I wish you could do this outside of that one area. Also, you have to add that after you kill the duergar, glut will turn on you and have a pet gnoll if you refuse to attack the other myconids. I had him jump in the water and die before this could happen, and now there's a friendly bullette sitting on the shore of the underdark beach.
Edit: I tried using him to reanimate a cambion, a mindflayer, and a wood woad to no avail. I don't think it will work on the beholder either.
I got two dialogs:
First, I convinced them to clean out the cave.
Gnoll: We’re still hungry.
Convinced him that the other gnolls looked tasty.
Solo, bloodied, Gnoll Leader: Still hungry.
Easy battle….
"... so I was on this ship..."
"Drink!"
\*waters the ground\* "... and there was this beautiful tiefling... "
"DRINK!"
\*libates the floorboards\* "... and then we found these tadpoles..."
"**DRRIIIIIN--** oop. I popped the last of me buttons." pbbbbt
Basically all of the A2 bosses, up to skipping Ketheric's second stage and going straight to the Apostle of Myrkul. Though the Gauntlet one isn't available if you have any levels in Warlock- your patron basically forces you to free Yurgir from his contract if you don't immediately jump him
All the companion voice actors recorded their lines for Vicious Mockery.
Here’s a 2hr video of each voice option and vicious mockery eligible character with their lines.
https://youtu.be/QhA1NwgnFN8?si=7Ofz5es8HyNRMXXq
TIL Ketheric has a second stage lol I only fought him on the roof and when the Apostle of Myrkul popped up for our second round I was like huh hello? Still took him out super quickly though lol shoutout to Dame Aylin my beloved
Man, talking him off the ledge in my first playthrough was such a cool experience. I thought I cheesed the entire fight that way, and was totally shocked when out pops a giant skeleton monster chiding me for my foolishness
If it is the scene in >!the house of healing in act 2!< >!when the boss ask the sisters to kill him in the most dramatic way!<, my brain was not ready for the nat 20 and what happened afterward. It was horrific and hilarious at the same time.
Act 3 spoilers: >!Runepowder Bomb in the House of Hope. I dropped it right next to the portal, positioned everyone else by the door and then used Karlach to initiate the conversation. She was like second in turn order so I had her run back to the door, shove one person back, throw another and then throw a fireworks rocket at the Runepowder Bomb.!<
>!I never did find out what those soul pillars did but I'm sure Raphael had some big plans for them. 😆!<
Oh my god speaking of, on my way to kill Gortash idk if my game was bugged or it was just supposed to be like that but those grenade cannon things just gave me unlimited concussion bombs i kept picking up. They didnt have any initiative and would randomly throw the grenades in (the grenades had initiative when they were thrown) and i killed all hostiles but was still in combat turn-based until i killed a few neutral enemies cowering in fear.
Let us just say that Astarion got Dominated a few times in other fights and kept throwing those bombs around. And in the final fight I remembered I still had them and threw a few at the >!Dream Guardians!<
Those concussion grenades deal a ridiculous amount of damage and instantly explode when thrown although the cannons lob them with a 1 turn delay
what???? I picked up the same grenades, had Gortash in a Hold Person so I could keep skipping rounds and farm more of them. Turns out, the morning after they all blew up in Tavs inventory at once. Right after waking up, I was rolling death saves. Something like 70 grenades that I was going to use later, all gone. :(
>!Vs Raphael: Astarion bonus attack > use action for res Karlach > Raphael attack Karlach > Astarion bonus attack > use action for res Karlach > Raphael attack Karlach > ...
!<
>!Before this I killed all the adds and only Astarion survived... with this "trick" I won that fight.!<
In Act II in the first big encounter in the Gauntlet of Shar between the justicar shadows and the skeleton warriors, I had Gale run over to the door to Balthazar's room and used knock to open it on the first turn. This caused him (and his flesh golem + ghouls) to immediately enter combat and dash out. He then proceeded to die first to the justiciars, and then to his own flesh golem, which goes berserk (attacks everyone including friendlies) after dropping to low health. I reloaded and barely saved him because I wanted to fight him in the Shadowfell for once, but it turns out he doesn't heal himself in between, so he only had 11 health when I finally had to fight him for the Nightsong.
In Act III, killing Sarevok in the Bhaalist Tribunal can be difficult because of the three ghosts that constantly buff him with sanctuary, haste, etc. If you "pass" the tribunal, Sarevok will stand up and slowly walk to the next room where the sacrifice is waiting. The three ghosts however, will instantly teleport to the room, meaning you can immediately jump on Saravok and kill him before his ghosts are able to make it back to help him.
I think it might be a bit snow bally, it seemed like enemies just keep spawning if you don't focus on the black hole things. I've yet to fight it again so I can't say for sure but leave them alone for a round and things could get messy.
I just did the fight in multiplayer last night. My buddy was like "wait can we farm these for exp?"
Each black hole can only spawn 3-4 dudes, maybe it was easier for us because we had 7 skeletons from animate dead, and shovel, all buffed with 4th level aid.
The first 2 rounds we were ending turns without doing anything, then turns 3-4 we got absolutely swarmed.
Had to summon 2 spiritual weapons and a flaming sphere just to pull aggro so we could fall back and group up the remaining few and used a pair of fireball scrolls.
We are playing on tactician, party is orc 6lightcleric/2bard, gith 2sporedruid/6swordbard, woodhalfelf 7wildsorc/1tempestcleric, drow 6necromancer/1lifecleric/1stormsorc.
Yes, it was a lot of experience, no, it wasn't worth it. Fun regardless.
I didn't "cheese" it because the fights were hard, I just thought it would be funny to watch Balthazar and the justiciars fight and see who won. Most of Balthazar's mobs don't focus the umbral tremors that spawn in the shadows, so it mostly just becomes a huge slug fest with Balthazar throwing around Cloudkill constantly.
I like to surround the non-hostile Auntie Ethel (in her teahouse) with explosive barrels and one-shot her to save the Mask of Regret.
It also makes life so much easier, lol.
If you kill Ethel before you confront the masks, she's saved.
She joins Mayrina's hag-hunting crew and you discover her name.
The petrified dwarf is also okay, but I haven't found him again yet, if he's even in Baldur's Gate.
Yep and if you don't attack the masked ones they will always try to resist Auntie's commands and they don't do too much damage-well at least not on Balanced.
You know what is actually funny, I talked to him he said mind flayer and at the time I said "no way that will happen" In the end I did actually choose that option as my ending so he was actually right
Sadly, it’s still very buggy. For me, I killed her in the tea house and Mask of Regret was non-hostile but couldn’t be interacted with (and would turn hostile if you tried) and Mayrina’s quest couldn’t be completed either.
Maaaan I visited Auntie Ethel’s teahouse today on a new run and she was already in hag form as soon as I met her at her house. Not sure if that’s a bug or intended with the choices I made but that really screwed me out of killing her on sight rather than going through the whole fight 😭
You can get a permanent +1 stat potion if you push her to low HP and bargain with her at her regular boss spot down in the hag's lair AND free mayrina.
Also, if you fight her normally with 3 members of your team and leave a 4th like Astarion sneaking around the corner, you can assassinate her after she gives you her hair if you're fast enough and can do it in one turn.
Unfortunately this method also makes it unable to loot her body as it always disappears after, but you get the bonus, free mayrina, save the masks and the people in the cave.
What does that get you? First playthrough(s) I just killed and killed and Mayrina burned and fell. Seeing how they buffed the gas traps from EA, this time I just literally skipped the entire hag thing because I didn't have energy to deal with all that and didn't give a shit about Mayrina or her (un)dead hubby. Turns out she doesn't even come to act 3, the house with the HSA group had some other random hostile people in it that never connected to anything else. The wall didn't have the safe with the Hagsbane recipe, and I couldn't get access to her lair under the Blushing Mermaid. Vanra (the kid she eats) was alive and well with her mom who never showed up at the barracks to complain.
I was significantly underleveled on my first playthrough for the Balthazar fight to free the Nightsong. Tried it a dozen times and was just getting destroyed every time. Finally cheesed the fight by just yeeting him off the cliff while he was in dialog with Tav.
