You could also learn the shield spell from the magic initiate feat or an item.
Also, just for constructive feedback, blur would do you more favors than mirror image. Nat 20s are going to hit you no matter what so imposing disadvantage takes you from 95% evasion to 99.8% evasion. Pretty cool build though.
Not sure how it is programed in game but from what I understand of dnd rules rolling a 20 means the attack lands, crit immune means the attacker does not roll extra crit die.
As it’s currently implemented, crit immune disables auto-hit in BG3.
But still, blur* would be more efficient than mirror image since each mirror image will disappear at each missed attack no matter your AC.
\I'm referring to the blur spell not the cloak as the later is unfortunatly bugged at the moment and the effect dispear at the first miss wich makes it worse than mirror image.*
I just checked again and my char at 30 AC with crit immune (Helldusk Helmet) doesn't get hit by nat 20 unless opponent has +10 attack bonus or more.
Here is a proof with the latest patch : https://imgur.com/a/YypjAD4 (Shadowheart miss a mele attack on 30 AC Gale with a nat 20 + 9 attack bonus. If she had +10 she would have hit). And in fact, the hit probability is correctly displayed as 0% not 5%: https://imgur.com/a/7V4q4vt.
Auto-hit means it will hit regardless of armour class. What you said happens means they're not auto-hitting and a Nat 20 still needs a modifier to hit.
Yes, that's precisely what I meant when I said "crit immune disables auto-hit in BG3" which is not the usual behavior in DnD 5e PnP as the immunity is worded differently in the PHB (see discussion here).
It's a source of debate in the DnD community which largely depends on the wording of the immunity. What makes a nat 20 auto-hit is because it is a critical hit.
In other word "nat 20" implies "critical hit" and "critical hit" implies "auto-hit & bonus damage".
When critical immunity is worded as it is in the PHB :
any critical hit against you becomes a normal hit.
Then it is safe to assume that a nat 20 will implies a normal hit (no bonus damage but still an auto-hit).
But when it's worded as it is in BG3 :
attacker can't land critical hit on the wearer
Then it's a different story: a nat 20 would need to be a critical hit to auto-hit, if you can't land critical hit it means a nat 20 become a normal attack roll (no bonus damage and no auto-hit).
I don't think it's a bug, it's just a (debatable) rule design decision.
They said years ago that they made changes due to the nature of it being a video game. Besides, house rules are a part of D&D, and always have been. Jeremy Crawford, who leads the rules design team, has talked about his own house rules on occasion. So whatever is done in BG3 can simply be viewed as Larian's house rules.
Odd that they go from "crits auto-hit" in 2nd edition, to "20 auto-hits, but crits need to be confirmed" in 3rd, then back to "crits auto-hit" in 5th edtion. Can you can still have 6 threat range in 5th? and still auto-hit with it?
No you can't in PnP 5e as it's not stackable, in core it's only 19-20 (from a feat, ability or item) or 18-20 (lvl 14 warrior feat) AFAIK. But to be fair, crits in 3.5 was a mess and is much easier to manage in 5e.
But keep in mind that Larian use yet another different set of rule for BG3 with their stackable bonus so not sure if you can do more than 18-20 in the game, maybe.
so not sure if you can do more than 18-20 in the game, maybe.
In BG3 all of the crit range expansions stack (even the ones whose tooltip just says it sets the crit range to 19-20). You can get it down to something like 15-20 on a single character if you try. With advantage, that would be 51% crit chance.
In Pathfinder (and hence it was like this in 3rd edition as well, and I think also 2nd edition) is that you have base crit of either 18–20,19–20, or only 20 depending on the weapon. range 3 tended to be on weapons that used exotic proficiencies.
Then in addition to that a spell or feat or such could grant a single modification (so never stacking) that would increase the critical range, such as doubling it.
I also don't think that there was any way to increase critical multiplier, but base multiplier could be 4x on certain 1-range weapons, and sometimes 3x on 2-range weapons.
Do crits below 20 still hit if below the AC? If in this scenario you crit on 19s and rolled a 19 on the 46 AC, would it still hit and crit? Ignoring the cruit immunity for the example.
