Scratch can also be summoned by whomever has his fetch ball. He's not great for combat, but he does point out dig spots. Some people think this is kind of useless because you can still fail the survival checks to reveal them, but what the game doesn't tell you is that you can still select the shovel to use on an area to dig, so Scratch pointing where a dig spot is, even if you fail the survival check, allows you to more precisely find it to dig up.
It's important to note that you must have the item called Scratch's Ball in your inventory in order to bring him out of camp with you. It's the one he brings you once he has been in camp for a while. ~~It's the only one he'll play fetch with.~~ Edit: as of a recent patch, it isn't the only thing he'll fetch any more. He now fetches almost anything 😅
@@LukeCanWinyup I just decided to examine my shovel options to see if I could just shovel randomly and you can. You don’t even have to dig on top of the location of the chest as long as you dig close enough. Seems broken tbh
If I fail a Survival check, I just use the Shovel on the ground. If it says I can't, I just use it on another spot. You don't have to be exact with it. Makes Scratch redundant really.
You do not gain the permanent ability to summon the quasit just from using the scroll. If you just use the scroll the quasit will be gone forever after you take a long rest if not sooner. First you need choose whichever character you want to gain the ability to summon him and make sure that character has at least one level in sorcerer, wizard, or warlock. Then you need to talk to the quasit as your chosen character before entering the room behind the mirror. Just choose answer 1 until he asks something like "what next, shall I.....(something or other)" then choose whichever answer is something like "you will do no such thing". Then you have to talk to the quasit again once you are in the room behind the mirror and the quasit will note that you are a "spellshite" and you will spontaneously gain the ability to summon him. You can respec back into whatever class you normally are after this point. You can have two characters learn how to summon him if you take a wizard and learn the spell scroll and then use the wizard to summon the quasit and then have your second person with speak to the quasit as I described above.
This is honestly so helpful, the video just wasted about half an hour of my time as I summoned immediately like the vid suggested... but my main char is not a magic class so I lost the summon.
Thanks for clarifying this. I was cringing when he didn’t bring this up. But to clarify further. You don’t actually need to do anything with the mirror to get him to stay. Just have to talk to him again and he will notice you’re a magic user. That’s when he gives you the summon quasit spell. He does have unique dialogue with the mirror, but it’s unrelated to gaining the spell.
@@nunya_bizniz You can. On the bottom underneath where you would open your Inventory, should be active spells with an x in the top right to cancel them. I do not know if it costs an action but tbh my gut says it doesn't.
@@nunya_bizniz you can cancel it. On the turn of the person who is concentrating, there will be a little icon in the bottom left, beneath their class badge/icon/thing. Click that and it turns off.
Scratch is super useful, he isn't just a dog in your camp. Once he plays ball with you, you can use that ball to summon him and he'll find treasure spots for you in case you fail the perception checks. He also, even more useful, can Help fallen allies in battle, as well as attack or tank in battle. I used him in the fight against Kagha and he took down two of the shadow druids by himself. During the fight against the vampire hunter, he brought back a number of my characters who had fallen, so I didn't need to waste an action throwing a potion or using the Help action.
try petting him each time you go to camp, I don't know what triggers it but eventually he'll play ball with you, and if you throw the ball, he'll bring it back to you and it will become an item you can use to summon him@@MrHdog111
@@MrHdog111it won't prompt you sometimes, he'll just have a ball near him at some point at camp. Maybe check around the floor while holding alt and see if you spot it?
If all 4 party members fail a perception check, you can literally just use the shovel anyway and dig around nearby. You don't even have to be precise to reveal hidden chests, making survival 100% useless 🙃
Huge note about summoning Shovel the quasit: No, you do not get the ability to summon it whenever you want just from using the scroll, but there are 2 ways to unlock it permanently. The first and most obvious is if you're a Wizard, you can Learn the spell the same way you learn other spells from scrolls, however this limits you to only being able to summon it as a wizard. If you want to summon him without being a wizard, you'll need to fist change to a spellcaster class like wizard or sorcerer, then talk with it and go through its dialogue to learn about the book. Once you get through the mirror, talk to it again and if you're a spellcaster class like I mentioned, it'll call you something like "Spell Shitter" or whatever, but offer to be your familiar. Accept and instead of it being a spell for your class, it's a spell under your common list, so you can summon it no matter which class you are from now on.