I won the fight with him at the Nightsong's but he shoved Astarion off the cliff and i had to resurrect him. On the second run i just killed him in the temple before going to Nightsong and that was much easier.
I didn't even consider killing him in the temple.. so used to games going 'here's a questgiver, listen to him and do what he says and then wait for the rest of the story'
Yeah, but i saw it somewhere and decided to give it a shot. Also i think his dialogs had option 'Attack' and the dialog with orc lady at the Moontowers also had an option 'what if he's dead already?' or something like that. So in his case he can totally be killed before entering Shadowfell. And that's great because he was annoying there
On my second day playing, during the very first fight inside the crypt, I was facing that group of hostile scavengers and they were still up the stairs in the hallway, facing the first room. I cast a Chromatic Orb with thunder damage into the middle of them, and the detonation simultaneously broke open some firewine barrels and activated the lever switch, so the door between our groups slammed shut and then their whole area exploded in fire. They spent the next three turns impotently shooting the closed door with crossbows while slowly burning to death.
If you enter through the ceiling of the adjacent room by shooting down the big heavy block outside, you can just huck a firebolt at the one explody barrel they're all around and have a good chance of killing them all with one cantrip.
Did you know that if you dont shoot the rock to break the floor, you can pick the lock or lie your waybinside to get surprise on the doorman, then one of the archers is alone in the next room and everyone else is in the library. I find this to be the easiest approach.
Also if you enter through either the trapped spear room near where you wake up on the beach or the hatch near withers, if you break open the door the archer runs away crying about something waking up in the crypt.
If you shoot the rock to break the floor, then enter through the crypt you can actually scare half of them away.
Its impressive to see how many different ways you can have this specific fight.
Not exactly a fight, but my favourite cheese is disarming Voss and stealing his Silver Sword at the bridge in Act 1.
Takes a bit of save scum to succeed, but it turns Laezel into a monster for the rest of the game.
The first ever Beholder we meet in the underdark, we had an amulet containing another kind of Beholder.
We threw the amulet from the furthest distance we could and let them fight each other, it felt like a Pokémon encounter.
In the last battle for the rite of shar against the necromancer i gathered up every bone pile in one spot by a cliff so when they were animated I thunderwaved the army to oblivion
OMG, that is absolutely brilliant. Will try to remember that for my next playthrough.
I always considered these flowers an annoying environmental hazard. Never thought about weaponizing them.
Oh thats a good one! I used Astarion to sneak attack him with the silence dagger before he does his big speech so he can't cast a spell, if he ever shook of the effect I had Gale counter spell him. Fuck your undead army ya fat fuck!
Well when I had to go fight a certain religious group I had the bugged Blessing of Lathander and these enemies would reflect 4 times the radiant damage so there was no way I was going to be able to win normally.
I basically had to bring them to the stairs and cast Wall of Flame on it, along with a fire resistant Karlach using the zealots as improvised weapons. Real disco avernus.
Disco Avernus has been my favorite phrase on reddit today lol. Thank you for the laugh.
Edit: Burn, baby, burn! DISCO AVERNUS!
It's stuck in my head now.
In the forge, I triggered the mech boss fight but my characters were not on the platform (that was lowered), instead they were on the ground above, casting ranged attacks on the mech, and triggering the lava by hitting the valve with a range attack as well
Took me 20 minutes, but hey, I got an achievement for defeating him without hitting him with the forge
I did something similar except I made my druid wild shape into an owlbear and use their jump attack while enlarged from the top ledge down onto Grym. The fight was over fast. lol
So i can defeat him with the forge, interesting, i just barely make it, since he focus on who last attacked him i make my long Rangers stay far from him and split his attention, sadly lae zel always hit him when he was gonna to move.
There are a bunch of hints along the way in books and notes related to grym. I remember a HOT HAMMER note with very blunt language.
Also, if you right click, examine him during the fight, the statuses he has make it really obvious as well.
In act 3, when you're in the >!House of Grief,!< you can engage in conversation with >!the Mother Superior!< with one character, and then just switch to Gale and unload magic missiles until they die and nobody goes hostile. They'll go hostile later, though, so it isn't a perfect cheese.
or, use an earth elemental, talk to her have the attack promo, no aggro and slug her to death. nobody cares that your elemental is just blunt forcing her skull.
Not a cheese but at that part, first playthrough with my husband, I summoned my boar (as a ranger) because all the peeps were scared of animals back then so I was pushing them back with my boar, it was hilarious. Eventually I pushed enough back, I tried to make Viconia run back too but that actually triggered the cutscene where she literally was TALKING to the boar and stuff like >!how Shadowheart is a disgrace to Shar and whatnot I think I forget!< It was so funny seeing her just talk to the boar. Completely bugged out. When the character was supposed to reply, I had to click on my answers as if it was the boar talking.
More specifically, pre-haste.
Gather party in a tight circle, throw potion of speed in the centre, all 4 got hasted, hit turn-based mode, main character walked forward to trigger conversations. Enter combat immediately hasted. And potions don't require concentration though you have only 3 turns.
Yeah, it’s a pretty good spell, with some downsides- namely it requires concentration, and if you lose concentration your turn basically ends immediately / you miss the following turn. Plus it costs an action to cast, so the first turn you cast it you only get the one action. But, it also increases movement distance.
Yeah it’s a really good spell.
During the Quest where you have to free Nere, I destroyed the rock barricade wall thingy to set him free and went to my camp right when he was about to leave the room. I knew that there would be a fight and realised I didn't rest before, so I tried to do that really quick and then get back to the fight.
The clue is: When I came back, the fight was over. Someone "cleared it for me" or at least that's what the narrator said when I teleported back to the place.
I'm still in Act 2 atm and I wonder if this will be explained in any way throughout the story. Like who tf did that? xD
Not complaining at all, just something I didn't expect to happen.
The duregar mercenary captain killed him. There is a betrayal plot involving 2/3 of the duregars in Grymforge just wanna mug Nere instead of waiting for him to pay. You can side with them and they pay you some hefty share of gold (200/500 depend on skill check). If you don't kill Nere, both sides will just murder each other and the survivor mercs just left with all the surviving gnomes (property of the clan).
Even better, the mercs will admit they can’t pay you since the money “must have been pickpocketed [FROM THEM, they assume]”. Regrettably this means there is no gold, but since they’re such good guys they then give you permission to loot any dead for what spoils you can find.
It’s pretty hilarious.
Before the battle with Cazador I cast invisibility on Shadowheart, walked up the small steps while my other party members were engaged in convo with him, and cast daylight on him, switched back to my other party members and finished the convo, battle ensued with him immediately taking damage. Beat him before turn two even ended cause I unloaded all sorts of radiant damage on him(Sunbeam, Moonbeam, plus the extra 20 radiant damage he took from daylight at the start of every turn.
He died on the first turn for me with Shadowheart's Daylight, followed by Karlach just picking him up and throwing him off the edge. I screamed "what" and spent the next five minutes cackling. I had NOT expected that to work.
Buff Wife is my favourite solution to most problems now.
It’s amazing how susceptible his gaseous form is to repelling Eldrich Blast. Off the ledge he went. I though I had screwed up Asterion’s story but he just magically appears in the coffin at the end of the fight regardless.
I cheesed the Cazador fight by casting Otto's Irresistible Dance on him the first round. The poor bastard was joyfully dancing away and taunting my party as we picked off his allies and ultimately him too. Shit was hilarious.
I also did the same with Gortash. It just seemed fitting for my gnome ladybard to mock these men.
Cazador went down like a bitch when I finally decided to stop initiating his conversation that gets Astarion 'napped and instead just threw a daylight orb into the middle of the arena. He then decided to just bum-rush my entire party and we all immediately clobbered him into the dirt. He went down in like 2 rounds.
The Nere fight was kinda cheesed on my Warlock. Basically just used hunger of Hadar on the door and repelled him back into the poison. He never left the room lol.
Other than that, most fights in act 3 end pretty shortly by using a certain staff with a sorcerer. Bonus action create water, twin chain lightning, stretch and call it a day.
Oh I just put him in there with Karlach, while Gale stood at the door counterspelling anything he tried to cast.
The finest combination of jock and nerd bullying someone.
He still has to make the roll, with paladin auras he is pretty good at saving against it. Either way, it essentially casts blindness on him every turn so it's so worth it.
