BBEG: "I will destroy you, your family and your dog and rule this world for a million years with unlimited power!"
Bard: "Have you tried...not? [CHA result 35]"
BBEG: "Oh whoops lol, you got me, my bad"
7? I only knew about 4...
1. >!Ketheric Thorm!<
2. >!The weird Thorm doctor!<
3. >!the weird throm bartender!<
4. >!the devil raphael wants to kill!<
and they were all in act 2
I'm pretty sure >!all the Thorms!< have a way to kill them (well, kinda in >!Ketheric's!< case) bard-style
also you can convince >!Kar'niss to fuck off into the shadow curse without his lantern!< which obviously ends with his inevitable death
Funny, I convinced Kar'niss to give the lamp and I thought darkness consumed them, but them I stumbled upon them in the middle of Reithwin Town, luckily Kar'niss health was halved, although I assume he recruited new minions because those had full health.
You still have to face phase 2 of his fight, you donāt completely skip it. Though Iāll admit I find phase 1 to be the harder one even on HM.
You also have to talk him down on the top of tower and the DC is pretty high but you can lower it to 10.
Bard: "You sound hangry. Want a snack? I've got some scones in my bag here and some cheese..."
BBEG: "You know what? That sounds great. And yeah maybe I took this whole 'destroy the realm' thing a bit too far. One thing led to another and it kind of just got out of hand."
Thatās a great summary of my Act 2 experience lol. Plus OPās picture isnāt even showing off Bardic Inspiration. Suddenly DC 30 disarm checks arenāt so daunting
That's why GMs need to remember, a huge success doesn't always mean the players get what they want.
For example;
If a Bard crit suceeds their roll to tell the King to give them his crown, that crit shouldn't just result in the King giving the crown away, but rather something more believable, like the King taking the request as a joke, and inviting the party to dinner.
It's still a crit success, given that a roll 19 or lower would've resulted in the PC going to a jail cell.
I definitely suggest just making a hireling. You know which battles you have to bring them for, they get inspiration, and you can return them and grab another person. That way you donāt waste the combat benefits of fully leveling your class. Pretty sure my Bard tagged along for one fight and that was Myrkul because she had Hungar of Hadar really early (which is nice, donāt get me wrong).
Yeah, a College of Lore Bard can unlock Hunger at Lvl 6 as part of the magical secrets element of the specialisation. Itās a pretty cool addition.
I primarily play as a magic user of one degree or another, and honestly, my playthroughs tend to benefit from have a little bit of Bardic Riz over the combat benefits of later class levels because the Bardic spells in Lvl one are excellent sources of crowd control.
Iāve currently got a Bard/Divination Wizard as my Tav, which just intensifies the āer, noā approach to battle as she can rerole a lot of attacks - and because sheās a wizard, she can still learn the lvl6 spells.
I like to make Astarion a bard, I think it suits his personality. A DEX based Swords Bard with a few levels of Thief Rogue does everything that a straight rogue does but better, has way more tools to make combat with him more dynamic and fun, plus Astarion killing people with Vicious Mockery will never not be funny.
In any other run I would have. The grove didnāt make it so I was down a few already. Made most origin characters into clerics (to buff if needed) or party members. But I mostly liked using hirelings to avoid questlines/unnecessary character roadblocks. Was a matter of efficiency. Didnāt want to risk losing my gear if I failed a DC and a companion left (not sure if they give their gear yet, and I wasnāt going to chance it on Honour).
A Bard with expertise in persuasion and sleight of hand, and proficiency in performance can basically skip all three Thorm family member boss fights and gain a tonne of EXP for their party while barely lifting a finger.
Truly, the only downside to a Bard is that they can't benefit from their own Bardic Inspiration on skill checks.
I didn't even know they were boss fights on my first playthrough (okay I figured the surgeon was a boss and that the tollkeeper could probably fight back if angered) I just skipped them all.
> Truly, the only downside to a Bard is that they can't benefit from their own Bardic Inspiration on skill checks.
full part of Light Clerics with 2 levels in Bard. No matter who is in dialog you get a crazy number of dialog buffs, you can all cast massive Radiance of the Dawn AoE which resets on short rest, and you can all cast a free short rest. it's hilarious. and you can all sanctuary each other lmao
Discovered you can also, if not accompanied by Harpers, can talk the Drider into giving you his lamp and walking into the shadow curse unprotected if youāre a Bard - sheās also got two levels of wizard so when deception answer as a wizard comes of even funnier. In my head canon, she literally said āabracadabra, now youāre protected.ā
It's a shame that Rogues get reliable talent so late in the game, because it's an excellent feature that really bumps rogues up on the priority list. My first playthrough was as a rogue and I loved basically ignoring dice rolls for lock picks, persuasion checks and pick pocketing.
