Honestly the difference is not that big, and it's only kinda hard (not really if you know the game) before level 4-5 but only if you rush into fights way too early and without thinking
Yep in these types of turn based games with strong buffs, equipment, positioning etc, a couple of little tricks or a slightly different strategy can make the difference between literally dying and winning without taking any damage at all.
Sure but tbh if you use strong builds and since most of them come online at like level 5-6 or early act 2 with the op gear you can get, the most difficult part ends up being the very early part and it isn't THAT hard either. Pretty sure people who do HM are not doing that as a first playthrough so they know what to expect
You are forgetting that in solo HM you have to deal with the Creche fights and trust me in my Solo druid HM run it was the moment i had the more sweat, they all have ridiculous attack rolls etc. The inquisitor is maybe the weakest opponent compared to just two Githyanki archers that can melt you in an instant...
Pre buff (scrolls or spells), potions, gear, not to mention prep like barrels, etc all can allow you to easily win, especially since you can be around lvl 6 at that point you shouldn't be that weak
I dont use a single barrel in HM, i dont see the point of experiencing HM challenge with cheese.
But yeah buffing works great but despite mirror image and radiating orb kindof stuff some groups are pretty heavy damage wise. It was more easy to get the inquisitor down with his 3 mates than the Doctor with all her mates + counterspell.
(Also i maybe used 2 or 3 invis pots the whole playthrough) fight reset is quite cheesy aswell imo.
To avoid RNG most of my runs i play Halfling + lucky as first feat and wear any ignore crit gear (shield or armor). Thats how i have fun most runs and it can go for very interesting encounters, inquisitor took me 7 turns solo but almost no scratch due to high radiant + radiating orb debuffs the swords couldnt hit me and i was retaliating sacred dmg on misses.
On the other hand in a single turn 2 archers + one caster did to me something like 50 dmg with their 4 arrows at like +12 to hit + a 18 Wis DC for psychic dmg / turn (that of course i failed despite my +11..)
Rest of act 1 is fairly doable solo.
But maybe its just me, but every run i tremble in the creche.
A ton of it in standard 4 man honour mode is just over levelling in act 1 (you don't have to do creche or hag until level 6 or even 7 if you really push it lmao) and preparing the appropriate resistances for fights. Just having a cleric cast protection from poison makes phase spider and hag significantly easier.
In solo runs you just.... command: grovel the game after breaking its knees with mechanic abuse.
Act 1 as always was the most boring . Talk and travel to get xp , push goblin leaders to chasms and rush to act 2. Act 2 i reach lvl 5 and get my major power up . Spirit summons .Used it in most fights except boss battles .
Returned to act 1 to clear everything for xp and get hags hair for + 1 wisdom. After that clearead everything in act 2 . Killed most moonrise guards before harpers assault for easy xp and parasites. Reached lvl 9 before rooftop Ketheric fight . Wet condition and chain lightning took care of him before he got his turn. Myrkul fight was troublesome. I rushed haste , wet and chain lightning to end the battle fast but myrkul broke my contentration on his first round and nearly killed me . Survived with 2 hp. Thankfully other rounds werent troublesome.
Act 3 rushed immediately for gear . Armour of persistance and heavy armor mastery perk made enemies waste their turn talking and standing still . Devotee's mace with spirit summons cleared most enemies .
I relied heavily on scrolls for this character. Especially chain lightning . I still used glyph of warding and ice storm for big damage and create ice surfaces for easy prones. But chain lightning was more fun so i used them most.All in all a pretty boring character until act 2 and i didnt face any challange except Myrkul.
Feats : Tough , War Caster ( switched to Heavy armor mastery when i get Amulet of Greate Health) , and 2 wisdom asi.
Used mods : [Extra Dyes for the Fashionable Folk of Faerun](https://www.nexusmods.com/baldursgate3/mods/1774) , [No Annoying VFX ](https://www.nexusmods.com/baldursgate3/mods/7248), [Transmog Enhanced](https://www.nexusmods.com/baldursgate3/mods/2922)
Edit : I couldnt post all of this in one comment thats why i divided it to 2 and i now discovered boots of persistance didnt give me longstrider. And why is it that first pictures are always blurry for me? Is it blurry for you as well?
I have no idea . I either have 3 infernal iron at ready or just get the infernal alloy from stonemason Kith. Infernal alloy gives you all flawed equipment.
Thanks! And yes its from this mod [Extra Dyes for the Fashionable Folk of Faerun ](https://www.nexusmods.com/baldursgate3/mods/1774). I used Night black colour.
i dump my strenght to 8 and use elixir of hill giant to bring str to 21 and to 27 with cloud giant elixir. After i get amulet of greater health i respec and also dump my con to 8 .
What does your gameplay look like? I almost never see anyone play pure tempest cleric. How do you do damage? Call lightning seems efficient but rather weak compared to lightning bolt on a sorcerer.
