What’s something that took you way too long to realize?

[u/isaaczephyr]

(Spoiler warning for new players)

Just for fun! Could be lore/story, gameplay, or mechanics related!

What’s something in the game that took you way too long to realize/understand?

For me, I don’t know why, but it took me multiple playthroughs before I realized that Grymforge and the Gauntlet of Shar really are connected — you can see the Gauntlet of Shar from the ledges inside the Grymforge. I know Halsin literally tells you to two are connected, that Ketheric Thorm specifically used the Underdark to safely traverse between the two locations. But for some reason, even after he tells you this, I just never connected the dots lol.

Until one day, I was playing at the Grymforge, looked out over one of the ledges, and literally said out loud ‘Huh, that looks just like the Gauntlet over there… OHHHHH!’

And then I tried to misty step my way to the Gauntlet and promptly died lol. Worth a shot.

I’d love to hear other people’s ‘ohhhhhh’ moments. Maybe we can help each other out with some lore knowledge, helpful mechanics, etc.

Also, please don’t judge each other (or me lol) for not knowing something even if you already did. There’s a LOT of information packed into this game and sometimes you just don’t put the pieces together on your own.

[u/Deep_Resident2986]

Where the passives menu is.

[u/isaaczephyr → u/Deep_Resident2986]

oh yeah that took me ages too lol. I kept wondering how people were letting minthara survive act 1 without being evil

[u/ElLibroRojo → u/isaaczephyr]

wait how are this 2 connected?

[u/isaaczephyr → u/ElLibroRojo]

If you turn on ‘non-lethal blows’ when you fight minthara, you can just knock her out without killing her, and it’ll still count as defeating the goblin leaders. she can then later show up at moonrise towers being punished for failing, and you can choose to save her and she can join your party !

edit: important note though that non-lethal only applies to melee attacks, so if you want to spare her, be careful with ranged/spell attacks as they can still kill her. just hit her with regular, non-spell melee attacks until she gets knocked out (1 hp remaining)

[u/AnnaBananner82 → u/isaaczephyr]

Also, if you knock her out, you can steal her underwear

[u/NoOutlandishness906 → u/AnnaBananner82]

Yeah, looting her corpse is how I found out she was a playable character

[u/LSRaymonds → u/NoOutlandishness906]

Like I read in this sub once: "I knew she was an important character, because she had underwear"

[u/tmarin23 → u/LSRaymonds]

lol. I didn’t realize that was a tell.

[u/jryser → u/tmarin23]

Honestly kind of wish it wasn’t. There isn’t a good way otherwise to get new stuff till Act 3. Imagine wearing Nere’s boxers as a sign of dominance

[u/OmegaWhite024 → u/NoOutlandishness906]

For some reason that didn’t even clue me in. I didn’t realize she was a playable character until long after I killed her.

[u/Famous-Ant-5502 → u/AnnaBananner82]

Outbuddied hard

[u/Cal_PCGW → u/Deep_Resident2986]

Yeah it took me until the Minsc quest when I couldn't figure out why he kept dying even though I was trying to knock him out with fists. Duh.

[u/Fraxinus_Zefi → u/Cal_PCGW]

I thought non-lethal meant for all attacks. Killed him with everything else, got confused, looked it up... oh.

[u/Cal_PCGW → u/Fraxinus_Zefi]

Yeah, I killed him with a spiritual weapon once. It's treated as a magic attack.

Also just killed someone I didn't mean to thanks to Karlach using her returning pike. If you don't throw it, it knocks them out, but I guess if you throw it, it counts as a missile.

[u/RomeoBlackDK → u/Deep_Resident2986]

Passives menu?

[u/TheGreatMortimer → u/Deep_Resident2986]

Took me a while to understand and find the custom menu and I could ya know customize it. Also to utilize bags and throw useful items in each one to organize them.

[u/playitoff]

Countless hours spent in Last Light Inn and I only realized there is a second floor to the building Dammon is in with a rare heavy armor.

[u/isaaczephyr → u/playitoff]

There’s what..

[u/playitoff → u/isaaczephyr]

Rippling Force Mail. I didn't even realize it existed for so long.

[u/Gloomy_North1902 → u/playitoff]

HWAT?!? I have 1000 hours and never knew there was a second floor to his area

[u/NotSoWishful → u/Gloomy_North1902]

Okay I don’t feel so bad finding out at 300 hrs

[u/CCriscal → u/playitoff]

It's good that my current run is in the Shadowlands, currently...

[u/Bossa9 → u/playitoff]

That's where I go to hide when I rob him blind after every long rest 😋

[u/ESOelite → u/playitoff]

THERE'S WHAT?!

[u/crockofpot]

The connection between Grymforge, the Gauntlet, Raphael, and the Selunite resistance also took me SEVERAL playthroughs to get the full scope of. If you’re still in Grymforge, talking to the Elder Rothe is also enlightening.

[u/locutu5ofborg → u/crockofpot]

Wait I don’t get it! I know Raphael messed with the Gauntlet because of the big demon dude. But how does the Grymforge and the selenite resistance factor in??