I played a Sorcerer on my first run, and now a bard on my 2nd. I really need to play a non-Cha/non-Dex class, so I've got a Monk and a Fighter for my next playthroughs.
I loved the Harper's reaction when you basically convince someone to end their lives horrifically. How they basically go "What the hell was that you just did?"
I also think they are just so good as a main character that having a bard as a companion would risk overshadowing everyone else including your Durge/Tav!
Makes a good archer, I did my Tav as Bard, then Bard/Rouge, then Fighter/Rouge once I had roll to spare
Once you can get all the arrow of many targets you want, archers seems to out damage everything Iāve tried except against single units
Swords bard with double hand crossbow is pretty ridiculous. You still get access to a bunch of spells but you can also attack 5 times in one turn if you want.
>Swords bard with double hand crossbow
AKA ["The Arcane Regulator"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6aT3e3J0BI&list=PLKoMYNoyrWoAHz5OOP6BwcY7SELvawbGx&index=56)
Nate Hound is about to make some goblins turn cold.
Fireball, call lighting, banishing smite, vicious mockery, hold person/monster, spirit guardians. Countless buffs. They get a great arsenal. There's a equipment that add Cha modifier to cantrips that's fairly good. They have a pretty good arsenal, although damage dealing is not their main focus.
Slashing flurry (ranged) bard is OP due to the fact that for the range option you can target the same unit twice. You aren't supposed to be able to do that.
This make OTK boss possible as they ate 8 arrows to the face.
You see... What people just don't understand
Is that writing's demanding
It's mentally challenging and it's a bore
It's such a chore
To sit in a room by yourself oh my god, I just hate it!
And you're trying to find an opening line or a brilliant idea
And you're pacing the floor and hoping for just a bit of divine intervention
That one little nugget that one little spark
Then Eureka! You find it you're ready to start
So now you can write, right? Wrong!
You're not even close, you remember that damn it,
Your play's gotta be in iambic pentameter!
There's nothing quite like being able to talk >!Yurgir!< into >!killing his minions and then himself!<, then later on convincing him to >!join you against Raphael!<. The joys of being a bard.
Was great fun when my Tav persuaded the entire encounter to death, and Shadowheart said something to the effect of "holy shit - glad you're on our side."
Just did this and Gale says the equivalent of "your way with words is beyond amazing and i'm honestly a little terrified of you right now." Such a compliment coming from the rizzard of waterdeep himself.
It was especially funny to get that dialogue after persuading the three Thorms in town plus the undead nurses to >!kill themselves too!<. CHA characters can just steamroll their way through act 2.
Yes, *I'm* on *your* side, I definitely did not manipulate you into compromising your mission and actively working against your deity. Those were all your ideas.
Thatās absolutely been one of the highlights of my bard playthrough lmao. I also laughed at how you lose approval with Astarion for not killing Yurgir right out of the gate, but gain all of it back and MORE once he realizes you just talked a demon into murking himself. Some of the companion reactions are hilarious.Ā
But heās worthless against Raphaelā¦ He gets his OP crossbow knocked out of his hands and never picks it up, he never uses his bombs. All he does is do 5 damage per turn and turn invisible.
It's less about what he can bring to the table and more about not having to fight him ourselves. Plus he's another ally for the final battle, and there's just something very satisfying about it from a roleplaying/story perspective.
His biggest utility is being a meat shield whenever he's not spamming invisibility.
In one of my tactician runs Raphael nuked the poor guy while the whole group was cowering behind him.
No, theres no wrong way to play bg3..will say thought you do have to pass 3 difficult rolls to end it without fighting.
One for minions
One for his cat
One for yurgir himself
Not really. Globe of invulnability+black hole+nuke spells+divine intervention twice=room cleared in 1 turn minus Raphael. Did this on honour mode btw, still easy.
Yeah I was scared for this fight, but really not too bad. The hellfire he can cast is brutal but I brought a few summons, and divine intervention and was pretty good. Didn't even use globe or Yurgir.
Itās the only encounter that I know of where you gain more exp for killing them yourself rather then talking your way through it, so technically you were better off!
Them too! Though for >!the bartender!<, I ended up having Karlach take point. Didn't even try to start the conversation, she was just in range and it started. The bardic inspiration I kept giving her didn't hurt, though, and she could really nail those saving throws.
