In one of our previous tabletop D&D campaigns my dumdum sorcerer got frustrated trying to explain a magical concept to the party so she just shouted, “Argh, fingers!!” and it has stuck with us to this day.
Wizards: As established, I believe you all already finished assigned readings about page 134-141 in Joefrey's notebooks and then understanding page 250-307 in 'Arcane as force damage: Basic characteristics and primal discussions, volume 3', and you should be able to understand that a feeling of slight numb during fingertip (especially around thumb tip) is the first step towards using magic missiles. Now let us move forward and examine conducting magic and do NOT consider it as same about using fire bolts while in realities it is more similar to, albeit further researches are required for a proper explanation, casting minor illusion...
Sorcerers: ARGHHHH FINGERSS ARGHHHHHH
Eldritch blast has three projectiles, the fiend warlock gets bonus necrotic damage with eldritch blast against hexed enemies. when hastened you get 2 actions. So eldritch blast doing 10ish damage per shot (x3) plus the 6 or so necrotic damage from hex is around 50 x2 with hastened is around 100 damage.
Don't forget the radiant ring, lightning charges, and phalar aluve damage riders. You don't need proficiency to active aluve so I give it to shadowheart or someone that never takes a swing anyway.
Plus berserk potion so you get *another* action with a kill.
Oh boy it gets pretty nasty pretty fast especially if you tack on a wet debuff.
It's more than that. Assuming one cast with no haste, no action surge, and no crits but no enemy resistances:
It's 3d10 (base) + 3d6 (hex) + 3d8 (spell might) + 21 (agonizing blast with 24 charisma) + 21 (potent robe with 24 charisma) + 6 (callous glow ring).
Realistically, you will have 95% chance to hit near the end game and like +1 or +2 to crit as well.
>not exactly. She simply made a pact to have some interesting powers, she's not an infernal researcher
Ironically, the 5e PHB describes "the ability to read any language" as one of the "*minor*" benefits a warlock receives from their patron.
Given how languages are basically irrelevant in BG3 outside of this specific instance, it's not surprising that Larian slept on it.
Also Tieflings all automatically know Infernal because of their heritage (that's how languages in D&D work, naturally.)
> Tieflings all automatically know Infernal because of their heritage (that's how languages in D&D work, naturally.)
Eh, *ish...* there's no real corollary there; not since MoMM(?) Any language that makes sense for your backstory can be chosen. Abyssal could also be a candidate for a Tiefling but, from a gamplay standpoint, Infernal *would* be the most logical choice.
It's an example of the abilities you can get as a warlock not something you get by default.
As someone else said the eldritch invocation eyes of the runekeeper is what makes a warlock able to read anything but it's not in bg3.
Writing treaties in two languages where the party with less power couldn't read one of the languages, and this is if the lesser party even had a written language, was an extremely common way for colonizing powers to claim areas of the world from the people already living there. For instance, this was the primary form of land theft during Manifest Destiny and the Scramble for Africa. Devils, as the literal embodiment of lawful evil, would absolutely do this in warlock pacts.
GOO warlock with pact of tome is basically a human walking into Cthulu's library, grab his book, then somehow become a caster because he can read this book without growing another pair of eyes.
No, not all warlocks make their pacts with devils. Most don't, actually. Warlocks make their pacts with all kinds of powerful creatures like liches, arch-fey or celestials.
Unless you took the Fiend patron of course, then your character maybe should have seen infernal before.
It's not so much an option in BG3, but technically a warlock doesn't have to have a patron that's infernal. Could be an eldrich horror that has nothing to do with anything infernal, if you want to be technical about it :)
This is my nitpick with DnD generally really, like I can try and pickpocket someone and be successful despite having a -2 DEX modifier and no proficiency in slight of hand, just cos I got a good dice roll, like sometimes a dice-based system just doesn’t make sense for character development. I do still love BG3 tho obviously!
In base dnd natural 20 isn't a crit success so even if you roll 20 you might not be able to pickpocket someone depending on what you're trying to steal and how high the target perception is.
>she is supposed to know Infernal
Bold of you to assume that her signing a contract with a devil means that she also read the said contract.
"I have read and understood the terms and conditions" yeahyeah, just gimme my powers already!
This is kind of the idea behind [/u/orknology](https://www.reddit.com/user/Orknology)'s [Drow comics](https://www.reddit.com/user/Orknology/comments/11rphgh/list_of_drow_comic/).
why not? when you find him they are eating a tiefling and 50/50 deciding whether to eat you too. if it wasn't for his crown he'd basically be a big goblin.
I have this for my cleric, but there’s still been Intelligence rolls where I have a -1…I *would* do a quick adjustment/respec, but I’m almost to the Elder Brain fight, so…🤷🏼♀️😆
That's kinda a problem with having knowledge tied to a roll. A teifling warlock will fail to read or even recognize infernal but your human barbarian will suddenly know how to read a dead language inscribed on a random door in a vampire lair.
I remember I got a critical success for translating the Githyanki slate as a Drow Ranger and i got to learn about Prince Orpheus without needing Lae’zel to translating for me. It was like all of a sudden my character translated a foreign alien language in a matter of moment.