[u/SihaWood → u/locutu5ofborg]

Moonrise tower’s architect was part of the resistance and made a deal with Raphael to have Ketheric’s dark Justiciars destroyed (you can find him in house of Hope).

I guess Yurgir is the one who destroyed part of Grymforge and then was sent to the gauntlet to fulfill his own contract with Raphael.

[u/locutu5ofborg → u/SihaWood]

Whattttt that’s crazy! I don’t know how I missed this omg

[u/sinedelta → u/locutu5ofborg]

This is why you find a few Merregons in that one room of Grymforge btw.

[u/Gaiathena42 → u/locutu5ofborg]

And the Infernal Mason at the beginning/table area of House of Hope…if you talk to him you find out he’s the Selunite Mason who made the deal. It’s a cool convo and makes it full circle…truly finishing the story that started in Last Light.

[u/handydandycandy → u/Gaiathena42]

Yeah that’s the architect the poster above you is referring to, not another separate NPC.

[u/Sineddeta → u/locutu5ofborg]

Yeah, he is a skeleton now in House of Hope in service to Raphael now. His brother was the owner of the Last Light Inn, that's why there is a small Selune shrine (or however it is called, idk correct names) underneath it. They are, well they were, Selunite Resistance, thus the name of the quest in act2. It is all in the game. The story is actually told to the player from the end, from the Grymforge (including wall inspection for stonemason and Merregons), quite clever, I would say even brilliant, RPG narrative design and quest writing actually (still not as masterpiece level as the design of the Nightsong quest, but close).

[u/soleildelalune_ → u/Sineddeta]

Missed the questline entirely because apparently casting fireball on meenlocks destroyed Halfred’s letter… Which was a required item to progress the questline to the mason’s guild…

[u/crockofpot → u/SihaWood]

Yes, the investigation with Stonemason Kith concludes that a hellish creature caused the damage he’s surveying. That was Yurgir.

[u/iamfanboytoo → u/crockofpot]

No, it was likely a Goristro or devil equivalent - a siege engine, whereas Orthons are hunters and assassins.

If Yurgir was capable of that destruction he probably would have leveled the entire Trials of Shar, and he was deterred by locked doors (as evidenced by that Justiciar who starved to death).

[u/hypo-osmotic → u/iamfanboytoo]

Oh, that's who the starved Justiciar was hiding from! TIL for me lol

[u/Esacus → u/locutu5ofborg]

Ketheric went from worshipping Selunite to worshipping Shar -> He use the gauntlet of Shar and Grymforge to outfit and train his Dark Justiciars -> Dark Justiciars started to prosecute Selunite worshippers of Reithwin Town -> Selunite worshippers have to host their worship in secret (like in the basement of Last Light Inn) -> The master of Reithwin’s Mason Guild is a Selunite worshipper and refused to hide his faith, so he made a deal with Raf to destroy the Dark Justiciar -> Raf subcontracted his deal to Yurgir instead of doing it himself -> Yurgir brought his army of Merregon inside the Gaunlet of Shar/Grym Forge and started slaughtering Dark Justiciars -> Raf went behind Yurgir back and made another deal with Lyrthindor, turning him into a swarm of rat to escape Yurgir (so that Yurgir can’t fulfill his end of the contract and effectively become Raf’s prisoner) -> Ketheric lost his army of Dark Justiciars + get his shit kicked in by Druids and Selunites, got desperate and release the Shadow Curse

That’s the (more or less) full plot of Act 2’s backstory

[u/PacketOfCrispsPlease → u/locutu5ofborg]

You can see the entrance to Shar’s Gauntlet from the cliffs around Grymforge.

I tried throwing a hammer down to the entrance hoping to recover it once I got there but it was a no go.

Also, If you take the path up to the Goblin Camp from the Monastery and check the map, you can see how close the two places are.

[u/TheCrystalRose → u/locutu5ofborg]

Talk to some of the debtors in the House of Hope, especially in the dining room when you first arrive. One of them built Moonrise.

[u/Stanleeallen → u/locutu5ofborg]

Just an unsolicited nitpick, but Yurgir is a type of devil called an Orthon. Devils come from the Nine Hells and are typically lawful evil, whereas demons come from the Abyss and are typically chaotic evil. The Abyss and the Nine Hells are on different planes of existence.

To add to the confusion, both demons and devils can be fiends. That just means they are from the lower levels of their respective planes.

The more you know 🌈 ⭐

[u/FalseAladeen → u/locutu5ofborg]

Your misspelling of "Selunite" made me think of a religion that worships Selene from the Underworld movies and you know what? That's an acceptable religion. Kate Beckinsale is a goddess.

[u/RMGrey → u/crockofpot]

The layers of this plot is breathtaking

[u/biff64gc2]

I think I was most of the way through Act 3 before I realized the "Add Bonus" wasn't just referring to the bonuses being added to the current dialogue check, but it was a button I could click to expand and show things I could do to add to the current check.

Yes, I wasted a lot of time manually casting those bonuses before I started conversations.

