The fact that they give you the ingredients for colossus elixir right before Grymforge tells me that owlbear off the top rope is the INTENDED solution for the Grym fight.
idk bout THE solution but AN "intended" "solution", what i loved bout this game of dnd. is the amount of possibilities only limited by our own creativity, it's insane the things that one can pull off by just thinking outside the box a lil bit. (if we were to discuss *the* intended solution it'd be obiously using the hammer for grym)
I disagree. A big part of what makes BG3 such a great game is that there's so many different solutions to every problem. Adding ingredients is just offering another.
This makes me have so much respects for the larian devs thou. As a developer myself, it's insane that they coded in so many branching paths and various possibilities to finish quest throughout the game. Like poisoning the goblin food, etc. It's pretty incredible what they achieved here.
You use the elixers of strength to cheese the stats system. I use the exliers of strength to increase my carry weight so I can sell vendors more tin cups at once. We are not the same. (Meme aside great video, really helpful! Going to be starting honor run soon and I will need to keep this stuff in mind)
For a while that was the only way I was willing to use elixirs, then I thought why don't I just use a mod for extra carry weight and save myself some clicks
@@Cephalopocalypsesame for aoe/permanent longstrider and you mjght aswell use a mid for camp supplies since if you loot all containers you get more than enough camp supplies for the whole game so it just saves tooons of clicking
@@Cephalopocalypsesame for aoe/permanent longstrider and you might aswell use a mod for camp supplies since if you loot all containers you get more than enough camp supplies for the whole game so a mod just saves tooons of clicks
@@Cephalopocalypse Ha! and here I am, banning the 'send to camp' feature because it breaks immersion and makes it too easy. No 'send to camp' and no Fast Travel makes you decide what you really want to collect and what stuff you can just leave behind!
There is something strangely relatable about waking up with barely enough strength to put on your favourite set of armor and your backpack, and then you need your elixir to actually go on with your day :')
Shocking isn't it? I felt stupid for ignoring them and wonder if I should take a look at poison a little more even though I probably only ever use it twice lol both times tp poison someone's beer
@tristanwillcox4011 don't even get me started on scrolls lol found out during my current hm run that I just casually had 3 scrolls of globe of "screw your damage I said no" which helped me when I choked during my fight against cazador
Something about elixirs of darkvision that makes them even more useless: in the rare cases that you might want darkvision (ranged humans in the Underdark and Shadow-Cursed lands pretty much), scrolls of darkvision give you the exact same buff without taking up your elixir slot. It's just straight up invalidated by the scroll.
@@pokenoobmx3445 Not in game. It just lasts until Long Rest so you can use a Druid or Wizard in camp to cast it on the few characters that don't have Darkvision.
I've done 3 full runs of BG3, 1 being honor mode and I have never decided to use battle mage's power because I assumed the arcane acuity stacks would go away like normal stacks, that is so incredibly broken lmao
Yep, it's imo kind of goofy they had it use an existing mechanic with an established different effect and then wrote an exception to that effect, rather than just saying +3 to DCs and attacks
I use the arrows on almost every ranged attack unless the damage is already enough to kill. 'Scroll'-ing through Tav's inventory to find a scroll to cast instead of just using a cantrip is a pain in the butt though lol.
Fun one! Switching between elixirs of Arcane Cultivation and other elixir's is one of the available increased Sorcery Points tricks. In practice, it's expensive, but viable.
This. I can just about double my Sorcery Points every long rest on my Fire Sorc. Drink a level 1 elixir, 1 sorc point, level 2 elixir now I have 3 sorc points and a quickened level 6 spell.
Don't do it, I warn you. I came up with this idea just before the final fight (playing honour as my first full playthrough - not knowing what's to come). "Great power comes with great disappointments" - Uncle Alaundo
@@lena.bezcyferek that’s interesting. Did something change in Patch 6? Last time I used this, here is the pattern that worked - 1 - Elixir of Arcane Cultivation 2 - Create Sorcery Points 3 - Elixir of Greater Arcane Cultivation (you must use a different elixir; if you use the same arcane cultivation elixir, it won’t work) 4 - Create Sorcery Points 5 - Repeat I do know that they closed up some of the sorcery point tricks, but this one did work for me last time I tried it
@OakandIV That's exactly how it works. You can also trade those sorcery points for extra high level spell slots. As I said, don't do it. There's nothing exciting in blowing up the universe every single turn.