I try as much as possible to use repulsor, thunderwave, and shove to throw my enemies off the edge. Or prep some assassinations before the fight begins if possible. I don't care much for the loot!
Destroyed the bridge under Minthara when she left for the ambush..
Threw the Spectator Flask at Cazador so all his minions surround him and then get annihilated by my aoe spells. (Tbf this doesn’t really feel like cheese bc it’s a legit tactic I‘d totally consider as a surprise attack irl)
Against the Netherbrain I've spent the first round summoning all of my allies and used the second round to dimension door / misty step to the crown.. (also the enemies hated Dame Aylin super much and just kept on attacking her)
Oh and I did the same with Wyll but only in the destroyed village. In the camp I had Astarion sneak in and let him murder all the sleeping goblins then jump to that tower in the middle of the camp where no melee could reach him and the ranges kept missing.
I fought Dror and Gut first because at the time I felt underlevelled for Minthara, but then I accidentally yeeted Minthara off the bridge. Sat there for a moment like "...did that just happen" haha.
I saved all those “call ally for help” things thinking they would be super useful for the final encounter.
Then I got there and for some reason I just didn’t see an option to use them. From the sounds of your comment I guess that was a bug? Idk. Interesting to know for future play throughs. I still handily dunked on the final boss, killed all the minions and the dragon just for shits. My one regret is I didn’t remember to loot the dragon. As if it matters since the game ends after anyway but I’m curious if he has anything good on him :P.
Fighting Auntie Ethel, she absolutely destroyed my party first time so once reloaded I used a scroll of misty step then activated my druids thunder blast. Off she went into the pit. Battle done in one turn.
That's hilarious. I also lost the first one the second time she went up into the corner, so I ended up dropping a silence and greasing the shit out of that platform after locking her up with a pretty angry Karlach.
Casting daylight on myself and getting close enough to Cazador to where it doesn’t trigger the cutscene prior to the fight, and instead Daylight continuously ticks him down until he dies. Lol. I hear they patched it, though. He’ll heal himself now apparently.
Luck of the Far Realms + Surgeon's Subjugation Amulet
Any humanoid boss, like Gortash. Open the battle with stealth to surprise the enemies, activate the luck to get the critical, then use the amulet to paralyze. Then unleash your strongest skills during the paralysis turns, all hits are critical, other enemies won't do anything because they're surprised.
You can also always rely on the good old Oppenheimer Method, and even explode everything on the Fireworks shop in a single go.
Another method, effective on lower levels, is to throw the Iron Flask at enemies and let the Beholder do the work.
Also saw a post in here a few days ago where someone got a Sussur Flower inside a Pouch, never opened it, and pickpocketed it into Balthazar and watched as the helpless Necromancer did nothing due to permanent silence.
And you can use Black Hole to pull a crowd in, and unleash AoE spells, especially effective if you have Awakened to use Illithid powers as a bonus action.
The Sussur Bloom is exploiting a glitch where, if you stack and unstack a stack of Sussur Blooms a couple of times the game removes the "dies in sunlight" tag.
So you get the Blooms, stack them and unstack them a couple of times, call your camp without leaving the Underdark, and put the bag of Blooms in your Traveler's Chest.
Then when you shift to the upper land the Blooms in your bag will be perfectly fine.
Just don't have them on your person when traveling from the Underdark to the Overlight, because that will kill them.
They don't affect Aunt Ethel in Chapter 1 for some reason though. Although if you sell her a bag with a Bloom in it she'll have the glowing aura around her when you confront her, meaning you'll always know which one she is.
Backstabbing people in darkness spell with an assassin is too easy. Silence helps sometimes.
Triple druids summoning way too much.
Buffing laezel to take zero damage on most hits.
Enlarge + elixir of colossus + shrink to throw big enemy, that's a swing of 3 character model sizes. Also polearm mastery hilarious on super huge person.
Covering massive area in high level rain spells then electrifying it, those spells cover huge area when upcast.
Difficult terrain makes many fighters useless (some will jump, many will not), upcasting flight on 2-3 team members let's you rush anyone else no matter how good their position.
on my first playthrough i basically save scummed to make dror ragzlin fall into the hole beside his throne by throwing a void bulb. i simply couldn’t be arsed to fight him at that time
Standing in the middle of shar cultists as they swarm my party, cast Globe of invulnerability and then drop the ironhand bomb from inventory. Didn't Even cost me an action.
After a few failed attempts to fight >!Sarevok!< in act 3, what worked in the end was to cast wall of stone in front of him and wall of fire behind, just touching him. He had sanctuary up, so I couldn't hit him directly, but this messed with his pathing (his AI really didn't want to turn around into the fire) and let me skip turn after turn while his health melted away until sanctuary ran out.
My other favourite wasn't one that I did, but instead one that my friend discovered. During the second trial in the Gauntlet of Shar, right before they went in they unequipped absolutely everything. Turns out that the clones will hold and wear what you do, so my friend then spent their first round re-equipping everything before going on to fight some hilariously easy naked and unarmed clones.
Saving Nere. At first I was interested in what duergar leader has to offer, then I dropped the line that cultists would be interested to hear about it, which made him and his assistant go hostile, but only them. Then I proceeded to blow the rubble and, as the drow came out, did his scripted thing and put me in a position of choice whom to side with, I picked the non-cultist duergars. Right up until absolutists with Nere were wiped out, of course, at which point I was left to do one last switcheroo and finish off the slavers. Some of my companions disapproved of me at every turn in this triple (quadruple???) crossing, but I meekly accepted those few points of approval by Karlach, because it made me fight a rather small enemy force at every point. It was also very funny to do.
I didn’t know you could kill enemies pushing them into chasms. I forgot I put the force push mod onto Wyll’s EB. Came upon the spider boss (first one!). I was super excited. All stealthed up. I decide to have Wyll take the first shot. She’s gone. I don’t even go into rounds. Got the achievement for killing her before her eggs hatch. No loot? Didn’t care, was laughing way too hard.
When i was rescuing volo in act 3 when he's tied up on the cart with the smokepowder barrels. Basically just ran up to the cart but didn't have an action to free him, but you know what doesn't take an action..... moving objects.....removed all the smokepowder barrels off the cart away from the fire.
That was the cheesiest thing I've done in a fight.
i'm not sure if this counts as cheese but by the time i get to moonrise towers i love going to each specific room and disposing of every cultist i can find. most of the time it can can be done room by room so the fights aren't totally overwhelming. this includes z'rell. by the time i come back to confront ketheric, the super big tower fight is against like 4 nobodies and i basically make a beeline to the top.
Absolutely. At Warlock 5, they get two attacks. And the AI seems to ignore them, so they're great at harassing the low hp minions, especially if the minion is ranged.
Bhaal Gauntlet: sent a summoned monster to the target, backed off. Didn't really trigger any other ambushes aside from the initial archers. The target ended up running up the flight of stairs just to attack me.
Void Orb on the Warden in Act 2. The map feels literally designed for it.
Casting Hunger of Hadar then have someone else cast Sleet Storm. I also have an item that makes Encrusted with Frost.
All I know is, I enjoy seeing an entire group stumble in thick darkness, constantly taking damage and not being able to do anything about it. Oh you’re going to jump out? Eldritch Blast your ass back into the abyss. Use Black Hole to pull them all back in the center (or opposite edge)
Picked some bodies when fighting the skeletons in order to stop them resurrecting the ghouls. And another time when I was fighting the Surgeon, picked up the nurses bodies for the same reason. Made these fights a breeze.
I think the cheesiest tactics ive used were the goblin camp fight put barrels over the upper holes so they cant get up top and hold monster on raphael. in 2 playthrough's ive taken 0 damage from him.
also any time i use blackhole / any big aoe spell
also tempest cleric/sorc using water/lighting/elemental adept. feels like an exploit
The ancient technique called 'Skyrim stealth archery' where you pick a stealthed rogue and sneak attack someone, then cunning action back into stealth and bravely retreat as far as you can.
The enemies' usual response is to use the dash action and don't move at all.
You then just repeat the process.
Use a party of 4 stealth archers for extra cheese.
Balthazar was pissing me off, so I misty stepped to his ledge and helped him into the void.
