Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Wyll - how do you use him?

Am I the only one that struggles with how to use Wyll in the party?

Wyll sounds like he should be a bit more 'kick ass' than he is. In combat, he seems to miss about as much as he hits and as a magic user, he's kind of a one trick pony with his witch bolt. I had hoped that he would offered up as a option to replace Laezel as the party 'tank' but in practice, I find him the least useful of all the possible NPCs.

I've played through the start 7 or 8 times and Wyll is the npc that I use the least. In the dialog conversations, he comes off as this big hero, but either I'm using him wrong or maybe he's just a 'hero' wantabe.

So if you are getting milage out of Wyll, how are you using him? I honestly like the character, but if I had to vote someone off the island, he would be my first choice.

Thoughts or suggestions?

Wyll makes a respectable frontliner. As long as you're killing things, he'll keep getting hp for it, and you can use armour of agathys as well if you're fairly confident that you'll take the melee hits to be worth it. I can't say I've ever used witch bolt with him - it's honestly a fairly lacklustre spell, that gives up damage throughput for reliability, but given the concentration abuse that this game heaps on your characters at an unfair degree, that reliability is not very reliable, really.

Larian's implementation of Cloud of Daggers is broken beyond all reason - any other use of a 2nd level spell slow is a waste, by comparison. They need to fix their spell timing issue - it's discussed in the main spell feedback thread - but until they do, that's a really broken spell right now.

(Conversely, Crown of Madness is busted in the other direction, since right now it's awarding advantage to literally every target of the spell no matter the circumstance, which means it almost always fails, due to Larian's poor balancing of saving throw spells against their homebrew stat modifications.)

I generally don't use Wyll or Lae'zel unless I'm doing something in particular with them. I don't much like running around with Shadowheart either, and I'm not a huge fan of Astarion.... Of those four I tend to just take whoever I can stomach the most, which is usually Astarion, and then probably Shadow, who is okay, as long as you never talk to her ^.^

I'm a bit over Wyll, currently, because I dislike the way Larian writes their NPCs to always have the last word and always have the one-up on you, and never giving your character a proper recourse to respond - and right now that's rearing its ugly head with Wyll, lying directly to my face and continuing to lie directly to my face, upwards of five distinct times now, after I know about his stone, he knows I know about his stone, I know he knows about his stone, and we all just know, without any doubt, about his stone, and yet he *continues* to lie directly to my face about it and I'm not allowed to call him out on it, at any point. Each time I catch him in the act, I ask him about the stone, and who he's talking to, and each time he tells me I'm mistaken and imagining things, and each time, I'm forced to just *Accept* his dismissal and going on with things, and... er... apparently it's really grating on me today, reading that back...?

I dunno, they're all unlikable pieces of work, really. Except Gale. He can cook for me and read from scholarly discourses to me in his waterdeep study any time.

*clears her throat*

What were we saying?

He's a ranged caster with Eldritch Blast and Hex.

I don't use him either. He has a similar omnipotence delusion as Gale does even they're both weak low level characters which is really annoying to listen to. I don't know why Larian is making these level 1 characters pretend to be legendary heroes according to themselves. It's really off-putting. Speaking about himself in third person makes it even more annoying. And he sounds more like one of the lads than a Warlock with a fiendish pact. I just don't get the character I guess. The Blade can go find himself another party in all of my playthroughs and he can take the teenage vampire fiction nonsense with him too. =)

Eldrich Blast. Singly the best Warlock spell. You will keep him at range. At sencd level, give him Hex spell and the Charisma and knonk buffs for the eldrich blast. When combat opens, use Hex spell to make sure the the target takes extra damage Wyll hits it, an Eldrich Blast the fire out of it. At 4th level, increase his dex and Con for extra modifiers to hit, more hp, and better concentration to keep Hex on target. He's among the easiest of the companions to use. Hope that helps.......;-)

I find Wyll very useful as a warlock, though I'd like Larian to adjust his stats to actually fit his backstory. His dexterity is too low to be a successful fencer, yet he is training the tiefling kids in swordfighting when you meet him. With high dexterity and the powers from his patron he could have passed as a fighter, which is what his story implies.

As a warlock I give him the devil's sigth and agonizing blast. Since he can position himself with misty step, he does fairly well just blasting away. What I find very useful is his imp summon, since it has unlimited uses of invisibility. This means at the start of combat you have an invisible summon you can send after an enemy archer or spellcaster.

And well, after a few playthroughs I just send the imp to scout the areas, since familiars can activate waypoints. Easiest trip to Underdark.