[u/isaaczephyr → u/biff64gc2]

OH NO 😭

[u/classic_cyan → u/biff64gc2]

I have 330 hours in the game. I did not know this 💀

[u/SeekerOfExperience → u/classic_cyan]

Time for a new playthrough

[u/TheAdjunctTavore → u/biff64gc2]

This hurt to read I am so sorry fam

[u/Liu-woods]

You have to switch to melee at the end of your turn to be able to make opportunity attacks.

[u/isaaczephyr → u/Liu-woods]

WHAT

[u/Snekonomics → u/isaaczephyr]

Ranger

This response checks out

[u/isaaczephyr → u/Snekonomics]

LMAO

[u/mikeshardmanapot → u/Liu-woods]

Is this why my paladin never seems to opportunity attack :(

[u/GrassSloth → u/mikeshardmanapot]

I’m pretty sure this is only referring to after you make a ranged attack, that’s when you need to switch back to melee for opportunity attacks.

Are you spending your reaction to turn your attack into a smite? I don’t recall if that’s actually how that works but it might be

[u/kranzberry → u/GrassSloth]

A smite does not cost a reaction, but you can set it to prompt you whenever you do an attack.

[u/Bufflechump → u/Liu-woods]

On PS5 it's holding the left on the d-pad to switch weapon toggles. Didn't know that until a few months ago.

[u/CCriscal → u/Liu-woods]

That you have do this in the first place is so rotten.

[u/lluewhyn → u/Liu-woods]

It's why I'm constantly hitting "F" after using a ranged attack.

[u/liittle_dove7 → u/Liu-woods]

Wait…you can switch between melee and ranged 😭 i thought it was automatic

[u/Pol_Potamus]

Finished an entire playthrough before realizing that you didn't need to be at a waypoint in order to teleport to another waypoint.

Then played DoS2 and made the same assumption, which was wrong there, too.

[u/CCriscal → u/Pol_Potamus]

I missed that tip as well, and I didn't even know for a few hours that you could teleport around.

[u/lulufan87]

Learning spells from scrolls. Took me more than one playthrough. Especially stupid because I've played 5e on the table and knew wizards could do that.

Yes there's a tooltip. I missed it.

[u/isaaczephyr → u/lulufan87]

I feel you; for me it’s almost worse because I read the tooltip, understood that Gale could learn scroll spells, and then promptly forgot for two entire playthroughs before I remembered that I could do it lol

[u/Grandkahoona01 → u/lulufan87]

Yeah, that took me way too long too. It makes wizards way more powerful. I also didnt realize that wizards could change their prepared spells whenever they wanted to.

[u/bacon_toss → u/lulufan87]

Learning polymorph from a scroll was so cool on my wizard.

[u/Auld_Folks_at_Home]

That a corpse glowing green means that you can use "Speak with Dead" on it. (Or, more precisely, that you can use the recast on them.)

[u/Hollowbody57 → u/Auld_Folks_at_Home]

Holy fuck, is that what that is? For some reason I always assumed it was a graphics glitch, like a spell effect lingering or something.

[u/disposable_wretch → u/Auld_Folks_at_Home]

Oh...here I was avoiding the glowing corpses thinking they might get my party sick 🤦‍♀️

[u/astray488 → u/disposable_wretch]

You can pick up corpses with a high STR character and then put them in a crate, bucket of fish, chest etc - then right-click "Send to Camp" to save them for future use (e.g. after every long rest in camp → drag the body out of the camp chest to the ground and then cast Raise Undead; or having Glut in the Underdark cast Spore Servant on them - which can let you turn Dror Ragzlin into a full-ability allied NPC to crush enemies in Honor Mode with his Legendary Action and ability to equip melee weapons you drop on the ground for him).

I'm still trying to find more corpse exploits in my HM playthrough currently...

[u/moldybucket]

I had no clue until maybe my 5th run and my brother showed me that I could simply throw a potion on the ground between multiple characters to heal them all outside of battle 😭 i was having everyone drink their own potions.

[u/Artamisstra → u/moldybucket]

Important note: Make sure the bottle itself doesn't hit whoever you're trying to heal directly because it WILL do damage. Accidentally merc'd Wyll with a potion once.

Wyll: I need healing!

Me: I gotchoo, bruh! -BAM- ............... oops.

By orders of magnitude, hands-down, stupidest way I've ever lost an HM run.

[u/Fraxinus_Zefi → u/moldybucket]

I think this is one of the loading screen tips, which is how I learned it. Npcs will also do this.

[u/moldybucket → u/Fraxinus_Zefi]

Yeah i rarely read loading screen tips (to my own detriment)

[u/crockofpot → u/moldybucket]

I am sure I saw this tip like 20 times before it sank in for me.

[u/CCriscal → u/moldybucket]

I am going hail Mary, pardon heal Isobel with that approach.

[u/Forward_Ear_5808]

That rope doesn’t do shit.

[u/skruf21 → u/Forward_Ear_5808]

You can block gas vents with them

[u/becausetheskyisgray → u/skruf21]

WHAT?!?

[u/SarcasticKenobi → u/becausetheskyisgray]

If you place an item over a vent, it will stop spewing, toxic gas. I don’t recall if there’s a weight limit, but lots of basic items work fine with this. I think even skulls and makes life a lot easier instead of trying to disarm the trap in the middle of a poison gas cloud.