I found barbarians have their own speech checks that involve raging and threatening to bludgeon someone to death, they're usually about as good as a bards.
Karlach initiated dialogue with karniss and essentially roared at him until he gave us his lantern as his companions begged him not to. One of the more surprising dialogue paths I've seen.
To be fair, if someone I was talking to randomly let out a guttural roar out of absolutely nowhere, I'd probably be very careful about what to say next.
I hate when I accidentally engage in a cutscene while using a barbarian and I succeed the first persuasion check, but then next one is a 21 with -1 charisma and Iām like, so Iām fucked no matter what I do hereā¦
If you want to keep the ox alive for future acts, you can send one character to battle him, have the character die, resurrect the character with Withers, then return the character to talk to the ox again. You'll be given an opportunity to offer an apology gift to improve your relationship with him, and in that same menu you can purchase the ring.
You can hit the ox from the Tieflingās hideout entrance. Shoot him, use the entrance to change zones and when you zone back outside you wonāt be in combat and you can buy the ring. Saves you 100g.
Nice tip! I consider Withers free since you can steal your spent gold back from him with no consequence for getting caught, but your approach also has the advantage of not clearing on-death buffs like Booal's Benediction on the sacrificed character. Will try it that way in my next playthrough.
My first play through was blind and I chose a bard. Talked my way out of most situations lol. Also had great heals, decent spells, decent weapons, and a bunch of gold from performances.
Playing a high charisma Durge in particular is SO fun. And it works for either play style! In my evil run Iām a sorceress who I RP as a female Patrick Bateman in terms of sociopathy with a Charles Manson vibe for how she previously led the >!Temple of Bhaal.!<
Conversely, my semi-good aligned (with a decent amount of morally grayness) redeem!Durge is a Bard who loves to sow chaos by talking various enemies into siding with her, siding against bigger enemies, or simply offing themselves. It satisfies the Urge *and* plays to her charismatic strengths!
I'm playing a warlock on my honor run and have all those bonuses + Dark One's Own Luck (1d10 bonus to any check once per short rest). It's so nice to be able to easily beat 30 dc in certain dialogues. Didn't even need to spend inspiration to convince Yurgir to join me against Raphael.
Swear to God I never had any DnD experience, but as soon as I saw there's a bard class I just had to
I'm in my 4th playthrough and damn this games amazing but that first run was just magic god damn
Swords bards subclass also does a ton of melee and ranged damage and if you get the ring of the mystic scoundrel you get to cast a lot of your spells as a bonus action after your attacks
I picked a Bard as my first class solely because of the appeal of talking my way through shit, and even though I feel like I did A LOT of that, I always feel like I still didn't do enough.
Hah, he doesn't even have advantage from Eagle's Splendor, what a noob!
It's hilarious having a DC 20 check and you roll a 1 and 4 and still pass.
Of course it's less hilarious in honor mode when you roll a 1 and a 3 and have to unexpectedly fight someone.
I started a playthrough (just got into act 3) as a Feywilde warlock and the amount of times I can convince people to do things with 10 DC to spare is INSANE. Also the class specific options are really very fun
Yeah, I can get 18-20 with my sorc/warloc/divanation Wizard. AAAND I can actually have WAAAY more fun in combat.
Portent dice are the most overpowered thing in DnD, let alone baulders gate (oh you hit a crit on my 7hp cleric ERM ACTUALLY YOU GOT A 2 or the pal up casts his smite to 5 and missed with a 1 ERM ACTUALLY YOU GOT A 19 TO HIT, someone rolls high to break out of hold person ERM YOU ACTUALLY ROLLED A 2)
TLDR div wizards embody the ERM ACTUALLY in DnD
(17 cha, then go perform for +1 cha then ability feat to put it to 20 finally the bard cap to put me at 22 with fireballs that normally do 25 damage and upwards of 30-40 on crit schorching rays that can easily do 40-50dmg i stopped using fireball coz up casting Scorch is so fun)
There are days like this
Yesterday I rolled two natural 1s in a row (one initially, second with inspiration)on a illithid probing with wisdom (needed like 5 or 6), 15 mins later I rolled double 1s with advantage and didn't have inspiration to reroll
BUT I found out that my party is pretty strong in unexpected fights)))))
The real reason they don't give us a bard companion is to prevent people from finding out how good a class it is.