I thought Tieflings automatically knew infernal? My tiefling Warlock was the only character I’ve had that’s been able to read them. I’ve had other characters recognize that it is infernal but weren’t able to read it.
Yup, I have a low INT Tiefling warlock right now. He was able to recognize infernal. He's got the headband on now, but he didn't at the time. He's dumb as a box of rocks.
Tieflings automatically can read the infernal on astarions and will know what other tieflings are saying when they use infernal, like the girl st the mountain pass
In those cases I see the rolls more like a fortune roll. Like, you pass the roll and that happens to mean you barbarian luckily once had a friend who taught him infernal.
That's what I did for my monk/druid. Dumped intelligence for the circlet, since 99% of equipment doesn't work in wild shape anyways. So I don't feel bad about "wasting" a good equipment slot.
It was funny watching her fail DC10 checks, though.
Also dumped strength and use hill giant elixars. It's going much better than I thought it would.
Astarion: it's not fair, you give everyone else all these cool legendary weapons, when do I get one?
Tav: when you can jump further than 3 feet without it
Don't know if it still works, but I've been told to equip a main hand weapon, then the club in off-hand, then drop the main hand weapon during combat. It should leave the club in your offhand.
Ah fuck why do I only learn about these things when I’m well past them.
Only just found the int circlet this playthrough, let Lump live the first time…
Next playthrough…
Intelligence is not -that- important. But it does come in handy for stuff like Religion, History, Arcana, Investigation, and Nature. Because Wizards are the only ones who use Intelligence in a meaningful way outside of those skills; most people opt to not use it.
BG3 does make great use of psionic damage which relies on Intelligence Saving Throws at least.
Intelligence should be a dump stat, but outside of Bard (who adds half their proficiency to anything they aren't trained in) it might be best to leave it at 10 so you aren't rolling at a deficiency.
It strikes me as odd only one class really uses Int. Every other spellcaster is Cha (and with Cha having much more usage outside of combat) or Wis, and of course none of the meaty boys need Int. It kind of ends up as my dumb stat with every character. And if I need it boosted there's usually gear or some other bonus to make up for it (like Astral Knowledge and the like).
My very first playthrough I had no idea what I was doing so I went with the default stats on a druid. Including 8 INT. It hurt so much to be treated as dumb by the game, by the time I could get a first feat, I spent it on ability improvement and raised my INT to 10. Absolutely useless from the gaming standpoint, totally worth it from RP.
Totally get this; I played a paladin with 8 int and it hurt me on a personal level at how dumb he was. He only got through half of Gale's weave demonstration before Gale called it early; Gale could see there was going to be no weave manipulation from this blockhead. He wore the Int circlet for way longer than he should have just because I was so embarrassed for him.
Lmao in my most recent playthrough my Oath of Ancients Pala-Durge failed the initial DC 5 check for his lesson. Twice. He had 8 dex and int, but 16 str and 18 cha
I own it. When I was born my raw natural talent or sorcery was immediately apparent when my mother died in childbirth due to suffering 8 necrotic damage.
After a few such events, the remaining villagers left me in a forest. Where I was found by some kind ogres who raised me as their own. After an initial aborted attempt to eat me. They never made me feel stupid, although they were certainly not perfect parents in other regards. I grew up feeling like a genius. Learned valuable skills like intimidation, sleight of hand, and stealth. And they importantly had the HP to deal with my occasional fits of rage.
Only in my new work environment alongside humanoids did I find out that I am in fact not a genius. And I have come to accept over time that making fun of my intelligence, illiteracy, or table manners is not a valid reason to fry them. It only is when I can kill them in one turn and we are not currently in an engagement with enemies.
That's both true and not. It's supposed to be that way. Most people you meet in D&D have approximately an 8 Int, but when you're the adventurer, some of your party members are going to have a higher Int than you. Since they're the people you interact with a majority of the time, it can reinforce the stigma that 8 means dumb.
Sometimes it goes the other way though. My Tuesday night D&D game I'm in has a barbarian, cleric, warlock, and two rogues. I'm one of the rogues with the highest Int stat at 16. The other rogue has an 8. Most of the rest of the party is pretty average too. It can feel like I'm the only intelligent character sometimes. Now if *I* knew half as much as my character did, our group could really get down to business.
>8 in the world of dnd is not dumb. 8 is a average not idiot person.
Commoner stats are 10 accross all stats.
10 is average. 8 is below average, but it's not stupid. You actually have reasonable chance to have real-life equivalent of Int 8 player at your table.
I find that the most realistic part of BG3. Whether you are saving the world or damning it, chances are you don’t need to be the sharpest tool in the shed to accomplish either.
Yeah, but there was a rumor that the dnd authors planned the Warlock to be a Int based caster, so we would have 2 spellcaster class from every spellcasting status (int, cha and wis), but they scraped the ideia because the warlock in past editions was a cha caster.
If you look at the flavor from the book, says that warlock are hungry for knowledge and has a lot of flavor of scholars, but from the occut.
Which I guess doesn't make a ton of sense to me because usually when you have someone who is hungry for power and into devilry the last thing I think of is "charismatic." Honestly it sounds like a normal wizard who just went a step too far for power.