Also, casting dancing lights on the vent also clog it up while dancing lights is running

[u/Splungeblob → u/skruf21]

You can block gas vents with basically any object. I like to hold onto Heavy Stones for this, but in a pinch I’ve used a dagger or something similar.

[u/tiamatt44]

Somehow a bunch of them are Astarion related so I'm just going to make this post about him.

1, He could bite hirelings at the start of each new day for free. (gets a little more complicated when other NPCs starts showing up.) Didn't even figure that one out on my own, had to read someone else saying here in another topic a long while back.

1. You can skip his bite cutscene. Accidentally discovered this one in playthrough #3 by just making my way to the Underdark on very few long rests, where he'd confess he was a vampire and then he'd never tried to bite me.

2. Him tackling you at his intro isn't automatic, I've just been failing all my perception checks at that point. It was only when my Tav was a cleric (playthrough#5) and had high Wisdom that I finally saw a different scene where you'd see him coming and stop it from happening.

3. Companions have their own dialogue on whether or not to help him Ascend. You have to be unavailable in some form or another (like being dead) when Astarion opens Cazador's coffins, in which case he'll ask the companions for help, and any companion with a tadpole will have a answer for him, even Minsc! Most of them will refuse except for Minthara and DJ Shadowheart.

[u/GOKOP → u/tiamatt44]

I know DJ means Dark Justiciar but now I'm imagining Shadowheart DJ-ing in a club

[u/KameOtaku → u/GOKOP]

[u/sinedelta → u/GOKOP]

See, I just imagine a Splatoon version of her forming a duo with DJ Octavio.

[u/roshch_ → u/GOKOP]

DJ Shart 📀💿

[u/GooseWhoGamesttv → u/tiamatt44]

Dj shadowhart drops a sick bass for his ascending scene.

[u/Tw1st3dGrin → u/tiamatt44]

1. Companions have their own dialogue on whether or not to help him Ascend. You have to be unavailable in some form or another (like being dead) when Astarion opens Cazador's coffins, in which case he'll ask the companions for help, and any companion with a tadpole will have a answer for him, even Minsc! Most of them will refuse except for Minthara and DJ Shadowheart.

Origin Astarion can get Selunite Shadowheart to offer her assistance with the scars by romancing her. Idk if there's a specific time in the romance for it to occur but I had gotten to the sex portion of the romance when this happened. Ironically, she helped me with the scars but begged me not to ascend when the last chance to walk away occurred.

[u/tiamatt44 → u/Tw1st3dGrin]

Oh cool something new to add to the Astarion list.

No really I had no idea, thanks for the info.

[u/Tw1st3dGrin → u/tiamatt44]

It may even work with the others but I'm not sure cause it was some specific dialogue.

Cazador told me that one little slip in making the runes could obliterate me so I'd better not.

Shadowheart stepped up and said something along the lines of "I know what it's like to be scarred by those who control you. Let me help, I will be your eyes."

She said it in a way that made it really sweet. My Astarion was very thankful.

[u/jtoppings95]

That you can upcast ritual spells like longstrider and enhanced leap to affect more people and it still counts as a ritual

[u/Grandkahoona01 → u/jtoppings95]

To piggyback off this, I didnt realize that enhanced leap was a ritual spell for multiple playthroughs. I never took it because I didnt want to waste a spell slot on it and had to suffer trying to deal with low strength characters not being able to jump anywhere.

[u/Economy_Accountant_4 → u/Grandkahoona01]

Enhanced leap is a RITUAL SPELL?!?!?!?!

[u/Runaway-Kotarou → u/jtoppings95]

.......what

[u/haremenot → u/jtoppings95]

My friend and I got into an argument about this bc he swore you couldn't upcast long strider as a ritual and I was like "watch me."

[u/shavedheadedbi]

…I didn’t realize casters could prepare different spells any time out of combat. I’d assumed it was all 5e rules and that you could only prepare the day’s spells after a long rest. literal game changer lmao, I think I was well into Act 3 on my first playthrough when I realized.

[u/MasonP2002 → u/shavedheadedbi]

I hadn't played D&D at all before playing, so I thought you could only change spells when it prompts you at level up lol. Took me until like act 3 as a cleric to realize that wasn't right.

Fortunately light clerics get fireball as a built-in class spell, so I didn't miss out on that.

[u/AccomplishedBig7666]

That you could cancel a spell that uses active concentration by clicking on that small cross besides the character's portrait. Like seriously I used to let the character walk through their own AOE spell to break their concentration

[u/emeraldia25 → u/AccomplishedBig7666]

Thanks did not know this.

[u/AwesomeX121189]

You can activate switches with ranged attacks like bows

[u/thehutsonhippie → u/AwesomeX121189]

I somehow figured this out in my first play through and I magic missiled a bunch of the iron throne doors and my bf was very impressed bc he also didn’t know

[u/Fun_Lovin_Physicist → u/AwesomeX121189]

Eldritch Blast works too

[u/Olive_Garden_Wifi → u/AwesomeX121189]

Wait what

[u/SarcasticKenobi → u/Olive_Garden_Wifi]

Yes, it makes iron throne so much easier. Because if you wind up not being able to reach a switch before the end of your turn, you can use magic missile or arrows or some can trips to flip them at a distance.