My Swords Bard/Gloomstalker Ranger considers Bloodlust to be S+ tier, cuz I can do 10 Attacks in the first turn of combat WITHOUT even using Haste as well. Add the +10 dmg from Sharpshooter and up to 25 less hit points per enemy from Cull The Weak, and my one character can pretty much kill all the lesser enemies in a big fight in one round.
One note about purchasing elixirs from merchants: every time a character levels up, merchant inventories reset. So, you can have a party member reset their level at withers, then trade. Close the trade window, switch to your leveling character, level up one level, then re-open the trade window. Each level you can purchase elixirs, potions, etc from the merchant. Also, for an early source of Hill Giant Strength, Auntie Ethel will sell you three every time you reset her.
I'm doing a splitscreen campaign with a friend, and every time I log in as player 2 I get a new adventurers starting pack which comes with 1 giant strength potion. My gnome with Base 8 strength has never gone a day without downing a potion and jumping to 21 strength
You’re telling me the Battle Mage Elixir DOESN‘T reduce stacks upon taking a hit? I knew they wouldn’t tick down with time, but that is ridiculous. Absolutely going to abuse that to hell and back next playthrough! 😂
Thank you for that tier-list! I'm finishing my first run today, and I only realized recently that I was always relying on the same ones, and not in an optimal fashion. Your explanations gave me a new perspective for my next run!
Two great spots for resistance elixirs: 1. Psychic is great for the Githyanki Inquisitor in the Crèche. 2. The last fight of act 2 is all necrotic damage, if all characters have resistance through elixirs, warding bond, Abdirak’s mace, or the Plate armor in house of healing, it turns a very hard fight into a very manageable fight.
I think you are underselling the best use of level 1 arcane cultivation. The ability to cast hex as a warlock without using a higher level warlock spell slot is quite good.
He also got info wrong on those arcane cultivation elixirs. You don't have to use a spell before drinking another elixir. As long as you swap the type of arcane cultivation, you will keep your spell slots. I just did this with Minthara a few days ago. I filled up all of her Paladin spell slots from empty by swapping between arcane cultivations just before the Myrkul fight.
I keep forgetting I have elixirs and potions. As someone with no previous knowledge of D&D this video has helped me better understand not just the effect of elixirs but also how to use them in context of different builds. I will make sure to use them more in the future now.
I used colossus on the bulette after having Glut resurrect it. I had to make it jump over a lot of narrow spots on the map to stay with the party, but it was awesome and it was nice to go back and visit its giant corpse at the duergar camp.
Might want to consider how some of the elixirs can be used to buff summons. While I suspect that that it wouldn’t change your rankings, this ability to use them on summons provides good uses for bad elixirs. For example, bark skin can be good on Shovel or Hill Giant can be useful with the Deva. :)
Notably, the main character can use tadpole powers as a bonus action, if you get the awakened buff in the creche. Advantage on a bonus action (especially in combination with something like perilous stakes in tactician) is pretty nice
Advantage is mathematically similar to a 3.325 increase to the roll. In that sense, it's very literally mathematically superior to the battlemage and giant strength elixirs when not cheesing character creation with them.
with the arcane cultivation elixirs you can just regain all spell slots in a fight or out of combat by switching between optimally two different arcane cultivation elixirs making you up to level 4 spellslots only gold dependant and not long rest dependant
Big agree on the tadpole elixirs. I have to imagine whoever designed it didn’t know a lot about the other items/features in the game because there are SO many other ways to get advantage. You get gloves of the growling underdog pretty soon in act 1, and that basically gives you advantage on melee attacks every big fight
Darkvision elixir does actually belong in F tier, because by virtue of taking up the elixir slot, it is actually detrimental. It takes the place of an actually useful elixir. It's also worth noting that resistance elixirs are literally worthless if you set up warding bonds effectively with camp casters.
Hmm, but I think it's okay that so many of them are so broken since we only use them very rarely. After all, we have to save them for later, right? ... Right? But seriously, I still haven't managed to completely get rid of that old Skyrim habit of stockpiling all consumables instead of using them. And so I barely use them which results in me barely knowing that they do. Which apparently results in me missing out on some truly OP effects.