There is something funky going on with him, I have always done his thing as a wizard. But last time I got a permanent skill from just summoning him once with a sorcerer. However, it did nothing when used. It wasn't just a dead hotkey either, since the skill was in the list and book as well
You can get the permanent invocation even without having a sorcerer/wizard. If you select the corrects option on it's first dialogue, you'll learn the spells when you talk to it after the mirror (but i don't remember the dialogue option...)
You can also get the brand on all of your companions by talking to the goblin warlock near the branding site after priestess gut leaves for her chambers.
You can lose Loviatar's Love (and maybe the other permanent buffs too) by dying and getting resurrected by revivify scroll or spell. Better be careful not to die if you want to keep 'em.
I dont know if this has been mentioned here, but you can get the awakened buff on your main character even if you let laz zel get on the machine, you just have to not convince her to get off and to the very end you can pass a skill check and get the buff, and laz will be just fine dont worry
Frustratingly, when I tried this there were never any options for me. I basically just watched an uninterrupted cutscene of her being tortured, then the machine explodes and she's got the debuffs. Those seem to have gone away on their own (Long Rest probably?). But I didn't get the buff.
Keeping Sussur Bloom in the Chest until act 3 is great. Add it back onto a barbarian or fighter and you have an antixmagic field for mage bosses like Cazador.
A few notes if I may: Scratch actually becomes a summon after you trigger an achievement related to him. He sniffs out hidden stuff as well and he can join fights, though he only has something like 5 hp. I also believe that you can use the owlbear cub as a fully grown owlbear in act 3 via the "Gather your allies" quest for the final battle. And Shovel the quasit can only be summoned once afaik if you use the scroll just like that. Please note that he will persist through long rests which might give you the idea that he's gained forever but once you unsummon him or he dies he's gone forever. You can get it as a ritual through conversation choices but you do need to do it right. You can find guides on that. I think that you can do this with wizards, sorcerers and warlocks as well. Arcane spell casters in other words. Also, a wizard character can learn the spell and then use it permanently as a spell but you shouldn't have used the scroll of course. There's a trap underneath the book of Thay, so disarming that first before using the book makes sure you don't trigger the gargoyle heads. Also you can disarm traps on plates that you step on before moving off them. The traps are triggered not by stepping on them but by stepping off them. I tend to go to the spider lair before to get the stone needed to open the book. Also aside from the hidden knowledge buff you also get the ability to speak with the dead as a skill iirc. At the githyanki creche there is a risk when getting inside the tadpole removal machine. The 3 checks you have to make you HAVE to pass or else you will lose stat points permanently so be prepared because you could potentially lose stat points from each of the three abilities that you have to make a save for. You will want to have re-rolls and buffs wherever possible.
An easier way to get the Necromancy of Thay book is to just move it off the trap and towards the door, even with 8 strength you can move it well outside the reach of the traps inside the room and just pick it up off the floor.
Yes, if you have the Cub and do Damon/Karlach's questline, Damon will armor and potion the Owlbear into a full-sized and armored ally for the final battle.
You dont lose stats permanently if you dont pass the checks in the tadpole removal machine. as soon as you consume another tadpole on that char, the debuff gets removed :)
I saved mayrina in a weird way. I entered from the mushroom jumps in the underdark, popped up near the grave of her husband, picked the lock to the teahouse, pickpocketed mayrina and she ran off to look for the culprit, attacked the hag who retreated below. Mayrina never got sent to the cage and didn't appear in the fight. She just hangs around at the teahouse and has different dialogue before the boss fight. She also had different dialogue options after the fight, unaware of the hags death also not angry at the death of the hag. The ending is much the same, you just have to find her in the teahouse after the fight.