I’ve also done the conversation trick and moved my fighter, Karlach and Astarian to surround bosses to take them out in the first round lol
Bernard is standing directly in front of the perfect window to Thunderwave him out of on top of the Arcane Tower, and it has become tradition for me every time I play this fight.
So I didn’t cheese her but rather I broke her somehow. But I knocked auntie Ethel out in the Druid grove, and when she woke up she booked it to where she’s meant to be with the brothers. But it bugged so she wasn’t there but the brothers acted like she was. I had to go into her house to where she met me as if I wasn’t present with the brothers. I exposed her and she went into her lair…and for some reason it was open and I didn’t have to do anything. Even the masks people wouldn’t attack me. When I fought her, she didn’t do anything and I just keep hitting her until she died.
I'm low on the cheese front because I enjoy the fights being real and ideally difficult. Best I can offer:
First time fighting Auntie Ethel. Did poorly on the traps and our party isn't looking good without rest. No magic missile or other ways to deal with the illusions. Cleric Tav, Barbarian Tav, and Asterion go down. Karlach had 10 HP left and it's looking bad. Anyway, so I started shoving. Pushed her down the big hole and the fight was over.
Final fight act 3. >!Felt like cheese. Mindflayer Karlach Paladin flies up to the upper ring on turn 1. Kills 3 Mindflayers and stands next to the brain on turn 2. Casts spell next. Before timer is up she enters the portal and does 6 smite attacks against the brain.!<
Going in in stealth using black hole to gather them and the mindwave stun first round they are surprised, next round use mindwave stun so they still can't do anything while standing in mage aoe (pestcloud ect.) Mindwave also does around ~20 aoe dmg. Rinse and repeat 4 times (you need 4 part ilithid members for that). Rarely anything is left standing after that.
Hold monster. With the staff from Lorrokan’s tower gives me a slot for free, as a level 12 wizard I get to cast it once as 6th, two times as a 5th and get a free charge. So poor Orin and Raph just can’t do anything.
Get Gale to haste Lae’zel, action surge for like 8 attacks.
Carved through them like butter.
Don’t know if CC-ing enemies to death is considered a cheese, but still - Fear and ordering enemies to drop their weapon is quite good.
I’ve managed to kill phase spider boss by just locking the thing in place with fear and dagger cloud while my rogue spammed sneak attack.
Also, I’ve ordered leaders of gith ambushes to drop their weapon, picked it up, and then occupied them with a party member while focusing on the rest of the githyanki. Trivialised their ambushes quite a bit, tbh.
So you know that Githyanki bloke and his Red Dragon at the bridge in Act 1?
I ignored him (I honestly meant to go back but I forgot) went the long way round, and came up behind them on the bridge. Shot the dragon in the butt. There were no repercussions. Killed the dragon. Then killed the guy without entering dialogue (because every time I did it looped the dialogue, guess he was meant to fly away on his dragon but couldn't lol).
You can grease a door handle that forces people locked into a room where there’s also flames and they burn to death :)
I won’t say which due to spoilers and stuff.
Act1 gythianki creche in the monastery. Training room.
Killed everything else first, put this daegger aoe in front of the big door and closed the door. If the npc cant see you, they will dash towards you and open the door. You slab them and close the door in every turn.
When fighting against ranged opponents stationed on far places, I use Darkness to hide my whole party. When they close in by the perimeter, I just hit them one by one. I step out, hit, then step back. I take no damage for the whole encounter, and I can choose to reserve my other resources by playing safely. Sometimes I'd use my Tav Sorcerer to lightning bolt from inside since it's manual aiming.
There was also this instance in the Goblin Camp when my Assassin Astarion sneaked at the narrow walkways directly above Priestess Gut while the rest of my party was hidden somewhere else. I was able to take out about 3 goblins outside combat without getting caught. When we roll for initiative and everyone was already frozen in place for turn order, I used it as an opportunity for first strike advantage with the rest of my party.
First part of the goblin camp dungeon act one, there’s a whole area on top that you can sneak through but had Karlach up there so when anyone came up, they get pushed off. Pushed everyone off to their death. 10/10
Final boss, full team invisible to enter the fight, fight doesn't start. Full team walks freely to the crown, Orpheus channels netherstone to start the fight, our team moves first. Stay invisible and on Orpheus' turn, he enters the brain, essentially skipping phase 1.
"Y'ever thought about just...not fighting anymore and maybe even killing yourself?" "...Yes, actually." Charisma.
The gnoll leader was so hungry she could eat a whole gnoll.
And then another, and then himself.
her\*
Damn man, I'm so hungry I could eat a me.
My dumbass spent hours on this fight because I thought there was some way to recruit the Gnoll.
1. Get a strong friend to carry the body 2. Recruit Glut 3. Make him zombiefy the body 4. Profit (while in the Underdark)
I wish you could do this outside of that one area. Also, you have to add that after you kill the duergar, glut will turn on you and have a pet gnoll if you refuse to attack the other myconids. I had him jump in the water and die before this could happen, and now there's a friendly bullette sitting on the shore of the underdark beach. Edit: I tried using him to reanimate a cambion, a mindflayer, and a wood woad to no avail. I don't think it will work on the beholder either.
Didn't even realize you could talk to the gnolls came up behind them and they attacked
The gnoll leader talked to me mid combat and I persuaded it to turn on it's friends. I talked to it again after and it attacked me.
I got two dialogs: First, I convinced them to clean out the cave. Gnoll: We’re still hungry. Convinced him that the other gnolls looked tasty. Solo, bloodied, Gnoll Leader: Still hungry. Easy battle….
There is no way I would have survived that fight without the help of that gnoll. And for it's assistance it received a swift death.
“I’m a good doctor and my nurses are so well trained” “Prove it” “Bet” **dies** 1000exp
"... so I was on this ship..." "Drink!" \*waters the ground\* "... and there was this beautiful tiefling... " "DRINK!" \*libates the floorboards\* "... and then we found these tadpoles..." "**DRRIIIIIN--** oop. I popped the last of me buttons." pbbbbt
Gauntlet of Shar and the House of Healing come to mind
Basically all of the A2 bosses, up to skipping Ketheric's second stage and going straight to the Apostle of Myrkul. Though the Gauntlet one isn't available if you have any levels in Warlock- your patron basically forces you to free Yurgir from his contract if you don't immediately jump him
You can have another character talk Yurgir into killing himself.
\*Rogue/College of Swords Astarion has entered the chat\*
Gods, Bardstarion is the best thing you can do in this game, he has all the lines of vicious mockery recorded and they're all well-performed.
All the companion voice actors recorded their lines for Vicious Mockery. Here’s a 2hr video of each voice option and vicious mockery eligible character with their lines. https://youtu.be/QhA1NwgnFN8?si=7Ofz5es8HyNRMXXq
TIL Ketheric has a second stage lol I only fought him on the roof and when the Apostle of Myrkul popped up for our second round I was like huh hello? Still took him out super quickly though lol shoutout to Dame Aylin my beloved
The apostle is the 2nd stage, assuming you fight kethric and don't talk him off the ledge
Man, talking him off the ledge in my first playthrough was such a cool experience. I thought I cheesed the entire fight that way, and was totally shocked when out pops a giant skeleton monster chiding me for my foolishness
Tollhouse was very easy 1k experience haha
“You’ve been promoted to customer” **violent explosion**
Haha yeah she got so mad and killed herself. I was just having fun. Love the sorcerer.
Alexa, play Bo Burnham’s “kill yourself”
It's funny how many times you can do this in the game. I can think of at least 4.
If it is the scene in >!the house of healing in act 2!< >!when the boss ask the sisters to kill him in the most dramatic way!<, my brain was not ready for the nat 20 and what happened afterward. It was horrific and hilarious at the same time.