An absolutely perfect ranking for Elixirs. And great discussion of them all. The only things you missed talking about are the thrown benefits of Elixirs and applying them to summons. I think the most fun (and non-abusive) way to use Elixirs is to just use the ones you find along the way. Don't buy or craft any. You find a nice random mix that let you get nice buffs, but never so many that you can abuse the game and you will have to pick and choose your days and use some of the 'lessor' elixirs because you don't have enough of the S-tier ones.
Thanks so much for the support! It's true - I definitely could have gone into that more for sure. To be honest I haven't experimented with it much myself because I usually don't play with summons OR elixirs, so I'm definitely pretty likely to overlook the combination!
There's an old saying that originated in the halcyon days of D&D 3rd edition optimization from the old Gleemax forum and its predecessor the 339 boards that went like this: "Initiative: because going first often means your opponent does not get the opportunity to go second."
thank you for featuring the dreaded elixirs! I love them and enjoy making them in bulk with a transmutation wizard. great video … but there is something you left out on the elixirs of arcane cultivation. if you have an empty spell slot when you use it then you can use another elixir and not lose the replaced slot. The wiki explanation is below and I have tested it - it works. you can replace all your expended spell slots if you have enough elixirs and cycle through them properly. heres the wiki: “When the effect of this elixir is removed (i.e. when drinking a different elixir), you will lose a level 1 spell slot, prioritizing an already expended slot. If you have expended at least one level 1 spell slot, there is no harm in replacing this elixir (or benefit in keeping it).”
Thanks very much! I actually do talk about that for the arcane cultivation elixirs - mostly for extra day-long buffs before switching to a different one, but also can be used to cheese tons of extra sorcery points for example
@@Cephalopocalypse sorry I guess I misunderstood what you were saying. I’ll listen again! I think what confused me was when you said if you use the spell slot then you can use another elixir without losing another slot. That's absolutely true, but I thought you meant that is the only time you get a "free slot." You have to use it or lose it if you have no other free slots at that level (but as long as you have one free, then replacing the elixir will take the empty slot). Thanks again for covering elixirs -- I hope you will tackle potions, coatings and other consumables at some point too. I always end up with a pile of throwables that seem under-powered and virtually useless after level 1 -- except for water of course, and sometimes grease -- but maybe I am missing something?
In the early game, I view arcane cultivation as + spell points for sorcerers instead of an extra spell. I have a whole system: cultivation pots go to sorcerers, bloodthirst to barbarians, colossus to Battlemasters, hill giant strength to monks, heroism to archers, etc.
I use vigilance on shovel to guarantee surprise rounds in every combat for the whole day. The extra initiative gives shovel the chance to go invisible before the enemies get a chance to hit. If there was one elixir that deserves s++ it would be vigilance.
@@twoshu8940 check my other reply. I've been going at a solo warlock honor run and sometimes not getting a surprise round makes all fights way more dangerous
Yt didnt like my reply ig but the method is you proc surprise with an attack and you get first go next round so shovel stays alive without getting hit.(You go invis)
I 100% agree with your reasoning on all of these elixirs. This is effectively a broken mechanic in the game... but broken mechanics can be fun. That said, for rebalancing purposes, I feel that the Hill Giant Elixir should give a +3 to Strength, and the Cloud Giant Elixir should give a +6 to Strength. For Strength Based characters, it would put those stats at about those same points as the Elixirs Currently set your Strength at in the first place. Vigilance should give advantage to Perception checks, and a +2 to Initiative. Arcane Acuity should be completely overhauled as a buff in the game. It should function like Arcane Synergy. With Arcane Synergy, regardless of how many times you proc the effect, you can never have more than 2 stacks of the effect. It provides a flat bonus to your weapon damage rolls, equal to your spellcasting modifier. Arcane Acuity should be an effect that, when triggered, is given for 2 turns and can't stack higher than 2 turns. The bonus should be that you get a bonus to spell attack and spell save DC equal to 2. No more, no less... and the Elixir for Arcane Acuity simply shouldn't exist. Bloodlust is pretty powerful. I would nerf it so that the extra action is limited to a single weapon attack (as it is in honor mode) or a single cantrip (so no leveled spells... ie. you can cast Fire Bolt with it but not Fireball). The rest I wouldn't really change.
