most of the time, rarely taking damage.

-=Feats=-
Tavern Brawler: Adds your STR modifier twice to the damage when throwing objects 
and using improvised weapons. So, at 20 STR, you are doing a minimum of 10 damage 
per throw attack. Equivalent to Great Weapon Master, but without the accuracy penalty.

-=Gear=-
The following is the only gear required for the entire game:

* (Act 1) Gloves of Uninhibited Kushigo
* (Act 1) Ring of Flinging
* (Act 1) Returning Pike
* (Act 3) Dwarven Thrower & Nyrulna

Keep all 3 returning weapons in your inventory and decide which one you want to 
throw on the fly. Nyrulna will deal additional thunder damage in an AOE, so toss 
Dwarven Thrower instead when friendlies are too close.

Do not start fights with a returning weapon, or it may not return. Instead, throw a 
mundane javelin to begin a fight out of initiative.

For all other gear, you can just kinda wing it. Use the best AC medium armor you have 
(I like Adamantine Scale Mail) and any shield. Prioritize the other builds in your 
party for gear and give the Throwbarian whatever sounds useful at the time.

--Race
* Anything works!

-=Gameplay Tips=-
Enemy is too far? You can move enemies into throwing range by using Improvised Weapon 
Attack. Pick them up, click the target location, and RIGHT CLICK to cancel the move and 
drop them safely. This won’t use your action, and you can then throw them wherever 
you like!

* Where do I get Hill Giant Elixirs in Act 1?
* Auntie Ethel sells 3 in her shop at the Grove. In order to keep her here as 
  long as possible:
* Delay dealing with the grove situation, as she leaves when it is resolved
* DO NOT steal from her, or she will leave
* Avoid rendering her and Mayrina’s brothers south of Blighted Village. If you 
  render them, she is no longer at the grove.
* Edit: Avoid making her hostile in her Teahouse if you want to continue trading 
  with her there

Derryth in the Mychonid Colony also stocks 1-2 elixirs every day.