Larian Banner: Baldur's Gate Patch 9
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The damage on this build is insane.

Start with Half-Wood Elf
Select +1 Dex and +1 Con for your Half Elf ASI

Ability Score:
Strength 14 (21 with Potion of Hill Giant Strength)
Dexterity 16
Constitution 16
Intelligence: 8*
Wisdom 10
Charisma 10

*you could also drop Strength down a bit more if you wanted to buff the rest of your stats - you will just be a little weaker early game until you get those sweet Elixirs of Hill Giant Strength (THEY LAST UNTIL LONG REST - THAT'S HUUUGE!)

Choose Background Urchin or Soldier if you are not the party "Rogue"
If Charlatan (Sleight of Hand and Deception) grab
Intimidation and Perception and you get Stealth for free as Half wood elf.

if Soldier (Athletics and Intimidation)
Perception and whatever.

At Level 3 Choose Berserker

Key Equipment:
Head: Helmet of Grit (at 50% health you get a Bonus Action)- Found in the treasure room at Shattered Sanctum - key is on Dror Ragzlin
Chest: Bloodguzzlers' Garb (Wrath at 50% health start turn +1 Melee Damage) - found on Bulette
Hands: Gloves of Fire resistance (at 50% health you gain Fire resistance) - Reward from Derrith Bonecloak in the Myconid colony for rescuing her husband Baelin - see below for instructions*
Boots: Featherlight boots (3m to Movement at 50% health) - Help Glut kill Spaw or Disintegrating Night Walkers (Immunity to webbed, ensnared, can't slip on grease or ice) (Nere has them)
Rings 1: Ring of Poison resistance
Ring 2: Crusher Ring or Spurred Band
Neck: Broodmother Revenge (when healed your weapon becomes Poisoned for 3 rounds - 1d4 poison damage) - You loot off Kharga's body after you expose her as a Shadow druid and kill her/or just kill her in general)
Weapon: Your best in slot weapon is the Susser Greatsword it's +1 and Silences targets on hit - you craft this from Susser Bark and a regular Greatsword in the Blighted Village Forge.
Also make sure you get a Maul +1 for when you need Bludgeoning damage.

Thrown Weapons: Make sure you keep a solid stock of throwable weapons such as handaxes, javelins, spears, Tridents, Light Hammers and daggers. Weapon must have thrown property.

At Level 4 choose GWM

Make sure you don't kill Auntie Ethel as she produces 3 x Elixir's of Hill Giant Strength every long rest. You will take 1 of these after you complete a long rest and it lasts until your next long rest.

You will probably want to get the buff Loviatars Love which when you drop below 30% health will give you a +2 bonus to Attack Rolls and Wisdom Saving Throws until Long Rest! This is Huge, see below for instructions** - NOTE - you can heal back up to 50% after you hit 30% health and you keep the "Basking in Loviatar's Love Blessing" which is the +2 bonus to attack and wisdom Saves.

Make sure you start combat with Frenzy and your first Attack should ALWAYS be Reckless Attack - if you use Reckless Attack first then all Subsequent Attacks will have Advantage

As long as you stay at 50% health or less the following applies:

At Level 5 with the above gear you will have 2 x Attacks from your Action and 2 Frenzied Attacks from your Bonus Action.

2d6 + 6 + 10 + 2 + 1 = 21 - 31 damage x 4 = up to 124 damage per round at level 5 - without crits - . Plus with reckless attack you and Advantage you double your crit threat range and so have a 40% chance to crit per round with 4 attacks.

In addition you are resistant to Poison and Fire Damage.

Your movement at level 5 is 18 Meters/60 Feet per round. This is important to have because you don't want to waste any attacks.

Finally you will have an AC of 16 or 18 with the Shield Of the Absolute's Buff (which stays until long rest and cannot be removed) - Instructions ***



*In the Myconid Colony there is a Dwarf named Derrith Bonecloak who wants you to find/save her useless (feebleminded) husband. He is trapped in a bunch of Bibberbang (poison explode) shrooms just north. To get him out you will need a small container of water, or Create water spell, and good jumping ability (drink a potion of Hill giant strength to help, they last until long rest now). You need to use the platforms on the left to jump around and then extinguish that torch (or pick it up) and then (pop into turn base) grab the items in Baelens pack and hand him or throw him the Misty step scroll. Then get back on the platforms and follow them around until you see below you a single Noblestock mushroom. Jump down, hit turn based mode, grab the Noblestock and jump back up and out. Then talk to Baelen and Derrith Bonecloak for your reward.

**So in The Shattered Sanctum there is a priest of Loviatar - Abdirak - he is whipping himself when you enter his room.

1) First read the book sitting on the table - forget what it’s called but it will trigger a conversation option with him about advanced techniques.

2) Talk to Abdirak - he will eventually offer to flog you - agree but mention the advanced techniques and then choose the hand axe.

3) Take off your armor and have someone cast guidance on you and then step into the alcove. You will get a buff called ardent apostle that will help.

4) You need to pass 3 intimidation or performance checks while he hits you. You get advantage on intimidation of course as a Barbarian. After you pass three he gives you the Loviatars Live blessing.

5) To activate it you must bring your health below 30% and then you get a +2 bonus to hit and on Wisdom Saves(this is also a big deal).

finally as mentioned You can heal up to full (or half if you have the helmet of grit and other items) and still keep the buff. It lasts until long rest. Then you have to damage yourself back down to 30% health to re-activate it.

***The Shield of the Absolute has the ability to cast an AOE Shield of Faith that lasts until Long Rest and cannot be otherwise dispelled or removed.