This is why my number 1 hireling is a transmutation wizard, with one level of rogue for medicine expertise. You can very consistently get double elixirs when you craft them. So I just add the transmuter to my party when I craft alchemy things and to cast longstrider on my party, and then leave him in camp.
On my second playthru right now, have 2 questions. 1: why is initiative rolled on a d4 instead of a d20 like tabletop? And 2: what’s the most effective way to reset vendors to stock up elixirs/potions? I’ve never tried, would think that early on camp supplies would be an issue
I don't know if they've ever said why they switched it to a d4 - my theory is they wanted to make it more consistent since they removed a lot of the other ways to manipulate initiative that exist in tabletop (delayed turns, readied actions), but I'm not certain why they made that change and even less certain why they didn't rebalance the numbers given that they did make that change! You can rest without camp supplies! You won't get your spell slots etc back, but you won't have used any anyways. Also they restock whenever you respec or level a character, which can be fewer clicks and won't progress story events if you want to avoid doing that
In Larian's previous game, which heavily influenced BG3, they used a fixed initiative system. They would have chosen that for a good reason (to them) and they probably wanted to maintain that mechanic as much as possible.
@@Cephalopocalypse I'm almost certain the initiative is 1d4 to increase the likelihood that multiple characters take their turns together. Makes it easier in multiplayer for everyone to move at once and lets you have characters combo together. Their original plan was to have the entire side roll initiative together so your whole group would act as one.
@@trengilly01 Since they use shared initiative for characters acting without enemies in between though I don't think they needed to change the numbers to produce that effect - that would make a lot of sense if characters acting on different initiatives had discrete turns though!
@@Cephalopocalypse That's the point. With d20 initiative rolls it would be a lot less likely to have your characters be together. They would more often be mixed with in with the enemies. You get lots more 'ties' with the 1d4 system and in case of ties they group the players up and enemies separately.
Resistance Elixirs should have their own stack slot such that you can trade off between being resistant to some one type of damage. Some elixirs also really need to be potions (e.g. See Invisibility or Heroism) while others really need to be elixirs (e.g. Potion of Speed). The Arcane Cultivation potions also really need to be potions, as they're basically just doing what food does with full rest: they regen spell slots, except in the most expensive way. Furthermore, some spells really should be temporary with potions that should last all day; I'm thinking here specifically of some of the Ritual Spells, like Long Jump, Feather Fall, or even Speak with Animals or Mind Reading.
the problepm with potion of speed being an elixir is the duration. Having it last all day would be way too strong. Honestly, just removing it completely would be ok.
@@isaz2425 Especially when the spell Haste regularly gets interrupted faster than the potion of speed would. Having a readily available stockpile of something that's generally BETTER than one of the best spells in the game is nonsensical. AND, potions take a bonus action instead of an action. So potions of speed really are just better versions of the Haste spell in most cases.
The resistance elixirs are completely overshadowed by hirelings that just cast warding bond on you, +1 to AC and saving throws and resistance to all damage.
The Hireling Cleric batteries is the ultimate BG3 cheese yeah. Life Clerics all dropping all of their non-concentration, last all day spells, super OP. It takes a bit every day to re-up it but ridiculously powerful. Great to feel secure on Honour. Once you get Freedom of Movement especially.
Fun fact about the vigilance elixir I found out in my game, is that it stacks with the alert feat, giving you +10 initiative, along with your DEX modifier.
Omg the battle mages power lasts all day? 3 extra arcane acuity?! I always left it somewhere in my elixir pouch because I thought to myself how 3 arcane acuity for one turn then having it decrease is too niche of a use case. All day is absolutely busted beyond belief lol. Guess I gotta go back to Withers for two characters now… I would feel guilty for using it but… so much power 🤤
@@twoshu8940 sure but you can use this on literally any character for an extra 15% chance to hit a spell attack roll or a save or suck spell which doesn’t limit you to: helm of arcane acuity or fire acuity hat. Also do keep in mind this +3 will persist through every turn regardless of use or getting hit and on the start of encounters before even building up stacks. It’s easier to think of this as just a flat 15% increase to attack and save dc for an entire day rather than arcane acuity since it functions a bit differently. In that case there’s just unrivaled flexibility with gear and the increase is easily justifiable of an S+ tier slot.
