YES new build video from you!!! honestly you're one of the best at that, i'm following your gloomstalker build for my first honour mode and it's been so much fun! too bad i accidentally killed barcus lmao but i thihnk i should be fine since i read that dammon and talli both sell arrows in act 2 anyways, i would love to see more build videos from you, they're so well crafted and especially for the fact that not only you go through all levels, but you also talk about gear for each act which people literally never do... people just talk about act 3 gear and forget it's a long way to get there i would love to keep seeing more builds from you!
Some of my thoughts on optimizations: I think it’s worth dumping WIS in favor of CHA as you’re a DPR character so you will never have amazing spell casting DC even with 14 WIS. Assuming elixir splits: 8 str, 16 DEX, 14 CON, 16 CHA may be better since you’re likely going to be the face character and we’re getting aura of protection at Pal 6 (I would go 6 Pal / 1 WC / 5 Sorc). You can select between some decent control spells as sorcerer 5 (fear, hypnotic pattern, and slow) to scale off your CHA as well and this prevents another respec after taking Sorcerer (micro-optimization but I dislike respeccing too often since it messes up my hotbar). For gear, I’m a believer that optimized melee builds (that aren’t TB monk) only have one real option for maximum DPR which is Shar Spear + Bhaalist armor to apply vulnerability to piercing damage. Shar’s spear specifically also gives advantage on most enemies due to the darkness cloud it creates, meaning you can drop risky ring in favor of more damage and get advantage of saving throws. I haven’t done the DPR math comparing vulnerability to BGS but I’m 99% sure vulnerability on every attack clears the 2x strength mod added. I think vulnerability also doubles the flat GWM damage since it’s counted as piercing as well. Either way cool build for sure that I’ll probably steal for my tav on my second HM run.
Lot’s of merit to your suggestions! The 6/1/5 split makes a lot of sense, I’d even agree with it if you invest in Charisma as then I would also value the protection Aura over guided strike from WC. I think no matter what you do your spells WILL scale off of Charisma with the leveling order in the video - spell casting modifier seems to be determined by the most recent first level introduced into your build, which in this case was Sorcerer. Complete oversight by me not to recommend Bhaalist Armor + Shar Spear or even Nyrulna! I suppose I didn’t want to bring up the Bhaalist armor as I’ve done twice now in my guides 😅 With vulnerability it should edge out the damage from BGS BUT remember that the Aura of Murder is negated by any form of piercing resistance, which a lot of enemies in Act 3 have. Obviously in those instances, BGS pulls ahead, so there is a give and take, but yes definitely a strong and viable choice. Thanks for watching and thanks for the insight!
@@searching4god ofc thank you for the time and effort to put out these build guides. I'm playing through my first HM run with your sorlock build as my tav and it's been a great build so far (Choso thumbnail got me good)! On your note about Aura of Murder being negated by piercing resistance, this is true but I find it difficult to remember any specific enemy that was resistance to piercing but not the other physical damage types
you can trivialize str elixer purchases in a lot of ways. Just don't go south and do ethel early. 1. a level 3/4 rogue you want it to be a rogue as their slight of hand is highest at this point 2. Raise your slight of hand as much as you can. This is done through a few things a. be astarion and bite things (only if rogue, if he's a gloomstalker rn then make a duegar/halfling hireling for this task. halfling is better pre 5, duegar better post 5) b. give them an ASI at lvl 4 for 18 dex. for the extra +1 c. smugglers ring SE of waukeens rest. can get very early for a +2 d. gloves of power from the fight in front of the goblins grove (+1 slight of hand) e. Once you have a little gold (even if you gotta do stacks of like 35) purchase a +2 hide armor from underdark or goblin camp trader. gives +1 to all dex checks including slight of hand f. Have a source of guidance. 3. Have someone in camp cast improve ability - cats grace on your want to be thief. this will give them advantage on slight of hand checks. which with guidance you always have a 3 as a roll if you don't fumble. and theirs only a 1/400 chance to roll a 1 twice in a row with advantage. you get 4 of those fails per trader in the underdark (may be 3?) before they start going hostile on a failed pickpocket. 