First - Get the Mark or Brand of the Absolute form Priestess Gut for your ENTIRE Party. Make sure you get the Mark and then leave conversation.
Second - Kill priestess Gut and take her shield - lure her to her room and then cast silence on her(she won't be able to call for help), then beat her to death and take the Absolute' Warboard.
Third - Equip Warboard - you will gain an ability called "Word of the Absolute" - which is an AOE version of Shield of Faith that doesn't require concentration.
Fourth Cast this on your other three party members. The Caster cant get the buff.

WARNING - If you cast this spell in a town or village and target NPC's it will BANE them and you will start combat.

Last edited by Blackheifer; 05/02/23 03:10 AM.

Blackheifer
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Well thought out and described. smile

But I'm glad that it is not necessary to make such builds to win all fights, you can do just with "normal playing" (items you find on the way, no barrels, no scrolls, things like this). Because such builds were mostly impossible for me (e.g., I don't like to meta for items, my barb does never wear shoes, I never use potions other than healing stuff, Auntie Ethel deserves to be killed, I would never kill an NPC like Kagha just for an item, some items are too ugly to be used etc.).

What I take especially from this build is that the influence of gadgets on gameplay has to be toned down considerably. One potion as kind of core feature for a build is a bad thing.

Last edited by geala; 09/02/23 08:14 AM.
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Originally Posted by geala
Well thought out and described. smile

But I'm glad that it is not necessary to make such builds to win all fights, you can do just with "normal playing" (items you find on the way, no barrels, no scrolls, things like this). Because such builds were mostly impossible for me (e.g., I don't like to meta for items, my barb does never wear shoes, I never use potions other than healing stuff, Auntie Ethel deserves to be killed, I would never kill an NPC like Kagha just for an item, some items are too ugly to be used etc.).

What I take especially from this build is that the influence of gadgets on gameplay has to be toned down considerably. One potion as kind of core feature for a build is a bad thing.


Oh yeah. The Elixir of Hill Giant Strength is a sticky issue. On the one hand RAW it's meant to last for 1 hour or 600 turns. Which frankly, would be fine. Larian had originally made it 10 turns but that was too weak - so now they are messing about with until long rest, but that also breaks the game in interesting ways if you are detail oriented enough to stay on top of it.

On the other hand it frees people up to pursue interesting builds without having to throw everything into STR.

The only question I am trying to answer is "How game-breaking can you make these builds with just 5 levels".

Oh, side note you can just pickpocket The Broodmothers Revenge from Khaga.


Blackheifer
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I read and enjoy all of these builds Blackheifer, and whilst I don't plan on using these builds for my campaign I love playing around with them to offset the boredom. Very very cool. Tks for sharing.

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It’s a high risk/reward build. But within game system boundaries. It’ll get riskier in tier 2, levels 5-10 when monster damage can exceed 30% hps. I’d focus on winning initiative to mitigate.

If BG3 throws around Dispel magic like BG2 did, I’d plan on potion buffs lasting half a big fight. That said, if you prioritize stocking up, you’ll be ok.

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What I don't like with the build is (besides the general role of magic items which annoys me, Larian's fault) the drop of Strength. I like Dexterity (mainly because I cannot personally see me as a muscle guy and because I like wood elves from the look which are more Dex based) but in BG3 Stength is better than Dexterity. The initiative is so much random, a bit more Dexterity is not of such a big importance, from my experience. The lack of Strength is a massive disadvantage, for damage, jumping and shoving. The solution is a potion. What if the area of Act 1 gets locked after you reached Act 2? What if the access to the potion is otherwise heavily limited? For me the reward does not justify the risk at all.

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I suspect like dos2 act 1 will be locked after we leave.
I suspect we will get access to a better str potion after act 1 (they're in the game files).
Just in case I'll be stocking up in act 1!

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Originally Posted by geala
What I don't like with the build is (besides the general role of magic items which annoys me, Larian's fault) the drop of Strength. I like Dexterity (mainly because I cannot personally see me as a muscle guy and because I like wood elves from the look which are more Dex based) but in BG3 Stength is better than Dexterity. The initiative is so much random, a bit more Dexterity is not of such a big importance, from my experience. The lack of Strength is a massive disadvantage, for damage, jumping and shoving. The solution is a potion. What if the area of Act 1 gets locked after you reached Act 2? What if the access to the potion is otherwise heavily limited? For me the reward does not justify the risk at all.

The Potions of Hill Giant Strength will be replaced by Potions of Stone Giant Strength(23) and then Potions of Fire Giant Strength(25). I can't recall if more are available but I really wouldn't worry about the availability of those potions.

However, it also makes sense to NOT do things this way. You can build for Safety and not take advantage of all this stuff, this is just an extreme guideline for the kind of crazy shit you can do as a Barbarian with existing gear.

As Shovel would say, "Don't like it, change it!"
Originally Posted by Ranxerox
I read and enjoy all of these builds Blackheifer, and whilst I don't plan on using these builds for my campaign I love playing around with them to offset the boredom. Very very cool. Tks for sharing.

Thanks! I appreciate that!


Blackheifer
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True, you can try this and that. But the highlight of the build is the higher Dexterity and lower Strength. The rest, magical gadgets etc., you can use or not. I would appreciate if a Dex based Barbarians would be valid, but it is suboptimal in my opinion. As abilities are a fundamental decision, I would not recommend such a way, except we get respecc options later (which we probably will).

BTW one item I would change is Helmet of Grit. It's nice to get a bonus action, but it is dangerous. You can get killed or weakened badly before you can fire Rage by a crit (recently my char had 2 hp left after the first turn ...), I would prefer a metal helmet.


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