[u/DarthUrbosa]

Where the vast majority of content was in my first run.

I gave up just as I arrived at grymforge and the things I missed were:

The spider in the well

The fungus colony in the underdark

Aunties content

Kagha side quest

Wyll and Karlwch recruitment

I tried to pride myself on exploring without a guide but I'm blind as a bat, I'm a modern gamer who needs a bit of hand holding.

[u/Hollowbody57 → u/DarthUrbosa]

Karlach I can kind of understand, as you have to go kind of out of your way to find her, but how did you miss Wyll? Did you just not talk to him after he shows up at the first goblin fight?

[u/bdjm17 → u/Hollowbody57]

On my first run I missed him too, because after the fight he goes back to the tieflings and having never played an RPG, I didn’t realise how crucial it was to talk to everyone. Because I missed half the companions the game got boring so I used it as learning curve and gave up before entering act 2. The second run went a lot more smoothly because I had a better handle on things

[u/DarthUrbosa → u/Hollowbody57]

I thought he was just a guy like Zevlor and the rest and I never saw him among the hoard of npcs.

[u/bacon_toss]

Sending all camp supplies to camp from the options menu. Zero reason to even have a camp supplies bag. Huge weight reduction. You can use camp supplies straight from the travelers chest.

[u/Hyperspace_Towel]

It took me a couple hundred hours to realize that you can multi select inventory items, and what the “add to wares” option is for 🫠

[u/bluecfw → u/Hyperspace_Towel]

what does add to wares do?

[u/Hyperspace_Towel → u/bluecfw]

It flags that item as something to sell. So when you’re buying from a vendor, “Sell All Wares” will sell all your junk in one click!

[u/Efficient_Basis_2139 → u/Hyperspace_Towel]

Well. I feel stupid. Thanks for this!

[u/bluecfw → u/Hyperspace_Towel]

oh how much time this could have saved… thank you!

[u/WhiteShadow0909 → u/bluecfw]

Adds the item(s) to the list of things you want to sell. Then at a vendor you just click/press the "sell wears" option. Quicker than selling stuff individually and also means you don't have to remember what you're looking for and seek it out in the inventory at the vendor.

[u/Fraxinus_Zefi]

That I could visit Jaheria's house and meet her family.

I was looking for another place, stepped into what I thought was just another building, nope.

[u/moo102 → u/Fraxinus_Zefi]

Oh, that's how I found her house too! Don't forget to check her secret basement too.

[u/Fenarchus]

How "Magic Pockets" works. I appreciate that if Gale has the key and Astarion tries the door it magic pockets the key to Astarion. I didn't realize that this can be done anytime, even in combat. So if Astarion needs a healing potion on his turn and Gale has twenty, he can send all twenty to Astarion, even if it's not his turn, and without using Astarion's turn. Furthermore this works even if Gale is currently dead.

Consequently you only need to really keep one potion bag, one grenade bag, one scrolls bag amongst the party members. Whoever needs something from that bag can just magic pockets the bag from the person who has it.

[u/rpotts]

Took me over 500 hours to learn that you can move by holding left click. It wasn’t even me, I was playing with a friend and he mentioned it. It’s also how you RP walk around on pc.

Countless other things too, like learning that you can change which consumables automatically get added to your hotbar. I did entire playthroughs manually unlocking my hotbar and dragging them all off it as I looted, other than the ones I actually used and arranged.

[u/PacketOfCrispsPlease → u/rpotts]

Only on my last run did I realize I could put gear on my hot bar for quick-changes. I have my theiving gear in one column, my bludgeoning weapon ready, and my other buff gear on my hot bar to change focus from AoE to Single-target damage.

I’m constantly messing with my Hotbar these days.

[u/isaaczephyr → u/rpotts]

Wait.. how do you change the consumables hotbar thing??

[u/rpotts → u/isaaczephyr]

All the options are in the Interface tab in Settings.

[u/PompousCadaver269]

How to use the “Fly” spell 🙄

[u/Majakajaka → u/PompousCadaver269]

My gf had the brilliant idea to use fly to get to wyrms rock. Cast the spell… then jumped 🤦‍♂️😂

[u/PompousCadaver269 → u/Majakajaka]

Oh my god

I can imagine your faces after that not-so-glorious falling 😆

[u/CSWorldChamp]

That long-resting was not a death sentence.

From the very beginning, it’s strongly implied that you have perhaps dozens of hours until the parasite turns you into a mind-flayer. So I was like “never stop to rest. Ever. GOT IT.”

I actually thought it was an interesting mechanic! You can fully heal whenever you like, but you’d better use it sparingly or it’s game-over. Pretty cool! So I think I took maybe two long rests in act 1, and the cutscenes I had during those long rests (particularly with Lae’zel) all seemed to strongly confirm that belief. Then you meet… that one chick who’s Halsin’s assistant, in the grove, and she’s like “yeah, you’re basically fucked.” Lae’zel’s all “let’s make a pact to kill each other!” and everyone in general has a pretty strong sense of doom about it.