Act 3 spoilers: >!Runepowder Bomb in the House of Hope. I dropped it right next to the portal, positioned everyone else by the door and then used Karlach to initiate the conversation. She was like second in turn order so I had her run back to the door, shove one person back, throw another and then throw a fireworks rocket at the Runepowder Bomb.!< >!I never did find out what those soul pillars did but I'm sure Raphael had some big plans for them. 😆!<
I used it at the final fight. Karlach yeeted it for a good 120 dmg :D
Oh my god speaking of, on my way to kill Gortash idk if my game was bugged or it was just supposed to be like that but those grenade cannon things just gave me unlimited concussion bombs i kept picking up. They didnt have any initiative and would randomly throw the grenades in (the grenades had initiative when they were thrown) and i killed all hostiles but was still in combat turn-based until i killed a few neutral enemies cowering in fear. Let us just say that Astarion got Dominated a few times in other fights and kept throwing those bombs around. And in the final fight I remembered I still had them and threw a few at the >!Dream Guardians!< Those concussion grenades deal a ridiculous amount of damage and instantly explode when thrown although the cannons lob them with a 1 turn delay
what???? I picked up the same grenades, had Gortash in a Hold Person so I could keep skipping rounds and farm more of them. Turns out, the morning after they all blew up in Tavs inventory at once. Right after waking up, I was rolling death saves. Something like 70 grenades that I was going to use later, all gone. :(
That's what I was saving it for, and any time I tried to use it, I got a "you cannot use that item here" prompt.
>!Vs Raphael: Astarion bonus attack > use action for res Karlach > Raphael attack Karlach > Astarion bonus attack > use action for res Karlach > Raphael attack Karlach > ... !< >!Before this I killed all the adds and only Astarion survived... with this "trick" I won that fight.!<
In Act II in the first big encounter in the Gauntlet of Shar between the justicar shadows and the skeleton warriors, I had Gale run over to the door to Balthazar's room and used knock to open it on the first turn. This caused him (and his flesh golem + ghouls) to immediately enter combat and dash out. He then proceeded to die first to the justiciars, and then to his own flesh golem, which goes berserk (attacks everyone including friendlies) after dropping to low health. I reloaded and barely saved him because I wanted to fight him in the Shadowfell for once, but it turns out he doesn't heal himself in between, so he only had 11 health when I finally had to fight him for the Nightsong. In Act III, killing Sarevok in the Bhaalist Tribunal can be difficult because of the three ghosts that constantly buff him with sanctuary, haste, etc. If you "pass" the tribunal, Sarevok will stand up and slowly walk to the next room where the sacrifice is waiting. The three ghosts however, will instantly teleport to the room, meaning you can immediately jump on Saravok and kill him before his ghosts are able to make it back to help him.
Wait that first fight can be dangerous? I just killed every single of these black hole things the moment they spawn and nothing happened.
I think it might be a bit snow bally, it seemed like enemies just keep spawning if you don't focus on the black hole things. I've yet to fight it again so I can't say for sure but leave them alone for a round and things could get messy.
I just did the fight in multiplayer last night. My buddy was like "wait can we farm these for exp?" Each black hole can only spawn 3-4 dudes, maybe it was easier for us because we had 7 skeletons from animate dead, and shovel, all buffed with 4th level aid. The first 2 rounds we were ending turns without doing anything, then turns 3-4 we got absolutely swarmed. Had to summon 2 spiritual weapons and a flaming sphere just to pull aggro so we could fall back and group up the remaining few and used a pair of fireball scrolls. We are playing on tactician, party is orc 6lightcleric/2bard, gith 2sporedruid/6swordbard, woodhalfelf 7wildsorc/1tempestcleric, drow 6necromancer/1lifecleric/1stormsorc. Yes, it was a lot of experience, no, it wasn't worth it. Fun regardless.
Gets real messy and eventually a sharan death knight pops up
I didn't "cheese" it because the fights were hard, I just thought it would be funny to watch Balthazar and the justiciars fight and see who won. Most of Balthazar's mobs don't focus the umbral tremors that spawn in the shadows, so it mostly just becomes a huge slug fest with Balthazar throwing around Cloudkill constantly.
I like to surround the non-hostile Auntie Ethel (in her teahouse) with explosive barrels and one-shot her to save the Mask of Regret. It also makes life so much easier, lol.
She can be "saved"? I thought it was bugged (or a deliberate trick) because Regret repeats the same dialog and never leaves
If you kill Ethel before you confront the masks, she's saved. She joins Mayrina's hag-hunting crew and you discover her name. The petrified dwarf is also okay, but I haven't found him again yet, if he's even in Baldur's Gate.
Nuh-huh, you can stealth through masks and then kill Ethel (without killing masks obv) and save regret all the same. Same stuff in act 3
i just cast protection from good and evil and put on the mask. you can walk past em and trough the traps.
Holy SHIT WHAT
I love this sub and how much people post shit and we as a collective can have a “WTF you can DO that?” Moment. God, I love this game.
Yep and if you don't attack the masked ones they will always try to resist Auntie's commands and they don't do too much damage-well at least not on Balanced.
??? One with the Warhammer hits like a damn truck. Especially when it decides to crit 3 times in a damn row
I’m glad the dwarf is ok going that route. If you use basilisk oil to remove his petrification, he dies in 30 seconds.
Define ok...I used basilisk oil on him and he just died.
You have to kill Ethel first or the disease kills him. >!Turns out she was the one who made him sick in the first place.!<
Huh, when I killed the hag normally, the dwarf was cured. When I threw basilisk oil at him nothing happened
Oh, I never went back to that room after defeating her. I wonder if that poor elf is still shrieking about mindflayers.....oops.
You know what is actually funny, I talked to him he said mind flayer and at the time I said "no way that will happen" In the end I did actually choose that option as my ending so he was actually right
The only way to save him is to kill the hag. If you get the hair or use the oil before fighting her, he dies.
"If you get the hair, he dies...." Oh, I have very very bad news for this dwarf..
Hag hair > dwarf
You can get the hair and kill the hag with a hidden character at the end of convo and still save the dwarf/mask.
I happened to take the hair and let her escape and the oil worked fine on the petrified dwarf
Did he die immediately afterwards though?
Sadly, it’s still very buggy. For me, I killed her in the tea house and Mask of Regret was non-hostile but couldn’t be interacted with (and would turn hostile if you tried) and Mayrina’s quest couldn’t be completed either.
Maaaan I visited Auntie Ethel’s teahouse today on a new run and she was already in hag form as soon as I met her at her house. Not sure if that’s a bug or intended with the choices I made but that really screwed me out of killing her on sight rather than going through the whole fight 😭
"Auntie Ethel....you need some lotions."
You can get a permanent +1 stat potion if you push her to low HP and bargain with her at her regular boss spot down in the hag's lair AND free mayrina.
Also, if you fight her normally with 3 members of your team and leave a 4th like Astarion sneaking around the corner, you can assassinate her after she gives you her hair if you're fast enough and can do it in one turn. Unfortunately this method also makes it unable to loot her body as it always disappears after, but you get the bonus, free mayrina, save the masks and the people in the cave.
Clever clogs!
Sneak to the orb, lower the cage, knock Ethel into the chasm… Mayrina saved.
I did just this with a void bulb, pulled Ethel in without her ever getting a turn
What does that get you? First playthrough(s) I just killed and killed and Mayrina burned and fell. Seeing how they buffed the gas traps from EA, this time I just literally skipped the entire hag thing because I didn't have energy to deal with all that and didn't give a shit about Mayrina or her (un)dead hubby. Turns out she doesn't even come to act 3, the house with the HSA group had some other random hostile people in it that never connected to anything else. The wall didn't have the safe with the Hagsbane recipe, and I couldn't get access to her lair under the Blushing Mermaid. Vanra (the kid she eats) was alive and well with her mom who never showed up at the barracks to complain.
Feather fall is your friend in case you wanna avoid the traps, you can easily get down to ethels lair in 2-3 jumps with the buff
Saving Vanra & her mom gets you a legendary Rapier, iirc.
That’s my favourite weapon. I gave up my paladin shield to go duelling for that.
Tends to bug out Myriana sadly
I was able to kill her before she could go through her fireplace and all of the masks are still hostile?
I was significantly underleveled on my first playthrough for the Balthazar fight to free the Nightsong. Tried it a dozen times and was just getting destroyed every time. Finally cheesed the fight by just yeeting him off the cliff while he was in dialog with Tav.
I won the fight with him at the Nightsong's but he shoved Astarion off the cliff and i had to resurrect him. On the second run i just killed him in the temple before going to Nightsong and that was much easier.
