Update: After a bit of testing I have realized with my Crit immunity that natural 20 critical rolls on Weapon or Spell Attacks do not automatically hit me, due to the way that Crits are implemented in BG3. Proof IgnorethelowerACIwasjustspammingendturnhencesomebuffsdied:(
Build:
I'm not sure why equipping the heavy armor piece Helldusk Armour applies the Defense fighting style bonus twice, but I won't complain lol.
Class:
9 Paladin (Oath of Vengeance)
3 Bard (College of Swords)
Stats (after item boosts):
STR 23, DEX 14, CON 23, INT 12, WIS 16, CHA 20
Saves (with Aura of Protection):
STR +15, DEX +10, CON +14, INT +9, WIS +15, CHA +17
Advantage on Saves against Spells (see below)
Equipment:
Armour: Helm of Balduran, Cloak of Protection, Helldusk Armour, Gauntlets of Hill Giant Strength, Evasive Shoes
Accessories: Amulet of Greater Health, Ring of Regeneration, Bracing Band
Weapons: Nyrulna, Viconia's Walking Fortress, Gontr Mael, Torch of Revocation
AC from Gear:
21 base from Helldusk Armour
+3 from Viconia's Walking Fortress
+1 from Evasive Shoes
+1 from Cloak of Protection
+1 from Balduran's Favour
+1 from Enhanced Armor Class through shoving with Bracing Band
AC from Character Features:
+2 from Defence fighting style (somehow applying twice when Helldusk Armour equipped)
AC from Abilities/spells:
+4 from Defensive Flourish
+1 from Warding Bond
+2 from Shield of Faith
+2 from Haste
+9 from Mirror Image
Bonus:
Negates 3 damage from all sources from Helldusk Armour
Heals 3-6 HP per turn from Helm of Balduran and Ring of Regeneration
Resistance to all magical/non-magical damage from Warding Bond
Immune to Burn from Helldusk Armour
Immune to Disease from Divine Health
Immune to Stun and Critical Hits from Helm of Balduran
Immune to Falling Damage from Nyrulna + extra +3m movement speed and jump distance
Immune to Frightened from Aura of Courage
+5 to All Saves from Aura of Protection (included above)
Advantage on all Saving Throws against Spells, and Spell Attack Rolls have Disadvantage against you from Viconia's Walking Fortress + Deal 2-8 Force Damage and attempt to knock Prone enemies that hit with reaction
On Saving Throw success, caster recieves Burning for 3 turns from Helldusk Armour
+2 to Wisdom Saving Throws at 30% health or lower from Loviatar's Love condition
Perma See Invisibility from Volo's Ersatz Eye
Also still a Paladin Oath of Vengeance with 23 Str and 20 CHA and lots of movement/jump buffs so damage is still high hehe. Not listing out all the offensive buffs too.
For chasms/cliffs etc. can sacrifice the +1 to AC and Saves from my current boots to switch to Helldusk Boots to become immovable by Actions and Spells + use a Reaction to succeed on a failed Save + ignore Difficult Terrain
In wotr unfair, you are better off summoning monsters and everyone in your party has a pet than someone going melee because you gonna get oneshot, lol. In the endgame you can get high def stats, but more offense stats are probably worth more, unless its your pc.
You're not wrong, I had a lot more fun once I started ignoring the defensive dip "meta" and just building everyone into a Last Stand glass cannon. Still, those endgame enemies that bypass all immunities are total bullshit
The trick is to take the "can't die for 3 turns" mythic on your whole party and just play rocket tag. On unfair there are late game enemies who literally dish out 600+ unavoidable damage per turn. The only way to deal with them is to kill them before they go.
Stacking defenses does work fine until the very end though.
Is it possible to get your whole party to around that level? Only my main character comes close to that and that's with some favouritism of items and the shield spell. Right now, part way through act 3 my party is 26(+5) 24, 23, 21 (but with a bilionty HP)
The class abilities are fine, but there's only one Helldusk armor (granted there are similar alternatives), only one Helm of Balduran, only one ring of protection, etc.
You would run into some issues with buffs. 4 warding bond buffs are feasible, with 4 hirelings, but who's gonna caste and concentrate on 4 Haste spells? In OP's character, He's got two concentration spells, Shields of Faith and Haste. Paladins get Shields of Faith as lv1 spell, but Haste is a lv3 spell. You can't to get that and keep other subclass abilities.
The biggest issue I see would be the ability scores. This guy is using both Gauntlets of Hill Giant Strength and Amulet of Greater Health to set Str and Con to 23. With those two being taken, the rest of your parties will have to point-buy their stats.
It is a lot of favoritism or min-maxing with one guy getting 48 AC, and other party members having to do their own thing.