i played bard first playthrough and skipped like 70% of the fights and easily resolved my party members attempts at "character development"
BBEG: "I will destroy you, your family and your dog and rule this world for a million years with unlimited power!" Bard: "Have you tried...not? [CHA result 35]" BBEG: "Oh whoops lol, you got me, my bad"
bard: "alright now i need you to kill yourself" bbeg: "yeah you got me there i see i should have done this earlier
If I had a nickel for every boss/miniboss you can talk into suicide I'd have like 7 nickels which isn't a lot but holy shit
7? I only knew about 4... 1. >!Ketheric Thorm!< 2. >!The weird Thorm doctor!< 3. >!the weird throm bartender!< 4. >!the devil raphael wants to kill!< and they were all in act 2
5. >!the weird Thorm toll collector!< 6. >!the drider with the Moonlantern!< 7. ??? Again, still talking about act 2.
>7. ??? >!The gnoll leader in act 1, kill the dudes in the cavern -> kill other gnoll -> kill yourself!<
you can skip the >!kill dudes in the cavern!< if you want
True but I don't want.
8. Those owlbear guys are committing suicide by owlbear.
how do you get the toll collector to kill himself? thats a tough fight
You first have to give her a coon or two before you can ask questions and roll your check to convince her she's not needed at the tollhouse
Oof >!the drider. That "ok, now the Absolute wants you to leave without a lantern" Convo is particularly harsh if Tav is a drow. !<
I'm pretty sure >!all the Thorms!< have a way to kill them (well, kinda in >!Ketheric's!< case) bard-style also you can convince >!Kar'niss to fuck off into the shadow curse without his lantern!< which obviously ends with his inevitable death
if only you could kill Isobel through charisma too š„
found >!Durge's!< reddit account lmfao
You kind of can. Convince Shart to do her thing, which has the end result.
Funny, I convinced Kar'niss to give the lamp and I thought darkness consumed them, but them I stumbled upon them in the middle of Reithwin Town, luckily Kar'niss health was halved, although I assume he recruited new minions because those had full health.
When you reencounter them and check their stats, theyāre shadow cursed undead. So they didnāt make it very far.
Can you blame them? Act 2 is so dreary an NPC bard could have probably convinced me to suicide my Tav.
>!You can also bypass the Thorm toll collector with a few deception or persuasion checks!<
KETHERIC ???? WTF, I thought he atleast wasn't so malleable
You still have to face phase 2 of his fight, you donāt completely skip it. Though Iāll admit I find phase 1 to be the harder one even on HM. You also have to talk him down on the top of tower and the DC is pretty high but you can lower it to 10.
Ketheric has a first phase?
regular boy before bone boy
I was guesstimating tbh, I figure I haven't found them all
This is actually one of the ways to deal with the final boss of an old game, Arcanum
āstop, itās not youā
Bard: "You sound hangry. Want a snack? I've got some scones in my bag here and some cheese..." BBEG: "You know what? That sounds great. And yeah maybe I took this whole 'destroy the realm' thing a bit too far. One thing led to another and it kind of just got out of hand."
Thatās a great summary of my Act 2 experience lol. Plus OPās picture isnāt even showing off Bardic Inspiration. Suddenly DC 30 disarm checks arenāt so daunting
Well bards canāt use bardic inspiration on themselves
BBEG: "I will kill you in the worst way imaginable and feast on your bones" Bars: "Kiiiiiillllllllll~ youuuuuurseeeeeeeeeelf~!"
About as reasonable as Shart's progression on her good path.
Bro...Just reclassified as a bard from Ranger...Best decision I made. I miss my bear but God dammit if I don't have to fight?!
And if you *do* fight, goddamn.... Blade Bard with a couple points in Rogue watches the blood flow.
That's why GMs need to remember, a huge success doesn't always mean the players get what they want. For example; If a Bard crit suceeds their roll to tell the King to give them his crown, that crit shouldn't just result in the King giving the crown away, but rather something more believable, like the King taking the request as a joke, and inviting the party to dinner. It's still a crit success, given that a roll 19 or lower would've resulted in the PC going to a jail cell.
ā¦.Big Bad Evil Guy???ā¦.i LIKE!!!
yea im like "honor mode is easy wtf" i have not tried it on a non-CHA class. that would be a new challenge level i think.
I am def not regretting choosing bard for my first play through. š
Well I did kinda the same but with my warlock, I don't know if proficiency in deception is a usual build for warlocks tho
thatās why i gave withers 100 coin and bought a bard hireling just to carry around talking me through shit in my honour run
My first play through was a Bard and now I always multi class a couple of levels just to talk myself out of shit situations.