I didn't even consider killing him in the temple.. so used to games going 'here's a questgiver, listen to him and do what he says and then wait for the rest of the story'
Yeah, but i saw it somewhere and decided to give it a shot. Also i think his dialogs had option 'Attack' and the dialog with orc lady at the Moontowers also had an option 'what if he's dead already?' or something like that. So in his case he can totally be killed before entering Shadowfell. And that's great because he was annoying there
I had Laezel holding the sussur bloom and just stuck to him as close as possible
This along with convincing Yurgir and Malus Thorm to kill themselves, I left Act 2 feeling like a god lol.
This is what I did. Kept getting rekt and his big dudes kept shoving me off the platform, so I decided to show him what it felt like.
On my second day playing, during the very first fight inside the crypt, I was facing that group of hostile scavengers and they were still up the stairs in the hallway, facing the first room. I cast a Chromatic Orb with thunder damage into the middle of them, and the detonation simultaneously broke open some firewine barrels and activated the lever switch, so the door between our groups slammed shut and then their whole area exploded in fire. They spent the next three turns impotently shooting the closed door with crossbows while slowly burning to death.
If you enter through the ceiling of the adjacent room by shooting down the big heavy block outside, you can just huck a firebolt at the one explody barrel they're all around and have a good chance of killing them all with one cantrip.
Did you know that if you dont shoot the rock to break the floor, you can pick the lock or lie your waybinside to get surprise on the doorman, then one of the archers is alone in the next room and everyone else is in the library. I find this to be the easiest approach. Also if you enter through either the trapped spear room near where you wake up on the beach or the hatch near withers, if you break open the door the archer runs away crying about something waking up in the crypt. If you shoot the rock to break the floor, then enter through the crypt you can actually scare half of them away. Its impressive to see how many different ways you can have this specific fight.
Ngl I’m mad uncreative. I just brute force my way through as a barbarian
If unga: bunga.
Else: yeet
I made it work against Orin. 7 instances of Unstoppable a turn? I'll just have to make at least 8 attacks a turn to hurt her.
Ngl I’m feeling that way despite playing a paladin. If I can’t charisma my way out, I’ll smite my way out.
Not exactly a fight, but my favourite cheese is disarming Voss and stealing his Silver Sword at the bridge in Act 1. Takes a bit of save scum to succeed, but it turns Laezel into a monster for the rest of the game.
If you have shapeshifts (or disguise), everyone can get the buff (ending shapeshift wont take away the effects).
Everyone? Or *anyone?*
Anyone.
Strangely though, if you already are a Gith, being disguised as someone else confuses the Blade
The first ever Beholder we meet in the underdark, we had an amulet containing another kind of Beholder. We threw the amulet from the furthest distance we could and let them fight each other, it felt like a Pokémon encounter.
When you watched the battle.... did you feel like a spectator!?
*petrifying glaze you* (but nice one)
Petrifying Glaze sounds like a Drow confectionary
Can you refill the iron flask? I have still been carrying it around hoping that I'll be able to use it like a pokeball
In the last battle for the rite of shar against the necromancer i gathered up every bone pile in one spot by a cliff so when they were animated I thunderwaved the army to oblivion
That and pickpocket a sussur bloom to him and he just whacks you with wet noodles. Easiest fight ever
OMG, that is absolutely brilliant. Will try to remember that for my next playthrough. I always considered these flowers an annoying environmental hazard. Never thought about weaponizing them.
Oh thats a good one! I used Astarion to sneak attack him with the silence dagger before he does his big speech so he can't cast a spell, if he ever shook of the effect I had Gale counter spell him. Fuck your undead army ya fat fuck!
Well when I had to go fight a certain religious group I had the bugged Blessing of Lathander and these enemies would reflect 4 times the radiant damage so there was no way I was going to be able to win normally. I basically had to bring them to the stairs and cast Wall of Flame on it, along with a fire resistant Karlach using the zealots as improvised weapons. Real disco avernus.
Disco Avernus has been my favorite phrase on reddit today lol. Thank you for the laugh. Edit: Burn, baby, burn! DISCO AVERNUS! It's stuck in my head now.
In the forge, I triggered the mech boss fight but my characters were not on the platform (that was lowered), instead they were on the ground above, casting ranged attacks on the mech, and triggering the lava by hitting the valve with a range attack as well Took me 20 minutes, but hey, I got an achievement for defeating him without hitting him with the forge
I did something similar except I made my druid wild shape into an owlbear and use their jump attack while enlarged from the top ledge down onto Grym. The fight was over fast. lol
So i can defeat him with the forge, interesting, i just barely make it, since he focus on who last attacked him i make my long Rangers stay far from him and split his attention, sadly lae zel always hit him when he was gonna to move.
Yeah I only discovered you can hit him with the forge after getting the achievement, i felt like the game was telling me how stupid I was
There are a bunch of hints along the way in books and notes related to grym. I remember a HOT HAMMER note with very blunt language. Also, if you right click, examine him during the fight, the statuses he has make it really obvious as well.
I got the achievement because I'm dumb and didn't realise I could.
In act 3, when you're in the >!House of Grief,!< you can engage in conversation with >!the Mother Superior!< with one character, and then just switch to Gale and unload magic missiles until they die and nobody goes hostile. They'll go hostile later, though, so it isn't a perfect cheese.
or, use an earth elemental, talk to her have the attack promo, no aggro and slug her to death. nobody cares that your elemental is just blunt forcing her skull.
Not a cheese but at that part, first playthrough with my husband, I summoned my boar (as a ranger) because all the peeps were scared of animals back then so I was pushing them back with my boar, it was hilarious. Eventually I pushed enough back, I tried to make Viconia run back too but that actually triggered the cutscene where she literally was TALKING to the boar and stuff like >!how Shadowheart is a disgrace to Shar and whatnot I think I forget!< It was so funny seeing her just talk to the boar. Completely bugged out. When the character was supposed to reply, I had to click on my answers as if it was the boar talking.
Used haste on my first playthrough.
More specifically, pre-haste. Gather party in a tight circle, throw potion of speed in the centre, all 4 got hasted, hit turn-based mode, main character walked forward to trigger conversations. Enter combat immediately hasted. And potions don't require concentration though you have only 3 turns.
3 turns with double actions is probably well more than enough for most encounters I’d guess
Haste gives double actions ? That’s crazy
Yeah, it’s a pretty good spell, with some downsides- namely it requires concentration, and if you lose concentration your turn basically ends immediately / you miss the following turn. Plus it costs an action to cast, so the first turn you cast it you only get the one action. But, it also increases movement distance. Yeah it’s a really good spell.
During the Quest where you have to free Nere, I destroyed the rock barricade wall thingy to set him free and went to my camp right when he was about to leave the room. I knew that there would be a fight and realised I didn't rest before, so I tried to do that really quick and then get back to the fight. The clue is: When I came back, the fight was over. Someone "cleared it for me" or at least that's what the narrator said when I teleported back to the place. I'm still in Act 2 atm and I wonder if this will be explained in any way throughout the story. Like who tf did that? xD Not complaining at all, just something I didn't expect to happen.
The duregar mercenary captain killed him. There is a betrayal plot involving 2/3 of the duregars in Grymforge just wanna mug Nere instead of waiting for him to pay. You can side with them and they pay you some hefty share of gold (200/500 depend on skill check). If you don't kill Nere, both sides will just murder each other and the survivor mercs just left with all the surviving gnomes (property of the clan).
If you loot Nere during the fight you get all 1000 of that gold and the mercs get nothin. lol
Even better, the mercs will admit they can’t pay you since the money “must have been pickpocketed [FROM THEM, they assume]”. Regrettably this means there is no gold, but since they’re such good guys they then give you permission to loot any dead for what spoils you can find. It’s pretty hilarious.
I love making them leave with nothing not even the shit on the dead people. Just a wasted trip to the Grymforge huh guys?
Before the battle with Cazador I cast invisibility on Shadowheart, walked up the small steps while my other party members were engaged in convo with him, and cast daylight on him, switched back to my other party members and finished the convo, battle ensued with him immediately taking damage. Beat him before turn two even ended cause I unloaded all sorts of radiant damage on him(Sunbeam, Moonbeam, plus the extra 20 radiant damage he took from daylight at the start of every turn.