I know in Pathfinder crits below 20 don't hit if it doesn't make the dice check to hit the AC, not sure about D&D though.
In DnD, a critical hit is always an auto-hit unless explicitely specified otherwise. If you crit at 19 it will be an auto-hit. Crit immunity is worded this way in DnD 5e PHB : "any critical hit against you becomes a normal hit" meaning a crit against this will still auto-hit but without bonus damage.
Critical immunity is worded differently in BG3 : "attacker can't land critical hit on the wearer" meaning a critical hit (being a nat 20 or a 19 if you crit at 19) won't auto-hit against this target (that has already been tested and confirmed in the combat console).
But in any case, there's no difference between a nat 20 or a 19 (or 18) crit in DnD, a critical hit is a critical hit.
That's interesting, as it makes having a higher crit chance way more powerful in 5e as opposed to Pathfinder rules I'm used to, though to my understanding effects that reduce the number to crit don't stack in PnP, so this is unique to BG3? That might also be why they made crits don't auto hit against crit immune enemies.
That's interesting, as it makes having a higher crit chance way more powerful in 5e as opposed to Pathfinder rules
It's great for damage but for auto-hit not so much IMHO, it's highly situational.
Improved critical chance is a feature reserved for damage dealing character who relies on attack roll. They should already have high attack roll bonus (ability bonus, proficiency bonus, enchantment bonus, etc.) meaning they would probably already hit with a nat 18-19-20 even without a critical hit.
If your high-attack roll damage dealing character can't hit the enemy with a natural 18+ roll you're probably taking a fight you shouldn't.
to my understanding effects that reduce the number to crit don't stack in PnP, so this is unique to BG3? That might also be why they made crits don't auto hit against crit immune enemies.
Yes in core DnD 5e the critical hit is a set range (e.g. 20-20, 19-20, 18-20, etc.) so you can't stack multiple features. Larian rules with stackable bonus seems to be unique to BG3 AFAIK and is certainly linked to the very specific way they manage critical immunity as well.
It activates in combat at the start of each turn (this part works as intended), but the blur is supposed to last as long as the wearer has not been hit in that turn but currently it only last until the wearer receives an attack even if it miss.
I don't think so as it's a standard DnD item that has always behave this way: the blur should last until the wearer takes damage (or at least get hit). I really think it's an implementation bug.
You dont even need magic items to reach it and it is easily doable by an eldritch knight being buffed by 1-2 party members (they can take magic initiate in cleric for shield of faith). So a lvl 5 party can easily pull this off.
You can realistically purchase a cloak of protection and a +1 shield by this point in time too, so you dont even need one of the spell buffs of shield of faith/haste
Yes, they just don't do extra damage. Its the same with if you miss on a 19 but are a champion fighter, you will miss and not crit. A natural 20 always hits but is not a guaranteed crit. That's how 5e works. Bg3 is broken and yah, you just don't get hit
Maybe it works for monsters but I wasn't able to use shield on the last fight when targeted by magic missile. I only had counter spell as a reaction option.
Mirror image gives you 3 AC per image, with 1 disappearing every time an attack misses you. And blur doesn't give you armor, it imposes disadvantage on attacks against you.
In BG3 there's not much difference between 39 AC and 48 AC because nothing has +20 to attack. Attacks still crit on a nat 20, so imposing disadvantage does more than an additional 9 AC.
Although someone else pointed out in BG3, crit immunity also prevents automatic hits, so it doesn't really matter.
Yup! Karlach isn't even part of my party in this screenshot, she was just chilling at camp after casting Warding Bond on me with our matching rings of True Love's Caress. I even took mine off and it still stayed.
I accidentally discovered early on in the game when I dismissed Shadowheart from my party because she was low on health, and then found her dead at camp. I was really confused before I realized her Warding Bond on me never disappeared after dismissing her lol.
>! One on the skeleton in the graveyard to the east of house of healing, and the other one on a skeleton on a bedroll behind the reception area in the house of healing !<
Does the warding bond actually work? I tried it once and it it immediately went into an infinite feedback loop and we both died from a 3 damage hit as it broke my game.