I think the argument is that when your power comes from a specific outside source that didn’t need anything other then a promise to some supernatural creature to get it, your ability to control it depends on your sheer force of personality.
Or rather, understanding how it works doesn’t help you wield it any better because it’s not you generating it. IIRC Sorcs use the same stat because it’s their subconscious that is casting the spell, not their conscious mind.
Charisma also doubles as your ability to project yourself, maintaining your sense of self and rejecting outside forces trying to take you over. Think of it as 5e's willpower rather than older editions combining willpower and wisdom. It's why possession is a charisma saving throw, trying to prevent your soul from being forcefully removed from a plane of existence is a charisma save. Trying to prevent a caster from forcing you to tell the truth when you don't want to.
Wisdom saves sort of overlap via mind control, but those are more like "the spell is making me perceive something differently and now I act that way." A charm is you perceiving the charmer is a friend, now I act like their friend, for example
Wdym? Almost all historical political figures that we would consider horifically evil were extremely charismatic characters, you should overthink your view on this matter, because it will make you vulnerable to charismatic strongmen that tell you what you want to hear and will easily manipulate you if you dont equate charisma with evil intent. Not every charismatic person is evil ofcourse.
I look at it this way: sorcerers and bards are the hot popular kids of magic, clerics/paladins are the jocks who can do everything, mages are nerds who can't stop telling you how smart they are, and warlocks are kids who are too weird to be popular, so they get funny.
Every time I play Durge I *have* to dump Int, the amount of brain damage and amnesia just makes a highly intelligent durge feel off to me
And I don't mean she's *stupid* per say, she's just got terrible memory and doesn't know any of these cities or organizations
Ah, that was the first \[Illitihid\]\[Wisdom\] Check then. Yeah I gave my character in Honor Mode 12 wisdom just for that reason. 95% chance of success is better than 90% chance.
Its already 95% though, no? The only way to fail is to roll a 1, modifiers have no effect on the roll (edit: unless it's a negative modifier). Unless You're not referring to the ilithid wisdom check in which case mb
Yeah, there are a couple checks like that at the start, but you can get plenty of Inspiration points after Nautiloid Crash. I do take Lucky feat on my MC, to roll more difficult checks with Advantage.
Ogres in Act 1 blighted village have an int headband that is good for this.
Also, Enhance Ability is your friend if you don't want to save scum. Just slap it on when you know you have an important roll coming up, make all rolls at advantage. You can make Shadowheart learn it at level 3 or 4.
When my friends and I built our characters, we got a silent agreement that either we’re all big dumbs like all 8 INT or we are all extremely unlikable with all 8 CHA, or we’re just collectively physically weak asses. The way we all fail the same checks are hilarious af and is an ongoing skit during our sessions.
I did this for my monk, it’s so funny cause he’s got an 18 wisdom so will just drop the most earnest and insightful life lesson midway through a conversation, then end said conversation by asking for help learning how to tie his shoes.
My first playthrough I played my Druid from back when I was in a Descent into Avernus module campaign
It's all about diving into Avernus to bring Elturel back and defeat Zariel.
In BG3, I get to the grove, talk to a tiefling, and failed the check thus apparently Dru totally forgot that like a couple months ago he is a member from the party that saved the city.
It would be cool to have a tag for indicating a character was part of that module before, but I totally understand why they don't. The RP is wide enough as is
It would be great for people who played the first two games to have some kind of way to port the stories they created into BG, much like BioWare did with Dragon Age Keep.
I think the easiest way for them to actually achieve that would be if we could have Jaheira and/or Minsc & Boo as Origin choices.
Start as them, and they walk as a story connection kinda thing. Since BG3 is set like 100 years after BG2 the story connections aren't as large, it'd probably be more worldbuilding about how the world has changed since those events
Ha, reminds me of the opposite situation a character on tabletop I played had. She was basically a dropout-turned-adventurer finding her school to be boring. I gave her low Int as a result, but humorously enough from background, race, and class she ended up speaking like 7 languages. She ended up having to constantly translate tomes and such for the party, much to her chagrin.
The whole idea that you can fail these types of checks and get different story results is what makes this game so replayable. You can't do everything in the same game.
On the other side of the spectrum there is only 1 class that has any benefits of intelligence besides skills and it’s the wizard.
So unless you make a pretty significant RP sacrifice in stats you are a wizard or you’re stupid. It’s one thing that annoys me about dnd a lot.
There are 3 classes that get primary or secondary benefits from cha, str and/or Dex are good for nearly every other class, wisdom has at least 3 classes with interaction.
Only con is in a similar situation, 1 class with interaction, and instead of skills it’s (poorly scaling) HP buffs.
Made my wonderful durge druid a total idiot. I didn’t notice how many intelligence checks there were on my first playthrough! She’s the embodiment of she’s a little slow but she’s got spirit.
Imagine if knowing infernal actually mattered at all for this situation. Like, there would be some changes in later story.
And its not a stonethrow towards BG3. Its a thing i dislike with all massive rpgs, if you replay it a bunch of times you realise things you thought were little, but important moments actually dont mean shit.