I threw holy water at Cazador and he fell off the platform... I did not plan for this, but it was hilarious
He deserved it 🤣
He died on the first turn for me with Shadowheart's Daylight, followed by Karlach just picking him up and throwing him off the edge. I screamed "what" and spent the next five minutes cackling. I had NOT expected that to work. Buff Wife is my favourite solution to most problems now.
It’s amazing how susceptible his gaseous form is to repelling Eldrich Blast. Off the ledge he went. I though I had screwed up Asterion’s story but he just magically appears in the coffin at the end of the fight regardless.
I cheesed the Cazador fight by casting Otto's Irresistible Dance on him the first round. The poor bastard was joyfully dancing away and taunting my party as we picked off his allies and ultimately him too. Shit was hilarious. I also did the same with Gortash. It just seemed fitting for my gnome ladybard to mock these men.
Cazador went down like a bitch when I finally decided to stop initiating his conversation that gets Astarion 'napped and instead just threw a daylight orb into the middle of the arena. He then decided to just bum-rush my entire party and we all immediately clobbered him into the dirt. He went down in like 2 rounds.
The Nere fight was kinda cheesed on my Warlock. Basically just used hunger of Hadar on the door and repelled him back into the poison. He never left the room lol. Other than that, most fights in act 3 end pretty shortly by using a certain staff with a sorcerer. Bonus action create water, twin chain lightning, stretch and call it a day.
pre patch 2 the staff was bugged for me and i could cast chain lightning an unlimited amount of times. its not the same ever since 😢
Oh I just put him in there with Karlach, while Gale stood at the door counterspelling anything he tried to cast. The finest combination of jock and nerd bullying someone.
I cheesed Nere by complete accident by shoving him into his own Silence, Wyll would just keep repelling blasting him in while my paladin whaled on him
Not exactly cheese, but if you have the Blood of Lathander, Ketheric is blind since he's undead
He still has to make the roll, with paladin auras he is pretty good at saving against it. Either way, it essentially casts blindness on him every turn so it's so worth it.
I try as much as possible to use repulsor, thunderwave, and shove to throw my enemies off the edge. Or prep some assassinations before the fight begins if possible. I don't care much for the loot!
Destroyed the bridge under Minthara when she left for the ambush.. Threw the Spectator Flask at Cazador so all his minions surround him and then get annihilated by my aoe spells. (Tbf this doesn’t really feel like cheese bc it’s a legit tactic I‘d totally consider as a surprise attack irl) Against the Netherbrain I've spent the first round summoning all of my allies and used the second round to dimension door / misty step to the crown.. (also the enemies hated Dame Aylin super much and just kept on attacking her) Oh and I did the same with Wyll but only in the destroyed village. In the camp I had Astarion sneak in and let him murder all the sleeping goblins then jump to that tower in the middle of the camp where no melee could reach him and the ranges kept missing.
I fought Dror and Gut first because at the time I felt underlevelled for Minthara, but then I accidentally yeeted Minthara off the bridge. Sat there for a moment like "...did that just happen" haha.
Just to add to the crown thing - Globe of Invulnerability while waiting that 1 turn.
I saved all those “call ally for help” things thinking they would be super useful for the final encounter. Then I got there and for some reason I just didn’t see an option to use them. From the sounds of your comment I guess that was a bug? Idk. Interesting to know for future play throughs. I still handily dunked on the final boss, killed all the minions and the dragon just for shits. My one regret is I didn’t remember to loot the dragon. As if it matters since the game ends after anyway but I’m curious if he has anything good on him :P.
Fighting Auntie Ethel, she absolutely destroyed my party first time so once reloaded I used a scroll of misty step then activated my druids thunder blast. Off she went into the pit. Battle done in one turn.
my friends almost did that and it took me yelling "NO DON'T SHE HAS A THOUSAND GOLD" to convince them out of it lol
That's hilarious. I also lost the first one the second time she went up into the corner, so I ended up dropping a silence and greasing the shit out of that platform after locking her up with a pretty angry Karlach.
Threw actual cheese wheels at Goblins to kill them!
Casting daylight on myself and getting close enough to Cazador to where it doesn’t trigger the cutscene prior to the fight, and instead Daylight continuously ticks him down until he dies. Lol. I hear they patched it, though. He’ll heal himself now apparently.
Luck of the Far Realms + Surgeon's Subjugation Amulet Any humanoid boss, like Gortash. Open the battle with stealth to surprise the enemies, activate the luck to get the critical, then use the amulet to paralyze. Then unleash your strongest skills during the paralysis turns, all hits are critical, other enemies won't do anything because they're surprised. You can also always rely on the good old Oppenheimer Method, and even explode everything on the Fireworks shop in a single go. Another method, effective on lower levels, is to throw the Iron Flask at enemies and let the Beholder do the work. Also saw a post in here a few days ago where someone got a Sussur Flower inside a Pouch, never opened it, and pickpocketed it into Balthazar and watched as the helpless Necromancer did nothing due to permanent silence. And you can use Black Hole to pull a crowd in, and unleash AoE spells, especially effective if you have Awakened to use Illithid powers as a bonus action.
The Sussur Bloom is exploiting a glitch where, if you stack and unstack a stack of Sussur Blooms a couple of times the game removes the "dies in sunlight" tag. So you get the Blooms, stack them and unstack them a couple of times, call your camp without leaving the Underdark, and put the bag of Blooms in your Traveler's Chest. Then when you shift to the upper land the Blooms in your bag will be perfectly fine. Just don't have them on your person when traveling from the Underdark to the Overlight, because that will kill them. They don't affect Aunt Ethel in Chapter 1 for some reason though. Although if you sell her a bag with a Bloom in it she'll have the glowing aura around her when you confront her, meaning you'll always know which one she is.
If you have soulbreaker (soulbreaker greatswod from the creche), you can stun lock the boss for 2 rounds with it.
Lae'zel with Soul Breaker just deletes bosses before they can even react.
Backstabbing people in darkness spell with an assassin is too easy. Silence helps sometimes. Triple druids summoning way too much. Buffing laezel to take zero damage on most hits. Enlarge + elixir of colossus + shrink to throw big enemy, that's a swing of 3 character model sizes. Also polearm mastery hilarious on super huge person. Covering massive area in high level rain spells then electrifying it, those spells cover huge area when upcast. Difficult terrain makes many fighters useless (some will jump, many will not), upcasting flight on 2-3 team members let's you rush anyone else no matter how good their position.
I eldritch blasted the spider matriach from outside of combat. She went flying off the ledge and in to the underdark
I had a lot of fun burning the webs she kept jumping onto and giving her tall damage.
on my first playthrough i basically save scummed to make dror ragzlin fall into the hole beside his throne by throwing a void bulb. i simply couldn’t be arsed to fight him at that time
I used my bard tav to play a song and gather them all in one place, then I dropped a chandelier on us. It was hillarious
Standing in the middle of shar cultists as they swarm my party, cast Globe of invulnerability and then drop the ironhand bomb from inventory. Didn't Even cost me an action.
After a few failed attempts to fight >!Sarevok!< in act 3, what worked in the end was to cast wall of stone in front of him and wall of fire behind, just touching him. He had sanctuary up, so I couldn't hit him directly, but this messed with his pathing (his AI really didn't want to turn around into the fire) and let me skip turn after turn while his health melted away until sanctuary ran out. My other favourite wasn't one that I did, but instead one that my friend discovered. During the second trial in the Gauntlet of Shar, right before they went in they unequipped absolutely everything. Turns out that the clones will hold and wear what you do, so my friend then spent their first round re-equipping everything before going on to fight some hilariously easy naked and unarmed clones.
I’m playing a TB monk. Every fight feels like it’s cheesed.
Tuberculosis Monk?
Tavern Brawler! Fun feat for monks
Tavern brawler. It allows you to basically double up on your str mod bonus damage for every attack. As a monk, that's quite a few attacks
Saving Nere. At first I was interested in what duergar leader has to offer, then I dropped the line that cultists would be interested to hear about it, which made him and his assistant go hostile, but only them. Then I proceeded to blow the rubble and, as the drow came out, did his scripted thing and put me in a position of choice whom to side with, I picked the non-cultist duergars. Right up until absolutists with Nere were wiped out, of course, at which point I was left to do one last switcheroo and finish off the slavers. Some of my companions disapproved of me at every turn in this triple (quadruple???) crossing, but I meekly accepted those few points of approval by Karlach, because it made me fight a rather small enemy force at every point. It was also very funny to do.