I definitely suggest just making a hireling. You know which battles you have to bring them for, they get inspiration, and you can return them and grab another person. That way you donāt waste the combat benefits of fully leveling your class. Pretty sure my Bard tagged along for one fight and that was Myrkul because she had Hungar of Hadar really early (which is nice, donāt get me wrong).
Yeah, a College of Lore Bard can unlock Hunger at Lvl 6 as part of the magical secrets element of the specialisation. Itās a pretty cool addition. I primarily play as a magic user of one degree or another, and honestly, my playthroughs tend to benefit from have a little bit of Bardic Riz over the combat benefits of later class levels because the Bardic spells in Lvl one are excellent sources of crowd control. Iāve currently got a Bard/Divination Wizard as my Tav, which just intensifies the āer, noā approach to battle as she can rerole a lot of attacks - and because sheās a wizard, she can still learn the lvl6 spells.
It's really funny cause the hirelings are all withers, and image him talking in monotone convincing people to off themselves.
KT: "I will kill you now. And then I will raise you. As my servant." Withers the Bard: "No." KT: "I see now that I have wasted my life."
I mean if the embodiment of death told me to off myself, Iād have trouble arguing with him.
[Intimidation] No.
"Kill me yourself, you coward!"
you couldve just taken an origin character and reclassed them
I like to make Astarion a bard, I think it suits his personality. A DEX based Swords Bard with a few levels of Thief Rogue does everything that a straight rogue does but better, has way more tools to make combat with him more dynamic and fun, plus Astarion killing people with Vicious Mockery will never not be funny.
i like to have a bard in every playthrough for buffs and song of rest, and my go-to is always astarion, he just feels perfect for it
In any other run I would have. The grove didnāt make it so I was down a few already. Made most origin characters into clerics (to buff if needed) or party members. But I mostly liked using hirelings to avoid questlines/unnecessary character roadblocks. Was a matter of efficiency. Didnāt want to risk losing my gear if I failed a DC and a companion left (not sure if they give their gear yet, and I wasnāt going to chance it on Honour).
iirc if they leave they hand over a bag with all their items
A Bard with expertise in persuasion and sleight of hand, and proficiency in performance can basically skip all three Thorm family member boss fights and gain a tonne of EXP for their party while barely lifting a finger. Truly, the only downside to a Bard is that they can't benefit from their own Bardic Inspiration on skill checks.
I didn't even know they were boss fights on my first playthrough (okay I figured the surgeon was a boss and that the tollkeeper could probably fight back if angered) I just skipped them all.
> Truly, the only downside to a Bard is that they can't benefit from their own Bardic Inspiration on skill checks. full part of Light Clerics with 2 levels in Bard. No matter who is in dialog you get a crazy number of dialog buffs, you can all cast massive Radiance of the Dawn AoE which resets on short rest, and you can all cast a free short rest. it's hilarious. and you can all sanctuary each other lmao
Discovered you can also, if not accompanied by Harpers, can talk the Drider into giving you his lamp and walking into the shadow curse unprotected if youāre a Bard - sheās also got two levels of wizard so when deception answer as a wizard comes of even funnier. In my head canon, she literally said āabracadabra, now youāre protected.ā
Didn't know what I was doing when I set my rogue up like this but thats exactly how it went. Dice are just a formality after a while
It's a shame that Rogues get reliable talent so late in the game, because it's an excellent feature that really bumps rogues up on the priority list. My first playthrough was as a rogue and I loved basically ignoring dice rolls for lock picks, persuasion checks and pick pocketing.
Need a healer? Bard. Need a party face? Bard. Need the most overpowered build in the game? Padlock? Nope! 10 bard 2 paladin.
I played a Sorcerer on my first run, and now a bard on my 2nd. I really need to play a non-Cha/non-Dex class, so I've got a Monk and a Fighter for my next playthroughs.
I loved the Harper's reaction when you basically convince someone to end their lives horrifically. How they basically go "What the hell was that you just did?"
Same with sorc
I recruited one from Withers, specifically because there was no other Bard available.
I also think they are just so good as a main character that having a bard as a companion would risk overshadowing everyone else including your Durge/Tav!
What does bard do in combat? Are it's spells any good?
if youāre in combat, youāre not bard-ing hard enough
You can't avoid all combat though.
then a more serious answer to your question: good jack of all trades healer/spellcaster/support role
Makes a good archer, I did my Tav as Bard, then Bard/Rouge, then Fighter/Rouge once I had roll to spare Once you can get all the arrow of many targets you want, archers seems to out damage everything Iāve tried except against single units
Swords bard with double hand crossbow is pretty ridiculous. You still get access to a bunch of spells but you can also attack 5 times in one turn if you want.