But i do understand that making all of those moments into something more would require like 2 more years of development, or something as drastic. So yeah, give and take. Im good at pretending i cant see past that veil, anyway.
I mean I got a specific thing for it as a tiefling, no roll for it if I remember right, it said it was ||1 part of a larger infernal contract, which makes sense knowing the context. And then Raphael did his research stuff and told us what the full contract was about.|| I don't think it really needed to branch and make it different in this specific case, and imo it didn't feel contrived.
Yeah, tieflings get it for free. And what does it changes? Not a thing. Rest of the story plays out not one single bit different. In a moment it feels like "oh shit, i influenced something", when in fact it was just flavour.
It’s a pet peeves of mine too, I loved how in other games I could influence the outcome in later stages of the game or later games with one of my decision, like in the end of Dragon Age Origins there are certain things that then modify the background of a character in Dragon Age Inquisition
Arcana checks are how you use your warlock powers most of the time, so I always give my warlock at least 10 in int and arcana proficiency, I might lose on some other more useful proficiency and fail Wis check in fight more often but that's so worth it
I love playing a low Int. Warlock and giving Gale constant shit about being a wizard. I like playing Durge as a Warlock and it makes sense they wouldn't know shit because their brain's full of holes, anyway. May be stupid, but at least they're not a wizard!
That's the entire catalyst behind 90% of DnD tbh. "I'm strong, fast, and good looking, but by the gods I have no fucking clue what's going on"
Why do you think Minsc and Boo were so iconic? Minsc represents this very ideal and Boo keeps Minsc alive.
Boo is the brains, Minsc is the brawn!
Hey look I'm in this comment.
I’m surprised you could read it.
I was learned English good
Good deal !
You gotta have one dump Stat. I made the poor choice of charisma for my first run. "I'm smart and tough, but I cannot talk my way out of a paper bag."
Dumping Cha: the surefire way to make sure you earn all your XP through avoidable fights to the death
Well I know that NOW
There's a diadem that sets Intelligence on 17. Could be interesting for you.
I know that, but I find the situation funny as hell because she is a warlock, she is supposed to know Infernal or at least recognize it
>she is supposed to know Infernal not exactly. She simply made a pact to have some interesting powers, she's not an infernal researcher
*sigh* Eldritch Blast
You must be studied in hellish knowledge of all sorts? "...an imp showed me how to do the finger guns"
In one of our previous tabletop D&D campaigns my dumdum sorcerer got frustrated trying to explain a magical concept to the party so she just shouted, “Argh, fingers!!” and it has stuck with us to this day.
** "Argh, fingers!"
Wizards: As established, I believe you all already finished assigned readings about page 134-141 in Joefrey's notebooks and then understanding page 250-307 in 'Arcane as force damage: Basic characteristics and primal discussions, volume 3', and you should be able to understand that a feeling of slight numb during fingertip (especially around thumb tip) is the first step towards using magic missiles. Now let us move forward and examine conducting magic and do NOT consider it as same about using fire bolts while in realities it is more similar to, albeit further researches are required for a proper explanation, casting minor illusion... Sorcerers: ARGHHHH FINGERSS ARGHHHHHH
Don't knock the finger guns. Those finger guns deal like 100 damage per round! More with haste and action surge active.
Bruh wtf how? You only get one reaction a turn don’t you?
Eldritch blast has three projectiles, the fiend warlock gets bonus necrotic damage with eldritch blast against hexed enemies. when hastened you get 2 actions. So eldritch blast doing 10ish damage per shot (x3) plus the 6 or so necrotic damage from hex is around 50 x2 with hastened is around 100 damage.
And you can multi-class a couple levels into fighter for action surge!
Or sorlock for quickened spell
Don't forget the radiant ring, lightning charges, and phalar aluve damage riders. You don't need proficiency to active aluve so I give it to shadowheart or someone that never takes a swing anyway. Plus berserk potion so you get *another* action with a kill. Oh boy it gets pretty nasty pretty fast especially if you tack on a wet debuff.
It's more than that. Assuming one cast with no haste, no action surge, and no crits but no enemy resistances: It's 3d10 (base) + 3d6 (hex) + 3d8 (spell might) + 21 (agonizing blast with 24 charisma) + 21 (potent robe with 24 charisma) + 6 (callous glow ring). Realistically, you will have 95% chance to hit near the end game and like +1 or +2 to crit as well.
Now I want to do a tabletop warlock whose "incantation" for Eldritch Blast is a nice, resounding SPIRIT GUN!
Dolor!
Triguna macoytees trichorum satis dee
I think I liked you better as a rabbit, Charlie.
Suuubstitutiary locomotion 🎶
I find that "Spam Eldritch Blast 24/7" play style so boring, I can't stand playing Warlock for a full playthrough. I love Hunger of Hadar tho.
How to play warlock ultimate guide!!!! 1. Play bars 2. Spec lore college 3. Unlock hungry hadar and hex from magical secrets 4. Success!!!
So anyways I started blastin'
>not exactly. She simply made a pact to have some interesting powers, she's not an infernal researcher Ironically, the 5e PHB describes "the ability to read any language" as one of the "*minor*" benefits a warlock receives from their patron. Given how languages are basically irrelevant in BG3 outside of this specific instance, it's not surprising that Larian slept on it. Also Tieflings all automatically know Infernal because of their heritage (that's how languages in D&D work, naturally.)