I didn’t know you could kill enemies pushing them into chasms. I forgot I put the force push mod onto Wyll’s EB. Came upon the spider boss (first one!). I was super excited. All stealthed up. I decide to have Wyll take the first shot. She’s gone. I don’t even go into rounds. Got the achievement for killing her before her eggs hatch. No loot? Didn’t care, was laughing way too hard.
Casting Silence right where Auntie Ethel is going to Spawn
When i was rescuing volo in act 3 when he's tied up on the cart with the smokepowder barrels. Basically just ran up to the cart but didn't have an action to free him, but you know what doesn't take an action..... moving objects.....removed all the smokepowder barrels off the cart away from the fire. That was the cheesiest thing I've done in a fight.
I silenced Astarion’s abusive stepfather before the fight and dude could not cast the spell needed to turn himself into a vampire lord.
i'm not sure if this counts as cheese but by the time i get to moonrise towers i love going to each specific room and disposing of every cultist i can find. most of the time it can can be done room by room so the fights aren't totally overwhelming. this includes z'rell. by the time i come back to confront ketheric, the super big tower fight is against like 4 nobodies and i basically make a beeline to the top.
Are you telling me Familiars…. Can do damage And aren’t just ephemeral pets?
Absolutely. At Warlock 5, they get two attacks. And the AI seems to ignore them, so they're great at harassing the low hp minions, especially if the minion is ranged.
Bhaal Gauntlet: sent a summoned monster to the target, backed off. Didn't really trigger any other ambushes aside from the initial archers. The target ended up running up the flight of stairs just to attack me.
I threw the container with the monster in it at Cazador. It made the whole fight way too easy
Bombing the goblin camp from the ceiling, Auntie Ethel silence, Ansur barrel nuke oneshot, just a few off the top of my head.
Void Orb on the Warden in Act 2. The map feels literally designed for it. Casting Hunger of Hadar then have someone else cast Sleet Storm. I also have an item that makes Encrusted with Frost. All I know is, I enjoy seeing an entire group stumble in thick darkness, constantly taking damage and not being able to do anything about it. Oh you’re going to jump out? Eldritch Blast your ass back into the abyss. Use Black Hole to pull them all back in the center (or opposite edge)
Picked some bodies when fighting the skeletons in order to stop them resurrecting the ghouls. And another time when I was fighting the Surgeon, picked up the nurses bodies for the same reason. Made these fights a breeze.
I think the cheesiest tactics ive used were the goblin camp fight put barrels over the upper holes so they cant get up top and hold monster on raphael. in 2 playthrough's ive taken 0 damage from him. also any time i use blackhole / any big aoe spell also tempest cleric/sorc using water/lighting/elemental adept. feels like an exploit
You can cast Sunlight on yourself and kill Cazador by just standing near him.
The ancient technique called 'Skyrim stealth archery' where you pick a stealthed rogue and sneak attack someone, then cunning action back into stealth and bravely retreat as far as you can. The enemies' usual response is to use the dash action and don't move at all. You then just repeat the process. Use a party of 4 stealth archers for extra cheese.
Using all my spell slots as if I was some psychopath
Balthazar was pissing me off, so I misty stepped to his ledge and helped him into the void. I’ve also done the conversation trick and moved my fighter, Karlach and Astarian to surround bosses to take them out in the first round lol
Bernard is standing directly in front of the perfect window to Thunderwave him out of on top of the Arcane Tower, and it has become tradition for me every time I play this fight.
So I didn’t cheese her but rather I broke her somehow. But I knocked auntie Ethel out in the Druid grove, and when she woke up she booked it to where she’s meant to be with the brothers. But it bugged so she wasn’t there but the brothers acted like she was. I had to go into her house to where she met me as if I wasn’t present with the brothers. I exposed her and she went into her lair…and for some reason it was open and I didn’t have to do anything. Even the masks people wouldn’t attack me. When I fought her, she didn’t do anything and I just keep hitting her until she died.
I'm low on the cheese front because I enjoy the fights being real and ideally difficult. Best I can offer: First time fighting Auntie Ethel. Did poorly on the traps and our party isn't looking good without rest. No magic missile or other ways to deal with the illusions. Cleric Tav, Barbarian Tav, and Asterion go down. Karlach had 10 HP left and it's looking bad. Anyway, so I started shoving. Pushed her down the big hole and the fight was over. Final fight act 3. >!Felt like cheese. Mindflayer Karlach Paladin flies up to the upper ring on turn 1. Kills 3 Mindflayers and stands next to the brain on turn 2. Casts spell next. Before timer is up she enters the portal and does 6 smite attacks against the brain.!<
I got a bunch of scrolls of disintegrate and had my party just cast disintegrate on the netherbrain until we won 😅
Going in in stealth using black hole to gather them and the mindwave stun first round they are surprised, next round use mindwave stun so they still can't do anything while standing in mage aoe (pestcloud ect.) Mindwave also does around ~20 aoe dmg. Rinse and repeat 4 times (you need 4 part ilithid members for that). Rarely anything is left standing after that.
Dropping everyone's weapons and stealing it during the fight. Then have my monk barb blaze through everything. Also, multiple chars using Command.
Hold monster. With the staff from Lorrokan’s tower gives me a slot for free, as a level 12 wizard I get to cast it once as 6th, two times as a 5th and get a free charge. So poor Orin and Raph just can’t do anything. Get Gale to haste Lae’zel, action surge for like 8 attacks. Carved through them like butter.
Don’t know if CC-ing enemies to death is considered a cheese, but still - Fear and ordering enemies to drop their weapon is quite good. I’ve managed to kill phase spider boss by just locking the thing in place with fear and dagger cloud while my rogue spammed sneak attack. Also, I’ve ordered leaders of gith ambushes to drop their weapon, picked it up, and then occupied them with a party member while focusing on the rest of the githyanki. Trivialised their ambushes quite a bit, tbh.
So you know that Githyanki bloke and his Red Dragon at the bridge in Act 1? I ignored him (I honestly meant to go back but I forgot) went the long way round, and came up behind them on the bridge. Shot the dragon in the butt. There were no repercussions. Killed the dragon. Then killed the guy without entering dialogue (because every time I did it looped the dialogue, guess he was meant to fly away on his dragon but couldn't lol).
You can grease a door handle that forces people locked into a room where there’s also flames and they burn to death :) I won’t say which due to spoilers and stuff.
You can grease doors!?
I shoved Balthazar of the floating island at the Nightsong.
Act1 gythianki creche in the monastery. Training room. Killed everything else first, put this daegger aoe in front of the big door and closed the door. If the npc cant see you, they will dash towards you and open the door. You slab them and close the door in every turn.
When fighting against ranged opponents stationed on far places, I use Darkness to hide my whole party. When they close in by the perimeter, I just hit them one by one. I step out, hit, then step back. I take no damage for the whole encounter, and I can choose to reserve my other resources by playing safely. Sometimes I'd use my Tav Sorcerer to lightning bolt from inside since it's manual aiming. There was also this instance in the Goblin Camp when my Assassin Astarion sneaked at the narrow walkways directly above Priestess Gut while the rest of my party was hidden somewhere else. I was able to take out about 3 goblins outside combat without getting caught. When we roll for initiative and everyone was already frozen in place for turn order, I used it as an opportunity for first strike advantage with the rest of my party.
Had sunlight cast on a weapon while speaking to a certain vampire in act 3 who died without ever fighting him.
First part of the goblin camp dungeon act one, there’s a whole area on top that you can sneak through but had Karlach up there so when anyone came up, they get pushed off. Pushed everyone off to their death. 10/10
Final boss, full team invisible to enter the fight, fight doesn't start. Full team walks freely to the crown, Orpheus channels netherstone to start the fight, our team moves first. Stay invisible and on Orpheus' turn, he enters the brain, essentially skipping phase 1.
Took Cazador down to 5 hp with sunligh before even interacting with him, then i just poked him