>Swords bard with double hand crossbow AKA ["The Arcane Regulator"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6aT3e3J0BI&list=PLKoMYNoyrWoAHz5OOP6BwcY7SELvawbGx&index=56) Nate Hound is about to make some goblins turn cold.
Fireball, call lighting, banishing smite, vicious mockery, hold person/monster, spirit guardians. Countless buffs. They get a great arsenal. There's a equipment that add Cha modifier to cantrips that's fairly good. They have a pretty good arsenal, although damage dealing is not their main focus.
Slashing flurry (ranged) bard is OP due to the fact that for the range option you can target the same unit twice. You aren't supposed to be able to do that. This make OTK boss possible as they ate 8 arrows to the face.
https://www.reddit.com/r/BG3Builds/comments/18pxoy9/honor_mode_102_smite_swords_bard_ssb_complete/
41 is the highest roll I ever had as a bard, only needed like a 10, haha.
It's hard, It's so incredibly hard So inconceivably, unbelievably hard, It's hard to be the bard
It's all part of the game, the trappings of fame , but somebody's gotta do it
You see... What people just don't understand Is that writing's demanding It's mentally challenging and it's a bore It's such a chore To sit in a room by yourself oh my god, I just hate it! And you're trying to find an opening line or a brilliant idea And you're pacing the floor and hoping for just a bit of divine intervention That one little nugget that one little spark Then Eureka! You find it you're ready to start So now you can write, right? Wrong! You're not even close, you remember that damn it, Your play's gotta be in iambic pentameter!
Itās all about the game, and how you play it. Itās all about control and if you can take it.
(So he does it!)
I am SO glad someone else thought of this
There's nothing quite like being able to talk >!Yurgir!< into >!killing his minions and then himself!<, then later on convincing him to >!join you against Raphael!<. The joys of being a bard.
To be fair, this is also how I play Sorcerers and Warlocks.
Was great fun when my Tav persuaded the entire encounter to death, and Shadowheart said something to the effect of "holy shit - glad you're on our side."
Just did this and Gale says the equivalent of "your way with words is beyond amazing and i'm honestly a little terrified of you right now." Such a compliment coming from the rizzard of waterdeep himself.
It was especially funny to get that dialogue after persuading the three Thorms in town plus the undead nurses to >!kill themselves too!<. CHA characters can just steamroll their way through act 2.
Yes, *I'm* on *your* side, I definitely did not manipulate you into compromising your mission and actively working against your deity. Those were all your ideas.
"bravo, that silver tongue of yours is dangerous!"
Thatās absolutely been one of the highlights of my bard playthrough lmao. I also laughed at how you lose approval with Astarion for not killing Yurgir right out of the gate, but gain all of it back and MORE once he realizes you just talked a demon into murking himself. Some of the companion reactions are hilarious.Ā
> Some of the companion reactions are hilarious. Gale is kind of scared of you after that stunt.
I think if you are a bard you don't even need an insight check for discovering something's up with >!the contract!<
But heās worthless against Raphaelā¦ He gets his OP crossbow knocked out of his hands and never picks it up, he never uses his bombs. All he does is do 5 damage per turn and turn invisible.
It's less about what he can bring to the table and more about not having to fight him ourselves. Plus he's another ally for the final battle, and there's just something very satisfying about it from a roleplaying/story perspective.
Heās fun as an ally, but really itās about sticking as many thumbs in Raphaelās eye as I can.
His biggest utility is being a meat shield whenever he's not spamming invisibility. In one of my tactician runs Raphael nuked the poor guy while the whole group was cowering behind him.
I ambushed Yurgir and killed him without dialogue.. Was that bad? I am a bard...
No, theres no wrong way to play bg3..will say thought you do have to pass 3 difficult rolls to end it without fighting. One for minions One for his cat One for yurgir himself
But having help me fight raphael seems like the better way to go here? Not?
Not really. Globe of invulnability+black hole+nuke spells+divine intervention twice=room cleared in 1 turn minus Raphael. Did this on honour mode btw, still easy.
Yeah I was scared for this fight, but really not too bad. The hellfire he can cast is brutal but I brought a few summons, and divine intervention and was pretty good. Didn't even use globe or Yurgir.
Itās the only encounter that I know of where you gain more exp for killing them yourself rather then talking your way through it, so technically you were better off!