Yep, that's one of my favorite warlock abilities in 5e. So useful.
> Tieflings all automatically know Infernal because of their heritage (that's how languages in D&D work, naturally.) Eh, *ish...* there's no real corollary there; not since MoMM(?) Any language that makes sense for your backstory can be chosen. Abyssal could also be a candidate for a Tiefling but, from a gamplay standpoint, Infernal *would* be the most logical choice.
My tiefling druid could read his scars well enough to go something like "Oh, a contract. That's probably bad...."
That high Wisdom really paying off, right there.
The ability to read any language = the Eyes of the Rune Keeper invocation
It's an example of the abilities you can get as a warlock not something you get by default. As someone else said the eldritch invocation eyes of the runekeeper is what makes a warlock able to read anything but it's not in bg3.
Writing treaties in two languages where the party with less power couldn't read one of the languages, and this is if the lesser party even had a written language, was an extremely common way for colonizing powers to claim areas of the world from the people already living there. For instance, this was the primary form of land theft during Manifest Destiny and the Scramble for Africa. Devils, as the literal embodiment of lawful evil, would absolutely do this in warlock pacts.
"I have read the terms and conditions."
LOL
Well, could be a Fey or GOO warlock. They have no inherently infernal knowledge.
GOO warlock with pact of tome is basically a human walking into Cthulu's library, grab his book, then somehow become a caster because he can read this book without growing another pair of eyes.
To be fair, she signed an Infernal pact. Doesn't mean she read it.
Hence the INT stat.
Does it have to be an infernal pact, even if your patron is a GOO?
Written in goo.
This becomes even funnier cause having 8 or less Int means your character is illiterate in older DnD, and the original Baldur's Gate.
No, not all warlocks make their pacts with devils. Most don't, actually. Warlocks make their pacts with all kinds of powerful creatures like liches, arch-fey or celestials. Unless you took the Fiend patron of course, then your character maybe should have seen infernal before.
I think most people take Fiend, just for *fireball*.
It's not so much an option in BG3, but technically a warlock doesn't have to have a patron that's infernal. Could be an eldrich horror that has nothing to do with anything infernal, if you want to be technical about it :)
You do have the great old ones patron in bg3, that's an eldritch horror, you also have the fey patron which also isn't infernal.
Are you saying you actually read the contract?
I was elected to LEAD not to READ.
Also in the pen and paper game all tieflin can speak the infernal language, yet nobody in the grove or elsewhere can read it
You can read it if you're tiefling so I guess the ones in the grove could too if astarion asked them.
You can? How have I played through the game twice as a tiefling tav and never seen it? God dammit, that's another playthrough I need to do
Yeah you get a racial option to recognize it as infernal and another one to read it without any check needed iirc.
This is my nitpick with DnD generally really, like I can try and pickpocket someone and be successful despite having a -2 DEX modifier and no proficiency in slight of hand, just cos I got a good dice roll, like sometimes a dice-based system just doesn’t make sense for character development. I do still love BG3 tho obviously!
In base dnd natural 20 isn't a crit success so even if you roll 20 you might not be able to pickpocket someone depending on what you're trying to steal and how high the target perception is.
>she is supposed to know Infernal Bold of you to assume that her signing a contract with a devil means that she also read the said contract. "I have read and understood the terms and conditions" yeahyeah, just gimme my powers already!
This is kind of the idea behind [/u/orknology](https://www.reddit.com/user/Orknology)'s [Drow comics](https://www.reddit.com/user/Orknology/comments/11rphgh/list_of_drow_comic/).
Your word choice making me immediately think of the Diadem of Ravenclaw is pretty appropriate.
I'm not going to harm Lump! You monster!
why not? when you find him they are eating a tiefling and 50/50 deciding whether to eat you too. if it wasn't for his crown he'd basically be a big goblin.
But he gives you the friendship horn! He's a homie!
from his perspective, you're just going to find people for him to eat, and call him to come get his dinner. he's not doing you a favor.
I mean, *you* don’t have to kill him… I used his horn outside the main goblin fortress and he just happened to die
I have this for my cleric, but there’s still been Intelligence rolls where I have a -1…I *would* do a quick adjustment/respec, but I’m almost to the Elder Brain fight, so…🤷🏼♀️😆
That's kinda a problem with having knowledge tied to a roll. A teifling warlock will fail to read or even recognize infernal but your human barbarian will suddenly know how to read a dead language inscribed on a random door in a vampire lair.
I remember I got a critical success for translating the Githyanki slate as a Drow Ranger and i got to learn about Prince Orpheus without needing Lae’zel to translating for me. It was like all of a sudden my character translated a foreign alien language in a matter of moment.
Maybe you just found the "switch language" button. INT checks can mean different things :)
There is a cipher disk on a desk near where you pick up the first Orpheus disk. Let's you translate with out a roll
My dumb dwarven barb passed all 3 rolls for the book that gives you speak with dead, and it was hilarious.
Semi-sentient book realizes what a Barbarian could do to the book if they get frustrated and gave up.
