Advertising: Calm Emotions (Spell)

[Loot]

Calm Emotions is actually a very powerful ability. You can cast it before the Harpy fight to become immune to Charm. You can cast it on the Owlbear or the Matriarch Queen to quell their rage, so that they stop their one-shot attacks. Fairly certain you can also use it on enemy Barbarian characters to take them out of their rage.

Stop overlooking it and start using it. It's actually a sleeper.

[SotiCoto]

Spiders and Owlbears took me 2 turns each.
The Spider Matriarch I got a sneak attack on to start, she summoned a ton of spiderlings, and I cleaved them, jumped up the cliff and finished her off.
Owlbears, I just one-hit-chopped the baby, mother spazzed out, but I chopped her and finished with fists.
Harpies took a bit longer because they were scattered and my Monk mobility, though insanely high, is not infinite.

Lesson to be learnt here: Speedy Potion solves all problems.

[Loot]

Originally posted by SotiCoto:

Spiders and Owlbears took me 2 turns each.
The Spider Matriarch I got a sneak attack on to start, she summoned a ton of spiderlings, and I cleaved them, jumped up the cliff and finished her off.
Owlbears, I just one-hit-chopped the baby, mother spazzed out, but I chopped her and finished with fists.
Harpies took a bit longer because they were scattered and my Monk mobility, though insanely high, is not infinite.

You can kill the Owlbear before it gets a turn, with some good sneak attacks and RNG. I like to start the spider fight by taking out 2 clusters of eggs with fire arrows, then wait for the spider queen to be walking across one of the webs, which I promptly burn out from underneath for that 40 fall damage. As for the baby, there's no reason to kill it. It can become a camp companion later on.

That said, the point of my post wasn't on the easiest way to beat the encounters. It was on the usefulness of Calm Emotions, which I'd presumed was a useless ability on my first 6 characters.

[Jimmy]

If you want to one shot the spider matriarch, just put some firewine/smokepowder barrels under each nest and when she goes to hatch the eggs just blow her up. But you can usually just destroy her in one turn with quadrouple haste buff by a thrown speed potion

[Rivazar]

Or just play sorcerer rogue fighter.

[Loot]

Originally posted by Jimmy:

If you want to one shot the spider matriarch, just put some firewine/smokepowder barrels under each nest and when she goes to hatch the eggs just blow her up. But you can usually just destroy her in one turn with quadrouple haste buff by a thrown speed potion

That's so boring, though. You can win any fight with barrels. It's too easy for my liking. But if you find it fun, go ahead. To each their own.

[Sleth]

Hey man I just thought you might find it cool that I used the "ask Google" on my phone if calm emotions is good or nah and this was the first link it showed me and it even said what you typed outloud, currently picking it up for my bard rn

[Cowardly Camper]

It can also be used to prevent madness with the Shattered Flail, although heroism is generally a better choice.

Excellent choice for meenlock killing as well.

[northernwater]

Originally posted by Sleth:

Hey man I just thought you might find it cool that I used the "ask Google" on my phone if calm emotions is good or nah and this was the first link it showed me and it even said what you typed outloud, currently picking it up for my bard rn

It is cool. I much prefer casters than fighters.

Another spell you might find interesting is Slow. It prevents a character from taking more than one Action per turn including Extra Attacks.

So they can take a Bonus Action or an Attack Action but no Extra Attack actions. It really reduces the overall threat of an enemy fighter -- like let's say a Githyanki. Slow also cancels haste. The AI does not use Haste very often, but if your character gets Slowed while Hasted they become Lethargic.

[northernwater]

Game has another bug. QA in this game is pretty bad..

Calming Emotions, as advertised, does work against the Harpy Luring Song yet you can see from the log and image the game says it does not.

https://imgur.com/a/6vUVQ7b

[OnlyOffensive]

Originally posted by Loot Repeat:

Originally posted by SotiCoto:

Spiders and Owlbears took me 2 turns each.
The Spider Matriarch I got a sneak attack on to start, she summoned a ton of spiderlings, and I cleaved them, jumped up the cliff and finished her off.
Owlbears, I just one-hit-chopped the baby, mother spazzed out, but I chopped her and finished with fists.
Harpies took a bit longer because they were scattered and my Monk mobility, though insanely high, is not infinite.

You can kill the Owlbear before it gets a turn, with some good sneak attacks and RNG. I like to start the spider fight by taking out 2 clusters of eggs with fire arrows, then wait for the spider queen to be walking across one of the webs, which I promptly burn out from underneath for that 40 fall damage. As for the baby, there's no reason to kill it. It can become a camp companion later on.

That said, the point of my post wasn't on the easiest way to beat the encounters. It was on the usefulness of Calm Emotions, which I'd presumed was a useless ability on my first 6 characters.

Problem with that ability is that you need to know exactly where to use it, otherwise its useless. Meaning its kinda bad on first playthrough

By the way spider matriarch has very weird enrage. I think it cant get extra attack on target unless its poisoned. I checked log on my last fight with it and it showed extra attack as red text on her venomous bite, my character was resistant to poison

[northernwater]

Originally posted by OnlyOffensive:

Problem with that ability is that you need to know exactly where to use it, otherwise its useless. Meaning its kinda bad on first playthrough

The need to understand a mechanic does not make it bad.

[OnlyOffensive]

Originally posted by northernwater:

Originally posted by OnlyOffensive:

Problem with that ability is that you need to know exactly where to use it, otherwise its useless. Meaning its kinda bad on first playthrough

The need to understand a mechanic does not make it bad.

What mechanic? Bosses that enrage are scarce, so basically you have spell sitting and doing nothing.

For exaple bless/bane/shield you can use in any encounter, makes more sense to have such spells over very situational, no?

I cant even recall who charms outside of harpies from the top of my head. But i can tell in what fight you can use bless - in every one.

Unless it helps against hold person ? Which is probably most used enchant spell from enemies

[northernwater]

Originally posted by OnlyOffensive:

Originally posted by northernwater:

The need to understand a mechanic does not make it bad.

What mechanic? Bosses that enrage are scarce, so basically you have spell sitting and doing nothing.

The one you just reiterated ... well partially at least.

I cant even recall who charms outside of harpies from the top of my head. But i can tell in what fight you can use bless - in every one.

Unless it helps against hold person ? Which is probably most used enchant spell from enemies

Seems you've missed some stuff. Maybe that is why you think the mechanic is bad.

[OnlyOffensive]

i didnt say its bad, i said its situational. But you are welcome to remind me who actually use charm in first act for example.

btw isnt it only for humanoids, meaning you cant calm owlbear or spider. AND its concentration. This spell is trash actually now that i've taken closer look

[northernwater]

Originally posted by OnlyOffensive:

i didnt say its bad, i said its situational. But you are welcome to remind me who actually use charm in first act for example.

btw isnt it only for humanoids, meaning you cant calm owlbear or spider. AND its concentration. This spell is trash actually now that i've taken closer look

Every spell is situational.

Glad you resurrected this ...

Just this morning I found Calm Emotions very useful in protecting my entire group from.
https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Gaze_of_the_Dead

Its usefulness to me has come up in the following places - Harpies, Kith'rak Therezzyn, Apostle of Myrkul, MeenLocks.

https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Frightened_(Condition)