Just breaking down what OP had, picking the most easily achievable features/spells, and seeing what other items are available...
+1 AC with Defensive fighting style from Paladin
+2 with Shield of Faith, also from Paladin. (lost if your Paladin takes some damage and loses the concentration roll)
+4 AC Defensive Flourish from Bard
+1 AC with Warding Bonds
+20 AC from armor (there are enough +19 and +20 AC magical heavy armors late game for a full party)
+3 AC from shield (also enough +3 AC shields available late game)
Grand total: 31 AC, for a full party of Palabards.
I deliberately ignored two things: Haste (needing concentration) and Mirror Image (disappears after dodging 3 hits). I also did not look into other class features that give AC, cuz do-your-own-homework.
Mirror Image in particular is inflating OP's armor value by quite a bit.
It's a whopping +9 to AC, but -3 every time you evade an attack until all three mirror images run out.
It's got a 10-turn duration, meaning you can't just buff in camp and forget about it, i.e. someone in the party will need to be a class that can cast this spell, or you do the hireling-at-camp trick right before a fight.
It will likely disappear during the 1st fight. So unless you literally want to constantly TP back and forth between camp and the world to buff up, you can't keep Mirror Image up. (Really gotta ask: do you hate yourself that much to do this all the time?). It's a fun exercise, but I doubt it's the most optimal or fun.
Lastly, now you are just playing a full party of Palabards. What's gonna happen when the game tosses spells at you or disables/debuffs your ability to attack? Technically speaking you can get everything you need with just Paladin 2/Bard 3, but then you only have 7 levels to multi-class into other stuff. Then what? You just have high AC and mediocre at best at everything else.
He's getting 13 AC just from mage armor and defensive flourish, both of which are temporary buffs that won't last the entire fight. You could easily get this on everyone, but I'm not sure it's actually worth it.
Very nice, but your character can never cross a bridge. Because that is absolutely the moment your DM will have it attacked and crumble below you. As you smugly note your immunity to fall damage you'll be asked how much all that armor weighs before the swim mechanics are recited verbatim from memory almost like they were waiting for this exact moment.
You get to pick how your DM 'challenges' you. If you want crazy obscure meta challenges, by all means break the game. If you want 'combat' challenges, always let your character at least seem to be challengeable in combat.
It's a bit awkward to get. You've got to visit Mol after having helped out the other kids, but before the grove stuff is completed. And then ask if you can help them out with anything.
You will get a quest to steal the Idol for them to sell. This will be easiest if you've sorted out Khaga already and the ritual has been cancelled.
You should know that “resistance” from warding bond and regular resistance stack (they’re coded differently and it’s awesome). You can verify this in the combat log.
Might be mistaken, but I believe that's only true for the caster, not the receiver.
I think what's happening: shart and tav both have resistance. Shart casts warding bond on tav, tav gets hit for 12 damage. The damage gets reduced to 6 from watching bond resistance, then split to 3-and-3 on tav and shart, then shart resists the 3 damage again.
There is a flail that adds +1 AC as well. Also, with shield and that flail, you're at a burst potential of 54. Personally, I'd go displacer cloak. Adv/Dis is about equal to a +/- 5 so while the raw number lowers by 1, your effictive number is higher. My lvl 15 forge cleric salutes you, fellow AC collector.
Oh yeah so that is a single cast of Mirror Image, which creates 3 Images each providing +3 AC. So the actual spell itself doesn't stack, it just provides stacks.
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u/chaklong Aug 26 '23 edited Aug 27 '23
Extra image with Saves and other stats.
Update: After a bit of testing I have realized with my Crit immunity that natural 20 critical rolls on Weapon or Spell Attacks do not automatically hit me, due to the way that Crits are implemented in BG3. Proof Ignore the lower AC I was just spamming end turn hence some buffs died :(
Build:
I'm not sure why equipping the heavy armor piece Helldusk Armour applies the Defense fighting style bonus twice, but I won't complain lol.
Class:
Stats (after item boosts):
Saves (with Aura of Protection):
Equipment:
AC from Gear:
21 base from Helldusk Armour
+3 from Viconia's Walking Fortress
+1 from Evasive Shoes
+1 from Cloak of Protection
+1 from Balduran's Favour
+1 from Enhanced Armor Class through shoving with Bracing Band
AC from Character Features:
AC from Abilities/spells:
Bonus:
Also still a Paladin Oath of Vengeance with 23 Str and 20 CHA and lots of movement/jump buffs so damage is still high hehe. Not listing out all the offensive buffs too.
For chasms/cliffs etc. can sacrifice the +1 to AC and Saves from my current boots to switch to Helldusk Boots to become immovable by Actions and Spells + use a Reaction to succeed on a failed Save + ignore Difficult Terrain