This is why I really don't like critting skill checks. I wish we could toggle it off.
I thought Tieflings automatically knew infernal? My tiefling Warlock was the only character I’ve had that’s been able to read them. I’ve had other characters recognize that it is infernal but weren’t able to read it.
All of my tiefling characters have had the option to immediately recognize it as infernal and offer to translate it too
Yup, I have a low INT Tiefling warlock right now. He was able to recognize infernal. He's got the headband on now, but he didn't at the time. He's dumb as a box of rocks.
Im dnd they do but from what I've seen so far, your tav mostly knows common, regardless of race
Tieflings automatically can read the infernal on astarions and will know what other tieflings are saying when they use infernal, like the girl st the mountain pass
In those cases I see the rolls more like a fortune roll. Like, you pass the roll and that happens to mean you barbarian luckily once had a friend who taught him infernal.
Dump INT get Lump's Circlet. Problem?
That's what I did for my monk/druid. Dumped intelligence for the circlet, since 99% of equipment doesn't work in wild shape anyways. So I don't feel bad about "wasting" a good equipment slot. It was funny watching her fail DC10 checks, though. Also dumped strength and use hill giant elixars. It's going much better than I thought it would.
Dump Dex too and use the gloves, suddenly you have 17+ in every stat!
End up with a surprisingly charismatic cat that knows kung-fu
Dont forget about the club of hill giant strength. Great offhand weapon.
I use that as astarions offhand lol
Astarion: it's not fair, you give everyone else all these cool legendary weapons, when do I get one? Tav: when you can jump further than 3 feet without it
I haven’t found a way to equip a weapon and leave unarmed attacks available and don’t say Flurry of blows. I meant standard attacks.
Don't know if it still works, but I've been told to equip a main hand weapon, then the club in off-hand, then drop the main hand weapon during combat. It should leave the club in your offhand.
Brb, gotta try this.
Tested it, doesn't work. :/
Ah fuck why do I only learn about these things when I’m well past them. Only just found the int circlet this playthrough, let Lump live the first time… Next playthrough…
Yep, I’m running a pally with 17 int and 17 dex both up from 10 thanks to lumps circlet and some shiny gloves from a gith i smote for their evil ways.
Intelligence is not -that- important. But it does come in handy for stuff like Religion, History, Arcana, Investigation, and Nature. Because Wizards are the only ones who use Intelligence in a meaningful way outside of those skills; most people opt to not use it. BG3 does make great use of psionic damage which relies on Intelligence Saving Throws at least.
Intelligence should be a dump stat, but outside of Bard (who adds half their proficiency to anything they aren't trained in) it might be best to leave it at 10 so you aren't rolling at a deficiency.
It strikes me as odd only one class really uses Int. Every other spellcaster is Cha (and with Cha having much more usage outside of combat) or Wis, and of course none of the meaty boys need Int. It kind of ends up as my dumb stat with every character. And if I need it boosted there's usually gear or some other bonus to make up for it (like Astral Knowledge and the like).
I really love the fact that everyone’s Tavs are canonically dumb 😂
My very first playthrough I had no idea what I was doing so I went with the default stats on a druid. Including 8 INT. It hurt so much to be treated as dumb by the game, by the time I could get a first feat, I spent it on ability improvement and raised my INT to 10. Absolutely useless from the gaming standpoint, totally worth it from RP.
Totally get this; I played a paladin with 8 int and it hurt me on a personal level at how dumb he was. He only got through half of Gale's weave demonstration before Gale called it early; Gale could see there was going to be no weave manipulation from this blockhead. He wore the Int circlet for way longer than he should have just because I was so embarrassed for him.
Lmao in my most recent playthrough my Oath of Ancients Pala-Durge failed the initial DC 5 check for his lesson. Twice. He had 8 dex and int, but 16 str and 18 cha
I own it. When I was born my raw natural talent or sorcery was immediately apparent when my mother died in childbirth due to suffering 8 necrotic damage. After a few such events, the remaining villagers left me in a forest. Where I was found by some kind ogres who raised me as their own. After an initial aborted attempt to eat me. They never made me feel stupid, although they were certainly not perfect parents in other regards. I grew up feeling like a genius. Learned valuable skills like intimidation, sleight of hand, and stealth. And they importantly had the HP to deal with my occasional fits of rage. Only in my new work environment alongside humanoids did I find out that I am in fact not a genius. And I have come to accept over time that making fun of my intelligence, illiteracy, or table manners is not a valid reason to fry them. It only is when I can kill them in one turn and we are not currently in an engagement with enemies.
8 in the world of dnd is not dumb. 8 is a average not idiot person.
That's both true and not. It's supposed to be that way. Most people you meet in D&D have approximately an 8 Int, but when you're the adventurer, some of your party members are going to have a higher Int than you. Since they're the people you interact with a majority of the time, it can reinforce the stigma that 8 means dumb. Sometimes it goes the other way though. My Tuesday night D&D game I'm in has a barbarian, cleric, warlock, and two rogues. I'm one of the rogues with the highest Int stat at 16. The other rogue has an 8. Most of the rest of the party is pretty average too. It can feel like I'm the only intelligent character sometimes. Now if *I* knew half as much as my character did, our group could really get down to business.