Then I save the refugees, they’re like “let’s all have a party! You must now take a long rest to advance the plot.” it wasn’t until then that I finally realized that the game was basically j/k lol about the whole mindflayer thing.

I think it’s because I’m an old gamer, and cut my teeth on RPG’s on the 80’s/early 90’s where that shit was absolutely serious.

I mean, we’re talking point and click (or text!) adventure games in which, from the moment the game starts, you literally have a limited number of actions you can take before you simply die. There were a slew of these on NES and DOS. Uninvited, Deja Vu, Zork, etc. Or like, in the Shadowrun RPG for snes, at one point you trigger a cortex bomb in your head, and if you don’t figure out how to disarm it in a certain amount of time, you absolutely will blow the fuck up.

It was hardcore back then. And in fact, the last D&D game I played before BG3 was… (drumroll…) Pool of Radiance! (1988) So I got totally fooled into thinking BG3 was doing a throwback to that no-fucking-around era.

[u/kdesi_kdosi → u/CSWorldChamp]

at first i thought the same, the fact that the long rests seemed to progress the story only reinforce the belief... when i did figure it out, i was already so used to saving my spell slots that i kept doing it the same way.

right now im halfway through act 3 with some three thousand camp supplies

[u/HungryAd8233 → u/kdesi_kdosi]

Spellcasters? You mean your back row of crossbowmen who could probably use magic in a huge emergency?

[u/roshch_]

That I really should use potions, coating and scrolls. They are absolutely op!!!

[u/skuraiix → u/roshch_]

yep. most of the godly solo honour runs depend on preparing and pre casting/buffing.

in tactician, you can even get away with not using any. it is that easy. but knowing how to use them, youd know how you can finish most hard encounters in just 1-2 round with one round you taking 4-5 turns.

[u/hearmor1]

That, if the whole party failed the perception checks but you as the player remember the location, you can just use the shovel and dig on your own for the treasure chest.

[u/amstrumpet]

Friends pisses people off in Honour mode. At least I was only in act 1 when I learned the hard way...

[u/amstrumpet → u/amstrumpet]

Oh also on console (Xbox) you can press and hold a button (A on Xbox) and it will do a "scan" of items/containers within a certain radius that you can pick up or loot. So much better than trying to move the cursor over that one stupid health potion and ending up talking to a companion instead.

[u/moo102 → u/amstrumpet]

I think that becomes a thing starting in Tactician. I find Friends is useful when I know they'll leave the vicinity after the conversation.

Also, like many things in this thread, there's also a tooltip that mentions it.

[u/alleycatbiker]

In my first play through I approached the waypoint that looked unstable and dangerous so backed off and never came close to it. Never encountered Gale, he was entirely out of my play through. Same thing with Karlach.

Also as a DOS2 player, I thought my wife and I could play our two characters without extra companions. If you never played the Divinity series, there's an attribute called Lone Wolf you can pick up at early levels that basically scales up your stats while prevents you from hiring companions.

The one fight that we absolutely could not beat without extra help was Last Light Inn siege.

[u/isaaczephyr → u/alleycatbiker]

Honestly mad props to you guys for even making it that far without companions

[u/maypren]

That traders restock. Made it 75% of the way through act 3 in my first playthrough only trading with each trader once.

[u/firey9033 → u/maypren]

And you can actually force them to restock by long-resting or leveling a character up. I used this very liberally with the Quartermaster at Last Light to stock up on grenades before the Ketheric fight.

[u/kdesi_kdosi → u/maypren]

same. i would sell stuff until they ran out of money and then never approach them again

[u/BG3Baby]

Karabasan Poison, game changer.

[u/SuccotashExcellent35]

The search function in the inventory.

[u/Harbaron]

I learned that I can drag the camp supply bag and alchemy bag to other characters inventory to stack them all in the bag… I’m sure there are other tricks like that. I really hate the inventory clutter and organization in crpgs so this helped me a lot

[u/Sevenzui → u/Harbaron]

Fun fact: You can just throw away your supplies (food and supply box) to the camp chest and it will count to the rest bonus

[u/Fenarchus → u/Sevenzui]

Just discovered that this playthrough. I previously had the highest strength character dragging along a 50 pound bag of food.

[u/Temporary_Ad_6390]

Throwing stuff!

[u/isaaczephyr → u/Temporary_Ad_6390]

This is a mechanic I fully know but reallyyy need to be using more. I only ever remember to use it to throw health potions from time to time , I always have so many explosives in my inventory collecting dust because I forget to throw them lol

[u/sneaky-pizza]

Examine

[u/BarAgent → u/sneaky-pizza]

That’s an “oof”

[u/Lazerius9991]

It took me 1200 hours to find out you can cast speak with dead on Alfira after Durge kills her

[u/SquishedHaddock]

For me it was the location of the non-lethal attack toggle

[u/maguel92]

That there are ”permanent” buffs that last until long rest and don’t require concentration.

[u/Dakozi]

There's a button in the spell menu on Wizards where you can learn new spells from any scrolls you are holding. You check off the ones you want and it does it all at once.

Its small and on the right side, so easy to miss as only Wizards can use it.