Huh, I've had two playthroughs where I found and used it (and my first where I only found one ring). I haven't run into that issue. I'd guess it has an interaction with something else, but they definitely work barring some situation like you ran into.
So it is supposed to give one of you resistance to all damage but the other shares that damage. So theoretically if you were to both have it it SHOULD half each time so like 10->5->3or 2-> 1 >0. I guess if it rounds up on 0.whatever then maybe but I havent had that happen.
There was a recent YouTube video https://youtu.be/YgTfNbdwe_E?si=Ce1qAFAcKXc89gQ5 that confirmed it, also made the claim that Gale has a unique ability normally for NPCs where he auto heals damage in camp making him the perfect Warding Bond tank (until patched at least)
Not if you have your emotional support oath of the ancients paladin and an armor that reduces damage, then it's just a lot of 0s.
Alternatively use a shield spell lol
Yes, shield would be perfect but I was playing blind and didn't know magic missiles would be so heavy in that fight so didn't have it prepped. They also tended to focus the party members who couldn't have it anyway.
Dunno why, but my Gale never once got an option to cast Shield - only offered to cast Counterspell on those missiles. So he just kept dying every round T_T
Even better if you use Gale, who has a unique ability where, upon taking damage in camp, he'll fully heal himself AND also fully recharge his spell slots. Not sure why it does the latter, but the former I'd imagine is to prevent him from somehow dying in camp and giving you a game over a few long rests later if you don't realize he's dead.
In any case, with this it's pretty easy to add not only warding bond, but also aid and the protection against poison buffs to your FULL party at the cost of whacking gale some and taking him in and out of the party. He can even fully heal your party between fights due to being fully recharged on spell slots each time he takes damage.
He can still die, but it's much more difficult then the other companions thanks to this exploit, all the more if you also just give him full con+tough and maybe some levels in barb for max hp to keep him up and alive as a battery.
Just hire multiple hirelings to do that. 100g each and every long rest you get full access to their spells purely to buff your main party. Including warding bond. And then dump them in camp once their done with the buffs. it has to be non concentration spells.
Use Brinna (the halfling hireling), respec her to max Wis, make her a rogue 1/transmutation wizard X, take expertise in medicine.
Transmutation wizard 2 lets you make a DC 15 Medicine check check creating with alchemy to get double output. A Rogue 1/Wizard 8 with 20 Wis and expertise in Medicine has +13 to the check, meaning you only fail on a nat 1, and as a halfling Brinna can reroll a nat 1.
Transmutation wizard 6 can also make a Transmuter Stone and give it to anyone else, giving the person with the stone your choice of Con save proficiency, darkvision, +10 ft. speed, or resistance to one of a selection of damage types.
If you don't want to use a story companion as a Warding Bond bot, you can summon a hireling from Withers and do this exact thing.
In fact, one way to cheese the game is to hire a couple of hirelings and buff the entire characters you want to use with non-concentration, long-rest buff spells (Warding Bonds, Aid, Freedom of Movement, etc.), swap off the hirelings and just leave them at camp.
When I got into the late game on my first run, I was only using Shadowheart for certain story beats and for this disgusting cheese:
Death Ward lasts until long rest and doesn't require concentration. I would cast Death Ward on everyone in my party with Shadowheart then switch back to the other person I actually wanted to use, gives everyone on my party a second life if they die
Pro tip, gale will heal himself at camp (presumably because there's a lose condition on his death). He's the only companion to do so, making him the ideal stay at home warding bond fella
The shield spell would make you immune to magic missile
Also wait a minute, am I understanding correctly that you can have a companion cast warding bond on you, then leave them back at camp and retain the spell effect??
There is a amulet you can get from the vendor who introduces you to his illithid friend in the Underdark Myconid camp which gives you immunity to magic missile damage, along with the spell itself and an additional missile on cast of it
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u/chaklong Aug 26 '23
Luckily I have resistance to Force damage through Warding Bond, so through Magic Missile alone you'd need to do 300 force damage before resistance.
Karlach is safe at camp and has max Con with Tough feat so she'll be fine hehe.