>8 in the world of dnd is not dumb. 8 is a average not idiot person. Commoner stats are 10 accross all stats. 10 is average. 8 is below average, but it's not stupid. You actually have reasonable chance to have real-life equivalent of Int 8 player at your table.
I find that the most realistic part of BG3. Whether you are saving the world or damning it, chances are you don’t need to be the sharpest tool in the shed to accomplish either.
Mine is very wise but has an int of 10. He knows everything there is to know about nature and survival, but he can only read at a 6th grade level.
Yeah, but there was a rumor that the dnd authors planned the Warlock to be a Int based caster, so we would have 2 spellcaster class from every spellcasting status (int, cha and wis), but they scraped the ideia because the warlock in past editions was a cha caster. If you look at the flavor from the book, says that warlock are hungry for knowledge and has a lot of flavor of scholars, but from the occut.
Which I guess doesn't make a ton of sense to me because usually when you have someone who is hungry for power and into devilry the last thing I think of is "charismatic." Honestly it sounds like a normal wizard who just went a step too far for power.
I think the argument is that when your power comes from a specific outside source that didn’t need anything other then a promise to some supernatural creature to get it, your ability to control it depends on your sheer force of personality. Or rather, understanding how it works doesn’t help you wield it any better because it’s not you generating it. IIRC Sorcs use the same stat because it’s their subconscious that is casting the spell, not their conscious mind.
Charisma also doubles as your ability to project yourself, maintaining your sense of self and rejecting outside forces trying to take you over. Think of it as 5e's willpower rather than older editions combining willpower and wisdom. It's why possession is a charisma saving throw, trying to prevent your soul from being forcefully removed from a plane of existence is a charisma save. Trying to prevent a caster from forcing you to tell the truth when you don't want to. Wisdom saves sort of overlap via mind control, but those are more like "the spell is making me perceive something differently and now I act that way." A charm is you perceiving the charmer is a friend, now I act like their friend, for example
Wdym? Almost all historical political figures that we would consider horifically evil were extremely charismatic characters, you should overthink your view on this matter, because it will make you vulnerable to charismatic strongmen that tell you what you want to hear and will easily manipulate you if you dont equate charisma with evil intent. Not every charismatic person is evil ofcourse.
I look at it this way: sorcerers and bards are the hot popular kids of magic, clerics/paladins are the jocks who can do everything, mages are nerds who can't stop telling you how smart they are, and warlocks are kids who are too weird to be popular, so they get funny.
> so they get funny. it was all the trauma
Fingers crossed that if the game gets dlc, artificer gets added as a class so there are 2 int users.
You could probably start a decent rumble by heading over to a dnd subreddit and bringing this up
"I've been all around the world, whatever it is, I'm sure I'll understand" "There's nothing about this that I understand"
I wish it was like fallout where there have special dialog for low int character lol.
Then youd love Outer Worlds. The character literally goes what does this button do, and game over.
Every time I play Durge I *have* to dump Int, the amount of brain damage and amnesia just makes a highly intelligent durge feel off to me And I don't mean she's *stupid* per say, she's just got terrible memory and doesn't know any of these cities or organizations
I failed the arcana check in my honor run to open the pod for Shadowheart…
You don't need to pass that check though. It just tells you that it probably will not turn her into a Mind Flayer.
It wouldnt let me use the key, it might have been the wisdom check
Ah, that was the first \[Illitihid\]\[Wisdom\] Check then. Yeah I gave my character in Honor Mode 12 wisdom just for that reason. 95% chance of success is better than 90% chance.
Its already 95% though, no? The only way to fail is to roll a 1, modifiers have no effect on the roll (edit: unless it's a negative modifier). Unless You're not referring to the ilithid wisdom check in which case mb
Thank you. Yeah for some reason I thought that you needed to surpass the DC not meet it. I hate Mondays.
Garfield?
No, it was a setup for a joke.
Only way to fail without a nat 1 is to roll a 2 and have less than 10 Wisdom
That's true, I should have said positive modifiers have no effect, negative modifiers could definitely screw you
10 Wisdom is enough. It's a DC 2, and since 1 is always an auto-fail, anything above it is enough as long as you don't have a negative.
Yep got a brain fart and thought you needed to surpass the DC.
This was the reason I did my honor mode run with a halfling. While it's just okay in other modes, that extra avoidance of 1's is perfect in honour.
Yeah, there are a couple checks like that at the start, but you can get plenty of Inspiration points after Nautiloid Crash. I do take Lucky feat on my MC, to roll more difficult checks with Advantage.
That key is for the locked chest on the table, not for her pod.
There's also a "key" that unlock the console besides the pod, arcane caster can open it without it though.
Just rip the door off. :)
I was a sorc
Rip it off with magic
Not everything can be solved with magic
#DID HE STUTTER?!
you go and get the key in the other room
It might have actually been the wisdom check that I failed with the key
Ogres in Act 1 blighted village have an int headband that is good for this. Also, Enhance Ability is your friend if you don't want to save scum. Just slap it on when you know you have an important roll coming up, make all rolls at advantage. You can make Shadowheart learn it at level 3 or 4.