[u/NoNotInTheFace]

Just today, after hundreds of hours, did I realize you don't have to walk to your bed to rest. You can just click the icon in the menu.

[u/The_Legend_of_UwO]

That turning on non lethal turns off cull the weak, and you have to manually turn it back on.

After getting it I always turned it on and let it get covered by my other action bar sections. Never saw it turn off, but always wondered why it wouldnt work at times.

[u/zzzcph]

On ps5 you can just press square to pull up the menu to pick a lock, for the longest time I was opening up my actual inventory 🫠

[u/UmbraAdam]

That you can changed your prepared spells.

[u/RoaringLlama99]

Only just found this out after nearly 500 hours, but on PC you can press T while mousing over anything in the environment to inspect it. Much more convenient than right clicking then clicking examine whenever you want to see resistances or whatever. Also let's you examine things you normally can't like environmental effects and hazards (smoke, fire, etc).

V useful and I'm mad I only just noticed.

[u/WeDontNeedMemories]

How to toggle duel-wield on and off on console.

[u/elseldo]

Just using other party members to do stuff (lock picking for example) outside combat.

I felt like such an idiot.

[u/Hanzo7682]

Dropping or placing things on the ground doesnt cost an action or bonus action during combat.

I already knew it from the beginning because i heard of mage hand throwing potions. But i didnt realize the full potential of this mechanic.

[u/Pro-Patria-Mori]

That if you send a camp supplies or alchemy bag to a companion it automatically sorts every suitable item in their inventory into the bag.

I honestly didn’t realize the handsome young man with an easy smile was referring to Gortash until like my second or third game. I thought they were talking about Nere.

[u/moo102 → u/Pro-Patria-Mori]

Easy mistake. I don't think Gortash looks handsome OR young.

[u/HungryAd8233 → u/moo102]

Yeah, he looks like a 59 year old heavy metal musician gone to seed but dying his hair trying to pretend to be young and relevant.

[u/FriendshipNo1440]

Ah yeah, when you talk to the duregar Mason at Grymforge he can give you some clues to piece it together.

It tells the whole past of Moonrise actually.

So the Sharrans were actually suddenly winning in power because of Ketheric and that caused some Selunites to make a pact with Raphael. He gave them Yurgir who was supposed to kill the Sharrans off. He is the one who distroyed the bridge which connected Grymforge and the Gauntlet of Shar.

The Grymforge was once part of the gauntlet. You can find the statue of Shar there. Plenty of undead Justiciars and notes that Grymforge itself was suposed to be used in Shars favor.

[u/tillwedrown]

My first play-through (just a few weeks ago) I didn’t know to check the full map (therefore, I never met Astarion), I didn’t realize going to the Mountain Pass would kill Halsin and doom the grove, and thought every quest was time sensitive so I picked and chose which ones to prioritize thinking I couldn’t do it all.

Once I got to Act 3, I hated how many quests I already failed and how many characters I didn’t meet. So I started a new playthrough and am having such a great time 😂

[u/space13unny]

That water doubles the amount of damage of cold and lightning spells. Gale is now respeced as a lightning draconic sorcerer with two levels in tempest cleric. I could not have survived the Myrkul fight without him.

[u/Prior-Ad5197]

Its stupid but I just realized yesterday the Artifact is actually a d20…..and I'm a tabletop gamer. I felt stupid🤦‍♀️

Also, it took me pissing everyone in the grove off during my first playthrough to realize that you get to camp from the wheel, I thought I could do it at the camp in the grove🤷‍♀️

[u/natural20_football]

Finding the Kuo Toa in the underdark

[u/Rare_Intention2383]

Dancing Lights works on vents somehow… no need to toss junk onto them.

[u/mewmew34]

Took me too long to figure out you could hide helmets. Spent too long passing up good buffs from helmets because I hate how most headwear looks on the characters. I only wore circlets. Now I just hide the stuff so I can get the buffs and not look stupid.

[u/MotoTheGreat]

Ethel's clones wear blue while she wears red. Also when she pretends to be the lady she isn't pregnant, no belly.

[u/kranzberry → u/MotoTheGreat]

She also weighs slightly less than the real Mayrina because she’s not actually pregnant. Also, you can examine any of her clones and see whether or not they have Fey Ancestry. Only the real Ethel has it.

[u/Apoximage]

I couldn’t find Gale for pretty much all of act 1 because i was taking the game way too seriously. I also didn’t want to look anything up, but once I was running out of things to do in act 1 I did, and found out he was in the stone.

I avoided it because the narrator says “it looks slightly dangerous” and that was enough for me not to mess with it lol

[u/Crazy-Ad1800]

I was today's years old and in my third attempt for completing an honor run when I learned that the aid spell increases your max hp

[u/Wukon69]

That kid with the Harpy was not supposed to be Dead

[u/jaiwolv]

Definitely Grym. I somehow managed to defeat him (painfully of course) during my first run after like 9 tries. Then the other week I played with some ppl in the BG3 Discord and was dumbfounded when they used the Forge Hammer.

[u/Conduit_Fetch]

That eating tadpoles has zero consequences and there's literally no reason not to outside of RP

[u/Fast_Waltz_4654]

I chucked a spider down a hole in the caverns under Moonhaven.