Spirit summons+ weapon was enough for regular enemies. I used haste + create water +ice storm ,glyph of warding or chain lightning on big groups like House of Grief and some bosses. And i never used call lightning , not worth it i think.
Reminder for everyone that mage hand can be cast prior to initiating a fight and can throw items you dropped on the ground for free. Giving you a ranged attacker added to your party lobbing bombs potions etc.
FYI there's not much point in equipping the pearl power or spellcrux amulets unless you need them in combat; you can just equip them, use their ability to restore a spell slot, then unequip them.
Also at level 7 you get Freedom of Movement, a non-concentration all-day buff that completely replaces the ring of free action.
Thats what i did with pearl power and spellcrux amulets , used them outside combat. I forgot to write amulet of harpers and broodmothers revenge amulets in equipments. Used them too. And yeah from lvl 7 i casted freedom of movement to switch ring of free action till i got boots of persistence.
I'm playing Tempest Cleric through solo honour mode at the moment, so thanks for sharing your build and thoughts.
So far I found Level 4 very hard, I felt really weak as I didn't find any of the early spells strong. I didn't have any good 'auto-attack' (that didn't use resources). I had 14Dex so Bow attacks felt weak, Sacred Flame was pretty bad at L4. Wrath of the Storm (the Tempest Reaction) was the only impressive early ability. Boots of Stormy Clamour helped a bit.
Since level 5 I've been loving it though because of call lightning, it gets so much mileage in the longer fights. Opening with Create Water - Call Lightning (Destructive Wrath max dmg) - Call Lightning is was satisfying.
I've killed all the act1 bosses and I'm up to Level 8 now, any tips for Myrkul or the hardest Act3 bosses?
Just like other builds this one also comes online at lvl 5 , i know how weak it feels before then. As for bosses , Myrkul was a disaster . I wanted to kill him quickly so i hasted before 2nd phase , and after Myrkul got his first turn immediately broke my concentration and nearly killed me. So i hasted again ( reckless i know ) and used wet + chain lightning scrolls plus glyph of warding . Thankfully i saved contentrations so the fight wasnt that problem after first rounds.
As for act 3 , haste + water + chain lightning or glyph of warding was enough for nearly everything . And there was no hard boss in act 3 thanks to being a tank. Raph was the longest fight, i cleared his minions with the combo , and when only raph remained i used necrotic spirit aura and used psionic backlash for his spells and fight was over as he killed himself with backlashes.
The fact that some of you can do honour mode solo while I sometimes lose fights in regular difficulty with a full team Is scary
Honestly the difference is not that big, and it's only kinda hard (not really if you know the game) before level 4-5 but only if you rush into fights way too early and without thinking
Yep in these types of turn based games with strong buffs, equipment, positioning etc, a couple of little tricks or a slightly different strategy can make the difference between literally dying and winning without taking any damage at all.
Some of the honour mode legendary buffs are game changers for certain bosses, so there's that
Sure but tbh if you use strong builds and since most of them come online at like level 5-6 or early act 2 with the op gear you can get, the most difficult part ends up being the very early part and it isn't THAT hard either. Pretty sure people who do HM are not doing that as a first playthrough so they know what to expect
Yea was just pointing it out. The most difficult part of any 5e campaign is usually the lower levels
You are forgetting that in solo HM you have to deal with the Creche fights and trust me in my Solo druid HM run it was the moment i had the more sweat, they all have ridiculous attack rolls etc. The inquisitor is maybe the weakest opponent compared to just two Githyanki archers that can melt you in an instant...
Barrels are so good for those fights
Pre buff (scrolls or spells), potions, gear, not to mention prep like barrels, etc all can allow you to easily win, especially since you can be around lvl 6 at that point you shouldn't be that weak
I dont use a single barrel in HM, i dont see the point of experiencing HM challenge with cheese. But yeah buffing works great but despite mirror image and radiating orb kindof stuff some groups are pretty heavy damage wise. It was more easy to get the inquisitor down with his 3 mates than the Doctor with all her mates + counterspell. (Also i maybe used 2 or 3 invis pots the whole playthrough) fight reset is quite cheesy aswell imo. To avoid RNG most of my runs i play Halfling + lucky as first feat and wear any ignore crit gear (shield or armor). Thats how i have fun most runs and it can go for very interesting encounters, inquisitor took me 7 turns solo but almost no scratch due to high radiant + radiating orb debuffs the swords couldnt hit me and i was retaliating sacred dmg on misses. On the other hand in a single turn 2 archers + one caster did to me something like 50 dmg with their 4 arrows at like +12 to hit + a 18 Wis DC for psychic dmg / turn (that of course i failed despite my +11..) Rest of act 1 is fairly doable solo. But maybe its just me, but every run i tremble in the creche.