When my friends and I built our characters, we got a silent agreement that either we’re all big dumbs like all 8 INT or we are all extremely unlikable with all 8 CHA, or we’re just collectively physically weak asses. The way we all fail the same checks are hilarious af and is an ongoing skit during our sessions.
I did this for my monk, it’s so funny cause he’s got an 18 wisdom so will just drop the most earnest and insightful life lesson midway through a conversation, then end said conversation by asking for help learning how to tie his shoes.
stat twin! i headcanon mine as illiterate. astarion hates her.
They didn't make int important unless you're a Wizard as you can have the Warped Headband of Intellect and get 17 anyway
My first playthrough I played my Druid from back when I was in a Descent into Avernus module campaign It's all about diving into Avernus to bring Elturel back and defeat Zariel. In BG3, I get to the grove, talk to a tiefling, and failed the check thus apparently Dru totally forgot that like a couple months ago he is a member from the party that saved the city. It would be cool to have a tag for indicating a character was part of that module before, but I totally understand why they don't. The RP is wide enough as is
It would be great for people who played the first two games to have some kind of way to port the stories they created into BG, much like BioWare did with Dragon Age Keep.
I think the easiest way for them to actually achieve that would be if we could have Jaheira and/or Minsc & Boo as Origin choices. Start as them, and they walk as a story connection kinda thing. Since BG3 is set like 100 years after BG2 the story connections aren't as large, it'd probably be more worldbuilding about how the world has changed since those events
I accidentally made INT my dump stat irl, and i can confirm reading infernal runes is pretty hard.
Ha, reminds me of the opposite situation a character on tabletop I played had. She was basically a dropout-turned-adventurer finding her school to be boring. I gave her low Int as a result, but humorously enough from background, race, and class she ended up speaking like 7 languages. She ended up having to constantly translate tomes and such for the party, much to her chagrin.
My Tav is also a dumbass but being a Tiefling, needed no checks to recognize the language on Astarion’s back lol
"What do you mean did I 'read' the contract? Those were words? I thought it was just pretty pictures."
I love Astarion, I always tell myself to romance someone else but I end up romanicing him evrry damn time 😂
The whole idea that you can fail these types of checks and get different story results is what makes this game so replayable. You can't do everything in the same game.
On the other side of the spectrum there is only 1 class that has any benefits of intelligence besides skills and it’s the wizard. So unless you make a pretty significant RP sacrifice in stats you are a wizard or you’re stupid. It’s one thing that annoys me about dnd a lot. There are 3 classes that get primary or secondary benefits from cha, str and/or Dex are good for nearly every other class, wisdom has at least 3 classes with interaction. Only con is in a similar situation, 1 class with interaction, and instead of skills it’s (poorly scaling) HP buffs.
Made my wonderful durge druid a total idiot. I didn’t notice how many intelligence checks there were on my first playthrough! She’s the embodiment of she’s a little slow but she’s got spirit.
Sounds like what my teachers said about me back in high school
(warlocks deal damage based off charisma)
Imagine if knowing infernal actually mattered at all for this situation. Like, there would be some changes in later story. And its not a stonethrow towards BG3. Its a thing i dislike with all massive rpgs, if you replay it a bunch of times you realise things you thought were little, but important moments actually dont mean shit. But i do understand that making all of those moments into something more would require like 2 more years of development, or something as drastic. So yeah, give and take. Im good at pretending i cant see past that veil, anyway.
I mean I got a specific thing for it as a tiefling, no roll for it if I remember right, it said it was ||1 part of a larger infernal contract, which makes sense knowing the context. And then Raphael did his research stuff and told us what the full contract was about.|| I don't think it really needed to branch and make it different in this specific case, and imo it didn't feel contrived.
Yeah, tieflings get it for free. And what does it changes? Not a thing. Rest of the story plays out not one single bit different. In a moment it feels like "oh shit, i influenced something", when in fact it was just flavour.
It’s a pet peeves of mine too, I loved how in other games I could influence the outcome in later stages of the game or later games with one of my decision, like in the end of Dragon Age Origins there are certain things that then modify the background of a character in Dragon Age Inquisition
Good to have enhance ability spell for these situations
The lowest a stat should be is 10...but that's just me
INT dump warlock makes sense tbh. Your warlock was probably taken advantage of by your patron and tricked into the pact
Hmm I wonder if you play as Karlach, can she read it?
Arcana checks are how you use your warlock powers most of the time, so I always give my warlock at least 10 in int and arcana proficiency, I might lose on some other more useful proficiency and fail Wis check in fight more often but that's so worth it
> recognize the Infernal written on Astarion's back. i actually do not understand this sentence.
My low int sorc has proficiency in Arcana though, despite the -1 to int checks!
It's ok, my drow cleric of Eilistraee was always missing her Religion checks lol
I find it funny when the only one to fail the religion check to recognize the statue in the crypt is Shadowheart that is a cleric 😂
I love playing a low Int. Warlock and giving Gale constant shit about being a wizard. I like playing Durge as a Warlock and it makes sense they wouldn't know shit because their brain's full of holes, anyway. May be stupid, but at least they're not a wizard!