@@nunya_bizniz unsure yet as I am still roaming act 2. I assume she will be since the quest ended a similar way. You meet her at the husbands grave and such.
Astarion makes the mirror conversation go in a fun and interesting way, because he has no reflection. Also, first time I saw this was today, but I happened to have Mayrina silenced, and Ethel just asked to live. No check for Mayrina. I don't know if that is always the case. Ethel left without her and rewarded the hair. Absolute's Bane gloves that you get in gobbo fight at the grove apply bane on hit when wearer is branded.
You can also steal/loot the idol of silvanus from the grove to get nature and animal handling proficiency. It's an aura attached to the item itself, keep it on your main character and everyone around you gets the buff
This game has insane replay value. Though, if you're someone who just doesn't have the time to invest into it, just play on the easiest difficulty and don't worry about the bad dice rolls or the choices you make. Just go with the flow with what you might say or do. It is still 100% enjoyable for the entire experience.
You can get shovel permanently on any character you want, for example barbarian You only need to have 1lvl of either wizard/sorcerer/warlock while summoning and speaking with him the first time So technically reroll barbarian to have 1warlock lvl, get the shovel summoning skill and reroll back to what ever you had before, the ritual skill to summon shovel remains and ritual skills need no spellslots
If you want an easy way to take care of the Phase Spider Matriarch boss fight for the Dark Amethyst required for the Necromancy of Thay, you can simply use a Warlock with the Repelling Blast Eldritch Invocation or use an Arrow of Roaring Thunder to push her into the abyss behind the web she's standing on at 7:26 in the video. There's an achievement for doing this as well! Very useful for managing this fight early on in the game, especially on higher difficulties.
I got incredibly lucky and she kept climbing onto the web bridges so i kept hurling firebolts and dropping her onto the ground, it dealt so much damage its crazy
@@LukeCanWin Check the goblin camp, do the chicken chasing "mini-game" (to the left of where volo was singing), talk to the cub, then talk to the goblin that issued the mini-game. The cub will then disappear from the goblin camp. Long rest a couple of times. It will visit the camp, but will run away the first time. It should stay in the camp the second time. I've had the cub glitch out in the cave as well, but it usually still spawns at the goblin camp.
Yeah the "Auntie Ethel" buff is, in most cases, more a debuff. Usually trading -1 in perception for +1 in Intimidation is a pretty bad deal as perception is typically far more useful. I suppose if you were min-maxing a super evil intimidating character like the Dark Urge it might be good from a role play perspective. At least they did tone it down in a bit, in early access, it would eliminate your ability to crit with melee weapons, which could be devastating too characters like Rogues and fighters. So pretty much nobody ever took the option, at least now it's a bit more viable.
There are a few pieces of equipment that can help mitigate the debuff, but at best that means you can't ever have advantage on perception again. Either way that eye is really never worth it
for the mirror, if you dont know the correct answers you can intimidate it and it opens, or you can just avoid interaction all together by attacking it and breaking it. also about the tadpole extraction at the creche, i've heard that if you let Lae'zel do it, she will get nerfed.
@@PatIllian interesting, I haven't consumed any tadpoles, even though I collect them all like pokemon, and have lae safe keeping them lol what do they actually do? if you consume them?
Scratch is a buff though! Summon him as you explore and he uses "Scratch Sniff" to detect hidden chests (both buried and just obscured). He's also able to revive a downed player during combat and hide while not needed. Super powerful for a free summon!
Awakened Illithid Powers is highly recommended, being able to for ex use the illithd power to heal 50% of your health to someone else as a "bonus action" can be a lifesaver.
Game choices shouldn't be "recommended" in such a rpg imo, let's just say it's good. Else I'd "highly recommend" everyone to reach 30AC and using warding bond so they never take damage...