It says in the wiki that the barkskin elixir can be thrown so does that mean you can apply on summons with low AC? Obviously not game breaking but probably could be useful for more summon heavy builds.
In that case don't throw an elixir, simply drop or put it on the ground, then select your summoned creature, hover the cursor over the elixir and you will have an option to drink it with a summon. Any summon you can directly control can enjoy the benefits of an elixir :p
Could you make a build optimized for making/handing out elixirs and potions? Has transmutation wizard levels, maybe bonus action thows with berserker levels to toss potions at your opponents and allies... like a witch doctor type of character
Look up CRPG bro video 'best honour mode party'. He talks about a '5th member' which is an alchemist build which he leaves at camp just to make potions
Drop potions just outside of battle initiation range. Mage hand. Throw potions you dropped near the fight on characters / enemies who need them. Easy and no need to spec someone into a potion person except a camp person.
@@SoI_Badguy huh? You then just give the potions to your party and any party member can throw them. He literally outlines a build to make an alchemist and so just follow that build to make an alchemist and then change it to suit your needs. You only need a bit of strength to throw potions, which you can build into or use an elixir to boost strength. Done!!!
@EdgeKisaragi Or you could have both? No need to do any annoying setup laying a bunch of potions on the ground and using a once-per-short-rest cantrip to throw them, but it's an option for big fights. Yeah I know it isn't optimal but this is an RPG, not a math test. Being a potion chucking alchemist is a fantasy I want to play and I'm interested in hearing how it could be optimized within that playstyle.
I pretty much sleep on every elixir except the giant strength ones. Never even used battle mage, vigilance or bloodlust. I probably will if I ever go back to my honor run, but for tactician there's no need for them.
You can have fun with bloodlust. My buddy and I are doing a splitscreen campaign, he's a dwarf barbarian and I'm a gnome rogue. He chugs bloodlust, I cast haste on him and hide at the back of the battle sniping. He does 8-10 attacks per turn, and I pick off whatever survives lol
Good info but my man loves to add words that don’t bring anything to the video except extra time. Couldn’t help but skip most of the video because it’s like listening to that one friend who loves to show you how smart he thinks he is. Seems like a script could cut these videos in half and not sacrifice any content.
I would agree, it's a bit too long, especially if you are someone who is experienced in the game already. But to someone very new like me, it helps that he is explaining in a very detailed way in terms of why stuff works. I agree there are things he simply repeats as well.
I think he just explains all his decisions in length, for what build they are useful, for what situation, what classes and how the elixirs interact with other game mechanics making them better or less useful and repetition to summarize his points are fine. That said, more focused scripting could have made the video shorter perhaps
Here's my idea for an elixir rebalance mod: *Battlemage's Power:* +1 spell attack roll, +1 spell save DC. *Giant Strength:* +[2/4] STR. *Vigilance:* +2 initiative and can't be surprised. *Bloodlust:* +1 action on kill _per battle._ *Arcane Cultivation:* +2 level [1/2/3/4] spell slots. *Colossus:* no change. *Heroism:* no change. *Viciousness:* no change. *Guileful Movement:* Immune to difficult terrain, +1 unit movement speed. *Peerless Focus:* Same, but also +2 to constitution saving throws. *Resistances:* Resistance to [X], then -3 damage from [X] sources. *Barkskin:* +2 to AC. *Darkvision:* Darkvision range to 24m, +1 reaction. *See Invisibility:* See Invisibility, +1 reaction. *Tadpole Elixir:* Gain advantage on all tadpole powers. Suffer disadvantage on constitution and intelligence saving throws. (Assuming no mechanic abuse: don't cycle spell slot elixirs, don't splash apply resistance elixirs. Taking into account the rarity of each elixir.) Feedback welcome.
Arcane acuity is overrated because meta mage builds generally have their hit chance from just gear alone at = yes. Most meta spells also still do at least halved damage even if you miss or are guaranteed to hit like magic missiles or cloud daggers. Hill giant, cloud giant, bloodlust and occasionally vigilance are the only worthwhile elixirs so this is otherwise a pretty accurate list.