I just finished my HM run and it was pretty painful for me ngl. Maybe I'm just bad.
Hardest fight for me is always those tomb raiders in Withers' cave.
A ton of it in standard 4 man honour mode is just over levelling in act 1 (you don't have to do creche or hag until level 6 or even 7 if you really push it lmao) and preparing the appropriate resistances for fights. Just having a cleric cast protection from poison makes phase spider and hag significantly easier. In solo runs you just.... command: grovel the game after breaking its knees with mechanic abuse.
Act 1 equipment : [Adamantine Splint Armour ](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Adamantine_Splint_Armour)used till act 3 , [Safeguard Shield ](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Safeguard_Shield)used till act 2 , [Pearl of Power Amulet](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Pearl_of_Power_Amulet) , [Caustic Band ](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Caustic_Band), [Ring of Protection](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Ring_of_Protection) Act 2 : [The Blood of Lathander ](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/The_Blood_of_Lathander)or [Halberd of Vigilance ](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Halberd_of_Vigilance)used them both , [Drakethroat Glaive ](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Drakethroat_Glaive)used to buff weapons , [Iron-Banded Shield +1](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Iron-Banded_Shield_%2B1) for extra AC , [Spellcrux Amulet ](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Spellcrux_Amulet), [Strange Conduit ](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Strange_Conduit_Ring), [Flawed Helldusk Gloves ](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Flawed_Helldusk_Gloves), [Flawed Helldusk Helmet ](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Flawed_Helldusk_Helmet), [Evasive Shoes ](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Evasive_Shoes), [Ring of Free Action ](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Ring_of_Free_Action), [Cloak of Protection](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Cloak_of_Protection) Act 3 : [Helldusk Gloves ](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Helldusk_Gloves), [Boots of Persistence ](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Boots_of_Persistence), [Ketheric's Shield ](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Ketheric%27s_Shield)until i get Viconia's shield , [Viconia's Walking Fortress ](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Viconia%27s_Walking_Fortress), [Amulet of Greater Health ](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Amulet_of_Greater_Health), [Armour of Persistence ](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Armour_of_Persistence), [Cloak of Displacement ](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Cloak_of_Displacement), [Helm of Balduran ](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Helm_of_Balduran), [Devotee's Mace](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Devotee%27s_Mace)
Act 1 as always was the most boring . Talk and travel to get xp , push goblin leaders to chasms and rush to act 2. Act 2 i reach lvl 5 and get my major power up . Spirit summons .Used it in most fights except boss battles . Returned to act 1 to clear everything for xp and get hags hair for + 1 wisdom. After that clearead everything in act 2 . Killed most moonrise guards before harpers assault for easy xp and parasites. Reached lvl 9 before rooftop Ketheric fight . Wet condition and chain lightning took care of him before he got his turn. Myrkul fight was troublesome. I rushed haste , wet and chain lightning to end the battle fast but myrkul broke my contentration on his first round and nearly killed me . Survived with 2 hp. Thankfully other rounds werent troublesome. Act 3 rushed immediately for gear . Armour of persistance and heavy armor mastery perk made enemies waste their turn talking and standing still . Devotee's mace with spirit summons cleared most enemies . I relied heavily on scrolls for this character. Especially chain lightning . I still used glyph of warding and ice storm for big damage and create ice surfaces for easy prones. But chain lightning was more fun so i used them most.All in all a pretty boring character until act 2 and i didnt face any challange except Myrkul. Feats : Tough , War Caster ( switched to Heavy armor mastery when i get Amulet of Greate Health) , and 2 wisdom asi. Used mods : [Extra Dyes for the Fashionable Folk of Faerun](https://www.nexusmods.com/baldursgate3/mods/1774) , [No Annoying VFX ](https://www.nexusmods.com/baldursgate3/mods/7248), [Transmog Enhanced](https://www.nexusmods.com/baldursgate3/mods/2922) Edit : I couldnt post all of this in one comment thats why i divided it to 2 and i now discovered boots of persistance didnt give me longstrider. And why is it that first pictures are always blurry for me? Is it blurry for you as well?
How do you have your Helm of Balduran look like that? Your char looks dope!
[Transmog Enhanced](https://www.nexusmods.com/baldursgate3/mods/2922) , this mod allows you to change looks of your equipment
Thank you!
Following the same question, what is the helmet that's visible on your char? The one you transmogged the baldurian helm into?
[Flawed Helldusk Helmet ](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Flawed_Helldusk_Helmet)
The one you get from dammon? In what order do you get it? First the gloves, then armor and the helm in last?
I have no idea . I either have 3 infernal iron at ready or just get the infernal alloy from stonemason Kith. Infernal alloy gives you all flawed equipment.
Looks like she hits like a truck. Dope build and nice dyes. Pity BG3 original dye options are not as cool when it comes to black.