Awakened is extremely OP. You can fire off a bunch of black holes and end fights before the enemies get to act, trivializes the game in act 3, Be warned
Its way easier to pickpocket from him, he only runs away for like a minute then returns and doesnt care how many times you do it. Also his stuff regens every long rest
Though this is technically not an Act 1 "buff" since it's located in act 2, but since you put Scratch on this list it may be worth noting that you can only get "Us" (the Intellect Devourer) as a familiar in Act 2 if you free him/keep him alive throughout the tutorial.
When I got Shovel on my sorcerer, I got Gale to learn the scroll and then both Gale and my MC could summon him at any time giving me 2 quasits in my party :D
You can still get the +1 ability score from Ethel even if you get your eye removed. Simply go into her lair and go through the dungeon, she doesn't like you following her and so you end up fighting her anyway, etc. etc. Note that you'll have disadvantage on attacking her with the eye.
That paid the price “buff” is a joke. Not worth it. +1 to intimidation does not make up for disadvantage against Ethel. You will eventually have to meet her again in act 3 so that will cost you in the long run. And you make getting one of the best legendary items in the game harder to get.
Do not just use Shovel's scroll. Use it to teach the spell to Gale, then have him summon Shovel and go through the process of adding Shovel to your summon options. That way you can have both Gale and your main character able to summon Shovel. Given Quasit is a form "limited" to Pact of the Chain Warlock, having one summonable by two characters without needing to go PotC is pretty good.
I haven't tested it yet, but apparently if you grab a Sussur flower and put it in a backpack (and never open the backpack) you can pickpocket it onto an enemy caster and it'll turn off their spellcasting. If you can do that to Auntie Ethel it should make her fight very easy since she won't be able to do anything, including escape. Of course it'll protect her from your magical attacks too, so just whack her with a stick or something.
@@freman007 Unfortunately I have bad news on that front friend, I have just firsthand experienced this: If you take the Sussur flower out of the underdark it dies and withers (not the character) away into a wilted petal..
If you're making a choice that might lower your companion's approval, like getting Volo's eye, or the Absolute brand, you can just leave those companions outside and get the process done without them. I've had my entire Chapter 1 party branded.
Just for roleplay, or do you have a reason? The equipment can only go on one character and the conversation buffs only benefit you on your face character.
@@robyn_wonderswag Right, assuming you didn't fail the perception checks to be permanently locked out, let's spend the next 5 minutes trying to re-roll a DC 10 roll while wasting trap disarm kits. Instead of you know, Casting Mage hand, clicking throw, clicking the party, and being done with it. Let's waste both time and resources because clearly that's the "It's not hard" option here.
I like revisiting the room with Necromancy of Thay when I'm about done with act 1. The trap is still going lol.... I like to imagine when I'm in Baldur's gate it's still there, shooting fireballs all alone in a dark basement
@@sparingpickle4918 Sincere apologies for this horrible blunder! I guess I'll have to subject myself to Loviatar's Love to cleanse me of my transgression! 😆😂
Was talking to the mirror yesterday and for the question starting as "but are you wise?" I had only wrong answers as my The Dumb Urge with 8 wis 8 int. Had to reload and speak to the mirror as Shadowheart.
You don't have to sacrifice a companion to get that booal buff. During convo when your character gets to the part where you say "well.. bow everyone!" switch to Asterion, drink an invisible potion and steal the staff from the fish and run away from the group. Then switch back to your main and continue the conversation to get the perm buff.
Instead of triggering the gargoyles and risking your life, you can put a book instead of Necromancy of Thay which you've taken: this will prevent the trap from triggering
Or just move it to the door and pick it up once it forces you into turn-based mode, with that you can have the book in hand and have moved well away before the traps even get to activate.
You can actually summon them up to three times, as long as the main one survives. You have either agree to pay them 500 gold each time, or pass deception checks and eventually either pay them, or kill them.
also worth grabbing the mundane chest at the wizard woter since i think it lower the wheight ot stuff you put in it making it a kind of bag of holding of sorts
You can get two shovels. Have gale learn the spell, then have him cast it and then leave the conversation immediately. Then have your MC as a wizard class talk to shovel and follow the same steps of the convo (all 1st choice except number 2 when it is “is that what you and your master did here?” and when you go through the mirror talk to him again. He will give a line saying spellshite! And you will get him as a universal action. So now gale and the mc can cast shovel for double the moos
good to know I got all the good stuff! lot of those are less that useful due to the drawbacks but the ones that are all upside I managed to naturally encounter!