I noticed a frustrating bug (hopefully a bug) with the Bloodlust Elixir. If you already have temp hit points, the elixir will not trigger. This might not come up often, but if you're a Spore Druid Fighter (very fun build), it's quite a disappointment to not get that extra action, especially on Honor Mode.
Odd, maybe it's an Honor Mode thing but my bloodlust characters always got their bonus action even with temp hp from shield of thralls when I used them in tactician.
i think Honor Mode shuts down the extra action from Bloodlust sometimes. to me it seems like there is a limit to how many extra attacks you can get in a battle. there are some vague parts of the Honor Mode description that suggest hidden changes like that. But could be I just can’t figure out why its not working.
I only very recently realized how much I love the peerless focus and me cuz if you have enough to give a caster everyday it just saves having to get the war caster feat
Arcane cultivation is identical to a scroll of any spell you have prepared, with the added downside of occupying an elixir slot. That's literally it, mechanically.
One weird edge case with elixir of heroism is that the bless buff is tied to the temporary hitpoints, so you can drink heroism and then drink another elixir and you will still get bless, at least until your temp hitpoints run out.
Hey I'd like to make an argument concerning the resistance elixirs. Cephalopocalypse said that he doesn't like this element of prior knowledge reguarding how effective these elixirs will be. Obviously there are wikis and people who play honour mode probably have played the game and completed the main story too. But the game supports the idea of scouting potential threats with the inspection button and helps you decide what kind of strategy is best used to defeat certain ennemies. Therefore I don't think the element of prior knowledge is much of an inconvenience when evaluating resistance elixirs. I also rated them as B tier before you gave your final say.
One small criticism. Battlemage's Power is just an effective +3 to a stat that only applies to combat rolls and not skill checks or out of combat uses, and is ranked above Cloud Giant Strength when used on characters with max Strength despite that also being a +3 to a stat but is useful outside of combat as well, and also applies to skill checks that use the stat. The only way this makes sense is if you're asserting that simply being a caster is such a massive combat advantage that all elixirs should be losing points simply because they buff a non-caster. So no matter what, it flat out doesn't make any sense to have both Battlemage's Power and the Giant Strength Elixirs ranked the way they are, no matter how you break down the logic. Either you recognize that the mage elixir is mathematically inferior to the giant strength elixirs, or you assume that being melee is too big a disadvantage to rank highly in the first place.
This is a good analysis, but there's are good reasons those two things are evaluated differently. In D&D, there are lots of ways to increase your attack (most notably, attacking with advantage, magic weapons, and the archery fighting style amongst many others). There are very few ways to increase your save DC - Baldur's gate is extremely generous with items that do this, but in normal 5e those items would be extremely rare. Even given BG3's generosity, an equivalent bonus to save DC is *much* more valuable than a bonus to attack, because the former is much more difficult to obtain. The effect of increasing it is also vastly greater - a spell is a heavy resource investment, usually with a very powerful effect on success, so the expected value from an increased chance of success is much greater than the expected value of a small damage increase.
I think the Elixir of Hill Giant's Strength you put in S, should be in A. Since the Str Character using it would probably have either +3 or +4 Str Mod, it effectivly turns into either a +1 or +2 increase to hit/dmg. Were as the Cloud Giant obviously provides more. The Colossus obviously doesn't provide + to Hit, and averages a +2.5 dmg bonus. But it does provide the utilitarian bonus of being large and the Str Check/Saves which I think is a fair balancing of a +2 to Hit from the Hill Giant elixir This was my excessive comment for the day.