4. go into barter and change the gold to a value where your dc to steal is 3 (4 is also fine. you need to roll both a 2 AND get only a 1 on guidance to fail. so odds are very low). If you have a halfling at this point they can't roll a 1. so anything 3 or less is a 100% steal without any rng. letting you drain all of their gold. 5. use the gold to buy the high dc steal items off the trader once they calm down and stop looking for the thief. and then simply take the gold back. 6. at level 5 it becomes basically free to take whatever you want a. have a duegar hireling. 4 thief 1 bard (disguise self). - Provides invisibilty once per fight. so your invis going into pickpocket, and recast after (new fight) while they search. can also run/invis if they do catch you. - Disguise self here, so you don't mess with your party's interactions there later if caught/failed. and to activate shapeshifters ring. b. have all the above thieves gear. c. at this point you likely have the shapeshifters ring (kill the strange ox for it in camp, after the tieflings leave. and just like killing kagha for her amulet it's free now). d. at this point you likely have graceful cloth armor (don't gain any more bonus over the +2 hide armor. but gain cats grace and no longer need to pre-cast it) 7. just take whatever you want. 8. the only change from here to end game. is an astarion with this gear at lvl 11 rogue, gets a +10 minimum to all of his rolls. with +17 on slight of hand plus thieves gear alongside happy/guidance/shapeshifters ring it's 100% steal any item at dc30 or less. as even a fumble is rerolled to a 10, and those 3 buffs wont' grant less than a +3 even at minimum rolls. letting you guarantee any dc30 steal you want at that point. which is essentially everything but obscene gold sizes which can hit dc31 i think? so he has to get a 1/4 + 1/4, and naturally roll under a 10 all at once to fail even that (so 1/32 odds to fail the hardest steal possible in game. 100% for anything under).
Bro, thank you for this video. I find your videos to be very instructive and you have a great storytelling way of presenting them as well. Best to you and the future business video creations.
Nice, you're back with a new build video. I'm currently playing the Sorlock from the last build video and I'm having the most fun blasting the sh** out of the foes 😁. Really like the detailed explanations. Keep up the good work. And btw. Astarion ex machina, totally agree!!! 😁Thank you!!!
Interesting idea to spec Astarion as a radiant damage dealer - my fav ever build was very similar - but I did oathbreaker and focussed on necrotic damage - respeccing Astarion into what i called a "death knight" Oathbreaker 6/necrowizard 6 + ascended Astarion. Means I get both the saving throw aura as well as better undead and the additional Necro damage from ascending him.
Nice video, just a comment on risky ring, you can let go of it as you can get the gloves of automaton to get advantage as well as the paladin oath skill. That’s two 10turns of advantage per short rest.
Great videos! Now that you have 4 builds, why don't you make a party composition guide, where you also distrubute the equipment (and where everyone cannot be Astarion).
Thank you! That is the idea, but I plan on having a build in the party composition guide for which I have not made a guide yet... Would you want to see the party comp video regardless, or have me release the guide for what will (actually) be the 4th build in the comp, and then the comp video. Interested in hearing your suggestion.
10 light or war Cleric with 2 Vengeance Paladin is better, nearly full Cleric spell selection + extra attack with War domain or Warding flare and radiance of dawn with light domain. Or even 10 Tempest Cleric Destructive wrath and thunderous strike smite with your 2 dip Vengeance Paladin.
I keep debating wether going multiclassed sorcadin is better than just going pure Oathbreaker, max CHA and drink cloud giant elixirs. 22 CHA with Diadem of Arcane Synergy and Oathbreaker is flat +12 damage. Improved smiting makes up for being able to upcast only to lvl 3. Feats are ASI, GWM and Savge Attacker on pure. Ofc you lose Sarevok's Helm. I feel giving up lvl 7 Oathbreaker leaves damage on the table. Maybe 7/5, but then you miss out on an impotant feat.
How have you found the bonus attack from GWM works with war priest charges? I've read that even when GWM procs with crit/kill it will still use a war priest charge?
@@searching4god It's awful. I mean, it's fine, but not having light on you it's a nightmare, you can't see shit. Sometimes you know there is a big ass chest in front of you, but the damn lizzard can't see the thing.