Worth noting about the Absolute's Brand: There is no downside to having this, and after getting it on one character through Gut, you can get it on the rest of your party by talking to the Warlock (i forget his name) in the room as each of them. Be sure to get this on everybody because again, there's no downside to having it, and it allows you to use gear that only works with the brand.
You can get the creche chair buff for yourself while still allowing laezel to go first and not get debuffed. Separate a party member then let laezel start the chair and then steal an item off the drs table without selecting any of the voice prompts. Agree to put the item back, laezel will be out of the chair without issue and let you sit in it where you can roll to get the buff. Ps it may be a good idea to hide and steal the parasite speciment 1st and and stop hiding to steal the second item.
You can kill the queen in one turn (thus don't have to fight eggs) by hitting the web while its walking (the web on the left side of hole). The queen falls down then goes prone. You can then use a void bulb? bomb? those things to attract and throw it in a spot that will pull the now downed spider directly into the hole. To prep, you just need to sneak one person down there with a void bomb ready, once queen moves over the web, switch to turn based and then do the steps above.
OHFSM, I have done the chair thing but never noticed that buff.. probably because back when I did it I was trying to get rid of the wiggler. Than you for that..
You can avoid giving Laezel the debuff from the awakening buff, by saying you're first. I don't remember the correct option but one of them Laezel respects you for it and with the other one she will leave the group so chose careful (and probably make a save state)
It took my 4 playthroughs to realize, but only the character you to speak to Gut with will get the brand. You just have to talk to her with the rest of your companions before asking her to remove the tadpole to get the buff for everyone else
Hey, just a PSA since you said Gale was a good sacrifice. He isn't, learned it the hard way and had to reset 20+ hours. He blows up after 3 or 4 long rests and, as you said, is not revivable so a reload is necessary (or mod). If you move to act 2 a black screen and game over occurs (I believe the rests are still needed though).
Also, to be nice to your new pet Scratch, don't forget to pickup his friend and bring him back to your camp so scratch can have some company. I like to drop him near where scratch sits a lot. He seems to be happy having him around. Remember to pick him back up before you move to the next act though! you don't want to leave him behind.
I got the gain awaken power buff when i was in a dream and was asked to embrace the tadpole and my guardian would protect me. Your Dream Guardian will offer you an Astral Touched Tadpole to awaken your Illithid potential.
Wow, I never realized the Alfira option actually gave the proficiency Just a side note tip that many might not have noticed, and I haven't seen any streamer use this. You can make summons and those weak, but free companions (scratch & quasit) a lot stronger by dropping items like elixir of hill giant strength, and then have them use it to get 21 str or barkskin elixir for 16 AC, or any other elixir you don't plan on using on your main party. You can also cast all buffs like mage armor, longstrider etc on them However a word of warning about scratch, he is extremely bugged, and keeps de- and respawning randomly, which normally doesn't matter much, and is even hard to notice, but he drops all his buffs and elixirs when he does it 14:53 man, I wish they'd remove the glove visual for the brand. Such a minor thing, but would make such a huge impact on immersion. Seeing her brand you over the gloves/gauntlets is so sad, when they even bothered to animate the whole thing I mean, the Loviatar's buff is just temporary buff. Nice include, but you got my hopes up if there was a different permanent one as well xD
It's called "roleplaying". Frankly, letting Volo bore (Get it? BORE!) you to tears (Get it? Because he bores an ice pick into your eye!) is just nothing a sane character would ever do, same with Loviatar's Love or taking the zombie wand instead of giving it to Mayrina or getting branded. BOOOAAL might even be the worst of the bunch.