In my opinion the resistances elixirs are pretty much useless, unless you are using it for its invulnerability on a condition, because you can simply use the spell Warding Bond with a camp follower or hireling which gives resistace to all types of damage AND +1 to AC, and you don't even need to take the camp follower with you, you can pretty much have a full resistant party, all you need to do is cast Warding Bond on everyone after each long rest ( better done if you have 1 companion and 3 hirelings at camp using Warding Bond with each only on 1 party member so they don't die with the shared damage)
Hard disagree on a few of these elixirs' tiers, because you overlooked a key mechanic: any controllable creature can drink elixirs, including Mage Hand. This is true on PC, at least. Not sure if the interface on consoles allows this. This dramatically increases the value of Barkskin elixirs, for starters. I'd easily place them at A, or even S. Why? Because many summons have ACs that are significantly lower than 16. Barkskin elixirs dramatically increase your summons' survivability, and allowing you to benefit from their action economy for far longer. Even more so if at the start of the day you summon your army, throw on Barkskin Elixirs or Mage Armor on them, then stack it with Aid and later Heroes' Feast. Similarly, Hill Giant Elixirs (and up) are common enough to always feed to Zombies, which makes it far easier to create a horde. They can also be fed to Mage Hand to allow it to suddenly be able to hurl entire creatures around. This brings these already great elixirs to S+ tier, easily. Colossus and Heroism Elixirs are also handy for a few summons, but don't have nearly as major of a bump in usefulness when considering applying them to a summon. By contrast, I would actually place the Darkvision Elixir in F tier. Why? You say it has no downside, but this is actually false. It comes with an opportunity cost that prevents you from using other far more useful elixirs. Meanwhile, you can get the exact same effect by casting Darkvision with a scroll, which doesn't require concentration and lasts all day as well. Darkvision scrolls are also sold by vendors very commonly, and so are easy to stay stocked up on.
I will say this, the elixir that gives you a lvl 1 spell slot can actually be better later on in the game than the beginning. Although you usually don’t run out of spells, if you do have one of these and you have a wizard with every tadpole power up possible, then a single magic missile cast can kill 3 enemies with less then 25 health each. Of course the elixirs that give a higher spell slot can cast more missiles but then you’d probably be saving them for haste or fireball.
It's hard to believe how strong this single element of the game is. Even honour mode is nowhere near enough to challenge players who are fully utilizing things like elixirs or tavern brawler.
I have always thought tadpole elixir was just a storyline item, its so bad no one would ever use it, and like you said there are other was to get its advantages without giving your self a MASSIVE disadvantage, its just a joke Elixir to me, not something you would ever actually use. New sub here, and a first time to a Baldur's Gate and a D&D game. (So basically a noob) I've watch a lot of your vids recently, the last one I watched was the lvl 6 spell slot, very interesting take, Also, In one of your other vids, I think it was about lvl 2 spell slots. (I think). I didn't realize disguise self could be used to talk to the dead you just killed, because it has always told me that it won't talk to its killer, it never accrued to me to use disguise self, I am now getting a lot more info in game than before, getting a more complete picture, very useful info, I'll continues watching to see what else I can learn.👍
So I know I'm late to this video but I just jumped back into bg3 after a break. The battlements power elixir and arcane acuity buff is so broken. You may know that on honor mode raphael cannot be paralyzed more than 1 turn due to his legendary powers. However, bestow curse has an option where the target has to pass a saving throw or lose its turn. Well at 10 stacks of arcane acuity my bard locked him down for the entire fight. He took 0 turns and it was funny.
As much as I love this game it has some serious balancing issues. Question about putting Vigilance in S+ tier though as it basically replaces the alert feat and thus frees up a feat spot: are there any feats that are better than what the other S+ tier elixers grant? Because there is of course the opportunity cost to all the elixers in that you can't use another one.
Might I suggest that Darkvision elixir is actually harmful as it uses up an elixir slot that could be used by anything else that would give you a benefit, thus depriving you of that benefit?
The thing with casting a day-long buff on yourself with an Arcane Cultivation Elixir and then switching to another elixir, is you could just use a Scroll of that spell for the same effect. So there's even an alternative for THAT use case lol
There is one essential point you overlooked concerning bloodlust. I'm currently investigating this, but what I do know for sure is that the majority of the separate sources of damage that cause the kill will not activate the bloodlust elixir. Things like cull the week. Still, I believe it is the most powerful elixir in the game.
Some sources of damage don't count as coming from the character triggering them - cull the weak is one, moonbeam is another, some explosives etc similarly - those won't trigger bloodlust, which is definitely buggy
Very logical rankings. I have not played BG3 at early access, but not at full release. I am worried it is too easy to break the game. These S+ elixers are one of the reasons why. I like power gaming, but if it is too easy it is less fun. Is there a lot of / more broken stuff in the current state of the game?