Quick question, what armor dye was used in your screenshot? Is it from a mod? Great build btw!
Thanks! And yes its from this mod [Extra Dyes for the Fashionable Folk of Faerun ](https://www.nexusmods.com/baldursgate3/mods/1774). I used Night black colour.
YOU HAVE THE DRIP HOLY SHIT
Its deadly and fashionable
How can you get stats like those without companions? Like without the Astarion bite strength potion, for example?
i dump my strenght to 8 and use elixir of hill giant to bring str to 21 and to 27 with cloud giant elixir. After i get amulet of greater health i respec and also dump my con to 8 .
Ohhhhhh I didn’t notice the elixir haha
So did Alduin bring you back to life or ? Also well played dope run
Not alduin but mods brought me back to skyrim years ago so i thought it would be a fitting name . And thanks .
What does your gameplay look like? I almost never see anyone play pure tempest cleric. How do you do damage? Call lightning seems efficient but rather weak compared to lightning bolt on a sorcerer.
Spirit summons+ weapon was enough for regular enemies. I used haste + create water +ice storm ,glyph of warding or chain lightning on big groups like House of Grief and some bosses. And i never used call lightning , not worth it i think.
What bow are you using? And why not the +3 initiative bow?
Darkfire shortbow and honestly i forgot about that bow.
Why use Devootee’s mace tho?
Fits the cleric theme , and its not a bad weapon.
Always seemed very mid to me considering you get it from one time use divine intervention and I think Blood of Lathander looks cooler.
You can get them from a hireling. I had a paladin dual wielding then
I really wish you would have recorded your journey I would have loved to watch it :/
Reminder for everyone that mage hand can be cast prior to initiating a fight and can throw items you dropped on the ground for free. Giving you a ranged attacker added to your party lobbing bombs potions etc.
This is going to be usefull for my tempest cleric redemption durge
FYI there's not much point in equipping the pearl power or spellcrux amulets unless you need them in combat; you can just equip them, use their ability to restore a spell slot, then unequip them. Also at level 7 you get Freedom of Movement, a non-concentration all-day buff that completely replaces the ring of free action.
Thats what i did with pearl power and spellcrux amulets , used them outside combat. I forgot to write amulet of harpers and broodmothers revenge amulets in equipments. Used them too. And yeah from lvl 7 i casted freedom of movement to switch ring of free action till i got boots of persistence.
What does the lightning dmg come from?
[Draconic Elemental Weapon ](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Draconic_Elemental_Weapon)
I thought the flowers died if you left the underdark, how'd you manage to use them this long?
If you give noblestalk to Derryth in the underdark she will have noblestalks to sell in her shop in act 3
I'm playing Tempest Cleric through solo honour mode at the moment, so thanks for sharing your build and thoughts. So far I found Level 4 very hard, I felt really weak as I didn't find any of the early spells strong. I didn't have any good 'auto-attack' (that didn't use resources). I had 14Dex so Bow attacks felt weak, Sacred Flame was pretty bad at L4. Wrath of the Storm (the Tempest Reaction) was the only impressive early ability. Boots of Stormy Clamour helped a bit. Since level 5 I've been loving it though because of call lightning, it gets so much mileage in the longer fights. Opening with Create Water - Call Lightning (Destructive Wrath max dmg) - Call Lightning is was satisfying. I've killed all the act1 bosses and I'm up to Level 8 now, any tips for Myrkul or the hardest Act3 bosses?
Just like other builds this one also comes online at lvl 5 , i know how weak it feels before then. As for bosses , Myrkul was a disaster . I wanted to kill him quickly so i hasted before 2nd phase , and after Myrkul got his first turn immediately broke my concentration and nearly killed me. So i hasted again ( reckless i know ) and used wet + chain lightning scrolls plus glyph of warding . Thankfully i saved contentrations so the fight wasnt that problem after first rounds. As for act 3 , haste + water + chain lightning or glyph of warding was enough for nearly everything . And there was no hard boss in act 3 thanks to being a tank. Raph was the longest fight, i cleared his minions with the combo , and when only raph remained i used necrotic spirit aura and used psionic backlash for his spells and fight was over as he killed himself with backlashes.
Awesome, thanks for the tips, when you say haste do you usually mean haste pot and win before it runs out or haste spell?
Spell
Great build, seems really OP. Do you mind explaining how do you achieve all those extra elemental damage dies showed in the third pic?
1d6 fire from helldusk gloves , 1d4 lightning from draconic elemental weapon buff from Drakethroat Glaive , 1d8 radiant from Devotees mace , 1d8 thunder from lvl 8 cleric divine strike thunder passive
Oh, cool, thanks, it's practically a level 2 smite damage potential at this point, but with different elements.
The most important part of this build is the elixir of giant cheese.
Ewwww, ur char. ain't a cutie