23:25 'Gale is a good choice' Oh boy, can't wait to do this, save, and delete all but the latest save file afterwards. Surely that's a good idea :) (Seriously, DO NOT PICK GALE HERE)
You do NOT have to sacrifice a companion to get boooals blessing, aka sickle of boooal. I just past two checks and on the third, I agreed to share power with boooal. I was a bard, but idk if that matters.
If you kill a companion you get the buff for you always, if you do what you did you get a sickle with that buff but you have to use that weapon for taking advantage of that
Unlock one power with a tadpole and she regains it… it’s stated in the tool tip. Alternatively if you dont wanna waste 1 tadpole, you can always wait till end of act 2 when you grt the astral touched tadpole. Persuade her to use it and she will become half illithid while restoring her stats without using any tadpoles.
these are survival checks. and u dont need scratch for that. when ur whole group fails a survival check, just use ur shovel on that spot. u wil get the chest anyways
On the Imp-Summoning: Doesn't work that way as you describe it. Yes, you can call "shovel" in the first place but to recasting him is another thing. In my first playthrought I called him with Gale and then Gale had to ability to cast him. In my latest run I called Shovel with a Bard and he vanished after long rest without ability to call it again. So I guess it depends if your class i actually able in general to call familiars, like warlocks, druids etc. or not. It's still a theory but the one thing is clear: calling shovel is not always a permabuff. Played on tactian mode.
It needs to be any of Wizard, Warlock, or Sorcerer (one level is enough). If you pay attention to the dialog, Shovel tells you to have a "Spell Shite" talk to them to get the ability to call them in battle. If a "Spell Shite" then talks to Shovel, they get the spell. Anyone else, and you can't get it and Shovel will vanish after a Long Rest like any summons. This means Gale, Wyll, or any Sorc/Wiz/Lock character can do this. Bonus points: If a Wizard learns the scroll, another caster can still get the permanent spell after the Wizard casts it. This means you can have two Shovels at the same time.
@@Lord_zeelHas this been tried with Eldritch knight and Arcane Trickster? I assume it's a strict class limitation but it'd be interesting to know. They're not full casters but do borrow heavily from the Wizard.
U can actually get him for gale and yourself just learn the spell with gale by buying it then cast it talk to it when u get the option to leave the convo leave and get your other characters who use magic to talk
So, you can actual get Shovel as a ritual summons on any character, regardless of class. Will cost 200g. Let wizard learn scroll, pay to respec whatever 2nd character you want to a wizard. Have wizard summon shovel, let 2nd character go through dialogue. 2nd character gets shovel, respec them back to class of choice, they keep Shovel as a ritual spell forever. =D@@Lord_zeel
So just a point of note when you say in the video to sacrifice Gale to Bhooal he is not resurrectable correct? However, doesn't his ghost pop up and says "If I am not returned to life in 3 days' time something devastating will happen" and if you do not do so doesn't your game save blow up?
It just happened to me, but in Act 2, if you get to the fishing hut with the Kuo-Toa undeads and kill them, BOOOAL's Benediction gets removed from you.
volo will parasitically attach himself to your camp whether you want him to or not, i dont think there's a way to miss the eye unless you just chicken out like a baby
The idol of Silvanus that the Druids are protecting for the Rite of Thorns gives you a free permanent proficiency in Animal Handling and Nature as long as its in your inventory
@@LukeCanWin I made it all the way to act 3 through more long rests than I could count on my current playthrough and still have the buff, maybe yours got bugged?
Btw, there's an achievement for killing the Phase Matriarch before any of her eggs hatch. the best way to do this is to just knock her off her web (Bridge) into the underdark.
You can also send someone (for example a summoned imp or quasit) that can turn invisible onto the web that spans northern edge of the big hole in the centre. The web's vibrations will trigger the queen trying to get to the invisible character (but can't find it). Often, her path finding is so bad that she just teleports into the air (next to the web) and falls to her death. If she actually manages to land on the web, attack the web to make the imp and the matriarch fall down.