>> I'm a bit over Wyll, currently, because I dislike the way Larian writes their NPCs to always have the last word and always have the one-up on you, and never giving your character a proper recourse to respond - and right now that's rearing its ugly head with Wyll, lying directly to my face and continuing to lie directly to my face, upwards of five distinct times now, after I know about his stone, he knows I know about his stone, I know he knows about his stone, and we all just know, without any doubt, about his stone, and yet he *continues* to lie directly to my face about it and I'm not allowed to call him out on it, at any point. Each time I catch him in the act, I ask him about the stone, and who he's talking to, and each time he tells me I'm mistaken and imagining things, and each time, I'm forced to just *Accept* his dismissal and going on with things, and... er... apparently it's really grating on me today, reading that back...? <<

Well, that really hits home as to how little I use Wyll, I have no idea what you are talking about and I have 250 hours in this game!

>> Eldrich Blast. Singly the best Warlock spell. You will keep him at range. At sencd level, give him Hex spell and the Charisma and knonk buffs for the eldrich blast. When combat opens, use Hex spell to make sure the the target takes extra damage Wyll hits it, an Eldrich Blast the fire out of it. At 4th level, increase his dex and Con for extra modifiers to hit, more hp, and better concentration to keep Hex on target. He's among the easiest of the companions to use. Hope that helps.......;-) <<

Thanks, it does, but doesn't. My problem with Wyll as there are only 3 party spots and he doesn't fit comfortably in any of them as a substitute for any of the other available NPCs. I guess I could drop Asterion and use Wyll because Shadowheart is decent at lockpicking because of her trickster background, but IMO Asterion is a still the better 2nd level ranged option.

>> As a warlock I give him the devil's sigth and agonizing blast. Since he can position himself with misty step, he does fairly well just blasting away. What I find very useful is his imp summon, since it has unlimited uses of invisibility. This means at the start of combat you have an invisible summon you can send after an enemy archer or spellcaster.

And well, after a few playthroughs I just send the imp to scout the areas, since familiars can activate waypoints. Easiest trip to Underdark. laugh <<

This is useful. I usually use Gale's raven familiar or if playing as a Druid, the raven shape to do this. This is another nice option. Thanks for the tip! And yes, Wyll needs to have his stats adjusted to better fit his class.

I barely use Wyll and only if there is a mission where he should be there. I find that he tends to have a hard time in battle. He misses a lot. Eldrich blast is almost usless with him at least in my playthroughs. In my current one, I switched out his spells and gave him Shatter which surprisingly he is good with. His imp is also a good help if you have to use Wyll.

You can improve Wyll's AC pretty dramatically if you take moderately armored at lvl 4. You get a +1 dex with that, so dex 13 -> dex 14, for a +2 AC. You also get to wear half-plate or scale+1 (both available in game) for a base AC of 15+dex mod (17 total). Compared to the best you can get without the feat (mage armor + dex mod = 14) that's a hefty improvement. Moderately armored also gets you a shield, for an additional +2 AC (which means he hits 19).

That means that he is not a wet tissue paper that gets hit when something looks at him with mild anger.

I don't. Four person party max combined with meeting a fighter, mage, and cleric before him means he doesn't have a spot.

I dont like Wyll at all ...
I dont like his visual, i dont like his personality, i dont like his story, i dont like his stats, i dont like the fact that he is curently unable to live fiting to his own story (meaning Pact of the Blade is still missing) ...

So i dont usualy use him at all. O_o
But when i have to, i use him as regular ranged warlock ... just aproximately 4times less usefull.

I personally like the warlock class a lot and love Hex and ELdritch Blast. If Wyll misses, it's mostly probably because he hasn't darkvision and thus disadvantage in not so well lit areas. Give him Devils Sight and until then, let a caster use a Light or Dancing Lights spell.

What I would change - given Wylls whole backstory - is (as mentioned) to give him higher Dex and make him a Hexblade. Maybe the last one will be changed, when the other subclasses are impemented.
I normally have Shadowheart and Gale in the party, which are for me the two most useful and most likeable characters. Astarion I don't recruit anymore, because I really am annoyed by this character, so in the last spot, I'm alternating between Wyll and Lae'zel. I find Wyll more interesting for the fights, where you are able to position yourself on hard to reach high ground and then pepper your opponents with spells and ranged attacks (liek most of the goblin camp) and Lae'zel in situations, where melee is mostly not avoidable, like the gnoll fights or the minotaurs (basically most of the Underdark).

Im affraid Wyll cant be Hexblade, since (unless i read something wrong) Mizora would have to be his Blade ...
Fiend Warlock + Pact of the Blade tho, that would fit him perfectly.