Nothing is wrong with your English, no worries :) It's funny that actually a Evocation Wizard/Tempest Cleric was SUPPOSED to be this upload, but I put it off last second. That build is in the works!
Why not swap sorcerer for swords bard? It gives you the opportunity to smite up to two people with one attack with slashing flourish. That combos really well with the extra attack form war priest charge. This also adds 1d8 of damage and having more movement or defense depending on situation with the other two flourishes.
Either way the best thing about sorcerer which is casting 3 spells twin and quicken spell is rarely used because you want your spell slots for smites. Not only that with the vendor exploit you can farm haste scrolls or any other spell you might need from sorcerer.
Lastly, this allows for the abuse of arcane acuity and the band of the mystic scoundrel to guarantee hold persons and hold monsters to add guaranteed crits.
Yep, that would work. I only did Sorcerer as to not make a build that was essentially my Bardadin with Cleric levels :P I think Swords Bard even gets spellcaster spell slot progression so you could almost entirely remedy the "loss" of Sorcerer with scrolls. The only true loss of doing so is being unable to benefit from any of the Bard fighting styles (Duelling and Two Weapon Fighting), but it's probably still a net benefit.
Personally, I think this squad has a little bit of overlap between Bardadin and this build, both being melee strikers. I would build a party of Gloomstalker (any archer build works here), Sorlock (I prefer 10/2 or 11/1 sorcerer warlock splits for more spellslots and control spells) as your dedicated caster, some cleric build (life/tempest/light) for support and utility, and then have the open slot for Bardadin/Sorcadin as your melee striker open.
Just my thoughts since tbh you’re more limited by items than anything else and you can clear HM with any combination of characters given good tactics and strategy
Ironbar2009 is spot on in terms of why I wouldn’t necessarily run both this build and the Bardadin. There are a lot of items that are contested by both builds and both accomplish similar/same things in terms of role. Ideally you want to diversify your party to where all members can access their best in slot gear and cover all bases in terms of role in your party, so something like: 1. Bardadin/War Priest 2. Gloomstalker 3. Sorlock 4. Light Cleric/OH Monk/Tempest Wizard etc. Would work better!
Bro I really love your builds but serioulsy? Showing the backpack? It's like Voldemort. We all know about it and the more videos made means the quicker it gets patched out.
Ok, there are quite a few sub-optimal choices here. Some comments: 1. Ancients 7 gives you auras that protect you against spells, which is the only thing that can touch you given that this class can easily get 40+ AC without sacrificing too much damage. Fighter 2 gives you +1 AC and action surge. Action surge gives you 2 attacks, as opposed to 3 from war priest, but you get them up front instead over 3 turns. They are also free, instead of wasting your bonus actions, which matter to you. You lose lvl 5 slots, but you can't use those for smites anyway. I still think 7/5 is the best split, but if you want 5/5/2, then fighter > war cleric. 2. This build does not work without savage attacker. That's literally the reason this build can do such insane damage while using Defender's flail or some other wet tissue. Also, in act3 you want to use deva mace, nothing else comes close in terms of damage. And, of course, shields are necessary to get over the AC breakpoint and get to the point where you are untouchable. But, even if you want to go all-out on damage and use a 2-hander (piercing weapons - Shar spear, water myrmidon trident and Nylalala are the only ones that make sense), GWM is a terrible idea. Your damage comes from smites, why would you want some flat damage bonus that also makes you miss sometimes? You can't smite if you miss. If you want to stack flat piercing damage, just go fighter or swords bard. 3. At lvl 5 sorc, you need to replace a lower level spell. This is the only way to get both haste and counterspell. Pretty big oversight in a guide video. 4. You did not comment on the most important interaction and the reason why sorcadin is the strongest build in the game (or at least tied with pure sorc). You can (ab)use angelic reprieve potions to stack an arbitrary amount of lvl 4 slots and metamagic points. This lets you smite every attack and quicken (later extend) command with arcane acuity boost to control anything you can't kill.
You’ve done this twice now on my channel where you say with the utmost confidence that something is wrong and then proceed to not get a single thing right, not even by accident, for the entire duration of the comment. You’re either trolling and this is legendary level bait, as evidenced by the Deva mace comment, or have entered a deep state of Baldur’s Gate misinformation induced psychosis.
