Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Paleoak Staff Spell Casting Ability

Hey there,

I did a search and couldn't find anyone else mentioning this, but the casting ability on the Paleoak staff spell "Faithwarden's Vines" should probably be Wisdom instead of Intelligence since it is meant for a druid. In the meantime, Gale has a cool staff

Paleoak Faithwarden Vines

Not like you use staves on druids, since:

A) staves are garbage, they cost you 2 AC from not using a shield and you gain no damage or spell casting proficiency from them. Shelleilagh does the same damage regardless of whether you use a 1h or a staff. Shillelagh is also pretty mediocre, as it starts really strong by lv1-2, but by lv3-4 it pales in comparison to the damage of a greatsword or maul despite requiring cantrip maintenance.

B) You will never use entangling Vines, because Web is an outright better version that can also be comboed with fire spells for detonation, unlike vines.

C) You will never use entangling vines as well because it uses the garbage concentration system, and that would mean you'd lose massive damage output from moon beam or flame blade or flame sphere.

The fact is, the concentration system needs to be scrapped because it strangles the viability of many niche utility spells.

Clerics will never NOT use bless, wizards and warlocks will never NOT use Hex, Druids will never NOT use moonbeam/flame blade, and fighters will use their concentration on Tyr's Blade for the extra 2 AC,

I use staff on a druid because it's cool and fitting even if a shield would be mechanically much better. I trust Larian to provide good staff and other two handed options for every class so a shield + one hander isn't always better.

I also use spells from items since they don't consume spell slots and are extra resources.

And Wisdom is clearly the correct stat for something called "Faithwarden's Vines'".

Little thing I figured out last season. Items used and/or spells cast by PARTY MEMBERS AT CAMP on the active party members are a great way to "bypass" constraints of some concentration based spells. Items like Tyr's Justice with it's concentration +2AC can be passed around and each party member can cast it on themself or another. If cast by a member in camp concentration cannot be lost.

Last play through with items especially Tyr's Justice AC +2 and then I basically taught Gale every buff spell I could find like Aid, Shield of Faith, Mage Armor, Barkskin (Note: Can't raise AC higher than 16 even if you cast another buff with it, last resort in my book), Good berry, etc; that has duration until next long rest. Items and spells from ALL party members in camp were consumed to boost Active Party members. Then I did the same routine after every long rest:

___1.) Cast all summonings like Find Familiar, Animal, etc

___2.) Gale cast Aid AOE on all characters and summons.

___3.) Gale cast Mage Armor on wizard, summons, etc.

___4.) Prioritize passing item with Tyr's AC +2 like this:

_______A.) Camp cast 1st on Active Party then Active Party cast on other Active Party not themself (allows for character attacked and losing concentration NOT losing the AC bonus)

_______B.) Camp members cast on Main Character or Active members that use/can benefit using concentration based spells or abilities first.

_______C.) Then cast on character or summon with lowest AC to highest AC.

_______D.) Active members that use concentration based spells/ability frequently do not use the item.

_______E.) Enjoy free boosts to AC or other useful concentration based abilities without risk of losing concentration if they are cast by Camp Members. If party member is attacked and loses concentration they won't lose the AC bonus, another member will that is most likely not being attacked. Then I would just re-use item or recast after battle if needed.

Good catch. Larian should fix this. All concentration spells cast by party members that remain in camp should be canceled when you leave camp. Presumably they have something more important to do than sitting around at camp meditating on their spell.

Similarly, items should only be applicable to one person at a time. If another character uses the item's abilities, the previous character should lose the benefit. Unless of course the item has charges, in which case multiple charges can be expended for application to multiple characters.

Both of these feel like exploits to me, taking advantage of quality-of-life decisions made by Larian: e.g., longer spell durations so you don't have to count in-game seconds&minutes (e.g., Shield of Faith lasting until next rest instead of 10 minutes). If you want a permanent +2 AC to all your characters with no risk or cost, you should get that through a lower difficulty setting (a "partywide AC bonus" slider maybe?).

Edit: concentration-less spells cast by camp members, on the other hand, would be a nice mix of allowing our camp-members to aid us while still preserving balance & reasonable-ness. Or maybe leave in the ability to cast concentration spells, but every in-game [time unit], there's a 50% chance the spell ends representing the camp member needing end concentration for some reason...