Well, would be ok too, I guess. I want him to be more versatile with the rapier, since it seems to be Wylls signature weapon. I guess a higher Dex would help with the worst.

I love Wyll's story. I think it's great, and there's obviously so much potential there. I completely disagree with all the comments about his personality being off-putting. All the origin characters have flaws, and that's fine. If anything, it's a mark of good writing.

*

Unfortunately, the mechanic of actually playing Wyll doesn't match his excellent story. And that's a huge problem. I hope someone at Larian hears this and can fix the problem. Maybe if they institute a blade pact... but even then they would need to tweak it a bit.

Personally, I think Wyll should have a Pact of the Blade, and I think it should work like this:

1. He uses his Cha in place of Str to fight with a blade,
2. His eldritch blast is not a blast. Instead, it goes through his blade. Meaning he can't do ranged attacks, but his melee damage is weapon + eldritch + hex + Cha (if he takes the appropriate options).

I'd also like to see his stats change.

Take the Wis down to 8, lower his Con to 14, and raise his Dex to 14 and finally, raise his Str by however many points are left.

Just my opinion, but those changes, coupled with Wyll's story, would make him a wonderful inclusion.

I use Wyll as party trader and camp guard.

I actually did full fire damage build on Wyll. you have several items that can support this build.
invocation: Agonizing Blast, add charisma modify to your eldritch blast, a must pick.
Devil's sight, Wyll is a human so he doesn't have dark vision naturally. so it's would be really useful for him in dark places.
or Repelling Blast, you can push the creature up to 10 feet away from you by hitting it with eldritch blast, which you can push the enemy out of the high ground and let fall damage do its things.
spells: (4th) burning hand, scorching ray, misty step, hex, and a spell of your preference.
item: two items that related to the fire damage. the headband from rescuing the Counsellor in Waukeen's Rest. and a pair of gloves for rescuing Baelen in the underdark.

This

I use him whenever I don't choose warlock for my character. I find him useful and use him in combat exactly as you describe. He also handles all of the trading unless I have higher CHA. In regards to all of the characters I don't get overly wrapped up in their back stories which are obviously going to be somewhat limited as there is only so much you can pre-write that holds up over time. I use their backstories as a baseline and let my imagination fill in the blanks or resolve the contradictions.

While bonus action is fine ... i dont find a lot of uses for it on Warlock, to be honest ...

Personaly i prefer Circlet of Blasting from Blurg in the underdark ... it does no initial bonus, but allows you to cast one free Scorching Ray, wich i personaly find quite usefull, since Warlock have so limited amount of spellslots.
https://baldursgate3.wiki.fextralife.com/Circlet+of+Blasting

There is also magic ring, that will add +1 to every fire damage you do ...
https://baldursgate3.wiki.fextralife.com/Ring+of+Fire ... it isnt much, but there isnt many better options anyway.

And for maximum effectivity i would also recomend equipping Shadowheart with this:
https://baldursgate3.wiki.fextralife.com/Dragon's+Grasp

//Edit:
And since (as i said) i dont see usualy much uses for Bonus Action on Warlock (read as: When i dont presume i will need to run next round)
I also recomend using:
https://baldursgate3.wiki.fextralife.com/Ritual+Dagger ... especialy for Wyll, since his spell-hit chance is a joke.

Never heard about this ...

As far as i know, Pact of Blade Warlocks are not using Eldrich Blast regulary, its only their option in case they need to switch to ranged attack ...
They also dont use Eldrich invocations for it, but have their own ...
First worth noticing will be Thirsting Blade (lvl 5) ... allowing them to attack twice, instead of once with meele attack.
And second is Lifedrinker (lvl 12) ... allowing them to use deal another Necrotic damage equal to their Charisma modifier (min 1)

So final Calculation for damage is: Weapon Damage + Str/Dex Mod + Cha Mod + Hex ...
Meaning: (1d8 for Rapier ... Not sure how this works with +1 Rapier, but presuming it gives +1) + (+2 if he would have at least 14 Dex, wich also incerase his AC) + (up to 5, since you want your Charisma as big as possible on any Warlock) + (1d4 for every hit you land ...)


//Edit:
Not bad if you ask me ...
But i would still preffer safety of ranged attack combined with fact that on level 11 your Eldrich Blast allready have 3 beams (that can be used on same targets and every single one of them is triggering Hex) ... and your Pact of the Blade still have single attack only (until next level, when you have to pick Lifedrinker to only get second strike).
//Edit:
My misstake i switched those Eldrich invocations in my mind and thought you get second attack at level 11, while you get it on level 5.
Anyway you dont get third meele attack ever (as far as i know at least) so rest of my point still stands.