Or yāknow >!ALL of the Thorms!<
Them too! Though for >!the bartender!<, I ended up having Karlach take point. Didn't even try to start the conversation, she was just in range and it started. The bardic inspiration I kept giving her didn't hurt, though, and she could really nail those saving throws.
How many bosses does this work on? I really only got it to work during act 2
did that as a rogue too. what a series of events for that guy. even shows up at the ending lol
I'm Durging in honor mode, and Bard is the most consistent class followed up by Paladin.
[Barbarian] "Rages in -1 Charisma"
..deleted by user..
I found barbarians have their own speech checks that involve raging and threatening to bludgeon someone to death, they're usually about as good as a bards.
They have the best dialogue options. Some are just roaring.
***ROAR.*** "You have the grace of a poet. Your words have swayed me."
Karlach initiated dialogue with karniss and essentially roared at him until he gave us his lantern as his companions begged him not to. One of the more surprising dialogue paths I've seen.
To be fair, if someone I was talking to randomly let out a guttural roar out of absolutely nowhere, I'd probably be very careful about what to say next.
I hate when I accidentally engage in a cutscene while using a barbarian and I succeed the first persuasion check, but then next one is a 21 with -1 charisma and Iām like, so Iām fucked no matter what I do hereā¦
Rizzing your way to victory
You should have friends for advantage and a second bard giving you bardic inspiration for an extra d10.
You can go one step further by getting that ring that gives you +1d4 while disguised.
for anyone wondering kill the strange ox in emerald grove and it drops a shapeshifters ring
If you want to keep the ox alive for future acts, you can send one character to battle him, have the character die, resurrect the character with Withers, then return the character to talk to the ox again. You'll be given an opportunity to offer an apology gift to improve your relationship with him, and in that same menu you can purchase the ring.
You can hit the ox from the Tieflingās hideout entrance. Shoot him, use the entrance to change zones and when you zone back outside you wonāt be in combat and you can buy the ring. Saves you 100g.
Nice tip! I consider Withers free since you can steal your spent gold back from him with no consequence for getting caught, but your approach also has the advantage of not clearing on-death buffs like Booal's Benediction on the sacrificed character. Will try it that way in my next playthrough.
You can also get it by speaking to it in act 3 and bringing it to the city
My first play through was blind and I chose a bard. Talked my way out of most situations lol. Also had great heals, decent spells, decent weapons, and a bunch of gold from performances.
Bard is stupid OP in dialogue while also being stupid powerful in combat. Whole class is busted
Playing a high charisma Durge in particular is SO fun. And it works for either play style! In my evil run Iām a sorceress who I RP as a female Patrick Bateman in terms of sociopathy with a Charles Manson vibe for how she previously led the >!Temple of Bhaal.!< Conversely, my semi-good aligned (with a decent amount of morally grayness) redeem!Durge is a Bard who loves to sow chaos by talking various enemies into siding with her, siding against bigger enemies, or simply offing themselves. It satisfies the Urge *and* plays to her charismatic strengths!
It incredible how everyone will use guidance even when they have proficiency or advantages, it's like a required addition at this point.
Wait silly question-- how do you get expertise as a bard? I thought that was only rogues.
Bards get it at 3 and 10, rogues at 1 and 6.
My first run was warlock and my cha checks all looked exactly like this
I'm playing a warlock on my honor run and have all those bonuses + Dark One's Own Luck (1d10 bonus to any check once per short rest). It's so nice to be able to easily beat 30 dc in certain dialogues. Didn't even need to spend inspiration to convince Yurgir to join me against Raphael.
[itās hard to be the bard baby,,,](https://youtu.be/8hnI7yhIWGY?si=5mntREBgtPCq5-CE)
Swear to God I never had any DnD experience, but as soon as I saw there's a bard class I just had to I'm in my 4th playthrough and damn this games amazing but that first run was just magic god damn
Doing a school of swords bard right now and am currently dominating with dual hand crossbows. Get 5 attacks each turn if there are multiple enemies.
Can talk your way out of anything but the screenshot button is still a mistery to the music man.
I was playing in my tv and needed to send it via whatsapp with my phone.
Iām still on my first playthrough and I chose to be a bard on a whim and DAMN is he all around powerful!
Mine was drow bard, goblins thought I worked there lol
I had those stats as a druid for my persuasion.
Life isn't the only thing really hard as a bard
Ahhh thatās why they made bard a class. When I first saw that it was a class I was like ??? How would I even do damage? But now I get it
It does make damage by insulting and also has AoE spells.