There's a lot of broken stuff, I wouldn't say more so much as the community has discovered more. Like realizing permanent elixers isn't even difficult. To put it in perspective: solo runs, party of 1, are pretty "easy" with only bosses usually requiring cheese/in fight glitches. You get 4x the potential power of that. I think if you play on high difficulty and don't break more than 1 character in the party it's pretty solid. Depends on your play style also, I enjoy min maxing strategies not tactics or glitches and try to avoid resting.
Does anyone else feel the Arcane Cultivation elixirs should have just been potions that restore a corresponding level of spell slot? Feels very odd having them be all day elixirs, tbh.
I honestly think Peerless focus and darkvision are F tier as better darkvision is provided by basically half of the races, and advantage on concentration is super easy to get. I also think the lvl 1-2 arcane cultivations are better than you've ranked them as you can also switch them for sorcery points and trade those for higher lvl spells or metamagic effects.
Cloud Giant TB Monk/Barb Karlach with a soul coin might be the most broken shit in the entire game. After beating my first honour mode run I pretty much abstain from using elixirs lol, they're so insanely powerful.
easy way to fix the elixirs would be to limit the strength ones to 10 turns, and make the bloodlust elixir action only able to cast cantrips not leveled spells. not sure how you fix vigilance, but i find it much harder to find those.
This video could have been 10 minutes long. Asking your viewers to set aside a whole hour of their day for a ranking of 13 elixir’s, 4 of which are essentially the same thing (so 10) is absurd. Skipped to the end and got the information i needed in one minute instead of 1 hour. Writing a script and editing videos isn’t much to ask, if you want to ramble for an hour and hit upload i suggest streaming and not whatever this is.
@@Cephalopocalypse being unable to handle constructive criticism online after being on youtube for close to a decade now is an achievement. Would you prefer me lie to you and tell you if you waste another decade of your life and upload 1000 more 30-1 hour 30 minute long rants you’ll average more than 4-40k views per video?
See invisibility is very useful if your character is Origin Wyll, because as he has just 1 eye Volo refuses to do the surgery. Larian has thought everything
I would bump up the rank of the arcane cultivation elixirs when used on sorcerers since they can just convert the spell slots from the elixirs into sorcery points treating the elixirs like mana potions. Like this you can use the elixirs to cast higher tier spells then the spell slots recieved by converting sorcerer points.
It takes more sorcery points to create a spell slot than the spell slot gives when you create sorcery points. Sure, if you have 40 of the baby potions stocked up, you can use that trick. But it takes what, 7 of them to get a single level 5 spell slot?
Yup, but worth the stock of potions especially since you won't loose the sorcery points after switching elixirs afterwards whereas other classes the spell slots are lost if you don't cast before your next elixer.
you do know you can get exilers of cloud giants strength in act 1 right? in the underdark after saving the dummy trapped in mushrooms, they have a 25% chance to have cloud giant toes which you can use to make the elixers of cloud giant strength. you also ignored that the tavern brawler feat adds strength twice instead of once, making both strength elixirs muuuuuch better
so due to getting it as early as level 4, it would easily add +4 if you use your feat for +2 to strength, but honestly with how easy and cheap it is to get hill giant and cloud giant elixirs, why would i ever invest real points into strength. instead id rather invest in other stats and just chug the giant elixirs for my strength based characters bloodlust potentially for dex vased aggro (rogues)
@@Cephalopocalypse i might have missed you talking about tavern brawler making them double strength, but you definitely did not mention cloud giant strength elixirs are available in early game. you repeatedly say they are only accessible "much later in the game" and that weapons will be +2 / +3 by the time you get the potion. that "relatively speaking they are less abusable as hill giant elixirs". but most of that is wrong. you can farm them as early as act 1 underdark mycosynth colony, in enough of a quantity you can go through the rest of the game with effectively permanent 27 str. its just not as available as from auntie ethel in the druid grove like hill giant.
There are! Basically any item that's available from merchants is infinite, because you can refresh their inventories by resting/respeccing and just keep buying them until you have enough
Arcane elixirs are also super useful for extra sorcery points, especially since you can drink one of each and get the equivalent points of that spell level without wasting the spell slot… tbh I’ve only ever used them for that purpose Oh man I’m soooo excited to finally learn why the fuck the tadpole elixir is a thing you can craft after that quest is done… huh yeah that’s disappointing, I mean I’ve never used it the downside is just stupid didn’t even know what it does since the tooltip is confusing af
