Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Shadowheart's new Statline better, but still wrong

They better give us that option otherwise this game will be unplayable. I wanna multiclass Astarion into either a fighter and become a commando, or an Ilmater Cleric for the pure, unadulterated lulz.
Also, Shadowheart's stats make her the perfect candidate for Monk.

+1

I'm pretty sure it was such a meme from BG 1 to kill Khalid's useless ass to keep Jaheira and not have him take up a party spot they made it canon in BG 2.

Her stats are pretty optimal now IMO. Though she should start with a dagger rather than the mace. +4 to hit d4 +2 damage vs +2 to hit and d6 damage.

At least she now has close to 27 "point-buy" (30 actually).

I agree, like other showed here, 14 Str or Con would fit her better than Chr.
She is sassy, but not really very charismatic (maybe 12).

I am just glad she doesn't have a negative AC bonus. She's finally a pretty decent tank with highish AC near the start of the game now.

15 DEX is too much though. Drop that down to 14 and she gets 2 points to put somewhere else. Maybe boost strength to 12 or INT to 10.

ALL of this.




And also all of this.


As a rule, game developers don't give companion NPCs super optimized stats. Maybe they do occasionally, but doing so is usually a very low priority. Because they want the stats to fit the character concept as they've envisioned them, and because it's not really required to be that min/maxed in order to complete the content. Right now the game is already easy as New Orleans, and even on the harder difficulty when they add it, I highly doubt you'll need hyper-optimized companions in order to succeed. You'll just need good tactics and system knowledge.

I kinda like lowering Shadowheart's strength, because she just doesn't look or "seem like" an especially physically strong person. Lae'zel does (despite being an emaciated githyanki), and so does Wyll, but Shadowheart doesn't exude that "big muscles energy" to me.

At first I was a bit skeptical about the 8 intelligence thing, but then I remembered that she has literally...



As for charisma, I always see people saying like, "Shadowheart is a mean person, therefore unlikeable, therefore her charisma should be low" but I don't concur. I mean first of all, I fundamentally disagree that someone who is prickly, secretive, defensive, or hostile is automatically unlikeable. Maybe I've just had a lot of real shitty people as friends (okay, not maybe) so I'm used to learning to like people with abrasive personalities and little charm.

But charisma is the most nebulous stat in D&D, and it can always mean a whole lot of different things. The player basically gets to decide what their charisma means. Maybe it means you're super likeable, or maybe it just means you have a strong personality or sense of self, or maybe it means you have a lot of confidence, or maybe it just means you're good-looking and that subtly influences the way people see you (or the way you see yourself). Shadowheart is probably pretty good at manipulating people in everyday life, and she probably has a fair amount of confidence owing to her appearance among other advantages. You can be a terrible person and still have a lot of sway over people.

Another important thing is that

Thus, any person unfamiliar with D&D will probably choose stats similar to these when starting as a Cleric. Now, while it's arguable that the current stats fit for SH, many clerics (especially heavy armor clerics) will be punished by these stats.
I can easily imagine many players starting as a cleric and then feeling absolutely useless in melee combat because of the low strength. Clerics (including SH) start out with maces, right? Which are not finesse. This is misleading.

Hopefully, at least, Larian will separate Companion ability scores from default recommended distributions.

I'm not 100% sure on this, but I seem to recall while making a cleric yesterday, that when I swapped from a light cleric(medium armor,) to a life cleric(heavy armor,) the stats automatically swapped from a decent DEX to a decent STR. I'm not at my computer to test that though.

Oh, that's great! I haven't actually played since the new patch, so was only going by the text in the patch notes.
If DEX clerics also start out with a finesse weapon (I guess daggers are the only option for most?), then that's even better!
Of course, choosing our own starting equipment (heavy armor for fighters pls) would be best.

Returning to SH. I still think that at least moving DEX 15 ->14 and STR 10->12 would be nice. Same dex bonus but the higher STR just improves so many other aspects (carrying limit, str bonus to mace attacks, shoving, jumping, etc)

Yeah, the 15 isn't really getting her anything she wouldn't from the 14. There aren't enough ASI's to go for Medium armor master, which is still a very niche choice. If i was asking for a min/maxed trickster cleric I'd want a 14 CON.

Hopefully there will be a mechanic to change companions stats, so that if someone has a specific build in mind, they aren't limited in their multiclass options. It would be rough if you really like a companion and had a cool concept for a way you wanted to build them, only to see that you could never pull it off with their stat array.