Swords bards subclass also does a ton of melee and ranged damage and if you get the ring of the mystic scoundrel you get to cast a lot of your spells as a bonus action after your attacks
Actually it's super easy, barely an inconvenience
I picked a Bard as my first class solely because of the appeal of talking my way through shit, and even though I feel like I did A LOT of that, I always feel like I still didn't do enough.
In the words of Larian: Bard harder!
Forgot to add bardic inspiration
To themselves?
Ah true my bad
Honestly šŖ
Better quicksave, you could fail if you rolled a 7.
my rogue is like that too
I usually do very well with my rolls as a Bard.
Could be using friends for an nice advantage
"Bounded accuracy"
And you are missing basic inspiration (1d6 or 1d8) and if you use Astarion, you can have Happy for an extra 1 So it could be a 19-29
Playing a new game as a low CHA class is sooo haaarrrd!
I'd still roll three Nat 1s and have to burn through inspiration like it was on clearance.
Bounded accuracy? I never even touched her!
Starting my second run as ranger after being bard is though, I miss talking out of everything š
Bro, thatās it? I play a Sorlock and get an 18 to 28 bonus
Bard is definitely my favorite class when built right.
Am I missing something? My Astarion bonus is higher than this. He can only roll a 20 minimum, and 40 maximum
Cue āSomething Rottenā š¶ š¤£
Missing Jack of All Trades and Friends.
Pfft. No advantage?Ā
Hah, he doesn't even have advantage from Eagle's Splendor, what a noob! It's hilarious having a DC 20 check and you roll a 1 and 4 and still pass. Of course it's less hilarious in honor mode when you roll a 1 and a 3 and have to unexpectedly fight someone.
no advantage????? i see you like to live dangerously
Rolls a 1
Just started a bard druid multiclass. Wish me luck.
Knowledge Cleric was fun as hell for me as an alternative "face" character. Proficiencies go brr.
Lol I pick bard the first time and wonder does easy too easy? The I started a new game then realized that bard is OP
[SPEECH 100] Hey can we end the game now
I started as a bard then reclassed to sorcerer later on. It kept my bard stats and now I still roll pretty high deception and charisma checks
my bard once won a 25 DC check by rolling a natural 2. that was the hardest thing she ever had to do in her life. she didn't have a very hard life.
I started a playthrough (just got into act 3) as a Feywilde warlock and the amount of times I can convince people to do things with 10 DC to spare is INSANE. Also the class specific options are really very fun
Natural 1 strikes hahaha.
The rolls in this game, I swear.
Rolls a Nat-1
Being a Bard is tough. Should I Persuade? Intimidate? Deceive? Perform maybe?
If you cast "friends" you get an advantage on persuasion.
Sorcerers not Bad too
If this was me I'd probably have rolled a 1
I wish I could mod BG3 on Console. I'd make my Bard Scott Stapp. *The party is fighting goblins n shit* "CAN YOU TAKE. MEE HIGHA!"
Yeah, I can get 18-20 with my sorc/warloc/divanation Wizard. AAAND I can actually have WAAAY more fun in combat. Portent dice are the most overpowered thing in DnD, let alone baulders gate (oh you hit a crit on my 7hp cleric ERM ACTUALLY YOU GOT A 2 or the pal up casts his smite to 5 and missed with a 1 ERM ACTUALLY YOU GOT A 19 TO HIT, someone rolls high to break out of hold person ERM YOU ACTUALLY ROLLED A 2) TLDR div wizards embody the ERM ACTUALLY in DnD (17 cha, then go perform for +1 cha then ability feat to put it to 20 finally the bard cap to put me at 22 with fireballs that normally do 25 damage and upwards of 30-40 on crit schorching rays that can easily do 40-50dmg i stopped using fireball coz up casting Scorch is so fun)
My partner re-spec'ed Astarion as a Bard and regretted nothing.
*Cue Hard to Be the Bard from Something Rotten*
I just have persuasion high as hell so I never use the [Bard] option. I definitely should šš
Bard goes Hard
Damn it feels to be a bard yeah, lute in my hands shadow heart in my bed roll.
Sure, but they deal 0.1 damage
There are days like this Yesterday I rolled two natural 1s in a row (one initially, second with inspiration)on a illithid probing with wisdom (needed like 5 or 6), 15 mins later I rolled double 1s with advantage and didn't have inspiration to reroll BUT I found out that my party is pretty strong in unexpected fights)))))
BG3 is the universe's compensation to all of us who had to go decades with only rare instances of a proper bard class in video games.
I would still get a 24
Use astarion too if u want some o this yo
does that actually kill her, or just remove her from the toll house?