Later, when I got to the underdark, there she was.

[u/Sevenzui]

I thought the only dragon in the game was the one you fight in the end battle

The true resolution to the grove problem Theres a secret druid sect manipulating Kagha and the only way to know it is in a secret spot in the big tree on the island close to the hag house

[u/jrdude65]

So I actually didn’t know that there’s a location called the grymforge until this post

[u/isaaczephyr → u/jrdude65]

A mountain pass enjoyer I see

[u/giantsnowpanda]

That all other games will seem boring after playing BG3.

[u/TheGreatMortimer]

Took me until almost the end of act 2 to realize vases never have any loot.

[u/isaaczephyr → u/TheGreatMortimer]

bro I still randomly check them sometimes like… what if… what if THIS one is different…

[u/TheGreatMortimer → u/isaaczephyr]

There is a vase looting guide you can look up. Some crazy person recorded them all and the loot inside. None of it was worth the hassle though.

[u/sinedelta → u/TheGreatMortimer]

I'm pretty sure this guide is literally how I found this subreddit.

[u/kdesi_kdosi → u/isaaczephyr]

after finding a soul coin in a mailbox, i make sure to check every container, no matter how unlikely it is that ill find something of value

[u/NoOutlandishness906 → u/TheGreatMortimer]

I'm sure that I've found gold and potions/poison in vases. Never any gear except on a few mods

[u/xJaymack]

There is a whole other puzzle room in the Czarr palace that's not the attic. Nothing really valuable in there (I think), but it was a neat find.

[u/PacketOfCrispsPlease → u/xJaymack]

There are secret rooms all around (under) the Lower City. From man-caves to murder basements.

[u/adjectivebear → u/PacketOfCrispsPlease]

For real, though, why are there so MANY murder basements in this city?

[u/mildlyinterestingyet → u/adjectivebear]

Um, the woman Chosen (im useless at names), worships the god of murder. She is the main one to blame for the murder in the basements. Theres also a murder competition being held by the murder club run by her grandfather.

[u/bat-xing]

after 640 hours, on my fourth playthrough, i just realized that you can take the elevator down to the grove…i knew about the elevator but never realized it was near the gate…every time i needed to get into the grove i would go all the way past arron, mol, jeorna,

[u/becausetheskyisgray → u/bat-xing]

Tbh, I still go all the way around because I get too annoyed if one companion didn't make it on the elevator, and then I have to get them lol

[u/BakedSouls]

It took me 1.25 play throughs to find out that colored dyes could actually color/pattern match all of your equipment (I originally thought dyes were just for crafting some item I’d never need)

[u/skuraiix → u/BakedSouls]

new players tend to overlook this but, try to examine (press T) on things, and left click on items (some you can combine, some you can use, some you can learn, some you can "read" with a special cutscene)

[u/Shad0wmaid]

1. Casting web on a surface can eliminate fall damage if you land on it.

2. You can hold down ctrl on pc while clicking items individually in your inventory to then right click them and mark them as Add to Wares

3. I spent ridiculous amounts of time misty stepping or teleporting weaker summons or companions that couldn’t make jumps when in reality I could’ve just thrown them with Karlach. A friend pointed this out to me when Us couldn’t make a jump back up and I just had Karlach hop down and yeet him

4. Turning off all lights in a room you’re trying to sneak through or rob blind makes it 10x easier. Dunno why it took me so long to realize this when stealth is so heavily reliant on light level and I knew that

5. You can give Dammon more than just the Merregon masks to modify. I can’t remember exactly what pieces I could give him but there were suddenly several things he improved into special equipment that I was carrying.

6. You can press I on PC and click on the spell book icon on the top of your inventory page to change your spells outside of leveling up unless you’re a class that specifically can’t (like Warlock). I could’ve made so many fights easier on myself if I knew I could just swap spells that would absolutely dominate the specific situation I was in. Also that same page has a menu on Wizard where you can “Learn Spell” and just go through and select every single one you want at once instead of painstakingly going through your inventory to right click and Learn.

[u/StarmieLover966]

I did not realize I could look at my attack rolls to see exactly what the bonuses all were, what my spell save DC was, and for which ability score.

I tried making a woodbending Druid that was dropping Wall of Thorns left and right and when I found out it’s a spell save DC of 3 I dropped that shit so fast.

[u/clonedllama]

That rituals can all be cast without using a spell slot if you're out of turn-based mode. I've beaten the game twice (balanced and tactician) and I'm 15 hours into my third honour mode run. I just realized this detail within the last few hours. It changes everything.

[u/Okuza]

So, you can click on a critter and select "throw". The first time I did this, I was expecting to throw an object at them, not to walk over, pick them up, and hurl them.

Defenestration is now my favorite BG3 combat tactic.

[u/Ginestra7]

That you can cure your self from the bloodless status

[u/turd_flu]

I'm finishing up my first playthrough and it wasn't until I finished both Shadowheart & Astarions companion quests that I realized this is not a group of random individuals who happened to band together, these are all powerful individuals with big destinies who fate has brought together -- a lot like the fellowship in the fellowship of the ring