![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
BG3: tactical considerations (early game)
I'd forgotten about the crypt near the beginning of the game, which is basically the first dungeon. It's set more or less at level 2, while I just got to level 3, and where Alexandra's team breezed through the battles in her game, this group has ... not.
In the opening conversation with the looters above the crypt, Alexandra had a paladin option that let her try and intimidate them (she's not proficient in intimidation but has a boost from her high CHA) with a pretty doable DC. She succeeded and the looters fled from her. Then in the first battle against the six other looters, she kind of just muscled her way through it with the occasional heal, mostly from Shadowheart. The only difficult part was the trapped room.
Ilzara's party, firstly, had to fight the looters above the crypt and Lae'zel took a ton of damage (though she did manage to shove the archer off the parapet, which was fun :D). So Ilzara used a couple of spell slots just keeping people alive. Then we went into the dungeon and had the other fight, and again, took way more damage than Alexandra's party. I'm thinking it's because Alexandra herself could soak up a good amount of it, while in this version, with three full spellcasters, Ilzara had to keep doing support stuff and periodically Shadowheart as well. That extra healing would normally be taken up by someone who could do damage or better tanking (Ilzara does have great AC but not the hit points for true tanking), so it makes sense that replacing damage/tanking with higher healing capacity leads to actually needing that capacity.
Ilzara is a life cleric (she'd be Twilight if that were an option, but none of the non-Life standard domains really seemed right for Eilistraee), so she definitely is Peak Healer. And it is fun to be able to basically negate a bunch of damage by just being really, really good at healing and have everyone miss when they try and take her down because she has 17 AC. :D Also, the need for extra damage led to taking some risks with Shadowheart's spell slots and she cast Guiding Bolt three times, all of which hit. I've played three clerics and one celestial warlock in D&D and never had that kind of luck with it, though it's spectacular when it does work (the celestial warlock automatically casting it at fifth level in the later campaign ... fanastic). Anyway!
So she ultimately did do a fiendish (well, divine) amount of damage that turned the battle from a pretty dicey "uhh it's going to be cantrip time soon" to just obliterating multiple foes. I'm normally very cautious, but I think this group may require more risks—and after all, Ilzara's there to cover for the rest when things don't work out.
Tangentially, we got deeper inside the crypt, and even some of Ilzara's "ambient" commentary was different Because Cleric and she and Shadowheart had a little talking shop interchange about it.
The sometimes-rapport, sometimes-opposition with Shadowheart is really fun, btw. I know a lot of thought and effort went into the game over the six years it took to make it, but a double-cleric party seems like a pretty niche option? Yet there are these little things that seem like they could only arise with, at the very least, a cleric with a good-aligned deity + Shadowheart in the party. It's totally worth the tactical complications.
In the opening conversation with the looters above the crypt, Alexandra had a paladin option that let her try and intimidate them (she's not proficient in intimidation but has a boost from her high CHA) with a pretty doable DC. She succeeded and the looters fled from her. Then in the first battle against the six other looters, she kind of just muscled her way through it with the occasional heal, mostly from Shadowheart. The only difficult part was the trapped room.
Ilzara's party, firstly, had to fight the looters above the crypt and Lae'zel took a ton of damage (though she did manage to shove the archer off the parapet, which was fun :D). So Ilzara used a couple of spell slots just keeping people alive. Then we went into the dungeon and had the other fight, and again, took way more damage than Alexandra's party. I'm thinking it's because Alexandra herself could soak up a good amount of it, while in this version, with three full spellcasters, Ilzara had to keep doing support stuff and periodically Shadowheart as well. That extra healing would normally be taken up by someone who could do damage or better tanking (Ilzara does have great AC but not the hit points for true tanking), so it makes sense that replacing damage/tanking with higher healing capacity leads to actually needing that capacity.
Ilzara is a life cleric (she'd be Twilight if that were an option, but none of the non-Life standard domains really seemed right for Eilistraee), so she definitely is Peak Healer. And it is fun to be able to basically negate a bunch of damage by just being really, really good at healing and have everyone miss when they try and take her down because she has 17 AC. :D Also, the need for extra damage led to taking some risks with Shadowheart's spell slots and she cast Guiding Bolt three times, all of which hit. I've played three clerics and one celestial warlock in D&D and never had that kind of luck with it, though it's spectacular when it does work (the celestial warlock automatically casting it at fifth level in the later campaign ... fanastic). Anyway!
So she ultimately did do a fiendish (well, divine) amount of damage that turned the battle from a pretty dicey "uhh it's going to be cantrip time soon" to just obliterating multiple foes. I'm normally very cautious, but I think this group may require more risks—and after all, Ilzara's there to cover for the rest when things don't work out.
Tangentially, we got deeper inside the crypt, and even some of Ilzara's "ambient" commentary was different Because Cleric and she and Shadowheart had a little talking shop interchange about it.
The sometimes-rapport, sometimes-opposition with Shadowheart is really fun, btw. I know a lot of thought and effort went into the game over the six years it took to make it, but a double-cleric party seems like a pretty niche option? Yet there are these little things that seem like they could only arise with, at the very least, a cleric with a good-aligned deity + Shadowheart in the party. It's totally worth the tactical complications.